Chapter XVI: Part 16

1384. Mercantile honour, under the name of mercantile credit, is another important substitute for real heartfelt integrity. The ill consequences of a loss of worldly consideration, or of those advantages which result from the ability to _borrow_, or to _postpone_ payment with consent of the creditor, is a motive for punctual payment, when a debt equally due, in honesty, would be neglected. This goes much farther as an element of the prevailing morality in securing punctual payment, than religion.

1385. That religion has actually very little to do with mercantile morals, must be evident, _since it is never, on change, an object of inquiry_. When men are about to trust large sums, they do not inquire how often the other party goes to church, nor to what church he goes. It has never been my lot to know any one whom I thought better for his religion. I have known many whom I thought better through native goodness of heart than they would have been if left to the influence of their bigoted opinions alone. I heard a clergyman, distinguished for his amiability and liberality in social intercourse, speak from the pulpit of infidelity as “the work of the devil.”

1386. There are allegations of this kind made from the pulpit which to me appear to be absolutely calumnious, though those who make them do not conceive themselves to be calumniators. It is, in truth, their false religion which speaks; they are possessed as if by an evil spirit, yet the goodness of their hearts prevents them from realizing any such calumnies in their personal intercourse with society. Dr. Berg said it was not _he_ (Dr. Berg) that spoke when he used ill language to Barker, but the Bible. There is a want of Christian moderation in the language of Christ, and John the Baptist, and in some of the Psalms, which seems inconsistent with Christ’s precepts. John, addressing the Pharisees as “vipers fleeing from the wrath to come,” representing them as poisonous reptiles, and God as _enraged_ against them. The language of Christ respecting some of the same sect, to which allusion has been made, is even more abusive.

1387. But among the calumnies to which I have alluded, are those which represent the human heart as innately wicked, and only to be corrected by religious regeneration. All the souls created since Adam ate the apple, must be born anew, thus drawing a marked distinction between those who have gone through this second birth, and such as myself, who have not undergone this recuperative process. But what man of common sense draws a line between those who are thought to have been born over again, and those who have not? The great majority of those who call themselves Christians, do not put any more trust in one who has gone through this second birth, than in one who is not deemed to have been thus regenerated.

_Progress of Literature and Science in Arabia under the Mohammedan
Pontiffs, called Caliphs._

1388. While the science and literature of the Roman Empire sank under the influence of the Christian pontiff (pope) into ignorance, superstition, and vice, the Arabians, under the influence of their Mohammedan pontiffs, (caliphs,) arose from barbarism to a comparatively superior state of intellectual acquirement, as the following quotation, from “Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” will show:

1389. “After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged by the Caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mohammedan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy, but when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science: at his command they were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language; his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and the successor of Mohammed assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. ‘He was not ignorant,’ says Abulpharagius, ‘that _they_ are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turk may glory in the industry of their hands, or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a bee-hive: these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments, they are much inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism.’ The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas: their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful: the same royal prerogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The vizir of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined.”

1390. I here close my remarks upon the Influence of Scripture on the Morals of Christians. They have proceeded from a desire to promulgate what I deem to be truth, and to expose the errors by which I conceive it to be environed. It is inconsistent with my nature to state less than the truth when treating on any subject. I shall be sorry for any pain which I may give to those whose hearts are so associated with their opinions, that whatever conflicts with the one is painful to the other; yet I wish any persons so wounded to reflect how little denunciation has been spared, not only as respects opinions, but as respects motives, where “_infidels_,” unjustly so called, have been held up to view. I have not assailed the _motives_ of any one; even as respects _opinions_, I have withheld or modified sarcasms which, as I think, might have been justly employed, or used without modification.

ADDITIONAL CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.

1391. Subsequently to the printing of the articles under the head of Corroborative Evidence, a pamphlet was received from which the subjoined pages are translated, by my friend, Dr. Geib. It serves to show the impression made by spirit manifestations in another part of Christendom, upon one who belongs to the church.

_The Opinions of MM. de Mirville and Gasparin, on Table Turning and
Mediums, (considered in relation to theology and physics) examined, by
the Abbot Almignana, Doctor of the Canon Law, Theologian, &c._

_Introduction._

1392. “Mesmerism, table turning, and mediumship being phenomena which, in my estimation, demand serious investigation before pronouncing judgment on them, as soon as this became known to me, as an ocular witness, far from judging of them, _ex abrupto_, as so many have done under the same circumstances, I confined myself to make numerous experiments, with the hope that they might in time furnish me with some very useful facts, in searching for the cause of these wonderful phenomena.

1393. “Being in possession of some of these facts, I thought the present an opportune time for their publication, when two _savans_ of the elite, such as the Marquis de Mirville and the Count de Gasparin, are engaged in a scientific contest on this subject.

