Charlemagne’s Day at the College of Chartres.

This year the College of Chartres had the idea of associating a literary conference with the solemnity of the banquet of Charlemagne’s Day. Two philosophy students sustained a controversy whose subject was Spiritism. Here is the account given by the Journal de Chartres of March 11, 1866:

To close the session, two philosophy students, Messrs. Ernest Clément and Gustave Jumentié, propose to examine, in a lively and animated dialogue, a question that today has the privilege of impassioning many heads: we mean to speak of Spiritism.

“J. reproaches his companion, always so jovial, for a somber and pensive air, which makes him resemble an author of melodramas, and asks him whence so great a change can come.

“C. answers that he has lost his head in a sublime doctrine, Spiritism, which has come to confirm in an irrefutable manner the immortality of the soul and the other conceptions of spiritualist philosophy. It is not a chimera, as his interlocutor pretends; it is a system supported by authentic facts, such as turning tables, mediums, etc.

“Certainly, answers J., I shall not be so senseless, my poor friend, as to argue with you about mad reveries, of which everyone today is completely disillusioned. And when one does nothing but laugh in the face of the Spiritists, I shall not, by a vain dispute, give your ideas more weight than they deserve and do them the honor of a serious reputation. The admirable experiments of the Davenports demonstrated what your strength was and the faith one had to have in your miracles. But, fortunately, they received the just punishment of their roguery; after a few days of a usurped triumph, they were forced to return to their homeland, and once more we proved that from the Capitol to the Tarpeian Rock there is but a step. “I see well, says C… in his turn, that you are no partisan of progress. You ought, on the contrary, to pity the lot of those unfortunates. At their beginning all the sciences had their detractors. Did we not see Fulton repelled by ignorance and treated as mad? Did we not also see Lebon, unknown in his homeland, die miserably without having enjoyed his works? And yet, today the surface of the seas is furrowed by steamboats and gas spreads its lively light everywhere.

“J. Yes, but those inventions rested on solid bases; Science was the guide of those geniuses and was bound to force a more enlightened posterity to repair the errors of its contemporaries. But what are the inventions of the Spiritists? What is the secret of their science? Everyone could admire and applaud the ingenious mechanism of their wand…

“C. Still jesting? Yet I told you: there are among the adepts of Spiritism very honorable people, persons whose conviction is profound.

“J. It is pure truth. But, what does this prove? That good sense is not so common a thing as one thinks, and that, as the poet of Reason said: A fool always finds a greater fool who admires him.

“C. Boileau would not have spoken thus had he seen the turning tables. What do you say to that?

“J. That I have never managed to move the smallest little table.

“C. That is because you are a profane; for me, never has a table resisted. I made one turn that weighed 200 kilos, with plates, platters, bottles…

“J. You would make me tremble for the table of Charlemagne’s Day, had the appetite of the guests not prudently cleared it…

“C. I do not speak to you of hats. But I would impart to them a powerful rotation at the lightest contact.

“J. I am not surprised if your poor head has turned along with them.

“C. But, in short, jests are not reasons; they are the argument of impotence. You prove nothing, you refute nothing.

“J. It is that your doctrine is nothing but a nothing, a chimera, a colorless, impalpable gas — I prefer illuminating gas — an exhalation, a vapor, a smoke. — Upon my word of honor, my choice is made, I prefer that of Champagne. — O Miguel Cervantes! why were you born two centuries too early? It is to your immortal Don Quixote that it falls to reduce Spiritism to dust. He brandished his valorous lance against the windmills. And yet, they turned very well! How he would have split from top to bottom the talking and resounding cupboards! And you, his faithful squire, illustrious Sancho Panza, it is your profound philosophy, it is your sublime morality that would alone be capable of disentangling those grave theories. “C. Whatever you may say, gentlemen philosophers, you deny Spiritism because you do not know what to do with it, because it embarrasses you.

“J. Oh! it causes me no embarrassment, and I well know what I would do if I had a voice in the chapter. Spiritists, magnetizers, somnambulists, cupboards, talking tables, turning hats, with the heads that they overshadow, I would send them all to spend a season… in the asylum.”

“Some persons will be astonished, perhaps scandalized, to see the students of the college of Chartres approach, with no other weapons than the anecdote, a question that calls itself the most serious of modern times. Frankly, after the most recent adventure of the Davenport brothers, can one reproach youth for amusing itself with this mystification? It is the age without pity.

“One could, no doubt, returning to one of their borrowed phrases, teach those crafty young men that great discoveries often pass by the Tarpeian Rock before reaching the Capitol, and that, for Spiritism, the day of rehabilitation is perhaps not far off. The newspapers already announce to us that a musician of Brussels, who is also a Spiritist, claims to be in contact with the Spirits of all the dead composers; that he will transmit to us their inspirations, and that we shall soon have truly posthumous works of the Beethovens, the Mozarts, the Webers, the Mendelssohns…! Well then! so be it; those students are of good composition: they wished to laugh, they laughed; when it is time to ask pardon, they will ask it.” We are ignorant with what aim they permitted this question to be treated at a college solemnity; we doubt, however, that it is out of sympathy for Spiritism, and with a view to propagating it among the students. Someone said in this regard that it resembled certain conferences in use in Rome, in which there is the advocate of God and the advocate of the devil. Be that as it may, it must be granted that the two champions were not very strong; without doubt they would have been more eloquent had they known better the subject which, as one sees, they have hardly studied, except in newspaper articles concerning the Davenport brothers. The fact is not without its importance; yet, if the aim was to turn youth away from the study of Spiritism, we very much doubt that it has been attained, because the young are curious. Until now the name of Spiritism had crossed the door of the colleges only clandestinely, and there was pronounced only in whispers. Behold it now officially installed on the benches, where it will make its way. Since discussion is permitted, they will have to study; that is all we ask. In this regard the reflections of the newspaper are extremely judicious.