Examination of the mediumistic communications sent to us.

— Many communications have been sent to us by different groups, whether asking us for advice and judgment on their tendencies, or, on the part of some, in the hope of seeing them published in the Review. All were given to us with the liberty to dispose of them as we saw best for the good of the cause. We have made their examination and classification, and we hope that no one will be surprised at the impossibility of inserting them all, considering that, besides those already published, there are more than three thousand six hundred which, alone, would have absorbed five full years of the Review, without counting a certain number of more or less voluminous manuscripts, of which we shall speak further on. The critical appraisal of this examination will furnish us with material for some reflections, from which each one may draw profit. In great number we found them notoriously bad, in substance and in form, evident product of ignorant, obsessing, or mystifying Spirits who swear by the more or less pompous names with which they clothe themselves. To publish them would have been to give arms to criticism. A circumstance worthy of note is that almost the entirety of the communications of this category emanate from isolated individuals, and not from groups. Only fascination could lead them to take them seriously and prevent them from seeing the ridiculous side. As is known, isolation favors fascination, whereas gatherings find control in the plurality of opinions.

— Nevertheless, we recognize with pleasure that the communications of this nature form, in the mass, a small minority. The majority of the others contain good thoughts and excellent counsels, without meaning that all should be published, and this for the reasons we are going to set forth.

The good Spirits teach more or less the same thing everywhere, because everywhere there are the same vices to reform and the same virtues to preach. Here is one of the distinctive characters of Spiritism; often the difference lies only in the correctness and elegance of the style. To appraise the communications, taking publicity into account, one must consider them not from one's own point of view, but from that of the public. We understand the satisfaction one experiences in obtaining something good, above all when one is beginning, but besides the fact that certain persons may have an illusion about the intrinsic merit, one does not think that in a hundred other places similar things are obtained, and that what is of powerful individual interest may be a banality for the mass. Moreover, it must be considered that, for some time now, communications have acquired, in every respect, proportions and qualities that leave far behind those that were obtained some years ago. That which was then admired seems pale and paltry beside what is obtained today. In the majority of truly serious centers, the teaching of the Spirits has grown together with the understanding of Spiritism. Since instructions more or less identical are received everywhere, their publication can be of interest only on the condition of presenting additional qualities, whether of form or of instructive scope. It would therefore be an illusion to believe that every message must find numerous and enthusiastic readers. Formerly, the smallest Spiritist conversation was a novelty that drew attention; today, when Spiritists and mediums can no longer be counted, what was a rarity is an almost banal and habitual fact, and one that has been outdistanced by the vastness and the scope of present-day communications, just as the duties of the schoolboy are by the labor of the adult.

— We have before us the collection of a journal published at the beginning of the manifestations under the title of The Talking Table, characteristic of the period. It is said that the journal had from 1,500 to 1,800 subscribers, an enormous figure for the time. It contained a quantity of small familiar conversations and mediumistic facts which, then, profoundly attracted curiosity. There we sought in vain for something to reproduce in our Review; everything we might have gleaned would today be puerile and without interest. Had the journal not disappeared, through circumstances that are beside the point, it could only have survived on the condition of keeping pace with the progress of the science, and, were it to reappear now under the same conditions, it would not have fifty subscribers. Spiritists are immensely more numerous than then, it is true; but they are more enlightened and want a more substantial teaching. If communications emanated only from a single center, no doubt the readers would multiply in proportion to the number of adherents. But one must not lose sight of the fact that the foci that produce them are counted by the thousands, and that everywhere superior things are obtained there can be no interest in what is weak or mediocre.

We do not speak thus to discourage publications; far from it. But to show the necessity of a rigorous choice, the sine qua non condition of success. By deepening their teachings, the Spirits have made us more difficult and even demanding. Local publications can be of immense utility, in a twofold respect: to spread among the masses the teaching given in private, and to show the concordance that exists in this teaching on various points. We shall always applaud this and shall encourage them every time they are made under good conditions.

First of all, it is fitting to set aside from it everything which, being of private interest, concerns only the one to whom it pertains; then, everything that is vulgar in style and in ideas, or puerile in subject. A thing may be excellent in itself, very good to serve as personal instruction, but what is to be delivered to the public requires special conditions. Unfortunately, man is prone to imagine that everything that pleases him must please others. The most skillful may be mistaken; the important thing is to be mistaken as little as possible. There are Spirits who delight in fostering this illusion in certain mediums; that is why it would never be too much to recommend to the latter that they not trust their own judgment. It is in this that groups are useful: by the multiplicity of opinions they allow one to gather. He who, in this case, should refuse the opinion of the majority, judging himself more enlightened than all, would amply prove the bad influence under which he finds himself.

— Applying these principles of eclecticism to the communications sent to us, we shall say that in 3,600 there are more than 3,000 that are of irreproachable morality, and excellent as to substance; but that of this number not even 300 deserve publicity, and only 100 have out-of-the-ordinary merit. As these communications came from many different points, we infer that the proportion must be more or less general. From this one may judge of the necessity of not publishing inconsiderately everything that comes from the Spirits, if we wish to attain the object we propose, both from the material point of view and as regards the moral effect and the opinion that the indifferent may form of Spiritism.

It remains for us to say a few words about the manuscripts or substantial works sent to us, among which we found, in thirty, no more than five or six of real value. In the invisible world, as on Earth, writers are not lacking, but the good ones are rare. Such a Spirit is apt to dictate a good isolated communication, to give excellent private counsel, but incapable of producing a complete collective work, capable of withstanding an examination, whatever its pretensions and the name with which it disguises itself as a guarantee. The higher the name, the greater the care. Now, it is easier to take a name than to justify it; that is why, alongside some good thoughts, one often finds eccentric ideas and unmistakable traces of the most profound ignorance. It is in these forms of mediumistic works that we have noticed the most signs of obsession, one of the most frequent of which is the injunction on the part of the Spirit to have them printed; and some wrongly think that such a recommendation is sufficient to find an attentive publisher who will take charge of the task. It is principally in such a case that a scrupulous examination is necessary, if we do not wish to expose ourselves to making disciples at our own cost. It is, moreover, the best means of driving away the presumptuous and pseudo-learned Spirits, who inevitably withdraw when they do not find docile instruments to whom they may have their words accepted as articles of faith. The intrusion of these Spirits into communications is, as is well known, the greatest reef of Spiritism. No precaution is too much to avoid lamentable publications. In such cases, it is better to err by an excess of prudence, in the interest of the cause.

In short, by publishing communications worthy of interest, one does a useful thing. By publishing those that are weak, insignificant, or bad, one does more harm than good. A consideration no less important is that of timeliness. There are some whose publication would be untimely and, for that very reason, harmful. Each thing must come in its time. Several of those addressed to us are in this case and, although very good, must be postponed. As for the others, they will find their place according to circumstances and their object.