New tactic of the adversaries of Spiritism.

— Never has a philosophical doctrine of modern times caused so much emotion as Spiritism, and none has been attacked with such obstinacy.

[See previous article.]

This is clear proof that they recognize in it more vitality and deeper roots than in the others, since one does not take up a pickaxe to pull up a blade of grass. Far from being frightened, Spiritists should rejoice at this, for it proves the importance and the truth of the doctrine. If it were nothing more than an ephemeral and insubstantial idea, a fly that flies past, it would not be attacked with such violence; if it were false, it would be combated with solid arguments, which would already have triumphed over it.

But, since none of those who oppose it have been able to halt it, it is that no one has found [the flaw in the breastplate] its Achilles' heel. And yet, its antagonists have lacked neither good will nor talent.

— In this vast tournament of ideas, where the past enters the lists against the future, and which has the entire world for its enclosed field, the great jury is public opinion; it listens to the pros and cons, judges the value of the means of attack and of defense, and pronounces in favor of whichever gives the better reasons. If one of the two champions employs disloyal weapons, he is condemned in advance. Now, are there weapons more disloyal than lying, slander, and treachery? To resort to such means is to confess oneself defeated by logic; the cause that is reduced to such expedients is a lost cause; it will not be one man, nor a few men, who will pronounce its sentence: it is Humanity, which the force of things and the conscience of the good draw toward what is most just and most rational.

— See, in the history of the world, whether a single great and true idea has failed to triumph, whatever was done to obstruct it. In this respect Spiritism presents us with an unheard-of and unparalleled fact: the rapidity of its propagation. This rapidity is such that the adversaries themselves are stupefied by it; for this reason they attack it with the deluded fury of combatants who lose their composure and let themselves be wounded by their own weapons.

Meanwhile, the struggle is far from over; on the contrary, it is to be expected that it will take on larger proportions and a different character. It would be too prodigious and incompatible with the present state of Humanity for a doctrine that carries within itself the germ of an entire renewal to be established peacefully in a few years. Once again, let us not lament; the harder the struggle, the more resounding the triumph. No one doubts that Spiritism grew through the opposition made against it; let us, then, allow that opposition to exhaust its resources: it will grow still more when that opposition has revealed its own weakness to all eyes. The field of combat of nascent Christianity was circumscribed; that of Spiritism extends over the entire surface of the Earth. Christianity could not be smothered beneath waves of blood; it grew with its martyrs, like the liberty of peoples, because it was a truth. Spiritism, which is Christianity adapted to the development of intelligence and free of abuses, will grow in the same way under persecution, because it too is a truth.

— Open force is acknowledged to be powerless against the Spiritist idea, even in the countries where it is exercised with all liberty; experience is there to attest it. By compressing the idea at one point, they make it spring up on all sides; a general compression would lead to an explosion. Nevertheless, our adversaries have not renounced; while they wait, they resort to another tactic: that of covert maneuvers.

They have already tried many times, and will try again, to compromise the doctrine, driving it down a dangerous or ridiculous path, in order to discredit it. Today it is by sowing division in a surreptitious manner, casting the apple of discord, in the expectation of making doubt and uncertainty germinate in minds, of provoking discouragement, real or feigned, and of bringing moral disturbance among the adherents.

But it is not avowed adversaries who would act thus. Spiritism, whose principles have so many points of resemblance with those of Christianity, must also have its Judases, so that it may have the glory of emerging triumphant from this new trial. Sometimes money is the argument that substitutes for logic. Was a woman not seen confessing that she had received 50 francs to simulate madness, after having attended a single Spiritist meeting?

[See: The covert war.]

It is not, then, without reason that, in the Review of March 1863, we published the article on the false brethren; that article did not please everyone; some wanted us to be clearer, to open the eyes of others, shaking our hand in sign of approval as though we were fools. But what does it matter! Our duty is to forewarn sincere Spiritists against the snares that are laid for them. As for those who abandoned us, for whom these principles were too rigorous, on this as on several other points, it is that their sympathy was superficial and not from the bottom of the heart, there being no reason for us to attach ourselves to them. We have to occupy ourselves with things more important than their good or ill will toward us. The present is fleeting; tomorrow it will exist no more; for us it is nothing; the future is everything, and it is for the future that we work. We know that true sympathies will follow us; those that are at the mercy of an unfulfilled material interest or of an unsatisfied self-love do not deserve this name. Whoever places his point of view outside the narrow sphere of the present is no longer disturbed by the petty intrigues that stir around him. This is what we strive to do, and what we advise those who wish to have peace of soul in this world. (The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter II, no. 15.)

— Like all new ideas, the Spiritist idea could not fail to be exploited by people who, having attained success in nothing through bad conduct or incapacity, lie in wait for what is new, in the hope of finding there a more productive and easier mine; if success does not correspond to their expectation, they attribute it not to themselves, but to the thing, which they declare bad. Such persons have nothing of the Spiritist but the name. Better than anyone, we have been able to observe this maneuver, having often been the target of these exploitations, to which we did not wish to lend a hand, which did not win us friends.

