Lecture on Spiritism

— Under the title: Spiritism Before Science, a public lecture by Mr. Chevillard had been announced for last January 30, in the hall of the Boulevard des Capucines. In what sense was the speaker to speak? That is what everyone was unaware of.

The announcement seemed to promise an ex-professo discussion of all parts of the question. Nevertheless, the speaker made complete abstraction of the most essential part, the one that constitutes, properly speaking, Spiritism: the philosophical and moral part, without which Spiritism would surely not be established today in all parts of the world, and would not count its adherents by the millions. Since 1855 people had already grown weary of turning tables; certainly, if Spiritism had limited itself to this, it would long ago no longer be spoken of; its rapid propagation dates from the moment when something serious and useful was seen in it, when a humanitarian aim was glimpsed. The speaker confined himself, therefore, to the examination of a few material phenomena, for he did not even speak of the spontaneous phenomena, so numerous, that occur outside of all Spiritist belief. Now, to announce that one is going to deal with a question so vast, so complex in its applications and its consequences, and to dwell upon a few superficial points, is absolutely as if, under the name of a Course in Literature, a professor were to limit himself to explaining the alphabet.

Perhaps Mr. Chevillard had said to himself: “Why speak of the philosophical doctrine? Since this doctrine rests upon the intervention of Spirits, once I have proved that such intervention does not exist, all the rest will collapse.” How many, before Mr. Chevillard, boasted of having dealt the final blow to Spiritism, not to mention the inventor of the famous cracking muscle, Doctor Jobert (of Lamballe), who pitilessly sent all Spiritists to the asylum of Charenton and who, two years later, himself died in a madhouse! And yet, despite all those braggarts, striking right and left, who seemed to have but to speak in order to reduce it to dust, Spiritism lived, grew, and lives ever on, stronger, more vigorous than ever! Here is a fact that has its value. When an idea resists so many attacks, it is because there is something more. Were scientists not once seen striving to demonstrate that the movement of the Earth was impossible? And without going so far, has not this very century shown us an illustrious corporation declaring that the application of steam to navigation was a chimera? A curious book to be made would be the collection of the official errors of Science. This is simply to arrive at this conclusion: when a thing is true, it advances in spite of everything, despite the contrary opinion of the learned. Now, if Spiritism has advanced, despite the arguments opposed to it by high and low science, that is a presumption in its favor. Mr. Jobert (of Lamballe) unceremoniously treated all Spiritists as charlatans and swindlers. Justice must be rendered to Mr. Chevillard, who reproaches them only with being mistaken as to the cause. Moreover, indecorous epithets, besides proving nothing, always denote a lack of civility, and would be quite out of place in an audience where, necessarily, many Spiritists were bound to be found. The evangelical pulpit is less scrupulous; there it is often said: “Flee from the Spiritists as from the plague, and persecute them,” which proves that Spiritism is something, since they fear it, and since one does not fire cannon shots at flies. Mr. Chevillard does not deny the facts; on the contrary, he admits them, for he verified them. He merely explains them in his own way. Does he at least bring a new argument in favor of his thesis? One may judge by this:

“Each man,” he says, “possesses a greater or lesser quantity of animal electricity, which constitutes the nervous fluid. This fluid is released under the sway of the will, of the desire to make a table move; it penetrates the table and the table moves; the rappings on the table are nothing but electrical discharges, provoked by the concentration of thought.” Mechanical writing: the same explanation.

But how to explain the rappings on the walls, without the participation of the will, in persons who do not know what Spiritism is, or who do not believe in it? Superabundance of electricity, which is released spontaneously and produces discharges.

And the intelligent communications? Reflex of the medium’s thought. – And when the medium obtains, by typtology or by writing, things that he is ignorant of? One always knows something, and if it is not the thought of the medium, it may be that of others.

And when the medium writes, unconsciously, things that are personally disagreeable to him, is it his own thought? Of this fact, as of many others, he takes no thought. And yet, a theory can be true only on the condition of resolving all the phases of a problem. If a single fact escapes the explanation, it is because the explanation is false or incomplete. Now, of how many facts is this explanation powerless to give the solution! We would much like to know how Mr. Chevillard would explain, for example, the facts related above concerning Miss de Chilly, the apparition of the young Edward Samuel, all the incidents of what took place on the Island of Mauritius. How would he explain, by the release of electricity, the writing in persons who do not know how to write? by the reflex of thought, the case of that servant who wrote, before an entire community: I am robbing my mistress? In short, Mr. Chevillard recognizes the existence of the phenomena, which is already something, but he denies the intervention of the Spirits. As for his theory, it offers absolutely nothing new; it is the repetition of what has been said, for fifteen years, in every form, without the idea having prevailed. Will he be more fortunate than his predecessors? That is what the future will prove.

