The spirit-rapper; an autobiography
force or primordial law of nature, or simply ascribe them to Satanic
invasion, provided it be held that Satan is a philanthropist, the friend
and benefactor of the race, not the enemy; for in any case, Christianity
is denied or undermined. But the purely sceptical theory answers only
for the few, who, it is to be remarked, never see any of these
marvellous phenomena, and who, if they did see them, might be led to
embrace Christianity; but it will never suffice for the many, and can
never subserve the views of reformers who would operate upon the masses.
It however makes no practical difference which of the other two
hypotheses is adopted. For myself, I in some sense adopted both, though,
as I have said, I inclined to the naturalistic theory. But even then I
had begun to contemplate an ulterior object, which might make it more
convenient to adopt the latter hypothesis, for it might become necessary
to overthrow Christianity by the introduction, apparently by
supernatural means, of another religion—a religion in harmony with the
wants of the flesh. It is impossible to overthrow a positive religion by
a pure negation, or to get rid of Christianity without substituting
something positive in its place; for it is to be remarked, that
sceptical ages are the most credulous, and that as Christian faith
recedes, superstition advances. Hence we see in Scandinavia unmistakable
evidences of a revival of the worship of Odin; and only a short time
since, the government had to adopt measures to repress it in the north
of Norway. In many parts of Germany we see a decided tendency to revive
the superstition which Christianity supplanted. When men have no longer
religion, they take refuge in superstition; and when they cease to
worship God, they begin to worship the devil. The most interesting
people to the Englishman Layard that he found in the East, were the
devil-worshippers.
But all this is premature. World-Reform, as I had sketched it to myself,
had for its object unbounded liberty, and was to be accomplished, on the
one hand, by the overthrow of all existing governments, and the complete
disruption of all political and civil society; and on the other, by the
total demolition of the Christian Church, and extirpation of the
Christian religion. Of course it would not do to avow all this, for if I
did, I should defeat my own purposes. Faith still lurked in many a
heart; and the persuasion was very general, that some kind of
government, some kind of political, civil, and even moral restraint was
very generally entertained, even by those whom I must make my
accomplices, and use as my tools. It was necessary to keep one’s own
counsel, or to confide it to the smallest number possible. To the world
it would do to avow only the design of divorcing religion from politics,
and of democratizing the church and society. This might be avowed
without shocking the public at large. For this the public mind was in a
measure prepared. A pious priest could be persuaded to advocate
ecclesiastical democracy, as we have seen in the work of the excellent
Rosmini, in the Five Wounds of the Church.
A popularizing tendency among Catholics had been much encouraged by that
powerful priest, the Abbé de La Mennais, and his enthusiastic
associates. It is true, he had fallen under censure, and had been
excommunicated, _eo nomine_, by Rome; but the party he formed, though
disavowing him, still retained somewhat of his spirit, and followed his
tendency. There was a growing party in France, even among the clergy,
who wished to divorce the church from the state, and induce her to
abandon the courts, and cement an intimate alliance with the people, and
lend her powerful influence to the democratic movements of the day. They
had much that was plausible in their favor. The royal and nobiliaire
governments of Europe had always labored to convert the dignitaries of
the church into courtiers, and to make her their tool for enslaving and
fleecing the people. The greatest injury religion had ever received, it
had received from courtier bishops, and the tyranny of the state over
the church, equally fatal to her and to the people. The real interests
of the church would therefore seem to demand of her to make common cause
with the people against kings and aristocrats, and in favor of
democratic institutions. This conviction was becoming very general among
the more earnest and influential Catholic laymen. A corresponding
conviction was also becoming general among the great mass of the
Protestant populations. It was possible, then, to labor to democratize
society without alarming religious convictions; nay, it was possible to
enlist them to a great extent in the same work. Nobody, it is well
known, helped us on more effectually in Europe than many of the most
distinguished among the Catholic clergy and laity. I need only mention
Ventura and Gioberti in Italy, Montalembert, Lacordaire, Cormenin,
Maret, and Archbishop Affre, in France.
But, after all, great movements are never carried on by simple human
means alone, and never get beyond brilliant theories unless inspired and
sustained by a superhuman power, either from heaven or from hell.
Christianity had taught us the weakness of human nature, and I found
that weakness confirmed by experience. Between the power to conceive and
to execute there is a distance. Men might form the most brilliant
ideals, bring out the soundest, most attractive and perfect theories of
reform, but it would avail nothing unless endued with a power not their
own, to realize them in practice. Here was the defect in the plan of
Signor Urbini and Young Italy. It was skilfully devised, it had all of
human wisdom on its side, but it was ideal, and had no power or energy
to realize itself. No man lifteth himself by his own waistbands. Without
the Whereon to stand, Archimedes, with all his mechanical contrivances,
cannot move the world. It is necessary to have a support outside of man;
a source of power which is not human, and as the world would say, either
Divine or Satanic, to be able to accomplish any thing.
