The Davenport brothers.

— The Davenport brothers, who at this moment captivate attention to such a high degree, are two young men of twenty-four and twenty-five years of age, born in Buffalo, in the State of New York, who present themselves in public as mediums. However, their faculty is limited to exclusively physical effects, the most remarkable of which consists in having themselves bound with ropes in an inextricable manner and being found instantly untied, by an invisible force, despite all the precautions taken to ensure that they are incapable of doing it themselves. To this they add other more familiar phenomena, such as the transport of objects through space, the spontaneous playing of musical instruments, the appearance of luminous hands, the touch of invisible hands, etc. Messrs. Didier, publishers of The Spirits' Book, have just published a translation of their biography, containing the detailed account of the effects they produce and which, apart from the ropes, have very numerous points of resemblance with those of Mr. Home. The emotion that their presence caused in England and in Paris gives this work a powerful interest of topicality. Their English biographer, Dr. Nichols — it was not they who wrote the book, but they furnished him the documents — limited himself to the account of the facts, without explanations. The French publishers had the happy idea of adding to their publication, for the understanding of persons unfamiliar with Spiritism, our two booklets: Summary of the laws of spiritist phenomena and Spiritism in its simplest expression, besides numerous explanatory notes in the body of the text. n Thus, they will find in this work the information they desire about the activity of these gentlemen, into the details of which we cannot enter, for we have to consider the question from another point of view. We will only say that their aptitude for producing these phenomena revealed itself from childhood, in a spontaneous manner. For several years they toured the principal cities of northern America, where they acquired a certain reputation. About the month of September 1864 they came to England, where they produced a lively sensation. Successively they were acclaimed, denigrated, ridiculed, and even insulted by the press and the public. Notably in Liverpool, they were the object of the most signal malevolence, to the point of seeing their personal safety compromised. Concerning them opinions were divided; according to some, they were nothing but skillful charlatans; according to others, they were in good faith and one could admit a hidden cause for their phenomena; but, in short, there they won very few proselytes to the spiritist idea properly speaking. In that country, essentially religious, natural good sense repelled the thought that spiritual beings should come to reveal their presence through theatrical exhibitions and admirable feats. Spiritist philosophy being little known there, the public confused Spiritism with these performances, forming from them an opinion more contrary than favorable to the doctrine. It is true that in France Spiritism began with turning tables, but under very different conditions. Mediumship having immediately revealed itself in a great number of persons, of all ages and of both sexes, and in the most respectable families, the phenomena occurred under conditions that excluded any thought of charlatanism; each one could verify for himself, in intimacy and through repeated observations, the reality of the facts, to which a powerful interest became attached when, going beyond the purely material effects, which said nothing to reason, they saw the moral and philosophical consequences flowing from them. If, instead of this, that kind of primitive mediumship had been the privilege of a few isolated individuals, and if it had been necessary to buy faith on improvised stages, the Spirits would long since have ceased to be considered. Faith is born of moral impression. Now, everything that is liable to produce a bad impression repels it instead of provoking it. There would be today far fewer unbelievers, with regard to Spiritism, if the phenomena had always been presented in a serious manner. The unbeliever, naturally predisposed to mockery, cannot be led to take seriously what is surrounded by circumstances that inspire neither respect nor confidence. Not taking the trouble to delve deeply, criticism forms its first opinion on a first unfavorable appearance and confuses the good and the bad in the same reproof. Very few convictions were formed in gatherings of a public character, whereas the immense majority came out of the intimate gatherings, whose notorious respectability of their members could inspire complete confidence and defy any suspicion of fraud.

