Spiritism in Constantinople.

— Under this title, the journal of Constantinople published, last March, three very lengthy articles about, or rather against, magnetism and Spiritism, which in that capital have many fervent adherents. As we generally do with all critiques, we sought in vain for serious arguments, while we saw the evident proof that the author speaks of something he does not know, or knows only very superficially; he judges Spiritism by appearances, by hearsay, by reading some incomplete fragments, by the account of some eccentric facts repudiated by Spiritism itself, which seems to him sufficient to pronounce a sentence. As one can see, it is a new demonstration of the logic of our antagonists. What seems to have been most read is Mr. de Mirville, the magic of Mr. Dupotet, and the life of Mr. Home; but of the Spiritist science properly speaking, no studies are seen, nor any serious observations. We are far from claiming that whoever studies Spiritism must necessarily approve of it. But if he is of good faith, even in censuring he will not depart from the truth; he will not make us say the contrary of what we say, which will inevitably happen if he does not know all that we have said. We would only recognize as a serious critic the one who, leaving generalities aside, opposed peremptory arguments to our arguments and proved, without possible reply, that the facts on which we rely are false, invented, and radically impossible. This is what no one has yet done, neither the editor of the Constantinople journal nor the others. Spiritism has been attacked in every way, with all the weapons deemed most deadly; nothing has been spared to annihilate it, not even calumny; there is no writer, however mediocre, who in a pamphlet or feuilleton has not boasted of dealing it the coup de grâce; among its adversaries are found men of real worth, who have scrutinized to the bottom the arsenal of objections, with ardor all the greater as the interest in stifling it was greater. Nevertheless, despite what they have done, not only is it still standing, but it spreads, day by day, more and more; it implants itself everywhere; the number of its adherents grows incessantly. This is a notorious fact. What should be concluded from this? That nothing serious and conclusive could be opposed to it. Would our contradictor of Constantinople be more fortunate? We very much doubt it, if he has no better arguments to put forward. His articles, far from halting the Spiritist movement in the East, can only favor it, as happened with all those of the same kind, for they revolved in exactly the same circle; that is why we are not concerned. We shall limit ourselves to quoting a few passages, which summarize the author's opinion. There is not a single one of his objections against Spiritism that does not find its refutation in our works. If we had to refute all the absurdities attributed to the subject, we would have to repeat ourselves incessantly, which is useless, for, in the final analysis, these critiques having no serious substance, they help more than they harm.

“Alongside the skillful practitioners, such as Mr. Dupotet, magician, or Mr. Home, medium, come to place themselves operators of a different order, in whose front ranks figures Mr. Allan Kardec. This one can be presented as the model upon which is patterned a whole array of Spiritists, whose good faith could not be called into doubt.

“As we have already said, the Spiritists of Constantinople belong to that literary and artistic school, which militates principally through its writings, of which the Spiritist Review, by Mr. Allan Kardec, is the most perfect type. It is the adherents of this category who established the doctrine. The theory of the Spirits no longer has any secret for them; thus, most of the time they disdain to resort to the material processes employed by ordinary mediums. They have direct manifestations. Their process, as simple as themselves, consists in taking an ordinary pencil, like the first layman who comes along, with the help of which they are put into immediate relation with the Spirits and write under their dictation. Among other advantages, this method allows them to set aside all modesty and to lavish upon their own works the most exaggerated praise, covering themselves with the name of their supposed authors. “Before believing in the exactness of the mechanical writing medium, we should like to see an idiot write some fine page, such as the Spirits who act by mediumistic means have never dictated. The intuitive medium is more acceptable; but it seems to us very difficult for experience to teach one to distinguish the thought of the Spirit from that of the medium. Moreover, the role played by the latter can be easily explained. In most cases he is sincere, and it is to him rather than to the operators of the order of Messrs. Home and Dupotet that the opinion expressed by Mr. Count de Gasparin would justly apply. As for the opinion of Mr. de Mirville, there is no place here to discuss it, for it is perfectly proven that no medium, at least in Constantinople, is a sorcerer. “If we had to defend the Spiritists against accusations as odious as those we here repel, it would suffice, to demonstrate their complete innocence, to quote some of the teachings given by the Spirits.

