Letter from Mr. Mathieu concerning trickster mediums.

— “Sir, “One may be in disagreement on certain points and in perfect agreement on others. I have just read, on page 213 of the latest issue of your journal, some reflections concerning fraud in matters of spiritualist (or Spiritist) experiments, with which I have the satisfaction of associating myself with all my strength. There, any dissensions regarding theories and doctrines vanish as if by magic.

“I am perhaps not so severe as you are with regard to the mediums who, in a dignified and decent manner, accept payment as compensation for the time they devote to experiments that are often long and tiring. I am, however, as much so as you are — and no one would be more so — with regard to those who, in such a case, supply, whenever the occasion presents itself, by means of deceit and fraud, the lack or insufficiency of the promised and expected results.

“To mix the false with the true, when it is a matter of phenomena obtained through the intervention of the Spirits, is simply an infamy, and there would be an obliteration of the moral sense in the medium who believed he could do so without scruple. As you have observed with perfect accuracy — it is to throw the matter into discredit in the mind of the undecided, once the fraud is recognized. I will add that it is to compromise, in the most deplorable manner, the honorable men who lend to the mediums the disinterested support of their knowledge and their enlightenment, who make themselves guarantors of the good faith that ought to exist in them and who, in some way, sponsor them. It is to commit toward them a true prevarication. “Any medium who were caught in fraudulent maneuvers; who were caught, to use a somewhat trivial expression, with his hand in the till, would deserve to be proscribed by all the spiritualists or Spiritists of the world, for whom it would be a strict duty to unmask or to brand them.

“If it suits you, Sir, to insert these few lines in your journal, they are at your disposal.

“Accept, etc.

Mathieu.”

— We expected no less of the honorable sentiments that distinguish Mr. Mathieu than this energetic reproof, pronounced against mediums of bad faith. We would have been surprised, on the contrary, if he had regarded such abuses of confidence with coldness and indifference. They could be easier when Spiritism was less known; but as this science spreads and is better understood, as the true conditions under which the phenomena can be produced come to be better known, clear-sighted eyes capable of discovering the fraud are found everywhere. To point it out, wherever it shows itself, is the best means of discouraging it. It has been said that it was preferable not to expose these vile acts, in the very interest of Spiritism; that the possibility of deceiving could increase the distrust of the undecided. We are not of this opinion, and we think that it is better for the undecided to be distrustful than to be deceived, because, once they knew they had been so, they might turn away forever. Moreover, there would be an even greater drawback for those who believed that Spiritists let themselves be easily deceived. On the contrary, they will be all the more disposed to believe the more they see the believers surround themselves with greater precautions and repudiate the mediums liable to deceive. Mr. Mathieu says that he is perhaps not so severe as we are with regard to the mediums who, in a dignified and decent manner, accept payment as compensation for the time they devote to the matter. We are perfectly in agreement that there can and must be honorable exceptions, but, as the attraction of gain is a great temptation and beginners do not have the experience necessary to distinguish the true from the false, we maintain our opinion that the best guarantee of sincerity lies in absolute disinterestedness, because where there is nothing to gain, charlatanism has nothing to do. He who pays wants something for his money and would not be content if he were told that the Spirit does not wish to act. From there to the discovery of the means of making the Spirit act at any price, there is but one step, according to the proverb: he who has no dog hunts with a cat. We add that the mediums would gain a hundred times more in esteem than they would forgo in material profits. It is said that esteem does not provide a living. It is true that it is not enough, but, in order to live, there are other trades more honest than the exploitation of the souls of the dead. [1] Translator's note: See The Mediums' Book — 2nd part, chapter XXVIII, item 317.