— Last spring, and after having explored England, the Davenport brothers came to Paris. Some time before their arrival, a person came to see us, on their behalf, to ask us to support them in our Review. But it is known that we are not easily enthused, even by things we are familiar with and, with all the more reason, by those we are not familiar with. Thus, we could not promise advance assistance, since we have the habit of speaking only with knowledge of the case. In France, where they were known only through the contradictory accounts of the newspapers, opinion, as in England, was divided concerning them. We could not, then, formulate prematurely either a censure, which might have been unjust, or an approval, of which they could have availed themselves. For this reason we abstained. Upon arriving, they went to live in the little château n of Gennevilliers, near Paris, where they remained several months, not informing the public of their presence. We do not know the motives for that abstention. In the latter days they gave some private sessions, of which the newspapers gave notice in a more or less picturesque manner. Finally, their first public session was announced for September 12 in the Hertz hall. The deplorable result of that session is known, which, on a smaller scale, repeated the tumultuous scenes of Liverpool, and in which one of the spectators, leaping onto the stage, broke the apparatus of these gentlemen, showed a board, and exclaimed: “Here is the trick.” That act, unqualifiable in a civilized country, brought the confusion to its height. The session not having concluded, they returned the money to the public. But as many complimentary tickets had been given out, and as the cashbox showed a deficit of seven hundred francs, it was proved that seventy free attendees had left with ten francs more in their pockets, no doubt to indemnify themselves for the expenses of the journey.

— The controversy that arose concerning the Davenport brothers offers several instructive points, which we shall examine.

The first question that the Spiritists themselves asked is this: Are these gentlemen mediums or are they not? All the facts related in their biography fall within the circle of mediumistic possibilities, because analogous effects, notoriously authentic, have many times been obtained under the influence of serious mediums. If the facts, in themselves, are admissible, the conditions under which they occur, it must be admitted, lend themselves to suspicion. The one that strikes one at first sight is the necessity of obscurity which, evidently, facilitates fraud; but this would not be a reasonable objection. Mediumistic effects have absolutely nothing supernatural about them; all, without exception, are due to the combination of the fluids proper to the Spirit and to the medium; these fluids, though imponderable, are nonetheless subtle matter. There is, then, here a cause and an effect that are in a certain manner material, which has always led us to say that spiritist phenomena, being based on the laws of Nature, have nothing miraculous about them. Like so many other phenomena, they seemed miraculous to us only because their laws were not known. These laws now being known, the supernatural and the marvelous disappear, giving place to reality. Thus, there is not a single Spiritist who attributes to himself the gift of miracles; this is what the critics would know, if they took the trouble to study what they speak of.

— Returning to the question of obscurity, it is known that in chemistry there are combinations that cannot operate in the light; that compositions and decompositions occur under the action of the luminous fluid. Now, all spiritist phenomena being, as we have said, the result of fluidic combinations, and these fluids being matter, it would be no wonder that, in certain cases, the luminous fluid should be contrary to that combination.

— A more serious objection is the punctuality with which the phenomena are produced, on fixed days and hours and at will. This submission to the caprice of certain individuals is contrary to all that is known of the nature of the Spirits, and the optional repetition of any phenomenon whatsoever has always been considered, and in principle must be considered, as legitimately suspect, even in a case of disinterestedness and, with all the more reason, when it is a matter of public exhibitions, made for speculative ends, and to which reason finds it repugnant to think that Spirits could submit.

— Mediumship is a natural aptitude inherent in the medium, as the faculty of producing sounds is inherent in an instrument; but, just as a musician is needed for an instrument to play a tune, Spirits are needed for a medium to produce mediumistic effects. The Spirits come when they wish and when they can, whence it results that the best-endowed medium sometimes obtains nothing; he is like an instrument without a musician. This is what is seen every day; this is what happened to Mr. Home, who often went whole months without producing anything, despite his desire, even in the presence of a sovereign.

Thus, it results from the very essence of mediumship — and it can be established as an absolute principle — that a medium is never certain of obtaining any determined effect whatsoever, since this does not depend on him; to affirm the contrary would be to prove complete ignorance of the most elementary principles of the spiritist science. To promise the production of a phenomenon at a fixed hour, one must have material means at one's disposal that do not come from the Spirits. Is this the case of the Davenport brothers? We do not know. To those who followed their experiments it falls to make their judgment.

