7. If the belief in spirits and in their manifestations were an isolated exception,
the product of a theory, it might, with some show of reason, be attributed to illusion;
but how is it that we find this belief in vigour among all peoples, ancient and modern,
as well as in the writings recognised as sacred in all known religions? It is, say some
critics, because man, in all ages, has sought the marvellous. But what then, is the
marvellous ? -That which is supernatural. - How do you define the supernatural ?-That
which is contrary to the laws of nature.-Ah! you are, then, sufficiently acquainted with
those laws to assign a limit to their action? If so, prove to us that the existence of
spirits, and their manifestations, are contrary to the laws of nature; prove they are not,
and can not be, a result of natural law. Examine the doctrine of the spiritists, and see
whether its chain of reasoning has not all the character of an admirable Jaw, solving all
the problems that human philosophies have been unable to solve up to the present day?
Thought is one of the attributes of a spirit; the possibility of acting upon matter,
of impressing the senses, and, as a natural consequence, of transmitting its thought, has
its origin in the soul's physiological constitution, if we may so express it; there is, then,
in this alleged fact, nothing supernatural, nothing marvellous. For a man who is dead to
revive corporeally, for his scattered members to reunite to reform his body, would
certainly be something marvellous, supernatural, fantastic; something that would
indeed be a veritable derogation from His own laws that God could only accomplish by
a miracle: but we find nothing of the sort in the teachings of spiritism.
