The zouave Jacob.

Since the healing faculty is the order of the day, it is not surprising that we have devoted to it the greater part of this issue and, surely, we are far from having exhausted the subject. We shall therefore return to it.

From the outset, in order to settle the ideas of many persons interested in the question concerning Mr. Jacob, who have written to us or might write to us in this regard, we say:

1st That Mr. Jacob's sessions are suspended. Thus, it would be useless to present oneself at the place where they were held (Rue de la Roquette, 80), and that, up to the present, he has not resumed them anywhere. The reason was the excessive crowding of people, which hindered circulation in a very frequented street, and a dead-end alley, occupied by a great number of tradesmen, who found themselves impeded in their business, being unable to receive their customers or to dispatch their goods. At this moment Mr. Jacob gives neither public nor private sessions. 2nd Given the influx, and since each one must wait a long time for his turn, to those who have asked us, or in the future may ask us whether, knowing Mr. Jacob personally, they could, with a recommendation from us, obtain preferential attendance, we will say that we never asked and would never ask for it, knowing that it would be useless. Had preferential admissions been granted, it would have been to the detriment of those who wait, and would not have failed to provoke just complaints. Mr. Jacob made exceptions for no one; the rich man had to wait like the unfortunate one, because, in the final analysis, the unfortunate one suffers as much as the rich man; like the latter, he does not have comfort by way of compensation and, moreover, often awaits health in order to have the means to live. For this reason we congratulate Mr. Jacob; and if he had not acted thus, in soliciting a favor we would only have done a thing for which we would have had to censure him. 3rd To the sick who have asked us, or might ask, whether we advise them to make the journey to Paris, we say: Mr. Jacob does not cure everyone, as he himself declares; he never knows in advance whether or not he will cure a sick person; it is only when he is in their presence that he judges the fluidic action and sees the result; that is why he never promises anything and never replies. To advise someone to make the journey to Paris would be to assume a responsibility without certainty of success. It is, then, a risk that one runs, and if no result is obtained, one is free of the travel expenses, whereas one often spends enormous sums on consultations, without greater advantages. If one is not cured, one cannot say that one paid for care uselessly. 4th To those who ask us whether, by indemnifying Mr. Jacob for his travel expenses, since he accepts no fees, he would agree to come to such or such a locality to attend to a sick person, we reply: Mr. Jacob does not respond to invitations of that kind, for the reasons developed above. Being unable to answer in advance for the results, he would consider it an impropriety to induce expenses without certainty of success; and in case of failure, it would be to give occasion for criticism.

To those who write to Mr. Jacob, or send us letters to have them reach him, we say: Mr. Jacob has at his house a cabinet full of letters, which he does not read, and he answers no one. Indeed, what could he say? Besides, he does not cure by correspondence. Speak with affectation? that is not his manner; say whether such an illness is curable by him? he does not know. From the fact of having cured one person of such an illness, it does not follow that he cures the same illness in other persons, because the fluidic conditions are not the same; prescribe a treatment? he is not a physician and would refrain from furnishing this weapon against himself. Thus, to write to him is useless labor. The only thing to do, should he resume the sessions, mistakenly classified as consultations, since they do not consult him, is to present oneself as soon as one arrives, get in line, wait patiently, and take one's chances. If one is not cured, one cannot complain of having been deceived, since he promises nothing.

There are springs that have the property of curing certain illnesses. People go there; some feel well, others are merely relieved; others, finally, experience absolutely nothing. One must consider Mr. Jacob as a source of salutary fluids, to whose influence they are going to submit, but which, not being a universal panacea, does not cure all ills and may be more or less efficacious, according to the conditions of the sick person.

But, after all, were there cures? One fact answers this question: If no one had been cured, the crowd would not have gone there, as it did.

But might the credulous crowd not have been deceived by false appearances and gone there trusting in a usurped reputation? Might confederates not have feigned illnesses to appear to have been cured?

