The Spiritists did consider themselves to be a philosophical school, but it had never occurred to them to believe they were a party; low and behold, in one fine day, the
Moniteur informed them of this news that surprised them somewhat. And who is it that gave them this qualification? Is it one of those inconsequential journalists that throw epithets at random, without understanding their significance? No, it is an official report prepared to the first body of the state, to the Senate. It is therefore not likely that, in a document of such a nature, this word was uttered thoughtlessly; it was not, undoubtedly, benevolence that dictated it, but it was said, and it was a hit, because the newspapers did not let it down; some, believing to find in it one more grievance against Spiritism, had nothing more urgent than to display in their columns the title
The Spiritist Party.Thus, this poor little school, so ridiculed, so much attacked, that they charitably proposed to send in crowds to Charenton;
[1] about which, they said, one had only to breathe to make it disappear; that has been declared dead and buried forever twenty times; to whom there is not a fine hostile writer who has not flattered himself for having given it the death blow, while admitting, with amazement, that it is invading the world and all classes of society; that we wanted, at all costs, to make it a religion, by endowing it with temples and priests, large and small, that it has never seen, and here it is suddenly transformed into a party. By this qualification, Mr. Genteur, the speaker of the Senate, did not give it its true character, but he enhanced it; he gave it a rank, a place, and made it stand out; for the idea of a party implies that of a certain power; of an opinion important enough, active enough and widespread enough to play a role, and one to be accounted for.
Spiritism, by its nature and principles, is essentially peaceful; it is an idea that infiltrates quietly, and if it finds many adherents, it is because it pleases; he never did any advertisements or any exhibition; strengthened by the natural laws on which it leans, seeing itself growing without effort or shock, it goes out to meet no one; it does not violate any conscience; it says what it is and wait for others to come. All the noise that has been made around it is the work of its adversaries; it was attacked, it had to defend itself, but it always did so with calm, moderation and by reasoning alone; it never departed from the dignity that is characteristic of any cause that has the conscience of its moral force; it never used reprisals by paying back insults with insults, bad procedures with bad procedures. This is not, we will agree, the ordinary character of parties, restless by nature, fomenting agitation, and to which everything is justified to achieve their ends; but since it was given this name, it accepts it, certain that it will not dishonor it by any excess; for it would repudiate anyone who took advantage of it to cause the slightest trouble.
Spiritism followed its way without provoking any public demonstration, while taking advantage of the publicity given to it by its adversaries; the more their criticism was mocking, acerbic, virulent, the more it aroused the curiosity of those who did not know it, and who, to know what to expect on this so-called new eccentricity, simply went to find out from the source, that is to say in the special books; they studied it and found something quite different from what they had heard about it. It is a well-known fact that furious narratives, anathemas, and persecutions have powerfully aided in its propagation, because instead of deflecting it, they provoked its examination, even if only by the attraction of the forbidden fruit. The masses have their logic; they say to themselves that if something were nothing, one would not talk about it, and they measure its importance precisely by the violence of the attacks it endures and the terror that it causes to its antagonists.
Educated by experience, some ads media refrained from speaking either bad or good about it, even avoiding pronouncing its name, for fear of causing a stir, contenting themselves with occasionally throwing offensive remarks at it, and as if stealthily, when a circumstance inevitably made it evident. Some also remained silent, because the idea had penetrated their ranks, and with that perhaps conviction, if not at least hesitation.
The press, in general, was therefore silent about Spiritism, when a circumstance, that could not be the effect of chance, made it necessary to speak about it; and who caused the incident? Always the opponents of the idea that once again were mistaken by producing an effect quite contrary to what they expected. To give more impact to their attack, they carry it awkwardly, not on the grounds of a paper that has no official character, with a very limited number of readers, but by way of petitions, to the tribune of the Senate, where it is the subject of a discussion and from which the expression Spiritist party came out; well, thanks to newspapers of all colors, obliged to report on the debate, the existence of this party was instantly revealed to all of Europe and beyond.
