On the prophetic spirit.

— Count Joseph de Maistre, born in Chambéry in 1753, died in 1821, was sent by the King of Sardinia, as minister plenipotentiary to Russia, in 1803. He left that country in 1817, at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits, whose cause he had embraced. Among his works, one of the best known in literature and in the religious world is the one entitled: The Saint Petersburg Nights, n published in 1821. Although written from an exclusively Catholic point of view, certain thoughts seem inspired by the foresight of present times and, on that account, deserve particular attention. The following passages are taken from the eleventh conversation, volume II, page 121, edition of 1844:

— “…More than ever, gentlemen, we must occupy ourselves with these lofty speculations, because we must be prepared for an immense event in the divine order, toward which we are marching at accelerated speed, an event that must startle all observers. There is no more religion on Earth: the human race cannot remain in this state. Terrible oracles, moreover, announce that the times have come.

“Several theologians, even Catholic ones, believe that events of the first order and not far off were announced in the revelation of Saint John and, although the Protestant theologians, in general, have only debited sad dreams concerning that same book, in which they have never seen anything but what they desired, nevertheless, after having paid that unhappy tribute to sectarian fanaticism, I see that certain writers of that party already adopt this principle: Several prophecies contained in the Apocalypse referred to our modern times. One of those writers even went so far as to say that the event had already begun, and that the French nation was to be the great instrument of the greatest of revolutions.

— “Perhaps there is not a truly religious man in Europe — I speak of the educated class — who does not at this moment expect something extraordinary. Now, tell me, gentlemen, do you believe that this concurrence of all men can be despised? Does that general cry which announces great things represent nothing? Go back to past centuries; transport yourselves to the birth of the Savior. In that epoch did not a high and mysterious voice, coming from the eastern regions, exclaim: “The Orient is about to triumph? The conqueror will come forth from Judea; a divine child is given to us; he is about to appear; he descends from the highest of the heavens; he will bring the golden age upon the Earth.” You know the rest. “These ideas were spread universally, and as they lent themselves infinitely to poetry, the greatest Latin poet seized upon them and clothed them in the most brilliant colors in his Pollio, n which was afterward translated into many beautiful Greek verses and read in that language at the Council of Nicaea, by order of the Emperor Constantine. Certainly it was well worthy of Providence to ordain that this great cry of the human race should resound forever in the immortal verses of Virgil; but the incurable incredulity of our century, instead of seeing in that piece what it really contains, that is, an ineffable monument of the poetic spirit, which then stirred throughout the Universe, amuses itself by learnedly proving to us that Virgil was not a prophet, that is to say, that a flute knows no music, and that there is nothing extraordinary in the eleventh eclogue of that poet. The materialism that contaminates the philosophy of our century prevents it from seeing that the Doctrine of Spirits and, in particular, that of the prophetic spirit, is entirely plausible in itself, and moreover, the best supported by the most universal and imposing tradition that has ever existed. As the eternal disease of man is to penetrate the future, it is a sure proof that he has rights over that future and that he has the means of attaining it, at least in certain circumstances. The ancient oracles yielded to that interior movement of man, which warned him of his nature and of his rights. The ponderous erudition of Van Dale and the beautiful phrases of Fontenelle were employed in vain in the last century to establish the general nullity of these oracles. But, be that as it may, man would never have resorted to oracles, would never have been able to imagine them, had he not started from a primitive idea, by virtue of which he regarded them as possible, and even as existing. “Man is subject to time and, nevertheless, by his nature, a stranger to time. The prophet enjoyed the privilege of leaving time; his ideas, no longer being distributed over duration, touch one another by virtue of simple analogy and become confounded, which necessarily spreads a great confusion through his discourses. The Savior himself submitted to this state when, voluntarily given over to the prophetic spirit, the analogous ideas of great disasters, separated from time, led him to mingle the destruction of Jerusalem with that of the world. It is likewise that David, led by his own sufferings to meditate upon the “persecuted just one,” suddenly leaves time and cries out, before the future: “They have pierced my feet and my hands; they have broken my bones; they have parted my garments; they have cast lots upon my clothing.” (Psalm XXII, v. 16 to 18.) n “One could add other reflections drawn from judicial astrology, from oracles, from divinations of every kind, whose abuse no doubt dishonored the human spirit, but which, nonetheless, had a true root, like all general beliefs. The prophetic spirit is natural to man and will not cease to stir in the world. In attempting, in every epoch and in every place, to penetrate the future, man declares that he is not made for time, because time is something forced, which asks only to come to an end. Hence it comes that, in our dreams, we never have any idea of time, and that the state of sleep has always been considered favorable to divine communications.

