6. But let us leave out of sight, for the moment, the phenomena which, for us,
render this fact incontestable, and let us admit its reality simply as an hypothesis; and
considering the question from this point of view, let us ask the incredulous to prove to
us, not by mere negation-for their personal opinion is no law-but by arguments based on
reason, that such communications can not take place. We will place ourselves on their
own ground; and, since they insist on judging of spiritist facts by the laws of matter, we
invite them to draw, from the arsenal of physical science, some demonstration,
mathematical, chemical, or physiological, and to prove by a plus b (always, however,
keeping in mind the principle acknowledged, viz., that of the existence and survival of
the soul), -
1st. That the being who thinks in us during life will no longer think after death;
2d. That, if it thinks, it will not think of those whom it has loved;
3d. That, if it thinks of those whom it has loved, it will not desire to
communicate with them;
4th. That, if it has the power of being everywhere, it will not have the power of
visiting us;
5th. That, if it can visit us, it will not have the power of communicating with us;
6th. That it will not be able to act upon inert matter by means of its fluidic
envelope;
7th. That, if able to act upon inert matter, it will not be able to act upon an
animated being;
8th. That, if able to act upon an animated being, it will not direct his hand, and
make it write;
9th. That, being able to guide a human hand in writing, it will not be able to
answer questions, and transmit its own thoughts to the questioner.
When the adversaries of spiritism shall have proved all this, by reasoning as
incontrovertible as that by which Galileo proved that the sun does not turn round the
earth, we will admit that their doubts are founded. But as, up to the present time, their
whole argument may be summed up in words such as these "I do not believe these
things, therefore they are impossible," they will doubtless tell us that it is for us to
prove the reality of the manifestations; to which we reply, that we prove them both by
facts and by reasoning, and that, if they admit neither the one nor the other, if they deny
even what they see themselves, it is for them to prove that our reasoning is false, and
that the facts we adduce are impossible.