— They have spoken of challenges, of stakes for wagers, proposed to whoever should perform the best magic tricks. The Spirits are not performers of magic tricks, and never will a serious medium enter into a struggle with anyone, and still less with a conjurer. The latter has his own means at his disposal; the other is the passive instrument of a foreign, free, independent will. If the conjurer says that he does more than the mediums, let him do it. He is right, for he acts infallibly; he amuses the public: that is his function; he boasts: that is his role; he carries on his propaganda: it is a necessity of his position. The serious medium, knowing that he has no personal merit in what he does, is modest; he cannot pride himself on what is not the product of his talent, nor promise what does not depend on himself. Nevertheless, the mediums do something more. Through their intermediary the good Spirits inspire charity and benevolence toward all; they teach men to look upon one another as brothers, without distinction of races or of sects, to forgive those who utter insults against them, to overcome bad inclinations, to bear with patience the miseries of life, to face death without fear, through the certainty of the future life; they console the afflicted, encourage the weak, and give hope to those who did not believe.

This is what is taught neither by the magic tricks of conjurers nor by those of Messrs. Davenport.

— Thus, the conditions inherent in mediumship could not lend themselves to the regularity and the punctuality that are the indispensable condition of sessions at fixed hours, where the public must be satisfied at all costs. If, however, the Spirits should lend themselves to manifestations of that sort, which would not be radically impossible, since there are Spirits of all possible degrees of advancement, they could not, in any case, be other than Spirits of a low class, because it would be extremely absurd to think that Spirits, however little elevated they might be, should come to amuse themselves by giving exhibitions. But, even on this hypothesis, the medium would not cease to be at the mercy of such Spirits, who can leave him at the moment when their presence would be most necessary, and cause the performance or the consultation to fail. Now, as above all the one who pays must be contented, if the Spirits are lacking, they contrive to dispense with them; with a little skill it is easy to deceive someone. This is what often happens to mediums endowed initially with real faculties, but insufficient for the objective they set themselves.

— Of all spiritist phenomena, those that most lend themselves to imitation are the physical effects. Now, although the real manifestations have a distinctive character and occur only under well-determined special conditions, imitation can come close to reality, to the point of deceiving people, above all those who do not know the laws of the true phenomena. But, from the fact that they can be imitated, it would be as illogical to conclude that they do not exist as to claim that there are no real diamonds, because there are false ones.

We make here no personal application; we enunciate the principles founded on experience and on reason, from which we draw this consequence: only a scrupulous examination, made with perfect knowledge of spiritist phenomena, can permit the distinction between trickery and real mediumship. And we add that the best of all guarantees is the respect and the consideration attached to the person of the medium, his morality, his notorious respectability, his absolute disinterestedness, material and moral. In such circumstances, no one would deny that the qualities of the individual constitute a precedent that makes a favorable impression, because they remove even the suspicion of fraud.

— We do not judge Messrs. Davenport, and far be it from us to cast doubt on their respectability. But, apart from the moral qualities, of which we have no reason to be suspicious, it must be confessed that they present themselves under conditions little favorable for officializing their title of mediums, and that it is at the very least with great frivolity that certain critics hastened to qualify them as apostles and high priests of the doctrine. The objective of their voyage to Europe is clearly defined in this passage of their biography:

“I believe, without committing an error, that it was on the 27th of August that the Davenport brothers left New York, bringing in their company, because of a debility that had come upon Mr. William Davenport, an assistant in the person of Mr. William Fay, who is not to be confused with Mr. H. Melleville Fay, who, according to I know not what kind of authority, is said to have been discovered in Canada, attempting to produce similar manifestations, or, at least, ones that resembled those of the American brothers. They were accompanied by Mr. Paliner, well known as an impresario and intermediary in the dramatic and lyric world, and to whom, thanks to his experience, the material and economic part of the enterprise was entrusted.” It is therefore established that it was an enterprise conducted by an impresario and intermediary of dramatic affairs. The facts related in the biography are, as we have been told, within the mediumistic possibilities; the age and the circumstances in which they began to manifest themselves remove the thought of imposture. Everything, then, tends to prove that these young men were really mediums of physical effects, such as many are found in their country, where the exploitation of that faculty has become a habit and has nothing shocking for public opinion. Did they amplify their natural faculties, as other exploiting mediums do, to increase their prestige and supply the lack of flexibility of those same faculties? This we cannot affirm, for we have no proof. But, admitting the integrity of their faculties, we will say that they deceived themselves as to the reception that the European public extended to them — presented in the form of a spectacle of curiosity — and under conditions so contrary to the principles of philosophical, moral, and religious Spiritism. The sincere and enlightened Spiritists, who here are numerous, above all in France, could not acclaim them under such conditions, nor consider them apostles, even supposing perfect sincerity on their part. As for the unbelievers, whose number is also great, and who still occupy the foremost positions in the press, the occasion to exercise their mocking verve was too fine for them to let it escape. Thus, those gentlemen exposed themselves to the broadest criticism, giving to each the right that is expected when buying the ticket to any spectacle whatever. No one doubts that if they had presented themselves under more serious conditions, the reception would have been otherwise; they would have shut the mouths of the detractors.

