Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

The revelations made to Louis XVIII by a peasant from Beauce, shortly after the second return of the Bourbons, had a great impact in that time, and even today its memory is not erased; but few people know the details of this incident, to which Spiritism alone can now give the key, as to all events of this kind. It is a subject of study, even more interesting, since the facts, almost contemporary, are of a perfect authenticity and attested by official documents. We are going to give a summary of them, but sufficient to make them appreciated.

Thomas-Ignace Martin was a small farmer from the Bourg de Gallardon, located four leagues from Chartres. Born in 1783, he was, therefore, thirty-three years old when the events that we are going to report took place. He died on May 8^th, 1834. He was married, father of four young children, and enjoyed the reputation of a perfect honest man, in his commune. Official reports paint him as a sensible man, though very naïve, owing to his ignorance of the most vulgar things; of a gentle and peaceful character, never meddled with any intrigue; of a perfect righteousness in all things, and of a complete selflessness, of which he had given numerous proofs, hence ruling out any idea of ambition on his part. So, when he returned to his village after his visit to the king, he resumed his usual occupations as if nothing had happened, even avoiding talking about what had happened to him.

When he left to Paris, the director of the Charenton home had all the trouble in the world to get him to accept 25 francs for his travel expenses. The following year, his wife being pregnant with a fifth child, a distinguished person for her position, and who was aware of their meager resources, made a proposal of 150 francs through a third party, to provide for the needs in that circumstance. Martin refused, saying: "It can only be because of these things that have happened to me that I am offered money, because without that, they would not talk about me, they would not even know me. But since it is not from me, I must not receive anything for it. Thus, you will thank this person very much, because, although I am not rich, I do not want to receive anything.” On other occasions, he refused larger sums that you put him in a comfortable situation.

Martin was simple, but neither credulous nor superstitious; he practiced his religious duties scrupulously, but without exaggeration or ostentation, and just within the limits of what was strictly necessary, visiting his parish priest at most once a year. There was, therefore, in him neither bigotry nor religious excitement. Nothing in his habits or in his character was prone to excite his imagination. He was pleased to see the return of the Bourbons, but without being involved in politics in any way and without mingling with any party. Entirely dedicated to the work in the fields, since his childhood, he read neither books nor newspapers.



It is easy to understand the importance of this information about Martin's character in the case at hand. The moment a man is moved neither by interest, nor by ambition, nor by fanaticism, nor by superstitious credulity, he acquires serious rights of confidence. However, here is a summary of how the events happened to him.

On January 15^th, 1816, at half past two in the afternoon, he was alone, busy, spreading manure in a field three-quarters of a league from Gallardon, in a very deserted region, when suddenly a man appeared to him, of about five feet one or two inches, slender of body and face, delicate and very white, dressed in a Levite^[1] or frock coat of golden color, totally closed and hanging down to the feet, with shoes tied with cords and a round, tall hat. This man said to Martin:

“You must go find the king, tell him that his person is in danger, as well as that of the princes; that bad people are still trying to overthrow the government; that several writings or letters have already circulated in some provinces of their states on this subject; that it is necessary that he make an accurate and general inquiry in all states, and especially in the capital; that he must also reinstate the day of the Lord, so that he may be sanctified; that this holy day is ignored by a large part of his people; that he must stop public works on those days; that he order public prayers for the conversion of the people; let him stimulate them to penance; that he abolish and annihilate all the disorders that take place in the days that precede the holy Lent: without all these things, France will fall into new misfortunes.”

Martin, a little surprised at such a sudden appearance, replied: "But you can go and find others than me to do a commission like that. Imagine that I would speak to the king with hands like that (imprints of manure)!”

- No, replied the stranger, it is you who will go.

"But," resumed Martin, "since you know so much about it, you may well go and find the king yourself and tell him all this; why are you talking to a poor man like me who can't explain himself? - It will not be me who will go, said the stranger to him, it will be you; pay attention to what I tell you, and you will do whatever I command you.

After these words, Martin saw him disappear more or less like this: his feet seemed to rise from the ground, his head lowered and his shrinking body finally disappeared at belt height, as if it would have evaporated in the air. Martin, more frightened of this way of disappearing than of the sudden appearance, wanted to go away, but he could not; he remained, unwillingly, and having set to work, his task, that was supposed to last two and a half hours, lasted only one hour and a half, redoubling his astonishment.

Certain recommendations that Martin had to make to the king may be found childish, especially concerning the observance of Sunday, considering the means, apparently supernatural, employed to transmit it to him, and the difficulties that such an approach was to encounter. But it is probable that this was only a sort of passport to arrive at him, for the main object of the revelation, which was of a much higher seriousness, was not to be known, as it will be seen later, but at the time of the interview. The main thing was that Martin could reach the king, and for that the intervention of some members of the high clergy was necessary; now, we know the importance that the clergy gives to the observance of Sunday; how could the sovereign not surrender when the voice of heaven was about to be heard by a miracle? It was, therefore, advisable to favor Martin, instead of discouraging him. However, things are far from having worked out on their own.

Martin hastened to tell his brother what had happened to him, and they both went to tell the parish priest, Mr. Laperruque, who tried to dissuade Martin and put it to the account of his imagination. On the 18^th, at six o'clock in the evening, Martin had gone down to the cellar to look for potatoes, when the same individual appeared to him standing, beside him, while he was on his knees, busy collecting them; terrified he left his candle there and fled. On the 18^th, a new apparition at the entrance of a fruit press, and Martin escaped in the same way.

On Sunday, January 21^st, Martin entered the church at the hour of Vespers; as he was taking the holy water, he saw the stranger who was also taking it, and followed him to the entrance up to his bench; throughout the service he was very collected and Martin noticed that he had neither a hat on his head nor in his hands. When he left the church, he followed him to his house, walking by his side, hat on his head. When they arrived at the gate, he suddenly found himself face to face with the man who said: “Accomplish your mission, and do as I tell you; you will not be at ease until your mission is accomplished.” As soon as he said these words he disappeared, but this time Martin did not see him fainting gradually, as he did the first time, neither this time nor in the following appearances. On January 24^th, another apparition in the attic, followed by these words: “Do what I command you, it is time."

Note these two modes of disappearance: the first, which could not be the result of a bodily being in flesh and blood, was undoubtedly intended to prove that it was a fluidic being, foreign to material humanity, something to be ratified 50 years later and explained by Spiritism, whose doctrines it confirmed, at the same time as it provided a subject for study.

We know that in recent times, incredulity has sought to explain the apparitions by optical effects, and when artificial phenomena of this kind appeared in some theaters, produced by a combination of mirrors and lights, this was a general cry in the press, saying: “Here is finally the secret of all apparitions discovered! It is with the help of such means that this absurd belief has spread throughout time, and that credulous people have been fooled by subterfuges!”

We have refuted, as it should have been, (Spiritist Review, July 1863) this strange explanation, worthy of the famous cracker muscle, of Doctor Jobert de Lamballe, who accused all Spiritists of insanity, and who has himself, unfortunately, languished for several years in a house of the mentally ill; but we ask, in the case in question here, by whom and how devices of this nature, necessarily complicated and bulky, could have been arranged and operated in a field, isolated from any house, and where Martin was absolutely alone, not noticing anything? How could these same devices, which operate in the dark, using artificial lights, produce an image in direct sunlight? How could they have been transported instantly to the cellar, to the attic, places generally not very well equipped, in a church, and from the church to follow Martin home, without anyone noticing a thing? These kinds of artificial images are seen by all spectators; how would it be that in church, and on leaving church, Martin alone saw the individual? Will it be said that he saw nothing, but that, in good faith, he was the plaything of a hallucination? This explanation is contradicted by the material fact of the revelations made to the king, and which, as we will see, could not be known beforehand to Martin. There is a positive, material result in this, that is not in the field of illusions.

The priest of Gallardon, to whom Martin faithfully gave an account of his appearances, and who took an exact note of them, thought it to be his duty to report it to his bishop in Versailles, to whom he sent a detailed letter of recommendation. There, Martin repeated everything he had seen, and, after various questions, the bishop instructed him to ask the stranger, on his part, if he appeared again, his name, who he was, who had sent him, recommending that he tell his priest everything.

A few days after Martin's return, the priest received a letter from his bishop, in which he testified to him that the man he had sent appeared to have great lucidity about the important subject in question. From this moment a constant correspondence was established between the bishop and the priest of Gallardon. For his part, Monseigneur, given the gravity of the first apparition, felt it to be his duty to make it a ministerial and police affair; consequently, he sent every report he received from the priest to Mr. Decazes, Minister of General Police.

1.On Tuesday, January 30^th, the stranger appeared to Martin again and said: “Your mission has started well, but those who have it in their hands are not taking care of it; I was present, though invisible, when you made your statement; you were told to ask my name and where I came from; my name will remain unknown, and he who sent me (pointing to the sky) is above me.”

- “How do you always address yourself to me, replied Martin, for a mission like this, I that am only a peasant? There are so many witty people.”

