The struggle between the past and the future.

— As had already been announced to us, at this moment a veritable crusade against Spiritism is taking place. From various quarters there are reports of writings, speeches, and even acts of violence and intolerance. All Spiritists must rejoice, because it is the evident proof that Spiritism is not a chimera. Would they make so much noise over a fly that flits about?

What above all excites this great wrath is the prodigious rapidity with which the new idea spreads, despite everything they have done to halt it. Thus our adversaries, forced by the evidence to acknowledge that this progress is invading the most enlightened strata of society and even men of science, are reduced to deploring this fatal drift, which is leading the whole of society to the madhouses. Mockery has exhausted its arsenal of jokes and sarcasms, and this weapon, which is said to be so terrible, has not managed to put the scoffers on its side—proof that there is no matter for laughter. It is no less evident that it has not turned away a single partisan of the doctrine; far from it: they have increased visibly. The reason is very simple: everyone has readily recognized all that is profoundly religious in this doctrine, which touches the most sensitive fibers of the heart, which raises the soul to the infinite, which makes those who had failed to recognize God recognize Him. It has rescued so many men from despair, soothed so many sorrows, healed so many moral wounds, that the stupid and vulgar anecdotes flung at it inspired more revulsion than sympathy. In vain did the mockers wear out their lungs to provoke laughter at its expense. There are things at which we instinctively feel we cannot laugh without committing a sacrilege.

Nevertheless, if some persons, knowing the doctrine only through the witticisms of the jokers, had imagined that it was a matter of an idle dream, of the lucubrations of a sickly brain, what is happening is well suited to undeceive them. Hearing so much furious discourse, they must say to themselves that it is more serious than they thought.

The population may be divided into three classes: the believers, the unbelievers, and the indifferent. If the number of believers has increased a hundredfold in a few years, it can only have been at the expense of the two other categories. But the Spirits who direct the Movement found that things were not advancing quickly enough. There are still, they said, many people who have not heard Spiritism spoken of, especially in the countryside; it is time for the doctrine to penetrate there. Furthermore, the torpid indifferent must be awakened. Mockery played its role of involuntary propaganda, but it has exhausted all the arrows of its quiver; and the darts it still hurls are blunted; now it is a very pale fire. Something more vigorous is needed, something that makes more noise than the feuilletons and that echoes even into the solitudes; the last hamlet must hear Spiritism spoken of. When the artillery thunders, each one will ask: What is happening? and will want to see.

— When we made the little brochure: Spiritism in its Simplest Expression, we asked our spiritual guides what effect it would produce. They answered us: “It will produce an effect you do not expect, that is, your adversaries will be furious to see a publication destined, by its very low price, to spread among the masses and penetrate everywhere. A great unfolding of hostilities has already been announced to you; your brochure will be the signal. Do not worry; you already know the end. They grow irritated in the face of the difficulty of refuting your arguments.” – Since that is so, we said, this brochure, which was to be sold for 25 centimes, will be sold for two sous. n The event justified these predictions, and we congratulate ourselves on it.

— Moreover, everything that is happening was foreseen and had to be for the good of the cause. When you see a great hostile manifestation, far from being terrified, rejoice, for it was said: the rumbling of the thunder will be the sign of the approach of the predicted times. Pray, then, my brothers; pray, above all, for your enemies, for they will be seized with a veritable vertigo…

But not everything is yet accomplished. The flames of the bonfire of Barcelona did not rise high enough. If it is repeated somewhere, beware of extinguishing it, for the higher it rises, the more it will be seen from afar, like a beacon, and it will remain in the memory of the ages. Do not intervene, then, nor oppose violence anywhere; remember that the Christ told Peter to sheathe his sword. Do not imitate the sects that tear one another to pieces in the name of a God of peace, whom each invokes in aid of his furies. Truth is not proved by persecutions, but by reasoning; in all ages persecutions have been the weapons of bad causes and of those who mistake the triumph of brute force for reason. Persecution is not a good means of persuasion; it may momentarily strike down the weakest; convince him, never. For, even in the misfortune into which he may have been plunged, he will exclaim, like Galileo in prison: e pur si muove! n To resort to persecution is to prove that one counts little on the force of logic. Never use reprisals: to violence oppose gentleness and an unalterable tranquility; to your enemies repay evil with good. By this you will give the lie to their calumnies and force them to acknowledge that your beliefs are better than they say.

