Statistics of Spiritism.

— As we have already said, an exact enumeration of Spiritists would be an impossible thing, and this for a very simple reason: Spiritism is neither an association nor a congregation; its adherents are not inscribed in any official register. It is well known that one could not estimate the total by the number and importance of the societies, which are frequented only by a tiny minority. Spiritism is an opinion that requires no profession of faith, and may extend to all or part of the Doctrine's principles. It suffices to sympathize with the idea to be a Spiritist. Now, since this quality is conferred by no material act, and entails nothing but moral obligations, there exists no physical basis for determining the number of adherents with precision. One can estimate it only in an approximate manner, through one's relations and through the greater or lesser ease with which the idea spreads. This number increases daily in considerable proportion: it is a positive fact, recognized by the adversaries themselves; the opposition diminishes, evident proof that the idea finds, more and more, numerous sympathies. Moreover, it is understood that an appraisal can be based on the whole and not on the situation of localities considered in isolation; in each locality there are elements more or less favorable, by reason of the particular state of the Spirits and also of the more or less influential resistances exerted there; but this situation is variable, because a given locality, which may have shown itself refractory for several years, suddenly becomes a focal point. When the elements of appraisal have acquired more precision, it will be possible to make a colored map regarding the diffusion of Spiritist ideas, as was done for education. In the meantime, one can affirm, without exaggeration, that, in sum, the number of adherents has increased a hundredfold in ten years, in spite of the maneuvers employed to stifle the idea and contrary to the predictions of all those who boasted of having buried it. This is a proven fact, and the antagonists must come to terms with it. We speak here only of those who accept Spiritism with full knowledge of the cause, after having studied it, and not of those who, though more numerous, still hold these ideas in a state of intuition, lacking only to define their beliefs with more precision and to give them a name in order to be avowed Spiritists. It is a well-proven fact, observed every day, especially of late, that Spiritist ideas appear innate in a number of individuals who have never heard Spiritism spoken of; one cannot say that they have undergone any influence whatever, nor that they have undergone the influence of a circle. Let the adversaries explain, if they can, these thoughts that are born outside of and apart from Spiritism! Surely it would not be a system preconceived in the brain of one man that would have produced such a result; there is no more evident proof that these ideas are in Nature, nor a better guarantee of their popularization in the future and of their perpetuity. From this point of view one can say that at least three quarters of the population of every country possess the germ of Spiritist beliefs, for they are found even among those who oppose them. In the majority, the opposition comes from the false idea they have of Spiritism; knowing it, in general, only through the ridiculous pictures painted of it by criticism that is malevolent or interested in discrediting it, they rightly refuse the quality of Spiritists. Certainly, if Spiritism resembled the grotesque portraits made of it, if it were constituted of the absurd beliefs and practices that have been seen fit to attribute to it, we would be the first to repudiate the title of Spiritist. When, then, these same persons come to know that the Doctrine is nothing but the coordination and development of their own aspirations and of their intimate thoughts, they will accept it; these are, incontestably, future Spiritists, but, for the time being, we do not consider them in our estimates. If a statistical census is impossible, there is another, perhaps more instructive, and for which there exist elements furnished us by our relations and our correspondence: it is the relative proportion of Spiritists according to professions, social positions, nationalities, religious beliefs, etc., taking into account that certain professions, such as ministerial officers, for example, are limited in number, whereas others, such as industrialists and capitalists, are indefinite in number. With all proportions kept, one can see which are the categories in which Spiritism has, to this day, found more adherents. In some, the proportion could be established as a percentage, with precision, without however claiming that they have a mathematical rigor; the other categories were simply classified by reason of the number of adherents they presented, beginning with those of greater number, of which the correspondence and the subscriber list of the Review can furnish elements. The table that follows is the result of the compilation of more than ten thousand observations. We note the fact, without seeking to discuss the cause of this difference, which, nonetheless, could be the subject of an interesting study.

