New cure of a young obsessed girl from Marmande.

— Mr. Dombre transmits to us the following account of a new and most remarkable cure, obtained by the Spiritist circle of Marmande. Despite its length, we deem it our duty to publish it all at once, on account of the great interest it presents and so that the chain of facts may be better grasped. We think the readers will have no cause to complain of us. We have suppressed only a few details that did not seem to us of capital importance. The ensuing teachings are numerous and serious, and they cast new light upon this question of current concern and upon these phenomena, which tend to multiply. Considering the length of the article, we postpone our considerations to the next issue, in order to give them the necessary developments. [Note: We did not find these considerations.] Mr. Allan Kardec, It is with a new strength and a confidence in God, corroborated by the facts which, filling me with enthusiasm without astounding me, that I come to give you the account of a cure, of an obsession, remarkable in several respects. Oh! truly blind is he who does not see in this the finger of God! All the principles of the sublime doctrine of Spiritism are confirmed therein: the individuality of the soul, the intervention of Spirits in the corporeal world, expiation, punishment, and reincarnation are demonstrated in a surprising manner in the facts with which I am going to engage you. As I have already expressed to you, I regret being obliged to speak to you of myself, of the role that fell to me in this circumstance, as the instrument that God deigned to make use of to strike the eyes. Should I pass over in silence the facts relating to me? I judged not. You are charged with verifying, studying, analyzing the facts and spreading the light: the smallest details must, therefore, be brought to your knowledge. God, who reads in the depths of hearts, knows that I was not moved by the vain satisfaction of self-love; besides, I am not unaware that he who, by privilege, is called to do any good, is soon reduced to powerlessness if, for some instant, he fails to recognize the divine intervention: fortunate even if he is not punished! Let us proceed to the account of the facts.

From the first days of September 1864, there was no talk, in a certain neighborhood of the town, except of the convulsive crises experienced by a girl, Valentine Laurent, thirteen years old. These crises, which were repeated several times a day, were of such violence that five men, who held her by the head, the arms, and the legs, had difficulty keeping her in her bed. She found strength enough to shake them and sometimes even to free herself from their hands. Her hands then clutched at everything; chemises, dresses, bedcovers were promptly torn; her teeth played a very active role in her furies, rightly terrifying the people around her. Had they not restrained her, she would have broken her head against the wall and, despite the efforts and precautions, she was not free of cuts and bruises. The resources of the art were not lacking to her. Four doctors saw her in succession; portions of ether, pills, medicaments of every kind: she took everything without repugnance; leeches behind the ears, blistering plasters on the thighs were also not spared, but without success. During the crises, the pulse was perfectly regular; after the crises, not the slightest memory of the sufferings, of the convulsions, but much astonishment at seeing the house full of people and her bed surrounded by panting men, some of whom lamented a torn chemise or waistcoat. The parish priest of X…, a parish situated two or three kilometers from Marmande, enjoying in the region, among certain people, a recent celebrity as a healer of every kind of ailment, was consulted by the girl's father. The priest, without giving explanations about the nature of the ailment, gave him free of charge a little white powder for the sick girl to take; then he offered to say a Mass. But, alas! neither the powder nor the Mass preserved the young Valentine from fourteen crises the following day, which had never happened to her before. So much failure in cares of every sort must necessarily have given rise, in the mind of the common folk, to superstitious ideas. Indeed, the gossips spoke loudly of spells and sorcery cast upon the girl.

— During that time, and in the silence of intimacy, we consulted our spiritual guides about the nature of this malady. Here is what they answered us:

“It is one of the gravest obsessions, whose character will often change its appearance. Act coolly, with calm; observe, study, and call Germaine.”

