Doctor Demeure.

— Yet another choice soul has just left the Earth! Mr. Demeure was a most distinguished homeopathic physician in Albi. His character, as much as his learning, had earned him the esteem and veneration of his fellow citizens. We knew him only through his correspondence and that of his friends, but it was enough to reveal to us all the greatness and all the nobility of his sentiments. His goodness and his charity were inexhaustible, and, despite his advanced age, no fatigue prevented him from going to relieve the poor sick. The price of his visits was the least of his concerns; he worried more about the unfortunate than about those whom he knew could pay, because, as he said, in his absence the latter could always find another physician. To the former, not only did he give the remedies free of charge, but often he provided for their material needs, which, sometimes, is the most useful of medicines. It may be said that he was the Curé d'Ars of Medicine. Mr. Demeure had embraced the Spiritist Doctrine with ardor, in which he had found the key to the gravest problems, whose solution he had asked in vain of Science and of all the philosophies. His profound and inquiring Spirit made him understand at once its whole scope, so much so that he became one of its most zealous propagators. Although we had never seen each other, he told us in one of his letters that he was convinced that we were not strangers to one another and that there had been prior relations between us. His readiness to come to us as soon as he died, his solicitude for us, and the care he bestowed upon us in the circumstance in which we found ourselves at the moment [Kardec was ill; see First communication of Mrs. widow Foulon], the role he seems called to play, seem to confirm this prediction, which we have not yet been able to verify. We learned of his death on January 30, and our first thought was to commune with him. Here is the communication he gave us that very night, through Mrs. Cazemajour, medium:

— “Here I am. While still alive I had promised myself that, once I was dead, I would come, if possible, to shake the hand of my dear master and friend Allan Kardec.

“Death had given my soul that heavy slumber called lethargy; but the thought kept watch. I shook off that fatal torpor, which prolongs the disturbance that follows death, I awoke and, in a single bound, made the journey.

“How happy I am! I am no longer old or infirm; my body was only an imposed disguise; I am young and beautiful, beautiful with that eternal youth of the Spirits, whose wrinkles no longer furrow the face, whose hair does not whiten under the action of time. I am light as the bird that in swift flight crosses the horizon of your nebulous sky; I admire, I contemplate, I bless, I love, and I bow, atom that I am, before the greatness, the wisdom, the science of our Creator, before the greatness of the marvels that surround me.

“I was beside you, dear and venerated friend, when Mr. Sabò spoke of making my evocation, and I followed him.

“I am happy; I am in glory! Oh! who could ever describe the splendid beauties of the land of the elect: the heavens, the worlds, the suns, their role in the great concert of universal harmony? Well then! I shall try, my master; I am going to make a study of it and I shall come to lay before you the homage of my labors as a Spirit, which I dedicate to you in advance. Until soon.”

Demeure.

Observation. – The two following communications, given on February 1 and 2, relate to the illness that suddenly struck us on January 31. Although they are personal, we publish them because they prove that Dr. Demeure is as good a Spirit as he was a man, and because they offer, moreover, a teaching. It is a testimony of gratitude, which we owe to the solicitude of which we were the object on his part, in this circumstance:

— “My good friend, have confidence in us and much courage. This crisis, though tiring and painful, will not be long, and, with the prescribed care, you will be able, according to your desires, to complete the work, of which your existence was the principal aim. Meanwhile, I am the one who is always beside you, with the Spirit of Truth, who allows me to take the word in his name, as the last of your friends to have come among the Spirits! They do me the honors of welcome. Dear master, how happy I am to have died in time to be with them at this moment! Had I died sooner, perhaps I could have spared you this crisis which I did not foresee; I had been disincarnated for very little time to occupy myself with anything other than the spiritual. But now I shall watch over you. Dear master, it is your brother and friend who is happy to be a Spirit so as to be beside you and lavish care upon you in your illness. “Help yourself, and heaven will help you.” Help, then, the good Spirits in the care they bestow upon you, submitting yourself strictly to their prescriptions. “It is very hot here; this coal is tiring. While you are ill, do not burn it; it continues to increase your oppression; the gases that are released from it are deleterious.”

Your friend, Demeure.

— “It is I, Demeure, the friend of Mr. Kardec. I come to tell him that I was at his side when the accident befell him, which could have been fatal without an effective intervention, to which I had the good fortune to contribute. According to my own observations and information that I gathered from a good source, it is evident to me that the sooner his disincarnation takes place, the sooner his reincarnation will take place, so that he may be able to complete his work. However, he must, before departing, give a last touch to the works that must complete the doctrinal theory, of which he is the initiator; and he will become guilty of voluntary homicide if, through excess of work, he contributes to the failure of his organism, which threatens him with a sudden departure for our worlds. One must not fear to tell him the whole truth, so that he may take care of himself and rigorously follow our prescriptions.” Demeure.

— The following communication was received at Montauban, on February 1, in the circle of the Spiritist friends he had in that city:

“Antoine Demeure. I am not dead to you, my good friends, but to those who, like you, do not know this holy doctrine, which reunites those who loved one another on Earth and who had the same thoughts and the same sentiments of love and charity.

“I am happy; happier than I could hope, since I enjoy a rare lucidity among the Spirits freed from matter so short a time ago. Have courage, my good friends; from now on I shall be beside you and shall not fail to instruct you about many things that we are ignorant of when bound to our poor matter, which conceals from us so many magnificences and so many pleasures. Pray for those who are deprived of this happiness, for they do not know the harm they do to themselves.

“Today I shall not dwell much, but I shall tell you that I do not find myself entirely a stranger in this world of the invisibles. It seems to me that I always inhabited it. Here I am happy, because I see my friends and can communicate with them whenever I wish.

“Do not weep, my friends; you would make me regret having known you. Let time run its course and God will lead you to this dwelling, where we must all be reunited. Good night, my friends: may God console you; here I am beside you.”

Demeure.

Observation. – The situation of Mr. Demeure, as a Spirit, is indeed the one that his life, so worthily and so usefully fulfilled, could lead one to anticipate. But another fact, no less instructive, stands out from his communications: it is the activity he demonstrates, almost immediately after death, to be useful. By his lofty intelligence and by his moral qualities, he belongs to the order of very advanced Spirits; he is very happy, but his happiness does not lie in inaction. A few days ago, he was caring for the sick as a physician, and, scarcely disincarnated, he devotes himself to going to care for them as a Spirit. Some people will ask: What is gained by being in the other world, if one does not enjoy repose there? To this we shall ask them, to begin with, whether it means nothing to no longer have worries, nor needs, nor the infirmities of life, to be free and able, without tiring oneself, to traverse space with the rapidity of thought, to go see one's friends at any hour, whatever the distance at which they are found? Then we add: When you are in the other world, nothing will force you to do anything whatsoever; you will be perfectly free to remain in a blissful idleness, for as long as you wish; but soon you will tire of that selfish idleness and will ask for an occupation. Then you will be answered: If you are bored by doing nothing, seek for yourselves something to do; occasions to be useful are not lacking in the world of the Spirits, as they are not lacking among men. It is thus that spiritual activity is not a constraint; it is a necessity, a satisfaction for the Spirits who seek occupations according to their tastes and aptitudes, and who choose by preference those that can help their advancement. [1]

[See observation of Allan Kardec in the article:

Healing power of Spiritual magnetism — The Spirit of Dr. Demeure.]