52 and 53.

[IX]

(Pages)

Let us return to our subject.

The movement of objects is a verified fact. The question is to know whether, in that movement, there is or is not an intelligent manifestation and, if so, what the origin of such a manifestation is.

We are not speaking of the intelligent movement of certain objects, nor of the verbal communications, nor even of those which the medium writes directly. This kind of manifestation, evident to those who have seen and gone deeply into the matter, is not, at first sight, sufficiently independent of the will to establish the conviction of a novice observer.

We shall therefore treat only of writing obtained with the aid of any object furnished with a pencil, such as the basket, the planchette, etc.

The manner in which the medium's fingers rest upon the object defies, as we have already said, the most perfect dexterity on his part to be able to take part, in any way, in the tracing of the letters.

But let us grant even that, by a marvelous skill, he could deceive the eyes of the most attentive observer; how to explain the nature of the answers, when they are far beyond all the ideas and knowledge of the medium?

And let it be noted that it is not a matter of monosyllabic answers, but, frequently, of many pages written with admirable rapidity, whether spontaneously or on a given subject.

By the hand of the medium least versed in literature there arise, from time to time, poems of impeccable sublimity and purity, which the best human poets would not disavow.

And what further increases the strangeness of these facts is that they are produced everywhere and that the mediums multiply to infinity.

Are these facts real or not? To this question we have only one answer: see and observe; opportunities will not be lacking; but, above all, observe many times, over a long period, and according to the conditions required.

In the face of the evidence, what do the antagonists answer? You are, they say, victims of charlatanism, or the plaything of an illusion.

To this we shall reply, to begin with, that the word charlatanism does not apply where there is no profit;

charlatans do not work for free. It would be, at most, a mystification.

But by what singular coincidence would these mystifiers have come to an understanding from one end of the world to the other, to act in the same way, produce the same effects and, on the same subjects and in diverse languages, give identical answers, if not as to the form, at least as to the meaning?

How is it that serious, honorable, and educated persons would lend themselves to such maneuvers? And to what end? How to find in children the patience and the skill required?

For, if the mediums are not passive instruments, they must have a skill and knowledge incompatible with a certain age and certain social positions.

Then they argue that, if there is no fraud, the two sides may be victims of an illusion.

In sound logic, the quality of the witnesses carries a certain weight; now, here is the case to ask whether the Spiritist Doctrine, which today counts millions of adherents, recruits them only among the ignorant? The phenomena on which it rests are so extraordinary that we conceive doubt.

But what could not be admitted is the pretension of certain unbelievers to the monopoly of good sense, nor that, without respect for the proprieties and the moral worth of their adversaries, they brand as inept, without the least ceremony, those who do not agree with their opinions.

In the eyes of any judicious creature, the opinion of enlightened persons who have for a long time seen, studied, and meditated upon a fact, will always constitute, if not a proof, at least a presumption in its favor, since it can hold the attention of serious men, who had no interest whatever in propagating errors nor time to lose with futilities. >>>