Family Conversations from Beyond the Grave - Eugene Scribe (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies) During the discussion among the spirits regarding Buffon’s aphorism:
“The style is the man”, published in our previous number, Mr.
Scribe’s name was cited and that has certainly given him reason to come
to us although he had not been invited. Without participating in the debate
he spontaneously gave the following dissertation which in turn motivated
the dialogue that follows his message.
“It would be desirable that the theater where great and small go to
learn was a little bit less concerned with flattering the taste for the easy
customs and the exaltation of venial aspects of an enthusiastic youth, and
instead that the social betterment would be sought through moral and elevated
plays where a fine jest would replace the coarse cooking salt served
up by the vaudeville act of the day. But no; according to the theater and
the public, human passions are flattered. Here they promote worker’s coat
instead of the traditional black tie transformed into the scapegoat of all
social miseries; over there the worker’s coat are hated and stained because
it hides both the scoundrel and the murderer. Lies on both sides.
Some authors even began to take the bull by the horns and like Émile
Augier, pinning down money dealers in the pillory of public opinion. Bah!
Who cares! That does not stop the public from swarming into the theaters
where a shameless figure and without any decency, covers the costs of the
spectacle. Ah! It is time to have the spiritist ideas promoted in all social
layers and then the theatre will be moralized itself and the presentation
of women will be replaced by conscious plays, consciously represented by
talented artists. Everyone will benefit from that.
Let us hope that a dramatic writer may soon show up, capable of expelling
from the theater and from the enthusiasm of the public, all these
imposters and immoral pimps of “The ladies of the camellias” of all sorts.
Your work is to spread Spiritism that will produce such memorable result.
E. Scribe
1 – In a communication dictated a short while ago to Ms. J… and read at the Society you say that what made your reputation on Earth did not do the same in heavens and that you could have better employed the God given gifts. Could you kindly elaborate on that and tell us what is the reproachable part of your work? It seems to us that they have a moral side and that in a certain way they paved the way to progress. A. – Everything is relative. Today, in the elevated world where I am I no longer see with the earthly eyes and I think that with the gifts I had received from the Almighty I should have done more for humanity. For that reason I said I had not worked for heavens. But I cannot express in a few words what I wanted to tell you on that occasion for you know that I wasn’t much wordily.
2 – You also say that you would like to produce a more serious and useful work but that such joy was denied to you. Is it like a Spirit that you would like to do that? In that case how would you proceed so that people could take advantage of that? A. – My God! In the simplest way adopted by the Spirits: inspiring writers that frequently believe to have taken that from their inner self, ah sometimes so empty!
3 – Can you tell us which subject would you propose to deal with? A. – I did not have a determined objective but you know well that we like to do what we have not done before. I would like to write about philosophy and Spiritism because I dedicated too much to realism. Do not interpret the word realism at it is understood today. I only wanted to say that I dedicated myself more to the subject that pleases more the sight and the ears of frivolous minds of Earth, than what could satisfy serious and philosophical souls.
4 – You told Ms. J… that you were not happy. You may not have the fate of the blessed ones but a few moments ago, in the commit, they mentioned a number of actions that you practiced and that were certainly taken into account. A. – No, I am not happy because ah I still have ambition and since I was a scholar on Earth I wanted also to take part on the assembly of the elected ones.
5 – It seems that in the absence of the work that you would like to have done you can still reach the same objective to you and the others, by coming here to do a kind of dissertation. A. – I ask for no more than that if I am allowed but I ignore that and still don’t have a well-defined position in the spiritual world. It is all so new to me that spent my life marrying lieutenants to rich heirs that I still did not have time to get to know and admire the ethereal world that was forgotten in my incarnation. I will then return if the great Spirits allow me so.
6 – Have you already seen Mrs. De Girardin in your world, she used to be involved a lot with Spirits and evocations? A. – She was kind enough to come and wait for me at the transition to the true life with Spirits from our Pleiades.
7 – Is she happier than you? A. – Her Spirit is happier because she contributed to the works of education of infancy written by her mother, Sophie Gay.
Observation by Erastus: No. She is happier because she struggled whereas Scribe was led by the current of his wealthy life.
8 – Do you eventually go to the representations of your work, as well as Mrs. Girardin or Casimir Delavigne? A. – How can we not visit those dear children that we left on Earth? It still is one of our pure pleasures.
Observation: Death then does not separate those that were familiar on Earth. The meet again, still keep interest for what was the object of their concerns. They say that when they remember what used to make them happy they also remember what made them suffer and that alters their happiness. Such memory produces an absolutely contrary effect because the satisfaction of being free from the earthly evils is a pleasure proportionate to the contrast. The benefits of health are better appreciated after a disease, calmness after the storm. Doesn’t the warrior, on returning home, enjoys to tell the stories of the dangers and fatigues that were experienced? Hence, the memory of earthly struggles is a satisfaction as long as the Spirits were successful. But such memory is lost far away or at least diminishes in importance to their eyes as they free themselves form the material fluids of the inferior worlds and approach perfection. To them such memories are remote dreams like the memories of childhood to an adult person.
