"Bear with me while I call your attention to the disinterestedness which, with modesty, should be the characteristic accompaniment of medianimity. God has given to mediums the faculty which enables them to be the intermediary between spirits and men, in order that they may employ that faculty in spreading the truth, but not that they make it a matter of traffic. And, in saying this, I refer, not merely to those who turn their medianimity to pecuniary account as they would any ordinary talent, and who set up as mediums just as others set up as dancers or singers, but to all who use their medianimic faculty for the furtherance of personal ends. Is it reasonable to suppose that spirits of high degree, who condemn cupidity in the ratio of their elevation, would consent to be shown off as a spectacle, putting themselves, like so many play-actors, into the hands of a contractor for spirit-phenomena? And is it in any respect more reasonable to suppose that such spirits would favour the views of vanity and ambition? God permits spirits to communicate with men in order that they may help men to raise themselves out of the mire of materiality, but not that they may serve as the instruments of mundane passions and those mediums who pervert the faculty bestowed upon them by God will be punished for such a desecration with a severity proportioned to the heinousness of their offence." "DELPHINE DE GIRARDIN."