At this first evocation, this Spirit [Germaine] did not spare insults and showed great repugnance to answer our inquiries. Until then, none of us had entered the sick girl's house and, before intervening, we wished to let the family exhaust all the means that their solicitude could inspire. Only when the powerlessness of Science and of the Church had been ascertained did we exhort the despairing father to come and attend our meeting, to learn the true cause of his daughter's ailment, and the moral remedy to offer her. This first session took place on September 16, 1864. Before the evocation of Germaine, our guides gave us the following instruction: “Proceed with much care, much observation, and much zeal. You will be dealing with a mystifying Spirit, who combines cunning and hypocritical skill with a very evil character. Do not cease to study, to work for the moralization of this Spirit, and to pray to that end. Recommend to the parents that, in the presence of their daughter, they avoid any manifestation of fear about her condition; on the contrary, they should make her devote herself to her habitual occupations and, above all, not be harsh toward her. Let them tell her, especially, that there are no sorcerers: this is very important. The young and malleable brain receives impressions very easily and her morale could suffer from this; let them not allow her to keep company with persons liable to tell her absurd stories, which give children false and sometimes pernicious ideas. Let the parents themselves be reassured: sincere prayer is the only remedy that must free the girl. We have told you, Spiritists, the Spirit Germaine has skill; she will always contrive ridiculous beliefs, rumors circulating around the young girl; she will seek to pay you back. Take advantage of the case: the obsession will present itself under new phases. Be warned; consider that you must work with perseverance and follow intelligently the smallest details that will put you on the trail of the Spirit's maneuvers. Do not trust in the calm. If the crises are the most shocking effects in obsessions, there are other consequences much more dangerous. Beware of the idiocy and childishness in an obsessed person who, as in this case, does not suffer physically. Obsessions are all the more dangerous the more hidden they are; they are often purely moral. This one does not reason, that one loses the memory of what he said, of what he did. Nevertheless, one must not judge too hastily and attribute everything to obsession. I repeat: study, discern, work seriously; do not expect everything from us; we will help you, for we work in agreement, but do not rest, believing that everything will be revealed to you.”

— Evocation of Germaine – Here I am.

Q. – Have you anything to say to us, in continuation of our last conversation?

Answer. – No, nothing, gentlemen.

Q. — Do you know that you treated us with much harshness?

Answer. – You too speak very ill of me.

Q. — We gave you advice. Did you reflect upon it?

Answer. – Yes, much, I swear. My reflections were sensible. I admit I was mad; I was raving, but here I am calm.

Q. – Very well! Will you tell us why you torture this child?

Answer. – Useless to return to the subject; it would be too long to tell you. I imagine this here is not a tribunal; that I shall not be obliged to sit on the defendants' bench and answer the questionnaire.

Q. – No, absolutely not; you are completely free; it is concern that leads us, for your sake and for the child's, to ask for what serious reason or for what caprice you give yourself over to these attacks.

Answer. – You say caprice? Ah! you should wish that it were no more than a caprice; for, you know, caprice is unstable and comes to an end.

Q. – Are you really calm?

Answer. – You can see it well.

Q. – Yes, in appearance; but are you not disguising your feelings?

Answer. – I do not come to lay snares for you, for I have no need of this.

Q. – Will you affirm it before the Spirits who surround us…?

Answer. – Let us not put other persons between us. If we are to converse or deal with something, let it be from you to me. I do not like the intervention of third parties.

Q. — Very well! we believe in your good faith, and…

Answer. – It is for this reason that you should content yourselves with this guarantee. Besides, I would compel you to believe me, if you put up resistance; I will not lack proofs to convince you of my sincerity.

Germaine.

Upon hearing the name of Germaine, the father of the obsessed girl exclaimed, stupefied: Oh! that is strange! And, as he withdrew, he repeated several times: It is strange!

(This will be explained later.)

— The following day, September 17, I went for the first time to that family's house, with the desire to be a witness of an attack of the Spirit. I was served as far as possible. Valentine was in crisis; I entered with the people of the quarter, who were rushing into the house.