— A medium is strong when he can say courageously: “What did it cost you to come here, and who forced you to come? God gave me a faculty and can take it from me when it pleases Him, as He can take from me my sight or my speech. I use it only for the good, in the interest of truth, and not to satisfy curiosity or to serve my interests; from it I gather only the labor of devotion; I do not even seek the satisfaction of self-love, for it does not depend on me. I regard it as a holy thing, because it puts me in relation with the spiritual world and allows me to give faith to unbelievers and consolation to the afflicted. I would regard it as a sacrilege to traffic with it, because I do not consider myself entitled to sell the assistance of the Spirits, who come gratuitously. Since I draw no profit from it, I have, then, no interest in deceiving you.” The medium who can thus speak is strong, we repeat. It is an irrefutable answer, and one that always imposes respect.

— In this circumstance, criticism was more than malevolent; it was unjust and insulting, embracing in the same reproof all Spiritists and all mediums, on whom it spared not the most outrageous epithets, without thinking to what extent it wounded and struck the most respectable families. We will not recall expressions that only dishonor those who utter them. All sincere convictions are respectable; and all of you, who incessantly proclaim liberty of conscience as a natural right, at least respect it in others. Discuss the opinions: that is your right; but insult has always been the worst of arguments, and never that of a good cause.

Not all of the press is in solidarity with these deviations from decorum. Among the critics, with regard to the Davenport brothers, there are some in whom wit does not exclude propriety, nor moderation, and who are just. The one we are going to cite highlights precisely the weak side of which we have spoken. It is taken from the Courrier de Paris of the Monde illustré, issue of September 16, 1865, and signed by Neuter.

“A first objection seemed to me sufficient to demonstrate that the good young men, who gave a public session in the Hertz hall, were skilled in exercises to which the superior worlds remained completely strangers. I draw this objection from the very regularity with which they exploited their pretended miraculous power. What! they guaranteed that it was Spirits who came to manifest themselves in public for their profit, and behold, the Davenport brothers treated these Spirits who, after all, are not their employees, with as much offhandedness as a theater director dictating rules to his chorus girls! Without asking their supernatural confederates whether the day suited them, whether they were not tired, whether the heat did not bother them, they fixed a set date, a determined hour, and the fluidic beings had to travel on that date, come on stage at that hour, execute their musical jests with the precision of a musician, to whom his café-concert grants a fee of a few pennies! “Frankly, this was to form a very paltry idea of the spirit world, to present it to us thus as peopled with genies made to order, with salaried goblins, who went into town at a signal from the boss. Why! no rest for these supra-terrestrial extras! While a simple swelling gives the humblest comedian the right to change the spectacle, the souls of the Davenport troupe were slaves, who were forbidden to take little holidays. Is it worth the trouble of dwelling on fantastic planets to be reduced to that degree of slavery?

