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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seen and Unseen
+
+Author: E. Katharine Bates
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2007 [EBook #21041]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEN AND UNSEEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Storer, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Inconsistency between TOC and Chapter headings
+have been retained as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+                            SEEN AND UNSEEN
+
+                                  BY
+                          E. KATHARINE BATES
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                        DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+                        214-220 EAST 23RD STREET
+
+                                 1908
+
+
+
+
+                   _First Published    July    1907_
+
+                   _Second Impression  October 1907_
+
+                   _Third Impression   March   1908_
+
+                               ----------
+
+                   _Popular Edition            1908_
+
+
+
+
+                                  To
+
+                               C. E. B.
+
+                             IN MEMORY OF
+
+                      ONE WHO LOVED AND SUFFERED
+
+                   AND IN THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE
+
+                       OF A JOYFUL MEETING WITH
+
+                         HIM, AND WITH OTHERS
+
+                           WHO HAVE CROSSED
+
+                               THE BAR
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+          INTRODUCTION                                  ix
+      I.  EARLY RECOLLECTIONS                            1
+     II.  INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886          13
+    III.  AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND                     49
+     IV.  HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK               71
+      V.  INDIA, 1890-1891                              80
+     VI.  SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892                       97
+          AN INTERLUDE                                 129
+    VII.  LADY CAITHNESS AND THE AVENUE WAGRAM         144
+   VIII.  FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON                     161
+     IX.  1896, HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD   176
+      X.  FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA               195
+     XI.  A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND                  218
+    XII.  1900-1901, ODDS AND ENDS                     232
+   XIII.  1903, A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA                260
+    XIV.  A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY    274
+          APPENDIX                                     298
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Many years ago, whilst living at Oxford, I was invited by a very old
+friend, who had recently taken his degree, to a river picnic; with
+Nuneham, I think, as its alleged object.
+
+Unfortunately, the day proved unfavourable, and we returned in open
+boats, also with open umbrellas; a generally drenched and bedraggled
+appearance, and nothing to cheer us on the physical plane except a
+quantity of iced coffee which had been ordered in anticipation of a
+tropical day.
+
+Under these rather trying conditions I can remember getting a good
+deal of amusement out of the companions in the special boat which
+proved to be my fate. Our host, being a clever and interesting man
+himself, had collected clever and interesting people round him, on the
+"Birds of a Feather" principle, and I happened to sit between two
+ladies, one the wife (now, alas! the widow) of a man who was to become
+later on one of our most famous bishops; the other--her bosom friend
+and deadly rival--the wife of an equally distinguished Oxford don.
+
+The iced coffee combined with the pouring rain may have been partly to
+blame, but certainly the conversation that went on between the two
+ladies, across my umbrella, was decidedly _Feline_.
+
+To pass the time we were valiantly endeavouring to play "Twenty
+Questions" from the bottom of the boat, and the Bishop's widow was
+asking the questions. She had triumphantly elicited the fact that we
+had thought of a _cinder_--and an historical cinder--and the twentieth
+and last permissible question was actually hovering on her lips. "It
+was the cinder that Richard Coeur de Lion's horse fell upon," she
+said eagerly. Of course, we all realised that this was a most obvious
+"slip" in the case of so highly educated a woman; but the Bosom Friend
+could not resist putting out the velvet paw: "A little confusion in
+the centuries, I think, dear," she said sweetly. The unfortunate
+questioner practically "never smiled again" during _that_ expedition.
+But a still more crushing blow was in store for her.
+
+The conversation turned later upon questions of style in writing or
+speaking, and with perhaps pardonable revenge, she said to her rival:
+
+"I always notice that you say 'one' so often--'_one_ does this or
+that,' and so forth."
+
+"Really, dear? That is curious. Now I always notice that _you_ say 'I'
+so continually!"
+
+The cut and thrust came with the rapidity of expert fencers.
+
+And this brings me to the real gist of my story.
+
+It is considered the most heinous offence "_to say I_," and every
+conceivable device is resorted to, no matter how clumsy, in order to
+prevent the catastrophe of a writer being forced to speak of himself in
+the first person.
+
+To my mind, there is a good deal of affectation and pose about this, and
+in anything of an autobiography it becomes insupportable.
+
+"The writer happened upon one occasion to be present, etc." "He who pens
+these unworthy pages was once travelling to Scotland, etc. etc."
+
+Which of us has not groaned under these self-conscious euphemisms? "Why
+not say '_I_' and have done with it?" we are wont to exclaim in
+desperation after pages of this kind of thing.
+
+Now I propose "to say _I_" and "have done with it," and not waste time
+in trying to find ingenious and wearisome equivalents.
+
+That is my first point.
+
+Secondly, in this record of psychic experiences I mean to keep clear of
+another intolerable nuisance--I mean the continual introduction of
+capital letters and long dashes in order to conceal identity in such
+episodes.
+
+The motive is admirable, but the method is detestable.
+
+One can only judge by personal experience. I know that when I read a
+rather involved narrative of sufficiently involved psychic doings, and
+Mr Q----, Miss B----, Mr C----, and Mr C.'s maternal aunt Mrs G----
+figure wildly in it, I am driven desperate in trying to force some idea
+of personality into these meaningless letters of the alphabet.
+
+To conceal the identity of Mr Brown, who was once guilty of seeing a
+ghost, may be and most frequently is, a point of honour, but why not
+call him Mr Smith, and say he lived in Buckinghamshire, and thus rouse
+a definite mental conception in your reader's brain, instead of
+calling him Mr Z. of W----, and thus setting up mental irritation
+before the ghost comes upon the scene?
+
+Having cleared the ground so far, I will now mention my third and last
+point.
+
+It is usual when writing reminiscences of any kind to anticipate your
+reader's criticisms, and try to increase his interest in your
+experiences by a sort of false humility in deprecating their value.
+The idea is doubtless founded on a sound knowledge of Human Nature,
+but it may easily fall into exaggeration. Nothing is, of course, so
+disastrous as to praise beforehand a person, a picture, a voice, a
+poem, a book, or anything else in the wide world, in which we wish our
+friends to take any special interest. Such a course naturally rouses
+unconscious antagonism in poor, fallen Human Nature before we even see
+or hear the object of our later bitter aversion. But there is a medium
+in all things, and it is scarcely polite to put the intelligence of
+our readers sufficiently low to be manipulated by such obvious arts.
+
+Moreover, it has been well said that the history of any one human
+being--truthfully told (I would add, intelligently assimilated)--would
+be of enthralling interest and value. If this be true on the ordinary
+physical, intellectual, and spiritual planes it should not be _less_
+true, surely, where a fourth plane of psychic experience is added to the
+other three?
+
+Then again, there is no need to apologise for experiences limited in
+interest or in amount.
+
+These terms are of necessity comparative. For example, my experiences
+are limited compared with those of some people I have known, who have
+been either more highly endowed with psychic gifts or who have
+considered it advisable to cultivate such gifts to a high point of
+efficiency; or lastly, with whom opportunities for experience have been
+more numerous. But, on the other hand, my experiences have been great
+compared with those of some people at least equally interested in these
+subjects.
+
+Geographically speaking, I have been peculiarly fortunate, having had
+the opportunity of witnessing phenomena of this kind in many countries,
+differing widely in Race, Climate, and other conditions.
+
+I have been told many times that I could develop clairvoyance,
+clairaudience, or sit as a materialising medium, but have had no desire
+to go further in these matters.
+
+I have seen quite as much as I wish to see, I have heard quite as much
+as I wish to hear, and should be very sorry personally to increase
+either of these psychic possibilities by the practice that makes more
+perfect.
+
+Some consider this lamentable cowardice and want of faith. Each one must
+judge for himself in such a matter. Faith in this connection may easily
+degenerate into foolhardiness.
+
+"Greater is He that is for you than all those who are against you" has
+been quoted to me again and again in deprecation of my attitude in these
+things. It has always appeared to me a matter in which individual
+judgment must be exercised, and upon which no broad and general lines of
+conduct can be laid down.
+
+One man can cycle fifty miles in the day, and dance all night, and be
+the better for the experience. Another attempting the same feat, but
+not having the same constitution, might do himself lasting injury. It is
+exactly the same thing on the psychic plane. Our psychic constitutions
+differ at least as much as our physical ones. We may overtax either, and
+with similar consequences. We have no right to expect protection or
+immunity on either plane, where we neglect the warnings of that inner
+monitor who is always our best guide.
+
+As a final word of warning, I would say: "Beware of your motives in
+cultivating psychic capacity." It is so easy to mistake love of
+notoriety, even in one's own little _milieu_, for love of Truth. There
+is always an eager, curious crowd anxious to get "messages" or "hear
+raps," or to see any other little psychic parlour tricks which we may be
+induced to play for their benefit. At first one feels it is almost a
+sacred duty to satisfy, or attempt to satisfy, these psychic cormorants;
+but later, wisdom comes with experience.
+
+At one time I felt bound to collect my friends and acquaintances round
+me and tell them all I knew upon these subjects, and doubtless it was
+right to do so whilst I "_felt that way_," to quote an expressive
+Americanism.
+
+But the inevitable day came when I realised that I had spent my strength
+and my muffins in vain; for these gatherings generally took the form of
+tea-parties, not too large to cope with single-handed--say from ten to
+twenty people. They came at 4.30 P.M. and stayed till 8 P.M., when most
+of them remembered they ought to have dined at 7.45 P.M., and went away
+saying "How immensely they had enjoyed themselves," and "How
+interesting it all was."
+
+And so far as any permanent good came of it, there the matter ended.
+
+Believe me, when people are prepared for this development of their finer
+senses _they will come to you_. There is no need to go into the highways
+and hedges and compel them to come in. If they do come they won't
+stay--why should they? _They have not got there yet_, to use a
+thoroughly hateful and ungrammatical but absolutely accurate sentence.
+
+If you try to carry them on the back of your own knowledge and
+experiences, you can do so for a time, but eventually they will struggle
+down, or you will put them down from sheer fatigue, and then they will
+run back to the spot where you found them, and thence work out their own
+psychic evolution either in this or in some future term of existence.
+
+When their interest is exhausted--to say nothing of your patience--you
+will hear that they have called you a crank and lamented your "wasting
+your time over such nonsense." That will be _your_ share of the
+transaction.
+
+I know this _because I have been there--moi qui vous parle_.
+
+"Let every man be persuaded in his own mind," but don't try to persuade
+anyone else. When the right time comes he will ask your help and counsel
+without any persuasion.
+
+Of course, I am speaking only of private work. Lectures and congresses
+are of the greatest possible value; for no one knows whom he may be
+addressing on these occasions, and the seed may be falling into soil
+prepared, but often unconsciously prepared, for its reception.
+
+To sum up the whole matter:
+
+1. Be strong in the conviction that eventually good must always conquer
+evil, but remember also that you individually may have a very bad time
+meanwhile if you go amongst mixed influences and evoke that which at
+present you are not strong enough to withstand.
+
+2. Know when to speak and when to be silent.
+
+3. Receive what comes to you spontaneously, but never allow yourself to
+be cajoled or persuaded into developing your mediumship to gratify
+curiosity; not even on the plea of scientific duty, unless you are fully
+conscious in your own mind that this is the special work which is laid
+upon you.
+
+And bearing these three simple rules in mind, we may go forward with
+brave hearts and level heads on the Quest which has been so plainly
+opened out to us in this twentieth century.
+                                              E. KATHARINE BATES.
+
+
+
+
+SEEN AND UNSEEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
+
+
+Having set myself to write a personal record of psychic experiences, I
+must "begin at the beginning," as the children say.
+
+When only nine years old I lost my father--the Rev. John Ellison Bates
+of Christ Church, Dover--and my earliest childish experience of anything
+supernormal was connected with him. He had been an invalid all my short
+life, and I was quite accustomed to spending days at a time without
+seeing him. His last illness, which lasted about a fortnight, had
+therefore no special significance for me, and my nurse, elder brother,
+and godmother, who were the only three people in the house at the time,
+gave strict orders that none of the servants should give me a hint of
+his being dangerously ill. These instructions were carefully carried
+out, and yet I dreamed three nights running--the three nights preceding
+his decease--that he was dead. I was entirely devoted to my father, who
+had been father and mother to me in one, and these dreams no doubt broke
+the terrible shock of his death to me. How well I remember, that cold,
+dreary February morning, being hastily dressed by candle-light by
+strange hands, and then my dear old nurse (who had been by his bedside
+all night) coming in and telling me the sad news with tears streaming
+down her cheeks. It seemed no news at the moment; and yet I had spoken
+of my dreams to no one, "for fear they should come true," having some
+pathetic, childish notion that silence on my part might avert the
+catastrophe. In all his previous and numerous illnesses I had never
+dreamt that any special one was fatal.
+
+During the next few years of school life my psychic faculty remained
+absolutely in abeyance. In a fashionable school, surrounded by
+chattering companions and the usual paraphernalia of school work,
+classes, and masters, etc., I can, however, recall many a time when
+suddenly everything around me became unreal and I alone seemed to have
+any true existence; and even that was for the time merged in a rather
+unpleasant dream, from which I hoped soon to wake up. This sensation was
+quite distinct from the one--also well known to me in those days and
+later--of having "done all this before," and knowing just what somebody
+was about to say.
+
+Probably both these sensations are common to most young people. It would
+be interesting to note which of the two is the more universal.
+
+I pass on now to the time when I was about eighteen years old, and a
+constant visitor, for weeks and months at a time, in the house of my
+godfather, the archdeacon of a northern diocese. His grandson, then a
+young student at Oxford, of about my own age, must have been what we
+should now call a very good sensitive. It was with him that I sat at my
+first "table," more as a matter of amusement than anything else, and
+certainly young Morton Freer treated the "spirits" in the most cavalier
+fashion. They did not seem to resent this, and he could do pretty much
+what he liked with them. This may be a good opportunity for explaining
+that when I speak in this narrative of "spirits" I do so to save
+constant periphrasis, and am quite consciously "begging the question"
+very often, as a matter of verbal convenience.
+
+In those days I don't think we troubled ourselves much about theories,
+and when we found that Morton and I alone could move a heavy dining-room
+table, or any other piece of heavy furniture quite beyond our normal
+powers, practically without exerting any strength at all, we looked upon
+it as an amusing experience without caring to inquire whether the energy
+involved had been generated on this side the veil or on the other side.
+We could certainly not have moved such weights under ordinary
+circumstances, even by putting forth all our combined strength, and we
+could only do so, for some mysterious reason, when we had been "sitting
+at the table" beforehand. Ingenious Theories of Human Electricity raised
+to a higher power by making a Human Battery, etc. etc., were not so
+common then as now, and we accepted facts without trying to solve their
+problems.
+
+The dear, hospitable Archdeacon would put his venerable head inside the
+door now and then, shake it at us half in fun, and yet a good deal in
+earnest, and I think he was more than doubtful whether our parlour
+games were quite lawful!
+
+We were very innocent and very ignorant in those days on the subject of
+psychic laws; and probably this was our salvation, for I can remember no
+terrible or weird experience, such as one reads of nowadays when tyros
+take to experiments.
+
+And yet my knowledge and experiences of later days lead me to endorse
+most heartily the well-known dictum of Lawrence Oliphant--namely, that
+when he saw people sitting down in a casual, irresponsible way to "_get
+messages through a table_," it reminded him of an ignorant child going
+into a powder magazine with a lighted match in its hand.
+
+Staying in this same house, I can next recall a flying visit from a
+brother of mine, who had just spent three months, on leave from India,
+in America, where he had taken introductions, and had been the guest of
+various hospitable naval and military men, who had shown him round the
+Washington Arsenal, West Point Academy, and so forth. My kind old host
+had begged him to take us on his way back to London; and I remember well
+his look of utter amazement when Morton and I had lured him to "the
+table" one afternoon, and he was told correctly the names of two or
+three of these American gentlemen.
+
+"I _must_ have mentioned them to my sister in my letters," he said,
+turning to the younger man. I knew this was _not_ the case, but it was
+difficult to prove a negative.
+
+It was a relief, therefore, when my brother suggested what he
+considered a "real test," where previous knowledge on my part must be
+excluded.
+
+"Let them tell me the name of a bearer I had once in India--he lived
+with me for more than twelve years--always returning to me when I came
+back from English furlough, and yet at the end of that time he suddenly
+disappeared, without rhyme or reason, and I have neither seen nor heard
+of him since. I _know_ my sister has never heard his name. _That_ would
+be something like a test, but, of course, it won't come off," he added
+cynically.
+
+The wearisome spelling out began.
+
+The table rose up at R, then at A.
+
+"Quite wrong," my brother called out in triumph. "I knew how it would be
+when any real test came. Fortunately, too, it is wildly wrong--neither
+the letter before nor the letter after the right one, so you cannot
+wriggle out of it that way."
+
+"Never mind, Major Bates," said Morton Freer good-naturedly. "Let us go
+on all the same, and see what they mean to spell out."
+
+Fortunately, we did so, with a most interesting result; for the right
+name was given after all, but spelt in the Hindoostanee and not the
+European fashion. The name in true Hindoostanee was Rám Dín--but
+Europeans spelt it Rham Deen--and so my brother himself had entirely
+forgotten when the A was given that it had any connection with the man's
+name. When the whole word was spelt out, of course he remembered, and
+then his face was a study!
+
+"Good gracious! it is right enough, and that is the real Hindoostanee
+spelling, too. I never thought of that when the A came!"
+
+I think this episode knocked the bottom out of his scepticism for some
+years to come.
+
+Even now this case precludes ordinary and conscious telepathy. Mr
+Podmore would be reduced to explaining that the Hindoostanee spelling
+was latent in my brother's consciousness, though his normal self
+repudiated it.
+
+Another curious incident--still more difficult to explain upon the
+Thought Transference Theory (unless we stretch it to include a possible
+impact of _all_ thoughts, at all times and from all quarters of the
+globe, upon everyone else's brain)--occurred under the same hospitable
+roof.
+
+One of the Archdeacon's nieces came to stay in the house about this
+time. She was considerably my senior, and was very kind to me, with the
+thoughtful kindness an older woman can show to a sensitive young girl.
+This awakened in me an affection which, I am thankful to say, still
+exists between us. This lady was considerably under thirty years old at
+the time, but to my young ideas she seemed already in the sear and
+yellow leaf from the matrimonial point of view! One must remember how
+different the standard of age was more than thirty years ago!
+
+It was also the time when marriage was looked upon not only as the most
+desirable, but as almost the only _possible_, career for a woman.
+
+So when Morton and this lady and I were "sitting at the table" in the
+gloaming one evening, I said, with trembling eagerness: "Morton, _do_
+ask if Carrie will ever be married," for the case seemed to me almost
+desperate at the advanced age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight!
+
+I must mention that for some occult reason (which I have entirely
+forgotten) I trusted fervently that a Hungarian or Polish name might be
+given after the satisfactory "Yes" had been spelt out, but, alas!
+nothing of the kind occurred.
+
+"The table" began with a D, and then successively E, H, A, V were given.
+No one ever heard of a Polish or Hungarian name of the kind, and I
+remember saying petulantly: "Oh, give it up, Morton. It's all nonsense!
+Nobody ever heard of a Mr _Dehav_."
+
+Once more Morton rescued a really good bit of evidence by his
+imperturbable perseverance.
+
+"Wait a bit! Let us see what is coming," he said.
+
+I took no further personal interest in the experiment. Either Morton
+concluded the name was finished, or there was some confusion in getting
+the next letters, owing doubtless to my impetuous disgust. Anyway, he
+went on to say:
+
+"Let us ask where the fellow lives at the present time." This was
+instantly answered by "_Freshwater_," and the further information given
+that he was a widower.
+
+None of us knew any man, married or single, who lived at Freshwater, and
+the incident was relegated to the limbo of failures.
+
+Several years later, however, my friend _did_ marry a gentleman whose
+name (a very pretty one) began with the five despised letters, and he
+was a widower, and _had_ been living in his own house at Freshwater at
+the time mentioned. She did not meet him until some years after our
+curious experience.
+
+About the same time, but in the south of England, my attention was again
+drawn to metapsychics by an experience connected with the death of the
+famous Marquis of Hastings, of horse-racing repute. As a young girl I
+lived close to the Mote Park at Maidstone, where his sister, the present
+Lady Romney, was then living as Lady Constance Marsham. The Reverend
+David Dale Stewart and his wife (he was Vicar of Maidstone, and I made
+my home with them for some years after leaving school) were friends of
+hers, and she sometimes came to see them in a friendly way in the
+morning. On one of these occasions, when Lady Constance had just
+returned from paying her brother a visit in a small shooting-box in the
+eastern counties (I think), Mrs Stewart remarked that she was afraid the
+change had not done Lady Constance much good, as she was looking far
+from well. In those days Lady Romney was an exceptionally strong and
+healthy young woman.
+
+She said rather impatiently: "Well, the fact is I did a very stupid
+thing the other day--I never did such a thing before--I fainted dead
+away for the first time in my life."
+
+Asked for the reason of this, she told us that she and her husband and
+Lord and Lady Hastings were dining quietly one evening together, two
+guests who had been expected not having arrived by the train specified.
+
+Looking up Bradshaw, and finding no other train that could bring them
+until quite late at night, the other four sat down to dinner. Soup and
+fish had already been discussed, when a carriage was heard driving up to
+the door, and they naturally concluded that their guests had discovered
+some means of getting across country by another line. Lord Hastings
+said:
+
+"Tell Colonel and Mrs ---- that we began dinner, thinking they could not
+arrive till much later, but that we are quite alone, and beg they will
+join us as soon as possible."
+
+The servant went to the door, prepared with the message given, flung it
+open--but no carriage, no horses were there! Everybody had heard it
+driving up, nevertheless.
+
+Remembering the old family legend that a carriage and pair is heard
+driving up the avenue before the head of the Hastings family dies, Lady
+Romney fainted dead away, very much to her own surprise and
+mortification; for she was, and doubtless is still, an uncommonly
+sensible woman, "quite above all superstitions."
+
+The episode struck me as curious at the time; but the impression passed,
+and a few days later I went to pay a visit to friends of mine in
+Buckinghamshire. Soon after my arrival I happened to mention the story,
+and was much laughed at as a "superstitious little creature, to think
+twice of such nonsense." "Of course, everyone had been mistaken in
+supposing they heard wheels or horses' hoofs--nothing could be simpler!"
+
+And yet before I left that house, three weeks later, all the newspapers
+were full of long obituary notices of the Marquis of Hastings. These
+were so interesting that my friend's husband had reached the second
+long column in _The Times_ before any of us remembered my story, which
+had been treated with so much contempt. It suddenly flashed across my
+mind: "Owen! Remember the carriage and pair and how you laughed at me!"
+They were forced to confess "_it was certainly rather odd_," the usual
+refuge of the psychically destitute!
+
+A shake of the kaleidoscope, and I see another incident before me of
+more personal interest.
+
+At the time of the outbreak of the Afghan War, in the autumn of 1878, I
+was living with very old friends in Oxford. My brother of the Rám Dín
+incident was once more in India, and had been Military Secretary for
+some years at Lahore to Sir Robert Egerton, who was at that time
+Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.
+
+When the war broke out, my brother, of course, went off to join his
+regiment for active service; but at the time of my experience it was
+impossible that he could have reached the seat of war, and I knew this
+well.
+
+I was in excellent spirits about him, for he had been through many
+campaigns, and loved active service, as all good soldiers do. Moreover,
+I had just read a charming letter which Sir Robert Egerton had sent him
+on resigning his appointment as Military Secretary to take up more
+active duty to his country.
+
+Yet it was just at this juncture--when, humanly speaking, there was no
+cause for any special anxiety--that I woke up one morning with the
+gloomiest and most miserable forebodings about this special brother.
+Nothing of the kind had ever occurred to me before, though he had been
+through many campaigns in India, China, Abyssinia, and elsewhere.
+
+It was an overwhelming conviction of some great and definite disaster
+to him, and my friends in vain tried to argue me out of such an
+unreasonable terror by pointing out, truly enough, that he could not
+possibly be within the zone of danger at that time. I could only
+repeat: "I _know_ that something terrible has happened to him,
+wherever he is. It may not be death, but it is some terrible
+calamity."
+
+I spent the day in tears and in absolute despair, and wrote to tell him
+of my conviction. Allowing for difference of time between Quetta and
+Oxford, my mental telegram reached me in the same hour that my brother,
+whilst on the march, and only thirty miles beyond Quetta, was suddenly
+struck down in his tent by the paralysis which kept him confined to his
+chair--a helpless sufferer--for twenty-eight years.
+
+Perhaps, now that I know so much more of mental currents, I might have
+received a more definite message as regards the true _nature_ of the
+calamity. It could not have been more marked, nor more definite as
+regards the _fact_ of it.
+
+My condition of hopeless misery obliged me to put off all engagements
+that day, and I did nothing but fret and lament over him, with the
+exception of writing the one letter mentioned, in which I told him of my
+strange and sad experience.
+
+In time, of course, the first sharp impression passed, and soon a cheery
+letter arrived from him, written, of course, before the fatal day. My
+experience in Oxford occurred on the morning of 4th December 1878. It
+was well on in January 1879 before the corroboration arrived, in a
+letter written to us by a stranger. Communication was delayed not only
+by the war, but also by the fact that my poor brother was lying at the
+time deprived of both movement and speech, and could only spell out
+later, by the alphabet, the address of his people at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886
+
+
+An interval of seven years occurs between the events recorded in the
+last chapter and my first visit to America, which took place in the
+autumn of 1885.
+
+During these years no abnormal experiences came to me, nor had I the
+smallest wish for any.
+
+The table turnings with Morton Freer were a thing of the past, and were
+looked back upon by me in the light of a childish amusement rather than
+anything else. Quite other interests had come into my life, specially as
+regards literature and music; and I never gave a thought to spooks or
+spiritualism, nor did I really know anything about the latter subject.
+It is true that on one occasion a curate at Great Marlow had spoken to
+me about Mr S. C. Hall and his researches, and I think he must have
+given me an introduction to the dear old man, for I remember going to
+see him "with a lady friend" (he made a great point of this, somewhat to
+my amusement), and finding a charming old man with silver locks, a fine
+head, and a nice white frilly shirt.
+
+He spoke of his dear friend "Mrs Jencken," whom he considered the only
+reliable medium, and showed us some sheets full of hieroglyphics, which
+he said were messages obtained through her influence from "his dear
+wife."
+
+It was all so much Greek to me in those days, and only true sympathy
+with the poor old man's evident loneliness and adoration of his wife's
+memory prevented my making merry over the extraordinary delusions of the
+old gentleman, when my companion and I had left his rooms in Sussex
+villas.
+
+Later, I lived during two years with Mrs Lankester and her daughters
+whilst looking after an invalid brother in London; and I need scarcely
+point out that constant intercourse with Professor Ray Lankester in his
+mother's house was not calculated to encourage any psychic proclivities,
+even had these latter not been entirely latent with me at that time.
+
+I heard a great deal about the "Slade exposure," both from Professor
+Lankester and his friend Dr Donkin, who often came to us with him. When
+arranging my American tour in 1885, Mrs Lankester kindly gave me an
+introduction to Mrs Edna Hall, an old friend of theirs, who had been
+living in their house during the whole period of the Slade trial. This
+lady--an American--lived permanently in Boston, and curiously enough (in
+view of the preceding facts) it was she who persuaded Miss Greenlow and
+me to attend our first _séance_ in Boston. Mrs Edna Hall had honoured
+Mrs Lankester's introduction most hospitably; but she was too busy a
+woman to do as much for us as her kindness suggested, and she had
+therefore introduced us to another friend--Mrs Maria Porter--a most
+picturesque, clever, and characteristic figure in Boston society in the
+eighties.
+
+Both these ladies accompanied us to the "Sisters Berry." Mrs Edna Hall
+had no sort of illusions on the subject. She said quite frankly that she
+only took us there because it was a feature of American life which we
+ought not to miss, and which would probably amuse us, if only by showing
+the gullibility of Human Nature.
+
+One is always apt to read past experiences in the light of present
+convictions. Fortunately, I kept a diary at the time, and have a
+faithful record of what took place, and, which is still more valuable,
+of the impressions formed at the time.
+
+The extracts connected with this _séance_ in Boston, and later
+experiences in New York, are taken partly from my record at the time and
+partly from the chapter on "Spiritualism in America," published in my
+book entitled "A Year in the Great Republic."
+
+Speaking of this first _séance_ in Boston, I see that I have said:
+
+"I went to the 'Sisters Berry' in a very antagonistic frame of mind,
+_determined beforehand that the whole thing was a swindle_ (italics are
+recent), accompanied by friends who were even more sceptical than
+myself, if that were possible." I go on then to describe the usual
+cabinet, and pass on to the following extract:--
+
+
+An old Egyptian now appeared, and a man in the circle, who had been
+sitting near my friend Miss Greenlow all the evening, went up and spoke
+to him, and then asked "_that the lady who had been sitting near him_"
+might come up also, which she did; but she said she could distinguish no
+features, and only felt a warm, damp hand passed over hers. Miss
+Greenlow was next called up by the spirit of a young man who wished to
+embrace her, but who was finally proved to be the departed friend of the
+lady who sat next to her. Miss Greenlow returned to her seat, furious,
+declaring that it was a horrible, coarse-looking creature, unlike anyone
+she had ever seen in her life.
+
+Mrs Porter made valiant attempts to investigate the figures who came
+forth at intervals, but was invariably waved back by the master of the
+ceremonies.
+
+"Will that lady kindly sit down? This spirit is not for her. It wishes
+to communicate with its own friends, and she is disturbing the
+conditions, and forcing the spirit back into the cabinet."
+
+There were evidently many old stagers there, who flew up like
+lamp-lighters on every possible occasion, with exclamations of: "Oh,
+Uncle Charlie, is that you?" "How do you do, Jem?" and so forth.
+
+One old lady, in a mob cap and black gown, was introduced as a certain
+Sister Margaret who had taught in St Peter's School, Boston. She came to
+speak to a former pupil, who gave her spiritualistic experiences in such
+remarkably bad grammar as reflected small credit on Sister Margaret's
+teaching of the English language.
+
+This girl told us how anxious she had always been to see her old
+teacher, who had appeared to her several times in the _séance_ room, but
+never in her old garments--a sort of sister's dress. After wishing very
+fervently one night, Sister Margaret appeared dressed in mob cap and
+gown, saying: "Don't you see my dress? I came in it at your wish."
+
+"Yes," answered the girl; "and I thank you for gratifying my wish. Since
+which time," she added, "I have been a firm believer in spiritualism."
+
+A young French girl, in draggly black garments and a shock of thick
+black hair, then came forward and rushed amongst us, trying to find
+someone to talk French with her. My friend Mrs Hall went up first, and
+then I was told to go up and speak to her. I took hold of her hands, and
+grasped them firmly for a moment. They seemed to be ordinary flesh and
+blood, but I am bound to confess that they appeared to _lengthen out_ in
+a somewhat abnormal fashion when the pressure was removed.
+
+Her face was very cadaverous, and she spoke in a quick, hurried way, _as
+if time were an object_. She said she understood a little English, but
+could not speak it. Her mother had been French; her father an Indian,
+"un brave homme."
