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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864 > March > Instructions by the Spirits
Instructions by the Spirits
NOTE: The other day Mr. Leymarie woke up earlier than normal and taken by an involuntary force felt invited to write, obtaining the following spontaneous dissertation:
“A generation of workers cursed my name. Were they right? Were they wrong? Ah, future should respond! I had the single idea of improvement, and particularly that of saving, then subtracting some hands. I wanted to simplify Vaucanson’s loom, taking the boy at an early age and turning him into a singular pariah, pale, skinny, looking fuzzy with a funny language, forming a separated population in my home town. There was always tension in my mind. I slept to wake up with another plan. Instead of carrying images and feelings my thoughts were about engines, cylinders, springs, gears and levers.
I used to see my guardian angel in my dreams, putting all my ideas to work, everything done by the hands of men. They were right when they said that “the mechanics were the poets of matter”. The most beautiful machines were ready when they left the minds of a worker. The invented the foundation of mechanics that he did not have before. The only sources of knowledge were patience and imagination.
It is truly an inspiration by the good Spirits neglected by the academia or by professional scientists but it is not less true that if Archimedes and Vaucanson are geniuses of mechanics those like Vergilius, if you like, are that patience and imagination that brings about every discovery that honors humanity. And all that by whom? By monks, ceramists, wool-workers, shepherds, a silk-worker and an ignorant blacksmith.
I was a humble worker, not a genius, but like many others I was predestined to simplify a loom that hurt people, abbreviating the lives of thousands of boys. I subtracted a physical pain and by serving the industry I served mankind.
One must admire the Providence that uses a simple Jacquard to transform a loom that feeds thousands – what am I saying? – Millions of people on Earth; an insect whose tomb compensates, transforms and feeds two fifths of the globe. Isn’t God a wonderful mechanics? God created the silkworm the ingenious artist in which resides a vast problem of economic policy. What a teaching to the proud and indifferent!
The issue of machines! A terrible issue! Each invention subtracts the bread and the tool from a whole population. The inventor is then a close enemy and a distant benefactor. The inventor multiplies the power of art and industry and the work in the future; the inventor does a remarkable service to humanity but doesn’t the inventor also cause a problem now? The first inventor of the loom destroyed the means of survival of many. Who were those that used to weave by hand other than mothers, lady shepherds and older women? However small their payments they at least had the means of making ends meet.
Similarly to the discoveries of religious, political or moral truths, the inventors of machines revolutionize matter. They are the precursors of the future, aggressively opening the way through interests, keeping the past under their feet. Thus, expecting a distant reward they are cursed by their contemporary fellow citizens.
Poor humanity! You are stupid if you stay behind, cruel if you move on. According to God you must not stay put if you do not wish to perpetuate evil but to do good you are revolutionary despite everything else.
That is why at this time of transition God tells you: Be Spiritists that is profoundly convinced of the selfless and moral initiative determined to endure every sacrifice so that you may achieve perfection in life.
Like the silkworm I painfully crawled supported by the good Spirits, endured my prison giving it all that I had. In the same way I was neglected by my contemporaries but also like the worm, the Spirit is born again from its ashes to truly live and admire the mechanism of the worlds, the God of light and goodness that wanted to show to my hometown that Spirit of Truth that vivifies and comforts.”
Jacquard
-o-
After this message was read at the Parisian Society in its February 12th, 1864 session, the Spirit of Jacquard was evoked and answered the questions below.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 12th, 1864 (medium Mr. Leymarie)
Question: You must certainly have given communications in Lyon but I don’t remember seeing communications by you. How come you chose Mr. Leymarie in Paris and not someone in one of the centers in Lyon to give the communication that we have just read? Why has Mr. Leymarie felt in a way compelled to wake up early and write that communication? Finally what is your opinion about the Spiritism in Lyon?
Answer: - “It is natural that I gave communications both in Paris as well as in my hometown because the medium’s parents are from Lyon and I met his grandfather in particular, that did me a great service in special circumstances. Besides, the medium was indicated to me by the Spirit of his grandfather that carries out a mission similar to mine in the spiritual world. Since the mission allows me some spare time I thought I would not bother the medium’s sleep a medium that like many others shows devotion to the cause that he serves. I also wanted my compatriots to hear from me through the Spiritist Review. I have always been with them, sharing their happy moments as well as the sad ones, never stopping telling them: - love one another. In times of unemployment I wanted to join my voice to so many others more influential and give them encouragement and forearm them against eventualities and against the enemy. Lyon shows you what Spiritism interpreted in good faith can do. What has become of the past violence, the riots and outcries that shed so much blood upon Lyon? Why have the night clubs that witnessed so many bad scenes in past become empty now? Family has taken back its righteous place wherever Spiritism has found dwelling, where its good influence was felt, and all over the place the Spiritist workers recovered hope and reestablished order, returned to the intelligent work and to the desire of doing good and progress. In my time my invention no longer slaved the worker to the machine, hence regenerating a generation of workers. In turn it is Spiritism that transforms the Spirit of that population, giving them the true initiation in life. It is a whole legion of good Spirits that come to open their eyes and their hearts up until now perverted to reason and love.
