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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ef9b78 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63092 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63092) diff --git a/old/63092-0.txt b/old/63092-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b0d70cd..0000000 --- a/old/63092-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12678 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's From India to the planet Mars, by Théodore Flournoy - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: From India to the planet Mars - A study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia - -Author: Théodore Flournoy - -Translator: Daniel B. Vermilye - -Release Date: August 31, 2020 [EBook #63092] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling, accents and -punctuation remains unchanged. - -The page number referenced in the the caption to Fig.39 is missing. - -As in the original the Figure numbers are not sequential. - -The footnotes are located at the end of the book. - -Italics are represented thus _italic_, and bold thus =bold=. - - - - - FROM INDIA - - TO - - THE PLANET MARS - - _A STUDY OF A CASE OF - SOMNAMBULISM_ - - WITH GLOSSOLALIA - - BY - - TH. FLOURNOY - - PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE - UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA - - TRANSLATED BY - - DANIEL B. VERMILYE - - [Illustration: Publisher’s Device] - - HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - - 1900 - - - Copyright, 1900, by DANIEL B. VERMILYE. - - _All rights reserved._ - - -[Illustration: Handwritten French Authorisation] - -I authorize Messrs. Harper & Brothers to translate and to publish in -the English language my book “From India to the Planet Mars.” - THEODORE FLOURNOY - GENEVA, June 20, 1900 - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE vii - - I. INTRODUCTION 1 - - II. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE. SMITH 15 - - III. MLLE. SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION INTO SPIRITISM 35 - - I. THE MEDIUMISTIC BEGINNINGS OF MLLE. SMITH 36 - - II. MLLE. SMITH IN HER NORMAL STATE 41 - - III. SPONTANEOUS AUTOMATIC PHENOMENA 48 - - 1. PERMANENCE OF EXTERIOR SUGGESTIONS 49 - - 2. IRRUPTIONS OF SUBLIMINAL REVERIES 51 - - 3. TELEOLOGICAL AUTOMATISMS 58 - - IV. THE SEANCES 60 - - IV. THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD 76 - - I. PSYCHOGENESIS OF LEOPOLD 80 - - II. PERSONIFICATION OF BALSAMO BY LEOPOLD 96 - - III. LEOPOLD AND THE TRUE JOSEPH BALSAMO 107 - - IV. LEOPOLD AND MLLE. SMITH 116 - - V. THE MARTIAN CYCLE 139 - - I. ORIGIN AND BIRTH OF THE MARTIAN CYCLE 140 - - II. LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARTIAN CYCLE 152 - - III. THE PERSONAGES OF THE MARTIAN ROMANCE 172 - - ESENALE 173 - - ASTANÉ 177 - - POUZÉ, RAMIÉ—VARIOUS PERSONAGES 188 - - IV. CONCERNING THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTIAN - ROMANCE 190 - - VI. THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONTINUED)—THE MARTIAN - LANGUAGE 195 - - I. VERBAL MARTIAN AUTOMATISMS 198 - - II. THE MARTIAN TEXTS 210 - - III. REMARKS ON THE MARTIAN LANGUAGE 241 - - 1. MARTIAN PHONETICS AND HANDWRITING 246 - - 2. GRAMMATICAL FORMS 249 - - 3. CONSTRUCTION AND SYNTAX 251 - - 4. VOCABULARY 252 - - 5. STYLE 255 - - IV. MLLE. SMITH AND THE INVENTOR OF MARTIAN 257 - - VII. THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONCLUDED)—THE ULTRA-MARTIAN 261 - - VIII. THE HINDOO CYCLE 275 - - I. APPARITION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HINDOO - CYCLE 279 - - II. SIVROUKA AND M. DE MARLÈS 297 - - III. THE ARAB ELEMENTS OF THE ORIENTAL CYCLE 309 - - IV. THE HINDOO LANGUAGE OF MLLE. SMITH 314 - - V. THE SOURCES OF THE HINDOO DREAM 337 - - IX. THE ROYAL CYCLE 342 - - X. SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES 364 - - I. THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 365 - - II. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 375 - - 1. APPORTS 375 - - 2. MOVEMENTS OF OBJECTS WITHOUT CONTACT 377 - - III. TELEPATHY 387 - - IV. LUCIDITY 396 - - 1. MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS 398 - - 2. OBJECTS RECOVERED 401 - - 3. RETROCOGNITIONS 406 - - V. INCARNATIONS AND SPIRIT MESSAGES 413 - - 1. CASE OF MLLE. VIGNIER 425 - - 2. CASE OF JEAN THE QUARRYMAN 430 - - 3. CASE OF THE SYNDIC CHAUMONTET AND - OF THE CURÉ BURNIER 431 - - XI. CONCLUSION 441 - - - - -TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE - - -The translation into English of _From India to the Planet Mars_ has -been undertaken in response to the demand created by the widespread and -increasing interest which is manifesting itself both in Great Britain -and the United States in the phenomena exhibited by its heroine—an -interest which marks a new era in the progress of human knowledge. - -Twenty—even ten—years ago the phenomena which Prof. Flournoy here -describes in detail, and of which he offers a keen, skilful, -psychological analysis, would have met with the sneers of popular -science and the contempt of obscurantist orthodoxy; the book would have -found few readers. - -Times have greatly changed since the Society for Psychical Research was -founded, eighteen years ago, by a few thoughtful men (included among -them were those whose names would have conferred honor upon any body -of men) interested in the investigation of abnormal mental or psychic -phenomena. - -In explaining their reasons for organizing that society, its founders -made the following statement: - -“From the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses, past and -present, including observations accurately made by scientific men of -eminence of various countries, there appears to be, among much illusion -and deception, an important body of remarkable phenomena which are -_prima facie_ inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis, and -which, if incontestably established, would be of the highest possible -value.” - -The organization of this society constituted the first attempt in the -world’s history to investigate the phenomena of clairvoyance, automatic -writing and speaking, trance conditions, second sight, apparitions of -persons at the point of death, alleged spirit messages, etc., by a -scientific body formed upon a broad basis. - -As was to have been expected, the work and aims of the society were -met by a storm of derision and ridicule, and by attacks which poured -in from every quarter, the bitterest of which came from the always too -numerous class of narrow-minded scientists, whose partisan prejudices, -confining them to a narrow rut, hinder their seeing anything from a -point of view other than that of their preconceived hypotheses, and -prevent them from attaining that open-mindedness which is indispensable -to and one of the first requisites of a true scientist in any field of -investigation. - -The interest shown to-day in the work of psychical research—among -the evidences of which may be noted the reception accorded this work -of Prof. Flournoy, which has, within a few months from the date of -its publication, attained its third French edition—demonstrates the -ultimate triumph of the founders of that society in their efforts to -bring the thinking public to a realization of the supreme importance -of a systematic scientific study of the mysterious psychic phenomena -so long neglected by official science, but which are now beginning to -assume their rightful place in the field of study and observation. - -Men have come to realize that the facts proved by science have not thus -far been adequate to satisfy the needs of mankind, and many are to-day -asking whether the scientific investigation of psychic phenomena may -not succeed in proving _the preamble of all religions_. - -Already science has disclosed the existence of a hidden, subliminal -world within each individual being, and it is the investigation of -that part of the individuality of Hélène Smith which our author has -undertaken in the following pages. - -The importance of the subject and its intense interest lie in the fact -that psychical research hints at a possible solution, by means of the -same methods which science has been accustomed to use in the physical -world, of the great problem of man’s future destiny, of an answer to -the question asked by Job four thousand years ago, “If a man die, -shall he live again?” and which has been repeated in vain by every -generation of men who have since inhabited the earth. - -While, it is true, the great majority of men are still skeptical as to -the ability of science ever to solve this problem, it is, however, a -fact that a continually increasing number of thoughtful men are coming -to believe that the hidden subliminal world within us may point to an -unseen but spiritual world without, communication with which, if once -established, would furnish us with the solution so ardently longed for. - -Such men do not believe that it behooves them to be content with the -passivity of pure Agnosticism are not willing that _Ignoramus et -Ignorabimus_ should be their only creed. They are beginning to search -for new facts in the domain of the human mind, just as they have -searched for and found them everywhere else they have looked for them. - -Mr. F. W. H. Myers, the pioneer and leader of the psychical research -movement, in an address recently delivered, says: “Starting from -various stand-points, we endeavor to carry the newer, the intellectual -virtues into regions where dispassionate tranquillity has seldom yet -been known.... First, we adopt the ancient belief—implied in all -monotheistic religion, and conspicuously confirmed by the progress -of modern science—that the world as a whole, spiritual and material -together, has in some way a systematic unity: and on this we base -the novel presumption that there should be a unity of method in the -investigation of all fact. We hold therefore that the attitude, the -habits of mind, the methods by which physical science has grown deep -and wide, should be applied also to the spiritual world. We endeavor to -approach the problems of that world by careful collection, scrutiny, -testing of particular facts; and we account no unexplained fact too -trivial for our attention.” - -This is just what Prof. Flournoy has endeavored to do in regard to the -strange phenomena manifested by Mlle. Hélène Smith. No fact has been -regarded by him as too trivial to escape his keen, careful scrutiny -from a psychological point of view. - -The first task which the investigators of these obscure mental -phenomena set themselves was, naturally, that of separating and sifting -the real, actually existent facts from the mass of fraud and deception -in which mercenary charlatans, aided by the easy credulity of the -simple-minded, had contrived so completely to bury from sight the true -phenomena that for a long time the intelligent public refused utterly -to believe in the existence of any real phenomena of the kind, but -insisted that everything when fully probed would be found to be mere -delusion, the result of trickery and fraud. - -Probably no scientific fact since the dawn of modern science has -required so great a weight of cumulative evidence in its favor to -establish the reality of its existence in the popular mind than have -the phenomena in question. The task, however, has been accomplished. - -Prof. Flournoy’s heroine, although she is a high-minded, honorable -woman, regarded by all her neighbors and friends as wholly incapable -of conscious fraud, has been subjected to the closest surveillance on -the part of a number of eminent physicians and scientists of Geneva -for more than five years past, while Mrs. Piper, the famous Boston -medium, has been subjected to an even closer scrutiny by the Society -for Psychical Research for the past fifteen years. In spite of the fact -that this society has announced its willingness to become responsible -for the entire absence of fraud in Mrs. Piper’s case, and of a similar -declaration on the part of Prof. Flournoy and his associates in -regard to Mlle. Smith, there still remain a considerable number of -ultra-skeptical persons who persist in asserting that fraud and deceit -are at the bottom of, and account for, all this species of phenomena. - -The well-known gentlemen who have investigated these cases have never -been accused of easy credulity in other matters, and have cautiously -and perseveringly continued, in their endeavor to satisfy skepticism, -to pile Pelion upon Ossa in the way of cumulative proofs of the -genuineness of the phenomena and to safeguard their investigations in -every possible manner against all possibility of fraud, until they -have finally come to feel that more than sufficient proof has been -furnished to satisfy any honest, fair-minded, sensible doubt. They -do not feel that they have the right to devote further time to the -question of the genuineness of the facts observed by them—time which -they believe might be better employed in endeavoring to discover the -laws by which the phenomena are governed. They believe that those -who are not satisfied with the evidence already offered will not be -convinced by any amount of further testimony—that their skepticism is -invincible. For persons so constituted this book will have no interest; -its perusal will afford them no pleasure. - -The endeavor to explain these mysterious phenomena by scientific -investigators has resulted in their adoption of one or other of two -hypotheses, viz.: - -1. That the phenomena are the product of and originate in the -subliminal consciousness of the medium; or, - -2. That the phenomena are really of supernormal origin and emanate from -the disincarnate spirits of the dead, who return to earth and take -temporary possession of the organism of the medium, talking through her -mouth, writing with her hand while she is in a somnambulistic state. - -The first theory involves the crediting of the subliminal consciousness -with almost miraculous powers of telepathy, since, on that hypothesis, -it is necessary, in order to account for the knowledge possessed by the -medium, to suppose that her subliminal consciousness is able to roam -at will throughout the entire universe and read the mind of any being -possessing the information sought for. - -All open-minded investigators freely admit that either of the above -hypotheses may be untrue; that very little is known by them as yet in -regard to the nature of the phenomena; that the data are too slight to -justify more than a provisional hypothesis, which the discovery of new -facts may at any time entirely demolish. But, thus far, the hypotheses -above given seem to be the only ones which will in any way rationally -account for the facts: in which case, it is evident that each -individual observer will be influenced in his choice of a hypothesis by -his religious belief, which will greatly affect the point of view from -which he approaches the subject, and also by his natural temperament, -habits of thought, etc. - -Prof. Flournoy states that he has endeavored to keep constantly in mind -and to be guided by two propositions, which he designates respectively -the “Principle of Hamlet” and the “Principle of La Place,” the former -being, “_All things are possible_,” the latter, “_The weight of the -evidence ought to be proportioned to the strangeness of the facts_.” - -Guided by these two principles, Prof. Flournoy has come to the -conclusion that Mlle. Smith really possesses the faculty of -telekinesis—the ability to move ponderable objects situated at a -distance, without contact and contrary to known natural laws. On -the other hand, he does not believe the phenomena manifested by her -to be of supernormal origin. The various alleged “spirit” messages, -“incarnations,” “gift of tongues,” and all other apparently supernormal -phenomena, in his opinion, spring from Mlle. Smith’s subliminal -consciousness, and he exercises great skill and ingenuity in his effort -to trace the very wonderful and astonishing manifestations with which -he has had to deal to natural sources. - -Whether the individual reader adopts the author’s views and theories, -or finds in others a more natural explanation of the facts narrated by -Prof. Flournoy, he cannot fail to admire the frankness, candor, and -entire freedom from prejudice displayed by him. He evinces a true, -open-minded, scientific spirit, never distorting facts in order to make -them fit his hypotheses, and freely admitting the possibility of the -discovery of new facts at any time, of a nature to compel him to adopt -some other hypothesis than that which he has provisionally assumed to -explain the phenomena. - - * * * * * - -A word on another subject before the reader goes on to the perusal of -this narrative of strange facts: - -One who is interested in Psychical Research, when he has finally -succeeded in convincing some obstinate skeptic of the genuineness of -the phenomena—when the doubter has at last yielded to the weight of -evidence, then, very frequently, the next question, which comes as -a wet blanket to dampen the ardor of the enthusiastic devotee, is: -“_Cui bono?_ Admitting the truth of the facts, what useful purpose is -subserved by their study? Science will never succeed in solving the -problem of man’s future destiny. It is all a waste of time and will end -in nothing.” And in a review of this very book, which recently appeared -in one of our leading metropolitan newspapers, the reviewer asks, “What -will science make of all this?” (referring to the phenomena manifested -by Mlle. Smith); and then answers his own question by saying, “It is -very unlikely that science will ever discover the nature of these -mysterious phenomena or the laws which govern them.” - -From this conclusion the followers of Psychical Research emphatically -dissent. It seems passing strange to them that such an opinion should -be held by intelligent men at the present stage of development of -human knowledge, in view of the mighty discoveries which have been -wrested from nature by the laborious process of persevering observation -of seemingly trivial facts. An eighteenth-century writer might with -some show of reason have made a similar observation in regard to Dr. -Franklin and his experiments with kite and key in a thunder-storm. -It would indeed, at that epoch, have seemed unlikely that science -would succeed in discovering the secret of the electric fluid by such -means. But to-day, at the dawn of the twentieth century, with all the -experience of the past to judge from, are not the probabilities all in -favor of great results to science from repeated experiments by trained -observers, such as Prof. Flournoy, upon cases similar to that of Mlle. -Smith? - -If the hypothesis that the world as a whole, spiritual and material -together, has in some way a systematic unity, be true—and that is -the hypothesis accepted by a majority of thinking men at the present -time—then the importance of collecting and recording and analyzing -such facts as those presented to us in the present narrative cannot be -overestimated. - -The scientific demonstration of a future life may be one of the great -triumphs reserved for the science of the twentieth century to win, -and Hélène Smith and Prof. Flournoy may ultimately appear to have -contributed largely to its accomplishment. - -To those who still persist in asking _Cui bono?_ in reference to such -work as that which Prof. Flournoy has here so ably performed, I beg -leave to quote further from Mr. Myers the following: - - “The faith to which Science is sworn is a faith in the uniformity, - the coherence, the intelligibility of, at any rate, the material - universe. Science herself is but the practical development of this - mighty postulate. And if any phenomenon on which she chances on her - onward way seems arbitrary, or incoherent, or unintelligible, she does - not therefore suppose that she has come upon an unravelled end in the - texture of things; but rather takes for granted that a rational answer - to the new problem must somewhere exist—an answer which will be all - the more instructive because it will involve facts of which that first - question must have failed to take due account. - - “This faith in the uniformity of material Nature formulates itself - in two great dogmas—for such they are;—the dogma of the Conservation - of Matter and the dogma of the Conservation of Energy. Of the - Conservation of Matter, within earthly limits, we are fairly well - assured; but of the Conservation of Energy the proof is far less - complete, simply because Energy is a conception which does not belong - to the material world alone. Life is to us the most important of - all forms of activity—of energy, I would say—except that we cannot - transform other energies into Life, nor measure in foot-pounds that - directive force which has changed the face of the world. Life comes we - know not whence; it vanishes we know not whither; it is interlocked - with a moving system vaster than that we know. To grasp the whole - of its manifestation, we should have to follow it into an unseen - world. Yet scientific faith bids us believe that there, too, there is - continuity; and that the past and the future of that force which we - discern for a moment are still subject to universal Law. - - “Out of the long Stone Age our race is awakening into consciousness of - itself. We stand in the dawn of history. Behind us lies a vast and - unrecorded waste—the mighty struggle _humanam condere gentem_. Since - the times of that ignorance we have not yet gone far; a few thousand - years, a few hundred thinkers, have barely started the human mind - upon the great æons of its onward way. It is not yet the hour to sit - down in our studies and try to eke out Tradition with Intuition—as - one might be forced to do in a planet’s senility, by the glimmer - of a fading sun. _Daphni, quid antiquos signorum suspicis ortus?_ - The traditions, the intuitions of our race are themselves in their - infancy; and before we abandon ourselves to brooding over them let us - at least first try the upshot of a systematic search for actual facts. - For what should hinder? If our inquiry lead us first through a jungle - of fraud and folly, need that alarm us? As well might Columbus have - yielded to the sailors’ panic when he was entangled in the Sargasso - Sea. If our first clear facts about the Unseen World seem small and - trivial, should that deter us from the quest? As well might Columbus - have sailed home again, with America in the offing, on the ground that - it was not worth while to discover a continent which manifested itself - only by dead logs.” - -It is deeply to be regretted that no appeals have availed to persuade -Mlle. Smith to consent to the publication of her photograph, in -connection with Prof. Flournoy’s account of the phenomena manifested -by her. - -She shrinks from the publicity which her possession of these strange -powers has thrust upon her. She dislikes extremely the notoriety given -to her mysterious faculties, and refuses to be interviewed concerning -them, or to discuss Prof. Flournoy’s book. - -The name Hélène Smith is, as the reader will doubtless guess, merely -a pseudonym. The individuality designated by that name, however, is -held in highest esteem—in veneration even—by a very large circle of -friends and acquaintances in the city on the shores of Lake Leman, in -which she has passed her life from infancy, for whose benefit she is -always ready to exercise her mysterious gifts and to give her services -freely to such as seek her aid, refusing always to accept any pecuniary -compensation for her services. Attaching, as she does, a religious -significance to her powers, she would deem it a sacrilege to traffic in -them. - - DANIEL B. VERMILYE. - - COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, - _July, 1900_. - - - - - FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - INTRODUCTION - - -In the month of December, 1894, I was invited by M. Aug. Lemaître, -Professor of the College of Geneva, to attend some seances of a -non-professional medium, receiving no compensation for her services, -and of whose extraordinary gifts and apparently supernormal faculties I -had frequently heard. - -Having gladly accepted the invitation of my worthy colleague, I found -the medium in question, whom I shall call Mlle. Hélène Smith, to be a -beautiful woman about thirty years of age, tall, vigorous, of a fresh, -healthy complexion, with hair and eyes almost black, of an open and -intelligent countenance, which at once invoked sympathy. She evinced -nothing of the emaciated or tragic aspect which one habitually ascribes -to the sibyls of tradition, but wore an air of health, of physical and -mental vigor, very pleasant to behold, and which, by-the-way, is not -often encountered in those who are good mediums. - -The number of those invited to take part in the seance being -complete, we seated ourselves in a circle, with our hands resting -upon the traditional round table of spiritistic circles. Mlle. -Smith—who possesses a triple mediumship: visual, auditive, and -typtological[1]—began, in the most natural manner, to describe the -various apparitions which passed before her eyes in the partially -darkened room. Suddenly she stops and listens; she hears a name spoken -in her ear, which she repeats to us with astonishment; then brief -sentences, the words of which are spelled out by raps on the table, -explain the meaning of the vision. Speaking for myself alone (there -were three of us to divide the honor of the seance), I was greatly -surprised to recognize in scenes which passed before my eyes events -which had transpired in my own family prior to my birth. Whence could -the medium, whom I had never met before, have derived the knowledge of -events belonging to a remote past, of a private nature, and utterly -unknown to any living person? - -The astounding powers of Mrs. Piper, the famous Boston medium, whose -wonderful intuition reads the latent memories of her visitors like -an open book, recurred to my mind, and I went out from that seance -with renewed hope of finding myself some day face to face with the -“supernormal”—a true and genuine supernormal—telepathy, clairvoyance, -spiritistic manifestations, it matters not by what name it be called, -provided only that it be wholly out of the ordinary, and that it -succeed in utterly demolishing the entire framework of established -present-day science. - -I was able at this time to obtain general information only concerning -the past of Mlle. Smith, but it was all of a character favorable to -her, and has since been fully confirmed. - -Of modest bearing and an irreproachable moral character, she has for -years earned an honorable living as an employée of a commercial house, -in which her industry, her perseverance, and her high character have -combined to secure her a very responsible and important position. - -Some three years prior to the date of my introduction to her she -had been initiated into a spiritistic group, where her remarkable -psychic powers almost immediately manifested themselves; and she -then became a member of various other spiritistic circles. From its -commencement her mediumship manifested the complex type to which I -have already alluded, and from which it has never deviated. Visions -in a waking state, accompanied by typtological dictation and auditive -hallucinations, alternately appeared. From the point of view of their -content these messages had generally a bearing on past events usually -unknown to the persons present, but which were always verified by -referring to biographical dictionaries or to the traditions of the -families interested. To these phenomena of retrocognition or of -hypermnesia were joined occasionally, according to the environment, -moral exhortations, communicated through the table, more frequently in -poetry than in prose, addressed to the sitters; medical consultations, -accompanied by prescriptions generally appropriate; communications -from parents or friends recently deceased; or, finally, revelations as -piquant as they were unverifiable concerning the _antériorités_ (that -is, the previous existences) of the sitters, almost all of whom, being -profound believers in spiritism, would not have been at all surprised -to learn that they were the reincarnations respectively of Coligny, of -Vergniaud, of the Princess Lamballe, or of other notable personages. It -is necessary, finally, to add that all these messages seemed to be more -or less bound up with the mysterious presence of a “spirit” answering -to the name of Leopold, who assumed to be the guide and protector of -the medium. - -I at once undertook to improve my acquaintance with Hélène Smith. She -freely consented to give seances for my benefit, alternating with a -series which she was giving M. Lemaître, and another for the benefit -of Prof. Cuendet, vice-president of the Geneva Society (spiritistic) -for Psychic Studies, all of which I was permitted to attend. In this -way I have been able to be present at the greater part of Hélène’s -seances during the past five years. The personal observations that I -have thus been able to make, reinforced by notes on sittings which I -was unable to attend, kindly furnished me by MM. Lemaître and Cuendet, -form the basis of the study which follows; to which must be added, -however, certain letters of Mlle. Smith, as well as the numerous and -very interesting conversations I have held with her either immediately -preceding or following her seances, or at her home, where I also have -had the advantage of being able to talk with her mother. Finally, -various documents and accessory information, which will be cited -in their respective time and place, have also been of assistance -in enabling me partially to elucidate certain obscure points. -Notwithstanding all these sources of information, however, I am still -very far from being able to disentangle and satisfactorily explain the -complex phenomena which constitute Hélène’s mediumship. - -Dating from the period at which I made the acquaintance of Mlle. Smith -(_i. e._, from the winter of 1894-95), while most of her spiritistic -communications have continued to present the same character as to form -and content as before, a double and very important modification in her -mediumship has been observed. - -1. As to their psychological form.—While up to that time Hélène had -experienced partial and limited automatisms only—visual, auditive, -typtomotor hallucinations—compatible with the preservation to a -certain extent of the waking state, and not involving noticeable loss -of memory, from that time and with increasing frequency she has been -subject to an entire loss of consciousness and a failure to retain, on -returning to her normal state, any recollection of what has transpired -during the seance. In physiological terms, the hemisomnambulism without -amnesia, which had been her stopping-point up to that time, and which -the sitters mistook for the ordinary waking state, was now transformed -into total somnambulism with consecutive amnesia. - -In spiritistic parlance, Mlle. Smith now became completely entranced, -and having formerly been an ordinary visual and auditive medium, she -now advanced to the higher plane of an “incarnating medium.” - -I fear that this change must in a great measure be attributed to my -influence, since it followed almost immediately upon my introduction -to Hélène’s seances. Or, even if the total somnambulism would -have inevitably been eventually developed by virtue of an organic -predisposition and of a tendency favorable to hypnoid states, it is -nevertheless probable that I aided in hastening its appearance by my -presence as well as by a few experiments which I permitted myself to -make upon Hélène. - -As is well known, mediums are usually surrounded by a halo of -veneration, which prevents any one from touching them during their -trances. The idea would never occur to any ordinary frequenter of -spiritistic circles to endeavor to ascertain the condition of the -medium’s sensory and motor functions by feeling her hands, pinching -the flesh, or pricking the skin with a pin. Silence and immobility are -the strict rule, in order not to hinder the spontaneous production -of the phenomena, and a few questions or brief observations on the -receipt of a message is all that is permissible by way of conversation, -and no one therefore would, under ordinary circumstances, dare to -attempt any manipulation of the medium. Mlle. Smith had always been -surrounded by this respectful consideration, and during the first -three seances I conformed myself strictly to the passive and purely -contemplative attitude of the other sitters. But at the fourth -sitting my discretion vanished. I could not resist a strong desire to -ascertain the physiological condition of the charming seeress, and I -made some vigorous elementary experiments upon her hands, which lay -temptingly spread out opposite me on the table. These experiments, -which I renewed and followed up at the succeeding seance (February -3, 1895), demonstrated that there is present in Mlle. Smith, _during -her visions_, a large and varied assortment of sensory and motor -disturbances which had hitherto escaped the notice of the sitters, -and which are thoroughly identical with those that may be observed -in cases of hysteria (where they are more permanent), and those that -may be momentarily produced in hypnotic subjects by suggestion. This -was not at all astonishing, and was to have been expected. But one -consequence, which I had not foreseen, did occur when, four days after -my second experimental seance, Mlle. Smith fell completely asleep for -the first time at a sitting with M. Cuendet (February 7th), at which -I was not present. The sitters were somewhat frightened, and, in -trying to awaken her, discovered the rigidity of her arms, which were -considerably contractured. Leopold however, communicating by means of -the table upon which she was leaning, fully reassured them, and gave -them to understand that such sleep was not at all prejudicial to the -medium. After assuming various attitudes and indulging in some amusing -mimicry, Mlle. Smith awoke in excellent spirits, retaining as a last -recollection of her dream that of a kiss which Leopold had imprinted -upon her forehead. - -From that day on somnambulisms were the rule with Hélène, and the -seances at which she did not fall completely asleep for at least a -few moments formed rare exceptions to the course of events during the -next four years. It is a great deprivation for Mlle. Smith that these -slumbers ordinarily leave her no memory upon her awakening of what -has transpired in her trance, and she longs for the seances of former -times when the visions unfolded themselves before her eyes, furnishing -her with a pleasing spectacle which was always unexpected, and which, -continually being renewed, caused the seances to be to her a source -of great delight. For the sitters, on the other hand, these scenes of -somnambulism and incarnation, together with the various physiological -phenomena of catalepsy, lethargy, contractures, etc., which accompanied -them, added great variety and additional interest to Hélène Smith’s -remarkable and instructive triple mediumship. - -The greater sometimes implies the less: simultaneously with the access -of complete somnambulism came new forms and innumerable shades of -hemisomnambulism. The triple form of automatism which distinguished -the first years of Mlle. Smith’s spiritistic experiences has been -wonderfully developed since 1895, and it would now be difficult to -name any principal forms of psychic mediumship of which she has not -furnished curious specimens. I shall have occasion to cite several -of them in the course of this work. Hélène constitutes the most -remarkable medium I have ever met, and very nearly approaches the ideal -of what might be called the polymorphous, or multiform, medium, in -contradistinction to the uniform mediums, whose faculties only concern -themselves with one kind of automatism. - -2. A modification analogous to that which took place in the psychologic -form of the messages consisting of a marked improvement in their depth -and importance, was noticeable simultaneously in their content. - -Alongside of the unimportant communications, complete at one sitting -and independent one of another, which filled up a large part of each -of Hélène’s seances and in no wise differentiated her faculties from -those of the majority of mediums, she manifested from the beginning a -marked tendency to a superior systematization and a more lofty chain of -visions; communications were often continued through several seances, -and reached their conclusion only at the end of several weeks. But -from the period at which I made the acquaintance of Mlle. Smith this -tendency towards unity began to assert itself still more strongly. -Several long somnambulistic dreams began to appear and to develop, the -events of which continued to be unfolded through months, even years, -and indeed still continue; a species of romance of the subliminal -imagination analogous to those “continued stories” which so many of our -race tell themselves in their moments of _far niente_, or at times when -their routine occupations offer only slight obstacles to day-dreaming, -and of which they themselves are generally the heroes. - -Mlle. Smith has no fewer than three distinct somnambulistic romances, -and if to these is added the existence of that secondary personality -to which I have already alluded, and which reveals itself under the -name of Leopold, we find ourselves in the presence of four subconscious -creations of vast extent, which have been evolved on parallel lines for -several years, and which manifest themselves in irregular alternation -during the course of different seances, or often even in the same -seance. - -All of these have undoubtedly a common origin in Hélène’s subliminal -consciousness; but in practice, at least, and to all appearance, -these imaginative constructions present a relative independence and a -diversity of content sufficiently great to render it necessary to study -them separately. I shall confine myself at present to a general view of -them. - -Two of these romances are connected with the spiritistic idea of -previous existences. It has, indeed, been revealed that Hélène Smith -has already lived twice before on this globe. Five hundred years ago -she was the daughter of an Arab sheik, and became, under the name of -Simandini, the favorite wife of a Hindoo prince named Sivrouka Nayaka, -who reigned over Kanara, and built in the year 1401 the fortress of -Tchandraguiri. In the last century she reappeared in the person of the -illustrious and unfortunate Marie Antoinette. Again reincarnated, as a -punishment for her sins and the perfecting of her character, in the -humble circumstances of Hélène Smith, she in certain somnambulistic -states recovers the memory of her glorious avatars of old, and becomes -again for the moment Hindoo princess or queen of France. - -I will designate under the names of “Hindoo” or “Oriental” cycle and -“Royal” cycle the whole of the automatic manifestations relative to -these two previous existences. I shall call the third romance the -“Martian” cycle, in which Mlle. Smith, by virtue of the mediumistic -faculties, which are the appanage and the consolation of her present -life, has been able to enter into relation with the people and affairs -of the planet Mars, and to unveil their mysteries to us. It is in -this astronomical somnambulism that the phenomenon of glossolalia[2] -appears, which consists of the fabrication and the use of an unknown -language, and which is one of the principal objects of this study; we -shall see, however, that analogous facts are likewise presented in the -Hindoo cycle. - -The personality of Leopold maintains very complex relations with the -preceding creations. On the one hand, it is very closely connected with -the Royal cycle, owing to the fact that the name of Leopold is only a -pseudonym under which is concealed the illustrious Cagliostro, who, it -appears, was madly infatuated with Queen Marie Antoinette, and who now, -discarnate and floating in space, has constituted himself the guardian -angel in some respects of Mlle. Smith, in whom after a long search he -has again found the august object of his unhappy passion of a century -ago. - -On the other hand, this rôle of protector and spiritual guide which -he assumes towards Hélène confers upon him a privileged place in her -somnambulisms. He is more or less mixed up in the greater part of -them; assists at them, watches over them, and perhaps in a measure -directs them. He also occasionally appears in the midst of a Hindoo -or a Martian scene, delivering his message by certain characteristic -movements of the hand. - -To sum up: sometimes revealing himself by raps upon the table, the -taps of a finger, or by automatic writing; sometimes incarnating -himself completely and speaking by the mouth of Mlle. Smith while -entranced—Leopold fulfils in these seances the multiple and varied -functions of spirit-guide, giving good advice relative to the manner -of acting towards the medium; of stage-manager hidden behind the -scenes watching the performance and ready at any time to intervene; -of benevolently disposed interpreter willing to furnish explanations -of all that is obscure; of censor of morals sharply reprimanding the -sitters when he deems it necessary; of sympathetic physician prompt at -diagnosis and well versed in the pharmacopœia, etc. He also appears -under his own name of Cagliostro to the somnambulistic gaze of the -resuscitated Marie Antoinette and answers her questions by means of -auditive hallucinations. Nor is this all: to make our summary complete, -it is necessary also to investigate the personal connection of Mlle. -Smith with her invisible protector. She often invokes and questions -Leopold at her own convenience, and while he remains sometimes for -weeks without giving any sign of life, he at other times readily -responds to her by means of voices or visions which surprise her while -fully awake in the course of her daily duties, and in which he lavishes -upon her in turn material or moral advice, useful information, or the -encouragement and consolation of which she has need. - -Although I have accused myself of perhaps having had much to do with -the transformation of Hélène’s hemisomnambulism into complete trances, -I believe myself, however, altogether innocent of the origin, and -therefore of the subsequent development, of the great subliminal -creations of which I have spoken. The first, that of Leopold, is of -very early date, even going back probably, as we shall see, prior to -Mlle. Smith’s initiation into spiritism. As to the three cycles, they -did not, it is true, commence to display their full amplitude until -after I had made Hélène’s acquaintance; and since they start from the -time when she first became subject to veritable trances, it would seem -as though that supreme form of automatism is the only one capable of -allowing the full expansion of productions so complex, and the only -psychological _container_ appropriate and adequate to such a _content_. -But the first appearance of all three was clearly prior to my presence -at the seances. The Hindoo dream, where I shall be found playing a rôle -which I did not seek, evidently began (October 16, 1894) eight weeks -before my admission to Mlle. Smith’s seances. The Martian romance, -which dates from the same period, is closely connected, as I shall -also show, with an involuntary suggestion of M. Lemaître, who made -the acquaintance of Hélène in the spring of 1894, nine months before -my introduction to her. The Royal cycle, finally, had been roughly -outlined at seances held at the home of M. Cuendet, in December, 1893. -Nevertheless, I repeat, only since 1895 have the exuberant growth and -magnificent flowering of that subliminal vegetation taken place under -the stimulating and provocative influence, albeit wholly unintentional -and altogether unsuspected at the time, of the varied environments of -Mlle. Smith’s seances. - -As far as the indiscreet revelations in regard to my own family, -which so much astonished me at my first meeting with Mlle. Smith, are -concerned, as well as the innumerable extraordinary facts of the same -kind with which her mediumship abounds, and to which she owes her -immense reputation in spiritistic circles, it will suffice to return in -the closing chapters of this book. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE. SMITH - - -The psychological history of Mlle. Smith and her automatisms is -naturally divided into two separate periods by the important fact of -her initiation into spiritism at the beginning of 1892. Before that -time, not suspecting the possibility of voluntary communication with -the world of disincarnate spirits, she naturally manifested nothing -more than a few spontaneous phenomena, the first flutterings of her -mediumistic faculties which still lay dormant, the exact nature -and progress of which it would be interesting to know in detail; -unfortunately, in the absence of written documents concerning that -pre-spiritistic period, we are confined to the statements of Hélène and -her parents in regard to it, and the untrustworthiness of the memory in -connection with events of a remote past is only too well known. - -The spiritistic period, on the contrary, extending over the last seven -years, and infinitely more fertile in artificially promoted (_e.g._, -the seances) as well as in spontaneous manifestations, is much better -known to us; but in order to comprehend it intelligently, it is -necessary first to pass in review the few facts which we have been -able to gather relating to the pre-spiritistic period—that is to say, -the childhood and youth of Mlle. Smith. That will be the subject of -this chapter. - -Mlle. Smith has lived in Geneva since her infancy. After attending -school, she entered as an apprentice, at the age of fifteen, a large -commercial house, where, as I have already stated, she still remains, -and where, little by little, she has risen to a very responsible -position. Her father, a merchant, was a Hungarian, and possessed a -remarkable facility for languages, which is of interest to us in -presence of the phenomena of glossolalia, a subject which will be -discussed hereafter. Her mother is a Genevese. Both enjoyed excellent -health and attained a venerable old age. Hélène had a younger sister -who died in early childhood, and two brothers older than herself, who -are now fathers of families and established abroad, where they have had -successful business careers. - -I am not aware that M. Smith, who was a man of positive character, ever -displayed any phenomena of automatisms. Mme. Smith, however, as well -as her grandmother, has experienced several thoroughly characteristic -phenomena of that kind, and one, at least, of Hélène’s brothers, it -appears, could easily have become a good medium. This is another -instance of the distinctly hereditary tendency of mediumistic faculties. - -M. Smith, a man of active and enterprising character, died quite -suddenly, probably of an embolism, at the age of seventy-five years. -He had left Hungary in his youth, and finally established himself at -Geneva, after having travelled extensively in Italy and Algiers, where -he remained for several years. He spoke fluently Hungarian, German, -French, Italian, and Spanish, understood English fairly well, and -also knew Latin and a little Greek. It would seem that his daughter -has inherited these linguistic aptitudes, but only in a latent and -subliminal manner, for she has always detested the study of languages, -and rebelled against learning German, in which she took lessons for -three years. - -Mme. Smith, who is a kind-hearted woman, with much good, practical -sense, is sixty-seven years of age. Neither she nor her husband was -ever a nervous or psychopathic subject, but both showed a marked -tendency to broncho-pulmonary affections of a somewhat alarming type. -Mme. Smith has, besides, suffered frequently from rheumatism. Hélène -does not appear to have inherited these tendencies; she has always -enjoyed robust health, and has not even had the slight diseases usually -incidental to childhood. - -Although both M. and Mme. Smith were Protestants, through a chain of -peculiar circumstances their daughter was baptized a Catholic shortly -after her birth, her name being inscribed some months later on the -register of the Protestant church of Geneva. The memory of this unusual -baptism has certainly not been lost by Hélène’s subliminal imagination, -and has duly contributed to the hypothesis of a mysterious origin. Of -the years of childhood I know nothing specially interesting. At the -intermediate school, at which she passed only a year, and where I have -consulted the records of her class, she was not distinguished either -for good or ill from the point of view of deportment, but she certainly -did not reveal the full measure of her intelligence, since she failed -to pass the examinations at the end of the year, a fact which decided -her entrance upon an apprenticeship. On the other hand, the worthy -pastor who gave her religious instruction somewhat later, and who has -never lost sight of her since, has furnished me with most eulogistic -testimonials as to her character; he remembers her as a young girl of -serious disposition, intelligent, thoughtful, faithful in the discharge -of her duties, and devoted to her family. - -M. Smith never showed the least trace of mediumistic phenomena; from -having been very indifferent, or even hostile, to spiritism until his -daughter began to interest herself in it, he finally succumbed to her -influence and became a believer in that doctrine towards the close of -his life. Mme. Smith, on the contrary, has always been predisposed -to it, and has experienced several phenomena of that nature in the -course of her life. At the period of the epidemic of “table-tipping” -which raged in our country about the middle of this century, she too -experimented quite successfully for a while upon the table with her -friends and acquaintances. Later, she had some sporadic visions. The -following is one of the most typical. While her little daughter three -years old was ill, Mme. Smith awoke in the middle of the night and saw -an angel, of dazzling brightness, standing by the side of the little -bed with its hands stretched out above the child; after some moments -the apparition gradually dissolved. Mme. Smith awakened her husband and -told him of the fatal significance which she attached to the vision, -but he, unable to see anything, ridiculed her superstitious fears. As -a matter of fact, the child died on the following day, to the great -surprise of the physician attending her. This is a fine example of true -maternal presentiment, subconsciously felt and transferring itself into -the normal consciousness by a visual hallucination which borrowed for -its symbolic content an appropriate popular image. - -Mme. Smith never knew her mother, who died shortly after her birth; but -she recalls and has related to me some characteristic visions of her -grandmother, who brought her up; various phenomena connected with one -of Hélène’s brothers (hearing of steps in the night, etc.) have proved -to her that one of her sons, at least, is a medium. - -Hélène Smith was certainly predisposed, both by heredity -and temperament, to become a medium, as soon as the outward -opportunity—that is, the suggestions of spiritism—should present itself. - -It is evident, indeed, from her recital of events, that she was more -or less visionary from her infancy. It does not appear, however, that -she ever manifested phenomena capable in themselves of attracting -the attention of her family. I have not been able to discover any -indication whatever of crises or attacks of an abnormal nature, not -even of sleep-walking. Her automatisms have been always almost entirely -confined to the sensory or mental sphere, and it is only from her -own narratives that other people have any knowledge of them. They -assume the double form of reveries more or less conscious, and of -hallucinations properly so called. - -1. _Reveries._—The habit of falling into reverie, of building castles -in the air, of transporting one’s self into other conditions of -existence, or of telling one’s self stories in which one plays the -chief rôle, is more frequent among women than among men, and in -childhood and youth than in mature years. This propensity seems to -have always been extremely marked in the case of Mlle. Smith, since -from her school-girl days she has shown herself to be of a sedentary -and domestic temperament, preferring the quiet companionship of her -mother to the games of her comrades, and her needle-work to out-door -recreations. The fragments which have survived in Hélène’s conscious -memory are all that is known to us of the content of these reveries, -but it suffices, nevertheless, to reveal to us the general tone of her -fictions, and to show us that the images suddenly surging up before -her mental vision had a peculiar, often very fantastic, character, -and which enables us to see in them the beginnings of her later great -somnambulistic romances. It is to be noticed also that the designs, -embroideries, varied artistic works, which were always the favorite -occupations of her moments of leisure and in which she excels, were -almost always, from her infancy, not copies of exterior models, but the -products of her own invention, marked with the bizarre and original -stamp of her internal images. Moreover, these pieces of work grew under -her fingers with an ease and rapidity that astonished herself. They -made themselves, as it were. - -She was always fond of indulging in day-dreams, and recalls many a -half-hour passed motionless in an easy-chair, on which occasions she -was accustomed to see all kinds of strange things, but, being of a very -reticent nature, she seldom mentioned them to her parents for fear of -not being understood. She used to see highly colored landscapes, a lion -of stone with a mutilated head, fanciful objects on pedestals, etc. She -does not remember the details, but does clearly recollect that they all -bore a close resemblance to her Hindoo and Martian visions of later -years. - -These phantasmagoria also appeared to her in the night. She remembers, -among other things, to have seen, when about fourteen or fifteen -years old, a bright light thrown against the wall of her room, which -then seemed to be filled with strange and unknown beings. She had the -impression of being fully awake, but it suddenly occurred to her that -she must have been dreaming, and it was only then that she comprehended -that it was really a “vision” which she had experienced. - -2 _Hallucinations._—In the foregoing examples it would be difficult to -say to exactly which category the psychologic facts belong, especially -the nocturnal phenomena, and one may hesitate whether to regard them as -simple dreams of a very vivid character, hypnagogic or hypnopompic[3] -visions, or as veritable hallucinations. On the other hand, we -undoubtedly have the right to give the latter designation to the -numerous apparitions which Mlle. Smith has when in full possession of -her senses in the daytime. - -One day, for example, as she was playing out-of-doors with a friend, -she saw some one following her, and mentioned the fact to her -companion, who could not see any one. The imaginary individual, after -having followed her around a tree for a moment, disappeared, and she -was unable to find him again. - -Of an entirely different order are the strange characters which she -remembers having sometimes involuntarily substituted for French letters -when writing to her friends, which must be regarded as graphomotor -hallucinations. These were undoubtedly the same characters which at -other times appeared to her in visual images. - -This was the prelude to the phenomenon so frequently experienced -by her in the last few years, and of which we shall hereafter see -many examples—namely, automatic writing, mingling with her ordinary -chirography in her waking state. - -Alongside of hallucinations like these, which do not show any -intentional or useful character and are only a capricious and -fortuitous irruption into the normal consciousness, mere dreams or -fancies filling up the subconscious strata, there are also manifested -in Hélène’s case some hallucinations of a manifest utility, which have -in consequence the sense of messages addressed by the subliminal -consciousness of the subject to her normal consciousness, by way of -warning and protection. It is to be noted that these hallucinations, -which might be called teleological, have lately been claimed by -Leopold, although he has no recollection of, and does not assert -himself to be the author of, the earlier ones. - -The following is a curious example: At about the age of seventeen or -eighteen, Hélène was returning from the country one evening, carrying -a fine bouquet of flowers. During the last minutes of the journey -she heard behind her a peculiar cry of a bird, which seemed to her -to warn her against some danger, and she hastened her steps without -looking behind. On her arrival at home the cry followed her into her -room without her having been able to see the creature from which it -emanated. She went tired to bed, and in the middle of the night awoke -in great pain, but was unable to cry out. At that moment she felt -herself gently lifted, together with the pillow on which she lay, as -if by two friendly hands, which enabled her to recover her voice and -call her mother, who hastened to comfort her, and carried the flowers, -which were too odorous, out of the room. Leopold, on being interrogated -recently during a somnambulism of Hélène as to this incident, coming -up again after so many years, has a very clear recollection of it and -gives the following explanation. - -It was not really the cry of a bird, but it was he, Leopold, who -caused Hélène to hear a sort of whistle, hoping thereby to attract her -attention to the danger lurking in the bouquet of flowers, in which -was a great deal of garden-mint of powerful odor. Unfortunately Hélène -did not understand, and retained the bouquet in her room. He adds that -his failure to give a more clear and intelligible warning was due to -the fact that it was at that time impossible for him to do so. The -whistle which Hélène took for the cry of a bird was all that it was in -his power to utter. It was again he who intervened at the moment of her -nocturnal illness by raising her head in order to enable her to call -for help. - -I have no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy either of the -account given by Hélène and her mother, or of the explanation -recently furnished by Leopold. The incident belongs to the category -of well-known cases where a danger of some sort not suspected by the -normal personality, but which is subconsciously known or recognized, -is warded off by a preservative hallucination, either sensory (as -here—the cry of the bird) or motor (as in the lifting of the body). The -subliminal consciousness is not always able to give a clear message; -in the present case, the auditive automatism remained in a state of -elementary hallucination, a simple whistle, without being able to -elevate it to a distinct verbal hallucination. Its general warning -sense, however, was understood by Hélène, thanks to the confused -feeling of danger that she felt at the same time. Moreover, this -confused feeling, which caused her to quicken her steps, it seems to -me, ought not to be considered as the consequence of the whistle she -heard, but rather as a parallel phenomenon; the appearance or the odor -of the mint she was carrying, while not attracting her conscious -attention, nevertheless dimly roused in her an idea of the danger -lurking in the flowers, and that idea in turn affected her clear -consciousness under the double form of a vague emotion of danger and -a verbo-auditive translation which did not go so far as to formulate -itself explicitly. - -Under circumstances of a nature calculated to cause a strong emotional -shock, and especially when the psychic sphere which involves the -sentiment of modesty is strongly acted upon, Hélène has a visual -hallucination of a man clothed in a long, brown robe, with a white -cross on his breast, like a monk, who comes to her aid, and accompanies -her in silence as long as the necessity for his presence continues. -This unknown protector, always silent, each time appearing and -disappearing in a sudden and mysterious manner, is no other than -Leopold himself, according to the recent affirmations of the latter. - -We should naturally expect that Hélène would have had in her youth many -striking experiences of prevision, marvellous intuition, divination, -etc., which are among the most diffuse forms of teleological -automatism. Such, however, does not seem to have been the fact; -neither she nor her mother has recounted to me anything remarkable of -this nature, and they confine themselves to a general affirmation of -frequent presentiments, which were subsequently justified as to the -persons and events with which they were connected. - -All the examples which I have above cited concur in bringing to light -the strong penchant of Mlle. Smith towards automatism. But from the -point of view of their meaning there is a notable difference between -the teleological phenomena, presentiments or hallucinations of a -manifest utility, and those which have none—mere reveries and other -perturbations, which are altogether superfluous, if not actually -detrimental, to Hélène’s normal personality. - -There are dreams and other automatisms absolutely useless which have -insinuated themselves without rhyme or reason into Hélène’s normal -life. One does not know how or in what manner to interpret these -phenomena, capricious and fortuitous as they seem to be, and they -remain isolated, inconsiderable facts, without bearing and without -interest, since they cannot be attached to any central principle, to -one mother-idea or fundamental emotion. - -We are, therefore, reduced to certain conjectures, the most reasonable -of which is that these diverse fragments make part of some vast -subconscious creation, in which all the being of Mlle. Smith, crushed -and bruised by the conditions which the realities of life have imposed -upon her, as is more or less the case with each one of us, gave free -wing to the deep aspirations of its nature and expanded into the -fiction of an existence more brilliant than her own. All that we know -of Hélène’s character, both as a child and as a young girl, shows us -that her dominant emotional note was a sort of instinctive inward -revolt against the modest environment in which it was her lot to be -born, a profound feeling of dread and opposition, of inexplicable -_malaise_, of bitter antagonism against the whole of her material and -intellectual environment. While showing herself always very devoted -to her parents and brothers, she had only feeble natural affinities -for them. She felt like a stranger in her family and as one away from -home. She had a feeling of isolation, of abandonment, of exile, which -created a sort of gulf between her and her family. So strong were these -feelings that she actually one day seriously asked her parents if it -was absolutely certain that she was their daughter, or whether it was -not possible that the nurse might some day by mistake have brought home -another child from the daily walk. - -This want of adaptation to her environment, this sort of mysterious -homesickness for an unknown country, shows itself in a characteristic -manner in the following fragment of narrative, in which Hélène, who has -always attributed great importance to dreams, tells of one in which -an isolated house figured. “To me this retired mansion, in which I -lived alone, isolated, represents my life, which from my infancy has -been neither happy nor gay. Even while very young I do not remember to -have shared any of the tastes or any of the ideas of the members of -my family. Thus during the whole of my childhood I was left in what I -call a profound isolation of heart. And in spite of all, in spite of -this complete want of sympathy, I could not make up my mind to marry, -although I had several opportunities. A voice was always saying, ‘Do -not hurry: the time has not arrived; this is not the destiny for -which you are reserved.’ And I have listened to that voice, which has -absolutely nothing to do with conscience, and I do not regret it, for -since I have engaged in spiritism I have found myself so surrounded -with sympathy and friendships that I have somewhat forgotten my sad -lot.” - -This quotation speaks volumes in regard to the turn of mind and the -emotional disposition which ruled Hélène as a little girl. It is -surely, so to speak, the vulgar story and the common lot of all; many -a child, many a youth, many an unrecognized genius, feel themselves -suffocating in their too narrow environment when the latent energies -of life begin to ferment. But there are differences in kind and in -degree. With Mlle. Hélène Smith the sentiment of not having been made -for her environment, and of belonging by nature to a higher sphere, was -intense and lasting. Her mother always had the impression that Hélène -was not happy, and wondered that she was so serious, so absorbed, so -wanting in the exuberance of spirits natural to her age. Her father -and her brothers, not comprehending the real reasons for this absence -of gayety, taxed her very unjustly with pride and hauteur, and accused -her sometimes of despising her humble surroundings. There are shades of -feeling which can only be understood when they have been experienced. -Hélène well knew that she really had no contempt for her material and -social environment, which, on the contrary, inspired her with respect, -but which simply was not congenial to her nature and temperament. - -To this fundamental feeling of imprisonment in a too paltry sphere was -joined, in Hélène’s case, a timid disposition. Darkness, the least -noise, the creaking of the furniture, made her tremble; by day, a -person walking behind her, an unexpected movement, the ringing of -the door-bell, gave her the impression that some one wishing to harm -her had come to seize her and carry her off. On the whole, Hélène’s -tendency to be startled by everything and nothing constituted with her -a grievous panophobia, a state of fear and insecurity which greatly -strengthened her impression of want of union—of _mésalliance_—with an -environment to which she was decidedly superior. - -It is easy now to see the connection between that depressing -emotionalism which was the attribute of Hélène’s childhood and the -slightly megalomaniac tone of her later subliminal romances. The idea -intrudes itself that, in spite of—or by reason of—their apparent -contrast, these two traits are not independent of each other, but -bound by the tie of cause and effect. But this causal connection is -in great danger of being interpreted in a precisely inverse sense by -the empirical psychologist and the metaphysical occultist. The latter -will explain Mlle. Smith’s curious impression of strangeness and -superiority to the base conditions of her actual existence, by her -illustrious previous incarnations; the psychologist, on the contrary, -will see in that same impression the wholly natural origin of her -grandiose somnambulistic personifications. In default of a complete -understanding, always dubious, between these so different points of -view, of which we shall speak later, it will be advisable to adopt at -least a provisional _modus vivendi_, based on the party-wall of the -native constitution or individual character of Mlle. Smith. On the -farther side of that wall, _in eternity_, so to speak, _a parte ante_ -which precedes the arrival of Hélène into this life, the occultist -will have full latitude to imagine such a succession of existences as -it shall please him in order to explain the character she has had from -her infancy. But on this side of the wall—that is to say, within the -limits of her present life—the psychologist will have the right to -ignore all these prenatal metempsychoses, and taking for his point of -departure the innate constitution of Hélène, without troubling himself -about anything she may have received by the accidents of heredity or -preserved from her royal pre-existences, he will endeavor to explain -by that same constitution, as it reveals itself in her daily life, the -genesis of her subliminal creations under the action of occasional -exterior influences. The occultist, then, can have the pleasure -of regarding Mlle. Smith’s characteristic trait as a child, that -impression of solitude and wandering about in a world for which she -was not made, as _the effect_ of her real past greatnesses, while the -psychologist will be permitted to see in it _the cause_ of her future -dreams of grandeur. - -The emotional disposition which I have depicted, and which is one of -the forms under which the maladaptation of the organism, physical and -mental, to the hard conditions of the environment, betrays itself, -seems therefore to me to have been the source and starting-point -for all the dreamings of Hélène in her childhood. Thence came these -visions, always warm, luminous, highly colored, exotic, bizarre; and -these brilliant apparitions, superbly dressed, in which her antipathy -for her insipid and unpleasant surroundings betrays itself, her -weariness of ordinary, commonplace people, her disgust for prosaic -occupations, for vulgar and disagreeable things, for the narrow house, -the dirty streets, the cold winters, and the gray sky. Whether these -images, very diverse, but of the same brilliant quality, were already -existent in Hélène’s subconscious thought while still a child or a -young girl, we are unable to say. It is, however, probable that their -systematization was far from attaining to such a degree of perfection -as they have presented during the past few years under the influence of -spiritism. - -All the facts of automatism to which Hélène can assign a vaguely -approximate date group themselves around her fifteenth year, and are -all included between the limits of her ninth and twentieth years. - -This evident connection with a phase of development of major importance -has been confirmed to me by Leopold on various occasions, who says -that he appeared to Hélène for the first time in her tenth year, on an -exceptional occasion of extreme fright, but after that, not until about -four years later, because the “physiological conditions” necessary to -his apparition were not yet realized. The moment they were realized, -he says, he began to manifest himself, and it is at the same period, -according to him, that Hélène commenced to recover memories of her -Hindoo existence, under the form of strange visions of which she -comprehended neither the nature nor the origin. - -After the age of about twenty years, without affirming or believing -that her visions and apparitions ceased altogether, Mlle. Smith has no -striking recollections of any, and she has not told me of any psychic -phenomenon experienced by her in the series of years immediately -preceding her entrance into spiritism. We may infer from this, with -some reason, that the ebullitions of the imaginative subconscious -life gradually became calm after the explosion of the period we have -mentioned. They had been appeased. The conflict between Hélène’s inner -nature and the environment in which she was forced to live became less -fierce. A certain equilibrium was established between the necessities -of practical life and her inward aspirations. On the one hand, she -resigned herself to the necessities of reality; and if her native pride -could not yield to the point of condescending to a marriage, honorable -undoubtedly, but for which she felt she was not intended, we must -nevertheless pay homage to the perseverance, the fidelity, the devotion -which she always brought to the fulfilment of her family and business -duties. On the other hand, she did not permit the flame of the ideal to -be extinguished in her, and it reacted upon her environment as strongly -as possible, making its imprint upon her personality well marked. - -She introduced a certain stamp of elegance into the modest home of -her parents. She arranged for herself a small _salon_, coquettish and -comfortable in its simplicity. She took lessons in music, and bought -herself a piano. She hung some old engravings on her walls, secured -some Japanese vases, a jardinière filled with plants, cut flowers in -pretty vases, a hanging lamp with a beautiful shade of her own make, -a table-cover which she had put together and embroidered herself, some -photographs curiously framed according to her own design; and out of -this harmonious whole, always beautifully kept, she evolved something -original, bizarre, and delightful, conforming well to the general -character of her fantastic subconsciousness. - -At the same time that Mlle. Smith succeeded in accommodating herself to -the conditions of her existence, the state of latent timidity in which -she lived gradually diminished. She is still occasionally overcome -by fear, but much less frequently than formerly, and never without a -legitimate exterior cause. - -Indeed, judging her by these latter years, I do not recognize in her -the child or young girl of former days, always timid, trembling, and -frightened, taciturn and morose, who has been depicted to me by herself -and her mother. - -It seems to me, then, that the wildness of the dreams and automatisms, -which were symptoms of a tendency to mental disintegration, which -marked the years of puberty, was succeeded by a progressive diminution -of these troubles and a gradual gaining of wisdom on the part of -the subliminal strata. We may presume that this harmonization, this -reciprocal adaptation of the internal to the external, would in time -have perfected itself, and that the whole personality of Mlle. Smith -would have continued to consolidate and unify itself, if spiritism had -not come all of a sudden to rekindle the fire which still slumbered -under the ashes and to give a new start to the subliminal mechanism -which was beginning to grow rusty. - -The suppressed fictions aroused themselves, the reveries of former -years resumed their sway, and the images of subliminal phantasy began -to be more prolific than ever under the fertile suggestions of occult -philosophy, rallying-points or centres of crystallization—such as the -idea of former existences and reincarnations—around which they had -only to group and organize themselves in order to give birth to the -vast somnambulistic constructions the development of which we shall be -obliged to follow. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - MLLE. SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION INTO SPIRITISM - - -Having endeavored in the preceding chapter to reconstruct in its -chief characteristics the history of Mlle. Smith up to the time when -spiritism begins to be mixed up with it, I would have preferred in the -present chapter to make a detailed study of her psychological life -during these last years, without however, as yet, touching upon the -content, properly so called, of her automatisms. Not having been able -to accomplish this design to my satisfaction, for want of time and -patience, I shall endeavor at least to systematize my notes somewhat -by grouping them under four heads. I shall trace the birth of Hélène’s -mediumship as far as it is possible for me to do so from the meagre -accounts I have been able to procure concerning a time at which I was -not acquainted with her. Then, passing to facts with which I am more -familiar, I will describe rapidly her normal state as I have been able -to see it for the last five years. This would have been the place for -a study of individual psychology, but I have been compelled to abandon -the idea on account of multiple difficulties. Finally, I will offer -a few remarks on the abnormal side of her existence, which it is -convenient to divide into two groups, namely, _the spontaneous_—that -is to say, springing up of themselves in the course of her ordinary -life; or those _provoked_ by the voluntary seeking for favorable -circumstances, and which constitute the seances properly so called. - - -I. THE MEDIUMISTIC BEGINNINGS OF MLLE. SMITH - -In the winter of 1891-92 Mlle. Smith heard spiritism spoken of -by one of her acquaintances, Mme. Y., who lent her Denis’s book, -_Après la Mort_. The perusal of this work having vividly excited -Hélène’s curiosity, Mme. Y. agreed to accompany her to her friend, -Mlle. Z., who was interested in the same questions, and who produced -automatic writing. They then decided to form a circle for regular -experimentation. I take from the notes which Mlle. Z. has had the -kindness to furnish me, the account, unfortunately very brief, of -the seances at which Hélène’s mediumistic faculties first made their -appearance. - -“It was on the 20th of February, 1892, that I made the acquaintance -of Mlle. Smith. She was introduced to me by Mme. Y., for the purpose -of endeavoring to form a spiritistic group. She was then altogether -a novice in spiritism, never having attempted anything, and did not -suspect the faculties that have since developed themselves in her. - -“February 20.—First reunion: We seat ourselves at the table; we succeed -in making it oscillate. We regard Mme. Y. as the medium upon whom we -can reckon. We try for writing. We receive through me encouragements -to proceed. - -“February 26.—Progress; the table moves itself considerably, salutes -one by one all the members of the group, and gives us certain names, of -which only one is recognized.... Writing: Mlle. Smith, who tries for -the first time, writes mechanically, her eyes closed, some phrases, of -which we can decipher some words. - -“March 11.—Nothing at this seance, except a communication written by -myself. - -“March 18.—Progress; clear communication by the table. Attempt to -experiment in the darkness (which was not absolute, the hall outside -having some incandescent lights which diffused a feeble light; we could -distinguish each other with difficulty). Mlle. Smith sees a balloon, -now luminous, now becoming dark: she has seen nothing up to this time. -Writing: Mlle. Smith writes mechanically a quite long communication -from the father of M. K. [a Bulgarian student present at the seance]; -advice to him.” - -At this point the sitters became so numerous that they broke up into -two groups, of which the one continuing to meet with Mlle. Z. does not -concern us. Mlle. Smith became a member of the other, which met at the -house of a lady named N., where weekly seances were held for a year and -a half (up to the end of June, 1893). The records of these meetings, -kept by Mme. N., are unfortunately very brief and obscure on many -points of interest to the psychologist. Those of the first months are -in the handwriting of Mlle. Smith, who acted as secretary of the group -for thirty seances. As she only took down at the time the headings of -the communications of the spirits and wrote out the remainder on the -following day, we cannot rely very strongly on the objective accuracy -of these accounts, which, however, have the advantage of presenting -to us the mediumship of Hélène, as related by herself. She speaks of -herself in the third person. - -The following is a summary of the two first seances held in this new -environment: - -“March 25, 1892.—Eleven persons around a large and heavy dining-table -of oak with two leaves. The table is set in motion, and several spirits -come and give their names (by raps), and testify to the pleasure it -gives them to find themselves among us. It is at this seance that Mlle. -Smith begins to distinguish vague gleams with long white streamers -moving from the floor to the ceiling, and then a magnificent star, -which in the darkness appears to her alone throughout the whole of the -seance. We augur from this that she will end by seeing things more -distinctly and will possess the gift of clairvoyance. - -“April 1.—Violent movements of the table, due to a spirit who calls -himself David and announces himself as the spiritual guide of the -group. Then he gives way to another spirit who says he is Victor Hugo, -and the guide and protector of Mlle. Smith, who is very much surprised -to be assisted by a person of such importance. He soon disappears. -Mlle. Smith is very much agitated; she has fits of shivering, is very -cold. She is very restless, and sees suddenly, balancing itself above -the table, a grinning, very ill-favored face, with long red hair. She -is so frightened that she demands that the lights be lit. She is calmed -and reassured. The figure disappears. Afterwards she sees a magnificent -bouquet of roses of different hues being placed on the table before -one of the sitters, M.P. All at once she sees a small snake come out -from underneath the bouquet, which, crawling quickly, perceives the -flowers, looks at them, tries to reach the hand of M.P., withdraws for -an instant, comes back slowly, and disappears in the interior of the -bouquet. Then all is dissolved and three raps are given on the table, -terminating the seance. [M.P. interprets the meaning of the vision of -the bouquet and the serpent as a symbolic translation of an emotional -impression experienced by Mlle. Smith].” - -Such was the birth of Hélène’s mediumship. Scarcely anything happened -on the 20th of February, when the movements of the table were not -attributed to her (although in all probability she caused them); in the -following seances she appeared in two attempts at automatic writing -(unfortunately lost) in imitation of the writing medium with whom she -was sitting. The outcome of this second attempt leads us to suppose -that Hélène’s faculties would have developed rapidly in that direction -if she had not abandoned it and changed her environment. - -Her visual faculty, suggested by the experiments at obscure seances, -shows itself on the 18th and 25th of March in the form of elementary -hallucinations or vague figures having their point of departure -probably in the simple entoptical phenomena, the retina’s own light, -consecutive images, etc. Then, encouraged by the predictions of the -sitters, she attained on the 1st of April to visions properly so -called, having a varied content and a real or symbolic signification. -At the same time her typtological automatism was perfecting itself. We -recognize it in the name of Victor Hugo, coming especially for Mlle. -Smith, and suspect it to have been a name already given at the second -seance. - -Auditive hallucinations follow closely upon the visual, but it is -impossible to know at just what date, as the records do not clearly -indicate whether the messages recorded had that origin or were rapped -out on the table. To these known forms of automatism must be added -the frequent phenomena of emotion, shiverings, sadness, restlessness, -fear, etc., which are experienced by Hélène without knowing why, and -are afterwards found to be in perfect conformity to, and in evident -connection with, the content of those emotional phenomena which they -generally precede by a few moments. - -Thus, in a half-dozen weekly seances, the mediumship of Mlle. Smith -was invested with a complex psychological aspect, which from that time -it preserved intact for three years, and of which I was a witness -after I made her acquaintance. This rapidity of development is not -at all unusual; but there is this peculiarity about Hélène, that her -mediumistic faculties, after their first appearance, remained for a -long time stationary, and then underwent all at once, in the spring -of 1895, the enormous transformation and tremendous expansion which -I have described in the first chapter, and to which I will not again -refer. - - -II. MLLE. SMITH IN HER NORMAL STATE - -I was about to say that in her normal state Mlle. Smith is normal. -Certain scruples restrain me, and I correct myself by saying that -in her ordinary state she seems just like anybody else. By this I -mean that outside of the gaps which the seances and the spontaneous -eruptions of automatism make in her life, no one would suspect, -observing her performance of her various duties, or in talking with her -on all sorts of subjects, all that she is capable of in her abnormal -states, or the curious treasures which are concealed in her subliminal -strata. - -With a healthy and ruddy complexion, of good height, well proportioned, -of regular and harmonious features, she breathes health in everything. -She presents no visible stigmata of degeneration. As to psychic defects -or anomalies, with the exception of her mediumship itself, I know -of none, the timidity of her youth having entirely disappeared. Her -physical strength is marvellous, as shown by the fact that she bears -up under the strain of a business which demands nearly eleven hours of -her time each day, nearly all of which she is compelled to stand on -her feet, and from which she takes only one week’s vacation in summer. -Besides this confining work away from home, she assists her mother -about the house morning and evening, in the housekeeping duties, and -finds time besides to read a little, to practise at her piano, and to -make the lovely handiwork, which she designs and executes herself with -remarkable originality and good taste. To a life so full must be added, -besides, the spiritistic seances which she is generally willing to give -on Sunday, and sometimes on a weekday evening, very disinterestedly, -to persons who are interested in psychic questions or who desire to -consult Leopold on important subjects. - -While hesitating to affirm that a person presenting phenomena so -extraordinary as those of mediumship is perfectly normal in other -respects, I am pleased to discover that as far as Mlle. Smith is -concerned, through my conversations with her and as the result of -my investigations concerning her, she does not present a single -abnormality, physical, intellectual, or moral, between the periods -of the irruptions of her automatisms. Her field of vision, which she -has permitted me to measure with a Landolt perimeter, is normal for -white as well as for colors, for which latter she has a very delicate -perception. There is no trace of tactile anæsthesia in her hands. There -is no known motor trouble. The tremor of the index-finger gives a line, -of four oscillations per second on an average, differing not at all -from the fines obtained from persons perfectly normal (see Fig. 2). - -It cannot be expected that I should paint a full moral and intellectual -portrait of Mlle. Smith, as I should be in danger of hurting her -feelings in case my attempt should come to her notice. I can only -touch on a few points. One of the most striking is her great native -dignity; her bearing, her manners, her language are always perfect, -and have a certain quality of _noblesse_ and pride which accords well -with her somnambulistic rôles. On occasion she shows a stately and -regal hauteur. She is very impressionable, and feels little things -very keenly. Her antipathies as well as her sympathies are quick, -lively, and tenacious. She is energetic and persevering. She knows -very well what she wants, and nothing passes her by unperceived, nor -does she forget anything in the conduct of others towards her. “I -see everything, nothing escapes me, and I forgive but never forget,” -she has often said to me. Perhaps a severe moralist would find in -her a certain exaggeration of personal sensibility, but that sort of -self-love is a very common characteristic of human nature, and is very -natural in mediums who are continually exposed to public criticism. - -She is very intelligent and highly gifted. In conversation she shows -herself vivacious, sprightly, and sometimes sarcastic. Psychic -problems, and all questions connected with mediumistic phenomena, of -which she is herself so striking an example, occupy her mind a great -deal and form the principal subject of her private thoughts and of her -conversations with people in whom she is interested. - -Her philosophical views are not wanting in originality or breadth. She -does not believe in spiritism, in the generally accepted sense of the -term, and has never consented, in spite of the advances which have been -made to her, to become a member of the Geneva Society (spiritistic) -for Psychic Studies, because, as she says, she has no fixed ideas on -subjects so obscure, does not care for theories, and “does not work -in the interest of any party.” She investigates, she observes, she -reflects and discusses, having adopted for her motto, “The truth in all -things, for all things, and always.” - -There are two points in regard to which she is uncompromising—namely, -the objective reality of Leopold, and the supernormal content of her -automatisms. No one dares tell her that her great invisible protector -is only an illusory apparition, another part of herself, a product of -her subconscious imagination; nor that the strange peculiarities of her -mediumistic communications—the Sanscrit, the recognizable signatures -of deceased persons, the thousand correct revelations of facts unknown -to her—are but old forgotten memories of things which she saw or heard -in her childhood. Such suppositions being contrary to her inmost -beliefs, and seemingly false in fact, easily irritate her, as being in -defiance of good sense and an outrage on truth. But outside of these -two subjects she will examine and discuss coolly any hypothesis one -chooses. The idea that she should be the reincarnation of a Hindoo -princess or of Marie Antoinette, that Leopold is really Cagliostro, -that the visions called Martian are really from the planet Mars, etc., -all seem to her to conform fully to the facts; but these beliefs are -not indispensable to her, and she is ready, should they prove to be -false, to change to other theories—as, for example, telepathy, a -mixture of occult influences, a mysterious meeting in her of intuitions -coming from some higher sphere, etc. - -Undoubtedly the supposition of her pre-existences in India and on the -throne of France seems to her to explain in a plausible manner the -feeling, which has followed her from childhood, of belonging to a world -higher than that in which the chance of birth has imprisoned her for -this life; but she does not affirm a positive belief in that brilliant -past, is not wholly convinced of it, and remains in a sensible state of -expectancy of the true explanation of these ultimate mysteries of her -life. - -There is another subject, also, which is close to her heart. She has -heard it said that in the eyes of scientists and physicians mediums -are considered to be fools, hysterical subjects, or insane, or, in -any event, abnormal, in the bad sense of the word. But, in the light -of the experience of every day of her life, she protests vigorously -against this odious insinuation. She declares emphatically that she is -“perfectly sane in body and mind, not in the least unbalanced,” and -repels with indignation the idea there can be any serious abnormality -or the least danger in mediumship such as she practises. “I am far from -being abnormal,” she wrote me recently, “and I have never been so clear -of vision, so lucid, and so apt to judge correctly as since I have -begun to develop as a medium.” - -Leopold, too, speaking through her voice during her trances, has -more than once solemnly testified as to her perfect health. He has -also returned to the subject by letter; we shall find farther on a -very interesting certificate of mental equilibrium dictated by him -and written by him with her hand, as if to give more weight to his -declarations (see Fig. 8, p. 137.) - -It is incontestable that Hélène has a very well-organized brain, as is -evidenced by the admirable manner in which she manages the important -and complicated department which is under her direction in the -commercial establishment in which she is employed. To accuse her of -being insane, simply because she is a medium, as some charitable souls -(the world is full of them) do not hesitate to do sometimes, is, to say -the least, a most inadmissible _petitio principii_. - -The opinion which Mlle. Smith holds in her normal state concerning her -automatic faculties is altogether optimistic; and there is nothing -to prove her in the wrong. She regards her mediumship as a rare and -precious privilege, with which nothing in the world would induce her -to part. True, she also sees in it the reason for the malevolent -and unjust judgments, the jealousies, the base suspicions, to which -the ignorant multitude have in all ages subjected those who have -succeeded in elevating themselves above it through the possession -of faculties of this kind. But, on the whole, the disadvantages are -more than counterbalanced by gains of a high order, and the inward -satisfaction attached to such a gift. And here I desire to emphasize -the statement, once for all, that Hélène does not belong to the class -of professional mediums, nor to those who use their mediumship for -the purpose of coining money. Mlle. Smith, who earns her living in -the position which her intelligence and fitness have secured for her, -and through which her family enjoys a modest ease, never accepts any -pecuniary compensation for her seances or consultations. Such a traffic -in faculties which have a sort of religious signification in her eyes -would be absolutely repugnant to her feelings. - -Hélène’s spontaneous automatisms have often aided her in, without -ever having interfered with, her daily occupations. There is, happily -for her, a great difference in intensity between the phenomena of her -seances and those which break in upon her habitual existence, the -latter never having caused such disturbance of her personality as the -former. - -In her daily life she has only passing hallucinations limited to one -or two of the senses, superficial hemisomnambulisms, compatible with -a certain amount of self-possession—in short, ephemeral perturbations -of no importance from a practical point of view. Taken as a whole, the -interventions of the subliminal in her ordinary existence are more -beneficial to her than otherwise, since they often bear the stamp of -utility and appropriateness, which make them very serviceable. - -Phenomena of hypermnesia, divination, lost objects mysteriously -recovered, happy inspirations, true presentiments, correct -intuitions—in a word, teleological automatisms of every sort—she -possesses in so high a degree that this small coin of genius is more -than sufficient to compensate for the inconveniences resulting from -the distraction and momentary absence of mind with which the vision is -accompanied. - -In the seances, on the contrary, she presents the most grave functional -alterations that one can imagine, and passes through accesses of -lethargy, catalepsy, somnambulism, total change of personality, etc., -the least of which would be a very disagreeable adventure for her if it -should happen to occur in the street or at her office. - -But here I am obliged to leave Hélène’s ordinary state to enter upon -the study of her automatisms. - - -III. SPONTANEOUS AUTOMATIC PHENOMENA - -The automatisms which occur outside the seances in Mlle. Smith’s -every-day life, those, at least, which she is able to recall and -narrate, are of a frequency very variable and utterly independent of -any known circumstances; sometimes presenting themselves two or three -times in the same day; at others, two or three weeks will elapse -without a single one. Extremely diverse in their form and content, -these phenomena may be divided into three categories, based upon -their origin. The first proceed from impressions received by Hélène -in moments of special suggestibility; the second are the fortuitous -apparitions above the ordinary level of her consciousness, the romances -in process of elaboration to which we are coming; the last, which -differ from the two preceding species (which are always useless, if -not detrimental) by their beneficial character and their adaptation to -the needs of the moment, are roused by those teleological automatisms -to which I have already called attention as having occurred in her -childhood, and which have shared in the general recrudescence of her -subconscious life under the lash of the spiritistic experiences. - -Let us pass these different cases rapidly in review. - -1. _Permanence of exterior suggestions._—The spiritistic reunions are -naturally their principal source. I do not mean that she has there been -subjected to experiments in post-hypnotic suggestion. Justice to all -those who have attended the seances compels the statement that they -have never abused the suggestibility which she shows on such occasions, -by suggesting ideas of such a nature as to cause her annoyance on -the following days. The most that has been attempted has been the -suggestion of some small matters by way of harmless experiment, to be -executed by her a few moments after awaking from her trance. There -is no need of intentional suggestions to influence her in a lasting -manner; therefore we have avoided as far as possible everything that -might leave disagreeable traces behind, and have suggested to her -before the end of the seance that she have on the morrow no headache, -fatigue, etc.; but it sometimes happens that certain incidents, -often absolutely insignificant, are engraved on her memory in a most -unlooked-for manner and assail her as inexplicable obsessions during -the ensuing week. The following are some specimens of involuntary -suggestion, which generally linger for three or four days, but may -occasionally continue for twelve or fifteen. - -Hélène told me one Sunday that she had been possessed several times -during the day by the hallucinatory image of a straw hat, the inside of -which was turned towards her, and which remained vertically in the air -about three or four feet in front of her, without being held by any -one. She had the feeling that this hat belonged to me, and I happened -finally to recollect that at the seance of the preceding Sunday I -happened to fan myself with this very hat during her final trance, the -image of which had been engraved on her mind in one of the flashes in -which she opened her eyes and closed them again instantly before her -final awaking. This obsession, said she, was very strong on Monday and -the following day or two, but lessened somewhat towards the end of the -week. - -At another time she preserved during a whole week the sensation of the -pressure of my thumb on her left eyebrow. (Compression of the external -frontal and suborbital nerves is a means I often employ to hasten her -awaking, after a hint given by Leopold.) - -There happened to her also twice in the same day an auditive and visual -hallucination of an aged person whom she did not recognize, but the -extremely characteristic description of whom corresponds so well with -that of a gentleman of Geneva who had been mentioned to her a few days -previously, immediately before the commencement of a seance (when she -was probably already in her state of suggestibility), that there is -scarcely any doubt but that these apparitions were the consequence of -that conversation. - -Following another seance where she had, at the beginning of a Hindoo -scene, made vain efforts to detach a bracelet from her left wrist, she -preserved for three days the feeling of something grasping that wrist, -without understanding what it could be. - -In the same way, various feelings of sadness, anger, a desire to laugh -or to weep, etc., the cause of which she was unable to explain, have -often followed her for a considerable length of time after the seances -of which these feelings were the manifest emotional echo. This is often -the effect of our dreams on our waking state: we forget the dreams, but -their influence remains, and is often more marked in the dreams of a -hypnotized person or a somnambulist than in those of ordinary sleep. - -The seances are not the exclusive source of the involuntary suggestions -which trouble Mlle. Smith in her daily life without any benefit to -herself. It is evident that on every occasion when she finds herself -in that particular condition of least resistance which we, in our -ignorance of its intrinsic nature, designate by the convenient name of -“suggestibility,” she is exposed to impressions capable of returning -to assail her in the course of her daily occupations. Fortunately this -condition of suggestibility does not seem to develop itself readily in -her outside of the spiritistic reunions. - -2. _Irruptions of subliminal reveries._—I shall have too many occasions -to cite concrete examples of visions, voices, and other spontaneous -outpourings of the work of imagination, which are continually going on -under the ordinary consciousness of Mlle. Smith, to dwell long on this -point. Some general remarks will suffice. - -The connection which the unforeseen phenomena maintain with those -of the seances themselves is very varied. Sometimes we are able to -recognize them as reproductions, more or less incomplete, of episodes -which occurred at the preceding seances, and consider them simple -echoes or post-hypnotic repetitions of these last. Sometimes, on the -contrary, it appears that we have to deal with preparatory rehearsals -of scenes which will unfold themselves at length and will be continued -at some later seance. Finally, sometimes it is a question of tableaux, -having no connection with those which fill up the seances; they -are like leaves, flying away never to return, romances which are -continually being fabricated in the deep subliminal strata of Mlle. -Smith’s consciousness. - -Hélène, in fact, does not long remember, nor in much detail, with a few -exceptions, those visions which take place in her ordinary state, and -which occur most frequently early in the morning, while she is still -in bed, or just after she has arisen and while working by the light -of her lamp; sometimes in the evening, or during the brief moments of -rest in the middle of the day, and, much more rarely, while in the full -activity of waking hours she is at her desk. If she had not long since, -at my request, and with great good will, acquired the habit of noting -in pencil the essential content of these apparitions, either during -the apparition itself (which she is not always able to do) or else -immediately afterwards, we should have still more deficiencies in the -plot of her romances to deplore. Hélène’s psychological state, during -her spontaneous visions, is known to me only by her own descriptions. -She is fortunately a very intelligent observer and a good psychologist. - -Her narratives show that her visions are accompanied by a certain -degree of obnubilation. For a few moments, for instance, the room, the -light of the lamp, disappear from before her eyes; the noise of the -wheels in the street ceases to be heard; she feels herself becoming -inert and passive, while a feeling of bliss and ecstatic well-being -permeates her entire individuality in the presence of the spectacle -which appears to her; then the vision, to her great regret, slowly -fades from her view, the lamp and the furniture reappear, the outside -noises again make themselves heard, and she is astonished that the -idea did not occur to her to put down in pencil the strange words -she has heard, or that she did not touch or caress, for example, the -beautiful birds of many-colored plumage flying and singing around her. -Sometimes she has maintained sufficient presence of mind to scribble -from dictation the words striking her ear; but the wretched handwriting -proves that her attention, all absorbed by the apparition, could not -follow the pencil, and that the hand directed it badly. At other times -the reverse is the fact. It appears in the course of the vision as -though some one took hold of her arm and guided it in spite of herself; -the result is splendid calligraphies, wholly different from her own -handwriting, executed without her knowledge, and during the execution -of which her mind was wholly absent, if we can judge from the surprise -she shows on awaking when she finds before her these strange writings, -and from analogous scenes which transpire at the seances. - -The preceding is applicable especially to the more frequent cases—that -is, to the morning or evening visions which happen to her at home, -in that intermediate condition between sleep and waking, always so -favorable, as we know, to the development of unconscious cerebration. -But there are innumerable shades and gradations between this middle -type, so to speak, and its opposite extremes; on the one hand is the -fortunately very exceptional case where she is seized with ecstasy -while at her place of business; and, on the other hand, that in which -the automatism limits itself to inscribing some unknown characters -or words in another hand than her own in her correspondence and -writings—peculiar _lapsus calami_, which she is not slow to perceive on -coming to herself. - -The following is an example of a case of ecstasy: - -Having ascended one day to an upper story, to look for something in a -dark store-room, she had an apparition of a man in a turban and large -white cloak, whom she had the impression of recognizing,[4] and whose -presence filled her with a delightful calm and profound happiness. She -could not recall the conversation which passed between them, which, -though in an unknown language, she nevertheless had the feeling of -having perfectly comprehended. On the departure of the mysterious -visitor she was astonished to find herself brought back to sombre -reality, and stupefied on noting by her watch that the interview had -lasted much longer than it had seemed to do. She preserved all that -day a delicious feeling of well-being as the effect of the strange -apparition. - -The phenomenon of mingling strange writing with her own is of -relatively frequent occurrence, and we shall see divers specimens of -it in the following chapters, apropos of the romances to which it -especially belongs. I will give here only one complex example, which -will serve at the same time as an illustration of a special kind of -automatism, very harmless, to which Hélène is also subject, and which -consists in making verses, not without knowing, but at least without -intending to do so, and in connection with the most trifling matters. - -There are times when, in spite of herself, she feels compelled to speak -in distinct rhymes of eight feet, which she does not prepare, and does -not perceive until the moment she has finished uttering them.[5] In -this particular case it is by a quatrain (a very unusual occurrence) -that she replies to some one who had consulted her in regard to some -blue ribbon. But this quatrain, by its style, by the vision of the -blond head of a child which accompanies it, and by the manner also in -which she writes it, causes us to hazard the conjecture that it is -an inspiration depending on the underlying Royal cycle; while in the -following letter, in which she narrates the affair to M. Lemaître, her -pen inscribes, all unknown to her, strange characters evidently due -to the cropping out of the Martian cycle, of which she speaks in the -letter (see Fig. 1, a passage of that letter making a Martian M and V -in the words _vers_ and _rimait_): - -[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fragment of a letter (normal handwriting) -of Mlle. Smith, containing two Martian letters. (Collection of M. -Lemaître.)] - -“I have heard some Martian words this afternoon, but have not been -able to retain them in my mind. I send you those heard a few days -ago, when I had the vision of which I am about to make you the design -(Martian lamp). Yesterday morning I for the first time spoke in verse, -without being aware of it; it was only on finishing the sentence that -I perceived that it rhymed, and I reconstructed it to assure myself -of the fact. A little later, on examining some ribbons, I began anew -to speak in verse, and I send those also; they will amuse you. It -is a curious thing that I had at that same moment the vision of the -blond curly head of a child bound with a blue ribbon. The vision -lasted more than a minute. What is still more curious, I do not at all -recollect having worn ribbons of that shade as a child: I remember some -rose-colored, some red, but I have no recollection whatever of any blue -ribbons. I really do not know why I spoke these words; it is the more -amusing. I was obliged to speak them, I assure you, in spite of myself. -I was eager to put them on paper, and I noticed in writing them down -that, for a moment, the handwriting was not regular, that is, it was -slightly different from mine.” - -Here is the quatrain, the pencil impression of which is too faint to -enable a fac-simile to be reproduced here, and in it I have indicated -by italics the words and syllables the calligraphy or orthography of -which differs from that of Hélène and becomes the style of automatic -handwriting called that of Marie Antoinette: - - “Les nuances de ces rubans - _Me_ rappelent _mes_ jeunes ans; - Ce bleu _ver_di, je m’en sou_vien_, - Sans mes cheveux _alloit_ si bien!” - -The head of curly blond hair, ornamented with blue ribbons, also -figures in the visions of the Royal cycle, and appears to belong, as is -here the case, sometimes to Marie Antoinette herself, sometimes to one -or other of her children, especially the Dauphin. - -While it is generally easy to connect these eruptions of the subliminal -volcano with the various dreams from which they emanate, such is -not always the case, and there are visions the origin of which is -doubtful and ambiguous. We must not forget that, alongside of the -grand cycles of Hélène which are better known, there also float in -her latent imagination innumerable small accessory systems, more or -less independent, which supply a large part of the seances, such -as revelations of former events connected with the families of the -sitters, etc.; it is not always possible to identify the fragments -coming from these isolated dreams. - -3. _Teleological automatisms._—The spontaneous phenomena of this -category, possessing as a common characteristic a practical utility -for Hélène more or less marked, can be subdivided into two classes, -according to their direct attachment to the personality of Leopold, or -their not belonging to any distinct personality, and which only express -in a vivid manner the result of the normal working, although more or -less unconscious, of the faculties of memory and of reason. I confine -myself now to citing one case of each of these classes, of which we -shall see other examples in the chapters relating to Leopold and to -supernormal appearances. - -One day Mlle. Smith, wishing to take down a large and heavy object -from a high shelf, was prevented from so doing by the fact that her -uplifted arms seemed as though petrified and incapable of being moved -for some seconds; she saw in this a warning and gave up her intention. -In a later seance Leopold said that it was he himself who had caused -Hélène’s arms to become rigid, in order to prevent her from attempting -to lift the object which was too heavy for her and would have caused -some accident to befall her. - -On another occasion a clerk who sought vainly for a certain pattern -asked Hélène if she knew what had become of it. Hélène replied -mechanically and without reflection, “Yes, it was sent to Mr. J.” (a -customer of the firm); at the same time there appeared before her in -large black figures about eight or ten inches in height the number -18, and she added, instinctively, “It was eighteen days ago.” This -statement caused the clerk to smile, because of its improbability, -the rule of the house being that customers to whom patterns were lent -for examination must return them inside of three days or a messenger -would be sent for them. Hélène, struck by this objection, and having -no conscious recollection of the affair, replied, “Really, perhaps I -am wrong.” Meanwhile, an investigation of the date indicated in the -records of the house showed that she was perfectly correct. It was -through various negligences, with which she had nothing at all to do, -that the pattern had not been sent for or recovered. Leopold, on being -asked, has no recollection of this circumstance, and does not appear to -have been the author of this automatism of cryptomnesia, nor of many -other analogous phenomena through which Hélène’s subconscious memory -renders her signal services and has gained for her a well-merited and -highly valued reputation. - -Thus we see that if the spontaneous automatisms of Mlle. Smith are -often the vexatious result of her moments of suggestibility, or the -tempestuous irruption of her subliminal reveries, they also often -assume the form of useful messages. Such compensation is not to be -despised. - - -IV. THE SEANCES - -Mlle. Smith has never been hypnotized. In her instinctive aversion, -which she shares with the majority of mediums, to anything that seems -like an attempt to experiment upon her, she has always refused to allow -herself to be put to sleep. She does not realize that in avoiding the -idea she has actually accepted the reality, since her spiritistic -experiences in reality constitute for her an autohypnotization, which -inevitably degenerates into a hetero-hypnotization, as she is brought -under the influence of one or other of the persons present at the -seance. - -All her seances have somewhat of the same psychologic form, the -same method of development running through their immense diversity -of content. She places herself at the table with the idea and the -intention of bringing into play her mediumistic faculties. After an -interval, varying from a few seconds to a quarter of an hour, generally -in a shorter time if the room is well darkened and the sitters are -perfectly silent, she begins to have visions, preceded and accompanied -by very varied sensory and motor disturbances, after which she passes -into a complete trance. In that state, it rarely happens, and then only -for a few moments, that she is entirely unconscious of the persons -present, and, as it were, shut up within her personal dream and plunged -into profound lethargy (hypnotic syncope). Ordinarily she remains -in communication, more or less close, with one of the sitters, who -thus finds himself in the same relation towards her as a hypnotizer -towards his subject, and able to take advantage of that _rapport_, by -giving her any immediate or future suggestions that he may desire. -When the seance consists only of waking visions, it lasts generally -only a short time—an hour to an hour and a half—and is ended quickly -by three sharp raps upon the table, after which Mlle. Smith returns -to her normal state, which she scarcely seems to have left. If the -somnambulism has been complete, the seance is prolonged to double that -length of time, and often longer, and the return to the normal state -comes slowly through phases of deep sleep, alternating with relapses -into somnambulistic gestures and attitudes, moments of catalepsy, etc. -The final awakening is always preceded by several brief awakenings, -followed by relapses into sleep. - -Each of these preliminary awakenings, as well as the final one, is -accompanied by the same characteristic movements of the features. The -eyes, which have been for a long time closed, open wide, stupidly -staring into vacancy, or fix themselves slowly on the objects and -the sitters within their range of vision, the dilated pupils do not -react, the face is an impassive and rigid mask, devoid of expression. -Hélène seems altogether absent. All at once, with a slight heaving -of the breast and raising of the head, and a quick breath, a gleam -of intelligence illumines her countenance, the mouth is gracefully -opened, the eyes become brilliant, the entire countenance lights up -with a pleasant smile and gives evidence of her recognition of the -world and of her return to herself. But with the same suddenness with -which it appeared, that appearance of life lasts but a second or two, -the physiognomy resumes its lifeless mask, the eyes becoming haggard -and fixed close again, and the head falls on the back of the chair. -This return of sleep will be followed by another sudden awaking, then -perhaps by several more, until the final awaking, always distinguished, -after the smile at the beginning, by the stereotyped question, “What -time is it?” and by a movement of surprise on learning that it is so -late. There is no memory of what has transpired during the seance. - -A complete description of the psychological and physiological phenomena -which present themselves, or which might be obtained in the course -of the seances, would detain me too long, since there is absolutely -nothing constant either in the nature or in the succession of the -phenomena, and no two seances are evolved exactly in the same manner. I -must confine myself to some striking characteristics. - -Three principal symptoms, almost contemporaneous generally, announce -that Mlle. Smith is beginning to enter into her trance. - -There are on the one side emotional or cœnæsthetic modifications, the -cause of which is revealed a little later in the subsequent messages. -Hélène is, for instance, seized by an invincible desire to laugh, which -she cannot or will not explain; or she complains of sadness, fear, of -different unpleasant sensations, of heat or of cold, of nausea, etc., -according to the nature of the communications which are approaching and -of which these emotional states are the forerunners. - -There are, on the other hand, phenomena of systematic anæsthesia -(negative hallucinations), limited to those sitters whom the coming -messages concern. Hélène ceases to see them, while continuing to -hear their voices and feel their touch; or, on the contrary, she -is astonished to no longer hear them, though she sees their lips -moving, etc.; or, finally, she does not perceive them in any manner, -and demands to know why they are leaving when the seance is hardly -begun. In its details this systematic anæsthesia varies infinitely, -and extends sometimes to but one part of the person concerned, to -his hand, to a portion of his face, etc., without it always being -possible to explain these capricious details by the content of the -following visions; it would seem that the incoherence of the dream -presides over this preliminary work of disintegration, and that the -normal perceptions are absorbed by the subconscious personality eager -for material for the building up of the hallucinations which it is -preparing. - -Systematic anæsthesia is often complicated with positive -hallucinations, and Hélène will manifest her surprise at seeing, for -example, a strange costume or an unusual coiffure. This, in reality, is -the vision which is already being installed. - -The third symptom, which does not manifest itself clearly in her, -but the presence of which can be often established before all the -others by investigation, is a complete allochiria,[6] ordinarily -accompanied by various other sensory and motor disturbances. If, at -the beginning of the seance, Hélène is asked, for example, to raise -her right hand, to move the left index-finger, or to close one eye, -she begins straightway to carry into effect these different acts; then -all at once, without knowing why and without hesitation, she deceives -herself in regard to the side, and raises her left hand, moves her -right index-finger, closes the other eye, etc. This indicates that she -is no longer in her normal state, though still appearing to retain her -ordinary consciousness, and with the liveliness of a normal person -discusses the question of her having mistaken her right hand or eye -for her left, and vice versa. It is to be noted that Leopold, on such -occasions of pronounced allochiria, does not share this error in regard -to the side. I have assisted at some curious discussions between him -and Hélène, she insisting that such a hand was her right, or that the -Isle Rousseau is on the left as one passes the bridge of Mont Blanc or -coming from the railway station, and Leopold all the while, by means of -raps upon the table, giving her clearly to understand she was wrong.[7] - -A little after the allochiria, and sometimes simultaneously with it, -are to be found various other phenomena, extremely variable, of which I -here cite only a few. One of her arms is contractured as it rests upon -the table, and resists the efforts of the sitters to lift it up, as -though it were a bar of iron; the fingers of the hand also participate -in this rigidity. Sometimes this contracture does not exist before, -but establishes itself at the same instant that some one touches the -forearm, and increases in proportion to the efforts which are made -to overcome it. There is no regularity in the distribution of the -anæsthesia (changing from one instant to another), the contractures, or -convulsions which the hands and arms of Hélène exhibit. It all seems -due to pure caprice, or to depend only on underlying dreams, of which -little is known. - -Certain analogous and likewise capricious phenomena of anæsthesia, -paralysis, sensations of all sorts, of which Hélène complains, often -appear in her face, her eyes, her mouth, etc. In the midst of all these -disturbances the visions announce themselves, and the somnambulism is -introduced with modifications, equally variable, of other functions, -evidenced by tears, sobbings, sighs, repeated hiccoughs, various -changing of the rhythm of respiration, etc. - -If Hélène is experimented upon and questioned too long, the development -of the original visions is obstructed, and she easily reaches a degree -of sensibility where she falls into the standard class of public -representations of hypnotism—a charmed and fascinated state in which -she remains riveted before some brilliant object, as, for example, -the ring, trinkets, or cuff-button of one of the sitters; then -precipitates herself in a frenzy upon the object, and tries to secure -it; or assumes emotional attitudes and poses under the influence of -joyous airs upon the piano; experiences suggested hallucinations of -all kinds, sees terrible serpents, which she pursues with a pair of -pincers; beautiful flowers, which she smells with deep respirations and -distributes to the sitters; or, again, bleeding wounds which have been -made on her hand, and which cause her to shed tears. The commonplace -character of these phenomena causes their long continuance to be -deprecated, and the ingenuity of all is exercised in endeavoring by -different means, none of which is very efficacious or very rapid, to -plunge her into profound and tranquil sleep, from which she is not long -in passing of her own accord into complete somnambulism and in taking -up the thread of her personal imaginations. - -If all these disturbing investigations have been successfully avoided, -the spontaneous development of the automatisms is effected with -greater rapidity and fulness. It is possible then to behold, in the -same seance, a very varied spectacle, and to listen, besides, to -certain special communications made in a semi-waking state to one or -other of the sitters; then, in complete somnambulism, a Hindoo vision -is presented, followed by a Martian dream, with an incarnation of -Leopold in the middle, and a scene of Marie Antoinette to wind up -with. Ordinarily two of these last creations will suffice to fill up a -seance. One such representation is not performed without the loss of -considerable strength by the medium, which shows itself by the final -sleep being prolonged sometimes for an hour, interrupted, as I have -said, by repetitions of the preceding somnambulistic scenes, easily -recognizable by certain gestures or the murmuring of characteristic -words. Passing through these diverse oscillations and the ephemeral -awaking, of which I have spoken above, Hélène finishes by returning to -her normal state; but the seances which have been too long continued or -too full of movement leave her very much fatigued for the rest of the -day. It has also sometimes happened to her to re-enter the somnambulism -(from which she had probably not completely emerged) during the course -of the evening or on returning home, and only to succeed in recovering -her perfectly normal state through the assistance of a night’s sleep. - -As to the real nature of Hélène’s slumbers at the end of the seances, -and her states of consciousness when she awakes, it is difficult for me -to pronounce, having only been able to observe them under unfavorable -conditions—that is, in the presence of sitters more or less numerous -and restless. The greater part certainly consist of somnambulisms, in -which she hears all that passes around her, since although she seems -profoundly asleep and absent, the suggestions then given her to be -carried out after awaking are registered and performed wonderfully—at -least when Leopold, who is almost always on hand and answers by -movements of one finger or another to questions put to him, does not -make any opposition or declare that the suggestion shall not be carried -out! There are also brief moments when Hélène seems to be in a profound -state of coma and kind of syncope without trace of psychic life; her -pulse and respiration continue to be regular, but she does not react to -any excitation, her arms, if raised, fall heavily, no sign of Leopold -can be obtained, and suggestions made at that instant will not be acted -upon. - -These lethargic phases, during which all consciousness seems to be -abolished, are generally followed by cataleptic phases in which the -hands and arms preserve every position in which they may be placed, -and continue the movements of rotation or of oscillation which may be -forced upon them, but never for more than one or two minutes. - -In default of more complete experiments, I submit the following -comparison of Hélène’s muscular force and of her sensibility to pain -before and after a seance lasting nearly three hours, the second half -being in full somnambulism. At 4.50 o’clock, on sitting down at the -table three dynamometric tests with her right hand gave kilos. 27.5, -27, 25—average, 26.5. The sensibility to pain measured on the back -of the median phalanx of the index-finger with the algesiometer of -Griesbach, gave for the right, grs. 35, 40, 20, 20—average, 29; for -the left, 35, 20, 20, 15—average, 22.5 grs. (Sensibility slightly more -delicate than that of another lady present at the seance, not a medium -and in perfect health.) - -At 7.45 o’clock, some minutes after the final awaking: dynamometer, -right hand, 8, 4.5, 4.5—average, 5.7; algesiometer, complete analgesia -both as to right and left, on the whole of the back of the index as -well as the rest of the hand and wrist, the maximum of the instrument -(100 grs.) was attained and passed without arousing any painful -sensation but only an impression of contact. - -One hour later, after dinner: dynamometer 22, 22, 19—average, 21; -algesiometer, 20, 18 for the right; 15, 20 for the left. It is -possible, then, to say that her muscular force and sensibility to pain, -both normal immediately before her entrance upon the seance, are still -abolished in the first fifteen minutes after awaking, but are found to -be restored in about an hour. Perception of colors, on the contrary, -appeared to be as perfect immediately after awaking as before the -seance. The tremor of the index-finger, normal before the seance, is -very much exaggerated in its amplitude for a certain time after awaking -and reflects sometimes the respiratory movements, as can be seen by -the curves of Fig. 2. This denotes a great diminution of kinesthetic -sensibility and of voluntary control over the immobility of the hand. - - [Illustration: Fig. 2. Tremor of right index-finger. A, B, C, - fragments of curves taken in the normal state before the seance (A and - C with closed eyes; B, with open eyes looking at the index-finger); D, - E, F, fragments of curves received in succession a quarter of an hour - after the seance. The curve F reflects the respiratory oscillations. - The curves go from right to left, and the interval between the two - vertical lines is ten seconds.] - -The state in which Mlle. Smith carries out the post-hypnotic -suggestions made to her in the course of her somnambulisms, when they -do not come into collision with either the pronounced opposition -of Leopold or the states of lethargy of which I have spoken, is -interesting on account of its varied character, which seems to depend -upon the greater or less ease with which the hallucination or the act -suggested can be reconciled with Hélène’s normal personality. Their -execution in the full waking state seems to be confined to suggestions -of simple acts, free from absurdity, the idea of which would be easily -accepted and carried out by the normal self when the desired moment -arrived. If, on the contrary, it is a question of more complicated and -difficult things, compatible, however, with the rational points of view -of the normal waking state, Hélène falls momentarily into somnambulism -for the execution of the order given, unless she has permanently -remained in that state, in spite of her apparent awaking, in order not -to re-enter definitely and completely upon her ordinary state until -after the execution of the order, of which there then remains to her no -recollection whatever. - -From the foregoing facts we may conclude that little or nothing of that -which goes on around her escapes her subconscious intelligence, and -it is from this source that her somnambulistic romances are nourished -afresh. - -A word more as to the preparation for the seances. I do not refer to a -conscious preparation, but to a subliminal incubation or elaboration, -unknown by her, showing itself on the level of her ordinary personality -in the form of fugitive gleams and fragmentary images during her sleep -at night or the moments of awaking in the morning. Mlle. Smith, in -reality, has no hold, possesses no influence, upon the nature of her -visions and somnambulisms. She is able, undoubtedly, up to a certain -point, to aid their appearance in a general way, by cultivating -tranquillity of mind, securing darkness and silence in the room, and by -abandoning herself to a passive attitude of mind; or to hinder it, on -the other hand, by movement, or distraction of attention; but with the -fixed and concrete content itself of her automatisms she has nothing -to do and no share in the responsibility for it. So far as her great -cycles or her detached messages are concerned, they are fabricated in -her in spite of herself, and without her having a word to say about -their production, any more than one has in the formation of his dreams. -When it is recollected, on the other hand, that the phenomena of -incubation, of subliminal preparation, or unconscious cerebration, are -universal facts, playing their rôle in the psychology of every human -being, we can rely upon finding them also among the mediums, and upon -their holding a place with them much more important than with others, -owing to the fact that their subconscious life is so much more fully -developed. - -With each one of us the expectation or the simple perspective of any -event—a departure, a visit, an errand, or undertaking to do anything, -a letter to write, in short, all the more insignificant incidents of -daily existence, when they are not absolutely unforeseen—promote a -psychological adaptation more or less extended and profound. - -Alongside of and underneath the conscious expectancy, certain physical -or mental attitudes, voluntarily assumed in view of the event, always -effect an underlying preparation of an inward kind, a change which -we may regard, according to the side from which we consider the -individual, as a peculiar psychical orientation or cerebral adjustment, -a modification in the association of ideas or in the dynamics of the -cortical nerves. But everything points to the fact that in persons -gifted with mediumship this underlying preparation is capable of -assuming on occasion a greater importance than is the case with -ordinary mortals, a much more complete independence of the ordinary -consciousness. - -To return to Mlle. Smith, when she knows some time in advance who -will be present at her next seance, and what people she will almost -surely meet there, it would be altogether natural that such previous -knowledge of the environment and of the sitters would influence her -subliminal thoughts and in some degree direct the course of the latent -incubation. It may well be asked, therefore, whether the varied -spectacle which the seances furnish is really always impromptu and has -its birth on the spur of the moment like ordinary dreams, or whether -it has been subconsciously thought out, the seance being only the -performance of an arrested programme, the representation _coram populo_ -of scenes already ripened in the deep subliminal strata of the medium. - -Neither of these two hypotheses, held to exclude the other, answers to -the facts, but there is some truth in both of them. - -The _menu_ of the seances—if the expression is permissible—is always -composed of one or two _plats de résistance_, carefully prepared in -advance in the subliminal laboratories, and of various _hors d’œuvres_ -left to the inspiration of the moment. To speak more exactly, the -general plot, the chief lines and more striking points of the scenes -which unfold themselves are fixed according to a previous arrangement, -but the details of execution and accessory embellishments are entirely -dependent upon chance circumstances. The proof of this is found, on the -one hand, in the suppleness, the perfect ease, the appropriateness with -which Hélène’s automatisms—if we can still apply the word automatism -to those cases in which spontaneity, self-possession, free use of all -the faculties constitute the dominant characteristics—often adapt -themselves to unexpected situations in the environment or capricious -interruptions on the part of the sitters; on the other hand, in -the fact that Leopold, interrogated at the beginning of the seance, -ordinarily knows very well and announces the principal vision or -incarnations which are about to make their appearance, provided, -at least, the spectators do not hinder their unfolding by their -tempestuous clamor for something else. - -The animated conversations, sometimes full of spirited repartee, -between Leopold or Marie Antoinette and the sitters, could not have -been prepared in advance, and are altogether opposed to the stereotyped -repetition which is generally expected of automatic phenomena. But, on -the other hand, such repetition, almost entirely mechanical and devoid -of sense, presents itself on frequent occasions. I have, for instance, -seen somnambulistic scenes presented which were entirely misplaced, -and constituted at the time veritable anachronisms, which would have -perfectly fitted the situation eight days previously in another -environment, and for which the aforesaid scenes had been evidently -intended; but, having been withheld until the last moment by unforeseen -circumstances, the following seance gets the benefit of these postponed -messages. - -Here is proof that Hélène’s subliminal imagination prepares up to a -certain point her principal productions, in view of the conditions -and surroundings under which the seance will probably take place, and -also that these products, once elaborated, must be eliminated and -poured forth with a sort of blind necessity, at the right or the wrong -time, whenever the entrance of Hélène into a favorable hypnoid state -furnishes them an opportunity so to do. It follows also that her -normal personality has nothing whatever to do with the preparation of -the seances, since she can neither suppress nor change scenes badly -adapted to the actual environment, the appearance of which sometimes -greatly annoys Mlle. Smith when they are recounted to her after the -seance; nor can she provoke the messages, the production of which she -desires and vainly hopes for—as, for example, a medical consultation -with Leopold, the incarnation of a deceased parent, or a scene from -one cycle rather than from the others, for the benefit of a sitter who -particularly desires it, and whom she is very desirous to please. - -Much more could be said concerning the psychological side of the -seances of Mlle. Smith, but I must limit myself. It will be possible to -gain a more complete idea of this subject by studying the illustrations -in the following chapters on the chief cycles of her brilliant -subliminal fantasy. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD - - -Is Leopold really Joseph Balsamo, as he pretends? Or, since he has -nothing in common with the famous thaumaturgist of the last century, -save a certain superficial resemblance, is he, at any rate, a real -being, separate from, and independent of, Mlle. Smith? Or, finally, is -he only a pseudo-reality, a kind of allotropic modification of Hélène -herself, a product of her subliminal imagination, just like our dream -creations and the rôles suggested to a hypnotic subject? - -Of these three suppositions it is the last which to my mind is -undoubtedly the true one, while in Mlle. Smith’s eyes it is as -certainly the false view. It would be hard to imagine a more profound -difference of opinion than that which exists between Mlle. Smith -and myself on this subject. It is I, always, who get the worst of a -discussion with her concerning it. I yield for two reasons. First, out -of politeness; and, secondly, because I understand Hélène perfectly, -and, putting myself in her place, realize that I should think exactly -as she does about the matter. - -Given her surroundings and personal experiences, it is impossible for -her to do otherwise than believe in the objective distinct existence -of that mysterious being who constantly enters into her life in a -sensible and quasi-material way, leaving her no room to doubt. He -presents himself before her endowed with corporeality like that of -other people, and hides objects which are behind him exactly as an -ordinary individual of flesh and bone would do. He talks into her ears, -generally into the left, in a characteristic voice, which appears to -come from a variable distance, sometimes about six feet off, sometimes -much farther. He jars the table on which she has placed her immobile -arms, takes hold of her wrist and writes with her hand, holding the pen -in a manner unlike her, and with a handwriting wholly different from -hers. He puts her to sleep without her knowledge, and she is astonished -to learn upon awaking that he has gesticulated with her arms and spoken -through her mouth in the deep bass voice of a man, with an Italian -accent, which has nothing in common with the clear and beautiful -quality of her feminine voice. - -Moreover, he is not always on hand. He by no means answers Hélène’s -appeals on all occasions; is not at her mercy; far from it. His -conduct, his manifestations, his comings and goings cannot be predicted -with any certainty, and testify to an autonomous being, endowed with -free-will, often otherwise occupied or absent on his own affairs, which -do not permit of his holding himself constantly at the disposal of -Mlle. Smith. Sometimes he remains for weeks without revealing himself, -in spite of her wishing for him and calling upon him. Then, all at -once, he makes his appearance when she least expects him. He speaks -for her in a way she would have no idea of doing, he dictates to her -poems of which she would be incapable. He replies to her oral or mental -questions, converses with her, and discusses various questions. Like a -wise friend, a rational mentor, and as one seeing things from a higher -plane, he gives her advice, counsel, orders even sometimes directly -opposite to her wishes and against which she rebels. He consoles her, -exhorts her, soothes, encourages, and reprimands her; he undertakes -against her the defence of persons she does not like, and pleads the -cause of those who are antipathetic to her. In a word, it would be -impossible to imagine a being more independent or more different from -Mlle. Smith herself, having a more personal character, an individuality -more marked, or a more certain actual existence. - -Hélène is also fortified in this conviction by the belief not only -of members of her own family, but by that of other cultivated people -who, having attended many of her seances, have no doubt whatever -of Leopold’s objective and separate existence. There are those who -believe so firmly in the reality of this superior being, invisible -to them, that they are in the habit of calling upon him during the -absence of Mlle. Smith. Naturally they obtain responses, through the -table or otherwise, and that causes unforeseen complications sometimes -when she comes to learn of it. For while she admits theoretically—and -Leopold himself has often declared the same thing—that he extends -his surveillance and protection from afar over other spiritistic -groups, and especially over all Hélène’s friends and acquaintances, -in practice and in fact, however, it happens that neither he nor she -will willingly admit the authenticity of those pretended communications -from Leopold obtained in the absence of the medium of his predilection. -It is generally some deceiving spirit who has manifested in his place -on these occasions. These denials, however, do not prevent those who -have become believers from continuing to believe in the omnipresence -of this good genius, or from teaching their children to revere him, to -make vows and address prayers to him. It must not be forgotten that -spiritism is a religion. This also explains the great respect shown to -mediums, which is like that accorded to priests. - -It follows that, without in the least refraining from speaking ill of -them whenever they think they have a grievance against them, on the -other hand they bestow on them the same marks of respect as are only -accorded to the most sublime product of the human race. - -I have known a _salon_ where, on the centre table, in full view and -in the place of honor, were two photographs in beautiful frames: on -the one side the head of Christ, on the other the portrait of—Mlle. -Hélène Smith. Among other believers, with less ideal but more practical -aspirations, no business matter of importance is closed, no serious -decision made, until Leopold has been consulted through Hélène as an -intermediary, and the cases are too numerous to mention in which he -has furnished important information, prevented a heavy pecuniary loss, -given an efficacious medical prescription, etc. - -It is easily seen how all the successes obtained by Leopold, and the -mystical veneration which many very estimable persons accord him, -must contribute to strengthen the faith of Hélène in her all-powerful -protector. It is in vain that, against this absolute assurance, one -seeks to avail one’s self of the arguments of contemporary psychology. -The example of the fictions of the dream, the analogies taken -from hypnotism and from psychopathology, considerations of mental -disintegration, the division of the consciousness and the formation -of second personalities, all these refined subtleties of our modern -scientists break in pieces like glass against immovable rock. I shall -not undertake to combat a proposition which, for her, has incontestably -so much evidence in its favor, and which resolves all difficulties in -the most felicitous manner and in conformity to good common-sense. - -Nevertheless, since each individual has a right to his own opinion in -the world, I beg leave to assume, for the time being, that Leopold does -not exist outside of Mlle. Smith, and to try to discover his possible -genesis in the mental life of the latter—solely by hypothesis and by -means of psychological experiment. Therefore, readers who have little -taste for this kind of academic composition had better skip this -chapter. - - -I. PSYCHOGENESIS OF LEOPOLD - -A description of the development of Leopold is not easy, since he has a -double origin, apparent and real, like the cranial nerves which give so -much trouble to the students of anatomy. - -His apparent origin, or, I should say, the moment when he is -outwardly separated from the personality of Hélène, and manifests as -an independent “spirit,” is relatively clear and well marked; but -his actual origin, profoundly enfolded in the most inward strata of -Hélène’s personality and inextricably mixed up with them, presents -great obscurities and can only be determined in a very conjectural -manner. Let us begin with the apparent origin, or the first appearance -of Leopold at the seances. - -It is easy to understand that, once initiated into spiritism and -plunged into a current of ideas where the comforting doctrine of -spirit-guides and protectors holds an important place, Mlle. Smith -did not delay in coming into possession of, like all good mediums, a -disincarnate spirit specially attached to her person. She even had -two in succession, Victor Hugo and Cagliostro. It is not a question -of a simple change of name of the guide of Hélène, who presented -himself first under the aspect and the name of the great poet and then -afterwards adopted that of the renowned thaumaturgist, but there were, -at least at the beginning, two different personalities, apparently -hostile to each other, one of whom by degrees supplanted the other, -after a struggle, a trace of which is found in the very incomplete -reports of the seances of that period. Three phases can also be -distinguished in the psychogenesis of Mlle. Smith’s guide: an initial -phase of five months, during which Victor Hugo reigns alone; a phase of -transition of about a year, when the protection of Victor Hugo is seen -to be powerless to protect Hélène and her spiritistic group against -the invasion of an intruder called Leopold, who claims and manifests an -increasing authority over the medium by virtue of mysterious relations -in the course of a previous existence; finally, the present period, -which has lasted for six years past, in which Victor Hugo no longer -figures, and which may be dated approximately from the moment when it -was revealed that Leopold is only an assumed name, under which he hides -in reality the great personality of Joseph Balsamo. - -I do not find any fact worthy of mention in the first phase, in which -Victor Hugo, who seems to have appeared as the guide of Mlle. Smith -about the 1st of April, 1892 (see above, p. 38), played a rôle of no -importance. In the second phase, however, it is necessary to cite some -extracts from the reports of the seances of the N. group, in order to -throw light upon the singular character which Leopold manifested there -from the beginning. - -August 26, 1892.—“A spirit announces himself under the name of Leopold. -He comes for Mlle. Smith, and seems to wish to have a great authority -over her. She sees him for some moments, he appears to be about -thirty-five years of age, and is clothed altogether in black. The -expression of his countenance is rather pleasing, and through answers -to some questions which we put to him we are given to understand that -he knew her in another existence, and that he does not wish her to give -her heart to any one here below.... Mlle. Smith recognizes her guide, -Victor Hugo. She is made happy by his arrival, and asks his protection -against the obsession of this new spirit. He answers that she has -nothing to fear, that he will always be present. She is joyful at being -guarded and protected by him, and feels that she has nothing to fear.” - -September 2.—... “Leopold comes also, but Mlle. Smith fears nothing, -since her guide (Victor Hugo) is there to protect her.” - -September 23.—... “An unpleasant evening. A spirit announces himself. -It is Leopold. He speaks to us at once: ‘I am here. I wish to be master -of this sitting.’ We are very much disappointed, and do not expect any -good of him. He tries, as he had already done once before, to put Mlle. -Smith to sleep, who has great difficulty in struggling against this -sleep. She rises from the table, hoping by this means to rid herself of -him, and that he will give up his place to others. She returns in about -ten minutes, but he is still there, and apparently has no intention of -abandoning his place. We summon our friends (spiritual) to our aid.... -They take Leopold’s place momentarily, but very soon Leopold returns; -we struggle with him, we desire him to go away, but neither soft nor -hard words have any effect; before that dogged determination we realize -that all our efforts will be useless, and we decide to close the -seance.” - -October 3.—“[Manifestation by the favorite spirits of the group, who -declare] that they have not been able to come, as they would have liked -to do; that they were prevented by the spirit of Leopold, who is -trying to introduce himself to us; that we should repulse him as much -as possible, persuaded that he does not come for any good end. I do not -know whether we shall be able to rid ourselves of him, but we greatly -fear that he will injure us and retard our advancement.” - -October 7.—... “Leopold announces himself. We try to reason with him; -we do not wish to forbid his coming, but we ask of him that he shall -come as a friend to all, and not in the rôle of master. He is not -satisfied; appears to bear much malice. We trust he will come to have -better feelings. He shows himself, walks around the table, bows to us, -and salutes each one with his hand, and retires again, leaving his -place to others.” - -October 14.—“[After a quarter of an hour of motionless and silent -waiting in darkness around the table Mlle. Smith is questioned, and she -is shaken in vain.] She is asleep. By the advice of persons present we -allow her to remain asleep, when, at the end of five minutes, the table -raises itself, a spirit announces himself. It is Victor Hugo; we ask -if he has anything to say; he answers yes, and spells out: _Wake her; -do not allow her ever to sleep_. We try to do so. We are nervous about -that sleep; we have great difficulty in awakening her.” - -January 6, 1893.—“After twenty minutes of waiting, Leopold arrives, -and, as is his habit, puts the medium to sleep for some minutes; he -torments us, and prevents our friends (disincarnate) from coming to -the table. He vexes us in every way, and goes contrary to all our -wishes. In presence of that rancor the sitters regret the indications -of ill-humor they have shown towards him, and deplore having to pay so -dear for them. It is with difficulty that the medium can be awakened.” - -February, 1893.—“In one of the seances of this month a remarkable -thing happened: the spirit of Leopold, who was very much irritated -on that day, twice in succession took away her chair from our medium -and carried it to the farther end of the room, while Mlle. Smith -fell heavily to the floor. Not expecting this wretched farce, Mlle. -Smith struck her knee so hard that for several days she suffered pain -in walking. We were obliged to terminate the seance; we were not -comfortable. Why this animosity?” - -This word _animosity_ describes very well the conduct and the feelings -that Leopold seemed to have towards the N. group and against his placid -rival, Victor Hugo. The personal recollections of the sitters whom I -have been able to interrogate confirm the substantial physiognomy of -the two figures. That of Hugo is, in effect, effaced and altogether -eclipsed by the totally opposite character of the arrogant Leopold, -who takes a peculiar pleasure in the rôle of vindictive and jealous -mischief-maker, obstructing the appearance of the “spirits” desired by -the group, putting the medium to sleep, or causing her to fall on the -floor, forbidding her to give her heart to another, and breaking up -the seances as far as he is able. It seems to have finally resulted in -the meetings of the N. group coming to an end at the beginning of the -summer; then comes a break of six months, after which I find Mlle. -Smith on the 12th of December inaugurating a new series of seances, -with an entirely different spiritistic group organized by Prof. -Cuendet. Here Victor Hugo very rarely appears, and never in the rôle of -guide, which rôle is freely accorded, without objection, to Leopold, -whose real identity (Cagliostro) was no secret to any one in the new -environment. It was, therefore, in the course of the year 1893, at a -period which cannot be precisely determined from the records, that -the rivalry of these two personalities was terminated by the complete -triumph of the second. - -It follows from the preceding recital that the appearance of Leopold -in seances of the N. group was a phenomenon of manifest contrast, of -hostility, and of antagonism towards that group. - -It is a difficult and delicate task to pronounce upon the complex -spirit of an environment of which one was not a part, and in regard to -which one possesses only a few and not very concordant incidents. The -following, however, seem to be the facts: - -The N. group, much more numerous than is convenient in seances of -that kind, was composed of very varied elements. Alongside of serious -believers were ordinarily some students who boarded with one of the -ladies of the group, and who do not appear to have felt the seriousness -of spiritistic reunions. - -That age has no mercy, and the profound signification of the seances -often escaped their superficial and frivolous intelligence. Under such -conditions Mlle. Smith was inevitably compelled to experience two -contrary impressions. On the one hand, she perceived herself admired, -made much of, fêted, as the unrivalled medium, which she really was, -and upon whom the group depended for its existence; on the other -hand, her secret instincts and high personal dignity could not but be -offended by the familiarities to which she was exposed in this mixed -environment. - -I regard the two rival and successive guides of Hélène as the -expression of this double sentiment. If she had been brought up like -an American woman, or if her nature had been a degree less fine, the -frivolity of the seances would undoubtedly have only given more warmth -and brilliancy to Victor Hugo; instead of which, the victorious colors -of Leopold are raised over a nature of great native pride, extremely -sensitive on the point of feminine dignity, and whose severe and -rigid education had already exalted her sense of self-respect. After -a struggle of a year between these two personifications of opposite -emotional tendencies, the second, as we have seen, finally triumphs; -and Mlle. Smith withdraws from the N. group, which at the same time -breaks up. - -The idea I have formed of Leopold is now apparent. He represents, -to my mind, in Mlle. Smith, the synthesis, the quintessence—and -the expansion, too—of the most hidden springs of the psychological -organism. He gushes forth from that deep and mysterious sphere into -which the deepest roots of our individual existence are plunged, -which bind us to the species itself, and perhaps to the Absolute, -and whence confusedly spring our instincts of physical and moral -self-preservation, our sexual feelings. When Hélène found herself in an -environment not exactly dangerous, but where she simply ran the risk, -as in the N. group, of yielding to some inclination contrary to her -fundamental aspirations, it is then that Leopold suddenly springs up, -speaking as the master, taking possession of the medium for himself, -and indicating his unwillingness that she should attach herself to any -one here below. We here recognize the same principle of self-protection -and self-preservation which was already active in her as a young girl -in the teleological automatisms arising on the occasion of certain -emotional shocks, of which I have spoken on p. 25. - -But, by these considerations, we have travelled very far from the -original appearance of Leopold in the seance of the 26th of August, -1892, towards his actual, more ancient origin. This seems to date from -a great fright which Hélène had in the course of her tenth year. As -she was walking along the street, on her way home from school, she -was attacked by a big dog. The terror of the poor child can well be -imagined, and from which she was happily delivered by a personage -clothed in a long brown robe with flowing sleeves and with a white -cross on the breast, who, appearing to her suddenly and as by a -miracle, chased the dog away, and disappeared before she had time to -thank him. But, according to Leopold, this personage was no other than -himself, who on this occasion for the first time appeared to Hélène, -and saved her by driving away the dog. - -This explanation was given by Leopold on the 6th of October, 1895, in -a seance in which Hélène experienced, in a somnambulistic state, a -repetition of that scene of fright, with heart-rending cries, gestures -of struggle and defence, attempts at flight, etc. In the waking state -she very well recalls this episode of her childhood, but cannot accept -Leopold as the person who came to her rescue, but believes it to have -been a priest or member of some religious order who rushed to her -assistance and drove the animal away. Her parents also recollected -the incident, which she told them one day on returning from school in -a very excited state, and after which she could not for a long time -encounter a dog in the street without hiding herself in the folds of -her mother’s dress. She has since always preserved an instinctive -aversion towards dogs. - -We have seen (p. 31) that after this first incident, matters remained -_in statu quo_ for four years, up to the time when the age of puberty -began to favor the development of the Oriental visions. Here, Leopold, -to whom we owe this information, does not altogether agree with -himself, for at one time he says that it was he himself who furnished -Mlle. Smith with her visions of India, at another time he says that -they are reminiscences of one of her former existences. - -Alongside of these varied visions, Leopold has clearly appeared under -the form of the protector in the dark robe in a number of cases. I will -only cite two examples, one very remote, the other quite recent. - -One day Hélène went to consult her family physician for some trifling -ailment, who, having known her for a long time and being an old friend -of her family, presumed to give her an innocent kiss. He was quite -unprepared for the explosion of wrath which this familiarity provoked, -and hastened to make his apologies: but what is of interest to us in -this connection is the fact that under the shock of this emotion her -defender of the brown robe appeared before her in the corner of the -room, and did not leave her side until she had reached home. - -A short time ago this same protector, always in the same costume, -accompanied her several days in succession while she was traversing a -little-frequented part of the route towards her place of business. One -evening, also, he appeared to her at the entrance to the street leading -to the locality in question, in the attitude of barring the way, and -obliged her to make a detour to regain her house. - -Mlle. Smith has the impression—and several indications go to show that -she is not deceived—that it is with the purpose of sparing her some -unpleasant sight or a dangerous encounter that Leopold, in the brown -robe, appears to her under perfectly well-known conditions. He rises -before her always at a distance of about ten yards, walks, or rather -glides, along in silence, at the same rate as she advances towards him, -attracting and fascinating her gaze in such a manner as to prevent her -turning her eyes away from him either to the right or the left, until -she has passed the place of danger. It is to be noted that whereas -Leopold, under other circumstances—for instance, at the seances—shows -himself to her in the most varied costumes and speaks on all subjects, -it is always under his hieratic aspect, silent, and clothed in his long -dark robe, that he appears to her on those occasions of real life in -which she is exposed to feelings of fright peculiar to her sex, as he -appeared to her on that first occasion in her tenth year. - -The hints I have given sufficiently justify, I think, my opinion that -the real and primordial origin of Leopold is to be found in that deep -and delicate sphere in which we so often encounter the roots of hypnoid -phenomena, and to which the most illustrious visionaries, such as -Swedenborg,[8] seem to owe a great part not only of the intellectual -content but of the imaginative form, the hallucinatory wrapping, of -their genius. There is a double problem to be solved in Mlle. Smith’s -case. Why have these instinctive feelings and emotional tendencies -which are common to the entire human race succeeded in developing in -her a product so complex and highly organized as is the personality of -Leopold? and why, in the second place, does that personality believe -itself to be Joseph Balsamo? - -I instantly reply that these two results are, to my mind, entirely the -effect of autosuggestion. To explain the first, the simple fact of her -being occupied with spiritism and engaged in mediumistic experiments, -is sufficient. Take any individual having in her subconsciousness -memories, scruples, emotional tendencies, put into her head spiritistic -leanings, then seat her at a table, or put a pencil in her hand: -even though she may not be of a very impressionable or suggestible -temperament, or inclined to the mental disintegration which the -general public calls the mediumistic faculty, nevertheless, it will -not be long before her subliminal elements group themselves and arrange -themselves according to the “personal” form to which all consciousness -tends,[9] and which discloses itself outwardly by communications which -have the appearance of coming directly from disincarnate spirits. - -In the case of Mlle. Smith, Leopold did not exist under the title of -a distinct secondary personality before Hélène began to be occupied -with spiritism. It was at the seances of the N. group, by an emotional -reaction against certain influences, as we have seen, that he began, -little by little, to take shape, aided by memories of the same general -tone, until he finally grew into an apparently independent being, -revealing himself through the table, manifesting a will and a mind of -his own, recalling analogous former incidents of Hélène’s life, and -claiming for himself the merit of having intervened in it in the rôle -of her protector. - -Once established, this secondary self could not do otherwise than -to grow, and to develop and strengthen itself in all directions, -assimilating to itself a host of new data favoring the state of -suggestibility which accompanies the exercise of mediumship. Without -the spiritism and the autohypnotization of the seances, Leopold -could never have been truly developed into a personality, but would -have continued to remain in the nebulous, incoherent state of vague -subliminal reveries and of occasional automatic phenomena. - -The second problem, that of explaining why this secondary personality, -once established, believes itself to be Cagliostro rather than any -other celebrated personage, or of remaining simply the anonymous -guardian angel of Mlle. Smith, would demand a very complete knowledge -of the thousand outside influences which have surrounded Hélène since -the beginning of her mediumship, and which may have involuntarily -influenced her. - -But on this point I have only succeeded in collecting a very few -incidents, which leave much still to be desired, and are of such a -character that it is entirely permissible for any one to claim that -the purely psychological origin of that personality is not clearly -established, and to prefer, if he chooses, the actual intervention of -the disincarnate Joseph Balsamo to my hypothesis of autosuggestion. - -The following, however, are the facts advanced by me in support of the -latter: - -The authoritative and jealous spirit, the evident enemy of the N. -group, who manifested himself on the 26th of August, 1892, under the -name of Leopold, did not reveal his identity as that of Cagliostro -until some time afterwards, under the following circumstances: - -One of the most regular attendants at the reunions of the N. group -was a Mme. B., who had long been an adherent of spiritism, and who -had previously attended numerous seances at the house of M. and Mme. -Badel, a thoroughly convinced couple of amateurs, now deceased, whose -_salon_ and round table have held a very honorable place in the history -of Genevese occultism. But I learned from Mme. B. that one of the -disincarnate spirits who manifested himself oftenest at the seances of -M. and Mme. Badel was this very Joseph Balsamo. There is, indeed, no -figure in history which accords better with the idea of a posthumous -return to the mysteries of the round table than that of the enigmatic -Sicilian, especially since Alexandre Dumas, _père_, has surrounded him -with an additional halo of romance. - -Not content with the public reunions of the N. group, Mme. B. often -invited Hélène to her house for private seances, of which no record -was made. At one of these, Hélène having had a vision of Leopold, who -pointed out to her with a wand a decanter, Mme. B. suddenly thought -of a celebrated episode in the life of Cagliostro, and after the -seance she proceeded to take from a drawer and show to Hélène an -engraving taken from an illustrated edition of Dumas, representing -the famous scene of the decanter between Balsamo and the Dauphin at -the château of Taverney. At the same time she gave utterance to the -idea that the spirit who manifested himself at the table by means of -Hélène’s hands was certainly Joseph Balsamo; and she expressed her -astonishment that Hélène had given him the name of Leopold, to which -Hélène replied that it was he himself who had given that name. Mme. -B., continuing her deductions, told Mlle. Smith that perhaps she had -formerly been the medium of the great magician, and consequently had -been Lorenza Feliciani in a former life. Hélène at once accepted the -idea, and for several weeks considered herself to be the reincarnation -of Lorenza, until one day a lady of her acquaintance remarked that it -was impossible, Lorenza Feliciani having never existed save in the -imagination and the romances of Alexandre Dumas, _père_.[10] - -Thus dispossessed of her supposed former existence, Hélène was not -long in declaring through the table that she was Marie Antoinette. As -to Leopold, a short time after Mme. B. had hypothetically identified -him with Cagliostro, he himself confirmed that hypothesis at a seance -of the N. group, dictating to the table that his real name was Joseph -Balsamo. - -The origin of the name of Leopold is very obscure, and many hypotheses -have been advanced to account for it without our being able to -establish any of them with certainty. - -One fact, however, is certain, namely, that save for the vague -affirmation that he had known Hélène in a previous existence, Leopold -had never pretended to be Cagliostro, or given any reason for being -thought so, before the reunion where Mme. B., who had been for some -time accustomed to manifestations of that personage, announced the -supposition and showed Mlle. Smith immediately after the seance (at -a moment when she was probably still in a very suggestible state) an -engraving from Dumas’ works representing Balsamo and the Dauphin. From -that day Leopold, on his part, never failed to claim that personality, -and progressively to realize the character of the rôle in a very -remarkable manner, as we shall see. - - -II. PERSONIFICATION OF BALSAMO BY LEOPOLD - -There is no need, I think, to remind the reader of the well-known -fact—so often described under the names of objectivity of types, -personification, change of personality, etc.—that a hypnotized subject -can be transformed by a word into such other living being as may be -desired, according to the measure in which his suggestibility on the -one hand and the vividness of his imagination and the fulness of his -stored-up knowledge or memories on the other, enables him to fulfil -the rôle which is imposed upon him. Without investigating here to what -extent mediums may be likened to hypnotized subjects, it is undeniable -that an analogous phenomenon takes place in them; but the process is -more gradual, and may extend itself over several years. In place of the -immediate metamorphosis which modifies at one stroke and instantly, -conformably to a prescribed type, the attitude, the physiognomy, -the gestures, the words, the intonations of voice, the style, the -handwriting, and other functions besides, we are, in the case of the -medium, in the presence of a development formed by successive stages -arranged according to grades, with intervals of different lengths, -which finally succeed in creating a complete personality, all the more -astonishing, at first sight, because the involuntary suggestions have -not been noticed, the accumulations of which have little by little -caused its birth. This process of development is present in a high -degree in the case of Mlle. Smith, in the elaboration of her secondary -personality, Leopold-Cagliostro. - -In the beginning, in 1892 and 1893, this “spirit” only manifested -himself by the brief periods of sleep which he induced in Hélène at -certain seances, by raps struck upon the table, by visions in which he -showed himself clothed in black and of youthful appearance, and, more -rarely, by auditive hallucinations. His character and the content of -his messages were summed up in imperious, authoritative, domineering -manners, with the pretension of claiming Mlle. Smith all for himself, -of defending her against the influences of the N. group, and, finally, -of detaching her from that environment. - -There was nothing, however, in this general character of monopoly -and of protection which specially recalled the Balsamo of history -or of romance. The personification of complete objectivity of this -established type really began only in 1894, when Leopold had no longer -to struggle with an environment foreign to his nature. The subconscious -psychological task of realization of the proposed model could then -be followed by him more freely; in spiritistic terms, Joseph Balsamo -was able to manifest himself and make himself known in a manner more -complete through Hélène as an intermediary, while continuing to follow -and protect her as the reincarnation of the royal object of his passion. - -At the seances held with M. Cuendet, Leopold frequently showed himself -to Hélène clothed after the fashion of the last century and with a face -like that of Louis XVI., under the different phases of his multiplex -genius. He also showed himself to her in his laboratory, surrounded by -utensils and instruments appropriate to the sorcerer and alchemist that -he was; or, again, as the physician and possessor of secret elixirs, -the knowledge of which is productive of consultations or remedies -for the use of sitters who need them; or, again, as the illumined -theosophist, the verbose prophet of the brotherhood of man, who -diffuses limping Alexandrine verses—which seem to have been inherited -from his predecessor, Victor Hugo—containing exhortations a little -weak at times, but always stamped with a pure moral tone, elevated -and noble sentiments, and a very touching religious spirit—in short, -a fine example of that “ethico-deific verbiage” (if I may be allowed -the expression, which is an Americanism), which, both in prose and in -verse, is one of the most frequent and estimable products of mediumship. - -But it was not until 1895 that Leopold, benefiting by the progress made -by the automatic phenomena in Hélène, multiplied and perfected his -processes of communication. The first step consisted in substituting, -in his dictations by spelling, the movements of the hand or of a single -finger for those of the whole table. This was the immediate result of a -suggestion of mine. - - [Illustration: Fig. 3. Handwriting of Leopold. Fragments of two - letters, one in Alexandrine verse, the other in prose, entirely in the - hand of Leopold, automatically written by Mlle. Smith in spontaneous - hemisomnambulism.] - - [Illustration: Fig. 4. Normal handwriting of Mlle. Smith.] - -The second step in advance was the handwriting, which shows two -stages. In the first, Leopold gave Hélène the impression of a phrase -(verbo-visual hallucination), which she copied in pencil on a sheet -of paper, in her own handwriting. The second, which was only -accomplished five months later, and which consisted in writing directly -with Hélène’s hand, permitted the immediate establishment of three -curious facts. One is, that Leopold holds his pen in the usual manner, -the handle resting between the thumb and the index-finger, while -Hélène, in writing, always holds her pen-handle or pencil between the -index and middle fingers, a very rare habit with us. The next is that -Leopold has an entirely different handwriting from that of Hélène, a -calligraphy more regular, larger, more painstaking, and with marked -differences in the formation of the letters (see Figs. 3 and 4). The -third is that he uses the style of handwriting of the last century, and -puts an _o_ instead of an _a_ in the tenses of the verbs, _j’amois_, -for _j’amais_, etc. These three characteristics he has never departed -from during all the four years that I have been accumulating specimens -of his handwriting. - -The following is a résumé of the seances at which these two innovations -took place. - -April 21, 1895.—As I had just asked Leopold a question which he did not -like, Hélène, being in a state of hemisomnambulism, with a pencil and -some sheets of paper placed before her, in the hope of obtaining some -communication (not from Leopold), seemed about to plunge into a very -interesting perusal of one of the blank sheets; then, at my request, -which she with difficulty comprehended, she commenced to write rapidly -and nervously on another sheet, in her usual handwriting, a copy of the -imaginary text which Leopold was showing her (“in fluid letters,” as -he said afterwards at the seance) as follows: “_My thoughts are not thy -thoughts, and thy wishes are not mine, friend Flournoy—Leopold._” At -the final awakening Hélène recognized perfectly her own handwriting in -his phrase, but had no recollection of the occurrence. - -September 22, 1895.—After different visions and some stanzas of Victor -Hugo, dictated by the table, Hélène appeared to suffer considerably in -her right arm, which she was holding at the wrist with her left hand, -when the table at which she was seated gave out the following, dictated -by Leopold: “I shall hold her hand,” meaning that it was he, Leopold, -who was causing Mlle. Smith to suffer pain by seizing her right hand. -As she seemed to feel very badly and began to weep, Leopold was asked -to desist; but he refused, and, still speaking through the table, -said, “Give her some paper,” then, “More light.” Writing material was -furnished her and the lamp brought in, which Hélène gazed at fixedly, -while Leopold continued to dictate (this time with the little finger -of her left hand), “Let her gaze on the lamp until she forgets the -pain in her arm.” She then seemed, in fact, to forget her pain, and to -find satisfaction in looking at the lamp; then she fastened her eyes -on the paper, and seemed to read something there which she endeavored -to copy in pencil. But here the right hand began a curious alternation -of contrary motions, expressing in a very clear manner a contest with -Leopold, who was trying to compel her to hold the pencil in a certain -way, which Hélène refused to do, with a great pretence of anger. -She persisted in holding it between the index and middle fingers, as -was her wont, while Leopold wanted her to hold it in the usual way, -between the thumb and the index-finger, and said: “I do not wish her -to ... she is holding the pencil very badly.” The right index-finger -then went through a very comical gymnastic performance, being seized -with a tremor, which caused her to place it on one side or the other -of the pencil, according to whether it was Leopold or Hélène who was -victorious; during this time she frequently raised her eyes, with a -look sometimes reproachful, sometimes supplicating, as if to gaze at -Leopold standing by her side endeavoring to force her to hold the -pencil in the manner he preferred. After a contest of nearly twenty -minutes, Hélène, vanquished and completely subdued by Leopold, seemed -to be absent, while her hand, holding the pencil in the manner she did -not like, wrote slowly the two following lines, followed by a rapid and -feverish signature of Leopold: - - “Mes vers sont si mauvais que pour toi j’aurois dû - Laisser à tout jamais le poète têtu.—LEOPOLD.” - -An allusion, which was of no importance, to a remark made by me at the -commencement of the seance on the verses of Victor Hugo and those of -Leopold frequently dictated by the table. The seance lasted some time -longer; on awakening, Hélène vaguely remembered having seen Leopold, -but knew nothing more concerning the handwriting scene. - -It is a fact that while her other incarnations are always accomplished -passively and without any struggle, that of Leopold has the -peculiarity of regularly provoking more or less resistance on the -part of Hélène. “I do not make of her all that I wish ... she is -headstrong.... I do not know whether I shall succeed.... I do not -believe I can master her to-day....” replies he often when asked to -incarnate himself or write with her hand, and, indeed, his efforts -often fail. There exists between Hélène and her guide a curious -phenomenon of contrast and opposition, which only breaks out in the -higher and more recent forms of motor automatism, the handwriting, -the speech, or the complete incarnation, but from which the sensory -messages and simple raps on the table or of the finger are free. -It is very possible that the idea, very antipathetic to Hélène, of -the hypnotizer mastering his subjects in spite of themselves—of the -disincarnated Cagliostro using his medium as a simple tool—has been -subconsciously the origin of this constant note of revolt against -the total domination of Leopold, and of the intense suffering which -accompanied his first incarnations, and which has slowly diminished -through her becoming accustomed to the process, though it has never -been completely banished. - -After the handwriting, in its turn came speech, which also was attained -by means of two stages. In a first attempt Leopold only succeeded -in giving Hélène his intonation and pronunciation after a seance in -which she suffered acutely in her mouth and in her neck, as though her -vocal organs were being manipulated or removed; she began to talk in -a natural tone, and was apparently wide awake and feeling well, but -spoke with a deep bass voice, and a strong, easily recognizable Italian -accent. It was not until a year later that Leopold was finally able to -speak himself by the mouth of Mlle. Smith, while she was completely -entranced, and who did not retain on awakening any memory of this -strange occurrence. Since then the complete control of the medium -by her guide is a frequent occurrence at the seances, and affords a -tableau very characteristic and always impressive. - -Leopold succeeds in incarnating himself only by slow degrees and -progressive stages. Hélène then feels as though her arms had been -seized, or as if they were absent altogether; then she complains -of disagreeable sensations, which were formerly painful, in her -throat, the nape of her neck, and in her head; her eyelids droop; -her expression changes; her throat swells into a sort of double -chin, which gives her a likeness of some sort to the well-known -figure of Cagliostro. All at once she rises, then, turning slowly -towards the sitter whom Leopold is about to address, draws herself -up proudly, turns her back quickly, sometimes with her arms crossed -on her breast with a magisterial air, sometimes with one of them -hanging down while the other is pointed solemnly towards heaven, and -with her fingers makes a sort of masonic sign, which never varies. -Soon after a series of hiccoughs, sighs, and various noises indicate -the difficulty Leopold is experiencing in taking hold of the vocal -apparatus; the words come forth slowly but strong; the deep bass -voice of a man, slightly confused, with a pronunciation and accent -markedly foreign, certainly more like Italian than anything else. -Leopold is not always easily understood, especially when his voice -swells and thunders out a reply to some indiscreet question or to the -disrespectful remarks of some skeptical sitter. He speaks thickly, -pronounces _g_ like _j_, and all his _u’s_ like _ou_, accents the final -syllables, embellishes his vocabulary with obsolete words, or words -which do not fit the circumstances, such as _fiole_ for _bouteille_, -_omnibus_ for _tramways_, etc. He is pompous, grandiloquent, unctuous, -sometimes severe and terrible, sometimes also sentimental. He says -“thee” and “thou” to everybody, and appears to believe that he is -still grand-master of the secret societies, from the emphatic and -sonorous manner in which he pronounces the words “Brother” or “And -thou, my sister,” by which he addresses the sitters. Although he -generally addresses himself to one of them in particular, and holds -very little collective discourse, he is in touch with every one, -listens to everything that is said, and each one may have his turn in -conversation with him. Ordinarily he keeps his eyelids closed: he has, -nevertheless, been persuaded to open his eyes in order to permit the -taking of a photograph by a flash light. I regret that Mlle. Smith -would not consent to the publication of her photographs, either in her -normal state or in that of Leopold, in connection with the reproduction -of a portrait of Cagliostro.[11] The reader may assure himself that -when she incarnates her guide she really assumes a certain resemblance -of features to him, and there is something in her attitude which is -sometimes somewhat theatrical, but sometimes really majestic, which -corresponds well to the generally received idea of this personage, -whether he is regarded as a clever impostor or as a wonderful genius. - -Speech is the apogee of the incarnations of Leopold; often interrupted -by fits of hiccoughs and spasms, it seems to be injurious to Hélène’s -organism, and there are some seances at which attempts to produce it -fail to succeed. Leopold, on these occasions, indicates his impotence -and the fatigue of the medium by his gestures, and is then reduced -to the necessity of expressing himself by digital dictations or -handwriting, or else to giving Hélène verbo-auditive hallucinations, -the content of which she repeats in her natural voice. - -From the point of view of ease and mobility of the entire organism, -there is a notable difference between Leopold and the other -incarnations of Hélène: these last seem to be effected with much more -facility than in the case of that of her guide _par excellence_. In -the case of the Hindoo princess and that of Marie Antoinette, the -perfection of the play, the suppleness and freedom of movement, are -always admirable. It is true there is no question here, according to -the spiritistic doctrine and the subconscious ideas of Mlle. Smith, of -incarnations properly so called, since it is she herself who simply -returns to that which she formerly was, by a sort of reversion or -prenatal ecmnesia; she does not undergo, in consequence, any foreign -possession, and can in these rôles preserve her natural identity and -the entire disposition of her faculties. But still the occasional -incarnation of different personalities, such as those of deceased -parents or friends of the spectators, are often more easily and quickly -effected than that of Leopold. Hélène moves in these cases with more -vivacity and changes of attitude. In the rôle of Cagliostro, on the -other hand, with the exception of the grandiose and not very frequent -movements of the arms, once standing, she remains motionless, or only -with difficulty advancing a little way towards the person to whom she -addresses her discourse. - -The content of the oral conversations of Leopold, as well as of his -other messages by the various sensory and motor processes, is too -varied for me to describe here: the numerous examples scattered through -this work only can give an idea of it. - - -III. LEOPOLD AND THE TRUE JOSEPH BALSAMO - -It would naturally be supposed that Leopold would have given us, -by means of the psychological perfection of his partial or total -incarnations and by the content of his messages, such a living likeness -of Cagliostro that there would have been occasion to ask whether it -is not really the latter who actually “returns,” in the same way that -Dr. Hodgson and his colleagues ask themselves whether it is not -actually George Pelham who manifests himself through Mrs. Piper. Let -us suppose, for example, that Leopold possessed a handwriting, an -orthography, a style identical with that which is found here and there -in the manuscripts of Joseph Balsamo; that he spoke French, Italian, -or German, as that cosmopolitan adventurer did, and with all the same -peculiarities; that his conversations and messages were full of precise -allusions to actual events in his life, and also of unpublished but -verifiable facts, etc. In that case the difficult and delicate task -of proving that Mlle. Smith had no knowledge through normal methods -of these thousand exact features would still remain, and we should -not be forced to ask whether this _soi-disant_ authentic revenant is -simply a very well-gotten-up simulacrum, an admirable reconstruction, -a marvellous imitation, such as the subliminal faculties are only -too glad to produce for the diversion of psychologists and the -mystification of the simple. - -This problem is not given to us. I regret it, but it is true, -nevertheless—to my mind, at least, for in these matters it is prudent -to speak only for one’s self—that there is no reason to suspect the -real presence of Joseph Balsamo behind the automatisms of Mlle. Smith. - -That there are very curious analogies between what is known to us of -Cagliostro and certain characteristic traits of Leopold, I do not deny, -but they are precisely such as accord very well with the supposition of -the subliminal medley. - - [Illustration: Fig. 5. Handwriting of Joseph Balsamo. Fragment of a - letter to his wife, reproduced in _L’Isographie des Hommes célèbres_.] - -Let us consider first the handwriting. To facilitate the comparison, I -have reproduced here (see pp. 109 and 111) some fragments of letters -of Cagliostro and of Leopold and of Hélène. Let us suppose—which is, -perhaps, open to discussion—that the handwriting of Leopold, by its -regularity, its firmness, resembles that of Balsamo more than that of -Mlle. Smith; the degree of resemblance does not, I think, go beyond -that which might be expected considering the notorious fact that -handwriting reflects the psychological temperament and modifies itself -in accordance with the state of the personality.