+
+It seemed to me that a good deal of kissing and embracing went on. One
+old grey-headed gentleman was constantly walking up to the cabinet and
+being embraced by a white figure, whose arms we could just see, thrown
+round his neck, in the dim light. (I note that the light here was much
+less than with Mrs Stoddart Gray in New York.)
+
+The only excitement was the chance of some disturbance before we left;
+for Mrs Porter became more and more indignant with the "gross
+imposture," which culminated when at length she was called up and told
+that "a young man wished to speak with her." She asserted that it was
+"the most horrible, grinning, painted creature who hissed into her
+ears."
+
+The master of the house begged her to be patient, and try to hear what
+the spirit wished to say, but with a very emphatic "NO, NO, NO" she
+resumed her seat, amidst a general titter of laughter.
+
+At the last we were told that three little girls, whose mother sat near
+the cabinet, wished to materialise, but found it difficult to do so,
+owing to the absence of children in the audience.
+
+The mother seemed very anxious to see them; but suddenly the gas was
+turned up, and the _séance_ declared over--a very abrupt finale to a
+piece of unmitigated humbug, I should say.
+
+
+These extracts sufficiently show the spirit in which I entered upon my
+investigations and the result of that spirit. I think even Mr Podmore
+would have considered me _thoroughly sound_ on that first evening. I
+have no doubt that the violence of Mrs Porter's antagonism, and the
+smiling cynicism of Mrs Hall in face of the "American experience" she
+had proposed for us, added to my own preconceived prejudices.
+
+I am aware that the Berry Sisters have been "exposed," thus sharing the
+fate of all other public mediums. In the light of later experiences,
+however, I feel sure that I might have received something personally
+evidential on this occasion had my attitude of mind given hospitality to
+any possible visitors from the Unseen.
+
+The next extracts from my diary refer to a _séance_ which we attended in
+New York a few days after our arrival there, and some two or three
+weeks later than the Boston sitting already described.
+
+Our stay in Boston had extended to three months from the original
+fortnight we had planned for the visit. I had taken a few very good
+introductions there: to Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, Colonel Wentworth
+Higginson, and others of the Boston _alumni_, and as several receptions
+had been kindly arranged for us, and my name had appeared many times
+during the winter in various local papers, it would have been easy for
+the Sisters Berry to find out something about me and my companion, and
+utilise the knowledge by faking up a convenient spirit, who could have
+talked glibly of my literary tastes, and so forth. Nothing of the sort
+occurred, however, although our first _séance_ only took place a week or
+two before we left Boston, after my three months' stay there.
+
+This fact should certainly be "counted as righteousness" to the much
+abused Sisters!
+
+It was the more curious, that our first _séance_ in New York, within a
+few days of our arrival, and in a metropolis where at the time we were
+_absolute strangers_, should have been so much more successful as
+regards evidential experiences.
+
+I will again quote from my diary of 1886. The medium visited on this
+occasion was Mrs Cadwell, who has since died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We knew nothing beforehand of the medium, who lived in a small flat in
+an unfashionable quarter. Some eight people only were assembled in the
+extremely small room. All were perfect strangers to Miss Greenlow and
+me, but a fancied likeness in one lady present to a picture I had seen
+of Mrs Beecher Stowe led me to ask if it were she, and I was told that
+my surmise was correct.
+
+There was no room for a cabinet, so a curtain was hung across a tiny
+alcove, just the ordinary "arch" found in most rooms of the kind.
+
+When I went behind the curtain with the female medium, before the
+sitting began, there was barely space for us both to turn round in. The
+carpet on either side the curtain was one piece. There was absolutely no
+room for any trap-door machinery, even could such have been worked
+successfully in the perfect silence in which we sat, within two feet of
+the alcove. The room was about the size of the small back dining-room in
+an ordinary London lodging--say in Oxford or Cambridge Terrace, for
+example.
+
+The medium sat amongst us at first, only going behind the curtain after
+a few moments, when she was "under control" as it is called.
+
+A little child of hers, who died some years ago at the age of four, is
+supposed to help in the materialisations, but is never seen outside the
+curtains. If she came out herself she would not be able to help the
+others to do so. I mention these things in the words in which they were
+told to me, offering no comment, but putting the case for the moment as
+spiritualists would put it. To do this, and then to give a faithful and
+unprejudiced account of what took place, seems to me the only fair way
+of treating such a subject.
+
+I was told again and again that too much concentration of thought on
+the part of the audience was deterrent. This accounts for music as an
+invariable accompaniment of all such sittings. It seems to harmonise the
+circle, to break up over-concentration, and may also, unfortunately,
+serve to cover the doings of dishonest mediums.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that in this case the materialisations
+went on only whilst we were singing. This might point to a possible
+"trap-door theory," although in a city where flats abound (rooms, not
+human beings!) there would still be the difficulty of getting your
+downstairs neighbours to look kindly upon such proceedings. As a matter
+of fact, we were often sitting in absolute silence when fresh "spirits"
+appeared.
+
+I can corroborate the assertion that too much concentration of thought
+upon them proves deterrent to the spirits, for on more than one occasion
+I heard a voice from the curtain or cabinet saying: "Do get the people's
+minds off us; we can do nothing whilst they are fixed upon us so
+intensely," as though _thought_ in spirit life corresponded to some
+physical obstacle on the earth plane.
+
+The first spirit who came (the daughter of an old gentleman sitting near
+me) intimated through him that she would like me to go up and help her
+to materialise the white veil which all in turn wore, and which, though
+perfectly transparent, is considered a necessary shield between them and
+the earth's influences; on the same principle, I suppose, that we put on
+blue spectacles to protect us from the blinding rays of the sun.
+
+She came out from the alcove, held both her hands in front of her,
+turning them backward and forward that I might be satisfied that nothing
+was concealed in them. The soft, clinging material of her gown ended
+high up on the shoulders, so there were no sleeves to be reckoned with.
+I stood close over her, holding out my own dress, and as she rubbed her
+hands to and fro a sort of white lace or net came from them, like a
+foam, and lay upon my gown which I was holding up towards her.
+
+I touched this material, and held it in my hands. It had substance, but
+was light as gossamer, and quite unlike any stuff I ever saw in a shop.
+
+The very softest gossamer tulle that old ladies sometimes produce as
+having belonged to their grandmothers is perhaps the nearest approach to
+what I then lifted in my hands, but even this does not accurately
+describe it.
+
+When long enough she took up the veil, unfolded it, covering her head
+with it, and saying very graciously "Thank you" to me.
+
+Other spirits now appeared for the other people in the room, who
+conversed with them in low tones.
+
+All these had evidently materialised before and could consequently speak
+with comparative ease. One, called the "Angel Mother" (the mother of the
+medium), answered questions on the spirit life in a loud American voice,
+prefacing every remark, whether to man or woman, by an affectionate
+"Well, de-ar!" Her answers showed considerable shrewdness, but not much
+depth, and were often rather wide of the mark.
+
+"Nels Seymour" (who appears to have belonged to a sort of Christy
+Minstrel Company over here) cracked jokes all the time with a gentleman
+amongst the audience in a good-natured but flippant and very unspiritual
+manner, and even the ladies joined in the undignified punning and "play
+upon words" that went on all the time.
+
+The little child's voice came in as a relief every now and then. She
+spoke broken, childish English, but used the expressions of a grown-up
+person. She described several spirits as "chying" (trying) to come, but
+not being strong enough.
+
+I was becoming drowsy, and rather tired of the performance, when my
+attention was once more aroused by hearing that a very beautiful female
+spirit, with a diamond star in her forehead, had appeared and asked for
+me, saying she had been a friend of mine on earth, and wished to
+communicate with me.
+
+This was conveyed to me by the little child's voice, the spirit herself
+not having yet emerged from the curtain; but the medium's husband looked
+behind it, and told me of the diamond star, which he said was some
+"order" in spirit life.
+
+Having no idea who the friend might be, I begged for some further
+particulars before going up to speak to her.
+
+"She passed from earth life about five years ago, and in Germany,"
+answered the medium's husband, who had conducted the conversation behind
+the curtain.
+
+This was less vague, and now for the first time a suspicion of the
+spirit's identity crossed my mind; but I would not go up until a name
+had been given, and I asked for this before leaving my seat.
+
+My travelling companion--a recent acquaintance--had never heard me
+mention the lady in question, who _had_ died in Germany at the time
+specified. The little child said the spirit would give the name through
+her, and the process was a curious one. Instead of mentioning the whole
+name or each letter of it to her father, the child _described_ each
+letter to him as you might describe the lines of the large capitals in a
+child's reading-book. The father guessed the letter from the child's
+description, and asked me if the first one were correct? It was; but I
+did not tell him so, merely saying I should like to have the Christian
+name in full before giving any opinion.
+
+In due time the six letters (Muriel, we will call it) were correctly
+given, and I had then no further excuse for refusing to speak to the
+spirit.
+
+I went up to the curtain, and she appeared in front of it. I have been
+frequently asked: "Should you have recognised her as your friend had no
+name been given?" With every wish to be perfectly truthful, I find it
+difficult to answer this question, for the following reason:--None of
+the "materialisations" I saw were exactly human in face. There was no
+idea of a mask or clever "get up," but if one could accept the theory of
+a body hastily put together and assumed for a time, the result is
+exactly what might have been expected under the circumstances.
+
+My friend in real life was very pale, and had exquisitely chiselled
+features, and the ones I now looked upon were of the same _cast_. The
+height was also similar, and an indescribable atmosphere of refinement,
+purity, and quiet dignity, for which she had been remarkable; all this
+was present with this materialisation. More than this I cannot say, for
+no materialisation I have ever seen could be truthfully considered
+_identical_ with the human original.
+
+I did not feel frightened, but I did feel embarrassed, and naturally so,
+considering how unwilling and grudging my recognition of her
+individuality must have appeared. She seemed conscious of this, for
+almost immediately she mentioned her hands, holding them out for
+inspection, and saying:
+
+"Don't you remember my hands? I was so proud of my hands!"
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, my friend was noted for her beautiful hands,
+but she was too sensible and clever a woman to have been conceited about
+them, and had too much good taste ever to have made their beauty a
+subject of remark, even to an intimate friend.
+
+Moreover, the hands now _en évidence_, although well shaped and with
+tapering fingers, were as little identical with a human hand as the face
+was identical with a human face.
+
+Casting about for something to say to her, my first thought was for an
+only and dearly loved married sister of hers, also a friend of mine, and
+I mentioned the latter in a guarded way, saying: "If you are in reality
+my friend, have you no message for _your sister_?"
+
+In a moment, and without the slightest hesitation, she said: "_Tell poor
+Jessie_," going on with a message peculiarly appropriate to the facts of
+the case, but of much too private a nature for publication.
+
+Almost immediately afterwards, and _with no shadow of suggestion from
+me_, she added:
+
+"_Poor Jessie! She suffered terribly when I passed away so suddenly._"
+
+My friend had died in a foreign country, under peculiarly sad
+circumstances. She was young, beautiful, and accomplished; a prominent
+local figure in the well-known capital where she had spent several
+winters. Her death was so sudden that there was not even time to put off
+a large afternoon "At Home" arranged for that day. Moreover, this
+sister, by a most merciful chance, happened to be spending a few months
+with her, out of England, at the time. These were all special facts,
+spontaneously referred to by her, but which would _not_ have applied
+equally well to the death of any other friend, even supposing such a
+death to have occurred abroad.
+
+The spirit spoke feebly and with difficulty, "not having much strength,"
+she told me.
+
+I asked if her father (who had died a few months previously) were with
+her.
+
+"Not yet," she said gently; "but I know that he has passed over." She
+then kissed my hand, and faded away before my eyes, not apparently
+returning to the curtain (close to which I stood), but vanishing into
+thin air.
+
+Some ten days later my friend and I went again to an evening _séance_ at
+the same house, different people being present on this occasion. A
+stupid, "_unintelligent_ sceptic" woman put us all out of harmony by
+making inane suggestions, always declaring that "_she would not for the
+world interfere with the conditions_," but doing so all the same. The
+"Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with
+an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about
+Faraday's opinions on the spirit world without much idea of what he was
+talking about. "Nels Seymour" _appeared_, as well as spoke, this time.
+He took my hand and kissed it; but he does not leave the cabinet, as he
+is the "control." It was eleven years on this day since he had "passed
+over," so he called it his "birthday."
+
+A very beautiful female spirit materialised and offered to sit on my
+lap; an offer I closed with at once.
+
+She was some five feet eight inches in height, and a large,
+well-developed woman. Anticipating the possibility of her resting her
+feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my own
+feet from the ground the moment she sat down, which was easily done, as
+my chair was a high one.
+
+She remained for several minutes in this position, resting, of
+necessity, her whole weight upon me, which was about equal to that of a
+small kitten or a lady's muff, in the days when small muffs were in
+fashion. There was an _appreciable_ weight, but I have never nursed any
+baby that was not far heavier.
+
+The veil this time was materialised in the usual way, my friend going up
+to watch the process.
+
+My spirit friend appeared again, and more strongly this time. At a
+public _séance_, where so many are eager to communicate with their
+friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the
+public time, and consequently any communications are as hurried and
+unsatisfactory as a conversation with an intimate friend in the public
+reading-room of a hotel would be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I pass over another most excellent and evidential incident as a
+concession to family prejudice. It has already appeared in my book on
+America entitled "A Year in the Great Republic," and may be found there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At a third materialising _séance_ at the same house an excitable Italian
+friend of mine, who had never seen anything of the kind before, came
+with much the same prejudices as I had felt at the Boston _séance_, and
+disturbed the conditions very much by his attitude of determined
+antagonism; whilst his comparative ignorance of English, and my feeble
+Italian, made explanations, under the circumstances, rather hopeless.
+The whole circle was put out of harmony, and a dead weight lay upon us
+all. The materialisations continued, it is true; but personally it was a
+great relief to me when my excitable friend left, declaring that
+everything he had seen was "_physiquement impossible mon ange_."
+
+He departed so abruptly as to bring down much abuse upon his absent head
+for having "broken the battery" and almost "killed the medium" by his
+sudden disappearance from the circle.
+
+This awful threat had so much power over the rest of the party that we
+sat out to the bitter end, leaving the medium at last still in her
+trance, with husband and son hovering over her in an anxiety which, if
+acted, showed first-class dramatic power.
+
+Meanwhile I had made the acquaintance of a very beautiful and charming
+woman in New York, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction.
+
+She has had a tragic and remarkable history; is a woman of great mental
+powers, in addition to very remarkable beauty; and is of the highest
+rank, being an Austrian princess, I believe, in her own right, and
+having spent her youth in foreign courts.
+
+Apart from these facts, which had been told me by a mutual friend before
+we met, I knew nothing whatever of her family history, nor whether she
+had brothers or sisters, alive or dead.
+
+I had spoken to her of my curious experiences, and she had discussed the
+matter with me from the standpoint of a thorough woman of the world, of
+strong mental power, who had seen too much of life to be dogmatic or
+narrow in her views, but too much also to believe in what is called the
+"supernatural," before every possible _natural_ hypothesis had been
+admitted and dismissed as untenable.
+
+Sitting in her pretty room the day before I left New York, we had talked
+for some two hours on various subjects connected with life and
+literature, and before the final "adieux" she said laughingly: "Well,
+have you been to any more _séances_?"
+
+I said "No," and that we did not intend to do so, as our time was now so
+short. A few moments of careless talk on the subject ensued, and picking
+up a newspaper, I cast my eye over the usual list of mediums,
+clairvoyants, etc. A half-defined wish to see whether any spirit friend
+would come to me under totally different conditions and surroundings,
+and in an entirely different quarter of the city, led to my copying out
+one of the addresses at haphazard.
+
+I could not prevail upon my hostess to accompany me (she is delicate,
+and dreads night air), but I took the slip of paper to my hotel,
+thinking that my friend there might care to take the cars after dinner
+to this distant end of the city.
+
+My English companion proved rather indifferent and disinclined towards
+the expedition.
+
+This was very natural. She was not magnetic in temperament, and had no
+expectation of seeing any of her own friends, although, of course, she
+had both seen and spoken to those who came for me.
+
+However, a good dinner at the excellent Windsor Hotel fortified us so
+much after our fatigues that at the last moment we agreed to make one
+more attempt, no one, ourselves included, having known five minutes
+previously that we should leave the house.
+
+On this occasion we were ushered into a much more imposing drawing-room,
+and the lady herself was evidently some degrees higher in the social
+scale than our first mediumistic friend.
+
+The arrangements also were quite different. As we sat waiting for a few
+minutes (having arrived very punctually), Mrs Gray looked at my friend,
+and then described an elderly lady with grey hair who was standing over
+her, but, of course, invisible to our eyes. Almost immediately Mrs Gray
+began rubbing her knees, and complained of pain in them, adding: "The
+impression of dropsy is being conveyed to me. This spirit seems to have
+suffered from disease of that nature."
+
+My friend--who was very self-contained and unemotional--gave no clue to
+the fact that she recognised anyone by this description, but as we were
+returning home in the cars she said quietly: "It is curious Mrs Gray
+should have described that old lady with grey hair--I suppose she meant
+my mother. _She_ had grey hair, and died of dropsy."
+
+On my expostulating with this lady for having given the impression that
+she did not recognise the description at the time she said, with
+conscious pride: "You don't suppose I was going to let the woman know
+that she had described my mother?"
+
+To give a false impression in so good a cause as determined incredulity,
+seems not only justifiable, but actually praiseworthy to many minds.
+
+Later in the evening, the _séance_ being in full swing, a spirit dressed
+in some kind of white "sister's" dress appeared at the door of the
+cabinet; and Mrs Stoddart Gray asked if anyone in the circle could speak
+German, as this spirit did not seem to understand French, Italian, or
+English, and she herself only recognised German by the sound.
+
+A gentleman volunteered his assistance, but apparently without much
+effect, and being a German scholar, I then offered to come to the
+rescue. The moment I went up to the figure she seemed to gain strength,
+and came quite out of the cabinet, and said to me in the most refined
+German (any readers who have studied the language know that there is as
+wide a difference between the highest and lowest type of German accent
+as between an educated Irish "accent" and an Irish brogue):
+
+"_Ich bin die schwester von Madame Schewitsch_," mentioning the name of
+the foreign friend with whom I had been spending that afternoon: "_Ich
+weisz das Sie Heute Nach mittag bei meiner schwester waren._"[1]
+
+ [1] Translation: "I am the sister of Madame Schewitsch--I know that you
+ spent this afternoon with my sister."
+
+She had evidently a strong, almost overwhelming desire to make some
+communication to me for her sister, but the difficulty in doing so
+seemed equally strong.
+
+It lay beyond the question of language. She spoke with sufficient
+strength, and I could understand perfectly her well-chosen and
+well-pronounced words. But some insuperable obstacle seemed to prevent
+her telling me what she wished to convey, and the despairing attempt to
+surmount this was painful in the extreme.
+
+I assured her of my willingness to help in any way possible, and made a
+few suggestions, but all in vain.
+
+"Is it that you are not happy?"
+
+"No--no! That is not it."
+
+It seemed to me some sort of warning which she wished to convey, and had
+some connection with illness, for the words _achtung_ and _krankheit_
+(warning and illness) were repeated more than once, but no definite
+message came.
+
+I then asked if she could _write_ it, and she caught eagerly at the
+idea. So I borrowed a pencil and some paper, and placed them on a small
+table in the middle of the room, with a chair in front of it. She came
+quite close to the table (five gas burners were more than half turned
+on, so there was plenty of light), sat down, and took up the pencil, but
+almost immediately threw it down again, saying in a most unhappy and
+despairing voice: "_Nein! nein! Ich kann es selbst nicht schreiben!_"[2]
+and vanished before my very eyes as she rose from the table. Now had
+this been a case of fraud, and supposing that some woman had means of
+discovering the name of my New York friend and the fact of my having
+spent that very afternoon with her, what would have been easier than to
+write or give some commonplace message in a language of which she had
+already proved herself mistress?
+
+ [2] Translation: "No! no! I cannot even write it!"
+
+The episode was so painful that I decided _not_ to write to Madame
+Schewitsch about it. I have therefore no absolute corroboration of the
+fact that the lady mentioned had a sister who became a nun, or who was
+connected with some such establishment, and had passed over. This,
+however, is much more probable than not, because in every high-born
+Catholic family in Austria, one member in a large family almost
+invariably takes the veil. I have given the real name in this case,
+hoping Madame Schewitsch may perchance come across my book, and supply
+the information needed. I may remark, finally, that three or four months
+later, whilst travelling in California, I heard from my excitable and
+sceptical Italian friend (who had given me the introduction to Madame
+Schewitsch) that this lady had had a long and most serious illness
+during my absence in the West, and that her husband and he had both
+feared she would never recover from it. This fear, fortunately, proved
+to be groundless.
+
+To return to the sitting.
+
+About twenty minutes after the "sister" had disappeared, a figure in
+white came forward very swiftly, and without a moment's hesitation
+pointed towards me, saying quickly: "_For you._"
+
+I went up at once, recognising who it was, but determined to give no
+sign of this fact.
+
+The "spirit" looked at me for a moment with surprise, as one might look
+at any well-known friend who passed us in the street without a greeting.
+
+As I remained silent she whispered: "Don't you know me?" I am afraid _I_
+gave the false impression this time, and asked her for her name.
+
+"_Why, I am Muriel!_" came the instant answer, mentioning the name of
+the first friend who had appeared to me, after spelling out her name, at
+the previous _séances_ held in another part of New York.
+
+On this third appearance my spirit friend asked me to kiss her. I must
+confess that I complied with some amount of trepidation, which proved to
+be quite unnecessary.
+
+There was nothing the least repulsive to the touch, although it was not
+exactly like kissing anyone on earth; but an indescribable atmosphere of
+freshness and purity, which seemed always to surround this friend whilst
+living, was very apparent under these changed conditions. Another
+curious little point is that I had entirely forgotten my friend's love
+of violets (she always wore them when possible, and used violet scent)
+until I smelt them distinctly whilst speaking to her.
+
+It must be remembered that until the day of the sitting, we had never
+dreamed of going to Mrs Gray's house, nor had we even heard her name. I
+picked it out of a newspaper by chance--amongst at least thirty others.
+
+Until past seven o'clock that evening we had not decided to visit her,
+and the _séance_ began at eight P.M., no single person in the room being
+present who had been at the house of the other medium some weeks
+previously. Under these circumstances it would be difficult to account
+for the fact of my friend's reappearance on the ground of collusion
+between the two mediums. Moreover, such collusion would not account for
+the appearance earlier in the evening of a spirit claiming to be the
+sister of Madame Schewitsch.
+
+No one hitherto has been able to suggest any _intelligent_ explanation
+of my personal experiences on these occasions. Conjuring tricks and trap
+doors are, of course, "trotted out" by the _unintelligent_ sceptic, but
+these do not meet the difficulty of an _accurate knowledge of names and
+of family matters of comparatively small importance_.
+
+
+As I am just now chiefly concerned with presenting incidents in my life
+rather than in prosing over them, I resist the temptation to go further
+into the question of _Materialisations_ either from the historical or
+ethical point of view, and pass on to the subject of clairvoyance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--_continued_
+
+INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886
+
+
+In speaking of clairvoyance I shall again have recourse to my notes
+taken at the time of my American visit and on the spot.
+
+I am quite convinced that where a life has been in any way eventful or
+at all marked, any fairly developed clairvoyant can in some way "sense"
+your mental and moral atmosphere.
+
+In some three or four personal cases, the notes taken at the time of
+such visits, paid several thousands of miles apart, might almost be read
+as descriptive of the same interview, with different witnesses.
+
+My travelling companion, who had led a very uneventful life, seemed to
+puzzle them much more. There was apparently nothing to lay hold of, and
+only a very shadowy, indistinct picture was given in consequence.
+
+In my own case the colours were put on freely, firmly, and without the
+least hesitation, and in every single instance the sketch was remarkably
+truthful, and yet would not have described the life of one other woman
+in three or four hundred.
+
+That there is a good deal of guesswork done even under the supposed
+influence of "trance" is quite evident to me. I am not prepared to say
+that such trances were in no case genuine, but the remarks made during
+them were frequently of a tentative nature, and the slightest good "hit"
+was followed up with as much ingenuity as Sir Richard Owen displayed in
+putting together his skeleton from a single bone.
+
+I was told some six or seven times that my mother (who died during my
+infancy) was my guardian spirit, and six times her name was given to me,
+with some difficulty in one or two cases, but invariably without the
+smallest guessing on the part of the clairvoyant or any hint from me.
+
+One of my most successful interviews in New York was with a Mrs Parks of
+Philadelphia--a very pleasant, good-looking, healthy woman, quite unlike
+the usual cadaverous medium with whom one is more familiar.
+
+Her terms being rather higher than those usually asked in America (where
+competition has made mediums a cheap luxury), I demurred at first; upon
+which she said brightly: "Well, don't come if you don't feel like paying
+that; but I never alter my prices. But I won't take your money if I
+don't give you satisfaction. Some get satisfaction from one person and
+some from another--you will soon see if I am telling you the truth about
+your friends, and I won't take a penny from you if you are
+dissatisfied."
+
+I left the house saying I would think it over, and Mrs Parks did not at
+all press me to come, and from my manner could hardly have expected to
+see me.
+
+I had a most satisfactory interview with her next day.
+
+After referring to my mother's presence, and giving her name without any
+hesitation, she gave me several messages with regard to character which
+were singularly appropriate, and finished up by saying: "Your mother
+does not wish you to go to mediums or mix yourself too much up with such
+persons. It is not necessary for you to do so; she says you have enough
+mediumistic power for her to be able to communicate with you directly."
+
+I could not help saying: "Well, Mrs Parks, you are going very much
+against your own interests in giving me this message. I am a perfect
+stranger to you in this city. I have told you that I am making some
+little stay here, and as you have given me so much satisfaction I might
+have been induced to come and see you several times again before
+leaving."
+
+She laughed, and answered: "That is quite true; but I am an honest
+woman, and I am bound to give you the message that is given to me for
+you, even when it goes against my interest."
+
+Seeing her bright, pleasant home, with every trace of comfort about it,
+and having received personal proof that money alone was not her
+consideration, I could not help asking why she continued such an arduous
+life.
+
+"Well," she answered, "the truth is that I do it now against my own
+wish. My husband has always objected to it more or less. He was afraid
+it might injure my health, and for two years I gave it up entirely.
+But," she added, "the spirits would not leave me alone. It seemed as if
+I _had_ to come back to it, as if I were refusing to use the powers
+that had been given to me for the help and comfort of my
+fellow-creatures. I name a higher price than others, to limit my work
+and to keep away those who would only come from idle curiosity." She
+also told me that sometimes she had to give orders beforehand that
+certain people should not be admitted on any pretext whatever. "I can
+see their spirits round them before they reach the door very often, and
+I would not have such people, bringing such an atmosphere into my
+house--no, not if they gave me a hundred dollars for each sitting."
+
+I must mention one more incident connected with this period of my
+investigations, because it throws a strong light on some obscure
+problems.
+
+Whilst consulting these clairvoyants, in widely different parts of
+America, two very near relatives of mine were almost invariably
+described, and the names--one male and one female--were generally given.
+The mediums invariably went on to say that the female spirit was further
+on in development than the male spirit. Now there were circumstances
+which made this statement, viewed from this world's standpoint, not only
+absolutely mistaken, but almost ludicrously so. The woman's nature had
+been a far more faulty one--more impetuous, less balanced, and so forth.
+The male spirit described had been a man of very exceptional character
+and spirituality, whilst on earth.
+
+In spite of these facts the same "mistake," as I considered it, had
+consistently been made by every clairvoyant who described them; which,
+by-the-by, rules out telepathy as an explanation of these special
+experiences. It certainly seemed strange that after giving accurate
+descriptions of the two relatives referred to--names included--each
+clairvoyant should make exactly the same mistake upon so obvious a
+matter as the question involved.
+
+Some months later, in the course of my travels, I found myself at Denver
+in Colorado. We stayed here, at first, one day only, to break our
+journey farther up into the Rocky Mountains. The previous day, when
+wandering about Colorado Springs, my friend and I had come across a lady
+doctor by chance; and having asked some trivial question, we were
+invited into her pretty little house, where we chatted for half-an-hour
+on various subjects--including spiritualism. We gave no account of our
+experiences, but simply mentioned the fact that we had some interest in
+the investigation.
+
+Hearing this, and that we were going on to Denver next day, this lady
+gave me the address of a young married friend who lived in that city,
+and who had during the previous two years suddenly developed strong
+mediumistic power, but was in no way a professional. She begged us to
+call if possible, and I took down the address, but said it was very
+doubtful if we could do so in the short time we should have at our
+disposal.
+
+At the end of a long afternoon's drive to the most interesting points of
+view in Denver, we found ourselves close to the quarter where this young
+woman lived, and called at the house mentioned. The lady was not at
+home, and a friend who received us explained that it would be impossible
+for her to come down in the evening to see us, as she was delicate, and
+not allowed to go out at night.
+
+As we were leaving Denver early next morning, this made a meeting
+impossible, so we left our cards, and a note to explain our visit. Going
+into the hotel office after dinner that evening, I heard a gentleman
+inquiring for me by name, saying he had brought his wife to see me. I
+explained that I was the lady he asked for, and he then said, with the
+stoical resignation of the typical American husband: "I did not like her
+to come out, but she was bound to have her own way."
+
+The lady in question came into my bedroom upstairs after dismissing her
+husband, and said she "preferred a room already permeated by my
+influence." She then continued very simply: "I do not know whether I
+shall be able to help you at all, but it seems there is something I have
+to tell you or explain. When I read your note I felt bound to come,
+although my husband tried to dissuade me. It seemed to me as if the
+spirits came all the way with me in the cars."
+
+She then gave me quite a good sitting, but on the ordinary lines, ending
+up by the description of the relatives mentioned, and by making the
+usual "mistake" about their relative spiritual positions.
+
+This was all said in trance. When she returned to consciousness I said:
+"Now, Mrs Brown (her real name), I must tell you honestly that you have
+made one cardinal mistake, but I am also bound to say that five or six
+professional mediums have done just the same as regards the same
+matter." I then explained, and asked if she could account for such a
+persistent and obvious misconception.
+
+"Wait a moment," she answered; "perhaps the spirits will tell me."
+
+She looked up with a very intent expression for a minute, as though
+listening to some explanation which did not cover the ground of her own
+experience, and then said very quickly and in a monotonous voice, as
+though repeating a verbal message:
+
+"It has nothing exactly to do with our earthly idea of 'goodness.'
+Spiritual life can only come to those prepared for it, within the limits
+of their capacity. The male spirit you mention was a clergyman of the
+Church of England. He was a very holy man, but he was in some way creed
+bound. He was a man of strong creed; he clung to his creed here, and
+cannot quite free himself from it even now, although he has advanced
+very much in spiritual perception. Now his wife had a very sympathetic,
+_apprehending_ nature. She can therefore receive spiritual light more
+fully and freely. That is why she has risen to a higher plane. This is
+not a question of character so much as of _spiritual capacity_, and in
+this she is the more highly gifted of the two. She is on a different
+plane, but she is able to help her husband very much, and in time he
+will join her, and they will progress together."
+
+All this was said in a quick, decided way, and without the smallest
+hesitation.
