Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

It is a really curious thing to see those that even reject the name of Spiritism, with the most obstinacy, sowing its ideas in profusion. There is not a day when, in the press, in literary works, in poetry, in speeches, even in sermons, we do not encounter thoughts belonging to the purest Spiritism. Ask those writers if they are Spiritists, they will answer with disdain that they would be careful not to do so; if you tell them that what they wrote is Spiritism, they will answer that it cannot be, because it is not the apologia for the Davenports and the turning tables. For them, the whole Spiritism is there, and they do not leave it, and do not want to leave it; they have already pronounced: their judgment is final.



They would be very surprised, however, if they knew that they are doing Spiritism at every moment without knowing it, that they elbow it without realizing that they are so close! But, what does it matter the name, if the fundamental ideas are accepted! What does the shape of the plow matter, as long as it prepares the terrain? Instead of happening all at once, the idea comes in fragments, that's all the difference; however, when later, they will see that these reunited fragments are nothing else than Spiritism, they will inevitably deny the opinion they had formed about it. The Spiritists are not so childish to attach more importance to the word than to the thing; that is why they are happy to see their ideas spreading in any form.



The Spirits who lead the movement, say to themselves: Since they do not want the thing with this name, we are going to make them accept it in detail in another form; believing themselves to be the inventors of the idea, they will themselves be its propagators. We will do as we do with patients who do not want certain remedies, and that are made to unsuspectedly take them, by changing the color.



The adversaries generally know so little what constitutes Spiritism, that we are certain that the most fervent Spiritist, who would not be known as such, could with the help of some rhetorical precautions, and provided especially that he would abstain from speaking of Spirits, develop the most essential principles of the doctrine, and obtain applause from those that would not even have allowed him to speak, if he had presented himself as a follower. But where do these ideas come from, since those who put them forward have not drawn them from the doctrine they do not know?



We have already said it several times: when a truth has come to term, and the minds of the masses are ripe to assimilate it, the idea sprouts everywhere; it is in the air, carried to all points by the fluidic currents; each one inhales a few bits of it, and emits them as if they were hatched in his brain. If some are inspired by the Spiritist idea, without daring to admit it, it is certain that in many it is spontaneous. Now, Spiritism being in the collectivity and in the coordination of these partial ideas, by the force of things it will one day be the link between those who profess them; It's a matter of time.



It should be noted that when an idea must take its place in humanity, everything contributes to clear the way for it; so it is with Spiritism. By observing what is happening in the world at this moment, the large and small events that arise or are being prepared, there isn’t a single Spiritist who does not tell himself that everything seems to be done on purpose to smooth out the difficulties and facilitate its establishment; the adversaries themselves seem driven by an unconscious force to clear the way, and to dig an abyss under their own feet, to make people feel better the need to fill it up.



And let us not believe that opposites are harmful; far from it. Never have disbelief, atheism and materialism more boldly raised their heads and displayed their pretensions. It is no longer about personal opinions, respectable like everything that springs of the intimate conscience, they are doctrines that one wants to impose, and with the help of which one wants to govern men, against their will. The very exaggeration of these doctrines is the remedy, for one wonders what society would be like if they ever came to prevail. This exaggeration was needed to better understand the benefit of beliefs that can be the safeguard of social order.



But, what a strange blindness! Or to put it better, what a providential blindness! Those who want to replace what exists, like those who want to oppose the new ideas, when the most serious questions are raised, instead of attracting, instead of reconciling sympathies by gentleness, benevolence and persuasion, it seems that they do everything to inspire repulsion; they find nothing better than to impose themselves by violence, to compress consciences, to offend convictions, and to persecute. A singular way of seeing themselves well by people!



In the present state of our world, persecution is the obligatory baptism of any new belief of any value. Spiritism receiving its own, it is the proof of the importance that one attaches to it. But, we repeat, all this has its reason for being and its usefulness: it must be so to prepare the way. The Spiritists must see themselves as soldiers on a battlefield; they owe themselves to the cause, and can only wait for resting when victory is delivered. Happy are those who will have contributed to victory at the price of some sacrifices!



For the observer who contemplates, in cold blood, the work of giving birth to the idea, it is something marvelous to see how everything, even what at first glance seems insignificant or contrary, ultimately converges to the same goal; to see the diversity and the multiplicity of events that the invisible powers bring into play, to achieve this goal; everything serves them, everything is used, even what seems bad to us.



There is, therefore, no need to worry about the fluctuations that Spiritism may experience in the conflict of ideas, that are in fermentation; it is an effect of the very effervescence it produces in public opinion, where it cannot meet sympathy everywhere; these fluctuations are to be expected, until equilibrium is restored. In the meantime, the idea advances, that is the essential; and as we said in the beginning, it comes to light through all the pores; all, friends and enemies alike, work at it as they wish, and there is no doubt that without the involuntary active cooperation of the adversaries, the progress of the doctrine, that has never advertised itself to become known, wouldn't have been so quick.



They believe to stifle Spiritism by proscribing the name; but as it does not consist in words, if the door is closed to it because of its name, it penetrates in the intangible form of the idea. And what is curious is that many of those who reject it, not knowing it, not wanting to know it, ignoring, therefore, its purpose, its tendencies and its most serious principles, acclaim some ideas, that sometimes are theirs, without realizing that they are often an essential and integral part of the doctrine. If they did know it, it is likely that they would abstain.









The only way to avoid the mistake would be to study the doctrine thoroughly, to find out what it says and what it does not say. But then, another embarrassment would arise: Spiritism touches on so many questions, the ideas grouped around it are so numerous, that if one wanted to abstain from speaking of all that is connected with it, one would find oneself often singularly prevented, and often even arrested in the outbursts of one’s own inspirations; for one would be convinced, by this study, that Spiritism is in everything and everywhere, and one would be surprised to find it among the most accredited writers; even more, one would catch oneself doing it in many circumstances, without wanting to; well, an idea that becomes a common asset is imperishable.



We have several times already reproduced the Spiritist thoughts that one finds in profusion in the press and writings of all sorts, and we will continue to do it from time to time with this title: Spiritism everywhere. The following article mainly supports the above considerations; it is taken from the Phare de la Manche, journal of Cherbourg, from August 18^th, 1867. The author reports on a collection of poetry by Mr. Amédée Marteau^[1], and comments about it in the following way:



“Two thousand years ago, some time before the establishment of Christianity, the priestly caste of the Druids taught their followers a strange doctrine. It said: No being will ever end; but all beings except God started. Every being is created in the lowest degree of existence. The soul is, first of all, without consciousness of itself; subject to the invariable laws of the physical world, spirit slave of matter, latent and obscure force, it inevitably ascends the degrees of inorganic nature, then of organized nature. Then the lightning falls from the sky, the being knows himself, he is man.



The human soul begins the trials of its free will at dawm; it makes its destiny for itself, it advances from existence to existence, from transmigration to transmigration, by the freedom that death gives it; or else, it turns on itself, it falls back from step to step, if it has not deserved to rise, without any fall, however, being forever irreparable.



