God in Nature.

As we know, after having treated, from the point of view of Science, the question of the habitability of the worlds, which is intimately linked to Spiritism, Mr. Flammarion today undertakes the demonstration of another truth, incontestably the most capital of all, because it is the cornerstone of the social edifice, the one without which Spiritism would have no reason to exist: the existence of God. The title of his work — God in Nature — sums up its whole economy [organization]; right from the outset he says that it is not a liturgical book, nor a mystical one, but a philosophical one. From the skepticism of a great number of scholars, it has wrongly been concluded that, of itself, Science was atheistic, or led inevitably to atheism. This is an error that Mr. Flammarion strives to refute, demonstrating that if scientists did not see God in their research, it is because they did not wish to see Him. Besides, all scholars are far from being atheists, although the skepticism relating to the particular dogmas of this or that religion is often confused with atheism. Mr. Flammarion addresses himself especially to the class of philosophers, who openly make a profession of materialism. He says: “Man carries in his nature a need so imperious to settle upon a conviction, particularly from the point of view of the existence of an orderer of the world and of the destiny of beings, that if no faith satisfies him, he feels the need to demonstrate to himself that God does not exist, seeking the repose of his soul in atheism and in the doctrine of nothingness. Thus, the present question that impassions us is no longer to know what the form of the Creator is, the character of mediation, the influence of grace, nor to discuss the value of theological arguments: the real question is to know whether God exists or does not exist.” In this work the author proceeded in the same manner as in his Plurality of the Inhabited Worlds, placing himself upon the very ground of his adversaries. Had he drawn his arguments from theology, from Spiritism, or from any spiritualist doctrines whatsoever, he would have established premises that would be rejected. That is why he takes those of the deniers and demonstrates, by the facts themselves, that one arrives at a diametrically opposite conclusion; he does not invoke new debatable arguments; he does not lose himself in the clouds of metaphysics, of the subjective and the objective, in the subtleties of dialectic; he remains upon the ground of positivism; he combats the atheists with their own weapons. Taking their arguments one by one, he destroys them with the help of the same science they invoke. He does not rely upon the opinion of men; his authority is Nature, and there he shows God in everything and everywhere. “Nature explained by Science,” he says, “showed Him to us in a particular character. He is there, visible, as the intimate force of all things. No human poetry seemed to us comparable to natural truth, and the eternal word spoke to us with more eloquence in the most modest works of Nature than man in his most pompous songs.”

We have stated the motives that led Mr. Flammarion to place himself outside Spiritism, and we can only praise him for it. If some persons thought that it was out of antagonism toward the doctrine, it would suffice, to disabuse them, to quote the following passage:

“We could add, to close the chapter on human personality, a few reflections on certain subjects of study that are still mysterious, but not insignificant. Natural somnambulism, magnetism, Spiritism offer to serious experimenters, who know how to examine them scientifically, characteristic facts, which would suffice to demonstrate the insufficiency of materialist theories. We confess that it is sad, for the conscientious observer, to see shameless charlatanism insinuate its perfidious greed into causes that ought to be respected; it is sad to find that ninety-nine facts out of a hundred may be false or imitated; but a single well-established fact overturns all denials. Now, what course do certain learned personages take in the face of the facts? They simply deny them. “‘Science does not doubt,’ said Mr. Buchner in particular, ‘that all cases of so-called clairvoyance are effects of cunning and collusion. Lucidity is, for natural reasons, an impossibility. It is in the laws of Nature that the effects of the senses are reduced to certain limits of space, which cannot be crossed. No one has the faculty of divining thoughts, nor of seeing with eyes closed what is happening around them. These truths are based on natural laws, which are immutable and admit of no exceptions.’ “Now, my lord judge, so you know the natural laws perfectly? Fortunate man! How you succumb beneath the excess of your science! But what is this? I turn back two pages and here is what I read:

“‘Somnambulism is a phenomenon of which, unfortunately, we have only very inexact observations, although it would be desirable that we had precise notions of it, given its importance for Science. Yet, without having certain data on it (listen!), one may relegate among the fables all the marvelous facts that are told of somnambulists. It is not given to a somnambulist to scale walls, etc.’ Ah! Sir, how wisely you reason! and how much good it would have done you, before writing, to know a little of what you think!”

An analytical appraisal of the work would require developments that lack of space forbids us, and would, besides, be superfluous. It would suffice to show the point of view in which the author placed himself in order to understand its usefulness. To reconcile Science with spiritualist ideas is to smooth the ways of its alliance with Spiritism. The author speaks in the name of pure science, and not of a fanciful or superficial science, and he does so with the authority that his personal learning gives him. His book is one of those that has a marked place in Spiritist libraries, because it is a monograph on one of the constituent parts of the doctrine, where the believer finds matter to instruct himself as much as the unbeliever. We shall have more than one occasion to return to it. Allan Kardec.

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

[1] [Dieu dans la nature – Google Books.] One large volume in-12. Price: 4 fr. Paris, Didier et Comp., quai des Grands-Augustins, 35.