The miracles of our days.

— Under this title, Mr. Aug. Bez, of Bordeaux, has just published the account of the manifestations of Jean Hillaire, an extraordinary medium, [See: The Hillaire trial,] whose faculties recall, in many respects, those of Mr. Home, even coming to surpass them on certain points.

Mr. Home is a man of the world, of affable manners and full of urbanity, who has revealed himself only to the highest aristocracy. Jean Hillaire is a simple cultivator of the Charente-Inférieure, little lettered, who lives by his labor. His greatest excursions, it seems, were from Sonnac, his hamlet, to Saint-Jean d’Angely and to Bordeaux; but God, in the distribution of his gifts, takes no account of social positions; he wills that light be made at all degrees of the scale, which is why he grants them to the great and to the small.

Criticism and odious calumny did not spare Mr. Home. Without consideration for the high personages who honored him with their esteem, who received him and still receive him in their intimacy, as a guest and friend, mocking incredulity, which respects nothing, took delight in ridiculing him, in presenting him as a vile charlatan and skilled conjurer, in a word, as a finely educated mountebank. It did not even stop before the idea that such attacks struck at the honorability of the most respectable persons, accused, by that very fact, of connivance with a supposed illusionist. We said of him that it suffices to have seen him to judge that he would be the most inept charlatan, because he has neither audacious attitudes nor loquacity, which would not be compatible with his habitual timidity. Besides, who could say that he ever set a price on his manifestations? The motive that lately led him to Rome, from which he was expelled, in order to perfect himself there in sculpture and draw his resources from it, is the most formal denial to his detractors. But what does it matter! They have said he is a charlatan, and they will not give in. Those who know Hillaire have likewise been able to convince themselves that he would be an even more inept charlatan. It can never be repeated too often: the motive of charlatanism is always self-interest; where there is nothing to gain, charlatanism has no object; where it would have something to lose, it would be a stupidity. Now, what material profit has Hillaire drawn from his faculties? Much fatigue, a great loss of time, vexations, persecutions, calumnies. What he gained, and which for him is priceless, is a living faith in God, which he did not have before, a faith in his goodness, in the immortality of the soul, and in the protection of the good Spirits. This is not, exactly, the fruit aimed at by charlatanism. But he knows, too, that this protection is not obtained except by improving oneself; that is what he strives to do, and what, too, does not interest charlatans. It is, likewise, what makes him bear with patience the vicissitudes and the privations. In such cases, a guarantee of sincerity lies, then, in absolute disinterestedness. Before accusing a man of charlatanism, one must ask what profit he can draw from deceiving others, for charlatans are not foolish to the point of gaining nothing and, still less, of losing instead of gaining. Thus, mediums have a peremptory answer to give to their detractors, asking them: How much was I paid to do what I do? A guarantee no less significant and capable of causing a vivid impression is the reform of oneself. Only a profound conviction can lead a man to conquer himself, to rid himself of what he has that is bad, to resist pernicious enticements. Then it is no longer merely the faculty that one admires, but the person whom one respects and who imposes himself upon mockery.

— The manifestations obtained by Hillaire are, for him, a holy thing; he considers them a favor from God. The sentiments they inspire in him are summed up in the following words, drawn from Mr. Bez’s book:

“The rumor of these new phenomena spread everywhere with the rapidity of lightning. All those who, until then, had not yet attended Spiritist manifestations, were dying with the desire to see. More than ever, Hillaire was besieged by requests and invitations of every sort. Offers of money were made by various persons, in order to decide him to give sessions in their homes; but Hillaire always had the profound conviction that his faculties were given to him only with charity in view, in order to bring faith to the souls of the incredulous and, thus, to tear them away from the materialism that gnaws at them without pity and plunges them into egoism and debauchery. Since God did him the grace of making use of him to enlighten his compatriots; since manifestations of so elevated an order are produced through his intermediary, the simple medium of Sonnac considered his mediumship as a pure priesthood and convinced himself that, on the day he accepted the least remuneration, his faculties would be taken from him or handed over as a plaything to the evil and frivolous Spirits, who would use them to do evil or to mystify all those who still committed the imprudence of addressing themselves to him. And, nonetheless, the pecuniary position of this humble instrument is in a very precarious state. Without fortune, he has to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and, very often, the great fatigue he experiences when some important manifestations are produced undermines the strength he needs to wield the spade and the hoe, two instruments which, incessantly, he must have in his hands.”

— In moments of misfortune, which had as their object to test his faith and his resignation, Hillaire, just as had happened with Job, found refuge and assistance in grateful friends, who owed him consolation through Spiritism. Is this to put the manifestations of the Spirits up for sale? No, certainly not. It is a relief that God sent him, which he could and ought to accept without scruple; his conscience is at peace, because he did not traffic with the gifts he received freely; he did not sell consolations to the afflicted, nor the faith he gave to the incredulous. As for those who came to his aid, they fulfilled a duty of fraternity, for which they will be rewarded.

Hillaire’s faculties are multiple; he is a seeing medium of the first order, hearing, speaking, ecstatic and, besides, writing. He has obtained direct writing and remarkable transports. Several times he was lifted up and crossed space without touching the ground, which is no more supernatural than to see a table rise. All the communications and all the manifestations he obtains attest to the assistance of the good Spirits and always occur in full light. He often enters spontaneously into somnambulistic sleep, and it is almost always in this state that the most extraordinary phenomena are produced.

— Mr. Bez’s work is written with simplicity and without exaltation. Not only does the author say what he saw, but he cites numerous eyewitnesses, most of whom took a personal interest in the manifestations; these would not have failed to protest against inaccuracies, especially if they had been made to play a role contrary to what took place. The author, justly esteemed and considered in Bordeaux, would not have exposed himself to receiving such denials. By his language one recognizes the conscientious man, who would have scruples about consciously altering the truth. Moreover, there is not a single one of these phenomena whose possibility is not demonstrated by the explanations found in The Mediums’ Book.

This work differs from that of Mr. Home; instead of being a simple compilation of facts, often repeated, without deductions or conclusions, it contains, on almost all those that are related, moral appreciations and philosophical considerations that make of it a book at once interesting and instructive, in which one recognizes the Spiritist, not only convinced, but enlightened.

— As for Hillaire, while congratulating him on his devotion, we exhort him never to lose sight of the fact that what constitutes the principal merit of the medium is not the transcendence of his faculties, which may be taken from him at any moment, but the good use he makes of them. On this use depends the continuation of the assistance of the good Spirits, for there is a great difference between a well-endowed medium and one who is well assisted. The first only excites curiosity; the second, himself touched in the heart, reacts morally upon others, by reason of his personal qualities. We desire, as much in his own interest as in that of the cause, that the praises of friends, generally more enthusiastic than prudent, take nothing away from his simplicity and his modesty, and do not make him fall into the snare of pride, which has already lost so many mediums. [1]

[Les miracles de nos jours, ou, Les manifestations extraordinaires: obtenues par l’intermédiaire de Jean Hillaire, cultivateur à Sonnac (Charente-Inférieure) — Google Books.]