Without doubt, this has been seen and is seen every day, when accomplices have an interest in playing the comedy. Now, here, what profit would they have drawn from it? Who would have paid them? Certainly it was not Mr. Jacob, with his pay as a musician of the zouaves; nor the granting of a discount on the consultations, since he received nothing. It is understandable that one who wants to build up a clientele at any price would employ such means; but Mr. Jacob had not the slightest interest in drawing the crowd to himself; he did not summon it: it was the crowd that came to him and, one may say, in spite of him. Had there not been the facts, no one would have come, for he summoned no one. Without doubt the newspapers contributed to increasing the number of visitors, but they only spoke of the case because the crowd already existed, without which they would have said nothing, for Mr. Jacob had not asked them to speak of him, nor paid to make publicity. One must, then, set aside any idea of subterfuges, which would have no reason for being in the circumstance in question. To appreciate the acts of an individual, one must seek the interest that may solicit him in his manner of acting. Now, it is proven that there was none on Mr. Jacob's part; that neither was there any for Mr. Dufayet, who lent his premises free of charge, and put his workmen at the service of the sick, to carry the infirm, and this to the detriment of his own interests; finally, that confederates had nothing to gain.

Since the cures operated by Mr. Jacob, in these latter times, are of the same kind as those obtained last year at the camp of Châlons, and the facts having taken place more or less in the same manner, only on a greater scale, we refer our readers to the accounts and appreciations that we gave in the Review of October and November 1866. As for the particular incidents of this year, we could only repeat what everyone learned from the newspapers. We shall limit ourselves, then, for the present, to some general considerations on the fact in itself. About two years ago, the Spirits had announced to us that the healing mediumship would take on great developments, and would be a powerful means of propagation for Spiritism. Until then there had only been healers who operated, so to speak, in privacy and without fanfare. We said to the Spirits that, in order for the propagation to be more rapid, others more powerful needed to appear, so that the cures would have repercussion among the public. — This will happen, was the reply, and there will be more than one.

That prediction had a beginning of fulfillment last year, at the camp of Châlons, and God knows whether this year the cures of Rue de la Roquette lacked repercussion, not only in France, but abroad.

— The general commotion that these facts caused is justified by the gravity of the questions that they raise. There is no reason to be mistaken: here we do not have one of those events of mere curiosity, that for a moment impassion the crowd avid for novelties and distractions. One does not amuse oneself with the spectacle of human miseries; the sight of those thousands of sick people, running in search of the health that they could not find in the resources of Science, has nothing pleasurable about it and leads to serious reflections. Yes, here there is something more than a vulgar phenomenon. Without doubt they marvel at the cures obtained in conditions so exceptional that they seem to border on the prodigy; but what impresses still more than the material fact, is that therein they sense the revelation of a new principle, whose consequences are incalculable, of one of those laws so long hidden in the sanctuary of Nature, that, upon their appearance, change the course of ideas and modify beliefs profoundly.

A secret intuition says that if the facts in question are real, it is more than a change in habits: it is a new element introduced into society, a new order of ideas being established.

Although the events of the camp of Châlons had prepared for what has just taken place, in consequence of Mr. Jacob's inactivity for a year, they had almost been forgotten; the emotion had calmed down, when, suddenly, the same facts burst forth in the bosom of the capital and at once took on unheard-of proportions. It is, so to speak, as if we had awakened on the day after a revolution, and accosted one another only to ask: Do you know what is happening on Rue de la Roquette? Have you any news? They dispensed with the newspapers, as if it were a matter of a great event. In forty-eight hours all of France came to know of it. There is in this instantaneity something remarkable and more important than one thinks.