“And for what task were these unhappy souls of the beyond summoned? To pass their hands — souls' hands! — through the crack of a cabinet! To debase them to the point of exhibiting themselves like mountebanks! to constrain them to juggle with guitars, those grotesque instruments, which not even the troubadours who sing in the squares want, with their eyes fixed on coins of five centimes!…”

— Indeed, is this not putting the finger on the wound? If Mr. Neuter had known that Spiritism says exactly the same thing, though in a less witty manner, would he not have said: “But this is not Spiritism!” exactly as, seeing a quack, one says: “This is not Medicine.” Now, just as neither Science nor religion is in solidarity with those who abuse them, Spiritism is not in solidarity with those who take its name. The author's bad impression comes, then, not from the person of the Davenport brothers, but from the conditions under which they place themselves before the public and from the ridiculous idea of the spiritual world given by experiments made under such conditions, which shock incredulity itself, by seeing that world exploited and dragged by force onto improvised stages. Such was the impression of criticism in general, which translated it in more or less polite terms, and it will be the same every time the mediums are not capable of respecting the belief they profess. The failure of the Davenport brothers is a happy event for the adversaries of Spiritism, who, however, are precipitate in crying victory, ridiculing, challenging, and shouting that its adherents are mortally wounded, as if Spiritism were personified in the Davenport brothers. Spiritism is personified in no one; it is in Nature, and it depends on no one to halt its march, because those who attempt to do so work for its advancement. Spiritism does not consist in having oneself bound with ropes, nor in this or that physical experiment; never having sponsored these gentlemen, nor presenting them as pillars of the doctrine, which they do not even know, it receives no contradiction from their misfortune. Their failure testifies not against Spiritism, but against the exploiters of Spiritism. Of two things, one: either they are skillful conjurers, or they are true mediums. If they are charlatans, we ought to be grateful to all those who help to unmask them; in this connection, we owe particular thanks to Mr. Robin, for rendering in all this a notable service to Spiritism, which could only suffer should their frauds have spread. Every time the press has pointed out abuses, exploitations, or maneuvers capable of compromising the doctrine, the sincere Spiritists, far from lamenting, have applauded. If they are true mediums, they cannot serve the cause usefully, for the conditions under which they present themselves are liable to produce an unfavorable impression. In one case and in the other Spiritism has no interest in taking up their defense.

— Now, what will be the result of all this scandal?

Here it is: The chronicle, which in these days of tropical heat was idle, gains a subject that it hastens to seize in order to fill its columns, lacking in political events, theatrical news, or salon news.

Mr. Robin finds therein, for his theater of conjuring, an excellent publicity [See: Simulated apparitions in the theater], which he exploited with much skill, which we wish may be very fruitful for him, because every day he speaks of the Spirits and of Spiritism.

With this, criticism loses a little consideration, through the eccentricity and the incivility of its polemic.

The most harmed, materially speaking, are perhaps Messrs. Davenport, whose speculation finds itself singularly compromised.

As for Spiritism, it is evidently the one that will profit most. Its adherents understand this so well that they are absolutely not moved by what is happening and await the result with confidence. In the provinces, where they are, more than in Paris, victims of the mockeries of the adversaries, they content themselves with answering them: Wait, and in a short time you will see that it is dead and buried.

First of all, Spiritism will gain from this an immense popularity and will become known, at least by name, to a number of people who had never heard of it. But, among that number, many will not content themselves with the name; their curiosity is excited by the salvo of attacks; they want to know what there is in this doctrine, supposedly so ridiculous; they will go to the source, and when they see that they were only given a parody, they will say to themselves that the thing is not so bad after all. Thus, then, Spiritism will gain by being better understood, better judged, and better appreciated.

It will gain still further by bringing into evidence the sincere and devoted adherents, on whom one can count, and distinguishing them from the façade adherents, who take from the doctrine only the appearances or the surface. Its adversaries will not fail to exploit the circumstance, to provoke divisions or defections, real or simulated, with the aid of which they hope to ruin Spiritism. After having failed by all other means, it is their supreme and last resource, but one that will not procure them better success, because they will only detach from the trunk the dead branches, which gave no sap. Deprived of the paralytic boughs, the trunk will be more vigorous.

These results, and several others, which we abstain from enumerating, are inevitable, and we would not be surprised if the good Spirits had provoked all this commotion only in order to arrive there more quickly.

[November Review.]

On the criticism with regard to the Davenport brothers.

(2nd article.)

The agitation caused by the Davenport brothers begins to calm down. After the hail launched by the press against them and Spiritism, there remain only a few skirmishers who, here and there, fire the last cartridges, waiting for another subject to come and feed public curiosity.