When the soul has reached the highest point of science, strength, virtue, susceptible to the human condition, it escapes the circle of trials and transmigrations, it reaches the end of happiness: heavens. Once this term has been reached, man does not fall back; he always rises, rises towards God by an eternal progress, without, however, ever being confused with him. Far from losing its activity, its individuality in heaven, it is there that each soul acquires full possession of itself, with the memory of all the previous states through which it has passed. Its personality, its own nature develops more and more distinct there, as it climbs on an infinite ladder, the degrees of which are only the achievements of life that are no longer separated by death.



Such was the conception that Druidism had formed of the soul and its destinies. It was the enlarged Pythagorean idea, transformed into a dogma and applied to infinity.



How does this opinion, after having slept for so many centuries in the limbo of human intelligence, reappear today? Perhaps it has its explanation in the revolution that, since Galileo, has taken place in the astronomical system; perhaps it owes its resurrection to the seductive perspectives that it presents to the reveries of philosophers and thinkers; or finally, to that native curiosity that constantly pushes man towards the unknown.



Be it as it may, Fontenelle is the first whose witty pen has renewed these questions in his charming banter on the plurality of worlds.



From the habitability of the worlds to the transmigration of the souls, the slope is slippery, and our century has let itself be drawn into it. He took hold of this idea, and supporting it on astronomy, he tried to raise it to the level of a science. Jean Reynaud developed it, in a masterful form, in Ciel et Terre; Lamennais adopts it and generalizes it in the Outline of a Philosophy; Lamartine and Hugo recommend it; Maxime Ducamp popularized it in a novel; Flammarion published a book in its favor; and finally, Mr. Amédée Marteau, in a poetic work, that we have read with the greatest interest, puts the colors of his seductive palette on this vast and magnificent utopia.



Mr. Marteau is the poet of the new idea; he is an enthusiastic and devoted believer in the transmigration of souls into heavenly bodies, and it must be admitted that he has succeeded in handling this splendid subject with mastery. God, man, time, space are the inspirers of his muse. Vertiginous abysses, immeasurable elevations, nothing stops him, nothing frightens him. It is played out in the immensity, it rubs shoulders with the shores of infinity, without fading. He travels through the stars, like an eagle on the high peaks. He describes in harmonious language, with mathematical precision, their shapes, their movement, their color, their outlines."





After quoting a fragment of one of the odes from this collection, the author of the article adds:



“Mr. Marteau is not only a poet of great distinction, he is also a philosopher and a scholar. Astronomy is familiar to him; he enamels his poetry with the gold powder that he drops from the sidereal spheres. We cannot say what captivated us the most, if the interest of the language, or the originality of the thought. All this fits together, coordinates in such a crystalline, clear and natural way, that one remains as if fascinated by the spell. We don't know Mr. Marteau; but we think that if, to compose a book like this, one must be endowed with a great talent, one must also be endowed with a great heart; for, in this author, everything breathes the love of man and the love of God.



So, we must recommend to all those who are not absorbed by worries and material interests, to take a look at the works of Mr. Marteau. They will find there consolations and hopes, not to mention the intellectual pleasures that the reading of a generous poetry, rich in conceptions, ideal, and undoubtedly destined to a brilliant success."

Digard.





The exposition of the Druidic doctrine on the destinies of the soul, with which the article begins, is as we see, a complete summary of the Spiritist doctrine, on the same subject. Does the author know? We allow ourselves to doubt it, otherwise it would be strange if he had refrained from quoting Spiritism, unless he was afraid to give it a share in the praise that he lavishes to the author's ideas. We will not insult him for supposing such childish partiality in him; we, therefore, prefer to believe that he does not even know it exists. When he asks himself: "How does this opinion, after having slept for so many centuries in the limbo of human intelligence, wake up today?" If he had studied Spiritism, Spiritism would have answered him, and he would have seen that these ideas are more popular than he thinks.





“Mr. Marteau,” he said, “is the poet of the new idea; he is an enthusiastic and devoted believer in the transmigration of souls into heavenly bodies, and it must be admitted that he has succeeded in handling this splendid subject with mastery." Further on, he adds:" If, in order to compose a book like this, one must be endowed with a great talent, one must also be endowed with a great heart, because, in this author, everything breathes the love of man and the love of God.”



So, Mr. Marteau is not a fool for professing such ideas? Jean Reynaud, Lamennais, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Louis Jourdan, Maxime Ducamp, Flammarion, are not, therefore, fools for having recommended them? To praise men, is not that to praise their principles? And besides, can one praise a book more than saying that the readers will draw hopes and consolation from it? Since these doctrines are those of Spiritism, does not this accredit them with public opinion?



Therefore, here is an article where one would say that the name of Spiritism is intentionally omitted, and where one acclaims the ideas that it professes, on the most essential points: the plurality of existences and the destinies of the soul.

---

[1] Hopes and Souvenirs, at Hachette, 77, boulevard Saint-Germain.

Madam Countess Clérambert lived in Sain-Symphorien-sur-Coise, Department of Loire; she died a few years ago of an old age. Endowed with a superior intelligence, she had shown, from an early age, a particular taste for medical studies, and was delighted to works dealing with this science. In the last twenty years of her life, she had devoted herself to the relief of suffering, with an entirely philanthropic dedication and the most complete self-sacrifice. The many cures that she operated on people deemed incurable had given her a certain reputation; but, as modest as she was charitable, she took neither vanity nor profit from it.



To her acquired medical knowledge, that she no doubt made use of in her treatments, she added a faculty of intuition that was nothing other than an unconscious mediumship, for she often treated by correspondence, and without having seen the patients shed described disease perfectly; moreover, she herself said that she received instructions, without explaining the manner in which they were transmitted to her. She had, many times, had physical manifestations, such as transportations, movements of objects and other phenomena of that kind, although she did not know Spiritism. One day, one of her patients wrote to her that he had had abscesses, and to give her an idea, had drawn the pattern on a sheet of paper; but, having forgotten to enclose it in the letter, this lady answered through the mail: "Since the drawing that you indicated was not in the letter, I thought you had forgotten it, but I just found one this morning, in my drawer, that must be the same as yours, and that I am sending to you.” Indeed, this pattern reproduced exactly the shape and size of the abscesses.



She treated neither by magnetism, nor by the laying on of hands, nor by the ostensive intervention of the Spirits, but by the use of medicines that most often she prepared herself, according to the indications that were available to her. Her medication varied for the same disease on different individuals; it had no secret recipe for universal effectiveness, but was guided by the circumstances. The result was sometimes almost instantaneous, and in some cases was obtained only after a follow-up treatment, but always short compared to ordinary medicine. It radically cured a large number of epileptics and patients with acute or chronic diseases, abandoned by doctors.



Madam de Clérambert was, therefore, not a healing medium, in the meaning given to the word, but a medical medium. She enjoyed a clairvoyance that allowed her to see the illness, and guided her in the application of the remedies that were inspired to her, helped moreover by the knowledge that she had of the medical matter and especially of the properties of the plants. Through her dedication, her moral and material selflessness, that have never been denied, by her unalterable benevolence towards those that sought her, Madam de Clérambert, as with Abbé Prince de Hohenlohe, must have preserved the precious faculty that had been granted to her until the end of her life, and that she would undoubtedly have seen weaken and disappear, if she had not remained in the noble use that she gave it.