+
+One would hardly have expected a young woman in the midst of the Rocky
+Mountains to know the exact meaning of the term "_clergyman of the
+Church of England_," for the word is almost unknown in America, where
+they speak invariably of a _minister_. Yet the words were given with
+quick, firm precision, exactly as written down.
+
+Later, in San Francisco, a clairvoyant at once referred to my friend
+"Muriel," and described her, but in rather vague terms. When I pointed
+this fact out she said a little impatiently, as though we were wasting
+time in quibbling: "_Oh, well, it does not matter. The spirit tells me
+you know perfectly well who it is. She has already appeared to you in
+New York._"
+
+I had gone to this particular medium with several young friends, who
+were all in a very sceptical and rather frivolous state of mind. She
+described "an uncle," apparently over the heads of two of my friends,
+and gave the further information that he was surrounded by water, and
+appeared to have been drowned; also that he was extremely musical.
+
+This was declared to be perfectly untrue and without a grain of
+foundation, in fact.
+
+The woman looked puzzled and a little mortified, but turned to others in
+the circle, with better success, let us hope!
+
+On our return home, when the young people were telling their mother of
+the "awful humbug" amid shouts of laughter, the mother said quietly:
+"But surely you remember, my dear children, hearing of your Uncle
+Robert, who was drowned years ago, before any of you were born? He _was_
+a great musician. He wanted to give up his life to art, but he was
+persuaded to take up another profession."
+
+
+I give this as an instance of the carelessness with which, when we are
+_determined_ to find fraud, we may do so sometimes at the expense of
+truth. These young girls had doubtless heard of their uncle, but the
+fact had possibly escaped their memories for the moment, and probably
+they had no wish to recall anything which could cast a doubt on their
+preconceived notion that "the whole thing was a swindle!"
+
+Before closing the chapter of my American experiences in the years 1885
+and 1886, I must give one more personal detail.
+
+When investigating various clairvoyants in the Eastern States in March
+and April of the year 1886, I had been told more than once that a
+guardian band of six spirits was forming round me, and would be later
+supplemented by another band of six protectors. Whether this had any
+bearing upon the following incident, I must leave my readers to decide.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About three months after this pronouncement I found myself at Victoria,
+Vancouver's Island. Miss Greenlow and I had gone there from San
+Francisco for a week or two, not being able at that time to make the
+further trip to Alaska. After a very stormy voyage of two or three days
+we reached Victoria one morning about six A.M. There was only one large
+double-bedded room available at the hotel, and we took this on the
+understanding that two separate rooms should be found for us before the
+evening.
+
+As we lay on our beds for a few hours of much needed rest, quite
+suddenly I realised that I saw something abnormal in the air--just above
+and in front of my head. I mentioned this with much surprise to my
+companion, who at once suggested the effects of liver after a sea
+voyage so tempestuous as ours had been. For the first few moments I was
+inclined to agree with her, and said so; but very shortly my opinion was
+altered by the fact that what I saw first as an indistinct blur
+gradually assumed a definite shape, and I then found there were six
+little swallows in front of me, apparently connected with each other by
+a waving ribbon, or so it appeared to me.
+
+Opening and shutting one's eyes did not affect the vision. There they
+remained, both at the moment and for several succeeding years, during
+which time I was constantly in the habit of seeing "_my birds_," as we
+used to call them. About six months after their first appearance in the
+pure, clear atmosphere of Victoria (Vancouver), I was driving across the
+Blackheath Common on a very bright, frosty day, and looking out of the
+open window of my carriage, I saw my six birds as usual; but for the
+first time, parallel with them and lower down, were six new birds of
+just the same size and appearance (about half-an-inch between the tips
+of the wings).
+
+A few days later the new birds and the old ones had amalgamated, and
+twelve little swallows floated in the air before my eyes. I could not
+see them in the house. It needed the background of uninterrupted sky
+apparently to throw them into sufficient relief to be recognised. After
+some years, this special sign was withdrawn, and others have taken its
+place. For example, I have seen in the same way, during the last
+fourteen years, an anchor, with the chain attached to it, and caught
+through one end of the former, a short reaping hook. This, doubtless,
+has some symbolical meaning. Near the anchor I see a sacrificial altar,
+with flames rising up from it; then a triangle, with loops at the
+corners, which I was once told was the sign of Nostradamus. Then an
+old-fashioned mirror in a quaintly-shaped frame, and finally a long
+staff, with the sign of Aries at one end. I have since realised that
+this is very much like the "Staff of Faith" found on the top of many of
+the tombs in the Roman catacombs. All these latter emblems come together
+as a rule, with a connecting thread binding them to each other. I cannot
+see them at will, but when the atmosphere is at all clear they are
+rarely absent, when I have time to look for them. I was much amused once
+by an earnest Christian scientist, with whom I happened to be spending a
+few days on the coast of the eastern counties. She had warned me
+repeatedly against "phenomena" of every kind, spontaneous or induced. On
+a specially bright morning we were sitting together in a beautiful park,
+which is thrown open to strangers on special days, and, forgetting my
+companion's prejudices, I exclaimed involuntarily:
+
+"I never saw my signs more clearly than just now!--there must be
+something very pure about the atmosphere."
+
+This was too much for my friend, who bent forward eagerly, saying:--"_Do
+let me try if I cannot see them too!_"
+
+Well, she "tried" for the greater part of two hours, but absolutely in
+vain, and then got up, and suggested going home to luncheon. She added
+naïvely: "I _thought_ they must have something wrong about them, and I
+am quite sure of it now, _or I should have seen them_."
+
+But it had taken her two hours of failure to be absolutely convinced
+that they came straight from the devil!
+
+One sign--also birds--appeared to me on one occasion only. We had
+returned to Denver, where Miss Greenlow and I were to separate after a
+year's constant travel together. She was going back to San Francisco to
+take steamer for the Sandwich Islands, and thence on to Australia;
+whilst I was returning to England for family reasons.
+
+I had arranged to dine with the hospitable Dean of Denver the evening of
+the day of her departure, and I had not realised how much less lonely
+one would have felt had my journey East corresponded more closely with
+her journey West, especially as she was obliged to leave the hotel about
+nine o'clock in the morning.
+
+Waking early, and lying in bed, feeling very melancholy at the idea of
+being left behind and alone in the very centre of America, I looked up,
+and, to my delight, saw a new sign.
+
+Not my little birds this time, but two big, plump father and mother
+birds, with a short string attached, not horizontally as before, but
+perpendicularly. At the end of this little string was a tiny bird, even
+smaller than the swallows, being evidently guided by the two big birds,
+and quite safe in their charge.
+
+My room communicated with that of my companion, whose door was open,
+and I told her of this new "sign in the heavens," adding that I hoped it
+had come to stay. Fortunately, I found a pencil, and made a rough sketch
+at the time, or I might have been tempted to imagine that I had never
+seen it at all, for the trio never appeared again, though I have longed
+to see them, and have certainly required the consolation quite as much,
+many times, since that far-away summer morning in Denver, Colorado.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On reaching home after this long American trip, I found a budget of
+letters awaiting me--amongst them a little registered box containing a
+kind birthday present from the brother who has been mentioned in the
+Introduction to this book. Was it another case of mental affinity which
+had induced him unconsciously to choose a gold brooch with two swallows
+in gold and pearls? Not an uncommon design; but _the birds were exactly
+the same size as those I was in the habit of seeing just at that time_.
+
+I never told him how extraordinarily _à propos_ his present had proved,
+but I have always looked upon that brooch as a mascot, and have
+certainly worn it every day since it came into my possession.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+Shortly after the Jubilee of 1887 had taken place, I sailed for
+Australia and New Zealand.
+
+My first psychic experience in the Colonies took place in Melbourne,
+some months after my landing in Tasmania.
+
+The wife of one of the "prominent citizens" in Melbourne had been
+specially invited to meet me at an afternoon reception in the house of
+friends to whom I had carried letters of introduction, as she was said
+to be so deeply interested in everything psychic, and would greatly
+enjoy hearing my American experiences. Fortunately, the lady arrived
+late, and we had already enjoyed some interesting conversation before
+she came. A wetter "wet blanket" it has never been my fortune to
+encounter. She was a very handsome woman, and therefore good to look at,
+but in the _rôle_ of sympathetic audience she was a miserable failure.
+She sat with a cold, glassy eye fixed upon me, whilst I endeavoured to
+continue the conversation which had been interrupted by her arrival.
+
+She might just as well have _said_ as have looked the words: "Now go on
+making a fool of yourself!--that is just what I have come to see."
+
+The position was hopeless. So I began to talk about the weather, which
+is disagreeable enough from sirocco in the hot spring months (it was the
+end of October) to be useful.
+
+Presently the daughter of the house came up to me, and said:
+
+"Do, please, go on telling us your interesting experiences, Miss Bates;
+we can talk about other things at any time, and we asked Mrs Burroughes
+on purpose to meet you."
+
+The lady in question had joined another group by this time, so I was
+able to whisper in reply: "I am so very sorry, but I cannot possibly
+talk of these things before your friend--she paralyses me absolutely
+from any psychic point of view. She is very handsome, and I like looking
+at her, but I cannot talk to her except about the weather."
+
+"How very odd!" was the unexpected reply. "That is just what Lizzie
+Maynard says. And I did very much want Lizzie to hear about America too,
+but she has gone off to the other end of the room, saying she knows you
+won't be able to talk whilst Mrs Burroughes is here."
+
+This was interesting, for I had not noticed the young girl mentioned,
+who had not been introduced to me. So when my young hostess asked "if
+she might bring Lizzie to see me at my hotel next day," I gladly
+acquiesced, in spite of feeling very far from well at the moment.
+
+This feeling of _malaise_ increased in the night, and was, in fact, the
+precursor of a short but sharp attack of a form of typhoid which was
+running through the hotel at the time. Being in bed next afternoon about
+four o'clock, I was dismayed to hear that Miss Maynard had arrived to
+see me, and, moreover, had arrived _alone_. I had never spoken to the
+girl nor even consciously set eyes on her before, but I knew she must
+have come at least three miles from the suburb where she lived, and
+would probably refuse to have a cup of tea downstairs during my absence.
+There was nothing for it, therefore, but to make an effort, order tea to
+be brought for her to my room, and send a message hoping she would not
+mind seeing me in my bedroom.
+
+She came up--a modest, charming-looking girl of about twenty. I
+explained the circumstances, and apologised for being unable to join in
+the tea-party, but felt rather desperate when I realised that even the
+effort of taking any share in the conversation was beyond me.
+
+Suddenly a brilliant idea passed through my throbbing head. The day
+before, in planning the visit, which Miss Boyle had been unable to carry
+out herself, she had mentioned that her friend Lizzie Maynard was a very
+good automatic writer, and this seemed a solution of the difficulty.
+
+So when my little friend had finished her tea, but was still looking
+tired from the long walk, I said to her: "I am so sorry to be so stupid
+to-day, Miss Maynard. I cannot talk, but I can listen; or do you think
+possibly you could get a little writing for me? Miss Boyle told me you
+wrote automatically sometimes?"
+
+"I will try, certainly," was the ready response. "I never know, of
+course, what may come, and as this is our first meeting, it may be a
+little more difficult, but I should like to try."
+
+She found paper and pencil, and sat by my bedside, holding the pencil
+very loosely between the second and third fingers, instead of between
+the thumb and first two fingers in the usual way.
+
+She continued talking to me during the whole time, and not being well
+versed in automatic writing then, I could not believe that any writing
+could really be going on in this very casual sort of way.
+
+"Is any writing really coming?" I questioned at last.
+
+"Oh yes; but I can't make out the last long word," she said, turning the
+paper round, so that she could see it, for the first time. "Kindly give
+me that word again," she remarked casually, and continued her
+conversation with me.
+
+Finally the three or four sheets of rather large but not always very
+distinct caligraphy were submitted to me, and I saw that "Miscellaneous"
+had been the long word at the beginning which Lizzie had asked to have
+repeated.
+
+The whole message was intensely interesting to me, for it began: "_I who
+on earth was known as George Eliot._"
+
+Now I had more than once seen, but had never spoken to, George Eliot in
+earth life, and although admiring her genius, as all who read her books
+are bound to do, there seemed no very obvious reason why she should come
+to me. Moreover, Lizzie Maynard, a charming but not highly educated girl
+(as I discovered later), seemed to know little about the famous author
+beyond her name. Another, and infinitely inferior, lady writer had been
+discussed with bated breath the day before in Lizzie's presence. Her
+books--just then in the zenith of their popularity--had newly penetrated
+to the Colonies, and were being talked of there as though Minerva
+herself, helmet and all complete, had suddenly arrived in Melbourne. I
+had personally been greatly interested by one of this lady's earlier
+books, and had a much less definite opinion of the author then, than I
+have at the present moment.
+
+Threshing my brains for any sort of tie with George Eliot, I remembered
+having often stayed at Oxford as a young woman, when Jowett of Balliol
+was entertaining her and Mr Lewes, in his own home.
+
+Of course, there was no question in those far-away days of my being
+asked to meet such a brilliant star; but it amused me often to hear the
+dull and uninteresting people of some standing in the University, whom
+Jowett had _not_ favoured with an invitation, declaring that nothing
+would have induced them to accept it!
+
+This was, however, but a feeble link, even when added to the righteous
+indignation one had so often experienced on hearing similar remarks
+made, about a woman too far above her critics both in genius and morals,
+for them to be able to catch the faintest glimpse of her personality.
+
+Apparently it only now lay with me to cease asking _why_, and accept the
+goods provided by the gods, making the most of such an opportunity. On
+these occasions so many possible questions tumble over each other in
+the brain that it is difficult to select any one to start with.
+
+At length I asked the following question:--
+
+"What did George Eliot think of the author who had been so much
+discussed and so highly applauded on the previous afternoon?"
+
+Very quickly came the answer: "_I have no sympathy there--a mere
+puppet._"
+
+Certainly this was not thought reading; for my own opinion then was very
+indefinite, and Lizzie's views, as it turned out, were as enthusiastic
+as those of most people in the Colony. It was not until several years
+later that I realised that an extraordinarily _apt_ criticism had been
+made; for a puppet is made to dance by other entities.
+
+I was longing to ask another question, but had some natural hesitation
+in doing so before such a young girl. Moreover, I feared the answer must
+almost of necessity be coloured by the traditions of the latter, and
+therefore would be of no great value either way. But taking my courage
+"in both hands," I put the question:
+
+"Please ask George Eliot if she _now_ thinks that she was justified in
+the position she took up with regard to George Lewes?"
+
+The answer came in a flash: "CERTAINLY. _We are one here, as we were on
+earth._"
+
+Anything less likely to emanate from the brain of an orthodox young girl
+can hardly be conceived!
+
+Amongst other details, George Eliot said finally that she had come to
+know my mother in spirit life, where she was called STELLA. Now my
+mother's name in earth life was Ellen, which has the same root for its
+origin. Of course, Miss Maynard did not then know whether my mother were
+alive or dead, and nothing naturally concerning her Christian name.
+
+The last statement made by George Eliot on this occasion was that
+"_before another year had rolled by, a great gift would come to me, and
+I must be very careful to use without abusing it_." I was too tired at
+the moment to ask whether "another year rolling by" meant a whole year
+from 28th October 1887 (the date of the message), or the end of the
+current year--namely, 31st December 1887.
+
+When the message had come to an end, Miss Maynard gathered up the
+scattered sheets, and promising to copy them out for me, took her
+departure, and left me to muse--so far as a racking brain would
+allow--on the curious and interesting result of her visit. No cup of tea
+to thirsty wayfarer was ever surely so grandly rewarded!
+
+My next adventure had a distant connection with these Australian
+experiences.
+
+I had come out to join the friend (Miss Greenlow) who had been my
+companion in America, and who had thence sailed for Sydney when I
+returned for a year to England. She had been anxious for me to rejoin
+her in Australia, and from thence visit Japan and China; but my arrival
+having been delayed by literary matters, this lady had finally lost
+patience, and, without my knowledge, had gone on to New Zealand, and
+thence, as it turned out, to Samoa. When I heard of the New Zealand
+episode there was nothing for it but to follow her there, on a
+will-o'-the-wisp expedition, as it turned out, but, fortunately, I was
+unaware of this at the time. I say fortunately, because had I known that
+she had already left Australia for Samoa, I should certainly have
+returned to England, in despair of tracing her any further, and thereby
+one of my most interesting experiences would have been lost.
+
+The illness in Melbourne, already referred to, detained me for over a
+fortnight, so it was necessary to transfer my New Zealand ticket from
+one boat to another. So the illness also must have been one of the
+factors that was involved in the adventure, as I have called it. For the
+delay led to my meeting--in a friend's house--Mr Arthur Kitchener (a
+younger brother of Lord Kitchener), who was introduced to me on the
+special ground that we were to be fellow-travellers to New Zealand a day
+or two later. As a matter of fact, Mr Kitchener was on his way from
+England to New Zealand, where he was superintending a sheep-run for his
+father in those days. He had come out by P. & O., and transhipped at
+Melbourne after two or three days' delay there.
+
+Several other passengers from the _Massilia_ were also going on to New
+Zealand, and naturally they felt like old friends after the five or six
+weeks already spent together. They thought _I_ wanted to be alone, and I
+thought _they_ wanted to be alone, and so I kept severely to the upper
+deck, feeling often lonely, and they all remained on the lower deck,
+wishing I would come down and talk to them sometimes. In spite of these
+misconceptions on either side, Mr Kitchener and I became sufficiently
+friendly for him to give me a very kind and hospitable invitation to
+spend the last few days of the year at his "station," about nine miles
+from Dunback, in the Dunedin district. I think I must have told him of
+my disappointment in missing my companion in Sydney, after travelling so
+many thousand miles to join her, and doubtless he felt some interest in
+this Stanley and Livingstone sort of chase, with two women taking the
+principal characters!
+
+Anyway, the invitation was given and accepted, and he kindly promised to
+ask one or two people to meet me in his house.
+
+All this came to pass some weeks later, on my return from the New
+Zealand lakes, and just before an expedition to the "Sounds," generally
+known as the "Sounds Trip."
+
+This is a pleasure trip, organised for early January, which is, of
+course, midsummer there. It lasts for ten days, and gives one the
+opportunity of seeing to the best advantage these glorious inlets of the
+sea.
+
+My week at the sheep station was to precede this, as I have explained;
+in fact, as the steamer sailed late in the afternoon, it was possible to
+go on board without stopping for the night at Dunedin, whence we were to
+sail. But at the last moment a slight contretemps took place. Owing to
+some delay the steamer would not be able to leave till Monday, instead
+of the Saturday morning as arranged, and our kind host insisted on
+extending his hospitality for the two extra days.
+
+Now each day there had been some talk about having an impromptu
+_séance_, and each day I had successfully evaded the arrangement. I have
+a great dislike to sitting in casual circles with strangers, and it
+seemed to me that no good purpose would be served by doing so. It is
+impossible on these occasions to convince anyone else that you are not
+pushing or "muscle moving," or generally playing tricks, and it has
+always seemed to me that the time wasted over mutual recriminations on
+these points, or the silly jokes that appear inevitable, when two or
+three human beings at a table get together in a private house; might be
+much more profitably spent.
+
+Table turning as a parlour game is about as stupid and aimless an
+amusement as I know. I represented all this to Mr Kitchener, but in
+vain. He had attended some psychic meetings in Dunback or Dunedin, and
+evidently wished me to reconsider the matter. Also it happened to be the
+last day of the year, when people are always more inclined to be
+obliging, I suppose; anyway that Saturday night, 31st December 1887,
+found me sitting down to a table in the little drawing-room of that
+far-away sheep station.
+
+As some reward for any virtue there may have been in yielding my point,
+I remembered suddenly that George Eliot's message on 28th October--two
+months previously--had been rather vague, and that it might be
+interesting, if the chance came, to find out whether "_before another
+year has rolled away_" meant a year from 28th October, or the year of
+which so few hours still remained to us.
+
+After the usual inanities--"_I am sure you are pushing._" "No; _you_
+are! _I saw your fingers pressing heavily._" "_Why, how extraordinary!
+that is exactly what I thought about you_," etc. etc., it was intimated
+that a spirit was there giving the name of George Eliot, so I put my
+question at once.
+
+"I did not mean another year from October last--I referred to this
+year," was the answer.
+
+"Shall I be able to write automatically?" was my next query.
+
+"No; leave that alone--it would be very dangerous for you at present."
+
+"Shall I be able to hear? Shall I become clair-audient?"
+
+"No," came for the second time.
+
+My next question naturally was: "Then shall I be able to _see_ very
+soon?"
+
+"Yes; for you will become clairvoyant for the first time. Remember my
+warning to use but not abuse the gift."
+
+Now I must explain that all this time a good deal of the usual kind of
+joking had been going on. Moreover, I felt intuitively that Mr Kitchener
+thought I was deceiving myself into the idea that human muscles could
+not account for the movements, and, in fact, the very worst possible
+conditions for getting anything of value were present.
+
+So much so that I did not for one moment suppose that it was really
+George Eliot, or that she would countenance that particular sort of
+buffoonery, and the incident made no impression upon me at all. I had
+already taken my hands off the table, when someone--Mr Kitchener, I
+think--banged it down four times, and then triumphantly observed: "_Yes,
+of course, you will see somebody during the night, or rather at four
+o'clock in the morning, you see!_" The whole thing was the kind of
+fiasco I had expected, "degenerating into a romp," as poor Corney Grain
+used to remark about the "Lancers" and the stern old lady in the
+suburban villa.
+
+The bathos of table turning had surely been reached when it came to
+banging the leg of the table down four times, and calmly announcing four
+o'clock as the time for my first vision!
+
+But the remarkable point is that I _did_ have my first vision that
+night, though it had come and gone long before four A.M.
+
+It is necessary to remember that the sun rises about three-thirty A.M.
+during the end of December or first week in January out there, so it
+would have been fairly light before four A.M.; whereas when I woke out
+of my first sleep that night, it was pitch dark.
+
+My room was the usual whitewashed apartment to be found in the ordinary
+colonial "station," with a wooden bed standing about two or three feet
+from the wall, and parallel with the only window in the room; which
+faced the door (at the foot of my bed), and was fitted with a very dark
+green blind, on account of the hot summer sunshine.
+
+But it was now pitch dark in the room. I woke facing the window, but
+turned on my side, as one generally does on such occasions, and this
+brought me face to face with the wall. To my infinite amazement there
+stood between the wall and my bed, a diaphanous figure of a woman, quite
+life size or rather more, with one arm held out in a protecting fashion
+towards me, and some drapery about the head. The features were,
+moreover, quite distinct, and, as I afterwards realised, the counterpart
+of George Eliot's curious and Savonarola-like countenance. But at the
+moment, oddly enough, I only thought of two things--first, how
+extraordinary that what had appeared to me such a silly waste of time
+overnight should have had any element of reality about it! Then swiftly
+came the second idea: "And how in the world does it happen that I don't
+feel a bit frightened?"
+
+I lay there absolutely content and peaceful, with a feeling of blissful
+satisfaction which I have never exactly realised either before or since
+that one occasion.
+
+"_Everything is all right--nothing can really ever go wrong--nothing at
+least that matters at all. All the real things are all right. I can
+never doubt the truth of these things after this experience. It was
+promised, and the promise has been redeemed._" These were the thoughts
+that passed idly through my brain as I lay--fully awake--and looked up
+at the comforting woman's figure. For it seemed more--much more--than a
+mere vision. I have spoken of the figure as diaphanous because it was
+not as solid as an ordinary human being, but, on the other hand, I could
+not see the wall through it: it was too solid for that. Then I
+remembered a story told in _The Athenæum_--of all papers--and written by
+a Dr Jephson, of his experience whilst paying a visit to Lord Offord,
+and making notes--late at night--in the library of the house for some
+literary work on hand. He had finished his notes, put away the book of
+reference, looked at his watch, found the hands marking two A.M. (so
+far as I remember), and had just said to himself: "Well, I shall be in
+bed by two-thirty after all," when, turning round, he found a large
+leather chair close to his own, tenanted by a Spanish priest in some
+ancient dress!
+
+Thinking it might be an hallucination, he deliberately turned
+round--_away_ from the priest--rubbed his eyes, and then slowly looked
+back again. Still the priest was there, and Dr Jephson then realised for
+the first time that, although not _consciously frightened_ or alarmed in
+any way, he was quite unable to _speak_ to the intruder. So he quietly
+chose a pencil, sat down, and calmly took his portrait. The priest
+politely remained until the sketch was completed, and then vanished.
+
+This story, read some years previously, flashed through my brain, and I
+thought: "_I_ will try turning round, and then seeing if she is still
+there." I turned deliberately, facing the window, and then realised that
+it was pitch dark in my room--not the faintest glimmer of light came
+through the heavily shrouded window. "_Then it can't be four o'clock_,"
+was my triumphant comment.
+
+It would have been too disappointing had my distinguished visitor
+condoned the unblushing banging down four times of the table leg, by
+choosing that hour for her arrival in my room! But then again, how could
+I _see_ her, since the room was quite dark? It was only necessary to
+turn round once more to the wall to realise that I _did_ see her in
+fact, although I ought not to have done so in theory! I saw her as
+distinctly as I ever saw a marble statue in the Vatican Gallery by the
+light of noon. Although I had recalled the Jephson story so
+circumstantially, it never struck me that it might be interesting to
+attempt any conversation, and see whether I also were tongue-tied. I did
+not _want_ to speak--there seemed no special reason for speaking. It was
+quite enough to lie there with this blissful feeling of protection and
+love folding me round like a cloud with golden lining. And as this
+consciousness held me in its loving grasp, to my infinite sorrow the
+kind, protecting figure disappeared, gently and very slowly, sinking
+into the ground on the spot where I had first seen her; and once more
+all was dark in the room.
+
+I lay, too happy and peaceful for movement or even speculation for some
+ten minutes, and then it struck me that I had better light the candle by
+my side, and find out what o'clock it might be.
+
+Now I have a rather accurate idea of time, and can generally tell within
+a minute or two how long any special work may have taken me. Looking at
+my watch, I saw it was just two-twenty-five A.M., so I settled in my own
+mind that I must have seen the figure at two-fifteen A.M., or possibly
+at two-ten A.M., for I think the experience lasted nearly five minutes
+altogether. Anyway, I felt sure that ten minutes, as nearly as possible,
+had elapsed between the sinking of the figure out of sight and my
+lighting the match in order to consult my watch. It may have been nine
+minutes, or possibly eleven, but I feel confident the time mentioned
+would be within these limits.
+
+Therefore next morning, when our host appeared, and I was chaffed about
+"the vision," I said boldly: "You think it all nonsense, and I confess
+I did not believe anything that came last night when so much joking was
+going on, but I was mistaken. I _did_ see, for the first time in my
+life, anything abnormal." And I repeated my experience, just as I have
+now written it down.
+
+Incredulous looks greeted me, and then Mr Kitchener said quietly:
+
+"Oh yes, you saw something at four A.M. I am not at all surprised to
+hear that."
+
+"Not at four A.M.," I answered, "but at two-fifteen A.M. I made a
+special note of the time. I was asleep again long before four A.M., and
+never slept better in my life."
+
+He looked puzzled, and then suggested that my watch must have gone
+wrong; but we compared notes, and our watches were registering exactly
+the same hour within a minute or two.
+
+I found out later that, having learnt something of the Thought
+Transference Theory at the Dunedin Circle or Metaphysical Club which he
+had attended, Mr Kitchener had attempted to _make me see_ a vision at
+four A.M., but as he confessed he had been fast asleep _when_ I _did_
+see (_an hour and three quarters before his efforts started_), it would
+take a very ingenious person to prove that the latter had anything to do
+with the occurrence.
+
+A deeply interesting corroboration reached me, however, a few weeks
+later, by which time I had visited the "Sounds," and many other places
+of interest, and had arrived safely at Auckland, in the North Island.
+
+On the morning of my vision, I must not forget to mention, that I had
+spoken of it to Mr Kitchener's faithful Irish housekeeper, whose
+nationality I knew would prevent her thinking me a mere lunatic. By this
+time scepticism had the upper hand, and I was beginning to try to
+explain away everything in the true Podmorian spirit.
+
+Could Mr Kitchener or any other person present have had to do with the
+matter? In this case my blissful feelings would naturally be merely the
+result of imagination, and easily disposed of on this ground. So I
+questioned the little housekeeper when she brought my hot water as to
+whether it could have been possible for Mr Kitchener or anyone else in
+the house to have access to a clean sheet or tablecloth, and to have
+masqueraded in the garden outside my room. She indignantly denied the
+possibility. "The linen is all locked up by me; besides, no one would
+have been so wicked. It might have frightened you out of your senses,
+ma'am! Do you suppose the master would have done such a thing?"
+
+No; I did not really accuse anyone of such a cruel and stupid joke.
+Moreover, it was a little difficult, even for Podmorian ingenuity, to
+explain how man or woman, masquerading in a white sheet in the garden
+outside, could convey the fairly solid figure of a faked "George Eliot,"
+who stood well out between the wall and my bed; and this through a thick
+green blind and curtains, when garden and room alike were shrouded in
+_absolute_ darkness!
+
+Foiled in all my attempts to find a "sensible solution" to the mystery,
+I determined to write and ask Lizzie Maynard of Melbourne if _she_ could
+throw any light upon matters, my decision in taking this step being
+strengthened by the curious coincidence which I had just
+discovered--_i.e._ that Mr Kitchener's housekeeper had lived with the
+Maynards when they had had a house in Dunedin, which was later burnt
+down, as so often happens in the Colonies. "Jane" had lost sight of the
+Maynard family for years, and was much excited by my promising to write
+and tell them of my meeting with her.
+
+Of course, I mentioned my strange experience and all the details
+connected with it--_except_ the exact hour of the occurrence. It was by
+a pure oversight (as I supposed) that this fact was omitted. I have had
+reason since to believe that I was unconsciously impressed to leave out
+this special detail, in order that I might receive far better evidence
+than would have been possible under other circumstances. Had I mentioned
+the hour of the vision, the imagination of my young friends in Melbourne
+might have been at work as regards the hour of _their_ experience, which
+was as follows:--
+
+Several weeks after leaving Dunback I reached Auckland, and received
+amongst other letters one from Lizzie Maynard in answer to mine. Mr
+Kitchener had also written, saying what nice girls my friends the
+Maynards must be, and how kindly they had written to his excellent
+little housekeeper, sending her welcome gifts, and saying that her
+place had never been filled in their hearts, and so forth. Lizzie's
+letter to me began also about the excellences of "Jane," and the
+curious coincidence through which she had been once more put in touch
+with her; then she went on to say:
+
+"It is indeed very remarkable about your experience, dear Miss Bates,
+but I think you will consider it much more remarkable when I tell you
+what _we_ were doing that night. I was spending the week-end with our
+mutual friends Captain and Mrs Boyle" (in whose house she and I had
+encountered Mrs Burroughes), "and Lily Boyle and I were sleeping in
+the same room, as the house was full.
+
+"On the evening of 31st December there was a little dance arranged, to
+'dance the old year out and the new year in,' and at midnight we
+dispersed, the visitors going home, and those in the house retiring to
+bed. Lily and I were too much excited to get into bed at once, so I
+suggested that we should try to compose a letter to Miss Pearl" (this
+being the lady whose writings they greatly admired. I had allowed them
+to use my name as an introduction, should they wish to communicate with
+her at any time).
