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ܗܗܗܗܗ ܀

MINUTYOXI
ARTES
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
W
21837
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Estate
ms..cb
VERITAS
E-PLURIBUS UNUM
TUEDO!
SQUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAME
CIRCUMSPICE
SCIENTIA
Qu
OF THE
THE GIFT OF
a B. Hall.
........

POSTIMA ESTA
NON
CIRCULATING
1
ŕ
•
¦
.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER OF THE SPIRITUAL REVELATION
CHAPTER II.
GOD.-EXISTENCE OF GOD. - THE DIVINE NATURE.
PROVIDENCE
CHAPTER III.
GOOD AND EVIL.
SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. DESTRUCTION
LIVING BEINGS BY ONE ANOTHER
S
CHAPTER IV.
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS
CHAPTER V.
SYSTEMS OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD
Calg
-
- MORAL CONSIDERATIONS
Sp
CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL URANOGRAPHY. SPACE AND TIME. MAT-
TER. LAWS AND FORCES. FIRST CREATION. — UNI-
VERSAL CREATION. — SUNS AND PLANETS. SATEL-
LITES. COMETS. THE MILKY WAY. -THE FIXED
STARS. THE DESERTS OF SPACE. -ETERNAL SUC-
CESSION OF Worlds. — UNIVERSAL LIFE.
UNIVERSAL LIFE. -SCIENCE.
App
OF
PAGE
17
•
64
84
. 115
103
125
13
14
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
GEOLOGICAL
OUTLINE OF THE EARTH. GEOLOGICAL
PERIODS. PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE GLOBE. — PRI-
MARY PERIOD. — TRANSITION PERIOD.-SECONDARY
PERIOD. TERTIARY PERIOD. - DILUVIAN PERIOD.
POST-DILUVIAN PERIOD. - BIRTH OF MAN.
CHAPTER VIII.
THEORIES OF THE EARTH. THEORY OF PROJECTION.
THEORY OF CONDENSATION. THEORY OF INCRUSTA-
TION
CHAPTER IX.
REVOLUTIONS OF THE GLOBE.
-GENERAL OR PARTIAL
REVOLUTIONS. BIBLICAL Deluge. · PERIODICAL
REVOLUTIONS. - FUTURE INUNDATIONS
ORGANIC GENESIS. - FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING BE-
INGS. VITAL PRINCIPLE. SPONTANEOUS GENERA-
TION. — SCALE OF MATERIAL BEINGS.
· ΜΑΝ
C
M
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
SPIRITUAL GENESIS. SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE. — UNION
OF SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE WITH MATTER. - Hy-
POTHESES UPON THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN BODIES.
- INCARNATION
RE-INCARNATION.
OF SPIRITS.
EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION OF SPIRITS. THE
ADAMIC RACE. - DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ANGELS
CHAPTER XII.
MOSAIC GENESIS.. SIX DAYS. - PARADISE LOST
PAGE
165
195
204
215
231
• 265
CONTENTS.
15
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MIRACLES ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
MIRACLES.
FLUIDS. -NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. - Ex-
PLANATION OF SOME THINGS BY REPUTE SUPER-
NATURAL
CHAPTER XIV.
M
CHAPTER XV.
THE
THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL. - PRELIMINARY OBSER-
VATIONS. - DREAMS. - STAR OF
"WISE MEN
OF THE EAST." - DOUBLE SIGHT. CURES. Pos-
SESSED PERSONS. RESURRECTIONS. JESUS WALKS
UPON THE WATER. TRANSFIGURATION. - THE TEM-
PEST STILLED. - MARRIAGE AT CANA. MAKING OF
THE LOAVES OF BRead. TEMPTATION OF JESUS.
WONDERFUL THINGS AT THE DEATH OF JESUS. — Ap-
PEARANCE OF JESUS AFTER HIS DEATH.-DISAPPEAR-
ANCE OF THE BODY OF JESUS
Wallpa
M
CHAPTER XVI.
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM
―
THE PROPHECIES.
•
G
CHAPTER XVII.
PREDICTIONS OF THE GOSPELS.No ONE IS A PROPHET
IN HIS OWN COUNTRY. - DEATH AND PASSION OF
JESUS. PERSECUTION OF THE APOSTLES. - IMPENI-
TENT CITIES. RUIN OF THE TEMPLE AND OF JERU-
of
SALEM. MALEDICTIONS ON THE PHARISEES. "MY
WORDS WILL NOT PASS AWAY."-THE CORNER-Stone.
PAGE
293
309
345
405
16
CONTENTS.
—PARABLE OF THE VINE-DRESSERS WHO WERE HOMI-
CIDES. "ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEPHERD.” — COM-
ING OF ELIAS. — ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE Comforter.
-SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.-SIGNS FORETOLD.
"YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHE-
SY.” — LAST JUDGMENT
P
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TIME HAS ARRIVED.
NEW GENERATION
-SIGNS OF THE TIME. THE
M
PAGE
420
462
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER OF THE SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
CAN one consider Spiritism as a revelation? If
it be such, what is its character? Upon what is
its authenticity founded? By whom, and in what
manner, has it been given? Is the doctrine of Spir-
itism a revelation in the liturgical sense of the word?
that is to say, is it in all points the product of occult
teaching from on high? Is it absolute, or capable of
modifications? In conveying to men perfect truth,
would not revelation have the effect of hindering
them from employing their faculties, since it would
save them the work of research? What can be the
authority of the teachings of the spirits if they are
not infallible, and superior to those of humanity?
What is the utility of the morality that they preach
if this is other than that of the Christ whom men
acknowledge? What are the new truths which they
bring to us? Has man need of a revelation, and
can he find in himself and in his conscience all that
is necessary to lead him aright? Such questions
are important to answer. Let us define at first the
sense of the word. "Revelation," to reveal, derived
17
18
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
from the word "veil," from the Latin velum, signifies
literally to take away the veil, and, figuratively, to
uncover, to make the acquaintance of a secret or
unknown fact. In its most general sense it is em-
ployed with reference to every unknown thing which
is brought to light, to every new idea which is given
to man. Indeed, all the sciences which have revealed
the mysteries of nature are revelations; and one can
well say that there is for us a constant revelation.
Astronomy has revealed to us the astral universe of
which we were ignorant; geology, the formation of the
earth; chemistry, the law of affinities; physiology, the
functions of the organism, etc. Copernicus, Galileo,
Newton, Laplace, and Lavoisier are revealers.
The essential character of all revelation must be
truth. To reveal a secret is to make known a fact.
If the thing is false, it is not a fact, and consequently
not a revelation. All so-called revelation contra-
dicted by facts is not revelation even if attributed to
God. He not being able to tell an untruth or to
deceive, we know it cannot emanate from him. It is
necessary to consider it as merely a human concep-
tion. What is the attitude of the professor to his
pupils if it is not that of a revealer? He teaches
them that which they do not know, that which they
would have neither the time nor the possibility to
discover for themselves, because science is the col-
lective work of centuries, and of a multitude of men
who have each contributed the results of their obser-
vations, by which those who come after them profit.
Teaching is, then, in reality the revelation of cer-
tain scientific or moral, physical or metaphysical,
truths given by men who know them to others who
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 19
know them not, and who, without their aid, would
have remained ignorant of them. But the professor
teaches that which he has learned: he is a revealer
of the second order. The man of genius teaches that
which he has found for himself: he is the primitive
revealer; he carries the light which, from one place
to another, makes itself known. Where would be
humanity without the revelations from men of
genius who appear from time to time? But what
are men of genius? Why are they men of genius?
Whence do they come? What becomes of them?
Let us observe that the greater part of them are
born with transcendent faculties, and innate knowl-
edge that a little labor suffices to develop. They
belong really to humanity since they are born, live,
and die like mortals. Where, then, have they ob-
tained this knowledge which comes so mysteriously
to them? Will one say with the materialist that
chance has given to them cerebral matter in greater
quantity and better quality? In this case they would
have no more merit than one vegetable greater and
more savory than another. Will one say with cer-
tain Spiritualists that God has given them a more
favored soul or mind than those of common men?
- a supposition also entirely illogical, since it accuses
God of partiality. The only rational solution of this
problem is in the pre-existence of soul, and in a plu-
rality of existences. The man of genius is a spirit
who has lived a longer time, who has consequently
acquired more and progressed more, than those who
are less advanced. In becoming incarnate he brings
to earth what he knows; and, as he is much wiser
than others without the necessity of learning, he is
that which one calls a man of genius.
18
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
from the word "veil," from the Latin velum, signifies
literally to take away the veil, and, figuratively, to
uncover, to make the acquaintance of a secret or
unknown fact. In its most general sense it is em-
ployed with reference to every unknown thing which
is brought to light, to every new idea which is given.
to man. Indeed, all the sciences which have revealed
the mysteries of nature are revelations; and one can
well say that there is for us a constant revelation.
Astronomy has revealed to us the astral universe of
which we were ignorant; geology, the formation of the
earth; chemistry, the law of affinities; physiology, the
functions of the organism, etc. Copernicus, Galileo,
Newton, Laplace, and Lavoisier are revealers.
The essential character of all revelation must be
truth. To reveal a secret is to make known a fact.
If the thing is false, it is not a fact, and consequently
not a revelation. All so-called revelation contra-
dicted by facts is not revelation even if attributed to
God. He not being able to tell an untruth or to
deceive, we know it cannot emanate from him. It is
necessary to consider it as merely a human concep-
tion. What is the attitude of the professor to his
pupils if it is not that of a revealer? He teaches
them that which they do not know, that which they
would have neither the time nor the possibility to
discover for themselves, because science is the col-
lective work of centuries, and of a multitude of men
who have each contributed the results of their obser-
vations, by which those who come after them profit.
Teaching is, then, in reality the revelation of cer-
tain scientific or moral, physical or metaphysical,
truths given by men who know them to others who
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 19
know them not, and who, without their aid, would
have remained ignorant of them. But the professor
teaches that which he has learned: he is a revealer
of the second order. The man of genius teaches that
which he has found for himself: he is the primitive
revealer; he carries the light which, from one place.
to another, makes itself known. Where would be
humanity without the revelations from men of
genius who appear from time to time? But what
are men of genius? Why are they men of genius?
Whence do they come? What becomes of them?
Let us observe that the greater part of them are
born with transcendent faculties, and innate knowl-
edge that a little labor suffices to develop. They
belong really to humanity since they are born, live,
and die like mortals. Where, then, have they ob-
tained this knowledge which comes so mysteriously
to them? Will one say with the materialist that
chance has given to them cerebral matter in greater
quantity and better quality? In this case they would
have no more merit than one vegetable greater and
more savory than another. Will one say with cer-
tain Spiritualists that God has given them a more
favored soul or mind than those of common men?
- a supposition also entirely illogical, since it accuses
God of partiality. The only rational solution of this
problem is in the pre-existence of soul, and in a plu-
rality of existences. The man of genius is a spirit
who has lived a longer time, who has consequently
acquired more and progressed more, than those who
are less advanced. In becoming incarnate he brings
to earth what he knows; and, as he is much wiser
than others without the necessity of learning, he is
that which one calls a man of genius.
20
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
But that which he knows is the fruit of an an-
terior work, and not the result of divine preference.
Before entering anew into earth-life, he was an ad-
vanced spirit. He is re-incarnated, it may be for the
purpose of benefiting others, or possibly for the
opportunity of acquiring more knowledge himself.
Men progress incontestably by themselves by means
of their intelligence; but, left to their own forces,
progress is very slow, if they are not aided by more
advanced minds, as the scholar is by his professors.
All nations have among them men of genius who
have appeared at divers epochs to give an impulsion
and draw men from their inertia. If we admit the
solicitude of God for his creatures, why should we
not also admit that the spirits are capable, by their
energy and superior knowledge, to assist humani-
ty to advance; that they are re-incarnated at the
desire of God, with the view of aiding progress in a
definite manner; that they receive a mission as an
ambassador receives one from his sovereign? Such
is the rôle of great geniuses. What come they to
do, if not to teach to men truths of which they are
ignorant, and of which they would not acquire the
knowledge during still longer periods of time, had
they not come to give the stepping-stone by which
men are enabled to elevate themselves more rapidly?
These geniuses who appear at different epochs like
brilliant stars, leaving after them a long, luminous
track for humanity, are missionaries, or, better,
Messiahs. If they taught men nothing new, their
presence would be entirely useless. The new facts
they bring to light, be they of a physical or philo-
sophical order, are revelations. If God ordains re-
M
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 21
vealers of scientific truths, he can, for a stronger
reason, create them for moral truths, which are an
essential element of progress. Such are the philoso-
phers whose ideas have lived through the ages. In
the special sense of religious faith, revelation informs
us more particularly of spiritual facts which man
cannot know of himself, that he cannot discover by
means of his senses, and of which the knowledge is
given him by God or by his messengers in direct
word or by inspiration. In this case revelation is
always made to favored men, designated under the
names of prophets or Messiahs; viz., ambassadors, -
missionaries having a mission to transmit truths to
men. Considered from this point of view, revelation
implies absolute passivity. One accepts it without
examination, without discussion.
All religions have their revealers; and, although
all are far from having known all the truth, they sus-
tained their claim for being providential: for they
were appropriate to the time and place where they
lived, to the particular genius of the people to whom
they spoke, and to whom they were relatively supe-
rior. Notwithstanding the errors of their doctrines,
they have at least awakened minds, and by so doing
have sown seeds or germs of progress, which later be-
come unfolded, or will yet blossom into a brighter day
than the Christian Era. It is then wrong to anathe-
matize the name of orthodoxy; for the day will come
when all beliefs, however diverse in form, but which
in reality repose upon the same fundamental princi-
ples, God and the immortality of the soul, will form
themselves into a grand and vast unity, when reason
shall have triumphed over prejudice. Unhappily, reli-
22
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
gious systems through all time have been instruments
of domination. The role of prophet has tempted the
ambitious among those in subordinate positions, and
a multitude of pretended revealers, or Messiahs, who,
by reason of the prestige of this name, have taken
advantage of credulity to satisfy their pride, their
cupidity, or their indolence, finding it easier to live
at the expense of their dupes than in any other way.
The Christian religion has been a shelter for these
parasites. On this subject let us call serious attention
to chap. xxi. of the "Gospel according to Spirit-
ism," "There will be false Christs and false prophets."
Are there direct revelations from God to men?
This is a question which we dare not settle either
affirmatively or negatively in an absolute manner.
The thing is not radically impossible; but nothing
gives certain proof of it. That which need not be
doubted is that the spirits nearest God in perfection
enter into his thoughts, and can transmit them. As
to incarnated revealers, according to the hierarchical
order to which they belong, and to the degree of
their personal knowledge, they can draw their in-
structions from their own knowledge, or receive them
from spirits more elevated, from messengers ordained
of God. The former, speaking in the name of God,
have been sometimes mistaken for God himself.
These kinds of communications are not strange to
those who are acquainted with spiritual phenomena,
and the manner of establishing communication be-
tween embodied and disembodied spirits. Instruc-
by
tions can be transmitted by divers means,
inspiration pure and simple, by the hearing of the
word, by seeing spirit-teachers in visions or appa-
M
""
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
23
ritions, be it in dreams or in a state of wakefulness,
of which one finds many examples in the Bible, the
Gospel, and in the sacred books of all nations. It
is, then, rigorously exact to say that the greater part
of revealers are inspired mediums, hearing or seeing:
from which it does not follow that all are revealers,
and still less intermediaries direct from God or his
especial messengers.
Pure spirits alone receive the word of God, with
the mission of transmitting it; but one knows now
that all spirits are far from being perfect, and there
are those who give false appearances. That is why
St. John has said, "Believe not all spirits, but try
the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John iv. 4).
There are serious, true, and deceitful communica-
tions, examples of which are found in Apocryphal
Scriptures. The essential character of divine revela-
tion is eternal truth. All revelation stained with
error, or subject to change, cannot emanate from God.
It is thus that the law of the Decalogue still maintains
all its original importance; while other Mosaic laws
that are essentially transitory, often in contradiction
with the law of Sinai, are the personal and political
work of the Hebrew legislature. The customs of the
people becoming milder, their laws improved. These
laws have of themselves fallen into disuse, whilst the
Decalogue has remained standing like a beacon-star
to humanity. Christ has made it the base of his
edifice, whilst he has abolished the other laws. If
they had been the work of God, they would have
remained standing. Christ and Moses are the two
great revealers who have changed the face of the
world, and there is the proof of their divine mis-
24
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
sion. A work purely human could have no such
power.
An important revelation is being given at this
present epoch. It is that which shows to us the pos-
sibility of communication with beings of the spiritual
world.
This knowledge is not new, without doubt: but it
had remained until our day in a state of dead letter;
that is to say, without profit for humanity. Igno-
rance of the laws which ruled these communications
had stifled them by superstition. Man was incapable
of drawing from them any salutary deduction. It was
reserved for our day to disembarrass them from their
ridiculous accessories, to comprehend the power, and
to cause to shine the light which is destined to illu-
mine the future.
Spiritism having taught us of the invisible world
which surrounds us, and in the midst of which we
live without doubt, the laws which govern it, its
connection with the visible world, the nature and
state of the beings who inhabit it, and by tracing the
destiny of man after death, is a veritable revelation
in the scientific acceptance of the word.
By its nature, the spiritual revelation has a two-
fold character: it is at the same time a divine and
a scientific revelation. It is the first in that its
coming is providential, and not the result of the in-
itiative and premeditative design of man; the funda-
mental points of the doctrine being the fact of the
teaching given by spirits commissioned by God to
enlighten men concerning things whereof they were
ignorant, — things they could not learn by themselves,
and which it is important for them to know to-day, as
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 25
1
;
they are ready to comprehend them. It is the second
because it ínforms us that this teaching is a privilege
granted to no one individual, but that it is given to
all the world by the same means (or in the same
way) that those who transmit and those who receive.
it are not passive beings, excused from the work of
observation and research; that they are not called
upon to abnegate their judgment and their free will
that their control of themselves is not interdicted,
but, on the contrary, recommended; and, finally, that
the whole doctrine has not been enunciated in every
part, nor imposed upon blind belief, but is deduced
by the work of man, by the observation of facts that
the spirits place before us, while the instructions that
they give to us compel us to study, comment, com-
pare, until we arrive at a knowledge of consequences.
and applications. In a word, that which characterizes
the spiritual revelation is the divine source from
which it proceeds, that the initiative belongs to
the spirits, and that the elaboration is the work
of man.
M
As a means of elaboration, Spiritism proceeds in
exactly the same course as the exact sciences; that
is to say, it applies the experimental method. Some
facts of a new order present themselves, which cannot.
be explained by known laws. It teaches us to ob-
serve, compare, analyze them, and, from effects, arrive
at causes; it reveals the laws which govern them;
it then deduces the consequences, and seeks for use-
ful applications; it establishes no one preconceived
theory. Thus it has not presented as an hypothesis
either the existence or intervention of spirits, neither
the existence of the peri-spirit, or re-incarnation, or
26
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
any one principle of the doctrine. It has proved the
existence of spirits in the beyond, and with it the
other principles connected with the spiritual life.
These are not facts which are revealed after a theory
has been formed to confirm them; but the theory has
subsequently arisen to explain the facts, and make a
résumé of them. It is rigorously exact to declare
that Spiritism is a science of observation, and not the
product of the imagination.
Let us cite an example: there happens in the
world of spirits a very singular occurrence, and one
that assuredly no one would have imagined. It is
that some disembodied spirits think they are still em-
bodied. However, the superior spirits, who know it
well, do not tell us, in response to our anticipation,
"There are some spirits who believe that they still
live in the earth-life, who have preserved their tastes,
their habits, and their instincts." We have invoked
the manifestation of this category of spirits in order
that we may observe them.
Having then seen spirits uncertain of their state, or
affirming that they were yet of this world, attending
to their ordinary occupations, the example has proved
the fact. The multiplicity of similar facts has proved
that it was not an exception, but one of the phases of
spirit-life. We have been permitted to study all the
varieties and causes of this singular illusion; have
recognized that this situation is characteristic of those
but little advanced morally, and that it is peculiar
to certain kinds of death; that it is not necessarily
of very short duration, but can continue for months,
and even years. It is thus that theory is born of
observation. It is the same of all other principles of
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 27
doctrine. Just as science, properly speaking, has for
object the study of the laws of material principles,
the special object of Spiritism is the knowledge of the
laws of spiritual principles. Now, as this latter class
of principles is one of the forces of nature, as it acts
incessantly and reciprocally upon the material prin-
ciples, the result of it is, that knowledge of one cannot
be complete without knowledge of the other; that
separated, they are incomplete; that science without
Spiritism finds itself utterly powerless to explain cer-
tain phenomena by laws of matter alone; that, having
abstracted the spiritual principle, it is arrested in its
researches, while Spiritism without science would
lack support and control, and would be considered
an illusion. Had Spiritism appeared before scientific
discoveries, it would have been an abortive work,
like every thing which comes before its proper time.
All sciences are joined to and succeed one another
in rational order. One is born of the other, according
as they find support in anterior knowledge and ideas.
Astronomy, one of the first which might have been
cultivated, has remained in the infancy of its errors
till the moment when physics came to reveal the law
of the forces of natural agents. Chemistry, being
unable to do any thing without physics, must needs
come next in succession, in order that they should
walk together, and lean upon one another. Anatomy,
physiology, zoölogy, botany, and mineralogy have
been recognized as veritable sciences only by the
aid of the lights carried by physics and chemistry.
Geology, born of yesterday, without astronomy,
physics, chemistry, and all the others, would have
failed to possess true elements of vitality. It could
not be born until they had been recognized.
28
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Modern science has done justice to the four primi-
tive elements of the ancients, and from observa-
tion to observation it has arrived at the conception of
one generative element alone in all the transforma-
tions of matter: but matter by itself is inert; it has
neither life, thought, nor sentiment; its union with.
spiritual principle is a necessity. Spiritism has not
invented this principle, but was the first to demon-
strate it by undeniable proofs. It has studied it,
analyzed it, and revealed it in evident action. To
the material element it has come to add the spiritual.
The material and spiritual elements are the two
living principles or forces of nature. By the indis-
soluble union of these two elements, we can explain
without difficulty a crowd of facts hitherto inexpli-
cable. In its essence simply, and as having for its
object the study of one of these two constituent ele-
ments of the universe, Spiritism lays forcible hold
of the greater part of the sciences. It could only
work thus after the elaboration of these sciences, and,
above all, after they had exhibited their powerless-
ness to explain all things by the laws of matter alone.
Spiritism is accused by some of being in alliance
with Magic and Sorcery; but men forget that Astron-
omy has for her elder sister Astrology, which is not to-
tally discarded from among the beliefs of to-day; that
Chemistry is the daughter of Alchemy, with which
no scientific man would dare to occupy himself to-day.
No one denies, however, that there were in Astrology
and Alchemy the germs of truth, from which have
sprung actual sciences; and that, notwithstanding
its ridiculous formulas, Alchemy has revealed the law
of affinity between material bodies. Astrology was
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
29
supported by its knowledge of the position and move-
ment of the stars it had studied; but, owing to igno-
rance of the true laws which ruled the mechanism of
the universe, the stars were, for the vulgar, mysteri-
ous beings ruling the destinies of men, superstition
lending to them a moral influence and prophetic
meaning. When Galileo, Newton, and Kepler had
demonstrated the laws from which the telescope had
withdrawn the veil, and given to men that glance
into the depths of space which certain people con-
sidered so indiscreet, the planets appeared to us as
simple worlds, similar to our own; and all the lattice-
work of the marvellous crumbled away. It is the
same with Spiritism in regard to magic and sorcery:
the two latter were supported truly by spiritual mani-
festations, as astrology was upon the movement of
the stars; but, in the ignorance of the laws which
rule the spiritual world, there were joined to these
communications ridiculous practices and beliefs, to
which modern Spiritism, the fruit of experience and
observation, has done justice. Assuredly the distance
which separates Spiritism from magic and sorcery is
greater than that which divides astronomy from
astrology, chemistry from alchemy. The desire to
confound them proves that one knows not the first
thing about them. The simple fact of the possibility
of communion with beings of the spiritual world
opens up to us incalculable consequences of the
highest gravity and importance. Here a new world
is revealed to us, and one which is so much the
more important in that it awaits all men without
exception! Knowledge concerning it cannot fail to
produce, in a general sense, a profound modification
30
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
in the customs, character, habits, and beliefs which
exert so great an influence upon man's social life.
It has caused a revolution in ideas, a revolution so
great and powerful that it is not circumscribed to
any one people, much less to one caste, but reaches
simultaneously the heart of all classes, all nation-
alities, all civilizations. For the best of reasons,
Spiritism is considered the third grand revelation.
Let us see wherein the revelations differ, and how
they are attached to one another. Moses, as a
prophet, has revealed to men the knowledge of the
only true God, Sovereign Master of all things. He
has promulgated the law of Sinai, and laid the foun-
dation of the true faith. As a man he has been the
legislator of the people, through whom this primitive
faith has exerted an influence over all the earth.
Christ, taking from the ancient laws all that is eternal
and divine, rejecting only that which was transitory,
because purely disciplinary and of human concep-
tion, also adds a revelation of the future life of which
Moses had not spoken, -with its retributions and
recompenses which await all mankind after physical
dissolution. (See "Spiritual Review," 1861, pp. 90,
280). The most important part of the revelation of
Christ, its Alpha and Omega, the corner-stone of his
doctrine, is the new character given to divinity. God
is no more the vindictive, jealous, and terrible God of
Moses, the cruel and unmerciful God who bathes the
earth with human blood, who orders the massacre and
extermination of nations, without excepting women,
children, and the aged; who chastises those who
spare the victims. He is no more the unjust God
who punishes a whole community for the faults of its
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 31
chief, even punishing the innocent in the stead of
the guilty, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the
children, but a merciful God, sovereignly just and
good, full of tenderness and mercy, who pardons the
repentant sinner, and rewards every one according to
his works. He is no more the God of a favored peo-
ple, the God of armies, presiding at combats in order
to sustain his own cause against the gods of other
nations, but the common Father of humanity, who
extends his protection over all his children, and calls
them all his own. He is no more the God who recom-
penses or punishes by giving or withholding earthly
goods, who makes glory and good fortune to consist
in conquering rival nations, and placing them in a
state of slavery, or in the multiplicity of progeny;
but he is the God who says to men, "Your true
country is not of this world: it is in the celestial
kingdom; it is there that the lowly in heart shall be
elevated, and the proud abased." He is no more the
God who makes a virtue of vengeance, ordering us
to exact" an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," but
the God of mercy, who says, "Forgive if you would
be forgiven; return good for evil; do unto others as
ye would that others should do unto you." He is no
more the exacting and tyrannical God who imposes
the most rigorous laws upon us in regard to the
ceremonies by which he desires to be adored, who is
offended with the inobservance of a formula, but the
great and good God who is honored not by the form
or ceremony, but by the sincere, heartfelt thought.
He is no more the God to be feared, but the God to
be loved. God being the pivot of all religious beliefs,
the base of all civilization, the character of all reli-
32
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
gions conform to the idea they give of God. Those
which make him vindictive and cruel think they
honor him by acts of cruelty, by butcheries and tor-
tures; those who make him a partial and jealous
God are intolerant, over-scrupulous in forms, accord-
ing as they believe him to be more or less tainted
with weaknesses and human errors. The whole doc-
trine of Christ is founded upon the character he
attributes to divinity.
With an impartial God, perfectly just, good, and
merciful, he has been able to make of the love of
God and charity toward one's neighbor the express
condition of salvation, and to say, "On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Upon this belief alone he has been able to base the
principle of the equality of men before God, and of
universal fraternity. This revelation of the true at-
tributes of divinity, joined to that of the immortality
of the soul and of man's future life, deeply modified
the mutual relations of men, imposed upon them new
obligations, caused them to view the present life
under another light. It effected a marked change
for the better in the manners and social relations of
humanity. It is incontestably, in its consequences,
the most important point in the revelation of Christ,
of which one can never fully appreciate the impor-
tance. Sad to say, it is the point least commented
upon, - the one which has been misconstrued in a
greater degree than all his other teachings. How-
ever, Christ adds, "Many things I say unto you which
you
do not understand. I have yet many things to
say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now." That
is why I speak to you in parables; but later I will
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
33
send to you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, and
when he is come he will guide you into all truth.
If Christ did not impart all the truth which he was
capable of giving, he thought it better to leave some
truths in shadow until men should be capable of
comprehending them. From his own acknowledg-
ment, his teachings were then incomplete. Since he
announces the coming of the spirit who should add
unto them, he prophesied that they would misunder-
stand his words; that they would deviate from his
teachings; in a word, that they would deteriorate
from that which he had done for them, but every
thing he declared should be re-established. Now,
one re-establishes only that which has been defective.
Why did he call the new Messiah the Comforter?
This significant name, without ambiguity, is a revela-
tion in itself. It predicted that men would have
need of consolation, which, he implies, should spring
from an insufficient knowledge of truth. They would
find this in a belief they could not then immediately
espouse.
Scarcely ever has Christ been so clear and ex-
plicit as in these last words, which have gained the
particular attention of but few people, perhaps be-
cause teachers have failed to place them in the right
light to deepen their prophetic sense. If Christ has
not been able to develop his teachings in a complete
manner, it is because men were so ignorant, and they
could acquire knowledge only with time. He treated
of things which appeared to them visionary and
unreal in their undeveloped state. In order to com-
plete his mission, it was only necessary to explain
and develop truths already given. It was unneces-
34
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
sary to add new truth; for the germ of all was found
in his words: the key only was wanting which should
unlock their meaning. But who dares to attempt to
change the meaning of the Holy Scriptures? Who
has the right? Who possesses the necessary light, if
not the theologians? Who will dare to undertake
it? Science first, which asks permission of no one to
make known the laws of nature. She crushes under
her feet the most beloved errors and prejudices.
What man has this right?
In this age of intellectual emancipation and of lib-
erty of conscience the right of examination belongs
to all the world; and the Scriptures are no more the
holy ark upon which one fears to lay a finger in the
expectation of being crushed thereby. In regard
to special necessary knowledge, without contesting
that of the theologians, all brilliant as were they of
the Middle Ages, and particularly the fathers of the
Church, they were not, however, strong enough to
condemn as heresy the movement of the earth and
belief in the antipodes; but, from all known periods
of the world's formation till the present time, they
have thrown the anathema at every new revelation.
Men have not been able to explain the Scriptures
by the exclusive aid of that knowledge which they
(mixed with false or uncertain ideas) possessed con-
cerning the laws of nature, revealed later by science:
that is the reason why theologians themselves have
really mistaken the sense of certain words and facts
in the Gospel. Determined, at any price, to find
the confirmation of a preconceived thought, they
remained always in the same groove, without ever
changing their point of view, in such a manner that
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 35
they saw only that which they wished to see. Wise
theologians as they were, they could not comprehend
facts depending upon laws of which they knew noth-
ing. But who could judge between the diverse and
often contradictory interpretations given outside of
theology? In the future logic and good sense, men,
more and more enlightened, according as new facts.
and new laws will be revealed, will learn how to
distinguish Utopian systems from those based upon
reality. Now science has revealed certain laws.
Spiritism brings others also to light. Collectively
they are indispensable to the correct understanding of
the sacred texts of all religions, those of Confucius
and Buddha equally with those of Christianity. As
to theology, it cannot know how to judiciously plead
an exception for the contradictions of science, since
it is not always in accord with itself. Spiritism, tak-
ing its starting-point at the words of Christ, as Christ
has taken his from Moses, is a direct consequence of
his doctrine.
To vague ideas of the future life it adds a revela-
tion of the existence of the invisible world which
surrounds us, and peoples all space; and, poising be-
lief there, it gives it a body, a consistence, a reality
in thought. It defines the connection between the
soul and the body, and raises the veil which conceals
from men the mysteries of life and death. By Spirit-
ism man knows whence he comes, where he is capable.
of going, why he is upon the earth, why he suffers
temporarily, and can see, above all, the justice of God.
He learns that souls progress unceasingly through a
series of progressive existences until they shall have
attained to that degree of perfection in which God
36 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
only reigns. He learns that all souls, having the
same starting-point, are created equal, with the same
opportunity to progress in virtue of their own free
will; that all are of the same essence, and that there
is between them only a difference of accomplished
progress; that all have the same destiny, and will
attain the same end more or less promptly according
to their labor and desire to progress. He learns that
there are no disinherited ones, no lost souls, neither
one more favored than another; that God has not
created some favored ones who are excused from the
labor which is imposed upon others to facilitate their
progression; that there are no creatures perpetually
condemned to unhappiness and suffering; that those
designated under the name of demons are spirits yet.
undeveloped and imperfect, who do wrong in the
world of spirits as they did here upon earth, but
who will advance and ameliorate their condition;
that the angels are not beings distinct from the rest
of creation, but spirits who have attained that height
through the same earthly sufferings and temptations
as others undergo; that thus there are not multi-
plied creations of different classes among intelligent
humanity, but that all creation springs from the
great law of unity which rules the universe, and that
all beings gravitate towards a common end, which is
perfection, without one being favored at the expense
of others, all holding the thread of their destiny in
their own hands.
By the communications that man can now establish
with those who have left the earth, he receives not
only the material proof of the existence and individ-
uality of the soul, but he comprehends the solidarity
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 37
which joins the living and the dead in this world,
and those of this world with those of other worlds.
He knows their situation in the world of spirits; he
follows them in their migrations; he can testify of
their joys and troubles; he knows why they are
happy or unhappy, and the end which awaits all,
according to the good or evil they accomplished.
These communications introduce him to a future life,
which he can observe in all its phases and condi-
tions. The future is no more a vague hope: it is a
positive fact, a mathematical certitude. Thus he
has no more fear of death: it is for him a deliver-
ance, the gate of true life. By the study of Spirit-
ualism, one learns that happiness or unhappiness in
the spiritual life is experienced according to the
degree of perfection or imperfection one has ob-
tained; that each one suffers the direct and natural
consequences of his own faults; that these con-
sequences endure as long as the cause which has
produced them; that thus the culprit would suffer
eternally if he persisted eternally in his fault, but
that suffering ceases with repentance and reparation.
Now, as our joy and sorrow are within our own grasp,
each one can, by virtue of his free will, prolong or
abridge his sufferings, as the invalid suffers from his
excesses as long as he indulges in them. If reason
repels, as incompatible with the goodness of God, the
idea of everlasting punishment, perpetual and abso-
lute, often inflicted for one fault alone,—the tortures
of hell, which no repentance, however ardent or
sincere, can lessen, -it acknowledges this distribu-
tive impartial justice which is extended to all; never
shutting the door of return to goodness, and extend-
38 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
-
ing unceasingly the helping hand to the shipwrecked
one, instead of allowing him to sink without aid into
the abyss. The plurality of existences, of which
Christ has taught, though merely touching upon it,
as with many other principles of his doctrine, is one of
the most important laws revealed by Spiritism, — for
this reason, that it reveals the necessity and reality
of progress. By this law can be explained all the
apparent anomalies which human life presents, — its
differences of social position; the premature deaths,
which, without re-incarnation, would render abridged
lives useless for souls; the inequality of intellectual
and moral aptitudes, owing to the antiquity of the
spirit, who has lived a longer or a shorter time, and
has become more or less learned and progressed, and
who, being reborn, brings into requisition the knowl-
edge of anterior existences. With the doctrine of
the creation of a soul at every birth, one falls neces-
sarily into the belief in beings favored of God.
Men are strangers to one another. Nothing unites
firmly the ties of family are purely physical. They
are not solidarities of a past in which they did not
exist. With this springs nonentity after death. All
relations of life cease: there are no unions for the
future. By re-incarnation they form solidarities of
the past and the future, their connection perpetuating
itself in the spiritual and material world. Fraternity
has for base the changeless laws of nature. Goodness
has an objective existence, while there is no reversal
of inevitable consequences.
:
With belief in re-incarnation, the prejudices of
races and castes fall dead, since the same spirit can
be reborn rich or poor, lord or beggar, master or
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 39
subordinate, free or enslaved, man or woman. Of
all the arguments brought against the injustice of
servitude and slavery, against the subjection of the
weaker to the rule of the stronger, there is no one of
them which expresses so logically the reason there-
for as the law of re-incarnation. If, then, re-incarna-
tion is founded upon a law of nature which is the
source of universal brotherhood, it is based upon the
same law as that of the equality of social rights and of
freedom. Physically, some men are born inferior and
subordinate; but, spiritually, all are free and equal.
Therefore it is a duty to treat inferiors with good-
ness, benevolence, and humanity. He who is in a
lower earthly position to-day may have been once.
our equal or our superior, perhaps a relation or a
friend; and we may become in our turn the subor-
dinate of him whom we command. Take away from
man the free, independent spirit surviving matter,
and you make of him an organized machine, without
will or responsibility, without other rein than the civil
law, simply an intelligent animal. Expecting noth-
ing after death, nothing hinders him from augment-
ing the joys of the present. If he suffers, he has in
perspective only despair and nonentity for refuge.
With certainty of a future, of seeing again those
whom he has loved, of encountering again those
whom he has offended, all his ideas change. Had
Spiritism only drawn man from the sad doubt of a
future life, it would have done more for his moral
amelioration than all the disciplinary laws which
have bridled him sometimes, but changed him never.
Without pre-existence of the soul, the doctrine of
original sin is not only irreconcilable with the justice
40
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of God, who would render all men responsible for
the fault of one, but is senseless; while the penalty
cannot be justifiable, because the soul did not exist
at the epoch where it is pretended its responsibility
commenced.
With pre-existence and re-incarnation man carries.
into his re-embodiment the germ of his past imper-
fections, the defects of which he has not been cured,
which betray themselves in his native instincts, in
his propensities for this or that vice. It is his veri-
table original sin, to the consequences of which he is
naturally submitted, but with this capital difference,
that he carries the burden of his own faults, and not
that of the fault of another; and this difference at
one and the same time consoles, encourages, and hon-
ors sovereign equity, each separate existence offering
to man the means of making reparation for sins com-
mitted, and of progress either by overcoming some
imperfection, or by acquiring some fresh knowledge,
until he becomes sufficiently purified to have no more
need of earthly experience, when he will live exclu-
sively a glorious, eternal life of spirit. For the same
reason, he who has progressed morally carries into
re-embodiment his moral qualities with him, just as
he who has progressed intellectually carries his in-
telligent ideas with him. The former is identified
with goodness, which he practises without effort,
without calculation; that is to say, without thinking
about it. While he who is obliged to combat low
tendencies is always in a battle with them. The first
is already conqueror, the second on the way to vic-
tory. There is, then, original virtue, as there is origi-
nal knowledge, and original sin, or, more correctly,
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
41
imperfection. Experimental Spiritism has studied
the properties of spiritual fluids, and their action
upon matter. It has demonstrated the existence of
a fluidic body, in which the ancients had a partial
belief, designated by St. Paul under the name of
"spiritual body;" that is to say, the gaseous body of
the soul, which remains after the destruction of the
material body. It is known to-day that this envelope
is inseparable from the soul; that it is one of the
constituent elements of a human being; that it is
the vehicle for the transmission of thought; and that
during earthly life it serves as a connection between
spirit and matter. This spiritual body plays such
an important part in the organism and in a multitude
of productions, that there needs to be allied to physi-
ology and psychology the study of its properties, of
the spiritual fluids, and of the physiological attri-
butes of the soul. This opens new horizons to
science, and gives the key to a great number of un-
known phenomena, the laws which rule them being
until now unknown. Phenomena are denied by
Materialism because they are linked with Spiritism,
and, because called by another name than miracles
or supernatural occurrences, are ignored by those
of supernatural belief. Among others are the phe-
nomena of double sight, visions of objects at a dis-
tance, natural and artificial somnambulism, psychic
effects of catalepsy and lethargy, prescience, presenti-
ments, apparitions, transfigurations, the transmission
of thought, fascination, instantaneous cures, obses-
sions and possessions, etc. In demonstrating that
these phenomena repose upon laws as natural as the
electrical phenomena, and that there exist normal
42
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
conditions in which they can be reproduced, Spirit-
ism destroys the empire of the marvellous and super-
natural, and consequently the source of the greater
part of superstition. If it founds a belief in the pos-
sibility of certain things regarded by some as chi-
merical, it precludes one from believing in others of
which it has demonstrated the impossibility and
irrationality.
Spiritism, very far from denying or destroying the
gospel, on the contrary comes to confirm, explain,
and prove it. By the new laws of nature that it re-
veals, it throws light upon the obscure points of the
teachings of Jesus, upon all that he has done and
said, in such a way that those to whom certain parts.
of the gospel were formerly unintelligible, or seemed
inadmissible, comprehend them without trouble by
the aid of Spiritism, accept them, and better under-
stand their importance as they are able to separate the
reality from the allegory. Christ appears to them in
a grander light. He is no longer simply a philoso-
pher: he is a divine Messiah. Besides the moral
power that Spiritism wields is the importance that
it gives to all actions of life. It points with its finger
at the consequences of goodness and wickedness;
gives moral force and courage; gives consolation in
afflictions by inducing unalterable confidence in the
future, by the thought of having near one the beings
that one has loved, the assurance of seeing them
again, the possibility of conversing with them, the
certainty that all one has accomplished, all one has
acquired of intelligence, science, or morality till the
last hour of life, nothing is lost, that all yields ad-
vancement. One finds that Spiritism realizes all the
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
43
promises of Christ in regard to the Comforter that he
promised to send. Now, as it is the Spirit of Truth
who presides over the great work of regeneration,
the promise of his coming is even now realized by
the fact that it is he who is the true Consoler.¹
If to these facts one adds the unheard-of rapidity
of the propagation of Spiritism, notwithstanding all
which has been done to combat it, one cannot deny
that its coming is providential, since it triumphs over
all the forces of allied human antagonism. The fa-
cility with which it is accepted by such a large num-
ber of persons, and that without constraint, without
other pressure than the power of the idea, proves
that it responds to a need, that of believing in some-
thing after the belief in nothing, which scepticism
caused; and consequently it has come at the right
time. Afflictions are many in number. It is not then
1 Many fathers of families deplore the premature death of chil-
dren on account of the education for which they have made great
sacrifices, and say that it is wholly lost. With a belief in Spiritism,
they do not regret these sacrifices, and would be ready to make them,
even with the certainty of seeing their children die; for they know
that, if the latter do not receive the benefits of such education in the
present life, it will serve, first, to advance them as spirits, then as so
much of intellectual property for a new existence, so that when they
shall return they will have intellectual capital which will render
them more apt in gaining new knowledge. Examples of this are
those children who are born with innate ideas, who know, as one
might say, without the trouble of learning. If, as fathers, they have
not the immediate satisfaction of seeing their children put this edu-
cation to profit, they will enjoy it certainly later, be it as spirits or
earthly beings. Perhaps they can be again the parents of these same
children that they call happily endowed by nature, and who owe
their aptitude to a former education; as also, if some children do
wrong on account of the negligence of their parents, the latter may
have to suffer later by troubles and griefs which will be caused by
them in a new existence. (Gospel according to Spiritism, chap. 5,
No. 21: Premature Deaths.)
吮
​}
44
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
surprising that so many men accept a doctrine which
comforts them in preference to one which gives no
reasonable hope of a future; for it is to the unhappy
more than to the happy of earth that Spiritism ad-
dresses itself particularly. The invalid welcomes a
physician with more joy than he who is well. Now,
the afflicted are the invalids, and the Comforter is the
physician. You who combat Spiritism, if you desire
that one leave it to follow you, give something more
than it supplies, and something better; cure soul-
wounds more surely; give more consolation, more
satisfaction to the heart, more legitimate hopes,
greater certitudes; paint for the future a more at-
tractive picture, and withal one more rational; but
think not to gain your end, you with the perspective
of nonentity, you with the alternative of the flames
of hell, or of useless, sanctimonious, perpetual con-
templation!
The first revelation was personified in Moses, the
second in Christ, the third in no one individual.
The two first are individuals; the third is collective,
which is an essential character of great importance.
It is collective in this sense, that it has been made
in favor of no one person: consequently, no one can
be called the exclusive prophet of it. It has been
given simultaneously in all parts of the earth to mil-
lions of persons, of all ages, of all faiths, of all con-
ditions, from the lowest to the highest according to
the prediction given by the author of the Acts of
the Apostles: "In the latter days, saith the Lord, I
will send my spirit upon all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." It
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 45
has not sprung from any one special civilization, but
serves as a rallying-point for all.¹
The two former revelations, being the product of a
personal teaching, have been forcibly localized; that
is to say, they have taken place in one locality from
which knowledge has extended gradually; but cen-
turies were necessary in order for it to reach the ex-
tremities of the globe, and even then without envi-
roning it altogether. The third has this peculiarity,
that, not being personified in one individual, it is
rained down simultaneously upon thousands of dif
ferent points, which have become centres or focuses
of radiation. These centres multiplying themselves,
their rays meet again little by little, like circles
formed by a multitude of stones thrown into the
water, in such a manner that in a given time they
will have covered the entire surface of the globe.
Such is one of the causes of the rapid propagation
1 Our special role in the grand movement of ideas which is pro-
duced by Spiritism, and which is already operating, is that of an
attentive observer who studies facts to seek their cause, and to draw
from them definite results. We have confronted all those whom
we could possibly gather around us; we have compared and com-
mented upon instructions given by the spirits from all parts of the
globe; then we have arranged the whole methodically. In a word,
we have studied, and given to the public the fruit of our researches,
without attributing to our labors other value than that of a philo-
sophical work deduced from observation and experience, never desir-
ing to put ourselves in the place of a chief of doctrine, or desiring
to thrust our ideas upon any one. In publishing them, we have used
a common right, and those who have accepted them have done so
freely. If these ideas have found numerous sympathizers, it is that
they have had the advantage of responding to the aspirations of a
great number of this we are not vain, as their origin belongs not to
us. Our greatest merit is that of perseverance and devotion to the
cause we have espoused. We have only done that which others
also can do. That is why we have made no pretension of being a
prophet or Messiah, and do not believe ourselves such.
46
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of the doctrine. If it had surged upon a single
point, if it had been the exclusive work of one man,
it would have formed a sect around him; but a half
century might have passed before it had passed the
limits of the country where it would have taken root,
while Spiritism, after a period of ten years, had planted`
its beacon-lights from pole to pole. This unheard-
of circumstance in the history of teachings gives to
it an exceptional force, and an irresistible power of
action. Indeed, if any thing checks it at one point in
one country, it is literally impossible to curb it in all
points in all countries. For one place where it will
be disregarded, there will be a thousand where it
will flourish. As no one can reach it in an individual,
one cannot attain to the spirits who are the source
of it. Now, as spirits are everywhere, it is impos-
sible that they could be made to disappear from the
globe. They are always appearing; and the belief
in them reposes upon a fact in nature, and one can-
not suppress a law of nature. This fact alone should
convince those who are not quite persuaded to be-
come believers ("Spir. Review," February, 1865,
p. 38: "Perpetuity of Spiritism ").
However, these different centres might have re-
mained for a long time isolated from one another, sit-
uate as are some in far-distant countries. A connec-
tion was necessary between them, which should place
them in communion with their brothers in belief
by teaching them that which was done elsewhere.
This union of thought, which would have been im-
possible to the Spiritism of antiquity, is accomplished
by the numerous publications which are now found
everywhere; which condense, under a unique, con-
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 47
cise, and methodical form, the teaching given every-
where through multiplied methods of expression,
and in diverse languages. The two first revelations
could have been only the result of a direct teaching:
they were imposed on the mind by the authority of
the word of the Master, men being too undeveloped
to join in the work of their elaboration. Let us
remark at the same time a very sensible shade of
resemblance between them, important to the progress
of morals and ideas: it is that they were given to
the same people in the same locality, but at an inter-
val of nearly eighteen hundred years. The doctrine
of Moses is absolute, despotic: it admits not of dis-
cussion, but imposes itself upon all people by force.
That of Jesus is essentially that of counsel and
advice it is freely accepted, and gains its advocates
by persuasion; it is discussed by the living person of
its Founder, who disdains not to argue with his adver-
saries. The third revelation comes at an epoch of
emancipation and of intellectual maturity, where
developed intelligence cannot agree to play a passive
rôle; where man accepts nothing blindly, but wishes
to see whither one conducts him; to know the why
and the how of every thing. It claims to be at the
same time the product of a teaching, and the fruit
of labor, of research, and of free examination.
:
Spirits teach us only that which is necessary to put
us in the way of truth; but they abstain from reveal-
ing to man that which he can discover by himself,
leaving to him the care of discussing, controlling, and
submitting all to the crucible of reason, leaving him
often to learn the lesson at his own expense. It gives
to him the principal, the materials from which to draw
48 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
the interest and to put it in use. The elements of
spiritual revelation having been given simultaneously
at a multitude of points to men of all social condi-
tions and of different degrees of knowledge, it is very
evident that observations could not have been made
everywhere with the same offect; that the sequences
drawn from them, the relation of the laws which
govern this order of phenomena, in a word, the
conclusion which ought to establish ideas, — could
proceed only from the harmony and correlation of
facts. Now, every isolated centre, circumscribed in
a limited circle, seeing most often only a particular
order of manifestations, sometimes in appearance con-
tradictory, having communications generally with the
same category of spirits, and, moreover, guided by
local influence and party spirit, finds it materially im-
possible to embrace the whole, powerless to join
isolated observations to a common principle. Each
one judging facts according to his knowledge and
his anterior beliefs, or by the particular opinions of
the spirits manifesting, there would soon be as many
theories and systems as centres, of which no one
would be complete, in default of elements of com-
parison and of control. In a word, each one would
remain content with his partial revelation, believing
it to include all the truth, for want of knowing that
in a hundred other places one could obtain more or
better. It is well to observe further, that nowhere
has spiritual teaching been given in a complete man-
ner. It touches upon so great a number of observa-
tions, upon subjects so diverse, which exact, it may be
knowledge, it may be a special aptitude for arriving
at the heart of them, that it is simply impossible to
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 49
unite at the same point all the necessary conditions.
Teaching having become collective, and not individ-
ual, the spirits have divided the labor by dissemi-
nating the subjects of study and observation, as in
certain manufactories different parts of the object
manufactured are divided among different workmen.
Revelation is thus partially given in diverse places,
and by a multitude of intermediaries; and it is in
this manner still to be followed up, for all is not re-
vealed. Every centre finds in the other centres the
complement of that which it obtains, and it is only
the joining together of all the instructions which can
constitute the doctrine of Spiritism.
It is, moreover, necessary to group the facts gleaned,
in order to see their corresponding similarity, to gather
the different documents, instructions given by spirits
upon all points and all subjects, in order to com-
pare them and analyze them by studying their anal-
ogy and difference. Communications being given by
spirits of all orders more or less clearly, it is neces-
sary to learn the degree of confidence reason would
accord to them; to distinguish the systematic, individ-
ual, and isolated ideas from those which had the
sanction of the general teaching of the spirits; to
separate the Utopian from the practical; to cut away
those which were notoriously contradictory, judged
by positive science and healthy logic; to utilize the
errors even, the information given by spirits of the
lowest sphere, for a knowledge of the invisible
world; and to form of it a homogeneous whole. In a
word, a centre of elaboration is necessary, independ-
ent of all preconceived ideas, of all prejudices of
sect, resolved to accept a self-evident truth, though
50
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
it be contrary to one's personal opinion. This centre
forms itself by the force of things, and without
premeditated design.¹
C
If this book ("Spirits' Book") has gained the sym-
pathies of the majority, it is because it was the ex-
pression of the sentiments of this same majority, and
that it responded to its aspirations. It is also because
each one found there the confirmation, and a rational
explanation of that which he in particular obtained.
If it had disagreed with the general teachings of the
spirits, it would have received no favor, and would
have promptly fallen into oblivion. Now, around
whom is one to rally? It is not man, who is nothing
by himself, only a master-workman, who dies and
disappears, but around an idea which perishes not
when it emanates from a source superior to man.
This spontaneous concentration of scattered forces
has given place to an immense connection, a unique
monument to the world, a living picture of the true
history of modern Spiritism; reflecting, at the same.
time, partial works, the multiplication of sentiments
which has developed the doctrine, the moral results,
the devotion and the weakness, precious archives.
for posterity, who will be able to judge men and
things by authentic documents.
M
In the presence of these unexceptional testimonies,
what will become in time of all false allegations,
1 The "Spirits' Book," the first work which took a philosophical
view of the doctrine, by the deduction of moral sequences from
facts, which had approached all parts of the belief, in touching
upon the most important questions that it raised, has been, since its
appearance, the rallying-point towards which the individual works
have spontaneously converged. It is worthy of note that from the
publication of this book dates the era of the Spiritist philosophy,
previously coming under the head of curiosities of experience.
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
51
defamations of envy and jealousy? From this state
of things rises a double current of ideas; some going
from the extremity to the centre, others returning
from the centre to the circumference. It is thus that
the doctrine has promptly marched towards unity,
notwithstanding the diversity of sources from which
it has emanated; that the divergent systems have
little by little fallen, on account of their isolation,
and failure to obtain the sympathy of the majority.
A communion of thought is now established between
different centres. Speaking the same spiritual lan-
guage, they comprehend and sympathize with one
another from one end of the world to the other. The
Spiritists have been found to be stronger: they have
battled with more courage; they have marched with
a more assured step, now that they are no more alone,
and have found a support, a link which attaches them
to the great family. The phenomena of which they
were witnesses are no longer strange, abnormal,
contradictory, since they are found to agree with the
general laws of harmony; since, glancing at it as a
whole, they see the grand humanitarian object.¹
1 A significant testimony, as remarkable as touching, of this com-
munion of thought which is established between Spiritists by con-
formity of belief, are the prayerful demands which come to us from
far-distant lands, from Peru to the extremities of Asia, from persons
of diverse nationalities and religions, whom we have never seen. Is
it not the prelude of the establishment of the one great church which
is preparing itself, the proof of the firm stand Spiritism is taking
everywhere? It is remarkable that of all the societies formed with
the premeditated intention of seceding by proclaiming divergent
principles,—as those who, by reason of self-love or otherwise, wishing
not to have the appearance of sustaining the common law, have
believed themselves strong enough to go alone, to have enough light
to pass as counsellors, not one has succeeded in establishing a long-
lived or popular idea: all have died out or vegetated in the shade.
52
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
But how is one to know if a principle is taught
everywhere, or if it is the result of an individual
opinion only? Isolated societies not having the
knowledge of that which was said elsewhere, it was
necessary that a central one should gather all the
information, ascertain the opinion of the majority,
and send the knowledge to all.¹
There is no science which has in all its parts pro-
ceeded from the brain of one man. All, without
exception, are the product of successive observations,
leaning upon preceding ones, as upon a known point,
in order to arrive at an unknown one. It is thus
that the spirits have proceeded with Spiritism. That
is why their teaching is gradual. They approach
questions only in proportion and in measure, as the
principles upon which they ought to lean are suffi-
How could it be otherwise, since, in order to distinguish themselves,
instead of endeavoring to give the greatest amount of benefit to the
world, they rejected those principles of the doctrine which give to it
the most powerful attraction, those which are the most consoling,
encouraging, and rational?
If they had comprehended the power of the moral elements
which alone induce unity, they would not have been rocked in a
chimerical illusion; but, mistaking their little circle for the uni-
verse, they have seen in the adherents only a society which could
easily be overthrown by one entertaining contrary opinions. They
strangely misapprehended the essential character of the doctrine,
and this error could lead only to deception. In place of destroying
unity, they destroyed the connection which could give them strength
and life. (See Spiritual Review, April, 1866, pp. 106 and 111: Spiritism
without Spirits; Independent Spiritism.)
1 Such is the object of cur publications, which can be considered
as the result of this. All opinions are discussed there; but the ques-
tions are arranged as principles only after having received the
sanction of the controls, who alone can give them lawful strength
and affirmation. That is why we do not accept, without due thought,
any one theory: therefore the doctrine proceeding from general in-
structions is not the product of a preconceived system. It is largely
this fact which gives it strength, and assures its future.
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 53
ciently elaborated, and as opinion is ripe to assimilate
them.
It is remarkable, that, each time particular centres
have wished to approach premature questions, they
have obtained only contradictory responses, and never
conclusive ones. When, however, the favorable mo-
ment arrives, the instruction is given universally at
nearly the same moment of time. There is, at the
same time, between the march of Spiritism and that
of the sciences, a capital difference. It is, that the
latter have attained their present advancement only
after long intervals of time, whilst only a few years
have sufficed for Spiritism, not to gain the culminating
point, but at least to gather a sum of facts to consti-
tute a doctrine. That is obtained by the innumera-
ble concourse of spirits, who, by the will of God,
manifest simultaneously; each one bringing the con-
tingent of their knowledge. The result is, that all
parts of the doctrine, instead of being successively
elaborated during many centuries, have been con-
cocted almost simultaneously in a few years, and that
this has sufficed to group them in order to form a
whole. God has willed it thus, firstly, in order that
the edifice should progress more rapidly; secondly, in
order that it should have a permanent and imme-
diate control in the universality of the teaching, each
part having value and authority only by its connec-
tion with the whole: all becoming harmonious, find-
ing their place in the general edifice, and each one
arriving in due time.
In confiding, not to one spirit alone, the care of the
promulgation of the doctrine, God has willed that the
lowest as well as the highest among the spirits, as
•
54
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
well as among men, should carry each his stone to the
edifice, in order to establish between them a struc-
ture of co-operative solidarity, which has failed to all
doctrines springing from one source alone. On the
other hand, every spirit, the same as every man,
having only a limited sum of knowledge, they were
incapable of treating ex professo the innumerable
questions which Spiritualism touches. That is why
the doctrine, in order to fulfil the desires of the
Creator, could not be the work of one spirit alone,
nor of one medium. It could proceed only from the
united work of the many, the one controlled by
the other.¹ A later character in the spiritual revela-
tion, which is drawn from the conditions in which it
is produced, is that, leaning upon facts, it is, and
ever must be, essentially progressive, like all sciences
based upon observation. In its essence it is allied to
science, which, being a revelation of the laws of
nature by a certain order of facts, cannot be contrary
to the will of God, the Author of these laws. The
discoveries of science glorify, instead of debasing,
God. They destroy only that which men have
built upon the false ideas they have formed of God.
Spiritism is based then only upon absolute principle,
— that which is demonstrated by proof, or that which
results logically from observation. Touching all the
branches of social economy, to which it lends the aid
of its own discoveries, it will assimilate itself always
with all progressive doctrines, of whatever order they
be. It has arrived at a state of practical truth,
may
1 See in The Gospel according to Spiritism, p. 6, and Spiritual
Review, April, 1864, p. 90: Authority of the Spiritual Doctrine;
Universal Control of the Teachings of the Spirits.
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 55
and discarded the Utopian ideas which would have
destroyed it. In ceasing to be that which it is, it
would deceive in regard to its origin and its provi-
dential object. Spiritism, marching hand in hand
with progress, will never be overthrown, because, if
new discoveries should demonstrate that it is in error
upon a point, it would modify itself in regard to it.
If a new truth is revealed, it accepts it.
What is the utility of the moral doctrine of the
spirits, since it is no other than that of Christ?
Has man need of a revelation? and can he find all
that within himself which is necessary to guide him?
God has without doubt given to man a guide in his
conscience, which says to him, "Do unto others that
which thou wouldst they should do unto you." This
moral philosophy is certainly inscribed in the heart of
man; but do all know how to read it there? Have
men never misconstrued these wise precepts? What
have they done with the ethics of Christ? Do those
who teach them practise them? Have they not be-
come a dead letter, a beautiful theory, good for others,
but not for one's self? Would you reproach a father
for repeating a hundred times the same instructions
to his children if they did not profit by them? Why
should God do less than a father of a family? Why
should he not send from time to time special messen-
gers to men, charged with recalling them to their
duties, with reinstating them in that "narrow path
from which they have wandered, with opening the
eyes of those who are blind to wisdom, as the most ad-
vanced men are sent as missionaries to the savage and
barbarous? The spirits teach no other morality than
that of Christ, for the reason that there is no better.
""
56
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
But, then, of what good is this instruction, since it
teaches that which we know? One could say the
same of the ethical teachings of Christ, which were
taught five hundred years before he lived by Socra-
tes and Plato in almost identical words; also by all
moralists who repeat the same thing under many
forms and words. The spirits come simply to aug-
ment the number of moralists, with the difference,
that, manifesting themselves everywhere, they are
heard in the cottage as well as in the palace by
the ignorant as well as the learned. That which
the teaching of spirits adds to that of Christ is the
knowledge of the laws which bind the living to the
dead, which complete the vague ideas which he gave
of the soul, its past and future, and which the laws
of nature give as sanction to his doctrine.
By the aid of new lights carried by Spiritism and
the spirits, man comprehends the solidarity which
binds all beings together. Charity and fraternity be-
come social necessities. Man does from conviction
that which he did only for duty's sake; and this is
better when men will practise the moral teachings
of Christ. Then alone will they be able to say that
they have no more need of embodied or disembodied
moralists; then God will send them no more of
them. The latter is one of the most important
questions which is based upon the title of this
chapter: What is the authority of spiritual revela-
tion, since it emanates from beings whose light is
limited, and who are not infallible? The objection
would be serious if this revelation consisted only of
the spirit instructions, - if we should hold it as from
them exclusively, and accept it with closed eyes. It
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 57
is without value until man carries to it the co-opera-
tion of his knowledge and judgment, as the spirits
are constrained from putting it in the way of deduc-
tions which he can draw from observation of facts.
Now, the manifestations in their innumerable variety
are facts. Man studies them, and seeks in them the
law. He is aided in this work by spirits of all orders,
who are collaborators rather than revealers in the
usual sense of the word. He submits their sayings to
the control of logic and good sense. In this
In this way he
benefits by some special knowledge which is derived.
from their position, without abdicating the use of
his own reason. The spirits being none other than
the souls of men, in communicating with them we
do not go away from humanity, which is a capital
circumstance to consider. Men of genius who have
been the beacon-lights of humanity have come to us.
from the spirit-world, as they have re-entered it on
quitting the earth. Since spirits can communicate
with men, these same geniuses can give us instructions.
under a spiritual form, as they have done in a corpo-
ral one. They can instruct us after death, as they
did in life. They are invisible, instead of visible,
which is all the difference.
Their experience and knowledge ought not to be
less; and if their word, like that of man's, had au-
thority, it ought not to have less because that they
are in the land of spirits. But there are not only
superior spirits which manifest, there are also those
of all orders; and that is necessary in order to initiate.
us into the true character of the spiritual world, by
showing it to us in all its phases. By this means the
relations between the visible and invisible world are
58
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
more intimate, the connection is more evident. We
see more clearly whence we came, and whither we
go. Such is the essential object of these manifesta-
tions. All spirits, in whatever degree to which they
may attain, teach us something; but, as they are
more or less enlightened, it is left to us to determine
whether they are good or evil, and to profit by their
teaching as it permits. Now all, whomsoever they
may be, can teach and reveal to us facts of which we
are ignorant, and which but for them we should
never know. Wise, incarnated spirits are powerful
individualities, indisputably so; but their action is
restrained and necessarily slow in propagating itself.
Allowing that one among them should come alone,
be it even Elias, Moses, Socrates, or Plato, — to
reveal to us in these latter days the state of the
spiritual world, which one among them would have
proved the truth of his assertions in this time of
scepticism? Would not men have regarded him as a
dreamer or utopist? And, admitting that his teach-
ings were accepted as the absolute truth, centuries
would pass away before they would be accepted by
the masses. God in his wisdom has not ordained it
thus: he has willed that the instruction be given
by the spirits themselves, and not by the embodied
ones, in order to convince men of their existence, and
that it might take place simultaneously over all the
earth, which may have been to propagate it the more
rapidly, or that we might find in the coincidence of
the teaching a proof of its truth, each one having
thus the means of convincing himself. The spirits
come not to free man from work, study, or research :
they bring no ready-made science; they leave him to
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
59
his own strength in that which he can discover for
himself. The spirits know perfectly well to-day that
for a long time experience has demonstrated the
error of the opinion which attributed to spirits the
possession of all knowledge and wisdom, and that it
was sufficient to address one's self to the first spirit
which came, in order to know all things. After leav-
ing the earth, spirits occupy one out of many spirit-
ual planes, as upon earth there are superior and vul-
gar persons. Many spirits then know scientifically
and philosophically less than certain men: they tell
no more, and cften less, than they know. As among
men, the most advanced can teach us more, and give
us more judicious advice, than those less advanced.
To demand counsel of spirits is not to address super-
natural powers, but persons like ourselves, those
to whom we would turn for counsel in their earthly
life, as parents, friends, and individuals more enlight-
ened than ourselves.
Here is an important fact for those who are igno-
rant of Spiritism, and have formed a false idea of the
nature of the world of spirits and of the condition
of affairs beyond the tomb. What is then the utility
of these manifestations, or, as we may say, this reve-
lation, if the spirits know no more than ourselves,
or if they do not tell us all they know? Firstly, as
we have said, they abstain from giving us that which
we can acquire by labor. Secondly, there are facts
which they are not permitted to reveal, because we
are not sufficiently advanced to receive them. But,
aside from this, the conditions of their new existence
extend the circle of their perceptions. They see that
which they saw not upon earth, freed from the tram-
60
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
mels of matter. Delivered from the cares of the cor-
poreal life, they judge things from a more elevated
point, from a healthier one; their perspicuity em-
braces a broader horizon; they perceive their errors,
and disembarrass themselves of human prejudices.
It is in this that the superiority of spirits over em-
bodied humanity consists: therefore their counsel
will be, according to their degree of advancement,
more judicious and disinterested than that of the
embodied. Conditions are found by which they can
instruct us in principles of which we are ignorant.
Until now men had created only suppositions in
regard to the future. That is why beliefs upon this
point have been divided into systems so numerous
and so divergent, - from a belief in nothing to fan-
tastic ideas of hell-fire and paradise. To-day we have
ocular demonstration: the actors themselves from the
life beyond the tomb, who alone can give us knowl-
edge of it, come to tell us what it is. These mani-
festations serve, then, to give us knowledge of the
invisible world which surrounds us, of which, with-
out them, we should not be aware of the existence.
This knowledge alone should be considered of the
highest importance, even supposing that the spirits
were incapable of teaching us any thing more. If
you should go into a strange country by yourself,
would you reject the teachings of the most humble
peasant whom you chanced to encounter? Would
you refuse to interrogate him about the state of the
land because that he was only a peasant? You
would not expect from him, certainly, intelligence of
a very high character; but such as it is, and in his
sphere, he will be able, upon certain points, to give
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION. 61
you better than a wise man who does not know the
country. You will draw from his indications se-
quences which you could not do of yourself. He
will have been at least a useful instrument for your
observations, had he served only to make known to
you the customs of the peasants. It is the same in
connection with the spirits, where the lowest can
teach us something.
A common incident will explain the matter better.
A ship loaded with emigrants departs for a far-distant
locality. It carries men of all conditions, the relatives
and friends of whom remain at home. One learns that
this ship has been wrecked. No trace remains of it;
no news is obtained in regard to its fate. It is thought
that all the passengers have perished; and mourning
is in all the families. However, the entire company,
without the loss of a single soul, has landed upon an
unknown soil, which is abundant and fertile, where
all live happily under favoring skies; but their friends
are ignorant of their fate. Now, one happy day an-
other ship reaches their shore: it finds all the ship-
wrecked ones safe and well. The happy news
spreads with lightning-like rapidity. Each one says,
"Our friends are not lost;" and they give thanks to
God. They cannot see each other; but they corre-
spond, exchange testimonies of affection, and joy suc-
ceeds to sadness. Such is terrestrial life and life
beyond the grave before and after modern revela-
tion. The latter, like the second ship, carries to ust
the good news of the survival of those who are dear
to us, and the certitude of one day rejoining them.
Doubt in regard to their fate and our own exists no
more; discouragement is effaced by hope.
62
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
But other results are added to enrich this revela-
tion. God, judging humanity ripe enough to pene-
trate the mystery of its destiny, and to contemplate.
with composure new marvels, has permitted the veil
between the known and unknown worlds to be raised.
The fact of the manifestations has nothing supernat-
ural about it: it is spiritual humanity come to talk
to humanity in the flesh, and to say to it, "We exist :
nothingness exists not. Behold that which we are,
and that which you will be: the future is the same
for you as to us. You walk in darkness: we come to
throw light upon your way, and to prepare it before
you. Terrestrial life was all you could comprehend,
because you saw nothing beyond. We come to say
to you, in showing the spiritual life to you, the
earthly life is as nothing. Your sight was arrested
at the tomb: we come to show you the splendid hori-
zon beyond it. You knew not why you suffer upon
earth; now, in suffering, you see the justice of God.
Goodness was unfruitful for the future: it will have
henceforth an object, and will be a necessity. Fra-
ternity was only a beautiful theory: it is now firmly
established as a law of nature. Under the empire
of the belief that death ends all, immensity is void,
egotism reigns master among you, and your watch-
word is, Each one for himself."" With a certitude
of the future, infinite space is peopled with infini-
tude. Emptiness and solitude do not exist: solidarity
joins all beings both this side and beyond the tomb
together. It is the reign of charity with the device,
"Each one for all, and all for every one." Instead of
bidding an eternal adieu to dear friends at the close
of life, you will now say, "Good-by till I see you
CHARACTER OF SPIRITUAL REVELATION.
63
again." Such are the results of the new revelation.
It has come to fill the void which incredulity has
deepened, to revive hope where it is withering into
doubt and a perspective of nonentity, to give to
every thing a reason for existing. Is this result,
then, without importance because the spirits come
not to solve scientific problems, and to give to the
indolent the means of enriching themselves without
trouble? However, the fruits which man ought to
gather from it are not only those for a future life: he
will extract good from the transformation that these
new beliefs ought to work in his character, his tastes,
his tendencies, and, in pursuance of which, upon his
habits and social relations. In putting an end to
egotism, pride, and incredulity, the way is paved for
the blessing, which is the reign of God. Revelation
has then for its object the giving to man certain
truths which he is unable to acquire by himself
alone, by which he may accelerate his progress in
knowledge. These truths are generally kept within
the limits of fundamental principles destined to put
him in the way of research, and not to guide him by
a leading-string. There are landmarks to show him
the end in view. To him is allotted the task of study-
ing and deducing from them their applications. Far
from freeing him from labor, these are but new ele-
ments furnished for his activity.
CHAPTER II.
GOD. EXISTENCE OF GOD. THE DIVINE NATURE.
PROVIDENCE.
Existence of God. God being the first cause of all
things, the starting-point of all, the pivot upon which
the edifice of creation reposes, is the subject to be
considered before any other. It is by elementary
principle that one judges a cause by its effect, when
one sees not the cause. Science goes farther: it cal-
culates the power of the cause by the power of the
effect, and can even determine the nature of it. It is
thus, for example, that astronomy has conceived of the
existence of planets in ascertained regions in space, by
the knowledge of laws which govern the heavenly
bodies. Astronomers have sought for, and brought
to the knowledge of men, planets that they can really
say have been discovered before they have been seen.
In an order of more common facts, if one is plunged
in a thick fog, by the light diffused around, he judges
that the sun is in the horizon, although he sees it not.
If a bird cleaving the air receives a deadly shot, one
judges that a ball, sent by a skilful hand, struck it,
although one may not have seen the marksman. Is
it then always necessary to have seen a thing before
knowing that it exists?
In every thing it is by observing effects that we
64
EXISTENCE OF GOD.
65
arrive at the knowledge of causes. Another prin-
ciple, also elementary, and passed into an axiom by
force of truth, is, that all intelligent effect must
have an intelligent cause. If one inquired who was
the inventor of such an ingenious piece of mechan-
ism, the architect of such a monument, the sculptor
of such a statue, or the painter of such a picture,
what would one think of him who should reply that
it was done without the help of any one? When one
sees a superior work of art or of industry, they say
that that is probably the work of a man of genius,
because it is evident that a high intelligence has pre-
sided at its conception. One judges, nevertheless,
that a man has done it, because one knows that it is
not above human capacity; but no one will say that
it proceeded from the brain of an idiot or of an igno-
ramus, and still less that it is the work of an animal
or the product of chance. Everywhere one recog-
nizes the presence of man by his works. If you
should enter an unknown country, even were it a
desert, and you should discover the least vestige of
human labor, you would conclude that men inhabit
it, or have done so in the past. The existence of
the antediluvians is proved not only by human fos-
sils, but also, with as much certitude, by the presence,
in the soil of this epoch, of utensils made by man.
A fragment of a vase, a carved stone, a weapon, a
brick, will suffice to attest their presence. By the
rudeness or by the perfection of the work one will
recognize the degree of intelligence or of advance-
ment of those who have accomplished it. If, then,
finding yourself in a country inhabited exclusively
by barbarians or savages, you should discover a statue
66
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
worthy of Phidias, you would not hesitate to say,
that, savages being incapable of having made it, it
must be the work of an intelligence superior to
theirs. In looking around one's self upon the works
of nature, observing the foresight, the wisdom, the
harmony, which preside in all things, one recognizes
that there is a power superior to the highest flights
of human intelligence, since the greatest genius of
the earth would not know how to create a blade
of grass. Since human intelligence cannot produce
them, it proves that they are the product of an intel-
ligence superior to that of humanity. This harmony
and wisdom, extending from the grain of sand and
the little worm to the innumerable stars which move
in space, we judge to be the product of an infinite.
intelligence, unless we say that effects are without
cause. To this some oppose the following argument:
Works said to be produced by nature are the prod
uct of material forces, which are agitated mechani-
cally by following the laws of attraction and repul-
sion. Particles of inert bodies are aggregated and
disintegrated by the power of these laws. Plants
are born, sprout, grow, and multiply always in the
same manner, each one of its kind, by virtue of these
same laws; each subject being like that from which
it sprung. The growth, florescence, fructification,
and coloring are subordinate to some material cause,
such as heat, electricity, light, humidity, etc.
It is the same with animals. Even stars are formed
by the attraction of particles, and move perpetually
in their orbits by the effect of gravitation. This
mechanical regularity in the employ of natural forces
does not imply a free intelligence. Man moves his
EXISTENCE OF GOD.
67
arms when he desires and as he desires; but he who
would move them in the same manner from his birth
to his death would be an automaton. Now, the
organic forces of nature, considered as a whole, are,
in some respects, automatic. All that is true; but
these forces are effects which must have a cause, and
no one has pretended that they constitute divinity.
They are material and mechanical; they are not in-
telligent of themselves, we all know, but they are set
at work, distributed, and appropriated to the needs
of every thing by an intelligence which is not that of
man. The useful appropriation of these forces is an
intelligent effect, which denotes an intelligent cause.
A clock moves with an automatic regularity, and it
is this regularity which constitutes its merit. The
force which makes it act is material, and not intelli-
gent; but what would this clock be if an intelligence
had not combined, calculated, and distributed the
employment of this force in order to make it move
with precision?
