Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

The period of renewal of subscriptions, on January 1^st, is, as every year, for most of our correspondents in France and abroad, the opportunity to give us new expressions of sympathy, for which we are deeply touched. In the material impossibility in which we are to respond to all, we ask them to kindly receive here the expression of our sincere thanks and the reciprocity of our wishes, asking them to be persuaded that we will not forget, in our prayers, none of those, incarnate or discarnate, that recommend themselves to us.

The testimonies that they kindly give us are a powerful encouragement to us, and very soothing compensations that easily make us forget the sorrows and fatigue of the road. And how can we not forget them, when we see the doctrine constantly growing, surmounting all obstacles, and each day bringing us new proofs of the benefits it spreads! We thank God for the great favor he has granted us to witness its first successes, and to foresee its future. We pray that He will give us the physical and moral strength necessaries to accomplish what remains to do be done by us, before returning to the world of the Spirits.

To those willing to make wishes for the extension of our stay down here, in the interest of Spiritism, we say that no one is indispensable for the execution of God's designs; what we have done, others could have done, and what we will not be able to do, others will do; when it pleases God to call us back, He will know how to provide for the continuation of His work. Whoever is called to take the reins, grows in the shadows, and will reveal himself, when the time is right, not by claiming any supremacy, but by his acts that will draw everyone’s attention. At this hour he is still unaware of himself, and is useful, for the moment, that he remains aside.

Christ said: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.” It is, therefore, among the humble of heart that he will be chosen, and not among those that will want to rise up on their own authority, and against the will of God; these will only receive shame and humiliation, for the proud and the presumptuous will be confounded. May each one bring their stone to the building, and be content with the role of simple worker; God, who reads the bottom of hearts, will know how to give everyone the just wage for their work.

To all our brothers in belief we say: “Courage and perseverance, for the time of great trials is approaching. Strengthen and compenetrate yourselves more and more in the principles of the doctrine; broaden your views; rise in spirit above the limited circle of the present, so as to embrace the horizon of infinity; look at the future, and then the present life, with its train of miseries and disappointments, will appear to you as an imperceptible point, as a painful moment that will soon leave no trace in memory; material concerns will seem petty and childish, compared to the splendors of the immensity.

Happy are those that will draw, from the sincerity of their faith, the strength they need. These will praise God for having given them light; they will recognize His wisdom in his unfathomable views and in whatever means He employs for their accomplishment. They will walk through the pitfalls with the serenity, the firmness and confidence given by the certainty of reaching the port, without stopping at the stones that bruise the feet.

It is in the great trials that the great souls reveal themselves; it is also then that the truly Spiritist hearts are revealed, through courage, resignation, devotion, selflessness, and charity in all its forms, of which they set the example (See the article in October 1866: The times have come).

There is no doubt to anyone, to the adversaries as to the partisans of Spiritism, that this question agitates the minds more than ever. Is this movement, as some affectedly say, a flash in the pan? But this flash in the pan has been going on for fifteen years now, and instead of dying out, its intensity has only increased from year to year; well, this is not the feature of ephemeral things that only address curiosity. The last outcry that was expected to have it suffocated, only revived it, by over-exciting the attention of people that were indifferent. The tenacity of this idea has nothing to surprise anyone that has probed the depth and the multiplicity of the roots, by which it is attached to the most serious concerns of humanity. Those astonished by it have only seen the surface; most of them only know it by name but understand neither its purpose nor its scope.

If some fight Spiritism out of ignorance, others do so precisely because they feel its whole importance, have a presentiment of its future, and see it as a powerful regenerating element. It is necessary to realize that certain adversaries are quite converted. If they were less convinced of the truths it contains, they would not oppose it so much. They feel that the pledge of its future is in the good it does; to bring out this good in their eyes, far from calming them, is to add to the cause of their irritation. Such was, in the fifteenth century, the large class of copyist writers that would have gladly burnt Gutenberg and all the printers; it would not have been by showing them the benefits of printing, that was to supplant them, that it would have appeased them.

When something is true and the time is right for its emergence, it moves on, despite anything. Spiritism's power of action is evidenced by its persistent expansion, despite the little effort it makes to spread. There is a constant fact: it is that the adversaries of Spiritism spent a thousand times more effort to bring it down, without succeeding, than its supporters deployed to propagate it. It advances on its own, so to speak, like a stream that seeps through the land, makes its way to the right if it is stopped on the left, and little by little mines the hardest stones, and ends by bringing down mountains.

A notorious fact is that, as a whole, the progress of Spiritualism has not suffered any downtime; it may have been hindered, compressed, slowed down, in some localities, by contrary influences; but, as we have said, the current, barred at one point, emerges on a hundred others; instead of running to the brim, it splits into a multitude of threads. However, at a first glance, it seems that its pace is slower than it was in the early years; Must we infer that it is abandoned, that it finds less sympathy? No, just that the work it is doing, at the moment, is different, and less conspicuous by its nature.

From the onset, as we have already said, Spiritism rallied to everyone in whom these ideas were, in a way, in the state of intuition; it was enough to present itself to be understood and accepted. It immediately reaped bountifully, wherever it found the ground prepared. Having this first harvest done, there remained the fallow land that required more work. It is now through refractory opinions that it must emerge, and this is the period in which we find ourselves. Like the miner that easily removes the first layers of loose earth, it has reached the rock that it must break down, and into which it can only penetrate little by little. But there is no rock, no matter how hard, that can indefinitely resist a continuous dissolving action. Its progress is, therefore, conspicuously slower, but if, in a given time, it does not gather such a large number of frankly avowed followers, it nonetheless shakes contrary convictions, that fall, not all of a sudden, but piece by piece, until the gap is covered. This is the work we are witnessing, and that marks the present phase of progress of the doctrine.

This phase is characterized by unambiguous signs. Looking at the situation, it becomes obvious that the idea is gaining ground every day, that it is acclimating; it meets less opposition; it is less laughed at, and even those that do not accept it yet, are beginning to grant it the right of citizenship among the opinions. The Spiritists are no longer pointed at, as in the past, and regarded as curious beasts; this is what is observed, and especially by those that travel. Everywhere they find more sympathy, or less antipathy for the thing. It cannot be denied that this is a real progress.

To understand the facilities and difficulties that Spiritism encounters on its journey, we must imagine the diversity of opinions through which it must make its way. Never imposing itself by force or constraint, but by conviction alone, it encountered more or less resistance, depending on the nature of the existing convictions, with which it could more or less easily assimilate, some of which have received it with open arms, while others stubbornly reject it.

Two great currents of ideas divide present-day society: spiritualism and materialism; although the latter forms an indisputable minority, we cannot hide the fact that it has grown considerably in recent years. Both are divided into a multitude of nuances that can be summed up in the following main categories:

1^st: The fanatics of all cults. - 0.

2^nd: The satisfied believers, having absolute convictions, strongly fixed and without restriction, although without fanaticism, on all the points of the cult they profess, and that are satisfied there. This category also includes sects that, by the fact that they have split and carried out reforms, they believe themselves to be in possession of the whole truth and are sometimes more absolute than the mother religions. - 0.

3^rd: Ambitious believers, enemies of emancipatory ideas, that could make them lose the ascendancy they exercise over ignorance. - 0.

4^th: Believers of form, that simulate a faith that they do not have, out of interest, and almost always show themselves to be more rigid and more intolerant than the sincerely religious. - 0.

5^th: The materialists by system, that are based on a rational theory, and many of whom stiffen themselves against the evidence, out of pride, so as not to admit that they may have been wrong; they are, for the most part, as absolute and as intolerant in their disbelief as the religious fanatics are in their belief. - 0.

6^th: The sensualists, that reject spiritualist and Spiritist doctrines for fear that they will disturb them in their material pleasures. They close their eyes so as not to see. - 0.

7 ° The carefree, that live from day to day, without worrying about the future. Most cannot say whether they are spiritualists or materialists; the present is the only serious thing for them. - 0.

8^th: The pantheists, that do not admit a personal divinity, but a universal spiritual principle in which souls merge, like drops of water in the ocean, without preserving their individuality. This opinion is a first step towards spirituality, and therefore, a step forward on materialism. Although a little less resistant to Spiritist ideas, those that profess it are in general very absolute, because it is, with them, a preconceived and reasoned system, and many do not call themselves pantheists so as not to admit being materialists. It is a concession that they make to spiritualist ideas to save the appearances. - 1.

9^th: The deists, that admit the personality of a unique God, creator and sovereign master of all things, eternal and infinite in all His perfections, but reject all exterior worship. - 3.

10^th: Spiritualists without a system, that do not belong to any cult by conviction, without rejecting any, but that have no established idea of the future. - 5.

11^th: The progressive believers, attached to a determined cult, but that admit the progress in religion, and the agreement between beliefs and the progress of the sciences. - 5.

12^th: The unsatisfied believers, in whom the faith is indecisive or null on the points of dogmas which do not completely satisfy their reason, tormented by doubt. - 8.

13^th: The unbelievers for lack of anything better, most of whom have passed from faith to disbelief, and the denial of everything, for lack of having found, in the beliefs in which they have been lulled, a satisfactory sanction for their reason, but in whom disbelief leaves a painful void that they would be happy to see filled. - 9.

14^th: The free thinkers, a new denomination by which are designated those who do not submit to the opinion of anyone, in matters of religion and spirituality, who do not believe themselves bound by the cult where birth has placed them without their consent, nor bound to the observation of any religious practices. This qualification does not specify any belief, in particular; it can be applied to all the nuances of rational spiritualism, as well as to the most absolute disbelief. All eclectic belief belongs to free thought; every man that is not guided by blind faith is, by that very reason, a free thinker; as such, the Spiritists are also free thinkers.

But for those that may be called the radicals of free thought, this designation has a more restricted and, so to speak, exclusive meaning; for them, to be a free thinker is not only to believe in what one wants, it is to believe in nothing; it is to free oneself from all restraints, even from the fear of God and of the future; spirituality is an embarrassment, and they don't want it. Under this symbol of intellectual emancipation, they seek to conceal what the quality of materialist and atheist has of repellent to the opinion of the masses; and, singularly, in the name of this symbol, that seems to be that of tolerance for all opinions, they throw stones at anyone who does not think like them. There is, therefore, an essential distinction to be made between those that claim to be free thinkers, with those that claim to be philosophers. They divide naturally into:

Incredulous free thinkers, who fall into the 5^th category. - 0.

Believer free thinkers, that belong to all the nuances of rational spiritualism. - 9.

15^th: Spiritists of intuition, those in whom Spiritist ideas are innate, and that accept them as something that is not foreign to them. - 10.

These are the layers of terrain that Spiritism must cross. By glancing at the different categories above, it is easy to see those to which it finds more or less easy access, and those against which it collides, like the pickax against the granite. It will triumph over these only with the help of the new elements that the renovation will bring to humanity: this is the work of the One that directs everything, and that brings about the events from which progress must emerge.

The figures placed after each category, indicate approximately the proportion of the number of followers, out of 10, that each has provided to Spiritism.

If we admit, on average, the numerical equality between these different categories, we see that the refractory part, by its nature, embraces about half of the population. As it possesses audacity and material strength, it is not limited to a passive resistance: it is essentially aggressive; hence, an inevitable and necessary struggle. But this situation can only have a time, for the past goes away, and the future arrives. Spiritism, however, marches with the future.

It is, therefore, in the other half that Spiritism must recruit, and the field to be explored is quite vast; it is there that it must concentrate its efforts and that it will see its borders augmenting. However, this half is still far from being entirely sympathetic to it; there it meets obstinate, but not insurmountable resistance, as in the first half, and most of which stem from prejudices that fade away as the aim and tendencies of the doctrine are better understood, and that will disappear with time. If one can be surprised at one thing, it is that, despite the multiplicity of obstacles that it encounters, of the pitfalls that are set before it, Spiritism managed, in a few years, to be where it is today.

Another not less obvious progress, is that of the attitude of the opposition. Apart from the battering that, from time to time, is launched by a host of writers, always more or less the same, that see nothing but a laughing matter everywhere, that would even laugh at God, and whose arguments are limited to saying that mankind turns to madness, greatly surprised that Spiritism has advanced without their permission, it is very rare to see the doctrine involved in a serious and sustained controversy. Instead, as we have already pointed out in a previous article, the Spiritist ideas invade the press, the literature, the philosophy; it is an appropriation without admitting them to ourselves; this is why we see, at every moment, emerging in the newspapers, in books, in sermons, in the theater, thoughts that one would say are drawn from the very source of Spiritism. Their authors would, undoubtedly, protest the qualification of Spiritists, but they are, nonetheless, under the influence of the ideas that circulate, and that seem right. This is because the principles, on which the doctrine rests, are so rational that they ferment in a multitude of brains, and emerge without their knowledge; they touch on so many questions that it is almost impossible to enter the path of spirituality without, involuntarily, doing Spiritism. It is one of the most characteristic facts that marked the year that has just passed.



Should we conclude that the fight is over? Certainly not, and we must, on the contrary and more than ever, be on guard, for we will have to face assaults of a different kind, but in the meantime expecting the ranks reinforced and the steps forward gained. Let us beware of believing that certain adversaries consider themselves beaten, and of taking their silence for tacit support, or even for neutrality. Let us be convinced that certain people will never accept Spiritism, neither openly nor tacitly, as long as they live, like some that will never accept certain political regimes; all reasoning to bring them to it is powerless, because they do not want it, at any price; their aversion to the doctrine grows in proportion to the developments it takes.

Open-air attacks have become rarer, because they have recognized their uselessness, but they do not lose hope in succeeding with the help of dark maneuvers. Far from falling asleep in a deceptive security, it is more than ever necessary to be wary of false brothers, that sneak in all meetings to spy, and then warp what is said and done there; that sow the elements of discord from underneath; that, under the guise of a factitious and sometimes self-interested zeal, seek to push Spiritism beyond the guidelines of prudence, moderation and legality; that, in its name, provoke reprehensible acts in the eyes of the law. Since they are unable to ridicule it, because it is a serious thing in its essence, their efforts tend to compromise it, making it suspicious to the authorities, provoking harsh measures against it and its members. Let us, therefore, beware of the kisses of Judas, and of those that want to embrace to suffocate us.

We must think that we are at war, and that the enemies are at our door, ready to seize the favorable opportunity, and that they are keeping intelligence in place.

In this case, what is there to do? Something very simple: to close ranks within the strict limits of the precepts of the doctrine; to strive to show what it is by one’s own example, and decline any support to what could be done in its name and that would likely discredit it, because this would not be adequate to serious and convinced followers. It is not enough to say that one is a Spiritist; the one that is at one’s heart, proves it by one’s actions. The doctrine preaching only good, respect for the law, charity, tolerance and benevolence for all; repudiating all violence done to the conscience of others, all charlatanism, all selfish thought in what concerns the relations with the Spirits, and all things contrary to evangelical morality, the one that does not deviate from these guidelines, may not incur any well-founded reprimand, or legal proceedings; moreover, whoever takes the doctrine as a rule of conduct, can only conquer esteem and respect of impartial persons; even mocking incredulity bows down before good, and calumny cannot stain what is spotless. It is under these conditions that Spiritism will cross the storms that will be stacked on its way, and that it will emerge triumphant from all struggles.

Spiritism cannot be responsible for the misdeeds of those that like to call themselves Spiritist, in the same way that religion cannot be responsible for the reprehensible acts of those that only have the appearances of piety. Therefore, before casting the blame for such acts on any doctrine whatsoever, it would be necessary to know whether it contains any maxim, or some teaching that could authorize or even excuse them. If, on the contrary, it formally condemns them, it is obvious that the fault is entirely personal, and cannot be imputed to doctrine. But this is a distinction that the opponents of Spiritism do not bother to make; on the contrary, they are too happy to find an opportunity to decry it, rightly or wrongly, unscrupulously attributing to the doctrine what does not belong to it, poisoning the most insignificant things rather than looking for mitigating causes.

For some time now the Spiritist meetings have undergone a certain transformation. Intimate and family gatherings have multiplied considerably in Paris and in the main cities, due to the ease of forming them, through the increase in the number of mediums and followers. Mediums were rare in the beginning; a good medium was almost a phenomenon; it was therefore natural for people to group themselves around them; but as this faculty has developed, the large centers have split, like swarms, into a multitude of small particular groups, that find it easier to come together, have more intimacy and homogeneity in their composition. This result, a consequence of the sheer force of circumstances, was foreseen. From the outset we have pointed out the pitfalls that were inevitably bound to large societies, necessarily made up of heterogeneous elements, opening the door to ambitions, and by that very fact, exposed to intrigues, plots, the deaf maneuvers of malevolence, envy and jealousy, that cannot emanate from a pure Spiritist source. In intimate meetings, without formalities, people are more confident, get to know each other better, and welcome whoever they want; reverence is better, and we know that the results are more satisfactory. We know a good number of meetings of this kind whose organization leaves nothing to be desired. There is, therefore, everything to be gained from this transformation.

The year 1866 also saw the fulfillment of the forecasts of the Spirits, on several points of interest to the doctrine, among others, on the extension and the new characteristics that mediumship was to take, as well as on the production of phenomena of a nature to draw attention to the principle of spirituality, although apparently foreign to Spiritism. Healing mediumship has come to light in circumstances more likely to cause a stir; it germinates in many other people. In certain groups there have been several cases of spontaneous somnambulism, of speaking mediumship, of second sight, and of other varieties of the mediumistic faculty that provided useful subjects for study. These faculties, although not exactly new, are still in the emerging state in a number of individuals; they only appear in isolated cases and are tried out, so to speak, in private; but over time they will acquire more intensity and become popular.

It is especially when they spontaneously appear in people foreign to Spiritism that they draw attention more strongly, because one cannot suppose collusion, nor admit the influence of preconceived ideas. We limit ourselves to pointing out the fact, that anyone can observe, and whose development would require too extensive details. We will also have the opportunity to come back to this in special articles.

As a summary, if nothing very striking has shown the progress of Spiritism in recent times, we can say that it continues in the normal conditions traced by the Spirits, and that we have only to congratulate ourselves for the state of things.

In our last issue we reported some of the thoughts that are found here and there in the press, and that Spiritism can claim as integral parts of the doctrine; we will continue to report, from time to time, those that come to our knowledge. These quotes have their useful and instructive side, in that they prove the popularization of the Spiritist ideas.

In the weekly review of the Siècle of December 2nd^nd, Mr. E. Texier, reporting on a new work by Mr. P.-J. Stahl, entitled Good Parisian Fortunes, expresses himself like this:

“What distinguishes these Parisian Good Fortunes is the delicacy of touch in the painting of feeling, it is the good smell of the book that we breathe like a breeze. Rarely had this so vast subject been treated, so explored, so hackneyed and always new, love with more true science, more felt observation, more tact and lightness of hand. It has been said that, in a previous existence, Balzac must have been a woman; one could also say that Stahl was a young girl. All the little secrets of the heart that sprouts in contact with the first passion, he grasps them and fixes them down to their finest nuances. He did better than study his heroines; one would say that he felt all their impressions, all their thrills, all these pretty shocks – of joy or pain - that follow one another, in the feminine soul, filling it out with the first buds of April flowering.”

It is not the first time that the idea of previous existences has been expressed outside Spiritism. The author of the article had once spared sarcasm at the new belief, about the Davenport brothers, whom he believed, and perhaps still believes, embodied the doctrine, like most of his colleagues in journalism. While writing these lines, he certainly did not suspect that he was formulating one of its most important principles. Whether he did it seriously or not, it doesn't matter! The thing, nevertheless, proves that the unbelievers themselves find in the plurality of existences, even if only admitted by way of hypothesis, the explanation for the innate aptitudes of the actual existence. This thought, thrown to millions of readers by the wind of publicity, is popularized, infiltrates beliefs; one gets used to it; each one seeks the cause of a host of misunderstood things, of one’s own tendencies: jokingly here, and seriously there; the mother, whose child is somewhat precocious, readily smiles at the idea that he may have been a man of genius. In our century of reasoning, we want to know everything; the majority are loath to see, in the good and bad qualities brought up with birth, a game of chance or a whim of the divinity; the plurality of existences resolves the question by showing that existences are linked and complement each other. From deduction to deduction we manage to find, in this fruitful principle, the key to all the mysteries, to all the apparent anomalies of moral and material life, social inequalities, goods and evils down here; man finally knows where he comes from, where he is going to, why he is on earth, why he is happy or unhappy there, and what he must do to ensure his future happiness.

If we find it rational to admit that we have already lived on earth, it is no less so that we can live there again. Since it is obvious that it is not the body that lives again, it can only be the soul; this soul has therefore retained its individuality; it was not confused in the universal whole; to retain her aptitudes, she must have remained herself. The principle of the plurality of existences alone is, as we see, the negation of materialism and pantheism.

For the soul to be able to accomplish a series of successive existences, in the same environment, it must not get lost in the depths of the infinite; it must remain in the sphere of earthly activity. Here then is the spiritual world that surrounds us, amidst which we live, in which bodily humanity pours out, as the soul itself pours into it. Now, call these souls Spirits, and here we are in full Spiritism.

If Balzac could have been a woman and Stahl a young girl, women can therefore incarnate as men, and, consequently, men can incarnate as women. There is, therefore, between the two sexes only a material difference, accidental and temporary, a difference in bodily clothing; but as to the essential nature of being, that is the same. Now, from the equality of nature and origin, logic concludes that there is equality of social rights. We can see to what consequences the sole principle of the plurality of existences leads. Mr. Texier probably does not believe that he had said so much in the few lines we quoted.

Some may say, however, that Spiritism admits the presence of souls around us, and their relations with the living, and that this is where the absurd lies. On this point, let us listen to Father V…, new parish priest of Saint Vincent de Paul. In his speech, on November 25^th, for his installation, he said, praising the patron of the parish: “The Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul is here, I affirm it, my brothers; yes, he is among us; he hovers over this assembly; he sees us and hears us; I feel him close to me, inspiring me.” What else would a Spiritist have said? If the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul is in the assembly, how is the Spirit drawn there, if not by the sympathetic thought of the assistants? This is what Spiritism says. If he is there, other Spirits can also be there: this is the spiritual world that surrounds us. If the priest is influenced by him, he can be influenced by other Spirits, as well as other people. There are, therefore, relations between the spiritual world and the corporeal world. If he speaks by the inspiration of that Spirit, then he is a speaking medium; but if he speaks, he can just as easily write, under the same inspiration, and no doubt he has done so more than once, without realizing it. Here he is then, an inspired, intuitive writing medium. However, if he was told that he preached Spiritism, he would probably defend himself against it with all his strength.

But, with which appearance could the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul be in this assembly? If the parish priest does not say it, Saint Paul does: it is with the spiritual or fluidic body, the incorruptible body that covers the soul after death, and to which spiritualism gives the name of perispirit.

The perispirit, one of the constitutive elements of the human organism, attested by Spiritism, had been suspected for a long time. It is impossible to be more explicit, in this respect, than M. Charpignon, in his work on magnetism, published in 1842^[1]. In fact, chap. II, page 355 reads:

“The psychological considerations, that we have just made, had the result of fixing us on the necessity of admitting, in the composition of human individuality, a true trinity, and of finding in this treble compound an element of an essentially different nature from the other two parts, a perceptible element, rather by its phenomenological faculties, than by its constitutive properties, for the nature of a spiritual being escapes our means of investigation. Man is, therefore, a mixed being, an organism with a double composition, namely: a combination of atoms forming the organs, and an element of a material nature, but indecomposable, dynamic in essence, in a word, an imponderable fluid. So much for the material part. Now, as a characteristic element of the hominal species: it is a simple, intelligent, free, and willful being, that psychologists call soul…”

These quotes, and their following reflections, are intended to show that public opinion is much less distant from the Spiritist ideas than one might think, and that the force of things, and the irresistible logic of facts lead to them by a quite natural inclination. It is, therefore, not a vain presumption to say that the future is ours.

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[1] Physiology, medicine and metaphysics of magnetism, by Charpignon, 1 vol. in-8, Paris. Baillière, 17, rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine. Price: 6 francs.

A novel can be a way of expressing Spiritist thoughts, without compromising oneself, because the fearful author can always respond to the mocking criticism that he has only intended to create a work of fantasy, that is true for the majority; however, anything goes with fantasy. But fantastic or not, it is still one of the forms by which the Spiritist idea can penetrate circles where it would not be accepted in a serious form.

Spiritism is still too little, or better still, hardly known in literature, to have offered subject of many works of this kind; the main one, as we know, is the one that Théophile Gautier published under the name of “Spirite”, and still one can reproach the author for having deviated from the true idea in several points.

Another work that we have also talked about, and that without being made especially in view of Spiritism, is attached to it in a certain way, is that of Mr. Elie Berthet, published in feuilletons in Le Siècle, in September and October 1865, with the title The double sight. Here the author demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the phenomena he speaks of, and his book adds to this merit that of style and sustained interest. It is, at the same time, moral and instructive.

The second life, by X.-B. Saintine, serialized in Le Grand Moniteur, in February 1864, is a series of short stories that have neither the impossible fantastic, nor the dismal character of Edgar Poe's tales, but the sweet and gracious simplicity of intimate scenes between the inhabitants of this world and those of the next, in which Mr. Saintine firmly believed. Although these are fantasy stories, in general they do not deviate much from the phenomena that many people may have witnessed. Besides, we know that, when alive, the author, whom we have personally known, was neither incredulous nor materialist; Spiritist ideas were sympathetic to him, and what he wrote reflected his own thought.

“Séraphita”, by Balzac, is a philosophical novel, based on the doctrine of Swedenborg. In "Consuelo" et la "Comtesse de Rudofstadt", by Madame George Sand, the principle of reincarnation plays a major role. “Le Drag”, by the same author, is a comedy performed a few years ago at Vaudeville, and whose script is entirely Spiritist. It is based on a popular belief, among the sailors of Provence. Drag is a mocking Spirit, more mischievous than bad, who likes to play bad pranks. We see him as a young man, exerting his influence and forcing a person to write against his own will. The press, usually so benevolent with this writer, was harsh with this play, that deserved a better reception.

France does not have an exclusive monopoly on these kinds of productions. “Le Progrès colonial de l'Ile Maurice” published in 1865, with the title Stories from the Other World, Told by Spirits, a novel that ran no less than twenty-eight series, whose intrigue was all carried by Spiritism, and in which the author, Mr. de Germonville, has demonstrated a perfect knowledge of the subject.

In a few other novels, the Spiritist idea simply provides the subject of episodes. Mr. Aurélien Scholl, in his New mysteries of Paris, published by the Petit Journal, brings in a magnetizer that questions a table by typtology, then a young girl is put into a somnambulistic state, whose revelations create difficulties to some of the assistants. The scene is well rendered and perfectly plausible. (Petit Journal of October 23rd, 1866.)

Reincarnation is one of the most fruitful ideas for novelists, and that can provide exciting effects as they do not deviate in any way from the possibilities of material life. Mr. Charles Barbara, a young writer who died a few months ago in a nursing home, used it as one of the most fortunate applications in his novel entitled The Assassination of the Red Bridge, recently reproduced by the “Événement “ in a serialized form.

The main character is a, exchange rate broker, that fled, taking abroad the fortune of his clients. Attracted by a person to a miserable house, with the excuse of favoring his escape, he is assassinated, stripped, then thrown into the Seine, with the help of a woman, named Rosalie, that lived with this man. The assassin was so careful, and knew so well how to take precautions, that every trace of the crime disappeared, and every suspicion of murder was ruled out. Shortly after, he married his accomplice Rosalie, and both could henceforth live lavishly, without fear of any persecution, except that of remorse, when a circumstance came to put an end to their anguish. Here is how he tells it himself:

“This peace of mind was disturbed from the first days of our marriage. Unless there was a direct intervention of an occult power, it must be admitted that chance here proved to be strangely intelligent. However wonderful the fact may seem, you won't even think of doubting it, even more so because you have a living proof of the fact in my son. As a matter of fact, many people would not fail to see in it a purely physical and physiological fact, and to explain it rationally. Anyway, I suddenly noticed traces of sadness on Rosalie's face. I asked her why. She avoided answering me.

The next day and the following days, her melancholy only increased, and I begged her to get me out of my anxiety. She ended up confessing something that moved me greatly. The very first night of our honeymoon, although we were in the dark, she had seen in my place, but really seen as I see you, she claimed, the pale face of the broker. She had, uselessly, exhausted her forces, by chasing away what she, at first, took for a simple memory; the ghost had not left her eyes until the first lights of dawn. Moreover, which certainly was such as to justify her fear, the same vision had persecuted her, with similar tenacity, for several consecutive nights.

I simulated a deep disdain and tried to convince her that she had been a victim of hallucination. I understood, from the grief that seized her and turned imperceptibly into that torpor in which you saw her, that I had not succeeded in instilling my feeling in her. A painful, agitated pregnancy, equivalent to a long and painful illness, made this uneasiness still worse; and if a happy childbirth, filling her with joy, had a healthy influence on her morale, it was of very short duration. On top of that I saw myself constrained to deprive her of the happiness of having her child with her, since, with respect to to my official resources, a live-in nanny, at home, would have seemed an expense beyond my means.

Moved by the feelings of figuring honorably in a pastoral, we went to see our child fortnightly. Rosalie loved him passionatly, and I myself was not far from loving him with frenzy; for, something singular, on the ruins heaped up in me, the instincts of fatherhood alone still remained standing. I was carried away by ineffable dreams; I promised myself to give my child a solid education, to preserve him, if possible, from my vices, my faults, my tortures; he was my consolation, my hope.

When I say myself, I also mean the poor Rosalie, who felt happy just to see this son growing up with her. So, what were our worries, our anxiety, as the child developed, we saw lines on his face that resembled that of a person we wanted to forget forever. At first, it was just a suspicion, about which we remained silent, even when we were alone with one another. Then, the child's physiognomy approached so much that of Thillard, that Rosalie spoke of it with me in horror, and that I could only half conceal my cruel apprehensions. Finally, the resemblance was such that it really seemed to us that the broker was reborn in our son.

The phenomenon would have upset a brain less solid than mine. Still too firm to be afraid, I pretended to remain insensitive to the blow on my paternal affection, sharing my indifference with Rosalie. I maintained that it was just a coincidence; I added that there was nothing more changeable than the faces of children, and that, probably, this resemblance would fade away with age; finally, in the worst case, it would always be easy for us to keep this child away. I failed completely. She persisted in seeing in the identity of the two figures a providential fact, the germ of a dreadful punishment that sooner or later was to crush us, and, under the sway of such conviction, her rest was forever destroyed.

On the other hand, not to mention the child, what was our life like? You yourself could see the permanent disturbance, the agitations, the more violent shocks each day. When all traces of my crime had disappeared, when I had absolutely nothing to fear from men, when the opinion about me had become unanimously favorable, instead of an assurance based on reason, I felt my anxieties, my concerns, my horrors growing. I worried myself with the most absurd fables; I saw an allusion to my crime in the gesture, the voice, the looks of the first comer.

The allusions kept me incessantly on the hangman's easel. Remember that evening when Mr. Durosoir recounted one of his instructions. Ten years of excruciating pain that will never equal what I felt, the moment I was walking out of Rosalie's room, I found myself facing the judge, staring at me. I was made of glass; he read to the bottom of my chest. For a moment I had a glimpse of the gallows. Remember that saying, "No rope should be mentioned in a hanged man's house," and twenty other details of such kind. It was an ordeal every day, every hour, every second. No matter what, there was frightening havoc in my mind.

Rosalie's condition was even more painful: she was really living in flames. The child's presence in the house made the stay intolerable. Incessantly, day and night, we lived amid the cruelest scenes. The child froze me with horror. I nearly suffocated him twenty times. Furthermore, Rosalie felt that she was dying, and believed in a future life, in punishments, and aspired to be reconciled with God. I taunted her, I insulted her, I threatened to beat her. Raged, I wanted to assassinate her. She died in time to spare me from a second crime. What agony! She will always be in my memory.

I haven't lived since. I had flattered myself that I had no conscience: this remorse grew by my side, in flesh and blood, in the form of my child. This child, of whom, despite the imbecility, I agree to be the guardian and the slave, does not stop torturing me with his air, his strange looks, with the instinctive hatred that he carries towards me. No matter where I go, he follows me step by step, he walks or sits by my side. At night, after a day of fatigue, I feel him by my side, and his touch is enough to drive the sleep away from me, or at least, to disturb me with nightmares. I fear that, suddenly, reason will come to him, that his tongue will loosen, that he will speak and accuse me.

The Inquisition, in its talent for torture, Dante himself, in his ordeal-mania, never imagined anything so appalling. I become a monomaniac. I find myself drawing, with a pen, the room where I committed my crime; I write this footnote: In this room, I poisoned the broker Thillard-Ducornet, and I sign. Thus, in my feverish hours, I detailed in my journal, almost word for word, everything I told you.

That's not all. I succeeded in escaping the torture with which men punish the murderer, and now this torture is repeated for me almost every night.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I hear a voice whispering in my ear: “assassin!” I am taken in front of red dresses; a pale face rises in front of me and cries out: "There he is!" It's my son. I deny. My drawing and my own memories are presented to me with my signature. You see, reality mingles with the dream and adds to my astonishment. Finally, I witness all the ups and downs of a criminal trial. I hear my condemnation: “Yes, he is guilty.” I am taken to a dark room where the executioner and his assistants come to join me. I want to flee, but shackles stop me, and a voice cries out: "There is no longer any mercy for you!" I even feel the cold of the blades on my neck. A priest prays on my side, and sometimes invites me to repent.

I reject it with a thousand blasphemies. Half-dead, I am jolted by the movements of a dray, on the pavement of the city; I hear the murmurs of the crowds, comparable to those of the waves of the sea, and above, the execrations of a thousand voices. I come within sight of the gallows. I climb the steps. I only wake up when the blade slips between the grooves, when, however, my dream does not continue, when I am not dragged into the presence of the one I wanted to deny, God himself, to have my eyes burnt by the light, to plunge into the abyss of my iniquities, to be tortured there by the feeling of my own infamy. I am suffocating, sweat floods me, horror fills my soul. I no longer remember how many times I have already suffered this torture."

__

The idea of reviving the victim in the murderer's child himself, and who is there like the living image of his crime, attached to his footsteps, is both ingenious and very moral. The author wanted to show that, if this criminal knows how to escape the pursuits of men, he could not escape those of Providence. There is more here than remorse, it is the victim that constantly stands before him, not in the guise of a ghost or an apparition, that one could regard as an effect of the disturbed imagination, but in the guise of her child; it is the thought that this child can be the victim himself, a thought corroborated by the instinctive aversion to the child, though silly, by his father; it is the struggle of paternal tenderness against this thought that tortures him, a horrible struggle that does not allow the culprit to peacefully enjoy the fruit of his crime, as he had imagined.

This picture has the merit of being true, or better yet, perfectly probable; that is, nothing deviates from the natural laws that, we know today, govern the relationships among the human beings. Nothing fantastic or wonderful here; everything is possible and justified by the many examples that we have, of individuals being reborn in the environment where they have already lived, in contact with the same individuals, to have the opportunity to repair mistakes, or to fulfill duties of recognition.

Let us admire here the wisdom of Providence, casting a veil over the past during life, without which hatreds would perpetuate, while they end by being appeased in this new contact, and under the influence of reciprocal good practices. Thus, little by little, the feeling of fraternity ends up succeeding that of hostility. In the case in question, if the murderer had had absolute certainty about the identity of his child, he could have sought his safety in a new crime; the doubt left him grappling with the voice of nature, that spoke to him through that of fatherhood; but doubt was a cruel torture, a perpetual anxiety for the fear that this fatal resemblance would lead to the discovery of the crime.

On the other hand, the broker, guilty himself, had, if not as incarnate, but as Spirit, the consciousness of his position. If he served as an instrument for the punishment of his murderer, his position was a torture for him as well; thus, these two individuals, both guilty, punished one another, while being arrested, in their mutual resentment, by the duties imposed on them by nature. This distributive justice that punishes by natural means, by the consequence of the fault itself, but that always leaves the door open to repentance and rehabilitation, that places the guilty on the path of reparation, isn’t that more worthy of God's goodness than the irredeemable condemnation to the eternal flames? For the fact that Spiritism rejects the idea of hell, as it is represented, can we say that it removes all brakes to the bad passions? We understand this kind of punishment; we accept it, because it is logical; it is more impressive for being felt to be fair and possible. This belief is a more powerful brake than the prospect of a hell that is no longer believed, and that is laughed at.

Here is a real example of the influence of this doctrine, in a case that, although less serious, does not prove less the power of its action:

A gentleman, of our personal acquaintance, a keen and enlightened Spiritist, lives with a very close relative that he believes, from several indications, with high probability, to have been his father. However, this relative does not always act towards him as he should. Without this thought, this gentleman would have, in many circumstances, for matters of interest, used a rigor that was his own right, and caused a rupture; but the idea that he might have been his father held him back; he showed himself patient, and moderate; he endured what he would not have done in the hands of a person that he would have considered a stranger to him. During the life of his father, there was no great sympathy between him and his son; but, wasn’t the conduct of the son, in this circumstance, such as to bring them together spiritually, and to destroy the preventions that estranged them from one another?

If they recognized each other for sure, their respective position would be very false and very embarrassing; the son’s doubt is enough to prevent him from doing badly, but nevertheless leaves it entirely up to his free will. Whether or not the relative was his father, the son nonetheless has the merit of the feeling of filial piety; if he is nothing to him, his good practices will always be taken into account, and the true Spirit of his father will be grateful to him for it.

You that mock Spiritism, because you do not know it, if you knew what power it contains for moralization, you would understand all that society will gain from its propagation, and you would be the first to applaud it; you would see it transformed under the empire of beliefs that lead, by the very force of things and by the very laws of nature, to fraternity and true equality; you would understand that only it can triumph over the prejudices that are the stumbling block of social progress, and instead of flouting those who propagate it, you would encourage them, because you would feel that it is in your own interest, in your security. But patience! it will come, or, to put it better, it is already coming; every day the prejudices subside, the idea spreads, infiltrates quietly, and we begin to see that there is something more serious here than we thought. The time is not far off when moralists, the apostles of progress, will see in it the most powerful lever they have ever had in their hands.

Reading Mr. Charles Barbara's novel, one might think he was a keen Spiritist; he was not, though. He died, we have said, in a nursing home, throwing himself out of the window, in a fit of hot fever. It was a suicide but mitigated by the circumstances. Once mentioned shortly after, at the Parisian Society, and questioned about his ideas concerning Spiritism, here is the communication he gave on this subject:



Paris, October 19^th, 1866 – medium Mr. Morin

“Allow, gentlemen, a poor, unhappy and suffering Spirit to ask your permission to come and attend your sessions, full of instruction, devotion, fraternity, and charity. I am the unfortunate man whose name was Barbara, and if I ask you for this grace, it is because the Spirit has stripped the old man, and no longer believes himself to be as superior in intelligence, as he did in his life.

I thank you for your call, and, as far as it is in my power, I will try to answer the question motivated by a page of one of my works; but, I would ask you, beforehand, to allow me to share with you my current condition, that strongly feels the disturbance, quite naturally, moreover, that one experiences on passing abruptly from one life to another.

I am troubled for two main causes: the first is my ordeal, that was to endure the physical pain that I experienced, or rather that my body experienced, when I committed suicide. - Yes, gentlemen, I am not afraid to say it, I committed suicide, because if my Spirit was lost at times, I owned it before I broke on the pavement, and… I said: so much for the better! … What a mistake and what a weakness! The struggles of material life were over for me, my name was known, I now had only to walk on the path that was open to me, and that was so easy to follow! … I was afraid! … And yet, at the times of uncertainty and discouragement, I had struggled, anyway. Misery and its consequences had not discouraged me, and it was when everything was over for me that I cried out: The step is taken, so much the better! … I will no longer have to suffer! Selfish and ignorant! ...

The second is that when, after having wandered in life, between the conviction of nothingness and the presentiment of a God that could only be a single, unique, great, just, good and beautiful power, we are in the presence of a countless multitude of beings or Spirits, who have known you, whom you have loved; that you find your affections alive, your fondness, your loves; when you realize, in short, that you have only changed domicile. So you can imagine, gentlemen, that it is quite natural that a poor being, that has lived between good and evil, between belief and disbelief in another life, it is quite natural, as I say, that he is disturbed ... with happiness, joy, emotion, a little shame, seeing himself obliged to admit to himself that, in his writings, what he attributed to his laborious imagination, was a powerful reality, and that often the man of letters, that is puffed up with pride by seeing his pages read and applauded, that he believed to be his own work, he is sometimes only an instrument that writes under the influence of these same occult powers whose names he casts at random, from the pen, in a book.

How many great authors, of all times, have written, without knowing their full philosophical value, immortal pages, milestones of progress, placed by them and by the order of a higher power, so that, in a given time, the collection of all these scattered materials forms a whole, all the more solid as it is the product of several intelligences, for the collective work is the best: it is, moreover, what God will assign to man, because the great law of solidarity is immutable.

No, gentlemen, no, I did not know Spiritism at all when I was writing this novel, and I confess that I myself noticed, with surprise, the profound turn of the few lines that you have read, without understanding their full significance, that I can clearly see today. Since I wrote them, I learned to laugh at Spiritism, to do like my enlightened colleagues, and not willing to appear more advanced in the ridiculous than they themselves wanted to be. I laughed! …; I am crying now; but I also hope, because I have been taught it here that every sincere repentance is progress, and every progress leads to good.

Do not doubt it gentlemen, many writers are often unconscious instruments, for the propagation of ideas that the invisible powers believe useful for the progress of mankind. Do not be surprised to see some who write about Spiritism without believing in it; for them, it is a subject like any other, that lends itself to the result, and they have no idea that they are being pushed into it, without their knowledge. All these Spiritist thoughts that we see emitted by those that, apart from this, make opposition, are suggested to them, and they do not make less their way. I was one of them.

Pray for me, gentlemen, for prayer is an ineffable balm; prayer is the charity owed to the unfortunate of the other world, and I am one of them.”

Barbara

The France, on September 14^th, 1866 reads:

“The robust faith of people who still believe in all the wonders, so often denied, of Spiritism, is indeed admirable. We show them the turntable thing, and they believe; they are exposed to the deceptions of the Davenport wardrobe, and they believe more strongly; we show them all the tricks, we make them touch the lie with their finger, we put their eyes out by the evidence of charlatanism, and their belief becomes all the more fierce. Inexplicable need for the impossible! “Creed quia absurdum.^[1]

The Franco-American Messenger, from New York, speaks of a convention of followers of Spiritism, that has just been held in Providence (Rhode-Island). Men and women are distinguished by an air of the other world; the paleness of the skin, the emaciation of the face, the prophetic reverie of the eyes, lost in an oceanic wave, such are, in general, the external signs of the Spiritist. In addition, contrary to the general usage, the women have their hair cut short, unhappy, as they used to say, while the men wear full, absalonic^[2] hair, all down to the shoulders. On dealing with the Spiritist, it is necessary to distinguish from the common mortals, from the vile multitude.

Several speeches, too many speeches, were given. The speakers, without worrying more about the denials of science than those of common sense, imperturbably recalled the long series, that everyone knows by heart, of the marvelous facts attributed to Spiritism.

Mis. Susia Johnson said that, not willing to pose as a prophetess, she foresaw that the times are near when the great majority of men will no longer be rebellious to the mystical revelations of the new religion. She calls, with all her wishes, for the creation of many schools, where children of both sexes will learn, from an early age, the teachings of Spiritism. That is all that is missing! "

With the title: Always the Spiritist! The “Événement”, of August 26^th, 1866 published a very long article, from which we extracted the following passage:

“Have you ever been to a Spiritist meeting, in an evening of idleness or curiosity? It is a friend that usually takes you. We go high upstairs – the Spirits like to approach the sky – in some small apartment already full; you get inside by elbowing.

People are piling up, with bizarre faces, and rude gestures. We stifle in this atmosphere, we squeeze, we lean towards the tables where mediums, eyes to the ceiling, pencil in hand, write the rantings that pass by. It is a surprise, to begin with; they seek, among all these people, to rest one’s gaze, they question, they guess, and analyze.

Old women with greedy eyes, slim and tired young people, the promiscuity of ranks and ages, porters and great ladies of the neighborhood, wearing cotton and guipures^[3], of poetesses by chance and prophetesses by encounter, tailors and laureates of the Institute^[4]; all fraternizing in Spiritism. They wait, turn the tables, they lift them, they read out lout the doodles that Homer or Dante have dictated to the seated mediums. These mediums are motionless, their hand on the paper, dreaming. Suddenly the hand shakes, runs, struggles, covers the pages, goes, goes again and suddenly stops. Someone then, in the silence, names the Spirit that has just dictated and reads. Ah! those readings!

This is how I heard Cervantes complain about the demolition of the Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques, and Lamennais say that Jean Journet was his close friend there. Most of the time Lamennais makes spelling mistakes, and Cervantes does not know a word of Spanish. At other times, the Spirits borrow an angelic pseudonym to reward their audience with some Pantagruel apothegm. They cry out. Then hear back: - We will complain to your leader!

The medium that traced the sentence grew gloomy and annoyed, at being in contact with such evil spirits. I asked to which legion these deceivers from the other world belonged, and I was answered bluntly: - They are rogue spirits!

I know of some more amiable ones. For example, the drafter Spirit that pushed the hand of Mr. Victorien Sardou, and made him draw the image of the house in which Beethoven lives up there. Profusion of foliage, interweaving of quavers^[5]and semi quavers, it is a work of patience that would require months, and that was done in one night. At least that is what I was told. Mr. Sardou alone could convince me of this.

Poor human brain, and how painful these things are to tell! We have therefore not taken a step on the side of Reason and Truth! Or, at least, the battalion of stragglers grows bigger every day, as we advance! It is formidable, it is almost an army. Do you know how many people are possessed in France today? More than two thousand.

The possessed have their president, Mrs. de B…, that since the age of two, has lived in direct contact with the Virgin. Two thousand! Auvergne has kept its miracles, the Cévennes still have their Camisards. The books of Spiritism, the treatises of mysticism have seven, eight, ten editions. The marvelous is indeed the disease of a time that, having nothing in mind to satisfy itself, takes refuge in chimeras, like a weakened stomach deprived of meat that feeds on ginger.

And the number of madmen is increasing! Delirium is like a rising tide. What light then must be found, to destroy this darkness, since electric light is not enough?”

Jules Claretie



It would be wrong to get angry with such adversaries, because they believe, with such good faith and so naively, that they have the monopoly on common sense! What is as amusing as the singular portraits they make of the Spiritists, is to see them moan painfully over these poor human brains, that do not take any step on the side of reason and truth, because they really want to have a soul and believe in the other world, despite the cost of eloquence of unbelievers to prove that there is none, for the happiness of humanity; it is their regret, at the sight of these Spiritist books that sell out without the help of ads, propaganda and paid praises by the press; of this battalion of stragglers of reason, that – a desperate thing! – grows bigger every day, and becomes so formidable that it is almost an army; that having nothing in front of their mind to satisfy them, are foolish enough to refuse the prospect of nothingness, that is offered to them to fulfil the void. It is really to despair of this poor humanity, illogical enough not to prefer anything in exchange for something, to prefer to live again than to die altogether.

These jokes, these grotesque images, more amusing than dangerous, and that would be childish to take seriously, have their instructive side, and that is why we cite a few examples. In the past, they tried to fight Spiritism with arguments, bad ones, no doubt, since they convinced nobody, but finally they tried to discuss the thing, good or bad; men of real value, speakers and writers, searched for an arsenal of objections to fight it. What has come out of it? Their books are forgotten, and Spiritism is standing; that is a fact. Today, there are still a few mockers of the strength that we have just cited, little concerned with the value of arguments, for whom laughing at everything is a necessity, but they no longer discuss; the opposing controversy seems to have exhausted its ammunition. The adversaries content themselves with moaning over the progress of what they call a calamity, as one moaned over the progress of an unstoppable flood; but the offensive weapons to combat the doctrine have made no advance, and if they have not yet found the armament that can bring it down, it is not for a lack of search for it.

It would be useless to refute things that refute themselves. There is only one word to answer to the complaints that the newspaper France precedes the burlesque portrait that it borrows from the American newspaper. If the faith of the Spiritists resists the revelation of the tricks and strings of charlatanism, it is because that is not Spiritism; if, the more fraudulent maneuvers are brought to light, the more faith redoubles, it is because you are struggling to fight precisely what it disavows and fights itself; if they are not shaken by your demonstrations, it is because you are missing the point. If when you strike, Spiritism does not scream, it is because you are hitting sideways, and then the mockers are not with you. By unmasking the abuses that one makes of a thing, one strengthens the very thing, as one strengthens the true religion by stigmatizing the abuses. It is only those that live on the abuse that can complain, in Spiritism as in religion.

Very strange contradiction! Those who preach social equality, see, under the empire of Spiritist beliefs, the prejudices of cast fade away, the extreme echelons come closer, the great and the small shake hands fraternally, and they laugh about it! In truth, reading these things one wonders on which side is the aberration.

---

[1] I believe because it is absurd (Wikipedia.org, T.N.)


[2] Plentiful (T.N.)


[3] French bobbin lace (T.N.)


[4] French academy of sciences (T.N.)


[5] Quaver (British) = eighth note, semi quaver = sixteenth note (T.N.)

The Spiritist Society of Paris has just had another loss in the person of Mr. Charles-Julien Leclerc, a former mechanic, aged fifty-seven, who died suddenly of a devastating stroke, on December 2^nd, when he was entering the Opera. He had lived in Brazil for a long time, and it was there that he had drawn the first notions of Spiritism, for which the Fourier doctrine had prepared him, and of which he was a zealous supporter. Returning to France, after conquering independence, through his work, he devoted himself to the cause of Spiritism, of which he had easily glimpsed the high humanitarian and moralizing significance for the working class. He was a good man, loved, esteemed and missed by all who knew him, a Spiritist at heart, striving to put into practice the teachings of the doctrine, for the benefit of his moral advancement, one of those men that honor the belief they profess.

By request of his family, we said on his tomb the prayer for the souls that have just left the earth (Gospel according to Spiritism, Chap. XXVII-IV), followed by the following words:

“Dear Mr. Leclerc, you are an example of the uncertainty of life, since the day before your death, you were among us, with nothing to suggest such a sudden departure. Thus, God warns us to be always ready to give an account of the use we made of the time that we have spent on earth; He calls us when we least expect it. Praise His name for having spared you the anguish and suffering, that sometimes accompanies the work of separation. You have joined those colleagues that have preceded you, and who, no doubt, have come to receive you on the threshold of the new life; but this life, with which you had identified yourself, must have had no surprises for you; you have entered it as in a known country, and we have no doubt that you will enjoy there the happiness reserved for good men, for those who have practiced the laws of the Lord.

Your colleagues from the Spiritist Society of Paris are honored to have counted on you in their ranks, and your memory will always be dear to them; they offer you, through my voice, the expression of sincere feelings of sympathy that you have been able to conquer. If anything relieves our regrets at this separation, it is the thought that you are as happy as you deserve, and the hope that you will still come and participate in our work. May the Lord, dear brother, pour upon you the treasures of His infinite goodness; we ask him to grant you the grace to watch over your children, and to direct them in the path of good that you have followed."

M. Leclerc, promptly disengaged, as we supposed, was able to manifest at the Society, in the session that followed his burial. There was, therefore, no interruption in his presence since he had attended the preceding session. Besides the feeling of affection that attached us to him, this communication was to have its instructive side; it was interesting to know the sensations that follow this kind of death. Nothing that can shed light on the various phases of this passage, that everyone must go through, could be indifferent. Here is this communication:



Parisian Society, December 7^th, 1866 – medium Mr. Desliens

“I finally can, in my turn, come to this table! Although my death is recent, I have more than once been taken by impatience; I could not hasten the march of time. I had also to thank you for your eagerness to surround my mortal remains, and for the sympathetic thoughts you lavished on my Spirit. Oh! master, thank you for your kindness, for the deep emotion you felt in welcoming my beloved son. How ungrateful I would be to you if I did not preserve an eternal gratitude for it!

My God, thank you! my wishes are fulfilled. Today I can appreciate the beauty of the world, that I only knew from the communications of the Spirits. To a certain extent, when I arrived here, I experienced the same emotions, but infinitely more vivid, than when I first arrived at the land of America. I knew that region only from the accounts of travelers, and I was far from having an idea of its rich productions; it was the same here. How different is this world from ours! Each face is the exact reproduction of intimate feelings; no false physiognomy; no possible hypocrisy; thought is revealed through the eye, benevolent or malevolent, according to the nature of the Spirit.

Well! see; I am still being punished here by my main fault, that I fought with so much difficulty on earth, and that I had managed to partly overcome; my impatience to see myself among you troubled me to such an extent that I no longer know how to express my ideas with lucidity, and yet the matter that so often led me to anger in the past, is no longer there! Come on, I calm down, for it is necessary.

Oh! I was very surprised by this unexpected ending! I was not afraid of death, and I had long considered it the end of the trial, but this so unforeseen death caused me a profound shock… What a blow for my poor wife! …

How quickly mourning succeeded pleasure! I was really happy to listen to good music, but I didn't think I would be in contact with the great voice of infinity so soon… How fragile is life! … A blood globule coagulates; circulation loses its regularity, and everything is over! … I would have liked to live a few more years, to see all my children settled down; God decided otherwise: his will be done!

When death struck me, I received like a club blow on the head; a crushing weight overwhelmed me; then suddenly I felt free, relieved. I hovered over my body; I looked with amazement at the tears of my family, and I finally realized what had happened to me. I quickly recognized myself. I saw my second son, summoned by the telegraph, rushing. Ah! I tried to console them; I whispered my best thoughts to them, and I saw, with a certain happiness, some refractory brains lean, little by little, in the direction of the belief that has made all my strength in these last years, to which I owed so many good times. If I have conquered the old man a little, to whom do I owe it, if not to our dear teaching, to the repeated advice of my guides?

And yet I blush, although Spirit, I still let myself be dominated by this damn flaw: impatience. So, I am punished for it, for I was so eager to communicate with you, to tell you a thousand details, that I am obliged to postpone it. Oh! I will be patient, but with sorrow. I am so happy here that it hurts me to leave you. However, good friends are near me, and they gathered to welcome me: Sanson, Baluze, Sonner, the joyous Sonner whose satirical verve I loved so much, then Jobard, the brave Costeau and so many others. Lastly, Mrs. Dozon; then a poor unhappy man, much to be pitied, and whose repentance touches me. Pray for him as for all those that let themselves be dominated by the test. Soon I will come back to speak again, and rest assured that I will be no less assiduous to our dear meetings, as Spirit, than I was as incarnate.”

Leclerc

Several poetries from the invisible world, obtained by Mr. Vavasseur

This collection, that we announced in our last issue as being printing, will appear in the first half of January. Our readers have been able to judge the genre and the value of the poems obtained by M. Vavasseur, as a medium, either in the waking or in the spontaneous somnambulistic state, by the fragments that we have published. We will, therefore, confine ourselves to saying that to the merit of the versification, they add that of reflection, in the graceful poetic form, about the consoling truths of the doctrine, and that as such they will have an honorable place in any Spiritist library. We thought it necessary to add an introduction, or better, an instruction on mediumistic poetry in general, intended to respond to certain objections of critics on this kind of production.

Modifications made in the printing, will make it possible to put the price at 1 franc; by post 1.5 francs

Drawn and lithographed by Mr. Bertrand, painter.

Size: china paper, 35 c. on 28, and with the border, 45 c. out of 38. - Price: 2 fr. 50; by post, for France and Algeria, postage and packing case 50 c. in addition. - At the author's, rue des Dames, n ° 99, in Paris-Batignolles, and at the office of the Spiritist Review.

M. Bertrand is one of the very good writing mediums of the Spiritist Society of Paris, and who has shown his zeal and devotion to the doctrine. This consideration, added to the desire to be useful to him by making him known as a talented artist, silenced the scruples that we had hitherto to announce the sale of our portrait, for the fear that some might see in this a ridiculous presumption. We, therefore, hasten to declare that we are completely foreign to this publication, as to that of the portraits issued by several photographers.

The Spiritist Union of Bordeaux, written by MA Bez, momentarily interrupted by a serious illness of the director, and circumstances beyond his control, has resumed the course of its publications, as we had announced, and must arrange so that its subscribers do not experience any prejudice from this interruption. We sincerely congratulate Mr. Bez, and sincerely wish that nothing in the future hinders the useful publication that he has undertaken, and that deserves to be encouraged.

Mr. Roustaing, from Bordeaux, sent us the following letter, requesting to have it published:

“Mr. Director of the Spiritist Review,

In the work that you announced in the last June issue of the Spiritist Review, and entitled: “Christian Spiritism, or Revelation of Revelation” - the four Gospels followed by the commandments explained in Spirit and in truth, by the evangelists assisted by the apostles, Moses, collected and put in order by J.-B. Roustaing, lawyer at the Imperial Court of Bordeaux, former president of the bar, 3 vols., Paris, Librairie centrale, #24, 1866; Book that I presented to the direction of the Spiritist Review in Paris, last April and May, which accepted it, had omitted in the printing, escaping the proofreading, a passage from the manuscript. This omitted passage, and that is thus conceived, has its place after the last line, page 111, 3^rd vol.:

“And this hypothesis, on the part of the Spiritists, that the body of Jesus would have been an earthly body, - and that the angels or higher Spirits could have made it invisible, and would have taken, removed it, at the very moment when the stone was unsealed and overturned, would be, a priori, inadmissible and false; it must, in fact, be set aside as such - in the presence of the revelation made by the angel to Mary, then to Joseph; revelation that would then be false, which cannot be it, emanating from an envoy of God, and which must be interpreted, explained according to the Spirit that vivifies, in spirit and in truth, according to the course of the laws of nature and not rejected. (See supra, III ° vol., Pages 23-24; - 1st vol., P. 27 to 44; 67 to 86; 122 to 129; 165 to 193; 226 to 266; - III ° vol., P. 139 to 145; 161 to 163; 168 to 175.)

To bring, by the publicity available to your newspaper, to the knowledge of those who have read, who read and who will read this work, this omission in the printing, and so that those that have this book may add to by hand, and on the page indicated, the above-mentioned paragraph; I come to ask for your kindness that this letter be inserted in the next issue of the Spiritist Review, Paris, thanking you in advance.

Please, Mr. Director, accept, etc.

Roustaing, Lawyer at the Imperial Court of Bordeaux, former President of the Bar, rue Saint-Siméon, 17”

To avoid the clutter of the January 1^st distributions, this month's Review ships on December 25^th. It is also addressed to all former subscribers, except for those that are through intermediaries, and whose names are unknown to us. The following issues will only be sent as renewals are made.

Although the Spiritist Review has the latitude to appear from the 1^st to the 5^th, this year it has only appeared on the 5^th. With a very careful verification made before each dispatch, delays in the reception cannot be controlled by management. It has been recognized, several times, that they were due to local issues, or to the unwillingness of certain people through whose hands the Review passes, before reaching its addressee.

In an article in our last issue entitled: A retrospective look at the Spiritism movement, we made two distinct classes of free thinkers: unbelievers and believers, and said that, for the former, to be free thinker is not only believing in what one wants, but not believing in anything; it is to free oneself from all restraints, even from the fear of God and of the future; for the latter, it is to subordinate belief to reason and to free oneself from the yoke of blind faith. The latter have the Free Conscience, as a means of advertisement, a significant title; the others, the journal Free Thought, a more vague qualification, but that specializes in the opinions expressed, and that corroborates the distinction we made in all points. We read in its number 2 of October 28th, 1866:

“Questions of origin and end have so far preoccupied humanity, to the point of often troubling their sanity. These problems, which have been qualified as formidable, and that we believe to be of secondary importance, are not the immediate domain of science. Their scientific solution can only offer half-certainty. For us, it is sufficient as is, and we will not try to complete it with metaphysical quibbles. Our goal is, moreover, to deal only with subjects that are covered by observation. We intend to keep our feet on the ground. If, sometimes, we move away from it, to respond to the attacks of those that do not think like us, the excursion outside the real will be short-lived. We will always have in mind this wise advice from Helvetius: "One must have the courage to ignore what we cannot know."

A new journal, the Free Conscience, our brother a few days older, as it notices, welcomes us in its first number. We thank the courteous way by which they used their elderly right. Our comrade believes that, despite the analogy of titles, we shall not always be in “complete affinity of ideas.” After reading their first issue, we are certain of that; besides, we do not understand free conscience and free thought with a previously established dogmatic boundary. When someone clearly declares to be a disciple of science, and champion of free conscience, it is irrational, in our opinion, to have it followed by any belief as a dogma, impossible to be demonstrated scientifically. Limited freedom like this is not freedom. From our part, we welcome Free Conscience and we are prepared to see an ally in them, since it declares its wishes to fight in favor of all freedoms… except one.”



It is strange to see the origin and end of humanity being considered as secondary issues, proper to disturb reason. What to say of a man that, only earning the necessary for his survival, were not worried about tomorrow? Would he be considered sensible? What would we think of someone that, having a wife, children, and friends, said: I don’t care if they are going to be dead or alive tomorrow! Well, the tomorrow of the dead is long, therefore, one should not be surprised that so many people are concerned with that.

If we do the statistics of all those that lose their minds, we will see that the larger number is precisely on the side of those that do not believe in that tomorrow, or that doubt it, and that for the very simple reason that the great majority of the cases of madness is produced by despair, and lack of moral courage, that allows to endure the miseries of life, while the certainty of that tomorrow makes the vicissitudes of the present less bitter, considering them as transient incidents, reason why the morale is only slightly affected, or not affected at all. Their confidence in the future gives them a strength that will never be held by the one that only has the void by perspective. He is in the position of a man that, ruined today, he is certain that tomorrow he is going to have a fortune greater than the one he has just lost. In this case, he then takes a decision and remains calm. If, on the contrary, he expects nothing, he gets desperate and his reason may suffer with that.