1394. “I consider the present moment the more opportune, that the facts furnished by my investigation, being at variance with certain leading points in the doctrines contained in the _Pneumatology_ of M. de Mirville, and the _Supernatural in General_ of M. de Gasparin, may induce those writers to give a new complexion to their doctrines, by taking counsel from my facts. These, shedding a new light on the triple phenomena, would powerfully aid in the solution of a problem which, up to the present time, does not appear to have been solved in a manner as clear and positive, as the interests of truth, science, and religion demand. Such has been and is now my belief, as well as that of many others whom I thought proper to consult before undertaking the task in which I have engaged.

1395. “Simple as my language is, it will be seen to have issued from the pen of a man who boldly seeks the truth, and is not to be arrested in his course by any worldly interests. Persuaded that in view of my position, my readers will grant me the indulgence which in a similar case I could not refuse them, I will proceed to the main question without further preliminaries. I divide my monograph into two parts; facts opposed to the Pneumatology of M. de Mirville, and the Supernatural in General of M. de Gasparin.

_First Part._

1396. “Table turning and mediumship are nothing more, in the opinion of M. de Mirville, than the work of the devil! I give an abstract of his doctrine as found in his Pneumatology. ‘In the letter,’ he says, ‘which I had the honour to address to the _Societe Mesmerisme_ of Paris on the non-intervention of the devil in therapeutic mesmerism, dated Sept. 20, 1847, and published in numbers 54, 56, and 57 of the Journal of _Magnetism_, I established the existence of the devil, with the attributes given him in the Scriptures, as well as the power he possesses, with divine permission, to act morally and physically on mankind, as set forth in the same holy books.’

1397. “In view of what I have just said, I cannot be mistaken by M. de Mirville with respect to demonology. But while admitting the existence of a devil, and his power over man, I cannot agree with the opinion of M. de Mirville in his _Pneumatology_, which admits the direct intervention of the devil in table turning and table talking, as well as in the powers of mediums; a view of the subject which I hold to be at variance with the teachings of the Catholic Church on the possessed, and the manner of deliverance therefrom, the evil spirit, which I proceed to explain.

1398. “It is an axiom as old as the world—in proportion as the cause is removed the effect ceases; _sublata causa tollitur effectus_. The truth of this maxim, in reference also to diabolical possessions, is found to be explicitly proved in the Holy Scriptures. A mute is presented to Christ to be cured: _oblatus est ei mutus_. The Divine Master, knowing that dumbness is caused by the devil, hastens to remove the cause, by chasing the evil spirit from the body of the possessed, which being done, the mute spoke in the midst of the people ravished with admiration. ‘And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered.’ St. Luke xi. 14.

1399. “There was at Philippi, in Macedonia, a girl who, being possessed of the evil spirit, had the gift of divination to such an extent, that people came from all parts to consult her, much to the benefit of her masters. St. Paul having chased the demon from the body of the possessed, she lost the gift of divination; which exasperating her masters, they dragged St. Paul before a magistrate like a malefactor. (Acts xv.) Admitting these principles, it follows that if the devil intervenes directly in tables and mediums, as Christ drove him from the mute, and St. Paul from the girl of Philippi, then, _a fortiori_, should clairvoyants lose their lucidity, tables be made to stand still, and mediums be deprived the power of tracing a line however short; _sublata causa tollitur effectus_. The cause being removed, the effect must cease.

1400. “Our next object is to refer to the means for removing the evil spirit wherever found; and consulting the Catholic ritual affords us this knowledge. In fact, agreeably to these teachings, demons are driven off by the sacred names of God and Jesus, by prayer, the sign of the cross, by holy water, and exorcisms; and these means being known, I am going to report the effect of these means on clairvoyant subjects, tables, and mediums.

1403. “Having witnessed some extraordinary phenomena, and desiring to assure myself as to the presence of a diabolical agency in these manifestations, as I had been persuaded to believe—profiting by the opportunity offered by some mediums magnetized by others, and not by myself—I was induced to pray to invoke the sacred names of God and Jesus, to make the sign of the cross on the subjects, and went so far as to sprinkle them with holy water, with the design of driving out the devil, should he have taken possession of them. However, as not one of these mediums lost, in my presence, the smallest part of their powers, I was led to infer that the devil had nothing to do with the phenomena.

1404. “The following fact should attract the attention of all observers holding the orthodox faith: A youth of thirteen, put to sleep by his mother, at my house, gave proof of the greatest clairvoyance, even so far as to be in communion with supermundane beings. Alarmed, as I acknowledge I was, at what passed under my eyes, and suspecting, as I did, that the devil might be the agent of those phenomena, I took my crucifix, and presenting it to the clairvoyant, conjured him in the holy name of Jesus. But in place of repelling it, as I expected, he seized the cross in the most affectionate manner, and, smiling, pressed it to his lips; as much to the edification of his mother as of myself. Should M. de Mirville desire the address of the parties, he can have it.