Because we cannot see intelligence, and because it
is not in the mechanism of the clock, is it rational to
conclude that it does not exist? One judges it by
its effects. The existence of the clock attests the
existence of the clockmaker: the ingenuity of its
mechanism is a proof of the intelligence and knowl-
edge of its maker. When one sees one of these
complicated clocks which mark the hour in the prin-
cipal cities of the world, also the movement of the
stars, which play airs, which seem, in a word, to
speak to you in order to give you the knowledge of
which you have need, has it ever occured to any one
to say, "There is a very intelligent clock"? Thus it
68
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
is in the mechanism of the universe: God shows him-
self not, but he makes affirmation of himself in his
works. The existence of God is, then, an acquired
fact, not only by revelation, but by the material evi-
dence of facts. The most barbarous people have not
had a revelation; yet they instinctively believe in a
superhuman power. The savages themselves do not
escape logical consequences: they see things which
are beyond human power, and they conclude that
they are produced by a being superior to humanity.
The Divine Nature. It has not been permitted to
man to sound the inmost nature of God. Rash would
be the man who would pretend to raise the veil which
screens him from our view. That understanding which
is only acquired by perfect purity of mind is wanting
in us as yet. But if we cannot penetrate to his es-
sence, his existence being given as premises, we can,
by the power of reason, arrive at the knowledge of
his necessary attributes; for, in seeing that which he
cannot be without ceasing to be God, we judge by
that what he must be. Without the knowledge of
the attributes of God, it would be impossible to com-
prehend the work of creation. It is the starting-point
of all religious beliefs; and the fault of most religions
is that they have made their dogmas the beacon-light
to direct them. Those which have not attributed to
God ALL power have made many gods; those which
have not endowed him with sovereign goodness have
made of him a jealous, angry, partial, and vindictive
God. God is supreme and sovereign intelligence.
The intelligence of man is limited, since it can
neither make nor comprehend all that exists; that of
God, embracing infinity, must be infinite. God is
THE DIVINE NATURE.
69
eternal; that is to say, he has had no beginning, and
will have no end. If he had had a commencement,
he must have sprung from nonentity. Now, nonen-
tity, being nothing, can produce nothing; or, if he
could have been created by another being anterior
to himself, then this other being would be God. If
one could suppose of him a commencement or an
end, one would then be able to conceive a being
having existed before him, or being able to exist
after him, and thus one after the other even to in-
finitude. God is unchangeable. If he were subject
to change, the laws which govern the universe would
not have any stability. God is immaterial; that is
to say, his nature differs from all that which we call
matter: otherwise he could not be immutable, for
he would be subject to the transformations of mat-
God has not form appreciable to our senses: if
he had, he would be matter. We say, the hand of
God, the eye of God, the mouth of God, because
men, knowing him only by themselves, take them-
selves as a term of comparison of all that which they
comprehend not. Pictures representing God as an
old man with a long beard, covered with a mantle,
are ridiculous: they have the disadvantage of lower-
ing the Supreme Being to the level of poor human-
ity. It is but one step from that to endow him with
the passions of humanity, and to make of him a jeal-
ous and angry God. God is all-powerful. If he had
not supreme power, one could conceive of a being
more powerful; thus from one to another, till one
could find a being that no other could surpass in
power, and it is the latter who would be God. If
not all-powerful, he could not have made all things;
ter.
70
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
and those which he would not have made would be
the work of another God.
God is sovereignly just and good. Providential
wisdom in divine laws is revealed in small as well as
in great things, and this wisdom gives no room to
doubt either his justice or his bounty. These two
qualities comprise all the others. If one supposed
them limited, if only on one point, one could con-
ceive of a being who could possess them in a higher
degree, and who would be superior. The infinitude
of a quality excludes the possibility of a contrary
one which would lessen or annul it. A being infi-
nitely good could not have the smallest particle of
wickedness; a being infinitely bad could not have
the smallest portion of goodness, just as an ob-
ject could not be absolutety black with the faintest
shade of white, neither one absolutely white with
the slightest spot of black. God would not then be
both good and bad; for, possessing neither one nor
the other of these qualities in a supreme degree, he
would not be God. All things would be submitted to
caprice, and he would have stability in nothing. It
is then only possible to be infinitely good or infinitely
bad. If he were infinitely bad, he would do nothing
good. Now, as his works testify of his wisdom, of
his goodness, and of his solicitude for us, it is neces-
sary to conclude, that, being unable to be at the same
time good and bad without ceasing to be God, he
must be infinitely good. Sovereign bounty and good-
ness imply sovereign justice; for if he acted unjust-
ly or with partiality in one instance, or in respect to
any one of his creatures, he would not be sovereignly
just, and consequently not perfectly good. God is
THE DIVINE NATURE.
71
infinitely perfect. It is impossible to conceive of a
God without an infinitude of perfections, without
which he could not be God; for one would always
be able to think of a being possessing that which
was wanting in him. In order that no one being
may surpass him, it is necessary that he be infinite
in all. The attributes of God, being infinite, are nei-
ther susceptible of augmentation nor of diminution.
Without that they would not be infinite, and God
would not be perfect. If one could take away the
least part of one of his attributes, he would have no
more God, since it would be possible for a more per-
fect being to exist. God is unique.
The unity of God is the result of absolute infini-
tude of perfection. Another God could not exist
except upon one condition, that of being equally in-
finite in all things; for, if there were between them
the slightest difference, the one would be inferior to
the other, subordinate to his power, and would not.
be God. If there were between them absolute equal-
ity, there would be for all eternity one same thought,
one wish, one power; thus confounding their iden-
tity, and there would be in reality only one God. If
each one had special attributes, the one would do
that which the other would not, and then there
would not be between them perfect equality, since
neither one nor the other would have sovereign
authority. It is ignorance of the principle of the in-
finite perfection of God which has engendered poly-
theism, the worship of all people in early times. They
attributed divinity to all power which seemed to
them above humanity. Later, reason led them to join
these diverse powers in one alone: then, as men have
72
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
gradually comprehended the essence of the divine
attributes, they have taken away from their creeds
the beliefs which denied them. After all, God can-
not be God except on condition of not being sur-
passed in any thing by another being; for then
the being who should surpass him in whatever it
might be, were it only by a hair's breadth, would
be the true God: for it is necessary that God be
infinite in all things. It is thus that the existence
of God being proved by his works, one arrives, by a
simple logical deduction, to determine the attributes
which characterize him. God is then the Supreme
and Sovereign Intelligence. He is unique, eternal,
immutable, immaterial, all-powerful, sovereignly just
and good, infinite in all his perfection, like no other.
Such is the base upon which the universal edifice
reposes. It is the beacon-light whose rays illumine
the entire universe, and which alone can guide man in
the search for truth. In following it he will never
go astray; and, if he is often led astray, it is for want.
of having followed the route which was indicated to
him. Such is the infallible criterion of all philoso-
phical and religious doctrines. Man has a rigorously
exact measure in the attributes of God with which
to judge him; and he can say with certitude that all
theory, all principle, all dogmas, all beliefs, all prac-
tices which are in contradiction to any one of these
attributes, which should tend not necessarily to an-
nul it, but simply to weaken it, cannot be of the
truth. In philosophy, in psychology, in ethics, in re-
ligion, there is no truth in that which departs one iota
from the essential qualities of divinity. Perfect reli-
gion must be that of which no article of faith is in
-
PROVIDENCE.
73
opposition with these qualities: all the dogmas must
sustain the proof of this control without conflicting
with it in any particular.
Providence. - Providence is the solicitude of God
for all his creatures. God is everywhere. He sees
all, he presides over all, even to the smallest things:
in this, providential action consists. How can God,
so grand, so powerful, so superior to all, interfere
with the pettiest details, occupy himself with the
most trifling thoughts and actions of each individual?
Such is the question upon which unbelief alights, from
which it concludes, that, in admitting the existence of
God, his action should extend only to the general
laws of the universe; that the universe operates to
all eternity by virtue of these laws, to which every
creature is subject in his sphere of activity without
a need for the incessant co-operation of Providence.
In their actual state of inferiority men can only with
difficulty comprehend the infinite God, because they
are themselves narrow and limited in their views of
him. They imagine him to correspond to their ideas;
they represent him as a circumscribed being, and
make of him an image according to their ideal. Our
pictures which paint him with human features con-
tribute not a little to establishing this error in the
mind of the masses, who adore him in form more
than in thought. He is to the greater part of human-
ity a powerful sovereign upon an inaccessible throne,
lost in the immensity of the heavens; and, because
their faculties and perceptions are limited, they do
not comprehend that God can, or deigns to, interfere
directly in little things.
In his impotence how is man to comprehend the
74
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
essence even of divinity? He can form of it only an
approximate idea by the aid of comparisons, necessa-
rily very imperfect, but which can at least show him
the possibility of that which at first sight seems to
him impossible. Let us suppose a fluid subtle
enough to penetrate all bodies: it is evident that
every molecule of this fluid, coming in contact with
every particle of matter, will produce upon the body
an action identical with that which the whole fluid
would produce. This is what chemistry demon-
strates every day in limited proportions. This fluid,
being without intelligence, acts mechanically by ma-
terial force alone. But if we suppose this fluid to
be endowed with intelligence, with sensitive and
perceptive qualities, it will no more act blindly, but
with discernment, will, and liberty: it will see, hear,
and feel. The properties of the peri-spiritual fluid
can give us only an idea of it. It is not intelligent
of itself since it is matter; but it is the vehicle
of the thought, the sensations, and perceptions of
the spirit. It is by reason of the fineness of this
fluid that spirits penetrate all space, that they read
our inmost thoughts, that they see and act at a
distance. It is to this fluid, which has attained a
certain degree of purification, that the superior
spirits owe the gift of comparative omnipresence. A
ray of their thought directed to different points is
sufficient to enable them to manifest their presence
simultaneously with it. The extension of this fac-
ulty is subordinate to the degree of elevation and
purification of the spirit. It is also by the aid of
this fluid that man himself acts at a distance by the
power of the will upon certain individuals; that he
PROVIDENCE.
75
modifies within certain limits the properties of mat-
ter, gives to inactive substances decided qualities,
repairs organic disorders, and effects cures by the im-
position of the hands. But the spirits, however ele-
vated they may be, are creatures limited in their
faculties, their power, and the extension of their per-
ceptions, and cannot in this respect approach God.
However, they can serve us as a point of comparison.
That which the mind can accomplish only in a cer-
tain limit, God, who is infinite, performs in unlimited
proportions.
There is still this difference, that the action of spirit
is momentary and subordinate to circumstances; that
of God is permanent. The thought of the spirit em-
braces only a circumscribed time and space; that
of God, the universe and eternity. In a word, be-
tween the spirits and God there is the distance of
the finite from the infinite. The peri-spiritual fluid is
not the thought of the spirit, but the agent and inter-
mediate of this thought. It is, in a manner, impreg-
nated by the life of him who transmits it; and, in the
impossibility of isolating it where we are, he seems
to be one with the fluid, as sound and air seem to be
one and the same in such a way that we can, as it
were, materialize it. We say, for instance, the air is
sonorous: we, in taking the effect for the cause, say
that the fluid becomes intelligent. Let it be so or
not with the thought of God, that is to say, let it
act directly, or by the intermedium of a fluid; for
the facility of our intelligence, let us represent it
under the concrete form of an intelligent fluid filling
the infinite universe, penetrating all parts of creation,
- entire nature is plunged in the divine fluid. Now, by
掘
​p
76
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
virtue of the principle that the parts of a whole are
of the same nature, and have the same properties as
the whole, each atom of this fluid, if one can express
it thus, possessing thought, that is to say, the es-
sential attributes of divinity, this fluid being every-
where, all is submissive to its intelligent action, to
its foresight, to its solicitude, not a being, however
inferior he may be, but who is in a measure pene-
trated by it.
We are thus constantly in the presence of divinity.
Not one of our actions can escape his notice. Our
thoughts are in incessant contact with his thoughts;
and reason tells us that God reads the profoundest
depths of our hearts. We are in him, as he is in us,
according to the word of Christ. In order to exer-
cise his watchful care over all his creatures, it is not
necessary to look at them from the height of immen-
sity. Our prayers, in order to be heard by him, have
not to traverse space, nor to be spoken with a rever-
berating voice; for, being ever at our side, our
thoughts are perceived by him. Our thoughts are
like the tones of a bell, which make all the molecules
of the ambient air vibrate. Far from us is the
thought of materializing divinity. The image of an
intelligent universal fluid is evidently only a com-
parison, but adapted to give a more just idea of God
than the pictures which represent him with a human
face. Its object is to make us comprehend the possi-
bility of the presence of God everywhere, and of his
occupying himself with every thing. We have always
before our eyes an example which can give us an
idea of the manner in which the action of God can
be exercised over all beings, even to the inmost
PROVIDENCE.
77
recesses of their hearts, and, consequently, how the
most subtle impressions of our soul reach him. It is
drawn from spiritual teaching on this subject: "One
of the attributes of divinity is infinitude. One can-
not represent the Creator as having any limit, form,
or boundary whatever. If he were not infinite, one
could conceive of some one greater than he, who
would be God. Being infinite, God is everywhere;
for, if he were not everywhere, he would not be infi-
nite. How can one combat this argument? Then,
if there is a God, which no one should doubt, this
God is infinite, and one can conceive of no space
that he does not occupy. He is found, consequently,
in contact with all his creations He envelops them:
they are in him. It is, then, comprehensible that he
can be in direct rapport with every creature; and, in
order to make you comprehend as clearly as possible
in what manner this communication is always and
universally taking place, let us examine that which
passes between the spirit of man and his body. Man
is a little world, of which the director is the spirit,
and the principle directed is the body. In this uni-
verse the body will represent a creation whose spirit.
is God. [You comprehend that there can be here
only a question of analogy, and not of identity.]
“The members of this body, the different organs
which compose it,-its muscles, its nerves, its veins,
its joints, are so many material individualities local-
ized in special parts of the body, if one can so speak.
Although the number of these constitutive parts, so
varied and different by nature, is considerable, it is
not to be doubted, however, that he cannot move,
that no action whatever can occur in any particular
=
78
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
part, without the consciousness of the spirit in regard
to it. Are there diverse sensations in many places
simultaneously, the spirit feels them all, discerns
them, analyzes them, assigns to each its cause and
place of action. A similar phenomenon takes place
between creation and God. God is everywhere in
nature, as the spirit pervades all the body. All the
elements of creation are in constant rapport with
him, as all the particles of the human body are in
immediate contact with the spiritual being. There
is, then, no reason why phenomena of the same order
should not be produced in like manner in the one
case as in the other. A member is agitated, the
spirit feels it; a creature thinks, God knows it. All
the members move, the different organs are put in
vibration, the spirit feels every manifestation, dis-
tinguishes them, and localizes them. The different
creations, different creatures, are agitated, think, act
diversely, and God knows all that which passes,
assigns to each one that which is peculiar to him.
One can deduce from it equally the solidarity of
matter and of intelligence, the solidarity between all
beings of the world, that of all worlds, and, indeed,
that of all creations of the Creator." Quintemont:
Société de Paris, 1867.
We comprehend the effect, which is much. From
the effect we mount to the cause, and we judge of the
cause by the grandeur of the effect; but its inmost
essence escapes us, like that of the cause of a multi-
tude of phenomena. We know the effects of elec-
tricity, of heat, of light, of gravitation; we form
calculations in regard to them: however, we are igno-
rant of the inmost nature of the principle which
VIEW OF GOD.
79
produces them. Is it, then, more rational to deny
divine principle because we do not comprehend it?
Nothing hinders us from admitting a principle of
sovereign intelligence, a centre of action, a principal
focus, beaming always, inundating the entire uni-
verse with its beams, like the sun with its light. But
where is this focus? That is what no one can tell.
It is probable that God is no more confined to a
certain point than is his action, and that he traverses
incessantly the regions of space without limit. If
common spirits have the gift of ubiquity, this faculty
in God must surely be unlimited. Admitting that
God does fill the universe, one can suppose that this
focus has no necessity for transporting itself, but that
he appears at each point where sovereign will de-
sires to be. From which we can infer that he is every-
where, but in no one place especially. Before these
unfathomable problems we must feel our littleness.
God exists: we cannot doubt it. He is infinitely
just and good: this is his essence. His care extends
itself to all: we comprehend it. He can then desire
only our good: that is why we should have confi-
dence in him. This is the essential part of it: for
the rest, let us wait until we are worthy of under-
standing him.
View of God. Since God is everywhere, why do
we not see him? Upon leaving the earth, shall
we see him? Such questions are daily proposed.
The first is not difficult to solve. Our material
organs have limited perceptions, which render them
powerless to see certain things, sometimes even ma-
terial objects. Thus certain fluids escape our view,
as also that of our analytical instruments. However.
80
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
we do not doubt their existence. We see the effects
of the pestilence; but we do not see the fluid which
transports it. We see bodies move under the influ-
ence of the force of gravitation; but we do not see
this force. The spiritual essence of things cannot be
perceived by material organs: it is only by the spir-
itual vision that we can see spirits, and the substances
of the immaterial world. Our soul alone can then
have perception of God. Does it see him imme-
diately after death? Communications from beyond
the tomb can alone inform us. By them we learn
that the privilege of seeing him is granted only to
the purest souls, and thus very few possess the neces-
sary degree of ethereality upon leaving their terres-
trial envelope. Some common comparisons will make
this the more easily comprehended. He who is in
the depth of a valley surrounded by a thick fog
does not see the sun; but at a higher point, by aid
of the increased light, he judges that the sun is
shining. If he climbs the mountain, in proportion as
he rises the fog becomes thinner, the light more and
more brilliant; but he does not as yet see the sun.
When he commences to see it, it is as yet veiled; for
the least vapor suffices to conceal its splendor. It is
only after rising above the lowering mist, only in an
atmosphere of perfect purity, that he sees it in all its
brightness.
It is the same with him whose head is enveloped
in many veils. At first he sees nothing at all. With
every veil which is withdrawn, the light becomes
more and more clear; but it is only when the last
veil is taken away that he perceives clearly all things.
It is still the same with a liquor charged with for-
VIEW OF GOD.
81
eign substances.
It becomes turbid at first. At
every distillation its transparency is augmented, until,
becoming completely purified, it acquires a perfect
limpidity, and presents no obstacle to the sight.
Thus it is with the soul. The peri-spiritual covering,
although invisible and impalpable to us, who are still
too gross for certain perceptions, is, in truth, a verita-
ble substance. This covering becomes spiritualized
itself in proportion as the soul becomes elevated by
morality. The imperfections of the soul are like
veils which obscure its light. Every imperfection
when removed leaves one veil less; but it is only
after becoming completely purified that it enjoys the
full plenitude of its faculties. God, being pre-emi-
nently the divine essence, can be perceived in all his
splendor only by spirits who have arrived at the
highest degree of ethereality.
If imperfect spirits do not see him, it is not that
they are farther away from him than are others. They
and all natural things are submerged in the divine
fluid, as we are in the light, only their imperfections
are veils which hide him from their sight. When
the fog shall have disappeared, they will see him re-
splendently shine. To attain this vision, there will
be no necessity for climbing, nor of seeking him in
the depths of infinitude. The spiritual sight, being
disembarrassed of the moral taints which obscured it,
they will see him in every place; for he is everywhere
to be found. He must be as truly upon the earth as
elsewhere, if he is everywhere. It takes time for the
spirit to purify itself; and the different incarnations
are the alembics in the depths of which is left each
time some impurity. In quitting his mortal envelope
82
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
man is not instantaneously despoiled of his imperfec-
tions. That is the reason why some see no more of
God after death than while living on earth; but, in
proportion as spirits become purified, they have a
more distinct intuition. If they do not see God, they
comprehend him better: the light is less vague.
Thus, when spirits say that God forbids them to re-
spond to this question, it is not that God appears to
them, or speaks to them, in order to direct them to do,
or prohibit them from doing, such and such things.
No; but they feel him: they receive the emanation of
his thought, as we feel in respect to spirits who en-
velop us in their fluid, although we do not see them.
No man can see God with fleshly eyes. If this favor
were accorded any one, it would only be in that trance
state when the soul is as much redeemed from the
trammels of matter as is possible during incarnation.
Such a privilege would only be accorded to advanced
souls incarnated for a mission here, and not in expia-
tion for sin.
But, as spirits of the most elevated or dershine
with a dazzling splendor, it is possible that spirits
less elevated, embodied or disembodied, struck with
the splendor which surrounds them, have believed
that they have seen God himself, as one sees some-
times a minister taken for his sovereign. Under what
appearance does God present himself to those who
are rendered worthy of such a favor? Is it under
any form, as a human figure, or as a focus of beam-
ing light? This is something that human language
is powerless to describe, because there exists no point
of comparison which can give an idea of it. We are
like blind men whom men seek in vain to instruct
VIEW OF GOD.
83
concerning the appearance of the light of the sun.
Our vocabulary of knowledge is limited to our needs,
and to the circle of our ideas. Just as that of the
savage could not possibly depict the marvels of civil-
ization, so that of people of the highest culture is too
poor to describe the splendors of the heavens, our
intelligence too limited to comprehend them, while
our too feeble sight would be dazzled by their bright-
ness could we see them as they are.
CHAPTER III.
GOOD AND EVIL. SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. - DESTRUCTION OF
LIVING BEINGS BY ONE ANOTHER.
Source of Goodness and Wickedness. God being
the origin of all things, and his nature being all
wisdom, justice, and goodness, all which proceeds
from him must be imbued with these attributes; for
that which is infinitely wise, just, and good, can pro-
duce nothing unreasonable, wicked, or wrong. The
wickedness which we observe cannot then be derived
from him. If wickedness was the province of a special
being who is called Satan, he must be either equal
to God, and for all eternity as powerful, or he must
be his inferior. In the first case, there would be two
rival powers in constant contention, each one seeking
to overthrow the work of the other, and constantly
thwarting each other. This hypothesis is irrecon-
cilable with that unity of purpose which reveals
itself in the arrangement of the universe.
In the second case this being, being inferior to
God, would be subordinate to him. Not being able
to exist for all eternity like him, without being his
equal, he would have had a commencement. If he
has been created, God must have been his creator.
Thus God would have created a bad spirit, which is
impossible if he be infinite goodness. According to
84
GENESIS:
THE MIRACLES AND THE PREDICTIONS
ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
BY
ALLAN KARDEC,
AUTHOR OF "THE SPIRITS' BOOK,' "BOOK ON MEDIUMS," AND
'HEAVEN AND HELL.'
66
"}
TRANSLATED BY THE SPIRIT-GUIDES OF
W. J. COLVILLE.
The spiritual doctrine is the result of the collective and concordant
teachings of spirits.
Science is called in to make the statements in Genesis agree with
the laws of nature.
God proves his greatness and power by the immutability of his laws,
and not by their suspension.
For God the past and the future are the present.
BOSTON :
COLBY & RICH, PUBLISHERS.
1883.
EF
12
R
FRANKLIN PRESS:
RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,
BOSTON.
PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION.
IN offering an English translation of this wonderful
work Allan Kardec's masterpiece to the English-
speaking public, the translator feels considerable embar-
rassment, knowing how very imperfectly the work has been
accomplished. Nevertheless, despite many deficiencies in
beauty of style and accuracy of expression, the public
are assured that the original ideas of the author have
been preserved in all their integrity; only the charming
polish so distinguishable in the best French literature has
been lost.
M
Possessing myself but the most meagre acquaintance
with the French language, the task of translating so large
and valuable a work out of that tongue would have been
utterly beyond me, had it not been for the constant and in-
estimable assistance I have received from the spirits, who
originally gave the philosophy to the world when Allan
Kardec was yet in material form among us. These intel-
ligences and Allan Kardec himself have frequently made
their presence known to me, compelling me to materially
change many passages that nothing might be sent out to
the world of a misleading nature. The thought is, I am
convinced, throughout the volume, true to the author's
3
203233
4
PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION.
original conception; but that the language is in many
parts crude and sadly defective, no one can realize more
deeply than myself.
While acknowledging my indebtedness to invisible help-
ers, I must not refrain from expressing my most sincere
thanks to a lady in Boston, whose wide acquaintance with
the French tongue renders her an authority on all matters
of translation, who has, from pure love of the glorious
truths of the spiritual philosophy and a desire to dissemi-
nate these truths far and wide, given a vast amount of her
valuable time to assisting me in the arduous and yet most
delightful task of preparing this volume for the press.
It is now sent forth in confident assurance that it contains
facts relative to the soul and its unfoldments destined to
work a complete revolution in the thought of the age.
While many may disagree with the author's conclusions,
none can deny the force of his arguments; nor can any
man or woman, capable of appreciating real nobility of
character, fail to admire the sublimity of a mind devoting
itself through the best years of an earthly life to inter-
course with the spirit-world, and to the publication of
revolutionary literature without any reward other than the
satisfaction of seizing truth, and disseminating it freely
among the hungering multitudes.
Allan Kardec was a man almost without a peer in self-
devotion to the good of the race in the city and country
where he lived. He has gone to his rest and his reward,
and verily his works do follow him. That this humble
effort to spread the truth he lived only to proclaim may
assist some minds in their attempts to solve life's greatest
PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION.
5
problems, and that the exalted teachers in the higher life,
who have used the translator as an amanuensis for the
presentation of their thoughts in a new dress, may go with
all who shall read this volume, is the earnest hope and
desire of those spirits' willing instrument,
BOSTON, April, 1883.
W. J. COLVILLE.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS new work is one step more in advance in the
effects and applications of Spiritism. As its title indi-
cates, its object is the study of three points diversely com-
mented upon and interpreted even to this day, — “Gen-
esis, Miracles, and Prophesies" in their relations with the
recently known laws which are revealed through the obser-
vation of spiritual phenomena. Two elements, or we may
say two forces, govern the universe, the one the spir-
itual, the other the material, element. By the simultaneous
action of these two principles are developed some special
phenomena, which are naturally rendered inexplicable if
one abstracts either of them, just as the formation of
water would be inexplicable if one should take away one
of its two constituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen.
Spiritism, in demonstrating the existence of the spiritual
world and its relations with the material world, furnishes
the key to a multitude of unknown phenomena, which are
considered as inadmissible by a certain class of thinkers.
The record of such facts abounds in the Scriptures; and it
is in default of knowledge concerning the laws that govern
them that commentators of the two opposing parties, mov-
ing always in the same circle of ideas, some abstracting
7
K
8
INTRODUCTION.
positive gifts from science, others from the spiritual prin-
ciple, have not been able to arrive at any rational solu-
tion.
Mag
The solution is found only in the reciprocal action of
spirit and matter. It takes away, it is true, the greater
part of the supernatural character of these facts. But
which is the more valuable method, to admit them as
springing from the laws of nature, or to reject them
entirely? Their absolute rejection removes the base from
the edifice; while their admission as facts, suppressing
only accessories, leaves the base intact. This is why
Spiritism leads so many people to a belief in truths
which they formerly considered Utopian ideas. This work
is then, as we have said before, a complement of the
applications of Spiritism to this point of special view.
The materials were ready, or at least elaborated, a long
time since; but the moment for their publication had not
arrived. It was necessary at first that the ideas which
were to form the base should arrive at maturity; and,
moreover, it was necessary to take advantage of circum-
stances.
Spiritism has neither mysteries nor secret theories. It
can bear the full light of day so that every one can judge
of it by a knowledge of its laws; but every thing must
come in its own time in order to win its way. A solution
given lightly, prior to the complete elucidation of the ques-
tion, would be a retarding force, rather than a means of
advancement. In the matter in question the importance
of the subject makes it a duty to avoid all precipitation.
Before entering into the subject, it has appeared neces-
INTRODUCTION.
9
sary to us to define distinctly the respective rôles of spirits
and men according to the new doctrine. These prelimi-
nary considerations, which discard all ideas of mysticism,
form the subject of the first chapter, entitled "Character
of the Spiritual Revelation." We call serious attention to
this point, because it is in a measure the knot of the ques-
tion. Notwithstanding the work incumbent upon human
activity in the elaboration of this doctrine, the initiative
belongs to the spirits; but conclusions are drawn from the
personal opinion of no one of them. The truth can only
be the resultant of their collective and concordant teach-
ings. Without this united testimony, a doctrine could not
lawfully be called the doctrine of the spirits: it would
be merely that of one spirit, and would possess only the
value of a personal opinion. General concordance in
teaching is the essential character of the doctrine, the
condition even of its existence. It is evident that all prin-
ciples which have not received the consecration of general
agreement can only be considered as a fractional part of
this same doctrine, merely as a simple, isolated opinion
for which Spiritism cannot assume the responsibility. It
is the concordant, collective teaching of the spirits who
have passed beyond, which constitutes the logical cri-
terion, and which gives strength to the spiritual doctrine,
assuring to it perpetuity. In order to change it, it would
be necessary that the universal experience and teachings
of spirits should change, and the day come when they
would contradict what they have previously declared.
Since it has its source in the teachings of the spirits, to
cause it to fail would necessitate a cessation in the exist-
10
INTRODUCTION.
ence of the spirits. Thus established, it must prevail
over every personal system which has not, like it, roots
extending in all directions. "The Book of Spirits" has
seen its credit consolidate, because it is the expression
of a general collective thought. In the month of April,
1867, it accomplished its first decennial period. In this
interval, the fundamental principles which form its base
have been successively completed and developed by fol-
lowing progressive teachings of the spirits; but not one
of its declarations has received contradiction through
the trial. All without exception have remained firm,
stronger than ever; while, among all the contradictory
ideas with which persons have tried to oppose them, not
one has prevailed, because on all sides the spiritual teach-
ing was confirmatory. This characteristic result we can
proclaim without vanity, as its merit is not attributable to
us. Similar circumstances have presided at the editing
of our other works. Thus we have been able in all truth
to tell the public that they are in accordance with Spirit-
ism itself, owing to their conformity with the general
teachings of the spirits. In this volume we can present
under similar conditions the complement of the precedents,
with the exception, however, of some theories yet hypo-
thetical, which we have taken care to indicate as such, and
which ought not to be considered as other than individual
opinions until they have been confirmed. If they be con-
tradicted, the responsibility of them does not rest upon
the general doctrine. Yet the constant readers of the
"Revue" will have observed that most of the ideas only
1 Revue Spirite, a valuable French spiritist periodical.
INTRODUCTION.
11
outlined in preceding articles are enlarged upon and devel-
oped in this last work. TheRevue" is often for us a
trial-ground, destined to sound the opinions of men and
spirits upon certain principles, before admitting them as
constituent parts of the doctrine.
SOURCE OF GOODNESS AND WICKEDNESS. 85
one doctrine, the evil spirit, created good, became
evil; and God, in order to punish him, condemned
him to remain forever in a state of wickedness, with
permission to seduce men from the right path, and
lead them into an evil one. By one downward step
they merited the most cruel eternal punishment,
without hope of pardon. In this supposed divine
infliction there would have been more than a failure
in goodness: it would exhibit premeditated cruelty;
for, in order to render seduction more easy and better
to conceal the snare, Satan would be authorized to
transform himself into an angel of light, and to simu-
late the works of God so far as to be mistaken for
him by many. There would be, moreover, iniquity
and improvidence on the part of God; for all liberty
being given to Satan to go away from the empire of
darkness, and deliver himself to mundane pleasures,
in order to tempt men thereby, the instigator to
wickedness would be less punished than the victims.
of his plots, who should fall through weakness, since
once in the abyss the latter could never more escape
from it, God refusing them even a glass of water to
quench their thirst; and during all eternity he and
his angels hear their groanings without being moved
thereby, whilst he leaves Satan to take all the enjoy-
ment that he desires.
Of all doctrines upon the theory of evil, this is,
without exception, the most irrational and the most
destructive of all ideas of divinity. ("See Heaven
and Hell, according to Spiritism," chap. x., "The
Demons.") However, evil exists, and it has a cause.
Evil is of many kinds. There are, firstly, physical
and moral evils; then the evils that men can evade,
86
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
and those which are independent of human will.
Among the latter are classed natural plagues. Man,
whose faculties are limited, cannot compass or under-
stand all the designs of the Creator. He studies.
things at the point of view of his personality by arti-
ficial interests, and by conditions that he has created,
and which are not in the order of nature. That is
why he finds oftentimes wrong and injustice in that
which he would know to be just and admirable if he
could see its cause, its end, and definite results. In
seeking the reason for being and utility of every thing,
he will surely discover that all bears the imprint of
infinite wisdom, and he will bow before this wise
power even in things which he fails to comprehend.
Man has received a share of intelligence by which
he can avert, or at least greatly palliate, the effects
of all natural plagues. The more knowledge he
acquires, the farther he advances in civilization, the
less disastrous these plagues will be. With a wisely
provident social organization he will be able to neu-
tralize the consequences of them, and in time evade
them entirely. Thus for these plagues which annoy
us now, but which have their use in the general
order of nature, God has given to man, in the facul-
ties by which he has endowed his mind, the means
of paralyzing their effects in the future. It is thus
that he renders healthy insalubrious countries; that
he destroys pestilential miasmata; that he fertilizes.
waste lands, and taxes his ingenuity to preserve them
from inundation; that he constructs healthier habi-
tations, stronger to resist winds so necessary to puri-
fication of the atmosphere; that he is sheltered from
the inclemency of the weather. It is thus that neces-
SOURCE
source of GOODNESS AND WICKEDNESS. 87
sity has created science by the aid of which he
ameliorates the condition of the habitable parts of
the globe, and augments the general well-being. The
evils to which men are exposed by ignorance are a
stimulant for the exercise of their intelligence, for
all their moral and physical faculties, by inducing
them to seek for means to shelter themselves from
them. If man had nothing to fear, no necessity
would incline him to seek for any thing better: he
would become benumbed in the inactivity of his
mind; he would invent nothing and discover nothing.
Pain and suffering are the incentives which spur men.
onward in the march of progress. But the most
numerous evils are those which men create by their
own vices, those which spring from their pride,
from their egotism, from their ambition, from their
cupidity, from their excess in all things. They carry
in their train wars, calamities, dissensions, injustice,
oppression of the feeble by the strong, and induce
the greater part of diseases. God has established
laws full of wisdom, which are only for the good of
men. All that is necessary to man's welfare is his
obedience to them. His way is traced out for him by
his conscience. The divine law is graven upon his
heart. Moreover, God reminds him incessantly by
his messiahs and prophets, by all embodied spirits
who have received the mission of enlightening him,
of moralizing him, of ameliorating his condition,
and in these latter days by the multitude of disem-
bodied spirits who manifest on all sides, if man
conformed himself rigorously to the divine laws, he
would evade, without doubt, the severest evils, and would
live happily upon the earth.
88
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
If he does not obey them, it is by virtue of his free
will; and he must submit himself to the consequences.
But God, full of goodness, has placed the remedy by
the side of evil; that is to say, he brings good out of
its opposite. There comes a time where an excess
of moral wickedness becomes intolerable, and makes
man realize the need of a change of life. Instructed
by experience, he is impelled to seek a remedy in
goodness, always by the effect of his free will. When
he enters the better path, it is by the influence of his
own desire, and because he recognizes the inconveni-
ences of the other way. This necessity is a compul-
sion to improve himself morally, in view of being
happier. This brings with it the natural consequence
of bettering his material condition also. One can
say, that evil is the absence of good, as cold is the
absence of heat.
Wickedness is no more a distinct attribute than
cold is a special fluid. One is the negative of the
other. Where good exists not, there is necessarily
evil. Not to do wickedly is already the commence-
ment of good. God desires only good: from man
only comes evil. If there were in the universe a being
charged with evil, man would not be able to evade
him; but man, having the cause of wrong-doing within
himself, having at the same time his free will, and
for his guide the divine laws, he can avoid it if he
desires to do so. Let us take a common fact as a
comparison. A land-owner knows that at the ex-
tremity of his field is a dangerous place, and that
those who might venture there would be wounded,
or perish. What means does he employ to prevent
accidents? He places near the place a notice for-
-
SOURCE OF GOODNESS AND WICKEDNESS. 89
bidding people to pass there on account of danger.
Such is the law: it is wise and provident. If, not-
withstanding the warning, an imprudent person pays
no heed, and passes beyond it, thereby injuring
himself, whom can he blame if not himself? Thus
is it with all evils: man could evade them if he
would obey the divine laws. God, for example, has
placed a limit to the gratification of wants: man is
warned by satiety. If he passes beyond this limit,
he does it voluntarily. The illness, infirmities, and
death, which may be the consequence of it, are then
occasioned by his fault, and not that of God.
Wickedness being the result of the imperfections
of man, and man being created by God, will they
not say that God has at least created, if not evil, the
cause of evil? If he had made man perfect, evil
would not exist. If man had been created perfect,
he would be carried by fate in the way of goodness.
Now, by virtue of his free will, he is carried by fate
neither to the good nor bad; God having decreed
that he should submit to the law of progress, and that
this progress should be the fruit of his own labor, in
order that he should have the merit of it, as well as
be responsible for his evil deeds, which he can always
avoid by the use of his will. The question, then, is
to know what is in man the source of propensity to
evil. If one studies all the passions, and even all
vices, one sees that they have their origin in the
instinct of self-preservation. This instinct is strong-
est with animals, and with primitive men, who ap-
proached nearest the animal existence. It governed
them entirely, because they had not the moral sense
for a counterpoise, having not been born into the
90
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
intellectual life. The instinct is weakened in pro-
portion as intelligence is developed, because the lat-
ter rules matter.
With reason and knowledge is born freedom of
will, which man employs to his liking. Then alone
commences his responsibility for his acts. The spirit
is destined for the spiritual life: but in the first
phases of its corporeal existence it has only material
needs to satisfy; and to this end the exercise of
the passions is a necessity for the preservation of the
species and of the individual, materially speaking.
But, passed beyond this period, he has other needs,
-needs at first partly moral and partly material,
then exclusively moral. It is then that the spirit
rules matter. If he throws off the yoke, he advances
on his providential way; he approaches his final des-
tiny. If, on the contrary, he allows himself to be
ruled by the senses, he is retarded on his upward
progress by assimilating himself with the brute. In
this situation that which was formerly good, because it
was a necessity of his nature, becomes an evil, not only
because it is no more a necessity, but because it has be-
come hurtful to his spiritual well-being. Evil is thus
relative, and the responsibility therefor proportionate
to the degree of advancement. All passions have
thus their providential utility: if not so, God has
made some things intrinsically useless and hurtful.
It is only abuse which constitutes the evil, and man
abuses by virtue of his free will. At length, awakened
to the knowledge of his own share in it, he chooses
freely between the good and the bad.
Instinct and Intelligence. - What is the difference
between instinct and intelligence? Where does one
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE.
91
end, and the other commence? Is instinct a rudi-
mental intelligence or a distinct faculty, an exclu-
sive attribute of matter? Instinct is occult force,
which incites organic beings to spontaneous and in-
voluntary acts in relation to their conservation. In
instinctive acts there is neither reflection, contri-
vance, or premeditation. Thus the plant seeks air,
turns itself towards the light, directs its roots towards
water and the nutritious earth; the flower opens.
and closes its petals by turns, according to its needs;
climbing-plants wind themselves around supporters,
or cling to them by their tendrils. It is by instinct
animals are apprised of that which is useful or inju-
rious to them; that they are directed, according to
the season, towards propitious climates; that they
construct, without preliminary lessons, with more or
less art, according to species, soft places of rest and
of shelter for their progeny, machinery by which
they snare their prey by which they are nourished;
that they handle dexterously weapons of defence
with which they are provided; that the sexes are
brought together; that the mother broods over her
little ones, and that the latter seek the breast of the
mother. With man instinct rules at the outset of
life. It is by instinct the infant makes his first move-
ments, that he seizes his nourishment, that he cries.
to express his wants, that he imitates the sound of
the voice, that he tries to speak and to walk. With
the adult, even, certain acts are instinctive: such are
spontaneous movements to escape a danger, to remove
one's self from peril, to maintain one's equilibrium;
such are, also, the winking of the eyelids to temper
the brilliancy of the light, the mechanical opening
92
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of the mouth to breathe. Intelligence is revealed by
voluntary, reflective, premeditated, united actions,
according to the fitness of circumstances. It is in-
contestably an exclusive attribute of the soul.
All mechanical action is instinctive: that which de-
notes reflection and contrivance is intelligent. One
is free; the other is not. Instinct is a sure guide,
which never deceives; intelligence, solely because it
is unrestrained, is sometimes subject to error. If the
instinctive action has not the character of the intelli-
gent one, it reveals, nevertheless, an intelligent cause
essentially provident. If one admits that instinct
has its source in matter, it is necessary, also, to admit
that matter is intelligent, surely wiser and more.
foreseeing than soul, since instinct does not deceive,
whilst intelligence does. If one considers instinct to
be rudimental intelligence, why is it, in certain cases,
superior to reasoning intelligence, that it makes
possible the execution of things that the latter can-
not produce? If it is the attribute of a special
spiritual principle, what becomes of this principle?
When instinct is effaced, this principle must also
be destroyed. If animals are only endowed with
instinct, their future is without issue; their suffer-
ings have no compensation. This would be in con-
formity with neither the justice nor goodness of
God. According to another system, instinct and
intelligence have one and the same principle alone.
Having arrived at a certain degree of development,
this principle, which at first had only the qualities
of instinct, is subjected to a transformation which
imparts to it free intelligence. In a word, it receives
that which is termed the divine spark of knowledge.
g
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE.
93
This change is never sudden, but gradual, of such
a kind that during a certain period there must be a
mingling of the two aptitudes, the first diminishing
according as the other is augmented. Yet a last
hypothesis, which, however, is perfectly allied to
unity of principle, springs from the essentially provi-
dent character of instinct, and agrees with that which
Spiritism teaches us concerning the connection be-
tween the spiritual and corporal world.
One knows now that disembodied spirits have the
mission of watching over incarnated ones, of whom
they are the guides and protectors; that they sur-
round them with their liquid effluvia; that man acts
often in an unconscious manner under the influence
of these effluvia. One knows, beside, that instinct
itself, which produces actions without the aid of
reason, predominates in children, and in general with
those persons whose intellect is feeble. Now, ac-
cording to this hypothesis, instinct can neither be an
attribute of the soul nor of matter. It does not belong
properly to any living being, but must be the effect
of the direct action of invisible protectors, who supply
the deficiency to imperfect intelligence by inciting
them to necessarily unconscious actions for the pres-
ervation of life. It is like the leading-string by which
one supports the infant learning to walk; and, in the
same manner as one discontinues gradually the use
of the string in order that he may learn to stand
without help, the spirit-protectors leave their pro-
tégés to themselves when the latter can be guided by
their own intelligence. Thus instinct, far from
being the product of a rudimental and imperfect
intelligence, is ever the result of an unknown power
94
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
in the plenitude of its strength supplying knowl-
edge to a feebler understanding, impressing the
latter to act unconsciously for his own good in a way
impossible to him were it not for this impression ;
or it may be that a being of riper information, be-
coming temporarily trammelled in the use of his
powers, is ministered unto by this same wonderful
power, the first takes place with man in his in-
fancy, the second in cases of idiocy and mental affec-
tions. It has passed into a proverb that there is a
God for children, fools, and drunkards; for children,
fools, and drunkards are always kept from harm.
This belief is truer than one would think. This God
is none other than the spirit-protector who watches
over the one incapable of protecting himself by
his own reason. In this set of ideas one must go
still farther; for this theory, however rational it
may be, does not solve all the difficulties of the
question.
In order to find the causes, it is necessary to study
the effects; and by the nature of the effects one can
judge of the nature of the cause. If one observes
the effects of instinct, one remarks, in the first place,
a unity of view, and, as a whole, a certainty of re-
sults which exists no more when instinct is displaced
by free intelligence. Moreover, in the appropria-
tion of instinctive faculties, so certain and so con-
stant to the needs of every creature, one recognizes
a profound wisdom. This unity of sight could not
exist without a unity of thought; and, consequent-
ly, by the multiplicity of acting causes, or by follow-
ing the progress which is always accomplished by
individual intelligences, there is between them a
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE.
95
diversity of operation and of will wholly incompati-
ble with this so perfectly harmonious a unity, pro-
duced since the beginning of time, and in all places,
with a regularity and mathematical precision never
at fault. This uniformity in the result of instinctive
faculties is a fact which forcibly implies unity of
cause. If this cause were inherent in every individu-
ality, there would be as many varieties of instincts as
of individuals, from the plant to man. A general uni-
form and constant effect must have a general uniform
cause. An effect revealing wisdom and providence
must result from a wise and provident cause. A
wise and provident cause, being necessarily intelli-
gent, cannot be exclusively material; and as we find
not in created beings, embodied or disembodied, the
necessary qualities to produce such a result, it is
necessary to go higher, that is, to the Creator him-
self. The reader is referred to the explanation given
of the means whereby one can conceive of providen-
tial action (chap. II.).
If one imagines to himself all beings permeated
with the divine effluence severally intelligent, he
will comprehend the provident wisdom and unity
of sight which presides in all the instinctive move-
ments conducing to the good of each individual.
This solicitude is so much the more active as the
individual has fewer resources within himself, due to
his possession of intelligence. This is why it shows
itself in a greater and more absolute degree in ani-
mals than in men. In the light of this theory one
understands that instinct is always a sure guide, the
maternal instinct, the noblest of all; that which ma-
terialism lowers to the level of attractive forces of
96
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
matter, finds itself re-enthroned and ennobled. Rea-
son readily perceives that it is not desirable that it
should be delivered over to the capricious action of
that intelligence known as free will.
Through the maternal organism God himself
watches over his newly born creatures. This the-
ory, however, does not destroy the rôle of the spirit-
protectors, whose concurrence is a fact proved by
experience; but it is necessary to remark, that the
action of the latter is essentially individual, that it
is modified by the qualities proper to the protector
and his charge, and that it never has the uniformity
and generality of instinct. God, in his wisdom, him-
self conducts the blind; but he leaves to free intel-
ligence the work of guiding clear-seeing ones, that
each may be responsible for his own acts. The mis-
sion of the spirit-protector is a duty voluntarily ac-
cepted, and which is for the guardian spirits a means
of advancement according to the manner in which
they fulfil it. All these analyses of instinct are
necessarily hypothetical, and no one of them is suf-
ficiently authentic in character to be given as a defi-
nite solution. The question will certainly be solved
some day, when man will have attained to a power
of observation revealing truths yet beyond our grasp.
Until then it is necessary to submit these diverse
opinions to the crucible of reason and logic, and
wait until more light breaks. The solution which
approaches the nearest to the truth will be neces-
sarily that which harmonizes the best with the attri-
butes of God; that is to say, to sovereign goodness
and justice (see chap. II., p. 24), instinct being an
unerring guide. When spirits resort to outward intel-
S
INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE.
97
ligence in the primary periods of their development,
they are confounded sometimes by effects, and, above
all, by the human language, which does not always
lend itself with sufficient amplitude to all the vary-
ing shades of thought.
There is, however, between these two principles a
difference which it is necessary to consider. Instinct
is a sure guide, and always a good one. At a given
time it may become useless, but never hurtful. It is
weakened by the predominance of intelligence. The
passions in the first expressions of the soul have this
in common with instinct, that they are guided by an
equally involuntary force. They are born more par-
ticularly to supply the needs of the body, and depend
more than instinct upon the organism. That which
distinguishes them above all else from instinct is
that they are individual, and do not produce, as
does instinct, general and uniform effects. We see
them, on the contrary, varied in intensity of nature
according to individual development. They are use-
ful as stimulants; that is, until the awakening of the
moral sense, which, in the case of a passive being,
transforms him into a rational being. From this
moment they become not only useless, but hurtful,
to the development of the spirit, whose upward prog-
ress they retard: they are weakened by the develop-
ment of reason.
The man who would constantly act instinctively
might be very good, but would let his intelligence
sleep. He would be like the child who would not
quit his leading-strings, refusing to use his limbs.
He who masters not his passions can be very intelli-
gent, but at the same time very impure. Instinct
98
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
annihilates itself: the passions are governed only by
the effort of the will. All men have passed through
the crucible of the passions. Those who are troubled
by them no more, who are by nature neither proud,
ambitious, egotistical, vindictive, cruel, choleric, sen-
sual, who do good without effort, without premedita-
tion, that is to say, involuntarily, are they who
have progressed through a succession of anterior
existences: they are purged of the dross. It is wrong
to say that they are less meritorious in doing good
than those who are yet battling with their earthly
tendencies. For them victory is accomplished; for
the others it has not yet been achieved, and, when
it is, they will be like these others. In their turn
they will do good without effort, like children who
read fluently without being obliged to spell the
words. They are like two invalids, the one of
whom is cured, and full of strength; while the other
is yet only convalescent, and walks with uncertain
footing. They are indeed like two runners, of whom
one is nearer the goal than the other.
The Destruction of Living Beings by One Another.
-The reciprocal destruction of living beings by one
another is a law of nature which, at first sight, seems
in no way reconcilable with the goodness of God.
One asks why he has made it necessary for them to
nourish themselves by destroying each other. For
him who sees things only in a material light, whose
vision is limited to the present life, this appears indeed
an imperfection in the divine plan. This conclusion
is drawn by some, that God being imperfect is no more
God. It is because they judge of divine perfection
from their point of view. Their own judgment is their
-
g
THE DESTRUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 99
measure of his wisdom, and they think that God does
not know as well as themselves. Their short-sight-
edness not permitting them to judge of the whole,
they do not comprehend how a real good can result.
from an apparent evil. The knowledge of the spirit-
ual principle, considered in its veritable essence and
by the grand law of unity which constitutes the full
harmony of the universe, can alone give to man the
key to this mystery, and show to him the providen-
tial wisdom and harmony precisely where he saw
only an anomaly and contradiction. It is of this
truth as of a crowd of others. Man is capable of
sounding certain depths only when his spirit has
arrived at a sufficient degree of maturity. The true
life, of the animal as well as of man, is no more in
the body than it is in the clothing: it is in the intel-
ligent principle that pre-exists and survives the body.
This principle has need of a body in order to develop
itself by the work of controlling brute matter. The
body is employed in this work: but the spirit is not
thereby injured; on the contrary, it comes out of
the strife every time stronger, more lucid, and more
capable. What matters it that the spirit changes
more or less frequently its envelope? It is no less
a spirit. It is absolutely as though a man should
renew his habiliments a hundred times a year: he
would still be the same man. By the constant spec-
tacle of destruction, God teaches men of how little
worth is the material envelope, and excites in them
the idea of the spiritual life by making them desire
it as a compensation. But some will say, Could not
God arrive at the same result by other means, with-
out obliging living beings to destroy each other?
100
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Very bold must he be who would pretend to pene-
trate the designs of the Infinite. If all is wisdom in
his works, we ought to suppose that his wisdom is no
more defective in this particular than in any other.
If we cannot comprehend it, it is necessary to ascribe
the seeming folly to our lack of advancement. Each
time we can try to seek the reason by taking this for
our watchword: God must be infinitely just and wise.
Let us, then, seek for his justice and wisdom in all
things, and let us bow before that which surpasses
our understanding.
The first reason which presents itself for this de-
struction a purely physical utility, it is true is
this: organic bodies are supported only by the aid
of organic matter, this matter containing alone the
nutritive elements necessary to their sustentation.
The bodies, which are instruments of action for the
intelligent principle, having need of incessant reno-
vation, Providence makes them serve for their mutual
support. That is why beings are nourished by one
another. It is thus that body is nourished by body :
but the spirit is not changed; it is only despoiled of
its envelope. This is outside of moral considerations
of a more elevated order. The battle is necessary to
the development of the spirit. It is in battle that it
exercises its faculties.
He who attacks another that he may nourish him-
self, and he who defends himself to preserve his life,
making an assault upon intelligence, thereby aug-
ments his own intellectual strength. As he must
contend against stratagem, displaying intelligence,
thereby both augment their intellectual force. One of
the two succumbs. But what is it that the stronger
nou
THE DESTRUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS.
101
or more adroit has in reality taken away from the
feebler? His vestment of flesh, — nothing else. The
spirit, which is not dead, will take another body.
With inferior beings in creation, with those in whom
the moral sense does not exist, where instinct has not
been replaced by intelligence, the struggle would have
for incentive only the satisfaction of a material neces
sity. Now, one of the most imperious physical needs
is that of food. They struggle, then, only to sustain
life; that is to say, to seize prey, or to defend them-
selves from attack: for they cannot be actuated by a
more elevated object. It is in this. first period that
the soul is elaborated and tried by the vicissitudes
of life.
4
When it has attained the degree of maturity neces-
sary for its transformation, it receives from God new
faculties, free will and moral sense; in a word,
the divine spark which gives a new course to ideas,
endowing spirits with new aptitudes and new per-
ceptions. But the new moral faculties are only
developed gradually; for there is nothing abrupt in
nature. There is a period of transition where man is
scarcely distinguishable from the brute. In the first
periods of his existence animal instincts rule; and the
battle has still for its incentive the satisfaction of
material wants. Later, t animal instinct and moral
sentiment are counterbalanced. Then struggles are
no more for nourishment, but for the satisfaction of
ambition, pride, and love of dominion; and it is
necessary to destroy these also. But, accordingly as
the moral sense gains ascendency, moral sensibility
becomes developed: the desire to destroy diminishes;
at length it becomes effaced and odious to him.
102
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Man has a horror of blood. However, a struggle
is always necessary to the development of the spirit.
After having arrived at a point which appears to us
the culminating one, he is far from perfect. It is
only at the price of activity he acquires knowledge
by experience, and as he is despoiled of the last ves-
tiges of animality; but then the effort, no longer
brutal and bloody as it formerly was, becomes purely
intellectual. Man struggles against difficulties, but
no more with beings of his own species.¹
on.
1 This question is attached to the no less grave one of the con-
nection between animals and humanity, which will be treated later
We have only sought to demonstrate by this explanation, that
the destruction of living beings by one another detracts nothing
from divine wisdom, and that all this is necessary in the grand
chain of nature's laws. This chain is necessarily broken if one
abstracts from it the spiritual principle. This is why so many ques-
tions are insolvable if one considers them materially, or from a
material stand-point.
{
CHAPTER IV.
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS.
THE history of the origin of nearly all ancient
nations is mingled with that of their religion: that is
why their first books have been religious works; and
as all religions are allied to the spirit of things, which
is allied to that of humanity, they have founded upon
the arrangement and formation of the universe ex-
planations limited by the knowledge of the times,
and the founders of their systems. The result is, that
the first religious books have been the first scientific
treatises, as they have also been the only code of civil
laws. Religion was then a powerful rein in govern-
ment. The people bent willingly under the invisible.
power by the name of which they were subjugated,
and from whom the government was said to have
received and to hold its power. If they would not
obey their equals, they would bend to this power.
In order to give greater force to religion, it was
necessary to present it as absolute, infallible, and
immutable, without which it would have lost its
ascendency over beings well-nigh brutal and scarcely
endowed with reason. It was not necessary that it
should be discussed, any more than were the orders of
a sovereign. With this condition of the human mind,
the principle of blind belief and passive obedience
103
104
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
had its origin and utility. The veneration they had
for sacred books, nearly always looked upon as reve-
lations from heaven or as inspired by divinity, for-
bade all criticism. In primitive times, means of
observation being very imperfect, the first theories.
upon the system of the universe were stained with
grave errors; but, if opportunities for investigation.
had been as complete as they are to-day, men would
not have known how to take advantage of them.
They could only be the fruit of successive develop-
ments, and repeated studies of the laws of nature.
By measure, as man has advanced in the knowledge
of these laws, he has penetrated the mysteries of
nature, and rectified ideas which he had conceived
concerning the origin of things. It is the same as
learning and defining the correlative movements of
the hands of a clock. It is necessary to know the
laws controlling its mechanism; that is, to appreciate
the nature of its works, and calculate the power of
its agitating forces. To comprehend the mechanism
it is necessary to be familiar with all the laws which
set in motion the complex whole.
Man has been impotent to solve the problem of
creation until science has given him the key to it.
It has been necessary that astronomy should open
the doors of boundless space, and permit him to gaze
into its infinite depths, that by the power of calcula-
tion he could determine with rigorous precision the
movement, the position, the volume, the nature, and
the role of the celestial bodies; that natural philoso-
phy should reveal to him the laws of gravitation, of
heat, of light, and of electricity, the power of these
agents over entire nature, and the cause of the innu-
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS. 105
merable phenomena which result from it; that chem-
istry should teach of the transformations of metal, and
mineralogy of the materials which form the surface
of the globe; that geology should teach man to read
in terrestrial beds the gradual formation of this
same globe; and that botany, zoology, paleontology,
anthropology, should come to initiate him into the
science of the affiliation and succession of organized
beings. By the aid of archæology he has been able
to trace the progress of humanity through the ages.
All sciences, in a word, complete one another: they
carry their indispensable contingent for the knowl-
edge of the history of the world. Without them man
would have for his guide only his first hypotheses.
Before man was in possession of these means of
investigation, all commentators on Genesis whose
reason rebelled at material impossibilities, continued
to revolve in the same circle of ideas, with no power
to depart from them. Science has come to the rescue
by attacking the old edifice of belief, opening a way
whereby the whole aspect has changed entirely.
Once the conducting thread is found, the difficulties
are promptly met. In place of an imaginary Genesis,
we have a positive, and in some respects an experi-
mental, Genesis. The field of the universe is ex-
tended into the infinite. We behold the earth and
the stars form themselves gradually in obedience to
the eternal and immutable law, which testifies far
more fully to the grandeur of the Deity than a
miraculous creation suddenly originating from noth-
ing by a sudden act of divinity after ages of inaction.
Since it is impossible to comprehend Genesis with-
out the help of science, one can say most truthfully
106
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
that it is she who has been elected to constitute
the true Genesis according to the laws of nature.
Have we reached in this nineteenth century a suffi-
cient power of scientific attainment to solve all the
difficulties of the problem of Genesis? No, assuredly
not; but one thing is certain, that all the principal
errors are destroyed, and the most essential foun-
dation laid for undeniable principles. The yet un-
certain points are, properly speaking, only minute
portions, which, whatever the future may bring forth,
cannot impair the whole. Notwithstanding all the
resources of which it has been able to avail itself,
there is an important element still wanting, without
which the work can never be complete.
1
Of all ancient histories of the creation of the
world and the human race, that which approaches
nearest to modern scientific revelation, notwithstand-
ing the errors which it contains, some of the latter
being now distinctly pointed out by the finger of
science, is incontestably that of Moses. Some of
these errors are such more in appearance than in
reality, as they spring from false interpretation of
certain words, whose primitive signification is lost
as they pass from language to language by means of
translation into different tongues, or whose meaning
is changed with the customs of the nations, particu-
larly the allegorical form peculiar to the Oriental
style, of which the literal sense was taken, to the
exclusion of the spiritual. The Bible contains state-
ments that our reason, which has been developed by
science, will not allow us to accept; and also others
which seem strange and repugnant to us, because con-
nected with customs which are not ours. But, not-
-
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS. 107
withstanding this, it would be wrong not to recognize
the grand and beautiful thoughts which it contains.
Allegory holds a conspicuous place in it, and under
its veil conceals sublime truths, which appear, if
one seeks for them, in the foundations of the ideas
contained in them. Why has this veil not been
sooner lifted? On one side it has been for the want
of light which science and a healthy philosophy
alone could give, and, on the other, the belief in the
absolute immutability of a creed, consequent upon
a too blind respect for the letter, to which reason
bent blindly, fearing that science might not accord
with the lattice-work of beliefs which were built
upon their literal sense.
On account of the antiquity of these beliefs, it
has been feared, that, if the first ring of the chain
should be broken, all the meshes of the network
would at length separate. Commentators, there-
fore, have shut their eyes when doubts arose; but
we cannot evade danger by shutting our eyes to it.
When a building totters, is it not more prudent to
immediately replace defective stones by good ones,
rather than to wait out of respect for the age of the
edifice until there is no remedy for the evil other
than its reconstruction from the foundation? In
pursuing our investigations, even into the bowels of
the earth, and into the blue depths of the sky above
us, science has demonstrated in an undeniable man-
ner the errors of the Mosaic Genesis taken in its
literal sense, and the material impossibility of things
having taken place literally as they are there repre-
sented to have done. It has thus given severe
shocks to some ancient doctrines. The orthodox
108
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
C
faith is disturbed: it believes that its very corner-
stone is removed by the adoption of these new ideas.
But which is most likely to be right, Science march-
ing prudently and progressively over the solid ground
of figures and observation, without affirming any
thing before the proof of it is at hand, or History
written at an epoch when means of observation were
absolutely lacking? Should we believe the person
who affirms that two and two make five, and refuses
to verify it, or he who says two and two make four,
and proves it?
But then it is objected, if the Bible is a divine
revelation from God, how can it contain mistakes?
while, if it be not a divine revelation, then has it no
authority? Religious beliefs may thus be destroyed
for want of a foundation. It must be one thing or
the other: either Science is wrong, or Theology is
right. If Theology is right, then an opinion contrary
to hers cannot be a true one. There is no revelation
superior to the authority of facts. If God, who is
truth, could seduce men from the path of rectitude
either knowingly or unconsciously, he would no
more be God. If, then, facts contradict the words
which are attributed to him, the logical conclusion is,
that he has not pronounced them, or that they have
been misconstrued. If Religion suffers in some re-
spects by these contradictions, the wrong must not
be ascribed to Science, which cannot agree with
unreasonable statements, but to men for having
prematurely founded absolute dogmas, which have
been made a question of life and death, upon hypoth-
eses susceptible of being overthrown by experience.
We must resign ourselves to the sacrifice of some
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS. 109
things, whether we desire to or not: we cannot do
otherwise. As the world progresses, the will of a
few persons cannot arrest it in its onward march.
The wiser way is to follow it, and accommodate our-
selves to the new state of things, rather than to
cling to old beliefs which are crumbling to pieces,
at the risk of falling with them. Were it desirable
to impose silence upon Science out of respect to
texts of Scripture regarded as sacred, it would be as
impossible to do so as to stop the movement of the
earth. No religious systems have ever gained any
thing by sustaining manifest errors. The mission
of Science is to discover the laws of nature. Now,
as these laws are the work of God, they cannot be
contrary to religions founded upon truth. Religion
accomplishes its mission by means of these same
principles; and, as a natural consequence, human in-
telligence is developed, which is also a divine work,
advancing only with the permission of God by vir-
tue of progressive laws which he has established.
To hurl anathemas at progress, calling it a hinder-
ance to religion, is to go contrary to the will of God.
There is scarcely any thing so useless; for all the
anathemas in the world will not hinder Science in
her progressive work of bringing truth to light.
If Religion refuses to accompany Science, she is left
alone. Stationary religions can alone dread scien-
tific discoveries. Scientific truths are only destruc-
tive to the systems of those who allow themselves
to be distanced by progressive ideas by wrapping
themselves in the absolutism of old beliefs. These
persons have such a narrow idea of divinity, that
they do not comprehend that to assimilate them-
110 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
=
selves with the laws of nature revealed by Science
is to glorify God in his works; but in their blindness
they prefer to do homage to the spirit of evil.
A religion which would be in no one point contradic-
tory to the laws of nature would have nothing to fear
from progress, and would be invulnerable. Genesis
comprises two divisions, the history of the formation
of the material world, and that of humanity in its
dual (corporal and spiritual) principle. Science is
limited in its researches by laws which rule matter.
In dealing with man it has ever studied only his
bodily envelope. And concerning this it has been
enabled to give an account with incontestable pre-
cision of the principle parts of the mechanism of the
universe and of the human organism. This impor-
tant point attained, it has been further able to
complete the Genesis of Moses, and to rectify the
defective parts of it. But the history of man, con-
sidered as a spiritual being, is attached to a special
order of ideas, which is not, properly speaking, in
the domain of science, and which the latter, for this
reason, has not made the subject of its investigations.
It belongs more particularly to philosophy, which
has formulated upon this point only contradictory
systems, from genuine spirituality to the denial of
the spiritual principle, and even of God, without
other foundation than the personal ideas of human
authors. It has thus left the question undecided for
want of sufficient light to answer it. This, however,
is the most important question for man; for it is the
problem of his past and future: that of the material
world touches it only indirectly. It is the most im-
portant of all knowledge to learn of man's origin,
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS.
111
what becomes of him, if he has lived before, if he
will continue to live on forever, and what end is in
store for him.
Upon all these questions science is mute. Phi-
losophy gives opinions only, and these often diamet-
rically opposed to each other; but at least she permits
such questions to be discussed, which induces many
people to range themselves on her side in preference
to that of dogmatic theology, which allows of no dis-
cussion on the subject. All religions are in accord
with each other in the acknowledgment of such first
principles as the existence of the soul, at the same.
time not demonstrating it. They agree neither in
belief concerning its origin, its past history, or its
future destiny, and above all, in that which is the
most essential, the conditions upon which its future
happiness depends. The greater part of them accept
pictures of the future imposed on them by the belief
of their adepts, which can be supported only by
blind faith, unable to endure a serious examination;
the destiny which they accord to the soul being
allied in their dogmas to ideas of the material world,
and the mechanism of the universe universally enter-
tained in primitive times, irreconcilable with the
actual state of knowledge. Being able to lose only
by examination and discussion, their devotees deem
it better to proscribe both.
From these different faiths touching the future of
man, doubts and incredulity arise. It is not possible
that it should be otherwise. Every religion pretend-
ing to possess in exclusive measure all the truth,
without making sufficiently powerful assertions to
convince the majority, has left man in indecision
112 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
regarding it. However, incredulity leaves a painful.
void. Man regards with anxiety the unknown future
upon which he must sooner or later enter. The idea
of nonentity chills him. His conscience says to him,
that beyond the present there is something for him :
but what? His developed reason forbids him any
longer to accept the histories which have quieted his
early days, which have put conscience to sleep by
his taking the allegory for a reality. What is the
meaning of this allegory? Science has torn away
the corner of the veil; but she has not revealed that
which it is most important for man to know. He
interrogates her, but in vain: she answers nothing in
a convincing way to calm his apprehensions. He
finds everywhere affirmation hurling itself against
negation, without more positive proofs on one side
than on the other. Incertitude concerning things of
the future life has made many men reject the duties
of the material life with a kind of frenzy. Such is
the inevitable effect in transitional epochs. The edi-
fice of the past is crumbling away, and that of the
future is not yet constructed. Man is like a lad who
has lost the innocent belief of his earliest years, and
has not yet obtained the knowledge of a riper age:
he has only vague aspirations, which he knows not
how to define. If the spiritual question regarding
man has remained till our day in a theoretical condi-
tion, it is because direct means of observation have
failed to establish the material theory of the world,
and the field has remained open to the varying con-
ceptions of the human mind; while man has not
known the laws which rule matter, and has not been
able to apply the experimental method, he has erred
THE SCIENTIFIC NOTE IN GENESIS. 113
from system to system concerning the mechanism of
the universe and the formation of the earth. It has
been in the moral as in the physical order of things:
in the attempt to establish ideas, men have failed in
the essential element, -the knowledge of the laws
of the spiritual principle.
This knowledge was reserved for our epoch, as
the discovery of the laws of matter has been the
work of the two last centuries. Until now the study
of the spiritual principle (the study of metaphysics)
has been purely speculative and theoretic. In Spirit-
ism it is all experimental. By the aid of the medi-
animic faculty, more developed in our day, far
more generalized and better studied, man is found
possessed of a new instrument of observation. Me-
diumship has been for the spiritual world that which
the telescope has been for the astral, and the micro-
scope for the world of infinitesimalities. It has al-
lowed exploration of it, study, and one might say
vision, of its connection with the corporeal world,
- of the distinction in the living man between the
intelligent and the material being; for they can now
be seen to act separately. Once in relation with the
inhabitants of the spirit-world, one has been able to
follow the soul in its ascending march, in its mi-
grations, in its transformations. At length the study
of the spiritual element is made practical: this was
wanting to all preceding commentators on Genesis ;
thus their inability to comprehend it, and to rectify
its errors. The spiritual and material worlds, being
in constant contact, are inseparable from each other.
Both have their part to play in Genesis. Without
the knowledge of laws which rule the former, it is as
114 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
impossible to create a complete Genesis as it would
be for a sculptor to give life to a statue. At this
day only, though neither material nor spiritual sci
ence has said its last word, man possesses the two
necessary elements to throw light upon this immense
problem. These two keys are necessary in order to
arrive at even an approximate solution. As to the
perfect solution, it may never be given to man to find
it upon the earth, as there are some things which
must ever appear to us as secrets with God.
CHAPTER V.
SYSTEMS OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD.
THE first idea that man forms of the earth, of the
movements of the stars, and of the constitution of
the universe, must be, in the commencement of his
observations, entirely based upon the testimony of
the senses. In his ignorance of the most elementary
laws of physics, and of the forces of nature, having
only his limited sight as a means of observation, he
was able to judge only by appearances. As he be-
held the sun appear in the morning outside of the
horizon, and disappear in the evening on the other
side, he naturally concluded that it revolved around
the earth, whilst the latter remained stationary. If
it had been suggested to him that the contrary was
the truth, he would have replied that that was impos-
sible;
for would he not have declared that we see the
sun change its position, and we do not feel the earth
move? The few facts known then by voyagers,
whose journeys exceeded rarely the limits of their
tribe or of the valley in which they dwelt, would
not permit of their establishing the sphericity of the
earth. In what way could they arrive at the con-
clusion that the earth is a ball? Men would not
have been able to support this assertion; and, in
supposing it inhabited on all its surface, how would
115
116
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
they have supposed it possible to live in opposite.
hemispheres, the head down and feet up? The fact
would have appeared less possible when the rotary
movement of the globe should have been explained.
When one sees in our day, when the law of gravita-
tion is known, people relatively enlightened, unable
to give an account of this phenomenon, is it as-
tonishing that men in the early ages had not even
suspected it? The earth to them was a flat surface,
circular as a millstone, extending out of sight in
the far horizon: hence arose the saying yet in use,
Going to the end of the world." Its limits, its
thickness, its interior, its interior surface, that which
was beneath them, was unknown to them.1
66
The heavens appearing to be concave in form,
constituted, according to common belief, a real vault,
the lower borders of which rested on the earth,
and marked the end of it, a vast dome, the space
1 Hindoo mythology taught that the sun was "divested in the
evening of its light, and traversed the sky during the night with
face obscured. Greek mythology represented the car of Apollo as
drawn by four horses. Anaximander of Miletus maintained in con-
cord with Plutarch, that the sun was a chariot filled with a very
brilliant fire, which escaped through a circular opening. Epicurus
gave as his opinion that the sun was lighted in the morning, and
extinguished at night in the waters of the ocean. Others thought
that it was made of pumice-stone heated to a state of incandescence.
Anaxagoras regarded it as a heated iron of the magnitude of the
Peloponnesus. Strange to relate, the ancients were so invincibly
determined to consider the apparent size of this body as real, that
they persecuted this rash philosopher for having attributed such
magnitude to the torch of day, that Pericles was obliged to exercise
all the power of his authority to save him from condemnation to
death, and commute the latter to a sentence of exile." (Flamma-
rion: Studies and Lectures upon Astronomy, p. 6.) If they held
such ideas in the fifth century, before the Christian Era, in the most
flourishing times of Greece, we cannot be astonished at those enter-
tained by men in earlier times on the system of the universe.
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD. 117
of which was filled with air. With no idea of the
infinity of space, incapable even of conceiving it,
men imagined this vault formed of solid matter;
whence the name of “firmament" which has survived
such a belief, and which signifies firm, enduring
(from the Latin firma mentum, derived from firmus,
"firm," and from the Greek herma, hermatos, a prop,
or supporter, or fulcrum). The stars, of the nature
of which they had no suspicions, were to them simply
luminous points, small and large, attached to the
vault like suspended lamps, disposed on one surface
only, consequently all at the same distance from
the earth, in the manner in which they are repre-
sented in the interior of certain cupolas, which are
painted blue in imitation of the azure hue of the sky.
Although to-day ideas are changed, the usage of the
ancient expressions is retained. We say yet, for ex-
ample, "the starry vault; ""under heaven's arch."
The formation of clouds by the evaporation of the
waters of the earth was then equally unknown.
They did not suspect that the rain which falls from
the sky arose in vapor from the earth; for they did
not see the water arise. Whence the belief in large
and small bodies of water from celestial and terres-
trial sources, from reservoirs situated in lofty regions,
a supposition which accorded perfectly with the
idea of a solid vault capable of maintaining them.
The larger bodies of water, escaping through fis-
sures in the sky, fell in rain; and the rain fell gently
or came in torrents, according to the size of these
openings. The complete ignorance of the whole uni-
verse, and of the laws which rule it, of the nature,
constitution, and destination of the stars, which
118 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
seemed, besides, so small compared with the earth,
would necessarily make the latter to be considered
as the principal object in creation, and the stars as
accessories created solely to give light to its inhabit-
ants. These prejudices are cherished by some at
this day. Many people believe still that the stars
are ornaments of the sky, placed there to please the
eye of man. They delayed not to perceive the appar-
ent movement of the stars in a body from east to west,
rising in the evening, and going down in the morning,
preserving their respective positions. This observa-
tion had for a long time no other result than that of
confirming the idea of a solid vault carrying the stars
along in its rotary movement. These first simple ideas
have made, during long secular periods, the foundation
of religious beliefs, and have served as a base for all
ancient cosmogonies. Later they discovered, by the
direction of the movement of the stars, and their
periodical return in the same order, that the celestial
vault could not be simply a hemisphere resting upon
the earth, but a hollow sphere, in the centre of which
was the earth, flat at the utmost convex, and inhabited
only upon its upper surface. This was a progressive
idea. But upon what rested the earth? It would
be useless to relate all the ridiculous suppositions.
born of the imagination. That of the Indians, who
declared it was supported by four white elephants,
the latter standing on the wings of a vulture, is suf-
ficient for an example. Wise people avowed that
they knew nothing about it. However, a general
opinion, extending into pagan theogonies, appointed
the lower place, otherwise called the depths of the
earth, or under it, they knew not much about it,
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD. 119
for the sojourn of the reprobates, and called it hell;
and in celestial heights, beyond the region of the
stars, they fixed the home of the blessed. The word
"hell" is now used, although it should have lost
its etymological signification, since geology has dis-
lodged the place of eternal sorrow from the centre
of the earth, and astronomy demonstrated that there
are neither upper nor lower directions in space.
Under the clear sky of Chaldea, India, and Egypt
(cradle of the most antique civilization), one could
observe the movement of the stars with as much
precision as the absence of special instruments per-
mitted. They saw at first that certain stars had a
movement of their own independent of the rest,
which caused them to no longer believe that they
were attached to the vault. They called them wan-
dering stars or planets, in order to distinguish them
from fixed stars. They calculated their movements
and periodical returns.
In the diurnal movement of the starry spheres
they observed the immovableness of the polar star,
around which the others described, in twenty-four
hours, oblique or parallel circles, smaller or greater,
according to their distance from the central star.
