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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1869 > March
March
The Flesh is Weak – A Physiological and Psychological StudyThere are vicious inclinations that are obviously inherent in the Spirit, because they are more moral than physical; others seem rather the consequence of the organism, and for that reason, one believes to be less responsible; these are the predispositions to anger, laziness, sensuality, etc.
It is perfectly recognized today, by spiritualist philosophers, that the cerebral organs corresponding to the various abilities owe their development to the activity of the Spirit; that this development is thus an effect and not a cause. A man is not a musician, because he has the hump of music, but he has the hump of music only because his Spirit is a musician (Spiritist Review, July 1860, and April 1862).
If the activity of the Spirit reacts onto the brain, it must also react onto other parts of the body. The Spirit is thus the artisan of his own body, which he shapes, so to speak, to appropriate it to his needs and the manifestation of his tendencies. This being the case, the perfection of the body in advanced races would be the result of the work of the Spirit who perfects his tools as his faculties increase (Genesis According to Spiritism, Chapter XI, Spiritual genesis). By a natural consequence of this principle, the moral dispositions of the Spirit must modify the qualities of the blood, give it more activity or less activity, cause a more abundant secretion of bile or other fluids or a lesser secretion. That is how, for example, the gourmand feels the saliva coming, or as they vulgarly say, the water in the mouth at the sight of an appetizing dish. It is not the dish that can overexcite the organ of taste, since there is no contact; it is therefore the Spirit whose sensuality is awakened, who acts by thought on that organ, while on another Spirit, the sight of the dish produces nothing. The same is true of all lusts, of all desires caused by sight. The diversity of emotions can only be explained, in a host of cases, by the diversity of the qualities of the Spirit. That is the reason why a sensitive person easily sheds tears; it is not the abundance of tears that gives sensitivity to the Spirit, but the sensitivity of the Spirit that causes the abundant secretion of tears. Under the influence of sensitivity, the organism has modeled itself on this normal disposition of the Spirit, as it has modeled itself on that of the glutton Spirit.
Following this order of ideas, one understands that an irascible Spirit must lead to the bilious temperament; hence it follows that a man is not angry because he is bilious, but that he is bilious because he is angry. That is how it is with all other instinctive dispositions; a lazy and indolent Spirit will leave his organism in a state of atony in relation to his character, while if he is active and energetic, he will give his blood, his nerves much different qualities. The action of the Spirit on the physical is so obvious that we often see serious organic disorders occur through the effect of violent psychological concussions. The vulgar expression: Emotion has gotten his blood up, is not as meaningless as one might think; who could turn the blood, if not the moral dispositions of the Spirit?
This effect is especially noticeable in great pains, joys and fears, whose reaction can go as far as causing death. We see people dying for fear of dying; But what is the relationship between the individual's body and the object that causes his fear, an object that often has no reality? It is said that it is the effect of imagination; be it, but what is imagination, if not an attribute, a mode of sensitivity of the Spirit? It seems difficult to attribute imagination to muscles and nerves, because then one would not explain why these muscles and nerves do not always have imagination; why they no longer have them after death; why what causes a mortal fear in some, overexcites courage in others.
Whatever subtlety one may use to explain psychological phenomena by the sole properties of matter, one inevitably falls into a dead end, at the bottom of which one sees, in all its evidence, and as the only possible solution, the independent spiritual being, to whom the organism is only a means of manifestation, as the piano is the instrument of the manifestations of the musician's thought. Just as the musician tunes his piano, it can be said that the Spirit tunes his body to tune it up with his moral dispositions.
It is truly curious to see materialism constantly speak of the need to raise the dignity of man, as it strives to reduce him to a piece of flesh that rots and disappears, without leaving any vestige; to claim freedom as a natural right for him, while turning him into a mechanism walking like a spindle, without responsibility for his actions.
With the independent spiritual being, pre-existing and surviving the body, the responsibility is absolute; yet, for the majority, the first, the main motive for the belief in nothingness, is the fear caused by such responsibility, outside human law, and from which one believes to escape by closing one's eyes. Until now, that responsibility has not been well defined; it was only a vague fear, and it must be admitted, based on beliefs that were not always admissible by reason; Spiritism demonstrates it as a positive, effective, unrestricted reality, as a natural consequence of the spirituality of the being; that is why some people are afraid of Spiritism that would disturb them in their tranquility, setting the formidable tribunal of the future before them. By proving that man is responsible for all his actions is to prove his freedom of action, and to prove his freedom is to raise his dignity. The perspective of responsibility beyond human law is the most powerful moralizing element: it is the goal to which Spiritism necessarily leads to.
From the above physiological observations, it can therefore be admitted that disposition is, at least in part, determined by the nature of the Spirit, which is cause and not effect. We say in part, because there are cases where the physical obviously influences the psychological: it is when a morbid or abnormal state is determined by an external, accidental, independent cause of the Spirit, such as temperature, climate, hereditary vices of constitution, temporary malaise, etc. The morale of the Spirit can then be affected in its manifestations by the pathological state, without its intrinsic nature being altered.
To apologize for one's misdeeds by the weakness of the flesh is therefore only an evasion to escape responsibility. The flesh is weak only because the Spirit is weak, which reverses the question, and leaves to the Spirit the responsibility for all his actions. The flesh, that has neither thought nor will, never prevails over the Spirit who is the thinking and willing being; it is the Spirit who gives the flesh the qualities corresponding to his instincts, as an artist imprints on his material work the stamp of his genius. The Spirit, freed from the instincts of bestiality, shapes a body that is no longer a tyrant to its aspirations towards the spirituality of his being; it is then that man eats to live, because it is a necessity, but he no longer lives to eat.
The moral responsibility for the acts of life, therefore, remains intact; but reason says that the consequences of that responsibility must be in proportion to the intellectual development of the Spirit; the more enlightened it is, the less excusable it is, because with intelligence and moral sense, the notions of good and evil, of the just and the unjust, are born. The savage, still close to animality, who yields to the instinct of the brute by eating his fellow man, is undoubtedly less guilty than the civilized man who commits a simple injustice.
This law still finds its application in medicine and provides the reason for its failure in some cases. Considering that temperament is an effect and not a cause, efforts to modify it can be paralyzed by the psychological dispositions of the Spirit, that opposes an unconscious resistance and neutralizes the therapeutic action. Hence it is on the root cause that we must act; if one succeeds in changing the psychological dispositions of the Spirit, the disposition will change itself under the influence of a different will, or at the very least, the action of the medical treatment will be helped, instead of being undermined. Give courage to the coward if possible, and you will see the physiological effects of fear disappear; the same shall be true of the other dispositions.
But it will be said, can the doctor of the body make himself the doctor of the soul? Is it in his mandate to be the moralizer of his patients? Yes, no doubt, within a certain limit; it is even a duty that a good doctor never neglects, as soon as he sees in the state of the soul an obstacle to the restoration of the health of the body; the main thing is to apply the psychological remedy with tact, caution, and appropriateness, depending on the circumstances. From this point of view, his action is necessarily circumscribed, because in addition to having only a moral ascendant over his patient, a transformation of character is difficult at a certain age; it is therefore up to education, and especially to primary education, to provide care of this nature. When education is directed in this direction from the cradle; when we try to stifle moral imperfections in their germ, as we do for physical imperfections, the doctor will no longer find in temperament an obstacle against which his science is too often powerless.
It is, as we can see, quite a study; but a completely sterile study while we do not consider the action of the spiritual element on the physical. The incessantly active participation of the spiritual element in the phenomena of life is the key to most of the problems facing science; when science brings into account the action of this principle, it will see the opening of completely new horizons. It is the demonstration of this truth that Spiritism brings.
It is perfectly recognized today, by spiritualist philosophers, that the cerebral organs corresponding to the various abilities owe their development to the activity of the Spirit; that this development is thus an effect and not a cause. A man is not a musician, because he has the hump of music, but he has the hump of music only because his Spirit is a musician (Spiritist Review, July 1860, and April 1862).
If the activity of the Spirit reacts onto the brain, it must also react onto other parts of the body. The Spirit is thus the artisan of his own body, which he shapes, so to speak, to appropriate it to his needs and the manifestation of his tendencies. This being the case, the perfection of the body in advanced races would be the result of the work of the Spirit who perfects his tools as his faculties increase (Genesis According to Spiritism, Chapter XI, Spiritual genesis). By a natural consequence of this principle, the moral dispositions of the Spirit must modify the qualities of the blood, give it more activity or less activity, cause a more abundant secretion of bile or other fluids or a lesser secretion. That is how, for example, the gourmand feels the saliva coming, or as they vulgarly say, the water in the mouth at the sight of an appetizing dish. It is not the dish that can overexcite the organ of taste, since there is no contact; it is therefore the Spirit whose sensuality is awakened, who acts by thought on that organ, while on another Spirit, the sight of the dish produces nothing. The same is true of all lusts, of all desires caused by sight. The diversity of emotions can only be explained, in a host of cases, by the diversity of the qualities of the Spirit. That is the reason why a sensitive person easily sheds tears; it is not the abundance of tears that gives sensitivity to the Spirit, but the sensitivity of the Spirit that causes the abundant secretion of tears. Under the influence of sensitivity, the organism has modeled itself on this normal disposition of the Spirit, as it has modeled itself on that of the glutton Spirit.
Following this order of ideas, one understands that an irascible Spirit must lead to the bilious temperament; hence it follows that a man is not angry because he is bilious, but that he is bilious because he is angry. That is how it is with all other instinctive dispositions; a lazy and indolent Spirit will leave his organism in a state of atony in relation to his character, while if he is active and energetic, he will give his blood, his nerves much different qualities. The action of the Spirit on the physical is so obvious that we often see serious organic disorders occur through the effect of violent psychological concussions. The vulgar expression: Emotion has gotten his blood up, is not as meaningless as one might think; who could turn the blood, if not the moral dispositions of the Spirit?
This effect is especially noticeable in great pains, joys and fears, whose reaction can go as far as causing death. We see people dying for fear of dying; But what is the relationship between the individual's body and the object that causes his fear, an object that often has no reality? It is said that it is the effect of imagination; be it, but what is imagination, if not an attribute, a mode of sensitivity of the Spirit? It seems difficult to attribute imagination to muscles and nerves, because then one would not explain why these muscles and nerves do not always have imagination; why they no longer have them after death; why what causes a mortal fear in some, overexcites courage in others.
Whatever subtlety one may use to explain psychological phenomena by the sole properties of matter, one inevitably falls into a dead end, at the bottom of which one sees, in all its evidence, and as the only possible solution, the independent spiritual being, to whom the organism is only a means of manifestation, as the piano is the instrument of the manifestations of the musician's thought. Just as the musician tunes his piano, it can be said that the Spirit tunes his body to tune it up with his moral dispositions.
It is truly curious to see materialism constantly speak of the need to raise the dignity of man, as it strives to reduce him to a piece of flesh that rots and disappears, without leaving any vestige; to claim freedom as a natural right for him, while turning him into a mechanism walking like a spindle, without responsibility for his actions.
With the independent spiritual being, pre-existing and surviving the body, the responsibility is absolute; yet, for the majority, the first, the main motive for the belief in nothingness, is the fear caused by such responsibility, outside human law, and from which one believes to escape by closing one's eyes. Until now, that responsibility has not been well defined; it was only a vague fear, and it must be admitted, based on beliefs that were not always admissible by reason; Spiritism demonstrates it as a positive, effective, unrestricted reality, as a natural consequence of the spirituality of the being; that is why some people are afraid of Spiritism that would disturb them in their tranquility, setting the formidable tribunal of the future before them. By proving that man is responsible for all his actions is to prove his freedom of action, and to prove his freedom is to raise his dignity. The perspective of responsibility beyond human law is the most powerful moralizing element: it is the goal to which Spiritism necessarily leads to.
From the above physiological observations, it can therefore be admitted that disposition is, at least in part, determined by the nature of the Spirit, which is cause and not effect. We say in part, because there are cases where the physical obviously influences the psychological: it is when a morbid or abnormal state is determined by an external, accidental, independent cause of the Spirit, such as temperature, climate, hereditary vices of constitution, temporary malaise, etc. The morale of the Spirit can then be affected in its manifestations by the pathological state, without its intrinsic nature being altered.
To apologize for one's misdeeds by the weakness of the flesh is therefore only an evasion to escape responsibility. The flesh is weak only because the Spirit is weak, which reverses the question, and leaves to the Spirit the responsibility for all his actions. The flesh, that has neither thought nor will, never prevails over the Spirit who is the thinking and willing being; it is the Spirit who gives the flesh the qualities corresponding to his instincts, as an artist imprints on his material work the stamp of his genius. The Spirit, freed from the instincts of bestiality, shapes a body that is no longer a tyrant to its aspirations towards the spirituality of his being; it is then that man eats to live, because it is a necessity, but he no longer lives to eat.
