Fantasy

You want me to speak to you of fantasy. She was my queen, my mistress, my slave. I served her and dominated her. Always submissive to her adorable fluctuations, I was never unfaithful to her. It is still she who impels me to speak of another thing: of the ease with which the heart carries two loves, an ease despised and much censured. I consider absurd that censure of the good bourgeois, who like only their little moderate vices, more tedious still than their virtues; just as a living hedge of shrubs delimits the gardens of a priest, they admit only what their limited brains can comprehend. You are afraid of what I tell you; rest easy; Musset has his claw; one cannot ask of him the gentleness of trained little dogs. One must bear and understand his jests, true beneath their frivolous appearance, sad beneath their gaiety, smiling in their tears. [see in the September Review Reverie, by the same author.] Alfred de Musset. n Observation. – A person who had only heard this communication on the occasion of its first reading said, in an intimate session, that it seemed to him of little significance. The Spirit of Socrates, who was taking part in the conversation, responding to that observation, wrote spontaneously:

“No, you are mistaken; reread the message; there are good things; it is very intelligent and this has its good side. It is said that by this the man is known. Indeed, it is easier to prove the identity of a Spirit of your time than of mine; and, for certain persons, it is useful that, from time to time, you should have communications of this kind.”

One day when there was conversation about mediums and about the character of Alfred de Musset, whom one of those present accused of having been very material in life, the poet wrote spontaneously the remarkable communication that follows, through one of his preferred mediums:

– INFLUENCE OF THE MEDIUM UPON THE SPIRIT.

(Medium – Mrs. Schmidt.)

Only superior Spirits can communicate indistinctly through all mediums and maintain everywhere the same language. But I am not a superior Spirit, which is why, at times, I am a little material. Nevertheless, I am more advanced than you imagine.

When we communicate through a medium, the emanation of his nature is reflected more or less upon us. For example, if the medium is of those natures in which the heart predominates, of those elevated beings, capable of suffering for their brothers; in short, of those devoted, noble souls, whom misfortune has made strong and who have remained pure in the midst of the tempest, then the reflection does good, in the sense that we correct ourselves spontaneously and our language feels its effect. But in the contrary case, if we communicate through a medium of a less elevated nature, we make use purely and simply of his faculty as we make use of an instrument. It is then that we become what you call a little material. We say witty things, if you like, but we leave the heart aside. Question – Are instructed mediums, of cultivated mind, more apt to receive elevated communications than those who have no instruction?

Answer – No, I repeat. Only the essence of the soul is reflected upon the Spirits, but superior Spirits are the only invulnerable ones.

Alfred de Musset.

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[see Alfred de Musset.]