This was the first step towards the knowledge of the
obliquity of the world's axis. Moreover, long voy-
ages enabled them to observe the change of aspect in
the sky according to latitudes and seasons. The ele-
vation of the polar star above the horizon varying
with the latitude, suggested the idea of the roundness
of the earth. Thus little by little they arrived at
more accurate ideas of the system of the world.
Towards the year 600 before Jesus Christ, Thales of
120
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Miletus, Asia Minor, became convinced of the sphe-
ricity of the earth, the obliquity of the ecliptic, and
the cause of the eclipses. A century later Pythago-
ras of Samos discovered the diurnal movement of the
earth upon its axis, its annual movement around
the sun, and connected the planets and comets to
the solar system. One hundred and sixty years
before Jesus Christ, Hipparchus of Alexandria, Egypt,
invented the astrolabe, calculated and predicted the
eclipses, observed the spots on the sun, ascertained
the tropical year and the duration of the revolutions
of the moon. However precious these discoveries
were for the progress of science, they were nearly
two thousand years in becoming popularized.
These new ideas, having then as a means of diffu-
sion only a few rare manuscripts, which remained
in the possession of some philosophers who taught
them to privileged disciples, the masses of the
people, whom they dreamed not of enlightening,
profited nothing by them, but continued to cherish
old beliefs. Towards the year 140 of the Christian
Era, Ptolemy, one of the most illustrious men of the
Alexandrian school, combining his own ideas with
common beliefs, and a few of the more recent astro-
nomical discoveries, composed a system, which one
can call a compound of beliefs, which took his name,
and during a period of nearly fifteen centuries was
solely adopted in the civilized world. According to
the theory of Ptolemy, the earth is a sphere in the
centre of the universe, and is composed of four ele-
ments, earth, water, air, and fire. This is the first
region, called "elementary." The second, called “the
ethereal," comprised eleven heavens, or concentric.
—
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD. 121
spheres, turning around the earth; viz., that of the
moon, those of Mercury, Venus, of the sun, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, of the fixed stars, of the first crys-
talline heaven (a solid transparent sphere), of the
second crystalline sphere, and at last of the outer
circle, of primitive mobility, which, by its motion,
was supposed to carry around all those within it,
causing them to make a revolution every twenty-four
hours. Beyond these eleven spheres was the empyr-
ean, or highest sphere, "abode of the blessed," thus
named from the Greek pyr or pur, which signifies
"fire," because they believed this region to be re-
splendent with light like fire. The belief in many
superposed heavens or spheres has prevailed for a
long time; but they varied in regard to number.
The seventh was generally regarded as the high-
est, whence the expression, "To be carried to the
seventh heaven." St. Paul said that he had been
elevated to the third heaven. Independent of the
general motion, the stars had, according to Ptolemy,
some particular movements of their own, greater or
less according to their distance from the centre.
The fixed stars made a revolution in 25,816 years.
This last computation denotes knowledge of the
precession of the equinoxes, which is actually accom-
plished in about 25,000 years. At the commence-
ment of the sixteenth century, Copernicus, a cele-
brated astronomer, born at Thorn, Prussia, in 1472,
and who died in 1543, reproduced the ideas of Py-
thagoras. He published a system which, confirmed
each day by new observations, was favorably received,
and was not long in proving that of Ptolemy to be
unreliable.
122 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
According to this system, the sun is the centre;
the planets describe circular orbs around this body
of light; the moon is a satellite of the earth. A
century later, in 1609, Galileo, born at Florence,
invented the telescope. In 1610 he discovered the
four satellites of Jupiter, and calculated their revo-
lutions. He recognized that the planets have no
light like the stars, but that they receive light from
the sun; that they are spheres similar to the earth.
He observed their phases, and determined the dura-
tion of their rotation upon their axes.
He thus gave,
by material proofs, a definite sanction to the system
of Copernicus. From this period the belief in super-
posed heavens was extinguished. The planets were
recognized as worlds similar to the earth, and like
it, without doubt, inhabited. The sun was believed
to be a star, and the centre around which the
planets, which are subject to it, revolve. The stars.
are innumerable suns, probable centres of as many
planetary systems. The stars are no more confined
to a zone of the celestial sphere, but are irregularly
disseminated in limitless space. Those which appear
to touch each other are immeasurable distances apart.
The smallest, in appearance, are the farthest from
us; the largest, those which are nearest, are hundreds
of thousand millions of miles distant from us. The
groups which have gained the name of constellations
are only apparent assemblages caused by distance,
perspective effects, such as appear to the view of
him who is placed at a fixed point from lights dis-
persed over a vast plain, or the trees of a forest.
But these assemblages do not in reality exist. If
one could be transported into the region of one of
THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD. 123
these constellations by measure, as one would ap-
proach, the form would disappear, and new groups
would design themselves to the sight. Since these
groups do not really exist, the signification that a
common superstitious belief attributes to them is
illusory, as they have only as groups an imaginary
existence. In order to distinguish the constellations,
names have been given to them, such as those of
Lion, Bull, Twins, Virgin, Balance, Goat, Crab,
Orion, Hercules, Great Bear or Chariot of David,
Little Bear, Lyre, etc.; and they have been repre-
sented by figures corresponding to these names, but
which in every case have but a fanciful connection
with the apparent forms of the starry groups. We
should then seek in vain for these figures in the sky.
The belief in the influence of the constellations, par-
ticularly those which constitute the twelve signs of
the Zodiac, comes from the idea attached to the
names they bear. If that which is called Lion had
been named Ass or Lamb, people would have attrib-
uted to it a totally different influence. Galileo and
Copernicus destroyed the old cosmogonies. Astro-
nomical knowledge advanced: it could not retro-
grade.
History records the difficulties these men of gen-
ius had to encounter through prejudice, especially
through the sectarian spirit of the times, which was
interested in the maintenance of errors upon which
the priesthood had founded beliefs considered un-
changeable. The invention of an optical instrument
has been the means of destroying the trelliswork of the
beliefs of many thousands of years. Nothing could
prevail against a truth which could be demonstrated
124
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
to man's vision. Thanks to the art of printing, the
public gained a knowledge of the new ideas; and
while some recognized their truth, and took part in
the struggle for truth, it soon became necessary
to combat, not simply a few individuals, but general
opinion, which would take its part in the contest for
truth. How grand the universe is compared with
the narrow proportions our forefathers assigned to
it! how sublime God's work when we see its accom-
plishment according to the laws of nature! But
only with the aid of time, and the efforts and devotion
of men of genius, were the sealed eyes opened, and the
bandage of ignorance removed. Henceforth the way
will be open for numerous and illustrious wise men
to enter upon the completion of the outlined work.
Kepler, in Germany, discovered the celebrated laws
which bear his name, and by the aid of which he
discovered that planets describe, not circular orbs,
but ellipses, of which the sun occupies one of the
focuses. Newton, in England, discovered the law of
universal gravitation. Laplace, in France, created
celestial mechanics. In short, astronomy is no more.
a system founded upon conjecture and probability,
but a science established upon the most rigorous
bases of arithmetic and geometry. Thus one of the
foundation-stones of Genesis is laid.
CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL URANOGRAPHY.- SPACE AND TIME.
MAT-
TER. LAWS AND FORCES. - FIRST CREATION. — UNI-
VERSAL CREATION. SUNS AND PLANETS. - SATEL-
LITES. - COMETS. THE MILKY WAY. - THE FIXED
STARS. THE DESERTS OF SPACE. ETERNAL SUC-
CESSION OF WORLDS. UNIVERSAL LIFE. SCIENCE.
MORAL CONSIDERATIONS.
M
M
Space and Time. - Many definitions of space have
been given. The principal one is this: Space is the
extent which separates two bodies; from which
certain sophists have inferred, that, where nobody
is, there can be no space. Doctors of theology
have taken this idea as the base of their belief, that
there is necessarily an end to space, alleging that
bodies limited to a certain number cannot form an
infinite succession, and that where bodies no longer
exist is also the end of space. Yet another defini-
tion of space is, The place where worlds move, the
void where matter acts, etc. . . Let us leave, in the
treatises where they repose, all these definitions, which
define nothing.¹
Space is one of those words which represents a
primitive and axiomatic idea, self-evident, to which
1 This chapter is an extract, word for word, from a series of com-
munications dictated to the Spiritual Society of Paris, in 1862 and
1863, under the title of Uranographical Studies, and signed, GALILEO,
M. C. F. Medium.
125
126
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
the diverse definitions which are given serve only to
obscure its meaning. We all know what space is;
and I desire only to establish its infinity in order that
our subsequent studies may find no barrier opposing
itself to the investigation of our ideas. Now, I say
that space is infinite for this reason: that it is impos-
sible to suppose any limit to it, and that, notwith-
standing the difficulty of gaining a conception of
infinitude, it is, however, easier to think of going
eternally through space, than to decide upon a stop-
ping-place in it beyond which no more space ex-
tends. In order to grasp as far as is possible with
our limited faculties the infinitude of space, let us
suppose ourselves departing from the earth, lost in
the midst of infinitude, towards any point in the
universe, and that with the exceeding celerity of an
electric spark, which traverses thousands of leagues
in a second. Scarcely have we left our globe, than,
having passed over millions of miles, we find our-
selves in a place whence our earth will appear to us
only under the aspect of a pale star. An instant
after, following always the same direction, we shall
arrive near the far-distant stars, which you can
scarcely distinguish from your terrestrial station;
and whence not only the earth is lost to our sight
in the heavenly depths, but also your sun's splendor
is eclipsed by the distance which separates us from
it. Propelled incessantly at the same lightning speed,
we pass over planetary systems at every step as we
advance in space, over islands of ethereal light, over
starry ways, and glorious places where God has scat-
tered worlds profusely, as he has sown plants on
terrestrial prairies. Now it is only a few minutes.
SPACE AND TIME.
127
since we took our departure from the earth, and
already hundreds of millions of millions of miles
separate us from the earth, thousands of worlds have
been displayed to our sight, and yet listen! We
have in reality advanced but one step in the uni-
verse. If we continue for years, ages, thousands of
centuries, hundreds of millions of earthly periods
of time, to traverse incessantly with the same light-
ning speed the fields of space, on whatever side we
may go, toward whatsoever point we may direct our-
selves from this invisible grain which we have quit-
ted, and which is called earth, the same immensity
of space will be ever before us.
This is space.
Time, like space, is a self-evident fact.
a better estimate of it by establishing
the infinite whole.
One can make
its relation to
Time is the succession of things. It is bound to
eternity in the same manner as things are joined to
infinitude. Let us suppose ourselves at the begin-
ning of our world, at that primitive epoch where the
earth was not held in equilibrium by the divine.
impetus; in short, at the commencement of Genesis.
Time has not arisen from the mysterious cradle of
nature, and no one can tell at what epoch of the
ages we are, since the pendulum of the centuries is
not yet in motion. But, silence! the first hour of a
new-born earth resounds through the air, and hence-
forth are night and morning. Beyond the earth
eternity remains impassive and immovable, although
time marches with steady feet in other worlds. Upon
the earth time is enthroned, and during a series of
generations years and centuries of it will be counted.
Let us now transport ourselves to the last day of this
128
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
world, to the hour when, its power for good being
paralyzed by age and decay, it will be effaced from
the book of life never more to re-appear. Here the
succession of events is arrested, the terrestrial move-
ments which measure time are interrupted, and time
is ended with them. This simple exposition of nat-
ural things which give birth to time, perpetuate it,
and then allow it to be extinguished, suffices to show
that, seen from the point where we must place our-
selves for our studies, time is a drop of water which
falls from the cloud into the sea, of which the fall is
measured. There are as many different and contra-
dictory times as there are worlds in the vast expanse.
Beyond worlds eternity alone replaces these ephem-
eral inheritances, and quietly fills with its light
immovable the immensity of the heavens. Immen-
sity and eternity without limits, such are the two
grand properties of universal nature. The eye of
the observer who traverses untiringly the immeas-
urable distances of space, as well as that of the
geologist who peers into the secrets of the ages, de-
scending even into the depths of a yawning eternity,
where they will some day be ingulfed, act in con-
cert, each in his way, to acquire this double idea of
infinitude, duration, and extent. Now, in preserv-
ing this order of ideas, it will be easy for us to
conceive that time being only connected with tran-
sitory things depending wholly upon things which
can be measured, if, taking the terrestrial centuries
for units, we piled them thousands upon thousands
in order to form a colossal number, this number will
never represent more than a moment in eternity, just
as thousands of leagues joined to thousands of leagues
MATTER.
129
Thus, for
are only a speck in boundless extent.
example, time being unknown in eternity, and the
ages being totally distinct from the ethereal life of
the soul, we could write a number as long as the
terrestrial equator, and suppose ourselves aged by
this number of centuries, without making our soul
one day older; and, adding to this uncountable num-
ber of ages a series of similar numbers as long as
from here to the sun, or still more yet, imagining
ourselves to live during the prodigious succession of
cyclular periods represented by the addition of those
numbers when we should have passed through them,
the incomprehensible accumulation of years which
would weigh upon our heads would be as though
they were not: an entire eternity would always be
before us. Time is only a comparative measure of
the inheritance of transitory things. Eternity is sus-
ceptible of no measure as regards duration of time:
it owns no beginning or end; the present only be-
longs to it. If centuries upon centuries are less than
a second compared with eternity, what comparison
does the duration of human life bear to it?
Matter. At first sight nothing would appear so
profoundly varied, so essentially distinct, as the di-
verse substances which compose the world. Among
the objects in art or nature which daily pass before
our eyes, are there two objects which can be accused
of a perfect identity? is it not only a parity of com-
position? What dissimilarity at the point of view
of solidity, of compressibility, of weight and multiple
properties of bodies, between atmospheric gas and a
thread of gold, between the aqueous molecules in
the clouds, and those of the mineral which forms the
130 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
bony framework of the globe! what diversity be-
tween the chemical tissue of the varied plants which
decorate the vegetable kingdom, and that of the no
less numerous representatives of animal life upon
earth! However, we can state as an absolute and
fundamental truth, that all substances known and
unknown, however dissimilar they may appear, either
in view of their constitution or in regard to their
reciprocal action, are only different forms through
which matter presents itself, only varieties into which
it is transformed under the direction of forces innu-
merable which govern it. Chemistry, of which the
progress has been so rapid since the epoch in which
I lived, which its adepts themselves banish still to the
secret domain of science, this new science, which
one can justly consider the child of this century is,
we observe, uniquely based, far more solidly than its
elder sisters, upon the experimental method. Chem-
istry, I say, has had fair play with the four primitive
elements which the ancients agreed to recognize in
nature. It has shown that the terrestrial element is
only a combination of diverse substances varied to
infinitude; that the air and water are equally decom-
posable, that they are the product of a certain num-
ber of equivalents of gas; that fire, far from being
itself a principal element, is only a state of matter
resulting from the universal movement to which it is
submitted, and is of a sensible or latent combustion,
In return it has found a considerable number of pri-
mates until then unknown, which have appeared to
form, by their determined combinations, diverse sub-
stances. Different bodies, that it (chemistry) has
studied by following certain laws, act simultaneously,
MATTER.
131
and in given proportions, in the works operated in
the grand laboratory of nature. These primates it
has named simple bodies, indicating by that that it
considers them primitive and indecomposable, and
that by no known operation can they be reduced to
parts relatively more simple than themselves.1
But there, where the appreciation of man is checked
even when he is aided by the most impressionable of
his artificial senses, the work of nature continues;
there, where the common herd accept appearance for
reality, is where the practitioner raises the veil, and
distinguishes the beginning of things. The eye of
him who has detected the mole of nature's action
sees alone under the constitutive materials of the
world the primitive cosmic matter, simple and alone,
varied in certain countries at the epoch of their birth,
divided into solidarities during their life, which at
length have become disjointed, and received into the
receptacle of life's boundless whole by decomposition.
It is of these questions that we ourselves, spirits,
lovers of science, speak, when we assert that the
opinions we express are merely conjectural. Upon
these questions I will either keep silence, or prove
my knowledge. To those who then would be tempted
to see in my words only a dangerous theory, I will
say, Learn, if possible, by investigation the multipli-
city of the operations of nature, and you will recog-
nize, that, if one admits not the unity of matter, it
1 The principal simple bodies are, among non-metallic bodies,
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur,
and iodine; among metallic bodies are gold, silver, mercury, lead,
pewter, zinc, iron, copper, arsenic, sodium, potassium, calcium,
aluminium, etc.
132 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
is impossible to explain, not only the science of the
suns and spheres, but, without going so far, the ger-
mination of a seed in the earth, or the production of
an insect. If one observes such a diversity in matter,
it is because the forces which have presided at its
transformations, the conditions in which they are.
produced being unlimited in number, the various
combinations of matter must be unlimited also.
Then the substance that one desires to comprehend
belongs properly to fluids; that is to say, imponderable
bodies, or it may be those dressed with the ordinary
properties of matter. There is in all the universe
only one primitive substance, the cosmic matter,
or cosmos of uranography.
Laws and Forces. If one of those unknown be-
ings who spend their ephemeral existence in the
depths of the dark regions of the ocean, if one of
those polygrastic animals, one of the Nereids, mis-
erable animalcules, who are known as ichthyopha-
gous fish in the submarine forests, received suddenly
the gift of intelligence, the faculty of studying their
world, and of establishing a reasonable idea of that
living nature which develops in their midst, and of
the terrestrial world which is not now included in
the field of their observation; if by the marvellous
effect of some new power this strange race of beings.
should be lifted out of their unbroken darkness to
the surface of the sea, not far from the fertile banks
of an isle covered with luxuriant vegetation, to the
genial sun, dispenser of a beneficent warmth, — what
judgment would they pass? what theories of uni-
versal creation would be theirs, theories to be soon
effaced by larger appreciation, but by theories still as
LAWS AND FORCES.
133
relatively incomplete as the first? Such is, O man!
an image of all your speculative science.1
Now, as I come to treat of the laws and forces which
rule the universe, I who am, like you, a being rela-
tively ignorant of real science, notwithstanding the
apparent superiority which is given me over my
earthly brothers, the opportunity which is mine of
studying questions in nature which is withheld from
them in their position, my object is only to expose
to you a general idea of universal laws, without ex-
plaining in detail the methods of operation, and
nature of the special forces dependent upon them.
There is an ethereal fluid which pervades space and
penetrates bodies. This fluid is ether, or primitive
cosmic matter, generatrix of the world and beings.
Forces inhere in ether which preside at the meta-
morphoses of matter, the necessary and immutable.
laws which rule the world. These multiple forces,
indefinitely varied according to the combinations of
matter, localized according to masses or bulk, di-
versified in their modes of action according to cir-
cumstances and places, are known upon earth under
the names of weight, cohesion, affinity, attraction,
magnetism, and active electricity; the agent of the
vibratory movements, those of sound, light, heat,
etc. In other worlds they are presented under other
de
1 Such is the state of those who deny the spiritual world, when,
after having been despoiled of their fleshly envelope, the horizons
of this world are revealed to their vision, they comprehend the
emptiness of the theories whereby they attempted to explain every
thing by matter alone. However, these horizons hold yet for them
mysteries which are successively unveiled as they are raised to
greater heights of wisdom by purification; but on their entrance
into this new world they are first to recognize their blindness, and
how far they were from the truth.
134
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
aspects, offer other characters unknown in this, and
in the immense extent of the heavens an indefinite
number of forces are developed upon an unimagin-
able ladder, the grandeur of which we are as inca-
pable of estimating as the crustacean animal in the
depth of the ocean is of understanding the univer-
sality of terrestrial phenomena.¹
Now, just as there is but one simple primitive sub-
stance generatrix of all bodies, but diversified in its
combinations, even as all forces depend upon a uni-
versal law diversified in its effects, and which exists
from the beginning, and which in the eternal decrees
has been everywhere imposed upon creation in order
to constitute harmony and permanent stability,
nature is never opposed to itself. The coat-of-arms
unity
of the universe has for its only device.
In
variety
climbing the ladder of the worlds, one finds unity in
harmony in all creation. At the same time there is
an infinite variety in this immense parterre of stars.
In passing through the degrees of life from the low-
1 Should we bring to this all that we know, we should not com-
prehend more fully that which escapes our senses than the blind
man so born comprehends the effects of light and the use of eyes.
There can then be in other places properties of cosmic fluid and
combinations, of which we have no idea; of effects appropriated to
needs unknown to us, giving place to new and other modes of per-
ception. We do not, for example, comprehend how we can see with-
out bodily eyes and without light; but who says that there exist
not other agents than the light affecting special organisms, the
somnambulic sight, which neither distance, material obstacles, nor
darkness can arrest, offers us an example? Let us suppose that in
some world the inhabitants are normally that which our somnam-
bulists are exceptionally: they will have no need of the light or
of eyes like ours, and they will see that which we cannot see. It is
the same with all other sensations: the conditions of vitality and
perceptibility, sensations, and needs vary according to places.
THE FIRST CREATION.
135
est being even to God, the great law of continuity
is recognizable. In considering the forces in them-
selves, one can find a series whose result, mingling
with the generatrix, is the universal law. You can-
not appreciate this law to the full extent, since the
forces which represent it in your field of observation
are restrained and limited. However, gravitation
and electricity can be regarded as a large applica-
tion of the primordial law which reigns beyond the
heavens. All these forces are eternal, we will ex-
plain this word, universal as the creation. Being
inherent in the cosmic fluid, they necessarily act in
all things everywhere, modifying their action by
their simultaneous working or their succession, pre-
dominating here, effacing themselves farther on;
powerful and active at certain points, latent or secret
at others, but finally preparing, directing, preserving
and destroying worlds in their diverse periods of life,
governing marvellous works of nature, wherever
they are exerted, assuring to creation eternal splendor.
The First Creation. After having considered the
universe under general points of view, its compo-
sition, its laws, and its properties, we can extend our
studies to the mode of formation which gave light
to worlds and beings. We would descend then to
the creation of the earth particularly, and to its
actual state in the universality of things, and from
whence, taking the globe as a starting-point and
for relative unity, we would proceed with our plane-
tary and sidereal studies. If we have well considered
the connection, or rather the opposition, of eternity
to time, if we are familiar with the idea that time
is only a relative measure in the succession of tran-
136 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
sitory things, whilst eternity is essentially immovable
and permanent, and that it is susceptible of no meas-
urement as regards duration of time, we should
comprehend that there is no commencement or end to
it. On the other side, if we could form a just idea
- although necessarily a very feeble one of the
infinitude of divine power, we could comprehend how
it is possible that the universe has always been, and
always will be; how God's eternal perfections always
spoke of him before worlds were born. Before time
was born, immeasurable eternity received the divine
word, and impregnated space eternal as itself. God,
who has always existed, has created all eternity,
which could not be otherwise; for at some distant
epoch, from which our imagination recoils (the sup-
posed limits of creation), there will remain always.
beyond this limit an eternity. Weigh well this
thought, an eternity during which the divine hy-
postasis, the infinite volition, had been absorbed
in a mute, inactive, and unfruitful lethargy, an eter-
nity of apparent death for the eternal Father who
gives life to beings; of indifferent speechlessness for
the Word which governs them, of cold and selfish
sterility for the spirit of love and of vivication. Let
us better comprehend the grandeur of divine action,
and its perpetuity under the semblance of an abso-
lute being! God is the sun of beings: he is the
light of the worlds. Now, the appearance of the sun
gives birth instantaneously to floods of light, which
fill all space. So does the universe, born of the
Eternal, raise us in thought to unimaginable periods
"Fiat
of infinite duration, even to the time of the
lux" in the beginning. The contemplation of the
g
THE FIRST CREATION.
137
absolute beginning of objects raises us to their
Creator. Their successive appearances in the domain
of existence constitute the order of perpetual crea-
tion.
What mortal is there who knows how to reveal
the unknown and superbly veiled magnificence which
lay under the darkness of the ages, which was de-
veloped in those ancient times when none of the
marvels of the present universe existed? At this
primitive epoch, where the voice of the Lord was
making itself heard, the materials which were in the
future to assemble symmetrically to form themselves.
into the temple of nature were found on the bosom
of the infinite void, when at the sound of this mys-
terious voice, which every creature venerates as a
mother's, when the morning stars harmoniously sang
together! The world was in its cradle: it was not
yet established in its strength and plenitude of life.
No: the creative power never contradicts itself;
and, like all things, the universe was born a child.
Invested with laws previously framed, and by initial
impulsion inherent in its formation, primitive, cos-
mic matter, gave birth successively to whirlwinds,
to agglomerations of diffuse fluid, to masses of
nebulous matter, infinitely modified and divided,
in order to form in the immeasurable regions of
space different centres of simultaneous or successive
creations, by reason of forces which predominate
over each other, and by ulterior circumstances which
presided at their developments. These primitive
centres became each the focus of a special life.
Those least disseminated in space, and richest in
acting forces and principles, commenced from that
138
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
time their particular astral life. Others occupying
unlimited space grew very slowly, or divided them-
selves anew into other secondary centres. In carry-
ing ourselves back only a few millions of centuries
beyond this present epoch, our earth did not exist.
Our solar system had not yet commenced the evo-
lutions of planetary life; and yet splendid suns illu-
minated the ether. Already inhabited planets gave
life and existence to a multitude of beings who have
preceded us in our earthly career. Opulent pro-
ductions of an unknown nature, and marvellous
heavenly phenomena, had developed, under the gaze
of other eyes, pictures of a boundless creation, and
even more. Already some splendors, which had
caused the hearts of other mortals ere then to pal-
pitate with the thought of infinite power, were
effaced; and we poor little beings who come after
an eternity of life has passed, we believe our-
selves contemporaneous with creation. Yet again let
us comprehend nature better. Let us know that
eternity is both before and behind us, that space is
the theatre of an unimaginable succession and simul-
taneity of creations. The nebulæ we scarcely dis-
tinguish in the far-distant heavens are agglomera-
tions of suns in process of formation; others are
milky ways of inhabited worlds; others the seat of
catastrophe and decay. Let us know that even as
we are placed in the midst of an infinitude of worlds,
even as we are in a double infinitude of anterior and
ulterior durations, that universal creation is not for
us alone, and that we must not consider this, our
little globule, as an isolated formation.
Universal Creation.
After mounting as high as we
UNIVERSAL CREATION.
139
can, despite our weakness, toward the concealed
source whence worlds flow like drops of water in
a river, let us consider the march of successive
creations, and their serial developments. Primitive.
cosmic matter comprises the material fluid and vital
elements which unroll the magnificence of all the
universes throughout eternity. She is the fruitful
mother of all things, the first grandmother, and,
still more, the eternal generatrix. She has not dis-
appeared, this substance from which sidereal spheres
are produced; she is not dead, this power, for she
brings incessantly new creations into light, and in-
cessantly receives the reconstituted principles of
worlds which are effaced from the eternal book of
life. Ethereal matter more or less rarefied, which
descends among the inter-planetary spaces, this
cosmic fluid which fills the world more or less rare-
fied in immeasurable regions, rich in agglomerations
of stars more or less condensed, where astral heavens
do not yet shine forth more or less modified by
diverse combinations according to locality in space,
is none other than the primal substance in which
primitive forces reside, from which nature draws all
things.¹
This fluid which penetrates bodies is like an im-
In it resides the vital principle which
gives birth and life to beings, perpetuating it upon
mense ocean.
1 If one inquires what is the principle of these forces, and how
can it be even in the substance which produces it, we would reply
that mechanism offers us numerous examples. The elasticity which
makes a spring unbend, is not that in the spring itself, and does
it not depend upon the mode of the aggregation of molecules? The
body which obeys centrifugal force receives its impulsion from
the primitive movement which has been impressed upon it.
140
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
S
every globe according to its condition. It is a prin-
ciple in a latent state, which slumbers when no ex-
istence calls for it. Every mineral, vegetable, ani-
mal, or other for many other natural kingdoms
exist, the existence of which you do not suspect –
knows how, by virtue of this universal vital principle,
to appropriate the conditions of its existence and of its
duration. The molecules of the mineral have their
share of this life, as well as the seed and the germ, and
group themselves, like an organized being, into sym-
metrical forms, which constitute individualities. It is
very important to comprehend this idea: that primi-
tive cosmic matter was invested not only with laws
which assure the stability of worlds, but also with
the universal vital principle which causes sponta-
neous generations upon every world, in proportion as
conditions for the successive existence of beings
manifest themselves, when the time comes for the
appearance of children of life, during the creative
period. Thus universal creation is accomplished.
It is then true to say, that, the operations of nature
being the expression of the divine will, God has
always created, and creates unceasingly, and always
will create.
Until now we have passed over in silence the
subject of the spiritual world, which also is a part
of creation, and accomplishes its destiny in accord-
ance with the august decrees of the Master. I can
give only very limited information concerning the
mode of the creation of spirits, on account of my
own ignorance; and I must still keep silent upon
some matters into which I have been permitted to
search. To those who are religiously desirous of ob
THE SUNS AND THE PLANETS.
141
taining knowledge, and who are humble before God,
I will say (while I implore them not to base any one
system prematurely on my words), that the spirit does
not receive divine illumination until the time when
free will and conscience are given him to grasp the
idea of his high destiny; i.e., until he has passed!
through a series of inferior existences, during which
the realization of his individuality is slowly elabo-
rated. This only dates from the day when the Lord
impresses upon his forehead his august seal: then the
spirit takes rank as human. Again, I beg of you, do
not build upon my words dogmatic theories like those
so sadly celebrated in the history of metaphysics. I
would a thousand times prefer to keep silent forever
concerning questions so far above our ordinary medi-
tations, than expose you to a misconstruction of the
sense of my teachings, and so ingulf you through my
imperfection in the inextricable labyrinths of deism
or fatalism.
The Suns and the Planets. - Once upon a time in
the history of the universe, lost among the myriad
worlds, cosmic matter was condensed into the form of
an immense nebulous cloud. This nebula was ani-
mated by the universal laws which govern matter.
By virtue of these laws, and notably by the molecular
force of attraction, it took the form of a spheroid,
the only one which can originally be taken by a
mass of isolated matter in space. The circular move-
ment, produced by gravitation exactly equal in all
the molecular zones toward the centre, soon modified
the primitive sphere in order to conduct it from move-
ment to movement toward the lenticular form. We
speak of the whole of the nebula. New forces surged
142
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
in the train of this rotary movement,-centripetal
and centrifugal force, -the first tending to draw
every particle to the centre, the second tending to
cause the recession of every atom from it. Now, the
movement accelerating itself, according to the conden-
sation of the nebula and its radius, augmenting as it
approaches the lenticular form, the centrifugal force,
incessantly developed by these two causes, soon pre-
dominated over the central attraction the same as a
too rapid movement of a sling breaks the cord, and
throws the projectile to a distance. Thus the pre-
dominance of centrifugal force detached the equato-
rial circle of the nebula, and with this ring formed a
new mass, isolated from the first, but nevertheless in
submission to its empire.
This mass has conserved its equatorial movement,
which, modified, became its movement of translation
around the solar body. Moreover, its new state gave
to it a rotary movement around its proper centre.
The nebulous generatrix which gave birth to this
new world is condensed, and has resumed the spheri-
cal form; but the primitive heat developed by its
different movements weakening it only by very slow
degrees, the phenomenon we have just described will
reproduce itself often during a long period, while this
nebulous mass will not become dense or solid enough
to oppose an efficacious resistance to the modifications
of form, which successively impress its rotary move-
ment. It will then not have given birth simply to
one astral body, but to hundreds of worlds detached
from the central focus, issued from it by the mode
of formation already presented. Now, each one of
these worlds, invested like the primitive world with
THE SATELLITES.
143
natural forces presiding at the creation of the uni-
verse, will engender in succession new globes gravi-
tating henceforth around it, as it gravitates in con-
currence with its brothers around the focus of their
existence and life. Each one of these worlds will be
a sun, a centre of a whirling body of planets, succes-
sively escaped from its equator. These planets will
each receive a particular life, although dependent
upon their astral generator. Planets are thus formed
of masses of condensed matter, but not yet solidified,
detached from the central mass by the action of cen-
trifugal force, and taking, by virtue of the laws of
motion, the spheroidal form more or less elliptic, ac-
cording to the degree of fluidity they have maintained.
One of these planets is the earth, which, before being
cooled and invested with a solid crust, must have given
birth to the moon by the same mode of astral forma-
tion to which it owes its own existence. The earth
henceforth inscribed in the book of life a cradle of
creatures whose feebleness is protected under the
wing of Divine Providence, a new cord in the infinite.
harp which must vibrate in its place in the universal
concert of worlds.
The Satellites. Before the planetary bodies have
attained a degree of coolness sufficient for solidifi-
cation, smaller bodies, veritable liquid globules, are
detached from some in the equatorial plane, -a plane
in which the centrifugal force is the greatest,—and
which by virtue of the same laws have acquired a
movement of translation around their planetary gen-
eratrix, like theirs around their central astral gener-
ator. Thus the earth has given birth to the moon,
the body of which, being smaller, has cooled in a
my
144
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
shorter time. Now the laws and forces which pre-
sided at its detachment from the terrestrial equator
and its movement of translation in this same plane,
act in such a way, that this world, in place of being
invested with the spheroidal form, takes that of an
ovoid globe; that is to say, having the elongated
form of an egg, the centre of gravity being in the
inferior part. The conditions by which the distinc-
tive form of the moon was effected would permit
it scarcely to quit the earth, and constrain it to
remain perpetually suspended in its sky like an
ovoid figure, of which the heaviest parts form the
lower face turned toward the earth, and of which
the least dense parts occupy the summit, which is the
side opposed to the earth, elevating itself towards
the heavens. This is the reason that this body pre-
sents continually the same face to us. It can be
likened, in order to better comprehend its geological
state, to a globe composed of cork, of which the
base, turned towards the earth, is formed of lead.
Hence two essentially distinct natures are found.
upon the surface of the lunar world, one without
any possible analogy with ours, for fluid and ethereal
bodies are unknown to it; the other, relatively
analogous to the earth, since all the least dense sub-
stances are found upon this hemisphere. The first,
perpetually turned towards the earth, is without
atmosphere or water; the other, rich in fluids, is
perpetually opposed to our world.¹
1 This entirely new theory of the moon explains, by the law of
gravitation, the reason why this body always turns the same face
towards the earth. Its centre of gravity, instead of being in the
centre of the sphere, is to be found upon one of the points of its sur-
THE SATELLITES.
145
The number and condition of the satellites of every
planet have been varied according to the special con-
ditions of their formation. Some have given birth
to no secondary body, — Mercury, Venus, and Mars,
for instance; whilst others have formed one or many,
like the earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and others. In ad-
dition to its satellites, or moons, the planet Saturn
presents a special phenomenon of the ring, which
seems, seen from afar, to surround it like a white
aureole. This formation is to us a new proof of the
universality of the laws of nature. This ring is surely
the result of a separation which took place in primi-
tive times in the equator of Saturn, just as an equa-
torial zone has been thrown off from the earth, and
formed its satellite. The difference consists in this,
that the ring of Saturn was found formed in all its
parts of homogeneous molecules, probably already
in a certain state of condensation, and enabled in
this manner to continue its rotary movement in the
same way, and in a time nearly equal, to that which
revolves the planet. If one of the points of this ring
face, and, consequently, attracted to the earth by a greater force
than are the lighter parts. The moon produces the effect of figures
called Noussahs, which constantly stand upright upon their base,
while the planets, whose centres of gravity are at equal distances
from the surface, turn regularly upon their axes. The vivifying
fluids, gaseous or liquid, on account of their specific lightness, would
be found accumulated in the superior hemisphere constantly opposed
to the earth. The inferior hemisphere, the only one we see, must be
destitute of them, and consequently incapable of sustaining life,
whilst life would reign on the other. If, then, the upper hemisphere
be inhabited, its inhabitants have never seen the earth, unless by ex-
cursions into the other hemisphere. However rational and scientific
this opinion may be, as it has not yet been confirmed by any one
direct observation, it can be accepted only as an hypothesis; and as
such it serves as a beacon-star to science.
146
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
had been denser than another, one or many agglom-
erations of substance would have been suddenly
expelled, and Saturn would have counted many sat-
ellites more. Since the time of its formation, this
ring has been solidified, as well as the other planetary
bodies.
Comets.
Wandering stars far more truly than
the planets which have received this etymological
designation, the comets should be the guides leading
us over the limits of the system, to which the earth
belongs, carrying us into the far-away regions of si-
dereal space. But, before exploring by the aid of these
travellers of the universe the celestial domains, it
will be well for us to become acquainted as much as
possible with their intrinsic nature, and their rôle
in the planetary economy. Men have often seen in
these wandering stars growing worlds, elaborating
in their primitive chaos conditions of life and exist-
ence which are bestowed upon inhabited worlds;
others have imagined these extraordinary bodies to
be worlds in a state of destruction, and their singular
appearance has been made the subject of erroneous
opinions concerning their nature. Astrology has
taught that they portended coming disasters, and
that they were messengers decreed by Divine Provi-
dence to warn the astonished and trembling earth.
The law of variety is applied in such great pro-
fuseness in the works of nature, that one demands
how naturalists, astronomers, or philosophers have
invented so many systems in order to liken comets
to planetary bodies, and in order to see in them
only stars more or less advanced in development or
decay. The pictures which nature is ever presenting
COMETS.
147
ought, however, amply to suffice for the removal from
the observer's mind of all search for parallels which do
not exist, and leave to the comets the modest but use-
ful rôle of wandering stars serving as advance-guards.
for solar empires; for the celestial bodies are found
in many forms other than planetary. Comets have
not, like the planets, to fulfil the mission of affording
an abiding place for humanity. They travel in suc-
cesive journeys from sun to sun, enriching themselves
sometimes on their route by planetary fragments
reduced to a vaporous state, bringing to their focuses
the vivifying and renovating principle that they cast
upon terestrial bodies. If one of these bodies should
approach our little globe in order to traverse its orbit,
and return to its apogee situated at an immeasurable
distance from the sun, let us follow it in thought,
in order to visit with it the sidereal countries. To
do so we must leap over the prodigious expanse of
ethereal matter, which separates the sun from the
nearest stars; and observing the combined move-
ments of this body, that one could well believe lost
in this desert of infinitude, we should find there
still an eloquent proof of the universality of nature's
laws, which are exercised in distances the extent of
which the most fervid imagination can hardly con-
ceive. There the elliptic form is exchanged for
the parabolic; and the tail is lessened at the point
of transition to only a few yards, while at its perigee
it would extend many millions of leagues. Perhaps
a more powerful sun, more important than the one
it has just quitted, will exert over this comet a
greater attraction, and will receive it into the ranks.
of its own subjects; and then the astonished children
148
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of your little earth will wait in vain for the return
they had prognosticated by imperfect observations.
In this case, we, whose thought has followed the
wandering comet into those unknown regions, will
encounter then a new nation never seen before by
terrestrial eyes, unimaginable by spirits who inhabit
the earth, inconceivable even to their thought; for
it will be the theatre of unexplored marvels. We
have arrived at the astral world in this brilliant
universe of vast suns which shine in infinite space,
and which are the brilliant flowers of the magnificent
garden of creation. Until we arrive there, we can
never know what the earth really is.
The Milky Way. During some beautiful starry,
moonless nights, every one has observed this beauti-
ful white light which traverses the heavens from one
extremity to the other, and which the ancients have
named the "Milky Way" on account of its milky
appearance. This diffuse light has long been ex-
plored by the aid of the modern telescope; and this
road of powdered gold, or this spring of milk of
antique mythology, has been transformed into a vast
field of unknown wonders. The researches of ob-
servers have led to a knowledge of its nature, and
have shown that, where the unaided vision could
behold only a feeble light, millions of suns more
important and larger than that which illumines the
earth are to be found. The Milky Way indeed is a
country sown with solar or planetary flowers which
shine in its vast extent. Our sun and all the bodies
accompanying it make a part of these radiant globes
of which the Milky Way is composed; but, notwith-
standing the sun's gigantic dimensions relative to the
THE MILKY WAY.
149
earth, and the vastness of earth's empire, it occupies,
however, only an unappreciable place in this vast crea-
tion. One can count thirty millions of similar suns
like unto it revolving in this boundless region, re-
moved from one another by distance more than a
hundred thousand times as great as that of the ter-
restrial orbit.¹ One can judge, by this approximation,
of the extent of this sidereal region, and of the rela-
tion which unites our system to the universal whole of
the systems which occupy it. We can thus judge of
the comparative smallness of the solar domain, and
much more of the infinitesimality of our little earth.
How, then, are the people who inhabit it to be consid-
ered? When I say diminutiveness of our little earth,
our assertions apply not only to its material form and
to the physical extent of the bodies which we study,
but still more, and above all, to the moral state, to
the degree to which they have attained in the uni-
versal hierarchy of beings. In this latter phase
creation is shown in all its majesty, creating and
propagating every thing by the solar world, making
manifestations of life and intelligence in each one
of the systems which surround it on every side.
One becomes acquainted only in this way with
the position occupied by our sun, or by the earth in
the starry expanse. These considerations will acquire
greater weight still if we reflect that the Milky Way
seen from afar represents only an imperceptible and
inappreciable point in the immensity of the sidereal
creations. Millions like it exist in space. It is a
stellar nebulæ. If it appears to us richer and more
immense than others, it is for this sole reason that
1 More than three trillions four hundred b llions of leagues.
150 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
it surrounds us, and develops itself in its extent
under our very eyes; whilst the others, lost in un-
fathomable depths, are scarcely to be seen.
Now, if one remembers that the earth, compara-
tively speaking, is nothing or almost nothing in the
solar system, that the latter is nothing or nearly
nothing in the Milky Way, this latter is nothing or
nearly nothing in the universe of nebulæ, and this
universe itself a very little thing in the midst of the
vastness of infinitude, one will begin to comprehend
what the terrestrial globe is.
The Fixed Stars. Those bodies called "fixed
stars," and which constellate the two hemispheres.
of the firmament, are not isolated from all exterior
attraction as is generally supposed; on the contrary,
they belong to one and the same agglomeration of
stellar bodies. This agglomeration is no other than
the nebulæ of which we form a part, the equatorial
plane of which as displayed in the sky has received
the name of the "Milky Way." All the suns which
compose it are conjointly responsible: their collec-
tive influences re-act perpetually upon one another,
and universal gravitation re-unites them all in one
family.
Among these different suns, the greater number
are, like our own, surrounded by secondary worlds,
which they illumine and make fruitful by the same
laws which preside in the life of our planetary sys-
tem. Some of them, like Sirius, are thousands of
times more magnificent in dimensions and in grand-
eur than ours, their rôle more important in the uni-
verse, whilst a very great number of planets very
superior to ours surround them. Others are very
THE FIXED STARS.
151
dissimilar in their astral functions. Thus a certain
number of these suns, veritable twins of the sidereal
order, are accompanied by their brothers of the same
age, and form in space binary systems, to which
nature has given entirely different functions than
those which belong to our sun. There the years are
measured no more by the same periods, neither are
the days measured by the same suns; and these worlds
lighted by a double luminary have received a share
of conditions of existence unimaginable to those who
have not emerged from this little terrestrial globe.
Other stars without attendants, deprived of plan-
ets, have received the best elements of habitability
which are given to any of them. The laws of nature
are diversified in their immensity; and, if unity is the
watchword of the universe, infinite variety is no less
the eternal attribute.
Notwithstanding the prodigious number of these
stars and their systems, notwithstanding the immeas-
urable distances which separate them, they all belong
to the same stellar nebula which the most powerful
telescopic vision can scarcely traverse, and which the
boldest conceptions of the imagination can scarcely
attain unto, — a nebula which, nevertheless, is only
a unit in the order of nebula which compose the
astral world.
The stars which they call fixed are not immovable
in space. The constellations which they have ima-
gined to be in the vault of the firmament are not really
symbolical creations. The distance from the earth
and the appearance of the universe measured from
this station are the two causes of this double optical
illusion.
152
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
•
We have seen that the totality of the stars which
shine in the azure dome is enclosed in a cosmic
agglomeration, in the same nebula which you call
Milky Way; but, although all belong to this same
group, all of the stars are no less animated by their
own translation movement in space. Absolute repose
exists nowhere. They are regulated by the univer-
sal laws of gravitation, and roll in space under the
incessant impulsion of this immense power. They
roll, not in routes traced by chance, but following
certain orbits of which the centre is occupied by a
superior star. In order to render my words more
comprehensible, as an example, I will speak specially
of your sun.
One knows, by modern observations, that it is not
fixed or central, as they believed it to be in the early
days of modern astronomy, but that it advances in
space, drawing with it its vast system of planets,
satellites, and comets.
Now this march is not casual: it does not wander
about in the infinite voids, to be lost far away from
the regions assigned to it, its children, and subjects.
No: its orbit is measured. Concurrently with other
suns of the same order as itself, and surrounded like
itself with a certain number of inhabited worlds, it
gravitates around a central sun. Its movement of
gravitation, the same as that of other suns (its
brothers), is inestimable by annual observation; for
a great number of earthly centuries would hardly
suffice to mark the time of one of these astral years.
The central sun, of which we have just spoken, is
itself a globe, comparatively speaking, secondary to
another still more important one, around which it is
THE DESERTS OF SPACE.
153
perpetually travelling with a slow and measured
march in company with other suns of the same
order. We might contemplate this successive sub-
ordination of suns to suns till our imaginations were
weary with revelling among so vast a hierarchy; for
let us not forget that they can count in round num-
bers thirty millions of suns in the Milky Way, sub-
ordinate to one another, like the gigantic machinery
of an immense system.
And these stars, so innumerable, live, each and
every one, a conjointly responsible life. For nothing
in the economy of your little terrestrial sphere lives.
a lonely, detached life, which rule extends to the
whole boundless universe.
These systems upon systems would appear from
afar, to the eye of the philosophical investigator who
could comprehend the picture developed by space
and time, like pearl and gold dust blown into
whirlwinds by the divine breath which makes side-
real worlds fly through the heavens like grains of
sand through the desert. More immovability, more
silence, more night! The great spectacle which would
then display itself before our eyes would be the
real creation, immense and full of that ethereal life
which the all-seeing eye of the Creator embraces in
its boundless vision. But until now we have spoken
only of a nebula. Its millions of suns, its myriads
of inhabited earths, form, as we have said before,
only an island in the infinite archipelago.
The Deserts of Space. - An immense wilderness,
without limits, extends beyond the agglomeration of
stars, of which we have just spoken, and surrounds
it. Solitudes succeed to solitudes, and immeasura-
154
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ble plains extend through the far-reaching expanse.
Masses of cosmic matter are found everywhere iso-
lated in space like islands in a vast archipelago. If
one can appreciate, in some measure, the enormous dis-
tance which separates the mass of stars, of which we
form a part, from the collections nearest to them, it
is necessary to know that these stellar islands are
disseminated sparsely in the vast ocean of the heav-
ens, and that the extent of space dividing them is im-
measurably greater than their respective dimensions.
Now, we must remember that the stellar nebulæ
measure, taken as a unity, a thousand times the dis-
tance between the nearest stars; that is to say, some
hundred thousand trillions of leagues. The distance
between them being much more vast could not be
expressed in numbers comprehensible by your minds.
The imagination alone, in its highest conceptions, is
capable of attaining to this prodigious immensity.
These mute solitudes, destitute of all appearance
of life, can give one the idea, in some measure, of
this relative infinity. This celestial desert, however,
which surrounds our sidereal universe, and which
appears to extend like the distant confines of our
astral world, is overlooked by the infinite power of
the Almighty, who, beyond these heavens of our
heavens, has developed the woof of his limitless.
creation.
Beyond these vast solitudes, indeed, worlds radiate
in untold magnificence, as well as in regions accessible
to human investigation. Beyond these wildernesses
splendid oases float in the limpid ether, and inces-
santly renew beautiful scenes of activity and life.
There, in the far-away distance, are displayed aggre-
THE ETERNAL SUCCESSION OF WORLDS. 155
gations of cosmic substance utterly beyond the range
of the telescope through the transparent regions of
our heavens. These nebule that you call stationary,
and which appear to you like clouds of white dust
lost in the unknown depths of ethereal space, when
revealed, develop new worlds, whose strange and
varied conditions, when compared with those inherent
in your globe, endow them with modes of life of which
your imagination cannot conceive, nor your studies
explain. There creative power shines resplendently
in all its plenitude before him who comes from
regions occupied by your system. Other laws are
there in activity, whose forces rule the manifestations
of life; and the novel routes we follow in these
strange regions open up to us unknown perspectives.
The Eternal Succession of Worlds. We have seen
that one primordial and general law alone has been
given to the universe in order to insure eternal sta-
bility, and that this universal law is perceptible to
our senses by means of the many modes of operation
we call the directing forces of nature. We are going
to show to-day that the harmony of the entire uni-
verse, considered under the double aspect of eternity
and of space, is assured by this supreme law. Indeed,
if we go back to the primitive origin or first agglom-
erations of cosmic substance, we must remark, that,
already under the empire of this law, matter is sub-
mitted to the necessary transformations which develop
from the germ the ripe fruit, and that, under the im-
pulsion of diverse forces born of this law, the earth
climbs over the ladder of its periodical revolutions.
At first the fluid centre of motion, generator of
worlds, thence the central and attractive nucleus of
156
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
spheres which have been cradled on its bosom. We
know already that one law presides throughout the
history of cosmos. That which it is important for
us to know now is, that it presides equally at the
destruction of astral bodies; for death is not only a
metamorphosis for living beings, but a transformation
for inanimate matter. If it is correct to say, in the
literal sense, that all life is amenable to the scythe
of death, it is also just to add that all substance.
must of necessity submit to the inherent trans-
formations of its constitution. Here is a world that
from its cradle has passed through all the succession
of years allotted to it by its special organization.
The interior focus of its existence is extinguished:
its elements have lost their original virtue. The
phenomena of its nature, which claimed for their pro-
duction the presence and action of forces found in
this world, henceforth cannot present themselves,
because the lever of their activity can no longer
sustain them. Now, what would one think, if this
extinguished earth, without life, should continue to
gravitate in celestial space without an object, and
pass like a useless cinder in the whirlwind of the
heavens? Can any of us think it should remain in-
scribed in the book of universal life when it is only a
dead letter denuded of meaning? No: the same
laws which have elevated it above the dead chaos,
and which have adorned it with the splendors of
life, the same forces which have governed it through-
out its adolescence, which have supported its first
steps in existence, and which have conducted it to
a ripe old age, preside at the disintegration of its
constituent elements, in order to render it in the
THE ETERNAL SUCCESSION OF WORLDS. 157
laboratory from which creative power draws unceas-
ingly the means of universal vitality.
These elements return to this common mass of
ether in order to assimilate with other bodies, or to
help in the formation of other suns. And this death
will neither be a useless event to this or to its
sister earths. It will renew in other regions other
creations of a different nature; and there, where
some systems of worlds have vanished, will soon be
born a new and more brilliant garden of flowers,
more beauteous and fragrant still. Thus the real and
effective eternity of the universe is assured by the
same laws which direct the operations of time.
Thus worlds succeed to worlds, suns to suns, with-
out the immense mechanism of the heavens ever
reaching the limit of its gigantic resources. There,
where your eyes admire the splendid stars under the
vault of night, there, where your mind contem-
plates the magnificent radiance, resplendent in far-
distant space, through countless ages, the finger of
death has extinguished these splendors. Long ago
void has succeeded to this radiance, and received
new creations yet unknown. It takes millions of
years for the light of these stars to reach us, by reason
of their immense distance from us; and the rays that
we receive to-day are those that were sent in our
direction a long time before the formation of this
earth. We continue to admire them long ages after
their extinction. What are the six thousand years.
of historic humanity compared with the measureless
ages before them? Seconds to your ages! What are
your astronomical observations compared with the
actual state of the universe? The shadow eclipsed
by the sun.
M
158 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Here, then, as in our other studies, let us recog-
nize that earth and man are as nothingness compared
to that which is; and that the most colossal opera-
tions of our minds extend yet only near unto the
confines of an immensity and eternity of existence
in a universe which can know no end. And when
measureless periods in our immortality shall have
passed over our heads, when the actual history of
the earth will appear to us like a vaporous shadow
in the depth of our remembrance, when we shall
have inhabited during countless ages all the multiple
degrees of our cosmological hierarchy, when the
most distant domains shall have in future ages
been passed through by innumerable peregrinations,
we shall have still before us an unlimited succession
of worlds, an unending eternity for perspective.
Universal Life. This immortality of souls, of
which the system of the physical world is the base,
has appeared to be imaginary in the eyes of certain
thinkers. They have ironically styled it the immor-
tal traveller, and have failed to comprehend that the
soul possessed immortal life before this world was
made. However, it is possible to make them com-
prehend all the grandeur of it, I would say, nearly
all the perfection of it. That the works of God are
created for thought and intelligence, that the worlds
are the abodes of beings who contemplate them, and
who discover under their veil the power and wisdom
of Him who formed them, is no longer doubtful to
us; but that the souls who people them are harmo-
niously linked together is what is important for us
to understand. Human intelligence, indeed, does
not really take in the existence of these radiant
UNIVERSAL LIFE.
159
globes which scintillate in space as simple masses of
inert matter without life. It scarcely dreams that
there are in these far-distant regions magnificent
twilights and splendid nights, fruitful suns and days
full of light, valleys and mountains where the mul-
tiple productions of nature have been developed in
all their luxuriant pomp, and that a realm so admir-
ably adapted to the unfoldment of every potency of
the soul should remain forever destitute of conscious
life. But to this eminently just idea of creation it
is necessary to add that of the unity of humanity;
and it is in this that the mystery of the future
exists. One and the same human family has been.
created throughout the universe of worlds; and the
ties of a fraternity yet unappreciated on your part
bind you to these worlds, and they to you.
If these astral bodies which harmonize in their
vast systems are inhabited by intelligences, it is not
by beings unknown to one another, but by beings
marked in the forehead with the same destiny, who
need to encounter one another for the discharge of
their functions of life, which cannot be discharged
apart from their mutual sympathies. There is one
great family of spirits peopling the celestial worlds.
There is one grand radiance of the eternal spirit em-
bracing the expanse of the boundless universe, and
which remains as a primal and final type of spiritual
perfection. By what strange aberration could we re-
fuse belief in the immortality of the vast regions
of ether, and limit all to an absolute duality?
Ought not, then, the true system of the universe
to precede dogmatic doctrine proclaimed as true either
in science or theology? Will not one be always con-
160
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
fused when the base of his assumptions is purely
metaphysical? The reply is readily given, and shows.
us that the new philosophy will be triumphantly
enthroned upon the ruins of the old, because its base
will be victoriously elevated above ancient errors.
Science. Human intelligence has elevated its
powerful conceptions above the limits of space and
time. It has penetrated into the inaccessible domain
of antique ages, sounded the mysteries of the incom-
prehensible skies, explains the enigma of creation.
The exterior world has unfolded to the eye of science
its splendid panorama and its magnificent opulence,
and the studies of man have elevated it to the
knowledge of truth. It has explored the universe,
finding the expression of laws which govern it, and
the application of forces which sustain it; and, if it
has not been vouchsafed to it to come face to face
with the First Cause, at least it has come to the
mathematical idea of a series of secondary causes.
More particularly in this last century the experimental
method that which alone is truly scientific-has
been put in practice in the natural sciences; and by
its aid man has been successively despoiled of the
prejudices of the ancient schools and of speculative
theories, exchanging these for a field of observation
which he may cultivate with care and intelligence.
Yes, human science is solid and fruitful, worthy of
our homage by reason of its difficult and long-tried
past, worthy of our sympathies for its future, great
with useful and profitable discoveries; for nature is
henceforth a book accessible to the researches of stu-
dious man, a world open to the investigations of
the thinker, as brilliant a region as the human spirit
SCIENCE.
161
has ever visited, and in which he can boldly advance,
holding in his hand experience as a guide.
An old friend of my terrestrial life spoke to me
thus. We had together made a peregrination to the
earth, and we studied with a new moral light this
world. My companion remarked, that man is to-day
familiar with the most abstract laws of mechanics,
of physics, of chemistry; that the applications of
industry are not less remarkable than the deductions
of pure science; and that the wise study of the
entire creation appeared henceforth to be his royal
privilege. And, as we pursued our march away from
this world, I replied to him in these terms: This
feeble atom, man, lost in an imperceptible point of
infinitude, has imagined that he could embrace the
universe with his eye, when he could scarcely under-
stand the special region he inhabited. He has believed
that he could study the laws of entire nature, when
his appreciations had hardly reached to the forces
immediately surrounding himself. He has thought
he could determine the grandeur of the heavens,
when he could not analyze a grain of dust. The
field of his observations is so immense, that the
boundaries are necessarily invisible. Mind scarcely
comprehends itself. The heaven and the earth of
man are so small, that the soul in its essence has not
the time to unfold its wing on earth before its trans-
lation to other spheres. The immeasurable universe
surrounds us on all sides, opening up beyond our
skies unknown riches, putting in play unappreciable
forces, developing modes of existence inconceivable
by us, and propagating splendor and life in infini-
tude.
162
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
The flesh-worm, miserable insect, without wings
or light, whose sad existence is consumed upon the
leaf which gave it birth, might pretend that, because
it makes some steps upon this leaf agitated by the
wind, it has the right to talk about the immense tree.
to which it belongs, a tree whose shadow it has
scarcely seen. He might foolishly imagine himself
able to reason about the forest of which his tree was
a part, and reason wisely about the nature of the
vegetables developed there, of the beings which
inhabited it, of the far-away sun, whose rays some-
times descend to carry thither movement and life.
In truth, man would be strangely pretentious to wish
to measure infinite grandeur at the feet of his infi-
nite littleness! Ought he not to be thoroughly perme-
ated with this idea, that, if the arduous labors of cen-
turies have acquired for him his first knowledge of
things, if progression of mind has placed him in the
vestibule of knowledge, yet he has only learned to
spell the first page of the book; that he is like a child
hesitating at each word, and, far from pretending to
doctrinally interpret the work, ought to humbly
content himself with studying it, page by page, line
by line? Happy are those who can still do it.
Moral Considerations. You have followed us in
our celestial excursions, and you have visited with
us the immense regions of space. We have seen
suns succeed to suns, systems to systems, nebulæ to
nebulæ. The splendid harmonious panorama of cos-
mos has been unfolded before our eyes, and we have
received a foretaste of the idea of infinitude, which
we can comprehend in all its extent only in a future
state of perfection. The mysteries of ether have
MORAL CONSIDERATIONS.
163
unveiled their secret hitherto incomprehensible, and
we have conceived at least an idea of the univer-
sality of things. It is important now to pause and
reflect.
It is well, without doubt, to have recognized the
smallness of the earth, and its mediocre importance
in the hierarchy of worlds. It is wise to have lowered
the human arrogance so dear to us, and to have be
come humiliated in the presence of absolute grand-
eur; but it will be much more satisfactory to inter-
pret with the moral sense the spectacle to which we
have been witnesses. I desire to speak of the infi-
nite power of nature, and of the idea which we
ought to form of its mode of action in the diverse
extents of the universe. Habituated, as we are, to
judge of things by our poor little sojourn here, we
imagine that nature has not been able to act, or
ought not to act in other worlds, except in accord-
ance with the rules which we have recognized here.
below. Now it is precisely in this respect that it is
important to reform our judgment. Cast your eyes
upon any region whatsoever of your globe, and upon
any one of the productions of its nature. Do you
not recognize there the seal of an infinite variety,
and the proof of an unequalled activity? Do you
not see upon the wing of the little canary-bird, upon
the petals of an opening rosebud, the fascinating
fecundity of this beautiful nature? When your
studies are applied to the winged beings which
cleave the air, when they descend to the violet of
the woods, to the depths of the ocean,-in all and
everywhere you read this universal truth: All-power-
ful Nature acts according to place, time, and circum-
164 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
stances. She is a unit in her general harmony, but
a multiple in her productions; she handles a sun as
a drop of water; she peoples an immense world
with living beings, with the same facility as she.
opens the egg deposited by the autumn insect.
Now, if such is the variety that Nature has been
able to depict in all places on this little world, so
narrow, so limited, what can you imagine is that
of her larger worlds, so great in extent, which far
more fully than the earth attest her unknown perfec-
tion? Do you not then see, around each one of the
suns in space, systems similar to your planetary
system? But you do not see that these planets sup-
port the three kingdoms of nature which develop
around you. For, as no two human faces are exactly
similar, this same prodigious, unimaginable variety
has been displayed in the abodes of ether which
float on the breasts of space.
Since animated nature commences with the zoo-
phyte and ends with man, since the atmosphere feeds
terrestrial life, since the liquid element is incessantly
renewed, since your seasons are succeeded in this life
by the phenomena which divide them, do not con-
clude that the millions on millions of worlds which
roll in space are similar to this: far from it. They
differ according to the diverse conditions which have
been developed on them, and according to their
respective rôles in the drama of the universe: they
are varied gems in an immense mosaic, diversified
flowers in a superb garden.
CHAPTER VII.
GEOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE EARTH. GEOLOGI-
CAL PERIODS. - PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE GLOBE.
PRIMARY PERIOD. TRANSITION PERIOD. SEC-
ONDARY PERIOD. TERTIARY PERIOD. DILUVIAN
PERIOD. - POST-DILUVIAN PERIOD.- BIRTH OF MAN.
-
M
______
Geological Periods. The earth carries within it
the evident traces of its formation. One can follow
the phases of it with a mathematical precision in the
different rocks which compose its framework. The
whole of these studies constitute the science of geolo-
gy, a science born of this century, and which has
thrown light upon the much controverted question
of its origin, and of that of the living beings which
inhabit it. Here there is no point upon which one
can hang an hypothesis. It is the rigorous result of
the observation of facts, and into the presence of
facts doubt is forbidden to enter. A history of the
formation of the globe is written in the geological
beds of the earth in a clearer manner than in books
hitherto written, because it is Nature herself who
speaks, pointing to the reason and senses, and not the
imagination of men, which has created systems.
Where one sees the traces of fire, one can say with
certitude that fire has existed; where those of water
are seen, one says with no less certainty that water
has been there; where one sees those of animals, one
165
166
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
infers that animals have lived there. Geology is
therefore a science of observation: it draws conclu-
sions only from that which it sees. Upon doubtful
points it affirms nothing. It utter only debatable
opinions concerning phenomena, of which the definite
solution awaits more complete observations. With-
out the discoveries of geology, as well as those of
astronomy, the genesis of the world would still lie in
legendary shadows. Thanks to it to-day, man knows
the history of his habitation; and the trelliswork of
fables which surrounded his cradle is crushed, never
to rise again. Everywhere where stony cavities exist,
natural excavations, or apertures opened by man,
one observes that which is called stratifications, or
superposed beds. The rocks which present this phase
are designated stratified rocks.
These beds, of a very variable thickness, sometimes
of only a few hundred inches, sometimes a hundred
yards and more, are distinguished from one another
by the color and nature of the substances of which
they are composed.
Works of art, the boring of wells, the exploding
of quarries, and, above all, mines, have given the
means of observation to a considerable depth. The
beds are generally homogeneous; that is to say, that
each one is formed of a similar substance, or of
diverse substances which have co-existed, and have
formed a compact whole. The line of separation.
isolating them from one another is always distinctly
defined as in the different parts of a ship. No part is
seen mingled or lost in another: each remains within
its own respective limits. Such is the case, for exam-
ple, in the colors of the prism or the rainbow. By
GEOLOGICAL PERIODS.
167
these characters, observers decide that they have
been successively formed, deposited upon one another
by different causes and conditions. The deepest have
naturally been formed first, and those nearest the
surface subsequently. The last of all, that which
is found on the surface, is the bed of vegetable which
owes its properties to the destruction of organic
matter which produces plants and animals. The
lower beds, placed under the vegetable, have received
in geology the name of rocks, a word which in this
acceptation implies, not always the idea of a stony
substance, but signifies a resting-place of some min-
eral substance. Some are formed of sand, of clay or
loam, of chalk or pebbles; others of stones, properly
speaking, of greater or lesser hardness, such as sand-
stone, marbles, chalk, limestone, millstone, coals of
the earth, asphalt. They say that the power of a
rock depends upon its thickness. By the inspection
of the nature of these rocks or beds, one recognizes,
by certain signs, that they are produced by heated
substances sometimes vitrified by the action of fire.
Other terrestrial substances are deposited by water.
Some of these substances have remained disinte-
grated, as sand; others at first in a pasty state, under
the action of certain chemical agents or other causes,
have become hardened, and have acquired in time
the consistence of stone. Superposed stony beds.
show successive deposits. Fire and water have then
played their parts in the formation of the materials
composing the solid framework of the globe.
The normal position of terrestrial or stony beds
producing aqueous deposits is horizontal. When
one sees these immense plains, often extending as far
168
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
as the eye can see in a perfectly horizontal line, united
as if levelled by a roller, or depths of valleys as
smooth as the surface of a lake, one can be certain
that at some distant epoch these places have been
for a long time covered by tranquil waters, which,
in retiring, have left the beds dry upon which they
were deposited during their sojourn. After the re-
treats of the waters, these beds have become covered
with vegetation. If in place of fertile, muddy clay
or chalky earths, which afford nourishment for soil,
the waters had deposited only silicious sand without.
aggregation, we should find here dry and sandy
plains constituting waste lands and deserts. The
deposits left by partial inundations, and those which
form the alluvium at the mouth of rivers, give us a
faint idea of this. Although the horizontal is the
most normal and usual position of these aqueous
formations, one sees, often to a considerable extent
in mountainous districts, rocks, which indicate by
their nature that they were formed by water in an
inclined, and sometimes even in a vertical, position.
Now, as according to the laws of the equilibrium
of liquids and weights, the aqueous deposits can
be formed exclusively upon horizontal planes, it is
therefore supposed that those which rest on inclined
planes are drawn into the lower depths by currents,
and by their own weight. It is evident that these.
deposits have been raised by some force, after their
solidification and transformation into stone. From
these considerations we can conclude with certitude
that all these stony beds composed of aqueous depos-
its, in a perfectly horizontal position, have been
formed during the succession of ages by tranquil
GEOLOGICAL PERIODS.
169
waters; and that, whenever they are found in an in-
clined position, the earth has been violently agitated
and subsequently broken up by general or partial
earthquakes of more or less importance. A charac-
teristic fact of the highest importance for the unex-
ceptionable testimony it furnishes, consists in fossil
remains of vegetables and animals encountered in
innumerable varieties in the different beds; and, as
these remains are even found in the hardest stones,
it is necessary to conclude that the existence of these
beings antedates the formation of these stones. Now,
if we consider how many centuries must have been
spent in this hardening process, which has eventually
brought them to the condition in which they have
been from time immemorial, one is forced to the
conclusion, that the time of the advent of organized
beings upon the earth is lost in the night of unknown
ages, and that it is consequently very far behind the
dates assigned by Genesis.¹
Among these vegetable and animal fossils are those
which have been penetrated throughout by silicious
1 Fossil, from the Latin fossilia and fossilis, derived from fossa,
"ditch," and from fodere, "to dig or plough the earth." This word
is used in geology to signify bodies, or the remains of organized
bodies, belonging to creatures who lived in prehistoric times. It is
equally applied to mineral substances bearing traces of the presence
of organized beings, such as the imprints of vegetables or of animals.
The word "fossil," in a more general acceptation, has been sub-
stituted for that of petrifaction, which applies only to bodies
transformed into stone by the infiltration of silicious or calcareous
substances in the organic tissues. All the petrifactions are necessa-
rily fossils, but all fossils are not petrifactions. The formations with
which stony beds are covered, when they are plunged into waters
charged with calcareous substances, are not, properly speaking,
petrifactions, but simple incrustations. Monuments, inscriptions,
and other objects produced by human effort belong to the science of
archæology.
170 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
or calcareous substances, which have transformed
them into stone, of which some have the hardness of
marble: these, properly speaking, are petrifactions.
Others have simply been enveloped by matter in a
soft state, and a few of them are found in a per-
fect state in the hardest stones. Others have left
only imprints, but of a distinct and perfect delicacy.
In the interior of certain stones the imprint of feet
have been discovered, also the form of fingers and
nails, from which it is concluded that some animal
has produced them.
The animal fossils are but little comprehended.
One finds sometimes the solid and resisting parts,
such as bones, scales, and horns. Sometimes these
are complete skeletons, but more frequently only de-
tached portions, of which it is easy to recognize the
production. By the inspection of a jaw or a tooth, one
sees immediately whether it belongs to a herbivorous
or carnivorous animal. As all the parts of an animal
have a necessary correlation, the form of the head,
of a shoulder-blade, of a bone of the leg, or a foot,
suffices to determine the size, the general form, and
the mode of life of the animal.¹
The terrestrial animals have an organism clearly
separating them from aquatic animals. Fish and
shell-fish fossils are excessively numerous; shell-fish
alone sometimes forming entire beds of great thick-
ness. By their nature, one quickly determines
whether they are marine or fresh-water animals.
1 At the point to which George Cuvier has carried the science of
paleontology, one bone alone suffices often to determine the race,
species, and form of an animal, also its habits, by which it can be
entirely reconstructed.
}
GEOLOGICAL PERIODS.
171
The masses of pebble-stone rock, which in certain
places constitute important phenomena, are unequivo-
cal indication of their origin. They are rounded like
the pebble-stones on the seashore, an unmistakable
sign that they have been subjected to the effects of
waters. The countries where they are found buried
in large quantities have most certainly once lain
under violently agitated waters.
Rocks of diverse formations are also characterized
by the nature of the fossils they enclose. The most
ancient ones contain vegetable and animal remains,
which have entirely disappeared from off the surface
of the globe. Certain more recent species have as
completely disappeared, but have preserved an anal-
ogy, which differs only in size and slightly in form.
Others, of which we see the last representations, are
tending evidently to disappearance in a near future,
such as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, etc.
According as the terrestrial beds approach our epoch,
the animal and vegetable species they contain ap-
proach those animals and vegetables which still exist.
The perturbations and inundations which have taken
place upon the earth since its origin have completely
changed the conditions of vitality, and have made
entire generations of living beings disappear.
By interrogating the nature of the geological beds,
one knows in the most positive manner if, at the
epoch of their formation, the country which encloses.
them was occupied by the sea, by lakes, cr by forests
and plains peopled with terrestrial animals. If, then,
in the same country one finds a series of superposed
beds containing alternately marine and fresh-water
fossils many times repeated, it is an unexceptionable
172
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
proof that this same country has been many times
encompassed by the sea, covered by lakes, and be-
come dry again. And how many centuries upon
centuries certainly, thousands of centuries perhaps,
has it required to accomplish each period of this?
What a powerful force must have been required to
displace and replace the ocean, to raise mountains!
How many physical revolutions, violent commotions,
the earth has passed through before becoming what
it has been through historic ages! and they try
to make us believe that the formation of the earth
took less time than is necessary to propagate a
plant.
The study of the geological beds attests, as has pre-
viously been stated, to successive formations, which
have gradually changed the form of the globe, and
divided its history into many epochs. These epochs.
constitute that which is called geologic periods, the
knowledge of which is necessary to establish a true
Genesis. Geologists count six principal periods,
which they have designated as follows: first the pri-
mary, second the transition, third the secondary,
fourth the tertiary, fifth the diluvian, sixth the post-
diluvian or present period. Rocks formed during the
duration of each period are called thus: primitive,
transition, secondary rocks, etc. One says that such
and such rocks, such and such fossils, are found in
rocks of such and such periods.
It is essential to remark, that the number of
these periods is not absolute, and that it depends
upon system of classification. One does not com-
prehend, in the six principal periods designated
above, all which are marked by notable and general
PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE GLOBE. 173
change in the state of the globe; but observation
proves that many successive formations have been
produced during the history of each. That is why
they are divided into periods, characterized by the
nature of the rocks, which bear twenty-six general
and very characteristic formations, without counting
those which are produced by modifications due to
purely local causes.
Primitive State of the Globe. The depression
of the poles and other conclusive facts are certain
indications that the earth has been originally in
a fluid or soft state. This state could have been
caused by matter having been liquefied by fire or
softened by water. It is proverbially said, "There
is no smoke without fire." This true proverb is an
application of the principle, "There is no effect
without a cause." For the same reason one can say,
"There is no fire without a focus." Now, by facts
which pass under our eyes, there is not only smoke
produced, but also very real fire which must have
a focus. This fire coming from the interior of the
earth, and not from on high, the focus must be
within; the fire being permanent, the focus must be
equally so, the heat which is augmented by meas-
ure as it penetrates the interior of the earth, and
which at a certain distance from the surface attains
a very high temperature; the hot springs, so much
warmer according to the depth from which they
come. Fires and masses of heated and burning sub-
stances, which escape from volcanoes with vast up-
heavings, or by crevasses produced by earthquakes,
can leave no doubt concerning the existence of an
interior fire.
T
174 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Experience demonstrates that the temperature has
been raised one degree by every thirty yards of
depth: whence it follows that at a depth of three
hundred yards the augmentation is ten degrees; at
three thousand yards, one hundred degrees, a tem-
perature of boiling water; at thirty thousand yards,
seven to eight leagues (from twenty-one to twenty-
four miles), one thousand degrees; at twenty-five
leagues (seventy-five miles), more than thirty-three
hundred degrees, a temperature at which no known
material can resist fusion. From there to the centre
there is still a space of more than fourteen hundred
leagues (forty-two hundred miles), may be twenty-
eight hundred leagues (eighty-four hundred miles),
in diameter, which must be occupied by molten sub-
stances. Although this is only a conjecture judging
cause by effect, it has all the elements of probability;
and one arrives at this conclusion, that the earth is
still an incandescent mass covered with a solid crust
twenty-five or more leagues (seventy-five miles) in
thickness, which is scarcely the one hundred and
twentieth part of its diameter. Proportionally
speaking, it must be much thinner than the thin-
nest rind of an orange. For the rest, the thickness of
the terrestrial crust is very variable in many places;
for there are some countries, especially volcanic ter-
ritories, where the heat and flexibility of the soil
indicate that it is much thinner. The high tem-
perature of hot springs is also an indication of close
vicinity to the central fire.
It is then evident that the primitive state of the
softness or fluidity of the earth must have been
caused by the action of heat, not by water.
The
L
175
RIMITIVE STATE OF THE GLOBE.
}
In
earth was then originally an incandescent mass.
consequence of the caloric rays, it became liquefied.
It has been gradually cooled, and the cooling process
has naturally commenced on the surface, which has
become hardened, whilst the interior has remained in
a fluid state. One can thus compare the earth to
a block of coal coming red from the furnace, the
surface cooling by contact with the air, although, if
one breaks it, the interior is found to be yet burn-
ing.
At the epoch when the terrestrial globe was
an incandescent mass, it contained not one atom
more or less than it does to-day. Only under the
influence of this high temperature, the greater part
of the substances composing it, and which we see
under the forms of liquids and solids, earths, stones,
metals, and crystals, were found in a very different
state. They have only been submitted to a trans-
formation. In consequence of the cooling process.
and mixtures, the elements have formed new combi-
nations. The air, considerably inflated, became ex-
tended to an immeasurable distance. All the water
forcibly reduced to vapor was mingled with the air.
