The Davenport brothers in Brussels.

— The Davenport brothers have just spent some time in Belgium, where they peacefully gave their performances. We have numerous correspondents in that country, but we are not aware, either through their reports or through the newspapers, that those gentlemen were there the target of the deplorable scenes that took place in Paris. Could it be that the Belgians would give lessons in civility to the Parisians? One might believe it, comparing the two situations. What is evident is that in Paris there was a settled opinion, an organized cabal against them; and the proof of this is that they attacked them before knowing what they were going to do, even before they had begun. To hiss those who fail, those who do not deliver what they announce, is a right purchased everywhere when one pays the price of admission. But to jeer at them, to insult them, to mistreat them, to break their instruments, even before they come on stage, is what the lowest mountebank of the fair would not allow himself. Whatever manner one may regard these gentlemen, such conduct has no excuse among a civilized people. Of what were they accused? Of passing themselves off as mediums? Of claiming to operate with the help of the Spirits? If, on their part, it was a fraudulent means to excite the curiosity of the public, who had the right to complain? — The Spiritists, who might find ill the display of a deplorable thing. Now, who complained? Who denounced the scandal, the imposture, and the profanation? Precisely those who do not believe in Spirits. Nevertheless, among those who cry out the loudest that they do not exist, that beyond man there is nothing, some end up, thanks to the manifestations, if not by believing, at least by fearing that there is something. The fear that the Davenport brothers might come to prove it very clearly unleashed against them a veritable fury; if they had been certain that the brothers were nothing but skillful conjurers, there would be no reason to fear the first sleight-of-hand artist who came along. Yes, we are convinced that the fear of seeing them triumph was the principal cause of that hostility, which preceded their public appearance and prepared the means of making their first spectacle miscarry. But the Davenport brothers were only a pretext; it was not their persons that were aimed at, but Spiritism, to which they thought the brothers might give a sanction, and which, to the great chagrin of its antagonists, frustrates the effects of malevolence by the prudent reserve from which it has never departed, despite all that has been done to make it depart. For many people, it is a veritable nightmare. One had to know it very little to believe that those gentlemen, placing themselves in conditions that it disapproves, could serve it as auxiliaries. Nevertheless, they served its cause, but by making it spoken of on the occasion, and, without wishing to, criticism lent it a hand by provoking the examination of the doctrine. It is to be noted that all the uproar made around Spiritism is the work of those very people who wanted to stifle it. Whatever they have done against it, it has never cried out; it is the adversaries who cried out, as if they already deemed themselves dead. We extract from the Office de publicité, a Brussels newspaper said to have a circulation of 25,000 copies, the following passages from two articles published in the issues of last 8 and 22 July concerning the Davenport brothers, as well as two letters of refutation loyally inserted in the same newspaper. Although somewhat worn, the subject does not lack its instructive side.

BRUSSELS CHRONICLE.

“It is quite true that everything comes to pass, and that one should not say: ‘Of this water I shall not drink.’ Had anyone told me that one day I would see the cabinet of the Davenport brothers or these illustrious sorcerers, I would have been capable of swearing that this would never happen, for it is enough to tell me that someone is a sorcerer to take from me all curiosity about him. The supernatural and sorcery have no more obstinate enemy than I. I would not go to see a miracle even if it were shown for free: these things inspire in me the same aversion as two-headed calves, bearded women, and all monsters; I find rapping Spirits and intelligent tables idiotic, and there is no superstition that would make me flee to the ends of the earth. Judge whether, with such dispositions, I would have gone to swell the crowd in the case of the Davenport brothers, when they were said to be in regular commerce with the Spirits! I also confess that the idea would not have come to me of unmasking the trickery, of breaking their cabinet and proving that they were really not sorcerers, for it seems to me that, in so doing, I would have given proof that I myself had believed in their pomps and their prodigies. It would have seemed to me infinitely simpler to dismiss, from the very outset, this supposed sorcery and to suppose that, having deceived so many people, they must be creatures very skilled in their exercises. As for understanding, I would not have given myself that trouble. To what end, since the Spirits take no part in it? And if there had been many poor Spirits in the other world to come into this one to play the part of accomplices, to what end, still? “I read with much attention, although I had something better to do with my time, the greater part of the books used by the Spiritists, and there I found everything that was necessary to satisfy the need for a new religion, but not anything by which to convert me to that old novelty. All the Spirits consulted, whose answers are cited, said nothing that had not been said before them and in better terms than they repeated them. They taught us that one must love good and detest evil, that truth is the opposite of falsehood, that the soul is immortal, that man must tend incessantly to become better, and that life is a trial—all things already known for thousands of years, and for the revelation of which it was useless to evoke so many illustrious dead and even personages who, however celebrated they may be, never existed. I do not even speak of the Wandering Jew; but imagine that I go to evoke Don Quixote and that he comes back; would this not be amusing in the extreme?

