FOUNDING OF THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY OF PARIS.

Although there is here no case of foresight, I mention, in order to preserve it in memory, that of the founding of the Society, on account of the role it played in the march of Spiritism and of the communications to which it gave rise.

For about six months, I had been holding, at my house, on the Rue des Martyrs, a gathering with a few adepts, on Tuesdays. Miss E. Dufaux was the principal medium. Although the place could not hold more than 15 or 20 people, sometimes as many as 30 gathered there. Such gatherings presented great interest, by the serious character with which they were invested and by the questions treated there. There not infrequently appeared foreign princes and other persons of high distinction.

Not at all comfortable in its arrangement, the room where we gathered soon became very cramped. Some of the frequenters resolved to club together to rent one that would be more suitable. But then a legal authorization became necessary, in order to avoid having the authorities come to disturb us. Mr. Dufaux, who was personally acquainted with the Prefect of Police, took it upon himself to handle the matter. The authorization also depended on the Minister of the Interior. It then fell to General X…, who was, without anyone knowing it, sympathetic to our ideas, although without knowing them entirely, to obtain the authorization. This, thanks to his influence, could be granted in a fortnight, when, ordinarily, it takes three months to be given. The Society was, in consequence, legally constituted, and we proceeded to meet every Tuesday in the compartment it had rented, in the Palais Royal, Galerie de Valois. There it remained a year, from April 1, 1858, to April 1, 1859. Not having stayed there longer, it began to meet on Fridays in one of the salons of the Douix restaurant, in the same Palais Royal, Galerie Montpensier, from April 1, 1859, to April 1, 1860, the period when it installed itself in a place of its own, on the Rue and Passage Sainte-Anne, 59. Formed at first of scarcely homogeneous elements and of persons of good will, who were accepted with somewhat excessive ease, the Society found itself subject to many vicissitudes, which were not the least of the setbacks of my task.