Stretched out on the bed, I saw a magnificent young girl, robust for her age, and restrained by eight or ten vigorous arms, as I described above. Only the head was free, shaking and lashing the air in every direction, with her hair undone. The half-open mouth let two rows of white and, above all, menacing teeth be seen. The gaze was completely lost, and the two pupils, of which only the edges could be seen, were lodged in the corner on the side of the nose. Add to this a kind of savage cry, and imagine the scene. I observed for a moment the force of the jolts and, leaning over the young girl's face, I placed my right hand on her brow and my left on her breast; the convulsive movements and efforts ceased immediately and the head rested, calm, upon the pillow. I directed the fingers of my right hand toward her mouth, which half-opened, and soon a smile sketched itself on her lips; the two large black pupils resumed their place in the middle of the eye; that satanic face was followed by the most gracious countenance. The young girl manifested her astonishment at seeing so many people around her, saying that she was not ill; these were always her first words after the crises. I raised my soul to God and felt under my eyelids two tears of enthusiasm and gratitude. This had just taken place on the morning of the 17th. As the crises came more frequently in the afternoon, around five o'clock, I returned; the attacks, however, had occurred before the usual hour and had already ended. At seven o'clock I returned to my house for dinner. I had scarcely arrived when they came to warn me that the child was in a terrible crisis. I went there immediately. After holding both her arms with one hand, near the wrists, I said to the men who were holding her: Let her go. Then, with the other hand on her breast, they saw that she calmed down at once; next, bringing my hand to her face, I made the smile return to her and her eyes resumed their normal state. The same effect of the morning had been produced. I stayed beside the young girl part of the night; she had no crises, but she slept restlessly; her physiognomy had something convulsive about it; the whites of her eyes could be seen and she seemed to suffer morally. She gesticulated, spoke distinctly, and exclaimed in an energetic and moved tone: Be gone! be gone!… Oh! the wretch!… And the child… and the child… on the rocks… on the rocks. To this agitation succeeded a kind of ecstasy: she wept and resumed in a plaintive accent: Ah! you suffer the torments of hell!… and me, you want to make me suffer always!… always! always!… And stretching her arms in the air and trying to rise: Well then! take me, take me! At every moment the father let out an exclamation: Oh! it is strange! And the mother added: There is mystery in this. From one o'clock in the morning, the child slept peacefully until day broke.

These agitations, these reproaches, these ecstasies, this weeping were repeated daily after the Spirit's violent attacks and lasted until very late in the nights of the 18th, 19th, and 20th to the 24th of September. Every day I went to be beside the sick girl, settling myself, so to speak, in her house. In my presence nothing manifested itself; but, as soon as I left, a new crisis was produced; then I would return and calm her. This lasted several days. Certainly it was a phenomenon worthy of attention that such crises were suddenly mitigated merely by the laying on of hands. There was talk in the town and matter for serious study. Meanwhile, I regretted not having seen any of the four doctors, who had treated the child, come to observe her. During all this time, I noticed in the girl, now an excessive sort of gaiety, now a kind of foolishness. The father and the mother did not find these airs natural, which justified the foresight of our guides.

— On September 21, the father and the young girl came with me to the session. At the beginning, our guides told us: Call Germaine; ask her to remain beside you, and say this to her:

“Germaine, you are our sister; this young girl is also our sister and yours. If formerly some fatal action bound you and made the divine justice weigh upon you both, you can move the supreme judge. Appeal to his infinite mercy; ask him for your pardon, as we ask it for you; touch the Lord by your fervent prayer and your repentance. It is in vain that you seek calm for your remorse and a refuge in vengeance; it is in vain that you seek your justification, crushing her under the weight of your accusation. Return, then, at our voice; forgive and you shall be forgiven, do not seek to deceive us; do not believe that the mere appearance of frankness can seduce us; whatever means you may employ, we know them and we will oppose to you our strength and our will. May your heart, blinded by suffering and hatred, open to pity and forgiveness. We will not cease to pray to the Eternal and to the good Spirits, his faithful messengers, that they may pour upon you consolation and benefit. What we want, Germaine, is to free you from your sufferings. You will always be welcomed by us as a sister; you will be succored. Thus, do not regard us as enemies, for we want your happiness; be not deaf to our words; heed our advice and soon you will know peace of conscience. Remorse will have fled far from you, repentance will have taken its place. The good Spirits will welcome you as a lost sheep they have found; the wicked will imitate your example. In this family where you provoke the curse, they will speak only well of you; there will be gratitude; this young girl too will pray for you and, if hatred divides you, one day love will reunite you. “One is always unhappy when one is thirsting for vengeance; no more rest for him who hates. He who forgives is near to loving; happiness and tranquility replace suffering and disquiet. Come, Germaine, come and unite with us by your prayers. We want you, after the example of Jules and of other Spirits who, like you, lived in evil, to remain near us, under the happy protection of our guides. You are alone; be the adopted daughter of this family that prays to the Eternal for those who suffer and teaches all to love him in order to be happy. If you persist in cruelty toward this child, you will prolong and aggravate your sufferings, and you will hear the curse of the young girl and of those around her. “Earn, then, from your brothers the friendship they offer you from the depths of their hearts; cease these tortures, from which you withdraw half-dead. Believe in our word; believe, above all, in the advice of the good Spirits who guide us and, particularly, in those of the Little Cárita. You will not be deaf to this prayer. Give us as proof that you welcome our offer, peace and tranquil sleep to the child for a few days. We are going to pray for you and we will not cease to ask for the end of all your ills.”