Her financial situation, without being very comfortable, was sufficient to rule out any pretext for any remuneration; so, she asked for absolutely nothing, but she received from the rich, grateful to have been healed, what they believed they had to give, and she used it to provide for those who lacked the necessary.



The documents in the above note were provided by a person who was healed by Madam de Clérambert, and they were confirmed by others who knew her. Having this note been read at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, Madame de Clérambert gave the response below.





Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, Paris April 5^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Desliens



Evocation: The story that we have just read naturally gives us the desire to talk to you, and to count you among the number of Spirits that are willing to contribute to our instruction. We hope you will attend our call, and in that case we will take the liberty of addressing the following questions to you:



1 – What do you think of the note that we have just read and the thoughts that follow?

2 – What is the origin of your innate taste for medical studies?

3 – By what way did you receive the inspirations that were given to you for the treatment of the sick?

4 – Can you, as a Spirit, continue to render the services that you rendered as incarnate, when you were called by a sick person, with the help of a medium?



Asnwer: Thank you, Mr. President, for the kind words you have been kind enough to say to me, and I gladly accept the praise you have given to my character. It is, I believe, the expression of the truth, and I will not have the pride or the false modesty to refuse it. An instrument chosen by the Providence, undoubtedly, because of my good will and the particular aptitude that favored the exercise of my faculty, I only did my duty by devoting myself to the relief of those who called on my help. Sometimes greeted by gratitude, often by forgetting, my heart was no more proud of the votes of some than it suffered from the ingratitude of others, since I knew very well that I was unworthy of some, and put myself above others.



But it is enough to talk about myself; let us come to the faculty that has earned me the honor of being called into the midst of this sympathetic society, where one likes to rest one's sight, especially when one has been, like me, the object of calumny and malicious attacks from those whose beliefs or interests have been harmed. May God forgive them as I did myself!



From my earliest childhood, and by a sort of natural attraction, I got involved with the study of plants and their beneficial action to the human body. Where did this taste, usually unnatural to my sex, come from? I didn't know it then, but I know today that it was not the first time that human health was the object of my greatest concern: I had been a doctor. As for the special faculty, that allowed me to see from a distance, the diagnosis of the illnesses of certain patients (because I did not see for everyone), and to prescribe the drugs that were to restore health, it was very similar to that of your current medical mediums; like them, I was in touch with an occult being who called himself Spirit, and whose healthy influence strongly helped me to relieve the unfortunate people that came to me. He had prescribed me the most complete selflessness, or pay the price of instantly losing a faculty that made me happy. I do not know for what reason, perhaps because it would have been premature to reveal the origin of my prescriptions, he had also recommended to me, in the most formal way, not to say from whom I received the prescriptions that I gave my patients. Finally, he considered moral selflessness, humility and self-sacrifice as one of the essential conditions for the perpetuation of my faculty. I followed his advice and did well.



You are right, Sir, when you say that physicians will one day be called upon to play a role of the same nature as mine, when Spiritism has conquered the considerable influence, that will make it, in the future, the universal instrument of progress and of peoples’ happiness! Yes, certain doctors will have faculties of this nature, and will be able to render much greater services, as their acquired knowledge will allow them more easily to spiritually assimilate the instructions that will be given to them.



It is a fact that you must have noticed, that the instructions dealing with special matters are the more easily, and the more widely developed, the closer the personal knowledge of the medium is to the nature of those that he is called upon to transmit. Therefore, I could certainly prescribe treatments to the sick who would turn to me to obtain their cure, but I would not do it with the same ease with all the instruments; while some would easily pass my indications, others could only do so incorrectly or incompletely. However, if my assistance can be useful to you, irrespective of the circumstances, I will be glad to help you in your work, according to the measure of my knowledge, unfortunately much limited apart from certain special attributions.



Adèle de Clérambert



Observation: The Spirit signs Adèle, while, during her life, her name was Adélaïde; Having asked her why, she replied that Adèle was her real name, and that it was only from a childhood habit that she was called Adélaïde.

Madam Countess de Clérambert, of whom we spoke in the preceding article, offered one of the varieties of the healing faculty that presents itself in an infinity of aspects and shades, appropriate to the special aptitudes of each individual. She was, in our opinion, the type that many doctors could be; that many will undoubtedly be when they enter the path of spirituality, opened to them by Spiritism, for many will see the development of intuitive faculties in them, that will be of precious help to their practice.



We have said it, and we repeat it, it would be a mistake to believe that healing mediumship comes to dethrone medicine and the physicians; it opens a new way for them, showing them resources and forces of nature that they did not know, and from which they can benefit science and their patients; in short, proving to them that they do not know everything, since there are people that outside the official science, obtain what they themselves do not obtain. There is no doubt, therefore, that there will one day be physician-mediums, as there are medium-physicians, who will add the gift of mediumistic faculties to that of acquired science.



Only, as these faculties have no effective value except by the assistance of the Spirits, who can paralyze their effects by withdrawing their assistance, who foil at will the calculations of pride and greed, it is obvious that they will not lend their assistance to those who would deny them, and would intend to use them secretly, for the benefit of their own reputation and fortune. Since the Spirits work for humanity, and do not come to serve individual selfish interests; that they act, in all that they do, with a view to the propagation of the new doctrines, they need courageous and devoted soldiers, and they have nothing to do with cowards who are afraid of the shadow of the truth . They will, therefore, assist those who will put, without resistance and without hidden motive, their aptitudes at the service of the cause that they strive to make prevail. Will selflessness, that is one of the essential attributes of healing mediumship, also be one of the conditions of the mediumistic medicine? How then to reconcile professional demands with absolute abnegation?



This requires some explanation because the situation is no longer the same.



The faculty of the healing medium has cost him nothing; it required of him neither study, nor work, nor expenditure; he received it for free, for the good of others, so he must use it free of charge. Since, before anything else, one does need to live, if he does not have by himself the resources that make him independent, he must seek the means in his ordinary work, as he would have done it before knowing mediumship; he will only give to the exercise of his faculty the time that he can materially devote to it. If he takes this time out of his spare time, and if he uses it to make himself useful to his fellows, something he would have devoted to worldly distractions, that is a true devotion, and he deserves all the merit for that. The Spirits ask for no more and do not require any unreasonable sacrifice. One could not consider dedication and abnegation the abandonment of one's condition in order to engage in less arduous and more profitable work. In the protection they grand, the Spirits, on which one cannot impose, know perfectly well to distinguish between the real from the fictitious devotions.



The position of the physician-mediums would be quite different. Medicine is one of the social careers that one embraces in order to make it into a profession, and medical science can only be acquired at a cost, through assiduous and often painful labor; the knowledge of the doctor is, therefore, a personal acquisition, that is not the case with mediumship. If the Spirits add their assistance to human knowledge, by the gift of a mediumistic aptitude, it is for the physician one more means of enlightening himself, of acting more surely and more effectively, for which he must be grateful, but he is nonetheless always a doctor; it is his profession, that he does not leave to become a medium; there is, therefore, nothing reprehensible in his continuing to live from it, and this with an additional reason that the assistance of the Spirits is often unconscious, intuitive, and that their intervention is sometimes confused with the use of ordinary means of healing.



