A Pilgrimage to La Salette: A Critical Examination of All of the Facts - Paperback

by Brother Hermenegild Tosf (Editor), J. Spencer Northcote Ma (Author)

he following pages are printed in their present form in consequence of the unexpected degree of publicity which has been given to the subject of which they treat. The circumstances of the case are briefly these: about two months ago, the author and one of his friends, Mr. Francis Ward, Solicitor, of Bristol, were arranging to take a short holiday; some members of the author's family had occasion about the same time to travel across France, and were in want of an escort; the author had long had a, desire to visit the mountain of La Salette, Sanctuaries of our Blessed Lady being a subject to which his attention had been for some time especially called, and on which he had both read and written mucB;- it was determined therefore that a visit to La Salette should be the end and object of their journey, which was so timed that they should spend the anniversary of the apparition upon the mountain itself. On their return, numerous friends were naturally anxious to learn the result of their inquiries; and to prevent the tedious repetition of the same tale, the author was invited to give a lecture upon the subject in the Catholic schoolroom of the town. This lecture was intended solely for Catholics, and notice of it was given at a time and place where none but Catholics were present, with an intimation that the sum received at the doors would be devoted to a local Catholic charity. By what means knowledge of the intended lecture came to the ears of the newspaper reporters, the author has not heard; but when their presence in the lecture-room was mentioned to him, he did not feel that this was any reason for disappointing those Catholics who were already assembled. The lecture, therefore, was given, and reports of it, for the most part incorrect and imperfect, appeared in the local papers. It was not until one of these maimed reports found its way into the Time, that the author felt called upon to depart from his original plan of publishing the narrative only in two consecutive numbers of the Rambler. Under these new circumstances, however, of unlooked for notoriety, he deemed it due both to himself and to his subject that no time should be lost in laying before the public a full and correct report of the whole history. Nothing more than this has been here attempted. The author has confined himself to a faithful narration of the facts that have occurred, and a candid exposition of the argument which may be deduced from those facts; and he believes that he has thereby dODe all that is necessary to convince unprejudiced minds of the reality of the apparition. He is well aware that to the great majority of Englishmen, the fact that an alleged event is of a supernatural character, is at once conclusive evidence against its existence; "we are sure," they say, "that all such narrates are necessarily false, because we are satisfied on a priori grounds that they could not possibly be true." For persons who argue thus, it is enough to say that the author has not written. To those only who are in a condition to listen to evidence, and to form a really fair and independent judgment upon the facts that will be laid before them, the following pages are addressed, and to them they are submitted with confidence.