The Spirits' Book - ALLAN KARDEC

1 SPIRITUALIST PHILOSOPHYEdi o especlalmente cedida peloN cleo Esp rita Caminheiros do BemDepartameato Editorial:LAKE - Livraria ALLAN KARDEC EditoraRua Monsenhor Anacleto, 199 - Br sFones: 229-0935, 229-0526 e 229-1227 CEP 03003 - Cx. Postal o Paulo - BrasilSpiritualist PhilosophyTHE SPIRITS BOOKCONTAININGTHE PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITIST DOCTRINEONTHE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL: THE NATURE OF SPIRITSAND THEIR RELATIONS WITH MEN; THE MORAL LAW:THE PRESENT LIFE, THE FUTURE LIFE, ANDTHE DESTINY OF THE HUMAN TO THE TEACHINGS OF SPIRITS OF HIGH DEGREE,TRANSMITTED THROUGH VARIOUS MEDIUMS,COLLECTED AND SEI' IN ORDERBYA L L A N K A R D E CTranslated from the Hundred and Twentieth ThousandBYA N N A B L A C K W E L LFEDERA O ESP RITA BRASILEIRADEPARTAMENTO EDITORIALRua Souza Valente, 1720941- 040 - Rio - RJ - BrasileAv.

2 L-2 Norte - - Conjunto F70830-030 - Bras lia - DF - BrasilISBN 85-7328-022-06 edi o (2 ed. FEB)Do 29 ao 33 milheiroCapa de CECCONI531-BB; ; 2/1996 FEDERA O ESP RITA BRASILEIRA(Casa-M ter do Espiritismo)Av. L-2 Norte - Q. 603 - Conjunto F70830-030 - Bras lia-DF - BrasilReprodu o fotomec nica e impress o offset dasOficinas do Departamento Gr fico da FEBRua Souza Valente, 1720941-040 - Rio, RJ - n n no BrasilPRESITA EN BRAZILOP edidos de livros FEB - DepartamentoEditorial, via Correio ou, em grandes encomendas,via rodovi rio.

3 Por carta, telefone (021) 589-6020,ou FAX (021) DEVOTED WIFEOFALLAN KARDECTHIS TRANSLATIONISAFFECTIONALITY 'S PREFACEIN presenting to her countrymen a work which has long since obtained a wide acceptance onthe Continent, the translator has thought that a brief notice of its author, and of thecircumstances under which it was produced, might not be without interest for English on-D nizarth-Hippolyte Rivail, better known by his nom de plume of ALLAN KARDEC ,was born at Lyons, on the 4th of October 1804.

4 Of an old family of Bourg-en-Bresse, that hadbeen for many generations honourably distinguished in the magistracy and at the bar. Hisfather, like his grandfather, was a barrister of good standing and high character; his mother,remarkably beautiful, accomplished, elegant, and amiable, was the object, on his part, of aprofound and worshipping affection, maintained unchanged throughout the whole of his at the Institution of Pestalozzi, at Yverdun (Canton de Vaud), he acquired at anearly age the habit of investigation and the freedom of thought of which his later life wasdestined to furnish so striking an example.

5 Endowed by nature with a passion for teaching, hedevoted himself, from the age of fourteen, to aiding the studies of those of his schoolfellowswho were less advanced than himself; while such was his fondness for botany, that he oftenspent an entire day among the mountains, walking twenty or thirty miles, with a wallet on hisback, in search of specimens for his herbarium. Born in a Catholic country, but educated in aProtestant one, he began, while yet a mere boy, to meditate on the means of bringing about aunity of belief among the various Christian sects-a project of religious reform at which lielaboured in silence for many years, but necessarily without success, the elements of thedesired solution not being at that time in his finished his studies at Yverdun, he returned to Lyons in 24.

6 With the intention ofdevoting himself to the law; but10 ALLAN KARDEC various acts of religious intolerance to which he unexpectedly found himself subjected ledhim to renounce the idea of fitting himself for the bar, and to take up his abode in Paris,where he occupied himself for some time in translating Telemachus and other standardFrench books for youth into German. Having at length determined upon his career, hepurchased, in 1828, a large and flourishing educational establishment for boys, and devotedhimself to the work of teaching, for which, by his tastes and acquirements, he was peculiarlyfitted.

7 In 1830 he hired, at his own expense, a large hall in the Rue de S vres, and openedtherein courses of gratuitous lectures on Chemistry, Physics, Comparative Anatomy, andAstronomy. These lectures, continued by him through a period of ten years, were highlysuccessful, being attended by an auditory of over five hundred persons of every rank ofsociety, many of whom have since attained to eminence in the scientific desirous to render instruction attractive as well as profitable, he invented aningenious method of computation, and constructed a mnemotechnic table of French history.

8 For assisting students to remember the remarkable events and discoveries of each the numerous educational works published by him may be mentioned, A Plan for the'Improvement of Public Instruction. submitted by him in 1828 to the French LegislativeChamber, by which body it was highly extolled, though not acted upon; A Course of Practicaland Theoretic Arithmetic, on the Pestalozzian System, for the' use of Teachers and Mothers(1829); A Classical Grammar of the French Tongue (1831); A Manual for the use ofCandidates for Examination in the Public Schools; with Explanatory Solutions of variousProblems of Arithmetic and Geometry (1848).

9 Normal Dictations for the Examinations of theHotel de Ville and the Sorbonne, with Special Dictations on Orthographic Difficulties (1849)These works, highly esteemed at the time of their publication, are still in use in many Frenchschools; and their author was bringing out new editions of some of them at the time of was a member of several learned societies; among others, of the Royal Society of Arras,which, in 1831, awarded to him the Prize of Honour for a remarkable essay on the question,"What is the System of Study most in Harmony with the Needs of the Epoch?

10 " He was forseveral years Secretary to the11 THE SPIRITS BOOKP hrenological Society of Paris, and took an active part in the labours of the Society ofMagnetism, giving much time to the practical investigation of somnambulism, trance,clairvoyance, and the various other phenomena connected with the mesmeric action. Thisbrief outline of his labours will suffice to show his mental activity, the variety of hisknowledge, the eminently practical turn of his mind, and his constant endeavour to be usefulto his , about 1850, the phenomenon of "table-turning" was exciting the attention of Europeand ushering in the other phenomena since known as "spiritist", he quickly divined the realnature of those phenomena.