The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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We would skip over the argument of certain skeptics in relation to the spelling errors of some spirits, if this argument did not call attention to a point of great importance. Spirit orthography is not always fawless. However, those who seriously support this criticism must be very short of arguments, debating that since spirits know everything, they should at least be able to spell correctly. We counter this argument by pointing out the numerous spelling errors that more than one of the great minds of science commit, which in no way invalidate their scientifc fndings, but there is a much more important point here. For spirits, especially superior spirits, the idea is everything while the form is nothing. Free of matter, their language is as rapid as thought. Since it is their thoughts that are directly communicated, it must therefore be very bothersome to use human speech when they communicate with us, through our long forms and inability to convey all ideas. It is curious to see the means they employ to preclude this diffculty.


It is the same for us when we have to express ourselves in a language with longer words and phrases, with fewer expressions than those we usually employ. This is the diffculty suffered by geniuses, impatient and frustrated by the constraint of their pens, which always lag behind their thoughts. In light of this, it is easy to understand why spirits attach little importance to spelling, especially in the communication of serious and profound teachings. We should marvel, rather, at how they are able to express themselves in all languages, and that they understand them all. It must not be viewed that they are unable to express themselves correctly. They simply do this when they deem it to be necessary. For instance, they do this when they dictate poetry, some of which is recorded by illiterate mediums and, nonetheless, is of a fawlessness and elegance that stupefes even the toughest critic.

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