— We called Germaine and read what had just been dictated.

Q. — Did you hear well and understand the wishes we have just expressed?

Answer. – Yes. I am even astonished at all these promises; I do not deserve so much. But I am a distrustful Spirit and I dare not believe in them.

We shall see if your prayers will give me the calm of which I have been deprived for so long. It is true, I am alone and know none but her who seeks to tear me apart.

We shall see.

Q. – Do you not see good Spirits at your side?

Answer. – Yes; but I expect nothing, except from you.

Q. – Well then! in return for the good we want to do you, could you not cease doing evil, tormenting?…

Answer. – And am I the sole cause of this evil? She contributes as much as I do. You say tormenting? We fight, we grapple with each other; the guilt is shared. She was my accomplice. I do not see why you would make the responsibility for these violent acts weigh upon me alone, of which I too am a victim.

Q. – Nevertheless, the young girl does not go seeking you out; and if you torment her, it is because you wish to. You have your free will.

Answer. – Who told you so? You are mistaken. A fatality binds us.

Q. – Very well! tell us everything.

Answer. – I cannot. Here one does not enjoy entire freedom… I am frank.

Q. – Come, Germaine! We are going to pray for you. Until another time!

In conclusion, our guides told us:

“During these days, gather together as numerous as possible. Occupy yourselves more particularly with her. Your frankness and your zeal in her regard will touch her, and the results we seek, so we hope, will be rapid, thanks to this measure.”

Your Guides.

— The 22nd passed without a crisis. We gathered in the evening, as usual.

Evocation of Germaine.

Q. – Very well, Germaine! Do you believe in our affection for you?

Answer. – I have the right to doubt; the pariah scarcely believes in the fraternal kiss given to him in passing. I am accustomed to seeing disdain and contempt pursuing me.

Q. — God wills that we love one another.

Answer. – I do not know this. Here, he whom remorse pursues or oppresses is an enemy, a serpent from which one flees while throwing a stone at it. Do you believe that this is not revolting to the accursed one? He becomes, by instinct, the enemy of all; passion and hatred blind him. Woe to him who falls into the claws of that vulture.

Q. – We, Germaine, want to love you and we extend our hand to you.

Answer. – Why did they not speak to me thus earlier? There are, however, generous hearts in the world I inhabit. Did I cause them fear, then? Why did they never say to me: You are our sister and can share our lot? I still have the poison in my soul, above all when I think of the past. The crime deserves a penalty, but the punishment was too great: it seemed that everything was falling upon me, to crush me. In those moments one fails to recognize God, one blasphemes him, denies him, revolts against him and his own, when one is abandoned. Observation. – This last reasoning of the Spirit is the result of the over-excitement in which she finds herself, but it has just raised an important question. “Why, in the world where I am, did they not speak to me as you do?” Because the ignorance of the future is momentarily part of the punishment of certain guilty ones. Only when their hardening is overcome do they let them glimpse a ray of hope, as a relief to their penalties; it is necessary that they voluntarily turn their eyes toward God. But the good Spirits do not abandon them; they strive to inspire good thoughts in them; they watch for the slightest signs of progress and, as soon as they see the germ of repentance sprouting in them, they provoke instructions that, enlightening them, can lead them to good. These instructions are given to them by the Spirits at the opportune time; they can also be given by the incarnate, in order to show the solidarity that exists between the visible world and the invisible world. In the case in question, it was useful to the rehabilitation of Germaine that the forgiveness should come to her from those who complained of her, which was, at the same time, a merit for the latter. This is the reason why the intervention of men is required for the improvement and relief of suffering Spirits, above all in cases of obsession. Surely that of the good Spirits could suffice them, but the charity of men toward their brothers in erraticity is for these very men a means of advancement that God has reserved for them. [See the observation in item 10.]

