Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

I

The spiritual fluids play an important role in all Spiritist phenomena, or better, they are the principle of those phenomena. Up until now we limited ourselves in saying that a given effect is the result of a fluidic action, but this general definition, although sufficient in the beginning, is no more, when we want to investigate the details. The Spirits wisely limited their teachings in the beginning; later, they called the attention to the serious issue of fluids, and that was not discussed in one center only. It was practically in all of them. But the Spirits do not bring this science ready to us, as with any other. They put us on the path, give us the material, and it is up to us to study, observe, analyze, and coordinate them, and put them in practice. That is what they did for the constitution of the doctrine and acted in the same way regarding the fluids. We know that they sketched their study in a thousand different places; we find some facts everywhere, some explanations, a partial theory, an idea, but we find the complete works nowhere. Why is that? An impossibility on their side? Absolutely not because what they did with men they could do with the Spirits. But, as we said, there is no way for them to preclude us from the works of intelligence, without which our strength would fade away since it would be more comfortable to have them working for us.



The work, therefore, is left to man whose intelligence, time and life are limited and none of them is supposed to constitute a science. That why there isn’t one that is in all its parts the work of a single man; none that has been led to perfection by its first inventor. Several men and multiple generations brought their contribution of research and observations.



The same with the issue at hand, whose several parts were treated separately, then organized in a methodic body when sufficient material could have been collected. This part of the Spiritist science already shows itself not as an individual and systematic conception of a man or a Spirit, but as the product of multiple observations whose authority is in the agreement among them.



For the reason above, we could not pretend that this is the last word. As we have said, the Spirits gauge their teachings and proportionate them to the maturity of the acquired ideas. We cannot doubt, therefore, that later they bring new observations on the way. But for now, there are elements to form a body that will be gradually complemented. The chain of events forces us to start from the top, so that we can move from what is known to the unknown.



II



Everything is interconnected in the works of creation. In the past the three kingdoms were considered entirely independent of one another, and people would have laughed at whoever pretended to find a correlation between the mineral and the vegetable, and the vegetable and the animal. An attentive observation made the solution of continuity disappear and proved that all bodies form an uninterrupted chain, so much so that the three kingdoms do not survive, in reality, but through the more markedly general characters; but, in their definitive limits, they confound to the point of causing difficulties in the determination of where one ends and the other begins, and in which one certain beings must be allocated. These are, for example, the zoophyte, or animal-plants, as they are called by the fact that they present characteristics that are both animal and plant.



The same applies to the composition of matter. For a long time, the four elements served as the foundation to the natural sciences, but they fell before the discoveries of modern Chemistry, that recognized an indetermined number of simple elements. Chemistry shows us that every material body in nature is formed by a combination of those elements in different proportions. The innumerable properties of the different bodies result from the infinite variety of those proportions. That is how, for example, a molecule of the gas oxygen and two of the gas hydrogen combined form water. Through the transformation in water, both oxygen and hydrogen lose their own properties; in other words, there is no more oxygen and hydrogen, but water. By decomposing the water, both gases return in the same proportion as before. If, instead of one there were two molecules of oxygen, the combination is no longer water but a very corrosive liquid^[1]. Just a simple change in the proportion of combinations to result into a poisonous substance instead of a healthy one. Through a reverse operation, if the elements of a deleterious substance like, for example, the arsenic are simply combined in different proportions, without the addition or elimination of any other substance, it will result harmless, or even healthy^[2]. There is more: several molecules of the same element together will yield different properties, depending on the mode of aggregation and the environment when they are located. The recently discovered ozone[3], in atmospheric air, is an example of that. It has been acknowledged that this substance is nothing more than oxygen, one of the main constituents of air, in a particular state that gives the substance properties that are different from the oxygen itself. Air is still formed by oxygen and nitrogen, but the quality varies depending on the quantity of oxygen in the state of ozone.



Such observations that seem strange to the matter at hand are, nonetheless, connected directly to our subject, as we shall see later. They are, besides, essential as means of comparison. Those compositions and decompositions are artificially obtained in the laboratory, in small scale, but take place spontaneously and in large scale in the great laboratory of nature. Under the influence of heat, light, electricity and humidity, a body decomposes, its elements separate, other combinations take place and new bodies are formed. That is how, the same molecule of oxygen, for example, that is part of our own body, and after its destruction, enters in the composition of a mineral, a plant, or an animated body. In our present bodies, therefore, there are there are the same proportion of elements that were forming parts of a multitude of other bodies. Let us cite an example to make it clearer.



A small seed is sowed onto the ground, it germinates, grows, and becomes a large tree that annually produces leaves, flowers, and fruits. Does it mean that the whole tree was contained in the seed? Certainly not, because it has a much larger amount of matter. Where does this matter come from? From the liquids, salts, and gases that the plant extracted from the earth and the air, that infiltrate in its stem and gradually increase in volume. But wood, flowers and fruits are neither in the ground nor in the air. Those same liquids, salts and gases were decomposed in the process of absorption; their elements suffered new combinations that resulted in sap, wood, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, volatile aromas, etc. These very parts, in turn, will disappear and decompose; their elements will once again mix up in the earth and in the air; then recompose again into substances that are essential to fruitification; reabsorbed, decomposed and once again transformed into sap, wood, bark, etc. In short, matter does not increase or diminishes, it is transformed, and by force of these successive transformations, the proportion of the multiple substances is always the necessary quantity to the needs of nature[4].



As an example, suppose that a given quantity of water is decomposed, in the nurturing process of vegetation, to provide oxygen and hydrogen needed for the multiple parts of the plant; it is a quantity of water that is reduced from the mass; but those parts of the plant, when decomposed, will free up the oxygen and the hydrogen that were contained, and those gases, combining again between themselves, will form a new quantity of water, equivalent to the one that had disappeared.



It is important to point out, at this point, that the man that can artificially trigger the compositions and decompositions that spontaneously take place in nature, is impotent to reconstitute the simplest organized body, even if that is a stalk of herb or a dead leaf. After having decomposed a piece of mineral, one can recompose it in all its parts, as it was before; but after separating the elements of a piece of vegetal or animal, one cannot reconstitute it, and even with more so, give it life. Human power stops at the inert matter: the principle of life is in God’s hands.



Most simple bodies are the so called “ponderable” because their weight can be determined, and that weight is proportional to the sum of molecules contained in a given volume of the material. Others are called “imponderable” since they have no weight to us, and irrespective of the amount accumulated on another body, there is no weight added to the latter. These are: heat, light, electricity, and the magnetic fluid. The latter is just a kind of electricity. Despite their imponderability, those fluids are still very powerful. Heat divides the hardest bodies, reducing them to vapor and yields to evaporated liquids an extraordinary force of expansion. Electricity breaks trees and rocks, bends iron bars, melts metallic parts, and transports huge masses over long distances. Magnetism gives iron the capacity of holding considerable masses. Light does not have that kind of power but exert a chemical action upon most of the bodies, and compositions and decompositions continuously take place under its influence. Without light, vegetables and animals weaken, and fruits have no taste or color.