"It is to bring down pride," said the stranger, pointing to the earth; “for you, you should not take pride in what you have seen and heard, because pride is extremely displeasing to God; practice virtue; attend the services that are done in your parish on Sundays and holidays; Avoid cabarets and bad companies where all kinds of impurities are committed and where all kinds of bad speech are held. Do not haul on Sundays and holidays.”

During the month of February, the stranger appeared several more times to Martin, and said to him, among other things, these words: - "Persist, oh my friend, and you will succeed." You will appear before disbelief, and you will confound it; I still have something else to tell you that will convince them, and they will have nothing to answer. - Hurry up with your mission, nothing is done of everything I told you; those who have the matter in hand are intoxicated with pride; France is in a state of delirium; it will be given over to all kinds of misfortunes. - You will meet the king; you will tell him what I have announced to you; he will be able to admit his brother and his nephews with him. When you will be before the king I will reveal to you things which were secret from the time of his exile, but the knowledge of which will not be given to you until you are taken into his presence."

In the meantime, the Comte de Breteuil, Prefect of Chartres, received a letter from the Minister of General Police inviting him to verify "whether these appearances, given as miraculous, were not rather a game of the imagination of Martin, a real illusion of his elated mind, or finally if the alleged unknown envoy, could not be Martin himself, were not to be severely examined by the police, and then handed over to the courts."

On March 5^th, Martin received a visit from his stranger who told him: “You will soon appear before the first magistrate of your department; you must report things as they are announced to you; we must not have regard for quality or dignity."

Martin had not been informed that he had to go to the Prefect; this is, therefore, no longer a simple communication on a vague thing, it is the forecast of a fact that is going to be realized. This was repeated over and over again during the course of these events; Martin was always informed by his stranger of what would happen to him, of the people in whose presence he was going to be, of the places where he would be taken. Well, this is not the result of illusion and chimerical ideas. As soon as the individual says to Martin: tomorrow you will see such and such a person, or you will be taken to such and such a place, and the thing happens, it is a positive fact that cannot come from the imagination.

The next day, March 6^th, Martin, accompanied by the priest, went to Chartres to see the Prefect. The latter spoke first, at length and in particular with the priest, then having been introduced to Martin, he said to him: "But if I put you in the shackles and in prison for making such announcements, would you continue to say what you say? "As you wish," replied Martin, without fear; “I can only tell the truth.”

"But," continued the Prefect, "if you appeared before an authority superior to my own, for example, before the minister, would you sustain what you have just told me?"

“Yes, sir,” replied Martin, “and before the king himself.”

The prefect, surprised by so much assurance, combined with so much simplicity, and still more by the strange tales that the priest had told him, decided to send Martin to the minister. The next day, March 7^th, Martin left for Paris escorted by Mr. André, lieutenant of the gendarmery, who had orders to watch all his steps and not to leave him, day, and night. They lodged at rue Montmartre, hotel de Calais, in a room with two beds. On Friday, March 8^th, Mr. André took Martin to the headquarters of the police. Entering the courtyard, the stranger appeared to him and said: “You are going to be questioned in several ways; have no fear or worry but tell it like it is.” After these words he disappeared.

We will not report here all the interrogations that the minister and his secretaries subjected Martin to, without allowing himself to be intimidated by threats, or disconcerted by the traps that were set for him to put him in contradiction with himself, confusing his interrogators with his answers full of meaning and composure. Having Martin described his stranger, the minister said: “Well! you won't see him anymore, because I just had him arrested.

- “Hey!” replied Martin, “how were you able to make him stop, since he immediately disappears like lightning?” – “If it disappears for you, continued the Minister, he does not disappear for everyone.” And addressing one of his secretaries:

“Go see if that man I said to put in jail is still there."

A few moments later the secretary returned and gave this answer:

“Monsignor, he is still there. - Well! said Martin, if you had him put in prison, you will show him to me, and I will recognize him well; I have seen him enough times for that.”

Next came a man who carefully examined Martin's head, parting his hair to the right and to the left; the minister turned them over and over again, presumably to see if he had some sign of insanity, to which Martin was content to say:

“Look as much as you want, I've never been sick in my life.”

Returning to the hotel, in the evening, Martin said to Mr. André: "But the minister told me that he had put the man who appeared to me in prison. So, he released him, for he appeared to me since and said: “You were questioned today, but they don't want to do what I said. The one you saw this morning wanted you to believe that I had been arrested; you can tell him that he has no power over me and that it is time for the king to be warned.” Mr. André immediately went to report to the police, while Martin, without worry, went to bed and fell asleep peacefully.

The next day, the 9th, Martin had gone downstairs to ask for the lieutenant's boots, and the stranger appeared to him in the middle of the stairs and said: "You are going to have a visit from a doctor who is coming to see if you are struck by imagination and if you've lost your mind; but those who send it to you are crazier than you.”

The same day, in fact, the famous alienist, Dr. Pinel, came to visit him, and subjected him to an interrogation appropriate to this kind of information. "Despite his skill," the report says, "he has been unable to acquire any improbable indication of alienation. His research only resulted in a simple conjecture of the possibility of hallucination and intermittent mania."

It seems that, for some people, it does not take more to be accused of madness: it is enough not to think like them; that is why those who believe in something from the other world pass for fools in the eyes of those who believe in nothing.

After Dr. Pinel's visit, the stranger appeared to Martin and said: “You must go and speak to the king; when you are in his presence, I will inspire you what you have to say to him. I am using you to break down pride and disbelief. They are trying to dismiss the matter, but if you do not reach your goal, it will be revealed in other ways."

On March 10^th, Martin was alone in his room when the stranger appeared to him and said:

“I told you that my name would remain unknown, but considering such a great disbelief, it is necessary to have my name revealed. I am angel Raphael, a renowned angel by God. I have the power to harm France with all kinds of misfortunes.”

At these words, Martin was seized with fear and felt a kind of tension

Another day, Mr. André, having gone out with Martin, met an officer of his friends with whom he spoke for an hour, in English, that Martin naturally did not understand. The next day, the stranger, whom he now calls the angel, said to him: “Those who were with you yesterday talked about you, but you did not understand their language; they said you were coming to speak to the king, and one said that when he returned to his country, the other would give him news, to find out how things had happened. Mr. André, to whom Martin reported on all his conversations with the stranger, was very surprised to learn that what he had said in English, so as not to be understood by him, was revealed.

Although Doctor Pinel's report did not conclude for madness, but only for a possibility of hallucination, Martin was, nonetheless, taken to the mental home des fous de Charenton, where he remained from March 13^th until April 2^nd. There, he was carefully watched and subjected to special study by the specialists. They also made inquiries in his hometown, on his antecedents and those of his family, and despite all these investigations, they did not find the least appearance or predetermining cause of madness. To pay homage to the truth, it must be said that he was constantly treated there with great respect, on the part of Mr. Royer-Collard, chief director of the house, and the other doctors, and that he was not subjected to any of the treatments in use in these kinds of institutions. If he was placed there, it was much less as a measure of sequestration than to make it easier to observe his real state of mind.

During his stay at Charenton, he had fairly frequent visits from his stranger, that had no remarkable peculiarity, except the one in which he said to him: "There will be discussions: some will say that it is an imagination, others that it is an angel of light, and others that it is an angel of darkness; I allow you to touch me. Then, said Martin, he took my right hand and squeezed it; he opened his frock coat in front, and when it was open, it seemed to me brighter than the rays of the sun, and I could not see; I was forced to put my hand in front of my eyes. When he closed his frock coat, I saw nothing shiny anymore; it seemed to me like before. This opening and closing took place without any movement on his part.”



Another time, as he was writing to his brother, he saw the stranger next to him, dictating part of his letter, recalling the predictions he had already made on the misfortunes with which France was threatened. Here Martin is then both, a clairvoyant medium and a writer.

Whatever care was taken not to publicize this affair too much, it still caused a certain sensation in the high official ranks; it is probable, however, that it would have ended, if the Archbishop of Reims, Grand Chaplain of France, then Archbishop of Paris and Cardinal of Périgord, had not been interested in it. He spoke about it to Louis XVIII and offered to receive Martin. The king told him that he had not heard of it yet, so true is it that sovereigns are often the last to know what is going on around them and what interests them the most. Accordingly, he ordered that Martin be introduced to him.

On April 2^nd, Martin was taken from Charenton to the Minister of General Police. While he was waiting for the moment to be received, his stranger appeared to him and said: “You are going to speak to the king, and you will be alone with him; have no fear of appearing before the king; for what you have to say to him, the words will come to your mouth.” It was the last time he saw it.

The minister gave him a very warm welcome and told him that he was going to have him taken to the Tuileries.

It is generally believed that Martin came to Paris on his own, presented himself at the castle, insisting on speaking to the king; that after being rejected, he returned to the charge with such persistence that Louis XVIII, having been informed, ordered him to be admitted. Things turned out quite differently, as we can see. It was not until 1828, four years after the king's death, that he made known the secret peculiarities that were revealed to him, and that made a deep impression on him, for such was the essential purpose of that visit, and that the other alleged motives were, as we have said, only a means of arriving at him.