— Let us return to our subject. Spiritism, we repeat, still has to pass through harsh trials, and it is there that God will recognize his true servants, by their courage, firmness, and perseverance. Those who let themselves be shaken by fear or by a disappointment are like those soldiers who have courage only in times of peace and recoil at the first shot. Meanwhile, the greatest trial will not be persecution, but the conflict of ideas that will be stirred up, with whose aid they hope to break the phalanx of the adherents and the imposing unity that is being formed in the doctrine. This conflict, though provoked with ill intention, whether it comes from men or from evil Spirits, is nonetheless necessary, and, even if it were to cause a momentary disturbance in some weak consciences, it will have for its definitive result the consolidation of unity. As in all things, one must not judge the isolated points, but see the whole. It is useful that all ideas, even the most contradictory and the most eccentric, come to light; they provoke examination and judgment, and, if they are false, good sense will do them justice. They will necessarily fall before the decisive test of the universal control, as so many others have already fallen. It was this great criterion that produced the present unity; it is this that will complete it, because it is the sieve that must separate the good grain from the bad, and the truth will shine more brightly when it emerges from the crucible free of all dross. Spiritism is still in ebullition; let us, then, allow the scum to rise to the surface and overflow: it will only become more purified. Let us leave to the adversaries the malicious and puerile joy of blowing on the fire to provoke this ebullition, because, without wishing it, they hasten its purification and its triumph, and they themselves will be burned in the fire they kindle. God wills that everything be useful to the cause, even that which is done with the intention of harming it.

— Let us not forget that Spiritism is not finished; it has so far done nothing but plant boundary markers. But, in order to advance with safety, it must do so gradually, as the ground is prepared to receive it, and sufficiently consolidated to set foot upon it with safety. The impatient, who do not know how to await the propitious moment, compromise the harvest as they compromise the outcome of battles.

Among the impatient, no doubt there are some of very good faith who would like things to move even faster; they resemble those creatures who think they advance time by advancing the clock. Others, no less sincere, are driven by self-love to be the first to arrive; they sow before the season and reap only failed fruits. Unfortunately, alongside these there are others who push the cart at a thousand an hour, in the hope of seeing it overturn.

It is understandable that certain individuals, who wanted to have been the first, should reproach us for having gone too fast; that others, for contrary motives, should reproach us for having gone too slowly; but what is less explicable is, at times, to see this double reproach made by the same individual, which is not to give proof of much logic. Whether we are goaded to go to the right or to the left, we shall not for that reason cease to follow, as we have done until now, the line traced out for us, at the end of which is the goal we wish to attain. We shall go forward or wait, hasten our pace or delay it, according to circumstances, and not according to the opinion of this one or that one.

— Spiritism marches in the midst of numerous adversaries who, not having been able to take it by force, attempt to take it by cunning; they insinuate themselves everywhere, under all masks and even into intimate meetings, in the hope of surprising there a fact or a word that they will often have provoked, and which they hope to exploit to their advantage. To compromise Spiritism and to make it ridiculous, such is the tactic, with whose aid they hope to discredit it at first, in order later to have a pretext to have its public exercise interdicted, if possible. This is the snare against which we must guard ourselves, because it is laid on all sides, and into which, without wishing it, those who let themselves be carried away by the suggestions of the deceiving and mystifying Spirits are caught. The means of frustrating these machinations is to follow as exactly as possible the line of conduct traced out by the doctrine; its morality, which is its essential part, is unassailable, no ground is given for any well-founded criticism, and the aggression becomes more odious. To catch Spiritists at fault and in contradiction with their principles would be a stroke of luck for their adversaries; thus, see how they strive to accuse Spiritism of all the aberrations and all the eccentricities for which it could not be responsible. The doctrine is not ambiguous in any of its parts; it is clear, precise, categorical in the smallest details; only ignorance and bad faith can be mistaken about what it approves or condemns. It is, then, a duty of all sincere and devoted Spiritists to repudiate and openly disapprove, in its name, the abuses of every kind that might compromise it, in order not to assume responsibility for them. To make a pact with the abuses would be to make oneself an accomplice to them and to furnish weapons to the adversaries. Periods of transition are always difficult to pass through. Spiritism is in such a period; it passes through it with all the less difficulty the more prudent its adherents are. We are at war; there is the enemy on the watch, ready to exploit the least false step to his advantage, and disposed to put his foot in the mire, if he can.

Nevertheless, let us not hasten to cast stones and suspicions with too much frivolity upon appearances that might be deceptive; charity, moreover, makes moderation a duty, even toward those who are against us. Sincerity, however, even in its errors, has attitudes of frankness about which it is not possible to be mistaken, and which falsehood will never completely simulate, since, sooner or later, it lets the mask fall. God and the good Spirits permit it to betray itself by its own acts. If a doubt crosses the Spirit, it should be only a motive for keeping reserve, which can be done without failing in propriety. [1]

[On the six periods of the establishment of Spiritism see: Period of struggle.]