ggin,
from the manuscript of Camille Flammarion.

The human soul would seem to be a spiritual substance, endowed with
psychical force, capable of acting outside bodily limits. This force,
like all others, may be transmissible into the form of electricity or
heat, or may be capable of bringing into activity certain latent
energies while it yet remains intimately united with our mental being.

We propound questions to the table, already impressed with our nervous
impetus, on subjects interesting to ourselves; and then we ourselves
unconsciously inspire the responses. The table speaks to us in our own
language, giving back our own ideas, within the limits of our own
knowledge, conversing with us about our opinions and views, as we
might discuss them with ourselves. This is absolutely the
reflection--direct or remote, precise or vague--of our own feelings
and thoughts. All my efforts to establish the identity of a stranger
spirit, unknown to the persons present, have failed.

On the other hand, attentive examination of different communications
leads us toward a conclusion as to their origin. When amidst the
Marquis de Mirville's revelations, one is in the full swing of Roman
Catholic diabolism--demons, spirits, purgatory, miracles,
prayers,--nothing is lacking. With the Count de Gasparin, we are in
the bosom of Rational Protestantism, which is absolutely the opposite
of the other. Here are no present miracles, no devils, but simply a
physical agency, a fluid obedient to volition. In the experiences of
Eugene Nus's circle, we find the language of Fourier discoursing about
the phalanstery, about racial solidarity, and socialistic religion.
Therein are found earthly music chanted in space,--songs of Saturn and
Jupiter dictated under the influence of Alyre Bureau, who was the
musician for the spiritualist society of Allan-Kardec. Here we have
disembodied spirits of all ranks, and this is the apostolate of their
reincarnation.

In the United States, on the contrary, the moving tables declare that
the hypothesis of reincarnation is absurd and misleading; and it may
be assumed that none of the persons present, especially the ladies,
would for one moment admit the possibility of being some day
reincarnated beneath the skin of a negro. A brilliant imagination,
like that of Sardou, will picture to us Jupiter's castles; a musician
may receive the revelation of a musical composition, more or less
charming; an astronomer