Some considerations on Spiritism.

There are certain epochs in which the idea governs the world, preceding those great cataclysms that transform men and peoples. As much as, or more than, that which presides over temporal interests, the religious idea also contributes to the great social movement.

Frequently absorbed by material preoccupations, it suddenly breaks free, or imperceptibly so. Now it is the lightning that escapes from the clouds, now the volcano, which secretly mines the mountain before bursting through the crater. Today it takes on another kind of manifestation: after having shown itself as an imperceptible point on the horizon of thought, it has ended up invading the atmosphere. The air is impregnated with it; it crosses space, fecundates intelligences, keeps the whole world stirred. And do not think that I am using a metaphor to express reality. No; it is a phenomenon of which one is conscious and which words can scarcely translate. It is like a fluid that presses upon us on all sides, it is something vague and undetermined, whose influence everyone feels, with which the brain is impregnated and from which it frequently breaks free as though by intuition, rarely as a thought formulated explicitly. The religious idea – let us say the Spiritist idea – has its place at the merchant’s counter, in the physician’s consulting room, in the office of the lawyer and the attorney, in the worker’s workshop, in the fields and in the barracks. The name of our great, of our dear Spiritist missionary is on everyone’s lips, as his image is found in all our hearts, and all eyes are fixed upon this culminating point, worthy interpreter of the ministers of the Lord. This idea that travels through immensity, that overexcites all human brains, that exists even instinctively in the most recalcitrant incarnate Spirits, would it not be the work of that multitude of intelligences who surround us, preceding and facilitating our apostolic labors? We know that the testimony of the authenticity of our doctrine goes back to the night of time; that the sacred books, the fundamental basis of Christianity, relate them; that several Fathers of the Church, among them Tertullian and Saint Augustine, affirm their reality; even contemporary works make mention of it, and I cannot resist the desire to cite the passage of a pamphlet published in 1843, which seems to set forth analytically the whole quintessence of Spiritism:

“Some persons cast doubt on the existence of superior, incorporeal intelligences, that is, genii who preside over the administration of the world and maintain an intimate commerce with certain privileged beings. It is for them that I write the lines that follow, hoping that they may give them conviction:

“In all the kingdoms of Nature there exists a law that ranks the species, from the infinitely small to the infinitely great. It is by imperceptible degrees that one passes from the insect to the elephant, from the minute grains of sand to the greatest of the celestial globes. This regular gradation is evident in all the perceptible works of the Creator; it must, then, be found in His masterpieces, so that the scale may be continuous, so as to ascend up to Him! The prodigious distance that exists between inert matter and man endowed with reason seems to be filled by organic beings, but ones deprived of this noble prerogative. In the infinite distance between man and his author is found the place of the pure Spirits. Their existence is indispensable for Creation to be complete in every sense.

“Thus, there is also the world of Spirits, whose variety is as great as that of the stars that shine in the firmament; there is also the universe of intelligences which, by the subtlety, promptness, and vastness of their penetration, draw ever nearer to the Sovereign Intelligence. Their design, already manifest in the organization of the visible world, continues until the perfect consummation in the invisible world. All religions proclaim the existence of these immaterial beings; all represent them as interposing themselves in human affairs, as secondary agents. Not to admit their interference in human vicissitudes is consequently to deny the facts upon which rest the beliefs of all peoples, of all philosophers, and of all sages, going back to the highest Antiquity.”

