Jean Rysak, the force of remorse

— They write from Winschoten, on May 2, 1867, to the Journal de Bruxelles:

Last Saturday, an excavation laborer of our commune presented himself at the house of the rural guard, where he summoned this official to arrest him and hand him over to the courts, before which, he said, he must make confession of a crime committed by him several years ago. Brought before the burgomaster, this laborer, who declared his name to be J. Ryzak, gave the following account:

“About twelve years ago I was employed in the works of draining the lake of Haarlem, when one day the foreman, paying me my fortnight's wages, handed me the pay due to one of my comrades, with orders to deliver it to the latter. I spent the money and, wishing to avoid the troubles of inquiries, I resolved to kill the friend I had just robbed. To this end, I cast him into one of the abysses of the lake, but, seeing him return to the surface and make efforts to swim to the bank, I gave him two stabs in the nape of the neck.

“As soon as I committed the crime, I began to feel remorse. Soon it became intolerable and it was impossible for me to continue at work. I began by fleeing the scene of my crime, and finding nowhere in the country either peace or respite, I embarked for the Indies, where I enlisted in the colonial army. But there, too, the specter of my victim pursued me night and day; my tortures were incessant and unheard of, and as soon as my term of service ended, an irresistible force impelled me to return to Winschoten and to ask the courts for the appeasement of my conscience. It will give it to me by imposing on me the expiation it deems fitting. And if it orders that I die, I prefer this torment to the torture that the executioner I carry in my breast has made me undergo for twelve years, at every hour of the day and night.” After this declaration, and having assured himself that the man before him was sound of mind, the burgomaster requisitioned the police, who arrested Ryzak and immediately reported the fact to the magistrate.

Here the developments that this strange event may have are awaited with emotion.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS ON THIS CASE.

(Society of Paris, May 10, 1867. – Medium: Miss Lateltin.)

As you know, every being has the liberty of good and evil, what you call free will. Man has within him the conscience, which warns him when he has done good or done evil, committed a wicked deed or neglected to do good; his conscience which, as a vigilant guardian, charged with watching over him, approves or disapproves of his conduct. It often happens that he shows himself rebellious to its voice, that he repels its inspirations; he wishes to stifle it by forgetfulness; but it is never completely annihilated, so that, at a given moment, it does not awaken stronger and more powerful and exercise a severe control over your actions. Conscience produces two different effects: the satisfaction of having acted well, the peace left by the consciousness of duty fulfilled, and the remorse that penetrates and tortures when one has practiced an action reproved by God, by men, or by honor. It is, properly speaking, the moral sense. Remorse is like a serpent of a thousand coils, which circulates around the heart and destroys it; it is remorse that always makes the same inflections heard and cries out to you: You have done a wicked deed; you must be punished; your chastisement will cease only after reparation. And when, to this torment of a tormented conscience, comes to be joined the constant vision of the victim, of the person to whom the wrong was done; when, without rest or respite, his presence reproaches the guilty one for his unworthy conduct, repeating to him incessantly that he will suffer as long as he has not expiated and repaired the wrong he did, the torment becomes intolerable. It is then that, to put an end to his tortures, his pride bends and he confesses his crimes. Evil carries within itself its own penalty, through the remorse it leaves and through the reproaches made by the mere presence of those against whom one acted wrongly. Believe me, always listen to that voice which warns you when you are about to fail; do not stifle it by the revolt of your pride; and if you fail, hasten to repair the wrong, without which remorse will be your punishment. The longer you delay, the more painful the reparation will be and the more prolonged the torment.

A Spirit.

(Same session. – Medium: Mrs. B…)

Today you have a notable example of the punishment that those who have become guilty of a wicked deed suffer, even on Earth. It is not only in the invisible world that the vision of the victim comes to torment the murderer to force him to repentance; there where the justice of men has not begun the expiation, divine justice makes begin, unbeknownst to all, the slowest and most terrible of torments, the most fearsome chastisement.

There are certain persons who say that the punishment inflicted on the criminal in the world of the Spirits, and which consists in the continual vision of his crime, cannot be very effective, and that in no case is it this punishment which, by itself, determines repentance. They say that one who is naturally perverse, as a criminal is, can only grow more and more embittered by this vision, and thus become worse. Those who speak thus have no idea of what such a chastisement may become; they do not know how cruel is this continual spectacle of an action one would never wish to have committed. Certainly we see some hardened criminals, but often it is only out of pride and because they wish to appear stronger than the hand that punishes them; it is to make it believed that they do not let themselves be cast down by the vision of vain images; but this false courage does not last long, for soon we see them weaken in the presence of this torment, which owes much of its effects to its slowness and persistence. There is no pride that can resist this action, similar to that of the drop of water upon the rock; however hard the stone may be, it is inevitably attacked, broken up, reduced to dust. It is thus that pride, which causes these unfortunates to obstinate themselves against their sovereign master, is sooner or later cast down, and that repentance, at last, can have access to their soul. As they know that the origin of their sufferings lies in their fault, they ask to repair it, in order to bring a mitigation to their ills. To those who might doubt, you have only to cite the fact that was pointed out to you this evening; there it is not only hypothesis, it is no longer merely the teaching of the Spirits, but an example in a certain way palpable, that is presented to you. In this example, the chastisement followed close upon the fault and was such that, after several years, it forced the guilty one to ask human justice for the expiation of his crime, and he himself said that all penalties, even death itself, would seem to him less cruel than what he was suffering, at the moment he gave himself up to justice. A Spirit.

Observation. – Without going to seek applications of remorse in great criminals, who are exceptions in society, we find them in the most ordinary circumstances of life. It is this sentiment that leads every individual to keep away from those against whom he feels he has reproaches to make himself; in their presence he feels ill at ease; if the fault is not known, he fears being divined; it seems to him that a glance can penetrate to the depths of his conscience; he sees in every word, in every gesture, an allusion to his person, which is why, as soon as he feels unmasked, he withdraws. The ingrate also flees from his benefactor, since the sight of him is an incessant reproach, from which he vainly seeks to free himself, for an inner voice cries out to him in the depths of his conscience that he is guilty. If remorse is already a torment on Earth, how much greater will this torment not be in the world of the Spirits, where it is not possible to escape the sight of those one has offended! Happy are those who, having already repaired in this life, will be able without fear to face all eyes in the world where nothing is hidden.

Remorse is a consequence of the development of the moral sense; it does not exist where the moral sense is still in a latent state. It is for this reason that savage and barbarous peoples commit the worst actions without remorse. He, then, who would claim to be inaccessible to remorse would liken himself to the brute. As man progresses, the moral sense becomes more refined; it is offended at the least deviation from the straight path. Hence remorse, which is the first step toward the return to good.