Spiritism today enters a new phase for now it is the time of generous aspirations. Bourgeoisie, still submitted to the clergy, remains like a spectator of the peaceful struggle carried out by the new idea against the ‘non-possumus’[1] of the past. They all wait for the end of the battle to remain side by side with the winners!
Therefore, dear compatriots, listen to and follow the advices given by Allan Kardec for they come from your protector Spirits. It is through them that you will keep the danger of clashes and even coalitions away. The more humble and serious you are the stronger you shall be.
The proud ones will lay down their flags before the truth that shall obscure them and then the great transformation of this city that we love so much will come, a city that in particular loves the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies for its faith in the future and the hopes that it was able to spread.”
Jacquard
In the same session, while Jacquard wrote the communication above, another medium, Mr. d’Ambel, obtained another one about the same subject signed by the Spirit Vaucanson.
[1] A religious phrase in Latin meaning: we cannot (TN)
“A generation of workers cursed my name. Were they right? Were they wrong? Ah, future should respond! I had the single idea of improvement, and particularly that of saving, then subtracting some hands. I wanted to simplify Vaucanson’s loom, taking the boy at an early age and turning him into a singular pariah, pale, skinny, looking fuzzy with a funny language, forming a separated population in my home town. There was always tension in my mind. I slept to wake up with another plan. Instead of carrying images and feelings my thoughts were about engines, cylinders, springs, gears and levers.
I used to see my guardian angel in my dreams, putting all my ideas to work, everything done by the hands of men. They were right when they said that “the mechanics were the poets of matter”. The most beautiful machines were ready when they left the minds of a worker. The invented the foundation of mechanics that he did not have before. The only sources of knowledge were patience and imagination.
It is truly an inspiration by the good Spirits neglected by the academia or by professional scientists but it is not less true that if Archimedes and Vaucanson are geniuses of mechanics those like Vergilius, if you like, are that patience and imagination that brings about every discovery that honors humanity. And all that by whom? By monks, ceramists, wool-workers, shepherds, a silk-worker and an ignorant blacksmith.
I was a humble worker, not a genius, but like many others I was predestined to simplify a loom that hurt people, abbreviating the lives of thousands of boys. I subtracted a physical pain and by serving the industry I served mankind.
One must admire the Providence that uses a simple Jacquard to transform a loom that feeds thousands – what am I saying? – Millions of people on Earth; an insect whose tomb compensates, transforms and feeds two fifths of the globe. Isn’t God a wonderful mechanics? God created the silkworm the ingenious artist in which resides a vast problem of economic policy. What a teaching to the proud and indifferent!
The issue of machines! A terrible issue! Each invention subtracts the bread and the tool from a whole population. The inventor is then a close enemy and a distant benefactor. The inventor multiplies the power of art and industry and the work in the future; the inventor does a remarkable service to humanity but doesn’t the inventor also cause a problem now? The first inventor of the loom destroyed the means of survival of many. Who were those that used to weave by hand other than mothers, lady shepherds and older women? However small their payments they at least had the means of making ends meet.
Similarly to the discoveries of religious, political or moral truths, the inventors of machines revolutionize matter. They are the precursors of the future, aggressively opening the way through interests, keeping the past under their feet. Thus, expecting a distant reward they are cursed by their contemporary fellow citizens.
Poor humanity! You are stupid if you stay behind, cruel if you move on. According to God you must not stay put if you do not wish to perpetuate evil but to do good you are revolutionary despite everything else.
That is why at this time of transition God tells you: Be Spiritists that is profoundly convinced of the selfless and moral initiative determined to endure every sacrifice so that you may achieve perfection in life.
Like the silkworm I painfully crawled supported by the good Spirits, endured my prison giving it all that I had. In the same way I was neglected by my contemporaries but also like the worm, the Spirit is born again from its ashes to truly live and admire the mechanism of the worlds, the God of light and goodness that wanted to show to my hometown that Spirit of Truth that vivifies and comforts.”
