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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > January > Correspondence
Correspondence
A letter from Mr. Jaubert
A letter from Mr. Jaubert
“I beg you, my dear Mr. Kardec, to insert the following letter in the next issue of our Review. I am certainly insignificant, but nonetheless I have my own appreciation and submit it to your modesty. On another hand when the fight is on, I want to demonstrate that I am by the flag with my woolen insignias.”
Jaubert
Without the obligation placed on us, in such precise terms, one can understand the reasons which would have prevented us from publishing this letter; we would have been content to keep it as an honorable and precious testimony, and to add it to the many causes of moral satisfaction which come to support and encourage us in our hard work, and to compensate for the inseparable tribulations of our task. But, on the other hand, the personal question aside, in this time of outburst against Spiritism, the examples of the courage of public opinion are even more influential when they start from higher ranks. It is useful that the voice of men of heart, of those who, by their character, knowledge and position, command respect and confidence, be heard; and if it cannot overcome the clamor, such protests are not lost either for the present or for the future.
“Carcassonne, December 12th, 1865
Dear Sir and Professor,
I do not wish to let 1865 end without reporting to you all the good it did to Spiritism. We owe it the Plurality of the Existences of the Soul, by Andre Pezzani; the Plurality of the Inhabited Worlds, by Camille Flammarion, two just born geniuses that stride in the philosophical world.
We owe you a book, not many pages but great in thoughts; the nervous simplicity of your style competes with the robustness of your logic. It contains the germ of the theology of the future; it contains the calmness of the force and the force of the truth. I wish the book entitled Heavens and Hell were published to the millions. Forgive me the praise: I have lived too long to be an enthusiast and adulation bores me.
The year 1865 gives us “Spiritist”, a fantastic novel. Literature has decided to invade our domains. The author has not taken all teachings from Spiritism. It points out the capital, fundamental idea: the demonstration of the immortal soul through the phenomena.
Spiritist, the ignored lover of Guy de Malivert on Earth, just died. She describes her first sensations herself.
“The instinct of nature was still fighting against annihilation, but soon stopped the useless battle, and out of a frail breath, my soul escaped my lips. Human words cannot describe the sensation of a soul freed from its corporeal prison, passing from this life to the next, from time to eternity and from finite to infinity.
My immobile body, already dressed on that dull white, delivered to death, floating upon its funereal casket, surrounded by praying ladies, detached from that like the butterfly from the cocoon, an empty shell, amorphous remains, stretching the young wings to the unknown and suddenly revealed light. A dazzling splendor followed a profound intermittence of shadow, a broadening of horizons, disappearance of limits and obstacles, intoxicating me of an unspeakable ecstasy. An explosion of new sensations made me understand the mysteries, impenetrable to the earthly thoughts and organs. Disentangled from that clay, slave of gravity, making me heavy a short while ago, now launching me with crazy celerity towards the unfathomed ether. No more distances to me; a simple desire made me be wherever I wished. I flew through large circles through the empty blue of space, faster than light, as if taken over the infinity, passing by swarms of souls and Spirits.”
The image unfolds even more beautifully. I do not know if deep inside Mr. Theophile Gautier is a Spiritist; but he certainly pours, to the materialists and skeptical, a healthy beverage in splendidly engraved golden chalices. I still bless the year 1865 for the great anger it contained in its flanks. Make no mistake: The Davenport brothers are less the cause than the pretext for the crusade. Soldiers of all uniforms pointed their rifled guns at us. What have they proven? The strength and resistance of the besieged citadel. I know a very widespread, very esteemed, and quite rightly so, newspaper from the South, which for a long time has bashed Spiritism badly once a month; hence Spiritism resuscitates at least twelve times a year. You will see that they will make it immortal by killing it. I now have only my wishes for a happy new year; my first wishes are for you, sir and dear professor, for your happiness, for your work so bravely undertaken and so earnestly pursued. I wish for the strong union of all Spiritualists. I painfully saw some brief clouds falling onto our horizon. Who will love us if we do not know how to love one another? As you put it very well in the last number of your Review: “Whoever believes in the existence and the survival of souls, and in the possibility of communication between men and the spiritual world, is a Spiritist. Let this definition remain, and on this solid ground we will always agree. And now, if details of doctrine, however important, sometimes divide us, let us discuss them, not as fratricides, but as men who have only one goal: the triumph of reason, and by reason the search for the true and beautiful, the progress of science, the happiness of humanity.
There remain my most ardent and sincere wishes; I offer them to all those who call themselves our enemies: May God enlighten them! Farewell, sir; receive, together with our brothers in Paris the renewed assurance of my affectionate feelings and of my distinguished consideration.”
