General impressions.

Our first Spiritist tour, carried out in 1860, was limited to Lyon and a few cities that lay along our route. The following year we added Bordeaux to the itinerary, and this year, besides these two principal cities, we visited some twenty localities and attended more than fifty meetings, during a journey of seven weeks and a course of six hundred and ninety-three leagues. It is not our intention to give an anecdotal account of the excursion. From it we gathered all the episodes that may, perhaps, one day have their interest, since they will then already belong to History. Today, however, we limit ourselves to summarizing the observations we made regarding the situation of the Spiritist Doctrine, bringing to everyone's knowledge the instructions that were given in the different Centers. We know that true Spiritists desire this, and we prefer to satisfy them rather than to please those who seek nothing but distraction. In this narrative, moreover, our self-love will often be put to the test, and this is a preponderant reason for greater circumspection on our part; it is also the motive that prevents us from publishing the numerous addresses that were tendered to us and which we keep as precious memories. What we could not fail to point out, on pain of being thought ingrate, is the reception, so benevolent and so warm, that we received, sufficient in itself to reward us for all our fatigues. We thank in particular the Spiritists of Provins, Troyes, Sens, Lyon, Avignon, Montpellier, Cette, Toulouse, Marmande, Albi, Sainte-Gemme, Bordeaux, Royan, Meschers-sur-Garonne, Marennes, St.-Jean d'Angély, Angoulême, Tours and Orléans, as well as all those who did not shrink from a journey of ten to twenty leagues to gather with us in the cities where we stopped. This reception might indeed have awakened our pride, had we not taken into account that such demonstrations were addressed much less to us than to the Doctrine, whose credit they attest, since, were it not for it, we would be nothing and no one would concern themselves with us. The first result we were able to ascertain was the immense progress of Spiritist beliefs. A single fact may give us an idea of this. At the time of our first journey to Lyon, in 1860, there were at most a few hundred adherents there; the following year there were already five to six thousand, and it has now become impossible to know their number. One may, however, and without any exaggeration, estimate them at between twenty-five and thirty thousand. Last year they did not reach a thousand in Bordeaux, a number that has multiplied tenfold in the space of a year. This is a proven fact, which no one can deny. But there is another notable fact, which we were also able to ascertain: in a number of localities where it was unknown, Spiritism penetrated thanks to the unfavorable sermons preached against it, inspiring in people the desire to know on what it was founded. Then, because they found it rational, it won over partisans. We could cite, among others, a small town in the Department of Indre-et-Loire, where Spiritism had never been heard of — at least in the last six months; there, the idea occurred to a preacher to thunder, from the pulpit, against what he called, falsely and improperly, the religion of the nineteenth century and the cult of satan. The population, surprised, wished to know what it was about; they sent for books, and today, there, the adherents have organized a Center. The Spirits were right when they told us, some years ago, that our own adversaries, without wishing it, would serve our cause. It is proven, everywhere, that the propagation of Spiritism has occurred by reason of the attacks. Now, for an idea to become popularized in this way, it must please and be judged more rational than others that are opposed to it. Thus, one of the results of our journey was to be able to ascertain, with our own eyes, what we already knew through our correspondence. It must be admitted, however, that this ascending march is far from being uniform. If there are regions where Spiritist ideas seem to germinate as they are sown, there are others where they penetrate with more difficulty, by virtue of local causes, linked to the character of their inhabitants and, above all, to the nature of their occupations. In these latter places, the Spiritists are scattered, isolated; but there, as elsewhere, they are roots that, sooner or later, will develop, as currently already occurs in the more numerous centers. Everywhere the Spiritist idea begins in the enlightened classes or those of middling culture. Nowhere did it begin with the inferior and ignorant classes. From the middle class it extends to the most elevated and to the lowest categories of the social scale. Today, in many cities, the meetings are composed almost exclusively of members of the courts, of the magistracy and of the civil service; the aristocracy also furnishes its contingent of adherents, although, up to the present, it has contented itself with showing itself sympathetic to the cause, gathering little, at least in France. Meetings of this kind are seen in preference in Spain, Russia, Austria and Poland, where Spiritism counts illustrious representatives, drawn from the most elevated social classes. A fact perhaps even more important than the number of adherents, deduced from our observations, is the seriousness with which the Doctrine is regarded. Wherever one investigates, it may be said that the philosophical, moral and instructive side is sought with avidity. Nowhere did we see Spiritist phenomenology taken as an object of entertainment, nor the experiments as distraction. Futile questions and curiosity are discarded everywhere. The groups, for the most part, are very well conducted, some even in a remarkable manner, with perfect knowledge of the true principles of the Spiritist science. All are united around the purposes upheld by the Society of Paris and have no banner but the principles taught in The Spirits' Book. In general, order and recollection reign there to perfection. We saw some Groups, in Lyon and Bordeaux, ordinarily constituted of about one to two hundred persons, whose attitude would not be more edifying in a church. It was in Lyon that the most important general meeting was held, composed of more than six hundred delegates from different groups, everything there proceeding in an admirable manner.