But had I not this very power in the agent I had been experimenting
with? What else was this mesmeric agent, whether a primitive, an
elemental force of nature, or indeed a superhuman spirit endowed with
intelligence and will? Mr. Winslow was, in the main, right. Mesmeric
clubs or circles must be formed on all points on which it is necessary
to operate, and batteries be erected everywhere, so that anywhere, and
at any moment, a mesmeric current may be sent instantaneously through
the masses, infusing into them a superhuman resolution and energy, and
making them stand up and march as one man. This, then, was the first
thing to be done. I would erect my mesmeric batteries in every country
in Europe, all connected by an invisible, but unbroken magnetic chain.
This plan, as far as I thought it prudent, I forthwith communicated to
Priscilla, without whose coöperation I could not carry it into effect.
She approved it, and was ready to coöperate in any way I wished. The
poor lady, I may remark, had no longer any will of her own. She had
craved liberty, and had induced me to aid her in establishing it, and
was now only my slave, bound to me in chains, which, struggle as she
might, she could not, of herself alone, break or unfasten.
CHAPTER XII.
A MISSIONARY TOUR.
The civil and political revolution I wished to effect, had apparently,
to a considerable extent, been already effected in my own country, and
the principal theatre of my operations must be in the Old World. There
is no doubt, that, at bottom, the American system does not differ from
the European. It is the same system of repression, and, though it
dispenses with kings and nobles, it asserts, with equal emphasis, the
necessity of government, of law, and morals. The American, in making his
revolution, had no socialistic dreams, no thought of resolving society
into its original elements, denying all authority, rejecting all
government, abolishing all religion and morality, and leaving every man
to do freely whatever seems right in his own eyes, however wrong it may
seem in those of his neighbor. The authors of the American Revolution,
and founders of the American States and the American Union, were any
thing but democrats in the present prevailing sense of the word.
But the progress of ideas and events has so modified the American
system, and done so much towards restoring a perfect democracy, where
the demagogues have every thing their own way, that the chance of
getting up any considerable revolutionary party, except to operate
abroad, is not worth counting. Indeed, it is not necessary to hasten the
march of things here, which is sufficiently rapid towards that point
where democracy resolves itself either into complete individualism or
into an absolute social despotism. I saw and felt this, and looked upon
my own country as more ready to assist me in my philanthropic or Satanic
efforts to revolutionize foreign countries than in need of similar
efforts on its own account.
Let me not, however, be misunderstood. Let me speak as I think and feel
as I lie here confined to my room, from which I am to be removed only to
my grave. I love not democracy, which I regard as from below, not from
above; but I love as little, perhaps much less, absolute or unlimited
monarchy,—your Czarism, Cæsarism, or Imperialism. I may think it unwise,
wrong, wicked even, to attempt to overthrow by revolutionary violence,
an absolute government, where it exists, and is not intolerable in
practice, for the sake of introducing a republic, or even a
constitutional monarchy; but I hold no government a good one, where one
man alone represents the will and the majesty of the nation. I demand a
government of estates, whenever that is practicable, but always a
representative body, with real legislative power, capable of imposing
real and effective restraints on the administration. I demand for the
nation the means of making known freely and effectively, within the
limits of the moral law, its will. I demand freedom of discussion,
deliberation, and decision. I demand the freedom of the press,
temperately, and answerable for its abuse, (which, however, must be a
real abuse;) to criticize publicly the acts of political authority, to
point out the defects of its policy, and to suggest measures for the
public good. I demand a political constitution in which the nation
governs through a king or president, and parliament or legislative body
or bodies. I am, what is sneered at by your imperialists, a
parliamentarian, a constitutionalist, and have no sympathy at all with
the Cæsarism of either France or Russia. I am no radical, no
revolutionist, no friend of sedition, but I love a wise, prudent,
well-regulated liberty, which leaves me all my power to do good, and
therefore, necessarily, to some extent, even to do evil; for if you so
bind me by the civil power that I can do no evil, you take from me my
manhood, make me an automaton, and deprive me of all power to do good
and to acquire merit. Such is my political creed, and therefore let no
man dare, because I favor not now the wild radical movements of the age,
accuse me of being an enemy to liberty, or a worshipper of Cæsarism, or
what is called absolutism.
Not seeing much to be done in my own country, I resolved to go abroad. I
required Priscilla to make herself ready to accompany me, and to take
her husband along with her. I know not whether this latter request
pleased her or not. Woman is woman even when under the power of the Evil
One; and that Priscilla loved me, and loved me madly, she hardly
pretended to conceal. I had, perhaps, loved her, too, for a moment, when