49 and 50.

[VII]

(Pages)

For many people, the opposition of the scientific corporations constitutes, if not a proof, at least a strong presumption to the contrary.

We are not among those who rebel against the scientists, for we do not wish it to be said that we insult them; on the contrary, we hold them in great esteem and would be much honored were we to be counted among them.

But their opinion cannot represent, in all circumstances, an irrevocable sentence.

From the moment Science leaves the material observation of facts, and undertakes to appraise and explain them, the field is open to conjectures.

Each one constructs his little system, which he wishes to make prevail and which he sustains with obstinacy.

Do we not daily see the most contradictory opinions being alternately advocated and rejected, now repelled as absurd errors and then proclaimed as incontestable truths?

Facts, there is the true criterion of our judgments, the argument beyond reply.

In the absence of facts, doubt is the opinion of the sensible man.

With regard to notorious things, the opinion of the learned 67 is, with all reason, worthy of belief, for they know more and better than the common people. But, with respect to new principles, to unknown things, their way of seeing is almost always hypothetical, since they are no more free of prejudices than others.

I will even say that the learned man perhaps has more prejudices than any other, for a natural propensity leads him to subordinate everything to the point of view in which he has specialized: the mathematician sees no proof except in an algebraic demonstration, the chemist refers everything to the action of the elements, etc.

Every man who makes a specialty clings to it with all his strength. Take him out of it and you will almost always see him rave, because he wishes to submit everything to the same sieve; it is a consequence of human weakness.

I will therefore consult, gladly and with full confidence, a chemist on a question of analysis, a physicist on electric force, a mechanic on a motive force.

They must, however, allow me, without this affecting the esteem to which they are entitled for their special knowledge, not to hold their negative opinions on Spiritism in higher regard than the opinion of an architect on a question of music.

But will an official diploma be needed in order to have good sense? And will there be, outside the academic chairs, only fools and imbeciles?

Let them deign to cast their eyes upon the adherents of the Spiritist Doctrine, in order to see whether among them there exist only ignorant people, and whether the immense number of men of merit who have embraced it permits relegating it to the rank of vulgar beliefs.

The character, the knowledge of these men deserves that it be said: Since they affirm it, there must be at least something to it.

We repeat once more that, if the facts with which we are occupying ourselves had been restricted to the mechanical movement of bodies, the research into the physical cause of that phenomenon would enter into the domain of Science.

Since, however, it is a matter of a manifestation outside the scope of the laws of Humanity, it escapes the competence of material science, because it cannot be explained by figures, nor by a mechanical force.

Unfortunately, the error of many people consists in wishing to submit such phenomena to the same experiments as ordinary phenomena, without considering that a phenomenon which leaves the circle of usual knowledge must have its reason for being outside of that same knowledge, nor can it be verified by the same experiments.

When a new fact arises, which has no relation to any known science, the learned man, in order to study it, must set aside his science and say to himself that it is a new study, impossible to be carried out with preconceived ideas. >>> [67]

T.N.: Savants, in the original. This is what scientists, the researchers of a science in the 19th century, were called. Nevertheless, Kardec often used this word in its broad sense, that is, to designate erudite, judicious, sensible, prudent men, in short, men who reveal much wisdom, whether or not they are “scientists.” Thus, according to the context of the word savants in the sentence, it is sometimes translated as “the learned,” sometimes as “scientists.”