+
+Lizzie went on to say how nervous they were about writing the letter,
+fearing that so popular an author might not take any notice of the badly
+expressed letter of two young colonial girls. However, she did her best,
+and Lily Boyle did _her_ best, and the result was a hopeless failure!
+"Then," continued Lizzie, "a happy thought struck me--George Eliot had
+used my hand to convey her message to you last October; might we not,
+remembering this, appeal to her to help us in our difficulty? So we gave
+up trying to write the letter ourselves, took down planchette from its
+shelf, and started again. In a few moments an excellent letter was
+written, giving your name as an introduction, with all the little
+points you had specially begged us to remember in connection with Miss
+Pearl's probable prejudices. It was so splendidly written, and so
+quickly, that you can imagine our delight! We could not bear to give up
+planchette even after both our names had been signed, and I said
+pleadingly: '_Oh, don't go away! Do stop and tell us something more._'
+
+"In large letters, as you see" (Lizzie enclosed the script), "was
+written very decidedly:
+
+"NO, I CANNOT STAY WITH YOU NOW--I HAVE PROMISED TO GO AND SEE
+STELLA'S DAUGHTER.
+
+"I remembered, dear Miss Bates, that G. Eliot had said your mother's
+name in spirit life was _Stella_, so, of course, we knew that she meant
+us to understand that she was going to see _you_.
+
+"Unfortunately, you did not mention the hour of her visit, but we took
+the time when enclosed message was written--very accurately--in order to
+tell you about it, and the hour was just twelve-thirty A.M. Do write and
+tell us that was the time when she appeared to you--we feel sure it must
+have been--but are longing to have our idea confirmed, etc. etc."
+
+Now my young friends had evidently entirely forgotten the difference
+in time between Dunedin and Melbourne, and I must confess to my own
+amazement when I found that it was considerably over the sixty
+minutes, which I should have vaguely supposed it to be.
+
+In fact, I was rather disappointed to think there was so wide a margin
+between the two occurrences, until I casually asked a gentleman, who was
+staying in my hotel, if he could tell me the difference in time between
+the two cities.
+
+"Not exactly, I'm afraid, but it is considerably over an hour. Ah,
+there is a good atlas! I can easily calculate it for you." He remained
+silent for a moment, and then raising his head, said: "As nearly an
+hour and three quarters as possible." This was pretty good evidence of
+the practically simultaneous experience of my friends in Melbourne at
+twelve-thirty A.M., with my own at two-fifteen A.M. in the
+neighbourhood of Dunedin.
+
+When I first became acquainted with Mr Myers, shortly after my return
+from Australia and New Zealand, I told him this story. He was greatly
+interested, but pointed out that it was useless from the evidential
+point of view unless I would take the trouble to write one or two
+letters to the Colonies.
+
+So I wrote to Mr Kitchener for confirmation of the fact that I was
+staying in his house on the night of 31st December 1887, and had told
+him of my experience next morning, exactly as here related. Then I had
+to get Miss Lizzie Maynard's testimony with regard to her letter to
+me, and finally, I think, the testimony of Lily Boyle and her father
+that Miss Maynard was their guest in Melbourne on the occasion of the
+New Year's Eve dance. These letters are presumably still amongst the
+archives of the Society of Psychical Research, and the story was
+printed by them in their Proceedings some years ago.
+
+I may add a last evidential touch by saying that when I met Miss Pearl
+for the first time after my travels, she referred to the letter she had
+received--under favour of my introduction--and quite spontaneously
+remarked upon its excellence, adding:
+
+"I could scarcely believe that two young Australian girls, as they
+described themselves to me, could have written such an admirable
+letter."
+
+I did not disclose the real source of the composition, as the popular
+author thinks that she has no belief in spiritualism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK
+
+
+The spring months of 1888 found me at Brisbane, _en route_ for China,
+after spending a pleasant month with old friends on a well-known
+station belonging to the late Sir Arthur Hodgson, named Eton Vale, and
+situated on the beautiful and healthy Darling Downs of Queensland.
+
+Before returning to Sydney from New Zealand, my female "Dr
+Livingstone" had reappeared upon the scene in the most unexpected
+manner. Our "historical meeting" took place in an Auckland hotel,
+where she suddenly turned up one day, driven back from Samoa by the
+intense heat. So after some gentle recriminations, she "having
+supposed the delay on my part might mean an entire change of plan,"
+and I having supposed--from her letters--that Sydney was such a
+Paradise that she could hardly be dragged from it even by a flaming
+sword, we agreed to cry "quits," and continue our travels together. So
+Miss Greenlow spent the month of March in Sydney, whilst I paid my
+visit to Queensland, and we met once more at Brisbane to take steamer
+for Thursday Island, Cape Darwin, and eventually Hong Kong. Only one
+small matter of psychic interest occurred during this voyage.
+
+I have mentioned in a previous chapter the little "swallows," which I
+first saw in San Francisco in the year 1886. I had been accustomed to
+seeing them ever since that date, and had been frequently commiserated
+for incipient eye trouble in consequence, by more than one sceptical
+friend.
+
+On the very day we went on board the Hong Kong steamer at Brisbane, a
+new sign appeared: a single bird, holding in its beak a ring with half
+hoop of five stones, presumably diamonds. I told my friend about this,
+but neither she nor I could imagine any significance in it. At that time
+we had not even met any of our fellow-passengers to speak to, for we
+were all taken up with settling into our cabins and trying to make
+ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit.
+
+For a whole week the same little bird and the same ring were
+persistently held up before me. Then an inkling of the possible meaning
+broke upon me suddenly. Within a fortnight of our sailing this suspicion
+was confirmed, and the little bird's warning or suggestion amply
+justified. But "that is another story!" Curiously enough, the new "sign
+in the heavens" was withdrawn as soon as I had grasped its meaning.
+
+I must hasten over our delightful stay in Japan, because amongst much of
+extreme interest from artistic, social, and various other points of
+view, nothing occurred which has any special bearing on my present
+subject.
+
+Leaving Japan eventually by sailing from Yokohama to Vancouver
+(Washington territory), the old threads were once more put into my
+hands.
+
+We made the acquaintance on board the old P. & O. _Abyssinia_ of the
+late Captain MacArthur, a kindly and genial naval man. He was an
+Australian by birth, but belonged to our English navy, and was just
+returning home on his promotion as commander.
+
+He became rather interested in my "queer ideas," and ended by suggesting
+some experiments with "the table," so he persuaded the ship's carpenter
+to put together a small rough wooden table. The sittings were held,
+generally after dinner, in either my cabin or that of my "stable
+companion" Miss Greenlow. So far as I remember, we three were the only
+sitters, and I am bound to confess the sittings were sometimes very
+monotonous, even viewed from the indulgent perspective of a sea voyage.
+In fact, I can now recall only one incident of any real value.
+
+The dear old nurse, spoken of in my opening chapter, had now been for
+three or four years on the other side of the veil, but had never given
+me the slightest sign of her presence. But she came several times during
+this voyage, and always with the same object--namely, to entreat, and
+finally _implore me_, to give up a projected tour in Alaska.
+
+Miss Greenlow and I had been prevented from undertaking this, two years
+earlier, when visiting Victoria (Vancouver), and she was very keen to go
+there from Washington territory on this occasion. I was _not_ keen for
+the expedition, but had made no strong objection to it, and it was
+understood that we should go together.
+
+This was the tour which my old nurse now pleaded so anxiously should be
+given up, so far as _I_ was concerned.
+
+"_It will ruin your health, my darling_," she said more than once.
+"_Don't go there; take my advice._" And on one occasion, just before
+landing, she added: "_You will find letters awaiting you which will
+enable you to make other plans._"
+
+This proved true--in a certain way. The first letter opened in the
+budget which fell to my share, told me of the sudden death of our family
+solicitor, which would have been a good excuse for a hasty return to
+England had any such pretext been necessary.
+
+But this was not the case, for my companion, although quite determined
+to go to Alaska herself, was not in the least inclined to over-persuade
+me to accompany her. She was a very independent woman, quite accustomed
+to travelling alone, and I knew that neither her enjoyment nor her
+convenience would be affected by my decision one way or the other. I had
+no wish to go myself, and, moreover, thought it quite probable that my
+dear old nurse's warnings might be amply justified. But there were other
+grave considerations to be taken into account, and I still feel that I
+adopted the right, although not the pleasanter course, when I allowed my
+fellow-passengers to depart East, joking me on my want of faith in the
+warnings from the spirits, and accompanied my friend, very unwillingly,
+to Alaska.
+
+My nurse's earnest entreaties were only too fully justified on the
+physical plane, to say nothing of the miserable discomfort of the trip
+(which in those days had to be made in an overcrowded cargo boat.) I
+took a chill in those Arctic regions, which later developed into the
+longest and most serious illness of my life. It took months to make even
+a partial recovery, and the effects will remain during my life. Yet I
+have never regretted my decision.
+
+This little episode seems to throw some light upon the way such warnings
+should be treated. To give no heed to them on the one hand, or to follow
+them blindly, _in spite of every other consideration_, on the other;
+these seem to me the Scylla and Charybdis of our lives. It shows that we
+_must_ judge for ourselves; we cannot shift the burden of responsibility
+on any other shoulders. How could we gain the real education of life
+were it otherwise?
+
+Had I turned my back on Alaska I should have gained enormously,
+physically speaking, and yet failed in a moral test. But my dear old
+nurse, who considered only--probably _saw_ only--the physical evils to
+be avoided, was entirely in the right, _from her standpoint_. The
+faithful soul was doing her best to shield her nursling from danger.
+
+A severe illness was entailed by my Alaska experiences. "Livingstone and
+Stanley" were once more separated. In other words, Miss Greenlow was
+obliged to return to England alone, leaving me to be nursed through a
+long and painful illness by kind friends and connections in Toronto. One
+of my doctors--the brother of my hostess--kindly made time to take me
+and my nurse to New York, in order that he might put me under the
+special care of the ship's doctor, and also be able to certify, as
+required, that I was in a fit condition to undertake the voyage.
+
+It was during the day or two spent in New York before sailing, that I
+induced this gentleman to accompany me one evening to a _séance_ held by
+Mrs Stoddart Gray, who has been previously mentioned in this narrative.
+
+Dr Theodore Covernton had all the ordinary doctor's prejudices against
+anything unseen or unknown. He had read my book on America, and
+considered the chapter on "Spiritualism" a lamentable lapse "from the
+good sense shown in the rest of the book!" I represented to him that for
+a physician to deny all possibilities of Hypnotism or Mesmerism, Thought
+Transmission, etc., meant losing some very valuable aids in his
+profession, and would probably soon mean being left pretty badly behind
+in the race.
+
+Knowing of no specially good hypnotist in New York, and as there was no
+time to find one out, I boldly suggested that he should plunge into
+still deeper depths of "folly," and accompany me to the house of Mrs
+Stoddart Gray.
+
+The usual performances went on, but whether owing to Dr Covernton's
+attitude of mind or other causes, nothing of any special interest to him
+or to me occurred.
+
+One incident impressed him, I think; certainly he could suggest no
+possible explanation of it, for it happened in a very fair amount of
+light and close to our feet. A gentleman and lady were sitting in the
+circle who had brought with them their little boy, a child of seven
+years old. I had asked the lady if she considered it wise to bring so
+young a child into such a _milieu_, several hours after an English child
+would have been put to bed, and her answer was cheery and
+characteristic:
+
+"Well, I guess we shouldn't have much peace at home if we didn't bring
+Charlie along with us to see his Granny. We took him once, and since
+then he always insists upon coming. He loves talking to his Granny, and
+he is not a bit afraid of her."
+
+At this moment a small frail woman stepped out from the cabinet, and
+came right up towards us, motioning to the little grandson that she
+wished him to go into the cabinet with her. This he did without a
+moment's hesitation, and the curtain fell, and concealed them both from
+view. The interview lasted for some minutes, and when the little boy
+reappeared, he was holding his Granny by the hand, and was evidently on
+the best of terms with her. I do not expect my readers to believe me,
+but this is exactly what happened next:
+
+The child had brought some toys--a little train and some building
+blocks--"to get Granny to play with him as usual," and the fragile old
+lady knelt down on the floor, and played with him just as any ordinary
+Granny might have done, only with far more agility.
+
+In the very midst of their brick building and train starting, a terrible
+catastrophe occurred, which spoilt the rest of the evening for the poor
+child. Granny had evidently forgotten that her time was limited, by
+conditions of which we are still profoundly ignorant.
+
+Quite suddenly, and without a word of warning, she disappeared, not into
+the cabinet at her back, but right through the carpet under our feet,
+and well within a yard of the said feet, and this with two or three
+gas-jets burning over our heads!
+
+There was no mistake about it. Dr Covernton and I were sitting next to
+the father and mother, whilst the child and his grandmother played at
+our feet. One moment she was there; the next she had disappeared like a
+flash into a mere cloud of mist, and even this was quickly withdrawn,
+apparently through the floor. No trap-door theory could account for
+this, because the _woman_ had disappeared, and only the wisp of ethereal
+garments remained, before the latter were also dissipated. We must,
+moreover, note the difficulty of working a trap door immediately under
+the feet of a sceptical young physician, who at once investigated the
+carpet, hoping in vain to find in it some solution of the mystery!
+
+I have already mentioned that the whole incident took place, in light
+sufficiently good to read a book without straining the eyes.
+
+The poor little boy was terribly upset, and sobbed bitterly. His parents
+said they had brought him many times before, and such a _fiasco_ had
+never before taken place. Mrs Stoddart Gray was very indignant about it.
+
+"Too bad! She ought to have _known_ she was staying too long, and
+risking a fright for the child. If she had only gone back into the
+cabinet he would not have been frightened. But she stayed too long and
+had not enough strength to get back."
+
+The child was too thoroughly frightened and upset to admit of any
+consolation, and the parents were obliged to take him away, still
+sobbing, and asking _why_ Granny had gone away like that and given him
+such a fright.
+
+A year later, in London, I took Dr Covernton--by appointment--to see Dr
+Carl Hansen, who was then giving hypnotic treatment, and also doing some
+work in demonstrations for the Society for Psychical Research. Dr Hansen
+tried in vain to put either Dr Theodore Covernton or myself under the
+influence, so was obliged to have recourse to his wife. Naturally this
+was considered a "_most suspicious circumstance_" by my companion; but I
+noticed that he was very much interested in his conversation with
+her--from the medical point of view--and he was sufficiently honest to
+admit that he could not explain what happened in his presence, upon any
+normal hypothesis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INDIA, 1890-1891
+
+
+In the month of November 1890 I started with a young friend for my first
+visit to India.
+
+My companion was still at the age when social India was naturally more
+interesting to her than either the historical or mystical aspects of the
+country. And, for myself, I went there in those days rather to see the
+glorious buildings of a magnificent Past, than with any view of wresting
+occult secrets from the Fakirs and Yogis of the Present.
+
+It was well perhaps that one's ambitions were so limited by the
+Possible, for I am very much inclined to think that Mystic India is
+and must remain a sealed book for the English.
+
+We must always remember the natural prejudices of a conquered race
+towards the conqueror. In addition to this, the Hindoostanees consider
+(and who shall say without ample cause?) that Englishmen are
+hopelessly "_borné_" and sunk in materialism, incapable of exercising
+an imagination which they don't possess; with a top dressing of
+conventional orthodoxy, so far as their own special religion is
+concerned, but with nothing but ridicule or thinly veiled contempt for
+the religious channels through which other races may be taking their
+spiritual food. We have given them only too much reason for these
+conclusions.
+
+As a consequence of this state of things, Englishmen and women are
+looked upon as "quite impossible" from the Indian point of view, and a
+devout and educated Hindoo would no more think of discussing his
+transcendental ideas with such people than we should think of discussing
+delicate questions of Art--in its various branches--with the first
+village yokel we happened to meet in the road. I was confirmed in these
+ideas by noticing the difference in the welcome accorded to a charming
+young Swedish lady, whom we met at Benares on her wedding tour. She had
+brought excellent native introductions from her own country, where
+certain Rajahs and Maharajahs had been entertained by her King, and
+thanks to these, and, as she said, "_to the fact of my not being
+English_," she had access to many interesting places, and took part in
+interesting functions, from which the rest of us were debarred.
+
+I am hoping to pay a third visit to India some day, with the special
+object in view of occult investigation. It remains to be seen whether,
+by any fortunate accident, I may then be more successful in encountering
+anything more interesting than the ordinary clever conjurers, who
+sometimes pose as Fakirs, and may be found by the tourist on every hotel
+veranda in India.
+
+Meanwhile I am limited by the title of my book to personal incidents, as
+to which I find one or two notes in my Indian diary.
+
+Making the usual tour, but including Lahore--where my brother had lived
+at Government House for several years as Military Secretary to Sir
+Robert Egerton (who was in _his_ day), Lieutenant-Governor of the
+Punjab--we came in due course to Delhi.
+
+Our first day there was devoted to tracing Mutiny relics of all kinds,
+and about four P.M. in the afternoon we drove out to the famous Ridge to
+see the Mutiny Memorial. This, as most people nowadays know, is a red
+standstone tower, with staircase of rough stone inside, and small
+windows pierced through at varying intervals. It stands upon an
+extensive marble flooring, which is inscribed with the names of the
+various regiments--officers and men--who took part in the renowned
+siege, and died for their country in consequence.
+
+As we drove towards the Memorial, the whole place seemed to be in a
+flutter of excitement. Hundreds of coolies were flocking round, and we
+both remarked how much more interested they appeared to be in these
+monuments of past events than the corresponding class of English
+labourers would have been. But on arrival we found there was no question
+of intelligent historical interest. The fact was that a poor coolie--who
+had just climbed up the Memorial Tower by the inner staircase--had
+fallen out of one of the windows described, and was lying on the marble
+floor below, at the far side from us, crushed and dying. We were told
+that an Englishman had, fortunately, been present, and had driven off at
+once for a doctor. So nothing could be done for the poor man until the
+latter arrived.
+
+Meanwhile our native servant--Bobajee--had, of course, rushed off to
+see what was to be seen of the tragedy, and, rather to my horror, my
+girl friend seemed about to follow his example! It was terrible to think
+of the poor man lying there in his death agony; but he was already
+surrounded by natives, and no real help could be given without fear of
+doing more harm than good before the doctor was brought to the spot.
+Therefore merely to go and look on, without being able to succour,
+seemed to me an added horror to the tragedy, and I turned round rather
+sharply on my young friend, and expostulated with her. As a matter of
+fact, she did _not_ go; but I am obliged to mention the incident as
+accounting for a certain momentary excitement and annoyance on my part,
+which proved to be factors in the story about to be related.
+
+Allowing for difference of time between Delhi and London, a very old
+friend of mine, Lady Wincote (who was then living in London, where I was
+in the habit of visiting her constantly when in town), was lying in bed,
+resting after a disturbed night, at the very hour of our visit to the
+Mutiny Memorial.
+
+It was about noon in England; she was fully awake, and had been reading.
+Looking at her watch she realised it was time to make a move if she
+meant to come down for luncheon. Suddenly the door opened, and _I_
+walked into her bedroom, and right round the bed, until I stood between
+her and the window, which was to her left as she lay in bed.
+
+I was dressed in ordinary outdoor attire, and seemed much excited and
+annoyed about something. I was talking continuously, as it seemed to
+her; but she could not make out any connected sentences, and "wondered
+what had upset me" so much. She spoke to me, asking what had happened;
+but I took no notice of her questions, standing with my face to the
+window and my back to her for a few moments. Then I turned round, and
+deliberately retraced my steps, past the ottoman, skirting round the
+bed, and was just disappearing through the door, when she made a final
+effort to attract my attention, asking a very practical question:
+
+"Emmie! Do tell me before you go, what number you are staying at in
+Oxford Terrace" (the part of town where I always stayed at that time).
+Lady Wincote said: "You made no answer at all, but whisked out of the
+door in a great hurry, and then for the first time I remembered _that
+you were in India_. It had all seemed so natural, as you had often been
+in my bedroom, that I only thought at the moment that you must have
+returned unexpectedly to London from the country. My one anxiety was to
+know which number on the Terrace would find you, in case you had changed
+your address there."
+
+Now all this was, fortunately, written out to me by my friend on the
+very day that it happened--_i.e._ 8th January 1891--and _crossed my
+letter to her telling her of the incident_. My letter was written a day
+or two later I think; but I was keeping a strict diary at the time, and
+under date of 8th January have the record of the event, corresponding
+with the date of Lady Wincote's letter to me.[3]
+
+ [3] Both my diary and Lady Wincote's letter were shown to Mr Myers on
+ my return to England, also my letter which crossed the one from Lady
+ Wincote to me. He was greatly interested in the account.
+
+Probably in any case I should have written to tell this friend of the
+incident, on account of a conversation I had with Bobajee when he
+returned from his ghastly entertainment. I had looked inside the
+Memorial, and had seen that the stone steps were crumbling away and
+looked very unsafe, so when he came back and said: "_Something bad
+inside there, Lady Sahib_," I concluded naturally that he was referring
+to the state of the staircase, and attributing the poor coolie's fall to
+some such cause.
+
+But he denied this strenuously: "_No! no! Lady Sahib--some bad debil
+inside there. He threw coolie over!_" Then he went on to tell us that on
+one special night in the year no native man, woman, or child in the
+whole city could be induced to pass the Mutiny Memorial at midnight. The
+few daring souls who _had_ passed there, had found the tower all lighted
+up inside, and the Sepoys and the British soldiers had come back, and
+were fighting their battles over again! The man spoke in simple good
+faith, and assured me that all Delhi people knew this to be a fact, and
+gave the place a wide berth on that anniversary.
+
+The idea of the "bad debil" throwing the poor coolie down from the top
+of the tower, followed by this curious legend, interested me as a bit of
+folk-lore, but my companion was drastic in her remarks. "Silly nonsense,
+Bobajee!" was her reception of the story; and this made me feel
+intensely sorry for the moment, that Lady Wincote, who would have been
+as much interested as myself, should not have been present. Did this
+moment of intense desire for her, project itself into the appearance she
+saw in her room? Who can say? Certainly it was a curious coincidence
+that she should see me in an annoyed and excited state just when I was
+feeling annoyed and excited--so many thousand miles away.
+
+Delhi seems to have been specially favourable to psychic experiences,
+for I find another one recorded on the very day succeeding the last
+event.
+
+My friend, having some slight ailment, I had driven out alone with our
+native servant, and we made a long tour, returning about six P.M. past
+Ludlow Castle, of famous Mutiny memory, and still--in the year 1891--a
+Government bungalow.
+
+The present Czar of Russia was travelling through India at the time as
+Czarewitch, with his cousin, Prince George of Greece, and they were
+expected to arrive in Delhi that same evening. The Royal party and suite
+were to be lodged at Ludlow Castle, and were expected within an hour.
+
+Bobajee jumped off the box of my carriage, and urged me to "go look,
+see!"
+
+"No, Bobajee! Drive on--can't go look see--they no let me in."
+
+"Yes, yes, Lady Sahib," he said eagerly--"everything ready--all gone
+away--nobody in there yet."
+
+With our English notions this seems inconceivable, but it proved to be
+absolutely true. I went in, expecting to be turned back ignominiously
+before I had crossed the hall, but there was positively no one there!
+The place was like a City of the Dead. Yet within an hour, a banquet
+arranged for about seventy people was to take place! I made the best of
+my opportunity, ranged through the numerous bedrooms--with hanging
+Japanese blinds shutting them off and each one inscribed with the card
+of the special Russian or Greek general who formed part of the suite. At
+length I strolled into the dining-room--a long, narrow room--arranged
+for the coming festivity (at least sixty to seventy covers were laid),
+the flowers arranged on the tablecloth in the pretty, artistic Indian
+fashion, all the beautiful glass and silver placed in readiness.
+
+Nothing was wanting but the presence of the guests for whom all this
+preparation had been made.
+
+The short Indian twilight was already upon us as I stood there for a
+moment, contrasting the dead and almost eerie silence, with the lights
+and laughter that would so quickly replace it.
+
+A fireplace was close to me as I stood at the far end of the room,
+looking down the whole length of the table. Glancing up, I realised that
+the only picture in the room was hung over this fireplace. The picture
+in question had no artistic value--the painting was flat and poor; even
+the subject did not strike me for the first moment as anything very
+remarkable. It was the portrait of a man in the prime of life--about
+thirty-five, I should have supposed--with the long whiskers and rather
+prim pose of a portrait made by an evidently poor artist, probably
+thirty or forty years previous to my visit.
+
+But as I looked again, a curious sensation came over me. In spite of the
+painter's failure to convey anything more like a living man than a dead
+pressed rose is like a living rose, there was something in the eyes of
+the portrait that held me, something that rose triumphant above the
+artist's limitations. At the same moment I was conscious of a Presence
+behind my back; of _somebody who was looking at the picture with me_; of
+somebody who was saying to me (not with the outer, but an inner voice):
+"_That is a picture of me, but I am not there--I am here, close to you;
+behind your shoulder--I am looking at it with you._"
+
+The impression was so strong that it seemed almost as if a hand were
+pressing on my shoulder. I turned round involuntarily, but no one was
+there. Then I looked at the picture again, and always with the same
+weird sensation that the man whom the picture represented had been
+strong enough to make me feel his actual presence in the room, although
+I could see nothing. There was no name on the picture of either subject
+or artist, no possible clue to identity, and looked at as a picture
+alone, there was nothing in the flat, conventional presentment of the
+features to account for my experience. This made it the more remarkable.
+I could scarcely tear myself away from the almost overwhelming sense of
+the presence of some strong and strangely magnetic personality, but the
+fast fading twilight warned me not to risk an ignominious retreat. So I
+went hurriedly through the large and handsome drawing-room, which was
+filled with portraits, chiefly of deceased governors and generals, many
+of them admirably painted, and a striking contrast to the one poor and
+commonplace picture already seen.
+
+The absolute incongruity between the impression received and the object
+which roused it, led me to make inquiries, in spite of my friend's jokes
+over my powers of imagination.
+
+"Anyway, I am going to clear this up," I said with determination; and in
+a few days my perseverance was rewarded, and my impression amply
+justified, by finding that I had been looking at the portrait--feeble
+and poor as it was--of _Brigadier-General Nicholson_.
+
+None of my readers need to be told that if any dead man could impress
+himself upon the living, this would be the man capable of such a feat.
+
+Even to this day there is a small religious sect in India called the
+_Nicholasain_, who have handed down the memory of this "god rather than
+man," who had to dismount from his horse occasionally, to thrash his
+would-be worshippers, and put a stop to their inconvenient adoration!
+
+Nicholson's brilliant achievements in the Mutiny; his absolute control
+over men of the most diverse character; the devotion with which he
+inspired his soldiers, and his own glorious death in the very moment of
+victory--all these are matters of history.
+
+I feel glad and grateful to have known, even for a few passing moments,
+what that influence had been; and when I found out Brigadier-General
+Nicholson's grave at Delhi, after my Ludlow Castle experience, I left my
+flowers on the grave of an honoured acquaintance, rather than of a man
+known to me only through historical records.
+
+One more incident, or rather coincidence, and I must close my Indian
+chapter.
+
+This also is connected with the Mutiny and with Delhi, but the special
+coincidence, to which I refer, took place at Agra, when my friend and I
+were staying at the hotel there in the early spring of 1891.
+
+One of my oldest and most valued friends is Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred S.
+Jones, V.C., formerly of the 9th Lancers, and one of our Mutiny heroes.
+As everything connected with that historical tragedy seems to have
+perennial interest for every Englishman--no matter what his creed or
+politics--I make no excuse for furnishing some details connected with my
+friend's career. His record from Hart's Army List is as follows:--
+
+"Lieutenant-Colonel Jones was present at the battle of Budlekee Serai,
+and at Delhi throughout the siege operations, including the assault and
+capture of the city, having been D.A.Q.M.G. from 8th August to 23rd
+September 1857. Served with the 9th Lancers in Greathead's pursuing
+column, and was present in the actions of Bolimshuhur and Alighur and
+battle of Agra--where he was dangerously wounded, having received a
+musket-shot wound and twenty-two sabre cuts. He was mentioned in the
+despatches of Sir Hope Grant on three different occasions, and has
+received the Victoria Cross for taking a nine-pounder gun, with the
+assistance of some men from his squadron, in the action of Budlekee
+Serai (medal with clasp and Brevet of Major)."
+
+Although, as a child, I had heard of the bravery and the terrible wounds
+of one who was to become later in life one of my greatest friends, the
+actual details of the Agra catastrophe were hazy in my memory. Two
+things, however, had remained firmly imbedded in my mind--first, that a
+brother officer had told me that he was standing close by Colonel Jones
+when, as a young officer, the latter attended the Levée to receive his
+Victoria Cross, and that the Queen was so much agitated by his
+appearance that she could hardly pin it on. Also, that this brother
+officer heard her whisper to her husband: "My God, Albert! look at that
+poor boy! He has been cut to pieces!"
+
+The other childish memory is that the Taj had been turned into a
+hospital at the time of the Mutiny, and that my friend, amongst others,
+had been nursed there. This latter proved to have been a mistake on the
+part of my informants. It was the Moti Musjid (the Pearl Mosque) which
+was turned to this account, and in which my friend was nursed back to
+life, to the surprise of all who knew the extent of his disaster.
+
+It is specially important for people blessed, or cursed, with psychic
+gifts "to give no occasion to the enemy" by exaggeration or inexact
+memory of details. So, with the wholesome dread of a well-read reviewer
+before my eyes, I determined to go to the fountain-head, and ask Colonel
+Jones himself to supply me with the true incidents which make the Agra
+episode a moving picture before our eyes. He has kindly consented to do
+this, and I give the narrative in his own words:--
+
+
+After the fall of Delhi, a column, under General Greathead, was sent
+down to Lucknow, and as three squadrons of the 9th Lancers were told off
+to go, I resigned my staff appointment, and went with my troop.
+
+After two fights--Bolimshuhur and Alighur--we were hurried off to Agra,
+sixty-six miles in thirty-six hours. But on arrival we found that the
+Agra people had recovered from their fright and Greathead was fool
+enough to believe their story that the enemy was twelve miles away, and
+therefore took up ground for our camp, just by the graveyard and
+parade-ground, which you will remember. There was a high crop of
+sugar-cane, concealing everything beyond the parade-ground, and after
+most of the officers of the whole force had gone off to Agra Fort to
+breakfast with friends, cannon-shot began to fall amongst us; and
+everyone had time to fall in, as the horses had not been unsaddled.
+
+My squadron, consisting of French's and my troops, was told off as an
+escort to Blunt's Battery, F.A., which formed the left of the line,
+consisting of our other two squadrons, more F. Artillery, 8th and 75th
+Regiments, etc., all moving to the front through high crops.
+
+Then we saw the enemy--700 or 800 yards off--and Blunt unlimbered his
+guns, and began to fire, when we soon saw a body of cavalry moving off
+across our front, to turn our left flank, and Blunt said we must go back
+to defend our camp. So he limbered up, and we all (_i.e._ our squadron
+and Blunt's guns) began to straggle back through the high crops. But
+Blunt said he must leave one troop with two of his guns, and French's
+troop was stopped for the purpose. Instead of staying with it, he felt
+so sure we should have a chance at the cavalry we had seen (Mutineers)
+that he came on with me, and together we formed up my troop on the
+parade-ground, close to Blunt's guns, which we saw already unlimbered.