Most certainly, the one who traced this picture was a Spiritist in the most intimate recesses of the soul. This incomplete sketch lacks the essential dogma of reincarnation, as well as the moral consequences that the teaching of the Spirits imposes upon the adepts of Spiritism. The doctrine existed in the state of intuition, both in the intelligences and in the hearts. You appeared, sir, as an elect of God; the Almighty leaned upon a vast erudition, an elevated Spirit, a complete rectitude, and a privileged mediumship. All the elements of the eternal truths were disseminated throughout space; it was necessary to establish the science, to bring conviction to consciences still undecided, and to gather all the inspirations emanating from the Most High into a substantial body of doctrine. The work advanced, and the pollen escaped from that intellectual anther produced the fecundation. Your name is the banner under which we place ourselves at ease. Today you come to the aid of these neophytes of Spiritism, who still do nothing but babble the rudiments of the science, but whom a great number of Spirits, attentive and benevolent, do not disdain to favor with their celestial inspirations. Already – and we congratulate ourselves on this – in the midst of this congress of intelligences of the two worlds, the evil passions riot around the regenerating work; already false learning, pride, egoism, and human interests rise up against Spiritism, in testimony of its power, while the great mover of this ascensional progress toward the celestial regions – God – hidden behind that cloud of hateful and chimerical theories, remains calm and pursues His work. The work having been accomplished, Spiritist centers are forming at all points of the globe. Young men abandon the illusions of early age, which prepare for them so many disappointments in maturity; mature men learn to take life seriously; old men who have worn out their illusions in the conflict of life fill the immense void with pleasures more real than those that abandon them, and from all these heterogeneous elements are formed aggregates that radiate to infinity.

Our beautiful city was not the last to take part in this intellectual movement. One of these men of upright heart, of sound judgment, took the initiative. His appeal was heard by intelligences who harmonized with his own. Around that luminous focus gravitated a great number of Spiritist circles.

From every side arise varied communications bearing the mark of their author: it is the mother who, from her glorious sphere, with the perfection of detail and her infinite tenderness, communicates with her beloved son; it is the father or the grandfather, who allies to paternal love the severity of form; it is Fénelon, who gives to the language of charity the stamp of antique beauty and the melody of his prose; it is the touching spectacle of a son, become a blessed Spirit, paying homage to her who bore him in her womb with the echo of his illustrious teachings; it is that of a mother who reveals herself to her son and who, with her head crowned with stars, leads him, from trial to trial, to the place he is to occupy beside her, in the bosom of God, for all eternities (sic); it is the archbishop of Utrecht, breathing to his protégé his eloquent inspirations and submitting them to the curb of orthodoxy; it is an angel Gabriel, moving namesake of the great archangel, taking spontaneously, and with the permission of God, the mission to guide his brother, to follow him step by step, thus allying, superior Spirit that he is, fraternal love to divine love; they are the pure Spirits, the saints, the archangels who clothe their sublime instructions with the seal of divinity; they are, finally, physical manifestations, after which doubt is nothing but an absurdity, not to say a profanation. After having raised your gazes to the upper rungs of the scale of beings, consent, dear colleagues, to lower them to the lowest rungs, and the infinitely small will yet furnish you with teachings.

It has been a good ten years since the brightnesses of Spiritism shone before my eyes; but it was Spiritism in a rudimentary state, stripped of its principal documents and of its characteristic terminology; it was a reflection, a few jets of fine radiation; but it was not yet the light.

Instead of taking up the pen or the pencil and obtaining, by that thus simplified means, rapid communications, recourse was had to the table by typtology or mediate writing. The table was nothing but an appendage of the hand, but this mode of communication, in general repugnant to the superior Spirits, frequently kept them at a distance. Thus, I obtained only mystifications, trivial or obscene answers; I myself drew away from these mysteries from beyond the tomb, which translated themselves in a manner so little conformable to my expectation, or rather, which presented themselves under an aspect that frightened me. Several experiments had been attempted, leading to analogous results.

And yet, these apparent disappointments were nothing more than temporary trials, which were to have as their definitive consequence the deepening of my convictions.

