THE MARVELOUS AND THE SUPERNATURAL.

If the belief in Spirits and in their manifestations represented a singular conception, were the product of a system, it might, with some appearance of reason, deserve the suspicion of being illusory.

Let them tell us, however, why we find it so very much alive among all peoples, ancient and modern, and in the holy books of all known religions?

And, the critics reply, because, from all times, man has had a taste for the marvelous. 3 — But what do you understand by the marvelous? — That which is supernatural. 4 — What do you understand by the supernatural? — That which is contrary to the laws of Nature.

— Do you, perchance, know those laws so well that you can set a limit to the power of God?

Well then! Prove, then, that the existence of Spirits and their manifestations are contrary to the laws of Nature; that this is not, and cannot be, one of those laws.

Follow the Spiritist Doctrine and see whether all the links, uniformly joined to the chain, do not all present the characters of an admirable law, which resolves everything that the philosophies have until now been unable to resolve.

Thought is one of the attributes of the Spirit; 9 the possibility they have of acting upon matter, of impressing our senses and, consequently, of transmitting their thoughts to us, results, if we may so express ourselves, from the physiological constitution that is proper to them.

Hence, there is nothing supernatural in this fact, nor anything marvelous.

To make a man live again after being dead and truly dead, for his scattered members to be reunited so as to form his body anew, yes, that would be marvelous, supernatural, fantastic. There would be there a true derogation of the law, which only by a miracle could God perform.

But there is nothing of the kind in the Spiritist Doctrine.

— Nevertheless, they will object, you admit that a Spirit can lift a table and keep it in space without any point of support.

Does this not constitute a derogation of the law of gravity? — It does, but of the known law; 3 yet, has Nature already spoken its last word? Before the ascensional force of certain gases had been tested, who would have said that a heavy machine (balloons), carrying many men, could be capable of triumphing over the force of attraction? In the eyes of the common folk, would not such a thing have seemed marvelous, diabolical?

A hundred years ago, anyone who had proposed to transmit a telegram to a distance of 500 leagues and to receive the answer a few minutes later would have passed for a madman. Had he done it, everyone would have believed that he had the devil at his orders, for, at that time, only the devil could move so fast.

Why, then, could an unknown fluid not, in given circumstances, have the property of counterbalancing the effect of gravity, as hydrogen counterbalances the weight of the balloon?

Let us note, in passing, that we are not making an assimilation, but only a comparison, and solely to show, by analogy, that the fact is not physically impossible.

Now, it was precisely because, in observing these kinds of phenomena, they wished to proceed by assimilation that the learned went astray.

In short, the fact is there. There is not and there will not be any denial that can make it not be real, for to deny is not to prove.

For us, there is nothing supernatural. That is all that, for now, we can say.

If the fact be proved, they will say, we will accept it; we would even accept the cause to which you attribute it, that of an unknown fluid.

But who proves to us the intervention of Spirits? There is where the marvelous lies, the supernatural.

A complete demonstration would be required here, which, however, would be out of place and, moreover, would constitute a repetition, since it stands out from all the other parts of the teaching.

Nevertheless, summarizing it in a few words, we shall say that, in theory, it is founded on this principle: every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause and, 5 from the practical point of view, on the observation that, since the phenomena called Spiritist had given proofs of intelligence, the cause that produced them had to be outside matter and that, this intelligence not being that of those present — which experience attests — it had to be exterior to them.

Since the being that was acting could not be seen, it was necessarily an invisible being.

Thus it was that, from observation to observation, one came to the recognition that this invisible being, to which the name of Spirit was given, is none other than the soul of those who have lived corporeally, from whom death has snatched the gross visible envelope, leaving them only an ethereal wrapping, invisible in its normal state.

Here, then, are the marvelous and the supernatural reduced to their simplest expression.

Once the existence of invisible beings is proved, their action upon matter results from the nature of the fluidic wrapping that clothes them.

This action is intelligent, because, in dying, they lost only the body, preserving the intelligence that constitutes their very essence.

There is the key to all these phenomena erroneously held to be supernatural.