“I had but one objection regarding the Davenport brothers, since they were nothing but skillful conjurers. This objection comes down to this: all Spiritism being set aside with much pleasure, and by common agreement, their exercises might well be nothing but a mediocre entertainment. It is probable that the idea would not have come to me to go see them if, the gracious offer being made to go there, I had not considered that the chronicle obliges, that not all is roses in life, and that the chronicler must go where the public goes and bore himself a little, with the right to take his revenge. Resolved to do things in good conscience, I first went by day to the hall of the Artistic and Literary Circle, where they were occupied with the assembly of the famous cabinet. I saw it still incomplete, in the light of day, and stripped of all its ‘poetry.’ If ruins need solitude and the shadows of night, the tricks of conjurers need the light of gas, the credulous crowd, and distance. But the Davenport brothers are good players and play their cards on the table. One could see it, and whoever wished came in. A Yankee employee was assembling the cabinet with tranquility; the guitars, the tambourines, the cords, the bells were there, mingled with chests, clothes, pieces of carpet, packing cloths; everything in abandon, at the mercy of anyone and as a challenge to curiosity. It seemed to say: Turn it, turn it over, examine, search, investigate, do something! you shall know nothing. “There is nothing more insolently simple than the cabinet. It is a cabinet for linen, for garments, and one that absolutely does not have the appearance of being made to lodge Spirits. It seemed to me of walnut; in front it has three doors, instead of two, and it appears to me damaged by the journeys it has made or by the attacks it has suffered. I took a glance, not very close, for, however open it was, I imagined that so mysterious a piece of furniture must smell of mold, like the magic spinet in which they hid Mozart as a child.

“I formally declare that, short of putting my clothes in it, I would not know what to do with the cabinet of the Davenport brothers. Each to his trade. I saw it again at night, isolated upon the platform, before the footlights: it already had a monumental aspect. The hall was full, as it never was on the days when Mozart, Beethoven, and their interpreters bore the expenses of the evening. The finest public one could have: the most amiable, the most witty, the most beautiful women of Brussels, then the councilors of the Court of Cassation, political, judicial, and literary presidents; all the academies, senators, ministers, representatives, journalists, artists, building contractors, joiners, ‘who were like a bouquet of flowers!’ The honorable Mr. Rogier, minister of foreign affairs, was at that soirée, where he was kept company by a former president of the Chamber, Mr. Vervoort, who, disabused of human grandeurs, kept only the presidency of the Circle, a charming royalty after all. At the sight of this, I felt completely secure. One of our best painters, Mr. Robie, echoed my thought, saying to me: ‘See! Austria and Prussia may fight as much as they like. So long as the European crisis does not disturb our minister of foreign affairs, Belgium may sleep in peace.’ This seemed peremptory to me; you will judge for yourselves, and, knowing that Mr. Rogier attended the Davenport brothers’ soirée smiling, you may sleep tranquilly. It is the best thing you have to do. “I saw all the exercises of the Davenport brothers and in no way sought to understand their mystery. All I can say, without thinking in the least of diminishing their success, is that it is not possible for me to feel the least pleasure in these things. They do not interest me. In my presence they bound the Davenport brothers; they say they bound them very well; then they put flour in their hands and shut them in the cabinet, lowered the gaslight, and I heard a great noise of guitars, of bells, and of tambourines in the cabinet. Suddenly the cabinet opened: a tambourine rolled to my feet, abruptly and violently, and the Davenport brothers appeared, unbound, saluting the public and shaking off the flour they had placed in their hands. They applauded much. There it is!

