Eurípedes Kühl

Kardec: Defender of Spiritism  Part 2 - Final

On pages 179/183 of the Spiritist Magazine of 1862, you will find an article entitled "This is how they write History", with the subtitle "The Millions of Allan Kardec”. In it the Encoder answers a priest, who lives in a large commercial city (probably Lyon), who stated there was a fabulous fortune saved by Allan Kardec in his name due to Spiritism.

The priest foolishly said that Kardec, in his home, walked on the most beautiful carpets from Aubusson, had a carriage pulled by four horses and spent like a prince in Paris. (...) The priest reported that all of Kardec's fortune came to him from England (?) and that he sold the manuscripts of his works at a high price, and still charged over them a percentage. And he said many other absurd and foolish things. 

Answering this foolish story about the “millions”, Kardec said:

- carriage of four horses: my journeys, I make them by train;

- princely life: (...) my meals are much leaner than the leanest of certain dignitaries of the Church;
- sale of my manuscripts: this enters my private life, and nobody has the right to do this (…) if I sold what I write, I would be using the right that every worker has to sell the product of his work: but, I sold none: there are even those I gave only to some with the purest intention and in interest of the cause, and who may sell them as they wish, but I receive no money from this.

Answer given to an insignificant priest 

It also says:

- The first edition of "The Book of Spirits" was published at my own expense and full risk, because I did not find an editor who wanted to publish it;

- in the Spiritist Magazine of June/1863, you will find:

a. The words of a priest considering that nothing is more abject, more degrading, more empty of fundament and form than these (Spiritist) publications.

Then the priest goes on: destroy them, and you will lose nothing. With the money used in Lyon because of this nonsense, one could easily have set up some more places in the hospices for the insane, crowded after the invasion of Spiritism.

Kardec, firm and peacefully, gave a master reply:

Read, and if it behooves you, return to us; we will do more, we say: read the pro and the contra and compare them. We answer your attacks without fierceness, without animosity, without bitterness, because we have no anger in us.

b. The text of a retired former officer, a former representative of the people in the Constituent Assembly of 1848, who published in Algiers a brochure of slander, insults and personal offenses directed at Spiritism and the master of Lyon. About the Spiritist Magazine, he said:There is a monthly Spiritist magazine, published by Mr. Allan Kardec, an indigestible collection that far surpasses the wonderful legends of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages...

The slanderer tried to prove that the purpose of Spiritism was a gigantic speculation. To do so, he presented a series of absurd calculations, which resulted in a fabulous income for Kardec, leaving behind the "millions" with which a certain priest of Lyon (item above) had generously gratified him.

The works of Kardec in the Church Index

The mentioned officer - considering the absurd amounts received by Kardec – ended stating that: if Europe lets itself be taken by this, the fortune of the owner of the magazine Revue and sovereign pontiff will be in the order of billions and not millions.

Not letting himself be shaken by this, Kardec shows that there were only 429 francs and 40 cents left at the end of the annual balance of the Paris Society and that nothing was ever charged to anybody. And that, instead of the 3,000 members, they did not even reach 100, of which only a few paid (volunteers); and what was collected was administrated by an Expense Committee, and no amount ever passed through to the president (Kardec, himself).

c. In the Spiritist Magazine of June, 1864 there is the news that the Sacred Congregation of the Index, at the court of Rome, was focusing on the works of Kardec, on Spiritism. Kardec pointed out:

If one thing surprised the Spiritists was that such a decision had not been taken earlier, and that this measure of the Church, one of which I had already expected, would only have good results, and, according to the news received by Kardec, most bookstores rushed to give a greater publicity to the banned works;

d. In the Spiritist Magazine of 1869, reading in a newspaper the phrase "In France the ridicule always kills"; it makes several considerations about it and it ends:

In France, ridicule always kills what is ridiculous. This explains why ridicule, spilled in profusion on Spiritism, did not kill.

Kardec: "Spiritism was the work of my life"

There is much more, but space and importance itself do not advise it.

- And also, to present other nonsense… what for?

However, if any researcher wants to find out about the countless tribulations that Allan Kardec went through, being fiercely attacked by all sorts of slander, there are more records in different works.

Anyone who is careful to go through the Spiritist Magazine collection will be astonished at the many absurd and cruel attacks to Kardec, who answered in a courageous way and always based on the Doctrine, being above all wise and loving.

At one point in his life, he said, in the Spiritist Magazine of 1865, page 163:

(...) I never asked anyone for anything, no one ever gave me anything personally; not one collecting of money, nor a coin to supply my needs; in a word, I do not live at the expense of anyone, since, for the amounts voluntarily entrusted to me in the interest of Spiritism, no portion has been diverted to my advantage. (...) Spiritism was the work of my life. I gave it all my time, sacrificed my own sleep, my health, because before me the future was written in irrefutable characters. I did it myself, and my wife, who is neither more ambitious nor more interested than I, fully supported me in my objectives and stood for me in this laborious task.

Since Spiritism is a true compass for the evolutionary route of Humanity and beacon to dispel the mists of human limits, reminiscing the intransigent struggles and the intransigent defenses of the one who codified it, my heart, as well as my mind, will always be murmuring:
- Kardec, Kardec: God bless you!

Notes:

1^st  - Amelie Gabrielle Boudet (1795-1883), wife of Kardec, in the 40 years she was with Kardec, and even after her husband's death in the 14 years she was still incarnated, she courageously continued to support "the work of Spiritism" in all fronts of work, particularly in the publication of the Revue Spirite. (We, Spiritists of the whole world, owe her a lot!).

2^nd - Only as a brief record, see the barbarity perpetrated against the widow of Allan Kardec, when already very old: she had to face the storm of a lawsuit against the Spiritist Magazine, because Pierre-Gaëtan Leymarie (editor of the works of Kardec) accepted the work of a photographer, who claimed to produce transcendental photographs, that is, when photographing a person, disincarnated relatives and friends of the photographed appeared in the photo. The photographer made an agreement with the judge, and signed a confession of fraud, thus escaping from prison. Leymarie, however, was convicted and served a year in prison at the Paris Penitentiary. Intimidated as a witness, the old lady was disrespected by the judge, demeaning the memory of Allan Kardec, which provoked a lively reaction from the Encoder's widow, demanding respect for her husband's memory.