[12] - -It is well known how the calligraphy of a hypnotized subject varies -according to the suggestion that he shall personate Napoleon, Harpagon, -a little girl, or an old man; there is nothing surprising in the fact -that the hypnoid secondary personality of Hélène, which imagines -itself to be the powerful and manly Count of Cagliostro, should be -accompanied by muscular tensions communicating to the handwriting -itself a little of that solidity and breadth which are found in the -autograph of Balsamo. To this, however, the analogy is limited. The -dissimilarities in the detail and the formation of the letters are -such that the only conclusion which they warrant is that Mlle. Smith, -or her subconsciousness, has never laid eyes on the manuscripts of -Cagliostro. They are, indeed, rare, but the facilities she might have -had, of which she has not thought of taking advantage, for consulting -in the Geneva public library the same volume from which I took Fig. 5, -would prove, at least, her good faith and her honesty, if it were in -the least necessary. The extravagant signature of Leopold with which -all his messages are subscribed (see Fig. 7) recalls in no wise that of -Alessandro di Cagliostro at the bottom of Fig. 5. - - [Illustration: Fig. 6. Normal handwriting of Mlle. Smith.] - - [Illustration: Fig. 7. Handwriting of Leopold. Fragment and signature - of one of his letters, written by Mlle. Smith, in spontaneous - hemisomnambulism.] - -The archaic forms of orthography, _j’aurois_ for _j’aurais_, etc., -which appear above the first autograph of Leopold (see p. 99), and -which occur again in the messages of Marie Antoinette, constitute -a very pretty hit, of which the ordinary self would probably never -dream by way of voluntary imitation, but by which the subconscious -imagination has seen fit to profit. It is undoubtedly a matter for -wonderment that Mlle. Smith, who has not gone very deep into literary -studies, should, nevertheless, have retained these orthographic -peculiarities of the eighteenth century; but we must not overlook -the fineness of choice, the refined sensibility, the consummate, -albeit instinctive, art which presides over the sorting and storing -away of the subconscious memories. By some natural affinity, the -idea of a personage of a certain epoch attracts and gathers into its -net everything that the subject can possibly learn or hear spoken -concerning the fashion of writing, of speaking, or acting, peculiar to -that epoch. I do not know whether Balsamo ever used the French language -and the orthography that Leopold employs. Even if he did, it would not -weaken the hypothesis of the subliminal imitation, but if, on the other -hand, it should be ascertained that he did not, the hypothesis would -be greatly strengthened thereby. - -As for the speech, I am ignorant as to how, with what accent and what -peculiarities of pronunciation, Balsamo spoke the French tongue, and to -what degree, in consequence, his reconstruction by Hélène’s subliminal -fantasy correctly hits it. If this point could be cleared up, it would -probably be found to be just like that of the handwriting. Nothing -could be more natural than to ascribe to the _chevalier d’industrie_ of -Palermo a very masculine, deep-bass voice, and, it goes without saying, -as Italian as possible. It must be noted, too, that Mlle. Smith often -heard her father speak that language, which he knew very well, with -several of his friends; but that, on the other hand, she does not speak -it, and has never learned it. Leopold, however, does not know Italian, -and turns a deaf ear when any one addresses him in that language. The -intonation, the attitude, the whole physiognomy, in short, accord with -these remarks. As to the extremely varied content of the conversations -and messages of Leopold, we are not obliged to consider Balsamo as -their necessary author. When everything relating to Mlle. Smith and the -sitters, but which has nothing to do with the last century, has been -swept aside, together with the spiritistic dissertations in regard to -the “fluid” manner in which Leopold exists, perceives, and moves, the -three subjects or categories of communications still remain, which -merit a rapid examination. - -In the first place, there are the answers of Leopold to the questions -put to him concerning his terrestrial life. These answers are -remarkably evasive or vague. Not a name, not a date, not a precise -fact does he furnish. We only learn that he has travelled extensively, -suffered greatly, studied deeply, done much good, and healed a great -many sick folk; but now he sees things too lofty to think any more -about historic details of the past, and it is with unconcealed disgust -or direct words of reproach for the idle curiosity of his carnal -questioners that he hastens to turn the conversation, like Socrates, -to moral subjects and those of a lofty philosophy, where he feels -evidently more at ease. When he is further pressed he becomes angry -sometimes, and sometimes ingenuously avows his ignorance, enveloping it -meanwhile in an air of profound mystery. “They are asking the secret of -my life, of my acts, of my thoughts. I cannot answer.” This does not -facilitate investigation of the question of identity. - -In the second place come the consultations and medical prescriptions. -Leopold affects a lofty disdain for modern medicine and phenic acid. -He is as archaic in his therapeutics as in his orthography, and treats -all maladies after the ancient mode. Baths of pressed grape-skins for -rheumatism, an infusion of coltsfoot and juniper-berry in white wine -for inflammations of the chest, the bark of the horse-chestnut in red -wine and douches of salt water as tonics, tisanes of hops and other -flowers, camomile, oil of lavender, the leaves of the ash, etc.; all -these do not accord badly with what Balsamo might have prescribed a -century or more ago. The misfortune, from the evidential point of -view, is that Mlle. Smith’s mother is extremely well versed in all -the resources of popular medicine where old recipes are perpetuated. -She has had occasion to nurse many sick people in her life, knows the -virtues of different medicinal plants, and constantly employs, with a -sagacity which I have often admired, a number of those remedies spoken -of as “old-women’s,” which make the young doctors fresh from the clinic -smile, but to which they will more than once resort in secret after a -few years of medical experience. - -Finally, there still remain the sentiments of Leopold for Hélène, which -he claims are only the continuation of those of Cagliostro for Marie -Antoinette. My ignorance of history does not permit me to pronounce -categorically on this point. That the Queen of France did have some -secret interviews with the famous “gold-maker,” due to simple curiosity -or to questions of material interest, there is no doubt, I believe; but -that his feelings for his sovereign were a curious combination of the -despairing passion of Cardinal Rohan for the queen, with the absolute -respect which Alexandre Dumas, _père_, ascribes to Joseph Balsamo -towards Lorenza Feliciani, appears to me less evident. - -In short, if the revelations of Leopold have truly unveiled to us -shades of feeling of Count Cagliostro hitherto unsuspected, and -of which later documentary researches shall confirm the historic -correctness—why, so much the better, for that will finally establish a -trace of the supernormal in the mediumship of Hélène! - - -IV. LEOPOLD AND MLLE. SMITH - -The connection between these two personalities is too complex for a -precise description. There is neither a mutual exclusion, as between -Mrs. Piper and Phinuit, who appear reciprocally to be ignorant of each -other and to be separated by the tightest of partitions; nor a simple -jointing, as in the case of Felida X., whose secondary state envelops -and overflows the whole primary state. This is more of a crossing -of lines, but of which the limits are vague and with difficulty -assignable. Leopold knows, foresees, and recalls very many things of -which the normal personality of Mlle. Smith knows absolutely nothing, -not only of those which she may simply have forgotten, but of those of -which she never had any consciousness. On the other hand, he is far -from possessing all the memories of Hélène; he is ignorant of a very -great part of her daily life; even some very notable incidents escape -him entirely, which explains his way of saying that, to his great -regret, he cannot remain constantly by her, being obliged to occupy -himself with other missions (concerning which he has never enlightened -us) which oblige him often to leave her for a time. - -These two personalities are, therefore, not co-extensive; each one -passes beyond the other at certain points, without its being possible -for us to say which is, on the whole, the more extended. As to their -common domain, if it cannot be defined by one word with entire -certainty, it appears, nevertheless, to be chiefly constituted by its -connection with the innermost ranges of the being, both physiological -and psychological, as might be suspected from what I remarked above -concerning the real origin of Leopold. Physician of the soul and of the -body, director of conscience, and at the same time hygienic counsellor, -he does not always manifest himself immediately, but he is always -present when Hélène’s vital interests are involved. This will be made -clearer by two or three concrete examples, which will at the same -time illustrate some of the psychological processes by which Leopold -manifests himself to Hélène. - -It must be admitted that there is a disagreement and opposition as -complete as possible (but how far does this “possible” go?) when -Hélène, in at least an apparently waking state, converses with her -guide, manifestly by a partial sensory or motor automatism; for -example, in the case cited on page 64, where Leopold, not sharing -the allochiria of Hélène, declared by the table that she was wrong, -so emphatically that she protested and became angry; also, when in -verbo-auditive hallucinations, or by automatic handwriting, he enters -into discussion with her, and she holds her own with him; or, again, -when the organism seems to be divided up between two different persons, -Leopold speaking by Hélène’s mouth, with his accent, and uttering his -own ideas to her, and she complaining, in writing, of pains in her head -and throat, without understanding their cause. Nevertheless, in these -cases of division of the consciousness, which appear to amount to its -cutting in two, it is doubtful whether this plurality is more than -apparent. I am not positive of having ever established with Hélène a -veritable simultaneity of different consciousnesses. At the very moment -at which Leopold writes by her hand, speaks by her mouth, dictates -to the table, upon observing her attentively I have always found her -absorbed, preoccupied, as though absent; but she instantaneously -recovers her presence of mind and the use of her waking faculties at -the end of the motor automatism. In short, that which from the outside -is taken for the coexistence of distinct simultaneous personalities -seems to me to be only an alternation, a rapid succession between the -state of Hélène-consciousness and the state of Leopold-consciousness; -and, in the case where the body seems to be jointly occupied by two -independent beings—the right side, for instance, being occupied by -Leopold, and the left by Hélène, or the Hindoo princess—the psychical -division has never seemed to me to be radical, but many indications -have combined to make me of the opinion that behind all was an -individuality perfectly self-conscious, and enjoying thoroughly, along -with the spectators, the comedy of the plural existences. - -A single fundamental personality, putting the questions and giving -the answers, quarrelling with itself in its own interior—in a -word, enacting all the various rôles of Mlle. Smith—is a fitting -interpretation, which accords very well with the facts as I have -observed them in Hélène, and very much better than the theory of a -plurality of separate consciousnesses, of a psychological polyzoism, -so to speak. This last theory is doubtless more convenient for a clear -and superficial description of the facts, but I am not at all convinced -that it conforms to the actual condition of affairs. - -It is a state of consciousness _sui generis_, which it is impossible -adequately to describe, and which can only be represented by the -analogy of those curious states, exceptional in the normal waking life, -but less rare in dreams, when one seems to change his identity and -become some one else. - -Hélène has more than once told me of having had the impression of -_becoming_ or _being_ momentarily Leopold. This happens most frequently -at night, or upon awakening in the morning. She has first a fugitive -vision of her protector; then it seems that little by little he is -submerged in her; she feels him overcoming and penetrating her entire -organism, as if he really became her or she him. These mixed states -are extremely interesting to the psychologist; unhappily, because they -generally take place in a condition of consecutive amnesia, or because -the mediums do not know how, or do not wish, to give a complete account -of them, it is very rare that detailed descriptions are obtained. - -Between the two extremes of complete duality and complete unity -numerous intermediate states are to be observed; or, at least, since -the consciousness of another cannot be directly penetrated, these mixed -states may be inferred from the consequences which spring from them. - -It has happened, for example, that, believing they were dealing with -Leopold alone, thoroughly incarnated and duly substituted for the -personality of Mlle. Smith, the sitters have allowed to escape them on -that account some ill-timed pleasantry, some indiscreet question or too -free criticisms, all innocent enough and without evil intention, but -still of a nature to wound Hélène if she had heard them, and from which -the authors would certainly have abstained in her presence in a waking -state. - -Leopold has not stood upon ceremony in putting down these imprudent -babblers, and the incident, generally, has had no further consequences. -But sometimes the words and bearing of Mlle. Smith for days or weeks -afterwards show that she was aware of the imprudent remarks, which -proves that the consciousness of Leopold and her own are not separated -by an impenetrable barrier, but that osmotic changes are effected from -the one to the other. It is ordinarily pointed and irritating remarks -which cause the trouble, which goes to prove that it is the feelings -of self-love or personal susceptibility that form in each one of us -the inmost fortifications of the social self, and are the last to be -destroyed by somnambulism, or that they constitute the fundamental -substratum, the common base by which Leopold and Mlle. Smith form a -whole and mingle themselves in the same individuality. - -The psychological process of this transmission is varied from another -cause. Sometimes it appears that the consecutive amnesia of the trance -has been broken as to the most piquant details, and that Hélène clearly -remembers that which has been said, in the presence of Leopold, -disagreeable to herself. Sometimes it is Leopold himself who repeats to -her the unpleasant expressions which have been used, with commentaries -calculated to lessen their effect and to excuse the culprits: for -it is an interesting trait of his character that he undertakes with -Hélène the defence of those same persons whom he reprimands and blames, -a contradiction not at all surprising when it is psychologically -interpreted, considering the habitual conflict of emotional motives or -tendencies, the warfare which opposite points of view is incessantly -carrying on in our inmost being. Sometimes, again, it is in a dream -that the junction is effected between the somnambulistic consciousness -of Leopold and the normal consciousness of Hélène. - -Apropos of the last case, here is an example containing nothing -disagreeable, in which Hélène remembered in her waking state a -nocturnal dream, which was itself a repetition or echo, in natural -sleep, of a somnambulistic scene of the previous evening. - -In a seance at which I assisted, shortly after my recovery from an -attack of congestion of the lungs, Hélène, completely entranced, -has a vision of Leopold-Cagliostro, who, in the rôle of sympathetic -physician, comes to hold a consultation with me. After some -preliminaries she kneels down by my chair, and, looking alternately at -my chest and at the fictitious doctor standing between us, she holds a -long conversation with him, in which she explains the condition of my -lungs, which she sees in imagination, and the treatment which Leopold -prescribes, somewhat as follows: - -“ ... It is the lungs ... it is darker ... it is one side which has -been affected.... You say that it is a severe inflammation—and can that -be healed?... Tell me, what must be done.... Oh, where have I seen any -of these plants?... I don’t know what they are called ... those ... I -don’t understand very well ... those synantherous?... Oh, what a queer -name.... Where are they to be found?... You say it belongs to the -family of ... then it has another name? Tell me what it is ... some -_tissulages_ [sic].... Then you think this plant is good for him?... -Ah! but explain this to me ... the fresh leaves or the dried flowers? -Three times a day, a large handful in a pint ... and then honey and -milk.... I will tell him that he must drink three cups a day....” -etc. Then followed very detailed directions as to treatment, various -infusions, blisters, etc. The whole scene lasted more than an hour, -followed by complete amnesia, and nothing was said to Hélène about -it, as it was half-past six in the evening, and she was in haste to -return home. The next day she wrote me a seven-page letter in which -she described a very striking dream she had had during the night. -“... I fell asleep about two o’clock in the morning and awaked at about -five. Was it a vision? Was it a dream I had? I don’t really know what -to consider it and dare not say; but this I do know, I saw my dear -friend Leopold, who spoke to me a long time about you, and I think I -saw you also. I asked him what he thought of your state of health.... -He replied that in his opinion it was far from re-established. That the -pain you feel in the right side came from an inflammation of the lung -which has been seriously affected.... You will doubtless laugh when -I tell you that he also described the remedies you ought to take.... -One of them is a simple plant, which is called, as nearly as I can -remember, Tissulage or Tussilache, but has also another name, which I -cannot recollect, but the first name will doubtless suffice, since he -says you are familiar with the plant ...” etc. - -What I have said concerning Leopold is also applicable to the other -personifications of Mlle. Smith. The normal consciousness of Hélène -mingles and fuses itself in every way with the somnambulistic -consciousness of Simandini, of Marie Antoinette, or some other -incarnation, as we shall soon see. I pass now to the examination of -some detailed examples, destined to throw light upon the rôle which -Leopold plays in Hélène’s existence. - -Let us begin by listening to Leopold himself. Among his numerous -messages, the following letter, written in his fine handwriting by the -hand of Mlle. Smith—in response to a note in which I had begged him -(as a spiritual being and distinct from her) to aid me in my “psychic -researches”—contains information for which I had not asked, but which -was none the less interesting. It must not be forgotten that it is the -disincarnate adorer of Marie Antoinette who is writing: - - “FRIEND,—I am pleased and touched by the mark of confidence you have - deigned to accord me. The spiritual guide of Mademoiselle [Smith], - whom the Supreme Being in his infinite goodness has permitted me - to find again with ease, I do all I can to appear to her on every - occasion when I deem it necessary; but my body, or, if you prefer, - the matter of little solidity of which I am composed, does not - always afford me the facility of showing myself to her in a positive - human manner. [He, in fact, appeared to her often under the form of - elementary visual hallucinations, a luminous trail, whitish column, - vaporous streamer, etc.] - - “That which I seek above all to inculcate in her is a consoling and - true philosophy, which is necessary to her by reason of the profound, - unhappy impressions, which even now still remain to her, of the whole - drama of her past life. I have often sown bitterness in her heart - [when she was Marie Antoinette], desiring only her welfare. Also, - laying aside everything superfluous, I penetrate into the most hidden - recesses of her soul, and with an extreme care and incessant activity - I seek to implant there those truths which I trust will aid her in - attaining the lofty summit of the ladder of perfection. - - “Abandoned by my parents from my cradle, I have, indeed, known sorrow - early in life. Like all, I have had many weaknesses, which I have - expiated, and God knows that I bow to His will! - - “Moral suffering has been my principal lot. I have been full of - bitterness, of envy, of hatred, of jealousy. Jealousy, my brother! - what a poison, what a corruption of the soul! - - “Nevertheless, one ray has shone brightly into my life, and that ray - so pure, so full of everything that might pour balm on my wounded - soul, has given me a glimpse of heaven! - - “Herald of eternal felicity! Ray without spot! God deemed best to take - it before me! But to-day it is given back to me! May His holy name be - blessed! - - “Friend, in what manner shall I reply to you? I am ignorant myself, - not knowing what it will please God to reveal to you, but through her - whom you call Mademoiselle [Smith], God willing, perhaps we shall be - able to satisfy you. - - “Thy friend, - - “LEOPOLD.” - -We can see, under the flowing details of the spiritistic ideas and his -rôle as the repentant Cagliostro, that the dominant characteristic -of Leopold is his deep platonic attachment for Mlle. Smith, and an -ardent moral solicitude for her and her advance towards perfection. -This corresponds perfectly with the character of the numerous messages -which he addresses to her in the course of her daily existence, as may -be seen from the following specimen. He is referring to a case where, -after having warned her on two occasions during the day by auditive -hallucinations that he would manifest himself in the evening, he gives -her, in fact, by automatic writing in his own hand, the encouragement -she was actually in need of under the circumstances in which she found -herself. - -One morning, at her desk, Hélène heard an unknown voice, stronger and -nearer to her than is usual with Leopold, say to her: “_Until this -evening_”; a little later the same voice, which she now recognized as -that of Leopold, but of a quality rougher and nearer to her than was -his habit, said to her: “_You understand me well, until this evening._” -In the evening, having returned home, she was excited at supper, left -the table in haste towards the end of the meal, and shut herself up in -her room with the idea that she would learn something; but, presently, -the instinctive agitation of her hand indicated to her that she should -take her pencil, and having done so, she obtained in the beautiful -calligraphy of Leopold the following epistle. (She says that she -remained wide awake and self-conscious while writing it, and it is the -only occasion of a similar character when she had knowledge of the -content.) - - “MY BELOVED FRIEND,—Why do you vex yourself, torment yourself so? Why - are you indignant, because, as you advance in life, you are obliged to - acknowledge that all things are not as you had wished and hoped they - might be? Is not the route we follow on this earth always and for all - of us strewn with rocks? is it not an endless chain of deceptions, of - miseries? Do me the kindness, my dear sister, I beg of you, to tell me - that from this time forth you will cease from endeavoring to probe too - deeply the human heart. In what will such discoveries aid you? What - remains to you of these things, except tears and regrets? And then - this God of love, of justice, and of life—is not He the one to read - our hearts? It is for Him, not for thee, to see into them. - - “Would you change the hearts? Would you give them that which they have - not, a live, ardent soul, never departing from what is right, just, - and true? Be calm, then, in the face of all these little troubles. Be - worthy, and, above all, always good! In thee I have found again that - heart and that soul, both of which will always be for me all my life, - all my joy, and my only dream here below. - - “Believe me: be calm: reflect: that is my wish. - - “Thy friend, - - “LEOPOLD.” - -I have chosen this example for the sake of its brevity. Hélène has -received a number of communications of the same kind, sometimes in -verse, in which the moral and religious note is often still more -accentuated. In the greater part we meet with, as in the next to the -last phrase of the foregoing letter, an allusion to the presumed -affection of Cagliostro for Marie Antoinette. It is to be noticed that -there is nothing in these excellent admonitions that a high and serious -soul like that of Mlle. Smith could not have drawn from its own depths -in a moment of contemplation and meditation. - -Is it a benefit or an injury to the moral and truly religious life to -formulate itself thus clearly in verbal hallucinations rather than -to remain in the confused but more personal state of experienced -aspirations and strongly expressed emotions? Do these inspirations -gain or lose in inward authority and subjective power by assuming this -exterior garb and this aspect of objectivity? This is a delicate -question, probably not susceptible of a uniform solution. - -In the following incident, which I relate as an example among many -other similar ones, it is no longer, properly speaking, the moral and -religious sentiments personified in Leopold, but rather the instinct -of reserve and of defence peculiar to the weaker sex, the sense of the -proprieties, the self-respect, tinctured with a shade of exaggeration -almost amounting to prudery. - -In a visit to Mlle. Smith, during which I inquired whether she had -received any recent communications from Leopold, she told me she had -only seen him two or three times in the last few days, and had been -struck by his “restless and unhappy” air, instead of the air “so -pleasant, so sweet, so admirable,” which he generally has. As she did -not know to what to attribute this change of countenance, I advised her -to take her pencil and to wrap herself in meditation, with the hope of -obtaining some automatic message. - -In about a minute her expression indicated that she was being taken -possession of; her eyes were fixed on the paper, upon which her left -hand rested, the thumb and little finger being agitated and continually -tapping (about once a second), the right hand having tried to take the -pencil between the index and middle finger (the manner of Hélène), -ended by seizing it between the thumb and the index finger, and traced -slowly in the handwriting of Leopold: - -“Yes, I am restless | pained, even in anguish. | Believest thou, -friend, that it is with satisfaction | that I see you every day -accepting the attentions, the flatteries; | I do not call them -insincere, but of little worth, and little praiseworthy | on the part -of those from whom they come.” | - -This text was written at six separate times (marked by the vertical -bars), separated by brief moments of full wakefulness, when the -tappings of the left hand ceased, and when Hélène, repeating in a loud -voice what she was about to write, is very much astonished, does not -know to what Leopold alludes, then at my request takes her pencil to -obtain an explanation, and falls asleep again during the following -fragment. At the end of this bit, as she persists in saying that she -is ignorant of what he refers to, I proceed to question Leopold, who -replies that for several days Hélène has permitted herself to be -courted by a M. V. (perfectly honorably), who often found himself on -the same street-car with her, had made a place for her beside him the -last few mornings, and had paid her some compliments on her appearance. - -These revelations excited the laughter and protestations of Hélène, who -commenced to deny that it could have come from Leopold, and accused -me of having suggested it to her little finger; but the right hand -took the pencil and traced these words in the handwriting and with the -signature of Leopold: “I only say what I think, and I desire that you -refuse henceforth all the flowers that he may offer you.—Leopold.” -This time Hélène remembered the incident, and recollected that -yesterday morning he had offered her a rose which he was wearing as a -boutonnière. - -Eight days later I paid another visit to Hélène, and after an effort -to secure some handwriting, which was not successful, but resulted -in a Martian vision (see Martian text No. 14), she had a visual -hallucination of Leopold, and losing consciousness of the actual -environment and of my presence also, as well as that of her mother, -she flung herself into a running conversation with him in regard to -the incident of eight days previously: “Leopold ... Leopold ... don’t -come near me [repulsing him]. You are too severe, Leopold!... Will -you come on Sunday? I am going to be at M. Flournoy’s next Sunday. -You will be there ... but take good care that you do not.... No, it -is not kind of you always to disclose secrets.... What must he have -thought?... You seem to make a mountain out of a mole-hill.... And -who would think of refusing a flower? You don’t understand at all.... -Why, then? It was a very simple thing to accept it, a matter of no -importance whatever ... to refuse it would have been impolite.... You -pretend to read the heart.... Why give importance to a thing that -amounts to nothing?... It is only a simple act of friendship, a little -token of sympathy ... to make me write such things on paper before -everybody! not nice of you!” In this somnambulistic dialogue, in which -we can divine Leopold’s replies, Hélène took for the moment the accent -of Marie Antoinette (see below, in the “Royal cycle”). To awaken her, -Leopold, who had possession of Hélène’s arms, made some passes over -her forehead, then pressed the frontal and suborbital nerves of the -left side, and made me a sign to do the same with those of the right. -The seance of the next day but one, at my house, passed without any -allusion by Leopold to the incident of the street-car, evidently on -account of the presence of certain sitters to whom he did not wish to -reveal Hélène’s secrets. But, three days after, in a new visit, during -which she told me of having had a waking discussion concerning the -future life (without telling me with whom), she again wrote, in the -hand of Leopold: “It is not in such society as this that you ought so -seriously to discuss the immortality of the soul.” She then confessed -that it was again on the street-car, and with M. V., that she had -held that conversation while a funeral procession was passing. There -was never anything that might have been of a compromising character -in the exchange of courtesies and the occasional conversations of -Mlle. Smith with her neighbor of the street-car. The trouble that it -caused poor Leopold was very characteristic of him, and well indicated -the severe and jealous censor who formerly had worried the N. group; -there can be heard again the echo of that voice, “which has absolutely -nothing to do with the conscience” (see pp. 27 and 82), and which -has hitherto prevented Hélène from accepting any of the suitors whom -she has encountered in the course of her journey through life. This -austere and rigorous mentor, always wide awake, and taking offence at -the least freedom which Mlle. Smith allows herself in the exchange of -trifling courtesies, represents, in fact, a very common psychological -attribute; it is not every well-bred feminine soul that carries stored -in one of its recesses, where it manifests its presence by scruples -more or less vaguely felt, certain hesitations or apprehensions, -inhibiting feelings or tendencies of a shade of intensity varying -according to the age and the temperament. - -It is not my part to describe this delicate phenomenon. It suffices -me to remark that here, as in the ethico-religious messages, the -personality of Leopold has in no way aided the essential content of -those inward experiences of which Mlle. Smith is perfectly capable by -herself; the form only of their manifestation has gained in picturesque -and dramatic expression in the _mise-en-scène_ of the automatic -handwritings and of the somnambulistic dialogue. It seems as though the -suggestive approach of my presence and my questions had been necessary -to excite these phenomena; it is, however, very probable, to judge -from other examples, that my influence only hastened the explosion -of Leopold in formulated reproaches, and that his latent discontent, -hitherto noticed in the “restless and suffering air” of his fugitive -visual apparitions, would have terminated, after a period of incubation -more or less prolonged, in breaking out into spontaneous admonitions, -auditive or written. - -It can be divined that in this rôle of vigilant guardian, of an -almost excessive zealousness for the honor or the dignity of Mlle. -Smith, Leopold is again, to my mind, only a product of psychological -duplication. He represents a certain grouping of inward desires and -secret instincts, which the hypnoid predisposition, encouraged by -spiritism, has brought into a peculiar prominence and given an aspect -of foreign personality; in the same way, in the phantasmagoria of the -dream, certain after-thoughts, almost unperceived while awake, rise to -the first plane and become transformed into contradictory fictitious -personages, whose cutting reproaches astonish us sometimes on awakening -by their disturbing truthfulness. - -A final example will show us Leopold, in his rôle of watcher over the -health of Mlle. Smith and adviser of precautions which she ought to -take. He is not troubled about her general health; when she had _la -grippe_, for instance, or when she is simply worn out with fatigue, -he scarcely shows himself. His attention is concentrated upon certain -special physiological functions, of the normal exercise of which he -takes care to be assured. He does not otherwise seem to exercise a -positive action upon them, and cannot modify them in any way; his -office seems to be confined to knowing beforehand their exact course, -and to see that Hélène is not guilty of any imprudence which may impede -them. - -Leopold here shows a knowledge and prevision of the most intimate -phenomena of the organism which has been observed in the case of -secondary personalities, and which confers upon them, in that respect -at least, an unquestionable advantage over the ordinary personality. -In the case of Mlle. Smith, the indications of her guide are always of -a prohibitive nature, calculated to prevent her from talking part in -spiritistic reunions at a time at which she believes herself able to do -so with impunity, but which he, endowed with a more refined cœnæsthetic -sensibility, thinks she ought not to undertake. He has for several -years formally laid his ban upon every kind of mediumistic exercises at -certain very regular periods. - -He has also on numerous occasions compelled her by various messages, -categorical auditive hallucinations, diverse impulses, contractures -of the arms, forcing her to write, etc., to modify her plans and -to abandon seances already arranged. This is a very clear form of -teleological automatism. - -As a specimen of this spontaneous and hygienic intervention of Leopold -in the life of Hélène, I have selected the letter given below, because -it combines several interesting traits. It well depicts the energy with -which Mlle. Smith is compelled to obey her guide. - -The passage from the auditive to the graphic form of automatism is -also to be noticed in it. Apropos of this, in the page of this letter -reproduced in Fig. 8 (see p. 137), it is made clear that the transition -of the hand of Hélène to that of Leopold is accomplished brusquely and -in a decided manner. The handwriting is not metamorphosed gradually, -slowly, but continues to be that of Mlle. Smith, becoming more and more -agitated, it is true, and rendered almost illegible by the shocks to -the arm of which Leopold takes hold up to the moment when, suddenly and -by a bound, it becomes the well-formed calligraphy of Cagliostro. - - “_January 29_, 6.15 A.M. - - “MONSIEUR,—I awoke about ten minutes ago, and heard the voice of - Leopold telling me in a very imperious manner, ‘Get up out of your - bed, and quickly, very quickly, write to your dear friend, M. - Flournoy, that you will not hold a seance to-morrow, and that you will - not be able to go to his house for two weeks, and that you will not - hold any seance within that period.’ I have executed his order, having - felt myself forced, compelled in spite of myself, to obey. I was so - comfortable in bed and so vexed at being obliged to write you such a - message; but I feel myself forced to do what he bids me. - - “At this moment I am looking at my watch; it is 6.25 o’clock. I feel - a very strong shock in my right arm—I might better speak of it as an - electric disturbance—and which I perceive has made me write crooked. I - hear also at this instant the voice of Leopold. I have much difficulty - in writing what he tells me: ‘6.42½. Say to him this: _I am, sir, - always your very devoted servant, in body and mind, healthy and not - unbalanced._’ - - “I stopped for some moments after writing these words, which I saw - very well, after having written them, were in the handwriting of - Leopold. Immediately afterwards, a second disturbance, similar to - the first, gave me a fresh shock, this time from my feet to my head. - It all passed so quickly that I am disturbed and confused by it. It - is true that I am not yet quite well. Is this the reason why Leopold - prevents my going to Florissant to-morrow? I do not know, but, - nevertheless, am anxious to follow his advice....” - -Mlle. Smith always submits obediently to the commands of her guide, -since, whenever she has transgressed them, through forgetfulness or -neglect, she has had cause to repent it. - -It is clear that in this rôle of special physician of Mlle. Smith, -always _au courant_ of her state of health, Leopold could easily be -interpreted as personifying those vague impressions which spring forth -continually from the depths of our physical being, informing us as to -what is passing there. - -A neuralgic toothache is felt in a dream hours before it makes itself -felt in our waking consciousness, while some maladies are often thus -foreshadowed several days before they actually declare themselves. All -literature is full of anecdotes of this kind; and the psychiatrists -have observed that in the form of circular alienation, where phases of -melancholic depression and maniacal excitation alternately succeed one -another more or less regularly with intervals of normal equilibrium, -it is frequently in sleep that the first symptoms of the change of -humor can be detected which has already begun in the depths of the -individuality, but will only break forth on the outside a little -later. But all the hypnoid states are connected, and it is not at all -surprising that, in the case of a subject inclined to automatism, -these confused presentiments should arise with the appearance of a -foreign personality which is only a degree higher than the process of -dramatization already so brilliantly at work in our ordinary dreams. - - [Illustration: Fig. 8. A page from a letter of Mlle. Smith, showing - the spontaneous irruption of the personality and the handwriting of - Leopold during the waking state of Hélène.] - -It will be useless to lengthen or further multiply examples of the -intervention of Leopold in the life of Mlle. Smith. Those which -I have given show him under his essential aspects, and suffice to -justify Hélène’s confidence in a guide who has never deceived her, who -has always given her the best counsel, delivered discourses of the -highest ethical tone, and manifested the most touching solicitude for -her physical and moral health. It is easy to understand that nothing -can shake her faith in the real, objective existence of this precious -counsellor. - -It is really vexatious that the phenomena of dreams should be so little -observed or so badly understood (I do not say by psychologists, but -by the general public, which prides itself on its psychology), since -the dream is the prototype of spiritistic messages, and holds the key -to the explanation of mediumistic phenomena. If it is regrettable to -see such noble, sympathetic, pure, and in all respects remarkable -personalities as Leopold reduced to the rank of a dream creation, -it must be remembered, however, that dreams are not always, as idle -folk think, things to be despised or of no value in themselves: the -majority are insignificant and deserve only the oblivion to which they -are promptly consigned. A very large number are bad and sometimes even -worse than reality; but there are others of a better sort, and “dream” -is often a synonym for “ideal.” - -To sum up, Leopold certainly expresses in his central nucleus a very -honorable and attractive side of the character of Mlle. Smith, and -in taking him as her “guide” she only follows inspirations which are -probably among the best of her nature. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE MARTIAN CYCLE - - -The title of this book would naturally commit me to a review of the -Hindoo romance before investigating the Martian cycle. Considerations -of method have caused me to reverse this order. It is better to -advance from the simple to the complex, and while we certainly know -less concerning the planet Mars than of India, the romance which it -has inspired in the subliminal genius of Mlle. Smith is relatively -less difficult to explain than the Oriental cycle. In fact, the former -seems to spring from pure imagination, while in the latter we meet with -certain actual historical elements, and whence Hélène’s memory and -intelligence have gained a knowledge of them is an extremely difficult -problem for us to solve. There is, then, only _one_ faculty at work in -the Martian romance, as a professional psychologist would say, while -the Oriental cycle calls several into play, making it necessary to -treat of it later, on account of its greater psychological complexity. - -While the unknown language which forms the vehicle of many of the -Martian messages cannot naturally be dissociated from the rest of the -cycle, it merits, nevertheless, a special consideration, and the -following chapter will be entirely devoted to it. It does not figure -in the present chapter, in which I shall treat of the origin and the -content only of the Martian romance. - - -I. ORIGIN AND BIRTH OF THE MARTIAN CYCLE - -“We dare to hope,” says M. Camille Flammarion, at the beginning of -his excellent work on the planet Mars, “that the day will come when -scientific methods yet unknown to us will give us direct evidences of -the existence of the inhabitants of other worlds, and at the same time, -also, will put us in communication with our brothers in space.”[13] -And on the last page of his book he recurs to the same idea, and -says: “What marvels does not the science of the future reserve for -our successors, and who would dare to say that Martian humanity and -terrestrial humanity will not some day enter into communication with -each other?” - -This splendid prospect seems still far off, along with that of wireless -telegraphy, and almost an Utopian dream, so long as one holds strictly -to the current conceptions of our positive sciences. But break these -narrow limits; fly, for example, towards the illimitable horizon which -spiritism opens up to its happy followers, and as soon as this vague -hope takes shape, nothing seems to prevent its immediate realization; -and the only cause for wonder is found in the fact that no privileged -medium has yet arisen to have the glory, unique in the world, of being -the first intermediary between ourselves and the human inhabitants -of other planets; for spiritism takes no more account of the barrier -of space than of time. The “gates of distance” are wide open before -it. With it the question of means is a secondary matter; one has only -the embarrassment of making a choice. It matters not whether it be by -intuition, by clairvoyance, by telepathy, or by double personality that -the soul is permitted to leave momentarily its terrestrial prison and -make the voyage between this world and others in an instant of time, -or whether the feat is accomplished by means of the astral body, by -the reincarnation of disincarnate omnisciences, by “fluid beings,” -or, in a word, by any other process whatever. The essential point is, -according to spiritism, that no serious objection would be offered -to the possibility of such communication. The only difficulty would -be to find a mediumistic subject possessing sufficient psychical -faculties. It is a simple question of fact; if such a one has not yet -been found, it is apparently only because the time is not yet ripe. -But now that astronomers themselves appeal to those “unknown methods -of actual science” to put us _en rapport_ with other worlds, no doubt -spiritism—which is the science of to-morrow, as definite as absolute -religion—will soon respond to these legitimate aspirations. We may, -therefore, expect at any moment the revelation so impatiently looked -for, and every good medium has the right to ask herself whether she is -not the being predestined to accomplish this unrivalled mission. - -These are the considerations which, to my mind, in their essential -content inspired in the subliminal part of Mlle. Smith the first idea -of her Martian romance. I would not assert that the passages from M. -Flammarion which I have quoted came directly to the notice of Hélène, -but they express and recapitulate wonderfully well one of the elements -of the atmosphere in which she found herself at the beginning of her -mediumship. For if there are no certain indications of her ever having -read any work on the “heavenly worlds” and their inhabitants, either -that of M. Flammarion or of any other author, she has, nevertheless, -heard such subjects discussed. She is perfectly familiar with the name -of the celebrated astronomical writer Juvisy, and knows something of -his philosophical ideas, which, by-the-way, is not at all surprising -when we consider the popularity he enjoys among spiritists, who -find in him a very strong scientific support for their doctrine of -reincarnation on other planets. - -I also have evidence that in the circle of Mme. N., of which Hélène -was a member in 1892, the conversation more than once turned in the -direction of the habitability of Mars, to which the discovery of the -famous “canals” has for some years specially directed the attention -of the general public. This circumstance appears to me to explain -sufficiently the fact that Hélène’s subliminal astronomy should be -concerned with this planet. It is, moreover, quite possible that the -first germs of the Martian romance date still further back than the -beginning of Hélène’s mediumship. The Oriental rôle shows indications -of concerning itself with that planet, and the very clear impression -which she has of having in her childhood and youth experienced many -visions of a similar kind “without her noticing them particularly,” -gives rise to the supposition that the ingredients of which this cycle -is composed date from many years back. Possibly they may have one -and the same primitive source in the exotic memories, descriptions, -or pictures of tropical countries which later branched out under the -vigorous impulsion of spiritistic ideas in two distinct currents, the -Hindoo romance on the one side and the Martian on the other, whose -waters are mingled on more than one occasion afterwards. - -While, on the whole, therefore, it is probable that its roots extend -back as far as the childhood of Mlle. Smith, it is nevertheless with -the Martian romance, as well as with the others, not a mere question -of the simple cryptomnesiac return of facts of a remote past, or of -an exhumation of fossil residua brought to light again by the aid of -somnambulism. It is a very active process, and one in full course of -evolution, nourished, undoubtedly, by elements belonging to the past, -but which have been recombined and moulded in a very original fashion, -until it amounts finally, among other things, to the creation of an -unknown language. It will be interesting to follow step by step the -phases of this elaboration: but since it always, unfortunately, hides -itself in the obscurity of the subconsciousness, we are only cognizant -of it by its occasional appearances, and all the rest of that -subterranean work must be inferred, in a manner somewhat hypothetical, -from those supraliminal eruptions and the scanty data which we have -concerning the outward influences which have exerted a stimulating -influence upon the subliminal part of Hélène. It was in 1892, then, -that the conversations took place which were to prepare the soil for -this work of lofty subliminal fantasy, and planted in Hélène’s mind the -double idea, of enormous scientific interest, that she could enter into -direct relation with the inhabitants of Mars, and of the possibility, -unsuspected by scientists, but which spiritism furnishes us, of -reaching there by a mediumistic route. I doubt, however, whether that -vague suggestion on the part of the environment would have sufficed -to engender the Martian dream—since for more than two years no sign -of its eruption manifested itself—without the intervention of some -fillip more concrete, capable of giving a start to the whole movement. -It is not easy, unfortunately, for want of records of the facts, to -assign with precision the circumstances under which and the moment when -Hélène’s subconscious imagination received that effective impulsion, -but an unequivocal trace is discovered, as I am about to show in the -contemporaneous report of the proceedings of the first distinctly -Martian seance of Mlle. Smith. - -In March, 1894, Hélène made the acquaintance of M. Lemaître, who, being -exceedingly interested in the phenomena of abnormal psychology, was -present with others at some of her seances, and finally begged her to -hold some at his house. At the first of these (October 28, 1894), -Hélène met a lady, a widow, who was greatly to be pitied. Besides -suffering from a very serious affection of the eyes, Mme. Mirbel had -been terribly afflicted by the loss of her only son, Alexis, seventeen -years old, and a pupil of M. Lemaître. While not yet fully convinced -of the truth of spiritism, it is easy to understand that Mme. Mirbel -was very anxious to believe in that consolatory doctrine, and ready -to accept it, if only some proofs could be furnished her; and what -more convincing testimony could she ask or receive than that of a -message from her beloved child? Moreover, it was probably not without -a secret hope of procuring a communication of this nature that she -accepted the invitation which M. Lemaître had sent her with the idea -of procuring some moments of distraction for the unhappy mother. As -happens frequently in Hélène’s case, this first seance fully satisfied -the desires of the sitters and surpassed their expectations. Speaking -only of that which concerns Mme. Mirbel, Hélène had the vision, first, -of a young man, in the very detailed description of whom there was no -difficulty in recognizing the deceased Alexis Mirbel; then of an old -man whom the table called Raspail, brought by the young man that he -might treat his mother’s eyes, who thus had the double privilege of -receiving through the table words of tenderness from her son, and from -Raspail directions for the treatment of the affliction of her eyes. -Nothing in that seance recalled in any way the planet Mars, and it -could not be foreseen from anything that occurred there that Alexis -Mirbel, disincarnated, would return later under the name of Esenale as -official interpreter of the Martian language. - -It was altogether different a month later (November 25), at the second -reunion at M. Lemaître’s, at which Mme. Mirbel was again present. On -this occasion the astronomical dream appeared at once and dominated the -entire seance. - -From the beginning, says the report of the seance, Mlle. Smith -perceived, in the distance and at a great height, a bright light. Then -she felt a tremor which almost caused her heart to cease beating, after -which it seemed to her as though her head were empty and as if she -were no longer in the body. She found herself in a dense fog, which -changed successively from blue to a vivid rose color, to gray, and -then to black: she is floating, she says; and the table, supporting -itself on one leg, seemed to express a very curious floating movement. -Then she sees a star, growing larger, always larger, and becomes, -finally, “as large as our house.” Hélène feels that she is ascending; -then the table gives, by raps: “Lemaître, that which you have so long -desired!” Mlle. Smith, who had been ill at ease, finds herself feeling -better; she distinguishes three enormous globes, one of them very -beautiful. “On what am I walking?” she asks. And the table replies: -“On a world—Mars.” Hélène then began a description of all the strange -things which presented themselves to her view, and caused her as much -surprise as amusement. Carriages without horses or wheels, emitting -sparks as they glided by; houses with fountains on the roof; a cradle -having for curtains an angel made of iron with outstretched wings, -etc. What seemed less strange, were people exactly like the inhabitants -of our earth, save that both sexes wore the same costume, formed of -trousers very ample, and a long blouse, drawn tight about the waist and -decorated with various designs. The child in the cradle was exactly -like our children, according to the sketch which Hélène made from -memory after the seance. - -Finally, she saw upon Mars a sort of vast assembly hall, in which was -Professor Raspail, having in the first row of his hearers the young -Alexis Mirbel, who, by a typtological dictation, reproached his mother -for not having followed the medical prescription which he gave her a -month previously: “Dear mamma, have you, then, so little confidence in -us? You have no idea how much pain you have caused me!” Then followed a -conversation of a private nature between Mme. Mirbel and her son, the -latter replying by means of the table; then everything becomes quiet, -the vision of Mars effaces itself little by little; the table takes -the same rotary movement on one foot which it had at the commencement -of the seance; Mlle. Smith finds herself again in the fogs and goes -through the same process as before in an inverse order. Then she -exclaims: “Ah! here I am back again!” and several loud raps on the -table mark the end of the seance. - -I have related in its principal elements this first Martian seance, for -the sake of its importance in different respects. - -The initial series of cœnæsthetic hallucinations, corresponding to a -voyage from the earth to Mars, reflects well the childish character of -an imagination which scientific problems or the exigencies of logic -trouble very little. Without doubt spiritism can explain how the -material difficulties of an interplanetary journey may be avoided in a -purely mediumistic, fluid connection; but why, then, this persistence -of physical sensations, trouble with the heart, tremor, floating -sensation, etc.? However it may be, this series of sensations is from -this time on the customary prelude, and, as it were, the premonitory -_aura_ of the Martian dream, with certain modifications, throughout all -the seances; sometimes it is complicated with auditive hallucinations -(rumbling, noise of rushing water, etc.), or sometimes olfactory -(disagreeable odors of burning, of sulphur, of a coming storm), oftener -it tends to shorten and simplify itself, until it is either reduced to -a brief feeling of _malaise_, or to the initial visual hallucination -of the light, generally very brilliant and red, in which the Martian -visions usually appear. - -But the point to which I wish to call special attention is that -singular speech of the table, on the instant at which Mlle. Smith -arrives on the distant star, and before it is known what star is -concerned: “Lemaître, that which you have so much wished for!” This -declaration, which may be considered as a dedication, so to speak, -inscribed on the frontispiece of the Martian romance, authorizes us, -in my opinion, in considering it and interpreting it in its origin, -as a direct answer to a wish of M. Lemaître, a desire which came at a -recent period to Hélène’s knowledge, and which has enacted with her -the initiatory rôle of her astronomical dream. - -It is true that M. Lemaître himself did not understand at the moment to -what this preliminary warning referred, but the note which he inserted -at the end of his report of that seance is instructive in this regard: -“I do not know how to explain the first words dictated by the table: -‘Lemaître, that which you have so much wished for!’ M. S. reminds me -that in a conversation which I had with him last summer I said to him: -‘It would be very interesting to know what is happening upon other -planets.’ If this is an answer to the wish of last year, very well.” - -It must be added that M. S., who had been sufficiently struck by this -wish of M. Lemaître to remember it for several months, was, during -all of the time referred to, one of the most regular attendants upon -the seances of Mlle. Smith; and, to one who knows by experience all -that happens at the spiritistic reunions, before, after, and during -the seance itself, there could hardly be any doubt but that it was -through M. S., as intermediary, that Mlle. Smith had heard mentioned -M. Lemaître’s regret at our relative ignorance of the inhabitants -of other planets. This idea, probably caught on the wing during the -state of suggestibility which accompanies the seances, returned with -renewed force when Hélène was invited to hold a seance at the house of -M. Lemaître, and made more vivid also by the desire, which is always -latent in her, of making the visions as interesting as possible to the -persons among whom she finds herself. Such is, in my opinion, the seed -which, falling into the ground and fertilized by former conversations -concerning the inhabitants of Mars and the possibility of spiritistic -relations with them, has served as the germ of the romance, the further -development of which it remains for me to trace. - -One point which still remains to be cleared up in the seance, as I -come to sum up, is the singularly artificial character and the slight -connection between the Martian vision, properly so called, and the -reappearance of Raspail and Alexis Mirbel. We do not altogether -understand what these personages have to do with it. What need is there -of their being to-day found on the planet Mars simply for the purpose -of continuing their interview with Mme. Mirbel, begun at a previous -seance, without the intervention of any planet? The assembly-hall at -which they are found, while it is located on Mars, is a bond of union -all the more artificial between them and that planet in that there is -nothing specifically Martian in its description and appears to have -been borrowed from our globe. This incident is at bottom a matter out -of the regular course, full of interest undoubtedly for Mme. Mirbel, -whom it directly concerns, but without intimate connection with the -Martian world. It was evidently the astronomical revelation, intended -for M. Lemaître, and ripened by a period of incubation, which should -have furnished the material for this seance; but the presence of Mme. -Mirbel awoke anew the memory of her son and of Raspail, which had -occupied the preceding seance, and these memories, interfering with -the Martian vision, become, for good or ill, incorporated as a strange -episode in it without having any direct connection with it. The work -of unification, of dramatization, by which these two unequal chains -of ideas are harmonized and fused the one with the other through the -intermediation of an assembly-hall, is no more or no less extraordinary -than that which displays itself in all our nocturnal phantasmagoria, -where certain absolutely heterogeneous memories often ally themselves -after an unexpected fashion, and afford opportunity for confusions of -the most bizarre character. - -But mediumistic communications differ from ordinary dreams in -this—namely, the incoherence of the latter does not cause them to -have any consequences. We are astonished and diverted for a moment as -we reflect upon a dream. Sometimes a dream holds a little longer the -attention of the psychologist, who endeavors to unravel the intricate -plot of his dreams and to discover, amid the caprices of association -or the events of the waking state, the origin of their tangled -threads. But, on the whole, this incoherence has no influence on the -ultimate course of our thoughts, because we see in our dreams only the -results of chance, without value in themselves and without objective -signification. - -It is otherwise with spiritistic communications, by reason of the -importance and the credit accorded them. - -The medium who partially recollects her automatisms, or to whom the -sitters have detailed them after the close of the seance, adding also -their comments, becomes preoccupied with these mysterious revelations; -like the paranoiac, who perceives hidden meanings or a profound -significance in the most trifling coincidences, she seeks to fathom the -content of her strange visions, reflects on them, examines them in the -light of spiritistic notions; if she encounters difficulties in them, -or contradictions, her conscious or unconscious thought (the two are -not always in accord) will undertake the task of removing them, and -solving as well as possible the problems which these dream-creations, -considered as realities, impose upon her, and the later somnambulisms -will bear the imprint of this labor of interpretation or correction. - -It is to this point we have come at the commencement of the -astronomical romance of Mlle. Smith. The purely accidental and -fortuitous conjunction of the planet Mars and Alexis Mirbel in the -seance of the 25th of November determined their definitive welding -together. Association by fortuitous contiguity is transformed into a -logical connection. - - -II. LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARTIAN CYCLE - -This development was not effected in a regular manner; but for the -most part by leaps and bounds, separating stoppages more or less -prolonged. After its inauguration in the seance of November 25, 1894, -it suffered a first eclipse of nearly fifteen months, attributable to -new preoccupations which had installed themselves on the highest plane -of Mlle. Smith’s subconsciousness and held that position throughout the -whole of the year 1895. - -Compared with the seance of November, 1894, that of February, 1896 -(of which a résumé follows), shows interesting innovations. Raspail -does not figure in it and henceforth does not appear again, which was -probably due to the fact that Mme. Mirbel had failed to make use of the -method of treatment which he had prescribed for her eyes. Young Mirbel, -on the contrary, sole object of the desires and longings of his poor -mother, occupies the highest plane, and is the central figure of the -vision. He now speaks Martian and no longer understands French, which -complicates the conversation somewhat. Further, not possessing the -power of moving tables upon our globe, it is through the intervention -of the medium, by incarnating himself momentarily in Mlle. Smith, that -he henceforth communicates with his mother. These two latter points -in their turn cause certain difficulties to arise, which, acting as a -ferment or a suggestion, will later usher in a new step in the progress -of the romance: Alexis Mirbel cannot return to incarnate himself in -a terrestrial medium if he is imprisoned in his Martian existence; -he must first terminate that and return to the condition in which he -again floats in interplanetary space; which “fluid” or wandering state -permits him at the same time to give us the French translation of -the Martian tongue; since, according to spiritism, a complete memory -of previous existences, and consequently of the various languages -pertaining to them, is temporarily recovered during the phases of -disincarnation. - -These anticipatory hints will assist the reader in following more -easily the thread of the somnambulistic romance in the résumé of its -principal stages. - -February 2, 1896.—I sum up, by enumerating them, the principal -somnambulistic phases of this seance, which lasted more than two hours -and a half, and at which Mme. Mirbel assisted. - -1. Increasing hemisomnambulism, with gradual loss of consciousness of -the real environment—at the beginning the table bows several times to -Mme. Mirbel, announcing that the coming scene is intended for her. -After a series of elementary visual hallucinations (rainbow colors, -etc.), meaning for Mme. Mirbel that she would finally become blind, -Hélène arose, left the table, and held a long conversation with an -imaginary woman who wished her to enter a curious little car without -wheels or horses. She became impatient towards this woman, who, after -having at first spoken to her in French, now persisted in speaking in -an unintelligible tongue, like Chinese. Leopold revealed to us by the -little finger that it was the language of the planet Mars, that this -woman is the mother of Alexis Mirbel, reincarnated on that planet, -and that Hélène herself will speak Martian. Presently Hélène begins -to recite with increasing volubility an incomprehensible jargon, the -beginning of which is as follows (according to notes taken by M. -Lemaître at the time, as accurately as possible): “=Mitchma mitchmon -mimini tchouainem mimatchineg masichinof mézavi patelki abrésinad -navette naven navette mitchichénid naken chinoutoufiche=”.... From this -point the rapidity prevented the recognition of anything else, except -such scraps as “=téké ... katéchivist ... méguetch=,” ... or “=méketch -... kété ... chiméké=.” After a few minutes, Hélène interrupts -herself, crying out, “Oh, I have had enough of it; you say such words -to me I will never be able to repeat them.” Then, with some reluctance, -she consents to follow her interlocutrix into the car which was to -carry her to Mars. - -2. The trance is now complete. Hélène thereupon mimics the voyage to -Mars in three phases, the meaning of which is indicated by Leopold: -a regular rocking motion of the upper part of the body (passing -through the terrestrial atmosphere), absolute immobility and rigidity -(interplanetary space), again oscillations of the shoulders and the -bust (atmosphere of Mars). Arrived upon Mars, she descends from the -car, and performs a complicated pantomime expressing the manners of -Martian politeness: uncouth gestures with the hands and fingers, -slapping of the hands, taps of the fingers upon the nose, the lips, the -chin, etc., twisted courtesies, glidings, and rotation on the floor, -etc. It seems that is the way people approach and salute each other up -there. - -3. This sort of dance having suggested to one of the sitters the idea -of performing upon the piano, Hélène suddenly fell upon the floor in an -evidently hypnotic state, which had no longer a Martian character. At -the cessation of the music she entered into a mixed state, in which the -memory of the Martian visions continually mingle themselves with some -idea of her terrestrial existence. She talks to herself. “Those dreams -are droll, all the same.... I must tell that to M. Lemaître. When he -[the Martian Alexis Mirbel] said ‘Good-day’ to me, he tapped himself -upon the nose.... He spoke to me in a queer language, but I understood -it perfectly, all the same,” etc. Seated on the ground, leaning -against a piece of furniture, she continues, soliloquizing in French, -in a low voice, to review the dream, mingling with it some wandering -reflections. She finds, for example, that the young Martian (Alexis) -was a remarkably big boy for one only five or six years old, as he -claimed to be, and that the woman seemed very young to be his mother. - -4. After a transitory phase of sighs and hiccoughs, followed by -profound sleep with muscular relaxation, she enters into Martian -somnambulism and murmurs some confused words: “=Késin ouitidjé=” ... -etc. I command her to speak French to me; she seems to understand, and -replies in Martian, with an irritated and imperious tone, I ask her -to tell me her name; she replies, “=Vasimini Météche=.” With the idea -that, perhaps, she “is incarnating” the young Alexis, of whom she has -spoken so much in the preceding phase, I urge Mme. Mirbel to approach -her, and thereupon begins a scene of incarnation really very affecting; -Mme. Mirbel is on her knees, sobbing bitterly, in the presence of her -recovered son, who shows her marks of the most profound affection and -caresses her hands “exactly as he was accustomed to do during his -last illness,” all the time carrying on a discourse in Martian (=tin -is toutch=), which the poor mother cannot understand, but to which an -accent of extreme sweetness and a tender intonation impart an evident -meaning of words of consolation and filial tenderness. This pathetic -duet lasted about ten minutes, and was brought to an end by a return -to lethargic sleep, from which Hélène awakened at the end of a quarter -of an hour, pronouncing a short Martian word, after which she instantly -recovered the use of her French and her normal waking state. - -5. Questioned as to what had passed, Hélène, while drinking tea, -narrates the dream which she has had. She has a sufficiently clear -memory of her journey and of what she has seen on Mars, with -the exception of the young man, of whom she has retained only a -recollection of the scene of incarnation. - -But suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, she begins to speak in -Martian, without appearing to be aware of it, and while continuing to -chat with us in the most natural manner; she appeared to understand -all our words, and answered in her strange idiom, in the most normal -tone, and seemed very much astonished when we told her that we did -not understand her language; she evidently believes she is speaking -French.[14] By questioning her concerning a visit which she had made -a few days before to M. C., and asking her the number and the names -of the persons whom she met there, we succeed in identifying the four -following Martian words: =Métiche S.=, _Monsieur S._; =Médache C.=, -_Madame C._; =Métaganiche Smith=, _Mademoiselle Smith_; =kin’t’che=, -_four_. After which she resumes definitively her French. Interrogated -as to the incident which has transpired, she is astounded, has only a -hesitating and confused memory of her having spoken at all this evening -of her visit to M. C., and does not recognize nor understand the four -Martian words given above when they are repeated to her. On several -occasions during this seance I had made the suggestion to Hélène that -at a given signal, after her awaking, she would recover the memory of -the Martian words pronounced by her and of their meaning. But Leopold, -who was present, declared that this command would not be obeyed, and -that a translation could not be obtained this evening. The signal, -though often repeated, was, in fact, without result. - -It has seemed to me necessary to describe with some detail this seance, -at which the Martian language made its first appearance, in order to -place before the reader all the fragments which we have been able to -gather, without, of course, any guarantee of absolute accuracy, since -every one knows how difficult it is to note the sounds of unknown -words. A curious difference is to be noticed between the words picked -up in the course of the seance and the four words several times -repeated by Hélène, the meaning and pronunciation of which have been -determined with complete accuracy in the post-hypnotic return of the -somnambulistic dream. Judged by these latter, the Martian language -is only a puerile counterfeit of French, of which she preserves in -each word a number of syllables and certain conspicuous letters. In -the other phrases, on the contrary, also making use of later texts -which have been translated, as we shall see hereafter, it cannot be -discovered what it is. We are constrained to believe that these first -outbreaks of Martian, characterized by a volubility which we have -rarely met with since then, was only a pseudo-Martian, a continuation -of sounds uttered at random and without any real meaning, analogous -to the gibberish which children use sometimes in their games of -“pretending” to speak Chinese or Indian, and that the real Martian was -only created by an unskilful distortion of French, in a post-hypnotic -access of hemisomnambulism, in order to respond to the manifest desire -of the sitters to obtain the precise significance of some isolated -Martian words. - -The impossibility, announced by Leopold, of procuring a translation -that same evening of the pretended Martian spoken for the first time -during that seance, and the fact that it could not again be obtained, -give some support to the preceding theory. - -The circumstance that Hélène, in remembering her dream in phase No. -3, had the sentiment of having _well understood_ this unknown jargon, -is not an objection, since the children who amuse themselves by -simulating an uncouth idiom—to recur to that example—do not retain -the least consciousness of the ideas which their gibberish is assumed -to express. It seems, in short, that if this new language was already -really established at that time in Hélène’s subliminal consciousness -to the point of sustaining fluently discourses of several minutes’ -duration, some phrases at least would not have failed to gush forth, -spontaneously sometimes, in the course of ordinary life, and in order -to throw light upon visions of Martian people or landscapes. More -than seven months had to elapse before that phenomenon, which was so -frequent afterwards, began to appear. - -May we not see in this half-year a period of incubation, employed in -the subliminal fabrication of a language, properly so called—that is -to say, formed of precise words and with a definite signification, in -imitation of the four terms just referred to—to replace the disordered -nonsense of the beginning? - -However it may be, and to return to our story, one can imagine the -interest which that sudden and unexpected apparition of mysterious -speech aroused, and which the authority of Leopold would not allow to -be taken for anything other than the language of Mars. The natural -curiosity of Hélène herself, as well as that of her friends, to know -more about our neighbors of other worlds and their way of expressing -themselves should naturally have contributed to the development of the -subliminal dream. The following seance, unhappily, did not justify the -promise with which it began. - -February 16, 1896.—“At the beginning of this seance, Hélène has a -vision of Alexis Mirbel, who announces, by means of the table, that he -has not forgotten his French, and that he will give a translation of -the Martian words another day. But this prediction is not fulfilled. -Whether Hélène, for the reason that she is not feeling well to-day, -or that the presence of some one antipathetic to her has hindered the -production of the phenomena, the Martian somnambulism, which seemed -on the point of breaking forth, did not make its appearance. Hélène -remains in a crepuscular state, in which the feeling of present reality -and the Martian ideas on the level of consciousness interfere with and -mutually obscure each other. She speaks in French with the sitters, -but mingling with it here and there a strange word (such as =méche=, -=chinit=, =chéque=, which, according to the context, seem to signify -_pencil_, _ring_, _paper_), and appears far away from her actual -surroundings. She is astonished, in particular, at the sight of M. R. -occupied in taking notes by the _procès verbal_, and seems to find -that manner of writing with a pen or pencil strange and absurd, but -without explaining clearly how it was to be otherwise accomplished. -The importance of this seance is in the fact that the idea stands out -clearly (which was not to be realized until a year and a half later) of -a mode of handwriting peculiar to the planet Mars.” - -This seance, which was almost a failure, was the last of that period. -Hélène’s health, which became more and more impaired by standing too -long on her feet and overwork at her desk, necessitated her taking a -complete rest. I have mentioned the fact that during these six months, -without any regular seances, she was subject to a superabundance -of spontaneous visions and somnambulisms; but these automatisms -belonged to the Hindoo or other cycles, and I do not believe that -she experienced during that time any phenomena which were clearly -related to the Martian romance. On the other hand, as soon as she was -re-established in and had returned to her normal mode of life, the -latter appeared again with all the more intensity, dating from the -following nocturnal vision. (See Fig. 9.) - -September 5, 1896.—Hélène narrates that having arisen at a quarter-past -three in the morning to take in some flowers that stood upon the -window-sill and were threatened by the wind, instead of going back -to bed immediately she sat down upon her bed and saw before her -a landscape and some peculiar people. She was on the border of a -beautiful blue-pink lake, with a bridge the sides of which were -transparent and formed of yellow tubes like the pipes of an organ, -of which one end seemed to be plunged into the water. The earth was -peach-colored; some of the trees had trunks widening as they ascended, -while those of others were twisted. Later a crowd approached the -bridge, in which one woman was especially prominent. The women wore -hats which were flat, like plates. Hélène does not know who these -people are, but has the feeling of having conversed with them. On -the bridge there was a man of dark complexion (Astané), carrying in -his hands an instrument somewhat resembling a carriage-lantern in -appearance, which, being pressed, emitted flames, and which seemed -to be a flying-machine. By means of this instrument the man left the -bridge, touched the surface of the water, and returned again to the -bridge. This tableau lasted twenty-five minutes, since Hélène, upon -returning to consciousness, observed that her candle was still burning -and ascertained that it was then 3.40 o’clock. She is convinced that -she did not fall asleep, but was wide awake during all of this vision. -(See Figs. 10 and 11.) - -From that time the spontaneous Martian visions are repeated and -multiplied. Mlle. Smith experiences them usually in the morning, after -awaking and before rising from her bed; sometimes in the evening, or -occasionally at other times during the day. It is in the course of -these visual hallucinations that the Martian language appears again -under an auditive form. - -September 22, 1896.—During these last days Hélène has seen again -on different occasions the Martian man, with or without his -flying-machine; for example, he appeared to her while she was taking a -bath, at the edge of the bath-tub. She has had several times visions -of a strange house the picture of which followed her with so much -persistency that she finally painted it (see Fig. 12). At the same -time she heard on three different occasions a sentence the meaning of -which she does not know, but which she was able to take down with her -pencil as follows: “=Dodé né ci haudan té méche métiche Astané ké dé mé -véche.=” (As was ascertained six weeks after, by the translation given -in the seance of the 2d of November, this phrase indicates that the -strange house is that of the Martian man, who is called Astané.) - -This phrase was undoubtedly Martian, but what was the meaning of it? -After having hoped in vain for nearly a month that the meaning would be -revealed in some way or other, I decided to try a disguised suggestion. -I wrote to Leopold himself a letter, in which I appealed to his -omniscience as well as to his kindness to give me some enlightenment -in regard to the strange language which piqued our curiosity, and, -in particular, as to the meaning of the phrase Hélène had heard. I -asked him to answer me in writing, by means of Hélène’s hand. We did -not have to wait long for a reply. Hélène received my letter the -20th of October, and on the evening of the 22d, seized with a vague -desire to write, she took a pencil, which placed itself in the regular -position, between the thumb and the index-finger (whereas she always -held her pen between the middle and index-finger), and traced rapidly, -in the characteristic handwriting of Leopold and with his signature, -a beautiful epistle of eighteen Alexandrine lines addressed to me, of -which the ten last are as follows, being an answer to my request that -the secrets of Martian be revealed to me: - - “Ne crois pas qu’en t’aimant comme un bien tendre frère - Je te diroi des cieux tout le profond mystère; - Je t’aideroi beaucoup, je t’ouvriroi la voie, - Mais à toi de saisir et chercher avec joie; - Et quand tu la verras d’ici-bas détachée, - Quand son âme mobile aura pris la volée - Et planera sur Mars aux superbes couleurs; - Si tu veux obtenir d’elle quelques lueurs, - Pose bien doucement, ta main sur son front pâle - Et prononce bien bas le doux nom d’Esenale!”[15] - -I have been very sensible to the pledges of fraternal affection that -Leopold has accorded me, but this time I was especially moved, and -although the very uncommon name of Esenale meant absolutely nothing -to me, I took care not to forget the singular rule which had been -furnished me. At the following seance an opportunity for using it -presented itself, and Leopold went so far as to direct himself the -application of his method by giving us his instructions, sometimes with -one finger, sometimes with another, during Hélène’s Martian trance. - -Monday, November 2, 1896.—After various characteristic symptoms of the -departure for Mars (vertigo, affection of the heart, etc.), Hélène went -in a deep sleep. I had recourse to the prescribed method, but Leopold, -by the fingers of the right hand, indicated that the proper moment had -not yet arrived, and said: “When the soul shall again have regained -possession of itself thou shalt execute my order; she will then -describe to you, while still asleep, that which she shall have seen -on Mars.” Shortly after he adds, “Make her sit down in an easy-chair” -(instead of the uncomfortable one which she had taken, as was her -wont); then, as her peaceful sleep still continued, he informs us -again that she is _en route_ towards Mars; that once arrived up there -she understands the Martian spoken around her, although she has never -learned it; that it is not he, Leopold, who will translate the Martian -for us—not because he does not wish to do so, but because he cannot; -that this translation is the performance of Esenale, who is actually -disincarnate in space, but who has recently lived upon Mars, and also -upon the earth, which permits him to act as interpreter, etc. - -After half an hour of waiting, Hélène’s calm sleep gave way to -agitation, and she passed into another form of somnambulism, with -sighs, rhythmic movements of the head and hands, then grotesque Martian -gestures and French words murmured softly to the hearing of Leopold, -who seems to accompany her on Mars, and to whom she confides some of -her impressions in regard to that which she perceives. In the midst of -this soliloquy a vertical movement of the arm, peculiar to Leopold, -indicates that the moment has arrived for carrying out his directions. -I place my hand on Hélène’s forehead, and utter the name of Esenale, -to which Hélène replies in a soft, feeble, somewhat melancholy, voice: -“Esenale has gone away ... he has left me alone ... but he will return, -... he will soon return.... He has taken me by the hand and made me -enter the house [that which she saw in her vision, and of which she -made the drawing a month ago—see Fig. 12].... I do not know where -Esenale is leading me, but he has said to me, ‘=Dodé né ci haudan té -méche métiche Astané ké dé mé véche=,’ but I did not understand; ... -=dodé=, _this_; =né=, _is_; =ci=, _the_; =haudan=, _house_; =te=, _of -the_; =méche=, _great_; =métiche=, _man_; =Astané=, _Astané_; =ké=, -_whom_; =dé=, _thou_; =mé=, _hast_; =véche=, _seen_.... This is the -house of the great man Astané, whom thou hast seen.... Esenale has told -me that.... Esenale has gone away.... He will return ... he will soon -return ... he will teach me to speak ... and Astané will teach me to -write.” - -I have abridged this long monologue, constantly interrupted by -silences, and the continuation of which I only obtained by having -constant recourse to the name of Esenale as the magic word, alone -capable of extracting each time a few words from Hélène’s confused -brain. After the last sentence or phrase, in which one can see a -categorical prediction of the Martian writing, her weak, slow voice -was finally hushed, and Leopold directs by means of his left middle -finger the removal of the hand from the forehead. Then follow the -customary alternations of lethargic sleep, sighs, catalepsy, momentary -relapses into somnambulism, etc. Then she opens her eyes permanently, -very much surprised to find herself in the easy-chair. Her brain is -greatly confused. “It seems to me as though I had a great many things -on my mind, but I cannot fix upon anything.” By degrees she regains -a clear consciousness, but of the entire seance, which has lasted an -hour and a half, there only remain some fragments of Martian visions -and no recollection whatever of the scene with Esenale and that of the -translation. - -This process of translation, the first application of which is here -presented, becomes from this time the standard method. - -For more than two years and a half, the imposition of the hand upon -Hélène’s forehead and the uttering of the name of Esenale at the -proper moment during the trance constitute the “open sesame” of the -Martian-French dictionary buried in the subliminal strata of Hélène’s -consciousness. The idea of this ceremonial is evidently to awaken by -suggestion—in a certain favorable somnambulistic phase, which Leopold -recognizes and himself announces by a gesture of the arm—the secondary -personality which has amused itself by composing the phrases of this -extra-terrestrial language. - -In spiritistic terms, it amounts to invoking the disincarnate Esenale, -otherwise called Alexis Mirbel, who, having lived on both planets, can -easily devote himself to the functions of an interpreter. - -The only difference between this scene of translation and other seances -is in the ease and rapidity with which it is performed. Esenale seems -sometimes to be thoroughly asleep and difficult to awaken; Hélène -persists in replying by the stereotyped refrain, and incessantly -repeats, in her soft and melancholy voice, “Esenale has gone away—he -will soon return—he has gone away—he will soon return.” Then some more -energetic passes or friction on the forehead are necessary, instead of -the simple pressure of the hand, in order to break up this mechanical -repetition, which threatens to go on forever, and in order to obtain, -finally, the repetition and translation, word by word, of the Martian -texts. Otherwise the voice continues identical with that of the -refrain, soft and feeble, and one can never know whether it is Esenale -himself who is making use of Hélène’s phonetic apparatus without -modifying it, or whether it is she herself, repeating in her sleep what -Esenale has told her; the categorical distinctness and absence of all -hesitation in pronunciation of the Martian are in favor of the former -supposition, which is also corroborated by the fact that it was also -in this same voice that Alexis Mirbel (Esenale) spoke to his mother in -the scenes of incarnation. (See Fig. 13.) - - [Illustration: Fig. 13. Martian landscape. Greenish-yellow sky. A - man with a yellow complexion, dressed in white, in a boat of brown, - yellow, black, and red colors on a blue-green lake; rose-tinted rock, - with white and yellow spots; dark green vegetation; buildings of - brown, red, and rose-lilac tints, with white window-panes and curtains - of bright blue.] - -It would be wearisome to recount in detail all the further -manifestations of the Martian cycle, which occur frequently in numerous -seances and also under the form of spontaneous visions in the daily -life of Mlle. Smith. The reader can gain an idea of them both from the -remarks of the following paragraph, as well as from the explanatory -résumés added to the Martian texts, which will be collected in the -following chapter. It merely remains for me to say a word here as -to the manner in which the pictures of Hélène relative to Mars, and -reproduced in autotype in the Figs. 9 to 20, have been made. - -None of these pictures has been executed in complete somnambulism, and -they have not, consequently, like the drawings of certain mediums, the -interest of a graphic product, absolutely automatic, engendered outside -of and unknown to the ordinary consciousness. They are nothing more -than simple compositions of the normal consciousness of Mlle. Smith. -They represent a type of intermediary activity, and correspond to a -state of hemisomnambulism. We have seen above (p. 20) that already in -her childhood Hélène seems to have executed various pieces of work in -a semi-automatic manner. The same performance is often reproduced on -the occasion of the Martian visions, which sometimes pursue her so -persistently that she decides to execute them with pencil and brush; -work which, in anticipation, often frightens her by its difficulty, -but which, when the time comes, accomplishes itself, to her great -astonishment, with an ease and perfection almost mechanical. Here is an -example: - -One Tuesday evening, having already retired, Hélène saw on her bed some -magnificent flowers, very different from ours, but without perfume, -and which she did not touch, for during her visions she has no idea of -moving, and remains inert and passive. The afternoon of the following -day, at her desk, she found herself enveloped in a red light, and at -the same time felt an indefinable but violent affection of the heart -(_aura_ of the voyage to Mars). “The red light continues about me, and -I find myself surrounded by extraordinary flowers of the kind which I -saw on my bed, but they had no perfume. I will bring you some sketches -of them on Sunday.” She sent them to me, in fact, on Monday, with the -following note: “I am very well satisfied with my plants. They are the -exact reproduction of those which it afforded me so much pleasure to -behold [No. 3, in Fig. 16, which, beforehand, Hélène despaired of being -able to render well], which appeared to me on the latter occasion, and -I greatly regret that you were not here to see me execute the drawing: -the pencil glided so quickly that I did not have time to notice what -contours it was making. I can assert without any exaggeration that -it was not my hand alone that made the drawing, but that truly an -invisible force guided the pencil in spite of me. The various tints -appeared to me upon the paper, and my brush was directed in spite of -me towards the color which I ought to use. This seems incredible, but -it is, notwithstanding, the exact truth, The whole was done so quickly -that I marvelled at it.” - - [Illustration: Fig. 9. Martian landscape. Pink bridge, with yellow - railings plunging down into a pale-blue and purple-tinted lake. The - shores and hills of a red color, no green being visible. All the trees - are of a brick-red, purple, or violet tint. [From the collection of M. - Lemaître]] - -[Illustration: Fig. 15, Fig. 16, Fig. 17 - - Fig. 15. Light-brown and yellow trunk and leaves; double-lobed flowers - of a vivid red, out of which proceed yellow stamens like black - threads. Fig. 16. Large leaves, light yellowish brown; flowers with - purple petals with black stamens and black stems covered with little - purple leaves like petals. Fig. 17. Large violet fruit with black - spots, surmounted by a yellow and violet plume. The trunk of brown - color with black veins, with six branches of the same character ending - in a yellow hook. Red-brick soil.] - -The house of Astané (Fig. 12), and the extensive landscapes of Figs. -13 and 14, are also the products of a quasi-automatic activity, which -always gives great satisfaction to Mlle. Smith. It is, in a way, her -subliminal self which holds the brush and executes, at its pleasure, -its own tableaux, which also have the value of veritable originals. -Other drawings, on the contrary (for example, the portrait of Astané, -Fig. 11), which have given Hélène much trouble without having satisfied -her very well, should be regarded as simple copies from memory, by the -ordinary personality, of past visions, the memory of which is graven -upon her mind in a manner sufficiently persistent to serve as a model -several days afterwards. In both cases, but especially in the first, -Hélène’s paintings may be considered as faithful reproductions of the -tableaux which unfold themselves before her, and consequently give us -better than most verbal descriptions an idea of the general character -of her Martian visions. - -Let us see now what kind of information the messages and somnambulisms -of Hélène furnish us in regard to the brilliant planet whose -complicated revolutions formerly revealed to a Kepler the fundamental -secrets of modern astronomy. - - -III. THE PERSONAGES OF THE MARTIAN ROMANCE - -In using the word “romance” to designate the Martian communications, -taken as a whole, I wish to state that they are, to my mind, a work -of pure imagination, but not that there are to be found in them -characteristics of unity and of internal co-ordination, of sustained -action, of increasing interest to the final dénouement. The Martian -romance is only a succession of detached scenes and tableaux, without -order or intimate connection, and showing no other common traits beyond -the unknown language spoken in it, the quite frequent presence of the -same personages, and a certain fashion of originality, a color or -quality badly defined as “exotic” or “bizarre” in the landscapes, the -edifices, the costumes, etc. - -Of a consecutive plot or intrigue, properly so called, there is no -trace. I naturally speak only of that which we have learned from the -seances of Mlle. Smith, or from the spontaneous visions which she -recollects sufficiently to narrate afterwards. But this fails to shadow -forth the hidden source whence they all spring. - -Without determining the question, I am inclined, nevertheless, to -accord to the Martian romance, in some profound stratum of Hélène’s -being, a much greater continuity and extent than would appear from -judging it solely by the fragments known to us. We have only, in my -opinion, a few pages, taken at hazard from different chapters; the bulk -of the volume is wanting, and the little we possess does not enable -us to reconstruct it in a satisfactory manner. We must, therefore, be -content with sorting this _débris_ of unequal importance, according to -their content, independently of their chronological order, and grouping -them around the principal personages which figure in them. - -The anonymous and mixed crowd which forms the base of some of the -Martian visions only differs from that of our own country by the large -robe common to both sexes, the flat hats, and the sandals bound to the -feet by straps. The interest is confined to a small number of more -distinct personages having each his own name, always terminating in an -_e_ with the men and in an _i_ with the women, except only in the case -of Esenale, who occupies, however, a place by himself in his quality of -disincarnated Martian, fulfilling the function of interpreter. Let us -begin by saying a few words about him. - - -ESENALE - -We have seen (p. 164) that this name was hinted at by Leopold on the -22d of October, 1896, without any other explanation as a means of -obtaining the signification of the Martian words. Then at the first -recurrence to this talisman (November 2d, see p. 166) we learn only -that he was a deceased inhabitant of Mars, whose acquaintance Leopold -had recently made in interplanetary space. It was only at the following -seance (November 8th), where we find Mme. Mirbel, that, after an -incarnation of her son Alexis, followed by the scene of translation -(see text 3) and in response to questions of the sitters—which -answered very well the purpose of suggestion—Leopold affirmed by -the left index-finger that Esenale was Alexis Mirbel. It cannot be -determined whether that identification constituted a primitive fact -which it pleased Leopold to keep secret, only revealing it at the -end of a seance at which Mme. Mirbel was present, or whether, as -I am inclined to regard it, it was only established at that same -seance, under the domination of the circumstances of the moment. As a -translator of Martian, Esenale did not show great talent. He had to be -entreated, and it was necessary often to repeat his name while pressing -or rubbing Hélène’s forehead, in order to obtain the exact meaning -of the last texts which had been given. He possessed, it is true, an -excellent memory, and faithfully reproduced, before giving it word by -word, the French for the Martian phrases which Hélène had heard several -weeks before and only seen again five or six months afterwards (text -24), and of which there had been no previous opportunity to obtain a -translation. But it was to these latter texts, not yet interpreted, -that he confined his willingness; on two occasions only did he add, of -his own accord, some words of no importance (texts 15 and 36.) Text -No. 19, for instance, has always remained untranslated, and my later -efforts (June 4, 1899) to obtain the meaning of the unknown words =milé -piri= have been in vain; moreover, Esenale has not been able to fill up -the gaps in text No. 24. - -Alexis Mirbel, after the two first Martian seances, reported on pp. -146 and 154, called Esenale, often accorded his mother, in scenes of -incarnation, somewhat pathetic, touching messages of filial tenderness -and consolation (texts 3, 4, 11, 15, and 18). It is to be noted that, -although opportunities for continuing this rôle were not wanting, -he appears to have completely abandoned it for the last two years. -His last message of this kind (October 10, 1897, text 18) followed a -month after a curious seance in which Leopold sought to explain to -us spontaneously—no one had mentioned the subject—certain flagrant -contradictions in the first manifestations of Alexis-Esenale. Here is a -résumé of that scene, with the text of Leopold’s communication: - -September 12, 1897.—After sundry waking visions, Mlle. Smith hears -Leopold speaking; her eyes are closed, and, appearing to be asleep, she -repeats, mechanically and in a slow and feeble voice, the following -words, which her guide addresses to her: “Thou art going to pay close -attention. Tell them now [the sitters] to keep as quiet as possible, -that is what often mars the phenomena, the comings and goings, and the -idle chatter of which you are never weary. You recollect there was, -several months ago, a young man, that young man Alexis Mirbel, who -came to give counsel to his mother at a reunion you held with M. (I do -not understand the name he gave) ... at Carouge[16].... Well, at that -moment he happened—that is to say, two days before—to die on ... (I -could not understand the name) ... where he had been ... or he had -regained life.[17] This is why I have come to tell you to-day he was -in that phase of separation of the material part from the soul which -permitted him to recollect his previous existence—that is to say, his -life here below in this state; he not only recollects his first mother, -but can speak once more the language he used to speak with her. Some -time after, when the soul was finally at rest, he no longer recollected -that first language; he returns, he hovers about (his mother), sees her -with joy, but is incapable of speaking to her in your language.[18] -Whether it will return to him I do not know and cannot say, but I -believe that it will. And now listen.” Here Mlle. Smith seems to awake, -opens her eyes, and has a long Martian vision, which she describes in -detail. She now sees a little girl in a yellow robe, whose name she -hears as =Anini Nikaïné=, occupied with various childish games—_e. g._, -with a small wand she makes a number of grotesque little figures dance -in a white tub, large and shallow, full of sky-blue water. Then come -other persons, and, finally, Astané, who has a pen in his fingers, and, -little by little, takes hold of Hélène’s arm and throws her into a deep -trance for the purpose of causing her to write text No. 17. - -These spontaneous explanations of Leopold are interesting in that they -betray clearly the subliminal desire to introduce some order and logic -into the incoherences of the mediumistic reveries. It is a form of -the process of justification and retrospective interpretation intended -to make the incidents of the past accord with the dominant ideas of -the present (see p. 95). In appearance, the theory upon which Leopold -rested, after having doubtless meditated long, is quite awkward; -but perhaps it was difficult for him to do better, since no one can -accomplish the impossible. - - -ASTANÉ - -“The great man Astané” is the reincarnation on Mars of the Hindoo -fakir Kanga, who was a devoted companion and friend of Simandini. He -has preserved in his new existence the special character of savant or -of sorcerer, which he formerly possessed in India, and he has equally -retained all his affection for his princess of old, who has been -restored to him in Mlle. Smith; he frequently utilizes his magic powers -to _evoke_ her—that is to say, to re-enter into spiritual communication -with her, notwithstanding the distances between their actual places -of habitation. The ways and means of that evocation remain, however, -enveloped in mystery. We cannot say whether it was Hélène that rejoined -Astané on Mars during her somnambulism, or whether it was he who -descended “fluidly” towards her and brought to her the odors of the -far-distant planet. - -When Astané says to Hélène, during a seance: “Come to me an instant. -Come and admire these flowers,” etc. (text 8), or shows her the -curiosities of his Martian abode, it seems as though he had really -called her to him through space; but when he appears to her, while -awake, at the edge of her bath-tub, and expresses his chagrin at -finding her still on this miserable earth (text 7), it must be admitted -that it is he who has descended to her and inspires her with these -visions of an upper world. It is of no importance, on the whole. It -is here to be noted that, in these evocations, Astané only manifests -himself in visual and auditive hallucinations, never in tactile -impressions or those of general sensibility; in the sphere of emotion -his presence is accompanied by a great calm on the part of Hélène, a -profound bliss, and an ecstatic disposition, which is the correlative -and pendant of the happiness experienced by Astané himself (texts 10, -17, etc.) at finding himself in the presence of his idol of the past. -The social state of Astané—I should rather say his name, his quality -of sorcerer, and his previous terrestrial existence in the body of -Kanga—was not immediately revealed. - -Nevertheless, at his first apparition (September 5, 1896, see p. -162), he rises superior to the crowd, inasmuch as he alone possesses -a flying-machine incomprehensible to us. In the following weeks Mlle. -Smith hears his name, and sees him again on many occasions, as well as -his house (Fig. 12), but it is only at the end of two months and a half -that his identity and his “evocative” powers become known, at a seance -at which I was not present, and during which Hélène did not, contrary -to her usual custom, fall completely asleep. The following is a résumé -of the notes, which I owe to the kindness of M. Cuendet: - -November 19, 1896.—Contrary to the experience of the preceding seances, -Mlle. Smith remained constantly awake, her arms free on the table, -conversing and even laughing all the while with the sitters. The -messages were obtained by means of visions and typtological dictations. -Hélène having asked Leopold how it happens that she had been able to -communicate with a being living on Mars, she has a vision in which -Astané appears to her in a costume more Oriental than Martian. “Where -have I seen that costume?” asks she; and the table replies “_In -India_,” which indicates that Astané is an ex-Hindoo reincarnated on -Mars. At the same time Hélène has a vision of an Oriental landscape -which she believes she has already seen before, but without knowing -where. She sees Astané there, carrying under his arm rolls of paper of -a dirty white color, and bowing in Oriental fashion before a woman, -also clothed in Oriental garments, whom she also believes she has seen -before. These personages appear to her to be “inanimate, like statues.” -The sitters ask whether the vision was not a simple tableau (of the -past) presented by Leopold; the table replies in the affirmative, -then inclines itself significantly towards Mlle. Smith, when some one -asked who that Oriental woman might be, and the idea is put forth that -possibly she represents Simandini. Finally, to further questions of the -sitters, the table (Leopold) dictates again that Astané in his Hindoo -existence was called _Kanga_, who was a “_sorcerer of the period_”; -then that “_Astané on the planet Mars possesses the same faculty of -evocation which he had possessed in India_.” Leopold is then asked if -the power of Astané is greater than his. “_A different power, of equal -strength_,” replies the table. Finally, Hélène desiring to know whether -Astané when he evokes her sees her in her real character or that of her -Hindoo incarnation, the table affirms that he sees her in her Hindoo -character, and adds: “_and, in consequence, under those characteristics -which she [Hélène] possesses to-day and which are in such striking -harmony with those of _Sima_N_dini_,” insisting on the _N_ in the middle -of the name. - -It is to be remarked that at this sitting it was Leopold who gave all -the information in regard to the past of Astané, and that he recognizes -in him a power over Hélène almost equal to his own. It is strange that -the accredited guide of Mlle. Smith, ordinarily so jealous of his -rights over her and ready to take offence at all rival pretensions, -so freely accords such prerogatives to Astané. This unexpected -mildness is still more surprising when the singular similarity of -position of these two personages in regard to Hélène is considered. -Kanga, the Hindoo fakir, holds in the life of Simandini exactly the -same place as Cagliostro in the life of Marie Antoinette, the place -of a sorcerer giving beneficial counsel, and at the same time of a -platonic adorer, and both of them in their actual rôles of Astané and -of Leopold preserve for Mlle. Smith the respectful attachment which -they had for her illustrious former existences. How is it these two -extra-terrestrial pretenders do not hate each other the more cordially -since their rival claims upon Hélène have identical foundations? But, -far from in the least disputing her possession, they assist each -other in the most touching fashion. When Astané writes in Martian by -Mlle. Smith’s right hand that the noise of the sitters threatens to -make him insane (see text 20) it is Leopold who comes to his rescue -in making them keep silent by his gestures with the left arm. When -Leopold indicates to me that the moment for pressing Hélène’s forehead -has arrived, it is Astané who lends him his pencil in order that the -message may be written (see below, seance of September 12, 1897, and -Fig. 23), and the exchange of powers takes place between them without -the medium experiencing the least shock, and without its betraying -itself outwardly otherwise than by the difference of their handwriting. -It is true that Leopold’s apparitions to Hélène are infinitely more -frequent and his incarnations much more complete than those of Astané, -who shows himself to her at increasing intervals, and has never -attained to speaking by her mouth. It makes no difference: these two -personages resemble each other too much for mutual toleration—if they -are really two. - -My conclusion presses. Astané is, at bottom, only a copy, a double, a -transposition in the Hindoo-Martian manner of Leopold. They are two -variations of one primitive theme. In regarding these two beings, as I -do, in the absence of proof to the contrary, not as real and objective -individualities, but as pseudo-personalities, dream fictions, fantastic -subdivisions of the hypnoid consciousness of Mlle. Smith, it may be -said that it is the same fundamental emotion which has inspired these -twin rôles, the details of which have been adapted by the subliminal -imagination to correspond to the diversity of the circumstances. The -contradiction painfully felt between the proud aspirations of the -_grande dame_ and the vexing ironies of reality has caused the two -tragic previous existences to gush forth—intrinsically identical, -in spite of the differences of place and epoch—of the noble girl of -Arabia, having become Hindoo princess, burned alive on the tomb of her -despot of a husband, and of her Austrian highness, having become Queen -of France and sharing the martyrdom of her spouse. - -On parallel lines, in these two dreams issuing from the same emotional -source, it is the universal and constant taste of the human imagination -for the marvellous, allied to the very feminine need of a respectful -and slightly idolatrous protector, which on the one side has created -out of whole cloth the personage of Kanga-Astané, and on the other -hand has absorbed, without being careful in modifying authentic -history, that of Cagliostro-Leopold. Both are idealistic sorcerers, of -profound sagacity, tender-hearted, who have placed their great wisdom -at the service of the unfortunate sovereign and made for her, of their -devotion, amounting almost to adoration, a tower of strength, a supreme -consolation in the midst of all the bitternesses of real life. And as -Leopold acts as guide for Hélène Smith in the general course of her -actual earthly existence, so Astané seemingly plays the same rôle in -the moments of that life in which Hélène leaves our sublunar world to -fly away to the orb of Mars. - - [Illustration: Fig. 12. House of Astané. Blue sky; soil, mountains, - and walls of a red color. The two plants, with twisted trunks, have - purple leaves; the others have long green lower leaves and small - purple higher leaves. The framework of the doors, windows, and - decorations are in the shape of trumpets, and are of a brownish-red - color. White glass (?) and curtains or shades of a turquoise-blue. The - railings of the roof are yellow, with blue tips.] - - [Illustration: Fig. 14. Martian landscape. Sky of yellow; green lake; - gray shores bordered by a brown fence; bell-towers on the shore, in - yellow-brown tones, with corners and pinnacles ornamented with pink - and blue balls; hill of red rocks, with vegetation of a rather dark - green interspersed with rose, purple, and white spots (flowers); - buildings at the base constructed of brick-red lattice-work; edges and - corners terminating in brown-red trumpets; immense white window-panes, - with turquoise-blue curtains; roofs furnished with yellow-brown - bell-turrets, brick-red battlements, or with green and red plants - (like those of Astané’s house, Fig. 12). Persons with large white - head-dresses and red or brown robes.] - -If, then, Astané is only a reflection, a projection of Leopoldd in -the Martian sphere, he has there assumed a special coloring, and has -outwardly harmonized himself with this new situation. - -He is clothed in a voluminous, embroidered robe; he has long hair, no -beard, a yellow complexion, and carries in his hand a white roll, on -which he writes with a point fastened to the end of the index-finger. - -His house (Fig. 12) is quadrangular, with gates and windows, and -reminds one by its exterior aspect of some Oriental structure, with a -flat roof embellished with plants. - -The inside is also appropriate. The furniture recalls ours by force -of contrast. We have few details; with the exception of a musical -instrument with vertical cylinders, closely related to our organs, upon -which Hélène sometimes sees and hears Astané playing, seated on a stool -with one foot, resembling a milking-stool. - -When we pass to the garden the same amalgam of analogies and -unlikenesses to our flora are discovered. We have seen that Hélène has -been often haunted in the waking state by visions of Martian plants and -flowers, which she finally draws or paints with a facility approaching -automatism; these specimens, as also the trees scattered over the -landscapes, show that Martian vegetation does not differ essentially -from ours. Of the animals we do not know much. Astané has often with -him an ugly beast, which caused Hélène much fright on account of its -grotesque form—about two feet long, with a flat tail; it has the “head -of a cabbage,” with a big green eye in the middle (like the eye of -a peacock feather), and five or six pairs of paws, or ears all about -(see Fig. 18). This animal unites the intelligence of the dog with the -stupidity of the parrot, since on the one hand it obeys Astané and -fetches objects at his command (we do not know how), while, on the -other hand, it knows how to write, but in a manner purely mechanical. -(We have never had a specimen of this handwriting). (See Fig. 18.) - -In fact, as to other animals, beyond the little black bird cited, -without description (text 20), and a species of female deer for the -purpose of nursing infants (text 36), Hélène saw only horrid aquatic -beasts like big snails, which Astané caught by means of iron nets -stretched over the surface of the water. - -Astané’s property is enclosed by large red stones, on the border of the -water, where Hélène loves to retire with her guide to converse in peace -and to recall to mind with him the ancient and melancholy memories of -their Hindoo existence; the general tone of these conversations is -entirely the same as that of her conversations with Leopold. - -There is a mountain also of red rocks, where Astané possesses some -excavated dwelling-places, a kind of grotto appropriate to the -sorcerer-savant which he is. - - [Illustration: Fig. 18. Astané’s ugly beast. The body and tail are - rose-colored; the eye is green with a black centre; the head is - blackish; the lateral appendices are brownish-yellow, covered, like - the whole body, with pink hair.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 11, Fig. 19 - - Fig. 11. Astané. Yellow complexion, brown hair; brown sandals; roll - of white paper in his hand; variegated costume, or red and white; - brick-red belt and border. Fig. 19. Martian lamp, standing against a - rose and blue-colored tapestry.] - -The corpse of Esenale, admirably preserved, is also to be seen there, -among other things, about which the disincarnate Esenale sometimes -floats in “fluid” form, and which Hélène still finds soft to the -touch, when, after much hesitation, and not without fright, she gained -courage to touch it with the end of her finger, at the invitation of -Astané. It is also in this house, excavated in the rock, that Astané -has his observatory, a pit traversing the mountain, by means of which -he contemplates the heavens (text 9), our earth included, by means of a -telescope, which the beast with the head of a cabbage brings him. - -To these qualities of savant Astané joins those of wise counsellor and -of patriarchal governor. We also see a young girl named Matêmi coming -to consult him frequently (texts 22 and 28), perhaps on matrimonial -affairs, since Matêmi reappears on several occasions with her lover -or her _fiancé_, Siké, and, among others, at a great family _fête_, -presided over by Astané. (See Fig. 19.) - -The following are some details concerning that vision, which occupied -the greater part of a seance (November 28, 1897). Hélène sees, in a -vast, red, initial light, a Martian street appear, lighted neither by -lamps nor electricity, but by lights shining through small windows in -the walls of the houses. The interior of one of these houses becomes -visible to her: a superb, square hall, lighted at each angle by a kind -of lamp, formed of four superposed globes,—two blue and two white—not -of glass (Fig. 19); under each lamp a small basin, over which was a -kind of cornucopia pouring forth water. There were many ornamental -plants. In the middle of the hall, a grove, around which are placed a -number of small tables with a polished surface like nickel. There are -young people in Martian robes; young girls with long hair hanging down -their backs, and wearing at the back of the head a head-dress of roses; -colored blue or green butterflies attached to the neck. - -There were at least thirty speaking Martian (but Hélène did not hear -them distinctly). Astané appeared “in a very ugly robe to-day,” and -showed himself full of friendly gallantry towards the young girls. He -seats himself alone at one of the tables while the young people take -their places at others, two couples at each. These tables are adorned -with flowers different from ours: some blue, with leaves in the shape -of almonds; others starry, and as white as milk, scented like musk; -others, again, the most beautiful, have the form of trumpets, either -blue or fire colored, with large rounded leaves, with black figures. -(See Fig. 20.) - -Hélène hears Astané pronounce the name “Pouzé.” Then come two men in -long white trousers with a black sash; one wears a coat of rose color, -the other a white one. They carry ornamented trays, and, passing in -front of each table, they place square plates upon them, with forks -without handles, formed of three teeth an inch in length: for glasses -they had goblets like tea-cups, bordered with a silver thread. Then -they brought in a kind of basin a cooked animal resembling a cat, which -is placed before Astané, who twists it and cuts it rapidly with his -fingers, tipped with sharp silver tips; square pieces are distributed, -among the guests, on square plates with furrows around the edges for -the juice. Every one is filled with a wild gayety. Astané sits at each -table in succession, and the girls pass their hands through his hair. -New plates are brought, and pink, white, and blue basins tipped with -flowers. These basins melt, and are eaten like the flowers. Then the -guests wash their hands at little fountains in the corners of the room. - - [Illustration: Fig. 10. Flying-machine held by Astané, emitting yellow - and red flames. [From the collection of M. Lemaître.]] - - [Illustration: Fig. 20. Plant of Martian design. Fire-red flowers; - violet-gray leaves.] - -Now one of the walls is raised, like the curtain of a theatre, and -Hélène sees a magnificent hall adorned with luminous globes, flowers, -and plants, with the ceiling painted in pink clouds on a pink sky, with -couches and pillows suspended along the walls. Then an orchestra of ten -musicians arrive, carrying a kind of gilded funnel about five feet in -height, with a round cover to the large opening, and at the neck a kind -of rake, on which they placed their fingers. Hélène hears music like -that made by flutes and sees every one moving; they arrange themselves -by fours, make passes and gestures, then reunite in groups of eight. -They glide about gently, for it could not be called dancing. They do -not clasp each other’s waists, but place their hands on each other’s -shoulders, standing some distance apart. It is terribly warm. It is -“boiling hot.” They stop, walk, talk, and it is then that Hélène hears -a tall young brunette (Matêmi) and a short young man (Siké) exchange -the first words of text No. 20. Then they depart in the direction of a -large bush with red flowers (_tamiche_) and are soon followed by Ramié -and his companion. - -At this moment the vision, which has lasted an hour and a quarter, -passes away. Hélène, who had remained standing during the whole -description, now enters into complete somnambulism, and Astané causes -her to write Martian phrases which she had heard and repeated a short -time before. During the entire vision Leopold occupied her left hand, -which was hanging anæsthetically down her body, and replied by his -index-finger to the questions which I asked in a low voice. I thus -learned that this Martian scene was not a wedding, or any special -ceremony, but a simple family _fête_; that it was no recollection or -product of Hélène’s imagination but a reality actually passing on Mars: -that it was not Leopold but Astané who furnished this vision and caused -her to hear the music: that Leopold himself neither saw nor heard -anything of it all, yet knows all that Mlle. Smith sees and hears, etc. - -This résumé of a family _fête_, presided over by Astané, gives the -measure of the originality of the people of Mars. The visions relating -to other incidents are of the same order: read the description of -the Martian nursery (text 36), of the voyage in a _miza_ a sort of -automobile, the mechanism of which is entirely unknown to us (text -23), of the operation of chirurgery (text 29), of the games of the -little Anini (p. 176, etc.). We see always the same general mixture -of imitation of things which transpire among us, and of infantile -modifications of them in the minute details. - - -POUZÉ RAMIÉ—VARIOUS PERSONAGES - -Of the other personages who traverse the Martian visions we know too -little to waste much time upon them. The name of the one who appears -most frequently is Pouzé. He is present at the banquet, and we meet -him also in the company of a poor little withered old man with a -trembling voice, in connection with whom he occupies himself with -gardening or botany, in an evening promenade by the shore of the lake -(text 14). He also figures again by the side of an unknown person named -Paniné, and he has a son, Saïne, who had met with some accident to his -head and had been cured of it, to the great joy of his parents (texts -23 and 24). - -Finally, we must devote a few words to Ramié, who manifests himself for -the first time in October, 1898, as the revealer of the ultra-Martian -world, of which we shall soon take cognizance. Ramié seems to be a -relative of Astané, an astronomer, not so brilliant as Astané, but -possessing the same privilege, which the ordinary Martians do not seem -to enjoy, of being able to take hold of Hélène’s arm, and of writing -with her hand. There is, to my mind, no fundamental difference between -Leopold, Astané, and Ramié, in their relation to Hélène; they are only -a reproduction in triplicate of one identical emotional relation, and -I do not think I am mistaken in regarding these three figures as three -very transparent disguises of the same fundamental personality, which -is only a hypnoid subdivision of the real being of Mlle. Smith. - -It is much wiser to leave to the future—if the Martian and -ultra-Martian romances continue to develop—the task of enlightening -ourselves more completely as to the true character of Ramié. Possibly -some day we shall also know more concerning the couple called Matêmi -and Siké, as well as many others, such as Sazéni, Paniné, the little -Bullié, Romé, Fédié, etc., of whom we now know scarcely more than their -names, and understand nothing in regard to their possible relationships -to the central figures of Astané and Esenale. - - -IV. CONCERNING THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTIAN ROMANCE - -The general ideas which the Martian cycle suggests will most assuredly -differ, according to whether it is considered as an authentic -revelation of affairs on the planet Mars, or only as a simple fantasy -of the imagination of the medium; and meanwhile, holding, myself, to -the second supposition, I demand from the Martian romance information -in regard to its author rather than its subject-matter. - -There are two or three points concerning this unknown author which -strike me forcibly: - -First: He shows a singular indifference—possibly it may be due to -ignorance—in regard to all those questions which are most prominent -at the present time, I will not say among astronomers, but among -people of the world somewhat fond of popular science and curious -concerning the mysteries of our universe. The canals of Mars, in the -first place—those famous canals with reduplication—temporarily more -enigmatical than those of the Ego of the mediums; then the strips of -supposed cultivation along their borders, the mass of snow around the -poles, the nature of the soil, and the conditions of life on those -worlds, in turn inundated and burning, the thousand and one questions -of hydrography, of geology, of biology, which the amateur naturalist -inevitably asks himself on the subject of the planet nearest to us—of -all this the author of the Martian romance knows nothing and cares -nothing. Questions of sociology do not trouble him to a much greater -extent, since the people occupying the most prominent place in the -Martian visions, and making the conversation, in no wise enlighten us -as to the civil and political organization of their globe, as to the -fine arts and religion, commerce and industry, etc. Have the barriers -of the nations fallen, and is there no longer a standing army up there, -except that of the laborer occupied in the construction and maintenance -of that gigantic net-work of canals for communication or irrigation? -Esenale and Astané have not deigned to inform us. It seems probable -from certain episodes that the family is, as with us, at the foundation -of Martian civilization; nevertheless, we have no direct or detailed -information in regard to this subject. It is useless to speculate. -It is evident that the author of this romance did not care much for -science, and that, in spite of her desire to comply with the wishes -of M. Lemaître (see p. 149), she had not the least conception of the -questions which arise in our day, in every cultivated mind, as to the -planet Mars and its probable inhabitants. - -Secondly: If, instead of quarrelling with the Martian romance about -that which it fails to furnish us, we endeavor to appreciate the full -value of what it does give us, we are struck by two points, which I -have already touched upon more than once in passing—viz., the complete -identity of the Martian world, taken in its chief points, with the -world in which we live, and its puerile originality in a host of minor -details. Take, for example, the family _fête_ (p. 188). To be sure, the -venerable Astané is there saluted by a caress of the hair instead of a -hand-shake; the young couples while dancing grasp each other not by the -waist but by the shoulder; the ornamental plants do not belong to any -species known to us: but, save for these insignificant divergences from -our costumes and habits, as a whole, and in general tone, it is exactly -as with us. - -The imagination which forged these scenes, with all their decoration, -is remarkably calm, thoughtful, devoted to the real and the probable. -The _miza_, which runs without a visible motor power, is neither more -nor less extraordinary to the uninitiated spectator than many of -the vehicles which traverse our roads. The colored globes placed in -an aperture of the walls of the houses to light the streets recall -strongly our electric lamps. Astané’s flying-machine will probably soon -be realized in some form or other. The bridges which disappear under -the water in order to allow boats to pass (text 25) are, save for a -technical person, as natural as ours which accomplish the same result -by lifting themselves in the air. With the exception of the “evocative” -powers of Astané, which only concern Mlle. Smith personally and do -not figure in any Martian scene, there is nothing on Mars which goes -beyond what has been attained or might be expected to be accomplished -by ingenious inventors here below. - -A wise little imagination of ten or twelve years old would have deemed -it quite droll and original to make people up there eat on square -plates with a furrow for the gravy, of making an ugly beast with a -single eye carry the telescope of Astané to him, of making babies to be -fed by tubes running directly to the breasts of animals like the female -deer, etc. There is nothing of the _Thousand and One Nights_, the -_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, fairy stories, or the adventures of Gulliver, -no trace of ogres nor of giants nor of veritable sorcerers in this -whole cycle. One would say that it was the work of a young scholar to -whom had been given the task of trying to invent a world as different -as possible from ours, but _real_, and who had conscientiously applied -himself to it, loosening the reins of his childish fancy in regard to -a multitude of minor points in the limits of what appeared admissible -according to his short and narrow experience. - -Thirdly: By the side of these arbitrary and useless innovations the -Martian romance bears in a multitude of its characteristics a clearly -Oriental stamp, upon which I have already often insisted. The yellow -complexion and long black hair of Astané; the costume of all the -personages—robes embroidered or of brilliant hues, sandals with thongs, -flat white hats, etc., the long hair of the women and the ornaments in -the form of butterflies for their coiffures; the houses of grotesque -shapes, recalling the pagoda, kiosk, and minaret, the warm and glowing -colors of the skies, the water, the rocks, and the vegetation (see -Figs. 13 and 14), etc.: all this has a sham air of Japanese, Chinese, -Hindoo. It is to be noted that this imprint of the extreme East is -purely exterior, not in any wise penetrating to the characters or -manners of the personages. - -All the traits that I discover in the author of the Martian romance can -be summed up in a single phrase, its profoundly infantile character. -The candor and imperturbable naïveté of childhood, which doubts -nothing because ignorant of everything, is necessary in order for one -to launch himself seriously upon an enterprise such as the pretended -exact and authentic depictions of an unknown world. An adult, in the -least cultivated and having some experience of life, would never waste -time in elaborating similar nonsense—Mlle. Smith less than any one, -intelligent and cultivated as she is in her normal state. - -This provisional view of the author of the Martian cycle will find its -confirmation and its complement in the following chapters, in which -we shall examine the Martian language, from which I have until now -refrained. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONTINUED)—THE MARTIAN LANGUAGE - - -Of the various automatic phenomena, the “speaking in tongues” is one -which at all times has most aroused curiosity, while at the same -time little accurate knowledge concerning it has been obtainable, on -account of the difficulty of collecting correctly the confused and -unintelligible words as they gush forth. - -The phonograph, which has already been employed in some exceptional -cases, like that of Le Baron, will doubtless some day render -inestimable service to this kind of study, but it leaves much still -to be desired at the present moment, from the point of view of its -practical utilization in the case of subjects not in their right mind, -who are not easily manageable, and who will not remain quiet long -enough while uttering their unusual words to allow the instrument to be -adjusted and made ready. - -There are different species of glossolalia. Simple, incoherent -utterances, in a state of ecstasy, interspersed with emotional -exclamations, which are sometimes produced in certain surcharged -religious environments, is another matter altogether from the creation -of neologisms, which are met with in the dream, in somnambulism, -mental alienation, or in children. At the same time this fabrication of -arbitrary words raises other problems—as, for example, the occasional -use of foreign idioms unknown to the subject (at least, apparently), -but which really exist. In each of these cases it is necessary to -examine further whether, and in what measure, the individual attributes -a fixed meaning to the sounds which he utters, whether he understands -(or has, at least, the impression of understanding) his own words, -or whether it is only a question of a mechanical and meaningless -derangement of the phonetic apparatus, or, again, whether this jargon, -unintelligible to the ordinary personality, expresses the ideas of -some secondary personality. All these forms, moreover, vary in shades -and degrees, and there are, in addition, those mixed cases, possibly -the more frequent, where all the forms are mingled and combined. The -same individual, and sometimes in the course of the same spasm, also -exhibits a series of neologisms, comprehended or uncomprehended, giving -way to a simple, incoherent verbiage in common language, or vice versa, -etc. - -A good description and rational classification of all these categories -and varieties of glossolalia would be of very great interest. I cannot -think of attempting such a study here, having enough already to fully -occupy my attention, by reason of having involved myself with the -Martian of Mlle. Smith. This somnambulistic language does not consist, -as we have already discovered, either in speaking ecstatically or in -religious enthusiasm, nor yet in the use of a foreign language which -really exists; it represents rather neologism carried to its highest -expression and practised in a systematic fashion, with a very precise -signification, by a secondary personality unknown to the normal self. -It is a typical case of “glosso-poesy,” of complete fabrication of all -the parts of a new language by a subconscious activity. I have many -times regretted that those who have witnessed analogous phenomena—as, -for example, Kerner, with the _Seeress of Prevost_—have not gathered -together and published in their entirety all the products of this -singular method of performing their functions on the part of the -verbal faculties. Undoubtedly each case taken by itself seems a simple -anomaly, a pure arbitrary curiosity, and without any bearing; but who -knows whether the collection of a large number of these psychological -bibelots, as yet few enough in their total, would not end in some -unexpected light? Exceptional facts are often the most instructive. - -In order to avoid falling into the same errors of negligence, not -knowing where to stop, in case I wished to make a choice, I have taken -the course of setting forth here in full all the Martian texts which -we have been able to gather. I will have them follow a paragraph -containing certain remarks which that unknown language has suggested -to me; but, very far from flattering myself that I have exhausted the -subject, I earnestly hope that it will find readers more competent -than myself to correct and complete my observations, since I must -acknowledge that as a linguist and philologist I am very much like -an ass playing the flute. It is expedient, in beginning, to give -some further details regarding the various psychological methods of -manifestation of that unknown tongue. - - -I. VERBAL MARTIAN AUTOMATISMS - -I have described in the preceding chapter, and will not now return -to it, the birth of the Martian language, indissolubly bound up with -that of the romance itself, from the 2d of February, 1896, up to the -inauguration of the process of translation by the entrance of Esenale -upon the scene on the 2d of November following (see pp. 154-165). -During several months thereafter the Martian language is confined to -the two psychological forms of apparition in which it seems to have -been clothed during the course of that first year. - -First: _Verbo-auditive_ automatism, hallucinations of hearing, -accompanying visions in the waking state. In the case of spontaneous -visions, Hélène notes in pencil, either during the vision itself or -immediately afterwards, the unintelligible sounds which strike her ear; -but to her great regret many of them escape her, since she is sometimes -only able to gather the first or the last phrase of the sentences which -her imaginary personages address to her, or scattered fragments of -conversations which she holds with herself; these fragments themselves -often contain inaccuracies, which are ultimately rectified at the -moment of translation, Esenale having the good habit of articulating -very clearly each Martian word before giving its French equivalent. -In the case of the visions which she has at the seances, Hélène slowly -repeats the words she hears without understanding them, and the sitters -make note of them more or less correctly. - -Secondly: _Vocal_ automatism (“verbo-motor hallucinations of -articulation,” in the cumbersome official terminology). Here again it -is the sitters who gather as much as they can of the strange words -pronounced in a state of trance, but that is very little, since Hélène, -in her Martian state, often speaks with a tremendous volubility. -Moreover, a distinction must be made between the relatively clear and -brief phrases which are later translated by Esenale, and the rapid and -confused gibberish the signification of which can never be obtained, -probably because it really has none, but is only a pseudo-language (see -pp. 154-159). - -A new process of communication, the handwriting, made its appearance in -August, 1897, with a delay of perhaps eighteen months as to the speech -(the reverse of Leopold’s case, who wrote a long time before speaking). -It is produced, also, under two forms, which constitute a pendant to -the two cases given above, and also complete the standard quartette of -the psychological modalities of language. - -Thirdly: _Verbo-visual_ automatism—that is, apparitions of exotic -characters before Hélène’s eyes when awake, who copies them as -faithfully as possible in a drawing, without knowing the meaning of the -mysterious hieroglyphics. - -Fourthly: _Graphic_ automatism—_i.e._, writing traced by the hand of -Hélène while completely entranced and incarnating a Martian personage. -In this case the characters are generally smaller, more regular, better -formed than in the drawings of the preceding case. A certain number of -occasions, when the name has been pronounced by Hélène before being -written, and especially the articulation of Esenale at the moment of -translation, have permitted the relations between her vocal sounds and -the graphic signs of the Martian language to be established. - -It is to be noted that these four automatic manifestations do not -inflict an equal injury upon the normal personality of Mlle. Smith. -As a rule, the verbo-auditive and verbo-visual hallucinations only -suppress her consciousness of present reality; they leave her a freedom -of mind which, if not complete, is at least sufficient to permit her to -observe in a reflective manner these sensorial automatisms, to engrave -them on her memory, and to describe them or make a copy of them, while -she often adds remarks testifying to a certain critical sense. On the -contrary, the verbo-motor hallucinations of articulation or of writing -seem to be incompatible with her preservation of the waking state, and -are followed by amnesia. Hélène is always totally absent or entranced -while her hand writes mechanically, and if, as seldom happens, she -speaks Martian automatically, outside of the moments of complete -incarnation, she is not aware of it, and does not recollect it. This -incapacity of the normal personality of Mlle. Smith to observe at the -time or remember afterwards her verbo-motor automatisms denotes a more -profound perturbation than that she experiences during her sensory -automatisms. - -The Martian handwriting only appeared at the end of a prolonged period -of incubation, which betrayed itself in several incidents, and was -certainly stimulated by various exterior suggestions during a year -and a half at least. The following are the principal dates of this -development. - -February 16, 1896.—The idea of a special handwriting belonging to the -planet Mars occurs for the first time to Hélène’s astonishment in a -Martian semi-trance (see p. 161). - -November 2.—Handwriting is clearly predicted in the phrase, “Astané -will teach me to write,” uttered by Hélène in a Martian trance, after -the scene of the translation by Esenale (see p. 166). - -November 8.—After the translation of text No. 3, Leopold, being -questioned, replies that Astané will write this text for Mlle. Smith, -but the prediction is not fulfilled. - -May 23, 1897.—The announcement of Martian handwriting becomes more -precise. “Presently,” says Astané to Hélène, “thou wilt be able -to trace our handwriting, and thou wilt possess in thy hands the -characters of our language” (text 12). - -June 20.—At the beginning of a seance, a Martian vision, she demands -of an imaginary interlocutor “a large ring which comes to a point, and -with which one can write.” This description applies to M. R., who has -with him some small pocket-pens of this kind, capable of being adjusted -to the end of the index-finger. - -June 23.—I hand Hélène the two small pocket-pens which M. R. has -brought for her, but they do not please her. After trying to use one, -she throws it away and takes up a pencil, saying that if she must write -Martian, the ordinary means will suffice as well as those peculiar -pocket-pens. In about a minute she falls asleep, and her hand begins -automatically to trace a message in Leopold’s handwriting. I then -ask that individual whether the pocket-pens of M. R. do not meet the -exigencies of Martian, and whether Mlle. Smith will some day write -that language, as has already been announced. Hélène’s hand thereupon -responds in the beautiful calligraphy of Leopold: “I have not yet seen -the instrument which the inhabitants of the planet Mars use in writing -their language, but I can and do affirm that the thing will happen, as -has been announced to you.—LEOPOLD.” - -June 27.—In the scene of the translation of text 15, Hélène adds to her -usual refrain, “Esenale has gone away; he will soon return; _he will -soon write_.” - -August 3.—Between four and five o’clock in the afternoon Hélène had -a vision at her desk, lasting ten or fifteen minutes, of a broad, -horizontal bar, flame-colored, then changing to brick-red, and which -by degrees became rose-tinted, on which were a multitude of strange -characters, which she supposes to be the Martian letters of the -alphabet, on account of the color. These characters floated in space -before and round about her. Analogous visions occur in the course of -the weeks immediately following. - -August 22.—Hélène for the first time writes in Martian. After various -non-Martian visions Mlle. Smith turns away from the window (it rained -hard, and the sky was very gray) and exclaims, “Oh, look, it is all -red! Is it already time to go to bed? M. Lemaître, are you there? Do -you see how red it is? I see Astané, who is there, in that red; I only -see his head and the ends of his fingers; he has no robe; and here -is the other (Esenale) with him. They both have some letters at the -ends of their fingers on a bit of paper. Quick, give me some paper!” -A blank sheet and the pocket-pen are handed to her, which latter she -disdainfully throws down. She accepts an ordinary pencil, which she -holds in her customary fashion, between her middle and index-finger, -then writes from left to right the three first lines of Fig. 21, -looking attentively towards the window at her fictitious model before -tracing each letter, and adding certain oral notes, according to which -there are some words which she sees written in black characters on -the three papers—or, more correctly, on three white wands, a sort of -narrow cylinder, somewhat flattened out—which Astané, Esenale, and a -third personage whose name she does not know but whose description -corresponds with that of Pouzé, hold in their right hands. After which -she again sees another paper or cylinder, which Astané holds above his -head, and which bears also some words which she undertakes to copy (the -three last lines of Fig. 21, p. 205). “Oh, it is a pity,” says she, on -coming to the end of the fourth line, “it is all on one line, and I -have no more room.” She then writes underneath the three letters of -line 5, and without saying anything adds line 6. Then she resumes: “How -dark it is with you ... the sun has entirely gone down” (it still rains -very hard). “No one more! nothing more!” She remains in contemplation -before that which she has written, then sees Astané again near the -table, who again shows her a paper, the same, she thinks, as the former -one. “But no, it is not altogether the same; there is one mistake, it -is there [she points to the fourth line towards the end] ... Ah, I -do not see more!” Then, presently she adds: “He showed me something -else; there was a mistake, but I was not able to see it. It is very -difficult. While I was writing, it was not I myself, I could not feel -my arms. It was difficult, because when I raised my head I no longer -saw the letters well. It was like a Greek design.” - -At this moment Hélène recovered from the state of obscuration, from -which she emerged with difficulty, which had accompanied the Martian -vision and the automatic copy of the verbo-visual text. But a little -later in the evening she only vaguely remembered having seen strange -letters, and was altogether ignorant of having written anything. - -The very natural supposition that the three first words written were -the names of the known personages (Astané, Esenale, Pouzé), who bore -them on their wands, led to the discovery of the meaning of many of the -Martian characters and permitted the divining of the sense of the three -last words. - - [Illustration: Fig. 21. Text No. 16; seance of August 22, 1897.—First - Martian text written by Mlle. Smith (according to a visual - hallucination). Natural size. [Collection of M. Lemaître.]—Herewith - its French notation. - - astane - esenale - pouze - mene simand - ini. - mira. -] - -The new alphabet was enriched by certain other signs on the following -days, thanks to the echos of that seance in the ordinary life of -Hélène, who happened on several occasions to write not the true Martian -as yet, but French in Martian letters, to her great stupefaction when -she found herself after a while in the presence of these unknown -hieroglyphics. - - [Illustration: Fig. 22. Examples of isolated French words - (_française_, _lumière_, _prairie_) automatically traced in Martian - characters by Mlle. Smith in her normal handwriting. See also Fig. 1, - p. 56.] - -The first manifestation of that graphic automatism, being as yet -concerned only with the form of the letters and not the vocabulary, -dates from the day after the following seance: - -August 23.—“Here,” wrote Hélène to me at noon, sending me some -memoranda from which I have taken the three examples of Fig. 22—“here -are some labels which I made it my business to make this morning at ten -o’clock, and which I have not been able to finish in a satisfactory -manner. I have only just now emerged from the rose-colored fog in which -I have been continuously enwrapped for almost two hours.” - -Three weeks later a complete automatic Martian handwriting was produced -in a seance at my house, of which the following is a summary. - -September 12, 1897.—At the end of a quite long Martian vision, Mlle. -Smith sees Astané, who has something at the end of his finger and -who signs to her to write. I offer her a pencil, and after various -tergiversations she slowly begins to trace some Martian characters -(Fig. 23). Astané has possession of her arm, and she is, during this -time, altogether anæsthetic and absent. Leopold, on the contrary, is at -hand, and gives various indications of his presence. At the end of the -sixth line she seems to half awaken, and murmurs, “I am not afraid; no, -I am not afraid.” Then she again falls into a dream in order to write -the four last words (which signify “_Then do not fear_,” and which are -the response of Astané to her exclamation). - -Almost immediately Leopold substitutes himself for Astané and traces -on the same sheet, in his characteristic handwriting (considerably -distorted towards the end): “_Place thy hand on her forehead_,” by -means of which he indicates to me that the time has arrived to pass on -to the scene of translation by Esenale. - - [Illustration: Fig. 23. Martian text No. 17; seance of September 12, - 1897. Written by Mlle. Smith incarnating Astané (then Leopold for the - French words at the end). See the translation, p. 222. Too many _l_’s - at the end of the first line immediately produced the scrawls intended - to strike them out. (Reproduction one-half natural size.)] - - [Illustration: Fig. 24. Martian alphabet, summary of the signs - obtained. (Never has been given as such by Mlle. Smith.)] - -We may conclude from these successive stages that the Martian -handwriting is the result of a slow autosuggestion, in which the -idea of a special writing instrument, and its handling, for a long -time played the dominant rôle, then was abandoned, without doubt, as -impracticable to realize. The characters themselves then haunted for -several weeks Hélène’s visual imagination before they appeared to her -on the cylinders of the three Martians in a manner sufficiently clear -and stable to enable her to copy them and afterwards to be capable of -subduing her graphomotor mechanism. Once manifested outwardly, these -signs, which I have assembled under the form of an alphabet in Fig. 24, -have not varied for two years. - -Moreover, some trifling confusion, of which I shall speak a little -later, shows well that the personality which employs them is not -absolutely separated from that of Hélène, although the latter, in a -waking state, might hold the same relation to Martian which she holds -to Chinese—that is, she knows its general very characteristic aspect, -but is ignorant of the signification of the characters, and would be -incapable of reading it. - -Hélène’s Martian handwriting is not stereotyped, but presents, -according to circumstances, some variations in form, especially in the -size of the letters. - -This may be established by Figs. 21 to 32, in which I have reproduced -the greater part of the texts obtained by writing. When the Martian -gushes forth in verbo-visual hallucinations, Hélène transcribes it in -strokes of large dimensions, lacking firmness, full of repetitions -(Figs. 21, 26, 31), and she always remarks that the original, which -is before her eyes, is much smaller and clearer than her copy. In the -texts which have come automatically from her hand—_i.e._, supposedly -traced by the Martians themselves—the handwriting is really smaller and -more precise. Here again are some curious differences. Astané has a -calligraphy less voluminous than that of Esenale, and Ramié has a much -finer one than Esenale (Figs. 28 and 29). - -It would be altogether premature for me to launch myself upon the -study of Martian graphology, and, therefore, leaving that line to my -successors, I take up the texts which have been collected in their -chronological order. - - -II. THE MARTIAN TEXTS - -It is not always easy to represent a language and its pronunciation by -means of the typographical characters of another. Happily the Martian, -in spite of its strange appearance and the fifty millions of leagues -which separate us from the red planet, is in reality so near neighbor -to French that there is scarcely any difficulty in this case. - -The dozen written texts[19] which we possess, and which Mlle. Smith -either copied from a verbo-visual hallucination, or which were -traced by her hand in an access of graphomotor automatism, are -readily translated into French, since each Martian letter has its -exact equivalent in the French alphabet. I have confined myself -to placing accents on the vowels (there are none in the Martian -writing), conformably to the pronunciation of Esenale at the moment of -translation. It is only necessary to read the following texts aloud, -articulating them as though they were French, in order to secure the -Martian words almost exactly as they proceed from the mouth of Mlle. -Smith; I say _almost_, because there still remains, naturally, in -the speech of Esenale, as in that of every one, a special mannerism -of strengthening certain syllables and slurring others—in short, -that of delicate shades of accentuation, which cannot be adequately -represented, and which the hearers did not attempt to take note of at -the seances. - -In the auditive or vocal texts, those which have not been obtained by -writing, I have adopted the more probable orthography, according to the -pronunciation of Esenale, but (with the exception of words known by -means of the written texts) I naturally cannot guarantee their absolute -correctness. - -The manner in which Hélène takes down in pencil the Martian phrases -which strike her ear is not of great assistance to us in that respect, -because, as I have said above (p. 158), she finds herself at the time -of these verbo-auditive hallucinations in the situation of a person who -hears some unknown words, and spells them as well as she is able, after -a quite arbitrary and often faulty fashion. She writes, for example, -“=hezi darri né ciké taisse=,” which, according to the pronunciation -of Esenale and other written texts, should be “=êzi darié siké tés=”; -or, again, “=misse messe as si lé=,” instead of “=mis mess ass ilé=.” -We cannot, therefore, depend upon the orthography of Hélène, but I have -naturally followed it in every case in which there seemed to be no good -reason to depart from it. In stating that the following texts should be -articulated like French, two remarks must be added: First, the final -consonant, very rare in Martian, is always aspirated; the word =ten= -is pronounced as in the French _gluten_; =essat=, like _fat_; =amès=, -like _aloes_; =mis= and =mess=, like _lis_ (flower), and mess (of an -officer), etc. In the second place, for the different values of the _e_ -I have adopted the following rule: the _e_ broad is always indicated -by the accent grave _è_; the _e_ medium, which is only found at the -beginning and in the middle of a word, is marked with the acute accent -_é_; the _e_ short, by the acute accent at the end of a word (or before -a final _e_ mute), and by the circumflex at the beginning or in the -middle; the _e_ mute, or demi-mute, remains without accent. - -The pronunciation, therefore, will be, for example, the _e_’s of the -Martian words =mété=, =bénézee=, like those of the French words _été_, -_répétée_; =êvé=, like _rêvé_, =tès=, as in _Lutèce_, etc. - -There will be found in italics, underneath the Martian texts, their -French equivalents, word for word, as given by Esenale in the manner -described above (see pp. 166-168).[20] I have also indicated the kind -of automatism—auditive, visual, vocal, or graphic—by means of which -each text was obtained, also the date of its appearance, and (in -parentheses) that of the seance, often quite remote, at which it was -translated. I have also added such explanations as seemed to me to be -necessary. - - 1. =métiche C.= =médache C.= =métaganiche S.= =kin’t’che= - _Monsieur C._ _Madame C._ _Mademoiselle S._ _quatre_. - Mr. C. Mrs. C. Miss C. Four. - -Vocal. February 2, 1896. See above, p. 157. - - 2. =dodé né ci haudan té mess métiche astané ké dé= - _Ceci est la maison du grand homme Astané que tu_ - - =mé véche.= - _as vu._ - - This is the house of the great man Astané, whom thou hast seen. - -Auditive. About September 20, 1896 (translated November 2).—Heard by -Hélène at the same time at which she had the vision of Fig. 12 (see p. -166). - - 3. =modé iné cé di cévouitche ni êvé ché kiné liné= - _Mère adorée, je te reconnais et suis ton petit Linet._ - - Adored mother, I recognize thee, and am thy little Linet. - -Words addressed to Mme. Mirbel by her son Alexis (Esenale) in a scene -of incarnation altogether analogous to that described on p. 156. - - 4. =i modé mété modé modé iné palette is= - _O mère, tendre mère, mère bien-aimée, calme tout_ - - =ché péliché ché chiré né ci ten ti vi= - _ton souci, ton fils est près de toi._ - - Oh, mother, tender mother, dearly loved mother, calm all thy care, thy - son is near thee. - -Vocal. November 29, 1896 (translated same seance).—Spoken by Esenale -and addressed to Mme. Mirbel, in a scene of incarnation analogous to -the preceding. At the moment of translation, Esenale repeated, very -distinctly, the last words, as follows: “=né ci=, _est près_ [“is -near”], =ten ti vi=, _de toi_ (“thee”).” This was evidently an error, -since it appears from numerous later texts that _est près de toi_ -corresponds to =né ten ti vi=; it follows that it would be natural -to translate the word =ci= by _là_, _ici_, or _tout_, if these words -had not been differently rendered in other texts. (A confusion of the -adverb _là_ with the article _la_, translated by =ci= in text 2, might -also be suspected.) - - 5. =i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé dé étéche mêné= - _Oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu toujours, amie_ - - =izé bénézée= - _enfin retrouvée!_ - - Oh! Why dost thou not keep thyself always near me, friend, at last - found again? - -Auditive. December 4, 1896 (translated December 13). Fragment of a long -discourse by Astané to Hélène, during an apparition which she had of -him about nine o’clock in the evening, as she was about to go to bed. -This sentence, which he uttered twice, is the only one which she has -been able to recall with sufficient precision to note down immediately -after the vision. She has the feeling of having understood Astané’s -whole discourse while he was delivering it, and thinks she would have -been able to translate it into French, perhaps not word for word, but -in its general sense. She expected to transcribe it the following day, -but in the morning when she awoke she was unable to recall either the -words of Astané or their meaning, not even that of this sentence, -written on the previous evening. Heard again, as the second part of the -following text, in the seance of the 13th of December. - - 6. =ti iche cêné éspênié ni ti êzi atèv astané êzi= - _De notre belle “Espénié” et de mon être Astané, mon_ - - =érié vizé é vi... i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé= - _âme descend à toi... oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu_ - - =dé étéche mêné izé bénézée= - _toujours, amie enfin retrouvée!_ - - From our beautiful “Espénié” and from my being Astané, my soul - descends to thee—Oh! why dost thou not keep thyself always near to me, - friend, at last found again? - -Auditive. December 13, 1896 (translated same seance).—Heard in the -far-away voice of Astané, Hélène having all the while a painful -sensation, as though the skin of her face around her eyes, on the -back of her wrists and hands, was being torn off. In the translation -the word _Espénié_ remains as it is, being a proper name; the left -index-finger (Leopold) points heavenward, and says that it might be -rendered by _terre_, _planète_, _demeure_. - - 7. =cé êvé plêva ti di bénèz éssat riz tès midée= - _Je suis chagrin de te retrouver vivant sur cette laide_ - - =durée cé ténassé riz iche éspênié vétéche ié ché atèv hêné= - _terre; je voudrais sur notre Espénié voir tout ton être s’élever_ - - =ni pové ten ti si éni zée métiché oné gudé ni zée darié= - _et rester près de moi; ici les hommes sont bons et les cœurs_ - - =grêvé= - _larges._ - - I am sorry to find you again living on this wretched earth; I would on - our Espénié see all thy being raise itself and remain near me; here - men are good and hearts large. - -Auditive. December 15, 1896 (translated January 17, 1897).—Words spoken -by Astané to Hélène in a morning vision. The following fragment of the -letter in which she sent me this text merits being cited as an example -of those quite frequent cases in which Mlle. Smith, without knowing -the exact translation of the foreign words, nevertheless divines -their general signification and comprehends them by their emotional -equivalent. “This morning, at a quarter before six, I saw Astané at the -foot of my bed. The general sense of his language was at that moment -quite clear to my mind, and I give it to you as I understood it—that -is, in as clear a manner as possible, having noted it down afterwards: -‘How much I regret your not having been born in our world; you would be -much happier there, since everything is much better with us, people as -well as things, and I would be so happy to have you near me.’ That is -about what it seemed to me to mean; perhaps some day we may be able to -be sure of it.” - - 8. =amès mis tensée ladé si—amès ten tivé avé= - _Viens un instant vers moi, viens près d’un vieil_ - - =men—koumé ié ché pélésse—amès somé têsé= - _ami fondre tout ton chagrin: viens admirer ces_ - - =misaïmé—ké dé surès pit châmi—izâ méta ii= - _fleurs, que tu crois sans parfum, mais pourtant si_ - - =borêsé ti finaïmé—iâ izi dé séïmiré= - _pleines de senteurs!... Mais si tu comprendras!_ - - Come towards me a moment, come near an old friend to melt away all - thy sorrow; come to admire these flowers, which you believe without - perfume, but yet so full of fragrance! But if thou couldst understand. - -Auditive and vocal. January 31, 1897 (translated same seance).—Hélène, -in hemisomnambulism, sees Astané, who tells her to repeat his words; -she replies to him: “But speak plainly ... I will gladly repeat them -... but I do not understand very well....” Then she pronounces slowly -and very distinctly the foregoing text, in groups of words, separated -by a moment of silence (marked in the text by the sign—). It is -remarked that these groups, with the exception of the sixth, correspond -to the hemistiches of the French translation obtained in the same -seance. After the sixth group Hélène remains silent for a long time, -and finally says: “I cannot understand;” then utters the four last -words, which are the reply of Astané to her objection. - - 9. =ané éni ké éréduté cé ilassuné té imâ ni= - _C’est isi que, solitaire, ie m’approche du ciel et_ - - =bétiné chée durée= - _regarde ta terre._ - - It is here that, alone, I bring myself near to heaven and look upon - the earth. - -Auditive. February 24, 1897 (translated March 14).—Reclining in her -easy-chair, after the noonday meal, Hélène hears this sentence, while -at the same time she has the vision of a house, constructed by digging -into a Martian mountain, and traversed by a sort of air-shafts, and -which represents Astané’s observatory. - - 10. =simandini lé lâmi mêné kizé pavi kiz atimi= - _Simandini, me voici! amie! quelle joie, quel bonheur!_ - - Simandini, here I am! friend! what joy! what happiness! - -Auditive. March 14, 1897 (translated same seance).—See following text. - - 11. =i modé duméïné modé kêvi cé mache povini= - _O mère, ancienne mère, quand je peux arriver_ - - =poénêzé mûné é vi saliné éziné mimâ nikaïné modé= - _quelques instants vers toi j’oublie mes parents Nikaïné, mère!_ - - =—i men= - _—ô ami!_ - - Oh, mother, former mother, when I can arrive a few instants near thee, - I forget my parents Nikaïné, mother!—Oh friend! - -Vocal. March 14, 1897 (translated same seance).—From the beginning of -this seance Hélène complained of cold hands, then a great desire to -weep, and of a buzzing in the ears, which kept increasing and in which -she finally heard Astané address to her the Martian words of text 10. -Immediately after she passes into full somnambulism; her respirations, -very short and panting, rise to three per second, accompanied by -synchronous movements of the left index-finger; then she stops suddenly -with a long expiration, immediately followed by a deep inspiration: -then her breast heaves, her face assumes an expression of suffering, -and the left index-finger announces that it is Esenale (Alexis Mirbel) -who is incarnated. After a series of spasms and hiccoughs, Hélène -arises, and, placing herself behind Mme. Mirbel, takes her neck in her -hands, bows her head upon hers, tenderly pats her cheek, and addresses -to her the words of text No. 11 (except the two last words). Then she -raises her head, and again, with panting respiration (accelerated to -thirty inspirations in sixteen seconds), walks towards M. Lemaître -(whose pupil Alexis Mirbel had been at the time of his death). She -places her hands upon his shoulders, affectionately grasps his right -hand, and with emotion and continued sobbing addresses to him the two -words =i men!= After which she goes through the pantomime of extending -her hand to Leopold and of allowing him to conduct her to a couch, -where the translation of texts Nos. 10, 11, and 9 is obtained by the -customary process, but not without difficulty. - - 12. =lassuné ké nipuné ani tis dé machir mirivé= - _Approche, ne crains pas; bientôt tu pourras tracer_ - - =iche manir sé dé évenir toué chi amiché zé forimé= - _notre écriture, et tu posséderas dans tes mains les marques_ - - =ti viche tarviné= - _de notre langage._ - - Approach, fear not; soon thou wilt be able to trace our writing, and - thou wilt possess in thy hands the signs of our language. - -Auditive. May 23, 1897 (translated same seance).—Shortly after the -beginning of the seance, Hélène, still being awake, has a vision of -Astané, who addresses her in these words, which she repeats slowly and -in a feeble voice. I give the text as it was heard and uniformly noted -by several sitters, both at the moment of its utterance and at its -subsequent translation. Many corrections, however, would be necessary, -in order to make it correspond with the later written texts: =ké nipuné -ani=, _et ne crains pas_ (“and I am not afraid,” or, “and I do not -fear”) should be changed to =kié nipuné ani=, _ne crains pas_ (see text -17); =sé= or =cé= only stands here for _et_, which everywhere else is -given as =ni=; =viche= is used in error for =iche= (unless the =v= was -added for the sake of euphony, of which there is no other example) and -=tis= for =tiche=. - - 13. (adèl) =ané sini= (yestad) =i astané cé fimès astané mirâ= - _C’est vous, ô Astané, je meurs! Astané, adieu!_ - - It is you, oh Astané, I am dying! Astané, farewell! - -Vocal. Same seance as the preceding text, after which Hélène passes -into full somnambulism, begins to weep, pants, holds her hand on her -heart, and pronounces this sentence, mingling with it the two words -_Adèl_ and _yestad_, which are not Martian, but belong to the Oriental -cycle; they also do not appear in the text as it was repeated at -the time of its translation. This intrusion of terms foreign to the -Martian dream is explained by the imminence of a Hindoo scene ready to -appear, which occupied the latter half of the seance in which the Arab -servant, Adèl, plays a leading rôle. The mingling of the two romances -is greatly accentuated a few moments later, in a long discourse, -devoid of _r_’s and very rich in sibilants, and spoken with so great -volubility that it was impossible to gather a single word. At the -time of the translation, at the close of the seance, this tirade was -repeated with the same rapidity, preventing any notation; according to -the French translation which followed, it concerned memories of the -life of Simandini which Hélène recalled to Astané and in which there is -much mention of the aforesaid Adèl (see Hindoo Cycle, Chap. VII.). - - 14. =eupié zé palir né amé arvâ nini pédriné évaï= - _Eupié, le temps est venu; Arva nous quitte; sois_ - - =diviné lâmée ine vinâ té luné—pouzé men hantiné= - _heureux jusque au retour du jour.—Pouzé, ami fidèle_, - - =êzi vraïni né touzé med vi ni ché chiré saïné—ké= - _mon désir est même pour toi et ton fils Saïné.—Que_ - - =zalisé téassé mianiné ni di daziné—eupié—pouzé= - _l’élément entier t’enveloppe et te garde!—Eupié!—Pouzé!_ - - Eupié, the time has come; Arva leaves us; be happy till the return - of the day. Pouzé, faithful friend, my wish is even for thee, - and thy son Saïné.—May the entire element envelop thee and guard - thee!—Eupié!—Pouzé! - -Auditive. June 18, 1897 (translated June 20).—During a visit I made to -Mlle. Smith she has a vision of two Martian personages walking on the -shore of a lake, and she repeats this fragment of their conversation -which she has heard. According to another text (No. 20), Arva is the -Martian name of the sun. - - 15. =modé tatinée cé ké mache radziré zé tarvini va= - _Mère chérie, je ne puis prononcer le langage où_ - - =nini nini triménêni ii adzi cé zé seïmiré vétiche i= - _nous nous comprenions si bien! Je le comprends cependant; ô_ - - =modé inée kévi bérimir m hed kévi machiri cé di triné= - _mère adorée, quand reviendra-t-il? Quand pourrai-je te parler_ - - =ti éstotiné ni bazée animina i modé cé méï adzi= - _de ma dernière et courte existence? O mére, je t’ai bien_ - - =ilinée i modé inée cé ké lé nazère ani—mirâ= - _reconnue, ô mère adorée, je ne me trompe pas!—Adieu_ - - =modé itatinée mirâ mirâ mirâ= - _mère chérie, adieu, adieu, adieu!_ - - My dearest, I cannot pronounce the language in which we understood - each other so well! I understand it, however; oh! adored mother, when - will it return? When shall I be able to speak to thee of my last - and short existence? Oh! mother, I have well recognized thee, oh! - adored mother, I am not mistaken!—Farewell, dearest mother, farewell, - farewell, farewell! - -Auditive. June 27, 1897 (translated same seance).—Mme. Mirbel being -present, Hélène perceives Esenale, who remains in the vicinity of his -mother and addresses these words to her. The “adieux” at the close -were not spoken at that time, but were uttered by Esenale immediately -following and as a complement of the translation; this is the only -case (outside of text 36) in which he did not confine himself strictly -to the texts already gathered and in which he permitted himself to -introduce a new phrase, which otherwise does not contain a single -unknown word; =itatinée=, _chérie_, is evidently a slip which should -be corrected either to =tatinée=, _chérie_, or to =it atinée=, _ô -chérie_. The precise French equivalent of =triménêni= is probably -_entretenions_. - - *16. =astané ésenâle pouzé mêné simandini mirâ= - (_Astané. Esenale. Pouzé. Amie Simandini, adieu!_) - - Astané. Esenale. Pouzeé. Friend Simandini, farewell! - -Visual. August 22, 1897.—This text, for which there is no need of -a translation, constitutes the first appearance of the Martian -handwriting. See above, Fig. 21, and the résumé of that seance, pp. -203-205. - - *17. =taniré mis méch med mirivé éziné brimaξ ti tès= - _Prends un crayon pour tracer mes paroles de cet_ - - =tensée—azini dé améir mazi si somé iche nazina= - _instant. Alors tu viendras avec moi admirer notre nouveau_ - - =tranéï.—Simandini cé kié mache di pédriné tès luné ké cé= - _passage. Simandini, je ne puis te quitter ce jour. Que je_ - - =êvé diviné—patrinèz kié nipuné ani= - _suis heureux!—Alors ne crains pas!_ - - Take a pencil to trace my words of this moment. Then thou wilt come - with me to admire our new passage. Simandini, I cannot leave thee this - day. How happy I am!—Then fear not! - -Graphic. September 12, 1897 (translated same seance).—See p. 207 and -Fig. 23. - - *18. =modé tatinée lâmi mis mirâ ti ché bigâ kâ= - _Mère chérie, voici un adieu de ton enfant qui_ - - =ébrinié sanâ é vi idé di zé rénir—zé mess métich kâ é= - _pense tant à toi. On te le portera, le grand homme qui a_ - - =zé valini iminé—ni z [é] grani sidiné= - _le visage mince et le corps maigre._ - - My dearest, this is a farewell from thy child, who thinks so much of - thee. The big man, who has a thin face and a slender body, will bear - it to thee. - - [Illustration: Fig. 25. Text No. 18 (October 10, 1897), written in - pencil by Mlle. Smith, incarnating Esenale. Reproduction in autotype - two-thirds of the natural size.] - - [Illustration: Fig. 26. Text No. 26 (August 21, 1898), which appeared - in visual hallucination, and was copied by Mlle. Smith. Reproductions - in autotype.] - -Auditive, then Graphic. October 10, 1897 (translated same -seance).—Hélène has a vision of a Martian landscape, in which Esenale -floats discarnate around the plants and speaks these words, which she -repeats. (It is understood from the translation that this text was -intended for Mme. Mirbel, who was then in the country, but to whom -the person very clearly indicated by the final characteristic was -about to pay a visit and could carry the message.) I then offer Hélène -a pencil in the hope of obtaining this same text in writing; after -various tergiversations and grimaces, denoting a state of increasing -somnambulism, she finally takes the pencil between her index and middle -fingers, tells Esenale that she still sees him and makes him sit down -by her side, and then begins to write, completely absent and fascinated -by the paper. The left index-finger (Leopold) informs us that it is -Esenale himself who is writing by means of Hélène’s arm. Twice she -interrupts herself in order to say to Esenale, “Oh! do not go yet, stay -a little while longer!” She appears nervous and agitated, and often -stops writing to stab her paper with her pencil or to make erasures -or scribble on it (see Fig. 25); in the =zé= of the last line, she -forgets the =é= (this did not prevent Esenale from pronouncing the word -correctly at the time of its translation). - -[Illustration: Fig. 25. Text No. 18 (October 10, 1897), written in -pencil by Mlle. Smith, incarnating Esenale. Reproduction in autotype -two-thirds of the natural size.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 26. Text No. 26 (August 21, 1898), which appeared -in visual hallucination, and was copied by Mlle. Smith. Reproductions -in autotype.] - - *19. =m[en] cé kié mache di triné sandiné téri= - (_Amie, je ne puis te parler longtemps comme_ - - =né êzi vraïni zou réch mirâ milé piri mirâ= - _est mon désir; plus tard, adieu adieu._) - - (Friend, I cannot speak to thee a long time, as is my desire; later, - farewell, farewell!) - -Graphic, then Auditive. October 24, 1897 (there has never been any -translation of this text, two words of which are still unknown).—Hélène -first sees the table illumined by a green light in which some designs -appear which she copies, and which give this text, except the two -last letters of the first word, the place of which remains blank. -Immediately after she hears Martian spoken, which she repeats. It is -the same text; then she has a vision of Astané, Esenale, and a little -girl whose name she hears as Niké; but this soon gives way to other -non-Martian somnambulisms. (See Fig. 25.) - - *20. =Siké évaï diviné zé niké crizi capri né amé= - _Siké, sois heureux! Le petit oiseau noir est venu_ - - =orié antéch é êzé carimi ni êzi érié é nié pavinée hed= - _frapper hier à ma fenêtre, et mon âme a été joyeuse; il_ - - =lé sadri dé zé véchir tiziné Matêmi misaïmé kâ lé= - _me chanta: tu le verras demain.—Matêmi, fleur qui me_ - - =amèz essaté Arvâ ti éziné udâniξξ amès tès uri amès= - _fais vivre, soleil de mes songes, viens ce soir, viens_ - - =sandiné ten ti si évaï divinée Romé va né Siké= - _longtemps près de moi; sois heureuse!—Romé où est Siké?—Là-bas,_ - - =atrizi ten té taméch épizi= - _près du “taméche” rose._ - - Siké, be happy! The little black bird came yesterday rapping at my - window, and my soul was joyful; he sang to me: Thou wilt see him - to-morrow. Matêmi, flower which makes me live, sun of my dreams, come - this evening; come for a long time to me; be happy!—Romé, where is - Siké?—Yonder, near the “taméche” rose. - -Auditive, then Graphic. November 28, 1897 (translated same -seance).—Fragments of conversation heard during the vision of the -Martian _fête_ described on p. 185. Siké (a young man) and Matêmi (a -young girl) form the first couple who pass by and walk off in the -direction of a large bush with red flowers (=taméche=); then a second -couple exchange the last words of the text while going to rejoin the -first. After this vision, which she contemplated standing and described -with much animation, Hélène seated herself and began to write the same -Martian phrases. It is ascertained from Leopold that it was Astané -who held her hand (in holding the pencil between the thumb and the -index-finger—that is, after the manner of Leopold and not that of -Hélène as she had held it in writing text No. 17). The writing being -finished, Leopold directs that Hélène shall be made to seat herself on -the couch for the scene of translation. - - 21. =véchêsi têsée polluni avé métiche é vi ti= - _Voyons cette question, vieux homme; à toi de_ - - =bounié seïmiré ni triné= - _chercher, comprendre et parler._ - - Now this question, old man; it is for thee to seek, to understand and - speak. - -Auditive. January 15, 1898 (translated February 13).—Fragment of -conversation between two Martian personages seen in a waking vision. - - 22. =astané cé amès é vi chée brimi messé téri= - _Astané, je viens à toi; ta sagesse grande comme_ - - =ché pocrimé lé...= - _ton savoir me..._ - - Astané, I come to thee; thy great wisdom as well as thy knowledge to - me.... - -Auditive. About January 25, 1898 (translated February 13).—Vision, -at six o’clock in the morning, of a young Martian girl (Matêmi?) -traversing a tunnel through a mountain and arriving at the house of -Astané, to whom she addresses this utterance, followed by many others -which Hélène could not grasp with sufficient distinctness to note them -down. - - 23. [A] =paniné évaï kirimé zé miza ami grini= - _Panine, sois prudent, le “miza” va soulever;_ - - =ké chée éméche rès pazé—=[B] =pouzé tès luné soumini= - _que ta main se retire!—Pouzé, ce jour riant..._ - - =arvâ ii cen zé primi ti ché chiré kiz pavi luné—= - _Arva si beau... le revoir de ton fils... quel heureux jour—_ - - [C] =saïné êzi chiré izé lineï kizé pavi êzi mané= - _Saïné, mon fils, enfin debout! quelle joie!... Mon père_ - - =ni êzé modé tiziné êzi chiré êzi mané cé êvé adi= - _et ma mère... Demain, mon fils... Mon père, je suis bien_ - - =anâ= - _maintenant._ - - Paniné, be prudent, the “miza” is about to arise; remove thy hand! - Pouzé, this laughing day ... Arva so beautiful ... The return of thy - son ... What happy day—Saïné, my son, finally standing! What joy!... - My father and my mother ... To-morrow, my son ... My father, I am well - now. - -Auditive. February 20, 1898 (translated same seance).—Very complicated -Martian vision. First, three small, movable houses, like pavilions -or Chinese kiosks, going about on little balls; in one of these, two -unknown personages, one of whom puts her hand out of a small oval -window, which occasions, on the part of her companion, the observation -of the first sentence (A) of the text; at this instant, in fact, these -rolling pavilions (=miza=) assume an oscillatory movement, which makes -a noise like “tick-tack,” and then glide like a train upon rails. They -go around a high red mountain and come into a sort of magnificent gorge -or ravine, with slopes covered with extraordinary plants, and where -they find white houses on an iron framework resembling piles. The two -men then alight from their “=miza=,” chatting together, but Hélène can -only hear fragments (B) of their conversation. A young man of sixteen -to eighteen years of age comes to meet them, who has his head tied up -in a kind of nightcap, and having no hair on the left side. Martian -salutations are exchanged; they mutually strike their heads with their -hands, etc. Hélène complains of hearing very confusedly that which they -are saying, and can only repeat ends of sentences (C). She has pain -in her heart, and Leopold dictates to me by the left index-finger, -“_Put her to sleep_,” which presently leads to the customary scene of -translation of the text. - - 24. =saïné êzi chiré iée êzé pavi ché vinâ ine ruzzi= - _Saïné, mon fils, toute ma joie, ton retour au milieu_ - - =ti nini né mis mess assilé atimi... itéche...= - _de nous est un grand, immense bonheur... toujours..._ - - =furimir... nori= - _aimera... jamais._ - - Saïné, my son, all my joy; thy return to our circle is a great, an - immense happiness ... always will love ... ever. - -Auditive. March 11, 1898 (translated August 21).—“Yesterday morning, -on jumping out of bed,” wrote Hélène to me, when sending me this text, -“I had a vision of Mars, almost the same as that which I had before -(at the seance of February 20). I saw again the rolling pavilions, the -houses on piling, several personages, among them a young man who had -no hair on one side of his head. I was able to note some words. It was -very confused, and the last words were caught on the wing, when here -and there something a little clear came to me....” - - 25. =dé véchi ké ti éfi mervé éni= - _Tu vois que de choses superbes ici._ - - Thou seest what superb things (are) here. - -Auditive. August 21, 1898 (translated same seance).—Waking vision of a -river between two rose-colored mountains, with a bridge (like that in -Fig. 9) which lowered itself into the water and disappeared in order to -allow five or six boats to pass (like that in Fig. 13), then reappeared -and was restored to its place. As Hélène describes all this, she hears -a voice speaking to her the above Martian words of the text. - - *26. =Astané né zé ten ti vi= - _Astané est là près de toi._ - - Astané is there, near to thee. - -Visual. August 21, 1898 (translated same seance).—Following the -preceding scene: Hélène perceives “in the air” (illumined and red—that -of her Martian vision) some characters unknown to her, which she copies -(see Fig. 26). I ask her, showing her the word =zé= (which elsewhere -always stands for _le_), if she is not mistaken. She verifies it by -comparing it with the imaginary model before her and affirms it to be -correct. - - 27. =siké kiz crizi hantiné hed é ébrinié rès amêré é= - _Siké, quel oiseau fidèle! il a pensé se réunir à_ - - =nini éssaté ti iche atimi matêmi hantiné hed né= - _nous, vivre de notre bonheur!—Matêmi fidèle, il est_ - - =hantiné êzi darié siké tès ousti ké zé badêni lassuné= - _fidèle mon cœur!—Siké, ce bateau que le vent approche_ - - =mazi trimazi hed é ti zi mazêté é poviné é nini zé priâni= - _avec force! il a de la peine à arriver à nous; le flot_ - - =é fouminé ivraïni idé é ti zi mazêté é vizêné zé= - _est puissant aujourd’hui; on a de la peine à distinguer le_ - - =chodé= - _“chodé.”_ - - [Illustration: Fig. 27. Text No. 28 (October 8, 1898), written by - Mlle. Smith, copying a text of Matêmi, seen in a visual hallucination. - [The slight tremor of some of the lines is not in the original, but - occurred in the copying of the text in the ink, which was written in - pencil and - too pale for reproduction.]] - - Siké, what (a) faithful bird! he has thought to reunite himself to us, - to live of our happiness!—Matêmi faithful, my heart is faithful!—Siké, - this boat which the wind brings near with force! it has some - difficulty in reaching us; the current is strong to-day; one has some - difficulty in distinguishing the “=chodé=.” - -Auditive. About the 4th of September, 1898 (translated October -16).—Hélène heard and noted this phrase at the same time at which she -had the vision of the two young Martian people who were walking in a -kind of flower-garden, and saw a boat arrive, like that in Fig. 13. The -meaning of =chodé= has not been ascertained. - - *28. =men mess Astané cé amès é vi itéch li tès= - _Ami grand Astané, je viens à toi toujours par cet_ - - =alizé néümi assilé kâ ianiné êzi atèv ni lé= - _élément mystérieux, immense, qui enveloppe mon étre et me_ - - =tazié é vi med iéeξ éziné rabriξ ni tibraξ. men amès di= - _lance à toi pour toutes mes pensées et besoins. Ami, viens te_ - - =ouradé ké Matêmi uzénir chée kida ni ké chée brizi pi= - _souvenir que Matêmi attendra ta faveur, et que ta sagesse lui_ - - =dézanir. évaï diviné tès luné= - _répondra. Sois heureux ce jour._ - - Friend great Astané, I come to thee always by this element, - mysterious, immense, which envelops my being and launches me to thee - by all my thoughts and desires. Friend, come thou to remember that - Matêmi will await thy favor, and that thy wisdom will answer him. Be - happy to-day. - -Visual. October 3, 1898 (translated October 16).—At a quarter before -nine in the evening Mlle. Smith, desiring to obtain a communication -from Leopold for herself and her mother, sat down in an easy-chair and -gave herself up to meditation. Presently she hears the voice of Leopold -telling her that he cannot manifest himself that evening, but that -something much more interesting and important is being made ready. The -room seems to her to become completely obscured, except the end of the -table at which she is sitting, which is illumined with a golden light. -A young Martian girl in a yellow robe and with long tresses then comes -and seats herself beside her and begins to trace, without ink or paper, -but with a point on the end of her index-finger, black figures on a -white cylinder, at first placed on the table, afterwards on her knees, -and which is unrolled as she writes. Hélène is near enough to see the -characters clearly, and copies them in pencil on a sheet of paper (see -Fig. 27), after which the vision vanishes and her mother and the room -reappear. - - 29. =sazêni kiché nipunêzé dodé né pit léziré bèz= - _Sazeni pourquoi craindre? Ceci est sans souffrance ni_ - - =neura évaï dastrée firêzi zé bodri né dorimé zé= - _danger, sois paisible; certainement le os est sain, le_ - - =pastri tubré né tuxé= - _sang seul est malade._ - - Sazeni, why fear? This is without suffering or danger, be peaceful; - certainly the flesh is well, the blood alone is ill. - -Auditive. October 14, 1898 (translated October 16).