The Spiritualist newspaper > No.157, August 27th 1875

Aug. 27, 1875.
THE SPIRITUALIST,
105
past. To understand spiritual nature, man must be brought
into this spiritual school; he must learn to think for himself and
to act independently. Although some of the teachings of the
spirits might be thought too revolutionary, what right on their
part had they, knowing what they did, to keep men half-way
between truth and error, instead of speaking that which was
right ?
At the close of the lecture another hymn was sung, and the
proceedings terminated.
A MAN’S WORD FOR WOMAN.
BY T. L. HARRIS.
By this we hold: No man is wholly great,
Or wise, or just, or good,
Who will not .dare his all to reinstate
Earth’s trampled womanhood.
No Seer sees truly, save as he discerns
Her crowned, coequal right;
No lover loves divinely, till he burns
Against her foes to fight.
That Church it fallen prone as Lucifer;
God’s bolts that hath not hurled
Against the Tyrants who have outraged her,
The Priestess of the world.
That Press, whose minions, slavish and unjust,
Bid her in fetters die,
Toils, in the base behalf of Pride and Lust,
To consecrate a lie.
“ Once it was Christ, whom Judas with a kiss
Betrayed,” the Spirit saith :
“But now, ’tis Woman’s heart, inspired by his,
That man consigns to death.”
Each village hath its martyrs—every street
Some house that is a hell;
Some woman’s heart, celestial, pure, and sweet,
Breaks with each passing bell.
There are deep wrongs, too infinite for words,
Man dare not have revealed;
And, in our midst, insane, barbaric, hordes
Who make the Law their shield.
Rise then, 0 Woman; grasp the mighty pen,
By inspiration driven;
Scatter the sophistries of cruel men,
With voices fresh from Heaven.
Man, smiting thee, moves on from war to war;
All rights with thine decease.
Rise, ’throned with Christ, in His pure morning star,
And charm the world to Peace.
Brotherhood of the New Life,
halem-on-Erie, N.Y.
(EumsponTience.
Great freedom is given to correspondents, who sometimes express opinions
diametrically opposed to those of this journal and Us readers.]
SPIRITUALISM AND VEGETARIANISM.
Sir,—In reply to your correspondent “X.,” in The Spirit¬
ualist for August 13th, I would remark that vegetarians derive
the necessary amount of phosphorus from peas, beans, lentils,
wheat, barley, oats and Indian corn, all of which are rich in
that element as food for brain and nerve power, and according
to some chemists, potatoes, sweet potatoes,' parsnips, carrots,
and turnips alsq contain this element. In ordinary circum¬
stances, as to temperature, muscular and mental exercise, &c.,
only 2 or 3 per cent, of phosphates are required to keep a man
in healthy working order, while 15 per cent, of nitrates, and
from 65 to 70 per cent, of carbonates, are required.
Some vegetarians profess to be able to live without partaking
of milk, cream, butter, cheese, or eggs. My experience does
not lie in (this direction ; and I doubt very much whether all
persons could sustain health and strength on a dietary from
which these substances are excluded. Does your correspondent
“ X.” mean such a diet as this when he speaks of the weakness
experienced by himself and a friend of his, who tried vegetable
diet, and found themselves sinking under it ? All that vege¬
tarians profess to do is “ to abstain from the flesh of animals
at least this is what I declared that I had been doing, and pur¬
posed doing, when I joined the Vegetarian Society in 1847.
The quality of vegetarian food, and the quantity required by
each individual, must depend on the temperament, the capacity
of the digestive powers, and the amount of mental and muscular
work performed. The food which would be very appropriate
for a man of light, active frame, of sanguine-nervous tempera¬
ment, and engaged in intellectual pursuits, ought to be very dif¬
ferent from that required by a man of large, bulky frame, of
lymphatic temperament, and engaged in bodily labour. It is fox-
want of considering these matters that such mistakes are made
by those who desire to try vegetarian food, and who fail to
derive advantage from it.