Jacquard
-o-
After this message was read at the Parisian Society in its February 12th, 1864 session, the Spirit of Jacquard was evoked and answered the questions below.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 12th, 1864 (medium Mr. Leymarie)
Question: You must certainly have given communications in Lyon but I don’t remember seeing communications by you. How come you chose Mr. Leymarie in Paris and not someone in one of the centers in Lyon to give the communication that we have just read? Why has Mr. Leymarie felt in a way compelled to wake up early and write that communication? Finally what is your opinion about the Spiritism in Lyon?
Answer: - “It is natural that I gave communications both in Paris as well as in my hometown because the medium’s parents are from Lyon and I met his grandfather in particular, that did me a great service in special circumstances. Besides, the medium was indicated to me by the Spirit of his grandfather that carries out a mission similar to mine in the spiritual world. Since the mission allows me some spare time I thought I would not bother the medium’s sleep a medium that like many others shows devotion to the cause that he serves. I also wanted my compatriots to hear from me through the Spiritist Review. I have always been with them, sharing their happy moments as well as the sad ones, never stopping telling them: - love one another. In times of unemployment I wanted to join my voice to so many others more influential and give them encouragement and forearm them against eventualities and against the enemy. Lyon shows you what Spiritism interpreted in good faith can do. What has become of the past violence, the riots and outcries that shed so much blood upon Lyon? Why have the night clubs that witnessed so many bad scenes in past become empty now? Family has taken back its righteous place wherever Spiritism has found dwelling, where its good influence was felt, and all over the place the Spiritist workers recovered hope and reestablished order, returned to the intelligent work and to the desire of doing good and progress. In my time my invention no longer slaved the worker to the machine, hence regenerating a generation of workers. In turn it is Spiritism that transforms the Spirit of that population, giving them the true initiation in life. It is a whole legion of good Spirits that come to open their eyes and their hearts up until now perverted to reason and love.
Spiritism today enters a new phase for now it is the time of generous aspirations. Bourgeoisie, still submitted to the clergy, remains like a spectator of the peaceful struggle carried out by the new idea against the ‘non-possumus’[1] of the past. They all wait for the end of the battle to remain side by side with the winners!
Therefore, dear compatriots, listen to and follow the advices given by Allan Kardec for they come from your protector Spirits. It is through them that you will keep the danger of clashes and even coalitions away. The more humble and serious you are the stronger you shall be.
The proud ones will lay down their flags before the truth that shall obscure them and then the great transformation of this city that we love so much will come, a city that in particular loves the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies for its faith in the future and the hopes that it was able to spread.”
Jacquard
In the same session, while Jacquard wrote the communication above, another medium, Mr. d’Ambel, obtained another one about the same subject signed by the Spirit Vaucanson.
[1] A religious phrase in Latin meaning: we cannot (TN)
In the past people were chained to the plough; they were sacrificed in gigantic works like the construction of the walls of Babylon where cars marched in line; the edification of the pyramids and the Sphinx that costed more than ten blood battles. Later on the animals were subjugated and we saw in the young Lutetia oxcarts dragging idle kings of the second race. This introduction intends to show to those that listen to us that questions framed in this center sympathetic to the Spirits may obtain their solution from one or another of us. That dear Jacquard, the glory of loom machine, an ingenious artisan that fell on the battle field of honorable work, mentioned one of the economic aspects related to humanitarian work. He kind of put me behind it, talking about the changes that I had implemented in the art of weaving and invited me to take part in this spiritual concert. That is why me, someone that was born in the old town of the Allobroges,[1] the Queen of the Grésivaudan,[2] took over the medium with the permission of his customary guides and come here to somehow complement the explanation given by my illustrious friend from Lyon through another medium.
In his dissertation, remarkable in fact, he still mentions a few complaints expressed by the eager bread winning worker, afraid of the disgraceful unemployment. One can feel that the worker fears for the suspension of his work that sustains the loved ones; they feel that disaster looms over the heads of the majority. Such a feeling is noble but shows a kind of narrow point of view. I come to discuss the same subject handled by Jacquard but if not in broader terms than he did at least in a more general point of view. I must attest, however, and paying tribute to those that rightfully deserve so, that the generous conclusion of my friend’s communication amply recovers the faulty side that I mention.
People were not created to remain as in intelligent instrument of production. Their aptitudes, their place in creation and their destiny are called to another function that is not that of the machine; to another role that is not of the horse in the carrousel. People must produce more and more intellectually, to the limit defined by their own advancement and finally emancipate from that state of servitude and intelligent machinery to which they have been enslaved for generations.
