Bulletin

Various communications: 1st A letter from Dieppe, confirming in all points the facts of spontaneous manifestations that occurred at the home of a baker in the village of Grandes-Ventes, near Dieppe, and reported by the Vigie. (Published in our March issue).

2nd A letter from Mr. M…, of Teil d’Ardèche, giving new information about facts that took place at the Château de Fons, near Aubenas.

3rd A letter from Baron Tscherkassoff, with circumstantial and authentic details about a truly extraordinary fact of spontaneous manifestation by a disturbing Spirit, which occurred in the middle of this century, with a manufacturer of Saint Petersburg. (Published below).

4th An account of a fact of tangible apparition, with all the characteristics of an agénère, which occurred on the 15th of January last, in the commune of Brix, near Valognes. The fact was transmitted to Mr. Ledoyen by a person of his acquaintance, who verified its accuracy. (Published further on).

5th Reading of a Muslim tradition concerning the prophet Ezra, taken from the Moniteur of the 15th of February, 1860, and which is based on a fact of mediumistic faculty.

Studies: 1st Spontaneous dictation by Charlet, received by Mr. Didier the Younger, continuing the work begun.

2nd Evocation of Mr. Jules-Louis C…, who died on the 30th of January last, at the hospital of Val-de-Grâce, in consequence of a cancer that had destroyed part of his face and jaw. This evocation was made in accordance with the wish of one of his friends, present at the session, and of a member of the family. It is instructive chiefly from the point of view of the modification of ideas after death, considering that during his life Mr. C… openly professed materialism.

3rd Saint Louis is asked to say whether it is possible to summon the Spirit that manifested itself at the home of the baker of Dieppe. He answers that it is not, for reasons that will be made known later.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1860.

(Private Session.)

Examination and discussion of various administrative questions.

Study and appraisal of various Spiritist communications, whether obtained at the Society or outside the sessions.

Requested to give a spontaneous dictation, Saint Louis writes what follows, through the intermediary of Miss Huet:

“Here I am, my friends, ready to give you my counsels, as I have done up to this day. Beware of the evil Spirits, who could insinuate themselves among you, seeking to sow disunion. Unfortunately, those who wish to make themselves useful to a work always encounter obstacles. Here is not present the generous person who knows them, but the one charged with carrying out the wishes she expresses. Fear not; you will triumph over all obstacles by patience, by a firm attitude against the wills that seek to impose themselves. As for the various communications attributed to me, it is often another Spirit who takes my name. I communicate little outside the Society, which I have taken under my patronage; I appreciate these places of meeting, which are especially consecrated to me, but it is only here that I like to give warnings and counsels. Thus, beware of the Spirits who frequently make use of my name. May peace and union be among you! In the name of Almighty God, who created good, I wish it for you.” Saint Louis.

A member makes this observation: How can an inferior Spirit usurp the name of a superior Spirit, without the latter’s consent? This can only be done with evil intention. Why, then, do the good Spirits permit it? If they cannot oppose it, are they less powerful than the evil ones?

To this it was answered: There is something more powerful than the good Spirits: God. God may permit the evil Spirits to manifest themselves in order to help them improve, and, moreover, to test our patience, our faith, our confidence, our firmness in resisting temptation, and, above all, to exercise our perspicacity in distinguishing the true from the false. It depends on us to drive them away by our will, proving to them that we are not so foolish as they think. If they gain dominion over us, it is only through our weakness. It is pride, jealousy, and all the evil passions of men that make their strength, giving them dominion. We know, from experience, that their obsession ceases when they see that they cannot wear us out. It is, therefore, for us to show them that they are wasting their time. If God wishes to test us, it is not within the power of any Spirit to oppose His designs. The obsession of deceiving or malevolent Spirits results, then, neither from their power nor from the weakness of the good ones, but from a will that is superior to all. The greater the struggle, the greater our merit, if we emerge victorious. FRIDAY, MARCH 9.

(Private Session.)

Reading of the project of modifications to be introduced into the Society’s regulations. In this regard, Mr. Allan Kardec presents the following observations:

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE OBJECTIVE AND CHARACTER OF THE SOCIETY.

“Gentlemen, “Some persons seem mistaken as to the true objective and character of the Society. Permit me to recall them in a few words.

“The objective of the Society is clearly defined in its title and in the preamble of the present regulation. That objective is, essentially and, one may say, exclusively, the study of the Spiritist science. What we want, above all, is not to convince ourselves, for we already are convinced, but to instruct ourselves and to learn what we do not know. To this end, we wish to place ourselves in the most favorable conditions. As these studies require calm and recollection, we wish to avoid everything that may be a cause of disturbance. Such is the consideration that must prevail in the appraisal of the measures we are going to adopt.