— Well then, how do you explain this?

— There are people in the Circle who explain it very well. As for me, however much I might burst my lungs, I absolutely feel no desire to explain it. They untied themselves, that is all; and the magic of the flour was done with skill. I find the preparations long, the noise tiresome, and the whole thing little amusing. And nothing of spirit, neither in the singular nor in the plural.

— So, you do not believe?

— No; I believe in the boredom I felt.

— And Spiritism? do you not believe in it?

— That is a question of Sganarelle to Don Juan. Presently you will ask whether I believe in the evil spirit. I will answer like Don Juan, that I believe that two and two are four and that four and four are eight. I still do not know whether, seeing what is happening in Germany and elsewhere, I would not be forced to make reservations.

— Then you are an atheist?

— No. Without modesty, I am the most religious man on Earth.

— So, you believe in God, in the immortality of the soul, in…

— I believe. It is my happiness and my hope.

— And all this is reconciled within you: four and four are eight!

— Precisely. Everything is there. Turkish is a beautiful language.

— Then you go to mass?

— No. But I do not prevent you from going there.

The bird on the branch, the worm gleaming in the grass, the globes in space, and my heart full of adoration sing the mass to me night and day. I love God passionately and without fear. What would you have me, with that, do with religions and other varieties of davenportism? n — And Spiritism? and Allan Kardec?

— I believe that Mr. Allan Kardec, who would do much better to use his true name, is as good a citizen as you and I. His morality does not differ from common morality, which suffices me. As for his revelations, I like them as much as the cabinet of the Davenports, with or without guitars. I have read the revelations of the Spirits; their style is not worth that of Bossuet and, save for the citations made from the works of illustrious men, it is heavy and at times banal. I would not like to write like the strongest of the group: my director would tell me that macaroni is good, but that one should not abuse it. Spiritism has supernatural and dogmas, and I distrust that floured block. I had already said this five years ago, speaking of the doctrine, for it is a doctrine: there is everything in it to improvise a new religion. It would be better to be simply religious and to keep to the revelations of the Universe.

“I see this religion budding. It is already a sect, and a considerable one; you cannot imagine the number and the seriousness of the letters I have already received for having broached Spiritism lately. It has its fanatics, it will have its intolerant ones, its priests, because the dogma lends itself to intermediary action, since the Spirits have classes and preferences. As soon as that new dogma conquers ten percent of believers, we shall see its clergy. I believe it destined to inherit from Catholicism, in view of its seductive aspects. Only wait for the cunning ones to mingle in it, and the prophets and privileged evokers will spring up through the mystery of the thing, which is gentle and poetic, like the weeds in a field of wheat.

Here are two letters that were addressed to me. They come from loyal, ingenuous, and convinced persons; it is for this reason that I publish them.

“To Mr. Bertram.

“Four years ago I was what may be called a frank laggard. A sincere Catholic, I believed in miracles, in the devil, in papal infallibility. Thus, I would have accepted without discussion the Encyclical of Pius IX, n with all its consequences in the political order.

“But, you will ask, of what use is this confession of an unknown man? Word of honor, Mr. Bertram, I am going to inform you, even at the risk of exciting your mocking verve or of making you flee to the ends of the earth.