Nobody will dispute the fact that, knowing where we came from and where we are going to, what we did yesterday and what we are going to do tomorrow, is not something necessary to regulate the businesses of life, and that this does not influence our personal behavior. Certainly, the soldier that knows where he is led to, that sees his objective, marches more firmly, with more eagerness, with more enthusiasm than if he were led blindly. That is how it is with small things, as well as great things, with individuals and with groups. Knowing where one comes from and where one is going to is not less necessary to rule the businesses of the collective life of humanity. The day the whole humanity was assured that death was certain, we would see general confusion, and men throwing at one another saying: if we have to live one life only, let us live the best we can, and doesn’t matter who pays!

The journal Free Thought declares that they intend to keep their feet on the ground, and if they eventually move away from that, it is to refute those that think differently, but that such excursions will be short lived. We would understand it to be like so for a journal that is exclusively scientific, dealing with special subject matters. It is evident that it would be inopportune to speak of spirituality, psychology or theology regarding mechanics, chemistry, physics, calculus, commerce or industry; but, since it includes philosophy in its program, it could not be accomplished without dealing with metaphysical issues. Although the word philosophy is too elastic, and was singularly deviated from its etymological definition, it implies, in its very essence, research and studies that are not exclusively material.

Helvetius’ advice: "One must have the courage to ignore what we cannot know" is very wise and is, above all, directed to the presumptuous sages, that believe that nothing can be hidden from man, and that what they don’t know or don’t understand must not exist. However, it would be fairer to say: “One must have the courage to confess one’s own ignorance about what they do not know.” As it is formulated, it could be translated like this: “One must have the courage to preserve one’s ignorance”, with this consequence: “It is useless to try to know what we do not know.” There are things, undoubtedly, that man will never know while on Earth, because humanity is here still in the state of adolescence, however great its presumption. But who would dare establish limits to what he can know? Considering that today he knows infinitely more than primitive men, why couldn’t he know more later, than what he knows now? That is what cannot be understood by those that do not admit the perpetuity and perfectibility of the spiritual being. Many say to themselves: I am at the top of the intellectual ladder; what I cannot see, and I do not understand, nobody can see or understand.

In the paragraph above, about the journal Free Conscience, it says: “We do not understand free conscience and free thought with a previously established dogmatic boundary. When someone clearly declares to be a disciple of science, and champion of free conscience, it is irrational, in our opinion, to have it followed by any belief as a dogma, impossible to be demonstrated scientifically. Limited freedom like this is not freedom.”

The whole doctrine is in these words; the profession of faith is clear and categorical. Thus, since God cannot be demonstrated by an algebraic equation and the soul is not perceptible with the support of a reactive, it is absurd to believe in God and in the soul. Every disciple of science must, therefore, be atheist and materialist. But, to stay within materiality, is science always infallible in its demonstrations? Haven’t we seen it many times give as absolute truths what later was recognized as a mistake, and vice-versa? Wasn’t that in the name of science that Fulton’s system was declared to be a chimera? Before knowing the law of gravity, hasn’t science demonstrated that there could not be antipodes? Before knowing electricity, hasn’t it demonstrated by a + b that there wasn’t any speed capable of transmitting a telegram five hundred leagues in a few minutes?

Many experiments had been carried out with light, however, just a few years back, who would imagine the prodigies of photography? However, it was not the official scientists that made such prodigious discovery, neither the electric telegraph nor the steam engine. Does science know all laws of nature, in our days? Is it only science that knows all the resources that can be taken from the known laws? Who would dare say it? Isn’t that possible that, one day, the knowledge of new laws makes the extra-corporeal life so evident, so rational, so intelligible as that of the antipodes? Would then such a result, after ruling out the uncertainties, be prone to be disdained? Would that be less important to humanity, than the discovery of a new continent, a new planet, a new engine of destruction? Well! Such a hypothesis became reality; we owe it to Spiritism, and it is thanks to it that so many people that believed to live only once and die forever, now are certain to live forever.

We have spoken of the force of gravity, of this force that governs the universe, from the grain of sand to the worlds; but who has seen it, who has been able to follow it, analyze it? What does it consist of? What is its nature, its primary cause? No one knows it, and yet no one doubts it today. How did we recognize it? By its effects; from the effects one has concluded the cause; we did more: by calculating the power of the effects, we calculated the power of the cause that we have never seen.

It is the same with God and the spiritual life, also judged by their effects, according to this axiom: "Every effect has a cause. Every intelligent effect has an intelligent cause. The power of the intelligent cause is proportional to the magnitude of the effect.” To believe in God and in the spiritual life, therefore, is not a purely gratuitous belief, but a result of observations, just as positive as the one that allowed us to believe in the force of gravity.

Then, in the absence of material evidence, or concurrently therewith, doesn’t philosophy admit the moral proofs that sometimes have much more value than others? You, who hold true only what is proven physically, how about if you are unjustly accused of a crime in which all appearances are against you, as it is often seen in court, wouldn’t the judges take into account moral evidence that would be in your favor? Wouldn’t you bet the first to invoke them, to assert their predominance upon purely material effects that can deceive, to prove that the senses can deceive the most clairvoyant? If, then, you admit that moral proofs must weigh in the balance of a judgment, you would not be consistent with yourself in denying its value, when it is a question of forming an opinion on the things that, by their nature, are beyond materiality.

What could be freer, more independent, less graspable by its very essence, than thought? And yet, here is a school that claims to emancipate it by linking it to matter; that sustains, in the name of reason, that thought circumscribed on earthly things is freer than that which soars into infinity, and wants to see beyond the material horizon! One might as well say that the prisoner that can only take a few steps in his dungeon is freer than the one that runs in the fields. If, to believe in the things of the spiritual world that is infinite, it is not to be free, you are a hundred times less so, you who circumscribe yourselves within the narrow limit of the tangible, who say to the thought: You will not go out of the circle that we are tracing for you, and if you leave it, we declare that you are no longer a sound thought, but madness, foolishness, unreason, because it is up to us alone to distinguish the false from the true.

Spiritualism responds to this: We form the immense majority of men, of which you are barely the millionth part; by what right do you attribute to yourself the monopoly of reason? Do you want to emancipate our ideas by imposing yours on us? But you don't teach us anything; we know what you know; we believe, without restriction, in everything you believe: in matter, and the value of hard evidence, and more than you: in something outside matter; in an intelligent power greater than humanity; in causes inappreciable by the senses, but perceptible to thought; in the perpetuity of the spiritual life that you limit to the length of the life of the body. Our ideas are, therefore, infinitely broader than yours; while you circumscribe your point of view, ours embraces boundless horizons. How can he who concentrates his thought on a determined order of facts, thus posing a stopping point to his intellectual movements, to his investigations, can claim to emancipate the one that moves unhindered, and whose thought probes the depths of infinity? To restrict the field of exploration of thought is to restrict its freedom, and that is what you are doing.

You still say that you want to take the world from the yoke of dogmatic beliefs; do you, at least, make a distinction between these beliefs? No, because you confuse in the same reprobation all that is not the exclusive domain of science, all that cannot be seen by the eyes of the body, in a word, all that is of spiritual essence, consequently God, the soul and the future life. But, if every spiritual belief is an obstacle to the freedom to think, so is all material belief; whoever believes that something is red, because he sees it red, is not free to believe it is green. As soon as thought is stopped by any conviction, it is no longer free; to be consistent with your theory, absolute freedom would consist in believing nothing at all, not even in one's own existence, for that would still be a restriction; but then what would become of thought?

Seen from this point of view, free thought would be nonsense. It must be understood in a broader and truer sense; that is to say, of the free use that one makes of the faculty of thinking, and not of its application to any order of ideas. It consists, not in believing one thing rather than another, nor in excluding this or that belief, but in the absolute freedom of the choice of beliefs. It is, therefore, improperly that some apply it exclusively to anti-spiritualist ideas. Any reasoned opinion, that is neither imposed nor blindly chained to that of others, but that is voluntarily adopted by virtue of the exercise of personal judgment, is free thought, whether religious, political or philosophical.

Free thought, in its broadest sense, means: free examination, freedom of conscience, reasoned faith; it symbolizes intellectual emancipation, moral independence, complementing physical independence; it does not want slaves of thought any more than slaves of the body, for what characterizes the free thinker is that he thinks for himself, and not for others, in other words, his opinion belongs to him. So, there can be free thinkers in all opinions and beliefs. In this sense, free thought raises the dignity of man; it makes him an active, intelligent being, instead of a believing machine.

In the exclusive sense that some give it, instead of emancipating the mind, it restricts its activity, it makes it the slave of matter. Fanatics of disbelief do, in one way, what fanatics of blind faith do in another; while the latter say: To be according to God you must believe in all that we believe; outside our faith there is no salvation, the others say: To be according to reason, you must think like us, believe only what we believe; outside the limits that we trace for belief, there is neither freedom nor common sense, a doctrine that is formulated by this paradox: Your mind is free only on the condition of not believing what it wants , which amounts to saying to an individual: You are the freest of all men, on condition that you do not go further than the end of the rope, to which we are attaching you.

We, certainly, do not contest the right of unbelievers to believe in nothing other than matter, but they will agree that there are singular contradictions in their claim to hold the monopoly of freedom of thought.

We have said that, by the quality of free thinker, certain people seek to attenuate what the absolute incredulity has of repellent to the opinion of the masses; suppose, in fact, that a journal is openly titled; the Atheist, the Incredulous or the Materialist; one can judge the impression that such title would have on the public; but if it shelters these same doctrines under the cover name of free thinker, with this label, one says: It is the flag of the moral emancipation; it must be that of freedom of conscience, and above all, of tolerance; let's see. We see that it is not always necessary to refer to the label.

It would be wrong, moreover, to be excessively frightened by the consequences of certain doctrines; they may, momentarily, seduce a few individuals, but they will never seduce the masses, that are opposed to them, out of instinct and necessity. It helps that all systems come to light, so that everyone can judge their strength and the weakness, and by the right of free examination, can knowingly adopt or reject them. When utopias have been seen in action, and their powerlessness proven, they will fall and never get up again. By their very exaggeration, they stirred up society and prepared the renovation. This is, again, a sign of the times.

Is Spiritism, as some think, a new blind faith substituted by another blind faith? In other words, is it a new slavery of thought in a new form? To believe it, one must ignore the first elements. Indeed, Spiritism establishes, as a principle, that before believing one must understand; to understand, one must use judgment; that is why it tries to verify everything before admitting anything, namely the why and the how of everything; also, the Spiritists are more skeptical than many others, regarding the phenomena that go beyond the circle of the usual observations. It is not based on any preconceived and hypothetical theory, but on experience and observation of facts; instead of saying, “Believe first, and then you will understand, if you can,” it says, “Understand first, and then you will believe if you will.” It does not impose itself on anyone; it says to everybody: “See, observe, compare and come to us freely if it suits you.” By speaking this way, it puts itself among competitors, and fights a chance with the competition. If many come to it, it is because it satisfies many, but no one accepts it with their eyes closed. To those who do not accept it, it says: “You are free, and I do not hold it against you; all I ask of you is to let me have my freedom, just as I am leaving yours to you. If you are trying to oust me, for fear that I will supplant you, it is because you are not quite sure of yourself."

Spiritism, not seeking to rule out any of the competitors, in the open competition of the ideas that must prevail in the regenerated world, it is in the conditions of true free thought; admitting no theory that is not founded on observation, it is, at the same time, in those of the most rigorous positivism; finally, it has the advantage of tolerance over its adversaries of two extreme opposing opinions.

Note. Some people have criticized us for the theoretical explanations that we have, from the beginning, sought to give about the Spiritist phenomena. These explanations, based on careful observation, by tracing the effects to the cause, proved, on the one hand, that we wanted to realize and not believe blindly; on the other hand, that we wanted to make Spiritism a science of reasoning and not of credulity. By these explanations that time has developed, but that it has blessed in principle, for none has been contradicted by experience, the Spiritists believed, because they understood, and there is no doubt that it is to this that the rapid increase in the number of serious followers must be attributed. It is to these explanations that Spiritism owes the fact that it has left the domain of the marvelous, and was connected to the positive sciences; through them, it is shown to the unbelievers that it is not a work of imagination; without them, we would still to understand the phenomena that arise every day. It was urgent, from the onset, to place Spiritism on its real ground. The theory, based on experience, was the brake that prevented superstitious credulity, as well as malevolence, from leading it astray. Why those that accuse us of having taken such initiative, haven’t they taken it themselves?

With this title, Mr. Hippolyte Rodrigues published a book in which he foresees the merger of the three major religions from the Bible. One of the writers of the journal Le Pays provides the following thoughts about it, in the issue of December 10^th, 1866:

"What the three daughters of the Bible? The first is Jewish, the second is Catholic, the third is Muslim.

We see immediately that this is a serious book, and the work of Mr. Hippolyte Rodrigues is especially of interest to serious minds, given to the moral and philosophical meditations about human destiny. The author believes in a future merger of the three great religions, that he calls the three daughters of the Bible, and he works to bring about this result, in which he sees a huge progress. It is from this fusion that the new religion will come, that he considers to be the final religion of humanity.

I do not want to initiate here, with Mr. Hippolyte Rodrigues, an untimely polemic on the religious issue, that has been agitated for so many years in the depths of conscience and in the bowels of society. However, I will allow myself a reflection. He wants to have the new belief accepted by reasoning. Until this day, there has been only the faith that has founded and maintained religions, for this supreme reason that, when we reason, we no longer believe, and only when a people, an era, has ceased believing, one soon sees the collapse of the existing religion, and one does not see the rise of a new religion."

A. de Césena.

This tendency, that is becoming general, to foresee the unification of cults, like everything connected with the fusion of peoples, with the lowering of barriers that separate them, morally and commercially, is also one of the characteristic signs of the times. We will not judge the work of Mr. Rodrigues, since we do not know it, nor do we have examined it, for the moment, by which circumstances might be brought about the result that he hopes for, and that he rightly considers as progress; we only want to comment on the above article.

The author makes a big mistake when he says that “when we reason we no longer believe.” We say, on the contrary, that when we reason our belief, we believe more firmly, because we understand; it is by virtue of this principle that we have said: There is no unshakeable faith except the one that can meet reason, face to face, at all ages of humanity.

The fault of most religions is to have set up the principle of blind faith as an absolute dogma, and to have, thanks to this principle that annihilates the action of intelligence, made people accept, for some time, beliefs that subsequent advances in science have come to contradict. It resulted, for a large number of people, in this prevention that any religious belief cannot withstand free examination, confusing, in a general disapproval, what were only special cases. This way of judging things is no more rational than if we condemned a whole poem, because it would contain some incorrect lines, but it is more convenient for those that do not want to believe in anything, because, by rejecting everything , they believe they are exempt from examining anything.

The author commits another capital error when he says: "When a people, a time has ceased to believe, we soon see the existing religion crumble, we do not see the rise of a new religion.” Where, in history, has he seen a people, a time without religion?

Most religions originated in remote times, when scientific knowledge was very limited or non-existent; they erected erroneous notions into beliefs, which time alone could rectify. Unfortunately, all of them were based on the principle of immutability, and as almost all of them confused, in the same code, the civil law and the religious law, it resulted that, at a given time, having the human spirit advanced, while religions remained stationary, these have no longer found themselves up to the new ideas. Then, they fall by the force of circumstances, as do laws, social mores, and political systems that cannot satisfy new needs. But, since religious beliefs are instinctive in man, and constitute, for the heart and the mind, a need as imperative as civil legislation for the social order, they do not annihilate themselves; they are transformed.

The transition never takes place abruptly, but through the temporary mixing of old and new ideas; it is first a mixed faith that participates in one and another; little by little the old belief is extinguished, the new one grows, until the substitution is complete. The transformation, sometimes, is only partial; these are then sects that separate from the mother religion, by modifying a few points of detail. This is how Christianity succeeded Paganism, Islamism succeeded Arab fetishism, Protestantism, and the Greek religion, separated from Catholicism. Everywhere we see peoples abandoning a belief only to adopt another one, appropriate to their moral and intellectual advancement; but nowhere there is a break in continuity.

It is true that we see absolute incredulity today, erected as a doctrine, and professed by some philosophical sects; but its representatives, that constitute a tiny minority in the intelligent population, make the mistake of believing themselves to be a whole people, a whole era, and because they no longer want religion, they believe that their personal opinion is the closure of the religious time, while it is only a partial transition to another order of ideas.

Extract of a letter from Abbé Lacordaire, to Mrs. Swetchine, dated from Flavigny, June 29^th, 1853, taken from his correspondence, published in 1865.

“Have you seen or heard of the spinning tables? - I disdained to see them turn, like a too simple thing, but I heard and made them speak. They told me some pretty remarkable things, about the past and the present. However extraordinary it may be, it is to a Christian that believes in Spirits, a very vulgar and very poor phenomenon.

At all times there have been more or less bizarre ways of communicating with Spirits; only in the past one would make a mystery of these processes, as one made mystery of chemistry; justice, by means of terrible executions, buried these strange practices in the shadows. Today, thanks to freedom of worship and universal publicity, what was a secret has become a popular formula. Perhaps also, through this disclosure, God wants to harmonize the development of spiritual forces to the development of material forces, so that man does not forget, in the presence of the wonders of mechanics, that there are two worlds, one inserted in the other: the world of the bodies and the world of the Spirits.

It is probable that this parallel development will continue to increase until the end of the world, which will one day bring the reign of the antichrist, where we will see, on both sides, for good or evil, the use of supernatural weapons, and frightening wonders. I do not conclude that the Antichrist is near, because the operations that we are witnessing have nothing more extraordinary than what was seen in the past, except publicity. The poor unbelievers must be quite worried about their reason; but they have the resource of believing everything to escape the true faith, and they will not fail to do so. O depth of the designs of God!”

Abbé Lacordaire wrote this in 1853, meaning, almost at the beginning of the demonstrations, at a time when these phenomena were much more an object of curiosity than a subject of serious meditation. Although, at that time, they had not been formed either as a science or as a body of doctrine, he had glimpsed at their scope, and far from considering them as an ephemeral thing, he foresaw their development in the future. His opinion, on the existence and manifestation of the Spirits, is categorical; now, since he is generally held, by everyone, as one of the great intelligences of this century, it seems difficult to rank him among the mad ones, after having applauded him as a man of great sense and progress. We can, therefore, have common sense and believe in Spirits.

Talking tables, he says, “are a very vulgar and very poor phenomenon;” Very poor indeed, as for the means of communicating with the Spirits, because if we had not had others, Spiritism would not have advanced very much; the writing mediums were hardly know, and one did not suspect what was going to come out of this, apparently, so childish media.

As for the reign of the Antichrist, Lacordaire does not seem to be much afraid of it, because he does not see it coming anytime soon. For him, these manifestations are providential; they must disturb and confuse the unbelievers; he admires the depth of God’s designs in them; they are not, therefore, the work of the devil, who must push to deny God, and not to recognize His power.

The above extract, from Lacordaire's correspondence, was read at the Parisian Society, in the session of January 18^th; in this same session, Mr. Morin, one of his usual writing mediums, fell asleep spontaneously, under the magnetic action of the Spirits; it was the third time that this phenomenon occurred with him, because, usually, he does not fall asleep, except by ordinary magnetization. In his sleep, he spoke about different subjects, and of several Spirits present, whose thoughts he transmitted to us. He said, among other things, the following:

“A Spirit that you all know, and that I also recognize; a Spirit of great earthly reputation, raised in the intellectual ladder of the worlds, is here. Spiritist before Spiritism, I saw him teaching the doctrine, no longer as an incarnate, but as a Spirit. I saw him preaching with the same eloquence, with the same feeling of intimate conviction as in life, which he certainly would not have dared to openly preach in the pulpit, but what his teachings led to.

I saw him preaching the doctrine to his own, to his family, to all his friends. I saw him get carried away, although in a spiritual state, when he encountered a refractory brain, or a stubborn resistance to the inspirations he breathed; always lively and petulant, wanting to make conviction penetrate into the minds, as one makes the chisel penetrate the living rock, pushed by a vigorous blow of a hammer. But it doesn't get in so quickly; however, his eloquence has converted more than one. This Spirit is that of Abbé Lacordaire.

He asks for one thing, not out of pride, not out of any personal interest, but in the interest of all and for the good of the doctrine: the insertion in the Spiritist Review, of what he wrote thirteen years ago. If I ask for this insertion, he said, it is for two reasons; the first is that you will show the world that, as you say, one may not be a fool and believe in Spirits. The second is that the publication of this first quotation will reveal, in my writings, other passages that will be pointed out at, as agreeing with the principles of Spiritism.”

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[1] a member of the French secular clergy in major or minor orders (merriam-webistar.com, T.N.)

In response to the opinion that attributes to a cunning of the devil the moral transformations brought about by the teaching of the Spirits, we have repeatedly said that the devil would not be very clever if, in order to succeed in losing man, he begins by pulling him out of the quagmire of disbelief, and brings him back to God; that it would be the conduct of a fool and naïve. It has been objected to this, that this is precisely the masterpiece of the malice of this enemy of God and of men. We acknowledge that we do not understand the malice.

One of our correspondents sends us, in support of our reasoning, the following words from Monsignor de Freyssinous, bishop of Hermopolis, taken from his Conferences on religion, volume II, page 341; Paris, 1825.

“If Jesus Christ had worked his miracles by virtue of the devil, then the devil would have worked to destroy his empire, and he would have used his power against himself. Certainly, a devil that would seek to destroy the reign of vice to establish that of virtue, would be a strange devil. This is why Jesus, to reject the absurd accusation of the Jews, said to them: “If I work wonders in the name of the devil, then the devil is divided with himself; he therefore seeks to destroy himself, ”- an answer without a replica.”

Thanks to our correspondent for kindly pointing out to this important passage from which our readers will take adequate benefit. Thank you also to all those who pass to us what they find, in their readings, of interest to the doctrine. Nothing is lost.

Many clergymen, as we see, are far from professing opinions as absolute as certain members of the clergy, on the devilish doctrine; Bishop de Hermopolis is, in these matters, an authority whose value they cannot deny. His arguments are, precisely, the same that the Spiritists oppose to those that attribute to the devil, the good advice they receive from the Spirits. What is, in fact, that the Spirits do, if not destroy the reign of vice, to establish that of virtue, bringing back to God those that disregard and deny Him? If this is the work of the devil, he would act like a professional thief that would restore what he stole and engage other thieves to become honest people. Then, he should be congratulated on his transformation. To support the voluntary cooperation of the spirit of evil to produce good, is not only nonsense, but it is also to deny the highest Christian authority: that of Jesus. One could conceive that the Pharisees, in the time of Jesus, believed this, in good faith, because then, one was no more enlightened on the nature of Satan than on that of God, and that it was part of the theogony of the Jews to consider two rival powers. But today, such a doctrine is as inadmissible as the one that attributed to Satan certain technological inventions, such as the press, for example; those that defend it are, perhaps, the last ones to believe in it; it is already becoming ridiculous and frightens no one, and before long, nobody will dare to seriously invoke it.

The Spiritist doctrine does not admit a power rivaling that of God, and even less could it admit that a fallen being, thrown by God into the abyss, could have recovered enough power to counterbalance His designs, removing from God his almighty power. According to this doctrine, Satan is the allegorical personification of evil, as Saturn was, among the Pagans, the personification of time, Mars that of war, Venus of beauty.

The Spirits that manifest themselves are the souls of men, and there are among them, as among men, good and perverse, advanced and tardy; the good ones say good things, give good advice; the perverts say bad things, inspire bad thoughts, and do evil as they did on earth; seeing wickedness, deceit, ingratitude, and the perversity of certain men, one recognizes that they are no better than the worst Spirits; but, incarnate or discarnate, these evil Spirits will, improve one day, when they have been touched by repentance.

Compare the two doctrines and see which one is the most rational, the most respectful to the Divinity.

Several newspapers reproduced the following fact:

“La Sentinelle, from Toulon, talks about a young phenomenon that is admired now, in this city:

“She is a little girl, two years and eleven months old, called Eugénie Colombe. This child already knows how to read and write perfectly, she is also able to take the most serious examination on the principles of the Christian religion, on French grammar, geography, the history of France and the four rules of arithmetic. She knows the compass rose and perfectly supports a scientific discussion on all these subjects. This amazing little girl began to speak very distinctly when she was four months old.

Presented in the salons of the maritime prefecture, Eugénie Colombe, endowed with a charming face, was a magnificent success."

This article had seemed to us, and to many others, carried with such exaggeration that we gave no importance to it. Nevertheless, to know positively what to expect, we asked one of our correspondents, a naval officer in Toulon, to inquire into the fact. Here is what he told us:

“To make sure of the truth, I went to the parents’ house of the little girl, reported by the Sentinelle of Toulon, on November 19th; I saw this charming child, whose physical development is commensurate with her age; she is only three years old. Her mother is a schoolteacher; it is she that directs her education. She questioned her, in my presence, about catechism, holy history, from the creation of the world to the flood, the first eight kings of France and various circumstances relating to their reign and that of Napoleon I. In geography, the child named the five parts of the world, the capitals of the countries they contain, several capitals of the departments of France. She also answered perfectly well the first notions of French grammar and the metric system. This child did all the above without hesitation, while having fun with the toys she was holding in her hands. Her mother told me that she has been able to read since she was two and a half years old and has assured me that she can answer over five hundred questions in the same way."

Freed from the exaggeration of the newspapers, and reduced to the above proportions, the fact is, nonetheless, remarkable, and important in its consequences. It necessarily calls attention to analogous facts of intellectual precocity and innate knowledge. We involuntarily try to explain them to ourselves, and with the ideas of plurality of existences that circulate, we only manage to find a rational solution in a previous existence. We must classify these phenomena among those that were announced before, confirming, by their multiplicity, the Spiritist beliefs, and contributing to their development.

In this case, memory certainly seems to play an important role. The mother of this child being a teacher, the little girl was undoubtedly usually in the class, and will have learned the lessons taught to the pupils by her mother, while we see some children possessing, by intuition, some kind of innate knowledge, and independent of any teaching. But why, with her rather than with others, this exceptional facility to assimilate what she heard, and that one probably did not dream of teaching her? It was because what she heard only awakened in her the memory what she had known. The precocity of certain children for languages, music, mathematics, etc., all innate ideas, in a word, are also only memories; they remember what they knew, as we see some people remember, more or less vaguely, what they did, or what happened to them. We know a little five-year-old boy that, being at the table, where nothing in the conversation could have provoked an idea on this subject, began saying: "I was married, and I remember it well; I had a wife, small, young and pretty, and I had several children.” We certainly have no means of controlling his assertion, but we wonder where he could have taken such an idea from, when no circumstances could have provoked it.

Should we conclude that children that only learn through hard work have been ignorant or stupid in their previous existence? Certainly not; the faculty of remembering is an aptitude inherent to the psychological state, that is, to the easier release of the soul in some individuals than in others, a sort of retrospective spiritual view that reminds them of the past, while for those that do not have it, this past leaves no apparent trace. The past is like a dream that we remember, more or less exactly, or that we have totally lost the memory of. (See Spiritist Review of July 1860, and November 1864).

At the time of sending for printing, we received a letter, from one of our correspondents in Algeria, that while passing through Toulon, saw the young Eugénie Colombe; it contains the following account that confirms the previous one, and adds details to it that are not without interest:

“This child, of a remarkable beauty, is extremely lively, but angelically sweet. Placed on her mother's lap, she answered more than fifty questions about the Gospel. When asked about geography, she pointed out to me all the capitals of Europe and the various states of America; all the capitals of the French departments and Algeria; she explained to me the decimal system, the metric system. In grammar, verbs, participles, and adjectives. She knows, or at least defines, the first four basic rules. She wrote at my dictation, but with such rapidity that I am inclined to believe that she does a mediumistic writing. In the fifth line she put down her pen; she looked at me fixedly with her big blue eyes, and abruptly said to me: “Sir, that's enough; Then she got down from her seat and ran to her toys. This child is certainly a very advanced Spirit because we see that she answers and quotes without the slightest effort of memory. Her mother told me that, since the age of 12 to 15 months, she dreams at night and seems to be conversing, but in a language that does not allow her to be understood. She is charitable by instinct; she always attracts her mother's attention when she sees a poor person; she cannot bear to see dogs, cats or any animals mistreated. Her father is a shipyard worker.”

Only enlightened Spiritists, like our two correspondents, could appreciate the psychological phenomenon presented by this young child, and investigate its cause; for, just as to judge a mechanism, one needs be a mechanic, to judge Spiritist facts, one must be a Spiritist. Now, who in general is responsible for the observation and explanation of phenomena of this kind? Precisely people that have not studied them, and that denying the first cause, cannot admit the consequences.

We read in the Spiritual Magazine of London:

“The celebrity of Tom, the Blind, that recently appeared in London, had already spread here, and a few years ago an article in the newspaper All year round, described his remarkable abilities and the sensation they had produced in America. The way in which these faculties developed in this black, slave and blind, ignorant and totally illiterate; how, as a child still, one day surprised by the sounds of music in his master's house, he unceremoniously ran to take his place at the piano, reproducing note by note what had just been played, laughing and contorting with joy, by seeing the new world of pleasures he had just discovered; it has all been said so many times that I think it unnecessary to mention it again; but a significant and interesting fact was said to me by a friend that was the first witness and appreciator of Tom's faculty. One day a work by Handel was played to him. Tom immediately played it again, correctly, and when he was done, he rubbed his hands with an expression of indefinable joy, exclaiming: “I see him, he's an old man with a big wig; he played first and I did after.” It is indisputable that Tom had seen Handel and heard him play.

Tom has performed in public several times, and the way he performs the most difficult pieces would almost cast doubt on his disease. He repeats on the piano, without mistake, and necessarily from memory, everything that is played to him, whether old classical sonatas or modern fantasies; well, we would like to see the one who could learn Thalberg's variations in this way, with their eyes closed, as he did. This surprising fact of a blind, ignorant, uneducated man, showing a talent which others are unable to acquire with all the advantages of study, will probably be explained by many in the ordinary way of considering these things, saying: “he is a genius and an exceptional organization”, but it is only Spiritism that can give the key to this phenomenon, in a comprehensible and rational way.”



The reflections we made, about the little girl from Toulon, naturally apply to the blind Tom. Tom must have been a great musician, that only needs to hear to remember what he knew. What makes the phenomenon more extraordinary is that it is presented in a black, slave and blind, a triple cause that was opposed to the cultivation of his native aptitudes, and despite which they manifested themselves at the first favorable opportunity, like a seed that germinates in the rays of sun.

Now, as the black race in general, and especially in a state of slavery, does not shine through the culture of arts, it must be concluded that the Spirit of Tom does not belong to that race; but that he will have incarnated there either as atonement, or as a providential means of rehabilitation of this race in public opinion, by showing what it is capable of. Much has been said and written against slavery and the prejudice of color; everything that has been said is just and moral; but it was only a philosophical thesis. The law of the plurality of existences, and of reincarnation, adds to it the irrefutable sanction of a law of nature, that consecrates the brotherhood of all men. Tom the slave, born and acclaimed in America, is a living protest against the prejudices that still reign in that country. (See the Spiritist Review, April 1862: Perfectibility of the black race. Spiritualist phrenology).

“A few days ago, The Morning Post told the strange story of a dog that allegedly committed suicide. The animal was owned by a Mr. Home, of Frinsbury, near Rochester. It appears that certain circumstances had led to suspect that it was suffering from rabies, and consequently it was avoided and kept away from the house, as much as possible.

It seemed to experience a great deal of annoyance at being treated like this, and for a few days it was noticed that the dog was in a gloomy and grieving mood but showing no symptoms of rage yet. Thursday he was seen leaving his niche and heading towards the residence of a close friend of his master at Upnor, where he was refused to welcome him, which drew a lamentable cry from him.

On Thursday it was seen leaving its niche and heading towards the residence of a close friend of his master, in Upnor, where it was not welcomed, producing a lamentable cry.

After having waited some time in front of the house, not obtaining permission to get inside, the god decided to leave, and was seen going to the side of the river that passes by, descending the bank with a deliberate step, and then, after turning around and sending a sort of farewell howl, entering the river, plunging the head under the water, and after a minute or two, reappearing lifeless on the surface.

This extraordinary act of suicide was said to have been witnessed by many people. The kind of death clearly proves that the animal was not hydrophobic.

This fact seems very extraordinary; it will, no doubt, meet skeptical. Nevertheless, says the Droit, it is not without precedent.

History has preserved us the memory of faithful dogs that threw themselves to voluntary death, so as not to outlive their masters. Montaigne cites two examples borrowed from antiquity: "Hyrcanus, the dog of King Lysimachus, its dead master, remained obstinate in bed, not willing to eat or drink, and the day the body of his master was burned, it ran and threw itself in the fire, where it was burnt; as the dog of a man named Pyrrhus also did, for it did not move from its master's bed since he was dead; and when he was carried away, the dog let itself be taken away with him, and finally threw itself into the fire where the body of his master was burning. (Essays, book II, chap. XII.) We, ourselves, recorde, a few years ago, the tragic end of a dog that, having lost the love of his master, and unable to find consolation, it rushed from the top of a footbridge, in the Saint-Martin canal. The very detailed account that we then gave of this event has never been contradicted and has not given rise to any complaint from the concerned parties."

Petit Journal, May 15th, 1866



Animal suicide is not without example. The dog, as it was said above, that allows itself to die of starvation, out of sorrow for having lost its master, carries out a real suicide. The scorpion, surrounded by a circle of hot coals, seeing that it cannot get out, kills itself. It is one more analogy to be noted between the Spirit of man and that of animals.

The voluntary death of an animal proves that it is aware of its existence and of its individuality; it understands what life and death are, since it chooses freely between one and the other; it is, therefore, not so much a machine, and does not obey an exclusively blind instinct, as is supposed. Instinct drives the search for means of preservation, and not of its own destruction.

Paris, October 25^th, 1866 – medium Mr. Desliens

What is man? … A compound of three essential principles: the Spirit, the perispirit and the body. The absence of any one of these three principles would necessarily entail the annihilation of the being in the human state. If the body is no more, there is the Spirit and no longer the man;

if the perispirit is missing or cannot function, the intangible cannot act directly on to matter, and thus being unable to manifest itself, there may be something like the cretin^[1] or the idiot, but there will never be an intelligent being. Finally, if the Spirit is missing, we will have a living embryo of animal life, and not an incarnate Spirit. If we then have the three principles present, these three principles must react one upon the other, and health or disease will follow, depending on whether there is perfect harmony or partial disharmony between them. If the disease or the organic disorder, as one would like to call it, proceeds from the body, the material medicines, wisely employed, will suffice to restore the general harmony. If the disorder comes from the perispirit, if it is a modification of the fluidic principle that composes it, that is altered, it will take a medication corresponding to the nature of the disturbed organ, so that the functions can resume their normal state. If the disease proceeds from the Spirit, nothing can be used to combat it other than spiritual medication. If, finally, as the most general case, and we can even say that it presents itself exclusively, if the disease proceeds from the body, the perispirit and the Spirit, the medication will have to combat all the causes of the disorder, by various means, to obtain cure. But what do doctors generally do? They treat the body, and they heal it; but do they cure the disease? No. Why? Because since the perispirit is a principle above matter, properly, it can become a cause relatively to that; and if it is hampered, the material organs, that are connected with it, will also be affected in their vitality. By healing the body, you destroy the effect; but since the cause resides in the perispirit, the disease will return when the care ceases, until it has been realized that it is necessary to turn the attention elsewhere, by fluidically treating the morbid fluidic principle. If, finally, the disease proceeds from the mind, from the Spirit, the perispirit and the body, placed under its dependence, will be hindered in their functions, and it is neither by treating one nor by treating the other that one will remove the cause. It is therefore not by putting the straitjacket on a madman, or by giving him pills or showers, that we will succeed in putting him back into his normal state; we will only appease his rebellious senses; we will calm his attacks, but we will not destroy the germ unless by fighting it with its similar, by doing homeopathy spiritually and fluidically, as we do materially, by giving the patient, through prayer, an infinitesimal dose of patience, calm, resignation, depending on the case, as he is given an infinitesimal dose of brucine, digitalis or aconite.

To destroy a morbid cause, one must fight it on its ground.

Dr. Morel Lavallée

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[1] With the disease of cretinism (T.N.)

Parisian Society, January 5^th, 1866 – medium Mr. Leymarie



Will you give me hospitality in your first session in 1866? I wish, embracing you fraternally, to offer you friendly greetings; may you have a lot of moral satisfactions, a lot of will and persevering charity.

In this century of lights, what is most lacking is clarity! The half-scientists, the baddie of the press, have valiantly done the work of the spider to obscure, with the help of a so-called liberal fabric, all that is clear, all that illuminates.

Dear Spiritists, have you found, in all social strata, this force of reasoning that is the intelligent hallmark of successful beings? Are you not, on the contrary, certain that the great majority of your brothers are languishing in unhealthy ignorance? Heresies and bad deeds everywhere!

Good intentions, corrupted in its principle, fall one by one, like those beautiful fruits that a worm spoils at the heart and the wind throws to the ground. Clarity in the arguments, in knowledge, would it have made, by chance, the choice of residence in the academies, among the philosophers, the journalists or the pamphleteers? … It seems that one could doubt it, by seeing them, like Diogenes, with a lantern in hand, seeking truth under the sun.

Light, clarity, you are the essence of all intelligent movement! You will soon inundate, with your beneficent rays, the most obscure recesses of this poor humanity; it is you that will bring out of the mire so many dumbfounded, rude, unhappy earthlings that must be cleansed by education, by freedom, above all by the awareness of their spiritual value. Light will drive away tears, sorrows, dark despair, the negation of divine things, all bad will! By besieging materialism, it will force it to no longer take shelter behind this factitious, worm-eaten rampart, from which it awkwardly unleashes its darts against anything that is not its work.



But the masks will be torn off and we will then know whether pleasures, fortune and sensualism are indeed the emblems of life and freedom. Clarity is useful in everything and to everybody; both embryo and man need light! without it everything gropes, and the groping soul seeks the soul.

May an eternal night be made! the harmonious colors will soon disappear from your globe, the flowers will wither, the great trees will be destroyed; the insects, the whole of nature will no longer produce those thousand sounds, the eternal song of God! The streams will bathe desolate shores; the cold will have mummified everything, and life disappeared! ...

It is the same with the Spirit. If you make night around it, it will be sick; the cold will petrify its divine tendencies; man, as in the Middle Ages, will go numb, similar in his soul to the wild and desolate solitudes of boreal regions!

That is why, Spiritists, that you owe yourselves all the clarity. But before you advise and teach, first start by illuminating the smallest folds of your soul. When, purified enough to fear nothing, you can raise your voice, your gaze, your gesture, you will wage an implacable war to the shadows, to sadness, to the absence of life; you will teach the great Spiritist laws to the brothers who know nothing of the role that God assigns to them.

1866, may you, for years to come, be that luminous star that led the wise men to the cradle of a humble child of the people; they came to pay homage to the incarnation that was to represent, in the broadest sense, the Spirit of truth, this beneficent light that transformed humanity. By this child, everything was realized! He is the one that perpetuates grace and simplicity, charity, benevolence, love, and freedom.

Spiritism, also a luminous star, must, like the one, eighteen centuries ago, that torn apart the dark veil of the iron centuries, lead the earthlings to the conquest of the promised truths. Will it be able to extricate itself from the storms, promised to us by human evolution, and the desperate resistance of science at bay? This is what all of you, my friends, and we, your brothers of erraticity^[1], are called upon to better accuse, by flooding this year with the acquired clarity.

To work for this purpose is to be followers of the Child of Bethlehem, it is to be children of God, from whom all light and all clarity emanate.

Sonnez

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[1] Earthly spiritual world (T.N.)

Group Delanne, Paris, January 8^th, 1865 – medium Mrs. Br…



The times have come when this word of the prophet must be fulfilled: “I will pour out, says the Lord, of my Spirit onto all flesh, and your children will prophesy, your elders will have dreams.” Spiritism is this diffusion of the divine Spirit, coming to instruct and moralize all these poor disinherited of spiritual life that, seeing only matter, forgot that man does not live on bread alone.

The body, a material organism at the service of the soul, needs food appropriate to its nature; but the soul, emanation of the Creative Spirit, needs a spiritual nourishment, found only in the contemplation of the celestial beauties, resulting from the harmony of the intelligent faculties in their complete development.

As long as man neglects to cultivate his Spirit, remaining absorbed in the pursuit or possession of material goods, his soul stays somehow stationary, requiring a great number of incarnations before it can, imperceptibly obeying, and as if by force of the inevitable law of progress, arrive at that beginning of intellectual vitality, taking over the direction of the material being to which it is united. That is why, despite the teachings given by Christ to advance humanity, it is still so behind, because egoism did not want to fade away, before the law of charity that must change the face of world, turning it into a place of peace and happiness. But the goodness of God is infinite, it surpasses the indifference and ingratitude of his children; that is why he sends them these divine messengers that come to remind them that God did not create them for the earth, where they are only for a short while, so that, through work, they develop the qualities deposited in their soul as a seed, and that, citizens of heavens should not take pleasure in a station inferior to their ignorance, where they are held back by their faults alone.

Thank the Lord, then, and greet the advent of Spiritism with joy, since it is the fulfillment of prophecies, the shining sign of the goodness of the Father of mercy, and for you a new call to this unravelling of matter, so desirable, since only that can give you real happiness.

Louis of France

Spiritist novel by Mr. Élie Sauvage, member of the Society of Men of Literature.^[1]



The year 1867 started, for Spiritism, with the publication of a work that, in a way, inaugurated the new path opened by the Spiritist doctrine in literature. Mirette is not one of those books in which the Spiritist idea is a mere accessory, as if thrown there, for the sake of effect, by chance of imagination, without the animation or warmth of belief; it is the very idea that forms its fundamental pillar, less for the action than for the general consequences that flow from it.

In Théophile Gautier's Spiritist, the fantastic by far outweighs the real and the possible, from the point of view of the doctrine. It is less a Spiritist novel than the novel of Spiritism, and that the latter cannot accept as a faithful depiction of manifestations; moreover, the philosophical and moral content is almost null there. This work was, nonetheless, very useful to the popularization of the idea, by the authority of the name of the author, who knew how to give it the stamp of his undeniable talent, and by its publication in the official journal. It was also the first work of its kind of real importance, in which the idea was taken seriously.

Mr. Sauvage's work is conceived on a completely different level; it is a painting of real life, where nothing deviates from the possible, and in which Spiritism can accept everything. It is a simple, naive story of continual interest, and even more attractive because everything is natural and plausible in the story; one does not find romantic situations there, but touching scenes, elevated thoughts, characters drawn from nature; we see the noblest and purest feelings there, grappling with selfishness and sordid malice, faith struggling against disbelief. The style is clear, concise, without lengths or unnecessary accessories, without superfluous ornaments, and without pretensions to effect. The author proposed, above all, to write a moral book, and he drew its elements from the Spiritist philosophy and its consequences, much more than from the fact of manifestations; he shows to what elevation of thoughts these beliefs lead. On this point we sum up our opinion by saying that this book can be read with benefit, by the youth of both sexes, that will find beautiful models, good examples, and useful instructions there, without prejudice to benefit and pleasure, that can be taken at any age. We will add that to have written this book, in the way it was done, it is necessary to be deeply embedded in the principles of the doctrine.

The author places his action in 1831; he cannot, therefore, nominally speak of Spiritism, nor of current Spiritist works; so he had to trace his apparent point of departure back to Swedenborg; but everything here is in agreement with the data of modern Spiritism, that he studied carefully.

Here is the subject of the book, in two words:

Count de Rouville, suddenly forced to leave France during the revolution, on leaving for exile, had entrusted a large sum and his family titles to a man, on whose loyalty he believed he could count on. This man, abusing his confidence, misappropriates this sum, with which he enriches himself. When the emigrant returns, the custodian declares not to know him and denies the deposit. Mr. de Rouville, stripped of all his resources by this infidelity, dies of despair, leaving behind a little three-year-old girl, named Mirette.

The child is taken in by a former servant of the family, that brings her up as his daughter. She was barely sixteen when her adoptive father, very poor himself, died. Lucien, a young law student, with a great and noble soul, who had assisted the old man in his last moments, becomes the protector of Mirette, who remained without support and without asylum; he had her admitted to her mother’s house, a rich baker, with a hard and selfish heart. Now, it turns out that Lucien is the son of the spoiler; the latter, on learning later that Mirette is the daughter of the one whose ruin and death he had caused, falls ill and dies, filled with remorse, in convulsions of frightful agony. From there complications, because the young couple love each other, and despite all, end up getting married.

The main characters are: Lucien and Mirette, two elevated souls; Lucien's mother, the perfect type of egoism, greed, narrowness of ideas, struggling with maternal love; Lucien's father, the exact personification of troubled conscience; a basely wicked and jealous bread delivery woman; an old doctor, an excellent man, but incredulous and mocking; a medical student, his pupil, spiritualist, man of heart, and skillful magnetizer; a very lucid somnambulist, and a sister of charity with broad and lofty ideas, a typical character.

We have heard the following criticism of this book:

The action begins, without preamble, with one of those spontaneous manifestations of events, as we often see nowadays, consisting of knocks on the wall. These noises lead to the meeting of the two main characters in the story, Lucien and Mirette, unfolding thereafter. People say that the author should have given an explanation of the phenomenon, for those persons foreign to Spiritism, and who happen to have a point of departure that they do not understand. We do not share this opinion, for the same should be said of scenes of ecstatic visions and somnambulism.

The author did not want, and could not, given that it is a novel, make an educational treatise on Spiritism. Every day writers base their conceptions on scientific, historical or other facts, that they can do no less than assume to be known to their readers, or pay the price of transforming their works into encyclopedias; it is up to those that do not know them to look for them, or to ask for an explanation. Mr. Sauvage, placing his subject in 1831, could not develop theories that were not known until twenty years later. The rapping Spirits, as a matter of fact, have enough resonance in our days, thanks even to the hostile press, that few people had not heard of them. These facts are more vulgar today than many others that are quoted daily. The author seems to us to have, on the contrary, enhanced Spiritism by posing the fact as sufficiently known, to spare explanation.



We do not share either the opinion of those who reproach it for its somewhat familiar and vulgar setting, the few complications of the plot, in a word, for not having made a more masterful literary work, that he was certainly capable of. In our opinion, the work is what it should be, to achieve the proposed goal; it is not a monument that the author wanted to erect, but a simple and graceful little house where the heart can rest. As it is, it is addressed to everyone: large and small, rich and proletarians, but above all, to a class of readers to whom it would have been less suitable, if it had taken a more academic form. We believe that reading can be very beneficial to the working class, and as such we would like it to have the same the popularity of certain writings whose reading is less healthy.

The following two passages can give an idea of the spirit in which the work is conceived. The first is a scene between Lucien and Mirette, at the funeral of her adoptive father:

“My poor father, then I won't see you again!" said Mirette, sobbing.

“Mirette,” Lucien replied in a soft and grave voice, “those who believe in God and in the immortality of the human soul should not be sorry, like the unfortunate people who have no hope. For true Christians there is no such thing as death. Look around us: we are seated amid tombs, in the terrible and funereal place that ignorance and fear call the field of the dead. Well! the sun of May shines here as it does in the happiest fields. Trees, shrubs, and flowers flood the air with the sweetest perfumes; from the bird to the imperceptible insect, each being of creation throws its note in this great symphony that sings to God the sublime hymn of universal life. Isn't that, tell me, a brilliant protest, against nothingness, against death? Death is a transformation for matter; for good and intelligent beings, it is a transfiguration. Your father fulfilled the task that God had entrusted to him: God called him; may our selfish love not envy the palm of the martyr, the crown of the conqueror! … But do not think that he forgets you. Love is the mysterious link that connects all worlds. The father of a family, forced to make a long journey, does he not think of his cherished children? Does he not watch over their happiness from afar? Yes, Mirette, may this thought console you; we are never orphans on earth; to begin with, we have God that allowed us to call him our father, and then the friends that have preceded us in eternal life. - The one you cry, he is there, I see him… he smiles at you with ineffable tenderness, … he speaks with you… listen…

Lucien's face suddenly assumed an ecstatic expression; his fixed gaze, his finger raised in the air, showed something in space; his strained ear seemed to hear mysterious words.

“Child,” he said, with a voice that was no longer his, “why fixate your eyes, veiled with tears, on this corner of the earth, where my mortal remains have been laid? Look up to the sky; it is there that the Spirit, purified by suffering, by love and by prayer, flies towards the object of his sublime aspirations!

What does it matter to the butterfly that spreads its radiant wings in the sun, what does it matter the debris of its coarse envelope? Dust returns to dust; the spark goes back to its divine home. But the Spirit must go through terrible trials before receiving his crown. The earth, on which the human anthill crawls, is a place of atonement and of preparation for the blissful life. Great struggles await you, poor child, but have confidence: God and the good Spirits will not forsake you. Faith, hope, love, let that be your motto. Farewell."

The work ends with the following account of an ecstatic excursion by the two young people, then married:



After a journey that they could not appreciate the duration, these two air navigators approached an unknown and marvelous land, where it was all light, harmony and perfumes, where the vegetation was so beautiful, and differed as much from that of our globe as the flora of the tropics differs from that of Greenland and the southern lands. The beings that inhabited this world, lost amidst the worlds, resembled the idea that we have of angels down here. Their light and transparent bodies had nothing of our coarse earthly envelope, their faces radiated intelligence and love. Some rested in the shade of trees laden with fruits and flowers, others strolled, like those blessed shadows that Virgil shows us, in his lovely description of the Elysian Fields.

The two figures that Lucien had already seen several times, in his previous visions, came forward with outstretched arms towards the two travelers. The smile with which they were embraced, filled them with a heavenly joy. The one that had been Mirette's adoptive father, said to them with ineffable gentleness: “My dear children, your prayers and your good works have found grace with God. He has touched the soul of the guilty, and sends him back to earthly life, to atone for his faults and to purify himself with new trials, for God does not punish eternally, and his justice is always tempered by mercy."

Here is now the opinion of the Spirits about this work, given at the Parisian Society, in the meeting in which it was reported:

(Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, January 4^th, 1867 – medium Sr. Desliens)

“Every day belief detaches an irresolute mind from the adverse ideas; every day new obscure or illustrious followers come to take shelter under its banner; the facts multiply, and the crowd reflects. Then the feeble take their courage in both hands, and cry: Forward! with all the strength of their lungs. Serious men work, and moral or material science, novels, and short stories, allow the new principles to break through in eloquent pages. How many Spiritists, without knowing it, among modern spiritualists! How many publications are missing a single word to be designated, to public attention, as emanating from a Spiritist source!

The year 1866 presents the new philosophy in all its forms; but it is still the green stem that encloses the ear of wheat and waits to show it, until the heat of spring has made it ripen and open. 1866 prepared, 1867 will mature and achieve. The year opens under the auspices of Mirette, and it will not go by without seeing the appearance of new publications of the same kind, and of more serious still, in the sense that the novel will become philosophy, and that philosophy will make history.

Spiritism will not become an ignored belief, and accepted only by a few so-called sick brains; it will be a philosophy admitted to the banquet of intelligence, a new idea having a seat alongside the progressive ideas that mark the second half of the nineteenth century. So, we warmly congratulate the one that was the first to put aside all false human respect, to display his intimate belief frankly and squarely.

Dr. Morel Lavallée”

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[1] 1 vol. in-12. Authors' Bookstore, 10, rue de la Bourse. Price 3 fr. By post, for France and Algeria, 3 fr. 30 c.

Collection of mediumistic poems obtained by Mr. Vavasseur; preceded by a Study on mediumistic poetry, by Mr. Allan Kardec. 1 vol. in-12, price 1 fr. By post, for France and Algeria, 1 fr. 20 c. - Paris, central bookstore, 24, boulevard des Italiens; at the office of the Spiritist Review, and at the author's, 3, rue de la Mairie, in Paris-Montmartre.

This work, of which we spoke in our last issue, and whose printing has been delayed, is for sale.

Can homeopathy modify moral dispositions? This is the question that certain homeopathic physicians have asked themselves, and to which they do not hesitate to answer affirmatively, based on facts. Considering its extreme gravity, we are going to examine it carefully from a point of view that seems to us to have been neglected by these gentlemen, however Spiritualists and even Spiritists they may be, no doubt, because there are very few homeopathic doctors that are not one or the other. But, for the understanding of our conclusions, some preliminary explanations on the modifications of the cerebral organs are necessary, especially for people foreign to physiology.

A principle admitted by simple reason, that science observes every day, is that there is nothing unnecessary in nature, that even in the most imperceptible details, everything has a goal, a reason to be, a destination. This principle is particularly evident in what relates to the organism of living beings.

Historically, the brain has been considered the organ of the transmission of thought, and the seat of intellectual and moral faculties. It is now recognized that certain parts of the brain have special functions, and are assigned to a particular order of thoughts and feelings, at least with respect to generality; it is thus that we instinctively place in the anterior part the faculties related to the domain of the intelligence, and that a strongly depressed and shrunken forehead is, for everyone, a sign of intellectual inferiority. The affective faculties, feelings and passions are thus found to have their seat in other parts of the brain.

Now, if we consider that thoughts and feelings are excessively multiple, and starting from the principle that everything has its destination and its utility, it is possible to conclude that, not only each fibrous bundle of the brain corresponds to a faculty general distinct, but that each fiber corresponds to the manifestation of one of the nuances of this faculty, as each string of an instrument corresponds to a particular sound. It is a hypothesis, no doubt, but that has all the characteristics of probability, and whose denial would not invalidate the consequences that we will deduce from the general principle; it will help us in our explanation.

Is thought independent of the organism? We do not have to discuss this question here, nor to refute the materialistic opinion that thought is secreted by the brain, as bile is by the liver; it is born and dies with this organ; in addition to its disastrous moral consequences, this doctrine has against it the fact that it explains nothing.

According to spiritualist doctrines, which are those of the immense majority of men, matter cannot produce thought, that is an attribute of the Spirit, of the intelligent being, that, when it is united to the body, uses the organs specially affected for its transmission, as it uses the eyes to see, the feet to walk. The Spirit surviving the body, thought also survives.

According to the Spiritist doctrine, not only does the Spirit survive, but preexists the body; it is not a new being; he brings in his birth the ideas, qualities and imperfections he possessed; this explains the innate ideas, aptitudes and inclinations. Thought is, therefore, preexisting and surviving the organism. This point is crucial, and it is for lack of recognition that so many questions have remained insoluble.

All the faculties and all the aptitudes being in nature, the brain contains the organs, or at least the germ of the organs necessary for the manifestation of all thoughts. The activity of the thought of the Spirit, on a determined point, leads to the development of the fiber or, if you will, of the corresponding organ; if a faculty does not exist in the Spirit, or if it does exist but must remain in a latent state, the corresponding organ, being inactive, does not develop or atrophies.

If the organ is congenitally atrophied, the faculty not being able to manifest itself, the Spirit seems to be deprived of it, although he, in fact, possesses it, since it is inherent in him. Finally, if the organ, originally in its normal state, deteriorates during life, the faculty, brilliant as it was, dulls and then disappears, but is not destroyed; it is only a veil that covers it.

According to the individuals, there are faculties, aptitudes, tendencies which are manifested from the very beginning of life, others are revealed at later stages, and produce the changes of character and dispositions that one finds in some people. In the latter case, there are generally not new dispositions, but pre-existing aptitudes that lay dormant, until a circumstance comes to stimulate and awaken them.

We can be sure that the vicious dispositions that, sometimes, manifest themselves suddenly and belatedly, had their preexisting germ in the imperfections of the Spirit, for the latter, always marching to progress, if he is fundamentally good, cannot become bad, while from bad he can become good.

The development or depression of the organs of the brain follow the movement that takes place in the Spirit. These modifications are favored at any age, but especially at a young age, by the intimate work of renovation that is constantly taking place in the organism as follows:

The main elements of the organism are, as we know, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon which, by their multiple combinations, form the blood, nerves, muscles, humors, and different varieties of substances. Through the activity of vital functions, organic molecules are incessantly expelled from the body through perspiration, exhalation, and all secretions, so that if they were not replaced, the body would shrink and eventually waste away.

Food and aspiration constantly bring new molecules intended to replace those that go away; hence it follows that, in a given time, all the organic molecules are entirely renewed, and that at a certain age, there is no longer a single one of those that formed the body at its origin. This is the case of a house from which the stones would be removed, one by one, replacing them as they go by a new stone of the same shape and the same size, and so on, until the last one. We would still have the same house but made of different stones.

That is how it is with the body, the constituent elements of which are, say physiologists, totally renewed every seven years. The various parts of the organism still exist, but the materials are changed. From these general or partial changes arise the modifications that occur with age, in the healthy state of certain organs, the variations undergone by temperaments, tastes and desires that influence character.

Acquisitions and losses are not always in perfect balance. If the acquisitions outweigh the losses, the body grows or thickens; if the opposite takes place, the body shrinks. This explains the growth, obesity, weight loss, decrepitude.

The same cause produces the expansion or arrest of development of the cerebral organs, according to the modifications that take place in habitual concerns, ideas, and character. If the circumstances and the causes that act directly on the Spirit, provoking the exercise of an aptitude or of a passion, hitherto remained in the state of inertia, the activity that occurs in the corresponding organ, causes the blood to flow there and with that, the constituent molecules of the organ that grows and gains strength, in proportion to this activity.

For the same reason, the inactivity of the faculty produces the weakening of the organ; just as too great and too persistent an activity can lead to its disorganization or weakening, by a kind of wear and tear, as happens with a too tight rope.

The aptitudes of the Spirit are, therefore, always a cause, and the state of the organs an effect. It may happen, however, that the state of the organs is modified by a cause foreign to the Spirit, such as illness, accident, atmospheric or climacteric influence; it is then the organs that react on the Spirit, not by altering its faculties, but by disturbing its manifestation.

A similar effect can result from substances ingested in the stomach as food or medicine. These substances decompose there, and the essential principles that they contain, mixed with the blood, are carried by the current of the circulation to all parts of the body. It is recognized, by experience, that the active principles of certain substances are taken more particularly to one or another organ: the heart, the liver, the lungs, etc., and produce there restorative or deleterious effects, depending on their nature and their special properties. Some, acting in this way on the brain, can exert, overall, or on specific parts, a stimulating or stupefying action, according to the dose and the temperament, as for example, alcoholic beverages, opium, and others.

We have extended somewhat on the preceding details, to facilitate understanding of the principle on which can be based, with an appearance of logic, the theory of modifications of the moral state, by therapeutic means. That principle is of the direct action of a substance, on a part of the cerebral organism, having the special function of serving for the manifestation of a faculty, a feeling or a passion, because nobody can conceive that this substance could act on the Spirit.

Admitting, therefore, that the principle of the faculties is in the Spirit, and not in the matter, let us suppose that one recognizes, in a substance, the property of modifying the moral dispositions, of neutralizing an evil inclination, this could only be by its action on the organ corresponding to that inclination, action which would have the effect of stopping the development of such organ, of atrophying or paralyzing it, if it is developed; it is obvious that, in this case, one does not suppress the inclination, but its manifestation, absolutely as if one took away the instrument from a musician.

Effects of this nature are, probably, those observed by some homeopaths, that made them believe in the possibility of correcting, with the help of appropriate drugs, vices such as jealousy, hatred, pride, anger, etc. Such a doctrine, if it were true, would be the denial of any moral responsibility, the sanction of materialism, for then the cause of our imperfections would be in matter alone; moral education would be reduced to medical treatment; the worst man could become good without much effort, and mankind could be regenerated with the help of a few pills. If, on the contrary, and there is no doubt of that, the imperfections are inherent to the inferiority of the Spirit, it will not be possible to be improved by modifying its carnal envelope, as one could not straighten a hunchback, by concealing his deformity under the cut of his clothes.

We do not doubt, however, that such results have been obtained in some particular cases, for in order to affirm such a serious fact, it is necessary to have observed; however, we are convinced that they were mistaken about the cause and the effect. Homeopathic medicines, by their ethereal nature, have a somewhat molecular action; they can, undoubtedly, more than others, act on the elementary and fluidic parts of the organs, and modify their intimate constitution. If therefore, as it is rational to admit, all the feelings of the soul have their corresponding cerebral fiber, for their manifestation, a drug that would act on this fiber, either to paralyze it or to exalt its sensitivity, would paralyze or exalt, for that very reason, the expression of the feeling of which it would be the instrument, but the feeling would subsist, nonetheless. The individual would be in the position of a murderer, deprived of the possibility of committing murders by having his arms cut off, but who would, nonetheless, retain the desire to kill. It would, therefore, be a palliative, but not a curative remedy. One can only act onto the spiritual being by spiritual means; the usefulness of the material means, if the above effect were observed, would perhaps be to dominate the Spirit more easily, to make it more flexible, more docile and more accessible to moral influences; but one would be delusional by expecting a definitive and lasting result from any medication.

It would be different if it were a question of helping to manifest an existing faculty. Let us suppose incarnate an intelligent Spirit, having at its service only an atrophied brain, and therefore, not being to manifest his ideas. To us, he would be an idiot[1]. By admitting, what we believe is possible to homeopathy, more than any other kind of medication, that we can give more flexibility and sensitivity to the cerebral fibers, the Spirit would manifest his thought, like a mute person that had his tongue untied. But if the Spirit himself were a fool, even if he had, at his service, the brain of the greatest genius, he would be no less foolish. Any medicine, not being able to act on the Spirit, can neither give it what it does not have, nor take away from it what it has; but, by acting on the organ of transmission of thought, it can facilitate this transmission without, for that reason, having anything changed in the state of the Spirit. What is difficult, most often even impossible, in an idiot from birth, because there is a complete and almost always general arrest of development in the organs, becomes possible, when the alteration is accidental and partial. In this case, it is not the Spirit that is being perfected, it is its means of communication.

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[1] Kardec referring to a brain damaged person – the word idiot was obviously not offensive in the nineteenth century (T.N.)

Several newspapers have reported Mirette's novel, with praises, of which we spoke in the Spiritist Review of last February. We can only congratulate the journalist that have not stopped the ideas contained in that work, although contrary to their convictions. It is a step forward, for there was a time, when the Spiritist color alone would have been a reason for disapproval. We have seen with which parsimony and embarrassment, even the friends of Théophile Gautier, spoke of his novel Spiritist. It is true that, apart from what touches the spiritual world, the essentially moral character of Mirette, lends its flank to the mockery. However skeptical one is, one does not laugh at what results in good.

