Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1868

“We know that the Bible contains a host of passages relating to the principles of Spiritism; but how to find them in this labyrinth? This book should be read carefully, for which few people have the time and patience to do. In some even, mainly because of the most often figurative language, the Spiritist idea only appears clearly after reflection.

The author of this book did an in-depth study of the Bible, and the knowledge of Spiritism alone gave him the key to things that seemed inexplicable or unintelligible to him before. This is how he was able to learn with certainty about the psychological ideas of the ancient Hebrews, a point on which commentators disagreed. We must therefore be grateful to him for bringing these passages to light, in a succinct summary, and thus having spared the reader long and tedious research. To the quotations, he adds comments necessary for the understanding of the text, revealing the enlightened Spiritist, but not fanatic for his ideas, seeing Spiritism everywhere.

The author's name indicates that he is not French; he says in his preface that he Polish, and he explains under which circumstances he was brought to Spiritism, and the moral assistance he drew from this doctrine. Although a foreigner, he writes in French, like most people of the North, mainly the Poles and Russians, with perfect purity; his book is written with clarity, that is a great merit in philosophical matters, because nothing is less suitable for the popularization of the ideas that an author wants to propagate, than those books whose tiresome reading gives you a headache, and whose proposals are a series of indecipherable puzzles to the common reader.

In short, Mr. Stecki wrote a useful book, for which all Spiritists will be grateful to him.

We thank him personally for the gracious dedication message that he kindly placed at the head of his book.

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[1] A small volume in-12; price, 1 franc; by post, 1.25 francs. At Messrs. Lacroix et Co., Librairie Internationale, 15, boulevard Montmartre, in Paris; and at the office of the Spiritist Review.

This journal, published since February 15^th, about which we have spoken several times, continues its successful journey, thanks to the zeal and dedication of its directors. Their work is even more meritorious for the fact that they are novices in matters of newspaper, having to struggle against the difficulties of inexperience. But it is by forging that one becomes a blacksmith, so we have been following the progress of this journal with keen interest; it has grown considerably since its inception, both in form and content. We would congratulate them for the spirit of tolerance and moderation that they turned into law, if it were not one of the qualities without which one could not call oneself a true Spiritist, and a consequence of the maxim that one takes for motto: no salvation, except through charity; so, we sincerely wish for its prosperity.

The last issue, from October 15^th, contains several very interesting articles to which we draw the attention of our readers.


The destinies of the soul



With prophetic considerations to recognize the present time and the signs of proximity of the last days; new edition, preceded by an appeal to Catholics in good faith and to the future Council.

By A. D’Orient^[1]

In this work, of capital importance, the author relies on the plurality of existences, like the most rational theory, on the indefinite progress of the soul by the work accomplished in successive existences; the responsibility of each one, according to their works; the denial of the absolute eternity of pains, the fluidic body, etc., in a word, on the principles that form the basis of Spiritism. However, it was published in 1845, a new proof of the movement that was already taking place in this direction, even before the appearance of the Spiritist Doctrine, that came to sanction by the facts, and to coordinate these scattered ideas. The author flattered himself that he would rally the clergy to that, while respecting the Catholic dogmas, but interpreting them in a more logical manner; his hopes were dashed because his book was blacklisted. We will limit ourselves to announcing it, reserving the right to dedicate a special article to the book, when we have time to examine it in depth. Meanwhile we will cite the following paragraph of the introduction, that specifies the objective proposed by the author:

Resurrection of the body, prescience of God, successive lives, or purgatory of souls, such are the three questions, to which everything that pertains to the destinies of our soul is linked, that we propose to present in new ways, to the meditation of Catholics and of all men who like to reflect on themselves. What we have to say does not touch on the essential truths that are important to all mankind to know and believe with total certainty: these truths, that are in the domain of faith, are as complete and certain as they need to be, and we do not pretend to add anything to that ourselves. We only want to humanly offer human theories about these matters, that is quite permissible to ignore or not to believe, without prejudice to one's soul; and all our efforts have no other aim than to illuminate obscure facts with the torch of science, where the lights of revelation are lacking, and that faith has not completely defined."