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vol. title: vol. period: 1879-1880 pages in vol.: 577 |
< A Calculating Boy's Secret (continued from page 10-354) >
poor child told me about his family, and much about his mother whom his father beat, &c., &c.
It would seem contrary to natural law that this poor mother, when dead, should have this marvellous faculty of calculation, unless she had had it when living. May we suppose then, that spirits with calculating power accompany the mother’s soul, or may even assume the presentment of the mother for the child’s satisfaction?
By no means the least interesting details, in reference to this interesting subject, are contained in a note appended to M. Bouillac’s letter, given us by the editor of the Revue, which is here subscribed:
“On April 8th, we saw Jacques Inodi, at the house of the astronomer, M. Camille Flammarion, who, surrounded as he was by men of science, put questions to this wondrous calculator. The child is like his photograph given in the Revue of April 1880; his eyes are sharp and sparkling with intelligence; he has a quick, clever answer, and full of joy and alacrity, he was able to imitate instantly, after having seen them once, the remarkable conjuring feats of Professor Jacobs, who is more afraid of the eyes of this marvellous child than he is of those of a company of savans.
“The boy since he has learned to read the figures, appears to calculate less easily. I asked him if he remembered M. Bouillac, the gentleman who talked with the dead; he begged me to tell him that he often thought of him, and made me also a secret confidant respecting his mother.
“M. Flammarion put a long difficult problem to him that would have puzzled a mathematician; and in two minutes, the time that Jacques asked, a precise solution was given by this human calculating machine. He resolved all the problems while playing and laughing, and while addressing bons mots to those present, who, generally thought that this prodigious faculty proceeded from other existences and anterior acquisitions.
“We had Jacques Inodi at one of the Tuesday Meetings of our Scientific Society for Psychological Studies, namely the 20th of April last; he filled the two hundred and fifty persons present with wonder. May this child, so greatly endowed, be wisely protected by those who have the right to direct him; his faculties might be diminished, and even, perhaps, quite etiolated, if they should not understand how to manage him prudently.”
A Spiritualistic Funeral in New Zealand
A novel and yet impressive burial service was performed on Thursday afternoon last, in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin, over the remains of the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Braithwaite. When the coffin had been lowered into the grave, Mr. Braithwaite delivered the following address:
“We have assembled on this spot, friends, to inter the body of our infant daughter in its natural home, to ultimately become component parts of mother earth. However much we wished to keep her here, we recognise only the loving kindness of God in thus freeing, by the change called ‘death,’ the infantile spirit of our dear child from the sufferings it underwent, and that by His wise, beneficent, and unerring laws, the freed spirit has entered upon a state of progressive existence suitable to its new condition of life, to be tended and cared for by earnest and willing friends gone before. We are at this time impressed with the sublime and deeply suggestive words attributed to Jesus Christ—‘Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’”
Mr. Braithwaite then read with much feeling and expression the following beautiful lines by John Pierpoint:
“I know her fair face is hid, |
The speaker then concluded as follows:
“We now visibly consign her body to the earth, ‘dust to dust,’ and resign her spirit with confidence to the mercy, justice, and immutable laws of the Great Father of us all. Farewell! Invisibly her spirit will be ever present.”—Saturday Advertiser, Dunedin.
Editor's notes
- ↑ A Spiritualistic Funeral in New Zealand by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 404, May 21, 1880, p. 251
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 404, May 21, 1880, p. 251