1405. “The means thus employed by me to discover if the evil spirit actuated mesmeric subjects, have been employed also by other persons with the same view, and with similar results. Should M. de Mirville desire to know some of these persons, I will be happy to facilitate the acquaintance. As to exorcism, it is known by the biography of the celebrated clairvoyant Prudence, that although exorcised on several occasions, the exorcisms failed to deprive him, in the smallest degree, of his great clairvoyance. To the facts which I have just reported in support of the non-intervention of the devil, some new facts of another kind will be adjoined, which in some measure confirm the first.

1406. “One of the models of sacred eloquence, the R. P. Lacordaire, speaking of mesmerism in 1846, far from qualifying it as _satanical_, as M. de Mirville has done, proclaimed from the pulpit of truth, in the church of _Notre Dame_ of Paris, that this phenomenon belonged to the order of prophecy, and that it was a provision of the divinity to humble the pride of materialism. This language, descended from the summit of the sacred tribune, is known to have received the public approbation of Mgr. Affre, the centre of Catholicism of the diocese of Paris, who, addressing the faithful, said to them: ‘My brothers, it is God who speaks with the mouth of the illustrious Dominican.’

1407. A very pious female, abandoned by her medical adviser, being in a state of despair, was magnetized by one of her parents, and fell into the most complete trance. In one of her first sleeps, she said she saw a person who, according to the description she gave of him, appeared to be the clairvoyant’s great-grandfather, deceased several years before the birth of his grand-daughter. The latter was cured by the advice received during her trance condition from the said great-grandfather. This fact appeared to me so grave in its nature, and so interesting to science and religion, that I thought proper to publish it in number nineteen of the _Magnetisme Spiritualiste_, with an appeal to all those who, by their knowledge, might be able to explain this phenomenon.

1408. Among those to whom our appeal was made, figured the theologians, to whom, in speaking of the person who appeared to the clairvoyant, I said: ‘Should this not be considered the devil, who, assuming a fantastic personation, took that of the great-grandfather of M. R., and appearing thus to him, cured him of a disease which he himself had originated?’

1409. Some copies of the number of the journal in question were sent to the sovereign pontiff, through his apostolic nuncio at Paris, to Mgr. the archbishop of Paris, to the faculty of theology at Sorbonne, to RR. PP. Jesuits of the _Rue des Postes_, to R. P. Lacordaire, and to the Calvinistic Consistory of Paris, begging them to enlighten me on a fact of such grave importance. But to the present time, a period of three years, not one of these great personages has informed me that the phenomenon to which I invited their attention is the work of the devil, which proves that, in their opinion, the evil one is a stranger to this phenomenon; for otherwise they would not have failed to answer my inquiry, if only from interest for religion, or through charity to myself. Should M. de Mirville desire to know the clairvoyant I refer to, he can be conducted to his domicile.

1410. Mgr. Sibour, on mesmerism, and _La Grandeur_, if interrogated, will tell you that the thoughts expressed by clairvoyants are only reflections from their magnetizers, without saying a single word to you about the devil. But we have said enough on clairvoyants, and will pass to the tables.

1411. I have made a great many experiments in table-turning and table-talking with pious laymen and with ecclesiastics, men of prayer and serious habits, and even with a venerable bishop, and always in a very serious manner; desiring to know, for the sake of religion and our souls, if the devil is in reality the agent who conveys movement and language to the tables. Besides exorcism, we have employed all the means taught and prescribed in the Catholic Church to drive out the devil, and we have never obtained any results; for neither prayer, nor the sacred names of God and Jesus, nor the sign of the cross made on the tables, nor the crucifix, nor the chapelet, (the beads,) nor the Gospels, nor the image of Christ placed on the tables, nor holy water, could stop their turnings, knockings, and replying to our questions. But far from it, and much to our astonishment, we have seen the table turn over before the image of Christ crucified. I will say no more. In the experiments made with the bishop just named, and the person with whom I was boarding, it was the venerable bishop himself that made the sign of the cross on a stand, without in the least retarding the motion of that small piece of furniture. Monseigneur then asked the stand if it loved the cross, and it replying in the affirmative, it was with surprise that Monseigneur saw the stand turn over before his _croix pastorale_, and speak to him in orthodox language of a future life.