+
+A squadron of Irregular (mutinied) cavalry was coming in our direction
+over the parade-ground, with a blue squadron of (mutinied) regular
+cavalry in support, both trotting; so, of course, we went for the Red
+(head of the echellon they formed).
+
+Then I saw French shot, and the hind quarters of his grey horse pass
+round the left flank of my little troop; then I gave the word GALLOP,
+and the Red squadron, to my surprise, _halted_.
+
+Observing its leader taking aim at me with his carbine, I inclined a
+little to my left, in order to stick him, never dreaming that I should
+be hit before I could do so, and I was almost within reach before he
+fired, and his bullet went through my bridle arm, so I had to take my
+reins on my sword hand and jam my horse into the ranks, just behind the
+squadron leader who had shot me.
+
+Now to clear up your mystery about my being left to my fate (I had
+specially asked Colonel Jones how he happened to be left alone amongst
+the Sepoys, whose numbers were registered by his sabre cuts in so
+ghastly a fashion), I was not left to my fate; on the contrary, the man
+on the left of my troop, who alone could see, put his lance through the
+squadron leader, and stayed about--outside the ring--trying to get to me
+to the last, and got the V.C. on my report to that effect.
+
+My troop, occupying, in double rank, about twenty yards, went straight
+on after the twenty yards or so front of the enemy's probable front of
+perhaps fifty yards. So there were plenty of Sowars left to mob round
+me and to keep off the man who tried to save me. Of course, my men were
+quite right in pursuing the broken force as they did, right off the
+field.
+
+
+This account has the immense advantage of being taken verbatim from
+Colonel Jones' letter just received by me. It has the _disadvantage_
+that such a letter, from a brave man, would naturally possess--_i.e._
+that of minimising his share in the episode to the point of making it
+difficult for the lay mind to realise where the heroism came in--which
+heroism is a vital point in my "coincidence." Fortunately, I have the
+best authority for saying that the "Blunt" mentioned in this record
+always maintained that Colonel Alfred Jones had "saved his guns." It
+appears that at the time of the unexpected attack from the enemy,
+Colonel Jones and two or three friends (who had not gone to the fort)
+were breakfasting under the shade of the cemetery wall when the alarm
+was given. My friend, wishing to rest his charger after the long forced
+march from Agra, had taken a spare troop horse, saddled with a _hunting
+saddle_.
+
+When the round shot began to fall, there was no time to get his charger.
+There was nothing for it but to put on sword and pistol and ride
+straight in to the enemy's ranks. No wonder the poor people shut up in
+Agra were enthusiastic over this "charge of cavalry in their shirt
+sleeves," as they called it.
+
+In 1891 I was staying in Agra, at the hotel, with my friend of the Delhi
+incident. A certain Major Pulford, who had come to Agra to race some
+ponies, divided us at the _table d'hôte_. He and I had been neighbours
+for two or three days, when he asked me carelessly one evening what _I_
+had been doing that afternoon, as my friend confessed to having taken a
+"day off."
+
+Now I had spent the afternoon at the Taj, and had made many inquiries
+about the tradition that this building had once been turned into a
+hospital. No one knew anything about it. One old Hindoo, evidently
+thinking I wished him to say "_Yes_," remembered hearing that this _had_
+been the case "_about eighty years ago_." This last artistic touch of
+accuracy was fatal to his _bonâ fides_, and I turned away in disgust.
+
+So I told Major Pulford my story, and we laughed over the well-known
+fact that a Hindoo of that class always tries to find out what you wish
+him to say, and _then says it!_
+
+Major Pulford asked why I was so keen on the subject.
+
+"Because a very old friend of mine was badly wounded at Agra during the
+Mutiny, and from a child I have had the impression that he was nursed in
+the Taj."
+
+"No," he answered. "I am sure the Taj was never used as a hospital, but
+I think the Pearl Mosque may have been. This would account for the
+mistake, probably."
+
+Now the point in this incident is the fact that I _had not mentioned my
+friend's name to Major Pulford_.
+
+Had the name been a more distinctive one, I might have mentioned it,
+although realising that Major Pulford was too young a man to have known
+anything about the Mutiny at first hand.
+
+We talked casually on the subject for a few minutes, and then he said:
+"Of course, I was a baby at the time, but I have read and heard any
+amount about it, naturally. _My_ boyish hero was a fellow named Jones of
+the 9th Lancers, who was so awfully plucky in their celebrated charge,
+when surprised by the enemy on the Agra parade-ground. I know nothing
+about the fellow except what I have read. I believe he is alive still,
+but they say he was almost cut to pieces then."
+
+"_That is the friend whom I thought had been nursed in the Taj_," was my
+astonished answer.
+
+Major Pulford's delight was unbounded to have come by so strange a
+coincidence even thus near to the hero of his youth. For myself, I
+recognised that I had sat next to the only man, probably then in India,
+who could have given me the accurate and precise details of the whole
+affair!
+
+"I know every inch of the ground, and just where it all happened," he
+said eagerly. "Do let me drive you and your friend over there to-morrow
+in my buggy, and I will point out every detail."
+
+He did so next day, leaving me with the most vivid impression of the
+scene of my friend's gallant fight for life, against such overwhelming
+odds.
+
+That he should still be alive and active--nearly fifty years
+later--seems little short of a miracle!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892
+
+
+Travelling in Sweden in the spring of 1892, I carried with me from
+England an introduction to the Swedish Consul at Gottenburg. One of
+the sisters of this gentleman was married to an Englishman--a Mr
+Romilly--and he and his wife chanced to come over for a visit during
+my stay.
+
+Speaking of psychic matters one day, Mr Romilly told me the story of his
+first cousin (a well-known woman of title) and her Egyptian necklace. A
+present had been made to her (I think on her marriage) of a very
+beautiful Egyptian necklace with stones of the exquisite blue shade so
+well known by travellers in Egypt.
+
+These special stones, alas! must evidently have been genuine, and rifled
+from some old tomb, for the owner of the necklace appeared one night by
+the lady's bedside, and warned her that she would have no peace so long
+as she persisted in wearing his property.
+
+So the lady very wisely locked up the necklace in her dressing-case, and
+fondly trusted the Egyptian ghost would be satisfied.
+
+Not a bit of it! In a short time he appeared again, and told her that
+she would be haunted by his unwelcome presence so long as the necklace
+_remained in her possession_. She then drove off with it, and deposited
+it with her lawyer, who locked it up in a tin case, doubtless with a
+secret smile at his noble client's superstitions. But Nemesis lay in
+wait for him, and the last thing Mr Romilly had heard upon the subject
+was that the lawyer himself was made so exceedingly uncomfortable by the
+attentions of the Egyptian gentleman that he was obliged to have
+necklace and tin case buried together in his back garden! To have forced
+a lawyer into such extreme measures was certainly a "score" for the
+ghost!
+
+A few months later, I met the heroine of the story at a friend's house
+at tea, and speaking of her relation, who had married a Swedish wife,
+and whom I had met in Gottenburg, I alluded discreetly to the story of
+the blue necklace.
+
+My companion at once endorsed it _in toto_, and did not seem at all
+annoyed by the fact that her cousin had mentioned it to me. I remember
+that Mrs Romilly "laid the cards" for me, with astonishing success, and
+told me she had learnt the mystic lore from an old Finnish nurse, who
+had been brought over from Finland by her own Swedish grandfather when
+quite a young girl, and had lived in the family until her death. She
+assured me that the Finns were specially gifted in all kinds of gipsy
+lore.
+
+From Stockholm we paid a visit to Russia, and in St Petersburg I had my
+first personal experience since leaving home.
+
+We had engaged, as courier during our stay in the city, a German who had
+lived there for forty years, named Küntze, I think.
+
+We were staying at the Hotel de France, and this man told me one day
+that a celebrated French _modiste_ had rooms in our hotel, having come
+there to show her beautiful Parisian costumes, and to take orders as
+usual from the Russian Royal Family and Ladies of the Court. He also
+mentioned the Frenchwoman's recent misfortune in hearing--since her
+arrival in Russia--that her trusted manager in Paris had disappeared
+suddenly, carrying away with him 100,000 francs.
+
+Two nights later I had gone to bed as usual about ten-thirty P.M., and
+must have slept for nearly four hours, when I awoke feeling the heat
+very oppressive. It was almost the end of June at the time. Getting out
+of bed to open my window still farther, I gazed down upon the courtyard
+which it overlooked, noting the absolute stillness of the house and the
+hot, oppressive air outside.
+
+Suddenly this stillness was rent by the most horrible and appalling
+shrieks! Peal after peal rang out. I have never heard anything so
+ghastly nor so blood-curdling either before or since. For a moment it
+seemed that one _must_ be dreaming. What horrors, to justify such awful
+shrieks, could be taking place at this quiet hour and in this quiet,
+respectable hotel?
+
+Nothing less than murder suggested itself to me, and I quickly crossed
+the room, and turned the key in the lock. My next thought was for my
+companion--the Miss Greenlow of American days. She was sleeping next
+door to me, with an intervening door between us.
+
+I hammered loudly upon this, and finally opened it. I knew she always
+locked her outer door, but feared she might go into the passage, not
+realising the danger in the moment of waking, and might fall into the
+murderer's hands. So I called out: "Wake up--wake up, Miss
+Greenlow!--_but don't open your door_. Someone is being murdered out
+there."
+
+I had heard every other door in the passage opening, and the scared
+inmates rushing to and fro, so there was no question of feeling bound to
+give the alarm.
+
+Miss Greenlow, being an extremely lymphatic person, was still sleeping
+the sleep of the just. I gave her a good shake at last, finding knocks
+and calls of no avail; but she only turned over sleepily, murmuring:
+"Oh, it's all right! I don't suppose there is anything much the
+matter--do go to bed again!"
+
+So I returned to my own room, and as the horrible screams had now
+ceased, I opened my door very gently, and looked down the dimly lighted
+passage. My room was a corner one, exactly at the head of the wide
+staircase; to the left-hand side, for anyone mounting the stairs.
+Exactly opposite my door, with a wide passage between, was the room
+which had been pointed out to me as belonging to the famous French
+_modiste_.
+
+Miss Greenlow was evidently the only person in the hotel who had slept
+through the horrors of that night, for small groups were gathered
+together at various points along the corridor, and at every door some
+scared man or woman was looking out, anxious, like myself, to solve the
+dreadful mystery.
+
+At that moment my eyes lighted on my special German waiter talking in a
+hushed whisper to a musjig--in the usual red coat. So I beckoned to him,
+and very reluctantly he came to my door.
+
+Being asked in German what was the meaning of the shrieks we had heard,
+he said at once that a lady had been taken ill suddenly.
+
+The man was a bad liar, and a child would have seen that he was
+repeating a made-up story. But nothing more could be got out of him, so
+I dismissed him impatiently, saying: "What is the good of telling me
+such nonsense? I shall find out for myself to-morrow."
+
+Once more I shut and locked the door, and lay for an hour or two
+thinking over the ghastly disturbance, and wondering who could have been
+the hapless victim. It was now about five A.M., and full dawn. As so
+often happens, even after the most sleepless night, I dozed off then,
+and slept for more than an hour, and during my sleep I dreamed--and this
+was my dream. It must first be noted that the wide staircase I have
+described as passing close to my room was thence continued upward to the
+next floor. In my dream or vision I saw distinctly a woman in a white
+nightgown, with dark hair streaming down her back, rushing up this
+second flight of stairs in the most distraught and reckless fashion. In
+one hand she held a knife, and was trying to stab herself with it, as a
+musjig--in crimson coat--rushed after her, and endeavoured to wrench it
+out of her hand. Two or three other people ran up the stairs behind her,
+but only this peasant seemed to have the courage or presence of mind to
+grapple with her. In a few moments, as it seemed to me, the vision, so
+startling and clear cut, faded away, and I sank into a dreamless sleep,
+I suppose, for it was past six A.M. when I woke finally.
+
+When the German waiter appeared with my breakfast I said rather curtly
+to him: "You need not have troubled to make up that foolish story last
+night; I know what happened--_I have seen it_."
+
+He looked very incredulous, so I went on: "The lady was trying to kill
+herself, and rushed up to the next floor with a knife in her hand. I saw
+the musjig run after her and force it from her."
+
+The man was absolutely speechless. He said not one syllable, either of
+corroboration or denial, but left the room as quickly as possible,
+looking scared, and certainly left the impression upon my mind that my
+vision represented what had actually taken place an hour or two
+previously.
+
+To my great surprise, however, our respectable and dependable courier,
+Küntze, gave quite a different version of the affair.
+
+He came as usual to my room to take his orders for the day--Miss
+Greenlow being present--and at once referred to the terrible tragedy.
+
+"Ah, poor lady! you remember my telling you about her the other day, and
+how her manager had run away with all that money? Now _this_ frightful
+misfortune has happened to her, and no one knows if she will survive it.
+She is still alive, however, and is to be taken to the hospital at one
+P.M."
+
+"But what has happened, Küntze?" I said impatiently, rather irritated,
+if the truth must be told, by his mysterious allusions and Miss
+Greenlow's assumption of profound indifference. Of course, no
+self-respecting person, having calmly slept through such a tragedy,
+could be otherwise than indifferent next morning! Küntze's story was far
+more artistic than that of the waiter, and was skilfully interwoven with
+shreds of truth, as I discovered later.
+
+He said that "the poor lady" was in the habit of making herself a cup of
+tea in the middle of the night when wakeful; also that she wore wide,
+hanging muslin sleeves with her night attire. She had risen as usual
+from a sleepless bed to make tea with her little Etna. Unfortunately,
+she had set fire to a sleeve, which at once burned up, and in a few
+moments she was enveloped in flames, owing to the flimsy material she
+wore. Then the shrieks began which had so thrilled our nerves. A Russian
+gentleman, sleeping near her, was awakened by the noise, and knowing
+that she was a rich woman, and had brought many valuables with her, he
+concluded she was being murdered; so he rushed to the rescue with a
+revolver, found the burning woman, and he and the musjig at length
+succeeded in putting out the flames.
+
+The story was well told, and perfectly credible. Miss Greenlow could not
+resist pointing out how entirely it annihilated my vision. No
+suicide!--no knife!--no rush up the staircase!--nothing, in fact, that
+might not have been, and, of course, _must have been_ a mere freak of
+imagination during my troubled sleep. In the face of Küntze's quiet and
+detailed statement I could only agree with her, and so the matter rested
+for some months. The poor woman meanwhile remained in the hospital, and
+her son and daughter were telegraphed for from Paris. We found them at
+the hotel on our return there, three weeks later, from Moscow. There was
+then some slight hope of ultimate recovery, but within six or seven
+weeks from the "accident" the unfortunate woman died from shock and
+exhaustion.
+
+From Russia we returned to Stockholm and Christiania, where Miss
+Greenlow took the steamer for Hull, and I went up into the Dovre Feld
+Mountains to join a Swedish friend, already mentioned in my chapter on
+India.
+
+I told her my story of the poor French _modiste_ and her sad and painful
+accident, also about my curiously vivid and yet inaccurate vision, and
+we discussed the latter in quite an S.P.R. spirit! We were then in a
+very remote part of the Dovre Feld, where foreign papers were
+practically inaccessible.
+
+I had left my friend in Norway, and returned to England a week or two
+before receiving a very interesting letter from her.
+
+In it she said: "I have just got hold of some French papers, and I see
+that poor woman you told me about, has just died in Petersburg, and the
+real story has now come out.
+
+"It seems that it _was_ suicide after all, so your vision was quite
+true!
+
+"She had received large sums in advance for commissions from some of the
+Russian nobility, and had either spent or speculated with them. That was
+why she had to invent the story of an embezzling manager, to cover her
+own shortcomings. But the truth was leaking out in spite of her
+endeavours, and she made up her mind to commit suicide rather than face
+the horrors of a Russian prison. The paper goes on to say that she chose
+a most terrible death, little realising what the torture would be. It
+seems that she waited till the middle of the night you described, and
+then covered her whole body with oil, and set fire to it! This accounts,
+of course, for the horrible shrieks you heard. In her awful agony she
+seized a knife--that she had either secreted or found in her
+room--rushed out into the passage in a blaze, and when the musjig tried
+to stop her, she ran from him, and attempted to stab herself as she made
+her way up the stairs. All this you seem to have seen accurately; also
+the fact that the musjig pursued her and succeeded in wrenching the
+knife from her hands before she had injured herself with it. The paper
+mentions that a Russian gentleman had gone to the rescue when he heard
+the shrieks, but this was before she had got hold of the knife, and it
+was the musjig alone who saved her, in the end, from immediate death."
+
+During this Russian visit we had gone down to Moscow from Petersburg,
+and here again a curious adventure befell me.
+
+It was, as I have said, in the height of the summer, and one was
+thankful to have a large, handsome room, with three windows looking over
+the square, and the famous Kremlin Palace in the distance. My room was
+divided into two unequal parts, separated from each other by a door
+which was, during the hot season, thrown wide open and _fastened back
+securely_. Between this door and the one opening into the outer corridor
+the washing apparatus stood, and also a wardrobe of white painted deal,
+with a very poor lock to it, as I discovered later.
+
+On retiring to rest the first night, I locked the outer door, undressed
+in this ante-room, and finally hung up my gown in the wardrobe I have
+mentioned. Then, after looking out of the windows on the fast
+diminishing crowd below in the square, I went to bed, feeling quite
+cheerful, and looking forward to a long night's rest after a journey
+which had been hot and tiring.
+
+As so often happens, one was probably over-tired, and sleep was not to
+be wooed by any of the usual methods. In vain I counted sheep getting
+over a hedge, added a hundred up backward and forward, tried deep
+breathing, and other little "parlour games." It was absolutely useless.
+Twelve o'clock struck, then the half hour, and I gathered from the
+stillness below that the good Moscow citizens had retired to their
+respective homes. This seemed an added insult! Then one o'clock struck,
+and after that I lay for a seeming eternity, before two strokes from the
+clock outside indicated the half hour. Scarcely had the reverberation
+ceased when I heard cautious sounds in the corridor, which gave me a
+good fright, and made me regret the silence I had found so irksome. The
+outer door of my room was quietly being opened, creaking on its hinges
+in the most ordinary and commonplace way, but evidently opening under a
+very wary hand. "Then I could not have locked it after all!" And yet I
+felt so convinced that I had done so! Certainly I had _intended_ to do
+so on my first night in a strange hotel! The best I could hope was that
+some other new arrival had mistaken his room, and was returning late,
+and consequently trying to be as quiet as possible. This flashed through
+my mind, and brought a moment's comfort. I expected to see a man's head
+round the open door at the foot of my bed, and to hear a hurried apology
+and still more hurried retreat. I say a _man's_ head, for the footsteps,
+though so quiet and cautious, were without doubt a man's footsteps. But
+several moments passed in horrible suspense. The outer door had creaked
+on its hinges and opened without a shadow of doubt. _Where was the man?_
+
+The door had not closed again, so far as I could hear. From my bed I
+could not command a view of the smaller portion of the room, where,
+presumably, he must be hidden. There was nothing but the wash-hand stand
+and the wardrobe there. What could he be doing or _waiting for_? My
+comforting supposition of a mistake in the number of his room, made by
+an innocent guest, could not be stretched wide enough to account for the
+long pause. Perhaps it was some robber lurking about the passages! He
+had tried my door gently, and found it open. I had heard the door creak
+on its hinges in spite of all his care. Now he was doubtless waiting to
+make sure that this noise had not awakened me before beginning his
+operations!
+
+This was the only reasonable supposition, and I lay in absolute terror
+for some minutes, fearing to stir or almost to breathe at such close
+quarters, and quite incapable of rising and putting an end to my
+terrible suspense. I longed to hear the next "quarter" strike, but
+nothing relieved the dead silence in my room and in the streets outside.
+At long last the _quarter to two_ struck, and something in the friendly
+tones of the massive clock relieved the tension and gave me courage--the
+courage of desperation--to strike a match and light my candle before
+starting on a tour of discovery. The middle door was fastened back, as I
+had found it when taking possession of the room. In any case, that was
+not the door which had been opened--the sound came from the _outer_
+door. I _must_ find out if anyone were hiding in the little
+dressing-room; and in any case, I must lock the outer door, which I had
+felt so certain I had locked on coming up to my room. I passed through
+the open _inner door_ with fear and trembling. To my relief, the small
+apartment was apparently empty. The wardrobe stood partly open, but
+nothing more terrible than my own gown was inside it. Then I made my way
+to the outer door, which gave on to the corridor, determined to make
+sure of locking it firmly _this_ time. After all, it must have been a
+wandering guest, who had discovered his mistake at once, and retreated
+noiselessly!
+
+I have seldom been more absolutely dumfounded than when I turned the
+handle of that door, preparatory to locking it, and found _that it was
+securely locked already_, just as I had supposed! How could the hinges
+have creaked then, and whose cautious footsteps had I heard?
+
+Once more my eyes fell upon the wardrobe, with its cheap varnish and
+lock. I had certainly not locked _this_ overnight. Could it have creaked
+itself farther open? It did not for the moment strike me that the noise
+came from another quarter, and that the footsteps were still to be
+explained. I was only too thankful to find the barest apology of an
+explanation. So I locked the wardrobe as carefully as possible, noticing
+that the lock was not one of the first quality, and once more retired to
+bed, and put out my candle, greatly relieved.
+
+Scarcely ten minutes had passed (as I afterwards ascertained) when the
+whole scene was enacted once more! The same cautious tread, the same
+sound of the _outer door_ creaking slowly on its hinges--there was
+nothing in the least uncanny about it _per se_. It was just the normal
+noise that any late comer would make who was thoughtful enough not to
+disturb a sleeping house.
+
+But my impatience got the better of my fears this time. I was not going
+to be decoyed out of bed a second time on a wild-goose chase. "It must
+have been that wardrobe door after all! As to the footsteps, I don't
+know and I don't care! The cheap lock must have given way, and I shall
+find the wardrobe door has swung open, I am sure."
+
+With this comforting assurance I turned round, and in a few minutes fell
+into a deep sleep, after the varied excitements of the night.
+
+Next morning I stepped gaily into the smaller division of the room to
+begin my toilet, and triumphantly turned round to convince myself of the
+truth of my theory about the wardrobe door. To my infinite astonishment
+and perplexity _the wardrobe was securely locked_, just as I had left it
+in the middle of the night.
+
+I have never had any explanation of this mystery; but I changed my fine
+big room for a much less desirable one that morning, and made some
+excuse about wishing for a quieter room at the back of the house.
+
+The next evening, sitting in my new abode with my travelling companion,
+she showed far more interest in my adventure than in the Petersburg
+tragedy and subsequent vision of mine.
+
+So much so that I invited her to take a pencil and see if she could get
+any sort of explanation of the mystery; for although not at all
+_intuitive_, she knew something of what is called automatic writing.
+
+I give her narrative, not as being in the slightest degree evidential,
+but for its intrinsic interest, and because I am personally convinced
+that she had not sufficient imagination to have made it up on the spur
+of the moment.
+
+Miss Greenlow's "message" was to the following effect:--
+
+About fifty years previously, a Russian gentleman (an officer, I
+_think_, but am not certain of this) and his mistress had occupied this
+large front room. The man had spent all day at a rifle competition,
+combined with some sort of merry-making, and had returned home very
+late--at one-thirty A.M., in fact--very much the worse for drink. He had
+opened the door very carefully, trusting he should find the lady asleep;
+but, unfortunately, she was not only wide awake, but extremely annoyed
+by his late return and the state in which he had come back to her. A
+desperate quarrel had ensued, and getting frightened by his violence,
+she seized his rifle, giving him a blow on the head with the butt end of
+it, hoping to stun him, but with no idea of murder in her mind. Whether
+she gave a more severe blow, in her nervousness, than she had intended,
+or whether the rifle fell on some specially vital spot, was not
+explained in the writing. Anyway, the blow proved fatal--to her extreme
+regret and remorse.
+
+Under these circumstances one would have supposed that it would be more
+reasonable for the lady to haunt the room, and not the gentleman; but I
+"tell the tale as 'twas told to us."
+
+It is, however, remarkable that in most of these stories it is the
+victim who appears--determined to enact the scene of his or her
+death--and not the murderer.
+
+I think we were also told, by-the-by, that I had slept in the room on
+the anniversary of the occurrence.
+
+It was obviously impossible to get any corroboration of such a story.
+Two small points in it, however, were proved to be true.
+
+The Moscow hotels, as a rule, were comparatively modern at the time of
+our visit, and therefore the "fifty years ago" seemed highly improbable.
+We learned, however, through a few discreet questions later, that this
+particular hotel _had_ been in existence so far back as fifty years, and
+also that rifle competitions had taken place on certain occasions in
+those far-off days.
+
+For the rest I claim nothing. I have truthfully recounted my experience
+without a word of exaggeration, and have never been able to account for
+it normally.
+
+The explanation given to us is, of course, just worth the paper it was
+written upon from any _evidential_ point of view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--_continued_
+
+SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892
+
+
+Taking my experiences chronologically, I must now carry my readers back
+to England, where the autumn of this year found me in London.
+
+I had been asked to recommend a house for paying guests, well situated,
+in the West End of London, and newly started by a lady who had been left
+a widow with very slender provision. Several kind women had interested
+themselves in the case, and had wisely suggested thinking out a means of
+livelihood in the future rather than merely supplying present wants.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a person _less_ suited for the sort of
+employment chosen; but that is "another story."
+
+I never care to recommend anything or anybody of which or of whom I have
+no personal knowledge; at the same time, I was anxious to help my kindly
+acquaintance in her philanthropy, and as I had arranged to spend some
+weeks in London that autumn--to be near an invalid brother--it struck me
+that I might stay at the house so strongly recommended, instead of
+taking private rooms as usual.
+
+So I journeyed to Sussex Gardens, found a charming house, newly
+furnished and decorated, and as clean as the proverbial "new pin," and,
+moreover, a very good-looking mistress of the house, still a youngish
+woman of five or six and thirty.
+
+She spoke most warmly of the kindness she had received from the lady who
+had given me her address, showed me some pleasant rooms, and the
+arrangement was quickly completed.
+
+I chose a small sitting-room in addition to my bedroom, although, as a
+matter of fact, this was scarcely necessary, as I was the first guest
+received. Only one deaf old lady appeared upon the scene during the six
+weeks I spent there.
+
+I had not been forty-eight hours in the house before I discovered that
+my hostess was a convinced and very remarkable psychic. Naturally she
+was delighted to find someone to whom she could speak of her various
+experiences without being laughed at or put down as a lunatic. At the
+same time I am bound to confess that Mrs Peters, although extremely
+interesting, was also rather agitating, and certainly much too erratic
+to make an entirely satisfactory _Chatelaine_. She was given to reading
+"Aurora Leigh," instead of ordering dinner, and had to be sent for
+occasionally to sit at the head of the table, with a volume of
+_Browning_ or _Tennyson_ firmly clutched in her reluctant hand. Even
+when duly "found and delivered," curious things happened during the
+meals--especially at dinner in the evening, when she often put down
+knife and fork and directed my attention to the far end of the handsome
+dining-room, where she was wont to see the ghost of her late husband.
+
+"Look, dear Miss Bates! Surely you _must_ see him--dear Henry, I mean.
+There he stands, beard and all, just between the sofa and the wall. I
+can see him as clearly as I see you!"
+
+I am bound to say I never _did_ see "dear Henry"; but the fine tabby cat
+certainly saw something in that corner, for it would rush most
+frantically to the sofa, jump on to one end, and sit staring at Henry
+(presumably), with its tail stuck out and its fur rising up, glaring
+into the corner with a look of combined fear and fascination.
+
+My little sitting-room was invaded at all hours by my too interesting
+landlady, who would suddenly remember some thrilling experience, which
+she wished to share with me. At length I took to my bed for three days,
+not in the least ill, but simply for a much-needed rest in the midst of
+all these excitements.
+
+A day or two after emerging from this haven of peace, I received a visit
+from a young lady, whose parents were well known to me in Yorkshire, and
+who had recently become engaged to a very rich man, many years her
+senior; in fact, considerably older than her own father, who had lately
+passed away. The daughters of this family were all devoted to their
+father, and most of the visit was occupied in giving me details of his
+last illness, and in my sympathising with her upon his loss. It was, in
+fact, far more a visit of condolence than of congratulation upon her
+future prospects of happiness. As to the latter, I found it difficult to
+be quite truthful and yet conventionally ecstatic.
+
+To marry a man nearly old enough to be your grandfather struck me as
+risky, to say the least of it, even with all the emollients which
+riches and position undoubtedly add to domestic life.
+
+The young woman in question did not at all resent my frankness on the
+subject, but assured me that her greatest consolation in thinking of her
+late father was the fact that she was about to make a marriage which he
+had always wished, and of which he had emphatically given his approval
+on his death-bed. "I told him I had decided upon it, just before he
+died, and he was so relieved and happy about it," she said simply as she
+turned to leave the room. Having mentioned that a younger sister was
+also in town, I sent a message to the latter, asking her to take early
+dinner with me on the following Sunday, which happened to be my only
+spare day just then.
+
+On the evening of this visit from the coming bride, I had accepted an
+invitation to a large musical party in the house of the lady who had
+begged me to interest myself in Mrs Peters. It was within a
+stone's-throw of Sussex Gardens, and I came down to dinner at
+seven-thirty P.M., intending to dress later, and go round there about
+nine P.M.
+
+For an hour or so before dinner I had been conscious of a growing
+despondency, to which I could attribute no cause, and this increased so
+much during the meal that Mrs Peters noticed it at last, and asked me if
+I were feeling unwell.
+
+"No--not unwell--but I am absolutely miserable, and cannot imagine why."
+
+"Then you have not had bad news?" was the next remark. "I feared you
+must have had, seeing you so silent and not able to eat anything."
+
+In answer to this I said that I had not even the excuse of hearing of
+other people's misfortunes, for a young lady had been calling upon me
+that afternoon, who was about to make what the world calls a very
+successful marriage. I did not, however, mention her name, as Mrs Peters
+knew none of my friends.
+
+Dinner over, I felt still so unaccountably wretched that I determined to
+give up the evening party, and write my excuses. Mrs Peters did her best
+to combat this decision, fearing that her kind benefactress might be
+disappointed, and also urging that the evening's enjoyment would cheer
+me up. But finding me inexorable, she then said: "Well, if you have
+quite determined not to go, shall I come into your sitting-room and see
+if we can get any explanation of your curious feeling of depression?"
+
+I closed with this suggestion, knowing Mrs Peters to be a really
+remarkable sensitive.
+
+So we sat in the dark for a few minutes; and then I heard a soft
+_frou-frou_ on Mrs Peters' silk gown, and knew she was tracing out words
+with her hand in a fashion of her own.
+
+"It is a spirit that young lady brought with her," she announced at
+length. "The spirit has remained here with _you_, and is worried about
+this marriage you spoke of. She wants you to try and break it off. She
+seems to have been nearly related to the lady, or perhaps a godmother;
+anyway, she takes great interest in her."
+
+"Will she give a name?" I asked.
+
+"ELIZA is all I get," Mrs Peters replied.
