An intimate drama.

Le Monde illustré, of February 7, 1863, relates the following family drama which, with good reason, moved the society of Florence. Thus the author begins his narrative:

“Here is the story. He was an old man of seventy-two; she, a young woman of twenty. They had been married for three years… Do not be indignant! the old count, a native of Viterbo, was absolutely without family, which is very strange for a millionaire! Amalia was not without family, but rather without millions. To make up for things, having almost seen her born, knowing her to be of good heart and of charming spirit, he had said to the mother: ‘Let me paternally marry Amalia; for a few years she will take care of me; and then…’ “The marriage took place. Amalia understands her duties; she surrounds the old man with the most assiduous cares and sacrifices to him all the pleasures of her age. The count having become blind and almost paralytic, she spent long hours of the day keeping him company, reading to him, telling him everything that could distract and delight him. ‘How good you are, my dear child!’ he often exclaimed, taking her hands and drawing her to him to place upon her brow the chaste and sweet kiss of tenderness and gratitude.

“Meanwhile, one day he noticed that Amalia kept away from his person; that, though still assiduous and full of solicitude, she seemed to fear sitting beside him. A suspicion crossed his spirit. One night, while she was reading, he seized her arm, drew her to him, and clasped her by the waist; then, uttering a terrible cry, he fell fainting from emotion and anger at the feet of the young woman! Amalia loses her head; she rushes to the staircase, reaches the highest floor of the house, throws herself from the window, and falls shattered. The old man survived this catastrophe by no more than six hours.”

It will be asked what relation this story can have with Spiritism. Is the intervention of some malicious Spirits to be seen there? – Those relations lie in the deductions which Spiritism teaches us to draw from the apparently most common things of life. While the skeptic or the indifferent person sees in a fact only an opportunity to exercise his mocking wit, or passes by without noticing it, the Spiritist observes it and draws instruction from it, going back to the providential causes, probing their consequences for the future life, according to the examples which the relations from beyond the grave offer him of the Justice of God. In the fact related above, instead of a simple amusing anecdote between the old he and the young she, Spiritism sees two victims. Now, as concern for the unfortunate does not stop at the threshold of the present life, but follows them into the life to come, in which it believes, it asks whether there is not here a double punishment for a double fault, and whether both were not punished by that wherein they sinned. It sees a suicide; and as it knows that this crime is always punished, it asks what degree of responsibility is incurred by the one who committed it. You who believe that Spiritism concerns itself only with goblins, fantastic apparitions, turning tables, and rapping Spirits, if you would take the trouble to study it, you would know that it touches upon all moral questions. These Spirits, who seem to you so ridiculous, and who, nevertheless, are nothing but the souls of men, give to whoever observes their manifestations the proof that he himself is a Spirit, momentarily bound to a body; he sees in death not the end of life, but the door of the prison opening to the prisoner to restore him to liberty. He learns that the vicissitudes of corporeal life are the consequences of his own imperfections, that is, expiations for the past and the present, and trials for the future. From this he is naturally led to see in events not blind chance, but the hand of Providence. For him the just sentence: To each according to his works finds its application not only beyond the grave, but also even on Earth. This is why everything that happens around him has its value, its reason for being; he studies it to draw profit from it and to regulate his conduct with a view to the future which, for him, is a demonstrated reality. Going back to the causes of the misfortunes that afflict him, he learns no longer to accuse fate or fatality for such misfortunes, but himself. This digression having no other object than to show that Spiritism concerns itself with something more than rapping Spirits, let us return to our subject. Since the fact has been made public, it is permitted to appraise it, bearing in mind that we name no one by name.

If the matter is examined from the purely worldly point of view, the majority will see in it only the very natural consequence of a disproportionate union and will cast upon the old man the stone of ridicule as a funeral oration; others will accuse of ingratitude the young woman who betrayed the confidence of the generous man who wished to enrich her. But for the Spiritist it has a more serious side, for he seeks a teaching in it. We shall then ask whether, in the action of the old man, there was not more egoism than generosity in subjecting a girl, almost a child, to his decrepitude, by indissoluble bonds, at an age when, rather, she should be thinking of withdrawal, and not of the pleasures of life? Whether, in imposing on her that hard sacrifice, it was not making her pay very dearly for the fortune he had promised her? There is no true generosity without disinterestedness. As for the young woman, she could accept these bonds only with the prospect of seeing them soon broken, since no motive of affection bound her to the old man. There was, then, calculation on both sides, and this calculation was thwarted; God did not permit either of them to profit from it, inflicting disillusionment on the one and shame on the other, which killed them both. There remains the responsibility for the suicide, which never goes unpunished, but which, very often, finds extenuating circumstances. The girl’s mother, to encourage her to accept him, had said: “With this great fortune you will make the happiness of the poor man you love. While you wait, honor and respect this great heart which wished to make you his heiress, during the time of life that remains to him.” This was to take her on her sensitive side; but, in order to enjoy the benefits of that great heart, which would have been much greater had he endowed her without interest, it was necessary to speculate upon the duration of his life. The young woman erred in yielding, but the mother erred more in inciting her, and it is certainly she who will incur the greater part of the responsibility for her daughter’s suicide. Thus, he who kills himself to escape misery is guilty of the lack of courage and resignation, but much more guilty still is the primary cause of that act of despair. This is what Spiritism teaches, by the examples it sets before our eyes and before those of the ones who study the invisible world. As for the mother, her punishment begins in this life: first by the horrible death of her daughter, whose image will perhaps come to pursue her and torture her with remorse; then, by the uselessness of the sacrifice she provoked, since the fortune of the husband, dead six hours after his wife, goes to distant collaterals, and she will not profit from it. The newspapers are full of cases of every kind, praiseworthy or blameworthy, which, like this one we have just related, can offer subjects for serious moral studies; for Spiritists it is an inexhaustible mine of observations and instruction. Spiritism gives them the means to discover there what passes unperceived by the indifferent and, still more, by the skeptics, who see only the piquant facts, without seeking either their causes or their consequences. For the groups, it is a fertile element of work, in which the protecting Spirits will not fail to assist them, giving their appraisal.