Change of title of the Vérité of Lyon.

The newspaper Vérité, of Lyon, has just changed its title: beginning the 10th of March 1867, it takes that of Universal Tribune, Journal of free conscience and of free thought. It announces this and sets forth the reasons in the following note, inserted in the issue of the 24th of February.

To our Spiritist brothers and sisters.

Philaléthès, the tireless champion whom you know, has judged it well to inform you that henceforth he would direct his investigations toward general philosophy, and not only toward Spiritism, of which, thanks to their prejudices, the scientists do not wish even to hear the name pronounced. But you must not imagine, dear brothers, that in removing the label from the purse, after all very indifferent, it wishes, any more than we do, to throw the contents to the nettles! As far as we personally are concerned, we would be distressed if our readers could suspect for a single instant that we wish to desert an idea for which we have consumed all the living forces of which we are capable. The Spiritist idea today forms an integral part of our being, and to abolish it would be to doom to death our heart, our spirit. Nevertheless, if we are Spiritists, and precisely because we believe ourselves to be such in the true sense of the word, we wish to show ourselves charitable, tolerant toward all opposing systems, and we wish to run to them, since they refuse to come to us.

Does the label of Spiritists stuck on our brow frighten you, gentlemen deniers? Well then! we consent willingly to remove it, reserving for ourselves the right to bear it high in our souls. Thus, we shall no longer call ourselves Truth, Journal of Spiritism, but Universal Tribune, journal of free conscience and of free thought. This ground is as vast as the world, and systems of every sort will be able to debate there at will, to hold heated discussions with the deserters of the Vérité, who will claim for themselves the right granted to all: discussion. It is then that, inflamed by the struggle, inspired by faith and guided by reason, we hope to make shine before the eyes of our adversaries a light so vivid that God and immortality will rise before them, no longer as a hideous phantom, product of the centuries of ignorance, but as a sweet and gentle vision, where, at last, the whole of Humanity will repose. E. E.

[1] [La Vérité: journal du spiritisme - Google Books.]