The Revue Spirite of 1861

Part 6

 
We continue in this issue the study of the Revue Spirite of 1861, a monthly newspaper focused on the divulgation of Spiritism, founded and directed by Allan Kardec. This study is based on the translation into the Portuguese language made by Julio Abreu Filho and published by EDICEL. The answers to the proposed issues are at the end of the text for reading.

Issues for discussion

A. How to define prayer?

B. Do pure Spirits have wings?

C. What is the perispirit?

Text for reading

92. Commenting on a letter received from Roustaing, Kardec considers him a serious Spiritist and praises the statement with which Roustaing ends his letter: "I am honored to emphatically and in public say that I am a Spiritist." (Pages 182 and 183)

93. The Revue transcribes a poem entitled "The Prayer," written by the Spirit of Joly, which defines prayer as "an impulse of love, of fluidic passion that escapes from the soul and rises to the Lord". (Pages 184 and 185)

94. "Prayer does not change the Law of the Eternal Father in any way," says Joly, "but the Father’s heart showers the one who pleads with His influx”. Kardec comments that God certainly does not reduce His Laws at our request; the prayer acts mainly on the one who prayers, leading him to repentance and to the desire to repair his errors. (Pages 185 and 186)

95. Commenting on the case of the Marquis de Saint-Paul, who before his death saw the world he was about to inhabit, Kardec says that the phenomenon of the early detachment of the soul is frequent: before dying many people see the world of the Spirits , and therefore their regret of leaving this world softens and fills them with hope. (P. 187)

96. In his last moments the Marquis, was thirsty and said: "He is thirsty," referring to the physical body that he could clearly distinguish from the thinking “I”, which is in the Spirit. (P. 188)

97. Evoked by Kardec, he declared himself to be in a transitory state, in which the human virtues acquire their true price. His condition was a thousand times preferable to that of the earthly incarnation, but his soul would be satisfied only when he could fly up to the feet of the Creator, our Father. (P. 188)

98. Kardec evokes the famous “Arithmetic calculator” and Pastor Henri Mondeux, an illiterate man who from the age of ten was noted for the prodigious ease with which he solved the most complicated questions of Arithmetic. (Pages 188 and 189)

99. Explaining his mission, which astonished the mathematicians, Mondeux says that his Spirit was prepared to see the numbers that other Spirits gave him; he was no more than a medium in giving his answers. (P. 191)

100. Mrs. Anais Gourdon, evoked at the request of her father and husband, says she is happy in the spiritual world. "Heaven does not frighten me", she says, "and I hope that the white wings will grow on me with confidence and love". Kardec, strangely aware of such ideas, claims that the wings of angels, archangels, and seraphim are an attribute imagined by men. (P. 192)

101. Pure spirits, however, may appear to men with this accessory to correspond to their imagination, as other Spirits take on the appearance they had on Earth to become known. (P. 192)

102. Kardec, in reporting on the death of Mr. Laferriere, says that if one were to make a statistic of the causes which lead to brain breakdowns, one would see that despair accounts for at least 80% of occurrences. (P. 194)

103. The press reported that Mr. Laferriere had religious feelings; however, these feelings did not stop him from giving in to despair; this might have been prevented if he had more knowledge about the future, such as those offered by Spiritism, which proves the real non-existence of death. (P. 194)

104. The suicide of Mr. Léon L ..., 25 years old, a bus driver, who did not bear the death of his wife, made a strong impression on the region where he was highly esteemed. He killed himself to join his wife, a mistake that would have been avoided if Leon had learned from Spiritism the fate of the suicides. (P. 195)

105. Kardec mentions a fact in which the communication of the husband's Spirit made his ex-wife drop her desire to revenge on the doctor, who she considered to be responsible for her husband’s death, due to malpractice. (Pages 195 and 196)

106. Erastus urges the Spiritists: "Go and preach the divine word". (P. 197)

107. In the same message, Erastus teaches how to recognize the Spiritists who are on the right path. (Pages 198 and 199)

108. One Spirit says that boredom does not affect those who live by the Spirit and whose faculties tend toward a certain goal. Boredom, he says, results only from the emptiness of the soul and the poorness of thought. (P. 199)

109. Lamennais says that the words lack color and form to express the perispirit and its nature, but one thing is certain: the perispirit is the material fluidic envelope of the soul. (P. 201)

110. The perispirit, says Lamennais, is for the Spirits the agent through whom they communicate with us, either indirectly or directly. (P. 202) (Continued on next issue).

Answers to the issues

A. How to define prayer?

In a poem called "A Prayer," Joly (Spirit) defines prayer as "an impulse of love, of fluidic passion that escapes from the soul and rises to the Lord". "Prayer does nothing to change the law of the Eternal Father," says Joly, "but the Father’s heart showers with His infusion the one who begs God". Kardec comments on the subject stating that God certainly does not derogate from His Laws at our request, but prayer acts primarily on the individual who prays, leading him to repentance and to the desire to repair his errors. (Revue Spirite, 1861, pages 184 to186).

B. Do pure Spirits have wings?

No. Commenting on a message from the Spirit of Anais Gourdon, evoked at the request of her father and husband, Kardec clarifies that the wings of angels, archangels, and seraphim are no more than an imagined attribute of men. Pure spirits can, however, appear to men with this accessory, to respond to their thinking, as other Spirits take on the appearance they had on Earth to become known. (Ibid, p. 192)

C. What is the perispirit?

Lamennais says that the words lack color and form to express the perispirit and its nature, but one thing is certain: the perispirit is the material fluidic envelope of the soul. The perispirit is for Spirits, says Lamennais, the agent through whom they communicate with us, either indirectly or directly. (Ibid, pages 201 and 202)