"How beautiful is nature! how prudent is Providence in its foresight! but your blindness and your human passions hinder your having patience with the prudence and goodness of God. You lament over the smallest cloud, the least delay in the realisation of your previsions; know then, impatient doubters, that nothing happens without a motive that is always foreseen, always premeditated, for the profit of all. The meaning of what precedes is to set at naught men of false apprehensions, all your previsions of a bad year for your harvests.
"God frequently inspires men with uneasiness about the future, to urge them to foresight; see how great are the means for exciting your fears, sown designedly, and which, most frequently, cover avaricious thoughts rather than the idea of a wise provisioning inspired by a feeling of humanity for the advantage of the poor. Behold the relations of nations with nations that will grow out of your uneasiness; see the transactions to which it will lead; what methods will work together to disappoint your fears for, as you know, every thing is linked together, and great and small will cooperate in the work.
"And do you not already see, in the whole of this movement, a source of wellbeing for the more laborious class of society, that truly interesting class which you, the great, you, the omnipotent of this earth, regard as people to be taxed at your pleasure, created for your satisfaction?
"And what comes of all this going and coming from one pole to the other? It is that, once well provided for, the weather has often changed; the sun, obeying the thought of its Creator, ripens your harvest in a few days; God brings abundance where your covetousness meditated a lack, and in spite of you the humble can live; and, without your suspecting it, you have been, unknown to yourselves, the cause of abundance.
"Nevertheless it happens-God permits this sometimes - that the evil ones succeed in their avaricious projects; but then it is a teaching that God wills to give to all ; it is human foresight that He would stimulate; it is that infinite order which reigns in nature, it is courage in view of events, which men should imitate, and should bear with resignation.
"As to those who, calculatingly, profit by disasters, you may be sure that they will be punished for it. God wills that all His creatures should live; man should neither tamper with necessity nor make a traffic of superfluity.
Just in His benefits, great in His clemency, too good for our ingratitude, God is impenetrable in His designs." "BOSSUET ALFRED DE MARIGNAC."
Remark. - This communication assuredly contains nothing objectionable; on the contrary, notwithstanding its defects of style, it contains profound and philosophical ideas, and sagacious advice, which might deceive illiterate readers in regard to the identity of its author. The medium who obtained it, having submitted it to the examination of the Spiritist Society of Paris, the latter declared unanimously that it could not be the production of Bossuet. Saint Louis, on being consulted respecting this communication, gave the following answer: - "This communication is intrinsically good, but you must not believe that it came from Bossuet. The spirit who dictated it may perhaps have done so, in some degree, under the inspiration of the great Bishop, and may have put the Bishop's name at the end of it, in order to get it more readily accepted; but you can easily detect the substitution of signature by the defectiveness of the language. It was dictated by the spirit who has placed his name after that of Bossuet." This spirit, being interrogated as to his motive in attempting such a fraud, replied: - "I was anxious to write something to bring myself hack to the notice of men; seeing that my communication was but weak, I borrowed a great name to give it weigh." - "But did you not foresee that it would he judged to be spurious?" - "Who can ever be sure as to what will happen? You might have been taken in. Other persons, less clear-sighted, would have accepted it as coming from Basset."
It is, in fact, the readiness with which many persons accept whatever comes from the invisible world, under the apparent sanction of a great name, that encourages deceptive spirits. We must employ our acumen to frustrate the tricks of such spirits ; and this is only to he done with the aid of experience and a serious study of the subject. It is for this reason that we constantly repeat our advice to study the subject before attempting experimentation ; for it is only thus that inquirers can avoid acquiring experience at the cost of mystifications and annoyance.
