With the title
Spiritism before science, a public lecture by Mr. Chevillard, had been announced at the
Salle du Boulevard des Capucines for January 30
th. In what sense should the speaker speak? That's what nobody knew.
The announcement seemed to promise an “
ex-professo”[1] discussion of all parts of the issue. However, the speaker completely ignored the most essential part, the one that constitutes Spiritism properly saying: the philosophical and moral part, without which Spiritism would certainly not be implanted today in all parts of the world and would not count its followers by the millions. The turning tables were already being abandoned by 1855; if Spiritism had been limited to
this, it certainly would not have been talked about for a long time; its rapid spread dates from the moment when it was realized that something serious and useful would come out of it, when a humanitarian purpose was seen in that.
The speaker therefore confined himself to examining a few material phenomena; for he did not even speak of the spontaneous phenomena, so numerous and that occur outside any Spiritist belief; Now, the announcement that one is going to deal with such a vast question, so complex in its applications and in its consequences, and to stop at a few points on the surface, it is absolutely as if a professor was limited to explaining the alphabet in a course with the title Literature.
Perhaps Mr. Chevillard said to himself: "
What is the point of talking about philosophical doctrine? Since this doctrine is based on the intervention of the Spirits, when I have proved that such intervention does not exist, everything else will collapse.” How many, before M. Chevillard, flattered themselves for having given Spiritism the mercy stroke, not to mention the inventor of the famous cracking muscle, Dr. Jobert (de Lamballe) who mercilessly sent all Spiritists to Charenton
[2], and who, two years later, died himself in a home for the insane! However, despite all those boasters, striking with dagger and sword, who seemed to have nothing else to say to reduce it to dust, Spiritism has lived, it has grown, and it still lives, stronger, more vivacious than ever! This is a fact that has its value. When an idea resists so many attacks, it is because there is something else in that.
Haven’t we once seen scholars striving to demonstrate that the movement of Earth was impossible? And without going back so far, hasn’t this century shown us an illustrious organization declaring that the application of steam to navigation was a chimera? A curious book to write would be the collection of the official errors of science. This is simply to arrive at the conclusion that when something is true, it advances, despite everything else and the contrary opinion of scholars; however, if Spiritism has moved on, despite all the arguments opposed by high and low science, there is a presumption in its favor.
Mr. Jobert (de Lamballe) unceremoniously treated all Spiritists as charlatans and crooks; justice must be done to Mr. Chevillard, who only accuses them of being wrong about the cause. Moreover, cursing, in addition to proving nothing, always show a lack of courtesy, and would have been very inappropriate
before an audience where many Spiritists must necessarily be found. The evangelical pulpit is less scrupulous; there, it has been said many times: "
Flee from the Spiritists like the plague and send them away;" proving that Spiritism is something, since one is afraid of it, and because one does not fire cannon shots against flies.
Mr. Chevillard does not deny the facts, on the contrary, he admits them, because he has attested them; only he explains them in his own way. Does he, at least, brings a new argument in support of his thesis? That can be assessed.
"
Every man," he says, "
possesses a greater or lesser amount of animal electricity, which constitutes the nervous fluid. This fluid emerges by the influence of the will, the desire to move a table; it penetrates the table, and the table moves; the knocks struck in the table are nothing but electric shocks, caused by the concentration of thought.” Mechanical writing: same explanation.
But how can we explain the knocks struck on the walls, without the participation of the will, with people who do not know what Spiritism is, or who do not believe in it? Overabundance of electricity that emanates spontaneously and produces discharges.
What about intelligent communications? Reflection of the thought of the medium. - And when the medium obtains, through typtology or writing, things that he does not know? One always knows something, and if it is not the thought of the medium, it can be that of others.
And when a medium writes, unconsciously, things that are personally unpleasant to him, is it his own thought? He does not question this fact, as many others. However, a theory can only be true if it solves all the phases of a problem; if only one fact misses explanation, it is because it is either false or incomplete; how many facts is it powerless to provide the solution for! We would be very keen to know how Mr. Chevillard would explain, for example, the facts reported above concerning Ms. de Chilly, the appearance of the young Édouard Samuel, all the incidents of what happened in Mauritius; how he would explain, by the release of electricity, the writing by people who do not know how to write; the fact of that maid who wrote, before an entire society: “
I steal my lady boss”, by the reflection of thought?
In short, Mr. Chevillard acknowledges the existence of the phenomena, which is something, but he denies the intervention of the Spirits. As
for his theory, it offers absolutely nothing new; it is the repetition of what has been said, for fifteen years, in all forms, an idea that has not prevailed. Will he be more fortunate than his predecessors? This is what the future will prove.
It is curious to see the expedients used by those who want to explain everything without the Spirits! Instead of going straight to what comes before them in the simplest form, they seek causes that are so muddled, so complicated, that they are intelligible to them only. They should at least, to complete their theory, say what they think the Spirits of men become after death, for it interests everyone, proving that these Spirits cannot manifest themselves to the living; this is what nobody has done yet, while Spiritism proves that they can do it.
But all this is necessary; all these systems must be exhausted and show their impotence. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that all this repercussion given to Spiritism, all the circumstances that have highlighted it, have always been to its benefit; and what is worth noticing, is that the more violent the attacks, the more progress it has made. Don’t all great ideas need the baptism of persecution, even that of mockery? And why hasn’t it suffered from that? The reason for this is quite simple: it is because, by making it say the opposite of what it says, presenting it as quite different from what it is, hunchbacked when it is straight, it can only gain from a serious and conscientious examination, and that those who wanted to strike it, have always struck at the margin of the truth. (See Spiritist Review, February 1869:
Power of ridicule).However, the darker the colors by which it is presented, the more they excite curiosity. The party that has gone out of its way to say that it is the devil, has done it a lot of good, because among those who have not yet had the opportunity to see the devil, many have been very pleased to learn what it is, and have not found it as dark as it was said. Say that there is a hideous monster in a square in Paris, that will tarnish the whole city, and everyone will run to see it. Haven’t we seen authors placing criticisms of their own works in the newspaper, just to have them talked about? That was the result of the furious diatribes against Spiritism; they provoked the desire to get to know it and did it more service than harm.
To speak of Spiritism, in any direction, is
to make propaganda on its behalf; experience is there to prove it. From that point of view, Mr. Chevillard's lecture is to be welcomed; but let us promptly say, in praise of the speaker, that he positioned himself in a decent, loyal, and tasteful argumentation. He expressed his opinion: it is his own right, and although we do not share it, we have nothing to complain about. Later, no doubt, when the right moment has come, Spiritism will also have its sympathetic speakers; we will just advise them not to fall into the mistake of the adversaries; meaning that they should study the question thoroughly, to speak only with full knowledge of cause.
[1] Latin for expert, with the expertise of a professional
[2] Hospital of the mentally ill
