13. Necromancyb

An analogous and more recent fact has been certified to ourselves by ocular witnesses: a friend, betraying the confidence of one who had just died, tore up a trust-deed he had signed, whereupon the dead person rose up and lived to defend the rights of his chosen heirs, which this false friend sought to set aside; the guilty person went mad, and the risen man compassionately allowed him a pension. When the Saviour raised up the daughter of Jairus, He was alone with three faithful and favoured disciples: He dismissed the noisy mourners, saying: “The girl is not dead but sleeping.” Then, in the presence only of the father, mother and the three disciples, that is to say, in a perfect circle of confidence and desire, He took the child's hand, drew her suddenly up and cried to her: “Young girl, I say to thee, arise!” The undecided soul, doubtless in the immediate vicinity of the body, and possibly regretting its extreme youth and beauty, was surprised by the accents of that voice which was heard by her father and mother, trembling with hope and on their knees; it returned into the body; the maiden opened her eyes, rose up and the Master commanded immediately that food should be given her, so that the functions of life might begin a new cycle of absorption and regeneration. The history of Eliseus raising up the daughter of the Shunamite, and of St. Paul raising Eutychus are facts of the same order; the resurrection of Dorcas by St. Peter, narrated so simply in the Acts of the Apostles, is also a history the truth of which it is difficult to dispute with reason. Apollonius of Tyana seems to have accomplished similar miracles, while we ourselves have been the witness of facts which are not wanting in analogy with these; but the spirit of the century in which we live imposes in this respect the most careful reserve upon us, the thaumaturge being liable to a very indifferent reception at the hands of a discerning public - all which does not hinder the earth from revolving or Galileo from having been a great man. The resurrection of a dead person is the masterpiece of magnetism, because it needs for its accomplishment the exercise of a kind of sympathetic omnipotence. It is possible in the exhaustion of death by congestion, by suffocation, by exhaustion or by hysteria. Eutychus, who was resuscitated by St. Paul after falling from a third storey, had doubtless suffered no serious internal injuries, but had succumbed to asphyxia, occasioned by the rush of air during his fall, or alternatively to violent shock and terror. In a parallel case, he who feels conscious of the power and faith necessary for such an achievement must, like the apostle, practise insufflation, mouth to mouth, combined with contact of the extremities for restoration of warmth. Were it simply a matter of what the ignorant call miracle, Elias and St. Paul, who made use of the same procedure, would have spoken in the name of Jehovah or of Christ. It is enough sometimes to take the person by the hand and raise them quickly, summoning them in a loud voice. This procedure, which succeeds frequently in swoons, may even have effect upon the dead, when the magnetizer who exercises it is endowed with powerfully sympathetic speech and possesses what may be called eloquence of tone. He must be also tenderly loved or greatly respected by the person on whom he would operate, and he must perform the work with a great burst of faith and will, which we do not always find ourselves to possess in the first shock of a great sorrow. What is vulgarly called Necromancy has nothing in common with resurrection, and it is at least highly doubtful whether, in operations connected with this application of magical power, we really come into correspondence with the souls of the dead whom we evoke.