+
+It then occurred to me that my young friend's name _was_ Eliza, and
+that she had been so named after a great-aunt, to the best of my
+recollection; but as she was invariably called Elsa, by friends and
+relations alike, it was only by chance that I remembered hearing her
+teased about her far less romantic baptismal name.
+
+I asked if no surname could be given, thinking at the moment that it
+would be Waverly--the family name; but my thought was evidently not
+transferred to Mrs Peters, who said she could not get the name
+accurately, but that it was certainly _not_ Waverly. I found later that
+the Great-Aunt Eliza had a name entirely different from that of her
+descendants.
+
+Nothing further happened on this occasion, except that I sent a message
+to "Great-Aunt Eliza" to say that nothing would induce me to take the
+responsibility of trying to break off any marriage, either by the advice
+of people in this sphere or in any other sphere. In this case I should
+have had neither the authority nor the influence to make any such unwise
+attempt.
+
+Sunday came round in due course, and brought the bride's younger sister,
+then a girl of twenty-four or twenty-five. We discussed the usual midday
+Sunday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Mrs Peters sitting at
+the head of the table, I on her right hand, and Carrie Waverly next to
+me.
+
+Suddenly realising that my remarks to the latter were receiving very
+scant attention, I looked up, and found the girl's black eyes fixed in a
+basilisk stare upon our unfortunate hostess, whose own eyes were cast
+down, but who appeared uneasy and troubled by the determined gaze of my
+guest. At length the poor woman threw down her knife and fork, rose
+hastily from the dining-table, and made her way eagerly to the sofa at
+the other end of the room, where she lay down at full length, murmuring:
+"_I can't stand it any longer!_"
+
+Carrie Waverly was at length induced to come away to my sitting-room and
+leave the poor woman in peace, which she did, asserting her complete
+innocence, and assuring me she "_only wanted to see if she could make
+Mrs Peters look up at her!_"
+
+I explained to her that "sensitives" may be as much upset by this sort
+of thing as another person would be by a blow on the back. She looked
+incredulous, and then said cheerfully: "Well, if it is as bad as that,
+don't you think you ought to go and see how she is?"
+
+"Two for yourself and your own curiosity and one for her!" I thought;
+but I took the hint, and found Mrs Peters still prostrate on the sofa,
+but full of apologies for her sudden collapse:
+
+"You must have thought me so very rude," etc., etc.
+
+I reassured her on this point, and expressed regret that my visitor
+should have upset her so much by looking so fixedly at her.
+
+"It was not her fault," said Mrs Peters eagerly. "_It was the man
+standing over her._ He had his hands upon her shoulders, and was trying
+so hard to influence her, and she was resisting it all the time, and the
+whole conflict of their wills was thrown upon _me_, and I could not
+stand it at last--that was why I left the table," she gasped out.
+
+"Could you describe the man at all?"
+
+"Quite clearly," she said. "I shall never forget his face--I saw him so
+distinctly." She then proceeded to describe in detail the very clear-cut
+features and bushy eyebrows of Carrie Waverly's father, giving also his
+colouring, which was very distinctive. I suggested trying to find out
+what he wanted to say to his daughter, but this distressed Mrs Peters so
+much that I was sorry to have made the suggestion.
+
+"No! no! dear Miss Bates!--don't ask me to do that--dear Henry never
+likes my taking messages from strangers--I have promised him that I
+would never do it without his permission. It upsets me so much, and I
+feel so weak already."
+
+So I came away, promising to look in later and see if I could do
+anything for her.
+
+Carrie was naturally greatly interested by the accurate description
+given of her father, and was very impatient for me to pay Mrs Peters a
+second visit.
+
+I went in presently, and found the latter standing up, and in a state of
+great excitement. She had, in fact, been on the point of coming to us
+when I entered.
+
+"Dear Henry told me to take that message after all," were the words with
+which she greeted me. "There was some misunderstanding between the
+father and this daughter, and he wants her to know that it is all right
+now." (This seemed to me most improbable, as the devoted daughters and
+father were always on terms of the greatest harmony and mutual
+understanding. _Yet it proved to be quite true._)
+
+Mrs Peters continued: "He is very much upset about this marriage. He
+tells me he was so anxious for it when on this side, but now he sees all
+the difficulties and possible dangers. But he says it is too late to
+reconsider the step now; only he is so very anxious to secure the
+interests of his daughter before she marries. He wishes to know whether
+her settlement is signed. _It is not one of which he would have
+approved._ And he says there are two houses, and one ought to be settled
+upon her--you _must_ ask about it, dear Miss Bates. He is most decided
+and so dreadfully upset about it all, because he says it was he who
+urged the marriage upon her."
+
+I spent the following fifteen or twenty minutes as a sort of
+messenger-boy between Mrs Peters in the dining-room and Carrie Waverly
+in my sitting-room. Needless to say, _I_ knew nothing at all about the
+settlements or how many houses the prospective bridegroom might possess,
+and having no sort of curiosity about the financial affairs of my
+neighbours, it was not at all pleasant to be employed in this way.
+
+Mrs Peters, on the contrary, seemed to know everything connected with
+the estate and the marriage settlement, _except the fact that the latter
+had not yet been signed_, although reluctantly "passed" by both the
+lady's trustees. Wherefore this special limitation in the father's
+knowledge it is impossible to say. He certainly showed no limitation in
+his knowledge of the bridegroom's character and disposition, and gave
+the most elaborate and detailed instructions as to how his daughter
+should behave towards her husband, and where she might, with advantage,
+cultivate tact and patience.
+
+My advice to Miss Waverly was to say nothing on the subject to her
+sister, but she wisely, as it turned out, determined to take the
+responsibility of telling her _everything_. She telegraphed to me next
+day, asking if she might come and see Mrs Peters and bring the bride
+with her.
+
+This was done, and they arrived, with several photographs, large and
+small, of the father, and also of the bridegroom, for identification.
+Carrie, in fact, tried--a little unfairly perhaps--to make Mrs Peters
+identify the wrong person by forcing into notice a large photograph of
+the _bridegroom_ (some years senior to the father), and saying
+carelessly: "_There, Mrs Peters--that is the face you saw yesterday of
+my father, is it not?_" But Mrs Peters would have none of it. She looked
+staggered for a moment, then caught sight of the second picture, and
+turned to it with relief: "_This_ is the face I saw, whether it is your
+father or not," she answered, with decision.
+
+The bride begged for a private interview with Mrs Peters, which lasted
+for a considerable time. Of course, I knew nothing of this interview,
+nor should I feel at liberty to speak of it if I did know. I may,
+however, be permitted to say that I have the bride's own assurance that
+the accurate knowledge then given her of her future husband's
+characteristics physical and mental, and the best way of dealing with
+them, "made all the difference in her married life."
+
+During that interview Mrs Peters also told her the number of years she
+would be married; and the prophecy was accurately fulfilled, which is
+the more remarkable, because, as a rule, it seems impossible to
+predicate time, even when events can be foreseen.
+
+I am happy to add that the marriage turned out a complete success, and
+that a marriage settlement was made more in accordance with the father's
+wishes, although neither trustees nor principal in the transaction, had
+any idea that the actual arrangements were in any way due to the
+strongly expressed wishes of a discarnate spirit.
+
+If this book should ever fall into their hands, and they should trace
+the story in spite of the thick veil I have thrown over all the
+circumstances, I can only trust that, in gratitude for the results, they
+may become reconciled with the channel through which these were made
+possible.
+
+People may say: "What a terrible idea that a father or a husband should
+trouble himself about such sordid details as money, houses, etc."
+
+But this is an extremely foolish remark, although it may appear very
+spiritual on the surface. It is surely the most natural thing in the
+world that a near relation--if permitted--should endeavour to secure
+comfort and happiness for a dearly loved wife or daughter; especially
+when, as in the above case, he felt mainly responsible for a state of
+affairs which might have turned out so disastrously, save for his loving
+care and foresight, exercised as these were from the other side of the
+veil.
+
+At anyrate it disposes once for all of the weary old "_Cui Bono_"
+argument, which is so futile, and yet so constantly and triumphantly
+quoted by stupid people, who seem to took upon it as a patent
+extinguisher for any psychic gifts or experiences.
+
+It is mainly in order to meet this senseless observation that I have
+included this story in my reminiscences.
+
+Most of us are debarred from answering the "_Cui Bono_" bray, by the
+fact that our most helpful experiences are generally of a too intimate
+and often sacred nature to be given to a scoffing world.
+
+But this instance has the advantage of dealing entirely with material
+matters, and thus being on a level with the ordinary intelligence.
+
+Nobody can say in this case _no good was done_. It only remains to be
+deeply shocked by the undignified, "nay, almost blasphemous,"
+intervention in mundane affairs of a spirit "who should certainly have
+had some more worthy occupation."
+
+It is another case of the old man and the donkey. If discarnate spirits
+_don't_ trouble about the personal affairs of those on earth, the "_Cui
+Bono_" argument is hurled at them. If they _do_, they are called
+blasphemous and irreverent!
+
+The mention of the Waverly family reminds me of an incident which took
+place when I was staying in their house in the country, a year or two
+earlier than the time of which I am writing. I have reserved it
+purposely as a sequel to this last story, which is in its proper
+chronological setting.
+
+In the year 1889 I was spending a pleasant fortnight with the Waverlys
+in Yorkshire, at the very time when a dear old friend of mine (Mrs
+Tennant) was dying in London. I had seen her only a week or two before,
+but had no knowledge of her illness, as we were not in constant
+correspondence, although there was a deep and strong affection between
+us.
+
+I did not even hear of her death, in fact, till a few weeks after it
+took place, having missed the announcement in the papers. When Mrs
+Tennant's sister, Mrs Lane, wrote me the details, I had left Yorkshire,
+and was staying with cousins in Worcestershire. Thinking over the dates
+mentioned in describing the illness, I realised with a shock of pained
+surprise that the final state of unconsciousness must have set in the
+very evening when I was enjoying myself in Yorkshire, at a large
+dinner-party given by my host and hostess.
+
+It seemed terrible to think that my dear and much loved friend should
+have been lying unconscious upon her death-bed, and that no word or sign
+should have come to me.
+
+Then suddenly I remembered a curious little incident connected with that
+dinner-party.
+
+I had been admiring a pretty little slate-coloured kitten belonging to
+the house, which was calmly sitting upon the grand piano after dinner,
+when the ladies were alone in the drawing-room. After the gentlemen
+joined us, I was deep in conversation with my host (a remarkably
+interesting and intelligent man), when I noticed a small _black_ kitten
+run past my dress. Probably I should have remarked upon it had we been
+less occupied in talking, for I am extremely fond of cats and animals in
+general. I did glance up, as a matter of fact, and satisfied myself that
+it was not the little slate-coloured kitty, which sat in still triumph
+on the piano. Besides, this kitten was _black_, not slate. I thought no
+more of it until the guests had left and Mrs Waverly and I were going
+upstairs to bed. She and I were very affinitive, but neither she nor her
+family had any special interest in psychology.
+
+On this occasion, however, she said rather mysteriously: "_I think
+something will happen to-night to you._" A good many jokes had been made
+about the probably uncanny atmosphere of my room, and the various spooks
+who were doubtless sharing it with me, so I laughed, thinking this was
+only the usual family joke. But Mrs Waverly was quite in earnest. At
+first she would give no reason for her remark, "fearing I should tell
+her daughters," and that she would be laughed at in consequence.
+
+Reassured on this point, she said to me quite seriously:
+
+"Whilst you were talking to my husband this evening I saw a black kitten
+run straight across your dress--just opposite to me."
+
+"_Well, of course, I saw the kitten!_" I answered, to her surprise; "but
+there is nothing very remarkable about a black kitten in the house."
+
+"_But we have no black kitten_ in the house, or anywhere on the
+premises. Where did it go to? You never saw it again? No; it was not an
+ordinary kitten, and I did not suppose till this moment that anyone had
+seen it but myself."
+
+It was a fact that no one but Mrs Waverly and I had seen any kitten but
+the slate-coloured one already mentioned.
+
+Thinking over this in the light of the sad news of my dear old friend's
+death, and noting the correspondence in time between her loss of
+consciousness and the appearance of the mysterious black kitten--seen
+only by Mrs Waverly and myself--it was impossible not to ask in the
+depths of my heart whether, perchance, the spirit of my faithful friend
+had been trying to send me some symbol of her approaching death.
+
+It may be objected that black cats are generally connected with good
+luck. Well, I think my dear "London mother," as she called herself
+sometimes, would have explained this apparent contradiction very simply.
+She had lived through much sorrow, and was often oppressed by sore
+doubts of the Cosmic Love. I never knew any woman with such strong and
+passionate human sympathy, and to such fine spirits, the world, under
+present conditions, must always offer terrible problems. Her sympathies
+were sometimes too keen for that robust faith which can _always_ say:
+"God's in His heaven! All's right with the world!" Yet her last words
+were: "_I am so tired, and God will understand; and I am so glad to
+go._"
+
+To finish my chapter on a merrier note, I will mention an amusing
+episode connected with the evening of the black kitten's appearance.
+
+Amongst the guests invited to that dinner-party was a clergyman-squire,
+a man of some means who had taken orders. A "squarson" is the
+"portmanteau name" for such a gentleman in Yorkshire, I believe; one who
+combines squire and parson.
+
+This particular specimen of the genus was both a vegetarian and a
+celibate. The latter fact had been made clear to me by the many regrets
+expressed in the neighbourhood that he had remained a bachelor owing to
+religious scruples. The vegetarianism was equally certain, for I had
+heard orders given for special dishes to be prepared for this guest; and
+sitting next to him at the dinner-table, I knew that he had not touched
+either meat or game, although it was not a fast day.
+
+After dinner, when the gentlemen had joined us in the drawing-room, the
+conversation turned upon psychic matters and my experiences in America
+of a few years before. This extreme High Churchman denounced all these,
+"lock, stock, and barrel."
+
+He believed that everything might have happened as described, but was
+equally certain that the devil alone could have had a hand in "such
+goings on"! Perhaps it will be wise to explain that he did not make use
+of this latter expression!
+
+My host, instead of coming to the rescue, which he might have done, as
+one of "the Cloth"; looked much amused when I fielded most of my
+adversary's theological balls.
+
+At length, being unaccustomed to such irreverent handling, my enemy lost
+his temper, and, as usual on such occasions, he tried to "take my
+wicket" by quoting texts against me!
+
+"Well, all I can say is that everything you have told us is in direct
+opposition to Holy Writ. In fact, _we are specially warned in the
+Scriptures that in the latter days seducing spirits shall arise_."
+
+At this fatal moment, when the Theological Closure was descending upon
+my unhappy head, a really brilliant thought occurred to me.
+
+Was it a seducing spirit or a friendly intelligence who reminded me
+that my opponent had only quoted half the text--_the half that suited
+him_?
+
+I pointed this fact out meekly.
+
+He looked puzzled, and probably had honestly forgotten what he did not
+wish to remember.
+
+"Finish the text? What do you mean?" he said irritably.
+
+So I finished it for him:
+
+"In the latter days seducing spirits shall arise, _forbidding to marry
+and commanding to abstain from meats_."
+
+He had pressed me very hard and rather unfairly. Still, the counsel of
+perfection would have been to refrain from the comment that, if _I_ were
+a celibate and vegetarian, it was not the text I should have chosen with
+which to clinch an argument!
+
+
+
+
+AN INTERLUDE
+
+
+I have headed this chapter an _Interlude_, for the following reason:--
+
+It is the only one in this book which does not record a personal
+experience.
+
+The opportunity came to me at Florence, two years ago, of hearing one of
+the best old-fashioned Christmas ghost stories I ever came across; also
+a ghost story which has two rather unique advantages. First, it has
+never been published before; secondly, the percipient was the matron of
+a boys' school (a well-known one), and wrote out her experiences _within
+twelve hours of their occurrence_.
+
+Now, the matron of a large boys' school must, of necessity, be an
+exceptionally practical woman, and her daily experiences can scarcely
+tend to encourage undue Romance or Imagination.
+
+When I add that this story was given to me, and a copy of the original
+letter placed in my hands, by a sister of two of the schoolboys who were
+under the matron's supervision, I shall have cleared the way for my
+ghost to appear upon the scene.
+
+I must add, however, that I met this sister, a young widow, in
+Florence, two years ago. She then told me this story, finding that I
+was intimately acquainted both with the county and the small county
+town where it happened.
+
+The matron had gone there for the prosaic purpose of taking the baths
+for her rheumatism.
+
+The adventure took place in the early morning of 14th April 1875, and
+was recorded, within a few hours, in a long letter written by the
+percipient to a favourite cousin.
+
+My friend, Mrs Barker's brothers being at school at the time, begged to
+be allowed to read this letter and take a copy of it. The copy was made
+by their sister--then a young girl--and I have it in my hands at the
+present moment of writing.
+
+It is, of course, necessary to change the name of the county and town,
+as the old family mansion, let in lodgings in 1875, has since then been
+sold and turned into a boarding-house.
+
+Mrs Barker's mother made an expedition to this town, a few years ago, to
+verify the facts, and went over the house, which has been considerably
+altered and reconstructed inside since 1875.
+
+The small park mentioned in the story is now built over entirely, as the
+town has increased in popularity, owing to its baths, and the family
+portraits here mentioned have been removed since the house was sold.
+
+I will now quote _verbatim_ from the matron's letter, _written on the
+morning of her experiences_.
+
+
+                                          "The Priory, Grantwich.
+                                            "14th April 1875.
+"MY DEAR EDIE,--When you asked me once for a ghost story, I daresay you
+as little expected, as I did, how soon I should have to reveal to you an
+experience which will doubtless give you, as it has me, much ground for
+thought and speculation about those mysterious laws which rule the
+spirit world.
+
+"How true it is that Thought and Feeling annihilate Time and Space!
+Since last night, I seem to have lived through half a lifetime, such an
+effect have its events had upon my inner life. But before I begin to
+relate the strange circumstances I have to tell you, I must describe to
+you more particularly this house in which they happened.
+
+"I think I told you that 'The Priory'--where I am now lodging--is an
+old mansion, belonging to the Carbury family. For some years past, it
+has been let to the present occupiers who make the rent by letting
+lodgings. Some ancient pieces of furniture remain, and a great many
+portraits, none of the earliest date, but a handsome and respectable
+collection--soldiers, bishops, and judges, in their uniforms, robes,
+and wigs, and ladies with powdered hair, hoops, and trains.
+
+"Of these portraits, _two have engaged my attention, especially, from
+the first moment of seeing them_, but I am not going to speak of them
+yet; my first object is to give you an idea of the house, or rather that
+part of it with which my story is connected.
+
+"I think I have told you that the grand staircase goes up from the inner
+hall, and that round the staircase runs a gallery; in this gallery and
+in the hall below, are hung most of the portraits.
+
+"On the first turn and landing of the staircase, there is a door opening
+into a trellised walk which leads into the garden. On a level with this
+door is a large window which looks on to sweeps of soft turf, shaded by
+fine trees.
+
+"Standing often to look from this window, as I passed up and down the
+staircase, one tree has always riveted my attention. It is a large old
+plane-tree, standing by itself, and having a strange, melancholy,
+decayed look about it. I noticed--why, I cannot imagine--that on one
+side of it the ground was bare and black, though everywhere else the
+grass was green and fresh. I mention this, because it had struck me
+_before_ the strange events occurred which I am going to tell you.
+
+"You must now go with me to the top of the staircase. Just at the top,
+on your right hand, hangs one of the portraits I mentioned. It is a
+life-sized painting of Captain Richard Carbury, who landed, on the 19th
+September 1738, in the Colony of Georgia, with General Oglethorpe's
+regiment.
+
+"Opposite to this, on the other side of the gallery, is the portrait of
+a lady, with black, resolute brows and full, voluptuous mouth and chin.
+She has a high colour, an exquisite hand and arm, and an Amazonian
+bearing.
+
+"Passing from the gallery, you enter a long passage, leading to other
+passages and staircases, with which we have nothing to do.
+
+"I only want you now to become acquainted with my own rooms. As you
+enter the passage from the gallery, two doors open, one on either hand.
+To the right is my sitting-room, a square, cheerful room, looking on the
+street; to the left is my bedroom, which will require a more particular
+description.
+
+"It is a large, low room. As you enter from the passage, the window,
+which looks into the garden, is opposite to you. In the middle of the
+wall to your right hand stands the bed, and opposite to that, the
+fireplace, and, as you will see, if you have taken in my description,
+just at the back of the portrait of the lady with the black eyebrows, is
+another door. Opposite to this last is yet another, which caught my
+attention when I first entered the room from a peculiarity about it. The
+upper part of this door is of glass, rendered opaque by being washed or
+lined with some red substance.
+
+"As soon as I was alone in the room I tried to open this door, but it
+was firmly fastened. I don't know why I should have felt disquieted by
+this circumstance, but certainly I did feel annoyed. I thought at first
+that it probably opened into a dressing-room. There must have been a
+strong light behind it, for a red light always fell on that side of the
+room through the coloured glass, and I could see that red light in the
+morning, before any light penetrated the window-blind.
+
+"I think I have now told you all that is necessary for understanding my
+experience.
+
+"I must ask you to remember that yesterday was the thirteenth of April.
+I went to bed about eleven o'clock, and soon fell asleep. I could not,
+however, have slept long before I woke with an unusual feeling that
+something strange was going to happen.
+
+"I awoke, not as one does in the morning, with a drowsy resolve not to
+go to sleep again because it is time to get up, but as one awakes when a
+journey or some similar event is imminent, for which one's faculties
+have to be clear, and one's body active and alert. I was rather
+wondering at and enjoying the unusual clearness and energy of thought of
+which I felt capable, when the clock in the hall began striking, and,
+almost at the same moment, the clock of the old Church of St Andrew
+began striking also.
+
+"I knew that both were striking twelve, though I did not count the
+blows, but just as the last stroke of the church clock died away,
+another sound caught my ear.
+
+"The door by the fireplace gave a loud crack and then opened, as if with
+some difficulty.
+
+"The _red door_ at the same time rattled, as if someone were trying
+vainly to open it. The room had previously been dark, but I now plainly
+saw a tall figure come through the doorway and stand near the foot of
+the bed. There was a dull, yellowish light round the figure, which
+illumined it, leaving the rest of the room in darkness; but this yellow
+light, I perceived, became red at one point of the figure's left side,
+and shone down on the floor with a red glow, like that which came
+through the opposite door.
+
+"The apparition stood quite silent whilst I looked at it. _The features
+and figure were familiar to me_ for they were those of Captain Richard
+Carbury, in the portrait, who had gone out to Georgia with the regiment
+of His Excellency, General Oglethorpe!
+
+"As soon as I was sure of this, I said: 'You are Captain Richard
+Carbury?'
+
+"The apparition nodded.
+
+"'Why do you come to me?' I said. 'Cannot you speak?'
+
+"He seemed to have some difficulty in doing so, but after two or three
+efforts, such as one makes to move a rusty hinge, he parted his lips,
+and said: 'Yes! I am Richard Carbury, and I am come to make you a
+witness.'
+
+"'A witness of what?' I said. 'Can I be of use to you? You come from the
+spirit world. Is it then permitted to mortals to have personal
+intercourse with spirits?'
+
+"He held up his hand as if to silence me.
+
+"'Listen to me,' he said. 'You are not frightened of me?'
+
+"'No,' I replied; nor did I feel the slightest awe or fear. I felt
+stimulated, a kind of electricity ran through my veins--I longed
+earnestly to learn something of the mysterious realm from which he
+came, but I had no vulgar or superstitious fear.
+
+"'Nor need you have any dread,' he returned. 'I have no wish nor power
+to hurt you, but you must listen to my story. Once in fifty years I am
+allowed to leave my grave and revisit the scene of my tragical death,
+and this must always be on the 14th of April, which is the anniversary
+of the event.[4] I am also permitted to recount my story if I find
+anyone sleeping in this room who is willing to listen to me. Are you
+willing?'
+
+ [4] There is evidently some mistake here in the figures given by the
+ ghost or received by the matron. If his death took place in 1741 (three
+ years after landing in Georgia), his first spirit return was due in
+ 1791, the second, 1841, and the third, not till 1891. It appears to
+ have been anticipated by sixteen years, if the dates given are correct.
+ A friend suggests that "once _in_ fifty years" does not necessitate
+ exact _intervals_ of fifty years.
+
+"I replied that I should gladly hear what he had to tell, but would he
+allow me to ask him one question?
+
+"He inclined his head in assent, and I said I had always thought that
+the spirits of the dead, if they were allowed to appear on earth, came
+with shadowy and skeleton forms. Why did he appear with flesh like a
+living man?
+
+"'Ah!' he said, 'that is owing to the peculiarity of my grave. I am
+buried in salt.'
+
+"' Have you anything more to ask?' said my visitor.
+
+"'Nothing more at present,' I replied. 'I am ready now to hear your
+story.'
+
+"'I will make it as short as possible and not detain you long. You have
+noticed my portrait in the gallery?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'And that of the lady opposite, my cousin, Lucretia Carbury?'
+
+"'Certainly.' (Here the red door was violently shaken).
+
+"'She cannot open it,' said Captain Carbury, 'it is sealed.'
+
+"'When I went out to Georgia,' he resumed, 'in 1738, I was engaged to
+be married to her; we had been betrothed by our parents in our
+childhood, and family reasons made it almost a necessity that we
+should be united, but as we grew up neither of us was very anxious to
+fulfil the engagement, and, to tell the truth, I was glad of the
+summons to join my regiment. However, after three years in that
+distant colony, I came home, having made up my mind I would marry
+Lucretia and settle down on the family property--which could only be
+enjoyed by that means--for we were the only representatives of the
+family, and the property was so left by our fathers that only by
+marrying could we enter into possession. _Either by marrying or by the
+death of one of us; when the whole of the property would go to the
+other._ I knew that Lucretia was at the old house at Grantwich, and I
+came straight to her.
+
+"'I had written to say when she might expect me, and she received me
+with apparent kindness and agreed to all my propositions about our
+marriage. I arrived late at night, and she let me into the house herself
+and got food for me. We supped together, and she pledged me in a cup,
+which I now know was drugged to make me sleep heavily.
+
+"'I then retired to my room--this room, this bed, on which you now lie!
+
+"'What I am now going to tell you has been made clear to me since; at
+the time I was conscious of nothing. As soon as I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and whilst I thus slept Lucretia came through that door
+(pointing to the red door opposite), and stabbed me to the heart. I
+will show you the instrument with which she did it, if you like.'
+
+"'Pray do,' I said, and he unbuttoned his scarlet uniform coat and drew
+from his left side a slender dagger or stiletto.
+
+"I looked at it with great interest and asked if I might take it in my
+hand.
+
+"'Certainly, if you wish it,' he said, 'but I do not advise you to touch
+it. It is rusty now from the salt, but I assure you it was bright and
+keen when she drove it into my heart. The stroke was so cleverly aimed
+that I died instantly. Lucretia then made a signal, which was answered
+by the entrance of a man, and between them they carried my body through
+the door by which I entered to-night.'
+
+"He paused, and I thought he looked more ghastly. 'Is anything the
+matter?' I asked.
+
+"'I am thinking,' he answered, 'that I can show you the rest, if you
+will follow me, but I must tell you that when we leave this room and
+enter the gallery, it is possible the murderess will follow us. Shall
+you be afraid?'
+
+"'Not in the least,' I said, 'I will follow you with pleasure, but you
+must allow me to put something on, as I am suffering from rheumatism,
+and am afraid of the cold and damp.'
+
+"'By all means,' said Captain Carbury. 'I will wait for you in the
+gallery.'
+
+"I then got up and put on my dressing-gown and slippers. Whilst I was
+doing so, I heard a rustling in the passage as of a woman passing
+slowly along. I found Captain Carbury, and followed him along the
+gallery without looking round, but when we reached the end of the
+gallery and turned to go down the first flight of stairs, I saw the
+lady with the black brows--whom I now knew to be Lucretia Carbury, the
+murderess--standing in the doorway, between the gallery and the
+passage.
+
+"'I do not think she can come any farther,' said my guide, and he
+opened the door leading from the staircase into the garden.
+
+"'I am showing you just where they brought me,' said he.
+
+"'Who was the man?' I asked.
+
+"'I never knew his name, but she married him afterwards.'
+
+"He then moved across the lawn _to the bare spot under the plane-tree_.
+Here he stopped, and, pointing downwards, showed me on the bare ground
+an exact outline of the dagger which he had drawn from his side.
+
+"'Here they dug my grave and here they buried me; a salt spring washes
+over me.'
+
+"At this moment the great clock of St Andrew struck ONE.
+
+"'All that you have told me is very sad and strange,' I said, 'but now,
+will you allow me to ask you why you have appeared to me? Is there
+anything you want done on earth that I can do? Is there any restitution
+to be made, or justice to be administered? Anything that you require, I
+am ready to do, if you will grant me one favour when you return to the
+spirit realm.'
+
+"I had been speaking with my eyes fixed on the ground, but now,
+happening to raise them, I was surprised to see that my companion
+appeared to be sinking into the ground.
+
+"'My time is up,' he said. '_Remember!_'--and, as his head disappeared,
+his words came in a hollow, sepulchral voice from beneath _that spot of
+black earth_--'remember you are my witness!'
+
+"I was left standing alone under the plane-tree, with the thought, that
+in returning to my room, I might probably meet the restless spirit of
+Lucretia Carbury.
+
+"Nothing of the kind, however, occurred. I passed through the doors that
+had opened at the touch of Captain Carbury, and I noticed that they
+closed behind me without any effort on my part. I regained my bed, and
+almost immediately fell asleep. All had passed so naturally, and as a
+matter of course, that only when I woke this morning, and thought over
+the events of the night, did I realise that I had passed through such an
+experience as is given to few human beings.
+
+"You see, dear Edie, that my narrative has taken so long to write that I
+have no time to speak of other things, even if I could bring my mind to
+think of anything else, which, I confess, I should have great difficulty
+in doing.--Ever your very affectionate,                  "M. PORTER."
+
+
+Copied _verbatim_ from Miss Porter's letter, written on the morning of
+14th April 1875.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So ends the story, with apologies to the S.P.R.!
+
+I claim nothing for it beyond the following _facts_:
+
+The Priory still exists at Grantwich, and is known to have been the
+family mansion of the Carbury family.
+
+Miss Porter was undoubtedly matron of the school where my friend's
+brothers were educated. She was a woman of unblemished character and
+truthfulness, and would certainly not have _invented_ this long and
+detailed account of her personal experiences within a few hours of their
+occurrence.
+
+My friend most certainly copied this letter, which her brothers had
+obtained leave to read, from their school matron--Miss Porter herself.
+
+Lastly, my friend, Mrs Barker's mother (who is still alive), verified
+the existence of the Priory (as I have called it) in the town of
+Grantwich, and it _had_ been turned into a boarding-house at the time of
+her visit, having been previously let in lodgings. Also she found that
+Captain Richard Carbury was _supposed to have died in Georgia in the
+year 1741_, as is inferred in the story.
+
+As the murderess and her accomplice alone seem to have been aware of his
+return on that fateful night, this would be the natural opinion of the
+world.