—Morning vision -of an unknown gentleman and lady, the latter having her arm, spotted -with red, applied to an instrument with three tubes placed on a shelf -fastened to the wall. These words were spoken by the man; the lady said -nothing. - - 30. =modé ké hed oné chandêné têsé mûné ten ti= _Mère, que ils sont - délicieux ces moments près de_ - - =vi bigâ va bindié idé ti zâmé tensée zou réche= _toi!—Enfant, où - trouve on de meilleurs instants? plus tard_ - - =med ché atèv kiz fouminé zati= _pour ton être quel puissant souvenir._ - - Mother, how delightful they are, these moments near to thee!—Child, - where finds one better moments? later for thy being what (a) powerful - remembrance. - -Auditive. October 22, 1898 (translated December 18).—“At a quarter-past -six in the morning; vision of a pebbly shore; earth of a red tint; -immense sheet of water, of a bluish green. Two women are walking side -by side. This was all I could gather of their conversation.” - - [Illustration: Fig. 28. Text No. 31 (October 27, 1898), written by - Mlle. Smith, incarnating Ramié. Natural size.] - - *31. =Râmié bisti ti Espênié ché dimé ûni zi= - - _Ramié habitant de Espénié, ton semblable par la_ - - =trimazi tié vadâzâξ di anizié banâ mirâξ Ramié di= - - _force des “vadazas,” te envoie trois adieux. Ramié te_ - - =trinir tié toumaξ ti bé animinâ ni tiche di uzir nâmi= - - _parlera des charmes de sa existence et bientôt te dira beaucoup_ - - =ti Espênié. évaï divinée= - - _de Espénié. Sois heureuse!_ - - Ramié, dweller in Espénié, thy like, by the force of the “vadazas,” - sends thee three adieux. Ramié will speak to thee of the charms of his - existence, and presently will tell thee much of Espénié. Be happy! - -Graphic. October 27, 1898 (translated December 18).—“Ten minutes to one -in the afternoon. No vision, but a severe cramp in the right arm and -a strong impulse to take pencil and paper. I write, I know not why.” -(It is seen by the translation given two months later that the text -refers to the first manifestation of Ramié and is an announcement of -the ultra-Martian vision which came a few days later.) See Fig. 28. -The term =vadazas=, which has never been explained, has not a Martian -appearance, and appears to have been borrowed from the Hindoo cycle. As -to _Espénié_, see text No. 6. - - 32. =anâ évaï maniké é bétiné mis tié attanâ= - _Maintenant sois attentive à regarder un des mondes_ - - =kâ di médinié bétinié tès tapié ni bée atèv kavivé= - _qui te entourent. Regarde ce “tapié” et ses êtres étranges._ - - =danda anâ= - _Silence maintenant!_ - - Now be attentive to behold one of the worlds which surround thee. Look - at that “tapié” and its strange beings. Silence now! - -Auditive. November 2, 1898 (translated December 18).—Hélène has a -morning vision of a Martian (Ramié) who encircles her waist with one -arm and with the other shows her, while speaking these words, a strange -tableau (=tapié=) containing extraordinary beings speaking the unknown -language of the following text. At the moment the vision is effaced -Hélène writes, without perceiving that she has done so, text No. 34. -(For further details, see the following chapter on the Ultra-Martian.) - - 33. BAK SANAK TOP ANOK SIK - =sirima nêbé viniâ-ti-mis-métiche ivré toué= - _rameau vert nom de un homme sacré dans_ - - ÉTIP VANÉ SANIM BATAM ISSEM TANAK - =viniâ-ti-misé-bigâ azâni maprinié imizi kramâ ziné= - _nom de une enfant mal entré sous panier bleu_ - - VANEM SÉBIM MAZAK TATAK SAKAM - =viniâ-ti-mis-zaki datrinié tuzé vâmé gâmié= - _nom de un animal caché malade triste pleure._ - - Branch green—name of a man—sacred—in—name of a - child—bad—entered—under—basket—blue—name of an - animal—hidden—ill—sad—weeps. - -Auditive, as to the non-Martian text (see following chapter) which -Hélène heard spoken on the 2d of November by the strange beings of the -tableau of the preceding vision. Vocal, as to the Martian translation -of this text, which was given by Astané (incarnated in Hélène and -speaking the unknown language by her mouth, followed by its Martian -equivalent for each word), in the seance of the 18th of December, 1898. -Immediately after, Astané yielded his place to Esenale, who in turn -repeated the Martian phrase, translating it word for word into French -by the customary process. - - [Illustration: Fig. 29. Text No. 34 (November 2, 1898), written by - Mlle. Smith, incarnating Ramié. Natural size.] - - *34. =Ramié di pédrinié anâ né ériné diviné= - _Ramié te quitte maintenant, est satisfait, heureux_ - - =té mûné ten ti vi. hed dassinié mis abadâ ti ché= - _du moment près de toi. Il garde un peu de ton_ - - =atèv ni di parêzié banâ mirâξ.—évaï divinée= - _être et te laisse trois adieux. Sois heureuse!_ - - Ramié leaves thee now, is satisfied, happy for the moment near to - thee. He retains a little of thy being and leaves thee three adieux. - Be happy. - -Graphic. November 2, 1898 (translated December 18).—Hélène only -perceived after its accomplishment that her hand, which she felt -“firmly held,” had written this text at the close of the preceding -vision (see Fig. 29). - - 35. [A] =attanâ zabiné pi ten té iche tarvini mabûré= - _Monde arriéré, très près du nôtre, langage grossier,_ - - =nubé téri zée atèv [B] Astané êzi dabé fouminé ni= - _curieux comme les êtres!—Astané, mon maître puissant et_ - - =ié ti takâ tubré né bibé ti zé umêzé= - _tout de pouvoir, seul est capable de le faire._ - - Hidden world, very near to ours, coarse language, curious like the - beings.—Astané, my powerful master and all powerful, alone is capable - of doing it. - -Auditive. December 5, 1898 (translated December 18).—Working by -lamp-light at seven o’clock in the morning, Hélène again had a vision -of the Martian (Ramié) who had clasped her waist with one arm while -showing her something with a gesture of the other (probably the tableau -of the preceding vision, though Hélène did not see it) and uttering -the first phrase of it (A). The second phrase (B) is the reply of this -same Martian to a mental question of Hélène asking him to translate -the strange language of the other day. (She must, therefore, have -understood the meaning of the first phrase in order to have replied to -it by her appropriate mental question.) - - [Illustration: Fig. 30. Text No. 37 (March 24, 1899), written by Mlle. - Smith, incarnating Astané. [Collection of M. Lemaître.] Owing to a - defect of the stereotype plate a dot is lacking on the first letter.] - - 36. [A] =aé aé aé aé lassunié lâmi rêzé aé aé aé= - _Aé, aé, aé, aé!—Approche; voici Rêzé... aé, aé, aé,_ - - =aé niké bulié va né ozâmié zitêni primêni—[B] ozâmié= - _aé, petit Bulié... où est Ozamié? Zitêni, Primêni... Ozamié,_ - - =viniâ ti mis bigâ kêmâ zitêni viniâ ti misé bigâ kêmisi= - _nom de un enfant mâle; Zitêni, nom de une enfant femelle;_ - - =primêni viniâ ti misé bigâ kêmisi= - _Priméni, nom de une enfant femelle._ - - Aé, aé, aé, aé! Approach, here is Rézá ... aé, aé, aé, aé, little - Bulié ... where is Ozamié? Zitêni, Primêni ... Ozamié, name of a male - child; Zitêni, name of a female child; Primêni, name of a female child. - - [Illustration: Fig. 31. Text No. 38 (March 30, 1899), written by - Mlle. Smith copying a text of Ramié, who appeared to her in a visual - hallucination. [Collection of M. Lemaître.]] - -Auditive. March 8, 1899 (translated June 4).—Hélène heard the phrase -(A) during the vision of which the description follows. At the -translation, as the sitters did not at once understand that the three -first words are proper names, Esenale adds the phrase (B) with its -French signification. “I was unable to go to sleep yesterday evening. -At half-past eleven everything around me was suddenly lighted up, and -the vivid light permitted me to distinguish surrounding objects. I -arose this morning with a very clear remembrance of that which I then -saw. A tableau was formed in that light, and I had more before me than -the interior of a Martian house—an immense square hall, around which -shelves were fastened, or rather little tables suspended and fastened -to the wall. Each of these tables contained a baby, but not at all -bundled up; all the movements of these little infants were free, and -a simple linen cloth was thrown round the body. They might be said to -be lying on yellow moss. I could not say with what the tables were -covered. Some men with strange beasts were circulating round the hall; -these beasts had large flat heads, almost without hair, and large, very -soft eyes, like those of seals; their bodies, slightly hairy, resembled -somewhat those of roes in our country, except for their large and flat -tails; they had large udders, to which the men present fitted a square -instrument with a tube, which was offered to each infant, who was thus -fed with the milk of these beasts. I heard cries, a great hurly-burly, -and it was with difficulty that I could note these few words [of this -text]. This vision lasted about a quarter of an hour; then everything -gradually disappeared, and in a minute after I was in a sound sleep.” - - *37. =Astané bounié zé buzi ti di triné nâmi ni= - _Astané cherche le moyen de te parler beaucoup et_ - - =ti di umêzé séïmiré bi tarvini= - _de te faire comprendre son langage._ - - Astané searches for the means to speak to thee much and to make thee - understand his language. - -Graphic. March 24, 1899 (translated June 4).—“Half-past six in the -morning. Vision of Astané. I was standing, about to put on my slippers. -He spoke to me, but I could not understand him. I took this sheet of -paper and a pencil; he spoke to me no more, but seized my hand which -held the pencil. I wrote under this pressure; I understood nothing, for -this is as Hebrew to me. My hand was released; I raised my head to see -Astané, but he had disappeared” (see Fig. 30). - - *38. =fédié amès Ramié di uzénir tès luné amès zé= - _Fédié, viens; Ramié te attendra ce jour; viens, le_ - - =boua trinir= - _frère parlera._ - - Fédié, come; Ramié will await thee to-day; come, the brother will - speak. - -Visual. March 30, 1899 (translated June 4).—Seated at her toilet-table, -at half-past nine o’clock in the evening, Hélène found herself suddenly -enveloped in a rose-colored fog, which hid one part of the furniture -from her, then was dissipated, allowing her to see, at the farther end -of her room, “a strange hall, lighted with rose-colored globes fastened -to the wall.” Nearer to her appeared a table suspended in the air, and -a man in Martian costume, who wrote with a kind of nail fastened to his -right index-finger. “I lean towards this man; I wish to place my left -hand on this imaginary table, but my hand falls into empty space, and -I have great difficulty in restoring it to its normal position. It was -stiff, and for some moments felt very weak.” Happily the idea occurred -to her to take pencil and paper and copy “the characters which the -Martian, whom I had seen several times before [Ramié], traced; and with -extreme difficulty—since they were much smaller than mine—I succeeded -in reproducing them” (the Martian text of Fig. 31). All this lasted -about a quarter of an hour. I went immediately to bed, and saw nothing -more that evening, nor on the following day. - - [Illustration: Fig. 32. Text No. 39 (April 1, 1899), written by Mlle. - Smith, incarnating Ramié. [Collection of M. Lemaître.] Natural size.] - - *39. =Ramié pondé acâmi andélir téri antéch= - _Ramié, savant astronome, apparaîtra comme hier_ - - =iri é vi anâ. riz vi banâ mirâξ ti Ramié ni= - _souvent à toi maintenant. Sur toi trois adieux de Ramié et_ - - =Astané. évaï divinée= - _Astané. Sois heureuse!_ - - Ramié, learned astronomer, will appear as yesterday often to thee now. - Upon thee three adieux from Ramié and Astané. Be happy! - -Graphic. April 1, 1899 (translated June 4).—“Again, on going to bed at -five minutes past ten, a new vision of the personage seen day before -yesterday [Ramié]. I thought he was about to speak, but no sound issued -from his lips. I quickly take pencil and paper, and feel my right arm -seized by him, and I begin to trace the strange handwriting attached -hereto (see Fig. 32). He is very affectionate; his bearing, his look, -everything breathes both goodness and strangeness. He leaves me really -charmed.” - - 40. =ramié ébanâ dizênâ zivênié ni bi vraïni= - _Ramié, lentement, profondément, étudie, et son désir_ - - =assilé né ten ti rès kalâmé astané êzi dabé né zi= - _immense est près de se accomplir. Astané mon maître est là_ - - =med lé godané ni ankôné évaï bané zizazi divinée= - _pour me aider et réjouir. Sois trois fois heureuse!_ - - Ramié, slowly, deeply studies, and his great desire is near to being - accomplished. Astané, my master, is there to aid me and to rejoice. - Mayst thou be thrice happy! - -Auditive. June 4, 1899 (translated same seance).—Hemisomnambulism, in -which Hélène, without having a vision, hears a voice addressing words -to her, from which, with some difficulty, she collected the preceding -sentences. - -41. To these texts, forming sentences, in order to complete the whole, -some isolated words must be added, gathered on various occasions, the -meaning of which is obtained with sufficient certainty, either from the -French context in which they were framed, or from Hélène’s description -of the objects which they designated. These words are =chèke=, _papier_ -(“paper”); =chinit=, _bague_ (“ring”); =asnète=, _espèce de paravent_ -(“kind of screen”). =Anini Nikaîné=, proper name of a little girl (see -p. 176), probably the Martian sister of Esenale, who floats beside her, -invisible to her, and watches over her during an illness, after the -fashion of spirit protectors. =Béniel=, proper name of our earth, as -seen from Mars (which is called =Durée= in texts 7 and 9). - - -III. REMARKS ON THE MARTIAN LANGUAGE - -Provided the reader has given some attention to the foregoing texts, if -only to the two first, he undoubtedly will have been easily satisfied -as to the pretended language of the planet Mars, and perhaps will be -astonished that I have spent so much time upon it. But, as many of the -_habitués_ of the seances of Mlle. Smith—and, naturally, Mlle. Smith -herself—hold seriously to its authenticity, I cannot absolve myself -from stating why the “Martian” is, in my opinion, only an infantile -travesty of French. Even in default of the astronomical importance -which is claimed for it on the authority of Leopold, this idiom -preserves all the psychological interest which attaches to automatic -products of subconscious activities of the mind, and it well deserves -some minutes of examination. - -It is necessary at the start to render this justice to the -Martian (I continue to designate it by that name, for the sake of -convenience)—namely, that it is, indeed, a language and not a simple -jargon or gibberish of vocal noises produced at the hazard of the -moment without any stability. It cannot be denied the following -characteristics—First: It is a harmony of clearly articulated sounds, -grouped so as to form words. Secondly: These words when pronounced -express definite ideas. Thirdly, and finally: Connection of the -words with the ideas is continuous; or, to put it differently, the -signification of the Martian terms is permanent and is maintained -(apart from slight inconsistencies, to which I will return later on) -from one end to the other of the texts which have been collected in the -course of these three years.[21] I will add that in speaking fluently -and somewhat quickly, as Hélène sometimes does in somnambulism (texts -4, 11, 15, etc.), it has an acoustic quality altogether its own, due -to the predominance of certain sounds, and has a peculiar intonation -difficult to describe. Just as one distinguishes by ear foreign -languages which one does not understand, the whole dialect possessing -a peculiar accent which causes it to be recognized, so in this case -one perceives, from the first syllables uttered, whether Hélène is -speaking Hindoo or Martian, according to the musical connection, the -rhythm, the choice of consonants and vowels belonging to each of the -two idioms. In this the Martian, indeed, bears the stamp of a natural -language. It is not the result of a purely intellectual calculation, -but influences of an æsthetic order, emotional factors, have combined -in its creation and instinctively directed the choice of its assonances -and favorite terminations. The Martian language has certainly not -been fabricated in cold blood during the normal, habitual, French (so -to speak) state of Mlle. Smith, but it bears in its characteristic -tonalities the imprint of a peculiar emotional disposition, of a -fixed humor or psychical Orientation, of a special condition of mind, -which may be called, in one word, the _Martian_ state of Hélène. The -secondary personality, which takes pleasure in linguistic games, seems, -indeed, to be the same, at its source, as that which delights in the -exotic and highly colored visual images of the planet of red rocks, and -which animates the personages of the Martian romance. - -A glance at the _ensemble_ of the foregoing texts shows that Martian, -as compared with French, is characterized by a superabundance of _é_, -_ê_, and _i’s_, and a scarcity of diphthongs and the nasal sounds. A -more accurate statistical table of sounded vowels which strike the -ear in reading aloud the Martian texts on the one hand, and their -translation into French on the other, gives me the percentages of -Table I., which follows. But it is well known that the vowels are -distinguished, from the acoustic point of view, by certain fixed -characteristic sounds, and that they are distributed at different -heights in the musical scale. - - -TABLE I.—STATISTICS OF VOWEL SOUNDS - - Martian French - _a_ % 16.3 13.7 - _e_ mute (like those of _casemate_) “ 3.6 20.8 - _e_ closed or half-closed (like those - of _hébété_, _rêvé_) “ 36.9 14.3 - _e_ open (like that of _aloès_) “ 2.1 4.6 - _i_ “ 34.3 13.4 - _o_ “ 2.3 5.7 - _u_ “ 2.3 3.1 - Diphthongs and nasals (_ou_, _oi_, - _eu_, _an_, _in_, _on_, _un_) “ 2.1 24.5 - - -TABLE II.—GROUPING FROM POINT OF VIEW OF HEIGHT - - Martian French - Vowels, high (_i_ and _e_ sounded) % 73.3 32.3 - Vowels, middle (_a_ and _o_) “ 18.6 19.4 - Vowels, low or hollow (_u_; diphthongs - and nasals; _e_ mute) “ 8.0 48.4 - -_i_ and _é_ are the highest, _a_ and _o_ occupy the middle place, -_u_ and _ou_ are found in the lower part of the scale. In adding to -the latter, therefore, the nasals, which are always hollow, and also -_e_ mute, Table I. divides itself into the three groups of Table II. -from the point of view of height and sonorousness. It is, therefore, -clear that the Martian is of a general tonality much higher than the -French; since, while the two languages have almost the same proportion -of middle vowels, the low, hollow, or mute sounds, which constitute -almost one-half of the French vowels, amount to scarcely one-twelfth in -Martian, in which the high sounds, on the contrary, represent in bulk -three-quarters of the vowels, against one-third only in the French. -On the other hand, researches in the field of colored audition have -demonstrated that a close psychological connection exists, based on -certain emotional analogies and an equivalence of organic reactions, -between the high sounds and the bright or vivid colors, and the low -or hollow sounds and the sombre colors. But this same correlation is -found in the somnambulistic life of Mlle. Smith, between the brilliant, -luminous, highly colored visions which characterize her Martian cycle -and the language of the high and sonorous vowels which gushes forth in -the same cycle. It is allowable to conclude from this that it is really -the same emotional atmosphere which bathes and envelops these varied -psychological products, the same personality which gives birth to these -visual and phonetic automatisms. The imagination cannot, however, as is -easily understood, create its fiction out of nothing; it is obliged to -borrow its materials from individual experience. The Martian tableaux -are, therefore, only a reflection of the terrestrial world, but of that -part of it which possesses the most warmth and brilliancy—the Orient; -in the same way, the Martian language is only French metamorphosed and -carried to a higher diapason. - -I admit, then, that Martian is a language, and a natural language, -in the sense that it is automatically brought forth in the emotional -state, or by the secondary personality, which is the source of all the -remainder of the cycle without the conscious participation of Mlle. -Smith. It remains for me now to mention some of the characteristics -which seem to indicate that the inventor of this subliminal linguistic -work had never known any idiom other than French, that it is much more -sensible to verbal expression than to logical connection of ideas, -and that it possesses in an eminent degree that infantile and puerile -character which I have already pointed out in the author of the Martian -romance. It now becomes necessary to examine rapidly this unknown -language, from the point of view of its phonetics and its writing, its -grammatical form, its syntax, and its vocabulary. - -1. _Martian Phonetics and Handwriting._—Martian is composed of -articulate sounds, all of which, consonants as well as vowels, exist in -French. While on this globe languages geographically our neighbors (not -to mention those farther away) differ each from the other by certain -special sounds—_ch_, German, _th_, English, etc.—the language of the -planet Mars does not permit of similar phonetic originalities. It -seems, on the contrary, poorer in this respect than the French. As yet -I have not found in it the hissing _j_ or _ge_ (as in _juger_), nor the -double sound _x_. Martian phonetics, in a word, are only an incomplete -reproduction of French phonetics. - -The Martian alphabet, compared with ours, suggests a remarkable -analogy. The graphic form of the characters is certainly novel, and -no one would divine our letters in these designs of exotic aspect. -Nevertheless, each Martian sign (with the single exception of that of -the plural) corresponds to a French sign, although the inverse is not -the case, which indicates that here again we are in the presence of a -feeble imitation of our system of handwriting. - -The twelve written texts upon which I base my comparison comprise -about 300 words (of which 160 are different) and 1200 signs. There are -altogether twenty-one different letters, all of which have their exact -equivalents in the French alphabet, which also has five others which -Martian lacks; _j_ and _x_, of which the sounds themselves have not -been observed, and _q_, _w_, and _y_, of which there is a double use, -with _k_, _v_, and _i_. This reduction of graphic material manifests -itself in two other details. First, there are neither accents nor -punctuation marks, with the exception of a certain sign, resembling -the French circumflex, used sometimes in the shape of a point at the -end of phrases. In the second place, each letter has only one form, -the diversity of capitals and small letters not seeming to exist in -Martian. Of ciphers we know nothing. - -There are still three small peculiarities to notice: - -1. In default of capitals, the initials of proper names are often -distinguished by a point placed above the ordinary character. - -2. In the case of double letters the second is replaced by a point -situated at the right of the first. - -3. Finally, there exists, in order to designate the plural of -substantives and of some adjectives, a special graphic sign, answering -to nothing in the pronunciation and having the form of a small -vertical undulation, which reminds one a little of an amplification -of the French _s_, the usual mark of the plural in French. These -peculiarities, outside the ordinary form of the letters, constitute the -sum total of ingenuity displayed in Martian handwriting. - -It must be added that this handwriting, which is not ordinarily -inclined, goes from left to right, like the French. All the letters are -of nearly the same height, except that the _i_ is much smaller, and -that they remain isolated from each other; their assembly into words -and phrases offers to the eye a certain aspect of Oriental hieroglyphic -inscriptions. - -The Martian alphabet never having been revealed as such, we are -ignorant of the order in which the letters follow each other. It would -seem as though the letters had been invented by following the French -alphabet, at least in great part, if one may judge according to the -analogies of form of the Martian characters corresponding to certain -series of French letters: compare _a_ and _b_; _g_ and _h_; _s_ and -_t_; and also the succession _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_. - -It is in the phonetic value of the letters—that is to say, in the -correspondence of the articulated sounds with the graphic signs—that -the essentially French nature of the Martian may be seen. The only -notable difference to be pointed out here between the two languages -is the much greater simplicity of the Martian orthography, resulting -in the employment of no useless letters. All are pronounced, even the -final consonants, such as _s_, _n_, _z_, etc., which are generally -silent in French. This gives the impression that the Martian -handwriting is moulded on the spoken language, and is only the notation -of the articulated sounds of the latter by the most economical means. -In so far it realizes the type of a handwriting truly phonetic—that -is to say, where each sign corresponds to a certain elementary -articulation, constant and invariable, and vice versa. It is full, on -the other hand, of equivocations, of exceptions, of irregularities, -which make one and the same letter to have very different -pronunciations, according to circumstances, and, reciprocally, -which causes the same sound to be written in different ways without -our being able to perceive any rational explanation for all these -ambiguities—were it not for the fact that the very same thing is to be -found in French! - -Martian is only disguised French. I will mention only the most curious -and striking coincidences, all the more striking from the fact that the -field from which I have collected them is very limited, being confined -to the dozen texts written and pronounced, which contain only 160 -different words. - -The simple vowels of the Martian alphabet correspond exactly to the -five French vowels, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, and have the same shades -of pronunciation. - -The Martian _c_ plays the triple part which it also fulfils in French. -The _s_ has the same capricious character as in our language. It is -generally hard, but between two vowels it becomes soft, like _z_. - -2. _Grammatical Forms._—The _ensemble_ of the texts which we possess -does not as yet permit us to make a Martian grammar. Certain -indications, however, warrant the prediction that the rules of that -grammar, if it ever sees the light of day, will be only the counterpart -of, or a parody upon, those of French. - -Here, for example, is a list of personal pronouns, articles, possessive -adjectives, etc., which have appeared hitherto: - - _je_ =cé= _me_ =lé=, _ton_ =ché= _ce_ =tès=, _de_ =ti= - _moi_ =si= _ces_ =têsé= - - _tu_ =dé= _te_ =di=, _ta_ =chée= _cette_ =tês=, _des_ =tié= - _toi_ =vi= =têsée= - - _il_ =hed= _se_ =rès=, _tes_ =chi= _le_ (pron.) _du_ =té= - _lui_ =pi= =zé= - - _nous_ =nini= _mon_ =êzi= _son_ =bi= _qui_ =kâ=, _au_ =ine= - _que_ =ké= - - _vous_ =sini= _ma_ =êzé= _sa_ =bé= _quel_ =kiz=, - _quelle_ =kizé= - - _ils_ =hed= _mes_ =éziné= _ses_ =bée= _un_ =mis=, _une_ =misé= - - _on_ =idé= _notre_ =iche= _le_, _la_ _les_ (art.) - =zé=, =zi=, =zée=. - -There are some texts where the feminine is derived from the masculine -by the addition of an _e_ mute, and the plural by the small, -unpronounced sign, which has all the appearance of being a reminiscence -of French _s_. - -Between these two languages there is another order of points -of contact, of a more special interest, because it shows the -preponderating rôle which verbal images have often played in the -making of Martian to the prejudice of the intrinsic, logical nature -of the ideas. I should say that at all times the Martian translates -the French word, allowing itself to be guided by auditive analogies -without regard to the real meaning, in such a way that we are surprised -to discover in the idiom of the planet Mars the same peculiarities of -homonyms as in French. It is also the case that two vocables identical -as to pronunciation, but of entirely heterogeneous signification, as -the preposition _à_ and the _a_ of the verb _avoir_, are rendered in -Martian by the same word, _é_. - -Other curious coincidences are to be noted. In French the conjunction -_et_ only slightly differs, from the point of view of phonic images, -from the verb _est_; in Martian also there is a great analogy, between -=ni= and =né=, which translate these two words. Between the past -participle =nié= of the verb _to be_ and the conjunction =ni= there -is only the difference of an =_é_=, just as between their French -equivalents =_été_= and =_et_=. - -It must be admitted that all these coincidences would be very -extraordinary if they were purely fortuitous. - -3. _Construction and Syntax._—The order of the words is absolutely the -same in Martian as in French. This identity of construction of phrases -is pursued sometimes into the minutest details, such as the division -or amputation of the negation _ne_ ... _pas_ (texts 15 and 17), and -also the introduction of a useless letter in Martian to correspond to -a French euphemistic _t_ (see text 15), =Kèvi bérimir m hed=, _quand -reviendra-t-il?_ (“when will he return?”) - -If it is admitted hypothetically that the succession of words, -such as is given us in these texts, is not the natural ordering of -the Martian language, but an artificial arrangement, like that of -juxtalinear translations for the use of pupils, the very possibility -of that correspondence absolutely word for word would remain an -extraordinary fact without a parallel, since there is not a single -language that I know of in which each term of the French phrase is -always rendered by _one_ term, neither more nor less, of the foreign -phrase. The hypothesis referred to is, moreover, inadmissible, since -the Martian texts, of which Esenale gives the literal translation, -were not previously arranged by him with that end in view; they are -the identical words which Mlle. Smith heard and noted in her visions, -often weeks and months before Esenale repeats them for the purpose of -translating them, and which constitute the conversation, as such, taken -from life, of the Martian personages. We must conclude from this that -these in their elocution follow step by step and word by word the order -of the French language, which amounts almost to saying that they speak -a French the sounds of which have simply been changed. - -4. _Vocabulary._—From an etymological point of view, I have not been -able to distinguish any rule of derivation, even partial, that would -permit the suspicion that the Martian words had come from French words, -according to some law. Apart from the entire first text, where it is -difficult to deny that the people of Mars have stolen French terms of -politeness, at the same time distorting them, no clear resemblance -is to be seen between Martian words and the French equivalents; at -most, there are traces of borrowing, like =merve=, _superbe_, which -might have been abridged from _merveille_ (text 25), and =vechi=, an -imitation of _voir_. - -Still less does the Martian lexicon betray the influence of other -known languages (at least to my knowledge). A term which suggests such -similarity is hardly ever met with—_e.g._, =modé=, _mère_ (“mother”), -and =gudé= _bon_ (“good”), cause us to think of German or English -words; =animina= (“existence”) is like _anima_; various forms of the -verbs _être_ and _vivre_ (“to be” and “to live”), =êvé=, =évaï=, -=essat=, recall the Latin _esse_ or the Hebrew _évé_, and that passage -of the Biblical story of the Creation where Eve is called the mother -of all living beings. A linguist who happened to be at the same time -a savant and a humorist would doubtless succeed in lengthening this -list of etymologies, after the mode of the eighteenth century. But, -_cui bono_? In that rarity of points of contact between the idioms of -our terrestrial sphere and the Martian glossary, an argument might be -found in favor of the extra-terrestrial origin of the latter, if, on -the other hand, it did not seem to betray the influence of the French -language from the fact that a notable proportion of its words reproduce -in a suspicious manner the same number of syllables or letters as their -French equivalents; note, for example, besides the terms of politeness -already mentioned, the words =tarvine=, _langage_; =haudan=, _maison_; -=dodé=, _ceci_; =valini=, _visage_, etc., and the great majority of the -little words, such as =cé=, _je_; =ké=, _que_; =ti=, _de_; =dé=, _tu_; -etc. - -With the exception of such examples as these, it must be acknowledged -that there is no trace of parentage, filiation, of any resemblance -whatever between the Martian and French vocabularies, which forms a -singular contrast to the close identity which we have established -between the two languages in the preceding paragraphs. - -This apparent contradiction carries its explanation in itself, and -gives us the key to Martian. This fantastic idiom is evidently the -naïve and somewhat puerile work of an infantile imagination, to which -occurred the idea of creating a new language, and which, while giving -to its lucubrations certain strange and unknown appearances, without -doubt caused them to run in the accustomed moulds of the only real -language of which it had cognizance. The Martian of Mlle. Smith, in -other words, is the product of a brain or a personality which certainly -has taste and aptitude for linguistic exercises, but which never knew -that French takes little heed of the logical connection of ideas, -and did not take the trouble to make innovations in the matter of -phonetics, of grammar, or of syntax. - -The process of creation of Martian seems to have consisted in simply -taking certain French phrases as such and replacing each word by -some other chosen at random. That is why, especially in the texts at -the beginning, the structure of French words is recognized under the -Martian. The author herself was undoubtedly struck by it, and from that -time exerted herself to complicate her lexicon, to render her words -more and more unrecognizable. - -This research of originality—which, however, she has never extended -beyond the purely material part of the language, never having an idea -that there might be other differences in languages—represents an effort -of imagination with which she must be credited. Homage must also be -rendered to the labor of memorizing, which the making of a dictionary -has necessitated. She has sometimes, indeed, fallen into errors; the -stability of her vocabulary has not always been perfect. But, finally, -after the first hesitation and independently of some later confusions, -it gives evidence of a praiseworthy terminological consistency, and -which no doubt in time, and with some suggestive encouragement, would -result in the elaboration of a very complete language—perhaps even of -several languages, as we may augur from text 33, to which we shall -return in the following chapter. - -5. _Style._—It remains to investigate the style. If it is true -that “manners make the man”—that is to say, not the impersonal and -abstract understanding, but the concrete character, the individual -temperament, the humor and emotional vibration—we ought to expect to -find in the style of the Martian texts the same special stamp which -distinguishes the visions, the sound of the language, the handwriting, -the personages—in short, the entire romance, that is to say, the -curious mixture of Oriental exoticism and of childish puerility of -which the secondary personality of Mlle. Smith, at work in this cycle, -seems to be composed. It is difficult to pronounce upon these matters -of vague æsthetic impression rather than of precise observation; but, -as well as I can judge, there seems to me to be in the phraseology of -the texts collected an indefinable something which corresponds well -with the general character of the entire dream. As these words are -evidently first thought in French—then travesties in Martian by a -substitution of sounds, the choice of which, as has been seen, apropos -of the high tonality of this language, reflects the general emotional -disposition—it is, naturally, under their French aspect that we ought -to consider them in judging of their actual style. Unfortunately, we -do not know how far the translation given by Esenale is identical -with the primitive original; certain details seem to hint that there -are divergences sometimes. However that may be, it is clearly to be -perceived that the literary form of the majority of the texts (taken -in French) is more akin to poetry than to prose. While no one of -them is in verse, properly speaking, the large number of hemistiches -which are met with, the frequency of inversion, the choice of terms, -the abundance of exclamations and of broken phrases, betray a great -intensity of sentimental and poetic emotion. The same character is -found, with a strong shade of exotic and archaic originality, in the -formulas of salutation and farewell (“be happy to-day,” “three adieux -to thee,“ etc.), as well as in many expressions and terms of phrases -which rather recall the obscure and metaphorical parlance of the Orient -than the dry precision of our language of to-day (”_il garde un peu de -ton être; cet élément mystérieux, immense_,” etc.) - -If, now, it is recollected that everywhere in literary history poetry -precedes prose, imagination comes before reason, and the lyric style -before the didactic, a conclusion according with that of the preceding -paragraphs is reached. Which is, that, by its figures and its style, -the Martian language (or the French phrases which serve it for a -skeleton) seems to bring to us the echo of a past age, the reflex of a -primitive state of mind, from which Mlle. Smith to-day finds herself -very far removed in her ordinary and normal states of mind. - - -IV. MLLE. SMITH AND THE INVENTOR OF MARTIAN - -The preceding analysis of the Martian language furnishes its support -to the considerations which the content of the romance has already -suggested to us in regard to its author (p. 194). To imagine that by -twisting the sounds of French words a new language capable of standing -examination could actually be created, and to wish to make it pass for -that of the planet Mars, would be the climax of silly fatuity or of -imbecility were it not simply a trait of naïve candor well worthy of -the happy age of childhood. - -The whole Martian cycle brings us into the presence of an infantine -personality exuberant of imagination, sharing, as to their light, -color, Oriental exoticism, the æsthetic tendencies of the actual normal -personality of Mlle. Smith, but contrasting with it outside its puerile -character in two points to be noted. - -First: It takes a special pleasure in linguistic discussions and the -fabrication of unknown idioms, while Hélène has neither taste nor -facility for the study of languages, which she cordially detests and in -which she has never met with success. - -Secondly: Notwithstanding this aversion, Hélène possesses a certain -knowledge, either actual or potential, of German—in which her parents -caused her to take lessons for three years—whereas the author of -Martian evidently knows only French. It is, in fact, difficult to -believe that, if that author had only a very slight knowledge of the -German language (so different from the French by the construction -of its sentences, pronunciation, its three genders, etc.), that -some reminiscences of it, at least, would not have slipped into its -lucubrations. I infer from this that the Martian secondary personality -which gives evidence of a linguistic activity so fecund, but so -completely subject to the structural forms of the mother-tongue, -represents a former stage, ulterior to the epoch at which Hélène -commenced the study of German. - -If one reflects, on the other hand, on the great facility which Mlle. -Smith’s father seems to have possessed for languages (see p. 17), -the question naturally arises whether in the Martian we are not in -the presence of an awakening and momentary display of an hereditary -faculty, dormant under the normal personality of Hélène, but which she -has not profited from in an effective manner. It is a fact of common -observation that talents and aptitudes often skip a generation and seem -to pass directly from the grandparents to the grandchildren, forgetting -the intermediate link. Who knows whether Mlle. Smith, some day, having -obtained Leopold’s consent to her marriage, may not cause the polyglot -aptitudes of her father to bloom again with greater brilliancy, for the -glory of science, in a brilliant line of philologists and linguists of -genius? - -Meanwhile, and without even invoking a special latent talent in -Hélène’s case, the Martian may be attributed to a survival or a -reawakening under the lash of mediumistic hypnoses of that general -function, common to all human beings, which is at the root of language -and manifests itself with the more spontaneity and vigor as we mount -higher towards the birth of peoples and individuals. - -Ontogenesis, say the biologists, reproduces in abridged form and -_grosso-modo_ phylogenesis; each being passes through stages analogous -to those through which the race itself passes; and it is known that -the first ages of ontogenic evolution—the embryonic period, infancy, -early youth—are more favorable than later periods and adult age to the -ephemeral reappearances of ancestral tendencies, which would hardly -leave any trace upon a being who had already acquired his organic -development. The “poet who died young” in each one of us is only the -most common example of those atavic returns of tendencies and of -emotions which accompanied the beginnings of humanity, and remain -the appanage of infant peoples, and which cause a fount of variable -energy in each individual in the spring-time of his life, to congeal or -disappear sooner or later with the majority; all children are poets, -and that in the original, the most extended, acceptation of the term. -They create, they imagine, they construct—and language is not the least -of their creations. - -I conclude from the foregoing that the very fact of the reappearance of -that activity in the Martian states of Hélène is a new indication of -the infantile, primitive nature left behind in some way and long since -passed by her ordinary personality, of the subliminal strata which -mediumistic autohypnotization with her puts in ebullition and causes -to mount to the surface. There is also a perfect accord between the -puerile character of the Martian romance, the poetic and archaic charms -of its style, and the audacious and naïve fabrication of its unknown -language. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONCLUDED).—THE ULTRA-MARTIAN - - -All things become wearisome at last, and the planet Mars is no -exception to the rule. The subliminal imagination of Mlle. Smith, -however, will probably never tire of its lofty flights in the society -of Astané, Esenale, and their associates. I myself, I am ashamed to -acknowledge, began, in 1898, to have enough of the Martian romance. - -Once having satisfied myself as to the essential nature of the Martian -language, I did not desire to make a profound study of it, and since -the texts had made their appearance so slowly, for two years, as to -threaten to continue during the remainder of my natural existence, -as well as that of the medium, without coming to an end; finding, on -the other hand, that the texts, considered as simple psychological -curiosities, varied but little and were at length likely to become -burdensome, I decided to try some experiment which, without drying up -their source, might at least break through this monotony. Up to that -time, without giving a positive opinion as to the Martian, I had always -manifested a very real interest in these communications, as well as in -Mlle. Smith in her waking state, and in Leopold in his incarnations. -Both of these showed themselves fully persuaded of the objective verity -of this language, and of the visions which accompanied it. Leopold -had not ceased, from the first day, to affirm its strictly Martian -authenticity. Hélène, without maintaining absolutely that it came from -Mars rather than from any other planet, shared the same faith in the -extra-terrestrial origin of these messages; and, as appeared from many -details of her conversations and conduct, she saw in it a revelation of -the loftiest import, which might some day cause “all the discoveries -of M. Flammarion” to sink into insignificance. What would happen if I -made up my mind to strike this strange conviction a telling blow, and -demonstrate that the pretended Martian was only a chimera, a product, -pure and simple, of somnambulistic autosuggestion? - -My first tentative experiment, addressed to Leopold, had no appreciable -influence on the course of the Martian cycle. It was at the seance -of February 13, 1898. Hélène was profoundly asleep, and Leopold was -conversing with us by gestures of the arm and spelling on the fingers. -I categorically informed him of my certainty that the Martian was of -terrestrial fabrication, and that a comparison with the French proved -it so to be. As Leopold responded by emphatic gestures of dissent, -I detailed to him some evidences, among others the accord of the -two languages as to their pronunciation of _ch_, as to the homonym -of the pronoun and article _le_. He listened to me, and seemed to -understand my arguments, but he refused to admit the force of these -characteristic coincidences, and said: “There are some things more -extraordinary,” and was unwilling to give up the authenticity of the -Martian. We stood by our respective opinions, and the later texts do -not show any trace of our interview. It seemed, therefore, that it was -not through the intervention of Leopold that a modification of the -Martian romance was to be suggested. - -I allowed some months to pass, then tried a discussion with Hélène -while she was awake. On two occasions, in October, 1898, I expressed -to her my utter skepticism as to the Martian. The first time, on the -6th of October, in a visit which I made to her outside of any seance, -I confined myself to certain general objections to it, to which she -replied, in substance, as follows: First, that this unknown language, -by reason of its intimate union with the visions, and in spite of its -possible resemblances to the French, must necessarily be Martian, if -the visions are. Then nothing seriously opposes that actual origin of -the visions, and, consequently, of the language itself; since there are -two methods of explaining this knowledge of a far-off world—namely, -communications properly _spiritistic_ (_i. e._, from spirits to -spirits, without material intermediary) the reality of which cannot be -held to be doubtful; _and clairvoyance_, that faculty, or undeniable -sixth sense, of mediums which permits them both to see and hear at any -distance. Finally, that she did not hold tenaciously to the distinctly -Martian origin of that strange dream, provided it is conceded that it -comes from somewhere outside herself, it being inadmissible to regard -it as the work of her subconsciousness, since she had not, during her -ordinary life, absolutely any perception whatever, any sentiment, not -the shadow of a hint of that alleged interior work of elaboration to -which I persisted in attributing it against all the evidence and all -common-sense. - -Some days later (October 16th), as Mlle. Smith, perfectly awake after -an afternoon seance, passed the evening at my house, and seemed to be -in the fulness of her normal state, I returned to the charge with more -of insistence. - -I had until then always avoided showing her the full translation of the -Martian texts, as well as the alphabet, and she only knew by sight, so -to speak, the Martian handwriting, and was ignorant of the value of the -letters. - -This time I explained to her in detail the secrets of the language, -its superficial originalities and fundamental resemblances to French; -the frequent occurrence of _i_ and _e_, its puerile construction, -identical with French, even to the slipping in of a superfluous -euphonic =m= between the words =bérmier= and =hed= in order to imitate -the expression _reviendra-t-il?_ its numerous caprices of phonetics -and homonyms, evident reflexes of those to which we are accustomed, -etc. I added that the visions seemed to me to be also suspicious -through their improbable analogies with that which we see on our globe. -Supposing that the houses, the vegetation, and the people of Mars -were constructed on the same fundamental plan as those here below, it -was nevertheless very doubtful whether they had the same proportions -and typical aspect; in short, astronomy teaches us that on Mars the -physical conditions—the length of the year, the intensity of weight, -etc.—are all other than with us: the last point, in particular, should -act on all the products, natural and artificial, in such a way as to -alter greatly the dimensions as well as the proportions of height -and size which are familiar to us. I observed, again, that there are -doubtless on Mars, as on the earth, a great variety of idioms, and -the singular chance which made Esenale speak a language so similar to -French was very astonishing. I concluded, finally, by remarking that -all this was easily explicable, as well as the Oriental aspect of -the Martian landscapes and the generally infantile character of that -romance, if it were regarded as a work of pure imagination, due to a -secondary personality or to a dream state of Mlle. Smith herself, who -recognized having always had “great taste for that which is original -and connected with the Orient.” - -For more than an hour Hélène followed my demonstration with a lively -interest. But to each new reason, after having appeared at first a -little disconcerted by it, she did not hesitate to repeat, like a -triumphal refrain and as an unanswerable argument, that science is -not infallible; that no scientist has yet been on Mars; and that -consequently it is impossible to affirm with any certainty that affairs -there are not conformable to her visions. To my conclusion she replied -that, as far as concerns Mars or anything else, her revelations did -not, in any case, spring from sources within herself, and that she did -not understand why I was so implacable against that which is the most -simple supposition, that of their authenticity, or why I should prefer -to it this silly and absurd hypothesis of an underlying self plotting -in her, unknown to her, this strange mystification. - -Maintaining all the while that my deductions appeared to me strictly -correct, I felt bound to admit that science is not infallible, and that -a voyage to Mars could alone solve all our doubts as to what takes -place there. We parted good friends, but that conversation left me with -a very clear impression of the complete uselessness of my efforts to -make Mlle. Smith share my conceptions of the subliminal consciousness. -But this, however, neither surprises nor grieves me, since from her -point of view it is perhaps better that she thus believes. - -The following shows, however, that my reasonings on that evening, -sterile in appearance, were not without effect. If they have not -modified Mlle. Smith’s _conscious_ manner of seeing, and, above -all, the opinion of Leopold, they have nevertheless penetrated to -the profound strata where the Martian visions are elaborated, and, -acting there as a leaven, have been the source of new and unexpected -developments. This result brilliantly corroborates the idea that the -whole Martian cycle is only a product of suggestion and autosuggestion. -Just as formerly the regret of M. Lemaître at not knowing that -which passes on other planets had furnished the first germ of that -lucubration, so now my criticisms and remarks on the language and -peoples of that upper world served as a point of departure for new -circuits of Hélène’s subliminal imagination. If, in fact, the content -of our discussion of the 16th of October, which I have above briefly -summed up, is compared with the visions of the following months (see -beginning with text 30), it is clear that these latter contain an -evident beginning of an answer, and are an attempt to satisfy the -questions which I raised. A very curious attempt is there made, naïve -and infantine, like the whole Martian romance, to escape the defects of -which I complained on that occasion, not by modifying and correcting -it—that would have been to reverse and to contradict herself—but -by going beyond it in some sort, and by superposing upon it a new -construction, an _ultra-Martian_ cycle, if I may be permitted that -expression, hinting at the same time that it unfolds itself on some -undetermined planet still farther away than Mars, and that it does not -constitute an absolutely independent narrative, but that it is grafted -on the primitive Martian romance. - -The suggestive effect of my objections of the 16th of October was -not immediate, but became a work of incubation. Text 30, coming the -following week, differed but slightly from the preceding, save for the -absence of a euphonic letter, which, however, had been better in place -between the words =bindié idé=, _trouve-t-on_, than in the =bèrimir m -hed= of text 15, to which I had attracted Hélène’s attention; possibly -it is allowable to regard this little detail as a first result of my -criticisms. The apparition, a little later, of a new Martian personage, -Ramié, who promised Hélène some near revelations as to a planet not -otherwise specified (text 31), proves that the ultra-Martian dream -was in process of subconscious ripening, but it did not burst forth -until the 2d of November (seventeen days after the suggestion with -which I connect it), in that curious scene in which Ramié reveals to -Mlle. Smith an unsuspected and grotesque world, the language of which -singularly differs from the usual Martian. The detailed description -of that strange vision, which Hélène sent me, is worth the trouble of -citing (see also texts 32 to 35): - -“I was awakened, and arose about twenty minutes ago. It was about a -quarter-past six in the morning, and I was getting ready to sew. Then, -for an instant, I noticed that my lamp was going out, and I ended by -not seeing anything more. At the same moment I felt my waist clasped, -strongly held by an invisible arm. I then saw myself surrounded by a -rose-colored light, which generally shows itself when a Martian vision -is coming. I quickly took paper and pencil, which are always within -reach on my toilet-table, and placed these two things on my knees, in -case some words should come to be noted. - -“Hardly were these preparations concluded when I saw at my side a man -of Martian visage and costume. It was, in fact, the personage [Ramié] -who had clasped my waist with his left arm, showing me with his right -hand a tableau, at first indistinct, but which finally outlined itself -quite clearly. He spoke also some sentences, which I can note very -well, it seems to me [text 32, where Ramié attracts the attention -of Hélène to one of the worlds which surround him and makes her see -strange beings.] - -“I saw then a section of country peopled by men altogether different -from those which inhabit our globe. The tallest of all were three feet -high, and the majority were an inch or two shorter. Their hands were -immense, about ten inches long by eight broad; they were ornamented -with very long black nails. Their feet also were of great size. - -“I did not see any tree, any bit of verdure. I saw a medley of houses, -or rather cabins, of the most simple style, all low, long, without -windows or doors; and each house had a little tunnel, about ten feet -long [see Fig. 33] running from it into the earth. - - [Illustration: Fig. 33. Ultra-Martian houses. Drawn by Mlle. Smith - after her vision of November 2, 1898.] - -“The roofs were flat, supplied with chimneys, or tubes. The men, -with arms and bodies bare, had for all clothing only a sort of skirt -reaching to the waist and supported by a kind of suspenders thrown over -the shoulders, which were apparently very strong. Their heads were very -short, being about three inches high by six inches broad, and were -close shaven. They had very small eyes, immense mouths, noses like -beans. Everything was so different from what we are accustomed to in -our world that I should have almost believed it to be an animal rather -than a man I saw there, had there not suddenly issued from the lips of -one of them some words, which, fortunately—I hardly know how—I was able -to note down. This vision lasted a quarter of an hour. Then I found my -waist liberated, but my right hand was still firmly held, in order to -trace strange characters on the paper” (text 34, adieux of Ramié to -Hélène). - -A little later there was a continuation, or an abortive repetition, of -the same vision; the table did not appear distinctly, and Ramié (text -35) contented himself with teaching Hélène things concerning a world -beyond, a near neighbor to Mars, and a coarser language, of which -Astané alone could furnish a translation. This is, in effect, what took -place two weeks later: Astané incarnated himself with gestures and -peculiar spasmodic movements, and repeated (in Hélène’s ordinary voice) -the barbaric text, followed word by word by its Martian equivalents, -which Esenale, in turn, succeeding Astané, interpreted in French, in -his customary manner. Leopold also informed us, in reply to a question -of one of the sitters, that this uncouth and primitive world was one -of the smaller planets; but it is to be presumed that he would also -have answered in the affirmative if he had been asked if it were called -Phobos or Deimos; and, in short, one of the satellites of Mars would -answer better than the asteroids to the globe “very near to ours,” of -which Ramié spoke. - -Up to this point the ultra-Martian messages were confined to the -preceding. The last texts obtained (37 to 40) seem to announce that -the end has not been reached on that side, and cause us to hope for -new revelations, when the astronomer Ramié, as the result of his -having studied under the skilful direction of his master Astané, shall -be in a position to make further discoveries in the Martian sky. -Psychologically speaking, this amounts to saying that the process of -latent incubation continues; a new ultra-Martian language is in a -state of development in the subliminal depths. If it bursts forth some -day, I shall hasten to bring it to the knowledge of the scientific -world—in another edition of this book. For the present I limit myself -to remarking how much the little ultra-Martian we possess already -indicates the wish to answer my questions of the 16th of October. - -I had accused the Martian dream of being a mere imitation, varnished -with brilliant Oriental colors, of the civilized environment which -surrounds us—and here is a world of terrifying grotesqueness, with -black soil, from which all vegetation is banished, and the coarser -people of which are more like beasts than human beings. I had -insinuated that the people and things of that upper world ought really -to have other dimensions and proportions than with us—and here are the -inhabitants of that farther world veritable dwarfs, with heads twice as -broad as they are high, and houses to match. I had made allusion to the -probable existence of other languages, referred to the superabundance -in Martian of _i_ and _e_, impeached its syntax and its _ch_, borrowed -from the French, etc.—and here is a language absolutely new, of a very -peculiar rhythm, extremely rich in _a_, without any _ch_ at all up to -the present moment, and of which the construction is so different from -the French that there is no method of discovering it. - -This latter point, above all, seems to me to present in its apogee the -character of childishness and puerility which clearly shows itself in -that unexpected appendix to the Martian cycle, as in the entire cycle -itself. Evidently the naïve subliminal philologist of Mlle. Smith has -been struck by my criticisms on the identical order of the words in -Martian and in French, and has endeavored to avoid that defect in her -new effort at an unknown language. - -But not knowing in just what syntax and construction consist, she has -found nothing better to suit her purpose than the substitution of -chaos for the natural arrangement of the terms in her thought, and the -fabrication of an idiom which had decidedly nothing in common with the -French in this respect. Here is where the most beautiful disorder is -practically a work of art. It has, moreover, succeeded, since, even -with the double translation, Martian and French, of text 33, it is -impossible to know exactly what is meant. - -It is possibly the little girl _Etip_ who is sad, and who _weeps_ -because the man _Top_ has done _harm_ to the _sacred_ animal _Vanem_ -(which had _hidden_, _sick_, _under_ some _green branches_), wishing -to _enter in_ to a _blue basket_. At least it could not have been the -_branch_, the _man_, or the _basket_ which was _sacred_, the child -sick, etc. - -The green branch is out of harmony with a world in which, according to -Hélène’s vision, there were neither trees nor verdure; but Esenale -has not specified whether it means _vert_ or _ver_, _vers_, etc., nor -whether _caché_ and _entré_ are participles or infinitives. I leave -this rebus to the reader and come to my conclusion, which will be -brief, since it accords with the considerations already given at the -end of the two preceding chapters. - -The whole Martian cycle, with its special language and its -ultra-Martian appendix, is only, at bottom, a vast product of -occasional suggestions on the part of the environment, and of -autosuggestions which have germinated, sprouted, and borne abundant -fruit, under the influence of incitement from the outside, but without -coming to amount to anything but a shapeless and confused mass, which -imposes on one by its extent much more than its intrinsic worth, since -it is supremely childish, puerile, insignificant in all aspects, -save as a psychological curiosity. The author of this lucubration is -not the real adult and normal personality of Mlle. Smith, who has -very different characteristics, and who feels herself, in the face -of these automatic messages, as though in the presence of something -foreign, independent, exterior, and finds herself constrained to -believe in their objective reality and in their authenticity. It seems, -indeed, rather a former, infantine, less evolved state of Hélène’s -individuality, which has again come to light, renewed its life, and -once more become active in her Martian somnambulisms. - -It is hardly necessary to add, in conclusion, that the whole -spiritistic or occult hypothesis seems to me to be absolutely -superfluous and unjustified in the case of the Martian of Mlle. Smith. -Autosuggestibility set in motion by certain stimulating influences -of the environment, as we come to see through the history of the -ultra-Martian, amply suffices to account for this entire cycle. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE HINDOO CYCLE - - -While the Martian romance is purely a work of fantasy, in which the -creative imagination was able to allow itself free play through -having no investigation to fear, the Hindoo cycle, and that of Marie -Antoinette, having a fixed terrestrial setting, represent a labor -of construction which was subjected from the start to very complex -conditions of environments and epochs. To keep within the bounds of -probability, not to be guilty of too many anachronisms, to satisfy the -multiple demands of both logic and æsthetics, formed a particularly -dangerous undertaking, and one apparently altogether beyond the -powers of a person without special instruction in such matters. The -subconscious genius of Mlle. Smith has acquitted itself of the task -in a remarkable manner, and has displayed in it a truly wonderful and -delicate sense of historic possibilities and of local color. - -The Hindoo romance, in particular, remains for those who have taken -part in it a psychological enigma, not yet solved in a satisfactory -manner, because it reveals and implies in regard to Hélène, a knowledge -relative to the costumes and languages of the Orient, the actual -source of which it has up to the present time not been possible to -discover. All the witnesses of Mlle. Smith’s Hindoo somnambulisms who -are of the same opinion on that subject (several refrain from having -any) unite in seeing in it a curious phenomenon of cryptomnesia, -of reappearances of memories profoundly buried beneath the normal -waking state, together with an indeterminate amount of imaginative -exaggeration upon the canvas of actual facts. But by this name of -cryptomnesia, or resurrection of latent memories, two singularly -different things are understood. For me it is only a question of -memories of her present life; and I see nothing of the supernormal in -that. For while I have not yet succeeded in finding the key to the -enigma, I do not doubt its existence, and I will mention later certain -indications which seem to me to support my idea that the Asiatic -notions of Mlle. Smith have a wholly natural origin. - -For the observer inclined towards spiritism, on the contrary, the -sleeping memory which is awakened in somnambulism is nothing less -than that of a previous existence of Mlle. Smith, and that piquant -explanation, which was first given by Leopold, profits in their eyes -from the impossibility which I find in proving that it is anything else. - -Doubtless, if one was familiar with all the incidents of Hélène’s life -from her earliest childhood, and if it were absolutely certain that her -knowledge of India had not been furnished her from the outside, through -the normal channel of the organs of sense, it would be necessary to -seek elsewhere for the solution of the riddle, and to choose between -the hypothesis of an atavic memory, hereditarily transmitted across -fifteen generations, and actual telepathic communication with the brain -of some Indian savant, or a spiritistic reincarnation. But we do not -find ourselves in that position. There is nothing less known, in its -details, than the daily life of Mlle. Smith in her childhood and youth. -But, when all the feats of which the subconscious memory of our present -life is capable are considered, it is not scientifically correct to -have recourse to a pretended “anteriority,” of which the only guarantee -is the authority of Leopold, in order to explain the somnambulistic -apparitions of facts of which Mlle. Smith in her waking state has no -remembrance, I admit, but the origin of which may well have been hidden -in the unknown recesses of her past life (reading, conversation, etc.). - -The plot of the Hindoo romance, which I have already briefly hinted at -on divers occasions, is as follows: - -Hélène Smith was, at the end of the fourteenth century of our era, -the daughter of an Arab sheik, possibly named Pirux, whom she left -in order to become, under the name of Simandini, the eleventh wife -of Prince Sivrouka Nayaka, of whom I have the honor to be the actual -reincarnation. (I pray the reader once for all to pardon me the -immodest rôle which has been imposed upon me in this affair against my -will.) - -This Sivrouka, who reigned over Kanara, and built there, in 1401, -the fortress of Tchandraguiri, does not seem to have been a very -accommodating person; although not bad at heart, and quite attached to -his favorite wife, he had a wild humor and very uncouth manners. More -could not be expected of an Asiatic potentate of that epoch. Simandini, -nevertheless, passionately loved him, and at his death she was burned -alive on his grave, after the fashion of Malabar. - -Around these two principal personages are grouped some secondary -figures, among others a faithful domestic named Adèl, and a little -monkey, Mitidja, which Simandini had brought to India with her from -Arabia; then the fakir Kanga, who occupies a much more important place -in the Martian romance, in which we have seen him reincarnated as -Astané, than in the Hindoo cycle. - -Some other individuals, all masculine—Mougia, Miousa, Kangia, -Kana—appear in obscure rôles, concerning which nothing certain can be -said. - -The hypnoid states, in which this romance has manifested itself -with Hélène, present the greatest variety and all degrees, from the -perfect waking state (apparently), momentarily crossed by some visual -or auditive hallucination, the memory of which is preserved intact -and allows a detailed description, up to total somnambulism, with -amnesia upon awakening, in which the most striking scenes of ecstasies -or incarnations are unfolded. We shall see divers examples in the -following pages. - - -I. APPARITION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORIENTAL CYCLE - -Without recurring to the strange and little-known visions which already -haunted the childhood and youth of Mlle. Smith (see pp. 20-25), I will -retrace the principal stages of her Asiatic romance from the birth of -her mediumship. - -During the three first years there were but few manifestations of this -sort, in the seances, at least, while as to the automatisms which -developed at other times, especially at night, or in the hypnagogic -state, we know nothing. - -In November, 1892, two seances of the N. group are occupied with the -apparition of a Chinese city—Pekin, according to the table—in which a -disincarnate spirit, a parent of one of the group, is found performing -a mission to a sick child. - -In her seances of 1894, Hélène had on several occasions detached -visions belonging to the Orient, as appeared from their content, or -hints dictated by the table. She also saw Teheran; then the cemetery -of the missions at Tokat (June 12th); a cavalier with a white woollen -cloak and a turban bearing the name of Abderrhaman (September 2d); and, -finally, an Oriental landscape, which depicted a ceremony of Buddhist -aspect (October 16th). This latter vision, more especially, seemed to -be a forerunner of the Hindoo romance, since the records of the seances -of that period show an _ensemble_ of characteristic traits which will -be again met with in the later Hindoo scenes—_e.g._, an immense garden -of exotic plants, colonnades, rows of palm-trees, with enormous stone -lions at the head; rugs of magnificent design, a temple surrounded by -trees, with a statue, apparently that of Buddha; a procession of twelve -women in white, who kneel, holding lighted lamps; in the centre another -woman, with very black hair, detaches herself from the procession, -balances a lamp, and burns a powder which expands into a white stone -(the continuation of the romance shows this woman to be Simandini, of -whom this was the first appearance). - -February 17, 1895.—At the end of a rather long seance, the table -dictates _Pirux sheik_, and replies to our questions that it refers to -an Arab sheik of the fifteenth century. At this moment Hélène awakes, -saying that she had seen a man with a black mustache and curly hair, -wearing a cloak and a turban, who seemed to be laughing at and mocking -her. The spelling out of Pirux was not very clear, and Leopold, when -interrogated later, neither affirmed categorically, nor did he deny, -that this name was that of the sheik, father of Simandini. - -March 3.—Seance with six persons present, all having their hands upon -the table. After a brief waiting, Hélène is surprised at no longer -being able to see my left middle finger, while she can see all my other -fingers quite clearly. My bunch of keys, which I then place upon my -middle finger, likewise disappears from her view. This very limited, -systematic, visual anæsthesia authorizes the prediction, following -numerous examples of former seances, that the phenomena about to -appear will concern me. Presently begins a long vision, consisting of -scenes which Hélène believes she has already partially seen before. - -She describes a pagoda, which she draws with her left hand, with a -few strokes of her pencil; then an avenue of palms and statues, a -procession, and ceremonies before an altar, etc. - -The principal rôles are played by a personage in sandals, a great -yellow robe, a helmet of gold, ornamented with precious stones (first -appearance of Sivrouka) and by the woman with black hair and white -robe, already seen on the 12th of October (Simandini). - -In the first part of the vision, Hélène, who follows that woman with -ecstatic gaze, describing her to us, sees her coming towards me, but -at that moment the invisibility of my finger was extended to my entire -person, and Hélène neither sees nor hears me. While she was fully -conscious of the other sitters, she was astonished at seeing this -woman make “on the empty air” certain gestures of laying-on of hands -and benediction, which were made upon my head. On several occasions -I change my place, and seat myself in different parts of the room. -Each time, after a few seconds, Hélène turns towards me, and, without -perceiving me, sees the woman with black hair place herself behind -my seat and repeat her gestures of benediction in space, at a height -corresponding to that of my head. - -As the vision continues, I do not play any further rôle, but it has to -do with a ceremony during which the Hindoo woman with a diadem on her -head burns incense in the midst of her twelve companions, etc. - -During all this time the table, contrary to its custom, gave no -explanation; but Hélène, having herself asked some questions, remarks -that the imaginary woman replies to her by certain signs of her -head and reveals to her many things that she had known in a former -existence. At the moment of the disappearance of the vision, which -had lasted more than an hour, Mlle. Smith hears the words (“Until -presently”). The continuation, in fact, was not long delayed. - -March 6.—Repetition and continuation of the preceding seance, with -this degree of progress—viz., that the visual hallucination of the -woman with the black hair was changed into a total cœnæsthetic -hallucination—_i.e._, instead of a simple vision an incarnation was -produced. After a very impressive scene of benediction, Hélène gave -herself up to a succession of pantomimes in which she seemed to take -part in a fearful spectacle and to struggle with enemies (scene of -the funeral pile). She ended by seating herself on the divan when she -recovered her normal state, after a series of psychical oscillations, -various attitudes, etc. The last of her phases of mimicry was to tear -off and throw away all the ornaments which an Asiatic princess could -wear—rings on all her fingers, bracelets on her arms and wrists, a -necklace, diadem, ear-rings, girdle, anklets. Once awake, she had no -recollection of the scene of benediction, but recalled quite distinctly -the dreams corresponding to the other pantomimes. She saw again the -black-haired woman, the Oriental landscape of the preceding seance, -etc. In the course of her description the passage of the simple vision -into the scene of incarnation was reflected in a change of the form -of her narrative; she spoke to us of the woman in the third person, -then suddenly adopted the first person, and said “I” in recounting -among other things that she—or the black-haired woman—saw a corpse on -the funeral pile, upon which four men, against whom she struggled, -endeavored to force her to mount. When I drew her attention to this -change of style, she replied that, in fact, it seemed as though she -herself was that woman. - -Independently of the Hindoo romance, these two seances are interesting -from a psychological point of view, because the change from a -visual, objective hallucination into total cœnæsthetic and motor -hallucination occurs in it, constituting a complete transformation -of the personality. This generalization of partial automatism at the -beginning, this subjugation and absorption of the ordinary personality -by the subliminal personality, does not always produce amnesia with -Hélène, that unique impression which she might describe on awakening as -being herself and some one else at the same time. (Compare, p. 119.) -It must be noted that in the particular case of the identification -of the black-haired Hindoo woman with Mlle. Hélène Smith of Geneva, -the problem of the causal connection is susceptible of two opposite -solutions (and the same remark will be equally appropriate in the case -of Marie Antoinette). - -For the believing spiritist it is because Mlle. Smith is the -reincarnation of Simandini—that is to say, because these two -personages, in spite of the separation of their existences in time and -space, are substantially and metaphysically identical—that she really -again becomes Simandini, and feels herself to be a Hindoo princess in -certain favorable somnambulistic states. For the empirical psychologist -it is, on the contrary, because the visual memory of a Hindoo woman -(her origin is of no importance) grows like a parasite and increases -in surface and in depth like a drop of oil, until it invades the whole -impressionable and suggestible personality of the medium—this is why -Mlle. Smith feels herself becoming this woman, and concludes from it -that she formerly actually was that person (see p. 28-30). But we must -return from this digression to the Hindoo dream. - -March 10.—After various waking visions relating to other subjects, -Hélène enters into somnambulism. For twenty minutes she remains seated -with her hands on the table, by means of raps struck upon which Leopold -informs us that a scene of previous existence concerning me is being -prepared; that I was formerly a Hindoo prince, and that Mlle. Smith, -long before her existence as Marie Antoinette, had then been my wife, -and had been burned on my tomb; that we should ultimately know the name -of this Hindoo prince, as well as the time and place of these events, -but not this evening, nor at the next seance. Then Hélène leaves the -table, and in a silent pantomime of an hour’s duration, the meaning of -which, already quite clear, is confirmed by Leopold, she plays, this -time to the very close, the scene of the funeral pile as outlined in -the preceding seance. - -She goes slowly around the room, as if resisting and carried away in -spite of herself, by turns supplicating and struggling fiercely with -these fictitious men who are bearing her to her death. - -All at once, standing on tiptoe, she seems to ascend the pile, hides, -with affright, her face in her hands, recoils in terror, then advances -anew as though pushed from behind. Finally she falls on her knees -before a soft couch, in which she buries her face covered by her -clasped hands. She sobs violently. By means of her little finger, -visible between her cheek and the cushion of the couch, Leopold -continues to reply very clearly by yes and no to my questions. It is -the moment at which she again passes through her agony on the funeral -pile: her cries cease little by little; her respiration becomes more -and more panting, then suddenly stops and remains suspended during -some seconds which seem interminable. It is the end! Her pulse is -fortunately strong, though a little irregular. While I am feeling it, -her breathing is re-established by means of a deep inspiration. After -repeated sobs she becomes calm, and slowly rises and seats herself -on a neighboring sofa. This scene of fatal _dénouement_ lasted eight -minutes. She finally awakens, remembering to have seen in a dream the -dead body of a man stretched on a funeral pile, and a woman whom some -men were forcing to ascend the pile against her will. - -There was nothing Oriental in the succeeding seances, and the Hindoo -dream did not appear again until four weeks later. - -April 7.—Mlle. Smith went quickly into a mixed state, in which the -Hindoo dream was mingled and substituted, but only so far as concerns -me, for the feeling of present reality. She believes me absent, asks -other sitters why I have gone away, then rises and begins to walk -around me and look at me, very much surprised at seeing my place -occupied by a stranger with black curly hair and of brown complexion, -clothed in a robe with flowing sleeves of blue, and with gold -ornaments. When I speak to her she turns around and seems to hear my -voice from the opposite side, whither she goes to look for me; when I -go towards her she shuns me; then, when I follow her, she returns to -the place I had just left. After some time occupied in these manœuvres -she ceases to be preoccupied with me and my substitute in the blue -robe, and falls into a deeper state. She takes on the look of a -seeress, and describes a kind of embattled château on a hill, where she -perceives and recognizes the before-mentioned personage with the curly -hair, but in another costume and surrounded by very ugly black men, and -women “who are good looking.” - -Interrogated as to the meaning of this vision, Leopold replies: “_The -city of Tchandraguiri in Kanaraau_” (_sic_); then he adds, a moment -later, “_There is a letter too many in the last word_,” and ends by -giving the name _Kanara_, and adding the explanation “_of the fifteenth -century_.” Upon awaking from this somnambulistic state, which lasted -two hours, Hélène recalls having had a dream of a personage with curly -hair, in a blue robe, richly ornamented with precious stones, with a -cutlass of gold, bent backward, suspended from a hook. She recollects -having held a long conversation with him in a strange language which -she understood and spoke very well herself, although she no longer -knows the meaning of it. - -April 14.—Very soon passing into a deep sleep, Mlle. Smith leaves the -table and gives herself up to a silent pantomime, at first smiling, -then finishing in sadness and by a scene of tears. - -The meaning of this is explained by Leopold as follows: Hélène is -in India, in her palace of Tchandraguiri, in Kanara, _in 1401_, and -she receives a declaration of love from the personage with the curly -hair, who is the Prince Sivrouka Nayaka, to whom she has been married -for about a year. The prince has flung himself upon his knees, but he -inspires in her a certain fright, and she still regrets having left -her native country in order to follow him. Leopold affirms that she -will remember, on awaking, in French, all that the prince has said to -her in Sanscrit, and that she will repeat to us a part of it, but not -all, because it is too private. After awaking she seems in reality to -recall clearly her entire dream, and tells us that she found herself -on a hill, where they were building; that it was not exactly a city, -nor even a village, since there were no streets; that it was rather an -isolated place in the country, and that which was being built was not -in the form of a house; it had holes rather than windows (a fortress -and loop-holes). - -She found herself in a fine palace, very beautiful as to its interior, -but not its exterior. There was a great hall, decorated with greens, -with a grand staircase at the end, flanked by statues of gold. She held -a long conversation there, not in French, with the swarthy personage -with the black curly hair and magnificent costume; he finally ascended -the staircase, but she did not follow him. - -She appeared to recall well the meaning of all that he said to her in -their conversation in a foreign language, but seemed embarrassed by -these memories, and would not consent to relate them to us. - -May 26.—In the course of this seance, as Hélène, in a silent -somnambulism, incarnates the Hindoo princess, I hand her a sheet of -paper and a pencil in the hope of obtaining some text or drawing. After -divers scribblings she traces the single word _Simadini_ in letters -which are not at all like her usual hand (see Fig. 34). - - [Illustration: Fig. 34. Simadini] - -Then taking a fresh sheet, she seems to write on it with a happy smile, -folds it carefully and thrusts it in her corsage, takes it out again, -and rereads it with rapture, etc. Leopold informs us that Simadini is -the name of the Hindoo princess, and that she is reading a love-letter -from Sivrouka. On awaking she remembers having been “in such a -beautiful palace,” and of having received there a very interesting -letter, but the contents of which she refused to disclose to us, being -evidently too confidential. - -I intercalate here two remarks apropos of the name Simadini, which is -one of the first known examples of a handwriting of Mlle. Smith other -than her own normal hand. - -First: When, four months later, Leopold began to communicate in writing -(pp. 98-103), a certain analogy in the formation of the letters, and -the identical way of holding the pencil, caused us to believe that it -was he who had already traced the word in Fig. 34. But he has always -denied it, and we have never been able to discover the author of it. -Secondly: I said above, (p. 204), that there had been divergences in -the orthography of this name. Here, in substance, is a fragment of a -letter which Mlle. Smith wrote me in the winter following (February 18, -1896), depicting to me the vexatious impressions which she still had -concerning it. - -“... I am very sad, and I cannot tell why. I have a heavy heart, and -for what reason I do not know myself. It came to such a pass to-day -(you are going to laugh) that it seemed to me as though my left cheek -had grown perceptibly thinner. I am sure that at this moment you would -not recognize Simadini, so piteous and discouraged is her countenance! -Think, that at the very moment in which I trace these words, I hear a -voice speaking to me in my right ear: “_Not Simadini, but Simandini!_” -What do you think that can be? It is very strange, is it not? Have -we misunderstood that name? Or, perhaps, may it not be I who have -misunderstood it?...” - -Mlle. Smith here forgets that the name did not come to her on the first -occasion by auditive hallucination, in which case it might be that she -had misunderstood it, but by writing in somnambulism, which excludes -any mistake of her ordinary consciousness. We must confine ourselves -to registering as a fact, inexplicable hitherto, this correction of -a graphic automatism by an auditive automatism at the end of several -months. Between the two orthographies, I have adopted the second, which -has undergone no further changes, and figures only in the Martian texts -(10, 16). - -June 16.—Fuller repetition of the scene of the letter of the Hindoo -prince. Impossible to learn the contents of it. I suggest to her to -remember and to relate them to us upon awakening, but Leopold replies: -“_She will not reveal it. Why have you not gained her confidence -sufficiently, that she may tell you everything without fear?_” and the -suggestion had no effect. - -June 30.—Somnambulism with silent pantomime, the meaning of which is -given by Leopold: It is the scene of the betrothal of Simandini and -Sivrouka at Tchandraguiri. There is first a phase of oppression, with -sighs and gestures as of a struggle against various pretenders who wish -to seize her; then laughter and ecstasy, provoked by the arrival of -Sivrouka, who delivers her and drives off his rivals; finally, joy and -admiration on accepting the flowers and jewels which he offers her. - -I have reported, too much at length perhaps, though still greatly -abridged, these first appearances of the Oriental romance, because -they form a continuous series, in the reverse of the chronological -order, conformably to a spiritistic theory which holds that in these -memories of previous existences the mediumistic memory goes back and -recovers the “images” of the more recent events before those which -are more remote. During this first period of four months, the Hindoo -cycle made irruption into eight seances (about one-twentieth of those -at which I have been present since I have had knowledge of them), and -has manifested itself somewhat like the panorama of a magic lantern, -unfolding itself in successive tableaux. - -This whole history can be summed up by a few principal tableaux: there -was the scene of the death on the funeral pile, prepared in vision -in the seance of the 6th of March and executed on the 10th; then the -scene of the interior of the palace and the fortress in process of -construction (7th and 14th of April); that of the love-letter (26th of -May and 16th of June); finally, the betrothal (30th of June). There -must be added to these the grand tableau at the beginning, first -presented in vision the 3d of March, then realized three days later -with the astonishing exclamation Atièyâ Ganapatinâmâ. The meaning of -this scene has never been explained by Leopold, but seems to be quite -clear. A species of prologue can be seen in it, or even apotheosis, -inaugurating the entire romance; it is the Hindoo princess of four -centuries ago recognizing her lord and master in flesh and blood, under -the unexpected form of a university professor, whom she greets with -an emphasis wholly Oriental in blessing him, very appropriately, in -the name of the divinity of science and of wisdom—since Ganapati is an -equivalent of Ganesâ, the god with the head of an elephant, patron of -sages and savants. - -It can be easily conceived that these two words of Oriental resonance, -spoken aloud at a period at which the Martian was not yet born—and -followed by all the conversations unfortunately unheard by us, which at -the waking at the subsequent seances Hélène recalled having held in a -strange language (in _Sanscrit_, according to Leopold) with the Hindoo -prince of her dreams—would excite a lively curiosity and a desire to -obtain longer audible fragments of this unknown idiom. It was only -in September, 1895, that this satisfaction was afforded us, during a -seance at which the Oriental romance, which had given no further sign -of life since the month of June, made a new outbreak. Starting from -that moment, it has never ceased during these four years to reappear -irregularly, and, suffering some eclipses, accompanied on each occasion -by words of a _Sanscritoid_ aspect. But the plot of the romance has no -longer the same clearness that it showed at the beginning. In place of -tableaux linking themselves in a regular chronological order, they are -often no more than confused reminiscences, memories, without precise -bonds between them, which gush forth from the memory of Simandini. As -the fragments of our youthful years surge up incoherent and pell-mell -in our dreams, Mlle. Smith, too, finds herself easily assailed in her -somnambulisms by visions connected with certain episodes, and not -forming an entire continuation of supposed Asiatic pre-existence. - -Some of these scenes concern her life as a young Arab girl. One sees -her there, for example, playing joyously with her little monkey, -Mitidja; or copying an Arab text (see Fig. 35, p. 312), which her -father, the sheik, surrounded by his tribes, furnishes her; or -embarking on a strange boat, escorted by black Hindoos, for her new -country, etc. But much the larger number of her somnambulistic trances -and her spontaneous visions have reference to her life in India and -to the details of her daily existence. Her bath, which the faithful -domestic Adèl prepares for her; her walks and reveries in the splendid -gardens of the palace, all full of a luxurious vegetation and rare -birds of brilliant colors; her scenes of tenderness and of affectionate -effusions—always stamped, this is to be noted, with the most perfect -propriety—towards the Prince Sivrouka, when he is kindly disposed; -scenes of regret also and abundant tears for the memory of her far-off -native land, when the capricious and brutal humor of the Oriental -despot makes itself too severely felt; conversation with the fakir -Kanga; devotions and religious ceremonies before some Buddhist image, -etc., all this forms an _ensemble_ extremely varied and full of local -color. There is in the whole being of Simandini—in the expression of -her countenance (Hélène almost always has her large eyes open in this -somnambulism), in her movements, in the quality of her voice when she -speaks or chants Hindoo—a languishing grace, an abandon, a melancholy -sweetness, a something of languor and of charm, which corresponds -wonderfully with the character of the Orient, as the spectators -conceive it to be, who, like me, have never been there, etc. With all -this a bearing always full of _noblesse_ and dignity conforms to that -which one would expect of a princess; there are no dances, for example, -nothing of the _bayadère_. - -Mlle. Smith is really very wonderful in her Hindoo somnambulisms. The -way in which Simandini seats herself on the ground, her legs crossed, -or half stretched out, nonchalantly leaning her arms or her head -against a Sivrouka, who is sometimes real (when in her incomplete -trance she takes me for her prince), sometimes imaginary; the religious -and solemn gravity of her prostrations when, after having for a long -time balanced the fictitious brazier, she crosses her extended hands -on her breast, kneeling and bowing herself three times, her forehead -striking the ground; the melancholy sweetness of her chants in a minor -key, wailing and plaintive melodies, which unfold themselves in certain -flute-like notes, prolonged in a slow decrescendo, and only dying away -at the end of a single note held for fully fourteen seconds; the agile -suppleness of her swaying and serpentine movements, when she amuses -herself with her imaginary monkey, caresses it, embraces it, excites -it, scolds it laughingly, and makes it repeat all its tricks—all this -so varied mimicry and Oriental speech have such a stamp of originality, -of ease, of naturalness, that one asks in amazement whence it comes -to this little daughter of Lake Leman, without artistic education or -special knowledge of the Orient—a perfection of play to which the best -actress, without doubt, could only attain at the price of prolonged -studies or a sojourn on the banks of the Ganges. - -The problem, as I have already stated, is not yet solved, and I am -obliged still to endeavor to discover whence Hélène Smith has derived -her ideas in regard to India. It seems that the more simple method -would be to take advantage of the hypnotic state of the seances to -obtain a confession from Hélène’s subconscious memory, and persuade it -to disclose the secret; but my efforts in that direction have not as -yet succeeded. It is doubtless incompetency on my part, and I will end, -perhaps—or some one better qualified than I—in finding the joint in the -armor. The fact is that hitherto I have always run up against Leopold, -who will not allow himself to be ejected or ridiculed, and who has -never ceased to affirm that the Sanscrit, Simandini, and the rest are -authentic. All the trails which I have thought I have discovered—and -they are already numerous—have proved false. The reader must pardon me -for not going into the details of my failures in this regard. - -If it was only a question of the Hindoo pantomime the mystery would not -be so great: some recitations at school, newspaper articles concerning -the incineration of the widows of Malabar, engravings and descriptions -relative to the civil and religious life of India, etc.—in short, the -varied sources of information which, in a civilized country and at our -epoch of cosmopolitanism, inevitably meet some time or other the eyes -or ears of every one of us and form part of the equipment (conscious -or unconscious) of every individual who is not altogether uncultured, -would more than suffice to explain the scene of the funeral pile, -the prostrations, and the varied attitudes. There are, indeed, some -well-known examples showing how small a thing a cunning intelligence, -furnished with a good memory and a fertile and plastic imagination, -needs in order to reconstruct or fabricate out of nothing a complex -edifice, having every appearance of authenticity, and capable of -holding in check for a considerable length of time the perspicacity -even of skilled minds. But that which conscious and reflecting labor -has succeeded in accomplishing in the cases referred to, the subliminal -faculties can execute to a much higher degree of perfection in the case -of persons subject to automatic tendencies. - -But two points remain, which complicate the case of the Hindoo romance -and seem to defy—thus far, at least—all normal explanation, because -they surpass the limits of a simple play of the imagination. These are -the precise _historical_ information given by Leopold, some of which -can be, in a certain sense, verified; and the Hindoo _language_ spoken -by Simandini, which contains words more or less recognizable, the real -meaning of which is adapted to the situation in which they have been -spoken. But, even if Hélène’s imagination could have reconstructed -the manners and customs and scenes of the Orient from the general -information floating in some way in cosmopolitan atmosphere, still one -cannot conceive whence she has derived her knowledge of the language -and of certain obscure episodes in the history of India. These two -points deserve to be examined separately. - - -II. SIVROUKA AND M. DE MARLÈS - -When Kanara, Sivrouka, Simandini, etc., successively made their -appearance, slowly spelled out by Leopold, with the date of 1401, my -companions of the seance and I hastened to investigate Brouillet, who -brought to mind the province of Malabar in connection with the first -of these names, but left us in utter darkness as to the others. The -geography of Vivien Saint-Martin revealed the existence of no fewer -than three Tchandraguiris—a hill, a river, and a small town in the -district of Arcot-Nord (Madras). The latter—or rather its citadel -on the summit of the hill—answered quite well to the description -given by Hélène in her visions of the 7th and 14th of April, but -the construction of this fortress dates back only to 1510, and this -locality is very far removed from the Kanara where Leopold locates this -entire story (see pp. 286-288). - -As to Sivrouka and his surroundings, neither biographical dictionaries -nor encyclopædias were able to furnish me the least hint on this -subject. Living historians or Orientalists to whom I addressed -myself were of a discouraging unanimity in replying that they did -not recognize even the names, the historic correctness of which they -regarded as doubtful, and they did not at all remember having met with -them in works of fiction. - -“I have there,” said a learned professor of history, showing me a -good-sized bookcase, “numerous works on the history of India; but they -relate only to the north of the peninsula; and as to what transpired -in the south during the period to which you refer, we know almost -nothing. Your names are unknown to me and do not recall to my mind any -personage, real or fictitious.” - -“The very name of Sivrouka seems to me improbable as a Hindoo name” -replied another, who was unable to give me any more information on the -subject. - -“I greatly regret,” wrote a third, on receipt of Hélène’s texts, “not -to have succeeded in getting upon the trail of the recollections of -your medium. I cannot think of any book which would be likely to -furnish the information. Tchandraguiri and Mangalore (where several -scenes of the Hindoo cycle are located) are correct, but Madras (_id._) -did not exist in 1401. Its name and foundation do not go further back -than the seventeenth century. That region was then a dependency of the -kingdom of Vijayanagara, and a naïk in the service of those princes -resided successively at Tchandraguiri and at Mangalore. I can make -nothing of Sivrouka; the king of Vijayanagara, in 1402, was Bukkha II., -or Bukkha called Siribukkha, Tiribukkha. But the naïk who so often -changed his residence was evidently not a ruling prince. Was it a -romance? Certain details caused me to doubt it. A romancer so careful -in regard to local coloring as to introduce into his narrative Indian -words, would not have given the title of the prince under the Sanscrit -form _Nayaka_, but would have used the vulgar form naïk; he would not -have made the wife, in speaking to her husband, call him by his name -Sivrouka (as Hélène constantly does in this somnambulism). I have no -recollection of having read anything of this kind, and I know of no -work of fiction from which the story might have been taken.” - -It will be readily understood that I was annoyed at not being able to -establish clearly my presumed Asiatic previous existence. However, -while professional science was administering to me these cold douches, -I continued, on my own account, to search the libraries at my disposal, -and here one fine day I accidentally came across, in an old history of -India, in six volumes, by a man named De Marlès, the following passages: - -“Kanara and the neighboring provinces on the side towards Delhi may be -regarded as the Georgia of Hindustan; it is there, it is said, that the -most beautiful women are to be found; the natives, however, are very -jealous in guarding them, and do not often allow them to be seen by -strangers.” - -“Tchandraguiri, which signifies _Mountain of the Moon_, is a vast -fortress constructed, in 1401, by the rajah Sivrouka Nayaka. This -prince, as also his successors, belonged to the sect of the Djaïns.” - -At last! With what a beating heart did I fasten my eyes on that -irrefutable historic evidence that my preceding incarnation, under the -beautiful skies of India was not a myth! I felt new life in my veins. -I reread twenty times those blessed lines, and took a copy of them to -send to those pretended savants who were ignorant even of the name of -Sivrouka, and allowed doubts to be cast upon his reality. - -Alas! my triumph was of brief duration. It seems that the testimony -of De Marlès is not of the highest order. This author is held in -slight esteem in well-informed circles, as may be seen from the -following passage in a letter of M. Barth, which merely expresses, in -a vigorous and lively manner, an opinion which other specialists have -confirmed:[22] - -“It is through a letter of M. Flournoy that I learn that there has -existed since 1828 in Paris, printed in Roman characters, a history -of India by De Marlès containing a statement that the fortress of -Candragiri was built in 1401, and that its founder was Sivrouka Nayaka. -What new facts there are in books one no longer consults! And that -of De Marlès is, indeed, one of those that are no longer consulted. -I found it yesterday at the library of the Institute. It would have -been impossible to have done worse, even in 1828. But sometimes we -find pearls in a dung-hill, and perhaps this Sivrouka Nayaka is one of -them. Unfortunately, the author gives no hint as to the sources of his -information; and later, in his fourth volume, in which he narrates the -history of the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, he does not say a -word more either of Candragiri or of Sivrouka.” - -Here was a terrible blow to my Hindoo existence, which poor M. de -Marlès had so well established for me. - -Nevertheless, the hope still lingers that his information, although not -reproduced by later writers more highly esteemed, may perhaps still be -correct. This is quite possible, since science has not yet spoken its -last word in this department, hardly even its first, if men still more -competent may be believed, beginning with M. Barth himself. - -“Up to the present moment,” says he, “there is no trustworthy history -of the south of the peninsula.... The Dravidian languages of India is -a domain very unfamiliar to the majority of Indian scholars.... There -is nothing to draw upon but some works and monographs on the aboriginal -chronicles and legendary traditions; and it would be necessary to know -the Dravidian languages on the one hand and Arabic on the other, to be -able to examine or even consult them with profit. The only works which -we are able to follow are those which undertake to make this history by -epigraphic documents, but these, thus far, say nothing of Simandini, of -Adèl, of Mitidja, or even of Sivrouka.” - -This silence of epigraphy is certainly to be regretted; but who knows -whether it will not some day enlighten us by proving De Marlès to -be right—and also Leopold—by narrating to us the true story of the -Hindoo princess, the Arabian monkey, and the slave Adèl! It costs -nothing to hope! Already, thanks again to M. Barth, I have gained -information concerning another Tchandraguiri than the one of the -District of North Arcot mentioned by Vivien de Saint-Martin—_i.e._, a -Tchandraguiri, situated in South Kanara, and in the citadel of which a -hitherto unknown inscription has been discovered which must date back -to the time of King Harihara II., of Vijayanagara, who reigned at the -beginning of the fifteenth century.[23] Here is something approaching -the somnambulistic revelations of Mlle. Smith. While awaiting their -definite confirmation by new archæological discoveries, traces of -Sivrouka may be sought for in the earlier works upon which De Marlès -must have drawn. Unfortunately these works are not easy to find, and -are inconvenient to consult. Professor Michel, of the University of -Liège, has had the kindness to run through those of Buchanan[24] and of -Rennell,[25] but without result. - -If De Marlès did not invent Sivrouka out of whole cloth, which is -hardly supposable, it was very probably in the translation of Ferishta -by Dow,[26] that he found his facts. I have, unhappily, not yet been -able myself to consult that very rare work, which is not to be found -in Geneva, so far as I am aware, nor to obtain accurate information -regarding its contents. - -The uncertainty which hovers over the historical problem extends, -naturally, to the psychological problem also. It is clear that if -certain inscriptions, or even some old work, should come some day to -tell us not only of Sivrouka, but of Simandini, of Adèl, and the other -personages who figure in Hélène’s Hindoo romance, but of whom De Marlès -does not whisper a word, we should no longer care about the latter -author, and the question would then be as follows: Could Mlle. Smith -have had cognizance of these early works, and if not, how do their -contents reappear in her somnambulism? But in the actual condition of -things, and all allowance made for possible surprises in the future, -I do not hesitate to regard as the more probable and more rational -supposition, that it was really the passage of De Marlès, quoted above, -which furnished the subliminal memory of Hélène the precise date of -1401—and the three names of the fortress, the province, and the rajah. - -Various other traits of the visions of Mlle. Smith betray likewise the -same inspiration. The scene in which she sees them engaged in building, -and her description of that which is being built, suggest clearly the -idea of a fortress furnished by the text. The translation _Mountain of -the Moon_ contributed to causing her to locate the scene upon a hill. -The beauty of the women of the country, on which De Marlès dwells, has -its echo in the remark of Hélène that the women whom she sees are “good -looking.” Finally, the princely character of Sivrouka, mentioned by -De Marlès, is found throughout the length of the entire romance, and -displays itself in the splendor of his costume, of the palace, of the -gardens, etc. - -It is possible that the names and the nationality of the other -personages—Simandini, Adèl, the monkey, the sheik, etc.—may have been -borrowed from some unknown work, which would be, for the Arabian -portion of the narrative, the pendant to De Marlès for the Hindoo past. - -This may be, but it is not necessary. It is permissible to regard, -provisionally, the imaginations built up around Sivrouka, as an -ingenious expedient, by means of which Hélène’s imagination finds a way -of binding to that central figure, and also of blending in a single -whole, her other Oriental memories not specifically Hindoo. - -The hypothesis which I am about to assume, which connects directly -with De Marlès the data of Hélène’s Asiatic dream, contained likewise -in the work of that author, arouses, nevertheless, two objections. The -first is drawn from the slight differences of orthography between the -text of De Marlès and the words spoken by Leopold. This difficulty -is only insurmountable by elevating the inerrancy of the subliminal -memory to the plane of absolute infallibility, though the latter -must be admitted to be ordinarily very much superior to that of the -conscious memory. But the favorite comparison of the forgotten -memories, reappearing in somnambulisms, to unchangeable, absolutely -true photographic impressions, causes us readily to exaggerate the -fidelity of the unconscious memory-images. The example of certain -dreams—in which memories of childhood sometimes return with a startling -clearness, but, nevertheless, altered or distorted in some details, -conformably to later experiences or to recent events—suffices to show -that automatisms of the memory are not always sheltered by influences -of the imagination, nor absolutely free from error. - -In this particular case there are two divergences between De Marlès and -Leopold: the latter has substituted a _k_ for the _c_ in Nayaca, and -has omitted the _n_ in Tchandraguiri (compare pp. 286 and 288). Another -mistake, which he immediately corrected, consisting in dictating first -_Kanaraau_, was evidently a confusion such as frequently occurs in -writing, occasioned by a too rapid passing from the word _Kanara_ to -the information following, and already about to come—“_au_ fifteenth -century.” The spelling Nayaka, instead of Nayaca, is attributable to -the termination of the word _Sivrouka_, which precedes it. Identity of -pronunciation has produced identity of orthography. - -The second objection is of a negative character. It consists in the -impossibility of showing where, when, or how Mlle. Smith obtained -cognizance of the text of De Marlès. - -I admit frankly that I know nothing about it, and I give full credit to -Hélène for the indomitable and persevering energy with which she has -never ceased to protest against my hypothesis, which has the faculty of -exasperating her in the highest degree—and one readily understands that -it would naturally do so. For it is in vain that she digs down to the -very bottom of her memories; she does not discover the slightest trace -of this work. And not only that, but how can one seriously suppose -that she has ever had the slightest intimation of it, since she never -studied the history of India, has neither read nor heard anything on -the subject, the very name of De Marlès having been utterly unknown to -her up to the day on which she learned that I suspected that author of -being the source of the Hindoo romance? It must, indeed, be admitted -that the idea of the passage in question having come before the eyes -or ears of Mlle. Smith through any ordinary channel seems a trifle -absurd. I only know in Geneva of two copies of the work of De Marlès, -both covered with dust—the one belonging to the Société de Lecture, a -private association of which none of the Smith family nor any friend -of theirs was ever a member; the other in the Public Library, where, -among the thousands of more interesting and more modern books, it is -now very rarely consulted. It could only have happened, therefore, -by a combination of absolutely exceptional and almost unimaginable -circumstances that the work of De Marlès could have found its way into -Hélène’s hands; and how could it have done so and she not have the -slightest recollection of it? - -I acknowledge the force of this argument, and that the wisest thing -to do is to leave the matter in suspense. But if the question must -be decided, though there is scarcely any choice, extravagance for -extravagance, I still prefer the hypothesis which only invokes natural -possibilities to that which appeals to occult causes. - -Possibly the work of De Marlès may have been heard of by Mlle. Smith -without her normal consciousness taking note of it. Either when among -her friends or acquaintances, or with her parents, she might have heard -some passages read in her young days, etc. The fact that she has no -conscious recollection of it proves nothing against such a supposition -to any one who is at all familiar with the play of our faculties. - -It goes without saying that my method of reasoning is the inverse of -that which generally prevails in spiritistic circles. Witness the -celebrated Aksakoff, as a single example, who, discovering that a -curious typtological message was found already in print in a book -which could not readily have come to the knowledge of the medium, and -recognizing the fact that the message came from that book, says: “But -in what way could the brain of the medium have been made aware of the -contents of the book? There is the mystery. _I refuse to admit that it -could have been through natural means. I believe it was by some occult -process._” - -Very well! this is plain language, and the frankness of the declaration -charms me to such a degree that I cannot resist the temptation to -appropriate it for myself in the case of Mlle. Smith and M. de Marlès, -transposing only two words: “_I refuse to admit that it could have -been through occult means. I believe it was by some natural process._” -Evidently, in doubtful cases (which are in an enormous majority), in -which the natural and the occult explanations are in direct opposition, -without the possibility of a material demonstration as to which is -true in fact, a decision must be reached in accordance with personal -taste and feeling. Between these two methodological points of view -a reconciliation is scarcely possible. The reader may think what he -will. But, right or wrong, I claim the first of these as my opinion, -and regard the tendency of the supernatural and occult to substitute -themselves, on account of the insufficiency of our knowledge, for the -acquired rights of natural hypothesis, as an unjustifiable reversal of -rôles. - -To those who shall find my hypothesis decidedly too extravagant—or -too simple—remains a choice between the multiple forms of occult -hypothesis. Shall it be Leopold who, in his all-powerful state of -disincarnation, has read in the closed volume of De Marlès? Or has -there, indeed, been a telepathic transmission of this passage from the -brain of some unknown terrestrial reader to that of Mlle. Smith? Shall -it be with her a case of clairvoyance, of lucidity, of intuition in -the astral body; or, again, of trickery on the part of some facetious -spirit? And if, taking the reincarnationist theory seriously, it is -admitted that Sivrouka, 1401, and Tchandraguiri, are indeed really -reminiscences of the past life of Simandini, how explain that curious -coincidence in their choice and their spelling with precisely the -designations used by M. de Marlès? - -Verily my brain reels in the midst of all these alternatives, and I -hasten to pass to another subject. - - -III. THE ARAB ELEMENTS OF THE ORIENTAL CYCLE - -Here is a problem for the partisans of the Oriental pre-existence of -Mlle. Smith: How comes it that, recovering in her trances the use of -the Hindoo which she formerly spoke at the court of Sivrouka, she has -totally forgotten Arabian, which, however, had been her mother-tongue -in that same previous existence, and which she was accustomed to use -exclusively up to the time of her departure from her native land, in -her eighteenth year? - -If the emotions caused by her royal marriage had destroyed all memory -of the past, one could understand how the idiom might have become -obscured along with the rest in that loss of memory of her life as a -young girl. - -But such was not the case. She preserved very vivid memories of her -father the sheik, of his tents gleaming in the sunlight, of the -people, of the camels and landscapes of Arabia. In many seances and -spontaneous visions she finds herself carried back to that first half -of her Asiatic existence. But then she narrates in French that which is -unfolded before her eyes, or gives herself up to a silent pantomime. -She has never spoken or written anything at all resembling Arabian. Can -it be supposed that already in her Hindoo life she had assimilated the -language of her adopted country to the point of losing even the latent -memories of her maternal language? That would be contrary to all known -psychological analogies. - -However, in saying that Hélène has never written or spoken Arabian -I exaggerate. On one occasion she spoke four words of it. It is the -exception which proves the rule. In fact, not only did she fail to -accompany that single text with any pronunciation, but she executed it -as a drawing, and apparently copied, without comprehending, a model -which an imaginary person presented to her. - -Here is a review of that incident: - -October 27, 1895.—Shortly after the beginning of the seance Mlle. -Smith has an Arabian vision: “Look at those tents! There are no stones -here—it is all sand ... [she counts the tents one by one]. There -are twenty of them. That one is beautiful. Don’t you find it so, M. -Lemaître—that largest one? It is fastened by cords and small stakes -...“ etc. Then she describes the personages: The one who is smoking, -seated in a corner, with his legs crossed; others all black (the table -says they are negroes, and that the scene takes place in Arabia); -then a man clothed in white, whom Hélène has the feeling of knowing -without being able to recognize him; she places her finger upon her -forehead, in the attitude of a person trying to remember, and the table -(on which she has her left hand) informs us then that she lived in -Arabia in her life as Simandini, and that she is trying to recollect -those far-distant times. A quite long scene follows, in which her Arab -reminiscences alternate and mingle with the consciousness of the real -environment, though she neither sees nor hears us. At this point a -state of mental confusion ensues, which seems to be very painful to her. - -“... M. Lemaître! M. Flournoy! are you there? Answer me, then. Did I -not come here this evening? If only I could ... however, I am not _en -voyage_.... I really believe it is Sunday at last ... I understand -nothing more about it. I think my brain is so tired that all my ideas -are mixed up ... however, I am not dreaming.... It seems to me that I -have also lived with them ... [the sitters at the table], and with them -[the Arabs of her vision].... But I know them—all those men. Tell me, -then, who you are! Did you arrive in Geneva lately? [They are, says the -table, Arabs who lived five centuries ago, among them the father of -Simandini.] Come nearer, then, come here. I want you to speak to me! -M. Lemaître! Oh, that pretty little sketch! What is that sketch? [The -table having said that it is a drawing which her father is presenting -to her, and that she can copy it, a pencil and a sheet of paper are -placed before her, the latter of which seems to be transformed into -papyrus in her dream.] That green leaf is pretty. Of what plant is -it the leaf? I think I have a pencil; I am going to try to make this -sketch....” - -After the usual struggle between the two methods of holding the pencil -(see pp. 100-102), she yields to Leopold’s manner of holding it, -saying, “So much the worse”; then traces, slowly and with great care, -Fig. 35, from left to right, often raising her eyes to her imaginary -model, as if copying a drawing. After which she goes profoundly -asleep; then other somnambulisms come. - -On awaking she recollects the state of confusion through which she had -passed. “Wretched evening,” said she. “I was unhappy. I felt that I was -living here, as I always have, and I saw some things as though I were a -foreigner. I was with you, but I was living elsewhere,” etc. - -This whole scene gives the distinct impression that the Arab phrase -only existed in Hélène’s recollection as a visual memory, without -meaning or any verbal images. It was for her an incomprehensible piece -of writing, a simple drawing, like Chinese or Japanese characters would -be for us. Evidently it was a text which had come before her eyes at -some propitious moment, and, having been absorbed by the subliminal -imagination—always on the watch for matters of Oriental aspect—had been -incorporated in a scene of the Asiatic dream. - - [Illustration: Fig. 35. Arabian text drawn from left to right by Mlle. - Smith in hemisomnambulism: elqalil men elhabib ktsir, _the little from - the friend (is) much_. Natural size.] - -Such, at least, is the supposition which seems to me the most -plausible. For, to regard it as a fragment of Arabian, which Hélène -could speak and write fluently if she were in an appropriate state of -somnambulism—as Leopold pretended one day to be the fact—seems to me an -hypothesis still more arbitrary, and little in accord with the other -trance phenomena of Mlle. Smith. - -Occasions have not been wanting to her in the five years during which -her exotic romances have been unfolding themselves to make use of her -supposed philological reserves by speaking and writing Arabian, if her -subliminal memory had so desired. - -She has presented all degrees and kinds of somnambulism, and more -visions of Arabia than could have failed to awaken by association the -corresponding idiom, if it really was slumbering in her. The complete -and total isolation of the text given above, in the midst of this flood -of Oriental scenes, seems to me, therefore, to testify strongly in -favor of my supposition that it has to do with a visual flash, unique -in its kind, accidentally encountered and stored up, and that the -Asiatic secondary personality of Mlle. Smith is absolutely ignorant of -Arabic. - -Concerning the other details of the Arab somnambulisms of Hélène, I -have nothing to say; they do not go beyond the ideas which she could -unconsciously have gathered from the surrounding environment; and to -the other sources of her knowledge must be added whatever she might -have heard from her father, who had at one time lived in Algeria. - -The proper names connected with the Arab scenes, with the possible -exception of Pirux, awaken certain associations of ideas, without -making it possible to affirm anything with certainty as to their -origin. - - -IV. THE HINDOO LANGUAGE OF MLLE. SMITH - -The nature of the Hindoo language of Hélène is less easy to explain -clearly than that of the Martian, because it has never been possible to -obtain either a literal translation of it or written texts. Besides, -being ignorant of the numberless dialects of ancient and modern India, -and not believing it to be incumbent upon me to devote myself to -their study solely that I might be able to appreciate at their proper -value the philological exploits of an entranced medium, I am not in -a situation to allow myself any personal judgment in regard to this -matter. - -There is not even left to me the resource of placing the parts of the -process as a whole before the reader, as I have done in the case of the -Martian, for the reason that our ignorance of Hélène’s Hindoo, added -to her rapid and indistinct pronunciation—a real prattle sometimes—has -caused us to lose the greater part of the numerous words heard in the -course of some thirty Oriental scenes scattered over a space of four -years. - -Even the fragments which we have been able to note down present for -the most part so much uncertainty that it would be idle to publish all -of them. I have communicated the best of them to several distinguished -Oriental scholars. From certain information which they have kindly -given me, it appears that the _soi-disant_ Hindoo of Hélène is not -any fixed idiom known to these specialists; but, on the other hand, -there are to be found in it, more or less disfigured and difficult -to recognize, certain terms or roots which approach more nearly to -Sanscrit than any actual language of India, and the meaning of which -often very well corresponds with the situations in which these words -have been uttered. I proceed to give some examples of them: - - * * * * * - -1. The two words, =atiêyâ ganapatinâmâ=, which inaugurated the Hindoo -language on the 6th of March, 1895 (see p. 282), and which were -invested at that moment, in the mouth of Simandini, with the evident -meaning of a formula of salutation or of benediction, addressed to her -late husband, inopportunely returned, were articulated in a manner so -impressive and so solemn that their pronunciation leaves scarcely any -room for doubt. - -It is all the more interesting to ascertain the accord of my scientist -correspondents upon the value of these two words; the first recalls to -them nothing precise or applicable to the situation, but the second -is a flattering and very appropriate allusion to the divinity of the -Hindoo Pantheon, which is more actively interesting to the professional -world. - -M. P. Oltramare, to whom I sent these words, without saying anything -as to their source, replied: “There is nothing more simple than the -word =ganapatinâmâ=; it means, ‘_who bears the name of Ganapati_,’ -which is the same as _Ganesa_.... As to =atiêyâ=, that word has not -a Hindoo appearance; it might perhaps be =atreya=, which, it seems, -serves as a designation for women who have suffered an abortion, an -explication which, however, I do not guarantee. [In order to affirm -more concerning these words, it would be necessary to know] whether -they are really Sanscrit, since if they belong to the vulgar languages, -I excuse myself absolutely.” - -M. Glardon, who is more familiar with the vulgar languages and -speaks Hindustani fluently, did not hint to me of any other meaning -for =atiêyâ= and saw also in the other word “an epithet of honor, -literally, ‘_named Ganapati_,’ familiar name of the god Ganesa.” - -M. de Saussure also found no meaning whatever for the first term, in -which he inclines now to see an arbitrary creation of the Martian -order, and he remarked that in the second, “the two words, =Ganapati=, -well-known divinity, and =nâmâ=, _name_, are constructed together, -in some inexplicable manner, but not necessarily false. It is quite -curious,” adds he, “that this fragment, which is mixed up with the name -of a god, may be properly pronounced with a kind of solemn emphasis -and a gesture of religious benediction. This denotes, indeed, an -intelligent and intentional use.” - -According to this first brief specimen, therefore, Hélène’s Hindoo -appears to be a mixture of improvised articulations and of veritable -Sanscrit words adapted to the situation. Later specimens only serve to -corroborate this impression. - - * * * * * - -2. The next outbreak of Hindoo took place five months later (September -15, 1895), in the midst of a very long Oriental seance, in which I only -refer to points especially interesting to us—to wit, Hélène’s supposed -Sanscrit, the French interpretation which Leopold gave of it, and the -curious evidences of agreement of these two texts. - -In one tender scene, with sighs and tears, in connection with Sivrouka, -Hélène uttered in an exceedingly sweet voice the following words: -=ou mama priva= (or =prira, priya=)—=mama radisivou=—=mama sadiou -sivrouka=—=apa tava va signa damasa=—=simia damasa bagda sivrouka=. -During the various phases which precede the awaking, I ask Leopold the -meaning of these words. He at first refused to give it, saying, “Find -it out yourself”; then, as I insist, “I would have preferred that -you found it out yourself.” I beg him to give at least the correct -spelling of an Oriental text furnished us in so uncertain a manner, -but he disappeared, saying he was ignorant of Sanscrit. By means of -later questions which he answers by “yes” and “no,” it is discovered -that they are words of love from Simandini to her husband, who was -about to leave her for a voyage to his principality. Then suddenly, as -the awaking seems to be approaching, Leopold moves the index-finger -feverishly, and commences to dictate impatiently: “_Hasten_ [to spell] -... My good, my excellent, my dearly loved Sivrouka, without thee where -to find happiness?” His answers to our questions lead us to understand -that this is the substantial meaning of all the Sanscrit spoken that -evening (and given above), that it is not he, Leopold, who speaks this -language to Hélène, because he does not understand it, but that it is -indeed he who gives us the French equivalent for it, not by a literal -translation of the words themselves, since he does not understand them, -but by interpreting the inmost feelings of Mlle, Smith, with which -he is perfectly familiar. Shortly afterwards Hélène awakes without -recollection. - -According to M. de Saussure there are certainly in this text some -Sanscrit fragments answering more or less to the interpretation of -Leopold. The most clear are =mama priya=, which signifies _my dear, -my dearly loved_, and =mama sadiou= (corrected to =sâdhô=), _my good, -my excellent_. The rest of the phrase is less satisfactory in its -present condition; =tava= could well be _of thee_, but =apa tava= is -a pure barbarism, if it is intended for _far from thee_. In the same -way the syllable =bag= in =bagda= seems to mean, independently of the -translation of Leopold, =bhâga=, _happiness_, but is surrounded by -incomprehensible syllables. - - * * * * * - -3. In a subsequent seance (December 1, 1895), Hélène gave herself up -to a varied series of somnambulistic pantomimes representing scenes in -the life of Simandini, which were thought to be located at Mangalore, -and in the course of which several Hindoo words escaped her, of which, -unhappily, no interpretation could be obtained from Leopold. But here -again, if one is not too difficult to satisfy, a meaning more or less -adapted to the pantomime is finally discovered. - -In the midst of a playful scene with her little monkey, Mitidja, she -tells him in her sweetest and most harmonious tones (A), =mama kana -sour= (or =sourde=) =mitidya= ... =kana mitidya= (_ter_). Later, -answering her imaginary prince, who, according to Leopold, has just -given her a severe admonition (the reason for which is not known), and -to which she listened with an air of forced submission, and, almost -sneeringly, she tells him (B), =adaprati tava sivrouka= ... =nô simyô -sinonyedô= ... =on yediô sivrouka=. Returning to a better feeling and -leaning towards him, she murmurs with a charming smile (C) =mama plia= -... =mama naximi= (or =naxmi=) =sivrouka= ... =aô laos, mi sivrouka=. - -In the fragment (A), one may suppose the =mama kana= to be a term of -affection, taking the =kana= to be equivalent to the Sanscrit _kânta_, -“beloved,” or _kanistha_, “darling,” unless it be translated, as M. -Glardon does, =kana= (corrected to =khana=) =mitidya= _to eat for -Mitidja_. - -In the phrase (B), according to M. de Saussure, “the last words might, -with some show of reason, make us think of the word =anyediuh=, _the -following day_, or, _another day_, repeated twice; and, on the other -hand, the first word might be transformed into =adya-prabhrti=, -_starting from to-day_; which, combined with other syllables, -themselves conventionally triturated, might give something like: -=adya-pra-bhrti tava, sivruka= ... =yôshin= ... =na anyediuh, any -ediuh=: _from to-day, of thee, Sivrouka, that I am_ ... _wife_ ... _not -another day, another day_—which, besides (if it has any meaning at -all,) has scarcely any connection with the scene.” - -In the phrase (C) the words =mama plia= evidently mean the same as the -words above, =mama priya=, _my beloved_; =naxmi= might be =lakshmî=, -_beauty and fortune_; and the last words might contain =asmi=, _I am_. - -While, therefore, recognizing some words of pure Sanscrit, the whole -appearance of these first texts presents, on the other hand, certain -matters quite suspicious, from the point of view of construction, of -the order of the words, and possibly also the correctness of the forms. - -“_E. g._,” observes M. de Saussure, “I do not remember that one can -say in Sanscrit, ‘my Sivrouka,’ nor ‘my dear Sivrouka.’ One can well -say =mama priya=, _my well beloved_, substantively; but =mama priya -Sivruka= is quite another thing: but it is _my dear Sivrouka_ which -occurs most frequently. It is true,” adds my learned colleague, “that -nothing can be affirmed absolutely, especially concerning certain -epochs at which much bad Sanscrit was made in India. The resource -always remains to us of assuming that, since the eleventh wife of -Sivrouka was a child of Arabia, she had not had time to learn to -express herself without error in the idiom of her lord and master, -up to the moment at which the funeral pile put an end to her brief -existence.” - -The misfortune is, in assuming by hypothesis the point of view of -the romance, one exposes himself to another difficulty. “The most -surprising thing,” remarks M. de Saussure, “is that Mme. Simandini -spoke Sanscrit, and not Pracrit (the connection of the first with the -second is the same as that between Latin and French, the one springing -from the other, but the one is the language in which the savants -write, while the other is the spoken language). While in the Hindoo -drama the kings, the brahmins, and the personages of high degree are -observed habitually to use Sanscrit, it is questionable if such was -constantly the case in real life. But, under all circumstances, all -the women, even in the drama, speak Pracrit. A king addresses his wife -in the noble language (Sanscrit); she answers him always in the vulgar -language. But the idiom of Simandini, even though it be a Sanscrit very -hard to recognize, is not in any case the Pracrit.” - -The numerous Hindoo speeches of Mlle. Smith during these latter years -give rise to certain analogous observations, and do not throw any new -light on their origin. I shall confine myself to a few examples, which -I have chosen less for the sake of the Sanscritoid texts themselves, -which are also always defective and distorted, than for the reason that -the varied circumstances in which they have been produced afford a -certain psychological interest. - - * * * * * - -4. Scene of Chiromancy. In the course of a long Arab seance, then -Hindoo (February 2, 1896), Hélène knelt down by the side of my chair, -and, taking me for Sivrouka, seized and examined my hand, all the while -carrying on a conversation in a foreign language (without seeming to -notice my actual words). It seems that this conversation contained -some expression of anxiety in regard to my health, which had inspired -several somnambulisms of Mlle. Smith during the preceding months (an -example will be found on pp. 121-122). - -At the same time at which she attentively examines the lines of my -hand, she pronounces the following fragmentary sentences, separated -by silences corresponding to the hallucinatory replies of Sivrouka: -“=Priya sivrouka= ... =nô= [signifying No, according to Leopold] ... -=tvandastroum sivrouka= ... =itiami adia priya= ... =itiami sivra -adia= ... =yatou= ... =napi adia= ... =nô= ... =mama souka, mama baga -sivrouka= ... =yatou=.” Besides sivra, which, Leopold says, is an -affectionate name for Sivrouka, we can divine in this text other terms -of affection: =priya=, _beloved_; =mama soukha, mama bhâga=, “_Oh, my -delight, oh, my happiness!_” M. Glardon also calls attention to the -word =tvandastroum=, which approaches the Hindustani _tandarast_ (or -_tandurust_), “who is in good health”—_tandurusti_, “health,” coming -from the two words _tan_, “physical condition,” and _durust_, “good, -true,” of Persian origin. But he adds that it is possibly only a -coincidence, and seems to me doubtful whether he would have thought of -the connection if it were not found in a scene of chiromancy. - - * * * * * - -5. The Hindoo cycle, like the others, makes numerous irruptions into -the ordinary life of Mlle. Smith, and affects her personality in most -varied degrees, from the simple waking vision of Oriental landscapes -or people up to the total incarnations of Simandini, of which Hélène -preserves no memory whatever. One frequent form of these spontaneous -automatisms consists in certain mixed states, in which she perceives -personages who seem to her objective and independent, while continuing -to have the feeling of a subjective implication or identification in -regard to them, the impression of an indefinable _tua res agitur_. -It then easily happens that the conversations she has with them are a -mixture of French and a foreign language which she is wholly ignorant -of, though feeling the meaning of it. The following is an example: - -March 1, 1898.—Between five and six in the morning, while still in bed -but wide awake, as she affirms, Hélène had “a superb Hindoo vision.” -Magnificent palace, with a huge staircase of white stone, leading to -splendid halls furnished with low divans without cushions, of yellow, -red, and more often of blue materials. In a boudoir a woman (Simandini) -reclining and leaning nonchalantly on her elbow; on his knees near her -a man with black curly hair, of dark complexion (Sivrouka), clothed -in a large, red, embroidered robe, and speaking a foreign language, -not Martian, which Hélène did not know, but which, however, she had -the feeling of comprehending inwardly, and which enabled her to write -some sentences of it in French after the vision. While she _listened_ -to this man speaking, she _saw_ the lips of the woman open, without -hearing any sound come from her mouth, in such a way that she did not -know what she said, but Hélène had at the same time the impression -of answering _inwardly, in thought_, to the conversation of the man, -and she noted his reply. (This means, psychologically, that the words -of Sivrouka gushed forth in auditive images or hallucinations, and -the answers of Simandini-Hélène in psycho-motor-spoken images of -articulation, accompanied by the usual representation of Simandini -effectuating the corresponding labial movements.) Here is a fragment -of conversation noted by Hélène in pencil at the outset of the vision, -in her ordinary handwriting, but very irregular, attesting that she had -not yet entirely regained her normal state. - -(Sivrouka.) “My nights without repose, my eyes red with tears, -Simandini, will not these touch at last thy =attamana=? Shall this day -end without _pardon, without love_?” (Simandini.) “Sivrouka, no, the -day shall not end without pardon, without love; the =sumina= has not -been launched far from me, as thou hast supposed; it is there—dost thou -see?” (Sivrouka.) “Simandini, my =soucca, maccanna baguea=—pardon me -again, always!“ - -This little scrap of conversation, it may be remarked in passing, -gives quite correctly the emotional note, which is strong throughout -the whole length of the Hindoo dream in the relationship of its two -chief personages. As to the Sanscritoid words which are there mingled -with the French, they have not an equal value. “=Sumina=,” says M. de -Saussure, “recalls nothing. =Attamana=, at most =âtmânam= (accusative -of =âtmâ=), _l’âme_, ‘the soul’; but I hasten to say that in the -context in which =attamana= figures one could not make use of the -Sanscrit word which resembles it, and which at bottom only signifies -(_âme_) ‘soul’ in philosophical language, and in the sense of ‘_l’âme -universelle_,’ or other learned meanings.” - - * * * * * - -6. The apparition of isolated Hindoo words, or words incorporated in -a non-Hindoo context, is not very rare with Hélène, and is produced -sometimes in auditive hallucinations, sometimes in her writings (see, -_e. g._, Fig. 37, p. 333); sometimes, again, in the course of words -uttered in hemisomnambulism more or less marked. The list which has -been collected of these detached terms shows the same mixture of pure -Sanscrit and unknown words, which can only be connected with that -language by some transformation so arbitrary or forced as to destroy -altogether the value of such comparison. - -To this second category belong, for example, =gava=, =vindamini=, -=jotisse=, also spelled by Mlle. Smith. These terms, of whose -signification she is absolutely ignorant, struck her ear in the -course of a Hindoo vision which occurred in the morning when she -first awoke. The last of these words recalls to M. de Saussure the -Sanscrit _jyôtis_, “a constellation”; but then he would pronounce it -_djiôtisse_, which hardly corresponds to the manner in which Hélène -heard and wrote it. There must be added to these examples certain -Hindoo words which have made irruptions into some Martian texts. - -These are _Adèl_, a proper name, and _yestad_, “unknown,” in text -13; and (in text 31) _vadasa_, which, according to the rest of the -sentence, seems to designate some divinities or some powers, and in -which MM. de Saussure and Glardon suspect a mangled reminiscence of the -Sanscrit term _dévâ-dâsa_, “slave of the gods.” - - * * * * * - -7. To crown these specimens of the Sanscrit of Hélène, let us cite her -“Hindoo chant,” which has made half a dozen appearances in the last two -years, and of which Leopold deigned, on a single occasion, to outline -the translation. - -The utterances consist essentially of the Sanscrit word _gaya_ “chant,” -repeated to satiety, with here and there some other terms, badly -articulated and offering discouraging variations in the notes taken by -the different hearers. I will confine myself to two versions. - - [Illustration: Fig. 36. Modulation of a Hindoo song. The final _G_ of - the three variations was held with perfect steadiness during fourteen - seconds. The series A was often doubled and trebled before the - continuation.] - -One of them is by Hélène herself. In a spontaneous vision (May 18, -1898, in the morning, upon awaking), she perceived a man, richly -dressed in yellow and blue (Sivrouka), reclining upon beautiful -cushions near a fountain surrounded by palm-trees; a brunette woman -(Simandini) seats herself on the grass, sings to him in a strange -language a ravishing melody. Hélène gathers the following fragments of -it in writing, in which may be recognized the disfigured text of her -ordinary song, “=Ga haïa vahaïyami= ... =vassen iata= ... =pattissaïa -priaïa=.” - -The other version is that of M. de Saussure, very much better qualified -than we are to distinguish the Hindoo sounds. He was quite near -Hélène, who sang seated upon the ground, whose voice for the moment -articulated so badly that several words escaped him, and he does not -vouch for the accuracy of his text, which is as follows, as he wrote -it to the measure: “=Gâya gaya naïa ia miya gayä briti= ... =gaya vaya -yâni pritiya kriya gayâni i gâya mamatua gaya mama nara mama patii si -gaya gandaryô gâya ityami vasanta= ... =gaya gaya yâmi gaya priti gaya -priya gâya patisi=....” - -It was towards the end of this same seance that Leopold, undoubtedly -with the idea of doing honor to the distinguished presence of M. de -Saussure, decided, after a scene of Martian translation (text 14, by -Esenale), to give us, in Hélène’s voice, his interpretation of the -Hindoo chant, which follows, _verbatim_, with its mixture of Sanscrit -words: “Sing, bird, let us sing! =Gaya!= Adèl, Sivrouka, sing of the -spring-time! Day and night I am happy! Let us sing! Spring-time bird, -happiness! =ityâmi mamanara priti=, let us sing! let us love! my king! -Miousa, Adèl!” - -In comparing these translations of the Hindoo text, certain points of -resemblance are discovered between them. Outside the two perfectly -correct words, =gâya=, _song_, and =vasanta=, _spring-time_, the idea -of “_let us love_” is discovered in =priti= and =briti= (Sanscrit -_prîti_, the act of loving), and an approximate equivalent of “_my -king_” in =mama patii=, recalling the Sanscrit _mama patê_, “my -husband, my master.” - -It is, unfortunately, hardly possible to carry the identification -further, except perhaps for _bird_, which, with some show of reason, -might be suspected in =vayayâni=, vaguely recalling =vâyasân= -(accusative plural of =vâyasa= _bird_). - -As to the melody of this plaintive ditty, M. Aug. de Morsier, who heard -it at the seance of the 4th of September, 1898, has kindly noted it as -exactly as possible (see Fig. 36). - -The preceding examples suffice to give an idea of Hélène’s Hindoo, and -it is time to conclude. - -It apparently does not belong to any actually existing dialect. M. -Glardon declares that it is neither ancient nor modern Hindustani, and, -after having put forth at the beginning, by way of simple hypothesis, -the idea that it might be Tamil, or Mahratta, he now sees in it a -_mélange_ of real terms, probably Sanscrit and invented words. M. -Michel, likewise, is of the opinion that the grotesque jargon of -Simandini contains fragments of Sanscrit quite well adapted to the -situation. All my correspondents are, on the whole, of exactly the same -view, and I could not better sum up their opinion than by quoting the -words of M. de Saussure: - -“As to the question of ascertaining whether all this really represents -Sanscrit, it is evidently necessary to answer, _No_. One can only say: - -“First: That it is a medley of syllables, in the midst of which there -are, incontestably, some series of eight to ten syllables, constituting -a fragment of a sentence which has a meaning (especially exclamatory -phrases—_e. g._, =mama priya=, _mon bien-aimé_ (“my well-beloved”); -=mama soukha=, _mes délices_ (“my delight”)). - -“Secondly: That the other syllables, of unintelligible aspect, never -have an anti-Sanscrit character— _i. e._, do not present groups -materially contrary or in opposition to the general figure of the -Sanscrit words. - -“Thirdly and finally: That the value of this latter observation is, on -the other hand, quite considerably diminished by the fact that Mlle. -Smith seldom launches out into complicated forms of syllables, and -greatly affects the vowel _a_; but Sanscrit is a language in which the -proportion of the _a_’s to the other vowels is almost four to one, so -that in uttering three or four syllables in _a_, one could hardly avoid -vaguely encountering a Sanscrit word.” - -It follows from this last remark of M. de Saussure that it ought not to -be very difficult to fabricate Sanscrit after the mode of Simandini, if -only one is possessed of some veritable elements which can serve as a -model and give tone to the remainder. And there is no need to know very -much of it, either, as M. Barth remarks: - -“Has Mlle. Smith been in communication with any person from whom she -could have taken some scraps of Sanscrit and of history? That would -suffice, in this case, for the original germ, even though it were but -slight. Imagination would do the rest. Children are very frequently -_onomatopoioi_” - -But it is, naturally, Mlle. Smith herself who furnishes us, in her -own Martian, the fact most likely to throw light upon her Hindoo. -It evidently is not difficult for a subconscious activity capable -of manufacturing a language out of whole cloth to make another by -imitation and by spinning out some real data. Also, as to the beginning -of the Martian (a year later, as we have seen, to that of the Hindoo), -M. de Saussure does not hesitate to make this comparison, and explains, -_e.g._, the initial Sanscritoid text, the famous phrase of benediction, -=atiêyâ ganapatinâmâ=, by the same process of fabrication which shone -forth in the words of Esenale or Astané. - -I am not convinced that the general process of replacing word for word -the French terms by terms of Oriental aspect, which is certainly the -process employed in the fabrication of the Martian, has been made use -of in the case of Hélène’s Oriental words. Leopold, who has laid so -much stress on procuring us a _quasi_-magical means of obtaining the -literal translation of the Martian, has never condescended to do the -same thing for the Hindoo, but has confined himself to outlining for -us some free and vague interpretations, which scarcely add anything to -that which the pantomime permits us to divine. This leads us to think -that an entire precise translation of the Hindoo is impossible—in -other terms, that Hélène does not fabricate her _pseudo_-Sanscrit -by following step by step a French plot, and by maintaining in her -neologisms the meaning which has been once adopted, but that she -improvises and leaves the result to chance, without reflection (with -the exception of some words of true Sanscrit, the meaning of which she -knows and which she applies intelligently to the situation). - -It is not, then, to the Martian texts proper, in my opinion, that we -must compare Hélène’s Hindoo, but to that _pseudo_-Martian jargon -spoken with volubility in certain seances, and which have never been -noted with certainty nor translated by Esenale. - -It is understood, too, that while Hélène’s subliminal self can safely -give itself up to the creation of a definite language in the freedom -which the planet Mars affords, where there is no pre-existing system -to be conformed to nor any objective control to fear, it would be very -imprudent and absurd to repeat the process in connection with India: -the few words of pure Sanscrit which were at its disposal kept it -from inventing others, the falseness of which would be evident at the -first attempt at a literal and _verbatim_ translation. It, therefore, -contented itself with these veridical elements, insufficient in -themselves alone for the construction of complete sentences, being a -jargon devoid of meaning, but in harmony through their dominant vowels -with the authentic fragments. - -Now how could these authentic fragments have come into the possession -of Mlle. Smith, who has no recollection whatever (nor has her -family) of ever having studied Sanscrit, or of having ever been in -communication with Oriental scholars? This is the problem which my -researches have encountered hitherto, and as a solution of which I can -think of nothing more likely than that of a fortunate chance, analogous -to that which enabled me to discover the passage of De Marlès. I am, -for the time being, reduced to vague conjectures as to the extent of -Mlle. Smith’s latent knowledge of Sanscrit, and the probable nature of -its manner of acquisition. - -I had long thought that Hélène might have absorbed her Hindoo -principally by _auditive_ means, and that she had, perhaps, in her -infancy lived in the same house with some Indian student, whom she had -heard, across the street or through an open window, speaking aloud -Sanscrit texts with their French translation. The story of the young -domestic without education is well known, who, seized with a fever, -spoke both Greek and Hebrew, which had been stored up in her mind, -unknown to her, while she was in the service of a German savant. _Se -non è vero è ben trovato._ In spite of the just criticisms of Mr. Lang, -apropos of its poorly established authenticity, this standard anecdote -may be considered as a type of many other facts of the same kind -which have since been actually observed, and as a salutary warning to -distrust subconscious memories of auditive origin. But Indian scholars -are rare in Geneva, and this trail has yielded me nothing. - -I am really inclined to admit the exclusively _visual_ origin of -Hélène’s Sanscrit. First, it is not necessary for her to have heard -that idiom. Reading of texts printed in French characters coincides -very well with a pronunciation so confused and badly articulated as -hers; and, further, it alone can account for certain inexplicable -errors of pronunciation if Mlle. Smith had acquired that language by -ear. - -The most characteristic of her errors is the presence in Hindoo of the -French sound _u_, which does not exist in Sanscrit, but is naturally -suggested by reading if it has not been previously ascertained that -that letter is pronounced _ou_ in the Sanscrit words in which it -appears. - -Other observations militate in favor of the same supposition. Never in -the seances has Simandini ventured _to write_ Sanscrit, and it is in -French letters that her name was given (see p. 288). - - [Illustration: Fig. 37. Fragment. Final sentence of a letter of Mlle. - Smith, finished (or rather remaining unfinished), during the irruption - of a spontaneous access of Hindoo somnambulism. Note foreign words, - _boulboul_ (Persian name for nightingale), _Kana_ (Hindoo slave of - Simandini), and _radyiva_ (Sanscrit name for blue lotus); also the - Sanscrit letters _a_, _e_, _i_, _d_, _r_, taking the place of the - French initials. Note also the change of form of the _t_’s.] - -Still, Hélène subconsciously possesses a part, at least, of the -Devanagari alphabet, since sometimes certain characters belonging to it -slip into her normal writing. But it is to be noted that her knowledge -of this kind does not seem in any way to go beyond that which might -have resulted from a rapid glance at a Sanscrit grammar. - -In certain cases this irruption of foreign signs (altogether analogous -to that which has been seen in the case of the Martian) is connected -with an access of spontaneous somnambulism and makes part of a whole -troop of images and of Oriental terms. - -An interesting example is found in Fig. 37, which reproduces the end -of a letter which Hélène wrote me from the country. All the rest of -this six-page letter is perfectly normal, both as to handwriting and -content, but suddenly, tired by her effort of prolonged attention, she -begins to speak of her health, sleep overcomes her, and the last lines -show the invasion of the Oriental dream. - -Kana, the slave, with his tame birds, and the brilliant plants of the -tropics, substitute themselves little by little for the actual room. -The letter reached me unfinished and without signature, as is shown in -Fig. 37; Hélène closed it mechanically during her somnambulism, without -knowledge of this unusual termination, at which she was surprised and -annoyed when I showed it to her later. - -Examination and comparison of all these graphomotor automatisms show -that there are in Hélène’s subconsciousness some positive notions, -albeit superficial and rudimentary, of the Sanscrit alphabet. She knows -the exact form of many isolated characters, and their general value, -in the abstract, as it were, but she does not seem to have any idea of -their concrete use in connection with other letters. - -In a word, these fragments of graphic automatisms betray a knowledge -of Hindoo writing such as a curious mind might be able to acquire by -perusing for some moments the first two or three pages of a Sanscrit -grammar. It would retain certain detached forms; first, the _a_ and -the _e_, which, striking the eye at the commencement of the two first -lines (containing the vowels, and usually separated from the following -lines containing the consonants) of the standard arrangement of the -Hindoo letters in ten groups; then the series of ciphers, occupying a -line by themselves and easy to retain; finally, some other simple signs -gleaned at hazard; but there will probably not be retained any of the -too complicated figures resulting from the union of several characters -in order to form words. This supposed genesis entirely corresponds with -the extent of the notions as to Sanscrit writing of which Mlle. Smith’s -subconsciousness gives evidence. - -It will suffice in summing up, to account for Mlle. Smith’s Hindoo -language, that perhaps in the N. group, or in some other spiritistic -environment of which I am ignorant, some one, for the sake of -curiosity, may have shown her and allowed her to glance over a Sanscrit -grammar or lexicon, immediately after a seance, during that state of -suggestibility in which the exterior suggestions are registered very -strongly in her case, often without leaving traces in her conscious -memory. The fact will also be explained that Hélène has no memory -whatever of it, is absolutely convinced that she never saw or heard the -least fragment of Sanscrit or any other Oriental language. - - [Illustration: Fig. 38. Examples of Sanscrit characters, automatically - substituted for French words and ciphers, in words and figures - appearing in the normal writings of Mlle. Smith (_la_me, _ru_bis, - 1_6_6, _pli_s, 2_86_5, 15_4_). Natural size.] - -I ought also to add that the information which I have up to the present -time been able to gather has furnished me with no positive indication -of the truth of my supposition, while, on the other hand, it has not -tended to establish its falsity. - - -V. THE SOURCES OF THE HINDOO DREAM - -This paragraph will have no meaning whatever for those who hold -the Oriental cycle to be in reality the reappearance in Mlle. -Smith’s somnambulistic states, of memories belonging to an anterior -existence in which she was an Asiatic princess, and I myself naik of -Tchandraguiri, Professor Seippel, an Arab slave, etc. - -I shall confine myself in this case to an expression of regret that the -chance which has united us afresh, after five centuries of separation, -did not leave us in the midst of those tropical splendors instead of -transporting us to the banks of the Rhône just where the fog is densest -in winter. It is a severe punishment for our past misdeeds. But when -one pushes his skepticism so far as only to see in the entire Hindoo -dream a fantastic product elaborated out of certain scattered facts, -as I have done in the preceding paragraphs, one is likewise punished -for his want of faith by the obscure problems which are met with on -the subject of the sources of this dream. I would say also that it is -difficult to understand why the hypnoid imagination of Mlle. Smith gave -itself up to such pranks, and distributed as it did the rôles of this -comedy. - -It is easy to understand how a nature given to subconscious reveries, -and such as I have described in the first chapters of this book, has -taken pleasure in the fiction of the tragic destiny of Simandini, and -also that she felt specially attracted towards the career of Marie -Antoinette. - -But M. Seippel, whom I quoted above, has nothing about him of the -Arab, and still less of the slave, neither in outward appearance -nor in character; and as to myself, let us say here, M. F.—if I may -be permitted to substitute harmless initials for the always odious -“I”—as for M. F., there is generally to be met with in him, under some -diffidence, a certain mildness of manner and disposition, which would -scarcely seem to predestinate him to the energetic and wild rôle of a -violent, whimsical, capricious, and jealous Oriental despot. - -As to the psychological origins of the Hindoo dream—considered not so -much in its Oriental decoration, but in its essential note, which is -the relation of Simandini to Sivrouka (the pretended anteriority of -M. F.)—two hypotheses can be framed, between which it is difficult to -choose. - -First. From the point of view of psychopathology I should be tempted to -cause this entire somnambulistic romance to be included in that which -Freud calls _Abwehrpsychosen_, resulting from a sort of autotomy which -frees the normal self from an affective idea incompatible with it; -which idea revenges itself by occasioning very diverse perturbations, -according to the subjects, from disorders of innervation, coming to -disturb the daily life (hysteria by somatic conversion of the affective -coefficient of the repulsed idea), up to the case in which the self -only escapes the intolerable contradiction between the given reality -and the idea which besets it by plunging itself entirely into the -latter (mental hallucinatory confusion, delirium, etc.). - -Between these varied results may be found that in which the idea -excluded from the consciousness becomes the germ of hypnoid -developments, the point of departure of a secondary consciousness -unknown to the ordinary personality, the centre of a somnambulistic -life in which the tendencies which the normal self has driven far away -from it may take refuge and give themselves free play. - -This is, perhaps, the happiest solution, from a practical and social -point of view, since it leaves the individual in a state of perfect -equilibrium and free from nervous troubles, outside of the very limited -moments in which the underlying processes break out in accesses of -somnambulism. - -Such may be the case of the Hindoo dream and the origin of the -attributing of the rôle of Sivrouka to M. F. Nothing, assuredly, in -the normal life or being of Mlle. Smith would cause the suspicion that -she had ever consciously felt towards the latter the absurd sentiments -which good sense would have condemned in advance; but divers hints of -her subliminal life, independently of the Hindoo cycle itself (certain -dreams, etc.), have sometimes seemed to betray a latent conflict, -which the sane and reasonable self would have quickly gotten rid of -by the banishment from the ordinary personality of the affective -idea, inadmissible in the given conditions of reality. Hence, with -a temperament accustomed to mediumistic doubling of personality -and imbued with spiritistic doctrines, the birth and development, -underneath the level of the normal consciousness, of this romance of a -former existence, in which emotional tendencies incompatible with the -present life have found on occasion a sort of theoretic justification -and a free field for expansion. - -Secondly: It may also be presumed, and I prefer to admit, that the -sentiments of Simandini towards her fictitious rajah, far from being -the reflection and somnambulic transposition of an impression really -felt by Mlle. Smith in regard to some one real and determined, are only -a fantastic creation—like the passion with which juvenile imaginations -are sometimes inflamed for an ideal and abstract type while awaiting -the meeting with a concrete realization more or less like it—and that -the assimilation of Sivrouka to M. F. is only a coincidence due to -the simple chance of Mlle. Smith having made the acquaintance of M. -F. at the time when the Hindoo dream was about to begin. Two points -strengthen this hypothesis of a contingent and superficial confusion -between M. F. and Sivrouka. First, the Hindoo dream was evidently begun -by a characteristic vision in which Simandini appeared, almost two -months before the admission of M. F. to the seances (see pp. 279-281). -Instead of supposing that the subconsciousness of Mlle. Smith foresaw -already the probable arrival of this new spectator, and reserved for -him in advance a leading rôle in the romance of former existence which -she was in process of elaborating (which is not altogether impossible, -it is true), it hardly seems as though M. F. could have stood for -anything in the dream-personage of Sivrouka. In the second place, -it is only in the light somnambulisms and her mixed or crepuscular -states that Mlle. Smith happens to take M. F. for the Hindoo prince -and to seat herself at his feet in attitudes of tenderness and -abandon (without otherwise ever departing from the bounds of perfect -propriety); as soon as the trance becomes profound and the Hindoo -somnambulism complete, M. F. ceases to exist for her, as well as the -others present, and she then is concerned only with an absolutely -hallucinatory Sivrouka. This is the place to state that Hélène has -never presented any phenomenon similar to—far from it—certain cases in -which have been seen the awakening in the hypnotic subject of gross -and more or less bestial tendencies, for which the subjects would have -blushed in their waking state. There is nothing of that nature in Mlle. -Smith. Somnambulism does not detract in any way from the elevation of -her moral sense. The same is true of her deepest trances or when she -“incarnates” personages very different from her ordinary character—she -never departs from that real dignity which is a trait of her normal -personality. - -To sum up—the hypothesis of a purely accidental identification, a -kind of association by simple contiguity between the Hindoo prince -and M. F., seems to me, on the whole, the most natural. It releases -the latter, besides, from all responsibility (altogether involuntary, -however) for the sentiments so profound, so disinterested, so worthy of -a less tragic fate, which the imaginary personage of Sivrouka Nayaka -inspires in the poor Princess Simandini. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE ROYAL CYCLE - - -If I were obliged to give this cycle a place proportioned to that -which it occupies in the somambulic life of Mlle. Smith, a hundred -pages would not suffice. But permit me to pass rapidly over facts -concerning which I should only be obliged to repeat the greater part of -the observations called forth by the preceding romances, which apply -equally well, _mutatis mutandis_, to the personification of Marie -Antoinette by Hélène. - -The choice of this rôle is naturally explained by the innate tastes -of Mlle. Smith for everything that is noble, distinguished, elevated -above the level of the common herd, and by the fact that some exterior -circumstance fixed her hypnoid attention upon the illustrious queen -of France in preference to the many other historic figures equally -qualified to serve as a point of attachment for her subconscious -megalomaniac reveries. - -In default of absolutely certain information on this point, I strongly -suspect the engraving from the _Memoirs of a Physician_, representing -the dramatic scene of the decanter between Balsamo and the Dauphiness, -of having given birth to this identification of Hélène with Marie -Antoinette, as well as to that of her secondary personality of Leopold -with Cagliostro. - -We have, in fact, seen that this engraving (pp. 94-95), so well -calculated to impress the imagination, was shown to Mlle. Smith by Mme. -B. at the end of a seance—that is, at a moment when one is never sure -that Hélène’s return to her normal state is complete, and in which -her hypnoid personality, still on a level with consciousness, so to -speak, is very prone to absorb the interesting suggestions which the -environment may furnish. It was several months—a year and a quarter, -possibly—after this incident (the precise date of which, in 1892 or -1893, it is impossible to determine) that announcement was made by the -table, on the 30th of January, 1894, that Hélène was the reincarnation -of Marie Antoinette. It is to be recollected that in the interval she -had for some time believed herself to be the reincarnation of Lorenza -Feliciani; it is, however, to be noted that these two successive -identifications did not have the same guarantee or psychological -signification. In fact, it was Mlle. Smith, in the waking states—that -is, in her normal personality—who accepted the supposition of Mme. B., -that she was the reincarnation of Lorenza; but the table—_i.e._, her -subconsciousness—always remained silent on this point. On the contrary, -the idea of having been Marie Antoinette does not seem to have occurred -to Hélène’s ordinary consciousness up to the time at which Leopold -revealed this secret, by the table. If any conclusion may be drawn from -this, it is that, under the multiple suggestions of the engraving from -Dumas’ works and the suppositions of Mme. B., the hypnoid imagination -of Mlle. Smith at first preferred to the rôle of Lorenza that of Marie -Antoinette, which is undoubtedly more flattering and more conformable -to Hélène’s temperament, and then elaborated and matured it, very -slowly, it is true, but not excessively so, in comparison with other -examples of subliminal incubations of Mlle. Smith. - -From the point of view of its psychological forms of manifestation, the -Royal cycle from that time followed an evolution analogous to that of -its congeners described in the preceding chapters. After some months, -during which it unfolded itself in visions described by Hélène and -accompanied by typtological explanations dictated by the table, the -trance became more profound. Mlle. Smith began to personate the queen -in pantomime, of which Leopold gave the exact signification by digital -indications. Speech was added the year following, at a date which I -cannot fix, but the first occasion on which I was a witness to it was -on the 13th of October, 1895. Handwriting only made its appearance, -as far as I am aware, two years later (November 1, 1897, see Fig. -39), when the royal incarnation attained its apogee and Hélène was -in the habit of retaining in memory the somnambulistic rôle of Marie -Antoinette for several hours. Since then the rôle has maintained itself -at a very remarkable level of perfection, but it scarcely seems to me -progressing, and seems likely to become stereotyped. The objectivity -of the general type of queen must be distinguished in this brilliant -personality, or at least that of a lady of great distinction, as well -as a realization of the individual characteristics of Marie Antoinette -of Austria. As to the first point there is almost nothing left to be -desired. Mlle. Smith seems by nature to possess all that this rôle -demands, and hypnoid autosuggestion finds no lack of material upon -which to work. - - [Illustration: Fig. 39. First known example of automatic irruption of - the orthography and handwriting called that of Marie Antoinette among - the normal writings of Mlle. Smith. Fragments of a letter of Hélène of - November 1, 1897, narrating a seance during which she had successfully - incarnated the queen of France and the Hindoo princess. [Collection of - M. Lemaître.] See also p. ] - -When the royal trance is complete no one can fail to note the grace, -elegance, distinction, majesty sometimes, which shine forth in Hélène’s -every attitude and gesture. - -She has verily the bearing of a queen. The more delicate shades of -expression, a charming amiability, condescending hauteur, pity, -indifference, overpowering scorn flit successively over her countenance -and are manifested in her bearing, to the filing by of the courtiers -who people her dream. The play of her hands with her real handkerchief -and its fictitious accessories, the fan, the binocle with long handle, -the scent-bottle which she carries in a pocket in her girdle; her -courtesyings, the movement, full of grace and ease, by which she never -forgets at each turning around, to throw back her imaginary train; -everything of this kind, which cannot be described, is perfect in its -ease and naturalness. Special personification of the unhappy Austrian -wife of Louis XVI. is of a less evident, and moreover doubtful, -accuracy. To judge of it from the only objective point of comparison -at our disposal, the handwriting (see Figs. 39 to 41), the Marie -Antoinette of Hélène’s somnambulisms little resembles her supposed -prototype, for there is less of difference between the autographs of -Cagliostro and of Leopold (see p. 109) than there is between that of -the real queen and that of her pretended reincarnation in Mlle. Smith, -the latter having a rounded, inclined calligraphy, much more regular -than in her normal state, instead of the angular and illegible writing -which was characteristic of the queen of France, to say nothing of the -glaring differences in formation of many letters. Some orthographic -analogies (Hélène writes _instans_, _enfans_, _étois_, etc.) have -nothing specific about them, and simply recall the general habits of -the last century (see p. 112). - - [Illustration: Fig. 40. Writing of Mlle. Smith incarnating Marie - Antoinette. Seance of November 7, 1897. Beginning of a letter, written - in ink and addressed to Philippe d’Orléans (M. Aug. de Morsier, who - was not present at the seance). After the ink-stains of the last line, - Hélène threw down her pencil, then began again and finished her letter - in pencil in a still more regular and slanting hand than the above.] - - [Illustration: Fig. 41. Writing and signature of Marie Antoinette. - Fragment of a letter written from the Temple to General de Jarnayes, - and reproduced in the _Isographie des Hommes célèbres_. [Collection - of fac-similes published under the direction of Duchesne, Sr., Paris, - 1827-30.]] - -Not having discovered any indication as to Marie Antoinette’s manner -of speaking, I do not know whether the hypnoid imagination of Hélène -has succeeded better than with the handwriting in adopting in her royal -incarnations certain intonations and a pronunciation which have nothing -of German in them, and would rather recall the English accent. The -timbre of her voice does not change, but her speech becomes trailing, -with a slight rolling of the _r_’s, and takes on something precise -and affected, very pretty, but slightly irritating by its length. We -already know that there is not an absolute wall of separation between -Hélène’s various trances. Just as is the case with the Martian and -the Hindoo, the handwriting or the spelling of the queen sometimes -slips into the correspondence of Mlle. Smith (see Fig. 39), and she -also sometimes assumes the accent of Marie Antoinette, if not in the -ordinary waking state (I do not know whether that is ever the case), at -least outside her Royal cycle, especially in the phases of transition -in which she begins or ends by incarnating Leopold, the Martians, etc. -(see, for example, p. 56). - -From the point of view of its content, the Royal cycle forms a -collection of scenes and varied tableaux, like the Martian dream, -lacking any continuous plot, and in which marked historic events -scarcely hold a place—_e. g._, in it the queen is never seen to mount -the scaffold as Simandini ascends her funeral pile. One does not -always even know whether the spectacle before our eyes is supposed to -be the repetition, the exact recollection, of unknown but real episodes -in the life of Marie Antoinette, or indeed whether it has to do with -new, actual incidents passing now between the reincarnated queen and -her old acquaintances whom she discovers in the persons present at -the seance or in the disincarnate spirits in mediumistic relationship -with her. That depends on the case—_e. g._, on the 25th of December, -1896, Mlle. Smith, entranced, addresses touching exhortations to a lady -present whom she took for the Princess Lamballe, which, according to -Leopold, is a reproduction of the last evening which the unhappy queen, -sustained by her companion in captivity, passed in this world. (It is -true that at Christmas, 1792, the princess had already, three months -previously, fallen a victim to the massacres of September.) Again -the Abbé Grégoire dictates by the table, which bows significantly to -Hélène, “_I desired to save you, but I was not able_”; or the sinister -Hébert says to her by the same process, “_I was the cause of your -death.... I suffer; pray for me._” Ought we to consider real the homage -and the posthumous remorse which these two disincarnate spirits bring -after the lapse of a century to their sovereign, finally recognized in -the person of Mlle. Smith? - -Generally it is impossible to decide whether the incident transpiring -pretends simply to republish the past or constitutes a new fact. - -The location of the royal scenes and visions is often undetermined. -Many are located in the gardens or the apartments of the Petit Trianon, -and the furniture which Hélène describes there is, indeed, always pure -Louis XVI. More rarely Marie Antoinette is found at the Temple, or at -certain rendezvous—innocent, but very imprudent—in some secret abode in -Paris. She is never seen in Austria, since, unlike the Hindoo princess -still filled with her Arab memories, she seems to have completely lost -sight of her past as a young girl. - -In the surroundings of the queen, the king is conspicuous by his -absence; very rarely she makes some allusions to him with a marked -indifference. The greater part of the personages known to that epoch, -whom I refrain from enumerating, figure in it incidentally, but there -are three who continually reappear and hold the first rank. There -is, first, the Count of Cagliostro, “_mon sorcier_,” or “_ce cher -sorcier_,” as the queen familiarly calls him, who never has enough of -his visits and his conversations, which are very varied, including -the discussion of philosophic subjects, such as the future life and -the existence of God as well as the gossip of the last _fête_ at -Versailles. There is, secondly, Louis Philippe d’Orléans (Equality); -while the third is the old Marquis de Mirabeau; all of whom, especially -the first, have served as hallucinatory interlocutors towards Hélène -in numerous scenes—up to the time at which, to the great amusement of -the sitters, the somnambulistic monologue was transformed into real -and lively conversation, in consequence of the introduction into the -seances of M. Eugène Demole, then of M. Aug. de Morsier, in whom -Marie Antoinette immediately recognized the two personages last above -mentioned. - -Since this unexpected meeting with her two contemporaries, -reincarnated, like herself, the somnambulistic queen freely permits -herself, on occasion, the pleasure of renewing the little suppers and -joyous evenings of long ago. When a seance which has lasted from four -o’clock until seven in the afternoon seems to have come to an end, -and Mlle. Smith, after having awakened from a long series of Hindoo, -Martian, and other scenes, has been invited to dine and refresh -herself before taking up her household duties, it often happens that, -perceiving M. Demole or M. de Morsier among the persons present, she -gives a slight start, with a change of countenance, sometimes barely -perceptible, but which there is no mistaking; then, in her very -characteristic accent of Marie Antoinette, exclaims, “Oh, marquis, you -have been here, and I had not noticed you before!” And then follows a -somnambulistic vigil which may be prolonged until nearly ten o’clock in -the evening, maintained by means of the suggestive amiability of her -improvised companions in sustaining their rôles of Mirabeau or Philippe -d’Orléans. - -They descend to the dining-room. The queen takes her place at the table -alongside of the marquis (or of Philippe). She has eyes and ears for -him alone, the other guests and the servants remaining shut out from -her dream. She eats and drinks only that which he sets before her, and -it is no sinecure to supply the wants of this august neighbor, since -she possesses a truly royal appetite. The amount of food which she -devours and the goblets of wine which she drinks off one after another, -without suffering any inconvenience, are astounding, as in her normal -state Mlle. Smith is sobriety itself and eats very little. After dinner -they pass into the _salon_, with many compliments and obeisances, and -Marie Antoinette takes coffee. On the first occasions of this kind, -she also accepted a cigarette from Philippe and smoked it—Mlle. Smith -never smokes in her waking state—but the remarks of the persons present -upon the historical untruthfulness of this feature must have been -registered, and bore fruit, since at the following seances she did -not seem to understand the use of tobacco in that form; she accepted, -on the other hand, with eagerness, a pinch of imaginary snuff, which -almost immediately brought about by autosuggestion a series of sneezes -admirably successful. - -The evening passes in most varied conversation, until, evidently -feeling fatigue, the queen becomes silent, closes her eyes, and goes -to sleep in an easy-chair. At that instant Leopold, who gives no -sign of life, and from whom no response can be obtained during the -royal somnambulism, reappears and answers by the fingers or manifests -himself in spontaneous gestures. Hélène’s hand, _e. g._, is raised, -and makes passes on her forehead to accentuate the restorative sleep -which is about to bring her back to her normal state. At the end of -some time—half an hour or more—she awakes without any recollection of -the evening, believing that she has not yet dined, and complaining -of hunger and thirst, as if her stomachic sensibility participated -in the amnesia and other modifications which accompany the change of -personality. Nevertheless, at such times I have never seen her accept -anything more than a couple of glasses of water, after which she feels -wide awake. - -In escorting her home, I was witness on one occasion to a return of the -royal somnambulism. She was exceedingly desirous of going to the house -of a well-known personage (whom she had perceived in her vision during -the seance), who had been received at the court of Marie Antoinette, -and who died in Geneva in the first quarter of this century; it was -only upon arriving before the house in which he had lived, and as -she was upon the verge of entering it, that I finally succeeded in -awakening and restoring her to herself, without memory of the incident, -and very much astonished at the unaccustomed streets in which we found -ourselves. - -It is useless to give a more circumstantial narration of these dinners -and _soirées_ of Marie Antoinette. They are very entertaining for the -spectators, but lose much of their interest when related in their -entirety. Their details are exactly what might be expected of a lively -subliminal imagination, alert and full of verve, abundantly supplied, -on account of the illustrious queen, with notions still more easily -explicable, thanks to the intellectual atmosphere of France, than those -of the Hindoo cycle. - -Numerous anachronisms, however, slip into them, and her Majesty -sometimes falls into the snares which the marquis or Philippe take -a malicious pleasure in setting for her. She often escapes them when -they are too clumsy, and, with a most comical display of temper, is at -first confused, then curiously questions, or manifests uneasiness in -regard to the mental state of her interlocutors when they introduce -the telephone, the bicycle, steamships, or the modern scientific -vocabulary into their eighteenth-century conversation. But, on the -other hand, she herself employs terms still more malapropos, such as, -“to derail” (figuratively), “metre” and “centimetre,” etc. Certain -words, such as “tramway” and “photography,” have occasioned serious -conflicts. Marie Antoinette first allows the treacherous word to pass -unnoticed, and it is evident that she perfectly understood it, but her -own reflection, or the smile of the sitters, awakens in her the feeling -of incompatibility; she returns to the word just used, and pretends a -sudden ignorance and astonishment in regard to it. Spiritism explains -these blunders by accusing the Machiavelian companions of the queen -of grossly abusing the suggestibility attached to the trance state by -jumbling her ideas and throwing her into confusion. Psychology is not -surprised that the subliminal imitation, however remarkable it may be, -presents some little defects, and every one is in accord in regard to -her thoughtless manner of expressing herself, in attributing these -anachronisms to an accidental mingling of the memories of her ordinary -personality and of the present life with those of the royal personality -revived during the somnambulism. In her rôle as queen, Mlle. Smith -gives evidence of a great deal of ingenuity. She is full of witty -repartées, which disconcert her interlocutors, the style of which is -sometimes perfectly after the manner of the epoch. - -This ease and readiness of dialogue, excluding all reflective or -calculating preparation, denote a great freedom of mind and a wonderful -facility for improvisation. There are mixed with these, on the other -hand, some witticisms and episodes which are not at all impromptu, -but are the evident result of a preliminary elaboration in the course -of the subconscious reveries and various automatisms which the royal -romance causes to surge up in Hélène’s ordinary life. - -There are some scenes whose development or repetition can be followed -in a series of seances and spontaneous visions as it passes through the -other cycles. The following is one example among many: - -At the end of a seance at which M. de Morsier was present (October 10, -1897), Mlle. Smith enters into her dream of Marie Antoinette. During -dinner she makes several allusions to her son, the Dauphin, speaks of -her daughter, tells of having demanded of her sorcerer the sex of her -next child, etc.—matters all foreign to the conversation of Philippe, -and which seem to announce some underlying scene ready to break forth. -In fact, in the middle of the _soirée_ the queen becomes absorbed -and distrait, and finally falls on her knees in a dark corner of the -_salon_; her monologue indicates that she is before the cradle where -the little Dauphin and his sister are lying asleep. Presently she -returns to seek Philippe and to conduct him to admire the sleeping -children, to whom, in a very soft voice, she sings an unknown nursery -rhyme (“Sleep in peace,” etc.) of a plaintive melody analogous to that -of the Hindoo chant; the tears gush from her eyes; tender kisses upon -the imaginary cradle and a fervent prayer to the Virgin terminate this -extremely touching maternal scene. - -Several weeks after (the 1st of December), a new romance makes its -appearance in a spontaneous access of visual, auditive, and graphic -automatism, the recital of which Hélène sent me the following day. That -evening, while alone with her mother, she had interrogated Leopold -upon an affair in which she was greatly interested, and had obtained -from him an answer: “As soon as his communication was ended, I saw -everything disturbed around me; then at my left, at a distance of about -thirty feet, a Louis XVI. _salon_, not very large, was outlined, in the -middle of which was a square piano, open. Before this piano was seated -a woman, still young, the color of whose hair I could not distinguish. -Whether it was blond or gray I could not clearly see. She played and -sang at the same time. The sounds of the piano, the voice even, reached -me, but I could not catch the words of the song. A young girl and a boy -stood on either side of the piano. Not far from them was seated a young -lady holding an infant on her lap.