Criticism has mainly focused on this point: Why mix the supernatural in this simple story? Was it useful for the action to rely on facts of visions and apparitions? What need had the author to transport his heroes to the imaginary world of the spiritual life, to get to the reparation decreed by the Providence? Don’t we have thousands of very educational stories without the use of such resources?

Certainly, it was not necessary; but we will say to these gentlemen: if Mr. Sauvage had written a Catholic novel, would you reproach him, skeptical as you are, for using hell, paradise, angels, demons and all the symbols of faith? To bring in the gods, goddesses, Olympus, and Tartarus in a Pagan novel? Why then find it bad for a writer, whether he is a Spiritist or not, to use the elements offered to him by Spiritism, that is a belief like any other, having its place in the sun, if such belief lends itself to him? With less reason one can blame him if, in his conviction, he sees providential means in them, to arrive at the punishment of the guilty and the reward of the good ones.

If, then, in the writer's mind, these beliefs are truths, why should he not expound them in a novel, as well as in a philosophical work? But there is more: it is that, as we have said many times, these same beliefs, open to literature and the arts a vast and new field of exploration, from which they will draw, with full hands, the most striking paintings and endearing situations. Look at what use Barbara made of it, incredulous as he was, in his novel The Murder of the Red Bridge (Spiritist Review, January 1867). Only, as it has happened to Christian art, those that have faith will put them to better use; they will find in them inspirational motives that those that only make works of fantasy will never have.





Spiritists ideas are in the air; they abound in current literature, as we know; the most skeptical writers have resorted to them without realizing it, urged by the very force of reasoning, to use them as explanations or means of action. This is how Mr. Ponson du Terrail has very recently, and more than once, enlivened himself at the expense of Spiritism and its followers, in a serial novel entitled Mon Village, published in the Evening Monitor (January 7^th, 1867), expressing himself as follows:

“These two children already loved each other, and perhaps they would never dare say it.

Love is sometimes instantaneous and would readily lead people to believe in the transmigration^[1]of souls and the plurality of existences. Who knows? These two souls that quiver at the first contact and who, in the past, believed themselves unknown to one another, weren't they sisters once?

And, as they arrived in the “Grand'Rue de Saint-Florentin,” they passed by a man that was walking quickly, and that suffered a sort of electric shock, at their sight. This man was Mulot, coming out of the Universe cafe. But Mr. Anatole and Mr. Mignonne did not see him. Collected and silent, living, so to speak, in themselves, their souls were undoubtedly far from the land they were treading on."

The author has, therefore, seen situations in the world similar to those he wishes to portray, and which are a problem for the moralist; he finds a logical solution only by admitting that these two incarnate souls that urged towards each other, by an irresistible attraction, could have been sisters in another existence. Where did he get this thought from? It wasn’t, certainly, from the Spiritist books that he probably did not read, as proven by the errors he made every time he talks about the doctrine. He got it from this current of ideas that go around world, from which the unbelievers themselves cannot escape, and that they believe, in good faith, to draw from their inner self. While fighting Spiritism, they unwittingly work to accredit its principles. It doesn't matter which way these principles infiltrate; later they will recognize that only the name is missing.

With the title Christmas Story, l'Avenir National on December 26^th, 1866, published an article by Mr. Taxile Delort, a not much Spiritist writer, as we know, in which the author supposes a journalist sitting by the fireplace on Christmas Eve, wondering what had become of the Good News^[2] that the angels, had come to announce to the world, two thousand years ago, on that day. As he was devoting himself to his reflections, the journalist heard a firm and gentle voice telling him:

“I am the Spirit; that of the Revolution; the Spirit that strengthens individuals and peoples; workers, stand up! The past still has a breath of life and challenges the future. Progress, lie or utopia, shouts at you; don’t you hear these deceptive voices? To gain strength and walk forward, look behind you for a moment.

Progress is invincible; it even uses those that resist it to advance."



We will not follow the journalist and the Spirit in the dialogue that is established between them, and in which the latter unfolds the future, because they are walking on grounds that are forbidden to us; we will only point out at the artifice that the author uses to achieve his ends. To his eyes, such artifice is pure fantasy, but we would not be surprised if a true Spirit had whispered to him the sentence that we have underlined above.

At this time, a most moving drama, entitled Maxwel, by Mr. Jules Barbier, is being played at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu, and of which, in just a few words, this is the crux of the plot.

A poor weaver, named Butler, is accused of murdering a gentleman, and all indications point at him, so that he is sentenced to be hanged, by Judge Maxwel. Only one man could prove him innocent, but nobody knows what became of him. The weaver's wife, however, in a fit of somnambulism, saw the man and portrayed him; they could, therefore, find it.

A good and wise doctor, who believes in somnambulism, friend of Judge Maxwel, comes to inform him of this incident, in order to obtain a stay of execution; but Maxwel, skeptical of the faculties that he regards as supernatural, maintains his judgment, and the execution takes place. A few weeks later this man reappears and tells what happened. The innocence of the condemned is demonstrated, and the vision of the somnambulist confirmed.

However, the true murderer remained unknown. Fifteen years passed, during which a host of incidents took place. The judge, overcome with remorse, devotes his life to finding the culprit. The Butler's widow, that moved abroad with her daughter, died in misery. Later this girl becomes a fashionable courtesan, with another name. A fortuitous circumstance places the knife that had been used in the murder in her hands; like her mother, she goes into somnambulism, and this object, like a common thread, brings her back to the past, she recounts all the adventures of the crime and reveals the real culprit, that is nobody else but the very brother of Judge Maxwel.

This is not the first time that somnambulism has been staged; but what distinguishes the new drama is that it is represented under an eminently serious and practical light, without any mixture of the marvelous, and in its most serious consequences, since it serves as a means of protest against the death penalty. By proving that what men cannot see through the eyes of the body, is not hidden from the eyes of the soul, it demonstrates the existence of the soul, and its action, independent of matter.

From somnambulism to spiritualism the distance is not great, since they are explained, demonstrated, and complemented by each other; whatever tends to propagate the one, also tends to propagate the other. The Spirits were not mistaken when they announced that the Spiritist idea would come into being through all kinds of ways. The double vision and the plurality of existences, confirmed by the facts, and accredited by a multitude of publications, join the beliefs more and more every day, and surprise no more; they are two doors open back to back to Spiritism.

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[1] The original reads “transmission” that seems to be a typo (T.N.)


[2] The Gospel (T.N.)

Who would have suspected that Robinson's innocent book was tainted with the principles of Spiritism, and that the youth, in whose hands it is placed, without mistrust, could draw from it the unhealthy doctrine of the existence of Spirits? We would still be unaware of it ourselves, if one of our subscribers had not pointed out to us, the following passages that are in the complete editions, but not in the abridged ones.

This work, in which we have seen mainly curious adventures, suitable to amuse little children, is imbued with a high moral philosophy, and a deep religious feeling.

One reads on page 161 (edition illustrated by Granville):

“These thoughts inspired me with a sadness that lasted quite a long time; but at last they took another direction; I felt the gratitude I owed heavens, which had spared me of a danger of which I did not know existed. This matter revived in me a reflection, that had already occurred to me more than once, since I had recognized how much, in all the dangers of life, Providence shows its goodness, by dispositions whose objective we do not understand. Often, in fact, we come out of the greatest dangers by marvelous ways; sometimes, a secret impulse suddenly guides us, in a moment of grave uncertainty, to take such and such a path, rather than another which would have brought us to our loss. I therefore made it a rule to never resist these mysterious voices that invite us to take such a side, to do or not to do such a thing, although no reason supports this secret impulse. I could cite more than one example in which deference to such warnings had full success, especially in the latter part of my stay on this unhappy island, without counting many other occasions that must have escaped me, and to which I would have payed attention if my eyes were open to that point. But it is never too late to be wise, and I advise all thoughtful men whose existence would be subjected, like mine, to extraordinary accidents, even to more common vicissitudes, to never neglect these intimate warnings of Providence, whatever the invisible intelligence that transmits them to us.”

On page 284:

“I had often heard very sensible people say that all that is said about ghosts and apparitions can be explained by the force of imagination; that a Spirit never appeared to anyone; but, that by thinking assiduously of those that one has lost, they become so present in the thought, that, under certain circumstances, one believes to see them, to speak to them, to hear their answers, and that all this is only an illusion, a shadow, a memory.

For me, I cannot say whether there exist in the present time real apparitions, specters, dead people who come back to roam the world, or if the stories that are told about these kinds of facts are based only on visions of ill brains, of exalted and disordered imaginations; but, I know that mine got to such a point of excitement, threw me in such fantastic excess of vapors, or whatever name you want to give them, that I sometimes believed to be in my island, in my old castle, behind the woods; I saw my Spaniard, Friday's father, and the degenerate sailors I had left on these shores; I even thought I was talking to them, and although I was wide awake, I stared at them fixedly, as if they were in front of me. This happened often enough to scare me.

Once, in my sleep, first the Spaniard, and then the old savage, recounted to me, in such natural and energetic terms, the wickedness of the three pirate sailors, that it was indeed surprising. They told me how these perverse men had tried to assassinate the Spaniards, then burned all their provisions, with the intention of making them starve; and this fact, that I could not know then, and that was true, was shown to me so clearly by my imagination, that I remained convinced of its truthfulness. I believed also in the continuation of this dream. I listened to the Spaniard's complaints with deep emotion; I called the three guilty parties before me and sentenced them to be hanged. We will see, in its place, what was accurate in this dream.

But how were these facts revealed to me? By which secret communication of the invisible spirits, they were made? This is what I cannot explain. Not all was literally true; but the main points were consistent with the reality, and the infamous conduct of these three scoundrels had been hardened far beyond what one might suppose. My dream, in this regard, had too much resemblance to the facts; moreover, when I found myself in the island, I wanted to punish them severely, and if I had them hanged, I would have been justified by the divine and human laws.

Nothing demonstrates more clearly the reality of a future life and of an invisible world than the concurrence of secondary causes with certain ideas that we have formed internally, without having received or given any human communication about them.”

La Vérité de Lyon, on February 17^th, publishes the following letter, that Monsignor Lavigerie, bishop of Nancy, appointed to be the archbishop of Algiers, wrote to the mayor of Algiers on January 15^th:

“Mr. Mayor,

I have just learned, through the Moniteur, the official news of my promotion to the Archdiocese of Algiers, and although I cannot exercise any act of my ministry in the diocese, without having first received the mission and the institution of the Holy See, however I cannot remain insensitive to the painful accents that resound throughout France, and that reach us from the foot of the Atlas. The municipal administration of Algiers took the generous initiative of a public subscription, for the victims of the last earthquake. Allow me to send my donation through you. You will find under this envelope a sum of a thousand francs: that is all my poverty allows me to do, but this little I do at least with all my heart.

I want this sum to be distributed equally, and without distinction of races or cults, among all those that have been struck by the plague. If later, not all should not recognize me as their father, I claim the privilege of loving them as well as my sons. I took as the motto of my episcopal arms a single word: charity! and charity knows neither Greeks, nor barbarians, nor infidels, nor Israelites; as the apostle Saint Paul says, he only sees the living image of God in all men! May I, if he calls me soon by his side, give to all, by my actions and by my words, the example, and the love of this virtue, that prepares all others. Please accept, Mr. Mayor, the expression of the sentiments of respectful devotion, with which I have the honor of being your humble and obedient servant.

Charles, Bishop of Nancy, appointed to the archbishopric of Algiers.”

The new Archbishop of Algiers announces himself by an act of charity, that is a worthy introduction; but what is even better, what will be especially appreciated, are the principles of tolerance by which he inaugurates his administration. Instead of anathema, it is charity that confuses all men in the same feeling of love, without distinction of belief, because all are the living image of God. These are true evangelical words. He does not speak of the Spiritsts, against whom his predecessor had thrown all the wrath of curses (See Spiritist Review, November 1863). But it is likely that if his tolerance extends to the Jews and to the infidels, it cannot make an exception to those that, in conformity with the words of Christ, inscribe on their flag: there is no salvation outside charity.

“When Lincoln recovered from his dizziness, and woke up in the spiritual world, he was very surprised and confused, for he had no idea he was dead. The blow that struck him had instantly suspended all sensation, and he did not understand what had happened to him. This confusion and turmoil did not last long, though. He was spiritualist enough to understand what death is, and he was not, like many others, astonished at the new existence to which he found himself transported. He saw himself surrounded by many people he knew had long been dead, and he soon learned the cause of his death. He was cordially welcomed by many people for whom he had sympathy. He understood their affection for him, and shortly he could embrace the happy world he had entered.

At the same time, he had a sense of anguish, for the pain his family should be experiencing, and great anxiety about the consequences his death might have for his country. These thoughts brought him violently back to earth. Having heard that William Booth[1] was mortally wounded, he came up to him and leaned over his deathbed. By this time Lincoln had regained full awareness and the tranquility of his Spirit, and calmly awaited Booth's awakening into the spiritual life. Booth wasn't surprised when he woke up, as he expected his death. The first Spirit he encountered was Lincoln; he looked at him with great boldness, and as if boastful of the act he had committed. Lincoln's feeling for him, however, did not radiate any idea of vengeance, quite the contrary; he was gentle and kind, and without the slightest animosity towards him. Booth couldn't stand this situation and left him filled with emotion. The act he committed had several motives; first his lack of judgment, that made him consider him meritorious, and then his unruly love of praise had persuaded him that he would be showered with praise and regarded as a martyr. After wandering around, he again found himself drawn to Lincoln. Sometimes he is filled with repentance, other times his pride prevents him from amending. Yet, he understands how vain his pride is, knowing above all that he cannot hide, as he did during his life, any of the feelings that agitate him, and that his thoughts of pride, shame or remorse are known to those around him. Always in the presence of his victim, and receiving only remarks of kindness, this is his current state and his punishment. As for Lincoln, his happiness surpasses what he could have hoped for.”

Observation: The situation of these two Spirits is, in all respects, consistent with what we daily see examples in accounts from beyond the grave. It is perfectly rational, and in keeping with the character of the two individuals.

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[1] A likely typo. Full name was John Wilkes Booth (T.N.)

Several of our correspondents were surprised that we have not yet spoken of the association designated by the title of League of teaching. For its progressive character, to them, this project seems to deserve the sympathies of Spiritism; however, they would like to have our opinion, before joining. Thanking them for this new testimony of confidence, we will repeat what we have told them many times, namely: that we have never intended to enchain anyone's freedom, nor to impose our ideas on anyone, or consider them as having the force of law. By remaining silent, we wanted to not prejudge the issue and allow everyone's full freedom. Regarding our personal abstention, we have no reason to keep silent, and since they want to know it, we will say it frankly.

Our sympathy, like that of all Spiritists, is naturally associated to all progressive ideas, and to all institutions that tend to propagate them; but it is necessary, moreover, that this sympathy have a determined objective. However, until now, the league of teaching only offers us a title, attractive it is true, but no defined program, no outlined plan, no precise goal. Besides, this title has the drawback of being so elastic, that it could lend itself to combinations greatly divergent in their tendencies and in their results. Everyone can understand it as they please, and no doubt, by anticipation, build a plan according to their way of seeing; it could, therefore, happen that when it comes to the execution, the thing does not correspond to the idea that some people had made of it; hence the inevitable defections.

But, they say, we risk nothing, since it is the subscribers themselves that will regulate the use of the funds. – One more reason for people not to get along, and in this conflict of opinions and various views, there will inevitably be disappointments.

With a well-defined goal, a clearly drawn plan, on the contrary, we know what we are committing to, or at least, we know whether we are giving our support to something practicable or to a utopia; one can appreciate the sincerity of the intention, the value of the idea, the more or less successful combination of the gears, the assurances of stability, and calculate the chances of success or failure.

Now, in this case, this appreciation is not possible, since the fundamental idea is shrouded in mystery, and it must be accepted on word as good. We want to believe that it is perfect, we sincerely wish so. When the good that must come out of it will be demonstrated to us, and when we see, above all, its practical side, we will applaud it wholeheartedly; but before giving our support to anything, we want to be able to do it knowingly; we want to have a clear sight of everything that we do, and know the terrain where we set foot on. In the state of things, not having the necessary elements to praise or blame, we reserve our judgment.

This absolutely personal point of view must not induce those that believe themselves to be sufficiently enlightened.

Last November 1^st, having the Society met, as usual, for the commemoration of the dead, it received a large number of communications, among which one, especially, stood out for its completely new style, and that consists of a suite of detached thoughts, each signed by a different name, all linked together and complementing each other. Here is this communication:

“My friends, how many Spirits are around you, who would like to communicate with you, and tell you that they love you; and how happy you would be if the names of all those who are dear to you were mentioned at the table of mediums! What happiness! What a joy, for each of you, if your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your children, and your friends came to talk to you! But you understand that it is impossible to satisfy you all; the number of mediums would not suffice; but what is not impossible is for a Spirit, in the name of all your relatives and friends, to come and say to you: Thank you for your fond memories and your fervent prayers; courage! Have hope that one day, after your liberation, we will all come to extend a hand to you. Rest assured that what Spiritism teaches you echoes the laws of the Almighty; through love, become brothers among you all, and you will lighten the heavy burden you carry.

Now, dear friends, all your protecting Spirits are going to come and bring their thoughts. You, medium, listen, and let your pencil go according to their idea.

Medicine does what frightened crayfish does.

Dr. Demeure.

Because magnetism is progressing, and as it progresses it crushes current medicine to replace it soon.

Mesmer

War is a duel that will only end when the combatants have equal force;

Napoleon



Of equal force materially and morally.

General Bertrand

Moral equality will reign when pride is removed.

General Brune

Revolutions are abuses that destroy other abuses;

Louis XVI

But these abuses give birth to freedom. (No name).

To be equal one must be brothers. Without fraternity, no equality, and no freedom.

Lafayette

Science is the progress of intelligence.

Newton

But what is preferable is moral progress.

Jean Reynaud

Science will remain stationary until morality has reached it.

François Arago

To develop morality, we must first uproot vice.

Béranger

To uproot vice, it must be unmasked.

Eugène Sue

This is what all strong and superior Spirits seek to do.

Jacques Arago

Three things must progress: music, poetry, and painting. Music transports the soul by striking the hearing.

Meyerbeer



Poetry transports the soul by opening the heart.

Casimir Delavigne

Painting transports the soul by flattering the eyes.

Flandrin

So, poetry, music and painting are sisters and go hand in hand; one to soften the heart, the other to soften manners, and the last to open the soul; all three to lift you up to your Creator.

Alfred de Musset

But nothing, nothing should momentarily progress more than philosophy; it must take an immense step, allowing science and the arts to stand still, but to raise them so high, when the time is right, that this rise would be too sudden for you today.

In the name of all, Saint Louis”



On December 6^th, Mr. Bertrand obtained, in the group of Mr. Desliens, a communication of the same kind, that is, in a way, the continuation of the preceding one.

“Love is a lyre whose vibrations are divine chords.

Héloïse

Love has three strings to its lyre: divine emanation, poetry, and song; if one of them is missing, the chords are imperfect.

Abélard

True love is harmonious; its harmonies intoxicate the heart, while uplifting the soul. Passion drowns the chords by lowering the soul.

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

Love was what Diogenes was looking for, in seeking a man… who came a few centuries later, and whom hatred, pride and hypocrisy crucified.

Socrates

The wise men of Greece were, sometimes, more so in their writings and in their words, than in their person.

Plato



To be wise is to love; let us therefore seek love by way of wisdom.

Fénelon

You cannot be wise if you do not know how to rise above the wickedness of men.

Voltaire

Sage is he who does not believe he is.

Corneille

He who thinks himself small is great; he who thinks himself great is small.

Lafontaine

The sage believes himself to be ignorant, and whoever believes himself to be a sage, is ignorant.

Esope

Humility still believes itself to be proud, and whoever believes itself to be humble is not.

Racine

Do not confuse with the humble those who say, out of feigned modesty, or out of interest, the opposite of what they are: you would be in error. In this case truth is silent.

Bonnefond

Genius is possessed by inspiration and cannot be acquired; God wants the greatest things to be discovered or invented by uneducated beings, to paralyze pride, while making man empathetic with man.

François Arago

They treat as mad only those whose ideas are not stamped by the authority of science; this is how those, that think they know everything, reject the genius thoughts of those that know nothing.

Béranger

Criticism is the stimulus of the study, but it is the paralysis of genius.

Molière

The learned science is only the sketch of the innate science; it only becomes intelligence in the new incarnation.

J.J. Rousseau

The incarnation is the sleep of the soul; the ups and downs of life are its dreams.

Balzac

Sometimes life is a dreadful nightmare to the Spirit, and often it longs for it to be over.

La Rochefoucault

There lies his ordeal; if he resists, he takes a step towards progress, otherwise he obstructs the road that must lead him to the port.

Martin

At the awakening of the soul that has emerged victorious from the earthly struggles, the Spirit is greater and more elevated; if he succumbs, he finds himself as he was.

Pascal

It is the denial of progress to wish language to be the emblem of the immutability of a religious doctrine; moreover, it is forcing man to pray more with the lips than with the heart.

Descartes

Immutability does not reside in the form of words, but in the verb of thought.

Lamennais

Jesus told his apostles to go and preach the gospel in their own language, and that all peoples would understand them.

Lacordaire

Selfless faith makes miracles.

Boileau

The doctrine of Jesus is only felt and understood by the heart; then, however it might be spoken, it will always be love and charity.

Bossuet

Said or written prayers that are not understood, let the thoughts wander, allowing the eyes to be distracted by the pomp of the ceremonies.

Massilon



Everything will change, without however returning to the simplicity of the past, that would be the negation of progress. Things will be done without pomp and pride.

Sibour

Love will triumph, and will be followed by: wisdom, charity, prudence, strength, science, humility, calm, justice, genius, tolerance, enthusiasm, and the majestic and divine glory will crush, by its splendor: pride, envy, hypocrisy, wickedness and jealousy, that carry in their entourage laziness, gluttony and lust.

Eugène Sue

Love will reign, and so that it does not delay, it is necessary, courageous Diogenes, to take in your hand the torch of Spiritism, and show humanity the rodent worms that form ulcers on their soul.

Saint Louis”



Observation: This kind of communication raises an important question. How can the fluids of such a large number of Spirits, assimilate almost instantaneously with the fluid of the medium, transmitting their thought, when this assimilation is often difficult from the part of a single Spirit, and generally it only establishes with time? The spiritual guide of the medium seems to have foreseen this, because two days later he spontaneously gave him the following explanation:

“The communication you obtained on the All Saints, as well as the last one, that is its complement, although there are repeated names, they were obtained in the following way: since I am your protector Spirit, my fluid is similar to yours. I placed myself above you, transmitting to you, as accurately as possible, the thoughts and names of the Spirits who wished to manifest themselves. They formed an assembly around me, whose members took turns, dictating the thoughts that I transmitted to you. It was spontaneous, and what made the communications easier that day was that the Spirits that were present had saturated the room with their fluids.

When a Spirit communicates with a medium, it does so with all the more ease as the fluidic relations are better established between them, otherwise the Spirit is obliged, in order to communicate its fluid with that of the medium, to establish a kind of magnetic current, that ends up in the brain of the latter; and if the Spirit, by reason of its inferiority, or of any other cause, cannot establish this current itself, it resorts to the assistance of the guide of the medium, and the relations are established as I have just demonstrated.

Slener”

Another question is this: among these Spirits, are there any that are embodied in this world or in others, and, if so, how can they communicate? Here is the response to that: “Spirits of a certain degree of advancement have a radiance which enables them to communicate simultaneously in several points. In some, the state of incarnation does not dampen this radiance sufficiently to prevent them from manifesting, even in the waking state. The more advanced the Spirit, the weaker the bonds that unite it with the matter of the body; he is in an almost constant state of disengagement, and one can say that he is where his thought is."

A Spirit

Everyone has known this pencil seller that, riding a richly decorated car, in a shiny helmet and a strange costume, was for many years one of the celebrities in the streets of Paris. He was not a vulgar charlatan, and those who knew him personally agreed that he had an unusual intelligence, a certain elevation in thought, and moral qualities above his nomadic profession. He died last year, and since then he has communicated spontaneously, several times, with one of our mediums. From the character that we have known, we will not be surprised at the philosophical veneer that we find in his communications.

Paris, December 20^th, 1866 – Group of Mr. Desliens, medium Mr. Bertrand

The pencil

“The pencil is the word of the thought. Without the pencil, thought remains silent and misunderstood by your gross senses. The pencil is the offensive and defensive soul of thought; it is the hand that speaks and defends itself.

The pencil! … And especially the Mangin pencil! … Oh! sorry… here I am becoming selfish!… But why couldn’t I, as before, praise my pencils? Aren’t they good? ... Do you have anything to complain about? Ah! if I was still in my French vehicle with my Roman costume… you would believe me… I knew how to make my sales pitch so well, and the poor onlooker believed to be white what was black, quite simply because Mangin, the famous charlatan, said it! … I said charlatan… No, I must say marketeer… Come on! guys, untie the strings of your purses; buy these superb pencils, blacker than ink, and hard as stone… Quick, quick, the sale will end! … Ah! What am I saying then? … I believe, my word, that I am in the wrong role, and that I end very badly, after having started well…

All of you, armed with pencils, seated around this table, go tell and prove to the proud journalists that Mangin is not dead. Go tell those that forgot my merchandise, because I was no longer there to make them believe in their amazing qualities, go tell everyone that I still live, and that, if I died, it was to live better…

Ah! Messrs. journalists, you were laughing at me, and yet if, instead of seeing me as a charlatan, stealing people’s money, you had studied me more attentively and philosophically, you would have recognized a creature with reminiscences of his past. You would have understood the reason for my taste for this Roman warrior’s costume, why this love for harangues in public places. You would then have said that, no doubt, I had been a Roman soldier or general, and you would not be mistaken.

Let's go! let's go! buy pencils and use them; but use them handily, not like me to speak without motive, but to propagate this beautiful doctrine, that many of you only follow from afar.

So, arm yourself with your pencils, and make your way through this world of skepticism. Let all these incredulous Saint Thomas touch the sublime truths of Spiritism, that will one day make all men brothers.

Mangin”



Group of Mr. Delanne, January 14^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Bertrand

The paper

“I have spoken of pencil and quackery, but I have not yet spoken of paper. I was probably saving it for this evening.

Ah! How much I would like to be paper; not when it degrades himself to do evil, but on the contrary, when it fulfills its real role that is to do good! In fact, paper is the instrument that together with the pencil, sows here and there the noble thoughts of the Spirit. Paper is the open book from which everyone can glance at useful advices for their earthly journey! ...

Ah! how much I would like to be paper, to fulfill, like paper, the role of moralizer and instructor, giving each one the necessary encouragement to courageously endure the evils that are so often the cause of so many shameful weaknesses! ...

Ah! if I were paper, I would abolish all egoistic and tyrannical laws, to let shine only those that proclaim equality. I would like to speak only of love and charity. I would like everyone to be humble and good, for the wicked to become better, for the proud to become humble, for the poor to become rich, for equality to finally emerge and be, in all mouths, the expression of truth, and not the hope of hiding selfishness and tyranny that all possess in the heart.

If I were paper, I would like to be white for innocence, green for the one that has no hope of relief from their ailments. I would like to be gold in the hands of the poor, happiness in the hands of the afflicted, balm in those of the sick. I would like to be the forgiveness of all offenses. I would not condemn, I would not curse, I would not throw anathema; I would not criticize maliciously; I wouldn't say anything that could harm others. Finally, I would do what you do: I would like to only teach good things and talk about this beautiful doctrine that unites you all and in all forms; I would always profess this sublime maxim: Love one another.

The one that would like to come back to earth, not a charlatan, not only to sell pencils, but to add the sale of paper, and that would tell everyone: the pencil cannot be useful without paper and paper cannot do without the pencil.

Mangin”

This is not a book, but an article that could make an interesting and, above all, instructive book, because the data are provided by positive science, and treated with the clarity and elegance that the young scientist brings to all his writings. Mr. Camille Flammarion is known to all our readers for his excellent work on the Plurality of inhabited worlds, and for the scientific articles he publishes in Le Siècle. The one we are going to report on is published in the Revue du XIXe siècle(Review of the 19^th Century), on February 1^st, 1867.^[1]

The author supposes an interview between a living individual named Sitiens, and the Spirit of one of his friends, called Lumen, who describes to him his last earthly thoughts, the first sensations of the spiritual life, and those that accompany the phenomenon of separation. This image is in perfect conformity with what the Spirits have taught us, on this subject; it is the most exact Spiritism, except the word that is not pronounced. We can judge it by the following quotes:

“The first sensation of identity that one experiences, after death, resembles what one feels when awakening during life, when gradually returning to the morning consciousness, still traversed by the visions of the night. Called upon by the future and the past, the Spirit seeks both to regain full control of himself and to grasp the fleeting impressions of the vanishing dream, that still pass through him with its procession of pictures and events.

Sometimes in hindsight, absorbed by the captivating dream, he feels, under the closing eyelid, the renewed chain of visions and the continuation of the spectacle; he falls back both into the dream and into a sort of semi-sleep. That is how our thinking faculty oscillates at the end of this life, between a reality that is not yet understood, and a dream that has not completely disappeared.”

Observation: In this situation of the Spirit, it is no wonder that some do not believe they are dead.

Death does not exist. The fact that you designate by this name, the separation of body and soul, to tell the truth, does not take place in a material form, comparable to the chemical separations of the dissociated elements, that one observes in the physical world. We do not notice this definitive separation, that seems so harsh to us, any more than the newborn child is aware of its birth; we are born to the future life as we were born to the earthly life. It is only that the soul, no longer being enveloped in the bodily swaddling clothes, that dressed it here below, more quickly acquires the notion of its state, and of its personality. This capacity of perception, however, varies essentially from one soul to another. There are some that, during the life of the body, have never risen to the sky and have never felt eager to penetrate the laws of creation. These, still dominated by bodily appetites, remain for a long time in a state of unconscious disorder.

Fortunately, there are others that from this life, soar on their winged aspirations towards the peaks of eternal beauty; these see the moment of separation arriving with calm and serenity; they know that progress is the law of existence and that they will enter, beyond, into a life superior to that one here; they follow, step by step, the lethargy that takes their heart, and when the last beat, slow and imperceptible, stops its course, they are already above their body, observing its dormancy, and freeing themselves from the magnetic bonds, they quickly feel themselves carried away by an unknown force, towards the point of creation where their aspirations, their feelings, and their hopes, attract them.

Years, days, and hours are made up by the movements of earth. Apart from these movements, terrestrial time no longer exists in space; it is, therefore, absolutely impossible to have any notion of that time."

Observation: This is strictly true; thus, when the Spirits want to specify an intelligible duration for us, they are obliged to identify again with earthly habits, making themselves men again, so to speak, in order to make use of the same terms of comparison. Immediately after its separation, the Spirit of Lumen is transported with the speed of thought to the group of worlds composing the star system designated, in astronomy, as Capella or the Goat. The theory he gives, about the sight of the soul, is remarkable.

“The sight of my soul had an incomparably greater power than that of the eyes of the earthly body, that I had just left; and, surprisingly, its power seemed to me subject to the will. It suffices to me to allow you to understand that, instead of simply seeing the stars in the sky, as you see them on earth, I could clearly distinguish the worlds that revolve around them; when I no longer wanted to see the star, so as not to be obfuscated in the examination of these worlds, it disappeared from my sight, leaving me in excellent conditions to observe one of those worlds. In addition, when my eyesight focused on a particular world, I could distinguish the details of its surface, continents and seas, clouds, and rivers. By a particular intensity of concentration in the sight of my soul, I managed to see the object on which it was focused, for example, a city, a countryside, buildings, streets, houses, trees, paths; I even recognized the inhabitants and I followed the people in the streets and in their houses. For that, all I had to do was to constrain my thoughts to the neighborhood, to the house, or to the individual I wanted to observe. In the world where I had just arrived, beings, not incarnate in a coarse envelope as down here, but free and endowed with powers of perception raised to an eminently high degree, can distinctly perceive details that, at this distance, would be absolutely hidden from the eyes of terrestrial organizations.”

Sitien: Do they use instruments superior to our telescopes for this?

Lumne: If, to be less rebelliousto the admission of this marvelous faculty, it is easier for you to conceive them equipped with instruments, you can do it, in theory. But I must warn you that these kinds of instruments are not external to these beings, belonging to the very organ of their sight. Be it understood that this optical construction and this power of sight are natural in these worlds, and not supernatural. Think about the insects that have the property of shortening or lengthening their eyes, like the tubes of a telescope, of swelling or flattening their crystalline lens, to make it into a magnifying glass of different degrees, or of concentrating on the same focus a multitude of eyes, pointed like many microscopes to capture the infinitely small, and you can, more legitimately, admit the faculty of these ultra-terrestrial beings."

The world where Lumen is located is at such a distance from earth, that it takes light seventy-two years to travel from one to the other. However, born in 1793 and deceased in 1864, when he arrived in Capella, from where he looked out over Paris, Lumen no longer recognized the Paris he had just left. The rays of light that came from earth, arriving in Capella only after seventy-two years, brought him the image of what was happening here in 1793.

This is the scientific part of the story; all difficulties are solved there in the most logical way. The data, admitted in theory by science, are demonstrated there by experience; but since this experience cannot be made directly by men, the author supposes a Spirit that accounts for its feelings, and placed in conditions that allow the establishment of a comparison between earth and the world that it inhabits.

The idea is ingenious and new. It is the first time that true and serious Spiritism, although anonymously, is associated with positive science, and this by a man capable of appreciating both, and of grasping the link of union that must bond them one day. This work, that we acknowledge of fundamental importance, seems to be one of those that the Spirits have announced to us as being due to mark the present year. We will analyze this second part in a future article.

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[1] Each issue forms a volume of 160 pages, in-8. Price: 2 francs Paris, International bookshop, 15, boulevard Montmartre, and 18 avenue Montaigne, Palais Pompeian

The literary event of the day is the performance of Galileo, a drama in verse by Mr. Ponsard. Although it does not deal with Spiritism, it is linked to it by an essential aspect: that of the plurality of inhabited worlds, and from this point of view we can consider it as one of the works that are called upon to favor the development of the doctrine, by popularizing one of its fundamental principles.

The destiny of humanity is linked to the organization of the universe, as that of the inhabitant is linked to his dwelling. Ignoring such organization, man has had to form ideas about his past and his future, in relation to the state of his knowledge. If he had always known the structure of earth, he would never have dreamed of placing hell in its guts; if he had known the infinity of space and the multitude of worlds moving there, he would not have located the sky above the sky of stars; he would not have made earth the central point of the universe, the only dwelling of living beings; he would not have condemned the belief in the antipodes as a heresy; if he had known geology, he would never have believed in the formation of earth in six days, and in its existence for six thousand years.

The petty idea that man had of creation must have given him a petty idea of the divinity. He could only understand the greatness, the power, the infinite wisdom of the Creator when his thought could embrace the immensity of the universe, and the wisdom of the laws that govern it, as one judges the genius of a mechanic on the whole, the harmony and the precision of a mechanism, and not by looking at a single gear. It was only then that the ideas could grow and rise above his limited horizon. His religious beliefs have always been modeled on the idea he had of God and his work; the error of his beliefs about the origin and destiny of mankind was due to his ignorance of the true laws of nature; if he had known these laws from the beginning, his dogmas would have been quite different.

Galileo, one of the first to reveal the laws of the mechanism of the universe, not by hypotheses, but by an irrefutable demonstration, opened the way to new progress; for that very reason, he would produce a revolution in beliefs, by destroying the scaffolding of the erroneous scientific systems on which they were based.

To each one his own mission. Neither Moses nor Christ had that of teaching men the laws of science; the knowledge of these laws was to be the result of the work and research of man, of the activity and development of his own mind, and not of a revelation a priori, that would have given him knowledge without difficulty. They should have and could spoke to him only in a language appropriate to his intellectual state, otherwise they would not have been understood. Moses and Christ had their moralizing mission; scientific missions are transferred to geniuses of another order. Now, as moral laws and the laws of science are divine laws, religion and philosophy can only be true by the alliance of these laws.

Spiritism is founded on the existence of the spiritual principle, as a constitutive element of the universe; it rests on the universality and the perpetuity of intelligent beings, on their indefinite progress through worlds and generations; on the plurality of corporeal existences, necessary for their individual progress; on their relative cooperation, as incarnate and discarnate, in the general work, in the measure of the accomplished progress; on the solidarity that links all beings of the same world and the worlds between them. In this vast ensemble, incarnate and discarnate, each has their mission, their role, duties to fulfill, from the smallest to the angels that are not but human Spirits that have reached the state of pure Spirits, and to whom the great missions are entrusted, the governments of the worlds, as to experienced generals; instead of the deserted solitudes of boundless space, life and activity everywhere, useless idleness nowhere; everywhere the use of acquired knowledge; everywhere the desire to advance even further, and to increase the sum of happiness, by the useful employment of the faculties of intelligence.

Instead of an ephemeral and unique existence, spent on a small corner of the earth, forever deciding its future fate, imposing limits on progress, and rendering sterile, for the future, the trouble it takes to learn, man has for domain the universe; nothing that he knows and does is lost; the future is his; instead of selfish isolation, universal solidarity; instead of nothingness, according to some, eternal life; instead of a perpetual contemplative beatitude, according to others, that would render a perpetual uselessness, an active role proportioned to the acquired merit; instead of irreparable punishments for temporary faults, the position that each one takes for oneself, by one’s perseverance in good or in evil; instead of an original blemish that makes liable for mistakes that one has not committed, the natural consequence of one's own native imperfections; instead of the flames of hell, the obligation to repair the wrong that one has done, and to start again what one has done wrong; instead of an angry and vindictive God, a just and good God, taking into account all repentance and all good will.

Such is, in short, the picture presented by Spiritism, and that emerges from the very situation of the Spirits that manifest themselves; it is no longer a simple theory, but the result of observation. The man who sees things from this point of view feels that he is growing; he stands up before his own eyes; he is stimulated in his progressive instincts by seeing a purpose in his work, in his efforts to improve himself.

But to understand Spiritism in its essence, in the immensity of the things it embraces; to understand the objective of life and the destiny of man, it was not necessary to relegate humanity to a small globe, to limit the existence to a few years, shrinking the Creator and the creature; to have man getting a fair idea of his role in the universe, he had to understand, through the plurality of worlds, the field open to his future explorations and to the activity of his Spirit; to push back indefinitely the limits of creation, to destroy the prejudices about the special places of reward and punishment, about the different levels of heavens, he had to penetrate the depths of space; that instead of the crystalline and the empyrean, he saw there circulating, in a majestic and perpetual harmony, the innumerable worlds similar to his own; that his thought should meet the intelligent creature everywhere.

The history of earth is linked to that of humanity; in order for man to get rid of his petty and false opinions on the time, duration and mode of creation of our planet, of his legendary beliefs about the flood and his own origin; in order for him to consent to dislodge hell and the empire of Satan from the heart of earth, he had to be able to read in the geological strata the history of its formation and of its physical revolutions. Astronomy and geology, aided by the discoveries of physics and chemistry, supported by the laws of mechanics, are the two powerful levers that have broken down his prejudices about his origin and his destiny.

Matter and spirit are the two constitutive principles of the universe; but the knowledge of the laws that govern matter had to precede that of the laws that govern the spiritual element; only the former could successfully combat the prejudices by the evidence of facts. Spiritism, that has for its special object the knowledge of the spiritual element, had to come in second place; for it to take off and bear fruit, for it to be understood as a whole, it was necessary that it found the ground prepared, the field of the human mind cleared of prejudices and false ideas, if not in totality, at least in large part, without which we would have had only a minor, bastard, incomplete Spiritism, mixed with absurd beliefs and practices, as it is still today among belated peoples. If we consider the present moral situation of the advanced nations, we will recognize that it has come in right time, to fill the gaps that are created in beliefs.

Galileo opened the way; by tearing the veil that hid the infinite, it widened the domain of intelligence, and threw a fatal blow against erroneous beliefs; it destroyed more superstitions and misconceptions than all philosophies, for he undermined them from the ground up by showing reality. Spiritism must place him among the great geniuses who have cleared its way, by removing the barriers opposed by ignorance.

The persecutions of which it was the object, and that are the reward of anyone that attacks prejudices and inherited ideas, have raised it to the eyes of posterity, at the same time as they have lowered the persecutors. Who is the greatest today, them, or Spiritism?

We regret that the lack of space does not allow us to quote some fragments of the beautiful drama by Mr. Ponsard. We will do so in the next issue.

Count Joseph de Maistre, born in Chambéry in 1753, and deceased in 1821, was sent to Russia, by the King of Sardinia, as plenipotentiary minister, in 1803. He left this country in 1817, when the Jesuits were expelled and whose cause he had embraced. Among his works, one of the best known in literature and in the religious world, is the one entitled: Evenings of St. Petersburg, published in 1821. Although written from an exclusively Catholic point of view, certain thoughts seem inspired by forecasting the present times, and as such deserves special attention. The following passages are taken from the eleventh interview, volume II, page 121, 1844 edition.

“… More than ever, Gentlemen, we must attend to these high speculations, for we must be prepared for an immense event in the divine order, to which we are marching at high speed, and that must shock all observers. There is no more religion on earth; human race cannot remain in this state. Terrible oracles also announce that the times have come.”

Several theologists, even Catholics, believed that facts of the first order and not very distant were announced in the revelation of Saint John, and although Protestant theologists, in general, spoke only of sad dreams about this same book, where they have never seen more than what they wanted, however, after paying this unfortunate tribute to sectarian fanaticism, I see that some writers of this party are already adopting the principle that: several prophecies contained in the book of Revelation referred to our modern times. One of these writers even went so far as to say that the event had already begun, and that the French nation was to be the great instrument of the greatest revolution.

There may not be a truly religious man in Europe (I am speaking of the educated class) that does not expect something extraordinary now; well, tell me, gentlemen, do you think that this agreement between all men can be neglected? Is it just this general cry that announces great things? Go back to past centuries; transport yourself to the birth of the Savior. At that time, wasn’t a loud and mysterious voice shouting, from the eastern regions: "The East is about to win? The victor will depart from Judea; a divine child is given to us; he will appear; he descends from the highest of heavens; he will bring the golden age back to earth.” You know the rest.

These ideas were universally widespread, and as they lent themselves infinitely to poetry, the greatest Latin poet seized upon them and coated them with the most brilliant colors in his Pollion, which was since translated into rather beautiful Greek verses, and read in this language at the Council of Nicaea, by the order of Emperor Constantine. It was, certainly, well worthy of the Providence to order that this great cry of the human race resounded forever in the immortal verses of Virgil; but the incurable incredulity of our century, instead of seeing in this room what it really contains, that is to say, an ineffable monument of the prophetic spirit that then agitated in the universe. It is amusing to prove to us learnedly that Virgil was not a prophet, that is, a flute does not know music, and that there is nothing extraordinary in the eleventh eclogue of this poet.

The materialism that sullies the philosophy of our century, prevents it from seeing that the doctrine of the Spirits, and in particular, that of the prophetic spirit, is quite plausible in itself, and moreover, the best supported by the most universal and imposing tradition that has ever existed. As the eternal disease of man is to penetrate the future, it is a sure proof that he has rights over this future, and that he has the means to reach it, at least under certain circumstances. The ancient oracles attained to this inner drive of man, warning him of his nature and his rights. The enormous erudition of Van Dale, and the pretty phrases of Fontenelle, were employed in vain in the past century, to establish the general nullity of these oracles. But, whatever that may be, man would have never resorted to oracles, he would have never been able to imagine them, if he had not started from a primitive idea, by virtue of which he regarded them as possible, and even as existing. Man is subjected to time, and nevertheless, a stranger to time, by nature. The prophet enjoyed the privilege of stepping out of time; his ideas, no longer being distributed over time, touch one another by virtue of a simple analogy and merge, then necessarily spreading great confusion in his speeches. The Savior himself submitted to this state when, willingly, surrendered to the prophetic spirit, and analogous ideas of great disasters, separated in time, led him to combine the destruction of Jerusalem with that of the world. This is again how David, led by his own sufferings to meditate on “the righteous persecuted,” suddenly comes out of time and cries out before the future: “They have pierced my feet and my hands; they counted my bones; they shared my clothes; they cast spells on my clothes.” (Psalms XXI, v. 18,19).^[1]

We could add other reflections drawn from judicial astrology, oracles, divinations of all kinds, the abuse of which has undoubtedly dishonored the human spirit, but which, nevertheless, had a true root like all beliefs in general. The prophetic spirit is natural to man and will never stop stirring in the world. Man, always and in all places, trying to penetrate the future, declares that he is not made for time, for time is something forced, only demanding to end. It follows that, in our dreams, we never have the idea of time, and that the state of sleep has always been considered favorable to divine communications.

If you then ask me what is this prophetic spirit that I mentioned earlier, I will answer that "there had never been great events in the world that have not been foretold in some way.” Machiavelli was the first man, to my knowledge, to make such a proposition; but if you think about it yourselves, you will find that his assertion is justified along the whole history. You have the latest example of this in the French Revolution, predicted from all sides and in the most indisputable manner.

But, going back to where I started, do you think that the times of Virgil lacked fine minds laughing at "the great year, the golden age, the chaste Lucian, the august mother, and the mysterious child?” However, all this had happened: "The child, from the top of the sky, was ready to descend.” And you can see in several writings, namely in the notes that Pope appended to his verse translation of Pollion, that this piece could pass for a version of Isaiah. Why do you want it not to be the same today? The universe is waiting. How could we despise this great persuasion; and by what right should we condemn the men who, warned by these divine signs, devote themselves to holy research?

Do you want further proof of what's to come? Search the sciences; take a good look at the progress of chemistry, even of astronomy, and you will see where they lead us. Would you believe, for example, if you were not forewarned, that Newton brings us back to Pythagoras, and that it will be incessantly demonstrated that heavenly bodies move precisely like human bodies, by intelligences associated to them, without us knowing how? This is what is about to be verified, however, without being able to argue, any soon. This doctrine may seem paradoxical, no doubt, and even ridiculous, because the ongoing opinion imposes it; but wait until the natural affinity between religion and science unites them in the head of a single man of genius; the arrival of this man cannot be remote, and perhaps he already exists. He will be famous and will put an end to the eighteenth century that still lasts; for intellectual centuries are not regulated by the calendar, like the centuries properly speaking. Then, the opinions that appear strange or insane to us today, will become axioms that one is not allowed to doubt, and one will then speak of our present stupidity as we speak of the superstition of the Middle Ages.

Even the force of circumstances has forced some scientists of the material school to make concessions that bring them closer to the Spirit. And others, unable to prevent themselves from sensing this muffled tendency of a powerful opinion, take precautions against it, which perhaps make more impression on true observers than direct resistance. Hence their scrupulous attention to using only material expressions. In their writings, they only deal with mechanical laws, mechanical principles, physical astronomy, etc. It is not that they do not feel very well that material theories do not satisfy intelligence in any way, for there is something obvious to the unpreoccupied human mind, and it is that the movements of the universe cannot be explained by mechanical laws alone; but it is precisely because they feel it that they put words, so to speak, against the truth. They don't want to admit it, but they are no longer held back except by commitment or human respect. European scientists are, at this moment, a kind of conjured or initiates, as you wish to call them, who have made science a sort of monopoly, and who do not absolutely want us to know more or different from them. But this science will be incessantly hated by an enlightened posterity that will precisely accuse the followers of today for not having known how to draw, from the truths that God had delivered to them, the most precious consequences for man. Then, all science will change face; the long-dethroned Spirit will resume its place.

It will be shown that the ancient traditions are all true; that the whole of paganism is but a system of corrupted and misplaced truths; that it suffices to clean them, so to speak, and to put them back in their place, to see them shine in all their splendor. In short, all ideas will change; and since a crowd of elected officials cry out together from all sides: “Come, Lord, come!” Why would you blame these men who soar into this majestic future and pride themselves on guessing it? Like the poets who, even in our times of weakness and decrepitude, still present some pale glimmers of the prophetic spirit, spiritual men sometimes experience movements of enthusiasm and inspiration that transport them into the future, allowing them to foresee events that were matured by time along the way.

Remember, Mr. Count, the compliment you addressed to me on my erudition about the number three. This number, in fact, is shown everywhere, in the physical world as in the moral world, and in divine things. God first spoke to men on Mount Sinai, and this revelation was constrained, for reasons unknown to us, within the narrow confines of one people and one land. After fifteen centuries, a second revelation was addressed to all men, without distinction, and it is the one we enjoy. But the universality of its action was still to be infinitely restricted by the circumstances of time and place. Fifteen more centuries should yet to pass before America saw the light, and her vast lands still harbor a large crowd of savages, so foreign to the great benefit, that one would be led to believe that they are excluded by nature, due to some inexplicable primitive anathema.

The great Lama alone has more spiritual subjects than the Pope; Bengal has sixty million inhabitants, China has two hundred, Japan twenty-five or thirty. Contemplate these archipelagos of the great Ocean that today form a fifth part of the world. Your missionaries have, undoubtedly, made wonderful efforts to share the gospel with some of these distant lands, but you see with what success. How many myriads of men the Gospel will never reach! Hasn’t the scimitar^[2] of Ishmael's son entirely driven Christianity out of Africa and Asia? And in our Europe, what a spectacle is offered to the religious eye! ...

Contemplate this dismal picture; add to it the expectation of the chosen men, and you will see if the illuminated are wrong, by considering more or less imminent, a third explosion of the omnipotent goodness in favor of mankind. I wouldn't finish if I wanted to collect all the evidence that comes together to justify this great expectation. Again, do not blame the people concerned with this and that see in the revelation itself as a reason to predict a revelation of the revelation. Call them enlightened men, if you like, I will totally agree with you, if you pronounce this name seriously.

Everything announces, and your own observations demonstrate it, I do not know what great unit towards which we are marching at great strides. You cannot, therefore, without entering in contradiction with yourself, condemn those who acclaim this unity from afar, and try, according to their strength, to penetrate mysteries so formidable, no doubt, but at the same time so comforting for us.

And do not say that everything has been said, that everything is revealed, and that we are not allowed to wait for anything new. No doubt, nothing is lacking for our salvation; but on the side of divine knowledge, we are lacking a lot; and as for future manifestations, I have, as you see, a thousand reasons to expect them, while you have not one to prove the opposite to me. Wasn't the law abiding Hebrew safe in his conscience? I would quote to you, if necessary, I do not know how many passages of the Bible, that promise to the Judaic sacrifice and to the throne of David, a duration equal to that of the sun.

The Jew that remained on the shell, had every reason to believe, until the event, in the temporal reign of the Messiah; he was mistaken, though, as we saw it; but do we know ourselves what awaits us? God will be with us until the end of the ages; the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, etc.; very good! Does it follow, I ask you, that God has forbidden all new manifestations and that He is no longer allowed to teach us anything beyond what we know? Let us agree that this would be a strange argument.

A new outpouring of the Holy Spirit now being among the most reasonably expected things, the preachers of this new gift must be able to quote from the Holy Scripture to all peoples. The apostles are not translators; they have many other occupations; but the Biblical Society, blind instrument of Providence, prepares its different versions that the true envoys will one day explain by virtue of a legitimate mission, new or primitive, it doesn't matter, that will drive doubt out from the city of God; and this is how the terrible enemies of unity work to establish it.”

Observation: These words are even more remarkable as they emanate from a man of undeniable merit as a writer, and who is held in great esteem in the religious world. Perhaps we have not seen all they contain, because they are an obvious protest to the absolutism and the narrow exclusivism of certain doctrines. They denote in the author a breadth of views that border philosophical independence. Orthodoxy has repeatedly been scandalized by less. The underlined passages are sufficiently explicit and it is unnecessary to comment them; the Spiritists, in particular, will easily understand their significance. It would be impossible not to see in them the foresight of things that are happening today and of those that the future has in store for humanity, so much these words have to do with the current state, and with what the Spirits announce from all sides.

---

[1] The original reads Psalms XXV, v. 17. This was later corrected by an Erratum in March 1868.




[2] saber having a curved blade with the edge on the convex side and used chiefly by Arabs and Turks (T.N.)

Question: From the thoughts contained in the passages just read, you yourself appear to have been animated by the prophetic spirit of which you speak, and that you describe so well. Barely half a century separates us from the time when you wrote those remarkable lines, when we are already seeing your predictions come true. Perhaps, this is not from the exclusive point of view in which you were placed by your beliefs, but certainly everything shows us how imminent and in the process of being accomplished are the great moral revolution that you predicted, and that is preparing the new ideas. What you say has such an obvious connection with Spiritism that we can, with all reason, consider you as one of the prophets of its advent. No doubt, Providence had placed you in an environment where, by the very force of your principles, your words should have more authority. Were they understood by your party? Does it still understand them now? It is appropriate to doubt.

Today, that you can look at things in a broader way, and embrace larger horizons, we would be happy to have your current appreciation, on the prophetic spirit, and on the part that Spiritism must have in the regenerating movement.

We would also be very honored, if we could count on you, henceforward, among the good Spirits that are willing to assist in our instruction.

Answer: “Gentlemen, although this is not the first time that I have been among you, since I have officially introduced myself today, I would ask you to accept my thanks for the kind words you have addressed to me, and to receive my congratulations for the sincerity and dedication that presides over your work.

The love of the truth was my only guide, and if I was, during my lifetime, the partisan of a sect in which we learned to judge with severity, it is because I believed to find in that the elements, the strength of action necessary to come to the knowledge of this truth, that I suspected. - I saw the Promised Land, but I was unable to enter it during my life. Happier than me, gentlemen, take advantage of the favor granted to you for your good will, by improving your heart and your Spirit, and by sharing your happiness with all those of your brothers in humanity, who will only oppose your propaganda with the natural reserve of every man placed before of the unknown.

Like them, I would have liked to reason your belief before accepting it, but I would not have hated it, however bizarre its means of manifestation, for the sole reason that it could harm my interests or because it pleased me acting that way.

You have convinced yourself of this, since I was with the clergy, as follower of the morality of the Gospel, but I was not there as a supporter of the immutability of the teaching and the impossibility of new manifestations of the divine will.

Rooted in the Holy Scriptures that I had read, reread, and commented on, the letter and the spirit made me foresee the new dawn. I thank God for it, because I was happy in hope, for me that intuitively felt that I would participate in the happiness of knowing the new truths, wherever I was; for my brothers in humanity, who would see the darkness of ignorance and error dissipating, before an irrefutable evidence.

The prophetic Spirit sets the whole world ablaze with its regenerating fragrance. In Europe as in America, in Asia, as everywhere, among Catholics as among Muslims, in all countries, in all climates, in all religious sects, the new revelation is seeping in, with the unborn child, with the young man who is developing, with the old man that goes away. Some arrive with the materials necessary for the construction of the work; others aspire to a world that will reveal to them their foreseen mysteries. And, if moral persecution bends you under its yoke, if material interest, social position stops some of the sons of the Spirit in their ascending march, they will be the martyrs of thought, whose intellectual sweats will enrich teaching and prepare the generations of the future for a new life.

Spiritism, in France, manifests itself with a different name as in Asia. It has agents in the different shades of the Catholic religion, as it has among the followers of the Muslim religion. – There, the revelation, at a lower stage of development, is drowned in blood; but it, nonetheless, continues its march, and its ramifications surround the world in a vast network, whose meshes will tighten as the regenerative element is more revealed. Catholics, Protestants, seeking to spread the new belief among the children of Islam, even when facing insurmountable obstacles, and very few followers coming to line up under their flag.

The prophetic spirit has taken another form there; it assimilated the language, the instructions, to the material forms and to the intimate thoughts of those to whom it was addressing. Bless the Providence, that sees better than you do, how and by whom it must bring about the movement that pushes the worlds towards infinity.

The aspiration to new knowledge is in the air we breathe, in the book we write, in the picture we paint; the idea is imprinted on the marble of the statuary, as in the pen of the historian, and the one that would be astonished to be ranked among the Spiritists, is an instrument of the Omnipotence for the edification of Spiritism.

I interrupt this communication that becomes tiring to the medium, who is not used to my fluidic influx. I will continue another time, and I will come, since that is your desire, to bring my share of action to your work, no longer contenting myself with attending it, as an invisible witness, or unknown inspirer, as I have already done many times.

J. de Maistre”

Second article – see previous issue



Regarding the article that we published about the league of teaching, we received the following letter from Mr. Macé, its founder, that we believe to be our duty to publish. If we have set out the grounds on which we base the restrictive opinion that we expressed, it is entirely fair to publish the author's explanations.

“Beblenheim, March 5^th, 1867.

Sir,

Mr. Ed. Vauchez communicates to me what you have said about the league of teaching in the Spiritist Review, and I take the liberty of sending you, not an answer to be published in your Revue, but some personal explanations about the goalthat I am pursuing, and the plan that I have outlined. I would be happy if they could dispel the scruples that hold you back and rally you to a project that does not have, at least in my mind, the vagueness that you saw in it. It is a matter of bringing together, in each locality, all those who feel ready to act as citizens, by personally contributing to the development of public education around them. Each group will necessarily have to make its own program, for the extent of their action is necessarily determined by their means of action.

There, it was quite impossible for me to specify anything; but the nature of that action, the fundamental point, I specified it in the clearest and most distinct way: To carry out pure and simple education, apart from any concern of sect and of party; this is a first uniform article, written in advance as the heading of all flyers; there is where the moral unity is going to be. Any circle that would infringe it would automatically exit the league. You are, I have no doubt, too loyal not to agree that there will not be room for any disappointment, after this, when it comes to the execution. There could be no disappointment except from those who entered the league with the secret hope of making it serve the success of a particular opinion: they are warned.

As for the intentions that the author of the project himself might have, and the trust that should be put on him, allow me to stick to an answer I already gave once to a suspicion expressed in the Annals of Labor, that I ask you to be aware of. It addresses a doubt about my liberal tendencies; it might as well address the doubts that might arise in other minds, as to the trustworthiness of my declaration of neutrality.

I dare to hope, Sir, that these explanations will appear sufficiently clear to you to modify your first impression, and that you will think it right, if so, to tell your readers. Every good citizen owes the support of their personal influence to what they recognize as useful, and I feel so convinced of the usefulness of our League project, that it seems impossible to me that it could escape such an experimented Spirit, like yours.

Receive, Sir, my very cordial and fraternal greetings.

Jean Macé”



To this letter, Mr. Macé was kind enough to attach the issue of the Annals of Labor, where the answer mentioned above can be found, and that we reproduce in full:



“Beblenheim, January 4^th, 1867

Mr. Editor,

The objection that has been made to you relative to a possible modification of my liberal ideas, and consequently, to the danger, also possible, of a bad direction given to the teaching of the League, such objection seems distressing to me, and I ask your permission to reply to those who brought it up to you, not for what concerns me - I consider it useless - but for the honor of my idea that they did not understand. The League does not teach anything, and it will have no direction to give; it is, therefore, superfluous to worry now about the liberal opinions of whoever seeks to found it.

I appeal to all those who take to heart the development of education in their country and who wish to work with that, either by teaching others, or by learning themselves. I invite them to join forces at all points of the territory; to act as citizens, fighting ignorance, with their purse, and in person, what is even better; to chase down, man to man, the bad fathers who do not send their children to school; to shame comrades that cannot read or write, and to remind them that there is always time; to put the book and the pen in their hand, if necessary, improvising teachers, each one on what they know; to create courses and libraries, for the benefit of the ignorant that wishes to stop being ignorant; to form, finally, throughout France, a single bundle to lend each other mutual support against enemy influences - there is, unfortunately, in a supposedly dangerous elevation in the intellectual level of the people.

If all this happen, please tell me, in which disturbing sense could this universal movement be led by anyone? If, for example, the workers in Paris organize themselves in societies of intellectual culture, like those that exist by the hundreds in the German towns, and of which Mr. Edouard Pfeiffer, the President of the Association of Education of the People of Württemberg, explained the operation in such an interesting way, in the issue of Cooperation of last September 30^th; that if, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in the Temple district, in Montmartre, in Batignolles, groups of workers, that joined the League, gottogether to give each other, on certain days, educational evenings with teachers of good will, or even paid, why not?

English and German workers do not deny themselves such luxury – I would like to know what the doctrines of a professor of young ladies, who teaches in Beblenheim, and that has no desire to change students, won't these people be at home? Will they have permissions to ask me for?

It is not that I am defending myself from having a doctrine, in matters of popular education. I have one, definitely; without that, I wouldn't have allowed to place myself as the head of a movement like this. Here it is, as I have just formulated it, in the Directory of the Association of 1867. It is the very denial of any direction "in such and such a direction, rather than in another" to use the expression of those that are not entirely sure of myself, and I declare ready to put at its service all that I can have of personal authority - I am not afraid to speak about it, because I am aware that I have earned it legally:

Preaching to the ignorant, one way or another, does nothing and does not advance him. He then remains at the mercy of contrary preaching and does not know much more than before. If he learns what those who preach to him know, that is quite something else, for he will be able to preach to himself, and those who would fear that he would become a bad preacher, can do so in advance. Education does not have two ways of affecting those who have it. If they find it good for themselves, why not render the same service to others?

If your “foreign” correspondents know a more liberal way of understanding the question of popular education, please let me know. I do not know any.

Jean Macé.”

P.S.: You ask me to answer a question, that was addressed to you, on the future destination of the sums subscribed to the League.



The subscription, currently open, is intended to cover the costs of propaganda of the project. I will publish in each bulletin, as I have just done in the first one, the balance statement of payments and expenditures, and I will render the expense report, with supporting documents, to the commission that will be appointed for this purpose, in the first general assembly.

When the League is formed, the use of the annual dues will have to be determined - at least that is my opinion - within the membership groups that are formed. Each group would determine, by itself, the share it should pay to the general fund of propaganda of the undertaking, that would also include contributions from members who did not consider it proper to join a special group.



Thoughts about the preceding letters:

This is perhaps due to the lack of perspicacity of our intelligence, but we confess, with all humility, that we are no more enlightened than before; we will even say that the above explanations confirm our opinion. We were told that the author of the project had a well-defined program, but that he would reserve it, and have it known when the adhesions were sufficient. Such a way of proceeding seems neither logical nor practical to us, because one cannot rationally adhere to what one does not know; however, the letter Mr. Macé was kind enough to write to us, in no way suggests that this is the case; on the contrary, it says: "Each group will necessarily have to make its own program,” meaning that the author does not have one of his own. As a result, if there are a thousand groups, there may be a thousand programs; it is the open door to the anarchy of systems.