Q. – The Spirit Jules, whom you see near us, was he also a criminal, suffering and unhappy?…

Answer. – My position was worse for me. Cite everything that can afflict the soul; tell how the poison burns the entrails: I experienced everything; and the cruelest thing for me was to be alone, abandoned, accursed. I inspired pity in no one. Do you understand the rage that overflows from my heart? I suffered much! I could not die; suicide was not possible for me; and always before me the most somber future! I never saw a glimmer break forth; no voice said to me: Hope! Then I cried: “Rage, vengeance! To me the victims! at least I shall have companions in suffering. It is not the first time the child has felt my oppression.” Observation. – If one were to ask why God permits wicked Spirits to glut their rage upon the innocent, we shall say that there is no undeserved suffering, and he who today is innocent and suffers surely still has some debt to pay. These wicked Spirits serve, in this case, as instruments of expiation. Moreover, their malevolence is a trial for patience, resignation, and charity.

Q. – Thank God for having made you suffer so much; these sufferings are the expiation that purified you.

Answer. – Thank God! you ask much; I suffered too much! Hell was preferable to what I endured. As I was taught, the damned suffer, weep, and cry out together; they can struggle and fight among themselves; I was alone. Oh! it is horrible! Describing these things, I feel like blaspheming and hurling myself upon the prey. Do not believe you can hinder me by placing between me and her a smiling angel. I will fight with all, whoever it may be.

Q. – Whatever the feeling that agitates you, we will oppose to you only calm, prayer, and love.

Answer. – What pleases me most is that you speak to me without insulting me, without repelling me, and you want to make me hope. Oh! do not expect that I will surrender myself immediately; I am afraid of disappointment. After having made such beautiful promises, so beautiful that I still cannot believe them, would you abandon me? Oh! what would become of me, then? And I reflected: Why this consolation so late? and why you? Could it be a hidden trap? Look! I do not know what to believe, what to do. Truly this seems to me strange, surprising. Observation. – Experience proves, indeed, that hard and malevolent words are an inadequate means for ridding oneself of wicked Spirits; they irritate them, which leads them to persist all the more.

Q. – Germaine, listen to me. I am going to explain what surprises you. For some years now, immortality, individuality, and the relation of souls with those who are still on Earth have been demonstrated to us in such a way as to leave no room for any doubt. Spiritism – such is the name of this new doctrine – prescribes to its adherents that they love and succor their brothers. We are Spiritists and, out of love for two suffering sisters, you and the child your victim, we have come to you to offer you our heart and the succor of our prayers. Do you understand now? Answer. – Not very much. You reason as I have never heard. You must, then, occupy yourselves with those who live as you do and in your midst, and with the Spirits who suffer as I do? It is a labor that must have its merit.

Q. — If you have occasion to judge us sincere, will you promise that your dispositions toward the young girl will be good?

Answer. – Good to the extent that you will have been good to me. I judge you all sincere; your language leads me to believe it; but I still doubt. Remove this doubt from me and I am yours. I will strive to do what I am going to promise you; as the doubt fades, the evil will weaken and, the doubt gone, the evil in the child will have ceased. Woe to whoever trifles with me! she will die strangled. A victim awaits her pardon, which depends on you, or the blow I will deal to her head. It is not a threat to intimidate you, but a warning that hatred and rage would blind me. You have arrived in time; perhaps she would already have been dead. Since we cannot always converse together, tell your friends who live where I live to continue the conversation; let them not repel me, although my wickednesses have not ceased. For I have not committed myself at all, and you cannot demand more than I have promised. We asked our guides to give a good welcome to Germaine. They answered:

“Above all she is our much-beloved sister, all the more so as she has suffered much. Come, Germaine. If ever a friendly hand pressed yours, draw near: we will extend ours to you. Only your happiness concerns us. In us you will always find brothers, in spite of the weakness of which you still feel capable. We will pity you and we will not condemn you. Enter into your family, happiness smiles upon us. Among us bitter tears do not flow; joy replaces sorrow; and love, hatred. Sister, your hands!” Your Guides.

— There was no crisis on the 23rd, as on the day before. In the evening the young girl came with her father to the session, to hear Germaine, in whom she already showed much interest.

Our guides told us:

“Begin your labors with the evocation of Germaine; she desires it greatly. You must prove to her that she concerns you especially. Avoid everything that might appear to be forgetfulness and indifference, in order to dispel all her doubts. Remember that her attacks have only been interrupted temporarily. Be prudent; be happy without self-love and without pride; above all, be fervent in your prayers. If she manifests the desire to converse at length, even all night, do not grudge the time.”

