Unknown Natural Forces

This is no longer a novel. It is a refutation, from the standpoint of Science, of the criticisms directed against Spiritist phenomena, in connection with the Davenport brothers, and against the assimilation that some seek to establish between those phenomena and the tricks of sleight-of-hand. The author takes into account the charlatanism that slips into everything, and the unfavorable conditions under which the Davenports presented themselves, conditions that he does not seek to justify; he examines the phenomena themselves, setting aside the persons, and speaks with the authority of a specialist. He accepts the challenge thrown down by part of the press on this occasion, and stigmatizes its eccentricities of language, which he translates in the light of common sense, showing to what extent it strayed from a fair discussion. We may not share the author's feeling on every point, but we cannot fail to say that his book is a refutation difficult to contest; this is why the press in general kept silent on the matter. Nevertheless, the Evénement of February 1st reported on it in these terms: “I have in my hands a book that ought to have appeared last autumn. It deals with the Davenports. The book, signed with the pseudonym “Hermès,” bears the title: Unknown Natural Forces, and maintains that we should accept the cabinet and the two brothers, because our senses are weak and we cannot explain everything in Nature. Needless to say, the book was published by the Didier bookshop.

“I would not speak of these pages that have mistaken the season, were it not that they contain a violent indictment against the entire Parisian press: Mr. Hermès recounts his facts plainly to the editors of the Opinion, the Temps, the France, the Fígaro, the Petit Journal, etc. They were insolent and cruel, and their bad faith was surpassed only by their foolishness. If they did not understand, they should not have spoken. Ignorance, falsehood, coarseness—these journalists committed every crime. “Mr. Hermès is very harsh. Louis Ulbach is called “the man with spectacles,” an atrocious insult. Edmond About, who had asked what difference there was between mediums and Dr. Lapommerais, was paid back in full. Mr. Hermès declares “that it is no wonder certain lovers of puns have dragged the name of his gracious contradictor along the surface of the soil. Do you feel all the delicacy of this play on words? “Mr. Hermès ends by confessing that he lives in a secluded garden and that he concerns himself only with the truth. It would be preferable for him to live in the street and to have all the calm and all the Christian charity of solitude.”

Is it not curious to see these gentlemen give theoretical lessons in calm and Christian charity to those whom they insult gratuitously, and to take it ill that they should be answered? And yet, they will not reproach Mr. Hermès for any lack of moderation, since, out of an excess of consideration, he cites no proper name. It is true that the citations, thus grouped, form a very ungracious bouquet. Whose fault is it if this bouquet does not exhale a perfume of urbanity and good taste? To have the right to complain of certain somewhat severe appraisals, one would need not to have provoked them. Allan Kardec.

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Brochure in-18. Price: 1 fr. – Didier Bookshop. [Des Forces naturelles inconnues, à propos des phénomènes produits par les frères Davenport et par les médiums en général, étude critique par Hermès - Google Books.]

Paris. — Typ. de Cosson et Comp., rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.