Appreciation of the book Genesis Paris, December 18th, 1867 – medium Mr. Desliens
This work is timely, in the sense that the doctrine is well posed today in the moral and religious relation. Whichever direction it takes now, it has precedents too ingrained in the hearts of its followers, for nobody to fear that it is deviating from its route.
What was most important to satisfy were the aspirations of the soul; it was to make up for the void left in souls by doubt, vacillating in their faith. This first mission is now accomplished. Spiritism is currently entering a new phase; to the attribute of consoler, it adds that of instructor and director of the mind, in science and philosophy as well as in morality. Charity, its unshakeable foundation, has made it the bond of tender souls; science, solidarity, progress, the liberal spirit will make it the link between strong souls. It conquered the friendly hearts with the weapons of meekness; virile today, it is to virile intelligences that it addresses himself. Materialists, positivists, all those who, for any reason whatsoever, have strayed from a spirituality whose imperfections their intelligence showed them, will find new food for their insatiability there. Science is their matron, but one discovery calls for another, and man ceaselessly advances with it, from desire to desire, never finding complete satisfaction. It is because the Spirit also has its needs; it is because the most atheistic soul has secret, unconfessed aspirations, and these aspirations claim their food.
Religion, antagonist of science, answered through mystery to all the questions of skeptical philosophy. It violated the laws of nature and tortured them at her whim, to extract a lame explanation of its teachings. You, on the contrary, you sacrifice to science; you accept all its teachings without exception, and you open horizons for science that it supposed to be impenetrable. Such will be the effect of this new work; it can only reassure the foundations of the Spiritist belief in the hearts that already possess it and will take a step forward towards unity with all dissidents, except, however, with those who are so by interest or self-esteem; these see it with spite, on its more and more unshakeable bases, that leaves them behind and pushes them back into the shadows. There was little or no common ground where one could meet them; today, materialism elbows you everywhere, because being on its ground, you will not be less at home, and materialism will not be able to help it but get to know the guests that the Spiritist philosophy brings to it. It is an instrument with a double effect: a shovel, a mine that still overturns some of the ruins of the past, and a trowel that builds for the future. The question of origin that relates to Genesis is a burning question for all; a book written on this subject must, therefore, interest all serious minds. With this book, as I said, Spiritism enters a new phase and this will prepare the way for the phase that will open later, because everything must come in its time. Anticipating the right moment is as bad as letting it slip away.
St. Louis
