327. Instructive reunions have quite another char acter, and as these are where true instruction can be received, we shall insist strongly on the conditions they ought to fill.
The first of all is, to be- serious in the full accep tation of the word. We should remember that the spirits addressed are of a very special nature ; that the sublime cannot be allied to the trivial, nor the good to the bad ; if we desire to obtain good things, we must address good spirits ; but to ask good spirits is not sufficient ; express conditions are necessary, to be in propitious conditions, so that they may want to come ; but superior spirits will no more come into the assem blies of trifling and superficial persons than they would have come there during their lives.
A society is truly serious only on condition of being engaged in useful things, to the exclusion of all others ; if it aspire to obtain extraordinary things, for curiosity or pastime, the spirits who produce them will come, but the others will withdraw. In a word, whatever may be the character of a reunion, it will always find spirits ready to second its tendencies. A serious re union turns aside from its end, if it leaves instruction for amusement. Physical manifestations, as we have . said, have their use ; let those who wish to see them go to experimental reunions : let those who desire to understand go to reunions for study; thus both will be able to complete their spirit teachings, as, in the study of medicine, some take the course, others clinics.