Your Guides.

Evocation of Germaine.

Answer. – Here I am, much calmer. I want to be just; I believe it is a duty toward you. You see too that I have acted as I had said. Good relations make good friends. Speak to me, then, since you are friendly voices. It is so strange and so new to me that you will allow me to delight in a conversation where hatred will be replaced by… I was going to say love, and I do not know it! Tell me what I must do to love and be loved, I, the poor wretched Germaine, aged by misfortune, opprobrium, and crime!… Among you do they baptize? Here is a neophyte.” — The baptism you ask for, Jeanne, you have already received it, I answered her; it is in your repentance, in your resolution to march along a new path.

— September 24 was as calm as the preceding one.

In the evening meeting we called Germaine.

Q. — Germaine, we thank you…

Answer. – “Do not speak of this, for you leave me ashamed. It is I who must bow down and beg for grace. I owe you a great reparation, poor child! The life the Spirits enjoy is eternal. God has placed before me the means and the time to repair the harm caused by the blindness of passion. Be tranquil; pray sometimes for the unfortunate Germaine, the criminal who, repentant today, begs your forgiveness. Forget, poor child, your sorrows and who caused them. Remember only that now she desires to be your friend. She is no longer the same Germaine; the prayer they offered on my behalf has made my soul more clean; my thirst for vengeance has been extinguished. The memory of my infamous past will be my expiation. My prayer, joined to yours, will soften the remorse that tortures me. Thank you all, who called me to the path of truth and good, when I was lost in the depths of vice and impenitence. “Now I believe in you; doubt has disappeared. I love you and thank you for having saved and cured me; I also thank you on behalf of this poor child, to whom you have restored health and life.

“I can call myself happy, for being among the good Spirits, who console and strengthen by their gentle and persuasive morality. I am no longer alone; in spite of all the perversity of my soul, they have admitted me into their blessed family. I am the sick one, they are my guardians. Words fail me to tell you all that I feel.

“Tell me, all of you, and above all you, poor daughter, that you forgive me. I need to hear this word issue from your heart. Please, give me this consolation.”

The young Valentine said to her: “Yes, Germaine, I forgive you; more than that: I love you!”

— “And we too,” I said at once, “we love you as a sister.”

Germaine continued:

“And I too am beginning to love. To whom do I owe this transformation? To those whom I insulted and who, despite all the horror I must have inspired in them, took pity on me and called me their sister, proving that they were not deceiving me.

“Yes, you open to me the path of the happy future. I was poor and abandoned and now I live among those who have much; I can no longer lament. The good Spirits say they are going to prepare me for the trials I shall infallibly suffer; and, armed with this strength, I will descend among the earthly creatures. It will no longer be to sow death around me, but to love and to merit their benevolence and friendship.

“I shall have much to say, but I do not want to be importunate. Let us pray; it seems this will do me good.

“God, Almighty, eternal, merciful, hear my prayer. Forgive my blasphemies, forgive my straying. I did not know the path that leads to the kingdom of the just. My brothers of the Earth made me know it; my brother Spirits lead me to it. May infinite justice follow its course toward the poor Germaine; now she will suffer without lamenting; not a single murmur will issue from her mouth. I recognize your greatness and your fatherly goodness toward your blessed servants, who came to draw me out of the path of vice. May my prayer rise to you; may the angels who serve you and surround your throne be able one day to welcome me into their midst, as these good Spirits have done. Today I understand it: virtue alone leads to happiness. Grant grace, O my God, to those who, like me, still suffer. Grant to the child whom I tortured the sweetnesses and virtues that make happiness on Earth.” Germaine.

— “It was said to you: Help yourself, and heaven will help you! The Spirits who guide you will not do the work that duty imposes upon you; but, according to how you have worked, they will shorten, as much as they can, the task undertaken under the banner of immortal charity. Act, then, without faltering and without weakness; let your faith be strengthened, and one day, perhaps, you will ask yourselves whence this strength comes to you. Work for the moralization of your incarnate brothers and that of the backward Spirits; do not content yourselves with preaching the consolations of Spiritism; show its greatness and power by your acts; it is the best refutation you can oppose to your adversaries. Words fly away and acts fortify and uplift. May the happiness that enters the family in the company of the young doctrine be due to the cares and charity of the sincere adherents. Be confident, but without pride, in what happens to you, without which the fruits you are to draw therefrom will be lost to you.” Your Guides.