In spite of myself, the positivism of my studies had cooled my philosophical beliefs; but I was skeptical and not obstinate; I doubted, to my great sorrow, and I made vain efforts to expel the materialism that, by surprise, had invaded my soul and my heart. How impenetrable are the decrees of God! This moral disposition served precisely for my transformation. I had before my eyes the immortality of the soul, taking on the aspect of a material reality, and, in order to establish this faith so new, what did it matter to me, after all, whether the manifestations came from a superior or an inferior Spirit, so long as it was a Spirit! Did I not already know perfectly well that an inert body, such as a table, can be the instrument, but not the cause, of an intelligent manifestation, a manifestation that did not at all enter into the sphere of my ideas, and which all the fluidic theories are powerless to explain?

Thus, I had shaken off these materialistic tendencies, against which I struggled without success, with a desperate energy, and I would have frankly explored those intellectual regions, which I only glimpsed, were it not for the demonophobia of Mr. de Mirville [see the article Scarcity of mediums, on the work of Mr. de Mirville] and the profound impression that it had cast upon my soul. As a counterpart to his book, there appeared that treatise so luminous, so substantial, so full of consoling truths, dictated by celestial intelligences to a Spirit of the elite – albeit incarnate – to whom, from that day, his mission on Earth was revealed.

Today, gratitude obliges me to inscribe on this page the name of one of my good friends, who opened my eyes to the light, that of Mr. Roustaing, distinguished and, above all, conscientious lawyer, destined to play a prominent role in the annals of Spiritism. I owe this passing homage to gratitude and to friendship.

If in this solemnity I did not fear to abuse the time, I would certainly have cited numerous communications of incontestable interest; nevertheless, in the midst of this purely intellectual activity, above our incessant relations with the world of Spirits, two facts stand out which seem to me, by exception, to protest against absolute mutism. The first is characterized by the intimate and touching details that moved us to tears; the second, by the strangeness of the phenomenon, concerns the mediumship of sight and constitutes a proof so palpable that it would remain for us only to deny the good faith of the mediums, should we wish to deny the reality of the fact.

Some fervent Spiritists gather with me weekly to study in common, and with more profit, the Doctrine of the Spirits. A full and total faith, the analogy for the greater part of studies and of education, made spring up a reciprocal sympathy and a communion of ideas and of thoughts; an intellectual and moral disposition, without a shadow of doubt the most favorable to serious communications.

In this modest gathering, one of us, endowed with an elevated degree of mediumship, wished to evoke the Spirit of a little girl whom he had known, struck down by croup, as I suppose, at six years of age. He played the role of medium and I that of evoker. Scarcely had the evocation ended when a very perceptible percussion on one of the pieces of furniture in the waiting room excited our attention and led us to ascertain whether this unusual noise came from a natural cause or resulted from a Spiritist fact. They are – the guides answered – the companions of Estelle (this was the name of the child during her terrestrial life), who come ahead of their little friend. And, in thought, we followed that graceful cortege gliding through space! Among them they designated to us Antônia, a young girl who had barely passed through the Earth and had only completed her fourth springtime when she fell beneath the blows of a murderous scythe. Foreseeing that they were going to conclude their trials in a new existence, I begged my guardian angel, that good mother, whose tenderness has never failed me, to take them under her care and to show them clearly their celestial protectress. The assent did not delay; but God only permitted her to appear to one of them, and she chose Antônia: “What do you see, my little friend?” I exclaimed, evoking the latter. – “Oh, the beautiful lady! She is resplendent with lights! – “And what does this beautiful lady say to you?” – She says to me: “Come to me, my child, I love you!” That is why I depicted that tender mother with her head crowned with stars. If this touching little story, belonging to the Spiritist world, seems to you only like a chapter of a novel, then one must renounce all communication.

The other fact can be summed up in two words: I was with one of my Spiritist colleagues; night had surprised us in the midst of prayers to God for the suffering Spirits, when I vaguely glimpsed a shadow coming out of a corner of my consulting room and describing a diagonal line, which prolonged itself up to my bed, situated in the neighboring room. Upon finishing its course, we heard a very distinct crack and the shadow directed itself toward the library, forming an acute angle with the first direction.

