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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > June > Crowned Spirit at the floral games
We reproduce in full the following letter received from Bordeaux on May 7th, 1863:
“Dear Master,
On April 22nd last, I received a letter from Mr. T. Jaubert, vice-president of the civil court of Carcassonne, honorary president of the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux, in which he informed me that the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse had judged the poems admitted to the contest in 1863.
There were sixty-eight competing fables; two fables were selected and one got the first prize (The Spring); the other got a special mention in the oral report. Both fables, Mr. Jaubert says, are from his familiar Spirit. Since that was very important to Spiritism I wanted to witness that myself and traveled to Toulouse with a committee from the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux to watch the coronation of the rapping Spirit of Carcassonne. We then attended the solemn ceremony of the prizes and later the reading of the awarded fables, joining the general applause of the public of that city and we saw the hydra of materialism sneak through its brave and rising to its place the sacred and reassuring dogma of the immortality of the soul.
We address you, dear master, just as an interpreter of hour honorable president Mr. Jaubert. He assigned us with the task of telling you about this fortunate event knowing as we know that nobody can deduce with more wisdom its consequences and to make it useful to the cause that we are proud to serve under your paternal direction.
We gladly take this occasion to affirm our recognition to the excellent Mr. Jaubert and by the cordial and sympathetic reception that was given to the delegation of the Society of Bordeaux. Such protests of friendship are precious to us and give us courage to march with perseverance the laborious apostolate, not stopping before the obstacles that we may find there. Mr. Jaubert is one of those persons that can serve as role model to others. He is a true Spiritist, simple, modest and good, full of dignity and abnegation; he is calm and serious with everything that is great; he shows no pride or enthusiasm, essential qualities to anybody that wants to become an apostle of the doctrine, attaching his name to the courageous professions of faith that he sends to the weak and to the meek. We see the victory of the Spirit at the Capitol of Toulouse as a victory to our sacred and sublime doctrine. God wants to stop the smiles of irony and disbelief. That is no doubt why He allowed the chiefs of the Areopagus to have the soul of a dead person crowned.
Let us have May 3rd recorded with golden letters in the history of Spiritism. It cements the first link of the fraternal solidarity that unites the living ones to the dead: splendid and sublime revelation that warms up and vivifies the souls through the radiation of faith.
The party was so beautiful to every Spiritist that attended the ceremony! They saw in the room of the Floral Games Spirits floating here and there, gliding over the public groups of Spirits that congratulated one another for this victory obtained by one of their brothers and irradiating above all the Spirit of Clemence Isaura, the founder of these new Olympic Games, having in her hands a flexible crown to place on the head of the laureate Spirit at the moment of triumph.
If there are times of sadness in life there are also those of ineffable happiness. It means that on May 3rd, 1863 I saw in Toulouse, or even better, we saw one of those moments that makes us all forget the tribulations of earthly life.
Yours sincerely, dear master…
Sabó”
It is, in fact, a remarkable fact that has just taken place in Toulouse and everybody understands the emotion of the sincere Spiritists that attended the ceremony for they understood its consequences, emotion that was translated in such simple and touching words in the letter that we have just read. It is the expression of truth without jest, bluster.
Some people could be surprised by the fact that Mr. Jaubert did not confuse the adversaries of Spiritism by proclaiming during the session and before the crowd the true origin of the winning fables. If he did not do that it was for a simple reason: Mr. Jaubert is a simple man that does not try to make noise and that above all he knows how to live. Among the judges there were certainly some that did not share his ideas with respect to Spiritism. It would like throwing publically in their faces a kind of challenge, a belie, an action unworthy of an elegant man, or better saying, of a true Spiritist that respect other people’s opinion, even those that are different from his own.
What such a clamor would have produced? Protest from the part of some attendees, perhaps scandal. Would it have benefited Spiritism? No. It would have compromised its honor. Mr. Jaubert, as well as the numerous Spiritists that attended the ceremony, gave proof of elevated wisdom, abstaining from any public demonstration. It was a sign of reverence and respect as much to the Academy as to the assembly. They demonstrated once more in those circumstances that the Spiritists know how to maintain calm in success as well as before the attacks of the adversaries and that one should not expect incitation to disorder from them. The fact loses nothing in importance because it will soon be acclaimed and known in a hundred different countries. The detractors of good or bad faith, for there are both, will certainly say that there is nothing to demonstrate the origin of the fable and that the laureate could have attributed the products of his own talent to the Spirits in order to serve Spiritism. There is one very simple answer to this: the notorious honorability of Mr. Jaubert’s character that challenges any suspicion of having represented a farce unworthy of the moment and of his position.
When the adversaries attack us by showing the charlatans that simulate Spiritist phenomena on the stage we answer that true Spiritism has nothing in common with them as true science has nothing to do with pseudo or false scientists. It is up to those who take the burden of investigating to notice the difference. Even worse is the judgement of those who speak of something that they ignore.
Since the issue of loyalty cannot be questioned there is still the need to know if Mr. Jaubert is a poet or if in good faith he would not have taken one of his work and attributed that to the Spirits. I don’t know if he is a poet but if he had the talent of Racine the means by which he obtains his Spiritist fables does not allow for the faintest doubt: the notorious fact that all were obtained by typology, that is, by the language of the alphabet hit by the raps and that most had innumerous witnesses not less trustworthy than him. Whoever is familiar with this method knows that his imagination could not have had the minor influence. The authenticity of the origin is then incontestable and the Academy of Toulouse could verify that by attending one of his experiments. We give below the two awarded fables.
