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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > January > Boïeldieu in the thousandth play of The White Madam
Boïeldieu in the thousandth play of The White Madam
The verses below from Mr. Méry were recited at the thousandth play of The White Madam on December 16th, 1862 at the Comic Opera Theater.
To Boïeldieu
Glory to the play where music is all over.
Works of Boïeldieu, a thousand times cheers,
And like in the past, today it is so novel!
Paris still watch, the house is full,
Madam of Avenel, the lady of the castle!
At the age of thirty-six, ten times centennial!
The author produced the best
That the poet can interpret,
And lavishly inspired
The sound of lyre invented
With a charm by the word never described:
The pitch of dreams, the tone of smiles
The joy of the Spirit, the ecstasy of love reconciles!
Fact is that the melody whose supreme grace
Shines in the orchestra, in the poem and in the voice,
Was not overtaken by the nightly
Art since Boïeldieu – it is his victory –
Transforms the public into artists and expresses
The language of love that embraces the universe!
How happily the great master varies
The tones for his muse, the inspiration fairy!
Golden cascades falling from the lyre!
The Scottish haze, the shinning fire!
In this particular play the French music
Between the Alps and the Rhine has no reason for panic!
We must then celebrate this noble
Millennium that elevates his play to the pinnacle.
Besides… do we know the secret of beyond?
Who knows? Perhaps on top of this dome
There is tonight a joyful shadow that listen
To us, perhaps a listener that cannot be seen!
The verses below from Mr. Méry were recited at the thousandth play of The White Madam on December 16th, 1862 at the Comic Opera Theater.
To Boïeldieu
Glory to the play where music is all over.
Works of Boïeldieu, a thousand times cheers,
And like in the past, today it is so novel!
Paris still watch, the house is full,
Madam of Avenel, the lady of the castle!
At the age of thirty-six, ten times centennial!
The author produced the best
That the poet can interpret,
And lavishly inspired
The sound of lyre invented
With a charm by the word never described:
The pitch of dreams, the tone of smiles
The joy of the Spirit, the ecstasy of love reconciles!
Fact is that the melody whose supreme grace
Shines in the orchestra, in the poem and in the voice,
Was not overtaken by the nightly
Art since Boïeldieu – it is his victory –
Transforms the public into artists and expresses
The language of love that embraces the universe!
How happily the great master varies
The tones for his muse, the inspiration fairy!
Golden cascades falling from the lyre!
The Scottish haze, the shinning fire!
In this particular play the French music
Between the Alps and the Rhine has no reason for panic!
We must then celebrate this noble
Millennium that elevates his play to the pinnacle.
Besides… do we know the secret of beyond?
Who knows? Perhaps on top of this dome
There is tonight a joyful shadow that listen
To us, perhaps a listener that cannot be seen!
Every Spiritist must have noticed this last stanza that could not correspond to their ideas in a better way or better express the presence in our surroundings of the Spirit now undressed from the mortal remains. To the materialistic that is just a game of imagination from the poet that, in their opinion, it was about the celebrated genius from whom there was nothing left but the memory and the words that were addressed to him were lost in the vacuum, without a trace. His remembrances and sorrows represented nothing; and more: his vast intelligence was just chance of nature and its organization.
Where would then his merit be? For the composition of his master pieces he would have acquired no more than the hurdy-gurdy men that play them. Wouldn’t such an idea have something of glacial, of profoundly immoral? Isn’t that said to see persons of talent and science defending such an idea in their writings and from the top of their cathedra, teaching such a thing to youngsters in school and trying to prove to them that the void waits for them and consequently those who were able to escape human’s justice have nothing to fear? Such an idea – it is never too much to repeat – is eminently subversive of the social order and sooner or later the peoples will suffer the terrible consequences of its predominance by the spread of vices for it would the same as saying: As long as you are the stronger one you can do whatever you like and go unpunished.