He adds, it is true, that the fundamental point is clarified, in the clearest and most distinct way, by the indication of the goal, that is: "To carry out pure and simple education, apart from any concern of sect. and party.” The goal is commendable, no doubt, but we only see good intention there, and not the indispensable precision in practical matters.

He adds: “Any circle that would infringe it would automatically exit the league.” That is the denunciatory measure. Well, these circles will be free to leave the League, and to form others alongside, without believing to have been unworthy of anything; this is then the main League broken from its beginning, for the lack of a unified and whole view. The indicated goal is so general that it lends itself to an error of very contradictory applications, in that each one, interpreting it according to their personal opinions, will believe to be right. Where is the authority that can legally pronounce this exclusion? There is none; there is no regulatory center with the capacity to assess or control individual programs that deviate from the general plan. Each group being its own authority, and its center of action, it is the sole judge of what it does; under such conditions, we believe it to be impossible to reach an agreement.

So far, we only see a general idea in this project; now, an idea is not a program. A program is an outline from which no one can consciously deviate, a plan drawn up in the most minute details, and that leaves nothing to the arbitrary, where all the difficulties of execution are foreseen, where the ways and means are indicated. The best program is the one that leaves as little as possible to the unpredictable.

“It was quite impossible for me to specify anything," says the author, "since the measure of action of each group will necessarily be determined by its means of action.” In other words, by the material resources at their disposal. But this is not a reason. Every day plans are made, projects are worked out subordinated to the possible means of execution; it is only by seeing a plan that the public decides to join it, as they understand its usefulness and see the elements of success in it.

What should have been done first, and foremost, would be to point out, with precision, the gaps in the education that one proposed to fill, the needs that one wanted to meet; say: if one intended to promote free education, by remunerating or compensating teachers; found schools where there are none; to make up for the insufficiency of instructional material, in schools too poor to provide them; provide books to children that cannot afford them; found incentive prizes for pupils and teachers; create courses for adults; to pay men of talent to go, like missionaries, to give instructive lectures in the countryside, destroying superstitious ideas there, with the aid of science; define the purpose and spirit of these courses and conferences, etc., those things and others. Only then would the aim have been clearly specified.

Then, it would have been said: “To achieve it, we need material resources; we appeal to the men of good will, to friends of progress, to those that sympathize with our ideas; that they form committees by departments, districts, cantons or communes, responsible for collecting donations. There will be no general and central fund, each committee will have its own, the employment of which will be done according to the outlined program, proportionate to the resources at its disposal; if it collects a lot, it will do a lot, if it collects little, it will do less. But there will be a steering committee, responsible for centralizing information, transmitting the necessary notices and instructions, resolving any difficulties that may arise, printing the seal of unity onto the whole, without which the league would be an empty word. A league means an association of individuals marching, by mutual agreement and in solidarity, towards the achievement of a determined goal; however, as long as everyone can understand this goal their own way, and act as they please, there is no longer either league or association.

An essential point, that does not seem to have been thought through, is this: Being the proposed goal permanent, and not temporary as when it is a question of a calamity to be relieved, or of a monument to be erected, it requires permanentresources. Experience proving that one should never count on regular and perpetual voluntary donations, if one operated directly with the proceeds of donations, this fund would soon be absorbed. If we want the operation not to be stopped at its very origin, it is necessary to build up an income, so as not to live on its capital; therefore, capitalize subscriptions in the safest and most productive manner. How, and with which guarantee and under which control? This is what any project, based on the application of capital, must above all foresee and determine, before collecting anything, just as it must also determine the use and distribution of funds, paid in advance, in the event that, by any cause whatsoever, it would not be continued. By its nature, the project has an economic part that is more important, for its future depend on that, and that is totally lacking here.

Suppose that before the establishment of insurance companies, a man would have said: “Fires cause devastations every day; I thought that, by associating and contributing, one could mitigate the effects of the calamity; How? I do not know; subscribe first, and we'll notify you later; you yourselves will seek the means that will suit you best, and you will come to an understanding.” No doubt, the idea would have been laughed at by many; but when one had set to work, how many practical difficulties would not have been encountered, for lack of having a previously developed foundation! It seems to us that the case is about the same here.

The letter published in the Annals of Labor, and reported above, does not further elucidate the question; it confirms that the plan and execution of the project are left to the arbitrary and to the initiative of the subscribers; however, when the initiative is left to everyone, no one takes it. Moreover, if men have enough judgment to appreciate whether what is offered to them is good or bad, not all of them are able to develop an idea, especially when it embraces such a vast field, as this one. This elaboration is the essential complement of the first idea. A league is an organized body that must have regulations and statutes, to walk together, if it is to achieve a result. If Mr. Macé had established statutes, even provisional, to submit them later for the approval of the subscribers, who would then be free to modify them, as it is the practice in all associations, he would have given a body to the League, a point of connection, while it has neither.

We even say that it does not have a flag, since it is said in the aforementioned letter: The league will not teach anything, and will have no direction to give; it is therefore superfluous to worry now about the more or less liberal opinions of the person who seeks to found it. We would understand this reasoning if it were an industrial operation; but in an issue as delicate as teaching, that is considered from very controversial points of view, that touches on the most serious interests of the social order, we do not understand how the opinion of the one who is the founder can be ignored, the one that must be the soul of the company. This assertion is a regrettable mistake.

From the vagueness that surrounds the economy of the project, it results that, by subscribing, no one knows what or for what he is committed, since he does not know what direction the group, that he will be part of, will take; there will even be subscribers that do not belong to any group. The organization of these groups is not even determined; their membership, their attributions, their sphere of activity, everything is left in the unknown. No one has the capacity to summon them; contrary to what is practiced in similar cases, no supervisory committee is set up to regulate and control the use of funds, paid in advance, and that serve to pay for the costs of propaganda of the idea. Since there are overhead expenses paid with the subscribers' funds, they should know what these are. The author wants to give them all the latitude, to organize themselves as they see fit; he only wishes to be the promoter of the idea; be it, and far from us the thought of raising the least suspicion or mistrust against his person; but we say that, for the regular progress of an operation of this kind, and to ensure its success, there are indispensable preliminary measures, that have been totally neglected, and that we regrettably see, in the very interest of the thing; if it is on purpose, we believe the idea to be unfounded; if it is forgotten, it is unfortunate. We do not have the skills to give any advice in this matter, but here is how one generally proceeds in similar cases.

When the author of a project, that requires a call for public confidence, does not want to assume alone the responsibility for the execution, and also in order to surround himself with more enlightenment, he first gathers a certain number of people whose names are a recommendation, that associate with the idea and elaborate it with him. These people constitute a first committee, either advisory or cooperative, provisional until the final constitution of the operation and the appointment of a permanent supervisory board by the interested parties.

This committee is a guarantee to the latter, by the control it exerts upon the first operations, for which it is responsible for reporting, as well as the initial expenditures. It is also a support and a discharge of responsibility to the founder. The latter, speaking in his name, and supported by the opinion of several, draws from this collective authority a moral force that is always more preponderant over the opinion of the masses than the authority of one. If this had been done for the League of Teaching, and if this project had been presented in the usual forms, and in more practical terms, the members would, undoubtedly, have been in greater numbers, but as it is, it leaves too much to the undecided, in our opinion.

Although this project was given over to publicity, and consequently, to the free examination of each one, we would not have spoken about it, if we had not been, in some way, constrained by the requests that were addressed to us. In principle, on things that, from our point of view, we cannot give full approval, we prefer to remain silent so as not to create any obstacle.

Having been asked for new explanations, since our last article, we felt the need to justify our way of seeing with more accuracy. But again, we are only giving our opinion, that is not binding to anyone; we would be happy to be the only one with such opinion, and that the success of the endeavor proved us wrong. We wholeheartedly associate ourselves with the mother idea, but not with its mode of execution.

This is perhaps due to the lack of perspicacity of our intelligence, but we confess, with all humility, that we are no more enlightened than before; we will even say that the above explanations confirm our opinion. We were told that the author of the project had a well-defined program, but that he would reserve it, and have it known when the adhesions were sufficient. Such a way of proceeding seems neither logical nor practical to us, because one cannot rationally adhere to what one does not know; however, the letter Mr. Macé was kind enough to write to us, in no way suggests that this is the case; on the contrary, it says: "Each group will necessarily have to make its own program,” meaning that the author does not have one of his own. As a result, if there are a thousand groups, there may be a thousand programs; it is the open door to the anarchy of systems.

He adds, it is true, that the fundamental point is clarified, in the clearest and most distinct way, by the indication of the goal, that is: "To carry out pure and simple education, apart from any concern of sect. and party.” The goal is commendable, no doubt, but we only see good intention there, and not the indispensable precision in practical matters.

He adds: “Any circle that would infringe it would automatically exit the league.” That is the denunciatory measure. Well, these circles will be free to leave the League, and to form others alongside, without believing to have been unworthy of anything; this is then the main League broken from its beginning, for the lack of a unified and whole view. The indicated goal is so general that it lends itself to an error of very contradictory applications, in that each one, interpreting it according to their personal opinions, will believe to be right. Where is the authority that can legally pronounce this exclusion? There is none; there is no regulatory center with the capacity to assess or control individual programs that deviate from the general plan. Each group being its own authority, and its center of action, it is the sole judge of what it does; under such conditions, we believe it to be impossible to reach an agreement.

So far, we only see a general idea in this project; now, an idea is not a program. A program is an outline from which no one can consciously deviate, a plan drawn up in the most minute details, and that leaves nothing to the arbitrary, where all the difficulties of execution are foreseen, where the ways and means are indicated. The best program is the one that leaves as little as possible to the unpredictable.

“It was quite impossible for me to specify anything," says the author, "since the measure of action of each group will necessarily be determined by its means of action.” In other words, by the material resources at their disposal. But this is not a reason. Every day plans are made, projects are worked out subordinated to the possible means of execution; it is only by seeing a plan that the public decides to join it, as they understand its usefulness and see the elements of success in it.

What should have been done first, and foremost, would be to point out, with precision, the gaps in the education that one proposed to fill, the needs that one wanted to meet; say: if one intended to promote free education, by remunerating or compensating teachers; found schools where there are none; to make up for the insufficiency of instructional material, in schools too poor to provide them; provide books to children that cannot afford them; found incentive prizes for pupils and teachers; create courses for adults; to pay men of talent to go, like missionaries, to give instructive lectures in the countryside, destroying superstitious ideas there, with the aid of science; define the purpose and spirit of these courses and conferences, etc., those things and others. Only then would the aim have been clearly specified.

Then, it would have been said: “To achieve it, we need material resources; we appeal to the men of good will, to friends of progress, to those that sympathize with our ideas; that they form committees by departments, districts, cantons or communes, responsible for collecting donations. There will be no general and central fund, each committee will have its own, the employment of which will be done according to the outlined program, proportionate to the resources at its disposal; if it collects a lot, it will do a lot, if it collects little, it will do less. But there will be a steering committee, responsible for centralizing information, transmitting the necessary notices and instructions, resolving any difficulties that may arise, printing the seal of unity onto the whole, without which the league would be an empty word. A league means an association of individuals marching, by mutual agreement and in solidarity, towards the achievement of a determined goal; however, as long as everyone can understand this goal their own way, and act as they please, there is no longer either league or association.

An essential point, that does not seem to have been thought through, is this: Being the proposed goal permanent, and not temporary as when it is a question of a calamity to be relieved, or of a monument to be erected, it requires permanentresources. Experience proving that one should never count on regular and perpetual voluntary donations, if one operated directly with the proceeds of donations, this fund would soon be absorbed. If we want the operation not to be stopped at its very origin, it is necessary to build up an income, so as not to live on its capital; therefore, capitalize subscriptions in the safest and most productive manner. How, and with which guarantee and under which control? This is what any project, based on the application of capital, must above all foresee and determine, before collecting anything, just as it must also determine the use and distribution of funds, paid in advance, in the event that, by any cause whatsoever, it would not be continued. By its nature, the project has an economic part that is more important, for its future depend on that, and that is totally lacking here.

Suppose that before the establishment of insurance companies, a man would have said: “Fires cause devastations every day; I thought that, by associating and contributing, one could mitigate the effects of the calamity; How? I do not know; subscribe first, and we'll notify you later; you yourselves will seek the means that will suit you best, and you will come to an understanding.” No doubt, the idea would have been laughed at by many; but when one had set to work, how many practical difficulties would not have been encountered, for lack of having a previously developed foundation! It seems to us that the case is about the same here.

The letter published in the Annals of Labor, and reported above, does not further elucidate the question; it confirms that the plan and execution of the project are left to the arbitrary and to the initiative of the subscribers; however, when the initiative is left to everyone, no one takes it. Moreover, if men have enough judgment to appreciate whether what is offered to them is good or bad, not all of them are able to develop an idea, especially when it embraces such a vast field, as this one. This elaboration is the essential complement of the first idea. A league is an organized body that must have regulations and statutes, to walk together, if it is to achieve a result. If Mr. Macé had established statutes, even provisional, to submit them later for the approval of the subscribers, who would then be free to modify them, as it is the practice in all associations, he would have given a body to the League, a point of connection, while it has neither.

We even say that it does not have a flag, since it is said in the aforementioned letter: The league will not teach anything, and will have no direction to give; it is therefore superfluous to worry now about the more or less liberal opinions of the person who seeks to found it. We would understand this reasoning if it were an industrial operation; but in an issue as delicate as teaching, that is considered from very controversial points of view, that touches on the most serious interests of the social order, we do not understand how the opinion of the one who is the founder can be ignored, the one that must be the soul of the company. This assertion is a regrettable mistake.

From the vagueness that surrounds the economy of the project, it results that, by subscribing, no one knows what or for what he is committed, since he does not know what direction the group, that he will be part of, will take; there will even be subscribers that do not belong to any group. The organization of these groups is not even determined; their membership, their attributions, their sphere of activity, everything is left in the unknown. No one has the capacity to summon them; contrary to what is practiced in similar cases, no supervisory committee is set up to regulate and control the use of funds, paid in advance, and that serve to pay for the costs of propaganda of the idea. Since there are overhead expenses paid with the subscribers' funds, they should know what these are. The author wants to give them all the latitude, to organize themselves as they see fit; he only wishes to be the promoter of the idea; be it, and far from us the thought of raising the least suspicion or mistrust against his person; but we say that, for the regular progress of an operation of this kind, and to ensure its success, there are indispensable preliminary measures, that have been totally neglected, and that we regrettably see, in the very interest of the thing; if it is on purpose, we believe the idea to be unfounded; if it is forgotten, it is unfortunate. We do not have the skills to give any advice in this matter, but here is how one generally proceeds in similar cases.

When the author of a project, that requires a call for public confidence, does not want to assume alone the responsibility for the execution, and also in order to surround himself with more enlightenment, he first gathers a certain number of people whose names are a recommendation, that associate with the idea and elaborate it with him. These people constitute a first committee, either advisory or cooperative, provisional until the final constitution of the operation and the appointment of a permanent supervisory board by the interested parties.

This committee is a guarantee to the latter, by the control it exerts upon the first operations, for which it is responsible for reporting, as well as the initial expenditures. It is also a support and a discharge of responsibility to the founder. The latter, speaking in his name, and supported by the opinion of several, draws from this collective authority a moral force that is always more preponderant over the opinion of the masses than the authority of one. If this had been done for the League of Teaching, and if this project had been presented in the usual forms, and in more practical terms, the members would, undoubtedly, have been in greater numbers, but as it is, it leaves too much to the undecided, in our opinion.

Although this project was given over to publicity, and consequently, to the free examination of each one, we would not have spoken about it, if we had not been, in some way, constrained by the requests that were addressed to us. In principle, on things that, from our point of view, we cannot give full approval, we prefer to remain silent so as not to create any obstacle.

Having been asked for new explanations, since our last article, we felt the need to justify our way of seeing with more accuracy. But again, we are only giving our opinion, that is not binding to anyone; we would be happy to be the only one with such opinion, and that the success of the endeavor proved us wrong. We wholeheartedly associate ourselves with the mother idea, but not with its mode of execution.

With the title: The devil of the windmill, the Moniteur de l'Indre, February 1867, contains the following story:

“Mr. Garnier, François, is a farmer and miller in the village of Vicq-sur-Nahon. He is, we like to think, a peaceful man, and yet, since the month of September, his mill has been the scene of miraculous facts, such as to suggest that the devil, or at least a facetious Spirit, has elected that place as his domicile. For example, it seems beyond doubt that, devil or Spirit, the author of the facts that we are going to report, likes to sleep at night, because he only works during the day.

Our Spirit loves to juggle with the sheets on the beds. He takes them without anyone noticing, takes them away and hides them either in a vat, in the oven, or under bundles of hay. He carries the sheets, from the boy's bed, from one stable to another, and they are found more than an hour later under hay or in a rack. To open the doors, the Spirit of Vicq-sur-Nahon does not need a key. One day Mr. Garnier, in the presence of his servants, locked the door of the bakery with a double turn and put the key in his pocket, and yet this door opens almost immediately before the eyes of Garnier and his servants, and they could not explain how.

Another time, on January 1^st, a completely new way of wishing someone a Happy New Year, a little before nightfall, the feathered bed, the sheets, the blankets of a bed placed in a room, are removed without disturbing the bed, and these objects were found on the floor, near the bedroom door. Garnier and his family then imagined, in hopes of warding off all this witchcraft, to change the bedroom beds, that in fact took place; but once the move had taken place, the diabolical facts, that we have just reported, began all over again, with more intensity. On different occasions, a stable boy found the trunk where he holds his belongings open, and his things scattered in the stable.

But here are two circumstances in which all the evil cleverness of the Spirit is revealed. Among the servants of Mr. Garnier there is a 13-year-old girl, named Marie Richard. One day, this child, being in a bedroom, suddenly saw a small chapel rise up on the bed, and all the objects placed on the fireplace, 4 vases, 1 Christ, 3 glasses, 2 cups, in one of which with holy water, and a small bottle also filled with holy water, successively moving, as obeying the order of an invisible being, to take place on the improvised altar.



The bedroom door was ajar, and little Richard's sister-in-law was near the door. A shadow came out of the chapel, according to little Richard, approached the child and instructed her to invite her masters to give a blessed bread, and to have a mass said. The child promised it; for nine days calm reigned in the mill; Garnier had a mass said by the priest of Vicq, offered a blessed bread, and since the next day, January 15^th, the devilish things began again.

The keys to the doors disappeared; the doors that were left open are closed, and a locksmith, called to open the door of the mill, could not do it, finding himself forced to remove the lock. These last events took place on January 29^th. That same day, around noon, as the servants were having their meals, the Richard girl takes a pitcher of drink, helps herself to drink, and Mr. Garnier's watch, hanging on a nail on the fireplace, falls into her glass. The watch is put back on the fireplace; but the girl Richard, using a dish served on the table, takes the watch with her spoon. For the third time, the watch is hung in its place, and, for the third time, little Richard finds it in a pot that was boiling on the fire, as well as a small bottle of medicine, whose cork pops out on to her face.

Soon, the inhabitants of the mill were terrified; no one wanted to stay in a haunted house anymore. Finally, Garnier decided to warn the police commissioner of Valençay, who went to Vicq, accompanied by two policemen. But the devil did not see fit to show himself to the agents of the law. Only, they advised Garnier to send the little Richard away, which he did immediately. Was this measure enough to send the devil away? Hopefully, for the rest of the people of the mill.”

In a later issue, the Moniteur de l'Indre contains the following:

We told the story, in due time, of all the devilish things that happened at the mill of Vicq-sur-Nahon, of which Mr. Garnier is a tenant. Those devils, so far amusing, are beginning to turn into tragedy. After the pranks, the juggling, the conjuring tricks, the devil has resorted to fire.

On the 12^th of this month, two fire attempts took place, almost simultaneously, in the stables of Mr. Garnier. The first took place around five in the evening. The fire caught in the straw, at the foot of the bed of the miller boys. The second fire broke out about an hour after the first, but in a different stable. The fire also started at the foot of a bed, and in the straw. These two fires were, fortunately, extinguished by the father of Garnier, aged eighty, and his servants, warned by the mentioned Marie Richard.

Our readers must remember that this young girl, aged fourteen, was always the first to notice the witchcraft that took place at the mill, so much so that, on the advice given to her, Garnier had dismissed the little Richard from his home. When the two fires broke out, this girl had returned to Garnier’s hose fifteen days earlier. It was she again who noticed the first of the two fires, of March 12^th.

According to the research carried out at the mill, suspicion fell on two servants.

The Garnier family is so struck by the events, of which their mill has been the scene, that they have convinced themselves that the devil, or at least some evil spirit, has taken up residence in their home.”

One of our friends wrote to Mr. Garnier, asking him to let him know if the facts reported by the newspaper were real or tales made for pleasure, and in any case, what could be true or ‘exaggerated’ in this story.

Mr. Garnier replied that everything was perfectly correct, and in accordance with the declaration he himself had made to the police commissioner of Valençay. He also confirms the two fires and adds: The newspaper did not even tell everything. According to his letter, the facts had been happening for four to five months, and it was only pushed to the limit by their repetition, without being able to discover the perpetrator, that he made his statement. He ends by saying: “I do not know, Sir, for what purpose you are asking me for this information; but, if you have any knowledge of these things, I beg you to take part in my troubles, for I assure you that we are not at our ease in our house. If you can find a way to find the author of all these outrageous facts, you would be doing us a great service."

An important point to clarify was to know what the participation of the young girl could be, either voluntarily by malice, or unconsciously by her influence. On this question, the Mr. Garnier said that the child, having been out of the house for fifteen days only, he could not judge the effect of her absence; but that he has no suspicion of her malevolence, any more than the other servants; that she had almost always announced what was going on beyond her reach; that thus, she had said several times: "Here is the bed that turns upside down in such and such a room," and that, having entered it without losing sight of it, the bed was found undone; that she had similarly warned of the two fires that have occurred since her return.

These facts, as we see, belong to the same kind of phenomena as those of Poitiers (Spiritist Review, February and March 1864 and May 1865); from Marseilles (April 1865); de Dieppe (March 1860), and so many others that can be called disorderly and disturbing manifestations.

We will first point out the difference between the tone of this story and that of the Poitiers newspaper, on what happened in that city. We remember the deluge of sarcasm that it rained down on the Spiritists on this matter, and its persistence on maintaining against the evidence, that it could only be the work of bad jokers that would soon be discovered, and that, ultimately, were never discovered. Le Moniteur de l'Indre, more cautious, confines itself to a narrative, not seasoned with any inappropriate joke, and which implies rather an affirmation than a denial.

Another remark is that events of this kind took place long before there was any question of Spiritism, and that since then they have almost always happened with people that even do not know it by name, which excludes any influence due to belief and imagination. If the Spiritists were accused of faking these demonstrations, for the purpose of propaganda, one would ask who could have produced them before there were any Spiritists.

Knowing what happened at the Vicq-sur-Nahon mill only through the story that was told, we limit ourselves to noting that here nothing deviates from what Spiritism admits the possibility of, nor from the normal conditions in which such facts may occur; that these facts are explained by perfectly natural laws, and consequently, have nothing marvelous about them. Ignorance of these laws alone has been able, up to this day, to make them regarded as supernatural effects, as it has been the case with almost all the phenomena that science has later revealed the laws.

What may seem more extraordinary, and is less easily explained, is the fact that the doors are opened after having been carefully locked. Modern manifestations offer several examples of that. A similar fact happened in Limoges, a few years ago (Spiritist Review, August 1860). Considering that the state of our knowledge does not allow us to give yet a conclusive explanation, that would not prejudge anything, because we are far from knowing all the laws that govern the invisible world, all the forces that this world conceals, nor all the applications of the laws that we know. Spiritism has not yet said its last word, far from it, no more on physical things than on spiritual things. Many discoveries will be the fruit of subsequent observations. Spiritism has, in a way, until now, only laid the groundwork for a science whose reach is unknown.

With the help of what it has already discovered, it opens, to those that will come after us, the path of investigations in a special order of ideas. It proceeds only by observations and deductions, and never by supposition. If a fact is attested, it says that it must have a cause, and that this cause can only be natural, and then it seeks that. In the absence of a categorical proof, it can provide a hypothesis, but until confirmation, it only gives it as a hypothesis, and not as an absolute truth. With regards to the phenomenon of open doors, like that of transportations through rigid bodies, it is all still reduced to a hypothesis, based on the fluidic properties of matter, very imperfectly known, or to put it better, that are not suspected yet. If the fact in question is confirmed by experience, it must have, as we have said, a natural cause; if it is repeated, it is because it is not an exception but the consequence of a law. The possibility of the liberation of Saint Peter, from his prison, as reported in the Acts of the Apostles, Chap. XII, would thus be demonstrated, without the need to resort to a miracle.

Of all the mediumistic effects, the physical manifestations are the easiest to simulate; so we must be careful not to accept too lightly facts of this kind as authentic, whether they are spontaneous like those of the mill of Vicq-sur-Nahon, or consciously provoked by a medium. It is true that the imitation could only be crude and imperfect, but with skill one can easily succeed, as it was done in the past with the double sight, to those that did not know the conditions in which the real phenomena can occur. We have seen so-called mediums with a rare ability to simulate apports, direct writing, and other kinds of manifestations. It is, therefore, necessary to admit only consciously the intervention of the Spirits in these kinds of things.

In the case in question, we do not affirm this intervention; we limit ourselves to saying that it is possible. The two starts of fire alone could raise the suspicion of a human act, aroused by malice, that the future will undoubtedly reveal. It is good to note, however, that thanks to the clairvoyance of the young girl, the consequences could be prevented. Except for this last fact, the others were nothing but disruption without bad consequences. If they are the work of Spirits, they can only come from frivolous Spirits, enjoying the fears and impatience they cause. We know that they can come in all shades, like here on Earth. The best way to get rid of that is not to worry about it, and to tire their patience, that is never very long lasting, when they see that no one is bothered with it, proving to them by laughing at their mischiefs, and challenging them to do more. The surest way to get them to persevere is to become tormented and angry with them. We can still get rid of them by evoking them with the help of a good medium, and by praying for them; thus, by talking to them, we can know what they are and what they want, and make them listen to reason.

These kinds of manifestations have, moreover, a more serious result: that of propagating the idea of the invisible world, that surrounds us, and of asserting its action on the material world. That is why they occur preferably among people foreign to Spiritism, rather than among Spiritists who do not need it to be convinced. Fraud, in such a case, can sometimes be only an innocent joke, or a means of giving importance to oneself by making believe in a faculty that one does not possess, or that one possess imperfectly; but more often it has for motive an obvious or dissimulated interest, and for goal the exploitation of the confidence of too naïve or inexperienced people; it is then a real swindle. It would be superfluous to insist on saying that those that are guilty of any deception of this kind, if solicited only by self-love, are not Spiritists, even when they would pretend to be such. Real phenomena have sui generis character and occur under circumstances that defy all suspicion. A complete knowledge of these characters and circumstances can easily lead to the revelation of the deception.

If these explanations come to the knowledge of Mr. Garnier, he will find there the answer requested in his letter.

One of our correspondents sends us the report, written by an eyewitness, of similar demonstrations that took place last January, in the village of Basse-Indre (Lower Loire). They consisted on knocks beaten with obstinacy for several weeks, and that stirred up all the inhabitants of a house. All the research and investigation carried out by the authority, to discover the cause, led to nothing. As a matter of fact, this event does not present any very remarkable peculiarity, except that, like all spontaneous manifestations, it calls attention to the Spiritist phenomena.

Facts of physical manifestations, those that occur spontaneously, exert on public opinion an influence infinitely greater than the effects provoked directly by a medium, either because they have more impact and notoriety, or because they give less hold to the suspicion of charlatanism and conjuring.

This reminds us of a fact that happened in Paris, in May of last year. Here it is, as it was reported in the past by the Petit Journal.

Woman’s mission

Lyon, July 6^th, 1866

Group of Mrs. Ducard, medium Mrs. B…



Every day, the events of life bring you lessons to serve you as an example, and yet you pass without understanding them, without drawing a useful inference from the circumstances that gave rise to them. However, in this intimate union of earth and space, of free Spirits and captive Spirits, attached to the accomplishment of their task, there are those examples whose memory must be perpetuated among you: it is the peace proposed in war. A woman, whose social position attracts all eyes, goes on, a humble sister of charity, bringing to all the consolation of her words, the affection of her heart, the caress of her eyes. She is an empress, the crown of diamonds shines on her forehead, but she forgets her position, she forgets the dangers of being amid miseries, and tells everyone: "Rest assured, I am here! Do not suffer any more, I am speaking to you; do not worry, I will take care of your orphans! …”

The danger is imminent, the contagion is in the air, and yet, she passes, calm and radiant, in the middle of these beds, where the pain lies. She calculated nothing, apprehended nothing, she went where her heart called her to, as the breeze refreshes the withered flowers and straighten their tottering stems.

This example of dedication and abnegation, when the splendors of life should engender pride and selfishness, is certainly a stimulus for women, that feel vibrating in them this exquisiteness of feeling, that God has given them to accomplish their task; for they are mainly responsible for spreading consolation, and especially conciliation. Don’t they have the grace and the smile, the charm of the voice and the sweetness of the soul? It is to them that God entrusts the first steps of his children; he chose them as the nurses of the gentle creatures that are about to be born.

This rebellious and proud Spirit, whose existence will be a constant struggle against misfortune, doesn’t he come asking them to inculcate in him other ideas than those that he brings at birth? It is towards them that he extends his little hands, and his once harsh voice and its accents that vibrated like copper, will unstiffen like a soft echo when he says: mom!

It is to the woman he implores, this sweet cherub that comes to teach reading in the book of science; it is to please her that he will make all his efforts to learn and make himself useful to humanity. It is again towards her that he extends his hands, this young man who has strayed in his path, and who wants to return to good; he would not dare implore his father, whose anger he fears, but his mother, so gentle, so generous, will have nothing but forgetfulness and forgiveness for him.

Aren’t they the animated flowers of life, the unalterable devotion, these souls that God created women? They attract and charm. They are called temptation, but they should be called remembrance, for their image remains engraved in indelible characters in the hearts of their children, when they are no more; it is not in the present that they are appreciated, but in the past, when death returned them to God. Then, their children seek them in space, as the sailor seeks the star that must guide him to the port. They are the sphere of attraction, the compass of the Spirit that remains on earth, hoping to find them in heaven. They are still the hand that leads and supports, the soul that inspires and the voice that forgives, and just as they were the angel of the earthly home, they become the comforting angel that teaches to pray.

Oh! you that have been oppressed on earth, women believed to be the slaves of man, because you yielded to his domination, your kingdom is not of this world! Be content, therefore, with the fate reserved to you; continue your task; remain the mediators between man and God and understand the influence of your intervention. This one is an passionate, impetuous Spirit, the blood boils in his veins; he will lose his temper, he will be unfair; but God placed sweetness in your eyes, caress in your voice; look at him, talk to him, and the anger will subside and the injustice disappear. You may have suffered, but you will have spared a fault to your companion of journey, and your mission is accomplished. That one is still unhappy, he suffers, fortune abandons him, he believes himself to be an outcast! But there is here a dedication to the test, a constant abnegation to raise this abated morale, to restore to this Spirit the hope that had abandoned him.

Women, you are the inseparable companions of man; you form with him an indissoluble chain that misfortune cannot break, that ingratitude must not stain, and that cannot be broken, for God Himself has formed it, and although you have sometimes in the soul, these dark worries that follow the struggle, rejoice however, because in this immense work of earthly harmony, God gave you the best part!

Courage then! O you that live humbly, by working to improve your inner self, God smiles at you, for He has given you that facility that characterizes a woman; whether they are empresses, sisters of charity, humble workers or gentle mothers of families, they are all enlisted under the same banner, and bear written on their foreheads and in their hearts, these two magic words that fill eternity: Love and charity.

Cárita

Change of title of the La Vérité de Lyon



The journal La Vérité, from Lyon, has just changed its title; from March 10^th, 1867, it became The Universal Tribune, journal of free conscience and free thought. It announces it and explains the reasons for it in the following note, inserted in the February 24^th issue.

“To our Spiritist brothers and sisters.

Philalethes, the relentless champion that you know, thought it to be his duty to inform you that he would henceforth direct his investigations towards general philosophy, and no longer only towards Spiritism, of which, scientists do not even want to hear the name, thanks to their prejudices. But you should not think, dear brothers and sisters, that by removing the label from the bag, after all very indifferent, he wants to throw away the contents to the nettles, no more than we do! As far as we are personally concerned, we would be sorry if our readers could suspect us, for a single moment, wanting to desert an idea for which we have expended all the living forces, that we were capable of. The Spiritist idea today is an integral part of our being, and to remove it would be to doom our heart, our mind to death.

If we are Spiritists, however, and precisely because we believe we are, in the truest sense of the word, we want to be charitable, tolerant towards all opposing systems, and we want to reach out to them, since they refuse to come to us.

Is the label of Spiritists, stuck onto our forehead, a scarecrow for you, gentlemen deniers? Well, we willingly consent to remove it, reserving the right to carry it high in our souls. We will no longer be called La Vérité, journal of Spiritism, but The Universal Tribune, journal of free conscience and free thought. This terrain is as vast as the world, and systems of all kinds will be able to grapple with it at their will, risking assault with defectors from La Vérité, who will claim for themselves the right granted to all: discussion. It is then that, inflamed by the struggle, inspired by faith and guided by reason, we hope to shine in the eyes of our adversaries such a bright light, that God and immortality will no longer stand before them as a hideous phantom, a product of centuries of ignorance, but as a sweet and kind vision, in which all humanity will rest at last.

E. E.”

Brochure printed in Madrid, in Spanish, containing the fundamental principles of the Spiritist doctrine, taken from What is Spiritism? with this dedication:

“To Mr. Allan Kardec, the first who described methodically, and coordinated with clarity, the philosophical principles of the new school, this weak work is dedicated by his devoted coreligionist. Despite the obstacles that the new ideas meet in this country, Spiritism finds here deeper sympathies than one could suppose, mainly in the upper classes, where it counts numerous, keen and devoted followers; for here, in terms of religious opinions, the extremes meet, and as everywhere else, the excesses of some produce opposite reactions. In the ancient and poetic mythology, fanaticism would have been made the father of disbelief.”



We congratulate the author of this brochure on his zeal for the propagation of the doctrine, and thank him for his gracious dedication, as well as the kind words that followed the pamphlet. His feelings, and those of his brothers in belief, are reflected in this characteristic phrase of his letter: “We are ready for anything, even to bow our heads to receive martyrdom, just as we raise it very high to confess our faith."

Spiritism teaches us that the Spirits constitute the invisible population of the globe, that they are in space and among us, seeing us and elbowing us incessantly, so that, when we believe ourselves alone, we constantly have secret witnesses of our actions and thoughts. This may sound embarrassing to some people, but since it is a fact, one cannot prevent it from being; it is up to each one to behave like the righteous man who would not fear that his house was made of glass. It is, undoubtedly, to this cause that we must attribute the revelation of so much wickedness and misdeeds that were believed to be buried in the shadows.

We also know that in a meeting, besides the corporeal assistants, there are always invisible listeners; that being the permeability one of the properties of the organism of the Spirits, these can be found in unlimited number in a given space. Often, we were told, that at certain sessions they were in innumerable quantities. In the explanation given to Mr. Bertrand, concerning the collective communications that he obtained, it is said that the number of Spirits present was so large, that the atmosphere was, so to speak, saturated with their fluids. This is not new to the Spiritists, but perhaps we have not deduced all the consequences.

We know that the fluids emanating from the Spirits are, to some extent, beneficial, according to their degree of depuration; we know their curative power in certain cases, as well as their morbid effects, from individual to individual. Now, since the air may be saturated with these fluids, isn’t that obvious that, depending on the nature of the Spirits that abound in a determined place, the ambient air is impregnated with healthy or unhealthy elements, that must exert an influence on physical, as well as on the moral health? When one think of the energy of the action that a Spirit can exert on a man, can one be surprised by the one that results from an agglomeration of hundreds or thousands of Spirits? Such action will be good or bad, depending on whether the Spirits pour a beneficial or harmful fluid into a given environment, a fluid that acts in the manner of strengthening emanations or harmful miasmas, disseminated in the air.

This can explain certain collective effects produced on masses of individuals, the feeling of well-being or discomfort that one experiences in certain environments, and which have no known apparent cause, the collective drive towards good or bad, general impulses, enthusiasm or discouragement, sometimes the kind of vertigo that seizes a whole assembly, a whole city, even a whole people. Each one suffers in proportion to their degree of sensitivity, influenced by this contaminated or invigorating atmosphere. By this unquestionable fact, about the relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual worlds, confirmed by both theory and experience, we find a new principle of hygiene that science will, undoubtedly, one day make recognized by everyone.





Can we, however, escape these influences emanating from a source inaccessible to material means? Without a doubt; for just as we clean up unhealthy places, by destroying the source of pestilential miasmas, we can cleanse the moral atmosphere around us, escaping the pernicious influences of unhealthy spiritual fluids, and that more easily than we can escape the marshy odors, because it depends only on our will, and that will not be one of the least benefits of Spiritism, when it is universally understood and especially practiced.

A principle perfectly proven to any Spiritist, is that the qualities of the perispiritual fluid are in direct proportion to the qualities of the incarnate or discarnate Spirit; the more his feelings are elevated and freed from the influences of matter, the more his fluid is purified. According to the dominating thoughts, an incarnate radiates fluids impregnated with these same thoughts, that vitiate or cleanse them; really material fluids, although impalpable, invisible to the eyes of the body, but perceptible to the perispirit senses, and visible to the eyes of the soul, since they impress physically, and take very different appearances for those that are gifted with spiritual sight.

The sole fact of the presence of the incarnate in an assembly determines, therefore, that the ambient fluids are healthy or unhealthy, depending on whether the dominant thoughts are good or bad. Anyone that brings thoughts of hatred, envy, jealousy, pride, selfishness, animosity, greed, falsehood, hypocrisy, slander, malevolence, in a word, thoughts drawn from the source of bad passions, spreads unhealthy fluidic odors around them, reacting on those around them. In an assembly in which, on the contrary, each one would bring only feelings of goodness, charity, humility, selfless devotion, benevolence and love to their neighbor, the air is impregnated with healthy emanations, in the midst of which we feel good.

If we now consider that thoughts attract thoughts of the same nature, that fluids attract similar fluids, we understand that each individual brings along an entourage of sympathetic spirits, good or bad, and that thus the air is saturated with fluids related to the predominant thoughts. If bad thoughts are in the minority, they do not prevent good influences from occurring, but they paralyze them. If they dominate, they weaken the fluidic radiation of the good Spirits, or even sometimes, prevent the good fluids from entering this environment, as the fog weakens or stops the rays of the sun.

So, what is the way to escape the influence of bad fluids? This arises from the very cause that produces the evil. What do we do when we have recognized that a food is unhealthy? We reject it and replace it with a healthier food. Since it is bad thoughts that generate bad fluids, and attract them, we must strive to have only good ones, pushing away all that is bad, like pushing away food that can make us sick; in short, one must work for one’s moral improvement, and using a comparison from the Gospel, we must “not only clean the vessel on the outside, but especially clean it on the inside. "

Humanity, as it improves, will see the fluidic atmosphere, in which it lives, purifying, because it will only send good fluids, and these will oppose a barrier to the invasion of the bad ones. If, one day, earth happens to be populated only by people practicing the divine laws of love and charity, among themselves, there is no doubt that they will then be in conditions of physical and moral hygiene quite different from those that exist today.

This time is still far away, no doubt, but in the meantime, these conditions may partially exist, and it is up to the Spiritist assemblies to set an example. Those who have possessed the light will be all the more reprehensible as they will have had in their hands the means to enlighten themselves; they will incur the responsibility for the delays that their example and their unwillingness will have brought onto the general improvement.

Is this a utopia, a vain declamation? No; it is a logical deduction from the very facts that Spiritism reveals to us every day. Indeed, Spiritism proves to us that the spiritual element, that we have until now considered as the antithesis of the material element, has an intimate connection with the latter, from which it results a multitude of unobserved or misunderstood phenomena. When science has assimilated the elements provided by Spiritism, it will draw from them new and important resources for the very material improvement of humanity. Every day we thus see expanding the circle of applications of the doctrine, that is far from being restricted to the childish phenomenon of turning tables or other effects of pure curiosity, as some still believe. Spiritism only really took off when it entered the philosophical path; it then became less fun to some people, who were only looking for a distraction, but it is more appreciated by serious people, and will be even more so, as it is better understood in its consequences.

The journal La Vérité, from Lyon, on September 16^th, 1866, in an article entitled, Renan and his school, contained the following reflections on the word miracle:

“Renan and his school do not even bother to discuss the facts, they reject them all a priori, wrongly qualifying them as supernatural, and therefore impossible and absurd; they oppose them with an absolute end of inadmissibility, and a transcendent disdain. Renan said once, an eminently true and profound phrase: "The supernatural would be nothing other than the super-divine." We support this great truth with all our energy, but we point out that the very word miracle (mirum, astonishing and hitherto unexplained thing) does not mean, of course, inversion of the laws of nature, but rather the flexibility of these same laws still unknown to the human Spirit. We even say that there will always be miracles, for the ascent of humanity being always progressive towards a more perfect knowledge, this knowledge will constantly need to be surpassed and spurred on by facts that will appear marvelous to the mind, at the time when they will occur, and will not be understood and explained until later. A very accredited writer from our school let himself to accept this objection; (Allan Kardec) he repeats in many passages of his works that there are neither marvels nor miracles; it is an oversight resulting from the false sense of the supernatural, completely rejected by the etymology of the word. We say that if the word miracle did not exist, to qualify phenomena still under study and not covered by vulgar science, it would have to be invented as the most appropriate and the most logical.

Nothing is supernatural, we repeat, because apart from the created and the uncreated nature, there is nothing absolutely conceivable; but there is the superhuman, that is to say, phenomena that can be produced by intelligent beings, other than men, according to the laws of their nature, or else produced either mediately or immediately by God, still according to his nature and according to his natural relations with his creatures.

Philalethes”

We are not, thank God, ignoring the etymological meaning of the word miracle; we have proved this in many articles, and particularly in the article of the Spiritist Review, September 1860. It is, therefore, neither by mistake nor inadvertently that we reject its application to the Spiritist phenomena, however extraordinary they may appear at first glance, but with full knowledge of the facts and with intention. In its usual meaning, the word miracle has lost its original connotation, like so many others, starting with the word philosophy (love of wisdom), that we use today to express the most diametrically opposing ideas, from the purest spiritualism, down to the most absolute materialism. There is no doubt that, in the mind of the masses, miracle implies the idea of a supernatural fact. Ask anyone that believes in miracles if they regard them as natural effects.

The Church is so fixated on this point that it anathematizes those that claim to explain miracles by the laws of nature. The Academy itself defines this word as: Act of divine power, contrary to the known laws of nature. True, false miracle, proven miracle, work miracles. The gift of miracles.

To be understood by everyone, you have to speak like everyone else; now, it is obvious that if we had qualified the Spiritist phenomena as miraculous, the public would have misunderstood their true character, unless we used a periphrasis each time, and said that they are miracles that are not miracles like they are usually understood. Since it is generally attached to the idea of a derogation of the natural laws, and since the Spiritist phenomena are only the application of these same laws, it is much simpler and above all more logical to bluntly say: no, Spiritism does not work miracles. In this way, there is no misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Just as the progress of the physical sciences has destroyed a host of prejudices, and brought into the order of natural facts a large number of effects formerly considered to be miraculous, Spiritism, by the revelation of new laws, further restricts the realm of the marvelous; we say more: it swings the last blow, and that is why it is not everywhere, with the odor of sanctity, any more than astronomy and geology.

If those that believe in miracles understood this word in its etymological meaning (admirable thing), they would admire Spiritism instead of anathematizing it; instead of putting Galileo in prison, for having shown that Joshua could not stop the sun, they would have woven crowns for him, for having revealed to the world much more remarkable things, and that attest infinitely better to the greatness and the power of God.

For the same reasons, we reject the supernatural word from the Spiritist vocabulary. Miracle would still have its acceptance, in its etymology, except to determine its signification; supernatural is nonsense from the point of view of Spiritism. The word superhuman, proposed by Philalethes, is also inappropriate, in our opinion, because the beings who are the primitive agents of the Spiritist phenomena, although in the state of Spirits, nevertheless belong to humanity. The word superhuman would tend to sanction the opinion long accredited, and destroyed by Spiritism, that Spirits are creatures apart, outside of humanity. Another peremptory reason is that many of these phenomena are the direct product of embodied Spirits, consequently of men, and in all cases almost always require the assistance of an incarnate; therefore, they are no more superhuman than supernatural.

A word that has also completely deviated from its original meaning is demon. We know that daimon was used among the ancients, for the Spirits of a certain order, intermediaries between men and those who were called gods. Such designation did not imply, in the origin, any bad quality; on the contrary, it was taken in good sense; Socrates' demon was certainly not an evil Spirit; while according to modern opinion, resulting from Catholic theology, demons are fallen angels, beings apart, essentially and perpetually doomed to evil. To be consistent with the opinion of Philatethes, it would be necessary that, out of respect for etymology, Spiritism should also retain the qualification of demons. If Spiritism called its phenomena miracles, and the Spirits demons, its opponents would have had a good time! It would have been rejected by three quarters of those who accept it today, because they would have seen in it a return to beliefs that are no longer of our time. To dress Spiritism in worn clothes would have been a blunder; it would have been a fatal blow on the doctrine, that would have found it difficult to dispel the prejudices maintained by improper names.

“Picturesque and sentimental journey to the resting fields of Montmartre and Père-Lachaise”; by Ant. Caillot, author of the encyclopedia of young ladies, and of the new elementary lessons of the French history. This is the title of a book published in Paris, in 1808, and that must be very rare today. The author, after having telling the history and the description of these two cemeteries, quotes a large number of tomb inscriptions, making philosophical reflections on each one, marked by a deep religious feeling, provoked by the thought that dictated them. We first noticed the following passage, in which the idea of reincarnation is clearly expressed:

“What a wise and deeply religious man was the first to name Resting Field, the last asylum of this creature whose existence, until his last breath, is tormented by the beings that surround him and by himself! Here, all lie in the womb of the common mother, and in a sleep that is only the precursor of awakening, of a new existence. Earth preserves as a sacred deposit, these venerable remains; and if it hastens to dissolve them, it is to purify their elements, and make them more worthy of the intelligence that will, one day, revive them for new destinies.”

Further down, he says:

Oh! how astonished was the blind and audacious mortal, who dared drive you out of his mind and his heart (the atheist that denies God), when his soul appeared before the Infinite Majesty! How couldn’t one see his remains shaking and trembling with surprise and terror? How come didn’t his icy tongue revive, to express the terror with which he was struck, when the flesh was no longer between him and the divine gazes! Good Lord! Universal cause, and soul of nature! All beings recognize you and celebrate you as their sole author. Would man alone, turn away from you the intelligent and rational Spirit, that you gave him to glorify you? Ah! No doubt, and I like to believe it, there wasn’t a single one of the forty thousand mortals, whose bodies lie here in the dust, who did not have the conviction of your existence and the feeling of your adorable perfections.

As I finished uttering these last words, with emotion, a noise was heard beside me. I cast my eyes towards the place where it came from, and I saw, an admirable and unheard-of thing! A specter who, wrapped in his shroud, had come out of a tomb, and gravely approached me, to speak to me. Was this apparition just a game of my imagination? This is what it is impossible for me to assure; but the following dialogue, that I remember well, makes me believe that I was not the only speaker for two roles at the same time.”

Here we will make a small critical observation, first on the qualification of specter given by the author to the appearance, real or imagined; this word is too reminiscent of the lugubrious ideas that superstition attaches to the phenomenon of apparitions, now perfectly explained from the knowledge we have of the constitution of the spiritual beings. Second, on what he brings this apparition to come out from the tomb, as if the soul made it its dwelling. But this is only a detail of form that stems from long rooted prejudices; the essential is in the picture that he presents of the moral situation of this soul, a situation identical to that revealed to us today by communications with the Spirits.

The author reports the dialogue he had, with the being that appeared to him, in the following terms:

“When the specter approached me, he made me hear these words, in a voice such that it is impossible for me to specify the sound, since I have never heard such thing among men:

Specter: You do well in worshiping God; don’t you ever imitate me, for I was an atheist.

Me: So, you didn't believe that there was a God?

Specter: No; or rather, I pretended not to believe it.

Me: What reasons did you have for not believing that the universe was produced and that it is ruled by a supreme intelligence?

Specter: None. No matter how much I looked for it, I did not find any solid ones, and I was reduced to repeating only vain sophisms that I had read in the works of a few so-called philosophers.

Me: If you didn't have good reasons for being an atheist, then you had reasons for appearing so?

Specter: Without a doubt. Seeing all my fellow human beings convinced of the idea of a God and the feeling of his existence, the pride that blinded me led me to distinguish myself from the multitude, sustaining before anyone that wanted to hear me that God did not exist, and that the universe was the work of chance, or even that it had always existed. I regarded it as a glory to think about this great subject differently from everybody, and I found nothing more flattering than to be regarded, in the world, as a Spirit strong enough to rise up against the common belief of all men and of all ages.

Me: Didn't you have another reason to embrace atheism, other than pride?

Specter: Yes.

Me: What was this motive? Tell the truth.

Specter: The truth !!… Without doubt, I will tell you that; for it is impossible for me, in the order of things in which I exist, to fight it or to conceal it.

Like all my fellows, I was born with the feeling of the existence of a God, the author and principle of all beings. This feeling, that initially was only a germ, in which my mind discovered nothing, developed little by little; and when I had reached the age of reason, and acquired the faculty of reflection, I had to make no effort to indulge myself in it. How much the lessons of my parents and my teachers pleased me, when God and his infinite perfections were the subject! How the spectacle of nature enchanted me and what sweet satisfaction I felt when I was told about this great God who created everything by his power, supports, governs, and preserves everything by his wisdom!

However, I reached adolescence, and passions began to make me hear their seductive voices. I was forming relationships with young people of my age; I followed their disastrous advice and conformed to their dangerous examples. Entering the world with these culpable dispositions, I no longer thought of anything else but of sacrificing all the principles of virtue and wisdom that had been inspired in me, at first. Those principles, every day attacked by my passions, took refuge in the depths of my conscience, and there they changed into remorse. Since that remorse wouldn’t give me a break, I resolved to annihilate, as much as I could, the cause that had given birth to them. I found that this cause was nothing more than the idea of a God, rewarding of virtue and avenging of crime; and I attacked it with all the sophisms that my Spirit could invent or discover, in the works intended to exalt the doctrine of atheism.

Me: Have you calmed down when you piled sophisms upon sophisms against the existence of God?

Specter: No matter how much I did, rest constantly eluded me; I was convinced, in spite of myself, and although my mouth did not utter a word that was not blasphemy, I did not have a feeling that did not fight against me, in favor of God.

Me: What happened to you during the illness from which you died?

Specter: I wanted to sustain the strong-minded character until the end; and pride prevented me from confessing my error, although, internally, I felt the pressing need. It was in this criminal and false disposition that I ceased to exist.

Me: What happened to you when your eyes were forever closed to light?

Specter: I found myself fully invested with the majesty of God, and I was seized by such a deep horror that I have no term that can give you a fair idea. I expected to be severely punished; but, the sovereign judge, whose mercy softens justice, relegated me to a dark region, inhabited by Spirits who had innocent hands and a sick brain.

Me: What is the fate of atheists who committed crimes against the society of their fellow human beings?

Specter: The Being of beings punishes them for having been wicked and not for being mistaken; for he despises opinions and only rewards or punishes actions.

Me: So, you are not punished in the dark abode where you are exiled?

Specter: I am suffering there a harsher punishment than you can imagine. God, after having condemned me, moved away from me; and immediately I lost any idea of my existence, and the nothingness presented itself before me, in all its horror.

Me: What! You have completely lost the idea of the existence of God?

Specter: Yes. It is the greatest torment an immortal Spirit can endure, and nothing can explain the state of abandonment, pain, and disorder in which one finds oneself.

Me: What is it that you do then, with the Spirits subjected to the same torture?

Specter: We argue endlessly, without being able to get along; irrationality and madness preside over all our debates; and in the deep obscurity in which our intelligence is buried, there is no opinion, no system that it does not adopt, to reject them soon and to conceive new extravagances. It is, therefore, the perpetual agitation of this ebb and flow of ideas, without foundation, without continuation, without connection, that consists in the punishment of the atheist philosophers.

Me: Yet, you are reasoning at this moment.

Specter: It's because my ordeal will soon end. This torture has taken very long; because, although we only count two years since my earthly death, I have suffered so much from all this madness that I have said and heard that I seem to have already spent thousands of centuries in the region of systems and disputes.

Having said that, the Specter bowed, worshiped God, and disappeared.

When I recovered from the emotion of what I had just seen and heard had caused me, my thoughts returned to the amazing things the specter had taught me. Does what he told me, about the first Being, correspond to the idea that so many men have formed? What did I just hear? What! the atheist himself, the horror of his fellows, ends up finding favor in the eyes of this Divinity, to whom I am introduced as of a vindictive and jealous nature! Hey! Who will now dare to tell me: If you do not adopt such and such an opinion, you will be condemned to the eternal torments? What a barbarian will dare to say: Outside of my communion there is no salvation? Incomprehensible and all merciful Being, have you assigned someone to take revenge? Is it up to a vile creature to tell his fellows: think like me or be forever miserable! What limits, great God, can we, narrow-minded beings as we are, fix to your clemency and justice? And by what right would I say to you: Here you will reward, there you will punish? Answer, O dead people who lie in this dust! Was it possible for you all to have the belief in which I was born? Were all your intelligences equally struck with the proofs that establish the mysteries that I adore and the dogmas in which I believe? Hey! How could the degrees of a belief be the same everywhere, as well as the degrees of conviction? Intolerant and cruel man, come, if you have the courage, sit beside me, and dare to tell the victims of death whose lessons I have come to listen to: “You are forty thousand here; well! There are only ten, only fifty, only a hundred among you, whom the vengeful God has not destined to the eternal flames!"



If this speech was not of a fool, of what use would the religion of the tombs be? Why should I respect the ashes of those that did not worship the great Being in my own way? Is it in this place, where the enemies of my belief rest, confused with its followers, that I could hear the lessons of true wisdom? And of what impiety would I be guilty of by communicating with reprobate intelligences, to whose spoils I come to pay homage, inspired by religion, as by humanity?

People who have read Heaven and Hell no doubt remember the touching story of Marcel, the child of No. 4, reported in chapter VIII of Terrestrial Atonement. The following fact presents a case somewhat analogous and no less instructive, as an application of sovereign justice, and as an atonement of what often seems inexplicable, in certain positions of life.

A twelve-year-old child died in October 1866, from a good and honest family; for nine years, the child’s life had been only one continuous suffering, that neither the loving care with which he was surrounded, nor even the aid of science had been able to soften. He was afflicted with paralysis and dropsy; his body was covered with wounds, invaded by gangrene, and his flesh was falling apart. In the extreme of pain he would often cry out, "What have I done, my God, to deserve such a pain? Since I came into the world, I have not harmed anyone!” Instinctively, this child understood that the suffering had to be an atonement, but in ignorance of the law of solidarity of successive existences, his thought not going back beyond the present life, he did not realize the cause that could justify in him such a cruel punishment.

A particularity worth noting was the birth of a sister, when he was about three years old. It was at this time that the first symptoms of the terrible disease to which he was to succumb began. From this moment, he also established such a repulsion for the newcomer that he could not bear her presence, and that her sight seemed to redouble his sufferings. He frequently reproached himself for this feeling that nothing justified, because the little girl did not share it; on the contrary, she was gentle and loving to him. He said to his mother: "Why is the sight of my little sister so painful to me? She's good to me, but I can't help it but hate her.” However, he could not bear to see her hurt or grieved; far from rejoicing in her sorrows, he suffered when he saw her crying. It was obvious that two feelings were fighting in him; he understood the injustice of his antipathy, but his efforts to overcome it were powerless.

It would be quite natural for such illnesses to be the consequences of misconduct, at a certain age; but of what serious enough sins can a child of this age be guilty of enduring such a martyrdom? Where else could this repulsion for a harmless being come from? These are problems that present themselves every moment, and that lead a multitude of people to doubt the justice of God, because they find no solution in any religion; These apparent anomalies, on the contrary, find their complete justification in the solidarity of existences. A Spiritist observer could therefore say, with every reason, that these two beings had known each other, and had been placed next to each other in the present existence for some atonement and reparation of some wrongdoing. From the brother's state of suffering, one could conclude that he was the culprit, and that the ties of close kinship, that united him to the object of his antipathy, were imposed on him to prepare, between them, the ways of a re-approximation. Thus, we already see in the brother a tendency and efforts to overcome his estrangement, that he recognizes as unjust. This antipathy did not have the characteristics of the jealousy that is sometimes noticed in children of the same blood; it came therefore, in all likelihood, from painful memories, and perhaps from remorse that the little girl's presence aroused. Such are the deductions that one could rationally draw, by analogy, from the observation of the facts, and that were confirmed by the Spirit of the child.

Evoked, almost immediately after his death, by a friend of the family to whom he was very fond, he could not, at first, fully explain himself, and promised to give more details later. Among the various communications he gave, here are the two that relate more particularly to the question:

“You expect from me the account I promised you of what I was in a previous existence and the explanation of the cause of my great suffering; it will be a lesson for all. These teachings are everywhere, I know; it is found everywhere, but the account of facts of which one has seen the consequences oneself, is always, for those that exist, a much more striking proof.

I have sinned, yes, I have sinned! Do you know what it is to have been a murderer, to have attempted against the life of your fellow human? I did not do it the way the assassins do when killing immediately, either with a string, or with a knife, or any other instrument; no, it is not how I did it. I killed, but I killed slowly, causing suffering to a creature I hated! Yes, I hated him, this child that I thought didn't belong to me! Poor innocent! Had he deserved such a sad fate? No, my poor friends, he hadn't deserved it, or at least it wasn't up to me to put him through this torment. I did, however, and that is why I was forced to suffer, as you have seen.

I suffered, my God! Is it enough? You are too good, Lord! Yes, in the presence of my crime and atonement, I believe you were too merciful. Pray for me, dear parents, dear friends; my sufferings are now over. Poor Mrs. D ... I make you suffer! It is because it was very painful for me to come and confess this immense crime!

Hope, my good friends, God has forgiven my fault; I am now in joy, and yet also in sorrow; do you see! It is all very well to be in a better state, have atoned: the thought, the memory of our crimes leave such an impression that it is impossible not to feel all the horror for a long time yet, because it is not only on earth that I suffered, but before, in this spiritual life! And, what pain I had in deciding to come and suffer this terrible atonement! I cannot tell you all this, for it would be too dreadful! The constant sight of my victim, and the other, the poor mother! Finally, my friends: prayers for me and thanks to the Lord! I promised you this story. I had to pay my debt to the end, whatever it might cost me.

(up until this point the medium had written under the influence of great emotion; he continued with more calm).

And now, my good parents, a word of consolation. Thank you, oh thank you that helped me in this atonement, and who carried part of it; you have softened, as much as it depended on you, what was bitter in my state. Do not be upset, it is a thing of the past; I am happy, I told you, especially when comparing the past state with the present state. I love you all; Thank you; I kiss you; love me always. We will meet again, and, all together, we will continue this eternal life, trying that the future life completely redeems the past life.

Your son, François E.”

In another communication the Spirit of young Francis supplemented the above information:

“Question: Dear child, you did not say where your antipathy for your little sister came from.

Answer: Can't you guess it? This poor and innocent creature was my victim whom God had attached to my last existence, like a living remorse; that is why her sight made me suffer so much.

Request. However, you didn't know who she was.

Answer: I did not know it when I was awake, otherwise my torments would have been a hundred times more dreadful; as dreadful as they had been in the spiritual life, when I saw her endlessly; but do you believe that my Spirit, in the times when it was free, did not know it? It was the cause of my hatred, and if I tried to fight it, it was that I felt instinctively that it was unfair. I was not yet strong enough to do good to the one I couldn't help hating, but I didn't want her to be harmed: it was the beginning of reparation. God took this feeling into account for me, which is why he allowed me to be released early from my life of suffering, otherwise I could have lived for many more years in the horrible situation in which you saw me.

Therefore, bless my death that put an end to the atonement, for it was the pledge of my rehabilitation.

Question: (to the medium's guide). Why aren’t atonement and repentance in the spiritual life sufficient for rehabilitation, without adding bodily suffering?

Answer: Suffering in one world or another is always suffering, and one suffers while the rehabilitation is not complete. This child suffered a lot on earth; Well, that is nothing compared to what he endured in the spiritual world. Here he had, as a compensation, the care and affection with which he was surrounded. There is still this difference between bodily suffering and spiritual suffering, that the former is almost always voluntarily, accepted as a complement of atonement, or as a test to advance more rapidly, while the other is imposed.

But there are other reasons for the corporeal suffering: it is, first of all, so that reparation may take place under the same conditions in which the damage was done; then to serve as an example for the incarnate. Seeing their fellows suffer and knowing the reason for it, they are much more impressed by it than knowing that they are unhappy as Spirits; they can better understand the cause of their own suffering; divine justice is somehow palpable in their eyes. Finally, bodily suffering is an opportunity for the incarnate to exercise charity among themselves, a test for their feelings of compassion, and often a means of repairing previous wrongs; for, believe it, when an unfortunate person is in your way, it is not the result of chance. For the parents of young François, it was a great test to have a child in this sad condition; well, they have fulfilled their mandate with dignity, and they will be all the better rewarded for it, for having acted spontaneously, by the impulse of their own heart. If the Spirits did not suffer in the incarnation, it is because there would only be perfect Spirits on earth.

A century before Galileo, Copernicus had designed the astronomical system that bears his name.^[1] Galileo, using the telescope he had invented, adding direct observation to the theory, completed Copernicus' ideas and demonstrated their truth by calculation. With his instrument, he was able to study the nature of the planets, and their similarity with earth: he concluded that they were habitable. He also recognized that the stars are so many suns scattered in boundless space and believed that each should be the center of motion of a planetary system. He had just discovered the four satellites of Jupiter, and this event stirred the educated world and the religious world. In his drama, the poet endeavors to paint the diversity of the feelings that he aroused, according to the character and the prejudices of the individuals.