His stranger had him ignoring these things until the last moment, for fear that an indiscretion, wrested by the artifice of the interrogations, would cause the project to fail, which would inevitably have taken place.

After his visit to the king, Martin went to say goodbye to the director of Charenton, and left immediately for his home, where he resumed the usual course of his work, without ever taking credit for what had happened to him.

The goal we set out for ourselves in this story was to show the points by which it relates to Spiritism; since the particularities revealed to Louis XVIII are foreign to our subject, we will refrain from reporting them. We will only say that they had to do with the most private family matters; they moved the king to the point of making him cry a lot, and he later declared that what had been revealed to him was known only to God and to himself. They had the consequences of causing the coronation to be renounced, the preparations for which had already been ordered.^[2]

We will only bring back, from this interview, a few passages from the account written in 1828, by dictation of Martin himself, and in which the character and simplicity of the man are depicted.

“We arrived at the Tuileries around three o'clock, and without anyone saying anything. We got as far as Louis XVIII's first valet, to whom the letter was handed, and who, after having read it, said to me: Follow me. We stopped for a few moments because Mr. Decazes was with the king. When the minister came out, I entered, and before I said a word, the king told the valet to leave and close the doors.

The king was seated at his table, opposite to the door; there were quills, papers, and books. I greeted the king by saying:

-Sire, I greet you.

-The king said to me: Hello Martin.

-And then I said to myself: So, he knows my name well.

-You know, Sire, surely, why I am coming.

-Yes, I know that you have something to tell me, and I was told that it was something that you could only say to me; sit down.

-So, I sat down in an armchair that was placed opposite to the king, so that there was only the table between us. So, I asked him how he was. The king said to me:

-I am a little better than in the past few days; and you, how are you?

-I'm fine. What is the subject of your trip?

-And I said to him: You can call, if you want, your brother and his sons. The king interrupted me by saying:

-It is useless, I will tell them what you have to say to me.

-After that, I told the king about all the apparitions I had had, and that are in the report.

-I know all this, the Archbishop of Reims told me everything. But it seems to me that you have something to tell me, in private, and in secret.

-And then I felt the words that the angel had promised me would come to my mouth, and I said to the king: The secret that I have to tell you is that ... (Details follow that like the instructions given in the continuation of the conversation, on certain measures to be taken and the manner of governing, could only be inspired at this very moment, for they are out of reach of Martin's level of education).

-It was to this story that the king, struck with astonishment and deeply moved, said: “O my God! Oh my God! this is quite true; it is only God, you, and I, who know this; promise me to keep the greatest secrecy on all these communications.

-And I promised him. After that I said to him: take care of not being crowned, because if you tried it, you would be struck by death in the ceremony of the coronation. At the moment, and until the end of the conversation, the king still cried.

When I had finished, he told me that the angel who had appeared to me was the one who led the young Tobias to Rages and who made him marry; then he asked me which of my hands the angel had squeezed. I replied, “This one,” pointing to the right. The king took it from me, saying: "Let me touch the hand that the angel shook. Always pray for me. - "Of course, Sire, that I, my family, as well as the priest of Gallardon, have always prayed for the affair to succeed.

I greeted the king, saying to him:

-“I wish you good health. I have been told that once my mission to the king had been accomplished, I should ask your permission to return to my family, as it has also been announced to me that you will not refuse me, and that no pain or harm would happen to me.

-Nothing will happen to you; I gave orders to send you back. The minister will give you supper and bed, and papers for your return tomorrow.

-But I would be happy if I returned to Charenton to say goodbye to them and to get a shirt that I left there.

-Wasn’t it a problem to be in Charenton? Were you okay there?

-No problem at all; and of course, if I did not feel good there I would not ask to return.

-Well, since you wish to return there, the minister will have you taken there on my behalf.



I returned to join my driver that was waiting for me, and we went together to the Minister's house.

Done at Gallardon, March 9^th, 1828.

Signed: Thomas MARTIN.



Martin's interview with the king lasted at least 55 minutes.

If since his visit with the king, Martin has not seen his stranger again, the demonstrations have nonetheless continued in another form; from a clairvoyant medium, he became a hearing medium. Here are some fragments of letters he wrote to the former priest of Gallardon:



January 28^th, 1821

“Dear priest, I am writing to you to let you know of something that has happened to me. Last Tuesday, January 23^rd, when plowing the field, I heard a voice speaking to me, without seeing anyone, and I was told: “Son of Japheth! stop and pay attention to the words addressed to you.” At the same time, my horses stopped without my having said anything, because I was very surprised. This is what I was told:

“In this great region a great tree is planted, and on the same stump another is planted which is inferior to the first; the second tree has two branches, one of which was shattered, and immediately afterwards it was withered by a furious wind, and this wind did not stop blowing. In place of this branch, another branch emerged, young, tender, which replaces it; but this wind, that is always agitated, will rise one day with such uproar that… and after this appalling catastrophe, the peoples will be in the last desolation. Pray, my son, for these days to be shortened; invoke the sky that the fatal wind, blowing out of the north-west, be barred by powerful barriers, and that its progress be not untoward. These things are obscure to you, but others will easily understand them."

That, sir, is what happened to me on Tuesday, around one in the afternoon; I don't understand anything about it; you will tell me if you understand something. I haven't told anyone about any of this, not even my wife, because the world is bad. I was determined to keep all this in silence; but I made up my mind to write to you today, because that night I could not sleep, and I have always kept these words in my memory, and I beg you to keep them a secret, because the world would mock them. Sir, I have been called a son of Japheth; I don't know anyone in our family who bears this name; we may well have been mistaken; I may have been taken for someone else.

February 8^th, 1821

I had forbidden you to speak about what I had told you; I was wrong, because it cannot remain hidden. It must necessarily pass in front of the great and foremost of the State, so that they can see the danger with which they are threatened, because the wind of which I spoke to you before, is shortly going to cause terrible disasters, because this wind is always blowing around the tree; if they are not careful, it will soon be unrooted. At the same time, the other tree, with what comes out of it, will experience the same fate. Yesterday, the same voice came to speak to me, and I saw nothing.



February 21^st, 1821

“Sir, I had a great fright this morning. It was nine o'clock; I heard a great noise near me, and I saw nothing, but I heard a voice, after the noise, and I was told, "Why were you afraid? fear not; I am not coming to do you any harm. You are surprised to hear and see nothing, do not be surprised: things must be discovered; I am using you to send you, as I am sent. The philosophers, the unbelievers, the ungodly, do not believe that we see their steps, but they must be confused ... Remain quiet, continue to be what you have been; your days are numbered, and not a single one will escape you. I forbid you to bow down to me because I am only a servant, like you. - Sir, this is what I was told; I do not know who the person speaking to me is; his voice is quite strong and very clear. I had the thought to speak, but I did not dare, because I do not see anyone.”

It remains to be known what is the identity of the Spirit that has manifested; was it really the angel Raphael? There is every reason to doubt it, and there would be much to be said against that opinion; but, in our opinion, this is a very secondary question; the important fact is that of the manifestation, of which there can be no doubt, and of which all the incidents had their reason for being, for the proposed result, and today they have their instructive side.

A fact that undoubtedly has escaped no one is Martin’s word, about a sum that was offered to him: As the thing does not come from me, he said, I should not receive anything for it. Here we then have a simple peasant, an unconscious medium, that fifty years ago, when we were far from thinking of Spiritism, has by himself the intuition of the duties imposed by mediumship, of the holiness of its mandate; his common sense, his natural loyalty, makes him understand that what comes from a celestial source, and not from him, should not be paid for.

We may be astonished at the difficulties that Martin encountered in fulfilling the task assigned to him. Why, it will be said, did the Spirits not send it directly to the king? Those difficulties, those delays, as we have seen, had their usefulness. He had to go through Charenton, where his mental health was subjected to the most rigorous investigations of official science, and a not very credulous one, so that it was found that he was neither mad nor elated. As it was seen, the Spirits succeeded over obstacles set up by men, but as men have their free will, they could not prevent them from setting obstacles.

Note, on this subject, that Martin made no effort, so to speak, to reach the king; circumstances brought him there, almost in spite of himself, and without his needing to insist much; however, these circumstances were obviously led by the Spirits, by acting on the thoughts of the incarnates, because Martin’s mission was serious and had to be accomplished.

It is the same in all analogous cases. Besides the question of prudence, it is obvious that, without the difficulties that exist to reach them, the sovereigns would be assaulted by would-be revealers.

In recent times, how many people have believed themselves to be called to such missions, that were not but the result of obsessions, in which their pride was played with, unwillingly, and that could only lead to mystifications! To all those who have sought our opinion, in such a case, we have always said, by showing them the obvious signs by which the lying Spirits betray themselves: "Be careful not to take any step that would inevitably lead to your confusion. Rest assured that if your mission is real, you will be able to accomplish it; that if you must be at a given time in a given place, you will be led there, without your knowledge, by circumstances that will appear to be the result of chance. Be assured, moreover, that when a thing is in the plans of God, it must happen, and that He does not subordinate the realization of it to the good or the bad will of men. Beware of missions assigned and advocated in advance, because they are only bait for pride; missions are revealed by facts. Also, beware of predictions at fixed days and times because they are never made by serious Spirits.” We were fortunate enough to stop more than one, in which the events gave proof of the prudence of such advices.

