Alfred de Musset

— At the session of the Society of November 23, a Spirit communicated spontaneously, writing the following:

As I desire, before all, to be agreeable to you, I ask on what theme you wish me to treat. If you have a subject, ask. In short, Gentlemen, I am always your devoted, Alfred de Musset. n — Your visit being unforeseen, we do not have a subject prepared. We ask, then, that you deign to treat one of your choice. Whatever it may be, we will be very grateful.

— You are right. Yes, because my Spirit, in particular, and we all, in general, know your needs better and can better choose the communications than you yourselves would do.

“On what shall I treat? I find myself quite embarrassed in the midst of so many interesting subjects. Let us begin by speaking of those who ardently desire to be Spiritists, but who seem to draw back before what they judge to be an apostasy. Let us speak, then, for those who would draw back before the idea of finding themselves in contradiction with Catholicism. Hear well, I say Catholicism and not Christianity. Do you fear to renounce the faith of your fathers? Error! Your fathers, the first, those who founded that religion sublime in its origin, were more Spiritist than you; they preached the same doctrine that today is taught to you. And whoever says: Spiritism, like your religion, says: charity, goodness, forgetfulness and pardon of injuries. Like Catholicism, it teaches you self-abnegation. You can, then, timorous consciences, reconcile them and come, without scruple, to sit at this table and converse with the beings for whom you feel longing. Like your fathers, be charitable, good, compassionate, and at the end of the road you will all have the same place; at the end of the path, the balance that will weigh your actions will have the same weights and the work the same value. Come without fear, I beg you; come, gracious women, with your heart full of illusions; come here, and these will be replaced by realities more beautiful and more radiant; come, wife of hard heart, who suffer your aridity, here is the water that softens the rock and quenches thirst; come, loving women, who throughout all your life aspire to happiness, who measure the depth of your heart and despair of filling it; come, woman of avid intelligence, come: here science flows clear and pure; come drink at this fount that rejuvenates. And you, old ones, who bow down, come and you will laugh in the face of all that youth who disdains you, because, for you, the doors of the sanctuary are opening, for you birth is going to begin again and bring the happiness of your first years; come, and we will make you see the brothers who extend their arms to you and await you; come, then, all of you, because for all there are consolations. You see that I lend myself willingly; dispose of me and you will give me pleasure.”

— Taking advantage of the good will of the Spirit of Alfred de Musset, the following questions were addressed to him:

1st What will be the influence of poetry on Spiritism?

Answer. – Poetry is the balm that is applied upon the wounds. Poetry was given to men like the celestial manna, and all poets are mediums whom God sent to Earth to regenerate his people a little and not let them become completely brutish. For what could be more beautiful, that speaks more to the soul than poetry? 2nd Painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry were, successively, influenced by pagan and Christian ideas. Can you say whether, after the pagan and Christian arts, there will one day be a Spiritist art?

Answer. – You ask a question that answers itself: the worm is a worm, becomes a silkworm, then a butterfly. What is more ethereal, more graceful than a butterfly? Well then! Pagan art is the worm; Christian art the cocoon; Spiritist art will be the butterfly.

(In this regard see the preceding article on pagan art, Christian art and Spiritist art).

3rd What is the influence of woman in the nineteenth century?

Note. – This question was asked by a young man, a stranger to the Society.

Answer. – Ah! It is progress. And it is a young man who asks the question; magnificent; I myself would be too fond not to fail to answer, and I am sure that all desire it also.

The influence of woman in the nineteenth century! Do you believe that she waited for this epoch so that you might continue to dominate her, poor and weak men that you are? If you attempted to debase her, it was because you feared her; if you attempted to stifle her intelligence, it was because you dreaded her influence. Only in her heart could you not set up barriers. And as the heart is the gift that God gave her in particular, it remained master and sovereign. But behold, woman too makes herself a butterfly: she wants to come out of her cocoon; she wants to reconquer her divine rights; like that one, she launches herself into the atmosphere and one would say she breathes the air at its just value. Do not think that I want to transform them into scholars, learned women, poetesses. No; but I want, they want here, in the world in which I dwell, that she who must elevate Humanity be worthy of her role; that she who must form men begin to know herself and, in order to instill in them from a tender age the love of the beautiful, of the great, of the just, it is necessary that she possess that love in a superior degree, it is necessary that she comprehend it. If the educating agent par excellence is reduced to the state of nullity, society will totter. This is what you must comprehend in the nineteenth century. [1]

[see Alfred de Musset.]