Result of the reading of the Spiritist works.

In response to the opinion of Dr. Constant, concerning the effect that the reading of the Spiritist works ought to produce, we publish below two letters, among thousands of the same nature that are addressed to us. As we saw in the preceding article [see Studies on the possessed of Morzine, item no. 31], his opinion is that this effect must, inevitably, render prompt justice to the so-called science of Spiritism, and it is in that quality that he recommends its reading. Now, these works have been read for more than six years and, deplorable for his perspicacity, justice has not yet been done!

Albi, 6 March 1863.

Mister Allan Kardec, …I know that I must not abuse your precious time; thus I deprive myself of the happiness of conversing at length with you. I will say that I bitterly regret not having known your admirable doctrine sooner, for I feel that I would have been another man; nevertheless I am not a medium nor do I seek to be one at the moment, on account of grave vexations that obsess me incessantly. My past is one of deplorable indifference; I reached the age of forty-nine without knowing a single prayer. Since I read you, I pray always at night, sometimes in the morning, above all for my enemies. Your doctrine has saved me from many things and has made me bear adversities with resignation.

How grateful I would be to you, dear sir, if you would pray for me sometimes!

Accept, etc.

D…

Lyon, 9 March 1863.

My dear master, I must begin by asking you to forgive me doubly: first for having so long delayed the fulfillment of a duty of this nature; second, for the liberty I take, without having the honor of being known, of engaging you with things that are, in a certain way, entirely personal to me.

This consideration obliges me to be as brief as possible, so as not to abuse your kindness, nor to make you lose with me a time that you could employ more usefully for the general good.

For six months I have had the happiness of being initiated into the Spiritist Doctrine; I felt born within me a keen sentiment of gratitude. Besides, such a sentiment is none other than the very natural consequence of belief in Spiritism; and, since it has its reason for being, it must equally manifest itself. In my opinion, it must be divided into three parts, of which the first belongs to God, whom every Spiritist must daily thank for this new proof of His infinite mercy; the second belongs by right to Spiritism itself, that is, to the good Spirits and their sublime teachings; the third, finally, to the one who guides us on the new road; we feel happy to acknowledge him as our venerated master. Thus understood, Spiritist gratitude imposes, then, three quite distinct duties: toward God, toward the good Spirits, and toward the propagator of their teachings. I have hope of discharging myself toward God, asking His forgiveness for my past errors and continuing to pray daily; I will try to settle my debt to Spiritism, spreading around me, as much as my poor strength permits, the benefits of Spiritist instruction. The aim of this letter, sir, is to testify to you the keen desire I felt to discharge myself toward you, which I regret doing so belatedly. I appeal, then, to your charity and ask you to accept this sincere homage of a gratitude without limits.

Joining wholeheartedly with those who preceded me, I come to say to you: Thank you for having drawn us out of error, causing the light of truth to shine upon us; thank you for having made us know the means of attaining true happiness through the practice of good; thank you, because you did not fear to be the first to enter the struggle.

The advent of Spiritism in the nineteenth century, at an epoch when egoism and materialism seem to share the empire of the world, is a fact too important and too extraordinary not to provoke the admiration or the astonishment of serious persons and observant spirits. This fact is completely inexplicable for those who refuse to recognize divine intervention in the march of the great events that take place among us and, often, in spite of ourselves.

But a fact no less surprising is that there should have been found, in this very epoch of incredulity, a man believing enough, courageous enough, to step out of the multitude, to abandon the current, and to announce a doctrine that was bound to put him at odds with the greater number, for its object is to combat and destroy the prejudices, the abuses, and the errors of the people, and, finally, to preach faith to the materialists, charity to the egoists, moderation to the fanatics, truth to all.

This fact is today accomplished; therefore, it was not impossible. But, to accomplish it, a courage was needed that only faith can give. This is what causes our admiration.

Such devotion, my dear master, could not fail to bear fruit. Thus, from now on you may begin to receive the reward of your labor, contemplating the triumph of the doctrine that you taught.

