11 SEERS AND HEALERS

SPIRITISTS RECOGNIZE different kinds of mediums, whom they classify and designate according to the special nature of their faculties and the manifestations they produce. Naturally, the accounts they give to all these are quite variable, for they can be divided and subdivided almost indefinitely. Here is one such listing which is rather complete:

There are mediums who produce physical effects, who provoke material phenomena such as noises or knockings in walls, apparitions,^[1] displacement of objects without physical contact;^[2] there are sensitive mediums, who by a vague impression feel the presence of spirits; there are auditive mediums, who hear the voices of the 'disincarnated', sometimes clear and distinct as those of living persons, at other times as intimate whispers in their inmost heart; there are speaking mediums^[3] and writing mediums, who, either by word or writing, but always with a complete and absolute passivity, transmit communications from beyond the grave; there are seeing mediums who, in the waking state, see spirits; and there are musician mediums, designer mediums, poet mediums, healing mediums, the names of which sufficiently designate the dominant faculty.^[4] It must be added that several kinds of mediumship may be found in the same individual, and that the most typical mediumship is that which produces physical effects, with all the varieties this may include. Nearly all the rest can be reduced to simple hypnotic states as we have already explained. But there are nevertheless several categories which we should discuss in greater detail, so much the more in that some people attribute great importance to them.

The sensitive, seeing, and auditive mediums, who can be grouped together, are only called mediums by the spiritists in accordance with their preconceived ideas. These are individuals supposedly endowed with certain 'hyperphysical senses', to adopt an expression used by some; some call this the ‘sixth sense' without being more precise, while others list 'clairvoyance', 'clairaudience', and so on, as so many distinct senses. Some groups claim that man possesses seven internal senses beyond his five external senses. These are actually somewhat improper extensions of the word 'sense' and we do not see how one can envisage 'internal senses' other than what used to be called the _sensorium commune_, which is to say mentality in its function of centralizing and coordinating sense data. We readily acknowledge that the human individuality possesses certain extra-corporeal faculties which are latent in everyone and which can be more or less developed in some; but these faculties do not really constitute senses, and if one speaks of them by analogy with the corporeal senses it is perhaps because otherwise it would be difficult to speak of them at all. When taken literally this assimilation implies a large element of illusion, arising as it does from those endowed with these faculties, who are constrained to express what they thus perceive in terms that normally designate things of the corporeal order. But there is another cause of more complete and serious illusion: this is the fact that in spiritist circles and in other 'neo-spiritualist' schools, one intentionally tries to ^[5] acquire or develop faculties of this kind. Without speaking of the dangers inherent in these 'psychic allurements,' which are very apt to unbalance those who give themselves up to them, it is obvious that under these conditions one is often induced to take as real 'clairvoyance' what is only the effect of a suggestion. In some schools such as Theosophy, the acquisition of 'clairvoyance' seems to be the supreme goal. The importance accorded these things proves yet again that, notwithstanding their pretensions, the schools in question have absolutely nothing initiatic about them, for there is nothing in all this but contingencies which seem quite negligible to anyone who has any knowledge of a more profound order. At the very most it is something 'beside the point' which they so continually seek out and which in most cases represents an obstacle rather than an advantage. Spiritists who cultivate these faculties imagine that what they see and hear are 'spirits', and this is why they regard it as mediumship; in other schools one thinks one sees and hears quite different things, but these are of an equally fanciful character.

In sum, it is always a question of a description of the theory of the school where the phenomena were produced, and here is sufficient reason for it to be maintained without fear of being deceived that suggestion plays a preponderant if not exclusive role. One can have more confidence in what is reported by isolated and spontaneous 'seers,' those who belong to no group and who have never been beguiled. But here again there are many causes of error. First is the inevitable imperfection of the mode of expression they use; then there are the interpretations they mix into their visions, involuntarily and unawares, for they are never without at least some vague preconceived ideas. And it must be added that generally these 'seers' have no underlying ideas of a theoretical or doctrinal order which would permit them to know themselves and prevent them from distorting things by letting their imagination intervene, an imagination which unfortunately is often quite well developed. When 'seers' are orthodox mystics, their natural tendencies to stray are in some manner held in check and reduced to a minimum; almost everywhere else they have free rein and the result is often a nearly inextricable confusion. The most unquestionable and most celebrated among them, Swedenborg for example, are far from exempt from this fault, and one cannot take too many precautions if one wishes to extract what is of genuine interest in their works. Better to go to purer sources, for after all there is nothing to be found in the former which cannot be found elsewhere in a less chaotic state and under more intelligible forms.