— “If you then ask me what this prophetic spirit is, to which I was referring a moment ago, I will answer that “there have never been great events in the world which, in some manner, were not foretold.” Machiavelli was the first man within my knowledge who had advanced this proposition; but if you yourselves reflect, you will find that his assertion is justified by all of History. You have a final example in the French Revolution, predicted on all sides and in the most incontestable manner.

“But, to return to the starting point, do you believe that the age of Virgil lacked fine wits who mocked “the great year, the golden age, chaste Lucina, the august mother and the mysterious child?” Nevertheless, all this had come to pass: “The child, from the height of heaven, was about to descend.” And you may see in various writings, notably in the observations that Pope appended to his translation in verse of the Pollio, that this piece could pass for a version of Isaiah. Why would you have it not be so today as well? the Universe is in expectation. How could we despise this great persuasion? And by what right would we condemn the men who, warned by these divine signs, devote themselves to holy researches? “Do you want a new proof of what is being prepared? Seek it in the sciences; consider well the march of Chemistry, of Astronomy itself, and you will see whither they are leading us. Would you believe, for example, if you were not forewarned, that Newton brings us back to Pythagoras, and that it will incessantly be demonstrated that the celestial bodies are moved precisely as human bodies are, by intelligences that are united to them, without it being known how? That is, nevertheless, about to be verified, without there being, soon, any means of disputing it. This doctrine may appear paradoxical, no doubt, and even ridiculous, because the ambient opinion imposes it so; but wait until the natural affinity of religion and Science unites them in the head of a single man of genius; the appearance of this man could not be far off and perhaps he even already exists. He will be famous and will put an end to the eighteenth century, which still endures; for intellectual centuries are not regulated by the calendar, like centuries properly so called. Then the opinions which today seem to us bizarre or senseless will be axioms, of which it will not be permitted to doubt, and people will speak of our present stupidity as we speak of the superstition of the Middle Ages. The force of things has already obliged some learned men of the material school to make concessions which bring them closer to the spirit. And others, unable to keep from sensing this muffled tendency of a powerful opinion, take precautions against it which perhaps make more of an impression upon true observers than a direct resistance. Hence their scrupulous attention to employing none but material expressions. In their writings there is talk only of mechanical laws, mechanical principles, Astronomy, Physics, etc. Not that they do not feel marvelously well that material theories do not at all content the intelligence, for if anything is evident to the unpreoccupied human spirit, it is that the movements of the Universe cannot be explained by mechanical laws alone; but it is precisely because they feel it that they put words, so to speak, on guard against the truth. They do not wish to confess it, but one is no longer held back save by commitment or by human respect. The European learned men are at this moment a sort of conspirators or of initiates, as you wish to call them, who have made of Science a kind of monopoly and who absolutely do not want anyone to know more than they do or in a different manner. But this Science will be incessantly hated by an enlightened posterity, which will justly accuse the adepts of today for not having known how to draw from the truths that God had entrusted to them the most precious consequences for man. Then all Science will change its face; the spirit, long dethroned, will resume its place.

— “It will be demonstrated that all the ancient traditions are true; that the whole of paganism is nothing but a system of corrupted and displaced truths; that, so to speak, it suffices to cleanse them and to put them back in their place, to see them shine with all their rays. In a word, all ideas will change; and since on all sides a multitude of the elect cry out in concord: “Come, Lord, come!” why would you reproach these men who cast themselves into that majestic future and glory in divining it? Like the poets who, even in our times of weakness and decrepitude, still present some pale gleams of the prophetic spirit, spiritual men sometimes experience movements of enthusiasm and of inspiration which transport them into the future and allow them to foresee the events that time has ripened far off.