It is truly curious to see to what expedients those resort who wish to explain everything without the Spirits! Instead of going straight to what presents itself before them in the simplest of forms, they go in search of causes so confused, so complicated, that they are intelligible only to themselves. They ought at least, to complete their theory, to say what, in their opinion, becomes of the Spirits of men after death, for this concerns everyone, and to prove how it is that these Spirits cannot manifest themselves to the living. That is what no one has yet done, whereas Spiritism proves how they can do so. But all this is necessary. It is necessary that all these systems exhaust themselves and show their impotence. Moreover, there is a notorious fact: it is that all this repercussion given to Spiritism, all the circumstances that brought it into evidence, have always been profitable to it; and, what is worthy of note, is that the more violent the attacks were, the more it progressed. Would not all great ideas need the baptism of persecution, were it even that of ridicule? And why has it not suffered it? The reason is very simple: it is because, in making it say the contrary of what it says, in presenting it as completely different from what it is, hunchbacked when it is upright, one can only have everything to gain from a serious and conscientious examination, and those who wished to wound it have always wounded it on the side of truth. (See the Review of February 1869: The power of ridicule.) Now, the blacker the colors under which they present it, the more they will excite curiosity. The party that strove to say that it is the devil did it much good, for, among those who had not yet had the opportunity to see the devil, many felt quite at ease on learning what he is like, and did not find him as black as he had been painted. Say that in a square of Paris there is a horrible monster, who is going to plague the whole city, and everyone will run to see him. Have authors not been seen having criticisms of their own works published in the newspapers, solely so that they might be talked about? Such was the result of the furious diatribes against Spiritism; they provoked the desire to know it and served it more than they harmed it. To speak of Spiritism, no matter in what sense, is to make propaganda to its profit; experience is there to prove it. From this point of view, we should congratulate ourselves on Mr. Chevillard’s lecture. But let us hasten to say, in praise of the speaker, that he confined himself to an honest, loyal, and tasteful polemic. He expressed his opinion: that is his right, and although it is not ours, we have no reason to complain. Later, without the least doubt, when the opportune moment arrives, Spiritism too will have its sympathetic speakers. We will only recommend to them that they not fall into the error of their adversaries, that is, that they study the question thoroughly, in order to speak only with knowledge of the cause. [Review of April.]

MR. CHEVILLARD’S LECTURES.

APPRAISED BY THE NEWSPAPER PARIS.

(See the Spiritist Review of March 1869.)

One reads in the newspaper Paris, of March 7, 1869, concerning Mr. Chevillard’s lectures on Spiritism:

“The stir caused some years ago in society by the phenomenon of turning tables is still in memory.

“There was no family that did not possess its little animated table, no circle that did not have its familiar Spirits; a day was set to make the table turn, as today an appointment is set for a surprise party. For a moment public curiosity – stirred up by the clergy to frighten timorous souls with the abominable specter of Satan – knew no bounds, and the tables cracked, shook, danced, from the cellar to the garret, with a most meritorious obedience.

“Little by little the fever subsided, silence set in, fashion found other amusements, who knows? perhaps living tableaux.

“But, in withdrawing, the multitude left a few hard-headed ones motionless, attached in spite of everything to these singular manifestations. Imperceptibly a sort of mysterious bond extended itself, running from one to another. The solitary ones of the day before counted themselves the next day; soon a vast association made of those scattered groups but a single family, marching, under the device of a common belief, in search of truth through Spiritism.

“It seems that at this hour the army counts enough seasoned soldiers to be given the honors of combat. And Mr. Chevillard, after having presented the definitive solution of the Spiritist problem, did not hesitate to pursue his subject in a new lecture: The illusions of Spiritism.

“On the other hand, Mr. Desjardin, after having spoken of the innovators in Medicine, threatens to strike the Spiritist theories before long. Surely the believers will respond – the Spirits cannot find a better occasion to assert themselves. – It is, then, an awakening, a struggle that is being joined.

“Today the Spiritists are more numerous in Europe than is supposed. They are counted by the millions, not to mention those who believe and do not boast of it. The army recruits new adherents every day. What is there to be astonished at? Are not those ever more numerous who weep and ask of the communications of a better world the hope of the future?

