Public courses on Spiritism in Lyon and Bordeaux.

— This is not, as one might suppose, an approving demonstration of the doctrine, but, on the contrary, a new form of attack, under an attractive and somewhat misleading title; for anyone who, trusting in the advertising poster, went there thinking he would attend lessons on Spiritism, would be greatly disappointed. The sermons are far from having had the expected result; moreover, they address only the faithful; then they require a very solemn form, excessively religious, whereas the teaching rostrum allows freer, more familiar attitudes; the ecclesiastical orator sets aside his condition as a priest: he becomes a professor. Will this tactic produce good results? Only the future will tell. The abbé Barricand, professor at the Faculty of Theology of Lyon, has begun at the Petit-Collège a series of public lessons on, or rather against, magnetism and Spiritism. The newspaper Vérité, in its issue of April 10, 1864, analyzes a session devoted to Spiritism and points out several assertions of the speaker; it promises to keep its readers informed of the sequel, while at the same time undertaking to refute it, which, we have no doubt, it will do marvelously, judging by its beginning. The propriety and moderation it has shown to this day in its polemic are a guarantee to us that it will not depart from this line, even if its adversary should depart from it.

As long as the abbé Barricand stays on the ground of discussing the principles of the doctrine, he is within his rights; we cannot reproach him for not being of our opinion, for saying and trying to prove that he is right. We would like the clergy in general to be as much partisans of free examination as we ourselves are. What lies outside the right of discussion are personal attacks and, above all, malevolent personal remarks; it is when, by the needs of his cause, an adversary distorts the facts and the principles he wishes to combat, the words and acts of those who defend them. Such means are always proofs of weakness and bear witness to little confidence in the arguments drawn from the thing itself. It is these departures from truth that ought to be pointed out in the present case, but within the limits of propriety and urbanity.

— The Vérité summarizes part of the abbé Barricand’s argumentation thus:

“As for the Spiritists, who are far more numerous, I likewise strive to prove that today they are coming down from the pretentious pedestal upon which Mr. Allan Kardec enthroned them in 1862. Indeed, in 1861 Mr. Kardec was making a journey throughout all France, a journey of which he complacently gave an account to the public. Oh! gentlemen, then everything was going smoothly; the adherents of this school numbered thirty thousand in Lyon, two or three thousand in Bordeaux, etc., etc. Spiritism seemed to have invaded all of Europe! Now, what is happening in 1863? Mr. Allan Kardec makes no more journeys… nor emphatic reports! It is that, probably, he has noted a good number of desertions and, so as not to discourage what may still remain of Spiritists, by a state hardly favorable, he judged it prudent and correct to abstain. Pardon, gentlemen, I am mistaken: Mr. Allan Kardec devotes a few pages of his Spiritist Review (January 1864), giving us some general information about the campaign of 1863. But here, no more ambitious figures! He guards himself, and rightly!… Mr. Allan Kardec contents himself with announcing that Spiritism is ever flourishing, more flourishing than ever. As supporting proofs, he cites the creation of two new organs of the school, the Ruche of Bordeaux, and the Vérité of Lyon; above all the Vérité which, as he says, has come to take its place as a formidable athlete, by its articles of such close logic that they leave no room for criticism. I hope, gentlemen, to demonstrate to you on Friday that the Vérité is not as terrible as they say. “It is easy for Mr. Allan Kardec to make this affirmation: Spiritism is stronger than ever, and to cite as principal proof the creation of the Ruche and the Vérité! Gentlemen, all comedy!… These two newspapers may well exist, without one being obliged to conclude that Spiritism has taken a step forward… If you object to me that such newspapers have expenses and that to pay them subscribers are needed, or the imposition of crushing sacrifices, I will still answer: Comedy!… By what they say, Mr. Allan Kardec’s coffers are well supplied. Is it not just and rational that he should come to the aid of his disciples?”

The editor of the Vérité, Mr. Edoux, accompanies this quotation with the following note: “On leaving the course, we had a brief interview with the abbé Barricand who, moreover, received us in a very courteous manner. Our aim was to offer him a collection of the Vérité, in order to provide him with the means of speaking at his ease.”

We shall see whether Mr. Barricand will be happier than his colleagues and whether he will find what so many others have sought in vain: crushing arguments against Spiritism. But why so much labor, since it is dying? Since the abbé Barricand believes it, let us leave him that sweet belief, for it will be neither more nor less. We have no interest in dissuading him. We shall only say that if he has no more serious grounds of conviction than those he puts forward, his reasons are not very conclusive, and if all his arguments against Spiritism have the same force, we may sleep in peace.