The defects we have just indicated reach their apogee among unlettered 'seers' who are left to themselves without the least direction, such as the peasant of the Var, Louis Michel de Figanières, whose writings are the admiration of French occultists, who see in them the most extraordinary ‘revelations'; and it is here in large part that the origin of the so-called 'living science' should be sought, which is one of their principal obsessions. In frightful jargon these purported 'revelations' express the most anthropomorphic and materialized conceptions, or rather descriptions, that have ever been made of God, who in this context is called the 'great infinite man', 'president of life' [sic], and of the Universe, which someone has seen fit to term 'omniverse.'^[7] In all this it is a question of ‘networks', 'construction sites', 'digestions', 'aromas', 'fluids,' etc. This is what the occultists praise as a sublime cosmogony. Among other marvels to be found therein is a history of the formation of the earth which Papus adopted and did his best to disseminate. Not wanting to linger over this subject but wanting to give an idea of these rantings, we will only cite a summary made by the Belgian spiritist Jobard,^[8] in which the special language of the original has been carefully preserved:

Relatively speaking, our globe is quite new. It is constructed of old materials gathered in the great construction site of the universe, out of the old debris of planets brought together by attraction, incrustation, and annexation into a single whole from four satellites of an earlier planet which, having reached the state of maturity, was gathered by the great Gardener to be conserved in his granaries and to serve for his material nourishment. For just as man gathers the mature fruits from his earthly garden, the great infinite man gathers the mature fruits from his omniversal garden which likewise serve as his nourishment. This is what explains the disappearance of a number of stars, observed for centuries, from the great flower bed of the heavens. What is the digestion of a ripe fruit in the stomach of an earthly godling ^[9] if not the awakening and the departure of a hominucular population fallen into catalepsy, or an ecstasy of happiness on the little worlds that they have formed and led in harmony by their intelligent works?. . . Let us return to the formation of our incrustative planet by the simultaneous annexation of four ancient satellites: Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, put in magnetic catalepsy by the collective, celestial soul of our earth charged with this operation, no matter how difficult the union of several small kingdoms into a single one or small businesses into a large one. It was not without long negotiations with the fallen collective spiritual souls of the four satellites in question, that the fusion was accomplished. Only the moon, the fifth satellite and the strongest as well as the worst, resisted these solicitations, creating thus her own unhappiness and that of the earthly agglomeration where her place will be reserved at the center of the Pacific Ocean. ^[10] But the souls of stars, good or bad, have their free will as does the human race, and dispose of their destiny for good or ill.... In order to make this sublime and sensible operation of incrustation less painful, the celestial soul of the earth (or the good fluidic seed of the incrustative graft) began, we say, by magnetically putting to sleep the furnishings ^[11] [sic] of the four ancient satellites of good will. Asia, the good material plant of this graft, was far more advanced than the three others, as it had already lived many centuries with its populace entirely awake, while the others were still partly asleep. Men, animals, and all living seed were placed in a state of complete anesthesia during this sublime operation of the four globes becoming confounded under the pressure of the hands of God, of his Great Messengers, their entrails, their crust, their faces, their eyes, their atmospheres, their collective souls.

We can come to a stop here; but this citation quite usefully illustrates where occultists get their pseudo-tradition and their bogus esoterism.

Let us add that Louis Michel must not be held solely responsible for the ramblings that have been published under his name; he did not write, but dictated what a 'superior spirit' inspired; and his 'rev-elations' were collected and arranged by his disciples, the principal of these being a certain Charles Sardou. Naturally, the milieu where all this was worked out was strongly imbued with spiritism.^[12]