All the substances susceptible of volatilization —such
as metals, sulphur, carbon - were there found in a
gaseous state. The state of the atmosphere was then
in no way comparable with its present condition. The
density of all these vapors gave it an opacity through
which no ray of sunlight could penetrate. If a living
being could have existed on the earth at this period,
he would have had for light only the sinister bright-
ness of the fires beneath his feet, and the burning
atmosphere.
176 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
The Primary Period. The first effect of the
cooling process was to solidify the outermost surface
of the melted mass, and to form there a resisting
crust, which, thin at first, little by little thickened.
This crust constitutes the stone called "granite,” of
an extreme hardness, named thus by reason of its
granulated appearance. The three principal sub-
stances found there are felspar, quartz or crystal
rock, and mica. This last has a brilliant metallic
tint, although it is not a metal. The granite-bed is,
then, the first ever formed upon the globe, which it
entirely envelops, and of which it constitutes in some
sort the bony framework. It is the direct product
of melted matter consolidated. Upon it and in the
cavities that its violently agitated surface presented
are successively deposited the beds of other rocks
subsequently formed. That which distinguishes this
from later formations is the absence of all stratifi-
cation; that is to say, it is in its whole extent a
compact and uniform mass, and not divided by differ-
ent kinds of beds. The effervesence of incandescent
substances must have produced numerous and pro-
found crevasses through which this substance was
expelled.
The second effect of the cooling process was
to liquefy certain vaporous substances in the air,
which were precipitated to the surface of the ground.
There were then showers and lakes of sulphur and
bitumen, veritable streams of iron, lead, and other
heated metals infiltrating themselves into the fissures
which constitute to-day the metallic veins and arteries.
of the earth. Under the influence of these different
agents the granite surface experienced successive de-
THE PRIMARY PERIOD.
177
compositions. Combinations were formed which re-
sulted in primitive rocks distinct from the granite
rocks, but in confused masses, and without regular
stratifications. Then came the waters, which, falling
upon a burning soil, vaporized anew, fell again and
again in torrents until the soil permitted them to
rest upon it in a liquid state. At the formation of
the granite rocks the regular series of geologic pe-
riods commence. To the six principal periods it is
proper to add that of the primitive incandescent
state of the globe.
Such was the aspect of this first period, — a veri-
table chaos of all the elements mingled together
seeking their position where no living being could
possibly exist, as one of its distinctive characters in
geology at this time is the absence of all traces of
vegetable and animal life. It is impossible to decide.
upon the duration of this primary period: no more
can we of the following. But, judging from the
time necessary for a cannon-ball of given volume.
heated to the red-white heat to become sufficiently
cool to allow of a drop of water resting upon it in a
liquid state, it has been calculated, that, if this
cannon-ball were of the magnitude of the earth,
more than one million years would be necessary.
Transition Period. — At the commencement of the
transition period the solid granite crust had thick-
ened only a little, and offered but a feeble resistance
to the effervescence of the burning substance which
it covered and repressed. Numerous rents were made,
by means of which the interior land was thrown out.
The soil presented considerable inequalities of sur-
face. Waters not very deep covered nearly all the
178
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
surface of the globe, with the exception of elevated
lands formed of rocks frequently submerged at their
base. The air gradually became purged from the
heavier gaseous substances, which, while condensing
by the cooling process, were precipitated to the sur-
face of the ground, then drawn into and dissolved
by the waters. At this epoch it is necessary to un-
derstand this word in a relative sense; that is to say,
in connection with the primitive state: for the tem-
perature must have still been burning. The thick
aqueous vapors which were raised on all sides from
the immense liquid surface fell in abundant and warm
rains, obscuring the air. Soon, however, the rays
of the sun began to shine through this foggy atmos-
phere. One of the last substances of which the air
has been purged, because it is naturally in a gaseous
state, is carbonic-acid gas, which then formed one
of its constituent parts. At this epoch beds of
earthy sediment began to form, deposited by waters
charged with lime and other matters peculiar to
organic life. Then appeared the first living beings.
of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. At first
few in number, one finds more and more frequent
traces of such as one penetrates more and more
deeply into the beds of this formation. It is to be
remarked, that everywhere life is manifested so soon
as conditions are propitious to vitality, and that each
species is born so soon as the proper conditions of its
existence are produced. One may say that the germs.
were latent, and only awaited proper conditions for
unfoldment.
The first organized existences which appeared upon
the earth were vegetables of the least complicated
TRANSITION PERIOD.
179
organization, designated in botany under the names.
of cryptogans, acotyledonous plants and monocoty-
ledonous plants, such as lichens, mushrooms, mosses,
ferns, and herbaceous plants. One does not now see
trees with woody trunks, but only those of the palm
species, whose sponge-like trunks are analogous to
the stems of herbs. The animals of this period,
which have succeeded to the first vegetation, are
exclusively marine. These were at first polyps, radi-
ates, zoöphytes, animals whose rudimentary and sim-
ple organizations approach most nearly to vegetable
forms. Later came fishes and shell-fish, the species
of which do not exist now.
Under the empire of heat and humidity an excess
of carbonic-acid gas was expended in the air, a
gas improper to the respiration of terrestrial animals,
but necessary to plants. The uncovered rocks were
rapidly covered with luxuriant vegetation, while
at the same time aquatic plants multiplied on the
surface of marshes. Plants, which in our day are
simple herbs a few inches high, attained a prodigious
height and magnitude: there were then forests of
tree-like ferns from eight to ten yards in height, and
of proportionate magnitude; plants called wolfsfoot,
and a kind of moss of the same size, a marsh-plant
called horse-tail, four or five yards high, which we
hardly see now. At the end of this period pines or
fir-trees began to appear.
In consequence of the displacement of the waters,
the grounds which produced these masses of vegeta-
tion were many times submerged, covered again with
terrestrial sediment, during which those which had
become dry appeared in their turn with a similar
M
180
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
vegetation thus there were many successive gen-
erations of vegetables destroyed and renewed again.
The animals being aquatic suffered nothing from
these changes. These remains accumulated during
a long series of years, and formed beds of great
thickness. Under the action of heat, of humidity,
of pressure, exercised by subsequent terrestrial depos-
its, and, without doubt, also various chemical agents,
such as gas, acids, and salts, products of a combina-
tion of primitive elements, these vegetable substances.
were submitted to a fermentation converting them
into coal. The coal-mines are, then, the direct result
of the decomposition of a mass of vegetables accu-
mulated during the transition period. That is why
they are found in almost every country.1
The fossil remains of the luxuriant vegetation of
this epoch are being discovered to-day under the ice
of the polar regions, as well as in the torrid zone:
therefore it is necessary to conclude, that, since vege-
tation was uniform, the temperature also must have.
been equally so. The poles were then not covered
with ice as now: then the earth drew its heat from
itself, from the central fire which equally heated all
the solid bed, then too thin to offer to it successful
resistance. This heat was much greater than that
conveyed by the solar rays, enfeebled as they were
by the density of the atmosphere. Later on, when
the central heat could exert only a feeble influence
upon the surface, did that of the sun preponderate;
1 Turf is produced in the same manner by the decomposition of
vegetable matter in marshy grounds; but with this difference, being
much more resent and formed under different conditions, it has not
had time to carbonize.
SECONDARY PERIOD.
181
and the polar regions, receiving only oblique rays
giving very little heat, became covered with ice.
One understands that at the epoch of which we
speak, and for a long time after, ice was unknown
upon the earth. This period has been a very long
one, judging from the number and thickness of the
coal-beds.¹
Secondary Period. With the transition period
the colossal vegetation and animals which charac-
terized this period passed away. Perhaps it was
caused by a change in atmospheric conditions, or on
account of inundations having destroyed all which had
life on the earth. It is probable that the two causes
have contributed to this change; for, by a study of
the rocks which mark the end of this period, we find
signs of great earthquakes, upheavings, and eruptions
which have thrown upon the earth great quantities
of lava, also notable changes which have appeared
in the three kingdoms.
The secondary period is characterized, as regards
the mineral kingdom, by numerous and important
beds, which attest a slow formation in the waters,
and mark very different characteristic epochs. Vege-
tation is less rapid and colossal in growth than
in the preceding period, caused no doubt by the
diminution in heat and humidity, and by modifica-
tions experienced by the constitutive elements of the
atmosphere. To herbaceous and pulpy plants were
1 In the Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia), M. Lyell found, upon
a coal-bed four hundred yards in thickness, sixty-eight different
levels, presenting evident traces of many forest soils, the trunks of
the trees of which were still garnished with their roots. Supposing
that it takes one thousand years to form each of these levels, it must
have taken sixty-eight thousand years to form this coal-bed alone.
182
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
joined those with woody stalks and, properly speak-
ing, also the first trees.
Animals are still aquatic or amphibious at this
time; animal life upon the earth seeming to have
made but little progress. A great quantity of shell-
covered animals have been developed in the seas by
the formation of calcareous substances; also new
fishes of a more perfect organization than those of
the previous period have appeared, also the first of
the whale tribe. The most characteristic animals.
of this period are monstrous reptiles, among which
are found the ichthyosaurus, a species of lizard-fish,
which attained ten yards in length, the jaws of
which, being of a prodigious length, were armed
with one hundred and eighty teeth. Its general form
was a little like the crocodile, but without the scaly
breastplate; its eyes were as large as the head of a
man; it had fins like the whales, and spouted water
into the air like them. The plesiosaurus was another
marine animal, as large as the ichthyosaurus, the
excessively long neck of which was bent like that of
the swan, which gave to it the appearance of an
enormous serpent attached to the body of a turtle
or tortoise. It had the head of a lizard and the teeth
of a crocodile. Its skin must have been smooth; for
no trace of scales, or carapaces, have been found.1
The teleosaurus approaches nearer the actual croco-
diles, which appear to be the diminutive descendants
of it. Like them it had a scaly breastplate, and lived
at times upon the earth as well as in the water. Its
body was about ten yards in length, allowing three
or four for the head alone. Its enormous mouth had
an aperture two yards in length.
1 First fossil was discovered in 1823.
SECONDARY PERIOD.
183
The megalosaurus was a great lizard and a kind
of crocodile from fourteen to fifteen yards in length,
essentially carnivorous, nourishing itself with rep-
tiles, small crocodiles, and tortoises. Its formidable
jawbone was armed with teeth like a double-bladed
pruning or garden knife bent round behind in such
a way, that, once having entered into their prey, it
was impossible for the latter to disengage them-
selves.
The iguanodon (guana), the largest lizard which
had appeared upon the earth, measured fron twenty
to twenty-five yards from the head to the extremity
of the tail. Its snout was surmounted by a horn
formed of bone, similar to the guana of our day, from
which it seems to have differed only in size; the lat
ter having a body not a yard in length. The form
of the teeth prove that it was herbivorous, and the
feet that it was a land animal.
The pterodactyl, a strange animal of the size of a
swan, being like a reptile in body, with the head of a
bird. Its toes, which were of a prodigious length,
were united with a fleshy membrane like that of the
bat, which served it as a parachute when it precipi-
tated itself from the height of a tree or rock upon
its prey. It had no horny beak like birds; but the
jawbones were as long as half its body, and were gar-
nished with teeth terminating in a point like a beak.
During this period, which must have been very
long, as the number and importance of the geological
beds attest, animal life developed largely in the
watery elements, in like manner to vegetation in a
previous period. The purer air, more conducive to
respiration, permits some animals to live upon the
184 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
earth. The sea has been many times displaced, but
without violent commotion. With this period dis-
appeared in their turn those races of gigantic aquatic
animals, replaced later by analogous species, less dis-
proportionate in form, and of infinitely smaller size.
Pride has influenced man to say, that all animals
were created for his purposes and for his needs.
But what is the number of those which directly serve
him, which he has been able to subject, compared to
the incalculable number of those with which he has
never had and will never have any connection?
How is it possible to sustain a similar thesis in pres-
ence of these innumerable species which alone have
populated the earth for thousands and thousands of
centuries before he came here himself, and which
have disappeared? Can one say that they have been
created for his profit? However, these species all
had their utility in life. God would not create
them for nought in order to give himself the plea-
sure of destroying them; for all had life, instincts,
and the capacity for misery and happiness. What
then was the object? It must have been a sover-
eignly wise one, though we are still unable to com-
prehend it. Perhaps the secret will one day be given
to man, in order to humble his pride; but in the
mean time how many ideas crowd upon us in pres-
ence of these new horizons into which we are per-
mitted to gaze, and which display to us the imposing
spectacle of this creation, so majestic in its slow
and mighty developments, so admirable in its fore-
sight, so punctual, precise, and invariable in its
results!
Tertiary Period. With the tertiary period com-
TERTIARY PERIOD.
185
mences for the earth a new order of things. The
aspect of its surface is completely changed; the
conditions of vitality are profoundly modified, and
approach the present state of the earth. The first
part of this period is signalized by an arrest in ani-
mal and vegetable productions. Every thing bears
traces of an almost entire destruction of living beings,
and then appeared successively new species, the bet-
ter organization of which is adapted to the locality
where they are called to live.
During preceding periods the solid crust of the
globe, by reason of its thinness, presented, as has
been said, a pretty feeble resistance to the action of
the internal fire. This envelope, easily broken, per-
mitted melted substances to be freely expelled to
the surface of the earth. After having acquired a
certain thickness, this did not take place. Burning
substances compressed on all sides, like boiling
water in a closed vessel, would end in an explosion.
The granite mass, violently broken at many points,
was furrowed with crevasses. Upon the line of
these crevasses the solid crust was raised and re-
formed, formed peaks, chains of mountains, and their
ramifications. Certain parts of the envelope which
were not rent where simply piled up, whilst upon other
points excavations and depressions were produced.
The surface of the earth became then very unequal.
The waters, which until this time had covered in a
nearly uniform manner the greater part of its ex-
tent, flowed down into the lowest places, leaving
vast continents of dry land, or summits of isolated
mountains, which formed islands.
Such is the great phenomenon which has been
186 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
:
accomplished in the tertiary period, and which has
transformed the aspect of the globe. It was not
produced instantaneously or simultaneously at all
points, but successively at epochs more or less remote
from one another.
One of the first consequences of these upheav-
ings has been, as has been said, the inclination of
the primitively horizontal beds of sediment, and
which have remained everywhere in this horizontal
position where the soil has not been overthrown.
In countries where the beds of sediment have pre-
served their horizontal position, in order to reach.
that of the first formation, it is necessary to pass
through all the others, often to a great depth, at the
end of which one invariably finds the granite rock.
But, when these beds have been elevated into moun-
tains, they have been carried above their normal
level, sometimes to a very great height, in such a
way, that, if one makes a vertical trench upon the
side of the mountain, they are shown in all their
thickness, superposed like the different layers of a
building. This explains why quite large beds of
marine-shell fossils are often found on high eleva-
tions of land. It has been generally recognized that
at no epoch the sea has been able to attain such a
height; for all the water on the earth is not sufficient
for it, and would not be even were it a hundred times
greater in volume. Some might say that the quantity
of water had diminished; but then the query would
come, What had become of it?
The upheavals which are now incontestably demon-
strated by science explain completely and logically
the marine desposits which are found upon certain
TERTIARY PERIOD.
187
mountains. These beds have evidently been sub-
merged during many ages, but on their primitive
level, not on the sites they now occupy. It is abso-
lutely as though a portion of the bottom of a lake
were found raised twenty-five or thirty yards above
the surface of the water. The summit of this eleva-
tion would carry the remains of plants and animals
formerly found in the depths of the water. This
would not imply that the waters of the lake ever
attained to this height.
In places where the upheaval of the primitive
rock has produced a complete rent in the soil,
perhaps by its rapidity, perhaps by form, height,
or volume of the raised mass, the granite has
appeared bare like a tooth which pierces the gums;
the beds which were covered, elevated, upheaved, and
recovered have been brought to life; whilst rocks be-
longing to the most ancient formations, and which
were found in their primitive position at a great
depth, form now the soil of certain countries.
The granite mass, dislodged by the effect of earth-
quakes, has left in some places fissures through
which the melted substances have escaped. The
volcanoes are like chimneys to this immense furnace,
or better still, like escape-valves, which, in providing
an exit for the great excess of burning substances,
preserve them from terrible commotions, whence one
can infer that a large number of active volcanoes is
a source of safety to the whole earth. One can form
an idea of the intensity of this fire by learning how
volcanoes opened in the midst of an ocean are not
extinguished by the immense waters which cover
and penetrate them. The upheavings of the earth in
188
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
one solid mass have necessarily displaced the waters
which have flowed back into hollow places, become
deeper by the uprising of emerged rocks and by
depressions; but these same low depths have been
raised in their turn sometimes in one place, some-
times in another, and have repelled the waters, which
have flowed elsewhere successively until they have
found a stable resting-place. The successive displace-
ments of this liquid mass have violently agitated
the surface of the earth. The waters, in passing
away, have drawn portions of rocks of anterior for-
mation, brought to light by the earthquakes; denuded
mountains which were recovered, and brought to
light their granite or calcareous base. Deep valleys.
have been hollowed out, and others filled in. There
are, then, mountains formed directly by the action
of the central fire: they are principally granite
mountains. Others are due to the action of the
waters, which, in drawing mellow earth and soluble
matters after them, have hollowed out valleys around
a calcareous or other resisting base. The substances
drawn by running waters have formed the beds of
the tertiary period, which are easily distinguished
from the preceding ones less by their composition,
which is nearly the same, than by their disposition.
The beds of the primary, transition, and secondary
periods, formed upon a slightly undulating surface,
are nearly uniform over all the earth. Those of the
tertiary period, to the contrary, formed upon a very
unequal base and by the procession of the waters,
have a more local character. Everywhere, by digging
to a certain depth, one finds all the anterior beds in
the order of their formation; whilst the tertiary rocks
TERTIARY PERIOD.
189
are not found everywhere, nor all the beds of the
latter.
During the earthquakes which took place at the
commencement of this period, one finds that or-
ganic life has been arrested, which is proved by the
absence of fossils in these rocks. But, as soon as
a calm was restored, vegetables and animals re-ap-
peared. The conditions of vitality being changed,
the atmospere becoming purer, new species, with
more perfect organization, were formed. As regards
structure, the plants differed very little from those
of our time.
During the two preceding periods the earth un-
covered by water was of very small extent, marshy,
and frequently submerged: that is why the animals.
were all either aquatic or amphibious. The tertiary
period, in which vast continents have been formed,
has been characterized by the appearance of terres-
trial animals, just as the transition period has brought
forth colossal vegetables, and the secondary period
monstrous reptiles; this has produced gigantic mam-
miferous animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, paleotherium, megatherium, dinothe-
rium, the mastodon, mammoth, etc. It has pro-
duced birds as well, some of the species of which
are living now.
A few of the animals of this period have survived
subsequent inundations. Others that have been des-
ignated by the generic term, "antediluvian animals,"
have completely disappeared, or have been replaced
by analogous species, in form lighter and smaller in
which the original types have been merely outlined:
such are the felisspeloea, a carnivorous animal about
190
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
the size of the bull, having the anatomical charac-
teristics of tiger and lion; the cervus megaceron,
a variety of the deer, of which the horns, three yards
in length, were separated by three to four yards from
their extremities.
It has long been believed that the monkey, and
different varieties of four-footed animals which ap-
proach man most nearly in formation, did not yet
exist; but recent discoveries appear to leave no doubt
of the existence of these animals, at least toward
the close of the period.
Diluvial Period. This period has been marked
by one of the greatest inundations which has ever
visited the globe, which changed once more the
aspect of its surface, and destroyed completely a
multitude of living species, of which few remains
only have been found. Everywhere are left traces
which attest its generality. The waters, violently
driven from their bed, have surrounded continents,
drawing with them earth and rocks, denuding moun-
tains, uprooting forests of a century's growth. The
new deposits which they have formed are designated
in geology "diluvial rocks."
One of the most significant traces of this great
disaster are rocks called "erratic blocks." Thus are
named granite rocks that are found isolated in plains
reposing upon tertiary beds, and in the midst of dilu-
vial rocks, sometimes many hundreds of miles from
mountains whence they have been torn.
It is evident that they can have been transported 1
1 It is one of these blocks, evidently by its composition coming
from the mountains of Norway, which serves as the pedestal to the
statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg.
DILUVIAL PERIOD.
191
so great a distance only by the violence of a cur-
rent.
A no less characteristic fact, and one the cause of
which is not yet explained, is, that among the dilu-
vial rocks are found the first aërolites. It is, then, at
this epoch that they began to form. The cause which
produced them did not previously exist.
It is toward this epoch that the poles commenced
to be covered with ice, and the glaciers were formed
on the mountains, which indicates a notable change
in the temperature of the globe. This change must
have been sudden; for, had it operated gradually,
animals, such as the elephant, which live now only
in warm climates, and which are found in great num-
bers in a fossil state in the polar territories, would
have had time to withdraw, little by little, to the
more temperate regions. Every thing goes to prove
that they have been suddenly seized by great cold,
and enveloped in ice.
This was, then, the veritable universal deluge.
Opinions are divided as to the cause which produced
it; but, whatever they may have been, the fact no less
exists. It is generally supposed that a sudden change
took place in the position of the axes of the earth,
by which the poles were displaced, whence a general
projection of the waters upon the surface. If this
change had come about gradually, the waters would
have been displaced by degrees without agitation ;
whilst every thing indicates a violent and sudden
commotion.
While in ignorance of the veritable cause, one
can give only hypotheses. The displacement of the
waters can have been occasioned only by the up-
192
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
heaving of certain parts of the solid crust, and the
formation of new mountains on the bosom of the
waters, like that which took place at the commence-
ment of the tertiary period; but, beyond there hav-
ing been a general inundation, this would explain
nothing of the sudden change of the temperature of
the poles.
-
In the agitation caused by the displacement of
the waters, many animals have perished; others, in
order to escape inundation, have withdrawn to the
high elevations, into caves and crevasses, where they
have perished in masses, perhaps by famine, perhaps
by devouring one another, or by the flowing of the
water into the places where they have taken refuge,
and from whence they could not escape. Thus is ex-
plained the cause for the great quantity of bones of
animals, carnivorous and otherwise, which are found
in great confusion in certain caves, named, by reason
of this, "bone caverns." They are found most fre-
quently under the stalagmites. In a few of them
the bones seem to have been drawn there by the
current of the waters.1
Post-Diluvial or Present Period. The equilibrium
once re-established on the surface of the globe,
animal and vegetable life promptly resumed their
The consolidated soil had taken a firmer
position; the purer air agreed with more delicate
organs. The sun, which shone with all its splendor
through a limpid atmosphere, produced with its light
course.
1 A great number of similar caverns have been discovered, of
which some are quite extensive. There exist some in Mexico which
are many miles in extent. That of Aldelsberg, in Carniola, Austria,
is no less than nine miles. There are many in France, England,
Germany, Sicily, and other countries of Europe.
POST-DILUVIAL OR PRESENT PERIOD. 193
a less suffocating, more vivifying atmosphere than
that of the interior furnace. The earth was inhab-
ited by less ferocious animals; the more succulent
vegetables offered a finer alimentation. All at length
was prepared for the new host which must come to
inhabit the earth. It was then that man appeared,
the last created being, he whose intelligence hence-
forth must concur with the general progress by pro-
gressing himself.
Has man existed on the earth only since the di-
luvial period? or did he appear before this epoch?
This question is a disputed one now; but its solution,
whatever it may be, is only of secondary importance,
as it would change none of the established facts.
The reason why it has been thought that the
advent of man was posterior to the deluge is, be-
cause no authentic traces of his appearance previous
to this have been found. The bones discovered in
divers places, and which have been thought to belong
to a supposed race of antediluvian giants, have
been recognized as the bones of quadrupeds. That
which is beyond doubt is, that man did not exist
either in the primary, transition, or secondary periods,
not only because no traces of him are found, but
because conditions were not prepared for his appear-
ance. If he has appeared in the tertiary period, it
must have been towards the end, and then men must
have been very few in number; because, since the
most delicate remains of an immense number of ani-
mals who lived at this epoch have been found, it is
not possible that men have left no indication of their
presence either by some of their work or by fossil
remains. Besides, the diluvial period, having been
194
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
}
short, has not produced notable changes in climac-
teric and atmospheric influences. Animals and vege-
tables were about the same before as after. It is,
then, not a material impossibility that the advent of
man took place before this great inundation. The
presence of the monkey at this period adds to the
probability which recent discoveries appear to con-
firm. Whether or no man has appeared before the
great universal deluge, it is certain that his career as
a human being has never really commenced to outline
itself until the post-diluvial period, which is specially
characterized by his presence.
CHAPTER VIII.
THEORIES OF THE EARTH.- THEORY OF PROJECTION.
THEORY OF INCRUS-
- THEORY OF CONDENSATION.
TATION.
Ga
-
1. Theory of Projection. Of all the theories
touching the origin of being, that which has received
the most credit in recent days is that of Buffon,
perhaps by reason of the place its author held in
the scientific world, perhaps because knowledge on
the subject was slender at the time. By seeing all the
planets moving in the same direction and in the same
plane from the occident to the orient, from west to
east, going over orbits of which the inclination does
not exceed seven and a half degrees, Buffon con-
cluded, by this uniformity, that they must all move in
obedience to the same cause. According to him, the
sun being an incandescent melted mass, he supposed
that a comet, having been hurled obliquely against
it, by knocking against its surface, had detached a
portion, which, projected into space by the violence
of the shock, became divided into many fragments.
These fragments have formed planets, which have
continued to move circularly, by the combination
of centripetal and centrifugal force, in the way com-
municated by the direction of the original shock;
i.e., in the plane of the ecliptic planets must then be
195
196
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
parts of the incandescent substance of the sun, and
consequently incandescent themselves at their com-
mencement. They have been submitted to a cooling
and consolidating process during a period of time
proportionate to their volume; and, when the tem-
perature has permitted, life has appeared on their
surface. In consequence of the gradual lowering of
the central heat, the earth would arise in a given time
to a completely cool state; the liquid mass would be
entirely congealed; and the air, more and more con-
densed, will finally disappear. The lowering of the
temperature, rendering life impossible, would lead
to the diminution, then to the disappearance, of all
organized beings. The cooling process which has
commenced at the poles would pass successively from
one country to another until it reached the equator.
Such is, according to Buffon, the present state of
the moon, which, smaller than the earth, should be
now an extinguished world, whence life is henceforth
excluded. The sun itself will some day end in the
same manner. According to his calculation, it must
have taken the earth about seventy-four thousand
years to arrive at its present temperature, and in
ninety-three thousand years it must see the end of
organized nature.
2. The theory of Buffon, contradicted by more re-
cent discoveries in science, is now almost entirely
abandoned for the following reasons: 1st, For a long
time it was believed that comets were solid bodies,
which, coming in collision with planets, would destroy
them. According to this hypothesis the supposition of
Buffon was not improbable; but it is now known that
they are formed of a gaseous, condensed substance,
THEORY OF PROJECTION.
197
rarefied enough, however, to allow of stars of less
magnitude being visible through their nucleus. In
this state, offering less resistance than the sun, a vio-
lent shock capable of projecting afar a portion of its
substance is an impossible thing. 2d, The incandes-
cent nature of the sun is equally an hypothesis, as
nothing yet discovered confirms it. The results of
observation all point, however, in an opposite direc-
tion. Although its nature as yet has not been quite
determined upon, the means of observation are very
much improved, and thus it can be much better
studied. It is now generally admitted by scientists.
that the sun is a globe composed of a solid substance,
surrounded by a luminous atmosphere, which is not
in contact with its surface.¹
In the time of Buffon the six planets familiar to
the ancients were the only ones discovered, Mer-
cury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Since
then there have been discovered a number, of which
the three principal-Juno, Ceres, and Pallas-have
an inclined orbit of thirteen, ten, and thirty-four
degrees respectively, which does not accord with the
movement of unique projection.
The calculations of Buffon upon the cooling pro-
cess have been recognized as completely wrong since
the discovery of the law of the diminution of heat
by M. Fourier. Therefore, not only seventy-four
thousand years have been necessary to develop the
present temperature of the earth, but rather millions.
of years.
1 One will find a complete dissertation, according to modern
science, upon the nature of the sun and comets in Studies and Lec-
tures upon Astronomy, by Camille Flammarion. Price per vol.,
50 cents. Can be found at Messrs. Gauthier-Villard, 55 Quai des
Augustins, Paris.
198
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Buffon has considered only the central heat of
the globe, without taking into account that of the
sun's rays. Now it is recognized by scientific facts,
rigorously founded upon experience, that, by reason
of the thickness of the terrestrial crust, the internal
heat of the globe has for a long time played only an
insignificant part in regulating the temperature of the
surface. The variations to which the atmosphere is
submitted are periodical, and due to the preponder-
ating action of the solar heat (see chap. VII., p. 180).
The effect of this cause being permanent, whilst that
of the central heat is hardly any thing, the diminution
of the latter can bring to the surface of the earth no
sensible modification in order that the earth should
become uninhabitable by the general cooling process:
the extinction of the sun would be necessary.1
3. Theory of Condensation. The theory of the
formation of the earth by the condensation of cosmic
matter is that which now prevails in science as being
that which is best justified by observation, which
solves the greatest number of difficulties, and which
leans more than all others upon the grand principle
of universal unity. It is that which has been pre-
viously described in chap. VII., "General Uranogra-
phy." The two theories, as we perceive, lead to the
same result, —the primitive state of incandescence of
the globe ceasing, the formation of a solid crust, the
existence of the central fire, and the appearance of
organized life as soon as the temperature renders it
possible. They differ in the mode of formation of
1 For details on this subject, and for the law of the diminution of
heat, see Letters upon the Revolution of the Globe, by Bertrand,
pages 19 and 307.
THEORY OF INCRUSTATION.
199
the earth; and it is probable that, if Buffon had lived
in our day, he would have had other ideas.
There are, then, two different routes leading to the
same end. Geology takes the earth at the point
where direct observation is possible. Its state ante-
rior to this can be only conjectural. Now, between
two hypotheses, good sense teaches that it is neces-
sary to choose the one sanctioned by logic, and which
best agrees with observed facts.
4. Theory of Incrustation.-We mention this theory
only from memory, not because it has any scientific
value, but only because it has some few adherents
even to-day who have been seduced by it. The fol-
lowing is an abstract of it: God, according to the
Bible, created the world in six days, four thousand
years before the Christian era. This is what geolo-
gists contest by the study of fossils, and by numerous
incontestable evidences of decay, which carries the
origin of the earth back a million of years. How-
ever, the Scriptures have told the truth, and the
geologists also; and it is a simple peasant-M. Michel
of Figagnères (Var), author of the "Key of Life"
who makes them agree by teaching us that our earth
is a very recently incrustrated planet, composed of
very ancient materials. After the appearance of the
unknown planet, after its having arrived at maturity
in the place we now occupy, the spirit of the earth
received the order to bring together its satellites, in
order to form our present globe according to the laws
of progress. Four of these bodies alone consented.
to the association proposed to them: the moon alone
persisted in its autonomy; for the globes have all
their free will. In order to proceed with this fusion,
200
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
the spirit of the earth directed toward the satellites
a magnetic attractive ray, which entranced all the
animal, vegetable, and mineral properties which they
brought to the community:
To the operation there were no witnesses save the
spirit of the earth and the great celestial messengers
who aided in this work by opening the globes in
order to unite their contents. The joining together
having been accomplished, the waters ran into the
voids left by the absence of the moon. The atmos-
pheres were mingled; the awakening or resurrection
of the entranced germs commenced. Man was the
last object which was awakened from the magnetic
sleep, saw around him the luxuriant vegetation of a
terrestrial paradise, with animals feeding in peace
around him. All that could be performed in six
days with workmen as powerful as those which God
had charged with this commission. The planet Asia
brought us the yellow race, which belongs to the
most ancient civilization; Africa, the black race;
Europe, the white; and America, the red. The moon
would perhaps have brought the green or blue.
Thus certain animals of which we find the remains
may never have lived upon this present earth, but
may have been found in the portions received from
other worlds which have decayed. Fossils, found in
climates where they would not have been able to
exist lived, no doubt, in very different zones upon
globes where they were born. Such remains as are
found at the poles with us must have existed at the
equator on their own globes.
5. This theory has against it the most positive
results of experimental science, added to which it
►
THEORY OF INCRUSTATION.
201
leaves out entirely the question of origin, which it
pretends to solve. It tells well how the earth should
be formed, but does not instruct us how the four
worlds which constitute this have been formed. If
such things have taken place, why is it that we find
no trace of this immense union in any depth which
has been explored? If each one brought its own
peculiarities of materials, then Asia, Africa, Europe,
and America would each have a geology peculiar to
themselves, which is not so.
On the contrary, the first granite uniform crust of
a homogeneous composition is in all parts of the
globe without a breach of continuity. Then the
geological beds of the same formation are identical
in their constitution, everywhere in the same order
superposed, continuing, without interruption, from
one side to the other of the seas of Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America, and conversely. These beds.
are witnesses to the transformations of the globe,
attesting that these transformations have been ac-
complished over all its surface, and not upon one
part alone. It shows us equally well the periods of
the appearance, existence, and disappearance of the
same species of animals and vegetables in different
parts of the world; the fauna and flora of these
remote periods, marching everywhere simultaneously
under the influence of a uniform temperature,
changing in character everywhere according as the
temperature is modified. Such a state of things
is irreconcilable with the theory of the formation
of the earth by the addition of many different
worlds. If this idea had been conceived only a cen-
tury ago, it would have been able to acquire a tem-
202
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
porary place in the purely speculative imaginary cos-
mogonies, founded without experiment; but now it
has no vitality, will not receive examination because
it is contradicted by absolute facts. Without dis-
cussing here the free will attributed to the planets,
or question in regard to their spirit, one naturally
inquires, What would become of the sea, which
occupies the void left by the moon, if the latter
had desired to join her sisters? also what would
become of the earth if the moon should some day
take a fancy to join the others, take her place, and
expel the sea.
6. This belief has gained some adherents, because
it seemed to explain the presence of the different
races of men upon the earth, and their localization ;
but, since these races have been able to germinate
upon separate worlds, why would they not be able.
to have germinated upon different points of the same
globe? That is trying to solve a difficulty by one
much greater. Indeed, however great the rapidity
and dexterity with which this operation may have been
performed, this adjunction could not have been made
without violent commotion. The more rapid it had
been, the more disastrous had been the inundations.
It seems then impossible that beings in a simple
magnetic sleep could have slept through it, awaking
tranquilly after all was over. If these beings were
only germs, of what did they consist?
perfectly formed beings be reduced to the
germ? The question would always arise, How were
they developed anew? The miracle of a miraculous
formation would again be brought forth, but by a
method less poetic and grand than the Mosaic;
How could
state of a
THEORY OF INCRUSTATION.
203
whilst natural laws give an explanation of its forma-
tion much more complete, and above all more ra-
tional, deduced from experience and observation.¹
1 When such ideas are added to a cosmogony, one wonders if the
rest of it reposes upon a rational basis. The agreement which they
pretend to establish by this system between the biblical Genesis and
science is altogether an illusory idea, since it is contradicted by sci-
ence itself. On the other hand, all beliefs issuing from the Bible have
for a corner-stone the creation of a unique couple from whence all
men have sprung. Take away this stone, and all which has been
built upon it crumbles to pieces. Now this system giving to hu-
manity a multiple origin is the negation of the doctrine which
gives to him a common father. The author of the letter above, a
man of great learning, having been for a time seduced by this the-
ory, soon saw the vulnerable side, and delayed not to combat it
with the arms of science.
CHAPTER IX.
REVOLUTIONS OF THE GLOBE. GENERAL OR PAR-
TIAL REVOLUTIONS. - BIBLICAL DELUGE. — PERIOD-
ICAL REVOLUTIONS. - FUTURE INUNDATIONS.
1. General or Partial Revolutions. The geological
periods mark the phases of the general aspect of the
globe by the succession of its transformations. But
if one excepts the diluvial period, which bears the
marks of sudden commotions, all have been accom-
plished slowly, and without sudden transition. Dur-
ing all the time that the constituent elements of
the globe have been seeking their true position,
changes have been general. Once the base consoli-
dated, only partial modifications are produced upon
the surface.
2. Besides general revolutions, the earth has un-
dergone a great many local perturbations, which
have changed the aspect of certain countries. As
for the others, two causes have led to them,- fire
and water. By fire,-sometimes by volcanic erup-
tions, which have desolated whole districts, turning
villages and their inhabitants into beds of ashes;
by earthquakes, or by uprisings of the solid earth-
crust, making the water flow back upon the lower
countries, or by depressions of this same crust in
certain places over greater or less extents, where the
waters have been precipitated, leaving other territo-
201
THE BIBLICAL DELUGE.
205
ries bare. Thus islands have appeared on the bosom
of the ocean, while others have disappeared; thus
portions of continents have separated, and formed
islands; thus arms of land in the ocean, becoming
dry, have united islands to continents. By water,
-sometimes by overflows, or the retreat of the sea
from certain shores; by uprisings, which have ar-
rested the course of the water, lakes have been
formed; by overflows and inundations, or the alluvia
formed at the mouth of rivers. This alluvial deposit,
by obliging the sea to flow back, has created new
countries: such is the origin of the Delta of the
Nile, or Lower Egypt; of the Delta of the Rhone,
or Camargue.
3. The Biblical Deluge.-By the inspection of ter-
ritories disturbed by the uprising of mountains, and
beds which form long chains, one can determine their
geological age. By the geological age of mountains,
it is not necessary that we understand it as the num-
ber of the years of their existence, but the period
during which they have been formed, and conse-
quently their relative antiquity.
It would be an error to suppose that this antiquity
is by reason of their elevation, or of their exclu-
sively granite nature, considering that the mass of
granite, while being thrown up, can have perforated
and separated the superposed beds. It has thus
been ascertained by observation that the mountains.
of Vosges, of Bretagne, and of the Côte d'Or, in
France, which are not very lofty, belong to the
ancient formations. They date from the transition
period, and are anterior to the coal deposits. The
Jura has been formed near the middle of the second-
206
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ary period. It is contemporary with gigantic reptiles.
The Pyrenees have been formed later, at the com-
mencement of the tertiary period. Mont Blanc, and
the group of Western Alps, are posterior to the
Pyrenees, and date from the middle of the tertiary
period. The Eastern Alps, which comprise the moun-
tains of the Tyrol, are more recent still; for they
were not formed until the end of the tertiary period.
K
Some mountains of Asia are posterior to or con-
temporary with the diluvial period. These uprisings
must have been due to great local perturbations and
inundations, greater or less according to the extent
of the displacement of waters, and the interruptions
and changes of course of rivers.¹
4. The biblical deluge-designated also the great
Asiatic deluge—is a fact which cannot be contested.
It must have been occasioned by the uprising of a
A
1 The last century offers a remarkable example of a phenomenon
of this kind. Six days' journey from the city of Mexico was found
in 1759 a fertile and well-cultivated country, where grew an abun-
dance of rice, maize, and bananas. In the month of June frightful
earthquakes agitated the soil, and the tremblings continued two
whole months. In the night of Sept. 28 and 29 the earth experi-
enced a violent commotion: a territory of many miles in extent was
slowly raised, and attained a height of five hundred feet upon a sur-
face of thirty square miles. The earth undulated like ocean-waves
in a tempest. Millions of hillocks alternately rose and fell. At
length a gulf, nearly nine miles in extent, opened. From it pro-
ceeded smoke, fire, burning stones, and cinders, which were thrown
to a prodigious height. Six mountains rose from this yawning gulf,
among which the volcano Jorullo was raised to about five hundred
and fifty yards, or thirteen hundred and seventy-five feet, above the
former plain. At the moment the earthquake commenced, two
rivers, the Cuitimba and the Rio San Pedro, -flowing behind,
inundated the whole plain occupied now by the Jorullo; but a gulf
opened, and swallowed them. They re-appeared in the west, very
far away from their ancient bed. (Louis Figuier: The Earth before
the Deluge, p. 370.)
THE BIBLICAL DELUGE.
207
portion of the mountains of that country, similar to
the phenomenon in Mexico. That which supports
this theory is the existence of an inland sea, which
formerly extended from the Black Sea to the Arctic.
Ocean, which has been attested by geological obser-
vations. The Caspian Sea, whose waters are brack-
ish, although not in communication with any other
sea, the Sea of Aral, and the innumerable lakes
scattered over the immense plains of Tartary and
the steppes of Russia, appear to be remains of this
ancient sea. Then, by the upheaval of the Cau-
casian Mountains, a part of these waters have
flowed back northward to the Arctic Ocean, and
another portion to the south toward the Indian
Ocean. These inundated and ravished Mesopo-
tamia in particular, and all the country inhabited by
the ancestors of the Hebrews. Although this deluge
extended over a considerable surface, it is well under-
stood to-day that it has been only local in its extent;
that it has not been due to rain: for, however
abundant and continuous rain had been for sixty
days, the calculation proves that the quantity of
fallen water could not possibly have been sufficient
to cover all the earth even to the tops of the highest
mountains. But men were then acquainted with
only a very small portion of the globe, and had no
idea of its configuration. As soon as the inundation
had encompassed all known countries, it was for
them a universal flood. If, to this belief, one adds
the hyperbolical form and imagery peculiarly Ori-
ental in style, one cannot be surprised at the exagger-
ation in the biblical recital.
The Asiatic deluge was evidently posterior to the
K
208
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
advent of man upon the earth, since the memory of it
has been preserved by tradition only in the memory
of the inhabitants of this part of the world, who
have consecrated it in their theogonies. It is equally
posterior to the great universal deluge which has
marked the present geological period; and, when
they speak of antediluvian men and animals, geolo-
gists make reference to this first cataclysm.
6. Periodical Revolutions. Besides its annual mo-
tion around the sun, which produces the seasons; its
rotary movement upon itself in twenty-four hours,
which produces day and night,—the earth has a third
movement, which is completed in about twenty-five
thousand years (or, more exactly, 25,868 years),
which produces the phenomenon designated in as-
tronomy "the precession of the equinoxes." This
movement, which it would be impossible to explain
in a few words without figures, and without a geomet-
rical demonstration, is described by a waved curve
very nearly circular, which has been compared to the
movement of a dying spinning-top, in consequence
of which the axis of the earth, changing in inclina-
tion, describes a double cone, of which the summit is
at the centre of the earth, and the bases embrace
the surface circumscribed by the polar circles; that
is to say, an amplitude of twenty-three and a half
degrees of radius.¹
7. Sometimes the equinoctial points are called the
equinoxes. More commonly by the equinoxes are
1 An hour-glass composed of two conical glasses, turning upon
itself in an inclined position, or, still better, two sticks crossed in
the form of an X turning upon their point of intersection, can give
one an approximate idea of the figure formed by this movement of
the axis.
P
PERIODICAL REVOLUTIONS.
209
meant the times when the sun enters the equinoc-
tial points, — viz., March 21 and Sept. 22; the former
being called the vernal or spring equinox, and the
latter the autumnal: therefore the sun is exactly on
the equator twice a year. But, in consequence of
the gradual change in the obliquity of the axis, the
obliquity of the ecliptic is brought about. The time
of the equinox is found each year to have advanced
a few minutes (twenty-five minutes seven seconds).
It is this advance which is called the precession of the
equinoxes from the Latin præcedere, "to march be-
fore," derived from præ, signifying "before," and
cedere, signifying "to go away.”
These few minutes, after a long time, make years.
The result is that the equinox of the springtime,
which now arrives in March, will arrive in a given
time in February, then in January, then in Decem-
ber; and then the month of December will have the
temperature of March, and March that of June, and
so on in succession, until, returning to the month of
March, it will be found as at present, which will be
25,868 years from now. Then will it recommence the
same revolution indefinitely.¹
1 The precession of the equinoxes leads to another change,
that which has been brought to pass in the signs of the Zodiac. The
earth going around the sun in a year, according as it advances, the
sun finds itself every month opposite a new constellation: these are
twelve in number; viz., Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricor-
nus, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini. These
are the signs of the Zodiac: they form a circle in the plane of the
terrestrial equator. According to the month of the birth of au in-
dividual, they say that he was born under such a sign: whence the
prognostications of astrology. But, in consequence of the preces-
sion of the equinoxes, it happens that the months do not correspond
to constellations as they did two thousand years ago. For instance,
a person born in July is not now born in the sign Leo, but in that
210 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
8. It results from this conical movement of the
axis that the poles of the earth do not constantly
regard the same points in the heavens; that the
polar star is not always the same; that the poles are
gradually more or less inclined toward the sun, and
receive from it more or less direct rays. Whence it
follows that Iceland and Lapland, for example,
which are under the polar circle, will, in a given
time, be able to receive the solar rays as though they
were in the latitude of Spain or Italy; and that, in
the extreme opposite position, Spain and Italy will
have the temperature of Iceland and Lapland: so in
succession at every renewed period of 25,868 years.
9. The consequences of this movement have not
yet been determined upon with precision, because
only a very small part of its revolution has been
observed. We have only then to offer a few presump-
tions, some of which are, however, highly probable.
The consequences of this are, 1st, The heat and
the cold alternating at the poles, and consequently
the fusion of polar ice during 12,934 years, and their
reformation during another similar period: whence
it must result that the poles are not destined to abide
in everlasting sterility, but will enjoy in their turn
the blessing of fertility. 2d, The gradual displace-
ment of the sea, which encroaches little by little.
upon the land, whilst it leaves bare other lands in
order to abandon them again, and lie upon its for-
mer bed.
This periodical movement indefinitely
renewed would cover the whole earth with water
once every 25,868 years. The slowness with which
of Cancer: thus falls the superstition attaching to signs (chap. V.,
p. 121).
PERIODICAL REVOLUTIONS.
211
the sea thus operates renders it almost imperceptible
to each generation; but after a few centuries it is
very marked. It can cause no sudden inundation, be-
cause men retire from it from age to age by measure
as the sea advances, and they advance upon that land
from which the sea retreats. It is to this cause that
some wise men attribute the retreat of the sea upon
certain shores, and its invasion upon others.
10. The slow, gradual, and periodical displacement
of the sea is a fact proved by experience, attested by
numerous examples at all points of the globe. In
this manner it keeps in repair the productive forces.
of the earth. This long immersion is a time of
repose, during which the submerged earth recuperates
the vital principles exhausted by a no shorter period
of production. The immense deposits of organic mat-
ter brought by the waters from age to age are natural
composts periodically renewed; and generations suc-
ceed generations without perceiving these changes.¹
Ancient documents state that upon this ground,
where one can sail upon the water to-day, was the
village of St. Denis-chef-de-Caux. The sea having
invaded the land during the fourteenth century, the
church was ingulfed in 1378. It is pretended that in a
1 Among the most recent facts proving the displacement of the
sea, one can cite the following: In the Gulf of Gascogne, between the
old Souillac and the tower of Cordova, when the sea is calm, one dis-
covers in the water's depth pieces of wall. These are the remains of
the great and ancient city of Noviomagus, invaded by the water
A.D. 580. The rock of Cordova, which then joined the shore, is
now twelve kilometres from it. By La Manche, upon the Havre
side, the sea gains every day upon the earth, and undermines the
cliffs of St. Ardres, which are gradually crumbling. Two kilo-
metres from the shore, between St. Ardres and Cape Hague, exists
the bank of L'Éclat, in olden times dry ground and united to terra
firma.
UOTK
212
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
calın tide the remains of it can be seen in the waters.
Upon nearly the whole extent of the coast of Hol-
land the sea has been restrained only by dikes, which
give way from time to time. The ancient Lake
Fleno, united with the sea in 1255, forms to-day the
Gulf of Zuyder-Zee. This eruption of the ocean sub-
merged many villages. Judging from this, Paris,
and, indeed, all of France, will some day be again.
occupied by the sea, as it has already been many
times, as geological observations prove. The moun-
tainous regions will then form islands like Jersey,
Guernsey, and England, formerly contiguous to the
continent. The countries now traversed by railroads.
will then be sailed over. Ships will stop at Mont-
martre, at Mount Valerian, on the shores of St.
Cloud and Mendon. The woods and forests through
which we now promenade will be buried under water,
covered again with earth, and inhabited by fish
instead of birds. The biblical deluge cannot have.
been caused in this way, since the invasion of the
waters was sudden and their sojourn short: other-
wise, it would have lasted many thousand years,
would still exist without men knowing of its occur-
ence.
11. Future Deluges. The great commotions of
the earth have taken place when the crust, by reason
of its thinness, offered only a feeble resistance to
the effervescence of the incandescent substances in
the interior. They diminished in intensity and gener-
ality as the crust consolidated. Numerous volcanoes
are now extinguished; others have been recovered
with rocks of a posterior formation. There will still
be local perturbations, in consequence of volcanic
TOU
S
FUTURE DELUGES.
213
eruptions; also new volcanoes will open with the sud-
den inundations of certain countries. Some islands
will spring out of the sea, and others will be ingulfed
by it; but the time of the general inundations, like
those which have marked great geological periods,
is past. The earth, henceforth, will take a position
which, without being absolutely unchangeable, places
human beings in shelter from general perturbation,
unless by unknown causes, unknown to our globe,
something should happen which cannot be foreseen.
12. As to comets, it has been decided that their
influence is salutary, rather than hurtful; that they
appear destined to refurnish with provisions (if such
an expression be allowable) worlds by carrying to
them the vital principles which they have accreted
during their journey through space in the neighbor-
hood of suns. They would thus be sources of pros-
perity, rather than messengers of evil. On account
of their gaseous nature, which is now well under-
stood (chap. VI., p. 146), a violent shock is not to
be feared from them; for, in case they should collide
with the earth, the latter wonld pass through the
comet as through a fog. Their tails are not formida-
ble, as they are formed only by the reflection of the
solar light in the immense atmosphere surrounding
them, and are constantly directed from the side op-
posed to the sun, and change their direction accord-
ing to the sun's position.
This gaseous matter would thus be able, in conse-
quence of the rapidity of the comet's movement, to
form a sort of coma like the foamy track which fol-
lows a ship, or the smoke of a locomotive. Besides,
many comets have already approached the earth
214 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
without causing any damage; and, by reason of their
respective density, the earth will exercise a greater
attraction upon the comet than the comet upon the
earth. The remains of an old prejudice can alone.
inspire fear of their presence.¹
13. It is necessary to banish from chimerical hy-
potheses the possibility of the encounter of the earth
with another planet. The regularity and unchange-
ableness of the laws which preside over the move-
ments of celestial bodies take away all probability
of a collision between them. The earth, however,
will have an end; but how? This is something
upon which it is impossible to decide; but, as it is
far from the perfection to which it will attain, and
from the decay which will be a sign of its decline,
its present inhabitants may well be assured that it
will not be in their time (chap. VI., p. 161).
14. Physically the earth has had convulsions from
its infancy. It has, however, now entered upon a
career of relative stability, of peaceable progress,
which is accomplished by the regular return of the
same physical phenomena, and the intelligent con-
currence of man. But it is yet quite in the infancy
of its work of moral progress: there will be the
cause of its greatest commotions. Until humanity
be sufficiently advanced toward perfection by intelli-
gence and the practice of the divine laws, greater
perturbations will take place in man than in nature;
that is to say, there will occur social and moral,
rather than physical, changes.
1 The comet of 1861 has traversed the same route as the earth
twenty hours before the latter, without any accident resulting there-
from.
CHAPTER X.
ORGANIC GENESIS. · FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING
BEINGS.-VITAL PRINCIPLE. SPONTANEOUS GEN-
ERATION. -SCALE OF MATERIAL BEINGS. MAN.
A
1. First Formation of Living Beings. There was
a time when animals did not exist, and also a time
when they began to appear. Each species appeared
as soon as the earth acquired the conditions neces-
sary to its existence: this we positively know. But
how were the first individuals of each species formed?
A first couple must have been formed. Many beings
have sprung from them; but this first couple, whence
did it spring? This is one of the mysteries of the be-
ginning, about which one can form only hypotheses.
If science cannot yet completely solve the problem,
it can at least put us on the way to a solution.
2. The first question presenting itself is this: Has
each animal species sprung from a single first couple,
or have many couples been created simultaneously in
different places? This last supposition is the most
probable. One can even call it a result of obser-
vation. Indeed, there exists in the same species
many varieties, which are distinguished by more or
less decided charateristics. One type at least was
needed for each variety, appropriate to the place
where it was called into being, since each one pro-
duces identically similar beings.
215
216 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Moreover, the life of an individual, above all that
of a growing child, is submitted to so many un-
certainties, that an entire species would be endan-
gered without a plurality of primitive types, which
would not be in accordance with divine foresight.
Besides, if one type has been able to form itself
upon a certain point, there is no reason why it
should not be formed in many places by the same
cause. Finally, we discover, by observation of geo-
logical beds in the rocks of the same formation, enor-
mous proportions of the same species upon the most
distant points of the globe. This multiplication so
general, and in some sort contemporaneous, would be
impossible with an isolated primitive type. All con-
curs then in proving that there has been a simulta-
neous and multiple creation of the first couples of
each animal and vegetable species.
3. The knowledge of the formation of the first
living beings can be deduced by analogy from the
same law, by means of which have been formed and
are forming every day inorganic bodies. According
as one studies the laws of nature, one sees the ma-
chinery which at first sight appears so complicated,
become simplified, and blend into the great law of
unity, which presides over the entire work of crea-
tion. One will comprehend it better if one will
notice the formation of inorganic bodies, which is the
first stage of it.
4. In chemistry are found a certain number of
elementary substances, such as, oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, carbon, chloride, iodine, fluor, sulphur, phos-
phorus, and all the metals. By their combination
they form compound bodies, the oxides, acids,
FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 217
alakalies, salts, and the innumerable varieties result-
ing from combinations of these. By the combina-
tion of two bodies, in order to form a third, a
particular concurrence of circumstances is exacted,
either a determined degree of heat, dryness or
humidity, movement or repose, or an electric cur-
rent, etc. If these conditions do not exist, the com-
bination does not take place.
5. When there is a combination, the bodies com-
posing it lose their characteristic properties, whilst
the composition resulting from it possesses new
ones, different from those of the first. It is thus,
for example, that oxygen and hydrogen, which are
invisible gases, being chemically combined, form
water, which is a liquid, solid, or vaporous accord-
ing to temperature. Water, properly speaking, is
no more oxygen and hydrogen, but a new body.
This water decomposed, the two gases, becoming
again free, recover their properties, and are no more
water. The same quantity of water can thus be de-
composed and recomposed ad infinitum. In a simple
mixture there is no production of a new body; and
the mixed principles conserve their intrinsic proper-
ties, which are simply weakened as wine mingled with
water. It is thus that a mixture of twenty-one
parts of oxygen and seventy-nine parts of nitrogen
forms respirable air, whilst a chemical combination
of five of oxygen over two of nitrogen produces
nitric acid.
6. The composition and decomposition of bodies
take place according to the degree of affinity that
the elementary principles possess for one another.
The formation of water, for example, results from
218 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
:
the reciprocal affinity of oxygen and hydrogen ;
but, if one places in contact with the water a body
having a greater affinity for oxygen than for hydro-
gen, the water is decomposed, the oxygen is absorbed,
the hydrogen liberated, and there is no more water.
7. Compound bodies are always formed in definite
proportions; that is to say, by the combination of a
quantity determined by the constituent principles.
Thus, in order to form water, one part of oxygen is
needed and two of hydrogen. If you mix two volumes
of hydrogen with more than one of oxygen, then cause
them to unite, the hydrogen would only unite with
one volume of oxygen; but, if in other conditions.
there are two parts of oxygen combined with two of
hydrogen, in place of water, the deutoxide of hy-
drogen is obtained, a corrosive liquid, formed, how-
ever, of the same elements as water, but in another
proportion.
g
8. Such is, in few words, the law which presides
at the formation of all natural bodies. The innu-
merable variety of these bodies is the result of a
very small number of elementary principles com-
bined in different proportions. Thus oxygen, com-
bined in certain proportions with sulphur, carbon,
and phosphorus, forms carbonic, sulphuric, and
phosphoric acids. Oxygen and iron form the oxide
of iron, or rust; oxygen and lead, both inoffen-
sive, give place to the oxides of lead, such as lith-
arge, white lead, and red lead, which are poison-
ous. Oxygen, with metals called calcium, sodium,
potassium, forms limestone, soda, and potash. Lime-
stone, united with carbonic acid, forms the car-
bonites of limestone, or calcareous stones, such as
FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 219
marble, chalk, building stones, the stalactites of
grottos. United with sulphuric acid, it forms the sul-
phate of limestone, or plaster and alabaster; with
phosphoric acid, the phosphate of limestone. The
solid base of bones, hydrogen, and chloride form
hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid and soda form
the hydrochlorate of soda, or marine salt.
9. All these combinations, and thousands of others,
are artificially obtained on a small scale in chemical
laboratories. They are operated on a large scale in
the grand laboratory of nature. The earth, in its
beginning, did not contain these combinations of
matter, but only their constituent elements in a state
of volatility. When the calcareous and other earths
became after a long time stony, they had been depos-
ited on its surface. They did not at first exist as
formations, but in the air were found in a gaseous
state. These substances, precipitated by the effect of
cold under the sway of favoring circumstances, have
been combined according to the degree of their
molecular affinity. It is then that the different varie-
ties of carbonates and sulphates, etc., have been
formed, at first in a state of dissolution in the water,
then deposited on the surface of the soil. Let us
suppose that by some cause the earth should return
to its primitive incandescent state. All that we see
would decompose; the elements would separate; all
fusible substances would melt; all those which were
volatile would return to a state of volatility; after
which a second cooling process would lead to a new
precipitation, and the ancient combinations would
form anew.
10. These considerations prove how necessary is
220 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
chemistry to give us an intelligent idea of Gene-
sis. Before the knowledge of the laws of molecu-
lar affinity, it was impossible to comprehend the
formation of the earth. This science has thrown an
entirely new light upon the question, as astronomy
and geology have done upon other points of view.
11. In the formation of solid bodies, one of the
most remarkable phenomena is that of crystallization,
which consists of the regular form which certain
substances appropriate in their passage from the
liquid or gaseous state to a solid condition. This
form, which varies according to the nature of the
substance, is generally that of geometrical solids,
such as the prism, the rhomboid, cube, and pyramid.
Every one has seen the crystals of sugar candy,-rock
crystals, or crystallized silica, which are prisms with
six sides terminated by a pyramid equally hexagonal.
The diamond is pure carbon, or crystallized coal. The
designs which are produced upon window-panes in
winter are due to the crystallization of the vapor
from water under the form of prismatic needles.
The regular disposition of the crystals belongs to
the particular form of the molecules of each body.
These infinitely small particles occupy, nevertheless,
a certain space, have been drawn toward one another
by molecular attraction: they are arranged and in jux-
taposition to one another, according to the exigence
of form, in such a way that each one takes its place
around the nucleus, or first centre of attraction, and
forms a symmetrical whole. Crystallization only
operates under the empire of certain favorable circum-
stances, without which it cannot take place. A right
degree of temperature with repose are essential con-
FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING BEINGS.
221
ditions. Too much heat, keeping the molecules sep-
arated, would prevent condensation: and, as agitation
is opposed to their symmetrical arangement, they
would form only a confused and irregular mass under
its influence, which is consequently not crystallization
in the true sense of the word.
12. The law which presides at the formation of
minerals leads naturally to the formation of organic
bodies. Chemical analysis shows us all vegetable
and animal substances composed of the same elements
as inorganic bodies. Of these elements those which
play the principal rôle are oxygen, hydrogen, nitro-
gen, and carbon; the others are only accessory to
them. As in the mineral kingdom, the difference
of proportion in the combination of these elements
produces all varieties of organic substances and their
various properties: such as, muscles, bone, blood,
bile, nerves, cerebral matter, and fat among animals;
and sap, wood, leaves, fruits, essences, oils, and resins.
in the vegetable kingdom. Thus no special body
enters into the composition of animals and plants
which is not also found in the mineral kingdom.¹
13. A few common examples will show the trans-
1 The following table of analysis of a few substances shows the
difference of properties resulting solely in the difference in the pro-
portions of the constituent elements in 100 parts:
Sugar-cane
Grape-sugar
Alcohol
Olive-oil
Oil of nuts
Fat.
Fibrine
•
•
•
•
Do q q
42.470
36.710
51.980
77.210
79.774
78.996
53.360
M


Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Nitrogen.
6.900
6.780
13.700
18.360
10.570
11.700
7.021
50.530
56.510
34.320
9.430
9.122
9.304
19.685
0.534
19.934
222 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
formations which take place in the kingdom of or-
ganic beings by the modification of the constituent
elements alone. In the juice of the grape is found
neither wine nor alcohol, but simply water and sugar.
When this juice has arrived at maturity, and is placed
in favorable circumstances, fermentation is produced.
In this process a portion of the sugar is decomposed.
Oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon are separated, and
combined in the required proportions to form alcohol.
By drinking the grape-juice when it is first formed,
one does not drink alcohol, as it does not yet exist
therein. In bread and vegetables that we eat, there
is certainly neither flesh, blood, bone, bile, nor cere-
bral matter; yet these articles of food produce them
by decomposing and recomposing in the labor of di
gestion, and produce these different substances solely
by the transmutation of their constitutive elements.
In the seed of a tree there is neither wood, leaves,
flowers, nor fruit; and it is a puerile error to believe
that the entire tree, in a microscopic form, is found
in the seed. There is not even in this seed the quan-
tity of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon necessary to
form a leaf of the tree. The seed encloses a germ
which comes to light when the necessary conditions.
are found. This germ grows by aid of the juices it
draws from the earth, and the gas that it inhales from
the air. These juices, which are neither wood, leaves,
flowers, nor fruit, by infiltrating themselves into the
plant, form sap, as food with animals makes blood.
This sap, carried by the circulation into all parts of
the vegetable, according as it is submitted to a
special elaboration, is transformed into wood, leaves,
and fruits, as blood is transformed into flesh, bones,
FIRST FORMATION OF LIVING BEINGS. 223
bile, etc.; and, although these are always the same
elements, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon,
-they are diversely combined.
14. The different combinations of the elements for
the formation of mineral, vegetable, and animal sub-
stances, can then be formed only under propitious
circumstances. Outside of these circumstances the
elementary principles are in a sort of inertia ; but, as
soon as conditions are favorable, a work of elabor-
ation commences. The molecules begin to move:
they act, approach, and are drawn toward one an-
other, and separate by virtue of the law of affinity,
and by their multiple combinations compose the in-
finite variety of substances.
If these conditions cease, the work is suddenly
arrested, to recommence so soon as conditions are
again furnished. Thus vegetation is active, retards,
ceases, and resumes action under the power of heat,
light, humidity, cold, and dryness; as some plants
prosper in one climate or soil, and perish in another.
15. That which took place from the beginning is
daily taking place under our eyes; for the laws of
nature are always the same since the constituent
elements of organic and inorganic beings are identi-
cal. As we continually see them under the empire of
certain circumstances form stones, flowers, and fruits,
mineral, vegetable, one can conclude that the bodies.
of the first living beings were formed as the first
stones, — by the re-union of elementary molecules by
virtue of the law of affinity, according as the condi-
tions of vitality of the globe have been propitious
to this or that species. The similitude of form and
color in the reproduction of individuals of each
224 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
species can be compared to the similitude of form of
each species of crystal. The molecules, being in jux-
taposition under the dominion of the same law, pro-
duce an analogous whole.
16. The Vital Principle. — Though we say that
plants and animals are formed of the same constitu-
ents as minerals, it is necessary to understand this
statement in a purely material sense, as it has refer-
ence only to the body. Without speaking of the in-
telligent principle, which is a question by itself, there
is in organic matter a special indiscernible principle,
which has never yet been defined: it is the vital
principle. This principle, which is active in living
beings, though extinct in beings deprived of life by
death, nevertheless gives to them characteristic prop-
erties distinguishing them from inorganic substances.
Chemistry, which decomposes and recomposes the
greater part of inorganic bodies, has power to decom-
pose organic bodies, but has never been known to
reconstruct even a dead leaf, which is a conclusive
proof that there is something in one which does not
exist in the other.
C
17. Is the vital principle something distinct, hav-
ing a separate existence before it enters the sys-
tematic unity of the generative element? or is it
only a particular state, one of the modifications of
the universal cosmic fluid, which has become the
principle of life, as light, fire, heat, electricity? It is
in this last sense that the question is solved by the
communications connected with this subject (chap.
VI., "General Uranography "); but, whatever the
opinion be concerning the nature of the vital princi-
ple, we know it exists as we see the effects of it.
THE VITAL PRINCIPLE.
225
One can then admit logically, that, in forming them-
selves from it, organic beings have assimilated the
vital principle necessary to their existence as immor-
tal beings; or, if one wishes to say that this principle
has been developed in each individual through a
combination of elements under the rule of certain
circumstances, one sees heat, light, and electricity
develop themselves.
18. Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, in
combining themselves without the vital principle,
form only a mineral, or inorganic body. The vital
principle, modifying the molecular constitution of
this body, gives to it special properties. In place of a
mineral molecule is found a molecule of organic mat-
ter. The activity of the vital principle is sustained
during life by the action of the organs, as heat by
the rotary movement of a wheel. As this action
ceases with death, the vital principle is extinguished,
as heat when the wheel ceases to turn. But the
effect produced upon the molecular state of the body
by the vital principle lives after its extinction, as the
carbonization of wood continues after the extinction
of heat, and the cessation of the movement of the
wheel. In the analysis of organic bodies, chemistry
finds again the constituent elements, oxygen, etc.;
but it cannot reconstruct them, because the cause
exists no more: and thus the effect cannot be re-
produced, although it can reconstruct a stone.
19. We have taken as an illustration heat gener-
ated by the movement of a wheel, because it is a
common effect known to all, and more easy to com-
prehend; but it had been more exact to say, that, in
the combination of elements needed to form organic
226 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
bodies, they are developed by electricity. Organic
bodies are therefore veritable electric piles which
operate to the extent that the elements composing
them are in a condition to generate electricity, which
is life. When these conditions are arrested, death
ensues. The vital principle can be none other than
a particular kind of electricity designated under the
name of animal electricity, evolved during life by
the action of the organs, of which the production is
arrested by death owing to the cessation of this
action.
20. Spontaneous Generation. One naturally asks,
Why have there not been formed more living beings
in the same conditions as the first to appear on the
earth? The question of spontaneous generation with
which science is occupied to-day, although yet di-
versely decided upon, cannot fail to throw light upon
this subject.
A
The problem proposed is this: Are there sponta-
neously formed in our day organic beings by the sole
union of the constituent elements without previous
germs produced by ordinary generation? i.e., without
fathers or mothers. The partisans of spontaneous
generation reply affirmatively, and are supported by
direct observations, which seem conclusive. Others
think that all living beings are reproduced by one
another, and support this fact arrived at by experi-
ence, as the germs of certain vegetable and animal
species, being dispersed, can preservé a latent vitality
for a considerable time until circumstances are favor-
able to their birth. This opinion does not answer
any question concerning the formation of the first
parents of any species.
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.
227
21. Without discussing the two systems, it is well
to remark that the principle of spontaneous gener-
ation can evidently be applied only to the inferior
orders of beings of the vegetable and animal king-
doms, to those on which life is commencing to dawn,
their organisms being extremely simple and rudi-
mentary. These are probably the first which have
appeared upon the earth, of which the generation has
been spontaneous. We could thus form an idea of
a permanent analogous creation to this which has
taken place in the first ages of the world.
22. Why, then, could not beings of a complex organ-
ization be formed in the same manner? That these
beings have not always existed is a positive fact:
then they must have had a beginning. If moss,
lichens, zoophytes, infusoria, intestinal worms, and
others can be spontaneously produced, why is it not
the same with trees, fishes, dogs, and horses? For a
time investigations rest here. The conducting thread
is lost, and, until that be found, the field is open to
hypotheses. It would then be imprudent and pre-
mature to give any views on the subject as absolute
truths.
23. If the fact of spontaneous generation is proved,
however limited it may be, it is no less a capital fact,
a steady beacon-light on the way to new discoveries.
If complex organic beings are produced in this man-
ner, who knows how they have obtained their origin?
Who knows the secret of all transformations? When
one regards the oak and the acorn, who can say if a
mysterious tie does not exist between the polyp and
the elephant? Let us leave to time the care of bring-
ing light to the depth of this abyss: perhaps some day
223
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
it may be sounded. This knowledge in a scientific
point of view is, without doubt, interesting; but it
is not that which influences the destinies of men.
24. Scale of Corporal Beings. Between the vege-
table and animal kingdom there are no distinctly
traced boundaries. Upon the borders of the two are
the zoöphytes, or animal plants, of which the name
indicates that they belong to both: they are the
hyphen between the two. Like animals, plants are
born, live, grow, are nourished, breathe, reproduce
their kind, and die. Like them they have need of
light, heat, and water: if they are deprived of them,
they wither and die. The absorption of vitiated
air and deleterious substances poisons them. Their
distinctive trait of character, the most defined, is of
being attached to the soil, and, without leaving their
place, drawing their nourishment from it. The
zoöphyte has the exterior appearance of a plant.
Like the plant it belongs to the soil, but seems to par-
take more of the nature of an animal. It draws its
nourishment from the ambient midst. An animal,
being one degree above a zoöphyte, is free to go, and
seck its food. Firstly, there are innumerable varie-
ties of polyps with gelatinous bodies, without very
distinct organs, and which differ from plants only by
locomotion. Then come in the order of development
those with organs of vital activity and instinct, —
intestinal worms, mollusks, fleshy animals without
bones, of which some are entirely destitute, as slugs
or cuttle-fish; others are provided with shells, as
snails and oysters; then shell-fish, of which the skin
is invested with a hard shell, like crabs and lobsters;
insects, who lead a very active life, and manifest an
MAN.
229
industrious instinct, like the ant, the bee, and the
spider; a few submit themselves to a metamorphosis,
as the caterpillar, which is transformed into an ele-
gant butterfly. Then comes the order of vertebrates,
- animals with a bony framework, which com-
prises fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals, of which
the organization is more complete.
Ag
25. Man. At the corporal and purely anatomical
point of view, man belongs to the mammals, from
which he differs only slightly in outward form. Be-
yond that he is of the same chemical composition as
all animals, has the same organs, functions, modes of
nutrition, respiration, secretion, and reproduction.
He is born, lives, and dies in the same conditions;
and at his death his body is decomposed like that of
all other beings. There is not in his blood, flesh, or
bone, an element more or less than in those of the lower
animals. Like the latter, in dying he renders to the
earth oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, which
were combined in order to form him, and go towards
forming new combinations, new mineral, vegetable,
and animal bodies. The analogy is so perfect that
man can study his own organic functions in certain ani-
mals when experiments cannot be made with himself.
26. In the family of mammals man belongs to the
two-legged order of animals. Immediately below
him comes animals with four legs, the monkeys,
of which a few, like the orang-outang, chimpanzee,
and the ape, have certain ways like men, so much
so that for a long time they have been called wild
men of the woods. Like him they walk erect, use
a stick, and carry food to their mouths with their
hands, which are characteristically human habits.
¡
230
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
27. Although one can observe the scale of living
beings at the point of view of organism, it is recog-
nized that from the lichen to the tree, and from the
zoophyte to man, there is a continuous chain ele-
vating itself by degrees, in which all the links are
joined together. Following step by step the series of
beings, one can say that each species is a transfor-
mation of the species immediately below it. Since
the body of man is in conditions identical with other
bodies chemically and constituticnally, as he is born,
lives, and dies in the same manner, he must have
been formed in the same way.
28. Although it is humbling to his pride, man
must be resigned to behold in his material body only
the last link of animality upon the earth. The inex-
orable argument of facts compels him thus to regard
himself, against which all protestation is vain. But,
the more the body diminishes in value in his eyes, the
more the spiritual principle increases in importance.
If the first puts him on a level with the brute, the
second elevates him to an immeasurable height. We
can see the point where the animal stops: we cannot
see the limit to which the human spirit can attain.
29. Materialism can see by this that Spiritism, far
from fearing the discoveries of science and its posi-
tivism, goes before and invites them, because it is
certain that the spiritual principle, which has an
existence of its own, can suffer no harm from them.
CHAPTER XI.
SPIRITUAL GENESIS. SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE. UNION
OF SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE WITH MATTER. — HY-
POTHESIS UPON THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN BODIES.
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS. - RE-INCARNATION.
EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION OF SPIRITS. - THE
ADAMIC RACE. - DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ANGELS.
-
1. Spiritual Principle. The existence of the spir-
itual principle is a fact needing no more demonstra-
tion than does the existence of the material principle.
It is a sort of axiomatic truth; it affirms itself by its
effects as matter by those which are peculiar to it.
According to the maxim, all effects have a cause all
intellectual effects must have an intelligent cause.
There is no one who would not see a difference be-
tween the mechanical effect of a bell agitated by the
wind, and the movement of this same bell destined to
give a signal, a notice, attesting by that a thought,
an intention. Now, as it can occur to no one to at-
tribute the thought to a beil, one concludes that it
is moved by an intelligence to which it serves as an
instrument of manifestation. For the same reason
no one thinks of attributing thought to the body of
a deceased man.
2. The spiritual principle is the corollary of the
existence of God. Without this principle God would
forever remain unrevealed to man; for one could not
231
232 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
1
conceive sovereign intelligence reigning eternally
over only animal matter, or a terrestrial monarch
reigning throughout his life only over stones. As
one cannot admit God to be without the essential
elements of divinity, justice, and goodness, these
qualities would be useless if exercised only over
matter.
3. On the other hand, one would not be able to
conceive of a God sovereignly just and good creat-
ing intelligent and sensible beings, in order to con-
demn them to nothingness after a few years of
suffering without compensation, enjoying a view of
an indefinite succession of beings who are born with-
out having demanded the gift of life, who are endowed
with the power of thought only to learn pain, and
are destroyed after an ephemeral existence. With-
out the survival of the thinking being, the suffer-
ings of life would be on the part of God cruelty
without object. This is why materialism and atheism
are consequences of one another. Denying the cause,
one cannot admit the effect; denying the effect, one
cannot admit the cause. Consequently materialism
is not reasonable.
4. The idea of the perpetuity of the spiritual prin-
ciple is innate in man.
Intuition and Aspiration. He comprehends that
there alone is compensation for the ills of life. That
is why there always have been and always will be
more spiritists than materialists, more theists than
atheists. To the intuitive idea and to the power of
reason Spiritism comes to add the sanction of facts,
the material proof of the existence of a spiritual
being, of its survival, immortality, and individu-
M
INTUITION AND ASPIRATION.
233
ality. It points directly to and defines that which
was vague and abstruse in this thought. It shows
us the intelligent being acting outside of matter
either during or after the life of the body.
