287. Some persons think it preferable to abstain from asking questions, and that it is best to wait the teaching of the spirits without calling it forth ; that is an error. Spirits, certainly, give spontaneous instruc tions of a very high bearing, which it would be wrong to neglect ; but there are explanations we should often await a long time were they not solicited. Without the questions we have asked, the Book on Spirits and the Book on Mediums would be still to make, or, at least, would have been much less complete, and a crowd of problems of great importance would be still to solve. Questions, far from having the least danger attending them, are of great utility as to instruction, when we know how to keep them within the prescribed limits. They have another advantage ; they help to unmask deceiving spirits, who, being more vain than learned, rarely undergo to their advantage the trial of questions of close logic, by which they are driven „ to their last intrenchments. As spirits truly superior have nothing to dread from such a censorship, they are the first to offer explanations on obscure points ; the others, on the contrary, fearing to meet a stronger party, take great care to avoid them ; thus, in general, they recommend to the mediums they wish to govern, and to make accept their theories, to abstain from all controversy at the place of their teachings.
If what we have already said in this work has been thoroughly understood, some idea can be formed of the circle in which it is best to confine the questions to be addressed to spirits ; yet, for greater certainty, we give below the answers that have been made on the princi pal subjects on which persons of slight experience are usually disposed to interrogate them.