I was seized by emotion; but, at such an hour – half past eleven at night – quite propitious to emotions and to mystery, I judged at first that it was a matter of hallucination, of optical illusion, and I took the intimate resolution to keep silent regarding that fantastic apparition; it was then that my companion of constant studies turned toward me and asked me whether I had seen nothing. I was disturbed; I waited a little to recover myself and limited myself to inquiring the motives of the question. He then described to me the strange phenomenon, which he had likewise witnessed, with such exactness that it was impossible for me to doubt or to fail to confirm the reality of the apparition.

Two days later, our medium par excellence was present. Being consulted, the guides confirmed the truth, adding that that spontaneous apparition was that of a Spirit, known in terrestrial life under the name of Maria de los Ángeles. We were permitted to evoke her, and the result of our questions was that she had been born in Spain; she had taken the habit; for a long time her life had been free of reproach, but a grave fault, for which death left no time for expiation, was the cause of her sufferings in the world of Spirits.

Some days later chance, or rather, the will of God, permitted us a second verification of this strange phenomenon. A Spiritist, a young mechanic, of extraordinary intelligence, had spent the last part of the night with me. While I was conversing with him, I noticed that his gaze took on a singular immobility. He did not wait for the question to explain the circumstance: “At the very instant in which you were looking at me, I saw distinctly the silhouette of a woman who, from the window, advanced as far as the neighboring armchair, before which she knelt. She had the aspect of a person of twenty-five years; she was dressed in black; a sort of shawl covered the upper part of the bust; she had on her head something resembling a kerchief or a coif.”

The description agreed perfectly with the idea I had formed of the Spanish nun, and the place where she prostrated herself is more or less that where, kneeling like her, I habitually make my prayers for the dead. For me it was Maria of the Angels.

Certainly, the incredulous and the false Spiritists will smile at my certainty, and in the fact narrated will see three visionaries, instead of one. As for the sincere Spiritists, these will believe me, principally when I affirm it on my word of honor. To no one do I acknowledge the right to cast doubt on such a testimony.

The labors of Spiritism in Bordeaux, however great may be the modesty and the reserve, do not thereby cease to be an object of public curiosity, not a day passing in which I am not interrogated regarding it. Every layman, every creature marveling at the Spiritist phenomena clamors insistently for the favor of an experiment; his soul wavers between his own doubt and the conviction of the adepts.

I introduce him into a serious gathering, into an assembly of Spiritists whom we suppose to be profoundly recollected, that is, bringing a disposition suitable to the gravity of the situation. What will take place within him? Transcribing onto paper the inspirations of a superior Spirit, will the writing medium make him accept them as such? I have passed through a disagreeable experience: if the communication has the stamp of celestial inspiration, he will attribute the merit to the talent of the medium; if the thought of the messenger of God takes on the coloring of the milieu through which it passes, it will certainly seem to him of entirely human conception. In this circumstance, here is my rule of conduct: It is traced beforehand by the man of Providence, by that missionary of thought, whom we possess momentarily and who, from his habitual center of activity, will continue to make the celestial treasures radiate upon us, of which a special grace made him the dispenser. To the curious who come to inquire into the reality of the facts or to solicit an audience, whether as a distraction, or as an emotion that passes through the heart without halting, I limit myself to setting forth the gravity of the subject; to the incarnate pseudo-sage Spirit, who portrays to me perfectly on this globe the one of the 8th class and the 3rd order of the world of Spirits, I answer with evasions; but to the one who, although obsessed by doubt, possesses the truth in the state of a germ, beginning with good faith in order to arrive at faith, I advise the theoretical studies, upon which there does not delay to follow the practical study or experimentation. Thus, as a new fact breaks free from a new idea, he registers it alongside the fact; then the Spiritist science is infused drop by drop into the heart and into the brain, with its moral consequences, making us see, at the end of this long succession of reverses, labors and trials alternating in the two existences, a radiant eternity that flows from the bosom of God, source of happiness and of life! Bouché de Vitray, physician.