Espírita.

In the Review of last December we said a few words about this novel, which appeared in serial form in the Moniteur universel and which is today published in a single volume. We regret that space does not permit us to make a more detailed analysis of it and, above all, to quote some of its passages, whose ideas are incontestably drawn from the very source of Spiritism; since, certainly, the greater part of our readers have already read it, a detailed account would be superfluous. We will only say that the part devoted to the fantastic is certainly a little large and that one must not take all the facts literally; it is absolutely not a treatise on Spiritism. The truth lies at the bottom of the ideas and thoughts, which are essentially Spiritist and narrated with a delicacy and a grace that are charming, much more than in the facts, whose possibility is sometimes contestable. Though a novel, this work does not fail to have great importance, first by the name of the author, and because it is the first capital work to come from the writers of the press, in which the Spiritist idea is affirmed without circumlocution, and to appear at the moment when it seemed a contradiction cast into the wave of attacks directed against this idea. The very form of the novel had its usefulness; it was certainly preferable, as a transition, to the doctrinal form, of a severe style. Thanks to an apparent lightness, it penetrated everywhere and, with it, the idea. Although Théophile Gautier is one of the favorite authors of the press, the latter was, contrary to its habits, of a parsimonious sobriety with regard to this last work. It did not know whether it should praise him or censure him. To censure Théophile Gautier, a friend, a colleague, a writer loved by the public; to say that he had made an absurd work was a difficult thing; to praise the work was to exalt the idea; to keep silence about a popular name would have been an affront. The novelistic form raised the embarrassment; it allowed them to say that the author had made a fine work of imagination, and not of conviction. They spoke, but they spoke little. It is thus that even with incredulity there are accommodations. A very singular thing was noticed: on the day the work appeared in a volume, there were posters displayed outside in all the bookshops; a few days later all the posters had disappeared. In the discreet and rare news items of the newspapers, significant confessions are found, no doubt issuing through carelessness from the pen of the writer. In the Courrier du Monde illustré of December 16, 1865, one reads the following:

“One must believe, without doubting, without professing the doctrine, without even having greatly probed those unfathomable questions of Spiritism and somnambulism, that the poet Théophile Gautier, by the sole intuition of his poetic genius, hit the bull's-eye, made off with the money from the till, and found the open-sesame of the mysterious evocations, because the novel he published in serial form in the Moniteur, under the title of Espírita, violently agitated all those who occupy themselves with these dangerous questions. The emotion was immense and, to assess its full scope, we are obliged to range through, as we are doing, the newspapers of all Europe. “All Spiritist Germany rose up like one man, and as all those who live in the contemplation of a single idea have eyes and ears only for it, one of the most serious organs of Austria claims that the emperor commissioned from Théophile Gautier this prodigious novel, in order to divert France's attention from political questions. First assertion, whose scope I do not exaggerate. The second assertion struck me because of its fantastic side.

“According to the German sheet, the poet of the Comédie de la Mort - Google Books, much agitated as a consequence of a vision, was said to have fallen gravely ill and to have been taken to Geneva.

There, overcome by fever, he was said to have been forced to keep to his bed for several weeks, a victim of strange nightmares, of luminous hallucinations, a constant plaything of wandering Spirits. In the morning they were said to have found at the foot of the bed the scattered leaves of his manuscript Espírita.

“Without attributing to the inspiration that guided the pen of the author of Avatar - Google Books a source so fantastic, we firmly believe that, once entered into his subject, the writer of the Roman de la Momie - Google Books became enraptured by these visions, and that in the paroxysm he traced that admirable description of heaven, which is one of his most beautiful pages.

“The correspondence that gave rise to the publication of Espírita is extremely curious. We regret that a sentiment of propriety did not permit us to ask for a copy of one of the letters received by the poet of the Émaux et camées - Google Books.”

Here we are not making literary criticism, otherwise we might find of doubtful good taste the kind of catalogue that the author avails himself of to insert into his article, which, moreover, seems to us to sin a little for lack of clarity. We confess that we did not understand the phrase about the money from the till; n nevertheless it is quoted verbatim. This is perhaps due to the difficulty of explaining where the celebrated novelist drew such ideas, and how he dared to present them without laughing. But what is more important is the confession of the sensation produced by this work throughout Europe. The Spiritist idea must then be quite vigorous and quite widespread; it is not, then, a failed abortion. How many people are placed by our adversaries, with a stroke of the pen, in the category of cretins and idiots! Fortunately their judgment is not definitive. Messrs. Jaubert, Bonnamy, and many others appeal the sentence. The author qualifies these questions as dangerous. But, according to him and his brothers in skepticism, they are ridiculous chimeras. Now, what can a chimera have that is dangerous to society? One of two things: there either is or is not at the bottom of all this something serious. If there is nothing, where is the danger? If at the outset one had listened to all those who declared dangerous the greater part of the great truths that today shine, where would progress be? The truth has no dangers except for the cowards, who dare not face it head-on, and for the self-interested. A less serious fact, which several newspapers hastened to reproduce as though it were proved, is that the emperor was said to have commissioned this prodigious novel in order to divert France's attention from political questions. Evidently it is no more than a supposition, for, admitting the reality of this origin, it is not presumable that they would have divulged it. But this very supposition is a confession of the strength of the Spiritist idea, for they recognize that a sovereign, the greatest politician of our days, could judge it suitable to produce such a result. If such could have been the thought that presided over the execution of this work, it seems to us that the thing would be superfluous, because it appeared precisely at the moment when the newspapers were disputing the primacy of drawing attention by the noise they were making about the Davenport brothers. What is clearest in all this is that the detractors of Spiritism cannot explain the prodigious rapidity of the progress of the idea, in spite of all they do to halt it. Being unable to deny the fact, which each day becomes more evident, they strive to seek the cause everywhere where it is not, in the hope of attenuating its scope.

In an article entitled: Books of today and of tomorrow, signed by Émile Zola, the Evénement of February 16 gives a very meager summary of the subject of the work in question, accompanied by the following reflections:

“Lately the Moniteur has given a fantastic novella by Théophile Gautier: Espírita, which the Charpentier bookshop has just published in a volume.

“The work is for the greater glory of the Davenports. It takes us for a stroll in the country of the Spirits, shows us the invisible, reveals to us the unknown. The official newspaper has given the bulletins of the other world.

“But I distrust the faith of Théophile Gautier. He has an ironic bonhomie that smells of incredulity a league away. I suspect that he entered the invisible for the sole pleasure of describing in his own manner imaginary horizons.

“At bottom, he does not believe a word of the stories he tells, but he takes delight in telling them and the readers will enjoy reading them. All is, then, for the best, in the best of possible incredulities.

“No matter what he writes, Théophile Gautier is always a picturesque writer and an original poet. If he believed in what he says he would be perfect, and that would perhaps be a pity.”

How many people repel the Spiritist beliefs, not from the fear of becoming perfect, but simply from that of being obliged to amend themselves! The Spirits cause them fear because they speak of the other world, and this one has terrors for them. It is for this reason that they cover their eyes and their ears. [See the Letter of Mr. Jaubert.]

[1]

[ Espírita - Google books, by Théophile Gautier.]

[2] Translator's note: In the original: manger la grenouille, an idiomatic expression that, in our language, corresponds to making off with the money from the till.