The existence of Spirits is not, therefore, a preconceived system, or a hypothesis imagined to explain the facts: it is the result of observations and the natural consequence of the existence of the soul. To deny this cause is to deny the soul and its attributes.

Let those who think they can give of these intelligent effects a more rational explanation, and above all point out the cause of all the facts, deign to present it, and then it will be possible to discuss the merit of each one.

For those who consider matter to be the only power of Nature, everything that cannot be explained by the laws of matter is marvelous, or supernatural; 2 and, for them, marvelous is synonymous with superstition.

If this were so, religion, which is based on the existence of an immaterial principle, would be a web of superstitions.

They do not dare to say it aloud, but they say it under their breath and they think they save appearances by conceding that a religion is necessary to the people and to children, so that they may become sensible.

Now, one of two things: either the religious principle is true, or false. If it is true, it is so for everyone; if false, it has no more value for the ignorant than for the instructed.

Those who attack Spiritism, in the name of the marvelous, generally rely on the materialist principle, for, denying any extramaterial effect, they deny, ipso facto, the existence of the soul.

Sound, however, the depths of their consciences, scrutinize well the meaning of their words, and you will discover almost always this principle, if not categorically formulated, germinating beneath the cloak with which they cover it, that of a so-called rational philosophy.

Charging to the account of the marvelous everything that flows from the existence of the soul, they are, then, consistent with themselves: not admitting the cause, they cannot admit the effects.

Hence, among them, a preconceived opinion, which renders them unfit to judge Spiritism fairly, since the principle from which they set out is that of the negation of everything that is not material.

As for us, are we to accept all the facts qualified as marvelous, for the simple reason that we admit the effects that are the consequence of the existence of the soul? Are we to be the champions of all dreamers, the adepts of all utopias, of all systematic eccentricities? Whoever supposes this will demonstrate a very scant knowledge of Spiritism.

But our adversaries do not look into this very closely. What they least take care of is the necessity of knowing that of which they speak.

According to them, the marvelous is absurd; now, Spiritism relies on marvelous facts, therefore Spiritism is absurd. And they consider this sentence without appeal.

They think they oppose an irrefutable argument when, after having proceeded to erudite researches concerning the convulsionaries of Saint-Médard , the fanatics of the Cévennes , or the nuns of Loudun, they have arrived at the discovery of patent impostures, which no one contests.

But will such stories be the gospel of Spiritism? Have its adepts denied that charlatanism has exploited, for its own profit, some facts? that others are fruits of the imagination? that many have been exaggerated by fanaticism? It is as much in solidarity with the extravagances committed in its name as true science is with the abuses of ignorance, or true religion with the excesses of sectarianism.

Many critics limit themselves to judging Spiritism by fairy tales and by the popular legends that are its fictions. It would be the same as judging History by historical novels, or by tragedies.

In elementary logic, in order to discuss a thing, one must know it, for the opinion of a critic has value only when he speaks with perfect knowledge of the cause. Then, only then, his opinion, though erroneous, may be taken into consideration.

But what weight will it have when he deals with what he does not know? Legitimate criticism must demonstrate not only erudition, but also a profound knowledge of the object it treats, sound judgment and an imperturbable impartiality, without which any minstrel could arrogate to himself the right to judge Rossini and any dauber that of censuring Raphael.

Thus, Spiritism does not accept all the facts considered marvelous, or supernatural. Far from it, it demonstrates the impossibility of a great number of them and the absurdity of certain beliefs, which constitute superstition properly so called.

It is true that, in what it does admit, there are things that, for the unbelievers, are purely within the domain of the marvelous, or in other words, of superstition. So be it.

But, at least, it discusses only those points, for, with regard to the rest, there is nothing to say and you preach in vain.

By holding to what it itself refutes, you prove that you are ignorant of the subject and your arguments miss the mark.

But how far does the belief of Spiritism go? they will ask. Read, observe and you will know.

Only with time and study is the knowledge of any science acquired.

Now, Spiritism, which deals with the gravest questions of philosophy, with all the branches of the social order, which embraces both physical man and moral man, is, in itself, a science, a philosophy, which can no more be learned in a few hours than any other science.

There would be as much puerility in wishing to see all of Spiritism in a turning table as all of physics in a few children's toys.