The moral responsibility for the acts of life, therefore, remains intact; but reason says that the consequences of that responsibility must be in proportion to the intellectual development of the Spirit; the more enlightened it is, the less excusable it is, because with intelligence and moral sense, the notions of good and evil, of the just and the unjust, are born. The savage, still close to animality, who yields to the instinct of the brute by eating his fellow man, is undoubtedly less guilty than the civilized man who commits a simple injustice.
This law still finds its application in medicine and provides the reason for its failure in some cases. Considering that temperament is an effect and not a cause, efforts to modify it can be paralyzed by the psychological dispositions of the Spirit, that opposes an unconscious resistance and neutralizes the therapeutic action. Hence it is on the root cause that we must act; if one succeeds in changing the psychological dispositions of the Spirit, the disposition will change itself under the influence of a different will, or at the very least, the action of the medical treatment will be helped, instead of being undermined. Give courage to the coward if possible, and you will see the physiological effects of fear disappear; the same shall be true of the other dispositions.
But it will be said, can the doctor of the body make himself the doctor of the soul? Is it in his mandate to be the moralizer of his patients? Yes, no doubt, within a certain limit; it is even a duty that a good doctor never neglects, as soon as he sees in the state of the soul an obstacle to the restoration of the health of the body; the main thing is to apply the psychological remedy with tact, caution, and appropriateness, depending on the circumstances. From this point of view, his action is necessarily circumscribed, because in addition to having only a moral ascendant over his patient, a transformation of character is difficult at a certain age; it is therefore up to education, and especially to primary education, to provide care of this nature. When education is directed in this direction from the cradle; when we try to stifle moral imperfections in their germ, as we do for physical imperfections, the doctor will no longer find in temperament an obstacle against which his science is too often powerless.
It is, as we can see, quite a study; but a completely sterile study while we do not consider the action of the spiritual element on the physical. The incessantly active participation of the spiritual element in the phenomena of life is the key to most of the problems facing science; when science brings into account the action of this principle, it will see the opening of completely new horizons. It is the demonstration of this truth that Spiritism brings.
Apostles of Spiritism in Spain
Ciudad-Real, February 1869
To Mr. Allan Kardec
“Dear Sir,
The Spiritists who formed the circle of the city of Andujar, today scattered by the will of God, for the propagation of true doctrine, greet you fraternally.
Tiny by talent, great by faith, we propose to support, both through the press and through speech, in public and in private, the Spiritist doctrine, because it is the very one that Jesus preached, when he came to earth for the redemption of humanity. The Spiritist doctrine, called to combat materialism, to make the divine word prevail, so that the spirit of the Gospel is no longer truncated by anyone, to prepare the way to equality and fraternity, today in Spain it needs apostles and martyrs. If we cannot be the first, we will be the last: we are ready for the sacrifice.
We will fight alone or together with those who profess our doctrine. The times have come; let us not miss, out of indecision or fear, the reward that is reserved for those who suffer and are persecuted by justice.
Our group consisted of six people, under the spiritual guidance of the Spirit of Fénelon. Our medium was Francisco Perez Blanca, and the others: Pobla Medina, Luis Gonzalez, Francisco Marti, José Gonzalez, and Manuel Gonzalez. After spreading the seed in Andujar, today we are in different cities: Leon, Seville, Salamanca, etc., where each of us works to spread the doctrine, that we consider our mission. Following Fénelon's advice, we will publish a Spiritist journal; wishing to illustrate it with excerpts from the works you have published, please grant us permission. We would also be very happy for your kind cooperation, and to this end we are putting at your disposal the columns of our journal. Thanking you in advance, we ask you to greet on our behalf our brothers of the Parisian Society.
And you, dear Sir, receive the fraternal hug of your brothers. In everyone’s name,
Manuel Gonzales Soriano
We have already had many occasions to say that Spain has many sincere, dedicated, and enlightened followers; here it is no longer devotion, it is abnegation; not a thoughtless self-sacrifice, but calm, cold, like that of the soldier who walks in battle saying to himself: whatever it costs me, I will do my duty. It is not that courage that blazes like a spark in the fire and goes out at the first alarm, calculating, before the action, what he can lose or gain; it is the devotion of the one who puts the interest of all above one’s personal interest. What would have happened to the great ideas that moved the world forward, if they had only found selfish defenders, devoted in words, if there was nothing to fear and nothing to lose, but bowing before a wrong look and the fear of compromising a few instances of their well-being? Science, the arts, industry, patriotism, religions, philosophies have had their apostles and martyrs. Spiritism is also a great regenerative idea; it is barely born; it is not complete yet, and it already finds devoted hearts to the point of abnegation, of sacrifice; devotions often obscure, seeking neither glory nor shine, but who are even more meritorious for acting in a small sphere, because they are morally more selfless.
However, in all causes, open dedications are necessary, because they energize the masses, The time is not far away, that is certain, when Spiritism will also have its great defenders who, braving sarcasm, prejudice and persecution, they will fly its flag with the firmness that gives the consciousness of doing something useful; they will support it with the authority of their name and talent, and their example will drag the crowd of timid who still cautiously stand aside. Our brothers in Spain lead the way; they hold their breath and prepare for the struggle; may they receive our congratulations and from their brothers in belief from all countries, for among the Spiritists there is no distinction of nationalities. Their names will be inscribed with honor next to the courageous pioneers to whom posterity will owe a tribute of gratitude for having paid with their persons and contributed to the erection of the edifice.
Does this mean that dedication consists in taking the travel staff to go and preach to everyone around the world? No, of course not since one can be useful wherever one is. True dedication consists in knowing how to make the most of one's position, putting it at the service of the cause, as usefully as possible and with discernment, the physical and moral forces that the Providence has set out for each one. The dispersion of these gentlemen is not the result of their will; united at first by the nature of their functions, these same functions called them on to different points of Spain. Far from being discouraged by such isolation, they understood that, while remaining united in thought and action, they would be able to plant the flag in several centers, and that their separation would then turn in favor of the popularization of the idea.
So it was with a French regiment, in which several officers had formed among themselves one of the most serious and well-organized groups we have seen. Animated by an enlightened zeal and a dedication to the test, their goal was first to learn thoroughly the principles of the doctrine, then to practice the word by imposing on themselves the obligation to deal with an issue, by taking turns, to become acquainted with the controversy. Outside their circle, they preached by word and example, but with prudence and moderation; not seeking to make propaganda at all costs, they made it more fruitful. The regiment changed its residence and was divided among several cities; the group was thus materially dispersed, but always united by the intentions, they continued their work on different points.
“Dear Sir,
The Spiritists who formed the circle of the city of Andujar, today scattered by the will of God, for the propagation of true doctrine, greet you fraternally.
Tiny by talent, great by faith, we propose to support, both through the press and through speech, in public and in private, the Spiritist doctrine, because it is the very one that Jesus preached, when he came to earth for the redemption of humanity. The Spiritist doctrine, called to combat materialism, to make the divine word prevail, so that the spirit of the Gospel is no longer truncated by anyone, to prepare the way to equality and fraternity, today in Spain it needs apostles and martyrs. If we cannot be the first, we will be the last: we are ready for the sacrifice.
We will fight alone or together with those who profess our doctrine. The times have come; let us not miss, out of indecision or fear, the reward that is reserved for those who suffer and are persecuted by justice.
Our group consisted of six people, under the spiritual guidance of the Spirit of Fénelon. Our medium was Francisco Perez Blanca, and the others: Pobla Medina, Luis Gonzalez, Francisco Marti, José Gonzalez, and Manuel Gonzalez. After spreading the seed in Andujar, today we are in different cities: Leon, Seville, Salamanca, etc., where each of us works to spread the doctrine, that we consider our mission. Following Fénelon's advice, we will publish a Spiritist journal; wishing to illustrate it with excerpts from the works you have published, please grant us permission. We would also be very happy for your kind cooperation, and to this end we are putting at your disposal the columns of our journal. Thanking you in advance, we ask you to greet on our behalf our brothers of the Parisian Society.
And you, dear Sir, receive the fraternal hug of your brothers. In everyone’s name,
Manuel Gonzales Soriano
We have already had many occasions to say that Spain has many sincere, dedicated, and enlightened followers; here it is no longer devotion, it is abnegation; not a thoughtless self-sacrifice, but calm, cold, like that of the soldier who walks in battle saying to himself: whatever it costs me, I will do my duty. It is not that courage that blazes like a spark in the fire and goes out at the first alarm, calculating, before the action, what he can lose or gain; it is the devotion of the one who puts the interest of all above one’s personal interest. What would have happened to the great ideas that moved the world forward, if they had only found selfish defenders, devoted in words, if there was nothing to fear and nothing to lose, but bowing before a wrong look and the fear of compromising a few instances of their well-being? Science, the arts, industry, patriotism, religions, philosophies have had their apostles and martyrs. Spiritism is also a great regenerative idea; it is barely born; it is not complete yet, and it already finds devoted hearts to the point of abnegation, of sacrifice; devotions often obscure, seeking neither glory nor shine, but who are even more meritorious for acting in a small sphere, because they are morally more selfless.
However, in all causes, open dedications are necessary, because they energize the masses, The time is not far away, that is certain, when Spiritism will also have its great defenders who, braving sarcasm, prejudice and persecution, they will fly its flag with the firmness that gives the consciousness of doing something useful; they will support it with the authority of their name and talent, and their example will drag the crowd of timid who still cautiously stand aside. Our brothers in Spain lead the way; they hold their breath and prepare for the struggle; may they receive our congratulations and from their brothers in belief from all countries, for among the Spiritists there is no distinction of nationalities. Their names will be inscribed with honor next to the courageous pioneers to whom posterity will owe a tribute of gratitude for having paid with their persons and contributed to the erection of the edifice.
Does this mean that dedication consists in taking the travel staff to go and preach to everyone around the world? No, of course not since one can be useful wherever one is. True dedication consists in knowing how to make the most of one's position, putting it at the service of the cause, as usefully as possible and with discernment, the physical and moral forces that the Providence has set out for each one. The dispersion of these gentlemen is not the result of their will; united at first by the nature of their functions, these same functions called them on to different points of Spain. Far from being discouraged by such isolation, they understood that, while remaining united in thought and action, they would be able to plant the flag in several centers, and that their separation would then turn in favor of the popularization of the idea.
So it was with a French regiment, in which several officers had formed among themselves one of the most serious and well-organized groups we have seen. Animated by an enlightened zeal and a dedication to the test, their goal was first to learn thoroughly the principles of the doctrine, then to practice the word by imposing on themselves the obligation to deal with an issue, by taking turns, to become acquainted with the controversy. Outside their circle, they preached by word and example, but with prudence and moderation; not seeking to make propaganda at all costs, they made it more fruitful. The regiment changed its residence and was divided among several cities; the group was thus materially dispersed, but always united by the intentions, they continued their work on different points.
Spiritism Everywhere
Excerpt from English newspapers
One of our correspondents in London sends us the following news:
"The English newspaper The Builder, an organization of architects, highly regarded for its practicality and the correctness of judgment, has incidentally dealt with questions relating to Spiritism on several occasions; in these articles there is even talk of the manifestations of our days, of which the author gives an appreciation from his point of view.
"Spiritism has also been mentioned in some of the last notices of the London Anthropological Review; it states that the fact of the conspicuous intervention of the Spirits, in certain phenomena, is too well proven to be questioned. It speaks of the bodily envelope of man as a coarse garment appropriate to his present state, which is regarded as the lowest echelon of the hominal kingdom; that reign, though the crowning glory of the planet's animality, is only a sketch of the glorious, light, purified, and luminous body that the soul must clothe in the future, as humanity develops and perfects.”
"It is not yet," adds our correspondent, "the homogeneous and coherent doctrine of the French Spiritist school, but it comes very close to it and seemed interesting to me as an indication of the movement of ideas in the Spiritist direction on this side of the channel. But there is a lack of direction; they navigate on an adventure in this new world that opens before humanity, and it is not surprising that we go astray, for lack of a guide. There is no doubt that, if the works of doctrine were translated into English, they would rally many supporters by fixing the still uncertain ideas.
Blackwell.”
Charles Fourier
In a book entitled: Charles Fourier, his life, and his works, by Pellarin, we find a letter from Fourier to M. Muiron, dated December 3rd, 1826, in which he foresees the future phenomena of Spiritism. It is conceived as follows:
"It seems that Messrs. C. and P. have given up their work on magnetism. I would bet that they do not use the fundamental argument: that, if everything is connected in the universe, there must be means of communication between the creatures of the other world and this one; I mean: communication of faculties, temporary and accidental participation of the faculties of ultra-worldly or deceased, and not communication with them. Such participation cannot take place in the waking state, but only in a mixed state, such as sleep or other. Have the magnetizers found this state? I don't know! But, in principle, I know it must exist.”
