Extract from the Jornal do Commercio of Rio de Janeiro.

PARIS CHRONICLE.

— On the subject of the specters of the theaters, the correspondent thus concluded, after having given his account:

“Thus, next winter, everyone will be able to treat his friends to the spectacle, now made popular, of some phantoms and other supernatural curiosities. At dessert, the candles will be put out and there will be seen appearing, wrapped in their shrouds, the modern specters, replacing the old songs that our grandfathers once sang. At balls, instead of refreshments, phantoms will parade. What a charming distraction! Just thinking of it gives one shivers.”

Then the author passes to Spiritism:

“Since we are speaking of supernatural things, we shall not pass over in silence The Spirits' Book. What an attractive title! what mysteries it conceals! And if we return to the starting point, what a path these ideas have traveled in recent years! – In the beginning these phenomena, still unexplained, consisted in a simple table set in motion by the laying-on of hands; today the tables are no longer content to turn, jump, rise on one leg, perform a thousand pirouettes; they go further: they speak! When I say: they speak, it is that they have an alphabet of their own and, even, several. It suffices to address a question to them and at once the answer is given by little successive raps, with the leg, or by means of a pencil that, held by the hand, sets itself to tracing, on paper, signs, words, whole sentences dictated by a strange and unknown will. Then the hand becomes a simple instrument, a mere pencil-holder, and the Spirit of the person remains completely a stranger to all that takes place. “Spiritism – this is what they call the science of these phenomena – has in a few years made great progress in the facts and in practice; but the theory, in my opinion, has not traveled the same path, it has remained stationary, and I shall say why.

“It is incontestable, unless the persons who occupy themselves with this matter have an interest in deceiving themselves and deceiving us, that the facts exist. Not only are they revealed by means of the tables, but they also present themselves to us every day and at all hours. They excite everyone's admiration, but each one stops there. For example:

“Two persons conceive the same idea or arrive simultaneously at the same word; someone whom we do not meet frequently and of whom we have just been thinking presents himself unexpectedly; there is a knock at our door and, although nothing comes from outside to indicate the person, we guess who it is; a letter with money reaches us at a moment of urgency; and so many other frequent cases, so numerous and known to everyone. Can all this be attributed to chance? No; it cannot be chance in any case. And why should it not be a fluidic communication, imperceptible to our material organization, in short a sixth sense of a more elevated nature? No one knows where the soul resides; it is neither visible, nor ponderable, nor tangible and, nevertheless, full of conviction as we are, we affirm its existence. “What is the nature of the electrical agent? What is the magnet?… And yet, the effects of electricity and magnetism are always evident to our eyes. I am convinced that one day the same will be the case with Spiritism, or whatever name Science, in the final instance, sees fit to give it.

“For some time I have seen numerous cases of catalepsy, of magnetism, of Spiritism, and I cannot keep the least doubt about them; but what seems to me most difficult is to be able to explain them and to attribute them to this or that cause. Thus, it is necessary to proceed with prudence and reserve of opinion, abstaining from falling into the two extremes: either denying all the facts, or submitting them all to a premature theory.

“The existence of the phenomena is incontestable; their theory is still to be discovered: such is today the state of the question. It cannot be denied that there is something singular and worthy of being examined in this idea that has stirred the whole world and that reappears with more intensity than ever, in this idea that has its periodical organs, its annals of observation, and that has moved Spirits in Austria, in Italy, and in America, giving rise to gatherings in France, a country where they rarely form, and where the government scarcely tolerates them.

“This general invasion, besides producing a vivid impression, is of the highest importance. It is necessary, then, without precipitation or preconceived ideas, to verify these phenomena with good faith, until they come to be explained, which will be done one day, if it pleases God to reveal to us the nature of this mysterious agent.”

As one sees, the author is not very advanced; but, at least, he does not judge what he does not know. He recognizes the existence of the facts and their first cause, but he is unaware of their mode of production. He is ignorant of the progress of the theoretical part of the science and, in this regard, gives a very wise piece of advice: that of not making risky theories, as at the beginning of the phenomena many hastened to do, when each one exerted himself to explain them in his own way. Thus, the majority of these premature systems fell through the effect of later experiments, which came to contradict them. Today we possess a rational theory, in which no point has been admitted by way of hypothesis; everything is deduced from experience and from the attentive observation of the facts. It may be said that, in this respect, Spiritism has been studied in the manner of the exact sciences. Denied yesterday, this science has not said everything; on the contrary, there still remains much to learn. But it has said enough to be fixed upon fundamental bases and to know that these phenomena do not depart from the order of natural facts. They were qualified as supernatural and marvelous for lack of knowledge of the law that governs them, as happened with the majority of the phenomena of Nature. In making this law known, Spiritism restricts the circle of the marvelous, instead of enlarging it. We say more: it deals it the final blow. Those who speak otherwise prove that they have not studied it. We note with satisfaction that the Spiritist idea is making perceptible progress in Rio de Janeiro, where it counts an expressive number of representatives, fervent and devoted. The little brochure Spiritism in Its Simplest Expression, published in Portuguese, has greatly contributed to spreading there the true principles of the doctrine.