1412. If, according to all the facts which I have just reported, it be necessary to reason agreeably to M. de Mirville, behold what that reasoning must be. The teachings of the Catholic ritual give to prayer, to the sacred names of God and Jesus, to the sign of the cross, to the holy water, and the exorcisms, the virtue of driving the devil (_le démon_) out of the possessed. Now, as neither prayer, the sacred names, the sign of the cross, &c. are able to drive the spirit out of mediums, nor out of tables, which, according to M. de Mirville, are also victims, then the Catholic Instructor, which assigns these means for removing evil spirits, must be in error. Then the Scripture, the SS. PP., and the Church, authorities on which the Catholic teachings are based on the subject of possessions, and the manner of delivering the possessed of the evil spirit, (_les démons_,) are in error.[31] And what true Catholic dare entertain this language? It is then to avoid getting into so unfortunate a position, that I have thought proper to reject the opinion of M. de Mirville on the manifestations of spirits. I shall be told that if the prescribed means sometimes fail, it is from want of faith on the part of those who employ them. This is my reply to that objection. The peasants do not possess a large quantity of faith, and, notwithstanding, Origen says the name of God, pronounced even by a peasant, chases the demons.—_Origines contra celsum._

1413. There are a great many people, and among them figure some pious ecclesiastics and laymen, who quite frequently partake of the sacrament, who have experimented with me, who have prayed with me, have invoked with me the sacred names of God and Jesus, &c.; is it then credible that among these persons, not one should be found possessing a portion of faith equal to that of a peasant, which is able, according to Origen, to drive out the devil in the name of God? I am unable to believe it. What! the venerable bishop, who experimented with me during four years, had sacrificed himself in propagating the faith in distant lands, should he not have as much faith as a peasant, in order to be able to remove an evil spirit in the name of God? This would be to insult the sacred labour of propagating the faith in the person of one of its most distinguished apostles.

1414. But this is not enough; notice how St. John teaches us to know if a spirit is of God or not. ‘My well beloved, this is how to know that a spirit is of God: all spirits who confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, are of God, and those who do not confess that he is come in the flesh, are not of God.’ (1 John ix.) Instructed by St. John in the manner of knowing the spirits of God, to assure myself further on the nature of spirits or occult forces, exhibited in the movement and language of tables, I have used the method indicated by St. John. It was with this view that, my little table being in motion, I addressed to it the following questions: Do you confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Yes, it replied. The same question, repeated several times, produced uniformly the same answer. Having this experiment alone at my house, I was desirous of seeing whether the same results would be obtained in company. With this design I went to the houses of persons acquainted with these phenomena, and begged a gentleman, a medium, to place his hands with mine on a stand. The movement of the stand being felt, the same question was answered in the same manner. And after this experience can I conscientiously believe in the intervention of the devil in the turning and speaking of the tables, without regarding the testimony of St. John as erroneous; and should I regard it as such? It is for M. de Mirville to answer.

1415. But I do not stop here. It is said in the ritual of Paris and others, in the chapter of the possessed, as follows: _Signa energumenorum sunt. Ignota lingua liogni idque, maxima serie verborum quæ previderi non potuerunt velita loquentem intelligere distantia, et oculta patefacere et vires supra etatis suæ naturam ostendere._ Very well, if demons, as the ritual says, speak all languages, even those unknown, after the great number of experiments which I have made, I am prepared to declare that tables do not speak all languages, even the known ones, nor do they understand them. Let some one who does not understand Greek, addressing a question to the table in French, request it to reply in Greek, and we will see if the table does it. Let a stranger give to an inquirer at the table a question in a language unknown to him, limiting himself to merely reading it, and we will see if the table respond; I defy all the tables in the world to do it. If M. de Mirville desires to make these experiments with me, I am entirely at his service.

1416. I have endeavoured to discover if tables have the faculty which, according to the ritual, is possessed by the devil (_les démons_) to penetrate the hidden and the future, and I have found in this direction more error than truth. As to the superior physical force which, according to the ritual, is possessed by the devil, (_les démons_,) there is not a single turning table in the world, whose movement cannot be arrested or retarded by enveloping the hands of the experimenters in silk; which proves that the tables have not a power _supra naturam_, and that of course it could not be the devil who furnishes the momentum. But what gives more force to the reasons on which I rest, for not referring the motive-power to an evil spirit, is this: that having made them separately known to four prelates of the church of France, three of whom are conspicuous in the religious investigation of these phenomena, begging a due examination and report if my opinion is in error, that I may retract and write against the tables, not one of these prelates has pronounced me wrong, nor in the least blamed my exposition of facts. And in case it may become necessary to establish this fact, I retain the letters of these prelates. Let us now pass to the consideration of the mediums.[32]

1417. Hearing that there were persons whose hands, without their will, were made to write some very extraordinary things, and that these persons were called ‘mediums,’ one day, in order to assure myself of the fact, I took a crayon in my hand, and placing it on paper, concentrated myself as much as possible. But a few minutes had passed, when I felt my hand controlled without my will, and saw it trace some lines, letters, and words. This experiment being repeated often with the same success, I have therefore become a medium, though of a secondary degree.