We must add that the meetings did not suffer the slightest opposition anywhere, and we are grateful to the civil authorities for the demonstrations of benevolence of which we were the object in various circumstances.

The mediums likewise multiply, there being few groups that do not count several of them, not to speak of the far more considerable quantity of those who belong to no grouping, making use of their faculty only for themselves and for their friends. Among this number, there exists a core of great superiority, endowed with writing mediums appropriate to the different kinds of manifestations, with a predominance of moralist mediums [see Moralist mediums], little amusing for the curious, who would do better to seek distractions elsewhere, and not in serious Spiritist meetings. Lyon has several notable drawing mediums; one of them uses the technique of oil on canvas without ever having learned to draw, nor to paint. There are many seeing mediums, whose faculty we were able to ascertain. In Marennes there is also a lady, a drawing medium and, at the same time, an excellent writing medium, both with respect to dissertations and to evocations. In Saint-Jean d'Angély we saw a mechanical medium whom we may consider exceptional. She is a lady who writes long and beautiful communications while reading her newspaper or taking part in the conversation, without even looking at her own hand. It happens, at times, that she does not realize she has already finished the dictation. Illiterate mediums are quite numerous, and many psychograph without ever having learned to write. This is no more extraordinary than to see drawing done by a medium who never learned drawing. But what is characteristic is the evident diminution of mediums of physical effects, as those of intelligent communications multiply. It is that, as the Spirits well said, the period of curiosity has now passed; we are now in the second period: that of philosophy. The third, which will soon begin, will be that of its application to the reform of Humanity. Conducting things with much wisdom, the Spirits wished, preliminarily, to draw attention to this new order of phenomena and to prove the manifestation of the beings of the invisible world. By exciting curiosity, they addressed themselves to everyone, whereas an abstract philosophy, presented from the outset, would have been understood only by a small number, who would hardly admit its origin. Acting gradually, they showed what they could accomplish. However, since the moral consequences, in the last analysis, were their essential objective, they assumed the grave tone when they judged sufficient the number of persons disposed to hear them, troubling themselves little about the recalcitrant. When the Spiritist science is solidly constituted; when it has been completed and purged of every systematic and erroneous idea, which falls daily before a serious examination, they will occupy themselves with its universal implantation, employing powerful means. While they wait, they sow the idea throughout the whole world, so that, when the moment arrives, it may already find landmarks everywhere. Then, the Spirits shall remove all the obstacles, since, against them and against the will of God, what could human obstacles represent? This rational and prudent course is revealed in everything, even in the teaching of details, graduated and proportioned according to the times, the places and the customs of men. Just as a dazzling and sudden light blinds instead of illuminating, the Spirits offer it only little by little. Whoever follows the progress of the Spiritist science will recognize that it grows in importance as it penetrates the deepest mysteries. Today Spiritism approaches ideas that, some years ago, we did not even suspect, and it has not yet spoken the last word, for it reserves for us many other revelations.

We recognized this progressive march of the teaching by the nature of the communications obtained in the different groups we visited, compared with those of former times. They are distinguished not only by their extent, breadth, ease of obtaining and elevated morality, but, above all, by the nature of the ideas presented, at times in a masterly manner. Without doubt this depends much on the medium, but it is not everything; it is not enough to have a good instrument, one must have a good musician to draw good sounds from it, and, furthermore, that this musician have an audience capable of understanding and appreciating him, for, otherwise, he would not take the trouble to play for the deaf.