[27] This charming vision lasted a -very short time, not longer than ten minutes.” - -After the disappearance of the vision, Hélène had the idea of taking -up her pencil. “With pencil in hand, I was asking myself what I should -write, when all at once I heard again the melody; then, this time very -distinctly, the words, but without any vision. The whole passed into my -head, into my brain, and instinctively I pressed my hand to my forehead -in order to hear and understand better. I felt myself compelled to hold -the pencil in a manner different from my habitual way of holding it. -Here are the words of the song heard and traced at that instant. As you -see, the handwriting is not like mine; there are also some very glaring -errors of orthography.” - - “Approchez-vous approchez-vous | enfans chéris approchez-vous | quand - le printemps sur nous ramène | ses frais parfums ses rayons d’or - | venez enfans sous son haleine | gazouiller bas mes doux trésors - | approchez-vous approchez-vous | enfans chéris approchez-vous | - êtres chéris enfans bénis—approchez-vous de votre mère | son doux - baiser petits amis | calme et guérit toutes misères | approchez-vous - approchez-vous | enfans chéris approchez-vous.”[28] - -Some months later the two preceding scenes were reproduced, with -variations of detail, on the same evening, during which Marie -Antoinette first conducts Philippe towards the fictitious cradle of her -cherubs and sings to them her first song: “Sleep in peace,” etc. Then -she leads him to the piano, and, displaying an imaginary sheet of music -beneath his eyes, obliges him to accompany her while she sings the -“Song of Elizabeth.” - -M. de Morsier, who, fortunately, is not easily embarrassed, improvised -an accompaniment to which the queen accommodated herself after some -criticism, and to which she sings in a very sweet, pure voice some -words which were found to be, word for word, identical with those -automatically written by Hélène on the preceding 1st of December. -In this example is seen the mixture of preparation, of repetition, -and of impromptu, which are inferred from the varied incidents which -constitute the royal _soirées_. - -It is probable that if it were possible to be a witness of, or if -Mlle. Smith could remember all the spontaneous automatisms which -aid in nourishing the royal romance, nocturnal dreams, hypnagogic -visions, subconscious reveries during the waking state, etc., there -would be presented interminable imaginary conversations with the -marquis, Philippe, Cagliostro, and all the fictitious personages who -occasionally make their appearance in the somnambulistic scenes of -Marie Antoinette. - -It is by this underlying and unknown work, perhaps never interrupted, -that the personality of the queen of France is slowly prepared and -elaborated, and which shines forth and displays itself with so much of -magnificence in the _soirées_ with Philippe d’Orléans and the Marquis -de Mirabeau. - -I have stated that, except these two gentlemen, who always form -part of the royal dream when they are present (and even sometimes -when absent), the others present at the seances are excluded. It is -understood that they do not pass unperceived on this account. - -In the same manner as in the negative hallucinations or systematic -anæsthesia of hypnotized subjects, that which seems to be not felt -is nevertheless registered; so, in like manner, it is altogether -probable that nothing of that which passes around her escapes the -fundamental individuality of Mlle. Smith. The royal personality which -occupies the foreground of the scene and finds itself in an elective -_rapport_, limited to Philippe and the marquis, merely causes the -other personalities to be relegated to the background without breaking -their connection with the environment. There are many proofs of this. -For example, in walking, Marie Antoinette never runs against any of -the others present. The remarks and criticisms of the latter are not -lost upon her, since very frequently her conversation betrays their -influence after some minutes. At the same time, if any one pinches her -hand or tickles her ear, her lips, her nostrils, she seems anæsthetic; -still, at the end of a few seconds she turns her head away, and if -the tickling is persisted in, she experiences a kind of agitation -accommodated to the circumstances of her dream, changes her position on -some pretext, etc. - -It is manifest, in short, that the excitations to which she seems to -be insensible at the moment, far from having no effect, are stored up -and produce, by their sum total, reactions which are retarded for some -minutes and which are intelligently adapted to the somnambulistic -scene, but with an intensity much more exaggerated than diminished by -this period of latency. - -Music also affects her, precipitating her out of the dream of Marie -Antoinette into a common hypnotic state, in which she assumes -passionate attitudes, which have in them nothing of the regal, and -which conform to the varied airs which follow each other upon the piano. - -In her phases as Marie Antoinette, Hélène has an accent characteristic -of it; she recognizes me vaguely; she has some allochiria, a complete -insensibility of the hands, and a large appetite; she does not know who -Mlle. Smith is; if she is asked to give the actual date, she replies -correctly as to the month and day, but indicates a year of the last -century, etc. Then all at once her state changes; the royal accent -gives way to her ordinary voice, she seems wide awake, all mental -confusion has disappeared, she is perfectly clear as to persons, dates, -and circumstances, but has no memory of the state from which she has -just emerged, and she complains of a sharp pain in her finger (where I -had pinched it while in her preceding phase). I took advantage one day -of these alternations to offer her a pencil, and dictated to her the -sentence of Fig. 42. In her normal moments she holds the pencil in her -accustomed manner, between the index and middle fingers, and writes in -her usual hand; during the returns of the royal somnambulism she holds -it between the thumb and index-finger and assumes her handwriting and -orthography known as that of Marie Antoinette, exactly as her voice -is invested with the accent. It is to be presumed that all her other -functions, if one could examine them, would show parallel analogous -variations, the changing of the personality being naturally accompanied -by connected changes not only of the memory and the sensibility, but of -motility of the emotional disposition—in brief, of all the faculties of -the individuality. - - [Illustration: Fig. 42. Differences of handwriting of Mlle. Smith at - the end of an incarnation of Marie Antoinette, according to whether - she is in her normal state (upper lines, in her usual handwriting), or - in a return of the royal dream (lower lines; note the word _foisoit_). - Natural size. The tremor of some of the strokes is not in the - original, but occurred in the reproduction in ink.] - -I must add that in each of her states Hélène has the memory of -preceding periods of the same kind, but not of another state: it was, -for example, necessary to dictate anew, for the second test, the -sentence of Fig. 42, which she did not remember having heard or written -a few minutes previously. This separation into distinct memories is -not, however, absolute, nor very profound: the personality of Marie -Antoinette is, in short, a modification—of an intensity and extent -which vary greatly with the seances—of the ordinary personality of -Mlle. Smith, rather than an alternating and exclusive personality, of -which so many striking cases have been observed. - -For the mere spectators, the royal somnambulism is perhaps the most -interesting of all of Hélène’s cycles, on account of the brilliancy and -life of the rôle, the length of time during which it may be sustained, -the unexpected happenings which the presence of other real persons -brings into it. It is truly a comedy. - -But for the lovers of the supernormal it is the least extraordinary -of the subliminal creations of Mlle. Smith, because the general -environment, being in France, is so imbued with historic or legendary -memories of the illustrious and unfortunate queen that there is nothing -surprising in the hypnoid reconstruction of a personage so well known. - -Finally, the psychologist and moralist who undertakes to reflect on the -inner meaning of things cannot escape the impression of sharp contrast -as compared with reality which this sparkling romance affords. - -In themselves, Mlle. Smith’s royal somnambulisms are almost always gay -and joyous; but, considering their hidden source, in so far as they -are the ephemeral and chimerical revenge of the ideal upon the real, -of impossible dreams upon daily necessities, of impotent aspirations -upon blind and crushing destiny, they assume a tragic signification. -They express the sensation lived through, felt, of the bitter irony -of things, of futile revolt, of fatality dominating the human being. -They seem to say that all happy and brilliant life is only an illusion -soon dissipated. The daily annihilation of the dream and the desire by -implacable and brutal reality cannot find in the hypnoid imagination -a more adequate representation, a more perfect symbol of an emotional -tonality, than her royal majesty whose existence seemed made for the -highest peaks of happiness and of fame—and ended on the scaffold. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES - - -The mediumship of Mlle. Smith is full of facts supernormal in -appearance, and the question which offers itself for our solution is -that of determining to what extent they are supernormal in reality. - -The title of this chapter, I must assert, is not to be understood in a -partisan sense. The term “appearances” is not used in its unfavorable -acceptation, as meaning that they are deceptive, and that there is -nothing behind them. It is taken in a frank and impartial sense, to -designate simply the exterior and immediate aspect of a thing, without -prejudging its real nature, in order, by the very force of this -neutrality, to provoke investigation destined to separate the true -from the false, the pure gold from the dross. It is precisely this -investigation which constitutes my present task. - -A rather difficult task, for it is always risky to touch upon a -subject which is an apple of discord among psychologists, and which -has even been considered the “Dreyfus case of science.” The matter -is complicated, too, in this particular case, by the absolute faith -of Mlle. Smith and her friends in the supernormal character of her -phenomena; a state of mind extremely worthy of respect, but which is -not calculated to facilitate research, all desire of ordinary analysis -and explanation being resented by them as an unjustifiable suspicion, -interpreted as being an indication of invincible skepticism. - - -I. THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL - -The term “supernormal” has been used for some years by the -investigators of the Society for Psychical Research to take the place -of the old word “supernatural,” which has become impracticable on -account of interloping connections, which finally caused its use to -be limited to theological and philosophical environments. Mr. Meyers, -to whom the credit is due, if I am not mistaken, of coining this as -well as many other new terms used to-day in the psychical vocabulary, -applies it to every phenomenon or faculty which passes beyond ordinary -experience, and reveals either a degree of higher evolution not yet -attained by the mass of humanity, or an order of transcendental things -superior to the world of sense. In these two cases one finds one’s -self, indeed, in the presence of facts which are above the normal, but -which are by no means to be taken as foreign or contrary to the true -laws of human nature (as the word “supernatural” would imply). - -It is to be observed that the definition of Mr. Meyers lays stress -upon the character of superiority of supernormal phenomena. I shall, -however, separate this character from it in the present chapter, and -in spite of the etymology, and for lack of any better term, shall -simply use the word “supernormal” to designate facts which come within -the actual framework of the science of to-day, and the application of -which would necessitate principles not yet admitted—without occupying -myself, however, with endeavoring to ascertain whether these facts -are messengers of a superior economy or forerunners of a future -evolution rather than the survival of a condition of things which has -disappeared, or whether they are purely accidental, _lusus naturae_, -denuded of signification. - -It goes without saying that in treating of the supernormal we must -admit theoretically its possibility, or—which amounts to about the -same thing—fail to believe in the infallibility and perfection -of present-day science. If I consider it, _à priori_, absolutely -impossible for an individual to know, some time before the arrival of -a telegram containing the news, of an accident by which his brother at -the antipodes has been killed, or that another can voluntarily move -an object at a distance without having a string attached to it, and -contrary to the laws of mechanics and physiology, it is clear that I -will shrug my shoulders at every mention of telepathy, and I shall not -move a step to be present at a seance of Eusapia Paladino. What an -excellent means of enlarging one’s horizon and of discovering something -new, by being satisfied with one’s ready-made science and preconceived -opinion, quite convinced beforehand that the universe ends at the wall -opposite, and that there is nothing to be obtained beyond that which -the daily routine has accustomed us to look upon as the limit of the -Real! This philosophy of the ostrich, illustrated formerly by those -grotesque monuments of erudition—over whom Galileo did not know whether -to laugh or weep—who refused to put their eyes to the glass for fear -of seeing something that had no official right to existence; and, -again, that of many brains petrified by the unseasonable reading of -works of scientific vulgarization, and the unintelligent frequenting of -universities—these are the two great intellectual dangers of our time. - -If, on the other hand, the philosophical doubt degenerates in -the presence of these scientific impossibilities into blind -credulity; if it suffices that a thing be unheard of, upsetting, -contrary to common-sense and to accepted truths, in order to be -immediately admitted, practical existence, without speaking of other -considerations, becomes unbearable. The convinced occultist ought never -to allow the creaking of a piece of furniture to pass without assuring -himself that it is not the desperate call of some great-grandaunt -trying to enter into conversation with him; nor to complain to the -police when he finds his house upset during his absence—for how is he -to know that it is not some “elementals” from the world beyond who have -done the deed? It is by the fortunate failure of consequences alone, -and a continual forgetting of the doctrine, that one can continue to -live in a universe constantly exposed to the capricious incursions of -the “invisibles.” - -These opposite turns of the mind—the invincible fatuity of some and -the silly superstition of others—inspire many people with an equal -repugnance. The need of a happy medium between these opposed excesses -has been felt for some time. Here are, for example, a few lines, which -have lost nothing after the lapse of two centuries: - -“What are we to think of magic and witchcraft [to-day we would -say ‘occultism’ and ‘spiritism’]? Their theory is obscure, their -principles vague, uncertain, approaching the visionary; but—they are -embarrassing facts, affirmed by grave men, who have seen them, or who -have heard of them from persons like themselves; to admit them all, or -to deny them all, seems equally embarrassing, and I dare to assert that -in this, as in all extraordinary things which depend upon customary -rules, there is a happy medium to be found between credulous souls and -strong minds.” - -It is the voice of reason itself that the sagacious author of _Les -Caractères_ permits us to hear. We must, however, add that this -“happy medium to be found” would not consist in a theory, a doctrine, -a ready-made and entire system, from the height of which, as from a -tribunal of arbitration, we would judge the “embarrassing cases” which -reality places in the path of the seeker; for this system—however -perfect it might be—would again be one more infallibility added to all -those which already encumber the road to truth. The “happy medium” -dreamed of by La Bruyère can be but a “method” always perfectible in -its application and prejudging in nothing the results of investigation -which go against the grain of the dogmatic points of view, equally -authoritative and sterile, which characterize the two extremes of the -“credulous souls” and “strong minds.” - -To develop here this methodology of psychical research which -might guide the investigator struggling with the apparent or real -supernormal, would take me too far from Mlle. Smith. But I will briefly -indicate its essence and general spirit, of which an excellent summary -may be found in the following passage of Laplace: - -“We are so far from knowing all the agents of nature and their divers -modes of action that it would not be philosophical to deny phenomena -solely because they are inexplicable in the actual state of our -knowledge. But we ought to examine them with an attention all the more -scrupulous as it appears more difficult to admit them.” - -In writing these words Laplace hardly thought of telepathy, of the -spirits, or the movements of objects without contact, but only of -animal magnetism, which represented the supernormal of his time. This -passage remains none the less the rule of conduct to be followed -concerning all the possible manifestations of this multiform subject. -Two inseparable facts, completing each other, as the faces of a medal, -may be distinguished in it; but it is advisable, in order to place -them the better in the light, to formulate them separately into two -propositions representing the governing principles, the axioms of -all investigations of the supernormal. The one, which I shall call -“PRINCIPLE OF HAMLET,” may be condensed. in these words: _All is -possible_. The other, to which it is but just to leave the name of -“PRINCIPLE OF LAPLACE,” is susceptible of many forms of expression. -I shall express it thus: _The weight of the evidence should be -proportioned to the strangeness of the facts_. - -The forgetfulness of the “Principle of Hamlet” makes the “strong -minds,” for whom the limits of nature would not exceed those of their -system, the simpleton popes of all times and of all kinds, from the -burlesque adversaries of Galileo to the poor Auguste Comte, declaring -that the physical constitution of the stars would never be known, and -to his noble rivals of the learned societies, denying the aërolites -or condemning railroads beforehand. In its turn, the ignorance of the -“Principle of Laplace” makes the “credulous souls,” who have never -reflected that, if all is possible to the eyes of the modest seeker, -all is, however, not certain, or even equally possible, and that some -evidence would yet be necessary in order to suppose that a stone -falling on the floor in an occult reunion arrived there through the -walls by the aid of a dematerialization, rather than to admit that it -came there in the pocket of a joker. - -Thanks to these axioms, the investigator will avoid the doubly -signalled danger, and will advance without fear into the labyrinth -of the supernormal in advance of the monsters of the occult. However -fantastic and magical the things may be which will spring up before -his eyes or which will fill his ears, he will never be taken unawares, -but, expecting all in the name of the “Principle of Hamlet,” he will -not be astonished at anything, and simply say: “Be it so! Why not? We -shall see.” On the other hand, he will not allow the wool to be pulled -over his eyes, and he will not easily be satisfied in the matter of -evidence; but, firmly intrenched behind the “Principle of Laplace,” he -will show himself all the more exacting as to the proofs, in proportion -to the degree in which the phenomena or the conclusion, which they -may wish him to accept, may be extraordinary, and he will oppose -a merciless _non liquet_ to every demonstration which still seems -suspicious or lame. - -I wish to speak a word here of the inevitable rôle which the -personal coefficient of the turn of mind and character plays in the -concrete application of the “Principle of Laplace.” This latter is -of a vagueness and a deplorable elasticity which opens the door to -all divergences of individual appreciation. If we could express in -a precise manner and translate in ciphers, on the one hand, the -_strangeness_ of a fact, which makes it improbable; on the other -hand, the _weight of evidence_ which tends to make it admissible; -and, finally, the demandable _proportion_ between these two contrary -factors, so that the second may counterbalance the first and secure -assent—that would be perfect, and everybody would soon come to an -agreement. Unhappily, the means to accomplish this result is not yet -perceived. - -We must pass now to the weight of the evidence. We may, up to a -certain point, submit it to an objective judgment and to an impartial -estimation by following the rules and methods of logic, in the broadest -sense of the term. But the strangeness of the facts, or, as Laplace -said, the difficulty in admitting them! Who, then, is to be the judge -of them, and by what universal standard can we measure them? - -We must recognize that we are here in presence of an eminently -subjective and emotional factor, changeable from one individual to -another. - -It is necessary to take some stand. In the matter of the supernormal -there are too many interior and personal factors (intellectual -idiosyncrasies, æsthetic temperaments, moral and religious sentiments, -metaphysical tendencies, etc.) tending to determine the quality and -intensity of the characteristic of the strangeness in the facts in -litigation, to enable one to flatter himself upon a disinterested, -objective, and _quasi_-scientific verdict upon their degree of -probability or improbability. It is only when, after the accumulation -of cases and evidences of similar character, a tacit agreement shall -finally have been reached by those who have studied the subject, that -the problem can be said to be solved, either by the relegation of -pretended supernormal phenomena to the domain of vanished illusions -and abandoned superstitions, or by the recognition of new laws and -forces in nature. The phenomena considered till then as supernatural -will cease to be so; they will form a part of established science, they -will have nothing more in them that is strange, and will be admitted -by everybody. As long as this mile-post is not reached, as long as the -supernormal phenomenon is discussed as such, there are but individual -opinions on this subject, subjective certitudes or probabilities, -verdicts in which reality is only reflected as closely welded to the -personality of their authors. - -Two suggestions seem to me to spring from this. First, authors who -take it upon themselves to give their advice upon the extraordinary -facts coming to their knowledge ought always to begin by making their -confession, so that the reader may the better distinguish the intimate -factors which may have influenced them. It is true that we are not -always thoroughly acquainted with ourselves, but it would be something -to say frankly what we believe we have discovered in ourselves as to -the position involuntarily taken by us, obscure inclinations for or -against the hypothesis involved in the phenomena in question. This -is what I shall try to do here, by confining myself to the problems -raised by the mediumship of Mlle. Smith, and without entering upon the -boundless domain of “psychical research.” I shall, therefore, begin -each of the following paragraphs by giving my personal advice and my -subjective sentiment on the point upon which Hélène’s supernormal -appearances touch. - -It seems to me, in the second place, that the only rational position -to take, concerning the supernormal, is, if not a complete suspension -of judgment, which is not always psychologically possible, at least -that of a wise probability, exempt from all dogmatic obstinacy. The -fixed beliefs, the unshakable opinions as to the reality and the -meaning of life, are certainly subjective conditions, indispensable -to all properly moral conduct, to all human existence truly worthy -of this name—that is to say, all that which pretends to be above the -animal routine of inherited instincts and social slavery. But these -firm convictions would be absolutely misplaced on the objective -ground of science, and consequently also that of supernormal facts, -which, though still situated outside of the scientific realm, hope -shortly to be received within its pale. Practical necessities make -us but too often forget that our knowledge of the phenomenal world -never attains absolute certitude, and as soon as one passes beyond -the brutal facts of the senses, the best-established truths, as well -as the most thoroughly refuted propositions, do not rise above a -probability which, however great or insignificant we may suppose it -to be, never equals infinity or zero. The intellectual attitude which -common-sense prescribes in the supernormal consists, for very strong -reasons, in never absolutely and irrevocably denying or affirming, -but provisionally and by hypothesis, as it were. Even in cases when, -after having examined everything scrupulously, one imagines he has -finally reached certitude, it must not be forgotten that this word -is but a mode of expressing one’s self; because, in point of fact, -one does not rise above a probable opinion, and the possibility of an -unsuspected error, vitiating the most apparently evident experimental -demonstration, is never mathematically excluded. - -This reserve is particularly indicated in cases of phenomena like -those of Mlle. Smith, which often leave much to be desired concerning -accessory information, which would be necessary in order to express -one’s self categorically on their account. My appreciation of these -phenomena, far from pretending to an infallible and definite character, -demands, therefore, from the start, the right of modification under -the influence of new facts which may be produced subsequently. - -For the sake of clearness I shall set off again in four groups the -supernormal appearances with which I shall have to occupy myself in -this chapter—viz., so-called physical phenomena, telepathy, lucidity, -and spirit messages. The boundaries of these three last categories are -but poorly defined and might easily be fused into one. But my division -is but a kind of a measure of order, and not a classification. - - -II. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA - -This designation again covers several rather diverse categories of -strange facts. I shall only speak of the two kinds of which Mlle. -Smith has furnished samples (and which I have never personally -witnessed)—that is to say, “apports” and “movements of objects without -contact.” - -1. _Apports._[29]—Besides the unknown causes presiding over their -aërial transportation, the arrival of exterior objects in a closed -space, often coming from a considerable distance, implies, in order -that they may pass through the walls of the room, either the subterfuge -of a fourth dimension of space, or the penetration of the matter—that -is to say, the passage of the molecules or atoms of the object (its -momentary _dematerialization_) between the molecules or atoms of -the wall. All these impediments to our vulgar conception as to the -stability of matter, or, what is worse, to our geometrical intuition, -seem to me so hard to digest that I am tempted to apply to them the -words of Laplace: “There are things that are so extraordinary that -nothing can counterbalance their improbability.” This is not to declare -as false, _à priori_, all the stories of this kind, for we know that -the true is not always the probable; but assuredly, even in the case of -the good Mr. Stainton Moses, the weight of the proof does not, in my -opinion, equal the strangeness of the facts. - -So far as concerns the _apports_ obtained at the seances of Mlle. -Smith, they all took place in 1892-93, in the reunions of the N. group, -where the obscurity favored the production of marvellous things in -close relation with the visions and typtological messages. - -I will cite from memory certain acoustic phenomena mentioned in the -reports: The piano sounded several times under the touch of the -favorite disincarnate spirits of the group; the same happened to a -violin and to a bell; once we also heard metallic sounds that seemed -to come from a small musical box, although there was none in the room. -As to the _apports_, always received with delight by the members of -the group, who are ever anxiously wishing for them and asking their -spirit friends for them, they were frequent and varied enough. In -mid-winter roses showered upon the table, handfuls of violets, pinks, -white lilacs, etc., also green branches; among other things there -was an ivy leaf having engraved upon it in letters, as though by a -punching-machine, the name of one of the principal disincarnate -spirits at play. Again, at the tropical and Chinese visions sea-shells -were obtained that were still shining and covered with sand, Chinese -coins, a little vase containing water, in which there was a superb -rose, etc. These last objects were brought in a straight line from the -extreme East by the spirits, in proof of which they had the honor of -a public presentation at a seance of La Société d’Études Psychiques -de Genève, and were placed upon the desk of the president, where all, -myself included, could satisfy themselves at their leisure as to their -reality. - -2. _Movements of objects without contact._—The displacing, without -contact and in the absence of all known mechanical processes, of -objects situated at a distance (telekinesis), is very strange. However, -it only upsets physiological notions, and does not, as is the case with -the _apports_, go as far as to overthrow our conceptions in regard -to the constitution of matter or our spatial intuitions. It only -supposes that the living being possesses forces acting at a distance, -or the power of putting forth at intervals a species of invisible -supernumerary prehensile organs, capable of handling objects, as our -hands do (ectenic forces of Thury, ectoplasms of Richet, dynamic -members of Ochorowicz, etc.). Such are the ephemeral but visible -pseudopodes that the amœba puts forth in all directions. - -It may be conceived that, as the atom and the molecule are the centre -of a more or less radiating influence of extension, so the organized -individual, isolated cell or colony of cells, is originally in -possession of a sphere of action, where it concentrates at times its -efforts more especially on one point, and again on others _ad libitum_. -Through repetition, habit, selection, hereditary and other principles -loved by biologists, certain more constant lines of force would be -differentiated in this homogeneous primordial sphere, and little by -little could give birth to motor organs. For example—our four members -of flesh and blood, sweeping the space around us, would be but a more -economic expedient invented by nature, a machine wrought in the course -of better adapted evolution, to obtain at the least expense the same -useful effects as this vague primitive spherical power. Thus supplanted -or transformed, these powers would thereafter manifest themselves only -very exceptionally, in certain states, or with abnormal individuals, as -an atavic reapparition of a mode of acting long ago fallen into disuse, -because it is really very imperfect and necessitates, without any -advantage, an expenditure of vital energy far greater than the ordinary -use of arms and limbs. Unless it is the cosmic power itself, the amoral -and stupid demiurge, the unconsciousness of M. de Hartman, which comes -directly into play upon contact with a deranged nervous system, and -realizes its disordered dreams without passing through the regular -channels of muscular movements. - -But enough of these vapory metaphysical or pseudo-biological -speculations to give an account of a phenomenon for which it will be -time enough to find precise explanation when its authenticity shall be -beyond dispute, if that time shall ever arrive. - -Three groups of proofs, of a diverse nature, have gradually brought me -to look upon the reality of these phenomena—in spite of the instinctive -difficulty of admitting them—as an infinitely more probable hypothesis -than its opposite. - -First: I was first unsettled by the reading of the too-much-neglected -memoir of Professor Thury, which seems to me to be a model of -scientific observations, the weight of which I could only overlook by -rejecting, _à priori_—in the name of their strangeness—the possibility -itself of the facts in question, which would have been against the -Principle of Hamlet. The conversations which it was my privilege -to hold with M. Thury have greatly contributed to arouse in me a -presumption in favor of these phenomena, which the book would evidently -not have done in the same degree if the author had not been personally -known to me. - -Secondly: Once created, my idea of the probability of these facts -became rather strengthened than weakened by a number of foreign works -of more recent date; but I doubt whether any, or all of these combined, -would have been sufficient to create it. The displacement of objects -without contact being once hypothetically admitted, it seems easier to -me to explain Crookes’s observations on the modifications of the weight -of bodies in the presence of Home by authentic phenomena of this kind -(in spite of the well-deserved criticisms that Crookes’s publications -brought upon him) than to suppose that he was simply Home’s dupe. The -same is true with the cases of _Esprits tapageurs_ (_Poltergeister_), -published by the Society for Psychical Research, the exclusive -hypothesis of the “_naughty little girl_,” without the addition of -any trace of telekinesis, which seems to me a less adequate and more -improbable explanation than that of real phenomena, which would have -tempted fraud. Naturally all depends on the preconceived opinion one -may have as to the general possibility or impossibility of these facts, -and my feeling in regard to the matter would certainly be different -without the preceding or the following groups of evidence. - -Thirdly: The probability of the movement of objects without contact -has reached with me a degree practically equivalent to certitude, -thanks to M. Richet, to whom I am indebted for my presence at his house -last year at several seances of Eusapia Paladino, under conditions of -control which gave no room for doubt—at least without challenging the -combined witness of the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, as well -as the average quantity of critical sense and perspicacity with which -every ordinary intelligence flatters itself it is endowed; or, again, -of suspecting the walls of M. Richet’s study had been tampered with, -and he himself, with his attending colleagues, of being impostors, -in collusion with the amiable Neapolitan herself—a supposition which -the most elementary sense of propriety would absolutely forbid me to -entertain. From that moment I believed in telekinesis by constraint -of the perception, _sensata et oculata certitudine_, to borrow -the expression of Galileo, who certainly did not mean by that an -unreflecting adhesion to the evidences of the senses, like that of the -casual onlooker at the tricks of the prestidigitator, but rather the -final crowning of an edifice having for its rational framework the -reasoned analysis of the conditions of observation, and of the concrete -circumstances surrounding the production of the phenomenon. - -In saying that I believe in these facts, I will add that there -is no question here of a conviction, in the moral, religious, or -philosophical sense of the term. This belief is for me devoid of all -vital importance; it does not move any essential fibre of my being, -and I would not feel the least inclination to submit to the slightest -martyrdom in its defence. Whether the objects move or do not move -without contact is absolutely indifferent to me. Should any one -some day succeed in unveiling the physical tricks or the fallacious -psychological processes which have led into error the best observers of -telekinesis, from M. Thury down to M. Richet, with a number of other -witnesses, myself included, I would be the first to laugh at the trick -that art and nature had played upon me, to applaud the perspicacity of -the one who discovered it, to congratulate myself, above all, in seeing -supernormal appearances returning to the ordinary course of things. - -This is a disproportionally lengthy preamble to facts of which I shall -have to speak here, for they are reduced to a few displacements of -objects without contact (raising of tables, transporting or projecting -of flowers and diverse things placed out of reach), of which Hélène -and her mother were witnesses on several occasions at their house. I -cannot be accused of stubborn skepticism, since I admit the reality -of telekinesis. In the present case, however, all the stories which -have been told me leave much to be desired from an evidential point -of view. Without suspecting in any way the perfect good faith of -both Mme. and Mlle. Smith, it suffices to recall the possibility of -malobservation and errors of memory in the stories of supernormal -events in order not to attribute a great evidential value to the -absolutely sincere evidence of these ladies. - -Incapacitated as I am from pronouncing judgment upon phenomena of which -I was not a witness, I shall, however, put forth a fact which might -militate in favor of their authenticity (their possibility having -been first hypothetically admitted)—namely, that these phenomena have -always been produced under exceptional conditions, at a time when -Hélène was in an abnormal state and a prey to a deep emotion. On the -one side, this circumstance increases the chances of malobservation, -while, on the other, the day on which it shall be well established -that (as divers observations cause us to think) certain abnormal and -emotional states set at liberty in the organism latent forces capable -of acting at a distance, it will be permitted us to suppose that -perhaps something analogous has taken place in Mlle. Smith’s case. Here -is, as an example of these perplexing cases, a fact which happened to -her during a period of general indisposition. Abridging the story, I -reproduce it as Hélène sent it to me the following day: - -“Last night I had a visit from M. H. I do not need to give you an -analysis of my impressions; you will understand them as well as I do. -He came to tell me that he had held a seance with a lady who was a -stranger to me, and that this lady had seen Leopold, who had given her -a remedy for the indisposition from which I was suffering. I could not -refrain from telling him that Leopold had assured me that he manifested -himself only to me, and that it would consequently be difficult for me -to admit his alleged utterances to others.” But that is not the most -interesting part of the story. - -“While M. H. spoke to me I felt a sharp pain in my left temple, and, -perhaps two minutes afterwards, my eyes, constantly directed towards -the piano, on which I had placed two oranges the evening before, were -entirely fascinated with I know not what. Then, suddenly, at the -moment when we least expected it—we were all three (M. H., my father, -and myself) seated at a reasonable distance from the piano—one of the -oranges displaced itself and rolled to my feet. My father maintained -that it had no doubt been placed too near the edge of the lid, and at -a certain moment had fallen in a natural way. M. H. saw immediately -in this incident the intervention of some spirit. I myself dared not -pass my opinion on it. Finally, I picked up the orange, and we spoke of -other things. - -“M. H. remained about an hour; he went away exactly at nine. I went -to my mother’s room to give her a few details of M. H.’s visit. I -described to her the fall of the orange, and what was my surprise when, -on returning to the drawing-room and stepping up to the piano to take -the lamp I had placed on it, I found the famous orange no longer there. -There was but one left; the one I had picked up and replaced by the -side of the other had disappeared. I looked for it everywhere, but -without success. I went back to my mother, and while I spoke to her -we heard something fall in the vestibule. I took the lamp to see what -might have fallen. I distinguished at the farthest end (towards the -door of the entrance to the apartment) the much-sought-for orange! - -“Then I asked myself quite frankly whether I was in presence of some -spiritistic manifestation. I tried not to be frightened. I took the -orange to show it to my mother. I returned to the piano to take the -second orange, so as not to be frightened in a similar way. But it, -in its turn, had disappeared! Then I felt a considerable sensation of -trembling. I returned to my mother’s room, and, while we discussed the -matter, we heard again something thrown with violence, and, rushing out -to see what had happened, I saw the second orange placed in exactly the -same spot where the other had been, and considerably bruised. Imagine -how astonished we were! I took both oranges, and, without losing an -instant, went to the kitchen and put them in a cupboard, where I found -them again the following morning; they had not moved. I did not go to -bed without some fear, but fortunately I quickly went to sleep. My -mother is sure that it is M. H. who brought some evil spirit into the -house, and she is quite uneasy....” - -From the oral explanations of Mlle. Smith and her mother, and also -from the location of the places, it follows that the oranges had -been thrown at a distance of ten yards from the piano, through the -wide-open parlor door leading to the vestibule, against the door of the -apartment, as if to follow and strike fictitiously M. H., who a few -moments before had left by this door. - -One has undoubtedly always the right of discarding at the outset, as -presenting too little guarantee of genuineness, the extraordinary -stories of a person subject to hallucinations. In the present case, all -that I know of Mlle. Smith and her parents keeps me from doing so, and -persuades me that her story is thoroughly exact, which, however, does -not amount to saying that there is anything of the supernormal about -it. One has, in fact, the choice between two interpretations. - -First: In the hypothesis of veritable telekinesis, the following is -the manner in which the adventure would be summed up: the emotion due -to the unexpected and unpleasant visit of M. H. had brought about -a division of consciousness. The feeling of irritation, anger, and -repulsion against him had condensed themselves into some secondary -personality, which, in the general perturbation of the entire -psychophysiological organism, had momentarily recovered the use of -these primitive forces of action at a distance, entirely removed from -the will, and without the participation of the ordinary self, and thus -automatically accomplished outwardly the instinctive idea of bombarding -this ill-bred visitor. Notice is to be taken of the painful _aura_ at -the temple and the fascination of gaze, which, according to Hélène’s -story, preceded the first signs of the phenomenon, the orange falling -and rolling at her feet. - -Secondly: But the most natural supposition is certainly that Mlle. -Smith, by the ordinary use of her limbs, had taken and thrown these -projectiles in an access of unconscious muscular automatism. It is true -that this would not agree with the presence of her father, mother, -or M. H., who did not see her make the supposed movements. But an -absent-mindedness of even normal witnesses will seem easier to admit -than the authentic production of a supernormal phenomenon. - -These episodes which have happened to Mlle. Smith and her mother since -I have known them are very few, amounting to half a dozen at the most, -and I will not dwell longer upon this subject. Hélène is not conscious -of possessing any faculty of movement at a distance, and she always -attributes these phenomena to spirit intervention. Leopold, on the -other hand, has never acknowledged that he is the author of them. He -claims that Hélène possesses within herself supernormal powers, and -that, in order to succeed, she would only have to set them to work, -but that she did not wish to do so. All my suggestions and repeated -entreaties with Leopold and Hélène—either awake or in a state of -somnambulism—in the hope of obtaining in my presence some physical -phenomenon, have been in vain up to the present time. - - -III. TELEPATHY - -One may almost say that if telepathy did not exist one would have to -invent it. I mean by this that a direct action between living beings, -independent of the organs of the senses, is a matter of such conformity -to all that we know of nature that it would be hard not to suppose it -_à priori_, even if we had no perceptible indication of it. How is it -possible to believe that the foci of chemical phenomena, as complex as -the nervous centres, can be in activity without giving forth diverse -undulations, _x_, _y_, or _z_ rays, traversing the cranium as the sun -traverses a pane of glass, and acting at a distance on their homologues -in other craniums? It is a simple matter of intensity. - -The gallop of a horse or the leap of a flea in Australia causes -the terrestrial globe to rebound on its opposite side to an extent -proportional to the weight of these animals compared to that of our -planet. This is little, even without taking into account the fact -that this infinitesimal displacement runs the risk at every moment -of being neutralized by the leaps of horses and fleas on the other -hemisphere, so that, on the whole, the shocks to our terrestrial globe -resulting from all that moves on its surface are too feeble to prevent -our sleeping. Perhaps it is the same with the innumerable waves which -coming from all other living beings, shock at every moment a given -brain: their efforts are counterbalanced, or their resultant too -slight to be perceived. But they exist none the less in reality, and -I confess I do not understand those who reproach telepathy with being -strange, mystical, occult, supernormal, etc. - -As to the knowledge whether this theoretical telepathy offers results -open to experimental demonstration—that is to say, whether this chain -of intercerebral vibrations into which we are plunged exercises any -notable influence on the course of our psychic life; and whether, in -certain cases, we happen to feel emotions, impulses, hallucinations, -which the psychological state of one or another of our own kind -exercises directly upon us, across the ether and without the ordinary -intermediary of the channel of our senses—that is a question of fact -arising from observation and experience. We know how much this question -has actually been discussed, and how difficult it is to solve it in -a decisive way, as much on account of all the sources of errors and -illusions, to which one is exposed in this domain, as on account of a -probably always necessary concurrence of very exceptional circumstances -(which we do not as yet know how to accomplish at will), in order -that the particular action of a determined _agent_ should sweep away -all rival influences, and betray itself in a manner sufficiently -marked and distinct in the life of the _percipient_. Everything -considered, I strongly lean towards the affirmative. The reality of -telepathic phenomena seems to me difficult to reject in presence of -the cluster of very diverse evidences, entirely independent of each -other, that militate in its favor. Undoubtedly none of these evidences -is absolutely convincing when taken separately; but their striking -convergence towards the same result gives to their entirety a new -and considerable weight, which tips the scale, in my opinion, while -awaiting an inverse oscillation, which may some day destroy this -convergence, or explain it by a common source of error. Besides, I -understand very well why those to whom telepathy remains a mystic, -and to our scientific conceptions heterogeneous, principle, should -obstinately resist it. But, seeing nothing strange in it myself, I -do not hesitate to admit it, not as an intangible dogma, but as a -provisional hypothesis, corresponding better than any other to the -condition of my certainly very incomplete knowledge of this department -of psychological research. - -Although predisposed in favor of telepathy, I have failed in finding -striking proofs of it in Mlle. Smith, and the few experiments I have -attempted with her on this subject offered nothing encouraging. - -I tried several times to make an impression upon Hélène from a distance -and to appear before her during the evening, when I thought she had -returned to her home, which is a kilometre distant from mine. I -obtained no satisfactory result. My only case of striking success, lost -among a number of nonsuccesses, can be explained by mere coincidence -as well, and, after taking all the accessory circumstances into -consideration, does not deserve a lengthy discussion. - -As to spontaneous telepathy, a few indications would make me think -that Mlle. Smith sometimes involuntarily submits to my influence. The -most curious is a dream (or a vision) that she had one night at a -time when I had suddenly fallen ill during a stay in the country some -twenty leagues distant from Geneva. She heard the ringing of a bell at -her door, then saw me entering, so emaciated and apparently so tired -that she could not refrain from speaking to her mother on the following -morning of her uneasiness concerning me. Unfortunately these ladies -took no note of the exact date of this incident, and Hélène did not -speak of it to M. Lemaître until three weeks later, when he told her -about my illness, the beginning of which dated back to the approximate -time of the dream. The evidential value of this case is weak. On other -occasions Mlle. Smith announced to me that, to judge from her dreams -or vague intuition in a waking state, I was to have on a certain day -an unexpected vexation, a painful preoccupation, etc. But the cases -in which she was right were counterbalanced by those in which she was -wrong. It does not appear that Hélène’s telepathic relations with other -persons are closer than with me, and among the cases known to me there -is not one that deserves the trouble of being related. An exception -must, however, be made on behalf of a M. Balmès (pseudonym), who was -for some time employed in the same business house as Mlle. Smith, and -concerning whom she had several really curious phenomena. This M. -Balmès was himself “a sensitive medium” of a very nervous and vibrating -nature. He was working in the story above that of Hélène, and stopped -sometimes to talk concerning spiritism with her. Their relations, which -they did not extend beyond the office, ended there. There never seemed -to be any personal sympathy or special affinity between them, and it is -not known how to account for the telepathic bond that seemed to exist -between them. The following are examples: - -1. One morning M. Balmès lent a newspaper to Hélène in which there was -an article on spiritism. He himself had received this paper from one -of his friends, M. X., a Frenchman who had been in Geneva for some -three weeks only and who did not know Hélène even by name. This M. X. -had marked the interesting article in red and had added on the margin -an annotation in black. During her noon meal at home Hélène read the -article rapidly, but for lack of time did not read the annotation -marked in black. Having returned to her office she began again to work. -However, at a quarter-past three her eyes fell on the annotation of the -paper, and as she was taking up her pen to make some calculation in -her note-book, “I do not know,” she wrote to me, “either how or why I -began to draw on this writing-tablet the head of a man entirely unknown -to me. At the same time I heard the voice of a man, of a high, clear, -and harmonious quality, but unfortunately I could not understand the -words. A great desire came over me to run and show this drawing to M. -Balmès. He examined it, and seemed astonished, for the head drawn in -ink was no other than that of his friend who had lent him the paper -marked in pencil. The voice and the French accent were, as it seems, -entirely correct also. How was it that at the sight of an annotation I -found myself in communication with a stranger? M. Balmès, in presence -of this curious phenomenon, hastened that very evening to his friend -and learned that at the time when I drew his portrait there was a very -serious discussion in progress concerning him (M. Balmès) between M. X. -and other persons.” - -Strictly speaking, this case may be normally explained by supposing: -First, that Mlle. Smith, without consciously noticing or remembering -him, had seen M. X. during his short stay in Geneva, walking in the -street with M. Balmès, and that the paper, which she knew had been lent -to M. Balmès by one of his friends, had, by means of a subconscious -induction, awakened the latent memory of the face and voice of the -stranger whom she had seen with him. Secondly, that there is but a -fortuitous coincidence in the fact that M. X. spoke of M. Balmès at -precisely the hour when Hélène traced the face and heard the voice of -the aforesaid M. X. in an access of automatism, set free at the sight -of his annotation on the paper. - -In the telepathic hypothesis, on the contrary, the incident would -have been explained somewhat as follows: The conversation of M. -X. concerning M. Balmès (which was, as it appears, of an excited -nature) had telepathically impressed the latter and awakened in him -subliminally the remembrance of M. X. M. Balmès, in his turn, without -consciously suspecting it, had transmitted this remembrance to Mlle. -Smith, who was already predisposed to suggestion on that day by the -loan of the paper, and with whom the said remembrance broke forth into -a graphic, auditive, and impulsive (the desire of showing her drawing -to M. Balmès) automatism. The subconscious strata of M. Balmès had thus -served as a link between M. X. and Mlle. Smith. - -2. “Some eight days after the preceding case, being a few minutes -after noon in an open street-car, I saw before me this same M. Balmès -talking to a lady in a room apparently close to the street-car. The -picture was not very clear. A kind of mist seemed to extend over the -whole, which was, however, not strong enough to hide from me the -personages. M. Balmès, especially, was quite recognizable, and his -somewhat subdued voice made me overhear these words: ‘It is very -curious, extraordinary.’ Then I felt a sudden, violent commotion, and -the picture vanished at the same time. Soon I found myself again riding -in the street-car, and, according to the progress which it had made, I -understood that the vision had lasted but three minutes at the most. -Notice must be taken of the fact that during these few minutes I did -not lose for a single moment the consciousness of my situation; I knew -and felt that I was riding home, as I was in the habit of doing each -day, and I felt entirely like myself, without the slightest mental -disturbance. - -“Two hours later I went up to M. Balmès. Approaching him frankly—yes, -even a little abruptly—I said to him: ‘Were you satisfied with the -short visit you made a few minutes after twelve, and would it be -indiscreet to ask what you found so _curious_, so _extraordinary_?’ He -seemed confused, astonished, pretended even to be vexed, and looked -as if he wished to ask me by what right I permitted myself to control -his actions. This movement of indignation passed as quickly as it -came, to give way to a sentiment of the greatest curiosity. He made -me tell him in detail my vision, and confessed to me that he really -had gone at noon to call upon a lady, and that they had discussed the -incident about the newspaper. He had really pronounced the words that -I had heard: ‘It is curious, extraordinary,’ and, strange to say, I -also learned that at the end of these words a violent ringing of the -bell had been heard, and that the conversation between M. Balmès and -his friend had suddenly come to an end by the arrival of a visitor. -The commotion felt by me was, therefore, nothing more than the violent -ringing of the bell, which, putting an end to the conversation, had -also put an end to my vision.” - -3. At the beginning of a seance one Sunday afternoon at a quarter to -four, I handed to Hélène a glass ball, of the kind used for developing -clairvoyance by means of gazing into a crystal. Shortly afterwards she -saw in it M. Balmès and his friend, and above their heads an isolated -pistol, but which seemed to have nothing to do with them. She told -me then that M. Balmès had received the day before at his office a -telegram which very much upset him, and which obliged him to leave -Geneva that very evening for S. She seemed to apprehend some misfortune -about to befall M. Balmès, but soon fell asleep. By his digital -dictations Leopold tells us that he sent her to sleep to save her some -painful visions seen in the crystal, and that she, Hélène, has a -mediumistic consciousness in regard to all that is passing at S., and -that the pistol is connected with M. Balmès. It was impossible to learn -more, and the remainder of the seance was taken up with other matters. - -M. Balmès, who returned to Geneva on the following Monday, and whom -I saw the same evening, was very much struck with Hélène’s vision, -for, on Sunday afternoon he really took part in a scene which came -near being tragic, and in the course of which his friend X. had -offered him a pistol which he always carried with him. Mlle. Smith -and M. Balmès did not hesitate to see in this coincidence a highly -characterized supernormal phenomenon. This case offers, however, some -difficulty—viz., that the incident of the pistol at S. did not take -place till more than two hours after Hélène’s visions, and that M. -Balmès, as he affirms, had no premonition of the affair at the time -when Hélène had her vision. It follows from this that there was a -kind of anticipated telepathy, a premonition experienced by another -than the interested principal, and this raises the great question of -the supernormal knowledge of future events. I find it easier to admit -that, although M. Balmès did not consciously foresee the incident of -the pistol, he foresaw subconsciously the event, and that this idea -passed telepathically to Hélène. Perhaps this case might be explained -without having recourse to the supernormal at all. Mlle. Smith, -knowing M. Balmès’ character, and up to a certain point his personal -circumstances, having been present the evening before when M. Balmès -received the telegram, and foreseeing (as she said at the seance), the -gravity of the situation, could easily imagine the intervention of a -fire-arm in the affair. Besides, no detail of the vision indicates that -the pistol seen in the glass ball corresponds to that of M. X. - -How far the delicate sense of probabilities can go, and how often -spontaneous inferences, with people of a quick imagination, are -correct, one never knows. Undoubtedly we often see a supernormal -connection where there is, in reality, only a striking coincidence, due -to a happy divination and prevision, which is very natural. I ought -to add that this manner of evicting the supernormal and reducing the -vision of the pistol to a mere creation of the subliminal fantasy, -seems inadmissible to Hélène, who remains absolutely certain that this -was a convincing case of telepathy. - -The above example, 2, which is the best of all, in my opinion, is still -not irreproachable. - - -IV. LUCIDITY - -All the facts of lucidity (clairvoyance, second-sight, etc.) which are -attributed to Mlle. Smith may be explained by telepathic impressions -proceeding from living persons. This means that I not only admit -from the start the _possibility_ of such phenomena by virtue of the -“Principle of Hamlet,” but, since telepathy is not, in my opinion, -anything very strange, I shall feel no subjective difficulty in -accepting the reality of Hélène’s supernormal intuitions, provided -that they present some serious guarantee of authenticity, and do not -explain themselves still more simply by normal and ordinary processes. - -Leopold, who appears in almost all of these veridical messages—whether -he recognizes himself as the author or whether he accompanies simply by -his presence their manifestation through Hélène—has never deigned to -grant me one under entirely satisfactory conditions, and he censures -my insistence as vain and puerile curiosity. As to the innumerable -phenomena with which others more fortunate than myself have been -gratified, they have always offered this singularity: when they -appeared to be really of a nature calculated to furnish a decisive and -convincing proof as to their supernormal origin, I never succeeded in -obtaining a written, precise, and circumstantial account, but only -uncertain and incomplete tales, too intimate and too personal to be -divulged by those interested in them; and, again, when my friends were -quite willing to write out a detailed account and to answer to my -demand for exact information, the fact reduced itself to such a small -matter that it was beyond my power to see anything of the supernormal -in it. - -Taking everything into consideration, I am inclined to believe that -Mlle. Smith, in truth, possesses real phenomena of clairvoyance, not, -however, passing beyond the possible limits of telepathy; only, in -order that they may be produced, it is necessary that Leopold—that is -to say, the special psychic state of Hélène which is necessary for the -reception and externalization of these telepathic impressions—be aided -from the outside by the influence of certain favorable temperaments, -more frequently met with among convinced spiritists than among persons -who are normal, and that he be not impeded, on the other hand, by the -paralyzing presence of hostile temperaments, such as that of a critical -observer. It is greatly to be regretted that the naïve believers who -inspire and succeed in obtaining magnificent phenomena of lucidity -usually care so little for the desiderata of science, and, above all, -refuse to submit themselves to an examination which might explain the -phenomena in a natural manner; while the investigators in search of -“convincing” proofs are not inspiring and obtain almost nothing. - -However it may be, I shall give a few examples of Mlle. Smith’s proofs -of lucidity, which are not very varied, and can be divided into the -three categories of the medical prescriptions and diagnoses, of lost -objects found again, and of retrocognitions of events more or less -remote. - -1. _Medical Consultations._—In promising specimens of extraordinary -facts of this kind I have gone too far. Many such have been told me—as, -for instance, Leopold dictating an unknown and complicated recipe -of a hair tonic for a gentleman living abroad, a single bottle of -which was sufficient to bring forth a full growth of hair on a head -which had become bald before middle age; or, again, Leopold, being -consulted about the health of a lady living at a great distance from -Geneva, revealing both the veridical nature of her illness, which was -unknown till then to her physicians, and its origin, which was due -to certain unsuspected but perfectly true incidents connected with -her childhood, and, finally, the treatment, which was crowned with -success. But the absence of written testimony and precise information -as to the concomitant circumstances of these marvellous cures reduce -them to the rank of amusing stories, the value of which cannot -positively be estimated. As to better-attested episodes, it is true -I have been able to obtain authentic stories, but they are those in -which the probability of a supernormal element has been reduced to a -minimum—imperceptible to me. I will cite but one case. - -M. and Mme. G. having invited Mlle. Smith during the month of August -to pass a day with them in the country, a few leagues distant from -Geneva, took advantage of the visit to hold a seance in order to -consult Leopold on the health of one of their children. I will tell the -incident from a written account sent me by Mme. G. soon afterwards: - -“Our little girl was suffering from anæmia, and fell frequently into a -state of weakness, in spite of intervals of improvement. Dr. d’Espine -had been recommended to us for the time of our return to Geneva. The -medium [Mlle. Smith] knew nothing of this; we had taken the precaution -to keep it from her.” The seance begins with a few kind words from -Leopold, whom M. G. then asks whether he would do well in consulting -Dr. d’Espine. “_And I_,” replied Leopold, “_can I do nothing for you? -Ungrateful people!_” But when he was asked to indicate some treatment, -he replied: “_Wait till your return to Geneva._” Then, upon being asked -whether an egg mixed with brandy would be good for the child, he -replied that the egg would be good, but the brandy was not necessary -in her case. Then he recommended that the child be taken for an hour’s -walk in the open air every day. As to the prescription relating to her -food, he repeated: “_I told you to wait till your return to Geneva._” - -On their return to Geneva in the middle of September, M. and Mme. G. -held a second seance. This time Leopold was more exact; he advised: -“_Not too much milk, but rather a few glasses of good pure wine at each -meal._” Then he added: “_Treat the anæmia first and you will triumph -over the throat trouble, which would finally weaken her too much. Her -blood is so weak that the least cold, the slightest emotion, I will -go so far as to say that the expectation of a pleasure even, would be -sufficient to bring the angina to a crisis. You ought to have foreseen -that._” “Leopold,” M. G. notes here, “has enabled us to put our finger -upon such of the details as we did not know how to explain. At each -sentence my wife and I looked at each other with stupefaction.” Leopold -ordered also many green vegetables, warm salt-water douches of three -minutes’ duration in the evening, and: “_The principal thing now is -five drops of iron in half a glass of water twice a day before the -meal. Do this and you will see the result in a month._” In two weeks’ -time the little girl was hardly recognizable. - -I have cited this case because it is among those that have most struck -M. and Mme. G., and upon which they build their conviction of the -independent existence and supernormal knowledge of Leopold, and because -it shows how little is needed to kindle the faith among spiritists. -I forgot to say that the G. family was well known by Mlle. Smith, and -that during the whole winter and the preceding spring she had held -weekly seances at their home. There is but one thing that astonishes -me, and that is, that Leopold, at the time of the first improvised -consultation, should have been taken unawares up to the point of -postponing his orders until later, and adhering to such commonplace -things as a walk in the open air and the suppression of brandy. In the -second seance one sees the effect of a month’s incubation. Leopold -has had time to recover in Hélène’s memory the remembrance concerning -the little girl who was anæmic and subject to sore throat; also the -prescription which, in the given case, surely proved most efficacious, -but which hardly denotes a supernormal knowledge. One does not even -need here telepathy to explain messages which are amply accounted for -by the subconscious functions of Mlle. Smith’s ordinary faculties. - -Examples of this kind, drawn from Mlle. Smith’s mediumship, might -be almost indefinitely multiplied; but _cui bono_? Once more, I do -not claim that Leopold has never given any medical consultation -surpassing Hélène’s latent knowledge and implying supernormal powers -of clairvoyance. I only say that I have not yet succeeded in finding a -single case where the proofs reached the height of that conclusion. - -2. _Objects Recovered._—I do not know any case in which Mlle. Smith -has indicated the situation of an object which had been hidden, and as -to the location of which she could have had no information through -natural channels. All her discoveries consist, so far as I have been -able to judge, in the return, under a spiritistic and with a dramatic -aspect, of memories either simply forgotten or properly subliminal, -which depended upon the incidents concerned having first belonged to -the ordinary consciousness, or their having always escaped it and -having been from their origin registered in the subconsciousness. - -These are facts of cryptomnesia pure and simple—_i. e._, explicable by -a normal psychological process very common in its essence, while the -picturesque embellishments added by the mediumistic imagination give -to these teleological automatisms a certain mysterious and supernormal -appearance which in other surroundings would certainly create for -Hélène—or rather for Leopold—a place alongside St. Anthony of Padua. -I confine myself to two examples. Mlle. Smith being charged with the -duty of making ready the merchandise sent out from her department, was -handed a telegram one day from a customer who asked that four yards of -No. 13,459 be despatched to him immediately. “This brief order,” said -Hélène, “was not calculated to hasten the forwarding of the goods. How -could I readily find this No. 13,459, in the midst of six or seven -thousand others in the store? Pondering, telegram in hand, I was -wondering how I could find it, when a voice outside of but very near me -said to me: ‘_Not there, but here_,’ and involuntarily I turned round, -without knowing why, and my hand laid itself mechanically on a piece of -goods which I drew towards me, and which actually bore the No. 13,459.” - -It is not necessary to be a medium to know by experience these happy -reminiscences or inspirations which sometimes come to free us from -embarrassment by shining forth like a light at an opportune moment; -but that which in the case of ordinary persons remains in the feeble -condition of an idea or internal image, among mediumistic temperaments -assumes readily the fixed and vivid form of an hallucination. Instead -of simply “suddenly recollecting” in the case of the No. 13,459, as -would have happened to any one else, Hélène hears an exterior voice, -and perceives her hand moving involuntarily in a given direction. It is -noted that this automatism assumed an auditive and motor form which is -the pendant of the vocal and visual automatism which I have referred to -on pp. 58-59. It is to this same class of facts, well known and almost -common to-day, that the following example likewise belongs, although -the subliminal imagination had surrounded it with the form of an -intervention on the part of Leopold. - -One Sunday evening, on returning home, Mlle. Smith noticed that she -had lost a small breastpin which had been fastened to her corsage, and -which she greatly valued as a souvenir. The following day she returned -to look for it where she had been the evening before, but in vain, -and a notice which she caused to be inserted in the “lost” columns of -a daily newspaper gave no result. Here I leave the narration of the -story to her: “Persuaded that my pin was really lost, I did my best -to think no more about it, but this was a difficult matter, since one -night I was awakened suddenly by three raps struck against my bed. -Somewhat frightened, I looked around, but saw nothing. I tried to go -to sleep, but again many raps were struck, this time near my head. I -seated myself on my bed (I was agitated), trying to discover what was -happening, and hardly had I seated myself when I saw a hand shaking my -lost breastpin before my eyes. This vision lasted only a minute, but -that was long enough for it to make a deep impression upon me.” - -The following Tuesday evening (ten days after the loss of the trinket) -Hélène held a seance at the house of M. Cuendet, at which two other -persons were also present. She told of the loss of her pin and the -curious vision above described; then all seated themselves at the -table. After a typtological dictation upon an altogether different -subject, the following incident occurred, the account of which I have -borrowed from notes taken by M. Cuendet (it was in 1894, and I only -knew Mlle. Smith by reputation at the time): - -“We notice that from the beginning of the seance Mlle. Smith describes -to us our familiar spirit [Leopold] as holding a lantern in his -hand. Why? The table is shaken anew, about to tell us something. The -following is then dictated to us by it: ‘_Arise. Take a lantern. Extend -your walk to the Municipal Building. Take the path which crosses the -meadow, and which ends at the Street of the Baths. In the middle of the -path, to the left, a few yards distant, a block of white stone will be -found. Starting from the block of stone, only one yard away from it, -towards the setting sun, the pin so much sought for will be found. Go, -I accompany you._’ - -“I copy _verbatim_ this communication, which was obtained letter by -letter. I add nothing, take nothing from it. General stupefaction! We -hesitate! Finally, we all four rise, we light a lantern and set out. It -was twenty minutes to ten o’clock. - -“We walk slowly; we arrive at the Municipal Building, and take the -path which leads from it to the Street of the Baths. In the middle, -to the left, some yards distant, we, in fact, find the block of stone -indicated. We search for a moment without result, and begin to fear -we shall find nothing. Finally, towards the setting sun, a yard from -the block of stone, I find buried in the grass, covered with sand, and -consequently badly soiled, the pin indicated. - -“Some one had evidently stepped on it, as it was slightly bent. Mlle. -Smith uttered an exclamation of surprise, and we all four returned to -the house, to recover from our very natural emotion.” - -This case has remained in the eyes of Mlle. Smith and her spiritistic -friends as one of the most striking and irrefragible proofs of the -objective and independent reality of Leopold. For the psychologist it -constitutes a very beautiful and interesting example of cryptomnesia, -well worthy to figure among the very instructive cases collected by -Mr. Myers, in which the memory of a subliminal perception (_i. e._, -registered immediately without striking the normal personality) appears -as a revelation in a dream of ordinary sleep, or under some other -equivalent form of automatism. Here is “Leopold”—the subconsciousness -of Hélène—who, having felt the pin fall and noticed where it rolled, -first manifested himself in a passing nocturnal vision, and then took -advantage of the next spiritistic gathering to restore completely her -latent memories. It is not necessary to see anything intentional in -this restitution, the simple play of association of ideas sufficing -to explain that the memory of the situation of the pin stored up in -a subliminal stratum and stimulated by a desire to recover the lost -object might have mechanically reappeared at the moment of the seance, -thanks to mediumistic autohypnotization, and gushed forth under -the dramatic form, naturally appropriate to the environment, of an -apparently supernormal piece of information furnished by Leopold. - -3. _Retrocognitions._—The apparently supernormal revelations in regard -to the past, furnished at the seances of Mlle. Smith, can be divided -into two groups—namely, whether they concern universal history, or deal -with private interests relative to the families of the sitters. - -First: The messages of the first group abound, under the form of -visions accompanied by typtological explanations, in Hélène’s seances -of 1894, but have almost wholly come to an end since I made her -acquaintance, and I have never been witness of any. According to the -reports which I have seen, all these retrocognitions have reference to -the history of Protestantism, or that of the French Revolution—_i. e._, -to two classes of facts which are among the best known in France to-day. - -It goes without saying that the firmly convinced spiritistic group in -which these messages were received have never had a doubt that the -apparitions which Hélène perceived were the veritable personages they -asserted themselves to be, habited as they were in the costume of the -period to which they belonged, communicating by means of the table, and -speaking in the first person (except when Leopold acted as showman and -dictated in his own name the explanations asked for). - -But as the content of these messages is always the _verbatim_ -reproduction or almost exact equivalent of information which is to be -found in historical and biographical dictionaries, I cannot avoid being -inclined to the impression that we here are concerned with common facts -of cryptomnesia. - -If the intervention of the supernormal be absolutely insisted upon in -this case, it can only be manifested under the form of a telepathic -transmission from the sitters to the medium. In favor of that -supposition two facts may be urged: first, that Mlle. Smith passed -in that group as devoid of all historical knowledge, and was very -much surprised at these revelations of facts totally unknown to her; -secondly, that there were regularly in attendance at these seances one -or more members of the teaching body, who by their general education -possessed, without any doubt whatever, either consciously or in a -latent manner, all the historical knowledge, which, after all, was not -very great, displayed by Leopold. - -But these arguments are not of much weight in my opinion. To begin with -the second: as the sitters had their hands on the table at the same -time with the medium, according to the spiritistic custom, they could -themselves, without any telepathy, properly speaking, and simply by -their slight, unconscious muscular contractions, have directed, unknown -to themselves, the movements of that piece of furniture, Mlle. Smith -only augmenting these shocks proceeding from her neighbors. - -As to the supposed ignorance of Mlle. Smith, it is not at all so great -as has been imagined, and the historical revelations obtained at her -seances do not in any degree surpass the level of that which she could -have absorbed, consciously or unconsciously, at school and in her -surroundings. - -Moreover, the hypothesis which appears to me the most probable, and -on which I rest, is that the messages come essentially from Hélène -herself—I ought rather to say from her subliminal memory; that, -however, does not exclude a certain amount of co-operation on the -part of the sitters, whose conversation, on the one hand, and their -unconscious muscular action upon the table, on the other, have often -maintained and directed the course of the subconscious ideas of the -medium and the automatic unfolding of her latent memories. - -Secondly: Retrocognition of family events, which are exhibited in -Mlle. Smith’s seances, have generally the savor of the unknown for the -sitters, from the fact that they concern incidents of the past which -have never been printed save in the memories of certain aged persons or -of a few lovers of local anecdotes. - -I do not hesitate to see in these stories of other days, gushing forth -in visions and in dictations by the table in the course of Hélène’s -hemisomnambulisms, narratives heard in her childhood and long since -forgotten by her ordinary personality, but which reappear by the aid -of mediumistic autohypnotization, bringing the deepest strata to the -surface; the simple play of association, in an entirely natural manner, -then causes the memories relative to the families of the persons -present at the seance to be poured forth. There is nothing whatever of -the supernormal in all this, in spite of the dramatic form, the piquant -and unexpected art, the amusing embellishments, of which the subliminal -imagination bethinks itself—or I should rather say Leopold, in his rôle -of historiographer and scene-shifter of the past. - -The judgment which I have pronounced is the result of a course of -inductive reasoning based on the retrocognitions of Mlle. Smith -concerning my own family. I trust it may be allowable for me to enter -upon some details designed to justify my opinion. - -I note first that all these retrocognitions with which Leopold honored -me took place in the first six seances which I had with Hélène, after -which there has not been a single one in the whole five years which -have since elapsed. This argues in favor of a limited group of latent -memories, which my introduction to the seances set free, a sort of -subliminal sac or pocket which was emptied once for all on the first -occasions of my presence. - -In the second place, this knowledge only concerns outside details, -susceptible of striking the attention of the gallery and of being -carried from mouth to mouth. Since family histories have no great -interest for the ordinary reader, I will confine myself to citing, -by way of example, the vision which so astonished me at my first -meeting with Hélène (p. 2), and which has already been published by M. -Lemaître. I reproduce his narrative, giving real names: - -“The medium [Mlle. Smith] perceives a long trail of smoke, which -envelopes M. Flournoy. ‘A woman!’ cries the medium, and, a moment -after, ‘Two women ... quite pretty, brunettes ... both are in bridal -toilet!... This concerns you, M. Flournoy!’ [The table approves by a -rap.] They remain motionless; they have white flowers in their hair and -resemble each other a little; their eyes, like their hair, are black, -or, at all events, very dark. The one in the corner appears under two -different aspects; under both forms she is young—perhaps twenty-five -years old; on the one hand she remains with the appearance already -described (bridal toilet), and on the other she appears very luminous -in a great space, a little more slender of visage, and surrounded by -a number of pretty children, in the midst of whom she appears very -happy; her happiness manifests itself by her expression, but still more -in her surroundings. Both women seem ready to be married. The medium -then hears a name, which at first escapes her, then returns little by -little. ‘=An!... An!... Dan ... Ran ... Dandi ... Dandiran!=’ - -“‘To which of these two women does this name belong?’ demands M. -Flournoy—‘to the one you see under two aspects, or to the other?’ -Answer: ‘To the one who is presented under two forms.’ The medium does -not see the other woman as distinctly as the first, but all at once -distinguishes a tall man by her side, who only passes by, when the -table dictates: ‘I am his sister; we will return!’ after which the -scene changes and we pass to another subject.” - -This vision revolves altogether around the facts that my mother and her -sister were married on the same day; that they were brunettes, quite -pretty, and looked alike; that my father was tall; that my aunt married -M. Dandiran and died while still young, without children; all matters -which should have been of public notoriety in a small city like Geneva. -But the same is true of all the other retrocognitions of Mlle. Smith; -their content is always veridical, but at the same time is also such as -could not fail to be known to a host of people. This causes me to doubt -whether there is at the base of these phenomena a really supernormal -faculty of retrocognition. - -A third striking feature is, that all Hélène’s retrocognitions -concerning me are relative to the family of my mother, and are -connected with two quite precise and brief periods, the first of which -is many years previous to Mlle. Smith’s birth. This limitation as to -times and persons seems to me significant. - -To clear up the matter, if possible, I addressed myself to the last -representative of the present generation of my family, Professor -Dandiran, of Lausanne, and laid the case before him. He did not -immediately remember whether my grandparents Claparède had any -communication, nearly half a century before, with the Smith family, -but on the following day he wrote me that he distinctly recalled a -young woman of that name in whom his mother and aunt had been greatly -interested, and who had been employed by them as a dressmaker previous -to her marriage to a Hungarian. - -One understands that I had a reason for not addressing myself first to -Mme. Smith herself; but I must do her the justice to state that when I -questioned her in turn, she very obligingly gave me all the information -I desired, and which was in perfect accord with the statements of M. -Dandiran. - -Without entering into details wearisome to the reader, it will be -sufficient for me to state that all the retrocognitions in which I -was involved were connected with two periods in which Mme. Smith had -relations with my mother’s family, periods separated by an interval -during which these relations were suspended by the fact of M. and Mme. -Smith making a sojourn of several years in a foreign country. It would -have been possible for Hélène to know directly the facts of the second -period, at which time she was about five or six years of age. As to the -first period, which was many years prior to her birth (the time of the -double marriage of my mother and her sister in 1853), it is evident -that Mme. Smith has had many opportunities at a later date to narrate -these facts to her daughter; and it would have been altogether natural -for her to have done so. - -_Ab uno disce omnes._ Although I am less familiar with the -retrocognitions of Mlle. Smith concerning other families, everything -contributes to prove to me that they are explicable in the same -manner. In two cases, at least, proof has been obtained that the -mother of Mlle. Smith was found to have been in direct and personal -communication with the families concerned, exactly as was the case -with my grandparents, and this circumstance is sufficient to account -for the knowledge, very astonishing at first sight, contained in the -revelations of Leopold. - -To sum up—pure cryptomnesia seems to me to furnish a sufficient and -adequate explanation for Hélène’s retrocognitions, both as to family -events as well as historic facts. - -And no more in this domain of knowledge of the past than in those of -recovered objects and medical consultations have I thus far succeeded -in discovering in her the least serious indication of supernormal -faculties. - - -V. INCARNATIONS AND SPIRIT MESSAGES - -The time having arrived to speak of spiritism, I feel ill at ease and -embarrassed by my surroundings, for divers reasons, some of which -I will set forth, without, however, endeavoring to explain them at -length, since my aim is simply, as has been seen above (p. 373), to -indicate my subjective ideas as to the standing of that doctrine, in -order that the reader may share, if he pleases, in my appreciation of -the phenomena of this class presented by Mlle. Smith. 1 confess, in -the first place, that spiritism is a subject which has the faculty of -arousing my mirth, and develops a spirit of playfulness. I really do -not know why this should be the case, since that which concerns the -dead and the great beyond ought not to be a matter for joking. Perhaps -the cause is to be found in the nature of the intermediaries, and -the character of the messages with which the spirits are accustomed -to favor us. However it may be, I have ordinarily much difficulty in -preserving a serious countenance in the presence of manifestations of -“disincarnates.” - -But I reproach myself bitterly with this facetious humor when I reflect -that it is indulged in at the expense of conceptions and beliefs -which supported the first steps of our race on its painful ascent, -the survival or atavic reapparition of which is yet, even to-day, a -source of moral strength, of happy certitude, of supreme consolation -for a host of my contemporaries, many of whom I have learned to know, -and who, moreover, inspire me with respect as well as admiration by -their uprightness of life, their nobility of character, the purity and -elevation of their sentiments. - -In the second place, I have often had the deceptive experience that, -when it comes to a discussion of it, spiritism possesses a great -advantage for its defenders, but which is most inconvenient for those -who would investigate it closely—of being fugitive and incapable of -being grasped on account of the fact of its double nature—a science -and religion at the same time—which never permits it to be wholly and -entirely the one or the other. - -When we come to analyze and criticise, according to strict scientific -methods, the positive facts upon which it pretends to base its -fundamental argument —the reality of communication with the spirits -of the departed, through the intervention of mediums—as soon as the -adepts begin to unpack for you their stock of theories (I was about -to say their stock theories!) they are astonished at the lack of -ideal on the part of these terrible materialist-scientists, who are -intent upon searching for the “hidden rat” in the demonstrations of -spiritism, instead of falling on their knees before the splendor of its -revelations. - -A third cause of my uneasiness whenever obliged to approach this -subject is the fear of being misunderstood or misinterpreted, thanks to -the naïve and simple classification which prevails in the environments -which the “disincarnates” frequent. - -Spiritism or materialism—these are the brutal alternatives to which one -finds himself driven in spite of himself. If you do not admit that the -spirits of the dead reveal themselves by raps on the table or visions -of the mediums, you are, therefore, a materialist! If you do not -believe that the destiny of the human personality is terminated at the -grave, you are a spiritist! This mode of nomenclature and labelling is -surely puerile. Moreover, no one willingly consents to be thrust into -the company of those with whom, no matter how honorable they may be, he -is not in sympathy. - -I also wish to state that I absolutely repudiate the above alternative. -There is greater variety of choice in the cabinet of human thought. In -the last century, for example, outside the spiritism of Swedenborg and -the materialism of Baron d’Holbach, there was yet the criticism of one -named Kant, who made some noise in the world and whose vogue is even -now not absolutely extinct. I should not fear to range myself among his -followers. And in our own times, if it was necessary for me to choose -between Büchner and Allan Kardec, as the spiritist seems sometimes to -believe, I would not hesitate to choose—in favor of M. Renouvier, or my -deceased compatriot Charles Secrétan. - -I hold to no other philosophy, and it suffices me, in order to repulse -the whole of materialism and spiritism, to be the disciple—unworthy, -but convinced—of the Nazarene, who replied to the materialists of his -time, not by spiritistic evocations, but by the simple words, “God is -not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live unto Him.” I am -not sure whether this argument convinced the Sadducees, but it pleases -me by its simplicity, and I have no desire for any other. - -If God exists—I should say, if the supreme reality is not the -unconscious and blind force-substance of conventional monism, but that -sovereign personality (or _supra_ personality) which in the clear -consciousness of Christ made its paternal presence to be continually -felt—if God exists, it is not, apparently, in order to play the rôle of -a perpetual undertaker of funereal pomp that he consents to exist, or -to allow to fall forever into nothingness the poor creatures who wait -upon Him. - -They may disappear from before our eyes, but they do not disappear from -before His; for they are dead to us, but for Him, and, consequently, -in actual reality, they are living. Otherwise He would not be God. -This is all I need. I see nothing clearly, it is true, as to the -concrete conditions of that other existence, of which the manner even, -if it were revealed to me, would probably remain a sealed book to my -intelligence, hampered by the bonds of space and time. But of what -importance is it? That which I am ignorant of, God knows; and while -waiting for Him to call me to rejoin those who have preceded me, He -is great enough for me to leave to Him the mysterious fate of our -personalities. “Since all live unto Him,” I ask no more than that, and -as for the pretended demonstrations of spiritism, true or false, I do -not care a farthing. - -Or I would prefer them to be false. And if they are true, if it is -actually a law of nature that during long years to come, after this -terrestrial existence, we must drag ourselves miserably from table to -table and medium to medium, the best of us (not to speak of the others) -displaying without shame the proofs of our mental decrepitude in -pitiable nonsense and wretched verses—oh, so much the worse! - -It is one misery and shame the more added to all those of which this -satanic world is made up, a new calamity coming to crown the physical -and moral ills of a world against which the Christian continually -protests as he repeats “_Thy kingdom come_,” an additional scandal -condemned to disappear when “His kingdom shall have come.” - -There is nothing in common between the empirical, spatial, and temporal -survivals which spiritism pretends to establish and that “eternal life” -proclaimed by the Prophet of Nazareth. These things, said Pascal, are -not of the same order. That is why I am not a spiritist. - -Here rises a last point, which worries me when I ought to speak my -mind in regard to spiritism in the presence of spiritists. “You do -not personally hold,” it has been often objected to me, “to these -communications of the living with those who have gone before us into -the great unknown, and you cry out against spiritistic demonstrations. -It is all very well for you, who are a mystic, and to whom the -existence of God in Jesus Christ seems a sufficient guarantee of the -destinies of human personality and its ultimate palingenesis. But -every one has not the same temperament, and does not take so blithely -his ignorance of the kind of life which awaits him beyond the tomb. -To believe in God, and to abandon to Him with closed eyes the fate of -those who leave us, carrying away with them the best portions of our -being, is all very well, but it is very difficult. The times of the -psalmist who could say ‘_Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him_’ -are no more; and as for Christ, He was certainly a very remarkable -medium, but His simple affirmation would scarcely be taken to-day for -gospel words. The solid and the palpable are necessary to the ‘fools’ -of our epoch. They are not capable of admitting a higher world than -that of sense, unless they are enabled to touch it with their finger -by means of messages and the return of the dead themselves. Whence it -results that every attack, every hostile attitude towards spiritism -tends directly to break down the only rampart which might henceforth -be efficacious against materialism and its disastrous consequences -—infidelity, egotism, vice, despair, suicide, and, finally, the -destruction and annihilation of the entire social organism. On the -other hand, when science at length shall recognize and consecrate -spiritism officially, thereupon, simultaneously with the tangible -certainty of another life, courage and strength will return to the -hearts of individuals, devotion and all virtues will begin to flourish -once again, and an elevated humanity will soon see heaven descend upon -the earth, thanks to the connection established and daily practised -between the living and the spirits of the dead.” - -My embarrassment is easily seen. On the one hand, I do not in any way -admit the foregoing objection. I do not think that the gospel has had -its day or is above the reach of “fools,” since it was for them that -its author designed it. I believe, on the contrary, that the Christian -faith, the faith of Christ or faith in Christ, is, in its inmost -essence, a psychological reality, a personal experience accessible to -the most humble, a fact of consciousness which will survive when all -theological systems shall have been forgotten and all the clergy shall -have been abolished. That vital and regenerating power will save our -civilization (if anything can save it) by means of the individuals -whom it shall have regenerated, without owing anything to spiritistic -theories or practices. Inversely, I do not share the optimism of those -who would make of spiritism a social panacea, and who imagine that when -the moral consciousness on the one side and the religious consciousness -on the other have ceased to make themselves heard, the messages of the -“disincarnates” will have better success. (“If they hear not Moses and -the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the -dead.”) - -But, on the other hand, there are individual cases which are -interesting and which certainly merit consideration. And for millions, -and by a hundred different titles—religious belief, moral consolation, -solemn and mysterious rites, old habit, etc.—spiritism is to-day the -pivot around which existence turns, and also its only support; would -not the destruction of it, then, be productive of more harm than good, -and would it not be better to let matters take their course? Why -prevent man from delighting in dreams, if he so pleases? - -_All things are possible_, and was it not of the revenants that Hamlet -was thinking in his celebrated apostrophe, from which I have taken this -principle? - -These are the things which perplex me: while waiting to find a way -out of them, and by way of summing up, it seems to me indispensable -to separate distinctly spiritism-religion, which is an assemblage -of beliefs and practices dear to many, from spiritism-science, a -simple hypothesis designed to explain certain phenomena arising from -observation. The first tells me nothing, or rather it amuses me or -repels me according to circumstances; but the more elevated sentiments, -and those worthy of all respect, which it inspires in its adepts, -impose upon me the duty of passing it by and ignoring it here. The -second, on the contrary, does not fail to interest me, as it does all -who are curious in regard to natural phenomena. - -For the question, Do human or animal individualities continue to -intervene in an effective manner in the physical, physiological, or -psychological phenomena of this universe after the loss of their -corporeal and visible organism? is not an ordinary one. If there -are facts which peremptorily establish an affirmative answer, what -problems will arise, what an unexpected field of investigation will it -not open up to our experimental sciences! And even if the hypothesis -is false, how captivating the study of the singular phenomena which -have been able to give it birth, which simulate the return of the -dead to our observable world! It is understood, therefore, that, even -despoiled of all the emotional accessories in which it so easily wraps -itself in the heart and imagination of men, the empirical question of -immortality and spiritistic interventions, apparent or real, preserves -its scientific importance, and merits being discussed with the calm -serenity, independence, and strictness of analysis which belong to the -experimental method. - -It goes without saying that, _à priori_, the hypothesis of _spirits_ -to explain the phenomena of mediums has in it nothing of the -impossible or the absurd. It does not even necessarily contradict, -as is sometimes imagined, the directing principle of physiological -psychology—the psychological parallelism—which demands that every -mental phenomenon shall have a physical correlative. For, in spite -of our habit of considering the molecular or atomic phenomena of -the brain, the katabolism of the nerves, as the true concomitant of -conscious processes, it may well be—it is even very probable—that -these molecular movements do not constitute the ultimate physical term -immediately paralleling the mental world, but that the real physical -correlatives (spatial) of the (non-spatial) psychological phenomena -should be sought for in the vibrations of imponderable matter, the -ether, in which the ponderable atoms and molecules are plunged somewhat -like grains of dust in the atmosphere, in order to make a sensible -though somewhat inaccurate comparison. - -The ethereal body, perispiritistic, astral, fluid, etc., of the -occultists, and of many thinkers who are not believers in occultism, is -only a notion scientifically absurd when it is made to be an equivocal -and cloudy intermediary between the soul and the body, an unassignable -_tertium quid_, a plastic mediator of which nothing is known as to -its being material or spiritual or something else. But conceived as -a system of movements of the ether, it contains nothing absolutely -anti-or extra-scientific in its nature; the connection between the -subjective facts of consciousness and the objective, material facts, -remains essentially the same whether one considers the material world -under the imponderable form of ether or under the ponderable form of -chemical atoms, of physical molecules, and of anatomical elements. -Nothing, then, would be radically opposed, from the point of view -of the natural sciences, to the existence of disincarnate spirits -wandering through space. - -The foregoing will doubtless please my spiritistic friends. Here are -two facts which will please them less. First: I separate myself from -them when they pass prematurely from mere abstract possibilities to -the affirmation of actualities. Perhaps the outcome will prove them -right some day; perhaps in the near future, but we have not yet reached -that point. I freely admit that never have circumstances been so -favorable for the spiritistic doctrines as at present. The authentic -return of George Pelham and other deceased persons, through Mrs. Piper -entranced, as intermediary, seems to be admitted by so many acute -observers, the phenomena observed for fifteen years past in the case of -this incomparable medium are at times so marvellous and surrounded with -such solid scientific guarantees—the case is, in a word, so unheard of -and astounding in all respects, that those who are only acquainted with -it from a distance, by printed reports and oral narratives of immediate -witnesses, feel themselves in a poor position for formulating their -doubts and reservations upon this subject. - -I fear, in the second place, for mediums and practical spiritists, that -when their hypothesis shall have been scientifically demonstrated the -result may be very different from that which they now imagine it will -be. - -It might well happen that the cult of the table, mechanical writing, -seances, and all other mediumistic exercises, may receive their -death-blow from the official recognition of spirits by science. -Suppose, in fact, that contemporaneous researches should at last have -proved clearly that messages actually come from the disincarnate; -it has already followed from the same researches that in the most -favorable cases the veritable messages are very difficult to -distinguish from those which are not authentic. When people come to -understand that this sorting of messages is almost always beyond their -power, they will, perhaps, be put out of conceit with experiments in -which they have ninety-nine chances against one of being dupes of -themselves or others, and in which—a still more vexatious matter—if -they should even be so fortunate as to light upon the hundredth chance, -they would have no certain means of knowing it. - -This subject, decidedly, is fatal to me. I lose myself in digressions -when discussing it—very useless they are, too, since the verdict which -the future will pronounce upon the theory of spirits, with or without -an ethereal body, matters little as far as the actual examination of -the messages furnished by Mlle. Smith is concerned. Even having become -scientifically verified, spiritism will never absolve us from bringing -to the analysis of the pretended communications less care and rigor -than while it was only an undemonstrated hypothesis; each particular -case will always demand to be scrutinized by itself, in order to make -the distinction between that which in all probability only arises from -many non-spiritistic causes, and the residue eventually proceeding from -the disincarnate. - -I ought to state at the outset that, as far as Hélène’s mediumistic -phenomena are concerned, their careful analysis has not revealed -to me in them any evident vestige of the other world, not even of -traces of a telepathic transmission on the part of the living. I have -only succeeded in perceiving in them very beautiful and instructive -examples of the well-known tendency of the subliminal imagination -to reconstruct the deceased and to feign their presence, especially -when the favorable suggestions of the surrounding environment incites -them to do so. Not being infallible, and bearing in mind Hamlet’s -principle, I will guard myself well from affirming that these -subliminal imitations and simulacra are absolutely free from any -spirit collaboration; I content myself with repeating that I have -not discovered any, and that it seems to me in the highest degree -improbable, and with leaving it to others to demonstrate its reality, -if they think they are able to do so. Some examples taken from the -principal incarnations of Mlle. Smith will enable me to show after a -more concrete fashion my manner of regarding them. - -1. _Case of Mlle. Vignier._—This case has no evidential value whatever, -since (as has been seen, p. 411), there were formerly relations -between the Vignier family and Mme. Smith which suffice to explain the -veridical knowledge manifested by Hélène in this incarnation. - -I give an abridged recital of it, nevertheless, for the sake of -certain points of psychological interest. None of the spectators had -any suspicion of these relations at the time of this scene, which was -absolutely enigmatical to all of them. - -In a seance at my house (on March 3, 1895, after a Hindoo vision, -described p. 280), Mlle. Smith saw an unknown lady appear, of whom she -gave the following description: “A nose bent and hooked like the beak -of an eagle; small gray eyes, very close together; a mouth with three -teeth only; a wicked smile, mocking expression; simple dress; a collar -not of the fashion of to-day; she draws near to this portrait,[30] and -gazes at it not ill-naturedly.” - -The name of this person is asked, and the table (Leopold) commences to -spell: “_Mademoiselle_”—but refuses to go further, while Hélène sees -the apparition laughing, “with a sly air”; as the name is insisted on, -the table dictates: “_That does not concern you_,” then she begins to -jump and skip as though glad of an opportunity to mock us. - -Presently Hélène falls asleep and enters into somnambulism; she leaves -the table and moves towards the portrait in question, before which she -remains fixed, completely incarnating the unknown lady of her vision. -I take down the portrait and place it in its frame upon an easy-chair; -immediately she kneels before it and contemplates it with affection; -then, taking the frame in her right hand, while the left, very much -agitated, plays with the cord, she ends, after many vain attempts, by -saying with a great stammering, “_J—j—je l’aimais b—b—beaucoup: je -n’aime pas l’autre—j—j—je ne l’ai jamais aimée l’autre—j’amais bien mon -neveu—adieu!—je le vois._” “I liked it very much: I do not like the -other one: I never liked the other one. I was very fond of my nephew. -Adieu! I see him.” - -It was impossible to obtain any explanation of this incomprehensible -scene, until, having slipped a pencil and a writing-tablet into -Hélène’s hand, she scribbled feverishly, in a hand not her own, these -two words “_Mademoiselle Vignier_”; then she fell into a cataleptic -phase, from which she awakened without memory at the end of half an -hour. - -This name of Vignier evoked in me far-off memories and vaguely recalled -to my mind the fact that Professor Dandiran (who had married, as we -have seen, my mother’s sister) had an ancestress of that name; was it -she who returned to express to me by means of Mlle. Smith her affection -for my mother, whose portrait she had so attentively regarded, and her -regrets, perhaps, that her nephew had not been preferred to my aunt? - -On the other hand, M. Cuendet recollected a Mlle. Vignier who had been -a friend of his family, but who did not correspond at all with the -description of Hélène’s visions; he promised to obtain information, -and, in fact, wrote me on the following day: “Dear Sir,—Here is some -information on the subject of our seance of yesterday. This morning I -asked my mother: ‘Did you ever know another Mlle. Vignier than the one -who was your friend?’ After an instant of reflection: ‘Yes,’ replied -she; ‘I did know another. She was M. Dandiran’s aunt, of Lausanne, his -mother’s sister. She stammered, and was not always very good-natured; -she had three large teeth which projected, and a hooked nose.’ It is -useless to state to you that this was the first time I had heard her -spoken of.” - -This information, coinciding with my remembrances and Hélène’s -vision, was later confirmed by M. Dandiran, who gave me the following -information: “Your aunt, Mlle. Vignier, who died about thirty-five -or forty years ago, loved her nephew very much; but she was made very -angry by his marriage, and the sentence uttered before my mother’s -portrait could not have referred to a difference of sentiment in -regard to the two sisters, for whom she always had an equal affection. -This sentence, on the contrary, is wonderfully well explained by the -following facts: My mother and her sister having become betrothed at -the same time, oil-paintings of both, of natural size, were made by -the same painter. These portraits were not of equal merit, and Mlle. -Vignier, who was herself something of an artist, always considered -that of my mother excellent, while the other, that of my aunt, she did -not like at all. Mlle. Vignier was very lively, and M. Dandiran finds -that the epithet ‘sly’ and the table dictating ‘_That does not concern -you_,’ very well express her character; she was, however, not at all -malicious or mocking at heart, but it is true that persons who knew -her slightly could easily have gained that impression of her. She had -three or four prominent teeth and stammered badly. In her photograph -she wears a white collar, has a nose long and arched, but the eyes are -rather large and wide apart. She always wore gold eye-glasses, of which -the medium did not speak.” - -If the reader has had patience to read these details, he will have -remarked that the distinctive traits of Mlle. Vignier in the vision -and her incarnation by Hélène (the stammering, the teeth, the shape -of the nose, the ill-natured air) coincide with those spontaneously -indicated by M. Cuendet, who had known her slightly; and that while -M. Dandiran, better posted as to his aunt’s character, finds the note -of maliciousness or want of good-nature false, he acknowledges that -people outside of her family could have been deceived concerning it. -That is to say, has not the imagination of Mlle. Smith produced the -exterior memory, the description according to public notoriety, as it -were, which Mlle. Vignier left behind her? And if it be recalled that -at the period at which the two _fiancées_ were painted, Mme. Smith was -in communication with my maternal grandparents through the only sister -of Mlle. Vignier, there would be a probability amounting almost to a -certainty that these are contemporary remembrances, narrated some time -or other to Hélène by her mother, and which furnished the material for -this somnambulic personification. - -In this example, to which I might add several analogous ones, the -apparent _spirit control_ is reduced to latent memories of recitals -formerly heard by Hélène. - -In other cases, in which, for lack of information, it has hitherto been -impossible to discover this wholly natural filiation of facts, simple -analysis of the circumstances and of the content of the communications -indicates that, in all probability, they proceed from reminiscences -and impressions appertaining to living individuals much rather than -from disincarnates. In other words, these messages and personifications -too evidently reflect the point of view of the medium or other -living persons for it to be permissible to regard them as due to the -intervention of deceased persons, whose attitude towards them would, -in all probability, be wholly different. - -2. _Case of Jean the Quarryman._—We have here to deal with a very -curious spirit message concerning Mme. Mirbel, in which I cannot fail -to see actual memories of the latter—transmitted I know not how (but -not necessarily in a supernormal manner) to Mlle. Smith—rather than an -authentic communication from a pretended disincarnate. - -In a seance at which Mme. Mirbel was not present, Hélène had the -hallucination of a very strong odor of sulphur; then the vision of a -quarryman from the foot of Salève, in which she perceived and described -in detail an unknown man, who, by the dictations of the table, was -declared to be _Jean the Quarryman_, and charged the sitters with an -affectionate message for Mme. Mirbel. The latter, interrogated on the -following day, recognized in the very circumstantial description of -this man, and under all the features of Hélène’s vision, perfectly -correct facts connected with her childhood, and which had passed away -from the habitual circle of her ideas for more than twenty years. It -concerned a workman employed in her father’s quarries, and who, when -she was a little girl, had always evinced a special affection for her. - -Let us suppose—in the absence of all proof that Mlle. Smith had ever -heard these remembrances of Mme. Mirbel’s childhood mentioned—that -recourse must be had to the supernormal in order to explain the case. -It still would not amount to an intervention of the deceased quarryman; -and M. Lemaître was perfectly right, in my opinion, in clinging to -telepathy and in hazarding the idea of an etheric influence, to which -Hélène was subjected by Mme. Mirbel, who at the hour of this seance -happened to be half a kilometre distant from the place of the seance. -Without going out of the domain of telepathy, I still would prefer -the hypothesis of a previous transmission in the course of one of the -seances at which Mme. Mirbel was present to that of telepathy at a -great distance at the time of the seance. It is, in fact, not contrary -to that which is believed to be known of mental suggestion, to admit -that Hélène’s subliminal, in the state of Esenale, for example, could -in some way draw from Mme. Mirbel’s subliminal the latent memories -which there lay buried for some time before being ready to reappear at -a seance at which she had some reason to think Mme. Mirbel would again -be present. - -Whatever the mode of its transmission may have been, the content of -this vision seems to me to indicate clearly that it has its origin in -the personal memories of Mme. Mirbel rather than in the posthumous -memory of Jean the Quarryman. All the presumptions in this case are, to -my mind, in favor of a memory of Mme. Mirbel, and not of a veritable -communication from the other world. The personal aspect of the messages -supposed to be dictated by the quarryman do not constitute an obstacle -to my interpretation or a guarantee of spiritistic authenticity, this -aspect being the form that the automatisms habitually assume among -mediums. - -3. _Case of the Syndic Chaumontet and of the Curé Burnier._—The -following case is the last. It is a very recent one, in which the -spiritistic and the cryptomnesiac hypotheses exist face to face, -apropos of signatures written by Mlle. Smith in somnambulism which do -not lack similarity to the authentic signatures of the deceased persons -to whom they are supposed to belong. - -In a seance at my house (February 12, 1899), Mlle. Smith has a vision -of a village on a height covered with vines; by a rocky road, she sees -descending from it a little old man, who has the air of a _quasi_ -gentleman; he wears shoes with buckles, a large felt hat, the collar -of his shirt is unstarched, and has points reaching up to his cheeks, -etc. A peasant in a blouse, whom he meets, makes reverences to him, as -to an important personage; they speak a patois which Hélène does not -understand She has the impression of being familiar with the village, -but vainly searches her memory to discover where she has seen it. -Presently the landscape fades away, and the little old man, now clothed -in white and in a luminous space (_i. e._, in his actual reality -of a disincarnate), appears to draw near to her. At this moment, -as she leans her right arm upon the table, Leopold dictates by the -index-finger: “_Kiss her arm._” I execute the order; Hélène’s arm at -first resists strenuously, then yields suddenly. She seizes a pencil, -and in the midst of the customary struggle relative to the manner of -holding it (see p. 100), “_You are holding my hand too tightly_,” says -she to the imaginary little old man, who, according to Leopold, wishes -to make use of it in order to write. “_You hurt me very badly; do not -hold it so firmly.... What difference does it make whether it is a -pencil or a pen?_” At these words she throws away the pencil and takes -up a pen, and, holding it between the thumb and index-finger, slowly -traces in an unknown hand: “_Chaumontet, syndic_” (see Fig. 44). - -Then the vision of the village returns; at our desire to know the -name of it she ultimately perceives a sign-post on which she spells -“_Chessenaz_,” a name which is unknown to us. Then, having by my advice -asked the little old man, whom she still sees, at what period he was -syndic, she hears him answer, “1839.” - -It is impossible to learn more; the vision vanishes and gives way to a -total incarnation of Leopold, who, in his deep Italian voice, speaks -to us at length of various matters. I take advantage of it in order -to question him upon the incident of the unknown village and syndic; -his replies, interrupted by long digressions, may be summed up about -as follows: “I am searching.... I traverse in thought the ascent of -this great mountain pierced through at its foot by something, the -name of which I do not know; I see the name of Chessenaz, a village -on a height, and a road which ascends to it. Search in this village; -you will certainly find the name (Chaumontet); seek to examine his -signature; this proof you will find there; you will find that the -handwriting was that of this man.” - -To my question whether he sees this in Hélène’s memories and whether -she has ever been at Chessenaz, he replies in the negative as to the -first point and evasively as to the second: “Ask her; she has a good -memory for everything. I have not followed her in all her wanderings.” - -Awakened, Hélène could not furnish us any information. But the -following day I found on the map a little village called Chessenaz, in -the Department of Haute-Savoie, twenty-six kilometres, in a straight -line, from Geneva, and not far from the Crédo. As the Chaumontets are -not rare in Savoy, there was nothing unlikely in the fact of a person -of that name having been syndic there in 1839. - -Two weeks later I made a visit to Mme. and Mlle. Smith—there was -no seance held—when Hélène suddenly assumed the voice and accent -of Leopold, without being aware of the change, and believing me to -be joking when I sought to cause her to notice it. Presently the -hemisomnambulism becomes accentuated; Hélène sees the vision of the -other day, the village and then the little old man (the syndic) -reappear, but the latter is accompanied this time by a _curé_ with whom -he seemed on good terms and whom he called (which she repeats to me all -the while with Leopold’s Italian accent), “_My dear friend Burnier_” -As I ask whether this _curé_ could not write his name with Hélène’s -hand, Leopold promised me by a digital dictation that I should have -that satisfaction at the next seance; then he begins to talk to me of -something else by Hélène’s mouth, she being now entirely entranced. - -At the following seance at my house (the 19th of March), I remind -Leopold of his promise. He answers at first by the finger: “_Do you -very much desire that signature?_” and it is only upon my insisting -that he consents. Hélène then is not long in again seeing the village -and the _curé_, who after divers incidents takes hold of her hand -as the syndic had done, and traces very slowly with the pen these -words, “_Burnier greets you_” (Fig. 44); then she passes into other -somnambulisms. The moment had arrived to clear up the matter. I wrote -at hazard to the mayor’s office at Chessenaz. The mayor, M. Saussier, -had the kindness to answer without delay: “During the years 1838-39,” -stated he to me, “the syndic of Chessenaz was a Chaumontet, Jean, -whose signature I find attached to divers documents of that period. -We also had as _curé_ M. Burnier, André, from November, 1824, up to -February, 1841; during this period all the certificates of births, -marriages, and deaths bear his signature.... But I have discovered in -our archives a document bearing both signatures, that of the syndic -Chaumontet and that of the _curé_ Burnier. It is an order for the -payment of money. I take pleasure in transmitting it to you.” I have -caused to be reproduced in the middle of Fig. 44 the fragment of this -original document (dated July 29, 1838), bearing the names of these -two personages; the reader can thus judge for himself in regard to the -quite remarkable similarity which there exists between these authentic -signatures and those automatically traced by the hand of Mlle. Smith. - -My first idea was, as may be supposed, that Mlle. Smith must some time -or other have seen some certificates or documents signed by the syndic -or by the _curé_ of Chessenaz, and that it was these forgotten visual -flashes, reappearing in somnambulism, which had served her as inner -models when her entranced hand retraced these signatures. One may -likewise imagine how angry such a supposition would make Hélène, who -has no recollection whatever of having ever heard the name of Chessenaz -nor of any of its inhabitants, past or present. I only half regret -my imprudent supposition, since it has availed to furnish us a new -and more explicit manifestation of the _curé_, who, again taking hold -of Mlle. Smith’s arm at a later seance (May 21st, at M. Lemaître’s) -comes to certify to us as to his identity by the attestation, in due -and proper form, of Fig. 43. As is there seen, he makes it twice; -being deceived as to the signature, he incontinently, with disgust, -crosses out that which he had so carefully written, and recommences -on another sheet; this second draft, in which he has omitted the word -“_soussigné_” (“undersigned”) of the first, took him seven minutes to -trace, but leaves nothing to be desired as to precision and legibility. -This painstaking calligraphy is very like that of a country _curé_ of -sixty years ago, and in default of another specimen for comparison, it -presents an undeniable analogy of hand with the authentic receipt of -the order for payment of money of Fig. 44. - - [Illustration: Fig. 43. Certificates written (May 21, 1899) by Mlle. - Smith while in a trance. The one above was feverishly crossed out in - finishing the faulty signature. The one below was afterwards written - in seven minutes. Natural size. [From the collection of M. Lemaître.]] - -Neither Mlle. Smith nor her mother had the least notion in regard to -the _curé_ or the syndic of Chessenaz. They nevertheless informed me -that their family formerly had some relatives and connections in that -part of Savoy, and that they are still in communication with a cousin -who lives at Frangy, an important town nearest the little village of -Chessenaz. Hélène herself made only a short excursion in that region, -some dozen years ago; and if, in following the road from Seyssel to -Frangy, she traversed some parts of the country corresponding well to -certain details of her vision of the 12th of February (which she had -the feeling of recognizing, as we have seen, p. 432), she has not, on -the other hand, any idea of having been at Chessenaz itself, nor of -having heard it mentioned. “Moreover,” says she, “for those who can -suppose that I could have been at Chessenaz without remembering it, I -would affirm that even had I gone there I would not have been apt to -consult the archives in order to learn that a syndic Chaumontet and a -_curé_ Burnier had existed there at a period more or less remote. I -have a good memory, and I positively affirm that no one of the persons -around me during those few days while I was away from my family ever -showed me any certificate, paper—anything, in a word—which could -have stored away in my brain any such memory. My mother, at the age -of fourteen or fifteen, made a trip into Savoy, but nothing in her -remembrances recalls her ever having heard these two names uttered.” - -The facts are now presented, and I leave to the reader the privilege of -drawing such conclusion from them as shall please him. - - [Illustration: Fig. 44. Comparison of the signatures of the syndic - Chaumontet and of the curate Burnier, with their pretended signatures - as disincarnates given by Mlle. Smith in somnambulism. In the middle - of the figure, reproduction of a fragment of an order for payment of - money of 1838. Above and below, the signatures furnished by the hand - of Hélène. Natural size.] - -This case seemed to me worthy to crown my rapid examination of the -supernormal appearances which embellish the mediumship of Mlle. Smith, -because it sums up and puts excellently in relief the irreconcilable -and hostile respective positions of the spiritistic circles and mediums -on the one side, perfectly sincere but too easily satisfied—and -investigators somewhat psychological on the other, always pursued by -the sacrosanct terror of taking dross for gold. To the first class, -the least curious phenomenon—an unexpected vision of the past, some -dictation of the table or the finger, an access of somnambulism, a -resemblance of handwriting—suffices to give the sensation of contact -with the unknown and to prove the actual presence of the disincarnate -world. They never ask themselves what proportion there could well -be between these premises, however striking they may be, and that -formidable conclusion. Why and how, for example, should the dead, -returning at the end of a half-century to sign by the hand of another -person in flesh and blood, have the same handwriting as when alive? - -The same people who find this altogether natural, although they have -never seen any absolutely certain cases of it, fall from the clouds -when the possibility of latent memories is invoked before them, of -which the present life furnishes them, moreover, daily examples—which -they have not, it is true, ever taken the trouble to observe. - -The psychologists, on the contrary, have the evil one in them in going -to look behind the scenes of the memory and the imagination, and when -the obscurity prevents them from seeing anything, they have the folly -to imagine that they will end by finding that which they are seeking—if -only a light could be had. - -Between these two classes of temperaments so unlike, it will, I fear, -be very difficult ever to arrive at any satisfactory and lasting -understanding. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - CONCLUSION - - -This volume reminds me of the mountain which gave birth to a mouse. -Its length would be excusable if only it marked a step in advance in -the field of psychology or physiology, or as to the question of the -supernormal. As such is not the case, it is unpardonable, and nothing -more is left me to do except to make clear its deficiencies in this -triple aspect. - -First: From the physiological point of view, it is apparent that -Mlle. Smith, as is doubtless true of all mediums, presents during her -visions and somnambulisms a plenitude of disturbances of motility and -sensibility, from which she seems entirely free in her normal state. - -But these trifling observations do not suffice to solve the -neuropathological problem of mediumship, and the question still -remains open as to whether that term corresponds to a special category -of manifestations and to a distinct syndrome, or whether it merely -constitutes a happy euphemism for various scientific denominations -already in use. - -To endeavor to fix the connections of mediumship with other functional -affections of the nervous system, it would first be necessary to -possess exact intelligence on a number of important points still -enveloped in obscurity. In regard to some of these, such as the -phenomena of periodicity, of meteorological and seasonal influences, of -impulses, and of fatigue, etc., we have only very vague and incomplete -hints. And we know almost nothing of other still more essential -questions, such as the relations of equivalence and substitution -between the various modalities of automatism (nocturnal visions, -crepuscular states, complete trances, etc.), the effect of spiritistic -exercises, and especially of that of the seances upon nutrition or -denutrition (variations of temperature, of urotoxicity, etc.), which -would permit the comparison of spontaneous seizures and those excited -by mediumship with those of the more serious nervous affections, the -phenomena of heredity, similar or reversed, etc. - -Let us hope that a near future will establish some good mediums and -their observers in practical conditions favorable to the elucidation of -these various problems, and that the day will come when the true place -of mediumship in the framework of nosology will be discovered. - -Secondly: From the psychological point of view, the case of Mlle. -Smith, although too complex to be reduced to a single formula, is -explicable _grosso modo_ by some recognized principle, the successive -or concurrent action of which has engendered her multiple phenomena. -There is, in the first place, the influence, so often verified, of -emotional shocks and of certain psychic traumatisms upon mental -dissociation. By means of these the birth of hypnoid states may become -the germ either of secondary personalities more or less strongly marked -(we have seen that the first manifestations of Leopold in the childhood -of Hélène are attributable to this cause) or of somnambulistic -romances, which hold the same relation towards the normal state as does -that exaggeration of stories and indulgence in reveries to which so -many are addicted—perhaps all of us. - -We must also take into consideration the enormous suggestibility and -auto-suggestibility of mediums, which render them so sensitive to all -the influences of spiritistic reunions, and are so favorable to the -play of those brilliant subliminal creations in which, occasionally, -the doctrinal ideas of the surrounding environment are reflected -together with the latent emotional tendencies of the medium herself. -The development of the personality of Leopold-Cagliostro, starting -from the moment at which Mlle. Smith began her seances, is easily -explained in this manner, as well as the Martian dream and the previous -existences of the Hindoo princess and the queen of France. - -And, finally, we must note the phenomena of cryptomnesia, the awakening -and setting to work of forgotten memories, which easily account for the -elements of truth contained in the great preceding constructions and in -the incarnations or casual visions of Mlle. Smith in the course of her -seances. - -But besides this general explanation how many points of detail there -are which remain obscure! For example, the precise origin of Hélène’s -Sanscrit, and many of her retrocognitions, for want of information -concerning the thousand facts of her daily life whence the ideas which -nourish her somnambulism may have been drawn! And how difficult it -is to gain a correct idea of her case as a whole, on account of the -crudity of our actual notions as to the constitution and organization -of the human being, of our almost total ignorance of psychological -ontogeny! - -Without mentioning Hélène’s ephemeral incarnations (in which I have -shown there is no reason far seeing anything beyond the imitations due -to autosuggestion), the divers more stable personalities which manifest -themselves in her hypnoid life—Leopold, Esenale, and the actors of the -Martian romance, Simandini, Marie Antoinette, etc.—are only, in my -opinion, as I have hinted on many occasions, the varied psychological -states of Mlle. Smith herself—allotropic modifications, as it were, -or phenomena of polymorphism of her personality. For no one of these -personalities corresponds sufficiently with her ordinary personality by -intellectual faculties, the moral character, separation of memories, to -justify the hypothesis of a foreign _possession_. - -But the theory of psychic polymorphism is still very imperfect, and -inadequate to explain the embryological shades which shine forth in -Hélène’s subliminal products—the retrograde perspective which they open -as to the different stages or periods of her evolution. The Martian -cycle, with its unknown language, evidently betrays an eminently -puerile origin and the display of an hereditary linguistic aptitude, -buried under Hélène’s ordinary self; whereas the Hindoo romance denotes -a more advanced age, and that of Marie Antoinette seems to have -sprung from still more recent strata, contemporaneous with the actual -normal personality of Mlle. Smith. The primitive nature and different -ages of the various hypnoid lucubrations of Mlle. Smith seem to me to -constitute the most interesting psychological fact of her mediumship. -It tends to show that the secondary personalities are probably, in -their origin, as the idea has been sometimes suggested, phenomena of -reversion of the ordinary actual personality, or of momentary returns -of inferior phases, long since passed, and which normally should have -been absorbed in the development of the individuality, instead of -breaking forth again in strange proliferations. - -Thirdly: As to the supernormal, I believe I have actually found a -little telekinesis and telepathy. As to lucidity and spiritistic -messages, I have only encountered some brilliant reconstructions, which -the hypnoid imagination, aided by latent memory, excels in fabricating -in the case of mediums. I do not complain of this, since for -psychology, which is not specially enamoured of the marvellous, these -admirably successful imitations are also interesting and instructive on -account of the light which they throw upon the inward workings of our -faculties. - -Of course Mlle. Smith and her friends see things in a very different -light. With Hélène everything, or almost everything, is supernormal, -from the reminiscences of her lives as Marie Antoinette and Simandini, -to the Martian and the incarnations of Cagliostro, of Mlle. Vignier, or -of the _curé_ of Chessenaz. - -And now let us admit, hypothetically, that I have not been able to see -the supernormal, which was plainly before my eyes, and that it is this -blindness of mine alone which has prevented me from recognizing the -real presence of Joseph Balsamo, my own mother, the Hindoo princess, -etc.—or, at all events, the presence of real, disincarnate, independent -spirits. It is, of course, to be regretted, but then it is I alone who -will be in disgrace on the day when the truth shall be made manifest. - -For, as to progress in our knowledge of things, everything is to be -feared from easy credulity and obstinate dogmatism, but that progress -will not be arrested or seriously retarded by possible errors, -committed in good faith, through an exaggerated severity of application -and a too strict observance of the principles themselves of all -experimental investigation; while, on the contrary, the obstacles and -the difficulties which the necessities of the method multiply along -its path have always been a strong stimulant, producing new movements -forward and more durable conquests based on better demonstrations. - -It is better, then, to follow my advice—in the well-understood interest -of and for the advancement of science, in a domain where superstition -is always ready to give itself free play—it is better to err through -excess of caution and strictness of method than to run the risk of -being sometimes deceived; it is better to allow some interesting fact -to escape for the moment, rather than to open the door to the follies -of the imagination by a relaxation of necessary caution. - -As to Mlle. Hélène Smith, supposing that I have failed to recognize -in her phenomena which are really supernormal (which, in that case, -will some day be better set forth by other observers), she will, -nevertheless, accomplish more in the way of discovering the real truth, -whatever it may be, in submitting herself disinterestedly to my free -criticisms, than by doing as so many useless mediums have done, who, -afraid of the light, in their foolish eagerness for the triumph of a -cause very dear to their hearts, have shunned close investigation, and -would have us rely upon their word alone. - -They forget the saying of Bacon, which is ever being confirmed: “_Truth -is the daughter of time, not of authority._” - - - THE END - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] _I. e._, Spirit-rapping—the faculty of obtaining responses by means -of raps upon a table. - -[2] Glossolalia signifies the “gift of tongues,” or the ability to -speak foreign languages without having consciously acquired them. - -[3] This term is used to designate the visions which manifest -themselves at the moment of awakening from sleep immediately prior to -complete awakening, and which form a pendant to the well-known, much -more frequent hypnagogic hallucinations, arising in the intermediate -state between sleep and waking. - -[4] Vision relating to the Oriental cycle; the man was the Arab sheik, -the father of Simandini. - -[5] The following are some of these impromptu rhymes, surely up to the -level of the circumstances which inspired them, but by which we ought -not to judge the _conscious_ poetic faculties of Mlle. Smith: - -To a little girl proud of her new shoes: - - “Marcelle est là, venez la voir, - Elle a ses petits souliers noirs.” - -In a “culinary” discussion: - - “Vous détestez les omelettes, - Autant que moi les côtelettes.” - -To a person slightly vain: - - “Vos richesses, ma chère amie, - Ne me font point du tout envie!” - - -[6] The confusion of sensations in the two sides of the body, as when a -person locates in the right leg a touch upon the left leg. - -[7] See, on allochiria, P. Janet, _Stigmates mentaux des hysteriques_, -pp. 66-71; and _Nevroses et idées fixes_, vol. i. p. 234. - -[8] See Lehmann’s _Aberglaube und Zauberei_, p. 217 _et seq._ -Stuttgart, 1898. - -[9] W. James, “Thought Tends to Personal Form.” _Principles of -Psychology_, vol. i. p. 225 _et seq._ New York, 1890. - -[10] Alexandre Dumas, _père_, _Memoirs of a Physician_, chap. xv. - -[11] The one which is found, for example, at the beginning of the _Vie -de Joseph Balsamo_, etc., translated from the Italian (3d edition, -Paris, 1791), and which has been several times reproduced. Mlle. Smith -has hanging over her fireplace a fine copy of this portrait. - -[12] See, _e.g._, Ferrari, Hericourt, and Richet, “Personality and -Handwriting,” _Revue philosophique_, vol. xxi. p. 414. - -[13] C. Flammarion, _La Planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilité_, -p. 3. Paris, 1892. - -[14] Compare the case of Mlle. Anna O. Brener et Frend, _Studien über -Hysterie_, p. 19. Vienna, 1895. - -[15] - - “Do not think that in loving you as a tender brother - I shall tell you all the profound mysteries of heaven; - I shall help you much, I shall open for you the way, - But it is for you to seize and seek with joy; - And when you shall see her released from here below, - When her mobile soul shall have taken flight - And shall soar over Mars with its brilliant tints; - If you would obtain from her some light, - Place your hand very gently on her pale forehead - And pronounce very softly the sweet name of Esenale!” - - -[16] Allusion to the seance of November 25, 1894, at M. Lemaître’s. See -p. 146. - -[17] That is to say, he died on Mars, where he had been reincarnated. - -[18] Allusion to seance of February 2, 1896. See p. 154. - -[19] These are texts 16-20, 26, 28, 31, 34, 37-39. They are further -distinguished by an asterisk. - -[20] A literal English translation of each text will be found -immediately beneath the French equivalents of the Martian words. - -[21] If it is objected that the Martian lacks the essential character -of a language—that is to say, a practical sanction by use; by the fact -of its serving as a means of communication between living beings—I -will not answer, like Mlle. Smith, that after all we know nothing -about that, but will simply say that the social side of the question -does not concern us here. Even if Volapük and Esperanto are not used, -they are none the less languages, and the Martian has, in regard to -its artificial construction, the psychological superiority of being -a natural language, spontaneously created, without the conscious -participation, reflective or willing, of a normal personality. - -[22] De Marlès’ _General History of India, Ancient and Modern, from the -Year 2000 B. C. to our Own Times._ Pp. 268-269. Paris, 1828. - -[23] Robert Sewell. _Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of -Madras._ Vol i. p. 238 (1882.) Citation by M. Barth. I have not been -able to consult this work. - -[24] Buchanan. _A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, -Canara, and Malabar, etc._ 3 vols. 4to. London, 1807. - -[25] James Rennell. _Description Historique et Géographique de -l’Indostan._ Translated from the English. Paris, an. VIII. (1800). 3 -vols., 8vo and atlas 4to. - -[26] Dow. _History of Hindustan._ Translated from the Persian of -Ferishta. London, 1803. M. Michel suggests Wilks’s _Historical Sketches -of the South of India_ (London, 1810) as having possibly served as -a source of information for De Marlès. If some learned reader may -discover any traces of Sivrouka antecedent to De Marlès, I shall be -under great obligation to him if he will communicate the information to -me. - -[27] It will be readily understood that this vision represents Marie -Antoinette with her three children and Madame Elizabeth. - -[28] I have respected the orthography as well as the complete absence -of punctuation of this bit of automatic writing, confining myself to -marking by vertical bars its evident separation into verses of eight -feet. It is written in the inclined and regular hand called that of -Marie Antoinette (like that of Fig. 40), but with a pencil too pale to -permit its reproduction. - -[29] By this is meant the bringing or conveying of material objects -into a closed space—the passage of one solid body through another. - -[30] A small oil-portrait of my mother. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's From India to the planet Mars, by Théodore Flournoy - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS *** - -***** This file should be named 63092-0.txt or 63092-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/0/9/63092/ - -Produced by MFR, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: From India to the planet Mars - A study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia - -Author: Théodore Flournoy - -Translator: Daniel B. Vermilye - -Release Date: August 31, 2020 [EBook #63092] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="transnote"> - - <h3>Transcriber’s Notes</h3> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling, accents and -punctuation remains unchanged.</p> - -<p>The page number referenced in the the caption to Fig.39 is missing.</p> - -<p>As in the original the Figure numbers are not sequential.</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<h1> -FROM INDIA<br /> - -<small>TO</small><br /> - -THE PLANET MARS</h1> - -<p class="center"><i>A STUDY OF A CASE OF -SOMNAMBULISM</i></p> - -<p class="center"><small>WITH GLOSSOLALIA</small></p> - -<p class="center"><small>BY</small></p> - -<p class="center">TH. FLOURNOY<br /> - -<small>PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE -UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA</small></p> - -<p class="center"><small>TRANSLATED BY</small></p> - -<p class="center">DANIEL B. VERMILYE</p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="title" style="max-width: 6em;"> - <img src="images/title.jpg" alt="Publisher’s device" /> -</div> - - -<p class="center">HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS<br /> - -<small>NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> - -1900</small></p> - - -<p class="center"> -Copyright, 1900, by <span class="smcap">Daniel B. Vermilye</span>.<br /> -<br /> -<i>All rights reserved.</i><br /> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp82" id="i003" style="max-width: 61em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/003.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">[TRANSLATION.}</div> -</div> - -<p>I authorize Messrs. Harper & Brothers to translate -and to publish in the English language my book “From -India to the Planet Mars.”</p> - -<p class="right small">THEODORE FLOURNOY</p> - -<p><span class="xs"><span class="smcap">Geneva</span>, June 20, 1900</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[Pg v]</span></p> - -<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<div class="smaller"> -<table class="autotable" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> -<td class="tdr" colspan="2"><small>PAGE</small></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Translator’s Preface</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">I.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">II.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Childhood and Youth of Mlle. Smith</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdr">III.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Mlle. Smith Since Her Initiation into Spiritism</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Mediumistic Beginnings of Mlle. Smith</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mlle. Smith in her Normal State</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Spontaneous Automatic Phenomena</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">1. <span class="smcap">Permanence of Exterior Suggestions</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">2. <span class="smcap">Irruptions of Subliminal Reveries</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">3. <span class="smcap">Teleological Automatisms</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Seances</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Personality of Leopold</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Psychogenesis of Leopold</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Personification of Balsamo by Leopold</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Leopold and the True Joseph Balsamo</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Leopold and Mlle. Smith</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">V.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Martian Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Origin and Birth of the Martian Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Later Development of the Martian Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Personages of the Martian Romance</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Esenale</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Astané</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Pouzé, Ramié—Various Personages</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Concerning the Author of the Martian Romance</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_190">190</a> -<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>vi</span></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">VI.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Martian Cycle (continued)—The Martian -Language</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Verbal Martian Automatisms</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Martian Texts</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Remarks on the Martian Language</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">1. <span class="smcap">Martian Phonetics and Handwriting</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">2. <span class="smcap">Grammatical Forms</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">3. <span class="smcap">Construction and Syntax</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl" >4. <span class="smcap">Vocabulary</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">5. <span class="smcap">Style</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mlle. Smith and the Inventor of Martian</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">VII.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Martian Cycle (concluded)—The Ultra-Martian</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">VIII.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Hindoo Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Apparition and Development of the Hindoo -Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sivrouka and M. de Marlès</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Arab Elements of the Oriental Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hindoo Language of Mlle. Smith</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">V.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Sources of the Hindoo Dream</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">IX.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Royal Cycle</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">X.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Supernormal Appearances</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">I.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Study of the Supernormal</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">II.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Physical Phenomena</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">1. <span class="smcap">Apports</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">2. <span class="smcap">Movements of Objects Without Contact</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tdl">III.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Telepathy</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_387">387</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">IV.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Lucidity</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_396">396</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">1. <span class="smcap">Medical Consultations</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_398">398</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">2. <span class="smcap">Objects Recovered</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">3. <span class="smcap">Retrocognitions</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_406">406</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tdl">V.</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Incarnations and Spirit Messages</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_413">413</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">1. <span class="smcap">Case of Mlle. Vignier</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_425">425</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">2. <span class="smcap">Case of Jean the Quarryman</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_430">430</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"></td> -<td class="tdl">3. <span class="smcap">Case of the Syndic Chaumontet and -of the Curé Burnier</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_431">431</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">XI.</td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></td> -<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_441">441</a></td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[Pg vii]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE">TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE</h2> -</div> - - -<p>The translation into English of <i>From India -to the Planet Mars</i> has been undertaken in -response to the demand created by the widespread -and increasing interest which is manifesting -itself both in Great Britain and the United -States in the phenomena exhibited by its heroine—an -interest which marks a new era in the progress -of human knowledge.</p> - -<p>Twenty—even ten—years ago the phenomena -which Prof. Flournoy here describes in detail, and -of which he offers a keen, skilful, psychological -analysis, would have met with the sneers of popular -science and the contempt of obscurantist orthodoxy; -the book would have found few readers.</p> - -<p>Times have greatly changed since the Society for -Psychical Research was founded, eighteen years -ago, by a few thoughtful men (included among -them were those whose names would have conferred -honor upon any body of men) interested in -the investigation of abnormal mental or psychic -phenomena.</p> - -<p>In explaining their reasons for organizing that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[Pg viii]</span> -society, its founders made the following statement:</p> - -<p>“From the recorded testimony of many competent -witnesses, past and present, including observations -accurately made by scientific men of eminence -of various countries, there appears to be, -among much illusion and deception, an important -body of remarkable phenomena which are <i lang="la">prima -facie</i> inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis, -and which, if incontestably established, -would be of the highest possible value.”</p> - -<p>The organization of this society constituted the -first attempt in the world’s history to investigate -the phenomena of clairvoyance, automatic writing -and speaking, trance conditions, second sight, apparitions -of persons at the point of death, alleged -spirit messages, etc., by a scientific body formed -upon a broad basis.</p> - -<p>As was to have been expected, the work and aims -of the society were met by a storm of derision and -ridicule, and by attacks which poured in from every -quarter, the bitterest of which came from the always -too numerous class of narrow-minded scientists, -whose partisan prejudices, confining them to a narrow -rut, hinder their seeing anything from a point -of view other than that of their preconceived hypotheses, -and prevent them from attaining that -open-mindedness which is indispensable to and one -of the first requisites of a true scientist in any field -of investigation.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[Pg ix]</span></p> - -<p>The interest shown to-day in the work of psychical -research—among the evidences of which may -be noted the reception accorded this work of Prof. -Flournoy, which has, within a few months from -the date of its publication, attained its third French -edition—demonstrates the ultimate triumph of the -founders of that society in their efforts to bring the -thinking public to a realization of the supreme importance -of a systematic scientific study of the mysterious -psychic phenomena so long neglected by -official science, but which are now beginning to -assume their rightful place in the field of study and -observation.</p> - -<p>Men have come to realize that the facts proved by -science have not thus far been adequate to satisfy -the needs of mankind, and many are to-day asking -whether the scientific investigation of psychic phenomena -may not succeed in proving <i>the preamble -of all religions</i>.</p> - -<p>Already science has disclosed the existence of a -hidden, subliminal world within each individual being, -and it is the investigation of that part of the -individuality of Hélène Smith which our author -has undertaken in the following pages.</p> - -<p>The importance of the subject and its intense interest -lie in the fact that psychical research hints -at a possible solution, by means of the same methods -which science has been accustomed to use in the -physical world, of the great problem of man’s future -destiny, of an answer to the question asked by Job<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[Pg x]</span> -four thousand years ago, “If a man die, shall he -live again?” and which has been repeated in vain -by every generation of men who have since inhabited -the earth.</p> - -<p>While, it is true, the great majority of men are -still skeptical as to the ability of science ever to -solve this problem, it is, however, a fact that a continually -increasing number of thoughtful men are -coming to believe that the hidden subliminal world -within us may point to an unseen but spiritual -world without, communication with which, if once -established, would furnish us with the solution so -ardently longed for.</p> - -<p>Such men do not believe that it behooves them -to be content with the passivity of pure Agnosticism -are not willing that <i lang="la">Ignoramus et Ignorabimus</i> -should be their only creed. They are beginning -to search for new facts in the domain of the human -mind, just as they have searched for and found -them everywhere else they have looked for them.</p> - -<p>Mr. F. W. H. Myers, the pioneer and leader of -the psychical research movement, in an address -recently delivered, says: “Starting from various -stand-points, we endeavor to carry the newer, the -intellectual virtues into regions where dispassionate -tranquillity has seldom yet been known.... First, -we adopt the ancient belief—implied in all monotheistic -religion, and conspicuously confirmed by -the progress of modern science—that the world as a -whole, spiritual and material together, has in some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi"></a>[Pg xi]</span> -way a systematic unity: and on this we base -the novel presumption that there should be a unity -of method in the investigation of all fact. We hold -therefore that the attitude, the habits of mind, the -methods by which physical science has grown deep -and wide, should be applied also to the spiritual -world. We endeavor to approach the problems -of that world by careful collection, scrutiny, testing -of particular facts; and we account no unexplained -fact too trivial for our attention.”</p> - -<p>This is just what Prof. Flournoy has endeavored -to do in regard to the strange phenomena manifested -by Mlle. Hélène Smith. No fact has been -regarded by him as too trivial to escape his keen, -careful scrutiny from a psychological point of view.</p> - -<p>The first task which the investigators of these -obscure mental phenomena set themselves was, -naturally, that of separating and sifting the real, -actually existent facts from the mass of fraud and -deception in which mercenary charlatans, aided -by the easy credulity of the simple-minded, had contrived -so completely to bury from sight the true -phenomena that for a long time the intelligent -public refused utterly to believe in the existence of -any real phenomena of the kind, but insisted that -everything when fully probed would be found to -be mere delusion, the result of trickery and fraud.</p> - -<p>Probably no scientific fact since the dawn of -modern science has required so great a weight of -cumulative evidence in its favor to establish the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xii"></a>[Pg xii]</span> -reality of its existence in the popular mind than -have the phenomena in question. The task, however, -has been accomplished.</p> - -<p>Prof. Flournoy’s heroine, although she is a high-minded, -honorable woman, regarded by all her -neighbors and friends as wholly incapable of conscious -fraud, has been subjected to the closest surveillance -on the part of a number of eminent physicians -and scientists of Geneva for more than five -years past, while Mrs. Piper, the famous Boston -medium, has been subjected to an even closer scrutiny -by the Society for Psychical Research for the -past fifteen years. In spite of the fact that this -society has announced its willingness to become -responsible for the entire absence of fraud in Mrs. -Piper’s case, and of a similar declaration on the -part of Prof. Flournoy and his associates in regard -to Mlle. Smith, there still remain a considerable -number of ultra-skeptical persons who persist in -asserting that fraud and deceit are at the bottom -of, and account for, all this species of phenomena.</p> - -<p>The well-known gentlemen who have investigated -these cases have never been accused of easy -credulity in other matters, and have cautiously -and perseveringly continued, in their endeavor to -satisfy skepticism, to pile Pelion upon Ossa in the -way of cumulative proofs of the genuineness of -the phenomena and to safeguard their investigations -in every possible manner against all possibility -of fraud, until they have finally come to feel<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii"></a>[Pg xiii]</span> -that more than sufficient proof has been furnished -to satisfy any honest, fair-minded, sensible doubt. -They do not feel that they have the right to devote -further time to the question of the genuineness of -the facts observed by them—time which they believe -might be better employed in endeavoring to -discover the laws by which the phenomena are -governed. They believe that those who are not satisfied -with the evidence already offered will not be -convinced by any amount of further testimony—that -their skepticism is invincible. For persons so -constituted this book will have no interest; its perusal -will afford them no pleasure.</p> - -<p>The endeavor to explain these mysterious phenomena -by scientific investigators has resulted in -their adoption of one or other of two hypotheses, viz.:</p> - -<p>1. That the phenomena are the product of and -originate in the subliminal consciousness of the -medium; or,</p> - -<p>2. That the phenomena are really of supernormal -origin and emanate from the disincarnate spirits -of the dead, who return to earth and take temporary -possession of the organism of the medium, -talking through her mouth, writing with her hand -while she is in a somnambulistic state.</p> - -<p>The first theory involves the crediting of the subliminal -consciousness with almost miraculous powers -of telepathy, since, on that hypothesis, it is necessary, -in order to account for the knowledge possessed -by the medium, to suppose that her sublim<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiv"></a>[Pg xiv]</span>inal -consciousness is able to roam at will throughout -the entire universe and read the mind of any -being possessing the information sought for.</p> - -<p>All open-minded investigators freely admit that -either of the above hypotheses may be untrue; -that very little is known by them as yet in regard to -the nature of the phenomena; that the data are too -slight to justify more than a provisional hypothesis, -which the discovery of new facts may at any time -entirely demolish. But, thus far, the hypotheses -above given seem to be the only ones which will -in any way rationally account for the facts: in -which case, it is evident that each individual observer -will be influenced in his choice of a hypothesis -by his religious belief, which will greatly affect -the point of view from which he approaches the subject, -and also by his natural temperament, habits -of thought, etc.</p> - -<p>Prof. Flournoy states that he has endeavored to -keep constantly in mind and to be guided by two -propositions, which he designates respectively the -“Principle of Hamlet” and the “Principle of La -Place,” the former being, “<i>All things are possible</i>,” -the latter, “<i>The weight of the evidence ought to be -proportioned to the strangeness of the facts</i>.”</p> - -<p>Guided by these two principles, Prof. Flournoy -has come to the conclusion that Mlle. Smith really -possesses the faculty of telekinesis—the ability to -move ponderable objects situated at a distance, -without contact and contrary to known natural<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xv"></a>[Pg xv]</span> -laws. On the other hand, he does not believe -the phenomena manifested by her to be of supernormal -origin. The various alleged “spirit” messages, -“incarnations,” “gift of tongues,” and all -other apparently supernormal phenomena, in his -opinion, spring from Mlle. Smith’s subliminal consciousness, -and he exercises great skill and ingenuity -in his effort to trace the very wonderful and -astonishing manifestations with which he has had -to deal to natural sources.</p> - -<p>Whether the individual reader adopts the author’s -views and theories, or finds in others a more natural -explanation of the facts narrated by Prof. Flournoy, -he cannot fail to admire the frankness, candor, and -entire freedom from prejudice displayed by him. -He evinces a true, open-minded, scientific spirit, -never distorting facts in order to make them fit his -hypotheses, and freely admitting the possibility of -the discovery of new facts at any time, of a nature -to compel him to adopt some other hypothesis than -that which he has provisionally assumed to explain -the phenomena.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A word on another subject before the reader goes -on to the perusal of this narrative of strange facts:</p> - -<p>One who is interested in Psychical Research, when -he has finally succeeded in convincing some obstinate -skeptic of the genuineness of the phenomena—when -the doubter has at last yielded to the weight -of evidence, then, very frequently, the next ques<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xvi"></a>[Pg xvi]</span>tion, -which comes as a wet blanket to dampen the -ardor of the enthusiastic devotee, is: “<i lang="la">Cui bono?</i> -Admitting the truth of the facts, what useful purpose -is subserved by their study? Science will -never succeed in solving the problem of man’s -future destiny. It is all a waste of time and will -end in nothing.” And in a review of this very book, -which recently appeared in one of our leading metropolitan -newspapers, the reviewer asks, “What will -science make of all this?” (referring to the phenomena -manifested by Mlle. Smith); and then answers -his own question by saying, “It is very unlikely -that science will ever discover the nature of these -mysterious phenomena or the laws which govern -them.”</p> - -<p>From this conclusion the followers of Psychical -Research emphatically dissent. It seems passing -strange to them that such an opinion should be -held by intelligent men at the present stage of development -of human knowledge, in view of the -mighty discoveries which have been wrested from -nature by the laborious process of persevering observation -of seemingly trivial facts. An eighteenth-century -writer might with some show of -reason have made a similar observation in regard -to Dr. Franklin and his experiments with kite and -key in a thunder-storm. It would indeed, at that -epoch, have seemed unlikely that science would -succeed in discovering the secret of the electric fluid -by such means. But to-day, at the dawn of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xvii"></a>[Pg xvii]</span> -twentieth century, with all the experience of the -past to judge from, are not the probabilities all in -favor of great results to science from repeated experiments -by trained observers, such as Prof. Flournoy, -upon cases similar to that of Mlle. Smith?</p> - -<p>If the hypothesis that the world as a whole, spiritual -and material together, has in some way a systematic -unity, be true—and that is the hypothesis -accepted by a majority of thinking men at the present -time—then the importance of collecting and -recording and analyzing such facts as those presented -to us in the present narrative cannot be -overestimated.</p> - -<p>The scientific demonstration of a future life may -be one of the great triumphs reserved for the science -of the twentieth century to win, and Hélène Smith -and Prof. Flournoy may ultimately appear to have -contributed largely to its accomplishment.</p> - -<p>To those who still persist in asking <i lang="la">Cui bono?</i> in -reference to such work as that which Prof. Flournoy -has here so ably performed, I beg leave to quote -further from Mr. Myers the following:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“The faith to which Science is sworn is a faith -in the uniformity, the coherence, the intelligibility -of, at any rate, the material universe. Science -herself is but the practical development of this -mighty postulate. And if any phenomenon on -which she chances on her onward way seems arbitrary, -or incoherent, or unintelligible, she does not -therefore suppose that she has come upon an un<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xviii"></a>[Pg xviii]</span>ravelled -end in the texture of things; but rather -takes for granted that a rational answer to the new -problem must somewhere exist—an answer which -will be all the more instructive because it will involve -facts of which that first question must have -failed to take due account.</p> - -<p>“This faith in the uniformity of material Nature -formulates itself in two great dogmas—for such -they are;—the dogma of the Conservation of Matter -and the dogma of the Conservation of Energy. -Of the Conservation of Matter, within earthly limits, -we are fairly well assured; but of the Conservation -of Energy the proof is far less complete, -simply because Energy is a conception which does -not belong to the material world alone. Life is to -us the most important of all forms of activity—of -energy, I would say—except that we cannot -transform other energies into Life, nor measure in -foot-pounds that directive force which has changed -the face of the world. Life comes we know not -whence; it vanishes we know not whither; it is -interlocked with a moving system vaster than that -we know. To grasp the whole of its manifestation, -we should have to follow it into an unseen -world. Yet scientific faith bids us believe that -there, too, there is continuity; and that the past -and the future of that force which we discern for -a moment are still subject to universal Law.</p> - -<p>“Out of the long Stone Age our race is awakening -into consciousness of itself. We stand in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xix"></a>[Pg xix]</span> -dawn of history. Behind us lies a vast and unrecorded -waste—the mighty struggle <i lang="la">humanam -condere gentem</i>. Since the times of that ignorance -we have not yet gone far; a few thousand -years, a few hundred thinkers, have barely started -the human mind upon the great æons of its onward -way. It is not yet the hour to sit down in our -studies and try to eke out Tradition with Intuition—as -one might be forced to do in a planet’s -senility, by the glimmer of a fading sun. <i lang="la">Daphni, -quid antiquos signorum suspicis ortus?</i> The traditions, -the intuitions of our race are themselves -in their infancy; and before we abandon ourselves -to brooding over them let us at least first try the -upshot of a systematic search for actual facts. -For what should hinder? If our inquiry lead us -first through a jungle of fraud and folly, need that -alarm us? As well might Columbus have yielded -to the sailors’ panic when he was entangled in -the Sargasso Sea. If our first clear facts about -the Unseen World seem small and trivial, should -that deter us from the quest? As well might Columbus -have sailed home again, with America in -the offing, on the ground that it was not worth -while to discover a continent which manifested -itself only by dead logs.”</p></div> - -<p>It is deeply to be regretted that no appeals have -availed to persuade Mlle. Smith to consent to the -publication of her photograph, in connection with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xx"></a>[Pg xx]</span> -Prof. Flournoy’s account of the phenomena manifested -by her.</p> - -<p>She shrinks from the publicity which her possession -of these strange powers has thrust upon -her. She dislikes extremely the notoriety given -to her mysterious faculties, and refuses to be interviewed -concerning them, or to discuss Prof. Flournoy’s -book.</p> - -<p>The name Hélène Smith is, as the reader will -doubtless guess, merely a pseudonym. The individuality -designated by that name, however, is held -in highest esteem—in veneration even—by a very -large circle of friends and acquaintances in the -city on the shores of Lake Leman, in which she -has passed her life from infancy, for whose benefit -she is always ready to exercise her mysterious -gifts and to give her services freely to such as seek -her aid, refusing always to accept any pecuniary -compensation for her services. Attaching, as she -does, a religious significance to her powers, she -would deem it a sacrilege to traffic in them.</p> - -<p class="psig"> -<span class="smcap">Daniel B. Vermilye.</span></p> -<p class="pdate"> -<span class="smcap">Columbia University, New York</span>,<br /> -<i>July, 1900</i>.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>1</span></p> - -<p class="half-title">FROM INDIA -TO THE PLANET MARS</p> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br /> - -<small>INTRODUCTION</small></h2></div> - - -<p>In the month of December, 1894, I was invited by -M. Aug. Lemaître, Professor of the College of -Geneva, to attend some seances of a non-professional -medium, receiving no compensation for her -services, and of whose extraordinary gifts and apparently -supernormal faculties I had frequently -heard.</p> - -<p>Having gladly accepted the invitation of my -worthy colleague, I found the medium in question, -whom I shall call Mlle. Hélène Smith, to be a beautiful -woman about thirty years of age, tall, vigorous, -of a fresh, healthy complexion, with hair and eyes -almost black, of an open and intelligent countenance, -which at once invoked sympathy. She -evinced nothing of the emaciated or tragic aspect -which one habitually ascribes to the sibyls of tradition, -but wore an air of health, of physical and men<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>2</span>tal -vigor, very pleasant to behold, and which, by-the-way, -is not often encountered in those who are good -mediums.</p> - -<p>The number of those invited to take part in the -seance being complete, we seated ourselves in a circle, -with our hands resting upon the traditional -round table of spiritistic circles. Mlle. Smith—who -possesses a triple mediumship: visual, auditive, and -typtological<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—began, in the most natural manner, -to describe the various apparitions which passed before -her eyes in the partially darkened room. Suddenly -she stops and listens; she hears a name spoken -in her ear, which she repeats to us with astonishment; -then brief sentences, the words of which are -spelled out by raps on the table, explain the meaning -of the vision. Speaking for myself alone (there -were three of us to divide the honor of the seance), -I was greatly surprised to recognize in scenes which -passed before my eyes events which had transpired -in my own family prior to my birth. Whence could -the medium, whom I had never met before, have -derived the knowledge of events belonging to a remote -past, of a private nature, and utterly unknown -to any living person?</p> - -<p>The astounding powers of Mrs. Piper, the famous -Boston medium, whose wonderful intuition reads the -latent memories of her visitors like an open book, -recurred to my mind, and I went out from that seance -with renewed hope of finding myself some day face -to face with the “supernormal”—a true and genu<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>3</span>ine -supernormal—telepathy, clairvoyance, spiritistic -manifestations, it matters not by what name it be -called, provided only that it be wholly out of the -ordinary, and that it succeed in utterly demolishing -the entire framework of established present-day -science.</p> - -<p>I was able at this time to obtain general information -only concerning the past of Mlle. Smith, but it -was all of a character favorable to her, and has since -been fully confirmed.</p> - -<p>Of modest bearing and an irreproachable moral -character, she has for years earned an honorable -living as an employée of a commercial house, in -which her industry, her perseverance, and her high -character have combined to secure her a very responsible -and important position.</p> - -<p>Some three years prior to the date of my introduction -to her she had been initiated into a spiritistic -group, where her remarkable psychic powers almost -immediately manifested themselves; and she then -became a member of various other spiritistic circles. -From its commencement her mediumship manifested -the complex type to which I have already alluded, -and from which it has never deviated. Visions -in a waking state, accompanied by typtological -dictation and auditive hallucinations, alternately appeared. -From the point of view of their content -these messages had generally a bearing on past -events usually unknown to the persons present, but -which were always verified by referring to biographical -dictionaries or to the traditions of the families -interested. To these phenomena of retrocognition<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>4</span> -or of hypermnesia were joined occasionally, according -to the environment, moral exhortations, communicated -through the table, more frequently in -poetry than in prose, addressed to the sitters; medical -consultations, accompanied by prescriptions -generally appropriate; communications from parents -or friends recently deceased; or, finally, revelations -as piquant as they were unverifiable concerning the -<i lang="la">antériorités</i> (that is, the previous existences) of the -sitters, almost all of whom, being profound believers -in spiritism, would not have been at all surprised to -learn that they were the reincarnations respectively -of Coligny, of Vergniaud, of the Princess Lamballe, -or of other notable personages. It is necessary, -finally, to add that all these messages seemed to -be more or less bound up with the mysterious presence -of a “spirit” answering to the name of Leopold, -who assumed to be the guide and protector of the -medium.</p> - -<p>I at once undertook to improve my acquaintance -with Hélène Smith. She freely consented to give -seances for my benefit, alternating with a series -which she was giving M. Lemaître, and another for -the benefit of Prof. Cuendet, vice-president of the -Geneva Society (spiritistic) for Psychic Studies, all -of which I was permitted to attend. In this way -I have been able to be present at the greater part of -Hélène’s seances during the past five years. The -personal observations that I have thus been able to -make, reinforced by notes on sittings which I was -unable to attend, kindly furnished me by MM. -Lemaître and Cuendet, form the basis of the study<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>5</span> -which follows; to which must be added, however, certain -letters of Mlle. Smith, as well as the numerous -and very interesting conversations I have held with -her either immediately preceding or following her -seances, or at her home, where I also have had the -advantage of being able to talk with her mother. -Finally, various documents and accessory information, -which will be cited in their respective time and -place, have also been of assistance in enabling me -partially to elucidate certain obscure points. Notwithstanding -all these sources of information, however, -I am still very far from being able to disentangle -and satisfactorily explain the complex phenomena -which constitute Hélène’s mediumship.</p> - -<p>Dating from the period at which I made the acquaintance -of Mlle. Smith (<i>i. e.</i>, from the winter of -1894-95), while most of her spiritistic communications -have continued to present the same character -as to form and content as before, a double and very -important modification in her mediumship has been -observed.</p> - -<p>1. As to their psychological form.—While up to -that time Hélène had experienced partial and limited -automatisms only—visual, auditive, typtomotor -hallucinations—compatible with the preservation to -a certain extent of the waking state, and not involving -noticeable loss of memory, from that time and -with increasing frequency she has been subject to -an entire loss of consciousness and a failure to retain, -on returning to her normal state, any recollection of -what has transpired during the seance. In physiological -terms, the hemisomnambulism without am<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>6</span>nesia, -which had been her stopping-point up to that -time, and which the sitters mistook for the ordinary -waking state, was now transformed into total somnambulism -with consecutive amnesia.</p> - -<p>In spiritistic parlance, Mlle. Smith now became -completely entranced, and having formerly been an -ordinary visual and auditive medium, she now advanced -to the higher plane of an “incarnating medium.”</p> - -<p>I fear that this change must in a great measure -be attributed to my influence, since it followed almost -immediately upon my introduction to Hélène’s -seances. Or, even if the total somnambulism would -have inevitably been eventually developed by virtue -of an organic predisposition and of a tendency favorable -to hypnoid states, it is nevertheless probable that -I aided in hastening its appearance by my presence -as well as by a few experiments which I permitted -myself to make upon Hélène.</p> - -<p>As is well known, mediums are usually surrounded -by a halo of veneration, which prevents any one from -touching them during their trances. The idea would -never occur to any ordinary frequenter of spiritistic -circles to endeavor to ascertain the condition of the -medium’s sensory and motor functions by feeling -her hands, pinching the flesh, or pricking the skin -with a pin. Silence and immobility are the strict -rule, in order not to hinder the spontaneous production -of the phenomena, and a few questions or brief observations -on the receipt of a message is all that is -permissible by way of conversation, and no one -therefore would, under ordinary circumstances, dare<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>7</span> -to attempt any manipulation of the medium. Mlle. -Smith had always been surrounded by this respectful -consideration, and during the first three seances I -conformed myself strictly to the passive and purely -contemplative attitude of the other sitters. But at -the fourth sitting my discretion vanished. I could -not resist a strong desire to ascertain the physiological -condition of the charming seeress, and I made some -vigorous elementary experiments upon her hands, -which lay temptingly spread out opposite me on the -table. These experiments, which I renewed and -followed up at the succeeding seance (February 3, -1895), demonstrated that there is present in Mlle. -Smith, <i>during her visions</i>, a large and varied assortment -of sensory and motor disturbances which had -hitherto escaped the notice of the sitters, and which -are thoroughly identical with those that may be observed -in cases of hysteria (where they are more -permanent), and those that may be momentarily -produced in hypnotic subjects by suggestion. This -was not at all astonishing, and was to have been -expected. But one consequence, which I had not -foreseen, did occur when, four days after my second -experimental seance, Mlle. Smith fell completely -asleep for the first time at a sitting with M. Cuendet -(February 7th), at which I was not present. The -sitters were somewhat frightened, and, in trying to -awaken her, discovered the rigidity of her arms, -which were considerably contractured. Leopold -however, communicating by means of the table upon -which she was leaning, fully reassured them, and -gave them to understand that such sleep was not at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>8</span> -all prejudicial to the medium. After assuming various -attitudes and indulging in some amusing mimicry, -Mlle. Smith awoke in excellent spirits, retaining -as a last recollection of her dream that of a kiss -which Leopold had imprinted upon her forehead.</p> - -<p>From that day on somnambulisms were the rule -with Hélène, and the seances at which she did not -fall completely asleep for at least a few moments -formed rare exceptions to the course of events during -the next four years. It is a great deprivation for Mlle. -Smith that these slumbers ordinarily leave her no -memory upon her awakening of what has transpired -in her trance, and she longs for the seances of former -times when the visions unfolded themselves before -her eyes, furnishing her with a pleasing spectacle -which was always unexpected, and which, continually -being renewed, caused the seances to be to her -a source of great delight. For the sitters, on the -other hand, these scenes of somnambulism and incarnation, -together with the various physiological -phenomena of catalepsy, lethargy, contractures, etc., -which accompanied them, added great variety and -additional interest to Hélène Smith’s remarkable -and instructive triple mediumship.</p> - -<p>The greater sometimes implies the less: simultaneously -with the access of complete somnambulism -came new forms and innumerable shades of hemisomnambulism. -The triple form of automatism -which distinguished the first years of Mlle. Smith’s -spiritistic experiences has been wonderfully developed -since 1895, and it would now be difficult to name -any principal forms of psychic mediumship of which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>9</span> -she has not furnished curious specimens. I shall -have occasion to cite several of them in the course of -this work. Hélène constitutes the most remarkable -medium I have ever met, and very nearly approaches -the ideal of what might be called the polymorphous, -or multiform, medium, in contradistinction to the uniform -mediums, whose faculties only concern themselves -with one kind of automatism.</p> - -<p>2. A modification analogous to that which took -place in the psychologic form of the messages consisting -of a marked improvement in their depth and -importance, was noticeable simultaneously in their -content.