Such an idea, however – we must acknowledge for the good of humanity – finds in the crowds a feeling of rejection. Which effect would the poet have upon the public if instead of the so true image that he employed, so exciting and reassuring message about the presence of the Spirit of Boïeldieu amidst the public, happy for the tribute to his work, the poet had said: … there is nothing more left than what is found in the grave and other than rotting a little bit more every day. A few more years and even the dust will not be there, nothing left from the thoughtful creature. He entered the void from where he came. He can no longer see or hear us. And you, his son, who is among us and celebrate his memory, your sorrow and your thought can no longer reach him. It is useless to call him in your earnest prayers. He cannot come since he no longer exists. The tomb has forever shut him off. Useless to expect to see him again after you leave Earth for you will also meet the nothingness. Useless to ask for his support and advice. You were left alone, really alone. Do you believe that he is concerned about you, that he is by your side, here among us? Delusion of a weak mind. You say that you are a medium and that he can communicate with you! That is renewed superstition from the Middle Ages; it is the effect of your imagination reflected in your writings.
What would the audience say about such a picture? This is, however, the ideal of disbelief. By listening to those verses some people in the public would have thought: “beautiful idea! Impressive!” Others, in a larger number, would have thought: “What a kind and reassuring idea that warms one’s heart!”
They could have added: “If the soul of Boïeldieu is here how it looks like? What is its shape? Is it a flame, a spark, a mist or a breath? How can it see and hear?”
It is precisely the uncertainty about the state of the soul that raises the doubt. Spiritism is here to dissipate such uncertainty by saying: When Boïeldieu died, he only left his heavy and material body behind but his soul preserved the fluidic and indestructible envelope. From now on and free from the anchor that kept him imprisoned to the ground he can elevate and transpose the space. He is here in his human form but it is ethereal and if the veil the covers ours eyes were removed we would see Boïeldieu coming and going or gliding above the crowd and with him thousands of Spirits in their ethereal bodies joining in to celebrate his triumph.
Now if the Spirit of Boïeldieu is here it means that he is interested in what happens here and he is associated to the thoughts of the audience. Why then he would not share his own thoughts if he can do so? That is the ability attested and confirmed by Spiritism. His fluidic envelope, however invisible and ethereal it may be, is still a kind of matter. During his life it served as an intermediary between his soul and his body. It was through that link that the soul transmitted its wishes and the body obeyed and through the same link the soul received the sensations experienced by the body. In a word it is the link between the Spirit and matter.
Now that he is free from his corporeal envelope and associating by sympathy to another incarnate Spirit he can, in a certain way, momentarily utilize that person’s body to express his thoughts through the spoken or written word that is through an intermediary or mediumistic means.
Thus, from the survival of the soul to the idea of the possibility of that soul to be among us there is only one step. And from that idea to the possibility of communication the distance is not large. It is all about our understanding of how such phenomenon takes place. As it can be seen the Spiritist Doctrine does not professes something as eccentric as some people say by taking as true the relationships between the visible and invisible world and the solidarity that the Doctrine demonstrates to exist between these two worlds is the door opened to future horizons.
After reading the verses by Mr. Méry at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies during the session on December 19th, 1862 Mrs. Costel received the following communication from the Spirit of Boïeldieu:
“I am happy for being able to manifest my acknowledgement to those who celebrating the old musician did not forget the man. A poet – the poets are foretellers – felt the breath of my soul still embedded in harmony. Music resounded from his verses full of inspiration in which there was also a touched note gliding above the living souls the happy shadow that was celebrated. Yes, I watched the party that payed tribute to my human talent and beyond the instruments I heard a melodious and earthly voice that sang death stripped from its former horror and no longer shown as a somber divinity of Erebus but as the shining star of hope and resurrection. The voice also sang the union between the Spirits and their incarnate brothers. Gentle mystery! Fecund union that complements mankind bringing back the souls that were hopelessly called from the silence of the tomb.
Precursor of the times the poet is blessed by God. As the morning songbird the poet celebrates the dawn of the ideas well before they shine in the horizon. But here you have the sacred revelation spreading like a blessing from God upon everybody and everyone, like the beloved poet, feels around themselves the presence of those who are evoked by their memories.”
Boïeldieu
Where would then his merit be? For the composition of his master pieces he would have acquired no more than the hurdy-gurdy men that play them. Wouldn’t such an idea have something of glacial, of profoundly immoral? Isn’t that said to see persons of talent and science defending such an idea in their writings and from the top of their cathedra, teaching such a thing to youngsters in school and trying to prove to them that the void waits for them and consequently those who were able to escape human’s justice have nothing to fear? Such an idea – it is never too much to repeat – is eminently subversive of the social order and sooner or later the peoples will suffer the terrible consequences of its predominance by the spread of vices for it would the same as saying: As long as you are the stronger one you can do whatever you like and go unpunished.