RELATIVE PROPORTION OF SPIRITISTS.

I. In relation to nationalities. – To tell the truth, there is no civilized country of Europe and America where there are not Spiritists. They are more numerous in the United States of North America. Their number there is estimated, by some, at four million, which is already a great deal, and by others at ten million. This last figure is evidently exaggerated, because it would comprise more than a third of the population, which is not probable. In Europe, the figure can be estimated at one million, in which France figures with six hundred thousand. One can estimate the number of Spiritists in the entire world at six or seven million. Even if it did not exceed half that, History offers no example of a doctrine that, in less than fifteen years, had gathered such a number of adherents disseminated over the whole surface of the globe. If we were to include therein the unconscious Spiritists, that is, those who are such only by intuition and who will later become Spiritists in fact, in France alone several million could be counted. From the point of view of the diffusion of Spiritist ideas, and of the ease with which they are accepted, the principal States of Europe can be classified as follows: 1st France. – 2nd Italy. – 3rd Spain. – 4th Russia. – 5th Germany. – 6th Belgium. – 7th England. – 8th Sweden and Denmark. – 9th Greece. – 10th Switzerland.

II. In relation to sex. – 70% men and 30% women.

III. In relation to age. – Maximum: from 30 to 70 years; average: from 20 to 30 years; minimum: from 70 to 80 years.

IV. In relation to education. – The degree of education is very easy to appraise from the correspondence. Careful education: 30%; – simply literate: 30%; – higher education: 20%; – semi-literate: 10%; – illiterate: 6%; – official scholars: 4%.

V. In relation to religious ideas. – Roman Catholics, freethinkers, not attached to dogma: 50%; – Greek Catholics: 15%; – Jews: 10%; – liberal Protestants: 10%; – Catholics attached to dogmas: 10%; – orthodox Protestants: 3%; – Muslims: 2%.

VI. In relation to fortune. – Modest means: 60%; – average fortunes: 20%; – indigence: 15%; – great fortunes: 5%.

VII. In relation to the moral state, fortune set aside. – The afflicted: 60%; – without disquiet: 30%; – the happy of the world: 10%; – sensualists: 0%.

VIII. In relation to social class. – Without being able to establish any proportion in this category, it is well known that Spiritism counts among its adherents: several sovereigns and reigning princes; members of sovereign families and a great number of titled personages.

In general, it is in the middle classes that Spiritism counts more adherents; in Russia it is more or less exclusively in the nobility and the high aristocracy; it is in France that it has spread most among the petty bourgeoisie and the working class.

IX. Military estate, according to rank. – 1st Lieutenants and second lieutenants; 2nd Non-commissioned officers; 3rd Captains; 4th Colonels; 5th Doctors and surgeons; 6th Generals; 7th Municipal guards; 8th Guardsmen; 9th Soldiers of the line.

Observation. – The Spiritist lieutenants and second lieutenants are almost all on active duty; among the captains, about half are on active duty and the other half in the reserve; the colonels, doctors, surgeons, and generals are for the most part in the reserve.

X. Navy. – 1st War Navy; 2nd Merchant Navy.

XI. Liberal professions and various functions. – We grouped them into ten categories, classified according to the proportion of adherents they furnished to Spiritism:

1st Homeopathic doctors. – Magnetists. [1]

2nd Engineers. – Instructors; directors and directresses of boarding schools. – Independent teachers.

3rd Consuls. – Catholic priests.

4th Minor employees. – Musicians. – Lyric artists. – Dramatic artists.

5th Bailiffs. – Police commissioners.

6th Allopathic doctors. – Men of letters. – Students.

7th Magistrates. – High officials. – Official teachers and lycée teachers. – Protestant pastors.

8th Journalists. – Painters. – Architects. – Surgeons.

9th Notaries. – Lawyers. – Business agents.

10th Exchange brokers. – Bankers.

XII. Industrial, manual, and commercial professions, likewise grouped into ten categories:

1st Tailors. – Seamstresses.