Observation. – As one sees, the Spirits are neither inactive nor indifferent with regard to suffering Spirits, who must be brought to good. But when the intervention of men can be useful, they leave to them the initiative and the merit, except to second them with their advice and their encouragements.

— From September 25, following the advice of our guides, I put the young Valentina to sleep every day by magnetic sleep, in order to purge her completely of the action of the wicked fluids that had enveloped her and to strengthen her organism. Since her liberation, she experienced malaise, gastric disturbances, small nervous spasms, the inevitable consequence of the obsession.

Observation. – What would magnetism have served for, if the cause had persisted? First, it would have been necessary to destroy the cause, before attacking the effects, or, at the very least, to act upon both simultaneously.

Somewhat spoiled by the cares and caresses that had been lavished upon her, the child had become capricious and willful, and only with repugnance did she consent to be put to sleep. One day she even refused and I went away. Upon arriving home, they came to warn me that she had had a crisis. “Well,” I exclaimed, “it is a punishment from Germaine.” I returned immediately and found the child thrashing about in the bed. This crisis was not as violent as the preceding ones, but it presented the same characteristics. I calmed her as in the others. A few hours later she had a second one, which I myself interrupted. In the evening we gathered. Germaine came without being called; she said she had wanted to give the child a lesson and to warn her that, when she was not reasonable, she would make her feel her presence. Moreover, she gave her very good advice and made the parents feel the disadvantages of yielding to the caprices of children.

— To the phase of the cure and the conversion of the Spirit succeeded that of the revelations touching the drama, of which the violent obsession of the young Valentine was the denouement. However interesting and moving this part of the account may be, we have suppressed some details, foreign, to a certain extent, to our theme, besides their dealing with contemporary matters, whose painful memory is still present and which had as interested witnesses persons still living. We summarize them for the conclusions we are to draw from them. For the same reasons, we have concealed the proper names, which would add nothing to the instruction that stands out from this history. From these revelations made in intimacy, apart from the group, and by means of another medium, it results that Germaine is the grandmother of Mr. Laurent, the father of the young obsessed Valentine. She had a daughter, who had two children, of whom one is Mr. Laurent himself; the other was murdered by his grandmother, who threw him into a ravine, below the rocks of… For this homicide, she was sentenced to ten years of confinement, which she suffered in the prison of C… She gives the most minute indications about all these facts, specifying with exactness the names, places, and dates, in such a way as to leave no doubt as to her identity. These intimate details, known only to Mr. Laurent and his wife, were confirmed by them. To make herself better recognized by her grandson, she designated him by his nickname, unknown to the medium, and spoke to him only in dialect, as she did in life. There was, then, no way of being mistaken: Germaine was indeed the grandmother of Laurent, the one condemned for infanticide. As for her daughter, whose son was murdered, she is today the daughter of Laurent, the young Valentine, whom she comes still to torment by a cruel obsession. She explained the cause of the hatred she had vowed to her. There had been a struggle between them as Spirits, and this struggle continued when one of them reincarnated. A fact came to confirm this assertion: it is the words the young girl pronounced during sleep. As is understandable, her parents had always left her ignorant of what had happened in the family. The words: The child! the child! on the rocks! on the rocks! evidently resulted from the memory that her Spirit retained in the state of detachment. “Very well!” I said to Valentine's father, “you are quite convinced that it is the Spirit of your grandmother? – Oh! sir,” he answered, “I had already convinced myself of this before this conversation. The name of Germaine and the words of Valentine, during her crises, left me not the slightest doubt in this regard; I told my wife so right away. Even more, when you spoke to me of Spiritism and of reincarnations, the idea came to me that my mother was incarnate in Valentine.”

Thus are explained the repeated exclamations of Laurent: “It is strange!” and those of his wife: “There is mystery in this!”

[1] Obsessing Spirit of the young Thérèse B., of Marmande. (See Spiritist Review of June 1864.)

[2] The continuation of the account will make these last words understood.

[3] Indeed, the parents told us that the child, at six years of age, had gone through crises, of which no account could be given.

[4] Translator's Note: Would it not be Germaine?