Fourier wrote this in 1826, about the phenomena of somnambulism; he couldn’t have any idea of the means of direct communication discovered twenty-five years later and only conceived its possibility in a state of detachment, that somehow brought the two worlds closer together; but he was nevertheless convinced of the main fact, that of the existence of these relations.
His belief in another crucial point, that of reincarnation on Earth, is even more precise when he says: a bad rich man canreturn to beg at the door of the castle of which he was the owner. This is the principle of earthly atonement in successive existences, much like what Spiritism teaches from the examples provided by these same relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds. Thanks to these relationships, this principle of justice, that only existed in Fourier's thought in the state of theory or probability, became a positive truth.
Profession of faith of a Fourierist
The following passage is taken from a new book entitled: Letters to my brother about my religious beliefs, by Math. Briancourt:[1]
“I believe in one Almighty, just and good God, having light as his body, as by members the totality of the celestial bodies ordered in hierarchical series. - I believe that God assigns to all members of creation, large and small, a function to be fulfilled in the development of the universal life that is His life, reserving intelligence for those members whom he associates with the government of the world. - I believe that the intelligent beings of the last degree, the humanities, have as their task the management of the worlds they inhabit, and on which they have the mission of establishing order, peace, and justice. I believe that the creatures perform their functions by satisfying their needs, that God provides exactly to the requirements of the functions; and since in his goodness he attaches pleasure to the satisfaction of the needs, I believe that every creature, in carrying out their duty, is as happy as their nature entails, and that the more they deviate from the accomplishment of their tasks, the more their suffering is pronounced.
I believe that earthly humanity will soon have acquired the knowledge and material that are indispensable to fulfill its elevated mission, and that consequently, the day of general happiness here on Earth will not take long to rise. I believe that the intelligence of rational beings has two bodies: one formed of substances visible to our eyes; the other of more subtle, and invisible matters called aromas.
I believe that at the death of their visible body, these beings continue to live in the “aromal” world, where they find the exact compensation for their works, good or bad; then, after a greater or lesser length of time, they take a material body back, to abandon it again to decomposition, and so on. I believe that the intelligences that grow by fulfilling their functions exactly, will animate more and more elevated beings in the divine hierarchy, until they return, at the end of times, to the heart of God from where they came, that unite with his intelligence and share his “aromal” life.”
With such a profession of faith, it is understandable that Fourierists and Spiritists can join hands.
[1] One vol., in-18. Library of social sciences
Varieties
Ms. de Chilly
The Petite Presse on February 11th, 1869, reads:
"Mr. de Chilly, the nice director of the Odeon, so cruelly tried by the almost sudden death of his only daughter, is threatened with a new pain. His niece, Ms. Artus, daughter of the former conductor of the Ambigu-Comique, is currently, so to speak, at the gates of the tomb. In this regard, Le Figaro reports this sad and touching story:
“The dying Ms. de Chilly gave a little ring to her cousin whose life is now so cruelly threatened, and said to her: "Take it, you will bring it back to me! Have these words captured the poor child's imagination? Were they the expression of that double vision attributed to death? Still, a few days after Ms. de Chilly's funeral, her young cousin fell ill.”
What Le Figaro does not say is that in her last moments, the poor dead woman, who clung to life with all the energy of her eighteen beautiful years, shouted from her bed of pain to her cousin, bursting into tears in a corner of the room, the scene of her agony: "No I do not want to die! I don't want to go away alone! You will come with me! I'm waiting for you! I'm waiting for you! You won't get married!”
What a spectacle and what anxieties to that unfortunate Ms. Artus, whose wedding was indeed in preparation at the very moment when Ms. de Chilly fell ill, to not get up again!”
Yes, these words are certainly the expression of the double vision attributed to death, and whose examples are not uncommon. How many people have had such hunches before they died! Will it be said that they played a comedy? Let the Materialists explain these phenomena if they can! If intelligence were only a property of matter, and were to be extinguished with it, how to explain the resurgence of activity of this same intelligence, the new faculties, sometimes transcendent, that so often manifest themselves at the very moment when the organism dissolves, when the last breath will be exhaled? Doesn't this prove that something survives the body? It has been said a hundred times: the independent soul reveals itself at every moment in a thousand forms and in such obvious conditions, that one must voluntarily close one's eyes so as not to see it.
Apparition of a living son to his mother
The fact below is reported by a London medical journal and reproduced by the Journal de Rouen, on December 22nd, 1868:
"Last week, Mr. Samuel W..., one of the bank's principal employees, had to leave early an evening to which he had been invited with his wife, because he was not feeling well. He returned home with a high fever. They sent for the doctor, but he had been called to a nearby town, and he was not to return until very late at night.
Mrs. Samuel decided to wait for the doctor by her husband's bedside. Although plagued by a burning fever, the patient slept quietly. Mrs. Samuel, a little tranquilized and seeing that her husband was not suffering, did not fight against it but fell asleep.
At about three o'clock, she heard the front doorbell ringing. She left her chair swiftly, took a candle holder and went down to the living room.
She expected to see the doctor come in there. The door to the living room opened, but instead of the doctor she saw her son Edward, a twelve-year-old boy, who was studying in a college near Windsor. He was very pale and had his head surrounded by a wide white headband.
"You were waiting for the doctor for Dad, weren't you?" he said, kissing his mother. But Dad is better, it's nothing even; he will be up tomorrow. I am the one who needs a good doctor. Have him called right away, because the one in college does not know much about it…
Paralyzed in fear, Mrs. Samuel had the strength to ring the bell. The bedroom maid arrived. She found her lady in the middle of the living room, motionless, candle holder in hand. The sound of her voice woke Mrs. Samuel. She had been taken by a vision, a dream, call it as you will. She remembered everything and repeated to her housekeeper what she thought she had heard. Then she said crying: "A disgrace must have befallen my son!"
The long-awaited doctor arrived. He examined Mr. Samuel. The fever was almost gone; he claimed that it had been a simple nervous fever, that followed its course and would end in a few hours. The mother, after these reassuring words, told the doctor what had happened to her an hour earlier. The professional, perhaps out of disbelief or wishing to go and get some rest, advised Mrs. Samuel not to give any importance to those ghosts. However, he had to give in to the mother's prayers and anxieties and follow her to Windsor.
They arrived at the college as the day broke. Mrs. Samuel asked for news of her son; she was told that he had been in the infirmary since the day before. The poor mother's heart tightened; the doctor became concerned.
They promptly visited the child. He had suffered a large injury to his forehead while playing in the garden. He had been given first aid, but he had been badly bandaged. There was nothing dangerous about the injury, though.
This is the fact in all its details; we learned it from trustworthy persons. Double sight or dream, it should nevertheless be considered an unusual fact.”
As we can see, the idea of the double sight is gaining ground; it is accredited outside of Spiritism, such as the plurality of existences, the perispirit, etc.; so much so that Spiritism arrives by a thousand paths, and is implanted in all kinds of forms, even by the very care of those who do not want it.
The possibility of the above fact is obvious, and it would be superfluous to discuss it. Is it a dream or the effect of a double sight? Mrs. Samuel was asleep, and when she woke up, she remembered what she saw; so, it was a dream; but a dream that brings the image of such accurate news, and that is verified almost immediately, is not a product of imagination: it is a very real vision. There is, at the same time, double vision, or spiritual vision, because it is quite certain that it was not with the eyes of the body that the mother saw her son. There has been detachment of the soul on both sides; was it the soul of the mother that went to the son, or that of the son that came to the mother? The circumstances make the latter case the most likely, because in the other case the mother would have seen her son in the infirmary.
Someone who only knows Spiritism very superficially, but perfectly admits the possibility of certain manifestations, asked us how come the son, who was in his bed, had been able to present himself to his mother, with his clothes. "I conceive," he said, "the appearance by the fact of the release of the soul; but I would not understand if purely material objects, such as clothing, had the property of carrying away a quintessential part of their substance, which would presuppose a will.”
We replied that the clothes, as well as the material body of the young man, remained in their place. After a short explanation about the phenomenon of fluidic creations, we added: The Spirit of the young man presented himself to his mother with his fluidic or perispiritual body. Without having had the premeditated plan to dress up in his clothes, without going through this reasoning: "My clothes are there; I cannot put them on; it is therefore necessary to make me fluidic clothes that will have the appearance of that"; it was enough for him to think of his usual clothing, of the one he would have taken in ordinary circumstances, so that his thought gave his perispirit the appearances of that same costume; for the same reason, he could have presented himself in his pajamas, if that had been his thought. Such appearance would have turned into a kind of reality; he only had an imperfect awareness of his fluidic state, and just as some Spirits still believe to be of this world, he believed he was coming to his mother's house in the flesh, since he kissed her as usual.
The external forms of the Spirits that make themselves visible are therefore true fluidic creations, often unconscious; the clothes, the specific signs, the wounds, the defects of the body, the objects they make use of, are the reflection of their own thought onto the perispiritual envelope.
"But then," said our interlocutor, "it is a whole order of new ideas; there is a whole world there, and this world is in our midst; many things can be explained; the relationship between the dead and the living are understandable.
Certainly, and it is to the knowledge of this world, that interests us in so many ways, that Spiritism leads. This world is revealed by a multitude of facts that are neglected for a lack of understanding of their cause.
"Last week, Mr. Samuel W..., one of the bank's principal employees, had to leave early an evening to which he had been invited with his wife, because he was not feeling well. He returned home with a high fever. They sent for the doctor, but he had been called to a nearby town, and he was not to return until very late at night.
Mrs. Samuel decided to wait for the doctor by her husband's bedside. Although plagued by a burning fever, the patient slept quietly. Mrs. Samuel, a little tranquilized and seeing that her husband was not suffering, did not fight against it but fell asleep.
At about three o'clock, she heard the front doorbell ringing. She left her chair swiftly, took a candle holder and went down to the living room.
She expected to see the doctor come in there. The door to the living room opened, but instead of the doctor she saw her son Edward, a twelve-year-old boy, who was studying in a college near Windsor. He was very pale and had his head surrounded by a wide white headband.
"You were waiting for the doctor for Dad, weren't you?" he said, kissing his mother. But Dad is better, it's nothing even; he will be up tomorrow. I am the one who needs a good doctor. Have him called right away, because the one in college does not know much about it…
Paralyzed in fear, Mrs. Samuel had the strength to ring the bell. The bedroom maid arrived. She found her lady in the middle of the living room, motionless, candle holder in hand. The sound of her voice woke Mrs. Samuel. She had been taken by a vision, a dream, call it as you will. She remembered everything and repeated to her housekeeper what she thought she had heard. Then she said crying: "A disgrace must have befallen my son!"
The long-awaited doctor arrived. He examined Mr. Samuel. The fever was almost gone; he claimed that it had been a simple nervous fever, that followed its course and would end in a few hours. The mother, after these reassuring words, told the doctor what had happened to her an hour earlier. The professional, perhaps out of disbelief or wishing to go and get some rest, advised Mrs. Samuel not to give any importance to those ghosts. However, he had to give in to the mother's prayers and anxieties and follow her to Windsor.
They arrived at the college as the day broke. Mrs. Samuel asked for news of her son; she was told that he had been in the infirmary since the day before. The poor mother's heart tightened; the doctor became concerned.
They promptly visited the child. He had suffered a large injury to his forehead while playing in the garden. He had been given first aid, but he had been badly bandaged. There was nothing dangerous about the injury, though.
This is the fact in all its details; we learned it from trustworthy persons. Double sight or dream, it should nevertheless be considered an unusual fact.”
As we can see, the idea of the double sight is gaining ground; it is accredited outside of Spiritism, such as the plurality of existences, the perispirit, etc.; so much so that Spiritism arrives by a thousand paths, and is implanted in all kinds of forms, even by the very care of those who do not want it.
The possibility of the above fact is obvious, and it would be superfluous to discuss it. Is it a dream or the effect of a double sight? Mrs. Samuel was asleep, and when she woke up, she remembered what she saw; so, it was a dream; but a dream that brings the image of such accurate news, and that is verified almost immediately, is not a product of imagination: it is a very real vision. There is, at the same time, double vision, or spiritual vision, because it is quite certain that it was not with the eyes of the body that the mother saw her son. There has been detachment of the soul on both sides; was it the soul of the mother that went to the son, or that of the son that came to the mother? The circumstances make the latter case the most likely, because in the other case the mother would have seen her son in the infirmary.
