Grammar and the SpiritsA serious grammatical error was found in The Spirits’ Book by a knowledgeable
critic who sent us the following note:
“I read on page 384, § 911, line 23 in The Spirits’ Book: ‘There are
many people who say: I want; but their wish only shows on their lips;
they (masculine form in French-Ils) say they wish but they are very
happy that it is otherwise.’ Had you written: ‘They (feminine form in
French-Elles) want and are very happy that it is otherwise’, don’t you
think that the French language would have benefited from that? I am
led to believe that your writing spirit is a fraud, inducing language
mistakes. Do promptly punish him and in particular correct him.”
We regret the fact that we cannot acknowledge the author of such observation.
No doubt it is out of modesty and to avoid our recognition that
he forgot to provide his name and address, just signing: A spirit, protector
of the French language. Since it seems that this gentleman, or spirit, takes
the time to read our work, we beg the good spirits to have him reading
our response.
It is obvious that the gentleman knows that the noun person in French is
feminine and that the adjective and pronouns agree in gender and number
with the nouns to which they refer. Unfortunately one cannot learn everything in school, particularly referring to matters of the French language.
If the gentleman who declares to be the protector of our language
had transposed the limits of Lhomond’s Grammar he would know that we
find the following in Regnard’s: ‘Although those three persons had very different
interests they (masculine form in French) were tormented by the same
passion, after all.’ He would also find this in Vaugelas: ‘Persons (feminine
form in French) consumed by virtues have such a righteous spirit in all things
and such a judicious attention that precludes them from being slanderous
(masculine form in French).’ Therefore the rule found in the Grammaire
Normale des Examens, by Mr. Lévi Alvarès and Mr. Rivail, Boniface
edition, etc. ‘Sometimes one may employ the masculine pronoun ‘il’ (he in
French) by syllepsis and thus replace it by the feminine noun personne (person).
Such substitution may only occur when the thought involving the word
‘personne’ is not exclusively related to women, and also when the pronoun ‘il’
is so distant that it will not hurt the ears.’
Regarding the pronoun personne (which can also mean nobody in French),
Boniface makes the following observation: ‘However, when the pronoun
personne specifically designates a woman the adjective that refers to her may
occur in the feminine. It can be said: Personne n’est plus jolie que Rosine
(Nobody is more beautiful than Rosina – the word jolie in French is feminine –
translator note).
Hence, the spirits that wrote the statement discussed above are not as ignorant
as intended by the gentleman. We even believe that they know better
than he does, although in general the spirits are not too worried about
grammatical accuracy, like some of our scholars who are not always first
rank at spelling. Moral of the story: It is better to know before criticizing.
In any case and to calm the scruples of those who don’t know much and
may think that the whole Doctrine is jeopardized by a spelling mistake,
real or imaginary, we have revised the fifth edition of The Spirits’ Book
that has just been released because:
‘... Sans peine, aux rimeurs hasardeux
L’usage encor, je-crois, laisse le choix des deux’
… Without any harm, the use still allows the daring poets,
I believe, to choose between the two.
It is really interesting to see the extent to which the adversaries of Spiritism
will go to attack it with every weapon that they can get their hands on. It
is really amazing that despite the multitude of darts propelled, despite the
stones thrown on its path, and despite the traps laid down in its course,
nobody has found a way of stopping its progress and Spiritism conquers
a frightening space to those who believe for it to be possible to knock it
down by a simple snap of the fingers. After the snaps, the series of athletes
have tried with their blows; Spiritism has not been shaken but only ran
faster.