Without concerning yourself with the number and the strength of your adversaries, you descended alone into the arena and, to the injurious jests, you opposed an unalterable serenity; to the attacks and calumnies you responded with moderation. Thus, in a short time, Spiritism has spread throughout all parts of the world; today its adherents are counted by the millions and, an extraordinary thing! they are recruited from every degree of the social scale. Rich and poor, ignorant and learned, free-thinkers and puritans, all have answered the call of Spiritism and each class has striven to furnish its contingent in this great crusade of intelligence… Sublime struggle! Where the vanquished is proud to proclaim his defeat and, prouder still, to be able to fight beneath the banner of the victors. This victory not only honors the one who wins it, but also attests to the justness of the cause, that is, the superiority of the Spiritist doctrine over all that preceded it and, consequently, its divine origin. For the fervent adherent the fact cannot be put in doubt and Spiritism cannot be the work of a few demented brains, as its detractors have tried to demonstrate. It is impossible that Spiritism should be a human work; it must be and is, indeed, a divine revelation. Were it not so, it would already have succumbed and would be powerless before indifference and materialism.

Every human science is systematic in its essence and, for that very reason, subject to error. This is why it can be admitted only by a small number of individuals who, through ignorance or through calculation, propagate its erroneous beliefs, beliefs that fall by themselves after some time of trial. Time and reason have always rendered justice to abusive doctrines devoid of foundation. No science, no doctrine can claim stability if, in its whole and in its smallest details, it does not possess that pure and divine emanation which we call truth; because only truth is immutable like the Creator, who is its source.

We find a most consoling example in the divine words of the Christ, which the Holy Gospel, notwithstanding its long and adventurous pilgrimage, has transmitted to us as gentle, as pure as they were when they came from the mouth of the divine Renovator.

After eighteen centuries of existence, the doctrine of the Christ appears to us as luminous as at the epoch of its birth. In spite of the false interpretations of some, the persecutions of others, and although little practiced in our days, it has not on that account become less rooted in the memory of men. The doctrine of the Christ is, then, an unbreakable foundation, against which human passions incessantly come to shatter themselves. As the powerless wave breaks against the rock, the tempests of error exhaust themselves in vain efforts against the beacon of truth. Spiritism being the confirmation, the complement of that doctrine, it is just to say that it will be transformed into an indestructible monument, since it has God for its principle and truth for its base. Just as we feel happy to predict its long destiny, we glimpse with happiness the moment when it will become universal belief. That moment will not be far off, because men will not be slow to understand that there is no possible happiness on Earth without fraternity. They will also understand that the word virtue must not merely wander upon the lips, but must be engraved deeply in hearts; they will understand, finally, that he who assumes the moral task of preaching morality must, before all and above all, preach it by example.

I stop, my dear master, because the grandeur of the subject carries me to heights where it is not possible for me to maintain myself. Hands more skilled than mine have already painted in vivid colors the touching picture that my ignorant pen vainly attempts to sketch. I beg you to forgive me for having engaged you so long with my own sentiments; but I had an invincible desire to unburden myself in the bosom of the one who had given calm to my soul, replacing the doubt that for fifteen years had tortured it with a consoling certainty!

I was, successively; a fervent Catholic, a fatalist, a materialist, a resigned philosopher; but I give thanks to God for having never been an atheist. I railed against Providence, without, however, ever denying God. For me, the flames of hell had long been extinguished; nevertheless, my Spirit was not tranquil regarding the future. Although the celestial enjoyments extolled by the Church did not have sufficient attractions to exhort one to virtue, my conscience rarely approved my conduct. I was in continual doubt. Appropriating the thought of a great philosopher: “Conscience was given to man to torment him,” I came to the conclusion that man must carefully avoid everything that might disturb his conscience. Thus, I would have avoided committing a great fault, because my conscience opposed it; I would have practiced some good works to experience the satisfaction they afforded; but I glimpsed nothing beyond. Nature had drawn me out of nothingness; death was to lead me to nothingness! Often this thought engulfed me in profound sadness, but, however much I consulted, however much I sought, nothing made me decipher the enigma. Social inequalities shocked me and often I asked why I had been born in an inferior position, where I found myself so ill-placed. Unable to answer, I said: chance. A consideration of another kind made me feel horror at nothingness! Of what use was it to instruct myself? To shine in a salon?… one needs fortune. To become a poet, a great writer?… one needs a natural talent. But for me, a simple artisan, perhaps destined to die upon the workbench, to which I had been bound by the need to earn my daily bread?… Why instruct myself? I knew almost nothing and that was already much; my knowledge served me in nothing in life and was to be extinguished with death. Such a thought arose frequently in my Spirit; I had even come to curse that instruction which they granted to the worker's son. Notwithstanding being very meager, very incomplete, that instruction seemed to me superfluous and not only prejudicial to the happiness of the poor man, but incompatible with the demands of his condition. In my opinion it was one more calamity for the poor man, for it made him understand the importance of the evil, without indicating the remedy. It is easy to explain the moral sufferings of a man who, feeling a noble heart beat in his breast, is obliged to bow his intelligence to the will of an individual, of whom a handful of crowns, often ill-acquired, constitutes all the merit and all the knowledge. It is then that one needs to appeal to philosophy. And looking at the top of the social ladder, one says: Money does not bring happiness. Then, looking below, one sees persons in a position inferior to one's own and adds: Let us have patience; there are others who complain more than we do. But if, at times, this philosophy gives resignation, it never produces happiness.

