< Mrs. Hardy's Hands (continued from page 1-109) >
Elementary Spirits.
Sir, — A belief in the existence of elementary spirits has been held all along by the followers of Allan Kardec ; and the question seems to me to be, not so much whether they are “ spirits other than those of human origin,” as laid down by the modern Occultists, according to your correspondent, an English member of the Theosophical Society; but whether they may not be in one of the phases of the origin of human beings ? In other words, whether we may not have been, once upon a time, elementary spirits ourselves. The three questions, 1st, That of men being “sparks struck off from Deity itself,” as alleged in ‘Spirit Teachings,’ and in other articles of The Spiritualist; 2nd, The question of elementary spirits; and 3rdly, That of the incarnation and reincarnation of spirits. These three questions have all cropped up lately in such quick succession, and in such intimate connection with each other as to give Spiritualists new sources for thought, and perhaps for guidance; just as their perplexities were becoming almost equal to their knowledge and their progress; stupendous as, indeed, were some of the phenomena and scientific results attained by them. But what about these “elementaries” who appear to be, some of them, as inconsequent and as selfish as can be well conceived, and what is more, to all appearance, sometimes utterly unsympathetic, hardhearted and treacherous towards their mediums; like the wolf, of which the poet sings —
Like the infant, who, on his mother’s bosom, the medium through whom he draws his substance and his strength, meets the suffering he sometimes causes her with a smile? What about these but that we learn, by analogy, that life is an education, and that all must he ignorant, weak, foolish, and inconsequent, if not unfeeling and brutal, before they can he wise, and that knowledge comes but rarely by intuition? It appears, according to the spiritual law of progress, that all must gain wisdom for themselves, however long they may be about it; so that when perfect felicity comes with wisdom at length and for ever, they may feel that they have learned good from evil by the physical and moral sweat of their own brows.
Accorded, for example’s sake, |
The second proposition of the Occultists, as quoted by your correspondent, which alleges that “the human will has power to control certain classes of these spirits,” shows the very close connection that exists between Spiritualism and magic; for that a magician may control and be assisted by spirits without his even believing in them, is more than probable, and that the movements of spirits are not confined to magic or to Spiritualism, as we understand the latter, we may rest assured.
There is, however, one sensible difference between a magician and a medium, as spoken of in modern terms. Whatever may be the advantages of the medium over the magician in many respects, in one the magician is the superior. The magician controls his familiar spirits, while the medium proper is generally controlled, though it is quite possible (since we find that certain conjurors have now turned mediums) that they were passive mediums all along, and were really the controlled when they were playing the part of the controllers, just as a servant in a comedy sometimes, by command of his master, takes his master’s place. That spirits, to be controlled at all, must be of a low order, none can doubt; but that some magic men, even of the present day, have strong wills, combined with medium power, which in conjunction fit them for this work, we can hardly question.
M. Kardec says in Ciel et l’Enfer (Heaven and Hell), p. 185: — “There is no method of compelling a spirit to come to you against his will so long as he is your equal or your superior in morality, for you have then no authority whatever over him. If he is your inferior you can compel him to come, if it be for his good; for in that case other spirits give you their assistance.” May we not then hope that some of the conjurors may, by their superior moral attainments, greatly benefit, in a moral sense, those of their familiars whose talents they so frequently hold in requisition, in return for the very material help given them by the latter?
I once heard a conjuror ejaculate words which, being interpreted, meant, “Infernal spirits obey.” He spoke these words in his own language on an English platform, and their result was the phenomenon of matter passing through matter, and this occurred whenever these words were pronounced in a well lighted room. For “infernal” let us supplement the term “elementary,” and perhaps we have gained the key note of magic.
I once heard a conjuror, in the south of France, tell his audience that strange objects which they unexpectedly found in their pockets were placed there by the spirit of his grandfather. This observation caused much laughter, hut I put down that fact also on the tablets of my memory, for this last magic man was not contented with “elementaries,” he went higher up the spiritual ladder than that, and many a truth is spoken in apparent jest.
M. Kardec was quite in accord with the Occultists as regards the lack of reasoning qualities in elementary spirits. He called them “primitive spirits” — esprits primitifs — and in his Ciel et l’Enfer, p. 343, we find the following: — “An entirely primitive spirit would be but slightly accessible to reason; but it is quite different in the case of those spirits who have had life experience.” "While, in drawing a distinction between magic and Spiritualism, in answer to an attack from the Cardinal Archbishop of Eheims, in the year 1865 (for the Archbishop of Toulouse, who wrote against Spiritualism a year or two ago, had been anticipated by the above-named prelate in high clerical denunciation against the new heresy), M. Kardec says, in p. 158 of Ciel et l’Enfer, “Magic, by the aid of its formularies and cabalistic agency, had the reputation of revealing secrets and working wonders, through constraining spirits to bow to the will of men, for the satisfaction of their desires.” “But now-a-days,” he adds, we know that spirits are only the souls of men; we call them solely for the purpose of receiving good counsel from them, or with the view of giving good counsel to the unprogressed among them, or through a desire to continue our rapport with beings whom we love.” Primitive spirits, we may suppose, he regarded as spirits of men in embryo, when, he said, “spirits are only the souls of men.”
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