There is, as we see, more than one similarity between these facts and those of Joan of Arc, not that there is any comparison to be made as to the importance of the results achieved, but as to the cause of the phenomenon, which is exactly the same, and up to a point, to the purpose. Like Joan of Arc, Martin was warned by a being of the spiritual world, to speak to the king to save France from peril, and like her too, it was not without difficulties that he reached him. There is, however, between the two manifestations this difference that Joan of Arc simply heard the voices advising her, while Martin constantly saw the individual who spoke to him, not in a dream or in an ecstatic sleep, but with the appearance of a living creature, as would an “agenerate”.^[3]

But from another point of view, the facts that happened to Martin, although less striking, are nonetheless of great significance, as proof of the existence of the spiritual world and of its relations with the corporeal world, and for being contemporary and of an indisputable notoriety, they cannot be placed in the rank of legendary stories. By their repercussion, they served as milestones to Spiritism that was, a few years later, to confirm their possibility by a rational explanation, and by the law that rules their occurrence, making them pass from the domain of the marvelous to those of natural phenomena. Thanks to Spiritism, there isn’t a single phase, presented by Martin’s revelation, that cannot be fully understood.

Martin was an unconscious medium, endowed with an aptitude used by the Spirits, like an instrument, to arrive at a determined result, and this result was far from being entirely in the revelation made to Louis XVIII. The Spirit that manifested to Martin, perfectly characterizes him by saying, "I am using you to break down pride and disbelief." This mission is that of all mediums destined to prove, by facts of all kinds, the existence of the spiritual world, and of a power superior to humanity, for such is the providential goal of the manifestations. We will add that the king himself was an instrument in this case; it required a position as high as his, the difficulty of reaching him, for the affair to have repercussions, and the authority of an official thing. The minute investigations to which Martin was subjected to, could only add to the authenticity of the facts, for all these precautions would not have been taken for a private individual; the thing would have gone almost unnoticed, while it is still remembered today, and provides authentic proof in support of the Spiritist phenomena.

---

[1] A loose man’s garment (Wiktionary.org, T.N.)


[2] The circumstantial details and supporting evidence can be found in a book entitled: The past and the future explained by the extraordinary events that happened to Thomas Martin, plowman of Beauce. - Paris, 1832, at BRICON, bookseller, rue du Vieux-Colombier, 19; Marseille, same house, rue du Saint-Sépulcre, 17. This out-of-print work is very rare today.




[3] Not generated (T.N.)

Healing mediumship is the order of the day, and anything related to this issue is of topical interest. We borrow from La Vérité de Lyon, of October 21^st, 1866, the following article on the healings of Prince de Hohenlohe, which caused a great sensation in the time. This piece is part of a series of very informative articles on healing mediums.

On this subject, we are happy to note that the La Vérité, that is in its fourth year, successfully continues the course of its wise and interesting publications, that throws light on the history of Spiritism, showing it to us everywhere, in antiquity as in modern times. If, on certain points, we do not share all the opinions of its main editor, Mr. A P…, we nonetheless recognize that, through his laborious research, he renders the cause a real service, that all serious Spiritists appreciate.

Indeed, proving that the current Spiritist doctrine is only the synthesis of universally widespread beliefs, shared by men whose words are authoritative, and that were our first teachers in philosophy, is to show that it is not sitting on the fragile basis a single opinion. What do the Spiritists want, if not to find as many supporters as possible to their beliefs? It must, therefore, be for them a satisfaction, at the same time as a blessing of their ideas, to find some even before them. We have never understood that men of good sense have been able to conclude against modern Spiritism, that it is not the first inventor of the principles that it proclaims, while this is precisely what accounts for a part of its strength, and must accredit it.

Denying its seniority to denigrate it, is to show oneself to be supremely illogical, and very clumsy, since it has never given itself the credit for the first discovery. It is, therefore, to grossly misunderstand the feelings that drives the Spiritists, by supposing that these have very narrow ideas, and for having a very silly pretension in believing that they are molesting them, by objecting that what they profess was known before them, while they are the first ones to dig into the past, to discover there the traces of the antiquity of their beliefs, which they trace back to the first ages of the world, because they are founded on the laws of nature, that are eternal.

No great truth has come out of the brain of an individual; all, without exception, had precursors who had a presentiment of them or glimpsed at some parts of them; Spiritism is, therefore, honored to count its own by the thousands, and among them the most righteously recognized men; by bringing them to light is to show the infinite number of points by which it is linked to the history of humanity.



But Spiritism is not found complete anywhere; its coordination as a body of doctrine, with all its consequences and applications, its correlation with the positive sciences, is an essentially modern work, but everywhere we find its scattered elements, mixed with superstitious beliefs that had to be sorted out; if we put together the ideas that are found disseminated in most ancient and modern philosophers, in sacred and profane writers, the innumerable and infinitely varied facts that have occurred in all ages, and that attest to the relationships between the visible and invisible world, we would succeed in constituting Spiritism as it is today: this is the argument invoked against it by certain detractors. Was it how Spiritism did it? Is it a compilation of ancient ideas rejuvenated in form? No, it has emerged entirely from recent observations, but far from believing itself to be lessened by what has been said and observed before it, it is strengthened and enhanced by them.

A history of Spiritism before the present time is still to be done. A work of this nature, done conscientiously, written with precision, clarity, without superfluous and tedious elaborations which would make it difficult to read, would be an eminently useful work, a precious document for consultation. It would be rather a work of patience and erudition than a literary work, and that would consist mainly in the quotation of the passages of the various writers that emitted thoughts, doctrines or theories that are found in the Spiritism of today. Whoever does this work conscientiously will have deserved well of the doctrine.

Let us return to our subject, from which we have deviated somewhat unwillingly, but not perhaps without utility.

Modern Spiritism has not discovered or invented the healing mediumship and the healing mediums, any more than other Spiritist phenomena. Since healing mediumship is a natural faculty subject to a law, like all the phenomena of nature, it must have occurred at various times, as attested by history, but it was reserved to our time, with the help of the new knowledge that we have, to give it a rational explanation, and to bring it out of the realm of the marvelous. The Prince of Hohenlohe offers us an example of this, that is more remarkable since the facts took place before there was any question of Spiritism and mediums. Here is the summary given by the newspaper La Vérité:

In the year 1829 a holy priest, the Prince of Hohenlohe, came to Würzburg, a considerable town in Bavaria. The infirm and the sick went to ask him to obtain their healing from heaven, with the help of his prayers. He called the divine graces upon them, and soon a great number of these unfortunate people were suddenly healed. The rumors of these wonders resounded in the distance. Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, a large part of Europe learned about it. Many writings were published, perpetuating its memory. Among the authentic and trustworthy testimonies that certify the reality of the facts, it suffices to transcribe a few here, whose whole body provides a convincing proof.

To begin with, here is an extract from what M. Scharold, counselor of the Legation at Würzburg and witness to a large part of the things he reports, has written on the subject.

“For two years, a seventeen-year-old princess, Mathilde de Schwartzemberg, daughter of the prince of that name, had been in Mr. Haine's nursing home in Würzburg. It was impossible for her to walk. In vain the most famous doctors of France, Italy and Austria had exhausted all the resources of their art to cure the princess of such illness. Only Mr. Haine, who had helped himself with the knowledge and experience of the famous physician, Mr. Textor, had succeeded in putting her in a condition to stand up, after a lavished care given to the patient; and she herself, by making an effort, had succeeded in executing some movements as if to walk, but without really walking. Well! on June 20^th, 1821, she suddenly got out of bed, and walked very freely.



This is how it happened. Prince de Hohenlohe went in the morning, around ten o'clock, to pay a visit to the princess, who lives with M. de Reinach, dean of the chapter. When he entered her apartment, he asked her, as if in a conversation, in the presence of her governess, if she had any firm faith that Jesus Christ could cure her of her illness. Given her answer that she was deeply convinced of it, the prince told the pious patient to pray from the bottom of her heart, and to put her trust in God.

When she stopped praying, the prince gave her his blessings, and said to her: “Come, princess, get up; now you are healed, and you can walk without pain…”. Everyone in the house was called immediately. They did not know how to express their astonishment for such a rapid and incomprehensible recovery. Everyone fell on their knees in the deepest emotion, singing praises to the Almighty. They congratulated the princess on her happiness and joined their tears to those that joy made flow from her eyes.

This news, spreading through the city, caused astonishment. Crowds were rushing to ascertain the event with their own eyes. On June 21^st, the princess had already appeared in public. We cannot describe her own astonishment, for seeing herself coming out of her state of cruel suffering.