The impression of the first moment was one of stupor: no one laughed. The factious press itself simply reported the facts and the rumors, without making comments. Daily it gave the bulletin, without pronouncing itself for or against, and it was possible to note that the majority of the articles were not written in a tone of mockery; they expressed doubt, uncertainty as to the reality of facts so strange, inclining, however, more toward affirmation than toward negation. It is that the subject, in itself, was serious; it was a matter of suffering, and suffering has something sacred about it, that commands respect; in such a case jesting would be improper and universally reproved. Never has mocking verve been seen exercising itself before a hospital, even one for the insane, or before a convoy of the wounded. Men of heart and of good sense could not fail to understand that, in a thing concerning questions of humanity, mockery would have been indecorous, by insulting pain. Thus, it is with a painful feeling and a kind of disgust that today one sees the spectacle of those unfortunate sick people grotesquely reproduced in fairground theaters and translated into burlesque songs. To grant on their part a puerile credulity and an ill-founded hope is not a reason to fail in the respect that is owed to suffering. In the presence of such repercussion, absolute denial was difficult; doubt is permitted only to him who does not know or who has not seen. Among the incredulous in good faith and through ignorance, many understood that it would be imprudence to enroll oneself prematurely on the wrong side against facts that, one day or another, might receive a consecration and give them the lie. Thus, without denying or affirming anything, the press generally limited itself to recording the state of affairs, leaving to experience the care of confirming or contradicting them and, above all, of explaining them. It was the most prudent course. The first moment of surprise having passed, the obstinate adversaries of every new thing that contradicts their ideas, stunned for a few moments by the violence of the irruption, took courage, principally when they saw that the zouave was patient and of a peaceful temper. They began the attack at full steam, making use of the customary weapons of those who have no good reasons to object: excessive jesting and slander. But their acrimonious polemic denounces anger and evident embarrassment, and their arguments, almost always founded on falsehood and on notoriously inexact allegations, are not of those that convince, because they refute themselves. Be that as it may, this is not a personal question here. Whether Mr. Jacob succumbs, or not, in the struggle, it is a question of principles that is at stake, posed with immense repercussion and which will follow its course. It brings to memory innumerable facts of the same kind, which History mentions, and which multiply in our days. If it is a truth, it is not incarnated in a man, and nothing could stifle it; the very violence of the attacks proves that they fear it may be a truth.

In this circumstance, those who show the least surprise and are the least moved are the Spiritists, because these kinds of facts have nothing of which they do not give themselves a perfect account. Knowing the cause, they do not marvel at the effects.

As for those who do not know the cause of the phenomenon, nor the law that governs it, they naturally ask themselves whether it is an illusion or a reality; whether Mr. Jacob is a charlatan; whether he really cures all illnesses; whether he is endowed with a supernatural power and from whom he has it; whether we are returning to the time of miracles. Seeing the crowd that surrounds and follows him, like that which once followed Jesus in Galilee, some even ask themselves whether he might not be the reincarnated Christ, while others claim that his faculty is a gift of the devil. For a long time all these questions have been resolved for the Spiritists, who have their solution in the principles of the doctrine. Nonetheless, since several important teachings may come from them, we shall examine them in a forthcoming article, in which we shall likewise bring out the inconsistency of certain criticisms.

[Review of November 1867.]

THE ZOUAVE JACOB.

(Second article. — See the issue of October.)

Is Mr. Jacob a charlatan? His material disinterestedness is a constant fact and, perhaps, one of those that have most disoriented the critics. How to accuse of charlatanism a man who asks for nothing and wants nothing, not even thanks?

What, then, would be his motive? Self-love, they say. Absolute moral disinterestedness being the sublime of abnegation, one would need the virtue of the angels not to experience a certain satisfaction when one sees the crowd press around oneself, while the day before one was unknown. Now, since Mr. Jacob does not pretend to be an angel, supposing, which we do not know, that he has somewhat exalted his importance in his own eyes, one could not make of that a great crime for him, nor would this destroy the facts, if there are any. We prefer to believe that those who impute that imperfection to him are far above earthly things, so as not to make, in this respect, the slightest reproach to themselves. But, in any case, that thought could only have been consequent and not preconceived. If Mr. Jacob had premeditated the design of popularizing himself by passing himself off as an emeritus healer, without being able to prove anything more than his incapacity, instead of applause he would have gathered only jeers from the very first day, which would not have been very flattering to him. To take pride in something a preexisting cause is needed; it was necessary, then, for him to cure, before becoming vain.

