Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

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