</p> - -<p>Alongside of the unimportant communications, complete -at one sitting and independent one of another, -which filled up a large part of each of Hélène’s seances -and in no wise differentiated her faculties from those -of the majority of mediums, she manifested from the -beginning a marked tendency to a superior systematization -and a more lofty chain of visions; communications -were often continued through several -seances, and reached their conclusion only at the end -of several weeks. But from the period at which I -made the acquaintance of Mlle. Smith this tendency -towards unity began to assert itself still more strongly. -Several long somnambulistic dreams began to appear -and to develop, the events of which continued to be -unfolded through months, even years, and indeed -still continue; a species of romance of the subliminal -imagination analogous to those “continued stories” -which so many of our race tell themselves in their -moments of <i lang="it">far niente</i>, or at times when their routine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>10</span> -occupations offer only slight obstacles to day-dreaming, -and of which they themselves are generally the -heroes.</p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith has no fewer than three distinct somnambulistic -romances, and if to these is added the -existence of that secondary personality to which I -have already alluded, and which reveals itself under -the name of Leopold, we find ourselves in the presence -of four subconscious creations of vast extent, which -have been evolved on parallel lines for several years, -and which manifest themselves in irregular alternation -during the course of different seances, or often -even in the same seance.</p> - -<p>All of these have undoubtedly a common origin in -Hélène’s subliminal consciousness; but in practice, -at least, and to all appearance, these imaginative -constructions present a relative independence and a -diversity of content sufficiently great to render it -necessary to study them separately. I shall confine -myself at present to a general view of them.</p> - -<p>Two of these romances are connected with the -spiritistic idea of previous existences. It has, indeed, -been revealed that Hélène Smith has already lived -twice before on this globe. Five hundred years ago -she was the daughter of an Arab sheik, and became, -under the name of Simandini, the favorite wife of a -Hindoo prince named Sivrouka Nayaka, who reigned -over Kanara, and built in the year 1401 the fortress of -Tchandraguiri. In the last century she reappeared -in the person of the illustrious and unfortunate Marie -Antoinette. Again reincarnated, as a punishment -for her sins and the perfecting of her character, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>11</span> -the humble circumstances of Hélène Smith, she in -certain somnambulistic states recovers the memory -of her glorious avatars of old, and becomes again for -the moment Hindoo princess or queen of France.</p> - -<p>I will designate under the names of “Hindoo” or -“Oriental” cycle and “Royal” cycle the whole of the -automatic manifestations relative to these two previous -existences. I shall call the third romance the -“Martian” cycle, in which Mlle. Smith, by virtue of -the mediumistic faculties, which are the appanage and -the consolation of her present life, has been able to -enter into relation with the people and affairs of the -planet Mars, and to unveil their mysteries to us. -It is in this astronomical somnambulism that the -phenomenon of glossolalia<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> appears, which consists -of the fabrication and the use of an unknown language, -and which is one of the principal objects of -this study; we shall see, however, that analogous -facts are likewise presented in the Hindoo cycle.</p> - -<p>The personality of Leopold maintains very complex -relations with the preceding creations. On the -one hand, it is very closely connected with the Royal -cycle, owing to the fact that the name of Leopold is -only a pseudonym under which is concealed the illustrious -Cagliostro, who, it appears, was madly infatuated -with Queen Marie Antoinette, and who -now, discarnate and floating in space, has constituted -himself the guardian angel in some respects of Mlle. -Smith, in whom after a long search he has again<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>12</span> -found the august object of his unhappy passion of a -century ago.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, this rôle of protector and spiritual -guide which he assumes towards Hélène confers -upon him a privileged place in her somnambulisms. -He is more or less mixed up in the greater part of -them; assists at them, watches over them, and perhaps -in a measure directs them. He also occasionally -appears in the midst of a Hindoo or a Martian scene, -delivering his message by certain characteristic movements -of the hand.</p> - -<p>To sum up: sometimes revealing himself by raps -upon the table, the taps of a finger, or by automatic -writing; sometimes incarnating himself completely -and speaking by the mouth of Mlle. Smith while entranced—Leopold -fulfils in these seances the multiple -and varied functions of spirit-guide, giving good advice -relative to the manner of acting towards the -medium; of stage-manager hidden behind the scenes -watching the performance and ready at any time to -intervene; of benevolently disposed interpreter willing -to furnish explanations of all that is obscure; of -censor of morals sharply reprimanding the sitters -when he deems it necessary; of sympathetic physician -prompt at diagnosis and well versed in the -pharmacopœia, etc. He also appears under his own -name of Cagliostro to the somnambulistic gaze of -the resuscitated Marie Antoinette and answers her -questions by means of auditive hallucinations. Nor -is this all: to make our summary complete, it is necessary -also to investigate the personal connection -of Mlle. Smith with her invisible protector. She<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>13</span> -often invokes and questions Leopold at her own convenience, -and while he remains sometimes for weeks -without giving any sign of life, he at other times -readily responds to her by means of voices or visions -which surprise her while fully awake in the course -of her daily duties, and in which he lavishes upon her -in turn material or moral advice, useful information, -or the encouragement and consolation of which she -has need.</p> - -<p>Although I have accused myself of perhaps having -had much to do with the transformation of Hélène’s -hemisomnambulism into complete trances, I believe -myself, however, altogether innocent of the origin, -and therefore of the subsequent development, of the -great subliminal creations of which I have spoken. -The first, that of Leopold, is of very early date, even -going back probably, as we shall see, prior to Mlle. -Smith’s initiation into spiritism. As to the three -cycles, they did not, it is true, commence to display -their full amplitude until after I had made Hélène’s -acquaintance; and since they start from the time -when she first became subject to veritable trances, it -would seem as though that supreme form of automatism -is the only one capable of allowing the full expansion -of productions so complex, and the only -psychological <i>container</i> appropriate and adequate to -such a <i>content</i>. But the first appearance of all three -was clearly prior to my presence at the seances. -The Hindoo dream, where I shall be found playing -a rôle which I did not seek, evidently began (October -16, 1894) eight weeks before my admission to Mlle. -Smith’s seances. The Martian romance, which dates<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>14</span> -from the same period, is closely connected, as I shall -also show, with an involuntary suggestion of M. -Lemaître, who made the acquaintance of Hélène in -the spring of 1894, nine months before my introduction -to her. The Royal cycle, finally, had been -roughly outlined at seances held at the home of M. -Cuendet, in December, 1893. Nevertheless, I repeat, -only since 1895 have the exuberant growth and -magnificent flowering of that subliminal vegetation -taken place under the stimulating and provocative -influence, albeit wholly unintentional and altogether -unsuspected at the time, of the varied environments -of Mlle. Smith’s seances.</p> - -<p>As far as the indiscreet revelations in regard to my -own family, which so much astonished me at my first -meeting with Mlle. Smith, are concerned, as well as -the innumerable extraordinary facts of the same kind -with which her mediumship abounds, and to which -she owes her immense reputation in spiritistic circles, -it will suffice to return in the closing chapters of this -book.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>15</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br /> - -<small>CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE. SMITH</small></h2></div> - - -<p>The psychological history of Mlle. Smith and -her automatisms is naturally divided into -two separate periods by the important fact -of her initiation into spiritism at the beginning of -1892. Before that time, not suspecting the possibility -of voluntary communication with the world of -disincarnate spirits, she naturally manifested nothing -more than a few spontaneous phenomena, the -first flutterings of her mediumistic faculties which -still lay dormant, the exact nature and progress of -which it would be interesting to know in detail; unfortunately, -in the absence of written documents concerning -that pre-spiritistic period, we are confined to -the statements of Hélène and her parents in regard -to it, and the untrustworthiness of the memory in -connection with events of a remote past is only too -well known.</p> - -<p>The spiritistic period, on the contrary, extending -over the last seven years, and infinitely more fertile -in artificially promoted (<i>e.g.</i>, the seances) as well as -in spontaneous manifestations, is much better known -to us; but in order to comprehend it intelligently, it -is necessary first to pass in review the few facts<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>16</span> -which we have been able to gather relating to the -pre-spiritistic period—that is to say, the childhood -and youth of Mlle. Smith. That will be the subject -of this chapter.</p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith has lived in Geneva since her infancy. -After attending school, she entered as an -apprentice, at the age of fifteen, a large commercial -house, where, as I have already stated, she still remains, -and where, little by little, she has risen to a -very responsible position. Her father, a merchant, -was a Hungarian, and possessed a remarkable facility -for languages, which is of interest to us in presence -of the phenomena of glossolalia, a subject which -will be discussed hereafter. Her mother is a Genevese. -Both enjoyed excellent health and attained a -venerable old age. Hélène had a younger sister -who died in early childhood, and two brothers older -than herself, who are now fathers of families and -established abroad, where they have had successful -business careers.</p> - -<p>I am not aware that M. Smith, who was a man of -positive character, ever displayed any phenomena of -automatisms. Mme. Smith, however, as well as -her grandmother, has experienced several thoroughly -characteristic phenomena of that kind, and one, at -least, of Hélène’s brothers, it appears, could easily -have become a good medium. This is another instance -of the distinctly hereditary tendency of mediumistic -faculties.</p> - -<p>M. Smith, a man of active and enterprising character, -died quite suddenly, probably of an embolism, -at the age of seventy-five years. He had left Hun<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>17</span>gary -in his youth, and finally established himself at -Geneva, after having travelled extensively in Italy -and Algiers, where he remained for several years. -He spoke fluently Hungarian, German, French, Italian, -and Spanish, understood English fairly well, and -also knew Latin and a little Greek. It would seem -that his daughter has inherited these linguistic aptitudes, -but only in a latent and subliminal manner, -for she has always detested the study of languages, -and rebelled against learning German, in which she -took lessons for three years.</p> - -<p>Mme. Smith, who is a kind-hearted woman, with -much good, practical sense, is sixty-seven years of -age. Neither she nor her husband was ever a nervous -or psychopathic subject, but both showed a -marked tendency to broncho-pulmonary affections of -a somewhat alarming type. Mme. Smith has, besides, -suffered frequently from rheumatism. Hélène -does not appear to have inherited these tendencies; -she has always enjoyed robust health, and has not -even had the slight diseases usually incidental to -childhood.</p> - -<p>Although both M. and Mme. Smith were Protestants, -through a chain of peculiar circumstances their -daughter was baptized a Catholic shortly after her -birth, her name being inscribed some months later -on the register of the Protestant church of Geneva. -The memory of this unusual baptism has certainly -not been lost by Hélène’s subliminal imagination, -and has duly contributed to the hypothesis of a mysterious -origin. Of the years of childhood I know -nothing specially interesting. At the intermediate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>18</span> -school, at which she passed only a year, and where I -have consulted the records of her class, she was not -distinguished either for good or ill from the point -of view of deportment, but she certainly did not reveal -the full measure of her intelligence, since she failed -to pass the examinations at the end of the year, -a fact which decided her entrance upon an apprenticeship. -On the other hand, the worthy pastor -who gave her religious instruction somewhat later, -and who has never lost sight of her since, has furnished -me with most eulogistic testimonials as to -her character; he remembers her as a young girl of -serious disposition, intelligent, thoughtful, faithful -in the discharge of her duties, and devoted to her -family.</p> - -<p>M. Smith never showed the least trace of mediumistic -phenomena; from having been very indifferent, or -even hostile, to spiritism until his daughter began to -interest herself in it, he finally succumbed to her influence -and became a believer in that doctrine towards -the close of his life. Mme. Smith, on the contrary, -has always been predisposed to it, and has experienced -several phenomena of that nature in the course of her -life. At the period of the epidemic of “table-tipping” -which raged in our country about the middle of this -century, she too experimented quite successfully for -a while upon the table with her friends and acquaintances. -Later, she had some sporadic visions. The -following is one of the most typical. While her little -daughter three years old was ill, Mme. Smith -awoke in the middle of the night and saw an angel, -of dazzling brightness, standing by the side of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>19</span> -little bed with its hands stretched out above the -child; after some moments the apparition gradually -dissolved. Mme. Smith awakened her husband -and told him of the fatal significance which she attached -to the vision, but he, unable to see anything, -ridiculed her superstitious fears. As a matter of fact, -the child died on the following day, to the great surprise -of the physician attending her. This is a fine example -of true maternal presentiment, subconsciously -felt and transferring itself into the normal consciousness -by a visual hallucination which borrowed for its -symbolic content an appropriate popular image.</p> - -<p>Mme. Smith never knew her mother, who died -shortly after her birth; but she recalls and has related -to me some characteristic visions of her grandmother, -who brought her up; various phenomena connected -with one of Hélène’s brothers (hearing of steps in the -night, etc.) have proved to her that one of her sons, at -least, is a medium.</p> - -<p>Hélène Smith was certainly predisposed, both by -heredity and temperament, to become a medium, as -soon as the outward opportunity—that is, the suggestions -of spiritism—should present itself.</p> - -<p>It is evident, indeed, from her recital of events, that -she was more or less visionary from her infancy. It -does not appear, however, that she ever manifested -phenomena capable in themselves of attracting the -attention of her family. I have not been able to discover -any indication whatever of crises or attacks of -an abnormal nature, not even of sleep-walking. Her -automatisms have been always almost entirely confined -to the sensory or mental sphere, and it is only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>20</span> -from her own narratives that other people have any -knowledge of them. They assume the double form -of reveries more or less conscious, and of hallucinations -properly so called.</p> - -<p>1. <i>Reveries.</i>—The habit of falling into reverie, of -building castles in the air, of transporting one’s self -into other conditions of existence, or of telling one’s -self stories in which one plays the chief rôle, is more -frequent among women than among men, and in -childhood and youth than in mature years. This propensity -seems to have always been extremely marked -in the case of Mlle. Smith, since from her school-girl -days she has shown herself to be of a sedentary and -domestic temperament, preferring the quiet companionship -of her mother to the games of her comrades, -and her needle-work to out-door recreations. The -fragments which have survived in Hélène’s conscious -memory are all that is known to us of the content of -these reveries, but it suffices, nevertheless, to reveal -to us the general tone of her fictions, and to show -us that the images suddenly surging up before her -mental vision had a peculiar, often very fantastic, -character, and which enables us to see in them the beginnings -of her later great somnambulistic romances. -It is to be noticed also that the designs, embroideries, -varied artistic works, which were always the favorite -occupations of her moments of leisure and in which -she excels, were almost always, from her infancy, -not copies of exterior models, but the products of her -own invention, marked with the bizarre and original -stamp of her internal images. Moreover, these pieces -of work grew under her fingers with an ease and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>21</span> -rapidity that astonished herself. They made themselves, -as it were.</p> - -<p>She was always fond of indulging in day-dreams, -and recalls many a half-hour passed motionless in -an easy-chair, on which occasions she was accustomed -to see all kinds of strange things, but, being -of a very reticent nature, she seldom mentioned them -to her parents for fear of not being understood. She -used to see highly colored landscapes, a lion of stone -with a mutilated head, fanciful objects on pedestals, -etc. She does not remember the details, but does -clearly recollect that they all bore a close resemblance -to her Hindoo and Martian visions of later years.</p> - -<p>These phantasmagoria also appeared to her in -the night. She remembers, among other things, to -have seen, when about fourteen or fifteen years old, -a bright light thrown against the wall of her room, -which then seemed to be filled with strange and unknown -beings. She had the impression of being -fully awake, but it suddenly occurred to her that she -must have been dreaming, and it was only then that -she comprehended that it was really a “vision” which -she had experienced.</p> - -<p>2 <i>Hallucinations.</i>—In the foregoing examples it -would be difficult to say to exactly which category -the psychologic facts belong, especially the nocturnal -phenomena, and one may hesitate whether to regard -them as simple dreams of a very vivid character, -hypnagogic or hypnopompic<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> visions, or as veritable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>22</span> -hallucinations. On the other hand, we undoubtedly -have the right to give the latter designation to the -numerous apparitions which Mlle. Smith has when -in full possession of her senses in the daytime.</p> - -<p>One day, for example, as she was playing out-of-doors -with a friend, she saw some one following her, -and mentioned the fact to her companion, who could -not see any one. The imaginary individual, after -having followed her around a tree for a moment, -disappeared, and she was unable to find him again.</p> - -<p>Of an entirely different order are the strange characters -which she remembers having sometimes involuntarily -substituted for French letters when writing -to her friends, which must be regarded as graphomotor -hallucinations. These were undoubtedly the -same characters which at other times appeared to her -in visual images.</p> - -<p>This was the prelude to the phenomenon so frequently -experienced by her in the last few years, and -of which we shall hereafter see many examples—namely, -automatic writing, mingling with her ordinary -chirography in her waking state.</p> - -<p>Alongside of hallucinations like these, which do -not show any intentional or useful character and are -only a capricious and fortuitous irruption into the normal -consciousness, mere dreams or fancies filling up -the subconscious strata, there are also manifested -in Hélène’s case some hallucinations of a manifest -utility, which have in consequence the sense of mes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>23</span>sages -addressed by the subliminal consciousness of -the subject to her normal consciousness, by way of -warning and protection. It is to be noted that these -hallucinations, which might be called teleological, -have lately been claimed by Leopold, although he -has no recollection of, and does not assert himself to -be the author of, the earlier ones.</p> - -<p>The following is a curious example: At about the -age of seventeen or eighteen, Hélène was returning -from the country one evening, carrying a fine bouquet -of flowers. During the last minutes of the journey -she heard behind her a peculiar cry of a bird, -which seemed to her to warn her against some -danger, and she hastened her steps without looking -behind. On her arrival at home the cry followed her -into her room without her having been able to see the -creature from which it emanated. She went tired to -bed, and in the middle of the night awoke in great -pain, but was unable to cry out. At that moment -she felt herself gently lifted, together with the pillow -on which she lay, as if by two friendly hands, which -enabled her to recover her voice and call her mother, -who hastened to comfort her, and carried the -flowers, which were too odorous, out of the room. -Leopold, on being interrogated recently during a -somnambulism of Hélène as to this incident, coming -up again after so many years, has a very clear recollection -of it and gives the following explanation.</p> - -<p>It was not really the cry of a bird, but it was he, -Leopold, who caused Hélène to hear a sort of whistle, -hoping thereby to attract her attention to the danger -lurking in the bouquet of flowers, in which was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>24</span> -a great deal of garden-mint of powerful odor. Unfortunately -Hélène did not understand, and retained -the bouquet in her room. He adds that his failure -to give a more clear and intelligible warning was -due to the fact that it was at that time impossible -for him to do so. The whistle which Hélène took -for the cry of a bird was all that it was in his power -to utter. It was again he who intervened at the -moment of her nocturnal illness by raising her head -in order to enable her to call for help.</p> - -<p>I have no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy -either of the account given by Hélène and her mother, -or of the explanation recently furnished by Leopold. -The incident belongs to the category of well-known -cases where a danger of some sort not suspected by -the normal personality, but which is subconsciously -known or recognized, is warded off by a preservative -hallucination, either sensory (as here—the cry of the -bird) or motor (as in the lifting of the body). The -subliminal consciousness is not always able to give -a clear message; in the present case, the auditive -automatism remained in a state of elementary hallucination, -a simple whistle, without being able to -elevate it to a distinct verbal hallucination. Its general -warning sense, however, was understood by -Hélène, thanks to the confused feeling of danger that -she felt at the same time. Moreover, this confused -feeling, which caused her to quicken her steps, it -seems to me, ought not to be considered as the consequence -of the whistle she heard, but rather as a parallel -phenomenon; the appearance or the odor of the -mint she was carrying, while not attracting her con<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>25</span>scious -attention, nevertheless dimly roused in her an -idea of the danger lurking in the flowers, and that -idea in turn affected her clear consciousness under the -double form of a vague emotion of danger and a verbo-auditive -translation which did not go so far as to -formulate itself explicitly.</p> - -<p>Under circumstances of a nature calculated to cause -a strong emotional shock, and especially when the -psychic sphere which involves the sentiment of -modesty is strongly acted upon, Hélène has a visual -hallucination of a man clothed in a long, brown -robe, with a white cross on his breast, like a monk, -who comes to her aid, and accompanies her in silence -as long as the necessity for his presence continues. -This unknown protector, always silent, each time -appearing and disappearing in a sudden and mysterious -manner, is no other than Leopold himself, -according to the recent affirmations of the latter.</p> - -<p>We should naturally expect that Hélène would have -had in her youth many striking experiences of prevision, -marvellous intuition, divination, etc., which -are among the most diffuse forms of teleological -automatism. Such, however, does not seem to have -been the fact; neither she nor her mother has recounted -to me anything remarkable of this nature, -and they confine themselves to a general affirmation -of frequent presentiments, which were subsequently -justified as to the persons and events with which they -were connected.</p> - -<p>All the examples which I have above cited concur -in bringing to light the strong penchant of Mlle. -Smith towards automatism. But from the point of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>26</span> -view of their meaning there is a notable difference -between the teleological phenomena, presentiments -or hallucinations of a manifest utility, and those -which have none—mere reveries and other perturbations, -which are altogether superfluous, if not actually -detrimental, to Hélène’s normal personality.</p> - -<p>There are dreams and other automatisms absolutely -useless which have insinuated themselves -without rhyme or reason into Hélène’s normal life. -One does not know how or in what manner to interpret -these phenomena, capricious and fortuitous as -they seem to be, and they remain isolated, inconsiderable -facts, without bearing and without interest, -since they cannot be attached to any central principle, -to one mother-idea or fundamental emotion.</p> - -<p>We are, therefore, reduced to certain conjectures, -the most reasonable of which is that these diverse -fragments make part of some vast subconscious creation, -in which all the being of Mlle. Smith, crushed -and bruised by the conditions which the realities of life -have imposed upon her, as is more or less the case with -each one of us, gave free wing to the deep aspirations -of its nature and expanded into the fiction of an existence -more brilliant than her own. All that we know -of Hélène’s character, both as a child and as a young -girl, shows us that her dominant emotional note was -a sort of instinctive inward revolt against the modest -environment in which it was her lot to be born, a profound -feeling of dread and opposition, of inexplicable -<i lang="fr">malaise</i>, of bitter antagonism against the whole of -her material and intellectual environment. While -showing herself always very devoted to her parents<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>27</span> -and brothers, she had only feeble natural affinities for -them. She felt like a stranger in her family and as -one away from home. She had a feeling of isolation, -of abandonment, of exile, which created a sort of gulf -between her and her family. So strong were these -feelings that she actually one day seriously asked her -parents if it was absolutely certain that she was their -daughter, or whether it was not possible that the nurse -might some day by mistake have brought home another -child from the daily walk.</p> - -<p>This want of adaptation to her environment, this -sort of mysterious homesickness for an unknown -country, shows itself in a characteristic manner in the -following fragment of narrative, in which Hélène, -who has always attributed great importance to -dreams, tells of one in which an isolated house figured. -“To me this retired mansion, in which I lived -alone, isolated, represents my life, which from my infancy -has been neither happy nor gay. Even while -very young I do not remember to have shared any of -the tastes or any of the ideas of the members of my -family. Thus during the whole of my childhood I -was left in what I call a profound isolation of heart. -And in spite of all, in spite of this complete want of -sympathy, I could not make up my mind to marry, -although I had several opportunities. A voice was -always saying, ‘Do not hurry: the time has not arrived; -this is not the destiny for which you are reserved.’ -And I have listened to that voice, which -has absolutely nothing to do with conscience, and I -do not regret it, for since I have engaged in spiritism -I have found myself so surrounded with sym<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>28</span>pathy -and friendships that I have somewhat forgotten -my sad lot.”</p> - -<p>This quotation speaks volumes in regard to the -turn of mind and the emotional disposition which -ruled Hélène as a little girl. It is surely, so to speak, -the vulgar story and the common lot of all; many a -child, many a youth, many an unrecognized genius, -feel themselves suffocating in their too narrow environment -when the latent energies of life begin to -ferment. But there are differences in kind and in -degree. With Mlle. Hélène Smith the sentiment of -not having been made for her environment, and of belonging -by nature to a higher sphere, was intense -and lasting. Her mother always had the impression -that Hélène was not happy, and wondered that -she was so serious, so absorbed, so wanting in the -exuberance of spirits natural to her age. Her father -and her brothers, not comprehending the real reasons -for this absence of gayety, taxed her very unjustly -with pride and hauteur, and accused her sometimes of -despising her humble surroundings. There are shades -of feeling which can only be understood when they -have been experienced. Hélène well knew that she -really had no contempt for her material and social -environment, which, on the contrary, inspired her -with respect, but which simply was not congenial to -her nature and temperament.</p> - -<p>To this fundamental feeling of imprisonment in a -too paltry sphere was joined, in Hélène’s case, a -timid disposition. Darkness, the least noise, the -creaking of the furniture, made her tremble; by day, -a person walking behind her, an unexpected move<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>29</span>ment, -the ringing of the door-bell, gave her the impression -that some one wishing to harm her had -come to seize her and carry her off. On the whole, -Hélène’s tendency to be startled by everything and -nothing constituted with her a grievous panophobia, -a state of fear and insecurity which greatly strengthened -her impression of want of union—of <i lang="fr">mésalliance</i>—with -an environment to which she was decidedly -superior.</p> - -<p>It is easy now to see the connection between that -depressing emotionalism which was the attribute of -Hélène’s childhood and the slightly megalomaniac -tone of her later subliminal romances. The idea -intrudes itself that, in spite of—or by reason of—their -apparent contrast, these two traits are not -independent of each other, but bound by the tie of -cause and effect. But this causal connection is in -great danger of being interpreted in a precisely inverse -sense by the empirical psychologist and the -metaphysical occultist. The latter will explain Mlle. -Smith’s curious impression of strangeness and superiority -to the base conditions of her actual existence, -by her illustrious previous incarnations; the psychologist, -on the contrary, will see in that same impression -the wholly natural origin of her grandiose -somnambulistic personifications. In default of a complete -understanding, always dubious, between these -so different points of view, of which we shall speak -later, it will be advisable to adopt at least a provisional -<i lang="la">modus vivendi</i>, based on the party-wall of -the native constitution or individual character of Mlle. -Smith. On the farther side of that wall, <i>in eternity</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>30</span> -so to speak, <i lang="la">a parte ante</i> which precedes the arrival -of Hélène into this life, the occultist will have full latitude -to imagine such a succession of existences as it -shall please him in order to explain the character she -has had from her infancy. But on this side of the -wall—that is to say, within the limits of her present -life—the psychologist will have the right to ignore all -these prenatal metempsychoses, and taking for his -point of departure the innate constitution of Hélène, -without troubling himself about anything she may -have received by the accidents of heredity or preserved -from her royal pre-existences, he will endeavor to explain -by that same constitution, as it reveals itself -in her daily life, the genesis of her subliminal creations -under the action of occasional exterior influences. -The occultist, then, can have the pleasure -of regarding Mlle. Smith’s characteristic trait as a -child, that impression of solitude and wandering -about in a world for which she was not made, as <i>the -effect</i> of her real past greatnesses, while the psychologist -will be permitted to see in it <i>the cause</i> of her -future dreams of grandeur.</p> - -<p>The emotional disposition which I have depicted, -and which is one of the forms under which the maladaptation -of the organism, physical and mental, -to the hard conditions of the environment, betrays -itself, seems therefore to me to have been the source -and starting-point for all the dreamings of Hélène -in her childhood. Thence came these visions, -always warm, luminous, highly colored, exotic, -bizarre; and these brilliant apparitions, superbly -dressed, in which her antipathy for her insipid and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>31</span> -unpleasant surroundings betrays itself, her weariness -of ordinary, commonplace people, her disgust -for prosaic occupations, for vulgar and disagreeable -things, for the narrow house, the dirty streets, the -cold winters, and the gray sky. Whether these images, -very diverse, but of the same brilliant quality, -were already existent in Hélène’s subconscious -thought while still a child or a young girl, we are unable -to say. It is, however, probable that their systematization -was far from attaining to such a degree -of perfection as they have presented during the past -few years under the influence of spiritism.</p> - -<p>All the facts of automatism to which Hélène can -assign a vaguely approximate date group themselves -around her fifteenth year, and are all included -between the limits of her ninth and twentieth years.</p> - -<p>This evident connection with a phase of development -of major importance has been confirmed to me -by Leopold on various occasions, who says that he -appeared to Hélène for the first time in her tenth -year, on an exceptional occasion of extreme fright, -but after that, not until about four years later, because -the “physiological conditions” necessary to -his apparition were not yet realized. The moment -they were realized, he says, he began to manifest -himself, and it is at the same period, according to -him, that Hélène commenced to recover memories -of her Hindoo existence, under the form of strange -visions of which she comprehended neither the nature -nor the origin.</p> - -<p>After the age of about twenty years, without affirming -or believing that her visions and appari<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>32</span>tions -ceased altogether, Mlle. Smith has no striking -recollections of any, and she has not told me of any -psychic phenomenon experienced by her in the series -of years immediately preceding her entrance into -spiritism. We may infer from this, with some reason, -that the ebullitions of the imaginative subconscious -life gradually became calm after the explosion of -the period we have mentioned. They had been appeased. -The conflict between Hélène’s inner nature -and the environment in which she was forced to live -became less fierce. A certain equilibrium was established -between the necessities of practical life and -her inward aspirations. On the one hand, she resigned -herself to the necessities of reality; and if her -native pride could not yield to the point of condescending -to a marriage, honorable undoubtedly, but for -which she felt she was not intended, we must nevertheless -pay homage to the perseverance, the fidelity, -the devotion which she always brought to the fulfilment -of her family and business duties. On the -other hand, she did not permit the flame of the ideal -to be extinguished in her, and it reacted upon her -environment as strongly as possible, making its -imprint upon her personality well marked.</p> - -<p>She introduced a certain stamp of elegance into -the modest home of her parents. She arranged for -herself a small <i>salon</i>, coquettish and comfortable in -its simplicity. She took lessons in music, and -bought herself a piano. She hung some old engravings -on her walls, secured some Japanese vases, a -jardinière filled with plants, cut flowers in pretty -vases, a hanging lamp with a beautiful shade of her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>33</span> -own make, a table-cover which she had put together -and embroidered herself, some photographs curiously -framed according to her own design; and out of this -harmonious whole, always beautifully kept, she -evolved something original, bizarre, and delightful, -conforming well to the general character of her fantastic -subconsciousness.</p> - -<p>At the same time that Mlle. Smith succeeded in accommodating -herself to the conditions of her existence, -the state of latent timidity in which she lived -gradually diminished. She is still occasionally -overcome by fear, but much less frequently than -formerly, and never without a legitimate exterior -cause.</p> - -<p>Indeed, judging her by these latter years, I do not -recognize in her the child or young girl of former -days, always timid, trembling, and frightened, taciturn -and morose, who has been depicted to me by -herself and her mother.</p> - -<p>It seems to me, then, that the wildness of the -dreams and automatisms, which were symptoms of -a tendency to mental disintegration, which marked -the years of puberty, was succeeded by a progressive -diminution of these troubles and a gradual gaining -of wisdom on the part of the subliminal strata. -We may presume that this harmonization, this reciprocal -adaptation of the internal to the external, -would in time have perfected itself, and that the whole -personality of Mlle. Smith would have continued to -consolidate and unify itself, if spiritism had not come -all of a sudden to rekindle the fire which still slumbered -under the ashes and to give a new start to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>34</span> -subliminal mechanism which was beginning to grow -rusty.</p> - -<p>The suppressed fictions aroused themselves, the -reveries of former years resumed their sway, and the -images of subliminal phantasy began to be more prolific -than ever under the fertile suggestions of occult -philosophy, rallying-points or centres of crystallization—such -as the idea of former existences and reincarnations—around -which they had only to group -and organize themselves in order to give birth to the -vast somnambulistic constructions the development -of which we shall be obliged to follow.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>35</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br /> - -<small>MLLE. SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION INTO -SPIRITISM</small></h2></div> - - -<p>Having endeavored in the preceding chapter -to reconstruct in its chief characteristics the -history of Mlle. Smith up to the time when -spiritism begins to be mixed up with it, I would have -preferred in the present chapter to make a detailed -study of her psychological life during these last years, -without however, as yet, touching upon the content, -properly so called, of her automatisms. Not having -been able to accomplish this design to my satisfaction, -for want of time and patience, I shall endeavor at least -to systematize my notes somewhat by grouping them -under four heads. I shall trace the birth of Hélène’s -mediumship as far as it is possible for me to do -so from the meagre accounts I have been able to -procure concerning a time at which I was not acquainted -with her. Then, passing to facts with -which I am more familiar, I will describe rapidly -her normal state as I have been able to see it for the -last five years. This would have been the place for a -study of individual psychology, but I have been compelled -to abandon the idea on account of multiple -difficulties. Finally, I will offer a few remarks on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>36</span> -the abnormal side of her existence, which it is convenient -to divide into two groups, namely, <i>the spontaneous</i>—that -is to say, springing up of themselves in -the course of her ordinary life; or those <i>provoked</i> by -the voluntary seeking for favorable circumstances, -and which constitute the seances properly so called.</p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">The Mediumistic Beginnings of Mlle. -Smith</span></h3> - -<p>In the winter of 1891-92 Mlle. Smith heard spiritism -spoken of by one of her acquaintances, Mme. -Y., who lent her Denis’s book, <i lang="fr">Après la Mort</i>. The -perusal of this work having vividly excited Hélène’s -curiosity, Mme. Y. agreed to accompany her to her -friend, Mlle. Z., who was interested in the same -questions, and who produced automatic writing. -They then decided to form a circle for regular experimentation. -I take from the notes which Mlle. Z. has -had the kindness to furnish me, the account, unfortunately -very brief, of the seances at which Hélène’s -mediumistic faculties first made their appearance.</p> - -<p>“It was on the 20th of February, 1892, that I made -the acquaintance of Mlle. Smith. She was introduced -to me by Mme. Y., for the purpose of endeavoring to -form a spiritistic group. She was then altogether a -novice in spiritism, never having attempted anything, -and did not suspect the faculties that have -since developed themselves in her.</p> - -<p>“February 20.—First reunion: We seat ourselves -at the table; we succeed in making it oscillate. We -regard Mme. Y. as the medium upon whom we can<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>37</span> -reckon. We try for writing. We receive through me -encouragements to proceed.</p> - -<p>“February 26.—Progress; the table moves itself -considerably, salutes one by one all the members of -the group, and gives us certain names, of which only -one is recognized.... Writing: Mlle. Smith, who -tries for the first time, writes mechanically, her eyes -closed, some phrases, of which we can decipher some -words.</p> - -<p>“March 11.—Nothing at this seance, except a communication -written by myself.</p> - -<p>“March 18.—Progress; clear communication by the -table. Attempt to experiment in the darkness (which -was not absolute, the hall outside having some incandescent -lights which diffused a feeble light; we could -distinguish each other with difficulty). Mlle. Smith -sees a balloon, now luminous, now becoming dark: -she has seen nothing up to this time. Writing: Mlle. -Smith writes mechanically a quite long communication -from the father of M. K. [a Bulgarian student -present at the seance]; advice to him.”</p> - -<p>At this point the sitters became so numerous that -they broke up into two groups, of which the one continuing -to meet with Mlle. Z. does not concern us. -Mlle. Smith became a member of the other, which -met at the house of a lady named N., where weekly -seances were held for a year and a half (up to the -end of June, 1893). The records of these meetings, -kept by Mme. N., are unfortunately very brief and -obscure on many points of interest to the psychologist. -Those of the first months are in the handwriting of -Mlle. Smith, who acted as secretary of the group for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>38</span> -thirty seances. As she only took down at the time -the headings of the communications of the spirits -and wrote out the remainder on the following day, -we cannot rely very strongly on the objective accuracy -of these accounts, which, however, have the -advantage of presenting to us the mediumship of -Hélène, as related by herself. She speaks of herself -in the third person.</p> - -<p>The following is a summary of the two first seances -held in this new environment:</p> - -<p>“March 25, 1892.—Eleven persons around a large -and heavy dining-table of oak with two leaves. The -table is set in motion, and several spirits come and -give their names (by raps), and testify to the pleasure -it gives them to find themselves among us. It is at -this seance that Mlle. Smith begins to distinguish -vague gleams with long white streamers moving -from the floor to the ceiling, and then a magnificent -star, which in the darkness appears to her alone -throughout the whole of the seance. We augur from -this that she will end by seeing things more distinctly -and will possess the gift of clairvoyance.</p> - -<p>“April 1.—Violent movements of the table, due to -a spirit who calls himself David and announces himself -as the spiritual guide of the group. Then he -gives way to another spirit who says he is Victor -Hugo, and the guide and protector of Mlle. Smith, -who is very much surprised to be assisted by a person -of such importance. He soon disappears. Mlle. -Smith is very much agitated; she has fits of shivering, -is very cold. She is very restless, and sees -suddenly, balancing itself above the table, a grin<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>39</span>ning, -very ill-favored face, with long red hair. She -is so frightened that she demands that the lights be -lit. She is calmed and reassured. The figure disappears. -Afterwards she sees a magnificent bouquet -of roses of different hues being placed on the table -before one of the sitters, M.P. All at once she sees -a small snake come out from underneath the bouquet, -which, crawling quickly, perceives the flowers, -looks at them, tries to reach the hand of M.P., -withdraws for an instant, comes back slowly, and -disappears in the interior of the bouquet. Then all -is dissolved and three raps are given on the table, -terminating the seance. [M.P. interprets the meaning -of the vision of the bouquet and the serpent as a -symbolic translation of an emotional impression experienced -by Mlle. Smith].”</p> - -<p>Such was the birth of Hélène’s mediumship. -Scarcely anything happened on the 20th of February, -when the movements of the table were not attributed -to her (although in all probability she caused -them); in the following seances she appeared in -two attempts at automatic writing (unfortunately -lost) in imitation of the writing medium with whom -she was sitting. The outcome of this second attempt -leads us to suppose that Hélène’s faculties -would have developed rapidly in that direction if she -had not abandoned it and changed her environment.</p> - -<p>Her visual faculty, suggested by the experiments -at obscure seances, shows itself on the 18th and 25th -of March in the form of elementary hallucinations -or vague figures having their point of departure -probably in the simple entoptical phenomena, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>40</span> -retina’s own light, consecutive images, etc. Then, -encouraged by the predictions of the sitters, she attained -on the 1st of April to visions properly so -called, having a varied content and a real or symbolic -signification. At the same time her typtological -automatism was perfecting itself. We recognize it -in the name of Victor Hugo, coming especially for -Mlle. Smith, and suspect it to have been a name already -given at the second seance.</p> - -<p>Auditive hallucinations follow closely upon the -visual, but it is impossible to know at just what -date, as the records do not clearly indicate whether -the messages recorded had that origin or were -rapped out on the table. To these known forms -of automatism must be added the frequent phenomena -of emotion, shiverings, sadness, restlessness, -fear, etc., which are experienced by Hélène -without knowing why, and are afterwards found -to be in perfect conformity to, and in evident connection -with, the content of those emotional phenomena -which they generally precede by a few moments.</p> - -<p>Thus, in a half-dozen weekly seances, the mediumship -of Mlle. Smith was invested with a complex -psychological aspect, which from that time it -preserved intact for three years, and of which I was -a witness after I made her acquaintance. This -rapidity of development is not at all unusual; but -there is this peculiarity about Hélène, that her mediumistic -faculties, after their first appearance, remained -for a long time stationary, and then underwent -all at once, in the spring of 1895, the enormous<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>41</span> -transformation and tremendous expansion which I -have described in the first chapter, and to which I -will not again refer.</p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">Mlle. Smith in Her Normal State</span></h3> - -<p>I was about to say that in her normal state Mlle. -Smith is normal. Certain scruples restrain me, and -I correct myself by saying that in her ordinary state -she seems just like anybody else. By this I mean -that outside of the gaps which the seances and the -spontaneous eruptions of automatism make in her -life, no one would suspect, observing her performance -of her various duties, or in talking with her on all sorts -of subjects, all that she is capable of in her abnormal -states, or the curious treasures which are concealed in -her subliminal strata.</p> - -<p>With a healthy and ruddy complexion, of good -height, well proportioned, of regular and harmonious -features, she breathes health in everything. She presents -no visible stigmata of degeneration. As to -psychic defects or anomalies, with the exception of her -mediumship itself, I know of none, the timidity of her -youth having entirely disappeared. Her physical -strength is marvellous, as shown by the fact that -she bears up under the strain of a business which -demands nearly eleven hours of her time each day, -nearly all of which she is compelled to stand on her -feet, and from which she takes only one week’s vacation -in summer. Besides this confining work away -from home, she assists her mother about the house -morning and evening, in the housekeeping duties,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>42</span> -and finds time besides to read a little, to practise at -her piano, and to make the lovely handiwork, which -she designs and executes herself with remarkable -originality and good taste. To a life so full must -be added, besides, the spiritistic seances which she -is generally willing to give on Sunday, and sometimes -on a weekday evening, very disinterestedly, to -persons who are interested in psychic questions or -who desire to consult Leopold on important subjects.</p> - -<p>While hesitating to affirm that a person presenting -phenomena so extraordinary as those of mediumship -is perfectly normal in other respects, I am -pleased to discover that as far as Mlle. Smith is concerned, -through my conversations with her and as -the result of my investigations concerning her, she -does not present a single abnormality, physical, intellectual, -or moral, between the periods of the irruptions -of her automatisms. Her field of vision, -which she has permitted me to measure with a Landolt -perimeter, is normal for white as well as for colors, -for which latter she has a very delicate perception. -There is no trace of tactile anæsthesia in her -hands. There is no known motor trouble. The -tremor of the index-finger gives a line, of four oscillations -per second on an average, differing not at -all from the fines obtained from persons perfectly -normal (see <a href="#Fig_2">Fig. 2</a>).</p> - -<p>It cannot be expected that I should paint a full -moral and intellectual portrait of Mlle. Smith, as I -should be in danger of hurting her feelings in case my -attempt should come to her notice. I can only touch -on a few points. One of the most striking is her great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>43</span> -native dignity; her bearing, her manners, her language -are always perfect, and have a certain quality of -<i lang="fr">noblesse</i> and pride which accords well with her somnambulistic -rôles. On occasion she shows a stately -and regal hauteur. She is very impressionable, and -feels little things very keenly. Her antipathies as well -as her sympathies are quick, lively, and tenacious. -She is energetic and persevering. She knows very -well what she wants, and nothing passes her by unperceived, -nor does she forget anything in the conduct -of others towards her. “I see everything, nothing -escapes me, and I forgive but never forget,” she -has often said to me. Perhaps a severe moralist -would find in her a certain exaggeration of personal -sensibility, but that sort of self-love is a very common -characteristic of human nature, and is very natural in -mediums who are continually exposed to public criticism.</p> - -<p>She is very intelligent and highly gifted. In conversation -she shows herself vivacious, sprightly, and -sometimes sarcastic. Psychic problems, and all questions -connected with mediumistic phenomena, of which -she is herself so striking an example, occupy her mind -a great deal and form the principal subject of her private -thoughts and of her conversations with people in -whom she is interested.</p> - -<p>Her philosophical views are not wanting in originality -or breadth. She does not believe in spiritism, -in the generally accepted sense of the term, and has -never consented, in spite of the advances which have -been made to her, to become a member of the Geneva -Society (spiritistic) for Psychic Studies, because, as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>44</span> -she says, she has no fixed ideas on subjects so obscure, -does not care for theories, and “does not work in the -interest of any party.” She investigates, she observes, -she reflects and discusses, having adopted for her motto, -“The truth in all things, for all things, and always.”</p> - -<p>There are two points in regard to which she is -uncompromising—namely, the objective reality of -Leopold, and the supernormal content of her automatisms. -No one dares tell her that her great invisible -protector is only an illusory apparition, another part -of herself, a product of her subconscious imagination; -nor that the strange peculiarities of her mediumistic -communications—the Sanscrit, the recognizable signatures -of deceased persons, the thousand correct -revelations of facts unknown to her—are but old forgotten -memories of things which she saw or heard in -her childhood. Such suppositions being contrary to -her inmost beliefs, and seemingly false in fact, easily -irritate her, as being in defiance of good sense and -an outrage on truth. But outside of these two subjects -she will examine and discuss coolly any hypothesis -one chooses. The idea that she should be the -reincarnation of a Hindoo princess or of Marie Antoinette, -that Leopold is really Cagliostro, that the -visions called Martian are really from the planet -Mars, etc., all seem to her to conform fully to the -facts; but these beliefs are not indispensable to her, -and she is ready, should they prove to be false, to -change to other theories—as, for example, telepathy, -a mixture of occult influences, a mysterious meeting -in her of intuitions coming from some higher -sphere, etc.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>45</span></p> - -<p>Undoubtedly the supposition of her pre-existences -in India and on the throne of France seems to her to -explain in a plausible manner the feeling, which has -followed her from childhood, of belonging to a world -higher than that in which the chance of birth has -imprisoned her for this life; but she does not affirm a -positive belief in that brilliant past, is not wholly -convinced of it, and remains in a sensible state of -expectancy of the true explanation of these ultimate -mysteries of her life.</p> - -<p>There is another subject, also, which is close to -her heart. She has heard it said that in the eyes -of scientists and physicians mediums are considered -to be fools, hysterical subjects, or insane, or, in any -event, abnormal, in the bad sense of the word. But, -in the light of the experience of every day of her life, -she protests vigorously against this odious insinuation. -She declares emphatically that she is “perfectly -sane in body and mind, not in the least unbalanced,” -and repels with indignation the idea there can be -any serious abnormality or the least danger in mediumship -such as she practises. “I am far from -being abnormal,” she wrote me recently, “and I have -never been so clear of vision, so lucid, and so apt to -judge correctly as since I have begun to develop as -a medium.”</p> - -<p>Leopold, too, speaking through her voice during -her trances, has more than once solemnly testified -as to her perfect health. He has also returned to the -subject by letter; we shall find farther on a very interesting -certificate of mental equilibrium dictated -by him and written by him with her hand, as if to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>46</span> -give more weight to his declarations (see <a href="#Fig_8">Fig. 8</a>, -p. 137.)</p> - -<p>It is incontestable that Hélène has a very well-organized -brain, as is evidenced by the admirable manner -in which she manages the important and complicated -department which is under her direction in the -commercial establishment in which she is employed. -To accuse her of being insane, simply because she -is a medium, as some charitable souls (the world is -full of them) do not hesitate to do sometimes, is, to -say the least, a most inadmissible <i lang="la">petitio principii</i>.</p> - -<p>The opinion which Mlle. Smith holds in her normal -state concerning her automatic faculties is altogether -optimistic; and there is nothing to prove her in the -wrong. She regards her mediumship as a rare and -precious privilege, with which nothing in the world -would induce her to part. True, she also sees in it -the reason for the malevolent and unjust judgments, -the jealousies, the base suspicions, to which the ignorant -multitude have in all ages subjected those -who have succeeded in elevating themselves above -it through the possession of faculties of this kind. -But, on the whole, the disadvantages are more than -counterbalanced by gains of a high order, and the -inward satisfaction attached to such a gift. And -here I desire to emphasize the statement, once for -all, that Hélène does not belong to the class of professional -mediums, nor to those who use their mediumship -for the purpose of coining money. Mlle. -Smith, who earns her living in the position which her -intelligence and fitness have secured for her, and -through which her family enjoys a modest ease,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>47</span> -never accepts any pecuniary compensation for her -seances or consultations. Such a traffic in faculties -which have a sort of religious signification in her -eyes would be absolutely repugnant to her feelings.</p> - -<p>Hélène’s spontaneous automatisms have often aided -her in, without ever having interfered with, her daily -occupations. There is, happily for her, a great difference -in intensity between the phenomena of her -seances and those which break in upon her habitual -existence, the latter never having caused such disturbance -of her personality as the former.</p> - -<p>In her daily life she has only passing hallucinations -limited to one or two of the senses, superficial -hemisomnambulisms, compatible with a certain -amount of self-possession—in short, ephemeral perturbations -of no importance from a practical point of -view. Taken as a whole, the interventions of the -subliminal in her ordinary existence are more beneficial -to her than otherwise, since they often bear the -stamp of utility and appropriateness, which make -them very serviceable.</p> - -<p>Phenomena of hypermnesia, divination, lost objects -mysteriously recovered, happy inspirations, true presentiments, -correct intuitions—in a word, teleological -automatisms of every sort—she possesses in so -high a degree that this small coin of genius is more -than sufficient to compensate for the inconveniences -resulting from the distraction and momentary absence -of mind with which the vision is accompanied.</p> - -<p>In the seances, on the contrary, she presents the -most grave functional alterations that one can -imagine, and passes through accesses of lethargy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>48</span> -catalepsy, somnambulism, total change of personality, -etc., the least of which would be a very disagreeable -adventure for her if it should happen to -occur in the street or at her office.</p> - -<p>But here I am obliged to leave Hélène’s ordinary -state to enter upon the study of her automatisms.</p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">Spontaneous Automatic Phenomena</span></h3> - -<p>The automatisms which occur outside the seances -in Mlle. Smith’s every-day life, those, at least, which -she is able to recall and narrate, are of a frequency -very variable and utterly independent of any known -circumstances; sometimes presenting themselves -two or three times in the same day; at others, two -or three weeks will elapse without a single one. -Extremely diverse in their form and content, these -phenomena may be divided into three categories, -based upon their origin. The first proceed from -impressions received by Hélène in moments of special -suggestibility; the second are the fortuitous apparitions -above the ordinary level of her consciousness, -the romances in process of elaboration to which we -are coming; the last, which differ from the two -preceding species (which are always useless, if not -detrimental) by their beneficial character and their -adaptation to the needs of the moment, are roused -by those teleological automatisms to which I have -already called attention as having occurred in her -childhood, and which have shared in the general recrudescence -of her subconscious life under the lash -of the spiritistic experiences.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>49</span></p> - -<p>Let us pass these different cases rapidly in review.</p> - -<p>1. <i>Permanence of exterior suggestions.</i>—The spiritistic -reunions are naturally their principal source. I -do not mean that she has there been subjected to -experiments in post-hypnotic suggestion. Justice to -all those who have attended the seances compels the -statement that they have never abused the suggestibility -which she shows on such occasions, by suggesting -ideas of such a nature as to cause her annoyance -on the following days. The most that has -been attempted has been the suggestion of some small -matters by way of harmless experiment, to be executed -by her a few moments after awaking from -her trance. There is no need of intentional suggestions -to influence her in a lasting manner; therefore -we have avoided as far as possible everything -that might leave disagreeable traces behind, and -have suggested to her before the end of the seance -that she have on the morrow no headache, fatigue, -etc.; but it sometimes happens that certain incidents, -often absolutely insignificant, are engraved -on her memory in a most unlooked-for manner and -assail her as inexplicable obsessions during the ensuing -week. The following are some specimens of -involuntary suggestion, which generally linger for -three or four days, but may occasionally continue -for twelve or fifteen.</p> - -<p>Hélène told me one Sunday that she had been possessed -several times during the day by the hallucinatory -image of a straw hat, the inside of which -was turned towards her, and which remained vertically -in the air about three or four feet in front of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>50</span> -her, without being held by any one. She had the -feeling that this hat belonged to me, and I happened -finally to recollect that at the seance of the preceding -Sunday I happened to fan myself with this very -hat during her final trance, the image of which had -been engraved on her mind in one of the flashes in -which she opened her eyes and closed them again -instantly before her final awaking. This obsession, -said she, was very strong on Monday and the -following day or two, but lessened somewhat towards -the end of the week.</p> - -<p>At another time she preserved during a whole week -the sensation of the pressure of my thumb on her left -eyebrow. (Compression of the external frontal and -suborbital nerves is a means I often employ to hasten -her awaking, after a hint given by Leopold.)</p> - -<p>There happened to her also twice in the same day -an auditive and visual hallucination of an aged person -whom she did not recognize, but the extremely -characteristic description of whom corresponds so -well with that of a gentleman of Geneva who had been -mentioned to her a few days previously, immediately -before the commencement of a seance (when she was -probably already in her state of suggestibility), that -there is scarcely any doubt but that these apparitions -were the consequence of that conversation.</p> - -<p>Following another seance where she had, at the -beginning of a Hindoo scene, made vain efforts to -detach a bracelet from her left wrist, she preserved -for three days the feeling of something grasping that -wrist, without understanding what it could be.</p> - -<p>In the same way, various feelings of sadness, anger,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>51</span> -a desire to laugh or to weep, etc., the cause of which -she was unable to explain, have often followed her for -a considerable length of time after the seances of which -these feelings were the manifest emotional echo. This -is often the effect of our dreams on our waking state: -we forget the dreams, but their influence remains, and -is often more marked in the dreams of a hypnotized -person or a somnambulist than in those of ordinary -sleep.</p> - -<p>The seances are not the exclusive source of the -involuntary suggestions which trouble Mlle. Smith -in her daily life without any benefit to herself. It is -evident that on every occasion when she finds herself -in that particular condition of least resistance which -we, in our ignorance of its intrinsic nature, designate -by the convenient name of “suggestibility,” she is -exposed to impressions capable of returning to assail -her in the course of her daily occupations. Fortunately -this condition of suggestibility does not seem -to develop itself readily in her outside of the spiritistic -reunions.</p> - -<p>2. <i>Irruptions of subliminal reveries.</i>—I shall have -too many occasions to cite concrete examples of visions, -voices, and other spontaneous outpourings of -the work of imagination, which are continually going -on under the ordinary consciousness of Mlle. Smith, -to dwell long on this point. Some general remarks -will suffice.</p> - -<p>The connection which the unforeseen phenomena -maintain with those of the seances themselves is very -varied. Sometimes we are able to recognize them as -reproductions, more or less incomplete, of episodes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>52</span> -which occurred at the preceding seances, and consider -them simple echoes or post-hypnotic repetitions -of these last. Sometimes, on the contrary, it appears -that we have to deal with preparatory rehearsals of -scenes which will unfold themselves at length and -will be continued at some later seance. Finally, -sometimes it is a question of tableaux, having no connection -with those which fill up the seances; they are -like leaves, flying away never to return, romances -which are continually being fabricated in the deep -subliminal strata of Mlle. Smith’s consciousness.</p> - -<p>Hélène, in fact, does not long remember, nor in much -detail, with a few exceptions, those visions which take -place in her ordinary state, and which occur most -frequently early in the morning, while she is still in -bed, or just after she has arisen and while working -by the light of her lamp; sometimes in the evening, -or during the brief moments of rest in the middle of -the day, and, much more rarely, while in the full -activity of waking hours she is at her desk. If she -had not long since, at my request, and with great good -will, acquired the habit of noting in pencil the essential -content of these apparitions, either during the -apparition itself (which she is not always able to do) -or else immediately afterwards, we should have still -more deficiencies in the plot of her romances to deplore. -Hélène’s psychological state, during her spontaneous -visions, is known to me only by her own descriptions. -She is fortunately a very intelligent observer and a -good psychologist.</p> - -<p>Her narratives show that her visions are accompanied -by a certain degree of obnubilation. For a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>53</span> -few moments, for instance, the room, the light of -the lamp, disappear from before her eyes; the noise -of the wheels in the street ceases to be heard; she -feels herself becoming inert and passive, while a feeling -of bliss and ecstatic well-being permeates her -entire individuality in the presence of the spectacle -which appears to her; then the vision, to her great -regret, slowly fades from her view, the lamp and the -furniture reappear, the outside noises again make -themselves heard, and she is astonished that the -idea did not occur to her to put down in pencil the -strange words she has heard, or that she did not -touch or caress, for example, the beautiful birds of -many-colored plumage flying and singing around -her. Sometimes she has maintained sufficient presence -of mind to scribble from dictation the words -striking her ear; but the wretched handwriting -proves that her attention, all absorbed by the apparition, -could not follow the pencil, and that the hand -directed it badly. At other times the reverse is the -fact. It appears in the course of the vision as though -some one took hold of her arm and guided it in spite -of herself; the result is splendid calligraphies, wholly -different from her own handwriting, executed without -her knowledge, and during the execution of -which her mind was wholly absent, if we can judge -from the surprise she shows on awaking when she -finds before her these strange writings, and from -analogous scenes which transpire at the seances.</p> - -<p>The preceding is applicable especially to the more -frequent cases—that is, to the morning or evening -visions which happen to her at home, in that inter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>54</span>mediate -condition between sleep and waking, always -so favorable, as we know, to the development of unconscious -cerebration. But there are innumerable -shades and gradations between this middle type, -so to speak, and its opposite extremes; on the one -hand is the fortunately very exceptional case where -she is seized with ecstasy while at her place of business; -and, on the other hand, that in which the automatism -limits itself to inscribing some unknown -characters or words in another hand than her own in -her correspondence and writings—peculiar <i lang="la">lapsus -calami</i>, which she is not slow to perceive on coming -to herself.</p> - -<p>The following is an example of a case of ecstasy:</p> - -<p>Having ascended one day to an upper story, to -look for something in a dark store-room, she had an -apparition of a man in a turban and large white cloak, -whom she had the impression of recognizing,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and -whose presence filled her with a delightful calm and -profound happiness. She could not recall the conversation -which passed between them, which, though -in an unknown language, she nevertheless had the -feeling of having perfectly comprehended. On the -departure of the mysterious visitor she was astonished -to find herself brought back to sombre reality, and -stupefied on noting by her watch that the interview -had lasted much longer than it had seemed to do. -She preserved all that day a delicious feeling of well-being -as the effect of the strange apparition.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>55</span></p> - -<p>The phenomenon of mingling strange writing with -her own is of relatively frequent occurrence, and we -shall see divers specimens of it in the following -chapters, apropos of the romances to which it especially -belongs. I will give here only one complex example, -which will serve at the same time as an -illustration of a special kind of automatism, very -harmless, to which Hélène is also subject, and which -consists in making verses, not without knowing, but -at least without intending to do so, and in connection -with the most trifling matters.</p> - -<p>There are times when, in spite of herself, she -feels compelled to speak in distinct rhymes of eight -feet, which she does not prepare, and does not perceive -until the moment she has finished uttering -them.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> In this particular case it is by a quatrain -(a very unusual occurrence) that she replies to some -one who had consulted her in regard to some blue<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>56</span> -ribbon. But this quatrain, by its style, by the vision -of the blond head of a child which accompanies it, -and by the manner also in which she writes it, causes -us to hazard the conjecture that it is an inspiration -depending on the underlying Royal cycle; while in the -following letter, in which she narrates the affair to -M. Lemaître, her pen inscribes, all unknown to her, -strange characters evidently due to the cropping out -of the Martian cycle, of which she speaks in the -letter (see <a href="#Fig_1">Fig. 1</a>, a passage of that letter making a -Martian M and V in the words <i>vers</i> and <i>rimait</i>):</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i056" style="max-width: 75em;"> - <a id="Fig_1"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_056.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 1. Fragment of a letter (normal handwriting) of Mlle. Smith, - containing two Martian letters. (Collection of M. Lemaître.)</div> -</div> - -<p>“I have heard some Martian words this afternoon, -but have not been able to retain them in my mind. I -send you those heard a few days ago, when I had the -vision of which I am about to make you the design -(Martian lamp). Yesterday morning I for the first -time spoke in verse, without being aware of it; it was -only on finishing the sentence that I perceived that -it rhymed, and I reconstructed it to assure myself of -the fact. A little later, on examining some ribbons, -I began anew to speak in verse, and I send those also;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>57</span> -they will amuse you. It is a curious thing that I -had at that same moment the vision of the blond -curly head of a child bound with a blue ribbon. The -vision lasted more than a minute. What is still more -curious, I do not at all recollect having worn ribbons -of that shade as a child: I remember some rose-colored, -some red, but I have no recollection whatever of any -blue ribbons. I really do not know why I spoke these -words; it is the more amusing. I was obliged to -speak them, I assure you, in spite of myself. I was -eager to put them on paper, and I noticed in writing -them down that, for a moment, the handwriting was -not regular, that is, it was slightly different from -mine.”</p> - -<p>Here is the quatrain, the pencil impression of which -is too faint to enable a fac-simile to be reproduced -here, and in it I have indicated by italics the words -and syllables the calligraphy or orthography of which -differs from that of Hélène and becomes the style of automatic -handwriting called that of Marie Antoinette:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Les nuances de ces rubans</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Me</i> rappelent <i>mes</i> jeunes ans;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ce bleu <i>ver</i>di, je m’en sou<i>vien</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sans mes cheveux <i>alloit</i> si bien!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The head of curly blond hair, ornamented with -blue ribbons, also figures in the visions of the Royal -cycle, and appears to belong, as is here the case, sometimes -to Marie Antoinette herself, sometimes to one -or other of her children, especially the Dauphin.</p> - -<p>While it is generally easy to connect these eruptions -of the subliminal volcano with the various dreams<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>58</span> -from which they emanate, such is not always the case, -and there are visions the origin of which is doubtful -and ambiguous. We must not forget that, alongside -of the grand cycles of Hélène which are better known, -there also float in her latent imagination innumerable -small accessory systems, more or less independent, -which supply a large part of the seances, such -as revelations of former events connected with the -families of the sitters, etc.; it is not always possible -to identify the fragments coming from these isolated -dreams.</p> - -<p>3. <i>Teleological automatisms.</i>—The spontaneous -phenomena of this category, possessing as a common -characteristic a practical utility for Hélène more or -less marked, can be subdivided into two classes, according -to their direct attachment to the personality -of Leopold, or their not belonging to any distinct personality, -and which only express in a vivid manner -the result of the normal working, although more or -less unconscious, of the faculties of memory and of -reason. I confine myself now to citing one case of -each of these classes, of which we shall see other -examples in the chapters relating to Leopold and to -supernormal appearances.</p> - -<p>One day Mlle. Smith, wishing to take down a large -and heavy object from a high shelf, was prevented from -so doing by the fact that her uplifted arms seemed as -though petrified and incapable of being moved for -some seconds; she saw in this a warning and gave -up her intention. In a later seance Leopold said -that it was he himself who had caused Hélène’s -arms to become rigid, in order to prevent her from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>59</span> -attempting to lift the object which was too heavy for -her and would have caused some accident to befall -her.</p> - -<p>On another occasion a clerk who sought vainly for -a certain pattern asked Hélène if she knew what had -become of it. Hélène replied mechanically and without -reflection, “Yes, it was sent to Mr. J.” (a customer -of the firm); at the same time there appeared before -her in large black figures about eight or ten inches in -height the number 18, and she added, instinctively, “It -was eighteen days ago.” This statement caused the -clerk to smile, because of its improbability, the rule -of the house being that customers to whom patterns -were lent for examination must return them inside of -three days or a messenger would be sent for them. -Hélène, struck by this objection, and having no conscious -recollection of the affair, replied, “Really, perhaps -I am wrong.” Meanwhile, an investigation of -the date indicated in the records of the house showed -that she was perfectly correct. It was through various -negligences, with which she had nothing at all to -do, that the pattern had not been sent for or recovered. -Leopold, on being asked, has no recollection of this -circumstance, and does not appear to have been the -author of this automatism of cryptomnesia, nor of -many other analogous phenomena through which -Hélène’s subconscious memory renders her signal -services and has gained for her a well-merited and -highly valued reputation.</p> - -<p>Thus we see that if the spontaneous automatisms -of Mlle. Smith are often the vexatious result of her -moments of suggestibility, or the tempestuous irrup<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>60</span>tion -of her subliminal reveries, they also often assume -the form of useful messages. Such compensation -is not to be despised.</p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">The Seances</span></h3> - -<p>Mlle. Smith has never been hypnotized. In her -instinctive aversion, which she shares with the majority -of mediums, to anything that seems like an -attempt to experiment upon her, she has always refused -to allow herself to be put to sleep. She does not -realize that in avoiding the idea she has actually -accepted the reality, since her spiritistic experiences -in reality constitute for her an autohypnotization, -which inevitably degenerates into a hetero-hypnotization, -as she is brought under the influence of one or -other of the persons present at the seance.</p> - -<p>All her seances have somewhat of the same psychologic -form, the same method of development running -through their immense diversity of content. -She places herself at the table with the idea and the -intention of bringing into play her mediumistic faculties. -After an interval, varying from a few seconds -to a quarter of an hour, generally in a shorter time -if the room is well darkened and the sitters are perfectly -silent, she begins to have visions, preceded and -accompanied by very varied sensory and motor disturbances, -after which she passes into a complete -trance. In that state, it rarely happens, and then -only for a few moments, that she is entirely unconscious -of the persons present, and, as it were, shut -up within her personal dream and plunged into pro<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>61</span>found -lethargy (hypnotic syncope). Ordinarily she -remains in communication, more or less close, with -one of the sitters, who thus finds himself in the same -relation towards her as a hypnotizer towards his -subject, and able to take advantage of that <i>rapport</i>, -by giving her any immediate or future suggestions -that he may desire. When the seance consists only -of waking visions, it lasts generally only a short -time—an hour to an hour and a half—and is ended -quickly by three sharp raps upon the table, after -which Mlle. Smith returns to her normal state, -which she scarcely seems to have left. If the somnambulism -has been complete, the seance is prolonged -to double that length of time, and often longer, -and the return to the normal state comes slowly -through phases of deep sleep, alternating with relapses -into somnambulistic gestures and attitudes, -moments of catalepsy, etc. The final awakening is -always preceded by several brief awakenings, followed -by relapses into sleep.</p> - -<p>Each of these preliminary awakenings, as well -as the final one, is accompanied by the same characteristic -movements of the features. The eyes, -which have been for a long time closed, open wide, -stupidly staring into vacancy, or fix themselves -slowly on the objects and the sitters within their -range of vision, the dilated pupils do not react, the -face is an impassive and rigid mask, devoid of expression. -Hélène seems altogether absent. All at -once, with a slight heaving of the breast and raising -of the head, and a quick breath, a gleam of intelligence -illumines her countenance, the mouth is grace<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>62</span>fully -opened, the eyes become brilliant, the entire -countenance lights up with a pleasant smile and gives -evidence of her recognition of the world and of her -return to herself. But with the same suddenness -with which it appeared, that appearance of life lasts -but a second or two, the physiognomy resumes its -lifeless mask, the eyes becoming haggard and fixed -close again, and the head falls on the back of the -chair. This return of sleep will be followed by another -sudden awaking, then perhaps by several more, -until the final awaking, always distinguished, after -the smile at the beginning, by the stereotyped -question, “What time is it?” and by a movement of -surprise on learning that it is so late. There is no -memory of what has transpired during the seance.</p> - -<p>A complete description of the psychological and -physiological phenomena which present themselves, -or which might be obtained in the course of -the seances, would detain me too long, since there -is absolutely nothing constant either in the nature -or in the succession of the phenomena, and no two -seances are evolved exactly in the same manner. -I must confine myself to some striking characteristics.</p> - -<p>Three principal symptoms, almost contemporaneous -generally, announce that Mlle. Smith is beginning -to enter into her trance.</p> - -<p>There are on the one side emotional or cœnæsthetic -modifications, the cause of which is revealed a -little later in the subsequent messages. Hélène is, -for instance, seized by an invincible desire to laugh, -which she cannot or will not explain; or she com<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>63</span>plains -of sadness, fear, of different unpleasant sensations, -of heat or of cold, of nausea, etc., according -to the nature of the communications which are approaching -and of which these emotional states are -the forerunners.</p> - -<p>There are, on the other hand, phenomena of systematic -anæsthesia (negative hallucinations), limited -to those sitters whom the coming messages concern. -Hélène ceases to see them, while continuing -to hear their voices and feel their touch; or, on the -contrary, she is astonished to no longer hear them, -though she sees their lips moving, etc.; or, finally, -she does not perceive them in any manner, and demands -to know why they are leaving when the seance -is hardly begun. In its details this systematic -anæsthesia varies infinitely, and extends sometimes -to but one part of the person concerned, to his hand, -to a portion of his face, etc., without it always being -possible to explain these capricious details by the -content of the following visions; it would seem that -the incoherence of the dream presides over this preliminary -work of disintegration, and that the normal -perceptions are absorbed by the subconscious personality -eager for material for the building up of the -hallucinations which it is preparing.</p> - -<p>Systematic anæsthesia is often complicated with -positive hallucinations, and Hélène will manifest her -surprise at seeing, for example, a strange costume -or an unusual coiffure. This, in reality, is the vision -which is already being installed.</p> - -<p>The third symptom, which does not manifest itself -clearly in her, but the presence of which can be often<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>64</span> -established before all the others by investigation, is -a complete allochiria,<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> ordinarily accompanied by -various other sensory and motor disturbances. If, -at the beginning of the seance, Hélène is asked, for -example, to raise her right hand, to move the left -index-finger, or to close one eye, she begins straightway -to carry into effect these different acts; then -all at once, without knowing why and without hesitation, -she deceives herself in regard to the side, and -raises her left hand, moves her right index-finger, -closes the other eye, etc. This indicates that she -is no longer in her normal state, though still appearing -to retain her ordinary consciousness, and with the -liveliness of a normal person discusses the question -of her having mistaken her right hand or eye for -her left, and vice versa. It is to be noted that Leopold, -on such occasions of pronounced allochiria, does not -share this error in regard to the side. I have assisted -at some curious discussions between him and Hélène, -she insisting that such a hand was her right, or that -the Isle Rousseau is on the left as one passes the -bridge of Mont Blanc or coming from the railway -station, and Leopold all the while, by means of raps -upon the table, giving her clearly to understand -she was wrong.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> - -<p>A little after the allochiria, and sometimes simultaneously -with it, are to be found various other phenomena, -extremely variable, of which I here cite only<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>65</span> -a few. One of her arms is contractured as it rests -upon the table, and resists the efforts of the sitters -to lift it up, as though it were a bar of iron; the -fingers of the hand also participate in this rigidity. -Sometimes this contracture does not exist before, -but establishes itself at the same instant that some -one touches the forearm, and increases in proportion -to the efforts which are made to overcome it. There -is no regularity in the distribution of the anæsthesia -(changing from one instant to another), the contractures, -or convulsions which the hands and arms -of Hélène exhibit. It all seems due to pure caprice, or -to depend only on underlying dreams, of which little -is known.</p> - -<p>Certain analogous and likewise capricious phenomena -of anæsthesia, paralysis, sensations of all -sorts, of which Hélène complains, often appear in -her face, her eyes, her mouth, etc. In the midst of -all these disturbances the visions announce themselves, -and the somnambulism is introduced with -modifications, equally variable, of other functions, -evidenced by tears, sobbings, sighs, repeated hiccoughs, -various changing of the rhythm of respiration, -etc.</p> - -<p>If Hélène is experimented upon and questioned too -long, the development of the original visions is obstructed, -and she easily reaches a degree of sensibility -where she falls into the standard class of public -representations of hypnotism—a charmed and -fascinated state in which she remains riveted before -some brilliant object, as, for example, the ring, -trinkets, or cuff-button of one of the sitters; then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>66</span> -precipitates herself in a frenzy upon the object, and -tries to secure it; or assumes emotional attitudes and -poses under the influence of joyous airs upon the -piano; experiences suggested hallucinations of all -kinds, sees terrible serpents, which she pursues with -a pair of pincers; beautiful flowers, which she smells -with deep respirations and distributes to the sitters; -or, again, bleeding wounds which have been made -on her hand, and which cause her to shed tears. -The commonplace character of these phenomena -causes their long continuance to be deprecated, and -the ingenuity of all is exercised in endeavoring by -different means, none of which is very efficacious or -very rapid, to plunge her into profound and tranquil -sleep, from which she is not long in passing of -her own accord into complete somnambulism and in -taking up the thread of her personal imaginations.</p> - -<p>If all these disturbing investigations have been -successfully avoided, the spontaneous development -of the automatisms is effected with greater rapidity -and fulness. It is possible then to behold, in the -same seance, a very varied spectacle, and to listen, -besides, to certain special communications made in -a semi-waking state to one or other of the sitters; -then, in complete somnambulism, a Hindoo vision -is presented, followed by a Martian dream, with an -incarnation of Leopold in the middle, and a scene of -Marie Antoinette to wind up with. Ordinarily two -of these last creations will suffice to fill up a seance. -One such representation is not performed without the -loss of considerable strength by the medium, which -shows itself by the final sleep being prolonged some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>67</span>times -for an hour, interrupted, as I have said, by -repetitions of the preceding somnambulistic scenes, -easily recognizable by certain gestures or the murmuring -of characteristic words. Passing through -these diverse oscillations and the ephemeral awaking, -of which I have spoken above, Hélène finishes -by returning to her normal state; but the seances -which have been too long continued or too full of -movement leave her very much fatigued for the rest -of the day. It has also sometimes happened to her to -re-enter the somnambulism (from which she had probably -not completely emerged) during the course of -the evening or on returning home, and only to succeed -in recovering her perfectly normal state through the -assistance of a night’s sleep.</p> - -<p>As to the real nature of Hélène’s slumbers at the -end of the seances, and her states of consciousness -when she awakes, it is difficult for me to pronounce, -having only been able to observe them under unfavorable -conditions—that is, in the presence of sitters -more or less numerous and restless. The greater -part certainly consist of somnambulisms, in which -she hears all that passes around her, since although -she seems profoundly asleep and absent, the suggestions -then given her to be carried out after awaking -are registered and performed wonderfully—at least -when Leopold, who is almost always on hand and answers -by movements of one finger or another to questions -put to him, does not make any opposition or declare -that the suggestion shall not be carried out! -There are also brief moments when Hélène seems to -be in a profound state of coma and kind of syncope<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>68</span> -without trace of psychic life; her pulse and respiration -continue to be regular, but she does not react to -any excitation, her arms, if raised, fall heavily, no -sign of Leopold can be obtained, and suggestions -made at that instant will not be acted upon.</p> - -<p>These lethargic phases, during which all consciousness -seems to be abolished, are generally followed by -cataleptic phases in which the hands and arms preserve -every position in which they may be placed, -and continue the movements of rotation or of oscillation -which may be forced upon them, but never for -more than one or two minutes.</p> - -<p>In default of more complete experiments, I submit -the following comparison of Hélène’s muscular force -and of her sensibility to pain before and after a seance -lasting nearly three hours, the second half being in -full somnambulism. At 4.50 o’clock, on sitting down -at the table three dynamometric tests with her right -hand gave kilos. 27.5, 27, 25—average, 26.5. The -sensibility to pain measured on the back of the median -phalanx of the index-finger with the algesiometer -of Griesbach, gave for the right, grs. 35, 40, 20, 20—average, -29; for the left, 35, 20, 20, 15—average, -22.5 grs. (Sensibility slightly more delicate than that -of another lady present at the seance, not a medium -and in perfect health.)</p> - -<p>At 7.45 o’clock, some minutes after the final awaking: -dynamometer, right hand, 8, 4.5, 4.5—average, -5.7; algesiometer, complete analgesia both as -to right and left, on the whole of the back of the -index as well as the rest of the hand and wrist, the -maximum of the instrument (100 grs.) was attained<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>69</span> -and passed without arousing any painful sensation -but only an impression of contact.</p> - -<p>One hour later, after dinner: dynamometer 22, 22, -19—average, 21; algesiometer, 20, 18 for the right; -15, 20 for the left. It is possible, then, to say that -her muscular force and sensibility to pain, both -normal immediately before her entrance upon the -seance, are still abolished in the first fifteen minutes -after awaking, but are found to be restored in -about an hour. Perception of colors, on the contrary, -appeared to be as perfect immediately after awaking -as before the seance. The tremor of the index-finger, -normal before the seance, is very much exaggerated -in its amplitude for a certain time after awaking -and reflects sometimes the respiratory movements, -as can be seen by the curves of <a href="#Fig_2">Fig. 2.</a> This denotes -a great diminution of kinesthetic sensibility and of -voluntary control over the immobility of the hand.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp73" id="i070" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_2"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_070.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 2. Tremor of right index-finger. A, B, C, fragments of curves taken in the -normal state before the seance (A and C with closed eyes; B, with open eyes looking -at the index-finger); D, E, F, fragments of curves received in succession a -quarter of an hour after the seance. The curve F reflects the respiratory oscillations. -The curves go from right to left, and the interval between the two vertical -lines is ten seconds.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>The state in which Mlle. Smith carries out the -post-hypnotic suggestions made to her in the course -of her somnambulisms, when they do not come into -collision with either the pronounced opposition of -Leopold or the states of lethargy of which I have -spoken, is interesting on account of its varied character, -which seems to depend upon the greater or less -ease with which the hallucination or the act suggested -can be reconciled with Hélène’s normal personality. -Their execution in the full waking state -seems to be confined to suggestions of simple acts, -free from absurdity, the idea of which would be easily -accepted and carried out by the normal self when the -desired moment arrived. If, on the contrary, it is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>70</span> -question of more complicated and difficult things, -compatible, however, with the rational points of view -of the normal waking state, Hélène falls momentarily -into somnambulism for the execution of the order -given, unless she has permanently remained in that -state, in spite of her apparent awaking, in order not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>71</span> -to re-enter definitely and completely upon her ordinary -state until after the execution of the order, of which -there then remains to her no recollection whatever.</p> - -<p>From the foregoing facts we may conclude that -little or nothing of that which goes on around her -escapes her subconscious intelligence, and it is from -this source that her somnambulistic romances are -nourished afresh.</p> - -<p>A word more as to the preparation for the seances. -I do not refer to a conscious preparation, but to a -subliminal incubation or elaboration, unknown by -her, showing itself on the level of her ordinary personality -in the form of fugitive gleams and fragmentary -images during her sleep at night or the -moments of awaking in the morning. Mlle. Smith, -in reality, has no hold, possesses no influence, upon -the nature of her visions and somnambulisms. She -is able, undoubtedly, up to a certain point, to aid -their appearance in a general way, by cultivating -tranquillity of mind, securing darkness and silence -in the room, and by abandoning herself to a passive -attitude of mind; or to hinder it, on the other hand, -by movement, or distraction of attention; but with -the fixed and concrete content itself of her automatisms -she has nothing to do and no share in the -responsibility for it. So far as her great cycles or -her detached messages are concerned, they are fabricated -in her in spite of herself, and without her -having a word to say about their production, any -more than one has in the formation of his dreams. -When it is recollected, on the other hand, that the -phenomena of incubation, of subliminal preparation,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>72</span> -or unconscious cerebration, are universal facts, playing -their rôle in the psychology of every human being, -we can rely upon finding them also among the -mediums, and upon their holding a place with them -much more important than with others, owing to the -fact that their subconscious life is so much more -fully developed.</p> - -<p>With each one of us the expectation or the simple -perspective of any event—a departure, a visit, an -errand, or undertaking to do anything, a letter to -write, in short, all the more insignificant incidents -of daily existence, when they are not absolutely -unforeseen—promote a psychological adaptation -more or less extended and profound.</p> - -<p>Alongside of and underneath the conscious expectancy, -certain physical or mental attitudes, voluntarily -assumed in view of the event, always effect -an underlying preparation of an inward kind, a -change which we may regard, according to the side -from which we consider the individual, as a peculiar -psychical orientation or cerebral adjustment, a modification -in the association of ideas or in the dynamics -of the cortical nerves. But everything points to the -fact that in persons gifted with mediumship this underlying -preparation is capable of assuming on occasion -a greater importance than is the case with ordinary -mortals, a much more complete independence -of the ordinary consciousness.</p> - -<p>To return to Mlle. Smith, when she knows some -time in advance who will be present at her next -seance, and what people she will almost surely meet -there, it would be altogether natural that such pre<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>73</span>vious -knowledge of the environment and of the sitters -would influence her subliminal thoughts and in -some degree direct the course of the latent incubation. -It may well be asked, therefore, whether the -varied spectacle which the seances furnish is really -always impromptu and has its birth on the spur of -the moment like ordinary dreams, or whether it has -been subconsciously thought out, the seance being -only the performance of an arrested programme, the -representation <i lang="la">coram populo</i> of scenes already ripened -in the deep subliminal strata of the medium.</p> - -<p>Neither of these two hypotheses, held to exclude -the other, answers to the facts, but there is some -truth in both of them.</p> - -<p>The <i>menu</i> of the seances—if the expression is permissible—is -always composed of one or two <i lang="fr">plats de -résistance</i>, carefully prepared in advance in the subliminal -laboratories, and of various <i lang="fr">hors d’œuvres</i> -left to the inspiration of the moment. To speak -more exactly, the general plot, the chief lines and -more striking points of the scenes which unfold themselves -are fixed according to a previous arrangement, -but the details of execution and accessory -embellishments are entirely dependent upon chance -circumstances. The proof of this is found, on the -one hand, in the suppleness, the perfect ease, the appropriateness -with which Hélène’s automatisms—if -we can still apply the word automatism to those cases -in which spontaneity, self-possession, free use of all -the faculties constitute the dominant characteristics—often -adapt themselves to unexpected situations -in the environment or capricious interruptions on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>74</span> -the part of the sitters; on the other hand, in the -fact that Leopold, interrogated at the beginning of -the seance, ordinarily knows very well and announces -the principal vision or incarnations which are -about to make their appearance, provided, at least, -the spectators do not hinder their unfolding by their -tempestuous clamor for something else.</p> - -<p>The animated conversations, sometimes full of spirited -repartee, between Leopold or Marie Antoinette -and the sitters, could not have been prepared in advance, -and are altogether opposed to the stereotyped -repetition which is generally expected of automatic -phenomena. But, on the other hand, such repetition, -almost entirely mechanical and devoid of sense, presents -itself on frequent occasions. I have, for instance, -seen somnambulistic scenes presented which -were entirely misplaced, and constituted at the time -veritable anachronisms, which would have perfectly -fitted the situation eight days previously in another -environment, and for which the aforesaid scenes had -been evidently intended; but, having been withheld -until the last moment by unforeseen circumstances, -the following seance gets the benefit of these postponed -messages.</p> - -<p>Here is proof that Hélène’s subliminal imagination -prepares up to a certain point her principal productions, -in view of the conditions and surroundings under -which the seance will probably take place, and also -that these products, once elaborated, must be eliminated -and poured forth with a sort of blind necessity, -at the right or the wrong time, whenever the entrance -of Hélène into a favorable hypnoid state furnishes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>75</span> -them an opportunity so to do. It follows also that -her normal personality has nothing whatever to do -with the preparation of the seances, since she can -neither suppress nor change scenes badly adapted -to the actual environment, the appearance of which -sometimes greatly annoys Mlle. Smith when they are -recounted to her after the seance; nor can she provoke -the messages, the production of which she desires -and vainly hopes for—as, for example, a medical consultation -with Leopold, the incarnation of a deceased -parent, or a scene from one cycle rather than from the -others, for the benefit of a sitter who particularly desires -it, and whom she is very desirous to please.</p> - -<p>Much more could be said concerning the psychological -side of the seances of Mlle. Smith, but I must -limit myself. It will be possible to gain a more complete -idea of this subject by studying the illustrations -in the following chapters on the chief cycles of her -brilliant subliminal fantasy.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>76</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br /> - -<small>THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD</small></h2></div> - - -<p>Is Leopold really Joseph Balsamo, as he pretends? -Or, since he has nothing in common with the -famous thaumaturgist of the last century, save -a certain superficial resemblance, is he, at any rate, -a real being, separate from, and independent of, Mlle. -Smith? Or, finally, is he only a pseudo-reality, a -kind of allotropic modification of Hélène herself, a -product of her subliminal imagination, just like our -dream creations and the rôles suggested to a hypnotic -subject?</p> - -<p>Of these three suppositions it is the last which to -my mind is undoubtedly the true one, while in Mlle. -Smith’s eyes it is as certainly the false view. It -would be hard to imagine a more profound difference -of opinion than that which exists between Mlle. -Smith and myself on this subject. It is I, always, -who get the worst of a discussion with her concerning -it. I yield for two reasons. First, out of politeness; -and, secondly, because I understand Hélène perfectly, -and, putting myself in her place, realize that -I should think exactly as she does about the matter.</p> - -<p>Given her surroundings and personal experiences, -it is impossible for her to do otherwise than believe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>77</span> -in the objective distinct existence of that mysterious -being who constantly enters into her life in a sensible -and quasi-material way, leaving her no room to doubt. -He presents himself before her endowed with corporeality -like that of other people, and hides objects -which are behind him exactly as an ordinary individual -of flesh and bone would do. He talks into -her ears, generally into the left, in a characteristic -voice, which appears to come from a variable distance, -sometimes about six feet off, sometimes much -farther. He jars the table on which she has placed -her immobile arms, takes hold of her wrist and writes -with her hand, holding the pen in a manner unlike -her, and with a handwriting wholly different from -hers. He puts her to sleep without her knowledge, -and she is astonished to learn upon awaking that -he has gesticulated with her arms and spoken through -her mouth in the deep bass voice of a man, with an -Italian accent, which has nothing in common with -the clear and beautiful quality of her feminine voice.</p> - -<p>Moreover, he is not always on hand. He by no -means answers Hélène’s appeals on all occasions; is -not at her mercy; far from it. His conduct, his manifestations, -his comings and goings cannot be predicted -with any certainty, and testify to an autonomous -being, endowed with free-will, often otherwise occupied -or absent on his own affairs, which do not permit -of his holding himself constantly at the disposal of -Mlle. Smith. Sometimes he remains for weeks without -revealing himself, in spite of her wishing for him -and calling upon him. Then, all at once, he makes -his appearance when she least expects him. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>78</span> -speaks for her in a way she would have no idea of -doing, he dictates to her poems of which she would be -incapable. He replies to her oral or mental questions, -converses with her, and discusses various questions. -Like a wise friend, a rational mentor, and as one -seeing things from a higher plane, he gives her advice, -counsel, orders even sometimes directly opposite -to her wishes and against which she rebels. -He consoles her, exhorts her, soothes, encourages, -and reprimands her; he undertakes against her the -defence of persons she does not like, and pleads the -cause of those who are antipathetic to her. In a -word, it would be impossible to imagine a being more -independent or more different from Mlle. Smith herself, -having a more personal character, an individuality -more marked, or a more certain actual existence.</p> - -<p>Hélène is also fortified in this conviction by the -belief not only of members of her own family, but by -that of other cultivated people who, having attended -many of her seances, have no doubt whatever of Leopold’s -objective and separate existence. There are -those who believe so firmly in the reality of this superior -being, invisible to them, that they are in the habit -of calling upon him during the absence of Mlle. Smith. -Naturally they obtain responses, through the table or -otherwise, and that causes unforeseen complications -sometimes when she comes to learn of it. For while -she admits theoretically—and Leopold himself has -often declared the same thing—that he extends his -surveillance and protection from afar over other -spiritistic groups, and especially over all Hélène’s -friends and acquaintances, in practice and in fact,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>79</span> -however, it happens that neither he nor she will willingly -admit the authenticity of those pretended communications -from Leopold obtained in the absence of -the medium of his predilection. It is generally some -deceiving spirit who has manifested in his place -on these occasions. These denials, however, do not -prevent those who have become believers from continuing -to believe in the omnipresence of this good -genius, or from teaching their children to revere him, -to make vows and address prayers to him. It must -not be forgotten that spiritism is a religion. This -also explains the great respect shown to mediums, -which is like that accorded to priests.</p> - -<p>It follows that, without in the least refraining from -speaking ill of them whenever they think they have -a grievance against them, on the other hand they -bestow on them the same marks of respect as are only -accorded to the most sublime product of the human -race.</p> - -<p>I have known a <i>salon</i> where, on the centre table, in -full view and in the place of honor, were two photographs -in beautiful frames: on the one side the head -of Christ, on the other the portrait of—Mlle. Hélène -Smith. Among other believers, with less ideal but -more practical aspirations, no business matter of importance -is closed, no serious decision made, until -Leopold has been consulted through Hélène as an -intermediary, and the cases are too numerous to -mention in which he has furnished important information, -prevented a heavy pecuniary loss, given -an efficacious medical prescription, etc.</p> - -<p>It is easily seen how all the successes obtained by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>80</span> -Leopold, and the mystical veneration which many -very estimable persons accord him, must contribute -to strengthen the faith of Hélène in her all-powerful -protector. It is in vain that, against this absolute -assurance, one seeks to avail one’s self of the arguments -of contemporary psychology. The example -of the fictions of the dream, the analogies taken from -hypnotism and from psychopathology, considerations -of mental disintegration, the division of the -consciousness and the formation of second personalities, -all these refined subtleties of our modern scientists -break in pieces like glass against immovable -rock. I shall not undertake to combat a proposition -which, for her, has incontestably so much evidence -in its favor, and which resolves all difficulties -in the most felicitous manner and in conformity to -good common-sense.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, since each individual has a right to -his own opinion in the world, I beg leave to assume, -for the time being, that Leopold does not exist outside -of Mlle. Smith, and to try to discover his possible -genesis in the mental life of the latter—solely by hypothesis -and by means of psychological experiment. -Therefore, readers who have little taste for this kind -of academic composition had better skip this chapter.</p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">Psychogenesis of Leopold</span></h3> - -<p>A description of the development of Leopold is not -easy, since he has a double origin, apparent and -real, like the cranial nerves which give so much -trouble to the students of anatomy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>81</span></p> - -<p>His apparent origin, or, I should say, the moment -when he is outwardly separated from the personality -of Hélène, and manifests as an independent “spirit,” -is relatively clear and well marked; but his actual -origin, profoundly enfolded in the most inward strata -of Hélène’s personality and inextricably mixed up -with them, presents great obscurities and can only -be determined in a very conjectural manner. Let -us begin with the apparent origin, or the first appearance -of Leopold at the seances.</p> - -<p>It is easy to understand that, once initiated into -spiritism and plunged into a current of ideas where -the comforting doctrine of spirit-guides and protectors -holds an important place, Mlle. Smith did not -delay in coming into possession of, like all good mediums, -a disincarnate spirit specially attached to -her person. She even had two in succession, Victor -Hugo and Cagliostro. It is not a question of a simple -change of name of the guide of Hélène, who presented -himself first under the aspect and the name -of the great poet and then afterwards adopted that -of the renowned thaumaturgist, but there were, at -least at the beginning, two different personalities, -apparently hostile to each other, one of whom by -degrees supplanted the other, after a struggle, a -trace of which is found in the very incomplete reports -of the seances of that period. Three phases -can also be distinguished in the psychogenesis of -Mlle. Smith’s guide: an initial phase of five months, -during which Victor Hugo reigns alone; a phase of -transition of about a year, when the protection of -Victor Hugo is seen to be powerless to protect Hé<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>82</span>lène -and her spiritistic group against the invasion -of an intruder called Leopold, who claims and manifests -an increasing authority over the medium by -virtue of mysterious relations in the course of a previous -existence; finally, the present period, which -has lasted for six years past, in which Victor Hugo -no longer figures, and which may be dated approximately -from the moment when it was revealed that -Leopold is only an assumed name, under which he -hides in reality the great personality of Joseph Balsamo.</p> - -<p>I do not find any fact worthy of mention in the -first phase, in which Victor Hugo, who seems to have -appeared as the guide of Mlle. Smith about the 1st -of April, 1892 (see above, <a href="#Page_38">p. 38</a>), played a rôle of no -importance. In the second phase, however, it is -necessary to cite some extracts from the reports of -the seances of the N. group, in order to throw light -upon the singular character which Leopold manifested -there from the beginning.</p> - -<p>August 26, 1892.—“A spirit announces himself -under the name of Leopold. He comes for Mlle. -Smith, and seems to wish to have a great authority -over her. She sees him for some moments, he appears -to be about thirty-five years of age, and is -clothed altogether in black. The expression of his -countenance is rather pleasing, and through answers -to some questions which we put to him we -are given to understand that he knew her in another -existence, and that he does not wish her to -give her heart to any one here below.... Mlle. Smith -recognizes her guide, Victor Hugo. She is made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>83</span> -happy by his arrival, and asks his protection -against the obsession of this new spirit. He answers -that she has nothing to fear, that he will -always be present. She is joyful at being guarded -and protected by him, and feels that she has nothing -to fear.”</p> - -<p>September 2.—... “Leopold comes also, but Mlle. -Smith fears nothing, since her guide (Victor Hugo) -is there to protect her.”</p> - -<p>September 23.—... “An unpleasant evening. -A spirit announces himself. It is Leopold. He -speaks to us at once: ‘I am here. I wish to be -master of this sitting.’ We are very much disappointed, -and do not expect any good of him. He -tries, as he had already done once before, to put -Mlle. Smith to sleep, who has great difficulty in struggling -against this sleep. She rises from the table, -hoping by this means to rid herself of him, and that -he will give up his place to others. She returns in -about ten minutes, but he is still there, and apparently -has no intention of abandoning his place. We -summon our friends (spiritual) to our aid.... They -take Leopold’s place momentarily, but very soon Leopold -returns; we struggle with him, we desire him to -go away, but neither soft nor hard words have any -effect; before that dogged determination we realize -that all our efforts will be useless, and we decide to -close the seance.”</p> - -<p>October 3.—“[Manifestation by the favorite spirits -of the group, who declare] that they have not -been able to come, as they would have liked to do; -that they were prevented by the spirit of Leopold,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>84</span> -who is trying to introduce himself to us; that we -should repulse him as much as possible, persuaded -that he does not come for any good end. I do not -know whether we shall be able to rid ourselves of -him, but we greatly fear that he will injure us and -retard our advancement.”</p> - -<p>October 7.—... “Leopold announces himself. -We try to reason with him; we do not wish to forbid -his coming, but we ask of him that he shall come as -a friend to all, and not in the rôle of master. He is -not satisfied; appears to bear much malice. We -trust he will come to have better feelings. He -shows himself, walks around the table, bows to us, -and salutes each one with his hand, and retires again, -leaving his place to others.”</p> - -<p>October 14.—“[After a quarter of an hour of motionless -and silent waiting in darkness around the -table Mlle. Smith is questioned, and she is shaken -in vain.] She is asleep. By the advice of persons -present we allow her to remain asleep, when, at the -end of five minutes, the table raises itself, a spirit -announces himself. It is Victor Hugo; we ask if he -has anything to say; he answers yes, and spells -out: <i>Wake her; do not allow her ever to sleep</i>. We -try to do so. We are nervous about that sleep; we -have great difficulty in awakening her.”</p> - -<p>January 6, 1893.—“After twenty minutes of waiting, -Leopold arrives, and, as is his habit, puts the -medium to sleep for some minutes; he torments us, -and prevents our friends (disincarnate) from coming -to the table. He vexes us in every way, and goes -contrary to all our wishes. In presence of that ran<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>85</span>cor -the sitters regret the indications of ill-humor -they have shown towards him, and deplore having -to pay so dear for them. It is with difficulty that -the medium can be awakened.”</p> - -<p>February, 1893.—“In one of the seances of this -month a remarkable thing happened: the spirit of -Leopold, who was very much irritated on that day, -twice in succession took away her chair from our -medium and carried it to the farther end of the room, -while Mlle. Smith fell heavily to the floor. Not expecting -this wretched farce, Mlle. Smith struck her -knee so hard that for several days she suffered pain -in walking. We were obliged to terminate the -seance; we were not comfortable. Why this animosity?”</p> - -<p>This word <i>animosity</i> describes very well the conduct -and the feelings that Leopold seemed to have -towards the N. group and against his placid rival, -Victor Hugo. The personal recollections of the sitters -whom I have been able to interrogate confirm the -substantial physiognomy of the two figures. That of -Hugo is, in effect, effaced and altogether eclipsed by -the totally opposite character of the arrogant Leopold, -who takes a peculiar pleasure in the rôle of vindictive -and jealous mischief-maker, obstructing the appearance -of the “spirits” desired by the group, putting -the medium to sleep, or causing her to fall on the -floor, forbidding her to give her heart to another, and -breaking up the seances as far as he is able. It seems -to have finally resulted in the meetings of the N. group -coming to an end at the beginning of the summer; -then comes a break of six months, after which I find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>86</span> -Mlle. Smith on the 12th of December inaugurating -a new series of seances, with an entirely different -spiritistic group organized by Prof. Cuendet. Here -Victor Hugo very rarely appears, and never in the -rôle of guide, which rôle is freely accorded, without -objection, to Leopold, whose real identity (Cagliostro) -was no secret to any one in the new environment. -It was, therefore, in the course of the year 1893, at a -period which cannot be precisely determined from the -records, that the rivalry of these two personalities -was terminated by the complete triumph of the second.</p> - -<p>It follows from the preceding recital that the appearance -of Leopold in seances of the N. group was -a phenomenon of manifest contrast, of hostility, and -of antagonism towards that group.</p> - -<p>It is a difficult and delicate task to pronounce upon -the complex spirit of an environment of which one -was not a part, and in regard to which one possesses -only a few and not very concordant incidents. The -following, however, seem to be the facts:</p> - -<p>The N. group, much more numerous than is convenient -in seances of that kind, was composed of very -varied elements. Alongside of serious believers were -ordinarily some students who boarded with one of -the ladies of the group, and who do not appear to -have felt the seriousness of spiritistic reunions.</p> - -<p>That age has no mercy, and the profound signification -of the seances often escaped their superficial -and frivolous intelligence. Under such conditions -Mlle. Smith was inevitably compelled to experience -two contrary impressions. On the one hand, she per<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>87</span>ceived -herself admired, made much of, fêted, as the -unrivalled medium, which she really was, and upon -whom the group depended for its existence; on the -other hand, her secret instincts and high personal -dignity could not but be offended by the familiarities -to which she was exposed in this mixed environment.</p> - -<p>I regard the two rival and successive guides of -Hélène as the expression of this double sentiment. -If she had been brought up like an American woman, -or if her nature had been a degree less fine, the frivolity -of the seances would undoubtedly have only given -more warmth and brilliancy to Victor Hugo; instead -of which, the victorious colors of Leopold are raised -over a nature of great native pride, extremely sensitive -on the point of feminine dignity, and whose severe -and rigid education had already exalted her -sense of self-respect. After a struggle of a year between -these two personifications of opposite emotional -tendencies, the second, as we have seen, finally triumphs; -and Mlle. Smith withdraws from the N. -group, which at the same time breaks up.</p> - -<p>The idea I have formed of Leopold is now apparent. -He represents, to my mind, in Mlle. Smith, the -synthesis, the quintessence—and the expansion, too—of -the most hidden springs of the psychological organism. -He gushes forth from that deep and mysterious -sphere into which the deepest roots of our individual -existence are plunged, which bind us to the -species itself, and perhaps to the Absolute, and whence -confusedly spring our instincts of physical and moral -self-preservation, our sexual feelings. When Hélène -found herself in an environment not exactly dan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>88</span>gerous, -but where she simply ran the risk, as in the -N. group, of yielding to some inclination contrary to -her fundamental aspirations, it is then that Leopold -suddenly springs up, speaking as the master, taking -possession of the medium for himself, and indicating -his unwillingness that she should attach herself to -any one here below. We here recognize the same -principle of self-protection and self-preservation -which was already active in her as a young girl in -the teleological automatisms arising on the occasion -of certain emotional shocks, of which I have spoken -on <a href="#Page_25">p. 25</a>.</p> - -<p>But, by these considerations, we have travelled -very far from the original appearance of Leopold in -the seance of the 26th of August, 1892, towards his -actual, more ancient origin. This seems to date from -a great fright which Hélène had in the course of her -tenth year. As she was walking along the street, on -her way home from school, she was attacked by a big -dog. The terror of the poor child can well be imagined, -and from which she was happily delivered by -a personage clothed in a long brown robe with flowing -sleeves and with a white cross on the breast, who, -appearing to her suddenly and as by a miracle, -chased the dog away, and disappeared before she -had time to thank him. But, according to Leopold, -this personage was no other than himself, who on -this occasion for the first time appeared to Hélène, -and saved her by driving away the dog.</p> - -<p>This explanation was given by Leopold on the 6th -of October, 1895, in a seance in which Hélène experienced, -in a somnambulistic state, a repetition of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>89</span> -that scene of fright, with heart-rending cries, gestures -of struggle and defence, attempts at flight, etc. -In the waking state she very well recalls this episode -of her childhood, but cannot accept Leopold as -the person who came to her rescue, but believes it -to have been a priest or member of some religious -order who rushed to her assistance and drove the -animal away. Her parents also recollected the incident, -which she told them one day on returning -from school in a very excited state, and after which -she could not for a long time encounter a dog in the -street without hiding herself in the folds of her -mother’s dress. She has since always preserved an -instinctive aversion towards dogs.</p> - -<p>We have seen (<a href="#Page_31">p. 31</a>) that after this first incident, -matters remained <i lang="la">in statu quo</i> for four years, up to -the time when the age of puberty began to favor the -development of the Oriental visions. Here, Leopold, -to whom we owe this information, does not altogether -agree with himself, for at one time he says that it was -he himself who furnished Mlle. Smith with her visions -of India, at another time he says that they are reminiscences -of one of her former existences.</p> - -<p>Alongside of these varied visions, Leopold has -clearly appeared under the form of the protector in the -dark robe in a number of cases. I will only cite two -examples, one very remote, the other quite recent.</p> - -<p>One day Hélène went to consult her family physician -for some trifling ailment, who, having known -her for a long time and being an old friend of her -family, presumed to give her an innocent kiss. He -was quite unprepared for the explosion of wrath<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>90</span> -which this familiarity provoked, and hastened to -make his apologies: but what is of interest to us in -this connection is the fact that under the shock of -this emotion her defender of the brown robe appeared -before her in the corner of the room, and did not leave -her side until she had reached home.</p> - -<p>A short time ago this same protector, always in -the same costume, accompanied her several days in -succession while she was traversing a little-frequented -part of the route towards her place of business. One -evening, also, he appeared to her at the entrance to -the street leading to the locality in question, in the -attitude of barring the way, and obliged her to make -a detour to regain her house.</p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith has the impression—and several indications -go to show that she is not deceived—that it is -with the purpose of sparing her some unpleasant sight -or a dangerous encounter that Leopold, in the brown -robe, appears to her under perfectly well-known conditions. -He rises before her always at a distance of -about ten yards, walks, or rather glides, along in silence, -at the same rate as she advances towards him, -attracting and fascinating her gaze in such a manner -as to prevent her turning her eyes away from him either -to the right or the left, until she has passed the place -of danger. It is to be noted that whereas Leopold, -under other circumstances—for instance, at the seances—shows -himself to her in the most varied costumes -and speaks on all subjects, it is always under -his hieratic aspect, silent, and clothed in his long dark -robe, that he appears to her on those occasions of real -life in which she is exposed to feelings of fright pe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>91</span>culiar -to her sex, as he appeared to her on that first -occasion in her tenth year.</p> - -<p>The hints I have given sufficiently justify, I think, -my opinion that the real and primordial origin of -Leopold is to be found in that deep and delicate -sphere in which we so often encounter the roots of -hypnoid phenomena, and to which the most illustrious -visionaries, such as Swedenborg,<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> seem to owe -a great part not only of the intellectual content but -of the imaginative form, the hallucinatory wrapping, -of their genius. There is a double problem to be -solved in Mlle. Smith’s case. Why have these instinctive -feelings and emotional tendencies which -are common to the entire human race succeeded in -developing in her a product so complex and highly -organized as is the personality of Leopold? and why, -in the second place, does that personality believe -itself to be Joseph Balsamo?</p> - -<p>I instantly reply that these two results are, to my -mind, entirely the effect of autosuggestion. To -explain the first, the simple fact of her being occupied -with spiritism and engaged in mediumistic experiments, -is sufficient. Take any individual having -in her subconsciousness memories, scruples, -emotional tendencies, put into her head spiritistic -leanings, then seat her at a table, or put a pencil -in her hand: even though she may not be of a very -impressionable or suggestible temperament, or inclined -to the mental disintegration which the general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>92</span> -public calls the mediumistic faculty, nevertheless, -it will not be long before her subliminal elements -group themselves and arrange themselves according -to the “personal” form to which all consciousness -tends,<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and which discloses itself outwardly -by communications which have the appearance of -coming directly from disincarnate spirits.</p> - -<p>In the case of Mlle. Smith, Leopold did not exist -under the title of a distinct secondary personality -before Hélène began to be occupied with spiritism. -It was at the seances of the N. group, by an emotional -reaction against certain influences, as we have -seen, that he began, little by little, to take shape, -aided by memories of the same general tone, until -he finally grew into an apparently independent being, -revealing himself through the table, manifesting -a will and a mind of his own, recalling analogous -former incidents of Hélène’s life, and claiming -for himself the merit of having intervened in it in the -rôle of her protector.</p> - -<p>Once established, this secondary self could not -do otherwise than to grow, and to develop and -strengthen itself in all directions, assimilating to -itself a host of new data favoring the state of suggestibility -which accompanies the exercise of mediumship. -Without the spiritism and the autohypnotization -of the seances, Leopold could never have -been truly developed into a personality, but would -have continued to remain in the nebulous, inco<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>93</span>herent -state of vague subliminal reveries and of -occasional automatic phenomena.</p> - -<p>The second problem, that of explaining why this -secondary personality, once established, believes -itself to be Cagliostro rather than any other celebrated -personage, or of remaining simply the anonymous -guardian angel of Mlle. Smith, would demand -a very complete knowledge of the thousand outside -influences which have surrounded Hélène since the -beginning of her mediumship, and which may have -involuntarily influenced her.</p> - -<p>But on this point I have only succeeded in collecting -a very few incidents, which leave much still to be desired, -and are of such a character that it is entirely -permissible for any one to claim that the purely psychological -origin of that personality is not clearly -established, and to prefer, if he chooses, the actual -intervention of the disincarnate Joseph Balsamo -to my hypothesis of autosuggestion.</p> - -<p>The following, however, are the facts advanced -by me in support of the latter:</p> - -<p>The authoritative and jealous spirit, the evident -enemy of the N. group, who manifested himself on -the 26th of August, 1892, under the name of Leopold, -did not reveal his identity as that of Cagliostro -until some time afterwards, under the following circumstances:</p> - -<p>One of the most regular attendants at the reunions -of the N. group was a Mme. B., who had long -been an adherent of spiritism, and who had previously -attended numerous seances at the house of -M. and Mme. Badel, a thoroughly convinced couple<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>94</span> -of amateurs, now deceased, whose <i lang="fr">salon</i> and round -table have held a very honorable place in the history -of Genevese occultism. But I learned from Mme. B. -that one of the disincarnate spirits who manifested -himself oftenest at the seances of M. and Mme. Badel -was this very Joseph Balsamo. There is, indeed, -no figure in history which accords better with the -idea of a posthumous return to the mysteries of the -round table than that of the enigmatic Sicilian, -especially since Alexandre Dumas, <i lang="fr">père</i>, has surrounded -him with an additional halo of romance.</p> - -<p>Not content with the public reunions of the N. -group, Mme. B. often invited Hélène to her house for -private seances, of which no record was made. At -one of these, Hélène having had a vision of Leopold, -who pointed out to her with a wand a decanter, Mme. -B. suddenly thought of a celebrated episode in the life -of Cagliostro, and after the seance she proceeded to -take from a drawer and show to Hélène an engraving -taken from an illustrated edition of Dumas, representing -the famous scene of the decanter between Balsamo -and the Dauphin at the château of Taverney. -At the same time she gave utterance to the idea that -the spirit who manifested himself at the table by means -of Hélène’s hands was certainly Joseph Balsamo; -and she expressed her astonishment that Hélène had -given him the name of Leopold, to which Hélène replied -that it was he himself who had given that name. -Mme. B., continuing her deductions, told Mlle. Smith -that perhaps she had formerly been the medium of the -great magician, and consequently had been Lorenza -Feliciani in a former life. Hélène at once accepted the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>95</span> -idea, and for several weeks considered herself to be the -reincarnation of Lorenza, until one day a lady of her -acquaintance remarked that it was impossible, Lorenza -Feliciani having never existed save in the imagination -and the romances of Alexandre Dumas, <i lang="fr">père</i>.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>Thus dispossessed of her supposed former existence, -Hélène was not long in declaring through the table -that she was Marie Antoinette. As to Leopold, a -short time after Mme. B. had hypothetically identified -him with Cagliostro, he himself confirmed that hypothesis -at a seance of the N. group, dictating to the -table that his real name was Joseph Balsamo.</p> - -<p>The origin of the name of Leopold is very obscure, -and many hypotheses have been advanced to account -for it without our being able to establish any -of them with certainty.</p> - -<p>One fact, however, is certain, namely, that save for -the vague affirmation that he had known Hélène in -a previous existence, Leopold had never pretended to -be Cagliostro, or given any reason for being thought -so, before the reunion where Mme. B., who had been -for some time accustomed to manifestations of that -personage, announced the supposition and showed -Mlle. Smith immediately after the seance (at a moment -when she was probably still in a very suggestible -state) an engraving from Dumas’ works representing -Balsamo and the Dauphin. From that day -Leopold, on his part, never failed to claim that personality, -and progressively to realize the character of -the rôle in a very remarkable manner, as we shall see.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>96</span></p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">Personification of Balsamo by -Leopold</span></h3> - -<p>There is no need, I think, to remind the reader of -the well-known fact—so often described under the -names of objectivity of types, personification, change -of personality, etc.—that a hypnotized subject can be -transformed by a word into such other living being -as may be desired, according to the measure in -which his suggestibility on the one hand and the -vividness of his imagination and the fulness of his -stored-up knowledge or memories on the other, enables -him to fulfil the rôle which is imposed upon -him. Without investigating here to what extent -mediums may be likened to hypnotized subjects, it -is undeniable that an analogous phenomenon takes -place in them; but the process is more gradual, and -may extend itself over several years. In place of -the immediate metamorphosis which modifies at one -stroke and instantly, conformably to a prescribed -type, the attitude, the physiognomy, the gestures, the -words, the intonations of voice, the style, the handwriting, -and other functions besides, we are, in the -case of the medium, in the presence of a development -formed by successive stages arranged according -to grades, with intervals of different lengths, -which finally succeed in creating a complete personality, -all the more astonishing, at first sight, because -the involuntary suggestions have not been -noticed, the accumulations of which have little by -little caused its birth. This process of development<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>97</span> -is present in a high degree in the case of Mlle. -Smith, in the elaboration of her secondary personality, -Leopold-Cagliostro.</p> - -<p>In the beginning, in 1892 and 1893, this “spirit” -only manifested himself by the brief periods of sleep -which he induced in Hélène at certain seances, by -raps struck upon the table, by visions in which he -showed himself clothed in black and of youthful -appearance, and, more rarely, by auditive hallucinations. -His character and the content of his messages -were summed up in imperious, authoritative, -domineering manners, with the pretension of claiming -Mlle. Smith all for himself, of defending her -against the influences of the N. group, and, finally, -of detaching her from that environment.</p> - -<p>There was nothing, however, in this general character -of monopoly and of protection which specially -recalled the Balsamo of history or of romance. The -personification of complete objectivity of this established -type really began only in 1894, when Leopold -had no longer to struggle with an environment foreign -to his nature. The subconscious psychological -task of realization of the proposed model could then -be followed by him more freely; in spiritistic terms, -Joseph Balsamo was able to manifest himself and -make himself known in a manner more complete -through Hélène as an intermediary, while continuing -to follow and protect her as the reincarnation -of the royal object of his passion.</p> - -<p>At the seances held with M. Cuendet, Leopold -frequently showed himself to Hélène clothed after -the fashion of the last century and with a face like<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>98</span> -that of Louis XVI., under the different phases of -his multiplex genius. He also showed himself to -her in his laboratory, surrounded by utensils and -instruments appropriate to the sorcerer and alchemist -that he was; or, again, as the physician and possessor -of secret elixirs, the knowledge of which is -productive of consultations or remedies for the use -of sitters who need them; or, again, as the illumined -theosophist, the verbose prophet of the brotherhood -of man, who diffuses limping Alexandrine -verses—which seem to have been inherited from -his predecessor, Victor Hugo—containing exhortations -a little weak at times, but always stamped with -a pure moral tone, elevated and noble sentiments, -and a very touching religious spirit—in short, a fine -example of that “ethico-deific verbiage” (if I may be -allowed the expression, which is an Americanism), -which, both in prose and in verse, is one of the most -frequent and estimable products of mediumship.</p> - -<p>But it was not until 1895 that Leopold, benefiting -by the progress made by the automatic phenomena -in Hélène, multiplied and perfected his processes -of communication. The first step consisted in substituting, -in his dictations by spelling, the movements -of the hand or of a single finger for those of -the whole table. This was the immediate result of -a suggestion of mine.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp95" id="i099a" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_3"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_099a.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 3. Handwriting of Leopold. Fragments of two letters, one in Alexandrine verse, -the other in prose, entirely in the hand of Leopold, automatically written by Mlle. -Smith in spontaneous hemisomnambulism.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i099b" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_4"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_099b.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 4. Normal handwriting of Mlle. Smith.</div> -</div> - -<p>The second step in advance was the handwriting, -which shows two stages. In the first, Leopold gave -Hélène the impression of a phrase (verbo-visual hallucination), -which she copied in pencil on a sheet -of paper, in her own handwriting. The second,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[Pg 99]<br /><a id="Page_100"></a>100</span> -which was only accomplished five months later, -and which consisted in writing directly with Hélène’s -hand, permitted the immediate establishment -of three curious facts. One is, that Leopold holds -his pen in the usual manner, the handle resting between -the thumb and the index-finger, while Hélène, -in writing, always holds her pen-handle or pencil -between the index and middle fingers, a very rare -habit with us. The next is that Leopold has an -entirely different handwriting from that of Hélène, -a calligraphy more regular, larger, more painstaking, -and with marked differences in the formation -of the letters (see Figs. 3 and 4). The third is -that he uses the style of handwriting of the last century, -and puts an <i>o</i> instead of an <i>a</i> in the tenses of -the verbs, <i lang="fr">j’amois</i>, for <i lang="fr">j’amais</i>, etc. These three -characteristics he has never departed from during -all the four years that I have been accumulating -specimens of his handwriting.</p> - -<p>The following is a résumé of the seances at which -these two innovations took place.</p> - -<p>April 21, 1895.—As I had just asked Leopold a -question which he did not like, Hélène, being in a -state of hemisomnambulism, with a pencil and some -sheets of paper placed before her, in the hope of obtaining -some communication (not from Leopold), -seemed about to plunge into a very interesting perusal -of one of the blank sheets; then, at my request, -which she with difficulty comprehended, she commenced -to write rapidly and nervously on another -sheet, in her usual handwriting, a copy of the imaginary -text which Leopold was showing her (“in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>101</span> -fluid letters,” as he said afterwards at the seance) as -follows: “<i>My thoughts are not thy thoughts, and thy -wishes are not mine, friend Flournoy—Leopold.</i>” At -the final awakening Hélène recognized perfectly her -own handwriting in his phrase, but had no recollection -of the occurrence.</p> - -<p>September 22, 1895.—After different visions and -some stanzas of Victor Hugo, dictated by the table, -Hélène appeared to suffer considerably in her right -arm, which she was holding at the wrist with her left -hand, when the table at which she was seated gave -out the following, dictated by Leopold: “I shall -hold her hand,” meaning that it was he, Leopold, -who was causing Mlle. Smith to suffer pain by seizing -her right hand. As she seemed to feel very -badly and began to weep, Leopold was asked to desist; -but he refused, and, still speaking through the -table, said, “Give her some paper,” then, “More -light.” Writing material was furnished her and -the lamp brought in, which Hélène gazed at fixedly, -while Leopold continued to dictate (this time with -the little finger of her left hand), “Let her gaze on -the lamp until she forgets the pain in her arm.” She -then seemed, in fact, to forget her pain, and to find -satisfaction in looking at the lamp; then she fastened -her eyes on the paper, and seemed to read -something there which she endeavored to copy in -pencil. But here the right hand began a curious -alternation of contrary motions, expressing in a very -clear manner a contest with Leopold, who was trying -to compel her to hold the pencil in a certain -way, which Hélène refused to do, with a great pre<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>102</span>tence -of anger. She persisted in holding it between -the index and middle fingers, as was her wont, while -Leopold wanted her to hold it in the usual way, between -the thumb and the index-finger, and said: “I -do not wish her to ... she is holding the pencil -very badly.” The right index-finger then went -through a very comical gymnastic performance, being -seized with a tremor, which caused her to place -it on one side or the other of the pencil, according to -whether it was Leopold or Hélène who was victorious; -during this time she frequently raised her eyes, -with a look sometimes reproachful, sometimes supplicating, -as if to gaze at Leopold standing by her -side endeavoring to force her to hold the pencil in -the manner he preferred. After a contest of nearly -twenty minutes, Hélène, vanquished and completely -subdued by Leopold, seemed to be absent, while her -hand, holding the pencil in the manner she did not -like, wrote slowly the two following lines, followed by -a rapid and feverish signature of Leopold:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Mes vers sont si mauvais que pour toi j’aurois dû</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Laisser à tout jamais le poète têtu.—<span class="smcap">Leopold.</span>”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>An allusion, which was of no importance, to a remark -made by me at the commencement of the seance -on the verses of Victor Hugo and those of Leopold -frequently dictated by the table. The seance -lasted some time longer; on awakening, Hélène -vaguely remembered having seen Leopold, but knew -nothing more concerning the handwriting scene.</p> - -<p>It is a fact that while her other incarnations are -always accomplished passively and without any<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>103</span> -struggle, that of Leopold has the peculiarity of regularly -provoking more or less resistance on the part -of Hélène. “I do not make of her all that I wish -... she is headstrong.... I do not know whether -I shall succeed.... I do not believe I can master -her to-day....” replies he often when asked to incarnate -himself or write with her hand, and, indeed, -his efforts often fail. There exists between Hélène -and her guide a curious phenomenon of contrast and -opposition, which only breaks out in the higher and -more recent forms of motor automatism, the handwriting, -the speech, or the complete incarnation, but -from which the sensory messages and simple raps -on the table or of the finger are free. It is very possible -that the idea, very antipathetic to Hélène, of -the hypnotizer mastering his subjects in spite of -themselves—of the disincarnated Cagliostro using his -medium as a simple tool—has been subconsciously -the origin of this constant note of revolt against the -total domination of Leopold, and of the intense suffering -which accompanied his first incarnations, and -which has slowly diminished through her becoming -accustomed to the process, though it has never been -completely banished.</p> - -<p>After the handwriting, in its turn came speech, -which also was attained by means of two stages. -In a first attempt Leopold only succeeded in giving -Hélène his intonation and pronunciation after a -seance in which she suffered acutely in her mouth -and in her neck, as though her vocal organs were -being manipulated or removed; she began to talk -in a natural tone, and was apparently wide awake<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>104</span> -and feeling well, but spoke with a deep bass voice, -and a strong, easily recognizable Italian accent. It -was not until a year later that Leopold was finally -able to speak himself by the mouth of Mlle. Smith, -while she was completely entranced, and who did not -retain on awakening any memory of this strange occurrence. -Since then the complete control of the -medium by her guide is a frequent occurrence at -the seances, and affords a tableau very characteristic -and always impressive.</p> - -<p>Leopold succeeds in incarnating himself only by -slow degrees and progressive stages. Hélène then -feels as though her arms had been seized, or as if they -were absent altogether; then she complains of disagreeable -sensations, which were formerly painful, in -her throat, the nape of her neck, and in her head; her -eyelids droop; her expression changes; her throat -swells into a sort of double chin, which gives her a -likeness of some sort to the well-known figure of -Cagliostro. All at once she rises, then, turning -slowly towards the sitter whom Leopold is about to -address, draws herself up proudly, turns her back -quickly, sometimes with her arms crossed on her -breast with a magisterial air, sometimes with one -of them hanging down while the other is pointed -solemnly towards heaven, and with her fingers makes -a sort of masonic sign, which never varies. Soon -after a series of hiccoughs, sighs, and various noises -indicate the difficulty Leopold is experiencing in taking -hold of the vocal apparatus; the words come forth -slowly but strong; the deep bass voice of a man, -slightly confused, with a pronunciation and accent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>105</span> -markedly foreign, certainly more like Italian than -anything else. Leopold is not always easily understood, -especially when his voice swells and thunders -out a reply to some indiscreet question or to the disrespectful -remarks of some skeptical sitter. He -speaks thickly, pronounces <i>g</i> like <i>j</i>, and all his <i>u’s</i> like -<i>ou</i>, accents the final syllables, embellishes his vocabulary -with obsolete words, or words which do -not fit the circumstances, such as <i lang="fr">fiole</i> for <i lang="fr">bouteille</i>, -<i>omnibus</i> for <i>tramways</i>, etc. He is pompous, grandiloquent, -unctuous, sometimes severe and terrible, -sometimes also sentimental. He says “thee” and -“thou” to everybody, and appears to believe that he -is still grand-master of the secret societies, from the -emphatic and sonorous manner in which he pronounces -the words “Brother” or “And thou, my sister,” -by which he addresses the sitters. Although -he generally addresses himself to one of them in -particular, and holds very little collective discourse, -he is in touch with every one, listens to everything -that is said, and each one may have his turn in conversation -with him. Ordinarily he keeps his eyelids -closed: he has, nevertheless, been persuaded -to open his eyes in order to permit the taking of a -photograph by a flash light. I regret that Mlle. -Smith would not consent to the publication of her -photographs, either in her normal state or in that of -Leopold, in connection with the reproduction of a -portrait of Cagliostro.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The reader may assure him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>106</span>self -that when she incarnates her guide she really -assumes a certain resemblance of features to him, -and there is something in her attitude which is sometimes -somewhat theatrical, but sometimes really majestic, -which corresponds well to the generally received -idea of this personage, whether he is regarded as a -clever impostor or as a wonderful genius.</p> - -<p>Speech is the apogee of the incarnations of Leopold; -often interrupted by fits of hiccoughs and spasms, -it seems to be injurious to Hélène’s organism, and -there are some seances at which attempts to produce -it fail to succeed. Leopold, on these occasions, indicates -his impotence and the fatigue of the medium -by his gestures, and is then reduced to the necessity -of expressing himself by digital dictations or handwriting, -or else to giving Hélène verbo-auditive hallucinations, -the content of which she repeats in her -natural voice.</p> - -<p>From the point of view of ease and mobility of the -entire organism, there is a notable difference between -Leopold and the other incarnations of Hélène: these -last seem to be effected with much more facility than -in the case of that of her guide <i lang="fr">par excellence</i>. In -the case of the Hindoo princess and that of Marie -Antoinette, the perfection of the play, the suppleness -and freedom of movement, are always admirable. It -is true there is no question here, according to the -spiritistic doctrine and the subconscious ideas of Mlle. -Smith, of incarnations properly so called, since it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>107</span> -is she herself who simply returns to that which she -formerly was, by a sort of reversion or prenatal -ecmnesia; she does not undergo, in consequence, -any foreign possession, and can in these rôles preserve -her natural identity and the entire disposition -of her faculties. But still the occasional incarnation -of different personalities, such as those of deceased -parents or friends of the spectators, are often -more easily and quickly effected than that of Leopold. -Hélène moves in these cases with more vivacity and -changes of attitude. In the rôle of Cagliostro, on the -other hand, with the exception of the grandiose and -not very frequent movements of the arms, once standing, -she remains motionless, or only with difficulty -advancing a little way towards the person to whom -she addresses her discourse.</p> - -<p>The content of the oral conversations of Leopold, -as well as of his other messages by the various sensory -and motor processes, is too varied for me to -describe here: the numerous examples scattered -through this work only can give an idea of it.</p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">Leopold and the True Joseph -Balsamo</span></h3> - -<p>It would naturally be supposed that Leopold would -have given us, by means of the psychological perfection -of his partial or total incarnations and by the -content of his messages, such a living likeness of -Cagliostro that there would have been occasion to -ask whether it is not really the latter who actually -“returns,” in the same way that Dr. Hodgson and his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>108</span> -colleagues ask themselves whether it is not actually -George Pelham who manifests himself through Mrs. -Piper. Let us suppose, for example, that Leopold -possessed a handwriting, an orthography, a style -identical with that which is found here and there in -the manuscripts of Joseph Balsamo; that he spoke -French, Italian, or German, as that cosmopolitan adventurer -did, and with all the same peculiarities; -that his conversations and messages were full of -precise allusions to actual events in his life, and -also of unpublished but verifiable facts, etc. In that -case the difficult and delicate task of proving that -Mlle. Smith had no knowledge through normal -methods of these thousand exact features would still -remain, and we should not be forced to ask whether -this <i lang="fr">soi-disant</i> authentic revenant is simply a very -well-gotten-up simulacrum, an admirable reconstruction, -a marvellous imitation, such as the subliminal -faculties are only too glad to produce for the diversion -of psychologists and the mystification of the -simple.</p> - -<p>This problem is not given to us. I regret it, but -it is true, nevertheless—to my mind, at least, for -in these matters it is prudent to speak only for one’s -self—that there is no reason to suspect the real presence -of Joseph Balsamo behind the automatisms -of Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>That there are very curious analogies between -what is known to us of Cagliostro and certain characteristic -traits of Leopold, I do not deny, but they are -precisely such as accord very well with the supposition -of the subliminal medley.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>109</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i109" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_5"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_109.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 5. Handwriting of Joseph Balsamo. Fragment of a letter to -his wife, reproduced in <cite>L’Isographie des Hommes célèbres</cite>.</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>110</span></p> - -<p>Let us consider first the handwriting. To facilitate -the comparison, I have reproduced here (see pp. -109 and 111) some fragments of letters of Cagliostro -and of Leopold and of Hélène. Let us suppose—which -is, perhaps, open to discussion—that the -handwriting of Leopold, by its regularity, its firmness, -resembles that of Balsamo more than that -of Mlle. Smith; the degree of resemblance does not, -I think, go beyond that which might be expected -considering the notorious fact that handwriting -reflects the psychological temperament and modifies -itself in accordance with the state of the personality.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>It is well known how the calligraphy of a hypnotized -subject varies according to the suggestion -that he shall personate Napoleon, Harpagon, a little -girl, or an old man; there is nothing surprising -in the fact that the hypnoid secondary personality -of Hélène, which imagines itself to be the powerful -and manly Count of Cagliostro, should be accompanied -by muscular tensions communicating to the -handwriting itself a little of that solidity and breadth -which are found in the autograph of Balsamo. To -this, however, the analogy is limited. The dissimilarities -in the detail and the formation of the letters -are such that the only conclusion which they warrant -is that Mlle. Smith, or her subconsciousness, -has never laid eyes on the manuscripts of Cagliostro. -They are, indeed, rare, but the facilities she might -have had, of which she has not thought of taking<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[Pg 111]<br /><a id="Page_112"></a>112</span> -advantage, for consulting in the Geneva public library -the same volume from which I took <a href="#Fig_5">Fig. 5</a>, -would prove, at least, her good faith and her honesty, -if it were in the least necessary. The extravagant -signature of Leopold with which all his messages -are subscribed (see <a href="#Fig_7">Fig. 7</a>) recalls in no wise that -of Alessandro di Cagliostro at the bottom of <a href="#Fig_5">Fig. 5.</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i111a" style="max-width: 53.9375em;"> - <a id="Fig_6"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_111a.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 6. Normal handwriting of Mlle. Smith.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i111b" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_7"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_111b.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 7. Handwriting of Leopold. Fragment and -signature of one of his letters, written by Mlle. -Smith, in spontaneous hemisomnambulism.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>The archaic forms of orthography, <i lang="fr">j’aurois</i> for -<i lang="fr">j’aurais</i>, etc., which appear above the first autograph -of Leopold (see <a href="#Page_99">p.99</a>), and which occur again -in the messages of Marie Antoinette, constitute a -very pretty hit, of which the ordinary self would -probably never dream by way of voluntary imitation, -but by which the subconscious imagination -has seen fit to profit. It is undoubtedly a matter -for wonderment that Mlle. Smith, who has not gone -very deep into literary studies, should, nevertheless, -have retained these orthographic peculiarities -of the eighteenth century; but we must not overlook -the fineness of choice, the refined sensibility, -the consummate, albeit instinctive, art which presides -over the sorting and storing away of the subconscious -memories. By some natural affinity, the idea -of a personage of a certain epoch attracts and gathers -into its net everything that the subject can possibly -learn or hear spoken concerning the fashion -of writing, of speaking, or acting, peculiar to that -epoch. I do not know whether Balsamo ever used -the French language and the orthography that Leopold -employs. Even if he did, it would not weaken -the hypothesis of the subliminal imitation, but if, -on the other hand, it should be ascertained that he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>113</span> -did not, the hypothesis would be greatly strengthened -thereby.</p> - -<p>As for the speech, I am ignorant as to how, with -what accent and what peculiarities of pronunciation, -Balsamo spoke the French tongue, and to what -degree, in consequence, his reconstruction by Hélène’s -subliminal fantasy correctly hits it. If this -point could be cleared up, it would probably be -found to be just like that of the handwriting. -Nothing could be more natural than to ascribe to -the <i lang="fr">chevalier d’industrie</i> of Palermo a very masculine, -deep-bass voice, and, it goes without saying, -as Italian as possible. It must be noted, too, that -Mlle. Smith often heard her father speak that language, -which he knew very well, with several of his -friends; but that, on the other hand, she does not -speak it, and has never learned it. Leopold, however, -does not know Italian, and turns a deaf ear -when any one addresses him in that language. -The intonation, the attitude, the whole physiognomy, -in short, accord with these remarks. As to -the extremely varied content of the conversations -and messages of Leopold, we are not obliged to -consider Balsamo as their necessary author. When -everything relating to Mlle. Smith and the sitters, -but which has nothing to do with the last century, -has been swept aside, together with the spiritistic -dissertations in regard to the “fluid” manner in -which Leopold exists, perceives, and moves, the -three subjects or categories of communications still -remain, which merit a rapid examination.</p> - -<p>In the first place, there are the answers of Leopold<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>114</span> -to the questions put to him concerning his terrestrial -life. These answers are remarkably evasive -or vague. Not a name, not a date, not a precise -fact does he furnish. We only learn that he has -travelled extensively, suffered greatly, studied deeply, -done much good, and healed a great many sick -folk; but now he sees things too lofty to think any -more about historic details of the past, and it is -with unconcealed disgust or direct words of reproach -for the idle curiosity of his carnal questioners -that he hastens to turn the conversation, like Socrates, -to moral subjects and those of a lofty philosophy, -where he feels evidently more at ease. When -he is further pressed he becomes angry sometimes, -and sometimes ingenuously avows his ignorance, -enveloping it meanwhile in an air of profound mystery. -“They are asking the secret of my life, of my -acts, of my thoughts. I cannot answer.” This does -not facilitate investigation of the question of identity.</p> - -<p>In the second place come the consultations and -medical prescriptions. Leopold affects a lofty disdain -for modern medicine and phenic acid. He is -as archaic in his therapeutics as in his orthography, -and treats all maladies after the ancient mode. Baths -of pressed grape-skins for rheumatism, an infusion -of coltsfoot and juniper-berry in white wine for -inflammations of the chest, the bark of the horse-chestnut -in red wine and douches of salt water as -tonics, tisanes of hops and other flowers, camomile, -oil of lavender, the leaves of the ash, etc.; all these -do not accord badly with what Balsamo might -have prescribed a century or more ago. The mis<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>115</span>fortune, -from the evidential point of view, is that -Mlle. Smith’s mother is extremely well versed in all -the resources of popular medicine where old recipes -are perpetuated. She has had occasion to nurse -many sick people in her life, knows the virtues of -different medicinal plants, and constantly employs, -with a sagacity which I have often admired, a number -of those remedies spoken of as “old-women’s,” -which make the young doctors fresh from the clinic -smile, but to which they will more than once resort -in secret after a few years of medical experience.</p> - -<p>Finally, there still remain the sentiments of Leopold -for Hélène, which he claims are only the continuation -of those of Cagliostro for Marie Antoinette. -My ignorance of history does not permit me to pronounce -categorically on this point. That the Queen -of France did have some secret interviews with the -famous “gold-maker,” due to simple curiosity or to -questions of material interest, there is no doubt, I -believe; but that his feelings for his sovereign were -a curious combination of the despairing passion of -Cardinal Rohan for the queen, with the absolute respect -which Alexandre Dumas, <i lang="fr">père</i>, ascribes to Joseph -Balsamo towards Lorenza Feliciani, appears to -me less evident.</p> - -<p>In short, if the revelations of Leopold have truly -unveiled to us shades of feeling of Count Cagliostro -hitherto unsuspected, and of which later documentary -researches shall confirm the historic correctness—why, -so much the better, for that will finally establish -a trace of the supernormal in the mediumship of -Hélène!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>116</span></p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">Leopold and Mlle. Smith</span></h3> - -<p>The connection between these two personalities -is too complex for a precise description. There is -neither a mutual exclusion, as between Mrs. Piper -and Phinuit, who appear reciprocally to be ignorant -of each other and to be separated by the tightest -of partitions; nor a simple jointing, as in the case of -Felida X., whose secondary state envelops and overflows -the whole primary state. This is more of a -crossing of lines, but of which the limits are vague -and with difficulty assignable. Leopold knows, foresees, -and recalls very many things of which the normal -personality of Mlle. Smith knows absolutely -nothing, not only of those which she may simply -have forgotten, but of those of which she never had -any consciousness. On the other hand, he is far -from possessing all the memories of Hélène; he is -ignorant of a very great part of her daily life; even -some very notable incidents escape him entirely, -which explains his way of saying that, to his great -regret, he cannot remain constantly by her, being -obliged to occupy himself with other missions (concerning -which he has never enlightened us) which -oblige him often to leave her for a time.</p> - -<p>These two personalities are, therefore, not co-extensive; -each one passes beyond the other at certain -points, without its being possible for us to say which -is, on the whole, the more extended. As to their -common domain, if it cannot be defined by one word -with entire certainty, it appears, nevertheless, to be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>117</span> -chiefly constituted by its connection with the innermost -ranges of the being, both physiological and -psychological, as might be suspected from what I -remarked above concerning the real origin of Leopold. -Physician of the soul and of the body, director -of conscience, and at the same time hygienic -counsellor, he does not always manifest himself immediately, -but he is always present when Hélène’s -vital interests are involved. This will be made -clearer by two or three concrete examples, which -will at the same time illustrate some of the psychological -processes by which Leopold manifests -himself to Hélène.</p> - -<p>It must be admitted that there is a disagreement -and opposition as complete as possible (but how far -does this “possible” go?) when Hélène, in at least -an apparently waking state, converses with her -guide, manifestly by a partial sensory or motor automatism; -for example, in the case cited on page 64, -where Leopold, not sharing the allochiria of Hélène, -declared by the table that she was wrong, so emphatically -that she protested and became angry; also, -when in verbo-auditive hallucinations, or by automatic -handwriting, he enters into discussion with -her, and she holds her own with him; or, again, -when the organism seems to be divided up between -two different persons, Leopold speaking by Hélène’s -mouth, with his accent, and uttering his own ideas -to her, and she complaining, in writing, of pains in -her head and throat, without understanding their -cause. Nevertheless, in these cases of division of the -consciousness, which appear to amount to its cutting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>118</span> -in two, it is doubtful whether this plurality is more -than apparent. I am not positive of having ever -established with Hélène a veritable simultaneity of -different consciousnesses. At the very moment -at which Leopold writes by her hand, speaks by her -mouth, dictates to the table, upon observing her attentively -I have always found her absorbed, preoccupied, -as though absent; but she instantaneously -recovers her presence of mind and the use of her -waking faculties at the end of the motor automatism. -In short, that which from the outside is taken -for the coexistence of distinct simultaneous personalities -seems to me to be only an alternation, a rapid -succession between the state of Hélène-consciousness -and the state of Leopold-consciousness; and, -in the case where the body seems to be jointly occupied -by two independent beings—the right side, -for instance, being occupied by Leopold, and the -left by Hélène, or the Hindoo princess—the psychical -division has never seemed to me to be radical, but -many indications have combined to make me of the -opinion that behind all was an individuality perfectly -self-conscious, and enjoying thoroughly, along -with the spectators, the comedy of the plural existences.</p> - -<p>A single fundamental personality, putting the -questions and giving the answers, quarrelling with -itself in its own interior—in a word, enacting all the -various rôles of Mlle. Smith—is a fitting interpretation, -which accords very well with the facts as I have -observed them in Hélène, and very much better than -the theory of a plurality of separate consciousness<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>119</span>es, -of a psychological polyzoism, so to speak. This -last theory is doubtless more convenient for a clear -and superficial description of the facts, but I am not -at all convinced that it conforms to the actual condition -of affairs.</p> - -<p>It is a state of consciousness <i lang="la">sui generis</i>, which it -is impossible adequately to describe, and which can -only be represented by the analogy of those curious -states, exceptional in the normal waking life, but -less rare in dreams, when one seems to change his -identity and become some one else.</p> - -<p>Hélène has more than once told me of having had -the impression of <i>becoming</i> or <i>being</i> momentarily -Leopold. This happens most frequently at night, -or upon awakening in the morning. She has first -a fugitive vision of her protector; then it seems that -little by little he is submerged in her; she feels him -overcoming and penetrating her entire organism, as -if he really became her or she him. These mixed -states are extremely interesting to the psychologist; -unhappily, because they generally take place in a -condition of consecutive amnesia, or because the -mediums do not know how, or do not wish, to give a -complete account of them, it is very rare that detailed -descriptions are obtained.</p> - -<p>Between the two extremes of complete duality and -complete unity numerous intermediate states are to -be observed; or, at least, since the consciousness of -another cannot be directly penetrated, these mixed -states may be inferred from the consequences which -spring from them.</p> - -<p>It has happened, for example, that, believing they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>120</span> -were dealing with Leopold alone, thoroughly incarnated -and duly substituted for the personality of -Mlle. Smith, the sitters have allowed to escape them -on that account some ill-timed pleasantry, some indiscreet -question or too free criticisms, all innocent -enough and without evil intention, but still of a nature -to wound Hélène if she had heard them, and from -which the authors would certainly have abstained in -her presence in a waking state.</p> - -<p>Leopold has not stood upon ceremony in putting -down these imprudent babblers, and the incident, -generally, has had no further consequences. But -sometimes the words and bearing of Mlle. Smith for -days or weeks afterwards show that she was aware -of the imprudent remarks, which proves that the consciousness -of Leopold and her own are not separated -by an impenetrable barrier, but that osmotic changes -are effected from the one to the other. It is ordinarily -pointed and irritating remarks which cause the -trouble, which goes to prove that it is the feelings of -self-love or personal susceptibility that form in each -one of us the inmost fortifications of the social self, -and are the last to be destroyed by somnambulism, or -that they constitute the fundamental substratum, the -common base by which Leopold and Mlle. Smith form -a whole and mingle themselves in the same individuality.</p> - -<p>The psychological process of this transmission is -varied from another cause. Sometimes it appears -that the consecutive amnesia of the trance has been -broken as to the most piquant details, and that Hélène -clearly remembers that which has been said, in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>121</span> -presence of Leopold, disagreeable to herself. Sometimes -it is Leopold himself who repeats to her the unpleasant -expressions which have been used, with commentaries -calculated to lessen their effect and to excuse -the culprits: for it is an interesting trait of his -character that he undertakes with Hélène the defence -of those same persons whom he reprimands and -blames, a contradiction not at all surprising when -it is psychologically interpreted, considering the -habitual conflict of emotional motives or tendencies, -the warfare which opposite points of view is incessantly -carrying on in our inmost being. Sometimes, -again, it is in a dream that the junction is effected -between the somnambulistic consciousness of Leopold -and the normal consciousness of Hélène.</p> - -<p>Apropos of the last case, here is an example containing -nothing disagreeable, in which Hélène remembered -in her waking state a nocturnal dream, -which was itself a repetition or echo, in natural -sleep, of a somnambulistic scene of the previous evening.</p> - -<p>In a seance at which I assisted, shortly after my -recovery from an attack of congestion of the lungs, -Hélène, completely entranced, has a vision of Leopold-Cagliostro, -who, in the rôle of sympathetic physician, -comes to hold a consultation with me. After some -preliminaries she kneels down by my chair, and, looking -alternately at my chest and at the fictitious doctor -standing between us, she holds a long conversation -with him, in which she explains the condition of my -lungs, which she sees in imagination, and the treatment -which Leopold prescribes, somewhat as follows:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>122</span></p> - -<p>“ ... It is the lungs ... it is darker ... it is one -side which has been affected.... You say that it -is a severe inflammation—and can that be healed?... -Tell me, what must be done.... Oh, where have -I seen any of these plants?... I don’t know what -they are called ... those ... I don’t understand -very well ... those synantherous?... Oh, what -a queer name.... Where are they to be found?... -You say it belongs to the family of ... then -it has another name? Tell me what it is ... some -<i lang="fr">tissulages</i> [sic].... Then you think this plant is good -for him?... Ah! but explain this to me ... the -fresh leaves or the dried flowers? Three times a day, -a large handful in a pint ... and then honey and -milk.... I will tell him that he must drink three -cups a day....” etc. Then followed very detailed -directions as to treatment, various infusions, blisters, -etc. The whole scene lasted more than an -hour, followed by complete amnesia, and nothing -was said to Hélène about it, as it was half-past six -in the evening, and she was in haste to return home. -The next day she wrote me a seven-page letter in -which she described a very striking dream she had -had during the night. “ ... I fell asleep about two -o’clock in the morning and awaked at about five. -Was it a vision? Was it a dream I had? I don’t -really know what to consider it and dare not say; -but this I do know, I saw my dear friend Leopold, -who spoke to me a long time about you, and I think -I saw you also. I asked him what he thought of -your state of health.... He replied that in his -opinion it was far from re-established. That the pain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>123</span> -you feel in the right side came from an inflammation -of the lung which has been seriously affected.... -You will doubtless laugh when I tell you that -he also described the remedies you ought to take.... -One of them is a simple plant, which is called, -as nearly as I can remember, Tissulage or Tussilache, -but has also another name, which I cannot recollect, -but the first name will doubtless suffice, since he says -you are familiar with the plant ...” etc.</p> - -<p>What I have said concerning Leopold is also applicable -to the other personifications of Mlle. Smith. -The normal consciousness of Hélène mingles and -fuses itself in every way with the somnambulistic -consciousness of Simandini, of Marie Antoinette, or -some other incarnation, as we shall soon see. I pass -now to the examination of some detailed examples, -destined to throw light upon the rôle which Leopold -plays in Hélène’s existence.</p> - -<p>Let us begin by listening to Leopold himself. -Among his numerous messages, the following letter, -written in his fine handwriting by the hand of Mlle. -Smith—in response to a note in which I had begged -him (as a spiritual being and distinct from her) to -aid me in my “psychic researches”—contains information -for which I had not asked, but which was -none the less interesting. It must not be forgotten -that it is the disincarnate adorer of Marie Antoinette -who is writing:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Friend</span>,—I am pleased and touched by the mark -of confidence you have deigned to accord me. The -spiritual guide of Mademoiselle [Smith], whom the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>124</span> -Supreme Being in his infinite goodness has permitted -me to find again with ease, I do all I can to -appear to her on every occasion when I deem it necessary; -but my body, or, if you prefer, the matter of -little solidity of which I am composed, does not always -afford me the facility of showing myself to her in a -positive human manner. [He, in fact, appeared to -her often under the form of elementary visual hallucinations, -a luminous trail, whitish column, vaporous -streamer, etc.]</p> - -<p>“That which I seek above all to inculcate in her -is a consoling and true philosophy, which is necessary -to her by reason of the profound, unhappy impressions, -which even now still remain to her, of -the whole drama of her past life. I have often sown -bitterness in her heart [when she was Marie Antoinette], -desiring only her welfare. Also, laying aside -everything superfluous, I penetrate into the most -hidden recesses of her soul, and with an extreme -care and incessant activity I seek to implant there -those truths which I trust will aid her in attaining -the lofty summit of the ladder of perfection.</p> - -<p>“Abandoned by my parents from my cradle, I have, -indeed, known sorrow early in life. Like all, I have -had many weaknesses, which I have expiated, and -God knows that I bow to His will!</p> - -<p>“Moral suffering has been my principal lot. I have -been full of bitterness, of envy, of hatred, of jealousy. -Jealousy, my brother! what a poison, what a corruption -of the soul!</p> - -<p>“Nevertheless, one ray has shone brightly into -my life, and that ray so pure, so full of everything<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>125</span> -that might pour balm on my wounded soul, has given -me a glimpse of heaven!</p> - -<p>“Herald of eternal felicity! Ray without spot! -God deemed best to take it before me! But to-day -it is given back to me! May His holy name be -blessed!</p> - -<p>“Friend, in what manner shall I reply to you? -I am ignorant myself, not knowing what it will -please God to reveal to you, but through her whom -you call Mademoiselle [Smith], God willing, perhaps -we shall be able to satisfy you.