They add that he wanted people to speak of him; so be it. If such were his object, one must agree that, thanks to the press, he was served as far as possible. But, what newspaper will be able to say that Mr. Jacob went to beg the least publicity, the least article, that he paid for a single line? Did he go seek out some journalist? No; it was the journalists who went to him, and they could not always see him easily. The press spoke of him spontaneously when it saw the crowd, and the crowd came only when there were facts. Did he go to court great personages? To these did he show himself more accessible, more solicitous, more attentive? Everyone knows that, in this respect, he carried rigorism to excess. And yet, his self-love would have found more elements of satisfaction in high society than among obscure paupers. Naturally one must set aside every imputation of intrigue and of charlatanism.

— Does he cure all illnesses? Not only does he not cure them all, but, of two individuals, stricken by the same ailment, he often cures one and does nothing for the other. He never knows in advance whether he will cure a sick person, and that is why he never promises anything. Now, it is known that charlatans are not stingy with promises. The cure is due to fluidic affinities, which manifest themselves instantaneously, like an electric shock, and which cannot be prejudged.

Is he endowed with a supernatural power? Are we returning to the time of miracles? Ask him himself and he will answer you that in his cures there is nothing supernatural, nor miraculous; that he is endowed with a fluidic power independent of his will, which manifests itself with greater or lesser energy, according to the circumstances and the milieu in which he finds himself; that the fluid he emits cures certain illnesses in certain persons, without his knowing why, nor how.

As for those who claim that this faculty is a gift of the devil, one can answer that, since it is exercised only for good, the devil has good moments, of which it is good to take advantage. One can also ask them what difference exists between the cures of the prince of Hohenlohe and those of the zouave Jacob, that the former should be reputed holy and miraculous and the latter diabolical? Let us pass over this question, which in our epoch cannot be taken seriously.

The question of charlatanism prejudged all the others, which is why we insisted on it. Once it is set aside, let us see what conclusions can be drawn from observation.

Mr. Jacob cures instantaneously illnesses considered incurable: here is a positive fact. The question of the number of sick people cured is here secondary; were there only one case in a hundred, the fact would subsist no less. Now, this fact has a cause.

The healing faculty carried to that degree of strength, being found in a soldier who, however honest he may be, has neither the character, nor the habits, nor the language, nor the attitude of the saints; exercised outside of any mystical form or apparatus, in the most vulgar and the most prosaic conditions; moreover, being found in different degrees in a number of other persons, in heretics such as the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, etc., excludes the idea of miracles in the liturgical sense of the word. It is, then, a faculty inherent in the individual; and, since it is not an isolated fact, it depends on a law, like every natural effect.

— The cure is obtained without the employment of any medicament; therefore it is due to an occult influence. And since it is a matter of an effective, material result, and since nothing can produce nothing, it is necessary that this influence be something material. Then it can only be a material fluid, although impalpable and invisible. Since Mr. Jacob neither touches the sick person, nor applies any magnetic pass to him, the fluid can have for motor and propellant only the will. Now, the will not being an attribute of matter, it can only emanate from the Spirit; it is, then, the fluid that acts under the impulse of the Spirit. n The majority of the illnesses cured by this means being those against which Science is powerless, there are, then, curative agents more powerful than those of ordinary medicine. These phenomena are, consequently, the revelation of laws unknown to Science. In the presence of patent facts, it is more prudent to doubt than to deny. Such are the conclusions to which every impartial observer will forcibly come. What is the nature of this fluid? Is it electricity or magnetism? Probably it has both and perhaps something more; in any case, it is a modification of them, since its effects are different. The magnetic action is evident, although more powerful than that of ordinary magnetism, of which these facts are the confirmation and, at the same time, the proof that it has not said its last word.

It does not fall within the purposes of this article to explain the mode of action of this curative agent, already described in the theory of healing mediumship. It is enough to have demonstrated that the examination of the facts leads to the recognition of the existence of a new principle, and that this principle, however strange its effects may be, does not leave the domain of natural laws.

In the facts concerning Mr. Jacob, Spiritism was, properly speaking, not mentioned, whereas all the attention was concentrated on magnetism. This had its reason for being and its utility. Although the concourse of disincarnate Spirits is a fact established in these types of phenomena, here their action is not evident, which is why we make abstraction of it. It matters little whether the facts are explained with or without the intervention of foreign Spirits; magnetism and Spiritism join hands; they are two parts of one same whole, two branches of one same science, that complete each other and explain each other by one another. To give credit to magnetism is to open the way to Spiritism, and reciprocally.