2nd Mechanics. – Railway employees.

3rd Weavers. – Small merchants. – Porters.

4th Pharmacists. – Photographers. – Watchmakers. – Traveling salesmen.

5th Farmers. – Shoemakers.

6th Bakers. – Butchers. – Pork butchers.

7th Cabinetmakers. – Typographers.

8th Great industrialists and heads of establishments.

9th Booksellers. – Printers.

10th House painters. – Masons. – Locksmiths. – Grocers. – Domestic servants.

From this list, the following consequences result:

1st That there are Spiritists in all degrees of the social scale;

2nd That there are more men than women Spiritists. It is certain that in families divided by their beliefs, with regard to Spiritism, there are more husbands thwarted by the opposition of their wives than wives by that of their husbands. It is no less constant that, in all Spiritist meetings, the men are in the majority.

It is, therefore, unjustly that criticism has claimed that the Doctrine is recruited principally among women, by virtue of their inclination toward the marvelous. It is precisely the contrary: this inclination toward the marvelous and toward mysticism in general makes them more refractory than men; this predisposition makes them more readily accept blind faith, which dispenses with any examination, whereas Spiritism, admitting only reasoned faith, requires reflection and philosophical deduction to be well understood, for which the narrow education given to women makes them less apt than men. Those who shake off the yoke imposed on their reason and on their intellectual development often fall into the contrary excess; they become what are called strong-minded women, and their incredulity is more tenacious; 3rd That the great majority of Spiritists are found among enlightened persons, and not among the ignorant. Everywhere Spiritism has spread from top to bottom of the social scale, and nowhere has it developed first in the lower strata;

4th That affliction and unhappiness predispose to Spiritist beliefs, in consequence of the consolations they afford. This is the reason why, in the majority of categories, the proportion of Spiritists is in proportion to hierarchical inferiority, because it is there that there are more privations and sufferings, whereas the holders of the higher positions belong in general to the class of the satisfied, with the exception of the military estate, where the simple soldiers figure in last place;

5th That Spiritism finds easier access among the incredulous in religious matters than among those who have an irrevocable faith;

6th Finally, that after the fanatics, the most refractory to Spiritist ideas are the sensualists and the persons whose only thoughts are concentrated on possessions and material pleasures, whatever the class to which they belong, which is independent of the degree of education.

— In sum, Spiritism is welcomed as a benefit by those whom it helps to bear the burden of life, and is repelled or disdained by those whom it would harm in the enjoyment of life. Starting from this principle, the place that certain categories of individuals occupy in this table is easily explained, in spite of the enlightenment that is a condition of their social position. By the character, tastes, habits, and manner of life of persons, one can judge the extent of their aptitude to assimilate Spiritist ideas. In some, resistance is a question of self-love, which almost always follows the degree of knowledge; when this knowledge makes them attain a certain social position that puts them in the spotlight, they do not wish to admit that they could have been mistaken and that others may have seen better. To offer proofs to certain persons is to offer them what they most fear; and, for fear of finding them, they stop their eyes and ears, preferring to deny a priori and to take shelter behind their infallibility, of which they are quite convinced, whatever may be said. The cause of the position occupied in this classification by certain industrial professions is less easily explained. One asks, for example, why tailors occupy the first position there, while bookselling and printing, far more intellectual professions, are almost in the last. It is a fact noted for a long time and of which we have not yet given an account.