This progress, moreover, is not general. Abstracting from the mediums, we ascertained it in relation to the character of the groups. It attains greater development in those where there reign, with the most lively faith, the purest sentiments, the most absolute moral disinterestedness. The Spirits know perfectly in whom to place confidence, with regard to things that cannot be understood by everyone. In those that present unsatisfactory conditions the teaching is good, always moral, but generally restricted to banalities.

By moral disinterestedness we understand abnegation, humility, the absence of all prideful pretension, of all thought of domination at the expense of Spiritism. It would be superfluous to speak of material disinterestedness, both as a matter of principle and because we ascertained, everywhere, an instinctive repulsion against any idea of speculation, which would be regarded as a sacrilege. Self-interested and professional mediums are unknown in the places we visited, with the exception of a single city, which counts a few of them. Anyone who, in Bordeaux or elsewhere, made a profession of his faculty, would not inspire the least confidence; quite the contrary, he would be repelled by all the groups, a sentiment that we were able to ascertain in a remarkable manner.

Another characteristic sign of this epoch is the incalculable number of adherents who have seen nothing and who are, nonetheless, no less fervent, simply because they have read and understood. This number increases without ceasing. In Cette, for example, they know mediums only by hearsay and through books; nonetheless, it is difficult to find more faith and more fervor. One of them asked us whether this facility in accepting the Doctrine by simple theory was a good or an evil; whether it was proper to a serious or a superficial spirit. We answered him that it is an indication of the facility in understanding it; that, like any other idea, it may be innate, a single spark sufficing to awaken it from its latent state. This facility in understanding denotes a prior progress in that direction; it would be levity to accept it on faith and blindly. The same does not hold for those who adopt it only after having studied and understood it: they see with the eyes of the intelligence what others see only with the eyes of the body. This proves that they attach more importance to the substance than to the form; for them philosophy is the principal thing, the manifestations being no more than a simple accessory. This philosophy explains to them what no other was capable of explaining and satisfies their reason by logic, filling the void of doubt; this suffices for them. This is why they prefer it to any other. It is rare that those who fall into this category are not good and true Spiritists, since in them exists the germ of faith, momentarily stifled by earthly prejudices. For some, material proofs are fundamental; for others, moral proofs suffice. On the other hand, there are creatures who are convinced neither by the one nor by the other, a characteristic that permits one to diagnose the nature of their spirit. In any case, little can be expected of those who say: "I will believe only if such or such a thing is produced," and absolutely nothing of those who, deeming themselves superior, do not take the trouble to study and observe. As for those who say: "Even if I saw it I would not believe, for I know it is impossible," it is useless to speak of them and, more useless still, to lose our time with them.