It is astonishing that a serious man should draw such hazardous consequences from what we may have done on the journey we made last year, and should meddle in our private acts to the point of supposing the reasons that would have led us to undertake it. From a supposition he draws an absolute consequence, which is not rigorous logic, since, if the premises are not certain, the conclusion cannot be so. You will say that this is no answer; but we have not the least intention of satisfying the curiosity of anyone whatsoever. Spiritism is a humanitarian question, its future is in the hands of God and does not depend on this or that step of man. We regret that the abbé Barricand views it from so narrow a point of view. As to knowing whether our coffers are well or poorly supplied, it seems to us that to calculate what is in the pocket of someone who has given no right to examine it might pass for indiscretion; to make this the subject of a public address is to profane private life; to suppose the use that someone must have made of what is supposed he possesses may, according to circumstances, amount to calumny.

It seems that Mr. Barricand’s system is to proceed by suppositions and insinuations. With such a system, he may expose himself to receiving denials. Now, we give him a formal denial regarding all the allegations, suppositions, and deductions related above. Discuss as much as you wish the principles of Spiritism, but what we do or do not do, what we have or do not have, is out of the question. A course is not a diatribe; it is a serious, complete, and conscientious exposition of the subject in question; if it is contradictory, loyalty requires arguments for and against, so that the public may judge of their reciprocal value; to proofs, one must oppose more preponderant proofs. It gives a poor idea of the strength of one’s own arguments to try to cast discredit upon persons. This is how we understand a course, above all on the part of a professor of Theology who, before all else, ought to seek the truth.

— Bordeaux too has its public course on Spiritism, that is, against Spiritism, by the reverend father Delaporte, professor at the Faculty of Theology of that city. The Ruche announces it in these terms:

“Last Wednesday, the 13th of this month, we attended the public course on dogma, in which father Delaporte treated this question: On the hypothesis of a new religion revealed by the Spirits, or Spiritism. The illustrious professor not having yet concluded, we shall follow his lessons attentively and shall give an account of them with the impartiality and moderation that a Spiritist must never relinquish.”

The Sauveur des peuples, in its issues of April 17 and 24, reports the first two lessons and makes a close critique of them, which cannot fail to cause the orator some embarrassment. Thus, here are two professors of theology of incontestable talent who, in the two principal centers of Spiritism in France, undertake against it a new war, contending, at both points, with champions who have wherewith to answer them. It is that today one finds what was rarer a few years ago: men who have studied seriously and do not fear to expose themselves. What will come of this? A first inevitable result: a more thorough examination of the question for everyone; those who have not read will want to read; those who have not seen will want to see. A second result will be to have it taken seriously by those who still see in it nothing but mystification, since learned theologians judge it a subject worthy of serious public discussion. A third result, finally, will be to silence the fear of ridicule, which still holds many people back. When a thing is publicly discussed by men of worth, for and against, one no longer fears to speak of it. From the religious chair the discussion will naturally pass to the scientific and philosophical chair. This discussion, by the cream of intelligent men, will have the effect of exhausting the contradictory arguments, which will not be able to resist the evidence of the facts.

No doubt the Spiritist idea is very widespread, although, one may say, still as an individual opinion. What is happening today tends to open a space for it in general opinion and, before long, will assign it an official place among the accepted beliefs.

We gladly take the opportunity offered to us to address congratulations and encouragements to all those who, braving fear, resolutely take up the cause of Spiritism. We are happy to see their number grow day by day. Let them persevere, and they will soon see supports multiply; but let them also be persuaded that the struggle is not over and that open warfare is no longer the thing to fear. The most dangerous enemy is the one who acts in the shadows, often concealing himself under a false mask. Then we shall say: Distrust appearances; do not judge men by their words, but by their acts; fear, above all, the snares.

[Review of July 1864.]

COMPLAINT OF THE ABBÉ BARRICAND.

The issue of the Review for the month of June was already composed and partly printed when the following letter reached us, from the abbé Barricand, to whom we had the following reply sent, which appears below:

“Sir.

“Mr. Allan Kardec instructs me to acknowledge receipt of the letter you addressed to him, and to tell you that it was superfluous to request its insertion in the Review. It would have sufficed for you to ask him for a motivated rectification and he would have considered it a duty of impartiality to recognize your right. As the issue of the Review of June 1st was already ready when your letter was received, it can only appear in the following edition.

