Benvenuto Cellini.

Evocation.

Answer. – Question me; I am ready. Take as long as you wish, for I have time to give you.

Do you remember the existence you had on Earth, in the sixteenth century, between 1500 and 1570?

Answer. – Yes, yes.

At present, what is your situation as a Spirit?

Answer. – I have lived in several other worlds and I am very satisfied with the position I occupy today; it is not a throne, but I am on the way.

Did you have other corporeal existences on Earth after the one we know?

Answer. – Corporeal, yes; on Earth, no.

How long did you remain wandering?

Answer. – I cannot calculate it: a few years.

What were your occupations in that wandering state?

Answer. – I worked for myself.

Did you return to Earth a few times?

Answer. – Rarely.

Do you attend the drama in which you are portrayed? What do you think of it?

Answer. – I went to see it several times; I felt flattered as Cellini, but little so as a Spirit who had progressed.

Before the existence we know, did you have others on Earth?

Answer. – No, none.

Could you say what you were in your preceding existence?

Answer. – My concerns were completely different from those I had on Earth.

What world do you inhabit?

Answer. – You do not know it and you do not see it.

Could you give us a description of it, from the physical and moral point of view?

Answer. – Yes, easily.

From the physical point of view, my dear friends, I have delighted in its plastic beauty: there nothing shocks the eyes; all the lines harmonize perfectly; mime is the constant form of expression; perfumes envelop us and we have nothing to desire for our physical well-being, once the few needs to which we are subject have been satisfied. From the moral point of view, perfection is lesser, for there one can still see troubled consciences and Spirits inclined toward evil. It is not perfection – far from it – but, as I have already said, it is on its way, and we all hope one day to attain it.

What are your occupations in the world you inhabit?

Answer. – We work in the arts. I am an artist.

In your memoirs you relate a scene of sorcery and enchantment that is said to have taken place in the Colosseum, in Rome, and in which you are said to have taken part. Do you remember it? Answer. – Without much clarity.

If we were to proceed with its reading, would your memory be awakened?

Answer. – Yes, that could give me an idea.

The following passage from his memoirs was then read:

“In the midst of that strange life I attached myself to a Sicilian priest, of a very distinguished mind and profoundly versed in Greek and Latin letters. Conversing with him one day, the subject fell upon necromancy and I confessed to him that all my life I had ardently desired to see and learn something of that art. To undertake such an enterprise, one must have a firm and intrepid soul, the priest answered me. “One night, however, the priest made his preparations and told me to seek out one or two companions. He associated himself with a man from Pistoia, who also occupied himself with necromancy, and we went to the Colosseum. There the priest dressed himself in the manner of the necromancers, then began to draw circles on the ground, with the most beautiful ceremonies one can imagine. He had brought precious perfumes, fetid drugs, and fire. When everything was in order he made an opening in the circle and introduced us into it, taking us one by one by the hand. He then distributed the roles. He put the talisman into the hands of his necromancer friend, charged the others with watching over the fire and the perfumes, and finally began the conjurations. This ceremony lasted more than an hour and a half. The Colosseum filled with legions of infernal Spirits. When the priest saw that they were numerous enough, he turned to me, who was tending the perfumes, and said: Benvenuto, ask them for something. I answered that I wished to be reunited with my Sicilian Angelica. Although we obtained no answer that night, I was enchanted with what I had seen. The necromancer told me that we had to return a second time and that I would obtain everything I asked for, provided I brought a young boy still a virgin. I chose one of my apprentices and brought two of my friends as well. “He put the talisman into my hands, telling me to turn it in the direction of the places that would be indicated to me. My apprentice was placed beneath the talisman. The necromancer began his terrible evocations, called by name a multitude of chiefs of the infernal legions, expressing his orders in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in the name of the uncreated, living, and eternal God. Soon the Colosseum filled with a quantity of demons a hundred times more considerable than the first time. On the necromancer's advice, I again asked to meet with Angelica. He turned to me and said: Did you not hear them announce that within a month you would be with her? And he asked me to be firm, because there were a thousand legions beyond those that had been called, adding that they were more dangerous and that, since they had answered my request, it was necessary to treat them gently and to dismiss them calmly. On the other hand, the young boy cried out in astonishment that he perceived a million terrible men threatening us, and four enormous giants, armed from head to foot, who seemed to want to penetrate into our circle. During this time the necromancer, trembling with fear, tried to conjure them away, imparting to his voice the sweetest intonation. The boy hid his head between his knees and cried out: I want to die like this! We are dead! Then I said to him: “These creatures are all beneath us and what you see is nothing but smoke and shadow; so, raise your eyes.” He had scarcely obeyed me when he resumed: The whole Colosseum is burning and the fire is coming upon us. The necromancer ordered that asafoetida be burned. Charged with the perfumes, Agnolo was half dead with terror. “At this noise and at the terrible stench the boy ventured to raise his head. Hearing my laughter, he was somewhat reassured and said that the demons were beginning to retreat. We remained thus until the moment the matins sounded. The young one told us that he perceived only a few demons, and even then, at a great distance. Finally, when the necromancer concluded the rituals and removed his vestments, we left the circle. While we were walking toward our homes, along the Banchi street, he assured us that two demons were turning somersaults ahead of us, now running over the rooftops, now along the ground. “The necromancer swore that, since he had first set foot in a magic circle, nothing so extraordinary had ever happened to him. He then tried to persuade me to join with him to devote ourselves to a book, which was to procure us incalculable riches and furnish us the means to compel the demons to indicate to us the places where the treasures that the Earth keeps in its bosom lie hidden…” After various accounts more or less connected with what precedes, Benvenuto recounts how, at the end of thirty days, that is, within the term fixed by the demons, he found his Angelica again.

