Spiritism from top to bottom of the scale.

— We teach nothing new to our brothers in belief, nor to our adversaries, by saying that Spiritism is permeating every layer of society. The two letters we cite here have as their principal object to highlight the similarity of sentiments that the doctrine arouses at the two extreme poles of the social scale, in individuals who have no contact with each other, whom we have never seen, and who nevertheless meet on the same ground, with no other guide than the reading of the works. One is a dignitary of the Russian empire, and the other a simple shepherd of Touraine.

— Here is the first of the letters:

Sir, Since last October 23 a Spiritist group has formed in our city under the protection of the apostle Saint Peter.

Considering that you are our master in Spiritism, I deem it a duty, sir, as president of this group, to give you this information.

The principal object we set ourselves is the relief of suffering Spirits, both incarnate and disincarnate. Our meetings take place twice a week. We seek to attain unity of thought and, to achieve it, each attendee, throughout the whole session, keeps the most recollected silence. The question put to the Spirits is read aloud, and each of us, mentally, asks his guardian angel for help, in order to obtain a true answer. In our evocations we deal, most of the time, with Spirits of inferior order, obsessing Spirits; and since we know, by experience, the efficacy of prayer in common, we almost always resort to it to enlighten and relieve these unfortunate ones. Our group has many mediums, but, habitually, only two or three write at each session. We have, besides, a hearing and seeing medium, and a magnetizer. They promise us a drawing medium, but, as we have never seen him, I cannot appraise his faculty. Our group is already composed of forty members. There are several other Spiritist meetings in Saint Petersburg, but they have no regulations. Our group is the first to be regularly organized, and we hope that, with the help of God, our example will be followed.

I greatly value being able to tell you that, at last, the first Spiritist brochure has appeared in Russia, printed in Saint Petersburg, with the authorization of the censorship: it is my reply to an article that the archpriest Mr. Debolsky inserted in the newspaper Radougaf (Rainbow). Until now our censorship has permitted only the publication of articles against Spiritism, but never in its favor. I thought the best refutation would be the translation of your brochure Spiritism in its Simplest Expression, which I had inserted in that newspaper.

Would you permit me, sir, to send you the most important communications we might obtain, especially those that come in support of the truth and the sublimity of our doctrine?

Please accept, etc.

General A. de B…

The attitude of this group, the object of total charity they set themselves, are the best proofs that there Spiritism is understood in its true essence and regarded from its most serious and most eminently practical side; nothing of curiosity, nothing of useless questions, but the application of the doctrine in what it has of the most elevated. A person who often attended these meetings told us that one is edified by the gravity, the recollection, and the sentiment of true piety that preside over them.

— The following letter was not written to us, but to the president of one of the Spiritist groups of Tours. We transcribe it literally, except for the spelling, which has been corrected:

Dear Mr. Rebondin and brother in God, Forgive me, dear sir, if I take the liberty of writing to you. For a long time I had intended to do so, to thank you for the kind welcome you gave me last year, affording me the pleasure of attending your sessions twice. You probably do not remember me; but I will tell you who I am. I came to see you with my former employer, Mr. T…; I was his shepherd for eleven years; today he has just married, and his wife's relatives, perceiving that I occupied myself with Spiritism — a diabolical study, according to them — did so much that he found himself forced to dismiss us. I suffered greatly from this separation, dear sir, but I want to follow the maxims of our holy doctrine; my duty is to pray for all the unfortunate ones who offend the divine Master of us all. I have made every effort, since I came to know the doctrine, to make converts; if I met with obstacles, I had the satisfaction of having brought many people to the knowledge of Spiritism, which explains all the trials we suffer on this Earth of bitterness and miseries. Oh! how sweet it is to be a Spiritist and to practice its virtues! For me it is my only happiness. You, dear sir, the most devoted to the holy cause, I hope you will not refuse me a place in your heart. I am so happy to know you, you welcomed me so well! I have already gone twice to Tours, with my two friends who study Spiritism, with the intention of attending your sessions, but I learned that your meetings were no longer held on Sundays. Have the kindness to tell me whether you always meet on that day, and permit me to join you, with my friends, so that we may take part in our spiritual good; you would give us the greatest happiness. I count on your friendship, awaiting the day when I shall be so happy that we are gathered together to practice love and charity. From your friend, who loves you and greets you fraternally, Pierre Houdée, shepherd.

— One sees that a diploma is not needed to understand the doctrine. It is that, despite its lofty scope, it is so clear and so logical that it reaches all intelligences without difficulty, a condition without which no idea can become popular. It touches the heart: this is its greatest secret, and there is a heart in the breast of the proletarian as in that of the great lord. The great one, like the small, has his sorrows, his bitterness, his moral wounds, for which he asks balm and consolations, which both find in the certainty of the future, because they are equal in pain and before death, which strike the rich as much as the poor. We very much doubt that they will manage to give the doctrine of the demon and of the eternal flames enough attraction to supplant it. That same shepherd often, after his day's work, would go two leagues to Tours to attend a Spiritist meeting, and as far again to return. When we speak of the lofty scope of the Doctrine and of the consolations it affords, we speak a language uncomprehended by those who believe that Spiritism lies entirely in a table that turns, or in a more or less authentic phenomenon that gathers the curious, but which is perfectly understood by whoever has not stopped at the surface nor lends an ear to rumors, and whose number is great.