“Receive, etc.”

“Lyon, May 19, 1864.

“Sir, “I have just read in the Spiritist Review, the fascicle for the month of May 1864, an article in which my course is so fancifully treated and disfigured that I find myself obliged to give you a reply, in order to destroy the unfavorable impression that the article must have left on your readers, with respect to my person and my teaching.

“The article is entitled: Public courses on Spiritism in Lyon. Never has such a designation appeared in any of my programs, and if anyone came to my course in the belief that he would attend lessons on Spiritism, it was not, as you insinuate, because he had been seduced by an attractive and somewhat misleading title, but solely because he did not take the trouble to read what our posters say.

“You inform your readers that the newspaper Vérité points out several of our assertions and, moreover, that it will undertake to refute us; of this we have no doubt, you add, for, judging by its beginning, it will acquit itself marvelously. But you do not make these assertions known. It is true that our adversary affirms that it is not necessary to have studied theology to take up a pen, and that he will not fear to confront us using only the weapons of reason and of faith in God, given by Spiritism;… that the paradoxical thesis we maintain is not to be discussed;… that we would not need to be coaxed to accompany Spiritism to the cemetery, but that we ought not be in too great a hurry to toll the death knell;… that, on his own account, he is in a position to nourish, by himself and without much labor, that little child called Truth;… that the blood of the future runs warmer than ever in the veins of the Spiritist, and that he has the intimate confidence that one day it will be given us to sound the definitive tone of the most magnificent Te Deum. “Surely Mr. Allan Kardec supposes himself in perfect condition to contest our arguments and to promise his readers that, judging by the beginning, the director of the Vérité will acquit himself marvelously of the task he has imposed on himself, of refuting us. But it is difficult to believe that, outside the Spiritist school, people have the same opinion; we would even go so far as to suspect that if the Director of the Spiritist Review were to publish in full, before the eyes of his subscribers, the article in which our antagonist accepts the struggle, many of them would have hesitated to regard it as a beginning that promises a marvelous refutation of our lessons against Spiritism.

“But perhaps you will say: does the summary the Vérité gives of part of your argumentation not reproduce it faithfully? No, sir, that summary is nothing but a burlesque parody. Everything in it is falsified: our language, our ideas, and our reasoning. These arrogant expressions: I judge myself capable of proving; pretentious pedestal…; emphatic report; ambitious figures; all comedy; Mr. Allan Kardec’s coffers are well supplied and it is just that he should come to the aid of his disciples, etc., never entered into our lessons, and the Director of the Vérité would have spared himself the labor of attributing them to us, had he understood, or wished to understand, the true state of the question we were treating before him. “Indeed, what was it about? About making known to our audience what was, at the end of 1862 and of 1863, the situation of Spiritism in Lyon. Now, in order to rely solely on data that no Spiritist can refuse, instead of speaking of your journeys and calculating what your coffers might contain, we contented ourselves with confronting your brochure entitled: Spiritist Journey in 1862 and your article in the Spiritist Review (January 1864), in which you give the subscribers an account of the situation of Spiritism in 1863. From the so evident difference of tone and language noted in these two documents, we judged we ought to conclude, not as the Vérité makes us say, that Spiritism is dead or dying, but that it suffers, at least in Lyon, from a stagnation, if it has not already entered a period of decadence. In support of this conclusion, we recall the confessions of the director of the Vérité, because, while Mr. Allan Kardec affirms that in 1862 one could count, without exaggeration, 25 to 30 thousand Lyonese Spiritists, Mr. Edoux has no difficulty in acknowledging that their number today does not exceed ten thousand. Now, what other name than that of decadence can be given to so notable a diminution? “It seems to us that nothing is easier than to grasp the true meaning of so simple an argumentation and to make an exact analysis of it. But the Director of the Vérité, instead of limiting himself to reproducing our exposition faithfully, judged that it would be more interesting to give the readers a pretty sample of our course, inserting it in his newspaper.