“Proceeding from this principle, the Society does not present itself at all as a Society of propaganda. Without doubt, each of us desires the diffusion of the ideas we judge to be just and useful, contributing within the circle of his relations and to the measure of his strength; nevertheless, it would be an error to think that for this it is necessary to be gathered together in society, and still more false to believe that the Society is the column without which Spiritism would be in peril. Being regularly constituted, our Society proceeds with more order and method than if it marched at random; but, apart from this, it is no more preponderant than the thousands of free societies or private meetings existing in France and abroad. Once again, what it wants is to instruct itself; this is why it admits into its midst only serious persons, animated by the same desire, because the antagonism of principles is a cause of disturbance. I speak of a systematic antagonism over the fundamental bases, since it could not, without contradicting itself, exclude discussion of questions of detail. If it has adopted certain general principles, it has not done so out of a spirit of narrow exclusivism. It has seen everything, studied everything, compared everything, and only afterward did it form an opinion, based on experience and reasoning. Only the future can take it upon itself to prove it right or not. But, while it waits, it seeks no supremacy, and only those who do not know it can suppose it to have the ridiculous pretension of absorbing all the partisans of Spiritism, or of setting itself up as a universal regulator. If it did not exist, each of us would instruct himself on his own, and, instead of a single meeting, we might perhaps form ten or twenty: that is the whole difference. “We impose our ideas on no one. Those who adopt them do so because they consider them just. Those who come to us do so because they think they will find here an opportunity to learn, but it is not a matter of affiliation, for we form neither a sect nor a party. We gather to study Spiritism, as others gather to study phrenology, history, or other sciences. And as our meetings are based on no material interest, it matters little to us whether others form alongside us. In truth, it would be to attribute to us very petty, very narrow, and very puerile ideas to believe that we would view them with jealous eyes; those who might think of creating rivalries against us would show, by that very fact, how little they understand the true spirit of the doctrine. We regret only one thing: that they know us so badly as to suppose us accessible to the ignoble sentiment of jealousy. It is understandable that rival mercenary enterprises, which may harm one another through competition, should view one another with an evil eye. But if these meetings have in view, as they ought to have, nothing but a purely moral interest, and no mercantile consideration is mixed with them, I ask: In what could they be harmed by their multiplicity? It will be said, no doubt, that if there is no material interest, there is that of self-love, the right to destroy the moral credit of one’s neighbor. But perhaps this motive would be still more ignoble. If it is so – which God forbid – we shall only pity those who are moved by such thoughts. Do we wish to surpass our neighbors? Let us try to do better than they; there is a noble and worthy struggle, provided it is not darkened by envy and jealousy. “Here, then, gentlemen, is an essential point, which must not be lost sight of: we form neither a sect, nor a society of propaganda, nor a corporation with a common interest; if we ceased to exist, Spiritism would suffer no harm, for from our ruins twenty other societies would form. Therefore, those who might seek to destroy us with the aim of hindering the progress of Spiritist ideas would gain nothing by it; they must know that the roots of Spiritism are not in our Society, but in the whole world. There is something more powerful than they, more influential than all the societies: it is the doctrine, which reaches the heart and the reason of those who understand it and, above all, of those who practice it.

“These principles, gentlemen, indicate to us the true character of our regulation, which has nothing in common with the statutes of a corporation. No contract binds us to one another; outside of our sessions we have no other reciprocal obligations than those of behaving as well-bred people. Those who, in these meetings, do not find what they expect to find there, are entirely free to withdraw; I myself would not understand their remaining, since what is done here does not suit them. It would not be rational that they should come to waste their time.

“In every meeting a rule is needed for the maintenance of good order. Speaking plainly, our regulation is nothing more than an instruction intended to establish order in our sessions, to maintain, among those present, the relations of urbanity and propriety that ought to preside over all assemblies of educated persons, apart from the conditions inherent in the specialty of our work. For we deal not only with men, but with Spirits who, as you know, are not all equally good, and against whose cunning we must guard ourselves. Among that number, some are very crafty and may even, out of hatred of good, impel us into a perilous life. It is for us to have prudence and perspicacity enough to thwart them, which obliges us to take particular precautions. “Remember, Gentlemen, the manner in which the Society was formed. I received in my home a few persons in a small committee. With the growth of the group, it was found that a larger place was needed. To obtain it, we would have to pay; we therefore had to pool our resources. It was said further: order is needed in the sessions; one cannot admit the first comer; a regulation is therefore necessary. That is the whole history of the Society. As you see, it is quite simple. It entered no one’s head to found an institution, nor to concern ourselves with anything whatever outside the studies; I myself declare, in a very formal manner, that if one day the Society should wish to go beyond this, I will not accompany it.