</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Thy friend,</p> -<p class="psig"> -“<span class="smcap">Leopold</span>.” -</p></div> - -<p>We can see, under the flowing details of the spiritistic -ideas and his rôle as the repentant Cagliostro, -that the dominant characteristic of Leopold is -his deep platonic attachment for Mlle. Smith, and -an ardent moral solicitude for her and her advance -towards perfection. This corresponds perfectly with -the character of the numerous messages which he addresses -to her in the course of her daily existence, -as may be seen from the following specimen. He is -referring to a case where, after having warned her on -two occasions during the day by auditive hallucinations -that he would manifest himself in the evening, -he gives her, in fact, by automatic writing in his -own hand, the encouragement she was actually in -need of under the circumstances in which she found -herself.</p> - -<p>One morning, at her desk, Hélène heard an unknown -voice, stronger and nearer to her than is usual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>126</span> -with Leopold, say to her: “<i>Until this evening</i>”; a -little later the same voice, which she now recognized -as that of Leopold, but of a quality rougher and -nearer to her than was his habit, said to her: “<i>You -understand me well, until this evening.</i>” In the evening, -having returned home, she was excited at supper, -left the table in haste towards the end of the meal, and -shut herself up in her room with the idea that she -would learn something; but, presently, the instinctive -agitation of her hand indicated to her that she -should take her pencil, and having done so, she obtained -in the beautiful calligraphy of Leopold the following -epistle. (She says that she remained wide -awake and self-conscious while writing it, and it is -the only occasion of a similar character when she -had knowledge of the content.)</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">My beloved Friend</span>,—Why do you vex yourself, -torment yourself so? Why are you indignant, -because, as you advance in life, you are obliged to -acknowledge that all things are not as you had wished -and hoped they might be? Is not the route we follow -on this earth always and for all of us strewn with -rocks? is it not an endless chain of deceptions, of -miseries? Do me the kindness, my dear sister, I beg -of you, to tell me that from this time forth you will -cease from endeavoring to probe too deeply the human -heart. In what will such discoveries aid you? -What remains to you of these things, except tears -and regrets? And then this God of love, of justice, -and of life—is not He the one to read our hearts? It -is for Him, not for thee, to see into them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>127</span></p> - -<p>“Would you change the hearts? Would you give -them that which they have not, a live, ardent soul, -never departing from what is right, just, and true? -Be calm, then, in the face of all these little troubles. -Be worthy, and, above all, always good! In thee -I have found again that heart and that soul, both of -which will always be for me all my life, all my joy, -and my only dream here below.</p> - -<p>“Believe me: be calm: reflect: that is my wish.</p> - -<p class="center"> -“Thy friend,</p> -<p class="psig"> -“<span class="smcap">Leopold</span>.” -</p></div> - -<p>I have chosen this example for the sake of its brevity. -Hélène has received a number of communications -of the same kind, sometimes in verse, in which -the moral and religious note is often still more accentuated. -In the greater part we meet with, as -in the next to the last phrase of the foregoing letter, -an allusion to the presumed affection of Cagliostro -for Marie Antoinette. It is to be noticed that -there is nothing in these excellent admonitions that -a high and serious soul like that of Mlle. Smith could -not have drawn from its own depths in a moment -of contemplation and meditation.</p> - -<p>Is it a benefit or an injury to the moral and truly -religious life to formulate itself thus clearly in verbal -hallucinations rather than to remain in the confused -but more personal state of experienced aspirations -and strongly expressed emotions? Do these -inspirations gain or lose in inward authority and -subjective power by assuming this exterior garb -and this aspect of objectivity? This is a delicate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>128</span> -question, probably not susceptible of a uniform solution.</p> - -<p>In the following incident, which I relate as an example -among many other similar ones, it is no longer, -properly speaking, the moral and religious sentiments -personified in Leopold, but rather the instinct -of reserve and of defence peculiar to the weaker sex, -the sense of the proprieties, the self-respect, tinctured -with a shade of exaggeration almost amounting to -prudery.</p> - -<p>In a visit to Mlle. Smith, during which I inquired -whether she had received any recent communications -from Leopold, she told me she had only seen -him two or three times in the last few days, and had -been struck by his “restless and unhappy” air, instead -of the air “so pleasant, so sweet, so admirable,” -which he generally has. As she did not know to -what to attribute this change of countenance, I advised -her to take her pencil and to wrap herself in -meditation, with the hope of obtaining some automatic -message.</p> - -<p>In about a minute her expression indicated that -she was being taken possession of; her eyes were -fixed on the paper, upon which her left hand rested, -the thumb and little finger being agitated and continually -tapping (about once a second), the right -hand having tried to take the pencil between the -index and middle finger (the manner of Hélène), -ended by seizing it between the thumb and the index -finger, and traced slowly in the handwriting -of Leopold:</p> - -<p>“Yes, I am restless | pained, even in anguish. |<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>129</span> -Believest thou, friend, that it is with satisfaction | -that I see you every day accepting the attentions, -the flatteries; | I do not call them insincere, but of -little worth, and little praiseworthy | on the part of -those from whom they come.” |</p> - -<p>This text was written at six separate times (marked -by the vertical bars), separated by brief moments -of full wakefulness, when the tappings of the left -hand ceased, and when Hélène, repeating in a loud -voice what she was about to write, is very much -astonished, does not know to what Leopold alludes, -then at my request takes her pencil to obtain an explanation, -and falls asleep again during the following -fragment. At the end of this bit, as she persists -in saying that she is ignorant of what he refers to, -I proceed to question Leopold, who replies that for -several days Hélène has permitted herself to be -courted by a M. V. (perfectly honorably), who often -found himself on the same street-car with her, had -made a place for her beside him the last few mornings, -and had paid her some compliments on her appearance.</p> - -<p>These revelations excited the laughter and protestations -of Hélène, who commenced to deny that it -could have come from Leopold, and accused me of -having suggested it to her little finger; but the right -hand took the pencil and traced these words in the -handwriting and with the signature of Leopold: “I -only say what I think, and I desire that you refuse -henceforth all the flowers that he may offer you.—Leopold.” -This time Hélène remembered the incident, -and recollected that yesterday morning he had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>130</span> -offered her a rose which he was wearing as a boutonnière.</p> - -<p>Eight days later I paid another visit to Hélène, -and after an effort to secure some handwriting, which -was not successful, but resulted in a Martian vision -(see Martian text No. 14), she had a visual hallucination -of Leopold, and losing consciousness of the -actual environment and of my presence also, as well -as that of her mother, she flung herself into a running -conversation with him in regard to the incident -of eight days previously: “Leopold ... Leopold ... -don’t come near me [repulsing him]. You are too -severe, Leopold!... Will you come on Sunday? I -am going to be at M. Flournoy’s next Sunday. You -will be there ... but take good care that you do -not.... No, it is not kind of you always to disclose -secrets.... What must he have thought?... -You seem to make a mountain out of a mole-hill.... -And who would think of refusing a flower? You -don’t understand at all.... Why, then? It was -a very simple thing to accept it, a matter of no importance -whatever ... to refuse it would have been -impolite.... You pretend to read the heart.... -Why give importance to a thing that amounts to -nothing?... It is only a simple act of friendship, -a little token of sympathy ... to make me write -such things on paper before everybody! not nice of -you!” In this somnambulistic dialogue, in which -we can divine Leopold’s replies, Hélène took for -the moment the accent of Marie Antoinette (see below, -in the “Royal cycle”). To awaken her, Leopold, -who had possession of Hélène’s arms, made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>131</span> -some passes over her forehead, then pressed the frontal -and suborbital nerves of the left side, and made -me a sign to do the same with those of the right. -The seance of the next day but one, at my house, -passed without any allusion by Leopold to the incident -of the street-car, evidently on account of the -presence of certain sitters to whom he did not wish -to reveal Hélène’s secrets. But, three days after, -in a new visit, during which she told me of having -had a waking discussion concerning the future life -(without telling me with whom), she again wrote, in -the hand of Leopold: “It is not in such society as -this that you ought so seriously to discuss the immortality -of the soul.” She then confessed that -it was again on the street-car, and with M. V., that -she had held that conversation while a funeral procession -was passing. There was never anything -that might have been of a compromising character -in the exchange of courtesies and the occasional conversations -of Mlle. Smith with her neighbor of the -street-car. The trouble that it caused poor Leopold -was very characteristic of him, and well indicated -the severe and jealous censor who formerly had worried -the N. group; there can be heard again the -echo of that voice, “which has absolutely nothing -to do with the conscience” (see pp. <a href="#Page_27">p. 27</a> and <a href="#Page_82">p. 82</a>), and -which has hitherto prevented Hélène from accepting -any of the suitors whom she has encountered in the -course of her journey through life. This austere -and rigorous mentor, always wide awake, and taking -offence at the least freedom which Mlle. Smith -allows herself in the exchange of trifling courtesies,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>132</span> -represents, in fact, a very common psychological attribute; -it is not every well-bred feminine soul that -carries stored in one of its recesses, where it manifests -its presence by scruples more or less vaguely -felt, certain hesitations or apprehensions, inhibiting -feelings or tendencies of a shade of intensity varying -according to the age and the temperament.</p> - -<p>It is not my part to describe this delicate phenomenon. -It suffices me to remark that here, as in the -ethico-religious messages, the personality of Leopold -has in no way aided the essential content of those -inward experiences of which Mlle. Smith is perfectly -capable by herself; the form only of their manifestation -has gained in picturesque and dramatic -expression in the <i lang="fr">mise-en-scène</i> of the automatic -handwritings and of the somnambulistic dialogue. -It seems as though the suggestive approach of my -presence and my questions had been necessary to excite -these phenomena; it is, however, very probable, -to judge from other examples, that my influence only -hastened the explosion of Leopold in formulated reproaches, -and that his latent discontent, hitherto -noticed in the “restless and suffering air” of his -fugitive visual apparitions, would have terminated, -after a period of incubation more or less prolonged, in -breaking out into spontaneous admonitions, auditive -or written.</p> - -<p>It can be divined that in this rôle of vigilant guardian, -of an almost excessive zealousness for the honor -or the dignity of Mlle. Smith, Leopold is again, -to my mind, only a product of psychological duplication. -He represents a certain grouping of inward<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>133</span> -desires and secret instincts, which the hypnoid predisposition, -encouraged by spiritism, has brought -into a peculiar prominence and given an aspect of -foreign personality; in the same way, in the phantasmagoria -of the dream, certain after-thoughts, -almost unperceived while awake, rise to the first -plane and become transformed into contradictory fictitious -personages, whose cutting reproaches astonish -us sometimes on awakening by their disturbing -truthfulness.</p> - -<p>A final example will show us Leopold, in his rôle -of watcher over the health of Mlle. Smith and adviser -of precautions which she ought to take. He -is not troubled about her general health; when she -had <i lang="fr">la grippe</i>, for instance, or when she is simply -worn out with fatigue, he scarcely shows himself. -His attention is concentrated upon certain special -physiological functions, of the normal exercise of -which he takes care to be assured. He does not -otherwise seem to exercise a positive action upon -them, and cannot modify them in any way; his office -seems to be confined to knowing beforehand -their exact course, and to see that Hélène is not -guilty of any imprudence which may impede them.</p> - -<p>Leopold here shows a knowledge and prevision -of the most intimate phenomena of the organism -which has been observed in the case of secondary -personalities, and which confers upon them, in that -respect at least, an unquestionable advantage over -the ordinary personality. In the case of Mlle. -Smith, the indications of her guide are always of a -prohibitive nature, calculated to prevent her from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>134</span> -talking part in spiritistic reunions at a time at which -she believes herself able to do so with impunity, but -which he, endowed with a more refined cœnæsthetic -sensibility, thinks she ought not to undertake. He -has for several years formally laid his ban upon -every kind of mediumistic exercises at certain very -regular periods.</p> - -<p>He has also on numerous occasions compelled -her by various messages, categorical auditive hallucinations, -diverse impulses, contractures of the -arms, forcing her to write, etc., to modify her plans -and to abandon seances already arranged. This -is a very clear form of teleological automatism.</p> - -<p>As a specimen of this spontaneous and hygienic -intervention of Leopold in the life of Hélène, I have -selected the letter given below, because it combines -several interesting traits. It well depicts the energy -with which Mlle. Smith is compelled to obey -her guide.</p> - -<p>The passage from the auditive to the graphic -form of automatism is also to be noticed in it. Apropos -of this, in the page of this letter reproduced in -Fig. 8 (see <a href="#Page_137">p. 137</a>), it is made clear that the transition -of the hand of Hélène to that of Leopold is accomplished -brusquely and in a decided manner. The -handwriting is not metamorphosed gradually, slowly, -but continues to be that of Mlle. Smith, becoming -more and more agitated, it is true, and rendered -almost illegible by the shocks to the arm of which -Leopold takes hold up to the moment when, suddenly -and by a bound, it becomes the well-formed calligraphy -of Cagliostro.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>135</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="psig"> -“<i>January 29</i>, 6.15 <span class="allsmcap">A.M</span>.</p> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Monsieur</span>,—I awoke about ten minutes ago, -and heard the voice of Leopold telling me in a very -imperious manner, ‘Get up out of your bed, and quickly, -very quickly, write to your dear friend, M. Flournoy, -that you will not hold a seance to-morrow, and -that you will not be able to go to his house for -two weeks, and that you will not hold any seance -within that period.’ I have executed his order, -having felt myself forced, compelled in spite of -myself, to obey. I was so comfortable in bed and -so vexed at being obliged to write you such a message; -but I feel myself forced to do what he bids me.</p> - -<p>“At this moment I am looking at my watch; it -is 6.25 o’clock. I feel a very strong shock in my -right arm—I might better speak of it as an electric -disturbance—and which I perceive has made me -write crooked. I hear also at this instant the voice -of Leopold. I have much difficulty in writing what -he tells me: ‘6.42½. Say to him this: <i>I am, sir, -always your very devoted servant, in body and mind, -healthy and not unbalanced.</i>’</p> - -<p>“I stopped for some moments after writing these -words, which I saw very well, after having written -them, were in the handwriting of Leopold. Immediately -afterwards, a second disturbance, similar to the -first, gave me a fresh shock, this time from my feet to -my head. It all passed so quickly that I am disturbed -and confused by it. It is true that I am not yet quite -well. Is this the reason why Leopold prevents my -going to Florissant to-morrow? I do not know, but, -nevertheless, am anxious to follow his advice....”</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>136</span></p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith always submits obediently to the commands -of her guide, since, whenever she has transgressed -them, through forgetfulness or neglect, -she has had cause to repent it.</p> - -<p>It is clear that in this rôle of special physician of -Mlle. Smith, always <i lang="fr">au courant</i> of her state of health, -Leopold could easily be interpreted as personifying -those vague impressions which spring forth continually -from the depths of our physical being, informing -us as to what is passing there.</p> - -<p>A neuralgic toothache is felt in a dream hours before -it makes itself felt in our waking consciousness, -while some maladies are often thus foreshadowed -several days before they actually declare themselves. -All literature is full of anecdotes of this kind; and -the psychiatrists have observed that in the form of -circular alienation, where phases of melancholic depression -and maniacal excitation alternately succeed -one another more or less regularly with intervals -of normal equilibrium, it is frequently in sleep that -the first symptoms of the change of humor can be -detected which has already begun in the depths of -the individuality, but will only break forth on the -outside a little later. But all the hypnoid states are -connected, and it is not at all surprising that, in the -case of a subject inclined to automatism, these confused -presentiments should arise with the appearance -of a foreign personality which is only a degree higher -than the process of dramatization already so brilliantly -at work in our ordinary dreams.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>137</span></p> -<div class="figcenter illowp75" id="i137" style="max-width: 98em;"> - <a id="Fig_8"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_137.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 8. A page from a letter of Mlle. Smith, showing the spontaneous irruption -of the personality and the handwriting of Leopold during the waking state of -Hélène.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>It will be useless to lengthen or further multiply -examples of the intervention of Leopold in the life<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>138</span> -of Mlle. Smith. Those which I have given show -him under his essential aspects, and suffice to justify -Hélène’s confidence in a guide who has never deceived -her, who has always given her the best counsel, -delivered discourses of the highest ethical tone, -and manifested the most touching solicitude for her -physical and moral health. It is easy to understand -that nothing can shake her faith in the real, objective -existence of this precious counsellor.</p> - -<p>It is really vexatious that the phenomena of dreams -should be so little observed or so badly understood -(I do not say by psychologists, but by the general -public, which prides itself on its psychology), since -the dream is the prototype of spiritistic messages, and -holds the key to the explanation of mediumistic phenomena. -If it is regrettable to see such noble, sympathetic, -pure, and in all respects remarkable personalities -as Leopold reduced to the rank of a dream -creation, it must be remembered, however, that -dreams are not always, as idle folk think, things to be -despised or of no value in themselves: the majority -are insignificant and deserve only the oblivion to -which they are promptly consigned. A very large -number are bad and sometimes even worse than reality; -but there are others of a better sort, and “dream” -is often a synonym for “ideal.”</p> - -<p>To sum up, Leopold certainly expresses in his central -nucleus a very honorable and attractive side of -the character of Mlle. Smith, and in taking him as -her “guide” she only follows inspirations which are -probably among the best of her nature.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>139</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br /> - - -<small>THE MARTIAN CYCLE</small></h2></div> - - -<p>The title of this book would naturally commit -me to a review of the Hindoo romance before -investigating the Martian cycle. Considerations -of method have caused me to reverse this order. -It is better to advance from the simple to the -complex, and while we certainly know less concerning -the planet Mars than of India, the romance which -it has inspired in the subliminal genius of Mlle. Smith -is relatively less difficult to explain than the Oriental -cycle. In fact, the former seems to spring from pure -imagination, while in the latter we meet with certain -actual historical elements, and whence Hélène’s memory -and intelligence have gained a knowledge of -them is an extremely difficult problem for us to solve. -There is, then, only <i>one</i> faculty at work in the Martian -romance, as a professional psychologist would -say, while the Oriental cycle calls several into play, -making it necessary to treat of it later, on account of -its greater psychological complexity.</p> - -<p>While the unknown language which forms the -vehicle of many of the Martian messages cannot -naturally be dissociated from the rest of the cycle, -it merits, nevertheless, a special consideration, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>140</span> -the following chapter will be entirely devoted to it. -It does not figure in the present chapter, in which -I shall treat of the origin and the content only of the -Martian romance.</p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">Origin and Birth of the Martian -Cycle</span></h3> - -<p>“We dare to hope,” says M. Camille Flammarion, -at the beginning of his excellent work on the planet -Mars, “that the day will come when scientific methods -yet unknown to us will give us direct evidences -of the existence of the inhabitants of other worlds, -and at the same time, also, will put us in communication -with our brothers in space.”<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> And on the -last page of his book he recurs to the same idea, and -says: “What marvels does not the science of the -future reserve for our successors, and who would dare -to say that Martian humanity and terrestrial humanity -will not some day enter into communication -with each other?”</p> - -<p>This splendid prospect seems still far off, along -with that of wireless telegraphy, and almost an Utopian -dream, so long as one holds strictly to the current -conceptions of our positive sciences. But break -these narrow limits; fly, for example, towards the illimitable -horizon which spiritism opens up to its -happy followers, and as soon as this vague hope -takes shape, nothing seems to prevent its immedi<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>141</span>ate -realization; and the only cause for wonder is -found in the fact that no privileged medium has -yet arisen to have the glory, unique in the world, -of being the first intermediary between ourselves -and the human inhabitants of other planets; for -spiritism takes no more account of the barrier of -space than of time. The “gates of distance” are -wide open before it. With it the question of means -is a secondary matter; one has only the embarrassment -of making a choice. It matters not whether -it be by intuition, by clairvoyance, by telepathy, -or by double personality that the soul is permitted -to leave momentarily its terrestrial prison and make -the voyage between this world and others in an instant -of time, or whether the feat is accomplished -by means of the astral body, by the reincarnation -of disincarnate omnisciences, by “fluid beings,” -or, in a word, by any other process whatever. The -essential point is, according to spiritism, that no -serious objection would be offered to the possibility -of such communication. The only difficulty would -be to find a mediumistic subject possessing sufficient -psychical faculties. It is a simple question of fact; -if such a one has not yet been found, it is apparently -only because the time is not yet ripe. But now -that astronomers themselves appeal to those “unknown -methods of actual science” to put us <i lang="fr">en rapport</i> -with other worlds, no doubt spiritism—which -is the science of to-morrow, as definite as absolute religion—will -soon respond to these legitimate aspirations. -We may, therefore, expect at any moment -the revelation so impatiently looked for, and every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>142</span> -good medium has the right to ask herself whether -she is not the being predestined to accomplish this -unrivalled mission.</p> - -<p>These are the considerations which, to my mind, -in their essential content inspired in the subliminal -part of Mlle. Smith the first idea of her Martian romance. -I would not assert that the passages from -M. Flammarion which I have quoted came directly -to the notice of Hélène, but they express and recapitulate -wonderfully well one of the elements of the -atmosphere in which she found herself at the beginning -of her mediumship. For if there are no -certain indications of her ever having read any work -on the “heavenly worlds” and their inhabitants, -either that of M. Flammarion or of any other author, -she has, nevertheless, heard such subjects discussed. -She is perfectly familiar with the name of -the celebrated astronomical writer Juvisy, and knows -something of his philosophical ideas, which, by-the-way, -is not at all surprising when we consider the -popularity he enjoys among spiritists, who find in -him a very strong scientific support for their doctrine -of reincarnation on other planets.</p> - -<p>I also have evidence that in the circle of Mme. N., -of which Hélène was a member in 1892, the conversation -more than once turned in the direction of -the habitability of Mars, to which the discovery -of the famous “canals” has for some years specially -directed the attention of the general public. This -circumstance appears to me to explain sufficiently -the fact that Hélène’s subliminal astronomy should -be concerned with this planet. It is, moreover, quite<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>143</span> -possible that the first germs of the Martian romance -date still further back than the beginning of Hélène’s -mediumship. The Oriental rôle shows indications of -concerning itself with that planet, and the very clear -impression which she has of having in her childhood -and youth experienced many visions of a similar -kind “without her noticing them particularly,” gives -rise to the supposition that the ingredients of which -this cycle is composed date from many years back. -Possibly they may have one and the same primitive -source in the exotic memories, descriptions, or pictures -of tropical countries which later branched out -under the vigorous impulsion of spiritistic ideas in -two distinct currents, the Hindoo romance on the -one side and the Martian on the other, whose waters -are mingled on more than one occasion afterwards.</p> - -<p>While, on the whole, therefore, it is probable that -its roots extend back as far as the childhood of Mlle. -Smith, it is nevertheless with the Martian romance, -as well as with the others, not a mere question of the -simple cryptomnesiac return of facts of a remote past, -or of an exhumation of fossil residua brought to light -again by the aid of somnambulism. It is a very active -process, and one in full course of evolution, nourished, -undoubtedly, by elements belonging to the -past, but which have been recombined and moulded -in a very original fashion, until it amounts finally, -among other things, to the creation of an unknown -language. It will be interesting to follow step by step -the phases of this elaboration: but since it always, -unfortunately, hides itself in the obscurity of the subconsciousness, -we are only cognizant of it by its occa<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>144</span>sional -appearances, and all the rest of that subterranean -work must be inferred, in a manner somewhat -hypothetical, from those supraliminal eruptions and -the scanty data which we have concerning the outward -influences which have exerted a stimulating influence -upon the subliminal part of Hélène. It was -in 1892, then, that the conversations took place which -were to prepare the soil for this work of lofty subliminal -fantasy, and planted in Hélène’s mind the -double idea, of enormous scientific interest, that she -could enter into direct relation with the inhabitants -of Mars, and of the possibility, unsuspected by scientists, -but which spiritism furnishes us, of reaching -there by a mediumistic route. I doubt, however, -whether that vague suggestion on the part of the environment -would have sufficed to engender the Martian -dream—since for more than two years no sign of -its eruption manifested itself—without the intervention -of some fillip more concrete, capable of giving a -start to the whole movement. It is not easy, unfortunately, -for want of records of the facts, to assign -with precision the circumstances under which and the -moment when Hélène’s subconscious imagination received -that effective impulsion, but an unequivocal -trace is discovered, as I am about to show in the contemporaneous -report of the proceedings of the first -distinctly Martian seance of Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>In March, 1894, Hélène made the acquaintance of -M. Lemaître, who, being exceedingly interested in -the phenomena of abnormal psychology, was present -with others at some of her seances, and finally begged -her to hold some at his house. At the first of these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>145</span> -(October 28, 1894), Hélène met a lady, a widow, who -was greatly to be pitied. Besides suffering from -a very serious affection of the eyes, Mme. Mirbel -had been terribly afflicted by the loss of her only -son, Alexis, seventeen years old, and a pupil of M. -Lemaître. While not yet fully convinced of the truth -of spiritism, it is easy to understand that Mme. Mirbel -was very anxious to believe in that consolatory -doctrine, and ready to accept it, if only some proofs -could be furnished her; and what more convincing -testimony could she ask or receive than that of a -message from her beloved child? Moreover, it was -probably not without a secret hope of procuring a -communication of this nature that she accepted the -invitation which M. Lemaître had sent her with the -idea of procuring some moments of distraction for -the unhappy mother. As happens frequently in -Hélène’s case, this first seance fully satisfied the -desires of the sitters and surpassed their expectations. -Speaking only of that which concerns Mme. Mirbel, -Hélène had the vision, first, of a young man, in the -very detailed description of whom there was no difficulty -in recognizing the deceased Alexis Mirbel; -then of an old man whom the table called Raspail, -brought by the young man that he might treat his -mother’s eyes, who thus had the double privilege of -receiving through the table words of tenderness from -her son, and from Raspail directions for the treatment -of the affliction of her eyes. Nothing in that -seance recalled in any way the planet Mars, and it -could not be foreseen from anything that occurred -there that Alexis Mirbel, disincarnated, would return<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>146</span> -later under the name of Esenale as official interpreter -of the Martian language.</p> - -<p>It was altogether different a month later (November -25), at the second reunion at M. Lemaître’s, at -which Mme. Mirbel was again present. On this occasion -the astronomical dream appeared at once and -dominated the entire seance.</p> - -<p>From the beginning, says the report of the seance, -Mlle. Smith perceived, in the distance and at -a great height, a bright light. Then she felt a tremor -which almost caused her heart to cease beating, -after which it seemed to her as though her head were -empty and as if she were no longer in the body. She -found herself in a dense fog, which changed successively -from blue to a vivid rose color, to gray, and -then to black: she is floating, she says; and the -table, supporting itself on one leg, seemed to express -a very curious floating movement. Then she sees -a star, growing larger, always larger, and becomes, -finally, “as large as our house.” Hélène feels that -she is ascending; then the table gives, by raps: -“Lemaître, that which you have so long desired!” -Mlle. Smith, who had been ill at ease, finds herself -feeling better; she distinguishes three enormous -globes, one of them very beautiful. “On what am -I walking?” she asks. And the table replies: “On -a world—Mars.” Hélène then began a description of -all the strange things which presented themselves -to her view, and caused her as much surprise as -amusement. Carriages without horses or wheels, -emitting sparks as they glided by; houses with -fountains on the roof; a cradle having for curtains<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>147</span> -an angel made of iron with outstretched wings, -etc. What seemed less strange, were people exactly -like the inhabitants of our earth, save that -both sexes wore the same costume, formed of trousers -very ample, and a long blouse, drawn tight about -the waist and decorated with various designs. The -child in the cradle was exactly like our children, -according to the sketch which Hélène made from -memory after the seance.</p> - -<p>Finally, she saw upon Mars a sort of vast assembly -hall, in which was Professor Raspail, having in the -first row of his hearers the young Alexis Mirbel, who, -by a typtological dictation, reproached his mother -for not having followed the medical prescription -which he gave her a month previously: “Dear -mamma, have you, then, so little confidence in us? -You have no idea how much pain you have caused -me!” Then followed a conversation of a private -nature between Mme. Mirbel and her son, the latter -replying by means of the table; then everything -becomes quiet, the vision of Mars effaces itself little -by little; the table takes the same rotary movement -on one foot which it had at the commencement of the -seance; Mlle. Smith finds herself again in the fogs -and goes through the same process as before in an -inverse order. Then she exclaims: “Ah! here I -am back again!” and several loud raps on the table -mark the end of the seance.</p> - -<p>I have related in its principal elements this first -Martian seance, for the sake of its importance in different -respects.</p> - -<p>The initial series of cœnæsthetic hallucinations,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>148</span> -corresponding to a voyage from the earth to Mars, -reflects well the childish character of an imagination -which scientific problems or the exigencies of logic -trouble very little. Without doubt spiritism can explain -how the material difficulties of an interplanetary -journey may be avoided in a purely mediumistic, -fluid connection; but why, then, this persistence -of physical sensations, trouble with the heart, -tremor, floating sensation, etc.? However it may -be, this series of sensations is from this time on the -customary prelude, and, as it were, the premonitory -<i>aura</i> of the Martian dream, with certain modifications, -throughout all the seances; sometimes -it is complicated with auditive hallucinations (rumbling, -noise of rushing water, etc.), or sometimes -olfactory (disagreeable odors of burning, of sulphur, -of a coming storm), oftener it tends to shorten and -simplify itself, until it is either reduced to a brief -feeling of <i lang="fr">malaise</i>, or to the initial visual hallucination -of the light, generally very brilliant and red, -in which the Martian visions usually appear.</p> - -<p>But the point to which I wish to call special attention -is that singular speech of the table, on the -instant at which Mlle. Smith arrives on the distant -star, and before it is known what star is concerned: -“Lemaître, that which you have so much -wished for!” This declaration, which may be considered -as a dedication, so to speak, inscribed on the -frontispiece of the Martian romance, authorizes us, -in my opinion, in considering it and interpreting it -in its origin, as a direct answer to a wish of M. -Lemaître, a desire which came at a recent period to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>149</span> -Hélène’s knowledge, and which has enacted with -her the initiatory rôle of her astronomical dream.</p> - -<p>It is true that M. Lemaître himself did not understand -at the moment to what this preliminary warning -referred, but the note which he inserted at the -end of his report of that seance is instructive in this -regard: “I do not know how to explain the first -words dictated by the table: ‘Lemaître, that which -you have so much wished for!’ M. S. reminds me -that in a conversation which I had with him last summer -I said to him: ‘It would be very interesting to -know what is happening upon other planets.’ If -this is an answer to the wish of last year, very well.”</p> - -<p>It must be added that M. S., who had been sufficiently -struck by this wish of M. Lemaître to remember it -for several months, was, during all of the time referred -to, one of the most regular attendants upon -the seances of Mlle. Smith; and, to one who knows -by experience all that happens at the spiritistic reunions, -before, after, and during the seance itself, -there could hardly be any doubt but that it was -through M. S., as intermediary, that Mlle. Smith -had heard mentioned M. Lemaître’s regret at our -relative ignorance of the inhabitants of other planets. -This idea, probably caught on the wing during the -state of suggestibility which accompanies the seances, -returned with renewed force when Hélène was invited -to hold a seance at the house of M. Lemaître, and -made more vivid also by the desire, which is always -latent in her, of making the visions as interesting as -possible to the persons among whom she finds herself. -Such is, in my opinion, the seed which, falling into<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>150</span> -the ground and fertilized by former conversations concerning -the inhabitants of Mars and the possibility -of spiritistic relations with them, has served as the -germ of the romance, the further development of -which it remains for me to trace.</p> - -<p>One point which still remains to be cleared up in -the seance, as I come to sum up, is the singularly artificial -character and the slight connection between the -Martian vision, properly so called, and the reappearance -of Raspail and Alexis Mirbel. We do not altogether -understand what these personages have to -do with it. What need is there of their being to-day -found on the planet Mars simply for the purpose of -continuing their interview with Mme. Mirbel, begun -at a previous seance, without the intervention of any -planet? The assembly-hall at which they are found, -while it is located on Mars, is a bond of union all -the more artificial between them and that planet in -that there is nothing specifically Martian in its description -and appears to have been borrowed from -our globe. This incident is at bottom a matter out -of the regular course, full of interest undoubtedly for -Mme. Mirbel, whom it directly concerns, but without -intimate connection with the Martian world. It was -evidently the astronomical revelation, intended for M. -Lemaître, and ripened by a period of incubation, which -should have furnished the material for this seance; -but the presence of Mme. Mirbel awoke anew the memory -of her son and of Raspail, which had occupied -the preceding seance, and these memories, interfering -with the Martian vision, become, for good or ill, incorporated -as a strange episode in it without having<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>151</span> -any direct connection with it. The work of unification, -of dramatization, by which these two unequal -chains of ideas are harmonized and fused the one -with the other through the intermediation of an assembly-hall, -is no more or no less extraordinary than -that which displays itself in all our nocturnal phantasmagoria, -where certain absolutely heterogeneous -memories often ally themselves after an unexpected -fashion, and afford opportunity for confusions of the -most bizarre character.</p> - -<p>But mediumistic communications differ from ordinary -dreams in this—namely, the incoherence of the -latter does not cause them to have any consequences. -We are astonished and diverted for a moment as we -reflect upon a dream. Sometimes a dream holds a -little longer the attention of the psychologist, who -endeavors to unravel the intricate plot of his dreams -and to discover, amid the caprices of association or -the events of the waking state, the origin of their -tangled threads. But, on the whole, this incoherence -has no influence on the ultimate course of our -thoughts, because we see in our dreams only the -results of chance, without value in themselves and -without objective signification.</p> - -<p>It is otherwise with spiritistic communications, by -reason of the importance and the credit accorded -them.</p> - -<p>The medium who partially recollects her automatisms, -or to whom the sitters have detailed them after -the close of the seance, adding also their comments, -becomes preoccupied with these mysterious revelations; -like the paranoiac, who perceives hidden mean<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>152</span>ings -or a profound significance in the most trifling -coincidences, she seeks to fathom the content of her -strange visions, reflects on them, examines them in -the light of spiritistic notions; if she encounters difficulties -in them, or contradictions, her conscious or -unconscious thought (the two are not always in accord) -will undertake the task of removing them, and -solving as well as possible the problems which these -dream-creations, considered as realities, impose upon -her, and the later somnambulisms will bear the imprint -of this labor of interpretation or correction.</p> - -<p>It is to this point we have come at the commencement -of the astronomical romance of Mlle. Smith. -The purely accidental and fortuitous conjunction -of the planet Mars and Alexis Mirbel in the seance -of the 25th of November determined their definitive -welding together. Association by fortuitous contiguity -is transformed into a logical connection.</p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">Later Development of the Martian -Cycle</span></h3> - -<p>This development was not effected in a regular -manner; but for the most part by leaps and bounds, -separating stoppages more or less prolonged. After -its inauguration in the seance of November 25, 1894, it -suffered a first eclipse of nearly fifteen months, attributable -to new preoccupations which had installed -themselves on the highest plane of Mlle. Smith’s -subconsciousness and held that position throughout -the whole of the year 1895.</p> - -<p>Compared with the seance of November, 1894, that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>153</span> -of February, 1896 (of which a résumé follows), shows -interesting innovations. Raspail does not figure in -it and henceforth does not appear again, which -was probably due to the fact that Mme. Mirbel had -failed to make use of the method of treatment which -he had prescribed for her eyes. Young Mirbel, on -the contrary, sole object of the desires and longings -of his poor mother, occupies the highest plane, and is -the central figure of the vision. He now speaks Martian -and no longer understands French, which complicates -the conversation somewhat. Further, not -possessing the power of moving tables upon our globe, -it is through the intervention of the medium, by incarnating -himself momentarily in Mlle. Smith, that -he henceforth communicates with his mother. These -two latter points in their turn cause certain difficulties -to arise, which, acting as a ferment or a suggestion, -will later usher in a new step in the progress of the -romance: Alexis Mirbel cannot return to incarnate -himself in a terrestrial medium if he is imprisoned -in his Martian existence; he must first terminate -that and return to the condition in which he again -floats in interplanetary space; which “fluid” or wandering -state permits him at the same time to give us -the French translation of the Martian tongue; since, -according to spiritism, a complete memory of previous -existences, and consequently of the various -languages pertaining to them, is temporarily recovered -during the phases of disincarnation.</p> - -<p>These anticipatory hints will assist the reader in -following more easily the thread of the somnambulistic -romance in the résumé of its principal stages.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>154</span></p> - -<p>February 2, 1896.—I sum up, by enumerating -them, the principal somnambulistic phases of this -seance, which lasted more than two hours and a half, -and at which Mme. Mirbel assisted.</p> - -<p>1. Increasing hemisomnambulism, with gradual -loss of consciousness of the real environment—at the -beginning the table bows several times to Mme. Mirbel, -announcing that the coming scene is intended -for her. After a series of elementary visual hallucinations -(rainbow colors, etc.), meaning for Mme. -Mirbel that she would finally become blind, Hélène -arose, left the table, and held a long conversation with -an imaginary woman who wished her to enter a curious -little car without wheels or horses. She became -impatient towards this woman, who, after having at -first spoken to her in French, now persisted in speaking -in an unintelligible tongue, like Chinese. Leopold -revealed to us by the little finger that it was the -language of the planet Mars, that this woman is the -mother of Alexis Mirbel, reincarnated on that planet, -and that Hélène herself will speak Martian. Presently -Hélène begins to recite with increasing volubility -an incomprehensible jargon, the beginning of -which is as follows (according to notes taken by -M. Lemaître at the time, as accurately as possible): -“<b>Mitchma mitchmon mimini tchouainem mimatchineg -masichinof mézavi patelki abrésinad navette -naven navette mitchichénid naken chinoutoufiche</b>”.... -From this point the rapidity prevented -the recognition of anything else, except such scraps -as “<b>téké ... katéchivist ... méguetch</b>,” ... or “<b>méketch -... kété ... chiméké</b>.” After a few minutes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>155</span> -Hélène interrupts herself, crying out, “Oh, I have had -enough of it; you say such words to me I will never -be able to repeat them.” Then, with some reluctance, -she consents to follow her interlocutrix into the car -which was to carry her to Mars.</p> - -<p>2. The trance is now complete. Hélène thereupon -mimics the voyage to Mars in three phases, the -meaning of which is indicated by Leopold: a regular -rocking motion of the upper part of the body -(passing through the terrestrial atmosphere), absolute -immobility and rigidity (interplanetary space), -again oscillations of the shoulders and the bust (atmosphere -of Mars). Arrived upon Mars, she descends -from the car, and performs a complicated pantomime -expressing the manners of Martian politeness: uncouth -gestures with the hands and fingers, slapping -of the hands, taps of the fingers upon the nose, the -lips, the chin, etc., twisted courtesies, glidings, and -rotation on the floor, etc. It seems that is the way -people approach and salute each other up there.</p> - -<p>3. This sort of dance having suggested to one of -the sitters the idea of performing upon the piano, -Hélène suddenly fell upon the floor in an evidently -hypnotic state, which had no longer a Martian character. -At the cessation of the music she entered into -a mixed state, in which the memory of the Martian -visions continually mingle themselves with some idea -of her terrestrial existence. She talks to herself. -“Those dreams are droll, all the same.... I must -tell that to M. Lemaître. When he [the Martian -Alexis Mirbel] said ‘Good-day’ to me, he tapped -himself upon the nose.... He spoke to me in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>156</span> -queer language, but I understood it perfectly, all the -same,” etc. Seated on the ground, leaning against -a piece of furniture, she continues, soliloquizing in -French, in a low voice, to review the dream, mingling -with it some wandering reflections. She -finds, for example, that the young Martian (Alexis) -was a remarkably big boy for one only five or six -years old, as he claimed to be, and that the woman -seemed very young to be his mother.</p> - -<p>4. After a transitory phase of sighs and hiccoughs, -followed by profound sleep with muscular relaxation, -she enters into Martian somnambulism and murmurs -some confused words: “<b>Késin ouitidjé</b>” ... -etc. I command her to speak French to me; she -seems to understand, and replies in Martian, with -an irritated and imperious tone, I ask her to tell -me her name; she replies, “<b>Vasimini Météche</b>.” -With the idea that, perhaps, she “is incarnating” -the young Alexis, of whom she has spoken so much -in the preceding phase, I urge Mme. Mirbel to approach -her, and thereupon begins a scene of incarnation -really very affecting; Mme. Mirbel is on her -knees, sobbing bitterly, in the presence of her recovered -son, who shows her marks of the most -profound affection and caresses her hands “exactly -as he was accustomed to do during his last illness,” -all the time carrying on a discourse in Martian -(<b>tin is toutch</b>), which the poor mother cannot understand, -but to which an accent of extreme sweetness -and a tender intonation impart an evident -meaning of words of consolation and filial tenderness. -This pathetic duet lasted about ten minutes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>157</span> -and was brought to an end by a return to lethargic -sleep, from which Hélène awakened at the end of a -quarter of an hour, pronouncing a short Martian -word, after which she instantly recovered the use -of her French and her normal waking state.</p> - -<p>5. Questioned as to what had passed, Hélène, -while drinking tea, narrates the dream which she -has had. She has a sufficiently clear memory of her -journey and of what she has seen on Mars, with the -exception of the young man, of whom she has retained -only a recollection of the scene of incarnation.</p> - -<p>But suddenly, in the midst of the conversation, -she begins to speak in Martian, without appearing -to be aware of it, and while continuing to chat with -us in the most natural manner; she appeared to -understand all our words, and answered in her -strange idiom, in the most normal tone, and seemed -very much astonished when we told her that we did -not understand her language; she evidently believes -she is speaking French.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> By questioning -her concerning a visit which she had made a few -days before to M. C., and asking her the number -and the names of the persons whom she met there, -we succeed in identifying the four following Martian -words: <b>Métiche S.</b>, <i>Monsieur S.</i>; <b>Médache C.</b>, <i>Madame -C.</i>; <b>Métaganiche Smith</b>, <i>Mademoiselle Smith</i>; -<b>kin’t’che</b>, <i>four</i>. After which she resumes definitively -her French. Interrogated as to the incident<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>158</span> -which has transpired, she is astounded, has only -a hesitating and confused memory of her having -spoken at all this evening of her visit to M. C., and -does not recognize nor understand the four Martian -words given above when they are repeated to her. -On several occasions during this seance I had made -the suggestion to Hélène that at a given signal, -after her awaking, she would recover the memory -of the Martian words pronounced by her and of their -meaning. But Leopold, who was present, declared -that this command would not be obeyed, and that -a translation could not be obtained this evening. -The signal, though often repeated, was, in fact, -without result.</p> - -<p>It has seemed to me necessary to describe with -some detail this seance, at which the Martian language -made its first appearance, in order to place -before the reader all the fragments which we have -been able to gather, without, of course, any guarantee -of absolute accuracy, since every one knows how -difficult it is to note the sounds of unknown words. -A curious difference is to be noticed between the -words picked up in the course of the seance and the -four words several times repeated by Hélène, the -meaning and pronunciation of which have been determined -with complete accuracy in the post-hypnotic return -of the somnambulistic dream. Judged by these -latter, the Martian language is only a puerile counterfeit -of French, of which she preserves in each word a -number of syllables and certain conspicuous letters. -In the other phrases, on the contrary, also making -use of later texts which have been translated, as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>159</span> -we shall see hereafter, it cannot be discovered what -it is. We are constrained to believe that these first -outbreaks of Martian, characterized by a volubility -which we have rarely met with since then, was only -a pseudo-Martian, a continuation of sounds uttered -at random and without any real meaning, analogous -to the gibberish which children use sometimes -in their games of “pretending” to speak Chinese -or Indian, and that the real Martian was only created -by an unskilful distortion of French, in a post-hypnotic -access of hemisomnambulism, in order to -respond to the manifest desire of the sitters to obtain -the precise significance of some isolated Martian -words.</p> - -<p>The impossibility, announced by Leopold, of procuring -a translation that same evening of the pretended -Martian spoken for the first time during that -seance, and the fact that it could not again be obtained, -give some support to the preceding theory.</p> - -<p>The circumstance that Hélène, in remembering -her dream in phase No. 3, had the sentiment of having -<i>well understood</i> this unknown jargon, is not an -objection, since the children who amuse themselves -by simulating an uncouth idiom—to recur to that -example—do not retain the least consciousness of the -ideas which their gibberish is assumed to express. -It seems, in short, that if this new language was -already really established at that time in Hélène’s -subliminal consciousness to the point of sustaining -fluently discourses of several minutes’ duration, -some phrases at least would not have failed to gush -forth, spontaneously sometimes, in the course of or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>160</span>dinary -life, and in order to throw light upon visions -of Martian people or landscapes. More than seven -months had to elapse before that phenomenon, which -was so frequent afterwards, began to appear.</p> - -<p>May we not see in this half-year a period of incubation, -employed in the subliminal fabrication of a -language, properly so called—that is to say, formed -of precise words and with a definite signification, in -imitation of the four terms just referred to—to replace -the disordered nonsense of the beginning?</p> - -<p>However it may be, and to return to our story, -one can imagine the interest which that sudden and -unexpected apparition of mysterious speech aroused, -and which the authority of Leopold would not allow -to be taken for anything other than the language -of Mars. The natural curiosity of Hélène herself, -as well as that of her friends, to know more about -our neighbors of other worlds and their way of expressing -themselves should naturally have contributed -to the development of the subliminal dream. -The following seance, unhappily, did not justify -the promise with which it began.</p> - -<p>February 16, 1896.—“At the beginning of this -seance, Hélène has a vision of Alexis Mirbel, who -announces, by means of the table, that he has not -forgotten his French, and that he will give a translation -of the Martian words another day. But this -prediction is not fulfilled. Whether Hélène, for -the reason that she is not feeling well to-day, or that -the presence of some one antipathetic to her has hindered -the production of the phenomena, the Martian -somnambulism, which seemed on the point of break<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>161</span>ing -forth, did not make its appearance. Hélène -remains in a crepuscular state, in which the feeling -of present reality and the Martian ideas on the level -of consciousness interfere with and mutually obscure -each other. She speaks in French with the sitters, -but mingling with it here and there a strange word -(such as <b>méche</b>, <b>chinit</b>, <b>chéque</b>, which, according -to the context, seem to signify <i>pencil</i>, <i>ring</i>, <i>paper</i>), -and appears far away from her actual surroundings. -She is astonished, in particular, at the sight -of M. R. occupied in taking notes by the <i lang="fr">procès verbal</i>, -and seems to find that manner of writing with -a pen or pencil strange and absurd, but without explaining -clearly how it was to be otherwise accomplished. -The importance of this seance is in the -fact that the idea stands out clearly (which was not -to be realized until a year and a half later) of a mode -of handwriting peculiar to the planet Mars.”</p> - -<p>This seance, which was almost a failure, was the -last of that period. Hélène’s health, which became -more and more impaired by standing too long on -her feet and overwork at her desk, necessitated her -taking a complete rest. I have mentioned the fact -that during these six months, without any regular -seances, she was subject to a superabundance of -spontaneous visions and somnambulisms; but these -automatisms belonged to the Hindoo or other cycles, -and I do not believe that she experienced during that -time any phenomena which were clearly related to -the Martian romance. On the other hand, as soon -as she was re-established in and had returned to her -normal mode of life, the latter appeared again with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>162</span> -all the more intensity, dating from the following nocturnal -vision. (See <a href="#Fig_9">Fig. 9.</a>)</p> - -<p>September 5, 1896.—Hélène narrates that having -arisen at a quarter-past three in the morning to take -in some flowers that stood upon the window-sill and -were threatened by the wind, instead of going back -to bed immediately she sat down upon her bed and -saw before her a landscape and some peculiar people. -She was on the border of a beautiful blue-pink lake, -with a bridge the sides of which were transparent -and formed of yellow tubes like the pipes of an organ, -of which one end seemed to be plunged into the water. -The earth was peach-colored; some of the trees had -trunks widening as they ascended, while those of -others were twisted. Later a crowd approached the -bridge, in which one woman was especially prominent. -The women wore hats which were flat, like plates. -Hélène does not know who these people are, but has -the feeling of having conversed with them. On the -bridge there was a man of dark complexion (Astané), -carrying in his hands an instrument somewhat -resembling a carriage-lantern in appearance, which, -being pressed, emitted flames, and which seemed to -be a flying-machine. By means of this instrument -the man left the bridge, touched the surface of the -water, and returned again to the bridge. This tableau -lasted twenty-five minutes, since Hélène, upon returning -to consciousness, observed that her candle -was still burning and ascertained that it was then -3.40 o’clock. She is convinced that she did not fall -asleep, but was wide awake during all of this vision. -(See <a href="#Fig_10">Figs. 10</a> and <a href="#Fig_11">11.</a>)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>163</span></p> - -<p>From that time the spontaneous Martian visions -are repeated and multiplied. Mlle. Smith experiences -them usually in the morning, after awaking and before -rising from her bed; sometimes in the evening, -or occasionally at other times during the day. It is in -the course of these visual hallucinations that the Martian -language appears again under an auditive form.</p> - -<p>September 22, 1896.—During these last days Hélène -has seen again on different occasions the Martian -man, with or without his flying-machine; for -example, he appeared to her while she was taking a -bath, at the edge of the bath-tub. She has had several -times visions of a strange house the picture of -which followed her with so much persistency that -she finally painted it (see <a href="#Fig_12">Fig. 12</a>). At the same -time she heard on three different occasions a sentence -the meaning of which she does not know, but which -she was able to take down with her pencil as follows: -“<b>Dodé né ci haudan té méche métiche Astané ké -dé mé véche.</b>” (As was ascertained six weeks after, -by the translation given in the seance of the 2d of -November, this phrase indicates that the strange -house is that of the Martian man, who is called -Astané.)</p> - -<p>This phrase was undoubtedly Martian, but what -was the meaning of it? After having hoped in vain -for nearly a month that the meaning would be revealed -in some way or other, I decided to try a disguised -suggestion. I wrote to Leopold himself a -letter, in which I appealed to his omniscience as well -as to his kindness to give me some enlightenment -in regard to the strange language which piqued our<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>164</span> -curiosity, and, in particular, as to the meaning of the -phrase Hélène had heard. I asked him to answer me -in writing, by means of Hélène’s hand. We did not -have to wait long for a reply. Hélène received my -letter the 20th of October, and on the evening of the -22d, seized with a vague desire to write, she took a -pencil, which placed itself in the regular position, -between the thumb and the index-finger (whereas -she always held her pen between the middle and index-finger), -and traced rapidly, in the characteristic -handwriting of Leopold and with his signature, a -beautiful epistle of eighteen Alexandrine lines addressed -to me, of which the ten last are as follows, -being an answer to my request that the secrets of -Martian be revealed to me:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Ne crois pas qu’en t’aimant comme un bien tendre frère</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je te diroi des cieux tout le profond mystère;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Je t’aideroi beaucoup, je t’ouvriroi la voie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mais à toi de saisir et chercher avec joie;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et quand tu la verras d’ici-bas détachée,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Quand son âme mobile aura pris la volée</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et planera sur Mars aux superbes couleurs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Si tu veux obtenir d’elle quelques lueurs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pose bien doucement, ta main sur son front pâle</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et prononce bien bas le doux nom d’Esenale!”<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>165</span></p> -<p>I have been very sensible to the pledges of fraternal -affection that Leopold has accorded me, but this -time I was especially moved, and although the very -uncommon name of Esenale meant absolutely nothing -to me, I took care not to forget the singular rule -which had been furnished me. At the following -seance an opportunity for using it presented itself, -and Leopold went so far as to direct himself the application -of his method by giving us his instructions, -sometimes with one finger, sometimes with another, -during Hélène’s Martian trance.</p> - -<p>Monday, November 2, 1896.—After various characteristic -symptoms of the departure for Mars (vertigo, -affection of the heart, etc.), Hélène went in a deep -sleep. I had recourse to the prescribed method, but -Leopold, by the fingers of the right hand, indicated -that the proper moment had not yet arrived, and said: -“When the soul shall again have regained possession -of itself thou shalt execute my order; she will -then describe to you, while still asleep, that which -she shall have seen on Mars.” Shortly after he -adds, “Make her sit down in an easy-chair” (instead -of the uncomfortable one which she had taken, -as was her wont); then, as her peaceful sleep still -continued, he informs us again that she is <i lang="fr">en route</i> -towards Mars; that once arrived up there she understands -the Martian spoken around her, although -she has never learned it; that it is not he, Leopold, -who will translate the Martian for us—not because -he does not wish to do so, but because he cannot; -that this translation is the performance of Esenale, -who is actually disincarnate in space, but who has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>166</span> -recently lived upon Mars, and also upon the earth, -which permits him to act as interpreter, etc.</p> - -<p>After half an hour of waiting, Hélène’s calm sleep -gave way to agitation, and she passed into another -form of somnambulism, with sighs, rhythmic movements -of the head and hands, then grotesque Martian gestures -and French words murmured softly to the hearing -of Leopold, who seems to accompany her on Mars, -and to whom she confides some of her impressions in -regard to that which she perceives. In the midst of -this soliloquy a vertical movement of the arm, peculiar -to Leopold, indicates that the moment has arrived for -carrying out his directions. I place my hand on -Hélène’s forehead, and utter the name of Esenale, -to which Hélène replies in a soft, feeble, somewhat -melancholy, voice: “Esenale has gone away ... -he has left me alone ... but he will return, ... -he will soon return.... He has taken me by the -hand and made me enter the house [that which she -saw in her vision, and of which she made the drawing -a month ago—see <a href="#Fig_12">Fig. 12</a>].... I do not know where -Esenale is leading me, but he has said to me, ‘<b>Dodé -né ci haudan té méche métiche Astané ké dé mé -véche</b>,’ but I did not understand; ... <b>dodé</b>, <i>this</i>; -<b>né</b>, <i>is</i>; <b>ci</b>, <i>the</i>; <b>haudan</b>, <i>house</i>; <b>te</b>, <i>of the</i>; <b>méche</b>, -<i>great</i>; <b>métiche</b>, <i>man</i>; <b>Astané</b>, <i>Astané</i>; <b>ké</b>, <i>whom</i>; -<b>dé</b>, <i>thou</i>; <b>mé</b>, <i>hast</i>; <b>véche</b>, <i>seen</i>.... This is the -house of the great man Astané, whom thou hast -seen.... Esenale has told me that.... Esenale -has gone away.... He will return ... he will -soon return ... he will teach me to speak ... -and Astané will teach me to write.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>167</span></p> - -<p>I have abridged this long monologue, constantly -interrupted by silences, and the continuation of which -I only obtained by having constant recourse to the -name of Esenale as the magic word, alone capable of -extracting each time a few words from Hélène’s confused -brain. After the last sentence or phrase, in which -one can see a categorical prediction of the Martian -writing, her weak, slow voice was finally hushed, and -Leopold directs by means of his left middle finger the -removal of the hand from the forehead. Then follow -the customary alternations of lethargic sleep, sighs, -catalepsy, momentary relapses into somnambulism, -etc. Then she opens her eyes permanently, very -much surprised to find herself in the easy-chair. Her -brain is greatly confused. “It seems to me as though -I had a great many things on my mind, but I cannot -fix upon anything.” By degrees she regains a clear -consciousness, but of the entire seance, which has -lasted an hour and a half, there only remain some -fragments of Martian visions and no recollection -whatever of the scene with Esenale and that of the -translation.</p> - -<p>This process of translation, the first application of -which is here presented, becomes from this time the -standard method.</p> - -<p>For more than two years and a half, the imposition -of the hand upon Hélène’s forehead and the uttering -of the name of Esenale at the proper moment during -the trance constitute the “open sesame” of the Martian-French -dictionary buried in the subliminal strata -of Hélène’s consciousness. The idea of this ceremonial -is evidently to awaken by suggestion—in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>168</span> -certain favorable somnambulistic phase, which Leopold -recognizes and himself announces by a gesture -of the arm—the secondary personality which has -amused itself by composing the phrases of this extra-terrestrial -language.</p> - -<p>In spiritistic terms, it amounts to invoking the -disincarnate Esenale, otherwise called Alexis Mirbel, -who, having lived on both planets, can easily -devote himself to the functions of an interpreter.</p> - -<p>The only difference between this scene of translation -and other seances is in the ease and rapidity -with which it is performed. Esenale seems sometimes -to be thoroughly asleep and difficult to awaken; -Hélène persists in replying by the stereotyped refrain, -and incessantly repeats, in her soft and melancholy -voice, “Esenale has gone away—he will soon return—he -has gone away—he will soon return.” -Then some more energetic passes or friction on the -forehead are necessary, instead of the simple pressure -of the hand, in order to break up this mechanical -repetition, which threatens to go on forever, and -in order to obtain, finally, the repetition and translation, -word by word, of the Martian texts. Otherwise -the voice continues identical with that of the refrain, -soft and feeble, and one can never know whether -it is Esenale himself who is making use of Hélène’s -phonetic apparatus without modifying it, -or whether it is she herself, repeating in her sleep -what Esenale has told her; the categorical distinctness -and absence of all hesitation in pronunciation -of the Martian are in favor of the former supposition, -which is also corroborated by the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>169</span> -it was also in this same voice that Alexis Mirbel -(Esenale) spoke to his mother in the scenes of incarnation. -(See <a href="#Fig_13">Fig. 13.</a>)</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp93" id="i168f" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_13"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_168f.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig 13. Martian landscape. Greenish-yellow sky. A man with a yellow complexion, -dressed in white, in a boat of brown, yellow, black, and red colors on a -blue-green lake; rose-tinted rock, with white and yellow spots; dark green vegetation; -buildings of brown, red, and rose-lilac tints, with white window-panes and -curtains of bright blue.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>It would be wearisome to recount in detail all the -further manifestations of the Martian cycle, which -occur frequently in numerous seances and also under -the form of spontaneous visions in the daily life -of Mlle. Smith. The reader can gain an idea of -them both from the remarks of the following paragraph, -as well as from the explanatory résumés -added to the Martian texts, which will be collected -in the following chapter. It merely remains for -me to say a word here as to the manner in which the -pictures of Hélène relative to Mars, and reproduced -in autotype in the Figs. 9 to 20, have been made.</p> - -<p>None of these pictures has been executed in complete -somnambulism, and they have not, consequently, -like the drawings of certain mediums, the interest -of a graphic product, absolutely automatic, engendered -outside of and unknown to the ordinary consciousness. -They are nothing more than simple compositions -of the normal consciousness of Mlle. Smith. -They represent a type of intermediary activity, and -correspond to a state of hemisomnambulism. We -have seen above (p. <a href="#Page_20">p. 20</a>) that already in her childhood -Hélène seems to have executed various pieces -of work in a semi-automatic manner. The same -performance is often reproduced on the occasion -of the Martian visions, which sometimes pursue her -so persistently that she decides to execute them with -pencil and brush; work which, in anticipation, -often frightens her by its difficulty, but which, when<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>170</span> -the time comes, accomplishes itself, to her great astonishment, -with an ease and perfection almost mechanical. -Here is an example:</p> - -<p>One Tuesday evening, having already retired, -Hélène saw on her bed some magnificent flowers, -very different from ours, but without perfume, and -which she did not touch, for during her visions she -has no idea of moving, and remains inert and passive. -The afternoon of the following day, at her -desk, she found herself enveloped in a red light, and -at the same time felt an indefinable but violent affection -of the heart (<i>aura</i> of the voyage to Mars). -“The red light continues about me, and I find myself -surrounded by extraordinary flowers of the kind -which I saw on my bed, but they had no perfume. -I will bring you some sketches of them on Sunday.” -She sent them to me, in fact, on Monday, with the -following note: “I am very well satisfied with my -plants. They are the exact reproduction of those -which it afforded me so much pleasure to behold -[No. 3, in <a href="#Fig_16">Fig. 16</a>, which, beforehand, Hélène despaired -of being able to render well], which appeared -to me on the latter occasion, and I greatly -regret that you were not here to see me execute the -drawing: the pencil glided so quickly that I did not -have time to notice what contours it was making. -I can assert without any exaggeration that it was -not my hand alone that made the drawing, but that -truly an invisible force guided the pencil in spite of -me. The various tints appeared to me upon the -paper, and my brush was directed in spite of me towards -the color which I ought to use. This seems incredible, but it is, notwithstanding, the exact truth, -The whole was done so quickly that I marvelled -at it.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i170fa" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_9"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_170fa.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 9. Martian landscape. Pink bridge, with yellow railings plunging down into a -pale-blue and purple-tinted lake. The shores and hills of a red color, no green being -visible. All the trees are of a brick-red, purple, or violet tint. [From the collection -of M. Lemaître].</p></div> -</div> - - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i170fb" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_15"></a><a id="Fig_16"></a><a id="Fig_17"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_170fb.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 15. Light-brown and yellow trunk and leaves; double-lobed flowers of a vivid -red, out of which proceed yellow stamens like black threads.Fig. 16. Large -leaves, light yellowish brown; flowers with purple petals with black stamens and -black stems covered with little purple leaves like petals.Fig. 17. Large violet -fruit with black spots, surmounted by a yellow and violet plume. The trunk of -brown color with black veins, with six branches of the same character ending in -a yellow hook. Red-brick soil.</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>171</span></p> - -<p>The house of Astané (Fig. 12), and the extensive -landscapes of Figs. 13 and 14, are also the products -of a quasi-automatic activity, which always -gives great satisfaction to Mlle. Smith. It is, in a -way, her subliminal self which holds the brush and -executes, at its pleasure, its own tableaux, which also -have the value of veritable originals. Other drawings, -on the contrary (for example, the portrait of -Astané,<a href="#Fig_11">Fig. 11</a>), which have given Hélène much -trouble without having satisfied her very well, should -be regarded as simple copies from memory, by the -ordinary personality, of past visions, the memory of -which is graven upon her mind in a manner sufficiently -persistent to serve as a model several days -afterwards. In both cases, but especially in the first, -Hélène’s paintings may be considered as faithful reproductions -of the tableaux which unfold themselves -before her, and consequently give us better than most -verbal descriptions an idea of the general character -of her Martian visions.</p> - -<p>Let us see now what kind of information the messages -and somnambulisms of Hélène furnish us in -regard to the brilliant planet whose complicated -revolutions formerly revealed to a Kepler the fundamental -secrets of modern astronomy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>172</span></p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">The Personages of the Martian -Romance</span></h3> - -<p>In using the word “romance” to designate the Martian -communications, taken as a whole, I wish to -state that they are, to my mind, a work of pure imagination, -but not that there are to be found in them -characteristics of unity and of internal co-ordination, -of sustained action, of increasing interest to the final -dénouement. The Martian romance is only a succession -of detached scenes and tableaux, without order -or intimate connection, and showing no other common -traits beyond the unknown language spoken in -it, the quite frequent presence of the same personages, -and a certain fashion of originality, a color or quality -badly defined as “exotic” or “bizarre” in the landscapes, -the edifices, the costumes, etc.</p> - -<p>Of a consecutive plot or intrigue, properly so called, -there is no trace. I naturally speak only of that -which we have learned from the seances of Mlle. -Smith, or from the spontaneous visions which she -recollects sufficiently to narrate afterwards. But -this fails to shadow forth the hidden source whence -they all spring.</p> - -<p>Without determining the question, I am inclined, -nevertheless, to accord to the Martian romance, in -some profound stratum of Hélène’s being, a much -greater continuity and extent than would appear -from judging it solely by the fragments known to -us. We have only, in my opinion, a few pages, taken -at hazard from different chapters; the bulk of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>173</span> -volume is wanting, and the little we possess does not -enable us to reconstruct it in a satisfactory manner. -We must, therefore, be content with sorting this <i>débris</i> -of unequal importance, according to their content, independently -of their chronological order, and grouping -them around the principal personages which -figure in them.</p> - -<p>The anonymous and mixed crowd which forms -the base of some of the Martian visions only differs -from that of our own country by the large robe common -to both sexes, the flat hats, and the sandals -bound to the feet by straps. The interest is confined -to a small number of more distinct personages having -each his own name, always terminating in an -<i>e</i> with the men and in an <i>i</i> with the women, except -only in the case of Esenale, who occupies, however, -a place by himself in his quality of disincarnated -Martian, fulfilling the function of interpreter. Let -us begin by saying a few words about him.</p> - - -<h4><span class="smcap">Esenale</span></h4> - -<p>We have seen (<a href="#Page_164">p. 164</a>) that this name was hinted -at by Leopold on the 22d of October, 1896, without -any other explanation as a means of obtaining the -signification of the Martian words. Then at the -first recurrence to this talisman (November 2d, see p. -166) we learn only that he was a deceased inhabitant -of Mars, whose acquaintance Leopold had recently -made in interplanetary space. It was only at the -following seance (November 8th), where we find Mme. -Mirbel, that, after an incarnation of her son Alexis, -followed by the scene of translation (see text 3) and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>174</span> -in response to questions of the sitters—which answered -very well the purpose of suggestion—Leopold -affirmed by the left index-finger that Esenale -was Alexis Mirbel. It cannot be determined whether -that identification constituted a primitive fact -which it pleased Leopold to keep secret, only revealing -it at the end of a seance at which Mme. Mirbel -was present, or whether, as I am inclined to regard -it, it was only established at that same seance, under -the domination of the circumstances of the moment. -As a translator of Martian, Esenale did not -show great talent. He had to be entreated, and it -was necessary often to repeat his name while pressing -or rubbing Hélène’s forehead, in order to obtain -the exact meaning of the last texts which had -been given. He possessed, it is true, an excellent -memory, and faithfully reproduced, before giving -it word by word, the French for the Martian phrases -which Hélène had heard several weeks before and only -seen again five or six months afterwards (text 24), -and of which there had been no previous opportunity -to obtain a translation. But it was to these latter -texts, not yet interpreted, that he confined his -willingness; on two occasions only did he add, of -his own accord, some words of no importance (texts -15 and 36.) Text No. 19, for instance, has always -remained untranslated, and my later efforts (June -4, 1899) to obtain the meaning of the unknown -words <b>milé piri</b> have been in vain; moreover, Esenale -has not been able to fill up the gaps in text -No. 24.</p> - -<p>Alexis Mirbel, after the two first Martian seances,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>175</span> -reported on pp. <a href="#Page_146">146</a> and <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, called Esenale, often -accorded his mother, in scenes of incarnation, -somewhat pathetic, touching messages of filial tenderness -and consolation (texts 3, 4, 11, 15, and 18). -It is to be noted that, although opportunities for continuing -this rôle were not wanting, he appears to -have completely abandoned it for the last two years. -His last message of this kind (October 10, 1897, text -18) followed a month after a curious seance in which -Leopold sought to explain to us spontaneously—no -one had mentioned the subject—certain flagrant -contradictions in the first manifestations of Alexis-Esenale. -Here is a résumé of that scene, with the -text of Leopold’s communication:</p> - -<p>September 12, 1897.—After sundry waking visions, -Mlle. Smith hears Leopold speaking; her eyes -are closed, and, appearing to be asleep, she repeats, -mechanically and in a slow and feeble voice, the -following words, which her guide addresses to her: -“Thou art going to pay close attention. Tell -them now [the sitters] to keep as quiet as possible, -that is what often mars the phenomena, the comings -and goings, and the idle chatter of which you -are never weary. You recollect there was, several -months ago, a young man, that young man Alexis -Mirbel, who came to give counsel to his mother at -a reunion you held with M. (I do not understand -the name he gave) ... at Carouge<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>.... Well, -at that moment he happened—that is to say, two -days before—to die on ... (I could not under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>176</span>stand -the name) ... where he had been ... -or he had regained life.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> This is why I have come to -tell you to-day he was in that phase of separation of -the material part from the soul which permitted him -to recollect his previous existence—that is to say, -his life here below in this state; he not only recollects -his first mother, but can speak once more the -language he used to speak with her. Some time after, -when the soul was finally at rest, he no longer -recollected that first language; he returns, he hovers -about (his mother), sees her with joy, but is incapable -of speaking to her in your language.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Whether -it will return to him I do not know and cannot say, -but I believe that it will. And now listen.” Here -Mlle. Smith seems to awake, opens her eyes, and -has a long Martian vision, which she describes in -detail. She now sees a little girl in a yellow robe, -whose name she hears as <b>Anini Nikaïné</b>, occupied -with various childish games—<i>e. g.</i>, with a small wand -she makes a number of grotesque little figures dance -in a white tub, large and shallow, full of sky-blue -water. Then come other persons, and, finally, Astané, -who has a pen in his fingers, and, little by little, -takes hold of Hélène’s arm and throws her into -a deep trance for the purpose of causing her to write -text No. 17.</p> - -<p>These spontaneous explanations of Leopold are -interesting in that they betray clearly the subliminal -desire to introduce some order and logic into the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>177</span> -incoherences of the mediumistic reveries. It is a -form of the process of justification and retrospective -interpretation intended to make the incidents of the -past accord with the dominant ideas of the present -(see <a href="#Page_95">p. 95</a>). In appearance, the theory upon which -Leopold rested, after having doubtless meditated -long, is quite awkward; but perhaps it was difficult -for him to do better, since no one can accomplish the -impossible.</p> - - -<h4><span class="allsmcap">ASTANÉ</span></h4> - -<p>“The great man Astané” is the reincarnation on -Mars of the Hindoo fakir Kanga, who was a devoted -companion and friend of Simandini. He has preserved -in his new existence the special character of -savant or of sorcerer, which he formerly possessed -in India, and he has equally retained all his affection -for his princess of old, who has been restored to -him in Mlle. Smith; he frequently utilizes his magic -powers to <i>evoke</i> her—that is to say, to re-enter into -spiritual communication with her, notwithstanding -the distances between their actual places of habitation. -The ways and means of that evocation remain, -however, enveloped in mystery. We cannot -say whether it was Hélène that rejoined Astané on -Mars during her somnambulism, or whether it was -he who descended “fluidly” towards her and brought -to her the odors of the far-distant planet.</p> - -<p>When Astané says to Hélène, during a seance: -“Come to me an instant. Come and admire these -flowers,” etc. (text 8), or shows her the curiosities of -his Martian abode, it seems as though he had really<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>178</span> -called her to him through space; but when he appears -to her, while awake, at the edge of her bath-tub, -and expresses his chagrin at finding her still -on this miserable earth (text 7), it must be admitted -that it is he who has descended to her and inspires -her with these visions of an upper world. It is of -no importance, on the whole. It is here to be noted -that, in these evocations, Astané only manifests himself -in visual and auditive hallucinations, never in -tactile impressions or those of general sensibility; in -the sphere of emotion his presence is accompanied -by a great calm on the part of Hélène, a profound -bliss, and an ecstatic disposition, which is the correlative -and pendant of the happiness experienced by -Astané himself (texts 10, 17, etc.) at finding himself -in the presence of his idol of the past. The social -state of Astané—I should rather say his name, -his quality of sorcerer, and his previous terrestrial -existence in the body of Kanga—was not immediately -revealed.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, at his first apparition (September 5, -1896, see <a href="#Page_162">p. 162</a>), he rises superior to the crowd, inasmuch -as he alone possesses a flying-machine incomprehensible -to us. In the following weeks Mlle. Smith -hears his name, and sees him again on many occasions, -as well as his house (Fig. 12), but it is only at -the end of two months and a half that his identity and -his “evocative” powers become known, at a seance -at which I was not present, and during which Hélène -did not, contrary to her usual custom, fall completely -asleep. The following is a résumé of the notes, which -I owe to the kindness of M. Cuendet:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>179</span></p> - -<p>November 19, 1896.—Contrary to the experience -of the preceding seances, Mlle. Smith remained constantly -awake, her arms free on the table, conversing -and even laughing all the while with the sitters. The -messages were obtained by means of visions and -typtological dictations. Hélène having asked Leopold -how it happens that she had been able to communicate -with a being living on Mars, she has a vision -in which Astané appears to her in a costume more -Oriental than Martian. “Where have I seen that -costume?” asks she; and the table replies “<i>In India</i>,” -which indicates that Astané is an ex-Hindoo reincarnated -on Mars. At the same time Hélène has a -vision of an Oriental landscape which she believes -she has already seen before, but without knowing -where. She sees Astané there, carrying under his -arm rolls of paper of a dirty white color, and bowing -in Oriental fashion before a woman, also clothed in -Oriental garments, whom she also believes she has -seen before. These personages appear to her to be -“inanimate, like statues.” The sitters ask whether -the vision was not a simple tableau (of the past) presented -by Leopold; the table replies in the affirmative, -then inclines itself significantly towards Mlle. Smith, -when some one asked who that Oriental woman might -be, and the idea is put forth that possibly she represents -Simandini. Finally, to further questions of -the sitters, the table (Leopold) dictates again that -Astané in his Hindoo existence was called <i>Kanga</i>, -who was a “<i>sorcerer of the period</i>”; then that “<i>Astané -on the planet Mars possesses the same faculty of evocation -which he had possessed in India</i>.” Leopold is then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>180</span> -asked if the power of Astané is greater than his. “<i>A -different power, of equal strength</i>,” replies the table. -Finally, Hélène desiring to know whether Astané -when he evokes her sees her in her real character or -that of her Hindoo incarnation, the table affirms that -he sees her in her Hindoo character, and adds: “<i>and, -in consequence, under those characteristics which she -[Hélène] possesses to-day and which are in such striking -harmony with those of Sima</i><span class="allsmcap">N</span><i>dini</i>,” insisting on -the <i>N</i> in the middle of the name.</p> - -<p>It is to be remarked that at this sitting it was Leopold -who gave all the information in regard to the -past of Astané, and that he recognizes in him a power -over Hélène almost equal to his own. It is strange -that the accredited guide of Mlle. Smith, ordinarily -so jealous of his rights over her and ready to take -offence at all rival pretensions, so freely accords such -prerogatives to Astané. This unexpected mildness -is still more surprising when the singular similarity -of position of these two personages in regard to Hélène -is considered. Kanga, the Hindoo fakir, holds in -the life of Simandini exactly the same place as Cagliostro -in the life of Marie Antoinette, the place of a -sorcerer giving beneficial counsel, and at the same -time of a platonic adorer, and both of them in their -actual rôles of Astané and of Leopold preserve for -Mlle. Smith the respectful attachment which they had -for her illustrious former existences. How is it these -two extra-terrestrial pretenders do not hate each other -the more cordially since their rival claims upon Hélène -have identical foundations? But, far from in the -least disputing her possession, they assist each other<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>181</span> -in the most touching fashion. When Astané writes -in Martian by Mlle. Smith’s right hand that the -noise of the sitters threatens to make him insane (see -text 20) it is Leopold who comes to his rescue in making -them keep silent by his gestures with the left arm. -When Leopold indicates to me that the moment for -pressing Hélène’s forehead has arrived, it is Astané -who lends him his pencil in order that the message -may be written (see below, seance of September 12, -1897, and <a href="#Fig_23">Fig. 23</a>), and the exchange of powers takes -place between them without the medium experiencing -the least shock, and without its betraying itself outwardly -otherwise than by the difference of their handwriting. -It is true that Leopold’s apparitions to -Hélène are infinitely more frequent and his incarnations -much more complete than those of Astané, who -shows himself to her at increasing intervals, and has -never attained to speaking by her mouth. It makes -no difference: these two personages resemble each -other too much for mutual toleration—if they are -really two.</p> - -<p>My conclusion presses. Astané is, at bottom, -only a copy, a double, a transposition in the Hindoo-Martian -manner of Leopold. They are two variations -of one primitive theme. In regarding these -two beings, as I do, in the absence of proof to the -contrary, not as real and objective individualities, -but as pseudo-personalities, dream fictions, fantastic -subdivisions of the hypnoid consciousness of -Mlle. Smith, it may be said that it is the same fundamental -emotion which has inspired these twin rôles, -the details of which have been adapted by the subli<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>182</span>minal -imagination to correspond to the diversity of -the circumstances. The contradiction painfully felt -between the proud aspirations of the <i lang="fr">grande dame</i> -and the vexing ironies of reality has caused the two -tragic previous existences to gush forth—intrinsically -identical, in spite of the differences of place and -epoch—of the noble girl of Arabia, having become -Hindoo princess, burned alive on the tomb of her -despot of a husband, and of her Austrian highness, -having become Queen of France and sharing the -martyrdom of her spouse.</p> - -<p>On parallel lines, in these two dreams issuing from -the same emotional source, it is the universal and -constant taste of the human imagination for the -marvellous, allied to the very feminine need of a respectful -and slightly idolatrous protector, which on -the one side has created out of whole cloth the personage -of Kanga-Astané, and on the other hand -has absorbed, without being careful in modifying -authentic history, that of Cagliostro-Leopold. Both -are idealistic sorcerers, of profound sagacity, tender-hearted, -who have placed their great wisdom at -the service of the unfortunate sovereign and made -for her, of their devotion, amounting almost to adoration, -a tower of strength, a supreme consolation in -the midst of all the bitternesses of real life. And as -Leopold acts as guide for Hélène Smith in the general -course of her actual earthly existence, so Astané -seemingly plays the same rôle in the moments of -that life in which Hélène leaves our sublunar world -to fly away to the orb of Mars.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i182fa" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_12"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_182fa.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 12. House of Astané. Blue sky; soil, mountains, and walls of a red color. -The two plants, with twisted trunks, have purple leaves; the others have long -green lower leaves and small purple higher leaves. The framework of the doors, -windows, and decorations are in the shape of trumpets, and are of a brownish-red -color. White glass (?) and curtains or shades of a turquoise-blue. The railings of -the roof are yellow, with blue tips.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i182fb" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_14"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_182fb.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 14. Martian landscape. Sky of yellow; green lake; gray shores bordered by a -brown fence; bell-towers on the shore, in yellow-brown tones, with corners and pinnacles -ornamented with pink and blue balls; hill of red rocks, with vegetation of -a rather dark green interspersed with rose, purple, and white spots (flowers); -buildings at the base constructed of brick-red lattice-work; edges and corners -terminating in brown-red trumpets; immense white window-panes, with turquoise-blue -curtains; roofs furnished with yellow-brown bell-turrets, brick-red battlements, -or with green and red plants (like those of Astané’s house,<a href="#Fig_12">Fig. 12</a>). Persons -with large white head-dresses and red or brown robes.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>If, then, Astané is only a reflection, a projection of Leopoldd in the Martian sphere, -he has there assumed a special coloring, and has outwardly harmonized -himself with this new situation.</p> - -<p>He is clothed in a voluminous, embroidered robe; -he has long hair, no beard, a yellow complexion, -and carries in his hand a white roll, on which he -writes with a point fastened to the end of the index-finger.</p> - -<p>His house (Fig. 12) is quadrangular, with gates -and windows, and reminds one by its exterior aspect -of some Oriental structure, with a flat roof embellished -with plants.</p> - -<p>The inside is also appropriate. The furniture recalls -ours by force of contrast. We have few details; -with the exception of a musical instrument with vertical -cylinders, closely related to our organs, upon -which Hélène sometimes sees and hears Astané playing, -seated on a stool with one foot, resembling a -milking-stool.</p> - -<p>When we pass to the garden the same amalgam -of analogies and unlikenesses to our flora are discovered. -We have seen that Hélène has been often -haunted in the waking state by visions of Martian -plants and flowers, which she finally draws or paints -with a facility approaching automatism; these -specimens, as also the trees scattered over the landscapes, -show that Martian vegetation does not differ -essentially from ours. Of the animals we do not -know much. Astané has often with him an ugly -beast, which caused Hélène much fright on account -of its grotesque form—about two feet long, with a -flat tail; it has the “head of a cabbage,” with a big<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>184</span> -green eye in the middle (like the eye of a peacock -feather), and five or six pairs of paws, or ears all -about (see <a href="#Fig_18">Fig. 18</a>). This animal unites the intelligence -of the dog with the stupidity of the parrot, -since on the one hand it obeys Astané and -fetches objects at his command (we do not know -how), while, on the other hand, it knows how to -write, but in a manner purely mechanical. (We -have never had a specimen of this handwriting). -(See <a href="#Fig_18">Fig. 18.</a>)</p> - -<p>In fact, as to other animals, beyond the little black -bird cited, without description (text 20), and a species -of female deer for the purpose of nursing infants -(text 36), Hélène saw only horrid aquatic -beasts like big snails, which Astané caught by -means of iron nets stretched over the surface of the -water.</p> - -<p>Astané’s property is enclosed by large red stones, -on the border of the water, where Hélène loves to retire -with her guide to converse in peace and to recall -to mind with him the ancient and melancholy memories -of their Hindoo existence; the general tone of -these conversations is entirely the same as that of -her conversations with Leopold.</p> - -<p>There is a mountain also of red rocks, where Astané -possesses some excavated dwelling-places, a -kind of grotto appropriate to the sorcerer-savant -which he is.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i184fa" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_18"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_184fa.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 18. Astané’s ugly beast. The body and tail are rose-colored; the -eye is green with a black centre; the head is blackish; the lateral appendices -are brownish-yellow, covered, like the whole body, with pink -hair.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp85" id="i184fb" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_11"></a><a id="Fig_19"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_184fb.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 11. Astané. Yellow complexion, brown hair; brown sandals; roll -of white paper in his hand; variegated costume, or red and white; brick-red -belt and border.<a href="#Fig_19">Fig. 19</a>. Martian lamp, standing against a rose and -blue-colored tapestry.</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>185</span></p> - -<p>The corpse of Esenale, admirably preserved, is also -to be seen there, among other things, about which -the disincarnate Esenale sometimes floats in “fluid” -form, and which Hélène still finds soft to the touch, -when, after much hesitation, and not without fright, -she gained courage to touch it with the end of her -finger, at the invitation of Astané. It is also in this -house, excavated in the rock, that Astané has his -observatory, a pit traversing the mountain, by means -of which he contemplates the heavens (text 9), our -earth included, by means of a telescope, which the -beast with the head of a cabbage brings him.</p> - -<p>To these qualities of savant Astané joins those of -wise counsellor and of patriarchal governor. We -also see a young girl named Matêmi coming to -consult him frequently (texts 22 and 28), perhaps -on matrimonial affairs, since Matêmi reappears -on several occasions with her lover or her <i lang="fr">fiancé</i>, -Siké, and, among others, at a great family <i lang="fr">fête</i>, presided -over by Astané. (See <a href="#Fig_19">Fig. 19.</a>)</p> - -<p>The following are some details concerning that -vision, which occupied the greater part of a seance -(November 28, 1897). Hélène sees, in a vast, red, initial -light, a Martian street appear, lighted neither by -lamps nor electricity, but by lights shining through -small windows in the walls of the houses. The -interior of one of these houses becomes visible to -her: a superb, square hall, lighted at each angle by -a kind of lamp, formed of four superposed globes,—two -blue and two white—not of glass (Fig. 19); -under each lamp a small basin, over which was a -kind of cornucopia pouring forth water. There -were many ornamental plants. In the middle of -the hall, a grove, around which are placed a number -of small tables with a polished surface like nickel. -There are young people in Martian robes; young<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>186</span> -girls with long hair hanging down their backs, and -wearing at the back of the head a head-dress of roses; -colored blue or green butterflies attached to the neck.</p> - -<p>There were at least thirty speaking Martian (but -Hélène did not hear them distinctly). Astané appeared -“in a very ugly robe to-day,” and showed himself -full of friendly gallantry towards the young girls. -He seats himself alone at one of the tables while -the young people take their places at others, two -couples at each. These tables are adorned with -flowers different from ours: some blue, with leaves -in the shape of almonds; others starry, and as white -as milk, scented like musk; others, again, the most -beautiful, have the form of trumpets, either blue or -fire colored, with large rounded leaves, with black -figures. (See <a href="#Fig_20">Fig. 20.</a>)</p> - -<p>Hélène hears Astané pronounce the name “Pouzé.” -Then come two men in long white trousers with a -black sash; one wears a coat of rose color, the other -a white one. They carry ornamented trays, and, passing -in front of each table, they place square plates -upon them, with forks without handles, formed of -three teeth an inch in length: for glasses they had -goblets like tea-cups, bordered with a silver thread. -Then they brought in a kind of basin a cooked animal -resembling a cat, which is placed before Astané, who -twists it and cuts it rapidly with his fingers, tipped with -sharp silver tips; square pieces are distributed, among -the guests, on square plates with furrows around the -edges for the juice. Every one is filled with a wild -gayety. Astané sits at each table in succession, and -the girls pass their hands through his hair. New -plates are brought, and pink, white, and blue basins -tipped with flowers. These basins melt, and are eaten -like the flowers. Then the guests wash their hands -at little fountains in the corners of the room.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i186fa" style="max-width: 43.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_10"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_186fa.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 10. Flying-machine held by Astané, emitting -yellow and red flames. [From the collection of -M. Lemaître.]</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp59" id="i186fb" style="max-width: 53.125em;"> - <a id="Fig_20"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_186fb.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 20. Plant of Martian design. Fire-red flowers; -violet-gray leaves.</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>187</span></p> - -<p>Now one of the walls is raised, like the curtain of -a theatre, and Hélène sees a magnificent hall adorned -with luminous globes, flowers, and plants, with the -ceiling painted in pink clouds on a pink sky, with -couches and pillows suspended along the walls. Then -an orchestra of ten musicians arrive, carrying a kind -of gilded funnel about five feet in height, with a -round cover to the large opening, and at the neck a -kind of rake, on which they placed their fingers. Hélène -hears music like that made by flutes and sees -every one moving; they arrange themselves by fours, -make passes and gestures, then reunite in groups of -eight. They glide about gently, for it could not be -called dancing. They do not clasp each other’s -waists, but place their hands on each other’s -shoulders, standing some distance apart. It is terribly -warm. It is “boiling hot.” They stop, walk, -talk, and it is then that Hélène hears a tall young -brunette (Matêmi) and a short young man (Siké) exchange -the first words of text No. 20. Then they -depart in the direction of a large bush with red -flowers (<i>tamiche</i>) and are soon followed by Ramié -and his companion.</p> - -<p>At this moment the vision, which has lasted an -hour and a quarter, passes away. Hélène, who had -remained standing during the whole description, now -enters into complete somnambulism, and Astané -causes her to write Martian phrases which she had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>188</span> -heard and repeated a short time before. During the -entire vision Leopold occupied her left hand, which -was hanging anæsthetically down her body, and replied -by his index-finger to the questions which I -asked in a low voice. I thus learned that this Martian -scene was not a wedding, or any special ceremony, -but a simple family <i lang="fr">fête</i>; that it was no recollection -or product of Hélène’s imagination but a reality actually -passing on Mars: that it was not Leopold but -Astané who furnished this vision and caused her to -hear the music: that Leopold himself neither saw -nor heard anything of it all, yet knows all that Mlle. -Smith sees and hears, etc.</p> - -<p>This résumé of a family <i lang="fr">fête</i>, presided over by Astané, -gives the measure of the originality of the people -of Mars. The visions relating to other incidents -are of the same order: read the description of the -Martian nursery (text 36), of the voyage in a <i>miza</i> -a sort of automobile, the mechanism of which is entirely -unknown to us (text 23), of the operation of -chirurgery (text 29), of the games of the little Anini -(p. <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, etc.). We see always the same general mixture -of imitation of things which transpire among -us, and of infantile modifications of them in the minute -details.</p> - - -<h3><span class="smcap">Pouzé Ramié—Various Personages</span></h3> - -<p>Of the other personages who traverse the Martian -visions we know too little to waste much time upon -them. The name of the one who appears most frequently -is Pouzé. He is present at the banquet, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>189</span> -we meet him also in the company of a poor little withered -old man with a trembling voice, in connection -with whom he occupies himself with gardening or -botany, in an evening promenade by the shore of -the lake (text 14). He also figures again by the -side of an unknown person named Paniné, and he -has a son, Saïne, who had met with some accident -to his head and had been cured of it, to the great joy -of his parents (texts 23 and 24).</p> - -<p>Finally, we must devote a few words to Ramié, -who manifests himself for the first time in October, -1898, as the revealer of the ultra-Martian world, of -which we shall soon take cognizance. Ramié seems -to be a relative of Astané, an astronomer, not so brilliant -as Astané, but possessing the same privilege, -which the ordinary Martians do not seem to enjoy, -of being able to take hold of Hélène’s arm, and of -writing with her hand. There is, to my mind, no -fundamental difference between Leopold, Astané, -and Ramié, in their relation to Hélène; they are -only a reproduction in triplicate of one identical emotional -relation, and I do not think I am mistaken -in regarding these three figures as three very transparent -disguises of the same fundamental personality, -which is only a hypnoid subdivision of the real being -of Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>It is much wiser to leave to the future—if the Martian -and ultra-Martian romances continue to develop—the -task of enlightening ourselves more -completely as to the true character of Ramié. Possibly -some day we shall also know more concerning -the couple called Matêmi and Siké, as well as many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>190</span> -others, such as Sazéni, Paniné, the little Bullié, -Romé, Fédié, etc., of whom we now know scarcely -more than their names, and understand nothing -in regard to their possible relationships to the central -figures of Astané and Esenale.</p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">Concerning the Author of the Martian -Romance</span></h3> - -<p>The general ideas which the Martian cycle -suggests will most assuredly differ, according to -whether it is considered as an authentic revelation -of affairs on the planet Mars, or only as a simple -fantasy of the imagination of the medium; and -meanwhile, holding, myself, to the second supposition, -I demand from the Martian romance information -in regard to its author rather than its subject-matter.</p> - -<p>There are two or three points concerning this unknown -author which strike me forcibly:</p> - -<p>First: He shows a singular indifference—possibly -it may be due to ignorance—in regard to all -those questions which are most prominent at the -present time, I will not say among astronomers, but -among people of the world somewhat fond of popular -science and curious concerning the mysteries of -our universe. The canals of Mars, in the first place—those -famous canals with reduplication—temporarily -more enigmatical than those of the Ego of the -mediums; then the strips of supposed cultivation -along their borders, the mass of snow around the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>191</span> -poles, the nature of the soil, and the conditions of -life on those worlds, in turn inundated and burning, -the thousand and one questions of hydrography, -of geology, of biology, which the amateur naturalist -inevitably asks himself on the subject of the planet -nearest to us—of all this the author of the Martian -romance knows nothing and cares nothing. Questions -of sociology do not trouble him to a much greater -extent, since the people occupying the most prominent -place in the Martian visions, and making the -conversation, in no wise enlighten us as to the civil -and political organization of their globe, as to the -fine arts and religion, commerce and industry, etc. -Have the barriers of the nations fallen, and is there -no longer a standing army up there, except that of -the laborer occupied in the construction and maintenance -of that gigantic net-work of canals for communication -or irrigation? Esenale and Astané -have not deigned to inform us. It seems probable -from certain episodes that the family is, as with us, -at the foundation of Martian civilization; nevertheless, -we have no direct or detailed information in -regard to this subject. It is useless to speculate. -It is evident that the author of this romance did not -care much for science, and that, in spite of her desire -to comply with the wishes of M. Lemaître (see -p. <a href="#Page_149">p. 149</a>), she had not the least conception of the questions -which arise in our day, in every cultivated -mind, as to the planet Mars and its probable inhabitants.</p> - -<p>Secondly: If, instead of quarrelling with the Martian -romance about that which it fails to furnish us,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>192</span> -we endeavor to appreciate the full value of what it -does give us, we are struck by two points, which I have -already touched upon more than once in passing—viz., -the complete identity of the Martian world, taken -in its chief points, with the world in which we live, -and its puerile originality in a host of minor details. -Take, for example, the family <i lang="fr">fête</i> (p. <a href="#Page_188">p. 188</a>). To be -sure, the venerable Astané is there saluted by a caress -of the hair instead of a hand-shake; the young couples -while dancing grasp each other not by the waist -but by the shoulder; the ornamental plants do not -belong to any species known to us: but, save for these -insignificant divergences from our costumes and -habits, as a whole, and in general tone, it is exactly -as with us.</p> - -<p>The imagination which forged these scenes, with -all their decoration, is remarkably calm, thoughtful, -devoted to the real and the probable. The <i>miza</i>, -which runs without a visible motor power, is neither -more nor less extraordinary to the uninitiated spectator -than many of the vehicles which traverse our -roads. The colored globes placed in an aperture of -the walls of the houses to light the streets recall -strongly our electric lamps. Astané’s flying-machine -will probably soon be realized in some form or -other. The bridges which disappear under the -water in order to allow boats to pass (text 25) are, -save for a technical person, as natural as ours which -accomplish the same result by lifting themselves in -the air. With the exception of the “evocative” powers -of Astané, which only concern Mlle. Smith personally -and do not figure in any Martian scene, there<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>193</span> -is nothing on Mars which goes beyond what has been -attained or might be expected to be accomplished by -ingenious inventors here below.</p> - -<p>A wise little imagination of ten or twelve years old -would have deemed it quite droll and original to make -people up there eat on square plates with a furrow for -the gravy, of making an ugly beast with a single eye -carry the telescope of Astané to him, of making -babies to be fed by tubes running directly to the -breasts of animals like the female deer, etc. There -is nothing of the <cite>Thousand and One Nights</cite>, the -<cite>Metamorphoses</cite> of Ovid, fairy stories, or the adventures -of Gulliver, no trace of ogres nor of giants nor -of veritable sorcerers in this whole cycle. One would -say that it was the work of a young scholar to whom -had been given the task of trying to invent a world -as different as possible from ours, but <i>real</i>, and who -had conscientiously applied himself to it, loosening -the reins of his childish fancy in regard to a multitude -of minor points in the limits of what appeared admissible -according to his short and narrow experience.</p> - -<p>Thirdly: By the side of these arbitrary and useless -innovations the Martian romance bears in a -multitude of its characteristics a clearly Oriental -stamp, upon which I have already often insisted. -The yellow complexion and long black hair of -Astané; the costume of all the personages—robes embroidered -or of brilliant hues, sandals with thongs, -flat white hats, etc., the long hair of the women and -the ornaments in the form of butterflies for their coiffures; -the houses of grotesque shapes, recalling the -pagoda, kiosk, and minaret, the warm and glowing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>194</span> -colors of the skies, the water, the rocks, and the -vegetation (see Figs. 13 and 14), etc.: all this has a -sham air of Japanese, Chinese, Hindoo. It is to be -noted that this imprint of the extreme East is purely -exterior, not in any wise penetrating to the characters -or manners of the personages.</p> - -<p>All the traits that I discover in the author of the -Martian romance can be summed up in a single phrase, -its profoundly infantile character. The candor and -imperturbable naïveté of childhood, which doubts -nothing because ignorant of everything, is necessary -in order for one to launch himself seriously upon an -enterprise such as the pretended exact and authentic -depictions of an unknown world. An adult, in the -least cultivated and having some experience of life, -would never waste time in elaborating similar nonsense—Mlle. -Smith less than any one, intelligent and -cultivated as she is in her normal state.</p> - -<p>This provisional view of the author of the Martian -cycle will find its confirmation and its complement in -the following chapters, in which we shall examine -the Martian language, from which I have until now -refrained.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>195</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br /> - -<small>THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONTINUED)—THE MARTIAN -LANGUAGE</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>Of the various automatic phenomena, the -“speaking in tongues” is one which at all -times has most aroused curiosity, while at -the same time little accurate knowledge concerning -it has been obtainable, on account of the difficulty -of collecting correctly the confused and unintelligible -words as they gush forth.</p> - -<p>The phonograph, which has already been employed -in some exceptional cases, like that of Le -Baron, will doubtless some day render inestimable -service to this kind of study, but it leaves much still -to be desired at the present moment, from the point -of view of its practical utilization in the case of subjects -not in their right mind, who are not easily manageable, -and who will not remain quiet long enough -while uttering their unusual words to allow the instrument -to be adjusted and made ready.</p> - -<p>There are different species of glossolalia. Simple, -incoherent utterances, in a state of ecstasy, interspersed -with emotional exclamations, which are -sometimes produced in certain surcharged religious -environments, is another matter altogether from the -creation of neologisms, which are met with in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>196</span> -dream, in somnambulism, mental alienation, or in -children. At the same time this fabrication of arbitrary -words raises other problems—as, for example, -the occasional use of foreign idioms unknown to the -subject (at least, apparently), but which really exist. -In each of these cases it is necessary to examine further -whether, and in what measure, the individual -attributes a fixed meaning to the sounds which he -utters, whether he understands (or has, at least, the -impression of understanding) his own words, or -whether it is only a question of a mechanical and -meaningless derangement of the phonetic apparatus, -or, again, whether this jargon, unintelligible to the -ordinary personality, expresses the ideas of some -secondary personality. All these forms, moreover, -vary in shades and degrees, and there are, in addition, -those mixed cases, possibly the more frequent, -where all the forms are mingled and combined. -The same individual, and sometimes in the -course of the same spasm, also exhibits a series of -neologisms, comprehended or uncomprehended, giving -way to a simple, incoherent verbiage in common -language, or vice versa, etc.</p> - -<p>A good description and rational classification of -all these categories and varieties of glossolalia would -be of very great interest. I cannot think of attempting -such a study here, having enough already to -fully occupy my attention, by reason of having -involved myself with the Martian of Mlle. Smith. -This somnambulistic language does not consist, -as we have already discovered, either in speaking -ecstatically or in religious enthusiasm, nor yet in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>197</span> -the use of a foreign language which really exists; -it represents rather neologism carried to its highest -expression and practised in a systematic fashion, -with a very precise signification, by a secondary -personality unknown to the normal self. It is a -typical case of “glosso-poesy,” of complete fabrication -of all the parts of a new language by a subconscious -activity. I have many times regretted -that those who have witnessed analogous phenomena—as, -for example, Kerner, with the <i>Seeress of -Prevost</i>—have not gathered together and published -in their entirety all the products of this singular -method of performing their functions on the part of -the verbal faculties. Undoubtedly each case taken -by itself seems a simple anomaly, a pure arbitrary -curiosity, and without any bearing; but who knows -whether the collection of a large number of these -psychological bibelots, as yet few enough in their -total, would not end in some unexpected light? Exceptional -facts are often the most instructive.</p> - -<p>In order to avoid falling into the same errors of -negligence, not knowing where to stop, in case I -wished to make a choice, I have taken the course of -setting forth here in full all the Martian texts which -we have been able to gather. I will have them follow -a paragraph containing certain remarks which -that unknown language has suggested to me; but, -very far from flattering myself that I have exhausted -the subject, I earnestly hope that it will find readers -more competent than myself to correct and complete -my observations, since I must acknowledge -that as a linguist and philologist I am very much<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>198</span> -like an ass playing the flute. It is expedient, in -beginning, to give some further details regarding -the various psychological methods of manifestation -of that unknown tongue.</p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">Verbal Martian Automatisms</span></h3> - -<p>I have described in the preceding chapter, and will -not now return to it, the birth of the Martian language, -indissolubly bound up with that of the romance -itself, from the 2d of February, 1896, up to the -inauguration of the process of translation by the entrance -of Esenale upon the scene on the 2d of November -following (see pp. <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-165). During several -months thereafter the Martian language is confined -to the two psychological forms of apparition in which -it seems to have been clothed during the course of -that first year.</p> - -<p>First: <i>Verbo-auditive</i> automatism, hallucinations -of hearing, accompanying visions in the waking -state. In the case of spontaneous visions, Hélène notes -in pencil, either during the vision itself or immediately -afterwards, the unintelligible sounds which strike her -ear; but to her great regret many of them escape her, -since she is sometimes only able to gather the first or -the last phrase of the sentences which her imaginary -personages address to her, or scattered fragments of -conversations which she holds with herself; these -fragments themselves often contain inaccuracies, -which are ultimately rectified at the moment of translation, -Esenale having the good habit of articulating -very clearly each Martian word before giving its<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>199</span> -French equivalent. In the case of the visions which -she has at the seances, Hélène slowly repeats the -words she hears without understanding them, and -the sitters make note of them more or less correctly.</p> - -<p>Secondly: <i>Vocal</i> automatism (“verbo-motor hallucinations -of articulation,” in the cumbersome official -terminology). Here again it is the sitters who gather -as much as they can of the strange words pronounced -in a state of trance, but that is very little, -since Hélène, in her Martian state, often speaks with -a tremendous volubility. Moreover, a distinction -must be made between the relatively clear and brief -phrases which are later translated by Esenale, and -the rapid and confused gibberish the signification -of which can never be obtained, probably because -it really has none, but is only a pseudo-language -(see pp. <a href="#Page_154">p. 154</a>-159).</p> - -<p>A new process of communication, the handwriting, -made its appearance in August, 1897, with a -delay of perhaps eighteen months as to the speech -(the reverse of Leopold’s case, who wrote a long time -before speaking). It is produced, also, under two -forms, which constitute a pendant to the two cases -given above, and also complete the standard quartette -of the psychological modalities of language.</p> - -<p>Thirdly: <i>Verbo-visual</i> automatism—that is, apparitions -of exotic characters before Hélène’s eyes when -awake, who copies them as faithfully as possible -in a drawing, without knowing the meaning of the -mysterious hieroglyphics.</p> - -<p>Fourthly: <i>Graphic</i> automatism—<i>i.e.</i>, writing traced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>200</span> -by the hand of Hélène while completely entranced -and incarnating a Martian personage. In this case -the characters are generally smaller, more regular, -better formed than in the drawings of the preceding -case. A certain number of occasions, when the -name has been pronounced by Hélène before being -written, and especially the articulation of Esenale -at the moment of translation, have permitted the -relations between her vocal sounds and the graphic -signs of the Martian language to be established.</p> - -<p>It is to be noted that these four automatic manifestations -do not inflict an equal injury upon the -normal personality of Mlle. Smith. As a rule, the -verbo-auditive and verbo-visual hallucinations only -suppress her consciousness of present reality; they -leave her a freedom of mind which, if not complete, -is at least sufficient to permit her to observe in -a reflective manner these sensorial automatisms, -to engrave them on her memory, and to describe -them or make a copy of them, while she often adds -remarks testifying to a certain critical sense. On -the contrary, the verbo-motor hallucinations of articulation -or of writing seem to be incompatible with -her preservation of the waking state, and are followed -by amnesia. Hélène is always totally absent -or entranced while her hand writes mechanically, -and if, as seldom happens, she speaks Martian automatically, -outside of the moments of complete incarnation, -she is not aware of it, and does not recollect -it. This incapacity of the normal personality -of Mlle. Smith to observe at the time or remember -afterwards her verbo-motor automatisms denotes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>201</span> -a more profound perturbation than that she experiences -during her sensory automatisms.</p> - -<p>The Martian handwriting only appeared at the -end of a prolonged period of incubation, which betrayed -itself in several incidents, and was certainly -stimulated by various exterior suggestions during -a year and a half at least. The following are the -principal dates of this development.</p> - -<p>February 16, 1896.—The idea of a special handwriting -belonging to the planet Mars occurs for the -first time to Hélène’s astonishment in a Martian -semi-trance (see <a href="#Page_161">p. 161</a>).</p> - -<p>November 2.—Handwriting is clearly predicted -in the phrase, “Astané will teach me to write,” uttered -by Hélène in a Martian trance, after the scene -of the translation by Esenale (see <a href="#Page_166">p. 166</a>).</p> - -<p>November 8.—After the translation of text No. 3, -Leopold, being questioned, replies that Astané will -write this text for Mlle. Smith, but the prediction is -not fulfilled.</p> - -<p>May 23, 1897.—The announcement of Martian -handwriting becomes more precise. “Presently,” -says Astané to Hélène, “thou wilt be able to trace -our handwriting, and thou wilt possess in thy hands -the characters of our language” (text 12).</p> - -<p>June 20.—At the beginning of a seance, a Martian -vision, she demands of an imaginary interlocutor -“a large ring which comes to a point, and with which -one can write.” This description applies to M. R., -who has with him some small pocket-pens of this -kind, capable of being adjusted to the end of the index-finger.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>202</span></p> - -<p>June 23.—I hand Hélène the two small pocket-pens -which M. R. has brought for her, but they do -not please her. After trying to use one, she throws -it away and takes up a pencil, saying that if she must -write Martian, the ordinary means will suffice as -well as those peculiar pocket-pens. In about a minute -she falls asleep, and her hand begins automatically -to trace a message in Leopold’s handwriting. -I then ask that individual whether the pocket-pens -of M. R. do not meet the exigencies of Martian, and -whether Mlle. Smith will some day write that language, -as has already been announced. Hélène’s -hand thereupon responds in the beautiful calligraphy -of Leopold: “I have not yet seen the instrument -which the inhabitants of the planet Mars use -in writing their language, but I can and do affirm -that the thing will happen, as has been announced -to you.—<span class="smcap">Leopold.</span>”</p> - -<p>June 27.—In the scene of the translation of text 15, -Hélène adds to her usual refrain, “Esenale has gone -away; he will soon return; <i>he will soon write</i>.”</p> - -<p>August 3.—Between four and five o’clock in the -afternoon Hélène had a vision at her desk, lasting -ten or fifteen minutes, of a broad, horizontal bar, -flame-colored, then changing to brick-red, and which -by degrees became rose-tinted, on which were a multitude -of strange characters, which she supposes -to be the Martian letters of the alphabet, on account -of the color. These characters floated in space before -and round about her. Analogous visions occur -in the course of the weeks immediately following.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>203</span></p> - -<p>August 22.—Hélène for the first time writes in -Martian. After various non-Martian visions Mlle. -Smith turns away from the window (it rained hard, -and the sky was very gray) and exclaims, “Oh, -look, it is all red! Is it already time to go to bed? -M. Lemaître, are you there? Do you see how red -it is? I see Astané, who is there, in that red; I -only see his head and the ends of his fingers; he -has no robe; and here is the other (Esenale) with -him. They both have some letters at the ends of -their fingers on a bit of paper. Quick, give me some -paper!” A blank sheet and the pocket-pen are handed -to her, which latter she disdainfully throws down. -She accepts an ordinary pencil, which she holds in -her customary fashion, between her middle and index-finger, -then writes from left to right the three -first lines of <a href="#Fig_21">Fig. 21</a>, looking attentively towards the -window at her fictitious model before tracing each -letter, and adding certain oral notes, according to -which there are some words which she sees written -in black characters on the three papers—or, more -correctly, on three white wands, a sort of narrow -cylinder, somewhat flattened out—which Astané, -Esenale, and a third personage whose name she -does not know but whose description corresponds -with that of Pouzé, hold in their right hands. After -which she again sees another paper or cylinder, -which Astané holds above his head, and which bears -also some words which she undertakes to copy (the -three last lines of <a href="#Fig_21">Fig. 21</a>, p. <a href="#Page_205">205</a>). “Oh, it is a pity,” -says she, on coming to the end of the fourth line, -“it is all on one line, and I have no more room.” She<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>204</span> -then writes underneath the three letters of line 5, and -without saying anything adds line 6. Then she -resumes: “How dark it is with you ... the sun -has entirely gone down” (it still rains very hard). -“No one more! nothing more!” She remains in -contemplation before that which she has written, -then sees Astané again near the table, who again -shows her a paper, the same, she thinks, as the former -one. “But no, it is not altogether the same; -there is one mistake, it is there [she points to the -fourth line towards the end] ... Ah, I do not see -more!” Then, presently she adds: “He showed -me something else; there was a mistake, but I was -not able to see it. It is very difficult. While I was -writing, it was not I myself, I could not feel my -arms. It was difficult, because when I raised my -head I no longer saw the letters well. It was like a -Greek design.”</p> - -<p>At this moment Hélène recovered from the state of -obscuration, from which she emerged with difficulty, -which had accompanied the Martian vision and the -automatic copy of the verbo-visual text. But a little -later in the evening she only vaguely remembered -having seen strange letters, and was altogether ignorant -of having written anything.</p> - -<p>The very natural supposition that the three first -words written were the names of the known personages -(Astané, Esenale, Pouzé), who bore them on -their wands, led to the discovery of the meaning of -many of the Martian characters and permitted the -divining of the sense of the three last words.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>205</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp61" id="i205" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_21"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_205.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 21. Text No. 16; seance of August 22, 1897.—First Martian -text written by Mlle. Smith (according to a visual hallucination). -Natural size. [Collection of M. Lemaître.]—Herewith its -French notation. - -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">astane</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">esenale</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pouze</span><br /> -mene simand<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 4em;">ini.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mira.</span><br /> -</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>206</span></p> - -<p>The new alphabet was enriched by certain other -signs on the following days, thanks to the echos -of that seance in the ordinary life of Hélène, who -happened on several occasions to write not the true -Martian as yet, but French in Martian letters, to -her great stupefaction when she found herself after -a while in the presence of these unknown hieroglyphics.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i206" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_22"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_206.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 22. Examples of isolated French words (<i lang="fr">française</i>, <i lang="fr">lumière</i>, <i>prairie</i>) automatically -traced in Martian characters by Mlle. Smith in her normal handwriting. See -also <a href="#Fig_1">Fig. 1</a>, p. 56.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>The first manifestation of that graphic automatism, -being as yet concerned only with the form of -the letters and not the vocabulary, dates from the -day after the following seance:</p> - -<p>August 23.—“Here,” wrote Hélène to me at noon, -sending me some memoranda from which I have -taken the three examples of <a href="#Fig_22">Fig. 22</a>—“here are some -labels which I made it my business to make this -morning at ten o’clock, and which I have not been -able to finish in a satisfactory manner. I have only -just now emerged from the rose-colored fog in which -I have been continuously enwrapped for almost two -hours.”</p> - -<p>Three weeks later a complete automatic Martian -handwriting was produced in a seance at my house, -of which the following is a summary.</p> - -<p>September 12, 1897.—At the end of a quite long -Martian vision, Mlle. Smith sees Astané, who has -something at the end of his finger and who signs to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>207</span> -her to write. I offer her a pencil, and after various -tergiversations she slowly begins to trace some Martian -characters (Fig. 23). Astané has possession of -her arm, and she is, during this time, altogether anæsthetic -and absent. Leopold, on the contrary, is at -hand, and gives various indications of his presence. -At the end of the sixth line she seems to half awaken, -and murmurs, “I am not afraid; no, I am not afraid.” -Then she again falls into a dream in order to write -the four last words (which signify “<i>Then do not fear</i>,” -and which are the response of Astané to her exclamation).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>208</span></p> - -<p>Almost immediately Leopold substitutes himself -for Astané and traces on the same sheet, in his characteristic -handwriting (considerably distorted towards -the end): “<i>Place thy hand on her forehead</i>,” -by means of which he indicates to me that the time -has arrived to pass on to the scene of translation by -Esenale.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i207" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_23"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_207.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 23. Martian text No. 17; seance of September 12, 1897. Written by Mlle. -Smith incarnating Astané (then Leopold for the French words at the end). See -the translation, p. <a href="#Page_222">222</a>. Too many <i>l</i>’s at the end of the first line immediately produced -the scrawls intended to strike them out. (Reproduction one-half natural -size.)</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i208" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_24"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_208.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 24. Martian alphabet, summary of the signs obtained. (Never has been given -as such by Mlle. Smith.)</div> -</div> - -<p>We may conclude from these successive stages -that the Martian handwriting is the result of a slow -autosuggestion, in which the idea of a special writing -instrument, and its handling, for a long time played -the dominant rôle, then was abandoned, without -doubt, as impracticable to realize. The characters -themselves then haunted for several weeks Hélène’s -visual imagination before they appeared to her on -the cylinders of the three Martians in a manner sufficiently -clear and stable to enable her to copy -them and afterwards to be capable of subduing her -graphomotor mechanism. Once manifested out<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>209</span>wardly, -these signs, which I have assembled under -the form of an alphabet in <a href="#Fig_24">Fig. 24</a>, have not varied for -two years.</p> - -<p>Moreover, some trifling confusion, of which I shall -speak a little later, shows well that the personality -which employs them is not absolutely separated from -that of Hélène, although the latter, in a waking state, -might hold the same relation to Martian which she -holds to Chinese—that is, she knows its general very -characteristic aspect, but is ignorant of the signification -of the characters, and would be incapable of reading -it.</p> - -<p>Hélène’s Martian handwriting is not stereotyped, -but presents, according to circumstances, some variations -in form, especially in the size of the letters.</p> - -<p>This may be established by Figs. 21 to 32, in -which I have reproduced the greater part of the texts -obtained by writing. When the Martian gushes -forth in verbo-visual hallucinations, Hélène transcribes -it in strokes of large dimensions, lacking -firmness, full of repetitions (Figs. 21, 26, 31), and -she always remarks that the original, which is before -her eyes, is much smaller and clearer than her copy. -In the texts which have come automatically from -her hand—<i>i.e.</i>, supposedly traced by the Martians -themselves—the handwriting is really smaller and -more precise. Here again are some curious differences. -Astané has a calligraphy less voluminous -than that of Esenale, and Ramié has a much finer -one than Esenale (Figs. 28 and 29).</p> - -<p>It would be altogether premature for me to launch<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>210</span> -myself upon the study of Martian graphology, and, -therefore, leaving that line to my successors, I take -up the texts which have been collected in their chronological -order.</p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">The Martian Texts</span></h3> - -<p>It is not always easy to represent a language and -its pronunciation by means of the typographical -characters of another. Happily the Martian, in spite -of its strange appearance and the fifty millions of -leagues which separate us from the red planet, is -in reality so near neighbor to French that there is -scarcely any difficulty in this case.</p> - -<p>The dozen written texts<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> which we possess, and -which Mlle. Smith either copied from a verbo-visual -hallucination, or which were traced by her hand in -an access of graphomotor automatism, are readily -translated into French, since each Martian letter -has its exact equivalent in the French alphabet. -I have confined myself to placing accents on the -vowels (there are none in the Martian writing), conformably -to the pronunciation of Esenale at the -moment of translation. It is only necessary to read -the following texts aloud, articulating them as -though they were French, in order to secure the -Martian words almost exactly as they proceed from -the mouth of Mlle. Smith; I say <i>almost</i>, because -there still remains, naturally, in the speech of Esenale, -as in that of every one, a special mannerism<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>211</span> -of strengthening certain syllables and slurring others—in -short, that of delicate shades of accentuation, -which cannot be adequately represented, and -which the hearers did not attempt to take note of -at the seances.</p> - -<p>In the auditive or vocal texts, those which have -not been obtained by writing, I have adopted the -more probable orthography, according to the pronunciation -of Esenale, but (with the exception -of words known by means of the written texts) I -naturally cannot guarantee their absolute correctness.</p> - -<p>The manner in which Hélène takes down in pencil -the Martian phrases which strike her ear is not of -great assistance to us in that respect, because, as -I have said above (p. <a href="#Page_158">158</a>), she finds herself at the -time of these verbo-auditive hallucinations in the -situation of a person who hears some unknown -words, and spells them as well as she is able, after -a quite arbitrary and often faulty fashion. She -writes, for example, “<b>hezi darri né ciké taisse</b>,” -which, according to the pronunciation of Esenale -and other written texts, should be “<b>êzi darié siké -tés</b>”; or, again, “<b>misse messe as si lé</b>,” instead of -“<b>mis mess ass ilé</b>.” We cannot, therefore, depend -upon the orthography of Hélène, but I have naturally -followed it in every case in which there seemed to -be no good reason to depart from it. In stating that -the following texts should be articulated like French, -two remarks must be added: First, the final consonant, -very rare in Martian, is always aspirated; -the word <b>ten</b> is pronounced as in the French <i lang="fr">gluten</i>;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>212</span> -<b>essat</b>, like <i>fat</i>; <b>amès</b>, like <i>aloes</i>; <b>mis</b> and <b>mess</b>, like -<i lang="fr">lis</i> (flower), and mess (of an officer), etc. In the second -place, for the different values of the <i>e</i> I have -adopted the following rule: the <i>e</i> broad is always -indicated by the accent grave <i>è</i>; the <i>e</i> medium, -which is only found at the beginning and in the middle -of a word, is marked with the acute accent <i>é</i>; -the <i>e</i> short, by the acute accent at the end of a word -(or before a final <i>e</i> mute), and by the circumflex at -the beginning or in the middle; the <i>e</i> mute, or demi-mute, -remains without accent.</p> - -<p>The pronunciation, therefore, will be, for example, -the <i>e</i>’s of the Martian words <b>mété</b>, <b>bénézee</b>, like -those of the French words <i lang="fr">été</i>, <i lang="fr">répétée</i>; <b>êvé</b>, like -<i lang="fr">rêvé</i>, <b>tès</b>, as in <i>Lutèce</i>, etc.</p> - -<p>There will be found in italics, underneath the -Martian texts, their French equivalents, word for -word, as given by Esenale in the manner described -above (see pp. <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-168).<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> I have also indicated the -kind of automatism—auditive, visual, vocal, or -graphic—by means of which each text was obtained, -also the date of its appearance, and (in parentheses) -that of the seance, often quite remote, at which it -was translated. I have also added such explanations -as seemed to me to be necessary.</p> - - -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">1.</td> -<td><b>métiche C.</b></td> -<td><b>médache C.</b></td> -<td><b>métaganiche S.</b></td> -<td><b>kin’t’che</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td><i>Monsieur C.</i></td> -<td><i>Madame C.</i></td> -<td><i>Mademoiselle S.</i></td> -<td><i>quatre</i>.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td>Mr. C.</td> -<td>Mrs. C.</td> -<td>Miss C.</td> -<td>Four.</td> -</tr> -</table> - - -<p>Vocal. February 2, 1896. See above, <a href="#Page_157">p. 157</a>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>213</span></p> - -<p> -2. <b>dodé né ci haudan té mess métiche astané ké dé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">Ceci est la maison du grand homme Astané que tu</i></span><br /> -<b>mé véche.</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">as vu.</i><br /> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>This is the house of the great man Astané, whom thou hast seen.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. About September 20, 1896 (translated -November 2).—Heard by Hélène at the same time at -which she had the vision of <a href="#Fig_12">Fig. 12</a> (see <a href="#Page_166">p. 166</a>).</p> - -<p> -3. <b>modé iné cé di cévouitche ni êvé ché kiné liné</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">Mère adorée, je te reconnais et suis ton petit Linet.</i></span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Adored mother, I recognize thee, and am thy little Linet.</p></div> - -<p>Words addressed to Mme. Mirbel by her son Alexis -(Esenale) in a scene of incarnation altogether analogous -to that described on p. <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</p> - -<p> -4. <b>i modé mété modé modé iné palette is</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">O mère, tendre mère, mère bien-aimée, calme tout</i></span><br /> -<b>ché péliché ché chiré né ci ten ti vi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">ton souci, ton fils est près de toi.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Oh, mother, tender mother, dearly loved mother, calm all thy -care, thy son is near thee.</p></div> - -<p>Vocal. November 29, 1896 (translated same seance).—Spoken -by Esenale and addressed to Mme. -Mirbel, in a scene of incarnation analogous to the -preceding. At the moment of translation, Esenale -repeated, very distinctly, the last words, as follows: -“<b>né ci</b>, <i lang="fr">est près</i> [“is near”], <b>ten ti vi</b>, <i lang="fr">de toi</i> (“thee”).” -This was evidently an error, since it appears from numerous -later texts that <i lang="fr">est près de toi</i> corresponds to -<b>né ten ti vi</b>; it follows that it would be natural to -translate the word <b>ci</b> by <i lang="fr">là</i>, <i lang="fr">ici</i>, or <i lang="fr">tout</i>, if these words -had not been differently rendered in other texts. (A -confusion of the adverb <i lang="fr">là</i> with the article <i lang="fr">la</i>, translated -by <b>ci</b> in text 2, might also be suspected.)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>214</span></p> - -<p> -5. <b>i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé dé étéche mêné</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">Oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu toujours, amie</i></span><br /> -<b>izé bénézée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">enfin retrouvée!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Oh! Why dost thou not keep thyself always near me, friend, -at last found again?</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. December 4, 1896 (translated December -13). Fragment of a long discourse by Astané -to Hélène, during an apparition which she had of -him about nine o’clock in the evening, as she was -about to go to bed. This sentence, which he uttered -twice, is the only one which she has been able to recall -with sufficient precision to note down immediately -after the vision. She has the feeling of having -understood Astané’s whole discourse while he -was delivering it, and thinks she would have been -able to translate it into French, perhaps not word for -word, but in its general sense. She expected to -transcribe it the following day, but in the morning -when she awoke she was unable to recall either -the words of Astané or their meaning, not even that -of this sentence, written on the previous evening. -Heard again, as the second part of the following -text, in the seance of the 13th of December.</p> - -<p> -6. <b>ti iche cêné éspênié ni ti êzi atèv astané êzi</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">De notre belle “Espénié” et de mon être Astané, mon</i></span><br /> -<b>érié vizé é vi... i kiché ten ti si ké di êvé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">âme descend à toi... oh! pourquoi près de moi ne te tiens-tu</i><br /> -<b>dé étéche mêné izé bénézée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">toujours, amie enfin retrouvée!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>From our beautiful “Espénié” and from my being Astané, my -soul descends to thee—Oh! why dost thou not keep thyself always -near to me, friend, at last found again?</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. December 13, 1896 (translated same<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>215</span> -seance).—Heard in the far-away voice of Astané, -Hélène having all the while a painful sensation, as -though the skin of her face around her eyes, on the -back of her wrists and hands, was being torn off. -In the translation the word <i>Espénié</i> remains as it is, -being a proper name; the left index-finger (Leopold) -points heavenward, and says that it might be rendered -by <i>terre</i>, <i>planète</i>, <i>demeure</i>.</p> - -<p> -7. <b>cé êvé plêva ti di bénèz éssat riz tès midée</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">Je suis chagrin de te retrouver vivant sur cette laide</i></span><br /> -<b>durée cé ténassé riz iche éspênié vétéche ié ché atèv hêné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">terre; je voudrais sur notre Espénié voir tout ton être s’élever</i><br /> -<b>ni pové ten ti si éni zée métiché oné gudé ni zée darié</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">et rester près de moi; ici les hommes sont bons et les cœurs</i><br /> -<b>grêvé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">larges.</i><br /> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>I am sorry to find you again living on this wretched earth; I -would on our Espénié see all thy being raise itself and remain -near me; here men are good and hearts large.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. December 15, 1896 (translated January -17, 1897).—Words spoken by Astané to Hélène -in a morning vision. The following fragment -of the letter in which she sent me this text merits -being cited as an example of those quite frequent -cases in which Mlle. Smith, without knowing the -exact translation of the foreign words, nevertheless -divines their general signification and comprehends -them by their emotional equivalent. “This morning, -at a quarter before six, I saw Astané at the foot -of my bed. The general sense of his language was -at that moment quite clear to my mind, and I give -it to you as I understood it—that is, in as clear a -manner as possible, having noted it down afterwards:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>216</span> -‘How much I regret your not having been born in -our world; you would be much happier there, since -everything is much better with us, people as well as -things, and I would be so happy to have you near -me.’ That is about what it seemed to me to mean; -perhaps some day we may be able to be sure of it.”</p> - -<p> -8. <b>amès mis tensée ladé si—amès ten tivé avé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">Viens un instant vers moi, viens près d’un vieil</i></span><br /> -<b>men—koumé ié ché pélésse—amès somé têsé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">ami fondre tout ton chagrin: viens admirer ces</i><br /> -<b>misaïmé—ké dé surès pit châmi—izâ méta ii</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">fleurs, que tu crois sans parfum, mais pourtant si</i><br /> -<b>borêsé ti finaïmé—iâ izi dé séïmiré</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">pleines de senteurs!... Mais si tu comprendras!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Come towards me a moment, come near an old friend to melt -away all thy sorrow; come to admire these flowers, which you -believe without perfume, but yet so full of fragrance! But if -thou couldst understand.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive and vocal. January 31, 1897 (translated -same seance).—Hélène, in hemisomnambulism, -sees Astané, who tells her to repeat his words; -she replies to him: “But speak plainly ... I will -gladly repeat them ... but I do not understand -very well....” Then she pronounces slowly and -very distinctly the foregoing text, in groups of -words, separated by a moment of silence (marked -in the text by the sign—). It is remarked that -these groups, with the exception of the sixth, correspond -to the hemistiches of the French translation -obtained in the same seance. After the sixth group -Hélène remains silent for a long time, and finally -says: “I cannot understand;” then utters the four last -words, which are the reply of Astané to her objection.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>217</span></p> - -<p> -9. <b>ané éni ké éréduté cé ilassuné té imâ ni</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i lang="fr">C’est isi que, solitaire, ie m’approche du ciel et</i></span><br /> -<b>bétiné chée durée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">regarde ta terre.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>It is here that, alone, I bring myself near to heaven and look -upon the earth.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. February 24, 1897 (translated March -14).—Reclining in her easy-chair, after the noonday -meal, Hélène hears this sentence, while at the -same time she has the vision of a house, constructed -by digging into a Martian mountain, and traversed -by a sort of air-shafts, and which represents -Astané’s observatory.</p> - -<p> -10. <b>simandini lé lâmi mêné kizé pavi kiz atimi</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Simandini, me voici! amie! quelle joie, quel bonheur!</i></span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Simandini, here I am! friend! what joy! what happiness!</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. March 14, 1897 (translated same seance).—See -following text.</p> - -<p> -11. <b>i modé duméïné modé kêvi cé mache povini</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">O mère, ancienne mère, quand je peux arriver</i></span><br /> -<b>poénêzé mûné é vi saliné éziné mimâ nikaïné modé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">quelques instants vers toi j’oublie mes parents Nikaïné, mère!</i><br /> -<b>—i men</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">—ô ami!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Oh, mother, former mother, when I can arrive a few instants -near thee, I forget my parents Nikaïné, mother!—Oh -friend!</p></div> - -<p>Vocal. March 14, 1897 (translated same seance).—From -the beginning of this seance Hélène -complained of cold hands, then a great desire to -weep, and of a buzzing in the ears, which kept increasing -and in which she finally heard Astané -address to her the Martian words of text 10. Im<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>218</span>mediately -after she passes into full somnambulism; -her respirations, very short and panting, rise -to three per second, accompanied by synchronous -movements of the left index-finger; then she stops -suddenly with a long expiration, immediately followed -by a deep inspiration: then her breast heaves, -her face assumes an expression of suffering, and the -left index-finger announces that it is Esenale (Alexis -Mirbel) who is incarnated. After a series of spasms -and hiccoughs, Hélène arises, and, placing herself -behind Mme. Mirbel, takes her neck in her hands, -bows her head upon hers, tenderly pats her cheek, -and addresses to her the words of text No. 11 (except -the two last words). Then she raises her head, and -again, with panting respiration (accelerated to thirty -inspirations in sixteen seconds), walks towards M. -Lemaître (whose pupil Alexis Mirbel had been at -the time of his death). She places her hands upon -his shoulders, affectionately grasps his right hand, -and with emotion and continued sobbing addresses -to him the two words <b>i men!</b> After which she goes -through the pantomime of extending her hand to Leopold -and of allowing him to conduct her to a couch, -where the translation of texts Nos. 10, 11, and 9 is obtained -by the customary process, but not without -difficulty.</p> - -<p> -12. <b>lassuné ké nipuné ani tis dé machir mirivé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Approche, ne crains pas; bientôt tu pourras tracer</i></span><br /> -<b>iche manir sé dé évenir toué chi amiché zé forimé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">notre écriture, et tu posséderas dans tes mains les marques</i><br /> -<b>ti viche tarviné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">de notre langage.</i> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>219</span></p><div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Approach, fear not; soon thou wilt be able to trace our writing, -and thou wilt possess in thy hands the signs of our language.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. May 23, 1897 (translated same seance).—Shortly -after the beginning of the seance, -Hélène, still being awake, has a vision of Astané, -who addresses her in these words, which she repeats -slowly and in a feeble voice. I give the text as it -was heard and uniformly noted by several sitters, -both at the moment of its utterance and at its subsequent -translation. Many corrections, however, -would be necessary, in order to make it correspond -with the later written texts: <b>ké nipuné ani</b>, <i lang="fr">et ne -crains pas</i> (“and I am not afraid,” or, “and I do not -fear”) should be changed to <b>kié nipuné ani</b>, <i lang="fr">ne crains -pas</i> (see text 17); <b>sé</b> or <b>cé</b> only stands here for <i>et</i>, -which everywhere else is given as <b>ni</b>; <b>viche</b> is used -in error for <b>iche</b> (unless the <b>v</b> was added for the sake -of euphony, of which there is no other example) and -<b>tis</b> for <b>tiche</b>.</p> - -<p> -13. (adèl) <b>ané sini</b> (yestad) <b>i astané cé fimès astané mirâ</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">C’est vous, ô Astané, je meurs! Astané, adieu!</i></span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>It is you, oh Astané, I am dying! Astané, farewell!</p></div> - -<p>Vocal. Same seance as the preceding text, after -which Hélène passes into full somnambulism, begins -to weep, pants, holds her hand on her heart, -and pronounces this sentence, mingling with it the -two words <i>Adèl</i> and <i>yestad</i>, which are not Martian, -but belong to the Oriental cycle; they also do not -appear in the text as it was repeated at the time of -its translation. This intrusion of terms foreign to -the Martian dream is explained by the imminence -of a Hindoo scene ready to appear, which occupied<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>220</span> -the latter half of the seance in which the Arab servant, -Adèl, plays a leading rôle. The mingling of -the two romances is greatly accentuated a few moments -later, in a long discourse, devoid of <i>r</i>’s and -very rich in sibilants, and spoken with so great volubility -that it was impossible to gather a single word. -At the time of the translation, at the close of the -seance, this tirade was repeated with the same rapidity, -preventing any notation; according to the -French translation which followed, it concerned -memories of the life of Simandini which Hélène recalled -to Astané and in which there is much mention -of the aforesaid Adèl (see Hindoo Cycle, Chap. -VII.).</p> - -<p> -14. <b>eupié zé palir né amé arvâ nini pédriné évaï</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Eupié, le temps est venu; Arva nous quitte; sois</i></span><br /> -<b>diviné lâmée ine vinâ té luné—pouzé men hantiné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">heureux jusque au retour du jour.—Pouzé, ami fidèle</i>,<br /> -<b>êzi vraïni né touzé med vi ni ché chiré saïné—ké</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">mon désir est même pour toi et ton fils Saïné.—Que</i><br /> -<b>zalisé téassé mianiné ni di daziné—eupié—pouzé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">l’élément entier t’enveloppe et te garde!—Eupié!—Pouzé!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Eupié, the time has come; Arva leaves us; be happy till the -return of the day. Pouzé, faithful friend, my wish is even for -thee, and thy son Saïné.—May the entire element envelop thee -and guard thee!—Eupié!—Pouzé!</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. June 18, 1897 (translated June 20).—During -a visit I made to Mlle. Smith she has a -vision of two Martian personages walking on the -shore of a lake, and she repeats this fragment of -their conversation which she has heard. According -to another text (No. 20), Arva is the Martian name -of the sun.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>221</span></p> - -<p> -15. <b>modé tatinée cé ké mache radziré zé tarvini va</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Mère chérie, je ne puis prononcer le langage où</i></span><br /> -<b>nini nini triménêni ii adzi cé zé seïmiré vétiche i</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">nous nous comprenions si bien! Je le comprends cependant; ô</i><br /> -<b>modé inée kévi bérimir m hed kévi machiri cé di triné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">mère adorée, quand reviendra-t-il? Quand pourrai-je te parler</i><br /> -<b>ti éstotiné ni bazée animina i modé cé méï adzi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">de ma dernière et courte existence? O mére, je t’ai bien</i><br /> -<b>ilinée i modé inée cé ké lé nazère ani—mirâ</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">reconnue, ô mère adorée, je ne me trompe pas!—Adieu</i><br /> -<b>modé itatinée mirâ mirâ mirâ</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">mère chérie, adieu, adieu, adieu!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>My dearest, I cannot pronounce the language in which we -understood each other so well! I understand it, however; oh! -adored mother, when will it return? When shall I be able to -speak to thee of my last and short existence? Oh! mother, I -have well recognized thee, oh! adored mother, I am not -mistaken!—Farewell, dearest mother, farewell, farewell, farewell!</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. June 27, 1897 (translated same seance).—Mme. -Mirbel being present, Hélène perceives Esenale, -who remains in the vicinity of his mother and -addresses these words to her. The “adieux” at the -close were not spoken at that time, but were uttered -by Esenale immediately following and as a complement -of the translation; this is the only case (outside -of text 36) in which he did not confine himself -strictly to the texts already gathered and in which he -permitted himself to introduce a new phrase, which -otherwise does not contain a single unknown word; -<b>itatinée</b>, <i lang="fr">chérie</i>, is evidently a slip which should be -corrected either to <b>tatinée</b>, <i lang="fr">chérie</i>, or to <b>it atinée</b>, <i lang="fr">ô -chérie</i>. The precise French equivalent of <b>triménêni</b> -is probably <i lang="fr">entretenions</i>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>222</span></p> - -<p> -* 16. <b>astané ésenâle pouzé mêné simandini mirâ</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">(<i lang="fr">Astané. Esenale. Pouzé. Amie Simandini, adieu!</i>)</span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Astané. Esenale. Pouzeé. Friend Simandini, farewell!</p></div> - -<p>Visual. August 22, 1897.—This text, for which -there is no need of a translation, constitutes the first -appearance of the Martian handwriting. See above, -Fig. 21, and the résumé of that seance, pp. <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-205.</p> - -<p> -* 17. <b>taniré mis méch med mirivé éziné brimaξ ti tès</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Prends un crayon pour tracer mes paroles de cet</i></span><br /> -<b>tensée—azini dé améir mazi si somé iche nazina</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">instant. Alors tu viendras avec moi admirer notre nouveau</i><br /> -<b>tranéï.—Simandini cé kié mache di pédriné tès luné ké cé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">passage. Simandini, je ne puis te quitter ce jour. Que je</i><br /> -<b>êvé diviné—patrinèz kié nipuné ani</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">suis heureux!—Alors ne crains pas!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Take a pencil to trace my words of this moment. Then thou -wilt come with me to admire our new passage. Simandini, I -cannot leave thee this day. How happy I am!—Then fear not!</p></div> - -<p>Graphic. September 12, 1897 (translated same seance).—See -p. <a href="#Page_207">207</a> and <a href="#Fig_23">Fig. 23.</a></p> - -<p> -* 18. <b>modé tatinée lâmi mis mirâ ti ché bigâ kâ</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Mère chérie, voici un adieu de ton enfant qui</i></span><br /> -<b>ébrinié sanâ é vi idé di zé rénir—zé mess métich kâ é</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">pense tant à toi. On te le portera, le grand homme qui a</i><br /> -<b>zé valini iminé—ni z [é] grani sidiné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">le visage mince et le corps maigre.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>My dearest, this is a farewell from thy child, who thinks so -much of thee. The big man, who has a thin face and a slender -body, will bear it to thee.</p></div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp89" id="i222f" style="max-width: 107.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_25"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_222f.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 25. Text No. 18 (October 10, 1897), written in pencil by Mlle. Smith, incarnating -Esenale. Reproduction in autotype two-thirds of the natural size.</div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i222fb" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_26"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_222fb.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 26. Text No. 26 (August 21, 1898), which appeared in visual hallucination, and -was copied by Mlle. Smith. Reproductions in autotype.</div> -</div> - -<p>Auditive, then Graphic. October 10, 1897 (translated -same seance).—Hélène has a vision of a Martian -landscape, in which Esenale floats discarnate -around the plants and speaks these words, which she -repeats. (It is understood from the translation that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>223</span> -this text was intended for Mme. Mirbel, who was -then in the country, but to whom the person very -clearly indicated by the final characteristic was -about to pay a visit and could carry the message.) -I then offer Hélène a pencil in the hope of obtaining -this same text in writing; after various tergiversations -and grimaces, denoting a state of increasing -somnambulism, she finally takes the pencil between -her index and middle fingers, tells Esenale that she -still sees him and makes him sit down by her side, -and then begins to write, completely absent and fascinated -by the paper. The left index-finger (Leopold) -informs us that it is Esenale himself who is writing -by means of Hélène’s arm. Twice she interrupts -herself in order to say to Esenale, “Oh! do not go -yet, stay a little while longer!” She appears nervous -and agitated, and often stops writing to stab -her paper with her pencil or to make erasures or -scribble on it (see <a href="#Fig_25">Fig. 25</a>); in the <b>zé</b> of the last line, -she forgets the <b>é</b> (this did not prevent Esenale from -pronouncing the word correctly at the time of its -translation).</p> - -<p> -* 19. <b>m[en] cé kié mache di triné sandiné téri</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">(<i lang="fr">Amie, je ne puis te parler longtemps comme</i></span><br /> -<b>né êzi vraïni zou réch mirâ milé piri mirâ</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">est mon désir; plus tard, adieu adieu.</i>) -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>(Friend, I cannot speak to thee a long time, as is my desire; -later, farewell, farewell!)</p></div> - -<p>Graphic, then Auditive. October 24, 1897 (there -has never been any translation of this text, two -words of which are still unknown).—Hélène first -sees the table illumined by a green light in which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>224</span> -some designs appear which she copies, and which -give this text, except the two last letters of the first -word, the place of which remains blank. Immediately -after she hears Martian spoken, which she repeats. -It is the same text; then she has a vision of -Astané, Esenale, and a little girl whose name she -hears as Niké; but this soon gives way to other non-Martian -somnambulisms. (See <a href="#Fig_25">Fig. 25.</a>)</p> - -<p> -* 20. <b>Siké évaï diviné zé niké crizi capri né amé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Siké, sois heureux! Le petit oiseau noir est venu</i></span><br /> -<b>orié antéch é êzé carimi ni êzi érié é nié pavinée hed</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">frapper hier à ma fenêtre, et mon âme a été joyeuse; il</i><br /> -<b>lé sadri dé zé véchir tiziné Matêmi misaïmé kâ lé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">me chanta: tu le verras demain.—Matêmi, fleur qui me</i><br /> -<b>amèz essaté Arvâ ti éziné udâniξξ amès tès uri amès</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">fais vivre, soleil de mes songes, viens ce soir, viens</i><br /> -<b>sandiné ten ti si évaï divinée Romé va né Siké</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">longtemps près de moi; sois heureuse!—Romé où est Siké?—Là-bas,</i><br /> -<b>atrizi ten té taméch épizi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">près du “taméche” rose.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Siké, be happy! The little black bird came yesterday rapping -at my window, and my soul was joyful; he sang to me: -Thou wilt see him to-morrow. Matêmi, flower which makes me -live, sun of my dreams, come this evening; come for a long -time to me; be happy!—Romé, where is Siké?—Yonder, near -the “taméche” rose.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive, then Graphic. November 28, 1897 (translated -same seance).—Fragments of conversation -heard during the vision of the Martian <i lang="fr">fête</i> described -on p. <a href="#Page_185">185</a>. Siké (a young man) and Matêmi (a -young girl) form the first couple who pass by and -walk off in the direction of a large bush with red -flowers (<b>taméche</b>); then a second couple exchange -the last words of the text while going to rejoin the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>225</span> -first. After this vision, which she contemplated -standing and described with much animation, Hélène -seated herself and began to write the same -Martian phrases. It is ascertained from Leopold -that it was Astané who held her hand (in holding -the pencil between the thumb and the index-finger—that -is, after the manner of Leopold and not that of -Hélène as she had held it in writing text No. 17). -The writing being finished, Leopold directs that Hélène -shall be made to seat herself on the couch for the -scene of translation.</p> - -<p> -21. <b>véchêsi têsée polluni avé métiche é vi ti</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Voyons cette question, vieux homme; à toi de</i></span><br /> -<b>bounié seïmiré ni triné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">chercher, comprendre et parler.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Now this question, old man; it is for thee to seek, to understand -and speak.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. January 15, 1898 (translated February -13).—Fragment of conversation between two Martian -personages seen in a waking vision.</p> - -<p> -22. <b>astané cé amès é vi chée brimi messé téri</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Astané, je viens à toi; ta sagesse grande comme</i></span><br /> -<b>ché pocrimé lé...</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">ton savoir me...</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Astané, I come to thee; thy great wisdom as well as thy -knowledge to me....</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. About January 25, 1898 (translated -February 13).—Vision, at six o’clock in the morning, -of a young Martian girl (Matêmi?) traversing -a tunnel through a mountain and arriving at the -house of Astané, to whom she addresses this utterance, -followed by many others which Hélène could -not grasp with sufficient distinctness to note them -down.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>226</span></p> - -<p> -23. [A] <b>paniné évaï kirimé zé miza ami grini</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Panine, sois prudent, le “miza” va soulever;</i></span><br /> -<b>ké chée éméche rès pazé—</b>[B] <b>pouzé tès luné soumini</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">que ta main se retire!—Pouzé, ce jour riant...</i><br /> -<b>arvâ ii cen zé primi ti ché chiré kiz pavi luné—</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">Arva si beau... le revoir de ton fils... quel heureux jour—</i><br /> -[C] <b>saïné êzi chiré izé lineï kizé pavi êzi mané</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">Saïné, mon fils, enfin debout! quelle joie!... Mon père</i><br /> -<b>ni êzé modé tiziné êzi chiré êzi mané cé êvé adi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">et ma mère... Demain, mon fils... Mon père, je suis bien</i><br /> -<b>anâ</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">maintenant.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Paniné, be prudent, the “miza” is about to arise; remove -thy hand! Pouzé, this laughing day ... Arva so beautiful ... -The return of thy son ... What happy day—Saïné, my son, -finally standing! What joy!... My father and my mother ... -To-morrow, my son ... My father, I am well now.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. February 20, 1898 (translated same -seance).—Very complicated Martian vision. First, -three small, movable houses, like pavilions or Chinese -kiosks, going about on little balls; in one of -these, two unknown personages, one of whom puts -her hand out of a small oval window, which occasions, -on the part of her companion, the observation -of the first sentence (A) of the text; at this -instant, in fact, these rolling pavilions (<b>miza</b>) assume -an oscillatory movement, which makes a noise -like “tick-tack,” and then glide like a train upon -rails. They go around a high red mountain and -come into a sort of magnificent gorge or ravine, with -slopes covered with extraordinary plants, and where -they find white houses on an iron framework resembling -piles. The two men then alight from their -“<b>miza</b>,” chatting together, but Hélène can only hear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>227</span> -fragments (B) of their conversation. A young man -of sixteen to eighteen years of age comes to meet -them, who has his head tied up in a kind of nightcap, -and having no hair on the left side. Martian salutations -are exchanged; they mutually strike their heads -with their hands, etc. Hélène complains of hearing -very confusedly that which they are saying, and can -only repeat ends of sentences (C). She has pain in -her heart, and Leopold dictates to me by the left index-finger, -“<i>Put her to sleep</i>,” which presently leads -to the customary scene of translation of the text.</p> - -<p> -24. <b>saïné êzi chiré iée êzé pavi ché vinâ ine ruzzi</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Saïné, mon fils, toute ma joie, ton retour au milieu</i></span><br /> -<b>ti nini né mis mess assilé atimi... itéche...</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">de nous est un grand, immense bonheur... toujours...</i><br /> -<b>furimir... nori</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">aimera... jamais.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Saïné, my son, all my joy; thy return to our circle is a great, -an immense happiness ... always will love ... ever.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. March 11, 1898 (translated August 21).—“Yesterday -morning, on jumping out of bed,” -wrote Hélène to me, when sending me this text, “I -had a vision of Mars, almost the same as that which -I had before (at the seance of February 20). I saw -again the rolling pavilions, the houses on piling, -several personages, among them a young man who -had no hair on one side of his head. I was able to -note some words. It was very confused, and the -last words were caught on the wing, when here and -there something a little clear came to me....”</p> - -<p> -25. <b>dé véchi ké ti éfi mervé éni</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Tu vois que de choses superbes ici.</i></span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Thou seest what superb things (are) here.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>228</span></p> - -<p>Auditive. August 21, 1898 (translated same seance).—Waking -vision of a river between two rose-colored -mountains, with a bridge (like that in Fig. -9) which lowered itself into the water and disappeared -in order to allow five or six boats to pass -(like that in <a href="#Fig_13">Fig. 13</a>), then reappeared and was restored -to its place. As Hélène describes all this, -she hears a voice speaking to her the above Martian -words of the text.</p> - -<p> -26. <b>Astané né zé ten ti vi</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Astané est là près de toi.</i></span> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Astané is there, near to thee.</p></div> - -<p>Visual. August 21, 1898 (translated same seance).—Following -the preceding scene: Hélène perceives -“in the air” (illumined and red—that of her -Martian vision) some characters unknown to her, -which she copies (see <a href="#Fig_26">Fig. 26</a>). I ask her, showing -her the word <b>zé</b> (which elsewhere always stands -for <i>le</i>), if she is not mistaken. She verifies it by -comparing it with the imaginary model before her -and affirms it to be correct.</p> - -<p> -27. <b>siké kiz crizi hantiné hed é ébrinié rès amêré é</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Siké, quel oiseau fidèle! il a pensé se réunir à</i></span><br /> -<b>nini éssaté ti iche atimi matêmi hantiné hed né</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">nous, vivre de notre bonheur!—Matêmi fidèle, il est</i><br /> -<b>hantiné êzi darié siké tès ousti ké zé badêni lassuné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">fidèle mon cœur!—Siké, ce bateau que le vent approche</i><br /> -<b>mazi trimazi hed é ti zi mazêté é poviné é nini zé priâni</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">avec force! il a de la peine à arriver à nous; le flot</i><br /> -<b>é fouminé ivraïni idé é ti zi mazêté é vizêné zé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">est puissant aujourd’hui; on a de la peine à distinguer le</i><br /> -<b>chodé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">“chodé.”</i> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>229</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp75" id="i229" style="max-width: 75em;"> - <a id="Fig_27"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_229.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 27. Text No. 28 (October 8, 1898), written by Mlle. Smith, copying a text of -Matêmi, seen in a visual hallucination. [The slight tremor of some of the lines is -not in the original, but occurred in the copying of the text in the ink, which was -written in pencil and too pale for reproduction.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Siké, what (a) faithful bird! he has thought to reunite himself -to us, to live of our happiness!—Matêmi faithful, my heart -is faithful!—Siké, this boat which the wind brings near with -force! it has some difficulty in reaching us; the current is strong -to-day; one has some difficulty in distinguishing the “<b>chodé</b>.”</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. About the 4th of September, 1898 -(translated October 16).—Hélène heard and noted -this phrase at the same time at which she had the vision -of the two young Martian people who were walking -in a kind of flower-garden, and saw a boat arrive, -like that in <a href="#Fig_13">Fig. 13.</a> The meaning of <b>chodé</b> has -not been ascertained.</p> - -<p> -*28. <b>men mess Astané cé amès é vi itéch li tès</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Ami grand Astané, je viens à toi toujours par cet</i></span><br /> -<b>alizé néümi assilé kâ ianiné êzi atèv ni lé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">élément mystérieux, immense, qui enveloppe mon étre et me</i><br /> -<b>tazié é vi med iéeξ éziné rabriξ ni tibraξ. men amès di</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">lance à toi pour toutes mes pensées et besoins. Ami, viens te</i><br /> -<b>ouradé ké Matêmi uzénir chée kida ni ké chée brizi pi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">souvenir que Matêmi attendra ta faveur, et que ta sagesse lui</i><br /> -<b>dézanir. évaï diviné tès luné</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">répondra. Sois heureux ce jour.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Friend great Astané, I come to thee always by this element, -mysterious, immense, which envelops my being and -launches me to thee by all my thoughts and desires. Friend, -come thou to remember that Matêmi will await thy favor, and -that thy wisdom will answer him. Be happy to-day.</p></div> - -<p>Visual. October 3, 1898 (translated October 16).