— “Remember, my lord count, the compliment you addressed to me concerning my erudition with respect to the number three. Indeed, this number shows itself on all sides, in the physical world as in the moral world, and in divine things. God spoke a first time to men on Mount Sinai and this revelation was restricted, for reasons we do not know, within the narrow limits of a single people and a single country. After fifteen centuries, a second revelation addressed itself to all men, without distinction, and it is the one we enjoy. But the universality of its action was still to be infinitely restricted, by the circumstance of times and places. Fifteen more centuries had to elapse before America saw the light and its vast regions still enclose a portion of savage hordes so foreign to the great benefit, that one would be led to believe that they are excluded from it by nature, by reason of some inexplicable primitive anathema. The Grand Lama alone has more spiritual subjects than the pope; Bengal has sixty million inhabitants, China has two hundred, Japan twenty-five or thirty. Contemplate those archipelagos of the great ocean, which today form the fifth part of the world. Your missionaries no doubt made marvelous efforts to announce the Gospel in some of those far-off regions, but you see with what success. How many myriads of men whom the Good News will never reach! Did not the scimitar of the son of Ishmael drive Christianity entirely out of Africa and Asia? And in our Europe, what a spectacle presents itself to the religious eye!… “Contemplate this dismal picture; join to it the expectation of the chosen men and you will see whether the enlightened are wrong to regard as more or less near a third explosion of omnipotent goodness in favor of the human race. I would never finish if I wished to gather all the proofs that come together to justify this great expectation. Once again, do not reproach the persons who occupy themselves with this and who see in revelation itself the reasons to foresee a revelation of the revelation. If you wish, call these men enlightened; I will be entirely in agreement with you, provided you pronounce this name seriously.

“Everything announces, and your own observations demonstrate it, I know not what great unity toward which we are marching with great strides. You cannot, then, without placing yourselves in contradiction with yourselves, condemn those who from afar salute this unity, and who attempt, according to their strength, to penetrate mysteries so terrible, no doubt, but at the same time so consoling for us.

“And do not say that all has been said, that all has been revealed and that we are not permitted to expect anything new. No doubt nothing is lacking to us for salvation; but, on the side of divine knowledge, much is lacking to us; and as for future manifestations, as you see, I have a thousand reasons to hope, whereas you have none to prove the contrary to me. Was the Hebrew who fulfilled the law not in security of conscience? I would cite to you, if it were necessary, I know not how many passages of the Bible that promise the Jewish sacrifice and the throne of David a duration equal to that of the Sun. The Jew, who clung to the husk, had every reason, until the event, to believe in the temporal reign of the Messiah; yet he was deceived, as was seen afterward. But do we know what awaits us ourselves? God will be with us until the consummation of the ages; the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, etc. Very well! I ask: does it follow from this that God interdicts every new manifestation and that nothing more is permitted to Him beyond what we know? It must be agreed that this would be a strange argument. “Henceforth, a new effusion of the Holy Spirit is among the things most reasonably to be expected; hence it is necessary that the preachers of this new gift be able to cite the Holy Scriptures to all peoples. The apostles are not translators; they have many other occupations; but the Bible Society, blind instrument of Providence, prepares its different versions, which the true envoys will one day explain, by virtue of a legitimate mission, new or primitive, no matter which! that will drive doubt out of the city of God; and it is thus that the terrible enemies of unity labor to establish it.”

Observation. – These words are all the more remarkable because they emanate from a man of incontestable merit as a writer, and who is held in great esteem in the religious world. Perhaps not everything they contain has been perceived, inasmuch as they are an evident protest against the absolutism and the narrow exclusivism of certain doctrines. They denote in the author a breadth of views that lightly touches upon philosophical independence. Orthodoxy is often scandalized by less. The underlined passages are quite explicit and it is superfluous to comment upon them; above all the Spiritists will easily understand their scope. It would be impossible not to see in them the foresight of things that are happening today and those that the future holds in store for Humanity, so great is the relation of these words with the present state and with what, on all sides, the Spirits announce.

COMMUNICATION FROM JOSEPH DE MAISTRE.

(Society of Paris, March 22, 1867. — Medium: Mr. Desliens.)

Question — In accordance with the thoughts contained in the fragments whose reading has just been done, you seem to have been animated by the prophetic spirit, of which you speak and which you describe so well. Barely half a century separates us from the epoch in which you were writing these remarkable lines, and we already see our forecasts being realized. Perhaps they are not from the exclusive point of view in which your beliefs then placed you, but certainly everything shows us as imminent and on the way to being realized, the great moral revolution that you sensed and that the new ideas are preparing. What you say has so evident a relation with Spiritism, that we can, with every reason, consider you as one of the prophets of its advent. No doubt Providence had placed you in the milieu where, by the very fact of your principles, your words were to have more authority. Were they understood by your party? Does it still understand them now? It is permissible to doubt it. Now that you can regard things in a broader manner and embrace vaster horizons, we would be satisfied to have your present appreciation of the prophetic spirit and of the part that Spiritism is to have in the regenerating movement.