“The various planets that circulate in space are peopled like our Earth. Astronomical observations lead one to think that the environments in which their respective inhabitants dwell are diverse enough to require different bodily organizations; but the perispirit accommodates itself to the variety of types and allows the Spirit it cloaks to incarnate on the surface of different planets.

“The moral, intellectual, and physical state of these worlds forms a progressive series, in which our Earth occupies neither the first nor the last position; it is, however, one of the most material and most backward of the globes. There are some where moral evil is unknown; where the arts and sciences have reached a degree of perfection that we cannot comprehend; where the physical organization is not subject to sufferings, nor to diseases; where men live in peace, without harming one another, free from sorrows and worries.

“With my new instruments, this night I shall see men on the Moon…” says, somewhere, King Alfonso. Happier than he, the Spiritists have seen them, but it is not right that they should envy the lot of the lunarians; we think nothing would prevent them from enjoying themselves at will, starting from this world.

“From all that precedes, one sees to what the marvelous and the supernatural of Spiritism are reduced. To annihilate them, it suffices to examine all the facts we have cited, without preconceived ideas, and to find in them the most reprehensible practices of sorcery, or the action of a fluid whose existence scientists deny. For whoever is willing to take the trouble of attending their sessions, without condemning himself to take the facts they produce for what they say they are, Messrs. Home and Dupotet, like all operators of the same order, will be, very evidently, self-interested mystifiers. At most, their operations will be comparable, in terms of skill, to those of Mr. Bosco, but the latter has more sincerity, which does not allow the comparison between them to be carried further. “Very different from the magicians of whom we have just spoken, the mediums of the category of Mr. Allan Kardec, to which the Spiritists of Constantinople generally belong, are, on the contrary, mystified. All their efforts tend to make ever more complete the mystification of themselves. Despite all the goodwill one may have toward them, it is truly impossible to take any of their practices seriously. Nevertheless, it is permissible to lament that honest creatures should thus spend the greater part of their time persuading themselves of errors that, for them, become reality. However inoffensive these errors may at bottom appear, it is no less certain that they can only produce dire results, for they take the place of truth. It is in this sense that they are condemnable.” The Spiritists of Constantinople themselves undertook to reply in two articles that the journal published, in its issues of March 21 and 22 last. One is from a medium, who gives an account of the manner in which his faculty developed and triumphed over his incredulity. The other, which we reproduce below, is in the name of all.

“Mr. Editor, “Your journal has just published three long articles entitled: Spiritism in Constantinople, in consequence of which we come to ask that you deign to make room for the following lines:

TRUE SPIRITISM IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

“The doctrine that is based on the belief in an infinitely just and infinitely good God: infinite love; that indicates as the goal for the Spirits, created by this same God, the path toward an ever more complete perfection; and, as punishment, in the state of Spirit, the perfect perception of this goal, with the regret of having strayed from it, simultaneously with the necessity of recommencing this ascending march through new incarnations… The doctrine that teaches the purest morality, the same that the Christ set forth in these simple words: Love one another… Such a doctrine of love, let us say it proudly, can very well dispense with the manifestations that the author of the articles Spiritism in Constantinople, after having promised to explain them outside of Spiritism, limits himself to qualifying as mystifications. “But these manifestations, today so well established, and whose proof is found on almost every page of the history of Humanity, God permits continually, in order to give to all the proof of the solidarity that exists between incarnate and disincarnate Spirits; and this in order that the one and the other may aid each other mutually, and that the spiritual being, called to eternal life, may attain more easily and, above all, more surely, the providential goal assigned to Creation.

“If the facts from which such theories derive, which are the basis of the Spiritist Doctrine, can be taken by certain persons as mystifications, at least they should indicate the reasons and, what would be still better, present other theories more rational and, above all, more true.

“Now, call the truth sorcery, magic, sleight of hand, and other epithets still more ridiculous, and you will not prevent this truth from propagating itself and extending its beneficent rays over the whole human race.