—At -a quarter before nine in the evening Mlle. -Smith, desiring to obtain a communication from -Leopold for herself and her mother, sat down in an -easy-chair and gave herself up to meditation. Presently -she hears the voice of Leopold telling her that -he cannot manifest himself that evening, but that -something much more interesting and important<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>231</span> -is being made ready. The room seems to her to become -completely obscured, except the end of the -table at which she is sitting, which is illumined with -a golden light. A young Martian girl in a yellow -robe and with long tresses then comes and seats -herself beside her and begins to trace, without ink -or paper, but with a point on the end of her index-finger, -black figures on a white cylinder, at first -placed on the table, afterwards on her knees, and -which is unrolled as she writes. Hélène is near -enough to see the characters clearly, and copies them -in pencil on a sheet of paper (see <a href="#Fig_27">Fig. 27</a>), after which -the vision vanishes and her mother and the room reappear.</p> - -<p> -29. <b>sazêni kiché nipunêzé dodé né pit léziré bèz</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Sazeni pourquoi craindre? Ceci est sans souffrance ni</i></span><br /> -<b>neura évaï dastrée firêzi zé bodri né dorimé zé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">danger, sois paisible; certainement le os est sain, le</i><br /> -<b>pastri tubré né tuxé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">sang seul est malade.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Sazeni, why fear? This is without suffering or danger, be -peaceful; certainly the flesh is well, the blood alone is ill.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. October 14, 1898 (translated October -16).—Morning vision of an unknown gentleman -and lady, the latter having her arm, spotted with -red, applied to an instrument with three tubes placed -on a shelf fastened to the wall. These words were -spoken by the man; the lady said nothing.</p> - -<p>30. <b>modé ké hed oné chandêné têsé mûné ten ti</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Mère, que ils sont délicieux ces moments près de</i></span><br /> -<b>vi bigâ va bindié idé ti zâmé tensée zou réche</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">toi!—Enfant, où trouve on de meilleurs instants? plus tard</i><br /> -<b>med ché atèv kiz fouminé zati</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">pour ton être quel puissant souvenir.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>232</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Mother, how delightful they are, these moments near to -thee!—Child, where finds one better moments? later for thy -being what (a) powerful remembrance.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. October 22, 1898 (translated December -18).—“At a quarter-past six in the morning; -vision of a pebbly shore; earth of a red tint; immense -sheet of water, of a bluish green. Two -women are walking side by side. This was all I -could gather of their conversation.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i232" style="max-width: 56.25em;"> - <a id="Fig_28"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_232.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 28. Text No. 31 (October 27, 1898), written by Mlle. Smith, -incarnating Ramié. Natural size.</div> -</div> - - -<p> -*31. <b>Râmié bisti ti Espênié ché dimé ûni zi</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Ramié habitant de Espénié, ton semblable par la</i></span><br /> -<b>trimazi tié vadâzâξ di anizié banâ mirâξ Ramié di</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">force des “vadazas,” te envoie trois adieux. Ramié te</i><br /> -<b>trinir tié toumaξ ti bé animinâ ni tiche di uzir nâmi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">parlera des charmes de sa existence et bientôt te dira beaucoup</i><br /> -<b>ti Espênié. évaï divinée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">de Espénié. Sois heureuse!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Ramié, dweller in Espénié, thy like, by the force of the “vadazas,” -sends thee three adieux. Ramié will speak to thee of -the charms of his existence, and presently will tell thee much of -Espénié. Be happy!</p></div> - -<p>Graphic. October 27, 1898 (translated December -18).—“Ten minutes to one in the afternoon. No<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>233</span> -vision, but a severe cramp in the right arm and a -strong impulse to take pencil and paper. I write, I -know not why.” (It is seen by the translation given -two months later that the text refers to the first manifestation -of Ramié and is an announcement of the -ultra-Martian vision which came a few days later.) -See <a href="#Fig_28">Fig. 28.</a> The term <b>vadazas</b>, which has never -been explained, has not a Martian appearance, and -appears to have been borrowed from the Hindoo cycle. -As to <i>Espénié</i>, see text No. 6.</p> - -<p> -32. <b>anâ évaï maniké é bétiné mis tié attanâ</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Maintenant sois attentive à regarder un des mondes</i></span><br /> -<b>kâ di médinié bétinié tès tapié ni bée atèv kavivé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">qui te entourent. Regarde ce “tapié” et ses êtres étranges.</i><br /> -<b>danda anâ</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">Silence maintenant!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Now be attentive to behold one of the worlds which surround -thee. Look at that “tapié” and its strange beings. Silence -now!</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. November 2, 1898 (translated December -18).—Hélène has a morning vision of a Martian -(Ramié) who encircles her waist with one arm and -with the other shows her, while speaking these words, -a strange tableau (<b>tapié</b>) containing extraordinary -beings speaking the unknown language of the following -text. At the moment the vision is effaced Hélène -writes, without perceiving that she has done so, text -No. 34. (For further details, see the following chapter -on the Ultra-Martian.)</p> - -<div class="smaller"> -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td>33.</td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">bak</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">sanak</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">top</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">anok</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">sik</span></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>sirima</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>nêbé</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>viniâ-ti-mis-métiche</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>ivré</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>toué</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">rameau</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">vert</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">nom de un homme</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">sacré</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">dans</i></td> -</tr> -</table> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>234</span></p> - -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">étip</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">vané</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">sanim</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">batam</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">issem</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">tanak</span></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><b>viniâ-ti-misé-bigâ</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>azâni</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>maprinié</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>imizi</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>kramâ</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>ziné</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">nom de une enfant</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr"> mal</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr"> entré</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr"> sous</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr"> panier</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr"> bleu</i></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">vanem</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">sébim</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">mazak</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">tatak</span></td> -<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap">sakam</span></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><b>viniâ-ti-mis-zaki</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>datrinié</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>tuzé</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>vâmé</b></td> -<td class="tdc"><b>gâmié</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">nom de un animal</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">caché</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">malade</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">triste</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i lang="fr">pleure.</i></td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Branch green—name of a man—sacred—in—name of a child—bad—entered—under—basket—blue—name -of an animal—hidden—ill—sad—weeps.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive, as to the non-Martian text (see following -chapter) which Hélène heard spoken on the -2d of November by the strange beings of the tableau -of the preceding vision. Vocal, as to the Martian -translation of this text, which was given by Astané -(incarnated in Hélène and speaking the unknown language -by her mouth, followed by its Martian equivalent -for each word), in the seance of the 18th of December, -1898. Immediately after, Astané yielded his -place to Esenale, who in turn repeated the Martian -phrase, translating it word for word into French by -the customary process.</p> - - - <div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i234" style="max-width: 56.25em;"> - <a id="Fig_29"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_234.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 29. Text No. 34 (November 2, 1898), written by Mlle. Smith, -incarnating Ramié. Natural size.</div> -</div> - -<p> -*34. <b>Ramié di pédrinié anâ né ériné diviné</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Ramié te quitte maintenant, est satisfait, heureux</i></span> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>235</span></p> - -<p> -<b>té mûné ten ti vi. hed dassinié mis abadâ ti ché</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">du moment près de toi. Il garde un peu de ton</i><br /> -<b>atèv ni di parêzié banâ mirâξ.—évaï divinée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">être et te laisse trois adieux. Sois heureuse!</i><br /> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Ramié leaves thee now, is satisfied, happy for the moment -near to thee. He retains a little of thy being and leaves thee -three adieux. Be happy.</p></div> - -<p>Graphic. November 2, 1898 (translated December -18).—Hélène only perceived after its accomplishment -that her hand, which she felt “firmly held,” had -written this text at the close of the preceding vision -(see <a href="#Fig_29">Fig. 29</a>).</p> - -<p> -35. [A] <b>attanâ zabiné pi ten té iche tarvini mabûré</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Monde arriéré, très près du nôtre, langage grossier,</i></span><br /> -<b>nubé téri zée atèv [B] Astané êzi dabé fouminé ni</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">curieux comme les êtres!—Astané, mon maître puissant et</i><br /> -<b>ié ti takâ tubré né bibé ti zé umêzé</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">tout de pouvoir, seul est capable de le faire.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Hidden world, very near to ours, coarse language, curious -like the beings.—Astané, my powerful master and all powerful, -alone is capable of doing it.</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. December 5, 1898 (translated December -18).—Working by lamp-light at seven o’clock in -the morning, Hélène again had a vision of the Martian -(Ramié) who had clasped her waist with one arm -while showing her something with a gesture of the -other (probably the tableau of the preceding vision, -though Hélène did not see it) and uttering the first -phrase of it (A). The second phrase (B) is the reply -of this same Martian to a mental question of Hélène -asking him to translate the strange language -of the other day. (She must, therefore, have understood -the meaning of the first phrase in order to -have replied to it by her appropriate mental question.)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>236</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i236" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_30"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_236.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 30. Text No. 37 (March 24, 1899), written by Mlle. Smith, incarnating Astané. -[Collection of M. Lemaître.] Owing to a defect of the stereotype plate a dot is -lacking on the first letter.</p></div> -</div> - -<p> -36. [A] <b>aé aé aé aé lassunié lâmi rêzé aé aé aé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Aé, aé, aé, aé!—Approche; voici Rêzé... aé, aé, aé,</i></span><br /> -<b>aé niké bulié va né ozâmié zitêni primêni—[B] ozâmié</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">aé, petit Bulié... où est Ozamié? Zitêni, Primêni... Ozamié,</i><br /> -<b>viniâ ti mis bigâ kêmâ zitêni viniâ ti misé bigâ kêmisi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">nom de un enfant mâle; Zitêni, nom de une enfant femelle;</i><br /> -<b>primêni viniâ ti misé bigâ kêmisi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">Priméni, nom de une enfant femelle.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Aé, aé, aé, aé! Approach, here is Rézá ... aé, aé, aé, aé, -little Bulié ... where is Ozamié? Zitêni, Primêni ... Ozamié, -name of a male child; Zitêni, name of a female child; Primêni, -name of a female child.</p></div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i237" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_31"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_237.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 31. Text No. 38 (March 30, 1899), written by Mlle. Smith copying a text of -Ramié, who appeared to her in a visual hallucination. [Collection of M. -Lemaître.]</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Auditive. March 8, 1899 (translated June 4).—Hélène -heard the phrase (A) during the vision of which -the description follows. At the translation, as the -sitters did not at once understand that the three first -words are proper names, Esenale adds the phrase -(B) with its French signification. “I was unable to -go to sleep yesterday evening. At half-past eleven -everything around me was suddenly lighted up, and -the vivid light permitted me to distinguish surround<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>237</span>ing -objects. I arose this morning with a very clear -remembrance of that which I then saw. A tableau -was formed in that light, and I had more before me -than the interior of a Martian house—an immense -square hall, around which shelves were fastened, -or rather little tables suspended and fastened to -the wall. Each of these tables contained a baby, -but not at all bundled up; all the movements of -these little infants were free, and a simple linen -cloth was thrown round the body. They might -be said to be lying on yellow moss. I could not -say with what the tables were covered. Some men -with strange beasts were circulating round the hall; -these beasts had large flat heads, almost without -hair, and large, very soft eyes, like those of seals; -their bodies, slightly hairy, resembled somewhat -those of roes in our country, except for their large -and flat tails; they had large udders, to which the -men present fitted a square instrument with a tube, -which was offered to each infant, who was thus fed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>238</span> -with the milk of these beasts. I heard cries, a great -hurly-burly, and it was with difficulty that I could -note these few words [of this text]. This vision -lasted about a quarter of an hour; then everything -gradually disappeared, and in a minute after I was -in a sound sleep.”</p> - -<p> -*37. <b>Astané bounié zé buzi ti di triné nâmi ni</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Astané cherche le moyen de te parler beaucoup et</i></span><br /> -<b>ti di umêzé séïmiré bi tarvini</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">de te faire comprendre son langage.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Astané searches for the means to speak to thee much and to -make thee understand his language.</p></div> - -<p>Graphic. March 24, 1899 (translated June 4).—“Half-past -six in the morning. Vision of Astané. -I was standing, about to put on my slippers. He -spoke to me, but I could not understand him. I -took this sheet of paper and a pencil; he spoke to -me no more, but seized my hand which held the -pencil. I wrote under this pressure; I understood -nothing, for this is as Hebrew to me. My hand was -released; I raised my head to see Astané, but he had -disappeared” (see <a href="#Fig_30">Fig. 30</a>).</p> - -<p> -*38. <b>fédié amès Ramié di uzénir tès luné amès zé</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Fédié, viens; Ramié te attendra ce jour; viens, le</i></span><br /> -<b>boua trinir</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">frère parlera.</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Fédié, come; Ramié will await thee to-day; come, the brother -will speak.</p></div> - -<p>Visual. March 30, 1899 (translated June 4).—Seated -at her toilet-table, at half-past nine o’clock -in the evening, Hélène found herself suddenly enveloped -in a rose-colored fog, which hid one part -of the furniture from her, then was dissipated, al<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>239</span>lowing -her to see, at the farther end of her room, -“a strange hall, lighted with rose-colored globes -fastened to the wall.” Nearer to her appeared a -table suspended in the air, and a man in Martian -costume, who wrote with a kind of nail fastened to -his right index-finger. “I lean towards this man; -I wish to place my left hand on this imaginary table, -but my hand falls into empty space, and I have great -difficulty in restoring it to its normal position. It -was stiff, and for some moments felt very weak.” -Happily the idea occurred to her to take pencil and -paper and copy “the characters which the Martian, -whom I had seen several times before [Ramié], traced; -and with extreme difficulty—since they were much -smaller than mine—I succeeded in reproducing them” -(the Martian text of <a href="#Fig_31">Fig. 31</a>). All this lasted about a -quarter of an hour. I went immediately to bed, and saw -nothing more that evening, nor on the following day.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i239" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_32"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_239.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 32. Text No. 39 (April 1, 1899), written by Mlle. Smith, incarnating -Ramié. [Collection of M. Lemaître.] Natural size.</div> -</div> - -<p> -*39. <b>Ramié pondé acâmi andélir téri antéch</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i lang="fr">Ramié, savant astronome, apparaîtra comme hier</i></span><br /> -<b>iri é vi anâ. riz vi banâ mirâξ ti Ramié ni</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">souvent à toi maintenant. Sur toi trois adieux de Ramié et</i><br /> -<b>Astané. évaï divinée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">Astané. Sois heureuse!</i> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>240</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Ramié, learned astronomer, will appear as yesterday often to -thee now. Upon thee three adieux from Ramié and Astané. -Be happy!</p></div> - -<p>Graphic. April 1, 1899 (translated June 4).—“Again, -on going to bed at five minutes past ten, a -new vision of the personage seen day before yesterday -[Ramié]. I thought he was about to speak, -but no sound issued from his lips. I quickly take -pencil and paper, and feel my right arm seized by -him, and I begin to trace the strange handwriting -attached hereto (see <a href="#Fig_32">Fig. 32</a>). He is very affectionate; -his bearing, his look, everything breathes -both goodness and strangeness. He leaves me -really charmed.”</p> - -<p> -40. <b>ramié ébanâ dizênâ zivênié ni bi vraïni</b><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i lang="fr">Ramié, lentement, profondément, étudie, et son désir</i></span><br /> -<b>assilé né ten ti rès kalâmé astané êzi dabé né zi</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">immense est près de se accomplir. Astané mon maître est là</i><br /> -<b>med lé godané ni ankôné évaï bané zizazi divinée</b><br /> -<i lang="fr">pour me aider et réjouir. Sois trois fois heureuse!</i> -</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Ramié, slowly, deeply studies, and his great desire is near to -being accomplished. Astané, my master, is there to aid me and -to rejoice. Mayst thou be thrice happy!</p></div> - -<p>Auditive. June 4, 1899 (translated same seance).—Hemisomnambulism, -in which Hélène, without having -a vision, hears a voice addressing words to her, -from which, with some difficulty, she collected the -preceding sentences.</p> - -<p>41. To these texts, forming sentences, in order -to complete the whole, some isolated words must be -added, gathered on various occasions, the meaning -of which is obtained with sufficient certainty, either -from the French context in which they were framed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>241</span> -or from Hélène’s description of the objects which they -designated. These words are <b>chèke</b>, <i lang="fr">papier</i> (“paper”); -<b>chinit</b>, <i lang="fr">bague</i> (“ring”); <b>asnète</b>, <i lang="fr">espèce de -paravent</i> (“kind of screen”). <b>Anini Nikaîné</b>, proper -name of a little girl (see <a href="#Page_176">p. 176</a>), probably the Martian -sister of Esenale, who floats beside her, invisible -to her, and watches over her during an illness, -after the fashion of spirit protectors. <b>Béniel</b>, -proper name of our earth, as seen from Mars (which -is called <b>Durée</b> in texts 7 and 9).</p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">Remarks on the Martian Language</span></h3> - -<p>Provided the reader has given some attention to -the foregoing texts, if only to the two first, he undoubtedly -will have been easily satisfied as to the -pretended language of the planet Mars, and perhaps -will be astonished that I have spent so much time -upon it. But, as many of the <i lang="fr">habitués</i> of the seances -of Mlle. Smith—and, naturally, Mlle. Smith herself—hold -seriously to its authenticity, I cannot absolve -myself from stating why the “Martian” is, in my -opinion, only an infantile travesty of French. Even -in default of the astronomical importance which -is claimed for it on the authority of Leopold, this -idiom preserves all the psychological interest which -attaches to automatic products of subconscious activities -of the mind, and it well deserves some minutes -of examination.</p> - -<p>It is necessary at the start to render this justice to -the Martian (I continue to designate it by that name, -for the sake of convenience)—namely, that it is, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>242</span>deed, -a language and not a simple jargon or gibberish -of vocal noises produced at the hazard of the moment -without any stability. It cannot be denied the following -characteristics—First: It is a harmony of clearly -articulated sounds, grouped so as to form words. Secondly: -These words when pronounced express definite -ideas. Thirdly, and finally: Connection of the -words with the ideas is continuous; or, to put it differently, -the signification of the Martian terms is -permanent and is maintained (apart from slight inconsistencies, -to which I will return later on) from one -end to the other of the texts which have been collected -in the course of these three years.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> I will add that in -speaking fluently and somewhat quickly, as Hélène -sometimes does in somnambulism (texts 4, 11, 15, etc.), -it has an acoustic quality altogether its own, due to -the predominance of certain sounds, and has a peculiar -intonation difficult to describe. Just as one distinguishes -by ear foreign languages which one does -not understand, the whole dialect possessing a peculiar -accent which causes it to be recognized, so in this -case one perceives, from the first syllables uttered,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>243</span> -whether Hélène is speaking Hindoo or Martian, according -to the musical connection, the rhythm, the -choice of consonants and vowels belonging to each -of the two idioms. In this the Martian, indeed, bears -the stamp of a natural language. It is not the result -of a purely intellectual calculation, but influences of -an æsthetic order, emotional factors, have combined -in its creation and instinctively directed the choice of -its assonances and favorite terminations. The Martian -language has certainly not been fabricated in -cold blood during the normal, habitual, French (so -to speak) state of Mlle. Smith, but it bears in its characteristic -tonalities the imprint of a peculiar emotional -disposition, of a fixed humor or psychical Orientation, -of a special condition of mind, which may be -called, in one word, the <i>Martian</i> state of Hélène. The -secondary personality, which takes pleasure in linguistic -games, seems, indeed, to be the same, at its -source, as that which delights in the exotic and highly -colored visual images of the planet of red rocks, and -which animates the personages of the Martian romance.</p> - -<p>A glance at the <i lang="fr">ensemble</i> of the foregoing texts -shows that Martian, as compared with French, is -characterized by a superabundance of <i>é</i>, <i>ê</i>, and <i>i’s</i>, -and a scarcity of diphthongs and the nasal sounds. -A more accurate statistical table of sounded vowels -which strike the ear in reading aloud the Martian -texts on the one hand, and their translation into -French on the other, gives me the percentages of Table -I., which follows. But it is well known that the -vowels are distinguished, from the acoustic point<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>244</span> -of view, by certain fixed characteristic sounds, and -that they are distributed at different heights in the -musical scale.</p> - - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Table I.—Statistics of Vowel Sounds</span></p> - -<div class="center small"> -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"></td> -<td class="tdh"></td> -<th ><span class="smcap">Martian</span></th> -<th ><span class="smcap">French</span></th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>a</i></td> -<td class="tdh">%</td> -<td class="tdr">16.3</td> -<td class="tdr">13.7</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>e</i> mute (like those of <i>casemate</i>)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">3.6</td> -<td class="tdr">20.8</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>e</i> closed or half-closed (like those of -<i>hébété</i>, <i>rêvé</i>)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">36.9</td> -<td class="tdr">14.3</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>e</i> open (like that of <i>aloès</i>)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">2.1</td> -<td class="tdr">4.6</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>i</i></td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">34.3</td> -<td class="tdr">13.4</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>o</i></td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">2.3</td> -<td class="tdr">5.7</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"><i>u</i></td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">2.3</td> -<td class="tdr">3.1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh">Diphthongs and nasals (<i>ou</i>, <i>oi</i>, <i>eu</i>, <i>an</i>, -<i>in</i>, <i>on</i>, <i>un</i>)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">2.1</td> -<td class="tdr">24.5</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> - - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Table II.—Grouping from Point of View of Height</span></p> - -<div class="center small"> -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdh"></td> -<td class="tdh"></td> -<th ><span class="smcap">Martian</span></th> -<th ><span class="smcap">French</span></th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh">Vowels, high (<i>i</i> and <i>e</i> sounded)</td> -<td class="tdh">%</td> -<td class="tdr">73.3</td> -<td class="tdr">32.3</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh">Vowels, middle (<i>a</i> and <i>o</i>)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">18.6</td> -<td class="tdr">19.4</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdh">Vowels, low or hollow (<i>u</i>; diphthongs -and nasals; <i>e</i> mute)</td> -<td class="tdh">“</td> -<td class="tdr">8.0</td> -<td class="tdr">48.4</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> - -<p><i>i</i> and <i>é</i> are the highest, <i>a</i> and <i>o</i> occupy the middle -place, <i>u</i> and <i>ou</i> are found in the lower part of the -scale. In adding to the latter, therefore, the nasals, -which are always hollow, and also <i>e</i> mute, Table I. -divides itself into the three groups of Table II. from -the point of view of height and sonorousness. It -is, therefore, clear that the Martian is of a general -tonality much higher than the French; since, while -the two languages have almost the same proportion -of middle vowels, the low, hollow, or mute sounds, -which constitute almost one-half of the French vowels, -amount to scarcely one-twelfth in Martian,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>245</span> -in which the high sounds, on the contrary, represent -in bulk three-quarters of the vowels, against one-third -only in the French. On the other hand, researches -in the field of colored audition have demonstrated -that a close psychological connection -exists, based on certain emotional analogies and an -equivalence of organic reactions, between the high -sounds and the bright or vivid colors, and the low or -hollow sounds and the sombre colors. But this same -correlation is found in the somnambulistic life of Mlle. -Smith, between the brilliant, luminous, highly colored -visions which characterize her Martian cycle and -the language of the high and sonorous vowels which -gushes forth in the same cycle. It is allowable to -conclude from this that it is really the same emotional -atmosphere which bathes and envelops these -varied psychological products, the same personality -which gives birth to these visual and phonetic -automatisms. The imagination cannot, however, -as is easily understood, create its fiction out of nothing; -it is obliged to borrow its materials from individual -experience. The Martian tableaux are, -therefore, only a reflection of the terrestrial world, -but of that part of it which possesses the most warmth -and brilliancy—the Orient; in the same way, the -Martian language is only French metamorphosed -and carried to a higher diapason.</p> - -<p>I admit, then, that Martian is a language, and a -natural language, in the sense that it is automatically -brought forth in the emotional state, or by the -secondary personality, which is the source of all the -remainder of the cycle without the conscious par<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>246</span>ticipation -of Mlle. Smith. It remains for me now to -mention some of the characteristics which seem to -indicate that the inventor of this subliminal linguistic -work had never known any idiom other than -French, that it is much more sensible to verbal expression -than to logical connection of ideas, and -that it possesses in an eminent degree that infantile -and puerile character which I have already pointed -out in the author of the Martian romance. It now -becomes necessary to examine rapidly this unknown -language, from the point of view of its phonetics and -its writing, its grammatical form, its syntax, and its -vocabulary.</p> - -<p>1. <i>Martian Phonetics and Handwriting.</i>—Martian -is composed of articulate sounds, all of which, -consonants as well as vowels, exist in French. -While on this globe languages geographically our -neighbors (not to mention those farther away) differ -each from the other by certain special sounds—<i>ch</i>, -German, <i>th</i>, English, etc.—the language of the planet -Mars does not permit of similar phonetic originalities. -It seems, on the contrary, poorer in this respect -than the French. As yet I have not found in -it the hissing <i>j</i> or <i>ge</i> (as in <i>juger</i>), nor the double -sound <i>x</i>. Martian phonetics, in a word, are only an -incomplete reproduction of French phonetics.</p> - -<p>The Martian alphabet, compared with ours, suggests -a remarkable analogy. The graphic form of -the characters is certainly novel, and no one would -divine our letters in these designs of exotic aspect. -Nevertheless, each Martian sign (with the single -exception of that of the plural) corresponds to a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>247</span> -French sign, although the inverse is not the case, -which indicates that here again we are in the presence -of a feeble imitation of our system of handwriting.</p> - -<p>The twelve written texts upon which I base my -comparison comprise about 300 words (of which 160 -are different) and 1200 signs. There are altogether -twenty-one different letters, all of which have their -exact equivalents in the French alphabet, which also -has five others which Martian lacks; <i>j</i> and <i>x</i>, of -which the sounds themselves have not been observed, -and <i>q</i>, <i>w</i>, and <i>y</i>, of which there is a double -use, with <i>k</i>, <i>v</i>, and <i>i</i>. This reduction of graphic material -manifests itself in two other details. First, -there are neither accents nor punctuation marks, -with the exception of a certain sign, resembling the -French circumflex, used sometimes in the shape of -a point at the end of phrases. In the second place, -each letter has only one form, the diversity of capitals -and small letters not seeming to exist in Martian. -Of ciphers we know nothing.</p> - -<p>There are still three small peculiarities to notice:</p> - -<p>1. In default of capitals, the initials of proper names -are often distinguished by a point placed above the -ordinary character.</p> - -<p>2. In the case of double letters the second is replaced -by a point situated at the right of the first.</p> - -<p>3. Finally, there exists, in order to designate the -plural of substantives and of some adjectives, a special -graphic sign, answering to nothing in the pronunciation -and having the form of a small vertical undulation, -which reminds one a little of an amplification of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>248</span> -the French <i>s</i>, the usual mark of the plural in French. -These peculiarities, outside the ordinary form of the -letters, constitute the sum total of ingenuity displayed -in Martian handwriting.</p> - -<p>It must be added that this handwriting, which is -not ordinarily inclined, goes from left to right, like -the French. All the letters are of nearly the same -height, except that the <i>i</i> is much smaller, and that -they remain isolated from each other; their assembly -into words and phrases offers to the eye a certain -aspect of Oriental hieroglyphic inscriptions.</p> - -<p>The Martian alphabet never having been revealed -as such, we are ignorant of the order in which the -letters follow each other. It would seem as though -the letters had been invented by following the French -alphabet, at least in great part, if one may judge -according to the analogies of form of the Martian -characters corresponding to certain series of French -letters: compare <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>; <i>g</i> and <i>h</i>; <i>s</i> and <i>t</i>; and -also the succession <i>k</i>, <i>l</i>, <i>m</i>, <i>n</i>.</p> - -<p>It is in the phonetic value of the letters—that is to -say, in the correspondence of the articulated sounds -with the graphic signs—that the essentially French -nature of the Martian may be seen. The only notable -difference to be pointed out here between the two languages -is the much greater simplicity of the Martian -orthography, resulting in the employment of no useless -letters. All are pronounced, even the final consonants, -such as <i>s</i>, <i>n</i>, <i>z</i>, etc., which are generally silent -in French. This gives the impression that the Martian -handwriting is moulded on the spoken language, -and is only the notation of the articulated sounds<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>249</span> -of the latter by the most economical means. In so -far it realizes the type of a handwriting truly phonetic—that -is to say, where each sign corresponds -to a certain elementary articulation, constant and invariable, -and vice versa. It is full, on the other hand, -of equivocations, of exceptions, of irregularities, which -make one and the same letter to have very different -pronunciations, according to circumstances, and, reciprocally, -which causes the same sound to be written -in different ways without our being able to perceive -any rational explanation for all these ambiguities—were -it not for the fact that the very same thing is to -be found in French!</p> - -<p>Martian is only disguised French. I will mention -only the most curious and striking coincidences, -all the more striking from the fact that the field from -which I have collected them is very limited, being confined -to the dozen texts written and pronounced, which -contain only 160 different words.</p> - -<p>The simple vowels of the Martian alphabet correspond -exactly to the five French vowels, <i>a</i>, <i>e</i>, <i>i</i>, <i>o</i>, <i>u</i>, -and have the same shades of pronunciation.</p> - -<p>The Martian <i>c</i> plays the triple part which it also -fulfils in French. The <i>s</i> has the same capricious -character as in our language. It is generally hard, -but between two vowels it becomes soft, like <i>z</i>.</p> - -<p>2. <i>Grammatical Forms.</i>—The <i>ensemble</i> of the texts -which we possess does not as yet permit us to make -a Martian grammar. Certain indications, however, -warrant the prediction that the rules of that grammar, -if it ever sees the light of day, will be only the -counterpart of, or a parody upon, those of French.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>250</span></p> - -<p>Here, for example, is a list of personal pronouns, -articles, possessive adjectives, etc., which have appeared -hitherto:</p> - -<div class="small"> -<table class="pad" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>je</i> <b>cé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>me</i> <b>lé</b>, <i>moi</i> <b>si</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>ton</i> <b>ché</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>ce</i> <b>tès</b>, <i>ces</i> <b>têsé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>de</i> <b>ti</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>tu</i> <b>dé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>te</i> <b>di</b>, <i>toi</i> <b>vi</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>ta</i> <b>chée</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>cette</i> <b>tês</b>, <b>têsée</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>des</i> <b>tié</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>il</i> <b>hed</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>se</i> <b>rès</b>, <i>lui</i> <b>pi</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>tes</i> <b>chi</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>le</i> (pron.) <b>zé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>du</i> <b>té</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>nous</i> <b>nini</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>mon</i> <b>êzi</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>son</i> <b>bi</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>qui</i> <b>kâ</b>, <i>que</i> <b>ké</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>au</i> <b>ine</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>vous</i> <b>sini</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>ma</i> <b>êzé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>sa</i> <b>bé</b></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><i>quel</i> <b>kiz</b>, <i>quelle</i> <b>kizé</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>ils</i> <b>hed</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>mes</i> <b>éziné</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>ses</i> <b>bée</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>un</i> <b>mis</b>, <i>une</i> <b>misé</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>on</i> <b>idé</b></td> -<td class="tdl"><i>notre</i> <b>iche</b></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3"><i>le</i>, <i>la</i>, <i>les</i> (art.) <b>zé</b>, <b>zi</b>, <b>zée</b>.</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>There are some texts where the feminine is derived -from the masculine by the addition of an <i>e</i> mute, -and the plural by the small, unpronounced sign, -which has all the appearance of being a reminiscence -of French <i>s</i>.</p> - -<p>Between these two languages there is another order -of points of contact, of a more special interest, because -it shows the preponderating rôle which verbal images -have often played in the making of Martian to the -prejudice of the intrinsic, logical nature of the ideas. -I should say that at all times the Martian translates -the French word, allowing itself to be guided by auditive -analogies without regard to the real meaning, in -such a way that we are surprised to discover in the -idiom of the planet Mars the same peculiarities of -homonyms as in French. It is also the case that two -vocables identical as to pronunciation, but of entirely -heterogeneous signification, as the preposition <i>à</i> and -the <i>a</i> of the verb <i lang="la">avoir</i>, are rendered in Martian by -the same word, <i>é</i>.</p> - -<p>Other curious coincidences are to be noted. In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>251</span> -French the conjunction <i>et</i> only slightly differs, from -the point of view of phonic images, from the verb <i>est</i>; -in Martian also there is a great analogy, between <b>ni</b> -and <b>né</b>, which translate these two words. Between -the past participle <b>nié</b> of the verb <i>to be</i> and the conjunction -<b>ni</b> there is only the difference of an <b><i>é</i></b>, just -as between their French equivalents <b><i>été</i></b> and <b><i>et</i></b>.</p> - -<p>It must be admitted that all these coincidences -would be very extraordinary if they were purely -fortuitous.</p> - -<p>3. <i>Construction and Syntax.</i>—The order of the -words is absolutely the same in Martian as in -French. This identity of construction of phrases is -pursued sometimes into the minutest details, such as -the division or amputation of the negation <i>ne</i> ... -<i>pas</i> (texts 15 and 17), and also the introduction of a -useless letter in Martian to correspond to a French -euphemistic <i>t</i> (see text 15), <b>Kèvi bérimir m hed</b>, -<i lang="la">quand reviendra-t-il?</i> (“when will he return?”)</p> - -<p>If it is admitted hypothetically that the succession -of words, such as is given us in these texts, is not -the natural ordering of the Martian language, but -an artificial arrangement, like that of juxtalinear -translations for the use of pupils, the very possibility -of that correspondence absolutely word for word -would remain an extraordinary fact without a parallel, -since there is not a single language that I know -of in which each term of the French phrase is always -rendered by <i>one</i> term, neither more nor less, of the -foreign phrase. The hypothesis referred to is, moreover, -inadmissible, since the Martian texts, of which -Esenale gives the literal translation, were not pre<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>252</span>viously -arranged by him with that end in view; -they are the identical words which Mlle. Smith heard -and noted in her visions, often weeks and months -before Esenale repeats them for the purpose of translating -them, and which constitute the conversation, -as such, taken from life, of the Martian personages. -We must conclude from this that these in their elocution -follow step by step and word by word the -order of the French language, which amounts almost -to saying that they speak a French the sounds of -which have simply been changed.</p> - -<p>4. <i>Vocabulary.</i>—From an etymological point of -view, I have not been able to distinguish any rule of -derivation, even partial, that would permit the suspicion -that the Martian words had come from French -words, according to some law. Apart from the entire -first text, where it is difficult to deny that the people -of Mars have stolen French terms of politeness, -at the same time distorting them, no clear resemblance -is to be seen between Martian words and the -French equivalents; at most, there are traces of borrowing, -like <b>merve</b>, <i lang="fr">superbe</i>, which might have been -abridged from <i lang="fr">merveille</i> (text 25), and <b>vechi</b>, an imitation -of <i lang="fr">voir</i>.</p> - -<p>Still less does the Martian lexicon betray the influence -of other known languages (at least to my -knowledge). A term which suggests such similarity -is hardly ever met with—<i>e.g.</i>, <b>modé</b>, <i lang="fr">mère</i> (“mother”), -and <b>gudé</b> <i lang="fr">bon</i> (“good”), cause us to think of -German or English words; <b>animina</b> (“existence”) -is like <i lang="la">anima</i>; various forms of the verbs <i lang="fr">être</i> and -<i lang="fr">vivre</i> (“to be” and “to live”), <b>êvé</b>, <b>évaï</b>, <b>essat</b>, re<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>253</span>call -the Latin <i lang="la">esse</i> or the Hebrew <i>évé</i>, and that passage -of the Biblical story of the Creation where Eve -is called the mother of all living beings. A linguist -who happened to be at the same time a savant and -a humorist would doubtless succeed in lengthening -this list of etymologies, after the mode of the eighteenth -century. But, <i lang="la">cui bono</i>? In that rarity of -points of contact between the idioms of our terrestrial -sphere and the Martian glossary, an argument -might be found in favor of the extra-terrestrial -origin of the latter, if, on the other hand, it did not -seem to betray the influence of the French language -from the fact that a notable proportion of its words -reproduce in a suspicious manner the same number -of syllables or letters as their French equivalents; -note, for example, besides the terms of politeness -already mentioned, the words <b>tarvine</b>, <i>langage</i>; -<b>haudan</b>, <i>maison</i>; <b>dodé</b>, <i>ceci</i>; <b>valini</b>, <i>visage</i>, etc., and -the great majority of the little words, such as <b>cé</b>, <i>je</i>; -<b>ké</b>, <i>que</i>; <b>ti</b>, <i>de</i>; <b>dé</b>, <i>tu</i>; etc.</p> - -<p>With the exception of such examples as these, it -must be acknowledged that there is no trace of parentage, -filiation, of any resemblance whatever between -the Martian and French vocabularies, which -forms a singular contrast to the close identity which -we have established between the two languages in -the preceding paragraphs.</p> - -<p>This apparent contradiction carries its explanation -in itself, and gives us the key to Martian. This -fantastic idiom is evidently the naïve and somewhat -puerile work of an infantile imagination, to -which occurred the idea of creating a new language,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>254</span> -and which, while giving to its lucubrations certain -strange and unknown appearances, without doubt -caused them to run in the accustomed moulds of the -only real language of which it had cognizance. The -Martian of Mlle. Smith, in other words, is the product -of a brain or a personality which certainly has taste -and aptitude for linguistic exercises, but which never -knew that French takes little heed of the logical connection -of ideas, and did not take the trouble to make -innovations in the matter of phonetics, of grammar, -or of syntax.</p> - -<p>The process of creation of Martian seems to have -consisted in simply taking certain French phrases -as such and replacing each word by some other -chosen at random. That is why, especially in the -texts at the beginning, the structure of French -words is recognized under the Martian. The author -herself was undoubtedly struck by it, and from -that time exerted herself to complicate her lexicon, -to render her words more and more unrecognizable.</p> - -<p>This research of originality—which, however, -she has never extended beyond the purely material -part of the language, never having an idea that -there might be other differences in languages—represents -an effort of imagination with which she -must be credited. Homage must also be rendered -to the labor of memorizing, which the making of a -dictionary has necessitated. She has sometimes, -indeed, fallen into errors; the stability of her vocabulary -has not always been perfect. But, finally, -after the first hesitation and independently of some -later confusions, it gives evidence of a praiseworthy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>255</span> -terminological consistency, and which no doubt -in time, and with some suggestive encouragement, -would result in the elaboration of a very complete -language—perhaps even of several languages, as -we may augur from text 33, to which we shall return -in the following chapter.</p> - -<p>5. <i>Style.</i>—It remains to investigate the style. If -it is true that “manners make the man”—that is to -say, not the impersonal and abstract understanding, -but the concrete character, the individual temperament, -the humor and emotional vibration—we ought -to expect to find in the style of the Martian texts the -same special stamp which distinguishes the visions, -the sound of the language, the handwriting, the personages—in -short, the entire romance, that is to say, -the curious mixture of Oriental exoticism and of -childish puerility of which the secondary personality -of Mlle. Smith, at work in this cycle, seems -to be composed. It is difficult to pronounce upon -these matters of vague æsthetic impression rather -than of precise observation; but, as well as I can -judge, there seems to me to be in the phraseology -of the texts collected an indefinable something which -corresponds well with the general character of the -entire dream. As these words are evidently first -thought in French—then travesties in Martian by a -substitution of sounds, the choice of which, as has -been seen, apropos of the high tonality of this language, -reflects the general emotional disposition—it -is, naturally, under their French aspect that we -ought to consider them in judging of their actual -style. Unfortunately, we do not know how far the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>256</span> -translation given by Esenale is identical with the -primitive original; certain details seem to hint that -there are divergences sometimes. However that -may be, it is clearly to be perceived that the literary -form of the majority of the texts (taken in French) -is more akin to poetry than to prose. While no one -of them is in verse, properly speaking, the large -number of hemistiches which are met with, the frequency -of inversion, the choice of terms, the abundance -of exclamations and of broken phrases, betray -a great intensity of sentimental and poetic emotion. -The same character is found, with a strong shade -of exotic and archaic originality, in the formulas of -salutation and farewell (“be happy to-day,” “three -adieux to thee,“ etc.), as well as in many expressions -and terms of phrases which rather recall the obscure -and metaphorical parlance of the Orient than the -dry precision of our language of to-day (”<i lang="fr">il garde -un peu de ton être; cet élément mystérieux, immense</i>,” -etc.)</p> - -<p>If, now, it is recollected that everywhere in literary -history poetry precedes prose, imagination comes before -reason, and the lyric style before the didactic, a -conclusion according with that of the preceding -paragraphs is reached. Which is, that, by its figures -and its style, the Martian language (or the French -phrases which serve it for a skeleton) seems to bring -to us the echo of a past age, the reflex of a primitive -state of mind, from which Mlle. Smith to-day finds -herself very far removed in her ordinary and normal -states of mind.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>257</span></p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">Mlle. Smith and the Inventor of Martian</span></h3> - -<p>The preceding analysis of the Martian language -furnishes its support to the considerations which the -content of the romance has already suggested to us -in regard to its author (p. <a href="#Page_194">194</a>). To imagine that by -twisting the sounds of French words a new language -capable of standing examination could actually be -created, and to wish to make it pass for that of the -planet Mars, would be the climax of silly fatuity or -of imbecility were it not simply a trait of naïve candor -well worthy of the happy age of childhood.</p> - -<p>The whole Martian cycle brings us into the presence -of an infantine personality exuberant of imagination, -sharing, as to their light, color, Oriental exoticism, -the æsthetic tendencies of the actual normal -personality of Mlle. Smith, but contrasting with it -outside its puerile character in two points to be -noted.</p> - -<p>First: It takes a special pleasure in linguistic -discussions and the fabrication of unknown idioms, -while Hélène has neither taste nor facility for the -study of languages, which she cordially detests and -in which she has never met with success.</p> - -<p>Secondly: Notwithstanding this aversion, Hélène -possesses a certain knowledge, either actual or potential, -of German—in which her parents caused her to -take lessons for three years—whereas the author of -Martian evidently knows only French. It is, in fact, -difficult to believe that, if that author had only a very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>258</span> -slight knowledge of the German language (so different -from the French by the construction of its -sentences, pronunciation, its three genders, etc.), that -some reminiscences of it, at least, would not have -slipped into its lucubrations. I infer from this that -the Martian secondary personality which gives evidence -of a linguistic activity so fecund, but so completely -subject to the structural forms of the mother-tongue, -represents a former stage, ulterior to the -epoch at which Hélène commenced the study of -German.</p> - -<p>If one reflects, on the other hand, on the great facility -which Mlle. Smith’s father seems to have possessed -for languages (see <a href="#Page_17">p. 17</a>), the question naturally -arises whether in the Martian we are not in the -presence of an awakening and momentary display -of an hereditary faculty, dormant under the normal -personality of Hélène, but which she has not profited -from in an effective manner. It is a fact of common -observation that talents and aptitudes often skip a -generation and seem to pass directly from the grandparents -to the grandchildren, forgetting the intermediate -link. Who knows whether Mlle. Smith, -some day, having obtained Leopold’s consent to her -marriage, may not cause the polyglot aptitudes of her -father to bloom again with greater brilliancy, for the -glory of science, in a brilliant line of philologists and -linguists of genius?</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, and without even invoking a special -latent talent in Hélène’s case, the Martian may be -attributed to a survival or a reawakening under the -lash of mediumistic hypnoses of that general func<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>259</span>tion, -common to all human beings, which is at the -root of language and manifests itself with the more -spontaneity and vigor as we mount higher towards -the birth of peoples and individuals.</p> - -<p>Ontogenesis, say the biologists, reproduces in -abridged form and <i>grosso-modo</i> phylogenesis; each -being passes through stages analogous to those -through which the race itself passes; and it is known -that the first ages of ontogenic evolution—the embryonic -period, infancy, early youth—are more favorable -than later periods and adult age to the ephemeral -reappearances of ancestral tendencies, which would -hardly leave any trace upon a being who had already -acquired his organic development. The “poet who -died young” in each one of us is only the most common -example of those atavic returns of tendencies -and of emotions which accompanied the beginnings -of humanity, and remain the appanage of infant -peoples, and which cause a fount of variable energy in -each individual in the spring-time of his life, to congeal -or disappear sooner or later with the majority; -all children are poets, and that in the original, the -most extended, acceptation of the term. They create, -they imagine, they construct—and language is not -the least of their creations.</p> - -<p>I conclude from the foregoing that the very fact of -the reappearance of that activity in the Martian -states of Hélène is a new indication of the infantile, -primitive nature left behind in some way and long -since passed by her ordinary personality, of the subliminal -strata which mediumistic autohypnotization -with her puts in ebullition and causes to mount<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>260</span> -to the surface. There is also a perfect accord between -the puerile character of the Martian romance, -the poetic and archaic charms of its style, and the -audacious and naïve fabrication of its unknown language.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>261</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br /> - -<small>THE MARTIAN CYCLE (<span class="allsmcap">CONCLUDED</span>). -—THE ULTRA-MARTIAN</small></h2></div> - - -<p>All things become wearisome at last, and the -planet Mars is no exception to the rule. The -subliminal imagination of Mlle. Smith, however, -will probably never tire of its lofty flights in -the society of Astané, Esenale, and their associates. -I myself, I am ashamed to acknowledge, began, in -1898, to have enough of the Martian romance.</p> - -<p>Once having satisfied myself as to the essential -nature of the Martian language, I did not desire to -make a profound study of it, and since the texts had -made their appearance so slowly, for two years, as to -threaten to continue during the remainder of my -natural existence, as well as that of the medium, -without coming to an end; finding, on the other -hand, that the texts, considered as simple psychological -curiosities, varied but little and were at length -likely to become burdensome, I decided to try some -experiment which, without drying up their source, -might at least break through this monotony. Up -to that time, without giving a positive opinion as to -the Martian, I had always manifested a very real -interest in these communications, as well as in Mlle.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>262</span> -Smith in her waking state, and in Leopold in his -incarnations. Both of these showed themselves -fully persuaded of the objective verity of this language, -and of the visions which accompanied it. -Leopold had not ceased, from the first day, to affirm -its strictly Martian authenticity. Hélène, without -maintaining absolutely that it came from Mars rather -than from any other planet, shared the same -faith in the extra-terrestrial origin of these messages; -and, as appeared from many details of her conversations -and conduct, she saw in it a revelation of the -loftiest import, which might some day cause “all -the discoveries of M. Flammarion” to sink into insignificance. -What would happen if I made up my -mind to strike this strange conviction a telling blow, -and demonstrate that the pretended Martian was only -a chimera, a product, pure and simple, of somnambulistic -autosuggestion?</p> - -<p>My first tentative experiment, addressed to Leopold, -had no appreciable influence on the course of the -Martian cycle. It was at the seance of February 13, -1898. Hélène was profoundly asleep, and Leopold -was conversing with us by gestures of the arm and -spelling on the fingers. I categorically informed him -of my certainty that the Martian was of terrestrial -fabrication, and that a comparison with the French -proved it so to be. As Leopold responded by emphatic -gestures of dissent, I detailed to him some -evidences, among others the accord of the two languages -as to their pronunciation of <i>ch</i>, as to the homonym -of the pronoun and article <i>le</i>. He listened -to me, and seemed to understand my arguments,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>263</span> -but he refused to admit the force of these characteristic -coincidences, and said: “There are some things -more extraordinary,” and was unwilling to give up -the authenticity of the Martian. We stood by our -respective opinions, and the later texts do not show -any trace of our interview. It seemed, therefore, -that it was not through the intervention of Leopold -that a modification of the Martian romance was to -be suggested.</p> - -<p>I allowed some months to pass, then tried a discussion -with Hélène while she was awake. On two -occasions, in October, 1898, I expressed to her my -utter skepticism as to the Martian. The first time, -on the 6th of October, in a visit which I made to her -outside of any seance, I confined myself to certain -general objections to it, to which she replied, in substance, -as follows: First, that this unknown language, -by reason of its intimate union with the visions, -and in spite of its possible resemblances to the -French, must necessarily be Martian, if the visions -are. Then nothing seriously opposes that actual -origin of the visions, and, consequently, of the language -itself; since there are two methods of explaining -this knowledge of a far-off world—namely, communications -properly <i>spiritistic</i> (<i>i. e.</i>, from spirits to -spirits, without material intermediary) the reality -of which cannot be held to be doubtful; <i>and clairvoyance</i>, -that faculty, or undeniable sixth sense, of -mediums which permits them both to see and hear -at any distance. Finally, that she did not hold -tenaciously to the distinctly Martian origin of that -strange dream, provided it is conceded that it comes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>264</span> -from somewhere outside herself, it being inadmissible -to regard it as the work of her subconsciousness, -since she had not, during her ordinary life, -absolutely any perception whatever, any sentiment, -not the shadow of a hint of that alleged interior -work of elaboration to which I persisted in attributing -it against all the evidence and all common-sense.</p> - -<p>Some days later (October 16th), as Mlle. Smith, -perfectly awake after an afternoon seance, passed -the evening at my house, and seemed to be in the -fulness of her normal state, I returned to the charge -with more of insistence.</p> - -<p>I had until then always avoided showing her the -full translation of the Martian texts, as well as the -alphabet, and she only knew by sight, so to speak, -the Martian handwriting, and was ignorant of the -value of the letters.</p> - -<p>This time I explained to her in detail the secrets of -the language, its superficial originalities and fundamental -resemblances to French; the frequent occurrence -of <i>i</i> and <i>e</i>, its puerile construction, identical -with French, even to the slipping in of a superfluous -euphonic <b>m</b> between the words <b>bérmier</b> and -<b>hed</b> in order to imitate the expression <i>reviendra-t-il?</i> -its numerous caprices of phonetics and homonyms, -evident reflexes of those to which we are accustomed, -etc. I added that the visions seemed to me to be also -suspicious through their improbable analogies with -that which we see on our globe. Supposing that the -houses, the vegetation, and the people of Mars were -constructed on the same fundamental plan as those -here below, it was nevertheless very doubtful whether<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>265</span> -they had the same proportions and typical aspect; in -short, astronomy teaches us that on Mars the physical -conditions—the length of the year, the intensity -of weight, etc.—are all other than with us: the last -point, in particular, should act on all the products, -natural and artificial, in such a way as to alter -greatly the dimensions as well as the proportions of -height and size which are familiar to us. I observed, -again, that there are doubtless on Mars, as on the -earth, a great variety of idioms, and the singular -chance which made Esenale speak a language so -similar to French was very astonishing. I concluded, -finally, by remarking that all this was easily explicable, -as well as the Oriental aspect of the Martian -landscapes and the generally infantile character -of that romance, if it were regarded as a work -of pure imagination, due to a secondary personality -or to a dream state of Mlle. Smith herself, who recognized -having always had “great taste for that which -is original and connected with the Orient.”</p> - -<p>For more than an hour Hélène followed my demonstration -with a lively interest. But to each new -reason, after having appeared at first a little disconcerted -by it, she did not hesitate to repeat, like a triumphal -refrain and as an unanswerable argument, -that science is not infallible; that no scientist has yet -been on Mars; and that consequently it is impossible -to affirm with any certainty that affairs there are not -conformable to her visions. To my conclusion she -replied that, as far as concerns Mars or anything -else, her revelations did not, in any case, spring from -sources within herself, and that she did not under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>266</span>stand -why I was so implacable against that which is -the most simple supposition, that of their authenticity, -or why I should prefer to it this silly and absurd -hypothesis of an underlying self plotting in her, -unknown to her, this strange mystification.</p> - -<p>Maintaining all the while that my deductions -appeared to me strictly correct, I felt bound to admit -that science is not infallible, and that a voyage to -Mars could alone solve all our doubts as to what takes -place there. We parted good friends, but that conversation -left me with a very clear impression of the -complete uselessness of my efforts to make Mlle. -Smith share my conceptions of the subliminal consciousness. -But this, however, neither surprises nor -grieves me, since from her point of view it is perhaps -better that she thus believes.</p> - -<p>The following shows, however, that my reasonings -on that evening, sterile in appearance, were not without -effect. If they have not modified Mlle. Smith’s -<i>conscious</i> manner of seeing, and, above all, the opinion -of Leopold, they have nevertheless penetrated to the -profound strata where the Martian visions are elaborated, -and, acting there as a leaven, have been the -source of new and unexpected developments. This -result brilliantly corroborates the idea that the whole -Martian cycle is only a product of suggestion and -autosuggestion. Just as formerly the regret of M. -Lemaître at not knowing that which passes on other -planets had furnished the first germ of that lucubration, -so now my criticisms and remarks on the language -and peoples of that upper world served as a -point of departure for new circuits of Hélène’s sub<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>267</span>liminal -imagination. If, in fact, the content of our -discussion of the 16th of October, which I have above -briefly summed up, is compared with the visions of -the following months (see beginning with text 30), it -is clear that these latter contain an evident beginning -of an answer, and are an attempt to satisfy the -questions which I raised. A very curious attempt -is there made, naïve and infantine, like the whole -Martian romance, to escape the defects of which I -complained on that occasion, not by modifying and -correcting it—that would have been to reverse and to -contradict herself—but by going beyond it in some -sort, and by superposing upon it a new construction, -an <i>ultra-Martian</i> cycle, if I may be permitted that -expression, hinting at the same time that it unfolds -itself on some undetermined planet still farther away -than Mars, and that it does not constitute an absolutely -independent narrative, but that it is grafted on -the primitive Martian romance.</p> - -<p>The suggestive effect of my objections of the 16th -of October was not immediate, but became a work of -incubation. Text 30, coming the following week, -differed but slightly from the preceding, save for the -absence of a euphonic letter, which, however, had -been better in place between the words <b>bindié idé</b>, -<i lang="fr">trouve-t-on</i>, than in the <b>bèrimir m hed</b> of text 15, to -which I had attracted Hélène’s attention; possibly -it is allowable to regard this little detail as a first -result of my criticisms. The apparition, a little -later, of a new Martian personage, Ramié, who -promised Hélène some near revelations as to a -planet not otherwise specified (text 31), proves that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>268</span> -the ultra-Martian dream was in process of subconscious -ripening, but it did not burst forth until the -2d of November (seventeen days after the suggestion -with which I connect it), in that curious scene in which -Ramié reveals to Mlle. Smith an unsuspected and -grotesque world, the language of which singularly -differs from the usual Martian. The detailed description -of that strange vision, which Hélène sent -me, is worth the trouble of citing (see also texts 32 -to 35):</p> - -<p>“I was awakened, and arose about twenty minutes -ago. It was about a quarter-past six in the morning, -and I was getting ready to sew. Then, for an -instant, I noticed that my lamp was going out, and -I ended by not seeing anything more. At the same -moment I felt my waist clasped, strongly held by -an invisible arm. I then saw myself surrounded -by a rose-colored light, which generally shows itself -when a Martian vision is coming. I quickly took -paper and pencil, which are always within reach on -my toilet-table, and placed these two things on my -knees, in case some words should come to be noted.</p> - -<p>“Hardly were these preparations concluded when -I saw at my side a man of Martian visage and costume. -It was, in fact, the personage [Ramié] who -had clasped my waist with his left arm, showing -me with his right hand a tableau, at first indistinct, -but which finally outlined itself quite clearly. He -spoke also some sentences, which I can note very -well, it seems to me [text 32, where Ramié attracts -the attention of Hélène to one of the worlds which -surround him and makes her see strange beings.]</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>269</span></p> - -<p>“I saw then a section of country peopled by men -altogether different from those which inhabit our -globe. The tallest of all were three feet high, and -the majority were an inch or two shorter. Their -hands were immense, about ten inches long by eight -broad; they were ornamented with very long black -nails. Their feet also were of great size.</p> - -<p>“I did not see any tree, any bit of verdure. I saw -a medley of houses, or rather cabins, of the most -simple style, all low, long, without windows or doors; -and each house had a little tunnel, about ten feet -long [see <a href="#Fig_33">Fig. 33</a>] running from it into the earth.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i269" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_33"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_269.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 33. Ultra-Martian houses. Drawn by Mlle. Smith after her vision of -November 2, 1898.</div> -</div> - -<p>“The roofs were flat, supplied with chimneys, or -tubes. The men, with arms and bodies bare, had -for all clothing only a sort of skirt reaching to the -waist and supported by a kind of suspenders thrown -over the shoulders, which were apparently very -strong. Their heads were very short, being about -three inches high by six inches broad, and were close -shaven. They had very small eyes, immense mouths, -noses like beans. Everything was so different from -what we are accustomed to in our world that I should -have almost believed it to be an animal rather than -a man I saw there, had there not suddenly issued<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>270</span> -from the lips of one of them some words, which, -fortunately—I hardly know how—I was able to note -down. This vision lasted a quarter of an hour. Then -I found my waist liberated, but my right hand was -still firmly held, in order to trace strange characters -on the paper” (text 34, adieux of Ramié to Hélène).</p> - -<p>A little later there was a continuation, or an -abortive repetition, of the same vision; the table did -not appear distinctly, and Ramié (text 35) contented -himself with teaching Hélène things concerning -a world beyond, a near neighbor to Mars, and a -coarser language, of which Astané alone could furnish -a translation. This is, in effect, what took -place two weeks later: Astané incarnated himself -with gestures and peculiar spasmodic movements, -and repeated (in Hélène’s ordinary voice) the barbaric -text, followed word by word by its Martian -equivalents, which Esenale, in turn, succeeding -Astané, interpreted in French, in his customary -manner. Leopold also informed us, in reply to a -question of one of the sitters, that this uncouth and -primitive world was one of the smaller planets; but -it is to be presumed that he would also have answered -in the affirmative if he had been asked if it were called -Phobos or Deimos; and, in short, one of the satellites -of Mars would answer better than the asteroids -to the globe “very near to ours,” of which Ramié -spoke.</p> - -<p>Up to this point the ultra-Martian messages were -confined to the preceding. The last texts obtained -(37 to 40) seem to announce that the end has not been -reached on that side, and cause us to hope for new<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>271</span> -revelations, when the astronomer Ramié, as the result -of his having studied under the skilful direction -of his master Astané, shall be in a position to make -further discoveries in the Martian sky. Psychologically -speaking, this amounts to saying that the -process of latent incubation continues; a new ultra-Martian -language is in a state of development in -the subliminal depths. If it bursts forth some day, -I shall hasten to bring it to the knowledge of the -scientific world—in another edition of this book. -For the present I limit myself to remarking how -much the little ultra-Martian we possess already indicates -the wish to answer my questions of the 16th -of October.</p> - -<p>I had accused the Martian dream of being a mere -imitation, varnished with brilliant Oriental colors, -of the civilized environment which surrounds us—and -here is a world of terrifying grotesqueness, with -black soil, from which all vegetation is banished, and -the coarser people of which are more like beasts -than human beings. I had insinuated that the people -and things of that upper world ought really to -have other dimensions and proportions than with -us—and here are the inhabitants of that farther -world veritable dwarfs, with heads twice as broad -as they are high, and houses to match. I had -made allusion to the probable existence of other languages, -referred to the superabundance in Martian -of <i>i</i> and <i>e</i>, impeached its syntax and its <i>ch</i>, borrowed -from the French, etc.—and here is a language absolutely -new, of a very peculiar rhythm, extremely -rich in <i>a</i>, without any <i>ch</i> at all up to the present mo<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>272</span>ment, -and of which the construction is so different -from the French that there is no method of discovering -it.</p> - -<p>This latter point, above all, seems to me to present -in its apogee the character of childishness and puerility -which clearly shows itself in that unexpected -appendix to the Martian cycle, as in the entire cycle -itself. Evidently the naïve subliminal philologist of -Mlle. Smith has been struck by my criticisms on -the identical order of the words in Martian and in -French, and has endeavored to avoid that defect in -her new effort at an unknown language.</p> - -<p>But not knowing in just what syntax and construction -consist, she has found nothing better to -suit her purpose than the substitution of chaos for -the natural arrangement of the terms in her thought, -and the fabrication of an idiom which had decidedly -nothing in common with the French in this respect. -Here is where the most beautiful disorder is practically -a work of art. It has, moreover, succeeded, -since, even with the double translation, Martian and -French, of text 33, it is impossible to know exactly -what is meant.</p> - -<p>It is possibly the little girl <i>Etip</i> who is sad, and -who <i>weeps</i> because the man <i>Top</i> has done <i>harm</i> -to the <i>sacred</i> animal <i>Vanem</i> (which had <i>hidden</i>, -<i>sick</i>, <i>under</i> some <i>green branches</i>), wishing to <i>enter in</i> -to a <i>blue basket</i>. At least it could not have been the -<i>branch</i>, the <i>man</i>, or the <i>basket</i> which was <i>sacred</i>, -the child sick, etc.</p> - -<p>The green branch is out of harmony with a world -in which, according to Hélène’s vision, there were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>273</span> -neither trees nor verdure; but Esenale has not specified -whether it means <i>vert</i> or <i>ver</i>, <i>vers</i>, etc., nor whether -<i>caché</i> and <i>entré</i> are participles or infinitives. I -leave this rebus to the reader and come to my conclusion, -which will be brief, since it accords with -the considerations already given at the end of the -two preceding chapters.</p> - -<p>The whole Martian cycle, with its special language -and its ultra-Martian appendix, is only, at bottom, -a vast product of occasional suggestions on the part -of the environment, and of autosuggestions which -have germinated, sprouted, and borne abundant -fruit, under the influence of incitement from the outside, -but without coming to amount to anything but -a shapeless and confused mass, which imposes on -one by its extent much more than its intrinsic worth, -since it is supremely childish, puerile, insignificant -in all aspects, save as a psychological curiosity. -The author of this lucubration is not the real adult -and normal personality of Mlle. Smith, who has very -different characteristics, and who feels herself, in -the face of these automatic messages, as though in -the presence of something foreign, independent, -exterior, and finds herself constrained to believe -in their objective reality and in their authenticity. -It seems, indeed, rather a former, infantine, less -evolved state of Hélène’s individuality, which has -again come to light, renewed its life, and once -more become active in her Martian somnambulisms.</p> - -<p>It is hardly necessary to add, in conclusion, that -the whole spiritistic or occult hypothesis seems to -me to be absolutely superfluous and unjustified in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>274</span> -the case of the Martian of Mlle. Smith. Autosuggestibility -set in motion by certain stimulating influences -of the environment, as we come to see through -the history of the ultra-Martian, amply suffices to -account for this entire cycle.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>275</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br /> - -<small>THE HINDOO CYCLE</small></h2></div> - - -<p>While the Martian romance is purely a -work of fantasy, in which the creative -imagination was able to allow itself free -play through having no investigation to fear, the -Hindoo cycle, and that of Marie Antoinette, having -a fixed terrestrial setting, represent a labor of construction -which was subjected from the start to very -complex conditions of environments and epochs. -To keep within the bounds of probability, not to be -guilty of too many anachronisms, to satisfy the multiple -demands of both logic and æsthetics, formed -a particularly dangerous undertaking, and one apparently -altogether beyond the powers of a person -without special instruction in such matters. The -subconscious genius of Mlle. Smith has acquitted -itself of the task in a remarkable manner, and has -displayed in it a truly wonderful and delicate sense -of historic possibilities and of local color.</p> - -<p>The Hindoo romance, in particular, remains for -those who have taken part in it a psychological enigma, -not yet solved in a satisfactory manner, because -it reveals and implies in regard to Hélène, a knowledge -relative to the costumes and languages of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>276</span> -Orient, the actual source of which it has up to the -present time not been possible to discover. All the -witnesses of Mlle. Smith’s Hindoo somnambulisms -who are of the same opinion on that subject (several -refrain from having any) unite in seeing in it a curious -phenomenon of cryptomnesia, of reappearances -of memories profoundly buried beneath the normal -waking state, together with an indeterminate amount -of imaginative exaggeration upon the canvas of actual -facts. But by this name of cryptomnesia, or resurrection -of latent memories, two singularly different -things are understood. For me it is only a question -of memories of her present life; and I see nothing of -the supernormal in that. For while I have not yet -succeeded in finding the key to the enigma, I do not -doubt its existence, and I will mention later certain -indications which seem to me to support my idea -that the Asiatic notions of Mlle. Smith have a wholly -natural origin.</p> - -<p>For the observer inclined towards spiritism, on the -contrary, the sleeping memory which is awakened -in somnambulism is nothing less than that of a previous -existence of Mlle. Smith, and that piquant explanation, -which was first given by Leopold, profits -in their eyes from the impossibility which I find in -proving that it is anything else.</p> - -<p>Doubtless, if one was familiar with all the incidents -of Hélène’s life from her earliest childhood, and if it -were absolutely certain that her knowledge of India -had not been furnished her from the outside, through -the normal channel of the organs of sense, it would -be necessary to seek elsewhere for the solution of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>277</span> -riddle, and to choose between the hypothesis of an -atavic memory, hereditarily transmitted across fifteen -generations, and actual telepathic communication -with the brain of some Indian savant, or a spiritistic -reincarnation. But we do not find ourselves -in that position. There is nothing less known, in its -details, than the daily life of Mlle. Smith in her childhood -and youth. But, when all the feats of which -the subconscious memory of our present life is capable -are considered, it is not scientifically correct to have -recourse to a pretended “anteriority,” of which the -only guarantee is the authority of Leopold, in order -to explain the somnambulistic apparitions of facts -of which Mlle. Smith in her waking state has no remembrance, -I admit, but the origin of which may -well have been hidden in the unknown recesses of -her past life (reading, conversation, etc.).</p> - -<p>The plot of the Hindoo romance, which I have already -briefly hinted at on divers occasions, is as -follows:</p> - -<p>Hélène Smith was, at the end of the fourteenth century -of our era, the daughter of an Arab sheik, possibly -named Pirux, whom she left in order to become, -under the name of Simandini, the eleventh wife -of Prince Sivrouka Nayaka, of whom I have the -honor to be the actual reincarnation. (I pray the -reader once for all to pardon me the immodest rôle -which has been imposed upon me in this affair -against my will.)</p> - -<p>This Sivrouka, who reigned over Kanara, and built -there, in 1401, the fortress of Tchandraguiri, does not -seem to have been a very accommodating person;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>278</span> -although not bad at heart, and quite attached to his -favorite wife, he had a wild humor and very uncouth -manners. More could not be expected of an Asiatic -potentate of that epoch. Simandini, nevertheless, -passionately loved him, and at his death she -was burned alive on his grave, after the fashion of -Malabar.</p> - -<p>Around these two principal personages are grouped -some secondary figures, among others a faithful -domestic named Adèl, and a little monkey, Mitidja, -which Simandini had brought to India with her from -Arabia; then the fakir Kanga, who occupies a much -more important place in the Martian romance, in -which we have seen him reincarnated as Astané, -than in the Hindoo cycle.</p> - -<p>Some other individuals, all masculine—Mougia, -Miousa, Kangia, Kana—appear in obscure rôles, -concerning which nothing certain can be said.</p> - -<p>The hypnoid states, in which this romance has -manifested itself with Hélène, present the greatest -variety and all degrees, from the perfect waking -state (apparently), momentarily crossed by some -visual or auditive hallucination, the memory of which -is preserved intact and allows a detailed description, -up to total somnambulism, with amnesia upon awakening, -in which the most striking scenes of ecstasies -or incarnations are unfolded. We shall see divers -examples in the following pages.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>279</span></p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">Apparition and Development of the -Oriental Cycle</span></h3> - -<p>Without recurring to the strange and little-known -visions which already haunted the childhood and -youth of Mlle. Smith (see pp. <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-25), I will retrace the -principal stages of her Asiatic romance from the -birth of her mediumship.</p> - -<p>During the three first years there were but few -manifestations of this sort, in the seances, at least, -while as to the automatisms which developed at -other times, especially at night, or in the hypnagogic -state, we know nothing.</p> - -<p>In November, 1892, two seances of the N. group -are occupied with the apparition of a Chinese city—Pekin, -according to the table—in which a disincarnate -spirit, a parent of one of the group, is found -performing a mission to a sick child.</p> - -<p>In her seances of 1894, Hélène had on several occasions -detached visions belonging to the Orient, -as appeared from their content, or hints dictated by -the table. She also saw Teheran; then the cemetery -of the missions at Tokat (June 12th); a cavalier with -a white woollen cloak and a turban bearing the -name of Abderrhaman (September 2d); and, finally, -an Oriental landscape, which depicted a ceremony of -Buddhist aspect (October 16th). This latter vision, -more especially, seemed to be a forerunner of the -Hindoo romance, since the records of the seances -of that period show an <i>ensemble</i> of characteristic -traits which will be again met with in the later Hin<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>280</span>doo -scenes—<i>e.g.</i>, an immense garden of exotic plants, -colonnades, rows of palm-trees, with enormous stone -lions at the head; rugs of magnificent design, a -temple surrounded by trees, with a statue, apparently -that of Buddha; a procession of twelve women -in white, who kneel, holding lighted lamps; in the -centre another woman, with very black hair, detaches -herself from the procession, balances a lamp, and -burns a powder which expands into a white stone -(the continuation of the romance shows this woman -to be Simandini, of whom this was the first appearance).</p> - -<p>February 17, 1895.—At the end of a rather long -seance, the table dictates <i>Pirux sheik</i>, and replies to -our questions that it refers to an Arab sheik of the -fifteenth century. At this moment Hélène awakes, -saying that she had seen a man with a black mustache -and curly hair, wearing a cloak and a turban, who -seemed to be laughing at and mocking her. The -spelling out of Pirux was not very clear, and Leopold, -when interrogated later, neither affirmed categorically, -nor did he deny, that this name was that of -the sheik, father of Simandini.</p> - -<p>March 3.—Seance with six persons present, all -having their hands upon the table. After a brief -waiting, Hélène is surprised at no longer being able -to see my left middle finger, while she can see all my -other fingers quite clearly. My bunch of keys, -which I then place upon my middle finger, likewise -disappears from her view. This very limited, systematic, -visual anæsthesia authorizes the prediction, -following numerous examples of former seances,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>281</span> -that the phenomena about to appear will concern -me. Presently begins a long vision, consisting of -scenes which Hélène believes she has already partially -seen before.</p> - -<p>She describes a pagoda, which she draws with her -left hand, with a few strokes of her pencil; then an -avenue of palms and statues, a procession, and ceremonies -before an altar, etc.</p> - -<p>The principal rôles are played by a personage in -sandals, a great yellow robe, a helmet of gold, ornamented -with precious stones (first appearance of -Sivrouka) and by the woman with black hair and -white robe, already seen on the 12th of October (Simandini).</p> - -<p>In the first part of the vision, Hélène, who follows -that woman with ecstatic gaze, describing her to us, -sees her coming towards me, but at that moment -the invisibility of my finger was extended to my -entire person, and Hélène neither sees nor hears me. -While she was fully conscious of the other sitters, -she was astonished at seeing this woman make “on -the empty air” certain gestures of laying-on of hands -and benediction, which were made upon my head. -On several occasions I change my place, and seat -myself in different parts of the room. Each time, -after a few seconds, Hélène turns towards me, and, -without perceiving me, sees the woman with black -hair place herself behind my seat and repeat her -gestures of benediction in space, at a height corresponding -to that of my head.</p> - -<p>As the vision continues, I do not play any further -rôle, but it has to do with a ceremony during which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>282</span> -the Hindoo woman with a diadem on her head burns -incense in the midst of her twelve companions, etc.</p> - -<p>During all this time the table, contrary to its custom, -gave no explanation; but Hélène, having herself -asked some questions, remarks that the imaginary -woman replies to her by certain signs of her -head and reveals to her many things that she had -known in a former existence. At the moment of the -disappearance of the vision, which had lasted more -than an hour, Mlle. Smith hears the words (“Until -presently”). The continuation, in fact, was not long -delayed.</p> - -<p>March 6.—Repetition and continuation of the preceding -seance, with this degree of progress—viz., that -the visual hallucination of the woman with the black -hair was changed into a total cœnæsthetic hallucination—<i>i.e.</i>, -instead of a simple vision an incarnation -was produced. After a very impressive scene of -benediction, Hélène gave herself up to a succession -of pantomimes in which she seemed to take part in -a fearful spectacle and to struggle with enemies -(scene of the funeral pile). She ended by seating -herself on the divan when she recovered her normal -state, after a series of psychical oscillations, various -attitudes, etc. The last of her phases of mimicry -was to tear off and throw away all the ornaments -which an Asiatic princess could wear—rings on all -her fingers, bracelets on her arms and wrists, a necklace, -diadem, ear-rings, girdle, anklets. Once awake, -she had no recollection of the scene of benediction, -but recalled quite distinctly the dreams corresponding -to the other pantomimes. She saw again the black<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>283</span>-haired -woman, the Oriental landscape of the preceding -seance, etc. In the course of her description the -passage of the simple vision into the scene of incarnation -was reflected in a change of the form of her narrative; -she spoke to us of the woman in the third person, -then suddenly adopted the first person, and said “I” -in recounting among other things that she—or the -black-haired woman—saw a corpse on the funeral -pile, upon which four men, against whom she struggled, -endeavored to force her to mount. When I -drew her attention to this change of style, she replied -that, in fact, it seemed as though she herself -was that woman.</p> - -<p>Independently of the Hindoo romance, these two -seances are interesting from a psychological point of -view, because the change from a visual, objective hallucination -into total cœnæsthetic and motor hallucination -occurs in it, constituting a complete transformation -of the personality. This generalization -of partial automatism at the beginning, this subjugation -and absorption of the ordinary personality -by the subliminal personality, does not always produce -amnesia with Hélène, that unique impression -which she might describe on awakening as being -herself and some one else at the same time. (Compare, -p. <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.) It must be noted that in the particular -case of the identification of the black-haired -Hindoo woman with Mlle. Hélène Smith of Geneva, -the problem of the causal connection is susceptible of -two opposite solutions (and the same remark will be -equally appropriate in the case of Marie Antoinette).</p> - -<p>For the believing spiritist it is because Mlle. Smith<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>284</span> -is the reincarnation of Simandini—that is to say, -because these two personages, in spite of the separation -of their existences in time and space, are substantially -and metaphysically identical—that she -really again becomes Simandini, and feels herself to -be a Hindoo princess in certain favorable somnambulistic -states. For the empirical psychologist it is, -on the contrary, because the visual memory of a -Hindoo woman (her origin is of no importance) grows -like a parasite and increases in surface and in depth -like a drop of oil, until it invades the whole impressionable -and suggestible personality of the medium—this -is why Mlle. Smith feels herself becoming this -woman, and concludes from it that she formerly -actually was that person (see <a href="#Page_28">p. 28</a>-30). But we -must return from this digression to the Hindoo -dream.</p> - -<p>March 10.—After various waking visions relating -to other subjects, Hélène enters into somnambulism. -For twenty minutes she remains seated with her -hands on the table, by means of raps struck upon -which Leopold informs us that a scene of previous -existence concerning me is being prepared; that I -was formerly a Hindoo prince, and that Mlle. Smith, -long before her existence as Marie Antoinette, had -then been my wife, and had been burned on my -tomb; that we should ultimately know the name -of this Hindoo prince, as well as the time and place -of these events, but not this evening, nor at the next -seance. Then Hélène leaves the table, and in a silent -pantomime of an hour’s duration, the meaning of -which, already quite clear, is confirmed by Leopold,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>285</span> -she plays, this time to the very close, the scene of -the funeral pile as outlined in the preceding seance.</p> - -<p>She goes slowly around the room, as if resisting -and carried away in spite of herself, by turns supplicating -and struggling fiercely with these fictitious -men who are bearing her to her death.</p> - -<p>All at once, standing on tiptoe, she seems to ascend -the pile, hides, with affright, her face in her -hands, recoils in terror, then advances anew as though -pushed from behind. Finally she falls on her knees -before a soft couch, in which she buries her face covered -by her clasped hands. She sobs violently. By -means of her little finger, visible between her cheek -and the cushion of the couch, Leopold continues to -reply very clearly by yes and no to my questions. -It is the moment at which she again passes through -her agony on the funeral pile: her cries cease little -by little; her respiration becomes more and more -panting, then suddenly stops and remains suspended -during some seconds which seem interminable. It -is the end! Her pulse is fortunately strong, though -a little irregular. While I am feeling it, her breathing -is re-established by means of a deep inspiration. -After repeated sobs she becomes calm, and slowly -rises and seats herself on a neighboring sofa. This -scene of fatal <i>dénouement</i> lasted eight minutes. She -finally awakens, remembering to have seen in a dream -the dead body of a man stretched on a funeral pile, -and a woman whom some men were forcing to ascend -the pile against her will.</p> - -<p>There was nothing Oriental in the succeeding se<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>286</span>ances, -and the Hindoo dream did not appear again -until four weeks later.</p> - -<p>April 7.—Mlle. Smith went quickly into a mixed -state, in which the Hindoo dream was mingled and -substituted, but only so far as concerns me, for the -feeling of present reality. She believes me absent, -asks other sitters why I have gone away, then rises -and begins to walk around me and look at me, very -much surprised at seeing my place occupied by a -stranger with black curly hair and of brown complexion, -clothed in a robe with flowing sleeves of -blue, and with gold ornaments. When I speak to -her she turns around and seems to hear my voice -from the opposite side, whither she goes to look for -me; when I go towards her she shuns me; then, -when I follow her, she returns to the place I had just -left. After some time occupied in these manœuvres -she ceases to be preoccupied with me and my substitute -in the blue robe, and falls into a deeper state. -She takes on the look of a seeress, and describes a -kind of embattled château on a hill, where she perceives -and recognizes the before-mentioned personage -with the curly hair, but in another costume and -surrounded by very ugly black men, and women -“who are good looking.”</p> - -<p>Interrogated as to the meaning of this vision, Leopold -replies: “<i>The city of Tchandraguiri in Kanaraau</i>” -(<i>sic</i>); then he adds, a moment later, “<i>There is -a letter too many in the last word</i>,” and ends by giving -the name <i>Kanara</i>, and adding the explanation “<i>of -the fifteenth century</i>.” Upon awaking from this somnambulistic -state, which lasted two hours, Hélène re<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>287</span>calls -having had a dream of a personage with curly -hair, in a blue robe, richly ornamented with precious -stones, with a cutlass of gold, bent backward, suspended -from a hook. She recollects having held -a long conversation with him in a strange language -which she understood and spoke very well herself, -although she no longer knows the meaning of it.</p> - -<p>April 14.—Very soon passing into a deep sleep, -Mlle. Smith leaves the table and gives herself up to -a silent pantomime, at first smiling, then finishing -in sadness and by a scene of tears.</p> - -<p>The meaning of this is explained by Leopold as -follows: Hélène is in India, in her palace of Tchandraguiri, -in Kanara, <i>in 1401</i>, and she receives a -declaration of love from the personage with the curly -hair, who is the Prince Sivrouka Nayaka, to whom -she has been married for about a year. The prince -has flung himself upon his knees, but he inspires -in her a certain fright, and she still regrets having -left her native country in order to follow him. Leopold -affirms that she will remember, on awaking, -in French, all that the prince has said to her in Sanscrit, -and that she will repeat to us a part of it, but -not all, because it is too private. After awaking -she seems in reality to recall clearly her entire -dream, and tells us that she found herself on a hill, -where they were building; that it was not exactly a -city, nor even a village, since there were no streets; -that it was rather an isolated place in the country, -and that which was being built was not in the form -of a house; it had holes rather than windows (a -fortress and loop-holes).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>288</span></p> - -<p>She found herself in a fine palace, very beautiful -as to its interior, but not its exterior. There was -a great hall, decorated with greens, with a grand -staircase at the end, flanked by statues of gold. -She held a long conversation there, not in French, -with the swarthy personage with the black curly -hair and magnificent costume; he finally ascended -the staircase, but she did not follow him.</p> - -<p>She appeared to recall well the meaning of all that -he said to her in their conversation in a foreign language, -but seemed embarrassed by these memories, -and would not consent to relate them to us.</p> - -<p>May 26.—In the course of this seance, as Hélène, -in a silent somnambulism, incarnates the Hindoo -princess, I hand her a sheet of paper and a pencil -in the hope of obtaining some text or drawing. After -divers scribblings she traces the single word <i>Simadini</i> -in letters which are not at all like her usual -hand (see <a href="#Fig_34">Fig. 34</a>).</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i288" style="max-width: 25em;"> - <a id="Fig_34"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_288.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption">Fig. 34.</div> -</div> - -<p>Then taking a fresh sheet, she seems to write on -it with a happy smile, folds it carefully and thrusts -it in her corsage, takes it out again, and rereads it -with rapture, etc. Leopold informs us that Simadini -is the name of the Hindoo princess, and that she is -reading a love-letter from Sivrouka. On awaking<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289"></a>289</span> -she remembers having been “in such a beautiful -palace,” and of having received there a very interesting -letter, but the contents of which she refused to -disclose to us, being evidently too confidential.</p> - -<p>I intercalate here two remarks apropos of the name -Simadini, which is one of the first known examples -of a handwriting of Mlle. Smith other than her own -normal hand.</p> - -<p>First: When, four months later, Leopold began to -communicate in writing (pp. <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-103), a certain analogy -in the formation of the letters, and the identical way -of holding the pencil, caused us to believe that it was -he who had already traced the word in <a href="#Fig_34">Fig. 34.</a> But -he has always denied it, and we have never been able -to discover the author of it. Secondly: I said above, -(p. <a href="#Page_204">204</a>), that there had been divergences in the -orthography of this name. Here, in substance, is a -fragment of a letter which Mlle. Smith wrote me in -the winter following (February 18, 1896), depicting -to me the vexatious impressions which she still had -concerning it.</p> - -<p>“ ... I am very sad, and I cannot tell why. I -have a heavy heart, and for what reason I do not know -myself. It came to such a pass to-day (you are going -to laugh) that it seemed to me as though my left -cheek had grown perceptibly thinner. I am sure -that at this moment you would not recognize Simadini, -so piteous and discouraged is her countenance! -Think, that at the very moment in which I trace these -words, I hear a voice speaking to me in my right ear: -“<i>Not Simadini, but Simandini!</i>” What do you -think that can be? It is very strange, is it not?<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290"></a>290</span> -Have we misunderstood that name? Or, perhaps, -may it not be I who have misunderstood it?...”</p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith here forgets that the name did not -come to her on the first occasion by auditive hallucination, -in which case it might be that she had misunderstood -it, but by writing in somnambulism, -which excludes any mistake of her ordinary consciousness. -We must confine ourselves to registering -as a fact, inexplicable hitherto, this correction of -a graphic automatism by an auditive automatism at -the end of several months. Between the two orthographies, -I have adopted the second, which has undergone -no further changes, and figures only in the -Martian texts (10, 16).</p> - -<p>June 16.—Fuller repetition of the scene of the letter -of the Hindoo prince. Impossible to learn the contents -of it. I suggest to her to remember and to relate -them to us upon awakening, but Leopold replies: -“<i>She will not reveal it. Why have you not gained her -confidence sufficiently, that she may tell you everything -without fear?</i>” and the suggestion had no effect.</p> - -<p>June 30.—Somnambulism with silent pantomime, -the meaning of which is given by Leopold: It is the -scene of the betrothal of Simandini and Sivrouka at -Tchandraguiri. There is first a phase of oppression, -with sighs and gestures as of a struggle against -various pretenders who wish to seize her; then -laughter and ecstasy, provoked by the arrival of -Sivrouka, who delivers her and drives off his rivals; -finally, joy and admiration on accepting the flowers -and jewels which he offers her.</p> - -<p>I have reported, too much at length perhaps,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291"></a>291</span> -though still greatly abridged, these first appearances -of the Oriental romance, because they form a continuous -series, in the reverse of the chronological -order, conformably to a spiritistic theory which holds -that in these memories of previous existences the -mediumistic memory goes back and recovers the -“images” of the more recent events before those -which are more remote. During this first period of -four months, the Hindoo cycle made irruption into -eight seances (about one-twentieth of those at which -I have been present since I have had knowledge of -them), and has manifested itself somewhat like the -panorama of a magic lantern, unfolding itself in -successive tableaux.</p> - -<p>This whole history can be summed up by a few -principal tableaux: there was the scene of the death -on the funeral pile, prepared in vision in the seance -of the 6th of March and executed on the 10th; then -the scene of the interior of the palace and the fortress -in process of construction (7th and 14th of April); -that of the love-letter (26th of May and 16th of -June); finally, the betrothal (30th of June). There -must be added to these the grand tableau at the beginning, -first presented in vision the 3d of March, -then realized three days later with the astonishing -exclamation Atièyâ Ganapatinâmâ. The meaning -of this scene has never been explained by Leopold, -but seems to be quite clear. A species of prologue -can be seen in it, or even apotheosis, inaugurating -the entire romance; it is the Hindoo princess of four -centuries ago recognizing her lord and master in flesh -and blood, under the unexpected form of a university<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292"></a>292</span> -professor, whom she greets with an emphasis wholly -Oriental in blessing him, very appropriately, in the -name of the divinity of science and of wisdom—since -Ganapati is an equivalent of Ganesâ, the god with -the head of an elephant, patron of sages and savants.</p> - -<p>It can be easily conceived that these two words of -Oriental resonance, spoken aloud at a period at which -the Martian was not yet born—and followed by all -the conversations unfortunately unheard by us, -which at the waking at the subsequent seances -Hélène recalled having held in a strange language -(in <i>Sanscrit</i>, according to Leopold) with the Hindoo -prince of her dreams—would excite a lively curiosity -and a desire to obtain longer audible fragments -of this unknown idiom. It was only in September, -1895, that this satisfaction was afforded us, during -a seance at which the Oriental romance, which had -given no further sign of life since the month of June, -made a new outbreak. Starting from that moment, -it has never ceased during these four years to reappear -irregularly, and, suffering some eclipses, -accompanied on each occasion by words of a <i>Sanscritoid</i> -aspect. But the plot of the romance has -no longer the same clearness that it showed at the -beginning. In place of tableaux linking themselves -in a regular chronological order, they are often no -more than confused reminiscences, memories, without -precise bonds between them, which gush forth from -the memory of Simandini. As the fragments of our -youthful years surge up incoherent and pell-mell -in our dreams, Mlle. Smith, too, finds herself easily -assailed in her somnambulisms by visions con<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293"></a>293</span>nected -with certain episodes, and not forming an -entire continuation of supposed Asiatic pre-existence.</p> - -<p>Some of these scenes concern her life as a young -Arab girl. One sees her there, for example, playing -joyously with her little monkey, Mitidja; or -copying an Arab text (see <a href="#Fig_35">Fig. 35</a>, p. <a href="#Page_312">312</a>), which -her father, the sheik, surrounded by his tribes, furnishes -her; or embarking on a strange boat, escorted -by black Hindoos, for her new country, etc. But -much the larger number of her somnambulistic -trances and her spontaneous visions have reference -to her life in India and to the details of her daily existence. -Her bath, which the faithful domestic Adèl -prepares for her; her walks and reveries in the -splendid gardens of the palace, all full of a luxurious -vegetation and rare birds of brilliant colors; her -scenes of tenderness and of affectionate effusions—always -stamped, this is to be noted, with the most -perfect propriety—towards the Prince Sivrouka, -when he is kindly disposed; scenes of regret also -and abundant tears for the memory of her far-off -native land, when the capricious and brutal humor -of the Oriental despot makes itself too severely felt; -conversation with the fakir Kanga; devotions and -religious ceremonies before some Buddhist image, -etc., all this forms an <i>ensemble</i> extremely varied -and full of local color. There is in the whole being -of Simandini—in the expression of her countenance -(Hélène almost always has her large eyes open in -this somnambulism), in her movements, in the quality -of her voice when she speaks or chants Hindoo—a -languishing grace, an abandon, a melan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294"></a>294</span>choly -sweetness, a something of languor and of -charm, which corresponds wonderfully with the -character of the Orient, as the spectators conceive -it to be, who, like me, have never been there, etc. -With all this a bearing always full of <i>noblesse</i> and -dignity conforms to that which one would expect of -a princess; there are no dances, for example, nothing -of the <i>bayadère</i>.</p> - -<p>Mlle. Smith is really very wonderful in her Hindoo -somnambulisms. The way in which Simandini -seats herself on the ground, her legs crossed, or half -stretched out, nonchalantly leaning her arms or her -head against a Sivrouka, who is sometimes real -(when in her incomplete trance she takes me for -her prince), sometimes imaginary; the religious -and solemn gravity of her prostrations when, after -having for a long time balanced the fictitious -brazier, she crosses her extended hands on her -breast, kneeling and bowing herself three times, -her forehead striking the ground; the melancholy -sweetness of her chants in a minor key, wailing and -plaintive melodies, which unfold themselves in certain -flute-like notes, prolonged in a slow decrescendo, -and only dying away at the end of a single note held -for fully fourteen seconds; the agile suppleness of -her swaying and serpentine movements, when she -amuses herself with her imaginary monkey, caresses -it, embraces it, excites it, scolds it laughingly, and -makes it repeat all its tricks—all this so varied mimicry -and Oriental speech have such a stamp of originality, -of ease, of naturalness, that one asks in -amazement whence it comes to this little daughter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295"></a>295</span> -of Lake Leman, without artistic education or special -knowledge of the Orient—a perfection of play to which -the best actress, without doubt, could only attain at -the price of prolonged studies or a sojourn on the -banks of the Ganges.</p> - -<p>The problem, as I have already stated, is not yet -solved, and I am obliged still to endeavor to discover -whence Hélène Smith has derived her ideas in regard -to India. It seems that the more simple method -would be to take advantage of the hypnotic state of -the seances to obtain a confession from Hélène’s -subconscious memory, and persuade it to disclose -the secret; but my efforts in that direction have not -as yet succeeded. It is doubtless incompetency on -my part, and I will end, perhaps—or some one better -qualified than I—in finding the joint in the armor. -The fact is that hitherto I have always run up -against Leopold, who will not allow himself to be -ejected or ridiculed, and who has never ceased to -affirm that the Sanscrit, Simandini, and the rest -are authentic. All the trails which I have thought -I have discovered—and they are already numerous—have -proved false. The reader must pardon me for -not going into the details of my failures in this -regard.</p> - -<p>If it was only a question of the Hindoo pantomime -the mystery would not be so great: some recitations -at school, newspaper articles concerning the incineration -of the widows of Malabar, engravings and descriptions -relative to the civil and religious life of -India, etc.—in short, the varied sources of information -which, in a civilized country and at our epoch<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296"></a>296</span> -of cosmopolitanism, inevitably meet some time or -other the eyes or ears of every one of us and form -part of the equipment (conscious or unconscious) of -every individual who is not altogether uncultured, -would more than suffice to explain the scene of the -funeral pile, the prostrations, and the varied attitudes. -There are, indeed, some well-known examples -showing how small a thing a cunning intelligence, -furnished with a good memory and a fertile and -plastic imagination, needs in order to reconstruct -or fabricate out of nothing a complex edifice, having -every appearance of authenticity, and capable of -holding in check for a considerable length of time -the perspicacity even of skilled minds. But that -which conscious and reflecting labor has succeeded -in accomplishing in the cases referred to, the subliminal -faculties can execute to a much higher degree -of perfection in the case of persons subject to -automatic tendencies.</p> - -<p>But two points remain, which complicate the case -of the Hindoo romance and seem to defy—thus far, at -least—all normal explanation, because they surpass -the limits of a simple play of the imagination. These -are the precise <i>historical</i> information given by Leopold, -some of which can be, in a certain sense, verified; -and the Hindoo <i>language</i> spoken by Simandini, -which contains words more or less recognizable, the -real meaning of which is adapted to the situation in -which they have been spoken. But, even if Hélène’s -imagination could have reconstructed the manners -and customs and scenes of the Orient from the general -information floating in some way in cosmopolitan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297"></a>297</span> -atmosphere, still one cannot conceive whence she -has derived her knowledge of the language and of -certain obscure episodes in the history of India. -These two points deserve to be examined separately.</p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">Sivrouka and M. de Marlès</span></h3> - -<p>When Kanara, Sivrouka, Simandini, etc., successively -made their appearance, slowly spelled out -by Leopold, with the date of 1401, my companions -of the seance and I hastened to investigate Brouillet, -who brought to mind the province of Malabar in connection -with the first of these names, but left us in -utter darkness as to the others. The geography -of Vivien Saint-Martin revealed the existence of no -fewer than three Tchandraguiris—a hill, a river, and -a small town in the district of Arcot-Nord (Madras). -The latter—or rather its citadel on the summit of the -hill—answered quite well to the description given by -Hélène in her visions of the 7th and 14th of April, -but the construction of this fortress dates back only -to 1510, and this locality is very far removed from the -Kanara where Leopold locates this entire story (see -pp. <a href="#Page_286">286</a>-288).</p> - -<p>As to Sivrouka and his surroundings, neither biographical -dictionaries nor encyclopædias were able -to furnish me the least hint on this subject. Living -historians or Orientalists to whom I addressed myself -were of a discouraging unanimity in replying that -they did not recognize even the names, the historic -correctness of which they regarded as doubtful, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298"></a>298</span> -they did not at all remember having met with them -in works of fiction.</p> - -<p>“I have there,” said a learned professor of history, -showing me a good-sized bookcase, “numerous -works on the history of India; but they relate -only to the north of the peninsula; and as to what -transpired in the south during the period to which -you refer, we know almost nothing. Your names -are unknown to me and do not recall to my mind -any personage, real or fictitious.”</p> - -<p>“The very name of Sivrouka seems to me improbable -as a Hindoo name” replied another, who -was unable to give me any more information on the -subject.</p> - -<p>“I greatly regret,” wrote a third, on receipt of Hélène’s -texts, “not to have succeeded in getting upon -the trail of the recollections of your medium. I cannot -think of any book which would be likely to furnish -the information. Tchandraguiri and Mangalore -(where several scenes of the Hindoo cycle are -located) are correct, but Madras (<i>id.</i>) did not exist in -1401. Its name and foundation do not go further -back than the seventeenth century. That region -was then a dependency of the kingdom of Vijayanagara, -and a naïk in the service of those princes -resided successively at Tchandraguiri and at Mangalore. -I can make nothing of Sivrouka; the -king of Vijayanagara, in 1402, was Bukkha II., or -Bukkha called Siribukkha, Tiribukkha. But the -naïk who so often changed his residence was evidently -not a ruling prince. Was it a romance? -Certain details caused me to doubt it. A romancer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299"></a>299</span> -so careful in regard to local coloring as to introduce -into his narrative Indian words, would not have -given the title of the prince under the Sanscrit form -<i>Nayaka</i>, but would have used the vulgar form naïk; -he would not have made the wife, in speaking to her -husband, call him by his name Sivrouka (as Hélène -constantly does in this somnambulism). I have no -recollection of having read anything of this kind, -and I know of no work of fiction from which the story -might have been taken.”</p> - -<p>It will be readily understood that I was annoyed at -not being able to establish clearly my presumed -Asiatic previous existence. However, while professional -science was administering to me these cold -douches, I continued, on my own account, to search -the libraries at my disposal, and here one fine day I -accidentally came across, in an old history of India, -in six volumes, by a man named De Marlès, the following -passages:</p> - -<p>“Kanara and the neighboring provinces on the -side towards Delhi may be regarded as the Georgia -of Hindustan; it is there, it is said, that the most -beautiful women are to be found; the natives, however, -are very jealous in guarding them, and do not -often allow them to be seen by strangers.”</p> - -<p>“Tchandraguiri, which signifies <i>Mountain of the -Moon</i>, is a vast fortress constructed, in 1401, by the -rajah Sivrouka Nayaka. This prince, as also his -successors, belonged to the sect of the Djaïns.”</p> - -<p>At last! With what a beating heart did I fasten -my eyes on that irrefutable historic evidence that my -preceding incarnation, under the beautiful skies of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300"></a>300</span> -India was not a myth! I felt new life in my veins. -I reread twenty times those blessed lines, and took a -copy of them to send to those pretended savants who -were ignorant even of the name of Sivrouka, and -allowed doubts to be cast upon his reality.</p> - -<p>Alas! my triumph was of brief duration. It -seems that the testimony of De Marlès is not of the -highest order. This author is held in slight esteem -in well-informed circles, as may be seen from the -following passage in a letter of M. Barth, which -merely expresses, in a vigorous and lively manner, -an opinion which other specialists have confirmed:<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p>“It is through a letter of M. Flournoy that I learn -that there has existed since 1828 in Paris, printed in -Roman characters, a history of India by De Marlès -containing a statement that the fortress of Candragiri -was built in 1401, and that its founder was -Sivrouka Nayaka. What new facts there are in -books one no longer consults! And that of De -Marlès is, indeed, one of those that are no longer -consulted. I found it yesterday at the library of the -Institute. It would have been impossible to have -done worse, even in 1828. But sometimes we find -pearls in a dung-hill, and perhaps this Sivrouka -Nayaka is one of them. Unfortunately, the author -gives no hint as to the sources of his information; -and later, in his fourth volume, in which he narrates -the history of the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301"></a>301</span> -he does not say a word more either of Candragiri or -of Sivrouka.”</p> - -<p>Here was a terrible blow to my Hindoo existence, -which poor M. de Marlès had so well established for -me.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, the hope still lingers that his information, -although not reproduced by later writers more -highly esteemed, may perhaps still be correct. This -is quite possible, since science has not yet spoken its -last word in this department, hardly even its first, if -men still more competent may be believed, beginning -with M. Barth himself.</p> - -<p>“Up to the present moment,” says he, “there is no -trustworthy history of the south of the peninsula.... -The Dravidian languages of India is a domain -very unfamiliar to the majority of Indian scholars.... -There is nothing to draw upon but some works -and monographs on the aboriginal chronicles and -legendary traditions; and it would be necessary -to know the Dravidian languages on the one hand -and Arabic on the other, to be able to examine or -even consult them with profit. The only works which -we are able to follow are those which undertake to -make this history by epigraphic documents, but these, -thus far, say nothing of Simandini, of Adèl, of Mitidja, -or even of Sivrouka.”</p> - -<p>This silence of epigraphy is certainly to be regretted; -but who knows whether it will not some day -enlighten us by proving De Marlès to be right—and -also Leopold—by narrating to us the true story of -the Hindoo princess, the Arabian monkey, and the -slave Adèl! It costs nothing to hope! Already,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302"></a>302</span> -thanks again to M. Barth, I have gained information -concerning another Tchandraguiri than the one of -the District of North Arcot mentioned by Vivien de -Saint-Martin—<i>i.e.</i>, a Tchandraguiri, situated in South -Kanara, and in the citadel of which a hitherto unknown -inscription has been discovered which must -date back to the time of King Harihara II., of Vijayanagara, -who reigned at the beginning of the fifteenth -century.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> Here is something approaching the somnambulistic -revelations of Mlle. Smith. While awaiting -their definite confirmation by new archæological -discoveries, traces of Sivrouka may be sought for in -the earlier works upon which De Marlès must have -drawn. Unfortunately these works are not easy to -find, and are inconvenient to consult. Professor -Michel, of the University of Liège, has had the -kindness to run through those of Buchanan<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and -of Rennell,<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> but without result.</p> - -<p>If De Marlès did not invent Sivrouka out of whole -cloth, which is hardly supposable, it was very probably -in the translation of Ferishta by Dow,<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> that he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303"></a>303</span> -found his facts. I have, unhappily, not yet been able -myself to consult that very rare work, which is not -to be found in Geneva, so far as I am aware, nor to -obtain accurate information regarding its contents.</p> - -<p>The uncertainty which hovers over the historical -problem extends, naturally, to the psychological problem -also. It is clear that if certain inscriptions, or -even some old work, should come some day to tell us -not only of Sivrouka, but of Simandini, of Adèl, and -the other personages who figure in Hélène’s Hindoo -romance, but of whom De Marlès does not whisper a -word, we should no longer care about the latter -author, and the question would then be as follows: -Could Mlle. Smith have had cognizance of these early -works, and if not, how do their contents reappear -in her somnambulism? But in the actual condition -of things, and all allowance made for possible surprises -in the future, I do not hesitate to regard as the -more probable and more rational supposition, that it -was really the passage of De Marlès, quoted above, -which furnished the subliminal memory of Hélène -the precise date of 1401—and the three names of the -fortress, the province, and the rajah.</p> - -<p>Various other traits of the visions of Mlle. Smith -betray likewise the same inspiration. The scene in -which she sees them engaged in building, and her -description of that which is being built, suggest -clearly the idea of a fortress furnished by the text. -The translation <i>Mountain of the Moon</i> contributed to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304"></a>304</span> -causing her to locate the scene upon a hill. The -beauty of the women of the country, on which De -Marlès dwells, has its echo in the remark of Hélène -that the women whom she sees are “good looking.” -Finally, the princely character of Sivrouka, mentioned -by De Marlès, is found throughout the length of -the entire romance, and displays itself in the splendor -of his costume, of the palace, of the gardens, etc.</p> - -<p>It is possible that the names and the nationality -of the other personages—Simandini, Adèl, the -monkey, the sheik, etc.—may have been borrowed -from some unknown work, which would be, for the -Arabian portion of the narrative, the pendant to -De Marlès for the Hindoo past.</p> - -<p>This may be, but it is not necessary. It is permissible -to regard, provisionally, the imaginations -built up around Sivrouka, as an ingenious expedient, -by means of which Hélène’s imagination finds -a way of binding to that central figure, and also of -blending in a single whole, her other Oriental memories -not specifically Hindoo.</p> - -<p>The hypothesis which I am about to assume, -which connects directly with De Marlès the data of -Hélène’s Asiatic dream, contained likewise in the -work of that author, arouses, nevertheless, two objections. -The first is drawn from the slight differences -of orthography between the text of De Marlès -and the words spoken by Leopold. This difficulty is -only insurmountable by elevating the inerrancy of -the subliminal memory to the plane of absolute infallibility, -though the latter must be admitted to be ordinarily -very much superior to that of the conscious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305"></a>305</span> -memory. But the favorite comparison of the forgotten -memories, reappearing in somnambulisms, -to unchangeable, absolutely true photographic impressions, -causes us readily to exaggerate the fidelity -of the unconscious memory-images. The example -of certain dreams—in which memories of -childhood sometimes return with a startling clearness, -but, nevertheless, altered or distorted in some -details, conformably to later experiences or to recent -events—suffices to show that automatisms of the -memory are not always sheltered by influences of -the imagination, nor absolutely free from error.</p> - -<p>In this particular case there are two divergences -between De Marlès and Leopold: the latter has substituted -a <i>k</i> for the <i>c</i> in Nayaca, and has omitted -the <i>n</i> in Tchandraguiri (compare pp. <a href="#Page_286">286</a> and 288). -Another mistake, which he immediately corrected, -consisting in dictating first <i>Kanaraau</i>, was evidently -a confusion such as frequently occurs in writing, occasioned -by a too rapid passing from the word <i>Kanara</i> -to the information following, and already about -to come—“<i>au</i> fifteenth century.” The spelling -Nayaka, instead of Nayaca, is attributable to the -termination of the word <i>Sivrouka</i>, which precedes it. -Identity of pronunciation has produced identity of -orthography.</p> - -<p>The second objection is of a negative character. -It consists in the impossibility of showing where, -when, or how Mlle. Smith obtained cognizance of -the text of De Marlès.</p> - -<p>I admit frankly that I know nothing about it, and -I give full credit to Hélène for the indomitable and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306"></a>306</span> -persevering energy with which she has never ceased -to protest against my hypothesis, which has the -faculty of exasperating her in the highest degree—and -one readily understands that it would naturally -do so. For it is in vain that she digs down to the very -bottom of her memories; she does not discover the -slightest trace of this work. And not only that, but -how can one seriously suppose that she has ever -had the slightest intimation of it, since she never -studied the history of India, has neither read nor -heard anything on the subject, the very name of De -Marlès having been utterly unknown to her up to the -day on which she learned that I suspected that author -of being the source of the Hindoo romance? It must, indeed, -be admitted that the idea of the passage in -question having come before the eyes or ears of Mlle. -Smith through any ordinary channel seems a trifle -absurd. I only know in Geneva of two copies of the -work of De Marlès, both covered with dust—the one -belonging to the Société de Lecture, a private association -of which none of the Smith family nor any -friend of theirs was ever a member; the other in the -Public Library, where, among the thousands of -more interesting and more modern books, it is now -very rarely consulted. It could only have happened, -therefore, by a combination of absolutely exceptional -and almost unimaginable circumstances that the -work of De Marlès could have found its way into Hélène’s -hands; and how could it have done so and -she not have the slightest recollection of it?</p> - -<p>I acknowledge the force of this argument, and that -the wisest thing to do is to leave the matter in sus<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307"></a>307</span>pense. -But if the question must be decided, though -there is scarcely any choice, extravagance for extravagance, -I still prefer the hypothesis which only invokes -natural possibilities to that which appeals to -occult causes.</p> - -<p>Possibly the work of De Marlès may have been -heard of by Mlle. Smith without her normal consciousness -taking note of it. Either when among -her friends or acquaintances, or with her parents, -she might have heard some passages read in her -young days, etc. The fact that she has no conscious -recollection of it proves nothing against such -a supposition to any one who is at all familiar with -the play of our faculties.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that my method of reasoning -is the inverse of that which generally prevails in -spiritistic circles. Witness the celebrated Aksakoff, -as a single example, who, discovering that a curious -typtological message was found already in print in a -book which could not readily have come to the knowledge -of the medium, and recognizing the fact that the -message came from that book, says: “But in what -way could the brain of the medium have been made -aware of the contents of the book? There is the -mystery. <i>I refuse to admit that it could have been -through natural means. I believe it was by some occult -process.</i>”</p> - -<p>Very well! this is plain language, and the frankness -of the declaration charms me to such a degree -that I cannot resist the temptation to appropriate it -for myself in the case of Mlle. Smith and M. de Marlès, -transposing only two words: “<i>I refuse to admit that it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308"></a>308</span> -could have been through occult means. I believe it was -by some natural process.</i>” Evidently, in doubtful cases -(which are in an enormous majority), in which the -natural and the occult explanations are in direct opposition, -without the possibility of a material demonstration -as to which is true in fact, a decision must be -reached in accordance with personal taste and feeling. -Between these two methodological points of view a -reconciliation is scarcely possible. The reader may -think what he will. But, right or wrong, I claim the -first of these as my opinion, and regard the tendency -of the supernatural and occult to substitute themselves, -on account of the insufficiency of our knowledge, -for the acquired rights of natural hypothesis, -as an unjustifiable reversal of rôles.</p> - -<p>To those who shall find my hypothesis decidedly -too extravagant—or too simple—remains a choice between -the multiple forms of occult hypothesis. Shall -it be Leopold who, in his all-powerful state of disincarnation, -has read in the closed volume of De Marlès? -Or has there, indeed, been a telepathic transmission -of this passage from the brain of some unknown terrestrial -reader to that of Mlle. Smith? Shall it be -with her a case of clairvoyance, of lucidity, of intuition -in the astral body; or, again, of trickery on the part of -some facetious spirit? And if, taking the reincarnationist -theory seriously, it is admitted that Sivrouka, -1401, and Tchandraguiri, are indeed really -reminiscences of the past life of Simandini, how explain -that curious coincidence in their choice and -their spelling with precisely the designations used -by M. de Marlès?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309"></a>309</span></p> - -<p>Verily my brain reels in the midst of all these -alternatives, and I hasten to pass to another subject.</p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">The Arab Elements of the Oriental -Cycle</span></h3> - -<p>Here is a problem for the partisans of the Oriental -pre-existence of Mlle. Smith: How comes it -that, recovering in her trances the use of the Hindoo -which she formerly spoke at the court of Sivrouka, -she has totally forgotten Arabian, which, however, -had been her mother-tongue in that same previous -existence, and which she was accustomed to -use exclusively up to the time of her departure from -her native land, in her eighteenth year?</p> - -<p>If the emotions caused by her royal marriage had -destroyed all memory of the past, one could understand -how the idiom might have become obscured -along with the rest in that loss of memory of her life -as a young girl.</p> - -<p>But such was not the case. She preserved very vivid -memories of her father the sheik, of his tents gleaming -in the sunlight, of the people, of the camels and -landscapes of Arabia. In many seances and spontaneous -visions she finds herself carried back to that -first half of her Asiatic existence. But then she narrates -in French that which is unfolded before her eyes, -or gives herself up to a silent pantomime. She has -never spoken or written anything at all resembling -Arabian. Can it be supposed that already in her -Hindoo life she had assimilated the language of her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310"></a>310</span> -adopted country to the point of losing even the latent -memories of her maternal language? That would -be contrary to all known psychological analogies.</p> - -<p>However, in saying that Hélène has never written -or spoken Arabian I exaggerate. On one occasion -she spoke four words of it. It is the exception which -proves the rule. In fact, not only did she fail to -accompany that single text with any pronunciation, -but she executed it as a drawing, and apparently -copied, without comprehending, a model which an -imaginary person presented to her.</p> - -<p>Here is a review of that incident:</p> - -<p>October 27, 1895.—Shortly after the beginning of -the seance Mlle. Smith has an Arabian vision: “Look -at those tents! There are no stones here—it is all -sand ... [she counts the tents one by one]. There -are twenty of them. That one is beautiful. Don’t -you find it so, M. Lemaître—that largest one? It is -fastened by cords and small stakes ...“ etc. Then -she describes the personages: The one who is -smoking, seated in a corner, with his legs crossed; -others all black (the table says they are negroes, -and that the scene takes place in Arabia); then a man -clothed in white, whom Hélène has the feeling of -knowing without being able to recognize him; she -places her finger upon her forehead, in the attitude -of a person trying to remember, and the table (on -which she has her left hand) informs us then that she -lived in Arabia in her life as Simandini, and that she -is trying to recollect those far-distant times. A quite -long scene follows, in which her Arab reminiscences -alternate and mingle with the consciousness of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311"></a>311</span> -real environment, though she neither sees nor hears -us. At this point a state of mental confusion ensues, -which seems to be very painful to her.</p> - -<p>“ ... M. Lemaître! M. Flournoy! are you there? -Answer me, then. Did I not come here this evening? -If only I could ... however, I am not <i lang="fr">en voyage</i>.... -I really believe it is Sunday at last ... I understand -nothing more about it. I think my brain is so -tired that all my ideas are mixed up ... however, -I am not dreaming.... It seems to me that I have -also lived with them ... [the sitters at the table], -and with them [the Arabs of her vision].... But -I know them—all those men. Tell me, then, who -you are! Did you arrive in Geneva lately? [They -are, says the table, Arabs who lived five centuries -ago, among them the father of Simandini.] Come -nearer, then, come here. I want you to speak to me! -M. Lemaître! Oh, that pretty little sketch! What -is that sketch? [The table having said that it is a -drawing which her father is presenting to her, and -that she can copy it, a pencil and a sheet of paper -are placed before her, the latter of which seems to -be transformed into papyrus in her dream.] That -green leaf is pretty. Of what plant is it the leaf? -I think I have a pencil; I am going to try to make -this sketch....”</p> - -<p>After the usual struggle between the two methods -of holding the pencil (see pp. <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-102), she yields to Leopold’s -manner of holding it, saying, “So much the -worse”; then traces, slowly and with great care, -Fig. 35, from left to right, often raising her eyes to -her imaginary model, as if copying a drawing. After<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312"></a>312</span> -which she goes profoundly asleep; then other somnambulisms -come.</p> - -<p>On awaking she recollects the state of confusion -through which she had passed. “Wretched evening,” -said she. “I was unhappy. I felt that I was -living here, as I always have, and I saw some things -as though I were a foreigner. I was with you, but I -was living elsewhere,” etc.</p> - -<p>This whole scene gives the distinct impression that -the Arab phrase only existed in Hélène’s recollection -as a visual memory, without meaning or any -verbal images. It was for her an incomprehensible -piece of writing, a simple drawing, like Chinese or -Japanese characters would be for us. Evidently it -was a text which had come before her eyes at some -propitious moment, and, having been absorbed by -the subliminal imagination—always on the watch -for matters of Oriental aspect—had been incorporated -in a scene of the Asiatic dream.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i312" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_35"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_312.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 35. Arabian text drawn from left to right by Mlle. Smith in hemisomnambulism: -elqalil men elhabib ktsir, <i>the little from the friend (is) much</i>. -Natural size.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Such, at least, is the supposition which seems to -me the most plausible. For, to regard it as a fragment -of Arabian, which Hélène could speak and -write fluently if she were in an appropriate state of -somnambulism—as Leopold pretended one day to -be the fact—seems to me an hypothesis still more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313"></a>313</span> -arbitrary, and little in accord with the other trance -phenomena of Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>Occasions have not been wanting to her in the five -years during which her exotic romances have been -unfolding themselves to make use of her supposed -philological reserves by speaking and writing Arabian, -if her subliminal memory had so desired.</p> - -<p>She has presented all degrees and kinds of somnambulism, -and more visions of Arabia than could -have failed to awaken by association the corresponding -idiom, if it really was slumbering in her. The -complete and total isolation of the text given above, -in the midst of this flood of Oriental scenes, seems to -me, therefore, to testify strongly in favor of my supposition -that it has to do with a visual flash, unique -in its kind, accidentally encountered and stored up, -and that the Asiatic secondary personality of Mlle. -Smith is absolutely ignorant of Arabic.</p> - -<p>Concerning the other details of the Arab somnambulisms -of Hélène, I have nothing to say; they do -not go beyond the ideas which she could unconsciously -have gathered from the surrounding environment; -and to the other sources of her knowledge -must be added whatever she might have heard from -her father, who had at one time lived in Algeria.</p> - -<p>The proper names connected with the Arab scenes, -with the possible exception of Pirux, awaken certain -associations of ideas, without making it possible to -affirm anything with certainty as to their origin.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314"></a>314</span></p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">The Hindoo Language of Mlle. Smith</span></h3> - -<p>The nature of the Hindoo language of Hélène is -less easy to explain clearly than that of the Martian, -because it has never been possible to obtain either -a literal translation of it or written texts. Besides, -being ignorant of the numberless dialects of ancient -and modern India, and not believing it to be incumbent -upon me to devote myself to their study solely -that I might be able to appreciate at their proper -value the philological exploits of an entranced medium, -I am not in a situation to allow myself any -personal judgment in regard to this matter.</p> - -<p>There is not even left to me the resource of placing -the parts of the process as a whole before the reader, -as I have done in the case of the Martian, for the -reason that our ignorance of Hélène’s Hindoo, added -to her rapid and indistinct pronunciation—a real -prattle sometimes—has caused us to lose the greater -part of the numerous words heard in the course of -some thirty Oriental scenes scattered over a space of -four years.</p> - -<p>Even the fragments which we have been able to -note down present for the most part so much uncertainty -that it would be idle to publish all of them. -I have communicated the best of them to several -distinguished Oriental scholars. From certain information -which they have kindly given me, it appears -that the <i lang="fr">soi-disant</i> Hindoo of Hélène is not -any fixed idiom known to these specialists; but, on -the other hand, there are to be found in it, more or less<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315"></a>315</span> -disfigured and difficult to recognize, certain terms -or roots which approach more nearly to Sanscrit -than any actual language of India, and the meaning -of which often very well corresponds with the -situations in which these words have been uttered. -I proceed to give some examples of them:</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>1. The two words, <b>atiêyâ ganapatinâmâ</b>, which -inaugurated the Hindoo language on the 6th of -March, 1895 (see <a href="#Page_282">p. 282</a>), and which were invested -at that moment, in the mouth of Simandini, with -the evident meaning of a formula of salutation or -of benediction, addressed to her late husband, inopportunely -returned, were articulated in a manner -so impressive and so solemn that their pronunciation -leaves scarcely any room for doubt.</p> - -<p>It is all the more interesting to ascertain the accord -of my scientist correspondents upon the value -of these two words; the first recalls to them nothing -precise or applicable to the situation, but the second -is a flattering and very appropriate allusion to -the divinity of the Hindoo Pantheon, which is more -actively interesting to the professional world.</p> - -<p>M. P. Oltramare, to whom I sent these words, without -saying anything as to their source, replied: “There -is nothing more simple than the word <b>ganapatinâmâ</b>; -it means, ‘<i>who bears the name of Ganapati</i>,’ -which is the same as <i>Ganesa</i>.... As to <b>atiêyâ</b>, that -word has not a Hindoo appearance; it might perhaps -be <b>atreya</b>, which, it seems, serves as a designation for -women who have suffered an abortion, an explication -which, however, I do not guarantee. [In order to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316"></a>316</span> -affirm more concerning these words, it would be necessary -to know] whether they are really Sanscrit, -since if they belong to the vulgar languages, I excuse -myself absolutely.”</p> - -<p>M. Glardon, who is more familiar with the vulgar -languages and speaks Hindustani fluently, did not -hint to me of any other meaning for <b>atiêyâ</b> and saw -also in the other word “an epithet of honor, literally, -‘<i>named Ganapati</i>,’ familiar name of the god Ganesa.”</p> - -<p>M. de Saussure also found no meaning whatever -for the first term, in which he inclines now to see an -arbitrary creation of the Martian order, and he remarked -that in the second, “the two words, <b>Ganapati</b>, -well-known divinity, and <b>nâmâ</b>, <i>name</i>, are constructed -together, in some inexplicable manner, but -not necessarily false. It is quite curious,” adds he, -“that this fragment, which is mixed up with the name -of a god, may be properly pronounced with a kind of -solemn emphasis and a gesture of religious benediction. -This denotes, indeed, an intelligent and -intentional use.”</p> - -<p>According to this first brief specimen, therefore, -Hélène’s Hindoo appears to be a mixture of improvised -articulations and of veritable Sanscrit words -adapted to the situation. Later specimens only -serve to corroborate this impression.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>2. The next outbreak of Hindoo took place five -months later (September 15, 1895), in the midst of a -very long Oriental seance, in which I only refer to -points especially interesting to us—to wit, Hélène’s -supposed Sanscrit, the French interpretation which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317"></a>317</span> -Leopold gave of it, and the curious evidences of agreement -of these two texts.</p> - -<p>In one tender scene, with sighs and tears, in connection -with Sivrouka, Hélène uttered in an exceedingly -sweet voice the following words: <b>ou mama priva</b> (or -<b>prira, priya</b>)—<b>mama radisivou</b>—<b>mama sadiou sivrouka</b>—<b>apa -tava va signa damasa</b>—<b>simia damasa -bagda sivrouka</b>. During the various phases which -precede the awaking, I ask Leopold the meaning of -these words. He at first refused to give it, saying, -“Find it out yourself”; then, as I insist, “I would have -preferred that you found it out yourself.” I beg him -to give at least the correct spelling of an Oriental -text furnished us in so uncertain a manner, but he -disappeared, saying he was ignorant of Sanscrit. By -means of later questions which he answers by “yes” -and “no,” it is discovered that they are words of love -from Simandini to her husband, who was about to -leave her for a voyage to his principality. Then suddenly, -as the awaking seems to be approaching, -Leopold moves the index-finger feverishly, and commences -to dictate impatiently: “<i>Hasten</i> [to spell] ... -My good, my excellent, my dearly loved Sivrouka, -without thee where to find happiness?” His -answers to our questions lead us to understand that -this is the substantial meaning of all the Sanscrit -spoken that evening (and given above), that it is not -he, Leopold, who speaks this language to Hélène, -because he does not understand it, but that it is indeed -he who gives us the French equivalent for it, -not by a literal translation of the words themselves, -since he does not understand them, but by interpret<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318"></a>318</span>ing -the inmost feelings of Mlle, Smith, with which he -is perfectly familiar. Shortly afterwards Hélène -awakes without recollection.</p> - -<p>According to M. de Saussure there are certainly in -this text some Sanscrit fragments answering more -or less to the interpretation of Leopold. The most -clear are <b>mama priya</b>, which signifies <i>my dear, my -dearly loved</i>, and <b>mama sadiou</b> (corrected to <b>sâdhô</b>), -<i>my good, my excellent</i>. The rest of the phrase is -less satisfactory in its present condition; <b>tava</b> could -well be <i>of thee</i>, but <b>apa tava</b> is a pure barbarism, -if it is intended for <i>far from thee</i>. In the same way -the syllable <b>bag</b> in <b>bagda</b> seems to mean, independently -of the translation of Leopold, <b>bhâga</b>, <i>happiness</i>, -but is surrounded by incomprehensible syllables.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>3. In a subsequent seance (December 1, 1895), -Hélène gave herself up to a varied series of somnambulistic -pantomimes representing scenes in the life -of Simandini, which were thought to be located at -Mangalore, and in the course of which several Hindoo -words escaped her, of which, unhappily, no interpretation -could be obtained from Leopold. But here -again, if one is not too difficult to satisfy, a meaning -more or less adapted to the pantomime is finally discovered.</p> - -<p>In the midst of a playful scene with her little monkey, -Mitidja, she tells him in her sweetest and most -harmonious tones (A), <b>mama kana sour</b> (or <b>sourde</b>) -<b>mitidya</b> ... <b>kana mitidya</b> (<i>ter</i>). Later, answering -her imaginary prince, who, according to Leopold,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319"></a>319</span> -has just given her a severe admonition (the reason -for which is not known), and to which she listened -with an air of forced submission, and, almost sneeringly, -she tells him (B), <b>adaprati tava sivrouka</b> ... -<b>nô simyô sinonyedô</b> ... <b>on yediô sivrouka</b>. Returning -to a better feeling and leaning towards him, -she murmurs with a charming smile (C) <b>mama plia</b> -... <b>mama naximi</b> (or <b>naxmi</b>) <b>sivrouka</b> ... <b>aô -laos, mi sivrouka</b>.</p> - -<p>In the fragment (A), one may suppose the <b>mama -kana</b> to be a term of affection, taking the <b>kana</b> to be -equivalent to the Sanscrit <i>kânta</i>, “beloved,” or <i>kanistha</i>, -“darling,” unless it be translated, as M. -Glardon does, <b>kana</b> (corrected to <b>khana</b>) <b>mitidya</b> -<i>to eat for Mitidja</i>.</p> - -<p>In the phrase (B), according to M. de Saussure, -“the last words might, with some show of reason, -make us think of the word <b>anyediuh</b>, <i>the following -day</i>, or, <i>another day</i>, repeated twice; and, -on the other hand, the first word might be transformed -into <b>adya-prabhrti</b>, <i>starting from to-day</i>; -which, combined with other syllables, themselves -conventionally triturated, might give something -like: <b>adya-pra-bhrti tava, sivruka</b> ... <b>yôshin</b> ... -<b>na anyediuh, any ediuh</b>: <i>from to-day, of thee, -Sivrouka, that I am</i> ... <i>wife</i> ... <i>not another day, -another day</i>—which, besides (if it has any meaning -at all,) has scarcely any connection with the -scene.”</p> - -<p>In the phrase (C) the words <b>mama plia</b> evidently -mean the same as the words above, <b>mama priya</b>, -<i>my beloved</i>; <b>naxmi</b> might be <b>lakshmî</b>, <i>beauty and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320"></a>320</span> -fortune</i>; and the last words might contain <b>asmi</b>, <i>I -am</i>.</p> - -<p>While, therefore, recognizing some words of pure -Sanscrit, the whole appearance of these first texts -presents, on the other hand, certain matters quite -suspicious, from the point of view of construction, -of the order of the words, and possibly also the correctness -of the forms.</p> - -<p>“<i>E. g.</i>,” observes M. de Saussure, “I do not remember -that one can say in Sanscrit, ‘my Sivrouka,’ -nor ‘my dear Sivrouka.’ One can well say <b>mama -priya</b>, <i>my well beloved</i>, substantively; but <b>mama -priya Sivruka</b> is quite another thing: but it is <i>my -dear Sivrouka</i> which occurs most frequently. It -is true,” adds my learned colleague, “that nothing -can be affirmed absolutely, especially concerning -certain epochs at which much bad Sanscrit was -made in India. The resource always remains to us -of assuming that, since the eleventh wife of Sivrouka -was a child of Arabia, she had not had time -to learn to express herself without error in the idiom -of her lord and master, up to the moment at which -the funeral pile put an end to her brief existence.”</p> - -<p>The misfortune is, in assuming by hypothesis the -point of view of the romance, one exposes himself -to another difficulty. “The most surprising thing,” -remarks M. de Saussure, “is that Mme. Simandini -spoke Sanscrit, and not Pracrit (the connection of -the first with the second is the same as that between -Latin and French, the one springing from -the other, but the one is the language in which the -savants write, while the other is the spoken lan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321"></a>321</span>guage). -While in the Hindoo drama the kings, the -brahmins, and the personages of high degree are observed -habitually to use Sanscrit, it is questionable -if such was constantly the case in real life. But, -under all circumstances, all the women, even in the -drama, speak Pracrit. A king addresses his wife in -the noble language (Sanscrit); she answers him always -in the vulgar language. But the idiom of Simandini, -even though it be a Sanscrit very hard to -recognize, is not in any case the Pracrit.”</p> - -<p>The numerous Hindoo speeches of Mlle. Smith during -these latter years give rise to certain analogous -observations, and do not throw any new light on -their origin. I shall confine myself to a few examples, -which I have chosen less for the sake of the -Sanscritoid texts themselves, which are also always -defective and distorted, than for the reason that the -varied circumstances in which they have been produced -afford a certain psychological interest.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>4. Scene of Chiromancy. In the course of a long -Arab seance, then Hindoo (February 2, 1896), Hélène -knelt down by the side of my chair, and, taking me -for Sivrouka, seized and examined my hand, all the -while carrying on a conversation in a foreign language -(without seeming to notice my actual words). -It seems that this conversation contained some expression -of anxiety in regard to my health, which had -inspired several somnambulisms of Mlle. Smith during -the preceding months (an example will be found -on pp. <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-122).</p> - -<p>At the same time at which she attentively exam<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322"></a>322</span>ines -the lines of my hand, she pronounces the following -fragmentary sentences, separated by silences -corresponding to the hallucinatory replies of Sivrouka: -“<b>Priya sivrouka</b> ... <b>nô</b> [signifying No, according -to Leopold] ... <b>tvandastroum sivrouka</b> ... -<b>itiami adia priya</b> ... <b>itiami sivra adia</b> ... <b>yatou</b> ... -<b>napi adia</b> ... <b>nô</b> ... <b>mama souka, mama baga sivrouka</b> -... <b>yatou</b>.” Besides sivra, which, Leopold says, -is an affectionate name for Sivrouka, we can divine in -this text other terms of affection: <b>priya</b>, <i>beloved</i>; -<b>mama soukha, mama bhâga</b>, “<i>Oh, my delight, oh, -my happiness!</i>” M. Glardon also calls attention to -the word <b>tvandastroum</b>, which approaches the Hindustani -<i>tandarast</i> (or <i>tandurust</i>), “who is in good -health”—<i>tandurusti</i>, “health,” coming from the two -words <i>tan</i>, “physical condition,” and <i>durust</i>, “good, -true,” of Persian origin. But he adds that it is possibly -only a coincidence, and seems to me doubtful -whether he would have thought of the connection if -it were not found in a scene of chiromancy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>5. The Hindoo cycle, like the others, makes numerous -irruptions into the ordinary life of Mlle. Smith, -and affects her personality in most varied degrees, -from the simple waking vision of Oriental landscapes -or people up to the total incarnations of Simandini, of -which Hélène preserves no memory whatever. One -frequent form of these spontaneous automatisms consists -in certain mixed states, in which she perceives -personages who seem to her objective and independent, -while continuing to have the feeling of a subjective -implication or identification in regard to them, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323"></a>323</span> -impression of an indefinable <i>tua res agitur</i>. It then -easily happens that the conversations she has with -them are a mixture of French and a foreign language -which she is wholly ignorant of, though feeling the -meaning of it. The following is an example:</p> - -<p>March 1, 1898.—Between five and six in the morning, -while still in bed but wide awake, as she affirms, -Hélène had “a superb Hindoo vision.” Magnificent -palace, with a huge staircase of white stone, leading -to splendid halls furnished with low divans without -cushions, of yellow, red, and more often of blue materials. -In a boudoir a woman (Simandini) reclining -and leaning nonchalantly on her elbow; on his -knees near her a man with black curly hair, of dark -complexion (Sivrouka), clothed in a large, red, embroidered -robe, and speaking a foreign language, not -Martian, which Hélène did not know, but which, however, -she had the feeling of comprehending inwardly, -and which enabled her to write some sentences of it -in French after the vision. While she <i>listened</i> to -this man speaking, she <i>saw</i> the lips of the woman -open, without hearing any sound come from her -mouth, in such a way that she did not know what -she said, but Hélène had at the same time the impression -of answering <i>inwardly, in thought</i>, to the conversation -of the man, and she noted his reply. (This -means, psychologically, that the words of Sivrouka -gushed forth in auditive images or hallucinations, -and the answers of Simandini-Hélène in psycho-motor-spoken -images of articulation, accompanied -by the usual representation of Simandini effectuating -the corresponding labial movements.) Here is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324"></a>324</span> -fragment of conversation noted by Hélène in pencil -at the outset of the vision, in her ordinary handwriting, -but very irregular, attesting that she had -not yet entirely regained her normal state.</p> - -<p>(Sivrouka.) “My nights without repose, my eyes -red with tears, Simandini, will not these touch at -last thy <b>attamana</b>? Shall this day end without -<i>pardon, without love</i>?” (Simandini.) “Sivrouka, no, -the day shall not end without pardon, without love; -the <b>sumina</b> has not been launched far from me, -as thou hast supposed; it is there—dost thou see?” -(Sivrouka.) “Simandini, my <b>soucca, maccanna -baguea</b>—pardon me again, always!“</p> - -<p>This little scrap of conversation, it may be remarked -in passing, gives quite correctly the emotional -note, which is strong throughout the whole -length of the Hindoo dream in the relationship of -its two chief personages. As to the Sanscritoid -words which are there mingled with the French, -they have not an equal value. “<b>Sumina</b>,” says -M. de Saussure, “recalls nothing. <b>Attamana</b>, at -most <b>âtmânam</b> (accusative of <b>âtmâ</b>), <i>l’âme</i>, ‘the -soul’; but I hasten to say that in the context -in which <b>attamana</b> figures one could not make -use of the Sanscrit word which resembles it, and -which at bottom only signifies (<i lang="fr">âme</i>) ‘soul’ in philosophical -language, and in the sense of ‘<i lang="fr">l’âme universelle</i>,’ -or other learned meanings.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>6. The apparition of isolated Hindoo words, or -words incorporated in a non-Hindoo context, is not -very rare with Hélène, and is produced sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325"></a>325</span> -in auditive hallucinations, sometimes in her writings -(see, <i>e. g.</i>, <a href="#Fig_37">Fig. 37</a>, p. 333); sometimes, again, -in the course of words uttered in hemisomnambulism -more or less marked. The list which has been -collected of these detached terms shows the same -mixture of pure Sanscrit and unknown words, which -can only be connected with that language by some -transformation so arbitrary or forced as to destroy -altogether the value of such comparison.</p> - -<p>To this second category belong, for example, <b>gava</b>, -<b>vindamini</b>, <b>jotisse</b>, also spelled by Mlle. Smith. These -terms, of whose signification she is absolutely ignorant, -struck her ear in the course of a Hindoo vision -which occurred in the morning when she first -awoke. The last of these words recalls to M. de -Saussure the Sanscrit <i>jyôtis</i>, “a constellation”; but -then he would pronounce it <i>djiôtisse</i>, which hardly -corresponds to the manner in which Hélène heard -and wrote it. There must be added to these examples -certain Hindoo words which have made irruptions -into some Martian texts.</p> - -<p>These are <i>Adèl</i>, a proper name, and <i>yestad</i>, “unknown,” -in text 13; and (in text 31) <i>vadasa</i>, which, -according to the rest of the sentence, seems to designate -some divinities or some powers, and in which -MM. de Saussure and Glardon suspect a mangled -reminiscence of the Sanscrit term <i>dévâ-dâsa</i>, “slave -of the gods.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>7. To crown these specimens of the Sanscrit of -Hélène, let us cite her “Hindoo chant,” which has -made half a dozen appearances in the last two years,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326"></a>326</span> -and of which Leopold deigned, on a single occasion, -to outline the translation.</p> - -<p>The utterances consist essentially of the Sanscrit -word <i>gaya</i> “chant,” repeated to satiety, with here and -there some other terms, badly articulated and offering -discouraging variations in the notes taken by -the different hearers. I will confine myself to two -versions.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i326Music" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_36"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_326.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 36. Modulation of a Hindoo song. The final <i>G</i> of the three variations was -held with perfect steadiness during fourteen seconds. The series A was often -doubled and trebled before the continuation.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>One of them is by Hélène herself. In a spontaneous -vision (May 18, 1898, in the morning, upon awaking), -she perceived a man, richly dressed in yellow -and blue (Sivrouka), reclining upon beautiful cushions -near a fountain surrounded by palm-trees; a -brunette woman (Simandini) seats herself on the -grass, sings to him in a strange language a ravishing -melody. Hélène gathers the following fragments -of it in writing, in which may be recognized -the disfigured text of her ordinary song, “<b>Ga haïa -vahaïyami</b> ... <b>vassen iata</b> ... <b>pattissaïa priaïa</b>.”</p> - -<p>The other version is that of M. de Saussure, very -much better qualified than we are to distinguish -the Hindoo sounds. He was quite near Hélène, who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327"></a>327</span> -sang seated upon the ground, whose voice for the -moment articulated so badly that several words escaped -him, and he does not vouch for the accuracy -of his text, which is as follows, as he wrote it to the -measure: “<b>Gâya gaya naïa ia miya gayä briti</b> ... -<b>gaya vaya yâni pritiya kriya gayâni i gâya mamatua -gaya mama nara mama patii si gaya gandaryô -gâya ityami vasanta</b> ... <b>gaya gaya yâmi gaya -priti gaya priya gâya patisi</b>....”</p> - -<p>It was towards the end of this same seance that -Leopold, undoubtedly with the idea of doing honor -to the distinguished presence of M. de Saussure, -decided, after a scene of Martian translation (text 14, -by Esenale), to give us, in Hélène’s voice, his interpretation -of the Hindoo chant, which follows, <i>verbatim</i>, -with its mixture of Sanscrit words: “Sing, bird, -let us sing! <b>Gaya!</b> Adèl, Sivrouka, sing of the -spring-time! Day and night I am happy! Let us -sing! Spring-time bird, happiness! <b>ityâmi mamanara -priti</b>, let us sing! let us love! my king! -Miousa, Adèl!”</p> - -<p>In comparing these translations of the Hindoo -text, certain points of resemblance are discovered -between them. Outside the two perfectly correct -words, <b>gâya</b>, <i>song</i>, and <b>vasanta</b>, <i>spring-time</i>, the idea -of “<i>let us love</i>” is discovered in <b>priti</b> and <b>briti</b> (Sanscrit -<i>prîti</i>, the act of loving), and an approximate -equivalent of “<i>my king</i>” in <b>mama patii</b>, recalling -the Sanscrit <i>mama patê</i>, “my husband, my master.”</p> - -<p>It is, unfortunately, hardly possible to carry the -identification further, except perhaps for <i>bird</i>, which, -with some show of reason, might be suspected in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328"></a>328</span> -<b>vayayâni</b>, vaguely recalling <b>vâyasân</b> (accusative -plural of <b>vâyasa</b> <i>bird</i>).</p> - -<p>As to the melody of this plaintive ditty, M. Aug. -de Morsier, who heard it at the seance of the 4th of -September, 1898, has kindly noted it as exactly as -possible (see <a href="#Fig_36">Fig. 36</a>).</p> - -<p>The preceding examples suffice to give an idea of -Hélène’s Hindoo, and it is time to conclude.</p> - -<p>It apparently does not belong to any actually existing -dialect. M. Glardon declares that it is neither -ancient nor modern Hindustani, and, after having -put forth at the beginning, by way of simple hypothesis, -the idea that it might be Tamil, or Mahratta, -he now sees in it a <i lang="fr">mélange</i> of real terms, probably -Sanscrit and invented words. M. Michel, likewise, -is of the opinion that the grotesque jargon of Simandini -contains fragments of Sanscrit quite well adapted -to the situation. All my correspondents are, on the -whole, of exactly the same view, and I could not better -sum up their opinion than by quoting the words -of M. de Saussure:</p> - -<p>“As to the question of ascertaining whether all -this really represents Sanscrit, it is evidently necessary -to answer, <i>No</i>. One can only say:</p> - -<p>“First: That it is a medley of syllables, in the -midst of which there are, incontestably, some series of -eight to ten syllables, constituting a fragment of a sentence -which has a meaning (especially exclamatory -phrases—<i>e. g.</i>, <b>mama priya</b>, <i lang="fr">mon bien-aimé</i> (“my well-beloved”); -<b>mama soukha</b>, <i lang="fr">mes délices</i> (“my delight”)).</p> - -<p>“Secondly: That the other syllables, of unintelligible -aspect, never have an anti-Sanscrit character<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329"></a>329</span>— -<i>i. e.</i>, do not present groups materially contrary or in -opposition to the general figure of the Sanscrit words.</p> - -<p>“Thirdly and finally: That the value of this -latter observation is, on the other hand, quite considerably -diminished by the fact that Mlle. Smith seldom -launches out into complicated forms of syllables, -and greatly affects the vowel <i>a</i>; but Sanscrit is a -language in which the proportion of the <i>a</i>’s to the -other vowels is almost four to one, so that in uttering -three or four syllables in <i>a</i>, one could hardly -avoid vaguely encountering a Sanscrit word.”</p> - -<p>It follows from this last remark of M. de Saussure -that it ought not to be very difficult to fabricate Sanscrit -after the mode of Simandini, if only one is possessed -of some veritable elements which can serve -as a model and give tone to the remainder. And -there is no need to know very much of it, either, as -M. Barth remarks:</p> - -<p>“Has Mlle. Smith been in communication with -any person from whom she could have taken some -scraps of Sanscrit and of history? That would suffice, -in this case, for the original germ, even though it -were but slight. Imagination would do the rest. -Children are very frequently <i>onomatopoioi</i>”</p> - -<p>But it is, naturally, Mlle. Smith herself who -furnishes us, in her own Martian, the fact most likely -to throw light upon her Hindoo. It evidently is not -difficult for a subconscious activity capable of manufacturing -a language out of whole cloth to make -another by imitation and by spinning out some -real data. Also, as to the beginning of the Martian -(a year later, as we have seen, to that of the Hindoo),<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330"></a>330</span> -M. de Saussure does not hesitate to make this comparison, -and explains, <i>e.g.</i>, the initial Sanscritoid -text, the famous phrase of benediction, <b>atiêyâ ganapatinâmâ</b>, -by the same process of fabrication which -shone forth in the words of Esenale or Astané.</p> - -<p>I am not convinced that the general process of replacing -word for word the French terms by terms -of Oriental aspect, which is certainly the process employed -in the fabrication of the Martian, has been -made use of in the case of Hélène’s Oriental words. -Leopold, who has laid so much stress on procuring -us a <i>quasi</i>-magical means of obtaining the literal -translation of the Martian, has never condescended -to do the same thing for the Hindoo, but has -confined himself to outlining for us some free and -vague interpretations, which scarcely add anything -to that which the pantomime permits us to divine. -This leads us to think that an entire precise translation -of the Hindoo is impossible—in other terms, -that Hélène does not fabricate her <i>pseudo</i>-Sanscrit by -following step by step a French plot, and by maintaining -in her neologisms the meaning which has -been once adopted, but that she improvises and leaves -the result to chance, without reflection (with the exception -of some words of true Sanscrit, the meaning -of which she knows and which she applies intelligently -to the situation).</p> - -<p>It is not, then, to the Martian texts proper, in my -opinion, that we must compare Hélène’s Hindoo, but -to that <i>pseudo</i>-Martian jargon spoken with volubility -in certain seances, and which have never been -noted with certainty nor translated by Esenale.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331"></a>331</span></p> - -<p>It is understood, too, that while Hélène’s subliminal -self can safely give itself up to the creation of a -definite language in the freedom which the planet -Mars affords, where there is no pre-existing system -to be conformed to nor any objective control to fear, -it would be very imprudent and absurd to repeat -the process in connection with India: the few words -of pure Sanscrit which were at its disposal kept it -from inventing others, the falseness of which would -be evident at the first attempt at a literal and <i>verbatim</i> -translation. It, therefore, contented itself with these -veridical elements, insufficient in themselves alone for -the construction of complete sentences, being a jargon -devoid of meaning, but in harmony through their -dominant vowels with the authentic fragments.</p> - -<p>Now how could these authentic fragments have -come into the possession of Mlle. Smith, who has no -recollection whatever (nor has her family) of ever having -studied Sanscrit, or of having ever been in communication -with Oriental scholars? This is the -problem which my researches have encountered -hitherto, and as a solution of which I can think of -nothing more likely than that of a fortunate chance, -analogous to that which enabled me to discover the -passage of De Marlès. I am, for the time being, -reduced to vague conjectures as to the extent of -Mlle. Smith’s latent knowledge of Sanscrit, and the -probable nature of its manner of acquisition.</p> - -<p>I had long thought that Hélène might have absorbed -her Hindoo principally by <i>auditive</i> means, and -that she had, perhaps, in her infancy lived in the same -house with some Indian student, whom she had heard,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332"></a>332</span> -across the street or through an open window, speaking -aloud Sanscrit texts with their French translation. -The story of the young domestic without education -is well known, who, seized with a fever, spoke -both Greek and Hebrew, which had been stored up in -her mind, unknown to her, while she was in the service -of a German savant. <i lang="it">Se non è vero è ben trovato.</i> -In spite of the just criticisms of Mr. Lang, apropos of -its poorly established authenticity, this standard anecdote -may be considered as a type of many other -facts of the same kind which have since been actually -observed, and as a salutary warning to distrust -subconscious memories of auditive origin. But Indian -scholars are rare in Geneva, and this trail has -yielded me nothing.</p> - -<p>I am really inclined to admit the exclusively <i>visual</i> -origin of Hélène’s Sanscrit. First, it is not necessary -for her to have heard that idiom. Reading of texts -printed in French characters coincides very well -with a pronunciation so confused and badly articulated -as hers; and, further, it alone can account -for certain inexplicable errors of pronunciation -if Mlle. Smith had acquired that language by -ear.</p> - -<p>The most characteristic of her errors is the presence -in Hindoo of the French sound <i>u</i>, which does -not exist in Sanscrit, but is naturally suggested by -reading if it has not been previously ascertained -that that letter is pronounced <i>ou</i> in the Sanscrit words -in which it appears.</p> - -<p>Other observations militate in favor of the same -supposition. Never in the seances has Simandini<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333"></a>[Pg 333]<br /><a id="Page_334"></a>334</span> -ventured <i>to write</i> Sanscrit, and it is in French letters -that her name was given (see <a href="#Page_288">p. 288</a>).</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i333" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_37"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_333.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 37. Fragment. Final sentence of a letter of Mlle. Smith, finished (or rather remaining unfinished), during the irruption of a spontaneous -access of Hindoo somnambulism. Note foreign words, <i>boulboul</i> (Persian name for nightingale), <i>Kana</i> (Hindoo slave of Simandini), -and <i>radyiva</i> (Sanscrit name for blue lotus); also the Sanscrit letters <i>a</i>, <i>e</i>, <i>i</i>, <i>d</i>, <i>r</i>, taking the place of the French initials. Note -also the change of form of the <i>t</i>’s.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Still, Hélène subconsciously possesses a part, at -least, of the Devanagari alphabet, since sometimes -certain characters belonging to it slip into her normal -writing. But it is to be noted that her knowledge -of this kind does not seem in any way to go beyond -that which might have resulted from a rapid -glance at a Sanscrit grammar.</p> - -<p>In certain cases this irruption of foreign signs -(altogether analogous to that which has been seen in -the case of the Martian) is connected with an access -of spontaneous somnambulism and makes part -of a whole troop of images and of Oriental terms.</p> - -<p>An interesting example is found in <a href="#Fig_37">Fig. 37</a>, which -reproduces the end of a letter which Hélène wrote me -from the country. All the rest of this six-page letter -is perfectly normal, both as to handwriting and -content, but suddenly, tired by her effort of prolonged -attention, she begins to speak of her health, -sleep overcomes her, and the last lines show the invasion -of the Oriental dream.</p> - -<p>Kana, the slave, with his tame birds, and the brilliant -plants of the tropics, substitute themselves -little by little for the actual room. The letter reached -me unfinished and without signature, as is shown -in <a href="#Fig_37">Fig. 37</a>; Hélène closed it mechanically during -her somnambulism, without knowledge of this unusual -termination, at which she was surprised and -annoyed when I showed it to her later.</p> - -<p>Examination and comparison of all these graphomotor -automatisms show that there are in Hélèn<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335"></a>335</span>e’s -subconsciousness some positive notions, albeit superficial -and rudimentary, of the Sanscrit alphabet. -She knows the exact form of many isolated -characters, and their general value, in the abstract, -as it were, but she does not seem to have any idea -of their concrete use in connection with other letters.</p> - -<p>In a word, these fragments of graphic automatisms -betray a knowledge of Hindoo writing such as -a curious mind might be able to acquire by perusing -for some moments the first two or three pages of a -Sanscrit grammar. It would retain certain detached -forms; first, the <i>a</i> and the <i>e</i>, which, striking -the eye at the commencement of the two first lines -(containing the vowels, and usually separated from -the following lines containing the consonants) of -the standard arrangement of the Hindoo letters in -ten groups; then the series of ciphers, occupying -a line by themselves and easy to retain; finally, -some other simple signs gleaned at hazard; but -there will probably not be retained any of the too -complicated figures resulting from the union of several -characters in order to form words. This supposed -genesis entirely corresponds with the extent -of the notions as to Sanscrit writing of which Mlle. -Smith’s subconsciousness gives evidence.</p> - -<p>It will suffice in summing up, to account for Mlle. -Smith’s Hindoo language, that perhaps in the N. -group, or in some other spiritistic environment of -which I am ignorant, some one, for the sake of curiosity, -may have shown her and allowed her to glance -over a Sanscrit grammar or lexicon, immediately -after a seance, during that state of suggestibility in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336"></a>336</span> -which the exterior suggestions are registered very -strongly in her case, often without leaving traces in -her conscious memory. The fact will also be explained -that Hélène has no memory whatever of it, -is absolutely convinced that she never saw or heard -the least fragment of Sanscrit or any other Oriental -language.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp99" id="i336" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_38"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_336.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 38. Examples of Sanscrit characters, automatically substituted for French -words and ciphers, in words and figures appearing in the normal writings of Mlle. -Smith (<i>la</i>me, <i>ru</i>bis, 1<i>6</i>6, <i>pli</i>s, 2<i>86</i>5, 15<i>4</i>). Natural size.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>I ought also to add that the information which I -have up to the present time been able to gather has -furnished me with no positive indication of the truth -of my supposition, while, on the other hand, it has -not tended to establish its falsity.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337"></a>337</span></p> - - -<h3>V. <span class="smcap">The Sources of the Hindoo Dream</span></h3> - -<p>This paragraph will have no meaning whatever -for those who hold the Oriental cycle to be in reality -the reappearance in Mlle. Smith’s somnambulistic -states, of memories belonging to an anterior existence -in which she was an Asiatic princess, and I myself -naik of Tchandraguiri, Professor Seippel, an Arab -slave, etc.</p> - -<p>I shall confine myself in this case to an expression -of regret that the chance which has united us afresh, -after five centuries of separation, did not leave us in -the midst of those tropical splendors instead of transporting -us to the banks of the Rhône just where -the fog is densest in winter. It is a severe punishment -for our past misdeeds. But when one pushes -his skepticism so far as only to see in the entire Hindoo -dream a fantastic product elaborated out of certain -scattered facts, as I have done in the preceding paragraphs, -one is likewise punished for his want of faith -by the obscure problems which are met with on the -subject of the sources of this dream. I would say -also that it is difficult to understand why the hypnoid -imagination of Mlle. Smith gave itself up to -such pranks, and distributed as it did the rôles of -this comedy.</p> - -<p>It is easy to understand how a nature given to -subconscious reveries, and such as I have described -in the first chapters of this book, has taken pleasure -in the fiction of the tragic destiny of Simandini, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338"></a>338</span> -also that she felt specially attracted towards the -career of Marie Antoinette.</p> - -<p>But M. Seippel, whom I quoted above, has nothing -about him of the Arab, and still less of the slave, neither -in outward appearance nor in character; and as -to myself, let us say here, M. F.—if I may be permitted -to substitute harmless initials for the always odious -“I”—as for M. F., there is generally to be met with -in him, under some diffidence, a certain mildness of -manner and disposition, which would scarcely seem -to predestinate him to the energetic and wild rôle of -a violent, whimsical, capricious, and jealous Oriental -despot.</p> - -<p>As to the psychological origins of the Hindoo -dream—considered not so much in its Oriental decoration, -but in its essential note, which is the relation -of Simandini to Sivrouka (the pretended anteriority -of M. F.)—two hypotheses can be framed, between -which it is difficult to choose.</p> - -<p>First. From the point of view of psychopathology -I should be tempted to cause this entire somnambulistic -romance to be included in that which Freud calls -<i>Abwehrpsychosen</i>, resulting from a sort of autotomy -which frees the normal self from an affective idea -incompatible with it; which idea revenges itself by -occasioning very diverse perturbations, according to -the subjects, from disorders of innervation, coming -to disturb the daily life (hysteria by somatic conversion -of the affective coefficient of the repulsed -idea), up to the case in which the self only escapes -the intolerable contradiction between the given reality -and the idea which besets it by plunging itself en<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339"></a>339</span>tirely -into the latter (mental hallucinatory confusion, -delirium, etc.).