334. All that we have said concerning spiritist meetings is equally applicable to regularly constituted societies; and as we have frequently been asked for advice respecting the mode of organisation which may be usefully adopted by such bodies, we proceed to state briefly our opinion in regard to this point.

Spiritism, being in its infancy, is still too diversely regarded, and its essentials are still too little understood, by many of its adherents, to constitute any very strong bond of union among persons associated in a society of this kind. Such a bond can only exist between those who see its moral bearing, and who endeavour to make a practical application of its principles. Between those who see in it only an order of facts more or less curious, no strong bond of union can exist; its members being more interested in facts than in principles, a mere difference of opinion in regard to the phenomena would suffice to create disunion between them. On the other hand, a society that should be united in principle, and in which mutual trust and kindness should exist to the exclusion of their opposites, whose members should assemble with the sole aim of obtaining truth through the communications of superior spirits, would not only be likely to live, but would be indissoluble. But the difficulty of bringing together elements really homogeneous, has led us to the conviction that spiritists should aim at multiplying small groups, rather than at forming themselves into large agglomerations. These groups, corresponding together, visiting each other, and transmitting to one another the results arrived at by each, may, even now, form the nucleus of the great spiritist family which will one day rally to itself all opinions, and unite all men in the common brotherhood of Christian charity.

335. We have seen how important unity of sentiment is as a condition of obtaining useful results; and it is evident that this unity must be more difficult to arrive at in proportion to the number of persons admitted to membership. In small groups, the members are better known to each other, and are more sure of the new ones who are added to them from time to time; concentration of thought is more easily secured, and the meetings resemble the intimate gatherings of a single family. Large assemblies, on the contrary, exclude the possibility of intimacy through the variety of their component elements; they necessitate special places of meeting, larger pecuniary resources, and an administrative machinery not needed in small groups; the divergence of characters, ideas, and opinions, is more defined in large assemblies, and this divergence offers, to quarrelsome spirits, more facilities for sowing discord. The larger the meeting, the more difficult is it to satisfy everybody; each would like to have everything managed according to his own views and wishes, and this opposition of sentiment and of effort engenders unpleasantness and disunion that may end in dissolution. Small groups are not liable to the same fluctuations, and, besides, while the fall of a large society would present the appearance of a check to the spiritist cause which its enemies would not fail to make the most of; the dissolution of a small group nor only passes unnoticed, but is sure to be speedily followed by the formation of a score of new ones. On the other hand, it is certain that twenty groups, of from fifteen to twenty persons each, will do more for the cause of propagation than could be done by a single gathering of three or four hundred persons.

It will doubtless be said that the members of a society, who should fall out in the way we have been considering, could not be true spiritists, because the very first duty imposed by our doctrine is the practice of charity and benevolence. That is perfectly true, and such persons would be spiritists only in name (No 28); but, as there are many such, we maintain our advice.

336. Let us not forget, too, that Spiritism has its enemies, the most dangerous of whom are not those who attack it openly, but those who pretend to be its friends in order to injure it underhandedly; that such persons find it far more easy to pursue their aim of sowing discord in large assemblies than in little groups of which all the members are known to each other; and that ruptures and unfriendliness, deplorable as they are in any society, are doubly so in Spiritist Societies, because they are the negation of the very aim of their formation, and destroy the very first condition of their success.

337. "But if a society is getting upon a wrong track"; it may be asked, "have not sensible and well-meaning members the right to criticise what they regard as a departure from its true path of action, instead of maintaining a silence that might seem to imply approbation?" Undoubtedly they have this right, and it is their duty to exercise it; but criticism, dictated by true and friendly motives, should always be made in considerate and kindly terms, and, when it is not received in the same spirit, those who have proffered it should leave the society altogether; for upright and worthy men could not remain in a society the tendencies of which they disapproved.