5. The spiritual and vital principle are by no means
one and the same thing! Commencing always with
the observation of facts, if the vital principle were
inseparable from the intelligent principle, there
would be some sense in confounding them. But,
as we see some beings who live without thinking,
like plants, — beings animated with organic life, who
give no manifestation of thought; as there are
produced in living beings active movements inde-
pendent of the act of the will; as during sleep
organic life is in all its activity, whilst intellec-
tual life does not manifest itself by any exterior
sign, -we are induced to conclude that organic life
resides in a principle inherent in matter, independ-
ent of the spiritual life which is inherent in spirit.
Consequently, as matter possesses vitality independ-
ent of spirit, and spirit has a vitality independent
of matter, it is evident that this double vitality
reposes upon two different principles.
6. Does the spiritual principle have its source in
the universal cosmic element? Can it be only a
transformation of it? a mode of existence of this
element, like light, heat, electricity, etc.? If it were
thus, the spiritual principle would submit to the
vicissitudes of matter. It would be extinguished by
disintegration, as is the vital principle. An intel-
ligent being would have a momentary existence, like
unto the body; and at death it would be annihilated,
or return into the universal whole, which is the doc-
234
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
trine of the materialists. The properties sui generis
which are found in the spiritual principle prove that
it has an independent existence of its own; but, if
it had its origin in matter, it would not have these
properties. Consequently, as intelligence and thought
cannot be attributes of matter, one arrives at the
conclusion that the material and spiritual elements
are the two constituent principles of the universe.
The individualized spiritual element constitutes the
beings called spirits, as the individualized material
element constitutes the different organic and in-
organic bodies of nature.
7. Admitting there is a spiritual being, and its
source found to be outside of matter, what is its
origin? from whence does it come? Here the means
of investigation absolutely fail, as in all matters relat-
ing to the beginning of things. Man can ascertain
only that which exists. Upon all else he can establish
only hypothesis. Whether this knowledge is beyond
the compass of his present intelligence, or whether
it is useless or inconvenient for him to possess
it now, God does not give it to him even by
revelation. That which God reveals to him by his
messengers, besides that which man is able to deduce
for himself from the principle of sovereign justice,
which is one of the essential attributes of divinity,
is that all have the same starting-point; that all are
created simple and ignorant, with an equal aptitude
to progress by their individual activity; that all
will attain the degree of perfection compatible with
the creature by their personal efforts; that all, being
children of the same Father, are objects of an equal
solicitude; that there is no one more favored, or
SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL PRINCIPLES.
235
better endowed than another, or excused from the
labor which would be imposed upon others in order
to attain the end.
8. In the same way as God has created material
worlds during all time, he has equally created spiritual
beings for the same length of time. One could
rather conceive of spiritual beings without material
worlds, than the latter without spiritual beings.
Material worlds must furnish to spiritual beings the
elements of activity for the development of their in-
telligence.
9. Progress is the normal condition of spiritual
beings, and relative perfection the object to which
they must attain. Now, as God has always created,
and is always creating, there must be some spirits
who have reached the highest point of the ladder
of progress. Before this world was created, worlds
had succeeded to worlds, and, when sprang forth
from the chaos the elements which form this globe,
space was peopled with spiritual beings in all degrees
of advancement, from those who were just born into
life to those who through countless ages had ranked
among the pure spirits, commonly called angels.
10. Union of the Spiritual and Material Principles.
Matter being the object of the work of the spirit
for the development of his faculties, it is necessary
that it should be able to act upon matter: that is
why man has come to inhabit it as the woodcutter
lives in the forest. The former being at the same
time the object and instrument of the labor, God,
instead of uniting him to the rigid stone, created
for his use organized, flexible bodies, capable of
receiving all the impulsions of his will, and of lend-
236 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ing themselves to all his movements. The body is
then at the same time the envelope and the instru
ment of the spirit; and, as the latter acquires new
aptitudes, it is re-invested with an appropriate enve-
lope for the new kind of work which it must accom-
plish, as a workman is given finer utensils for his
work as he becomes capable of performing more dif-
ficult tasks.
11. In order to be more exact, it is necessary to
say that it is the spirit itself which fashions its enve-
lope, and appropriates it to its new needs. It brings
it toward perfection, develops and completes the
organism by measure as it experiences the need of
manifesting new qualities. In a word, it makes
man in the image of God. God furnishes the mate-
rials for the work. Thus advanced races have an
organism, or, one might say, utensils of a more re-
fined order than the primitive races. Thus is ex-
plained the special seal which the spirit imprints
on the expression of the face and manner.
12. As soon as the spirit is born into self-conscious
life, it must for its advancement make use of its
faculties, which are at first in a rudimentary state.
That is why it is invested with a material envelope,
appropriate to its state of intellectual infancy, — an
envelope which it quits in order to be re-invested
with another suited to its enlarged forces. Now, as
from all time worlds have existed, and as these
worlds have given birth to organized bodies proper
to be the receptacle of spirit, from all time spirits
have found what their degree of advancement was,
and the necessary elements for their material life.
13. Bodies being exclusively material are subject
ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY.
237
to the vicissitudes of matter. After having for some
time operated, it becomes disorganized and decom-
posed. The vital principle, no longer finding an ele-
ment for its activity, is extinguished, and the body
dies. The spirit, for whom the body deprived of life
is henceforth useless, leaves it, as one removes from
a ruined house, or throws an article of wearing ap-
parel aside, after it is no longer serviceable.
14. The body is then simply an envelope to re-
ceive the spirit: consequently, its origin and the
materials of which it is composed matters little.
Let the body of man be a special creation or not,
it is certainly formed from the same elements as that
of animals, animated by the same vital principle, and
one might say heated by the same fire, as it is lighted
by the same luminary, subject to the same vicis-
situdes and to the same needs: this is a point upon
which there can be no controversy. Considering
only matter and abstracting the spirit, man has noth-
ing which distinguishes him from the animal; but
there is an immediate change of aspect when the
distinction between the habitation and the inhabit-
ant is made. A great lord under his own roof, or
dressed in the garments of a peasant, is a great lord.
He is always the same man: it is not by his vest-
ment that man is elevated above the brute, and made
a unique being; it is by his spirit.
15. Hypothesis upon the Origin of the Human Body.
-From the similitude which exists between the
body of man and that of the monkey, certain physi-
ologists have contended that the former was only a
transformation of the latter. In that there is nothing
impossible, although, if it is so, the dignity of man
238 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
*****
will naturally suffer. Bodies of monkeys may have
served very well for the vestment of the first human
spirits necessarily undeveloped, who have been incar
nated upon the earth, these garments being more ap-
propriate to their needs and for the exercise of their
faculties than the bodies of any other animal. In-
stead of a special robe having been made for the
spirit, it may have found one already made. It may
then have been dressed in the skin of the monkey
without ceasing to be a human spirit, as man is some-
times dressed in animal skins without losing his man-
hood. It is well understood that this is only an
hypothesis which is not based upon principle, but
only given to show that such an origin of the body
is not prejudicial to the spirit, which is the principal
being, and that similitude of the body of man to that
of the monkey does not imply equality between their
respective spirits.
16. By admitting this hypothesis, one can say, that,
under the influence of and by the effect of the intel-
lectual activity of its new inhabitant, the envelope
has been modified, embellished in details, preserving
the general form, however, as a whole. The amelio-
rated bodies by procreating themselves have repro-
duced themselves in improved conditions, like grafted
trees. They have given birth to a new species, which
has been gradually removed from the primitive type
according as the spirit has progressed. The spirit
of the monkey, which has not been annihilated, has
continued to beget bodies of monkeys for its use
like wild fruit reproduced from wild fruit; and the
human spirit has begotten bodies of men varying
from the first established form. The trunk has
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS.
239
become divided, forked. It has produced a sprout,
and this sprout has become an independent trunk.
As there are no sudden transitions in nature, it is
probable that the first men appearing on the earth
have differed little from monkeys in exterior form,
and probably no more in intelligence. There are
still in our day savages, who, by the length of
their arms and feet, and the formation of their
heads, have so many ways like a monkey, that a
hairy covering only is wanting to complete the resem-
Glance.
17. Incarnation of Spirits. - Spiritism teaches us
the mode of union between spirit and matter through
incarnation. Spiritual essence is unlimited abstract
being, which can have no direct action upon matter.
A medium is necessary to it. This medium is the
fluid envelope which makes in some sort an integral
part of the spirit, a half material envelope, connecting
matter with spirit by its ethereal nature. Like all
matter, it is drawn from the universal cosmic fluid,
which is submitted by this circumstance to a special
modification. This envelope, designated peri-spirit,
distinct from abstract being, makes of the spirit a con-
crete uncatchable being, not to be seized by thought.
It renders it apt to act over tangible matter the
same as all imponderable fluids, which every one
knows are the most potent forces. The peri-spirit-
ual fluid is, then, the bond between spirit and mat-
ter. During its union with the body it is the vehicle
for transmitting thought to different parts of the or-
ganism, which acts under the impulsion of will; it
also repels from the spirit sensations caused by ex-
ternal agents. Its conducting wires are the nerves.
S
240 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
which are used, as in telegraphing, when the electric
fluid has metallic wire for conductor.
18. When the spirit must embody itself in a human
body in process of formation, a fluid connection,
which is none other than an expansion of the peri-
spirit, attaches it to the germ toward which it finds
itself attracted by an irresistible force from the
moment of conception. By measure, as the germ
unfolds, the connection is withdrawn. Under the
influence of the vital material principle of the germ,
the peri-spirit, which possesses certain properties of
matter, is united molecule by molecule with the form-
ing body; whence one can say that the spirit, by the
medium of the peri-spirit, takes root in this germ,
like a plant in the earth. When the germ is entirely
developed, the union is complete, and then it is born
into outward life. By contrary effect this union of
the peri-spirit and flesh, which was accomplished
under influence of the vital principle of the germ,
when this principle ceases to act in consequence of
the decay of the body, death is the result. The union
which was only maintained by an active force ceases
when this force ceases to act: then the peri-spirit
detaches itself molecule by molecule, as it was
united, and the spirit is rendered free. It is then
not the departure of the spirit which causes the
death of the body, but the death of the body which
causes the departure of the spirit.
19. Spiritualism teaches us by the fact it intro-
duces to our observation the phenomena accom-
panying this separation. It is sometimes rapid, easy,
gentle, and insensible. At other times it is very
slow, laborious, horribly painful, according to the
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS.
241
moral state of the spirit, and can endure for
months.
20. A particular phenomenon equally signalized
by observation always accompanies the incarnation
of the spirit. As soon as the latter is seized by the
connecting fluid which joins it to the germ, trouble
comes to it. This trouble increases by measure as
the connection is withdrawn, and in the last moments
the spirit loses all consciousness of itself, in a way
rendering it never a conscious witness of its birth.
At the moment when the infant breathes, the spirit
begins to recover its faculties, which are developed
according as the organs which must serve for their
manifestation are formed and consolidated. Here
shines the wisdom which presides in all the works.
of creation. Too active faculties would bruise and
abuse too delicate organs: that is why their energy
is proportioned to the resisting force of these organs.
21. But, at the same time the spirit recovers its
consciousness, it loses the remembrance of its past
without losing the faculties, qualities, and aptitudes
of anterior existences, aptitudes which momentar-
ily remained in a latent state, and which, in resum-
ing their activity, come to aid it, and make it more
and better than it was before. It gives new birth
to anterior work; it is for it a new starting-point,
a new ladder to climb, a new field of endeavor.
Here again is manifest the goodness of the Crea-
tor; for the remembrance of a past often painful
or humiliating, adding itself to the bitterness of a
new existence, would trouble and cripple man. He
remembers only that which he has learned, because
that is useful to him. If sometimes he preserves a
Map
242
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
vague recollection of past events, it is like the re-
membrance of a fugitive dream. He is then a new
man, however ancient his spirit may be; he marches
over new fields aided by that which he has acquired.
When he re-enters the spiritual life, his past is un-
rolled before his eyes, and he judges if he has well
or ill employed his time.
22. There is no destruction of continuity in spirit-
life, notwithstanding forgetfulness of a past. The
spirit is always his individual self before, during, and
after incarnation; incarnation being only a special
phase of his existence. This forgetfulness has only
place during the life of exterior relations. During
sleep, spirit disengages itself partially from fleshly
bonds, is rendered free, and in spiritual life remem-
bers itself. Its spiritual sight is not then so much
obscured by matter.
23. Regarding humanity at the lowest round of
the intellectual ladder with the most undeveloped
savages, one demands if this is not the starting-point
of the buman soul. According to the opinion of
some spiritual philosophers, the intelligent principle,
distinct from the material, is individualized and elab-
orated by passing through the different degrees of
animal life. It is there that the soul tries life, and first
develops its faculties by exercise: this would be, so
to say, its time of incubation. Arrived at the degree
of development comporting with this state, it receives
special faculties, which constitute the human soul:
there would thus be a spiritual affiliation, as there is
a corporal one. This system, founded upon the grand
law of unity, which presides in all creation, has much
to commend it. It is agreeable to the justice and
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS.
243
goodness of the Creator. It gives an issue, an object,
a destiny to animals which are no more disinherited
beings, but find in the future reserved to them a
compensation for their sufferings.
That which constitutes spiritual man is not his
origin, but the special attributes with which he is
endowed at his entrée into humanity, attributes which
transform and make of him a distinct being, as the
delicious fruit is distinct from the bitter root whence
it sprang. Because he had passed through the ex-
perience of animality, man would be no less a man.
He would be no more an animal than the fruit is a
root, as the wise man is not the foetus by which he
has made his début into the world. But this system
raises numerous questions, for which there is no
opportunity of discussing whys and wherefores no
more than of examining the different hypotheses
which have been made on this subject. Without
then searching again for the origin of the soul, and
the vicissitudes through which it has been able to
pass, we take it at its entrée into humanity, at the
point where, endowed with moral sense and free will,
it commences to realize the responsibility of its acts.
24. The necessity for the incarnated spirit to pro-
vide for the nourishment of the body, for its secu-
rity and well-being, the constraint of applying its
faculties in research, in exercising and developing
them, renders its union with matter useful for its
advancement: that is why incarnation is a necessity.
Besides, by the inteiligent work it accomplishes to its
profit over matter, it aids in the transformation and
material progress of the globe it inhabits: thus, by
progressing itself, it concurs with the work of the
Creator, of whom it is the agent.
244
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
25. But the incarnation of the spirit is neither con-
stant nor perpetual. It is only transitory. In leav-
ing a body it does not take another instantaneously.
During a greater or less considerable lapse of time,
it lives the spiritual life, which is its normal life, in
such a way that the sum of the time passed in the
different incarnations is small, compared to that it
passes in the free spiritual state. In the interval
between incarnations the spirit progresses in this
sense, that he puts to profit for his advancement the
knowledge and experience acquired during material
life. We speak of the spirit arrived at the state of
a human soul, having liberty of action, and realiza-
tion of his acts.
He examines that which he has done during his
terrestrial sojourn, passes in review that which he
has learned, recognizes his faults, arranges his plans,
forms resolutions with which he expects to guide
himself in a new existence by striving to do better.
Thus each existence is a step in advance in the way
of progress, a sort of school of application. Incarna-
tion is not then normally a punishment for the spirit,
as some have thought it, but an inherent condition
and a means of progress. By measure, as the spirit
progresses morally, he dematerializes himself; that is
to say, that, preserving himself from the influence of
matter, he purifies himself, his life becomes spiritu-
alized, his faculties and perceptions are extended,
his happiness is by reason of accomplished progress.
But, as he acts by virtue of his free will, he can,
by negligence or bad desire, retard his advancement.
He prolongs, therefore, the duration of his material
incarnations, which become then for him a punish-
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS.
245
ment, since by his own fault he remains in the infe-
rior ranks, obliged to recommence the same task. It
depends then upon spirit to abridge by its work of
self-purification the duration of the period of its in-
carnations.
26. The material progress of a globe follows the
moral progress of its inhabitants. Now, as the crea-
tion of worlds and spirits is incessant, as the latter
progress with greater or less rapidity by reason of
their free will, the result is, that there are some
worlds of considerable antiquity at different degrees
of spiritual and physical advancement, where incar-
nation is more or less material, and where, conse-
quently, the work for the spirit is more or less rude.
At this point of view the earth is one of the least
advanced. Peopled by spirits relatively inferior, cor-
poral life is more painful than on many other worlds.
On some planets things are still less developed.
There life is more painful still than upon this earth;
and for the inhabitants of such worlds this earth
would be relatively a happy world.
27. When the spirits have acquired over a world
the degree of progress comporting with the state of
that world, they quit it in order to dwell upon another
more advanced, where they acquire new knowledge,
and so on in succession until incarnation, in a material
body, being no longer of use to them, they live exclu-
sively in the spiritual life, where they still progress
in other ways and by other means. Arrived at the
culminal point of progress, they enjoy supreme felicity.
Admitted into the counsels of the Almighty, they
have his thought, and become his messengers, his
direct ministers for the government of worlds, hav-
246 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ing under their charge spirits of various degrees of
advancement.
Thus all spirits, incarnate or otherwise, of what-
ever degree of the hierarchy to which they belong,
from the lowest to the highest, have their attributions
in the great mechanism of the universe. All are use-
ful to the whole at the same time they are useful to
themselves. To the least advanced is incumbent a
material task, a simple manœuvre, at first uncon-
scious, then gradually intelligent. Everywhere there
is activity in the spiritual world; nowhere is there
useless idleness. The collective body of spirits is, in
a manner, the soul of the universe: it is the spirit-
ual element which acts over all and through all, un-
der the impulsion of the divine thought. Without
this element, there is only inert matter, without object,
without intelligence, without other motor power than
material forces, which leave a crowd of insoluble
problems. By the action of the individual spiritual
element, all has an object, a reason for being; all
explains itself: that is why, without spirituality, one
is hurled against insurmountable difficulties.
28. When the earth is found in climatic condition,
suited to the existence of the human species, spirits
come to be incarnated there; and they admit that
they have found envelopes already made, which they
have appropriated to their use. One can comprehend
that they have simultaneously been born in many
parts of the globe.
29. Although the first who came must have been
very undeveloped, and were therefore enveloped in
very imperfect bodies, there must have been between
them appreciable differences in character and aptitude
INCARNATION OF SPIRITS.
247
according to the degree of their moral and intel-
lectual development. Similar spirits are naturally
grouped by analogy and sympathy. The earth has
thus been peopled with different categories of spirits,
more or less desirous of or rebellious against prog-
ress. Bodies receiving the imprint of the character
of the spirit, and these bodies begetting themselves
by reason of their respective type, the result is differ-
ent races physically and morally. Similar spirits, con-
tinuing to incarnate themselves by preference among
their own kind, have perpetuated a distinctive moral
and physical character among races and nations, who
do not lose them except by the fusion and progress
of spirits. (" Revue Spirite," July, 1860, p. 198:
Phrenology and Physiognomy.")
66
30. One can compare the spirits who have come
to people the earth to troops of emigrants of diverse
origin who came to establish themselves on a virgin
soil. They find there wood and stone with which to
make habitations, and each one gives to his own a
special seal, according to the degree of his knowledge
and ingenuity. They group themselves by reason of
analogy, of origin, and taste. These groups end in
by time forming tribes, then nations, each having
its own customs and characters.
31. Progress has not then been uniform among all
the human species. The most intelligent races have
naturally advanced before others, without counting
spirits newly born into the spiritual life, who, having
come to incarnate themselves on earth among the
first arrivals, render the differences in progress more
sensible. It would be impossible, indeed, to give the
same antiquity of creation to savages, scarcely dis-
218
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
tinct from monkeys, as to the Chinese, and still less to
civilized Europeans. These spirits of savages, how-
ever, belong also to humanity. They will attain some.
day the level of their elders; but this will certainly
not be in the bodies of the same physical race, im-
proper to a certain intellectual and moral develop-
ment. When the instrument will no more be en rap-
port with their development, they will emigrate from
this place, in order to incarnate themselves in one.
of a superior character, and so on in succession until
they have conquered all the terrestrial grades; after
which they will quit the earth to pass into worlds
more and more advanced. ("Revue Spirite," April,
1862, p. 97: "Perfection of the Negro Race.")
32. Re-Incarnation. The principle of re-incarna-
tion is the natural consequence of the law of progress.
Without re-incarnation, how is it possible to explain
the difference which exists between the present social
state of the world and that of barbarous times? If
souls have been created at the same time as bodies,
those which are born to-day are all as new, all as
primitive, as those who lived a thousand years ago.
Let us add, that there is not between them any con-
nection, no necessary relation; that they are com-
pletely independent of one another. Why, then,
should the souls of to-day be better endowed by God
than their predecessors? Why have they better com-
prehensions, purer instincts, gentler manners? Why
have they knowledge of certain things without hav-
ing learned them? We defy any one to dispute re-
incarnation without at least admitting that God
created souls of diverse qualities, some superior to
others, according to time and place, a proposition
RE-INCARNATION.
249
irreconcilable with sovereign justice. Say, to the
contrary, that souls of to-day have already lived in
remote times, that they have been barbarous as their
age, but that they have progressed; that to each
new existence they carry the acquisition of ante-
rior existences; that consequently the souls of civil-
ized times are not souls which have been created
superior, but which have perfected themselves with
time, and you will have the only plausible explana-
tion of the cause of social progress. (“Book of
Spirits" or "Spirits' Book," chaps. IV. and V.) ¹
1
This doctrine would be admissible if all the inhab-
itants of the earth were on the same intellectual and
moral level. They would then be able to progress.
only by going to another world, and their re-embodi-
ment on this earth would be useless. Now God does
nothing uselessly. One finds all degrees of intelli-
gence and morality, from the wildness of the animal
to that of the most civilized people: it offers a vast
field to progress. One would ask why the savage
should have to seek elsewhere the degree above him,
when he can find it beside him, and soon, from stage
to stage in this world of human progress? why should
he go to another world for stages of progress which
he can find in this, as there are different degrees of
advancement not only between nation and nation,
but in the same nation and in the same family? If it
were thus, God would have done a useless thing in
placing ignorance and knowledge side by side, bar-
barism and civilization, good and evil, as neighbors;
1 Some people think that the different existences of the soul are
accomplished by going from world to world, appearing only once
upon each.
250
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
while it is precisely this contact which makes the
backward ones advance. There is then no more
necessity for souls to change worlds at each re-incarna-
tion, than there is for a student to change colleges in
going from class to class. Far from being an incentive
to progress, it would retard it; for the spirit would be
deprived of the examples offered him by those of
superior degree, and of the possibility of repairing
wrongs which he has done in the same place, and in
respect to the persons whom he has injured, a pos-
sibility which is for him the most powerful means
for moral advancement. After a short cohabitation
spirits would disperse, and become strangers to one
another. The ties of family and friendship, not
having time to consolidate, would be broken.
That the spirits leave a world when they can
acquire nothing more upon it for one more advanced,
must be a truth, and is so without doubt. If they
leave before having thoroughly graduated from one
stage to another, it is, without doubt, in individual
cases which God weighs in his wisdom. All has an
object in creation, else God would neither be prudent
nor wise. Now, if the earth were the theatre for only
one incarnation of each soul, of what use would it
be for children who die in infancy to come to pass
only a few months, sometimes hours, during which
they acquire nothing?- the same of idiots and fools.
A theory is only good when it solves all the questions.
it raises. The question of premature deaths has
been a stumbling-block for all doctrines, except for
the Spiritist, which alone solves it rationally. For
those to whom is furnished a normal career on earth
there is a real advantage when finding themselves
EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.
251
again occupants of the same place in order to con-
tinue there something they have there left undone,
often in the same family, or in contact with the same
persons, in order to repair the evil they have done,
or to submit to the pain of retribution.
33. Emigration and Immigration of Spirits. In
the interval between their material existences, spirits
live in an erratic state, and compose the ambient
spiritual population of the globe. By deaths and
births these two populations are incessantly mingled.
There is then daily emigration from the material to
the spiritual world, and immigrations from the spirit-
ual into the material world. This is the normal
state of existence.
G
34. At certain epochs regulated by divine wisdom,
these emigrations and immigrations take place en
masse in consequence of great revolutions, causing
great numbers of human beings to change worlds,
which are soon replaced by equivalent incarnations.
It is then necessary to consider destructive scourges
and inundations as collective arrivals and departures,
-providential means of renewing the material popu-
lation of the globe by replenishing it by the intro-
duction of new and purer spiritual elements. If in
these catastrophes there is a great destruction of
bodies, they are only torn vestments; but no spirit
perishes. They only change place. Instead of de-
parting alone, they go in numbers, which is the whole
difference from the ordinary. By one cause or another
they must inevitably depart sooner or later. The
rapid and almost instantaneous renovations which
take in the spiritual element of the population, in con-
sequence of destructive scourges, hasten social prog-
252
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ress.
Without emigrations and immigrations, which
from time to time give a violent impulsion, it would
march very slowly. It is remarkable that all great
calamities which decimate populations are always
followed by an era of marked spiritual, intellectual,
and physical progress in the social state of the
nations in which they occur. Their object is to
produce a great change in the spiritual, which is the
normal and active, population of the globe.
35. This transfusion, which takes place between
the incarnated and spiritual population of the same.
globe, operates in the same way between different
worlds, either individually in normal conditions or
by masses in special circumstances. There are then
collective emigrations and immigrations from one
world to another. There results from it the intro-
duction into the population of the globe entirely
new elements, new races of spirits coming to mingle
with existing races, constituting new races of men.
Now, as spirits never lose any thing they have once
acquired, they carry with them the intelligence and
intuition of the knowledge they posses. They im-
press, consequently, their character on the corporal
race they come to animate. There is no need of new
bodies created for their especial use. Since the cor-
poral species exist, they find them already to receive
them. In arriving upon the earth, they are at first
a part of its spiritual population; then incarnate
themselves like others.
36. The Adamic Race. - The Adamic race, accord-
ing to the teachings of the spirits, is due to one of these
great immigrations, where one of these great colonies
of spirits came from another sphere, which has given
THE ADAMIC RACE.
253
birth to the race symbolized in the person of Adam,
and for this reason named Adamic. When they
arrived, the earth had been peopled from time imme-
morial, as America had been when Europeans reached
its shores.
The Adamic race, more advanced than those which
had preceded it upon the earth, is indeed the most in-
telligent. It is that race which has pushed all other
races forward. Genesis shows us it from its début
to be industrious, apt in all the arts and sciences,
without having passed through an intellectual infancy,
which is not the experience of primitive races. This
accords with the opinions of spirits that it had already
progressed upon other worlds, all proves that it did
not originate, and is not ancient, upon the earth; and
nothing opposes itself to the idea that it might have
only been here since a few thousand years, which
would be in contradiction neither to geological facts
nor to anthropological observations, but would tend
to the contrary to confirm them.
37. The doctrine which proceeds from the idea
of human beings of one individuality alone six thou-
sand years old is not admissible in the present state
of knowledge. The principal considerations which
contradict it are drawn from physical and moral
order.
38. At a physiological point of view, certain
races present particular characteristics, which do not
allow of a common origin being assigned to them.
There are differences which are evidently not pro-
duced by climatic variations, since white people who
are produced in a land of negroes do not become.
black. The heat of the sun broils and burns the
251
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
skin, but has never transformed a white man into a
negro, flattened the nose, changed the form of the
features of the face, or rendered the hair crimped and
woolly, naturally long and silky. One knows to-day
that the color of the negro is produced by a peculiar
tissue under the skin, appertaining to the species.
It is necessary then to consider the Negro, Mon-
golian, and Caucasian races as having each its own
particular origin, and of having been born succes-
sively or simultaneously upon different parts of the
globe; then increase has produced a mixed secondary
race. The physiological characters of primitive races
are the evident indications that they are the result
of special types. The same considerations apply then
to man, as well as to animals, as to the plurality of
stocks.
39. Adam and his descendants are represented in
Genesis as men essentially intelligent, since from the
second generation they have built cities, cultivated
the earth, and worked with metals. Their progress
in the arts and sciences was at all times rapid and
constant.1
1 When, in the Revue of January, 1862, we published an article
on the interpretation of the doctrine of fallen angels, we presented
this theory only as an hypothesis, having in its support found no
higher authority than controvertible personal opinion. From that
time till the present we have lacked the necessary materials out of
which to construct an absolute affirmative proposition. We gave
this title to that essay for the sake of provoking research, fully
determined either to abandon or modify the theory if necessity
should arise. To-day this theory has been submitted to the trial of
universal control. Not only has it been indorsed by a great ma-
jority of spirits as most rational and most in accord with the sover-
eign justice of God, but has been directly confirmed by the greater
part of the instructions given by the spirits themselves on this sub-
ject. It is identical with that which explains the origin of the
Adamic race.
THE ADAMIC RACE.
255
We cannot, therefore, conclude that a race so
numerous could have proceeded, thus highly gifted,
from a people of most rudimentary intelligence who
were still in the days of simple animality, and at the
same time have lost all trace of their descent, so
that they had not even a traditional memory of their
ancestors. A difference so radical in intellectual
abilities, and also in moral development, proves, with,
no small degree of evidence, that this race had a
distinct origin.
40. Independently of geologic facts, the proof of
the existence of man upon the earth before the epoch
fixed by Genesis is drawn from the population of
the globe. Without alluding to Chinese chronology,
which carries men back, it is said, thirty thousand
years, more authentic documents declare that Egypt,
India, and other countries were populous and in a
flourishing condition at least three thousand years
B.C.; consequently only one thousand years after
the creation of the first man, according to biblical
chronology. These documents, as well as recent ob-
servations, leave no room for doubt in our minds
to-day that there were inhabitants at a remote pe-
riod on both hemispheres, and that relations existed
between America and ancient Egypt. From this we
are forced to conclude that America was already
peopled at that epoch. It would be folly to admit
that in one thousand years the posterity of a single
man could cover so large a portion of the earth; for
such amazing fecundity is contrary to all the laws
of anthropology.
Genesis at the same time attributes to the original
descendants of Adam no abnormal fecundity: on the
256
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
contrary, it gives us a very ordinary account of their
number until the time of Noah.
41. The impossibility of such multiplication is
made still more evident, if we admit with Genesis
that the deluge destroyed all the human race, with
the exception of Noah and his immediate family,
which was not numerous in the year of the world
1656, or 2348 B.C. It cannot thus, in reality, be
true that the present population of the globe dates
only from Noah, or from about his time. History
designates Menes king of Egypt 642 years after the
deluge. According to the Hebrew records, they had
established themselves there at that time. It cannot
be that this powerful empire could have been peo-
pled in so short a time, besides other countries, in
six centuries by the sole descendants of Noah: such a
supposition is decidedly inadmissible. Let us, more-
over, observe that the Egyptians received the He-
brews as strangers. It would be contrary to reason to
suppose that they had lost all remembrance of their
common origin and of their reunion; for we know
that at that time they religiously kept records and
monuments of their history. Exact logic, corrobo-
rated by stern facts, clearly shows in the most une-
quivocal manner that man has existed on earth
through an indefinitely long period of time, cer-
tainly that the origin of the race is greatly anterior
to the epoch assigned by Genesis.
It is the same with the doctrine of the diversity
of primitive sources. In order to demonstrate the
impossibility of a proposition being a correct one, it
must be shown that a contrary proposition is demon-
strable. If geology discovers authentic traces of
DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ANGELS.
257
the presence of man before the great diluvian period,
the demonstration becomes still more absolute.
42. Doctrine of Fallen Angels, and of Paradise Lost.
-The word "angel," like many others, has many
meanings. It can be differently applied, both in a
good and evil sense: thus we may speak of the good
angels and the bad angels, an angel of light and an
angel of darkness. It therefore, in its general or
broad acceptation, means simply a spirit. Angels
should not be regarded as distinct from human beings,
created perfect, but as spirits who have arrived at
a state of perfection by their own efforts, in accord-
ance with the law governing all creatures. If the
angels were created perfect, rebellion against God
being an evidence of imperfection, those who rebelled
could not have been angels at all. Rebellion against
God is inconceivable in connection with beings cre-
ated perfect, in as much as it compels the inference
that the rebellions are still imperfect.
Etymologically the word "angel" (from the Greek
aggêlos) signifies "one who is sent," "a messenger.
Now it is irrational to suppose that God has selected
his special messengers from among those who are
sufficiently imperfect to revolt against him.
43. Until spirits have attained to a certain de-
gree of perfection, they are subject to falling; they
are in a state of probation, the state of embodied
spirits.
To fall (or to fail) is to disobey the law of God,
the divine law which is written in the hearts of all
men, which is a revelation given to all that they may
know what they ought to do. A spirit only gradu-
ally, and by measure as his intelligence develops,
""
12
258 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
comprehends the moral law. Whosoever breaks this
law ignorantly acquires needed experience through
the penalty attached to his mistake. Responsibility
is always relative, and according to knowledge. On
the part of one whose intelligence is more highly
developed, who, having all the advantages of moral
light, voluntarily breaks the law, does conscious evil.
Knowing the wrong of his conduct, he is a rebel,
revolting against the author of the law.
44. Worlds advance physically by the transfor-
mations of matter, and morally by the purification of
the spirits who inhabit them. Goodness can only be
realized in the predominance of good over evil, and
the predominance of good results from the moral
progress made by spirits. Intellectual progress will
not suffice, because with knowledge it is possible to
work harm. When a world has arrived at one of its
periods of transformation, and is ready to rise in the
universal hierarchy, changes are operating, affecting
both its embodied and disembodied population. At
the time then when a world has reached one of its
transformation crises which mark the stages of its
ascent in the hierarchy, changes of a marked char-
acter take place among its embodied and disem-
bodied inhabitants, causing extensive emigrations
and immigrations.
Those who, notwithstanding their intelligence and
knowledge, have continued in evil in their revolt
against God and his laws, would be henceforth
obstacles in the path of further moral progress,
a permanent source of trouble, disturbing the tran-
quillity and well-being of the virtuous. For this
reason are they sent forth into less advanced worlds,
DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ÅNGELS.
259
worlds in which they can utilize their intelligence
and the results of their acquired knowledge in fur-
thering the advancement of those among whom they
are called to live, at the same time expiating in a
series of laborious existences, by hard work, their
past faults and their wilful obstinacy. How will
it fare with them among colonies so strange to them,
tribes still in barbaric infancy? Will not such sur-
roundings make the lives of these exiled angels or
spirits lives of expiation indeed? And the world
from which they have been sent forth, will it not
appear to them a lost paradise?
Was it not to them a delightful place in compari-
son to that whither they are banished for centuries,
until they have merited deliverance from it. The
vague intuitive remembrance they preserve is to
them like a distant mirage, which recalls to them
what they have lost by their fault.
45. But, while the wicked have departed from the
world they inhabited, they are replaced by higher
spirits, who have come, perhaps, from the disem-
bodied ones of this same world, perhaps from a less
advanced world their merits have allowed them to
leave, and for which their new abode is a recompense.
The spiritual population being thus renewed and
purged of its lower elements at the end of an age,
the moral state of the world is ameliorated. These
changes are sometimes partial; i.e., limited to a race.
At other times they are general when a period of
renovation for the globe has arrived.
46. The Adamic race has all the characteristics of
a proscribed race. The spirits forming part of it
have been exiled upon the already peopled earth,
260 GENESIS →
ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
but peopled by primitive men yet in ignorance, to
whom their mission was to effect their progress by
carrying among them the light of a developed intel-
ligence.
Is it not indeed the place that this race has filled
until now? Their intellectual superiority proves.
that the world from which they came was more
advanced than this earth; but that world entering
upon a new phase of progress, these spirits, by their
obstinacy not placing themselves at the required
height, would have been a hinderance to the provi-
dential march of events. That is why they were ex-
pelled; while others who have merited them have
taken their places. By placing this race upon this
earth of toil and suffering, God was just in saying
to it, "Thou shalt earn thy bread by the sweat of
thy brow." In his mercy he promised to send them a
Saviour; i.e., he who will enlighten them concerning
the route from a state of misery to angelic felicity.
This Saviour he has sent to them in the person of
Christ, who has taught the law of love, charity
being unknown to them, and who becomes to them
the veritable anchor of salvation.
Christ has not only taught the law, but has given
a practical example of it by his mercy, his humility,
his patient suffering without murmur, the most igno-
minious treatment, and the severest pains. In order
that such a mission should be perfectly accomplished,
a spirit above human weakness was necessary.
It is equally with a view to the advancement of
humanity in a determined sense that some superior
spirits who have not all the qualities of Christ are
embodied from to time on the earth, in order to ac-
DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ANGELS.
261
complish definite missions which aid in their own
advancement, if they fulfil them according to the
will of the Creator.
47. Without re-incarnation the mission of Christ,
as well as the promise made by God, would be useless.
Let us suppose that the soul of man is created at
the birth of his body, and that it only once appears,
and then disappears from the earth. There is no
relation between those who have come from Adam
to Jesus, neither between those who have been born
since they are all strangers to one another. The
promise of a Saviour made by God could not apply
to the descendants of Adam if their souls were not
yet created. In order that the mission of Christ
should fulfil the divine word, it was necessary that
it should be applied to the identical souls. If these
are new souls, they cannot be stained with the fault
of the first father, who is only the material and not
the spiritual parent: otherwise God must have created
souls stained with sin they could not have committed.
The common doctrine of original sin implies the ne-
cessity of a connection between the souls living on
earth in the days of Christ and those of the time of
Adam, and consequently of re-incarnation. Suppose
that all these souls formed a part of the colony who
came to earth in the days of Adam, and that they
were stained with the sin which had expelled them
from a brighter world, and you will find a rational
interpretation of original sin, each individual's own
sin, and not the result of the fall of another, whom he
has never known. Say that these spirits are reborn in
different parts of the earth into corporeal life, that
they may progress and purify themselves; that Christ
262
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
came to enlighten these same souls not only with
reference to their past, but also with a view to their
ulterior lives: and then only do you endow his mis-
sion with an object acceptable to the reason.
48. A familiar example striking by its analogy
will cause the principles just exposed to be better
understood. May 24, 1861, the frigate "Iphigenia
conducted to New Caledonia a company composed
of two hundred and ninty-one men. The commander
of the colony addressed them on their arrival an
order couched in these words:
""
"At your entrance into this distant land, you
already comprehend the work which is expected of
you. By the example of our brave soldiers of the
marine service, serving under your eyes, you will aid
us to carry with éclat in the midst of the savage
tribes of New Caledonia the torch of civilization.
"Is it not a beautiful and noble mission to which
I call you? You will fulfil it worthily. Listen to
the voice and counsels of your leaders. I am at their
head. Let my words be well understood. The choice
of your commander, of your officers, of your under-
officers, and corporals, is a sure guaranty of all the
efforts which will be put forth to make of you excel-
lent soldiers. I say more, to elevate you to the height
of good citizens, and to transform you into honorable
colonists, if you but desire it. Your discipline is
severe it must be so. Placed in our hands it will
be firm and inflexible, you know it well, but also
just and paternal. It shall know how to discover
all error, vice, and degradation."
:
Here then are men expelled for their bad conduct
from a civilized country, and sent for punishment
-
DOCTRINE OF FALLEN ANGELS.
263
among barbarous people. What says the chief to
them? -
"You have broken the laws of your country;
you have caused trouble and scandal, and they have
exiled you from it. They send you here; but you
can retrieve your past. You can by labor create
for yourselves here an honorable position, and become
honest citizens. You have a beautiful mission to
fulfil here, that of carrying civilization among these
savage tribes. The discipline will be severe but just;
and we shall know how to distinguish those who will
conduct themselves well."
For these men thus thrown upon the bosom of bar-
barism, is not the mother country a paradise lost to
them by their rebellion against its laws? In this dis-
tant land are they not fallen angels? The language
of the chief, is it not that which God makes spirits
exiled upon the earth to hear? You have disobeyed
my laws; and it is for that offence that I have ban-
ished you from a world in which you could live happily
and in peace. Here you will be condemned to work;
but you will be able by your good conduct to merit
your pardon, and re-enter the country you have
forfeited by your sin,-i.e., heaven.
49. At first the idea of a downfall would appear
contradictory to that of the non-retrograde move-
ments of the spirit; but it is necessary to consider
that it carries them toward a return to the primitive
state. The spirit, although in an inferior position,
loses nothing he has once acquired. His moral and
intellectual development remains, whatever may be
the condition in which he finds himself. He is in the
position of a man of the world condemned to the
264
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
convicts' prison by his misdeeds. Certainly, he has
fallen in a social sense; but the fall makes him
neither imbecile nor ignorant.
50. Does any one believe that the men sent to New
Caledonia are to be suddenly transformed into models
of virtue? that they will all at once abjure their
past errors? One cannot know humanity if he sup-
poses that. For the same reason the spirits of the
Adamic race, once transplanted upon the soil of exile,
have not been instantaneously despoiled of pride
and depraved instincts; for a long time they have
preserved the tendencies of their origin, the remains
of the old leaven. Now, is this not original sin? The
stain that they bring with them at birth is not that
from the race of spirits culpable and punished by
reason of their own belongings, a spot which they
can efface by such expiation as renovates their moral
being. Original sin, considered as the result of
another's fault, is nonsensical, and opposed utterly to
divine justice; considered, on the contrary, as a con-
sequence and relic of a first imperfection of the
individual, is not alone admitted by reason, but one
finds justice in the responsibility which flows from it.
CHAPTER XII.
MOSAIC GENESIS. SIX DAYS. — PARADISE LOST.
―
1. Six Days.-CHAP. I.-1. In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.
2. The earth was without form, and void; and dark-
ness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. Then God said, Let there be light: and there
was light.
4. And God saw the light, that it was good and
God divided the light from the darkness.
5. And God called the light Day, and the dark-
ness he called Night. And the evening and the morn-
ing were the first day.
6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from
the waters.
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the
waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament: and it was
So.
8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And
the evening and the morning were the second day.
9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
be gathered unto one place, and let dry land appear:
and it was so.
265
266 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
10. God called the dry land Earth; and the gath-
ering together of the waters called he Seas: and God
saw that it was good.
11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the
earth and it was so.
12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself: and God saw that it
was good.
13. And the evening and the morning were the
third day.
14. And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days, and years:
15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of
the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16. And God made two great lights; the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night he made the stars also.
17. And God set them in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth,
18. And to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness: and God
saw that it was good.
19. And the evening and the morning were the
fourth day.
20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and
fowl that may fly above the earth in the open fir-
mament of heaven.
SIX DAYS.
267
..
21. And God created great whales, and every
living creature that moveth, which the waters brought
forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let
fowl multiply in the earth.
23. And the evening and the morning were the
fifth day.
24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the
living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and
it was so.
25. And God made the beast of the earth after
his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and
God saw that it was good.
26. And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
27. So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female cre-
ated he them.
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every
herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the
268
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a
tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every
fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth
upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given
every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31. And God saw every thing that he had made,
and, behold, it was very good. And the evening
and the morning were the sixth day.
CHAP. II. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them.
2. And on the seventh day God ended his work.
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh
day from all his work which he had made.
3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sancti-
fied it because that in it he had rested from all his
work which God created and made.
4. These are the generations of the heavens and
of the earth when they were created, in the day that
the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5. And every plant of the field before it was in
the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew:
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and
watered the whole face of the ground.
7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living soul.
8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in
Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2. After the developments explained in the pre-
SIX DAYS.
269
ceding chapters concerning the origin and constitu-
tion of the universe, according to knowledge fur-
nished by science concerning the material part, and
according to Spiritism for the spiritual, it is useful
to place beside it the text of the Mosaic Genesis,
in order that a comparison may be established, and
one may judge by knowledge. Some supplementary
explications will suffice to make the parts which
need special explanation to be understood.
3. Upon some points there is certainly a remarka-
ble agreement between science and Moses; but it
would be an error to imagine it sufficient to substitute
for six days of twenty-four hours each six periods
of time (duration unknown) in order to find a com-
plete analogy.
It would be no less an error to conclude that, save
the allegorical sense of a few words, Genesis and sci-
ence do not follow each other step by step, and are
only a paraphrase of one another.
4. Let us remark at first, in addition to what has
been said already (see chap. VII., p. 172), that the
number of the geological periods is not arbitrarily
six, since they include more than twenty-five very
characteristic formations. This number marks only
the great general phases. It has been adopted
principally to approach to the letter of the bibli-
cal text as nearly as possible, at an epoch when it
was believed to be a duty to control science by the
Bible.
That is why the authors of the great majority of
theories of cosmogony, with a view to making their
productions more easily accepted, have been forced
to place themselves in accord with the sacred text.
270
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
When science leans upon the experimental method,
she feels stronger, and becomes emancipated. To-day
it is the Bible which is controlled by science.
On the other hand, exact geology, taking its point.
of departure only from the formation of granite rocks,
does not include in the number of its periods the
primitive state of the earth. It does not occupy it-
self with sun, moon, and stars, nor with that portion
of Genesis which belongs to astronomy. In order to
deal fairly with Genesis, it agrees to add a primary
period embracing this order of phenomena, which
might be called the astronomical period. Besides,
the diluvial period is not considered by all geolo-
gists as a distinct period, but as a transitory fact
which has not notably changed the climatic state of
the globe, neither marked a new phase in the vegeta-
ble or animal species, since, with few exceptions,
nearly the same species have been found to exist
before and after the deluge. One can thus make
an abstract without detracting from truth.
5. The following table of comparison, in which is
a résumé of the phenomena characterizing each one
of the six periods, permits of embracing the whole,
and enables one to decide between the statements
of science and Genesis:
GENESIS.
First Day.
The heavens and the earth.
SCIENCE.
1. Astronomical Period.
Agglomeration of universal
cosmic matter upon a point of | Light.
space in a nebula which has
received birth by the conden-
sation of matter from diverse
points, from the sun, stars,
SIX DAYS.
271
SCIENCE.
moon, earth, and all planets.
Primitive fluid and incandes-
cent state of the earth. Dense
atmosphere charged with vapor
and volatile matter.
3. Transition Period.
The waters cover all the
surface of the globe. First
deposits of sediment formed by
waters. Humid heat. Sun com-
mences to pierce foggy atmos-
phere. First organized beings,
of most rudimentary constitu-
tion, lichens, mosses, ferns,
herbaceous plants. Colossal
vegetation. First marine ani-
mals, -jelly-fish and shell-fish.
Coal deposits.
GENESIS.
2. Primary Period.
Hardening of earth's surface
The firmament.
Separation
by cooling process; formation of waters under firmament from
of granite beds. Atmosphere those above it.
thick and burning, impenetrable
to sun's rays. Gradual precipi-
tation of water and solid vola-
tile substances in the air. Ab-
sence of all organic life.
4. Secondary Period.
Surface of earth very uneven,
waters not very deep, and form-
ing marshes on earth. Tem-
perature less burning, purer
atmosphere; considerable cal-
careous deposits, vegetation less
colossal; new species, woody
plants; first trees. Fishes, jel-
ly and shell; turtles, great
Second Day.
Third Day.
The waters under the firma-
ment are gathered together.
Dry land appears. The earth
and sea.
Plants.
Fourth Day.
Sun, moon, stars.
272
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
SCIENCE.
aquatic and amphibious rep-
tiles.
5. Tertiary Period.
Great uprising of solid crust,
formation of continents; retreat
of waters into lower places,
formation of seas. Purified
atmosphere; present tempera-
ture by solar heat. Gigantic
terrestrial animals; vegetables
and animals as at present;
birds. Universal deluge.
6. Post-Diluvial Period.
Alluvial beds. Present vege-
tables and animals. Man.
GENESIS.
Fifth Day.
Fishes and birds.
!
Sixth Day.
Terrestrial animals. Man.
6. The first fact which is brought to light by
the above comparative table is, that the work per-
formed during the six comparative "days" does not
correspond in an exact way, as many believe, to each
of the six geological periods. The most remarkable
agreement is in the order of succession of organic
beings, which is nearly identical, and in the appear-
ance of man at the last. Now that is an important
concordance. There is also a coincidence, not in the
numerical order of periods, but in the passage where
it is said that on the third day the waters under the
firmament were gathered into one heap, and dry land
appeared. It is the acknowledgment of what actually
took place in the tertiary period, when, by the up-
rising of the solid crust, oceans and continents were
formed. It was then that terrestrial animals first
appeared, both according to Genesis and geology.
7. When Moses declares that creation was per-
SIX DAYS.
273
fected in six days, did he mean days twenty-four
hours long? or has he used the word in its sense of
indeterminate time? The Hebrew word standing for
"day" has this double acceptation: the first hypothe-
sis is the more probable. The specification of day and
night, which is attached to each of these six periods,
gives reason for the supposition that he meant ordi-
nary days. One cannot doubt this, when he says
(verse 5), "He gave to light the name of day, and to
darkness the name of night; and the evening and
the morning made the first day." The latter can
evidently apply only to a day of twenty-four hours
divided by light and darkness. The sense is still
more evident (verse 17), where, in speaking of sun,
moon, and stars, he placed them in the firmament
to give light unto the earth, to rule over day and
night, and separate light from darkness; and the
evening and the morning constituted the fourth day.
Besides, it is certainly stated that creation was effect-
ed in a miraculous manner; and, since the ancients
believed in miracles, they could readily believe that
the earth was formed in a hundred and forty-four
hours, particularly at a time when men were totally
ignorant of natural laws. This belief has been
shared by all civilized people, until geology has
furnished documentary evidence in proof of its
impossibility.
8. One of the most contested points in Genesis
is that of the creation of the sun after light had
appeared. They have sought to explain by means
of geologic discoveries, by stating that, at the time
of its first formation, the terrestrial atmosphere,
being charged with dense and opaque vapors, did
274
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
not allow of the sun's being visible, though the sun
previously existed. This reason would perhaps be
admissible had there been inhabitants to judge of
the presence or absence of the sun. Now, according
to Moses, at this epoch there were only plants upon
the earth which could not grow and multiply with-
out the action of solar heat. There is evidently an
anachronism in the order that Moses assigns to the
creation of the sun; but involuntarily, or otherwise,
he has stated facts correctly when declaring that
light preceded the sun.
The sun is not the source of universal light, but
a concentration of the luminous element at one
point, otherwise called fluid, which in certain circum-
stances acquires luminous properties. This fluid,
which is the cause, must necessarily exist prior to
the sun, which is its effect. The sun is a cause for
the light which it expands, but is an effect of that
which it has received. In an obscure chamber a
lighted candle is a little sun. What has one accom-
plished by lighting the candle? He has developed
the illuminating property of the luminous fluid, and
has concentrated this fluid upon one point. The
candle is the cause of the light expanded in the cham-
ber; but, if the luminous principle had not existed
before the candle, the latter could not have been
lighted It is so with the sun. The error has arisen
in the false idea, that has long been conceived, that
the entire universe began with the earth, and it has
not been understood how the sun could be created
after light.
It is known now, however, that, before our sun.
and earth were created, millions of suns and earths
SIX DAYS.
275
existed which enjoyed light. The assertion of Moses.
is, then, exact in principle: it is only false when it
declares that the earth was created before the sun.
The earth being subject to the sun in its movement
of translation must have been formed after it. That
is something of which Moses was ignorant, since he
was ignorant of the law of gravitation.
The same thought is met with in the Genesis of
the ancient Persians. In the first chapter of the
Vendedas, Ormuzd, recounting the origin of the
world, says, "I created light, which gave light to
the sun, the moon, and the stars" ("Dictionary of
Universal Mythology"). The form is here clearer
and more scientific than that in the Pentateuch, and
needs no commentary.
9. Moses partook evidently of the most primitive
beliefs concerning cosmogony. Like many of his
time, he believed in the solidity of the celestial vault,
and of superior reservoirs for water. This thought
has been expressed without allegory or ambiguity in
this passage (verses 6 and following): "God said, Let
the firmament be in the midst of the waters, and
let the waters be separated from the waters." God
made the firmament in the midst of the waters, and
separated the waters under it from those above it.
(See chap. V., "Systems of Ancient and Modern
Worlds," Nos. 3, 4, 5). An ancient belief made.
matter an element, the generative primitive ele-
ment. Moses does not speak of the creation of
matter, which seems to have existed previously to
the first creation, according to his theory.
The darkness covered the deep; i.e., the depths of
space that the imagination vaguely depicted as dark
276 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
watery wastes, before the creation of light. That is
why the Spirit of God, according to Moses, moved
upon the waters. The earth's being formed in the
midst of water necessitated its isolation. It was sup-
posed that God made the firmament a solid vault,
separating the waters above from those under the
earth. In order to comprehend certain parts of Gene-
sis, it is necessary to place ourselves at that point
of view from which we can watch the reflection of
the ideas entertained on cosmogony at that time.
10. Since the advancement of the physical sci-
ences and astronomy, such a doctrine cannot be sup-
ported.¹ Moses, however, attributes these words to
God himself; but in doing so he is guilty of one
or two serious mistakes. Either he was deceived
by God in the record he gave of his work, or this
recital is not a divine revelation. The first supposi-
tion is inadmissible. We must therefore conclude
that Moses simply gave utterance to his own ideas.
(See chap. I.)
11. Moses is more nearly right when he says that
God formed man out of the dust of the earth.2 Sci-
ence proves to us, in fact (see chap. X.), that the
human body is composed of the elements gathered
up in inorganic forms of matter, otherwise called
the dust or mud of the earth.
1 Much which is palpably erroneous must be the result of such
a belief; but still, in our days, children's doubts are lulled to rest
as they are told by their instructors that it is all a sacred verity. It
is only with fear and trembling that their teachers will venture to
give to these writings a timid interpretation. How can we wonder
that incredulity has at last taken them by storm?
2 The Hebrew word huadam, "man," which gives us Adam, and
the Hebrew word haadama, "earth," are from the same root.
SIX DAYS.
277
The formation of a woman from one of Adam's
ribs is an allegory, apparently puerile if we consider
only its letter, but profound in its significance. It
undertakes to demonstrate that woman is of the
same nature as man, consequently his equal before
God, and not a creature designed to be his slave and
treated with disrespect. Being taken out of his side,
the image of equality is very much more startling
than though she had been formed separately from
the same dust. This is to say to man that she is his
peer and not his servant, and that he must love and
revere her as part of himself.
12. For uncultured minds, without any apprehen-
sion of universal laws, incapable of embracing the
whole and of conceiving of the infinite, this miracu-
lous and instantaneous creation was essentially calcu-
lated to take hold of the imagination. The picture
of the universe created out of nothingness, in a few
days, by a single act of creative will, was to them
the most magnificent portrayal of the power of God.
What painting, in fact, could be more sublime and
more poetic than these words, illustrative of the
divine power, God said, "Let there be light," and
there was light? Had they been told that God accom-
plished the creation of the universe by the gradual
and slow working of universal laws, he would have
appeared to them far less glorious and powerful. It
was necessary to them that these things should appear
marvellous, instead of being brought about in ordinary
ways: otherwise they would have said that God was
no more skilful than men. A scientific and rational
theory would have been received by them with cold-
ness and indifference.
278 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Primitive men are like children, and it is needful
for them to have given to them intellectual food
adapted to their understanding. To-day, as we are
enlightened by the brilliance of science, we turn from
the material errors put forth by Moses; but we must
not blame him for having spoken in the language of
his time, for in any other speech he would have been
neither comprehended nor accepted.
13. Let us respect these pictures which now ap-
pear to us so puerile, as we respect the fables which
enlighten our childish minds as they are first devel-
oping the powers of thought. Through these pic-
tures Moses inculcated in the minds of primitive men
the idea of God and of his majesty, an artless faith
which it is the province of the torch of science to
purify. Because we have learned to read fluently,
do not let us despise the book from which we have
learned to spell. Let us not therefore reject the
biblical Genesis: on the contrary, let us study it as
an instructive history of the infancy of peoples. It
is an epic rich in allegories, in which we may find
hidden wisdom; it must be commented upon with
the aid of such light as reason and science can
supply.
Let us prize all its poetic beauties, and the spirit-
ual instructions veiled under its allegoric forms. It
must be shown boldly wherein its errors lie in the
interest of religion itself. We can respect it far
more when its errors are no longer imposed upon our
belief as truths; and God will but appear grander
and more powerful when his name shall be no longer
attached to misleading documents.
14. Paradise Lost. GENESIS, CHAP. II. 8.
--
PARADISE LOST.
279
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in
Eden; and there he put the man whom he had
formed.
9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and
good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil.
10. And a river went out of Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was parted, and became.
into four heads.
11. The name of the first is Pison: that is it
which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold;
12. And the gold of that land is good: there is
bdellium and the onyx stone.
13. And the name of the second river is Gihon:
the same is it that compasseth the whole land of
Ethiopia.
14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel:
that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him
into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16. And the Lord God commanded the man, say-
ing, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat:
17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him an help
meet for him.
280
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
19. And out of the ground the Lord God formed
every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air;
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
call them and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
20. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to
the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but
for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his
ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto
the man.
23. And Adam said, This is now bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called
Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh.
25. And they were both naked, the man and his
wife, and were not ashamed.
CHAP. III. — 1. Now the serpent was more subtil
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not
eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4. And the serpent' said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die.
PARADISE LOST.
281
5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6. And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took
of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her; and he did eat.
7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed
fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said
unto him, Where art thou?
10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and
I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast
naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I
commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12. And the man said, The woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and
I did eat.
13. And the Lord God said unto the woman,
What is this that thou hast done? And the woman
said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above
all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life:
3
}
282 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
15. And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel.
16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multi-
ply thy sorrow in thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be
to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for
thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
of thy life;
18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to
thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return.
:
20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; be-
cause she was the mother of all living.
21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord
God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us, to know good and evil: and
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence
he was taken.
24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at
the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a
PARADISE LOST.
283
flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the
way of the tree of life.
15. Under a puerile and sometimes ridiculous.
image, if one regards its form only, allegory often
conceals the greatest truths. Is this a more absurd
fable than that of Saturn, who is represented as a
god devouring stones whom he takes for his children?
But at the same time what can be more profoundly
philosophically true than this figure if we seek its
moral? Saturn is the personification of time. All
things being the work of time, he is the father of
all that exists. Moreover, all is destroyed by time.
Saturn devouring stones is the emblem of destruc-
tion by time of even the most enduring forms, which
are his children since they are formed by time. And
what escapes this destruction according to this same
allegory? Jupiter, the emblem of superior intelli-
gence, of the indestructible spiritual principle. This
image is so natural, that in modern language, with-
out allusion to the ancient fable, it is said of a thing
defaced by time, that it has been devoured, cor-
roded, or ravaged by it.
16. All pagan mythology is in reality only a vast
allegorical picture of the good and bad sides of hu-
manity. He who seeks the spirit of it ever finds it
a complete course in the highest philosophy, which is
also true of our modern fables. The absurdity is to
mistake the form for the moral of it; but the pagan
priests taught only the form. Perhaps some of them
were only acquainted with that, while others inter-
ested themselves to maintain such beliefs among the
people as favored their power. Sometimes the forms
1
284
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
were more productive of good to the people than
philosophy could have been. The veneration of the
people for the form was an inexhaustible source of
riches by the gifts accumulated in the temples, the
sacrifices and offerings made intentionally to the
gods, but really to the profit of their representatives.
A less credulous people would have been less given
to emblems, statues, and allegories. Thus Socrates
was condemned to drink hemlock, because of his
endeavors to substitute truth for error. Then it
was not the custom to burn heretics alive. Five
centuries later, the Christ was condemned to an infa-
mous death for having, like Socrates, wished to sub-
stitute the spirit for the letter, and because his
wholly spiritual doctrine would overthrow the su-
premacy of the priests, pharisees, and doctors of
law.
J
17. It is so with Genesis, where it is necessary to
see great moral truths under material figures, which,
taken literally, are as absurd as any of our fables
taken literally; the scenes and dialogues attributed
to animals, for instance. Adam personifies humanity.
His individual fault is but a figure of the general
feebleness of mankind, in whom the material in-
stincts predominate, which man knows not how to
resist. The tree of life is the emblem of spirit. As
the tree of knowledge represents the conscious.
knowledge of good and evil, which man acquires by
the growth of intelligence and use of free will, by
virtue of which he chooses between the two, it
marks the point at which the soul, ceasing to be
guitled by instinct alone, takes possession of liberty,
and incurs responsibility for action. The fruit of
PARADISE LOST.
285
the tree emblematizes the object of the material
desires of man. It is an allegory of temptation, and
employs under the same figure the influences which
lure toward evil. By eating, is meant his succumb-
ing to the temptation.1
It grows in the midst of a delightful garden, in
order to show that seduction accompanies pleasure,
and to recall to mind at the same time, that, if man
allows material joys to preponderate, he attaches
himself to earth, removing himself far off from his
spiritual destiny. The death with which he is men-
aced if he infringes the divine law is the warning
of the inevitable physical and moral consequences
which the violation of divine law entails upon him, -
the violation of those laws which God has engraven
upon his conscience.
It is very evident that corporeal death is not sig-
nified, since, after his fall, Adam lived on earth many
years; but spiritual death is unquestionably referred
to, otherwise the loss of innocence. But even this
results in moral advancement. The image employed
is the loss he experiences by his expulsion from this
delightful garden. The serpent to-day passes for
It is in con-
something quite other than deceit.
1 In no text is the fruit specially mentioned as an apple. This
word apple is only found in infantile versions of it. The Hebrew
word is peri, which means the same as in French ("fruit "), but with-
out specification of species, and can be taken in the material, moral,
or figurative sense. With the Israelites there is no obligatory inter-
pretation. When a word has many acceptations, each one under-
stands it in his own way, provided the interpretation is not contrary
to the rules of grammar. The word peri has been translated into the
Latin malum, which signifies "apples" and all other fruits. It is
derived from the Greek mélon, participle of verb mé'o, "to inter-
est,” “to take care,”“
"" to attract."
236
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
nection with its form, rather than with its character,
that it is associated with wicked suggestions which
glide into the mind with the noiseless subtlety of the
serpent, and by which we are so often easily led into
temptation. Besides, if the serpent on account of
having deceived the woman, has been doomed to
crawl upon the earth, it must formerly have had
limbs when it could not have been a serpent. Why
then impose upon the artless faith of childhood as
truths allegories which are so evidently such, and
which, in misleading judgment, cause children to
regard the Bible later in life as a tissue of absurd
fables?
18. If the fault of Adam is literally that of hav-
ing eaten fruit, the almost puerile nature of the sin
cannot be justly condemned with the severity it has
received. We cannot rationally admit what is gen-
erally considered to be the fact; otherwise God, con-
sidering this fault irredeemable, must have con-
demned his own work, since he had created man for
the propagation of man. If Adam had understood
in this sense that he was forbidden to touch the
fruit of the tree, and if he had scrupulously obeyed
the command, where would humanity be? and would
not the designs of the Creator be frustrated? If it
were thus, God would have created the entire uni-
verse for two individuals; and humanity as a race
would have appeared against his will. God had not
created Adam and Eve to remain alone upon the
earth. The proof of it is found in the words ad-
dressed to them immediately on their formation,
when they were unfallen in the terrestrial paradise.
God blesses them, and says to them, "Increase and
w
PARADISE LOST.
287
replenish the earth, subduing it" (chap. i., ver. 28).
Since the multiplication of man was a law of the
terrestrial paradise, his expulsion cannot be due to
the supposed cause.
That which has given credit to this supposition
is the feeling of shame with which Adam and Eve
were seized at the sight of God, and which caused
them to cover themselves. But this shame is a fig-
ure of comparison: it symbolizes the confusion that
all culprits experience in the presence of him whom
they have offended.
19. What then is the definition of this fault
which has been able to strike forever with repro-
bation the descendants of him who committed it?
Cain, the fratricide, was not treated so severely. No
theologian has been able logically to define it, because
all have followed the same circle of faulty ideas about
it, departing not from the letter of the tale. To-day
we know that this fault is not an isolated action, per-
sonal to an individual, but that it comprehends under
one unique allegorical fact all the departures from
the right which can render culpable all humanity,
yet imperfect on the earth, who make an infraction
of the law of God. That is why the fault of the
first man, symbolizing humanity, is symbolized by
an act of disobedience.
20. By saying to Adam that he will draw his
nourishment from the earth by the sweat of his
brow, God symbolized the obligation of work; but
why does he make work a punishment? What would
the intelligence of man be if it were not developed by
labor? What would the earth be if it were not made
fruitful, transformed, and rendered healthy by the in-
288
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
telligent work of man? It is written in chap. ii.,
vers. 5 and 7, “The Lord God had not as yet caused
it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to
labor upon it: so God formed man from the dust of
the earth." This quotation, taken in connection
with another, which is "Replenish the earth," proves
that man was from the beginning destined to occupy
all the earth, and to cultivate it; moreover, that para-
dise was not a circumscribed place upon one corner
of the globe. If the culture of the earth was in con-
sequence of Adam's fall, if Adam had not sinned,
the earth would not have been cultivated, and the
views of God would not have been accomplished.
Why did he say to the woman, that, because she had
committed this sin, she should bear children in sor-
row? How can the pain of child-bearing be a chas-
tisement, since it is a consequence of the organism,
and has been physiologically proved to be necessary?
How can any thing which is according to the laws of
nature be a punishment? This is what theologians
have not yet explained, and that which they will
not be able to do while they look at things from
their present point of view. However, these Bible
quotations, which seem so contradictory, can be jus-
tified.
21. Let us remark at first, that, if at the moment
of the creation of Adam and Eve their soul had
just been taken from nothing, as is taught us, they
must have been novices in all things: they could
have known nothing of death. Since they were
alone upon the earth, whilst they lived in their ter-
restrial paradise, they had never seen any one die.
How, then, could they have comprehended the menace
PARADISE LOST.
289
of death which God made to them? How could Eve
comprehend that the pain of child-bearing would be
a punishment when she had never borne children,
and was, besides, the only woman in the world? The
words of God could have had for Adam and Eve
no meaning. Just taken from nothing, they could
neither have known why they were created, or whence
they came. They could neither comprehend the Cre-
ator or his object in forbidding them to eat the fruit.
With no experience of the conditions of life, they
must have sinned like children who act without
discernment, which renders more incomprehensible
still the terrible responsibility which God has im-
posed upon them and entire humanity.
22. To that which theology fails to explain, Spirit-
ism gives without difficulty a clear explanation in a
rational manner by the anteriority of soul, and the
plurality of existences, without which all is mystery
and anomaly in the life of men.
The admission that Adam and Eve had lived be-
fore, makes all things plain. God does not speak to
them as children, but as to beings in a condition to
comprehend, and who do comprehend him, an evi-
dent proof that this knowledge has been acquired in
an anterior life. Let us admit also that they have
lived in a more advanced world, which was less
material than ours, where the work of the spirit
took the place of manual labor; that by their rebel-
lion against the law of God, figured by disobedience,
they have been exiled as a punishment to this earth,
where man, in consequence of the nature of the
globe, is compelled to labor. God was right in say-
ing to them, "In the world where you will hence-
Mg
=
290
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
forth live, you will cultivate the earth, and gain your
nourishment by the sweat of your brow;" and to
the female, "You will bear children in sorrow because
such is the condition of this world" (chap. XI., Nos.
31 and following ones). The terrestrial paradise for
which they have so vainly sought the traces was
then a description of the happy world, where
Adam had once lived, or rather the race of spirits
of whom he is the personification. The expulsion.
from paradise marks the moment when these spirits.
have come to incarnate themselves among the in-
habitants of this world, and the change of situation
which has succeeded to it. The angel armed with
a flaming sword, who defends the gate of paradise,
symbolizes the impossibility for spirits of lower
worlds to penetrate into superior ones, before hav-
ing merited them by purification. (See chap. XIV.,
Nos. 9, etc.)
23. Cain, after the murder of Abel, said to the
Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the
face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid;
and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the
earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that
findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto
him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance
shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set
a mark upon Cain, lest any one finding him should
kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of
the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east
of Eden."
24. If one clings to the literal meaning of Gene-
sis, behold to what consequences one arrives. From
1
PARADISE LOST.
291
it we learn that Adam and Eve were alone in the
world after their expulsion from the terrestrial para-
dise. It is subsequent to that that Cain and Abel
were born. Now, Cain having killed his brother, and
having been exiled to another country, saw his father
and mother no more; and they were again alone. It
is only a long time after, at the age of a hundred and
thirty years, that Adam had a third son called Seth.
After the birth of Seth, he still lived, according to
biblical genealogy, eight hundred years, and begat
sons and daughters. When Cain established himself
eastward of Eden, according to Genesis, there were
only three persons upon the earth, - Adam, Eve, and
Cain. However, he had a wife and child. Who could
this woman have been? and where could he have
found her? He built a city; but many inhabitants
are necessary to make a city: for it is not possible
or presumable that he made it for himself, wife, and
son, or that he was able to construct it by himself
alone. It is necessary to infer, from this recital, that
the country was peopled. Now this could not have.
been by the descendants of Adam, who then had no
other children than Cain. The presence of other in-
habitants is also proved by this saying of Cain, “I
shall be a fugitive and vagabond, and whoever will
find me will kill me," and from the reply God made
to it. By whom could he have been killed? and for
what good could the sign which God placed on his
forehead have been needed if he was not to encoun-
ter any one? If, then, there were upon the earth
other men outside of the family of Adam, they must
have been there before him: whence this sequence,
drawn from even the text of Genesis, that Adam is
292
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
neither the first nor the only father of human beings
(chap. XI., No. 36).
25. There has come a necessity for the knowledge
that Spiritism has brought touching the connections
between the spiritual and material principles and the
nature of the soul; its creation in a state of sim-
plicity and ignorance; its union with the body; its
progressive, indefinite march through successive ex-
istences, and through worlds which are so many
rounds of the ladder on the way to perfection; its
gradual release from the influence of matter by the
use of its free will; the cause of its leanings toward
good or evil and of its aptitudes; the phenomena of
birth and death; the state of the spirit in embodi-
ment, and at length its future reward for efforts
made in the amelioration of its condition as incen-
tive to its perseverance in well-doing, which throw
light upon every part of the spiritual Genesis.
Thanks to this light, man knows henceforth whence
he comes, whither he goes, why he is upon earth, and
why he suffers. He knows that his future is in his
own hands, and that the duration of his captivity
here below depends upon himself. Genesis, which
previously appeared as a mean and shallow allegory,
now appears grand and majestic, worthy of the good-
ness and justice of the Creator. Considered from
this point of view, Genesis will both confound and
vanquish incredulity.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MIRACLES ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
1. Nature of Miracles. In its etymological ac-
ceptation, the word "miracle," from mirari (Latin),
admirer (French), signifies "to wonder," an extraor-
dinary or surprising thing. The French Academy
defines this word, "an act of divine power contrary to
the known laws of nature." In its usual acceptation,
this word has lost, like so many others, its primitive
signification. In general it was, and still is, limited.
to a particular order of facts. The general idea of
the masses is that a miracle is supernatural. In the
liturgical sense it is a derogation of the laws of
nature by which God manifests his power. Such is,
indeed, its common acceptation, which is considered
its proper sense. It is only by comparison and meta-
phor that it is applied to ordinary circumstances of
life. One of the characteristics of a miracle, prop-
erly speaking, is that of inexplicability, which im-
plies its accomplishment by supernatural laws; and
such is the idea that is attached to it, that, if it is
possible to explain a miraculous fact, it is no more
a miracle, people say, no matter how surprising it
may be.
Another characteristic of a miracle is its unique
or exceptional nature. From the moment when a
293
294 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
phenomenon is reproduced, be it spontaneously or by
an act of will, it is implied that it is subject to a law;
and thenceforth, be this law known or unknown, the
event cannot be miraculous.
2. Science produces miracles every day before
the eyes of the ignorant. If a really dead man be
recalled to life by divine intervention, this would be
a veritable miracle, because it is a fact contrary to
the laws of nature; but if the man had only the
appearance of death, if he has still in him the re-
mains of latent vitality, and science or magnetic
action succeeds in re-animating him, to enlightened
people a natural phenomenon is presented, but to
the eyes of the ignorant the fact will appear miracu-
lous.
When, in certain countries, a physicist flies an
electric kite, and makes lightning strike a tree, this
new Prometheus will certainly be credited with dia-
bolical power. But Joshua arresting the movement
of the sun, or rather of the earth, by admitting this
fact, we must admit a veritable miracle; for there
exists no magnetizer endowed with power to accom-
plish so prodigious a feat. Centuries of ignorance
have been fruitful in miracles, because all that was
not understood passed for miracle. Measurably as
science has discovered new laws, the circle of the
marvellous has been narrowed; but, as it has not
explored the whole of nature's field, there remains
still quite a large place for the miraculous.
3. The marvellous, expelled from the material
domain by science, has been intrenched in that of
Spiritism, which has been its last refuge. Spiritism,
by demonstrating that the spiritual element is one
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
295
of the living forces of nature, a force continually
acting concurrently with material forces, takes in
the phenomena which arise in the circle of natural
effects, because that, like all others, they are subject
to law. If the marvellous is to be expelled from
the realm of spirit, it has then no more existence;
then alone can we say that the age of miracles has
passed.¹
4. Spiritism comes, then, in its turn to do that
which each science has done at its advent, to reveal
new laws, and explain, consequently, the phenomena
which are the result of these laws. These phenom-
ena, it is true, are connected with the existence of
spirits, and with their intervention in the material
world which has been called supernatural. But to
make it really so it would be necessary to prove that
spirits and their manifestations are contrary to the
laws of nature, that no one of these laws produces.
their manifestation. The spirit is none other than
the human life or soul which survives the body. It
is the real indestructible being which cannot die, while
the body is only a destructible accessory. Its exist-
ence is, therefore, as natural after as during embodi
ment. It is submitted to the laws governing the
spiritual principle, as the body submits to those which
rule the material universe; but as these two principles
have a necessary affinity, as they incessantly re-act
1 The word "element" is not used here to signify simple elemen-
tary bodies of primitive molecules, but simply a constituent portion
of a whole. In this sense it can be said that the spiritual element
plays an active part in the economy of the universe, as it is said
that the civil and military elements figure in population; that the
religious element enters into education; that in Algeria it is neces-
sary to take into account the Arabian element.
296
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
upon one another, as from their simultaneous action
result the harmony and movement of the whole, it
follows that the spiritual and material elements are
parts of the same whole, one as natural as the other,
and that the first is not an exception, an anomaly in
the order of things.
5. During embodiment the spirit acts upon matter
through the intermediation of its fluidic body, or
peri spirit: it is the same when disembodied. It ac-
complishes as spirit, and by the measure of its capaci-
ties, that which it did when on earth; only as it has
no longer, for an instrument, its mortal body, it
serves itself when necessary with the material organs
of an embodied being who is a medium. It does as
he does, who, unable to write himself, employs an
amanuensis, or who, not understanding a language,
is served by an interpreter. An amanuensis and an
interpreter are mediums for an incarnated being,
as a spirit medium is the interpreter or amanuensis
of a spirit.
6. The element in which spirits act, and the
means of execution being different from those em-
ployed during embodiment, the effects are different.