+
+As an old associate of the S.P.R., and quite conversant with their
+methods, two criticisms of the story at once suggest themselves, in
+addition to the confusion of dates, which might perhaps be excused,
+owing to the abnormal nature of the interview described. But the obvious
+Podmorian remark would be that the whole adventure was a dream on the
+part of Miss Porter, induced by her interest in the two family portraits
+she had seen, and the curious sensations she had experienced in looking
+at a specially gloomy tree in the park.
+
+This would certainly cover the ground, but it proves, perhaps, rather
+too much.
+
+It requires very robust "Faith in Unfaith" to suppose that a sensible,
+practical woman, suffering from rheumatism, should carry her dream to
+the verge of following her dream man into the garden and grounds of the
+house. It may be urged that _she dreamt all this also_, but "that way
+madness lies." We must be able to formulate that certain acts of ours
+took place during full consciousness, or daily life would become
+impossible and moral responsibility would cease.
+
+Miss Porter might have been in a dream all through the night--granted.
+
+But in these cases it is the "morning that brings counsel." We are all
+aware of the extraordinary lifelike dreams which, with the return of
+normal memory, we recognise as dream visions, no matter how vivid and
+credible they may have appeared to us in the night.
+
+But with Miss Porter this normal process was reversed. She went to sleep
+quite calmly, and first realised, upon waking in the morning, how
+thoroughly _abnormal_ her experiences had been.
+
+I pass on to the next criticism, which a little "editing" on my part
+could have averted:
+
+"Is it credible that a woman, only just recovering from the surprise and
+marvel of such an experience, should write about it, within a few hours,
+to a favourite cousin, as if she were preparing a story for _The Family
+Herald_?"
+
+I confess that this was my own feeling when the record was placed in my
+hands.
+
+We must, however, remember--first, that the percipient was obviously a
+lady of great courage, or she would not have followed her ghost into the
+garden; secondly, that she was a keen observer and very accurate in
+details. Probably, many generations of schoolboys, passing through her
+hands, may have quickened her perceptions in both these ways.
+
+As for the stilted style, that presents little difficulty, when one
+remembers that people of a certain rank in life never use a short word
+when a long one will answer the purpose!
+
+I claim nothing for the story, beyond the points already mentioned.
+These are matters of _fact_.
+
+Each one must interpret it according to his own views and prejudices.
+
+It is quite enough for me to be responsible for the truth and accuracy
+of _my own_ experiences, to which we will now return.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Note._--Since writing the above I have consulted the "Century
+Encyclopædia," and find there:
+
+"Oglethorpe--James Edward, born in London, December 21st, 1696, died
+at Cranham Hall, Essex, England, 1785. An English General and
+Philanthropist. He projected the Colony of Georgia for insolvent
+debtors, and persecuted Protestants; conducted the expedition for its
+settlement, 1733, and returned to England, 1743."
+
+The apparent discrepancy between the date 1733 given in the
+Encyclopædia, and the 1738 of Captain Carbury's ghostly narrative, may
+be due to one of two causes:
+
+The young girl copying Miss Porter's letter may have mistaken a three
+for an eight rather easily.
+
+Again, Captain Carbury did not state that he landed _with_ General
+Oglethorpe, 19th September 1738, but with General Oglethorpe's regiment.
+This latter may have been a reinforcement sent out to the General after
+his first landing in the Colony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+LADY CAITHNESS AND AVENUE WAGRAM
+
+
+Having spent the winter months of 1894 (from January to April) in Egypt,
+I was returning thence in the latter month with my friend Mrs Judge of
+Windsor. Our route was _via_ Paris, and I had arranged to spend a week
+there in the same hotel as the young Swedish lady whom I first met in
+India, and who has been referred to more than once in this record.
+
+She told me she had made the acquaintance that winter of the famous
+"Countess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar," and thinking it would
+interest me to meet this lady, she had asked for permission to introduce
+me to her.
+
+As it turned out, Madame Brügel was unable to accompany me to the house,
+having several engagements for the afternoon, but she promised to "put
+in an appearance" later. So Mrs Judge and I drove off to the well-known
+mansion in the Avenue de Wagram, and were received very cordially by
+Lady Caithness.
+
+I had once tried to read a very abstruse and mystic book by this lady,
+and had heard her spoken of as a more or less hopeless lunatic, "who
+imagined herself Mary Queen of Scots," and so forth.
+
+Otherwise I went without prejudice, and being accustomed to judge for
+myself in such matters, came to the conclusion that Lady Caithness was
+an extremely shrewd woman, with her head remarkably "well screwed on,"
+as the saying is. As regards her claims to be Mary Queen of Scots, I
+never heard these from her own lips, although I saw her daily for a
+week, and we had many interesting talks.
+
+She certainly _did_ claim to be in very close relations with the
+ill-fated Queen of Scotland, but I do not know what views she may have
+held privately as to varied manifestations of the one spirit. I have
+heard Lord Monkswell propound an interesting theory, with Archdeacon
+Wilberforce in the chair, to the effect that as one short earth life
+gave small scope for spiritual experience and development, he thought it
+quite possible that the same spirit might have several bodily
+manifestations simultaneously, and that the judge and the criminal might
+conceivably be one and the same individual in two personalities!
+
+It is possible that Lady Caithness may have had some such view, not
+theoretically (as was the case with Lord Monkswell), but as a matter of
+conviction, and apart from the limits of Time and Space involved in the
+conception of the latter.
+
+I can only say that I never heard her speak of Mary Queen of Scots
+except as an entity, quite distinct from herself. But that she carried
+the "Marie" _culte_ to great extremes is an undoubted fact. The hall and
+rooms on the ground floor of the Avenue Wagram House were arranged and
+furnished in close imitation of Holyrood Palace. I counted over fifty
+miniatures and other pictures of the Scottish Queen in the Countess's
+beautiful bedroom alone, and later on shall have to speak more
+definitely of one life size and exquisitely painted portrait of the
+Queen.
+
+But to return to this first reception.
+
+I must confess that a somewhat inconveniently keen sense of humour found
+only too much nourishment on this occasion.
+
+The Countess was magnificently dressed, as was usual with her, in
+priceless lace, falling over head and shoulders, and a beautiful tiara
+of various coloured jewels arranged over the lace. This was eccentric
+perhaps, considering the occasion, but not laughable. Lady Caithness, in
+addition to geniality, had enough quiet dignity to carry off the lace
+and jewels with success. I was chiefly amused by the attitude of adoring
+humility and flattering appreciation shown by the numerous ladies
+already assembled when we arrived. Only one man was present, and he was
+a priest. Later I learned to appreciate the friendliness of the Abbé
+Petit and to admire his intellectual courage and manliness.
+
+For the moment, seeing him surrounded by these female worshippers,
+hanging upon his lips as he discoursed to us about new readings of old
+truths, one was irresistibly reminded of certain scenes in Molière's
+"_Femmes Savantes_."
+
+A lively little American lady (married to an Italian count) plied him
+with numerous questions in fluent French, spoken with an atrocious
+accent. Finally, she wished to hear the Abbé's views upon
+_Melchisedech!_ In the midst of other questions and answers, the kindly
+little man managed to turn round to her with a cheery "_Ah, Madame la
+Comtesse! pour le Melchisedech--nous reviendrons tout de suite à
+Melchisedech!_" All the affairs of the religious universe were being
+wound up at a similar pace and in like fashion, and this final word of
+cheerful assurance would have proved absolutely disastrous to me had I
+not been sitting close to my friend and able to whisper to her: "_Please
+dig your nails into my wrist--hard._" Any bodily pain was preferable to
+the hysterical laughter which had been so long suppressed and seemed now
+imminent.
+
+But there was worse to come!
+
+An Englishwoman, the very type of the characteristic British spinster,
+turned round, and addressed M. l'Abbé in laboured and extremely British
+French (I must leave the accent to be imagined and supplied by my
+reader):
+
+"Mais, Monsieur l'Abbé! c'est le Protestantisme que vous nous enseignez
+la."
+
+He turned round upon her in his wrath:
+
+"Mais, Madame--ou MADEMOISELLE." (No print can convey the utter scorn
+and contempt of this last word.)
+
+The rest of the sentence was lost to us in the loud laugh of the genial,
+good-tempered woman: "_Moi_, Mademoiselle! J'ai été mariée vingt ans et
+j'ai six enfants!"
+
+The whole scene was too funny for words, and, with the exception of this
+good lady, all present took themselves as seriously as a University don!
+
+It was a real relief when the solemnity of the reception broke up and we
+were ushered into the adjoining dining-room for an excellent tea. Here
+I came upon my Swedish friend, who had only just arrived, and "missed
+all the fun." She told me there was to be a _séance_ held in the house
+next day, and that she had been asking the Countess if I might not be
+present. "_It might amuse you, Kat!_" was her irreverent way of putting
+it. "_Unfortunately, there seems to be some difficulty about it._"
+
+At this moment Lady Caithness came up, and cordially expressed her
+regrets that she could not accede to Madame Brügel's suggestion.
+
+"Had you been staying until next week, Miss Bates, I would gladly have
+arranged for it, but to-morrow is a very special occasion. As a matter
+of fact, I have promised M. Petit that no one shall be present except
+himself and me, and the two female mediums, of course. On Wednesday we
+are to have a crowded meeting here--all the well-known people in Paris
+will come--and M. l'Abbé will read his paper explaining that he can no
+longer blind his eyes to the new light breaking upon the world through
+scientific discovery, etc., but that he remains a loyal son of the
+Church, if the Church will allow him to do so. It is, of course, a very
+trying and anxious ordeal; for many priests will be present, also a
+cardinal and one or more of our bishops. So the _séance_ to-morrow will
+be specially devoted to receiving last instructions for the paper he is
+about to read, and some words, we trust, of encouragement and hope."
+
+Of course, I hastened to assure Lady Caithness of my full comprehension
+of her point, and added that I was only sorry she should have been asked
+to alter her arrangements on my account.
+
+"But you will join us on Wednesday at the meeting, I trust? It will be
+held at three P.M., in a large room on the ground floor, which is
+arranged for such gatherings. I shall expect you then, so we will not
+say good-bye."
+
+This was heaping coals of fire on my head; for so observant a woman as
+Lady Caithness must have noticed my difficulty in keeping a grave face
+earlier in the afternoon!
+
+Now comes a curious point. As we left the house Madame Brügel in
+expressing disappointment about the next evening, added: "And yet
+somehow I think you will go after all."
+
+"Yes," I said involuntarily. "I believe I _shall_ go, but I cannot think
+how it will come about; nothing could be more decided than what we have
+just heard, and I cannot possibly put off my journey to England the end
+of this week."
+
+I think we were both a little disappointed when no letter arrived by the
+morning's post. "Local letters often come by second post," urged my
+friend, who was very keen upon her presentiment.
+
+A long morning at the Louvre prevented my reaching home till one P.M.,
+when the _déjeuner à la fourchette_ was half way through its course. No
+letter on my plate! So Madame Brügel and I agreed that the wish must
+have been father to the thought with both of us, and put the matter out
+of our heads once for all.
+
+At two-thirty P.M., however, a _dépêche_ letter arrived for me.
+
+Lady Caithness wrote to _beg that I would make a point of being with her
+that evening by nine p.m._ "You will think this very inconsistent with
+what I told you yesterday," she wrote, "but I said only what was the
+exact truth, as matters then stood. It is the Queen herself who has
+communicated with me this morning, and _insists_ upon your being present
+this evening. The Abbé and I can only bow to this decision. I need not
+tell you how pleased I shall be personally to greet you this evening."
+
+I was again shown into the spacious bedroom of the Countess, where she
+"received" in general, quite after the manner of the French kings in the
+days of the old monarchy.
+
+Her bed was quite a State bed too, with its beautiful silk furnishings
+and heavy velvet hangings. On the wall behind this, was a very valuable
+fresco painting, representing Jacob's ladder, with the angels ascending
+and descending, executed by a famous modern artist.
+
+We soon descended to the ground floor, and passing through the large
+lecture-room, of which Lady Caithness had spoken, and which had
+sufficient gilt and cane chairs to seat a large audience; we stepped
+down some marble stairs into a small but exquisitely appointed room. It
+was a sort of chapel, in fact, built "by the Queen's instructions," and
+used for all purposes and occasions of direct communication with her. A
+general impression remains with me of rare woods and exquisite marbles,
+and the walls were hung with framed tapestries representing various
+scenes in the Queen's life.
+
+To me the most striking and beautiful thing in the room was a
+full-length, life-sized portrait of Mary herself, so arranged that a
+hidden lamp threw its soft light on the features; whilst the hanging
+velvet curtains of deep crimson on either side concealed the frame of
+the picture, and conveyed the illusion that a living woman was standing
+there ready to receive her guests.
+
+I have never seen anything more perfect than the way in which this
+impression was conveyed, without a jarring note of sensational effect.
+
+The two French women mediums were already in the room, and I am bound to
+say they did not attract me pleasantly nor impress me very favourably.
+They were mother and daughter, and "Harpy" was written large over either
+countenance. Doubtless they were very good mediums, in spite of this
+fact. They _must_ have been so, unless one supposes that Lady Caithness
+and the Abbé Petit were themselves abnormally strong sensitives; in
+which case one would have thought this extraneous help would have been
+unnecessary.
+
+We sat down at a fairly large wooden table, polished, but without
+covering of any kind, and having only one solid support to it, coming
+from the centre, passing down as a single wooden pillar, and spreading
+out in the usual fashion at the bottom. I had noted this on first
+entering the room.
+
+The two women sat together on my right-hand side. On my left was the
+Abbé, and the Countess sat exactly opposite to me, with a printed
+alphabet pasted on to a card, and a long pencil as pointer.
+
+This made up the party. At a side table, placed some distance away, sat
+a pleasant young French lady, who was writing automatically all the
+time; a secretary to the Countess, I believe. This young lady had no
+possible connection with the table.
+
+The _séance_ began with a few words of prayer from the Abbé for light
+and guidance.
+
+The process was as follows:--First, the Countess and then I took the
+printed alphabet, and pointed silently and at a fair pace to the
+letters, going on from one to the other without pause. At the letter
+needed the table did not rise, but gave a sound more like a bang than a
+rap. I have never heard anything _quite_ so loud and definite in my long
+investigation. The sound seemed to come from _within the wood_, as in
+ordinary "raps," when these are genuine, but it was far louder and more
+rapid and decided than the usual _séance_ rap. There was no hesitation,
+no gathering up of force. Any amount of vitality was evidently present,
+and the intelligence, from whatever source, was unerring. The Countess
+and I were the only two persons who held the alphabet and pointed, and
+when _she_ held it the mediums could not have seen the letters from
+their position at the table with regard to hers. Yet the letters were
+banged out (I can use no other expression) with absolute accuracy, and
+at a pace which, quick to start with, became more and more rapid as we
+wearied of the monotonous task and handed the alphabet to each other in
+turn.
+
+When the name of GOD or of OUR LORD came, only the first letter was
+indicated, and then the table swayed slowly to and fro in a very
+reverent and characteristic way for a few seconds; after which we began
+the alphabet again for the next word.
+
+When these loud bangs came I could trace the reverberation in the wood,
+and it seemed to me practically impossible that the Harpies could be
+producing them by any unlawful methods, whilst sitting in full light and
+with immovable faces, the daughter writing down the letters as quickly
+as these were indicated.
+
+One did not feel quite comfortable about making investigations in a
+private house without being invited to do so.
+
+Again, if the women were tricking, and I caught them at it, there was
+always the chance of a disagreeable scene with people of their class.
+
+On the other hand, it was losing a great opportunity, to refrain, as a
+mere matter of courtesy. Also I comforted myself by thinking that if
+anyone needed to feel ashamed it would be the ones who cheated, and not
+the detective.
+
+So I pushed my chair a little nearer to the table, and the next time the
+Countess took the alphabet from me and the bangs were in full swing, I
+put my foot cautiously but very effectually _entirely round the one leg
+of the table, moving it also up and down freely_. Not a vestige of
+another foot, nor even of the flimsiest particle of dress or other
+obstruction! I could positively and distinctly hear the reverberation of
+the loud bangs on the wood, _between me and the centre of the table_,
+whilst my own leg and foot were firmly embracing the single wooden
+pillar upon which the latter stood. So the Harpies were justified, so
+far as this one phenomenon was concerned. The letters written down so
+rapidly by the daughter on large sheets of paper presented an apparently
+hopeless jumble, but when the sitting was over at the last, the Abbé
+and I were able to make out the words and sentences without great
+difficulty (he being accustomed to the task), and we then found a long,
+coherent, and at anyrate perfectly sensible, message addressed to him,
+and referring to the points of his coming discourse. This had to be
+proved upon its own merits, and without prejudice, arising from the fact
+that St Paul's name was given as the author. It was quite as helpful as
+some of the Apostle's letters, with the advantage of being up to date as
+regarded the question in hand. After all, the Abbé was about to embark
+upon an enterprise requiring much courage and great tact, in the forlorn
+hope that the walls of narrow Orthodoxy and Priestcraft might fall down
+before the trumpets of advancing Knowledge and Light.
+
+It may or may not have been St Paul who stood by the Abbé with words of
+encouragement that night; but I, for one, find no difficulty in thinking
+it conceivable that the great Apostle should take a keen interest in the
+evolution of the planet upon which he once lived.
+
+The charming young lady delivered up her script also. It was interesting
+and well written, but the only paragraph which remains in my memory was
+an excellent analysis of the initial difference between Christianity and
+Theosophy.
+
+The Abbé kindly copied it out for me next day, but I must quote from
+memory.
+
+"Christianity is a stretching down of the Divinity to Man.
+
+"Theosophy is the attempt of Man, by his own efforts, to reach the
+Divine."
+
+This seems to me both terse and true.
+
+We had sat from nine P.M. till one A.M., and I think we were all
+relieved when an adjournment for supper was suggested by Lady Caithness.
+
+Her son, the Duc de Pomar, joined us for _this_ part of the evening, and
+was introduced to me. My enjoyment of the excellent fare, after so many
+hours of exhaustion, was only tempered by an unfortunate and violent
+quarrel between the mother and daughter mediums, on the score of the age
+of the latter! The mother declared her daughter was forty-five; the
+daughter said: "Not a day over thirty-five," and intimated that she
+surely might be supposed to know her own age! The mother, however,
+murmured provokingly: "_Moi, je sais mieux que ça_"; and so the wrangle
+went on, until I made a diversion by taking leave of my hostess and
+promising to be present at the lecture the "following afternoon," which,
+by the way, had become "this afternoon" by the time I left the Hotel
+Wagram.
+
+When I entered the house once more, it was to be shown into the large
+lecture-room previously described, which was already three parts full,
+and very shortly entirely so.
+
+Lady Caithness had kindly reserved a front seat for me, so I could see
+and hear without difficulty. On the raised platform stood my friend the
+Abbé looking very grave and rather nervous. A cardinal, two bishops, and
+some half-dozen priests were seated close to him, and very shortly the
+lecture, which was, I think, extempore, began.
+
+The Abbé was so manifestly in dead earnest and without any suspicion of
+_pose_, that one could not fail to be deeply impressed by the scene. It
+needed all the help of a sincere purpose and a brave heart, to stand up
+amongst those of his own cloth, and, in face of a partially indifferent
+and partially unfriendly audience, to declare boldly "the faith that was
+in him"--a faith that burned all the more brightly and warmly from the
+fact that it was being purged of the superstitions which must always
+become the accretions of every form of religion; the clinging refuse of
+weed and shell, which from time to time must be scraped off the bottom
+of the grand old ship if it is to convey us safely from port to harbour.
+
+The Cardinal sat twirling his big seal ring, with a look of cynical
+amusement on his face, or so it seemed to me.
+
+As the Abbé proceeded to mention the advances made in science and the
+necessity for a restatement of old truths, which should bring them into
+line with other truths of the nineteenth century, proving the essential
+unity of _all truth_, and breaking down the fallacy that the vital part
+of religion and the vital part of science have anything to fear from one
+another, the Cardinal's face was a study to me.
+
+"Yes, of course, we know all that, you and I, but what is the use of
+making this fuss about it? We belong to a system, and this system has
+worked very well for centuries past, and will work very well for
+centuries to come if fools don't attempt to upset the coach by
+restatements and readjustments, as they are called. The people _don't
+want restatements_; they want a dead certainty, and that is just what we
+give them."
+
+All this I seemed to read in his clever, cynical countenance, in direct
+opposition to the thrilling sentences of the Abbé Petit as he leant
+forward and said, with uplifted finger and prophetic intensity:
+
+"_La lumière est venue, mes frères--et si vous ne la suivez pas--vous
+serez laissés seuls dans vos églises._"
+
+It is impossible to exaggerate the affectionate solemnity of this appeal
+to his brother priests. The tragic note was relieved later by an amused
+smile which rippled round the audience. This puzzled me until a kind
+French lady sitting next to me explained that the audience were amused
+by the "_très chers frères_" (dearly beloved brethren), with which the
+Abbé addressed them in this rather unorthodox lecture. It was evidently
+looked upon as a curious bit of "professional survival."
+
+On the following day (Thursday) I was invited to lunch with Lady
+Caithness at two P.M., and being a punctual person, I arrived at that
+hour. The powdered footman announced that his mistress had not yet
+emerged from her bedroom, and showed me up into the dining-room
+adjoining, where I awaited her. In a few minutes I was joined here by
+the Abbé, who politely expressed his sorrow that he had not known of my
+arrival earlier.
+
+As we sat chatting together, he told me a curious experience of his of
+the previous night, which will certainly "cause the enemy" to smile, if
+not "to blaspheme."
+
+He said (of course, in French): "I was sitting last night in my room,
+which looks over the back of the house, and where I can hear no sounds
+from the Avenue, and I was talking to 'La Reine.' Suddenly '_Elle m'a
+frappé sur l'épaule_,' and then said she must leave me at once, in order
+to meet the Duchesse, who had just returned home. At that moment twelve
+o'clock struck from a neighbouring church, and I looked at my watch, and
+found it was indeed midnight. When Madame la Duchesse comes in, I am
+most anxious to find out whether she and the Duc were returning home at
+that hour. You will be my witness, madame, that I have told you of this
+occurrence before seeing the Duchesse."
+
+I assured him that I would gladly testify to this; and in a few moments
+the Duc de Pomar arrived, and almost immediately after him, Lady
+Caithness emerged from her bedroom on the other side of the dining-room.
+
+We sat down to luncheon, and I was much amused by the form of the Abbé's
+question later in the meal.
+
+"_Madame la Duchesse! puis je vous demander sans indiscrétion, a quelle
+heure vous êtes revenue hier au soir?_"
+
+Lady Caithness looked a little surprised, but answered readily enough:
+"Well, it must have been past midnight; I did not notice very
+specially."
+
+"Not past midnight, mother," corrected the Duc de Pomar; "I heard a
+clock strike twelve just as we were driving through the Porte Cochère."
+
+"_Bien, Madame, qu'est-ce-que je vous ai dit?_" demanded the Abbé,
+turning to me in triumph. He then repeated his story, and I was able to
+certify that he had already mentioned it to me on my arrival.
+
+The following day I took my leave of Lady Caithness, with a happy
+remembrance of her and her great kindness and hospitality to me during
+this pleasant week. She made me promise to let her know whenever I might
+happen to be passing through Paris. I wrote to her the next year, when
+about to make a short stay in Paris, on returning from Algeria, and
+received an answer from the Riviera. She had been wintering there, and
+had been packed and ready for the return to Paris, when an obstinate
+chill had upset all plans. She begged me to go to the Avenue Wagram when
+I arrived and find out the latest news of her, as the doctors might give
+leave for the journey at any moment.
+
+Ten days later I _did_ go to her house and interview the lady secretary
+(not the one I had seen), who was very grudging in her answers, and gave
+me the impression that she was accustomed to deal with persons who had
+some "axe to grind" by claiming acquaintance with the Countess.
+
+I did not happen to have the letter in my pocket which authorised my
+visit, and should probably not have produced it in any case. So I turned
+away rather shortly, leaving my card, saying: "I must trouble you to
+forward this at once to Lady Caithness."
+
+The moment the secretary saw my name, her manner entirely changed, and
+became as servile as it had been "cavalier."
+
+"Miss Bates, I see? Oh, certainly, I shall communicate at once with her
+ladyship. I had no idea it was Miss Bates. Pray excuse me, so many come
+and ask for the Duchesse, and we have to be so very particular. But, of
+course, _you_ must be the lady the Duchesse is so very fond of. She has
+mentioned you often, and warned us to receive you with every courtesy."
+
+And that is my last recollection of the kindly woman, who died a few
+months later. No, not absolutely my last recollection: visiting Scotland
+in 1896, I made a point of going to Holyrood Chapel for the express
+purpose of finding her grave.
+
+The plain stone slab and simple inscription seemed at first a curious
+contrast to the gorgeous magnificence of her home and dress and
+surroundings. Yet I am inclined to think that they represented a side of
+her character which was quite as real as the other.
+
+In like manner, no one who knew of her only as a "wild visionary" could
+have realised the shrewd, practical woman of business and of
+common-sense who shared the personality of Countess of Caithness and
+Duchesse de Pomar.
+
+I remember that Mr Frederic Myers made the same remark to me after a
+visit he paid to her, just after my return to England, for the purpose
+of arranging matters with regard to her generous bequest to the Society
+for Psychical Research.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON
+
+
+From Paris to England is not a long cry, and my next reminiscence is
+connected with the University of Oxford.
+
+I was spending a few days there with a friend in the spring of 1896,
+and went with her one afternoon to an Oxford tea-party, with its usual
+sprinkling of women, married and unmarried; a few dons captured as a
+question of friendship, and more than a few undergraduates.
+
+Amongst the latter I chanced to hear the name of a very well-known
+bishop, whom I had first met and known rather intimately when I was a
+young girl, and he a young married curate. I had also known his wife
+(a few years my senior) very intimately in those far-off days, so my
+curiosity was aroused to know if the young man in this Oxford
+drawing-room should chance to be a son of this bishop, whom we will
+call the Bishop of Granchester. I found that my surmise was correct;
+the young man was introduced to me, and we were soon deep in an
+interesting conversation about his parents, especially his mother, who
+had died when he was barely three years old. He knew little or nothing
+about her. His father had married again, and his paternal grandmother
+(still alive in 1896) had never cared for his mother--from feelings
+of jealousy probably--so there was no one to speak to the boy about
+her, and he was naturally delighted to hear all my girlish
+recollections of her.
+
+"Do come and have tea with me to-morrow afternoon, or any day that suits
+you," he said eagerly. "I have one or two old photographs taken of my
+mother when she was young, and I should like so much to know which of
+them you consider the best."
+
+Of course, I agreed to go, Mr Blake-Mason promising to ask a "chum" to
+entertain my hostess whilst he and I discussed the photographs and the
+old days before he was born.
+
+Returning home from his rooms that February evening, I was conscious
+once more of an unaccountable depression, and also a certain amount of
+nervous irritability, which other sensitives will understand, and which
+often precedes some psychic happening. Just after we had finished
+dinner, it struck me suddenly, and _for the first time_, that my
+discomfort might be connected with my afternoon visit. This young man's
+mother might be wishing to impress me in some way! I found that this was
+the fact, but felt unequal to going further into the matter that night.
+
+I promised to listen to anything she might wish to say next morning, and
+having given this promise, all unpleasant and disturbing influences
+disappeared, and I had a good night's rest. Next morning, after
+breakfast, my hostess said very practically:
+
+"Now do get this matter off your mind at once, or you will be worried
+about it all day. I am going to order dinner, and shall then be in the
+drawing-room, so you can have this room entirely to yourself."
+
+I sat down, and a very beautiful message was given to me by the friend
+of my girlhood.
+
+She was evidently very much perturbed and very anxious about something
+connected with her youngest son, whom I had met for the first time two
+days previously, and about whose affairs, I need scarcely say, I was in
+a state of profound ignorance. The little mother was anxious not to
+"give him away," nor betray confidences, and so her words were very
+guarded. There was evidently nothing in the least dishonourable or in
+any way _unworthy_ of her son in question. I gathered, rather, that he
+might be contemplating some step which she, from her wider outlook,
+considered undesirable and inexpedient; possibly even disastrous in the
+future.
+
+It was no business of mine, and I make it a point of honour not to "try
+to guess" more than I am told, and to forget what I _am_ told as soon as
+possible, where the affairs of other people are involved.
+
+This is, fortunately, easy for me as a rule, but in this case one
+sentence remains even now ringing in my ears, and if the son ever comes
+across this record I hope he will forgive my reproducing his mother's
+last beautiful words to me:
+
+"_Tell my darling boy that life is so solemn and true love so sacred a
+thing. Tell him to be very, very sure, lest he lose the substance in
+pursuing the shadow._"
+
+The first sentence is given verbatim. In the second my memory may be
+producing the sense without the exact wording, but I have no doubt at
+all that my words practically convey what the mother wished me to "tell
+her boy."
+
+This message gave me a hard problem to solve: "What should I do with
+it?"
+
+On the one hand, my having agreed to take the message, tacitly bound me
+to let him have it.
+
+On the other hand, there were various questions to consider. In the
+first place, Mr Blake-Mason might probably, and very naturally, resent
+my writing to him on the subject, especially as I had no reason to
+suppose he had any knowledge of psychic matters.
+
+Secondly, he might suppose (quite untruly) that I had heard some private
+affairs of his discussed, and had taken upon myself to convey a personal
+warning, under cover of his dead mother's wishes.
+
+This was perhaps exaggerating a possibility, which, nevertheless, could
+not be ignored.
+
+Thirdly, he might consider me a harmless lunatic, conveying a message
+which had no slightest foundation in truth.
+
+Fourthly, it might, on the other hand, give him the impression that
+his mother must have some access to his most private affairs; in which
+case he might become intensely interested in psychic matters, to the
+exclusion of more mundane affairs--always a danger with young
+people--not to mention other possibilities of psychic disaster for
+_inexperienced investigators_.
+
+I went over all these chances _con_, to put against the one _pro_ of his
+mother's loving anxiety, and my sense of responsibility to her.
+
+Finally, I decided that there was no choice left for me but to send the
+message, and trust the consequences to a Higher Wisdom.
+
+I did this, adding a few words of explanation, and also of warning, in
+case he should recognise my absolute _bonâ fides_ and his mother's
+personality, and become too much absorbed by these psychic
+possibilities. Unfortunately, I added, in his own interests, _that it
+was not necessary to acknowledge the letter._
+
+"It would doubtless reach him, and I had nothing more to do with the
+matter."
+
+I left Oxford next day, and have never seen the young man since; nor
+have I ever heard from him. I concluded that he was annoyed, or that the
+message was quite wide of the mark. I never doubted his mother's
+presence with me, but I might have failed to reproduce her words to her
+son with sufficient accuracy for recognition.
+
+Anyway, I put the matter out of my head as one of those trying episodes
+to which all sensitives are exposed at times, when they think more of
+conscience than personal convenience.
+
+Three or four years passed before the corroboration of that message came
+to me, in a rather curious manner.
+
+A cousin of mine, having been badly wounded in the West African War, was
+sent to a London hospital to have the bullet, which had puzzled all the
+local surgeons, located and extracted.
+
+He was at the hospital for several weeks during the London season of
+1899, I think. During these weeks I, in common with many other friends
+and relations, was in the habit of paying him occasional visits. I had
+gone to say good-bye to him on leaving town, when "by chance" (as we
+call it) he mentioned, for the _first_ time, the name of his ward
+sister, adding how charming and kind and capable she had proved. "By the
+way, she is a daughter of the Bishop of Granchester," he added. "You
+know everybody, Cousin Emmie! perhaps you know _her_," he said, smiling.
