Extract of a letter from Abbé Lacordaire, to Mrs. Swetchine, dated from Flavigny, June 29
th, 1853, taken from his correspondence, published in 1865.
“
Have you seen or heard of the spinning tables? - I disdained to see them turn, like a too simple thing, but I heard and made them speak. They told me some pretty remarkable things, about the past and the present. However extraordinary it may be, it is to a Christian that believes in Spirits, a very vulgar and very poor phenomenon. At all times there have been more or less bizarre ways of communicating with Spirits; only in the past one would make a mystery of these processes, as one made mystery of chemistry; justice, by means of terrible executions, buried these strange practices in the shadows. Today, thanks to freedom of worship and universal publicity, what was a secret has become a popular formula. Perhaps also, through this disclosure, God wants to harmonize the development of spiritual forces to the development of material forces, so that man does not forget, in the presence of the wonders of mechanics, that there are two worlds, one inserted in the other: the world of the bodies and the world of the Spirits.It is probable that this parallel development will continue to increase until the end of the world, which will one day bring the reign of the antichrist, where we will see, on both sides, for good or evil, the use of supernatural weapons, and frightening wonders. I do not conclude that the Antichrist is near, because the operations that we are witnessing have nothing more extraordinary than what was seen in the past, except publicity. The poor unbelievers must be quite worried about their reason; but they have the resource of believing everything to escape the true faith, and they will not fail to do so. O depth of the designs of God!”Abbé Lacordaire wrote this in 1853, meaning, almost at the beginning of the demonstrations, at a time when these phenomena were much more an object of curiosity than a subject of serious meditation. Although, at that time, they had not been formed either as a science or as a body of doctrine, he had glimpsed at their scope, and far from considering them as an ephemeral thing, he foresaw their development in the future. His opinion, on the existence and manifestation of the Spirits, is categorical; now, since he is generally held, by everyone, as one of the great intelligences of this century, it seems difficult to rank him among the mad ones, after having applauded him as a man of great sense and progress. We can, therefore, have common sense and believe in Spirits.
Talking tables, he says, “are a very vulgar and very poor phenomenon;” Very poor indeed, as for the means of communicating with the Spirits, because if we had not had others, Spiritism would not have advanced very much; the writing mediums were hardly know, and one did not suspect what was going to come out of this, apparently, so childish media.
As for the reign of the Antichrist, Lacordaire does not seem to be much afraid of it, because he does not see it coming anytime soon. For him, these manifestations are providential; they must
disturb and confuse the unbelievers; he admires the depth of God’s designs in them; they are not, therefore, the work of the devil, who must push to deny God, and not to recognize His power.
The above extract, from Lacordaire's correspondence, was read at the Parisian Society, in the session of January 18
th; in this same session, Mr. Morin, one of his usual writing mediums, fell asleep spontaneously, under the magnetic action of the Spirits; it was the third time that this phenomenon occurred with him, because, usually, he does not fall asleep, except by ordinary magnetization. In his sleep, he spoke about different subjects, and of several Spirits present, whose thoughts he transmitted to us. He said, among other things, the following:
“
A Spirit that you all know, and that I also recognize; a Spirit of great earthly reputation, raised in the intellectual ladder of the worlds, is here. Spiritist before Spiritism, I saw him teaching the doctrine, no longer as an incarnate, but as a Spirit. I saw him preaching with the same eloquence, with the same feeling of intimate conviction as in life, which he certainly would not have dared to openly preach in the pulpit, but what his teachings led to.I saw him preaching the doctrine to his own, to his family, to all his friends. I saw him get carried away, although in a spiritual state, when he encountered a refractory brain, or a stubborn resistance to the inspirations he breathed; always lively and petulant, wanting to make conviction penetrate into the minds, as one makes the chisel penetrate the living rock, pushed by a vigorous blow of a hammer. But it doesn't get in so quickly; however, his eloquence has converted more than one. This Spirit is that of Abbé Lacordaire.He asks for one thing, not out of pride, not out of any personal interest, but in the interest of all and for the good of the doctrine: the insertion in the Spiritist Review, of what he wrote thirteen years ago. If I ask for this insertion, he said, it is for two reasons; the first is that you will show the world that, as you say, one may not be a fool and believe in Spirits. The second is that the publication of this first quotation will reveal, in my writings, other passages that will be pointed out at, as agreeing with the principles of Spiritism.”
[1] a member of the French secular clergy in major or minor orders (merriam-webistar.com, T.N.)