For the fact that a doctor would become a medium, and would be assisted by the Spirits in the treatment of his patients, it would not therefore follow that he would have to renounce all remuneration, that would oblige him to seek the means of existence outside medicine, and by that fact to give up his profession. But if he is driven by the feeling of the obligations imposed on him by the favor granted to him, he will know how to reconcile his interests with the duties of humanity.



It is not the same with moral selflessness that can and must absolute in all cases. He who, instead of seeing in the mediumistic faculty one more means of being useful to his fellows, would only seek a satisfaction of self-esteem in that; who would take personal credit for the successes that he obtains by such means, by concealing the true cause, would fail in his first duty. Whoever, without denying the Spirits, only sees in their direct or indirect help, a means of making up for the insufficiency of his productive clientele, with whatever philanthropic appearance he covers it to the eyes of men, would use that as a means of exploitation; in either case, sad disappointments would be the inevitable consequence, because simulations and subterfuges cannot deceive he Spirits who read the depths of minds.



We have said that healing mediumship will not kill medicine or physicians, but it cannot fail to profoundly change medical science. There will undoubtedly always be healing mediums, because there have always been some, and this faculty is in nature; but they will be less numerous and less sought after as the number of physician-mediums increases, and when science and mediumship lend each other mutual support. We will have more confidence in doctors when they are mediums, and more confidence in mediums when they are doctors.



One cannot dispute the curative virtues of certain plants and other substances that the Providence has put in the hands of man, by placing the remedy beside the disease; the study of these properties is the responsibility of medicine. Now, as the healing mediums act only by the fluidic influence, without the use of drugs, if they were to one day supplant medicine, it would follow that by endowing plants with healing properties, God would have made an unnecessary thing, that is not admissible. We must therefore consider healing mediumship as a special mode and not as an absolute means of healing; the fluid, as a new therapeutic agent, applicable to certain cases, and coming to add a new resource to medicine; consequently, the healing mediumship and medicine, as having from now on to work concurrently, intended to help each other, to supplement and to complement each other. This is why one can be a doctor without being a healing medium, and a healing medium without being a doctor.



So, why does this faculty develop today almost exclusively among the ignorant rather than among scientists? For the very simple reason that, until now, scientists reject it; when they accept it, they will see it develop among themselves as among others. Whoever possesses it today, would he claim it? No; he would hide it with the greatest care. Since it would be useless in his hands, why give it to him? It would be like giving a violin to a man who does not know or does not want to play it.



Another fundamental point joins this situation. By giving the ignorant the gift of healing illnesses that scientists cannot cure, it is to prove to the latter that they do not know everything, and that there are natural laws apart from those recognized by science. The greater the distance between ignorance and knowledge, the more obvious the fact. When it takes place with someone who knows nothing, it is a sure proof that human knowledge has nothing to do with it.



But as science cannot be an attribute of matter, the knowledge of illnesses and its remedies by intuition, as well as the clairvoyance, can only be attributes of Spirit; they prove in man the existence of the spiritual being, endowed with perceptions independent of the bodily organs, and often with knowledge acquired previously, in a previous existence. These phenomena, therefore, both have the effect of being useful to humanity and of proving the existence of the spiritual principle.

The following fact, published in Le Tour du Monde, pages 74 and after, is taken from Promenades of the Tripolitan, by Baron de Krafft.



I often have as a guide, and a companion when I am out of town, the cavas-bachi (head of the janissaries) of the French consulate, whom the consul general kindly places at my services. He is a magnificent six feet tall black man, from the Ouadaï, that despite his graying beard, has retained all the activity and all the energy of his youth. Caïd Hassan is not a common man: he ruled for eighteen years, in the time of the Caramanlys, the tribe of Ouerchéfâna, and no one knew better than him to keep this restless people in check. Brave to the point of fear, he has always defended the interests of his citizens against neighboring tribes, and if needed be, against the government itself; but, at the same time, his people could not indulge their whims either, and one did not joke with the severity of the Caïd Hassan. For him, the life of a man was hardly more precious than that of a sheep, and one would certainly be embarrassed to ask him the exact number of heads that he had taken down with his own hand, so much that his conscience is appeased in this regard. An excellent man, moreover, and completely devoted to the consulate he has served for ten years.



In one of our first outings, I saw a group of five or six women approaching him pleadingly. Two of them had poor little breastfeeding children in their arms, whose face, head and neck were covered in scaly patches and purulent scabs. It was awful and disgusting to see.



Our father, said the sorry mothers to Caïd Hassan, it is the prophet of God who brings you to our house, because we wanted to go to the city to find you and we have been waiting for it for ten days. The djardoun (a very harmless little white lizard) passed over our breast, and poisoned our milk; see the condition of your children, and heal them that God will bless you.



Are you a doctor then? I asked my companion.



No, he replied, but I have the blessing of blood on my hands, and anyone who has it can, like me, cure this disease. It is a natural gift to any man whose arm has cut off a few heads. Come on, women, give what it takes. And immediately one of the mothers presented the doctor with a white hen, seven eggs and three pieces of twenty paras; then she crouched down at his feet, raising the little patient above her head. Hassan gravely pulls his lighter and flint from his belt, as if he wanted to light a pipe. Bismillah! (in the name of God!) he says, and he starts to shoot out of the flint many sparks on the sick child, while reciting the Surah Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Koran. The operation finished, the other child had his turn, with the help of the same offering, and the women left joyfully after having respectfully kissed the hand that had just restored their sons health.

It seems that my face clearly revealed my incredulity, for the Caïd Hassan, while collecting, to take away, the fees of his marvelous cure, screamed to his clients:Do not fail to come in seven days to present your children to me at the skifa of the Consulate. (The skifa is the outer foyer, the waiting room in large houses).



Indeed, a week later, the little creatures were presented to me again; one was completely healed, the other had only a few scars that looked very promising, indicating an imminent healing. I was stunned, but not convinced; however, over twenty similar experiences after that have forced me to believe in the incredible virtue of blood-blessed hands.”





There are people whom even the most obvious facts cannot convince; it must, however, be admitted that, in this one it is logically allowed not to believe in the effectiveness of the blessing of the blood, especially obtained in such conditions, no more than that of the sparks of the lighter. However, the material fact of healing does not exist any less; if it does not have this cause, it must have another; if twenty such experiences, to the narrator's knowledge, have come to confirm it, this cause cannot be fortuitous, and must proceed from a law; however, this law is none other than the healing faculty with which this man was endowed. In his ignorance of the principle, he attributed this faculty to what he called the blessing of blood, a belief in relation to the customs of the country where a man's life is worth nothing. The lighter and the other formulas are accessories that only have value in his imagination, and that undoubtedly serve, by the importance that he attaches to it, to give him more confidence in himself, and by subsequently increase his fluidic power.



This fact naturally raises a question of principle, concerning the gift of the healing faculty, and that is answered by the following communication given on this subject.





Parisian Society, February 23^rd, 1867, medium Mr. Desliens



“One is sometimes astonished, with an apparent reason, to find, in unworthy individuals, faculties remarkably developed, and that would seem to be preferably the appanage of virtuous men, devoid of prejudices; and yet the history of past centuries presents, almost on every page, examples of remarkable mediumships possessed by inferior and impure Spirits, by unthoughtful fanatics! What could be the reason for such an anomaly?



However, there is nothing surprising in this, and a somewhat serious and thoughtful study of the problem will give the key to that.



