De La Bruyère.

Evocation.

Answer. – Here I am.

Does our evocation give you pleasure?

Answer. – Yes, since very few of you think of this poor mocking Spirit.

What is your position in the Spirit world?

Answer. – Happy.

What do you think of the generation of men who live at present on the Earth?

Answer. – I think that they have not progressed much in morality, for if I lived among them I could apply my Characters with the same truth that marked them when I lived. I find my gluttons, my egoists, my proud ones in the same situation in which I left them when I died.

Your Characters n enjoy a deserved reputation. What is your current opinion of your works?

Answer. – I think that they did not have the merit you attribute to them, for they would have produced another result. But I find that not all those who read them compare themselves to any of those portraits, although the majority are of surprising truth. You all have a small dose of self-love, sufficient to apply to your neighbor your personal defects and you never recognize yourselves when you are painted with truthful traits.

You have just said that the Characters could today be applied with the same truth. So you do not find men more advanced?

Answer. – In general the intelligence has advanced, but improvement has not taken a step. If Molière and I could still write, we would do nothing other than what we did: useless works, which would warn you without correcting you. Spiritism will be happier. Little by little you will conform to its doctrine and will reform the vices to which, in life, we drew your attention.

Do you think that Humanity is still rebellious to the warnings given to it by the Spirits incarnated on a mission on the Earth and by the Spirits who come to aid them?

Answer. – No; the epoch of the progress and of the renewal of the Earth and of its inhabitants has arrived. That is why the good Spirits come to lend you their concurrence. I have said enough to you this night, but I shall prepare one of my Characters for a few days from now.

Could your Characters not also be applied to some wandering Spirits, moved by identical sentiments?

Answer. – To all those who still have, in the state of Spirit, those same passions that dominated them in life. Forgive me the frankness, but, when you call me, I shall tell you things without finesse and without circumlocution. Jean de La Bruyère. n [1]

[Les caractères de La Bruyère: Suivis des Caractères de Théophraste - Google Books.]

[2] [see Jean de La Bruyère.]