Paulo da Silva Neto Sobrinho

Phrase attributed to Kardec: “To be born, die, to be born again, and progress constantly, that is the law”

It is not uncommon to hear Spiritist speakers mention that Kardec is the author of that famous phrase. We have tried to find out from some of them which were their sources to this information they passed to the public, but we never had success. So our option was to make a thorough research on all the Encoder’s works to see if we could find something. But we found nothing about it. And we have no hope to find it one day.

Well, Jesus said that "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing hidden that will not become known" (Mt 10.26; Lk 12, 2). And today there was light and we finally found a book that mentions this sentence. It is the book Allan Kardec: the Educator and the Encoder, by Zeus Wantuil and Francisco Thiesen, published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. Since we are of the opinion that this work can certainly clarify the matter, and consequently, point out its origin, we decided to copy the following passage:

On the front edge of the stone weighing six tons, and which serves as the ceiling, there is the phrase that defines Kardec’s Doctrine, of justice and progress:
 

NAÎTRE, MOURIR, RENAÎTRE ENCORE

ET PROGRESSER SANS CESSE

TELLE EST LA LOI

This inscription was missing at the time of the opening, having been carved in 1870 (39). Jean Vartier, who wrote part of Kardec’s biography (40), informs that the phrase was modeled in Chapter IX of the first part of the book "Die Wahlverwandstschaften" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Vartier based himself on the French translation of Camille Selden, Elise Krinitz pseudonym, published in Paris, s.d., with a preface dated January 1872. In fact, in the mentioned translation - "Les affinités electives" - on page 78, there is reference to a house that had its foundations beginning. At the ceremony, a Mason, with the hammer in one hand and a spoon in the other, tried to say in a small speech that the building being raised would one day be destroyed, adding, “Born to die, die to reborn, that is the universal law. Men are subject to this, the strongest reason for their work”. 

Mr. Vartier with his quick and critical thinking should have studied the subject more thoroughly. He would have then discovered that in the original German there is the same phrase, as it is in French; that the French translation made with certain freedom by C. Selden, was published subsequently to January 1872, over a year after this maxim was engraved on Kardec’s dolmen; and that if there was plagiarism (as Mr. Vartier tried to imply), it came from the translator.

We do not believe, however, in plagiarism from anyone. The phrase in focus was in the air, it does not belong to Kardec as some claim, and it can be found with some variations in quotes much before Kardec’s death, for example, in the book "Clé de la Víe" by Louis Michel, organized by C. Sardou and L. Pradel, editors, Rue du Hassard, 9, Paris, dated August 1, 1857, page 570:

“Saturées de l'aimant divin, de l'amour divin, des provisions divines de toute nature, les âmes solaires, par cet aimant, par cel amour, par tous ces divers agents cêlestes. font naître, vivre, circuler, évolutionner, mûrir, se transformer, monter au chemin ascendant, leurs soleils et leurs planètes, et, par les âmes de ces dernières, font jouir des mêmes avantages la plus obscure image de Dieu elle-même, l'homme, restê, encore, en dehors de l'unité; dès qu'il consent à s'y prêter un peu”.

In a speech in the presence of Kardec, on 14 October 1861, at the General Meeting of Spiritists of Bordeaux, Mr. Sabo said verbatim:

“...pour aller à lui, il faut naître, mourir et renaître jusqu'à ce qu'on soit arrivé aux limites de la perfection...” (“Revue Spirite", 1861, p. 331.)

Let us also see these two sentences:

"Tout, tout, dan cette grande unité de la création, existe, naît, vit, fonctionne et meurt et renaît pour l'harmonie universelle".

“(...) il faut naître, mourir et renaître jusqu'à ce que l'on soit parvenu aux limites de la perfecion”.

They are found in “Les Quatre Évangiles”, J. B. Roustaing, Tome Premier, Paris, Librairie Centrale, 24, Boulevard des Italiens, 1866, pages 191 and 227, respectively.

We note that the phrase is substantially the same, in various forms, always, however, with the same sense, in 1857, 1861, 1866 and finally in 1870, when it was carved on the frontispiece of the dolmen of Kardec, in three lines:

NAÎTRE, MOURIR, RENAÎTRE ENCORE

ET PROGRESSER SANS CESSE

TELLE EST LA LOI

Was it due to all this that the Spirit Emmanuel did not attribute it to a particular human being, but to Spiritism? Indeed, he says, on the page entitled "Trouble with us," inserted in the book "Divine Justice" (FC Xavier, FEB 3rd edition, 1974, page 84):

"And Spiritism emphasizes:" To be born, live, die, to be born again and constantly progress, that is the Law". (italics are ours [the authors]).

______

 (39) “Speech pronounced at the anniversary of Allan Kardec’s death. Inauguration of the monument”, Paris, Spiritist Library, 1870, pages 7-8. To this work a print of Kardec’s dolmen was attached, “performed with the utmost care by Mr. Pegard, engraver, according to a drawing made by Mr. Sebille” (pages 11 and 12).

Pegard, a woodcutter of the French school authored the images of the "Dictionnaire d'architccture" by Viollet-le-Duc and those of “Histoire populaire, anecdotique et pittoresque de Napoléon”. (Apud E. Bénézit: “Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs”, new edition, 6^th, Gründ Library, 1996, page 571.)

(40) Jean Vartier: “ALLAN KARDEC, la naissance de Spiritisme”, Paris, Libraire Hachette, 1971, pages 150/151.

(WANTUIL, Z. and THIESEN, F. Allan Kardec: the Educator and the Encoder. Vol. II. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2004, p. 285-288, emphasis added).

Considering it opportune and answering a request from a friend, we copy the translation of the phrases in French, contained in the Revue Spirite and Les Quatre Evangiles, in order:

[...] To go to him, you must be born, die and be born again until you have reached the limits of perfection, [...] (Kardec, A. Spiritist Magazine 1861. Araras, SP: IDE 1993: 331).

Everything, everything, in the great unity of Creation, is born, exists, lives, works, dies and is reborn to the harmony of the universe, [...] (Roustaing, JB The four Gospels - revelation of revelation Vol 1. Rio de Janeiro..: FEB s / d., p. 323).

[...] To get to him, man would be born, die and be reborn until he reaches the limits of perfection. [...] (Roustaing, JB The four Gospels - revelation of revelation Vol 1. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, s.d. page 387).

It is clear, therefore, that the phrase is not even Kardec’s. Not placing ourselves above all others, we sincerely hope that the information hereby presented has contributed to the clarification of our speakers on the matter.

We thought the matter was already concluded; however, through information from a friend, a student of the Doctrine, we found something concrete in Leon Denis (1846-1927), in his work The problem of being, of fate and pain (Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 1989), from which we quote "'To be born, die, be born again, and progress always, this is the law", said Allan Kardec "(page 272, emphasis added) without ever mentioning from which work of the Encoder did he copy this. We recognize that, in fact, the phrase may well represent the thought of Kardec, but from what we saw in Wantuil and Thiesen, it was not said by him.

The lack of information can lead us to repeat something that the person never said, as for example, with Leon Denis himself. The following phrase is attributed to him: "The soul sleeps on the stone, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal and wakes up in man”. But Denis, in his aforementioned work, wrote: "In the plant, the intelligence rests; in the animal, it dreams; only in the man does it wake up". (page 123, emphasis added), which we must agree, it is not the same thing.

Therefore, we do not doubt that Leon Denis also assigned the phrase to Kardec using the same pattern that many Spiritist schollars are using regarding Denis himself. In fact, he was a follower of the Doctrine of the Spirits for only five years when Kardec died. Thus, he was still a new convert.