When exceptional phenomena, belonging to the extracorporeal order, are produced, what actually happens? It is that embodied individualities serve as organs of transmission to the manifestation. They are instruments driven by an external will. Now, will it be asked of a simple instrument what would be required from the artist that vibrates it? ... If it is obvious that a good piano is preferable to one that would be defective, it is not less certain that one will distinguish, in one as in the other, the touch of the artist from that of a schoolboy. If, therefore, the Spirit who intervenes in the healing encounters a good instrument, he will use it willingly; otherwise, he will employ whatever is offered to him, however defective it may be.



It is also necessary to consider that, in the exercise of the mediumistic faculty, and in particular in the exercise of the healing mediumship, there can be two quite distinct cases: either the medium can be a healer on his own, or he can only be the more or less passive agent of an extracorporeal driver. In the first case, he will be able to act only if his virtues and his moral power allow it. He will be an example in his private or public conduct, a model, a missionary who has come to serve as a guide or a rallying sign for men of good will. Christ is the supreme personification of the healer.

As for the one that is only a medium, being an instrument, he can be more or less defective, and the acts that take place through him, in no way prevent him from being imperfect, selfish, proud or fanatic. A member of the great human family, like the public in general, he shares all its weaknesses.



Remember these words of Jesus: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor.” We must therefore see a sign of the goodness of the Providence in these faculties that develop in imperfect circles and people; it is a means of giving them the faith that will sooner or later lead them to good; if not today, it will be tomorrow; these are seeds that are not lost, for you Spiritists, know that nothing is lost to the Spirit.



If it is not rare to find transcendent faculties in the roughest natures, morally and physically, this is also due to the fact that these individualities, having little or no personal will, limit themselves to letting the driving force act. One could say that they operate instinctively, while a more developed intelligence, wanting to realize the cause that sets it in motion, would sometimes put oneself in conditions that would not allow such an easy accomplishment of the providential designs.



However bizarre and inexplicable the effects that occur before your eyes, study them carefully, before considering a single one as a violation of the eternal laws of the Supreme Teacher! There isn’t a single one that does not affirm his existence, his justice and his eternal wisdom, and if the appearance says otherwise, believe well that it is only an appearance that will disappear to make room for the reality, with a more in-depth study of the known laws and knowledge of those whose discovery is reserved for the future.



Clélie Duplantier.”

The healing faculty being on the agenda, it is not surprising that we have devoted most of this issue to that, and we are certainly far from having exhausted the subject; that is why we will come back to it.



To first appease the thoughts of a large number of persons interested in the question relating to Mr. Jacob, and who wrote us or may write to us about him, we say:



1^st – That Mr. Jacob’s sessions are suspended; therefore it would be useless to show up at the place where he was holding them, rue de la Roquette 80, and that he has not, until now, taken them back anywhere. The reason was the excessive congestion that hampered traffic in a busy street, and in a dead end occupied by a large number of industrialists who found themselves hampered in their business, unable to receive customers or ship their goods. At the moment Mr. Jacob holds neither public nor private meetings.



2^nd – In view of the crowds, each one having to wait a long time for their turn, to those who have asked us, or would like to ask us in the future if, knowing Mr. Jacob personally, they could obtain a preferential place on our recommendation, we say that we never asked for it and we never will, knowing that it would be useless. If favors had been granted, it would have been to the prejudice of those who wait, and that would certainly raise well-founded complaints. Mr. Jacob made no exception to anyone; the rich had to wait like the poor, because ultimately the poor suffers as much as the rich; he does not have, like this one, comfort for compensation, and moreover, he often requires health to have enough to live on. We congratulate Mr. Jacob for that, and if he had not done so, in begging a favor, we would only have done something that we would have blamed in him.



3^rd – To the patients who have asked us, or could ask us, if we advise them to make the trip to Paris, we say: Mr. Jacob does not cure everyone, as he himself declares; he never knows in advance whether or not he will cure a sick person; it is only when he is in their presence that he judges the fluidic action, and sees the result; that is why he never promises anything and answers nothing. Advising someone to make the trip to Paris would be to take a responsibility without any certainty of success. It is, therefore, a risk to take, and if one does not obtain result, one is left with the travel expenses, while one often spends enormous sums on consultations without more success. If one is not cured, one cannot say that one has paid for care in vain.



4^th – To those who ask us if, by compensating Mr. Jacob for his travel expenses, since he does not want to accept fees, he would agree to go to such or such a locality, to take care of a patient, we answer: Mr. Jacob does not attend invitations of this kind, for the reasons that are developed above. Unable to answer in advance for the result, he would consider an indelicacy to induce expenditure without certainty; and in the event of failure, it would give rise to criticism.

5^th – To those who write to Mr. Jacob, or who send us letters to send them to him, we say: Mr. Jacob has at his house a cupboard full of letters that he does not read, and he does not reply to anyone. In fact, what could he say? Besides, he does not cure by correspondence. Make sentences? It is not his style; to say if such a disease is curable by him? He doesn't know anything about it; It does not follow that he cured one person of such a disease that he cured the same disease in another person, because the fluidic conditions are no longer the same. Indicate a treatment? He is not a doctor, and he would avoid having this weapon used against him.



Writing to him is therefore useless work. The only thing to do, in the event that he resumes his sessions, that people have wrongly qualified as consultations, since he is not consulted, is to present oneself as the first comer, get in line, wait patiently and take the chance. If one is not healed, one cannot complain for having been deceived, since he does not promise anything.



There are sources that have the property of curing certain diseases; people go there; some feel good about it, others are only relieved, and finally others feel nothing at all. We must consider Mr. Jacob as a source of beneficial fluids, to the influence of whom one is going to submit, but who is not a universal panacea, does not cure all diseases, and can be more or less effective, according to the conditions of the patient.



But, after all, were there any healings? One fact answers this question: If no one had been healed, the crowd would not have gone, there as they did.



But cannot the gullible crowd have been deceived by false appearances, going there with faith on a usurped reputation? Can't accomplices have faked illnesses to appear to be healed?



This has, undoubtedly, been seen, and is seen every day, when accomplices have an interest in acting. Here, however, what profit would they have drawn from it? Who would have paid them? It is certainly not Mr. Jacob out of his pay as a musician of the Zouaves; nor it is by giving them a discount on the price of his consultations since he was not receiving anything. It is understandable that whoever wants to acquire a clientele, at any cost, uses such means; but Mr. Jacob had no interest in drawing the crowd to him; he did not call them, they came to him, and one can say in spite of himself. If there hadn't been the facts, no one would have come since he wasn't calling anyone. The newspapers, undoubtedly, contributed to increasing the number of visitors, but they only spoke about it because the crowd already existed, otherwise they would not have said anything. Mr. Jacob did not ask them to speak about him, nor he paid to advertise it. It is, therefore, necessary to rule out any idea of subterfuge that would have no reason to exist in the circumstances in question.



To appreciate the acts of an individual, one must seek the interest that can drive his behavior; however, it turned out that there was none from Mr. Jacob; that there was no interest to Mr. Dufayet, who offered his premises free of charge, and put his workers at the service of the sick, to carry them, and that to the detriment of his own interests; finally, that accomplices had nothing to gain.



