Mediumship of clairvoyance in children.

One of our correspondents writes to us from Caen:

“Recently I was at the Saint-Pierre hotel, in Caen; I was drinking a glass of beer while reading a newspaper. The little daughter of the house, about four years old I believe, was sitting on the stairs eating cherries. She did not notice that I saw her and seemed absorbed in a conversation with invisible beings, to whom she offered cherries. Everything indicated it: her countenance, her gestures, the inflections of her voice. Now she would turn abruptly, saying: You, you shall not have them; you are not nice. – Here, this is for you, she would say to another. – So, what are you throwing at me? she would say to a third. One would have said she was surrounded by other children; now she would rise, extend her hands, offering what she had; now her eyes would follow objects invisible to me, which saddened her or made her burst out laughing. This little scene lasted more than half an hour and the conversation ended only when the girl noticed that I was watching her. I know that children often amuse themselves with asides of this kind, but here it was completely different; the countenance and the manners reflected real impressions, which were not those of an acted-out game. I thought, no doubt, that she was a still-green seeing medium, and I said to myself that if all mothers of families were initiated into the laws of Spiritism, they would gather there numerous cases for observation and would explain to themselves many facts that pass unnoticed, and whose knowledge would be useful to them for the guidance of their children.” It is regrettable that our correspondent did not have the idea of questioning this girl about the persons with whom she was conversing. He could have ascertained whether the conversation had really taken place with invisible beings and, in that case, an instruction all the more important could have come of it because, our correspondent being a very enlightened Spiritist, he could have usefully directed the questions. Be that as it may, many other facts prove that the mediumship of clairvoyance is very common, if not indeed general, in children, and this is providential. On leaving the spiritual life, the child's guides come to lead it to the port of embarkation for the terrestrial world, just as they come to fetch it upon its return. They show themselves to it in the first times, so that the transition may not be too abrupt; then they fade away little by little, as the child grows and can act by virtue of its free will. They then leave it to its own strength, disappearing from its eyes, but without losing sight of it. The little daughter in question, instead of being, as our correspondent thinks, a still-green seeing medium, might well be in her decline, and no longer enjoy this faculty for the rest of her life. (See the Review of February 1865: Instructor Spirits of childhood). Allan Kardec.

Paris. – Typ. of Rouge frères, Dunon et Fresné, rue du Four-Saint-Germain, 43.