232. It would be an error to suppose that it is necessary to be a medium in order to attract to you beings from the invisible world. The whole of space is peopled with them ; we have them constantly around us, by our side ; they see us, observe us, mingle in our reunions, follow us or fly from us, as we attract or repulse them. The medianimic faculty is not needed for that ; it is only a means of communication. From what we have seen of the causes of sympathy or an tipathy of spirits, it will easily be understood that we must be surrounded by those who have affinity for our own spirit, according as it is elevated or degraded. If we consider the moral state of our globe, we shall perceive what kind of spirits must predominate among the wandering spirits. If we take each people in par ticular, we can judge by the prevailing characteristics of the inhabitants, by their preoccupations, their sen timents, more or less moral and humanitary, of the order of spirits who would there rendezvous from preference.
Making this principle our starting-point, let us sup pose a reunion of trifling, incongruous persons, occu pied with their pleasures ; what kind of spirits would be found among them ? Not, assuredly, superior spir its, any more than our " savants " and philosophers would spend their time among them. So, whenever men gather together, they have with them an invisible assembly, which sympathizes with their qualities or their whims, and that setting aside all thought of invocation. Let us admit, now, the possibility of holding intercourse with the beings of the invisible world by an interpreter, a medium ; who would answer to their call ? Evidently those who are there already, and only seeking an occasion to communicate. If, in a frivolous assembly, a superior spirit is called, he might come, and say some seasonable words, as a good pastor in the midst of his strayed sheep ; but the moment he finds himself neither understood nor listened to, he goes, as you would do in his place, and then the others have full liberty.