Someone who only knows Spiritism very superficially, but perfectly admits the possibility of certain manifestations, asked us how come the son, who was in his bed, had been able to present himself to his mother, with his clothes. "I conceive," he said, "the appearance by the fact of the release of the soul; but I would not understand if purely material objects, such as clothing, had the property of carrying away a quintessential part of their substance, which would presuppose a will.”
We replied that the clothes, as well as the material body of the young man, remained in their place. After a short explanation about the phenomenon of fluidic creations, we added: The Spirit of the young man presented himself to his mother with his fluidic or perispiritual body. Without having had the premeditated plan to dress up in his clothes, without going through this reasoning: "My clothes are there; I cannot put them on; it is therefore necessary to make me fluidic clothes that will have the appearance of that"; it was enough for him to think of his usual clothing, of the one he would have taken in ordinary circumstances, so that his thought gave his perispirit the appearances of that same costume; for the same reason, he could have presented himself in his pajamas, if that had been his thought. Such appearance would have turned into a kind of reality; he only had an imperfect awareness of his fluidic state, and just as some Spirits still believe to be of this world, he believed he was coming to his mother's house in the flesh, since he kissed her as usual.
The external forms of the Spirits that make themselves visible are therefore true fluidic creations, often unconscious; the clothes, the specific signs, the wounds, the defects of the body, the objects they make use of, are the reflection of their own thought onto the perispiritual envelope.
"But then," said our interlocutor, "it is a whole order of new ideas; there is a whole world there, and this world is in our midst; many things can be explained; the relationship between the dead and the living are understandable.
Certainly, and it is to the knowledge of this world, that interests us in so many ways, that Spiritism leads. This world is revealed by a multitude of facts that are neglected for a lack of understanding of their cause.
A Will in the United States
“In the state of Maine, in the United States, a lady asked for the nullity her mother’s will. She said that, as a member of a Spiritist society, her mother had written her last wishes by the dictation of a turning table. The judge declared that the law did not prohibit consultations with the turning tables, and the clauses of the will were maintained.”
In Europe, we are not there yet; so, the French newspaper that reports this fact, preceded it with this exclamation: These Americans are strong! Meaning: they are silly!
Whatever the author of this critical reflection thinks, these Americans will be able to question, on certain points, if the old Europe will drag itself for a long time on the path of old prejudices. The progressive movement of humanity started from the East and gradually spread to the West; would it have already crossed the Atlantic and planted its flag in the new continent, leaving Europe behind as Europe left India? Is it a law, and would the cycle of progress have already gone around the world several times? The following fact might suggest that.
Women Emancipation in the United States
We got a letter from Yankton, a city in South Dakota (United States) saying that the legislature of the county has just adopted, by a large majority, a bill by Mr. Enos Stutsman, that grants women the right to vote and to stand for election. (Siècle, January 15th, 1869).
Wednesday, July 29th, Mrs. Alexandrine Bris took a Bachelor of Science exam before the Faculty of Sciences of Paris; she was granted four white balls, a rare success, that earned her congratulations from the president ratified with acclamations by the whole audience.
Le Temps guarantees that Mrs. Bris is to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine, in view of her doctorate (Grand Moniteur, August 6th, 1868).
We were told that Ms. Bris is American. We know two ladies from New York, sisters of Miss B..., members of the Spiritist Society of Paris, who are certified doctors and practice medicine exclusively for women and children. We are not there yet.
Women Emancipation in the United States
We got a letter from Yankton, a city in South Dakota (United States) saying that the legislature of the county has just adopted, by a large majority, a bill by Mr. Enos Stutsman, that grants women the right to vote and to stand for election. (Siècle, January 15th, 1869).
Wednesday, July 29th, Mrs. Alexandrine Bris took a Bachelor of Science exam before the Faculty of Sciences of Paris; she was granted four white balls, a rare success, that earned her congratulations from the president ratified with acclamations by the whole audience.
Le Temps guarantees that Mrs. Bris is to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine, in view of her doctorate (Grand Moniteur, August 6th, 1868).
We were told that Ms. Bris is American. We know two ladies from New York, sisters of Miss B..., members of the Spiritist Society of Paris, who are certified doctors and practice medicine exclusively for women and children. We are not there yet.
Wednesday, July 29th, Mrs. Alexandrine Bris took a Bachelor of Science exam before the Faculty of Sciences of Paris; she was granted four white balls, a rare success, that earned her congratulations from the president ratified with acclamations by the whole audience.
Le Temps guarantees that Mrs. Bris is to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine, in view of her doctorate (Grand Moniteur, August 6th, 1868).
We were told that Ms. Bris is American. We know two ladies from New York, sisters of Miss B..., members of the Spiritist Society of Paris, who are certified doctors and practice medicine exclusively for women and children. We are not there yet.
Ms. Nichol, medium of transportation
Hotel des Deux-Mondes, at Rue d'Antin, has recently been the scene of supernatural sessions given by the famous medium Nichol, in the presence of only a few initiates.
Ms. Nichol is traveling to Rome to submit her extraordinary faculty to the examination of the Holy Father, which consists in bringing down rains of flowers. This is what is called a medium of transportation (Journal Paris, January 15th, 1869)
Ms. Nichol is from London, where she enjoys a certain reputation as a medium. We witnessed some of her experiments, in a private session more than a year ago, and we admit that they were somewhat disappointing. It is true that we are quite skeptical about certain demonstrations, and somewhat demanding about the conditions under which they occur, not that we question the good faith of that lady; we are only saying that what we saw, to us, did not seem likely to convince the unbelievers.
We wish her good luck with the Holy Father; she will certainly have no trouble convincing him of the reality of the phenomena that today are openly confessed by the clergy (see the book entitled: The Spirits and their relationships with the visible world, by Father Triboulet[1]); but we doubt very much that she will succeed in making him officially recognize that these are not the works of the devil.
Rome is an inhospitable land for mediums who do not perform miracles according to the Church; we recall that in 1864 Mr. Home was going to Rome, not to exercise his faculty, but only to study sculpture, and had to yield to the ban to leave the city within twenty-four hours. (Spiritist Review, February 1864).
[1] One volume, in-8, price 5 francs
The Haunted Trees of Mauritius
The latest news we received from Mauritius indicates that the state of that unfortunate country follows exactly the announced phases (Spiritist Review July 1867, and November 1868). They also contain a remarkable fact that provided the subject matter for an important instruction at the Parisian Society.
“The summer heat," says our correspondent, "brought back the terrible fever, more frequent, more tenacious than ever. My house has become a kind of hospital, and I spend my time treating myself or my loved ones. Mortality is not very high, it is true, but after the horrible suffering that each episode causes us, we experience a general disturbance that develops in us new diseases: the faculties are gradually altered; the senses, especially hearing and sight, are particularly affected. Yet our good Spirits, perfectly in agreement with yours in their communications, announce the imminent end to the epidemic, but the ruin and decadence of the rich, which in fact is already beginning.
"I take advantage of the little time I have available to give you the details I promised about the phenomena that has been taken place in my house. The persons to whom it belonged before me, carefree and negligent, according to the custom of the country, had let it fall in real bad shape, and I was forced to do lots of repairs. The garden, metamorphosed into a farmyard, was filled with those large trees from India, so-called multiplying trees, whose roots, coming out of the top of the branches, descend to the ground where they settle, and sometimes form huge trunks by superimposing themselves on each other, sometimes forming quite extensive galleries.
Such trees have a bad reputation in this country, believed to be haunted by evil spirits. With no regard for their so-called mysterious inhabitants, and for not being in no way to my liking, as they unnecessarily cluttered the garden, I had them cut down. From that moment on, it became almost impossible for us to have a day of rest in the house. You really had to be a Spiritist to continue to live in it. All the time we heard knocks from all sides, doors opening and closing, shifting furniture, sighs, confused words; often we also heard steps in the empty rooms. The workers, who repaired the house, were frequently disturbed by these strange noises, but since it took place during the day, they were not much afraid of them, because these demonstrations are very frequent in the region. No matter how much we prayed, evoked these Spirits, lectured them, they responded only with insults and threats, and did not stop noise.
At the time we had a meeting once a week; but you cannot imagine all the bad tricks that were played on us to disturb and interrupt our sessions; communications were sometimes intercepted, sometimes mediums experienced pain to the point of inaction.
It seems that the regulars of the house were too numerous and too wicked to be moralized, for we could not overcome them, and we were forced to stop our meetings in which we could no longer obtain anything. Only one was willing to listen to us and recommend himself to our prayers. He was a poor Portuguese man by the name of Gulielmo, who claimed to be a victim of those people with whom he had done I do not know what misdeed, and who held him there, he said, for his punishment. I did some research and learned that indeed a Portuguese sailor of that name had been one of the tenants of the house, and that he had died there.
The fever arrived; the noises became less frequent, but did not stop; besides, we got used to it. We still meet, but the disease has prevented our sessions from following their course. I make sure that they take place in the garden, as much as possible, because we noticed that good communications are more difficult to obtain in the house, and that we are very tormented these days, especially at night.”
The question of haunted places is a given; noises and disturbances are well known; but do some trees have a particular attractive power? In the case above, is there any connection between the destruction of those trees and the phenomena that immediately followed? Would popular belief have any reality here? This is what the following instruction seems to give a logical explanation for, until further confirmation.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 19th, 1869
“All legends, whatever they may be, however ridiculous and unfounded they may seem, are based on a real basis, on an indisputable truth, demonstrated by experience, but amplified and distorted by tradition. It is said that some plants are good for driving evil Spirits away; others may cause possession; some shrubs are more particularly haunted; all that is true in fact, in isolation. A fact took place, a special manifestation justified that saying, and the superstitious crowd hastened to generalize it; it is the story of a man who lays an egg. The thing runs in secret from mouth to mouth and amplifies until it takes on the proportions of an indisputable law, and such an inexistent law is accepted because of the aspirations towards the unknown, towards the supernatural by the generality of men.
The multipliers have been and still are, especially in Mauritius, landmarks for evening meetings; people lean against their trunk, breathe the air around it, take shelter under their foliage. Now, when men die, especially when they are in a certain inferiority, they retain their material habits; they go to places they loved while incarnate; they meet there and they stay there; that is why there are places more particularly haunted; it is not the Spirits of the first comers that go there, but the Spirits who used to go there during their lifetime. The multipliers aren’t, therefore, any more attractive to the dwelling of the lower Spirits than any other shelter. Custom designates them to the ghosts of Mauritius, like some castles, some clearings of the German forests, some lakes are more particularly haunted by the Spirits, in Europe.
If these Spirits are disturbed, all still materialized, and who, for the most part, believe themselves to be alive, they become irritated and tend to take revenge, to dispute with those who have deprived them from their shelter; from there, the demonstrations that this lady and many others had to complain about.
The Mauritian population being, in general, inferior from a moral point of view, disembodiment can only make the space a nursery of very little dematerialized Spirits, still imbued with all their earthly habits, and who continue, although Spirits, to live as if they were men. They deprive of tranquility and sleep those who deprive them of their favorite dwelling, and that's all. The nature of the shelter, its gloomy appearance, has nothing to do with that; it is simply a matter of well-being. They are dislodged, and they take revenge. Material in essence, they take material revenge, banging on walls, complaining, expressing their frustration in all forms.
Let the Mauritians purify and progress, and they will return to space with tendencies of another kind, and the multipliers will lose the ability to shelter the revenants.
Clélie Duplantier.”
“The summer heat," says our correspondent, "brought back the terrible fever, more frequent, more tenacious than ever. My house has become a kind of hospital, and I spend my time treating myself or my loved ones. Mortality is not very high, it is true, but after the horrible suffering that each episode causes us, we experience a general disturbance that develops in us new diseases: the faculties are gradually altered; the senses, especially hearing and sight, are particularly affected. Yet our good Spirits, perfectly in agreement with yours in their communications, announce the imminent end to the epidemic, but the ruin and decadence of the rich, which in fact is already beginning.
"I take advantage of the little time I have available to give you the details I promised about the phenomena that has been taken place in my house. The persons to whom it belonged before me, carefree and negligent, according to the custom of the country, had let it fall in real bad shape, and I was forced to do lots of repairs. The garden, metamorphosed into a farmyard, was filled with those large trees from India, so-called multiplying trees, whose roots, coming out of the top of the branches, descend to the ground where they settle, and sometimes form huge trunks by superimposing themselves on each other, sometimes forming quite extensive galleries.
