The rats of Équihen.

One of our subscribers in Boulogne-sur-Mer sends us the following, dated December 24, 1865:

“A few days ago I learned that in Équihen, a fishing hamlet near Boulogne, in the house of a certain L…, a very rich farmer, facts were taking place having the character of spontaneous physical manifestations, and which recall those of Grandes-Ventes, near Dieppe, of Poitiers, of Marseille, etc. Every day, around seven o'clock in the evening, very loud knocks and rumblings are heard in the floor. A cupboard locked with a key opens of itself, and the clothes it contains are thrown into the middle of the room; the beds, especially that of the daughter of the house, are abruptly unmade several times in a row.

“Although the population was far from concerning itself with Spiritism and even from knowing what it is about, they thought that the author of this tumult, whose cause investigations and a very minute surveillance had been unable to discover, might well be a brother of the said L…, a former soldier, who died two years ago in Algeria. It seems that he had received from his relatives the promise that, if he died in service, they would have the body brought to Équihen. As the promise was not kept, they supposed it was the Spirit of this brother who, daily and for six weeks, came to disturb the house and the whole hamlet.

“The clergy was troubled by the phenomena; four parish priests of the locality and of the surroundings, then five Redemptorists and three or four nuns, came to exorcise the Spirit, but uselessly. Seeing that they could not make the noise cease, they advised the said L… to leave for Algeria, in order to fetch the body of his brother, which he did immediately. Before the departure, these gentlemen had the whole family confess and take communion; then they said that it was necessary to say masses, especially a sung mass, then masses recited daily. The first having been celebrated, the Redemptorists took charge of the others. They expressly recommended to the ladies L… that they hush up those noises and tell all who came to inquire whether the thing continued, that the noise was caused by rats. And they added: You must guard yourselves against propagating these things, for this would be a grave offense to God, and because there exists a sect that seeks to destroy religion; that if it learned what is happening, it would not fail to take advantage of it, in order to harm religion, for which the family would be responsible before God; that it was a misfortune that the thing had already spread. From that moment the doors were hermetically closed, the gate of the courtyard carefully locked with a key, and entry forbidden to all those who came every night to hear the noise. But if they put keys on all the doors, they could not put them on all the tongues, and the rats acted so well that they were heard within a radius of ten leagues. Wags said they had seen the rats gnawing the clothes, but not throwing them outside, nor opening doors locked with a key. It is that, they said, they are probably rats of a new species, brought by some foreign ship. We await with impatience that they be shown to the public.” The same fact is reported to us by two other correspondents. From this a first consideration stands out, namely that those gentlemen of the clergy, who were numerous, and who had an interest in discovering a vulgar cause, would not have failed to point it out, had one existed, and, above all, would not have prescribed the little lie of the rats, under penalty of incurring the displeasure of God. They acknowledged, then, the intervention of an occult power. But, then, why is exorcism always powerless in such cases? For this there is, first of all, a peremptory reason: it is that exorcism is addressed to demons; now, since obsessing and rapping Spirits are not demons, but human beings, exorcism has no influence over them. In the second place, exorcism is an anathema and a threat that irritates the malefactor Spirit, and not an instruction capable of touching it and leading it to good.

In the present circumstance, those gentlemen acknowledged that it could be the Spirit of the brother who died in Algeria, without which they would not have advised that his body be fetched, in order to fulfill the promise that had been made to him; they would not have recommended masses, which could not be said in favor of demons. What, then, becomes of the doctrine of those who claim that only demons can manifest themselves and that such power is denied to the souls of men? If a human Spirit was able to do it in the case in question, why would it not do so in others? Why would a good and benevolent Spirit communicate only by violence, in order to be remembered by those who loved it and to give them wise counsels?

One must be consistent with oneself. Say plainly, once and for all, that they are always demons, without exception: people will believe what they wish; or else, acknowledge that the Spirits are the souls of men, and that among their number there are good ones and bad ones who can communicate.

Here a special question presents itself from the Spiritist point of view. How can Spirits require that their bodies remain in one place rather than another? Spirits of a certain elevation do not attach themselves to this at all; but the less advanced ones are not so detached from matter as not to attach importance to earthly things, of which Spiritism offers numerous examples. But here the Spirit may be prompted by another motive, that of reminding the brother that he failed in his promise, a negligence which the latter could not excuse by lack of means, since he was rich. Perhaps he had thought to himself: “Ah! my brother is dead; he will not make his claim, and it will be a great expense the less.”

Now, let us suppose that the brother, faithful to his commitments, had gone to Algeria right away, but had not found the body, given the inevitable confusion in time of war, and had brought back another body, not that of his relative: the latter would have been no less satisfied, because the moral duty would have been fulfilled. The Spirits tell us without ceasing: Thought is everything; form is nothing and we do not attach ourselves to it.