If, in the above compilation, instead of comprising only the Spiritists in fact, they had considered the unconscious Spiritists, those in whom these ideas are in a state of intuition and who do Spiritism without knowing it, certainly several categories would have been classified differently; for example, the literati, the poets, the artists, in a word, all the men of imagination and of inspiration, the believers of all forms of worship would be, without the shadow of a doubt, in first place. Certain peoples, among whom Spiritist beliefs are in a certain sense innate, would also occupy another position. This is why this classification could not be absolute, and will be modified with time. The homeopathic doctors are at the head of the liberal professions because, in effect, it is the one that, with due proportions kept, counts in its ranks the greatest number of adherents of Spiritism; out of a hundred Spiritist doctors, there are at least eighty homeopaths. This is due to the fact that the very principle of their medication leads them to spiritualism; for this reason materialists are very rare among them, if there are any at all, whereas they are numerous among the allopaths. Better than the latter, they have understood Spiritism, because they found in the physiological properties of the perispirit, united to the material principle and to the spiritual principle, the rationale of their system. For the same reason, the Spiritists were able, better than others, to understand the effects of this mode of treatment. Without being exclusive with regard to homeopathy, and without rejecting allopathy, they understood its rationality and upheld it against unjust attacks. The homeopaths, finding new defenders in the Spiritists, were not so inept as to cast a stone at them. If the magnetists figure in the first line, just after the homeopaths, despite the persistent and often bitter opposition of some, it is because the opponents form but a very small minority alongside the mass of those who are, one may say, Spiritists by intuition. Magnetism and Spiritism are, in effect, two twin sciences, which complete each other and explain one through the other, and of the two, the one that does not wish to remain immobile cannot reach its completion without leaning on its counterpart; isolated from each other, they come to an impasse; they are reciprocally as Physics and Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology. The majority of magnetists understand so well by intuition the intimate relation that must exist between the two things, that they generally avail themselves of their knowledge in magnetism as a means of introduction among the Spiritists. In all times the magnetists have been divided into two camps: the spiritualists and the fluidists. The latter, much less numerous, at least setting aside the spiritual principle, when they do not absolutely deny it, referring everything to the action of the material fluid, are, consequently, in opposition of principles with the Spiritists. Now, it is to be noted that, if not all magnetists are Spiritists, all Spiritists, without exception, admit magnetism. In all circumstances, they have made themselves its defenders and supports. They might well have been astonished to find more or less malevolent adversaries among the very ones whose ranks they had just reinforced; that, after having been, for more than half a century, victims of attacks, of mockery, and of persecutions of every sort, they should in their turn cast the stone, the sarcasm, and often the insult at the auxiliaries who come to them and begin to weigh in the balance by their number. Moreover, as we have said, this opposition is far from being general; quite the contrary. One can affirm, without departing from the truth, that it does not reach 2 or 3% of the totality of magnetists; it is much smaller still among those of the provinces and abroad than among those of Paris.

[Review of February.]

STATISTICS OF SPIRITISM.

Appraisal by the Journal La Solidarité.

[2]

The journal Solidarité, of January 15, 1869, analyzes the statistics of Spiritism, which we published in our previous issue. If it criticizes some of its figures, we feel happy at its adherence to the work as a whole, which it appraises in these terms:

“We regret not being able to reproduce, for lack of space, the very wise reflections with which Mr. Allan Kardec accompanies these statistics. We will limit ourselves to noting with him that there are Spiritists in all degrees of the social scale; that the great majority of Spiritists are found among enlightened persons and not among the ignorant; that Spiritism has spread everywhere, from top to bottom of the social scale; that affliction and unhappiness are the great recruiters of Spiritism, by force of the consolations and hopes it lavishes on those who weep and lament; that Spiritism finds easier access among the incredulous in religious matters than among persons who have a defined faith; finally, that after the fanatics, the most refractory to Spiritist ideas are the creatures whose thoughts are all concentrated on possession and material pleasures, whatever, moreover, their condition.” It is a fact of capital importance to note everywhere that “the great majority of Spiritists are found among enlightened persons and not among the ignorant.” In the presence of this material fact, what becomes of the accusation of stupidity, ignorance, madness, ineptitude, hurled so recklessly against the Spiritists by malevolence?