III



Everything in nature, minerals, vegetables, animals, animated and non-animated, solid, liquid, and gaseous, all are formed by the same elements but combined in such a way to produce the infinite variety of bodies. Today, science goes farther; its investigations gradually lead to the great law of unity. Now it is generally accepted that the bodies considered simple are not, but modifications or transformations of a single element, universal principle called ether, cosmic or universal fluid, that depending on the mode of aggregation of its molecules, and under the influence of particular circumstances, it acquires special properties that form the simple bodies. These combined among themselves, and in several proportions, form, as we said, the innumerable variety of compounded bodies. According to this opinion, heat, light, electricity and magnetism are just modifications of the primitive universal fluid. This fluid, therefore, that with all likelihood is imponderable, would be at the same time the principle of the imponderable fluids and the ponderable bodies.



Chemistry allows us to penetrate the intimate constitution of the bodies, but experimentally it does not go beyond the bodies considered simple. Its analytical means are powerless to isolate the primitive element and determine its essence. There is a huge gap between this element in its absolute purity and the point where the investigations of science ends. Reasoning by analogy, one concludes that between these two extreme points the that fluid must undergo transformations that escape our instruments and material senses. It is in this new field, hitherto closed to exploration, that we will try to penetrate.



IV



Up until now we only have very incomplete ideas about the spiritual or invisible world. We thought the Spirits as beings beyond humanity; the angels were also special creatures, of a more perfect nature. As for the state of the souls after death, the knowledge was not more positive. The more general opinion assumed them to be abstract beings, disperse in space, with no more relationship with the living ones, unless, according to the doctrine of the Church, they were in the beatitude of heavens or in the darkness of hell. Furthermore, since the observations of science stops at the tangible matter, it results in an abyss between the corporeal and incorporeal worlds that seemed to exclude any approximation. This is the chasm that new observations and the study of the still unknown phenomena comes to fulfill, at least partially.



To begin with, Spiritism teaches us that the Spirits are the souls of men that lived on Earth; that they progress incessantly, and that the angels are the same souls or Spirits that arrived at a state of perfection that approach them to the Divinity. Second, it teaches us that the souls move alternately from the state of incarnate to erraticity; that in the latter state they constitute the population of the invisible world, to which they remain connected, until they have acquired the moral and intellectual development in sync with the nature of this globe, after which they leave, moving to a more advanced world.



Humanity supplies souls or Spiritist to the spiritual world, by the death of the body; the spiritual world feeds the corporeal world through births; there is, therefore, an incessant exchange between one and the other world. This constant relationship makes them close-knit because the beings that enter and leave our world are the same. This is the first trace of union, a contact point that already diminishes the distance that seemed to separate the visible from the invisible world.



The intimate nature of the soul, that is, the intelligent principle, the source of thoughts, completely escapes our investigations. But we now know that the soul is surrounded by an envelope or fluidic body that yields the soul a distinct, circumscribed and individual being. The soul is the intelligent principle when considered separately; it is the thinking and acting force, that can only be conceived isolated from matter as an abstraction. The soul, covered by its fluidic envelope, or perispirit, constitutes the being called Spirit, as it constitutes the human being when covered by the corporeal envelope. Although in its state of Spirit it enjoys special properties and faculties, it still belongs to humanity. The Spirits are, therefore, creatures like us, for each one of us becomes Spirit after death, and each Spirit becomes human through birth.



That envelope is not the soul, since it does not think; it is just the outfit. The perispirit, like the body, without the soul is inert matter, deprived of life and sensations. We say matter because, in fact, the perispirit, although of an ethereal and subtle nature, is not less matter than the imponderable fluids, and even more, “matter of the same nature and origin as the roughest and tangible matter”, as we shall soon see.



The soul is not dressed up by the perispirit just in the state of Spirit; the soul is inseparable from that envelope both during incarnation and in erraticity. In incarnation, the perispirit is the link between the soul and the material envelope, the intermediary with which the soul acts upon the organs and perceives the sensations of the exterior things. During life, the perispiritual fluid identifies itself with the body, penetrating all its parts; with death, it detaches from the body; deprived from life, the body dissolves but the perispirit remains always attached to the soul, that is, to the vivifying principle, and does not perish; instead of two envelopes, the soul keeps only one: the lighter one, the one that is in greater harmony with its spiritual state.



Although these principles are elementary to the Spiritists, it was useful to remind them for the comprehension of the subsequent explanations, and the connection of the ideas.



V



Some people contested the utility of the perispiritual envelope of the soul, and consequently its existence. They say the soul does not need an intermediary to act upon the body; and once separated from the body, it is a superfluous accessory.



Our answer, to begin with, is that the perispirit is not an imaginary creation, an invented hypothesis to get to a conclusion; its existence is a fact attested by observation. As for its utility, during life and after death, one must admit that, considering that it does exist, it must serve something. Those that contest its utility are like the one that, by not understanding the functions of certain gears in a mechanism, would conclude that they only serve to unnecessarily complicate the engine. That person does not see that if the tiniest piece were removed, everything would be disorganized. How many things, in the great mechanism of nature, seem useless to the eyes of the ignorant, and even to certain scientists that believe, in good faith, that if the construction of the universe were up to them, they would have done a much better job!



The perispirit is one of the most important gears of the economy. Science has observed it in some of its effects and has alternately called it by the names of vital fluid, nervous fluid or impulse, magnetic fluid, animal electricity, etc., without accounting for its precise nature and properties, and even less for its origin. It was suspected as the envelope of the Spirit after death since the remotest antiquity. All theologies attribute a fluidic body to the beings of the invisible world. St. Paul says, in precise terms, that we are born with a spiritual body (First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chap. XV, verses 35 to 44 and 50).



The same happens to all great truths based on the laws of nature, and from which the men of genius always had an intuition, in all epochs. That is how, since before out time, notable philosophers suspected the roundness of Earth and its movement of rotation, without any demerit to Copernicus and Galileo, even by supposing that they had taken those ideas from their predecessors. Thanks to their work, a theory without proof, something that was only their individual opinion, unknown to the masses, became a scientific truth, practical and popular.



The doctrine of the perispirit is in the same case. Spiritism was not the first one to discover it. But, as with Copernicus in the movement of Earth, Spiritism studied it, demonstrated, and analyzed it, defined, and extracted fruitful results from it. Without the more modern studies, this great truth, as with many others, would still be in the state of dead letter.



VI



The perispirit is the bond that connects the corporeal to the spiritual world. Spiritism show them in such an intimate and constant relationship that the transition from one to the other is almost imperceptible. As with nature, in which the vegetable kingdom is connected to the animal kingdom by semi-vegetable or semi-animal beings, the corporeal state connects to the spiritual one not only by the intelligent principle, that is the same, but also by the fluidic envelope of that very principle that is, at the same time, semi-material and semi-spiritual. The corporeal and spiritual beings are confounded during the earthly life, and act in agreement; the death of the body just separates them. The link of those states is such, and they act one upon the other with such a force that a day will come in which it will be acknowledged that the study of natural history of mankind cannot be complete without the study of the perispiritual covering, that is, without setting one foot onto the domain of the invisible world. Such proximity is still greater when the origin, nature, formation, and properties of the perispirit are observed, observation that naturally results from the study of the fluids.