“What I have done, others are masters in doing, occupying themselves as they please, according to their tastes, their ideas, their particular points of view. And these different groups can perfectly well understand one another and live as good neighbors. Unless we use a public square as a meeting place, considering that it is impossible to gather in one and the same place all the partisans of Spiritism, these various groups ought to be a fraction of one great whole, but not rival sects. And the same group, having become very numerous, may subdivide itself, like swarms of bees. These groups already exist in great number and multiply every day. Now, it is precisely against this multiplicity that the ill will of the enemies of Spiritism will come to break itself, because the obstacles would have as their inevitable effect, by the very force of things, the multiplication of private meetings. “Nevertheless, it must be admitted that in certain groups there is a kind of rivalry or, rather, of antagonism. What is the cause? My God! this cause lies in human weakness, in the spirit of pride that wishes to impose itself; it lies, above all, in the still incomplete knowledge of the true principles of Spiritism. Each one defends his own Spirits, as formerly the cities of Greece defended their gods, who, be it said in passing, were nothing but Spirits more or less good. These dissensions exist only because there are persons who wish to judge before having seen everything, or who judge from the point of view of their own personality. They will fade away, as many others have already faded away, as the science is reformed; for, in the final analysis, the truth is one, and it will emerge from the impartial examination of the different opinions. While we wait for light to be shed upon every point, who will be the judge? It will be said that it is reason. But when two persons contradict one another, each invokes his own reason. What superior reason will decide between the two? “Without dwelling on the more or less imposing form of the language, a form that impostor Spirits and pseudo-savants know very well how to assume in order to seduce by appearances, we proceed from the principle that the good Spirits can counsel nothing but good, union, and concord; that their language is always simple, modest, marked by benevolence, free from acrimony, from arrogance, and from fatuity. In a word, everything in them breathes the purest charity. Charity – there is the true criterion for judging the Spirits and for judging oneself. Whoever, sounding the inmost recesses of his conscience, finds a germ of rancor against his neighbor, even a simple desire for evil, may say to himself, without a shadow of doubt, that he is being solicited by an evil Spirit, because he forgets these words of Christ: “You shall be forgiven as you yourselves shall have forgiven.” Therefore, if there were rivalry between two Spiritist groups, the truly good Spirits could not be on the side of the one that cast anathema upon the other, for never could a sensible man believe that envy, rancor, malevolence, in a word, every sentiment contrary to charity, could emanate from a pure source. Seek out, then, on which side there is more charity in practice, and not in words, and you will recognize without difficulty on which side are the best Spirits and, consequently, from which of them we have most reason to expect the truth. “These considerations, gentlemen, far from turning us away from our objective, place us on the true ground. Viewed from this point of view, the regulation loses completely its character of a contract, to assume that, far more modest, of a simple disciplinary rule.

“All meetings, whatever their objective, ought to guard themselves against one pitfall: that of the bungling characters who seem born to sow disturbance and discord, wherever they find themselves. Disorder and contradiction are their element. Spiritist meetings, more than others, must put themselves on guard against them, because the best communications are obtained only in calm and recollection, incompatible with their presence and with the sympathetic Spirits that lead them.

“In summary, what we must seek is to remove all causes of disturbance and interruption; to maintain among us the good relations of which sincere Spiritists, more than others, ought to set the example; to oppose, by every possible means, the turning of the Society away from its objectives, the broaching of questions that are not within its province, and its degeneration into an arena of controversy and personalism. What we must seek, further, is the possibility of execution, simplifying the workings as much as possible. The more complicated these workings are, the greater will be the causes of disturbance. Laxity would be introduced by the force of things, and from this to anarchy there is but a step.

Allan Kardec.

FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1860.

(Private Session.)

Discussion and adoption of the modified regulation.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1860.

(Private Session.)

Appointment of the members of the committee.

Studies – Two spontaneous dictations were obtained; the first, from the Spirit of Charlet, by Mr. Didier the Younger; the second, by Mrs. de Boyer, from a Spirit who said he had been forced to come and accuse himself, for having wished to break the good harmony and cast disturbance among men, stirring up envy and rivalry among those who ought to have been united. He cites some facts of which he was guilty. He says that this spontaneous confession forms part of the punishment inflicted upon him.