Two university students discuss Galileo's discovery, and as they disagree, they seek the advice of a renowned professor.

ALBERT: On a certain point, doctor, we are arguing,

and we would like to know what you think about it.

Pompeo: It is appropriate to seek advice from sensible people. What is it?

Vivian: It is about four satellites, describing their orbits around Jupiter.

Pompeo: They do not exist.

Vivian: But…

Pompeo: They could not exist.

Vivian: Nonetheless, they can be seen and counted.

Pompeo: Since they do not exist, they cannot be numbered.

Albert: Vivian, do you hear?

Vivian: And why is that professor?

Pompeo: Because the idea that God may have

Created four globes in addition to the seven

We know, is a bad talk, a chimerical

Theme, antireligious, anti-philosophical.

(Seeing Galileo escorted by a many students)

Silly fly catchers! And infamous charlatan!

Albert to Vivian: As you can see, Dr. Pompeo is against you.

Vivian: So much the better for the doctrine I have faith.

The natural march of all truth

Is first to arouse all dogmatists

against it.



This is indeed the force of reasoning of certain deniers of new ideas: it is not, because it cannot be. We asked a scientist: What would you say if you saw a table lifting off without a support? - I wouldn't believe it, he replied, because I know it can't be.



A monk speaking to the crowd:



Hear what the Apostle says: In heavens,

Why, Galileans, are you wandering your eyes?

This is how the anathema was launched, in advance,

Against you, Galileo, and against your system.

We ourselves today see clearly,

How heaven sees this teaching, horribly,

And the Arno overflowed, the hail on our vines,

Regrettable signs of wrath, divine.



My brothers despise these gross lies.

For the earth to move, does it have feet?

If the moon moves, it is because an angel is guiding it.

Over each planet, a conductor presides.

But the earth, where would its angel be? - On the mountains?

We would see him there. - In the center? It houses demons.



Livia, wife of Galileo, is the kind of narrow-minded person, more concerned with material life than with glory and truth.



Livia (to Galileo)

. . . Why, overheating the brains,

By spouting a bunch of new maxims!

All these novelties are, to put it mildly,

Devilish inventions that smell badly.

By the way everyone is looking at you,

It will not be good, if you are not careful.

Oh! why don't you imitate these worthy teachers

Who say the same as their predecessors?

These are good people, or order and commonsensical.

They quietly teach what they want them to teach,

And, without working to debate in public

If we must believe Aristotle or Copernicus.

The true opinion, they wisely hold,

Must be the one paid, to do as they are told.

And that, if Aristotle opens the safe,

Aristotle is right, Copernicus in a mistake.

So, with nobody a disagreement.

They receive, in peace, the florins they are given.

They thrive; they are well fed and well housed,

Their daughters have dowries and find spouses.

Their audience is gentle and exalts never.

They return home in time for supper.

But you, you rage, you are applauded,

And, meanwhile, dinner is getting cold.



Fragments of Galileo's monologue at the beginning of the second act:



No, the times are gone for the queen alone,

The earth was seated on her motionless throne.

No, the swift chariot, carrying the star of the day,

From dawn to sunset, no longer rotates.

The firmament is no longer the crystalline dome,

Which, like a blue ceiling, of chandeliers illuminates.

It is no longer for us alone that God made the universe.

But far from holding down, let us proud ourselves!

For if we abdicate a false royalty,

Science elevates us to the kingdom of veracity.

The more the body shrinks, the taller the Spirit stands.

Our nobility grows or our rank lessens.

It is more beautiful for man, tiny creature,

To seize the secrets veiled by nature,

And dare to embrace in its conception

The universal law of creation,

Than to be, as in the days of lying vanities,

King of an illusion and owner of a reverie,

Ignorant center of a whole, his work, a misbelief he conveys,

And that by thought he conquers today.

Sun, globe of fire, gigantic furnace,

Incandescent chaos where a genesis terminates,

Furious ocean where frantic float

Granite liquids and molten metals,

Smashing, shattering, mingling their flaming waves

Laden with smoke, under black hurricanes,

Ardent swell, where sometimes swims a ruddy islet,

Spot today, tomorrow solar crust.

Around you, o fruitful brazier,

The earth moves, barely cooled, our mother,

And, as cold as her, and, as she inhabited,

Bloody Mars, and Venus, of white clarities.

Near your splendor, Mercury bathing,

And Saturn in exile at the edge of your reign,

And by God, then by me, crowned in the ether

From a quadruple diadem of moons, Jupiter.

But, sovereign star, center of all these globes,

Beyond your empire with deep boundaries,

Millions of suns, so many, so profuse,

That they cannot be counted in their groups, confused,

Extend, like you, their immense craters,

Move around, like you, planetary centers,

That revolve around them, courting,

And taking heat and day from their king.

Oh! yes you are better than night lighters,

That would light for us, taciturn watchers,

Countless shines, stars hazing

The azure paths, in gold sanding.

Universal life also pulsates in you, large

foci where our eye only sees a spark.

…………..

And everywhere action, movement, and soul!

Everywhere, around their flaming centers, roll

Inhabited globes, thinking beings still,

Live as I live, feel what I feel,

Some below, others maybe

Higher than us, life has so many degrees!

How big! how beautiful! In what deep adoration

The Spirit, full of amazement, breaks down in amalgamation!

Inexhaustible author, may your omnipotence

Show itself in its glory and magnificence!

That life, poured out in waves in infinity,

Proclaim your blessed name everywhere, widely!

Go, persecutors! launch your blasphemies!

I am much more religious than yourselves.

God, whom you invoke, better than you I serve.

This little heap of mud, for you, is the universe.

For me, in all points, the divine work elates.

You shrink it, and I make it dilate.

As we put kings in the chariot of the victor,

I put universes at the feet of the Creator.



Fragments of the dialogue between the Inquisitor and Galileo.



The Inquisitor

There is no truth, except in the Scriptures.

All the rest is error, visions, impostures.

What is believed to be contrary to their teaching

Is not clarity, it is loss of sighting!



Galileo

Yes, faith is governed by the rule of Christianity.

Their sole authority reigns in theology,

And worship must bow all minds

To the divine dogmas that it prescribes.

But the physical world escapes their domain.

God delivers it entirely to human argument.

As these are objects that are apparent,

The senses and reason show themselves to be omnipotent.

The authority is silent; no order can aspire

Unequal rays in the center of the sphere,

No one can accuse the compass of blasphemy,

Nor that a rotating body does not revolve, by decree.

The eye is the judge, in a word, of the universe, visible.

If the unchanging dogma is fixed by the Bible,

Science rejects immortality,

And, dying in chains, lives for liberty.



The Inquisitor

Now, don't you see that your new system,

Troubles astronomy, shaking faith itself?

The material error, admitted on one point,

Throughout the Testament, makes the witness suspect.

Whoever may have failed is, therefore, no longer infallible.

Doubt is allowed, examination is possible,

And we soon conclude, if judge we venture,

From false physics to false dogma.

……………………….

Galileo

Me, destroy the faith, when I aggrandize worshiping!

Showing God in his work, is it insulting him?

Ah! to understand it better, it is to adore him better,

And by disfiguring it, one does a dishonor.

The heavens, according to the Bible in which

We must trust, tell us the glory of its authorship!

Well I, better than anyone, listened to their story,

And I repeated it, as I learned from what heavens said.

……………………

Can the course of a new truth be stopped?

By stopping a drop, can the river be blocked?

Believe me, respect these aspirations,

They have many impulses and many expansions

To allow a jailer to hold them prisoners.

Leave the field open to them, or woe to the barriers!

- Ah! Rome, in the early days of your proscribed worship,

You said to oppose to the sword, only the spirit!

Did you only succeeded to change roles?

And you, yourself, oppose the sword to the word?

Antonia, daughter of Galileo, seeing her father proscribed, said to him:

Here is your Antigone. Yes, my pious love

Lead the outcast, conqueror of the sphinx of heaven.

Leading your staff from valley to valley,

I will say: "Give me bread for Galileo,

The one deprived of a home by the Christians,

Would have altars among pagan peoples."



Galileo probed the depths of heavens and revealed the plurality of material worlds. It was, as we have said, quite a revolution in ideas; a new field of exploration was opened to science. Spiritism comes to operate an equally great one, by revealing the existence of the spiritual world that surrounds us; thanks to that, man knows his past and his true destiny. Galileo overturned the barriers that circumscribed the universe; Spiritism inhabits and fills the void of infinite spaces. Although more than two centuries separate us from the discoveries of Galileo, many prejudices are still alive; the new emancipating doctrine encounters the same obstacles; it is attacked with the same weapons, opposed with the same arguments. By reading Mr. Ponsard's drama, we could give modern names to each of his characters. However, ill-will and persecution did not prevent Galileo's doctrine from succeeding, because it was the truth; it will be the same with Spiritism, because it is also a truth. Its detractors will be regarded, by the next generation, with the same eyes that we regard those of Galileo.

---

[1] Copernicus, Polish astronomer, born in Thorn (Prussian State) in 1473, died in 1543. Galileo, born in Florence in 1564, condemned in 1633, died blind in 1644. The system of Copernicus was already condemned by the Church.

“We left Lumen in Capella, busy with considering the land he had just left. This world being located 170 trillion, 392 billion leagues from earth, and the light traveling at 70,000 leagues per second, it can only arrive from one to the other in 71 years, 8 months, and 24 days, i.e. in about 72 years. As a result, the ray of light, that bears the imprint of the image of earth, does not reach the inhabitants of Capella until 72 years have passed. Having Lumen died in 1864, and casting his sight onto Paris, he saw it as it was 72 years before, or in 1793, the year of his birth. Therefore, he was very surprised at first, to find it quite different from what he had seen it, to see alleys, convents, gardens, fields instead of avenues, new boulevards, railway stations, etc. He saw the Place de la Concorde occupied by a huge crowd and was an eyewitness to the event of January 21^st. The theory of light gave him the key to this strange phenomenon. Here is the solution to some of the difficulties it raises.^[1]



Sitiens. But then, if the past can thus merge into the present; if reality and vision come together in this way; whether long-dead characters can still be seen performing on the stage; if the new constructions and the metamorphoses of a city, like Paris, can disappear and let be seen, in their place, the city of the past; if, finally, the present can vanish for the resurrection of the past, what certainty can we henceforth trust? What happens to science and observation? What happens to deductions and theories? What is our most solid knowledge based on? And if these things are true, shouldn't we now doubt everything or believe everything?



Lumen. These considerations and many others, my friend, have absorbed and tormented me; but it did not prevent them from being the reality that I observed. When I was certain that we had the year 1793 before us, I immediately thought that science itself, instead of combating this reality (because two truths cannot be opposed to each other), had to give me the explanation. So, I questioned physics, and waited for its answer. (The scientific demonstration of the phenomenon follows).



Sitiens. Thus, the light ray is like a mail that brings us news of the state of the country that sends it, and if it takes 72 years to reach us, gives us the state of that country at the time of its departure, that is to say, almost 72 years before the moment when it gets to us.



Lumen. You guessed the mystery right. To speak more precisely still, the ray of light would be a letter that would bring us, not written news, but the photograph, or more rigorously still, the aspect itself of the country from which it came. So, when we examine the surface of a star with a telescope, we do not yet see this surface as it is at the very moment we observe it, but as it was when the light that reaches us from it was emitted by this surface.



Sitiens. So that if a star whose light takes, say, ten years to reach us, were suddenly destroyed today, we would still see it for ten years, since its last ray would not reach us for another ten years.



Lumen. It is precisely so. There is, therefore, a surprising transformation from past to present. For the star observed, it is the past, already gone; for the observer it is the present, the actual. The past of the star is rigorously and positively the present of the observer.



Lumen later sees himself as a child, at the age of six, playing and arguing with a bunch of other children at Panthéon Square.



Sitiens. I confess that it seems impossible to me that one can see oneself in this way. You cannot be two people. Since you were 72 years old when you died, your childhood state was past, gone, long passed out. You cannot see a thing that is no more. We cannot see ourselves as a double, a child and an old man.



Lumen. You have not thought enough, my friend. You have understood the general fact well enough to admit it; but you have not sufficiently observed that this last fact fits absolutely into the first one. You admit that the image of earth takes 72 years to come to me, don't you? That the events only happen to me at this interval, after they occurred? In short, that I see the world as it was at that time. You also admit that by seeing the streets of that time, I see, at the same time, the children running around in those streets? Well! Since I see this group of children; and that I was part of that group then, why do you want me not to see myself, as well as I see others?



Sitiens. But are you no longer there, in that group!



Lumen. Once again, that group itself no longer exists now, but I see it as it existed at the moment when the ray of light that reaches me today left, and since I distinguish the fifteen or eighteen children in the group, there is no reason why the child who was me should disappear, because I am the one watching him. Other observers would see him in the company of his mates. Why do you want an exception when it's me watching? I see them all, and I see myself with them.



Lumen reviews the series of major political events that have taken place from 1793 until 1864, when he sees himself on his deathbed.



Sitiens. Have these events passed quickly before your eyes?



Lumen. I cannot appreciate the measure of time; but all this retrospective panorama certainly took place in less than a day… in a few hours, perhaps.



Sitiens. So, I don't understand anymore. If 72 earth years have passed before your eyes, it should have taken exactly 72 years to appear to you, not a few hours. If the year 1793 appeared to you only in 1864, the year 1864, in turn, should therefore not appear to you until 1936.

Lumen. Your objection is well founded and proves to me that you have correctly understood the theory of the fact. Thus, I will explain to you how it was not necessary for me to wait another 72 years to review my life, and how, under the impulse of an unconscious force, I did indeed see it again in less than a day.



Continuing to follow my existence, I arrived at the last remarkable years for the radical transformation that Paris had undergone; I saw my last friends and yourself; my family and my circle of acquaintances; and finally, the moment arrived when I saw myself lying on my deathbed, and witnessed the last scene. This is to tell you that I was back on earth.



Attracted by the contemplation that absorbed it, my soul had quickly forgotten the mountain of the old men and Capella. As we, sometimes, feel in dreams, it flew towards the goal of its gazes. I did not notice it at first, so much the strange vision captivated all my senses. I cannot tell you by what law, nor by what power, how souls can be transported so rapidly from one place to another; but the truth is that I had returned to earth, in less than a day, and that I was entering my room at the very moment of my funeral.



Since, in this return journey, I was going in front of the rays of light, I constantly shortened the distance that separated me from earth; light had less and less distance to travel, and thus narrowed the succession of events. In the middle of the path, when I was only 36 years old, they no longer showed me the land of 72 years before, but 36. Three quarters of the way, and the images were only 18 years late. Halfway through the last shift, they happened to me only 9 years after they had happened, and so on; so that the whole series of my existence was condensed in less than a day, owing to the rapid return of my soul, ahead of the rays of light.



When Lumen arrived in Capella, he saw a group of old men engaged in considerations about earth, and talking about the event of 1793; one of them said to his companions:



On your knees, my brothers; let us ask the universal God for indulgence. This world, this nation, this city is soiled with a great crime; the head of an innocent king has just fallen. I approached the elder, said Lumen, and asked him to recount his observations to me.



He taught me that, by the intuition with which the Spirits at the level of those that inhabit this world are endowed, and by the intimate faculty of perception that they shared, they possess a kind of magnetic relation with the neighboring stars. These stars are twelve or fifteen in number; they are the closest ones; outside this region, perception becomes confused. Our sun is one of these neighboring stars^[2]. They thus know, vaguely but appreciably, the state of the humanities that inhabit the planets dependent on this sun, and their relative degree of intellectual and moral elevation.



Moreover, when a great disturbance hits one of these humanities, either in the physical order or in the moral order, they undergo a kind of intimate commotion, as one sees a vibrating string causing a vibration onto another string, located at a distance. For a year (the year of that world is equal to ten of ours), they felt drawn by a particular emotion towards the terrestrial planet; and the observers had followed with interest and concern the progress of this world.”




We would be mistaken if we were to infer from the above that the inhabitants of the different globes keep, from the point where they are, an investigative look at what is happening in the other worlds, and that the events that take place there pass before their eyes as in the field of a telescope. Besides, each world has its special concerns that captivate the attention of its inhabitants, according to their own needs, their very different habits, and their degree of advancement. When the Spirits incarnated in a planet have a personal motive to be interested in what is happening in another world, or in some of those that inhabit it, their soul is transported there, as did that of Lumen, in the state of detachment, and then they temporarily become, so to speak, spiritual inhabitants of that world, or else they incarnate there in a mission. This is, at least, what results from the teaching of the Spirits. This last part of Lumen's account, therefore, lacks accuracy; but we must not lose sight of the fact that this story is only a hypothesis, intended to make more accessible to the understanding, and in a way palpable by the putting into action the demonstration of a scientific theory, as we observed in our preceding article. We draw attention to the paragraph above where it says: "The great physical and moral disturbances of a world produce on the neighboring worlds a kind of intimate commotion, as a vibrating string makes another string vibrate placed at a distance.” The author, who does not speak lightly in science, sets out a principle that could one day be converted into law. Science already admits, as a result of observation, the reciprocal material action of the stars. If, as one begins to suspect, this action, increased by the fact of certain circumstances, can cause disturbances and cataclysms, it would not be impossible that these same disturbances had their backlash. So far, science has considered only the material principle; but if we take into account the spiritual principle as an active element of the universe, and if we consider that this principle is just as general and just as essential as the material principle, we can imagine that a great effervescence of this element and the modifications that it undergoes, at a given point, may have their reaction, in consequence of the necessary correlation that exists between matter and spirit. There is, certainly, in this idea, the germ of a fruitful principle and of a serious study to which Spiritism opens the way.

---

[1] According to the calculation, and because of the distance from the sun, that is 38 million, 230 thousand leagues, and 4 kilometers, the light of this star reaches us in 8 minutes and 13 seconds. It follows that a phenomenon that would occur on its surface would appear to us only 8 min. 13 s later, and that if the phenomenon were instantaneous, it would no longer exist when we saw it. The distance from the moon being only 85 thousand leagues, its light reaches us in about a second, and a quarter, the disturbances that could occur there would appear to us, therefore, at about the time where they take place. If Lumen had been on the moon, he would have seen the Paris of 1864, and not that of 1793; if he had been in a world twice as distant as Capella, he would have seen the Regency.



[2] 170 trillion, 392 billion leagues! By the distance that separates the neighboring stars one can assess the extent occupied by all those that to us appear to be so close to each other, without counting the infinitely greater number of those that are only perceptible by the telescope, and that are themselves only a tiny fraction of those that, lost in the depths of infinity, escape all our means of investigation. If we consider that each star is a sun, the center of a planetary vortex, we will understand that our own vortex is only a point in this immensity. What then is our 3,000 leagues in diameter globe, among those billions of worlds? What are its inhabitants who have long believed their little world to be the central point of the universe, and have believed themselves the only living beings of creation, concentrating in themselves alone the concerns and solicitude of the Eternal, and believing, in good faith, that the spectacle of heavens was only made to entertain their sight? This whole egoistic and petty system, that for many centuries formed the basis of religious faith, collapsed before the discoveries of Galileo.

“I am here, happy to come and greet you, encourage you and tell you this:



Brothers, God fills you with his blessings, promising you, in these times of disbelief, to breathe deeply the air of spiritual life that blows vigorously through the compact masses.



Believe your former member, believe your intimate friend, your brother by heart, thoughts, and faith; believe in the truths that are taught: they are as certain as logical; believe in me who, a few days ago, contented myself, like you do, with believing and hoping, while today, the sweet fiction is for me an immense and deep truth. I touch, I see, I am, I possess, therefore, this exists; I analyze my impressions from today and compare them to those still fresh from the day before.



Not only am I allowed to compare, to synthesize, to weigh in my actions, my thoughts, my reflections, to judge them by the criterion of my common sense, but I see them, I feel them, I am an eyewitness, I am the realized thing; they are no longer consoling hypotheses, golden dreams, hopes, it is more than a moral certainty: it is the real, tangible fact, the material fact that we touch, that grasps us in its tangible form, and says: that is.



Here, everything breathes calm, wisdom, happiness; everything is harmony, everything says: This is the pinnacle of intimate sense; no more chimeras, false joys, no more childish fears, no more false shame, no more doubts, no more anxieties, no more falsehoods, no more this ugly procession of fabulous sorrows, of gross mistakes, as we see every day on Earth.



Here, one is instilled with an ineffable tranquility; we admire, we pray, we worship, we render thanksgiving to the sublime author of so many benefits, we study, and we catch a glimpse of all the infinite powers; we see the movement of the laws that govern nature. Each work has a goal that leads to love, the tuning fork of the general harmony. We see progress presiding over all physical and moral transformations, for progress is infinite, like God that created it. Everything is understandable; everything is neat, precise; no more abstractions, for we touch with our fingers and our reason the why of human things. The advanced spiritual legions have only one goal, that of becoming useful to their backward brethren, to raise them up to them.



So, work without stopping, according to your own strength, my good brothers, to improve yourself, to be useful to your fellow human beings; not only will you take the doctrine, that is your joy, a step, but you will also have contributed powerfully to the progress of your planet; following the example of the great Christian legislator, you will be men, men of love, and you will help to establish the reign of God on Earth.



The one that is still, and more than ever, your fellow student.

Leclerc.”



Observation: Such, in fact, is the character of the spiritual life; but it would be a mistake to believe that it is enough to be a Spirit to consider it from this point of view. It is with the spiritual world, as it is with the corporeal world: in order to appreciate things from a high order, an intellectual and moral development is necessary, that is peculiar only to advanced Spirits; belated Spirits are foreign to what takes place in the high spiritual spheres, as they were, on Earth, to what is esteemed by enlightened men, because they cannot understand it; since their thought is circumscribed to a limited horizon, they are not able to embrace the infinite, they cannot have the pleasures that result from the widening of the sphere of spiritual activity. The sum of happiness, in the world of the Spirits, is therefore, by the very nature of things, proportional to the development of the moral sense; hence, it follows that by working down here for our improvement and our instruction, we increase the sources of happiness for the future life. For the materialist, work has only a limited result to the present life, that can end at any moment; the Spiritist, on the contrary, knows that nothing that he acquires, even at the last hour, is wasted, and that any accomplished progress will be beneficial to him.



The profound considerations of our former colleague, Mr. Leclerc, on the spiritual life, are therefore proof of his advancement in the hierarchy of the Spirits, and we congratulate him for that.

“It is reported from New York that, among the petitions recently addressed to the President of the United States, there is one that has again raised the question of the eligibility of women for public employment. Ms. Françoise Lord, from New York, has requested to be sent abroad as consul. The President has taken her request into consideration, and she hopes the Senate will be favorable to her. Public sentiment is not as hostile to this innovation as might have been supposed, and several newspapers support Miss Lord's claim."



Siècle, April 5^th, 1867




In the district commanded by General Sheridan, formed by the states of Louisiana and Texas, the electoral lists were opened, and the white and colored populations began to register without raising objections to the interference of the military authority in this whole affair. Despite the efforts of Washington lawmakers, the people of the North retain much of their prejudice against blacks. By a majority of 35 votes against, the New Jersey House of Representatives denied them the enjoyment of political rights, and the state senate joined in this vote, that is the subject of the most vigorous attacks in all the Republican press. In contrast, one of the western states, Wisconsin, gave the franchise to women over the age of twenty-one. This new principle is making its way in the United States, and there is no shortage of journalists approving the political courtesy of the Wisconsin senators. Alluding to a famous novel, a speaker at a meeting exclaimed: "How would we deny political capacity to Mrs. Beecher Stowe, when we recognize her in Uncle Tom?"



Grand Monitor, May 9^th, 1867




The House of Commons in England also dealt with this question, in its meeting of May 20^th, on the proposal by one of its members. We read in the Morning-Post report:



“On clause 4, Mr. Mill asks that we delete the word man and insert that of person.



“My goal is," he said, "to admit to electoral frankness a very large part of the population that is now excluded from the bosom of the constitution, meaning women. I do not see why unmarried, adult ladies and widows should not have a voice in the election of members of Parliament. It may be said that women already have enough power, but I maintain that if they obtained the civil rights that I propose we grant them, we would thereby raise their condition, and we would rid them of an obstacle that today prevents the expansion of their skills.



I admit that women already have great social power, but they don't have enough, and they are not spoiled children as is generally assumed. Besides, whatever their power, I want it to be responsible, and I will give them the of making their needs and their feelings known.”



Mr. Laing - The proposal is, according to him, untenable, and he is convinced that the great majority of women themselves would reject it.



Sir John Bowyer thinks differently. Women can now be superintendents of the poor, and he sees no reason why they should not vote for Members of Parliament. The Honorable Baronet cites the case of Ms. Burdetts Coutts to show that the property of women, though recognized like that of men, is not represented at all.



A vote was taken: the amendment was rejected by 196 votes to 73, and it was ordered that the word man will be part of the clause.”




The newspaper La Liberté, on May 24^th, follows this report with the following sensible reflections:



Aren’t women already allowed to sit and vote in shareholders' meetings, just like men? If it is true, as the Honorable Mr. Laing has claimed, that women do not want the right that Mr. Stuart Mill proposes to be recognized to them, that would not be a reason not to attribute it to them, for it rightfully belongs to them. Those who would be reluctant to exercise it would be free not to vote, except later, the right to reconsider when the use would have made them change their minds.



The Laings, whose eyes are covered by the blindfold of routine, find it monstrous that women vote, and they find it quite natural and perfectly simple that a woman should rule!



O human inconsistency! O social contradiction!

A Fagnan”




We have addressed the issue of women's emancipation in the article entitled: Do Women Have a Soul? published in the Spiritist Review, January 1866, and to which we refer so as not to repeat ourselves here; the following considerations will serve to complement it.



There is no doubt that at a time when privileges, debris of another age and other customs, fall before the principle of the equal rights of all human beings, those of women cannot be late in coming to be recognized, and that, in the near future, the law will no longer treat her as a minor. Until now, the recognition of these rights is seen as a concession of power to weakness, and that is why it is negotiated with such parsimony. However, since everything that is granted voluntarily can be withdrawn, such recognition will only be final and imprescriptible when it is no longer subordinated to the whim of the strongest but based on a principle that no one can dispute.



The privileges of races have their origin in the abstraction that men generally make of the spiritual principle, in considering only the external material being. From constitutional strength or weakness in some, from a difference in color in others, from birth in opulence or misery, from noble or commoner consanguineous descent, they concluded by a natural superiority or inferiority; it is on this data that they have established their social laws and racial privileges. From this circumscribed point of view, they are consistent with themselves, since considering only material life, certain classes seem to belong and do indeed belong to different races.



But if we take his point of view of the spiritual being, of the essential and progressive being, of the Spirit in a word, preexisting and surviving everything, of which the body is only a temporary envelope, varying like the dress of form and color; if moreover, from the study of the spiritual beings emerges the proof that these beings are of an identical nature and origin, that their destiny is the same, that all start from the same point and tend to the same goal, that the corporeal life is only an incident, one of the phases of the life of the Spirit, necessary for its intellectual and moral advancement; that in view of this advancement, the Spirit can successively take on various envelopes, be born in different positions, we arrive at the fundamental consequence of the equality of nature, and from there to the equality of the social rights of all human beings, and the abolition of racial privileges. This is what Spiritism teaches.



You who deny the existence of the Spirit to consider only the corporeal man, the perpetuity of the intelligent being to consider only the present life, you repudiate the only principle on which the equality of rights is based. rights that you claim for yourselves and for your fellows.



Applying this principle to the social position of women, we will say that of all the philosophical and religious doctrines, Spiritism is the only one that establishes its rights over nature itself, by proving the identity of the spiritual being in both sexes. Since the woman does not belong to a distinct creation, that the Spirit can be born man or woman, at will, according to the kind of tests to which one undergoes for one’s advancement, that the difference is only in the external envelope that modifies its aptitudes, in the identity of the nature of the being, we must necessarily conclude that the rights are equal. This follows, not from a simple theory, but from the observation of the facts, and from the knowledge of the laws that govern the spiritual world. The rights of women finding in the Spiritist doctrine a blessing based on the laws of nature, it follows that the propagation of this doctrine will hasten her emancipation, giving her, in a stable way, the social position that belongs to her. If all women understood the consequences of Spiritism, they would all be Spiritists, for they would draw from it the most powerful argument they can invoke.



The thought of the emancipation of women is germinating in many brains at this time, because we are at a time when ideas of social renewal are fermenting, in which women, as well as men, are under the influence. of the progressive breath that agitates the world. After taking care of themselves a lot, men begin to understand that it would be right to do something for them, to loosen a little the bonds of the tutelage under which they hold them. We must congratulate the United States for the initiative taken on this subject, because they took it further, by conceding a legal position and of common right, to an entire race of humanity.



But from the equal rights it would be abusive to conclude that the attributions are equal. God has endowed each being with an organism appropriate to the role to be fulfilled in nature. That of the woman is outlined by her organization, and this is not the least important. There are, therefore, well-characterized attributions associated with each sex by nature itself, and these attributions imply special duties that the sexes cannot effectively fulfill departing from their role. It is the same in each sex, as from one sex to the other: the physical constitution determines special aptitudes; whatever their constitution, all men certainly have the same rights, but it is obvious, for example, that someone who is not organized for singing cannot make a singer. No one can take away from him the right to sing, but this right cannot give him the qualities he lacks. If nature has then given women weaker muscles than men, it is because she is not called to the same exercises; if her voice has another timbre, it is because it is not intended to produce the same impressions.



However, it is to be feared, and this is what will take place, that in the fever of emancipation that torments her, the woman does not believe herself capable of fulfilling all the attributions of the man and that, falling into a contrary excess, after having had too little, she does not want to have too much. This result is inevitable, but we should not be afraid of it; if women have incontestable rights, nature has its own, that are never lost; they will soon tire of roles that are not theirs; let them, therefore, recognize by experience their insufficiency in things to which the Providence has not called them; unsuccessful attempts will inevitably bring them back on the road that has been laid out for them, a road that can and must be widened, but from which it cannot be deviated, without prejudice to themselves, by undermining the very special influence they must exert. They will recognize that they can only lose in the exchange, because a woman with a too virile appearance will never have the grace and the charm that gives the power to the one who knows how to remain a woman. A woman who becomes a man abdicates her true royalty; she is looked at as a phenomenon.



Having the two articles above been read at the Parisian Society, the following question was proposed to the Spirits as a subject of study:



Which influence should Spiritism have on the condition of women?



Since all the obtained communications concluded in the same direction, we report only the following one, as it was the most developed.



(Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 10^th, 1867; medium Mr. Morin, in spontaneous somnambulism; verbal dissertation)



“Men have always been proud; it is a constitutional vice, inherent to their nature. The man, I speak of sex, the strong man by the development of his muscles, by the somewhat bold conceptions of his thoughts, has not taken into account the weakness alluded to in the Holy Scriptures, weakness that brought misfortune to all his descendants. He believed himself strong, and used the woman, not as a companion, as a family: he used her from a purely bestial point of view; he made her a pleasant animal, and tried to keep her at a respectful distance from the master. But since God did not want one half of humanity to be dependent on the other, he did not make two distinct creations, one to be constantly at the service of the other; he wanted all his creatures to be able to participate in the banquet of life and infinity, in the same proportion.



In these brains that have been so long kept away from all science, unfit to receive the benefits of instruction, God has given birth, as a counterweight, to ruses that hold the strength of man in check. The woman is weak, the man is strong, he has learned; but the woman is astute, and science against cunning does not always have the upper hand. If it were real science, it would win; but it is a false and incomplete science, and the woman easily finds the weak spot. Provoked by the position that was given to her, the woman developed the germ that she felt in her; the need to come out of his belittlement gave her the desire to break her chains. Follow her path; take her since the Christian era and observe her: you will see her more and more dominating, but she has not expended all her strength; she has kept it for more opportune times, and the time is approaching when she will deploy it her way. Moreover, the rising generation carries in its flanks the change that has been announced to us for a long time, and the current woman wants to have a place equal to that of the man in society.



Observe well; look inside and see how much the woman tends to free herself from the yoke; she reigns supreme, sometimes a despot. You have held her bent for too long: she straightens up like a compressed spring stretching out, for she begins to realize that her time has come.



Poor men! if you only thought that the Spirits have no sex; that he who is a man today can be a woman tomorrow; that they choose indifferently, and sometimes preferably, the female sex, you should rather rejoice than grieve, at the emancipation of the woman, and admit her to the banquet of intelligence, by wide opening the doors of science, because she has finer, softer conceptions, more delicate touches than those of man. Why shouldn't the woman be a doctor? Isn’t she naturally called upon to care for the sick, and wouldn’t she take care of them with more intelligence if she had the necessary knowledge? Aren’t there cases where, when it comes to people of her gender, a female doctor would be preferable? Haven’t many women given proof of their aptitude for certain sciences, of the finesse of their sensitivity in business? Why then should men reserve a monopoly on them, if not for fear of seeing them take the lead? Without speaking of special professions, isn't a woman's first profession that of mother of a family? Now, the educated mother is better able to direct the instruction and education of her children; while she breastfeeds the body, she can develop the heart and the mind. The first childhood being necessarily entrusted to the care of a woman, if she is educated, social regeneration will have taken an immense step, and this is what will be done.



The equality of men and women would have yet another result. To be a master, to be strong, is very good; but it is also assuming a great responsibility; by sharing the burden of family affairs with a capable, enlightened companion, naturally devoted to the common interests, the man lightens his load and diminishes his responsibility, while the woman being under the guardianship, and therefore in a state of forced submission, has her voice in the chapter only when the man is willing to condescend to give it to her.



Women, they say, are too talkative and too frivolous; but whose fault is it, if not the men who do not allow them to think? Give them food for the spirit, and they will speak less; they will meditate and think. Are you accusing them of frivolity? But what do they have to do? I speak here especially of the woman of the world. Nothing, absolutely nothing. What can she do? If she reflects and transcribes her thoughts, she is ironically called a smart aleck. If she cultivates the sciences or the arts, her works are not taken into consideration, with very rare exceptions, and yet, like man, she needs incentive. Flattering an artist is to give them tone, courage; but for the woman, it is not worth it! Then they have the domain of frivolity in which they can incentivize one another.



Let man break down the barriers that his self-esteem opposes to the emancipation of women, and he will soon see her take off, to the great benefit of society. The woman, know it, has the divine spark just like you, for the woman is you, as you are the woman."

The article that we published in the March issue, on the action of homeopathy in moral diseases, has given us, from one of the keenest supporters of this system, and at the same time one of the most avid followers of Spiritism, Doctor Charles Grégory, the following letter that is our duty to publish, given the light that the discussion can bring to the question.



“Dear and revered teacher,



I will try to explain to you how I understand the action of homeopathy, on the development of moral faculties.



You admit, like me, that every healthy man possesses the rudiments of all the faculties and all the cerebral organs necessary for their manifestation. You also admit that certain faculties are always developing, while others, those that are undoubtedly only rudimentary, after having hardly given a few glimmers, seem to be extinguished altogether. In the first case, according to you, the cerebral organs relating to the faculties in full development, would have their free manifestation, while those that are rudimentary, and most often also related to rudimentary abilities, would atrophy completely with the progress of age, for the lack of vital activity.



If, therefore, by means of appropriate medicines, I act on the imperfect organs, if I develop in them an additional vital activity, if I call for a more powerful nutrition, it is quite clear that, by increasing the volume, they will allow the rudimentary faculty to better manifest itself, and that, by the transmission of the ideas and feelings that they will have drawn, by the senses, in the external world, they will impart to the corresponding faculty a salutary influence, and therefore develop it, for everything is linked and held together in man; the soul influences the physical, as the body influences the soul. We have, consequently, observed the first influence of drugs by means of the enlargement of the organs, on the corresponding faculties of the soul; therefore, the possibility of man growing in potentialities and skills, by means of forces taken from the material world.



Now, it has not been proven to me at all that our small doses, that have reached a state of sublimation and subtlety that go beyond all limits, do not have something spiritual in them, in a way, that acts in its own right, on the Spirit. Our medicines, given the state of division that the art makes them undergo, are no longer material substances, but many forces must necessarily, in my opinion at least, act on the faculties of the soul, that are also forces.



And then, as I believe that the Spirit of man, before incarnating in humanity, climbs all the steps of the ladder and passes through the mineral, the plant and the animal, and in most types of each species, where he preludes to his full development as a human being, who tells me that by medically giving what is no longer either mineral, plant or animal, but what we could call their essence, and in a way their spirit, we do not act on the human soul, composed of the same elements? Because, say what they will, the Spirit is indeed something, and since it has developed and is constantly developing, it must have taken its elements from somewhere.



All I can say is that we are not acting on the soul materially, but virtually and sort of spiritually, with our 200^th and 600^thdilutions.



Now the facts are there, many facts, well observed, and that could well demonstrate that I am not entirely wrong. To quote myself, although I do not like personal questions very much, I would say that experimenting homeopathic remedies on me, for thirty years, I have in a way created in myself new faculties, rudimentary no doubt, but that in my most luxuriant youth, I had never known, for I did not know homeopathy, and that today, at the age of fifty two, I find well developed: the perception of color and shapes.



I will add further that under the influence of our means, I have seen characters change completely; lightheartedness was succeeded by reflection and the solidity of judgment; lubricity, by continence; wickedness, by benevolence; hatred, by kindness and forgiveness of insults. It is, obviously, not a matter of a few days; it takes a few years of care, but these fine results are obtained by such convenient means that there is no difficulty in deciding the clients who are devoted to you, and a physician always has them. I even noticed that the results obtained by our means were acquired forever, while those given by education, good advice, frequent exhortations, moral books, hardly stood before the possibility of satisfying an ardent passion, and the temptations related to our weaknesses, rather asleep and numb than healed. If successes were manifested in the latter case, it was not without fierce struggles, that was not good to prolong too long.



“These are, dear teacher, the observations I wanted to submit to you on this very serious question of the influence of homeopathy on human moral.



To conclude: whether it is through the brain that the drug acts on the faculties, or that it acts both on the cerebral fiber and on the corresponding faculty, it is nonetheless demonstrated to me, by hundreds of facts, that the subtle and profound action of our doses on human moral is very real. It is demonstrated to me, moreover, that homeopathy depresses certain faculties, certain feelings or certain passions that are too exalted, to activate others too weakened, and as if paralyzed, and by this very reason, leads to balance and to harmony, hence resulting in real improvement and progress of man in all his aptitudes, and ease in overcoming himself.



Do not think that this result eliminates human responsibility, and that this much desired progress is achieved without suffering and without struggles; it is not enough to take a medicine and say to yourself: "I am going to succeed over my inclination of anger, of jealousy, of lust. Oh! not! The appropriate remedy, once introduced into the organism, brings about a profound modification only at the cost of fierce moral and physical sufferings, and often of long, very long duration; sufferings that must be repeated several times, varying the drugs and the doses, and this for months, and sometimes years, if one wishes to arrive at conclusive results. This is the price that we must pay for moral improvement; this is the trial and the atonement by which everything is paid in this world, and I confess that it is not easy to correct oneself, even by homeopathy. I do not know if, by the internal anguish that one suffers, one does not pay more dearly for this progress than by the slower modification, it is true, but certainly softer and more bearable of the purely moral action of every day, through self-observation and the burning desire to overcome oneself.



I stop here; later, I will tell you several facts that may well convince you.



Receive, etc."



This letter in no way modifies the opinion we have expressed on the action of homeopathy, in the treatment of moral diseases, and which, on the contrary, confirms the very arguments of Dr. Grégory. We, therefore, persist in saying that: if homeopathic medicines can have an effect on morale, it is by acting on the organs of manifestations, that can be useful in certain cases, but not on the Spirit; that good or bad qualities and aptitudes are inherent to the degree of advancement or inferiority of the Spirit, and that it is not with any medicine that one can make them advance faster, nor give them the qualities they can only acquire successively and through work; that such a doctrine, making the moral dispositions dependent on the organism, removes all responsibility from man, whatever M. Grégory may say, and releases him from all work to improve himself, since one could make him good, without him knowing it, by administering such and such a remedy; that if, with the aid of material means, we can modify the organs of manifestations, which we admit perfectly, such means cannot change the instinctive tendencies of the Spirit, any more than by cutting the tongue of a talker don't take away the urge to speak. A usage from the East confirms our assertion by a well-known material fact.



The pathological state certainly has moral influences, in certain respects, but the dispositions that this source have are accidental, and do not constitute the basis of the character of the Spirit; these are the ones, above all, that an appropriate medication can modify. There are people that are benevolent only after having had a good dinner, and from whom nothing should be asked when they are fasting; Are we to conclude that a good dinner is a remedy for selfishness? No, for this benevolence, brought about by the plentifulness of sensual satisfaction, is an effect of selfishness itself; it is only an apparent benevolence, a product of this thought: "Now that I don't need anything else, I can take care of the others a little." In summary, we do not dispute that some medications, and homeopathy more than any other, produce some of the effects indicated, but we dispute more than ever the permanent results, and especially as universal as some claim. A case in which homeopathy, above all, would seem to us particularly applicable with success, is that of pathological madness, because here moral disorder is the consequence of physical disorder, and it is now observed by the observation of the Spiritist phenomena, that the Spirit is not mad; there is no need to modify it, but to give it back the means to manifest itself freely. The action of homeopathy can be more effective here, since it acts mainly, by the spiritualized nature of its medicines, on the perispirit that plays a preponderant role in this disease. We would have more than one objection to make to some of the proposals contained in this letter; but that would take us too far; we are therefore content to compare the two opinions. As in everything, the facts are more conclusive than the theories, and it is they, ultimately, that confirm or reverse the latter. We eagerly wish that Dr. Grégory publishes a special practical treatise on homeopathy applied to treatment of moral illnesses, so that the experiment may be generalized and decide the question. More than any other, he seems capable of doing this work by profession.

A second letter from Doctor Grégory contains the following:



“Erastus, in a communication, stated an idea that struck me and made me think. Man, he says, has seven senses: the well-known senses of hearing, smell, sight, taste, touch, and in addition, the somnambulistic sense, and the mediumistic sense.



I add to these words that these last two senses exist only by exception, sufficiently developed in a few privileged natures, admitting that they exist in a rudimentary state in every man. Now, there is in me a conviction acquired by more than one observation, and by a fairly long experience of homeopathic powers, that our well-chosen medicines, taken for a long time, can develop these two admirable faculties."



In our opinion, it would be wrong to consider somnambulism and mediumship as the product of two different senses, since they are only two effects resulting from the same cause. This double faculty is one of the attributes of the soul, and its organ is the perispirit, whose radiance carries perception beyond the limits of the action of the material senses. It is, strictly speaking, the sixth sense that is referred to as the spiritual sense.



Somnambulism and mediumship are two varieties of the activity of this sense, that as we know, present innumerable nuances, and constitute special aptitudes. Apart from these two faculties, more noticeable because they are more apparent, it would be a mistake to believe that the spiritual sense only exists in a rudimentary state. Like the other senses, it is more or less developed, more or less subtle, depending on the individual, but everyone possesses it, and it is not the one that renders the least service, by the very special nature of the perceptions from which it is the source. Far from being the rule, its atrophy is the exception, and can be considered as an illness, like the absence of sight or hearing. It is through this sense that we receive the fluidic emanation of the Spirits, that we unsuspectingly take inspiration from their thoughts, that we are given the intimate warnings of consciousness, that we have a presentiment and intuition of future or absent things, whether there is fascination, unconscious and involuntary magnetic action, the penetration of thought, etc. These perceptions are given to man by the Providence, as are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, for his own preservation; these are very vulgar phenomena that he hardly notices from his habit of experiencing them, and of which he has not realized until this day, owing to his ignorance of the laws of the spiritual principle, of the very denial, in some, of the existence of this principle; but whoever pays attention to the effects that we have just cited and to many others of similar nature, will recognize how frequent they are and that they are completely independent of the sensations perceived by the organs of the body.

Spiritual sight, commonly called double sight or second sight, is a less rare phenomenon than one might think; many people have this faculty without realizing it; only it is more or less emphasized, and it is easy to ascertain that it is foreign to the organs of vision, since it is exercised without the aid of these organs, that even the blind possess it. It exists in some people in the most perfect normal state, with no apparent trace of sleep or ecstatic state. We know a lady, in Paris, that has it permanently, and as natural as the ordinary sight; she sees, without effort and without concentration, the character, the habits, the antecedents of whoever approaches her; she describes illnesses and prescribes effective treatments with greater ease than many ordinary somnambulists; all you have to do is to think of an absent person for her to see them and point them out. We were at her house one day, and we saw someone passing in the street, with whom we have a relationship and whom she had never seen. Without being provoked by any question, she made the most exact moral portrait of him, and gave us very wise advices about him.



This lady is not, however, a somnambulist; she talks about what she sees, as she would talk about anything else, without deviating herself from her occupations. Is she a medium? She does not know anything about it herself, for not long ago she did not even know Spiritism by name. Therefore, this faculty with her is as natural and as spontaneous as possible. How does she perceive, if not through the spiritual sense?



We must add that this lady has faith in the signs of the hand; so, she examines it when she is questioned; she sees in it, she says, the evidence of diseases. As she sees correctly, and it is obvious that many of the things she says cannot have any physiological relationship with the hand, we are convinced that it is simply a way for her to relate, and to develop her sight, by fixating it on a determined point; the hand acts as a magic or psychic mirror; she sees in it as others see in a vase, in a flask or other object. Her ability has a lot to do with that of the Clairvoyant of Zimmerwald Forest, but it is superior to him in some ways. Moreover, since she does not derive any profit from it, this consideration eliminates any suspicion of charlatanism, and since she only uses it to render service, she must be assisted by good spirits. (See the Spiritist Review, October 1864: The Sixth Sense and Spiritual Sight; October 1865: New Studies on Psychic Mirrors. The Clairvoyant of the Zimmerwald Forest).

Dear Mr. Kardec,



It has been some time since I spoke to you about the result of our Spiritist work that we are pursuing with perseverance, and I am glad to say, with satisfactory success. The obsessed and the sick are always the object of our exclusive care. Moralization and fluids are the main means indicated by our guides.



Our good Spirits, who have dedicated themselves to the propagation of Spiritism, have also taken on the task of popularizing magnetism. In almost all the consultations, for the various cases of illnesses, they ask for the help of relatives: a father, a mother, a brother or a sister, a neighbor, a friend, are required to give passes. These good people are quite surprised to stop the crises, to calm the pains. It seems to me that this is an ingenious and sure means of making followers, so the confidence is spreading more every day in our region. The groups that deal with healings might do well in giving the same advice; the fortunate results obtained would clearly prove the truth of magnetism, and give the certainty that the faculty of healing or relieving a fellow person is not the exclusive privilege of a few persons; that all that is needed for that is good will and trust in God; I am not talking about good health, that is an essential condition, we understand that. By recognizing that we ourselves have this power, we acquire the certainty that there is no juggling, no spell, or pact with the devil. It is, therefore, a means of destroying superstitious ideas.



Here are some examples of obtained healings:

“A 6-7 year old girl was bedridden, having a continual headache, fever, frequent cough with mucus, sharp pain in her left flank; pain also in the eyes that, from time to time, got covered with a milky substance, forming a kind of nubecula.[1]Under the hair, the skin of the skull was covered with white films; thick, cloudy urine. The frail and dejected child neither ate nor slept. The doctor ended up suspending his visits. The poor mother, in the presence of her sick and abandoned child, came to find me. Our guides, once consulted, prescribed the laying on of hands and fluidic passes, on the part of the mother, as the only remedy, recommending me to go, for a few days, to show her how she should go about it. I started by raising the blisters and drying them out. After three days of passes and laying on of hands on the head, kidneys and chest, performed as lessons, but done with heart, the child asked to get up; the fever had yielded, and all the symptoms described above disappeared after ten days.



This healing, that the mother described as miraculous, made me call, two days later, another 3 or 4 years-old little girl that had a fever. After the passes and the laying on of hands, the fever ceased since the first day.



The cures of some obsessions do not give us less satisfaction and confidence. Marie B… a young woman of 21, from Samazan, near Marmande, would get naked like a worm, run in the fields, and go to lie down next to the dog, in a straw hole. The moralization of the obsessing Spirit, on our part, and the fluidic passes given by the husband, following our instructions, soon released her. The whole commune of Samazan witnessed the inability of medicine to cure her, and the effectiveness of the simple means employed to bring her back to her normal state.



Mrs. D… aged 22, from the commune of Sainte-Marthe, not far from Marmande, fell into extraordinary and violent crises; she roared, bit, rolled around, felt terrible blows in the stomach, fainted, and often remained unconscious for four or five hours; one time she remained eight days without regaining conscience. Doctor T ... treated her without success. The husband, after reaching out to professionals, priests from our regions, reputed to be healers and exorcisers, fortunetellers – he confessed to having consulted some – came to us to, asking us to please take care of his wife if, as he had heard, it was in our power to heal her. We promised to write to him, telling him what he should do.



Our guides were consulted, and told us: stop all the medical treatment: the remedies would be useless; that the husband raise his soul to God, that he lay his hands on his wife's forehead, and give her fluidic passes with love and confidence; that he punctually observe the recommendations that we are going to make to him, whatever the difficulties he may experience (followed by personal recommendations), and if he fully understands the idea that they are necessary, for the benefit of his poor patient, he will soon have his reward.



They also told us to call and moralize the obsessing Spirit, by the name Lucie Cédar. This Spirit revealed the cause that led her to torment Mrs. D… This cause was precisely linked to the recommendations made to the husband. The latter having complied with everything, had the satisfaction of seeing his wife completely released, in the space of ten days. He said to me: “Since the Spirits communicate with each other, I am not surprised that they told you what was known only to me, but I am much more astonished that no remedy could cure my wife; if I had spoken to you from the beginning, I would still have 150 francs in my pocket, that are no longer there, and that I spent on drugs.”



I cordially shake your hand,

Dombre”





These healing cases are nothing more extraordinary than those we have already cited from the same center; but they prove, by the persistence of success, for several years, what can be obtained with perseverance and devotion, so that the assistance of good spirits is never lacking. They only abandon those who leave the right path, that is easy to recognize in the decline of success, while they support until the last moment, even against the attacks of malice, those whose zeal, sincerity, self-sacrifice and humanity are tested by the vicissitudes of life. They elevate those that lower themselves, and they bring down those that elevate themselves. This applies to all kinds of mediumship.



Nothing discouraged Mr. Dombre; he fought strongly against all obstacles that were created for him, and he succeeded over them; he ignored the insults and threats of our common adversaries, and he forced them to silence by his firmness; he spared neither his time, nor his trouble, nor material sacrifices; he has never sought to take advantage of what he does to give himself relief or to make some stepping stone out of it; his moral selflessness equals his material self-sacrifice; if he is happy to succeed, it is because each success is one for the doctrine. These are the serious titles of recognition of all present and future Spiritists, titles to which we must associate the members of the group who support him, with as much zeal as self-sacrifice, and whose names we regret not being able to name.



The most characteristic fact pointed out in this letter is that of the intervention of the relatives and friends of the sick, in the healings. It is a new idea whose importance will escape no one, for its propagation cannot fail to have considerable results; it is the announced popularization of the healing mediumship. The Spiritists will notice how ingenious the Spirits are in the multiple means they employ to make the idea penetrate the masses. How could it not be achieved, if new channels are constantly being opened, and the means to knock on all doors are given?



This practice, therefore, cannot be encouraged enough; however, we must not lose sight of the fact that the results will be due to the good direction given to the thing, by the leaders of the healing groups, and the momentum they will know how to communicate by their energy, their devotion and their own example.

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[1] A cloudy formation (as in urine) or speck (as in the eye) – merrian-webster.com/dictionary (T.N.)

Since June 1866, a new Spiritist Society, already large, has been formed in Bordeaux, on bases that attest to the zeal and goodwill of its members, and a perfect understanding of the true principles of the doctrine. We extract from the annual report, published by the President, some passages that will show its character.



After having spoken of the vicissitudes that Spiritism has experienced in that city, of the circumstances that brought about the formation of the new society and of its organization that "allows those of its members who feel the strength to do so, to develop through talks, at the beginning of each session, the great principles of the doctrine, principles that many only fight because they do not know them”, and he adds:



“It was these talks that have so far attracted many listeners from outside the Society. Certainly, I do not pretend to believe that all our listeners come to us to learn; many, no doubt, come here seeking to find our faults; it is their business. Ours is to spread Spiritism among the masses, and experience has shown us that the best way, after putting into practice the sublime morality that results from it, and the communications of Spirits, it is to do it by speaking.



Since we were formed, we have had two weekly sessions. This double task was imposed on us by the need to dedicate a particular session (on Thursdays) to obsessing Spirits and to the treatment of the diseases they cause, and to reserve another session (on Saturdays) to scientific studies. I would add, to justify our Thursday sessions, that we are fortunate to have a healing medium among us, with well-developed faculties, and known for his charity, his modesty and his selflessness; he is also known outside and within our society, so that he does not lack patients.



There are, moreover, in Bordeaux, many cases of obsessions, and one session per week, specially devoted to the evocation and moralization of obsessing Spirits, is far from sufficient, so that the healing medium, accompanied by a writing medium, of an evocator and often of some of our brothers, goes to the homes of the sick in order to make contact with the obsessing Spirit, and to come to terms more easily.



To the healing medium came to join one of our brothers, a magnetizer of great power and unfailing devotion who, also helped by the good Spirits, helps the first, so that we can say that the Society has two healing mediums, although in different degrees."



There follows the account of several healings, among which we will quote the following:



Ms. A…, twelve years old.



This orphan child, dependent on very poor relatives, was introduced to us in a deplorable state. Her whole body was seized with convulsive movements, her constantly contracted face made horrible grimaces; her arms and legs were constantly agitated, to the point of wearing down the sheets of her bed in the period of eight days. Her hands, that couldn't grasp any object, kept rotating around the wrists. Finally, because of her illness, her tongue had become extremely thick, leading to a complete muteness.



At first glance we understood that there was an obsession, and since our guides confirmed this opinion, we acted accordingly.



In the opinion of a doctor that was incognito in the patient's home, while we were giving her a fluidic treatment, the disease was to be translated, within three days, into a dance of St. Vitus and, given the state of weakness in which the patient was, to remove her mercilessly in no more than eight days.



I will not detail here the innumerable incidents to which this treatment gave rise. I will not speak of the obstacles of all kinds, piled up under our feet, by contrary influences and that we had to overcome. I will only say that, two months after our meeting with the doctor, the child spoke like you and me, used her hands, went to school, and was perfectly healed.



Here, adds Mr. Peyranne, the main lessons that we got from the sessions devoted to the obsessing Spirits:



To act effectively on an obsessing Spirit, those who moralize him and fight him with fluids must be better than him. This is better understood when we consider that the power of the fluids is directly related to the moral advancement of the one who emits them. An impure Spirit called into a meeting of moralized men is not at ease there; he understands his inferiority, and if he tries to defy the evoker, as it sometimes happens, be persuaded that he will quickly give up this role, especially if the people composing the group where he communicates join the evoker by the will and faith.



I believe that we do not yet fully understand all that we can about the impure Spirits, or rather, that we do not yet know how to use the treasures that God has placed in our hands.



We also know that a fluidic discharge made on an obsessed by several Spiritists, by means of the magnetic chain, can break the fluidic link that connects him to the obsessing Spirit, and turns into a very effective moral remedy to the latter, by proving his helplessness.



We also know that every incarnate, driven by the desire to relieve his fellow human being, acting with faith, can by means of fluidic passes, if not cure, at least appreciably relieve a patient.



I end with the Thursday sessions, noting that not one obsessing Spirit has remained rebellious. All those we have cared for have come to recognize their wrongs, abandon their victims, and have entered a better path."



Regarding the Saturday sessions he says:



“These sessions are open, as you know, with a talk given by a member of the Society on a Spiritist subject and end with a summary given by the President.



In the chat, all freedom of language is left to the speaker, provided however that they do not depart from the framework traced by our rules. They consider the various subjects from their personal point of view; they develop them as they see fit and draw from them the consequences that they consider appropriate; but with that they could never hold the Society responsible.



At the end of the session, the President sums up the work, and if he does not agree with the speaker, he objects to that, pointing out to the audience that, no more than the first, he engages no other responsibility than his own, leaving to each person the use of their free will and the care of judging and deciding, in their own conscience, on which side the truth is, or at least, which one is the closest, because for me, the truth is God. The closer we get to him (that we can only do by purifying ourselves and working for our progress) the closer we will be to the truth."



We again draw attention to the following paragraph:



“Although we have excellent instruments for our studies, we understood that the number had become insufficient, especially in the presence of the ever-increasing extension of the Society. The shortage of mediums has often come as an obstacle to the regular progress of our work, and we have understood that it was necessary, as much as possible, to develop the faculties that lie dormant in the organization of many of our brothers. That is why we have just decided that a special session of mediumistic experiments will take place on Sundays, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in our meeting room. I thought it to be my duty to invite not only our brothers in belief, but also strangers who would like to become useful. These sessions have already given results that have exceeded our expectations. There we do writing, typtology, and magnetism. Several very diverse faculties were discovered there, and there emerged two somnambulists who seem to be very lucid.”



We can only applaud the program of the Society of Bordeaux and congratulate it on its dedication and the intelligent direction of its work. One of our colleagues, passing through that city, recently attended some of its sessions and reported the most favorable impression. By persevering in this direction, it can only obtain more and more satisfactory results, and will never lack elements in its activity. The way it goes about on dealing with obsessions is both remarkable and instructive, and the best proof that this is a good way is that it is successful. We will come back to this later in a special article.



It would be superfluous to stress the usefulness of the verbal instructions that she designates by the simple name of talks. Besides the advantage of exercising the handling of speech, they have the no less great one of provoking a more complete and serious study of the principles of the doctrine, of facilitating their understanding, of bringing out their importance, and of shedding light on controversial points through discussion. It is the first step towards regular conferences that cannot fail to take place sooner or later, and which, while popularizing the doctrine, will contribute powerfully to change public opinion, distorted by malicious criticism, or ignorant of what it is.



Refuting objections, discussing divergent systems, are essential points that must not be overlooked, and that may furnish the material for useful instructions; it is not only a means of dissipating the errors that could be accredited, but it is also to strengthen oneself for the particular discussions that one may have to support. In these oral instructions, many will undoubtedly be assisted by the Spirits, and speaking mediums cannot fail to emerge from them. Those who would be held back by fear of speaking in front of an audience, should remember that Jesus said to his apostles: “Do not worry about what you say; the words will be inspired in you on time."



A provincial group, that can be classified among the most serious and best managed, has introduced this method in its meetings, that also take place twice a week. It is exclusively formed by officers of a regiment. But this is not an option left to each member; it is an obligation imposed on them by the regulations, that each one speaks on their turn. At each session the speaker designated for the next meeting should prepare to develop and comment on a chapter or point of doctrine. This results in a greater ability for them to propagate and advocate the cause when necessary.

Mr. Quinemant, from Sétif





This was sent to us from Sétif (Algeria):



“I come to inform you of the death of an avid follower of Spiritism, Mr. Quinemant, who died on Holy Saturday, April 20^th, 1867. He was the first to deal with it in Sétif, with me; he constantly defended it against its detractors, regardless of their attacks or ridicule. He was, at the same time, a very good magnetizer, and he rendered many services to people in suffering, through his selfless devotion.



He had been ill since November; he had a fever every other day, and when he didn't, he was constantly salivating. He ate and digested well, found everything he took to be good, and despite this, he was losing weight visibly; a man of quite a strong build, his limbs had reached the size of those of a child. He was slowly fading away and understood his position very well; he said he wanted to die on the day that Christ died. He retained all his lucidity of mind and chatted as if he had not been ill. He died, almost without suffering, with the tranquility and resignation of a Spiritist, telling his wife to console herself, that they would meet again in the world of the Spirits. However, at his last moments, he asked for the parish priest, although he did not like priests in general, and he had quite lively altercations with him regarding Spiritism.



You will do me a great favor by evoking him, if possible; I have no doubt that he will be happy to attend to your call, and as he was an enlightened and sensible man, I think he will be able to give us some useful advice. His opinion was that Spiritism would grow, despite all the obstacles placed before it. Please also ask him the cause of his illness, that nobody knew.

Dumas”






Mr. Quinemant, first evoked in particular, gave the following communication, and the next day he spontaneously gave to the Society the one we are publishing separately, with the title: Le Magnétisme et le Spiritisme (Magnetism and Spiritism).




(Paris, May 16, 1867. Medium, M. Desliens.)



I hasten to respond to your call, with great facility, for since the burial of my mortal remains, I have come to all your meetings. I had a great desire to judge the development of the doctrine in its natural center, and if I did not do so during the lifetime of my body, my material affairs were the only cause. I warmly thank my friend Dumas for the benevolent thought that led him to inform you of my departure and to ask you for my evocation; he could not give me a greater pleasure.



Although my return to the world of the Spirits is recent, I am sufficiently detached to communicate with ease; the ideas that I had about the invisible world, my belief in communications, and the reading of the Spiritist works had prepared me to see without astonishment, but not without infinite happiness, the spectacle that awaited me. I am happy for the confirmation of my innermost thoughts. I was convinced, by reasoning, of the further development, and of the importance to future generations, of the doctrine of the Spirits; but unfortunately I saw many obstacles, and I assigned an indefinitely distant epoch to the predominance of our ideas: the effect of my short sight and of the limits assigned by matter to my conception of the future. Today I have more than conviction, I have certainty. Not long ago I only saw effects that were too slow to suit my wishes; I see today, I touch the causes of these effects, and my feelings have changed. Yes, it will take a long time for our land to be a Spiritist land, in the full sense of the word; but it will take a relatively very short time to bring about a considerable change in the way of being of individuals and nationalities.



The teachings that I have gathered from you, the important development of certain faculties, the spiritual meetings that I have been allowed to attend since my arrival here, have convinced me that great events are near, and that in a short period of time, a number of latent forces would be put into activity, to help with the general renovation. The fire is smoldering everywhere under the ashes; let a spark fly, and it will fly, and the conflagration will become universal.