Such trees have a bad reputation in this country, believed to be haunted by evil spirits. With no regard for their so-called mysterious inhabitants, and for not being in no way to my liking, as they unnecessarily cluttered the garden, I had them cut down. From that moment on, it became almost impossible for us to have a day of rest in the house. You really had to be a Spiritist to continue to live in it. All the time we heard knocks from all sides, doors opening and closing, shifting furniture, sighs, confused words; often we also heard steps in the empty rooms. The workers, who repaired the house, were frequently disturbed by these strange noises, but since it took place during the day, they were not much afraid of them, because these demonstrations are very frequent in the region. No matter how much we prayed, evoked these Spirits, lectured them, they responded only with insults and threats, and did not stop noise.
At the time we had a meeting once a week; but you cannot imagine all the bad tricks that were played on us to disturb and interrupt our sessions; communications were sometimes intercepted, sometimes mediums experienced pain to the point of inaction.
It seems that the regulars of the house were too numerous and too wicked to be moralized, for we could not overcome them, and we were forced to stop our meetings in which we could no longer obtain anything. Only one was willing to listen to us and recommend himself to our prayers. He was a poor Portuguese man by the name of Gulielmo, who claimed to be a victim of those people with whom he had done I do not know what misdeed, and who held him there, he said, for his punishment. I did some research and learned that indeed a Portuguese sailor of that name had been one of the tenants of the house, and that he had died there.
The fever arrived; the noises became less frequent, but did not stop; besides, we got used to it. We still meet, but the disease has prevented our sessions from following their course. I make sure that they take place in the garden, as much as possible, because we noticed that good communications are more difficult to obtain in the house, and that we are very tormented these days, especially at night.”
The question of haunted places is a given; noises and disturbances are well known; but do some trees have a particular attractive power? In the case above, is there any connection between the destruction of those trees and the phenomena that immediately followed? Would popular belief have any reality here? This is what the following instruction seems to give a logical explanation for, until further confirmation.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, February 19th, 1869
“All legends, whatever they may be, however ridiculous and unfounded they may seem, are based on a real basis, on an indisputable truth, demonstrated by experience, but amplified and distorted by tradition. It is said that some plants are good for driving evil Spirits away; others may cause possession; some shrubs are more particularly haunted; all that is true in fact, in isolation. A fact took place, a special manifestation justified that saying, and the superstitious crowd hastened to generalize it; it is the story of a man who lays an egg. The thing runs in secret from mouth to mouth and amplifies until it takes on the proportions of an indisputable law, and such an inexistent law is accepted because of the aspirations towards the unknown, towards the supernatural by the generality of men.
The multipliers have been and still are, especially in Mauritius, landmarks for evening meetings; people lean against their trunk, breathe the air around it, take shelter under their foliage. Now, when men die, especially when they are in a certain inferiority, they retain their material habits; they go to places they loved while incarnate; they meet there and they stay there; that is why there are places more particularly haunted; it is not the Spirits of the first comers that go there, but the Spirits who used to go there during their lifetime. The multipliers aren’t, therefore, any more attractive to the dwelling of the lower Spirits than any other shelter. Custom designates them to the ghosts of Mauritius, like some castles, some clearings of the German forests, some lakes are more particularly haunted by the Spirits, in Europe.
If these Spirits are disturbed, all still materialized, and who, for the most part, believe themselves to be alive, they become irritated and tend to take revenge, to dispute with those who have deprived them from their shelter; from there, the demonstrations that this lady and many others had to complain about.
The Mauritian population being, in general, inferior from a moral point of view, disembodiment can only make the space a nursery of very little dematerialized Spirits, still imbued with all their earthly habits, and who continue, although Spirits, to live as if they were men. They deprive of tranquility and sleep those who deprive them of their favorite dwelling, and that's all. The nature of the shelter, its gloomy appearance, has nothing to do with that; it is simply a matter of well-being. They are dislodged, and they take revenge. Material in essence, they take material revenge, banging on walls, complaining, expressing their frustration in all forms.
Let the Mauritians purify and progress, and they will return to space with tendencies of another kind, and the multipliers will lose the ability to shelter the revenants.
Clélie Duplantier.”
Lecture on Spiritism
With the title Spiritism before science, a public lecture by Mr. Chevillard, had been announced at the Salle du Boulevard des Capucines for January 30th. In what sense should the speaker speak? That's what nobody knew.
The announcement seemed to promise an “ex-professo”[1] discussion of all parts of the issue. However, the speaker completely ignored the most essential part, the one that constitutes Spiritism properly saying: the philosophical and moral part, without which Spiritism would certainly not be implanted today in all parts of the world and would not count its followers by the millions. The turning tables were already being abandoned by 1855; if Spiritism had been limited to this, it certainly would not have been talked about for a long time; its rapid spread dates from the moment when it was realized that something serious and useful would come out of it, when a humanitarian purpose was seen in that.
The speaker therefore confined himself to examining a few material phenomena; for he did not even speak of the spontaneous phenomena, so numerous and that occur outside any Spiritist belief; Now, the announcement that one is going to deal with such a vast question, so complex in its applications and in its consequences, and to stop at a few points on the surface, it is absolutely as if a professor was limited to explaining the alphabet in a course with the title Literature.
Perhaps Mr. Chevillard said to himself: "What is the point of talking about philosophical doctrine? Since this doctrine is based on the intervention of the Spirits, when I have proved that such intervention does not exist, everything else will collapse.” How many, before M. Chevillard, flattered themselves for having given Spiritism the mercy stroke, not to mention the inventor of the famous cracking muscle, Dr. Jobert (de Lamballe) who mercilessly sent all Spiritists to Charenton[2], and who, two years later, died himself in a home for the insane! However, despite all those boasters, striking with dagger and sword, who seemed to have nothing else to say to reduce it to dust, Spiritism has lived, it has grown, and it still lives, stronger, more vivacious than ever! This is a fact that has its value. When an idea resists so many attacks, it is because there is something else in that.
Haven’t we once seen scholars striving to demonstrate that the movement of Earth was impossible? And without going back so far, hasn’t this century shown us an illustrious organization declaring that the application of steam to navigation was a chimera? A curious book to write would be the collection of the official errors of science. This is simply to arrive at the conclusion that when something is true, it advances, despite everything else and the contrary opinion of scholars; however, if Spiritism has moved on, despite all the arguments opposed by high and low science, there is a presumption in its favor.
Mr. Jobert (de Lamballe) unceremoniously treated all Spiritists as charlatans and crooks; justice must be done to Mr. Chevillard, who only accuses them of being wrong about the cause. Moreover, cursing, in addition to proving nothing, always show a lack of courtesy, and would have been very inappropriate before an audience where many Spiritists must necessarily be found. The evangelical pulpit is less scrupulous; there, it has been said many times: "Flee from the Spiritists like the plague and send them away;" proving that Spiritism is something, since one is afraid of it, and because one does not fire cannon shots against flies.
Mr. Chevillard does not deny the facts, on the contrary, he admits them, because he has attested them; only he explains them in his own way. Does he, at least, brings a new argument in support of his thesis? That can be assessed.
"Every man," he says, "possesses a greater or lesser amount of animal electricity, which constitutes the nervous fluid. This fluid emerges by the influence of the will, the desire to move a table; it penetrates the table, and the table moves; the knocks struck in the table are nothing but electric shocks, caused by the concentration of thought.” Mechanical writing: same explanation.
But how can we explain the knocks struck on the walls, without the participation of the will, with people who do not know what Spiritism is, or who do not believe in it? Overabundance of electricity that emanates spontaneously and produces discharges.
What about intelligent communications? Reflection of the thought of the medium. - And when the medium obtains, through typtology or writing, things that he does not know? One always knows something, and if it is not the thought of the medium, it can be that of others.
And when a medium writes, unconsciously, things that are personally unpleasant to him, is it his own thought? He does not question this fact, as many others. However, a theory can only be true if it solves all the phases of a problem; if only one fact misses explanation, it is because it is either false or incomplete; how many facts is it powerless to provide the solution for! We would be very keen to know how Mr. Chevillard would explain, for example, the facts reported above concerning Ms. de Chilly, the appearance of the young Édouard Samuel, all the incidents of what happened in Mauritius; how he would explain, by the release of electricity, the writing by people who do not know how to write; the fact of that maid who wrote, before an entire society: “I steal my lady boss”, by the reflection of thought?
In short, Mr. Chevillard acknowledges the existence of the phenomena, which is something, but he denies the intervention of the Spirits. As for his theory, it offers absolutely nothing new; it is the repetition of what has been said, for fifteen years, in all forms, an idea that has not prevailed. Will he be more fortunate than his predecessors? This is what the future will prove.
It is curious to see the expedients used by those who want to explain everything without the Spirits! Instead of going straight to what comes before them in the simplest form, they seek causes that are so muddled, so complicated, that they are intelligible to them only. They should at least, to complete their theory, say what they think the Spirits of men become after death, for it interests everyone, proving that these Spirits cannot manifest themselves to the living; this is what nobody has done yet, while Spiritism proves that they can do it.
But all this is necessary; all these systems must be exhausted and show their impotence. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that all this repercussion given to Spiritism, all the circumstances that have highlighted it, have always been to its benefit; and what is worth noticing, is that the more violent the attacks, the more progress it has made. Don’t all great ideas need the baptism of persecution, even that of mockery? And why hasn’t it suffered from that? The reason for this is quite simple: it is because, by making it say the opposite of what it says, presenting it as quite different from what it is, hunchbacked when it is straight, it can only gain from a serious and conscientious examination, and that those who wanted to strike it, have always struck at the margin of the truth. (See Spiritist Review, February 1869: Power of ridicule).
However, the darker the colors by which it is presented, the more they excite curiosity. The party that has gone out of its way to say that it is the devil, has done it a lot of good, because among those who have not yet had the opportunity to see the devil, many have been very pleased to learn what it is, and have not found it as dark as it was said. Say that there is a hideous monster in a square in Paris, that will tarnish the whole city, and everyone will run to see it. Haven’t we seen authors placing criticisms of their own works in the newspaper, just to have them talked about? That was the result of the furious diatribes against Spiritism; they provoked the desire to get to know it and did it more service than harm.
To speak of Spiritism, in any direction, is to make propaganda on its behalf; experience is there to prove it. From that point of view, Mr. Chevillard's lecture is to be welcomed; but let us promptly say, in praise of the speaker, that he positioned himself in a decent, loyal, and tasteful argumentation. He expressed his opinion: it is his own right, and although we do not share it, we have nothing to complain about. Later, no doubt, when the right moment has come, Spiritism will also have its sympathetic speakers; we will just advise them not to fall into the mistake of the adversaries; meaning that they should study the question thoroughly, to speak only with full knowledge of cause.
[1] Latin for expert, with the expertise of a professional
[2] Hospital of the mentally ill
The announcement seemed to promise an “ex-professo”[1] discussion of all parts of the issue. However, the speaker completely ignored the most essential part, the one that constitutes Spiritism properly saying: the philosophical and moral part, without which Spiritism would certainly not be implanted today in all parts of the world and would not count its followers by the millions. The turning tables were already being abandoned by 1855; if Spiritism had been limited to this, it certainly would not have been talked about for a long time; its rapid spread dates from the moment when it was realized that something serious and useful would come out of it, when a humanitarian purpose was seen in that.
The speaker therefore confined himself to examining a few material phenomena; for he did not even speak of the spontaneous phenomena, so numerous and that occur outside any Spiritist belief; Now, the announcement that one is going to deal with such a vast question, so complex in its applications and in its consequences, and to stop at a few points on the surface, it is absolutely as if a professor was limited to explaining the alphabet in a course with the title Literature.
Perhaps Mr. Chevillard said to himself: "What is the point of talking about philosophical doctrine? Since this doctrine is based on the intervention of the Spirits, when I have proved that such intervention does not exist, everything else will collapse.” How many, before M. Chevillard, flattered themselves for having given Spiritism the mercy stroke, not to mention the inventor of the famous cracking muscle, Dr. Jobert (de Lamballe) who mercilessly sent all Spiritists to Charenton[2], and who, two years later, died himself in a home for the insane! However, despite all those boasters, striking with dagger and sword, who seemed to have nothing else to say to reduce it to dust, Spiritism has lived, it has grown, and it still lives, stronger, more vivacious than ever! This is a fact that has its value. When an idea resists so many attacks, it is because there is something else in that.
Haven’t we once seen scholars striving to demonstrate that the movement of Earth was impossible? And without going back so far, hasn’t this century shown us an illustrious organization declaring that the application of steam to navigation was a chimera? A curious book to write would be the collection of the official errors of science. This is simply to arrive at the conclusion that when something is true, it advances, despite everything else and the contrary opinion of scholars; however, if Spiritism has moved on, despite all the arguments opposed by high and low science, there is a presumption in its favor.