Without doubt, it is already much to believe, but belief alone is not sufficient, if it does not lead to results. Unfortunately there are many in this situation, that is, persons for whom Spiritism is no more than a fact, a fine theory, a dead letter that leads to no change, neither in their character nor in their habits. But, alongside the Spiritists who are merely credulous or sympathetic to the idea, there are the Spiritists of the heart, and we feel happy to have come upon many of them. We saw transformations that one might call miraculous; we gathered admirable examples of zeal, abnegation and devotion, numerous demonstrations of truly evangelical charity that, with just reason, we might call: Fine traits of Spiritism. Meetings composed exclusively of true and sincere Spiritists, of those in whom the heart speaks, also present a very special aspect; all the countenances reflect frankness and cordiality; we feel at ease in these congenial environments, true temples of fraternity. As much as the men, the Spirits delight there, show themselves more expansive and transmit their intimate instructions. In those, on the contrary, in which there is divergence of sentiments, where the intentions are not entirely pure, in which one notices the sardonic and disdainful smile on certain lips, where one feels the breath of ill-will and pride, in which one fears at every instant to tread on the foot of wounded vanity, there is always malaise, constraint and distrust. In such environments the Spirits themselves are more reserved and the mediums often paralyzed by the influence of the bad fluids, which weigh upon them like a mantle of ice. We had the good fortune to attend numerous meetings of the first category and we recorded them with joy in our notes, as one of the most agreeable remembrances we keep of our journey. Meetings of this nature will surely multiply, as the true objective of Spiritism is better understood; they are also the meetings that afford the most solid and most fruitful propaganda, because they address serious persons, who prepare the moral reform of Humanity by preaching through example. It is notable that children educated in Spiritist principles develop a precocious reasoning that makes them infinitely easier to govern; we saw many of them, of all ages and of both sexes, in the various Spiritist families in which we were received, where we were able to ascertain the fact personally. This neither takes away their natural joy nor their joviality; in them there does not exist that turbulence, that obstinacy, those caprices that make so many others insufferable; on the contrary, they reveal a foundation of docility, of tenderness and of filial respect that leads them to obey without effort and makes them more studious. This is what we were able to notice, and this observation is generally confirmed. If we could analyze here the sentiments that these beliefs tend to develop in children, we would easily conceive the result they must produce. We will say only that the conviction they have of the presence of their grandparents, who are there, beside them, able to see them incessantly, impresses them far more vividly than the fear of the devil, in which they soon end by not believing, while they cannot doubt what they witness daily in the bosom of the family. It is, then, a Spiritist generation that is being educated and that is progressively increasing. These children, in their turn, will educate their own children in the same principles and, meanwhile, the old prejudices will disappear with the old generations. It becomes evident that the Spiritist idea will one day attain the status of a universal belief. A fact no less characteristic of the present state of Spiritism is the development of courage of opinion. If there still exist adherents restrained by fear, today their number is far less considerable beside those who openly confess their beliefs and no longer fear to call themselves Spiritists, as they would not fear to pass for Catholics, Jews or Protestants. The weapon of ridicule, by dint of wounding without causing harm, ended by wearing itself out and, in the face of so many notable persons, who proudly proclaim the new philosophy, found itself obliged to bow down. A single weapon still remains suspended: the idea of the devil; but it is ridicule itself that does it justice. Moreover, it was not only this kind of courage that we perceived, but also that of action, of devotion and of sacrifice, that is, of those who courageously, in certain localities, place themselves in the vanguard of the movement of new ideas, assuming risks and confronting threats and persecutions. They know that God will not forget them, should men do them harm in this life.

As is known, obsession is one of the great reefs of Spiritism; thus, we cannot neglect so capital a point. In this regard we gathered important observations, which will constitute the matter of a special article in the Revue, in which we will speak of the possessed of Morzine, n which we likewise visited in the Haute-Savoie. Here we will say only that cases of obsession are very rare among those who have made a prior and attentive study of The Mediums' Book and have identified themselves with the principles contained in it, keeping themselves alert and watching for the slightest signs that might denounce the presence of a suspect Spirit. We saw some groups that, without doubt, find themselves under an abusive influence, since they delight in it and become prey to it through a confidence too blind and through certain moral dispositions. Others, on the contrary, reveal such a fear of being deceived that they carry distrust, so to speak, to excess, investigating with meticulous care all the words and all the thoughts, preferring to reject the doubtful rather than to risk admitting what might be evil. For this reason, the lying Spirits, seeing that they have nothing to do, end by withdrawing, going to seek compensation among those who offer them less difficulty and in whom they find certain weaknesses and some imperfections of spirit to exploit. Excess in everything is harmful, but, in such a case, it is preferable to err by excess of prudence than to err by excess of confidence. Another result of our journey was to permit us to judge the opinion relative to certain publications, which depart more or less from our principles, some of which even come to be frankly hostile to them.

Let us say, to begin with, that we found a unanimous approval for our silence, relative to the attacks we have suffered, in view of the letters of felicitation that we have daily received in this regard. In several addresses that were pronounced, our moderation was favorably applauded; one of them, among others, contains the following passage: "The malevolence of your enemies has produced a result entirely contrary to what they expected: that of magnifying you in the eyes of your numerous disciples and of tightening the bonds that unite them to you. By your indifference, you show that you are conscious of your strength. By opposing meekness to insults, you give an example that we shall know how to profit from. History, dear master, like your contemporaries, and better still than they, will take this moderation into account for you, when it ascertains, by your writings, that to the provocations of envy and jealousy, you opposed nothing but the dignity of silence. Between them and you, posterity will be the judge."

Personal attacks have never shaken us. The same cannot be said of those that are directed against the Doctrine. Sometimes we have responded directly to certain criticisms, when this seemed to us necessary, in order to prove, if need be, that we know how to enter the lists. And we would have done so more frequently, had we ascertained that these attacks brought real harm to Spiritism; but, when it was proven by the facts that, far from harming it, they served the cause, we praised the wisdom of the Spirits, employing their own enemies to propagate the Doctrine and, thanks to censure, making the idea penetrate into circles where it would never have penetrated through praise. This is a fact that our journey ascertained in a peremptory manner, since, in these very circles, Spiritism recruited more than one partisan.