1418. Desiring to know whether, in this phenomenon, there might not be some diabolical agency, in order to satisfy my mind on that subject, I asked of the occult power, or the spirit that controlled my hand, if it was the devil; being answered in the negative, I requested to have proof of it. Scarcely were those words uttered, when my hand, moving with energy, drew a large cross. Seeing this, I put the same questions about J. C. that were put at my table, and the answers, being written, were the same; from which I concluded that the agency in the writing of mediums is the same as in moving the tables, which, in my opinion, is not that of the devil, as already said. However, in order to confirm my assurance of the non-intervention of the devil in the phenomena of mediums, I desired to add another experiment, which follows:

1419. As the devil speaks all languages, according to the ritual, even those unknown, to see whether the occult power or spirit which caused me to write possessed this satanic attribute, which, being so, would prove the intervention of the devil in the performance of mediums, I asked the invisible agent if it would cause the Lord’s prayer to be written in several languages, and was answered in the affirmative. Yielding my hand with a pen to the motive power, the _Pater_ was written in two ways, which the same power, also by writing, said was in Valaque and in Russian. Then requesting the same to be written in French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it was immediately done; when requesting it to be written in English and German, was answered it could not be done. Why not? I inquired. Because you neither speak nor write those two languages, which is necessary.

1420. In what languages then, I asked, are you able to make me write? In the languages which I spoke on earth, as the Valaque and Russian, and those which you speak. The _Pater_, thus written, I had the honour to present it personally to Monseigneur the Archbishop of Paris, by his request. Having mentioned this, I was advised to request my spirit friend to write something in Valaque, and have it submitted to some one acquainted with that language, in order to determine the fact of its being so; which proposal I willingly accepted.

1421. But, returned to my house, the idea occurred to me to make an experiment to control my familiar spirit myself. I wrote on a piece of paper a phrase in French, and took a separate copy of it on another piece of paper. I read this phrase to my spirit, and requested him to render it in Valaque. The spirit, having made some lines, told me by writing that the translation was already made. I requested him to do the same with it in Spanish, Italian, and Latin, and it was done. Requesting him further to write the same in English, he replied it could not be done, as I did not speak that language. Allowing a few minutes to pass, I took the copy of the phrase, and requested the spirit to do the same with it that he had done with the original. The spirit having caused me to write, as he professed, the same phrase in the same languages as he had caused me to write it in previously, I hastened to compare the two translations; but what was my surprise when finding the Spanish, Italian, and Latin translations of the copy like those of the original; I found the Valaque translation of the original and that of the copy not at all alike!

1422. “Convinced, then, that my spirit did not understand the _Valaque_, which proved to me, according to the ritual, that it was not a devil, (_un démon_,) but that notwithstanding he had deceived me, I gave him a severe reprimand, treating him as an infamous cheat, and driving him from my presence. At this juncture, my hand was caused to tremble excessively, which terminated by writing in large characters: ‘I am the devil, and you are a bad preacher that seeks to find out the secrets of God!’ Very well, I said; your proclamation in large letters that you are the devil, is no reason why I should believe it. The devil, according to the ritual, speaks all languages, and you do not speak the Valaque nor English, and therefore you are not the devil. If I am a bad preacher, that does not concern you. It is God who will judge me, and I submit to his holy will. Could I see you as I feel you, I would fix you well; but as it is, I decline any further correspondence with you.

1423. “Scarcely had I expressed these words, when my hand, being influenced, wrote as follows: ‘Pardon! pardon! I am not the devil. If I said so, it was to frighten you, because you continued to plague me with your questions; but I see you are a man that fears nothing. You are not a bad preacher, but a great thinker. Continue then to experiment with me, and I will always tell you the truth!’

1424. “Very well, I pardon you, and request you to say, without deceiving me, what languages you do speak? ‘I speak no other languages than those which you speak, and if I did otherwise, it was for amusement.’ Then what are the languages which the spirits speak? ‘Those of the communing person, and no others.’[33] And this ended the meeting.

1425. “Wishing still to test what had been said to me by my spirit, I went to the house of a writing medium, like myself, and begged him to try some experiments in writing. In the midst of our experiments, I wrote the following words on a small piece of paper in Spanish: _Como té llamos?_ and without making their signification known to the medium in French, requested him to read them to the spirit friend. This was done, but the spirit was silent. The medium, however, insisting on an answer, was impressed by the spirit to write the word _malheur_, (misfortune.) The reply not agreeing with the question, I told the medium to say to his spirit that he had badly replied. Then the spirit made the medium write as follows: ‘If I have not complied with your request, it is because I do not understand that language.’