“The discussion on this subject seems bound to be serious. It is not without interest to take a few notes from the very first day.

“Mr. Chevillard is generous; he does not deny the facts; – he affirms the good faith of the mediums with whom he was put in contact; he feels no embarrassment in declaring that he himself produced the phenomena of which he speaks. He wagers that the Spiritists were never present at such a feast; and they will not fail to take advantage of such concessions, – if they can oppose to Mr. Chevillard anything other than the sincerity of his conviction.

“It is not for us to respond, but only to draw from this set of facts a few magnetic laws that compose the lecturer’s theory. “The vibrations of the table,” he says, “are produced by the voluntary internal thought of the medium, aided by the desire of the credulous bystanders, always numerous.” Thus is formally indicated the nervous or vital fluid, with which Mr. Chevillard establishes the definitive solution of the Spiritist problem. “Every Spiritist fact,” he adds further on, “is a succession of movements produced upon an inanimate object by an unconscious magnetism.” “Finally, summing up his entire system in an abstract formula, he affirms that “the idea of the voluntary mechanical action is transmitted by the nervous fluid, from the brain to the inanimate object, which executes the action in the capacity of an organ linked by the fluid to the being who wills, whether the link be by contact or at a distance; but the being has no perception of his act, because he does not execute it by a muscular effort.”

“These three examples are sufficient to indicate a theory which, moreover, we have not to discuss, and to which perhaps we shall have to return later; but, recalling a lesson of Mr. E. Caro, at the Sorbonne, we would willingly reproach Mr. Chevillard with the very title of his lecture. Did he ask himself, at the very outset, whether, in these questions which escape control, mathematical proof – which can be judged only by deduction – the research into first causes is not incompatible with the formulas of Science? “Spiritism leaves too wide a margin to freedom of reasoning to be able to depend on Science properly so called. The facts that are verified, doubtless marvelous, but always identical, escape all control, and conviction can be born only from the multiplicity of observations.

“The cause, let the initiated say what they will, remains a mystery to the man who, coldly, weighs these strange phenomena, and the believers are reduced to making vows that, sooner or later, a fortuitous circumstance may rend the veil that hides from our eyes the great problems of life, and show us, radiant, the unknown god.”

Pagès de Noyes.

— We gave our appraisal of the scope of Mr. Chevillard’s lectures in our preceding issue, and it would be superfluous to refute a theory which, as we said, has nothing new about it, no matter what the author may think. That he should have his system about the cause of the manifestations is his right; that he should believe it correct is very natural; but that he should have the pretension of giving, he alone, the definitive solution of the problem, is to say that to him alone is given the last word of the secrets of Nature, and that, after him, there is nothing more to see, nothing more to discover. What learned man ever pronounced the nec plus ultra n in the sciences? There are things that one may think, but it is not always proper to proclaim them too loudly. Moreover, we have seen no Spiritist disturbed by the alleged discovery of Mr. Chevillard; all, on the contrary, make vows that he may continue his application to the utmost limits, without omitting any of the phenomena that may be opposed to him; we would, above all, like to see him definitively resolve these two questions:

– What becomes of the Spirits of men after death?

– By virtue of what law can these same Spirits, who agitated matter during the life of the body, no longer agitate it after death and manifest themselves to the living?

If Mr. Chevillard admits that the Spirit is distinct from matter and survives the body, he must admit that the body is the instrument of the Spirit in the various acts of life; that it obeys the will of the Spirit. Once he admits that, through the transmission of the electric fluid, the tables, the pencils, and other objects become appendages of the body and thus obey the thought of the incarnate Spirit, why, through an analogous electric current, could they not obey the thought of a disincarnate Spirit? Among those who admit the reality of the phenomena, four hypotheses have been put forward concerning their cause, namely: 1st The exclusive action of the nervous, electric, magnetic, or any other fluid; 2nd The reflex of the thought of the mediums and of the bystanders, in the intelligent manifestations; 3rd The intervention of demons; 4th The continuity of the relations of human Spirits, released from matter, with the corporeal world.

Since the origin of Spiritism these four propositions have been advocated and discussed in every form, in numerous writings, by men of incontestable worth. Thus, the light of discussion has not been lacking. How is it that, of these various systems, the one of the Spirits has met with more sympathy? that it alone has prevailed and is today the only one admitted by the immense majority of observers in all the countries of the world? that all the arguments of its adversaries, after more than fifteen years, have not been able to triumph, if they are the expression of the truth? It is yet another interesting question to be resolved.