Could you say what is true in that scene?

Answer. – The necromancer was a charlatan, I was a novelist, and Angelica my mistress.

Did you see Francis I again, your protector?

Answer. – Certainly; he has seen many others who were not his protégés.

How did you judge him in life and how do you judge him now?

Answer. – I will tell you how I judged him: as a prince and, in that condition, blinded by his education and by those who surrounded him.

And what do you say now?

Answer. – He has progressed.

Was it out of sincere love of art that he protected artists?

Answer. – Yes, and also out of pleasure and vanity.

Where is he at present?

Answer. – He lives.

Is he on Earth?

Answer. – No.

If we were to evoke him now, could he come and converse with us?

Answer. – Yes, but do not press the Spirits like that. Let your evocations be prepared well in advance and then you will have little to ask the Spirits. Thus you risk much less being deceived, because that happens sometimes. (Saint Louis.)

(To Saint Louis) Could you cause two Spirits to come and converse?

Answer. – Yes.

— In that case would it be useful to have two mediums?

Answer. – Yes, necessarily.

Note. – This dialogue took place in another session; we will return to it in our next issue.

(To Cellini) Whence comes your vocation for art? Would it result from a special prior development?

Answer. – Yes; for a long time I was attached to poetry and to the beauty of language. On Earth I bound myself to beauty as reproduction; today I occupy myself with it as invention.

You also possessed military talent, since Pope Clement VII entrusted you with the defense of the Castle of Sant'Angelo. Yet your talent as an artist should not have afforded you much aptitude for war. Answer. – I had talent and I knew how to apply it. In everything discernment is necessary, above all in the military art of that time.

Could you give some advice to the artists who seek to follow in your footsteps?

Answer. – Yes. I will tell them simply to seek purity and true beauty, more than they do and more than I myself did. They will understand me.

Is beauty not relative and conventional? The European judges himself more beautiful than the black man, and the latter more beautiful than the white man. If there is an absolute beauty, what is its type? Can you give your opinion on the matter? Answer. – With pleasure. I did not wish to allude to a conventional beauty; on the contrary. Beauty is everywhere, it is the reflection of the Spirit in the body and not merely the corporeal form. As you have said, a black man can be beautiful, with a beauty that will be appreciated only by his fellows, it is true. In the same way our terrestrial beauty is deformity for heaven, just as for you, white men, the beautiful black man appears almost deformed. For the artist beauty is life, the sentiment he knows how to give to his work. With this he will impart beauty to the most common things.

Could you guide a medium in the execution of a modeling, as Bernard de Palissy did in relation to drawings?

Answer. – Yes.

Could you lead the medium of whom you make use as interpreter to do something now?

Answer. – As also the others, although I would prefer an artist who knew the tricks of my art.

Remark. – Experience proves that a medium's aptitude for one or another genre of production depends on the flexibility he presents to the Spirit, and this apart from his talent. Knowledge of the craft and the material means of execution do not constitute talent, but it is conceivable that the Spirit who directs the medium finds in him less mechanical difficulty to overcome. Nevertheless, there are mediums who do admirable things of which they lack the first notions, such as poetry, drawings, engravings, music, etc.; but then it is because there exists in them an innate aptitude, no doubt resulting from a prior development, of which they have retained only the intuition.

Could you direct Mrs. G. S., here present, who is an artist, although she has never managed to produce anything as a medium?

Answer. – I will try, if she wishes it.

(Mrs. G. S.) When do you want to begin?

Answer. – Whenever you wish, starting tomorrow.

But how will I know that the inspiration comes from you?

Answer. – Conviction comes with the proofs. Let it come slowly.

Why have I not succeeded until now?

Answer. – Little persistence and a lack of good will on the part of the evoked Spirit.

I thank you for the assistance you promise me.

Answer. – Farewell. Until soon, fellow worker.

Note. – Mrs. G. S. set to work, but we do not yet know the results she obtained.

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[v. Benvenuto Cellini.]