Count of OurchesMr. Count d'Ourches was one of the first to take care of Spiritist manifestations in Paris, from the moment when the accounts of those that took place in America arrived. By the credit given to him by his social position, his fortune, his family relations, and above all the loyalty and honor of his character, he greatly contributed to their popularization. At the time of the vogue of the turning tables, his name had acquired a great notoriety and a certain authority in the world of the followers; he, therefore, has his marked place in the annals of Spiritism. Passionate about physical manifestations, he dedicated them a naive confidence that was a little too blind, and which one sometimes took advantage of by the ease with which they lend themselves to imitation. Exclusively given to this kind of manifestations, solely from the point of view of the phenomenon, he did not follow Spiritism in its new scientific and philosophical phase, for which he had little sympathy, and he remained alien to the great movement that has emerged in the last ten years.
He died on May 5th, 1867 at the age of 80. The Belgian Independence published a very long and very interesting biographical article on him, signed by Henry de Pène, and reproduced in the Gazette des Etrangers de Paris (5, rue Scribe) on Thursday, Mary 23rd; there, full justice is made to his eminent qualities, and his belief in Spirits is judged with a moderation to which the first of these journals had not accustomed us. The article ends as follows:
“All of this, I know, will make a number of positive spirits shrug their shoulders and say, 'He's crazy! With all the intelligence that in some cases they do not have. It is easy to say that he is mad. The Earl of Ourches was a superior man who had set himself the goal of succeeding over his fellows by uniting the positive lights of science with the glimmers and visions of the supernatural."