Spreading from top to bottom of the scale, Spiritism proves, moreover, that the favored classes understand its moralizing influence over the masses, since they strive to penetrate it. It is that, in effect, the examples one has before one's eyes, though partial and still isolated, demonstrate in peremptory fashion that the spirit of the proletariat would be quite otherwise if it were imbued with the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine.

The principal objection of the Solidarité is very serious. It refers to the number of Spiritists in the entire world. Here is what it says on the subject:

“The Spiritist Review is much mistaken when it estimates at only six or seven million the number of Spiritists for the whole world. It evidently forgets to count Asia.

“If by the term Spiritist one means the persons who believe in life beyond the tomb and in the relations of the living with the soul of dead persons, it is by hundreds of millions that they must be counted. The belief in Spirits exists in all the sectaries of Buddhism, and one may say that it constitutes the foundation of all the religions of the Far East. It is general above all in China. The three ancient sects that for so long have divided the populations in the Central Empire believe in the manes, in the Spirits, and profess their worship. – One may even say that this is for them a common ground. The worshipers of Tao and of Fo meet there with the sectaries of the philosopher Confucius. “The priests of the sect of Lao-Tseu, and particularly the Tao-Tseu, or doctors of Reason, owe to Spiritist practices a great part of their influence over the populations. – These religious men interrogate the Spirits and obtain written answers, which have neither more nor less value than those of our mediums. They are counsels and warnings considered as given to the living by the Spirit of a dead person. There are found revelations of secrets known solely by the person who interrogates, sometimes predictions which are realized or not, but which are capable of impressing the bystanders and stimulating their desires, so that they take it upon themselves to realize the oracle themselves. “These correspondences are obtained by processes that do not differ much from those of our Spiritists, but which, nonetheless, must be more perfected, if one considers the long experience of the operators who practice them traditionally.

“Here is how they are described to us by an eyewitness, Mr. D…, who has lived in China for a long time and who is familiar with the language of the country:

“A fishing rod, of 50 to 60 centimeters, is held at the extremities by two persons, of whom one is the medium and the other the interrogator. In the middle of this rod, they have taken care to seal or tie a small wand of the same wood, quite similar to a pencil in size and thickness. Below this small apparatus is spread a layer of sand, or a box containing corn flour. Sliding mechanically over the sand or the corn flour, the wand traces characters. As these are formed, they are read and reproduced immediately on paper by a literate man present at the session. From this result phrases and writings more or less long, more or less interesting, but always having a logical value. “If one is to give credence to the Tao-Tseu, these processes come to them from Lao-Tseu himself. Now, if according to History, Lao-Tseu lived in the sixth century before Jesus Christ, it is well to remember that, according to legend, he is, like the Word of the Christians, anterior to the beginning and contemporary with the great non-entity, as the doctors of Reason express it.

“One sees that Spiritism goes back to a most beautiful antiquity.

“Does this not prove that it is true? – No, certainly, but if it suffices for a belief to be ancient in order to be venerable, and strong by the number of its partisans in order to be respected, I know of no other that has more titles to the respect and veneration of my contemporaries.”

— It is needless to say that we fully adhere to this rectification, and we feel happy that it emanates from a foreign source, because it proves that we did not seek to exaggerate the picture. Our readers will appreciate, as we do, the manner in which this journal, which recommends itself by its serious character, regards Spiritism; one sees that, on its part, it is an appraisal with just reasons.

We knew perfectly well that Spiritist ideas are very widespread among the peoples of the Far East, and if we had not taken them into account it is that, in our estimate, we proposed to present, as we said, only the movement of modern Spiritism, reserving for ourselves to make later a special study on the anteriority of these ideas. We thank most sincerely the author of the article for having preceded us.

Elsewhere he says: “We believe that this uncertainty (about the real number of Spiritists, especially in France) is due, first, to the absence of positive declarations on the part of the adherents; then, to the fluctuating state of beliefs. There exists – and we could cite numerous examples in Paris – a multitude of persons who believe in Spiritism and who do not boast of it.”