“Dear Master,
On April 22nd last, I received a letter from Mr. T. Jaubert, vice-president of the civil court of Carcassonne, honorary president of the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux, in which he informed me that the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse had judged the poems admitted to the contest in 1863.
There were sixty-eight competing fables; two fables were selected and one got the first prize (The Spring); the other got a special mention in the oral report. Both fables, Mr. Jaubert says, are from his familiar Spirit. Since that was very important to Spiritism I wanted to witness that myself and traveled to Toulouse with a committee from the Spiritist Society of Bordeaux to watch the coronation of the rapping Spirit of Carcassonne. We then attended the solemn ceremony of the prizes and later the reading of the awarded fables, joining the general applause of the public of that city and we saw the hydra of materialism sneak through its brave and rising to its place the sacred and reassuring dogma of the immortality of the soul.
We address you, dear master, just as an interpreter of hour honorable president Mr. Jaubert. He assigned us with the task of telling you about this fortunate event knowing as we know that nobody can deduce with more wisdom its consequences and to make it useful to the cause that we are proud to serve under your paternal direction.
We gladly take this occasion to affirm our recognition to the excellent Mr. Jaubert and by the cordial and sympathetic reception that was given to the delegation of the Society of Bordeaux. Such protests of friendship are precious to us and give us courage to march with perseverance the laborious apostolate, not stopping before the obstacles that we may find there. Mr. Jaubert is one of those persons that can serve as role model to others. He is a true Spiritist, simple, modest and good, full of dignity and abnegation; he is calm and serious with everything that is great; he shows no pride or enthusiasm, essential qualities to anybody that wants to become an apostle of the doctrine, attaching his name to the courageous professions of faith that he sends to the weak and to the meek. We see the victory of the Spirit at the Capitol of Toulouse as a victory to our sacred and sublime doctrine. God wants to stop the smiles of irony and disbelief. That is no doubt why He allowed the chiefs of the Areopagus to have the soul of a dead person crowned.
Let us have May 3rd recorded with golden letters in the history of Spiritism. It cements the first link of the fraternal solidarity that unites the living ones to the dead: splendid and sublime revelation that warms up and vivifies the souls through the radiation of faith.
The party was so beautiful to every Spiritist that attended the ceremony! They saw in the room of the Floral Games Spirits floating here and there, gliding over the public groups of Spirits that congratulated one another for this victory obtained by one of their brothers and irradiating above all the Spirit of Clemence Isaura, the founder of these new Olympic Games, having in her hands a flexible crown to place on the head of the laureate Spirit at the moment of triumph.
If there are times of sadness in life there are also those of ineffable happiness. It means that on May 3rd, 1863 I saw in Toulouse, or even better, we saw one of those moments that makes us all forget the tribulations of earthly life.
Yours sincerely, dear master…
Sabó”
It is, in fact, a remarkable fact that has just taken place in Toulouse and everybody understands the emotion of the sincere Spiritists that attended the ceremony for they understood its consequences, emotion that was translated in such simple and touching words in the letter that we have just read. It is the expression of truth without jest, bluster.
Some people could be surprised by the fact that Mr. Jaubert did not confuse the adversaries of Spiritism by proclaiming during the session and before the crowd the true origin of the winning fables. If he did not do that it was for a simple reason: Mr. Jaubert is a simple man that does not try to make noise and that above all he knows how to live. Among the judges there were certainly some that did not share his ideas with respect to Spiritism. It would like throwing publically in their faces a kind of challenge, a belie, an action unworthy of an elegant man, or better saying, of a true Spiritist that respect other people’s opinion, even those that are different from his own.
What such a clamor would have produced? Protest from the part of some attendees, perhaps scandal. Would it have benefited Spiritism? No. It would have compromised its honor. Mr. Jaubert, as well as the numerous Spiritists that attended the ceremony, gave proof of elevated wisdom, abstaining from any public demonstration. It was a sign of reverence and respect as much to the Academy as to the assembly. They demonstrated once more in those circumstances that the Spiritists know how to maintain calm in success as well as before the attacks of the adversaries and that one should not expect incitation to disorder from them. The fact loses nothing in importance because it will soon be acclaimed and known in a hundred different countries. The detractors of good or bad faith, for there are both, will certainly say that there is nothing to demonstrate the origin of the fable and that the laureate could have attributed the products of his own talent to the Spirits in order to serve Spiritism. There is one very simple answer to this: the notorious honorability of Mr. Jaubert’s character that challenges any suspicion of having represented a farce unworthy of the moment and of his position.
When the adversaries attack us by showing the charlatans that simulate Spiritist phenomena on the stage we answer that true Spiritism has nothing in common with them as true science has nothing to do with pseudo or false scientists. It is up to those who take the burden of investigating to notice the difference. Even worse is the judgement of those who speak of something that they ignore.
Since the issue of loyalty cannot be questioned there is still the need to know if Mr. Jaubert is a poet or if in good faith he would not have taken one of his work and attributed that to the Spirits. I don’t know if he is a poet but if he had the talent of Racine the means by which he obtains his Spiritist fables does not allow for the faintest doubt: the notorious fact that all were obtained by typology, that is, by the language of the alphabet hit by the raps and that most had innumerous witnesses not less trustworthy than him. Whoever is familiar with this method knows that his imagination could not have had the minor influence. The authenticity of the origin is then incontestable and the Academy of Toulouse could verify that by attending one of his experiments. We give below the two awarded fables.