On the 25^th, the Prince of Hohenlohe gave another notable example of his gift. The wife of a blacksmith, in the rue Semmels, could no longer hear even the blows of the biggest hammers in her forge. She went to see the prince in the courtyard of the Hung presbytery, and begged him to rescue her. While she was on her knees, he placed his hands on her head, and prayed for her for some time, his eyes raised to the sky; he then took her by the hand and raised her up. What an astonishment to the spectators when this woman got up and said that she heard the church clock ticking! As she returned home, she never stopped telling everyone who asked, what had just happened to her.

On the 26^th, an illustrious person (the Prince Royal of Bavaria) was instantly healed of a disease that, according to the rules of medicine, would have taken a long time and a great deal of pain. This news brought great joy to the hearts of the people of Würzburg.

The Prince of Hohenlohe was also successful in the cure of a patient that he had tried to cure twice, but each time he had obtained only a slight relief. This healing took place in the person of a sister-in-law of Mr. Broili, a trader. She had long been afflicted by a very painful paralysis. The house echoed with shouts of joy.

On the same day, the sight was restored to the widow Balzano, who for several years had been completely blind. I have convinced myself of this fact.

As soon as I left the spectacle of this touching scene, I witnessed another cure, operated in the house of General D ... A young woman was so severely crippled in her right hand, that she could not use or extend it. She immediately gave proof of her perfect recovery by carrying a heavy chair with that very hand.

On the same day, a handicapped, whose left arm was completely wasted, was completely healed. Two paralytics were then cured soon after. It was also complete and faster still.

On the 28^th, I saw for myself how promptly and positively the Prince of Hohenlohe cured children. He had one brought from the country, that could only walk on crutches. A few minutes later, this child was running without crutches in the street, full of joy. In the meantime, a mute child, who could only make a few inarticulate sounds, was brought to the prince. A few minutes later, the child began speaking.

Soon after, a poor woman carried her little daughter on her back, crippled on both legs. She placed her at the prince's feet. A moment later he returned the child to her mother, who then saw her daughter running and jumping with joy.

On the 29^th, a woman from Neustadt, paralytic and blind, was brought to him on a dray. She had been blind for twenty-five years. About three o'clock in the afternoon, she presented herself at the castle of our city, to implore the help of the prince of Hohenlohe, as he entered the hall that is built in the form of a large tent. She fell on the prince's feet, begging him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to help her. The prince prayed for her, gave her his blessing, and asked her if she firmly believed that she could recover her sight, in the name of Jesus. As she answered yes, he told her to get up. She moved away. But as soon as she had moved a few steps away, her eyes opened. She saw, and gave all the proofs she was asked about the faculty that she had just recovered. All the witnesses of this healing, among whom were a great number of lords of the court, were dazzled in awe.

The cure of a woman at the Civil Hospital, that had been brought to the prince, is no less astonishing. This woman, called Elisabeth Laner, daughter of a shoemaker, had her tongue so strongly affected that she would sometimes go a fortnight without being able to articulate a single syllable. Her mental faculties had suffered greatly. She had almost lost the use of her limbs, so that she was in her bed like a lump. Well! this poor woman went to the Hospital today, without anyone's help. She enjoys all her senses, as she enjoyed twelve years ago, and her tongue is so loose, that no one in the hospice is as talkative as she is.

In the afternoon of the 30^th, the prince gave an extraordinary example of healing. A dray, around which thousands of spectators had gathered, had come from Musmerstadt. In that cart there was a poor student, arms and legs crippled in a terrible way. The prince, begged by this unfortunate man to relieve him, came to the cart. He prayed for about five minutes, with his hands folded and raised to the sky; he spoke several times with the student and finally said to him: "Stand up, in the name of Jesus Christ.” The student did get up, but with a pain that he couldn't hide. The prince tells him not to lose confidence. The unfortunate man that, a few minutes before, could not move his arms or legs, then stood upright and perfectly free on his cart. Then, turning his eyes towards the sky, with the kindest expression of gratitude, he exclaimed: "O God! you have rescued me!” The spectators could not hold back their tears.

The miraculous healings carried out in Würzburg, by the Prince of Hohenlohe, could provide subjects for more than a hundred ex-voto paintings.”



One will notice the striking analogy that exists between these facts of cures and those that we have witnessed. Mr. de Hohenlohe was in the best conditions for the development of his faculty, so he kept it until the end. Since, at that time, its true origin was unknown, it was considered a supernatural gift, and Mr. de Hohenlohe as working miracles. But why is it regarded by hundreds of people, for some as a gift from heaven, and for others as a satanic work? We do not know of any healing medium that has claimed to have derived his power from the devil; all, without exception, operate only by invoking the name of God, and declare that they cannot do anything without His will. Even those that ignore Spiritism, and act by intuition, recommend prayer in which they recognize a powerful helper. If they acted out of the devil, denying him would be an ingratitude from their part, and the devil is neither modest enough nor selfless enough, to leave to the one he seeks to fight the merit of the good he does, because that would be losing his supporters instead of recruiting them. Have you ever seen a merchant boasting of his neighbor's merchandise to his customers, at the expenses of his own, urging them to go to his store? Truly, we are right to laugh at the devil, because we make him a very foolish and a very stupid being.

The following communication was given by the Prince of Hohenlohe, at the Parisian Society.



Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, October 1866 – medium Mr. Desliens.

Gentlemen, I come among you with more pleasure, as my words can become a useful subject of instruction for all. A weak instrument of Providence, I have been able to contribute to the glorification of His name, and I come in good will among those whose main goal is to behave according to His laws, and to advance as much as possible in the path of perfection. Your efforts are commendable, and I will consider myself very honored to sometimes attend your proceedings. Let us now come to the manifestations that provoked my presence among you.

As you have rightly said, the faculty I was gifted with was simply the result of mediumship. I was an instrument; the Spirits acted, and, if I could do anything, it was certainly only by my great desire to do good and by the intimate conviction that everything is possible with God. I believed! And the healings that I obtained made my faith grow constantly.

Like all mediumistic faculties, that contribute today to the popularization of the Spiritist teaching, healing mediumship was exercised in all times, and by individuals belonging to different religions. - God sows His most advanced servants everywhere, to make them milestones of progress among those that are the furthest from virtue, and I would even say, especially among them… Like a good father that loves all his children equally, His solicitude extends to all, but more particularly to those that need the most support to move forward.

That is how it is not rare to meet men, endowed with extraordinary faculties for the crowd, among the simple ones; and by this word I mean those whose purity of feelings has not been tarnished by pride and selfishness. It is true that the faculty can also exist in unworthy people, but it is and can only be temporary; it is a strong means of opening their eyes: too bad to them if they persist in keeping them closed.

They will return to the darkness from which they came out, in a procession of confusion and ridicule, if God does not punish them, even in this life, for their pride and their obstinacy in ignoring His voice.

No matter what an individual's inner belief, if his intentions are pure, and if he is fully convinced of the reality of what he believes, he can do great things, in the name of God. Faith transports mountains: it gives sight to the blind and spiritual understanding to those who previously wandered in the darkness of routine and error.

As for the best way to exercise the faculty of a healing medium, there is only one: It is to remain modest and pure, and to report to God and to the powers that direct the faculty, all that is accomplished.

Those that lose the instruments of Providence do not believe themselves to be simply instruments; they want their merits to be partly due to the choice that has been made of their person; pride intoxicates them and the precipice opens under their feet.

Raised in the Catholic religion, imbued with the holiness of its maxims, having faith in its teaching like all my contemporaries, I considered the manifestations of which I was the object to be miracles. Today, I know that it is quite natural, and that it can, and it must accommodate with the immutability of the laws of the Creator, so that His greatness and His justice remain intact.

God could not work miracles! ... because that would then be to presume that the truth is not strong enough to assert itself, and on the other hand, it would not be logical to demonstrate the eternal harmony of laws of nature by disturbing them with facts at odds with their essence.

As for acquiring the faculty of healing medium, there is no method for this; everyone can acquire this ability to some extent, and by acting in the name of God each will heal. The privileged will increase in number as the doctrine is popularized, and, it is quite simple, since there will be more individuals driven by pure and selfless feelings.

Prince Hohenlohe

Several newspapers have talked about of a young girl endowed with the singular faculty of attracting furniture, and other objects placed within a certain distance from her, and of lifting, by the simple contact, a chair on which a person is seated. The Petit Journal of November 4^th contained the following article on this subject:

“Dinan's white magpie is no more surprising, as a phenomenon, than the magnetic young woman indicated in the following correspondence.

“Sir,

I come to point out to you a fact that could be of great interest to your readers; if you wanted to take the burden of checking it, you would find ample material for many articles.

A young girl, Ms. Dumesnil, aged thirteen, possesses a fluid of extraordinary attractive force, that brings all wooden objects around her to her; thus, the chairs, the tables and all that is made of wood instantaneously come towards her; this faculty was revealed in this young girl about three weeks ago; until now this extraordinary phenomenon, and that we have not yet been able to explain, has only manifested itself to people around this young girl, the neighbors, etc., who have noticed the fact for some days; the surprising faculty of this young girl has spread and I was told that she is in the process of dealing with an entrepreneur that intends to show this phenomenon publicly.