I was in this situation when Spiritism came to draw me out of the mire of trials and uncertainties, into which I sank ever deeper, in spite of the efforts I made to get out.

For two years I heard Spiritism spoken of without paying it serious attention. As its adversaries said, I judged that a new charlatanism had infiltrated among the others. But, at last, weary of hearing spoken of a thing, of which I really knew only the name, I resolved to instruct myself. So I acquired The Spirits' Book and The Mediums' Book. I read, or rather, devoured these two works with such avidity and satisfaction that it is impossible to define. What was my surprise, casting my eyes upon the first pages, to see that it was a matter of moral and religious philosophy, when I expected to read a treatise on magic, accompanied by marvelous stories! Soon surprise gave place to conviction and gratitude. When I finished the reading, I perceived with happiness that I had been a Spiritist for a long time. I thanked God, who granted this signal favor. Henceforth I shall be able to pray without fearing that my prayers may be lost in space and I shall bear with joy the tribulations of this brief existence, knowing that my present misery is nothing but the just consequence of a culpable past or a period of trial to attain a better future. No more doubt! Justice and logic unveil the truth to us; and we acclaim with happiness this benefactress of Humanity. It is almost useless to tell you, my dear master, how great was my desire to be a medium; thus, I studied with great perseverance. After a few days of observation, I recognized that I was an intuitive medium; my desire had been realized only partially, for I keenly desired to be a mechanical medium.

Intuitive mediumship leaves doubt for a long time in the spirit of the one who possesses it. To dissipate all my scruples in this regard, I had to attend a few sessions of Spiritism, in order to be able to make a comparison between my mediumship and that of the other mediums. It was then that I understood the correctness of your recommendation, which prescribes reading before seeing, if one wishes to become convinced; because, I can tell you frankly, I saw nothing convincing for an unbeliever. I would give anything to have been admitted into the number of those whom Providence placed under the immediate direction of our beloved chief, because I thought that the proofs must be more palpable, more frequent in the Society over which you preside. In spite of this, I did not stop there; I invited some writing, seeing, and drawing mediums to gather with me for the common work. It was then that I had the joy of witnessing surprising facts and obtaining the most evident proofs of the excellence and sincerity of Spiritism. For the second time I was convinced! Enclosed with this letter, already quite long, are some of my communications. I would be glad, my dear master, if it were possible for you to give them a glance and judge their value. From the moral point of view I consider them irreproachable; but from the literary point of view… As I am not fit to judge them, I abstain from any appraisal. If, contrary to my expectation, you find some fragments that deserve to be given to publicity, I ask that you make use of them at will; for me it would be a great happiness to be able to bring my brick to the construction of the great edifice.

I would set great value on a personal reply, dear master, but I do not dare to solicit it, knowing the material impossibility in which you find yourself of replying to all the letters that are sent to you. I conclude, finally, begging you to forgive me this extreme liberty, hoping you may be able to believe in the sincerity of one who has the honor of calling himself one of your most fervent admirers and your very humble servant.

Michel.

Rua Bouteille, 25, Lyon.