Such an idea, however – we must acknowledge for the good of humanity – finds in the crowds a feeling of rejection. Which effect would the poet have upon the public if instead of the so true image that he employed, so exciting and reassuring message about the presence of the Spirit of Boïeldieu amidst the public, happy for the tribute to his work, the poet had said: … there is nothing more left than what is found in the grave and other than rotting a little bit more every day. A few more years and even the dust will not be there, nothing left from the thoughtful creature. He entered the void from where he came. He can no longer see or hear us. And you, his son, who is among us and celebrate his memory, your sorrow and your thought can no longer reach him. It is useless to call him in your earnest prayers. He cannot come since he no longer exists. The tomb has forever shut him off. Useless to expect to see him again after you leave Earth for you will also meet the nothingness. Useless to ask for his support and advice. You were left alone, really alone. Do you believe that he is concerned about you, that he is by your side, here among us? Delusion of a weak mind. You say that you are a medium and that he can communicate with you! That is renewed superstition from the Middle Ages; it is the effect of your imagination reflected in your writings.
What would the audience say about such a picture? This is, however, the ideal of disbelief. By listening to those verses some people in the public would have thought: “beautiful idea! Impressive!” Others, in a larger number, would have thought: “What a kind and reassuring idea that warms one’s heart!”
They could have added: “If the soul of Boïeldieu is here how it looks like? What is its shape? Is it a flame, a spark, a mist or a breath? How can it see and hear?”
It is precisely the uncertainty about the state of the soul that raises the doubt. Spiritism is here to dissipate such uncertainty by saying: When Boïeldieu died, he only left his heavy and material body behind but his soul preserved the fluidic and indestructible envelope. From now on and free from the anchor that kept him imprisoned to the ground he can elevate and transpose the space. He is here in his human form but it is ethereal and if the veil the covers ours eyes were removed we would see Boïeldieu coming and going or gliding above the crowd and with him thousands of Spirits in their ethereal bodies joining in to celebrate his triumph.
Now if the Spirit of Boïeldieu is here it means that he is interested in what happens here and he is associated to the thoughts of the audience. Why then he would not share his own thoughts if he can do so? That is the ability attested and confirmed by Spiritism. His fluidic envelope, however invisible and ethereal it may be, is still a kind of matter. During his life it served as an intermediary between his soul and his body. It was through that link that the soul transmitted its wishes and the body obeyed and through the same link the soul received the sensations experienced by the body. In a word it is the link between the Spirit and matter.
Now that he is free from his corporeal envelope and associating by sympathy to another incarnate Spirit he can, in a certain way, momentarily utilize that person’s body to express his thoughts through the spoken or written word that is through an intermediary or mediumistic means.
Thus, from the survival of the soul to the idea of the possibility of that soul to be among us there is only one step. And from that idea to the possibility of communication the distance is not large. It is all about our understanding of how such phenomenon takes place. As it can be seen the Spiritist Doctrine does not professes something as eccentric as some people say by taking as true the relationships between the visible and invisible world and the solidarity that the Doctrine demonstrates to exist between these two worlds is the door opened to future horizons.
After reading the verses by Mr. Méry at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies during the session on December 19th, 1862 Mrs. Costel received the following communication from the Spirit of Boïeldieu:
“I am happy for being able to manifest my acknowledgement to those who celebrating the old musician did not forget the man. A poet – the poets are foretellers – felt the breath of my soul still embedded in harmony. Music resounded from his verses full of inspiration in which there was also a touched note gliding above the living souls the happy shadow that was celebrated. Yes, I watched the party that payed tribute to my human talent and beyond the instruments I heard a melodious and earthly voice that sang death stripped from its former horror and no longer shown as a somber divinity of Erebus but as the shining star of hope and resurrection. The voice also sang the union between the Spirits and their incarnate brothers. Gentle mystery! Fecund union that complements mankind bringing back the souls that were hopelessly called from the silence of the tomb.
Precursor of the times the poet is blessed by God. As the morning songbird the poet celebrates the dawn of the ideas well before they shine in the horizon. But here you have the sacred revelation spreading like a blessing from God upon everybody and everyone, like the beloved poet, feels around themselves the presence of those who are evoked by their memories.”
Boïeldieu