Murder of five children by another twelve years old.

— We read in the Gazette de Silésie:

“On October 20, 1857, they wrote to us from Bolkenham that an appalling crime had just been committed by a boy of twelve. Last Sunday, the 25th of the month, three children of Mr. Hubner, a nail manufacturer, and two of Mr. Fritche, a shoemaker, were playing together in the latter's garden. Young H…, known for his bad character, joined in their games and persuaded them to enter a chest, kept in a little house in the garden, which served the shoemaker to carry his merchandise to the fair. The five children barely fit inside, but they crowded and arranged themselves, laughing, one upon another. As soon as they had entered, the monster closed the chest, sat on top of it, and remained three quarters of an hour listening, first to their cries, then to their moans. “Finally, when the death rattles ceased and he supposed them dead, he opened the chest; the children were still breathing. He closed it again, bolted it, and went to play with a paper kite. He was seen by a little girl as he was leaving the garden. One understands the anxiety of the parents when they realized the disappearance of their children and their despair upon finding them in the chest, after lengthy searches. One of the children was still alive, but did not take long to expire. Denounced by the girl who had seen him leave the garden, young H… confessed the crime with the greatest coolness and without manifesting any repentance. The five victims, one boy and four girls from four to nine years of age, were today buried in the same place.”

— Observation: The Spirit interrogated is that of the medium's sister, who died at the age of twelve, but who, as a Spirit, always showed superiority.

Did you hear the account we have just read, of the murder of five children, committed in Silesia by a boy of twelve?

Answer. – Yes; my penalty still requires me to hear the abominations of the Earth.

What motive could have led a child of that age to commit so atrocious an action and with such coolness?

Answer. – Wickedness has no age; it is naive in the child and reasoned in the adult man.

When wickedness exists in a child who does not reason, does it not denote the incarnation of a very inferior Spirit?

Answer. – In that case, it proceeds directly from the perversity of the heart; it is his own Spirit that dominates him and impels him to perversity.

What could have been the previous existence of such a Spirit?

Answer. – Horrible.

In his previous existence did he belong to the Earth or to a still more backward world?

Answer. – I do not see it clearly; nevertheless, he must have belonged to an orb far more inferior than the Earth: he had the audacity to come to the Earth; for this he will be doubly punished.

At that age did he have perfect awareness of the crime he was committing? As a Spirit, will he be held responsible for it?

Answer. – He had the age of awareness, and that suffices.

Since this Spirit had the audacity to come to the Earth, which is too elevated for him, could he have been constrained to return to a world befitting his nature?

Answer. – His punishment is precisely to retrograde; it is hell itself. It is the punishment of Lucifer, of the spiritual man lowered down to matter, that is, the veil that, henceforth, will conceal from him the gifts of God and his divine protection. Strive, then, to reconquer these lost goods; you will have reconquered the paradise that Christ came to open for us. It is presumption, it is the pride of man who wanted to conquer what only God could possess.

Observation. – An observation is made concerning the word audacity, which the Spirit used, as well as concerning the examples cited, which relate to the situation of Spirits who found themselves in worlds too elevated for them, and who were obliged to return to another more compatible with their nature. In this respect, a person observed that it had been said that Spirits cannot regress. Indeed, Spirits really cannot retrograde, in the sense that it is not possible to lose what they acquired in science and in morality; but they can decline in position. A man who usurps a position superior to that which his capacities or his fortune confer upon him can be constrained to abandon it and to return to his natural position; now, this is not what can be called declining, since he merely returns to his sphere, from which he had departed through ambition and pride. The same thing occurs in relation to the Spirits who want to elevate themselves too quickly in worlds where they are out of place. Superior Spirits can also incarnate in inferior worlds, to fulfill a mission of progress, and this cannot be called regression, because it is devotion.

In what way is the Earth superior to the world to which the Spirit of whom we have just spoken belonged?

Answer. – In it there is a faint idea of justice: it is a beginning of progress.

Does it result from this that there is, in worlds inferior to the Earth, no idea of justice?

Answer. – No; men there live only for themselves and have no motive but the satisfaction of the passions and the instincts.

What will be the position of this Spirit in a new existence?

Answer. – If repentance comes to erase, if not entirely, but at least in part, the enormity of his faults, then he will remain on the Earth; if, on the contrary, he persists in what you call final impenitence, he will go to a place where man is on a level with the animals.

In this way, can he find on the Earth the means to expiate his faults without being obliged to return to an inferior world?

Answer. – Repentance is sacred in the eyes of God, since it is man who judges himself, which is rare on your planet.

[1] There is an error of date, probably due to the typesetter. October 25, 1857, was indeed a Sunday; but the fact could not have been communicated on the 20th. Thus, the letter must be dated the 28th or 29th; more probably the 29th, and not as it is in the original. (Note by Julio A. F.)