The Errant Soul
I
n the book entitled Les Six Nouvelles * by Maxime Ducamp, there is a
touching story that we recommend to our readers. It is about an errant
soul who tells her own adventures.
We don’t have the honor of knowing Mr. Maxime Ducamp, who we
have never met. Consequently we don’t know if he used his own imagination
or collected the teachings from spiritist studies. Nevertheless, he
could not have been better inspired.
We can judge him from the fragment below. We will not speak about
the fantastic ambience of the novel. That is an accessory without importance
and purely formal.
“I am an errant, a lost soul. I wander through spaces, waiting for a
body. I travel on the wings of the wind, across the blue skies, through the
songs of the birds, in the pale clarities of moonshine. I am a lost soul…”
“Since the time God has separated us from Him, we lived many times
on Earth, advancing from generation to generation, fearlessly leaving behind
the bodies which were entrusted to us, and continuing the work of
our own betterment through the existences to which we are submitted.”
“When we leave this troublesome host, which serves us so badly;
fecundating and renovating Earth, its origin; when we are finally free,
we open our wings. God lets us know our objective. We see our preceding
existences; assess our progress over the centuries; understand the punishments and awards that came our way, through the joys and pains
in our lives; we see our intelligence progress from birth to birth, aspiring
to the supreme state by which we will leave this inferior homeland to
reach radiant planets where passions are more elevated, love more ambitions
and happiness more steady, the organisms better developed, feelings
more abundant, sheltering souls who, by their virtues, approached beatitude
more than us.”
“When God send us back again to bodies which must live a miserable
life to us, we totally lose awareness of what happened before these new
births. What was awake is back to sleep; no longer persists. We keep only
vague reminiscences from our past experiences, cause of our sympathies,
antipathies and sometimes of innate ideas.”
“I will not talk about every creature that lived out of my breath, but
my last existence in which I endured such a great disgrace that is the one
I am going to tell the story.”
“It would be difficult to define better the beginning and the objective
of the reincarnation, the progression of the creatures, the plurality of the
worlds and the awaiting future. Here you have now, in two words, the
story of that soul.”
“A young man was in love with a young lady and he was corresponded.
There were obstacles opposing their union. He asked God to allow
him to visit her loved one, during the sleep when his soul would be freer.
His wish was granted.”
“Then, his soul detaches every night, leaving behind the body in a
state of complete inertia, only moving away from that when the soul returns
to reclaim the body. During that time he visits his beloved one.”
“He sees her, and goes unnoticed. He wants to speak with her but
she doesn’t listen. He notices her slightest moves, surprising her thoughts.
He enjoys her happiness and saddens with her pains. Nothing is more
gracious and delicate than such scenes between the young lady and the
invisible soul.”
“But oh! Weakness of the incarnate being! One day, or better, one
evening, he forgets himself. Three days go by and he does not think of his body that cannot live without his soul. Suddenly he thinks of his mother
who waits for him and must be uneasy for such a prolonged sleep. He
rushes but it is too late. His body is dead.”
“He watches his funeral, he then consoles his mother. The desperate
bride wishes to hear no more about any other union. Overwhelmed by the
requests of her own mother, however, she gives in after a long resistance.”
“The errant soul forgives an infidelity which is not in her thoughts.
However, to receive her caresses and no longer stay away from her he requests
to incarnate as her son to be.”
If the author is not convinced of the spiritist ideas we must agree that
he represents his role very well.
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* Librairie Nouvelle, Boulevard des Italiens