“And yet, it is this report, where every line lays bare the lack of logic and of sincerity, that you judged fit to give as the foundation for these malevolent insinuations, which tend to present us to your readers as a man who interferes in your private acts, who from a mere supposition draws an absolute consequence; who calculates what lies at the bottom of your coffers in order to make of it the subject of a public teaching. Such accusations, hurled thoughtlessly and without the shadow of proof, fall of themselves. According to the word of an ancient author, it suffices to set them forth in order to refute them: Vestra exposuisse refellisse est [To have set forth your explanation is to have refuted it]. “In concluding your article, you judged that you ought to teach us how a course of theology should be conducted. For our part, we refrain from wishing to give you lessons, but may we at least be permitted to give you a charitable piece of advice, if you wish to avoid many denials, that of accepting henceforth, save with a certain distrust, the reports of your correspondents, because, to borrow the language of our good La Fontaine, an ignorant friend is more dangerous than a learned enemy.

“I request you, and if necessary I demand, the full insertion of this reply in your next issue.

“Receive the protestations of my most elevated sentiments.”

A. Barricand.

Dean of the Faculty of Theology.

— The words against which the abbé Barricand complains are these: “It is easy for Mr. Allan Kardec to make this assertion: Spiritism is stronger than ever, and to cite as principal proof the creation of the Ruche and the Vérité! Gentlemen, all comedy!… These two newspapers may well exist, without one being obliged to conclude that Spiritism has taken a step forward… If you object to me that such newspapers have expenses and that to pay them subscribers are needed, or the imposition of crushing sacrifices, I will still answer: Comedy!… By what they say, Mr. Allan Kardec’s coffers are well supplied. Is it not just and rational that he should come to the aid of his disciples?”

These are taken textually from the newspaper Vérité of April 10, 1864. We merely added the very natural reflections they suggested, saying that we recognize in no one the right to calculate the contents of our purse, nor to prejudge the use we may make of what they think we possess and, still less, to make of this the subject of a public teaching. (See the Review for the month of May.) [Preceding article.]

Without inquiring whether the abbé Barricand pronounced the words he contests, or their equivalent, it is astonishing that he did not, in the first place, request the rectification from the newspaper from which we borrowed them. That newspaper is dated April 10; it appears in Lyon every week and is sent to him. Now, his letter is dated May 19 and, in that interval, five issues had appeared. One of two things: these words are correct, or they are false; if they are false, then the editor, who declares in the article that he attended the professor’s lesson, invented them. Then how is it that in the same article he protests against the allegation of being subsidized by us, saying that he needs no one’s help and can walk alone? He would have been strangely mistaken. How is it that in the presence of this double assertion the abbé Barricand let more than a month go by without protesting? His silence, when he could not have been unaware of it, must have been regarded by us as an assent, for it is quite evident that if they had been rectified in the Vérité, we would not have reproduced them. In his letter, the abbé Barricand returns to the thesis he maintained, relating to the alleged decadence of Spiritism, restricting, however, the scope of his expressions. Since such a thought reassures him, we leave it to him willingly, for we have not the least interest in dissuading him. Thus, let him draw from the absence of precise stipulations about the number of Spiritists whatever conclusions he wishes, which will not prevent things from following their course. It matters little whether our adversaries believe or not in the progress of Spiritism; on the contrary, the less they believe, the less they will occupy themselves with it and the more they will leave us in peace. We will play dead if this is agreeable to them. It would fall to them not to awaken us; but, as long as they vociferate, fulminate, anathematize, use violence and persecution, they will make no one believe that we are dead and well and truly dead. Until now the clergy had thought that one means of frightening people, with respect to Spiritism, so as to make them repel it, was to exaggerate the number of its adherents beyond measure. In how many sermons, pastoral letters, and publications of every kind have these not been presented as invaders of society and, by their increase, as putting the Church in danger? We confirm the progress of Spiritist ideas, for, better than anyone, we are in a position to verify it; but we have never fallen into hyperbolic calculations and have never said, like a certain preacher [Sermons against Spiritism], that in Bordeaux alone more than 170,000 francs’ worth of our books were sold. It was not we who said that there were 20 million Spiritists in France [Budget of Spiritism or exploitation of human credulity], nor, as in a recent work, 600 million in the whole world, which would amount to more than half the total population of the globe. The result of these tableaux was completely different from what they expected. Now, if we wished to proceed by induction, we would suspect that the abbé Barricand wished to follow a contrary tactic, attenuating the progress of Spiritism, instead of exalting it. Be that as it may, an exact statistic of the Spiritists is an impossible thing, given the immense number of persons sympathetic to the idea who have no motive whatever to put themselves in evidence, since the Spiritists are not enrolled as in a confraternity. Great would be the error of anyone who took as a basis the number of officially known groups, considering that not even a thousandth of the adherents frequent them. We know certain cities where there is no regular society and in which there are more Spiritists than in others that count several. Moreover, we have already said that societies are not a necessary condition for the existence of Spiritism; some are formed today and close their activities tomorrow, without their march being hindered in anything whatsoever. Spiritism is a question of faith and belief, and not of association. Whoever shares our convictions regarding the existence and the manifestation of the Spirits and the moral consequences arising therefrom is a Spiritist in fact, without there being any need to be inscribed in a register or roll, or to receive a diploma. A simple conversation suffices to make known those who are sympathetic to the idea or who repel it, and by this one judges whether it gains or loses ground.