When things proceed by themselves, why, then, struggle against attacks without profit? When an army perceives that the enemy's bullets do not reach it, it lets it fire at will and waste its munitions, quite certain of being able to act better afterward. In such a case, silence is, often, a stratagem; the adversary, to whom one does not respond, judges that he has not wounded sufficiently or has not found the vulnerable point. Then, confident in the success that he imagines easy, he exposes himself and disperses in a rout. An immediate response would have put him on guard. The best general is not the one who throws himself body and soul into the fray, but the one who knows how to wait and calculate the right moment. This is what happened to some of our antagonists; seeing the path on which they were venturing, it was certain that they would sink ever deeper into it. We limited ourselves to not intervening; and their systems, much sooner than was expected, were discredited on account of their own exaggerations, which we would not have achieved with our arguments alone.

However, say the would-be critics of good faith, we intend only to enlighten ourselves, and, if we attack, it is not out of hostility, out of prejudice or ill-will, but in order that, from the discussion, light may spring forth. Among these critics, there is no doubting it, some are sincere; but it is to be noted that those who have in view only questions of principle discuss with calm and never depart from propriety. Now, how many are there? What does the greater part of the articles that the press, great or small, has directed against Spiritism contain? Diatribes, witticisms generally little witty, foolishness and jests of bad taste, often insults that rival in coarseness and triviality. Are these serious critics, worthy of a response? There are those who betray themselves with such facility that it becomes useless to take them into consideration, for everyone perceives them. It would, in reality, be giving them too much importance, and it is preferable to let them amuse themselves in their little circle, rather than to put them in evidence by means of refutations without object, since they would not convince them. If moderation were not in our principles, since it is a very consequence of the Spiritist Doctrine, which prescribes the forgetting and the pardon of offenses, we would be encouraged to employ it when we saw the effect produced by these attacks, ascertaining that public opinion avenges us better than our words would do. As for the serious critics, of good faith, who prove their education by the urbanity of their forms, these place science above personal questions. To these we have often responded, if not directly, at least when we have the opportunity to treat in our writings of controverted questions, although there is no objection that does not find its response for whoever takes the trouble to read them. To respond to each one, individually, it would be necessary to repeat, incessantly, the same thing, and this would serve only for a single person. Time, moreover, would not permit it to us, whereas to take advantage of a subject that presents itself in order to refute it or to give an explanation regarding it is, most often, to set the example beside the precept, and this serves everyone.

We had announced a small volume of Refutations. We have not yet published it because it did not seem to us urgent and we could only profit from this. Before responding to certain pamphlets that, in the words of their authors, were supposed to undermine the foundations of Spiritism, we wished to judge the effect they would produce. Well then! our journey convinced us of one thing: they undermined nothing whatsoever, Spiritism is more alive than ever and today there is hardly any more talk of these pamphlets. We know that in the class of persons to whom they were addressed and to whom we do not address ourselves, they are considered unanswerable and our silence is taken as proof of our incapacity to answer them; whence they conclude that we are duly vanquished, thunderstruck and divided. What does that matter to us, since we are not so badly off after all? Did these writings cause the number of Spiritists to diminish? No. Would our response have converted these persons? No. There was, then, no urgency in refuting them; on the contrary, there was advantage in letting our adversaries cast the first stone.