Current spiritual elements, crushed in the immense furnace of the physical and moral cataclysms that are preparing, some more refined follow the upward movement, the others, thrown out with the coarsest scoria, will have to undergo several more successive distillations, before joining their more advanced brothers. Ah! I understand, faced with the events that the future has in store for us, these words of the son of Mary: There will be tears and grinding of teeth. So, make sure my friends, that you are all invited to the banquet of intelligence and that you do not belong to those that will be cast into outer darkness.



Before dying, I gave in to one last weakness, I obeyed a prejudice, not that my belief had weakened in the face of fear of the unknown, but so as not to stand out. Hey! After all, the word of a man who speaks to you about the future is good to hear at the time of the great journey; this word is surrounded by old teachings, worn out practices, I agree, but it is nonetheless the word of hope and consolation.



Ah! I see with the eyes of the spirit, I see a time when the Spiritist, at his departure, will also be surrounded by brothers who will talk to him about the future, about the hope of happiness! My God, thank you, since you have allowed me to see the light of truth in my last moments; thank you, for this softening of my trials. If I have done any good, it is to this blessed belief that I owe it, it is what gave me the faith, the material vigor and the moral power necessary to heal; it was what kept my lucidity of mind until my last moments, that allowed me to endure without murmuring the cruel illness that took me away.



You ask what is this disease that took me down; o my God, it's very simple; the viscera in which the assimilation of new elements takes place, no longer having the necessary force to act, the molecules, worn out by the vital action, were eliminated without others coming to replace them. But what does it matter the disease from which one dies when death is freedom! Thank you again, dear friend, for the good thought that led you to ask for my evocation; tell my wife that I am happy, that she will always find the loving one again, and that while awaiting her return, I will not cease to surround her with my love and to help her with my advice.



Now a few words for you personally, my dear Dumas. You were among the first ones called to plant the flag of doctrine in this country, and quite naturally you encountered obstacles, difficulties; if your zeal has not been rewarded with as much success as you expected, and that the beginnings seemed to promise, it is because it takes time to uproot prejudices and routine in an environment completely given over to material life; one must be advanced already to quickly assimilate new ideas that change habits. Remember that the first pioneer that sows is very seldom the one that harvests; he prepares the ground for those who come after him. You were this pioneer: it was your mission; it was an honor and happiness that I could share a little, and that you will appreciate one day, as I can do today, because your efforts will be taken into account. But do not think that we have gone to unnecessary trouble; no, none of the seeds we have sown is lost; they will germinate and bear fruit when the time comes to sprout. The idea is launched, and it will gain ground; congratulate yourself on having been one of the workers chosen for this work. You have had setbacks and deceptions: it was the test of your faith and your perseverance, otherwise, where would be the merit of accomplishing a mission if all you could find were roses on your way?



So don't let disappointments take you down; above all, do not give in to discouragement and remember these words of Christ: "Blessed are those who persevere to the end" and this one: "Blessed are those who will suffer for my name.” So persevere dear friend, carry on with your work and remember that the fruits that are gathered in the world where I am now, are better than those that are harvested on Earth, where they are left when we depart.



Say, I beg you, to all those who have shown me affection and keep me a good place in their memory, that I do not forget them and that I am often among them; tell those who still reject our beliefs, that when they are where I am, they will recognize that it was the truth, and that they will bitterly regret having disregarded it, for they will have to restart painful trials; tell those who have hurt me that I forgive them and that I pray to God to forgive them.



"The one who will always be devoted to you,

E. Quinemant.”

Mr. Count d'Ourches was one of the first to take care of Spiritist manifestations in Paris, from the moment when the accounts of those that took place in America arrived. By the credit given to him by his social position, his fortune, his family relations, and above all the loyalty and honor of his character, he greatly contributed to their popularization. At the time of the vogue of the turning tables, his name had acquired a great notoriety and a certain authority in the world of the followers; he, therefore, has his marked place in the annals of Spiritism. Passionate about physical manifestations, he dedicated them a naive confidence that was a little too blind, and which one sometimes took advantage of by the ease with which they lend themselves to imitation. Exclusively given to this kind of manifestations, solely from the point of view of the phenomenon, he did not follow Spiritism in its new scientific and philosophical phase, for which he had little sympathy, and he remained alien to the great movement that has emerged in the last ten years.



He died on May 5^th, 1867 at the age of 80. The Belgian Independence published a very long and very interesting biographical article on him, signed by Henry de Pène, and reproduced in the Gazette des Etrangers de Paris (5, rue Scribe) on Thursday, Mary 23^rd; there, full justice is made to his eminent qualities, and his belief in Spirits is judged with a moderation to which the first of these journals had not accustomed us. The article ends as follows:



“All of this, I know, will make a number of positive spirits shrug their shoulders and say, 'He's crazy! With all the intelligence that in some cases they do not have. It is easy to say that he is mad. The Earl of Ourches was a superior man who had set himself the goal of succeeding over his fellows by uniting the positive lights of science with the glimmers and visions of the supernatural."

Magnetism and Spiritism

Parisian Society, May 12^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Desliens



“During my lifetime I was concerned with the practice of magnetism, from an exclusively material point of view; at least, I believed it so; I know today that the voluntary or involuntary elevation of the soul, willing to desire the cure of the patient, is a true spiritual magnetization.



Healing is due to many variable causes: A certain disease, treated in such a way, yields to the power of material action; another, which is identical, but less marked, does not undergo any kind of improvement, although the curative means employed are perhaps still more powerful. What are the reasons for these variations in influence? - To a cause ignored by most magnetizers, who attack only morbid material principles; they are the consequence of the moral situation of the individual.



Material illness is an effect; to destroy this effect, it is not enough to attack it, to take it hand-to-hand and annihilate it; the cause still existing, will reproduce new morbid effects when the curative action is removed.



The fluid, transmitting health in magnetism, is an intermediary between matter and the spiritual part of the being, and that one could compare to the perispirit. It unites two bodies to one another; it is a bridge over that passes the elements that are to bring healing to the diseased organs. Being an intermediary between Spirit and matter, by virtue of its molecular constitution, this fluid can transmit just as well a spiritual influence as a purely animal influence.



What is Spiritism in the end, or rather what is mediumship, this faculty hitherto misunderstood, and whose considerable extension has established on incontestable bases the fundamental principles of the new revelation? It is purely and simply a variety of the magnetic action exerted by one or more incorporeal magnetizers, on a human subject, acting in the waking state or in the ecstatic state, consciously or unconsciously.



What, on the other hand, is magnetism? A variety of Spiritism in which incarnate Spirits act on other incarnate Spirits.



Finally, there is a third variety of magnetism or Spiritism, depending on whether one takes, as a point of departure, the action of incarnates on incarnates, or that of relatively free Spirits on Spirits, imprisoned in a body; this third variety, that has for principle the action of the incarnates on the Spirits, is revealed in the treatment and the moralization of the obsessing Spirits.

Spiritism is, therefore, only spiritual magnetism, and magnetism is nothing other than human Spiritism.



Indeed, how does the magnetizer proceed when he wants to subject a somnambulist subject to his influence? He involves him in his fluid; he possesses him, to a certain extent, and notice, without ever succeeding in annihilating his free will, without being able to turn him into his thing, a purely passive instrument. Often the magnetized resists the influence of the magnetizer and he acts in one direction when the latter would like the action to be utterly opposed. Although generally the somnambulist is asleep, and his own Spirit acts while his body remains more or less inert, it also happens, but more rarely, that the subject, simply fascinated, enlightened, remains in the waking state, although with a greater tension of mind and an unusual exaltation of his faculties.



And now, how does the Spirit that wants to communicate, proceed? It enfolds the medium in its fluid; it possesses him to a certain extent, without ever succeeding in making it his own thing, a purely passive instrument. You may object to me that in cases of obsession, possession, the annihilation of free will appears to be complete. There would be a lot to say about this question, for the annihilating action bears more on the material vital forces than on the Spirit, that may find itself paralyzed, overwhelmed and powerless to resist, but whose thought is never wiped out, as has been observed on many occasions. Even in the case of obsession, I find a confirmation, a proof in support of my theory, by recalling that the obsession is also exerted from incarnate to incarnate, and that we have seen magnetizers taking advantage of the domination exerted on their somnambulists to lead them to commit blameworthy actions. Here, as always, the exception proves the rule.



Although generally the mediumistic subject is awake, in certain cases, that are becoming more and more frequent, spontaneous somnambulism occurs in the medium, and he speaks for himself or by suggestion, absolutely as the magnetic somnambulist behaves in the same circumstances.



Finally, how do you deal with obsessive or simply inferior Spirits that you want to moralize? You act on them by fluidic attraction; you magnetize them, unconsciously, most of the time, to keep them in your circle of action; consciously, sometimes, when you establish around them a fluidic sheet that they cannot penetrate without your permission, and you act on them by the moral power that is no other than a quintessential magnetic action.



As you have been told many times, there are no gaps in the work of nature, no sudden jumps, but insensitive transitions that make one move, little by little, from a state to another, without noticing the change other than through awareness of a better situation.



Magnetism is therefore a lower degree of Spiritism, and that imperceptibly merges with the latter by a series of varieties that differ little from one another, as the animal is a higher state of the plant, etc. In either case, they are two steps of the infinite ladder that connects all creations, from the tiny atom to the Creator God! Above you, the dazzling light that your weak eyes cannot yet bear; below, there is a deep darkness that your most powerful optical instruments have not yet been able to illuminate. Yesterday you didn't know anything; today you see the deep abyss in which your origin is lost. You have a presentiment of the infinitely perfect goal towards which all your aspirations tend; and to whom do you owe all this knowledge? To magnetism! To Spiritism! To all the revelations that result from a law of universal relation between all beings and their Creator! To a science hatched yesterday by your conception, but whose existence is lost in the mists of time, because it is one of the fundamental bases of creation.



From all this, I conclude that magnetism, developed by Spiritism, is the keystone of the moral and material health of future humanity.

E. Quineman”



Observation: The correctness of the assessments, and the depths of the new point of view contained in this communication will not escape anyone. Mr. Quinemant, although he had left for a very short time, revealed himself from start, and without the least hesitation, as a Spirit of incontestable superiority. Barely freed from matter, that seems to have left no trace on him, he deploys his faculties with a remarkable power, that promises one more good adviser to his brothers on Earth.



Those who claimed that Spiritism was dragging itself into the rut of commonplaces and banalities, can see, by the questions which it has been tackling for some time, if it remains stationary, and they will see it even better as it continues to develop its consequences. Strictly speaking, however, he does not teach anything new; if we carefully study its fundamental constitutive principles, we will see that they contain the seeds of everything; but these germs can only develop gradually; if all do not flourish at the same time, it is because the extension of the circle of its attributions does not depend on the will of men, but on that of the Spirits, who regulate the degree of their teaching according to the opportunity. It is in vain that men would like to anticipate time; they cannot constrain the will of the Spirits who act according to higher inspirations, and do not indulge the impatience of the incarnate; they know how to make this impatience sterile if necessary. Let us therefore let them act; let us strengthen ourselves in what they teach us and let us be sure that they will know how to make Spiritism give what it must give.

The latest issue of the Union, that is now reaching us, and that ends its second year, contains the following notice:



Absorbed by the material work imposed on us by the need to provide for our needs and those of the family, that we have the task of raising, we have not been allowed to publish regularly the latest issues of the Spiritist Union. We will not hide it, in the presence of this task both so painful and so unappreciated that we have imposed on ourselves, we wondered if we should not stop and leave to others, more fortunate than us, the care to continue the work we have undertaken, with as much ardor as with conviction and faith. But, yielding to the urges of many of our readers, who think that the Spiritist Union not only has its reason for being, but has already done, and is called upon to do, perhaps in the very near future, a great service to Spiritism, we have resolved to walk still forward, and still face the difficulties of all kinds that are piling up under our feet. Only, to make such a task possible for us, and to avoid the irregularity that, unfortunately, until now we have been the victim so often, we have had to make major changes to our method of publication.



The Spiritist Union, that will begin its third year next June, will now appear once a month only, in 32-page notebooks, large in-8 °. The price of the subscription will be set at 10 francs per year.



We hope that our subscribers will be willing to accept these conditions that are, moreover, those of the Spiritist Review of Allan Kardec, and of almost all the publications or philosophical reviews of Paris, and that by sending us, as soon as possible, their membership, they will make it as easy as possible for us to accomplish the work to which, for more than four years, we have made such great sacrifices.

A Bez.”



We are among those who regard this journal as having its reason to be and its usefulness; by the spirit in which it is written, it can and must render incontestable services to the cause of Spiritism. We congratulate Mr. Bez on his perseverance, despite the material difficulties he encounters in his very position. He took, in our opinion, a very wise course in only publishing it once a month, while providing the same amount of material. One cannot imagine the time and expenses that entail the publications that appear several times a month, when one is obliged to suffice alone or almost alone; it is absolutely necessary to have nothing else to do, and to renounce any other occupation. By appearing on the 15th of each month, for example, it will alternate with our Spiritist Review; in this way, those who would like it to appear more often, that is impossible, will find in it the complement of what they want, and will not be deprived of reading the subjects in which they are interested for so long. We are asking for their assistance to support this publication.

New journal appearing twice a month, since April 15^th, in the format of the old Avenir to which it announces to succeed. The Future had made itself the representative of ideas to which we could not give our support. This is not a reason why these ideas do not have their media, so that everyone is able to appreciate them, and that we can judge their value by the sympathy they find in the majority of Spiritists and their agreement with the teaching of the generality of the Spirits. Spiritism, adopting only the principles consecrated by the universality of teaching, sanctioned by reason and logic, has always worked, and will always work with the majority; that's what makes it strong. It, therefore, has nothing to fear from divergent ideas; if they are righteous, they will prevail, and they will be adopted; if they are wrong, they will fall.



We cannot yet appreciate the line that this journal will follow, in this respect; in any case, we make it our duty to point out its appearance to our readers, so that they can judge it for themselves. We will be happy to find in it a serious new champion of its doctrine, and in that case, we will wish it good luck.



Office: rue de la Victoire, n ° 34. - Price: 10 francs per year.

In response to Mgr. Dupanloup's brochure, by a Catholic.



Brochure in-8 °, at MM. Didier et Compagnie, 35, quai des Augustins, and at the Revue Spirite office. - Price: 1 franc, 25 cents; by post: 1 franc, 45 cents.



The author of this remarkable writing, although sincerely attached to Catholic beliefs, set out to demonstrate to Bishop Dupanloup what are the real causes of the plague of atheism, and of the incredulity that invades society; according to her, interpretations inadmissible today, and irreconcilable with the positive data of science. She proves that, in many points, the Church has deviated from the real meaning of the Scriptures, and the thought of the sacred writers; that religion can only gain from a more rational interpretation that, without touching the fundamental principles of dogmas, would be reconciled with reason; that Spiritism, founded on the very laws of nature, is the only possible key to a sound interpretation, and by that very fact, the most powerful remedy against atheism. All of this is said simply, coldly, without emphasis or exhilaration, and with strict logic. This writing is a complement to Faith and Reason, by M. J. B., and to the Dogmas of the Church of Christ explained according to Spiritism, by M. Bottinn.



Although a woman, the author shows great theological erudition; she quotes and comments with remarkable accuracy the sacred writers of all times, and with almost as much ease as Mr. Flammarion quotes scientific authors; we see that they are familiar to her, which leads us to say that she is probably not in her beginnings in these matters, and that she must have been some eminent theologian in her previous existence. Without sharing all her ideas, we say that from the point of view where she placed herself, she could not speak better in a different way, and that she did a useful thing for the time in which we are now.

By E. Bonnemère



A volume in-12. International bookshop, 15 boulevard Montmartre. - Price: 3 francs; by post: 3 francs 30 cents.



The lack of space obliges us to hand over to the next issue the review of this important work, that we recommend to the attention of our readers, as very interesting for Spiritism.

The Society of Bordeaux, reconstituted as we said in our previous issue, met this year, like last year, in a banquet that took place on the day of Pentecost, a simple banquet, let's mention it immediately, as is appropriate in such circumstances, and to people whose main purpose is to find an occasion to meet and to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood; research and luxury would be nonsense. Despite the occupations that kept us in Paris, we were able to accept the gracious and urgent invitation for us to attend. The one that took place last year, that was the first, had only gathered about thirty guests; there were four times as many this year, including several from far away; Toulouse, Marmande, Villeneuve, Libourne, Niort, Blaye and as far as Carcassonne, that is 80 leagues away, had their representatives there. All the ranks of society were there united in a community of feelings; there was the craftsman, the farmer alongside the bourgeois, the merchant, the doctor, officials, lawyers, scientists, etc.



It would be superfluous to add that everything happened as it should be between people whose motto is: "there is no salvation, but through charity" and who profess tolerance for all opinions and all convictions. Thus, in the opportune speeches that were given, not a word was said that could touch the least susceptibility; even if our greatest adversaries would have been there, they would not have heard a word or an allusion to their attitude.



Law enforcement had shown plenty of benevolence and courtesy towards this meeting, and we must thank them for it. We do not know if they were represented there in an occult manner, but certainly they were able to convince themselves there, as always, that the doctrines professed by the Spiritists, far from being subversive, are a guarantee of peace and tranquility; that public order has nothing to fear from people whose principles are those of respect for the law, and who, under no circumstances, have yielded to the suggestions of provoking agents who sought to compromise them. We have always been seen withdrawing and refraining from any ostensible manifestation, whenever they feared to be made a pretext for scandal.



Is it weakness on their part? No, of course not; on the contrary, it is the awareness of the force of their principles that makes them calm, and the certainty that they have of the uselessness of the efforts made to stifle them; when they abstain, it is not to shelter their persons, but to avoid what could affect the doctrine. They know that it does not need external demonstrations to succeed. They see its ideas germinating everywhere, spreading with irresistible power; why would they need to make noise? They leave this to the care of their antagonists, who, by their clamor, help the propagation. Even persecutions are the necessary baptism of all new and somewhat grand ideas; instead of harming them, they make them shine; we can appreciate their importance by the determination with which they fight them. Ideas that only become acclimatized by the force of advertising and staging, have only a factitious and short-lived vitality; those that propagate themselves and by the force of circumstances, have life in them, and are the only lasting ones; this is the case where Spiritism is found.

The feast ended with a fund raising for the benefit of the unfortunate, without distinction of beliefs, and with a precaution whose wisdom we can only praise. In order to allow total freedom, to humiliate nobody, and not to stimulate the vanity of those who would give more than others, things were arranged in such a way that no one, not even the collectors, knew what each one had given. The revenue was 85 francs, and commissioners were immediately appointed to use it.



Despite our short stay in Bordeaux, we were able to attend two meetings of the society: one devoted to the treatment of the sick, and the other to philosophical studies. We were, thus, able to see for ourselves, the good results that are always the fruit of perseverance and good will. To the report that we published in our previous issue about the Society of Bordeaux, we can consciously add our personal congratulations. But it should not hide from itself that the more it prospers, the more it will be subjected to the attacks of our adversaries; let it always beware of the secret maneuvers that one might hatch against it, and of the bones of contention that, under the appearance of exaggerated zeal, one might launch into its heart.



Since the time of our absence from Paris was limited, by the obligation to be back there on a fixed day, we were unable, to our great regret, to go to the various centers where we were invited; we could only stop for a few moments in Tours and Orleans, that were on our route. There too we were able to observe the ascendancy that doctrine acquires every day with the public opinion, and its happy results that, although they are still individual, they are not less satisfactory.



In Tours, the meeting was supposed to have about one hundred and fifty people, both from the city and the surrounding areas, but due to the haste with which the convocation was made, only two-thirds were able to attend. An unforeseen circumstance made it impossible to use the room that had been selected, hence we gathered for a magnificent evening in the garden of one of the members of the Society. In Orleans, the Spiritists are fewer, but this center, nevertheless, has a good number of sincere and devoted followers with whom we had the pleasure of shaking hands.



A constant and characteristic fact, and that we must consider as a great progress, is the gradual and almost general reduction of prejudices against the Spiritist ideas, even among those who do not share them; now everyone is recognized as having the right to be a Spiritist, just as we have the right to be a Jewish or a Protestant. It is already something. The places where children are stimulated to run against them with stones, as in Illiers, in the department of Eure et Loir, are increasingly rare exceptions.



Another not less characteristic sign of progress is the little importance that the followers, everywhere, even in the less enlightened classes, attach to the facts of extraordinary manifestations. If effects of this kind occur spontaneously, we observe them, but we are not moved by them, we do not seek them, and even less care to provoke them. They are little attached to what only satisfy the eyes and curiosity; the serious purpose of the doctrine, its moral consequences, the resources it can offer for the relief of suffering, the happiness of finding relatives or friends who have been lost, and of talking to them, listening to the advice they come to give, is the exclusive and preferred object of the Spiritist meetings. Even in the countryside, and among artisans, a powerful medium of physical effects would be less appreciated than a good writing medium, giving consolation and hope, by reasoned communications. What one is looking for in the doctrine is, above all, what touches the heart. The ease with which even the most illiterate^[1] people understand and assimilate the principles of this philosophy, is a remarkable thing; it is because it is not necessary to be educated to have heart and judgment. Ah! they say, if we had always been spoken to like this, we would never have doubted God and his goodness, even in our greatest miseries!





It is undoubtedly something to believe, for it is already one foot on the right track; but belief without practice is a dead letter; however, we are happy to say that, in our short excursion, among many examples of the moralizing effects of the doctrine, we have met many of those Spiritists of heart, that one could say complete, if it were given to man to be complete in any way, and that one can regard as the types of the transformed future generation; there are those of all sexes, of all ages and of all conditions, from youth to the extreme limit of age, who understand, from this life, the promises made to us for the future. They are easy to recognize; there is, in their whole being, a reflection of frankness and sincerity that imposes confidence; one immediately feels that there is no hidden second motive under golden words or hypocritical compliments. Around them, and even in the least favored classes, they know how to make calm and serenity reign. In these blessed country regions, one breathes a serene atmosphere that reconciles us with humanity, and we understand the reign of God on Earth; blessed are those who know how to enjoy it in anticipation! In our Spiritist tours, what most satisfies us is not the number of believers that we count. What most satisfies us are those followers who are the honor of the doctrine, and who are, at the same time, its firmest supporters, because they make it esteemed and respected by themselves.



Seeing the number of happy people that Spiritism makes, we easily forget the inseparable fatigue of our task. This is a satisfaction, a positive result, that the fiercest malice cannot take from us; we could be deprived of our life, material goods, but never the happiness of having contributed to bringing peace to ulcerated hearts. For anyone who probes the secret motives that make certain men act, there is dirt that stains the hands that throw them, and not those to whom they thrown at.



May all those who have given us such touching expressions of sympathy, in this last trip, receive here our very sincere thanks, and our assurance that we will retribute the same.

With the title of A Mystery, several newspapers reported the following fact in May:



“Two ladies, from the Faubourg Saint-Germain, presented themselves, one of these last days, to the commissioner of their district and pointed out to him the named P…, who had, they said, abused their confidence and their credulity, by assuring them that he would cure them of diseases, against which his care had been powerless.



“Having opened an investigation on this subject, the magistrate learned that P… passed for a skillful doctor, whose clientele increased every day, and who made extraordinary cures.



From his answers to the commissioner's questions, P… seems convinced that he is endowed with a supernatural faculty that gives him the power to heal, just by placing his hands on the sick organs.



For twenty years he was a cook; he was even cited as one of the most skillful in his profession, that he abandoned a year ago to devote himself to the art of healing.



According to him, he would have had several mysterious visions and apparitions, in which an envoy of God would have revealed to him that he had to accomplish a humanitarian mission on Earth, that he should not fail or be damned. Obeying, he said, this order from heaven, the former cook moved into an apartment in the rue Saint-Placide, and the patients were quick to abound to his consultations.



He doesn't prescribe drugs; he examines the patient that he must treat when fasting. He feels the patient, searches for and discovers the seat of the disease, on which he applies his hands arranged in a cross, pronounces a few words that are, he says, his secret; then, in his prayer, an invisible Spirit comes and takes illness away.



P… is certainly mad; but what is extraordinary, inexplicable, is that he proved, as the investigation shows, that by this singular process, he cured more than forty people suffering from serious illnesses.



Several expressed their gratitude to him by donating money; an old lady, owner in the vicinity of Fontainebleau, made him her heir for a sum of 40,000 francs, by a will found in his house, where a search has been carried out.



P… was kept under arrest, and his trial, that will, undoubtedly take place soon, in the correctional police, promises to be curious."



We are neither the apologist nor the detractor of Mr. P… whom we do not know. Is he in good or bad conditions? Is he sincere or charlatan? We don't know; it is the future that will prove it; we do not take side for or against him. We mention the fact as it is reported, because it is added to the idea of all those that support the existence of one of those strange faculties, that confuse science and those who do not want to admit anything outside the visible and tangible world. After hearing so much about it and seeing the facts multiply, we are forced to agree that there is something, and little by little we distinguish between truth and deception.



In the report above, we have, no doubt, noticed this curious passage, and the not less curious contradiction that it contains: “P… is certainly mad; but what is extraordinary, inexplicable, is that he proved, as the investigation shows, that by this singular process, he cured more than forty people suffering from serious illnesses.”



Thus, the investigation confirms the healings; but because the means he employs is inexplicable and unrecognized by the Faculty, he is certainly mad. On this account, the Abbé Prince de Hohenlohe, whose marvelous cures we have reported in the Spiritist Review of December 1866, was a fool; the venerable Cure of Ars, who also performed cures by these singular procedures, was a madman, and so many others; Christ, who healed without a diploma and did not use drugs, was mad, and would have paid many fines these days. Mad or not, when there is healing, there are many people who would rather be healed by a madman than be buried by a man of good sense.



With a diploma, all medical eccentricities are allowed. A doctor, whose name we have forgotten, but who earns a lot of money, employs a much more bizarre procedure; with a brush he paints the faces of his patients with small diamonds, red, yellow, green, blue diamonds with which he surrounds the eyes, nose and mouth, in a quantity proportional to the nature of the disease. What scientific data supports this kind of medication? A bad joke of an editor claimed that, to save himself enormous expenses of advertisements, this doctor had the patients worn them free of charge, on their faces. Seeing these tattooed faces in the streets, one naturally asks what it is? And the patients answer: It is the process of the famous doctor such. But he is a doctor; whether his process is good, bad or insignificant, that is not the question; he is allowed everything, even to be a charlatan: he is authorized to do so by the Faculty; if an unqualified individual wants to imitate him, he will be prosecuted for fraud.



They protest against the credulity of the public towards charlatans; one is astonished at the crowd that goes to the first comer that announces a new means of healing, to somnambulists, bonesetters and others; of the predilection for the remedies of the good woman, and attack the ineptitude of the human species! The real cause lies in the very natural desire that the patients have to be cured, and in the failure of medicine in too many cases; if the doctors cured more often and more surely, one would not go elsewhere; it almost always happens that one only resort to such exceptional means after all official means are uselessly exhausted; now, the patient who wants to be cured at any cost, worries little about being cured according to the rule or against the rule.



We will not repeat here what is clearly demonstrated today, on the causes of certain cures, inexplicable only to those who do not want to bother to go back to the source of the phenomenon. If the healing takes place, it is a fact, and this fact has a cause; is it more rational to deny it than to seek it out? It is chance, they will say; the patient would have healed on his own. Be it, but then the doctor who declared him incurable showed great ignorance. And then, if there are twenty, forty, a hundred such healings, is it always chance? It would be, we must admit, a singularly persevering and intelligent chance, to which one could give the name of Dr. Hazard.



We will examine the question from a more serious point of view. People, without diplomas, that treat the sick by magnetism; by magnetized water, that is only a dissolution of the magnetic fluid; by the laying on of hands, that is an instantaneous and powerful magnetization; through the prayer, that is a mental magnetization, with the help of the Spirits, still a variety of magnetization, are they punishable by law against the illegal practice of medicine?



The terms of the law are certainly very elastic because it does not specify the means. Rigorously and logically, we can only consider as exercising the art of healing, those that make a profession, or put differently, who benefit from it. However, we have seen sentences passed against individuals given to such care out of pure devotion, without any ostensible or concealed interest. Therefore, the offense is, above all, in the prescription of medications. However, notorious selflessness is generally taken into account as a mitigating circumstance. Until now, it had not been thought that a cure could take place without the use of drugs; the law, therefore, did not provide for the case of curative treatments without remedies, and it would only be by extension that it would be applied to magnetizers and healing mediums. As official medicine does not recognize any efficacy in magnetism and its appendices, and even less in the intervention of Spirits, one cannot legally condemn for illegal exercise of medicine, magnetizers and healing mediums, who do not prescribe anything, or nothing other than magnetized water, otherwise that would be officially recognizing a virtue in the magnetic agent, and placing it among the curative means; that would be to understand magnetism and healing mediumship in the art of healing, and belie the Faculty. What is sometimes done, in such a case, is to convict for the crime of fraud, and breach of trust, as for selling something worthless, the one who derives a direct or misappropriated profit, or even concealed under the disguised name of optional compensation, a disguise that should not always be trusted. The appreciation of the fact depends entirely on the way of considering the thing in itself; it is often a matter of personal opinion, unless there is an alleged abuse, in which case the question of good faith always comes into play; justice then assesses the aggravating or mitigating circumstances. It is quite different for the one whose selflessness is proven and complete; considering that he prescribes nothing and receives nothing, the law cannot reach him, or else it would have to be given an extension that neither the spirit nor the letter include. One cannot see deception where there is nothing to gain. There is no power in the world that can oppose to the exercise of healing mediumship or magnetization, in the true sense of the word.



However, it will be said, Mr. Jacob did not charge anything, and he was nonetheless prohibited. That is true, but he was neither prosecuted nor convicted for the act in question; the ban was a measure of military discipline, due to the disturbance that the influx of people, who went there, could cause to the camp; and if since then he has apologized for this ban, it is because it suited him. If he hadn't been in the army, no one could worry him. (See Spiritist Review, March1866: Spiritism and the magistrature.)^[1]

---

[1] The correct reference should be March 1866 – a typo (T.N.)

With this title, the Journal de Chartres, on May 26^th, contained the following correspondence:



“Illiers, May 20^th, 1867.



Are we in May or are we at the carnival? Last Sunday I thought I was in this last time. As I was crossing Illiers, around four o'clock in the afternoon, I found myself in front of a gathering of sixty, eighty, perhaps a hundred kids, followed by a large crowd, shouting at the top of their lungs to the light of lamps: here is the sorcerer! here is the sorcerer! here's the crazy dog! here is Grezelle! They booed a brave and placid peasant, haggard-eyed, looking scared, who was lucky to find a grocery shop to serve as his shelter. After the songs and the boos came the insults, and the stones flew around, and the poor devil, without this refuge, was perhaps going to have a bad day.



I asked a group that was there what that meant; I was told that for some time there had been a meeting of Spiritists, every Friday, at the Sorcery, commune of Vieu-vicq, at the Port d'Illiers. The great Pontiff who presided over these meetings was a mason named Grezelle, and it was this unfortunate man that had just been so much abused. It was because, they said, some very strange things had happened in recent days. He would have seen the devil; he would have evoked souls who would have revealed things to him that were unflattering for certain families. Soon after several women would have gone mad, and some men were following in their footsteps; it appears that the Pontiff leads the way; because of him, a young woman, from Illiers, had completely lost her mind. She would have been told that for certain faults she had to go to the purgatory. On Friday she said goodbye to all her relatives and neighbors, and on Saturday, having made her preparations for departure, she was going to throw herself into the river; luckily, she was being watched, and help came in time to delay her trip.



It is understandable that this event touched public opinion. The family of this young woman was very upset, and several members, armed with a good whip, gave the Pontiff a beating, who had the good fortune of escaping their hands. He wanted to leave the Sorcery of Vieu-vicq, to come and establish his Sabbath in Illiers, at a place called “La Folie-Valleran.” It is said that two brave fathers of families, who served as his acolytes, begged him not to come to La Folie, because it is madness^[1] to go there; there was also talk that the police would take care of the case.



So, leave it to the kids from Illiers. They will know how to get rid of the thing. There are those things that die out, scared away by ridicule.

Léon Gaubert.”





The same journal, in its issue of June 13^th, 1867, contains the following:



“In response to a letter bearing the signature of Mr. Léon Gaubert, published in our issue of May 26^th, we received the following communication, to which we scrupulously preserve its originality:



La Certellerie, June 4^th, 1867.



Mr. Editor,



In your newspaper of May 26^th, you make public a letter in which your correspondent knocks me out, to show how I was mistreated in Illiers. Mason and father, I have a right of reparation, after being attacked so violently, and I hope you will tell the truth, after allowing the error to spread.



“It is quite true, as that letter says, that the children of the school, and many people that I esteemed, pursue me, every time I go to Illiers. Twice, in particular, I almost died to the blows of stones, bats and other objects that were thrown at me, and even today, if I went to Illiers where I am very well-known, I would be surrounded, threatened, mistreated.



Besides the materials that rain, the air is filled with insults: madman, sorcerer, Spiritist, such are the most ordinary sweets that I am treated to. Fortunately, this is all that is true, everything that your correspondent writes to you (the text bears: everything that your correspondent adds), is false, and has never existed, except in the imagination of people who have sought to arouse the population against us.



Mr. Léon Gaubert, who signed your letter, is completely unknown in the region; I am told that he is an anonymous person, if I have correctly understood the word. I say that if we hide, it is because we feel that we are not doing good; I will, therefore, frankly say to Mr. Léon Gaubert: Do as I did and use your real name.



Mr. Léon Gaubert says that a woman, because of excitement and Spiritist practices, has gone mad and wanted to drown. I don't know if she really wanted to drown; a lot of people tell me that it is not true, but even if it were, I have absolutely nothing to do with that. This woman is a salesperson, her reputation has been around here for a very long time. Nobody spoke yet of Spiritism here and she was already known, as she is now. Her sisters help her to persecute me. I tell you that she has never been concerned with Spiritism, for her instincts lead her in the opposite direction. She never attended our meetings, and she has never set foot in the house of any Spiritist in the region.



Why then, you will ask me, is she angry with you, and why are they so angry with you in Illiers? It’s an enigma to me; I only noticed one thing, that many people, before the first scene broke out, seemed to have learned about it in advance, and that day, when I entered the streets of Illiers, I noticed lots of people by their doors and windows.



I am an honest worker, Sir; I earn my bread honorably. Spiritism in no way prevents me from working, and if someone has the slightest serious reproach to address me, let him fear nothing. We have laws, and under the circumstances in which I find myself, I am the first one to ask that the laws of the land be observed.



As for being a Spiritist, I do not hide it; it is very true, I am a Spiritist. My two boys, active young people, tidy and flourishing, are both mediums. Both love Spiritism and, like their father, believe, pray, work, improve and strive to rise. But what is wrong with that? When anger tells me to take revenge, Spiritism stops me, and tells me: all men are brothers; do good to those that hurt you, and I find myself calmer, stronger.



The parish priest pushes me away from the confessional, because I am a Spiritist; if I came to him charged with all possible crimes, he would absolve me; but Spiritist, believing in God and doing good according to my powers, I find no favor in his eyes. Many people from Illiers do not act differently, and the one, from our adversaries, that throw stones at me now, because I am a Spiritist, would do better than absolve me, and would applaud me, the day he would find me in an orgy."



Note. This quoted paragraph, which was in the original letter, was deleted by the newspaper.



To please, I could not say black when I see white; I have convictions; to me, Spiritism is the most beautiful truth. What is it that you want? Do they want to force me to say the opposite of what I think, of everything I see, and when we talk so much about freedom, does one have to suppress it in practice?



Your correspondent said that I wanted to leave the Sorcery to go and establish my Sabbath at Folie-Valleran. Seeing Mr. Léon Gaubert inventing so many unpleasant words, one would really say that he is possessed with rage, to give the clumsiest blows of the towel on everyone's head. Mr. Valleran is one of the most respectable landlords in the country, and by raising a magnificent building he given many workers the opportunity to earn money through honest and lucrative work. Too bad for the one who is upset or would only reluctantly imitate it.





Be so kind, Sir, to convey my letter to your readers, to clarify, as it is fair, the persons whose first letter that you published has misled.



Yours, etc.

Grezelle.”





The editor of the newspaper says that he scrupulously preserves its originality; he, no doubt, means by that the form of the style that, in a village mason, is not that of a man of letters. It is likely that if this mason had written against Spiritism, in an even more incorrect style, he would not have been found ridiculous. But, since he wanted so scrupulously to keep the originality of the letter, why delete a paragraph? In case of inaccuracy, the responsibility would fall on its author. To be strictly correct, the newspaper should have added that it had initially refused to publish this letter, and that it only gave in to the imminence of legal proceedings, whose consequences were inevitable, since it was about an esteemed man, attacked by the newspaper itself, in its honor and its consideration.



The author of the first letter, undoubtedly, thought that the burlesque disguise of the facts was not enough to throw ridicule onto the Spiritists; he added a gross mischief, by transforming the name of the locality, that is Certellerie, into that of Sorcellerie (Sorcery); it may be very witty for people who like bad taste jokes, but it is not a funny nor elegant joke; that kind of ridicule has never killed anything.



Should we consider these facts as regrettable? They are, undoubtedly for those who have been their victims, but not for the doctrine that they can only benefit.



It is one of two things: either the people who meet in this locality engage in an unworthy comedy, or they are honorable people, sincerely Spiritists. In the first case, it is to render a great service to the doctrine to unmask those that abuse it or that mix its name with ridiculous practices. Sincere Spiritists can only applaud anything that tends to rid Spiritism of ill-faith parasites, in whatever form they appear, and that have always been jugglers and charlatans. In the second, it can only gain from the repercussions resulting from controversial facts, because it excites people to inquire about what is happening; now, Spiritism only asks to be known, because it is certain that a serious examination is the best way to destroy the prejudices aroused by malice, in those who do not know it. Therefore, we would not be surprised if this scuffle did not have a result quite opposite to those that provoked it hoped for, and that it was not the cause of an upsurge in the number of followers of the locality. This is how it has been, wherever a somewhat violent opposition has arisen.



What to do then, the adversaries will ask each other? If we let it happen, Spiritism advances; if we act against it, it advances stronger. The answer is quite simple: recognize that what cannot be prevented is in the will of God, and the best thing to do is to clear its way.



Two of our correspondents, strangers to each other, gave us precise and perfectly consistent information on these facts. Mr. Quômes d'Arras, one of them, a man of science and distinguished writer, at the first account of these events, reported by the Chartres journal, ignoring the cause of the conflict, did not want to hasten to take sides with the facts or with people, abandoned to the severity of criticism, if they deserved it; but he sided with Spiritism. In a letter full of moderation and convenience, addressed to the newspaper, he strived to demonstrate that if the facts were such as they were reported by M. Léon Gaubert, Spiritism had nothing to do with it, even when one could have used its name. Any impartial person would have seen it as a duty to give way to such a legitimate rectification. It was not so, and the repeated appeals only resulted in a formal refusal. This happened before Grezelle's letter, that was to have the same fate, as we have seen. If the newspaper feared raising the question of Spiritism in its columns, it should not admit M. Gaubert's letter; by reserving the right to attack, and refusing that of the defense, is an easy way to prove oneself right, but not much logical.



Mr. Quômes d'Arras, to ascertain the situation by himself, went to the scene. He was kind enough to send us a detailed account of his visit; we regret that the extent of this document does not allow us to publish it in this issue, in which everything that should be there did not find a place; we summarize the main consequences. Here is what he learned at Illiers, from various honorable people, foreign to Spiritism.



Grezelle is an excellent mason, owner at La Certellerie. Far from being unreasonable, all those who know him can only do justice to his common sense, his habits of order, work, and regularity. He is a good father of a family; all of his fault is to bother the materialists and the indifferent of the region, by his multiple and energetic statements about the soul, their manifestations after death, and our future destinies. He is far from being the only supporter of Spiritism in the region, that counts, in Brou alone, on many and devoted followers.



As for the women that, according to the Journal de Chartres, Spiritism would have driven mad or led to guilty acts, it is a pure invention. The fact he is referring to is a well-known seller in Illiers, addicted to drinking, and whose sanity has always been weak. She is angry with Grezelle, and says bad things about him, no one knows why. As the Spiritist ideas circulate in the region, she must have heard about them, and she mixes them up with her incoherent remarks, but she has never given any serious attention to them. As for having wanted to drown, this thought would not be impossible at all, considering her usual state; but the fact seems to be invented. From there, Mr. Quômes d'Arras went to La Certellerie, five kilometers beyond Illiers. "When I arrived," he said, "I asked for Mrs. Jacquet's house, whose name I had been given in Illiers. She was in the garden, with her child among the flowers, doing needlework. As soon as she knew the reason for my trip, she led me to the house, where we were soon joined by her servant, a twenty-year-old woman, a speaking medium and a fervent Spiritist, by Grezelle and his twenty-year-old eldest son. It was not necessary to talk long with this group of people to realize that we were in contact, not with agitated, sorrowful, singular, excited or fanatic minds, but with serious, reasonable, benevolent people, of perfect sociability; frankness, clarity, simplicity, love of the good, such were the salient features that were painted on their exterior, in their words, and I must admit, to my confusion, that I did not expect so much.



Grezelle is forty-five years old, married and has two boys; both are writing mediums, as well as him. He calmly recounted to me the sufferings he was enduring, and the plots of which he was the object. Mrs. Jacquet also told me that, in the region, many people harbored the worst feelings against them because they are Spiritists. To my eyes it seemed very likely, and later I acquired the most complete certainty, that these various families are peaceful, benevolent to everyone, incapable of harming anyone, sincerely attached to all their duties; thanking God, I admired the firmness, the strength of character, the solidity of convictions, the deep attachment to the good of these excellent people, that in the countryside, without much education, without encouragement and without visible resources, surrounded by enemies and scoffers, have stood tall their principles, their faith, and their hopes, for four years; They have a courage to defend their flag against laughter, that unfortunately too often, is still lacking in our urban wise men, and even in many advanced Spiritists.



Grezelle, the only one that has been positively mistreated, although he has been a Spiritist for three years, has all the enthusiasm of a neophyte, all the zeal of an apostle, and also all the exuberant activity of a mature nature, energetic and enterprising. Because of his business, he is continually mingled with the people of the region, and full of Spiritism, loving it more than life, he cannot help talking about it, bringing it out, showing its beauties, its grandeur, its wonders. With a really convincing and strong word, he produces, amidst the indifferent people that surround him, the effect of fire on water. As he does not consider either the time or the contrary circumstances, one could say that he sins a little by excess of zeal, and perhaps also from lack of prudence."



The next day, in the evening, Mr. Quômes attended a Spiritist session, at Grezelle's, composed of eighteen to twenty people, among whom were the mayor, notables of the place, people of notorious honor, who certainly would not have come to an assembly of madmen with enlightened ones. Everything happened there in the greatest order, with the most perfect reverence, and without the slightest vestige of the ridiculous practices of magic and witchcraft. They start with a prayer, during which everyone kneels. To the prayers taken from the Gospel According to Spiritism, they add the evening prayer and others, taken from the ordinary ritual of the Church. “Our detractors, especially the ecclesiastics,” adds Mr. Quômes, “would perhaps not have noticed, without embarrassment and astonishment, the fervor of those sincere souls, and their collected attitude, denoting a deep religious feeling. There were six mediums, four of whom were men and two women, including Mrs. Jacquet's servant, speaking and writing medium. The communications are generally weak in style, the ideas are diluted and unchained; some manias even appear in the mode of communication; but all in all, there is nothing bad, dangerous, and everything that is obtained enlightens, encourages, strengthens, carries the Spirit to good or elevates it to God."







Mr. Quômes found in these Spiritists sincerity and unfailing devotion, but also a lack of experience that he endeavored to supplement by his advice. The essential fact that he observed is that nothing in their way of acting justifies the ridiculous picture that the Journal de Chartres paints. The savage acts, that took place in Illiers, were therefore obviously provoked by malice, and appear to have been premeditated.



We are happy, from our part, that it is so, and we congratulate our brothers of the Canton of Illiers on the excellent feelings that drive them.



Persecutions, as we have said, are the inevitable prize of all great new ideas, and all have had their martyrs; those that endure them will one day be happy to have suffered for the triumph of the truth. Let them, therefore, persevere without discouragement and without faltering, and they will be supported by the good Spirits who observe them; but also that they never depart from the prudence required by the circumstances, and that they carefully avoid anything that might give our adversaries a hold; it is in the interests of the Doctrine.

---

[1] A wordplay, since madness in French is “folie” that rhymes with La Folie. (T.N.)

A few months ago, one of our mediums, Mr. T…, who often falls into spontaneous somnambulism under the magnetization of the Spirits, told us that Mauritius was currently ravaged by a terrible epidemic, that was decimating the population. This forecast came true, even with aggravating circumstances. We have just received, from one of our correspondents in Mauritius, a letter dated May 8^th, from which we extract the following passages:



“Several Spirits have announced to us, some clearly, others in prophetic terms, a destructive plague ready to strike us. We took these revelations from a moral point of view and not from a physical point of view. Suddenly, a strange disease breaks out on this poor island; a nameless fever, that takes all forms, starts slowly, hypocritically, then grows and knocks down anyone it can reach. It is now a real plague; the doctors do not understand it; not all struck by it have been able to recover, until now. These are terrible fits that break you down, and torture you, for at least twelve hours, attacking each important organ one by one; then, the disease stops for a day or two, leaving the patient overwhelmed, until the next return, and one thus goes, more or less rapidly, towards the fatal term.



For me, I see in all this one of those announced plagues, that must withdraw from the world part of the present generation, intended to operate a renewal that has become necessary. I'll give you an example of the infamies happening here:



Quinine in a very strong dose stops the attacks for a few days only; it is the only specific capable of at least momentarily stopping the progress of the cruel disease that decimates us.



The merchants and pharmacists had received a certain quantity at about 7 francs per ounce, but as this remedy was necessarily bought by everyone, those gentlemen took advantage of the situation to raise the price of an individual potion from 1 franc to 15 francs. Then the quinine ran out; meaning that those who had it, or who received it by the post, sold it at the fabulous retail price of 2.5 francs per grain, and wholesale 675 to 800 francs per ounce. In a potion there is at least 30 grains, that makes the potion 75 francs. Only the rich could get it, and those merchants saw, with indifference, thousands of unfortunate people dying around them, for the lack of money necessary to obtain that medicine.



What do you say about this? Alas! That's history! Still, at this moment, quinine is arriving in quantity; pharmacies are full of them, but nevertheless they do not want to give a dose for less than 12.5 francs; also, the poor always die, looking with a sad eye at this treasure that they cannot reach!



I, myself, have been affected by the epidemic, and I am in my fourth relapse. I bankrupt myself in quinine; this prolongs my existence, but if, as I fear, the relapses continue, my word dear sir, it is quite likely that before long, I will have the pleasure of attending your Parisian sessions in Spirit, and take part in it, God allowing. Once in the world of the Spirits, I will be closer to you and to the society than I am in Mauritius; with one thought I go to your sessions without fatigue, and without fear of bad weather. As a matter of fact, I do not have the slightest fear, I swear to you; I am too sincerely a Spiritist for that. All my precautions are taken, and if I come to leave this world, you will be informed.



In the meantime, dear Sir, please have the kindness of asking my brothers, of the Spiritist Society, to join their prayers to ours for the unfortunate victims of the epidemic, poor Spirits, too attached to matter, for the most part, and whose separation must be painful and long. Let us also pray for those, unfortunate in another way, who add inhumanity to the scourge of sickness.



Our little group has been scattered for three months; all members have been somewhat beaten, but none have died so far.



Receive, etc.”





One must be a true Spiritist to contemplate death with this coolness and indifference, when it spreads its ravages around us, and when its attacks are felt; it is because in such a situation, serious faith in the future, such as Spiritism alone can give, provides a moral strength that is itself a powerful preservative, as it was said about the cholera. (Spiritist Review, November 1865). This does not mean that, in epidemics, the Spiritists are necessarily spared, but it is certain that in such cases they have so far been the least affected. It goes without saying that these are the Spiritists of heart, and not those who only have the appearance of Spiritists.



The destructive plagues that must rage against humanity, not on one point of the globe, but everywhere, are sensed everywhere by the Spirits. The following verbal and spontaneous communication was given on this subject, and following the reading of the above letter.





Parisian Society, June 21^st, 1867

(medium Mr. Morin, in spontaneous somnambulism)



“The hour advances, the hour marked on the large and perpetual dial of infinity, the hour at which the transformation of your globe will begin to take place, making it gravitate towards perfection. You have often been told that the most terrible scourges would decimate populations; shouldn't everything die to regenerate? But what is that? Death is only the transformation of matter; the Spirit does not die; it only changes its dwelling. Watch, and you will see all these predictions begin to come true. Oh! how happy are those who were touched by the sincere Spiritist faith, in these terrible trials! They remain calm amid the tempest, like a seasoned sailor in the face of a storm.



At this moment a spiritual personality, I had often been accused, by terrestrial personalities, of brutality, of hardness, of insensitivity! … It is true, I contemplate with calm all these destructive scourges, all these terrible physical sufferings; yes, I cross, without being touched, all these devastated plains, strewn with human debris! But if I can do it, it is because my spiritual sight goes beyond these sufferings; by anticipating the future, it is based on the general well-being that will be the consequence of these temporary troubles, for the future generation, for yourselves who will be part of that generation, and who will then collect the fruits that you will have sown.



Broad view, looking from the top of a sphere where he inhabited (often he speaks of himself in the third person), his eye remains dry; yet his soul throbs, his heart bleeds before all the miseries that humanity has to go through, but the spiritual sight rests on the other side of the horizon, contemplating the result that will be the sure result.



The great emigration is useful, and the hour is approaching when it must take place ... it begins already ... To whom will it be fatal or profitable? Take a good look, observers; consider the acts of those exploiters of human plagues, and you will distinguish, even with the eyes of the body, the men predestined to fall. See them bloodthirsty, stiff on their gain, attached to all earthly possessions, as to their own life, and suffering a thousand deaths at the loss of a piece of what they, nonetheless, must leave behind… How terrible it will be for them the eye for an eye, because in the exile that awaits them, they will be refused a glass of water to quench their thirst! ... Look at them, and you will recognize in them, under the wealth they accumulate at the expense of the unfortunate, the future fallen humans! Consider their jobs, and your conscience will tell you whether they are to be paid for up there, or down below! Take a good look at them, men of good will, and you will see that the tares begin to be separated from the wheat, on this earth.



My soul is strong, my will is great! - my soul is strong, because its strength is the result of a collective soul-to-soul work; my will is great, because it has for its fulcrum the immense column formed by all the feelings of justice and good, love and charity. That is why I am strong; that is why I am calm to watch; that is why his heart, that beats strong in his chest, is not moved. If decomposition is the necessary instrument of transformation, do witness, o my calm and impassive soul, this destruction!"

Relationships between these two gentlemen had always been cold, though perfectly polite. The Spirit was asked to sign and gave the three initials of his first names and his last name. The same day, Mr. A. C. received a letter announcing the death of Mr. X ... In the evening, after dinner, knocks were heard. Mr. A. C. took the pen and wrote the dictation given by the Spirit:

I was ambitious, every man undoubtedly is,

But never a king, a pontiff or a chief or a citizen,

Hasn’t designed a project as big as mine.



The knockings were loud, accentuated, almost imperious, as if coming from a Spirit initiated long ago in the communications of the invisible world with men. Mr. X ... had occupied high administrative functions; perhaps, in the leisure of retirement, and influenced by the memory of his former occupations, his Spirit had worked out some great project. A letter, received two days ago, confirms all of the above details.”



Observation: Undoubtedly, there is nothing extraordinary about this fact that is not often encountered; but these intimate facts are not always the least instructive and the least convincing; they make more impression in the circles in which they take place, than would strange phenomena that one would regard as exceptional. The invisible world is revealed there in conditions of simplicity, bringing it closer to us, and better convincing about the continuity of its relationships with the visible world; in short, the living and the dead are more in family there, and better recognize themselves. Events of this kind, by their multiplicity and the ease of obtaining, have contributed more to the propagation of Spiritism than the manifestations that have the appearances of the marvelous. A non-believer will be much more struck by a simple proof of identity, given spontaneously, in private, by some relative, friend or acquaintance, than by wonders that hardly touch him, and in which he does not believe.

Higher, higher still! Take off, oh my soul

Towards this pure ideal that to you, God has revealed!

Beyond all the heavens, and these blazing worlds,

Towards the divine absolute, I feel called.

From Jacob, asleep, the ladder, climb I will,

Always going up and never down.

For, benevolent and gentle hand, fraternal,

A Spirit will assure my steps, on the road around.

He loves me, he consoles me; he shows me the goalmouth.

He is there, I feel, and I listen to his voice

Resound in my heart, like an Aeolus breath

Resonates over mountains, plains, and coppices!

What does his name matter to me? He is not from earth.

Mysterious angel of heavenly loves,

He has the solitary charm of the unbeknownst.

He lives far away, ineffable homes!

There! ... his body, transfigured by a ray of wonder,

Has the subtlety of the intangible ether.

He ignores the evils of the weak nature,

And yet, he is good, because he suffered.

You speak to me in silence,

I see you in the murky.

You make me feel in advance

The glories of eternity.

If I do harm, you forgive.

In my sleep and in my dreams,

What I undertake, you complete.

In the shadow, a torch that shines,

It is you that pushes my ship to shore,

That supports my courage,

Who keeps me in the storm,

And enlightens me in the night.

You say: love; you say: prayer,

You say: hope; you say: virtue,

And you give the name of brother

To the humble child, weak, with the blues.

So strong, you look for my weakness,

So big, you come to my lowness,

And so fortunate, to my distress.

Blessed angel, sacred guardian,

Your purified fluid in fusion

With my mortal covering,

And I feel the wind from your wings

Passing over my intoxicated heart.

Thank you, dear soul, whoever you are,

Thank you, my brother from beyond.

Child, old man, a woman, young,

What does it matter! Aren’t you there?

You often hover over my head,

You that in the worrying race,

Passed through some comet,

Or Some land in formation.

Do you live in the atmosphere,

Mars or Saturn, a huge sphere,

Are you descended from the Polar Bear,

Aldebaran or Orion?

And why do I bother where you reside!

And what do I care where you come from!

What incredible and splendid skies,

When I feel you, are mine worthwhile?

Hello then, O my sweet star.

Guide my uncertain sail,

On the sea that the mist veils,

Far from the pitfalls, far from the danger.

Standing on the wave, foaming,

Be a beacon in the turmoil,

The friendly light, trembling,

And come and take me after the exile.



Jules-Stany Doinel (d’Aurillac)

The novel of the future
by E. Bonnemère



Last year, the Spirits told us that before long, literature would enter the path of Spiritism, and that 1867 would see several important works appear. In fact, shortly after, the Spiritist, by Théophile Gautier, appeared; it was, as we have said, less of a Spiritist novel than the novel of Spiritism, but that had its importance by the name of the author.



Then came, at the beginning of this year, the touching and gracious story of Mirette. On the occasion, the Spirit of Dr. Morel Lavallée said at the Society:



“The year 1866 presents the new philosophy in all its forms; but it is still the green stem that encloses the ear of wheat, and waits to show it until the heat of spring has made it ripen and open. 1866 prepared, 1867 will mature and achieve. The year opens under the auspices of Mirette, and it will not pass without seeing the appearance of new publications of the same kind, and more serious still, in the sense that the novel will become philosophy and that philosophy will make history.” (Spiritist Review, February 1867).



These prophetic words come true; we take it for certain that an important work will appear before long; it will not be a novel, that one can consider as a work of imagination and fantasy, but the very philosophy of Spiritism, highly proclaimed and developed by a name that will be able to give food for thought to those who claim that all followers of Spiritism are fools.



In the meantime, here is a work that has only the name of novel, because the intrigue is almost zero, and it is only a framework for developing, in the form of conversations, the highest thoughts of moral, social and religious philosophy. The title of Novel of the Future seems to have been given only by allusion to the ideas that will govern society in the future, and that are, for the moment, only in the form of a novel. Spiritism is not named there, but it can all the better claim its ideas, since most of them seem to be drawn textually from the doctrine, and if there are some that deviate a little from it, they are few in number and do not go to the heart of the matter. The author admits the plurality of existences, not only as rational, in conformity with the justice of God, but as necessary, indispensable to the progression of the soul, and acquired from sound philosophy. But the author seems inclined to believe, although he does not say it clearly, that the succession of existences is accomplished more from world to world than in the same environment, because he does not speak explicitly of multiple existences on the same world, although this idea can be implied. This is, perhaps, one of the most divergent points, but that, as a matter of fact, in no way harms the substance, since in the end the principle would be the same.

This work can, therefore, be placed among the most serious books, intended to popularize the philosophical principles of the doctrine in the literary world, where the author holds a distinguished prestige. We were told that when he wrote it, he did not know Spiritism; that seems difficult, but if it is so, it would be one of the most striking proofs of the spontaneous fermentation of these ideas, and of their irresistible power, for chance alone does not bring together so many researchers in the same field.



The preface is not the least curious part of this book. The author explains the origin of his manuscript. “What,” he said, “is my collaboration in the Novel of the Future? Are we two, or three, or is the author called a Legion? I leave these things to the appreciation of the reader, after I have told them a very truthful adventure, although it has all the appearances of an otherworldly story."



Having stopped one day in a modest village in Brittany, the hostess told him that there was a young man in the country who was doing extraordinary things, real miracles. “Without having learned anything,” she said, “he knows more than the rector, the doctor, and the lawyer together, and all the wizards combined. He locks himself in his room every morning; you can see his lamp through his curtains, because he needs his lamp, even when it is daylight, and then he writes things that no one has ever seen, but that are superb. He announces to you, six months in advance, the day, the hour, the minute when he will fall in his great fits of witchcraft. Once he said it or wrote it, he does not know anything more about it, but it is true as a word of the Gospel, and infallible as a decision of the Pope, in Rome. He heals on the first try, and without being paid, those who are sympathetic to him, and before the doctor's beard, the patients whom the latter does not cure for their money. The rector says that it can only be the devil who gives him the power to heal those to whom the good Lord sends diseases for their good, to test them or to chastise them."



I went to see him, adds the author, and my lucky star wanted me to be sympathetic to him. He was a twenty-five year old young man, to whom his father, a rich farmer from the canton, had given a certain education, whatever my hostess had said; simple, melancholy and dreamy, pushing kindness to excellence, and endowed with a temper in which the nervous system dominated without counterbalance. He got up at dawn, in the grip of a fever of inspiration that he could not control, and jotted on the paper the strange ideas that germinated by themselves in his brain, without his knowledge and often in spite of himself.



I saw him at work. Within an hour, he invariably covered his notebook with fifteen or sixteen pages of writings, without hesitation, without corrections, without stopping for a second to look for an idea, a sentence, a word. It was an open tap, from which inspiration flowed in an ever even stream. Absolutely silent during these hours of hard work, teeth clenched, and lips contracted, his voice came back to him the moment the clock struck the resumption of field work. He would then come back to normal life, and everything he had thought or written, during those two or three hours of another existence, gradually faded from his memory, like the dream that fades and disappears, as one awakens. The next day, driven from his bed by an invincible force, he went back to work and continued the sentence or word started the day before.



He opened a cupboard for me in which were piled up notebooks loaded with his writings.

- What's in all of this? I asked him.

- I ignore it as much as you do, he replied, smiling.

- But how does all this come to you?

- I can only repeat the same answer: I ignore it as much as you do. Sometimes, I feel it's in me; other times I hear people tell me. So, without realizing it and without hearing my own words, I repeat it to those around me, or else I write it down.



It was about seventeen thousand pages, written in four years. There were about a hundred short stories and novels, treatises on various subjects, medical and other recipes, maxims, etc. I especially noticed this:

These things are revealed to me, simple of mind and education, knowing nothing, having no preconceived ideas about them, I am better able to assimilate the ideas of others. The superior beings, who left first, still purified by the transformation, come to involve me, and say:



We give you everything that cannot be learned, and that can shed light on the world in which we left our indelible mark when we departed. But you must reserve your part for personal work, without encroaching on the acquired knowledge, or on the work that each one can and must do.



In that immense jumble, I chose a simple idyll, work of fantasy, strange, impossible, and in which are laid, in a kind of light form, the bases of a whole new cosmogony. In his notebooks, this study was entitled: Unity, which I thought I should replace by that of The Novel of the future. Here is the main data of the script.



Paul de Villeblanche lived in Normandy, with his father, in the remains of an old castle, once the stately home of his family, ruined and dispersed by the Revolution. He was a young man of about twenty, of high intelligence, with the broadest and most advanced ideas, and who had put aside all prejudices of race.



In the same canton lived a very devout old marquise, who in order to redeem her sins and save her soul, had imagined pulling out of poverty and social mire a little bohemian to make her a nun; in this way, she thought, she would be assured of having someone who, out of gratitude and duty, would pray for her nonstop, during her life and after her death. This young girl had, therefore, been brought up in the convent for about eight years, and while waiting for her to take the veil, she came every two years to spend six weeks with her benefactress. But this young girl, of rare intelligence, intuitively had ideas on many things like those of Paul. She was sixteen at the time. During one of her vacations, the two young people meet, bond with a very fraternal affection, and have talks in which Paul develops new philosophical principles for his intelligent companion, but which the latter understands without effort, and often even ahead. These two elite souls are up to each other. The novel ends with a marriage, of course, but again this is only a pretext to give a practical lesson on one of the most important points of social order and caste prejudices.



We gladly include this book among those that is useful to propagate, and that have their marked place in the library of the Spiritists.



It is these conversations that make the main subject of the book; the rest is only a very simple framework for the exposition of the ideas, that one day must prevail in society.



From this point of view, to report all that would deserve to be reported, it would be necessary to quote half of the book; we reproduce only a few of the thoughts that will allow to judge the spirit in which it is conceived:



“Finding is the reward for having sought, and whatever we can do on our own should not be asked of others.



The world is a vast site in which God distributes his work to each one, assigning our tasks according to our strength. From this immense friction of various intelligences, opposed, hostile in appearance, light shines and is not off at the time of our last sleep. On the contrary, the constant march of successive generations brings a new stone to the social edifice; light becomes brighter when a child is born, bringing the first element of an ever-renewed intelligence to continue progress.



