Exploitation of Spiritism.

North America rightfully claims the honor of having been the first in recent times to reveal the manifestations from beyond the grave. Why should it not also be the first to set the example of trafficking, and why, among this people so advanced in so many respects, and so worthy of our sympathy, should the mercantile instinct not have stopped at the threshold of eternal life? When we read their newspapers, on every page we see advertisements such as these: “Miss S. E. Royers, somnambulist, medium-physician, cures psychologically by sympathy. Ordinary treatment, if necessary. – Description of the physiognomy, of the morality, and of the Spirit of persons. From ten o’clock to noon; from two to five in the afternoon; from seven to ten at night, except on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, unless by prior arrangement. Price: 1 dollar per hour (5 fr. 42 c.).” We think that the medium’s sympathy for her patients must be in direct proportion to the number of dollars they pay her. We judge it superfluous to give the addresses.

“Miss E. C. Morris, writing medium. From ten o’clock to noon; from two to four in the afternoon; from seven to nine at night.”

“J. B. Conklin, medium. Receives visitors in his salons every evening. Attends at home.”

“A. C. Styles, lucid medium. Guarantees the exact diagnosis of the illness of the person present, upon payment. Rules strictly observed: For a lucid examination and prescriptions, with the person present, 2 dollars; for psychometric descriptions of characters, 3 dollars. Do not forget that consultations are paid in advance.” “To the amateurs of Spiritism. Miss Beck, crisiac medium, speaking, spelling, rapping, and scratching. True observers may consult her from nine o’clock in the morning to ten o’clock at night, at her home. A very powerful rapping medium is associated with Miss Beck.”

Do they think that such commerce is carried on only by obscure and ignorant speculators? Here is what proves the contrary: “Dr. G. A. Redman, experienced medium, is back in New York. He is found at his home, where he receives as before.”

The trafficking of spiritualism has extended even to common objects. Thus, we read in the Spiritual Telegraph of New York the advertisement of “Spiritual Matches; a new invention without friction and without smell.”

What is more honorable for that country than these advertisements is the following article, which we found in the Wleekly American of Baltimore, of February 5, 1859:

“Statistics of Spiritualism. The Spiritual Register of 1859 estimates the number of spiritualists in the United States at 1,284,000. In Maryland there are 8,000. The total number in the world is assessed at 1,900,000. The Register counts 1,000 spiritualist orators; 40,000 public and private mediums; 500 books and pamphlets; 6 weekly newspapers, 4 monthly, and 3 biweekly, devoted to this cause.” The speculating mediums have reached England. In London there are several who charge no less than a guinea per session. Should they venture to introduce themselves into France, we hope that the good sense of true Spiritists will do them justice.

The production of material effects excites curiosity more than it touches the heart. Hence, in mediums with a special aptitude for obtaining such effects, there is a propensity to exploit that curiosity. Those who receive only moral communications of an elevated order have an instinctive repugnance for everything that smacks of speculation of that kind. For this there is in the former a twofold motive: first, because the exploitation of curiosity is more lucrative, since the curious are abundant in every country; then, because the physical phenomena, acting less upon the moral sense, give rise to fewer scruples in them. In their eyes, their faculty is a gift that must sustain them in life, like a beautiful voice for a singer; the moral question is secondary or nil. Thus, once on this path, the attraction of gain develops the genius of cunning; since money must be earned, one does not wish to fail in one’s reputation for skill by committing blunders. Besides, who can guarantee that the client who comes today will return tomorrow? One must therefore satisfy him at any price; if the Spirit does not collaborate, the medium comes to his own aid, which moreover is much easier for material things than for intelligent communications of high moral and philosophical reach. For the former, sleight of hand has resources that are absolutely lacking to the others. This is why we say that one must consider, above all, the morality of the medium; that the best guarantee against trickery lies in his character, in his honorability, in his absolute disinterestedness. Anywhere that the shadow of self-interest insinuates itself, however small, one has the right to be suspicious. Fraud is always condemnable, but when it attaches itself to things of a moral order it is a sacrilege. He who, knowing Spiritism only by name, seeks to imitate its effects, is no more reprehensible than the mountebank who imitates the experiments of the physicist. Without doubt, it would be better that such did not happen; but, in truth, he deceives no one, because he makes no mystery of his quality: he hides only the means. The same does not hold for him who, by falsifying, deludes the good faith of another with the ignoble aim of speculating. It is more than fraud: it is hypocrisy, since he passes himself off as that which he is not; and he is more culpable still if, actually possessing some faculties, he uses them the better to abuse the confidence granted him. But God knows what is reserved for him, perhaps even in this life. If the false mediums did harm only to themselves, there would be but a half-evil; what is more deplorable are the weapons they furnish to the incredulous and the discredit they cast upon the question in the minds of the undecided, once the fraud is recognized. We do not contest the faculties, even powerful ones, of certain mercenary mediums, but we say that the attraction of gain is a temptation to fraud that must inspire a distrust all the more legitimate as one cannot see in that exploitation an excess of zeal solely for the good of the cause. Even if there were no fraud, the censure would nonetheless reach him who speculates with a thing as sacred as the souls of the dead.