338. Besides the notoriously ill-disposed, there are others who, through their character and temper, bring trouble with them wherever they go: too much care, therefore, cannot be exercised in regard to the introduction of new elements into a society. The most objectionable are not those who are ignorant of the subject, nor even the incredulous; conviction can only be arrived at through experience, and there are many who, knowing nothing and even doubting, are yet honestly desirous of getting at the truth. Those whom it is most important to guard against are the theorisers; those who have erected negation into a system; habitual doubters who are inaccessible to the dearest evidence; and those who believe that they alone are capable of seeing the light, look disdainfully on all who differ with them, and are bent on making everyone conform to their opinion. We must not allow ourselves to be taken in by the pretended desire of such persons for enlightenment; for not a few of them would rather remain in error than admit that they had been mistaken. It is also wise to have as little as possible to do with tiresome talkers, who delight in contradicting and who must always have the last word; such people would only cause us to lose our time without benefit to themselves, for advanced spirits have no sympathy with idle words.

339. In view of the necessity of avoiding everything that could give rise to confusion and trouble, Spiritist Societies should adopt proper measures for ensuring order and harmony, and for ridding themselves of the fomentors of disorder. Small private groups need only a few simple rules for determining the order of their meetings; regularly constituted societies require a more complete organisation, though, even in their case, the simpler the arrangements adopted, the greater will be the probability of success.

340. Spiritist Societies, whether large or small, have to guard, in all their meetings, against another danger. Fomenters of discord are to be found, not only among their members, but also among the denizens of the invisible world. Just as there are Protecting Spirits for societies, towns and peoples, so there are maleficent spirits who attach themselves to groups of persons as they do to individuals, and whose insidious action, if not promptly resisted, will spread obsession among their members like a contagious disease, showing itself in the mediums by the disturbance of their medianimity, and, among the rest of their members, by a sentiment of hostility, a perversion of the moral sense, and the destruction of harmony. Under these circumstances we must make a strong appeal to good spirits for aid in bringing back all the members of the group to a sentiment of charity, and in opening the eyes of the victims of evil spirits to the real nature of the influence under which they have fallen. The first of these attracts the help of spirits of high degree; the second discourages evil spirits by showing them that their machinations are discovered and resisted.

341. The influence of surroundings and conditions, as we have already shown, is a consequence of the nature of spirits and of their mode of action on men. The conditions necessary for attracting good spirits and for keeping off evil ones may be summed up as follows:

-Perfect community of views and sentiments;

-Reciprocity of kindly feeling among the members;

-Abnegation of every sentiment contrary to Christian charity;

-A general desire for truth;

-Exclusion from the sittings of everything like frivolity;

-Concentration of thought and desire in the pursuit of the common end, and in the evocation of the spirits whose presence is desired;

-Co-operation of the mediums, with the disinterested desire to be useful, without vanity, ambition, or any other selfish motive.

Are these conditions unattainable? We think not; we believe, on the contrary, that centres combining these conditions already exist in many places, and that they will be greatly multiplied in course of time; and we do not hesitate to assert, on the one hand, that their multiplication will constitute a powerful means of propagating a belief in the reality of spirit manifestations, and, on the other hand, that the bond thus established among their members will tend to generalise the sentiment of human solidarity, and will thus contribute to the advancement of the cause of progress in general.

342. It would be an error to suppose that meetings for obtaining physical manifestations are exempted from the need of fraternal harmony, for we have proof to the contrary in the fact that manifestations of this nature, even when sought for with the aid of a powerful medium, cannot be obtained amidst unfriendly and inharmonious surroundings, because any divergence or hostility of feeling among those present necessarily paralyses the action of the spirits and impedes their manifestations.

Physical manifestations, as we have already said, are of vast utility; they open out an immense field to the observer, for they constitute an order of phenomena altogether apart from our ordinary experience, and of which the consequences are incalculable. Spiritist Societies, as well as private groups, may therefore occupy themselves seriously and usefully with these phenomena; but they cannot attain their end, whether of study or of experimentation, unless under favourable conditions on the part of those present. The first of these conditions is, not faith, but the sincere desire to ascertain the truth; the second is restriction as regards numbers, so as to avoid bringing together heterogeneous elements. Although physical manifestations are generally produced by spirits of comparatively slight advancement, they none the less occur for a providential purpose, and their production is superintended and favoured by spirits of high degree, whenever a useful result is to be attained thereby; harmony of feeling and concentration of thought are therefore important aids to that production.