Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

__

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Barbara

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jules Claretie



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

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

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

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

---

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


[2] Plentiful (T.N.)


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leclerc

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

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

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

Drawn and lithographed by Mr. Bertrand, painter.

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

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

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

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

“Mr. Director of the Spiritist Review,

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

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

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

Please, Mr. Director, accept, etc.

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

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

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