The magnetic banquets.

On May 26, the anniversary of Mesmer’s birth, two annual banquets are held that bring together the elite of the magnetizers of Paris and the foreign adherents who wish to join them. We have always wondered why this commemorative solemnity is celebrated by two rival banquets, where each side drinks to the health of the other and where, without result, a toast to union is raised. When one is there, it seems that they are very close to understanding one another. Why, then, a schism between men who devote themselves to the good of Humanity and to the cult of truth? Does the truth not present itself to them under the same light? Do they have two ways of understanding the good of Humanity? Are they divided over the principles of their science? Not at all; they all have the same beliefs, the same master, who is Mesmer. If this master, whose memory they invoke, answers the call they make to him, as we believe, he must lament to see the disunion among his disciples. Fortunately, this lack of union will not provoke wars such as those that, in the name of the Christ, have bloodied the world, to the eternal shame of those who call themselves Christians. But this war, however inoffensive it may be, though it limits itself to strokes of the pen and to each one drinking on his own side, is nonetheless no less regrettable. We would like to see men of good will united in a single sentiment of fellowship; thereby the magnetic science would gain in progress and in esteem. Since the two camps are not divided by doctrinal divergences, to whom, then, does their antagonism profit? We can see its cause only in the susceptibilities inherent in the imperfection of our nature, from which men, even the superior ones, are not exempt. In all times the genius of discord has agitated its torch over Humanity; that is to say, from the Spiritist point of view, the inferior Spirits, envious of the happiness of men, find among them a very easy access. Happy are those who have enough moral strength to repel their suggestions.

They did us the honor of inviting us to one of these two gatherings. As they would take place simultaneously, and as we are still only a Spirit very materially incarnated, nor do we possess the gift of ubiquity, it was possible for us to satisfy only one of these gracious invitations, the one that was presided over by Dr. Duplanty. We must say that the partisans of Spiritism did not constitute the majority there; nevertheless, we observed with pleasure that, apart from a few flicks given to the Spirits in the witty songs that were performed by Mr. Jules Lovi, and in the no less amusing ones sung by Mr. Fortier, which were honored with an encore, on no one’s part was the Spiritist Doctrine the object of those most improper criticisms in which certain adversaries are so lavish, despite the education on which they pride themselves.

Far from it, in a remarkable discourse, and for that very reason applauded, Dr. Duplanty proclaimed, in a loud voice, the respect that one owes to sincere beliefs, even those that we do not share. Without pronouncing himself for or against Spiritism, he wisely observed that the phenomena of magnetism, in revealing to us a force until then unknown, ought to make us still more circumspect with regard to those that may yet be revealed, and that, at the very least, it would be imprudence to deny those that we do not understand or have not been able to verify, especially when they rest upon the authority of honorable men, whose enlightenment and loyalty could not be called into doubt. These are sensible words, for which we thank Mr. Duplanty; they contrast singularly with those of certain adherents of magnetism who, in a disrespectful manner, cover with ridicule a doctrine that they confess they do not know, themselves forgetting that they were once the target of sarcasms; that they too were sent to the asylums for the insane and persecuted by the skeptics as enemies of good sense and of religion. Today, when magnetism has rehabilitated itself by the very force of things; when it is no longer laughed at; when one can without fear confess oneself a magnetizer, it is little worthy, little charitable of them to use reprisals against a science that is sister to their own, which could render them nothing but a salutary support. We do not attack men, they say; we only laugh at what seems ridiculous to us, awaiting the light that may dawn for us. In our opinion, the magnetic science, which we have professed for 35 years, ought to be inseparable from seriousness. It seems to us that their satirical verve does not lack for fuel in this world, without taking serious things as its target. They forget, then, that the same language was used against them; that they too accused the incredulous of judging frivolously, and that they said, as we now say in our turn: “Patience! He laughs best who laughs last!”