The scholars

As soon as you call a Spirit, God permits me to come. I am going to give you a good piece of advice, above all to you, M…

You who always occupy yourselves with the scholars, for it is your preoccupation, leave them aside. What can they do with religious beliefs and, above all, Spiritist ones! Have they not in all times repelled the truths that presented themselves? Did they not reject all inventions, treating them as chimeras? Among those who announced those truths, some were treated as madmen and, thus, incarcerated; others cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition, others still stoned or burned. Later the truth shone no less in the eyes of the surprised scholars, who had placed it under the bushel. By addressing yourselves incessantly to them, do you wish, a new Galileo, to inflict upon yourself the moral torture that is ridicule, and to be forced into recantation? Did the Christ address himself to the academicians of his time? No. He preached the divine morality to all, in general, and to the people, in particular. For apostles or propagators of his coming, he chose fishermen, people simple of heart, very ignorant, who did not know the laws of Nature and did not know whether a miracle could derogate from them, but who believed sincerely. “Go,” said Jesus, “and recount what you have seen.”

He never worked a miracle that was not in favor of those who asked it of him with faith and conviction. He refused them to the Pharisees and the Sadducees who came to tempt him, and he called them hypocrites. Thus, address yourselves also to intelligent persons, disposed to believe; reject the scholars and the unbelievers.

Besides, what is a scholar? A man more instructed than the others, because he studied more, but who has lost the prestige he had in former times, a fatal halo that often earned him the honors of the stake. However, as popular intelligence developed, his brilliance diminished. Today, the man of genius no longer fears being accused of sorcery. He is no longer an ally of Satan.

Enlightened Humanity appreciates at its just value the one who works much and knows much; it knows how to place upon the pedestal that befits him the man of genius who produces beautiful works. As it knows what the science of the scholar consists in, it no longer torments him; as it knows whence the creative genius emanates, it bows before him. But, in its turn, it wishes to have the liberty of believing in those truths which lavish consolations upon it. It does not want the one who knows more or less Chemistry, more or less Rhetoric, who produces the most beautiful opera, to come and hinder its beliefs, casting ridicule in its face and treating its ideas as madness. It will turn aside from that path and silently will continue on its way. One day truth will envelop the whole world, and those who had repelled it will be obliged to recognize it. I myself, who occupied myself with Spiritism until my last day, always practiced it in privacy. The Academy matters little to me. Believe me, later it will come to you.

Delphine de Girardin. n [1]

[cf. Delphine de Girardin.]