It is true that a member of the illustrious assembly said that it was only fools that were Spiritists, to which the president replied that the fools could also form a party. No one is unaware that the Spiritists count in the millions today, and that high notabilities sympathize with their beliefs; one can therefore be astonished that such an uncourteous and so generalized epithet, came out of that chamber, addressing a notable part of the population, without the author having reflected about its reach.
In fact, the newspapers themselves are responsible for denying such qualification, certainly not out of benevolence, but what does it matter! The journal
Liberty, among others, that apparently does not want us to have the freedom to be a Spiritist, as one is to be Jewish, Protestant, Saint-Simonian or free-thinker, published in its issue of June 13
th, an article signed by Liévin, whose excerpt is given below:
“
The government commissioner Genteur revealed to the Senate the existence of a party that we did not know, and as it seems, contributes like the others, within the limits of its forces, to shake the institutions of the empire. Its influence had already been felt last year, and the Spiritist party - this is the name given by Mr. Genteur - certainly thanks to the subtlety of the means at its disposal, had obtained from the Senate the referral to the government of the famous Saint-Etienne petition, that denounced, as we remember, not the materialist tendencies of the School of Medicine, but the philosophical tendencies of the municipality's library. We had hitherto attributed the honor of this success to the party of intolerance, and we regarded it as a consolation for its last failure; but it seems that we were mistaken, and that the petition of Saint-Etienne was only a maneuver of this Spiritist party, whose hidden power seems to want to be exercised more particularly to the detriment of libraries.Monday, therefore, the Senate once again received a petition in which the Spiritist party, still raising its head, denounced the tendencies of the library of Oullins (Rhône). But this time the venerable assembly, warned by the revelations of Mr. Genteur, thwarted, by a unanimous decision, the calculations of the Spirists. Only Mr. Nisard was somehow taken by this ruse of war, and in good faith he extended his hand to those perfidious enemies. He lent them the support of a report in which he in turn pointed out the dangers of bad books. Fortunately, the mistake of the honorable senator was not shared, and the Spiritists, unmasked and confused, were brought back as they deserved."
Another journal, the
Revue Politique Hebdomadaire, starts an article about the same subject on July 13
th, like this:
“We didn’t know all of our perils yet. Weren’t the Legitimist Party, the Orleanist Party, the Republican Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Red Party enough, not to mention the Liberal Party that sums them all up, if we are to believe the Constitutional? Was it really under the second empire, whose claim is to dissolve all parties, that a new party was to be born, grow and threaten French society, the Spiritist party? Yes, the Spiritist party! It was Mr. Genteur, State Councilor, that discovered and denounced it in the middle of the Senate."It is difficult to understand that a party that is composed of nothing but fools could cause the State to be in serious danger; to be afraid of it would be to make believe that one is afraid of fools. By throwing this cry of alarm in the face of the world, they prove that the Spiritist party is something. Not having been able to stifle it under ridicule, they try to present it as a danger to public tranquility; however, what will be the inevitable result of this new tactic? An examination that is the more serious and the more in-depth, the more the danger is exalted; they will want to know the doctrines of this party, its principles, its slogan, its affiliations. If the ridicule thrown at Spiritism, as a belief, has raised curiosity, it will be quite another thing when it is presented as a formidable party; everyone will be interested in knowing what it wants, where it leads to: that's all it asks for; acting in broad daylight, having no secret instructions beyond what is published for the use of everyone, it does not fear any investigation, on the contrary, certain to gain by being known, and that whoever scrutinizes it with impartiality, will see in its moral code a powerful guarantee of order and security. A party, since there is a party, that inscribes on its flag: there is no salvation except through charity, indicates its tendencies clearly enough, so that no one has reason to be frightened by it. Furthermore, the authority, whose vigilance is known, cannot ignore the principles of a doctrine that does not hide itself. They have no shortage of people to give an account of what is said and done in the Spiritist meetings, and the authority would know well how to call to order those who deviate from it.