But the Marchioness keeps telling me (said the young girl) that we are all born bad, that we differ only by the more or the less propensity towards sin, and that all existence is a struggle against our inclinations, who would all tend to eternal damnation, if the religion she teaches me did not stop us on the brink of the abyss.

Do not believe these blasphemers. God would be the agent of evil, if he had not placed in each of us the compass that should guide our steps towards the accomplishment of our destinies, and if man had not been able to walk on his path until the day when the Church came to correct the imperfect and ill-accomplished work of the Lord.



Who knows if, in the immense rotation of the world, our children will not become our parents, in turn, and if they will not retribute us with the sum of miseries that we will have left to them when departing?



No evil can come from God, neither in time nor in eternity. Pain is our own work; it is nature's protest, indicating to us that we are no longer in the ways that it assigns to human activity. It becomes a means of salvation, for it is its very excess that pushes us forward, incites our lazy imagination, leading us to make the great discoveries that add to the well-being of those who must live on this globe after us.



Each of us is one of the links in this sublime and mysterious chain, that links all men together, as also with the whole creation, and that can never be broken anywhere.



After death, the worn-out organs need rest, and the body gives back to the earth the elements of which successive beings are endlessly constituted. But life is reborn from death.



We leave, taking with us the memory of the knowledge acquired here; the world to which we will go will give us its own, and we will group them all in a bundle to form progress. "



Yet, the young girl ventured, there will be an end, an inevitable end, so distant as you suppose.



Why limit eternity, after having admitted it in principle?



What we call the end of the world is just figurative. There has never been a beginning, there will never be an end of the world; everything lives, everything breathes, everything is populated. For the Last Judgment to come, there would have to be a general cataclysm that would send the entire universe back into nothingness. God, who created everything, cannot destroy his work. What good does the annihilation of life do?



Death, no doubt, is inevitable. But better understood in the future, this death that terrifies us will only be the scheduled time, perhaps expected from the start, to provide a new stage. One arrives, the other sets off, and hope wipes away the tears that flow at the time of farewell. Immensity, infinity, eternity extend their perspective to our eager gazes, to which unknown attracts us. More perfected already, we will make a more beautiful journey, then we will set out again, and we will always walk to constantly rise. For it depends on us whether death is the reward for a job done, or the punishment, when the assigned work has not been carried out.



No matter where we are in the universe, we hold each other by mysterious and sacred bonds that make us united with one another, and we will inevitably reap the harvest of good and evil, that each of us has sown behind us before leaving to the big journey.



The just born child brings his germ of progress; the man that dies leaves his place so that progress may be accomplished after him, and that he will go and continue working on himself, taking his perfected so elsewhere, and to another being.



Those, to whom you owe the day, have atoned the faults of a mysterious past in this life. They suffered but suffered courageously. The God of love and mercy undoubtedly needed them for a more important mission in another world. He called them to him, thus giving them the deserved wages, before the day was over.”









(About a young girl who, still a child, operated surprising healings by prescribing remedies by intuition.)



It made a noise, and the principal authority, the priest, was moved and intervened. A child was doing, by natural means, what neither the doctor with his science, nor he with his prayers could achieve! … Obviously, she was possessed. For men of little faith and obtuse intelligence, it is God who, in order to chastise us, as if he did not have eternity before him, or to test us, as if he did not know what we are going to do, sends us all evils, plagues of all kinds, ruins, the loss of those who are dear to us; it is Satan, on the contrary, who gives prosperity, allows treasures to be found, heals illnesses, and lavishes on us all the happiness, all the joys of this world. Finally, according to them, God does evil, while the devil is the author of all good. Mary was therefore exorcised, re-baptized by chance, so that she could no longer relieve her fellows. But nothing worked, and she continued to do good around her.



- But you who know everything, Paul, what do you say about all this?



- If I never believe what my reason rejects, replied the young count, I do not deny the facts attested by numerous witnesses, for this sole reason that science does not yet know how to explain them. God gave animals the instinct to go straight to the plant that can heal the rare diseases that afflict them; why would he have denied us this precious privilege? But man went out of the ways that the Creator had assigned him; he has put himself in hostility with nature whose warnings he has not listen to. This torch is extinguished in him, and the instinct was replaced by science, that out of pride for being successful, it has denied, fought, persecuted, annihilated as much as it was in its power to do. But who can tell that it does not survive in a few simple and primitive beings, determined to obediently enlighten themselves with all the glimmers that they themselves see, driven by the desire to come to the aid of the sufferings of others? Who knows if Mary, having already lived long ago among these tribes, in childhood in which instinct still survives, and who know wonderful secrets, or in some more advanced world from which her faults have made her decay, God does not grant her to remember things that others have forgotten?



Isn’t there, for each of us, certain knowledge that we seem to find in ourselves, so easy the study is for us, while others cannot penetrate into our mind, no doubt because they come to strike it for the first time, or because several generations have accumulated mountains of ignorance and oblivion on them?"



(About visions in dreams).



“It is the soul that has remained in exile that talks with the soul freed from its earthly part; thus, these visions are enlightened by a luminous ray that lets the poor humans glimpse at the resplendencies of the point where those who knew how to steer their skiffs have arrived, on the perilous oceans in which life floats. Without doubt, in different worlds, our bodies are made up of different elements, and we put on another outfit, more perfect or imperfect, according to the environment in which they must act. But it is always certain that these bodies live, all animated by the same breath of God; that for both, the transmission of souls takes place in countless planets that populate the infinite space, and that being the very emanation of God, they exist in the same identical conditions, in all worlds. On the other side of life, He gives us back a soul that is always purified, that allows us to constantly draw closer to heaven; it is our will alone that, sometimes, causes it to deviate from the right path.



- Yet, Paul, we are taught that we will be resuscitated with today’s bodies!



- All that is just madness and pride! Our bodies do not belong to us, but to everyone, to the beings we devoured yesterday, to those who will devour us tomorrow. They are of one day; earth lends them to us, it will take them back from us. Our soul alone belongs to us; it alone is eternal, like everything that comes from God and returns to Him."

Thank you, dear brother, for your compassion to the one that atones, through suffering, the faults he has committed; thank you for your good prayers, inspired by your love to your brothers. Call me sometimes, it will be a gathering that I will never miss, rest assured. I told you, in a communication given to the Society, that after having suffered, I would be permitted to come and give you my opinion on some of the questions with which you are concerned. God is so good, that after having imposed atonement on me, through suffering, he took pity on my repentance, for he knows that if I failed, it was out of weakness, and that pride is the son of ignorance. I am allowed to enlighten myself, and if I cannot, like the good Spirits that left earth, penetrate the mysteries of creation, I can study the rudiments of the universal science, in order to advance and help my brothers to advance too.



I will tell you the relationship that exists between the state of the soul and the nature of the fluids that surrounds it, in each environment in which it is momentarily placed; and if, as you have been told, the pure soul cleanses the fluids, believe that the impure thought vitiates them. You can assess what efforts the repenting Spirit must make to combat the influence of these fluids, with which it is enveloped, further increased by the accumulation of all the bad fluids that the perverse Spirits bring to suffocate it. Do not think that it is enough for me to want to improve myself, to drive away the Spirits of pride that surrounded me during my stay on earth. They are always near me, trying to hold me back in their unhealthy atmosphere. Good Spirits come to enlighten me, give me the strength I need to fight against the influence of bad Spirits, then they move away, leaving me to my own strength to fight against evil. It is then that I feel the beneficial influence of your kind prayers, for you unknowingly continue the work of the good Spirits from beyond the grave.



You see, dear brother, that everything is linked together in the immensity; that we are all in solidarity with one another, and that there is not a single good thought that does not bear with it the fruits of love, improvement and moral progress. Yes, you are right to tell your brothers, who are suffering, that one word is enough to explain the Creator; that this word must be the star that guides each Spirit, whatever degree of the Spiritist scale that it belongs to, by all its thoughts, by all its acts, in the inferior as in the superior worlds; that this word, the gospel of all ages, the alpha and omega of all science, the light of eternal truth, is love! Love of God, love of one’s brothers. Happy are those who pray for their brothers in suffering. Their trials on earth will become light, and the reward that awaits them will be above their expectations! ...



You see, dear brother, how the Lord is full of mercy, for despite my sufferings, he allows me to come and speak to you in the language of a good Spirit.

A…

This is the title of a feuilleton by M. Jules Doinel (d'Aurillac), published in the Moniteur du Cantal on May 23^rd and 30^th, June 6^th, 13^th, and 20^th, 1866. As we can see, the name of the Spiritism is not concealed, and the author should be congratulated even more, for his courage of public opinion is rarer among provincial writers, where contrary influences exert greater pressure than Paris.



We regret that after having been published in a serialized form, the form in which an idea spreads more easily among the masses, this novella has not been published in a volume, and that our readers are deprived from the pleasure of acquiring it. Although it is an unpretentious work and circumscribed to a very small frame, it is a true and endearing painting of the relationships between the spiritual world and the corporeal world, that brings its contribution to the popularization of the Spiritist idea, from a serious and moral point of view. It shows the pure and noble feelings that this belief can develop in the heart of man, the serenity that it gives in afflictions, by the certainty of a future that responds to all the aspirations of the soul, and gives full satisfaction to reason. To paint these aspirations with truthfulness, as the author does, one must have faith in what one says; a writer, for whom such a subject would be only a banal framework, without conviction, would believe that to make Spiritism it is enough to accumulate the fantastic, the marvelous and the strange adventures, as some painters believe that it is enough to spread out flashy colors to make a painting. True Spiritism is simple; it touches the heart and does not strike imagination with a hammer. This is what the author understood.



Fernande's script is very simple. She is a young woman, tenderly loved by her mother, taken in the prime of her life from her tenderness, and from the love of her fiancé, and who raises their courage by manifesting herself to their sight, and by dictating to her loved one, which will soon join her, the picture of the world that awaits for him. We will cite some of the thoughts we noticed there.



“I had become, since the appearance of Fernanda, a determined follower of the science from beyond the grave. Why, moreover, should I have doubted it? Does man have the right to establish limits to thought, and say to God: Won’t you go further?



Since we are near her and we are treading on a holy land, I am going, my dear friend, to speak to you with an open heart, calling God to witness the sincerity of all that you are going to hear. You believe in Spirits, I know, and more than once you have asked me to clarify your belief on this point. I did not do it, and I must tell you, without the strange manifestations that you had, I would never have done it. My friend, I believe that God has given certain souls such a force of sympathy that it can spread to the unknown regions of the other life. It is on this foundation that all my doctrine rests. The deception and juggling of some followers hurt me, because I do not understand that one can desecrate such a holy thing.



Oh! Stephen Stany (the groom) was quite right that quackery and juggling desecrate the holiest things. Belief in Spirits should make the soul serene; Where does it come from that, in the dark, the slightest noise terrifies me? I have sometimes seen emerging, in the half-light of my bedroom, either the ghost of Fernanda de Moeris, or the vague image of my mother. I smiled at them. But very often also, my sight is turned away with fear from the grimacing face of some evil spirits, that come to keep me away from good and to turn me away from God.



While speaking to me, Stany was calm. I noticed no trace of elation on his face. But, near this stone, its vaporous shape became even more visible. The soul of my friend showed itself entirely to my eyes. This beautiful soul had nothing to hide. I understood that the link that chained her to this body of mud was very weak, and that the time was not far off when she would fly to the other world.



She had told me: "Go to my mother’s." It was difficult to me, I confess; although engaged to Fernanda, I was not very well with your cousin. You know how jealous she was of anyone that held back any part of her daughter's affection. I will tell you, she received me with open arms and said to me, crying: "I saw her again!" The ice was broken; we were going to understand each other for the first time. My dear Stephen, she added, I think I was dreaming! But, finally, I saw her again, and here is what she said to me: “Mother, you will ask Stéphen Stany to stay eight days in the room that was mine. During these eight days you will make sure he is not disturbed. During this retreat, God will reveal many things to him." I was immediately taken to your cousin's room; and from that very day until yesterday, the day I saw you again, her soul has been with me without interruption. I saw her well, with the eyes of my Spirit and not with those of my body, although they were open. She spoke to me. When I say that she spoke to me, I mean that there was a transmission of thought between us. I now know everything I needed to know. I know that this globe has nothing left for me, and that a better existence awaits me.”



I learned to value the world at its fair value. Remember these words, my friend: Any Spirit who wants to achieve higher bliss must keep his body chaste, his heart pure, his soul free. Happy are those who know how to perceive the immaterial form of God through the shadows of what is passing!



Let us never forget, brothers, that God is Spirit, and the more one becomes Spirit, the closer one gets to God. Man is not allowed to violently break the bonds of matter, flesh, and blood. These links imply duties; but he is allowed to detach himself from it, little by little, by the idealism of his aspirations, by the purity of his intentions, by the radiance of his soul, a sacred reflection whose duty is home, until his Spirit, a free dove, freed from the mortal chains, flies and hovers in the immensities of space.”



The manuscript dictated by the Spirit of Fernanda, during Stéphen's eight-day retreat, contains the following passages:



“I died in turmoil and awoke in joy. I saw my barely cooled body stretch out on the funeral bed, and I felt relieved of a heavy burden. It was then that I saw you, my beloved one, and that by God’s permission, and the free exercise of my will, I saw you near my corpse.



While the worms continued their work of decomposition, I entered, curious, the mysteries of the new world in which I was living. I thought, I felt, I loved as on earth; but my thought, my feeling, my love had grown. I understood better the designs of God, I aspired to his divine will. We live an almost immaterial life, and we are superior to you as much as the angels are to us. We see God, but not clearly; we see it as we see the sun of your earth, through a thick cloud. But this imperfect view is enough for our soul that is not purified yet.



Men appear to us as ghosts wandering in a twilight mist. God has granted some of us the grace of seeing more clearly those whom we love preferably. I saw you like that, my dear love, and my will always surrounded you with loving sympathy. That is how your thoughts came to me, your actions were inspired by me, your life, in a word, was only a reflection of my life. Just as we can communicate with you, superior Spirits can reveal themselves to us. Sometimes, in the immaterial transparency, we see the august and luminous silhouette of some Spirit passing by. It is impossible for me to describe to you the respect that such a sight inspires in us. Happy are those of us who are honored with these divine visits. Admire the goodness of God! All worlds correspond with one another. We show ourselves to you; they show themselves to us: it is the symbolic scale of Jacob.



There are some who, with a single stroke of wings, have risen to God. But these are rare. Others endure the long trials of successive lives. It is virtue that establishes the ranks, and the beggar, bent down to earth, is sometimes, in the eyes of the just and severe God, greater than the proud king or the undefeated conqueror. Nothing is worth except through the soul; it is the only weight that matters in the scale of God.”



Now that we have done the praising, let's do the criticism; it will not be long, for it concerns only two or three thoughts. At the beginning, in a dialogue between the two friends, we find the following passage:



“Do we have previous existences? I do not believe it: God draws us from nothing; but what I'm sure of is that after what we call death we begin - and when I say we, I speak of the soul - we begin, I say, a series of new existences. The day we are pure enough to see, understand, and love God fully, only that day do we die. Note that on this day we love only God and nothing but God. So, if Fernanda were purified, she would not think, she could not think of me. Since she has manifested, I conclude that she is living. Where? I'll find out soon! She is happy with her life, I believe so, because until the Spirit has been purified completely, it cannot understand that happiness is only in God. She can be relatively happy. As we go up, the idea of God grows in us more and more, and we are, therefore, more and more happy. But this happiness is never more than relative happiness. So, my fiancée lives. How is her life? I don't know: God alone can tell the Spirits to reveal these mysteries to men.”



After ideas such as those contained in the passages above, one is astonished to find a doctrine like this one, that turns perfect happiness into egoistic happiness. The charm of the Spiritist doctrine, that makes it a supreme consolation, is precisely the thought of the perpetuity of affections, purifying and tightening as the Spirit purifies and rises; here, on the contrary, the Spirit, when it is perfect, forgets those whom it has loved, to think only of itself; he died to any sentiment other than that of his happiness; perfection would deprive him of the possibility, even the desire, to come and console those that he leaves in affliction. That would be, it must be admitted, a sad perfection, or to put it better, it would be an imperfection. Eternal happiness, thus conceived, would be scarcely more enviable than that of perpetual contemplation, of which the cloistered retreat gives us the image, by the anticipated death of the holiest affections of the family. If this were so, a mother would be reduced to dreading, instead of desiring, the complete purification of those who are dearest to her. Never has the generality of Spirits taught such a thing; it looks like a transaction between Spiritism and the vulgar belief. But this transaction is not happy, because not satisfying the intimate aspirations of the soul, it has no chance of prevailing with the public opinion.



When the author says that he does not believe in previous existences, but that he is sure that, after death, we start a series of new existences, he did not realize that he was committing a blatant contradiction; if one admits, as a logical and necessary thing for progress, the plurality of posterior existences, on what does it base itself to not admit previous existences? He does not say how he explains, in a manner consistent with God's justice, the native, intellectual, and moral inequality that exists between men. If this existence is the first, and if all have emerged from nothingness, we fall back into the absurd doctrine, irreconcilable with the sovereign justice, of a partial God, that favors some of his creatures, by creating souls of all qualities. We could also see it as a transaction with new ideas, but which is not happier than the previous one.

Finally, we are surprised to see Fernanda, an advanced Spirit, supporting this proposal on another occasion: “Laura became a mother; God had mercy on her, and called her child to him. Sometimes he comes to see her again. He is sad, because having died without baptism, he will never enjoy divine contemplation.” So, here is a Spirit that God calls to him, and who is forever miserable and deprived of the contemplation of God, because he has not received the baptism, although it did not depend on him to receive it, and that the fault lies with God himself who called him too early. It is doctrines like these that have made so many nonbelievers, and those that hope to see them pass to the side of the rooting Spiritist ideas, are mistaken; one will only accept, from the Spiritist idea, what is rational and sanctioned by the universality of the teaching of the Spirits. If there is still a transaction, it is wrong. We ensure in fact that out of a thousand Spiritist centers where the proposals that we have just criticized would be submitted to the Spirits, there are nine hundred and ninety where they will be resolved in the opposite direction.



It was the universality of the teaching, sanctioned, in fact, by logic, that made and will complete the Spiritist doctrine. This doctrine draws, from this universality of the teaching given on all points of the globe, by different Spirits, and in centers completely foreign to each other, and which do not undergo any common pressure, a force against which individual opinions would struggle in vain, whether of Spirits or of men. The alliance that one would claim to establish between the Spiritist ideas and contradictory ideas, can only be ephemeral and localized. Individual opinions can rally a few individuals, but necessarily circumscribed, they cannot rally the majority, unless they have the sanction of that majority. Repelled by the majority, they have no vitality, and die out with their representatives.



This is the result of a simple mathematical calculation. If, out of a thousand centers, there are 990 where we teach in the same way, and ten in a contrary way, it is obvious that the dominant opinion will be that of 990 out of 1,000, that is to say, almost a unanimity. Well! We are certain to give too large a share to divergent ideas, bringing them to one hundredth. Never formulating a principle until we are assured of the general agreement, we always agree with the opinion of the majority.



Spiritism today is in possession of a sum of truths so much demonstrated by experience, that at the same time satisfy reason so completely, that they have become articles of faith in the opinion of the vast majority of followers. Now, putting oneself in open hostility against this majority, offending its most cherished aspirations and convictions, is to prepare for an inevitable failure. That is the cause of the failure of certain publications.



But it will be asked, is it therefore forbidden for those who do not share the ideas of the majority to publish their opinions? Certainly not, it is even useful that one does so; but then, one must do so at one’s own risk and peril, and not count on the moral and material support of those whose beliefs one wants to undermine.



Going back to Fernanda, the points of doctrine that we criticized seem to be the personal opinions of the author, whose weak side he did not feel. In addressing us his work, the beginning of a young man, he told us that when he wrote this short story, he only had a superficial knowledge of the Spiritist doctrine, and that we would undoubtedly find several things to correct, on which he sought our opinion; that, more enlightened today, there are principles that he would formulate differently. By congratulating him on his frankness and his modesty, we informed him that, if there were any reason to refute him, we would do so in the Spiritist Review, for the instruction of all.



Apart from the points that we have just cited, there is none that the Spiritist doctrine cannot accept; we congratulate the author on the moral and philosophical point of view in which he has placed himself, and we consider his work to be eminently useful for the dissemination of the idea, because he makes it to be considered it in its true light, that is the serious point of view. (See in the previous issue, a poetry by the same author, with the title: To the protecting Spirits).

Le Figaro of July 5^th, reported in these terms of a judgment passed by the court of Bordeaux:



“In recent times, the fury in Bordeaux was to consult the sorcerer of Cauderan. We estimate at one thousand, or twelve hundred, the number of visits he received each day. The police, who professed skepticism, were concerned with such a success, and wanted to raid the castle of Bel-Air, where the sorcerer had established residence. Around the house of the sorcerer there was a crowd of people claiming to be suffering from all kinds of diseases; great ladies also came there in horse-drawn carriages to consult with the enlightened.



The magistrates, after questioning the sorcerer, had no doubt that they were dealing with a poor madman, that was exploited by those very ones that gave him hospitality; therefore, the sorcerer Simonet was not included in the persecution that was concentrated against the Barbier brothers, skillful accomplices who reaped all the profits of Gascon credulity.



Their house, that as true Gascons, they decorated with the name of a castle, had been converted into an inn; only the wines that were sold there had nothing in common with what one calls, in Languedoc, the Château wines; besides, they had forgotten to obtain a license, so that the administration of indirect taxes sued them.



The sorcerer Simonet was called as a witness.



- Where did you learn medicine, you who were a simple boilermaker?

- And what do you think of the revelation? What were then the disciples of Christ? What were they doing, these poor fishermen who converted the world? God appeared to me; he gave me his science, I don't even need the remedies, I am a healing doctor.

- Where have you learned all this?

- In Allan Kardec… and, Mr. President, I tell you with all the possible respect, you do not seem to know the science of Spiritism and I strongly urge you to study it. (Amusement to which the judges themselves could resist)

- You abuse public credulity. So, to cite just one example, there is a poor blind man that all of Bordeaux know. He had the weakness to go to you, and he brought you the donations that he received from public charity. Did you give him his sight back?

- I do not cure everyone, but you have to believe that I am doing cures, for the day justice came, there were more than 1,500 people waiting for their turn.

- It is true, unfortunately.

- Mr. Imperial Prosecutor - And if this continues, we will take one of these two measures: either we will bring you here for fraud, and justice will assess if you are mad, or we will take administrative action against you. Honest people must be protected against their credulity.



At the Château de Bel-Air, the consulted were not asked for money; they were only given a ticket number, for which they were charged twenty cents; then there were some that trafficked with these numbers, selling them for up to fifteen francs. Finally, food was given to the poor peasants, that sometimes came from the far distances of the department. Finally, there was a collecting box for the poor; it is not necessary to say that the hosts of the sorcerer took over the money of the poor.



The court condemned the Barbier brothers to two months and one month in prison, and 300 francs towards indirect contributions.

Ad. Rocher.”



Here is the truth about Simonet, and how his faculty was revealed.



The Barbiers built in Cauderan, a suburb of Bordeaux, a vast establishment, as there are several in the district, intended for balls, weddings and feasts, and to which they gave the name of Château du Bel-Air, that is no more Gascon than the Château-Rouge or the Château des Fleurs, in Paris. Simonet worked there as a carpenter, and not a boilermaker. During the construction work, it happened quite often that workers were injured or sick; Simonet, a long time Spiritist, and knowing a little bit about magnetism, was instinctively led to them, and without premeditated intention, to care for them by the fluidic influence, and he cured many of them. Rumor of these healings spread, and soon he saw a crowd of sick people rushing to him, so true is it that, whatever one does, one will not take away from the sick the desire to be cured, no matter by whom. We learned from eyewitnesses that the average number of those that showed up was over a thousand per day. The road was cluttered with cars of all kinds, coming from several leagues around, with carts and equipment on the side. There were people who stayed overnight to wait for their turn.



But in this crowd, there were people who needed food and drink; the entrepreneurs of the establishment provided for it, and it became a very good deal for them. As for Simonet, who was a source of indirect profits, he was housed and fed, that was the very least, and one could not blame him for it. As people jostled at the door, to avoid confusion, they took the wise step of giving new arrivals a ticket number; but they had the less happy idea of charging ten cents for this number, and later twenty cents; given the crowds, it made a fairly round sum per day. However small this retribution was, all the Spiritists, and Simonet himself, who had nothing to do with it, were sorry to see that, foreseeing the bad effect it would produce. As for the traffic of tickets, it seems certain that a few people in a hurry, to get through earlier, bought the seats of poor people who were before them, that were very happy with this unexpected profit; there is no great harm in that, but it could and necessarily had to result in abuse. It was these abuses that motivated the judicial action directed against the so called Barbiers, as having opened an establishment of consumption, before having obtained a license for that. As for Simonet, he was not implicated, but simply called as a witness.



The general disapproval attached to the exploitation, in cases analogous to that of Simonet, is worthy of note; it seems that an instinctive feeling leads, even nonbelievers, to see in the absolute selflessness a proof of sincerity that inspires a kind of involuntary respect; they don't believe in the faculty; they mock it, but something tells them that if it exists, it must be a holy thing that cannot, without profanity, become a profession; they limit themselves to saying: he is a poor fool who is in good faith; but whenever speculation, in any form whatsoever, has mingled with any mediumship, criticism believed itself to have been spared from any consideration.



Does Simonet really heal? People worthy of faith, very honorable, and who had more interest in unmasking fraud than in advocating it, have cited many cases of perfectly authentic cures. It seems to us, moreover, that if he had not healed anyone, he would have already lost all credibility. Besides, he does not pretend to cure everyone; he does not promise anything; he says that healing does not depend on him, but on God, of whom he is only the instrument, and whose assistance must be implored; he recommends prayer and he prays himself. We very much regret not having been able to see it, during our stay in Bordeaux; but all those who know him agree in saying that he is a gentle, simple, modest man, without boasting or arrogance, who does not seek to avail himself from a faculty that he knows can be withdrawn from him. He is kind to the sick whom he encourages with good words; his interest in them is not based on the rank they occupy; he has as much concern for the most miserable as for the richest; if the healing is not instantaneous, that happens most often, he takes all the necessary steps into it.



This is what we have been told. We do not know what the consequences of this affair will be for him, but it is certain that, if he is sincere, and if he perseveres in the feelings with which he seems animated, he will not lack the assistance and the protection of the good Spirits; he will see his faculty develop and grow, whereas he will see it decline and be lost, if he takes the wrong path, if above all, he thinks of taking pride in it.



Observation: At the time of going to press, we learned that, as a result of the fatigue that resulted for him from the long and painful exercise of his faculty, even more than to escape the harassments of which he was the object, Simonet has resolved to suspend all reception until further notice. If patients suffer from this abstention, a great effect has, nonetheless, been produced.

A doctor, to whom we will refer as Dr. Claudius, known to some of our colleagues, and whose life had been a profession of materialistic faith, died some time ago of an organic illness that he knew was incurable. Called, undoubtedly, by the thoughts of those who had known him and who wished to know his position, he spontaneously manifested himself through Mr. Morin, one of the mediums of the Society, in a state of spontaneous somnambulism. This phenomenon has already occurred several times, through this medium and others, falling asleep in the spiritual sleep.



The Spirit that manifests this way, thus takes hold of the person of the medium, uses his organs as if he were still alive. Then, it is no longer a cold, written communication; it is the expression, the pantomime, the inflection of the voice of the individual that we have before our eyes.



It was under these conditions that Dr. Claudius manifested himself, without having been mentioned. His communication, reported verbatim below, is instructive in more than one way, mainly in that it depicts the feelings that stir him up; doubt is still his torment; the uncertainty of his situation plunges him into a terrible perplexity, and that is his punishment. This is one more example that confirms what we have seen many times, in similar cases.



After a dissertation on another subject, the absorbed medium concentrates for a few moments, then as if painfully awakening, expresses himself this way, speaking to himself:



“Ah! Still a system! … What is there true and false in human existence, in creation, in the creature, in the creator? … Does the thing exist? … Is matter really true? ... Science, is it the truth? ... Knowledge, an acquisition? ... Does the soul ... does the soul exist?



The creator, the divinity, isn't that a myth? … But what am I saying? … Why these blasphemies multiplied? … Why, in the face of matter, can’t I believe, O my God, can’t I see, feel, and understand?



Matter! … Matter! … But, yes, everything is matter… Everything is matter!!! … and yet, the invocation to God reached my mouth! … Why then did I say: O my God? … Why this word since everything is matter? … Am I? … Isn't it an echo of my thought that resonates, and that can be listened to? … Weren't these the last tolling of the bell that I rang?



Matter! … Yes, matter exists, I can feel it! … Matter exists; I touched it! … but! … all is not matter, and yet… yet, everything has been auscultated, felt, touched, analyzed, dissected, fiber by fiber, and nothing! … Nothing but flesh, always matter, that as soon as the great movement was stopped, it stopped also! ... The movement stops, the air no longer arrives ... But! ... if everything is matter, why doesn’t it move anymore, since everything that existed when it was alive, still exists? ... And yet ... it no longer exists! ...



But yes, I am! … It is not all over with the body! … In truth… am I really dead? … Yet this rodent that I fed, that I took care of with my hands, it has not forgiven me! … It is true; I am dead! … But this disease that I saw being born… grow… did it have a soul?



Ah! the doubt! always the doubt! … in response to all my secret aspirations! … But, if I am, oh my God, if I am, … ah! make me recognize myself! … make me foresee you! … because, if I am, what a long succession of blasphemies! … what a long denial of your wisdom, your goodness, your justice! … What an immense responsibility of pride have I assumed on my head, oh my God! … But yes, I still have an I, I who did not want to admit anything, apart from what could be touched… I doubted your wisdom, oh my God! it is right that I doubt! … Yes, I doubted; doubt pursues me and punishes me.



Oh! a thousand deaths rather than the doubt in which I live! … I see, I meet old friends… and yet, they have all died before! … Méry! my poor madman! ... but is that rather me? ... does the epithet of madman fit to his personality? - Let’s see; what is madness? ...



Madness! ... madness! ... decidedly, madness is universal!!! all men are mad to a greater or lesser degree ... but his madness, was it not wisdom, alongside my own madness? ... To him, dreams, images, aspirations to the beyond… but, it is justice! … Did I know this stranger who, unexpectedly, presents himself to me? … No, no, nothingness does not exist, because if it did exist, this incarnation of denial, of crimes, of infamy, would not torture me like this! … I see, but I see too late, all the evil that I have done! … Seeing it today, and repairing it, little by little, perhaps I will be worthy of a day to see and do good! ...



Systems! … Proud systems, products of human brains, this is where you are leading us! … In one, it is the divinity; in the other, the material and sensual divinity; in another, nothingness, nothing! … Nothingness, material divinity, spiritual divinity, are these words? … Oh! I ask to see, my God! … and if I exist, if you exist, grant me the favor that I ask of you; accept my prayer, for I beg you, O my God, to show me if I exist, if I am!… (These last words were said with a heart-breaking tone)




Observation: If Mr. Claudius persevered his incredulity to the end, it was not the means of enlightening himself that he lacked; as a doctor, he necessarily had a cultivated mind, a developed intelligence, a knowledge above the vulgar, and yet that was not enough for him. In his meticulous investigations of still life and living nature, he did not foresee God, he did not foresee the soul! Seeing the effects, he could not go back to the cause or, to put it better, he had imagined a cause in his own way, and his scholarly pride prevented him from confessing to himself, especially from confessing in the face of the world that he could have been wrong. A circumstance worthy of note, he died of an illness that he knew, by his very science, to be incurable; this ailment that he was treating was a permanent warning; the pain it was causing him was a voice that kept screaming at him to think about the future. However, nothing could succeed over his obstinacy; he kept his eyes closed until the last moment. Could this man ever have become a Spiritist? Certainly not. Neither facts nor reasonings could have prevailed upon an opinion that was established a priori, and from which he was resolved not to deviate. He was one of those men who do not want to face the facts, because disbelief is innate in them, as belief in others; the sense by which they will, one day, be able to assimilate spiritual principles has not yet emerged; they are to spirituality what the born blind is to light: they do not understand it.



Intelligence is, therefore, not sufficient to lead on the path of truth; it is like a horse that leads us, and that follows the route that we have outlined; if this road leads to a quagmire, it precipitates the rider there; but, at the same time, it gives him the means to stand up.



Having Mr. Claudius voluntarily died as a spiritual blind, it is not surprising that he did not immediately see the light; that he does not recognize himself in a world that he did not want to study; that dead with the idea of nothingness, he doubts his own existence; pungent uncertainty that is his torment. He fell into the abyss where he pushed his carrier-intelligence. But he can get up from this fall, and he already seems to catch a glimpse of a light that, if he follows it, will lead him to the port. It is in his laudable efforts that he must be supported by prayer; once he has enjoyed the blessings of spiritual light, he will abhor the darkness of materialism; and if he ever returns to earth, it will be with intuitions and aspirations quite different from those he had in his last existence.

“Listen to an unfortunate man who was violently pulled from his family, and who does not know where he is… Amid the darkness where I find myself, I was able to follow a shiny ray of a Spirit, as I was told; but I don't believe in Spirits. I know very well that it is a fable, invented for the cracked and credulous heads… For my part, I do not understand anything anymore… I see myself double; a mutilated body lies next to me, and yet I am alive… I see my relatives in distress, not to mention my companions in misfortune, who do not see so clearly as I do; so, I took advantage of the light that led me here, to come and get information from you.



It seems to me that this is not the first time that I have seen you; my ideas are still cloudy… Allow me to come back another time when I am better used to my current situation… Never mind, I am leaving with regret; I was in my center… but I feel that I must obey; this Spirit seems good to me, but severe. I will do my best to earn his good grace so that I can speak with you more often.

A worker from the Lieutaud course.



Six workers had perished when a bridge collapsed a few days prior; it is one of them that has manifested. After this communication, the medium's guide dictated the following to her:



“Dear sister, this unhappy Spirit has been led to you to exercise your charity. As we practice it towards the incarnate, you must practice it towards the discarnate.



Although this unfortunate one is supported by his guardian angel, this one must remain invisible to him, until he recognizes himself well in his situation. For that, dear sister, take him under your protection, that is still weak, I agree; but sustained by your faith, this Spirit will soon see the dawn of a new day shining, and what he has refused to recognize, since his catastrophe, will soon become a matter of peace and joy to him. Your task will not be too difficult, because he has the essential to understand you: kindness of heart.



Listen, dear sister, to the impulses of your heart, and you will emerge victorious from the test that your new mission imposes on you.

Support one another, dear brothers and beloved sisters, and the New Jerusalem you are about to reach will be opened to you with songs of triumph, for the procession that follows you will make you victorious. But to fight the external obstacles well, it is necessary, above all, to have conquered oneself. You must maintain a severe discipline of your heart; the slightest infringement must be repressed, without seeking mitigation of the fault, otherwise you will never be victorious over others; you must rival in virtues and vigilance among yourselves.



Courage, friends; you are not alone; you are supported and protected by the spiritual fighters who have hope in you and call upon you the blessing of the Almighty.

Your Guide.”



This fact, as we see, has some situational analogy with the preceding one; it is also a Spirit who does not recognize himself, who does not understand his situation; but it is easy to see which of the two will emerge first from uncertainty. By the language of one, we recognize the proud scholar, who reasoned his disbelief, who, it seems, has not always made the best use of his intelligence and his knowledge; the other is an uncultivated, but of good nature, to which, no doubt, only lacked good direction. Incredulity, with him, was not a system, but a consequence of the lack of proper teaching. Whoever, during his lifetime, might have taken pity on the other, might have seen him in a happier position. May God bring them together for their mutual instruction, and the scholar may well be very happy to receive the lessons from the ignorant.

We read in the Siècle of July 10^th, 1867:



“A section of the association founded by Jean Macé has just been authorized in Metz, by the prefecture, under the name of Circle of the League of Teaching.”



The Moselle brings about it:



“The elected steering committee of the circle took office and decided to begin its work by founding a popular library, like those that render such a great service in Alsace.



For this work, the Circle of Metz is asking for everyone's help, and is asking for the support of anyone interested in the development of instruction and education in our city. These memberships, accompanied by a membership fee, whose value and method of payment are optional, and donations of books, will be received by any member of the committee."



As we have said, when we spoke of the League of Teaching (Spiritist Review, March, and April 1867), our sympathies are conquered by all progressive ideas; we only criticized the mode of execution of this project. We will, therefore, be happy to see practical applications of this beautiful idea.

The doctors and interns of the Charity Hospital received, on Saturday, during the morning visit, one of their American colleagues, that got a certain reputation from the last American war.



This surgeon was no other than Mrs. Walker who, during the American Civil War, ran a large ambulance service. Petite, of a delicate complexion, dressed in the elegant simplicity that distinguishes the ladies of society, Mrs. Walker was received very sympathetically and very respectfully. She took a very keen interest in the two major services, one surgical, the other medical.



Her presence at the Charity Hospital proclaimed a new principle that received its blessings in the new world: the equality of women before science.



(National opinion)

“Saturday (July 6^th),” says the Press, “the Iman or Grand Chaplain of the Sultan, Hairoulah-Effendi, visited Mgr. Chigi, nuncio of the Pope, and Mgr. the Archbishop of Paris."

The Sultan's trip to Paris is more than a political event, it is a sign of the times, the prelude to the disappearance of religious prejudices that have, for so long, raised a barrier between peoples and bloodied the world. Coming the successor of Muhammad, out of his own free will, to visit a Christian country, fraternizing with a Christian sovereign, it would have been on his part, not long ago, a daring act; today, this event seems quite natural. What is even more significant is the visit of the Iman, his great chaplain, to the heads of the Church. The initiative he took on this occasion, since the etiquette did not oblige him to do so, is a proof of the progress of the ideas. Religious hatreds are anomalies in the present century, and it bodes well for the future, to see one of the princes of Islam setting an example of tolerance and recanting secular prejudices.



One of the consequences of moral progress will, one day, certainly be the unification of beliefs; it will take place when the different cults recognize that there is only one God for all men, and that it is absurd and unworthy of Him to curse just because we do not worship Him in the same way.

This letter from Winschoten, was sent to the Journal of Brussels on May 2^nd, 1867:



“Last Saturday a ditchdigger arrived in our town, presenting himself at the residence of the rural guard, where he summoned that official to arrest him, and deliver him to justice, before which, he said, he had to do confess a crime he committed several years ago. Brought before the chief magistrate, this worker, who said his name was J. Ryzak, told the following story:



About twelve years ago, I was employed in the works of drying out Lake Harlem, when one day the sergeant, paying my bi-weekly wages, gave me the pay due to one of my comrades, ordering me to pass it to him later. I spent the money and wanting to spare myself from the inconveniences of investigations, I resolved to kill the friend I had just stolen. For that, I threw him into one of the chasms of the lake, and when I saw him coming back to the surface, trying to swim towards the edge, I stabbed him twice in the neck.



As soon as my crime was committed, remorse began to be felt; it soon became intolerable, and it was impossible for me to continue the work. I started by fleeing the scene of my crime, and since I found neither peace nor truce anywhere in the country, I embarked for the Indies, where I took a job in the colonial army. But there also the specter of my victim pursued me night and day; my tortures were continuous and unheard of, and as soon as my term of service was over, an irresistible force urged me to return to Winschoten, and ask the courts to appease my conscience. It will give it to me by imposing on me on atonement as it deems appropriate; and if it orders that I die, I prefer this torture to the executioner that I have been carrying in my heart for twelve years, at all hours of the day and night."



After this declaration, and on the assurance given to the magistrate that the man he had before him was of sound mind, this magistrate requested the police, that arrested Ryzak and immediately referred the fact to the officer of justice.



We await here, with emotion, the consequences that this strange event may have.




Instructions from the Spirits on this subject.



Parisian Society, May 10^th, 1867 – medium Ms. Lateltin.



Every being has, as you know, freedom from good and bad, what you call free will. Man has his conscience within him that warns him when he has done good or bad, committed a bad action, or neglected to do good; his conscience that, like a vigilant guardian, in charge of watching over him, approves or disapproves his conduct. It often happens that we are rebellious to its voice, that we reject its inspirations; we want to suffocate it by forgetting; but it is never completely destroyed enough that, at some point, it wakes up stronger and more powerful, and does not exercise severe control over your actions.



Conscience produces two different effects: the satisfaction of having done well, the peace left by the feeling of an accomplished duty, and the remorse that penetrates and tortures when one has done something disapproved by God, men or honor; it is, strictly speaking, the moral sense. Remorse is like a serpent with a thousand folds that surrounds the heart and ravages it; it is remorse that always makes the same calls and cries out to you: you did a wicked deed; you will have to be punished for it: your punishment will not stop until after the reparation has been done. And when, to this torture of a tormented conscience, the constant sight of the victim is added, of the person who was wronged; when, without rest or truce, his presence reproaches the culprit for his unworthy behavior, constantly repeating to him that he will suffer until he has atoned and repaired the evil he has done, the torture becomes intolerable; it is then that, to put an end to his tortures, his pride yields, and he confesses his crimes. Evil carries its own sorrow by the remorse it leaves, and by the reproaches of the mere presence of those towards whom one has acted badly.



Believe me, always listen to that voice that warns you when you are about to fail; do not stifle it by the revolt of your pride, and if you fail, hasten to repair the evil deed, otherwise remorse would be your punishment; the longer you delay, the more painful the reparation will be, and the more prolonged the torture.

A Spirit”



Same session, medium Mrs. B…



“You have today a remarkable example of the punishment suffered, even on earth, by those who are guilty of a bad deed. It is not only in the invisible world that the sight of a victim torments the murderer, forcing him to repent; where the justice of men has not begun atonement, divine justice begins, unbeknownst to all, the slowest and most terrible of punishments, the most dreadful punishment.



There are some people who say that the punishment inflicted on the criminal, in the spiritual world, that consists in the continual view of his crime, cannot be very effective, and that in no case this punishment. alone determines repentance. They say that a perverse nature, like that of a criminal, can only become more and more bitter, by this sight, and thus becoming worse. Those who say so do not have an idea of what can become of such a punishment; they do not know how cruel is this continual spectacle of an action that one would like to have never committed. We certainly see some criminals hardening themselves, but often it is only out of pride, and for the wishes to appear stronger than the hand that chastises them; it is to make believe that they do not let themselves be defeated by the sight of vain images; but this false courage does not last long; soon we see them weakening in the presence of this torture, that owes many of its effects to its slowness and persistence. There is no pride that can resist such an action, similar to that of the drop of water on the rock; however hard the stone may be, it is inevitably attacked, broken up, reduced to dust. That is how pride, that makes these unhappy people stiffen against their sovereign Lord, is sooner or later demolished, and repentance can finally have access to their soul; as they know that the origin of their sufferings is in their fault, they ask to repair that fault, in order to bring some relief to their ills. To those that may doubt it, just mention the fact that was brought to your attention this evening; there, it is no longer the hypothesis alone, it is no longer the teaching of the Spirits only, it is a somewhat tangible example that presents itself to you; in this example, the punishment closely followed the fault, and it was such that after several years it forced the culprit to seek atonement for his crime from human justice, and he said himself that even all the penalties, even death, would seem to him less cruel than what he suffered, when he surrendered himself to justice.

A Spirit”

Observation: Without looking for applications of remorse in serious criminals, that are exceptions in society, we find it in the most ordinary circumstances of life. It is this feeling that leads every individual to distance himself from those towards whom he feels there are reproaches to be made; in their presence, he feels bad; if the fault is not known, he fears being suspected; it seems to him that a look can penetrate the depths of his conscience; he sees in every word, in every gesture, an allusion to his person; that is why, as soon as he feels unmasked, he withdraws. The ingrate also flees his benefactor, because his sight is an incessant reproach that he uselessly seeks to get rid of, for an intimate voice cries out to him, in the depths of his conscience, that he is guilty.



If remorse is already a torture on earth, how much greater will this torture be in the spiritual world, where one cannot escape the sight of those whom one has offended! Happy are those who, having repaired from this life, will be able to face all eyes in the world where nothing is hidden, without fear.



Remorse is a consequence of the development of the moral sense; it does not exist where the moral sense is still in a latent state; that is why the savage and barbarian peoples commit the most wicked deeds without remorse. So, whoever claims to be inaccessible to remorse would be like the brute. As man progresses, the moral sense becomes more refined; he takes offense at the smallest deviation from the right path; hence remorse that is a first step towards a return to good.

Paris, February 10^th, 1867 – medium Mr. T… in spontaneous sleep


Note: In this session, no previous question had provoked the subject that was discussed. The medium had first dealt with health, then, step by step, he found himself led to the reflections whose analysis we give below. He spoke for about an hour, without a break.



“The progress of Spiritism causes a fear in its enemies that they cannot conceal. In the beginning they played with the turning tables, not thinking that they were caressing a child who was to grow up;… the child grew up… then they had a presentiment of the future, telling themselves that they would soon be right about it… But the child had a hard life, as they say. It resisted all the attacks, anathemas, persecutions, even ridicule. Like certain seeds that the wind carries away, it produced innumerable offspring; … for each one that was destroyed, a hundred others sprouted.



At first they used the weapons of another age against it, those that had once succeeded against new ideas, because those ideas were just scattered glimmers that had difficulty in shining through ignorance, and that had not yet enrooted in the masses… today it is something else; everything has changed: manners, ideas, character, beliefs; humanity is no longer moved by the threats that frighten children; the devil, so dreaded by our ancestors, scares no more: we laugh at it.



Yes, ancient weapons have blunted against the breastplate of progress. It is as if today, an army wanted to attack a cannon guarded stronghold with the arrows, rams, and catapults of our ancestors.



The enemies of Spiritism have seen, by experience, the uselessness of the worm-eaten weapons of the past against the regenerative idea; far from harming it, their efforts only served to accredit it.



To fight with advantage against the ideas of the century, one would have to be at the height of the century; to progressive doctrines, it would be necessary to oppose even more progressive doctrines…; but less cannot prevail against more.



Unable to succeed by violence, they resorted to cunning, the weapon of those who are aware of their weakness... from wolves they became lambs to enter the sheepfold, to sow disorder, division, and confusion. Since they managed to cast disturbance into a few ranks, they prematurely believed themselves masters of the place. The isolated followers, nonetheless, continued their work, and the idea gains ground every day, without much noise… They are the ones that made the noise… Can't you see it breaking through everywhere, in the newspapers, in books, in the theater, and even in the pulpit? It works all consciences; it leads the spirits to new horizons; it is found in the state of intuition, even in those who have not heard of it. This is a fact that no one can deny, and that is becoming more evident every day; isn’t that a proof that the idea is irresistible, and that it is a sign of the times?



To annihilate it is, therefore, an impossible task, because it would have to be annihilated, not on one point, but in the whole world; besides, aren’t the ideas carried on the wings of the wind? How can they be reached? Parcels of goods can be seized at customs; but ideas are elusive.



What to do then? Try to get hold of them, to accommodate them as one pleases… Well! That is the party they have sided with. They said to themselves: Spiritism is the precursor of an inevitable moral revolution; before it is entirely accomplished, let us try to divert it to our own benefit; let us make sure that this is the same as with certain political revolutions; by distorting its spirit, we could convey another course to it.



The plan of campaign is therefore changed… You will see Spiritist meetings forming, whose avowed goal will be the defense of the doctrine, and whose secret goal will be its destruction; so-called mediums will have preordered communications, appropriate to the intended purpose; publications that, under the cloak of Spiritism, will endeavor to demolish it; doctrines that will borrow some ideas from it, but with the intent of supplanting him. This is the struggle, the real struggle that it will have to sustain, and that will be pursued relentlessly, but from which it will emerge victorious and stronger.



What can men do against the will of God? Is it possible to ignore it in the presence of what is happening? Isn’t His finger visible in this progress that defies all attacks, in these phenomena that appear on all sides, like a protest, like belying all denials? ... Aren’t the lives of men, the fate of humanity in His hands? ... Blinds! ... They do not count on the new generation that rises, and that carries away, every day, the departing generation... A few more years, and this one will have disappeared, leaving behind only the memory of its senseless attempts to stop the impetus of the human spirit that walks, walks anyway… They do not count on the events that will hasten the blossoming of the new humanitarian period… without the support that will rise in favor of the new doctrine, and whose powerful voice will impose silence on its detractors, by its authority.



Oh! How the face of the world will be changed for those who will see the beginning of the next century! … How many ruins will they see behind them, and what splendid horizons will open before them! … It will be like the dawn, pushing back the shadows of the night; … Songs of joy will succeed the noises, the uproars, the roaring of the storm; after anguish, men will be reborn to hope… Yes! the twentieth century will be a blessed century, for it will see the new era announced by Christ.”



Note: Here the medium stops, dominated by an ineffable emotion, and as if exhausted with fatigue. After a few minutes of rest, during which he seems to return to the regular state of somnambulism, he resumes:



What was I telling you then? - You told us about the new plan of campaign of the opponents of Spiritism; then you envisioned the new era. – continues.



In the meantime, they dispute the land foot by foot. They have almost given up the weapons of another age, whose ineffectiveness has been recognized; they are now trying those that are all powerful in this century of selfishness, pride, and greed: gold, the seduction of self-love. With those that are inaccessible to fear, they exploit vanity, and the earthly needs. One that resisted the threat, sometimes lends a complacent ear to flattery, to the lure of material well-being ... They promise bread to those who have none, work to the craftsman , clientele to the merchant, promotion to the employee, honors to the ambitious, if they renounce their beliefs; they are hurt in their position, in their means of existence, in their affections, if they are rebellious; then the glamor of gold produces its ordinary effect on some. Among them there are, necessarily, some weak characters that succumb to temptation. There are some who fall into the trap in good faith, because the hand that manipulates it hides ... There are also many that yield to the harsh necessity, but who think, nonetheless; their renunciation is only apparent; they bend, but to stand up at the first opportunity ... Others, those who have a higher degree of the true courage of faith, resolutely face the danger; these always succeed, because they are supported by the good Spirits… Some, Ah! … But these have never been Spiritists of heart… prefer the gold of the earth to the gold of heavens; they remain apparently attached to the doctrine, and under this cloak, they only serve better the cause of its enemies… it is a sad exchange that they are making there, for which they will pay dearly!



In times of cruel trials that you are going to go through, happy are those over whom the protection of the good Spirits will extend, for it will have never been more necessary! … Pray for the stray brothers, so that they take advantage of the short moments of respite that are granted to them, before the justice of the Almighty weighs on them… When they see the storm breaking out, more than one will cry for mercy! But they will be answered: What have you done with our teachings? Haven’t you, mediums, written your own condemnation a hundred times? ... You have had the light, and you have not taken advantage of it; we gave you shelter, why did you desert it? So, suffer the fate of those you have preferred. If your heart had been touched by our words, you would have remained steadfast in the path of good that was laid out for you; if you had had faith, you would have resisted the seductions offered to your self-esteem and vanity. Did you therefore believe that you could impose it on us, as on men, by false appearances? Know this, if you have doubted it, that there is not a single movement of the soul that does not have its repercussion in the spiritual world.



Do you believe that it is for nothing that clairvoyance develops in so many people? That it is to offer a new food to curiosity, that so many mediums today spontaneously fall asleep, in the ecstatic sleep? No, think again. This faculty, that has been announced to you for a long time, is a characteristic sign of the times that have come; it is a prelude to the transformation, for as you have been told, it must be one of the attributes of the new generation. That generation, more purified morally, will also be physically; mediumship, in all forms, will be somewhat general, and communion with the Spirits a state, so to speak, normal.



God sends this seeing faculty, in these times of crisis and transition, to give His faithful servants a way to thwart the plots of their enemies, for the evil thoughts, that are believed to be hidden in the shadows of the folds of consciences, reflect in these sensitive souls, like in a mirror, and reveal themselves. He who exhales only good thoughts is not afraid of being known. Happy is the one that can say: read in my soul as in an open book.”





Observation: Spontaneous somnambulism, that have already talked about, is in fact only a form of clairvoyance mediumship, the development of which has been announced for some time, as with the appearance of new mediumistic skills. It is remarkable that, in all times of general crisis or persecution, there are more people endowed with this faculty than in ordinary times; there were many at the time of the revolution; the Calvinists of the Cévènes,^[1] hunted down like wild beasts, had many seers who warned them of what was happening in the distance; they were, for this fact, and ironically, qualified as enlightened; today we begin to understand that sight at a distance and independent of the organs of vision may well be one of the attributes of human nature, and Spiritism explains it by the expansive faculty and properties of the soul. Facts of this kind have multiplied so much that we are less astonished; what once seemed a miracle or spell to some, is now considered a natural effect. It is one of the thousand ways by which Spiritism penetrates, so that, if it is stopped at one source, it emerges through other exits.

This faculty is thus not new, but it tends to generalize, undoubtedly for the reason indicated in the communication above, but also as a means of proving to the unbelievers the existence of the spiritual principle. According to the Spirits it would even become endemic, that would naturally be explained by the moral transformation of humanity, a transformation that must bring about modifications in the organism that will facilitate the expansion of the soul.



Like other mediumistic faculties, this one can be exploited by charlatanism. It is, therefore, good to be on guard against deception that could, for any reason whatsoever, try to simulate it, and to ensure, by all possible means, the good faith of those who claim to possess it. Besides the material and moral selflessness, and the notorious honorability of the person, that are the first guarantees, it is advisable to observe carefully the conditions and the circumstances in which the phenomenon occurs, and to see if they offer anything suspicious.

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[1] The Camisards, the French Huguenots of the 18^th Century (T.N.)

“When, following a terrible humanitarian convulsion, the whole society moved slowly, overwhelmed, crushed, and ignoring the cause of its depression, a few privileged beings, a few old veterans of good, pooling their experience regarding the difficulty in doing it, adding the respect that their conduct and their position should have aroused, resolved to seek to deepen the causes of this general crisis that touches each one in particular.



The new era begins, and with that Spiritism (this word was created; all that remains is to make it understood and to learn its meaning). Impassive time moves on, and Spiritism, that is no longer just a word, no longer needs to be understood: it is understood! ... But, a few veteran Spiritists, these creators, these missionaries, are still at the forefront of the movement… Their small battalion is very small in number, but patience! … it is gradually gaining members, and it will soon be an army: the army of veterans of good! Because, in general, Spiritism, at its beginning, in its first years, has almost always touched only hearts already worn out by the friction of life, hearts that had suffered and paid for, those that carried the principles of the beautiful, good, and great.



Descending successively from the old age to the middle age, from the middle age to adulthood and from adulthood to adolescence, Spiritism has infiltrated all ages, as all hearts, all religions, all sects, everywhere! Assimilation was slow, but steady! … And today, have no fear that this Spiritist flag will fall, held by a firm and sure hand, from the beginning; for today, the young phalanxes of the Spiritists battalions do not cry out, like their adversaries: "Make way for the young." No, they don't say, “Come out, old folks, to let the young ones take over.” They only ask for a place at the feast of intelligence, for the right to sit down next to their predecessors, and to bring their contribution to the great whole. Today, the youth is strengthening; it brings its contribution to the mature age in exchange for the experience of the latter, in the great law of reciprocity, and the consequences of the collective work for science, morality, good; because, ultimately, if science progresses, for whose benefit does it progress? Aren’t the human bodies that benefit from all the elucidations, all the problems solved, all the inventions made? That benefits everyone, just as if you progress in morality, it benefits all Spirits. So today, young people and old people are equal before progress and must fight side by side for its realization.



The battalion has become an army, an invulnerable army, but that must fight, not one but thousands of adversaries united against it. So, youngsters, bring with confidence the ardor of your convictions, and you, older ones, bring your wisdom, your knowledge of men and things, your experience without illusion.



The army is at the battle front. Your enemies are numerous, but they are not in front of you, face to face, chest to chest; they are everywhere, by your side, in front, behind, among you, in the very heart of your heart, and you have to fight them with your good will only, your loyal consciences and your tendencies for good. Of these united armies, one has a name: pride; the others: ignorance, fanaticism, superstition, laziness, vices of all kinds.



And your army, that must fight head-on, must also know how to fight, because you will not be one against one, but one against ten! … What a great victory to conquer! … Well! If you all fight together, with the hope of succeeding, fight yourselves first, overcome your bad tendencies; hypocrites, acquire sincerity; lazy, become workers; proud, be humble; extend your hand to loyalty, dressed in a ragged blouse, and all, in solidarity, take and keep the commitment to do to others what you would like to have them done to you. So, let us not cry make way for the young, but make way for all that is beautiful, good, all that tends to approach the Divinity.



Today, they are beginning to take it into account, this poor Spiritism that was said to be stillborn; one sees in it a serious enemy, but why is that? … One did not fear it, in the beginning, that weak child; they laughed at its powerless efforts; but today that the child has become a man, it is feared, because it has the strength of a mature age; it is because it has gathered around it persons of all ages, of all social positions, of all degrees of intelligence, who understand that wisdom, the acquired knowledge, may as well reside in the heart of a twenty-year old man, as in the brain of a man of sixty.



Thus, today this poor Spiritism is feared, dreaded; one does not dare to come in front, to measure oneself against it; they take the detours, the road of cowards! ... They do not come to say in daylight: you do not exist; they come among its supporters, speak like them, do like them, applaud and approve everything they do, when they are with them, to fight them and betray them when they have turned their back. Yes, this is what they are doing today! In the beginning, they said upfront what they thought of the sickly child, but today they dare no more, because it has grown up, and yet it has never shown its teeth.



If I am told to tell you this, although it is always painful to me, it is because it was useful; nothing, not a word, not a gesture, not a pitch of voice takes place without a reason, and without bringing their contribution to the general balance. The post office there is much smarter and more complete than that of your Earth; every word meets its goal, has its address, without an envelope, whereas among you, a letter without an envelope will never arrive.”



Observation: The above communication is, as we see, an application of what was said in the previous one, on the effect of clairvoyance, and it is not the only time that we have had the chance to observe the services that this faculty is called upon to render. This is not to say that blind faith should be added to all that can be said in such a case; there would be as much imprudence in believing the first comer, without reservation, as in despising the warnings that can be given by this way. The degree of confidence that can be added to it depends on the circumstances; this faculty needs to be studied; above all, we must act with caution, and beware of a hasty judgment.



As to the substance of the communication, its coincidence with what was given five months before, by another medium, and in another environment, is a fact worthy of notice, and we know that similar instructions are given in different centers. It is therefore prudent to be cautious with people on whose sincerity one does not have every reason to believe. The Spiritist, no doubt, have only highly avowed principles; they have nothing to hide; but what they have to fear is to see their words distorted and their intentions disguised; these are the traps set for their good faith by people who plead the false in order to know the true; who, under the appearances of a too exaggerated zeal to be sincere, attempt to lead groups into a compromising path, either to cause them embarrassment, or to do a disservice to the doctrine.

La Marionnette, a new newspaper in Lyon, published the following article in its June 30^th issue:



“We announce the arrival in Lyon of the anthropological and ethnological museum of Mr. A. Neger, successor of Mr. Th. Petersen.



Among other extraordinary things, we see in this wax museum:

1^st – an unfortunate princess of the Coromandel coast who, married to a great tribal chief, had the infamy of forgetting her marital duties with an overly attractive European, and died in London from a languor disease;



2^nd: Trichinae twenty times larger than normal, in all phases of their existence, from the earliest childhood to the most extreme old age;



3^rd: The famous Mexican Julia Pastrana who died in labor in Moscow in the year of grace 1860.



It was not without legitimate astonishment that we learned of this premature death - since in 1865 Julia Pastrana was engaged in equestrian exercises in a circus whose performances were given on the Cours Napoleon.



How can a woman who died in 1860 burst out through paper circles in 1865? Food for thought!



ALLAN KARDEC"





Having this issue been communicated to us, we addressed the following complaint to the director:



Sir,



They give me number 6 of your newspaper, where there is a signed article: Allan Kardec. I don't think I have an homonymous; in any case, as I only answer for what I write, I ask you to insert this letter in your next issue, in order to inform your readers that Mr. Allan Kardec, the author of The Spirits’ Book, is foreign to the article that bears his name, and that he does not authorize anyone to use it.



Receive, sir, my warm greetings.



ALLAN KARDEC



The newspaper editor immediately responded with the following:



Sir,



Our friend, Acariâtre, the author of the article signed by mistake with your name, has already complained about the clumsiness of the reviser. Here is the sentence: It makes Allan Kardec dream, reference to Spiritism. The embellishments of Lyon are all signed Acariâtre. In our next issue, we'll rectify this mistake.



Receive, sir, my warm regards.



E. B. Labaume



NOTE. This newspaper is published every Sunday at 5, cours Lafayette, in Lyon.

1 – Can we consider Spiritism as a revelation? In this case, what is its character? What is its authenticity based on? To whom and in what way was it made? Is the Spiritist doctrine a revelation, in the liturgical sense of the word, in other words, is it in every way the product of an occult teaching from above? Is it absolute or subject to change? By bringing the ready-made truth to men, wouldn't the revelation have the effect of preventing them from making use of their faculties, since it would spare them the work of research? What can be the authority of the teaching of the Spirits, if they are not infallible and superior to humanity? What is the utility of the morality they preach, if this morality is no other than that of Christ, that is known? What new truths are they bringing to us? Does man need a revelation, and can’t he find in himself and in his conscience all that is necessary for him to behave? These are the questions on which it is important to concentrate.



2 – Let us first define the meaning of the word revelation.

To reveal, derived from the word veil (from the Latin velum), literally means to remove the veil, and figuratively: to discover, to make known a secret or unknown thing. In its most general vulgar acceptation, it is said of anything ignored that comes to light, of any new idea put in the path of what one did not know.



From that point of view, all the sciences that allow us to know the mysteries of nature are revelations, and we can say that there is a never-ending revelation for us; astronomy has revealed to us the astral world, that we did not know; geology, the formation of earth; chemistry, the law of affinities; physiology, bodily functions, etc.; Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Laplace, Lavoisier, are revealers.



3 – The essential character of every revelation must be the truth. To reveal a secret is to make a fact known; if it is wrong, it is not a fact, and therefore there is no revelation. Any revelation contradicted by the facts is not a revelation; if it is attributed to God, since God is unable to lie or to be mistaken, it cannot emanate from Him; it should be seen as the product of personal opinion.