— Criticism did not spare Mr. Jacob. As usual, and for lack of good reasons, it lavished upon him mockery and gross insults, by which he was not in the least disturbed. He disdained both, and sensible people were grateful for his moderation.

Some went so far as to solicit his imprisonment as an impostor abusing public credulity; but an impostor is one who promises and does not deliver. Now, since Mr. Jacob never promised anything, no one can complain of having been deceived. What could they censure him for? Where the legal contravention? He did not practice Medicine, nor even ostensibly magnetism. What law forbids curing people by looking at them?

They denounced him, because the crowd of sick people that flocked to him disturbed circulation. But was it he who summoned the crowd? Did he convoke it by advertisements? What physician would protest if he had one like it at his door? And if one of them had that good fortune, even at the cost of expensive advertisements, what would he say if they wanted to disturb him on account of it? They said that if fifteen hundred persons a day, for a month, totaling forty-five thousand sick people, had been cured, there should no longer be any lame or crippled in the streets of Paris. It would be superfluous to refute this naive objection; we will only say that the more the number of sick people increases, cured or not, who jostle one another on Rue de la Roquette, the more it is proven how great is the number of those whom Medicine cannot cure, for it is evident that if those sick people had been cured by the physicians, they would not have come to Mr. Jacob. Since, despite the denials, there were patent facts of extraordinary cures, they wanted to explain them by saying that Mr. Jacob acted, by the very harshness of his words, upon the imagination of the sick. So be it. But, then, if you recognize in the influence of the imagination such a power over paralyses, epilepsies, ankylosed limbs, why do you not employ that means, instead of letting the wretched infirm suffer so, or giving them drugs that you know to be useless?

— They said that Mr. Jacob did not have the power that was attributed to him, and the proof is that he refused to go cure in a hospital, under the eyes of persons competent to appreciate the reality of the cures.

Two reasons must have motivated the refusal. First, one could not conceal that the offer they made him was not dictated by sympathy, but a challenge that they proposed to him. If, in a room of thirty sick people, he had raised or relieved only three or four, they would not have failed to say that this proved nothing and that he had failed.

In the second place, one must take into account circumstances that may favor or paralyze his fluidic action. When he is surrounded by sick people who come to him voluntarily, the confidence they bring predisposes them. Admitting no stranger drawn by curiosity, he finds himself in a sympathetic milieu, which also predisposes him; he is master of himself; his spirit concentrates itself freely and his action has all its force. In a hospital room, unknown to the sick people accustomed to the care of their physicians, whose faith in anything other than their medication would be suspect, under the inquisitorial and mocking eyes of biased creatures, interested in disparaging him; who, instead of seconding him by the concourse of benevolent injections, feared more than they would wish to see him triumph — the success of an ignorant zouave would be a denial given to their knowledge — it is evident that, under the dominion of these impressions and these antipathetic effluvia, his faculty would find itself neutralized. The error of these gentlemen, in this as when it was a matter of somnambulism, was always to believe that these types of phenomena would be maneuvered at will, like an electric pile. Cures of this kind are spontaneous, unforeseen, and cannot be premeditated nor constitute the object of a competition. Let us add to this that the healing power is not permanent; he who possesses it today may see it cease at the moment when he least expects it. These intermittences prove that it depends on a cause independent of the healer's will and frustrate the calculations of charlatanism.

Note. — Mr. Jacob has not yet resumed the course of his cures. We do not know the reason and it seems that nothing has been fixed as to the time at which he will begin again, if indeed this is going to happen. Meanwhile, we are informed that healing mediumship is propagating itself in different localities, with diverse aptitudes.

Allan Kardec.

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

[1]

ERRATUM — Issue of November 1867, page …, line …: It is therefore the fluid that agitates without the impulse of the Spirit…, read: with the impulse. [Spiritist Review of January 1868.]