Considering that the cures operated by Mr. Jacob in recent times are of the same type as those he obtained last year, at the at Camp Chalons, and that the facts happened in much the same way, only on a larger scale, we refer our readers to the reviews and assessments that we gave in the Spiritist Review, October and November 1866. As to the incidents of this year, we could only repeat what everyone knew through the newspapers. We will, therefore, confine ourselves, for the present, to a few general considerations on the fact itself.



About two years ago, the Spirits announced to us that healing mediumship would take great development and would be a powerful means of propagation for Spiritism. Up until then there had been only healers operating, so to speak, in privacy and quietly. We told the Spirits that, for the spread to be more rapid, it would be necessary for them to emerge sufficiently powerful for the healings to have resonance with the public. It will take place, we were told, and there will be more than one.



This forecast began to realize last year, at the Camp Châlons, and God knows if there were lack of repercussion this year, with the cures of the rue de la Roquette, not only in France, but also abroad.



The general emotion that these facts caused is justified by the gravity of the questions they raise. Make no mistake, this is not one of those events of simple curiosity, that fascinates the crowd for a moment, eager for novelties and distractions. One does not distract oneself from the spectacle of human miseries; the sight of those thousands of patients chasing after health, that they could not find in the resources of science, is nothing to rejoice, and gives rise to serious reflections.



Yes, there is something here other than a vulgar phenomenon. We are, no doubt, astonished at the cures obtained in such exceptional conditions, that they seem to be miraculous; but what impresses even more than the material fact, is that it foresees the revelation of a new principle, whose consequences are incalculable, of one of those long hidden laws in the sanctuary of nature, that when they appear, they change the course of ideas and profoundly modify beliefs.



A secret intuition says that if the facts in question are real, it is more than a change in habits, more than a displacement of industry: it is a new element introduced into society, a new order of ideas that is established.



Although the events of Camp Châlons prepared for what has just happened, owing to Mr. Jacob's inactivity for one year, they had been almost forgotten; the emotion had calmed down, when the same facts suddenly burst out in the heart of the capital, and suddenly take on unheard-of proportions. People woke up, so to speak, as the day after a revolution, only approaching each other by asking: do you know what is happening in the rue de la Roquette? Do you have any news? The newspapers were passed around as if it had been a great event. In forty-eight hours, the whole of France was informed about it.



There is something remarkable and more important about this instantaneity than one might think.



The first impression was that of amazement: nobody laughed. The mocking press itself simply reported the facts and hearsay, without comment; every day it gave a bulletin, without pronouncing either for or against, and it was observed that most of the articles were not made in a tone of mockery; they expressed doubt, uncertainty about the reality of such strange facts, but leaning more towards affirmation than towards denial. This is because the subject, by itself, was serious; it was about suffering, and there is something sacred about suffering that commands respect; in such a case the joke would be misplaced and universally condemned. We have never seen the mocking spirit exercised in front of a hospital, even of madmen, or before a convoy of wounded. Men of heart and sense could not fail to understand that, in a matter that touches an issue of humanity, mockery would have been inappropriate, for it would have been an insult to pain. It is also with a painful feeling and a sort of disgust that today we see the spectacle of these unfortunate handicapped, grotesquely reproduced on stages, and translated into burlesque songs. By admitting, on their part, a puerile credulity, and an ill-founded hope, that is not a reason for disrespecting suffering.



In the presence of such a repercussion, the absolute denial was difficult. Doubt is only allowed to those who do not know or that have not seen; among the unbelievers of good faith and ignorance, many have understood that it would be imprudent to register prematurely against facts that could, one day or another, receive a blessing and belie them. Without, therefore, denying or affirming anything, the press has generally confined itself to registering the state of affairs, leaving it to experience to confirm or deny them, and above all, to explain them; it was the wisest decision.



The first moment of surprise was over; the obstinate opponents of any new thing that frustrates their ideas, for a moment stunned by the violence of the irruption, took courage, when they particularly saw that the Zouave was patient, and of a peaceful mood; they started the attack, and launched a full charge against him with the usual weapons of those who have no good reasons to oppose: mockery and slander to the limit; but their bitter controversy reveals anger and obvious embarrassment, and their arguments that, for the most part, are based on falsehood and notoriously inaccurate allegations, are not convincing, for they refute themselves.



In any event, this is not a personal matter here; whether Mr. Jacob succumbs or not in the struggle, it is a question of principle that is at stake, posed with immense repercussion, and that will follow its course. It brings to memory the innumerable facts of the same kind mentioned in history, and that multiply in our days. If it is a truth, it is not embodied in a man, and nothing can asphyxiate it; the very violence of the attacks proves that they are afraid that this is the truth.



In this circumstance, those that show the least surprise and are moved the least, are the Spiritists, for the reason that these kinds of facts have nothing of which they do not fully realize; knowing the cause, they are not surprised at the effect.



As for those that know neither the cause of the phenomenon nor the law that governs it, they naturally wonder if it is an illusion or a reality; if Mr. Jacob is a charlatan; if he really heals all diseases; if he is endowed with supernatural power, and from whom he derives it; if we have returned to the time of miracles. Seeing the crowd that besieges and follows him, as the one that followed Jesus in Galilee, in the past, some even wonder if he would not be the reincarnated Christ, while others claim that his faculty is a gift of the devil. All these questions have long been resolved for the Spiritists, who have the solution in the principles of the doctrine. However, as there are several important lessons that can be learned, we will examine them in a future article, in which we will also highlight the inconsistency of some criticisms.

Paris, March 12^th, 1867 – Desliens group, medium Mr. Desliens



“As you have been told many times already, in various instructions, healing mediumship, together with the seeing faculty, is called to play a great role in the present period of revelation. These are the two agents that cooperate most powerfully in the regeneration of humanity, and in the fusion of all beliefs into one, tolerant, progressive, universal.



When, recently, I communicated in a meeting of the Society, where I had been mentioned, I said and I repeat it, everyone has more or less the healing faculty, and if everyone wanted to seriously dedicate themselves to the study of this faculty, many mediums that ignore each other could render useful services to their brothers in humanity. Time did not allow me to develop all my thoughts in this regard; I will take advantage of your call to do so today.



In general, those who seek the healing faculty want, as their sole desire, to obtain the reestablishment of their material health, to restore the freedom of action of a given organ, precluded of its functions by any material cause. But, know this well, that is the least of the services that this faculty is called upon to render, and you would only know it in its beginnings and in a completely rudimentary way, if you assigned it with this single role ... No, the healing faculty has a nobler and more extensive mission! ... If it can restore the vigor of health to the bodies, it must also give the souls all the purity of which they are capable, and it is only in this case that it could be called curative in the absolute sense of the word.



You have often been told, and your teachers cannot repeat it too often, that the apparent material effect, suffering, almost always has an immaterial morbid cause, residing in the moral state of the Spirit. So, if the healing medium attacks the illnesses of the body, it only attacks the effect, and since the primary cause of the illness remains, the effect can recur, either in its primordial form, or in any other form. This is often one of the reasons why such and such a disease, suddenly cured by the influence of a medium, reappears with all its accidents, as soon as the beneficent influence goes away, because there is nothing left, absolutely nothing to fight the morbid cause.



