Letter to the journal of Saint-Jean-d’Angely.

We find the following letter in the journal of Saint-Jean-d’Angely, of June 15, 1862:

“To Mr. Pierre de L…, substitute editor of the journal Le Mellois.

“In a letter addressed to the Mellois of June 8 last, you cast a challenge to what you call the little church of Saint-Jean-d’Angely. Offended at having been repulsed by Mr. Borreau, who would not receive you, you turn against his colleague in Spiritism, in order to interrogate him. Without being the notable medium whom you designate under a transparent initial, I take the liberty of presenting to you a few observations.

“What might your objective have been in casting a challenge, first to Mr. Borreau, then to the Spiritists of Saint-Jean-d’Angely, that they should evoke the soul of Jacques Bujault? n A jest to put an end to the civil and intestine war that seems intent on bloodying the fertile fields of Poitou? If that is so, I think you must understand that the dignity of serious and conscientious persons, who firmly believe in the established theories concerning the phenomena, whose certainty they have recognized, imposes upon them not to take part in your game. Like the skeptics, you are certainly free to laugh at these theories. As you know, sir, in France people laugh at everything. Nevertheless, however good your jest might be, it is not new, and, among others, a certain chronicler of the journal to which I address the present letter had already made use of it at its beginning. “If you raised the question in seriousness, allow me to tell you that you did not follow the proper path to attain the objective. It would not be the sarcasms contained in your first article that would persuade Mr. Borreau of your sincerity. He was perfectly entitled to doubt and not to permit you to discuss the evocation of the prior whom you know, as if it were a mere spiritual sketch. Likewise, it is not your satirical observations on the complete uselessness of Spiritism and on the dissensions that divide its adherents that will convince Mr. C… of the good faith with which you claim his enlightenment. If, then, you really have the intention of resolving this problem, here, in my opinion, is the quickest and most suitable means: Come to the cenacle and there, stripped of any preconceived idea, making a clean slate of all previous prejudices, coldly examine the phenomena that will be produced in your presence and submit them to the criterion of certainty. Then, if once or twice you fear being the victim of hallucinations, repeat your experiments. As Christ said to Thomas, Spiritism will say to you: Vide pedes, vide manus, noli esse incredulus.

“All those you kill are doing very well.”