These effects only appear supernatural because they
are produced through agents who are not those by
means of which men serve themselves; but from the
instant when it is known that these agents are natu-
ral, and that the manifestations occur in obedience.
to laws, there is nothing supernatural or marvellous.
about them. Before the properties of electricity
were known, the electrical phenomenon was regarded
as miraculous by certain people. As soon as the cause
was known, the miracle vanished. It is the same
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
297
with spiritual phenomena, which arise no more from
the setting aside of nature's laws than do the elec-
trical, acoustic, luminous, and other phenomena.
which have given rise to a crowd of superstitions.
7. However, will it not be said, you admit that a
spirit can raise a table and maintain it in space with-
out support? Is not that a derogation of the law of
gravity? Yes, to the known law; but are all laws
known? Before men had experimented with the
ascensional force of certain gas, who had imagined
that a heavy machine, carrying several men, could
soar by force of attraction? To the vulgar eye the
ascent of a balloon must have appeared miraculous
or diabolical. He who had proposed a hundred years.
ago to transmit a despatch five hundred leagues, and
receive an answer within a few minutes, would have
passed for a fool. If he had performed the feat, it
would have been commonly believed that he had
the Devil under his control; for then no one but
the Devil was thought capable of travelling so
quickly. However, now the occurrence is not only
regarded as possible, but is accepted as altogether
natural. Why, then, should an unknown fluid not
possess the property, under given circumstances,
of counterbalancing the effect of weight, as hydro-
gen counterbalances the weight of the balloon? an
occurrence, indeed, that is similar to that which takes
place in the case under our notice. (See "Mediums'
Book," chap. 4.)
8. The spritual phenomena, being natural, have
been produced in all ages; but because their study
could not be effected by material means, with which
physical science arms itself, they have remained
298
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
longest in the supernatural domain whence Spirit-
ism rescues them. The supernatural hypothesis
based upon inexplicable appearances leaves the
imagination wholly free, which, wandering into
the unknown, gives birth to superstitious beliefs.
A rational explanation founded upon natural law,
leading man to a foundation in reality, gives a place
of rest to imaginative flights, and destroys supersti-
tion. Far from extending the supernatural domain,
Spiritism reduces it to the narrowest limits, and robs
it of its last refuge.
If it makes possible belief in certain facts, it pre-
vents belief in much else, because it demonstrates
in the circle of spiritual being, as science in a circle
of materiality, that which is possible, and that which
is not. Always, however, as it makes no pretension
to say the final word upon all subjects, even upon
those which belong to its own realm, it does not take
the position of an absolute regulator of the possible,
and reserves always some knowledge for future dis-
closures.
9. The spiritual phenomena consist in different
modes of manifestation of soul or spirit during em-
bodiment, or in their disembodied state.
It is by
its manifestations that the soul reveals its existence,
its survival, and its individuality; it is judged
by its effects. The cause being natural, the effect is
equally so. These effects are made the special object
of research in the study of Spiritism, in order to
arrive at knowledge as completely as possible of
nature and of the attributes of the soul, as well as
of the laws which govern the spiritual principle.
10. For those who deny the independent existence
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
299
of the spirit, and consequently that of the independ
ent individuality of the surviving soul, all nature is
simple tangible matter. All phenomena attaching
to Spiritism are to them supernatural, and conse-
quently chimerical. Failing to admit the cause, they
cannot admit the effect; and, when the effects are
patent, they are attributed by them to imagination,
illusion, hallucination: they refuse to give credence
to them. Their own preconceived opinions render
them incapable of judging Spiritism fairly, because
they deny all things which are immaterial.
11. Since Spiritism admits effects consequent upon
the existence of the soul, it does not follow that it
accepts all the qualified effects of the marvellous,
or that it justifies and accredits them. To let it be
the champion of all dreamers, of every Utopian idea,
of all systematic eccentricities, of all miraculous
legends, one must have a very slight knowledge of
it and its purposes. Its adversaries imagine that
they can oppose it with arguments admitting no
reply, when, after making learned researches with
the convulsionnaires of St. Médard, the Camisards
of Cevennes, or the recluses of London, they have
discovered patent cases of imposition that no one
contests. But are these histories the gospel of Spir-
itism? Have its partisans denied that charlatanism
has employed certain truths for its own profit, that
the imagination may have created, that fanaticism
may have exaggerated much? Extravagances are
not committed solely in its name. Is not true sci-
ence abused by ignorance, and true religion by
excess of fanaticism? Many critics regard Spirit
ism as a fairy tale and popular legend, which are
300 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
fictions worth no more than historical and tragical
romances.
12. The spiritual phenomena are oftenest spon-
taneous, and are produced without any preparation
through persons who bestow the least thought upon
them; at other times they are provoked by agents
known as mediums. In the first case the medium
is unconscious of his mediumistic powers; in the sec-
ond he acts by a knowledge of cause: hence the
distinction between conscious and unconscious me-
diums. The latter are the more numerous, and are
frequently found among obstinate and sceptical
persons, who are made good witnesses in defence of
Spiritism without their own knowledge or desire.
The spontaneous phenomena constitute an impor-
tant capital for Spiritism; for one cannot suspect the
good faith of the parties through whom they are
obtained, like somnambulism, which with some indi-
viduals is purely natural and involuntary, and with
others induced by magnetic action.¹
C
But let these phenomena be, or not be, the result
of mental volition, the first cause is exactly the same
in either instance, and detracts nothing from natural
laws. Mediums, then, produce nothing absolutely
supernatural: consequently they perform no miracle.
The instantaneous cures often effected are no more
miraculous than other effects; for they are due to the
action of a fluidic agent performing the office of
therapeutic agent, whose properties are no less natu-
ral because unknown till to-day. The title thauma-
turgist, given to certain mediums by ignorant critics
1 Mediums' Book, chap. 5. Re rue Spirite: examples, December,
1865, p. 370; August, 1865, p. 231.
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
301
of the principles of Spiritism, is then altogether ·
improper. The qualification of miraculous given to
these kinds of phenomena can only give an errone-
ous idea of their true character.
13. The intervention of occult intelligences in
spirit phenomena renders the latter no more miracu-
lous than other phenomena which are due to invisi-
ble agents, because that the occult beings peopling
space are one of the powers of nature, a power
whose action upon the material world is incessant as
well as upon the moral. Spiritism, in enlightening
us with regard to this power, gives us the key to
a crowd of mysterious things unexplained by any
other means, and which in former times must have
passed for amazing prodigies of knowledge. It re-
veals, as does magnetism, a law hitherto unknown,
or at least poorly understood; or it is more correct
to say that the effects were known for they have
been produced through all time before the law was
discovered, and it is only the ignorance of law which
engendered superstition.
:
This law being now known, the marvellous disap-
pears, and the phenomena enter into the order of
natural events. Thus, by moving a table or writing
prescriptions under spirit guidance, spiritists perform
no miracles any more than does the physician who
restores a man almost dead to life, or than the scien-
tist does by bringing lightning from the clouds. He
who would pretend, with the aid of this science, to
perform miracles would be either an ignoramus or
an impostor.
14. Since Spiritism repudiates all pretension to
the miraculous, outside of it only are there miracles
302
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
I
in the usual acceptance of the word! Let us first
declare, that of so-called miracles having taken place
before the advent of Spiritism, and which still take
place in our day, the greater part, if not all, find
their explanation in the new knowledge of law just
revealed. These facts enter, then, although under a
new name, into the order of spirit phenomena, and
as such are not supernatural.
It is well understood that it acts only with authen-
tic facts, and not with those which, under the name
of miracles, are the product of an unworthy jugglery
in view of taking advantage of credulity, any more
than it acts with certain legendary facts which can
have had in the beginning a depth of truth, but
which superstition has enlarged to absurdity. Upon
these facts Spiritism comes to throw light by afford-
ing means to separate truth from error.
15. As to miracles, properly speaking, nothing
being impossible with God, he can perform them
without doubt. Has he done it? Does he ever act
contrary to the laws which he has established? It
does not belong to man to prejudge the acts of
divinity, and to subordinate them to the feebleness
of his understanding. However, we have for crite-
rion of our judgment, in regard to divine things,
the attributes even of God. To sovereign power
he joins sovereign wisdom, whence it is necessary
to conclude that he does nothing uselessly. Why
then should be perform miracles? In order to attest
his power, it is said. But the power of God, is it not
manifested in a much more striking manner by the
magnificent whole of the works of creation, by the
foreseeing wisdom which presides in the smallest as
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
303
well as in the largest of his works, and by the har-
mony of the laws which rule the universe, than by a
few little and puerile modifications which all trick-
sters know how to imitate? What would we think
of a learned mechanic who, in order to prove his
skill, should disarrange the clock which he had con-
structed, a masterpiece of scientific skill, in order to
prove that he can deface that which he has made.
On the contrary, is his knowledge not displayed by
the regularity and precision of its movements? The
question of miracles, then, is not, properly speaking,
in the province of Spiritism; but, sustaining itself
by the reasoning that God makes nothing uselessly,
this idea can be educed, that, miracles not being
necessary to the glorification of God, nothing in the
universe is diverted from the general laws. If there
are some facts which we do not understand, it is be-
cause we have not the necessary knowledge to com-
prehend them.
16. The admission that God may be able, for rea-
sons which we cannot appreciate, to derogate from
the laws which he has established, would make these
laws no more immutable; but at least it is rational
to think that God alone possesses this power. One
could not admit, without denying totally that he is
omnipotent, that it is allowed to the Spirit of Evil
to eclipse the work of God by performing mighty
works which may deceive even the very elect. This
would imply the possession of a power equal to his
Own. That is a doctrine, however, which is or has
been taught. If Satan has the power to interrupt
the course of natural laws, whose work is the divine
one? If Satan does it without the divine permis-
304
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
sion, he is more powerful than God. Moreover, God
is not omnipotent if he delegates to him this power,
as they pretend he does, in order to induce men more
easily to commit wrong; and this theory denies sover-
eign goodness. In both cases it is a denial of one
of the attributes of the Creator, without which he
could not be God. As to the Church, how does it
distinguish the good miracles which come from God
from the evil ones which emanate from Satan? how
can one draw the line between them? Let a miracle
be official or not, it is not at least a derogation of
the laws which emanate from God alone. If an
individual is cured, as is said, miraculously, let it
be by God or Satan, he is no less cured. It is
necessary to have a very poor idea of human intel-
ligence in order to expect that such doctrines can
be accepted in our day. The possibility of certain
reputed miraculous facts being recognized, it is just
to conclude, that, notwithstanding they are from the
source which is attributed to them, they are natural
effects which spirits or incarnated beings can em-
ploy, like all things, as their own intelligence or
scientific knowledge allows them, for good or evil,
according to their goodness or perversity. A per-
verted being can then do things which pass for
prodigies to the eyes of the ignorant, by putting to
profit his knowledge; but, when effects are good, it
would be illogical to attribute to them a diabolical
origin.
17. But it has been thought that religion leans
upon facts which never have and never can be ex-
plained. Perhaps they never have been; but that
they never can be, is another question.
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
305
Does any one know what knowledge and discov
eries may be ours in the future, without alluding to
the miracle of creation, the grandest of all beyond
dispute, and which is now acknowledged to be
within the domain of universal law? Can we not
see already, under the empire of Spiritism, mag-
netism, somnambulism, the reproduction of ecstasies,
visions, apparitions, clairvoyance, instantaneous cures,
trances, oral and other communications, with beings
of the invisible world, phenomena known from time
immemorial, considered formerly as miraculous, now
being demonstrated as belonging to the natural order
of things in harmony with the universal laws of be-
ing? Sacred books are full of accounts of these things,
but qualified by supernaturalism; but, as analogous
facts are found in all religious works of antiquity,
some of which are more marvellous than any biblical
accounts, if the truth of a religion depended upon
the number and nature of these facts, Christianity
could at once be swept away by Paganism.
18. To pretend that the supernatural is the neces-
sary foundation of all religion, that it is the key to the
whole arch of the Christian edifice, is to sustain a
dangerous thesis. If one makes the truth of Chris-
tianity rest solely upon the base of miracle, he gives
it but a fragile support, from which stones are de-
tached every day.
This belief, of which some eminent theologians
are defenders, conducts rightly to the conclusion
that, in a given time, no religion will be possible,
not even the Christian religion, if that which is
regarded as supernatural be demonstrated as nat-
ural; for so many arguments will be heaped against
306
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
it that no one will be able to maintain the miracu
lous character of any fact after its naturalness has
been proved. Now, the proof that a fact is no excep
tion to natural laws is, that it can be explained by
these laws, and that, being able to be reproduced
by the intermediation of any individual whatever, it
ceases to be the exclusive property of saints. It is
not the supernatural which is essential to religion,
but the spiritual principle which has been so mis-
chievously confounded with the marvellous, and
without which religion is impossible.
Spiritism considers the Christian religion at a more
elevated point: it gives to it a more solid base than
miracles, even the immutable laws of God, which
rule the spiritual equally with the material principle.
This base bids defiance to time and science alike;
for time and science will at length sanction it. God
is no less worthy of our admiration, gratitude, or
respect, because he does not derogate his laws, grand
beyond all else in their immutability. He needs not
the supernatural as an element in his worship. Na-
ture is sufficiently imposing of itself, without any
additions, to prove the existence of the Supreme
Power. Religion will always find so many incred-
ulous ones, that reason must sanction it ere they
accept it. Christianity can lose nothing by this
sanction: it, on the contrary, gains by it. If any
thing has destroyed it, in the opinion of certain
people, it is the abuse of the marvellous or super-
natural.
19. If we take the word "miracle" in its correct
etymological sense, in the sense simply of a won-
der, we behold incessant miracles before our very
-
NATURE OF MIRACLES.
307
eyes. We breathe them in the air; they crowd upon
our steps: for all nature is a wonder. Can one give
to the people, to the ignorant, to the weak-minded,
an idea of God's power, without showing them infi-
nite wisdom presiding in all things?—in the admira-
ble organisms of all that live, in the fructification of
plants, in the appropriation of every part of every
being to its needs, according to the place of its
abode. It is necessary to make them behold the
divine action in producing a blade of grass, in the
expanding flower. We must show them his good-
ness in the sun which vivifies all things, his goodness
in his solicitude for all creatures however small or
feeble they may be, his foresight in giving life to
each creature never given uselessly, his wisdom in the
good which proceeds from momentary and apparent
evil. Make them comprehend that evil is really
man's own work, and that God has made every
thing good. Seek them, not to frighten them with
pictures of endless flame, causing them to doubt the
goodness of God; encourage them with the certainty
of their ability to repair all the wrong they have
done; show them the discoveries of science as reve-
lations of divine law, and not as the work of Satan;
finally, teach them to read the book of nature, inces-
santly open before them as an inexhaustible volume,
wherein the wisdom and goodness of the Creator are
inscribed on every page. Then they will compre-
hend that a Being so great, occupying himself with
all, watching over all, foreseeing all, must be sover-
eignly powerful. The laborer will behold him while
ploughing a furrow, and the unfortunate will bless
him in affliction, for he will know that unhappiness
308 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
is his own fault. Then will man be truly religious,
rationally so, which is far better than to encourage
faith in stories of images which sweat blood, in stat-
ues which wink their eyes and move their limbs
(common European superstitions).
}
CHAPTER XIV.
FLUIDS.-NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. — EX-
PLANATION OF SOME THINGS BY REPUTE SUPER-
NATURAL.
1. Nature and Properties of Fluids. —Science has
furnished the key to those miracles which proceed
particularly from the material element, either by
explaining them, or in demonstrating the impossibil-
ity of them by the laws which rule matter. But the
phenomena where the spiritual element is the pre-
ponderating force, not being explainable solely by
the laws of matter, escape the investigations of scien-
tists. That is why they have more than other facts
the apparent character of marvels. It is then only in
the laws which rule spiritual life one can find the key
for the miracles of this category.
2. The universal cosmic fluid is, as has been demon-
strated, elementary primitive matter, of which the
modifications and transformations constitute the in-
numerable varieties of the bodies of nature.
So far as the elementary, universal principle is con-
cerned, it offers two distinct states; that of ethere-
alization, or imponderability, that one can consider
as the primitive, normal state, and that of materi-
alization, or ponderability, which is in some sort only
consecutive. The intermediary point is that of the
309
310 · GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
transformation of the fluid into tangible matter;
but there still is no sudden transition, for one can
consider our imponderable fluids as a boundary
between the two states (chap. IV., Nos. 10 and
following ones). Each one of these two states gives
place necessarily to special phenomena. To the
second belong those of the visible world, and to the
first those of the invisible one. Those called mate-
rial phenomena are, properly speaking, in the domain
of science. The solution of the others, designated
spiritual or psychic phenomena, because they are
allied more especially to the existence of spirits, is
among the prerogatives of Spiritism. But, as spir-
itual and material life are in incessant contact, the
phenomena of these two orders are presented often
simultaneously. Man, in a state of incarnation, can
have only the perception of the psychical phenomena
which are connected with the material life. Those
which belong to the exclusive domain of spiritual
life escape the eye of the material senses, and can be
perceived only in the spiritual state.¹
3. In an etherealized state the cosmic fluid is not
uniform. Without ceasing to be ethereal, it is sub-
mitted to modifications as varied in their kind and
more numerous than in a state of tangible matter.
These modifications constitute distinct fluids, which,
although proceeding from the same principle, are
1 The name psychical phenomena expresses the idea better than
spiritual does, as these phenomena rest upon the properties and
attributes of the soul, or rather on the peri-spirital fluids, which are
inseparable from the soul. This qualification attaches them more
One
intimately to the order of natural facts, regulated by laws.
can then admit them as psychical effects without allowing them the
title of miracles.
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 311
endowed with special properties, and give place to
particular phenomena of the invisible world. All
being relative, these fluids have for the spirits, who
are themselves fluidical, an appearance as material
as that of tangible objects for the incarnated, and
are for them that which the substances of the ter-
restial world are for us. They elaborate and com-
bine them, in order to produce determined effects,
as men do with their materials, yet by different pro-
But there, as here, it is only given to the
most enlightened spirits to comprehend the rôle of
the constitutive elements of their world. The igno-
rant people of the invisible world are as incapable
of explaining the phenomena of which they are wit-
nesses, and in which they co-operate often mechani-
cally, as the ignorant of earth are of explaining the
effects of light or of electricity, or of explaining the
processes of seeing and hearing.
cesses.
4. The fluidical elements of the spiritual world
elude our instruments of analysis, and the percep-
tion of our senses. They are things suited to tangible,
and not to ethereal, matter. Spiritual substances.
belong to a midst so different from ours that we can
judge of them only by comparisons as imperfect as
those by which a man born blind seeks to form an
idea of the theory of color.
But among these fluids a few are intimately
joined to corporeal life, and belong in a measure to
the terrestrial universe. In default of direct percep-
tion of cause, one can observe the effects of them, and
acquire some knowledge of their nature with precis-
ion. This study is essential; for it is the key limited
to a multitude of phenomena, which are inexplicable
by the laws of matter alone.
312
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
5. The starting-point of the universal fluid is the
degree of absolute ethereality, of which nothing can
give us an idea. Its opposite point is its transforma-
tion into material substance.
Between these two extremes there exist innu-
merable transformations, which are allied more or
less to one another. The fluids which are the nearest
materiality consequently the least pure are com-
posed of that which might be called the spiritual
terrestrial atmosphere. In this midst are found the
widely different degrees of ethereality whence the
incarnated and disembodied inhabitants of the earth
draw the necessary elements for the economy of
their existence. These fluids, however subtle and
impalpable they may be to us, are nevertheless of a
comparatively gross nature to the ethereal fluids of
the superior regions. It is the same on the surface.
of all worlds, saving the differences of constitution
and vitality proper to each. The less material life
there is there, the less the spiritual fluids have of
affinity with matter. The name "spiritual fluid" is
not rigidly accurate, as it is really always matter more
or less refined. There is nothing really spiritual, but
the soul or intelligent principle. We designate fluids
thus by comparison, and chiefly by reason of their
affinity with spirits. They constitute the substance
of the spiritual world. That is why they are called
spiritual fluids.
6. Who understands the intricate constitution of
tangible matter? It is, perhaps, compact only in re-
lation to our senses; and that which seems to prove
this is the facility with which it is traversed by spirit-
ual fluids, and the spirits to whom it is no more of
an obstacle then are transparent bodies to light.
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 313
Tangible matter, having for a primitive element
the ethereal cosmic fluid, must be able, by becom-
ing disintegrated, to return to a state of etherealiza-
tion, as the diamond, the hardest of bodies, can be
volatilized into impalpable gas. The solidification
of matter is in reality only a transitory state of the
universal fluid, which can return to its primitive
state when the conditions of cohesion cease to exist.
Who knows even if, in a tangible state, matter is
not susceptible of acquiring a sort of etherealization
which would give to it peculiar properties? Certain
phenomena which appear authentic tend towards such
a supposition as this. We do not yet possess all the
beacon-lights of the invisible world; and the future
has in reserve for us, without doubt, the knowledge
of new laws, which will allow us to comprehend that
which is still to us a mystery.
7. The peri-spirit, or fluidical body of the spirits, is
one of the most important products of the cosmic.
fluid: it is a condensation of this fluid around a focus
of intelligence or soul. It is also seen that the fleshly
body has also its origin in this same fluid transformed
and condensed into tangible matter. In the peri-spirit
the molecular transformation operates differently, for
the fluid preserves its imponderability and its ethereal
qualities. The peri-spiritual and carnal body have,
then, their source in the same primitive element:
both are of matter, although under two different
states of it.
8. Spirits draw their peri-spirit from the place where
they find themselves; that is to say, that this envel-
ope is formed from the ambient fluids. The result
is, that the constitutive elements of the peri-spirit
314 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
must vary according to worlds. Jupiter, being a
very advanced world, in comparison to the earth,
where corporeal life has not the materiality of ours,
its peri-spiritual envelopes must be of a nature in-
finitely more ethereal than upon our earth. Now,
although we would not be able to exist in that world
in our carnal bodies, our spirits would be able to
penetrate there with their terrestrial peri-spirit. In
quitting the earth the spirit leaves there its fluidical
envelope, and is supplied with another appropriate
to the world where he must go.
9. The nature of the fluidical envelope is always
in accord with the degree of moral advancement of
the spirit. Inferior spirits cannot change their incli-
nation, and consequently cannot by desire transport
themselves from one world to another. It is they
whose fluidical envelope, although ethereal and im-
ponderable as regards tangible matter, is still too
heavy, if one can express it thus, in relation to the
spiritual world to allow them to leave their place.
It is necessary to include in this category those whose
peri-spirit is gross enough to be confounded with their
carnal body, which for this reason they believe is still
alive. These spirits (and their number is great) re-
main on the surface of the earth like the incarnated
ones, believing themselves always to be attending to
their occupations. Others, a little more dematerial-
ized, are not sufficiently so to elevate themselves
above the terrestrial regions.¹
Superior spirits, on the contrary, can enter into
1 Examples of spirits believing themselves still in this world:
Revue Spirite, Dec., 1859, p. 310; Nov., 1864, p. 339; April, 1865,
P. 117.
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 315
inferior worlds, and even incarnate themselves there.
They draw, from the constitutive elements of the
world they enter, the materials for the fluidical and
carnal envelopes appropriate to the midst where they
find themselves. They, like the great lord who tem-
porarily leaves his gilded garments to assume the
peasant's garb, without being other than the titled
character he is on account of the change, will not
change thereby their high estate. It is thus that
spirits of the most elevated order can manifest them-
selves to the inhabitants of earth, or incarnate them-
selves for a mission among them. These spirits carry
with them, not the envelope, but the remembrance
by intuition of the regions whence they came, and
which they see in thought. These are people who
see among blind people.
10. The bed of spiritual fluids which surrounds.
the earth can be compared to the inferior beds of the
atmosphere, heavier, more compact, less pure than
the superior beds. These fluids are not homogene-
ous: they are a mixture of molecules of diverse
qualities, amongst which are necessarily found the
elementary molecules which form the base, but more
or less changed in different states.
The effects produced by these fluids will be accord-
ing to the number of pure parts which they enclose.
Such is, by comparison, rectified or mixed alcohol in
different proportions of water or of other substances.
Its specific weight is augmented by this mixture;
while, at the same time, its force and inflammability
are diminished, although there may be pure alcohol
in all. The spirits called to live in this midst draw
therefrom peri-spirit; but, according as the spirit be-
316 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
comes more or less purified, its peri-spirit is formed
from the purest or grossest of this place. The spirit
produces there, always by comparison and not by
assimilation, the effect of a chemical re-agent which
attracts to it the molecules assimilable to its nature.
This capital fact results from it: that the inmost
constitution of the peri-spirit is not identical with all
embodied or disembodied spirits which people the
earth or surrounding space. It is not the same with
carnal bodies, which, as has been demonstrated, have
been formed of the same elements whatever the supe-
riority or inferiority of their spirits may have been.
Also with us the effects produced by bodies are
the same: they have the same necessities, while they
differ by all that which is inherent in the peri-spirit.
Another result is, that the peri-spiritual envelope of
the same spirit is modified with the moral progress
of the latter at each incarnation, although incarnat-
ing himself in the same surroundings; that the supe-
rior spirits, incarnating themselves exceptionally by
a mission into an inferior world, have a peri-spirit less
gross than that of the natives of this world.
11. The place is always in harmony with the nature
of the beings who must live there. Fishes are in the
water; winged beings are in the air; spiritual beings
are in the spiritual or ethereal fluid, even upon the
earth. The ethereal fluid is for the needs of the
spirit, that which the atmosphere is for the necessi-
ties of the body. Now, as fishes cannot live in the
air, and terrestrial animals cannot live in an atmos-
phere too rarefied for their lungs, inferior spirits
cannot support the splendor and impression of the
most ethereal fluids. They would not die, because
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS.
317
spirit cannot die; but an instinctive force keeps them
at a distance, as one keeps away from a fire which is
too hot, or from a light which is too strong. This is
the reason why they cannot go away from the midst
appropriate to their nature. In order to change it,
it is necessary first to change their nature, that they
be despoiled of the material instincts which retain
them in material midsts. As they become purified
and morally transformed, they gradually become
identified with purer surroundings, which become
a necessity to them, like the eyes of him who has
remained a long time in darkness are habituated im-
perceptibly to the light of day and the splendor of the
-
sun.
verse.
12. Thus all is united, all harmonized in the uni-
All is submitted to the great and harmonious
law of unity, from the most compact materiality to the
purest spirituality. The earth is like a vase whence
escapes a thick smoke, which clears away as it as-
cends, the rarefied particles of which are lost in infi-
nite space. Divine power shines in all parts of this
great whole. Who would desire that, in order better
to attest his power, God, discontented with that
which he has made, should disturb this harmony?
that he should lower himself to the level of a magi-
cian by performing acts worthy of a prestidigitator?
And in addition to this they dare to give him as a
rival in skill Satan himself! Never, in truth, was
divine Majesty more undervalued, and men are as-
tonished at the progress of incredulity! You are
right in saying "Faith is departing!" But it is
faith in all that chokes reason and good sense,
faith similar to that which formerly induced persons
a
318 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
to exclaim, "The Gods are departing." But faith in
serious things, in God, and in immortality, is always
alive in the hearts of men; and, if it has been stifled
with the puerile histories with which it has been
overloaded, it raises itself stronger as soon as it
has been extricated, as the restrained plant rises
again in the light of the sun of which it has been
deprived.
All is wonderful in nature because all is admirable,
and testifies of the divine wisdom. These wonders
are for all the world, for all those who have eyes to
see and ears to hear, and not for the profit of a few.
No, there are no miracles in the sense attached to this
word, because all is amenable to the eternal laws of
creation.
13. The spiritual fluids, which constitute one of
the states of the universal cosmic fluid, are then the
atmosphere of spiritual beings. It is the element
whence they draw the materials with which they
operate, the place where special phenomena take
place, perceptible to the sight and hearing of the
spirit, but which escapes the carnal senses which are
impressed alone by tangible matter. In short, they
are the vehicle for thought, as the air is for sound.
14. Spirits act upon spiritual fluids, not by ma-
nipulating them as men manipulate gas, but by the
aid of thought and will. Thought and will are to the
spirit that which the hand is to man. By thought
they impress these fluids into such and such direc-
tions; they agglomerate them, combine or disperse
them; they form harmonious wholes of them, which
have a definitive appearance, form, and color; they
change the properties of them, as a chemist changes
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 319
those of gas or other bodies by combining them by
following certain laws. Sometimes these transfor-
mations are the result of an intention: often they
are the product of an unconscious thought. It is
sufficient for the spirit only to think of a thing in
order that this thing produce itself. Thus, for exam-
ple, a spirit presents himself to the view of an incar-
nated being endowed with spiritual sight with the
same appearance he had when living at the epoch of
their acquaintance, although he may have had many
incarnations since that time. He presents himself
with the costume, the exterior signs, infirmities,
wounds, amputated members, etc., that he had then.
A person who has been beheaded will present himself
with no head. We do not desire to convey the impres-
sion that he has preserved these appearances: no, cer-
tainly not; for as a spirit he is neither lame, maimed,
blind, nor headless: but, his thought conveying the
impression when he was thus, his peri-spirit takes in-
stantaneously the appearance of it, but it can at the
same time leave it instantaneously. If, then, he has
been both a negro and a white man, he will present
himself according to which of these two incarna-
tions may be evoked whence his thought will report
itself.
15. By an analogous effect the thought of the spirit
creates fluid objects of those utensils he used in life.
A miser will handle gold, a military man will have his
arms and uniform, a smoker his pipe, a laborer his
plough and oxen, and an aged woman her distaff.
These fluid objects are as real to the spirit as they were
in the material state for the living man; but, for the
same reason that they are created by thought, their
320 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
existence is as fugitive as thought. The action of
spirits upon spiritual fluids has consequences of a
direct and capital importance for incarnated beings.
From the instant that these fluids are the vehicle of
thought, that thought can modify the properties of
them. It is evident that they must be impregnated
by the good or bad qualities of the thoughts which
put them in vibration, modified by the purity or
impurity of the sentiments. Bad thoughts corrupt
the spiritual fluids, as deleterious miasmata corrupt the
air we breathe. The fluids which surround or that
project bad spirits are then vitiated, whilst those which
receive the influence of good spirits are as pure as
the degree of moral perfection to which they have
attained. It would be impossible to enumerate or to
classify the good and bad fluids, or to specify their
respective qualities, as their diversity is believed to
be as great as that of thought.
16. If the ambient fluids are modified by the pro-
jection of the thoughts of the spirit, its peri-spiritual
envelope, which is a constituent part of his being,
which receives directly and in a permanent manner
the impression of his thoughts, must in a still greater
degree carry the imprint of its good and bad qualities.
The fluids which have become vitiated by the efflu-
vium of the bad spirits can be purified by going away
from the latter; but their peri-spirit will always be
as it is, as long as the spirit will not change itself.
17. Men, being incarnated beings, have in part
the attributes of the spiritual life; for they live in
this life as well as in a corporal one, always during
sleep, and often in a conscious state. The spirit,
1 Revue Spirite, July, 1859, p. 184. Book on Mediums, chap. 8.
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 321
incarnating itself, preserves its peri-spirit with the
qualities which are proper to it, and which, as is known,
is not circumscribed by the body, but envelops and
radiates around it like a fluid atmosphere. By its
intimate union with the body the peri-spirit plays a
preponderating rôle with the organism. By its ex-
pansion it places the incarnated being more directly
en rapport with free spirits. The thought of the em-
bodied mind acts upon the spiritual fluids as that of
the disembodied spirit's thought acts. It is trans-
mitted from spirit to spirit in the same way, and,
according as it is good or bad, it holds a vicious or
healthy relation to the surrounding fluids.
18. The peri-spirit of embodied ones, being of a
nature identical to that of the spiritual fluids, as-
similates itself with them readily, as a sponge imbibes
water. These fluids have over the peri-spirit an ac-
tion which is the more direct because of its expan-
sion and radiation: it confounds itself with them.
These fluids acting upon the peri-spirit, the latter, in
its turn, re-acts upon the material organism with
which it is in molecular contact. If the effluvia are
of a good nature, the bodies receive a salutary impres-
sion; if bad, a painful one. If the bad are permanent
and energetic, they can cause physical disorders: cer-
tain maladies have no other cause. The midsts where
bad spirits abound are then impregnated with bad
fluids, which are absorbed through all the peri-spirit-
ual pores, as by the pores of the body pestilential
miasmata are absorbed.
19. It is the same in assemblies of embodied beings.
An assembly of people is a focus whence radiate
diverse thoughts. Thought acting upon the fluids,
322
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
as sound upon the air, these fluids carry thoughts to
us, as the air brings to us sound. It can, then, in all
truth be said that there are in these fluids waves and
rays of thought, which increase without confounding
themselves, as there are in the air waves and rays of
sound. An assembly of persons is, like an orchestra,
a choir of thoughts, where each one produces his
note. The result is a multitude of fluid-flowing efflu-
via, of which each one receives an impression by the
spiritual sense, as in a musical choir each receives the
impression of the sounds by the sense of hearing.
20. But, as there are harmonious or discordant
sounds, there are also harmonious or discordant
thoughts. If all is harmonious, the impression is
agreeable; if otherwise, painful. There is no need
for the thought to be formed into words. The fluid-
radiation exists all the same, whether it be expressed
or not; but, if some evil thoughts are mingled with
it, they produce the effect of a current of icy air in
a warm atmosphere. Such is the cause of the senti-
ment of satisfaction that is experienced in a sym-
pathetic re-union, animated by good and benevolent
thoughts. It reigns there like a salubrious moral
atmosphere, which one breathes with ease. One is
strengthened there, because it is impregnated with
salutary fluid effluvia. Thus is explained also the
anxiety, the indefinable uneasiness, that one feels
in antipathetical surroundings, where malevolent
thoughts are called forth like currents of nauseous
air. Thought produces, then, a substantial effect,
which re-acts upon our moral being. Spiritism alone
can explain it. Man instinctively feels it, since he
seeks homogeneous and sympathetic re-unions, where
NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS. 323
he knows that he can draw new moral forces. One
could say that he retrieves there the fluid losses
that he makes each day by the radiation of thought,
as he makes up the losses of the material body by
food.
Thought, indeed, is an emission which occasions a
real loss in the spiritual fluids, and consequently in
the material fluids, also in such a way that man has
need of strengthening himself by the effluvia which
he receives from outside.
21. When a doctor is said to cure his patient by
pleasant words, it is an absolute truth; for the be-
nevolent thought carries with it healing fluids, which
act physically as well as morally. It is possible,
without doubt, to evade men of well-known mali-
cious intentions; but how can we be preserved from
the influence of undeveloped spirits which multiply
around us, and glide everywhere without being seen?
The means are very simple; for it depends upon the
will of the man himself, who carries within him the
necessary preservative. Fluids unite by reason of
the similitude of their nature. Dissimilar ones re-
pel each other. There is an incompatibility between
good and bad fluids, as between oil and water.
What is done when the air becomes vitiated? They
purify it by destroying the centre of the miasma
by chasing out the unhealthy effluvium by currents
of salubrious air stronger than it; and, as each one
has in his own peri-spirit a permanent fluid-source, the
remedy is within one's self. It acts only to purify
this source or spring, and to give to it such qualities
as are necessary to repel bad influences, in place of
being an attractive force. The peri-spirit is, then, a
}
324 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
breastplate to which it is necessary to give the best
possible character. Now, as the qualities of the peri-
spirit correspond with the qualities of the soul, it is
necessary to work for its own amelioration; for it is the
imperfections of the soul which attract bad spirits.
Flies go where centres of corruption attract them.
Destroy these centres, and the flies will disappear.
In the same way bad spirits go where evil attracts
them. Destroy the evil, and they will flee. Spirits
really good, whether embodied or disembodied, have
nothing to fear from the influence of bad spirits.
22. Explanation of Some Facts reputed to be Super-
natural. The peri-spirit is the connecting link be-
tween corporal and spiritual life. By it the embodied
spirit is in continual rapport with disembodied spirits.
In short, it is by it that special phenomena are accom-
plished in man, the first cause of which is not found
in tangible matter, and which for this reason seem
supernatural. It is necessary to seek for the cause
of second or spiritual sight in the properties and
radiations of peri-spiritual fluids, which can also be
called psychic sight, with which many persons are
endowed, as well as another called somnambulic
sight, often unknown to them. The peri-spirit is the
sensitive organ of the spirit. By its intermediation
the embodied spirit obtains the perception of spiritual
things which escape the carnal sense. By it the
organs of the body- sight, hearing, and the diverse
sensations are localized and limited to the percep-
tion of material things. By the spiritual sense they
are generalized. The spirit sees, hears, and feels
through all his being, that which is in the sphere
of the radiation of his peri-spiritual fluid. These
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
325
phenomena are, with man, the manifestation of the
spiritual life. It is the soul which acts outside the
organism.
In second sight, or perception by the spiritual
sense, objects are not seen by the material eye,
although by habit it often directs them towards the
point to which attention is diverted. The clairvoy-
ant sees with the soul's eyes; and the proof of it is
that he sees all as well with the eyes closed as open,
and also beyond the compass of the visual radius.¹
23. Although, during life, the spirit is chained to
the body by the peri-spirit, it is not such a slave
that it cannot lengthen its chain, and transport itself
to afar in some point in space or upon the earth.
The spirit is only with regret attached to the body,
because his normal life is liberty, whilst the corporal
one is like that of a serf bound to the soil. The
spirit is then as happy to leave his body as the bird
to leave his cage. It seizes all occasions for freeing
itself from it, and profits by all instances where its
presence is not necessary to the relation of life. It
is the phenomenon designated under the name of
emancipation of the soul. It takes place in sleep.
Every time that the body reposes and the senses are
inactive, the spirit releases itself. (See "Spirits'
Book," chap. 8.)
In these moments the spirit sees spiritual life,
whilst the body sees only vegetative life. It is par-
tially in the state in which it will be after death it
passes through space, holds converse with friends,
1 See facts in regard to double sight and somnambulic lucidity
reported in the Revue Spirite of Jan., 1858, p. 25; Nov., 1858, p. 513;
July, 1861, p. 197; Nov., 1865, p. 352.
326 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
and other free or disembodied spirits like itself.
The fluid-link which holds it to the body is not
broken until death. A complete separation does
not take place until the absolute extinction of the
activity of the vital principle.
So long as the body lives, the spirit, at whatever
distance it may be, is instantly recalled to it as soon
as its presence is necessary; then it resumes its rela-
tion with the course of exterior life. Sometimes,
upon the awakening of the body, it preserves the
remembrance of its peregrinations, an impression
more or less distinct, which constitutes a dream. It
is en rapport, in all cases, with the intuitions which
are suggested to it by new thoughts and ideas, and
justify the proverb, "Night brings counsel and ad-
vice." Thus are also explained certain characteristic
phenomena of natural and magnetic somnambulism,
catalepsy, lethargy, ecstasy, etc., and which are none
other than manifestations of spiritual life.¹
24. Since spiritual sight is not given through eyes
of the flesh, the perception of things is not given by
any ordinary light: indeed, material light is made
for the material world. For the spiritual world there
exists a special luminary, the nature of which is un-
known to us, but which is, without doubt, one of the
properties of the ethereal fluid affected by the visual
perceptions of the soul. There is, then, material and
spiritual light. The first has circumscribed focuses
from luminous bodies; the second has its focus every-
where therefore, there are no obstacles to spiritual
-
1 See examples of lethargy and catalepsy: Revue Spirite, Ma-
dame Schwabenhaus, Sept., 1858, p. 255; The Young Cataleptic of
Souabe, Jan., 1866, p. 18.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
327
sight. It is neither arrested by distance nor by the
opacity of matter: nothing dims it. The spiritual
world is then illuminated by a spiritual light which
has its characteristic power, as the material world
has its solar light.
25. The soul enveloped in its peri-spirit carries thus
in it its principle, light. Penetrating matter by virtue
of its ethereal essence, there are no opaque bodies to
its vision. However, the spiritual sight has not the
same penetration or extent with all spirits. The pure
spirits alone possess it in all its power. With inferior
ones it is weakened by the coarseness of the peri-
spirit, which interposes itself like a fog. It manifests
itself in different degrees with embodied spirits by the
phenomenon of second sight, whether in a natural or
magnetic somnambulism, or in a waking state.
According to the power of the faculty is the lucid-
ity, more or less great. By the aid of this faculty
certain persons see the interior of the organism, and
describe the cause of maladies.
26. Spiritual sight gives, then, special perceptions,
which, being not seated in the material organs, oper-
ate by conditions totally different from the corporal
sight. For the same reason one cannot expect iden-
tical effects, or experiment with it by the same
means. Being accomplished outside of the organ-
ism, it has a mobility which baffles all foresight. It
is necessary to study all its causes and effects, and
not by assimilation with ordinary sight, which it is
not intended to supply, except in exceptional cases,
which must not be taken as a rule.
27. Spiritual sight is necessarily incomplete and
imperfect with embodied spirits, therefore subject to
328 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
aberrations. Having its seat in the soul itself, the
state of the soul must sway the perceptions it gives.
According to the degree of its development, the cir-
cumstances and moral state of the individual, it can
give either in sleep or in a waking state, firstly,
the perception of certain material, real facts, as the
knowledge of past events, descriptive details of a
locality, the causes of a disease, and the proper reme-
dies; secondly, the perception of things equally real
in the spiritual world, as a sight of spirit-forms;
thirdly, fantastic images created by the imagination,
analogous to fluid creations of thought. (See No. 14
and preceding numbers of this chapter.) These crea-
tions are always en rapport with the moral disposi-
tion of the spirit who gives birth to them. Thus, to
persons very strongly imbued and pre-occupied with
religious beliefs, hell is presented, its furnaces, its
tortures, its demons, such as they imagine them to
be. Sometimes it is an epic poem. The pagans saw
Olympus and the Tartarean depths, as the Christians
see Paradise and Hell.
28. If, upon awakening or coming out of the
ecstasy, these persons preserve a distinct remem-
brance of their visions, they take it for the reality
and confirmation of their belief, while it is only a
product of their own thoughts.¹
29. Inert matter is insensible. Peri-spiritual fluid
1 The visions of sister Elmérich can thus be explained, who,
carrying herself back to the time of the passion of Christ, is said
to have seen material things which have never existed, only in the
books which she had read; also those of Madame Cantonille (Revue
Spirite, Aug., 1866, p. 240), and a part of those of Swedenborg (Revue
Spirite, June, 1866, p. 172; Sept., 1866, p. 284. Spirits' Book, chap. 8,
No. 400).
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
329
is equally so; but it transmits the sensation to the
sensitive centre, which is the spirit. Painful injuries
of the body reflect themselves then in the spirit like
an electric shock, by the intermediation of the peri-
spiritual fluid, of which the nerves appear to be the
conducting threads. This is the nerve-power of the
physiologists, who, knowing not the connection of
this fluid with the spiritual principle, have not been
able to explain all the effects. An interruption can
take place by the separation of a limb, or dissection
of a nerve, but also partially, or in a general man-
ner, without any injury, in moments of emancipa-
tion, over-excitability, or pre-occupation of the spirit.
30. In this state the spirit thinks no more of the
body; and in his feverish activity he attracts, as it
were, the peri-spiritual fluid to him, which, being with-
drawn from the surface, produces there a momentary
insensibility. Thus, in the ardor of combat, a mili-
tary man does not perceive he is wounded. A person
whose attention is concentrated upon a work hears
not the noise which is made around him. An analo-
gous effect, but more pronounced, takes place with
somnambulists in lethargy and catelepsy. Thus, in
short, can be explained the insensibility of convul-
sionnaires and of certain martyrs ("Revue Spirite,'
January, 1868: Study of the Aïssaouas). Paralysis
does not proceed from the same cause. With it the
effect is entirely organic. It is the nerves themselves,
the conducting threads, which are unqualified for the
fluid circulation; it is the chords of the instrument
which are broken or injured. In diseased states of
the body, when the spirit is no longer in it, and the
peri-spirit adheres to it only at a few points, the body
";
330
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
has all the appearance of death; and one is absolutely
correct in saying life hangs by a single thread. This
state can continue for more or less time. Certain
parts of the body can even decompose without life
being entirely extinguished.
As long as the last thread is not broken, the spirit
can, either by an energetic action of its own will, or
by a strange fluid influx, equally powerful, be re-
called to the body. Thus can be explained certain
prolongations of life against all probability, and cer-
tain pretended resurrections. A plant sometimes
puts forth only one sprout from its root; but when
the last molecules of the fluid body are detached
from the carnal one, or when the latter is in a state
of irreparable decay, all return to life becomes impos-
sible.1
31. The universal fluid is, as has been seen, the
primitive element of the carnal body and of the peri-
spirit, which are only transformations of it. By the
sameness of its nature this fluid can furnish to the
body the principal reparatives. Being condensed in
the peri-spirit, the propelling power is spirit, embodied
or disembodied, which infiltrates into a deteriorated
body a part of the substance of its fluid-envelope.
The cure is performed by the substitution of a
healthy molecule for an unhealthy one. The cura-
tive power will then be drawn from the purity of
the inoculated substance. It depends also upon the
energy of the will, which provokes a more abundant
fluid-emission, and gives to the fluid a greater force
of penetration. In short, it is the intentions of him
1 Revue Spirite: Dr. Cardon, Aug., 1863, p. 251; the Woman
Corse, May, 1866, p. 131.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
331
who desires to cure, let him be man or spirit. The
fluids which emanate from an impure source are like
defective medical substances.
32. The effects of the fluid-action upon invalids are
very varied according to circumstances. Its action
is sometimes slow, and requires a prolonged treat-
ment, as in ordinary magnetism. At other times it
is rapid as an electric current.
There are some persons endowed with such a
magnetic power, that they perform upon certain in-
valids instantaneous cures by manipulation, or some-
times by the sole act of the will. Between the two
extreme poles of this faculty there is an infinite
variety of distinctive shades. All the cures of this
kind are from the different varieties of magnetism,
and differ only in the power and rapidity of their
action. The principle is always the same. It is
the fluid which plays the rôle of therapeutic agent,
the effect of which is subordinated to its quality and
to special circumstances.
33. Magnetic action can be produced in many
ways, — firstly, by the fluid of the magnetizer him-
self; properly speaking, magnetism, or human mag-
netism, the action of which is subordinate to the
power, and above all to the quality of the fluid. Sec-
ondly, by fluid from the spirit acting directly and with-
out intermediation upon an incarnated being, either
to cure or to calm suffering, to provoke spontaneous,
somnambulistic sleep, or to exercise over the indi-
vidual any moral or physical influence whatever.
That is spiritual magnetism, of which the quality is
determined by the quality of the spirit. Thirdly,
1 Examples: Revue Spirite, Feb., 1863, p. 64; April, 1865, p. 133;
Sept., 1865, p. 264.
332
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
by the fluid which the spirits shed upon the magne-
tizer, to which the latter serves as conductor.
This is mixed magnetism, half spiritual, or humano-
spirituel. The spiritual fluid, combined with the
physical, gives to the latter the qualities which are
wanting to it. The meeting of spirits for a like
circumstance is sometimes spontaneous, but more
often it is brought about by the call of the magne-
tizer.
34. The faculty to cure by the fluid-influx is very
common, and can develop itself by exercise; but
that of curing instantaneously by the laying-on of
hands is rarer, and its power can be considered as
exceptional. However, it has been seen at diverse
epochs, and in nearly every nation there are some
individuals who possess it to an eminent degree.
Lately many remarkable examples have been seen
of it, the authenticity of which cannot be contested.
Since these kinds of cures rest upon a principle of
nature, the power of performing them is not a pref-
erence shown, or a departure from nature's laws.
They can only be miraculous in appearance.¹
35. The peri-spirit is invisible to us in its normal
state; but, as it is formed of ethereal matter, the
spirit can, in certain cases, make it submit by an act
of the will to a molecular modification, which renders
it momentarily visible. Thus apparitions are pro-
duced which no more than other phenomena are out-
side of the laws of nature. The latter are no more
1 Examples of instantaneous cures reported in the Revue Spirite:
the Prince of Hohenlohe, Dec., 1866, p. 368; Jacob, Oct. and Nov.,
1866, pp. 842 and 345; Oct. and Nov., 1867, pp. 306 and 339; Simonet,
Aug., 1867, p. 232; Caïd Hassan, Oct., 1867, p. 303; the curate Gass-
ner, Nov., 1867, p. 331.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
333
extraordinary than that of vapor, which is invisible
when it is very rarefied, and which becomes visible
when it is condensed.
According to the degree of condensation of the
peri-spiritual fluid, the apparition is sometimes vague
and vaporous; and at other times it is more dis-
tinctly defined: at others it has quite the appearance
of tangible matter. It can even reach tangibility
sufficiently to be mistaken for a person in the flesh.
Vaporous apparitions are frequent; and it often hap-
pens that some individuals present themselves thus,
after death, to persons whom they have loved. Tan-
gible apparitions are rarer, although there have been
numerous examples of them which are perfectly au-
thentic. If the spirit can make itself recognized, it
will give to its envelope all the exterior signs which
it had in life.
36. Let us remark that tangible apparitions have
only the appearance of carnal matter, but would not
know how to obtain its qualities. By reason of their
fluid nature, they cannot have the same cohesion,
because that in reality they are not of the flesh.
They are instantaneously formed, and disappear in
the same manner, or are evaporated by the disinte-
gration of the fluid-molecules. Beings which pre-
sent themselves by these conditions are neither born
nor die like other men: they appear and vanish
without knowing whence they come, how they have
come, or where they will go. They could not be
killed, chained, or incarcerated, because they have
no carnal body. By attempting to strike them, one
would only strike into space. Such is the character
of the spirits with whom we can converse without
334 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
doubting their true individuality, yet who never
make long visits, cannot become habitual boarders in
a house, nor figure among the members of a family.
There is besides in all their person, in their manner,
something strange and unusual which divides spiritu
ality from materiality. The expression of their eyes,
vaporous and penetrating at the same time, has not
the distinctness of those of the flesh; their language
brief, and nearly always sententious, has nothing of
the brilliancy and volubility of human language;
their approach makes us experience a particular,
indefinable sensation of surprise, which inspires a
sort of fear; and it is involuntarily said by all who
compare them with human beings, "Here is a sin-
gular being."
37. The peri-spirit being the same with the em-
bodied and disembodied, by a completely identical
effect an embodied spirit can appear in a moment,
when he is freed from the flesh, at another point
than that where his body is reposing, with his habit-
ual features and all the signs of his identity.
It is this phenomenon, of which authentic exam-
ples are given, which has caused belief in double or
dual men.1
38. A particular effect of this kind of phenomena
is, that the vaporous and even tangible apparitions.
1 Examples of vaporous or tangible apparitions and of agénères :
Revue Spirite, Jan., 1858, p. 24; Oct., 1858, p. 291; Feb., 1859, p. 38;
March, 1859, p. 80; Jan., 1859, p. 11; Nov., 1859, p. 303; Aug.,
1859, p. 210; April, 1860, p. 117; May, 1860, p. 150; July, 1861, p. 199;
April, 1866, p. 120; the laborer Martin presented to Louis XVIII.,
complete details; Dec., 1866, p. 353. Examples of apparitions of
living persons: Revue Spirite, Dec., 1858, pp. 329 and 331; Feb., 1859,
p. 41; Aug., 1859, p. 197; Nov., 1860, p. 356.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
335
are indistinctly perceptible to everybody. The spirits
show themselves only when they desire, and to whom
they desire. A spirit would then be able to appear in
an assembly to one or more persons, and not be seen
by all.
The reason for which is, that the spiritual,
and not the material, sight is used; for not only has
the spiritual sight not been given to every one, but
it can, when necessary, be withheld by the desire of
the spirit from him to whom he wishes not to show
himself, as he can momentarily give it if he deems.
it necessary.
The condensation of the peri-spiritual fluid in appa-
ritions even to the tangible state has, then, not the
properties of ordinary matter: otherwise the appa-
ritions, being perceptible to the bodily eye, would be
presented to all.1
39. The spirit being able to accomplish transfor-
mations by means of his peri-spiritual envelope, and
this envelope having the power to radiate around
bodies like a fluid-atmosphere, a phenomenon analo-
gous to that of apparitions can be produced on the
surface of bodies even. Under the fluid film the
real figure of the body can be effaced more or less
completely, and be re-invested with other features;
or, rather, the original features seen through a mod-
ified fluid-film, as through a prism, can assume
another expression. If the spirit, in going from
1 We must be very cautious in accepting as facts strictly indi-
vidual recitals of apparitions, which in certain cases may have been
the effect of an over-excited imagination, or an invention for some
selfish end. It is well, then, to gain a careful account of the circum-
stances, of the respectability of the person, as well as the interest
they might have in abusing the credulity of too-confiding indi-
viduals.
•
336
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
earth to earth, identifies itself with things of the
spiritual world, the expression of a homely face can
become beautiful, radiant, and sometimes even lumi-
nous; if, on the contrary, it is the prey to bad pas-
sions, a beautiful face can take a hideous aspect.
Thus are transfigurations performed, which are
always a reflection of the qualities and predominating
sentiments of the spirit. This phenomenon is, then,
the result of a fluid transformation. It is a kind of
peri-spiritual apparition which is produced upon even
living bodies, and sometimes at the moment of death,
instead of producing itself at a distance, as appari-
tions are generally seen. That which is the distin-
guishing peculiarity of this kind of apparitions is,
that they are generally perceptible to all present by
the eye of the flesh, because they are based upon
visible, carnal matter, whilst in purely fluid displays
of the same there is no tangible matter employed.¹
40. The phenomena of moving and conversing by
means of tables, of mediumistic writing (as ancient
as the world, but common to-day), give the key to
many spontaneous, analogous phenomena, to which,
by ignorance of the law which governs them, they
attributed a supernatural and miraculous character.
These phenomena rest upon the properties of the
peri-spiritual fluid of either incarnated beings or free
spirits.
41. It is by the aid of its peri-spirit that the spirit
acts upon his living body. It is with this same fluid
that it manifests itself by acting upon inert matter;
that it produces sounds, movement of tables, and
1 Example and theory of transfiguration: Revue Spirite, March,
1859, p. 62; Book of Mediums, chap. 7, p. 142.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
337
raises, overturns, or transports other objects. There
is nothing surprising in this phenomena if one con-
siders that with us the most powerful motive-powers
are found in the most rarefied and even imponderable
fluids, like air, vapor, and electricity. It is equally
by the aid of his peri-spirit that the spirit enables
mediums to speak, write, or sketch. Having no tan-
gible body to manifest, he serves himself with the
body of the medium, from which he borrows the
organs and uses as if it were his own, obtaining pos-
session of it by the fluid-effluvium which he threws
around it.
66
42. By the same means the spirit acts upon the
table, either to make it simply move, or give intelli-
gent raps, indicating the letters of the alphabet, in
order to form words or phrases, a phenomenon named
typtology." Here the table is only an instrument
for use, as a pencil in writing. It gives to it a mo-
mentary vitality by the fluid with which it pene-
trates it; but it does not identify itself with it. Per-
sons who, in their emotion at being able to commu-
nicate with friends dear to them, embrace the table.
perform a foolish act; for it is absolutely the same as
if they should embrace the stick which a friend uses.
to make the raps. It is equivalent to saying that
the spirit was enclosed in the wood of the table, or
that the wood had become spirit. When communi-
cations like these take place, it is necessary to repre-
sent the spirit as not in the table, but beside us as
he was in life; and thus they would see him if their
spiritual eyes were open. The same in obtaining
communications by writing: one would see the spirit.
beside the medium, directing or transmitting to him
his ideas by a fluid-current.
338
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
43. When the table is detached from the ground,
and floats in space without support, the spirit does
not raise it by arm-strength, but by the envelope;
and penetrates it with a sort of fluid-atmosphere,
which neutralizes the effect of gravitation, as the air
does for balloons and kites. The fluid with which it
is permeated gives momentarily a greater specific
lightness. When it is nailed to the ground, it is in a
condition analogous to that of the pneumatic receiver
under which the air is exhausted. These compari-
sons here are only to show the analogy of effects, and
not the absolute similitude of causes (" Mediums'
Book," chap. 4). One can comprehend, after this,
that it is no more difficult to raise a person than a
table, to transport an object from one place to
another, than to throw it somewhere. These phe-
nomena are produced by the same laws.¹
When the table pursues a person, it is not the
spirit who runs, for he can remain tranquilly in the
same place; but, by the aid of his will, he gives
1 Such is the principle of the phenomenon of levitation, or the
rising of bodies upwards, and suspension in the air, with no visible
means of support, -an actual phenomenon, but which must be ac-
cepted with extreme reserve; for it is one which lends itself the most
to imposture and jugglery. The absolute worthiness of the person
who obtains them, his entire material and moral disinterestedness,
and the co-operation of accessary circumstances, must be taken into
serious consideration. It is necessary to distrust the too great
facility with which these effects are produced, and to be doubtful of
those who renew them too frequently, as it were, by will-power.
The prestidigitators do most extraordinary things. The raising of
a person into mid-air is a fact no less positive, but much more rare,
perhaps, because it is more difficult to imitate.
It is generally known that Mr. Home has been more than once
elevated to the ceiling in this manner, making the tour of the hall.
St. Cupertin is said to have had this same power, which is no more
miraculous in one than the other.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
339
the fluid-current an impulsion. When the raps are
heard on a table or elsewhere, the spirit does not
rap with his hand or with any instrument whatever:
he directs upon the point whence the noise proceeds
a stream of fluid, which produces the effect of an
electric shock. He changes the sound, as sounds.
produced by air can be modified.¹
44. A phenomenon which is very common in
mediumship is the aptitude of certain mediums to
write in a language which is unknown to them, — to
speak or write upon subjects outside of their knowl-
edge. It is not rare to see those who write rapidly
without having learned to write; others still who
become poets, without ever having before composed
a line of poetry; others sketch, paint, sculp, compose
music, play on an instrument, without having pre-
viously known any thing of either accomplishment.
Very frequently the writing-medium reproduces the
writing and signature of the spirits communicating
by him, although he had never known them in earth-
life. This phenomenon is not more wonderful than
to see a child write when some one conducts his
hand. One can thus perform all that one wishes.
Any person could write in any language whatever
by dictating the words letter by letter.
1 Examples of material manifestations and perturbations by the
Spirits: Revue Spirite, Young Girl of Panoramas, Jan., 1858, p. 13;
Miss Clairon, Feb., 1858, p. 14; Spirit-Rapper of Bergzabern, com-
plete account, May, June, and July of 1858, pp. 125, 153, 184; Dib-
belsdorf, Aug., 1858, p. 219; Boulanger of Dieppe, March, 1860, p. 76;
Merchant of St. Petersburg, April 1860, p. 115; Noyers St., Aug., 1860,
p. 236; Spirit-Rapper of Aube, Jan., 1861, p. 23; Id., in the 16th cen-
tury, Jan., 1864, p. 32; Poitiers, May, 1864, p. 156, and May, 1865,
p. 134; Sister Mary, June, 1865, p. 185; Marseilles, April, 1865, p. 121;
Fives, Aug., 1865, p. 225; the Rats of Esquihem, Feb., 1866, p. 55.
340
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
45. It is the same with mediumship. Mediums are
only passive instruments in the spirit's hands. But
if the medium possesses a knowledge of the mechan-
ism of it, if he has vanquished the practical difficul-
ties of it, if the expressions are familiar to him, if he
has, in short, in his brain the elements of that which
the spirit desires him to execute, he is in the posi-
tion of the man who knows how to read and write.
rapidly. The work is easier and more rapid. The
spirit has only to transmit the thought that his in-
terpreter reproduces by means at his disposal. The
aptitude of a medium in things which are strange to
him is often caused by the knowledge he has ob-
tained in another existence, of which his mind has
preserved the intuition. If he has been a poet or a
musician, for example, his mind will the more readily
grasp the poetical and musical ideas which they wish
to reproduce. The language of which he is now
ignorant may have been familiar to him in another
existence: hence he has a greater aptitude as a writ-
ing-medium in this language.¹
Bad spirits increase most abundantly around the
earth on account of the moral inferiority of its in-
habitants. Their wrong-doing in a measure is the
cause of the plagues to which humanity is exposed
here below. Obsession, which is one of the effects
of this action, like maladies and all tribulations of
1 The aptitude of certain persons for languages which they have
never learned is caused by an intuitive remembrance of that which
they have learned in another existence. The example of the poet
Méry, reported in the Revue Spirite of Nov., 1864, p. 328, is a proof
of it. It is evident, that, if Mr. Méry had been a medium in his
youth, he would have written in Latin as easily as in French, and
would have been called a prodigy.
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
341
life, must then be considered as a trial or expiation,
and accepted as such. Obsession is the persistent
action which a bad spirit exercises over an individ-
ual. It presents many different characters, from the
moral influence without any distinct exterior signs
to complete disturbance of the organism and of the
mental faculties. It destroys all mediumistic facul-
ties. In auditive and pyschographic mediumship
an obstinate spirit manifests to the exclusion of all
others.
46. Just as maladies are the result of physical im-
perfections which render the body accessible to per-
nicious exterior influences, obsession is always that
of a moral imperfection, which gives place to a bad
spirit. To a physical cause one opposes a physical
force; to a moral cause it is necessary to oppose a
moral force. In order to preserve one's self from
maladies, one must fortify the body; in order to
guarantee one's self against obsession, one must for-
tify the soul: hence for the obsessed the necessity
for working for his own amelioration, which is often
sufficient to cure obsession without foreign aid. This
aid becomes necessary when obsession degenerates
into complete subjugation and possession; for then
the patient sometime loses his volition and free will.
Obsession is nearly always due to vengeance, exer-
cised by a spirit, and which most often has its source
in connections which the obsessed has had with it
in a previous existence. In case of grave obsession
the obsessed is enveloped and impregnated with a
pernicious fluid, which neutralizes the action of the
salutary fluids, and repels them. It is necessary to
remove this fluid. Now a bad fluid cannot be re-
342 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
pelled by a bad fluid. By an action similar to that
of a healing medium in a case of illness, it is neces-
sary to expel the bad fluid by the aid of a better one.
The latter, which is mechanical action, does not
always suffice. It is necessary, above all, to act upon
the intelligent being, to whom it is necessary to speak
with authority, and this authority is given only to
moral superiority. The greater the latter is, the
greater the authority.
That is not all, however. It is necessary to lead
the perverse spirit to renounce his bad designs; to
awaken within him a desire to do good, and true
repentance, by the aid of cleverly directed instruc-
tions, by the evoking of particular spirits to aid him in
his moral education. Then one can have the double
satisfaction of delivering an incarnated being, and of
converting an undeveloped spirit. The task is ren-
dered easier if the obsessed, comprehending his situa-
tion, joins his will and prayers with yours. It is not
thus when the latter, seduced by the deceiving spirit,
is deluded in regard to the qualities of his ruler, and
delights in the error into which the latter plunges
him; for then, far from seconding, he repels all assist-
ance. Such are cases of fascination always vastly
more obstinate than the most violent subjugation.
(See "Mediums' Book," chap. 23.) In all cases of
obsession prayer is the most powerful auxiliary to
act against the obsessing spirit.
47. In obsession the spirit acts exteriorly by the
aid of its peri-spirit, which he mingles with that of
the embodied beings. The latter finds himself bound
as if in a network, and constrained to act against his
will. In taking possession of a human organism, the
EXPLANATION OF SOME FACTS.
343
?
free spirit substitutes itself, as it were, for that of
the incarnated one, instead of acting exteriorly: he
chooses a home in his body, although its owner does
not leave it entirely, which can take place only after
death. The possession is then only temporary and
intermittent; for a disembodied spirit has not the
power to take exclusive possession of a human organ-
ism, only when the molecular union of the peri-spirit
and body can be performed at the moment of con-
ception (chap. XI., No. 18). The spirit in momen-
tary possession of the body uses it as his own. He
speaks through its mouth, sees with its eyes, moves its
arms as he had done in life. It is not as in medium-
ship when the incarnated spirit speaks the thoughts
of a disembodied spirit, which are transmitted through
him. It is the latter who speaks; and, if one has
known him in life, one recognizes him by his lan-
guage, voice, and gestures, even to the expression of
his face.
48. Obsession is always due to the influence of a
malevolent spirit. Possession can be taken of a
human being by a good spirit, who desires to speak
in order to make a deeper impression upon his audit-
ors, borrows the medium's body, as the latter loans
it to him voluntarily as he would lend his coat. This
is done without any trouble or bad effect; and during
this time the medium's spirit is free as in a state of
emancipation, and he frequently remains beside his
substitute in order to listen to him. When the spirit
in possession is a bad one, all is otherwise he does
not borrow the body, but forcibly takes possession of
it if the owner has not moral force sufficient to resist
him. He does it for malice towards the latter, whom
344 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
he tortures and torments in every way, desiring to
kill him either by strangulation, or by throwing him
in the fire or other dangerous places. Using the
limbs and organs of the unhappy patient, he blas-
phemes, injures, and maltreats those who surround
him, delivers him to eccentricities of action, which
have the character of an insane person.
Cases of this kind, of different degrees of intensity,
are very numerous; and many cases of insanity have
had no other cause. Often it is joined to pathologi-
cal disorders which follow the course of time, and
against which medical treatment is powerless as
long as the first cause exists. Spiritism, by giving a
knowledge of the source of a part of human suffer-
ing, indicates the means for curing it. This remedy
is to act upon the author of the evil, who, being
an intelligent being, must be treated intelligently.¹
Obsession and possession are mostly individual cases,
but sometimes they are epidemic. When a troop of
undeveloped spirits take up their abode in a locality,
it is as when a troop of enemies come to surround
it. In this case the number of individuals attacked
by them can be many.2
1 Examples of cures by obsession and possession: Revue Spirite,
Dec., 1863, p. 373; Jan., 1864, p. 11; June, 1864, p. 168; Jan., 1865,
p. 5; June, 1865, p. 172; Feb., 1866, p. 38; June, 1867, p. 174.
2 It was an epidemic of this kind which took place some years
agone in the village of Morzine, Savoy. See the complete history
of this epidemic in the Revue Spirite of Dec., 1862, p. 353; Jan., Feb.,
April, and May, 1863, pp. 1, 33, 101, 133.
CHAPTER XV.
-
THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL. PRELIMINARY OB-
SERVATIONS. — DREAMS.-STAR OF THE "WISE MEN
OF THE EAST." DOUBLE SIGHT. CURES. POS-
SESSED PERSONS. - RESURRECTIONS. - JESUS WALKS
UPON THE WATER. - TRANSFIGURATION. THE TEM-
PEST STILLED.-MARRIAGE AT CANA.-MAKING OF
THE LOAVES OF BREAD. TEMPTATION OF JESUS.
- WONDERFUL THINGS AT THE DEATH OF JESUS.
APPEARANCE OF JESUS AFTER HIS DEATH.-DIS-
APPEARANCE OF THE BODY OF JESUS.
A
C
1. Preliminary Remarks. The facts reported in
the Gospels, and which have been considered until
recently miraculous, belong for the most part to the
order of psychic phenomena,- those which arise from
the faculties and attributes of the soul. By compar-
ing them with those which have been described and
explained in the preceding chapter, one recognizes.
between them an identity of cause and effect. His-
tory shows analogous instances in all time and among
all nations, for the reason that, ever since souls have
been embodied and disembodied, the same effects
must have been produced. One can, it is true,
contest the veracity of history upon this point; but
now they are produced under our eyes, as it were,
by will-power, and by individuals who have nothing
exceptional about them. The fact alone of the re-
production of a phenomenon in identical conditions.
suffices to prove that it is possible, and governed by
345
346
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
a law of nature, and that it therefore is not miracu-
lous. The principle of the psychic phenomena re-
poses, as has been seen, upon the properties of the
peri-spiritual fluid, which constitutes the magnetic
agent upon the manifestations of the spiritual life
during life and after death, —in short, upon the con-
stitutive of the spirits and their rôle as the active
force of nature. These elements known, and their
effects ascertained, the result is, that certain facts.
must be admitted as such which were formerly re-
jected when attributed to a supernatural origin.
2. Without prejudging any thing of the nature of
Christ, let it not enter into the compass of this book
to consider him as aught else than a superior spirit,
one of those of the highest order; and let him be
placed only by his virtues above the rest of terres-
trial humanity. By the great results which he pro-
duced, his incarnation into this world could have
been only one of those missions which are confided
alone to direct messengers from the Most High for
the accomplishment of his designs. By supposing
that he was not God himself, but an ambassador of
his for the transmission of his word, he would be
more than a prophet: he would be a divine Messiah.
As man, he had the organization of organized beings;
but as a pure spirit, detached from matter, he must
have lived in the spiritual life more than in the car-
nal, of which he had not the weaknesses. His superi-
ority over men was only of his spiritual nature, which
absolutely controlled matter, and his peri-spirit, which
was formed of the most refined of earthly fluids
(chap. XIV., No. 9).
His soul must have been attached to the body only
DREAMS.
347
by the most indispensable ligaments constantly sepa-
rated from one another. It must have endowed him
with a double sight, not only permanent, but of
an exceptional penetration, very superior to that of
ordinary men. It must have been the same with all
the phenomena which depend upon the peri-spiritual
or psychic fluids. The quality of these fluids gave
to him an immense magnetic power, seconded by a
constant desire to do good. In the cures which he
performed, did he act as a medium? Can he be con-
sidered as a powerful healing medium? No: for the
medium is an intermediary, an instrument which
disembodied spirits use. Now, Christ had no need
of assistance, he who assisted others: he acted, then,
by himself, by virtue of his personal power. Thus
can incarnated beings, in certain cases, do accord-
ing to their strength. What other spirit would have
dared to inspire him with his own thoughts, and
charge him to transmit them? If he received a
strange influx, it could only be from God. Accord-
ing to a definition given of him by a spirit, he was
a medium from God.
3. Dreams. Joseph, the Gospel narrative states,
was warned by an angel who appeared to him in a
dream, and who said to him, "Take the young child,
and flee into Egypt" (St. Matt., chap. ii., vers. 19-23).
Warnings by dreams play an important part in the
sacred works of all religions. Without guaranteeing
the exactitude of all the facts reported, and without
discussing them, the phenomenon has nothing in
itself anomalous when one knows that in sleep the
spirit frees itself from its imprisonment in matter,
and enters again momentarily into the spiritual life,
348
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
where it finds itself again with those whom it has
known. It often happens that this moment is chosen
by guardian angels to manifest themselves to their
charges, in order to give them more direct counsel.
Authentic examples of warnings by dreams are nu-
merous; but it is not necessary to infer that all
dreams are warnings, and still less that all have a
signification. It is well to reckon the art of inter-
preting dreams among superstitious and absurd be-
liefs (chap. XIV., Nos. 27 and 28).
4. The Star of the "Wise Men of the East."It is
written that a star appeared to the wise men who
came to worship Jesus; that it went before them to
indicate the route to them, and stood still when they
had arrived at their destination (St. Matt., chap. ii.,
vers. 1-12). The question is asked, not to ascertain
if the statement given by St. Matthew is true, or if
it is only a figure of speech to indicate that the wise
men were mysteriously guided to the young child,
because no means exist whereby it can be examined,
but simply to ask if such a thing were possible. One
thing is certain, that the light referred to could not
have been a star. They could believe it at that epoch
where the stars were thought to be luminous points
attached to the firmament, which could fall upon the
earth; but not now, when their nature is known.
The right cause may now be attributed to it: the
fact of a light in appearance like a star is a possible
thing. A spirit can appear under a luminous form,
or transfer a part of his peri-spiritual fluid to a lumi-
nous point. Many facts of this kind, recent and
perfectly authentic, have no other cause; and this
cause has nothing supernatural about it.
THE KISS OF JUDAS.
349
SECOND SIGHT.
5. Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. - ST. MATTHEW,
CHAP. XXI.-1. And when they drew nigh unto
Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the
Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2. Saying unto them, Go into the village over
against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass
tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them
unto me.
3. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall
say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway
he will send them.
4. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King
cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and
a colt the foal of an ass.
6. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus com-
manded them,
7. And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on
them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
6. The Kiss of Judas.- ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
XXVI. 46. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at
hand that doth betray me.
47. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the
twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with
swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders
of the people.
48. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign,
saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he:
hold him fast.
49. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said,
Hail, master; and kissed him.
350
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
50. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore
art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on
Jesus, and took him.
7. Miraculous Draught of Fishes. LUKE, CHAP.
V. — 1. And it came to pass, that, as the people
pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood
by the lake of Gennesaret,
2. And saw two ships standing by the lake: but
the fishermen were gone out of them, and were wash-
ing their nets.
3. And he entered into one of the ships, which was
Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a
little from the land. And he sat down, and taught
the people out of the ship.
4. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto
Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught.
5. And Simon answering said unto him, Master,
we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing:
nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
6. And when they had this done, they enclosed a
great multitude of fishes; and their net brake.
7. And they beckoned unto their partners, which
were in the other ship, that they should come and
help them. And they came, and filled both the
ships, so that they began to sink.
8. Vocations of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and
Matthew. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. IV. 18. And
Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two breth-
ren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.
A
M
VOCATIONS OF PETER, ANDREW, JAMES. 351
20. And they straightway left their nets, and fol-
lowed him.
21. And going on from thence, he saw other two
brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets; and he called them.
22. And they immediately left the ship and their
father, and followed him.
ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. IV.-9. And saith unto
him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me.
9. These facts are not surprising when one knows
the power of second sight, and the natural cause of
this faculty. Jesus possessed it in a supreme degree;
and he can also have been at the time in his normal
state, as a great number of his acts testify, and which
is explained to-day by the magnetic phenomena and
Spiritism. The miraculous draught of fishes is equal-
ly well explained by second sight. Jesus did not
produce fishes spontaneously there where they did
not exist. He has seen, as a lucide would have been
able to do, by the eyes of the soul, the place where
they were found; and he has been able to say with
assurance to the fishers, "Cast there your nets into
the sea." The power to fathom thought, by which
foresight can be obtained, is the result of second
sight. When Jesus called Peter to him, as well as
Andrew, James, John, and Matthew, he must have
known their dispositions intimately in order to know
that they would follow him, and that they were
capable of fulfilling the mission with which he must
charge them. It was also necessary that they them-
352
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
selves should have an intuition of this mission in
order to give themselves up to him. Again, it is the
same at the Lord's Supper, when he announces that
one of the twelve will betray him, and when he
designates him by saying it is he who is placing his
hand in the dish with him, and also when he says
that Peter will deny him. In many places in the
Gospels we read, "But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
said unto them." Now, how could he know their
thoughts if it was not at the time in the fluid-radi-
ance which carried their thoughts to him, and also
the spiritual sight, which gave him power to read the
mind of individuals? Then, often when one believes.
an idea profoundly shrouded in the depth of the soul,
one doubts not that there is a mirror within which
reflects it, a revelator in its own fluid-radiance
which is impregnated with it.