To whoever does not limit himself to remaining on the surface, not only a few hours are necessary, but months and years, to fathom all its arcana.

By this one can appreciate the degree of learning and the value of the opinion of those who attribute to themselves the right to judge because they have seen one or two experiments, most of the time out of distraction or amusement.

They will certainly say that they have no leisure to spare to devote to such studies all the time these demand. Very well; nothing constrains them to it.

But whoever has not the time to learn a thing does not set about discoursing upon it and, still less, judging it, unless he wishes to be accused of frivolity.

Now, the more elevated the position we occupy in science, the less excusable it is for us to speak frivolously of a subject we do not know.

We summarize in the following propositions what we have set forth:

1st All Spiritist phenomena have as their principle the existence of the soul, its survival of the body and its manifestations;

2nd Being founded on a law of Nature, these phenomena have nothing marvelous, nor supernatural, in the common sense of those words;

3rd Many facts are held to be supernatural because their cause is not known; by attributing a cause to them, Spiritism restores them to the domain of natural phenomena;

4th Among the facts qualified as supernatural, there are many whose impossibility Spiritism demonstrates, including them in the number of superstitious beliefs;

5th Although it recognizes a basis of truth in many popular beliefs, Spiritism in no way lends its solidarity to all the fantastic stories that the imagination has created;

6th To judge Spiritism by the facts that it does not admit is to give proof of ignorance and to remove all value from the opinion expressed;

7th The explanation of the facts that Spiritism admits, of their causes and moral consequences, forms a whole science and a whole philosophy, which require serious, persevering and thorough study;

8th Spiritism cannot consider a serious critic to be any but the one who has seen, studied and gone deeply into everything with the patience and perseverance of a conscientious observer; who knows as much of the subject as any instructed adept; who has, consequently, drawn his knowledge from somewhere other than the novels of science; the one to whom no fact can be opposed that is unknown to him, no argument that he has not already considered and whose refutation he makes, not by mere negation, but by means of other more peremptory arguments; the one, finally, who can indicate, for the verified facts, a more logical cause than that which Spiritism points out for them. Such a critic is yet to appear.

We pronounced a little while ago the word miracle; a slight observation about it will not be out of place in this chapter which treats of the marvelous.

In its primitive acceptation and by its etymology, the term miracle means an extraordinary thing, a thing admirable to see.

But like so many others, this word has departed from its original sense and today, by miracle, is understood (according to the Academy) an act of the divine power, contrary to the common laws of Nature.

Such, indeed, is its usual acceptation and only by comparison and by metaphor is it applied to the common things that surprise us and whose cause is unknown.

In no way does it enter into our cogitations to inquire whether God has judged it useful, in certain circumstances, to derogate the laws that He Himself established; 6 our aim is solely to demonstrate that Spiritist phenomena, however extraordinary they may be, in no way derogate those laws, 7 that they have no character of the miraculous, just as they are not marvelous, or supernatural.

The miracle is not explained;

Spiritist phenomena, on the contrary, are explained most rationally.

They are not, then, miracles, but simple effects, whose reason for being is found in the general laws.

The miracle presents yet another character, that of being unwonted and isolated.

Now, from the moment that a fact is reproduced, so to speak, at will and by various persons, it cannot be a miracle.

Every day science works miracles in the eyes of the ignorant.

That is why, formerly, those who knew more than the common folk passed for sorcerers; and, as it was then understood that all superhuman science came from the devil, they were burned. Today, when we are already much more civilized, they are merely sent to the asylums.

If a man really dead, as we said at the beginning, were to be resurrected by divine intervention, there would be there a true miracle, because that is contrary to the laws of Nature.

If, however, such a man is only apparently dead, if there still remains in him a residue of latent vitality and science or a magnetic action succeeds in reanimating him, a natural phenomenon is what this will be for instructed persons.

Nevertheless, in the eyes of the ignorant common folk, the fact will pass for miraculous, and the author will find himself persecuted with stones, or venerated, according to the character of the individuals.

Let a physicist release, in a field of a certain nature, an electric kite and cause, by this means, a lightning bolt to fall upon a tree, and the new Prometheus will certainly be held to be master of a diabolical power.

