First letter to Father Marouzeau.

— Father vicar, You marvel that after two years I have not replied to your pamphlet against Spiritism; you are mistaken, for ever since its appearance I have dealt, in various articles of my Review, with most of the questions you raise. I well know you would have desired a personal reply, a counter-pamphlet; that I should have taken your arguments one by one, in order to give you the pleasure of the rejoinder. Now, I committed the irreparable error of not even citing you; but your modesty, I am certain, does not regard this as a crime. Today I repair this omission, but do not think it is to enter into a polemic with you. No; I limit myself merely to a few simple reflections and to explaining my motives to you. First of all, I will tell you that if I did not reply directly to your pamphlet, it was because you had announced to me that it was to bury us alive. I therefore wished to await the event, and I observe with pleasure that we are not dead; that Spiritism is even a little more alive than before; that the number of societies multiplies in every country; that everywhere people have preached against it the number of adherents has grown; that such growth is in proportion to the violence of the attacks. These are not hypotheses, but authentic facts which, in my position and through the breadth of my relations, no one is better placed than I to verify. Moreover, I observe that the destitute, whom the zealous priests had forbidden to receive bread vouchers given by charitable Spiritists, because it was the devil's bread, did not die from having eaten it; that the bakers, whom they had told not to accept them, because the devil would steal them away, did not lose a single one; that the manufacturers whose supplies they wished, always out of evangelical zeal, to cut off, by robbing them of their customers, found a compensation in the new clients that the increased number of adherents brought them. I have no doubt that you disapprove of this manner of attacking Spiritism, but the facts are there. You will have to agree that such means are hardly suited to bring back to religion those who turn away from it; fear may momentarily restrain, but it is a fragile bond, which comes undone at the first opportunity. The only solid bonds are those of the heart, cemented by conviction; now, conviction is not imposed by force. You know, father vicar, that your pamphlet was followed by a great number of others. Yours has, over many of them, one merit: that of perfect courtesy. You wish to kill us politely, and I am grateful to you for it. But everywhere the arguments are the same, stated more or less politely and in more or less correct French. To refute them all, article by article, I would have had to repeat myself endlessly, and, frankly, I have more important things to do. Besides, this would have no use, and you will come to understand it.

— I am a positive man, without enthusiasm, who judges everything coldly. I reason according to the facts and say: Since the Spiritists are more numerous than ever, despite Mr. Marouzeau's pamphlet and all the others, and despite all the sermons and pastoral letters, it is because the arguments invoked have not convinced the masses, but have produced the contrary effect. Now, to judge of the value of a cause by its effects is, I believe, elementary logic. From then on, why refute them? Since they serve us, instead of harming us, we ought to refrain from setting any obstacle in their way. I see things from a point of view different from yours, father vicar. Like a general who observes the movement of the battle, I judge the force of the blows, not by the noise they make, but by the effect they produce; it is the whole that I see. Now, the whole is satisfactory; that is all that is needed. Thus, individual replies would have no use. When I treat in a general manner the questions raised by some adversary, it is not to convince him, a thing with which I do not concern myself at all, and still less to make him renounce his belief, which I respect when it is sincere: it is solely for the instruction of the Spiritists and because I find a point to develop or to clarify. I refute principles and not individuals; the former remain and the individuals disappear, which is why I trouble myself little with personalities that tomorrow will perhaps no longer exist and of which no more will be spoken, whatever importance they may seek to give themselves. I see the future much more than the present, the whole and the important things much more than isolated and secondary facts. In our eyes, to lead back to good is the true conversion. A man torn from his evil inclinations and led back to God and to charity toward all by Spiritism is, for us, the most useful victory; it is the one that gives us the greatest joy, and we thank God for granting it to us so often. For us the most honorable victory does not consist in drawing an individual away from this or that worship, from this or that belief, by violence or by fear, but in withdrawing him from evil by persuasion. We value, above all, sincere convictions, and not those obtained by force or that are merely apparent.

— It is thus, for example, that in your pamphlet you ask what miracles Spiritism can invoke in its favor. I replied in the Review in the issue of February 1862, by means of the article entitled: Is Spiritism proved by miracles?, replying, at the same time, to all those who asked the same question. You ask Spiritism for miracles? But will there be a greater one than its incredible propagation, in spite of all obstacles, despite the attacks of which it is the object and, above all, of the blows so terrible that you dealt it? Is this not a fact of the will of God? “No,” you will say, “it is the will of the devil.” Then you will have to agree that the will of the devil is greater than that of God, and that it is stronger than the Church, since the latter cannot stop it. But this is not the only miracle that Spiritism works; it works them every day, bringing the unbelievers to God, converting to God those who give themselves over to evil, giving them the strength to overcome the evil passions. You ask it for miracles! But the fact related above, of the young man A… is it not one? Why did religion not do it, leaving Spiritism to do it, that is to say, the devil? — That is not what is called a miracle. — But does the Church not qualify certain conversions as miraculous? — Yes, but they are conversions of heretics to the Catholic faith. — So that, for you, the conversion from evil to good is not a miracle; you would prefer a material sign: the liquefaction of the blood of some saint, the head of a statue that moves in a church, an apparition in the sky, like the cross of Migné. Spiritism does not work those kinds of miracles; the only ones to which it attaches an infinite value and of which it makes its glory are the moral transformations it operates. Father vicar, time presses and space fails me; another time I will say still a few words that may serve you for the new work you are preparing and that is to annihilate forever Spiritism and the Spiritists. I wish it a better fate than the first. Some passages of this issue may perhaps enlighten you as to the difficulties you will have to overcome in order to prevail. [See: Second letter to Father Marouzeau.]

Receive, etc.

Allan Kardec.

[1]

[Marouzeau (L’abbé) Réfutation complète de la doctrine spirite.]