Recollection of a previous existence.

— One of our subscribers sends us a letter from one of his friends, from which we extract the following passage:

“You asked my opinion, or rather my belief, regarding the presence or absence, near us, of the souls of those we love. You also ask for some explanations concerning my conviction that our souls change their envelope very rapidly.

“However ridiculous it may seem, I will say that I retain the sincere conviction of having been murdered during the massacres of Saint Bartholomew. I was very much a child when such a recollection came to wound my imagination. Later, upon reading that sad page of our History, it seemed to me that many details were known to me, and I still believe that, if old Paris could be reconstructed, I would recognize that gloomy lane where, in flight, I felt the cold of three dagger thrusts in my back. There are details of this bloody scene that are preserved in my memory and that have never disappeared. Why did I have this conviction before knowing what the night of Saint Bartholomew had been? Why, upon reading the account of that massacre, did I ask myself: is it my dream, that unpleasant dream I had as a child, whose memory has remained so vivid to me? Why, when I wished to consult my memory, to force my thought, did I become like a poor madman to whom an idea occurs and who seems to struggle to discover its reason? Why? I know nothing of it. You will surely find me ridiculous, but I will keep no less the recollection, the conviction. “If I told you that I was seven years old when I had a dream like this: I was twenty years old, I was jovial, well-built, and I think rich. I came to fight a duel and I was killed. If I told you that the salute made with the weapon, before fighting, I made it the first time I had a foil in my hand; if I told you that each more or less graceful preliminary that education or civilization has placed in the art of killing was unknown to me before my training in arms, you would say, no doubt, that I am mad or a maniac. It may well be; but sometimes it seems to me that a flash penetrates that fog and I have the conviction that the recollection of the past is being reestablished in my soul. “If you were to ask me whether I believe in the sympathy between souls, in their power to put themselves in contact with one another, despite the distance, despite death, I would answer you: Yes; and this yes would be pronounced with all the force of my conviction. It happened that I found myself twenty-five leagues from Lima, after eighty-six days of travel, and awoke in tears, with a true pain in my heart; a mortal sadness took hold of me throughout the entire day. I noted the fact in my diary. At that hour, on the same night, my brother was struck by a fit of apoplexy, which gravely endangered his life. I compared the day, the moment: everything was exact. Here is a fact; the persons exist. Will you say that I am mad? “I have read no author who has treated such a subject. I will do so when I return. Perhaps from that reading a little light may spring forth for me.”

— Mr. V…, the author of this letter, is a naval officer and currently traveling. It could be interesting to see whether, by evoking him, he would confirm his recollections; but there would be the impossibility of forewarning him of our intention and, on the other hand, considering his profession, it might be difficult to find the opportune moment. Nevertheless, we were told to call upon his guardian angel, whenever we wished to evoke him, and he would tell us whether we could do so.

Evocation of Mr. V…’s guardian angel.

Answer. – I heed your call.

You know the motive that leads us to wish to evoke your protégé. It is not a matter of satisfying a vain curiosity, but of ascertaining, if possible, a fact interesting to the Spiritist science: that of the recollection of his previous existence.

Answer. – I understand your wish, but at this moment his Spirit is not free; it is actively occupied by the body and in a moral uneasiness that prevents it from resting.

Is he still at sea?

Answer. – He is on land; but I will be able to answer some questions, because that soul was always entrusted to my keeping.

Since you have the kindness to answer, we will ask whether the recollection that he believes he has preserved of his death in a previous existence is an illusion.

Answer. – It is a very real intuition. At that time this person lived very well on Earth.

For what reason is this recollection more precise for him than for others? Is there in this a physiological cause or a particular usefulness for him?

Answer. – These vivid recollections are very rare. They depend somewhat on the manner of death, which impressed him so much that it is, so to speak, incarnated in his soul. However, many other creatures have had equally terrible deaths, but the recollection has not remained with them. Only rarely does God permit it.

After that death, which occurred on the night of Saint Bartholomew, did he have other existences?

Ans. – No.

How old was he when he died?

Answer. – About thirty years.

Can one know what he was?

Answer. – He was attached to the house of Coligny.

If we had been able to evoke him, we would have asked him whether he recalls the name of the street where he was murdered, in order to see whether, by going to that place, when he returns to Paris, the recollection of the scene will be even more precise for him.

Answer. – It was at the Bucy crossroads.

Does the house where he was killed still exist?

Answer. – No; it has been rebuilt.

With the same object we would have asked whether he recalls the name he had.

Answer. – His name is not known in History, for he was a simple soldier. He was called Gaston Vincent.

His friend, here present, would like to know whether he received his letters.

Answer. – Not yet.

Were you his guardian angel at that time?

Answer. – Yes, then and now.

Observation. – Sceptical persons, more jesting than serious, might say that his guardian angel protected him poorly and ask why he did not turn aside the hand that struck him. Although such a question deserves only one answer, a few words on the matter may perhaps not be useless.

First we will say that, since dying is in the nature of man, it is not within the power of any guardian angel to oppose the course of the laws of Nature. Otherwise, there would be no reason why they should not also prevent natural death, as much as accidental death. In the second place, since the moment and the manner of death are in the destiny of each one, it is necessary that this destiny be fulfilled. Finally, we will say that the Spirits do not regard death as we do: the true life is that of the Spirit, of which the various corporeal existences are but episodes. The body is an envelope that the Spirit momentarily puts on and leaves like a worn or torn garment. It matters little, then, whether one dies a little earlier or a little later, in this manner or that, since, in the final analysis, one must always arrive there, and this death, far from harming the Spirit, can be quite useful to it, according to the manner in which it is accomplished. It is the prisoner who leaves his temporary prison to enjoy eternal liberty. It may be that the tragic end of Gaston Vincent was a useful thing for him, as a Spirit, which his guardian angel understood better than he did, for the one saw only the present, whereas the other glimpsed the future. Spirits withdrawn from this world by a premature death, in the flower of their age, have often answered us that it was a favor from God, who had thus preserved them from the ills to which, without this, they would have been exposed.