As of yesterday, she contacted a great personage to whom she had been pointed out; publicity will soon take over this event, and I hasten to warn you so that you have the upper hand. This young girl works as a burnisher and lives with her parents, that are poor people.

In hopes that you will explain this inexplicable mystery to us, please receive my sincere greetings.

Brunet, employee, Christofle House, Rue de Bondy 56.”



“I do not know any more than you do, my dear correspondent, in matters of magnetic science, and I regard as a simple curiosity your charmer of oak, beech and mahogany, that I advise not to burn this winter in the fireplace ... only charcoal ... ".

This is certainly a strange phenomenon, well worthy of attention, and that must have a cause. If demonstrated that it is not the result of any trick, that is easy to verify, and if the known laws are powerless to explain it, it is obvious that it reveals the existence of a new force; the discovery of a new principle can lead to fruitful results. What is, at least as surprising as this phenomenon, is to see men of intelligence having only contemptuous indifference and bad taste mockery for such facts. However, there was no question of Spirits or Spiritism.

What belief can be expected from people that have none, who seek none and desire none? What serious study can we hope for? Isn't it a waste of time to try to convince them, to unnecessarily use the forces that one could better use with people of good will, who are not lacking? We have always said it: With biased people, who don't want to see or hear, the best thing to do is to leave them alone and prove to them that we have no need for them. If anything is to succeed over their disbelief, the Spirits will know how to find it, and employ it when the time is right.

Coming back to the young girl, her parents, who are in a precarious position, seeing the sensation she produced and the interest of notable people that she attracted, they said to themselves that there was in it, undoubtedly, a source of fortune for them. We should not blame them, because, ignoring even the name of Spiritism and mediums, they could not understand the consequences of an exploitation of such a kind. Their daughter was a phenomenon for them; they, therefore, resolved to release it on the boulevards, among the other phenomena. They did better; it was taken to the Grand-Hôtel, a more suitable place for the productive aristocracy. But, unfortunately, the golden dreams vanished soon!

The phenomena only occurred at rare intervals and in such an irregular manner that it was necessary to abandon the splendid production almost immediately and return to the studio. So, put on display such a capricious ability, that is lacking just when the spectators, who have paid for their seats, are gathered, and wait to be given for their money! As a matter of fact, it is better, for speculation, to have a child with two heads, because at least he is always there. What to do if they don't have strings to replace the invisible actors? The most honorable act is to retire. It appears, however, from a letter published in a newspaper, that the young girl has not entirely lost her power, but that it is subject to such intermittences that it becomes difficult to seize the favorable moment.

One of our friends, an enlightened Spiritist and a profound observer, was able to witness the phenomenon, and was poorly satisfied with the result. “I believe,” he told us, “in the sincerity of these people, but for unbelievers, the effect is not occurring, at this moment, in conditions that defy all suspicion. Knowing that the thing is possible, I do not deny; I attest my impressions. Since I caught the so-called physical effects mediums in the act of fraud, I realized the maneuvers by which one can simulate certain effects, and abuse people who do not know the conditions of the real effects, so that I only assert with good knowledge of cause, not trusting eyes. In the interest of Spiritism itself, my first care is to examine whether fraud is possible, helped by skills, or whether the effect may be due to a vulgar material cause. Besides, he added, one defends oneself here from being a Spiritist, to act by the Spirits and even to believe in them."

It should be noted that since the misadventure of the Davenport brothers, all exhibitors of extraordinary phenomena reject any participation of the Spirits in their affairs, and they are doing well; Spiritism can only gain by not being involved in these displays. It is one more service rendered by these gentlemen, because it is not by such means that Spiritism will recruit proselytes.

Another observation is that whenever it is a question of some spontaneous manifestation, or of some phenomenon attributed to an occult cause, they generally hire, as experts, people, sometimes scientists, that do not know the basics of what they must observe, and that come with a preconceived idea of denial. Who is in control of deciding whether there is intervention of the Spirits, or a spiritual cause?

Precisely people who deny spirituality, who don't believe in Spirits and don't want them to exist. Their answer is known a priori. They avoid taking the advice of anyone who is simply suspected of believing in Spiritism, because, first, that would be to accredit the thing, and second, that they would fear a solution contrary to the one they want. They do not think that an enlightened Spiritist alone is able to judge the circumstances in which Spiritist phenomena can occur, as a chemist alone is able to know the composition of a body, and that, in this respect, the Spiritists are more skeptic than a lot of people; that far from accrediting an apocryphal phenomenon, out of complacency, they have every interest in signaling it as such, and in unmasking the fraud.

However, a teaching emerges from this: the very irregularity of the events is a proof of sincerity; if they were the result of some artificial means, they would come at the right time. This is the reflection made by a journalist that was invited to go to the Grand-Hotel; there were a few other notable guests that day, and, despite the two hours of waiting, the young girl did not produce the slightest effect. “The poor girl,” said the journalist, “was sorry, and her face betrayed concern. Rest assured, he said, not only does this failure not discourage me, but it leads me to believe your sincere story. If there was any quackery or something in your case, you wouldn't have missed your point. I will come back tomorrow.

He returned, in fact, five times in a row without further results; the sixth time she had left the hotel. "From which I conclude," adds the journalist, "that poor Ms. Dumesnil, after having built beautiful castles at the expense of her electromagnetic virtues, had to resume her place in the polishing workshops of Mr. Ruolz.”

The facts having been established, it is certain that there was a special organic disposition in her, that lent itself to this kind of phenomenon; but, all subterfuge aside, it is certain that if her faculty had depended on her organism alone, she would have had it always at her disposal, as it happens to the electric fish. Since her will, her most ardent desire, were powerless to produce the phenomenon, there was, therefore, in this event, a cause which was foreign to her. What is this cause? Obviously, the one that governs all the mediumistic effects: the assistance of the Spirits, without whom the best endowed mediums obtain nothing. Ms. Dumesnil is an example that they are not at the orders of anyone. Ephemeral as her faculty may have been, she has done more for the conviction of certain people than if she had performed on days and times set at her command, before the public, like in conjuring tricks.

Nothing, it is true, ostensibly attests to the intervention of the Spirits in this circumstance, for there are no intelligent effects, if it is not the helplessness of this young girl to act at will. The faculty, as in all mediumistic effects, is inherent to her; the exercise of the faculty can depend on a foreign will. But, even admitting that the Spirits have nothing to do with that, it is, nonetheless, a phenomenon intended to draw attention to the fluidic forces that govern our organism, and that so many people persist in denying.

If this force were purely electric here, it would however denote an important modification in electricity since it acts on wood, to the exclusion of metals. That alone would be well worth studying.

Whatever one says and whatever one does, the Spiritist ideas are in the air; they come to light in a thousand ways, in the form of novels or in philosophical thoughts, and the press welcomes them, provided the word Spiritism is not pronounced. We couldn’t quote all the thoughts that the press registers every day, thus doing Spiritism without knowing it.

What does it matter the name if the thing is here! One day, these gentlemen will be quite astonished to have done Spiritism, as Mr. Jourdain was to have spoken in prose. Many people rub shoulders with Spiritism without suspecting it; they are on the edge, while they think they are far from it. With the exception of the pure materialists, that are certainly minority, it can be said that the ideas of the Spiritist philosophy run around the world; what many still reject are the mediumistic manifestations, some by system, others for having observed badly, they have experienced disappointments; but since the manifestations are facts, sooner or later they will have to be accepted. They refuse to be Spiritists, only by the false idea that they attach to this word. That those who do not arrive by the wide door may arrive there by a back door, the result is the same; today the impetus has been given, and the movement cannot be stopped.

On the other hand, as announced, a multitude of phenomena occur that seem to deviate from the known laws, and confuse science in which they uselessly seek an explanation; to ignore them when they have a certain notoriety would be difficult; now, these phenomena, that present themselves under the most varied aspects, by the force of multiplying, end up arousing the attention, and little by little, familiarize them with the idea of a spiritual power apart from the material forces. It is always a means of arriving at the goal; the Spirits strike from all sides and in a thousand different ways, so that the blows always strike ones or the others.

Among the Spiritist ideas that we find in various journals, we will cite the following:

In the speech delivered by Mr. d'Eichthal, one of the editors of Le Temps, on November 11^th, at the tomb of Mr. Charles Duveyrier, the speaker expressed himself as follows:

“Duveyrier died in a profound calm, full of confidence in God and faith in the eternity of life, proud of his long years devoted to the elaboration and development of a belief that must redeem all men from misery, disorder and ignorance, certain of having paid his debt, of having returned to the generation that followed him more than he had received from the one that had preceded him; he stopped like a valiant worker, his task completed, leaving it to others to continue it. If his mortal remains did not pass through the sacred temples to reach the field of resting, it is not out of an unjust disdain for the immortal beliefs, but it is because none of the formulas that would have been pronounced on his remains would have conveyed the idea he had of the future life. Duveyrier did not desire, did not believe he was going to heaven, to enjoy endless personal bliss, while the majority of men would remain condemned to hopeless sufferings; full of God and alive in God, but linked to humanity, it is in the midst of humanity that he hoped to live again, in order to contribute eternally to this work of progress that is constantly bringing it closer to the divine ideal.“ - (Le Temps, Nov. 14, 1866.)