Mr. Jobert (de Lamballe) unceremoniously treated all Spiritists as charlatans and crooks; justice must be done to Mr. Chevillard, who only accuses them of being wrong about the cause. Moreover, cursing, in addition to proving nothing, always show a lack of courtesy, and would have been very inappropriate before an audience where many Spiritists must necessarily be found. The evangelical pulpit is less scrupulous; there, it has been said many times: "Flee from the Spiritists like the plague and send them away;" proving that Spiritism is something, since one is afraid of it, and because one does not fire cannon shots against flies.
Mr. Chevillard does not deny the facts, on the contrary, he admits them, because he has attested them; only he explains them in his own way. Does he, at least, brings a new argument in support of his thesis? That can be assessed.
"Every man," he says, "possesses a greater or lesser amount of animal electricity, which constitutes the nervous fluid. This fluid emerges by the influence of the will, the desire to move a table; it penetrates the table, and the table moves; the knocks struck in the table are nothing but electric shocks, caused by the concentration of thought.” Mechanical writing: same explanation.
But how can we explain the knocks struck on the walls, without the participation of the will, with people who do not know what Spiritism is, or who do not believe in it? Overabundance of electricity that emanates spontaneously and produces discharges.
What about intelligent communications? Reflection of the thought of the medium. - And when the medium obtains, through typtology or writing, things that he does not know? One always knows something, and if it is not the thought of the medium, it can be that of others.
And when a medium writes, unconsciously, things that are personally unpleasant to him, is it his own thought? He does not question this fact, as many others. However, a theory can only be true if it solves all the phases of a problem; if only one fact misses explanation, it is because it is either false or incomplete; how many facts is it powerless to provide the solution for! We would be very keen to know how Mr. Chevillard would explain, for example, the facts reported above concerning Ms. de Chilly, the appearance of the young Édouard Samuel, all the incidents of what happened in Mauritius; how he would explain, by the release of electricity, the writing by people who do not know how to write; the fact of that maid who wrote, before an entire society: “I steal my lady boss”, by the reflection of thought?
In short, Mr. Chevillard acknowledges the existence of the phenomena, which is something, but he denies the intervention of the Spirits. As for his theory, it offers absolutely nothing new; it is the repetition of what has been said, for fifteen years, in all forms, an idea that has not prevailed. Will he be more fortunate than his predecessors? This is what the future will prove.
It is curious to see the expedients used by those who want to explain everything without the Spirits! Instead of going straight to what comes before them in the simplest form, they seek causes that are so muddled, so complicated, that they are intelligible to them only. They should at least, to complete their theory, say what they think the Spirits of men become after death, for it interests everyone, proving that these Spirits cannot manifest themselves to the living; this is what nobody has done yet, while Spiritism proves that they can do it.
But all this is necessary; all these systems must be exhausted and show their impotence. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that all this repercussion given to Spiritism, all the circumstances that have highlighted it, have always been to its benefit; and what is worth noticing, is that the more violent the attacks, the more progress it has made. Don’t all great ideas need the baptism of persecution, even that of mockery? And why hasn’t it suffered from that? The reason for this is quite simple: it is because, by making it say the opposite of what it says, presenting it as quite different from what it is, hunchbacked when it is straight, it can only gain from a serious and conscientious examination, and that those who wanted to strike it, have always struck at the margin of the truth. (See Spiritist Review, February 1869: Power of ridicule).
However, the darker the colors by which it is presented, the more they excite curiosity. The party that has gone out of its way to say that it is the devil, has done it a lot of good, because among those who have not yet had the opportunity to see the devil, many have been very pleased to learn what it is, and have not found it as dark as it was said. Say that there is a hideous monster in a square in Paris, that will tarnish the whole city, and everyone will run to see it. Haven’t we seen authors placing criticisms of their own works in the newspaper, just to have them talked about? That was the result of the furious diatribes against Spiritism; they provoked the desire to get to know it and did it more service than harm.
To speak of Spiritism, in any direction, is to make propaganda on its behalf; experience is there to prove it. From that point of view, Mr. Chevillard's lecture is to be welcomed; but let us promptly say, in praise of the speaker, that he positioned himself in a decent, loyal, and tasteful argumentation. He expressed his opinion: it is his own right, and although we do not share it, we have nothing to complain about. Later, no doubt, when the right moment has come, Spiritism will also have its sympathetic speakers; we will just advise them not to fall into the mistake of the adversaries; meaning that they should study the question thoroughly, to speak only with full knowledge of cause.
[1] Latin for expert, with the expertise of a professional
[2] Hospital of the mentally ill
Spiritist Dissertations
Music and celestial harmonies(continuation – see last January issue)
Paris, Group Desliens, January 5th, 1869 – medium Mr. Desliens
“You are right, gentlemen, for reminding me of my promise, because time, that passes so quickly in the world of space, has eternal minutes for the one who endures that embraced by the trial! A few days ago, a few weeks ago, I counted like you; every day added a whole series of vicissitudes to the already endured vicissitudes, and the cup was filling up step by step.
Ah! you do not know how difficult it is to carry the name of a great man! Do not wish glory; do not be known, be useful. Popularity has its thorns, and more than once I found myself bruised by the too brutal caresses of the crowd.
Today, the smoke of incense no longer intoxicates me. I hover over the pettiness of the past, and it is a boundless horizon that extends before my insatiable curiosity. Thus, handful of hours fall into the secular hourglass, and I always search, always study, never counting time.
Yes, I promised you; but who can boast of keeping a promise, when the elements necessary to fulfill it belong to the future? The powerful of the world, still under the breath of adulation of the courtiers, may wish to face the problem hand-to-hand; but it was no longer a fake struggle that we were talking about here; there were no more bravos, loud cheers to encourage me and overcome my weakness. It was, and still is, a superhuman work that I tackled; it is against it that I always struggle, and if I hope to succeed, I cannot nonetheless hide my exhaustion. I'm terrified... In dire straits!... I rest before exploring again; but, if I cannot tell you today what the future will hold, I may be able to appreciate the present: to be critical, after having been criticized. You will judge me, and disapprove me if I am not fair, which I will try to be by avoiding personalisms.
Why then so many musicians and so few artists? So many composers, and so few musical truths? Alas! It is for the fact that it is not from the imagination that art can be born, as it is believed; it has no other master and creator but the truth. Without it, it is nothing, or it is only an art of smuggling, rhinestone, counterfeiting. The painter can delude and show white, where he has put only a mixture of colors without a name; the oppositions of shades create an appearance, and that is how Horace Vernet, for example, was able to make a magnificent orange horse appear from a bright white.
But the note has only one sound. The sequence of sounds produces a harmony, a truth, only if the sound waves echo another truth. To be a musician, all it is needed is to align notes on a scope, to preserve the accuracy of the musical relationships; that is the only way in which pleasant noises can be produced; but it is the feeling that is born in the pen of the real artist, it is he who sings, who cries, who laughs... It whistles in the leaf with the stormy wind; he leaps with the foaming wave; he roars with the furious tiger!... But to give the music a soul, to make it cry, laugh, scream, he must have experienced these different feelings, of pain, joy, anger!
Is it with a smile on the lips and disbelief in the heart that you personify a Christian martyr? Will it be a skeptic of love who will make a Romeo, a Juliet? Is it a carefree bon viveur who would create the Marguerite in Faust? No! It takes the whole passion of the one who makes passion vibrate!... And that is why, when so many sheets are filled out, the works are so rare and the truths exceptional; it is that one does not believe, the soul does not vibrate. The sound we hear is that of the ringing gold, the sparkling wine!... Inspiration is the woman who exhibits a false beauty; and since we only have made up defects and virtues, we only produce a veneer, a musical makeup. Scratch the surface, and you will soon find the stone.
Rossini.”
January 17th, 1869 – medium Mr. Nivard
“My silence about the question that the master of the Spiritist Doctrine addressed to me was explained. It was appropriate, before touching this difficult subject, to collect myself, to remember, and to condense the elements that were at hand. I did not have to study music, I only had to classify the arguments methodically, to present a summary capable of giving an idea of my conception of harmony. That work, which I have not done without difficulty, is finished, and I am ready to submit it to the appreciation of the Spiritists.
It is difficult to define harmony; it is often confused with music, with sounds, resulting from an arrangement of notes, and the vibrations of instruments reproducing such arrangement. But harmony is not that, like flame is not light. The flame results from the combination of two gases: it is tangible; the light it projects is an effect of that combination, and not the flame itself: it is not tangible. Here, the effect is greater than the cause. So it is with harmony; it is the result of a musical arrangement; it is an effect that is also superior to its cause: the cause is brutal and tangible; the effect is subtle and is not tangible. Light can be conceived without flame and harmony can be understood without music. The soul can perceive harmony without the help of any instrumentation, just as it is able to see light without the help of any material combinations. Light is an intimate sense that the soul possesses; the more this sense is developed, the better it perceives light. Harmony is also an intimate sense of the soul: it is perceived due to the development of this sense. Outside the material world, that is, outside of tangible causes, light and harmony are of a divine essence; we have them due to the efforts we have made to acquire them. If I compare light and harmony, it is to make myself better understood, and because these two sublime pleasures of the soul are daughters of God, and therefore are sisters.
The harmony of space is so complex, it has so many degrees that I know, and much more that are hidden from me in the infinite ether, that the one who is placed at a certain height of perceptions, becomes astonished by contemplating these various harmonies, which would constitute, if they were placed together, the most unbearable cacophony; whereas, on the contrary, perceived separately, they constitute the particular harmony at each level. These harmonies are elementary and coarse in the lower levels; they lead to ecstasy in the higher spheres. Such harmony that displeases a Spirit with subtle perceptions, delights another with crude perceptions; and when the inferior is allowed to the delights of the higher harmonies, he is taken by ecstasy and prayer penetrates him; the bliss draws him to the high spheres of the moral world; he lives a life superior to his own and would like to continue to live that way. But when the harmony ceases to overwhelm him, he wakes up, or he falls asleep, if you will; in any case, he returns to the reality of his situation, and in the descent, he cries out and exhales a prayer to the Lord, asking for the strength to rise. It is for him a great subject of emulation.
I will not try to explain the musical effects that the Spirit produces by acting on the ether; what is certain is that the Spirit produces the sounds he wants, and that he cannot wish what he does not know. Now, the one who understands much, who has harmony in himself, who is saturated with that, who himself enjoys his intimate sense, this impalpable void, this abstraction that is the conception of harmony, he acts at will on the universal fluid which, as a faithful instrument, reproduces what the Spirit conceives and wishes. The ether vibrates by the action of the will of the Spirit; the harmony that he carries in him is concrete, so to speak; it exhales itself soft and sweet like the perfume of the violet, or it roars like the storm, or it bursts like the thunder, or it complains like the breeze; it is fast as the lightning, or slow as the cloud; it is broken like a sob, or uniform like a lawn; it is disheveled like a waterfall, or calm like a lake; it whispers like a stream or rumbles like a torrent. It sometimes has the harshness of the mountains and sometimes the freshness of an oasis; it is alternately sad and melancholic as the night, joyful and cheerful as the day; it is capricious like the child, comforter like the mother and protective like the father; it is chaotic like passion, crystal clear like love, and grandiose like nature. When it comes to the latter term, it merges with prayer, it glorifies God, and dazzles the very one who produces or conceives it.
O comparison! Comparison! Why does one have to use it! Why must we bend to your degrading necessities and borrow, from the tangible nature, crude images to make us conceive the sublime harmony in which the Spirit delights. And yet, despite the comparisons, we cannot explain this abstraction that is a feeling when it is cause, and a sensation when it becomes effect.
The Spirit who has the feeling of harmony is like the Spirit who has intellectual acquisition; they both constantly enjoy the inalienable property they have amassed. The intelligent Spirit, who teaches his science to those who do not know, experiences the pleasure of teaching, because he knows that he makes his students happy; the Spirit who resonates the ether of the chords of harmony in him, feels the happiness of seeing satisfied those who listen to him.
Harmony, science, and virtue are the three great conceptions of the Spirit: the first delights him, the second enlightens him, the third elevates him. Possessed in their fullness, they merge and constitute purity. O Pure spirits who contain them! Descend into our darkness and enlighten our walk; show us the path you have taken, so that we can follow in your footsteps!
And when I think that these Spirits, whose existence I can understand, are finite beings, atoms, before the universal and eternal Lord, my reason remains confused by thinking of the greatness of God, and of the infinite happiness that he enjoys by himself, by the mere fact of his infinite purity, since all that the creature acquires is only a parcel that emanates from the creator. Now, if the part manages to fascinate by the will, to captivate and delight by suavity, to shine by virtue, what then must the eternal and infinite source, from which it is drawn, produce? If the Spirit, a created being, manages to draw from his purity so much bliss, what idea should one have of what the creator draws from His absolute purity? Eternal problem!