VII



It is well-known that all animal matter has oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon for constituent principle, combined in different proportions. As we said, those very simple elements have a unique principle that is the universal cosmic fluid. Through their many combinations they form all varieties of substances that form the human body, the only we one that we mention here, although the same is true to the animals and plants. It follows that the human body is not more than a concentration, condensation, or solidification of carbon gas, if you will. In fact, let us suppose the complete disaggregation of all molecules of the body, and there we find oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon again; and in other terms, the body would have been volatized. Returning to their primitive states, these four elements, through a new and more complete decomposition, if our means of analysis would allow, would yield the cosmic fluid. This fluid, as the principle of every matter, is matter on its own right, although in a thoroughly ethereal state.



An analogue phenomenon occurs in the formation of the fluidic body or perispirit: it is equally a condensation of the cosmic fluid around the focus of intelligence, or soul. But the molecular transformation here takes place directly, for the fluid keeps its imponderability and ethereal properties. Both the human and perispiritual body have the same fluid as their source; one and the other are matter, although in two different states. We were then right by saying that the perispirit has the same nature and origin as the grossest matter. As it can be seen, there is nothing supernatural because, by its principle, it is connected to the things of nature, of which it is no more than a variety. Since the universal fluid is the principle of all bodies in nature, animate and inanimate, and consequently, of earth and stones, Moses was right when he said: “And God formed man of the dust of the ground”.^[5] This does not mean that God took a handful of dirt, petrified and modelled the body of man, as one does with a statue of mud, according to the belief of those that take the words of the Bible literally, but instead that the body was formed from the same principles or elements of the earth or that were used to form earth. And Moses adds: “And he gave him a living soul, made in his likeness”. He then makes a distinction between the body and the soul; indicates that this is of different nature, and not matter, but spiritual and immaterial like God. He says: “a living soul”, specifying that it has the principle of life, whilst the body, formed by matter, does not live on its own. The words “in his likeness” mean similarity and not identity. Had Moses seen man as part of Divinity, he would have said: “God animates him by giving him a soul taken out of His own substance” as he said that the body had been taken from earth. These thoughts are an answer to the persons that accuse Spiritism of materializing the soul, because it gives the soul a semi-material envelope.



VIII



In the normal state, the perispirit is invisible to our eyes and impalpable to our feel, as are an infinity of gases and fluids. However, the invisibility, impalpability, and even the imponderability of the perispiritual fluid are not absolute. That is why we say in the normal state. In certain cases, it suffers, perhaps, a greater condensation, or a special molecular modification that makes it momentarily visible or tangible. That is how the apparitions are produced. Even without apparition, some persons feel the fluidic impression of the Spirits, and that is an indication of material nature.



Whatever the way there is an atomic transformation of the fluid, there is no cohesion like in the material bodies; the appearance forms and dissipates instantaneously, explaining the subtle appearances and disappearances. Since the appearances are the product of an invisible material fluid, made visible by the force of a momentarily change in its molecular structure, they are not more supernatural than vapors that alternately become visible or invisible by condensation or rarefaction. We mention vapor as a comparative example, not pretending that there is similarity of cause and effect.



IX



Some people criticized the qualification of semi-material given to the perispirit, saying that something is or is not matter. Admitting that the expression is improper, it would still be necessary to adopt it given the lack of a special word to express this particular state of matter. If there were a more appropriate word to this thing, the critics should have indicated it. The perispirit is matter, as we have just seen, and speaking philosophically, and for its intimate essence; nobody can dispute that; but it does not have the properties of tangible matter, as it is commonly conceived; it cannot be submitted to a chemical analysis, for although it has the same principle as the flesh and the marble, and it may take their appearances, in reality it is neither flesh nor marble. From its ethereal nature, it has, at the same time, the appearance of materiality for its substance, and spirituality, for its impalpability, and the word semi-material is not more ridiculous than semi-double and many others, because one can also say that something is a double or is not.



X



As a universal elemental principle, the cosmic fluid offers two distinct states: the ethereal or imponderable, that we may consider as the normal primitive state, and that of materialization or ponderable, that in a way is consecutive. The intermediary point is the transformation of the fluid into tangible matter. However, here also there is not sudden transition, for we can consider our imponderable fluids as a midterm between the two states. Each of these two states necessarily gives rise to special phenomena. Those of the visible world belong to the latter, and those of the invisible world to the former. Some, called material phenomena, are in the field of science itself; the others, called spiritual phenomena, for being connected to the existence of the Spirits, are the subject of Spiritism. But there are so many points of contact between them that they serve to mutual clarification, and as we said, the study of ones could not be complete without the study of the others. The study of the fluids leads to the explanation of the latter, the subject of a future special work.

---

[1] Note: H₂O₂ is the formula of Hydrogen Peroxide (T.N.)


[2] Arsenic was a common “poison”, the so called “white poison” for its similarity to salt and sugar in appearance, utilized as a murder weapon for generations, even before the nineteenth century. (T.N.)


[3] Ozone, or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula O ₃. It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope O ₂, breaking down in the lower atmosphere to O₂. Source Wikipedia (T.N.)


[4] The principle of conservation of mass was proposed by Antoine Lavoisier in 1773 (T.N.)


[5] Genesis 2, 7

Judicial Persecution of the Spiritists – Letter from a Judge



Spiritism counts on several magistrates in its ranks, as we have said multiple times, not only in France but in also in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany and in most countries abroad. The majority of the detractors of the doctrine, that believe to have the privilege of common sense and hold as insensible those that do not share their skepticism about spiritual things, and we do not say supernatural because Spiritism does not admit it, are surprised to see men of intelligence and worth, in their opinion, falling in such a mistake.

Aren’t the magistrates free to have their opinion, faith, and belief? Don’t we find among them Catholics, Protestants, free-thinkers, Franco-Masons? Who could then incriminate those that are Spiritists? We are no longer in the times when a judge could be burnt for daring say publicly that it is Earth that turns.

Strange thing! There are people that would like to see that time revived to the Spiritists. In the last outcry, haven’t we seen men that call themselves apostles of freedom of speech to point at them as breachers of the law, exciting the crowds to stone them away, stigmatizing them and calling them names in journals and pamphlets? This happened not as a joke but out of true rage, that thanks to the times we live, ended in words. It was necessary to resort to the whole moral strength of the Spiritists, all the moderation that becomes a law in their own belief, to keep calm and cold blood in such circumstances, abstaining from reprisals that could be regrettable. This contrast shocked every impartial person.

Is Spiritism, then, an association, a terrible affiliation that is dangerous to society but obedient to a word of commandment? Do its followers have a pact among themselves? It is only ignorance and ill-faith that can sustain such absurd, considering that their doctrine has no secret to nobody and that they act in daylight.

Spiritism is a philosophy like any other, that is freely accepted if convenient, or repelled if not; that rests on an inalterable faith in God and in the future, and that only obliges its followers to one thing: to see brothers in every human being, irrespective of their belief, and do good, even to those that do us harm. Why, then, a magistrate could not openly declare himself to be a follower, declaring it to be good if he considers it good, as he can declare to be a follower of the doctrine of Aristotle, Descartes, or Leibnitz? Would they be afraid that his judgement would suffer because of that? That he became too indulgent to the followers? Here is naturally the place for some observations about it.



In a country, like ours, where opinions and religions are free by law, it would be a monstrosity to persecute an individual because he believes in Spirits and their manifestations. If a Spiritist would be delivered to the justice it would not be for his belief, as it was done in other times, but having breached the law. Therefore, it would be the fault that was punished and not the belief, and if guilty he would be fairly submitted to the penalties of the law. To incriminate the doctrine, it would be necessary to see if it contains any principle of maxim that would authorize or justify the fault. If, on the contrary, it is found in the doctrine a censorship to that fault, or instructions in the opposite directions, the doctrine could not be responsible for the ones that do not understand or practice it. Well, then! Have the doctrine analyzed with impartiality, and we challenge anyone to find a single word that can serve as support to any single act reprehensible to the eyes of moral, or regarding a neighbor or even that may be interpreted as bad, because everything in the doctrine is clear and unequivocal. Anyone that follows the precepts of the doctrine could not, therefore, suffer judicial persecution, unless the persecution is against the belief itself, and that would be persecution o faith. We are not aware of persecutions of such a kind in France, not even abroad, except for the condemnation followed by the auto-da-fé^[1] in Barcelona, which was a sentence given by the bishop and not by a civil court. And they only burned books. As a matter of fact, why would them persecute persons that only preach order, tranquility, and respect to the law; that practice charity, not only among themselves, as it is done in exclusive sects, but towards everybody; whose main objective is to work for one’s own moral betterment; that reject any hatred and vengeance towards their enemies? Persons that profess such principles cannot be the troublemakers of society. They will not absolutely be the ones to cause disorder, something that led one police chief to say that if all those under his administration were Spiritists he could close shop.

Most persecutions, in similar cases, aim at the illegal practice of medicine, or accusations of charlatanism, prestidigitation or deception, through mediumship.

To begin with we say that Spiritism cannot be responsible for individuals that unduly assume the quality of mediums, as much as the true science cannot be responsible for swindlers that call themselves physicists. A charlatan can, consequently, say that he acts with the help of the Spirits, as a con artist say that he acts with the support of physics. It is a means, like any other, of throwing dust on the eyes. That is too bad for those that allow themselves to be tricked. Second, by condemning the exploitation of mediumship for being contrary to the principles of the doctrine, from a moral point of view, and additionally demonstrating that it must not and it cannot be a profession, and that every medium that takes any advantage of their faculty, directly or indirectly, ostensive or in disguise, by condemning all these Spiritism keeps away even the suspicion of trickery or charlatanism. Considering that the medium is not driven by any material interest, charlatanism does not make sense. The medium that understands the seriousness and the sacred gift would see profanation in utilizing it to serve mundane things, for oneself or others, or by turning it into an object of fun and curiosity. The medium respect the Spirits, in the same way the they would like to be respect when become Spirits, and do not expose them to exhibition. Besides, they know that mediumship cannot be a means of foretelling, and that it cannot help them to uncover treasures or inheritances, nor facilitate success with serendipitous things. The medium will never be a reader of luck, not by money or anything else, and therefore will never be in trouble with the law. As for the healing mediumship, it does exist, it is true. But it is subordinated to restrictive conditions, that exclude the possibility of open office, without suspicion of charlatanism. It is the work of devotion and sacrifice, and not speculation.



When it is practiced with selflessness, prudence, and wisdom, and contained within the limits delineated by the doctrine, it cannot fall before the strokes of the law. The medium, in short, according to the designs of the Providence and under the eyes of Spiritism, may she be an artificer or a princess, since they are found in the palaces and in the shanties, she received a mandate that is accomplished religiously and with dignity. She only sees in her faculty a means of glorifying God and serving her neighbor, and not an instrument to serve her own interests and to satisfy her vanity. She is liked and respected for her simplicity, modesty, and abnegation, something that does not happen to those that make a trampoline out of that mandate.

The rigor of the law does not harm the doctrine, but the abuse, when it reaches the exploiting mediums, those that misuse a real faculty or that simulate a faculty that they do not have. Well, serious Spiritism, without abuse, can only gain consideration with this, and would not support those that could deviate public opinion on their own. By assuming facts and causes, Spiritism would take responsibility for what they do, because those are not true Spiritists, even if they were real mediums.

While persecuting in a Spiritist, or in those that call themselves so, only the acts that are reprehensible to the eyes of the law, the role of the defender is to discuss the action in itself, abstraction made of the belief of the accused. It would be a serious mistake to try to justify the action in the name of the doctrine. On the contrary, he must endeavor to demonstrate that the doctrine is alien to the action. The accused then falls in the common law.

It is incontestable that the broader and more varied the knowledge of a magistrate, the better they are to appreciate the facts under analysis for pronunciation. In a case of legal medicine, for example, it is obvious that the one that is not totally foreign to the science will be able to better judge the value of the argumentation, from both accusation and defense, than another one that ignores its basic principles. In a case where Spiritism would be in question, in these times when it is in the order of the day and may incidentally appear as principal or accessory in a number of cases, there is a real need for the magistrates to know, at least, what it is about, without being taken as Spiritists for that matter. In one of the cases above, they would incontestably know to distinguish the abuse from the truth.

Spiritism by infiltrating more and more among the ideas, and already taking a place among the accepted beliefs, it is not far the day when not a single enlightened person will be allowed to ignore what it is, in the same way that the first principles of science cannot be ignored. Now, since it reaches all scientific and moral issues, many things that seemed strange, at first sight, will be better understood. That is how, for example, the doctor will find the true cause of certain diseases; the artist will collect numerous themes of inspiration; the magistrate and the lawyer will find, in many circumstances, a source of light.

That is how Mr. Jaubert, honorable Vice-President of the Carcassonne Court, conceives it. To him it is more than an additional knowledge: it is a matter of conviction because he understands its moral reach. Although he had never hidden his opinion about it, convinced of being right and of the moralizing power of the doctrine, he wanted to give the authority of his name, now that faith fades away in skepticism, at the very moment when the doctrine was attacked with maximum violence, resolutely defying mockery, and showing his adversaries his indifference towards their sarcasm. Given his position, and the circumstances, the letter that he asked us to have published, and that we inserted in our last January issue, was an act of courage, from which every sincere Spiritist will keep as a precious memory. It will leave its mark in the history of establishment of Spiritism.

The following letter, that we are equally authorized to publish, ranks alongside that of Mr. Jaubert. It is one of those adhesions, frankly explicit and motivated, in which the position of the author gives more weight, for being spontaneous and since we did not have the honor of knowing this gentleman. He judges the doctrine by the simple impression of the works, for he had seen nothing. It is the best answer to the accusation of ineptitude and charlatanism launched against Spiritism and its followers, without distinction.

November 21^st, 1865

“Dear Sir,

Allow me, as a new and keen follower, to testify my whole recognition to you for having initiated me, through your writings, in the Spiritist science. I read The Spirits Book, out of curiosity; but, after an attentive reading, an admiration and total conviction followed, after a mistrustful disbelief. The doctrine that ensues from it, in fact, provides the most logical solution, the most satisfying to reason, of all questions that have seriously concerned thinkers of all times, to define the conditions of the existence of mankind on Earth, to explain the vicissitudes of humanity and determine their final objectives. This remarkable doctrine is incontestably the sanction of the purest and most fecund moral, the demonstrated exaltation of the goodness of God and the sublime works of creation, as well as the safest and strongest basis of the social order. I have not witnessed Spiritist manifestations, but this element of proof, in no way contrary to my religion (Catholic), is not necessary to my conviction. To begin with, I only need to find, in the order of the Providence, the reason for the inequalities of conditions on Earth, in one word, the reason for the material and moral evil. In fact, my reason totally admits, as for justifying the existence of moral and material evil, the soul leaving the hands of the Creator, simple and ignorant, dignified by the free-will, progressing through successive trials and atonements, and only arriving at the sovereign happiness by acquiring the plenitude of its ethereal essence, by the complete liberation from the material bonds, that altering the conditions of beatitude, must have served its progress. In this order of ideas, what is more rational than the Spirits, in their multiple phases of progressive depuration, communicating among themselves, from one world to the other, incarnate or invisible, to enlighten themselves, to help one another, to mutually concur to their advancement, facilitating their trials and entering in the healing path of remorse and return to God! What is more rational, I say, than such a continuity, such a strengthening of family links, friendship and charity, uniting mankind in their passage by this Earth, with the final objective of reuniting them all in a single family in the heart of God!

What a sublime trace of union: love departing from heavens and embracing the whole humanity with its Divine breath, inhabiting the universe, reconducting humanity to God, enjoying the eternal beatitude from which the source is that love! What can be more worthy of the wisdom, justice, and infinite goodness of the Creator! What a grandiose image of the works, whose harmony and immensity is revealed by Spiritism, lifting the tip of the veil that still does not allow mankind to penetrate all mysteries! How much have men restricted the immensurable greatness, placing humanity on an imperceptible spot, lost in space, and only granting to a small group of elected ones, the eternal happiness reserved to all! They thus reduced the Divine artisan to the tiny proportion of their perceptions, of the tyrannic aspirations, cruel and vindictive, inherent to their imperfections.

Finally, it is enough to my reason to find in this doctrine the serenity of the soul, crowning an existence resigned to the providential tribulations of a life, honestly realized by the accomplishment of its duties, and the practice of charity, the firmness of faith, by the solution of doubts that compress the aspirations to God, and finally this total trust in the justice, goodness, and in the merciful and paternal solicitude of the Creator.

Kindly count me, dear Sir, on the number of your brothers in Spiritism, and accept etc.

Bonnamy, Judge of Instruction.”



A communication given by the father of Mr. Bonnamy provoked the following letter. We did not reproduce that communication for its personal and intimate character, but we give below the second letter of general interest.

“Dear Sir and Teacher, a thousand times thank you for having kindly evoked my father. Long time no hear that loved voice. It revives today after being extinct so many years ago! It is a dream coming true to my saddened imagination, a dream conceived under the impression of our painful separation. What a sweet, what a consoling revelation, so full of hopes to me! Yes, I see my father and my mother in the world of the Spirits, watching over me, lavishing on me the benefit of their anxious solicitude with which they surrounded me on Earth. My holy mother, in her tender concern for the future, penetrating me with her fragrance to bring me to God and show me the way of the eternal truths, that sparkled for me in a distant nebulous!

How happy I would be if, according to my father’s wishes of communicating again, his evocation could be considered useful for the progress of the Spiritist science, and join the providential teachings reserved to the works! I would then find, in your journal, the elements of the Spiritist instructions, sometimes mixed up with the sweetness of the family conversations. It is a simple wish, if you will, dear teacher. I take much into account the demands of the mission that you carry out, to make a request out of this wish. I give total authorization for the publication of my letter. I will, in good faith, take the grain of sand to the construction of the Spiritist edifice, happy if, to the contact of my profound belief, the doubts of some were diluted and the skeptical would consider to think more seriously. Allow me, dear teacher, to address some words of sympathy and encouragement to you for your tough undertaking. Spiritism is a providential light house, whose dazzling and fecund light must open all eyes, confound men’s pride, and touch every conscience. Its irradiation will be irresistible. What treasures of consolation, mercy and love you are the distributor!

Yours, etc.

Bonnamy”

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[1] Auto-da-fé, (Portuguese: “act of faith”) , plural autos-da-fé, Spanish auto de fé, a public ceremony during which the sentences upon those brought before the Spanish Inquisition were read and after which the sentences were executed by the secular authorities. (source: Britanica.com, T.N.)

Instruction of Mr. Bonnamy, Father

Human Law



Human law, as with everything else, is submitted to progress; slow, oblivious but constant progress. However remarkable they may be, to certain persons, the former legislations of the Greeks and Romans are far inferior to those that govern the advanced populations of your time! In fact, what is it that we see at the origin of each people? A code of use and social mores drawing its sanction from force and having by driver the most absolute egotism. What was the objective of every primitive legislator? Destroy evil and its instruments for the greater peace of society. Do we care about the criminal? No. Is he spanked to be corrected and to be shown the need for a more moderate behavior with respect to his fellow citizens? Is it for his betterment? Not at all. It is exclusively to preserve society against their actions, a selfish society that mercilessly rejects from its bosom everything that may disturb its tranquility. All the repressions are therefore excessive, and the death penalty is the more generally applied. This is conceivable when the intimate relationship that does exist between the law and the religious principle is considered. Both advance in agreement, towards a unique objective, helping one another.

Does religion sanction all material pleasures, and every satisfaction of the senses? The tough and excessive law wounds the criminal to untangle society from an unwelcome guest. Does religion change, sanctions the life of the soul and its independence of matter? It also reacts upon legislation, demonstrating its responsibility in the future of the transgressor of the law. Hence the assistance of the priest, whatever it is, at the final moments of the condemned man. We hit him again, but we are worried with the being that does not die entirely with the body, and whose spiritual part will receive the punishment that was inflicted to the material element by men.

In the Middle Ages, and since the Christian era, legislation receives from the religious principle an ever more remarkable influence. It loses little of its cruelty, but the absolute and still cruel drives changed completely in direction. Just like science, philosophy and politics, jurisprudence has its revolutions that must not occur but slowly, to be accepted by the generality of the beings they interest. A new institution, to be fruitful, should not be imposed. The art of the legislator is to prepare the minds in such a way as to have it desired and have it considered a benefit… Any innovator, whatever their driving intentions, and however commendable their designs, will be considered a tyrant, of whom it will be necessary to shake out the weight, if willing to impose himself, even if with benefits. Man is essentially free and wants to accept without constraints. Hence the difficulties encountered by men that are too advanced for their time; and hence the persecutions that overwhelm them. They live in the future! With one or two centuries of advancement with respect to the mass of their contemporaries, they can only fail and break against the refractory routine. Thus, in the Middle Ages, they were concerned with the future of the criminal. They thought of their soul, and to facilitate regret, they were threatened with the punishments of hell, the eternal flames inflicted to the guilty ones by an infinitely just and good God! Since they cannot rise to the level of God, and to aggrandize themselves, men reduced God to their meager proportions! They were unease with the future of the criminal; thought of their soul, not for the sake of it, but for a new transformation of egotism, that meant to be appeased with their conscience by reconciling the sinner with God. Bit by bit the inequity of such a system became evident, in the heart and thoughts of a small group. Imminent minds tried premature changes, that nonetheless yielded fruits, creating precedents upon which the transformations that happen in all things today are based.

The law will undoubtedly still be repressive and punish the guilty ones for a long time. We have not arrived yet at the time when the awareness of the fault will be the toughest punishment to the sinner. But, as you see daily, the penalties get lighter; the moralization of the creature is considered; institutions are created to prepare their moral renovation; the correction becomes useful to oneself and to society. The criminal will no longer be the beast to be purged from the world at any price. He will be the stray child whose reason, deviated by the bad passions and by the influence of tough surroundings, will be corrected!

Ah the magistrate and the judge are not the only ones responsible and the only ones to act in such cases. Every heartful man, prince, senator, journalist, writer, legislator, professor, and artisan, all must put hands on and bring their alms to the regeneration of humanity.

Death penalty, an infamous vestige of former cruelty, will disappear by the force of things. Repression that is necessary to the current state, will ease up day by day; and, in a few generations, the only condemnation, the condition of outlaw of an intelligent being will be the last degree of infamy, until the time when, from transformation to transformation, the conscience of each one will be the only judge and executioner of the criminal. And who should we thank for all that work? To Spiritism, that acts through its successive revelations since the beginning of the world, with Islamism, Christianity and Spiritism properly speaking! Its benevolent influence is blindly obvious everywhere, in each period, and there are still creatures blind enough not to recognize it, self-interested enough to take it down and deny its existence. We must feel sorry for them since the fight against an invisible power: the hand of God!

Bonnamy, Father (Medium: Mr. Desliens).

“… Regarding the detachment of the Spirit, that takes place during the sleep to all of us, my spiritual guide exercises me in the vigil state. While the body is dormant, the Spirit travels far away, visits the persons and places that are of their like, returning effortlessly afterwards. The most remarkable thing to me is the fact that while in a cataleptic like state, I am aware of that detachment. I also exercise the reverence that allows me to be pleasantly visited by sympathetic Spirits, incarnate and discarnate. This latter study only takes place at night, around three or four o’clock, and when the resting body awakens. I remain a few moments waiting, like after an evocation. I then feel the presence of the Spirit by a physical impression, and soon an image that allows me to recognize him comes to mind. A mental conversation is established, like in the intuitive communication, and such a kind of conversation has something of nicely intimate. My incarnate brother and sister visit me many times, sometimes followed by my father and mother from the world of the Spirits. A few days ago I received your visit, dear teacher, and given the tenderness of the fluid that penetrated me, I thought it was one of our celestial guardians; just think about my happiness when I recognized your voice in my mind. Lamennais gave us a communication about it and must encourage our efforts. I could not describe to you the joyfulness of this kind of mediumship. If you have some intuitive mediums around you, familiar with the reverence and the mental effort, they can also try. It is evocation, instead of writing, it is talk through which one expresses the ideas, without prolixity. My guide observed, many times, that there was a suffering Spirit, a friend that come to learn or seeking consolations. Yes, Spiritism is a precious benefit: it opens a vast field to charity, and the one that is inspired by good feelings, if not materially, can always help their brother spiritually.”

This mediumship, that we call mental mediumship, is certainly not adequate to convince the skeptical, because it has nothing ostensible, nor it has those effects that reach the senses. It is for the personal satisfaction of those that have it. But it must also be said that it is very much prone to illusion and one must be suspicious of appearances. Regarding the existence of this faculty, we cannot doubt it. We even believe that this must be the most common one, because it is considerable the number of people that, in the vigil state, suffer the influence of the Spirits, and receive the inspiration of a thought that feel not be of their own. The pleasant or unpleasant sensation that one feels in the presence of someone that is met for the first time; the presentiment of proximity of someone; the reading and transmission of thought, are so many other effects due to the same cause and that constitute a kind of mediumship, that must be considered universal, since everybody has it, at least the rudimentary. However, to experience its markedly effects, a special aptitude is necessary, or even better, a degree of sensitivity more or less developed, according to the individuals. From that point of view, as we have said for a long time, we are all mediums, and God has not precluded anybody from the precious advantage of receiving healthy emanations of the spiritual world, that are translated in a thousand and one different ways. But the variety in the human organisms does not allow everyone to receive identical and ostensible effects. After having discussed these issues at the Spiritist Society of Paris, the following instructions were given about it, by multiple Spirits.

I

It is possible to develop the spiritual sense, as we daily see a skill developing through constant work. You know that the communication between the incorporeal world and your senses is constant: it happens every time, every minute, by the law of the spiritual relationships. Dare the incarnates deny here a law of nature itself! You have just heard that the Spirits see and visit one another during the sleep; you have many proofs of that. Why would you like this not to occur in the vigil state? There is no night to the Spirits. No. They are always by your side; the watch you; your loved ones inspire you, excite your thoughts, guide you; they talk to you and exhort you; they protect your works, help to elaborate designs that are half way through, and your still vacillating dreams; they annotate your good resolutions and fight when you fight. These good friends are there, at the end of your incarnations; they play with you in the crib, enlighten you in your studies, and later get involved in all events of your passage here on Earth; they pray when they see you preparing to meet them. No, never deny the daily assistance; never deny your spiritual mediumship, for it is blasphemy against God, and you will be called ungrateful by the Spirits that love you.

H. Dozon, medium Mr. Delanne

II

Yes, this type of spiritual communication is really a mediumship, as you still have, as a matter of fact, others to be attested during your Spiritist studies. It is a kind of cataleptic state, very pleasant to the person that experiments it. It provides all the joys of the spiritual life to the imprisoned soul, that finds an undefined appeal and that would like to feel that all the time. But nonetheless, one must return, and like the prisoner that is allowed to feel the air in an open field, the soul is constrained in the human cell. It is a very pleasant mediumship this one that allows an incarnate Spirit to see the old friends, talk with them, express their earthly impressions, and be able to open the heart in a circle of discrete friends, that do not try to ridicule your confiding, but instead, give you good advices, if useful. Such advices, given in such a way, have more weight to the medium that receives them, because the Spirit that gives them leaves a profound impression in the brain of the receiving medium, and for that reason the medium kept a better memory in her heart of the sincerity and value of those advices. This mediumship does exist in an unconscious state in many people. Know this that near you there is always a sincere friend, always ready to give encouragement to the one whose direction was entrusted to them by the Almighty. No, my friends, you will never lack this kind of support; it is up to you to distinguish the good inspirations from all those that collide in the labyrinth of your consciences. By understanding what comes from your guide, you cannot deviate from the straight path that must be followed by every soul that seeks perfection.

Protector Spirit, medium Mrs. Causse



III

You have already heard that the mediumship would be revealed in different forms. The one called mental by your President is well defined. It is the first degree of the clairvoyant and speaking mediumship. The speaking medium enters into communication with the Spirits, talks with them; the Spirit of the medium sees them, or better saying, foresees them; the medium only transmits what she is told, whereas in the case of the mental medium, if well formed, she can ask questions and receive answers, without the intermediary of the pen or pencil, more easily than the intuitive medium, because here the Spirit of the medium is more detached and a more faithful interpreter. But for that it is necessary a keen desire to be useful, to work towards the good, with a pure feeling, exempt from any thought of self-love and own interest. This is the most subtle and delicate mediumship of all. The tiniest breath of impurity is enough to have it stained. It is only in that condition that the mental medium will obtain proofs of the reality of the communications. You will soon see, appearing around you, oral mediums that will surprise you by their eloquence and logic. Wait, pioneers that are in hurry to see your works prosper; new workers will join your ranks, and this year will see the conclusion of the first great phase of Spiritism, and the beginning of another one, not less important. As for you, dear teacher, God bless your works; may God support you and sustain you in the special favor that you were given, allowing us to guide you and support you in your work, that is also ours.

As the Spiritual President of the Parisian Society, I watch over it, and over every member in particular and pray for the grace and blessings of the Lord to be cast upon all of you.

St. Louis, medium Mrs. Dellane

IV

Certainly, my friends, the mediumship that consists in talking with the Spirits, like with the persons that live the material life, will develop as the detachment of the Spirit takes place more easily, through the habit of revering. The more advanced the incarnate Spirits, the easier those communications will be. As you say, it will not be very important from the point of view of conviction to the skeptical, but it is very soothing to the one that carries it, helping them to dematerialize more and more. Prayer and reverence, this impulse of the soul to her Author, expressing love and recognition, still requesting help, are the two elements of the spiritual life; they cast upon the soul this celestial dew that helps in the development of faculties that are in their latent state.

How unfortunate are those that say the prayer is useless because it does not modify God’s designs! The laws that govern the multiple types of phenomena, no doubt, will not be disturbed by the wishes of one or another, but the only effect of the prayer is to improve the individual, that through this act, elevates the thoughts above material interests, being this the reason why it must not be neglected. Society will finally regenerate by the renovation of the individuals, and God knows that this is needed! You get upset when you think about the vices of the Pagan society, at the time when Jesus Christ brought his humanitarian reformation; but the vices are still present in your time, hidden under more expressive veils of education and politeness.

They no longer have the magnificent temples of the former Greece. But these are in the hearts of people, causing the same devastations among them as those that preceded the Christian era. It is not but with great utility that the Spirits came to remember the teachings given eighteen centuries ago, since you had forgotten them and as such you cannot take advantage of and spread them according to the will of the Divine crucified. You must therefore thank, every one of you that were called to cooperate in the works of the Spirits, and may your selflessness and charity never diminish, because that is how the true Spiritists are known.

Louis of France, medium Mrs. Breul

In the latest issue of the Spiritist Review, last December, we said a few words about this novel, that was edited in feuilleton in the “Moniteur Universel” and that is now published in a book. Unfortunately the space does not allow us to make a detailed analysis, and in particular cite some passages whose ideas are incontestably extracted from the same source as Spiritism; but considering that most of our readers have already read it, it would be superfluous to provide a report here. We will only say that the part attributed to the fantastic is certainly a bit large, and that one must not take every fact by the letter. It is necessary to say that this is not a treaty of Spiritism. The truth is in the bottom line of the ideas and thoughts, that are essentially Spiritists and presented with finesse and enchanting grace, much more than in the facts, whose possibility is sometimes challenged. Despite being a romance, it has great importance, first for the name of the author, and because it is the first work of a writer from the press, where the Spiritist idea is categorically confirmed, and that appears at the time when contradiction seemed to be navigating the wave of attacks against this idea. The form of the romance also had its utility; it was certainly preferred to the strictly doctrinal aspects, in this transition. Thanks to an apparent lightness, he touched everything in the idea. Although Théophile Gautier is one of the favorite authors from the press, the press itself showed an uncharacteristic sobriety about this book. The press did not know if it should have been blessed or censored.

To criticize Théophile Gautier, a friend, a comrade, a writer beloved by the public; to say that he had written an absurd book, it was something difficult; praising the book would be an exaltation of the idea; keeping silence about a popular name would be an insult. The novelistic style kept the embarrassment away; it allowed to say that the author had created a beautiful work of imagination, and not conviction. They talked, but not much. That is how we see skepticism compromising. We noticed something very singular: the day in which the book was released there were cards, in all booksellers, with a small ad publicized abroad. A few days later all the ads had disappeared. In the slim and rare notes in the newspapers we found significant confessions, undoubtedly due to a slipup of the author. The “Courrier du Monde Illustré”, on December 16th, 1865 brings the following: “One must believe that the poet Théophile Gautier, unnoticeably, without professing the doctrine, without even having probed much of these unfathomable questions of Spiritism and somnambulism, just out of the intuition of his poetic genius, hit the nail on the head, fled with the box office and found the “open sesame” of the mysterious evocations, for the book that he published as a feuilleton in the “Moniteur” with the title Spiritist, agitated violently all those that deal with such dangerous questions. The emotion was overwhelming, and to assess its reach is necessary to cover every newspaper of Europe, as we do. The whole Spiritist Germany stood up as one, and like all those that live on the contemplation of an idea and only have their eyes on that idea, one of the most serious institutions of Austria pretends that the Emperor himself ordered this prodigious novel by Théophile Gautier, in a way to deviate France’s attention from matters of politics. First statement, whose reach I do not exaggerate. The second one hurt me for its fantastic side. According to the German periodical, the poet of the Comedy of Death, much agitated as a consequence of a vision, would have gotten very sick and taken to Geneve, and with fever, forced to wait for a hospital bed for several weeks, victim of strange nightmares, glowing hallucinations, a constant toy of errant Spirits. In one morning, they would have found the disperse pages of the Spiritist manuscript, by the foot of his bed.

Not attributing to the inspiration that guided the pen of the author of Avatar, such a fantastic source, we strongly believe that once involved in that subject, the writer of The Romance of a Mummy would have become ecstatic with those visions, and that in the paroxysm he would have designed these remarkable descriptions of Heavens, one of his most beautiful pages. The correspondence that led to the publication of Spiritist is extremely curious. It is a shame that, out of convenience, we did not request one of the letters received by the poet of Enamels and Cameos.”

We do not do literary criticism here, otherwise we could find the catalogue utilized by the author in the article something of doubtful taste, that also seems to fault a bit for lack of clarity. We confess not have understood the phrase of the frog; it is, nonetheless, cited verbatim. This must be, perhaps, attributed to the difficulty of explaining where the renowned novelist found such ideas, and how he dared to present them without a laugh. But, the most important thing is the confession of the sensation produced by such a book throughout Europe. One must acknowledge, therefore, that the Spiritist idea is very lively and spread out; then it is not a miscarriage abort. How many people are placed in the category of cretins or idiots by the stroke of a pen of our adversaries! Fortunately, their judgement is not definitive. Mr. Jaubert, Mr. Bonnamy and many others appeal to the sentence. The author classifies these questions as dangerous. But, according to him and his comrades in criticism, these are nonsense and ridicule novels. Well, how can a nonsensical novel be dangerous to society? It is one of the two: the bottom line is that there is or there isn’t something serious with this. If there isn’t, where the danger? Had we originally listened to the declarations of danger to most of the great truths that shine today, where would we be in terms of progress? Truth is dangerous only to the coward that dare not face it or to those with self-interest.

A not less serious fact, that several papers promptly published, as if it were proved, is that the Emperor had ordered this novel to distract France’s attention from political matters. This is obviously a supposition only, for admitting the reality of the source, it is not presumable that it had been publicized. But this very supposition is a confession regarding the strength of the Spiritist idea, since it acknowledges that a sovereign, the greatest politician of our days, could have considered it suitable to produce such results. Had it been the thought behind the execution of this work, it seems to us that it would have been superfluous due to the fact that the papers were fighting one another for the primacy of attention, with all the noise they made about the Davenport brothers. The clearest thing in all this is the fact that the adversaries of Spiritism cannot understand the prodigious speed of progress of the idea, despite everything they do to have it halted.

Since they cannot deny the fact that becomes more evident every day, they strive to look for the cause everywhere, where it is not, in hopes of attenuating its importance.



In an article entitled “Books of today and tomorrow”, signed by Émile Zola, the Événement, on February 16th, gives a tiny summary of the work in discussion, followed by these remarks:

“A short while ago the Moniteur carried a fantastic piece of news of Théophile Gautier: Spiritist, a book just published by Charpentier bookstore. The book is for the greatest glory of the Davenports; it takes us for a ride in the land of the Spirits, showing the invisible, and revealing the unknown to us. The official journal provided there the bulletin of the other world. But I am suspicious of the faith of Théophile Gautier. He has an ironic bonhomie that smells disbelief miles away. I suspect he entered the invisible for the simple pleasure of describing imaginary horizons his way. The bottom line is that he does not believe a word of the story he tells, but he likes to tell it, and the readers will enjoy reading it. It is, therefore, all for the better, at the highest possible skepticism. Irrespective of what Théophile Gautier writes, it is always picturesque and original poetry. He would be perfect if he did believe in what he says – and this would be perhaps regrettable.”

Singular logic and confession, and even more logic conclusion! If Théophile Gautier believed in what he said in Spiritist, it would be perfect! The Spiritist doctrine then leads to perfection those that assimilate it, from what it follows that if every human being were Spiritist, they would all be perfect. Someone else would have concluded: “Let us hasten to disseminate Spiritism…”, but no: it would be a shame!

How many people repel the Spiritist beliefs not out of fear of becoming perfects, but simply for the fear of having to be forced to mend themselves! The Spirits scare them away because they speak from the other world, and that world causes horror. That is why they cover their eyes and their ears.

The Événement, from February 19th, carries the following article about this book, signed by Zola, like in the preceding matter:

“The novelists, short of imagination, decisively resort to Spiritism, in these times of incessant production, to find new and strange subjects. In my last article I talked about Spiritist, by Théophile Gautier; today I must announce the launch of The Spiritist’s wife, by Ange de Kéraniou, published by Lemer.

Spiritism will perhaps provide the French genius with the marvelous necessary to every well-conditioned epic. The Davenports would then have brought us one of the elements of the epic poem that French literature still waits. Mr. Kéraniou’s book is a bit fuzzy; we do not know if he is laughing or talking seriously; but it is full of curious details that makes it an interesting book to browse through. The Count Humbert de Luzy, emeritus Spiritist, a kind of anti-Christ, that made the tables dance, married a young woman to whom he inspires terrible fear. The young lady, as expected, wants to find a lover. Here is where the story becomes truly original. The Spirits become the guard of honor of the husband, and in two occasions, under desperate circumstances, the save that honor with the help of apparitions and earthquakes. If I were married, I would become a Spiritist.”

The Spiritist idea has definitely made its entry into the press through the novel. She enters ornated: the naked truth would shock those gentlemen. We do not know this new book but through the article above; we, therefore, cannot say anything about it. We can only attest that the author of this critic announces, perhaps without seeing its reach, a great and fecund truth, that arts and literature will find in Spiritism a rich mine to explore. We said long ago: one day there will be the Spiritist art, as there was the Pagan art and the Christian art. Yes, the poet, the writer, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, even the architect will find plenty of sublime inspiration in this new source, when they explore somewhere else other than the bottom of a closet. Théophile Gautier was the first one to enter the field, through a fundamental book full of poetry. He will have followers, no doubt. “Spiritism will perhaps provide the French genius with the marvelous necessary to every well-conditioned epic” – this might already be a result not to be neglected. (see the Spiritist Review, December 1860, Spiritist Art, the Pagan Art and the Christian Art).

This one is not a novel; it is a refutation, from a scientific point of view, of the criticism addressed to the Spiritist phenomena, regarding the Davenport brothers and the similarity that some pretend to exist between those phenomena and the trickery of prestidigitation. The author presents charlatanism, that slips everywhere, and the unfavorable conditions in which the Davenports present themselves, conditions that he does not seek to justify. He examines the phenomena themselves, abstraction made of the persons, and speaks with the authority of a scientist. He vigorously raises the glove thrown by part of the press and stigmatize their eccentricities of language, that he translates under the light of common sense, showing how far it has gone beyond a fair discussion. We may not share the feeling of the author about all points, but we must say that his book is a difficult refutation to refute. Thus, the hostile press in general kept quiet about the subject. The Événement of February 1st brought the following about the matter:

“I have in my hands a book that should have been published in the last Fall. It deals with the Davenports. The book, signed by the pseudonym Hermes, has the title Unknown Natural Forces, and pretends that we should accept the closet and the Davenport brothers, because our senses are weak, and we cannot explain everything in nature. Useless to say that the book was published by the Didier bookstore. I would not speak of these leaves that mistaken the season if they did not contain a violent repository against the Parisian press. Mr. Hèrmes clearly narrates his doings with the Opinion, Temps, France, Fígaro, The Petit Journal, etc. They were cruel and disrespectful, and their ill-faith can only be compared to their foolishness. They did not understand, hence they could not speak. Ignorance, falsehood, and rudeness, those journalists committed all crimes. Mr. Hèrmes is too tough. Louis Ulbach is called “the man in glasses”, an extremely offensive expression. Edmond About, that had asked about the difference between the mediums and Dr. Lapommerais, got plenty of his own back. Mr. Hèrmes declares that “he is not surprised hat certain amateurs of puns had thrown the name of his gracious contradictor in the mud”. Do you feel the subtleness of this wordplay? Mr. Hèrmes finally confesses that he lives in a remote garden and that his only concern is the truth. It would be preferable that he lived in the streets and that he had the whole calm and the whole Christian charity of solitude.”


Isn’t that curious to see these gentlemen give theoretical lessons of calmness and Christian charity to those that they wantonly harm, and not agree that they respond? They will not criticize Mr. Hèrmes, however, for lack of moderation since he does not cite any given name, for excess of consideration. It is true that the citations, grouped in such a way, form an awkward bouquet. Whose fault is this if that bouquet does not exhale a perfume of urbanity and good taste? To have the right to complain about a few somewhat tough appreciations it would be necessary not to provoke them.