One of our correspondents from the Boulogne-Sur-Mer sends us the following, dated December 24
th, 1865:
“
A few days ago I heard that in Équihen, a fishermen’s village near Boulogne, in the house of a very rich farmer by the name L…, events took place with the character of spontaneous physical manifestations, and that reminds us of those of Grandes-Ventes, near Dieppe, of Poitiers, Marseille, etc. Every day, around seven o’clock in the evening, people hear knocks and a lot of noise from objects rolling on the floor. A locked dresser opens, and the clothes are thrown in the middle of the bedroom; the beds, in particular of the daughter of the house, are brusquely undone several times. Although the population was not involved with Spiritism, and even less knew the meaning of those things, they thought the author of that shambles, whose cause had been unsuccessfully investigated and stalked, could well be the brother of Mr. L…, former officer that had died two years ago in Algeria. As it seems, he was promised, by the relatives, that if he would fall in combat, the body would be brought to Équihen. That promise was not kept and that is why they supposed it was the Spirit of that brother that would come daily, for six weeks, to disturb the house and consequently the whole village. The clergy was shaken by the phenomena. Four local priests and from the surrounding region, and later five Redemptorists and three or four nuns came to exorcise the Spirit, but all that uselessly. Since they could not stop the noises, Mr. L… was advised to go to Algeria and find the body of the brother, which he promptly did. Before he left they had the whole family confessing and doing the communion; then they said there was the need to celebrate masses, in particular a sung mass, and then praying masses every day. There was one and then the Redemptorists were in charge of the others. The ladies L… were strictly requested to muffle the noises and tell anyone that came to know about it that the noise was produced by the rats. Besides, they should refrain from publicizing those rumors because that would be a serious offense to God, since there is a sect that tries to destroy religion; that if they heard about it they would try to use it to harm the religion, and in that case they would be liable before God; that it was unfortunate that the word was already out. From that moment the doors were locked and barricaded, the entry of the backyard carefully locked and the entrance blocked from all those that came to hear the noises every night. But if all doors were locked the same cannot be said of all tongues, and the rats worked so well that they were heard over a radius of about 35 miles[1]. Jesters said that they had seen the rats chewing pieces of underwear, but not throwing them out of the bedrooms or opening locked doors. They said that the rats were likely of a new species, imported by a foreign ship. We wait impatiently to have them shown to the public.”
The same episode was reported to us by other two correspondents. A first consideration sticks out of all that, the fact that the persons of the clergy, and that were numerous and interested in finding a common cause, had not failed to reveal it, in case it did exist, and even more they would not have prescribed the little lie of the rats, or face the displeasure of God. They, therefore, acknowledge the influence of a hidden power. But why is that exorcism is always impotent in similar cases? For that there is a peremptory explanation, for starters: the exorcism addresses the demons; but the knocking and obsessing Spirits are human beings and not demons; exorcism, therefore, does not reach them. Second, exorcism is an anathema and a threat that irritates the bad Spirit, and not an instruction capable of touching him and re-directing him to the good path. In the present circumstance those gentlemen recognized that it could be the Spirit of the brother that died in Algeria, otherwise they would not have advised to fetch the body so that the promise would be kept; they would not have recommended masses that cannot be celebrated in favor of demons.
What can we then make of the doctrine of those that pretend that only the demons can manifest and that such a power is denied to mankind? If a human Spirit can do it in this case, why he could not do the same in other cases? Why a good and benevolent Spirit cannot communicate through other means, besides violence, to be remembered by the loved ones and give them wise advices?
It is necessary to be consistent with oneself. Say it, with all letters and once for all, that only the demons, without exception: we will believe whatever we want. Or, otherwise, recognize that the Spirits are the souls of people and that among them there are good and bad ones that can manifest.
There is here a special question, from the Spiritist point of view. Why would the Spirits bother with the fact that their bodies are in a place instead of another? The Spirits of a certain elevation do not give importance to this, absolutely, but the least advanced are not detached from matter, to the point of not given importance of terrestrial things, as with many examples given by Spiritism.
But here the Spirit may be driven by another motive, of reminding his brother that he did not keep his promise, a negligence that he could not forgive for lack of resources, since he was rich. He could, perhaps, thought: “
Well, my brother is dead, and he will not come to hold his claim, and this will be a large avoided expense.” Or, suppose that the brother held his word and promptly went to Algeria but did not find the body, given the mess in war, and that he had brought another body instead of the brother; the latter would not be less satisfied because the moral duty was accomplished. The Spirits tell us incessantly: “
Thought is everything. The form is nothing. Let us not attach to it.”
[1] Ten leagues in the original = approximately 34.5 miles (T.N.)