The composer who conceives harmony, translates it into the coarse language called music; he materializes his idea and writes it. The artist learns the form and grasps the instrument that should allow him to express the idea. The tune played by the instrument reaches the ear that transmits it to the soul of the listener. But the composer was powerless to fully express the harmony he conceived, for lack of a sufficient language; the performer, in turn, has not understood the whole written idea, and the indocile instrument he uses does not allow him to translate everything he has understood. The ear is struck by the coarse air that surrounds it, and the soul finally receives, through a rebellious organ, the horrible translation of the idea hatched in the soul of the maestro.
The maestro's idea was his intimate feeling; although biased by the agents of instrumentation and perception, it nevertheless produces sensations in those who hear it translated; these sensations are harmony. Music has produced them: they are effects of the latter. Music has put itself at the service of feeling to produce sensation. The feeling in the composer is harmony; the sensation in the listener is also harmony, with the difference that it is conceived by one and received by the other. Music is the medium of harmony; it receives it, and it gives it, as the reflector is the medium of light, as you are the medium of the Spirits. It makes it somewhat biased, depending on whether it is more or lesser well executed, as the reflector better reflects light or not so well, depending on whether it is brighter or less bright and polished, as the medium better renders the thoughts of the Spirit or not so well, depending on whether he is more flexible or less flexible.
And now that harmony is well understood in its meaning, that we know that it is conceived by the soul and transmitted to the soul, we will understand the difference between the harmony of Earth and the harmony of space.
Everything is coarse among you: the instrument of translation and the instrument of perception; with us, everything is subtle: you have air, we have ether; you have the organ that obstructs and veils; with us, perception is direct, and nothing is veiled. With you, the author is translated: with us he speaks without intermediary, and in the language that expresses all conceptions. And yet, these harmonies have the same source, as the light of the moon has the same source as that of the sun; just as the light of the moon is the reflection of that of the sun, harmony on Earth is only the reflection of the harmony of space.
Harmony is as indefinable as happiness, fear, anger: it is a feeling. We understand it only when we have it, and we only have it when we have acquired it. The man who is joyful cannot explain his joy; the one who is fearful cannot explain his fear; they can tell the facts that provoke these feelings, define them, describe them, but the feelings remain unexplained. The fact that causes joy in one will not produce anything on another; the object that causes fear in one will produce courage in another. The same causes are followed by adverse effects; that does not happen in physics, but it does in metaphysics. This happens because feeling is the property of the soul, and souls differ from each other in sensitivity, impressionability, freedom.
Music, the secondary cause of the perceived harmony, penetrates and transports one and leaves the other cold and indifferent. The first is in a state to receive the impression that harmony produces, and the second is in a contrary state; he hears the air vibrating, but he does not understand the idea it brings to him. It brings him boredom and sleep, while enthusiasm and tears to the other. Obviously, the man who enjoys the delights of harmony is more elevated, more refined, than the one who cannot be touched by that; his soul is better able to feel; it detaches more easily, and harmony helps it to detach; harmony transports the soul, allowing it to better see the moral world. Hence it must be concluded that music is essentially moralizing, since it carries harmony to the souls, and harmony elevates and exalt them.
The influence of music on the soul, on its moral progress, is recognized by everyone; but the reason for such influence is usually ignored. Its explanation is entirely in this fact: that harmony places the soul under the power of a feeling that dematerializes it. That feeling exists to some extent, but it develops by the action of a similar, more elevated feeling. The one that is deprived of such feeling is brought there gradually and ends up by letting oneself to be penetrated and drawn into the ideal world, where one forgets, for a moment, the coarse pleasures that one prefers to the divine harmony.
And now, if we consider that harmony comes out of the concept of the Spirit, we will deduce that if music exerts a happy influence on the soul, the soul that conceives it also exerts its influence on music. The virtuous soul, that has the passion for the good, the beautiful, the great, and which has acquired harmony, will produce masterpieces capable of penetrating and moving the most armored souls. If the composer is down to earth, how will he restore the virtue that he disdains, the beautiful that he ignores and the greatness that he does not understand? His compositions will be the reflection of his sensual tastes, his lightness, his carefreeness. They will sometimes be licentious and sometimes obscene, sometimes amusing, and sometimes burlesque; they will communicate to the listeners the feelings they will express and perverting instead of improving them. Spiritism, by moralizing men, will therefore exert a great influence on music. It will produce more virtuous composers, who will communicate their virtues by making their compositions heard. People will laugh less, and cry more; laughter will give way to emotion, ugliness will give way to beauty and amusement to greatness.
On the other hand, the listeners whom Spiritism will have prepared to easily receive harmony, will feel, when hearing serious music, a real enchantment; they will disdain frivolous and licentious music that takes hold of the masses. When the grotesque and the obscene are abandoned for the beautiful and for the good, the composers of such a kind will disappear; for, without listeners, they will gain nothing, and it is to win that they get dirty.
Oh! yes, Spiritism will have influence on music! How could it be otherwise? Its advent will change art by purifying it. Its source is divine, its strength will take it wherever there are men to love, to elevate and to understand. It will become the ideal and goal of the artists. Painters, sculptors, composers, poets, will ask for its inspirations, and it will attend them, because it is rich, because it is inexhaustible.
The Spirit of Maestro Rossini, in a new existence, will return to continue the art he considers the first stage of them all; Spiritism will be his symbol and the inspiration of his compositions.
Rossini.”
Ah! you do not know how difficult it is to carry the name of a great man! Do not wish glory; do not be known, be useful. Popularity has its thorns, and more than once I found myself bruised by the too brutal caresses of the crowd.
Today, the smoke of incense no longer intoxicates me. I hover over the pettiness of the past, and it is a boundless horizon that extends before my insatiable curiosity. Thus, handful of hours fall into the secular hourglass, and I always search, always study, never counting time.
Yes, I promised you; but who can boast of keeping a promise, when the elements necessary to fulfill it belong to the future? The powerful of the world, still under the breath of adulation of the courtiers, may wish to face the problem hand-to-hand; but it was no longer a fake struggle that we were talking about here; there were no more bravos, loud cheers to encourage me and overcome my weakness. It was, and still is, a superhuman work that I tackled; it is against it that I always struggle, and if I hope to succeed, I cannot nonetheless hide my exhaustion. I'm terrified... In dire straits!... I rest before exploring again; but, if I cannot tell you today what the future will hold, I may be able to appreciate the present: to be critical, after having been criticized. You will judge me, and disapprove me if I am not fair, which I will try to be by avoiding personalisms.
Why then so many musicians and so few artists? So many composers, and so few musical truths? Alas! It is for the fact that it is not from the imagination that art can be born, as it is believed; it has no other master and creator but the truth. Without it, it is nothing, or it is only an art of smuggling, rhinestone, counterfeiting. The painter can delude and show white, where he has put only a mixture of colors without a name; the oppositions of shades create an appearance, and that is how Horace Vernet, for example, was able to make a magnificent orange horse appear from a bright white.
But the note has only one sound. The sequence of sounds produces a harmony, a truth, only if the sound waves echo another truth. To be a musician, all it is needed is to align notes on a scope, to preserve the accuracy of the musical relationships; that is the only way in which pleasant noises can be produced; but it is the feeling that is born in the pen of the real artist, it is he who sings, who cries, who laughs... It whistles in the leaf with the stormy wind; he leaps with the foaming wave; he roars with the furious tiger!... But to give the music a soul, to make it cry, laugh, scream, he must have experienced these different feelings, of pain, joy, anger!
Is it with a smile on the lips and disbelief in the heart that you personify a Christian martyr? Will it be a skeptic of love who will make a Romeo, a Juliet? Is it a carefree bon viveur who would create the Marguerite in Faust? No! It takes the whole passion of the one who makes passion vibrate!... And that is why, when so many sheets are filled out, the works are so rare and the truths exceptional; it is that one does not believe, the soul does not vibrate. The sound we hear is that of the ringing gold, the sparkling wine!... Inspiration is the woman who exhibits a false beauty; and since we only have made up defects and virtues, we only produce a veneer, a musical makeup. Scratch the surface, and you will soon find the stone.
Rossini.”
January 17th, 1869 – medium Mr. Nivard
“My silence about the question that the master of the Spiritist Doctrine addressed to me was explained. It was appropriate, before touching this difficult subject, to collect myself, to remember, and to condense the elements that were at hand. I did not have to study music, I only had to classify the arguments methodically, to present a summary capable of giving an idea of my conception of harmony. That work, which I have not done without difficulty, is finished, and I am ready to submit it to the appreciation of the Spiritists.
It is difficult to define harmony; it is often confused with music, with sounds, resulting from an arrangement of notes, and the vibrations of instruments reproducing such arrangement. But harmony is not that, like flame is not light. The flame results from the combination of two gases: it is tangible; the light it projects is an effect of that combination, and not the flame itself: it is not tangible. Here, the effect is greater than the cause. So it is with harmony; it is the result of a musical arrangement; it is an effect that is also superior to its cause: the cause is brutal and tangible; the effect is subtle and is not tangible. Light can be conceived without flame and harmony can be understood without music. The soul can perceive harmony without the help of any instrumentation, just as it is able to see light without the help of any material combinations. Light is an intimate sense that the soul possesses; the more this sense is developed, the better it perceives light. Harmony is also an intimate sense of the soul: it is perceived due to the development of this sense. Outside the material world, that is, outside of tangible causes, light and harmony are of a divine essence; we have them due to the efforts we have made to acquire them. If I compare light and harmony, it is to make myself better understood, and because these two sublime pleasures of the soul are daughters of God, and therefore are sisters.
The harmony of space is so complex, it has so many degrees that I know, and much more that are hidden from me in the infinite ether, that the one who is placed at a certain height of perceptions, becomes astonished by contemplating these various harmonies, which would constitute, if they were placed together, the most unbearable cacophony; whereas, on the contrary, perceived separately, they constitute the particular harmony at each level. These harmonies are elementary and coarse in the lower levels; they lead to ecstasy in the higher spheres. Such harmony that displeases a Spirit with subtle perceptions, delights another with crude perceptions; and when the inferior is allowed to the delights of the higher harmonies, he is taken by ecstasy and prayer penetrates him; the bliss draws him to the high spheres of the moral world; he lives a life superior to his own and would like to continue to live that way. But when the harmony ceases to overwhelm him, he wakes up, or he falls asleep, if you will; in any case, he returns to the reality of his situation, and in the descent, he cries out and exhales a prayer to the Lord, asking for the strength to rise. It is for him a great subject of emulation.
I will not try to explain the musical effects that the Spirit produces by acting on the ether; what is certain is that the Spirit produces the sounds he wants, and that he cannot wish what he does not know. Now, the one who understands much, who has harmony in himself, who is saturated with that, who himself enjoys his intimate sense, this impalpable void, this abstraction that is the conception of harmony, he acts at will on the universal fluid which, as a faithful instrument, reproduces what the Spirit conceives and wishes. The ether vibrates by the action of the will of the Spirit; the harmony that he carries in him is concrete, so to speak; it exhales itself soft and sweet like the perfume of the violet, or it roars like the storm, or it bursts like the thunder, or it complains like the breeze; it is fast as the lightning, or slow as the cloud; it is broken like a sob, or uniform like a lawn; it is disheveled like a waterfall, or calm like a lake; it whispers like a stream or rumbles like a torrent. It sometimes has the harshness of the mountains and sometimes the freshness of an oasis; it is alternately sad and melancholic as the night, joyful and cheerful as the day; it is capricious like the child, comforter like the mother and protective like the father; it is chaotic like passion, crystal clear like love, and grandiose like nature. When it comes to the latter term, it merges with prayer, it glorifies God, and dazzles the very one who produces or conceives it.
O comparison! Comparison! Why does one have to use it! Why must we bend to your degrading necessities and borrow, from the tangible nature, crude images to make us conceive the sublime harmony in which the Spirit delights. And yet, despite the comparisons, we cannot explain this abstraction that is a feeling when it is cause, and a sensation when it becomes effect.
The Spirit who has the feeling of harmony is like the Spirit who has intellectual acquisition; they both constantly enjoy the inalienable property they have amassed. The intelligent Spirit, who teaches his science to those who do not know, experiences the pleasure of teaching, because he knows that he makes his students happy; the Spirit who resonates the ether of the chords of harmony in him, feels the happiness of seeing satisfied those who listen to him.
Harmony, science, and virtue are the three great conceptions of the Spirit: the first delights him, the second enlightens him, the third elevates him. Possessed in their fullness, they merge and constitute purity. O Pure spirits who contain them! Descend into our darkness and enlighten our walk; show us the path you have taken, so that we can follow in your footsteps!