1426. As the medium did not understand what had been read to the spirit, which in French would mean, _Comment vous appelez-vous?_ (What is your name?) I perceived that if the spirit did not reply to the Spanish, it was because the medium neither spoke nor understood that tongue; which agreed with what my spirit had told me. Then I requested the medium to ask his spirit to make me write. On the affirmative response of the spirit, I took the pen, and addressing the same question to him: _Como te llamos?_ he replied in Spanish—_Benito_. Answer me in French—_Benoit_. In Latin—_Benedictus_.

1427. This experiment confirming what my spirit had told me, that the spirits could produce only the language of those with whom they communed, was a new proof for me of the non-intervention of the devil; seeing, according to the ritual, that he is master of all languages, and that mediums only write those they understand, and have previously learnt.[34] If M. de Mirville desires to make some such experiments with me, it will afford me great pleasure to do so.

1428. _Nota bene_: What merits particular regard in the information received from my spirit friend as to the language used by spirits in communing with men is, that the same was said one hundred and five years since by the ecstatic Swedenborg. See No. 236 of his Treatise on Heaven and Hell, by Le Boys des Guays.

1429. This will suffice for the present for M. de Mirville. It remains for him to explain the facts we have reported, and to reconcile them with his _Pneumatology_: in expectation I proceed to notice the _Supernatural in General_ of M. de Gasparin.”

_Second Part._

1430. “All the prodigies of the mesmeric subjects of clairvoyants, the sorcery, haunting spirits, apparitions, visions, &c., owe their origin, according to M. de Gasparin, to nervous excitement, fluidic action, and sometimes are hallucinations. As I do not design here to make a critical analysis of M. de Gasparin’s work, not considering myself capable, and leaving this honour to those who are in some scientific line, I design merely occupying myself with some facts which refer personally to me, and which appear to me to oppose some points in the doctrine of M. de Gasparin in his table-turning, or _Supernatural in General_, as already noticed in the introduction to the monograph, and I commence with the subject of ecstasy.

1431. “Speaking of ecstatics, M. de Gasparin explains himself as follows: ‘As to their intellectual faculties, they are capable in those cases of prodigious development. The ecstatics declare themselves that they have two souls; that a voice foreign to their own causes them to speak; that they suddenly receive ideas entirely unknown to them, and terms of expression entirely strange to them. It happens even that the peasant accustomed to _patois_, speaks French, and that illiterate men express themselves in Latin. Now, have we something here that is _supernatural_? Certainly not; it is a physiological state, or often the treasures of reminiscence, which the subject possessed, though in fact not aware of it. The peasant may have known how to speak French; she may not have known it, and still it may all have been engraved on the deep recesses of the memory, where nothing is ever really effaced. Exalted or sick, she finds herself in possession of the French language. A merchant, who has scarcely passed the first classes, and who never knew Latin, finds himself the possessor of the Latin language, and embarrasses his doctor, whom he addresses in that tongue.’

1432. “According to this ecstatic theory of M. de Gasparin, it follows that the ideas expressed by the subjects, and which were unknown to them in their normal state, are nothing more than reminiscences. I admit, with M. de Gasparin, that reminiscence is only the return of the soul to the recollection of a thing or an idea, which, though engraven on the memory, was forgotten. This return, however, does not happen without some remarks, which, from the recollection of some ideas or incidents, conduct the mind to the recollection of what was forgotten.

1433. “I am a medium: according to the received opinion, a medium is a waking magnetic subject. Now, every magnetic subject is in a degree ecstatic; therefore I, being a medium, am ecstatic. Well, I being ecstatic, take a pencil, and concentrating myself in that state, request the occult power that moves my hand without my volition to cause it to write, if it is possible, something on the creation. The last word is scarcely pronounced when my hand proceeds to write, without interruption, something true or false, on the creation, which surprises me.

1434. “This interview terminates, and desiring to know if these ideas on the creation come from reminiscences, I seek to discover if they could have been engraven on my memory, either from reading or hearing them related. With this view I commenced by reading religious and philosophic books that would be likely to discuss the question, but could find nothing like what I had written. I consulted the public libraries, and they contained nothing on the creation similar to what my hand had communicated. Not a professor, philosopher, naturalist, physiologist, theologian, or historian, with whom I had ever had any intercourse, could recollect any thing of the kind.

1435. “After this, I reason as follows: having examined all the means by which what was written by my hand on the creation could have been impressed on my memory, nothing appears to warrant that belief; therefore, these notions on the creation cannot be regarded as reminiscences.

1436. “But it is not enough, we have said, that in reminiscence, are necessary, which, by the recollection of an object, idea, or notion, we are led to the further recollection of something forgotten. That this should take place, some time is required, however little it may be. However, in the case related, not a moment was required, and this breaks up the required process, in order to respond to the theory of M. de Gasparin.