“One day I saw, in Antwerp, a little table, commonly called a talking table, which answered me to a mental question in my native tongue, unknown to those present; among them there were strong spirits, masons who believed neither in God nor in the soul. The thing gave them food for reflection; they read with avidity the Spiritist works of Allan Kardec; I did as they did, especially when several priests assured me that such phenomena were the exclusive work of the… demon. I did not regret the time it cost me; quite the contrary. In these books I found not only the rational and very natural solution of the above phenomenon, but a way out of many questions, of many problems that I had been asking myself for a long time. There you found matter for a new religion; but, Mr. Bertrand, do you believe there would be great harm in this, if it were the case? Does Catholicism correspond so well to the needs of our society that it cannot be reinvigorated, nor advantageously replaced? Or do you believe that Humanity can dispense with all religious belief? Liberalism proclaims fine principles, but it is, for the most part, skeptical and materialist. Under these conditions it would never bind the masses to itself, any more than ultramontane Catholicism. If Spiritism is one day called to become a religion, it will be natural religion, well developed and well understood, and this, certainly, is not new. It is, as you say, an old novelty; but it is also a neutral ground, where all opinions, both political and religious, may one day join hands. “Be that as it may, ever since I became a Spiritist, certain malicious tongues accuse me of having become a free-thinker. It is true that from then on, just like the strong spirits I spoke of above, I no longer believe in the supernatural, nor in the devil; but, in compensation, we believe a little more in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the plurality of existences; children of the nineteenth century, we perceive a sure road and along it we wish to drive the carriage of progress, instead of retarding it. You see, then, that Spiritism still has its good side, since it can effect such changes. And now, to return to the Davenport brothers, it would be an error to flee from the experiments, or to conclude in a prejudiced manner against them, by virtue of their being new. The more extraordinary the facts, the more they deserve to be observed conscientiously, and without preconceived ideas, for who could boast of knowing all the secrets of Nature? I have never seen the Davenport brothers, but I have read what the French press wrote about them and I was astonished at the bad faith brought to the case. Amateurs may read with profit the book Unknown Natural Forces, by Hermès (Paris, Didier, 1865); n it is a refutation, from the point of view of Science, of the criticisms directed against them. If it is true that those gentlemen do not present themselves as Spiritists, nor know the doctrine, there is no reason for Spiritism to take up their defense. All that can be said is that facts similar to those produced by them are possible by virtue of a natural law known today and through the intervention of inferior Spirits. Only, until now, these facts had not yet been produced under conditions so little favorable, at fixed hours and with such regularity. “I hope, sir, that you will welcome these disinterested observations and give them hospitality in your newspaper. May they contribute to elucidating a question more interesting to your readers than you might suppose.

“Your subscriber, H. Vanderyst.”

“There it is, published! they will not accuse me of putting ‘the light under the bushel.’ “First of all, I have no bushel; then, without any jesting, I do not see much light here. I have never made an objection to the morality of Spiritism; it is pure. The Spiritists are honest and charitable: their donations to the day nurseries proved it to me. If they cling to their superior and inferior Spirits, in that I see no inconvenience. It is a question between their instinct and their reason.

“There is a postscript in the letter. Here it is:

“Permit me to call your attention to the work that has just had the honor of the Index: n The Plurality of the Existences of the Soul, by Pezzani, lawyer, where this question is treated outside the Spiritist revelation.”

“Let us pass to the other letter:

(There follows a second letter in the same sense as the preceding one, and which ends thus):

“I am convinced that, on the day the press disposes itself to develop all the beauty that Spiritism contains, the world will make immense progress, morally. To make clear to man that each one bears within himself the true religion, conscience, to leave him in the presence of himself to answer for his acts before the Supreme Being—what an important thing! Would it not be to kill materialism, which does so much harm in the world? Would it not be a barrier against pride, ambition, envy, things that make men unhappy? To teach man that he must do good in order to merit his reward? Certainly there are men who are convinced of all this, but how many in relation to the generality? And all this can be taught to man. For my part, I evoked my father and, according to the answers I obtained, doubt is no longer possible.

“If I had the happiness of wielding the pen as you do, I would treat Spiritism as called to inculcate in us a gentle and agreeable morality. My first article would have for title: Spiritism, or the destruction of all fanaticism. The fall of the Jesuits and of all who live off human credulity. One gathers all these ideas in the excellent book of Allan Kardec. How I would like you to have my manner of viewing Spiritism! How much good you would do for morality! But, my dear Bertram, how could you find supernatural and sorcery in Spiritism? I do not find it any more extraordinary that we communicate with our relatives and friends passed to the other world, by means of the fluid that puts us in contact with them, than that we communicate with the brothers of this globe at fabulous distances by means of the electric wire!”

All published without observation and without comment, only to prove that Spiritism has, in Belgium, partisans ardent in their faith. The sect positively makes progress, and soon Catholicism will have to reckon with it.

“The Parisian press did not act in bad faith with the Davenport brothers; what it makes plain is that they no longer display pretensions to the supernatural. At least so far as I know, they no longer give exhibitions at fifty francs a head. Meanwhile, I believe that persons who might wish to pay for their place at that price would not be ill received. To conclude, I affirm that their exercises do not seem to me made to exert great influence upon the future of human societies.”

Bertram.

— After the two letters that have just been read, we shall not have much to say about the article. Its moderation contrasts with the acrimony of most of those formerly written on the same subject. At least the author does not contest the Spiritists’ right to have an opinion, which he respects, although he does not share it. Contrary to certain apostles of progress, he recognizes that freedom of conscience is for all; that is already something. He even agrees that the Spiritists have good things about them and are of good faith. Finally, he attests the progress of the doctrine and confesses that it has a seductive side. Thus, we shall make only slight observations.

Mr. Bertram considers us as good a citizen as he, and we thank him. But he adds that we would do very well to use our true name. For our part, we permit ourselves to ask him why he signs his articles as Bertram, instead of Eugène Landois, which takes nothing from his personal qualities, for we know that he is the principal organizer of the day nursery of Saint Josse-Tennoode, with which he occupies himself with praiseworthy solicitude.

If Mr. Bertram had read the Spiritist books with as much attention as he says, he would know whether the Spiritists are so simple-minded as to evoke the Wandering Jew and Don Quixote; he would know what Spiritism accepts and what it condemns; he would not affect to present it as a religion, because, in the same manner, all philosophies would be religions, since it is of their essence to discuss the very foundations of all religions: God and the nature of the soul. He would understand, finally, that if one day Spiritism became a religion, it could not become intolerant without renouncing its principle, which is universal fraternity, without distinction of sect and of belief; without abjuring its motto: Outside charity there is no salvation, the most explicit symbol of love of neighbor, of tolerance, and of freedom of conscience. It has never said: “Outside Spiritism there is no salvation.” If a religion were to rely upon Spiritism with the exclusion of these principles, it would no longer be Spiritism. Spiritism is a philosophical doctrine that touches upon all humanitarian questions. By the profound modifications it brings to ideas, it makes things be viewed from another point of view. Hence, for the future, inevitable modifications in social relations; it is a fecund mine where religions, like the sciences, like civil institutions, will gather elements of progress. But, because it touches upon certain religious beliefs, it does not constitute a new cult, just as it is not a particular system of politics, of legislation, or of social economy [organization]. Its temples, its ceremonies, and its priests are in the imagination of its detractors and of those who fear to see it become a religion.

Mr. Bertram criticizes the style of the Spirits and places his own far above it; that is his right and we shall not dispute it with him. Nor do we contest with him that the morality of the Spirits teaches us nothing new. This proves one thing: men are only the more guilty for practicing it so little. Is it, then, to be wondered at that God, in his solicitude, repeats it to them under all forms? If, in this respect, the teaching of the Spirits is useless, that of the Christ was equally so, for he did nothing but develop the commandments of Sinai; the writings of all moralists are also useless, for they only repeat the same thing in other terms. With such a system, how many people whose works would be useless, not to include therein the chroniclers who, by their condition, ought to invent nothing.

There remains no doubt that the morality of the Spirits is as old as the world, which has nothing surprising about it, for, morality being nothing but the law of God, this law must be from all eternity, and the creature can add nothing to the work of the Creator. But is there nothing new in the manner of teaching it? Until now the code of morality had only been promulgated by a few individualities; it was reproduced in books that not everyone reads or understands. Well then! today that same code is taught, no longer by a few men, but by millions of Spirits, who were men, in all countries, in each family and, so to speak, to each individual. Do you believe that he who was indifferent to the reading of a book, who treated the maxims it contains as commonplaces, will not be otherwise impressed if his father, his mother, or a being who is dear to him and whom he respects, comes to say to him, even in a style inferior to that of Bossuet: “I am not lost to you, as you thought; I am at your side, I see you and I hear you; I know you better than when I was alive, because I read your thought. To be happy in the world where I am, here is the rule of conduct to follow; such an action is good and such another is bad, etc.” As you see, it is a direct teaching or, if you prefer, a new means of publicity, all the more effective in that it goes straight to the heart; that costs nothing; that addresses itself to all, to the small as to the great, to the poor as to the rich, to the ignorant as to the learned, and defies the human despotism that would oppose a barrier to it. But, you will say, is this possible? Is it not an illusion? This doubt would be natural if such communications were made only to a single privileged man, for nothing would prove that he is not deceived; but, when thousands of individuals receive them similarly, daily and in all countries of the world, is it rational to think that all are hallucinated? If the teaching of Spiritism were relegated to the Spiritist works, it would not have won the hundredth part of the adherents it possesses. These books only summarize and coordinate that teaching; but what constitutes its success is that each one finds within himself the confirmation of what they contain.

There will only be ground to say that the moral teaching of the Spirits is superfluous when it has been proved that men are good enough to dispense with it. Until then it is not to be wondered at to see it repeated under all forms and in all tones.

You will say, Mr. Bertram: — What does it matter to me whether or not there are Spirits! It is possible that this is indifferent to you, but it is not so with everyone. It is absolutely as if you said: “What does it matter to me whether there are inhabitants in America, and whether the electric cable comes to prove it!” Scientifically it is something that proves the invisible world; morally, it is much. The fact that Spirits people space, which was deemed uninhabited, is the discovery of a whole world, the revelation of the future and of the destiny of man, a revolution in beliefs. Now, if the thing exists, no negation can prevent it from existing. Its inevitable results well deserve that one concern oneself with it. You are a man of progress and you repel an element of progress? a means of improving Humanity, of consolidating fraternity among men? a discovery that leads to the reform of the social abuses against which you incessantly clamor? You believe in your immortal soul and you do not concern yourself at all with knowing what it will become, what your relatives and friends have become? Frankly, this is little rational. You will say that it is not in the cabinet of the Davenport brothers that you will find it; agreed. We have never said that that was Spiritism. Nevertheless, that very cabinet, precisely because, rightly or wrongly, they made the Spirits intervene in it, made the Spirits much spoken of, even to those who did not believe in them. Hence the researches, the studies, which would not have been made if those gentlemen had presented themselves as mere conjurers. If the Spirits were not in their cabinet, they might well have provoked that means of making a number of people emerge from their indifference. You see that you yourself, without realizing it, were led to sow the idea among your numerous readers, which you would not have done without that famous cabinet. As for the new truths that stand out from the Spiritist revelations, apart from morality, we recommend the article published in the Review of January 1865, under the title What Spiritism Teaches.

[1] Translator’s note: Our emphasis. Allusion to the Davenport brothers.

[2] Translator’s note: Allusion to the encyclical Quanta cura , which condemned liberalism, socialism, and naturalism. Pius IX was one of the popes who longest stood at the head of the Catholic Church. His pontificate lasted thirty-two years, including the entire period in which Allan Kardec codified Spiritism.

[3] [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.]

[4] [Index Librorum prohibitorun et expurgandorum. — List of books prohibited by the Church that began to be made since the IV Lateran Council, 1515.]