Mr. Duveyrier had belonged to the Saint-Simonian sect; it is the belief of which we spoke above, and to the development of which he had devoted several years of his life; but his ideas about the future of the soul closely resembled, as we see, those taught by the Spiritist doctrine. However, we should not infer from these words: "It is in the midst of humanity that he hoped to live again," that he believed in reincarnation; he had no firm idea about this point; by this, he meant that the soul, instead of losing itself in the infinite, or of absorbing itself in a useless beatitude, remained in the sphere of humanity, to whose progress it contributed by its influence.

But this idea is also precisely what Spiritism teaches; it is that of the invisible world that surrounds us; souls live among us, as we live among them. Mr. Duveyrier was, therefore, unlike most of his colleagues in the press, not only deeply spiritualist, but three-quarters Spiritist; what did he need to be completely? Probably to have known what Spiritism was, because he possessed the fundamental bases: the belief in God, in the individuality of the soul, its survival and its immortality; in his presence among men after death, and on his action on them. What else does Spiritism say? That these same souls reveal their presence by direct action, and that we are constantly in communion with them; it comes to prove, by facts, what for Mr. Duveyrier and many others, was only in the state of theory and hypothesis

It is understandable that those who believe only in tangible matter, reject everything, but it is more surprising to see spiritualists rejecting the proof of what constitutes the basis of their belief. The one that thus retraced the thoughts of Mr. Duveyrier, on the future of the soul, Mr. d'Eichthal, his friend and his comrade in Saint-Simonism, who probably shared his opinions to a certain extent, he is, nonetheless, a declared opponent of Spiritism; he hardly suspected that what he was saying, in praising Mr. Duveyrier, was quite simply a declaration of Spiritist faith.

The following words, from Mr. Louis Jourdan, of the Siècle, to his son, were reproduced by the Petit Journal, on September 3^rd, 1866.

“I feel you alive, of a life superior to mine, my Prosper, and when my last hour strikes, I will console myself for leaving those we have loved together, thinking that I will find you and join you. I know that this consolation will not come to me without effort; I know that it will have to be conquered by working courageously for my own improvement, as for that of others; I will, at least, do everything in my power to deserve the reward I aspire: to find you. Your memory is the lighthouse that guides us, and the fulcrum that supports us through the darkness that surrounds us. We see a luminous point towards which we are walking resolutely; this point is where you live, my son, with all those that I have loved below here, and who left before me for their new life.”

What could be more deeply Spiritist than these sweet and touching words! Mr. Louis Jourdan is even closer to Spiritism than Mr. Duveyrier, because, for a long time, he has believed in the plurality of terrestrial existences, as we could see from the quotation we made in the Spiritist Review of December 1862, page 374.^[1] He accepts the Spiritist philosophy, but not the fact of manifestations, that he does not absolutely reject, but on which he is not sufficiently enlightened. It is, however, a rather serious phenomenon, regarding its consequences, since it is the only that can explain so many misunderstood things that happen before our eyes, to deserve to be studied in depth by an observer such as him; for, if the relations between the visible world and the invisible world exist, it is a whole revolution in the ideas, in beliefs, in philosophy; it is light cast onto a multitude of obscure questions; it is the annihilation of materialism; it is, finally, the sanction of his dearest hopes with regard to his son. What elements would the men, that make themselves the champions of progressive and emancipatory ideas, draw from the doctrine, if they knew all that it contains for the future! There will emerge, no doubt, those who will understand the power of this lever and will know how to put it to good use.

The “Événement” of November 4^th reported the following anecdote, about the famous composer Glück.

“During the first performance of Iphigénie, on April 19^th, 1774, attended by Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, she wanted to crown her former music teacher herself. After the performance, Glück, summoned to the king's box, was so moved that he could not utter a word and barely had the strength to thank the Queen with his eyes. On seeing Marie-Antoinette, who was wearing a ruby necklace that evening, Glück straightened up: Great God! he cried, save the Queen! save the Queen! some blood! some blood! - Where? cried people from all sides. - Some blood! some blood! in the neck! cried the musician. Marie-Antoinette was trembling. Quickly a doctor, she said, my poor Glück is going mad. - The musician had fallen into an armchair. Some blood! some blood! he whispered… Save the Archduchess Marie… save the Queen! "The unfortunate maestro takes your necklace for blood," said the King to Marie-Antoinette; he has a fever. - The queen put her hand to her neck; she tore off the necklace, and seized with terror, she threw it away from her. Glück was carried away unconscious.”

The author of the article finishes like this:

“Here, dear reader, is the story that the German musician told me at the Opera, and that I reread the next day in a biography of the immortal author of Alceste. Is it true? Is this fantasy? I do not know. But would it not be possible that men of genius, whose minds, soaring above humanity, had at certain times of inspiration, that mysterious faculty that is called second sight? (Albert Wolff.)”

Mr. Albert Wolff has thrown more than one arrow at Spiritism and the Spiritists, and here he is, of his own accord, admitting the possibility of a second sight, and, what is more, of foresight by second sight. He probably does not suspect the consequences of recognizing such a faculty. Another one that rubs shoulders with Spiritism without realizing it, without perhaps daring to admit it to himself, and who nevertheless throws stones at it. If he were told that he is a Spiritist, he would jump out of indignation and exclaim: Me! believe in the Davenport brothers! because for most of these gentlemen, Spiritism is entirely in the trick of the ropes.

We remember that one of them, to whom a correspondent reproached for speaking about Spiritism, without knowing it, replied in his journal: “You are wrong; I studied Spiritism at the school of the Davenport brothers, and the proof is that it cost me 15 francs.” We believe to have quoted the fact somewhere in the Review. What more can we ask of them? They don't know any more.

Le Siècle of August 27^th, 1866 quoted the following words by Mrs. George Sand, about the death of Mr. Ferdinand Pajot:

“The death of Mr. Ferdinand Pajot is a most painful and regrettable fact. This young man, gifted with remarkable beauty and belonging to an excellent family, was also a man of generous heart and ideas. We have been able to appreciate him each time we have invoked his charity for the poor around us. He gave generously, perhaps more than his resources allowed him to do, and he gave spontaneously, with confidence, with joy. He was sincere, independent, good as an angel. Married for a short time to a charming young woman, he will be missed as he deserves. I want to give him, after this cruel death, a tender and maternal blessing: illusion if you will, but I believe that we enter better into the life that follows this one, when we arrive there escorted by esteem and the affection of those we have just left."

Madame Sand is even more explicit in her book “Mademoiselle de la Quintinie.” We read, on page 318: "Monsieur l'Abbé, when you want us to take a step towards your church, start by showing us an assembled council decreeing the hell of eternal punishments, with lies and blasphemy, and you will have the right to cry out to us: “Come to us, all of you who want to know God. "

Page 320: “To ask God to extinguish our senses, to harden our hearts, to make the most sacred bonds to us hateful, is to ask him to deny and destroy his work, to retrace his steps by making us hateful, to come back ourselves, making us retrograde towards lower existences, below the animal, below the plant, perhaps below the mineral.”

Page 323: "However, whatever may be your fate among us, one day you will see clearly beyond the grave, and, as I no more believe in endless punishments, and in trials without fruit, I announce to you that we meet somewhere where we will get along better, and where we will love each other instead of fighting; but, no more than you, I do not believe in the impunity of evil and the efficacy of error. So, I believe that you will atone, for the hardening of your heart, by great heartbreaks in some other existence.”

Alongside these eminently Spiritist thoughts, that only lack the name that is persistently refused, we sometimes still find others, a little less serious, that recall the good time of the somewhat witty mockery, under which they thought to be able to suffocate Spiritism. It can be judged by the following samples, that are like the lost rockets from the fireworks display.

Mr. Ponson de Terrail, in his Dernier mot de Rocambole, serialized in the Figaro, expresses himself as follows:

“However, the English would overcome the Americans when it comes to superstitions. The turning tables, before bringing happiness to a hundred thousand imbeciles, spent several seasons in London and received the most courteous hospitality there. Little by little the gravedigger's tale had circled around Hampstead, a town famous for its donkeys and donkey farmers, and the bigwigs of the place had not hesitated for a single moment to decide that the cottage was haunted by Spirits at night.”

M. Ponson du Terrail, who so generously grants a patent of imbecility to a hundred thousand individuals, naturally thinks he has more wit than them, but he does not believe he has a Spirit in him, otherwise it is probable that he would not send them to the land of donkeys.

But what connection, he will no doubt say, can there be between turning tables and the sublime thoughts you cited earlier? There is, we will answer, the same relation that exists between your body when it waltzes and your mind that makes it waltz; between the frog dancing in the Galvani dish, and the transatlantic telegraph; between the falling apple and the law of gravity that governs the world. If Galvani and Newton had not meditated on these phenomena, so simple and so vulgar, we would not have today all that industry, the arts and the sciences have drawn from them. If a hundred thousand imbeciles had not sought the cause that turns the tables, we would still be ignorant today of the existence and the nature of the invisible world that surrounds us; we would not know where we came from before we are born, and where we are going when we die. Among those hundred thousand fools, many might still believe in horned demons, eternal flames, magic, wizards, and spells. The revolving tables are, to sublime thoughts on the future of the soul, what the germ is to the tree that has sprung from it: they are the rudiments of the science of man.

