A temptation

We personally know a lady, a medium endowed with a remarkable typtological faculty: she easily obtains and, what is quite rare, almost constantly, things of precision, such as names of places and of persons in various languages, dates and particular facts, in the presence of which incredulity has been confounded more than once. This lady, entirely devoted to the cause of Spiritism, consecrates all her available time to the exercise of her faculty, with the aim of propaganda, and this with a disinterestedness all the more praiseworthy as her position of fortune comes very close to mediocrity. As Spiritism, for her, is a serious matter, she always begins with a prayer, said with the greatest recollection, to attract the concurrence of the good Spirits, begging God to keep away the bad ones, and ending thus: “If I should be tempted to abuse, in whatever way, the faculty that God has seen fit to grant me, I ask Him to take it away from me, before it is diverted from its providential object.” One day, a wealthy foreigner — it was he himself who narrated the fact to us — sought out this lady to ask her to give a communication. He had not the slightest notion of Spiritism and still less the belief. Placing his wallet on the table, he said to her: “Madam, here are ten thousand francs that I give you, if you tell the name of the person of whom I am thinking.” This alone suffices to show how far his knowledge of the doctrine extended. In this regard, the medium made to him the observations that every true Spiritist would make in such a case. Even so, she tried, but obtained nothing. Now, soon after the departure of that gentleman she received, for other persons, communications much more difficult and complicated than the one he had asked of her.

For that gentleman the fact ought to be, as we told him, a proof of the sincerity and good faith of the medium, because charlatans always have resources at their disposal when it is a matter of earning money. But from the fact result several lessons of another gravity. The Spirits wished to prove to him that it is not with money that one makes them speak when they do not wish to; moreover, they proved that if they had not answered the question, it was not from impossibility on their part, since they said, afterward, more difficult things to persons who offered nothing. The lesson was greater still for the medium; it was to demonstrate to her her absolute impotence without their concurrence and to teach her humility, because, if the Spirits had been at her orders, if her will sufficed to make them speak, this was the moment to exercise the power, now or never.

Here then is a manifest proof in support of what we said in the Review of last February, with regard to Mr. Home, about the impossibility in which mediums find themselves of counting on a faculty that might fail them at the moment when it would be necessary to them. He who possesses a talent and who exploits it is always sure of having it at his disposal, because it is inherent in his person; but mediumship is not a talent; it exists only by the concurrence of third parties; if those third parties refuse, there is no more mediumship. The aptitude may subsist, but its exercise is annulled. A medium without the assistance of the Spirits is like a violinist without a violin. [or rather: a violin without a violinist]

The gentleman in question was astonished that, having come to be convinced, the Spirits had not lent themselves to it; to this we answered him that, if he can be convinced, he will be so by other means, which will cost him nothing. The Spirits did not want him to be able to say that he had been convinced by the weight of gold, because if gold were necessary to convince, what would those do who cannot pay? It is so that belief may penetrate into the humblest dwellings that mediumship is not a privilege; it is found everywhere, in order that all, poor and rich, may have the consolation of communicating with the relatives and friends of beyond the grave. The Spirits did not want him to be convinced in that manner, because the noise that this would have provoked would have falsified his own opinion and that of his friends as to the essentially moral and religious character of Spiritism. They did not want it in the interest of the medium and of mediums in general, whose cupidity this result would have over-excited, inasmuch as they would say that if they had succeeded in that circumstance, they could equally succeed in others. It is not the first time that similar offers have been made, that prizes are offered, but always without success, considering that the Spirits do not lend their concurrence nor give themselves up to whoever pays best. If that lady had succeeded, would she have accepted or refused? We do not know, because ten thousand francs are quite seductive, especially in certain positions. In any case, the temptation was great. And who knows whether the refusal would not have been followed by a regret, which would have lessened her merit? Let us note that, in her prayer, she asks God to take away her faculty before she is tempted to divert it from its providential object. Well then! Her prayer was answered; mediumship was taken from her for that special case, in order to spare her the danger of temptation and all the deplorable consequences that would have followed from it, first for herself, and then by the deleterious effect that this would have produced.

But it is not only against cupidity that mediums must guard themselves. As there are some in all strata of society, the majority are above this temptation; but there is a much greater danger, for to it all are exposed: pride, which causes the ruin of so great a number. It is against that reef that the most beautiful faculties often come to be annihilated. Material disinterestedness is of no profit if it is not accompanied by the most complete moral disinterestedness. Humility, devotion, disinterestedness, and abnegation are the qualities of the medium beloved by the good Spirits.