And when I think that these Spirits, whose existence I can understand, are finite beings, atoms, before the universal and eternal Lord, my reason remains confused by thinking of the greatness of God, and of the infinite happiness that he enjoys by himself, by the mere fact of his infinite purity, since all that the creature acquires is only a parcel that emanates from the creator. Now, if the part manages to fascinate by the will, to captivate and delight by suavity, to shine by virtue, what then must the eternal and infinite source, from which it is drawn, produce? If the Spirit, a created being, manages to draw from his purity so much bliss, what idea should one have of what the creator draws from His absolute purity? Eternal problem!
The composer who conceives harmony, translates it into the coarse language called music; he materializes his idea and writes it. The artist learns the form and grasps the instrument that should allow him to express the idea. The tune played by the instrument reaches the ear that transmits it to the soul of the listener. But the composer was powerless to fully express the harmony he conceived, for lack of a sufficient language; the performer, in turn, has not understood the whole written idea, and the indocile instrument he uses does not allow him to translate everything he has understood. The ear is struck by the coarse air that surrounds it, and the soul finally receives, through a rebellious organ, the horrible translation of the idea hatched in the soul of the maestro.
The maestro's idea was his intimate feeling; although biased by the agents of instrumentation and perception, it nevertheless produces sensations in those who hear it translated; these sensations are harmony. Music has produced them: they are effects of the latter. Music has put itself at the service of feeling to produce sensation. The feeling in the composer is harmony; the sensation in the listener is also harmony, with the difference that it is conceived by one and received by the other. Music is the medium of harmony; it receives it, and it gives it, as the reflector is the medium of light, as you are the medium of the Spirits. It makes it somewhat biased, depending on whether it is more or lesser well executed, as the reflector better reflects light or not so well, depending on whether it is brighter or less bright and polished, as the medium better renders the thoughts of the Spirit or not so well, depending on whether he is more flexible or less flexible.
And now that harmony is well understood in its meaning, that we know that it is conceived by the soul and transmitted to the soul, we will understand the difference between the harmony of Earth and the harmony of space.
Everything is coarse among you: the instrument of translation and the instrument of perception; with us, everything is subtle: you have air, we have ether; you have the organ that obstructs and veils; with us, perception is direct, and nothing is veiled. With you, the author is translated: with us he speaks without intermediary, and in the language that expresses all conceptions. And yet, these harmonies have the same source, as the light of the moon has the same source as that of the sun; just as the light of the moon is the reflection of that of the sun, harmony on Earth is only the reflection of the harmony of space.
Harmony is as indefinable as happiness, fear, anger: it is a feeling. We understand it only when we have it, and we only have it when we have acquired it. The man who is joyful cannot explain his joy; the one who is fearful cannot explain his fear; they can tell the facts that provoke these feelings, define them, describe them, but the feelings remain unexplained. The fact that causes joy in one will not produce anything on another; the object that causes fear in one will produce courage in another. The same causes are followed by adverse effects; that does not happen in physics, but it does in metaphysics. This happens because feeling is the property of the soul, and souls differ from each other in sensitivity, impressionability, freedom.
Music, the secondary cause of the perceived harmony, penetrates and transports one and leaves the other cold and indifferent. The first is in a state to receive the impression that harmony produces, and the second is in a contrary state; he hears the air vibrating, but he does not understand the idea it brings to him. It brings him boredom and sleep, while enthusiasm and tears to the other. Obviously, the man who enjoys the delights of harmony is more elevated, more refined, than the one who cannot be touched by that; his soul is better able to feel; it detaches more easily, and harmony helps it to detach; harmony transports the soul, allowing it to better see the moral world. Hence it must be concluded that music is essentially moralizing, since it carries harmony to the souls, and harmony elevates and exalt them.
The influence of music on the soul, on its moral progress, is recognized by everyone; but the reason for such influence is usually ignored. Its explanation is entirely in this fact: that harmony places the soul under the power of a feeling that dematerializes it. That feeling exists to some extent, but it develops by the action of a similar, more elevated feeling. The one that is deprived of such feeling is brought there gradually and ends up by letting oneself to be penetrated and drawn into the ideal world, where one forgets, for a moment, the coarse pleasures that one prefers to the divine harmony.
And now, if we consider that harmony comes out of the concept of the Spirit, we will deduce that if music exerts a happy influence on the soul, the soul that conceives it also exerts its influence on music. The virtuous soul, that has the passion for the good, the beautiful, the great, and which has acquired harmony, will produce masterpieces capable of penetrating and moving the most armored souls. If the composer is down to earth, how will he restore the virtue that he disdains, the beautiful that he ignores and the greatness that he does not understand? His compositions will be the reflection of his sensual tastes, his lightness, his carefreeness. They will sometimes be licentious and sometimes obscene, sometimes amusing, and sometimes burlesque; they will communicate to the listeners the feelings they will express and perverting instead of improving them. Spiritism, by moralizing men, will therefore exert a great influence on music. It will produce more virtuous composers, who will communicate their virtues by making their compositions heard. People will laugh less, and cry more; laughter will give way to emotion, ugliness will give way to beauty and amusement to greatness.
On the other hand, the listeners whom Spiritism will have prepared to easily receive harmony, will feel, when hearing serious music, a real enchantment; they will disdain frivolous and licentious music that takes hold of the masses. When the grotesque and the obscene are abandoned for the beautiful and for the good, the composers of such a kind will disappear; for, without listeners, they will gain nothing, and it is to win that they get dirty.
Oh! yes, Spiritism will have influence on music! How could it be otherwise? Its advent will change art by purifying it. Its source is divine, its strength will take it wherever there are men to love, to elevate and to understand. It will become the ideal and goal of the artists. Painters, sculptors, composers, poets, will ask for its inspirations, and it will attend them, because it is rich, because it is inexhaustible.
The Spirit of Maestro Rossini, in a new existence, will return to continue the art he considers the first stage of them all; Spiritism will be his symbol and the inspiration of his compositions.
Rossini.”
Mediumship and inspiration
Paris, Group Desliens, February 16th, 1869
“In its infinitely varied forms, mediumship embraces the whole of humanity, like a network from which no one can escape. Everyone being in daily contact with free intelligences, whether they know it or not, whether they want it or revolt against it, nobody can say: I am not, I have not been, or I will not be a medium. In its intuitive form, a mode of communication to which the name voice of conscience has been vulgarly given, each one is related to several spiritual influences, that advise in one direction or another, and often simultaneously, the pure, absolute good; accommodations with the interest; evil in all its nakedness. - Man evokes these voices; they answer his call, and he chooses; but he chooses between these different inspirations and his own feeling. - Inspirators are invisible friends; like friends on Earth, they are serious or voluble, self-interested, or truly guided by affection.
They are consulted, or they advise spontaneously, but like the advice of the earthly friends, their opinions are listened to or rejected; they sometimes lead to an outcome contrary to the expected; often they do not produce any effect. - What can we conclude from this? Not that man is under the influence of an incessant mediumship, but that he freely obeys his own will, modified by opinions that can never, in the normal state, be compelling.
When man does more than taking care of the minimal details of his existence, and when it is a question of the works that he has come more especially to perform, of decisive trials that he must endeavor, or of works intended for the general instruction and elevation, the voices of conscience are no longer merely and simply counselors, but they draw the Spirit onto certain subjects, they provoke certain studies and collaborate in the work by making certain brain boxes resonate through inspiration. This is the work of two, three, ten, a hundred, if you will; but, if one hundred have taken part in it, only one can and must sign it off, for only one has done it and is responsible for it!
What is any work after all? It is never a creation; it's always a discovery. Man does nothing, he discovers everything. These two terms should not be confused. To invent, in its true sense, is to shed light on an existing law, some knowledge hitherto unknown, but deposited in germ in the cradle of the universe. He who invents lifts one of the corners of the veil that hides the truth, but he does not create the truth. To invent, one must search and search a lot; it is necessary to devour the books, to dig into the depths of intelligences, to ask one about mechanics, geometry to the other, ask a third one for the knowledge of the musical relations, to another one still the historical laws, and make something new from the whole, something interesting, not imagined yet. Is the one who has been exploring the recesses of libraries, who has listened to the masters speak, who has scrutinized science, philosophy, art, religion, from the most remote antiquity to the present day, is he the medium of art, history, philosophy, and religion? Is he the medium of past times when he writes on his own? No, because he does not tell others, but he has learned from others to tell, and he enriches his stories with all that is personal to him.
The musician has long heard the warbler and the nightingale, before inventing the music; Rossini listened to nature before translating it to the civilized world. Is he the medium of the nightingale and the warbler? No, he composes, and he writes. He listened to the Spirit that came to sing to him the melodies of heaven; he listened to the Spirit that shouted passion in his ears; he heard the virgin and the mother groaning, dropping her prayer on her child's head in harmonious pearls. Love and poetry, freedom, hatred, revenge, and many Spirits taken by these diverse feelings, have alternately sung their score by his side. He listened to them, he studied them, in the world and in inspiration, and from both he did his works; but he was not a medium, any more than the doctor who hears the sick telling him what they feel and who gives a name to their diseases. Mediumship has had its hours as any other; but apart from those moments too short for his glory, what he did he did alone with the help of studies drawn from men and Spirits.
On this account, one is the medium of all; one is the medium of nature, the medium of truth, and a very imperfect medium, because often it appears so blemished by translation that it is unrecognizable and unknown.
Halevy.”
They are consulted, or they advise spontaneously, but like the advice of the earthly friends, their opinions are listened to or rejected; they sometimes lead to an outcome contrary to the expected; often they do not produce any effect. - What can we conclude from this? Not that man is under the influence of an incessant mediumship, but that he freely obeys his own will, modified by opinions that can never, in the normal state, be compelling.
When man does more than taking care of the minimal details of his existence, and when it is a question of the works that he has come more especially to perform, of decisive trials that he must endeavor, or of works intended for the general instruction and elevation, the voices of conscience are no longer merely and simply counselors, but they draw the Spirit onto certain subjects, they provoke certain studies and collaborate in the work by making certain brain boxes resonate through inspiration. This is the work of two, three, ten, a hundred, if you will; but, if one hundred have taken part in it, only one can and must sign it off, for only one has done it and is responsible for it!
What is any work after all? It is never a creation; it's always a discovery. Man does nothing, he discovers everything. These two terms should not be confused. To invent, in its true sense, is to shed light on an existing law, some knowledge hitherto unknown, but deposited in germ in the cradle of the universe. He who invents lifts one of the corners of the veil that hides the truth, but he does not create the truth. To invent, one must search and search a lot; it is necessary to devour the books, to dig into the depths of intelligences, to ask one about mechanics, geometry to the other, ask a third one for the knowledge of the musical relations, to another one still the historical laws, and make something new from the whole, something interesting, not imagined yet. Is the one who has been exploring the recesses of libraries, who has listened to the masters speak, who has scrutinized science, philosophy, art, religion, from the most remote antiquity to the present day, is he the medium of art, history, philosophy, and religion? Is he the medium of past times when he writes on his own? No, because he does not tell others, but he has learned from others to tell, and he enriches his stories with all that is personal to him.
The musician has long heard the warbler and the nightingale, before inventing the music; Rossini listened to nature before translating it to the civilized world. Is he the medium of the nightingale and the warbler? No, he composes, and he writes. He listened to the Spirit that came to sing to him the melodies of heaven; he listened to the Spirit that shouted passion in his ears; he heard the virgin and the mother groaning, dropping her prayer on her child's head in harmonious pearls. Love and poetry, freedom, hatred, revenge, and many Spirits taken by these diverse feelings, have alternately sung their score by his side. He listened to them, he studied them, in the world and in inspiration, and from both he did his works; but he was not a medium, any more than the doctor who hears the sick telling him what they feel and who gives a name to their diseases. Mediumship has had its hours as any other; but apart from those moments too short for his glory, what he did he did alone with the help of studies drawn from men and Spirits.
On this account, one is the medium of all; one is the medium of nature, the medium of truth, and a very imperfect medium, because often it appears so blemished by translation that it is unrecognizable and unknown.
Halevy.”
Erratum[1]
February 1869 issue, page …, line …, read: they opposed the Catholics with arms...
Same issue, page…, lines… and following, read: and the youngest of the sisters was left for dead under the massacred bodies, without having been injured. The other sister was brought back, still alive, to her father's house, but she died of his wounds a few days later.
Same issue, page…, lines… and following, read: and the youngest of the sisters was left for dead under the massacred bodies, without having been injured. The other sister was brought back, still alive, to her father's house, but she died of his wounds a few days later.
[1] Already taken care of in the present translation