Balthazar, the Gastronome Spirit 2nd conversation
One of our subscribers read in The Spiritist Review last November about the evocation of the spirit known by the name Balthazar and thought that he could be a person of his acquaintance, whose life and character coincided perfectly in all details. He was likely to be the one who had also used a pseudo name in another manifestation, thus he asks us to verify in the next evocation. According to him, Balthazar was no one but Mr. G… de la R…, known for his eccentricities, his fortune and gastronomical tastes.
1. Evocation. – A. Ah! I am here. But you never have something to offer me. You are not, definitely, very kind.
2. Could you tell us what we can offer you to please you? – A. Oh! Not much: some tea; a little and sophisticated dinner; I would enjoy that better and the ladies here, not forgetting the gentlemen, would not reject that either, you must agree. 3. Have you met a certain Mr. G… de la R…? – A. I think you are curious.
4. No; it is not curiosity; please tell us if you knew him. – A. You then want to know my secret.
5. Then, are you Mr. G… de la R…? Well! Yes, but without lunch.
6. It was not us who discovered the secret. It was one of our friends, present here. – A. He is a chatterbox. He should have stayed quiet.
7. How can this upset you? – A. It cannot but I would have preferred not to be identified so soon. That is okay. I will not hide my tastes because of that. If you only knew about the dinner parties that I used to throw you would agree that they were good and had a value that is no longer appreciated.
8. No, I don’t know. But let us speak more seriously, please, and let us leave the dinners and feasts aside, since they teach us nothing. Our objective is to learn and that is why we ask you to please tell us what was the feeling that led you to make your colleagues to have dinner, on the day of your graduation as a lawyer, in a room decorated like a mortuary chamber? – A. Don’t you notice from all my eccentricities of character a stain of sadness caused by the mistakes of Society, particularly the pride of the one in which I lived since birth, enjoying fortune? I tried to baffle my heart through all imaginable crazy things, and that is why I was called mad, extravagant. I couldn’t care less. Each time when I left those original feasts I would promptly do a good deed, ignored by all, and that was okay with me: my heart felt better and men were also happy. I laughed at myself while making fun of them. What would you say about a dinner in which each guest had a coffin behind their backs! I had a lot of fun with their horrified faces. As you see, it was apparent madness added to a sad heart.
9. What is your current opinion about the Divinity? – A. I did not wait until I left the body to believe in God. The only thing is that the body that I loved so much has materialized my spirit to a point that it will take a long time for me to be able to break all earthly bonds, every passion that attached me to Earth.
OBSERVATION: As it can be seen, from an apparently frivolous subject we can still obtain useful teachings. Isn’t there something eminently instructive about this spirit, that by keeping his corporeal instincts in the spiritual world he acknowledges that the abusive passions have in a way materialized his spirit?