'Seers' often have a tendency to form schools, which may even form around them without their playing any intentional part. In this latter case it happens that they are true victims of their entourage, which exploits them consciously or unconsciously, as the spiritists do with all those in whom they discover some mediumistic faculties. When we speak here of exploitation, this must be understood above all in a psychic sense, though the consequences are nonetheless disastrous. For a 'seer' to be installed as a _chef d'école_ in reality and not merely in appearance, it is not enough that he desire to be such; he needs a certain superiority over his 'disciples', which his abnormal faculties confer upon him. This was not the case with Louis Michel, but it is sometimes seen in spiritism. Thus there was at one time in France a spiritist school of a rather peculiar character, founded and directed by a 'seer', Madame Lucie Grange, called by the 'mystic' name _Habimélah_, or _Hab_ by abbreviation, a name which, it seems, was given her by Moses in person. In this school there was an especial veneration for the famous Vintras, who qualified as a 'prophet'^[13] among its members, and the group's publication, _La Lumière_, which began in 1882, counted among its contributors—for the most part disguised by pseudonyms—more than one suspect person. Mme Grange was much occupied with 'prophecies,' and she considered that the 'communications' she received were of such a nature. She gathered into a volume a rather considerable number of these ‘productions',^[14] whether of ‘psycho-graphic, psychophonic, or natural clairvoyance' as she called them, indicating thus the several kinds of mediumship she possessed (writing, audition, vision). These ‘communications' bear the signatures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel,^[15] the chief saints of the Old and New Testaments, as well as illustrious men of ancient and modern history. Some signatures are still more curious, such as that of 'the sibyl Pasipée of the Grotto of the Croissant', or that of 'Rafana, soul of the planet Jupiter'. In a 'communication' St Louis informs us that he was King David reincarnated and that Joan of Arc was Thamar, daughter of David; and Hab adds this note:

A significant connection: David was the founder of a predestined family, and he was the source of our last kings. Saint Louis presided at the first spiritist teachings and in the name of God was made Father of a regenerated Christianity by his special protection of Allan Kardec.

Such 'connections' are especially significant as to the mentality of those who make them, and they have a quite clear sense for whoever knows the politico-religious underside of certain milieux much concerned with the question of the 'survival' of Louis XVII. Moreover, the second coming of Christ as more or less imminent is announced in these circles. Is there thus a desire to imply that Christ will be reincarnated in the new 'race of David' and that he may be the 'Great Monarch' announced by the 'prophecy of Orval' and several other predictions of greater or lesser authenticity? We will not say that these predictions are in themselves totally devoid of value, but as they are formulated in hardly comprehensible terms, each interprets them in his own way; and there are very strange things in what some claim to draw from them. Later, Mme Grange was 'guided' by a so-called Egyptian 'spirit' who presented himself under the composite name _Salem-Hermes_, and who dictated to her a volume of 'revelations'; but this is much less interesting than the manifestations that are more or less directly connected with the affair of Louis XVII, a list of which, beginning with the first years of the nineteenth century, would be quite long but also very instructive for those with a legitimate curiosity to seek for the realities hidden under certain phantasmagoria.

Having spoken of 'seers,' we must also say a few words about 'healing mediums.' If the spiritists are to be believed, this is one of the highest forms of mediumship. For example, here is what Léon Denis wrote after having stated that the great writers and the great artists were nearly all 'inspired' and 'auditive mediums':

> The power to heal by a look, a touch, or the laying on of hands, is also one of the forms by which spiritual action is exercised in the world. God, source of life, is the principle of physical health as he is that of moral perfection and of supreme beauty. Certain men, by prayer and magnetic élan, draw this influx upon themselves, this radiance of divine energy which chases away impure fluids that cause so much suffering. The spirit of charity, of devotion pushed to the point of sacrifice, forgetfulness of self, are the necessary conditions for acquiring and keeping this power, one of the most marvelous that God has accorded man. Even today a number of more or less fortunate healers offer their care with the help of the spirits.... Above all human Churches, outside all rites, all sects, all formulas, is a supreme center that the soul can attain by the impetus of faith.... In reality, magnetic healing requires neither passes nor special formulas, but only the ardent desire to relieve others, the sincere and deep appeal of the soul to God, principle and source of all strength.^[16]

This enthusiasm is easily explained if one recalls the humanitarian tendencies of the spiritists; and the same author says further:

Like Christ and the apostles, like the saints, the prophets, and the magi, each of us can lay on our hands and heal if we love our neighbor and have the ardent desire to bring them relief.... Silently gather your wits, alone with the patient; call to the beneficent spirits who hover over human sufferings. Then, from above you will feel an influx descend into you and then reach the subject. A regenerative wave will of itself penetrate to the cause of the evil, and, by prolonging and renewing your action, you will have contributed to relieving the burden of earthly miseries.^[17]