“This is why Spiritism has spread so rapidly over the whole face of the Earth, despite critiques of the kind of the cited articles, which will not prevent its adherents from being counted by millions.”

The Spiritists of Constantinople.

We address to our Spiritist brothers of Constantinople, both in our personal name and in that of the members of the Society of Paris, the sincere congratulations that their reply deserves, at once dignified and moderate. The following letter, which Mr. Repos, lawyer, president of the Spiritist Society of Constantinople, writes to us on the subject, bears such good witness to his devotion to the cause of the doctrine that we take it as a duty and a sincere pleasure to publish it, so that the Spiritists of all countries may know that in the capital of the East there are brothers on whose fraternity they can count. Speaking of the East, we must not forget those of Smyrna; they too make themselves worthy of all our sympathies. “Constantinople, June 15, 1864.

“Dear master and most honored brother in Spiritism, “I received in good time your esteemed letter of last April 8, which gave me the greatest pleasure, as it did to our Spiritist brothers, of whom I gave knowledge in session.

“All the Spiritists of Constantinople join with me in order that, together, we may assure you and all the Spiritists who form part of the Society of Paris of our fraternal sentiments. And in thanking you for the encouragement you give us, to help us fight for our great cause, rest assured that we shall not fail in the task we have undertaken, and that all our efforts shall be concentrated upon the propagation of truth, of the love of good, and of the intellectual emancipation of other men, our brothers in God, even were we to have to sustain the most fierce struggles against our enemies. If there are men servile enough and cowardly enough to dare to combat the truth, there are also some sufficiently independent and courageous to defend it, thus obeying the sentiments of justice and fraternal love that make of the human being a true son of God. “It was with the keenest interest that I read the interesting details contained in your aforementioned letter, regarding the progress of Spiritism in France and elsewhere. We hope that, in the future, the idea will grow more and more, and we ardently desire it for our earthly brothers of all countries and of all religions.

“The powerful jet of revelation gushes forth on all sides; blind is he who does not see it, imprudent he who denies it, foolish he who combats it, seeking to repress it at its source; does its pure and limpid water not come from the eternal throne to spread itself in gentle and fecund dew over the whole Earth, which it must regenerate? No human force will then be able to compress it!… And indeed, do we not see that, ever since a jet springs up anywhere, if someone makes efforts to compress it, soon thousands of jets are seen springing up in all directions and on all rungs of the social scale? So true is it that the divine will is omnipotent and that, at a given moment, no obstacle can be opposed to it, under penalty of being overthrown and crushed by the dazzling chariot of justice and truth. “Dear master, I have a pleasant duty to fulfill: that of congratulating you, both in my own name and in that of all the Spiritist brothers of the East, on the condemnation suffered by your works at the hands of the most holy inquisition of thought, I mean, the condemnation of the Index. [See: The Index of the Roman Curia.] Rejoice, then, with all our brothers: if your works raised great wraths, these could not wound you, serving only to render your contradictors ridiculous and to reveal their hidden intentions. Such a judgment has already been declared null and void by the public opinion of all countries.

“You have probably already received the journals of Constantinople that I sent you and in which were found most of the articles published against Spiritism and the Spiritists. Did you see our two little replies? What do you think of them? Here they produced a good effect, and now Spiritism is spoken of more than ever. We patiently await what you will say to help us combat fraud and falsehood, the sole appanage of the enemies of our beautiful doctrine.

“Here the muffled persecution that you announced has already begun. One of our brothers lost his job on account of his quality as a Spiritist; others are persecuted, threatened in their dearest family interests or in their means of subsistence, by the dark maneuvers of the eternal enemies of light, who dare to say that Spiritism is the work of the angel-of-darkness! If this is how they think to suffocate it, they are mistaken. Far from halting it, persecution makes every idea that comes from on high grow; it hastens its hatching and its maturity, because it is the manure that fecundates it; it proves the absence of any intelligent means to combat it. Did the blood of the martyrs suffocate the Christian idea? “Until we meet again, dear master. Believe in my very sincere devotion to you and to our Spiritist brothers of Paris, to whom I beg you to present my compliments.”

B. Repos Filho, Lawyer.