The beautiful ropemaker's wife.

— Notice. — Louise Charly, called Labé, surnamed "The Beautiful Ropemaker's Wife," was born in Lyon during the reign of Francis I. She was of perfect beauty and received a very careful education. She knew Greek and Latin, spoke Spanish and Italian with perfection and, in these languages, composed poems that would not be disapproved by the national writers. Trained in all bodily exercises, she knew horsemanship, gymnastics, and the handling of weapons. Endowed with a very energetic character, she distinguished herself, at the side of her father, among the most valiant combatants of the siege of Perpignan, in 1542, disguised as captain Loys. The siege having failed, she renounced the career of arms and returned to Lyon with her father. She married a rich rope manufacturer, named Ennemond Perrin, and soon would be known only as the "Beautiful Ropemaker's Wife," a name that remained in the street where she lived and in the place where her husband's workshops were located. She instituted in her house literary gatherings to which the most enlightened minds of the province were invited. There exists of her a collection of poems. Her reputation for beauty and as a woman of spirit, drawing to her house the most qualified men, excited the jealousy of the Lyonese ladies, who sought to avenge themselves by calumny; her conduct, however, was always irreproachable. Evoked at the session of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, on October 26, 1858, we were told that she could not yet come, for reasons that were not explained to us. On November 9 she answered our call, and here is the description that Mr. Adrien, our seeing medium, made of her: Oval head; pale-matte complexion; black eyes, beautiful and remarkable; arched eyebrows; developed and intelligent brow; Greek nose, fine; medium mouth, lips reflecting goodness of spirit; very beautiful teeth, small, well-arranged; jet-black hair, slightly curly; beautiful bearing of the head; tall and elegant figure. Clothes made of white fabrics. Observation. – Without doubt nothing proves that this description, as much as the preceding one, [A widow of Malabar], is not merely a product of the medium's imagination, considering that we have no control; but when he does so with details so precise, of contemporary persons whom he has never seen and who are recognized by relatives or friends, we cannot doubt their reality. From this we can conclude: since he sees some with an incontestable truth, he will be able to see the others. Another circumstance that ought to be taken into consideration is that he always sees the same Spirit under the same form and, even though several months of interval should pass, the description would not undergo any alteration. One would have to suppose in him a phenomenal memory to imagine that he remembered the smallest details of all the Spirits whose description he has made, and which number in the hundreds.

1. Evocation.

Answer. – I am here.

Would you have the goodness to answer some questions that we would like to ask?

Answer. – With pleasure.

Do you remember the epoch when you were known as "The Beautiful Ropemaker's Wife"?

Answer. – Yes.

Whence could come the virile qualities that made you embrace the profession of arms which, by preference, according to the laws of Nature, is the attribution of men?

Answer. – That gladdened my Spirit, avid for great things; later it turned toward another order of more serious ideas. The ideas with which we are born certainly come from prior existences, of which they are the reflections; nevertheless, they are modified considerably, whether by new resolutions, whether by the will of God.

Why did these military tastes not persist, and how could they, with such rapidity, give place to feminine tastes?

Answer. – I saw things that I do not wish you to see.

You were a contemporary of Francis I and of Charles V. Could you give your opinion on these two men, drawing a parallel between them?

Answer. – I do not wish to judge. They had faults, you know it; their virtues are few in number: a few traits of generosity, that is all. Set this subject aside; their hearts could still bleed: they suffer greatly!

What was the source of that high intelligence which made you apt to receive an education so superior to that of the women of your time?

Answer. – Painful existences and the will of God.

There was, then, in you, an anterior progress?

Answer. – It could not be otherwise.

Did that instruction make you progress as a Spirit?

Answer. – Yes.

It seems that you were happy on Earth: are you more so now?

Answer. – What a question! However happy one may be on Earth, the happiness of Heaven is quite different! How many treasures, and how many riches, which one day you will know, and of which you do not suspect or are completely ignorant!

What do you understand by Heaven?

Answer. – I understand by Heaven the other worlds.

At present, what world do you inhabit?

Answer. – I inhabit a world that you do not know; but I am little bound to it: matter holds us little.

Is it Jupiter?

Answ. – Jupiter is a happy world; but do you think that, among all of them, it alone is favored by God? They are as numerous as the grains of sand of the ocean.

Did you preserve the poetic verve that you possessed here?

Answ. – I will answer with pleasure, but I fear to shock other Spirits or to place myself below what I really am. This would cause my answer to seem useless to you, leading you into error.

Could you tell us in what position we could place you among the Spirits?

Answer. – There is no answer.

(To Saint Louis): Could Saint Louis answer that?

Answer. – She is there; I cannot say that which she does not wish to say. Do you not see that, among the Spirits whom you ordinarily evoke, she is one of the most elevated? Besides, our Spirits cannot appreciate exactly the distances that separate them; for you they are incomprehensible and, nevertheless, they are immense!

(To Louise-Charly): Under what appearance do you find yourself among the Spirits?

Answer. – Adrien has just described me.

Why this form, instead of another? Why, finally, in the world where you find yourself are you not such as you were on Earth?

Answer. – I was evoked as a poetess; thus I came.

Could you dictate to us some poems or any literary passage whatsoever? We would be happy to have something of yours.

Answer. – Seek out my old writings. We do not like these tests, especially in public: I will do it, however, another time.

Observation. – It is known that Spirits do not like to be tested, and questions of that nature always have, more or less, that character. It is without doubt for that reason that they almost never acquiesce. Spontaneously, and when we least expect it, they sometimes give us the most surprising things, those proofs that we would have solicited from them in vain; but, almost always, it is enough that one ask them for a thing for it not to be obtained, above all if a sentiment of curiosity is perceived. The Spirits, especially the elevated ones, wish, thus, to prove to us that they are not at our orders.

— On the following day, "The Beautiful Ropemaker's Wife" dictated spontaneously, through the writing medium who served as her interpreter:

"I am going to dictate what I promised you; it is not verses, for I do not wish to make them; besides, I no longer recall those I made and you would not appreciate them: it will be the most modest prose.

"On Earth I exalted love, gentleness, and good sentiments: I spoke a little of what I did not know. Here, it is not of love that I occupy myself, it is of a charity broad, austere, enlightened; of a constant charity, which has but one example on Earth. "Men! Think that it depends on you to be happy and to make of your world one of the most advanced of heaven: you will have to silence hatreds and enmities, to forget rancors and angers, to lose pride and vanity. Set all this aside, like a burden that, sooner or later, you must abandon. That burden, I well know, for you is a treasure on Earth; therefore you have merit in abandoning it and in losing it; but in heaven it becomes an obstacle to your happiness. Believe, then, in me: hasten your progress; true happiness is that which comes from God. Where would you find pleasures that are worth the joys that he gives to his elect, to his angels? "God loves the men who seek to advance on his path; count, then, on his support. Do you not have confidence in him? Do you judge that he is perjurer, that you ought not to give yourselves to him completely, without restriction? Unfortunately, you do not wish to understand, or few among you understand; you prefer the today to the tomorrow; your restricted vision limits your sentiments, your heart, and your soul, causing you to suffer in order to progress, instead of advancing, naturally and easily, by the path of good, by your own will, since suffering is the means that God employs to moralize you. Do not avoid, then, that sure way, although terrible for the traveler. I will end by exhorting you no longer to regard death as a scourge, but as the portal of true life and of true happiness." Louise Charly. n [1]

[see Louise Charly.]