Furthermore, we would be much honored if, henceforth, we could count upon you among the number of the good Spirits who are willing to contribute to our instruction.

Answer — Gentlemen, although this is not the first time that I find myself among you, since I have introduced myself officially today, I will ask that you accept my thanks for the benevolent words you have been so good as to pronounce on my behalf, and that you receive my felicitations for the sincerity and the devotion that preside over your labors.

The love of truth was my only guide, and if in life I was a partisan of a sect which one has learned to judge with severity, it is that I believed I found in it the elements, the force of action necessary to arrive at the knowledge of this truth which I suspected. — I saw the promised land, but I could not penetrate it in life. Happier than I, gentlemen, take advantage of the favor that is conferred upon you by your good will, by improving your heart and your spirit, and by making all your brothers in Humanity share in your happiness, men who will oppose to your propaganda nothing but the reserve natural to every man placed before the unknown. Like them, I would have wished to reason out your belief before accepting it, but I would not have hated it, however bizarre its means of manifestation might be, for the simple reason that it might harm my interests, or because it pleased me to act thus.

You have been able to convince yourselves, I was with the clergy, an adherent of the morality of the Gospel, but I was not with it as a partisan of the immutability of teaching and of the impossibility of new manifestations of the divine will. Penetrated with the Holy Scriptures, which I read, reread and commented upon, the letter and the spirit made me foresee the new event. I thank God for it, because I was happy in hope, because I felt intuitively that I would share in the happiness of knowing the new truths, wherever I might be; for my brothers in Humanity who would come once the shadows of ignorance and error were dissipated, before an irrefutable evidence. The prophetic spirit sets the whole world ablaze with its regenerating effluvia. — In Europe, as in America, in Asia, everywhere, among the Catholics as among the Muslims, in all countries, in all climates, in all religious sects, the new revelation infiltrates, with the child who is born, with the youth who develops, with the old man who departs. — Some arrive with the materials necessary for the building of the work; the others aspire to a world that will reveal to them the mysteries they sense. — And if moral persecution bends you beneath its yoke, if material interest, social position holds back some of the children of the Spirit in their ascending march, these will be the martyrs of thought, whose intellectual sweat will fecundate the teaching and prepare the generations of the future for a new life. In France Spiritism manifests itself under another name than in Asia. It has agents in the different tendencies of the Catholic religion, as it has them among the sectarians of the Muslim religion. — There the revelation, at an inferior degree of development, is drowned in blood; but it does not for that reason cease to pursue its march, and its ramifications surround the world in a vast network, whose meshes go on tightening as the regenerating element discovers itself more. — Catholics and Protestants seek to make the new belief penetrate among the children of Islam, but they encounter insurmountable obstacles and very few adepts come to place themselves under their banner. The prophetic spirit there took another form; it assimilated its language, its instructions, to the material forms and to the intimate thoughts of those to whom it addressed itself. — Bless Providence, which sees better than you how and why it is to bring about the movement that impels the worlds toward the infinite.

The aspiration to new knowledge is in the air that one breathes, in the book that one writes, in the painting that one paints; the idea imprints itself on the marble of the sculptor, as beneath the pen of the historian, and he who would be most astonished to be placed among the Spiritists, is an instrument of the Almighty for the building of Spiritism.

I interrupt this communication, which is becoming fatiguing for the medium, who is not accustomed to my fluidic influx. I will continue it another time, and I will come, since such is your desire, to bring my part of action to your labors, for I am no longer content to attend them, an invisible witness or an unknown inspirer, as I have already been many times.

J. de Maistre. n [1] [Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg - Google Books.]

[2] [POLLIO - Itinera Electronica: Du texte à l’hypertexte.]

[3]

Translator’s note: According to the French version of Lemaitre de Sacy. [ERRATUM. — April issue of 1867, where one reads Psalm XXV, v. 17, read:

Psalm XXII, v. 16-18.]

[4]

[v. Joseph de Maistre.]