And, be it said in passing, Prometheus appears to us, very singularly, to have been a precursor of Franklin; 20 but Joshua, halting the movement of the Sun, or rather, of the Earth, he would have worked a true miracle, for we know of no magnetizer endowed with so great a power as to accomplish such a prodigy.

Of all Spiritist phenomena, one of the most extraordinary is, incontestably, that of direct writing and one of those that most patently demonstrate the action of hidden intelligences.

But, from the circumstance that this phenomenon is produced by hidden beings, it does not follow that it is more miraculous than any of the other phenomena due to invisible agents, 23 because these hidden beings, who people the spaces, are one of the powers of Nature, powers whose action is incessant, both upon the material world and upon the moral world.

By enlightening us with regard to this power, Spiritism gives us the explanation of an immensity of things unexplained and inexplicable by any other means and which, for lack of all explanation, passed for prodigies in ancient times.

In the same way as magnetism, it reveals to us a law, if not unknown, at least ill understood; 26 or, more accurately, a law that was unknown, although its effects were known, since these have always been produced in all times, the ignorance of the law having generated superstition.

Once it is known, the marvelous disappears and the phenomena enter into the order of natural things.

This is why, by making a table move, or the dead write, Spiritists work no greater miracle than the physician works who restores to life a dying man, or the physicist who makes the lightning fall.

Whoever should claim, by means of this science, to perform miracles, would be either ignorant of the subject, or an impostor.

— Spiritist phenomena, like magnetic phenomena, before their cause was known, had to pass for prodigies.

Now, as the skeptics, the strong minds, that is, those who enjoy the exclusive privilege of reason and good sense, do not admit that a thing is possible from the moment they do not comprehend it, of all the facts considered prodigious they make the object of their mockery.

Since religion counts a great number of facts of this kind, they do not believe in religion and from there to absolute incredulity the step is short.

By explaining the greater part of them, Spiritism assigns them a reason for being. It comes, then, to the aid of religion, demonstrating the possibility of many that, by losing the character of the miraculous, do not cease, nevertheless, to be extraordinary, and God does not become any lesser, nor less powerful, for not having derogated His laws.

With how many jests was the fact that Saint Cupertino rose into the air made the object! Now, the ethereal suspension of heavy bodies is a phenomenon that the Spiritist law explains.

We were personally an eyewitness of it, and Mr. Home, as well as other persons of our acquaintance, repeated many times the phenomenon produced by Saint Cupertino. Hence, this phenomenon belongs to the order of natural things.

Among those of this kind, apparitions must figure in the first line, because they are the most frequent.

That of La Salette, about which opinions diverge within the clergy itself, has for us nothing unwonted. Certainly we cannot affirm that the fact occurred, because we have no material proof of it; but we consider it possible, considering that we know of thousands of others analogous to it, recently occurred.

We give them credit not only because we verify their reality, but, above all, because we know perfectly in what manner they are produced.

Whoever refers to the theory, which we expound further on, of apparitions, will recognize that this phenomenon shows itself to be as simple and plausible as a countless number of physical phenomena, which only seem prodigious for lack of a key that permits their explanation.

As for the personage who presented itself at La Salette, that is another question. Its identity was not at all demonstrated to us. We merely recognize that there may have been an apparition; as for the rest, it escapes our competence. In this respect, each one is within his right to maintain his convictions, Spiritism having nothing to do with it.

We say only that the facts that Spiritism produces reveal to us new laws and give us the explanation of a world of things that seemed supernatural.

Since some of those that passed for miraculous thus find a logical explanation, this is reason enough for no one to hasten to deny what he does not comprehend.

Some persons contest Spiritist phenomena precisely because such phenomena seem to them to be outside the common law and because they do not manage to find any explanation for them. Give them a rational basis and the doubt will disappear.

The explanation, in this century in which no one is content with words, constitutes, then, a powerful motive of conviction.

Hence we see, every day, persons who have witnessed no fact, who have not observed a table stir, or a medium write, becoming as convinced as we are, solely because they have read and comprehended.

If we were to believe only in what we see with our own eyes, our convictions would be reduced to very little.