To avoid these relapses, the spiritual remedy must attack the disease on its base, as the material fluid destroys it in its effects; in a word, it is necessary to treat both body and soul.







To be a good healing medium, not only must the body be able to serve as a channel for restorative material fluids, but the Spirit must also possess a moral power that it can only acquire by its own improvement. To be a healing medium, one must, therefore, prepare for it, not only by prayer, but by the purification of one's soul, in order to physically treat the body by physical means, and to influence the soul by moral power.



One last thought. You were advised to preferably seek the poor who have no other resources than the charity of the hospital; I am not quite of this opinion. Jesus said that the doctor's mission is to treat the sick and not the healthy; remember that in matters of moral health there are sick people everywhere, and that the doctor's duty is to go wherever his help is needed.



Abbot Prince of Hohenlohe.”

Parisian Society, March 15^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Desliens



“In a recent communication, I spoke of the healing mediumship in a broader perspective than it has hitherto been considered, and I made it more of the moral treatment than the physical treatment of the sick, or at least I was combining these two treatments in one. I ask you to allow me to say a few words on this subject.



Suffering, disease, even death, in the conditions in which you know them, aren’t they more especially the attribute of the worlds inhabited by lower or less advanced Spirits? Isn't the main goal of moral development to lead humanity to happiness, by making it acquire more complete knowledge, by ridding it of imperfections of all kinds that slow down its ascension towards infinity? Now, by improving the Spirit of the sick, don’t we put them in better conditions to endure their physical sufferings? By attacking the vices, the evil inclinations, that are the source of almost all physical disorganizations, don’t we make these disorganizations impossible to reproduce? By destroying the cause, one necessarily prevents the effect from manifesting again.



Healing mediumship can, therefore, have two forms, and this faculty will not be at its peak, in those who will possess it, until they unite in themselves these two ways of being. It can comprehend only the material relief of the sick, and then it is addressed to the incarnates; it can include the moral improvement of individuals, and in this case, it is addressed to the Spirits as well as to men; it can finally comprehend moral improvement as well as material relief, and in this case both, cause and effect, can be fought victoriously. Is the treatment of obsessing Spirits anything more than a sort of influence like the healing mediumship, exercised in concert by mediums and Spirits on a disembodied personality?



Healing mediumship, therefore, embraces both moral and physical health, the world of the embodied and that of the Spirits.





Abbot Príncipe de Hohenlohe.”

Paris, March 24^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Rul)



“I come to continue the instruction I gave to a medium of the Society. Why did you doubt that I had come to your call? Don't you know that a good Spirit is always happy to help his earthly brethren in the path of improvement and progress?

Today you know what I said about the extended role reserved to the healing mediumship; you know that, depending on the state of your soul and the aptitudes of your organism, you will be able, if God allows it, to heal, either the physical pains, or the moral pains, or both. You doubt that you can do either, because you know your imperfections; but God does not ask for perfection, the absolute purity of men on Earth. From this point of view, none of you would be worthy of being a healing medium. God asks you to improve yourself, to make constant efforts to purify yourself, and he takes your good will into account.



Since you seriously desire to relieve your brothers who are suffering physically and morally, have confidence, and hope that the Lord will grant you this favor. But I repeat to you, do not be exclusive in the choice of your patients; all, whoever they are, rich or poor, believer or unbeliever, good or bad, all have a right to your help. Does the Lord deprive the wicked from the beneficent of the heat of the sun that warms, that encourages, that gives life? Is light denied to anyone that does not bow down to the goodness of the Almighty? Heal, therefore, whoever suffers, and take advantage of the good that you have brought to the body to purify the even more suffering soul, teaching it to pray. Do not be hurt by the refusals you will encounter; always do your work of charity and love, and do not doubt that the good, although delayed for some, will never be lost. Improve yourself through prayer, through the love of the Lord, of your brothers, and do not doubt that the Almighty gives you frequent opportunities to exercise your mediumistic faculty. Be happy when, after healing, you handshake with of your grateful brother, and both of you, prostrated at the feet of your Heavenly Father, pray together to thank and worship him; be happier still, when, greeted by ingratitude, after having healed the body, powerless to heal the hardened soul, you will raise your thoughts towards the Creator, for your prayer will be the first spark, destined to light, later on, the torch that will shine in the eyes of your brother, cured of his blindness, and you will say to yourself that the more a patient suffers, the more the doctor must give him care.



Courage, brother, hope and wait that the good Spirits that guide you, inspire you when you must begin, with your brothers that suffer, the application of your new mediumistic faculty. Until then pray, progress by moral charity, by the influence of the example, and never miss the slightest opportunity to enlighten your brothers. God is watching over each of you, and the one who is the most unbeliever today can be the most fervent and the most believing tomorrow.



Abbot Príncipe de Hohenlohe.”

Parisian Society, August 16^th, 1867 – medium Mr. Morin, in spontaneous somnambulism



Note. - Among the communications obtained in the last meeting of the Society, before the holidays, this one presents a particular character that differs from the usual form. Several Spirits, of those who are assiduous at the sessions, and sometimes manifest themselves there, came successively to address a few words to the members of the Society, before their separation, through Mr. Morin, in spontaneous somnambulism. It was like a group of friends coming to say goodbye, and to testify their sympathy at the time of departure. To each speaker who presented himself, the interpreter changed his tone, pace, expression, physiognomy, and by the language we recognized the Spirit who spoke before he was named; it was he who spoke, using the organs of an incarnate, and not his translated thought, more or less faithfully translated, by passing through an intermediary; so the identity was positive, and apart from the physical resemblance, we had before us a Spirit, as he was during his life. After each speech, the medium remained absorbed for a few minutes; it was the time of the substitution of one Spirit by another; then, gradually coming back to himself, he spoke again in a different tone. The first to show up was our former colleague Leclerc, who died in December of last year.



…………….





“Some of your brothers who have left, come to take the opportunity to show you their sympathy, at the time of their separation. Death is nothing when it results in giving birth to a life that is much greater, much broader, much more useful than human life! ... It was confusion, followed by exhaustion (reference to the way he died), and I stand up freer and happier, by entering this invisible world that my soul had foreseen, that my whole being wanted! … Free! … to hover in space! … I saw, I observed, and my delirious joy was limited only by the exaggerated regret that my loved ones had for the absence of my material personality; but today that I was able to prove my existence to them, and that I showed them that if my body was no longer there, my Spirit was more than ever, today I am happy, very happy; for what the incarnate could not do, I was able to obtain in a state of spirituality. I am useful today, very useful, and thanks to the sympathetic affection of those who knew me, my usefulness is more effective.



How good it is to be able to serve our brothers, and thus to be useful to the whole humanity! How good, how sweet to the soul to be able to share with humanity the little knowledge that we have acquired through suffering! I, once imprisoned in this obtuse body, today I stand tall, and if it were not for the fear of your ridicule, I would admire myself; because you see, to be good is to be part of God; and this goodness, did I have it? Oh! answer me, your testimony will be one more happiness, added to the happiness I enjoy; but why do I need your words? Can't I read your hearts, and see your innermost feelings? Today, thanks to my dematerialization, can't I see your most secret thoughts?



Oh! God is great, and his goodness is sublime! My friends, like me, bow before his majesty; work towards the accomplishment of his purposes, doing more and better than I could do myself.