1437. “Now, if these ideas on the creation are not reminiscences—if they do not emanate from the devil, who, agreeably to our author, is an entire stranger to these phenomena—if it is not the soul of a deceased person that controlled my hand, as M. de Gasparin, being a Protestant, does not believe in returning spirits nor in communion with the dead, who then caused to be written by my hand such strange things, without my knowledge or assistance? And I beg M. de Gasparin to be so good as to explain this phenomenon, which appears to be in opposition with his theory on the prodigies of ecstatic subjects. Should M. de Gasparin desire to see what I have written, he can be gratified. But what will he say, when having requested my spirit to reply in writing on some subject familiar to my mind, he is unable to do it, or replies contrary to my thoughts and convictions? Can this be called reminiscence? I pass now to consider mesmerism.

1438. “In speaking on this subject, the _Supernatural_ of M. de Gasparin says, ‘The clairvoyance of mesmerism appears in general to have only the character of an echo. Its wonders are those of reminiscence or perception of images and thoughts, which occupy the intelligence of the person with whom the clairvoyant is in rapport. This appears to be the balance-sheet of animal magnetism, and it has changed but little since its origin.’ (Tome ii. page 311.)

1439. “According to what M. de Gasparin has just told us, it follows, that when a clairvoyant tells us in his sleep that he sees the spirit of a deceased person, and gives us an exact description of his person, we are not to regard it as the deceased person that the clairvoyant sees, but his image impressed on the memory of that clairvoyant from acquaintance with the defunct when living, or in the memory of the consulting visitor in rapport; so that the clairvoyant, in these apparitions of the dead, is governed only by reminiscence or the reflection of images or of thoughts. Now, having allowed M. de Gasparin to speak, I desire in my turn to speak also.

1440. “In January, 1848, a work was published, entitled _Les Arcanes de la Vie Future Révelée_: The Arcana of a Future Life Revealed. My attention being attracted by the title of this work, it was procured, and proved to be nothing but a collection of the apparitions of deceased persons to clairvoyants.

1441. “On so delicate a question, I thought it best to consult the Scriptures, to see whether the appearance of the dead to the living was admitted by the sacred volumes. I opened, then, the Bible, and the first passage that met my eye was the chap. xxvii. of the first book of Kings, where it said that Samuel had appeared to the witch of Endor, and that, by the intermediation of the latter, the prophet spoke to Samuel; an apparition on which were sketched those reported by M. Cahagnet in his _Arcana_. I saw afterward in the second book of Maccabees, the high-priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah appearing to Judas Maccabeus. I see in St. Matthew, chap. xvii., the apparition of Moses and Elias to Peter, John, and James on the Tabor. Finally, I read, in chap. xxviii. of the said St. Matthew, that at the death of our Saviour Jesus Christ, many of the dead appeared to a great number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

1442. “Convinced by the holy volume of the possibility, or rather of the reality, of the apparition of the dead to the living, I put to myself this question: Can these apparitions of the dead to the living which, according to the Bible, took place in former times, be permitted to occur at the present time? In order to resolve that question, I desired again to consult the Bible, and found the Holy Spirit, in Ecclesiastes, holding the following language: ‘_What has been, is what shall be; and what has been done, is what shall be done again._’

1443. “Then, I said to myself, the appearance of the dead to the living has taken place, according to the Bible; therefore, agreeably to the same sacred volume, what has existed at one time may exist at another. Therefore, there is no reason for rejecting the doctrine of communion of spirits, God willing, at the present time.

1444. “But it is to be found out whether the apparitions reported in the _Arcana_ were realities, or were only illusions, so called. The solution of this problem belongs to me. And with this view I found myself at the house of the author of the _Arcana_, where a very serious discussion took place between him and myself on his work, which ended with the apparition of my brother Joseph, the third one that figures in the second volume of the _Arcana_. In fact, I called for the apparition of my late brother, and scarcely had a few minutes passed when the clairvoyant, Adile, told me she saw a gentleman, and by the description she gave of the stature, costume, character, the cause and place of the death of the person appearing, I could not avoid recognising in the said person that of my brother Joseph.

1445. “This apparition had such an effect on me, as to keep me awake the whole night, seeking to explain the phenomenon. But becoming fatigued with researches, I thought, as a magnetizer, to be able to explain these apparitions by the same means as M. de Gasparin pretends to explain them at the present time. I said to myself that clairvoyants saw the image of things impressed on the memory of the persons with whom they were in rapport; the image of my late brother being engraved on my memory, it was enough for M. Cahagnet to put me, by an act of his will, in rapport with his clairvoyant, for the latter to have seen the image of my brother on the tablets of my memory.