This is perfectly just; this is why we speak only of the Spiritists in fact; otherwise, as we said, if we included the Spiritists by intuition, in France alone they would be counted by millions; but we prefer to remain short of rather than beyond the truth, so as not to be charged with exaggeration. However, the increase must be very appreciable, for certain adversaries to have carried it to hyperbolic figures, like the author of the brochure The Budget of Spiritism, who, seeing the Spiritists perhaps through a magnifying lens, estimated them, in 1863, at twenty million in France. (Spiritist Review of June 1863.) With regard to the proportion of official scholars, in the category of degree of education, the author says: “We would very much like to see with the naked eye these 4% of official scholars: 40,000 for Europe; 24,000 for France alone; that is a great many scholars, and official ones at that; 6% illiterate is almost nothing.”

The criticism would be founded if, as the author supposes, it were a matter of 4% of the approximate number of six hundred thousand Spiritists in France, which would, in effect, give twenty-four thousand. It would indeed be a great deal, for one would have difficulty in finding that figure of official scholars in the entire population of France. On such a basis, the calculation would evidently be ridiculous, and one could say as much of the illiterate. This estimate, therefore, does not have for its object to establish the actual number of Spiritist official scholars, but the relative proportion in which they are found with regard to the various degrees of education, among which they are in the minority. In the other categories, we limited ourselves to a simple classification, without numerical estimate in percentage terms. When we used this latter process, it was to render the proportion more appreciable. To better define our thought, we will say that, by official scholars, we do not mean all those whose knowledge is attested by a diploma, but solely those who occupy official positions, such as members of Academies, professors of Faculties, etc., who are thus found in greater prominence and whose names, for such reasons, carry authority in Science. From this point of view, a doctor of Medicine can be a scholar without being an official scholar.

The official position influences considerably the manner of regarding certain things. As proof of this, we will cite the example of a distinguished doctor, dead for several years, whom we knew personally. He was then a great partisan of magnetism, on which he had written, and it was this that put us in contact with him. As his reputation grew, he successively attained several official positions. As he rose, his fervor for magnetism lowered, falling below zero when he reached the top of the scale, because he openly renounced his former convictions. Considerations of the same nature can explain the position of certain classes with respect to Spiritism.

— The category of the afflicted, of the unconcerned, of the happy of the world, of the sensualists, furnishes the author of the article with the following reflection:

“It is a pity that this is pure fantasy. No sensualists, that is understood; Spiritism and materialism exclude each other; sixty afflicted out of a hundred Spiritists is still understandable. It is for those who weep that relations with a better world are precious. But thirty unconcerned persons out of a hundred is too many! If Spiritism worked such miracles, it would make many other conquests. It would make them above all among the happy of the world, who are also, almost always, the most disquieted and the most tormented.”

There is here a manifest error, for it would seem that this result is due to Spiritism, whereas it is Spiritism that gathers, in these categories, more or fewer adherents according to the predispositions it finds there. These figures signify simply that it finds more adherents among the afflicted, a little fewer among the unconcerned persons, fewer still among the happy of the world, and none at all among the sensualists.

First of all, one must come to an understanding as to words. Materialism and sensualism are not synonyms and do not always march side by side, since one sees persons, spiritualists by profession and by duty, who are very sensual, whereas there are many materialists quite moderate in their manner of living; for them materialism is nothing but an opinion, which they embraced for lack of another more rational. This is why, when they recognize that Spiritism fills the void made in their conscience by incredulity, they accept it with happiness; the sensualists, on the contrary, are the most refractory. A very bizarre thing is that Spiritism meets more resistance among the pantheists in general than among those who are frankly materialists. Probably this is due to the fact that the pantheist almost always creates a system; he possesses something, whereas the materialist has nothing, and this void disquiets him.

By the happy of the world we mean those who pass as such in the eyes of the multitude, because they can largely allow themselves all the pleasures of life. It is true that they are often the most disquieted and the most tormented. But why? By the preoccupations that fortune and ambition cause them. Alongside these incessant preoccupations, the anxieties of loss or gain, the bustle of business for some, of pleasures for others, very little time remains for them to occupy themselves with the future.

Unable to have peace of soul except on condition of renouncing what constitutes the object of their covetousness, Spiritism affects them little, philosophically speaking. With the exception of the pains of the heart, which spare no one, save the egoists, the torments of life are for them almost always in the deceptions of vanity, in the desire to possess, to shine, to command. One can, therefore, say that they torment themselves.

On the contrary, calm and tranquility are found more particularly in modest positions, when the well-being of life is assured. There, there is almost no ambition; they content themselves with what they have, without tormenting themselves to increase it, running the random risks of usury or speculation. These are those whom we call the unconcerned, speaking relatively; if there be in them ever so little elevation of thought, they occupy themselves willingly with serious things; Spiritism offers them an attractive subject of meditation, and they accept it more readily than those in whom the whirlwind of the world arouses a continual fever. Such are the motives of this classification, which, as one sees, is not so fanciful as the author of the article supposes. We thank him for having given us occasion to point out errors that others might have committed, because we had not been sufficiently explicit.

— In our statistics, we omitted two functions important by their nature, and because they count a fairly large number of sincere and devoted adherents; they are the prefects and the justices of the peace, who are in the fifth class, with the bailiffs and the police commissioners.

Another omission, against which he protested with justice, and which they insist we repair, is that of the Poles, in the category of peoples. It is all the more founded as Spiritism counts, in that nation, numerous and fervent adherents, from the very origin. As a class, Poland comes in fifth place, between Russia and Germany.

To complete the nomenclature, it would be necessary to include other countries, such as Holland, for example, which would come after England; Portugal after Greece; the provinces of the Danube, where there are also Spiritists, but about which we do not have positive enough data to assign them a class. As for Turkey, the near totality of the adherents is composed of French, Italians, and Greeks.

A more rational and more exact classification than by territorial nations would be by races or nationalities, which are not confined within circumscribed limits, presenting, everywhere they spread, greater or lesser aptitude to assimilate Spiritist ideas. From this point of view, in one and the same region, one would often have to make several distinctions.

— The following communication was given in a group in Paris, with regard to the class occupied by the tailors among the industrial professions.

(Paris, January 6, 1869. – Desliens Group. – Medium: Mr. Leymarie.)

You have created categories, dear master, at the beginning of which you have placed certain professions. Do you know what, in our opinion, drives certain persons to become Spiritists? It is the thousand persecutions they suffer in their professions. The first of whom you speak must have order, economy [organization], care, taste, must be a bit of an artist and, then, must also be patient, must know how to wait, to listen, to smile, and to greet with a certain elegance; but, after all these small conventions, more serious than one thinks, it is still necessary to calculate, to order one's accounts by the asset and the liability, and to suffer, to suffer continually. In contact with men of all classes, commenting on the complaints, the confidences, the deceptions, the false faces, they learn a great deal! Leading this manifold life, their intelligence opens by comparison; their spirit fortifies itself by disappointment and by suffering. And this is why certain categories understand and acclaim all progress; they love the French theater, fine architecture, drawing, philosophy; many love liberty and all its consequences. Always at the forefront and on the lookout for what consoles and gives hope, they give themselves to Spiritism, which is for them a strength, an ardent promise, a truth that magnifies sacrifice and, more than you believe, the part classified as no. 1 lives by sacrifices. Sonnet.

[1] The word magnetizer awakens an idea of action; that of magnetist an idea of adhesion. The magnetizer is the one who practices by profession or otherwise. One can be a magnetist without being a magnetizer. One will say: an experienced magnetizer and a convinced magnetist.

[2] The journal Solidarité appears twice a month. Price: 10 fr. per year. Paris, Bookshop of the Social Sciences, rue des Saints-Pères, no. 13.