When Sophocles was accused by his sons, who demanded his interdiction on account of a leniency, he wrote the Oedipus and his case was won. We are not capable of writing an Oedipus, but others take charge of answering for us: our publisher in the first place, printing the ninth edition of The Spirits' Book (the first is from 1857) and the fourth of The Mediums' Book, in less than two years; the subscribers of the Spiritist Review, doubling in number and obliging us to make a new reprint of the previous years, twice exhausted. The Spiritist Society of Paris, which sees its prestige grow; the Spiritists, who increase considerably each year, founding everywhere, in France and abroad, groups under the patronage and according to the principles of the Society of Paris; Spiritism, in short, running across the world, consoling the afflicted, sustaining the courage of the dejected, sowing hope where there was despair, confidence in the future where fear reigned. These responses are worth far more than the others, for it is the facts themselves that speak. But, like a swift steed, Spiritism raises beneath its feet the dust of pride, of egoism, of envy and of jealousy, overturning in its passage incredulity, fanaticism, prejudices and calling all men to the law of Christ, that is, to charity and fraternity. You who think that it advances too rapidly, why do you not interrupt it, or rather, why do you not go faster than it? The means of barring its passage is very simple: do better than it; give more than it gives; make men better, happier, more believing than it can do, and people will leave it to follow you. But, as long as you attack it only with words and not with better moral results, as long as you do not substitute for the charity it teaches a greater charity, you must resign yourselves to letting it pass. For Spiritism is not only a question of facts more or less interesting or authentic, to amuse the curious; it is, above all, a question of principles; it is strong above all by its moral consequences; it makes itself accepted not because it strikes the eyes, but because it touches the heart. Touch the heart more than it does and you will be accepted. Now, nothing touches the heart less than acrimony and insults.

If all our partisans were grouped around us, one might see in it a clique; but it could not be so with thousands of adhesions that reach us from all points of the globe, on the part of people whom we have never seen and who know us only by our writings. These are positive facts, expressed by the brutality of the figures, and which can be attributed neither to the effects of propaganda nor to the camaraderie of journalism; therefore, if the ideas that we profess and of which we are no more than the most humble responsible publisher, find so numerous sympathies, it is that they are not found so devoid of common sense.

Although the utility of the refutation we announced is not clearly demonstrated to us today, since the attacks refute themselves, by the insignificance of their results, and considering the incalculable number of adherents, we will do it even so. However, the observations we made on the journey have modified our plan, for there are many things that become useless, whereas new ideas have been suggested to us. We will strive that this work delay as little as possible the much more important tasks that remain for us to do in order to conclude the work for which we have made ourselves responsible.

In summary, our journey had a double objective: to give instructions where these were necessary and, at the same time, to instruct ourselves. We wished to see things with our own eyes, in order to judge the real state of the Doctrine and the manner in which it is understood; to study the local causes favorable or unfavorable to its progress, to sound out opinions, to appreciate the effects of opposition and criticism and to know the judgment that is made of certain works. We were desirous, above all, to clasp the hand of our Spiritist brothers and to express to them personally our most sincere and lively sympathy, returning the touching proofs of friendship that they give us in their letters; to give, in the name of the Society of Paris, and in our own name in particular, a special testimony of gratitude and of admiration to these pioneers of the work who, by their initiative, their disinterested zeal and their devotion, constitute its first and most firm supports, marching ever forward, without troubling themselves about the stones that are cast at them and placing the interest of the cause above personal interest. Their merit is all the greater because they work in ungrateful soil, live in a more refractory environment and expect from this world neither fortune, nor glory, nor honor; for this reason their joy is great when, among the thorns, they see some flowers blossom. A day will come when we shall have the happiness of raising a pantheon to the devotion of the Spiritists; while we wait for the materials to be gathered, we wish to leave them the merit of modesty: they will make themselves known and appreciated by their works. Under several points of view, our journey was very satisfactory and, above all, very instructive by the observations we gathered. If any doubts could remain as to the irresistible character of the march of the Doctrine and the impotence of the attacks, as to its moralizing influence, as to its future, what we saw would suffice to dissipate them. There is, certainly, much to be done and, in many places, it casts only scattered shoots, although vigorous ones that already bear fruit. Without doubt the rapidity with which Spiritist ideas spread is prodigious and without example in the annals of philosophies, but we are only at the beginning of the journey, and there still remains to be traveled the greater part of the way. Let the certainty of attaining the objective be, then, for all Spiritists, a stimulus to persevere in the way that has been traced out for them.

We publish, next, the principal address that we pronounced at the great meetings of Lyon, Bordeaux and some other cities. We accompany it with particular instructions given, according to the circumstances, in the particular groups, in response to some questions that were directed to us.

[1] Translator's Note: Kardec was personally in Morzine, a city of the Haute-Savoie, in the southeast of France, to observe a singular phenomenon of collective obsession that afflicted the natives of that place, especially the women. See the Spiritist Review of December 1862; January, February, April and May of 1863, FEB Ed.