The Écho de Sétif to Mr. Leblanc de Prébois.

We extract the following passage from an article published in the Écho de Sétif, of July 23, 1863, in response to the booklet entitled: Budget of Spiritism, of which we spoke in the June issue of the Spiritist Review. “We will not give such extension to the question and, that we may understand each other better, let us proceed in order:

“1st – You believe in the immortality of the soul and so do I. Here we are in agreement on this point.

“2nd – After death you send my soul to God, and so do I. A second point on which we are in agreement.

“3rd – My soul arriving at God, you claim that it remains in His presence, or goes to hell, or, finally, to purgatory. These are the only three places where you permit it to move about.

“Here we are no longer in agreement. I believe that God permits a soul to travel everywhere. You circumscribe its space; I expand it.

“Tell me, loyally and frankly, whether you think your opinion is better founded than mine; tell me why God would prevent my soul from traveling after the death of the body. Have you any revelation on the matter? Have you a proof drawn from reasoning alone? I do not believe it. “I have one: it is the reasoning that I draw from the known to the unknown. God created immutable laws, which never contradict themselves. Now, in the Nature that is known to me I see that everything moves, everything stirs, nothing remains at rest. Thus God wills it. “This single truth which I touch, which I feel, suffices to prove to me that the same thing occurs with the worlds that I do not know. For your part, tell me why you would have it be different. “If you do not contest that my soul can move after the death of my body, if it lives, feels, if it can communicate with someone, tell me why it can never communicate with your soul, still bound to your body; give me a reason, a plausible reason, for otherwise I reject it. “If you say that your intelligence refuses to believe in this, that is a reason which I do not admit, because there are millions of things which your intelligence will refuse to believe and which, nevertheless, you will believe after having seen them; such is the case of Saint Thomas. “I do not care how you believe and in this I have not the least interest. I have only one request to make of you: I beg you to insult no one without necessity.

“Whatever your merit may be, there are men who are your equals in Spiritism. There are those who wish to see, to study, to instruct themselves; there are those who have seen surprising things and wish to know their causes before pronouncing themselves. Well then! do as they do: study, try to find. Then, when you have found, give us the clear and precise explanation of the phenomenon. This will be worth more than ill-sounding expressions. You will have made Science take a step forward and calmed consciences alarmed like yours. Here, in short, is a fine role to play! “Before concluding, let us put a single question to Mr. Leblanc de Prébois:

“Did he sell his booklet or publish it solely out of love for Humanity?”

“C***”