TO the official and officious enemies of Superstition, there remained one last weapon to be employed, one final struggle to be attempted. If the battle seemed to be definitely lost in the Pyrenees, they might possibly reconquer their position at Paris, and make themselves masters of public opinion in France and in Europe, before the cosmopolite band of tourists and bathers, on their return to their own firesides, should have spread everywhere their vexations impressions and severe judgments. A formidable campaign was organized by the irreligious press of Paris, the province and foreign countries, against the events at Lourdes and the Bishop’s pastoral letter.
While the generals of Free-thought were engaged in the decisive combat on this vast battle-field, the Prefect of the Hautes-Pyrenees, like Kellermann at Valmy, received instructions to maintain his line of operations―come what might―not to give way an inch and not to capitulate, at any price, in face of the enemy. They well knew Baron Massy’s intrepidity, and were aware that neither arguments, nor reason, nor moral considerations, nor the spectacle of the most astounding Miracles would triumph over his invincible firmness. He would hold his ground even though it were crumbling beneath his feet. Even the absurdity of their position would be ably defended by him.
The Journal des Debats, the Siecle, the Presse, the Indépendance Belge, and several foreign journals struck the blow simultaneously, and rushed to the attack with violence. The most insignificant journals of the most insignificant countries, deemed it an honor to figure in this muster of shields against the Supernatural. We find, in fact, among those which took part in the struggle, even a paltry little newspaper of Amsterdam, the Amsterdaamsche Courant.
Some, as the Presse for instance, by the pen of M. Guéroult, or the Siecle by that of M. M. Bénard and Jourdan, attacked Miracles in their very principle, declaring that they had had their day, that they did not enter into any discussion with them, and that in a question already judged a priori by the great lights of philosophy, to examine was inconsistent with the dignity of Free Examination. “Miracles,” observed M. Guéroult, “belong to a civilization which is fast disappearing. If God does not change, the idea which mankind forms of Him changes from epoch to epoch in proportion to the degree of light and morality they have attained. Ignorant people, who have no suspicion of the important harmony of the laws of the universe, see everywhere those laws reversed. From day to day God appears to them, talks to them, converses with them and sends angels to them. In proportion as Societies are enlightened, men become educated, and the sciences of observation come to counterbalance the flights of the imagination, all this mythology vanishes. Man is not less religious on this account; he is in reality more so, but it is after another fashion. He sees no longer face to face gods or goddesses, angels or demons. He strives to decipher the divine will written in the laws of the world. Miracles, which at certain epochs, might be the conditions of faith and serve as exterior coverings of deep truths, have become in our days the bugbears of all serious convictions.” M. Guéroult declared that if he were told of a most striking supernatural fact as being in the process of accomplishment in his immediate neighborhood, on the Place de la Concorde, “he would not go out of his way to see it. If such adventures can take their place for an instant in the superstitious baggage of the ignorant masses, they do but provoke in men of enlightenment―in those, whose opinion, in process of time, becomes that of the world―the repulsion of distrust and the smile of disdain.” Other journals devoted themselves gallantly to the disfigurement of facts. At the same time that it attacked the very principle of miracles, the Siecle, in spite of the evidence adduced, and the vast body of water which the Spring produced daily, still stuck, in its capacity of a very advanced journal, to the hackneyed theory of hallucination and oozing. “It seems to us a matter of difficulty,” observed M. Bénard, with all the pomp of learning, “how they managed to manufacture a miracle out of the hallucination, true or false, of a miserable little girl of fourteen years of age, and the oozing of some pure water in a Grotto.”
As to the miraculous cures they disposed of them by a single word. “The hydropathists also pretend to effect the most brilliant cures with pure water, but they have not yet proclaimed from the house-tops that they work Miracles.”
But the most curious specimen of the good faith of the Free-thinkers, or of their sagacious investigation of this matter, is to be found in the Dutch journal we named above, the grave narration of which was reproduced in the French papers. This friend of enlightenment instructed the world and recounted the events which had occurred as follows:
“A new manifestation, destined to rouse and nourish the ardor of the faithful for the worship of the Blessed Virgin, was imminent. The deliberations of the Bishops on this point resulted in the preparation of the famous Miracle of Lourdes. Everyone knows that the Bishop of Tarbes has appointed a Commission charged with investigating the fact. The so-called conclusions of the Report of the Commission, composed of ecclesiastics and individuals paid by the Clergy, were prepared long before the first meeting. The pretended shepherd-girl Bernadette is not an innocent shepherd-girl, but a young girl belonging to the city, of highly cultivated mind and crafty intellect, who has passed several months in a nunnery where she has been duly tutored in the part she was to play. There, before a small number of confederates, trial-representations were given long before she was brought on the public scene. As we see, nothing was wanting to this comedy, not even rehearsals. If at any time there happens to be a dearth of dramatists at Paris, persons may be found among the superior Clergy who will fill the gap in the most superior style. Besides, the liberal press has turned the whole affair into ridicule from beginning to end, and it is very possible that the Clergy, for their own interest, will recognize the necessity of being prudent.” The information obtained by the journalists could only be compared with that which had captivated the simple faith of his Excellency, M. Rouland. The public, as we see, were not treated more respectfully than a Minister. In this manner is not infrequently formed the opinion of those who are termed by M. Guéroult, in his article, “enlightened men,” doubtless in allusion to the torrent of light which the press throws upon them.