It is amazing that men who profess liberalism, who demand for freedom, who want it absolute for their ideas, their writings, their meetings, who stigmatize all acts of intolerance, intend to proscribe it for Spiritism.
But see to what inconsistencies blindness leads! The debate, that took place in the Senate, was provoked by two petitions: one from last year against the library of Saint Etienne; the other of this year against the library of Oullins, signed by some inhabitants of these towns, who complained about the introduction of certain books in those libraries, among them Spiritist books.
Well! The author of the article in the
La Liberté, who certainly examined the question a little lightly, imagines that the complaint emanates from the Spiritist party, and concludes that the latter received a knockout blow by the order pronounced against the petition of Oullins. Here we have then this very dangerous party easily defeated, and that petitions to have the exclusion of its own works! It would then be really the party of fools. Moreover, this strange mistake is not surprising, since the author declares, in the beginning, that he did not know this party, but that did not prevent him from declaring it capable of shaking the institutions of the empire.
The Spiritists, far from worrying about these incidents, should rejoice in them; this hostile manifestation could not have taken place in more favorable circumstances, and the doctrine will certainly receive a new and valuable impulse from it, as has been the case with all the outcry of which it has been the object. The more impact these attacks have, the more beneficial they are. A day will come when they will turn into open approvals.
The journal
Le Siècle of June 18
th also published an article on the Spiritist party. Everyone will notice there a spirit of moderation that contrasts with the two others that we have mentioned; we reproduce it in full:
“
Who said there is nothing new under the sun? The skeptic, who spoke like that, had no idea that one day the imagination of a Councilor of State would discover the Spiritist party in the middle of the Senate. We already had a few parties in France, and God knows if the speakers fail to enumerate the dangers that this division of minds can create! There is the Legitimist Party, the Orleanist Party, the Republican Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Clerical Party, etc.The list did not seem long enough to Mr. Genteur. He has just denounced to the vigilance of the venerable fathers of politics, who sit in the Luxembourg Palace, the existence of the Spiritist party. At this unexpected revelation, a shiver ran through the assembly. The defenders of the two morals, Mr. Nisard in the lead, shuddered.Despite the zeal of its countless officials of the French empire, what is threatened by a new party? - In truth, it is to despair public order. How has this enemy, up until now invisible even to Mr. Genteur himself, been able to hide from all eyes? There is a mystery here that the Councilor of State, if he finds out, will help us understand. Officially informed people claim that the Spiritist party hid the army of its representatives, the knocking Spirits, behind the books, in the libraries of Saint-Etienne and Oullins. So here we are back to the good old times with fishy stories, turning tables, and indiscreet pedestal tables!Although Spiritism and its first apostle Mr. Delage, the gentlest of preachers, have not yet convinced many people, they have nevertheless succeeded in forming a party. At least that is being said in the Senate, and it is not us that will ever allow ourselves to suspect the accuracy of what is being said in such high places.The occult influence of the newly signaled party was felt even in the last discussion of the Senate, where Mr. Désiré Nisard, first in rank, stood up for the reactionaries. Such a role fell right to the man who has been, since leaving the normal school, one of the most active agents of retrograde ideas.After that, can we be surprised on hearing the honorable senator invoking arbitrariness to justify the restrictive measures taken, concerning the choice of books in the library of Oullins? “These popular establishments,” said Mr. Nisard, “are founded by associations; they are therefore subject to art. 291 of the Penal Code, and therefore at the discretion of the Minister of the Interior. He has used, he is using and will use this dictatorial power."We leave it to the Spiritist party and to its Christopher Columbus, Mr. Councilor of State Genteur, the task of questioning the revealing Spirits, so that they may teach us what the Senate hopes to obtain by preventing citizens from freely organizing the popular libraries, as is done in England?”Anatole de la Forge
[1] Hospital of the mentally ill (T.N.)