As to the effect of vegetarian diet upon mediumship, I have
had hardly any experience, and must therefore leave this matter
to be disposed of by other correspondents. Medicus.
THE ORIGIN OP ALLAN KARDEC’S “ SPIRITS’ BOOK.”
Sir,—Busy as I am, I must ask you to allow me to offer a
few remarks in reference to M. Aksakof’s article in the number
of The Spiritualist which has just reached me.
Whatever may be M. Aksakof’s opinion to the contrary, most
of your readers will surely agree with me that “ the essential
point in the criticism of any book” is to ascertain what the book
contains, and to examine its views, arguments, and conclusions.
If M. Aksakof had done this in regard to the works of Allan
Kardec, he might have spared himself the trouble of writing
his article ; for he would have seen—First, That Allan Kardec
invariably defines his work as having been the giving of a
coherent and systematic form to views which have been held,
more or less loosely and vaguely, by eminent thinkers of all
ages from the remotest antiquity to the present day, but which
have been set forth more fully, clearly, and consistently through
the instrumentality of modern mediums. Secondly, That, so
far from “ presenting Reincarnation as a dogma,” he invariably
treats it as a question to be decided entirely by argument and
by reason. Thirdly (and this brings me to the gist of the
article referred to), That he repeats, over and over again, that
all his books were compiled by him from the concun-ent state¬
ments of mediums in every part of the world. Now it is evident
, that, such being the case, it was impossible for Allan Kardec to
cite the names of all the mediums from whose communications
those books were compiled ; and he accordingly decided (at the
request, moreover, of very many among them) not to cite the
names of any of them. That M. Aksakof has been misinformed
in regard to the inception and first appearance of The Spirits’
Booh will be seen by reference to the preface, in which I have
embodied the statements made to me on the subject by the wife
of Allan Kardec, and by his most intimate friends, as well as
the results of my own personal acquaintance with him. It is
possible that some portions of the additional matter introduced
into the “ revised edition ” (which has remained as the definitive
form of The Spirits’ Book') may have been furnished by the
two mediums whose statements M. Aksakof seems to have
received as gospel; but they could have had nothing like the
share in the first production of the work which that gentleman
attributes to them. And the suggestion that “ the Spiritists
have buried those two mediums alive,” like the fable which
would place Allan Kardec on the staff of the Univei's, is too
absurd for sex-ious refutation.
M. Aksakof’s assertion that “ physical manifestations are
always conti-ary to reincarnation ” is contradicted by facts. In
my own case, particulars relating to my past existences have
been given me through several of our best physical mediums;
in some cases, not understood by them (as once, by Mr. Home,
in trance), in others (as in that of the younger Mrs. Marshall),
to their great surprise ; and an immense number of other per¬
sons could testify to similar experiences. Besides, “John
King,” as I have pointed out in Spiritualism and Spiritism, has
repeatedly asserted that he lived on this eax-th in the reigns of
Queen Elizabeth and of Charles II.; and his daughter “ Katie ”
made, you will remember, a similar admission, to Prince Emile
de Sayn-Wittgenstein, of having been connected with him in
one of his former incax-nations. The last number of The
Medium, also, contains an extx-emely interesting account of the
assertion of his reincarnations by the “ materialised ” spirit of
“ Thomas Ronalds and this in a group of sitters who do not
appear to have been favourably disposed towards the doctrine
of the plurality of our terrestrial existences, of which, however,
abundant confirmation of a similar character will doubtless be
forthcoming as this branch of the art of manifestation becomes
generalised among the people of the spirit-world.
As to the complaint that the young French medium, Camille
Br^dif, now doing good service in Russia, was not mentioned in
the Revue Spirits, M. Aksakof seems to be unawai-e of the fact
that Camille’s present phase of mediahimity, like that of poor
Firman, was only developed last year, and as a direct conse¬
quence of the visit of Mr. Williams to Paris; previous to that
visit the influence whicix renders “ materialisation ” possible
does not appear to have crossed the Channel, and Camille’s
mediumship produced only raps, with the movement of objects