The worker is called upon to become an engineer, to see the working arms replaced by more accurate, tireless and active machines.
The artisan must turn into an artist, guiding the mechanical work through thoughts rather than arms. That is the irrefutable demonstration of that broad law of progress that governs all humanities.
Now that you can foresee the truth of human destinies by probing a future life and that you are convinced that this existence is not more than a ring in the chain of your immortal life I can say: what does it matter that a hundred thousand perish when a machine was discovered to do their work? To the philosopher that stands high and above earthly prejudices and interests such an event demonstrates that mankind was no longer walking the path designed by the Providence when dedicating to that kind of work. In fact it is in the field of intelligence that people must now apply the fertilizing plough. It is only through intelligence that progress will come.
I beg you not to attribute a much too revolutionary meaning to my words. No. But allow its broader and superior meaning allowed by a Spiritist essay that addresses the already advanced and ready minds for the thorough understanding of our instructions.
It is certain that if the artisan left overnight the bread winning loom under the pretext that it would be replaced by any sort of mechanism or invention it would be fatal and contrary to every lesson given by Spiritism. All thoughts, however, have the sole objective of demonstrating that nobody should scream against progress that replaces human arms by mechanical devices and gears.
Besides, it must be added that humanity paid high price to misery and that education penetrating further and further into all social layers will make each individual more and more capable of the intelligently called liberal functions.
It is hard to a Spirit that communicates through a medium for the first time to express the thought with enough clarity; I apologize for the disorganization of my communication that I conclude in a few words: man is a spiritual agent that must submit matter in a not too distant time to his own service and only utilizing intelligence that expands in human brains.
Vaucanson
[1] Gallic tribe of ancient Gaul, located between the Rhône River and Lake Geneva (TN – Wikipedia)
[2] A valley of the French Alps (TN – Wikipedia)
In his dissertation, remarkable in fact, he still mentions a few complaints expressed by the eager bread winning worker, afraid of the disgraceful unemployment. One can feel that the worker fears for the suspension of his work that sustains the loved ones; they feel that disaster looms over the heads of the majority. Such a feeling is noble but shows a kind of narrow point of view. I come to discuss the same subject handled by Jacquard but if not in broader terms than he did at least in a more general point of view. I must attest, however, and paying tribute to those that rightfully deserve so, that the generous conclusion of my friend’s communication amply recovers the faulty side that I mention.
People were not created to remain as in intelligent instrument of production. Their aptitudes, their place in creation and their destiny are called to another function that is not that of the machine; to another role that is not of the horse in the carrousel. People must produce more and more intellectually, to the limit defined by their own advancement and finally emancipate from that state of servitude and intelligent machinery to which they have been enslaved for generations.
The worker is called upon to become an engineer, to see the working arms replaced by more accurate, tireless and active machines.
The artisan must turn into an artist, guiding the mechanical work through thoughts rather than arms. That is the irrefutable demonstration of that broad law of progress that governs all humanities.
Now that you can foresee the truth of human destinies by probing a future life and that you are convinced that this existence is not more than a ring in the chain of your immortal life I can say: what does it matter that a hundred thousand perish when a machine was discovered to do their work? To the philosopher that stands high and above earthly prejudices and interests such an event demonstrates that mankind was no longer walking the path designed by the Providence when dedicating to that kind of work. In fact it is in the field of intelligence that people must now apply the fertilizing plough. It is only through intelligence that progress will come.
I beg you not to attribute a much too revolutionary meaning to my words. No. But allow its broader and superior meaning allowed by a Spiritist essay that addresses the already advanced and ready minds for the thorough understanding of our instructions.
It is certain that if the artisan left overnight the bread winning loom under the pretext that it would be replaced by any sort of mechanism or invention it would be fatal and contrary to every lesson given by Spiritism. All thoughts, however, have the sole objective of demonstrating that nobody should scream against progress that replaces human arms by mechanical devices and gears.
Besides, it must be added that humanity paid high price to misery and that education penetrating further and further into all social layers will make each individual more and more capable of the intelligently called liberal functions.
It is hard to a Spirit that communicates through a medium for the first time to express the thought with enough clarity; I apologize for the disorganization of my communication that I conclude in a few words: man is a spiritual agent that must submit matter in a not too distant time to his own service and only utilizing intelligence that expands in human brains.
Vaucanson
[1] Gallic tribe of ancient Gaul, located between the Rhône River and Lake Geneva (TN – Wikipedia)
[2] A valley of the French Alps (TN – Wikipedia)