Whose will the victory be? Is Spiritism dead? This they will not be long in learning. Suppose that criticism has killed Messrs. Davenport, which does not concern us; what result would this have? What we said in our previous article. [v. Address by Mr. Allan Kardec at the opening of the sessions of the Society of Paris on October 6, 1865.] In its ignorance of what Spiritism is, it fired upon those gentlemen, exactly like a hunter who fires at a cat thinking he is firing at a hare: the cat died, but the hare runs still.

The same occurs with Spiritism, which was not and could not be hit by the blows that fell to the side. Criticism, then, was mistaken, which it would easily have avoided if it had taken the trouble to verify the label. Yet warnings were not lacking; some writers even confessed the influence of the refutations that reached them from all sides, and this on the part of the most honorable persons. Should this not have opened their eyes? But no; they had entangled themselves on a path and would not retreat; they had to be right, cost what it might. Many of these refutations were addressed to us; all were distinguished by a moderation that contrasts with the language of our adversaries and, for the most part, are of perfect justness of appreciation. Certainly no one claimed to impose his opinion on those gentlemen; but impartiality always imposes a duty to admit the rectifications in order to put the public in a condition to judge the pros and the cons. Now, as it is more convenient to be right when one speaks alone, very few of these publications saw the light of publicity. Who knows even whether most of them were read? Then one must be grateful to the newspapers that showed themselves less exclusive. Among that number is the Journal des Pyrénées-Orientales which, in its issue of October 8, contains the following letter: “Perpignan, October 5, 1865.

“Sir Manager, “I do not come to throw myself into the polemic; I only solicit of your equity that you permit me, a single time, to respond to the lively attacks contained in the Parisian letter, published in the last issue of your newspaper, against the Spiritists and Spiritism.

“Like the true Catholics, the true Spiritists do not give public spectacle; they are penetrated with the respect of their faith, they aspire to the moral progress of all, and they know that it is not in fairground theaters that proselytes are made.

“This is what concerns the Davenport brothers.

“There would be much to say to refute the errors of the author of those ironic attacks; I will only say that, God having given man free will, to attack his liberty to believe, to think, is to set oneself above God and, consequently, an enormous sin of pride.

“To say that this new science has made immense progress, that many cities count a great number of adherents, that they have their headquarters, their presidents, and that their gatherings include cultivated men, eminent through their position in civil and military society, in the legal profession, in the magistracy, is this not to confess that Spiritism is based on truth?

“If Spiritism is nothing but an error, why do they occupy themselves so much with it? Error has only an ephemeral duration, it is a will-o'-the-wisp, which lasts a few hours and disappears. If, on the contrary, it is a truth, however much you do, you will be able neither to destroy it nor to stop it. Truth is like light: only the blind deny its beauty.

“They also say that Spiritism has provoked cases of mental alienation. I will say this: Spiritism has caused no more madness than Christianity and the other cults, which cannot be held responsible for the cases of idiocy that are often found among the practitioners of the various religions; deranged spirits are subject to exaltation and to disturbance. Let us leave, then, once and for all, that last argument in the arsenal of weapons out of use.

“I conclude this response by saying that Spiritism comes to destroy nothing, save the belief in eternal punishments. It strengthens our faith in God; it makes evident that the soul is immortal and that the Spirit purifies itself and progresses through reincarnations; it proves to us that the different social positions have their reason for being; it teaches us to bear our trials, whatever they may be; in short, it demonstrates to us that a single path leads us to God: the love of the good, charity!

“Accept, Sir Manager, my thanks and my respectful greetings.

“I have the honor to be your servant.”

Breux.

All the refutations that we have before our eyes, and which were addressed to the newspapers, protest against the confusion they made between Spiritism and the sessions of Messrs. Davenport. If, then, criticism persists in lending it solidarity, it is because it wishes to.

Note. — In another article, which lack of space obliges us to postpone to the next issue, we will examine the most important propositions that emerge from the polemic raised with regard to Messrs.

Davenport. [See: The Misunderstandings.]

[1] See the Bibliographical Bulletin.

[2] [The Pasteur college was built on the location of the château of Gennevilliers.]