Leclerc.”



“For the soul that longs for freedom, how long time is on earth, and how long the longed-for moment is overdue! But also, once the link is broken, how quickly the Spirit flies and runs towards the celestial kingdom, that he saw in a dream during his life, and to which he ceaselessly aspired! The beautiful, the infinite, the intangible, all the purest feelings, this is the prerogative of those who despise human treasures, wanting to walk in the holy life of good, charity and duty. I have my reward and I am very happy, because now I no longer expect visits from those who are dear to me; now there are no more bounds to my sight, and that suffering, that long lasting thinning of the body is no more; I am happy, cheerful, full of vivacity. I no longer wait for visitors; I will visit them.

Ernestine Dozon.”





“Very happy are those that, on this day, can come without shame among you, to share with you their joy, their pleasure, by coming here! But I, who took the road of cowards to avoid the beaten path; I, who entered by surprise into a world that was not unknown to me; I, who broke the prison door, instead of waiting for it to be wide open for me, it is because of that shame that covers my face that I come to this table, because I find a way to tell you: Thank you for your sincere forgiveness, thank you for your prayers, for the interest you have lavished on me and that has shortened my sufferings! Thank you again, for the thoughts about the future that I see germinating in your hearts, for the fraternal community of your sympathies that I will benefit from!



Today, the barely glimpsed glow has become a luminous beacon, with broad and brilliant rays; from now on I see the road, and if your prayers support me, as I feel it, if my humility and my repentance are not contradicted, you can count on one more traveler on this broad road that is called good.

D.”





“I failed… I sinned… I sinned a lot! … And yet if God places intelligence in the brain of a man, and that beside it he puts desires to be satisfied, inclinations impossible to overcome, why would he make the Spirit endure the consequences of these obstacles, that he could not overcome? ... But I am lost, I blaspheme! ... because, since he had given me an intelligence, it was the instrument to help me overcome the obstacles… The greater that intelligence, the less I am excusable…



My own intelligence, especially my presumption, have lost me… I suffered morally from all my disappointments, much more than physically, and that says a lot! … By making these confessions to you, I suffer from the past and from all of the sufferings of my loved ones, that come to add to the baggage of the evils that already crush me… Oh! pray for me! Today is a day of indulgence; Well! I claim yours. May those whom I have offended and disregarded forgive me!

X.”

“Invisible spectator, I have been attending your studies for some time with great happiness! Your work absorbs my intellectual faculties even more than they did in my life. I see, I observe, I study, and today that my brain fibers are no longer obstructed by matter, I opened my spiritual eyes, and I can see the fluids that I had uselessly sought to see during my lifetime.



Well! if you could see this immense network, this fluidic entanglement, your visual glimmers would be so much annihilated that you would only see darkness. I see, I feel, I feel more! … And in these fluidic molecules, intangible atoms, I distinguish the different propulsive forces; I analyze them, I bundle them and use them to the benefit of the poor suffering bodies; I gather, I agglomerate the sympathetic fluids, and I will simply, at no charge, pour them on those who need them.



Ah! the study of fluids is a beautiful thing! And you would understand how valuable all these mysteries are to me, if like me, you had devoted your whole existence to understand them, in vain. Thanks to Spiritism, the apparent chaos of this knowledge has been put in order; Spiritism has distinguished between what is in the physical domain from what belongs to the spiritual world; it recognized two very distinct parts in magnetism; it made its effects easy to recognize, and God knows what the future holds!



But I noticed that I am absorbing all your time for my benefit, while other Spirits still wish to speak to you. I will come back, through writing, to continue to develop my ideas on these studies that I so loved to talk about during in my life.



E. Quinemant.”





“My dear children, the Spiritist social year has been fruitful to your studies, and I come with pleasure to show you all my satisfaction. Many facts have been analyzed, many misunderstood things have been clarified, and you have touched on certain questions that will soon be admitted in principle. I am, or rather, we are satisfied.



Despite all the ardor employed up to now, amidst you and by your enemies, against your good intentions, your phalanx was the strongest, and if evil has claimed some victims, it is because leprosy already existed in them; but the wound is already healing; the good comes in and the bad goes; and for the wicked that remain among you, remorse will be terrible later, for they add hypocrisy to their defects; but those who are sincere, those who join you today, those who bring their dedication to the truth and the desire to communicate it to all, those I tell you, my children, will be very happy, for they will bring happiness not only to themselves, but to all who listen to them. Look around your ranks, and you will see that the voids created by defections are very quickly filled, with advantage, by new individualities, and they will enjoy the benefits that will be the prerogative of the next generation.



Go my children! Your studies are still very elementary; but each day brings the means to go deeper, and for that, new instruments will be added to those you already have. You will have more extensive instructions, and that for the greater glory of God, and for the greater wellbeing of humanity.



There are among you several of these instruments that will take place at your table, at the start of the social year; they do not yet dare to declare themselves; but encourage them; bring to your side the timid and the proud who believe they are doing better than the others, and we will then see if the timid are afraid, and if the proud will not have to curb their pretensions.

St. Louis.”



The epidemic that comes to decimate the world, at certain times, and that you have conventionally called cholera, strikes again and with redoubled blows onto humanity; its effects are quick and its action rapid. Without any warning, man passes from life to death, and those, more privileged, spared by its lightning hand, remain stunned, trembling, before the appalling consequences of an unknown disease, in its causes, and for which the remedy is completely unknown.



Fear takes hold, in these sad moments, in those who only contemplate the action of death, without thinking beyond it, and who, by this fact alone, lend themselves more easily to evil; but since the hour of each of us is marked, one must leave, in spite of everything, if it is struck. The hour is marked for a good number of inhabitants of the terrestrial universe; from where one leaves every day; the plague is gradually spreading and will spread over the entire surface of the globe.



This disease is unknown, and it is perhaps even more so today; for, to its own constitution, other elements are added daily, confusing human knowledge and preventing the necessary remedy from being found, to stop its progress. Men, therefore, despite their science, must suffer the consequences, and this destructive scourge is quite simply one of the means to activate the renewal of humanity, that must be accomplished. But, don't worry; for you Spiritists, who know that to die is to be reborn, if you are reached and you go away, won’t you go to happiness? If, on the contrary, you are spared, thank God who will thus allow you to add to the sum of your sufferings and to pay more for the trial. On either side, whether death strikes you or spares you, you will always win, or don't call yourselves Spiritists.



Dr. Demeure.”



“This is for him (the medium speaks of himself in the third person). - You see, you were told that a time would come when he could see, hear, rest in his turn. Well! That moment has arrived, to you and not to others; at the start of the social year he will no longer fall asleep, except in a few exceptional cases where the utility will be felt; right now, he regrets it, but when he finds out later, when he is awakened, he will be very happy… the selfish!… However, he still has a lot to do; by then he will sleep; he will rarely congratulate and very often fustigate; that is his task. Pray that it will be easy for him; so that his word may carry peace, consolation, and conciliation, wherever it is necessary. Help him with your thoughts; on his return he will put all his good will to assist you, and he will do so with all his heart; but help him, for he is in great need of it. Moreover, the exceptional circumstances in which he will sleep, perhaps and unfortunately, will not be often motivated. Finally, say like him: May the will of God be done!

Morin.”