Mr. Quinemant, of Sétif.

— They write to us from Sétif (Algeria):

“I come to inform you of the death of a fervent adept of Spiritism, Mr. Quinemant, who passed away on Holy Saturday, April 20, 1867. He was the first in Sétif who occupied himself with it along with me. He defended it constantly against its detractors, without concerning himself with attacks or with ridicule. He was, at the same time, a good magnetizer and, through his disinterested devotion, rendered numerous services to suffering people.

“He had been ill since November; he had a fever every two days, and when he did not have it he constantly salivated water. He ate and digested well, found everything he took good, and, despite this, he visibly wasted away; a man of very robust constitution, his limbs reached the dimensions of those of a boy. He was slowly fading away and understood his situation very well; he had said that he wished to die on the day on which Christ died. He kept all his lucidity of spirit and conversed as if he were not ill. He died almost without suffering, with the tranquility and resignation of a Spiritist, telling his wife to console herself, that they would meet again in the world of the Spirits. However, although he had little fondness for priests, in his final moments he asked for the parish priest, in spite of having had heated altercations with the latter regarding Spiritism. “You would do me a great favor if you would evoke him, should it be possible. I have no doubt that he will feel pleasure in coming at your call, and as he was an enlightened man of good sense, I think he could give us useful counsels. It was his opinion that Spiritism would grow, despite all the obstacles raised against it. Ask him, also, the cause of his illness, which no one knew.”

Dumas.

— Evoked in private, Mr. Quinemant gave the communication that follows, and on the following day he spontaneously gave, at the Society, the one that we publish separately, under the title Magnetism and Spiritism Compared.

(Paris, May 16, 1867. – Medium: Mr. Desliens.)

“I hasten to come at your call with all the more ease since, ever since the burial of my mortal remains, I have come to all your meetings. I had a great desire to judge the development of the doctrine in its natural center; and if I did not do so during the life of the body, my material affairs were the sole cause. I warmly thank my friend Dumas for the benevolent thought that led him to point out my departure to you and to ask for my evocation; he could not have given me greater pleasure.

“Although my return to the world of the Spirits is recent, I am sufficiently detached to communicate with ease; the ideas I already possessed about the invisible world, my belief in communications, and the reading of the Spiritist works had prepared me to see without astonishment, but not without infinite happiness, the spectacle that awaited me. I am happy at the confirmation of my most intimate thoughts. I was convinced, by reasoning, of the later development and of the importance of the Doctrine of the Spirits upon future generations. But, ah! I perceived innumerable obstacles and set an indefinitely distant epoch for the predominance of our ideas, an effect of my short sight and of the limits marked out by matter to my conception of the future. Today I have more than conviction: I have certainty. Only a short while ago I saw only very slow effects, according to my desires; today I see, I touch the cause of those effects, and my sentiments have been modified. Yes, much time is still needed for our Earth to be a Spiritist earth, in every sense of the word. But a relatively very short time will be needed to bring about a considerable modification in the manner of being of individuals and of nationalities. “The teachings I gathered among you, the important development of certain faculties, the spiritual conciliabules, which I have been permitted to attend since my arrival here, have persuaded me that great events were near, and that in a time not far off, numerous latent forces will be set into activity, to assist in the general renewal. Everywhere the fire lies latent beneath the ashes; if a spark should appear, and it will appear, the conflagration will become universal.

“Present spiritual elements, ground in the immense furnace of the physical and moral cataclysms that are being prepared, some, more purified, follow the ascending movement; others, cast out with the coarsest dross, will have to undergo still several successive distillations before joining their more advanced brothers. Ah! I understand, in view of the events that the future holds in store for us, these words of the son of Mary: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Act, then, my friends, so as to be invited to the banquet of intelligence and not to be among those who will be cast into the outer darkness.

“Before dying I yielded to a last weakness, obeying a prejudice; not that my belief had weakened before the fear of the unknown, but so as not to distinguish myself from others. Well then! after all, the word of a man who speaks to you of the future is good to hear at the moment of the great journey; that word is surrounded by antiquated teachings, by worn-out practices, I see it well, but it is nonetheless the word of hope and consolation.

“Ah! I see with the eyes of the spirit, I see a time when the Spiritist, on departing, will also be surrounded by brothers who will speak to him of the future, of the hope of happiness! Thank you, my God, because you permitted me to see the gleam of truth in my last instants; thank you for that softening of my trials. If I did some good, it is to this blessed belief that I owe it; it was it that gave me faith, the material vigor and the moral strength necessary to heal; it was it that gave me lucidity of spirit until my last moments, that permitted me to bear without murmuring the cruel illness that took me.

“You ask what is this affliction to which I succumbed. Ah! my God, it is very simple; the viscera in which the assimilation of new elements is carried out, no longer having the strength necessary to act, the molecules worn out by vital action were eliminated without others coming to replace them. But what does the illness one dies of matter, when death is a liberation! Thank you again, dear friend, for the good thought that led you to ask for my evocation. Tell my wife that I am happy, that in me she will find the same beloved as always, and that, while awaiting her return, I will not fail to surround her with my affection and to help her with my counsels.

“Now, a few words for you personally, my dear Dumas. You were one of the first called to plant the banner of the doctrine in this country and, naturally, you encountered obstacles, difficulties. If your zeal was not rewarded with as much zeal as you expected, and as seemed to be promised at the beginning, it is that time is needed to uproot prejudices and routine in a milieu entirely devoted to material life; one must already be advanced to assimilate readily new ideas that change habits. Remember that the first pioneer who clears the ground is very rarely the one who reaps; he prepares the ground for those who come after him. You were that pioneer: it was your mission; it is an honor and a happiness, which I am happy to have shared a little, and which you will appreciate one day, as I can do today, for your efforts will be taken into account for you. But do not believe that we have devoted ourselves to a useless labor; no, none of the seeds we scattered is lost; they will germinate and bear fruit when the moment of their blooming arrives. The idea has been launched and will make its way. Congratulate yourself on having been one of the workers chosen for this work. You had vexations, disappointments: it was the proof of your faith and your perseverance, without which, where would be the merit in carrying out a mission, if one found only roses upon the path? “Therefore, do not let yourself be cast down by disappointments; above all do not yield to discouragement, and remember these words of Christ: “Blessed are those who persevere to the end;” and this other: “Blessed are those who suffer for my name.” Persevere, then, dear friend, continue your work and think that the fruits one harvests for the world where I am now are worth more than those one harvests on Earth, where one leaves them behind on departing.

“I ask you to tell all those who have shown me affection and who keep a good place for me in their remembrance, that I do not forget them and that I am often in their midst. Tell those who still reject our beliefs that when they are where I am, they will recognize that it was the truth, and that they will bitterly regret having disdained it, because they will have to begin again painful trials. Tell those who did me harm that I forgive them and that I ask God to forgive them.

“He who will be ever devoted to you.”

E. Quinemant.