< Spiritualist in France (continued from page 11-286) >
“Twice I went, with Mr. Leymarie, to Vincennes, near Paris, to organise circles, and although advised in advance each time, the number of Spiritualists who responded to the call was too small to be of any account; so the attempt had to be abandoned. Mrs. Babelin, in Paris, is the best trance and test medium that I have met in France. Hugo Dalezi, as a drawing medium, is very good, but no one remunerates him for his services. I saw him once give a gentleman two capital tests, the likenesses, fully recognised, of his daughter (dead) and of his wife (living)—for which the receiver did not even thank the giver. Miss Huet, 173, Rue Saint Honoré, still goes on receiving callers twice a week. This refined lady and gifted medium gets communications by raps altogether. Mme. Olympe Audouard, a well-known writer of travels, &c., often publishes short articles in her weekly paper Le Pappillon, concerning our cause, to which she is thoroughly devoted. She also delivers lectures on that subject and on Woman’s Rights.
“The regular weekly meetings of the Psychological Society, at No. 5, Rue Neuve des Petits-Champs, had not yet commenced when I left Paris. At that headquarters, where the offices of the Revue Spirite are situated also, are to be met, almost daily, foreigners interested in the cause. I happened one day to see there a New Jersey man, who came to inquire about Mr. Godin, of the celebrated Familistere at Guise. The great philanthropist is in our ranks, and publishes frequently in his weekly paper, devoted to social organisations, articles of interest on the question. I intend visiting the Familistere next year. Before leaving Paris for Nantes (Brittany) Mr. Leymarie had furnished me with a rather long list of names of places, where I was told to stop, and that kind friend had given me also the names of the leading Spiritualists in each designated locality. He had also written to many of them to introduce me, and so pave an easy way for me. Further still, he presented me, at parting, with a hundred-franc note, about twenty dollars, to enable me to pay a part of my fare, &c., on to Marseilles. That amount, he said, came from the fund of the Revue Spirite.”
The despotism of custom is on the wane; we are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be.—John Stuart Mill.
A boy came home from school much excited, and told his father that he believed all human beings were descended from apes, which made the old man so mad that he replied, angrily, “That may be the case with you, but it ain’t with me, I can tell you that now.”
My Creed
As other men have creeds, so have I mine; — Theodore Tilton.
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<Untitled> (The Mental Sphere of Selfish...)
The Mental Sphere of the Selfish:—No dream of poet, no conception of religious teacher, can ever portray with adequate vividness, the real torment awaiting the vicious and the utterly selfish in the world beyond death. That any suffering is everlasting, we utterly deny; the thought of an angry Judge and a burning lake is altogether foreign to the truth. No external person or thing will be there to condemn you. Conscience, memory, effect,—these abide; and the realisation that you are not what you might have been, the stinging conviction that all happiness was possible unto you, and would have been yours had you not spumed it, the full assent of your reason to the justice of the doom that has overtaken you, these considerations are your punishment; but they are also your salvation, for out or the prison-house of misery, well-nigh of despair, the spirit may extricate itself alone by desires to atone for past wrongs, atonement being never impossible. — W. J. Colville.
<Untitled> (The English Sunday...)
The English Sunday:—At the meeting of the Baptist Union the other day, the Rev. W. Brock, of Hampstead, read a paper which I commend to the notice of the intolerant fellows just referred to. Its subject was “Christian Liberty in relation to Modern Life.” Touching upon the subject of Sabbath observance, he said that when he remembered that his own great uncle was wont to sleep every Saturday night sitting upright in his chair, after the due combing and powdering of his periwig, rather than infringe upon the sanctity of the Sabbath hours, it supplied some measure of the distance which things had travelled since that day. Credit for conscientiousness was claimed by the ultra-Sabbatarians, but it must be equally conceded to those who felt free to wander among fields and woods, to travel by road or rail, and to spend a portion of the day in quiet relaxation. And then the reverend gentleman had a good word to say for the theatres, and for public amusements generally.—The Referee.
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 484, December 2, 1881, p. 269