The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1859

1. Evocation
- I am with you.

2. What is your situation as a spirit: errant or reincarnate?
- Errant.

3. Are you happier than when you were alive?
- Yes, since I am separated from the dense body and I can now see what I could not before.

4. It seems to me that you were not in an unfortunate condition when alive. Where thus the superiority of your present situation?
- I have just said that. You, the followers of Spiritism, must understand such a situation.

5. What is your current opinion about the Faust? - It is a piece of work whose objective was to show the vanity and emptiness of human Science and, on another hand, exalt the feeling of love in its beauty and purity, condemning what it showed as immoral and evil.

6. Was it a kind of intuition of Spiritism that led you to describe the influence of the bad spirits over human beings? How could you have made such a description?
- I had an almost perfect memory of a world where I saw the spirits exercising their influence over the material beings.

7. Did you then have the recollection of a preceding existence?
- Yes, certainly.

8. Can you tell us if that existence was on Earth?
- No, since one cannot see the spirits in action here. It was really in another world.

9. However, since you could see the spirits in action it should be in a world superior to Earth. How come you ended up in an inferior planet? Have you fallen? Kindly explain.
- It was a superior world to a certain extent, but not as you understand it. Not all worlds have the same organization and yet there is no great superiority just because of that. Furthermore, you know that I had a mission among you that you cannot ignore, since you still play my works. There was no falling down considering that I served and still serve to help your moralization. I applied what I had of superior from that preceding world, in order to improve the passions of my heroes.

10. Yes, your work is still played. Just recently The Faust was adapted to an opera. Have you seen that?
- Yes.

11. Can you give us your opinion about the way Mr. Gounod interpreted your thoughts through music? - Gounod evoked me, without knowing it. He understood me very well. As a German musician I would not have done better. Perhaps he thinks as a French musician.

12. What do you think about the Werther?
- I now reproach the end part.


13. Wouldn’t such a work have caused a lot of harm, exalting passions?
- It did and caused disgraces.


14. It was the cause of many suicides. Would you be responsible for that?
- Since there was a wicked influence spread by me, it is exactly for what I suffer and regret.


15. It seems to me that when alive you showed great aversion towards the French. Do you still have it today?
- I am very patriotic.


16. Are you still more connected to a country than to the others?
- I love Germany for its thoughts and for its almost patriarchal tradition.


17. Do you want to give your opinion about Schiller?
- We are brothers in spirit and through our missions. Schiller had a great and noble soul, reflected in his works. He did less harm than I did. He is my superior for he was simpler and truer.


18. Could you give us your opinion about the French poets in general, comparing them to the German ones? This is not a vain feeling of curiosity but the search for our instruction. We consider your feelings really elevated thus needless to ask for your impartiality, leaving aside any national prejudice.
- You are curious but I want to satisfy this curiosity. The modern French frequently write beautiful poems but employ more nice words than good ideas. They should dedicate more to the feelings than to the minds. I speak in general but make exceptions to some: a great poor poet, among others.


19. A name was whispered in the audience. Is that the one you talk about?
- Poor or that simulates poverty.


20. We would like to obtain a dissertation from you about a subject of your choice, for our instruction. Could you kindly dictate something to us?
- I will do it later, through other mediums. Evoke me on another occasion.