— Calumny! you will say. Can we look with indifference upon our doctrine being unworthily distorted by lies? accused of saying what it does not say, of teaching the contrary of what it teaches, of producing evil, when it produces only good? Cannot the very authority of those who use such language falsify opinion and retard the progress of Spiritism?

Incontestably, that is its aim. Will they attain it? That is another question; and we do not hesitate to say that they will arrive at an entirely contrary result: that of discrediting themselves and their own cause. Without doubt, calumny is a dangerous and perfidious weapon, but it has two edges and always wounds the one who makes use of it. To resort to lying in order to defend oneself is the strongest proof that one has no good reasons to give, for, if one had them, one would not fail to bring them to bear. Say that a thing is bad, if such is your opinion; cry it from the rooftops, if it pleases you: it is for the public to judge whether you are right or wrong. But to distort it in order to support your sentiment, to misrepresent it, is unworthy of every man who respects himself. In the criticism of dramatic and literary works, one often sees opposing appraisals. One critic praises without reserve what another holds up to ridicule; that is his right. But what are we to think of the one who, in order to sustain his censure, would make the author say what he does not say and would attribute bad verses to him to prove that his poetry is detestable?

So it is with the detractors of Spiritism. By their calumnies they reveal the weakness of their own cause and discredit it, showing to what lamentable extremes they are obliged to resort in order to sustain it. What weight can an opinion founded on manifest errors carry? Of two things one: either these errors are voluntary and, therefore, there is bad faith, or they are involuntary and the author proves his inconsequence, speaking of what he does not know. In either case he loses all right to confidence.

Spiritism is not a doctrine that marches in the shadows. It is known and its principles are formulated in a clear, precise manner, without ambiguities. Calumny, therefore, could not reach it. To convict it of imposture it suffices to say: read and see. Without doubt, it is useful to unmask it; but it must be done with calm, without bitterness or recrimination, limiting oneself to opposing, without superfluous discourses, what is to what is not. Leave to your adversaries the wrath and the insults; keep for yourselves the role of true strength: that of dignity and moderation.

Moreover, one must not exaggerate the consequences of these calumnies, which carry within them the antidote of their venom and are, in the last analysis, more advantageous than harmful. They necessarily provoke the examination of serious men, who wish to judge things for themselves and are encouraged to do so by reason of the importance attributed to them. Now, far from fearing examination, Spiritism provokes it and laments only one thing: that so many people speak of it as the blind speak of colors. But, thanks to the care our adversaries take in making it known, soon this drawback will exist no more; this is all we ask. The calumny that emerges from such an examination magnifies it, instead of diminishing it.

Spiritists, do not lament, then, these distortions, because they take away none of the qualities of Spiritism; on the contrary, they will make it stand out with more brilliance by contrast and will confound the calumniators. It is quite possible that such lies may have the immediate effect of deluding certain persons and even of turning them away. But what of it? What are a few individuals beside the masses? You yourselves know how inconsiderable their number is. What influence can this have on the future? That future is assured to you: the accomplished facts answer for it and each day bring you the proof of the uselessness of the attacks of our adversaries. Was the doctrine of the Christ not calumniated, branded as subversive and impious? Was He Himself not treated as a knave and an impostor? Did He trouble Himself over this? No, for He knew that His enemies would pass and His doctrine would remain. So it will be with Spiritism. Singular coincidence! It is merely the return to the pure law of the Christ, and they attack it with the same weapons! But its detractors will pass; it is a necessity to which no one can escape. The present generation is dying out every day and, with it, go the men imbued with the prejudices of another age; the one that is arising is nourished by new ideas and, moreover, you know that it is composed of more advanced Spirits who must, at last, make the law of God reign on Earth. Look, then, at things from a higher vantage; do not see them from the narrow point of view of the present, but cast your gaze toward the future and say: the future is ours; what does the present matter to us? what are personal questions? Persons pass, but institutions remain. Consider that we are at a moment of transition, that we are witnessing the struggle between the past, which struggles and pulls backward, and the future, which is being born and pushes forward. Who will triumph? The past is old and decrepit—we speak of ideas—while the future is young and marches toward the conquest of progress, which lies in the laws of God. The men of the past are passing away; the men of the future are arriving. Let us know, then, how to wait with confidence and let us congratulate ourselves on being the pioneers charged with clearing the ground. If we have labor, we shall have wages. Let us work, then, not by a furious and unreflecting propaganda, but with the patience and perseverance of the worker who knows the time he must wait for the harvest. Let us sow the idea, but let us not compromise the harvest by an untimely sowing and by our impatience, anticipating the season appropriate to each thing. Let us cultivate, above all, the fertile plants, which ask only to germinate. They are numerous enough to occupy all our moments, without consuming our strength against the immovable rocks, which God takes it upon Himself to shake or to remove when the time comes, for if He has the power to raise mountains, He also has that of the author proves his inconsequence, speaking of what he does not know. In either case he loses all right to confidence. Spiritism is not a doctrine that marches in the shadows. It is known and its principles are formulated in a clear, precise manner, without ambiguities. Calumny, therefore, could not reach it. To convict it of imposture it suffices to say: read and see. Without doubt, it is useful to unmask it; but it must be done with calm, without bitterness or recrimination, limiting oneself to opposing, without superfluous discourses, what is to what is not. Leave to your adversaries the wrath and the insults; keep for yourselves the role of true strength: that of dignity and moderation.