T. Jaubert, Vice-President of the Tribunal
Any comment on this letter would be superfluous; we will only add one word: men like M. Jaubert honor the flag they carry. His sensible assessment of the work by M. Theophile Gautier spares us from the report that we proposed to make of it this month; we will talk about it in the next issue.
Jaubert
Without the obligation placed on us, in such precise terms, one can understand the reasons which would have prevented us from publishing this letter; we would have been content to keep it as an honorable and precious testimony, and to add it to the many causes of moral satisfaction which come to support and encourage us in our hard work, and to compensate for the inseparable tribulations of our task. But, on the other hand, the personal question aside, in this time of outburst against Spiritism, the examples of the courage of public opinion are even more influential when they start from higher ranks. It is useful that the voice of men of heart, of those who, by their character, knowledge and position, command respect and confidence, be heard; and if it cannot overcome the clamor, such protests are not lost either for the present or for the future.
“Carcassonne, December 12th, 1865
Dear Sir and Professor,
I do not wish to let 1865 end without reporting to you all the good it did to Spiritism. We owe it the Plurality of the Existences of the Soul, by Andre Pezzani; the Plurality of the Inhabited Worlds, by Camille Flammarion, two just born geniuses that stride in the philosophical world.
We owe you a book, not many pages but great in thoughts; the nervous simplicity of your style competes with the robustness of your logic. It contains the germ of the theology of the future; it contains the calmness of the force and the force of the truth. I wish the book entitled Heavens and Hell were published to the millions. Forgive me the praise: I have lived too long to be an enthusiast and adulation bores me.
The year 1865 gives us “Spiritist”, a fantastic novel. Literature has decided to invade our domains. The author has not taken all teachings from Spiritism. It points out the capital, fundamental idea: the demonstration of the immortal soul through the phenomena.
Spiritist, the ignored lover of Guy de Malivert on Earth, just died. She describes her first sensations herself.
“The instinct of nature was still fighting against annihilation, but soon stopped the useless battle, and out of a frail breath, my soul escaped my lips. Human words cannot describe the sensation of a soul freed from its corporeal prison, passing from this life to the next, from time to eternity and from finite to infinity.
My immobile body, already dressed on that dull white, delivered to death, floating upon its funereal casket, surrounded by praying ladies, detached from that like the butterfly from the cocoon, an empty shell, amorphous remains, stretching the young wings to the unknown and suddenly revealed light. A dazzling splendor followed a profound intermittence of shadow, a broadening of horizons, disappearance of limits and obstacles, intoxicating me of an unspeakable ecstasy. An explosion of new sensations made me understand the mysteries, impenetrable to the earthly thoughts and organs. Disentangled from that clay, slave of gravity, making me heavy a short while ago, now launching me with crazy celerity towards the unfathomed ether. No more distances to me; a simple desire made me be wherever I wished. I flew through large circles through the empty blue of space, faster than light, as if taken over the infinity, passing by swarms of souls and Spirits.”
The image unfolds even more beautifully. I do not know if deep inside Mr. Theophile Gautier is a Spiritist; but he certainly pours, to the materialists and skeptical, a healthy beverage in splendidly engraved golden chalices. I still bless the year 1865 for the great anger it contained in its flanks. Make no mistake: The Davenport brothers are less the cause than the pretext for the crusade. Soldiers of all uniforms pointed their rifled guns at us. What have they proven? The strength and resistance of the besieged citadel. I know a very widespread, very esteemed, and quite rightly so, newspaper from the South, which for a long time has bashed Spiritism badly once a month; hence Spiritism resuscitates at least twelve times a year. You will see that they will make it immortal by killing it. I now have only my wishes for a happy new year; my first wishes are for you, sir and dear professor, for your happiness, for your work so bravely undertaken and so earnestly pursued. I wish for the strong union of all Spiritualists. I painfully saw some brief clouds falling onto our horizon. Who will love us if we do not know how to love one another? As you put it very well in the last number of your Review: “Whoever believes in the existence and the survival of souls, and in the possibility of communication between men and the spiritual world, is a Spiritist. Let this definition remain, and on this solid ground we will always agree. And now, if details of doctrine, however important, sometimes divide us, let us discuss them, not as fratricides, but as men who have only one goal: the triumph of reason, and by reason the search for the true and beautiful, the progress of science, the happiness of humanity.
There remain my most ardent and sincere wishes; I offer them to all those who call themselves our enemies: May God enlighten them! Farewell, sir; receive, together with our brothers in Paris the renewed assurance of my affectionate feelings and of my distinguished consideration.”
T. Jaubert, Vice-President of the Tribunal
Any comment on this letter would be superfluous; we will only add one word: men like M. Jaubert honor the flag they carry. His sensible assessment of the work by M. Theophile Gautier spares us from the report that we proposed to make of it this month; we will talk about it in the next issue.