Spiritist Journey in 1862.

We have just visited some Spiritist Centers of France, regretting that time did not permit us to go everywhere we had been invited, nor to prolong our stay in each locality as we desired, by reason of the reception so sympathetic and so fraternal that we received everywhere. During a journey of more than six weeks and a total course of six hundred and ninety-three leagues, we stopped in twenty cities and attended more than fifty meetings. The result afforded us a great moral satisfaction, under the double aspect of the observations gathered and of the confirmation of the immense progress of Spiritism.

The account of this journey, which comprises principally the instructions we gave in the various groups, is too extensive to be published in the Review, for it would absorb almost two fascicles. We will make of it a separate publication, of the same format as the journal, in order that, should it be necessary, it may be annexed to it. ⁿ In our course we went to visit the possessed of Morzine, in Savoy; there too we gathered important observations, very instructive, on the causes and the mode of obsession in all its degrees, corroborated by identical and isolated cases, seen by us in other localities, as well as the means of combating it. It will be the object of a special and developed article, which we had the intention of inserting in this issue of the Review; time, however, did not permit us to finish it, obliging us to postpone it to the next issue [v. Studies on the possessed of Morzin]. Besides, it will only gain by it, because made with less precipitation. Moreover, several recent facts have come to clarify this question, opening new horizons to pathology.

This article will respond to all the requests for clarification that are frequently addressed to us about analogous cases.

We judged it opportune to take advantage of this circumstance to rectify an opinion which, in general, has appeared to us to be very widespread.

Several persons, especially in the provinces, had thought that the expenses of these journeys were borne by the Society of Paris. We found ourselves forced to refute this error when the occasion presented itself. To those who might still share this opinion, we recall what was said on another occasion (issue of June 1862), that the Society limits itself to providing for the current expenses and possesses no reserves. In order to be able to form a capital, it would have to aim at numbers; this is what it does not do, nor wishes to do, for its objective is not speculation and numbers add nothing to the importance of its works. Its influence is wholly moral and the character of its meetings gives to outsiders the idea of a grave and serious assembly. This is its most powerful means of propaganda. Thus, it could not defray such an expense. The travel expenses, like all those necessary to our relations with Spiritism, are covered by our personal resources and by our savings, augmented by the product of our works, without which it would be impossible for us to meet all the expenses consequent upon the work we have undertaken. We say this without vanity, solely in homage to the truth and for the edification of those who imagine that we are hoarding treasure. [1] Large in-8º brochure; format and type of the Review. – Price: 1 fr., free of postage for all of France. (In the press.)