227. If the medium, as to execution, is only an instrument, yet, under the moral relation, he exercises a great influence. Since, in order to communicate, the foreign spirit identifies himself with the spirit of the medium, this identification can take place only so far as there is sympathy, and, if one might say it, affinity between them. The soul exercises on the foreign spirit a kind of attraction or repulsion, accord ing to the degree of their similarity or dissimilarity ; thus, the good have an affinity for the good, and the bid for the bad ; from whence it follows that the moral qualities of the medium have a powerful influence on the nature of the spirits who communicate through him. If he is vicious, the inferior spirits surround him, and are always ready to take the place of the good spirits who have been called. The qualities which best attract good spirits are, kindness, benevo lence, simplicity of heart, love of the. neighbor, detach ment from material things ; the faults that repel them are, pride, egotism, envy, jealousy, hatred, cupidity, sensuality, and all the passions by which man is attached to matter.