We read in the Écho d'Oran, of April 24^th, 1866:

“Something has just happened in El-Afroun that has painfully affected our population. One of the oldest inhabitants of our village, Mr. Pagès, has just died. You know that he was imbued with the ideas - I was going to say follies - of Mr. Allan Kardec, and that he professed Spiritism. Apart from this extravagance, he was a perfect honest man, esteemed by all who knew him. Also, we were very astonished to learn that the priest refused to bury him, under the pretext that Spiritism is contrary to Christianity. Isn't there in the Gospel: "Return good for evil," and if this poor Mr. Pagès is guilty of having believed in Spiritism, wasn’t that one more reason to pray for him! "

M. Pagès, whom we had known, by correspondence, for a long time, wrote this to us:

“Spiritism has made a whole different man out of me; before knowing it, I was like many others; I believed in nothing, and yet I suffered at the thought that by dying, all is over for us. Sometimes, I was deeply discouraged, and I wondered what the point was of doing good. Spiritism made me feel like the effect of a curtain that rises, to show us a magnificent decoration. Today I see clearly; the future is no longer in doubt, and I am very happy about it; to tell you the happiness I experience is impossible for me; it seems to me that I am like a condemned man, to whom one comes to say that he will not die, and that he is going to leave his prison to go to a beautiful country to live in freedom. Isn't that, dear sir, the effect it should have? Courage came back to me with the certainty of living forever, because I understood that what we gain in good from it is not wasted; I understood the usefulness of doing good; I understood the fraternity and solidarity that unite all men. Under the influence of this thought, I strove to improve myself. Yes, I can tell you without vanity, I have corrected myself of many faults, although I still have many left. I now feel that I will die in peace, because I know that I will only change a bad outfit that bothers me, for a new one in which I will be more comfortable."

Here then is a man who, in the eyes of certain people, was reasonable, sensible when he believed in nothing, and who is accused of madness on the sole fact of having believed in the immortality of his soul through Spiritism; and it is these same people, that believe neither in the soul nor in prayer, that threw stones at him for his beliefs when alive, and that persecute him with their sarcasm until after his death, and that invoke the Gospel against the act of intolerance and the refusal of prayers that he was the object, he who believed in the Gospel and in prayer only through Spiritism!

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[1] Kardec refers to the article Charles Fourier, Louis Jourdan and reincarnation, Spiritist Review, December 1862

With the title of Crétinisme, the Vedette du Limbourg, newspaper of Tongres, Belgium, on September 1^st, 1866 contains the following article, reproduced from the Gazette of Huy:

“A book given as a prize in a boarding school for nuns, came to our hands. We opened it, and chance made us read, among other curious passages, the following one, well worthy, we believe, to be placed before the eyes of the reader. It is about the role played by the angels. Anyone that reads it will certainly wonder how it is possible that a work containing such absurdities can find a publisher! In our opinion, the one that prints such nonsense is as guilty as the one that writes them. Yes, we are not afraid to affirm it, author and printer must be certified masters in cretinism to dare launch such challenges to reason, to science, what are we saying, to common sense. Here is the passage in question:

According to Saint Augustine, the visible world is ruled by invisible creatures, by pure Spirits, and even there are angels that preside over everything visible, over all species of creatures that are in the world, whether they are animate, or inanimate.

Heavens and the stars have their driving angels; the waters have a particular angel, as it is recorded in the Revelation; the air has its angels that rule the winds, as it is seen in the same book, that further teaches us that the element of fire also has its own. Kingdoms have their angels; the provinces also have theirs, guarding them, as we see in the Genesis, because the angels that appeared to Jacob were the guardians of the provinces through which he passed, etc.

From this sample we can assess the kind of reading that young people educated in the convents do. Is it possible to conceive – allow me the expression – something more profoundly stupid?

To fill the gap, the publisher precedes the work with a warning in which we can read these lines: In his book, that is not less suitable to ecclesiastics than to lay people, the author deploys a power of reasoning and style that enlightens and subdues the mind; from his pen flows an anointing that penetrates and wins the heart. It is the work of a man deeply versed in spirituality.

We say: it is the work of a man gone mad with asceticism, much more to pity than to blame.”





Until now Saint Augustine had been respected even by those that do not share his beliefs. Despite the obvious errors that were due to the state of scientific knowledge of his time, he is universally regarded as one of the geniuses, one of the glories of humanity, and here with a stroke of the pen, an obscure writer, one of these young men that believe themselves to be the light of the world, throws mud on this secular fame, pronounces against him, out of his high reason, the accusation of cretinism, and this because Saint Augustine believed in invisible creatures, in pure Spirits presiding over all visible things. On that account, how many morons are there among the most esteemed contemporary literati! We would not be surprised one day to see Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, George Sand and so many others accused of cretinism. This is the school that aspires to regenerate society through materialism; thus, it claims that humanity is turning to dementia; but we can relax, for its reign, if it ever happens, will be short-lived. It is well aware of its weakness against the general opinion that rejects it, and that is why it is agitated with a sort of frenzy.

In our October issue, we were only able to announce this work, regretting that the extension of the articles, whose publication could not be delayed, prevented us from reporting earlier.

Although, by its specialty, this book seems foreign to the subjects that occupy us, it is, nevertheless, attached to it by the very principle on which it is based, because the author makes the spiritualist principle intervene in the science, most stained with materialism. He does not do mystical spirituality, as some understand it, but, if one can put it that way, positive and scientific spirituality. He endeavors to demonstrate the existence of the spiritual principle that exists in us, its connection with the organism helped by the fluidic link that unites them, the important role that these two elements play in the economy, the inevitable errors into which forcibly fall the physicians that relate everything to matter, and the enlightenment of which they deprive themselves by neglecting the spiritual principle. The following passage sufficiently indicates the point of view from which he considers the question. He says on page 34:

“In short, human constitution results:

1. Of a spiritual, independent principle, or immortal soul;

2. Of a permanent fluidic body;

3. Of a material, perishable organism, animated during life by a special fluid.

The temporary union of the first of these constituent elements with the third takes place by the combination of their respective fluids (perispiritual fluid and vital fluid), from which results a mixed fluid that, at the same time, penetrates the whole body, radiates around it, sometimes at great distances and through all obstacles, as the magnetic, somnambulistic and other phenomena demonstrate, that materialism of all colors rejects with proud disdain, with the pretext of supernatural and charlatanism, because they come to contest its unreasonable theories.”

From the action of the fluidic element on the organism, he arrives at the demonstration, mathematically in a way, of the power of action of infinitesimal quantities on the economy. This demonstration seemed new to us, and one of the clearest we have read. We leave to the experts the appreciation of the technical part that we do not discuss; but from the philosophical point of view, this work is one of the first applications of the laws revealed by Spiritism to the positive science, and, as such, it has its marked place in the Spiritist libraries. Although the name of Spiritism is not even pronounced, the author can rest assured that he does not have the approval of people whose principle is to deny anything that relates to spirituality.

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[1] Vol. in-12, price 3 francs. Tours, store Guilland-verger. ─ Paris, store Baillère, Rua Hautefeuille, 19

By Apolon de Boltinn



The subject of this book presented a dangerous pitfall that the author has prudently avoided, by refraining from dealing with questions that are not on the agenda, and on which Spiritism is not yet called upon to pronounce itself. Spiritism only admits as avowed principles those that have received the sanction of general teaching, and the solutions that can be given on questions not yet elaborated, are only personal opinions of men or Spirits, susceptible to receive later the denial of experience; these premature solutions cannot be the responsibility of the doctrine, but they could lead public opinion astray into believing that the doctrine accepts them. This is what Mr. de Boltinn understood perfectly, and we congratulate him for that. Hence, his book can be admitted by Spiritism and placed among the works called to be of service to the cause. It is written with caution, moderation, method, and clarity. We see that the author has made an in-depth study of the Holy Scriptures and of the theologians of the Latin Church and of the Greek Church, whose words he comments and explains like a man that knows the ground on which he stands. His arguments have the force of facts, logic, and concision. May the book of our brother from Russia be welcome among us. This is how, in the name of Spiritism, all peoples join hands.

We learn, with great satisfaction, that the Spiritist Union of Bordeaux will resume its publications, temporarily interrupted by a long and serious illness of its director, and circumstances beyond his control.

The Poetic Echo from beyond the grave, mediumistic poems, obtained by Mr. Vavasseur. - This collection will form 1 vol. gr. in-18 of approximately 200 pages, format of What is Spiritism? Price: 2 francs; by post: 2.2 francs.

The Spiritist Review will begin its tenth year on January 1^st. The subscribers that do not want to experience any delay, are asked to renew their subscription before December 31^st.

The January issue will be, as usual, sent to all former subscribers; the following issues will only be sent as the renewals are done.