The approximate evaluation of the number of adherents rests on intimate reports, for there exists no basis for establishing a rigorous figure, a figure, moreover, incessantly variable. A letter, for example, will reveal to us a whole Spiritist family and, at times, several families, of which we had no knowledge. If the abbé Barricand saw our correspondence he would perhaps change his opinion; but we do not concern ourselves with that.

The opposition made to an idea is always in proportion to its importance. If Spiritism were a utopia, people would not have occupied themselves with it, as with so many other theories. The obstinacy of the struggle is a sure indication that they take it seriously. But if there is a struggle between Spiritism and the clergy, History will tell which were the aggressors. The attacks and calumnies of which it was the object forced it to return the weapons hurled at it and to show the vulnerable side of its adversaries. By persecuting it, did they halt its march? No, certainly not. Had they left it in peace, the very name of the clergy would not have been pronounced and perhaps it would have prevailed. By attacking it in the name of the dogmas of the Church, they forced it to discuss the value of the objections and, by this very fact, to enter upon a ground it had no intention of venturing onto. The mission of Spiritism is to combat incredulity by the evidence of the facts, to lead back to God those who did not know Him, to prove the future to those who believed in nothingness. Then why does the Church today hurl more anathemas upon those to whom it gives faith than when they believed in nothing? By repelling, through Spiritism, those who believe in God and in the soul, it constrains them to seek refuge outside the Church. Who first proclaimed that Spiritism was a new religion, with its worship and its priests, if not the clergy? Where has one seen, up to now, the worship and the priests of Spiritism? If one day it becomes a religion, it is the clergy that will have provoked it. [Review of August 1864.]

CORRESPONDENCE.

REPLY OF THE EDITOR OF THE VÉRITÉ TO THE COMPLAINT OF THE ABBÉ BARRICAND.

Dear Mr. Allan Kardec, Would you be so kind as to insert a few lines in the next issue of your Review?

I was indeed surprised, on opening the latest issue of your newspaper (July 1864), to find there a letter signed Barricand, in which this theologian inveighs against me apropos of a report I published on one of his anti-Spiritist courses (Vérité of April 10, 1864).

The very judicious observations with which you accompanied this unspeakable and very tardy protest would certainly have dispensed me from replying to it personally, had I not feared that, in the eyes of some, my silence might pass for a defeat or an error. I declare in so many words that my conscience could not associate itself with the grave censure he made against me of having distorted, falsified the course in question. I affirm it before God: If I have not always reproduced the same phrases, the same words pronounced by my adversary, I remain convinced of having given them their true meaning.

After this, let the high intelligence of the abbé Barricand judge mine to be very paltry or too heavy to have been able to grasp the true theme of his discourse, through the sinuous but flowery paths along which he strolled; let the abbé Barricand draw from this premise the induction which, in such a circumstance, it is no longer permitted me to affirm or to invalidate; upon my word of honor, it is quite possible! In that case, and to be faithful to my principles of tolerance, I would almost consent to reproach myself for having defended the Vérité and the other Spiritist newspapers against illusory accusations, born of my delirious brain; to beat my breast for having understood that, instead of tolling the death knell over our heads, they contented themselves, it seems, with taking our pulse. Thus, I hope, will be appeased the wrath of the Dean of the Faculty of Theology; in this way his person and his teaching will be rehabilitated in the eyes of the world.

Accept, etc.

E. Edoux.

Director of the Vérité.

[1] [Rapport de M. l’abbé Barricand,… lu à la rentrée solennelle des Facultés de Lyon, le 1er décembre 1857 — Google Books.]

[2] [Le Sauveur des peuples, journal du spiritisme… 1re [-2e] année… A. Lefraise — 1864 — Google Books.]