If we could see the mechanism of the invisible
world which surrounds us, the ramifications of these
conducting threads of thought which bind all intelli-
gent beings, embodied and otherwise, the fluid-efflu-
via charged with imprints of the moral world, and
which like aërial currents traverse space, one would
be less surprised at certain effects that ignorance.
attributes to chance (chap. XIV., Nos. 22 and fol-
lowing ones).
m
CURES.
10. The Woman who had the Issue of Blood. - ST.
MARK, CHAP. V.-25. And a certain woman, which
had an issue of blood twelve years,
26. And had suffered many things of many phy-
sicians, and had spent all that she had, and was
nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
WOMAN WHO HAD THE ISSUE OF BLOOD. 353
27. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press
behind, and touched his garment.
28. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes,
I shall be whole.
29. And straightway the fountain of her blood
was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was
healed of that plague.
30. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself
that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31. And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest
the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who
touched me?
32. And he looked round about to see her that
had done this thing.
33. But the woman fearing and trembling, know-
ing what was done in her, came and fell down before
him, and told him all the truth.
34. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith
hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of
thy plague.
11. These words, "Knowing in himself that vir-
tue had gone out of him," are significant. They
express the movement of the fluid which Jesus trans-
ferred to the invalid woman. Both have felt the
action which has just been produced. It is remarka-
ble that the effect has not been provoked by any will-
power of Jesus. Neither magnetism nor manipula-
tion were employed. The normal fluid-radiance was.
sufficient to effect the cure. But why was this radi-
ance directed to the woman rather than to others,
since Jesus did not think of her, and he was sur-
Ja
354 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
rounded by a multitude of people? The reason is
very simple. The fluid, being given as therapeutic
matter, must reach organic disorder in order to repair
it. It can be directed upon the evil by the will of
the healing medium, or attracted by the ardent de-
sire, the confidence, or, in one word, the faith of the
invalid. In regard to the fluid-current the first is
the effect of forcing it, and the second of suction.
Sometimes the simultaneousness of the two effects
is necessary; at others one alone suffices. The sec-
ond has taken place in this circumstance. Jesus was
then right in saying, "Your faith has made you
whole." The faith expressed here is not the mysti-
cal virtue which some believe it to be, but a verita-
ble attractive force; while he who has it not, opposes
to the fluid-current a repelling force, or at least an
inert one, which paralyzes action. After this, one
can comprehend how two invalids attacked by the
same illness, in the presence of a healing medium,
one can be cured, and the other not. This is one of
the most important principles of healing mediumship,
and which explains, by a very natural cause, certain
apparent anomalies (chap. XIV., Nos. 31-33).
12. Blind Man of Bethsaida. - ST. MARK, CHAP.
VIII.-22. And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they
bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to
touch him.
23. And he took the blind man by the hand, and
led him out of the town; and when he had spit on
his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him
if he saw aught.
24. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees,
walking.
THE PARALYZED MAN.
355
25. After that he put his hands again upon his
eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored,
and saw every man clearly.
26. And he sent him away to his house, saying,
Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the
town.
13. Here the effect of magnetism is evident. The
cure has not been instantaneous but gradual, and in
consequence of sustained and reiterated action, al-
though more rapid than in ordinary magnetization.
The first sensation of this man is that which blind
men experience in recovering sight. By an optical
illusion, objects appear to them of an inordinate size.
14. The Paralyzed Man.- ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
IX.-1. And he entered into a ship, and passed over,
and came into his own city.
2. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick
of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their
faith said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good
cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.
3. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within
themselves, This man blasphemeth.
4. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Where-
fore think ye evil in your hearts?
5. For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be for-
given thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?
6. But that ye may know that the Son of man
hath power on earth to forgive sins (then said he to
the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and
go unto thine house.
7. And he arose, and departed to his house.
8. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled,
356 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
and glorified God, which had given such power unto
men.
15. What could these words signify, "Your sins are
forgiven you"? and how could they help the cure?
Spiritualism gives the key to them, as well as to an
infinite number of other sayings misunderstood till
now. It teaches us, by the law of the plurality of ex-
istences, that the evils and afflictions of life are often
expiations of the past, and that we submit in the
present life to the consequence of faults that we
have committed in an anterior existence; the differ-
ent existences being connected with one another,
even to paying the debt of their imperfections. If,
then, the malady of this man was a punishment for
evil which he had committed, by saying to him, "Your
sins are forgiven you," was equal to saying, "You
have paid your debt. The cause of your malady is
effaced by your present faith: consequently you merit.
to be delivered from your malady." He therefore
said to the scribes, "It is as easy to say, Your sins
are forgiven you, as to say, Arise, and walk:" the
cause ceasing, the effect must cease also. The case
is the same with a prisoner to whom they would go
and say, "Your crime is expiated and pardoned;
which is equivalent to saying, "You can leave
prison."
""
16. The Ten Lepers. —ST. LUKE, CHAP. XVII.
11. And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem,
that he passed through the midst of Samaria and
Galilee.
12. And as he entered into a certain villiage, there
met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar
off:
THE TEN LEPERS.
357
13. And they lifted up their voices, and said,
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go
show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to
pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15. And one of them, when he saw that he was
healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified
God,
16. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving
him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine?
18. There are not found that returned to give glory
to God, save this stranger.
19. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy
faith hath made thee whole.
17. The Samaritans were schismatics, as Protes-
tants stand in regard to Catholics, and despised by
the Jews as heretics. Jesus, by curing indiscrimi-
nately the Samaritans and the Jews, gave at the same
time a lesson and example of tolerance; and, by
showing that the Samaritan alone returned to give
glory to God, it proved that there was in him more
true faith and gratitude than with those who were
called orthodox. By saying, "Your faith has saved
you," he shows that God regards the feeling of the
heart, and not the exterior form of adoration. How-
ever, the others have been cured: it was necessary
for the lesson which he wished to give, and to prove
their ingratitude. But who knows the result of it,
and if they have profited by the favor which was
accorded them? By saying to the Samaritan, "Your
358 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
faith has saved you," Jesus gives us to understand
that it will not be the same with the others.
18. The Withered Hand.-ST. MARK, CHAP. III. —
1. And he entered again into the synagogue; and
there was a man there which had a withered hand.
2. And they watched him, whether he would heal
him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse
him.
3. And he saith unto the man which had the
withered hand, Stand forth.
4. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good
on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to
kill? But they held their peace.
5. And when he had looked round about on them
with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine
hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was
restored whole as the other.
6. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway
took counsel with the Herodians against him, how
they might destroy him.
7. But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples
to the sea and a great multitude from Galilee fol-
lowed him, and from Judæa,
8. And from Jerusalem, and from Idumæa, and
from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and
Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what
great things he did, came unto him.
19. "The Infirm Woman who was bowed together,
and could in no wise lift up herself."-ST. LUKE,
CHAP. XIII.-10. And he was teaching in one of
the synagogues on the sabbath.
THE INFIRM WOMAN.
359
11. And, behold, there was a woman which had a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
12. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him,
and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from
thine infirmity.
13. And he laid his hands on her; and immedi-
ately she was made straight, and glorified God.
14. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with
indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the
sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six
days in which men ought to work: in them there-
fore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath
day.
15. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou
hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath
loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him
away to watering?
16. And ought not this woman, being a daughter
of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these
eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sab-
bath day?
17. And when he had said these things, all his
adversaries were ashamed: and all the people re-
joiced for all the glorious things that were done by
him.
20. This fact proves that at this epoch the greater
number of maladies were attributed to demons, and
that they confounded victims of obsession with peo-
ple ill from other causes, but in an inverse sense;
that is to say, now, those who do not believe in bad
spirits think obsession is a pathological malady.
360
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
21. The Impotent Man of the Pool of Bethesda.
ST. JOHN, CHAP. V.-1. After this there was a feast
of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market
a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Be-
thesda, having five porches.
3. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk,
of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of
the water.
4. For an angel went down at a certain season
into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever
then first after the troubling of the water stepped in
was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5. And a certain man was there, which had an
infirmity thirty and eight years.
6. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had
been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him,
Wilt thou be made whole?
6. The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have
no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into
the pool but while I am coming, another steppeth
down before me.
8. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed,
and walk.
9. And immediately the man was made whole,
and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same
day was the sabbath.
10. The Jews therefore said unto him that was
cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee
to carry thy bed.
11. He answered them, He that made me whole,
the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12. Then asked they him, What man is that which
said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
THE IMPOTENT MAN.
361
13. And he that was healed wist not who it was:
for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude
being in that place.
14. Afterwards Jesus findeth him in the temple,
and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole:
sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
15. The man departed, and told the Jews that it
was Jesus, which had made him whole.
16. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus,
and sought to slay him, because he had done these
things on the sabbath day.
17. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work.
22. Pool (from the Latin pisces, fish) was with the
Romans a reservoir or nurse-pond for fish. Later,
it was understood to be a public bathing-place. The
Pool of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, was a cistern near
the Temple, fed by a natural spring, the water of
which possessed healing properties. It was doubt-
less a circulating fountain, which, at certain times,
burst forth with strength, and moved the water.
According to common belief, this moment was the
most favorable for cures. Perhaps, in reality, at the
moment it gushed out, it had more active proper-
ties, or that the agitation produced by the gushing
water stirred the mud at the bottom, which was
beneficial for certain diseases.
These effects are natural, and perfectly well known
now. But then there was but little advance in sci-
ence, and they saw a supernatural cause for all or
the most part of unknown phenomena. The Jews
attributed the agitation of this water to the presence.
362
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of an angel; and this belief seemed to them so
much the more reasonable, as at this moment the
water was more salutary. After having cured this
man, Jesus said to him, “Behold you are made whole:
sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you." By
these words he makes him to understand that his
disease was a punishment, and that, if he did not
cease sinning, he would be again punished more
severely than ever. This doctrine conforms entirely
to that which Spiritism teaches.
23. Jesus appears to have taken pains to perform
cures on the sabbath, in order to have occasion to
protest against the rigorous observance of the Phari-
sees of this day. He wished to show them that true
piety consisted, not in the observance of forms and
of outside things, but in the true worship of the
heart. He justifies himself by saying, "My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work;" that is to say, that
God does not suspend the workings of nature on the
sabbath. He continues to produce that which is
necessary to your nourishment and health; and I am
here to do his will.
24. The Man born Blind. - ST. JOHN, CHAP. IX.
1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which
was blind from his birth.
2. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master,
who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was
born blind?
3. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parents: but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him.
4. I must work the works of him that sent me,
while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can
work.
THE MAN BORN BLIND.
363
5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world.
6. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the
ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anoint-
ed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
7. And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Si-
loam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went
his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
8. The neighbors therefore, and they which before
had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he
that sat and begged?
9. Some said, This is he: others said, He is like
him but he said, I am he.
10. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine
eyes opened?
11. He answered and said, A man that is called
Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said
unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I
went and washed, and I received sight.
12. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He
said, I know not.
13. They brought to the Pharisees him that afore-
time was blind.
14. And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made
the clay, and opened his eyes.
15. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how
he had received his sight. He said unto them, He
put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This
man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sab-
bath day. Others said, How can a man that is a
sinner do such miracles? And there was a division
among them.
Ą
364 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
17. They say unto the blind man again, What
sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes?
He said, He is a prophet.
18. But the Jews did not believe concerning him,
that he had been blind, and received his sight, until
they called the parents of him that had received his
sight.
19. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son,
who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now
see?
20. His parents answered them and said, We know
that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21. But by what means he now seeth, we know
not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he
is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.
22. These words spake his parents, because they
feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already,
that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he
should be put out of the synagogue.
23. Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask
him.
24. Then again called they the man that was
blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we
know that this man is a sinner.
25. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner
or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas
I was blind, now I see.
26. Then said they to him again, What did he to
thee? how opened he thine eyes?
27. He answered them, I have told you already,
and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it
again? will ye also be his disciples?
28. Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his
disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.
THE MAN BORN BLIND.
365
29. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for
this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
30. The man answered and said unto them, Why
herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from
whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners:
but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, him he heareth.
32. Since the world began was it not heard that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
33. If this man were not of God, he could do
nothing.
34. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast
altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?
And they cast him out.
25. This recital, so simple and artless, carries in
itself an evident character of truth. There is noth-
ing marvellous or fantastic about it: 'tis a scene
from real life. The language of this blind man is
that of one in which good, natural common sense
supplies the place of knowledge, and who combats
the arguments of his adversaries with simplicity, yet
with an ability which is not wanting in justice.
Is not the speech of the Pharisee like that of
proud men who think there is no knowledge outside
of their own, and that a man of the people — one of
the common herd-is unworthy of a single thought
or remonstrance? Barring the name, we have the
same kind of people in our day. To be expelled from
the synagogue was equivalent to being excommuni-
cated from the Church. The Spiritists, whose doc-
trines are those of Christ, interpreted according to
366
GENESIS ACCording to SPIRITISM.
C
the progress of the present light, are treated as the
Jews who recognized Jesus as the Messiah. By ex-
communicating them, they place them outside of the
Church, as the scribes and the Pharisees did in re-
gard to the followers of Jesus. In this narrative
the man is expelled because he can believe only in
him who has cured him, whether he be a sinner or
one possessed by a demon, and because he glorifies
God for his cure! Is not the same thing done to
Spiritists? Because they obtain wise counsel from
spirits, have returned to goodness and God, and per-
form cures, it is said to be the work of the Devil,
and anathema is cast at them. Have we not heard
priests from the high altar say, "It is better to
remain an infidel than to return to the faith by
Spiritism"?
Have we not heard them tell invalids that they
must not be cured by Spiritists who possess this gift,
because it is a gift from Satan? What did and said
the Jewish priests and Pharisees more than that?
Moreover, it is written that the same unbelief must
be felt by some at this epoch of the world's history,
as in the time of Christ. This question of the dis-
ciples - viz., "Is this man blind because of sin?”
indicates the knowledge of an anterior existence:
otherwise no sense could be made of it; for the sin
which would be the cause of an infirmity, which is
born with a person, must have been committed before
this birth, and consequently in an anterior existence.
If Jesus had recognized a false idea in the question,
he would have said to them, "How could this man
have sinned before birth?" Instead of that, he re-
plies, that, if this man is blind, it is not because he
CURES PERFORMED BY JESUS.
367
has sinned, but that the glory of God may be shown
in him; i.e., that he must be the instrument of a
manifestation of the power of God. If it were not an
expiation of the past, it was an experience which
must have advanced him towards perfection; for
God's laws are such, we have no suffering without
compensation.
As to the means employed to cure him, it is evi-
dent that the clay formed of earth and saliva ob-
tained its healing properties from the healing fluid
with which it was impregnated. Thus the most sim-
ple agents-water, for example- can acquire pow-
erful and effective qualities under the action of the
spiritual or magnetic fluid, to which they serve as
vehicle, or reservoir.
26. The Numerous Cures performed by Jesus.-
ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. IV.-23. And Jesus went
about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among
the people.
24. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and
they brought unto him all sick people that were
taken with divers diseases and torments, and those
which were possessed with devils, and those which
were lunatic, and those which had the palsy; and he
healed them.
25. And there followed him great multitudes of
people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from
Jerusalem, and from Judæa, and from beyond Jor-
dan.
27. Of all the acts which testify to the power of
368 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Jesus, without doubt the cures he performed are the
most numerous. He wished to prove by that that
true power is that which does good; that his object
was to render himself useful, and not to satisfy in-
different curiosity by the performance of extraordi-
nary things. By alleviating suffering, he touched the
hearts of men, and made more proselytes than if he
had alone gratified their curiosity. By this means he
made himself beloved. Whilst, if he had limited
himself to producing surprising material effects,
as the Pharisees demanded of him, the greater part
of the people would have seen in him only a sorcerer
or skilful juggler with whom idlers had been amused.
Thus, when John the Baptist sends to him his disci-
ples to ascertain if he is the Christ, he does not say,
"I am he;" for every impostor could have been able
to say as much. He does not tell them of the mar-
vellous things he has accomplished, but simply re-
plies, Go say to John, The blind see, the lame
walk, the deaf hear, and the gospel is preached to
the poor." It was equivalent to saying, Recognize
me in my works; judge the tree by its fruit: for
there is found the veritable character of the divine
mission.
28. It is also by the good it does that Spiritism
proves its divine mission. It cures physical evils,
but, above all, moral maladies, which are the most
important works by which it affirms itself. Its most
sincere adepts are not only those who have been
astonished by the sight of its extraordinary phe-
nomena, but those who have been touched to the
heart by the consolation it gives; those who have
been delivered from the tortures of doubt; those
POSSESSED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT.
369
whose courage has been sustained by it in affliction,
who have drawn strength from the certitude of the
future which it has brought to them, with a knowl-
edge of their spiritual being and destiny; those
whose faith is unchangeable because they feel it and
comprehend. Those who see in Spiritism only mate-
rial effects cannot comprehend its moral power; as
infidels, who know it only by its phenomena of
which they do not admit its first cause (God),
see in Spiritists only jugglers and charlatans.
It is,
then, not by the performance of wonderful works
that Spiritism will triumph over infidelity: it is by
multiplying its moral benefits. For, if they will not
believe in the mighty works it accomplishes, they
experience, like all the world, sufferings and afflic-
tions, and no one refuses alleviation and consolation.
(chap. XIV., No. 30.)
29. Those possessed by an Evil Spirit. - ST. MARK,
CHAP. I.-21. And they went into Capernaum ;
and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into
the synagogue, and taught.
22. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for
he taught them as one that had authority, and not
as the scribes.
23. And there was in their synagogue a man with
an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24. Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do
with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come
to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy
One of God.
25. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy
peace, and come out of him.
26. And when the unclean spirit had torn him,
and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
370
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
27. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they
questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is
this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority
commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they
do obey him.
30. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. IX.-32. As they went
out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man pos-
sessed with a devil.
33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb
spake and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was
never so seen in Israel.
34. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils
through the prince of the devils.
31. ST. MARK, CHAP. IX. 13. But I say unto
you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done
unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of
him.
14. And when he came to his disciples, he saw a
great multitude about them, and the scribes ques-
tioning with them.
15. And straightway all the people, when they
beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to
him saluted him.
16. And he asked the scribes, What question ye
with them?
17. And one of the multitude answered and said,
Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit;
18. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth
him; and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that
they should cast him out; and they could not.
POSSESSED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT.
371
19. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless gen-
eration, how long shall I be with you? how long
shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
20. And they brought him unto him: and when
he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he
fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
21. And he asked his father, How long is it ago
since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
22. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire,
and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou
canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help
us.
23. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth.
24. And straightway the father of the child cried
out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief.
25. When Jesus saw that the people came running
together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him,
Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out
of him, and enter no more into him.
26. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and
came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch
that many said, He is dead.
27. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted
him up; and he arose.
28. And when he was come into the house, his
disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast
him out?
{
32. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XII.-22. Then was
brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind,
and dumb and he healed him, insomuch that the
blind and dumb both spake and saw.
372
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
23. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is
not this the Son of David?
24. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said,
This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelze-
bub the prince of the devils.
25. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto
them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation; and every city or house divided against
itself shall not stand:
26. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided
against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by
whom do your children cast them out? therefore
they shall be your judges.
28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God,
then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
33. The deliverance of those possessed by evil
spirits figure, with the cures, among the most numer-
ous acts of Jesus. Among the facts of this nature
there is one, he who is reported above in No. 30,
where the proof of his obsession is not evident. It
is probable that then, as now, they attributed to the
influence of demons all maladies, of which the cause
was unknown, principally to dumbness, epilepsy, and
catalepsy. But there are some cases of it where the
action of undeveloped spirits is very evident. They
have with those to which we have been witness such
a striking analogy, that one recognizes with them all
the symptoms of this kind of affection. The proof of
the participation of an occult intelligence in similar
cases is from the fact that a number of radical cures
have been made in some spiritual centres, solely by
POSSESSED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT.
373
the evocation and moralization of the spirit obsess-
ors, without magnetism or medicine, and often in
the absence and at a distance from the patient. The
immense superiority of Christ gave to him such au-
thority over imperfect spirits, then called demons,
that it was sufficient for him to command them to
retire; for they could not resist his will.
34. The narrative of the evil spirits having been.
sent into the herd of swine is contrary to all proba-
bility. An evil spirit is no less a human spirit still,
though imperfect enough to do evil after death as
he did it before; and it is contrary to the laws of
nature that he can animate the body of an animal.
One sees there the amplification of a real common
fact of the times of ignorance and superstition, or
perhaps an allegory to characterize the impure incli-
nations of certain spirits.
35. Obsession and possession by evil spirits seem
to have been very common in Judæa in the time of
Jesus, which gave him the opportunity. The unde-
veloped spirits had no doubt invaded this country,
causing an epidemic of the disease (chap. XIV., No.
49). Without being epidemic, the obsession of in-
dividuals is extremely frequent, and presents itself
under very varied aspects which a profound knowl-
edge of Spiritism makes easily recognizable. The
health of the individual is often very sadly affected
by it, either by aggravating organic affections or
causing them. Obsessions will some day be inevita-
bly ranged among pathological causes requiring by
their special nature special curative means. Spirit-
ism, by making known the cause of the evil, opens a
new way for the art of curing, and furnishes to sci-
374
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ence the means of success where she fails only by a
want of knowledge of the original cause of the evil
(Mediums' Book," chap. 23).
36. Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of exorcis-
ing demons by demons. The good even that he did
was, according to them, the work of Satan, without
reflecting that it would not be possible for Satan to
drive out spirits of evil, or rather that power would
be given them to do good when they were bent upon
evil. This same doctrine is that which the Church
upholds to-day against spiritual manifestations.¹
RESURRECTIONS.
37. Jairus' Daughter.- ST. MARK, CHAP. V.
21. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship
unto the other side, much people gathered unto him;
and he was nigh unto the sea.
22. And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of
-
1 All theologians are far from professing absolute opinions upon
the subject of demons. Here is that of an ecclesiastic, the value of
which the clergy would not know how to call into question. The
following passage is found in Conferences upon Religion, by Mon-
seigneur Freyssinous, Bishop of Hermopolis, Vol. II., p. 341, Paris,
1825: "If Jesus had employed evil spirits to cast out demons, the
latter would then have been working to destroy their own empire,
and Satan would have been employing power against himself. It is
certain that a demon who would seek to destroy the reign of vice in
order to establish that of virtue must be a strange demon. That is
why Jesus replied to the absurd accusation of the Jews, 'If I per-
form mighty works in the name of the demon, his kingdom must
then be divided against itself,' -an answer which admits of no
reply." This is precisely the argument which the Spiritists oppose
to those who attribute to the evil spirits the good counsels which
they receive. The demon would act like a professional thief who
would return all that which he had stolen, and would engage other
thieves to become honest men.
JAIRUS' DAUGHTER.
375
the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw
him, he fell at his feet,
23. And besought him greatly, saying, My little
daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee,
come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be
healed; and she shall live.
24. And Jesus went with him; and much people
followed him, and thronged him.
25. And a certain woman, which had an issue of
blood twelve years,
26. And had suffered many things of many phy-
sicians, and had spent all that she had, and was
nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press
behind, and touched his garment.
28. For she said, "If I may touch but his clothes,
I shall be whole.
29. And straightway the fountain of her blood
was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was
healed of that plague.
30. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself
that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31. And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest
the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who
touched me?
32. And he looked round about to see her that had
done this thing.
33. But the woman fearing and trembling, know-
ing what was done in her, came and fell down before
him, and told him all the truth.
34. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith
hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole
of thy plague.
376
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
35. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler
of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy
daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master
any further?
36. As soon as Jesus heard the word that was
spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid, only believe.
37. And he suffered no man to follow him, save
Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
38. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of
the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that
wept and wailed greatly.
39. And when he was come in, he saith unto them,
Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not
dead, but sleepeth.
40. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he
had put them all out, he taketh the father and the
mother of the damsel, and them that were with him,
and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
41. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said
unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted,
Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
42. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked ;
for she was of the age of twelve years. And they
were astonished with a great astonishment.
43. And he charged them straitly that no man
should know it; and commanded that something
should be given her to eat.
38. Son of the Widow of Nain. - ST. LUKE, CHAP.
VII.-11. And it came to pass the day after, that he
went into a city called Nain; and many of his dis-
ciples went with him, and much people.
SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN.
377
12. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the
city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and
much people of the city was with her.
13. And when the Lord saw her, he had compas-
sion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
14. And he came and touched the bier: and they
that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man,
I say unto thee, Arise.
15. And he that was dead sat up, and began to
speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
16. And there came a fear on all: and they glori-
fied God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up
among us; and, That God hath visited his people.
17. And this rumor of him went forth through-
out all Judæa and throughout all the region round
about.
39. The fact of the return to corporeal life of an
individual really dead would be contrary to the laws
of nature, and consequently miraculous. Now it is
not necessary to go over this order of facts in order
to explain the resurrections performed by Jesus. If
among us the appearance of death sometimes deceives
our most celebrated physicians, accidents of this na-
ture must have been much more frequent in a coun-
try where no precaution in regard to it was taken,
and where interments were immediate.¹ In all proba-
bility, in the two cases cited above, the disease was
syncope or lethargy. Jesus himself tells it positively
of the daughter. "The damsel," said he, "is not
dead, but sleepeth." With the fluid-power which
1 A proof of this custom is found in Acts v. 5, etc.
378
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Jesus possessed, there is nothing surprising in the
fact that the vivifying fluid, directed by a strong
will, should have re-animated the benumbed senses;
that he should have been able to recall the spirit to
the body which it was ready to leave, as the peri-
spiritual connection was not broken. For men of that
time, who believed a person dead when he ceased to
breathe, there were resurrections, and they have been
able to affirm it in good faith; but they were in re-
ality cures, and not resurrections in the true accepta-
tion of the word.
40. The resurrection of Lazarus, whatever they
may say, disaffirms nothing in regard to this princi-
ple. He was, they say, for four days in the sepulchre.
But it is well known that some attacks of lethargy
last eight days or more. They add that he smelt
badly, which is a sign of decomposition. This allega-
tion proves nothing more, as with some persons there.
is partial decomposition of the body before death,
which is attended by a disagreeable odor. Death
arrives only when the organs essential to life are
attacked. And who could be able to know if a dis-
agreeable odor attended him? It was his sister Mar-
tha who said it; but how did she know? Lazarus
having been interred four days, she could suppose it,
but have no certitude of it.¹
41. Jesus walks upon the Water.
ST. MATTHEW,
1 The following fact proves that decomposition sometimes pre-
cedes death: In the convent of Bon-Pasteur, founded at Toulon by
the Abbot Marin, chaplain of the convict-prison for repentant females,
was found a young woman who had endured the most terrible suf-
fering with the calmness and impassibility of an expiatory victim.
In the midst of the pain she seemed to smile, as if in a celestial vis-
Her flesh was in
ion. Like St. Theresa, she asked to suffer more.
shreds: the gangrene gained upon her limbs. By a wise foresight
4
JESUS WALKS UPON THE WATER. 379
CHAP. XIV.-22. And straightway Jesus con-
strained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go
before him unto the other side, while he sent the
multitudes away.
23. And when he had sent the multitudes away,
he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when
the evening was come, he was there alone.
24. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea,
tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus
went unto them, walking on the sea.
26. And when the disciples saw him walking on
the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit;
and they cried out for fear.
27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, say-
ing, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it
be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29. And he said, Come. And when Peter was
come down out of the ship, he walked on the water,
to go to Jesus.
30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was
afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord,
save me.
31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
32. And when they were come into the ship, the
wind ceased.
the doctors recommended the interment of the body immediately
after decease. Strange enough! hardly had she rendered the last
sigh than all work of decomposition arrested itself, the death-like
exhalations ceased, and during thirty-six hours she remained
exposed to the prayers and veneration of the community.
380
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
33. Then they that were in the ship came and
worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the
Son of God.
42. This phenomenon finds its natural explanation
in the principles previously explained in chap. XIV.,
Nos. 35-37. Analogous examples prove that it is
neither impossible nor miraculous, since it is in the
laws of nature. It can be produced in two ways.
Jesus, although living, appeared upon the water
under a tangible form, whilst his body was elsewhere.
This is the most probable hypothesis. One can even
recognize in the recital certain characteristic signs
of tangible apparitions (chap. XIV., Nos. 35–37).
On the other hand, his body could have been sus-
tained and weight neutralized by the same fluid-
force which maintains a table in space without
support. The same effect has many times been pro-
duced over human bodies.
43. Transfiguration. ST. MARK, CHAP. IX.
1. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
that there be some of them that stand here, which
shall not taste of death, till they have seen the king-
dom of God come with power.
2. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter,
and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a
high mountain apart by themselves: and he was
transfigured before them.
3. And his raiment became shining, exceeding
white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white
them.
4. And there appeared unto them Elias with
Moses and they were talking with Jesus.
dig
TRANSFIGURATION.
381
5. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master,
it is good for us to be here: and let us make three
tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and
one for Elias.
6. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore
afraid.
7. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them and a voice came out of the cloud, saying,
This is my beloved Son: hear him.
8. And suddenly, when they had looked round
about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only
with themselves.
9. And as they came down from the mountain, he
charged them that they should tell no man what
things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen
from the dead.
44. The reason for this phenomenon can be found
in the properties of this same peri-spiritual fluid. The
transfiguration (explained chap. XIV., No. 39) is an
ordinary circumstance enough, which, in consequence
of fluid-radiation, can change the appearance of an
individual; but the purity of the peri-spirit of Jesus
has given to his spirit an exceptional brilliancy. As
to the apparitions of Moses and Elias, they can be
accounted for in the same way as similar ones (chap.
XIV., Nos. 35 and following ones). Of all the fac-
ulties which have been revealed to us in Jesus, there
is not one which is outside or beyond the conditions.
of humanity, and which one does not encounter in
ordinary men, because they are gifts of nature; but,
by the superiority of his moral essence and of his
fluid qualities, they attained with him proportions
382
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
above that of the common. He represented to us,
aside from his carnal envelope, the state of pure
spirits.
45. The Tempest stilled. — ST. LUKE, CHAP. VIII.
- 22. Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he
went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto
them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.
And they launched forth.
23. But as they sailed, he fell asleep and there
came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they
were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.
24. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying,
Master, Master, we perish. Then he arose, and re-
buked the wind and the raging of the water: and
they ceased, and there was a calm.
25. And he said unto them, Where is your faith?
And they being afraid wondered, saying one to an-
other, What manner of man is this! for he command-
eth even the winds and water, and they obey him.
46. We do not yet know enough of the secrets of
nature to affirm if there are or not occult intelli-
gences which preside at the action of the elements.
In this hypothesis the phenomena in question would
be the result of an act of authority over these same
intelligences, and would prove a power which has
not been given to any man to exercise. At all
events, Jesus, sleeping quietly during the tempest,
attests a security which can be explained by this
fact, that his spirit saw there was no danger, and
that the storm was going to be allayed.
47. The Marriage at Cana. Turning of Water
into Wine. This miracle, mentioned only in the
THE MARRIAGE AT CANA.
383
Gospel of St. John, is indicated as being the first
that Jesus had performed: and under this title it
ought to have been so much the more remarked
upon; but it seems to have produced very little sen-
sation, as no other evangelist mentions it. Such an
extraordinary feat ought to have astonished the
guests to the highest degree, and, above all, the host
himself, who, it seems, had not even perceived it.
Considered by itself, this fact has little importance
comparatively with those which truly testify of the
spiritual qualities of Jesus. By admitting that
things have taken place as they are reported to have
done, it is remarkable that it is the sole phenomenon.
of this kind which he has produced. He was of a
nature too elevated to attach himself to purely
material effects, calculated solely to pique the curi-
osity of the crowd, who would have confounded him
with a magician. He knew that useful things would
obtain him more sympathy, and obtain for his cause
more converts than those which could pass for a jug-
gler's tricks, and touch not the heart. However, the
act may be clearly explained up to a certain point,
to which fluid-action as well as magnetism offers
some examples of having the power of changing the
properties of water by giving it the taste of wine;
but this hypothesis is not very probable, as in a case.
of this kind the water has not been of the color of
wine, which could not have failed in being remarked.
It is more rational to see in it one of those parables
so frequent in the teachings of Jesus, like that of
the "prodigal son," "the marriage feast," and many
others. He made during the repast an allusion to
the wine and water, whence he would have evoked
384 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
a moral. That which justifies this opinion are the
words which have been spoken in regard to it by
the ruler of the feast, "Every man at the begin-
ning doth set forth good wine; and when men have
well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast
kept the good wine until now."
48. The Miracle of the Multiplication of Bread.-
This miracle of the bread is one of those which have
puzzled commentators, and diverted the imagination
of infidels. Without giving themselves the trouble.
to look for the allegorical sense of it, the latter have
seen in it only a puerile history; but the greater
number of serious men have seen in this recital, al-
though under a form different from the ordinary one,
a parable comparing the spiritual nourishment of the
soul with the nourishment of the body. One can
see in it, however, more than one metaphor, and
admit at a certain point of view the reality of a
material effect, without resorting to belief in the
miracle of it. One knows that in great pre-occupa-
tion of mind, caused by giving undivided attention
to a certain thing, hunger is forgotten. Now, those
who followed Jesus were people greedy to hear him.
There is nothing astonishing in the fact, that, having
been fascinated by his words, and perhaps also by the
powerful magnetic action which he exercised over
them, they had not felt the need of eating. Jesus,
who foresaw this result, has then been able to tran-
quillize his disciples by saying, in the figurative lan-
guage which was habitual to him, that they had
really brought some bread with them, and that this
would satisfy the needs of the multitude. At the
same time he gave to the latter a lesson: "Give ye
Ma
BREAD FROM HEAVEN, OR MANNA. 385
+
them to eat," said he. He taught them by that, that
they also must nourish them by the word. Thus,
beside the moral, allegorical sense, he has been able
to produce a well-known, natural, psychological
effect. The wonderful part in this case is the great
power of his words, which have captivated the atten-
tion of an immense crowd to such a point as to
make them forget the wants of the body. This
moral power testifies the superiority of Jesus much
more than the purely material fact of the multiplica-
tion of bread, which must have been considered as an
allegory. This explanation is found confirmed by
Jesus himself in St. Matthew, chap. xvi. 5–12, the
leaven of the Pharisees.
49. Bread from Heaven, or Manna. - ST. JOHN,
CHAP. VI.—22. The day following, when the people,
which stood on the other side of the sea, saw that
there was none other boat there, save that one
whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus
went not with his disciples into the boat, but that
his disciples were gone away alone ;
23. Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias
nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after
that the Lord had given thanks:
24. When the people therefore saw that Jesus.
was not there, neither his disciples, they also took
shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
25. And when they had found him on the other
side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when
camest thou hither?
26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the
miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and
were filled.
386 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
27. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him
hath God the Father sealed.
28. Then said they unto him, What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God?
29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is
the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent.
30. They said therefore unto him, What sign
showest thou then, that we may see, and believe
thee? what dost thou work?
31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it
is written, He gave them bread from heaven to
eat.
32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven.
33. For the bread of God is he which cometh
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give
us this bread.
35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of
life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and
he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
36. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen
me, and believe not.
47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth
on me hath everlasting life.
48. I am that bread of life.
49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,
and are dead.
BREAD FROM HEAVEN, OR MANNA. 387
50. This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
50. In the first passage, Jesus, by recalling the
effect previously produced, gives us clearly to under-
stand that he was not acting with material bread:
otherwise the comparison which he established with
the leaven of the Pharisees had been without object.
"Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the
five loaves of the five thousand, and how many
baskets ye took up? neither the seven loaves of the
four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it
not to you concerning bread, but that you should be-
ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?"
This reproach was given them for having had a ma-
terial idea of the multiplication. The act had been
extraordinary enough in itself to have struck the
imagination of his disciples, who, however, appeared
not to have remembered it. This idea is set forth
no less clearly in the discourse of Jesus upon the
bread from heaven, or manna, in which he tries to
make them comprehend in the true sense the value
of spiritual nourishment. "Work," said he, "not for
the bread which perisheth, but for that which cometh
down from heaven, which the Son of man will give
you." This nourishment is his word, which is the
bread descended from heaven, and which gives life to
the world. "I am the bread of life," said he: "he
who comes to me will hunger no more, and he who
believes in me will never thirst." But these distinc-
tions were too subtle for these rough natures, who
could comprehend only tangible things. The manna
11
388 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
which had fed their ancestors was the true bread from
heaven to them: there was the miracle. If, then, the
act of producing bread had taken place materially,
why should these same men, for whose profit it was
produced a few days before, say to Jesus, "What sign
showest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee?
what dost thou work?" It is evident they under-
stood miracles to be the mighty works which the
Pharisees demanded; i.e., signs from heaven as
commanded with the wand of an enchanter. Those
which Jesus did were too simple, and did not depart
enough from the laws of nature. The cures even
were not sufficiently extraordinary. The spiritual
miracles were not material enough for them.
51. Temptation of Jesus. Jesus transported by
the Devil to the pinnacle of the temple, from thence
to the summit of a mountain, and tempted by him,
is one of these parables so common with him, which
public credulity has transformed into material fact.
The following explanation is taken from a teaching
given by a spirit on this subject:-
"Jesus was not carried by an evil spirit, as above
affirmed; but he wished to make men comprehend
that humanity is subject to failure, and that it must
always be on guard against the bad inspirations to
which its weak nature is subjected. The temptation
of Jesus is, then, a figure of speech, and one must be
blind to take it literally. Why would you desire that
the Messiah, the Word' of God incarnate, should be
submitted for a time, however short, to the sugges-
tions of the Devil; and that, as the evangelist Luke
writes, the Devil had quitted him for a time, which
would make one imagine that he would yet be sub-
6
BREAD FROM HEAVEN, OR MANNA.
389
mitted to his power? No: comprehend better the
teachings which have been given you. The Spirit of
Evil had no power over the Spirit of Good. No one
has been said to have seen Jesus upon the temple
or upon the mountain. Certainly, if it had been a
fact, it would have been noised among the people.
The temptation was then not a material one. As to
the moral side of it, could you admit that the Spirit
of Darkness could tempt him who knew his origin
and power with the words, Adore me, and I will
give you all the kingdoms of the earth'? The Devil
in that case must have been ignorant of who he was
to whom he made such offers, which is not probable.
If he knew him, his proposition was nonsensical; for
he must have well known that he would repel one.
who came to ruin his empire over men. Compre-
hend the sense of this parable; for it is one, as well
as the 'prodigal son' and 'good Samaritan.'
،
"One shows us the dangers men run if they resist
not this inmost voice, which constantly cries, Thou
canst be more than thou art; thou canst possess
more than thou possessest; thou canst grow great,
increase, acquire. Listen to the voice of ambition,
and all your wishes will be fulfilled.' It shows to
you the danger and the means of evading it, by say-
ing to the evil inspirations, 'Get thee behind me,
Satan,' or, in other words, 'Go away from me, temp-
tation.' The other two parables show what hope
there is for him who, too feeble to cope with tempta-
tion, has succumbed to it. It shows you the father
blessing the repentant child, and according to him
with love the pardon implored. They show you
that the guilty, the schismatic, the man who is re-
390 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
pelled by his brother, as being worth more in the
eyes of the Supreme Judge than those who despise
him because that he practises the virtues taught by
the law of love. Weigh well the teachings given in
the Gospels; learn to distinguish the proper sense
from the figurative; and the errors which have
blinded you so many centuries will, little by little,
be effaced, in order to make place for the brilliant
light of truth."- Bordeaux, 1862: by St. John the
Evangelist.
52. Remarkable Phenomena at the Death of Jesus.
-ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXVII.-45. Now from
the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land
unto the ninth hour.
51. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth
did quake, and the rocks rent;
52. And the graves were opened; and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose,
53. And came out of the graves after his resurrec-
tion, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto
many.
53. It is strange that such mighty works, being
accomplished at the moment even when the atten-
tion of the city was fixed upon the anguish of Jesus,
which was the event of the day, should not have
been remarked upon. As no historian mentions it,
it seems impossible that an earthquake and darkness
for three hours over the face of the earth, in a coun-
try where the heavens are in a constant state of lim-
pidness, should have passed unnoticed. The duration
of this obscurity is about that of the eclipse of the
APPEARANCES OF JESUS AFTER DEATH. 391
sun; but this kind of an eclipse is produced only
with the new moon, and the death of Jesus took
place during the full moon, the 14th of the month
of Nissan, the passover of the Jews.
54. The obscuration of the sun may have been
produced also by the spots which are observed upon
its surfaces. In similar cases the brilliancy of the
light is sensibly affected, but never to the point of
producing obscurity and darkness. To suppose an
obscuration of this kind took place at this epoch
would be to assign to it a perfectly natural cause.¹
55. Appearances of Jesus after Death. - ST. JOHN,
CHAP. XX.-14. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and
knew not that it was Jesus.
15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest
thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to
1 There are constantly on the surface of the sun fixed spots,
which follow its rotary movement, and have served to determine
the duration of it. But these spots sometimes increase in number,
extent, and intensity, at which times a diminution in light and heat
is produced. This augmentation in the number of spots appears to
coincide with certain astronomical phenomena and the relative posi-
tion of some planets, which occasions its periodical return. The
duration of this obscuration is very variable. Sometimes it is only
for two or three hours, but in 535 A.D. there was one which lasted
fourteen months. As to the dead having been raised from their
graves, perhaps some persons have seen apparitions, which is not
exceptional; but, as then they knew not the cause of these phe-
nomena, they imagined the individuals who appeared came out of
their sepulchres. The disciples of Jesus, excited by the death of
their master, have, without doubt, attached some particular facts
to it, attention to which would not have been drawn at any other
time. To men predisposed to the marvellous, a fragment of rock
being detached at this time would have given them ample cause to
say the rocks were mysteriously rent. Jesus is great by his works,
but not in the fantastical pictures with which only an unenlightened
enthusiasm must have surrounded him.
392
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have
borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him,
and I will take him away.
16. Jesus saith unto her Mary. She turned her-
self, and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say,
Master.
17. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am
not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my breth-
ren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father,
and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples
that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken
these things unto her.
56. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XXIV.-13. And, behold,
two of them went that same day to a village called
Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore
furlongs.
14. And they talked together of all these things
which had happened.
15. And it came to pass, that, while they com-
muned together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew
himself near, and went with them.
16. But their eyes were holden that they should
not know him.
17. And he said unto them, What manner of com-
munications are these that ye have one to another, as
ye walk, and are sad?
18. And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas,
answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which
are come to pass there in these days?
19. And he said unto them, What things? And
APPEARANCES OF JESUS AFTER DEATH. 293
they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth,
which was a prophet mighty in deed and word be-
fore God and all the people :
20. And how the chief priests and our rulers de-
livered him to be condemned to death, and have
crucified him.
21. But we trusted that it had been he which
should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to-
day is the third day since these things were done.
22. Yea, and certain women also of our company
made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre ;
23. And when they found not his body, they came,
saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said he was alive.
24. And certain of them which were with us went
to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women
had said: but him they saw not.
25. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken :
26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,
and to enter into his glory?
27. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning himself.
28. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither
they went: and he made as though he would have
gone further.
29. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with
us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.
And he went in to tarry with them.
30. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with
them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and
gave to them.
394
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
31. And their eyes were opened, and they knew
him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32. And they said one to another, Did not our
heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the
way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?
33. And they rose up the same hour, and returned
to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered to-
gether, and them that were with them,
34. Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath ap-
peared to Simon.
35. And they told what things were done in the
way, and how he was known of them in breaking of
bread.
36. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be
unto you.
37. But they were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?
and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my-
self: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have.
40. And when he had thus spoken, he showed
them his hands and his feet.
41. And while they yet believed not for joy, and
wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any
meat?
42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish,
and of a honeycomb.
43. And he took it, and did eat before them.
44. And he said unto them, These are the words
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
APPEARANCES OF JESUS AFTER DEATH. 395
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the
psalms concerning me.
45. Then opened he their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures,
46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and
thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day :
47. And that repentance and remission of sins.
should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.
48. And ye are witnesses of these things.
49. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father
upon you but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye be endued with power from on high.
57. ST. JOHN, CHAP. XX.-20. And when he had
so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the
Lord.
21. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto
you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22. And when he had said this, he breathed on
them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost:
23. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained.
24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didy-
mus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25. The other disciples therefore said unto him,
We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them,
Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,
396
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and
thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26. And after eight days again his disciples were
within, and Thomas with them then came Jesus,
the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and
said, Peace be unto you.
27. Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy
finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither
thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not
faithless, but believing.
28. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My
Lord and my God.
29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou
hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed.
:
58. ST. JOHN, CHAP. XXI.-1. After these things
Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the
sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed he himself.
2. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas.
called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee,
and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his dis-
ciples.
3. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
They say unto him, We also go with thee. They
went forth, and entered into a ship immediately;
and that night they caught nothing.
4. But when the morning was now come, Jesus
stood on the shore; but the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus.
5. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye
any meat? They answered him, No.
6. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the
APPEARANCES OF JESUS AFTER DEATHI. 397
right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast
therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for
the multitude of fishes.
7. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith
unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter
heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat
unto him (for he was naked), and did cast himself
into the sea.
8. And the other disciples came in a little ship
(for they were not far from land, but as it were two
hundred cubits), dragging the net with fishes.
59. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XXIV. -50. And he led
them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his
hands, and blessed them.
51. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he
was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52. And they worshipped him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy:
53. And were continually in the temple, praising
and blessing God. Amen.
60. The appearance of Jesus after death is report-
ed by all the evangelists with circumstantial details,
which will not allow us to doubt the reality of the
fact. They are, besides, perfectly explained by the
fluid laws and properties of the peri-spirit, and pre-
sent nothing anomalous to the phenomena of the same
kind of which ancient and contemporaneous history
offers numerous examples, without excepting the
tangibility of the form presented. If one observes.
the circumstances which have attended his diverse
appearances, one recognizes in him at these moments
398
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
all the characters of a fluid being. He appeared
and disappeared unexpectedly; he was seen by some,
and not by others, under a guise not recognized even
by his disciples; he appeared to them in closed rooms,
where a carnal body could not have penetrated; his
language even has not the animation of a corporal
being; he has the tone which is brief and senten-
tious, peculiar to spirits who manifest in this man-
ner. His whole manner, in short, is not that of a
denizen of the terrestrial sphere. The sight of him
causes at the same time surprise and fear. His dis-
ciples, in seeing him, speak no more to him with the
old freedom: they feel that he is a man no more.
Jesus then showed his peri-spiritual body to them,
which explains why he was seen only by those to
whom he desired to make himself known. If he
had worn his carnal body, he would have been
seen by the first comer as in life. His disciples,
being ignorant of the first cause of the phenome-
non of apparitions, took no account of these
peculiarities, which were not probably remarked.
They saw Jesus, and touched him: for them it was
the resurrected body (chap. XIV., Nos. 14 and
35-38).
61. Whilst the infidel rejects all facts accomplished
by Jesus having a supernatural aspect, and consid-
ers them without exception as legends, Spiritism
gives the greater part of them a natural explanation.
It proves their possibility, not alone by the theory
of the fluid laws, but by their identity with analo-
gous facts produced by a multitude of persons in the
most common conditions. Since these facts are in
some respects public property, they prove nothing,
APPEARANCES OF JESUS AFTER DEATH. 399
in principle, touching the exceptional nature of
Jesus.1
62. The greatest miracle Jesus has performed
that which truly attests his superiority—is the revo-
lution his teachings have made in the world, notwith-
standing his limited field of action. Jesus was in-
deed poor, obscure, born in a most humble condition
among a despised people, very ignorant, and without
political, artistic, or literary influence. He preached
only three years. During this time, so short in dura-
tion, he was despised and persecuted by his fellow-
citizens, calumniated and treated as an impostor; he
was often obliged to flee, in order to escape stoning;
he was betrayed by one of his own apostles, denied
by another, and forsaken by all at the moment when
he fell into the hands of his enemies. He did only
good; but that did not shelter him from malevolence,
which turned against him even the blessings which
he bestowed. Condemned to the death reserved for
criminals, he died ignored by the world; for contem-
porary history is silent in regard to him.2
63. He has written nothing himself, however.
Aided by some obscure men like himself, his words
1 The numerous contemporaneous facts of cures, apparitions, pos-
sessions, second sight, etc., which are related in the Revue Spirite,
and recalled in the above notes, offer, even to circumstances of
detail, such a striking analogy to those which the evangelist reports,
that their similarity in cause and effect are evident. One naturally
asks why the natural cause of to-day should be a supernatural one
in another epoch of the world's history, -diabolical with some, and
divine with others. If it had been possible to have compared the
two together here at greater length, the comparison would have been
easier; but their number, and the elaborate explanations which the
greater part necessitate, have not permitted of it.
2 The Jewish historian, Josephus, is the only one who speaks of
him, and he writes very little in respect to him.
400 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
have been sufficient to regenerate the world. His
doctrine has killed all-powerful paganism, and has be-
come the torch of civilization. He had against him
all that can possibly foil men in an earthly career.
This is the reason why we say that the triumph of
his doctrine is the greatest of his miracles: at the
same time, it proves his divine mission. If, in place.
of social and regenerative principles, founded upon
the spiritual future of man, he had offered to poster-
ity only a few marvellous facts, scarcely would his
name be mentioned to-day.
64. Disappearance of the Body of Jesus. The dis-
appearance of the body of Jesus after his death has
been the subject of many controversies. It has been
attested by the four evangelists, upon the evidence
of the women who presented themselves at the sepul-
chre the third day, and did not find him there. Some
have seen in this disappearance a miraculous occur-
rence; while others have supposed a clandestine
removal to have taken place. According to another
opinion, Jesus could not ever have been invested
with a common carnal body, but only with a fluid
one; that he could have been during his whole life
only partly tangible, in a word, a sort of agénère.
His birth, judged from this stand-point, his death,
and all the acts of his life must have been only
appearances. Thus they say his body returned to
the fluid state, and was able to disappear from the
sepulchre; and with this same body he appeared to
friends after death. Without doubt, a similar fact is
not radically impossible, after that which one knows
to-day of the properties of fluids; but it would be at
least entirely exceptional, and in formidable opposi-
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY OF JESUS. 401
tion to the usual character of the agénères (chap.
XIV., No. 36).
65. The question then is, if such a hypothesis is
admissible, if it is confirmed or contradicted by facts.
There are two periods in the sojourn of Jesus upon
the earth, that which preceded, and that which fol-
lowed, his death. In the first, from the moment of
conception till birth, all things natural to the mother
took place, as in ordinary conditions of life.¹ From
his birth till death, in all his acts, language, and the
diverse circumstances of his life, there are presented
unmistakable evidences of corporeity. The phenom-
ena of the psychic order which were produced
through him were only occasional, and were not
anomalous, since they are explained by the proper-
ties of the peri-spirit, and are developed in differ-
ent degrees of power in other individuals. After his
death to the contrary, he is revealed to us as a fluid
being. The difference between the two states is so
distinctly defined, that it is not possible to assimilate
them. Properly speaking, the carnal body has the
inherent properties of matter, which differ essentially
from those of the ethereal fluids. Disintegration is
brought about by rupture of molecular cohesion. A
sharp instrument by cutting into the material body
divides its tissues. It the essential organs of life are
attacked, the exercise of the functions is arrested,
and death ensues; that is to say, the death of the
body. This cohesion, existing not in the fluid body,
life reposes not on the play of special organs, and
cannot be affected by analogous disorders. A sharp
1 We do not speak here of the mystery of the incarnation, which
will subsequently be examined.
402 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
instrument, or any other, penetrates it, as it would
vapor, without occasioning any harm. This is the
reason why this kind of body can never die, and why
fluid beings, designated by the name of agénères, can
never be killed.
After the crucifixion of Jesus, his body remained
inert and without life. It was buried like an ordi-
nary corpse; and all could see him and touch him.
After his resurrection, when he desires to quit the
earth, he does not die. He is raised, he vanished,
disappeared, without leaving any trace behind, -- an
evident proof that this body was of another nature
than that which perished upon the cross: whence it
is necessary to conclude, that, if Jesus died, he had a
carnal body. In consequence of its material proper-
ties, the carnal body is the seat of the sensations and
physical pains which are echoed in the sensitive
centre, or spirit. It is not the body which suffers:
it is the spirit which receives the rebound of the
injury or hurts to the organic tissues. A body de-
prived of spirit sensation feels absolutely no sensa-
tion; while the spirit, which has no material body,
cannot experience sufferings which are the result of
injury to matter whence it is necessary to conclude,
that if Jesus suffered materially, as one cannot doubt,
it was because he had a material body in nature
similar to our own.
66. To the material facts many powerful moral
considerations must be added. If Jesus had been,
during his life, in the condition of fluid beings, he
would have experienced neither pain nor any of the
wants of the material body. To suppose him to
have been thus is to take away from him all the
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY OF JESUS. 403
merit of a life of suffering and privation, which he
chose as an example of resignation. If all this in him
was only appearance, all the acts of his life - the
reiterated announcement of his death, the sad scene
in the garden of Gethsemane, his prayer to God to
let, if possible, the cup pass from his lips, his passion,
his agony, all, even to his last sigh at the moment
of rendering up the spirit would only be a vain
show, a mockery of nature, making an illusory
sacrifice of his life appear real. Such would be a
comedy unworthy of a simple, honest man, and one
much more unworthy of so superior a being; in
short, it would have been the abuse of the good
faith of his contemporaries and of posterity. Such
are the logical sequences of this system of belief,
sequences which are not admissible; for it lowers
it morally instead of elevating it. Jesus must then
have had, like everybody else, a carnal and a spirit-
ual body, which the material and psychic phenomena
of his life attest.
67. What has become of his carnal body? This
is a problem of which the solution cannot be de-
duced, either by the new order of belief or by
hypotheses, in default of sufficient elements to seat
a conviction.
This solution, besides, is of secondary importance,
and would add nothing to the merits of Christ, or to
the facts which attest, in a very peremptory manner,
his superiority and divine mission. There can then
be only personal opinions in regard to the disposition
of his body, which would have no value only as
they should be sanctioned by logic and by the gen-
eral teachings of spirits. Now, until the present
404
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
time, none of the opinions which have been formu-
lated have received the sanction of this double con-
trol. If the spirits have not yet reached the question
in the unanimity of their teaching, without doubt
the moment of solving it has not yet come; or the
requisite knowledge, by the aid of which they can
solve it, is wanting. In the mean time, if one dis-
cards the supposition of a secret carrying away of it,
one could find, by analogy, a probable explanation
in the theory of spiritualizing matter, thereby mak-
ing it invisible to the carnal eye; examples of which
can be found in the "Book on Mediums," chaps. 4
and 5.
68. This idea upon the nature of the body of
Jesus is not new. In the fourth century Apollinarius
of Laodicea, chief of the sect of the Apollinarists,
pretended that Jesus had not taken a body like ours,
but one incapable of harm or pain, which had de-
scended from heaven on the breast of the Virgin
Saint, and was not born of her; that thus Jesus had
been born, had suffered, and was dead only in ap-
pearance. The Apollinarists were anathematized at
the Council of Alexandria in 360, in that of Rome.
in 374, and in that of Constantinople in 381.
CHAPTER XVI.
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM.
1. Theory of Fore-Knowledge. How is it possible
to obtain a knowledge of the future? One compre-
hends how to predict events which are a consequence
of the present state of things, but not of those
which have no connection with this, and still less
of which are attributed to chance. Future things,
they say, do not exist. They are still in nothingness.
How then can one know that they will come? The
examples of verified predictions are, however, numer-
ous enough, from whence it is necessary to conclude
it is a phenomenon of which we have not the key;
for there is no effect without a cause. It is this
cause we are seeking; and it is Spiritism, the key to
so many mysteries, which will furnish it to us.
Moreover, we will show that the fact of the predic-
tions themselves is not obtained by a departure from
the natural laws. Let us take, as a comparison, an
example in common things, which will aid us to
make the principle which we have to develop better
understood.
2. Let us suppose a man placed upon a high moun-
tain, and considering the vast extent of the plain. In
this situation the distance of a league, or three miles,
will be a very short distance seemingly, and he will
405
406 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
easily embrace with a glance of the eye all the un-
dulations of the earth from the commencement to
the end of the route. The traveller who follows
this route for the first time knows that by marching
he will arrive at the end. There is a simple fore-
knowledge of the consequence of his march; but
the unevenness of the route, the ascents and de-
scents, the rivers to cross, the woods to traverse, the
precipices from which he may fall, the places where
thieves may be stationed to waylay him, the inns
where he will be able to repose, all this is inde-
pendent of his personal knowledge. It is for him the
unknown, the future, because his sight extends not
beyond the little circle which surrounds him. As to
the continuance of it, he measures it by the time
that it takes him to go from one point to another of
the route. Take away from him the knowledge of
the data of the route, and his knowledge of its con-
tinuance is effaced. For the man who is on the
mountain, and who follows with the eye the traveller,
all this is the present. Let us suppose that he comes
down, and says to the traveller, "At such a moment
you will encounter such a thing: you will be at-
tacked and delivered." He will predict the future
to him; for it is the future to the pedestrian, but the
present to the man of the mountain.
3. If we depart now from the circle of things
purely material, and if we enter by thought into
the domain of spiritual life, we will see this phenome-
non produced upon a grander scale. The demateri-
alized spirits are like the man of the mountain.
Space and duration of time are to them no more;
but the extent and penetration of their sight are
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM. 407
proportionated, or in proportion to their purification
and to their elevation in the spiritual hierarchy.
They are in connection with inferior spirits, like the
man armed with a powerful telescope beside him
who has only his eyes to see with. With the latter
their view is circumscribed, not only because it can
only with difficulty go far away from the globe to
which they are attached, but because the coarseness
of their peri-spirit veils distant things, as the fog
does for the eyes of the body. One understands
then that, according to the degree of perfection to
which a spirit has attained, it can foretell the
events of a period of a few years, of a few centu-
ries, and even of many thousands of years; for what
is a century in the presence of infinitude?
The events do not successively unroll themselves
like the incidents on the route of the traveller. He
sees simultaneously the commencement and the end
of the period. All the events, which in this period
are the future for the man of the earth, are for him
the present. He will be able to tell us with certi-
tude such a thing will happen at this epoch, because
that he sees this thing, as the man of the mountain
sees that which awaits the traveller on his route. If
he does not inform him of it, it is because that a
knowledge of the future would be hurtful to the
man; it might trammel his free will; it might para-
lyze him in the work which he must accomplish for
his progress. The good and the evil which await him,
being unknown to him, are the trial for him. If such
a faculty, even in a limited state, can be one of the
attributes of the creature, to what a degree of power
must it not be elevated in the Creator, who embraces
408 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
infinitude? For him time does not exist: the com-
mencement and the end of worlds are the present.
In this immense panorama, what is the duration of
the life of a man, of a generation, of a people?
4. However, as man must concur in the general
progress, and as certain events must result from his
co-operation, he can be useful in certain cases if he
has a knowledge of these events, in order that he
may prepare the way for them, and hold himself
ready to act when the right moment comes. That is
the reason God permits sometimes a corner of the
veil to be lifted; but it is always for a useful object,
and never to satisfy a vain curiosity. This mission
can then be given not to all spirits; for there are
some who know the future no better than men, but to
some spirits sufficently advanced for that. Now, it is
well to observe that this kind of revelation is always
made spontaneously, and never, or very rarely at
least, in response to a direct demand. This mission
can equally devolve upon certain men in this man-
ner: he to whom is confided the care of revealing
a concealed fact can receive, in his ignorance, the
inspiration of the spirits who know it, and then he
transmits it mechanically, without rendering an ac-
count of them to himself.
5. It is known besides that either during sleep,
in a waking state, or in the ecstasies of second
sight, the soul leaves the body, and is possessed in
a greater or less degree with the faculties of the
freed spirit. If he is an advanced spirit, if he has,
above all, like the prophets, received a special mis-
sion for this effect, he enjoys, in the moments of
the emancipation of the soul, the faculty of em-
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM. 409
bracing by himself a greater or less extent of time,
and sees as present the events of this period. He
can then reveal them at the same instant, or pre-
serve the memory of them for his awakening. If
these events must remain a secret, he will lose the
remembrance of them, or there will remain with him
only a vague intuition of them sufficient to guide him.
Thus is this faculty seen developed on providential
occasions, in imminent dangers, in great calamities,
in revolutions; and the greater number of sects which
have been persecuted have had numbers of prophets.
Thus inspired by these visions, great captains are
seen resolutely marching towards the enemy with a
certitude of victory, that men of genius, like Chris-
topher Columbus, for example, have pursued an ob-
ject, predicting the moment when they will attain it.
The reason for this is, they have seen this object ac-
complished in prophetic vision. The gift of proph-
ecy is then no more supernatural than a multitude
of other phenomena. It is based upon the proper-
ties of the soul, and the law of connection between
the spiritual and material worlds, which Spiritism
has come to explain. But how can one admit the
existence of an invisible world if one believes not in
the reality of the soul, or if one doubts its individu-
ality after death? The infidel who denies pre-
science is consistent with himself: it remains to be
known if he himself is consistent with the law of
nature.
6. This theory of foresight does not solve, perhaps,
in an absolutely correct manner, all cases which can
be presented as revelations of the future; but one
cannot deny that it is based on a truly fundamen-
410
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
tal principle. If it cannot all be explained, it is
through the difficulty which man has in placing him-
self at this point outside the earth; by his inferiority
even his ideas constantly leading him into the path
of material life, rendering him often impotent to de-
tach himself from the earth. In this respect certain
men are like young birds, the wings of which are too
feeble to permit them to fly, or like those whose
sight is too short to see into distance, or like those
who are wanting in the sense of certain perceptions.
7. In order to comprehend spiritual things, — that
is to say, to form as distinct an idea as that we make
of a landscape before our eyes, there truly fails us
a sense, exactly as the necessary sense is wanting to
the blind man to comprehend the effects of light, of
colors, and of sight, without contact with them.
Thus it is only by an effort of the imagination we
attain to it, and by the aid of comparisons drawn
from familiar things.
Key
8. But some material things can give only very im-
perfect ideas of spiritual ones. On this account it is
best not to take the comparisons which have been
drawn too literally, and believe, for example, that
the spirit is held at such an elevation as has been
stated in one comparison, or that they are obliged to
be upon mountains, or above the clouds, in order to
see into time and space. This faculty is inherent.
to a state of the materialization; that is to say, that
spiritualization produces an effect which can be com-
pared, though very imperfectly, with that view of the
whole which a man has on the mountain-top. The
object of this comparison was simply to show that
some events, which are in the future to some, are in
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM.
411
the present for others, and thus can be predicted,
which does not imply that the effect is produced in
the same manner. In order to enjoy this perception
it is not necessary that the spirit should transport
himself to any point in space whatever. He who is
on earth at our side can possess it in its plenitude as
well as if he were a thousand miles away, although
we see nothing beyond the horizon of our material
vison. Light, with spirits, not being produced in
the same manner or with the same elements as with
man, their visual horizon is entirely different: this is
something of which we have not the sense to con-
ceive. The spirit beside the incarnated one is like
a person with good eyes beside a blind man.
9. It is also necessary to figure to one's self that
this perception is not limited by extent of space, but
that it comprehends penetration in all things. It is,
we repeat, an inherent faculty proportioned to the
state of dematerialization.
This faculty is weakened by incarnation, but not
completely deadened, because the soul has not been
enclosed in the body as in a box. The incarnated
being possesses it, although in a less degree than
when free from matter: it is this which gives to
some men a penetrating power, which is totally want-
ing in others, greater justice in a moral point of
view, and a quicker comprehension of things beyond
the material world. Not only the mind perceives,
but it remembers, that which it has seen in a spirit-
ual state; and this remembrance is like a picture
traced on its thoughts. In incarnation it sees but
vaguely, as through a veil; in a liberated state, it sees
and conceives clearly. The principle of sight is not
412
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
outside itself, but within it: thus there is no need of
our exterior light. By moral development the cir-
cle of our ideas and conception is enlarged. By the
gradual dematerialization of the peri-spirit the latter
is purified of the coarse elements which affect the
delicacy of the perceptions, whence it is easy to
comprehend that the extension of all the faculties
follow spiritual progress.
10. It is the degree of extension of the spiritual
faculties which, in incarnation, render it more or less
apt to conceive of spiritual things. At the same
time this aptitude is not the necessary consequence
of the development of intelligence. Common science
does not give it. Thus we see men of great learning
as blind in spiritual things, as others are in material
ones: they are stubborn in regard to spiritual things,
because they do not understand them. The reason
for which is, their progress in this respect is not yet
accomplished; whilst one sees persons of an inferior
intelligence and knowledge grasp them with the great-
est facility, which proves that the latter have ob-
tained the necessary preliminary intuition of it. It
is with them a retrospective remembrance of that
which they have seen and known, either as a wan-
dering spirit, or in their anterior existences, as others
have the intuition of languages and sciences which
they have possessed. The faculty of changing its
point of view and gathering knowledge from on high
is not alone the solution of the problem of prophecy.
Beside all this, it is the key to all faith which is true
and solid; it is also the most powerful element of
force and resignation: for, from the far-distant point
to which it takes us, terrestrial life appearing like a
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM.
413
point in immensity, one comprehends of how little
value things are which, seen from below, appear so
important. The incidents, miseries, and vanities of
life decrease in value by measure, as the immense
and splendid horizon of the future unrolls itself be-
fore one.
He who can look at the vicissitudes of life
at this point of view is as happy as one can be here
below.
11. It is well, then, to pity those who concentrate
their thoughts upon this narrow, terrestrial sphere,
because that they feel, in all its force, the consequence
of all tribulations which, like so many serpents, sting
them constantly. As to the future of Spiritism, the
spirits are unanimous in affirming the near triumph of
it, notwithstanding the opposition it receives. This
foresight comes easy to them, firstly, because that
its propagation is their own personal work. Con-
curring in the movement or directing it, they know,
consequently, what they must do. Secondly, it is
sufficient for them to know that it is within a short
time, and in this period they see upon the way the
powerful auxiliaries which God raises up for them,
and which will not be tardy in manifesting them-
selves. Without being disembodied spirits, let the
Spiritists carry themselves by thought thirty years
in advance of this time to the middle age of the gen-
eration which is now being educated by it; let them
from that point consider what is taking place to-day;
follow this main spring of action, and they will see.
those who think they are called to overturn it worn
out in their vain endeavors. They will see them
gradually disappear from the scene, while this tree,
constantly increasing in magnitude, will take deeper
root each day.
414 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
12. The common events of private life are nearly
always governed by the different traits of character
manifested by each individual. Some will succeed.
according to his capacities, his knowledge of things,
his energy and perseverance, while another will fail
by a want of these traits; while we can truly say that
each one is the "architect of his own fortune," which
is never submitted to a blind fatality independent
of his personal supervision. Knowing the character
of an individual, one can easily predict for him his
future.
13. The events which touch upon the general in-
terests of humanity are regulated by Providence.
When God designs a thing to be accomplished, it will
be done in one way or another. Men concur in its
execution; but no one is indispensable to it: other-
wise God himself would be at the mercy of his crea-
tures. If he to whom the mission is intrusted fails to
execute it, another is intrusted with the charge of it.
There is not an unaccomplished mission. Man is
always free to fulfil that which has been confided to
him, and which he has voluntarily accepted. If he
does not perform it, he loses its reward, and he as-
sumes the responsibility of delays, which can be
caused by his negligence or bad desire. If he be-
comes an obstacle to its accomplishment, God can
cast him down with a breath.
14. The final result of an event can then be cer-
tain, because that it is in the designs of God; but, as
most frequently the details and mode of execution
are subordinate to circumstances and to the free will
of men, the ways and means of doing it can be un-
certain. The spirits can give us a general idea of its
-
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM. 415
future accomplishment, if it is necessary that we be
foretold of it; but in order to particularize in regard
to it, giving date and place, a knowledge in advance
of the energy of such and such individuals would be
necessary. Now, if this determination is not yet in
his mind, according to that which it will be, it can
hasten or retard the announcement, thereby changing
the secondary means of action, but all ending in the
same result. Thus spirits can, judging from existing
circumstances, predict that a war is more or less
near, that it is inevitable, without being able to pre-
dict the day when it will commence, nor the detailed
incidents which can be changed by the will of men.
15. In order to fix a time for future events, it is
necessary also to take account of a circumstance
inherent to the nature even of spirits. With them
time, as well as space, cannot be estimated only by
aid of points of comparison or data which divides it
into periods which they can count.
Upon the earth the natural division of time into
days and years is marked by the rising and setting
of the sun, and by the duration of the movement of
translation of the earth. The subdivision of days
into twenty-four hours each is arbitrary. It is indi-
cated by the aid of special instruments, such as the
hour-glasses, the clepsydra, clocks, sun-dials, etc. The
united measure of time must vary according to worlds,
since the astronomical periods are different. Thus, for
example, in Jupiter one day is equivalent to ten of our
hours, and one year to nearly twelve of our years.
There is, then, in each world a manifest difference
in computing time according to the nature of the
astral revolutions which take place in it. This would
416
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
make it difficult for a spirit unacquainted with our
earth to give dates. But outside of worlds these
means of distinguishing time do not exist. For a
spirit in space, there is for him no rising or setting of
the sun marking the days, nor a periodic revolution.
marking the years. There is for him only duration
of time and infinite space (chap. VI., No. 1 and fol-
lowing).
He, then, who had never come to the earth could
have no knowledge of our calculations, which be-
sides would be useless to him. Moreover, he who
had never been incarnated upon any world would
have no notion of the fractions of duration of time.
When a stranger spirit comes to this earth to mani-
fest, he cannot assign dates to events only by iden-
tifying himself with our usages, which is without
doubt in his power, but that which the most fre-
quently he judges useless to do. However, the spirits
which form the invisible population of our globe,
where they have already lived, and still continue to
remain in our midst, are naturally identified with our
habits, of which they retain the remembrance in
their free, wandering state. They have, then, less
difficulty than the others in placing themselves at
our point of view in regard to that which concerns
terrestrial usages.
In Greece they counted by olym-
piads, also by lunar or solar periods, according to
time and place.
16. They would therefore more easily assign a date
to future events if they knew it; but, beyond that,
it is not always allowed them to give data. They
are hindered by this reason, that every time circum-
stances of detail are subordinate to the free will and
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM.
417
eventual decision of man. The precise date really
exists only when the event is accomplished. For
this reason circumstantial predictions cannot be of
fered as certitudes, and must be accepted only as
probabilities. Then, even, they will carry with them
a seal of justifiable suspicion.
For this reason the truly wise spirits never give a
fixed date to any event. They are limited to predict
to us the issue of things which it is useful for us to
know. To insist upon having fixed dates to events,
is to expose ourselves to the mystifications of inferior
spirits, who predict what they wish without concern-
ing themselves about the truth of it, and amuse them-
selves with the frights and deceptions they cause.
The most probable predictions are those which have
a character of general and humanitarian utility. One
can count upon others only when they are accom-
plished. One can, according to circumstances, accept
them as a warning; but it would be imprudent to act
prematurely in view of their realization at a fixed
day. One can be certain that, the more circum-
stantial they are, the more suspicious one must be of
them.
17. The form generally enough employed till now
for predictions makes of them veritable enigmas,
often undecipherable. This mysterious and caba-
listic form, of which Nostradamus offers the most
complete type, gives to them a certain prestige to
the common eye, who attribute so much the more
value as they are the more incomprehensible. By
their ambiguity they lend themselves to very different
interpretations, in such a way that, according to the
sense attributed to certain allegorical words or those
418 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of convention, the manner of computing the calcula-
tion, oddly complicated with dates, with a little
patience one finds there nearly all that one desires.
Whatever it may be, one cannot deny that some are
of a serious character, and are confounded by their
truth. It is probable that this veiled form has had
some time its use, and even its necessity. To-day
circumstances are no more the same: the positivism
of the century would not accommodate itself to
Sibylline language.
Thus the predictions of our day affect no more
these strange forms. Those which the spirits give
have nothing mystical about them. They speak in
common language, as they did when living, because
they have not ceased to belong to humanity. They
predict to us future things, personal or general, as
this can be useful to us, according to the clearsight-
edness with which they are endowed, as counsellors
or friends would do. Their predictions are, then,
rather warnings, which take nothing away from the
free will, than predictions which, properly speaking,
would imply an absolute fatality. There is nearly
always also a motive assigned for their opinion, be-
cause they do not wish to annihilate man's reason
under a blind faith which permits them to appreciate
the justice of it.
18. Contemporaneous humanity has also its proph-
ets. More than one writer, poet, littérateur, histo-
rian, and philosopher has predicted in his writings
the future march of things which is realized around.
us to-day. This aptitude comes often, without doubt,
from a rectitude of judgment which deduces logical
consequences from the present; but often, also, it is
PROPHECIES IN THE LIGHT OF SPIRITISM.
419
the result of a special unconscious clairvoyance, or
of a strange inspiration. That which these men have
done in life, they can for a much stronger reason do,
and with more exactitude, in the spiritual state, when
the spiritual sight is no more obscured by matter.
-
-
PREDICTIONS OF THE GOSPELS.-NO ONE IS A PROPH-
ET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY. — DEATH AND PASSION
OF JESUS. — PERSECUTION OF THE APOSTLES. — IM-
PENITENT CITIES. - RUIN OF THE TEMPLE AND OF
JERUSALEM.-MALEDICTIONS ON THE PHARISEES.
"MY WORDS WILL NOT PASS AWAY." THE CORNER-
STONE. PARABLE OF THE VINE-DRESSERS WHO
WERE HOMICIDES. "ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEP-
HERD."-COMING OF ELIAS. ANNOUNCEMENT OF
THE COMFORTER. SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. -
SIGNS FORETOLD. - "YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGH-
TERS SHALL PROPHESY."- LAST JUDGMENT.
-
CHAPTER XVII.
-
M
1. No One is a Prophet in his own Country. ST.
MATTHEW, CHAP. XIII.
XIII. — 54. And when he was
come into his own country, he taught them in their
synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and
said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these
mighty works?
55. Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his
mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and
Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
56. And his sisters, are they not all with us?
Whence then hath this man all these things?
57. And they were offended in him. But Jesus
said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save
in his own country, and in his own house.
58. And he did not many mighty works there
because of their unbelief.
420
NO ONE A PROPHET IN HIS COUNTRY. 421
2. Jesus announced there a truth which has passed
into a proverb, which, from the beginning of time,
has been true as now, and to which one can still add,
"that no one is a prophet during life." In the pres-
ent acceptation of this maxim, it is understood to be
the credit which a man enjoys among his own people,
and among those in whose midst he lives, by the
confidence in his superior knowledge and intelli-
gence with which he inspires them. If there are
some exceptions, they are rare; and in all cases they
are never absolute. The principle of this truth is a
natural consequence of human weakness, and can be
explained thus: the habit of seeing them from in-
fancy up, in the common circumstances of life, estab-
lishes between men a sort of material equality which
makes one often refuse to recognize a moral superi-
ority in him of whom one has been the companion
and comrade, who has sprung from the same place,
and of whom one has seen the first weaknesses.
