Style of the good communicationsParisian Society of Spiritist Studies, August 8th, 1862 – medium Mr. Leymarie
Seek moderation and conciseness in the word; a few words, many things. Language is like harmony: the more we try to complicate it the less melodious it will be. True science is always the one that touches the mass of intelligent people rather than a few proud sybarites, intelligent people that for a long time have been veered off from the true beautiful path, a path of simplicity. Following the example of their Master, the disciples of Jesus acquired this profound knowledge of speaking well, sober and concisely and their speech, like that of the Master, was marked by such subtleness, by a depth that in our days when we see ourselves surrounded by lies those words still turn the voice of Christ and the apostles into inimitable role models of concision and accuracy.
But truth came down from above. Like the apostles of the first days of the Christian era, the superior Spirits come to teach and guide us. The Spirits’ Book contains a whole revolution because it is concise and sober: a few words, lots of things; no flowers of rhetoric or images but only great and strong thoughts that give strength and consolation. That is why its reading is enjoyable and easily understood. That is the trait of the superior Spirits who dictated it.
Why then there are so many communications coming from Spirits that call themselves superiors, full of insensible things, plentiful of empty phrases, pages that say nothing? Rest assured that these are not superior Spirits but pseudo-wise Spirits who believe in replacing their lack of thoughts by empty words; the depth of ideas by obscurity. They cannot seduce anyone except who believe to have gold when they actually have brass and judge the beauty of a woman by her shinning outfit. Be suspicious then of the Spirits that use complicated and confusing language that requires a lot of effort to understand. You will acknowledge true superiority in the concise, clear and intelligible style that does not require power of imagination. Do not measure the importance of the communications by their extension but by the summation of ideas that they contain in a short text. To assess real superiority you must account for the words and ideas – I refer to just, sound and logical ideas – and the comparison will give you the exact measure.
Barbaret, familiar spirit
