The angel of cholera.

— One of our correspondents in Warsaw writes us the following:

“…I dare to call your attention to a fact so extraordinary that it would have to be placed in the category of the absurd, were not the character of the person who related it to me a guarantee of its reality. None of us, who of Spiritism know all that has been treated by you so judiciously – which means that we believe we understand it well – can find an explanation for this fact; therefore, I submit it to your appraisal, begging you to forgive me the time I cause you to lose in reading it, should you not deem it worthy of a more serious examination. Here is what it is about:

“The person of whom I spoke above was, in 1852, in Wilna, a city of Lithuania, at that time ravaged by cholera. His daughter, a charming girl of twelve, was endowed with all the qualities that constitute superior natures. From the most tender age, she made herself noticed by an exceptional intelligence, a goodness of heart, and a truly angelic candor. In our region she was one of the first to enjoy the mediumistic faculty, always assisted by Spirits of a rather elevated order. Many times, and without being a somnambulist, she had presentiments of what was going to happen, and she always predicted it accurately. These pieces of information do not seem useless to me in judging of her sincerity. One evening, as soon as the candles had just been extinguished, the girl, still completely awake, saw rise up before her bed the livid and bloody figure of an old woman, the mere sight of whom made her shudder. The woman approached the child’s bed and said to her: “I am cholera, and I come to ask you for a kiss; if you kiss me, I will return to the places I have left and the city will be free of my presence.” The heroic girl did not recoil before the sacrifice: she pressed her lips upon the cold and damp face of the old woman, and the vision – if it was a vision – vanished. Terrified, the child did not calm down except on her father’s lap, who, though understanding nothing of the matter, was nevertheless convinced that his daughter had told the truth; but they spoke to no one. Around midday they received the visit of a physician, a friend of the family: “I come to bring you good news – he said; this night no patient was sent to the cholera hospital, which I have just visited.” And, indeed, from that day on cholera ceased to mow down. About three years later, this person and his family made another journey to the same city. During their stay cholera reappeared and the victims were already counted by the hundreds, when one night the same old woman appeared beside the girl’s bed, always perfectly awake, and made her the same request, adding that, if her prayer were granted, this time she would leave the city never to return. As the first time, the young girl did not recoil. Soon she saw a sepulcher open and close over the woman. Cholera subsided as if by miracle, it not having come to my knowledge that it has reappeared in Wilna. Was it a hallucination or a real vision? I do not know. All that I can guarantee is that I cannot doubt the sincerity of the young girl and of her parents.”

— Indeed, the fact is very singular. The incredulous will not fail to say that it is a hallucination; but, probably, it would be more difficult for them to explain this coincidence with a material fact, which nothing could allow to be foreseen. A first time this could be put down to chance, that so convenient manner of passing over what one does not understand. But on two different occasions, under identical conditions, it was more extraordinary. Admitting the fact of the apparition, it remained to know what that woman was. Was she really the exterminating angel of cholera? Could the scourges be personified in certain Spirits, charged with provoking them or with making them cease? One could believe so, seeing this one disappear by the will of that woman. But, then, why did she address herself to that girl, a stranger to the city, and in what manner could a kiss from her have such influence? Although Spiritism has already given us the key to many things, it has not yet said the last word; in the case in question, the last hypothesis had nothing positively absurd about it. We confess that, initially, we inclined toward this side, not seeing in the fact the character of true hallucination. A few words from the Spirits came to overturn our supposition.

— Here is the explanation, very simple and very logical, given by Saint Louis, at the session of the Society, on April 19, 1861.

Q. – The fact that has just been related seems very authentic. In this regard, we would like to obtain some explanations. First of all, could you tell who that woman is who appeared to the girl and said she was cholera?

Answer. – It was not cholera; a material scourge does not take on human appearance. It was the familiar Spirit of the girl, who thus tested her faith, making this trial coincide with the end of the scourge. That trial was salutary to the child who underwent it; in idealizing them, it strengthened the virtues in germ in that protected and blessed being. The choice natures, those who, coming into the world, bring the remembrance of the goods acquired, often receive these warnings, which would be dangerous for a soul not purified and not prepared, by previous migrations, for the great devotions of love and of faith.

Q. – Did the familiar Spirit of that young girl have enough power to foresee the future and the end of the scourge?

Answer. – Spirits are the instruments of the divine will and, often, raised to the height of celestial messengers.

Q. – Do the Spirits have no action upon the scourges, as reproducing agents?

Answer. – They have absolutely nothing to do with this, just as the trees with the wind and the effects with the causes.

— In the anticipation of answers conforming to our first thought, we had prepared a series of questions which, in consequence, became useless. This proves once more that mediums are not the reflection of the thought of the one who interrogates. Nevertheless, we must say that in this regard we had no prior opinion. For lack of a better one, we inclined toward the one we had put forth, because it did not seem impossible to us. However, the explanation given by the Spirit being simpler and more rational, we judged it infinitely preferable.

Moreover, one can draw from the fact another instruction. What happened to that young girl must have occurred in other circumstances and, even in Antiquity, since spirit phenomena are of all times. Would it not be one of the causes that led the ancients to personify and to see in each thing a particular genius? We do not think that one must seek its cause only in the poetic genius, since one sees these ideas among less advanced peoples.

Let us suppose that a fact similar to the one we have related had occurred among a superstitious and barbarous people; nothing more was needed to believe in the idea of a maleficent divinity, who could not be appeased except by sacrificing victims to it. As we have already said, all the gods of paganism have no other origin than the spirit manifestations. Christianity came to overturn their altars, but to Spiritism was reserved the task of making known their true nature and of casting light upon the phenomena distorted by superstition, or exploited by cupidity.