It seems that here the action of 'healing mediums' is properly compared to magnetism; there is however a difference to be taken into account, which is the fact that the ordinary magnetizer acts by his own will, without in any way soliciting the intervention of a 'spirit'. But spiritists say that such a one is a medium without knowing it, and that the intention to heal is equivalent to a sort of implicit evocation, even if he does not believe in the 'spirits'. In fact, exactly the inverse is true, for it is that spiritist 'healer' who is an unconscious magnetizer; whether his faculties have come to him spontaneously or have been developed by practice, they are nothing other than magnetic faculties, but in virtue of his particular ideas he imagines that he must appeal to 'spirits' and that it is these latter who act through him, while in reality it is only from himself that all the effects are produced. This kind of alleged mediumship is less harmful than others for those endowed with it because, not implying the same degree of passivity (and even passivity in this context is rather illusory), it does not involve the same disequilibrium. Nevertheless, it would be too much to believe that the practice of magnetism under these or under ordinary conditions (the difference is more in the interpretation than in the facts) might be free from all danger for him who gives himself up to it, especially if he does so habitually, 'professionally' as it were. As to the effects of magnetism, they are very real in certain cases, but one must not exaggerate their efficacy; we do not believe that magnetism can heal or even relieve all maladies without distinction, and there are temperaments which are completely refractory to it. In addition, certain healings must be credited to the power of suggestion, or even to auto-suggestion, more than to that of magnetism. As to the relative value of this or that manner of proceeding, that is a matter of debate (which the different schools of magnetism engage in extensively, not to mention the hypnotists, who are hardly in greater agreement among themselves).^[18] This is perhaps not as completely immaterial a matter as Léon Denis claims, at least if it is not the case of a magnetizer who possesses particularly powerful faculties as a kind of natural gift. Such a case, which precisely gives the illusion of mediumship (supposing that one knows and accepts spiritist theories) because it allows no room for any voluntary effort, probably holds for the most celebrated 'healers', except of course when their reputation is usurped and when charlatanism is mixed in, for this too sometimes happens. As for explaining the phenomena of magnetism, we do not need to be concerned with them here, but it goes without saying that the 'fluidic' theory, to which most magnetizers subscribe, is inadmissible. It is here that spiritism got its conception of 'fluids' of all kinds; but this is only a very gross image, and the intervention of the 'spirits', which the spiritists bring in, is an absurdity.

The spiritist conception of 'healing mediums' is particularly clear in 'Fraternism', where mediums of this category occupy the first place. It seems that this sect even owes its origin to them if one is to believe what Paul Pillault wrote in 1913:

> It has been barely five years since, at Auby, in my office, and sometimes at my home, I tried my own abilities as healer which our good brother of space [sic], Jules Meudon, had uncovered in me and which he urged me to practice. I succeeded with many cures, from blindness to simple toothache. Happy with the results obtained, I resolved to put my healing abilities at the disposal of as many of my fellows as possible. At that point our director, Jean Béziat, joined with me to found _l'Institut général psychosique_ at Sin-le-Noble (near Douai), which issued _l'Institut des Forces psychosiques_ no. 1, and which, in 1910, began publication of our journal, _Le Fraterniste_.^[19]

Still working at healing, they soon began to have more extensive preoccupations (we do not say more elevated, because no more that humanistic 'moralism' is involved), as this citation from Béziat shows:

> We encourage science to undertake researches in spiritism, and if we ultimately lead it to take an interest in this, it will find. And when science will have found and proven, it is Humanity in its entirety that will have found happiness. Thus _Le Fraterniste_ is not only the most interesting but also the most useful journal in the world. It is from _Le Fraterniste_ that one must await the tranquility and joy of Humanity. When the foundations of spiritism have been demonstrated as well established, the social question will almost be resolved.^[20]

If this is sincere, it stems from a truly disconcerting lack of reflection. But let us proceed to the theory of 'fluidic psychosic healings' which was expounded in the court of Béthune, January 17, 1914, the occasion being a lawsuit against two 'healers' of this school, Messrs Lesage and Lecomte, who were charged with the illegal practice of medicine and were acquitted because they did not write prescriptions. Here is what is important in their statements:

They treat maladies by the laying on of hands, flourishes, and the simultaneous mental invocation of good astral forces.^[21] They provide no remedy or prescription; there is no treatment in the medical sense of the word, nor massage, but care by means of a fluidic force not active in ordinary magnetism, which may be called spiritist magnetism (psychosism); that is, the magnetizers are influenced by forces from good spirits and then transmit these forces to the sick, who then feel a great amelioration or obtain complete recovery as the case may be, this over an equally variable period of time.... In the course of questioning the judge asked for explanations regarding the laboratory where basins of magnetized water were found, prepared by the healers.... From the point of view of healing, the magnetized water has only a relative value; it is not the water that heals; it aids the evacuation of noxious fluids, but it is the spiritist treatment that expels the evil.^[22]

Elsewhere they sought to persuade doctors themselves that, if they succeeded in healing the sick, it was also to the 'psychoses' that they owed their success. It was solemnly declared:

It is the Psychose which heals, Sirs; the healer is simply the instrument. You also, you are the object of the psychoses; but it is useful for you that good things have come from your side, just as they have come from ours.^[23]

Note also this curious explanation by Béziat:

We can assert that a malady, whatever it may be, is one of the numerous varieties of Evil with a capital 'E'. Now the healer, by his fluid which he infuses into the patient and by his good intentions, kills or injures _Evil_ in a general way. As a result he injures the particular variety at the same time, that is to say the malady. That is the entire secret.^[24]

All this is in fact quite simple, at least in appearance, or rather quite 'simplistic'. But there are other healers who find it even simpler to deny evil: the 'Christian Scientists' and the 'Mental Scientists' of America are a case in point, and this is also the opinion of the Antoinists, whom we will discuss below. The 'Fraternists' go so far as to call down the 'divine force' in their healings, and it is again Béziat who proclaims 'the possibility of healing the sick by invisible astral energies, by appeal to the Great Universal Dispensatory Force which is God.'^[25] If this is the case one might ask them why they find it necessary to appeal to 'spirits' and 'astral forces' instead of addressing God directly and exclusively. But the character of the evolving God believed in by the 'Fraternists' has already been seen. In this connection there is still something else that is very significant: on February 9, 1914 at Arras, Sébastien Faure gave a conference on the 'twelve proofs of the nonexistence of God', a conference which he repeated almost everywhere. Béziat spoke next, describing himself as 'pursuing basically the same aim', addressing to Faure 'his most sincere felicitations,' and 'inviting the audience to associate themselves sincerely with him [Faure] in the realization of his eminently humanitarian program.' Following his journal's review of this meeting, Béziat added these reflections:

> Those who, like Sébastien Faure, deny the Creator-God of the Church, in our view draw that much nearer to the true God that is the Universal Impulsive Force of the worlds.... Thus we do not fear to advance this paradox: that if Sébastien Faure and those like him no longer believe in the God of the churchmen, it is because they believe more than others in the true God. We say that in the actual state of social evolution, these deniers are more divine than the others because they desire more justice and happiness for all.... I conclude from all this that if Sébastien Faure no longer believes in God, it is only because he has come to know him more, or in any case to feel him more, since he wills to practice the virtues.^[26]

Since that time Sébastien Faure has had some misadventures which illustrate only too well how he meant to 'practice the virtues'; the 'Fraternists', defenders of Le Clément de Saint-Marcq, have decidedly singular friendships.

There are many other somewhat independent spiritist schools founded or directed by 'healing mediums, such as M.A. Bouvier of Lyon, who combined the theories of magnetism and Kardecism, and whose school put out a journal entitled _Universal Peace_, from which the extravagant project, the ‘Congress of Humanity' that we have mentioned elsewhere, was launched.^[27] The review displayed on its masthead the two following maxims: 'Exact knowledge of oneself engenders love of one's fellows', and, 'In all the world there is no more elevated cult than that of the truth. It is not without interest to note that the second is a nearly literal transcription (but for the word 'religion', here replaced by 'cult') of the motto of the Theosophical Society. On the other hand, Mr Bouvier, who in the end joined the 'Fraternists', was, contrary to the usual case, on very good terms with the occultists. It is true that the latter have for these 'healers' a veneration at least as excessive as that of the spiritists. The famous 'Unknown Master' of the school of Papus, to whom we have alluded earlier, was essentially only a 'healer' who had no doctrinal knowledge at all, being in fact the victim of the role imposed upon him. The truth is that Papus did not need a 'Master', for he did not want one; what he needed was someone he could present as a Master in order to give the appearance of a serious foundation for his organizations and to encourage the belief that 'superior powers' were behind him. All this fantastic history of 'envoys of the Father' and 'spirits from the apartments of Christ' has nothing other than this as their primary raison d'être. Under these conditions it should not be astonishing that the naive, who are quite numerous in occultism, believed that among the 'twelve unknown Grand Masters of the Rosicrucians' were other 'healers' as completely destitute of intellectuality as ‘Father Antoine' and the Alsacian Francis Schlatter, whom we have mentioned elsewhere.^[28] There are still others who, without being so highly placed, are touted in the same school; such is the person concerning whom Papus slipped in this note in one of his works:

From the quarter of spiritism, we should point out the adepts of theurgy, and especially Saltzman, as propagators of the idea of reincarnation. In his beautiful book, _Magnétisme spirituel_, Saltzman opens up magnificent horizons to every seeking mind.^[29]

Saltzman is really only a somewhat dissident spiritist, in no way an 'adept' in the true sense of this word; and what he calls 'theurgy' has nothing at all in common with what the ancients understood by this term, of which he is completely ignorant. This brings to mind a rather ridiculous personage, formerly a Paris celebrity, called _le zouave Jacob_. He too thought well of giving the name 'theurgy' to a common mix of magnetism and spiritism. In 1888 he published a sort of journal of which the title, despite its unwonted length, merits citing in full: _Theurgical, scientific, psychological, and philosophical review, especially examining hygiene and healing by fluids and the dangers of medical, clerical, magnetic, hypnotic, etc., practices, under the direction of Jacob the zouave_—which already gives a clear enough notion of his mentality. We will limit ourselves to providing an appreciation of this person by an author who was himself entirely favorable to spiritism: The 'zouave healer' was quite popular. I came to know him, but I was soon disillusioned. He claimed to operate by the influence of the spirits, but when I risked some objection he was beside himself with insults and rudeness worthy of a buffoon.... Poor arguments in the mouth of an apostle! I write 'apostle' because he said he was sent by God 'to heal men physically, as Christ had been sent to heal men morally!' Many people will remember this typical phrase. It is true that I witnessed astonishing ameliorations experienced instantly by certain sick persons who had been abandoned by doctors. Among others, I saw a paralytic carried in on someone's back because he could no longer move either arms or legs; this man then began to walk on his own, without support or crutches... only till he left the office of the healer, that is to say as long as he remained in his presence. Once outside the door, the unhappy man again became immobile and had to be carried away in the same manner he had come. As I have heard as well as seen, the cures of the famous zouave were only pseudo-cures, and on returning home his clients again fell into the same infirmities from which he had freed them, along with an additional one, discouragement. In any case, he was unable to cure me of what he called 'moral blindness,' and up to this moment I persist in the belief that the secret of his influence on illness was to be found not in the assistance of spirits, as he claimed, but in his deplorable manners. He frightened his clients by furious looks to which, on occasion, he added cutting remarks. He was perhaps a subduer, but not a thaumaturge.^[30]

In brief, there was a strong dose of charlatanism along with a certain power of suggestion. We will find something quite analogous in the story of Antoinism, to which we devote a special chapter because of the astonishing expansion of this sect, and also because in it we have a very typical case well suited to serve as basis for judging the mental state of some of our contemporaries. We do not want to say that all 'healers' are of such character; there are certainly some whose sincerity is very respectable and whose real faculties we do not question, even while regretting that nearly all of them try to explain these faculties by theories that are more than suspect. It is also rather curious to note that such faculties are found to be especially well developed in men of modest intelligence. Finally, those who are only 'suggestioners' can in certain cases obtain more lasting results than those obtained by _Jacob the zouave_. And it is not just an appropriate setting that can act effectively on certain ills. It can even be asked whether in the final analysis the most obvious charlatans are not themselves subject to their own suggestions, and whether they do not believe more or less in the extraordinary powers they attribute to themselves. However that may be, we repeat yet again that 'phenomena' of any sort prove absolutely nothing from the theoretical point of view. It is perfectly useless to cite in support of a doctrine healings obtained by men who profess the said doctrine, for one can support the most contradictory opinions in this way, which shows that these arguments are without value. When it is a question of the truth or falsity of ideas, every extra-intellectual consideration must be considered null and void.