Pride suffers from the superiority which one is
obliged to submit to.
Whoever is educated above the common level is
always a butt for jealousy and envy. Those who
feel themselves unable to attain to his height must
perforce try to lower him by slander and calumny.
They cry out against him so much the louder as they
see themselves inferior to him, believing by so doing
to aggrandize themselves, and eclipse him, by the
noise they make. Such has been, and such will be,
the history of humanity as long as men will not com-
prehend their spiritual nature, and will not enlarge
their moral horizon. This is also a prejudice charac-
teristic of narrow-minded and common spirits, who
422
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
yield to all this in their selfishness. On the other
hand, they make generally of men whom they do not
know personally, only by their mind, an ideal which
increases by distance, time, and place. They nearly
despoil them of humanity. It seems to them that
they must not speak or feel like the rest of the
world, that their language and thoughts must con-
stantly be at the height of sublimity, without think-
ing that the mind cannot be incessantly strained and
in a perpetual state of excitability. In the daily
contact of private life they see too many men who
live for the greater part on the material plane, in
whom is nothing to distinguish them from the com-
mon herd. The man who lives on the material plane,
who impresses the senses, eclipses nearly always the
spiritual one, who interests the mind. From afar
one only sees the lightnings of genius; nearer, they
see the mind at rest. After death, the comparison
existing no more, the spiritual part of man alone is
left; and he appears so much the grander as the re-
membrance of the corporal man has been put farther
away. That is the reason why men, who have
marked their passage upon the earth by works of
real value, have been better appreciated after death
than in life. They have been judged with more im-
partiality, because, the envious and jealous having
disappeared, personal antagonisms exist no more.
Posterity is a disinterested judge, which appreci-
ates the work of the spirit, accepts it without blind
enthusiasm if it is good, rejects it without hatred
if it is bad. A separation from the individuality
who has produced it has taken place. Jesus suffered
the more from the consequences of this principle,
•
DEATH AND PASSION OF JESUS.
423
inherent in human nature, because he lived among
people who were very unenlightened, and among
men who lived wholly upon the material plane.
His compatriots saw in him only the son of the car-
penter, the brother of men as ignorant as themselves;
and they demanded why he could be superior to
them, and where he obtained the right to censure
them. Therefore, seeing his words had less power
over his own people, who despised him, than over
strangers, he went to preach among those who would
listen to him, and give him that sympathy which he
needed. One can judge somewhat of the feelings
which his relatives entertained of his actions by
reading the account where his mother, accompanied
by his brothers, came into an assembly where he was,
and tried to induce him to go home with them,
accusing him of being deranged in mind (St. Mark,
chap. iii., vers. 20, 21, and 31-35; "Gospel accord-
ing to Spiritism," chap. 14). Thus on one side.
priests and Pharisees accused Jesus of being influ-
enced by evil spirits, and on the other he was
accused of insanity by his nearest relatives. Is this
not the same treatment that Spiritists receive in our
day? and must they complain if they are not better
treated by their fellow-citizens than Jesus was?
That which was not astonishing among an ignorant
people two thousand years ago is more so now in this
nineteenth century of a more advanced civilization.
3. Death and Passion of Jesus. - ST. LUKE, CHAP.
IX. (After the cure of the lunatic.)-44. Let
these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son
of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.
424 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
45. But they understood not this saying, and it
was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and
they feared to ask him of that saying.
4. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XVI.-21. From that
time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples,
how that he must go into Jerusalem, and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and
be killed, and be raised again the third day.
5. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XVII.-21. Howbeit
this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
22. And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said
unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into
the hands of men.
6. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XX.-17. And Jesus
going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples
apart in the way, and said unto them,
18. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son
of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and
unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to
death,
19. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock,
and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third
day he shall rise again.
7. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XVIII.-31. Then he took
unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we
go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be
accomplished.
32. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles,
PERSECUTION OF THE APOSTLES.
425
and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spitted on:
33. And they shall scourge him, and put him to
death; and the third day he shall rise again.
34. And they understood none of these things:
and this saying was hid from them, neither knew
they the things which were spoken.
8. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXVI.-1. And it
came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these say-
ings, he said unto his disciples,
2. Ye know that after two days is the feast of the
passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be
crucified.
3. Then assembled together the chief priests, and
the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the
palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,
4. And consulted that they might take Jesus by
subtilty, and kill him.
5. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there.
be an uproar among the people.
9. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XIII.-31. The same day
there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him,
Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill
thee.
32. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that
fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day
and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be per-
fected.
10. Persecution of the Apostles. —ST. MATTHEW,
CHAP. X. — 17. But beware of men: for they will
426 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge
you in their synagogues;
18. And ye shall be brought before governors and
kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and
the Gentiles.
11. ST. JOHN, CHAP. XVI.1. These things
have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be
offended.
2. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea,
the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will
think that he doeth God service.
3. And these things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father, nor me.
4. But these things have I told you, that when the
time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of
them. And these things I said not unto you at the
beginning, because I was with you.
12. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XXI. — 16. And ye shall be
betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kins-
folks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause
to be put to death.
17. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's
sake.
18. But there shall not an hair of your head
perish.
19. In your patience possess ye your souls.
13. Martyrdom of St. Peter. - ST. JOHN, CHAP.
XXI.-18. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When
thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst
whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old,
RUIN OF TEMPLE AND OF JERUSALEM. 427
thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall
gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
19. This spake he, signifying by what death he
should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he saith unto him, Follow me.
14. Impenitent Cities. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
XI.-20. Then began he to upbraid the cities where-
in most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not:
21. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee,
Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were
done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and
ashes.
22. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for
you.
23. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto
heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the
mighty works, which had been done in thee, had
been done in Sodom, it would have remained until
this day.
24. But I say unto you, That it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judg-
ment, than for thee.
15. Ruin of the Temple and of Jerusalem. — ST.
MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIV.-1. And Jesus went out,
and departed from the temple: and his disciples
came to him for to show him the buildings of the
temple.
2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these
428 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be
left here one stone upon another, that shall not
be thrown down.
16. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XIX.-41. And when he
was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over
it,
42. Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at
least in this thy day, the things which belong unto
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass
thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44. And shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in
thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation.
17. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XIII. -33. Nevertheless, I
must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day fol-
lowing for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of
Jerusalem.
:
34. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the
prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee;
how often would I have gathered thy children to-
gether, as a hen doth gather her brood under her
wings, and ye would not!
35. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate :
and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until
the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord.
18. ST. LUKE, CHAP. XXI.-20. And when ye
JESUS GOING TO HIS CRUCIFIXION.
429
shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then
know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21. Then let them which are in Judæa flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of
it depart out; and let not them that are in the coun-
tries enter thereinto.
22. For these be the days of vengeance, that all
things which are written may be fulfilled.
23. But woe unto them that are with child, and to
them that give suck, in those days! for there shall
be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this
people.
:
24. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
19. Jesus going to his Crucifixion. -ST. LUKE,
CHAP. XXIII.-27. And there followed him a great
company of people, and of women, which also be-
wailed and lamented him.
28. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters
of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your-
selves, and for your children.
29. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which
they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs
that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
30. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains,
Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
31. For if they do these things in the green tree,
what shall be done in the dry?
20. The faculty of foretelling the future is one of
430 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
the attributes of the soul, and is explained by the
theory of foresight or prophecy. Jesus possessed it,
like all the other gifts of the soul, to an eminent
degree. He has then been able to foretell the
events which would follow his death, without in this
act doing any thing supernatural, since we have in-
stances of it in the most common conditions of life.
Rarely individuals announce with precision the mo-
ment of their death, because their soul, for the time
emancipated from the body, is like the man of the
mountain (chap. XVI., No. 1): it can see the road
passed over, and the end.
21. It must have been thus with Jesus, who, being
conscious of the mission which he came to fulfil,
knew that a violent death was the necessary conse-
quence of it. Spiritual sight, which was permanent
with him, as well as power to read thought, must
have shown him the circumstances and fatal time.
For the same reason he could foretell the ruin of the
Temple, that of Jerusalem, the misfortunes which
would overtake its inhabitants, and the dispersion of
the Jews, which admits not of a spiritual life inde-
pendent of matter, can render no account of foresight
that is the reason for denying it, attributing to
chance the authentic facts which are accomplished
under its eyes. It is remarkable that it recoils be-
fore the examination of all psychic phenomena which
are produced on all sides for fear, no doubt, of seeing
there the soul spring forth, and contradict their doc-
trine.
22. Denunciation of the Pharisees. —ST. MATTHEW,
CHAP. III.—7. Dut when he saw many of the Phari-
DENUNCIATION OF THE PHARISEES.
431
sees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto
them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come?
8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repent-
ance:
9. And think not to say within yourselves, We
have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you,
that God is able of these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham.
10. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of
the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
23. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIII.-13. But woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that
are entering to go in.
14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
crites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pre-
tence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive
the greater damnation.
15. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
crites! for ye compass sea and land to make one
proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-
fold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say,
Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing;
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple,
he is a debtor!
17. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the
gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18. And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is
432
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is
upon it, he is guilty.
19. Ye fools and blind for whether is greater, the
gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar,
sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21. And whoso shall swear by the temple, swear-
eth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22. And he that thall swear by heaven, sweareth
by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth
thereon.
23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
crites for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cum-
min, and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and
swallow a camel.
25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
crites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and
of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess.
26. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which
is within the cup and platter, that the outside of
them may be clean also.
27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
crites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
28. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous.
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity.
29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
MY WORDS WILL NOT PASS AWAY. 433
crites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30. And say, If we had been in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them
in the blood of the prophets.
31. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves,
that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets.
32. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can
ye escape the damnation of hell?
34. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets,
and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye
shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye
scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them
from city to city :
35. That upon you may come all the righteous
blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of right-
eous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Bara-
chias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
36. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall
come upon this generation.
24. My Words will not pass away. ST. MAT-
THEW, CHAP. XV.-12. Then came his disciples,
and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees
were offended, after they heard this saying?
13. But he answered and said, Every plant, which
my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted
up.
14. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall
fall into the ditch.
434
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
25. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIV.-35. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away.
26. The words of Jesus will not pass away, because
they will be true always. His moral code will be
eternal, because that it contains conditions of well-
doing which conduct man to his eternal destiny.
But have his words been studied over, and purified
of all alloy and false interpretations? Have all the
Christian sects seized the spirit of them? Has no
one misconstrued the true sense of them in conse-
quence of prejudices and ignorance of the laws of
nature? Has no one made them an instrument of
power to serve ambition and material interests, a
stepping-stone, not for elevation to heaven, but for
earthly elevation? Have they not all been given for
a guide to the practice of the virtues which are made
the express conditions upon which salvation depends?
Are they not all exempt from the reproaches which
he addressed to the Pharisees of his time? In short,
are they not all, in theory and practice, the pure ex-
pression of his doctrine?
Truth, being one of them, cannot be found in con-
trary affirmations. Jesus has not desired to give a
double meaning to his words. If, then, the different
sects contradict one another, if some consider as true
that which others condemn as heresies, it is impossi-
ble that they are all right. If all had taken the true
sense of the evangelical teaching, they would have
taken the same ground of belief, and not formed dif
ferent sects. That which will not pass away is the
true sense of the words of Jesus; that which will
THE CORNER-STONE.
435
disappear is that false sense which men have built
upon his words. Jesus' mission being that of bring-
ing to men God's thoughts, his pure doctrine alone.
can be their expression; for that reason he has said,
"Every plant which my heavenly Father has not
planted will be destroyed."
27. The Corner-Stone. - ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
XXI.—42. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read
in the scriptures, The stone which the builders re-
jected, the same is become the head of the corner: this
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
43. Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of
God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be
broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will
grind him to powder.
45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had
heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of
them.
46. But when they sought to lay hands on him,
they feared the multitude, because they took him for
a prophet.
28. The teachings of Jesus have become the corner-
stone; that is to say, the stone which is the founda-
tion of the new edifice of faith, elevated upon the
ruins of the ancient one of old. The Jews, princes,
priests, Pharisees, having rejected this word, it has
crushed them, as it will crush those who since that
time have slighted it, or misconstrued the sense of it,
to aid ambition.
436
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
29. Parable of the Vine-Dressers who were Homi-
cides. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXI.-33. Hear an-
other parable: There was a certain householder,
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about,
and digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and
let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far coun-
try:
34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he
sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might
receive the fruits of it.
35. And the husbandmen took his servants, and
beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
36. Again, he sent other servants more than the
first and they did unto them likewise.
37. But last of all he sent unto them his son, say-
ing, They will reverence my son.
38. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they
said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us
kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
39. And they caught him, and cast him out of the
vineyard, and slew him.
40. When the lord therefore of the vineyard
cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
41. They say unto him, He will miserably destroy
those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits
in their seasons.
30. The Father is God; the vine which he has
planted is the law which he has established; the
vine-dressers, to whom he has rented his vine, are
the men who must teach and practise his law; the
servants, whom he sent to them, are the prophets
•
PARABLE OF THE VINE-DRESSERS.
437
whom they have killed; his son, whom he has at
length sent, is Jesus whom they have in like man-
ner destroyed. How, then, will the Lord treat the
prevaricating attorneys of his law? He will treat
them as they have acted towards his ambassadors;
he will fill their places with others, who will render
better account of his goodness, and of the conduct of
his flock. Thus has it been with the scribes, with
the princes, priests, and Pharisees; thus will it be
when he will come again to ask an account of each
one of that which he has made of his doctrine. He
will take away authority from him who may have
abused it; for he desires that justice be administered
in his vineyard according to his law.
After nineteen centuries of growth, humanity,
arrived at the virile age, is ripe to comprehend that
which Christ has only touched upon, because, as he
says himself, it could then not have been compre-
hended. What has been effected by those who
during this long period have been charged with its
religious education? To see indifference be sup-
planted by faith in it, and infidelity, or unbelief in
God, erect a faith upon it. At no other epoch, in-
deed, has scepticism and disbelief in God been more.
manifest than to-day. If a few of the sayings of
Christ have been veiled in allegory, in respect to all
that which concerns the rule of conduct, the connec-
tion of man with man, the moral principles of whom
he makes the express condition of salvation (“Spirit-
ism according to the Gospel," chap. 15), it is clear,
explicit, and without ambiguity.
What have men done with his maxims of charity,
of love, and of tolerance? with the exhortations he
438
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
has given his disciples to convert men by gentleness
and persuasion, by simplicity, humility, by unselfish-
ness, and all the virtues of which he has been the
example? The anathema and malediction have been
cast at men for acknowledging him as their Master.
They have been slain in the name of him who has
said, "All men are brothers." They have made a
jealous, cruel, vindictive, and partial God of him
whom he has proclaimed infinitely just, good, and
merciful. They have sacrificed to this God of peace
and of truth thousands more of victims at the stake,
by tortures and persecutions, than the pagans have
ever sacrificed to false gods. They have sold prayers
and favors from heaven in the name of him who
has chased those who sold from the Temple, and who
has said to his disciples, "Freely you have received,
freely give." What would Christ say to all this if he
lived among us to-day? if he saw his representatives
ambitious for the honors, the riches, the power and
pomp of the princes of this world, whilst he, more
kingly than the kings of the earth, made his entrée
into Jerusalem seated upon an ass? Would he not
do right if he said to them, "What have you made
of my teachings, you who worship the golden calf,
and address the greater part of your prayers to the
rich, and the meagre part to the poor? As I have
said to you, the last shall be first, and the first last, in
the kingdom of heaven." If it is not so carnally, it
is so spiritually; and, as the master of the parable,
he will come to demand an account of his vine-
dressers of the product of the vine when the harvest
shall come.
31. One Flock and One Shepherd.-ST. JOHN,
}
ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEPHERD.
439
CHAP. X. — 16. And other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and
one shepherd.
32. By these words Jesus announces clearly that
some day men will have only one religious belief.
But how can this unity be effected? The thing ap-
pears difficult, if one considers the differences which
exist between religions, the antagonism which exists.
between their respective adepts, their obstinacy in
believing themselves in exclusive possession of the
truth. All desire unity of faith; but all flatter
themselves that it will be made to their profit, and
no one understands how to make concessions to his
beliefs. However, unity will be in religion, as well
as in all social, political, and commercial affairs, by
the lowering of the barriers which separate nations,
by the assimilation of manners, laws, and language.
The nations of the entire world fraternize already,
like the provinces of the same empire. They hasten
this unity: they desire it. It will be done by the
force of things, because it will become a necessity
to tighten the bonds of fraternity between nations.
It will be done by the development of human rea-
son, which will make them comprehend the puerility
of these differences; by the progress of the sciences,
which demonstrates each day the material errors
upon which they lean, and detaches little by little.
the decayed stones of their foundations.
If science demolishes in religions that which is
the work of men, and the fruit of their ignorance of
the laws of nature, it cannot destroy, notwithstand-
440
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ing the opinion of some, that which is the work of
God and of eternal truth. By clearing away the acre-
tions of error it prepares the way for unity. In
order to arrive at unity, religions must meet upon a
neutral ground, however common to all. In order to
bring this about, all will have to make concessions
and sacrifices, more or less great, according to the
multiplicity of particular dogmas. But, by virtue of
the principle of immutability that they all possess,
the initiative concession should come from the official
camp. Instead of taking their starting-point from on
high, it will be taken below by the initiative indi-
vidual. It has been operating some time by a move-
ment of decentralization, which is tending towards
the acquisition of an irresistible force.
The prin-
ciple of immutability, which religions have hitherto
considered as an ægis, conservatrix, will become a
destructive element on account of the unchangeable
creeds. Whilst society marches ahead of them, they
will be overflowed, then absorbed in the current of
progressive ideas. Among the people who detach
themselves wholly or in part from the principal
churches, the number of which is constantly increas-
ing, if a few of them desire no other belief, the
immense majority who cannot be satisfied with no
place of worship desire something.
This something has not yet taken a definite form
in their thoughts; but they have a presentiment of
it. They lean to the same object by different roads;
and it is through them that the movement of con-
centration towards unity will commence. Judging
from the present state of opinion and knowledge, the
religion which must one day attract all men under
ONE FLOCK AND ONE SHEPHERD.
441
the same banner shall be that which will the best
satisfy the reason and legitimate aspirations of the
heart and mind; which shall not at any point con-
flict with positive science; which, instead of being
immovable, will follow humanity in its progressive
march without allowing itself ever to be outrun;
which shall be neither exclusive nor intolerant; which
shall be the emancipator of intelligence by admitting
only a reasonable faith, that of which the moral
code shall be the purest, the most rational, the most
in harmony with social needs; in short, that which is
the best adapted to found upon the earth the reign
of goodness by the practice of charity and universal
fraternity.
Among existing religions those which approach
nearest these normal conditions will have less con-
cessions to make. If one of them have all the re-
quirements necessary, it will naturally become the
pivot of the future unity. This unity will be formed
around that which will leave the least for reason to
desire, not by an official decision, -for one cannot
regulate the conscience, but by individual and vol-
untary adhesions. That which supports antagonisms
between religions is the idea that each one has its
particular god, and their pretension to having the
only true and most powerful one which is in constant
hostility with the gods of the other creeds, and occu-
pied in combating their influence. When they shall
have become convinced that there is only one God
in the universe, and that he is the same that they
adore under the names of Jehovah, Allah, or Deus;
when they shall be in accord upon his essential attri-
butes, they will comprehend that one Being alone
Makana
-
442
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
can have only one will; they will extend their hands
to him as servants of the same Master, and as chil-
dren of the same Father; and they will have made a
great stride towards unity.
33. Advent of Elias.-ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XVII.
—10. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then
say the scribes that Elias must first come?
11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias
truly shall first come, and restore all things.
12. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already,
and they knew him not, but have done unto him
whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son
of man suffer of them.
13. Then the disciples understood that he spake
unto them of John the Baptist.
""
34. Elias was already returned in the person of
John the Baptist ("Gospel according to Spiritism,'
chap. 4, No. 10). His new advent has been an-
nounced in an explicit manner. Now, as he can only
return in a new body, it is a formal consecration of
the principle of the plurality of existences ("Gospel
according to Spiritism," chap. 4).
35. Announcement of the Comforter. - ST. JOHN,
CHAP. XIV. (See "Gospel according to Spiritism,'
chap. 6.) — 15. If ye love me, keep my command-
ments.
16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you
for ever;
17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
>>
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMFORTER. 443
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you.
26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your re-
membrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
36. ST. JOHN, CHAP. XVI.-7. Nevertheless I tell
you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go
away for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto
you.
8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9. Of sin, because they believe not on me ;
10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father,
and ye see me no more;
11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world
is judged.
12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now.
13. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
14. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall show it unto you.
37. This prediction, without doubt, is one of the
most important, in a religious point of view, because it
verifies in the most conclusive manner that Jesus has
not said all that he had to say, because that he would
444
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
not have been comprehended even by his apostles,
since it is to them he addresses his words. If he
had given secret instructions to them, they would
have mentioned it in the Gospels. Since he has not
told every thing he knew to his disciples, their suc-
cessors have known no more than themselves of it.
They themselves have been able to misconstrue the
sense of his words, to give a false impression of his
ideas, often veiled under the parabolic form.
The religions founded upon the Gospels can then
not be said to be in possession of all the truth, since
the completion of them has been postponed to a sub-
sequent time. Their principle of immutability is a
protestation against even the words of Jesus. He
announces, under the name of "Comforter and
"Spirit of Truth," he who must teach all things
and make them recall that which he has said. Then
his teaching was not complete. Moreover, he pre-
dicted that they, will have forgotten that which he
has said, and that they will have altered the nature
of it, since the Spirit of Truth must make them recall
it, and in concert with Elias re-establish all things;
that is to say, according to the true idea of Jesus.
38. When ought this new revelator to come? It
is very evident, that, if at the epoch where Jesus.
spoke, men were not in a state to comprehend the
things which remained for him to say, in a few
years they could acquire the necessary light. For
intelligence in regard to certain parts of the gospel,
with the exception of its moral precepts, a knowl-
edge which progress in the sciences alone could give
was necessary, which must be a work of time and
of many generations. If, then, the new Messiah had
7
""
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMFORTER.
445
come shortly after Christ, he would not have found.
the ground prepared for him, and he would not have
accomplished more than Christ.
Now, from the time of Christ to our day, no one
great revelation has been produced which might have
completed the knowledge of the gospel, and which
might have elucidated the obscure parts of it, -a
certain indication that the messenger had not yet
appeared.
39. Who must this messenger have been? By
Jesus saying, "I will pray my Father, and he will
send to you another Comforter," indicates clearly
that it is not himself: otherwise he would have
said, "I will return to complete that which I have
taught you." Then he adds, "That he may abide
with you forever, and be in you." The latter would
not grasp the idea of an incarnated being who can
live eternally with us, and still less be in us, but is
comprehended very well of a doctrine which, when
it has been assimilated, can be eternally in us. The
Comforter is, then, in the thought of Jesus, the per-
sonification of a sovereignly consoling doctrine, of
which the inspiring Spirit is truth.
40. Spiritism realizes, as has been demonstrated
(chap. I.), all the conditions of the Comforter
promised by Jesus. It is not an individual doc-
trine, a human conception. No one can tell the
creator of it. It is the product of the collective
teachings of the spirits, at which presides the Spirit
of Truth. It expresses nothing of the truth: it
completes and elucidates it. By the aid of the new
laws that it reveals, joined to that of science, it ena-
bles us to comprehend that which was unintelligible,
446
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
to admit the possibility of that which infidelity re-
garded as inadmissible. It has had its prophets and
harbingers, who have predicted its coming. By its
moralizing power it is preparing for the reign of
goodness upon the earth. The doctrine of Moses, in-
completed, has remained circumscribed to the Jewish
people. That of Jesus, more complete, has been
spread over all the earth by Christianity, but has not
converted the whole world. Spiritism, more com-
plete still, having roots over all the earth, will con-
vert all.1
41. Christ's saying to the apostles, "Another will
come later, who will teach you that which I cannot
tell you now," proclaimed by that the necessity of
re-incarnation. How could these men profit, then,
by the more complete teaching which must be given
subsequently? how would they be more apt to com-
prehend it if they were not to live again? Jesus.
would have said an inconsistent thing if the future
men were, according to the common doctrine, to be
new men, of souls which arose from nothingness to
birth. Admit, to the contrary, that the apostles, and
the men of their time, have lived since, that they
still live again to-day, the promise of Jesus is found
justified. Their intelligence, which must have been
developed by contact with social progress, can bear
now that which it could not then. With re-incarna-
tion the promise of Jesus would have been an illu-
sory one.
1 All philosophical and religious doctrines bear the name of the
individual founder. They say, the Mosaic, Christianity, Mohamme-
danism, Buddhism, etc. The word Spiritism, to the contrary, recalls
no personality: it encloses a general idea, which indicates at the
same time the character and multiple source of the doctrine.
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
447
42. If they say that this promise was realized on
the day of Pentecost by the descent of the Holy
Spirit, one would reply that the Holy Spirit has been
able to inspire them, that he has opened their intel-
ligence, developed in them medianimic aptitudes
which were to facilitate their mission; but as nothing
more, other than that Jesus had taught them, has
been given to them, one can find no trace of a spe-
cial teaching. The Holy Spirit has, then, not real-
ized that which Jesus announced as the Comforter:
otherwise the apostles would have elucidated, while
living, all which has remained obscure in the Gospels
to this day, and the contradictory interpretation of
which has given rise to innumerable sects, which
have been divided, in regard to Christianity, since
the first century.
43. Second Coming of Christ. ST. MATTHEW,
CHAP. XVI. — 24. Then said Jesus unto his disci-
ples, If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it.
26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul?
27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of
his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward
every man according to his works.
28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing
here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the
Son of man coming in his kingdom.
448 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
44. ST. MARK, CHAP. XIV. 60. And the high
priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying,
Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these
witness against thee?
61. But he held his peace, and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him,
Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
62. And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the
Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven.
63. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith,
What need we any further witnesses?
45. Jesus announces his second coming; but he
does not say he will return with a carnal body,
neither that the Comforter will be personified in him.
He presents himself as coming in spirit, in the glory
of his Father, to judge the good and wicked, and
render to each one according to his works, when the
time shall be accomplished. This saying, "There
are some standing here who will not see death until
they have seen the Son of man come into his king-
dom," seems a contradiction, since it is certain that
he has not come during the life of any one of those
who were present. Jesus could not, however, be de-
ceived in a prophecy of this nature, and above all in
a contemporary fact which concerned him personally.
At first it is necessary to demaud if his words have
always been faithfully rendered. One can doubt it
when one thinks that he has written nothing him-
self; that a compilation of his teachings has not
been made until after his death. And, when one sees
the same discourse nearly always reproduced in dif-
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
449
ferent terms by each evangelist, it is an evident proof
that they are not the textual expressions of Jesus.
It is also probable that the sense has been some-
times altered in passing through successive transla-
tions. On the other hand, it is certain, that, if Jesus
had said all that he could have said, he would have
explained all things in a distinct and precise manner
which had not given place to any equivocation, as
he does it for moral principle; whilst he must have
veiled his thoughts upon subjects which he has not
judged proper to propose to them. The disciples,
persuaded that the present generation must be the
witness of that which he announced, must have
interpreted the thought of Jesus according to their
idea. They have been able, consequently, to draw
from it a more absolute sense of the present than he
has perhaps intended to convey himself. Whatever
it may be, the fact is there, which proves that the
circumstances have not happened as they have
believed they would.
46. A capital point which Jesus has not been able
to develop, because that men of his time were not.
sufficiently prepared for this order of ideas and its
consequences, but of which he has, however, based
the principle, as he has done for all things: this is
the great and important law of re-incarnation. This
law, studied and brought to the light of day by Spir-
itism, is the key of many passages of the Gospel,
which without that would appear nonsensical.
It is in this law that one can find the rational
explanation of the above words by admitting them
as textual. Since they cannot be applied to any one
of the apostles, it is evident they refer to the future
450
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
reign of Christ; that is to say, in the time when his
doctrines, better comprehended, will be the universal
law. By telling them that some who were present
would see his coming, could not be understood in
the sense that he would inhabit the carnal body at
this epoch. But the Jews imagined they were to
see all that Jesus announced, and took his allegories
literally. Finally, a few of his predictions have been
accomplished in their time, such as the ruin of
Jerusalem, the misfortunes which followed it, and
the dispersion of the Jews; but he saw farther, and,
in speaking of the present, he makes constant allu-
sion to the future.
47. Precursory Signs. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
XXIV. — 6. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors
of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all
these things must come to pass, but the end is not
yet.
7. For nation shall rise against nation, and king-
dom against kingdom: and there shall be famines,
and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8. All these are the beginning of sorrow.
48. ST. MARK, CHAP. XIII.-12. Now the broth-
er shall betray the brother to death, and the father
the son; and children shall rise up against their par-
ents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
13. And ye shall be hated of all men for my
name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end,
the same shall be saved.
49. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIV. 15. When
ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
PRECURSORY SIGNS.
451
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy
place (whoso readeth, let him understand):
16. Then let them which be in Judæa flee into the
mountains:
17. Let him which is on the housetop not come
down to take any thing out of his house:
18. Neither let him which is in the field return
back to take his clothes.
19. And woe unto them that are with child, and
to them that give suck in those days!
20. But pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as
was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be.
22. And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened.
50. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIV. -37. But as
the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be.
38. For as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the
ark.
51. ST. MARK, CHAP. XIII. - 32. But of that
day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father.
52. ST. JOHN, CHAP. XVI.—20. Verily, verily, I
452
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but
the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful,
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
:
21. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow,
because her hour is come: but as soon as she is de-
livered of the child, she remembereth no more the
anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
22. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will
see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your
joy no man taketh from you.
53. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. XXIV.-11. And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive
many.
12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold.
13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the
same shall be saved.
14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations; and then shall the end come.
54. This picture of the end of time is evidently
allegorical, as the greater part of them are which
Jesus presented. The images which they contain
are colored in a way to make a deep impression
upon intelligences corroded with sin and ignorance.
In order to strike these clouded spirits, it was neces-
sary to paint vigorously with glaring colors. Jesus
addressed himself particularly to the people who
were the least enlightened, those incapable of com-
prehending metaphysical abstractions, and of seiz-
ing the delicacy of forms. In order to reach the
PRECURSORY SIGNS.
453
heart it was necessary to speak to the eyes by the
aid of material signs, and to the ears by the vigor of
language.
As a natural consequence of this disposition of
mind, supreme power could not, according to the
belief then, manifest itself only by extraordinary
or supernatural things. The more impossible they
were, the more ready were they to accept them. The
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with
great majesty, surrounded by his angels, and with the
sound of trumpets, seemed to them much more im-
posing than a being invested with moral power alone.
So the Jews, who expected the Messiah to be a king
of the earth, mighty above all kings, to place their
nation in the first rank among them, to raise up
again the throne of David and Solomon, would not
recognize him in the humble son of the carpenter
without material authority, treated as insane by
some, and as a tool of Satan by others. They could
not comprehend how a king could be without a
place to lay his head, and whose kingdom was not
of this world. However, this poor, despised man of
Judæa has become the greatest among the great..
He has conquered by his sovereignty more kingdoms
than the most powerful potentates. With his word
alone, and with the aid of a few miserable fishermen,
he has revolutionized the world; and it is to him that
the Jews will owe their rehabilitation.
55. Allow us to observe, that, among the ancients,
earthquakes and the obscurement of the sun were
necessary symbols of all events and all sinister pre-
sages. One finds them at the death of Jesus, of Cæsar,
and as occurring a multitude of times in the history
454 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
of paganism. If these phenomena were produced
as often as has been related, it would appear impos-
sible that men had not preserved the memory of them
by tradition. To this is added that of the stars
having fallen from heaven, which is evidently a fic-
tion, as one knows now stars cannot fall.
56. However, under these allegories are concealed
great truths. Firstly, it is the announcement of
calamities of all kinds, which will strike and deci-
mate humanity, calamities engendered by a great
contest between good and evil, faith and infidelity,
progressive and retrogressive ideas. Secondly, that
of the diffusion over all the earth of the gospel re-
established in its primitive purity. Then the reign
of goodness, which will be that of peace and univer-
sal fraternity, will arise from the code of evangelical
morals put in practice by all nations.
This will truly be the reign of Jesus, since he will
preside at its establishment, and men will live under
the ægis of his law, a reign of goodness; for, said
he, "after days of affliction will come days of joy."
57. When will these things be accomplished? “No
one knows," says Jesus, "not even the Son of man
but, when the moment shall have come, men will be
warned of it by precursory indications.
These signs will not take place in the sun or in the
stars, but in the social state, as well as in phenomena
which partake more largely of the moral quality than
the physical, which one can in part deduce from hist
allusions to it. It is very certain that this change
could not have been operated during the life of the
apostles: otherwise Jesus would not have been ignc-
rant of it. Moreover, such a transformation could
""
SONS AND DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY. 455
not take place in a few years. However, he speaks
to them as if they were to be witnesses of it. He
meant by it that they were to be reborn into life for
this epoch, and to work themselves at the transfor-
mation. Sometimes he speaks of the approaching
end of Jerusalem, and takes this fact as a point of
comparison for the future.
58. Is it the end of the world which Jesus an-
nounces by his second coming, and when he says,
"The end of the world will come when the gospel
shall have been preached over all the earth"? It is
not rational to suppose that God will destroy the
world precisely at the moment when it will enter
into the way of moral progress by the practice of
evangelical teachings. Nothing, moreover, in the
words of Christ indicates a universal destruction,
which, under such conditions, would not be justified.
The general practice of evangelical truths must lead
to an amelioration of the moral state of men, will
lead of itself to the reign of good, and will lead the
downfallen from the errors of his ways. He refers,
then, to the end of the old world, of the world gov-
erned by prejudices, pride, egotism, fanaticism, infi-
delity, cupidity, and all the bad passions to which
Christ alludes when he says, "The end will come
when this gospel shall have been preached over all
the earth;" but this will lead to a struggle from
which will proceed the evils which he predicts.
59. Your Sons and Daughters shall prophesy.
ACTS, CHAP. II.-17. And it shall come to pass in
the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit
upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams :
:
456
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
18. And on my servants and on my handmaidens
I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they
shall prophesy.
60. If one considers the present state of the moral
and physical world, the tendencies, aspirations, and
presentiments of the masses, the decadence of old
ideas which have struggled in vain for a century
against new ideas, one cannot doubt that a new
order of things is being prepared, and that the old
world is reaching its end. If now, by taking the
true sense of the allegorical form of certain of hist
pictures, and comparing them with the present state
of society and of the world, one cannot deny that
many of his predictions are receiving their accom-
plishment to-day: whence it is reasonable to conclude
that we are on the borders of the time announced,
which is confirmed at all points of the globe by the
spirits who manifest themselves.
61. Thus, as one has seen (chap. I.), the advent
of Spiritism, coinciding with other circumstances,
realizes one of the most important predictions of
Jesus by the influence which it must forcibly exer-
cise over ideas. It is, besides, clearly announced in
this passage of the Acts of the Apostles: "In the
latter days, saith the Lord, it shall come to pass.
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy." This is
an unmistakable announcement of the prevalence of
mediumship, which is revealed in our day in indi-
viduals of all ages, sexes, and conditions, and in con-
sequence of the universal manifestation of the spirits;
for without the spirits there would not be mediums.
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
457
2
This, it has been said, will arrive in the latter days.
Since it is not the end of the world, but its regenera-
tion, we must understand this prophecy to imply, the
last days of the moral world which is at an end
("Gospel according to Spiritism," chap. 21).
62. The Last Judgment.- ST. MATTHEW, CHAP.
XXV. ("Gospel according to Spiritism," chap. 15.)
31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory,
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit
upon the throne of his glory:
32. And before him shall be gathered all nations:
and he shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on the left.
34. Then shall the King say unto them on his
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world:
35. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat:
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger,
and ye took me in:
36. Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye
visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee?
or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38. When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee
in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39. Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and
came unto thee?
40. And the King shall answer and say unto them,
458 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me.
41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink :
43. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked,
and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye
visited me not.
44. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not
minister unto thee?
45. Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of
the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46. And these shall go away into everlasting pun-
ishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
63. The reign of goodness being established upon
the earth, it is necessary that spirits hardened in evil,
and those who would be able to bring trouble to it,
should be excluded. God has given them the neces-
sary time for their amelioration; but the moment
when the globe must elevate itself into the hierarchy
of worlds, by the moral progress of its inhabitants
being arrived, the sojourn, as spirits and incarnated
beings, will be forbidden those who shall not have
profited by the instructions which they have been
receiving in the same. They will be exiled into in-
ferior worlds, as were formerly those of the Adamic
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
459.
race upon our earth, whilst their places will be filled
by better spirits. It is this separation at which Jesus
will preside, which is represented by these words of
the last judgment: The good will be on my right
hand and the wicked on my left (chap. XI., No. 31
and following).
64. The doctrine of a last judgment, unique and
universal, putting an end to humanity, conflicts with
reason in this sense: that it would imply the inac-
tivity of God during the eternity which has preceded
the creation of the earth, and the eternity which
will follow its destruction. One would naturally
demand of what use the sun, the moon, and stars
would be, which, according to Genesis, have been
made for the illumination of this earth. One is as-
tonished that a work so immense should have been
made for such a short space of time, and for the
profit of beings of whom the greater part were con-
demned in advance to eternal suffering.
65. Materially speaking, the idea of a unique
judgment was, to a certain point, admissible to those
who sought not the reason of things, when they
believed all humanity concentrated upon this earth,
and that the whole universe was made for its inhab-
itants. It is inadmissible since it is known there
are millions of similar worlds in which humanity is
perpetuated during all eternity, and among which
the world is an imperceptible point. One sees by
this fact alone that Jesus was right in saying to his
disciples, "There are many things which I cannot.
tell you, for you would not comprehend them ; for
the progress of science was indispensable to the
healthy interpretation of some of his words. Assur-
""
460
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
edly the disciples, St. Paul and the first of them,
would have established otherwise certain dogmas if
they had known the principles of astronomy, geol-
ogy, physics, chemistry, physiology, and psychology,
which are known to-day. Thus Jesus has postponed
the complement of his instructions, and announced
that all things were to be re-established.
66. Morally speaking, a positive judgment to
which there is no appeal is irreconcilable with the
infinite goodness of the Creator, whom Jesus con-
stantly presents to us as a good Father, leaving
always a way open for repentance, and ready ever to
extend his arms to the prodigal son. If Jesus had
understood the judgment in this sense, he would
have contradicted his own words. Then, if the last
judgment must surprise men suddenly in the midst
of their ordinary work, and mothers at the point of
child-birth, one asks what object God has in it. He
who does nothing uselessly or unjustly, why should
he cause children to be born and create new souls at
this supreme moment of the extermination of hu-
manity, in order to make them pass into judgment
from their mothers' bosoms before they were con-
scious beings, while others have had thousands of
years to acknowledge him? On which side, right or
left, will pass these souls who are not yet either
good or bad, and to whom the way of all subsequent
progress is henceforth closed, since humanity will
exist no longer? (chap. II.)
Let those whose reason is contented with similar
beliefs preserve them. It is their right, and no one
should blame them; but let them not expect the rest
of the world to join them in their belief. The judg-
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
461
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ment looked at in the emigration point of view is
rational. It is founded upon the most rigorous jus-
tice, as it leaves eternally to the spirit its free will,
as by it no partiality is shown to any one, as an
equal latitude is given by God to all his creatures,
without exception to progress; for the door of
heaven is always open for those who are worthy of
entering therein: but the annihilation of the world
would comprise only the destruction of the body, and
would bring no interruption to the progressive
march of the spirit. Such is the consequence of plu-
rality of worlds and of existences. According to
this interpretation, the name "last judgment" is
not correct, since spirits pass by similar spheres to
each renewal of worlds which they inhabit, until
they have attained a certain degree of perfection.
There is then, properly speaking, not a last judg-
ment; but there are general judgments at all the
epochs of partial or total renewal of the population
of worlds, in consequence of which great emigra-
tions and immigrations of spirits are brought about.
C
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TIME HAS ARRIVED. SIGNS OF THE TIME.
THE NEW GENERATION.
P –
1. Signs of the Time. The time appointed by
God has arrived, is said to us on all sides, where
great events have been accomplished for the regen-
eration of humanity. In what sense is it necessary
to understand these prophetic words? To the in-
fidel they are of no importance; to their eyes, it is
only the expression of a puerile belief without foun-
dation for the greater number of the believing,
they have something mysterious and supernatural,
which seems to be the harbinger of the overturning
of the laws of nature. These two interpretations
are equally erroneus, the first, in that which implies
a denial of Providence; the second, in that these
words announce no perturbation of the laws of na-
ture, but their accomplishment.
:
2. All is harmony in creation. All reveals a fore-
sight, the effects of which are wanting neither in the
smallest nor largest of God's works. We must then,
firstly, discard irreconcilable caprice with the divine
wisdom. Secondly, if our epoch is marked for the
accomplishment of certain things, it is because there
is a reason for their accomplishment in the onward
march of all things. Our globe, like all which exists,
462
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
463
is submitted to the law of progress. It progresses
physically by the transformation of the elements
which compose it, and morally by the purification of
the embodied and disembodied spirits who people it.
The progress of the two is a parallel one; for the
habitation becomes perfected according to the degree
of perfection of its inhabitant. Physically, the globe
has been submitted to transformations, ascertained
by science, which have successively rendered it habit-
able for beings more and more perfected; morally,
humanity progresses by the development of intelli-
gence of the moral sense and gentleness of manners.
At the same time, as the amelioration of the globe
has been accomplished under the empire of material
forces, men have concurred in it by the efforts of
their intelligence. They have learned how to make
unwholesome localities healthy, rendering communi-
cations with one another easier, and the soil more
productive.
This double progress is accomplished in two ways,
-one slow, gradual, and insensible; the other by
sudden changes, to each one of which has been oper-
ated a more rapid upper movement, which mark in
distinct characters the progressive periods of human-
ity. These movements, subordinate in details to the
free will of man, are in a measure necessary or inev-
itable in their relation to the whole, because they are
submitted to laws like those operated in the germina-
tion, growth, and maturity of plants; whereas the
object of humanity is progress, notwithstanding the
tardy march of some individualities. This is why
the progressive movement is sometimes partial,
that is to say, limited to a race or one nation, at
other times general.
464 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
The progress of humanity is effected then by vir-
tue of a law. Now, as all laws of nature are the
eternal work of wisdom and divine prescience, all
which is the effect of these laws is the result of the
will of God, not of an accidental, capricious will,
but of an immutable one. Then, when humanity is
ripe to take a higher degree in progression, one can
say that the time appointed by God has arrived, as
one speaks of the harvest season as having arrived
with the maturity of its fruit.
3. While this progressive movement of humanity
is inevitable, because it is natural, it does not follow
that God is indifferent to it, and that, after having
established laws, he is now in an inactive state, leav-
ing things to take care of themselves. His laws are
eternal and immutable without doubt, but only be-
cause his will itself is eternal and constant, and
that his thought animates constantly all things. His
thought which penetrates all things is the intelligent
and permanent force which keeps all in harmony. If
this thought should one moment cease to act, the uni-
verse would be like a clock without a pendulum.
God watches, then, incessantly over the execution of
his laws; and the spirits who people space are his
ministers charged with the details according to the
unfoldment of their functions in their degree of ad-
vancement.
M
4. The universe is at the same time an incommen-
surable mechanism, conducted by a number no less
incommensurable of intelligences, an immense gov-
ernment, where every intelligent being has his active
part assigned him under the eye of the Sovereign
Master, whose unique will maintains unity every-
-
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
465
where. Under the empire of this vast regulating
power, all moves, all operates in perfect order. That
which seems like perturbations to us are biassed and
isolated movements, which appear irregular only
because our sight is circumscribed. If our vision
could embrace the whole, we would see that these
irregularities are only apparent, and that they har-
monize with all.
5. The foresight of the progressive movements of
humanity has nothing surprising in it to demateri-
alized beings who see the end towards which all
things tend, some of whom possess the thought di-
rect from God, and who judge by partial movements
the length of time which will be necessary for a gen-
eral one, as one judges in advance the time required
for a tree to bear fruit, and as the astronomers calcu-
late the epoch of an astronomical phenomenon by the
time necessary for a star to accomplish its revolution.
6. But all those who announce these phenomena,
the authors of almanacs who predict eclipses and facts
in relation to the tides, are not certainly in a state
to make by themselves the necessary calculations:
they are only echoes, like secondary spirits, whose
sight is limited, and who repeat only that which
superior beings have pleased to reveal to them.
Humanity has already accomplished incontestable
progress. Men by their intelligence have attained
to a knowledge of the sciences, arts, and material
comforts never reached before. An immense prog-
ress still remains for them to realize, which is to
make charity, fraternity, and union reign among them
in order to assure to them their moral well-being.
They could never accomplish this progress with
S
466 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
their present beliefs, their superannuated institu-
tions, which are remains of another age, good for a
certain epoch, sufficient for a transitory state, but
which, having given all that it has to give, would
only be a hinderance now, as a child is stimulated
by moving powers which lose their power at a ripe
age. It is not only the development of intelligence
which is necessary to men, it is the elevation of
sentiment; and for that reason it is necessary to de-
stroy all that which excites in them undue egotism.
or pride. Such is the period upon which they are
entering, and which will mark one of the most im-
portant phases of humanity.
This phase, which is being elaborated at this mo-
ment, is the necessary complement of the preceding
state, as the manly age is that of youth. It could
then be foreseen and predicted in advance, and thus
they say that the times appointed by God have come.
7. In these times a partial change is not being
enacted, a renovation limited to one country, to one
people or nation, or one race. It is a universal move-
ment which is operating in moral progress. A new
order of things is being established, and the men
the most opposed to it are in their ignorance work-
ing for it. The future generation, disembarrassed of
the dross of the old world, and formed of purer ele-
ments, will find itself animated with ideas and senti-
ments entirely different from the present one, which
is passing away with gigantic strides. The old
world will die, and live in history, as that of the
Middle Ages, with its barbarous customs, is remem-
bered in the present. Each one knows that we all
desire something different from the present order of
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
467
things. After having exhausted in some respects
the good which is the product of intelligence, one
comes to comprehend that the complement of this
well-being can be only in moral development. The
more one advances, the more one feels that which is
wanting, without, however, being able to define it
clearly. It is the effect of the interior work which is
being effected for regeneration. We have desires
and aspirations which are the prelude to a better
condition.
8. But a change as radical as that which is being
elaborated cannot be accomplished without commo-
tion. There will be an inevitable conflict in ideas.
From this conflict will forcibly arise temporary per-
turbations, until the rubbish be cleared away, and
the equilibrium be established. It is, then, from a
battle of ideas that these grave events will arise,
and not from inundations, or purely material catas-
trophes. The general inundations were the conse-
quence of the state of formation of the earth. Now it
is no more the centre of the globe which is agitated,
but that of humanity at large.
9. Humanity is a collective being, in whom is oper-
ated the same moral revolutions as in each individual
being, with this difference: one is accomplished from
year to year, the other from century to century. Let
one follow it in its evolutions through time, and one
will see the life of the diverse races marked by peri-
ods which give to each epoch a particular physiog-
nomy. Beside partial movements, there is a general
movement, which gives impulsion to humanity en-
tire; but the progress of each part of the whole is
relative to its degree of advancement. For an exam-
468
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
ple, we will take a family composed of many children,
of whom the younger is in the cradle, and the elder
aged ten years. In ten years the elder will have
become twenty years of age and a man; and the
younger, ten, and, although more advanced, will still
be a child, but in his turn will become a man. Thus
is it with different fractions of humanity. The more
backward advance, but would not know how to attain
with one bound to the level of the more advanced.
10. Humanity is becoming adult. With new needs,
more elevated and larger aspirations, it comprehends
the emptiness of the ideas with which it has been fed,
the insufficiency of its institutions for its happiness.
It finds no more, in the existing state of things, the
legitimate satisfactions to which it has been called.
For this reason it shakes off its swaddling-clothes,
and bounds, aided by an irresistible force, towards
unknown shores to the discovery of new horizons less
limited. It is at this moment, when its material
sphere is too narrow for it, when the intellectual life
outruns it, when the sentiment of spirituality ex-
pands itself, that men calling themselves philosophers
hope to fill up the void left by belief in nothing be-
yond this life and in materialism. Strange aberra-
tion! These same men, who pretend to be pushing
on in advance, are striving to circumscribe the limits
of the narrow circle of matter from whence human-
ity aspires to extricate itself. They shut off the view
of the infinite life, and say to it, as they point to the
tomb, "There is nothing beyond."
11. The progressive march of humanity is operated
in two ways, the one gradual, slow, and insensible,
if one considers well the epochs which have drawn to
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
469
a close, which is expressed by successive ameliora-
tions in manners, laws, and customs, which do not
fully unfold themselves until after a long space of
time, like the changes which currents of water bring
to the face of the globe; the other, by movements
relatively sudden and rapid, similar to a torrent
breaking its barriers, which enables it to jump over
in a few years the time which it otherwise would
have taken centuries to go over. It is, then, a moral
inundation which ingulfs in a few instants the insti-
tutions of the past, and to which succeed a new order
of things which little by little become fixed by meas-
ure as tranquillity re-establishes itself, and becomes
positive. To him who lives long enough to embrace
the two sides of the new phase, it seems that a new
world is sprung from the ruins of the ancient one.
The character, manners, customs, all are changed. It
is true that new men, or, better still, regenerate ones,
have sprung up. The ideas swept away by the gen-
eration which is extinct have made place for new
ideas in the generation which is being educated. It
is one of those periods of transformation, or of moral
growth, which has reached humanity. From adoles-
cence it passes to the manly or virile age. Past ideas
cannot suffice for its new aspirations, for its new
needs. It can no more be led by the same means.
It pays no more for illusions and magical unrealities.
For its ripe reason something more substantial is
necessary. The present is too ephemeral. It feels
that its destiny is more vast, and that corporeal life
is too restrained to enclose it entirely. For this rea-
son it looks deeply into the past, and into the future
also, to discover the mystery of its existence, and
draw from it a consoling security.
470
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
12. Whoever has meditated upon Spiritism and
its consequences, and circumscribes it not to the pro-
duction of a few phenomena, comprehends that it
opens to humanity a new way, and unrolls to it infi-
nite horizons. By initiating it into the mysteries of
the invisible world, it shows to it its true rôle in crea-
tion, a perpetually active one, as well to the spiritual
state as to the corporeal one.
Man marches blindly
no more. He knows from whence he came, where he
is going, and why he is on the earth. The future
shows its reality to him, disencumbered of igno-
rance, prejudice, and superstition. It is no more a
vague hope. It is a palpable truth, as certain to him
as the succession of day and night. He knows that
his being is not limited to a few instants of an ephem-
eral existence; that the spiritual life is not inter-
rupted by death; that he has already lived, that he
will live again, and that of all he has acquired in
perfection by labor nothing has been lost. He finds
in his anterior existences the reason for that which
now is; and, by that which man is doing now, he can
conclude that which he will be some day. With the
idea that individual co-operation and activity in the
general work of civilization have been limited to
the present life, that one has been nothing and will
be nothing, gives to man no incentive for the present
or future. What matters it to him that in the future
man will be better governed, happier, more enlight-
ened, kinder to one another, since it bears no fruit
for him? Is not this progress lost upon him? What
good will it do him to work for posterity if he will
never be acquainted with it, if it is composed of
strangers who will, after a little, enter themselves into
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
471
nothingness? Under the empire of a denial of a
future for the individual, all forcibly shrinks to the
narrow proportions of the moment and of personality.
But, on the contrary, what amplitude is given to the
thought of man by a certainty of the perpetuity of
his spiritual being? What can be more rational,
grander, more worthy of the Creator, according to
which the spiritual and corporeal life are only two
modes of existence which alternate themselves for
the accomplishment of progress? What can be more
just, more consoling, than the idea of the same beings
progressing without ceasing, at first through genera-
tions on the same earth, afterwards from world to
world onward and upward to perfection, without
solution of continuity? All actions have, then, an
object; for, by working for all, one works for him-
self, and reciprocally. As long as individual or
general progress is never sterile in its results, it is
profitable to future generations and individuals, who
are none other than the past generations and indi-
vidualities arrived at a higher degree of advance-
ment.
13. Spiritual life is the normal and eternal life of
the spirit; and incarnation is only a temporary form
of its existence. Save the exterior vestment, then,
there is, then, identity between the embodied and dis-
embodied. These are the same individualities under
two different aspects, belonging sometimes to the
visible and sometimes to the invisible world, finding
themselves again either in one or in the other, con-
curring in both to the same end by means appropri-
ate to their situation. From this law flows that of
perpetuity of connection between created beings.
472 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
Death does not separate them, and does not put
an end to their sympathetic relations or reciprocal
duties, from whence springs solidarity of all beings
for each other, and each one for all; from which
also comes fraternity. Men will not live happily
upon the earth until these two sentiments shall have
entered into their hearts and in their manners; for
then they will conform to their laws and their insti-
tutions.
It is through these that the principal results of the
transformation will be accomplished. But how to
conciliate the duties of solidarity and fraternity with
the belief that death renders forever men strangers
to one another? By the law of the perpetuity of
connections which bind together all beings, Spiritism
founds this double principle upon the laws them-
selves of nature: it makes not only a duty of it, but
a necessity. By that of the plurality of existences,
man attatches himself to that which has been done,
and that which will be done, to men of the past and
those of the future. He can no more say that he
has nothing in common with the dead, since both
find each other again and again continually in this
world and the other, in order to climb the ladder of
progress together, and to lend mutual support to one
another. Fraternity is no more circumscribed to a
few individuals which chance assembles together
during the ephemeral duration of life. It is perpet-
ual as the life of the spirit, universal as humanity,
which constitutes a great family, of which all the
members are joined to one another at whatever
epoch they may have lived.
14. Such are the ideas which spring from Spiritism,
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
473
and which will be created in all men when it shall
be universally dispersed, comprehended, taught, and
practised. With Spiritism, fraternity is synonymous
with the charity preached by Christ. It is no more
a vain word: it has its purpose in life. From the
sentiment of fraternity is born that of the reciproca-
tion of the social duties from man to man, from
people to people, from race to race. From these two
sentiments, well comprehended, will spring neces-
sarily the most profitable institutions for the welfare
of man.
15. Fraternity must be the corner-stone of the new
social order. But there is no real, solid, and effective
fraternity if it has not been supported upon an un-
changeable base. This base is faith, not the faith
in such and such particular dogmas, which change
with time and people, and at which the stone is cast,
and in anathematizing it they sustain the antagonism
to it, but the faith in fundamental principles which
all the world can accept, — God, the soul, the future,
individual progress as well as indefinite, the perpe-
tuity of connection between individuals. When all
men shall be convinced that God is the same to all;
that this God, sovereignly just and good, can will no
injustice; that evil comes from men, and not from
him, they will regard themselves as children
of the same Father, and will extend to him the
hand.
Caddy
-
It is this faith which is given to Spiritism, and
which will henceforth be the pivot upon which hu-
man beings will move, whatever be their mode of
adoration and their particular beliefs, which Spirit-
ism respects, but with which it desires not to occupy
474
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
itself. From this faith alone can spring veritable
moral progress, because that it alone gives a logical
sanction to legitimate rights and duties. Without it
the right is that which strength gives, duty a hu-
man code, imposed by constraint. Without it, what
is man? A little matter, which is dissolved; an
ephemeral being, which is made only to pass away.
Genius, even, is but a spark which shines an instant,
only to be extinguished forever. There is no cer-
tainty of any thing which is revealed to his eyes.
In connection with such thoughts, where, really, are
the rights and duties?
What is the object of progress? This faith alone
makes man feel his dignity by the perpetuity and
progression of his being, -not in a paltry future,
circumscribed to personality, but one grand and
splendid. This thought elevates it above the earth.
It feels itself expand by thinking that it has its rôle
in the universe; that this universe is its domain,
which it will be able to pass over some day; and
that death will not annihilate it, or make of it a use-
less being to itself and others.
16. The vast proportion of intellectual progress
which has been accomplished is a great step, and
marks the first phase of humanity; but alone it is
impotent to regenerate it. So long as man will be
governed by pride and egotism he will use his in-
telligence and his knowledge for the profit of his
passions and personal interests. For this reason he
applies them to the perfection of means for injuring
others, and of destroying each the other. Moral
progress alone can assure the happiness of men upon
the earth by putting a rein upon their bad passions.
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
475
It alone can make harmony, peace, and fraternity
reign between them.
It is this which will break down the barriers
between them, which will destroy the prejudices of
caste, silence the antagonisms of sects, by teaching
men to regard themselves as brothers called to aid
one another, and not to live at the expense of one
another. It is moral progress, seconded by the prog-
ress of intelligence, which will lead men to one
belief established upon the eternal truths, not sub-
ject to discussion; and for this accepted by all. The
unity of belief will be the most powerful bond of
union, the most solid foundation for universal frater-
nity, which has alway been broken by religious an-
tagonisms, which divides people and families, which
makes one see in a neighbor a person to fly from,
-one to combat, exterminate, instead of a brother
whom we should love.
Madag
17. Such a state of things supposes a radical
change in the sentiment of the masses, a general
progress which could be accomplished only by depart-
ing from the circle of narrow ideas, and quitting the
ground which fosters pride. At different epochs
superior men have sought to lead men into this way;
but humanity, yet too young, has remained deaf,
and their teachings have been like good seed fallen
among stones. Now humanity is capable of looking
higher then it has done, in order to assimilate larger
ideas, and comprehend that which it had never be-
fore comprehended. This generation which will dis-
appear will carry with it its prejudices and errors;
the generation which is being educated has drunk at
a purer spring, is imbued with healthier ideas, will
476
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
impress on the world the ascensional movement by
way of moral progress, which must mark the new
phase of humanity.
18. This phase is already revealed by unmistak-
able signs, by attempts at useful reforms, by grand
and generous ideas which are brought to light, and
which commence to find echoes. Multitudes of pro-
tective, civilizing, and emancipating institutions are
founded under the management and by the introduc-
tory movement of men evidently predestined to the
work of regeneration; while each day the penal laws
seem to be impregnated with a more humane senti-
ment. The prejudices of race are weakened. Nations
commence to regard themselves as members of one
great family. By the uniformity and facility of the
means of transaction, they abolish the barriers which
divide them. In all parts of the world they unite in
universal assemblages for electing officers and pass-
ing laws, and for pacific interchange of sentiments.
But to these reforms a base is wanting to complete,
develop, and consolidate them, a more general
moral predisposition in order to bear fruit, and to be
accepted by the masses. It is no less a characteristic
sign of the time, the prelude of that which will be
accomplished upon a larger ladder by measure, as
the ground will become more propitious.
19. A sign no less characteristic of the period
upon which we enter is the evident re-action in
spiritualistic ideas. An instructive repulsion is mani-
fested against materialistic ideas. The spirit of un-
belief, which was carrying away the masses, ignorant
or enlightened, and had made them reject with the
form even the true basis of all faith, seems to have
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
477
been asleep, on the awakening from which one ex-
periences a need of breathing a more life-giving air.
Involuntarily, where the void has been made, one
seeks something, a support, a hope.
20. In this great regenerative movement, Spiritism
has a considerable rôle, not the ridiculous Spiritism
invented by a jesting critic, but the philosophical
Spiritism, such as whoever comprehends it must seek
the almond under its shell. By the proofs it brings
of fundamental truths, it fills the void which infi-
delity makes in ideas and beliefs; by the certitude
which it gives of a future conformed to the justice
of God, and which the most severe reason can admit,
it tempers the bitterness of life, and hinders the fatal
effects of despair; by making known new laws of
nature, it gives the key of hitherto unknown phe-
nomena and of insoluble problems, and kills at
the same time infidelity and superstition. To it
nothing is supernatural or miraculous: all is ac-
complished in the world by virtue of immutable
laws. Far from substituting one exclusivism for
another, it stands as an absolute champion of the
liberty of conscience; it combats bigotry under all
forms, and cuts it to the root by proclaiming salva-
tion for all good men, and the possibility for the
most imperfect of, by their efforts, expiation and
reparation, to that perfection which alone conducts
to supreme felicity.
Instead of discouraging the weak, it encourages
them by showing them the haven to which they
can attain. It does not say, "Outside of Spiritism
is no salvation," but with Christ, Outside of charity
is no salvation, no principal of union, no tolerance,
478
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
which will rally men round a common sentiment of
fraternity, instead of dividing them into sects in
enmity to each other. By this other principle,
there is no unchangeable faith than that which can
look reason face to face in all ages of humanity: it
destroys the empire of blind faith, which annihilates
reason by passive obedience which brutalizes; it
emancipates the intelligence of man, and elevates
his moral being. Consequently, it does not impose
itself upon any one: it tells that which it is, what it
wishes, and what it is, and waits for them to come
freely, voluntarily; it wishes to be accepted by the
reason, and not by force; it respects all sincere be-
liefs, and combats only infidelity, selfishness, pride
and hypocrisy, which are the plagues of society, and
the most serious obstacles to moral progress; but it
gives the anathema to no one, not even to its
enemies, because that it is convinced that the good
road is open to the most imperfect.
:
21. If one supposes the majority of men imbued
with these sentiments, one can easily figure the
changes it would bring in social relations, charity,
fraternity, kindness towards all, tolerance for all be-
liefs such will be their motto. It is the end towards
which humanity is evidently tending without being
very sure of the means of realizing them. It tries,
it counts the pulse, but is arrested by active resist-
ance, or the force of the inertia of the prejudices of
stationary beliefs which are opposed to progress.
These are resisting forces, which it must vanquish ;
and it will be the work of the new generation. If
one follows the present course of things, one will
recognize that all seems predestined to prepare the
SIGNS OF THE TIME
479
way for it. There will be the double power of
number and of ideas, and, moreover, the experience
of the past.
:
22. The new generation will march them to the
realization of all compatible humanitarian ideas with
the degree of advancement to which it will have.
reached. Spiritism marching towards the same end,
and realizing its views, they will meet each other on
the same ground. Men of progress will find in the
ideas of the Spiritists a powerful lever, and Spiritism
will find in men new minds entirely disposed to wel-
come it. With this state of things, what will those
do who would desire to place an obstacle in its way?
23. It is not Spiritism which creates social renova-
tion it is the maturity of humanity which makes this
renovation a necessity. By its moralizing power, by
its progressive tendencies, by the liberality of its
views, by the generality of the questions which it
embraces, Spiritism is, more than any other doctrine,
qualified to second the regenerative movement: for
that reason it is contemporary with it. It has come
at the moment when it could be useful; for it also is
the time arrived. Sooner, at an earlier date, it
would have encountered insurmountable obstacles.
It would have inevitably succumbed, because men,
satisfied with that which they had, had not experi-
enced a need for that which it brings. Now, born
with the movement of fermenting ideas, it finds the
earth prepared to receive it. Spirits, tired of doubt
and of incertitude, frightened by the gulf that opens
before them, welcome it as an anchor of salvation
and a supreme consolation.
24. By saying that all humanity is ripe for salva-
480
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
tion, we do not wish to convey the idea that all indi-
viduals are so in the same degree: but many have by
intuition the germ of new ideas, which circumstances
will bring to light; then they will show themselves
more advanced than they were supposed to be,
and they will eagerly follow the impulsion of the
majority. There are those, however, obstinately op-
posed, even among the most intelligent, and who
assuredly will never embrace it, at least in this exist-
ence, some of these in good faith by conviction,
others by interest.
Those whose material interests are joined to the
present state of things, and who are not advanced
enough to sacrifice them, to whom the general good
is of less account then their own, cannot see without
apprehension the least reformatory movement. Truth
is for them a secondary question, or, rather, truth for
certain people is in that which causes them no
trouble. All progressive ideas are to their eyes
subversive ones: for this reason they vow implaca-
ble hate to them, and make towards them inveterate
war. Too intelligent not to see in Spiritism an aux-
iliary of these ideas, and the elements of the trans-
formation which they dread, because they are not far
advanced enough to receive it, they force themselves
to combat it. If they judged it to be without value
or importance, they would not bother themselves
with it. Besides, as we have already said,
"The
greater an idea is, the more adversaries it encounters,
and the importance of it can be measured by the
violence of the attacks of which it is the object."
25. The number of those who have not joined our
ranks is still great without doubt; but what can they
THE NEW GENERATION.
481
#
do against the rising wave, except to throw a few
stones at it? This wave is the generation which is
being educated by it, whilst those who do not believe
will disappear with the generation which is rapidly
passing away. Until that they will defend every
step of the ground. There is then an inevitable
contest, but an unequal one; for it is that of a de-
crepit past, which falls into fragments against the
juvenile future; of stagnation against progress; of
the creature against the will of God,- for the times
appointed by him are come.
26. The New Generation. In order that man shall
be happy upon the earth, it is necessary that it be
peopled with good spirits in and out of the body who
desire only good. This time having arrived, a great
emigration is being accomplished at this moment
among those who inhabit it. Those who return
evil for evil, and in whom the desire to do right is
not felt, being unworthy of the transformed state of
the earth, will be banished from it, because they will
bring only trouble and confusion, and would be an
obstacle to progress. They will go to expiate their
hardness of heart, some into inferior worlds, others
with terrestrial races behind them in development,
which will be the equivalent of inferior worlds,
where they will carry their acquired knowledge, and
where it will be their mission to teach undeveloped
beings this knowledge. They will be replaced by
better spirits, who will make justice, peace, and fra-
1ernity rule among them.
The earth, according to the intelligence gained
from the spirits, must not be transformed by an
inundation which would suddenly annihilate a gen-
482
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
eration. The present generation will gradually dis-
appear, and the new one succeed in the same manner
without any thing having been changed in the natu-
ral order of things. All externally will pass along
as is usual, with this difference alone, which is an
important one, that a part of the spirits which are
incarnated here now will no more be incarnated
here.
The children who will then be born, instead of
being undeveloped and inclined to evil, will be more
advanced spirits inclined towards good. It acts then
much less upon a new corporeal generation than
upon the new generation of minds; whilst those who
will expect to see the transformation brought about
by supernatural or miraculous effects will be disap-
pointed.
27. The present epoch is a transition one; the
elements of the two generations are mingling to-
gether. Placed at the intermediary point, we assist
at the departure of one and at the arrival of the
other. Each one signalizes itself by its own proper
character. The two generations which follow each
other have views and ideas totally opposed to one.
another. By the nature of the moral disposition, but
more particularly by the intuitive and innate dispo-
sition, it is easy to distinguish to which of the two
each individual belongs.
The new generation, being the founder of the era
of moral progress, is distinguished generally by a
precocious intelligence and reasoning powers, joined
to the innate sentiment of goodness and of spiritu-
alistic beliefs, which is the unmistakable sign of a
certain degree of anterior advancement. It will not
THE NEW GENERATION.
483
→
be composed exclusively of eminently superior minds,
but of those who, having progressed already, are pre-
disposed to embrace all the progressive ideas, and
apt to second the regenerative movement.
That which distinguishes, on the contrary, unde-
veloped minds is, firstly, the revolt against God by
refusing to recognize any power superior to human-
ity; then the instinctive propensity to the degrading
passions, to the anti-fraternal sentiments of egotism,
of pride, of the attachment for all that which is ma-
terial. These are the vices of which the earth must
be purged by the removal of those who refuse to
amend, beause they are incompatible with the reign
of fraternity, and as good men will suffer always by
contact with them. When the earth shall have been
delivered from them, men will march without hin-
derance towards that better future which has been
reserved for them here below as the recompense for
their efforts and perseverance, looking forward to a
purification still more complete, which will open to
them the entrée to superior worlds.
28. By this emigration of spirits it is not necessary
to understand that all undeveloped spirits will be
expelled from the earth, and condemned to live in
inferior worlds. Many, on the contrary, will return
here, those who have yielded to temptation by the
force of circumstances and example; those who ap-
peared to be much worse than they really were.
Once delivered from the influence of matter, and
the prejudices of the corporeal world, the greater part
of them will see things in an entirely different light
than when living, as we have numerous examples of
it. In this they are aided by benevolent spirits who
484 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
are interested in them, and who try to enlighten
them by showing them the wrong in the way they
have pursued. By our prayers and exhortations we
can ourselves contribute to their amelioration, be-
cause there is a perpetual connection, an unbroken
chain, between the dead and living. The transfor-
mation is very simple, entirely a moral one, which is
according to the laws of nature.
29. Allowing that the spirits of the new genera-
tion are new ones, but better, more advanced than
the preceding ones, or ancient developed spirits,
the result is the same. From the instant that they
become inspired by better desires, the renovation
takes place. There are then two categories of in-
carnated spirits, which are formed according to their
natural dispositions, on one side those tardy in
progression who depart, and on the other the progres-
sive ones who arrive. The condition of society in a
nation or in the entire world will be according to the
preponderance which one of these two categories has
over the other. Let us suppose a nation, whatever
may be their degree of advancement, composed of
twenty millions of souls, the renovation being ac-
complished according to the measure of destruction
among them in isolated cases or en masse, there
necessarily comes a time when the production of
progressive spirits is less than those of the opposite
character, whom they count as rare representatives,
without influence, whose efforts for good and for
the predominance of progressive ideas are paralyzed.
After a time, as some take their departure and others.
arrive, the two forces become equalized, and their
influence becomes counterbalanced. Later the new-
THE NEW GENERATION.
485
comers are the majority, and their influence becomes
the stronger one, although still impeded by the oppo-
site influence. The latter, however, continuing to
diminish whilst the others multiply, at last disappear.
Then will come a time when the influence of the new
generation will be exclusive; but this cannot be
comprehended if one does not admit that there is a
spiritual life independent of the material one.
30. We are assisting at this transformation in the
conflict which is the result of the battle between
contrary ideas, which are seeking to implant them-
selves. One marches with the flag of the past, the
other with that of the future. If one examines the
present state of the world, one will recognize that,
taken as a whole, terrestrial humanity is still far
from the intermediary point where the forces are
balanced; that nations considered separately are at
a great distance from one another upon this ladder
of progress; that some have reached it, but that no
one of them has passed beyond it. Moreover, the
distance which separates them from the extreme
points is far from being equal in duration; and, once
the limit reached, the new route will be passed over
with so much the more rapidity, as a multitude of
circumstances will come to smooth the way.
Thus is accomplished the transformation of hu-
manity. Without emigration,- that is to say, with-
out the departure of spirits, who are not disposed to
progress, who must not return, or who must not
return until their moral condition is ameliorated, -
terrestrial humanity would not remain indefinitely
stationary, because the most undeveloped spirits
advance in their turn; but centuries, and perhaps
C
486
GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
thousands of years, would pass away before attaining
the same result that a half century could produce
by the first-named manner.
31. A common comparison will make this better
comprehended. Let us suppose a regiment composed
of a great majority of undisciplined and unruly men,
those who in constant disorder are brought to feel
the severity of the penal laws. These men are the
stronger, because they are the more numerous:
they are sustained, encouraged, and stimulated by
example. The few good ones among them are with-
out influence: their counsels are despised; they are
scoffed at, badly treated by the others, and suffer
from this contact. Is this not an emblem of society
at present? Let us suppose that these men are
withdrawn from this regiment one by one, ten by
ten, hundred by hundred, and that they are replaced
by an equal number of good soldiers, even by those
who have once been expelled from it, but who
have become seriously amended. At the end of
some greater or less period of time, there will be the
same regiment, but a transformed one: good order
will have succeeded to disorder. Thus will it be
with regenerated humanity.
32. The great collective departures have not alone.
for object the acceleration of the different departures,
but they also transform more rapidly the minds of
the masses by removing the bad influences from
the way, and by giving a greater ascendency to
new ideas, because many are ripe for this transfor-
mation, notwithstanding their imperfections, while
many depart to strengthen themselves at a purer
source. Should they haye remained in the same
SIGNS OF THE TIME.
487
midst and under the same influences, they would
have persisted in their opinions, and in their manner
of seeing things. A sojourn in the spirit-land suffices.
to open their eyes to the truth, because they see
there that which they could not see on earth. The
infidel, the fanatic, the absolutist, will then be en-
abled to return with innate ideas of faith, of toler-
ance, and of liberty. On their return they will find.
things changed, and will submit to the ascendency
of the new midst in which they will be born. In-
stead of making opposition to new ideas, they will
be helpers towards them.
33. The regeneration of humanity does not abso-
lutely require the complete renewal of the spirits.
A modification in their moral dispositions suffices.
This modification takes place with all those who are
predisposed to it when they shall have freed them-
selves from the pernicious influence of the world.
Those who return, then, are not always other spirits,
but often the same ones, thinking and feeling other-
wise.
When this amelioration is isolated and individual,
it passes unperceived, and is without ostensible in-
fluence upon the world. Entirely different is the
effect when it operates simultaneously over great
masses of people; for then, according to the propor-
tions of it in one generation, the ideas of a nation or
a race can be profoundly modified by it. This is
observed after great accidents which decimate a
population. The destructive scourges do not destroy
the spirit, but only the body: they accelerate the
coming-and-going movement between the corporeal
and spiritual world, and consequently the progressive
488 GENESIS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM.
movement of embodied and disembodied spirits. It
has been observed, at all historical epochs great social
crises have been followed by an era of progress.
34. It is one of these general movements which is
operating at this time, and which must lead to the
repairing of humanity. The multiplicity of the
means of destruction is a characteristic sign of
the times; for they must hasten the expansion of the
new germs. They are the leaves of autumn which
must fall, but to which will succeed new leaves full
of life; for humanity has its seasons, as individuals
have their ages. The dead leaves of humanity fall,
carried away by the tempestuous blasts of life, only
to be reborn with still greater strength, with the
same breath of life which is not annihilated, but pu-
rified.
35. To the materialist destructive scourges are
calamities without compensation, without useful re-
sults, since, according to him, "They go to that
bourne from whence no traveller returns." But for
him who knows that death destroys only the en-
velope, they have not the same consequences, and
cause not the least affright. He comprehends the
object of it, and knows that men lose no more by
dying together than separately, since, in one way
or another, it is necessary to arrive there. Infidels
will laugh at these things, and treat them as chi-
merical dreams; but, whatever they may say, they
cannot escape the common law. They will fall in
their turn like the others; and then what will occur?
They say nothing; but they will live in spite of
themselves, and be forced some day to open their
eyes to the truth.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY
#12
12 1473
MARIO 1973
JAN 17 1975
APR
APR
1980
DATE DUE

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