</p> - -<p>Between these varied results may be found that in -which the idea excluded from the consciousness becomes -the germ of hypnoid developments, the point -of departure of a secondary consciousness unknown -to the ordinary personality, the centre of a somnambulistic -life in which the tendencies which the normal -self has driven far away from it may take refuge -and give themselves free play.</p> - -<p>This is, perhaps, the happiest solution, from a practical -and social point of view, since it leaves the individual -in a state of perfect equilibrium and free -from nervous troubles, outside of the very limited -moments in which the underlying processes break -out in accesses of somnambulism.</p> - -<p>Such may be the case of the Hindoo dream and -the origin of the attributing of the rôle of Sivrouka -to M. F. Nothing, assuredly, in the normal life or -being of Mlle. Smith would cause the suspicion that -she had ever consciously felt towards the latter the -absurd sentiments which good sense would have condemned -in advance; but divers hints of her subliminal -life, independently of the Hindoo cycle itself -(certain dreams, etc.), have sometimes seemed to betray -a latent conflict, which the sane and reasonable -self would have quickly gotten rid of by the banishment -from the ordinary personality of the affective -idea, inadmissible in the given conditions of reality. -Hence, with a temperament accustomed to mediumistic -doubling of personality and imbued with spiritistic -doctrines, the birth and development, under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340"></a>340</span>neath -the level of the normal consciousness, of this -romance of a former existence, in which emotional -tendencies incompatible with the present life have -found on occasion a sort of theoretic justification -and a free field for expansion.</p> - -<p>Secondly: It may also be presumed, and I prefer -to admit, that the sentiments of Simandini towards -her fictitious rajah, far from being the reflection and -somnambulic transposition of an impression really -felt by Mlle. Smith in regard to some one real and -determined, are only a fantastic creation—like the -passion with which juvenile imaginations are sometimes -inflamed for an ideal and abstract type while -awaiting the meeting with a concrete realization -more or less like it—and that the assimilation of -Sivrouka to M. F. is only a coincidence due to the -simple chance of Mlle. Smith having made the acquaintance -of M. F. at the time when the Hindoo -dream was about to begin. Two points strengthen -this hypothesis of a contingent and superficial confusion -between M. F. and Sivrouka. First, the -Hindoo dream was evidently begun by a characteristic -vision in which Simandini appeared, almost -two months before the admission of M. F. to the -seances (see pp. <a href="#Page_279">279</a>-281). Instead of supposing -that the subconsciousness of Mlle. Smith foresaw -already the probable arrival of this new spectator, -and reserved for him in advance a leading -rôle in the romance of former existence which she -was in process of elaborating (which is not altogether -impossible, it is true), it hardly seems -as though M. F. could have stood for anything<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341"></a>341</span> -in the dream-personage of Sivrouka. In the second -place, it is only in the light somnambulisms and -her mixed or crepuscular states that Mlle. Smith -happens to take M. F. for the Hindoo prince and to -seat herself at his feet in attitudes of tenderness and -abandon (without otherwise ever departing from -the bounds of perfect propriety); as soon as the -trance becomes profound and the Hindoo somnambulism -complete, M. F. ceases to exist for her, as well -as the others present, and she then is concerned -only with an absolutely hallucinatory Sivrouka. This -is the place to state that Hélène has never presented -any phenomenon similar to—far from it—certain -cases in which have been seen the awakening in the -hypnotic subject of gross and more or less bestial -tendencies, for which the subjects would have blushed -in their waking state. There is nothing of that nature -in Mlle. Smith. Somnambulism does not detract -in any way from the elevation of her moral -sense. The same is true of her deepest trances or -when she “incarnates” personages very different from -her ordinary character—she never departs from that -real dignity which is a trait of her normal personality.</p> - -<p>To sum up—the hypothesis of a purely accidental -identification, a kind of association by simple contiguity -between the Hindoo prince and M. F., seems -to me, on the whole, the most natural. It releases -the latter, besides, from all responsibility (altogether -involuntary, however) for the sentiments so profound, -so disinterested, so worthy of a less tragic -fate, which the imaginary personage of Sivrouka -Nayaka inspires in the poor Princess Simandini.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342"></a>342</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br /> - -<small>THE ROYAL CYCLE</small></h2></div> - - -<p>If I were obliged to give this cycle a place proportioned -to that which it occupies in the somambulic -life of Mlle. Smith, a hundred pages -would not suffice. But permit me to pass rapidly -over facts concerning which I should only be obliged -to repeat the greater part of the observations called -forth by the preceding romances, which apply equally -well, <i lang="la">mutatis mutandis</i>, to the personification of -Marie Antoinette by Hélène.</p> - -<p>The choice of this rôle is naturally explained by -the innate tastes of Mlle. Smith for everything that -is noble, distinguished, elevated above the level of -the common herd, and by the fact that some exterior -circumstance fixed her hypnoid attention upon the -illustrious queen of France in preference to the -many other historic figures equally qualified to serve -as a point of attachment for her subconscious megalomaniac -reveries.</p> - -<p>In default of absolutely certain information on -this point, I strongly suspect the engraving from the -<cite>Memoirs of a Physician</cite>, representing the dramatic -scene of the decanter between Balsamo and the Dauphiness, -of having given birth to this identifica<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343"></a>343</span>tion -of Hélène with Marie Antoinette, as well as to -that of her secondary personality of Leopold with -Cagliostro.</p> - -<p>We have, in fact, seen that this engraving (pp. <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-95), -so well calculated to impress the imagination, -was shown to Mlle. Smith by Mme. B. at the end of a -seance—that is, at a moment when one is never sure -that Hélène’s return to her normal state is complete, -and in which her hypnoid personality, still on a level -with consciousness, so to speak, is very prone to absorb -the interesting suggestions which the environment -may furnish. It was several months—a year -and a quarter, possibly—after this incident (the precise -date of which, in 1892 or 1893, it is impossible -to determine) that announcement was made by the -table, on the 30th of January, 1894, that Hélène -was the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette. It is to be -recollected that in the interval she had for some time -believed herself to be the reincarnation of Lorenza -Feliciani; it is, however, to be noted that these two -successive identifications did not have the same -guarantee or psychological signification. In fact, it -was Mlle. Smith, in the waking states—that is, in her -normal personality—who accepted the supposition -of Mme. B., that she was the reincarnation of Lorenza; -but the table—<i>i.e.</i>, her subconsciousness—always -remained silent on this point. On the contrary, the -idea of having been Marie Antoinette does not seem -to have occurred to Hélène’s ordinary consciousness -up to the time at which Leopold revealed this secret, -by the table. If any conclusion may be drawn from -this, it is that, under the multiple suggestions of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344"></a>344</span> -engraving from Dumas’ works and the suppositions -of Mme. B., the hypnoid imagination of Mlle. Smith -at first preferred to the rôle of Lorenza that of Marie -Antoinette, which is undoubtedly more flattering and -more conformable to Hélène’s temperament, and then -elaborated and matured it, very slowly, it is true, -but not excessively so, in comparison with other examples -of subliminal incubations of Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>From the point of view of its psychological forms -of manifestation, the Royal cycle from that time followed -an evolution analogous to that of its congeners -described in the preceding chapters. After some -months, during which it unfolded itself in visions -described by Hélène and accompanied by typtological -explanations dictated by the table, the trance -became more profound. Mlle. Smith began to personate -the queen in pantomime, of which Leopold -gave the exact signification by digital indications. -Speech was added the year following, at a date -which I cannot fix, but the first occasion on which -I was a witness to it was on the 13th of October, -1895. Handwriting only made its appearance, as -far as I am aware, two years later (November 1, -1897, see <a href="#Fig_39">Fig. 39</a>), when the royal incarnation attained -its apogee and Hélène was in the habit of retaining -in memory the somnambulistic rôle of Marie -Antoinette for several hours. Since then the rôle -has maintained itself at a very remarkable level of -perfection, but it scarcely seems to me progressing, -and seems likely to become stereotyped. The objectivity -of the general type of queen must be distinguished -in this brilliant personality, or at least<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345"></a>345</span> -that of a lady of great distinction, as well as a realization -of the individual characteristics of Marie -Antoinette of Austria. As to the first point there is -almost nothing left to be desired. Mlle. Smith seems -by nature to possess all that this rôle demands, and -hypnoid autosuggestion finds no lack of material -upon which to work.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp77" id="i345" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_39"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_345.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 39. First known example of automatic irruption of the orthography and handwriting -called that of Marie Antoinette among the normal writings of Mlle. Smith. -Fragments of a letter of Hélène of November 1, 1897, narrating a seance during -which she had successfully incarnated the queen of France and the Hindoo princess. -[Collection of M. Lemaître.] See also p. </p></div> -</div> - -<p>When the royal trance is complete no one can fail -to note the grace, elegance, distinction, majesty sometimes, -which shine forth in Hélène’s every attitude -and gesture.</p> - -<p>She has verily the bearing of a queen. The more -delicate shades of expression, a charming amiability, -condescending hauteur, pity, indifference, overpowering -scorn flit successively over her countenance -and are manifested in her bearing, to the filing by -of the courtiers who people her dream. The play of -her hands with her real handkerchief and its fictitious -accessories, the fan, the binocle with long handle, the -scent-bottle which she carries in a pocket in her girdle; -her courtesyings, the movement, full of grace -and ease, by which she never forgets at each turning -around, to throw back her imaginary train; everything -of this kind, which cannot be described, is perfect in its -ease and naturalness. Special personification of the -unhappy Austrian wife of Louis XVI. is of a less evident, -and moreover doubtful, accuracy. To judge of -it from the only objective point of comparison at our -disposal, the handwriting (see Figs. 39 to 41), the -Marie Antoinette of Hélène’s somnambulisms little -resembles her supposed prototype, for there is less -of difference between the autographs of Cagliostro -and of Leopold (see <a href="#Page_109">p. 109</a>) than there is between that -of the real queen and that of her pretended reincarnation -in Mlle. Smith, the latter having a rounded, inclined -calligraphy, much more regular than in her -normal state, instead of the angular and illegible writing -which was characteristic of the queen of France, -to say nothing of the glaring differences in formation -of many letters. Some orthographic analogies (Hélène -writes <i>instans</i>, <i>enfans</i>, <i>étois</i>, etc.) have nothing -specific about them, and simply recall the general -habits of the last century (see <a href="#Page_112">p. 112</a>).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347"></a>347</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i347a" style="max-width: 124.9375em;"> - <a id="Fig_40"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_347a.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 40. Writing of Mlle. Smith incarnating Marie Antoinette. Seance of November -7, 1897. Beginning of a letter, written in ink and addressed to Philippe -d’Orléans (M. Aug. de Morsier, who was not present at the seance). After the -ink-stains of the last line, Hélène threw down her pencil, then began again and -finished her letter in pencil in a still more regular and slanting hand than the -above.</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i347b" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_41"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_347b.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 41. Writing and signature of Marie Antoinette. Fragment of a letter written -from the Temple to General de Jarnayes, and reproduced in the <cite>Isographie des -Hommes célèbres</cite>. [Collection of fac-similes published under the direction of Duchesne, -Sr., Paris, 1827-30.]</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348"></a>348</span></p> - -<p>Not having discovered any indication as to Marie -Antoinette’s manner of speaking, I do not know -whether the hypnoid imagination of Hélène has -succeeded better than with the handwriting in adopting -in her royal incarnations certain intonations -and a pronunciation which have nothing of German -in them, and would rather recall the English accent. -The timbre of her voice does not change, but her -speech becomes trailing, with a slight rolling of the -<i>r</i>’s, and takes on something precise and affected, very -pretty, but slightly irritating by its length. We already -know that there is not an absolute wall of -separation between Hélène’s various trances. Just -as is the case with the Martian and the Hindoo, -the handwriting or the spelling of the queen sometimes -slips into the correspondence of Mlle. Smith -(see <a href="#Fig_39">Fig. 39</a>), and she also sometimes assumes the -accent of Marie Antoinette, if not in the ordinary -waking state (I do not know whether that is ever the -case), at least outside her Royal cycle, especially in -the phases of transition in which she begins or ends -by incarnating Leopold, the Martians, etc. (see, for -example, p. <a href="#Page_56">56</a>).</p> - -<p>From the point of view of its content, the Royal cycle -forms a collection of scenes and varied tableaux, like -the Martian dream, lacking any continuous plot, and in -which marked historic events scarcely hold a place—<i>e. g.</i>, -in it the queen is never seen to mount the scaffold<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349"></a>349</span> -as Simandini ascends her funeral pile. One does not -always even know whether the spectacle before our -eyes is supposed to be the repetition, the exact recollection, -of unknown but real episodes in the life of -Marie Antoinette, or indeed whether it has to do with -new, actual incidents passing now between the reincarnated -queen and her old acquaintances whom -she discovers in the persons present at the seance or -in the disincarnate spirits in mediumistic relationship -with her. That depends on the case—<i>e. g.</i>, on -the 25th of December, 1896, Mlle. Smith, entranced, -addresses touching exhortations to a lady present -whom she took for the Princess Lamballe, which, -according to Leopold, is a reproduction of the last -evening which the unhappy queen, sustained by her -companion in captivity, passed in this world. (It is -true that at Christmas, 1792, the princess had already, -three months previously, fallen a victim to the -massacres of September.) Again the Abbé Grégoire -dictates by the table, which bows significantly to -Hélène, “<i>I desired to save you, but I was not able</i>”; or -the sinister Hébert says to her by the same process, -“<i>I was the cause of your death.... I suffer; pray -for me.</i>” Ought we to consider real the homage and -the posthumous remorse which these two disincarnate -spirits bring after the lapse of a century to -their sovereign, finally recognized in the person of -Mlle. Smith?</p> - -<p>Generally it is impossible to decide whether the -incident transpiring pretends simply to republish -the past or constitutes a new fact.</p> - -<p>The location of the royal scenes and visions is<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_350"></a>350</span> -often undetermined. Many are located in the gardens -or the apartments of the Petit Trianon, and -the furniture which Hélène describes there is, indeed, -always pure Louis XVI. More rarely Marie -Antoinette is found at the Temple, or at certain -rendezvous—innocent, but very imprudent—in some -secret abode in Paris. She is never seen in Austria, -since, unlike the Hindoo princess still filled with her -Arab memories, she seems to have completely lost -sight of her past as a young girl.</p> - -<p>In the surroundings of the queen, the king is -conspicuous by his absence; very rarely she makes -some allusions to him with a marked indifference. -The greater part of the personages known -to that epoch, whom I refrain from enumerating, -figure in it incidentally, but there are three who -continually reappear and hold the first rank. There -is, first, the Count of Cagliostro, “<i lang="fr">mon sorcier</i>,” -or “<i lang="fr">ce cher sorcier</i>,” as the queen familiarly calls -him, who never has enough of his visits and his -conversations, which are very varied, including the -discussion of philosophic subjects, such as the future -life and the existence of God as well as the gossip -of the last <i lang="fr">fête</i> at Versailles. There is, secondly, -Louis Philippe d’Orléans (Equality); while the third -is the old Marquis de Mirabeau; all of whom, especially -the first, have served as hallucinatory interlocutors -towards Hélène in numerous scenes—up to -the time at which, to the great amusement of the -sitters, the somnambulistic monologue was transformed -into real and lively conversation, in consequence -of the introduction into the seances of M. Eu<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_351"></a>351</span>gène -Demole, then of M. Aug. de Morsier, in whom -Marie Antoinette immediately recognized the two -personages last above mentioned.</p> - -<p>Since this unexpected meeting with her two contemporaries, -reincarnated, like herself, the somnambulistic -queen freely permits herself, on occasion, the -pleasure of renewing the little suppers and joyous -evenings of long ago. When a seance which has -lasted from four o’clock until seven in the afternoon -seems to have come to an end, and Mlle. Smith, after -having awakened from a long series of Hindoo, -Martian, and other scenes, has been invited to dine -and refresh herself before taking up her household -duties, it often happens that, perceiving M. Demole -or M. de Morsier among the persons present, she -gives a slight start, with a change of countenance, -sometimes barely perceptible, but which there is no -mistaking; then, in her very characteristic accent -of Marie Antoinette, exclaims, “Oh, marquis, you -have been here, and I had not noticed you before!” -And then follows a somnambulistic vigil which may -be prolonged until nearly ten o’clock in the evening, -maintained by means of the suggestive amiability of -her improvised companions in sustaining their rôles -of Mirabeau or Philippe d’Orléans.</p> - -<p>They descend to the dining-room. The queen -takes her place at the table alongside of the marquis -(or of Philippe). She has eyes and ears for him -alone, the other guests and the servants remaining -shut out from her dream. She eats and drinks only -that which he sets before her, and it is no sinecure -to supply the wants of this august neighbor, since<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_352"></a>352</span> -she possesses a truly royal appetite. The amount -of food which she devours and the goblets of wine -which she drinks off one after another, without suffering -any inconvenience, are astounding, as in her -normal state Mlle. Smith is sobriety itself and eats -very little. After dinner they pass into the <i lang="fr">salon</i>, -with many compliments and obeisances, and Marie -Antoinette takes coffee. On the first occasions of -this kind, she also accepted a cigarette from Philippe -and smoked it—Mlle. Smith never smokes in her -waking state—but the remarks of the persons present -upon the historical untruthfulness of this feature -must have been registered, and bore fruit, since at the -following seances she did not seem to understand -the use of tobacco in that form; she accepted, on -the other hand, with eagerness, a pinch of imaginary -snuff, which almost immediately brought about by -autosuggestion a series of sneezes admirably successful.</p> - -<p>The evening passes in most varied conversation, -until, evidently feeling fatigue, the queen becomes -silent, closes her eyes, and goes to sleep in an -easy-chair. At that instant Leopold, who gives -no sign of life, and from whom no response can be -obtained during the royal somnambulism, reappears -and answers by the fingers or manifests himself -in spontaneous gestures. Hélène’s hand, <i>e. g.</i>, -is raised, and makes passes on her forehead to accentuate -the restorative sleep which is about to bring -her back to her normal state. At the end of some -time—half an hour or more—she awakes without -any recollection of the evening, believing that she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_353"></a>353</span> -has not yet dined, and complaining of hunger and -thirst, as if her stomachic sensibility participated -in the amnesia and other modifications which accompany -the change of personality. Nevertheless, -at such times I have never seen her accept anything -more than a couple of glasses of water, after which -she feels wide awake.</p> - -<p>In escorting her home, I was witness on one occasion -to a return of the royal somnambulism. She -was exceedingly desirous of going to the house of a -well-known personage (whom she had perceived in -her vision during the seance), who had been received -at the court of Marie Antoinette, and who died -in Geneva in the first quarter of this century; it -was only upon arriving before the house in which -he had lived, and as she was upon the verge of entering -it, that I finally succeeded in awakening and -restoring her to herself, without memory of the incident, -and very much astonished at the unaccustomed -streets in which we found ourselves.</p> - -<p>It is useless to give a more circumstantial narration -of these dinners and <i lang="fr">soirées</i> of Marie Antoinette. -They are very entertaining for the spectators, but lose -much of their interest when related in their entirety. -Their details are exactly what might be expected -of a lively subliminal imagination, alert and full of -verve, abundantly supplied, on account of the illustrious -queen, with notions still more easily explicable, -thanks to the intellectual atmosphere of France, -than those of the Hindoo cycle.</p> - -<p>Numerous anachronisms, however, slip into them, -and her Majesty sometimes falls into the snares<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_354"></a>354</span> -which the marquis or Philippe take a malicious -pleasure in setting for her. She often escapes them -when they are too clumsy, and, with a most comical -display of temper, is at first confused, then curiously -questions, or manifests uneasiness in regard to the -mental state of her interlocutors when they introduce -the telephone, the bicycle, steamships, or the -modern scientific vocabulary into their eighteenth-century -conversation. But, on the other hand, she -herself employs terms still more malapropos, such -as, “to derail” (figuratively), “metre” and “centimetre,” -etc. Certain words, such as “tramway” and -“photography,” have occasioned serious conflicts. -Marie Antoinette first allows the treacherous word -to pass unnoticed, and it is evident that she perfectly -understood it, but her own reflection, or the smile of -the sitters, awakens in her the feeling of incompatibility; -she returns to the word just used, and pretends -a sudden ignorance and astonishment in regard -to it. Spiritism explains these blunders by -accusing the Machiavelian companions of the queen -of grossly abusing the suggestibility attached to -the trance state by jumbling her ideas and throwing -her into confusion. Psychology is not surprised -that the subliminal imitation, however remarkable -it may be, presents some little defects, and -every one is in accord in regard to her thoughtless -manner of expressing herself, in attributing -these anachronisms to an accidental mingling of -the memories of her ordinary personality and of the -present life with those of the royal personality revived -during the somnambulism. In her rôle as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_355"></a>355</span> -queen, Mlle. Smith gives evidence of a great deal -of ingenuity. She is full of witty repartées, which -disconcert her interlocutors, the style of which is -sometimes perfectly after the manner of the epoch.</p> - -<p>This ease and readiness of dialogue, excluding -all reflective or calculating preparation, denote a -great freedom of mind and a wonderful facility for -improvisation. There are mixed with these, on the -other hand, some witticisms and episodes which are -not at all impromptu, but are the evident result of a -preliminary elaboration in the course of the subconscious -reveries and various automatisms which -the royal romance causes to surge up in Hélène’s -ordinary life.</p> - -<p>There are some scenes whose development or repetition -can be followed in a series of seances and spontaneous -visions as it passes through the other cycles. -The following is one example among many:</p> - -<p>At the end of a seance at which M. de Morsier was -present (October 10, 1897), Mlle. Smith enters into -her dream of Marie Antoinette. During dinner she -makes several allusions to her son, the Dauphin, -speaks of her daughter, tells of having demanded of -her sorcerer the sex of her next child, etc.—matters -all foreign to the conversation of Philippe, and which -seem to announce some underlying scene ready to -break forth. In fact, in the middle of the <i lang="fr">soirée</i> -the queen becomes absorbed and distrait, and finally -falls on her knees in a dark corner of the <i lang="fr">salon</i>; her -monologue indicates that she is before the cradle -where the little Dauphin and his sister are lying -asleep. Presently she returns to seek Philippe and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_356"></a>356</span> -to conduct him to admire the sleeping children, to -whom, in a very soft voice, she sings an unknown -nursery rhyme (“Sleep in peace,” etc.) of a plaintive -melody analogous to that of the Hindoo chant; the -tears gush from her eyes; tender kisses upon the -imaginary cradle and a fervent prayer to the Virgin -terminate this extremely touching maternal scene.</p> - -<p>Several weeks after (the 1st of December), a new -romance makes its appearance in a spontaneous -access of visual, auditive, and graphic automatism, -the recital of which Hélène sent me the following -day. That evening, while alone with her mother, she -had interrogated Leopold upon an affair in which -she was greatly interested, and had obtained from -him an answer: “As soon as his communication -was ended, I saw everything disturbed around me; -then at my left, at a distance of about thirty feet, a -Louis XVI. <i lang="fr">salon</i>, not very large, was outlined, in -the middle of which was a square piano, open. Before -this piano was seated a woman, still young, -the color of whose hair I could not distinguish. -Whether it was blond or gray I could not clearly -see. She played and sang at the same time. The -sounds of the piano, the voice even, reached me, but -I could not catch the words of the song. A young -girl and a boy stood on either side of the piano. Not -far from them was seated a young lady holding -an infant on her lap.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> This charming vision lasted -a very short time, not longer than ten minutes.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_357"></a>357</span></p> - -<p>After the disappearance of the vision, Hélène had -the idea of taking up her pencil. “With pencil in hand, -I was asking myself what I should write, when all at -once I heard again the melody; then, this time very -distinctly, the words, but without any vision. The -whole passed into my head, into my brain, and -instinctively I pressed my hand to my forehead in -order to hear and understand better. I felt myself -compelled to hold the pencil in a manner different -from my habitual way of holding it. Here are the -words of the song heard and traced at that instant. -As you see, the handwriting is not like mine; there -are also some very glaring errors of orthography.”</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“Approchez-vous approchez-vous | enfans chéris approchez-vous -| quand le printemps sur nous ramène | ses frais parfums -ses rayons d’or | venez enfans sous son haleine | gazouiller bas -mes doux trésors | approchez-vous approchez-vous | enfans -chéris approchez-vous | êtres chéris enfans bénis—approchez-vous -de votre mère | son doux baiser petits amis | calme et guérit -toutes misères | approchez-vous approchez-vous | enfans chéris -approchez-vous.”<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p></div> - -<p>Some months later the two preceding scenes were -reproduced, with variations of detail, on the same -evening, during which Marie Antoinette first conducts -Philippe towards the fictitious cradle of her -cherubs and sings to them her first song: “Sleep in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_358"></a>358</span> -peace,” etc. Then she leads him to the piano, and, -displaying an imaginary sheet of music beneath -his eyes, obliges him to accompany her while she -sings the “Song of Elizabeth.”</p> - -<p>M. de Morsier, who, fortunately, is not easily embarrassed, -improvised an accompaniment to which -the queen accommodated herself after some criticism, -and to which she sings in a very sweet, pure -voice some words which were found to be, word for -word, identical with those automatically written by -Hélène on the preceding 1st of December. In this -example is seen the mixture of preparation, of repetition, -and of impromptu, which are inferred from the -varied incidents which constitute the royal <i lang="fr">soirées</i>.</p> - -<p>It is probable that if it were possible to be a witness -of, or if Mlle. Smith could remember all the spontaneous -automatisms which aid in nourishing the -royal romance, nocturnal dreams, hypnagogic visions, -subconscious reveries during the waking state, -etc., there would be presented interminable imaginary -conversations with the marquis, Philippe, Cagliostro, -and all the fictitious personages who occasionally -make their appearance in the somnambulistic -scenes of Marie Antoinette.</p> - -<p>It is by this underlying and unknown work, perhaps -never interrupted, that the personality of the -queen of France is slowly prepared and elaborated, -and which shines forth and displays itself with so -much of magnificence in the <i lang="fr">soirées</i> with Philippe -d’Orléans and the Marquis de Mirabeau.</p> - -<p>I have stated that, except these two gentlemen, -who always form part of the royal dream when they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_359"></a>359</span> -are present (and even sometimes when absent), the -others present at the seances are excluded. It is -understood that they do not pass unperceived on -this account.</p> - -<p>In the same manner as in the negative hallucinations -or systematic anæsthesia of hypnotized subjects, -that which seems to be not felt is nevertheless -registered; so, in like manner, it is altogether probable -that nothing of that which passes around her -escapes the fundamental individuality of Mlle. Smith. -The royal personality which occupies the foreground -of the scene and finds itself in an elective <i lang="fr">rapport</i>, -limited to Philippe and the marquis, merely causes -the other personalities to be relegated to the background -without breaking their connection with the -environment. There are many proofs of this. For -example, in walking, Marie Antoinette never runs -against any of the others present. The remarks and -criticisms of the latter are not lost upon her, since -very frequently her conversation betrays their influence -after some minutes. At the same time, if -any one pinches her hand or tickles her ear, her lips, -her nostrils, she seems anæsthetic; still, at the end -of a few seconds she turns her head away, and if the -tickling is persisted in, she experiences a kind of -agitation accommodated to the circumstances of her -dream, changes her position on some pretext, etc.</p> - -<p>It is manifest, in short, that the excitations to -which she seems to be insensible at the moment, far -from having no effect, are stored up and produce, by -their sum total, reactions which are retarded for some -minutes and which are intelligently adapted to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_360"></a>360</span> -somnambulistic scene, but with an intensity much -more exaggerated than diminished by this period of -latency.</p> - -<p>Music also affects her, precipitating her out of the -dream of Marie Antoinette into a common hypnotic -state, in which she assumes passionate attitudes, -which have in them nothing of the regal, and which -conform to the varied airs which follow each other -upon the piano.</p> - -<p>In her phases as Marie Antoinette, Hélène has an -accent characteristic of it; she recognizes me vaguely; -she has some allochiria, a complete insensibility of -the hands, and a large appetite; she does not know -who Mlle. Smith is; if she is asked to give the actual -date, she replies correctly as to the month and day, -but indicates a year of the last century, etc. Then all -at once her state changes; the royal accent gives -way to her ordinary voice, she seems wide awake, -all mental confusion has disappeared, she is perfectly -clear as to persons, dates, and circumstances, but -has no memory of the state from which she has just -emerged, and she complains of a sharp pain in her -finger (where I had pinched it while in her preceding -phase). I took advantage one day of these alternations -to offer her a pencil, and dictated to her the -sentence of <a href="#Fig_42">Fig. 42.</a> In her normal moments she -holds the pencil in her accustomed manner, between -the index and middle fingers, and writes in her -usual hand; during the returns of the royal somnambulism -she holds it between the thumb and -index-finger and assumes her handwriting and orthography -known as that of Marie Antoinette,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_361"></a>361</span> -exactly as her voice is invested with the accent. -It is to be presumed that all her other functions, if -one could examine them, would show parallel analogous -variations, the changing of the personality -being naturally accompanied by connected changes -not only of the memory and the sensibility, but of -motility of the emotional disposition—in brief, of all -the faculties of the individuality.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i361" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <a id="Fig_42"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_361.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 42. Differences of handwriting of Mlle. Smith at the end of an incarnation of -Marie Antoinette, according to whether she is in her normal state (upper lines, in -her usual handwriting), or in a return of the royal dream (lower lines; note the -word <i lang="fr">foisoit</i>). Natural size. The tremor of some of the strokes is not in the -original, but occurred in the reproduction in ink.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>I must add that in each of her states Hélène has -the memory of preceding periods of the same kind, -but not of another state: it was, for example, necessary -to dictate anew, for the second test, the sentence -of <a href="#Fig_42">Fig. 42</a>, which she did not remember having heard -or written a few minutes previously. This separation -into distinct memories is not, however, absolute, -nor very profound: the personality of Marie An<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_362"></a>362</span>toinette -is, in short, a modification—of an intensity -and extent which vary greatly with the seances—of -the ordinary personality of Mlle. Smith, rather than -an alternating and exclusive personality, of which so -many striking cases have been observed.</p> - -<p>For the mere spectators, the royal somnambulism is -perhaps the most interesting of all of Hélène’s cycles, -on account of the brilliancy and life of the rôle, the -length of time during which it may be sustained, -the unexpected happenings which the presence of -other real persons brings into it. It is truly a comedy.</p> - -<p>But for the lovers of the supernormal it is the least -extraordinary of the subliminal creations of Mlle. -Smith, because the general environment, being in -France, is so imbued with historic or legendary memories -of the illustrious and unfortunate queen that -there is nothing surprising in the hypnoid reconstruction -of a personage so well known.</p> - -<p>Finally, the psychologist and moralist who undertakes -to reflect on the inner meaning of things -cannot escape the impression of sharp contrast as -compared with reality which this sparkling romance -affords.</p> - -<p>In themselves, Mlle. Smith’s royal somnambulisms -are almost always gay and joyous; but, considering -their hidden source, in so far as they are the ephemeral -and chimerical revenge of the ideal upon the -real, of impossible dreams upon daily necessities, of -impotent aspirations upon blind and crushing destiny, -they assume a tragic signification. They express -the sensation lived through, felt, of the bitter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_363"></a>363</span> -irony of things, of futile revolt, of fatality dominating -the human being. They seem to say that all -happy and brilliant life is only an illusion soon dissipated. -The daily annihilation of the dream and the -desire by implacable and brutal reality cannot find -in the hypnoid imagination a more adequate representation, -a more perfect symbol of an emotional -tonality, than her royal majesty whose existence -seemed made for the highest peaks of happiness -and of fame—and ended on the scaffold.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_364"></a>364</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br /> - -<small>SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES</small></h2> -</div> - -<p>The mediumship of Mlle. Smith is full of facts -supernormal in appearance, and the question -which offers itself for our solution is that of -determining to what extent they are supernormal -in reality.</p> - -<p>The title of this chapter, I must assert, is not to be -understood in a partisan sense. The term “appearances” -is not used in its unfavorable acceptation, as -meaning that they are deceptive, and that there is -nothing behind them. It is taken in a frank and impartial -sense, to designate simply the exterior and -immediate aspect of a thing, without prejudging its -real nature, in order, by the very force of this neutrality, -to provoke investigation destined to separate the -true from the false, the pure gold from the dross. It -is precisely this investigation which constitutes my -present task.</p> - -<p>A rather difficult task, for it is always risky to -touch upon a subject which is an apple of discord -among psychologists, and which has even been -considered the “Dreyfus case of science.” The matter -is complicated, too, in this particular case, by the -absolute faith of Mlle. Smith and her friends in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_365"></a>365</span> -supernormal character of her phenomena; a state of -mind extremely worthy of respect, but which is not -calculated to facilitate research, all desire of ordinary -analysis and explanation being resented by -them as an unjustifiable suspicion, interpreted as -being an indication of invincible skepticism.</p> - - -<h3>I. <span class="smcap">The Study of the Supernormal</span></h3> - -<p>The term “supernormal” has been used for some -years by the investigators of the Society for Psychical -Research to take the place of the old word “supernatural,” -which has become impracticable on -account of interloping connections, which finally -caused its use to be limited to theological and philosophical -environments. Mr. Meyers, to whom the -credit is due, if I am not mistaken, of coining this as -well as many other new terms used to-day in the psychical -vocabulary, applies it to every phenomenon or -faculty which passes beyond ordinary experience, and -reveals either a degree of higher evolution not yet attained -by the mass of humanity, or an order of transcendental -things superior to the world of sense. In -these two cases one finds one’s self, indeed, in the presence -of facts which are above the normal, but which -are by no means to be taken as foreign or contrary to -the true laws of human nature (as the word “supernatural” -would imply).</p> - -<p>It is to be observed that the definition of Mr. Meyers -lays stress upon the character of superiority of supernormal -phenomena. I shall, however, separate -this character from it in the present chapter, and in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_366"></a>366</span> -spite of the etymology, and for lack of any better -term, shall simply use the word “supernormal” to -designate facts which come within the actual framework -of the science of to-day, and the application of -which would necessitate principles not yet admitted—without -occupying myself, however, with endeavoring -to ascertain whether these facts are messengers -of a superior economy or forerunners of a future evolution -rather than the survival of a condition of things -which has disappeared, or whether they are purely -accidental, <i lang="la">lusus naturae</i>, denuded of signification.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that in treating of the supernormal -we must admit theoretically its possibility, or—which -amounts to about the same thing—fail to believe -in the infallibility and perfection of present-day -science. If I consider it, <i lang="la">à priori</i>, absolutely impossible -for an individual to know, some time before the arrival -of a telegram containing the news, of an accident -by which his brother at the antipodes has been killed, -or that another can voluntarily move an object at a -distance without having a string attached to it, and -contrary to the laws of mechanics and physiology, it -is clear that I will shrug my shoulders at every mention -of telepathy, and I shall not move a step to be -present at a seance of Eusapia Paladino. What an -excellent means of enlarging one’s horizon and of -discovering something new, by being satisfied with -one’s ready-made science and preconceived opinion, -quite convinced beforehand that the universe ends at -the wall opposite, and that there is nothing to be obtained -beyond that which the daily routine has accustomed -us to look upon as the limit of the Real! This<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_367"></a>367</span> -philosophy of the ostrich, illustrated formerly by those -grotesque monuments of erudition—over whom Galileo -did not know whether to laugh or weep—who refused -to put their eyes to the glass for fear of seeing -something that had no official right to existence; and, -again, that of many brains petrified by the unseasonable -reading of works of scientific vulgarization, and -the unintelligent frequenting of universities—these -are the two great intellectual dangers of our time.</p> - -<p>If, on the other hand, the philosophical doubt degenerates -in the presence of these scientific impossibilities -into blind credulity; if it suffices that a thing -be unheard of, upsetting, contrary to common-sense -and to accepted truths, in order to be immediately -admitted, practical existence, without speaking of -other considerations, becomes unbearable. The -convinced occultist ought never to allow the creaking -of a piece of furniture to pass without assuring -himself that it is not the desperate call of some great-grandaunt -trying to enter into conversation with -him; nor to complain to the police when he finds his -house upset during his absence—for how is he to -know that it is not some “elementals” from the -world beyond who have done the deed? It is by the -fortunate failure of consequences alone, and a continual -forgetting of the doctrine, that one can continue -to live in a universe constantly exposed to the -capricious incursions of the “invisibles.”</p> - -<p>These opposite turns of the mind—the invincible -fatuity of some and the silly superstition of others—inspire -many people with an equal repugnance. The -need of a happy medium between these opposed ex<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_368"></a>368</span>cesses -has been felt for some time. Here are, for -example, a few lines, which have lost nothing after -the lapse of two centuries:</p> - -<p>“What are we to think of magic and witchcraft -[to-day we would say ‘occultism’ and ‘Spiritism’]? -Their theory is obscure, their principles vague, uncertain, -approaching the visionary; but—they are -embarrassing facts, affirmed by grave men, who -have seen them, or who have heard of them from persons -like themselves; to admit them all, or to deny -them all, seems equally embarrassing, and I dare -to assert that in this, as in all extraordinary things -which depend upon customary rules, there is a happy -medium to be found between credulous souls and -strong minds.”</p> - -<p>It is the voice of reason itself that the sagacious -author of <cite>Les Caractères</cite> permits us to hear. We -must, however, add that this “happy medium to be -found” would not consist in a theory, a doctrine, a -ready-made and entire system, from the height of -which, as from a tribunal of arbitration, we would -judge the “embarrassing cases” which reality places -in the path of the seeker; for this system—however -perfect it might be—would again be one more -infallibility added to all those which already encumber -the road to truth. The “happy medium” dreamed -of by La Bruyère can be but a “method” always -perfectible in its application and prejudging in nothing -the results of investigation which go against -the grain of the dogmatic points of view, equally -authoritative and sterile, which characterize the two -extremes of the “credulous souls” and “strong minds.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_369"></a>369</span></p> - -<p>To develop here this methodology of psychical -research which might guide the investigator struggling -with the apparent or real supernormal, would -take me too far from Mlle. Smith. But I will briefly -indicate its essence and general spirit, of which an -excellent summary may be found in the following -passage of Laplace:</p> - -<p>“We are so far from knowing all the agents of -nature and their divers modes of action that it would -not be philosophical to deny phenomena solely because -they are inexplicable in the actual state of our -knowledge. But we ought to examine them with -an attention all the more scrupulous as it appears -more difficult to admit them.”</p> - -<p>In writing these words Laplace hardly thought of -telepathy, of the spirits, or the movements of objects -without contact, but only of animal magnetism, -which represented the supernormal of his time. This -passage remains none the less the rule of conduct -to be followed concerning all the possible manifestations -of this multiform subject. Two inseparable -facts, completing each other, as the faces of a medal, -may be distinguished in it; but it is advisable, in -order to place them the better in the light, to formulate -them separately into two propositions representing -the governing principles, the axioms of all investigations -of the supernormal. The one, which I shall -call “<span class="smcap">Principle of Hamlet</span>,” may be condensed. -in these words: <i>All is possible</i>. The other, to which -it is but just to leave the name of “<span class="smcap">Principle Of -Laplace</span>,” is susceptible of many forms of expression. -I shall express it thus: <i>The weight of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_370"></a>370</span> -evidence should be proportioned to the strangeness of the -facts</i>.</p> - -<p>The forgetfulness of the “Principle of Hamlet” -makes the “strong minds,” for whom the limits of -nature would not exceed those of their system, the -simpleton popes of all times and of all kinds, from -the burlesque adversaries of Galileo to the poor Auguste -Comte, declaring that the physical constitution -of the stars would never be known, and to his noble -rivals of the learned societies, denying the aërolites or -condemning railroads beforehand. In its turn, the -ignorance of the “Principle of Laplace” makes the -“credulous souls,” who have never reflected that, if -all is possible to the eyes of the modest seeker, all is, -however, not certain, or even equally possible, and -that some evidence would yet be necessary in order -to suppose that a stone falling on the floor in an occult -reunion arrived there through the walls by the -aid of a dematerialization, rather than to admit that -it came there in the pocket of a joker.</p> - -<p>Thanks to these axioms, the investigator will avoid -the doubly signalled danger, and will advance without -fear into the labyrinth of the supernormal in advance -of the monsters of the occult. However fantastic -and magical the things may be which will -spring up before his eyes or which will fill his ears, -he will never be taken unawares, but, expecting all -in the name of the “Principle of Hamlet,” he will not -be astonished at anything, and simply say: “Be it -so! Why not? We shall see.” On the other hand, -he will not allow the wool to be pulled over his eyes, -and he will not easily be satisfied in the matter of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_371"></a>371</span> -evidence; but, firmly intrenched behind the “Principle -of Laplace,” he will show himself all the more -exacting as to the proofs, in proportion to the degree -in which the phenomena or the conclusion, which -they may wish him to accept, may be extraordinary, -and he will oppose a merciless <i lang="la">non liquet</i> to every -demonstration which still seems suspicious or lame.</p> - -<p>I wish to speak a word here of the inevitable rôle -which the personal coefficient of the turn of mind and -character plays in the concrete application of the -“Principle of Laplace.” This latter is of a vagueness -and a deplorable elasticity which opens the door -to all divergences of individual appreciation. If we -could express in a precise manner and translate in -ciphers, on the one hand, the <i>strangeness</i> of a fact, -which makes it improbable; on the other hand, the -<i>weight of evidence</i> which tends to make it admissible; -and, finally, the demandable <i>proportion</i> between these -two contrary factors, so that the second may counterbalance -the first and secure assent—that would be -perfect, and everybody would soon come to an agreement. -Unhappily, the means to accomplish this result -is not yet perceived.</p> - -<p>We must pass now to the weight of the evidence. -We may, up to a certain point, submit it to an objective -judgment and to an impartial estimation by -following the rules and methods of logic, in the -broadest sense of the term. But the strangeness of -the facts, or, as Laplace said, the difficulty in admitting -them! Who, then, is to be the judge of -them, and by what universal standard can we -measure them?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_372"></a>372</span></p> - -<p>We must recognize that we are here in presence -of an eminently subjective and emotional factor, -changeable from one individual to another.</p> - -<p>It is necessary to take some stand. In the matter -of the supernormal there are too many interior -and personal factors (intellectual idiosyncrasies, -æsthetic temperaments, moral and religious sentiments, -metaphysical tendencies, etc.) tending to -determine the quality and intensity of the characteristic -of the strangeness in the facts in litigation, -to enable one to flatter himself upon a disinterested, -objective, and <i>quasi</i>-scientific verdict upon their degree -of probability or improbability. It is only when, -after the accumulation of cases and evidences of -similar character, a tacit agreement shall finally have -been reached by those who have studied the subject, -that the problem can be said to be solved, either by -the relegation of pretended supernormal phenomena -to the domain of vanished illusions and abandoned -superstitions, or by the recognition of new laws and -forces in nature. The phenomena considered till -then as supernatural will cease to be so; they will -form a part of established science, they will have -nothing more in them that is strange, and will be -admitted by everybody. As long as this mile-post -is not reached, as long as the supernormal phenomenon -is discussed as such, there are but individual -opinions on this subject, subjective certitudes or -probabilities, verdicts in which reality is only reflected -as closely welded to the personality of their -authors.</p> - -<p>Two suggestions seem to me to spring from this.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_373"></a>373</span> -First, authors who take it upon themselves to give -their advice upon the extraordinary facts coming -to their knowledge ought always to begin by making -their confession, so that the reader may the -better distinguish the intimate factors which may -have influenced them. It is true that we are not -always thoroughly acquainted with ourselves, but it -would be something to say frankly what we believe -we have discovered in ourselves as to the position -involuntarily taken by us, obscure inclinations for -or against the hypothesis involved in the phenomena -in question. This is what I shall try to do here, -by confining myself to the problems raised by the -mediumship of Mlle. Smith, and without entering -upon the boundless domain of “psychical research.” -I shall, therefore, begin each of the following paragraphs -by giving my personal advice and my subjective -sentiment on the point upon which Hélène’s -supernormal appearances touch.</p> - -<p>It seems to me, in the second place, that the only -rational position to take, concerning the supernormal, -is, if not a complete suspension of judgment, -which is not always psychologically possible, at -least that of a wise probability, exempt from all dogmatic -obstinacy. The fixed beliefs, the unshakable -opinions as to the reality and the meaning of -life, are certainly subjective conditions, indispensable -to all properly moral conduct, to all human -existence truly worthy of this name—that is to say, -all that which pretends to be above the animal routine -of inherited instincts and social slavery. But -these firm convictions would be absolutely misplaced<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_374"></a>374</span> -on the objective ground of science, and consequently -also that of supernormal facts, which, though still -situated outside of the scientific realm, hope shortly -to be received within its pale. Practical necessities -make us but too often forget that our knowledge of -the phenomenal world never attains absolute certitude, -and as soon as one passes beyond the brutal -facts of the senses, the best-established truths, as -well as the most thoroughly refuted propositions, -do not rise above a probability which, however great -or insignificant we may suppose it to be, never equals -infinity or zero. The intellectual attitude which -common-sense prescribes in the supernormal consists, -for very strong reasons, in never absolutely -and irrevocably denying or affirming, but provisionally -and by hypothesis, as it were. Even in cases -when, after having examined everything scrupulously, -one imagines he has finally reached certitude, -it must not be forgotten that this word is but a mode -of expressing one’s self; because, in point of fact, -one does not rise above a probable opinion, and the -possibility of an unsuspected error, vitiating the most -apparently evident experimental demonstration, is -never mathematically excluded.</p> - -<p>This reserve is particularly indicated in cases of -phenomena like those of Mlle. Smith, which often -leave much to be desired concerning accessory information, -which would be necessary in order to express -one’s self categorically on their account. My -appreciation of these phenomena, far from pretending -to an infallible and definite character, demands, -therefore, from the start, the right of modification<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_375"></a>375</span> -under the influence of new facts which may be produced -subsequently.</p> - -<p>For the sake of clearness I shall set off again in -four groups the supernormal appearances with which -I shall have to occupy myself in this chapter—viz., -so-called physical phenomena, telepathy, lucidity, -and spirit messages. The boundaries of these three -last categories are but poorly defined and might -easily be fused into one. But my division is but a -kind of a measure of order, and not a classification.</p> - - -<h3>II. <span class="smcap">Physical Phenomena</span></h3> - -<p>This designation again covers several rather diverse -categories of strange facts. I shall only speak -of the two kinds of which Mlle. Smith has furnished -samples (and which I have never personally witnessed)—that -is to say, “apports” and “movements -of objects without contact.”</p> - -<p>1. <i>Apports.</i><a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>—Besides the unknown causes presiding -over their aërial transportation, the arrival of -exterior objects in a closed space, often coming from -a considerable distance, implies, in order that they -may pass through the walls of the room, either the -subterfuge of a fourth dimension of space, or the -penetration of the matter—that is to say, the passage -of the molecules or atoms of the object (its momentary -<i>dematerialization</i>) between the molecules or atoms -of the wall. All these impediments to our vulgar<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_376"></a>376</span> -conception as to the stability of matter, or, what is -worse, to our geometrical intuition, seem to me so -hard to digest that I am tempted to apply to them -the words of Laplace: “There are things that are so -extraordinary that nothing can counterbalance their -improbability.” This is not to declare as false, <i lang="la">à -priori</i>, all the stories of this kind, for we know that -the true is not always the probable; but assuredly, -even in the case of the good Mr. Stainton Moses, -the weight of the proof does not, in my opinion, equal -the strangeness of the facts.</p> - -<p>So far as concerns the <i>apports</i> obtained at the -seances of Mlle. Smith, they all took place in 1892-93, -in the reunions of the N. group, where the obscurity -favored the production of marvellous things in close -relation with the visions and typtological messages.</p> - -<p>I will cite from memory certain acoustic phenomena -mentioned in the reports: The piano sounded -several times under the touch of the favorite disincarnate -spirits of the group; the same happened to -a violin and to a bell; once we also heard metallic -sounds that seemed to come from a small musical -box, although there was none in the room. As to -the <i>apports</i>, always received with delight by the -members of the group, who are ever anxiously wishing -for them and asking their spirit friends for them, -they were frequent and varied enough. In mid-winter -roses showered upon the table, handfuls of -violets, pinks, white lilacs, etc., also green branches; -among other things there was an ivy leaf having -engraved upon it in letters, as though by a punching-machine, -the name of one of the principal dis<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_377"></a>377</span>incarnate -spirits at play. Again, at the tropical and -Chinese visions sea-shells were obtained that were -still shining and covered with sand, Chinese coins, -a little vase containing water, in which there was -a superb rose, etc. These last objects were brought -in a straight line from the extreme East by the spirits, -in proof of which they had the honor of a public presentation -at a seance of La Société d’Études Psychiques -de Genève, and were placed upon the desk -of the president, where all, myself included, could -satisfy themselves at their leisure as to their reality.</p> - -<p>2. <i>Movements of objects without contact.</i>—The displacing, -without contact and in the absence of all -known mechanical processes, of objects situated -at a distance (telekinesis), is very strange. However, -it only upsets physiological notions, and does -not, as is the case with the <i>apports</i>, go as far as -to overthrow our conceptions in regard to the constitution -of matter or our spatial intuitions. It only -supposes that the living being possesses forces acting -at a distance, or the power of putting forth at intervals -a species of invisible supernumerary prehensile -organs, capable of handling objects, as our hands -do (ectenic forces of Thury, ectoplasms of Richet, -dynamic members of Ochorowicz, etc.). Such are -the ephemeral but visible pseudopodes that the amœba -puts forth in all directions.</p> - -<p>It may be conceived that, as the atom and the molecule -are the centre of a more or less radiating influence -of extension, so the organized individual, isolated -cell or colony of cells, is originally in possession -of a sphere of action, where it concentrates at times<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_378"></a>378</span> -its efforts more especially on one point, and again on -others <i lang="la">ad libitum</i>. Through repetition, habit, selection, -hereditary and other principles loved by biologists, -certain more constant lines of force would be -differentiated in this homogeneous primordial sphere, -and little by little could give birth to motor organs. -For example—our four members of flesh and blood, -sweeping the space around us, would be but a more -economic expedient invented by nature, a machine -wrought in the course of better adapted evolution, to -obtain at the least expense the same useful effects as -this vague primitive spherical power. Thus supplanted -or transformed, these powers would thereafter -manifest themselves only very exceptionally, -in certain states, or with abnormal individuals, as -an atavic reapparition of a mode of acting long ago -fallen into disuse, because it is really very imperfect -and necessitates, without any advantage, an expenditure -of vital energy far greater than the ordinary -use of arms and limbs. Unless it is the cosmic power -itself, the amoral and stupid demiurge, the unconsciousness -of M. de Hartman, which comes directly -into play upon contact with a deranged nervous -system, and realizes its disordered dreams without -passing through the regular channels of muscular -movements.</p> - -<p>But enough of these vapory metaphysical or pseudo-biological -speculations to give an account of a phenomenon -for which it will be time enough to find -precise explanation when its authenticity shall be -beyond dispute, if that time shall ever arrive.</p> - -<p>Three groups of proofs, of a diverse nature, have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_379"></a>379</span> -gradually brought me to look upon the reality of these -phenomena—in spite of the instinctive difficulty of -admitting them—as an infinitely more probable -hypothesis than its opposite.</p> - -<p>First: I was first unsettled by the reading of the -too-much-neglected memoir of Professor Thury, which -seems to me to be a model of scientific observations, -the weight of which I could only overlook by rejecting, -<i lang="la">à priori</i>—in the name of their strangeness—the possibility -itself of the facts in question, which would -have been against the Principle of Hamlet. The -conversations which it was my privilege to hold with -M. Thury have greatly contributed to arouse in me -a presumption in favor of these phenomena, which -the book would evidently not have done in the same -degree if the author had not been personally known -to me.</p> - -<p>Secondly: Once created, my idea of the probability -of these facts became rather strengthened than weakened -by a number of foreign works of more recent -date; but I doubt whether any, or all of these combined, -would have been sufficient to create it. The -displacement of objects without contact being once -hypothetically admitted, it seems easier to me to explain -Crookes’s observations on the modifications of -the weight of bodies in the presence of Home by -authentic phenomena of this kind (in spite of the -well-deserved criticisms that Crookes’s publications -brought upon him) than to suppose that he was -simply Home’s dupe. The same is true with the -cases of <i lang="fr">Esprits tapageurs</i> (<cite>Poltergeister</cite>), published -by the Society for Psychical Research, the ex<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_380"></a>380</span>clusive -hypothesis of the “<i>naughty little girl</i>,” -without the addition of any trace of telekinesis, -which seems to me a less adequate and more improbable -explanation than that of real phenomena, -which would have tempted fraud. Naturally all -depends on the preconceived opinion one may have -as to the general possibility or impossibility of these -facts, and my feeling in regard to the matter would -certainly be different without the preceding or the -following groups of evidence.</p> - -<p>Thirdly: The probability of the movement of objects -without contact has reached with me a degree practically -equivalent to certitude, thanks to M. Richet, to -whom I am indebted for my presence at his house last -year at several seances of Eusapia Paladino, under -conditions of control which gave no room for doubt—at -least without challenging the combined witness -of the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, as well as -the average quantity of critical sense and perspicacity -with which every ordinary intelligence flatters itself -it is endowed; or, again, of suspecting the walls of M. -Richet’s study had been tampered with, and he himself, -with his attending colleagues, of being impostors, -in collusion with the amiable Neapolitan herself—a -supposition which the most elementary sense of propriety -would absolutely forbid me to entertain. From -that moment I believed in telekinesis by constraint of -the perception, <i lang="la">sensata et oculata certitudine</i>, to borrow -the expression of Galileo, who certainly did not mean -by that an unreflecting adhesion to the evidences of -the senses, like that of the casual onlooker at the tricks -of the prestidigitator, but rather the final crowning of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_381"></a>381</span> -an edifice having for its rational framework the reasoned -analysis of the conditions of observation, and -of the concrete circumstances surrounding the production -of the phenomenon.</p> - -<p>In saying that I believe in these facts, I will add that -there is no question here of a conviction, in the moral, -religious, or philosophical sense of the term. This belief -is for me devoid of all vital importance; it does -not move any essential fibre of my being, and I would -not feel the least inclination to submit to the slightest -martyrdom in its defence. Whether the objects move -or do not move without contact is absolutely indifferent -to me. Should any one some day succeed in unveiling -the physical tricks or the fallacious psychological -processes which have led into error the best -observers of telekinesis, from M. Thury down to M. -Richet, with a number of other witnesses, myself included, -I would be the first to laugh at the trick that -art and nature had played upon me, to applaud the -perspicacity of the one who discovered it, to congratulate -myself, above all, in seeing supernormal appearances -returning to the ordinary course of things.</p> - -<p>This is a disproportionally lengthy preamble to -facts of which I shall have to speak here, for they are -reduced to a few displacements of objects without -contact (raising of tables, transporting or projecting -of flowers and diverse things placed out of reach), -of which Hélène and her mother were witnesses on -several occasions at their house. I cannot be accused -of stubborn skepticism, since I admit the reality of -telekinesis. In the present case, however, all the -stories which have been told me leave much to be de<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_382"></a>382</span>sired -from an evidential point of view. Without suspecting -in any way the perfect good faith of both -Mme. and Mlle. Smith, it suffices to recall the possibility -of malobservation and errors of memory in the -stories of supernormal events in order not to attribute -a great evidential value to the absolutely sincere evidence -of these ladies.</p> - -<p>Incapacitated as I am from pronouncing judgment -upon phenomena of which I was not a witness, I shall, -however, put forth a fact which might militate in -favor of their authenticity (their possibility having -been first hypothetically admitted)—namely, that -these phenomena have always been produced under -exceptional conditions, at a time when Hélène was -in an abnormal state and a prey to a deep emotion. -On the one side, this circumstance increases the -chances of malobservation, while, on the other, the -day on which it shall be well established that (as divers -observations cause us to think) certain abnormal -and emotional states set at liberty in the organism -latent forces capable of acting at a distance, it -will be permitted us to suppose that perhaps something -analogous has taken place in Mlle. Smith’s -case. Here is, as an example of these perplexing -cases, a fact which happened to her during a period -of general indisposition. Abridging the story, I -reproduce it as Hélène sent it to me the following -day:</p> - -<p>“Last night I had a visit from M. H. I do not -need to give you an analysis of my impressions; -you will understand them as well as I do. He came -to tell me that he had held a seance with a lady who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_383"></a>383</span> -was a stranger to me, and that this lady had seen -Leopold, who had given her a remedy for the indisposition -from which I was suffering. I could not refrain -from telling him that Leopold had assured me -that he manifested himself only to me, and that it -would consequently be difficult for me to admit his -alleged utterances to others.” But that is not the -most interesting part of the story.</p> - -<p>“While M. H. spoke to me I felt a sharp pain in -my left temple, and, perhaps two minutes afterwards, -my eyes, constantly directed towards the piano, on -which I had placed two oranges the evening before, -were entirely fascinated with I know not what. Then, -suddenly, at the moment when we least expected it—we -were all three (M. H., my father, and myself) seated -at a reasonable distance from the piano—one of -the oranges displaced itself and rolled to my feet. -My father maintained that it had no doubt been -placed too near the edge of the lid, and at a certain -moment had fallen in a natural way. M. H. saw -immediately in this incident the intervention of -some spirit. I myself dared not pass my opinion -on it. Finally, I picked up the orange, and we -spoke of other things.</p> - -<p>“M. H. remained about an hour; he went away -exactly at nine. I went to my mother’s room to -give her a few details of M. H.’s visit. I described -to her the fall of the orange, and what was my surprise -when, on returning to the drawing-room and -stepping up to the piano to take the lamp I had -placed on it, I found the famous orange no longer -there. There was but one left; the one I had picked<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_384"></a>384</span> -up and replaced by the side of the other had disappeared. -I looked for it everywhere, but without success. -I went back to my mother, and while I spoke -to her we heard something fall in the vestibule. I -took the lamp to see what might have fallen. I -distinguished at the farthest end (towards the door -of the entrance to the apartment) the much-sought-for -orange!</p> - -<p>“Then I asked myself quite frankly whether I was -in presence of some spiritistic manifestation. I tried -not to be frightened. I took the orange to show it to -my mother. I returned to the piano to take the second -orange, so as not to be frightened in a similar -way. But it, in its turn, had disappeared! Then -I felt a considerable sensation of trembling. I returned -to my mother’s room, and, while we discussed -the matter, we heard again something thrown with -violence, and, rushing out to see what had happened, -I saw the second orange placed in exactly the same -spot where the other had been, and considerably -bruised. Imagine how astonished we were! I -took both oranges, and, without losing an instant, -went to the kitchen and put them in a cupboard, where -I found them again the following morning; they -had not moved. I did not go to bed without some -fear, but fortunately I quickly went to sleep. My -mother is sure that it is M. H. who brought some -evil spirit into the house, and she is quite uneasy....”</p> - -<p>From the oral explanations of Mlle. Smith and her -mother, and also from the location of the places, it -follows that the oranges had been thrown at a dis<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_385"></a>385</span>tance -of ten yards from the piano, through the wide-open -parlor door leading to the vestibule, against the -door of the apartment, as if to follow and strike fictitiously -M. H., who a few moments before had left -by this door.</p> - -<p>One has undoubtedly always the right of discarding -at the outset, as presenting too little guarantee of -genuineness, the extraordinary stories of a person -subject to hallucinations. In the present case, all -that I know of Mlle. Smith and her parents keeps me -from doing so, and persuades me that her story is -thoroughly exact, which, however, does not amount -to saying that there is anything of the supernormal -about it. One has, in fact, the choice between two -interpretations.</p> - -<p>First: In the hypothesis of veritable telekinesis, -the following is the manner in which the adventure -would be summed up: the emotion due to the unexpected -and unpleasant visit of M. H. had brought -about a division of consciousness. The feeling of -irritation, anger, and repulsion against him had condensed -themselves into some secondary personality, -which, in the general perturbation of the entire psychophysiological -organism, had momentarily recovered -the use of these primitive forces of action at a -distance, entirely removed from the will, and without -the participation of the ordinary self, and thus automatically -accomplished outwardly the instinctive -idea of bombarding this ill-bred visitor. Notice -is to be taken of the painful <i>aura</i> at the temple -and the fascination of gaze, which, according to -Hélène’s story, preceded the first signs of the phe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_386"></a>386</span>nomenon, -the orange falling and rolling at her -feet.</p> - -<p>Secondly: But the most natural supposition is -certainly that Mlle. Smith, by the ordinary use of -her limbs, had taken and thrown these projectiles in -an access of unconscious muscular automatism. It -is true that this would not agree with the presence of -her father, mother, or M. H., who did not see her make -the supposed movements. But an absent-mindedness -of even normal witnesses will seem easier to admit -than the authentic production of a supernormal phenomenon.</p> - -<p>These episodes which have happened to Mlle. -Smith and her mother since I have known them are -very few, amounting to half a dozen at the most, -and I will not dwell longer upon this subject. Hélène -is not conscious of possessing any faculty of -movement at a distance, and she always attributes -these phenomena to spirit intervention. Leopold, on -the other hand, has never acknowledged that he is -the author of them. He claims that Hélène possesses -within herself supernormal powers, and that, in order -to succeed, she would only have to set them to work, -but that she did not wish to do so. All my suggestions -and repeated entreaties with Leopold and Hélène—either -awake or in a state of somnambulism—in -the hope of obtaining in my presence some physical -phenomenon, have been in vain up to the present -time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_387"></a>387</span></p> - - -<h3>III. <span class="smcap">Telepathy</span></h3> - -<p>One may almost say that if telepathy did not exist -one would have to invent it. I mean by this that a -direct action between living beings, independent of -the organs of the senses, is a matter of such conformity -to all that we know of nature that it would -be hard not to suppose it <i lang="la">à priori</i>, even if we had no -perceptible indication of it. How is it possible to -believe that the foci of chemical phenomena, as complex -as the nervous centres, can be in activity without -giving forth diverse undulations, <i>x</i>, <i>y</i>, or <i>z</i> rays, -traversing the cranium as the sun traverses a pane -of glass, and acting at a distance on their homologues -in other craniums? It is a simple matter of -intensity.</p> - -<p>The gallop of a horse or the leap of a flea in Australia -causes the terrestrial globe to rebound on its opposite -side to an extent proportional to the weight of -these animals compared to that of our planet. This -is little, even without taking into account the fact that -this infinitesimal displacement runs the risk at every -moment of being neutralized by the leaps of horses -and fleas on the other hemisphere, so that, on the -whole, the shocks to our terrestrial globe resulting -from all that moves on its surface are too feeble to -prevent our sleeping. Perhaps it is the same with -the innumerable waves which coming from all other -living beings, shock at every moment a given brain: -their efforts are counterbalanced, or their resultant -too slight to be perceived. But they exist none the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_388"></a>388</span> -less in reality, and I confess I do not understand -those who reproach telepathy with being strange, -mystical, occult, supernormal, etc.</p> - -<p>As to the knowledge whether this theoretical telepathy -offers results open to experimental demonstration—that -is to say, whether this chain of intercerebral -vibrations into which we are plunged exercises any -notable influence on the course of our psychic life; -and whether, in certain cases, we happen to feel emotions, -impulses, hallucinations, which the psychological -state of one or another of our own kind exercises -directly upon us, across the ether and without the -ordinary intermediary of the channel of our senses—that -is a question of fact arising from observation and -experience. We know how much this question has -actually been discussed, and how difficult it is to solve -it in a decisive way, as much on account of all the -sources of errors and illusions, to which one is exposed -in this domain, as on account of a probably -always necessary concurrence of very exceptional -circumstances (which we do not as yet know how to -accomplish at will), in order that the particular action -of a determined <i>agent</i> should sweep away all rival -influences, and betray itself in a manner sufficiently -marked and distinct in the life of the <i>percipient</i>. -Everything considered, I strongly lean towards the -affirmative. The reality of telepathic phenomena -seems to me difficult to reject in presence of the cluster -of very diverse evidences, entirely independent of -each other, that militate in its favor. Undoubtedly -none of these evidences is absolutely convincing -when taken separately; but their striking conver<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_389"></a>389</span>gence -towards the same result gives to their entirety -a new and considerable weight, which tips the scale, -in my opinion, while awaiting an inverse oscillation, -which may some day destroy this convergence, or -explain it by a common source of error. Besides, -I understand very well why those to whom telepathy -remains a mystic, and to our scientific conceptions -heterogeneous, principle, should obstinately resist it. -But, seeing nothing strange in it myself, I do not hesitate -to admit it, not as an intangible dogma, but as -a provisional hypothesis, corresponding better than -any other to the condition of my certainly very incomplete -knowledge of this department of psychological -research.</p> - -<p>Although predisposed in favor of telepathy, I have -failed in finding striking proofs of it in Mlle. Smith, -and the few experiments I have attempted with her -on this subject offered nothing encouraging.</p> - -<p>I tried several times to make an impression upon -Hélène from a distance and to appear before her during -the evening, when I thought she had returned to -her home, which is a kilometre distant from mine. -I obtained no satisfactory result. My only case -of striking success, lost among a number of nonsuccesses, -can be explained by mere coincidence as -well, and, after taking all the accessory circumstances -into consideration, does not deserve a lengthy -discussion.</p> - -<p>As to spontaneous telepathy, a few indications -would make me think that Mlle. Smith sometimes -involuntarily submits to my influence. The most -curious is a dream (or a vision) that she had one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_390"></a>390</span> -night at a time when I had suddenly fallen ill -during a stay in the country some twenty leagues -distant from Geneva. She heard the ringing of a -bell at her door, then saw me entering, so emaciated -and apparently so tired that she could not refrain -from speaking to her mother on the following morning -of her uneasiness concerning me. Unfortunately -these ladies took no note of the exact date of -this incident, and Hélène did not speak of it to M. -Lemaître until three weeks later, when he told her -about my illness, the beginning of which dated back -to the approximate time of the dream. The evidential -value of this case is weak. On other occasions -Mlle. Smith announced to me that, to judge -from her dreams or vague intuition in a waking -state, I was to have on a certain day an unexpected -vexation, a painful preoccupation, etc. But the -cases in which she was right were counterbalanced -by those in which she was wrong. It does not appear -that Hélène’s telepathic relations with other persons -are closer than with me, and among the cases known -to me there is not one that deserves the trouble of -being related. An exception must, however, be -made on behalf of a M. Balmès (pseudonym), who -was for some time employed in the same business -house as Mlle. Smith, and concerning whom she -had several really curious phenomena. This M. -Balmès was himself “a sensitive medium” of a very -nervous and vibrating nature. He was working -in the story above that of Hélène, and stopped -sometimes to talk concerning spiritism with her. -Their relations, which they did not extend beyond<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_391"></a>391</span> -the office, ended there. There never seemed to be -any personal sympathy or special affinity between -them, and it is not known how to account for the -telepathic bond that seemed to exist between them. -The following are examples:</p> - - -<p>1. One morning M. Balmès lent a newspaper to -Hélène in which there was an article on spiritism. -He himself had received this paper from one of -his friends, M. X., a Frenchman who had been in -Geneva for some three weeks only and who did not -know Hélène even by name. This M. X. had -marked the interesting article in red and had added -on the margin an annotation in black. During her -noon meal at home Hélène read the article rapidly, -but for lack of time did not read the annotation marked -in black. Having returned to her office she began -again to work. However, at a quarter-past three her -eyes fell on the annotation of the paper, and as she -was taking up her pen to make some calculation in her -note-book, “I do not know,” she wrote to me, “either -how or why I began to draw on this writing-tablet -the head of a man entirely unknown to me. At the -same time I heard the voice of a man, of a high, clear, -and harmonious quality, but unfortunately I could -not understand the words. A great desire came -over me to run and show this drawing to M. Balmès. -He examined it, and seemed astonished, for the head -drawn in ink was no other than that of his friend -who had lent him the paper marked in pencil. The -voice and the French accent were, as it seems, entirely -correct also. How was it that at the sight<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_392"></a>392</span> -of an annotation I found myself in communication -with a stranger? M. Balmès, in presence of this -curious phenomenon, hastened that very evening -to his friend and learned that at the time when I drew -his portrait there was a very serious discussion in -progress concerning him (M. Balmès) between M. X. -and other persons.”</p> - -<p>Strictly speaking, this case may be normally -explained by supposing: First, that Mlle. Smith, -without consciously noticing or remembering him, -had seen M. X. during his short stay in Geneva, -walking in the street with M. Balmès, and that the -paper, which she knew had been lent to M. Balmès by -one of his friends, had, by means of a subconscious -induction, awakened the latent memory of the face -and voice of the stranger whom she had seen with -him. Secondly, that there is but a fortuitous coincidence -in the fact that M. X. spoke of M. Balmès at precisely -the hour when Hélène traced the face and heard -the voice of the aforesaid M. X. in an access of automatism, -set free at the sight of his annotation on -the paper.</p> - -<p>In the telepathic hypothesis, on the contrary, the -incident would have been explained somewhat as follows: -The conversation of M. X. concerning M. -Balmès (which was, as it appears, of an excited nature) -had telepathically impressed the latter and awakened -in him subliminally the remembrance of M. X. -M. Balmès, in his turn, without consciously suspecting -it, had transmitted this remembrance to Mlle. -Smith, who was already predisposed to suggestion on -that day by the loan of the paper, and with whom the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_393"></a>393</span> -said remembrance broke forth into a graphic, auditive, -and impulsive (the desire of showing her drawing -to M. Balmès) automatism. The subconscious -strata of M. Balmès had thus served as a link between -M. X. and Mlle. Smith.</p> - -<p>2. “Some eight days after the preceding case, -being a few minutes after noon in an open street-car, -I saw before me this same M. Balmès talking to -a lady in a room apparently close to the street-car. -The picture was not very clear. A kind of mist -seemed to extend over the whole, which was, however, -not strong enough to hide from me the personages. -M. Balmès, especially, was quite recognizable, and -his somewhat subdued voice made me overhear these -words: ‘It is very curious, extraordinary.’ Then -I felt a sudden, violent commotion, and the picture -vanished at the same time. Soon I found myself -again riding in the street-car, and, according to the -progress which it had made, I understood that the -vision had lasted but three minutes at the most. -Notice must be taken of the fact that during these -few minutes I did not lose for a single moment the -consciousness of my situation; I knew and felt that -I was riding home, as I was in the habit of doing each -day, and I felt entirely like myself, without the -slightest mental disturbance.</p> - -<p>“Two hours later I went up to M. Balmès. Approaching -him frankly—yes, even a little abruptly—I -said to him: ‘Were you satisfied with the short -visit you made a few minutes after twelve, and would -it be indiscreet to ask what you found so <i>curious</i>, so -<i>extraordinary</i>?’ He seemed confused, astonished,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_394"></a>394</span> -pretended even to be vexed, and looked as if he wished -to ask me by what right I permitted myself to control -his actions. This movement of indignation -passed as quickly as it came, to give way to a sentiment -of the greatest curiosity. He made me tell him -in detail my vision, and confessed to me that he really -had gone at noon to call upon a lady, and that they -had discussed the incident about the newspaper. He -had really pronounced the words that I had heard: -‘It is curious, extraordinary,’ and, strange to say, -I also learned that at the end of these words a violent -ringing of the bell had been heard, and that the conversation -between M. Balmès and his friend had suddenly -come to an end by the arrival of a visitor. The -commotion felt by me was, therefore, nothing more -than the violent ringing of the bell, which, putting -an end to the conversation, had also put an end to -my vision.”</p> - -<p>3. At the beginning of a seance one Sunday afternoon -at a quarter to four, I handed to Hélène a -glass ball, of the kind used for developing clairvoyance -by means of gazing into a crystal. Shortly -afterwards she saw in it M. Balmès and his friend, -and above their heads an isolated pistol, but which -seemed to have nothing to do with them. She told -me then that M. Balmès had received the day before -at his office a telegram which very much upset him, -and which obliged him to leave Geneva that very -evening for S. She seemed to apprehend some misfortune -about to befall M. Balmès, but soon fell asleep. -By his digital dictations Leopold tells us that he sent -her to sleep to save her some painful visions seen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_395"></a>395</span> -in the crystal, and that she, Hélène, has a mediumistic -consciousness in regard to all that is passing -at S., and that the pistol is connected with M. Balmès. -It was impossible to learn more, and the remainder -of the seance was taken up with other matters.</p> - -<p>M. Balmès, who returned to Geneva on the following -Monday, and whom I saw the same evening, was -very much struck with Hélène’s vision, for, on Sunday -afternoon he really took part in a scene which -came near being tragic, and in the course of which -his friend X. had offered him a pistol which he always -carried with him. Mlle. Smith and M. Balmès -did not hesitate to see in this coincidence a highly -characterized supernormal phenomenon. This case -offers, however, some difficulty—viz., that the incident -of the pistol at S. did not take place till more -than two hours after Hélène’s visions, and that M. -Balmès, as he affirms, had no premonition of the affair -at the time when Hélène had her vision. It follows -from this that there was a kind of anticipated telepathy, -a premonition experienced by another than -the interested principal, and this raises the great -question of the supernormal knowledge of future -events. I find it easier to admit that, although M. -Balmès did not consciously foresee the incident of -the pistol, he foresaw subconsciously the event, and -that this idea passed telepathically to Hélène. Perhaps -this case might be explained without having -recourse to the supernormal at all. Mlle. Smith, -knowing M. Balmès’ character, and up to a certain -point his personal circumstances, having been present -the evening before when M. Balmès received the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_396"></a>396</span> -telegram, and foreseeing (as she said at the seance), -the gravity of the situation, could easily imagine the -intervention of a fire-arm in the affair. Besides, -no detail of the vision indicates that the pistol seen in -the glass ball corresponds to that of M. X.</p> - -<p>How far the delicate sense of probabilities can go, -and how often spontaneous inferences, with people -of a quick imagination, are correct, one never knows. -Undoubtedly we often see a supernormal connection -where there is, in reality, only a striking coincidence, -due to a happy divination and prevision, which is -very natural. I ought to add that this manner of -evicting the supernormal and reducing the vision of -the pistol to a mere creation of the subliminal fantasy, -seems inadmissible to Hélène, who remains absolutely -certain that this was a convincing case of -telepathy.</p> - -<p>The above example, 2, which is the best of all, in -my opinion, is still not irreproachable.</p> - - -<h3>IV. <span class="smcap">Lucidity</span></h3> - -<p>All the facts of lucidity (clairvoyance, second-sight, -etc.) which are attributed to Mlle. Smith may be explained -by telepathic impressions proceeding from -living persons. This means that I not only admit -from the start the <i>possibility</i> of such phenomena by -virtue of the “Principle of Hamlet,” but, since telepathy -is not, in my opinion, anything very strange, -I shall feel no subjective difficulty in accepting the -reality of Hélène’s supernormal intuitions, provided -that they present some serious guarantee of authen<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_397"></a>397</span>ticity, -and do not explain themselves still more simply -by normal and ordinary processes.</p> - -<p>Leopold, who appears in almost all of these veridical -messages—whether he recognizes himself as the -author or whether he accompanies simply by his -presence their manifestation through Hélène—has -never deigned to grant me one under entirely satisfactory -conditions, and he censures my insistence -as vain and puerile curiosity. As to the innumerable -phenomena with which others more fortunate -than myself have been gratified, they have always -offered this singularity: when they appeared to be -really of a nature calculated to furnish a decisive and -convincing proof as to their supernormal origin, I -never succeeded in obtaining a written, precise, and -circumstantial account, but only uncertain and incomplete -tales, too intimate and too personal to be -divulged by those interested in them; and, again, -when my friends were quite willing to write out a detailed -account and to answer to my demand for exact -information, the fact reduced itself to such a small -matter that it was beyond my power to see anything -of the supernormal in it.</p> - -<p>Taking everything into consideration, I am inclined -to believe that Mlle. Smith, in truth, possesses -real phenomena of clairvoyance, not, however, passing -beyond the possible limits of telepathy; only, -in order that they may be produced, it is necessary -that Leopold—that is to say, the special psychic state -of Hélène which is necessary for the reception and -externalization of these telepathic impressions—be -aided from the outside by the influence of certain<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_398"></a>398</span> -favorable temperaments, more frequently met with -among convinced spiritists than among persons -who are normal, and that he be not impeded, on the -other hand, by the paralyzing presence of hostile -temperaments, such as that of a critical observer. -It is greatly to be regretted that the naïve believers -who inspire and succeed in obtaining magnificent -phenomena of lucidity usually care so little for the -desiderata of science, and, above all, refuse to submit -themselves to an examination which might explain -the phenomena in a natural manner; while the -investigators in search of “convincing” proofs are -not inspiring and obtain almost nothing.</p> - -<p>However it may be, I shall give a few examples of -Mlle. Smith’s proofs of lucidity, which are not very -varied, and can be divided into the three categories -of the medical prescriptions and diagnoses, of lost -objects found again, and of retrocognitions of events -more or less remote.</p> - - -<p>1. <i>Medical Consultations.</i>—In promising specimens -of extraordinary facts of this kind I have gone -too far. Many such have been told me—as, for instance, -Leopold dictating an unknown and complicated -recipe of a hair tonic for a gentleman living -abroad, a single bottle of which was sufficient to bring -forth a full growth of hair on a head which had become -bald before middle age; or, again, Leopold, -being consulted about the health of a lady living -at a great distance from Geneva, revealing both the -veridical nature of her illness, which was unknown -till then to her physicians, and its origin, which was -due to certain unsuspected but perfectly true inci<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_399"></a>399</span>dents -connected with her childhood, and, finally, -the treatment, which was crowned with success. -But the absence of written testimony and precise -information as to the concomitant circumstances -of these marvellous cures reduce them to the rank -of amusing stories, the value of which cannot positively -be estimated. As to better-attested episodes, -it is true I have been able to obtain authentic stories, -but they are those in which the probability of a supernormal -element has been reduced to a minimum—imperceptible -to me. I will cite but one case.</p> - -<p>M. and Mme. G. having invited Mlle. Smith during -the month of August to pass a day with them -in the country, a few leagues distant from Geneva, -took advantage of the visit to hold a seance in order -to consult Leopold on the health of one of their -children. I will tell the incident from a written account -sent me by Mme. G. soon afterwards:</p> - -<p>“Our little girl was suffering from anæmia, and -fell frequently into a state of weakness, in spite of -intervals of improvement. Dr. d’Espine had been -recommended to us for the time of our return to Geneva. -The medium [Mlle. Smith] knew nothing of -this; we had taken the precaution to keep it from -her.” The seance begins with a few kind words -from Leopold, whom M. G. then asks whether he -would do well in consulting Dr. d’Espine. “<i>And I</i>,” -replied Leopold, “<i>can I do nothing for you? Ungrateful -people!</i>” But when he was asked to indicate -some treatment, he replied: “<i>Wait till your return -to Geneva.</i>” Then, upon being asked whether -an egg mixed with brandy would be good for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_400"></a>400</span> -child, he replied that the egg would be good, but the -brandy was not necessary in her case. Then he -recommended that the child be taken for an hour’s -walk in the open air every day. As to the prescription -relating to her food, he repeated: “<i>I told you to -wait till your return to Geneva.</i>”</p> - -<p>On their return to Geneva in the middle of September, -M. and Mme. G. held a second seance. This -time Leopold was more exact; he advised: “<i>Not too -much milk, but rather a few glasses of good pure wine -at each meal.</i>” Then he added: “<i>Treat the anæmia -first and you will triumph over the throat trouble, -which would finally weaken her too much. Her blood -is so weak that the least cold, the slightest emotion, I -will go so far as to say that the expectation of a pleasure -even, would be sufficient to bring the angina to a -crisis. You ought to have foreseen that.</i>” “Leopold,” -M. G. notes here, “has enabled us to put our finger -upon such of the details as we did not know how to -explain. At each sentence my wife and I looked at -each other with stupefaction.” Leopold ordered also -many green vegetables, warm salt-water douches of -three minutes’ duration in the evening, and: “<i>The -principal thing now is five drops of iron in half a -glass of water twice a day before the meal. Do this -and you will see the result in a month.</i>” In two weeks’ -time the little girl was hardly recognizable.</p> - -<p>I have cited this case because it is among those that -have most struck M. and Mme. G., and upon which -they build their conviction of the independent existence -and supernormal knowledge of Leopold, and -because it shows how little is needed to kindle the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_401"></a>401</span> -faith among spiritists. I forgot to say that the G. -family was well known by Mlle. Smith, and that during -the whole winter and the preceding spring she had -held weekly seances at their home. There is but one -thing that astonishes me, and that is, that Leopold, at -the time of the first improvised consultation, should -have been taken unawares up to the point of postponing -his orders until later, and adhering to such commonplace -things as a walk in the open air and the -suppression of brandy. In the second seance one -sees the effect of a month’s incubation. Leopold has -had time to recover in Hélène’s memory the remembrance -concerning the little girl who was anæmic and -subject to sore throat; also the prescription which, in -the given case, surely proved most efficacious, but -which hardly denotes a supernormal knowledge. One -does not even need here telepathy to explain messages -which are amply accounted for by the subconscious -functions of Mlle. Smith’s ordinary faculties.</p> - -<p>Examples of this kind, drawn from Mlle. Smith’s -mediumship, might be almost indefinitely multiplied; -but <i lang="la">cui bono</i>? Once more, I do not claim that -Leopold has never given any medical consultation -surpassing Hélène’s latent knowledge and implying -supernormal powers of clairvoyance. I only say that -I have not yet succeeded in finding a single case -where the proofs reached the height of that conclusion.</p> - - -<p>2. <i>Objects Recovered.</i>—I do not know any case in -which Mlle. Smith has indicated the situation of an -object which had been hidden, and as to the location -of which she could have had no information through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_402"></a>402</span> -natural channels. All her discoveries consist, so far -as I have been able to judge, in the return, under a -spiritistic and with a dramatic aspect, of memories -either simply forgotten or properly subliminal, which -depended upon the incidents concerned having first -belonged to the ordinary consciousness, or their having -always escaped it and having been from their -origin registered in the subconsciousness.</p> - -<p>These are facts of cryptomnesia pure and simple—<i>i. e.</i>, explicable by a normal psychological process -very common in its essence, while the picturesque -embellishments added by the mediumistic imagination -give to these teleological automatisms a certain -mysterious and supernormal appearance which in -other surroundings would certainly create for Hélène—or -rather for Leopold—a place alongside St. -Anthony of Padua. I confine myself to two examples. -Mlle. Smith being charged with the duty of -making ready the merchandise sent out from her -department, was handed a telegram one day from a -customer who asked that four yards of No. 13,459 -be despatched to him immediately. “This brief -order,” said Hélène, “was not calculated to hasten -the forwarding of the goods. How could I readily -find this No. 13,459, in the midst of six or seven thousand -others in the store? Pondering, telegram in -hand, I was wondering how I could find it, when a -voice outside of but very near me said to me: ‘<i>Not -there, but here</i>,’ and involuntarily I turned round, -without knowing why, and my hand laid itself mechanically -on a piece of goods which I drew towards -me, and which actually bore the No. 13,459.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_403"></a>403</span></p> - -<p>It is not necessary to be a medium to know by experience -these happy reminiscences or inspirations -which sometimes come to free us from embarrassment -by shining forth like a light at an opportune -moment; but that which in the case of ordinary -persons remains in the feeble condition of an idea or -internal image, among mediumistic temperaments -assumes readily the fixed and vivid form of an hallucination. -Instead of simply “suddenly recollecting” -in the case of the No. 13,459, as would have -happened to any one else, Hélène hears an exterior -voice, and perceives her hand moving involuntarily -in a given direction. It is noted that this automatism -assumed an auditive and motor form which is the -pendant of the vocal and visual automatism which I -have referred to on pp. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-59. It is to this same class -of facts, well known and almost common to-day, that -the following example likewise belongs, although -the subliminal imagination had surrounded it with -the form of an intervention on the part of Leopold.</p> - -<p>One Sunday evening, on returning home, Mlle. -Smith noticed that she had lost a small breastpin -which had been fastened to her corsage, and which -she greatly valued as a souvenir. The following -day she returned to look for it where she had been the -evening before, but in vain, and a notice which she -caused to be inserted in the “lost” columns of a daily -newspaper gave no result. Here I leave the narration -of the story to her: “Persuaded that my pin -was really lost, I did my best to think no more about -it, but this was a difficult matter, since one night I -was awakened suddenly by three raps struck against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_404"></a>404</span> -my bed. Somewhat frightened, I looked around, -but saw nothing. I tried to go to sleep, but again -many raps were struck, this time near my head. I -seated myself on my bed (I was agitated), trying to -discover what was happening, and hardly had I -seated myself when I saw a hand shaking my lost -breastpin before my eyes. This vision lasted only -a minute, but that was long enough for it to make -a deep impression upon me.”</p> - -<p>The following Tuesday evening (ten days after -the loss of the trinket) Hélène held a seance at the -house of M. Cuendet, at which two other persons were -also present. She told of the loss of her pin and the -curious vision above described; then all seated themselves -at the table. After a typtological dictation -upon an altogether different subject, the following -incident occurred, the account of which I have borrowed -from notes taken by M. Cuendet (it was in 1894, -and I only knew Mlle. Smith by reputation at the time):</p> - -<p>“We notice that from the beginning of the seance -Mlle. Smith describes to us our familiar spirit [Leopold] -as holding a lantern in his hand. Why? The -table is shaken anew, about to tell us something. -The following is then dictated to us by it: ‘<i>Arise. -Take a lantern. Extend your walk to the Municipal -Building. Take the path which crosses the meadow, -and which ends at the Street of the Baths. In the middle -of the path, to the left, a few yards distant, a block of -white stone will be found. Starting from the block of -stone, only one yard away from it, towards the setting -sun, the pin so much sought for will be found. Go, I -accompany you.</i>’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_405"></a>405</span></p> - -<p>“I copy <i lang="la">verbatim</i> this communication, which was -obtained letter by letter. I add nothing, take nothing -from it. General stupefaction! We hesitate! -Finally, we all four rise, we light a lantern and set -out. It was twenty minutes to ten o’clock.</p> - -<p>“We walk slowly; we arrive at the Municipal -Building, and take the path which leads from it to -the Street of the Baths. In the middle, to the left, -some yards distant, we, in fact, find the block of -stone indicated. We search for a moment without -result, and begin to fear we shall find nothing. -Finally, towards the setting sun, a yard from the -block of stone, I find buried in the grass, covered -with sand, and consequently badly soiled, the pin -indicated.</p> - -<p>“Some one had evidently stepped on it, as it was -slightly bent. Mlle. Smith uttered an exclamation -of surprise, and we all four returned to the house, to -recover from our very natural emotion.”</p> - -<p>This case has remained in the eyes of Mlle. Smith -and her spiritistic friends as one of the most striking -and irrefragible proofs of the objective and independent -reality of Leopold. For the psychologist it constitutes -a very beautiful and interesting example of -cryptomnesia, well worthy to figure among the very -instructive cases collected by Mr. Myers, in which -the memory of a subliminal perception (<i>i. e.</i>, registered -immediately without striking the normal personality) -appears as a revelation in a dream of ordinary -sleep, or under some other equivalent form -of automatism. Here is “Leopold”—the subconsciousness -of Hélène—who, having felt the pin fall<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_406"></a>406</span> -and noticed where it rolled, first manifested himself -in a passing nocturnal vision, and then took advantage -of the next spiritistic gathering to restore completely -her latent memories. It is not necessary to -see anything intentional in this restitution, the simple -play of association of ideas sufficing to explain -that the memory of the situation of the pin stored up -in a subliminal stratum and stimulated by a desire -to recover the lost object might have mechanically -reappeared at the moment of the seance, thanks to -mediumistic autohypnotization, and gushed forth -under the dramatic form, naturally appropriate to -the environment, of an apparently supernormal piece -of information furnished by Leopold.</p> - - -<p>3. <i>Retrocognitions.</i>—The apparently supernormal -revelations in regard to the past, furnished at the -seances of Mlle. Smith, can be divided into two groups—namely, -whether they concern universal history, or -deal with private interests relative to the families of -the sitters.</p> - -<p>First: The messages of the first group abound, -under the form of visions accompanied by typtological -explanations, in Hélène’s seances of 1894, but -have almost wholly come to an end since I made her -acquaintance, and I have never been witness of any. -According to the reports which I have seen, all these -retrocognitions have reference to the history of Protestantism, -or that of the French Revolution—<i>i. e.</i>, -to two classes of facts which are among the best -known in France to-day.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that the firmly convinced -spiritistic group in which these messages were re<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_407"></a>407</span>ceived -have never had a doubt that the apparitions -which Hélène perceived were the veritable personages -they asserted themselves to be, habited as they were -in the costume of the period to which they belonged, -communicating by means of the table, and speaking -in the first person (except when Leopold acted as -showman and dictated in his own name the explanations -asked for).</p> - -<p>But as the content of these messages is always the -<i lang="la">verbatim</i> reproduction or almost exact equivalent of -information which is to be found in historical and -biographical dictionaries, I cannot avoid being inclined -to the impression that we here are concerned -with common facts of cryptomnesia.</p> - -<p>If the intervention of the supernormal be absolutely -insisted upon in this case, it can only be manifested -under the form of a telepathic transmission from the -sitters to the medium. In favor of that supposition -two facts may be urged: first, that Mlle. Smith passed -in that group as devoid of all historical knowledge, -and was very much surprised at these revelations of -facts totally unknown to her; secondly, that there -were regularly in attendance at these seances one or -more members of the teaching body, who by their -general education possessed, without any doubt whatever, -either consciously or in a latent manner, all the -historical knowledge, which, after all, was not very -great, displayed by Leopold.</p> - -<p>But these arguments are not of much weight in my -opinion. To begin with the second: as the sitters had -their hands on the table at the same time with the medium, -according to the spiritistic custom, they could<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_408"></a>408</span> -themselves, without any telepathy, properly speaking, -and simply by their slight, unconscious muscular -contractions, have directed, unknown to themselves, -the movements of that piece of furniture, Mlle. Smith -only augmenting these shocks proceeding from her -neighbors.</p> - -<p>As to the supposed ignorance of Mlle. Smith, it is -not at all so great as has been imagined, and the historical -revelations obtained at her seances do not -in any degree surpass the level of that which she -could have absorbed, consciously or unconsciously, -at school and in her surroundings.</p> - -<p>Moreover, the hypothesis which appears to me the -most probable, and on which I rest, is that the messages -come essentially from Hélène herself—I ought -rather to say from her subliminal memory; that, -however, does not exclude a certain amount of co-operation -on the part of the sitters, whose conversation, -on the one hand, and their unconscious muscular -action upon the table, on the other, have often -maintained and directed the course of the subconscious -ideas of the medium and the automatic unfolding -of her latent memories.</p> - -<p>Secondly: Retrocognition of family events, which -are exhibited in Mlle. Smith’s seances, have generally -the savor of the unknown for the sitters, from the fact -that they concern incidents of the past which have -never been printed save in the memories of certain -aged persons or of a few lovers of local anecdotes.</p> - -<p>I do not hesitate to see in these stories of other days, -gushing forth in visions and in dictations by the table -in the course of Hélène’s hemisomnambulisms, narra<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_409"></a>409</span>tives -heard in her childhood and long since forgotten -by her ordinary personality, but which reappear by -the aid of mediumistic autohypnotization, bringing -the deepest strata to the surface; the simple play of association, -in an entirely natural manner, then causes -the memories relative to the families of the persons -present at the seance to be poured forth. There is -nothing whatever of the supernormal in all this, in -spite of the dramatic form, the piquant and unexpected -art, the amusing embellishments, of which the -subliminal imagination bethinks itself—or I should -rather say Leopold, in his rôle of historiographer -and scene-shifter of the past.</p> - -<p>The judgment which I have pronounced is the result -of a course of inductive reasoning based on the retrocognitions -of Mlle. Smith concerning my own family. -I trust it may be allowable for me to enter upon -some details designed to justify my opinion.</p> - -<p>I note first that all these retrocognitions with which -Leopold honored me took place in the first six seances -which I had with Hélène, after which there -has not been a single one in the whole five years -which have since elapsed. This argues in favor of -a limited group of latent memories, which my introduction -to the seances set free, a sort of subliminal -sac or pocket which was emptied once for all on the -first occasions of my presence.</p> - -<p>In the second place, this knowledge only concerns -outside details, susceptible of striking the attention -of the gallery and of being carried from mouth to -mouth. Since family histories have no great interest -for the ordinary reader, I will confine myself to citing,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_410"></a>410</span> -by way of example, the vision which so astonished -me at my first meeting with Hélène (p. <a href="#Page_2">2</a>), and which -has already been published by M. Lemaître. I reproduce -his narrative, giving real names:</p> - -<p>“The medium [Mlle. Smith] perceives a long trail -of smoke, which envelopes M. Flournoy. ‘A woman!’ -cries the medium, and, a moment after, ‘Two -women ... quite pretty, brunettes ... both are -in bridal toilet!... This concerns you, M. Flournoy!’ -[The table approves by a rap.] They remain -motionless; they have white flowers in their -hair and resemble each other a little; their eyes, -like their hair, are black, or, at all events, very dark. -The one in the corner appears under two different -aspects; under both forms she is young—perhaps -twenty-five years old; on the one hand she remains -with the appearance already described (bridal -toilet), and on the other she appears very luminous -in a great space, a little more slender of visage, and -surrounded by a number of pretty children, in the -midst of whom she appears very happy; her happiness -manifests itself by her expression, but still -more in her surroundings. Both women seem ready -to be married. The medium then hears a name, -which at first escapes her, then returns little by little. -‘<b>An!... An!... Dan ... Ran ... -Dandi ... Dandiran!</b>’</p> - -<p>“‘To which of these two women does this name belong?’ -demands M. Flournoy—‘to the one you see -under two aspects, or to the other?’ Answer: ‘To -the one who is presented under two forms.’ The medium -does not see the other woman as distinctly as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_411"></a>411</span> -the first, but all at once distinguishes a tall man by -her side, who only passes by, when the table dictates: -‘I am his sister; we will return!’ after -which the scene changes and we pass to another -subject.”</p> - -<p>This vision revolves altogether around the facts -that my mother and her sister were married on the -same day; that they were brunettes, quite pretty, -and looked alike; that my father was tall; that -my aunt married M. Dandiran and died while still -young, without children; all matters which should -have been of public notoriety in a small city like -Geneva. But the same is true of all the other retrocognitions -of Mlle. Smith; their content is always -veridical, but at the same time is also such -as could not fail to be known to a host of people. -This causes me to doubt whether there is at the -base of these phenomena a really supernormal faculty -of retrocognition.</p> - -<p>A third striking feature is, that all Hélène’s retrocognitions -concerning me are relative to the family -of my mother, and are connected with two quite precise -and brief periods, the first of which is many years -previous to Mlle. Smith’s birth. This limitation as -to times and persons seems to me significant.</p> - -<p>To clear up the matter, if possible, I addressed myself -to the last representative of the present generation -of my family, Professor Dandiran, of Lausanne, -and laid the case before him. He did not immediately -remember whether my grandparents Claparède had -any communication, nearly half a century before, -with the Smith family, but on the following day he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_412"></a>412</span> -wrote me that he distinctly recalled a young woman -of that name in whom his mother and aunt had been -greatly interested, and who had been employed by -them as a dressmaker previous to her marriage to -a Hungarian.</p> - -<p>One understands that I had a reason for not addressing -myself first to Mme. Smith herself; but I -must do her the justice to state that when I questioned -her in turn, she very obligingly gave me all the information -I desired, and which was in perfect accord with -the statements of M. Dandiran.</p> - -<p>Without entering into details wearisome to the -reader, it will be sufficient for me to state that all the -retrocognitions in which I was involved were connected -with two periods in which Mme. Smith had -relations with my mother’s family, periods separated -by an interval during which these relations were suspended -by the fact of M. and Mme. Smith making -a sojourn of several years in a foreign country. It -would have been possible for Hélène to know directly -the facts of the second period, at which time she was -about five or six years of age. As to the first period, -which was many years prior to her birth (the time -of the double marriage of my mother and her sister in -1853), it is evident that Mme. Smith has had many -opportunities at a later date to narrate these facts -to her daughter; and it would have been altogether -natural for her to have done so.</p> - -<p><i lang="la">Ab uno disce omnes.</i> Although I am less familiar -with the retrocognitions of Mlle. Smith concerning -other families, everything contributes to prove to me -that they are explicable in the same manner. In<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_413"></a>413</span> -two cases, at least, proof has been obtained that the -mother of Mlle. Smith was found to have been in direct -and personal communication with the families concerned, -exactly as was the case with my grandparents, -and this circumstance is sufficient to account for the -knowledge, very astonishing at first sight, contained -in the revelations of Leopold.</p> - -<p>To sum up—pure cryptomnesia seems to me to -furnish a sufficient and adequate explanation for -Hélène’s retrocognitions, both as to family events as -well as historic facts.</p> - -<p>And no more in this domain of knowledge of the -past than in those of recovered objects and medical -consultations have I thus far succeeded in discovering -in her the least serious indication of supernormal -faculties.</p> - - -<h3>V. <span class="smcap">Incarnations and Spirit Messages</span></h3> - -<p>The time having arrived to speak of spiritism, I -feel ill at ease and embarrassed by my surroundings, -for divers reasons, some of which I will set forth, -without, however, endeavoring to explain them at -length, since my aim is simply, as has been seen -above (p. <a href="#Page_373">373</a>), to indicate my subjective ideas as to -the standing of that doctrine, in order that the reader -may share, if he pleases, in my appreciation of the -phenomena of this class presented by Mlle. Smith. -1 confess, in the first place, that spiritism is a subject -which has the faculty of arousing my mirth, and -develops a spirit of playfulness. I really do not -know why this should be the case, since that which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_414"></a>414</span> -concerns the dead and the great beyond ought not -to be a matter for joking. Perhaps the cause is to be -found in the nature of the intermediaries, and the -character of the messages with which the spirits are -accustomed to favor us. However it may be, I have -ordinarily much difficulty in preserving a serious -countenance in the presence of manifestations of -“disincarnates.”</p> - -<p>But I reproach myself bitterly with this facetious -humor when I reflect that it is indulged in at the expense -of conceptions and beliefs which supported the -first steps of our race on its painful ascent, the survival -or atavic reapparition of which is yet, even to-day, -a source of moral strength, of happy certitude, -of supreme consolation for a host of my contemporaries, -many of whom I have learned to know, and -who, moreover, inspire me with respect as well as -admiration by their uprightness of life, their nobility -of character, the purity and elevation of their -sentiments.</p> - -<p>In the second place, I have often had the deceptive -experience that, when it comes to a discussion of it, -spiritism possesses a great advantage for its defenders, -but which is most inconvenient for those who -would investigate it closely—of being fugitive and incapable -of being grasped on account of the fact of its -double nature—a science and religion at the same -time—which never permits it to be wholly and entirely -the one or the other.</p> - -<p>When we come to analyze and criticise, according -to strict scientific methods, the positive facts upon -which it pretends to base its fundamental argument<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_415"></a>415</span> -—the reality of communication with the spirits of -the departed, through the intervention of mediums—as -soon as the adepts begin to unpack for you their -stock of theories (I was about to say their stock theories!) -they are astonished at the lack of ideal on the -part of these terrible materialist-scientists, who are -intent upon searching for the “hidden rat” in the -demonstrations of spiritism, instead of falling on -their knees before the splendor of its revelations.</p> - -<p>A third cause of my uneasiness whenever obliged -to approach this subject is the fear of being misunderstood -or misinterpreted, thanks to the naïve and -simple classification which prevails in the environments -which the “disincarnates” frequent.</p> - -<p>Spiritism or materialism—these are the brutal alternatives -to which one finds himself driven in spite -of himself. If you do not admit that the spirits of -the dead reveal themselves by raps on the table or -visions of the mediums, you are, therefore, a materialist! -If you do not believe that the destiny of the -human personality is terminated at the grave, you -are a spiritist! This mode of nomenclature and -labelling is surely puerile. Moreover, no one willingly -consents to be thrust into the company of those -with whom, no matter how honorable they may be, -he is not in sympathy.</p> - -<p>I also wish to state that I absolutely repudiate -the above alternative. There is greater variety of -choice in the cabinet of human thought. In the -last century, for example, outside the spiritism of -Swedenborg and the materialism of Baron d’Holbach, -there was yet the criticism of one named<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_416"></a>416</span> -Kant, who made some noise in the world and whose -vogue is even now not absolutely extinct. I should -not fear to range myself among his followers. And -in our own times, if it was necessary for me to choose -between Büchner and Allan Kardec, as the spiritist -seems sometimes to believe, I would not hesitate -to choose—in favor of M. Renouvier, or my deceased -compatriot Charles Secrétan.</p> - -<p>I hold to no other philosophy, and it suffices me, -in order to repulse the whole of materialism and spiritism, -to be the disciple—unworthy, but convinced—of -the Nazarene, who replied to the materialists -of his time, not by spiritistic evocations, but by the -simple words, “God is not the God of the dead but of -the living, for all live unto Him.” I am not sure -whether this argument convinced the Sadducees, -but it pleases me by its simplicity, and I have no -desire for any other.</p> - -<p>If God exists—I should say, if the supreme reality is -not the unconscious and blind force-substance of conventional -monism, but that sovereign personality (or -<i lang="la">supra</i> personality) which in the clear consciousness -of Christ made its paternal presence to be continually -felt—if God exists, it is not, apparently, in order to -play the rôle of a perpetual undertaker of funereal -pomp that he consents to exist, or to allow to fall forever -into nothingness the poor creatures who wait -upon Him.</p> - -<p>They may disappear from before our eyes, but they -do not disappear from before His; for they are dead -to us, but for Him, and, consequently, in actual reality, -they are living. Otherwise He would not be God.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_417"></a>417</span> -This is all I need. I see nothing clearly, it is true, as -to the concrete conditions of that other existence, of -which the manner even, if it were revealed to me, -would probably remain a sealed book to my intelligence, -hampered by the bonds of space and time. -But of what importance is it? That which I am ignorant -of, God knows; and while waiting for Him to call -me to rejoin those who have preceded me, He is great -enough for me to leave to Him the mysterious fate of -our personalities. “Since all live unto Him,” I ask -no more than that, and as for the pretended demonstrations -of spiritism, true or false, I do not care a -farthing.</p> - -<p>Or I would prefer them to be false. And if they are -true, if it is actually a law of nature that during long -years to come, after this terrestrial existence, we must -drag ourselves miserably from table to table and medium -to medium, the best of us (not to speak of the -others) displaying without shame the proofs of our -mental decrepitude in pitiable nonsense and wretched -verses—oh, so much the worse!</p> - -<p>It is one misery and shame the more added to all -those of which this satanic world is made up, a new -calamity coming to crown the physical and moral ills -of a world against which the Christian continually -protests as he repeats “<i>Thy kingdom come</i>,” an additional -scandal condemned to disappear when “His -kingdom shall have come.”</p> - -<p>There is nothing in common between the empirical, -spatial, and temporal survivals which spiritism pretends -to establish and that “eternal life” proclaimed -by the Prophet of Nazareth. These things, said Pas<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_418"></a>418</span>cal, -are not of the same order. That is why I am not -a spiritist.</p> - -<p>Here rises a last point, which worries me when I -ought to speak my mind in regard to spiritism in the -presence of spiritists. “You do not personally hold,” -it has been often objected to me, “to these communications -of the living with those who have gone before -us into the great unknown, and you cry out against -spiritistic demonstrations. It is all very well for you, -who are a mystic, and to whom the existence of God -in Jesus Christ seems a sufficient guarantee of the destinies -of human personality and its ultimate palingenesis. -But every one has not the same temperament, -and does not take so blithely his ignorance of the kind -of life which awaits him beyond the tomb. To believe -in God, and to abandon to Him with closed eyes -the fate of those who leave us, carrying away with -them the best portions of our being, is all very well, -but it is very difficult. The times of the psalmist who -could say ‘<i>Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him</i>’ -are no more; and as for Christ, He was certainly -a very remarkable medium, but His simple affirmation -would scarcely be taken to-day for gospel words. -The solid and the palpable are necessary to the -‘fools’ of our epoch. They are not capable of admitting -a higher world than that of sense, unless they are -enabled to touch it with their finger by means of messages -and the return of the dead themselves. Whence -it results that every attack, every hostile attitude towards -spiritism tends directly to break down the -only rampart which might henceforth be efficacious -against materialism and its disastrous consequences<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_419"></a>419</span> -—infidelity, egotism, vice, despair, suicide, and, finally, -the destruction and annihilation of the entire social -organism. On the other hand, when science at length -shall recognize and consecrate spiritism officially, -thereupon, simultaneously with the tangible certainty -of another life, courage and strength will return to -the hearts of individuals, devotion and all virtues will -begin to flourish once again, and an elevated humanity -will soon see heaven descend upon the earth, -thanks to the connection established and daily practised -between the living and the spirits of the dead.”</p> - -<p>My embarrassment is easily seen. On the one -hand, I do not in any way admit the foregoing objection. -I do not think that the gospel has had its day -or is above the reach of “fools,” since it was for them -that its author designed it. I believe, on the contrary, -that the Christian faith, the faith of Christ or -faith in Christ, is, in its inmost essence, a psychological -reality, a personal experience accessible to the -most humble, a fact of consciousness which will survive -when all theological systems shall have been -forgotten and all the clergy shall have been abolished. -That vital and regenerating power will save -our civilization (if anything can save it) by means -of the individuals whom it shall have regenerated, -without owing anything to spiritistic theories or -practices. Inversely, I do not share the optimism of -those who would make of spiritism a social panacea, -and who imagine that when the moral consciousness -on the one side and the religious consciousness -on the other have ceased to make themselves heard, -the messages of the “disincarnates” will have better<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_420"></a>420</span> -success. (“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, -neither will they be persuaded though one rose from -the dead.”)</p> - -<p>But, on the other hand, there are individual cases -which are interesting and which certainly merit consideration. -And for millions, and by a hundred different -titles—religious belief, moral consolation, solemn -and mysterious rites, old habit, etc.—spiritism -is to-day the pivot around which existence turns, and -also its only support; would not the destruction of -it, then, be productive of more harm than good, and -would it not be better to let matters take their -course? Why prevent man from delighting in -dreams, if he so pleases?</p> - -<p><i>All things are possible</i>, and was it not of the revenants -that Hamlet was thinking in his celebrated -apostrophe, from which I have taken this principle?</p> - -<p>These are the things which perplex me: while -waiting to find a way out of them, and by way of -summing up, it seems to me indispensable to separate -distinctly spiritism-religion, which is an assemblage -of beliefs and practices dear to many, from -spiritism-science, a simple hypothesis designed to explain -certain phenomena arising from observation. -The first tells me nothing, or rather it amuses me -or repels me according to circumstances; but the -more elevated sentiments, and those worthy of all respect, -which it inspires in its adepts, impose upon me -the duty of passing it by and ignoring it here. The -second, on the contrary, does not fail to interest me, -as it does all who are curious in regard to natural -phenomena.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_421"></a>421</span></p> - -<p>For the question, Do human or animal individualities -continue to intervene in an effective manner -in the physical, physiological, or psychological phenomena -of this universe after the loss of their corporeal -and visible organism? is not an ordinary one. If -there are facts which peremptorily establish an affirmative -answer, what problems will arise, what an unexpected -field of investigation will it not open up -to our experimental sciences! And even if the hypothesis -is false, how captivating the study of the -singular phenomena which have been able to give it -birth, which simulate the return of the dead to our -observable world! It is understood, therefore, that, -even despoiled of all the emotional accessories in -which it so easily wraps itself in the heart and imagination -of men, the empirical question of immortality -and spiritistic interventions, apparent or -real, preserves its scientific importance, and merits -being discussed with the calm serenity, independence, -and strictness of analysis which belong to the experimental -method.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that, <i lang="la">à priori</i>, the hypothesis -of <i>spirits</i> to explain the phenomena of mediums -has in it nothing of the impossible or the absurd. -It does not even necessarily contradict, as is sometimes -imagined, the directing principle of physiological -psychology—the psychological parallelism—which -demands that every mental phenomenon shall -have a physical correlative. For, in spite of our -habit of considering the molecular or atomic phenomena -of the brain, the katabolism of the nerves, -as the true concomitant of conscious processes, it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_422"></a>422</span> -may well be—it is even very probable—that these -molecular movements do not constitute the ultimate -physical term immediately paralleling the mental -world, but that the real physical correlatives (spatial) -of the (non-spatial) psychological phenomena -should be sought for in the vibrations of imponderable -matter, the ether, in which the ponderable -atoms and molecules are plunged somewhat like -grains of dust in the atmosphere, in order to make -a sensible though somewhat inaccurate comparison.</p> - -<p>The ethereal body, perispiritistic, astral, fluid, etc., -of the occultists, and of many thinkers who are not -believers in occultism, is only a notion scientifically -absurd when it is made to be an equivocal and cloudy -intermediary between the soul and the body, an unassignable -<i lang="la">tertium quid</i>, a plastic mediator of which -nothing is known as to its being material or spiritual -or something else. But conceived as a system of -movements of the ether, it contains nothing absolutely -anti-or extra-scientific in its nature; the connection -between the subjective facts of consciousness -and the objective, material facts, remains essentially -the same whether one considers the material world -under the imponderable form of ether or under the -ponderable form of chemical atoms, of physical molecules, -and of anatomical elements. Nothing, then, -would be radically opposed, from the point of view -of the natural sciences, to the existence of disincarnate -spirits wandering through space.</p> - -<p>The foregoing will doubtless please my spiritistic -friends. Here are two facts which will please them -less. First: I separate myself from them when they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_423"></a>423</span> -pass prematurely from mere abstract possibilities to -the affirmation of actualities. Perhaps the outcome -will prove them right some day; perhaps in the -near future, but we have not yet reached that -point. I freely admit that never have circumstances -been so favorable for the spiritistic doctrines as at -present. The authentic return of George Pelham and -other deceased persons, through Mrs. Piper entranced, -as intermediary, seems to be admitted by so many -acute observers, the phenomena observed for fifteen -years past in the case of this incomparable medium -are at times so marvellous and surrounded -with such solid scientific guarantees—the case is, in -a word, so unheard of and astounding in all respects, -that those who are only acquainted with it from a distance, -by printed reports and oral narratives of immediate -witnesses, feel themselves in a poor position -for formulating their doubts and reservations upon -this subject.</p> - -<p>I fear, in the second place, for mediums and practical -spiritists, that when their hypothesis shall have -been scientifically demonstrated the result may be -very different from that which they now imagine it -will be.</p> - -<p>It might well happen that the cult of the table, -mechanical writing, seances, and all other mediumistic -exercises, may receive their death-blow from the -official recognition of spirits by science. Suppose, -in fact, that contemporaneous researches should at -last have proved clearly that messages actually come -from the disincarnate; it has already followed from -the same researches that in the most favorable cases<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_424"></a>424</span> -the veritable messages are very difficult to distinguish -from those which are not authentic. When -people come to understand that this sorting of messages -is almost always beyond their power, they -will, perhaps, be put out of conceit with experiments -in which they have ninety-nine chances against one -of being dupes of themselves or others, and in which—a -still more vexatious matter—if they should even be -so fortunate as to light upon the hundredth chance, -they would have no certain means of knowing it.</p> - -<p>This subject, decidedly, is fatal to me. I lose myself -in digressions when discussing it—very useless -they are, too, since the verdict which the future will -pronounce upon the theory of spirits, with or without -an ethereal body, matters little as far as the actual examination -of the messages furnished by Mlle. Smith -is concerned. Even having become scientifically -verified, spiritism will never absolve us from bringing -to the analysis of the pretended communications less -care and rigor than while it was only an undemonstrated -hypothesis; each particular case will always -demand to be scrutinized by itself, in order to make -the distinction between that which in all probability -only arises from many non-spiritistic causes, and the -residue eventually proceeding from the disincarnate.</p> - -<p>I ought to state at the outset that, as far as Hélène’s -mediumistic phenomena are concerned, their careful -analysis has not revealed to me in them any evident -vestige of the other world, not even of traces of a telepathic -transmission on the part of the living. I have -only succeeded in perceiving in them very beautiful -and instructive examples of the well-known<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_425"></a>425</span> -tendency of the subliminal imagination to reconstruct -the deceased and to feign their presence, especially -when the favorable suggestions of the surrounding -environment incites them to do so. Not being infallible, -and bearing in mind Hamlet’s principle, I -will guard myself well from affirming that these subliminal -imitations and simulacra are absolutely free -from any spirit collaboration; I content myself with -repeating that I have not discovered any, and that it -seems to me in the highest degree improbable, and -with leaving it to others to demonstrate its reality, -if they think they are able to do so. Some examples -taken from the principal incarnations of Mlle. Smith -will enable me to show after a more concrete fashion -my manner of regarding them.</p> - - -<p>1. <i>Case of Mlle. Vignier.</i>—This case has no evidential -value whatever, since (as has been seen, -p. <a href="#Page_411">411</a>), there were formerly relations between the -Vignier family and Mme. Smith which suffice to explain -the veridical knowledge manifested by Hélène -in this incarnation.</p> - -<p>I give an abridged recital of it, nevertheless, for the -sake of certain points of psychological interest. None -of the spectators had any suspicion of these relations -at the time of this scene, which was absolutely enigmatical -to all of them.</p> - -<p>In a seance at my house (on March 3, 1895, after a -Hindoo vision, described p. <a href="#Page_280">280</a>), Mlle. Smith saw an -unknown lady appear, of whom she gave the following -description: “A nose bent and hooked like the -beak of an eagle; small gray eyes, very close together; -a mouth with three teeth only; a wicked smile, mock<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_426"></a>426</span>ing -expression; simple dress; a collar not of the -fashion of to-day; she draws near to this portrait,<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> -and gazes at it not ill-naturedly.”</p> - -<p>The name of this person is asked, and the table -(Leopold) commences to spell: “<i lang="fr">Mademoiselle</i>”—but -refuses to go further, while Hélène sees the apparition -laughing, “with a sly air”; as the name is insisted -on, the table dictates: “<i>That does not concern you</i>,” -then she begins to jump and skip as though glad of -an opportunity to mock us.</p> - -<p>Presently Hélène falls asleep and enters into somnambulism; -she leaves the table and moves towards -the portrait in question, before which she remains -fixed, completely incarnating the unknown lady of -her vision. I take down the portrait and place it in -its frame upon an easy-chair; immediately she kneels -before it and contemplates it with affection; then, taking -the frame in her right hand, while the left, very -much agitated, plays with the cord, she ends, after -many vain attempts, by saying with a great stammering, -“<i lang="fr">J—j—je l’aimais b—b—beaucoup: je -n’aime pas l’autre—j—j—je ne l’ai jamais aimée -l’autre—j’amais bien mon neveu—adieu!—je le vois.</i>” -“I liked it very much: I do not like the other one: -I never liked the other one. I was very fond of my -nephew. Adieu! I see him.”</p> - -<p>It was impossible to obtain any explanation of -this incomprehensible scene, until, having slipped -a pencil and a writing-tablet into Hélène’s hand, -she scribbled feverishly, in a hand not her own, these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_427"></a>427</span> -two words “<i>Mademoiselle Vignier</i>”; then she fell -into a cataleptic phase, from which she awakened -without memory at the end of half an hour.</p> - -<p>This name of Vignier evoked in me far-off memories -and vaguely recalled to my mind the fact that -Professor Dandiran (who had married, as we have -seen, my mother’s sister) had an ancestress of that -name; was it she who returned to express to me -by means of Mlle. Smith her affection for my mother, -whose portrait she had so attentively regarded, -and her regrets, perhaps, that her nephew had not -been preferred to my aunt?</p> - -<p>On the other hand, M. Cuendet recollected a Mlle. -Vignier who had been a friend of his family, but who -did not correspond at all with the description of Hélène’s -visions; he promised to obtain information, -and, in fact, wrote me on the following day: “Dear -Sir,—Here is some information on the subject of our -seance of yesterday. This morning I asked my -mother: ‘Did you ever know another Mlle. Vignier -than the one who was your friend?’ After an instant -of reflection: ‘Yes,’ replied she; ‘I did know -another. She was M. Dandiran’s aunt, of Lausanne, -his mother’s sister. She stammered, and -was not always very good-natured; she had three -large teeth which projected, and a hooked nose.’ It -is useless to state to you that this was the first time -I had heard her spoken of.”</p> - -<p>This information, coinciding with my remembrances -and Hélène’s vision, was later confirmed by -M. Dandiran, who gave me the following information: -“Your aunt, Mlle. Vignier, who died about<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_428"></a>428</span> -thirty-five or forty years ago, loved her nephew -very much; but she was made very angry by -his marriage, and the sentence uttered before my -mother’s portrait could not have referred to a difference -of sentiment in regard to the two sisters, for -whom she always had an equal affection. This -sentence, on the contrary, is wonderfully well explained -by the following facts: My mother and her -sister having become betrothed at the same time, -oil-paintings of both, of natural size, were made by -the same painter. These portraits were not of equal -merit, and Mlle. Vignier, who was herself something -of an artist, always considered that of my -mother excellent, while the other, that of my aunt, -she did not like at all. Mlle. Vignier was very lively, -and M. Dandiran finds that the epithet ‘sly’ -and the table dictating ‘<i>That does not concern you</i>,’ -very well express her character; she was, however, -not at all malicious or mocking at heart, but it is -true that persons who knew her slightly could easily -have gained that impression of her. She had three -or four prominent teeth and stammered badly. In -her photograph she wears a white collar, has a nose -long and arched, but the eyes are rather large and -wide apart. She always wore gold eye-glasses, of -which the medium did not speak.”</p> - -<p>If the reader has had patience to read these details, -he will have remarked that the distinctive traits of -Mlle. Vignier in the vision and her incarnation by -Hélène (the stammering, the teeth, the shape of the -nose, the ill-natured air) coincide with those spontaneously -indicated by M. Cuendet, who had known<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_429"></a>429</span> -her slightly; and that while M. Dandiran, better -posted as to his aunt’s character, finds the note of -maliciousness or want of good-nature false, he acknowledges -that people outside of her family could -have been deceived concerning it. That is to say, -has not the imagination of Mlle. Smith produced -the exterior memory, the description according to -public notoriety, as it were, which Mlle. Vignier left -behind her? And if it be recalled that at the period -at which the two <i lang="la">fiancées</i> were painted, Mme. Smith -was in communication with my maternal grandparents -through the only sister of Mlle. Vignier, -there would be a probability amounting almost to -a certainty that these are contemporary remembrances, -narrated some time or other to Hélène by -her mother, and which furnished the material for -this somnambulic personification.</p> - -<p>In this example, to which I might add several analogous -ones, the apparent <i>spirit control</i> is reduced to -latent memories of recitals formerly heard by Hélène.</p> - -<p>In other cases, in which, for lack of information, it -has hitherto been impossible to discover this wholly -natural filiation of facts, simple analysis of the circumstances -and of the content of the communications -indicates that, in all probability, they proceed from -reminiscences and impressions appertaining to living -individuals much rather than from disincarnates. In -other words, these messages and personifications too -evidently reflect the point of view of the medium or -other living persons for it to be permissible to regard -them as due to the intervention of deceased persons,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_430"></a>430</span> -whose attitude towards them would, in all probability, -be wholly different.</p> - -<p>2. <i>Case of Jean the Quarryman.</i>—We have here -to deal with a very curious spirit message concerning -Mme. Mirbel, in which I cannot fail to see actual -memories of the latter—transmitted I know not how -(but not necessarily in a supernormal manner) to -Mlle. Smith—rather than an authentic communication -from a pretended disincarnate.</p> - -<p>In a seance at which Mme. Mirbel was not present, -Hélène had the hallucination of a very strong odor of -sulphur; then the vision of a quarryman from the -foot of Salève, in which she perceived and described -in detail an unknown man, who, by the dictations of -the table, was declared to be <i>Jean the Quarryman</i>, -and charged the sitters with an affectionate message -for Mme. Mirbel. The latter, interrogated on the following -day, recognized in the very circumstantial description -of this man, and under all the features of -Hélène’s vision, perfectly correct facts connected with -her childhood, and which had passed away from the -habitual circle of her ideas for more than twenty -years. It concerned a workman employed in her -father’s quarries, and who, when she was a little -girl, had always evinced a special affection for her.</p> - -<p>Let us suppose—in the absence of all proof that -Mlle. Smith had ever heard these remembrances of -Mme. Mirbel’s childhood mentioned—that recourse -must be had to the supernormal in order to explain the -case. It still would not amount to an intervention of -the deceased quarryman; and M. Lemaître was perfectly -right, in my opinion, in clinging to telepathy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_431"></a>431</span> -and in hazarding the idea of an etheric influence, to -which Hélène was subjected by Mme. Mirbel, who at -the hour of this seance happened to be half a kilometre -distant from the place of the seance. Without -going out of the domain of telepathy, I still would prefer -the hypothesis of a previous transmission in the -course of one of the seances at which Mme. Mirbel -was present to that of telepathy at a great distance -at the time of the seance. It is, in fact, not contrary -to that which is believed to be known of mental suggestion, -to admit that Hélène’s subliminal, in the -state of Esenale, for example, could in some way -draw from Mme. Mirbel’s subliminal the latent memories -which there lay buried for some time before -being ready to reappear at a seance at which she -had some reason to think Mme. Mirbel would again -be present.</p> - -<p>Whatever the mode of its transmission may have -been, the content of this vision seems to me to indicate -clearly that it has its origin in the personal memories -of Mme. Mirbel rather than in the posthumous memory -of Jean the Quarryman. All the presumptions -in this case are, to my mind, in favor of a memory of -Mme. Mirbel, and not of a veritable communication -from the other world. The personal aspect of the -messages supposed to be dictated by the quarryman -do not constitute an obstacle to my interpretation or -a guarantee of spiritistic authenticity, this aspect being -the form that the automatisms habitually assume -among mediums.</p> - - -<p>3. <i>Case of the Syndic Chaumontet and of the Curé -Burnier.</i>—The following case is the last. It is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_432"></a>432</span> -very recent one, in which the spiritistic and the -cryptomnesiac hypotheses exist face to face, apropos -of signatures written by Mlle. Smith in somnambulism -which do not lack similarity to the authentic -signatures of the deceased persons to whom they are -supposed to belong.</p> - -<p>In a seance at my house (February 12, 1899), Mlle. -Smith has a vision of a village on a height covered -with vines; by a rocky road, she sees descending -from it a little old man, who has the air of a <i>quasi</i> -gentleman; he wears shoes with buckles, a large -felt hat, the collar of his shirt is unstarched, and has -points reaching up to his cheeks, etc. A peasant -in a blouse, whom he meets, makes reverences to him, -as to an important personage; they speak a patois -which Hélène does not understand She has the impression -of being familiar with the village, but vainly -searches her memory to discover where she has seen -it. Presently the landscape fades away, and the -little old man, now clothed in white and in a luminous -space (<i>i. e.</i>, in his actual reality of a disincarnate), appears -to draw near to her. At this moment, as she -leans her right arm upon the table, Leopold dictates -by the index-finger: “<i>Kiss her arm.</i>” I execute the -order; Hélène’s arm at first resists strenuously, then -yields suddenly. She seizes a pencil, and in the -midst of the customary struggle relative to the manner -of holding it (see <a href="#Page_100">p. 100</a>), “<i>You are holding my hand -too tightly</i>,” says she to the imaginary little old man, -who, according to Leopold, wishes to make use of it in -order to write. “<i>You hurt me very badly; do not hold -it so firmly.... What difference does it make whether<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_433"></a>433</span> -it is a pencil or a pen?</i>” At these words she throws -away the pencil and takes up a pen, and, holding it -between the thumb and index-finger, slowly traces -in an unknown hand: “<i>Chaumontet, syndic</i>” (see -Fig. 44).</p> - -<p>Then the vision of the village returns; at our desire -to know the name of it she ultimately perceives -a sign-post on which she spells “<i>Chessenaz</i>,” a name -which is unknown to us. Then, having by my advice -asked the little old man, whom she still sees, -at what period he was syndic, she hears him answer, -“1839.”</p> - -<p>It is impossible to learn more; the vision vanishes -and gives way to a total incarnation of Leopold, who, -in his deep Italian voice, speaks to us at length of -various matters. I take advantage of it in order to -question him upon the incident of the unknown village -and syndic; his replies, interrupted by long digressions, -may be summed up about as follows: “I -am searching.... I traverse in thought the ascent of -this great mountain pierced through at its foot by -something, the name of which I do not know; I see -the name of Chessenaz, a village on a height, and a -road which ascends to it. Search in this village; you -will certainly find the name (Chaumontet); seek to -examine his signature; this proof you will find there; -you will find that the handwriting was that of this -man.”</p> - -<p>To my question whether he sees this in Hélène’s -memories and whether she has ever been at Chessenaz, -he replies in the negative as to the first point and -evasively as to the second: “Ask her; she has a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_434"></a>434</span> -good memory for everything. I have not followed -her in all her wanderings.”</p> - -<p>Awakened, Hélène could not furnish us any information. -But the following day I found on the map -a little village called Chessenaz, in the Department -of Haute-Savoie, twenty-six kilometres, in a straight -line, from Geneva, and not far from the Crédo. As -the Chaumontets are not rare in Savoy, there was -nothing unlikely in the fact of a person of that name -having been syndic there in 1839.</p> - -<p>Two weeks later I made a visit to Mme. and Mlle. -Smith—there was no seance held—when Hélène -suddenly assumed the voice and accent of Leopold, -without being aware of the change, and believing -me to be joking when I sought to cause her -to notice it. Presently the hemisomnambulism becomes -accentuated; Hélène sees the vision of the -other day, the village and then the little old man (the -syndic) reappear, but the latter is accompanied this -time by a <i lang="fr">curé</i> with whom he seemed on good terms -and whom he called (which she repeats to me all the -while with Leopold’s Italian accent), “<i>My dear friend -Burnier</i>” As I ask whether this <i lang="fr">curé</i> could not -write his name with Hélène’s hand, Leopold promised -me by a digital dictation that I should have that -satisfaction at the next seance; then he begins to -talk to me of something else by Hélène’s mouth, she -being now entirely entranced.</p> - -<p>At the following seance at my house (the 19th of -March), I remind Leopold of his promise. He answers -at first by the finger: “<i>Do you very much desire -that signature?</i>” and it is only upon my insisting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_435"></a>435</span> -that he consents. Hélène then is not long in again -seeing the village and the <i lang="fr">curé</i>, who after divers incidents -takes hold of her hand as the syndic had -done, and traces very slowly with the pen these words, -“<i>Burnier greets you</i>” (Fig. 44); then she passes into -other somnambulisms. The moment had arrived -to clear up the matter. I wrote at hazard to the mayor’s -office at Chessenaz. The mayor, M. Saussier, -had the kindness to answer without delay: “During -the years 1838-39,” stated he to me, “the syndic -of Chessenaz was a Chaumontet, Jean, whose signature -I find attached to divers documents of that -period. We also had as <i lang="fr">curé</i> M. Burnier, André, -from November, 1824, up to February, 1841; during -this period all the certificates of births, marriages, -and deaths bear his signature.... But I -have discovered in our archives a document bearing -both signatures, that of the syndic Chaumontet and -that of the <i lang="fr">curé</i> Burnier. It is an order for the -payment of money. I take pleasure in transmitting -it to you.” I have caused to be reproduced in the middle -of <a href="#Fig_44">Fig. 44</a> the fragment of this original document -(dated July 29, 1838), bearing the names of these two -personages; the reader can thus judge for himself -in regard to the quite remarkable similarity which -there exists between these authentic signatures and -those automatically traced by the hand of Mlle. -Smith.</p> - -<p>My first idea was, as may be supposed, that Mlle. -Smith must some time or other have seen some certificates -or documents signed by the syndic or by the -<i lang="fr">curé</i> of Chessenaz, and that it was these forgotten<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_436"></a>436</span> -visual flashes, reappearing in somnambulism, which -had served her as inner models when her entranced -hand retraced these signatures. One may likewise -imagine how angry such a supposition would make -Hélène, who has no recollection whatever of having -ever heard the name of Chessenaz nor of any of its -inhabitants, past or present. I only half regret my -imprudent supposition, since it has availed to furnish -us a new and more explicit manifestation of -the <i lang="fr">curé</i>, who, again taking hold of Mlle. Smith’s -arm at a later seance (May 21st, at M. Lemaître’s) -comes to certify to us as to his identity by the attestation, -in due and proper form, of <a href="#Fig_43">Fig. 43.</a> As is there -seen, he makes it twice; being deceived as to the -signature, he incontinently, with disgust, crosses -out that which he had so carefully written, and recommences -on another sheet; this second draft, in -which he has omitted the word “<i lang="fr">soussigné</i>” (“undersigned”) -of the first, took him seven minutes to trace, -but leaves nothing to be desired as to precision and -legibility. This painstaking calligraphy is very -like that of a country <i lang="fr">curé</i> of sixty years ago, and in -default of another specimen for comparison, it presents -an undeniable analogy of hand with the authentic -receipt of the order for payment of money of -Fig. 44.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i437" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> - <a id="Fig_43"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_437.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 43. Certificates written (May 21, 1899) by Mlle. Smith while in a trance. The one above was feverishly crossed out -in finishing the faulty signature. The one below was afterwards written in seven minutes. Natural size. [From the -collection of M. Lemaître.]</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Neither Mlle. Smith nor her mother had the least -notion in regard to the <i lang="fr">curé</i> or the syndic of Chessenaz. -They nevertheless informed me that their -family formerly had some relatives and connections -in that part of Savoy, and that they are still in communication -with a cousin who lives at Frangy, an<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_437"></a>[Pg 437]<br /><a id="Page_438"></a>438</span> -important town nearest the little village of Chessenaz. -Hélène herself made only a short excursion -in that region, some dozen years ago; and if, -in following the road from Seyssel to Frangy, she -traversed some parts of the country corresponding -well to certain details of her vision of the 12th of February -(which she had the feeling of recognizing, as -we have seen, p. <a href="#Page_432">432</a>), she has not, on the other hand, -any idea of having been at Chessenaz itself, nor of -having heard it mentioned. “Moreover,” says she, -“for those who can suppose that I could have been -at Chessenaz without remembering it, I would affirm -that even had I gone there I would not have been -apt to consult the archives in order to learn that a -syndic Chaumontet and a <i lang="fr">curé</i> Burnier had existed -there at a period more or less remote. I have a good -memory, and I positively affirm that no one of the -persons around me during those few days while I -was away from my family ever showed me any -certificate, paper—anything, in a word—which could -have stored away in my brain any such memory. -My mother, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, made -a trip into Savoy, but nothing in her remembrances -recalls her ever having heard these two names uttered.”</p> - -<p>The facts are now presented, and I leave to the -reader the privilege of drawing such conclusion from -them as shall please him.</p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp75" id="i439" style="max-width: 56.25em;"> - <a id="Fig_44"></a> - <img class="w100" src="images/i_439.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"><p class="hang">Fig. 44. Comparison of the signatures of the syndic Chaumontet and of the curate -Burnier, with their pretended signatures as disincarnates given by Mlle. Smith in -somnambulism. In the middle of the figure, reproduction of a fragment of an -order for payment of money of 1838. Above and below, the signatures furnished -by the hand of Hélène. Natural size.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>This case seemed to me worthy to crown my rapid -examination of the supernormal appearances which -embellish the mediumship of Mlle. Smith, because -it sums up and puts excellently in relief the irrecon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_439"></a>439</span>cilable -and hostile respective positions of the spiritistic -circles and mediums on the one side, perfectly -sincere but too easily satisfied—and investigators -somewhat psychological on the other, always pursued -by the sacrosanct terror of taking dross for -gold. To the first class, the least curious phenomenon—an -unexpected vision of the past, some dictation -of the table or the finger, an access of somnambulism, -a resemblance of handwriting—suffices to -give the sensation of contact with the unknown and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_440"></a>440</span> -to prove the actual presence of the disincarnate world. -They never ask themselves what proportion there -could well be between these premises, however striking -they may be, and that formidable conclusion. -Why and how, for example, should the dead, returning -at the end of a half-century to sign by the hand -of another person in flesh and blood, have the same -handwriting as when alive?</p> - -<p>The same people who find this altogether natural, -although they have never seen any absolutely certain -cases of it, fall from the clouds when the possibility -of latent memories is invoked before them, of -which the present life furnishes them, moreover, -daily examples—which they have not, it is true, -ever taken the trouble to observe.</p> - -<p>The psychologists, on the contrary, have the evil -one in them in going to look behind the scenes of the -memory and the imagination, and when the obscurity -prevents them from seeing anything, they have -the folly to imagine that they will end by finding -that which they are seeking—if only a light could -be had.</p> - -<p>Between these two classes of temperaments so -unlike, it will, I fear, be very difficult ever to arrive -at any satisfactory and lasting understanding.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_441"></a>441</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br /> - -<small>CONCLUSION</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p>This volume reminds me of the mountain which -gave birth to a mouse. Its length would be -excusable if only it marked a step in advance -in the field of psychology or physiology, or as to the -question of the supernormal. As such is not the -case, it is unpardonable, and nothing more is left me -to do except to make clear its deficiencies in this -triple aspect.</p> - -<p>First: From the physiological point of view, it -is apparent that Mlle. Smith, as is doubtless true of -all mediums, presents during her visions and somnambulisms -a plenitude of disturbances of motility -and sensibility, from which she seems entirely free -in her normal state.</p> - -<p>But these trifling observations do not suffice to -solve the neuropathological problem of mediumship, -and the question still remains open as to whether -that term corresponds to a special category of manifestations -and to a distinct syndrome, or whether it -merely constitutes a happy euphemism for various -scientific denominations already in use.</p> - -<p>To endeavor to fix the connections of mediumship -with other functional affections of the nervous sys<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_442"></a>442</span>tem, -it would first be necessary to possess exact intelligence -on a number of important points still enveloped -in obscurity. In regard to some of these, -such as the phenomena of periodicity, of meteorological -and seasonal influences, of impulses, and of fatigue, -etc., we have only very vague and incomplete -hints. And we know almost nothing of other still -more essential questions, such as the relations of -equivalence and substitution between the various -modalities of automatism (nocturnal visions, crepuscular -states, complete trances, etc.), the effect of -spiritistic exercises, and especially of that of the -seances upon nutrition or denutrition (variations of -temperature, of urotoxicity, etc.), which would permit -the comparison of spontaneous seizures and -those excited by mediumship with those of the more -serious nervous affections, the phenomena of heredity, -similar or reversed, etc.</p> - -<p>Let us hope that a near future will establish some -good mediums and their observers in practical conditions -favorable to the elucidation of these various -problems, and that the day will come when the true -place of mediumship in the framework of nosology -will be discovered.</p> - -<p>Secondly: From the psychological point of view, -the case of Mlle. Smith, although too complex to be -reduced to a single formula, is explicable <i lang="la">grosso modo</i> -by some recognized principle, the successive or concurrent -action of which has engendered her multiple -phenomena. There is, in the first place, the influence, -so often verified, of emotional shocks and of certain -psychic traumatisms upon mental dissociation. By<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_443"></a>443</span> -means of these the birth of hypnoid states may become -the germ either of secondary personalities more -or less strongly marked (we have seen that the first -manifestations of Leopold in the childhood of Hélène -are attributable to this cause) or of somnambulistic -romances, which hold the same relation towards the -normal state as does that exaggeration of stories and -indulgence in reveries to which so many are addicted—perhaps -all of us.</p> - -<p>We must also take into consideration the enormous -suggestibility and auto-suggestibility of mediums, -which render them so sensitive to all the influences -of spiritistic reunions, and are so favorable to the -play of those brilliant subliminal creations in which, -occasionally, the doctrinal ideas of the surrounding -environment are reflected together with the latent -emotional tendencies of the medium herself. The -development of the personality of Leopold-Cagliostro, -starting from the moment at which Mlle. Smith began -her seances, is easily explained in this manner, as -well as the Martian dream and the previous existences -of the Hindoo princess and the queen of France.</p> - -<p>And, finally, we must note the phenomena of -cryptomnesia, the awakening and setting to work of -forgotten memories, which easily account for the elements -of truth contained in the great preceding constructions -and in the incarnations or casual visions -of Mlle. Smith in the course of her seances.</p> - -<p>But besides this general explanation how many -points of detail there are which remain obscure! For -example, the precise origin of Hélène’s Sanscrit, -and many of her retrocognitions, for want of informa<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_444"></a>444</span>tion -concerning the thousand facts of her daily life -whence the ideas which nourish her somnambulism -may have been drawn! And how difficult it is to -gain a correct idea of her case as a whole, on account -of the crudity of our actual notions as to the constitution -and organization of the human being, of our almost -total ignorance of psychological ontogeny!</p> - -<p>Without mentioning Hélène’s ephemeral incarnations -(in which I have shown there is no reason far -seeing anything beyond the imitations due to autosuggestion), -the divers more stable personalities -which manifest themselves in her hypnoid life—Leopold, -Esenale, and the actors of the Martian romance, -Simandini, Marie Antoinette, etc.—are only, in my -opinion, as I have hinted on many occasions, the -varied psychological states of Mlle. Smith herself—allotropic -modifications, as it were, or phenomena of -polymorphism of her personality. For no one of -these personalities corresponds sufficiently with her -ordinary personality by intellectual faculties, the -moral character, separation of memories, to justify -the hypothesis of a foreign <i>possession</i>.</p> - -<p>But the theory of psychic polymorphism is still -very imperfect, and inadequate to explain the embryological -shades which shine forth in Hélène’s subliminal -products—the retrograde perspective which -they open as to the different stages or periods of -her evolution. The Martian cycle, with its unknown -language, evidently betrays an eminently -puerile origin and the display of an hereditary linguistic -aptitude, buried under Hélène’s ordinary -self; whereas the Hindoo romance denotes a more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_445"></a>445</span> -advanced age, and that of Marie Antoinette seems -to have sprung from still more recent strata, contemporaneous -with the actual normal personality -of Mlle. Smith. The primitive nature and different -ages of the various hypnoid lucubrations of Mlle. -Smith seem to me to constitute the most interesting -psychological fact of her mediumship. It tends to -show that the secondary personalities are probably, -in their origin, as the idea has been sometimes suggested, -phenomena of reversion of the ordinary actual -personality, or of momentary returns of inferior -phases, long since passed, and which normally -should have been absorbed in the development of -the individuality, instead of breaking forth again in -strange proliferations.</p> - -<p>Thirdly: As to the supernormal, I believe I have -actually found a little telekinesis and telepathy. -As to lucidity and spiritistic messages, I have only -encountered some brilliant reconstructions, which -the hypnoid imagination, aided by latent memory, -excels in fabricating in the case of mediums. I do -not complain of this, since for psychology, which -is not specially enamoured of the marvellous, these -admirably successful imitations are also interesting -and instructive on account of the light which they -throw upon the inward workings of our faculties.</p> - -<p>Of course Mlle. Smith and her friends see things -in a very different light. With Hélène everything, -or almost everything, is supernormal, from the reminiscences -of her lives as Marie Antoinette and Simandini, -to the Martian and the incarnations of Cagliostro, -of Mlle. Vignier, or of the <i lang="fr">curé</i> of Chessenaz.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_446"></a>446</span></p> - -<p>And now let us admit, hypothetically, that I have -not been able to see the supernormal, which was -plainly before my eyes, and that it is this blindness -of mine alone which has prevented me from recognizing -the real presence of Joseph Balsamo, my own -mother, the Hindoo princess, etc.—or, at all events, -the presence of real, disincarnate, independent spirits. -It is, of course, to be regretted, but then it is I alone -who will be in disgrace on the day when the truth -shall be made manifest.</p> - -<p>For, as to progress in our knowledge of things, -everything is to be feared from easy credulity and -obstinate dogmatism, but that progress will not be -arrested or seriously retarded by possible errors, -committed in good faith, through an exaggerated -severity of application and a too strict observance -of the principles themselves of all experimental investigation; -while, on the contrary, the obstacles -and the difficulties which the necessities of the method -multiply along its path have always been a strong -stimulant, producing new movements forward and -more durable conquests based on better demonstrations.</p> - -<p>It is better, then, to follow my advice—in the well-understood -interest of and for the advancement of -science, in a domain where superstition is always -ready to give itself free play—it is better to err through -excess of caution and strictness of method than to -run the risk of being sometimes deceived; it is better -to allow some interesting fact to escape for the moment, -rather than to open the door to the follies of the -imagination by a relaxation of necessary caution.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_447"></a>447</span></p> - -<p>As to Mlle. Hélène Smith, supposing that I have -failed to recognize in her phenomena which are really -supernormal (which, in that case, will some day -be better set forth by other observers), she will, nevertheless, -accomplish more in the way of discovering -the real truth, whatever it may be, in submitting -herself disinterestedly to my free criticisms, than -by doing as so many useless mediums have done, -who, afraid of the light, in their foolish eagerness for -the triumph of a cause very dear to their hearts, have -shunned close investigation, and would have us -rely upon their word alone.</p> - -<p>They forget the saying of Bacon, which is ever -being confirmed: “<i>Truth is the daughter of time, -not of authority.</i>”</p> - - -<p class="center psp">THE END</p> - - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> <i>I. e.</i>, Spirit-rapping—the faculty of obtaining responses by -means of raps upon a table.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Glossolalia signifies the “gift of tongues,” or the ability to -speak foreign languages without having consciously acquired -them.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> This term is used to designate the visions which manifest -themselves at the moment of awakening from sleep immediately -prior to complete awakening, and which form a pendant to -the well-known, much more frequent hypnagogic hallucinations, -arising in the intermediate state between sleep and waking.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Vision relating to the Oriental cycle; the man was the Arab -sheik, the father of Simandini.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> The following are some of these impromptu rhymes, surely -up to the level of the circumstances which inspired them, but by -which we ought not to judge the <i>conscious</i> poetic faculties of -Mlle. Smith: -</p> -<p> -To a little girl proud of her new shoes: -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Marcelle est là, venez la voir,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Elle a ses petits souliers noirs.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p> -In a “culinary” discussion: -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Vous détestez les omelettes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Autant que moi les côtelettes.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p> -To a person slightly vain: -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Vos richesses, ma chère amie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne me font point du tout envie!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> The confusion of sensations in the two sides of the body, as -when a person locates in the right leg a touch upon the left leg.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> See, on allochiria, P. Janet, <cite>Stigmates mentaux des hysteriques</cite>, -pp. 66-71; and <cite>Nevroses et idées fixes</cite>, vol. i. p. 234.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> See Lehmann’s <cite>Aberglaube und Zauberei</cite>, p. 217 <cite>et seq.</cite> Stuttgart, -1898.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> W. James, “Thought Tends to Personal Form.” <cite>Principles -of Psychology</cite>, vol. i. p. 225 <cite>et seq.</cite> New York, 1890.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Alexandre Dumas, <cite>père</cite>, <cite>Memoirs of a Physician</cite>, chap. xv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> The one which is found, for example, at the beginning of -the <cite>Vie de Joseph Balsamo</cite>, etc., translated from the Italian (3d -edition, Paris, 1791), and which has been several times reproduced. -Mlle. Smith has hanging over her fireplace a fine copy -of this portrait.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> See, <i>e.g.</i>, Ferrari, Hericourt, and Richet, “Personality and -Handwriting,” <cite>Revue philosophique</cite>, vol. xxi. p. 414.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> C. Flammarion, <cite>La Planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilité</cite>, -p. 3. Paris, 1892.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Compare the case of Mlle. Anna O. Brener et Frend, <cite>Studien -über Hysterie</cite>, p. 19. Vienna, 1895.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Do not think that in loving you as a tender brother</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I shall tell you all the profound mysteries of heaven;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I shall help you much, I shall open for you the way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But it is for you to seize and seek with joy;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when you shall see her released from here below,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When her mobile soul shall have taken flight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And shall soar over Mars with its brilliant tints;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If you would obtain from her some light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Place your hand very gently on her pale forehead</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And pronounce very softly the sweet name of Esenale!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> Allusion to the seance of November 25, 1894, at M. Lemaître’s. -See <a href="#Page_146">p. 1146.</a></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> That is to say, he died on Mars, where he had been reincarnated.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Allusion to seance of February 2, 1896. See <a href="#Page_154">p. 154.</a></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> These are texts 16-20, 26, 28, 31, 34, 37-39. They are further -distinguished by an asterisk.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> A literal English translation of each text will be found immediately -beneath the French equivalents of the Martian words.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> If it is objected that the Martian lacks the essential character -of a language—that is to say, a practical sanction by use; by the -fact of its serving as a means of communication between living -beings—I will not answer, like Mlle. Smith, that after all we know -nothing about that, but will simply say that the social side of -the question does not concern us here. Even if Volapük and -Esperanto are not used, they are none the less languages, and -the Martian has, in regard to its artificial construction, the psychological -superiority of being a natural language, spontaneously -created, without the conscious participation, reflective or willing, -of a normal personality.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> De Marlès’ <i>General History of India, Ancient and Modern, -from the Year 2000 B. C. to our Own Times.</i> Pp. 268-269. Paris, -1828.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Robert Sewell. <i>Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency -of Madras.</i> Vol i. p. 238 (1882.) Citation by M. Barth. I -have not been able to consult this work.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Buchanan. <cite>A Journey from Madras through the Countries of -Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, etc.</cite> 3 vols. 4to. London, 1807.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> James Rennell. <cite>Description Historique et Géographique de l’Indostan.</cite> -Translated from the English. Paris, an. <span class="allsmcap">VIII.</span> (1800). -3 vols., 8vo and atlas 4to.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Dow. <cite>History of Hindustan.</cite> Translated from the Persian -of Ferishta. London, 1803. M. Michel suggests Wilks’s <cite>Historical -Sketches of the South of India</cite> (London, 1810) as having possibly -served as a source of information for De Marlès. If some -learned reader may discover any traces of Sivrouka antecedent -to De Marlès, I shall be under great obligation to him if he will -communicate the information to me.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> It will be readily understood that this vision represents -Marie Antoinette with her three children and Madame Elizabeth.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> I have respected the orthography as well as the complete absence -of punctuation of this bit of automatic writing, confining -myself to marking by vertical bars its evident separation into -verses of eight feet. It is written in the inclined and regular -hand called that of Marie Antoinette (like that of <a href="#Fig_40">Fig. 40</a>), but -with a pencil too pale to permit its reproduction.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> By this is meant the bringing or conveying of material objects -into a closed space—the passage of one solid body through -another.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> A small oil-portrait of my mother.</p></div></div> - - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's From India to the planet Mars, by Théodore Flournoy - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS *** - -***** This file should be named 63092-h.htm or 63092-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/0/9/63092/ - -Produced by MFR, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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