Moreover, one must not exaggerate the consequences of these calumnies, which carry within them the antidote of their venom and are, in the last analysis, more advantageous than harmful. They necessarily provoke the examination of serious men, who wish to judge things for themselves and are encouraged to do so by reason of the importance attributed to them. Now, far from fearing examination, Spiritism provokes it and laments only one thing: that so many people speak of it as the blind speak of colors. But, thanks to the care our adversaries take in making it known, soon this drawback will exist no more; this is all we ask. The calumny that emerges from such an examination magnifies it, instead of diminishing it.

Spiritists, do not lament, then, these distortions, because they take away none of the qualities of Spiritism; on the contrary, they will make it stand out with more brilliance by contrast and will confound the calumniators. It is quite possible that such lies may have the immediate effect of deluding certain persons and even of turning them away. But what of it? What are a few individuals beside the masses? You yourselves know how inconsiderable their number is. What influence can this have on the future? That future is assured to you: the accomplished facts answer for it and each day bring you the proof of the uselessness of the attacks of our adversaries. Was the doctrine of the Christ not calumniated, branded as subversive and impious? Was He Himself not treated as a knave and an impostor? Did He trouble Himself over this? No, for He knew that His enemies would pass and His doctrine would remain. So it will be with Spiritism. Singular coincidence! It is merely the return to the pure law of the Christ, and they attack it with the same weapons! But its detractors will pass; it is a necessity to which no one can escape. The present generation is dying out every day and, with it, go the men imbued with the prejudices of another age; the one that is arising is nourished by new ideas and, moreover, you know that it is composed of more advanced Spirits who must, at last, make the law of God reign on Earth. Look, then, at things from a higher vantage; do not see them from the narrow point of view of the present, but cast your gaze toward the future and say: the future is ours; what does the present matter to us? what are personal questions? Persons pass, but institutions remain. Consider that we are at a moment of transition, that we are witnessing the struggle between the past, which struggles and pulls backward, and the future, which is being born and pushes forward. Who will triumph? The past is old and decrepit—we speak of ideas—while the future is young and marches toward the conquest of progress, which lies in the laws of God. The men of the past are passing away; the men of the future are arriving. Let us know, then, how to wait with confidence and let us congratulate ourselves on being the pioneers charged with clearing the ground. If we have labor, we shall have wages. Let us work, then, not by a furious and unreflecting propaganda, but with the patience and perseverance of the worker who knows the time he must wait for the harvest. Let us sow the idea, but let us not compromise the harvest by an untimely sowing and by our impatience, anticipating the season appropriate to each thing. Let us cultivate, above all, the fertile plants, which ask only to germinate. They are numerous enough to occupy all our moments, without consuming our strength against the immovable rocks, which God takes it upon Himself to shake or to remove when the time comes, for if He has the power to raise mountains, He also has that of lowering them. Let us leave the figure aside and say plainly that there are resistances which it will be superfluous to try to overcome, and which dig in more out of self-love or out of interest than out of conviction. It would be a waste of time to seek to bring them over to us; they will yield only before the force of opinion. Let us recruit the adherents from among people of good will, who are not lacking; let us enlarge the phalanx with all those who, weary of doubt and terrified by the materialist nothingness, ask only to believe, and soon their number will be such that the others will end by surrendering to the evidence. The result is already manifesting itself; wait, then, for soon you will see in your ranks those whom you expected only at the end. [1] Translator's Note: An old copper or nickel coin; it would correspond to about five centimes of a French franc.

[2] Translator's Note: The correct Italian expression is: e pur si muove, although in the original it appears as move.