1446. “With this impression, I wrote to M. Cahagnet, saying to him, that in spite of my assurance yesterday of the reality of the apparition of my brother, my knowledge of magnetism had caused me to-day to think otherwise, and that further evidence would be necessary to convince me of its reality. M. Cahagnet having complied, two spirits were evoked; one of my aforesaid brother Joseph, and the other of Antoinette Carré, the sister of my domestic; apparitions reported in the second volume of the _Arcana_, and the description given by the clairvoyant could not have been more correct. But as I still entertained the idea that these images could not be traced by the clairvoyant in my mind, this meeting produced no results. Curious, however, to know whether other clairvoyants possessed the same faculty as the clairvoyant of M. Cahagnet in regard to these apparitions, in the sense I understand them, I begged M. Lecocq, clockmaker of the navy, living at Argenteuil, to try some experiments with his sister, a very lucid clairvoyant.

1447. “Five apparitions appeared, of whom three were unknown to him or his clairvoyant, knowing only their names; and their identity was determined by the assistance of other persons present who had known them, as reported from two sources, the letter written me by M. Lecocq, which M. de Gasparin can see, and the report made by the former to M. Cahagnet, which was published in the second volume of the _Arcana_, page 244. In view of this fact, and others of the same nature come to my knowledge, my opinion as to the derivation of appearances and thoughts from the mind of communicants through the clairvoyant begins to be modified. However, to be entirely convinced of the reality of these apparitions, I should require similar facts to be presented to my own eyes.

1448. “Animated by these sentiments, I requested a person in whom I reposed entire confidence, to give me the name of a defunct, entirely unknown to me, and that of Joseph Moral was given. The young clairvoyant of thirteen years, whom I named at the beginning of this monograph, being one day put to sleep by his mother at my house, I used the opportunity to request the subject to invoke the spirit of Joseph Moral. Scarcely had two minutes elapsed, when the young clairvoyant announced the presence of a person, whom she described. Having never seen the said Joseph Moral, and therefore not able to say any thing about him, I was limited to writing down a faithful account of him as given by the clairvoyant.

1449. “The meeting ended, I sought the person who had furnished the name, and reading the description, and much surprised to find it correct, she said to me, ‘How, sir, were you able to give such an exact description of M. Joseph Moral, whom you never knew and have never seen?’

1450. “This fact was for me a positive conviction that clairvoyants, in their communion with the dead, do not simply see the image of the deceased in the memory of the consulting party, but that they see the veritable _souls_ of the departed, as the witch of Endor saw the soul of Samuel, according to our creed, called the Holy Spirit of the Ecclesiastic. And should M. de Gasparin desire to know the person who gave me the name of M. Joseph Moral, it will give me pleasure to wait on him to her house.

1451. “Here is another fact like the preceding, but still more interesting. M. de Sarrio, of Alicant, in Spain, a cavalier of Malta, gave to my brother Joseph, of whom I have already spoken, fifteen thousand francs, to be distributed among the poor; for which sum my brother aforesaid gave a receipt to the benevolent donor. At the death of M. de Sarrio, his brother, the Marquis of Algolfa, becoming his heir, found this receipt among the papers of the deceased. At the death of my brother, the Marquis desiring to know if all the amount had been disbursed, addressed my sister, who became his heir, on the subject. But my sister, being unacquainted with his affairs, not having lived with him, submitted to the marquis the schedule of the deceased; which, showing only the distribution of half the amount, the other half was claimed by the marquis, and finally made the subject of a lawsuit.

1452. “My sister, much aggrieved, made me a party to her troubles, in a letter from Alicant. Discomforted by what had happened to my sister, I visited my young clairvoyant and demanded the presence of my brother, who, as she had said, had several times been with her. He was reported present, and I questioned him in relation to the money received from M. de Sarrio, reproaching him in regard to the reversion of the said balance, and the pain he had caused my sister.

1453. “My brother, astounded at my language, said, that he owed nothing to anybody; and as to the amount referred to, he had given it to Father Mario before dying, to be distributed to the poor; to prove which it would be necessary to call Father Mario. Scarcely had my brother said this, when the clairvoyant said she saw a man with my brother, and from the description she gave of him, I thought I recognised a Capuchin friar, who, interrogated by my brother, confirmed what he had said.

1454. “Having never heard the name of Father Mario, as I had left Alicant thirty years before, I requested some particulars of his country and family, and was told he belonged to St. Vincent du Respect, one league from Alicant, &c., and I put the following questions to my sister, by letter: Was your brother Joseph visited in his sickness by a priest named Father Mario, having a sister at St. Vincent du Respect? and do you know if this Father Mario is dead? Following is the answer: