Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

The Society of Bordeaux, reconstituted as we said in our previous issue, met this year, like last year, in a banquet that took place on the day of Pentecost, a simple banquet, let's mention it immediately, as is appropriate in such circumstances, and to people whose main purpose is to find an occasion to meet and to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood; research and luxury would be nonsense. Despite the occupations that kept us in Paris, we were able to accept the gracious and urgent invitation for us to attend. The one that took place last year, that was the first, had only gathered about thirty guests; there were four times as many this year, including several from far away; Toulouse, Marmande, Villeneuve, Libourne, Niort, Blaye and as far as Carcassonne, that is 80 leagues away, had their representatives there. All the ranks of society were there united in a community of feelings; there was the craftsman, the farmer alongside the bourgeois, the merchant, the doctor, officials, lawyers, scientists, etc.



It would be superfluous to add that everything happened as it should be between people whose motto is: "there is no salvation, but through charity" and who profess tolerance for all opinions and all convictions. Thus, in the opportune speeches that were given, not a word was said that could touch the least susceptibility; even if our greatest adversaries would have been there, they would not have heard a word or an allusion to their attitude.



Law enforcement had shown plenty of benevolence and courtesy towards this meeting, and we must thank them for it. We do not know if they were represented there in an occult manner, but certainly they were able to convince themselves there, as always, that the doctrines professed by the Spiritists, far from being subversive, are a guarantee of peace and tranquility; that public order has nothing to fear from people whose principles are those of respect for the law, and who, under no circumstances, have yielded to the suggestions of provoking agents who sought to compromise them. We have always been seen withdrawing and refraining from any ostensible manifestation, whenever they feared to be made a pretext for scandal.



Is it weakness on their part? No, of course not; on the contrary, it is the awareness of the force of their principles that makes them calm, and the certainty that they have of the uselessness of the efforts made to stifle them; when they abstain, it is not to shelter their persons, but to avoid what could affect the doctrine. They know that it does not need external demonstrations to succeed. They see its ideas germinating everywhere, spreading with irresistible power; why would they need to make noise? They leave this to the care of their antagonists, who, by their clamor, help the propagation. Even persecutions are the necessary baptism of all new and somewhat grand ideas; instead of harming them, they make them shine; we can appreciate their importance by the determination with which they fight them. Ideas that only become acclimatized by the force of advertising and staging, have only a factitious and short-lived vitality; those that propagate themselves and by the force of circumstances, have life in them, and are the only lasting ones; this is the case where Spiritism is found.

The feast ended with a fund raising for the benefit of the unfortunate, without distinction of beliefs, and with a precaution whose wisdom we can only praise. In order to allow total freedom, to humiliate nobody, and not to stimulate the vanity of those who would give more than others, things were arranged in such a way that no one, not even the collectors, knew what each one had given. The revenue was 85 francs, and commissioners were immediately appointed to use it.



Despite our short stay in Bordeaux, we were able to attend two meetings of the society: one devoted to the treatment of the sick, and the other to philosophical studies. We were, thus, able to see for ourselves, the good results that are always the fruit of perseverance and good will. To the report that we published in our previous issue about the Society of Bordeaux, we can consciously add our personal congratulations. But it should not hide from itself that the more it prospers, the more it will be subjected to the attacks of our adversaries; let it always beware of the secret maneuvers that one might hatch against it, and of the bones of contention that, under the appearance of exaggerated zeal, one might launch into its heart.



Since the time of our absence from Paris was limited, by the obligation to be back there on a fixed day, we were unable, to our great regret, to go to the various centers where we were invited; we could only stop for a few moments in Tours and Orleans, that were on our route. There too we were able to observe the ascendancy that doctrine acquires every day with the public opinion, and its happy results that, although they are still individual, they are not less satisfactory.



In Tours, the meeting was supposed to have about one hundred and fifty people, both from the city and the surrounding areas, but due to the haste with which the convocation was made, only two-thirds were able to attend. An unforeseen circumstance made it impossible to use the room that had been selected, hence we gathered for a magnificent evening in the garden of one of the members of the Society. In Orleans, the Spiritists are fewer, but this center, nevertheless, has a good number of sincere and devoted followers with whom we had the pleasure of shaking hands.



A constant and characteristic fact, and that we must consider as a great progress, is the gradual and almost general reduction of prejudices against the Spiritist ideas, even among those who do not share them; now everyone is recognized as having the right to be a Spiritist, just as we have the right to be a Jewish or a Protestant. It is already something. The places where children are stimulated to run against them with stones, as in Illiers, in the department of Eure et Loir, are increasingly rare exceptions.



Another not less characteristic sign of progress is the little importance that the followers, everywhere, even in the less enlightened classes, attach to the facts of extraordinary manifestations. If effects of this kind occur spontaneously, we observe them, but we are not moved by them, we do not seek them, and even less care to provoke them. They are little attached to what only satisfy the eyes and curiosity; the serious purpose of the doctrine, its moral consequences, the resources it can offer for the relief of suffering, the happiness of finding relatives or friends who have been lost, and of talking to them, listening to the advice they come to give, is the exclusive and preferred object of the Spiritist meetings. Even in the countryside, and among artisans, a powerful medium of physical effects would be less appreciated than a good writing medium, giving consolation and hope, by reasoned communications. What one is looking for in the doctrine is, above all, what touches the heart. The ease with which even the most illiterate^[1] people understand and assimilate the principles of this philosophy, is a remarkable thing; it is because it is not necessary to be educated to have heart and judgment. Ah! they say, if we had always been spoken to like this, we would never have doubted God and his goodness, even in our greatest miseries!





It is undoubtedly something to believe, for it is already one foot on the right track; but belief without practice is a dead letter; however, we are happy to say that, in our short excursion, among many examples of the moralizing effects of the doctrine, we have met many of those Spiritists of heart, that one could say complete, if it were given to man to be complete in any way, and that one can regard as the types of the transformed future generation; there are those of all sexes, of all ages and of all conditions, from youth to the extreme limit of age, who understand, from this life, the promises made to us for the future. They are easy to recognize; there is, in their whole being, a reflection of frankness and sincerity that imposes confidence; one immediately feels that there is no hidden second motive under golden words or hypocritical compliments. Around them, and even in the least favored classes, they know how to make calm and serenity reign. In these blessed country regions, one breathes a serene atmosphere that reconciles us with humanity, and we understand the reign of God on Earth; blessed are those who know how to enjoy it in anticipation! In our Spiritist tours, what most satisfies us is not the number of believers that we count. What most satisfies us are those followers who are the honor of the doctrine, and who are, at the same time, its firmest supporters, because they make it esteemed and respected by themselves.



Seeing the number of happy people that Spiritism makes, we easily forget the inseparable fatigue of our task. This is a satisfaction, a positive result, that the fiercest malice cannot take from us; we could be deprived of our life, material goods, but never the happiness of having contributed to bringing peace to ulcerated hearts. For anyone who probes the secret motives that make certain men act, there is dirt that stains the hands that throw them, and not those to whom they thrown at.



May all those who have given us such touching expressions of sympathy, in this last trip, receive here our very sincere thanks, and our assurance that we will retribute the same.