4 – What is the role of the teacher regarding his students, if not that of a revealer? He teaches them what they do not know, what they would neither have the time nor the possibility to discover by themselves, because science is the collective work of centuries and of a multitude of people, each one bringing their contingent of observations, and that benefit those that come after them. Teaching, therefore, is the revelation of certain scientific or moral, physical, or metaphysical truths, made by men who know them, to others that ignore them, and that would otherwise have always ignored them.



5 – But the teacher only teaches what he has learned: he is a second-order revealer; the man of genius teaches what he himself has found: he is the primitive revealer; he brings the light that is popularized step by step. Where would humanity be, without the revelation of the men of genius that appear from time to time?



But what are the men of genius? Why are they men of genius? Where do they come from? What are they becoming? Note that most of them bring transcendent faculties and innate knowledge at birth, that a little work is enough to develop. They really belong to humanity, since they are born, live and die like us. Where did they get this knowledge that they could not have acquired during their lifetime? Will we say, with the materialists, that chance gave them brain matter in greater quantity and of better quality? In that case, they would not have more merit than a vegetable bigger and tastier than another.



Will we say, with certain spiritualists, that God has endowed them with a more favored soul than that of the common man? An equally illogical assumption since it would accuse God of partiality. The only rational solution to this problem is in the preexistence of the soul and in the plurality of existences. The man of genius is a Spirit that has lived longer, who has, therefore, acquired more and progressed more than those who are less advanced. By incarnating, he brings what he knows, and as he knows much more than the others, without needing to learn, he is what we call a man of genius. But what he knows is nonetheless the fruit of previous work and not the result of a privilege. Before being reborn, therefore, he was an advanced Spirit; he reincarnates either to make others benefit from what he knows, or to acquire more.



Men undoubtedly progress by themselves and by the efforts of their intelligence; but, left to their own strength, this progress is very slow if they are not aided by more advanced men, as the schoolboy is by his teachers. All peoples have had their men of genius who have come, at various times, to give an impetus and to drive them out of their inertia.



6 – As soon as we admit the solicitude of God to his creatures, why not admit that Spirits capable of advancing humanity, by their energy and the superiority of their knowledge, incarnate, by the will of God, with the objective of helping progress in a determined direction; that they receive a mission, as an ambassador receives one from his sovereign? This is the role of the great geniuses. What do they come to do, if not to teach men truths that they do not know, and that they would have still ignored for long periods, giving them a footstool with the help of which they will be able to rise more quickly? These geniuses that appear through the centuries, like shining stars, leaving behind them a long shining trail upon humanity, are missionaries, or messiahs, if you will. If they did not teach men anything other than what these know, their presence would be completely useless; the new things that they teach, either in the physical order or in the philosophical order, are revelations.



If God requests revealers for scientific truths, God can, with even more reason, requests revealers for moral truths, that are one of the essential elements of progress. These are the philosophers whose ideas have traversed the centuries.



7 – In the special sense of religious faith, revelation is more particularly said of spiritual things that man cannot know for himself, that he cannot discover by means of his senses, and whose knowledge is given by God or by his messengers, either by direct speech or by inspiration. In this case, the revelation is always made to privileged men, designated under the name of prophets or messiahs, that is, envoys, missionaries, with the mission of transmitting it to men. Considered from this point of view, revelation implies absolute passivity; it is accepted without control, without examination, without discussion.



8 – All religions have had their revealers, and although all are far from having known the whole truth, they had their reasons for being providential, for they were appropriate to the time and environment in which they lived, to the particular genius of peoples to whom they spoke, and to whom they were relatively superior. Despite the errors of their doctrines, they nonetheless stirred minds, and by that very fact, sowed the seeds of progress that were to flourish later or will one day flourish in the sun of Christianity. It is, therefore, wrong that they are execrated in the name of orthodoxy, because a day will come when all these beliefs, so diverse in form, but that are in reality based on the same fundamental principle: God and the immortality of the soul, will merge into a great and vast unity, when reason has prevailed over prejudices.



Unfortunately, religions have always been instruments of domination; the role of prophets tempted secondary ambitions, and we saw the emergence of a multitude of so-called revealers or messiahs who, thanks to the prestige of this name, exploited credulity for the benefit of their pride, their greed or their laziness, finding it more convenient to live at the expenses of their victims. The Christian religion has not been immune to these parasites. On this subject, we call serious attention to chapter XXI of the Gospel according to Spiritism: “There will be false Christs and false prophets ".



9 – Are there direct revelations from God to men? This is a question that we would not dare to resolve either affirmatively or negatively, in an absolute manner. The thing is not radically impossible, but nothing gives a certain proof of it. What cannot be doubted is that the Spirits closest to God by perfection penetrate His thought and can transmit it. As for the incarnate revealers, depending on the hierarchical order to which they belong and the level of their personal knowledge, they may draw their instructions from their own knowledge, or receive them from more elevated Spirits, or even from direct messengers of God. These, speaking in the name of God, could sometimes be mistaken for God himself.



There is nothing strange about these kinds of communications to anyone that is familiar with the Spiritist phenomena, and the way by which the relationships between the incarnate and discarnate are established. The instructions can be conveyed by various means: by pure inspiration, by hearing the word, by seeing the teaching Spirits in visions and appearances, either in dreams or in the waking state as well, as we see many examples of it in the Bible, in the Gospel and in the sacred books of all peoples. It is therefore strictly correct to say that most revealers are inspired, hearing or seeing mediums; hence it does not follow that all mediums are revealers, and even less so the direct intermediaries of the Divinity or of its messengers.



10 – Pure Spirits alone receive the word of God with the mission of transmitting it; but we now know that Spirits are far from being all perfect, and that there are some that give themselves false appearances; this is what made St. John say: "Do not believe in every Spirit, but see first whether the Spirits are of God." (Epistle 1, chap. IV, v. 4.)



So, there can be serious and true revelations, as there are apocrypha and false ones. The essential character of the divine revelation is that of eternal truth. Any revelation tainted with error or subject to change cannot emanate from God. Thus, the law of the Decalogue has all the characteristics of its origin, while the other Mosaic laws, essentially transitory, often in contradiction with the law of the Sinai, are the personal and political work of the Hebrew legislator. The morals of the people softening, these laws have themselves fallen into disuse, while the Decalogue has remained standing as the beacon of humanity. Christ made it the basis of his edifice, while he abolished the other laws; if they had been the work of God, he would have been careful not to touch them. Christ and Moses are the two great revealers that changed the face of the world, and that is the proof of their divine mission. A purely human work would not have such power.



11 – An important revelation is taking place in the present day; it is the one that shows us the possibility of communicating with the beings of the spiritual world. This knowledge is not new, no doubt, but it had remained in the state of a dead letter until our days, that is, of no benefit to humanity. The ignorance of the laws governing these relationships had muffled it under superstition; man was incapable of drawing any healthy deduction from it; it was reserved to our time to rid it from its ridiculous accessories, to understand its reach, and to bring out the light that was to illuminate the road of the future.



12 – Having Spiritism allowed us to know the invisible world that surrounds us, and in the midst of which we live without suspecting it, the laws that govern it, its relationships with the visible world, the nature and the state of the beings that inhabit it, and consequently the destiny of man after death, it is a real revelation in the scientific acceptance of the word.



13 – By its nature, the Spiritist revelation has a double character; it is, at the same time, a divine revelation, and a scientific revelation. It derives from the first, in that its advent is providential, and not the result of man's initiative and premeditated design; for the fundamental points of the doctrine are the fact of the teaching given by the Spirits, assigned by God to enlighten men on things that they did not know, that they could not learn by themselves, and that it is important for them to know today, that they are mature to understand them. It derives from the second, in that this teaching is not the privilege of any individual, but that it is given to everyone by the same means; that those who transmit it and those who receive it are not passive beings, exempt from the work of observation and research; that they do not renounce their judgment and their free will; that control is not forbidden to them, but on the contrary recommended; finally, that the doctrine was not dictated in all parts, nor imposed on a blind belief; that it is deduced, by the work of man, from the observation of the facts that the Spirits put before his eyes, and of the instructions that they give him, instructions that he studies, comments on, compares, and from which he himself draws the consequences and applications. In a word, what characterizes the Spiritist revelation is that its source is divine, that the initiative belongs to the Spirits, and that the development is the work of man.



14 – As a means of elaboration, Spiritism proceeds exactly in the same way as the positive sciences, that is, it applies the experimental method. Facts of a new order are presented, that cannot be explained by the known laws; he observes them, compares them, analyzes them, and from the effects going back to the causes, he arrives at the law that governs them, then he deduces the consequences and seeks useful applications. He does not establish any preconceived theory; thus he did not present as a hypothesis neither the existence nor the intervention of Spirits, nor the perispirit, nor reincarnation, nor any of the principles of the doctrine; he concluded by the existence of Spirits when this existence emerged with evidence from the observation of the facts, as with the other principles. It was not the facts that subsequently came to confirm the theory, but the theory that subsequently came to explain and summarize the facts. It is, therefore, strictly correct to say that Spiritism is a science of observation, and not the product of imagination.



15 – Let us cite an example. A very singular fact that takes place in the world of the Spirits, and which certainly no one would have suspected, is that of Spirits who do not believe themselves to be dead. Well! the superior Spirits, who know this perfectly well, have not come to say, in anticipation: “There are Spirits that still believe they are living the earthly life; who have retained their tastes, habits and instincts;” But they provoked the manifestation of Spirits of that category, to make us observe them. Having thus seen Spirits uncertain of their state or affirming that they were still of this world, and believing to go about their ordinary businesses, from the example one concluded with the rule. The multiplicity of analogous facts has proved that this was not an exception, but one of the phases of the spiritual life; it has made it possible to study all the varieties and causes of this singular illusion; to recognize that this situation is particularly common to Spirits that are not very advanced morally, and to certain kinds of death; that it is only temporary, but can last for days, months and years. This is how the theory was born from the observation. The same is true to all other principles of the doctrine.



16 – Just as science, properly called, has for its object the study of the laws of the material principle, the special object of Spiritism is the knowledge of the laws of the spiritual principle; now, as this last principle is one of the forces of nature, that reacts incessantly on the material principle and vice versa, it follows that the knowledge of one cannot be complete without the knowledge of the other; that Spiritism and science complement each other; that science without Spiritism is unable to explain certain phenomena by the sole laws of matter, and that it is for having disregarded the spiritual principle that it has stopped at so many dead ends; that Spiritism without science would lack support and control, and could feed illusions. If Spiritism had appeared before scientific discoveries, it would have been an aborted work, like everything that comes before its time.



17 – All the sciences are linked and follow one another in a rational order; they arise from each other, as they find a support in previous ideas and knowledge. Astronomy, one of the first to be cultivated, remained in the errors of childhood until the time when physics came to reveal the law of the forces of the natural agents; chemistry, being unable to do anything without physics, had to succeed it closely, to then work in concert, leaning on one another. Anatomy, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, have only become serious sciences with the help of the insights brought by physics and chemistry. Geology, born yesterday, without astronomy, physics, chemistry and all the others, would have lacked its true elements of vitality; it could only come afterwards.



18 – Modern science has done justice to the four primitive elements of Ancient times, and from observation to observation, it has arrived at the conception of a single element generating all the transformations of matter; but matter, by itself, is inert; it has no life, no thought, no feeling; it needs its union with the spiritual principle. Spiritism neither discovered nor invented this principle, but it was the first to demonstrate it by irrefutable proofs; Spiritism studied it, analyzed it, and turned its action obvious. To the material element, it came to add the spiritual element. Material element and spiritual element, these are now the two principles, the two living forces of nature. By the indissoluble union of these two elements one can easily explain a host of facts hitherto inexplicable.



By its very essence, and as having as its object of study one of the two constitutive elements of the universe, Spiritism necessarily touches most of the sciences; it could only come after the elaboration of these sciences, and above all after they had demonstrated their inability to explain everything by the sole laws of matter.



19 – Spiritism is accused of being related to magic and witchcraft; but we forget that the ancestor of astronomy is judicial astrology, that is not so far from us; that chemistry is the daughter of alchemy, that no rational man would dare deal with today. No one denies, however, that there was, in astrology and alchemy, the germ of truths from which the current sciences have sprung. Despite its ridiculous formulas, alchemy has set the path for simple bodies and the law of affinities; astrology was based on the position and movement of the stars it had studied; but due to the ignorance of the true laws that govern the mechanism of the universe, the stars were, to the uneducated, mysterious beings to which superstition lent a moral influence and a revealing meaning. When Galileo, Newton, Keppler had these laws known, that the telescope had torn the veil, and plunged into the depths of space a glance, that some people found indiscreet, the planets appeared to us as simple worlds similar to ours, and the whole scaffolding of the marvelous collapsed.



It is the same with Spiritism with regard to magic and witchcraft; these were also based on the manifestation of Spirits, like astrology was on the movement of the stars; but due to the ignorance of the laws that govern the spiritual world, they mixed with these relationships ridiculous practices and beliefs, of which modern Spiritism, fruit of experience and observation, has done justice. Certainly, the distance that separates Spiritism from magic and witchcraft is greater than that between astronomy and astrology, chemistry and alchemy; the wish to confuse them is to prove that one does not know the alphabet.

20 – The mere fact of the possibility of communicating with beings of the spiritual world has incalculable consequences, of the highest gravity; a whole new world is revealed to us, and that is all the more important because it reaches all men, without exception. This knowledge cannot fail to bring about, by being generalized, a profound modification in the manners, in the character, in the habits, and in the beliefs that have such a great influence on social relationships. A whole revolution is taking place in the ideas, a revolution that is all the greater, all the more powerful, because it is not confined to a people, to a caste, but that it simultaneously reaches all classes, all nationalities, all cults through the heart.

It is therefore with good reason that Spiritism is considered the third great revelation. Let us see how they differ, and by which link they relate to each other.



21 – As a prophet, Moses revealed the knowledge of a unique God to men, sovereign master and creator of all things; he promulgated the law of Sinai and laid the foundations of true faith; as a man, he was the legislator of the people by whom this primitive faith, by purifying itself, was one day to spread over the whole world.



22 – Jesus Christ, taking from the old law what is eternal and divine, and rejecting what was only transitory, purely disciplinary and of human conception, adds the revelation of the future life, of which Moses had not spoken, and the penalties and rewards that await man after death. (See Spiritist Review, 1861).



23 – The most important part of the revelation of Christ, in the sense that it is the first source, the cornerstone of all his doctrine, is the completely new point of view from which he makes us consider the divinity. It is no longer the terrible, jealous, vindictive God of Moses, the cruel and merciless God that waters earth with human blood, who orders the massacre and extermination of peoples, not excluding women, children and the elderly; who chastises those who spare the victims; it is no longer the unjust God that punishes a whole people for the fault of their leader, that retaliates the guilty one on the person of the innocent, that harms the children for the fault of their parents, but a merciful God, sovereignly righteous and good, full of compassion and mercy, that forgives a repentant sinner, and repays each according to their works; it is no longer the God of a single privileged people, the God of armies presiding over the battles to support his own cause against the God of other peoples, but the common father of mankind who extends his protection over all his children, and calls them all to him; it is no longer the God who only rewards and punishes with the goods of earth, who makes glory and happiness consist in the enslavement of rival peoples, and in the multiplicity of progenies, but who says to men: "Your true homeland is not in this world, it is in the celestial kingdom; there the humble in heart will be exalted and the proud will be humbled." It is no longer the God that turns vengeance into a virtue, and orders to give back eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but the God of mercy who says: "Forgive offenses if you want to be forgiven; return good for evil; do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you.” It is no longer the petty and meticulous God who imposes, under the most rigorous penalties, the way in which he wants to be worshiped, who takes offense at the non-observance of a formula, but the great God that looks at thought and does not take pride in the form; Finally, it is no longer the God that wants to be feared, but the God that wants to be loved.



24 – God being the pivot of all religious beliefs, the goal of all cults, the character of all religions is consistent with the idea they make of God. Those who make him a vindictive and cruel God believe they honor him by acts of cruelty, by stake and torture; those who make him a partial and jealous God are intolerant; they are more or less meticulous in form, according to whether they believe it to be more or less tainted with human weaknesses and pettiness.











25. All the doctrine of Christ is founded on the character that he attributes to the Divinity. With an impartial God, supremely just, good and merciful, he was able to make the love of God and charity towards the neighbor the express condition of salvation, and say: This is all the law and the prophets, There's no other. On this belief alone, he was able to establish the principle of the equality of men before God, and that of universal brotherhood.



This revelation of the true attributes of the divinity, joined to that of the immortality of the soul and of the future life, profoundly modified the mutual relationships between men, imposed on them new obligations, made them consider the present life in a different light. It was, by that very fact, a whole revolution in the ideas, a revolution that was bound to react on manners and social relationships. It is incontestably, by its consequences, the most capital point of the revelation of Christ, and of which one has not sufficiently understood the importance; It is regrettable to say it, it is also the one from which one has deviated the most, that one has misunderstood the most in the interpretation of his teachings.



26 – However, Christ adds: Many of the things I am telling you, you cannot understand yet, and I would have many more to tell you that you would not understand; therefore, I speak to you in parables; but later I will send you the Consoler, the Spirit of Truth who will restore all things and explain them all to you.



If Christ did not say all that he could have said, it is because he believed he had to leave certain truths in the shade, until men were able to understand them. By his admission, his teaching was therefore incomplete, since he announces the coming of the one who must complete it; he, therefore, foresaw that one would misunderstand his words, that one would deviate from his teaching, in a word, that one would undo what he had done, since everything must be restored; well, one can only restore what has been undone.



27 – Why does he call the new messiah the Consoler? This meaningful and unambiguous name is quite a revelation. He, therefore, foresaw that men would need consolations, that implies the insufficiency of those that they would find in the belief they were going to acquire. Never, perhaps, has Christ been clearer and more explicit than in these last words, to which few people have taken notice, perhaps because they have avoided to bring them to light and to deepen their prophetic meaning.



28 – If Christ could not develop his teaching in a complete way, it is because men lacked knowledge that they could only acquire with time, and without which they could not understand it; there are things that would have seemed nonsense, in the state of knowledge of that time. Completing one's teaching, therefore, must be understood in the sense of explaining and developing, much more than in that of adding new truths, for everything is there in germ; the key to grasp the meaning of his words was missing.



29 – But who dares to allow oneself to interpret the sacred Scriptures? Who has that right? Who has the necessary enlightenment, if not the theologians? Who dares? To begin with, science that does not ask permission from anyone to make the laws of nature known, jumping with both feet over errors and prejudices. Who has this right? In this century of intellectual emancipation and freedom of conscience, the right of examination belongs to everyone, and the Scriptures are no longer the holy ark that no one dared to touch, without risking being smashed. As for the special enlightenment necessary, without contesting those of the theologians, and however enlightened were those of the Middle Ages, and in particular the Fathers of the Church, they were not sufficient enough not to condemn, as heresy, the movement of earth and the belief in the antipodes; and without going back so far, haven't those of our day cast anathema to the periods of formation of earth?



Men could only explain the Scriptures with the help of what they knew, with the false or incomplete notions they had about the laws of nature, later revealed by science; this is why theologians themselves have been able, in very good faith, to misunderstand the meaning of certain words and certain facts of the Gospel. Wanting to find there, at all costs, the confirmation of a preconceived thought, they always walked around in the same circle, without leaving their point of view, so that they saw there only what they wanted to see. However wise those theologians were, they could not understand the causes that depend on laws they did not know.



But who will be the judge of the various, and often contradictory, interpretations given outside of theology? The future, logic, and common sense. Men, more and more enlightened, as new facts and new laws come to light, will know how to distinguish between utopian systems and reality; now, science makes certain laws known; Spiritism makes others; both are essential for the understanding of the sacred texts of all religions, from Confucius and Buddha to Christianity. As for theology, it cannot judiciously point at the contradictions of science, when it does not always agree with itself.



30 – Spiritism taking its point of departure from the very words of Christ, as Christ took his from Moses, it is a direct consequence of his doctrine.



To the vague idea of the future life, he adds the revelation of the existence of the invisible world that surrounds us and populates the space, and by this it defines the belief; it gives it a body, a consistency, a reality in thought. It defines the bonds that unite the soul and the body and lifts the veil that hid from men the mysteries of birth and death.



Through Spiritism, man knows where he comes from, where he is going, why he is on earth, why he suffers there temporarily, and he sees the justice of God everywhere. He knows that the soul is constantly progressing through a series of successive existences, until it has reached the degree of perfection that can bring it closer to God.



He knows that all souls, having the same starting point, are created equal, with the same ability to progress by virtue of their free will; that all are of the same essence, and that the only difference that there is between them is the accomplished progress; that all have the same destiny and will reach the same goal, more or less rapidly, according to their work and their good will.



He knows that there are no disinherited creatures, nor one more favored than the other; that God has not created any who are privileged and exempt from the work imposed on others, in order to progress; that there are no beings perpetually doomed to evil and suffering; that those designated under the name of demons are Spirits, still belated and imperfect, who do evil in the state of Spirits, as they did in the state of men, but who will advance and improve; that the angels or pure Spirits are not beings apart in creation, but Spirits who have reached the goal, after having followed the path of progress; that thus, there are no multiple creations of different categories among the intelligent beings, but that all creation emerges from the great law of unity that governs the universe, and that all beings gravitate towards a common goal, that is perfection, without some being favored at the expense of others, for all are the children of their own works.



31 – By the relationships that man can now establish with those who have left the earth, he not only has the material proof of the existence and the individuality of the soul, but he understands the solidarity that connects the living and the dead of this world, and those of this world with those of other worlds. He knows their situation in the world of the Spirits; he follows them in their migrations; he witnesses their joys and their sorrows; he knows why they are happy or unhappy, and the fate that awaits him, according to the good or the bad he does. These relationships initiate him into the future life, that he can observe in all its phases, in all its vicissitudes; the future is no longer a vague hope: it is a positive fact, a mathematical certainty. Then, there is nothing scary about death anymore because it is freedom for him, the door to true life.



32 – By studying the situation of the Spirits, man knows that happiness and unhappiness in the spiritual life are inherent to the degree of perfection and imperfection; that each one suffers the direct and natural consequences of their faults, in other words, that one is punished where one has sinned; that these consequences last as long as the cause that produced them; that thus, the guilty one would suffer eternally if he persisted in evil eternally, but that suffering ceases with repentance and reparation; Now, as it depends on each one to improve oneself, each one can, by virtue of one’s free will, prolong or shorten their sufferings, as the patient suffers from his excesses, as long as he does not put an end to them.



33 – If reason rejects, as incompatible with the goodness of God, the idea of irremissible, perpetual and absolute punishments, often inflicted for a single fault, of the punishments of hell that cannot be softened by the most ardent and the most sincere repentance, it bows before this distributive and impartial justice, that takes everything into account, that never closes the door of returning, and ceaselessly extends its hand to the castaway, instead of pushing him back into the abyss.



34 – The plurality of existences, of which Christ laid down the principle in the Gospel, but without defining it more than many others, is one of the most important laws revealed by Spiritism, in the sense that it demonstrates its reality and its need for progress. By this law, man can understand all the apparent anomalies presented by human life; differences in social position; premature deaths that, without reincarnation, would make shortened lives useless to the soul; the inequality of intellectual and moral aptitudes, by the seniority of the Spirit, that has lived more or less, learned and progressed more or less, and that through rebirth, brings the achievements of previous existences. (No. 5).



35 – With the doctrine of the creation of the soul at each birth, we fall back into the system of privileged creations; men are strangers to each other, nothing links them, and family ties are purely carnal; they are not in solidarity with a past in which they did not exist; with that of nothingness after death, all relationships ceases with life; they are not united in the future. Through reincarnation, they are linked with the past and the future; their relationships are perpetuated in the spiritual world and in the corporeal world, and fraternity is based on the very laws of nature; good has an objective, evil has its inevitable consequences.



36 – With reincarnation, prejudices of races and castes fall, since the same Spirit can be reborn rich or poor, great lord or proletarian, master or subordinate, free or slave, man or woman. Of all the arguments invoked against the injustice of servitude and slavery, against the subjection of women to the law of the strongest, there is none that logically takes precedence over the material fact of reincarnation. If, therefore, reincarnation bases the principle of universal brotherhood on a law of nature, it bases on the same law the equality of social rights, and consequently that of liberty.



Men are born inferior and subordinate only through the body; by the Spirit they are equal and free. Hence, the duty to treat inferiors with kindness, benevolence and humanity, because he who is our subordinate today, may have been our equal or our superior, perhaps a relative or a friend, and in turn we may become the subordinate of the one we command.



37 – Take away from man the free Spirit, independent, outliving matter, and you make an organized machine, without objective, without responsibility, without any restraint other than the civil law, and good to exploit like an intelligent animal. Expecting nothing after death, nothing stops him from increasing the pleasures of the present; if he suffers, he has by perspective only despair and nothingness for refuge. With the certainty of the future, that of finding those he loved, the fear of seeing again those he has offended, all his ideas change. If Spiritism had only taken the doubt away from man, concerning the future life, it would have done more for his moral improvement than all disciplinary laws that sometimes restrain him, but do not change him.



38 – Without the preexistence of the soul, the doctrine of original sin is not only irreconcilable with the justice of God, that would make all men responsible for the fault of one, but it would also be nonsense, and much less justifiable, since the soul did not exist at the time when it is claimed to be responsible. With pre-existence and reincarnation, by being reborn man brings the germ of his past imperfections, defects that he has not corrected, and that are reflected in his innate instincts, his propensities for such and such a vice. This is his true original sin, the consequences of which he naturally suffers, but with the fundamental difference that he bears the penalty for his own faults, and not for the fault of another; and this other difference, at the same time consoling, encouraging, and supremely equitable, that each existence offers him the means to redeem himself by reparation, and to progress either by shedding some imperfection, or by acquiring new knowledge, and that until he is sufficiently purified, and he no longer needs the bodily life, and can live exclusively the spiritual, eternal, and blessed life.



For the same reason, he who has progressed morally brings, by being reborn, innate qualities, just as he who has progressed intellectually brings innate ideas; he is identified with the good; he practices it without effort, without calculation, and so to speak without thinking about it. Whoever is obliged to fight his evil tendencies is still in the struggle; the first has already won, the second is in the winning path. The same cause produces original sin and original virtue.



39 – Experimental Spiritism has studied the properties of spiritual fluids and their action on matter. It demonstrated the existence of the perispirit, suspected since antiquity, and designated by Saint Paul under the name of Spiritual Body, that is the fluidic body of the soul after the destruction of the tangible body. We know today that this envelope is inseparable from the soul; that it is one of the constitutive elements of the human being; that it is the vehicle for the transmission of thought, and that, during the life of the body, it serves as a link between Spirit and matter. The perispirit plays an important role in the organism and in a host of illnesses, that it is linked as much to physiology as to psychology.



40 – The study of the properties of the perispirit, of the spiritual fluids and of the physiological attributes of the soul, opens up new horizons to science, and gives the key to a host of phenomena hitherto misunderstood for lack of knowledge of the law that governs them, phenomena denied by materialism, because they are linked to spirituality, qualified by others as miracles or spells, according to beliefs. Such are, among others, the phenomena of double sight, sight at a distance, natural and artificial somnambulism, psychic effects of catalepsy and lethargy, premonition, presentiments, apparitions, transfigurations, the transmission of thought, fascination, instantaneous healings, obsessions and possessions, etc. By demonstrating that these phenomena are based on laws as natural as the electrical phenomena, and the normal conditions in which they can be produced, Spiritism destroys the empire of the marvelous and the supernatural, and consequently the source of most superstitions. If it leads to the belief in the possibility of certain things regarded by some as chimerical, it prevents believing in many others whose impossibility and irrationality it demonstrates.



41 – Spiritism, far from denying or destroying the Gospel, it on the contrary confirms, explains and develops, by the new laws of nature that it reveals, all that Christ said and did; it sheds light on the obscure points of his teaching, so that those for whom certain parts of the Gospel were unintelligible, or seemed unacceptable, understand them without difficulty, with the help of Spiritism, and admit them; they see its significance better, and can distinguish between the reality and the allegory; Christ seems greater to them: he is no longer simply a philosopher, he is a divine Messiah.



42 – If we additionally consider the moralizing power of Spiritism, by the goal that it assigns to all the actions of life, by the consequences of the good and the bad that it makes tangible; the moral strength, courage, the consolations that it gives in sufferings, by an unalterable confidence in the future, by the thought of having around us the loved ones, by the assurance of seeing them again, the possibility of speaking with them, finally by the certainty of all that one does, of all that one acquires in intelligence, in science, in morality, until the last hour of life, that nothing is lost, that everything benefits the advancement, it is then recognized that Spiritism fulfills all the promises of Christ regarding the announced Consoler. Now, as it is the Spirit of Truth that presides over the great movement of regeneration, the promise of his coming is also fulfilled, for he is the true Consoler.^[2]



43 – If, to these results, we add the incredible speed of the propagation of Spiritism, despite everything that has been done to destroy it, we cannot deny that its coming is providential, since it succeeds over all forces and all human ill-will. The ease with which it is accepted by such a large number, and that without constraint, and without other resources than the power of the idea, proves that it responds to a need: that of believing, after the void created by skepticism, and that therefore it has come in due time.



44 – The afflicted are in great number, so it is not surprising that so many people welcome a doctrine that consoles in preference to those that despair; for it is to the underprivileged, more than to the happy ones in the world, that Spiritism is addressed. The patient sees the doctor coming with more joy than the one who is doing well; now the afflicted are sick ones, and the Consoler is the physician.



You who fight Spiritism, if you want people to leave it to follow you, give more and better than it does; heal wounds of the soul more surely; be like the merchant who, to fight against a competitor, gives better quality and cheaper merchandise. Give, therefore, more consolations, more satisfactions of the heart, more legitimate hopes, greater certainties; make the future a more rational, more attractive picture, but do not think of defeating it with the prospect of the nothingness, with the alternative of the flames of hell or the heavenly and useless perpetual contemplation. What would you say of a merchant who calls crazy all customers who don't want his merchandise and go to the next door? You do the same by accusing of madness and ineptitude all those who do not want your doctrines, that they are wrong in not finding it to their liking.^[3]

45 – The first revelation was personified in Moses, the second in Christ, the third is not in any individual. The first two are individual, the third is collective; this is an essential character of great importance. It is collective in the sense that it was not made by privilege to anyone; that no one, therefore, can call himself the exclusive prophet. It was done simultaneously all over the world, to millions of people, of all ages, all times and conditions, from the lowest to the highest of the ladder, according to this prediction reported by the author of the Acts of the Apostles: “In the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy; your youngsters will have visions, and the old ones will have dreams.” It did not come out of any special cult, in order to one day serve as a point of connection to all.[4]

46 – The first two revelations being the product of a personal teaching, they were necessarily localized, that is to say that they took place on a single point, around which the idea spread gradually; but it took many centuries for them to reach the ends of the world, without invading it entirely. The third is unique in that, not being personified in an individual, it has occurred simultaneously at thousands of different points, all of which have become centers or foci of radiation. As these centers multiply, their rays come together little by little, like circles formed by a multitude of stones thrown into the water; so that, in a given time, they will end up covering the entire surface of the globe.



This is one of the causes of the rapid spread of the doctrine. If it had ascended on a single point, if it had been the exclusive work of a man, it would have formed a sect around him; but perhaps half a century would have passed before it had reached the limits of the country where it would have originated, while after ten years it has milestones planted from one pole to the other.



47 – This unprecedented circumstance in the history of doctrines, gives it an exceptional force and an irresistible power of action; indeed, if one suppresses it at one point, in a country, it is materially impossible to suppress it at all the points, in all countries. For a place where it will be hampered, there will be a thousand nearby where it will flourish. Moreover, if an individual is affected, one cannot reach the Spirits who are its source. Now, since the Spirits are everywhere, and there will always be some, if it was to stifle it all over the globe – what seems impossible to us, it would reappear sometime later, because it is based on a fact, and that fact is in nature, and one cannot suppress the laws of nature. This is what those who dream of the annihilation of Spiritism must be convinced. (Spiritist Review, February 1865: Perpetuity of Spiritism).



48 – However, these scattered centers could have remained isolated from one another for a long time, confined as some are in distant countries. A link was needed between them, that would put them in communion of thoughts with their brothers in belief, by teaching them what was being done elsewhere. This link, that Spiritism would have lacked in antiquity, is to be found in the publications that go everywhere, that condense, in a single, concise, and methodical form, the teaching given everywhere in multiple forms and in various languages.



49 – The first two revelations could only be the result of direct teaching; they were to be imposed on the faith by the authority of the word of the teacher, for men were not sufficiently advanced to contribute to their elaboration. Let us note, however, a very perceptible nuance between them that is due to the progress of manners and ideas, although they were made among the same people and in the same environment, but almost eighteen centuries apart. The doctrine of Moses is absolute, despotic; it does not admit discussion and is imposed on all the people by force. That of Jesus is essentially counselling; it is freely accepted and is imposed only by persuasion; it was controversial even during the very lifetime of its founder, who did not refuse to discuss with his adversaries.

50 – The third revelation came at a time of emancipation and intellectual maturity, when the developed intelligence cannot be reduced to a passive role, where man does not accept anything blindly, but wants to see where he is led, to know the why and the how of everything; it had to be, at the same time, the product of a teaching and the fruit of the work, the research and free examination. The Spirits only teach what is precisely needed to set in the path of truth, but they refrain from revealing what man can find by himself, leaving him to discuss, control and to submit everything to the crucible of reason, often even letting him acquire experience at his own expense. They give him the principle, the materials, being up to him to take advantage of and implement them (No. 15).



51 – The elements of the Spiritist revelation having been given simultaneously on a multitude of points, to men of all social conditions and of various degrees of education, it is quite obvious that the observations could not be made everywhere with the same results; that the consequences to be drawn from them, the deduction from the laws that govern this order of phenomena, in a word, the conclusion that was to establish the ideas, could only arise from the whole and the correlation of the facts. However, each isolated center, circumscribed in a restricted circle, most often only seeing a particular order of facts, sometimes apparently contradictory, generally having to deal only with the same category of Spirits, and moreover hampered by local influences and by the spirit of party, found themselves in the material impossibility of embracing the whole and, by that very fact, powerless to relate, in isolation, observations to a common principle. Each appreciating the facts from the point of view of their previous knowledge and beliefs, or of the particular opinion of the Spirits that manifest themselves, there would soon be as many theories and systems as there were centers, and none of which could be complete, due to a lack of elements of comparison and control.



52 – It should also be noted that nowhere has the Spiritist teaching been given in a complete manner; it touches such a great a number of observations, on subjects so diverse that require either knowledge or special mediumistic aptitudes, that it would have been impossible to combine on the same point all the necessary conditions. Since the teaching had to be collective and not individual, the Spirits divided the work by disseminating the subjects of study and observation, as in certain factories the making of each part of the same object is distributed between different workers.



The revelation was thus made partially, in various places and by a multitude of intermediaries, and it is in this way that it is still going on at this time, for all is not revealed. Each center finds, in the other centers, the complement of what it obtains, and it is the whole, the coordination of all the partial teachings, which constituted the Spiritist Doctrine.



It was therefore necessary to group the scattered facts to see their correlation, to gather the various documents, the instructions given by the Spirits on all points and on all subjects, to compare them, analyze them, study their analogies and differences. The communications being given by Spirits of all kinds, more or less enlightened, it was necessary to appreciate the degree of confidence that reason allowed to grant them, to distinguish the systematic individual and isolated ideas from those that had the sanction of the general teaching of the Spirits, utopias from practical ideas; to prune those that were notoriously contradicted by the data of positive science and sound logic; to use the very errors, the information furnished by even the lowest Spirits, for the knowledge of the state of the invisible world, and to form a homogeneous whole. In short, it was necessary a center of development, independent of any preconceived idea, any sectarian prejudice, resolved to accept the truth that had become evident, even if it were contrary to one’s personal opinions. This center was formed by itself, by the force of circumstances, and without premeditated design.^[5]

53 – From this state of things, resulted a double current of ideas: some going from the extremities to the center, the others returning from the center to the circumference. This is how the doctrine quickly marched towards unity, despite the diversity of the sources from which it emanated; that the divergent systems have gradually fallen, by the fact of their isolation, before the ascendancy of the opinion of the majority, for lack of finding sympathetic echoes there. A communion of thoughts was therefore established between the different partial centers; speaking the same spiritual language, they understand and sympathize from one end of the world to the other.



The Spiritist found themselves stronger, they fought with more courage, they walked with a more assured step, when they no longer saw themselves isolated, when they felt a fulcrum, a link that united them to the big family; the phenomena they witnessed no longer seemed strange to them, abnormal, contradictory, when they were able to relate them to general laws of harmony, to embrace the edifice at a glance, and to see in all this whole a great and humanitarian goal.^[6]



54. - There is no science that has sprouted from the brain of a man; all, without exception, are the product of successive observations based on previous observations, like from a known point to arrive at the unknown. This is how the Spirits proceeded with Spiritism; that is why their teaching is progressive; they only tackle questions when the principles on which they are to be based are sufficiently developed, and when public opinion is ripe to assimilate them. It is even remarkable that whenever particular centers have tried to tackle questions prematurely, they have only obtained contradictory and inconclusive answers. When, on the contrary, the favorable moment has come, the teaching is identical in the whole line, in the almost universality of the centers.



There is, however, between the progress of Spiritism and that of the sciences, a fundamental difference, it is that the latter reached the point where they are only after long intervals, whereas it was enough to a few years to Spiritism, if not to reach the climax, at least to collect a large enough sum of observations suitable to constitute a doctrine. This is due to the innumerable multitude of Spirits who, by the will of God, have manifested themselves simultaneously, each bringing the contingent of their knowledge. It resulted from this that all the parts of the doctrine, instead of being worked out successively during several centuries, were worked out more or less simultaneously in a few years, and that it was enough to group them together to form a whole. God wished it to be so, first so that the building would reach the summit more quickly; second, so that we can, by comparison, have an almost immediate and permanent control over the universality of the teaching, each part having value and authority only through its connection with the whole, all having to harmonize, and each arriving in its own time and in its own place. By not entrusting to a single Spirit the care of the promulgation of the doctrine, God further wished that the smallest, as well as the greatest, among the Spirits as among men, should bring their stone to the edifice, in order to establish between them a bond of cooperative solidarity, that was lacking in all the doctrines that emerged from a single source. On the other hand, each Spirit, as well as each man, having only a limited amount of knowledge, individually they were incapable of treating as experts the innumerable questions that touch Spiritism; this is also why the doctrine, to fulfill the designs of the Creator, could not be the work of either one Spirit or one medium; it could only come out of the collectivity of works, controlled by one another. (See in the Gospel according to Spiritism, Introduction, part VI, and Spiritist Review, April 1864: Authority of the Spiritist doctrine; universal control of the teaching of Spirits).



55 – A final character of the Spiritist revelation, and that emerges from the very conditions in which it is made, is that, being based on facts, it is and can only be essentially progressive, like all sciences of observation. By its very essence, it establishes an alliance with science, that being the exposition of the laws of nature, in a certain order of facts, it cannot be contrary to the will of God, the author of these laws. The discoveries of science glorify God instead of lowering him; they only destroy what men have built on the misconceptions they have of God. Spiritism, therefore, poses as absolute principle only what is demonstrated by evidence, or what logically emerges from observation. Touching on all the branches of the social economy, to which it lends the support of its own discoveries, it will always assimilate all the progressive doctrines, of whatever order, that have reached the status of practical truths, coming out of the realm of utopia, otherwise it would commit suicide; by ceasing to be what it is, it would be lying to its origin and its providential goal. Spiritism, marching with progress, will never be overwhelmed, because, if new discoveries showed that it is in error on one point, it would modify itself on that point; if a new truth comes to light, it accepts it.^[7]

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[1] This article is an excerpt from a new book we are currently sending to press, and that will be out before the end of this year. A matter of opportunity has prompted us to publish this extract in advance in the Spiritist Review; despite its length, we felt it necessary to insert it all at once so as not to interrupt the flow of ideas. The entire work will be the size and volume of Heaven and Hell.






[2] Many parents deplore the premature death of children for whose education they have made great sacrifices and say to themselves that all has been a waste. With Spiritism, they do not regret these sacrifices, and would be ready to make them, even with the certainty of seeing their children die, because they know that, if the latter do not benefit from this education in the present, it will serve, first to their advancement as Spirits, then that it will be so much acquired for a new existence, and that when they return, they will have an intellectual baggage that will make them more capable of acquiring new knowledge. Such are these children who bring innate ideas at birth, and who know without, so to speak, needing to learn. If, as parents, they do not have the immediate satisfaction of seeing their children putting this education to good use, they will certainly enjoy it later, either as Spirits or as men. Perhaps they will once again be the parents of these same children who are happily said to be gifted by nature, and who owe their aptitudes to a previous education; as also, if children turn out badly as a result of the neglect of their parents, they may have to suffer later through the troubles and sorrows that they will bring to them in a new existence.




[3] Isn't Spiritism contrary to the dogmatic belief concerning the nature of Christ, and in this case, can it be said to be the complement of the Gospel, if it contradicts it? The solution to this question affects Spiritism only in an accessory way, for it does not have to concern itself with the particular dogmas of such or such religion; a simple philosophical doctrine, it poses itself neither as a champion nor as a systematic adversary of any cult, and leaves to each one their own belief. The question of the nature of Christ is capital, from a Christian point of view; it cannot be treated lightly, and it is not the personal opinions of either men or Spirits that can decide it; in such a subject, it is not enough to affirm or deny, it is necessary to prove it; now, of all the reasons alleged for or against, there is none that is not more or less hypothetical, since all are controversial; the materialists only saw the thing with the eyes of disbelief and the bias of negation; theologians with the eyes of blind faith, and the bias of affirmation; neither was in the necessary conditions of impartiality; interested in supporting their opinion, they saw and sought only what could be favorable to it, and closed their eyes to what could be contrary to it. If since the time that the question has been raised, it has not yet been resolved in a peremptory manner, it is because there has been a lack of elements that alone could give the key to it, absolutely as was lacking to the scientists of antiquity the knowledge of the laws of light to explain the phenomenon of the rainbow. Spiritism is neutral in the matter; it is no more interested in one solution than in another; it walked without it, and it will still walk whatever the result; placed outside particular dogmas, to Spiritism it is not a question of life or death. When it deals with it, basing all its theories on facts, it will solve it with facts, and that in due course; if there were an emergency, it would already be resolved. The elements of a solution are now complete, but the ground is not yet ready to receive the seed; a premature solution, whatever it may be, would encounter too much opposition from both sides, and would deny Spiritism more supporters than it would give it; This is why it is our duty to be prudent to refrain from any controversy on this subject, until we are sure of being able to set foot on solid ground. In the meantime, we allow the pros and cons outside Spiritism to be discussed without taking part in it, leaving both parties to exhaust their arguments. When the moment is right, we will bring to the scale, not our personal opinion, that is of no weight and cannot be law, but facts until that moment unobserved, and then each one can judge with full knowledge of the facts. All we can say, without prejudging the question, is that the solution, in whatever sense it may be given, will not contradict either the actions or the words of Christ, but on the contrary, will confirm them by elucidating them. To those, therefore, who ask us what Spiritism says about the nature of Christ, we invariably answer: "It is a question of dogma foreign to the goal of doctrine." The goal that every Spiritist must pursue, if he is to deserve this title, is his own moral improvement. Am I better than I was? Have I corrected myself from any fault? Have I done good or bad to my neighbor? This is what every sincere and convinced Spiritist must ask oneself. What does it matter whether Christ was God or not, if one is still selfish, proud, jealous, envious, anger, defaming, slanderer? The best way to honor Christ is to imitate him in his conduct; the more one elevates him in his thought, the less one is worthy of him, and the more one insults and lays down him, by doing the opposite of what he says. Spiritism says to its followers: "Practice the virtues recommended by Christ, and you will be more Christian than many who claim to be such." To Catholics, Protestants, and others, it says: "If you fear Spiritism disturbs your conscience, don't worry about it.” It is addressed only to those who come to it freely, and who need it. It is not addressed to those who have any given faith, and to whom this faith is sufficient, but to those who do not have any or who doubt, and it gives them the belief that they lack, not more particularly that of Catholicism or Protestantism, Judaism or Islamism, but a fundamental belief, the indispensable basis of any religion; there ends its role. Once this basis has been established, everyone remains free to follow the route that best satisfies their reason.




[4] Our personal role, in the great movement of ideas that is being prepared by Spiritism, and that is already beginning to take place, is that of an attentive observer who studies the facts to seek the cause and draw the consequences. We confronted all those that it was possible for us to bring together; we compared and commented on the instructions given by the Spirits on all points of the globe, then we coordinated everything methodically; in short, we have studied and given to the public the fruit of our research, without attributing to our work any other value than that of a philosophical work, deduced from observation and experience, without ever having posed ourselves as chief of the doctrine, nor having wanted to impose our ideas on anyone. By publishing them, we used a common right, and those who accepted them did so freely. If these ideas have found many sympathies, it is because they have had the advantage of responding to the aspirations of a large number, of which we cannot be proud, since the origin does not belong to us. Our greatest merit is that of perseverance and dedication to the cause that we have embraced. In all this we have done what others could have done like us; that is why we have never pretended to believe ourselves to be a prophet or a messiah, and even less to consider ourselves as such. Without having any of the external qualities of effective mediumship, we do not dispute being assisted in our work by the Spirits, because we have proofs too obvious to doubt it, that we undoubtedly owe to our good will, and to what each one is given to deserve. In addition to the ideas that we admit have been suggested to us, it is remarkable that the subjects of study and observation, in a word, all that can be useful to the accomplishment of the work, always happens to us in due time - in other times one would have said: as if by magic; so that the materials and documents of the work never fail us. If we have to deal with a subject, we are certain that, without asking it, the elements necessary for its elaboration are provided to us, and this by means that are absolutely very natural, but that are undoubtedly provoked by our invisible collaborators, like so many things that the world attributes to chance.






[5] The Spirits’ Book, the first work that brought Spiritism into the philosophical path, by deducing the moral consequences of the facts, that addressed all parts of the doctrine, touching on the most important questions it raises, has been, since its inception, the rallying point towards which individual works spontaneously converged. It is well known that, from the publication of this book, dates the era of Philosophical Spiritism, that until then remained in the field of experiments of curiosity. If this book won the sympathies of the majority, it is because it was the expression of the feelings of this same majority, and because it responded to its aspirations; it is also because each one found there the confirmation or a rational explanation of what they obtained in particular. If it had disagreed with the general teaching of the Spirits, it would have had no credit, and would have been forgotten. Now, who have we rallied to? It is not for the man who is nothing by himself, kingpin who dies and disappears, but for the idea, that does not perish when it emanates from a source superior to man. This spontaneous concentration of scattered forces has given rise to an immense correspondence, a unique monument in the world, a living picture of the true history of modern Spiritism, in which are reflected both the partial works and the multiple feelings that the doctrine gave birth to, the moral results, dedication and failures; precious archives for posterity that will be able to judge men and things on authentic pieces. In the presence of such incontrovertible testimonies, what will become of all the false allegations, the defamations of envy and jealousy?




[6] A significant testimony, as remarkable as touching of this communion of thoughts that established between the Spiritists, by the conformity of their beliefs, are the requests for prayers that come to us from the most distant countries, from Peru to the extremes of Asia, from people of various religions and nationalities, whom we have never seen. Isn’t this the prelude to the great unification that is being prepared, the proof of the serious roots that Spiritism takes everywhere? It is remarkable that, of all the groups that formed with the premeditated intention of splitting by proclaiming divergent principles, as well as those that, for reasons of self-esteem or otherwise, not wanting to submit to the common law, believed themselves strong enough to walk alone, enlightened enough to do without advice, none of them managed to constitute a preponderant and viable unit; all have died out or have vegetated in the shadows. How could it be otherwise, since, in order to distinguish themselves, instead of striving to give a greater sum of satisfactions, they rejected the principles of the doctrine, precisely what made them the most powerful attraction, what is there more comforting, more encouraging and more rational? If they had understood the power of the moral elements that constituted unity, they would not have been lulled into a chimerical illusion; but taking their little circle for the universe, they saw in the adherents only a coterie that could easily be overthrown by a counter-coterie. This was a strange misunderstanding of the essential characters of the doctrine, and this error could only lead to disappointments, for one does not offend with impunity the feeling of a mass that has convictions based on solid foundations; instead of breaking the unity, they broke the only the bond that could give them strength and life. (See Spiritist Review, April 1866: Spiritism without Spirits; Independent Spiritism).






[7] Faced with declarations as clear and as categorical as those contained in this chapter, all the allegations of tendency to absolutism and the autocracy of principles fall, all the false assimilations that prejudiced or ill-informed people attribute to the doctrine. These statements, moreover, are not new; we have repeated them often enough in our writings, to leave no doubt in this regard. They also assign to us our real role, the only one that we aspire to: that of a worker.

In the Spiritist Review, March 1867, we quoted a few passages from the adventures of Robinson, imbued with an obviously Spiritist thought. We owe to the kindness of one of our correspondents in Antwerp, the knowledge of the complement of this history, where the principles of Spiritism are expressed and affirmed in a much more explicit way, and cannot be found in any of the modern editions. The complete work, translated from the English original edition, comprises three volumes, and is part of a collection of thirty-some volumes entitled: Imaginary journeys, dreams, visions and cabalistic romances, printed in Amsterdam in 1787. The title indicates that it is also found in Paris, rue and Hôtel Serpente.



The first two volumes of this collection contain Robinson's actual journeys; the third volume, that our correspondent in Antwerp was kind enough to entrust to us, is entitled: Serious and important reflections of Robinson Crusoe. The translator says in his preface:



“Here is finally the riddle of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe; he is a sort of bourgeois Telemachus, whose aim is to bring ordinary men to virtue and wisdom, through events accompanied by thoughts. There is, however, something more in the story of Robinson than in the adventures of Telemachus; it is not a simple novel, it is rather an allegorical story, each incident of which is an emblem of some peculiarities of the life of our author. I do not say more about this article, because he treated it thoroughly himself in his preface that I translated from English, and that I strongly recommend reading to all these sudden men, who have created a pretty ridiculous habit of skipping all the introductory speeches in the books.



The work here given to the public, and that constitutes the third volume of Robinson Crusoe, is quite different from the two preceding parts, although it tends to the same end. The author puts in it, so to speak, the final touches to his project of reforming men, and of urging them to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the excellence of their nature. He is not happy to have given them instructions wrapped up in fables, he finds it good to extend his precepts, and to give them in a direct manner, so that nothing escapes the perception of the great number of readers who do not have enough wit to disentangle the soul from the allegory, from the body that envelops it."



This volume consists of two parts; in the first one, Robinson returned to the calm life of the domestic hearth, indulges in meditations suggested by the vicissitudes of his agitated existence; these reflections are marked by high morality and a deep religious feeling, such as these:



Page 301. - "Let us admit, if you will, that we cannot understand the immutability of the nature and the actions of God, and that it is absolutely impossible for us to reconcile it with this variety of Providence, that in all its actions, appears to us in complete and perfect freedom to form new designs every day, to turn events from such and such a direction, as it pleases the sovereign wisdom. Can we conclude, for the fact that we cannot reconcile these things, that they are absolutely incompatible? It would be the same as maintaining that the nature of God is entirely incomprehensible, because we do not understand it, and that any phenomenon in nature that we do not penetrate is impenetrable. Where is the philosopher who dares to boast of understanding the cause that turns a magnetic needle towards the pole, and the way in which the magnetic force is transmitted by a simple touch? Who will tell me why this force can only be transmitted to iron, and why the needle is not attracted to gold, silver and other metals? What secret trade is there between the magnet and the north pole, and by which mysterious force does the needle that has been rubbed turns towards the south pole, as soon as one crossed the equinoctial line? We do not understand anything about these operations of nature, however our senses assure us in the most indisputable way of the world, of the reality of these operations. Unless we push skepticism to the highest degree of absurdity, we must admit that there is nothing contradictory in these phenomena, although it is impossible for us to reconcile them together, and that they are understandable, although we do not understand them.



Why doesn’t our wisdom urge us to follow the same method of reasoning about the subject of the question? It is natural to believe that, despite this apparent change that we discover in the acts of Providence, despite these designs that seem to destroy each other, rising one on the ruin of the other, nothing is more certain and more real than the immutability of nature and the decrees of God. What is more daring than to allege the weakness and the small extent of reason as a proof against the existence of things? Nothing is more bizarre than to reason just on the limits of our mind, in relation to the finite objects of physics, and not to pay attention to the nature of our soul, when it is a question of the operations of an infinite being, so superior to our dim lights.



If it is, therefore, reasonable to believe that the Divine Providence is free in its actions, and that directed by its own sovereignty, it follows, in the ordinary course of human affairs, those methods that it finds appropriate, it is our duty to bind a close trade with that active part of Providence, that directly influences our conduct, without embarrassing our minds in vain discussions as to how this Providence affects our affairs, and the end that it proposes.



In entering into this correspondence with this active virtue of the wisdom of God, we must examine its ways, as far as they appear accessible to our penetration and our research; we must pay the same attention to the secret voice that I have already carefully described, as to that clear and strong voice that speaks to us in the events most likely to harm us.



Whoever does not do a serious study to penetrate into the meaning of this secret voice that offers itself to one’s intention, deliberately deprives oneself of a great number of useful advices, and of strong consolations, of which one often feels the need in the career that one has to run in this world.



What a consolation is it not for those who listen to this voice, to see at every moment that an invisible power and infinitely powerful is caring to preserve and guide their interests! With this religious attention, it is not possible not to notice this protection; it is not possible to reflect on the unexpected solutions that every man encounters to a variety of incidents of human life, without obviously seeing that he does not owe it to his own prudence, but only to the effective help of a an infinite power, that favors him because it loves him."

The second part, entitled: Vision of the angelic world, contains the account of facts that belong more particularly to the order of the Spiritist facts, and from which we extract the following passages:



Page 359. - "The Spirit that appeared to Saul must have been, in my opinion, a good Spirit, who was called the angel of a man, as it appears from what that servant of the Acts of the Apostles said, seeing Peter by the door, that had miraculously left the prison. If we take it this way, it confirms my idea, relatively the trade between pure Spirits with Spirits enclosed in bodies and affecting the advantages that men can derive from such trade. Those who claim that it was an evil Spirit, must suppose, at the same time, that God can use the devil as a prophet, put in the lying mouth the truths that he sees fit to reveal to men, and endures that he preaches his laws to the transgressors, and the justice of the punishments that he has resolved to inflict upon them. I do not know which bias these interpreters would use to save all the inconveniences of such an opinion; as for me, I do not see that it suits the divine majesty to lend to Satan his Spirit of truth, and to make of him a preacher and a prophet.”



Page 365. - "The most direct effects of our trade with pure intelligences, and that seem so sensitive to me that it is impossible to deny them, are dreams, certain voices, certain noises, warnings, forebodings, apprehensions, involuntary sadness.”



Page 380. - “It seems to me that you are examining with great attention the nature of dreams and the proofs that can be drawn from the reality of the world of the Spirits; but tell me, please, what you think of the dreams that come to us while we are awake, transports, ecstasies, visions, noises, voices, premonitions? Don’t you see that these are even stronger proofs of the same truth, since they affect us in the time that our reason is master of itself, and that its light is not enveloped in the vapors of sleep?"



Page 393. – “I still saw, as if at a glance, the way in which these evil Spirits exercise their power; how far it extends, what obstacles they have to overcome, and which other Spirits stand in the way of the success of their abominable designs…



… Although the devil has to his service an infinite number of faithful ministers, who neglect nothing to carry out his plans, there is not only an equal number, but infinitely greater number of Angels and good Spirits who, armed with a higher power, watch from a much higher place, over their conduct, and make every effort to defeat their machinations. This discovery shows even more clearly that he could not do anything except by subtlety and cunning, supported by an extraordinary vigilance and attention, since he has the mortification of seeing himself at any moment stopped and crossed in his designs by the prudent activity of the good spirits, who have the power to chastise and control him, as a man does to a wicked dog that watches the passers-by to attack them.”



Page 397. “Inspirations are nothing else, in my opinion, than speeches that are imperceptibly whispered in our ears, or by the good angels who favor us, or by those devils that are insinuating us, that are constantly watching us to make us fall into some trap. The only way to distinguish the authors of these speeches is to be aware of the nature of these inspirations, and to examine whether they tend to lead us to good or to evil.”

Page 401. “It is infinitely better for us that a thick veil hides from us this invisible world as well as the conduct of Providence regarding the future. Divine goodness appears even in that the trade of Spirits and the warnings they give us are carried out in an allegorical manner, by inspirations and by dreams, and not in a direct, clear, obvious manner. Those who wish for a more distinct view of future things do not know what they wish for, and if their wishes were granted, they might find their curiosity cruelly punished.



Page 408. “One morning when she woke up, and a multitude of painful thoughts entered her mind, she felt strongly, in her soul, a sort of voice that said to her: Write them a letter. This voice was so intelligible and so natural that, if she had not been certain that she was alone, she would have believed that these words had been spoken by some human creature. For several days they were repeated to her at every moment; finally, walking through the room where she had hidden, filled with gloomy and melancholy thoughts, she heard them again, and she replied aloud: Who do you want me to write to? And the voice answered her immediately: write to the judge. These words were repeated to her on different occasions, and finally led her to take up the pen and put herself in a position to compose a letter, without having in mind any idea necessary for her design; but, dabitur in hœc hora, etc. Thoughts and expressions did not fail her; they flowed from her pen with so much abundance and such ease, that she was in the greatest astonishment, and that she conceived the strongest hopes of a happy success.”



Page 413. “What we can imagine of more reasonable about this, however, is that these Spirits give us, on these occasions, all the enlightenment that they are in a position to give us, and that they tell us what they know, or at least everything that their master and ours allow them to communicate to us. If they did not have a real and sincere design to favor us and to protect us from the misfortune that hangs over our heads, they would not tell us anything at all, and therefore, if their warnings are not more extensive and better developed, it is certain that it should not be in their power to give us more useful ones.”



Page 416. “Since we have presentiments that are verified by experience, it is necessary that there are Spirits that know about the future; that there is a place for the Spirits where future things develop before them, and that we could not do better than to put faith in the news that comes to us from there. The duty to pay attention to these premonitions is not the only consequence that can be drawn from this truth; there are others that can be of very considerable utility to us:



1^st – It explains to us the nature of the world of the Spirits, and proves to us the certainty of our soul after death.



2^nd – It shows us that the direction of Providence, in relation to men and future events, is not as hidden from the inhabitants of the spiritual world as it is from us.



3^rd – We can conclude from this that the reach of Spirits freed from matter is of a much greater extent than that of Spirits enclosed in bodies, since the former know what must happen to us when we ignore it ourselves. Persuasion of the existence of the world of the Spirits can be of use to us in several different ways. It is up to us, above all, to derive great advantages from the certainty that they know how to reveal the future, and communicate to us the insights they have about it, in a way that makes us watch over our conduct, to avoid misfortunes, to think of our interests and even wait for death with a firm soul and of a spirit prepared to receive it with constancy and with Christian firmness. It would also be a sure way to extend the sphere of our enlightenment and to make us reason with fairness on the true value of things.”



Page 427. “If one made a similar use (repentance and reform of bad behavior) of the real appearances of the devil, I am convinced that this would be the means of driving him out forever from the invisible world. It is very natural to believe that he would pay us very rare visits, if he were persuaded, by experience, that they would lead us to virtue, far from making us fall into traps; at least, he would never come to see us of his own accord, requiring a superior force to determine it.”



Page 457. “My conversion comes directly from heaven. The light that surrounded Saint Paul on the road to Damascus struck him no more keenly than that that dazzled me. It is true that it was not accompanied by some voice from heaven, but I am sure that a secret voice spoke effectively to my soul; it made me understand that I was exposed to the wrath of this power, of this majesty, of this God whom I had previously denied with all conceivable impiety.”



Page 462. - "In a word, such accidents are of great force in convincing us of the influence of divine Providence in human affairs, however small they may be in appearance, of the existence of an invisible world, and the reality of the trade of pure intelligences with Spirits enclosed in bodies. I hope that I will not have said anything on this delicate matter, that is likely to lead my readers into absurd and ridiculous fantasies. I can protest at least that I did not by design, and that my intention was only to arouse, in the hearts of men, respectful feelings for the divinity and docility for the warnings of the good Spirits, who are interested in what concerns us."



Observation: - It is almost a century since Daniel de Foë, the author of Robinson, wrote these things that one would say, he borrowed, even expressions, from the modern Spiritist doctrine. In a second communication given at the Parisian Society, following the reading of these fragments, he explained his beliefs on this point, saying that he belonged to the sect of the Theosophists, a sect that, in fact, professed these same principles. Why then didn’t this doctrine take the extension it has today? There are several reasons for this: 1^st – the Theosophists kept their doctrines almost secret; 2^nd – the opinion of the masses was not ripe to assimilate them; 3^rd – it was necessary that a succession of events should give a different course to the ideas; 4^th – incredulity had to prepare the way, and that, by its development, lead to the void that it digs under the footsteps of humanity, and the need for something to fill it; 5^th – finally, Providence had not judged that it was time already to make the manifestations of the Spirits general; it was the generalization of that order of phenomena that popularized the belief in the Spirits, and the doctrine that is its corollary.



If the demonstrations had remained as the privilege of a few individuals, Spiritism would not yet have left the source from where it would have originated; it would still be, for the masses, in the state of theory, of personal opinion, without consistency; it is the practical sanction that, from one end of the world to the other, and almost instantly, each one has found in the demonstrations, provoked or spontaneous, that has popularized the doctrine, giving it an irresistible force, despite those who fight against it.



Although the Theosophists had little impact and barely emerged from obscurity, their works were not lost to the cause; they sowed seeds that were only to bear fruits later, but that formed men predisposed to the acceptance of the Spiritist ideas, as did the sect of the Swedenborgians, and later that of the Fourierists. It should be noted that a somewhat grand idea is never suddenly bursts into the world. It often launches its test balloons several centuries before its final hatching; it is the childbirth labor.