+
+"No; I don't know her, Bertie! but I knew her mother and father very
+well many years ago."
+
+Nothing would satisfy him but that I should ask to see her when I left
+the hospital, and as he seemed really anxious on the point I promised to
+do so, though inwardly averse from disturbing a busy woman.
+
+I asked the hall porter for her, but said I had no special business, and
+would not ask to see her unless she happened to be quite free. In a few
+moments he returned, and showed me into a pretty sitting-room on the
+ground floor, saying that the sister would be with me shortly. The door
+opened again to admit a bright, pleasant-looking young woman of seven or
+eight and twenty, who gave me a most cordial greeting when she heard my
+name, saying: "Oh yes, Frank told me all about meeting you at Oxford."
+
+I did not feel very keen about talking of "Frank" just then; but we sat
+down, and had a long half hour's chat on much the same lines as my
+conversation with her brother three years before.
+
+I had said good-bye, and she had accompanied me across the hall to the
+fine stone steps leading from the hospital--she had, in fact, turned
+towards her own apartments--when I felt I _must_ ask her one more
+question, so I also turned, and hurried back to her.
+
+"Did your brother Frank ever tell you of a letter he received from me in
+Oxford?" I asked.
+
+"Oh yes," she answered, without a touch of embarrassment.
+
+Then I continued: "I never heard from him about it. I told him he need
+not write at the time, but I have been afraid he was hurt or annoyed,
+and thought it an impertinence on my part perhaps."
+
+"Did Frank never write?" she asked, with genuine astonishment. "I know
+he intended to do so. Certainly he was not annoyed in any way. Far from
+it. He was intensely interested, and _I have the best of reasons for
+knowing that that message from our mother made a very great difference
+in his life_."
+
+I thanked her for these words, without asking anything further. As I
+have said, it was no affair of mine, from first to last; but the
+verification, after such a lapse of time, was doubly satisfactory to me.
+
+Again I ask: How about the "_Cui Bono_" argument?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another shake of the kaleidoscope, and I find myself at Wimbledon,
+staying with a friend--now, alas! passed away--who had then a pretty
+house not far from the Common, and with whom I often spent a few days
+when in London.
+
+On this occasion she had asked some friends to meet me at tea, amongst
+them Mrs Alfred Wedgwood, to whom I had introduced her some years
+previously, and my friends "V. C. Desertis" and his wife.
+
+A Miss Farquhar, whom I knew very slightly, was sharing a sofa with me,
+she sitting at one end and I at the other, leaving a vacant space
+between us. Mrs Wedgwood was talking to Mr Desertis at the moment, but
+suddenly looked across the room at our sofa, and began describing very
+graphically an old man of benevolent aspect sitting between Miss
+Farquhar and myself, leaning on a stick, and wearing a soft felt hat.
+
+"He has long hair, almost down to his coat collar, and he looks such a
+dear, kind old man!" Mrs Wedgwood said; then turning round, she added:
+"Surely some of you must recognise him! he is so very clear and distinct
+in his whole personality."
+
+Mrs Desertis whispered something to her husband, who asked at once if
+the old gentleman's hair was very white.
+
+"Yes; quite white," said Mrs Wedgwood hopefully.
+
+"And curly and long?"
+
+"Yes; curly and quite long, reaching to his collar," continued Mrs
+Wedgwood, still more confidently.
+
+But our hopes were dashed when Mr Desertis turned round drily to his
+wife: "Then it cannot possibly be my father, as you suggested. His hair
+was white, but _quite short_."
+
+It was a cruel blow! But Mrs Wedgwood still affirmed that she had never
+seen anyone more distinctly, whether we recognised him or not.
+
+I may here mention that I had been sleeping very badly in this house for
+some nights past, and regretted this the more, because I was shortly
+going to stay with a friend at Windsor for my first "Fourth of June,"
+and wished to be specially bright and well for the coming festivities.
+
+These bad nights were later proved to have some connection with the
+benevolent old gentleman just described!
+
+Now I will continue the sequence of events.
+
+Mrs Wedgwood's clairvoyant description had been forgotten by us all, as
+I supposed, long before the afternoon came to an end. It had passed
+unrecognised, and other interesting matters arose in conversation.
+
+The following day Miss Farquhar wrote a line to my hostess, asking if
+she might come to tea towards the end of the week, as she had something
+very interesting to tell us. She came, of course, and thus unfolded her
+budget:
+
+"None of you seemed very much impressed about that old gentleman Mrs
+Wedgwood described here the other day, but her words were so graphic
+that I felt sure she was really seeing him at the moment, so I
+determined to try and find out something about him.
+
+"I went to an old lady I know, one of the oldest inhabitants, and asked
+her if she knew anything of your predecessors in this house. She told me
+an elderly couple had lived here, a husband and wife, that the husband
+had died, and that although the wife lived away from Wimbledon now, she
+could not bear to part with the house which her husband had been so fond
+of; so let it. In fact, my old friend seemed to think she must be your
+present landlady."
+
+This was said to my hostess, and proved to be quite true. The house had
+been let through an agent, and as the present owner lived in a distant
+county, nothing was known of her personally by my friend.
+
+Then Miss Farquhar continued: "Hearing that the old man was so devoted
+to the house rather suggested a reason for Mrs Wedgwood seeing him here,
+so I asked my old lady if she had known this gentleman, and if so, would
+she describe him. She did this, _almost word for word as Mrs Wedgwood
+had seen him_. Also, she added, that he was a good deal of an invalid,
+often sat indoors, with a hat on for fear of draughts, and carried a
+stick, upon which he constantly leant for support."
+
+This was very satisfactory, and we applauded Miss Farquhar's detective
+instincts, and promised to let Mrs Wedgwood know about the matter.
+
+The latter took it all very quietly, only remarking that she felt sure
+someone ought to be able to find out about the old man.
+
+A sudden thought struck me that my disturbed nights and uncomfortable
+feelings, in a very cheerful and pretty bedroom, might possibly be
+connected with the same old man. Without saying a word about this, I
+asked Mrs Wedgwood to come up into my room before she returned to
+London, and then I told her that I could not sleep, and had not had a
+peaceful night since I arrived. Could she find out what was the cause?
+
+Mrs Wedgwood looked round for a moment, and then said in the most casual
+way: "Not the smallest doubt of the cause. It is that old man, of
+course. He is earth-bound, I expect, and haunting the house. You had
+better take a message from him if you want to get rid of him. I would
+help you if I could, but I shall be late for my train if I don't start
+at once."
+
+Next morning I took the poor old gentleman's message, which began with
+an apology and regrets for disturbing me, but went on pathetically:
+
+"You must forgive me, I was so very anxious to send a message to my
+wife, and I saw that you were a sensitive and could take it from me--I
+did not realise that it might cause you so much discomfort. That lady
+called me earth-bound, but if I am, it is only through my deep love for
+my dear wife, and I am permitted to watch over her. I was drawn here by
+my old affection for this house, and also by your presence here, knowing
+you could help me."
+
+He then gave the message, of which I can only remember that it was most
+touching in its expressions of deep affection and watchful care for his
+widow.
+
+As we did not know this lady's present address, and could not procure it
+without raising inconvenient questions, my hostess and I settled that
+she should lock up the message, in the hope that some day we might be
+able to forward it.
+
+A year later I had a most unpleasant experience of being made to feel
+seriously ill when I came down for a night from town, and as another
+clairvoyant assured me that this resulted from the message remaining
+undelivered and the poor old man's frantic endeavours to reach his
+wife's consciousness, I told my Wimbledon friend that something _must_
+be done. Either she must procure the lady's address "_coûte que coûte_,"
+or I could not come down again to Wimbledon until this step had been
+taken.
+
+Under pressure of this determination of mine the address was procured,
+and this led to a rather unpleasant experience.
+
+I wrote a very courteous letter to the lady, enclosing the message, and
+explaining that I was quite debarred from visiting my Wimbledon friend
+until it was delivered, that I hoped, therefore, she would excuse my
+sending it, after more than a year's consideration of the question. I
+further intimated that although she might consider me a lunatic for my
+pains, I trusted there could be nothing to vex or hurt her in so
+touching an evidence of her husband's constant care and love, however
+little faith she might be disposed to place in the source from which the
+message was supposed to emanate.
+
+The answer came as a shower bath on my unfortunate head.
+
+The old lady (?) was furious. She had never heard of such wicked
+nonsense! "_Her dear husband was quite the gentleman, both in clothes
+and appearance, and he was not old--not a day over sixty-eight--when he
+died_," etc. etc.
+
+It would have been amusing if it had not been rather pitiful to think of
+the poor "young" man of sixty-eight trying so hard to reach such a
+termagant!
+
+Later, I heard that the military man, through whom the old lady's
+address had been given to my Wimbledon hostess, had asked the husband of
+the latter if I were a lunatic, by any chance!
+
+And this is how some of us welcome our friends from the other side of
+the veil! The marvel to me is that Love can still be stronger than
+Death, in face of such ingratitude and stupidity!
+
+I have already mentioned my extreme sensitiveness to the atmosphere
+(psychic) of rooms, especially rooms where one sleeps. I find another
+instance of this in my notes.
+
+I was paying a first visit to a friend in the south of England, and a
+very bright, cheerful room had been allotted to me there.
+
+From the first night I felt a strong influence of a man in the room.
+Kindly note that I do not say the influence of a _strong_ man; on the
+contrary, the character appeared to me that of an essentially weak
+man--weak rather than wicked--sensual as well as sensuous--self-indulgent,
+and greatly wanting in grit and will power.
+
+My hostess had two sons, one whom I knew, and the other, living abroad,
+whom I had never met. The influence I felt was certainly not that of the
+son I knew, who was both manly and strong-willed, a fine soldier, and
+"hard as nails," as men would say.
+
+I feared it might be the other son, however, and took an early
+opportunity of asking to see a photograph of the latter. My mind was
+quite set at rest. It was certainly not this man's influence that I had
+felt so strongly in my room.
+
+Asking my hostess, _who_ had chiefly occupied the room, she said at
+once: "Both my sons have slept there at different times," adding, "I am
+sure you have some of your queer ideas about the room--what is the
+matter with it?"
+
+I told her; "Now that I am quite convinced that neither of your sons is
+implicated, I will describe to you the character of a man whom I feel
+sure must have slept in that room and has left a strong psychic
+influence behind him."
+
+I then mentioned the characteristics already given, and one or two more
+which have escaped my memory.
+
+My sceptical friend looked a little surprised. She said nothing at the
+moment, but crossed the room to a cabinet, whence she took a photograph
+of a man which I had never seen, and placed it in my hands.
+
+"I am bound to confess," she added, "that you have exactly described the
+character of my brother-in-law, who certainly has occupied the room more
+than once."
+
+The sequel to this little incident is rather significant.
+
+A year or two later, this lady and I, having both succumbed to influenza
+and bronchitis, were sent off to the same place abroad to recuperate.
+
+Her attack had ended sooner than mine, so that I joined her there, and
+one of the first pieces of news she gave me was of the death of this
+brother-in-law, adding: "Poor fellow! He died from a very painful
+disease, and suffered terribly. He had grave faults, but, as you said,
+they came from weakness rather than wickedness. At anyrate, he was
+humble-minded, for he wrote a touching letter to me when I lost a very
+dear relation lately, wondering why such a valuable life should have
+been taken and such a 'useless log' as himself be left alive."
+
+This poor man had only just passed over when I joined my friend, and I
+felt that he was in a very bewildered and sad state of mind. I could
+realise his presence so clearly, partly, no doubt, from having sensed
+his character so strongly, that the obvious thing seemed to be to try
+and help him on his new plane of life.
+
+To the superficial mind it appears very absurd, and equally irreverent,
+to suppose that a faulty creature on this side the veil can help a
+faulty creature on the _other_ side. Personally, I have never had any
+difficulty in realising the power of prayer for those who have passed
+beyond our mortal sight.
+
+Surely we are one large family, whether here or there? The best way to
+make children love each other is to persuade them to _help_ each other.
+Is it strange that the same rule should apply to the universe that
+applies to the tiny portion of it that we know?
+
+Anyway, I am quite sure in this case that my prayers did help and
+comfort this poor man in his dark experience.
+
+In a few weeks the position seemed to be altogether lightened. He
+thanked me for my sympathy and companionship, and I have never heard of
+him since.
+
+The caviller will say at once: "Could not someone else have done the
+work equally well--either a near relation in the other sphere or a
+ministering angel?"
+
+The answer is: "Certainly they could have done it equally well, probably
+far better."
+
+But the point is that it happened to be the bit of work put into _my_
+hands, and at least I did my best. What more can any of us say?
+
+Again I ask: How about the "_Cui Bono_" argument?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
+
+1896
+
+
+In this same year (1896) I remember another curious incident.
+
+I was staying in London during the season, and some girl friends were
+very anxious that I should meet a lady whom they knew intimately and
+wished me to know also. As so often happens under these circumstances,
+we were not in the least degree interested in each other; but that has
+nothing to do with my story.
+
+The girls had asked various other friends, but this special lady was the
+_raison d'être_ of the tea-party, and they begged me to come in good
+time, because Mrs Halifax had several other engagements, and could not
+pay them a long visit.
+
+So I dressed hurriedly in order to keep the appointment, and went to the
+house feeling rather bored by the whole arrangement, little dreaming
+that it would be the occasion of such an interesting personal
+experience. The lady turned out to be exceedingly prosperous and
+extremely uninteresting, from my point of view. Probably she would have
+given her ideas of me in much the same way! I realised that she had
+brought a son and a daughter with her, but did _not_ know that another
+young man (whose _face_ I have never seen) was also a son of hers. I
+talked to the mother for the conventional quarter of an hour, and then
+turned with relief to the other son whom she had mentioned, and with
+whom I found several old friends in common.
+
+Meanwhile the room was filling up with guests; amongst these late comers
+I noticed the entrance of a man whose face did not impress me at all
+favourably. He looked dissipated and conceited. I did not speak to this
+man, but my strong impression about him is a factor in the story.
+
+When the lady, _par excellence_, of the entertainment rose to leave the
+room, followed by her son and daughter, I noticed that a second young
+man was also in her train; but I had not seen him previously, for the
+very good reason that he had been sitting behind my back all the
+afternoon.
+
+I did not see his face even now. My attention had been diverted from the
+Halifax party as they rose to take leave, and I only noticed the _back_
+of the second young man as they left the room, and was told later that
+this was another son of Mrs Halifax, no other comment upon him being
+made.
+
+In those days I was able to do more work on the psychic plane than at
+present, and often tried to help sad or wandering spirits by praying for
+them when made conscious of their presence near me.
+
+When I woke in the night--after this tea-party--therefore, and felt a
+presence near me, it did not at first alarm me in any way.
+
+When fully awake, however, I quickly realised that this was no poor,
+sad, bewildered spirit, but a very malignant and revengeful one. I _did
+not recognise the sex at the moment_. In fact, my consciousness was
+entirely engrossed by realising that this was a question of my prayers
+being needed by no spirit more urgently than by my own.
+
+Something very malignant was in the room--something or someone far too
+actively and insistently wrathful and malignant to listen to any prayers
+or entreaties.
+
+This conviction grew so strong upon me that I lighted my candle, and
+getting out of bed, prayed for protection against the evil thing that
+was present in my room.
+
+I think I must have remained at least ten minutes on my knees, and I can
+remember distinctly the feeling of alarm and hopelessness that came over
+me when I realised how strong were the Powers of Darkness and how little
+my prayers _seemed_ to avail me.
+
+Shortly, however, faith returned, and with it the confidence of victory.
+I returned to my bed quite calm and strong, and fell asleep knowing that
+the malignant presence was no longer there to worry and torment me.
+
+I have always found it as easy to communicate with incarnate spirits at
+a distance as with discarnate ones, so on awaking in the morning, and
+remembering my disagreeable experience, I asked a friend, "still in the
+body," what was the meaning of it.
+
+I had made up my mind that if it were in any way connected with the
+visitors of the previous afternoon, it must be with the
+dissipated-looking young man, for whom I had conceived an instinctive
+aversion.
+
+To my infinite surprise _his_ name was not given, but that of the
+younger Halifax son. "It was Henry Halifax. It is a spirit which was
+haunting him and came to you afterwards."
+
+Now, as I had not even seen this young man, as already explained, I
+could not bear to think of any false and fanciful accusation being made
+against him; so remonstrated with my friend.
+
+"Do be careful in giving me the name. Are you quite sure you mean Henry
+Halifax? Are you not thinking of Mr Loseby?" (Mentioning the name that
+had been given me of the other gentleman.)
+
+"No; I mean Henry Halifax."
+
+"But I did not even _see_ him," I urged.
+
+"_No; but you were sitting with your back to him all afternoon. Don't
+you know the back is more psychically sensitive than any other part of
+the body?_"
+
+Nothing was said about the malignant spirit beyond the fact that it was
+someone "haunting" Henry Halifax.
+
+The matter, once explained, I put it out of my head, having no special
+curiosity as to the reason of the haunting, and supposing it might have
+been some male acquaintance of his.
+
+That morning I went down to my Wimbledon friend for a night. I arrived
+in time for luncheon on Saturday morning, and after a pleasant walk on
+the Common in the afternoon my friend suggested our coming home by a
+certain florist's shop, as she wished to buy some plants for her
+drawing-room.
+
+I had already met this florist's wife, a very "spooky" person, who had
+been introduced by us to Mr Myers and the Society for Psychical
+Research. She was a handsome, fresh-coloured, practical woman, with
+nothing of the weird and pallid "ghost seer" about her comely face. But
+she had had some wonderful experiences, and her children also; and these
+had been already imparted to Mr Frederic Myers.
+
+When the business part of our interview was concluded Mrs Levret turned
+to me, and said: "Well, ma'am, I _am_ glad to see you again in these
+parts. Have you had any curious experiences since I saw you last?"
+
+Now Mrs Levret had so many curious experiences of her own, as to which
+she was wont to be very voluble, that I had never before known her
+express curiosity about those of anybody else.
+
+This just flashed through my mind as I answered her:
+
+"No; nothing particular, Mrs Levret. By-the-by, I had a rather
+disagreeable experience last night, but it has been explained." And in a
+few words I mentioned what has been already described at length.
+
+From my words she must have gathered that I supposed the haunting spirit
+to be that of a _man_, and that I did not attach much importance to it
+any way.
+
+As we left the shop my charming hostess, who was equally beloved by
+those in her own class and those out of it, turned round, and said
+pleasantly: "We must hurry home now, Mrs Levret, but do come up
+to-morrow and see Miss Bates. She does not leave me till the evening,
+and I know you will enjoy having a talk with her."
+
+Mrs Levret promised to come, and appeared next morning, having first
+ascertained that the sceptical husband of my hostess would not be upon
+the premises. "He does laugh at me so, ma'am," she said apologetically.
+So she was brought straight up to my bedroom next day, and we had an
+interesting talk over her own strange adventures.
+
+Suddenly she looked up, and said: "_À propos des bottes._"
+
+"How about that young man, ma'am? What are you going to do about him?"
+
+"What young man?" I said, honestly puzzled. "And what can I do about any
+young man?"
+
+The Halifax incident had so completely faded from my mind that I could
+not for the moment imagine what she meant.
+
+"The young man you told me about yesterday afternoon, ma'am," Mrs Levret
+answered stoutly.
+
+"But I can't do anything about him. What _should_ I do?"
+
+Then she took up her parable in these words:
+
+"Well, ma'am, I have been thinking a deal about that young man since
+yesterday. It seemed to take a sort of hold upon me. It seems given to
+me, ma'am, _that it is a young woman who is haunting him--a young woman
+who is not in his own rank in life--someone whom he wronged_."
+
+I was amazed by these words, and still more by the keen interest Mrs
+Levret showed in the subject.
+
+"But what can _I_ do in the matter, even if it be as you say?" was my
+next question.
+
+"Well, ma'am, they give me to understand that the young man must be made
+to confess. He will never have any peace until he does. It seems to me
+_you_ might get him to confess."
+
+Now there could be no question of confession on the outer plane, as the
+young man was a perfect stranger to me, and there was small chance of
+our ever meeting again.
+
+But I was aware that Mrs Levret was not speaking of the outer plane, so
+I agreed to take pencil and paper, and see if I could bring the spirit
+of Henry Halifax to me, and having done so, whether I could induce him
+to tell me the truth.
+
+He came, but for a long time would say neither YES nor NO. "_What
+business is it of yours?_" was the constant reply to my questions. And I
+am bound to say it appeared a very pertinent one, from the ordinary
+point of view.
+
+Clearly it _was_ no business of mine; but Mrs Levret was so much in
+earnest, and had impressed me so strongly with what "_had been given to
+her_," that I felt I must persevere, in the young fellow's own
+interests.
+
+So I explained that I had no wish to pry into his private affairs from
+any mere unworthy curiosity, but that having myself felt the malignant
+presence that was said to be haunting him, and being told that only
+confession would remove it, I hoped he would consider the matter
+seriously before obstinately closing the door of opportunity now open to
+him. "Who could foretell when he might have another chance?"
+
+A long pause succeeded these words. I felt that the angry, irritable
+mood was passing over, and when my hand was next influenced to write,
+the words that came were not the usual curt "_None of your business_,"
+but an apology for his rude reception of my efforts to help him, and a
+full confession, which entirely bore out Mrs Levret's impressions.
+
+He told me that it was only too true that he had betrayed a young woman
+in a different rank of life from his own. She had died in child-birth
+_the preceding midsummer_, and had died cursing him for his perfidy.
+Ever since (it was now late in June) he had been haunted by her
+presence, seeing nothing, but always conscious of a malignant spirit
+tempting him to his own destruction. The mental agony was so great that
+he told me he did not think he could endure it much longer, and had
+almost decided to put an end to his life (little realising, poor fellow,
+that bad as this life might be, the next phase would be far worse for
+him).
+
+After trying to soothe and comfort him, without in any way minimising
+the weight of his sin or attempting to lessen his remorse for it, it
+struck me that it would be well to try and have a little talk with his
+poor young victim. So saying good-bye, and promising to remember him in
+future, I asked mentally for _her_ spirit to come, and then tried to
+influence her in the direction of forgiveness. It was a hard struggle,
+and no wonder.
+
+The poor young woman had trusted him, had been deceived, and finally
+launched into another sphere without any preparation for it. What wonder
+that she haunted the man who had wronged her so terribly, through pure
+selfishness, and that any love she had ever borne him had long since
+turned to deadly hate!
+
+It needed both time and patience to rouse even mere passive feelings
+towards him. I spoke of his deep remorse and misery. At first she only
+answered that she was very glad to hear it, because it showed she had
+succeeded in making her presence felt.
+
+By degrees, however, a more womanly view of the subject seemed to come
+to her. After all, he was the father of her child; the poor little
+baby that had mercifully followed its mother into the Great Unseen.
+She had loved him once, by her own showing. I made the most of this
+point, and very slowly, very grudgingly, she gave me the promise I
+asked for--_i.e._ that she would at least cease this revengeful
+haunting, even if she could not yet feel more kindly towards the one
+who had injured her so deeply.
+
+Having extracted this promise I felt that no more could be done for the
+time being, and Mrs Levret, who had been sitting in unwonted silence
+during both interviews, then took her leave.
+
+I have given this case and its treatment very much _in extenso_, not
+only because it may be helpful to others dealing with erring and
+revengeful spirits, but because on my return to London _every
+important point in this true narrative was amply corroborated_.
+
+It took some time and a good deal of tact before the case was complete.
+
+First, I learned that Henry Halifax was by no means a _persona grata_ in
+the house where I first met him, and that my young friends there had
+only been allowed to ask him under some protest, and because the rest
+of his family were to be present.
+
+Asked _why_ this should be the case, their answers were naturally vague:
+they only knew he was not very welcome.
+
+Of course, I did not pursue the matter with these young people. They
+told me, however, that he was very much changed of late, and seemed so
+often moody, unhappy, and discontented.
+
+"I am sure _we_ should be happy enough if we had such a luxurious home
+and all that money," said one of them naïvely.
+
+Now I happened to know rather intimately at that time another friend of
+the Halifax family; a woman considerably older than the young girls
+mentioned, and as she had some little knowledge of psychic possibilities
+I determined to lay the whole story before her, trusting to her honour
+to keep it to herself, and not to allow any prejudice against Henry
+Halifax to arise in her mind should she know nothing of the
+circumstances.
+
+She had known the family from her childhood, and I knew, therefore,
+would not be influenced by the word of an outsider under these
+circumstances. But I discovered that the confession of Henry Halifax,
+the spirit, was no illusion on my part, but _the absolute truth_.
+
+Young, handsome, rich, with all the world before him (he was only
+twenty-four at the time), this lady had been greatly puzzled by his
+intense depression of the last few months, and told me that he was
+constantly speaking of suicide. It was supposed to be a purely physical
+condition by his parents and others. She, however, knew an intimate man
+friend of his. By one of those not uncommon mistakes, whereby each one
+supposes the other to be in the confidence of a mutual acquaintance, she
+had discovered that the real trouble was mental rather than physical,
+and that the death of the young woman of lower social position, in
+child-birth, "_last midsummer_" was an actual fact!
+
+Needless to say how great was her astonishment to find that the whole
+story had been made known to me through such a curious train of
+circumstances--first, my experience of the malignant spirit; secondly,
+my happening to go to Wimbledon next day and mention the circumstances
+to the wife of the florist there; thirdly, _her_ strong and, as it
+proved, quite accurate impressions upon the subject; and fourthly, my
+two interviews:--first, with the betrayer, and then with the betrayed on
+the psychic plane.
+
+Some few months later I was asked by the lady just mentioned if I should
+object to meeting Henry Halifax at dinner next evening.
+
+"Not at all," was my answer. In fact, I felt it might be part of some
+psychic plan that I should do so. Evidently this was not the case, for
+at the last moment a telegram came to his hostess to say he was
+unexpectedly prevented from returning to town.
+
+So we have never met at all! But I trust the confession may have been as
+efficacious as Mrs Levret was told that it would be. Anyway, I can
+testify that the gentleman in question is now happily married, and,
+therefore, presumably no longer haunted by the revengeful spirit, who
+has long since, let us trust, found happiness and peace in a higher
+world than this.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Speaking of haunting by the so-called dead reminds me of haunting by the
+so-called living.
+
+In this same year (1896) I was staying in Cambridge for the first time
+in my life.
+
+Oxford I have known since girlhood, but this was my first visit to the
+Sister University; needless to say, however, that I have met many men
+who have graduated there. Not knowing the town of Cambridge myself, I
+had never made it a subject of discussion, and ten years ago I was not
+even aware that such a street as Trumpington Street existed, difficult
+as it may be for Cambridge people to credit this statement.
+
+In any case, most emphatically, I did _not_ know that a very old friend
+of mine, who became later in life a judge, had ever lived in this
+street.
+
+Having been a sailor in youth, he had gone up to Cambridge comparatively
+late; this was shortly before my acquaintance with him began.
+
+Not knowing Cambridge at all, the question of where he lived there had
+never entered into our conversations together. Probably I took it for
+granted that he was living in his college (Peterhouse). The strong
+feeling of friendship between us had become a warmer sentiment on his
+side, and this led later, and inevitably, to a thorough break in our
+pleasant relations with each other.
+
+Long years passed, during which I neither saw nor heard of my friend.
+
+I knew that he had married, and had had a somewhat successful career as
+a barrister in London, and that was all I knew about him.
+
+After staying for a week or two with friends in the neighbourhood of
+Cambridge in 1896, I had taken rooms for a month _in_ Cambridge,
+inviting one of these friends to stay with me as my guest.
+
+We came upon these special rooms in a curious way. Having worked through
+a list of those suggested to us by a friend, none of which quite suited,
+I heard, by the merest chance, that possibly I might find what I wanted
+in Trumpington Street, at the house of a very respectable Cambridge
+tradesman. We went there, but only to find that the rooms vacant could
+not be ready for me at the time specified, as some old customers were
+coming to them for three or four days.
+
+"But I want them for a _month_," I expostulated.
+
+The landlady was firm; she could not disappoint these people after
+promising to take them in.
+
+In spite of my disappointment, I admired her so much for this strict
+sense of honour that I determined to look at the rooms in case of
+requiring any at a future date.
+
+We went upstairs. The rooms were exactly what I required, and very clean
+and well furnished, so it ended by my agreeing to take them for a week
+later, although at a considerable inconvenience.
+
+It was in this casual way that I entered the house about the middle of
+May 1896. My friend was not able to join me until the morning after my
+arrival, so I spent the first evening alone, and retired to bed rather
+early. I slept well enough during the earlier part of the night, but
+awoke about two A.M., having had a tiresome, worrying dream about the
+very man I have mentioned, who had certainly not been in my thoughts for
+many months, or possibly years.
+
+Even when fully awake, his influence was still in the room with me, and
+falling asleep again, there he was once more in my dream, twitting me
+with my want of appreciation of him in the past, and suggesting what a
+much more successful career I might have had through marrying him. This
+sort of thing went on for the rest of the night. Either I woke up with a
+disagreeable start, still feeling the man's influence in the room, or
+sank into a troubled sleep, to be once more at the mercy of his
+reproaches!
+
+When morning came I was only too thankful to get up, and when my friend
+arrived on her bicycle about noon, and asked me how I had slept in the
+strange house, I was forced to confess that my night had been much
+troubled by dreams about an old friend, of whom she had never heard,
+by-the-by.
+
+"Oh, well, we all dream about old friends sometimes," she said, "but I'm
+afraid in this case your dreams were not pleasant; you look tired out!
+Anyway, it is a mercy that it was not F----'s!"
+
+And so with a joke the matter dropped.
+
+But the following night the trouble was renewed. Even then I did not in
+any way connect it with the room in which I was sleeping, and I said
+nothing next day to my friend on the subject.
+
+But the _third_ night matters had gone beyond a joke. The influence was
+stronger than ever, the gibes and reproaches more accentuated, and, in
+addition to these, there was on my side the exasperation engendered by
+three sleepless nights.
+
+Instead of feeling depressed--as on the two previous occasions--the
+"worm turned" at last!
+
+I spoke out loud in my vexation, as though the man himself were there
+listening to me.
+
+"Well," I said, "I have no unkindly feeling towards _you_ of any kind.
+If you have nothing better to do than to come worrying me and keeping me
+awake in this way, it just shows how wise I was _not_ to marry you! You
+have nothing to do with my life now. And YOU CAN GO."
+
+"Standing up" in this way to the ghost of the living had a most
+excellent effect, upon my mind at anyrate. I felt intensely relieved,
+and soon fell into a long and dreamless sleep.
+
+This last experience first suggested the idea that this old friend _must
+have some special connection with that house_. In the morning I
+confessed to my friend that my second night had been as disturbed as the
+first, and the last the worst of all, adding: "That man is simply
+haunting the place. I am determined to try and find out if he ever
+lodged here."
+
+This was by no means easy, as it turned out. His College career was
+already buried in the snows of some twenty-five years. Moreover, when I
+questioned the young daughter of our landlady as to how long her parents
+had lived in the house, she said at once: "Just seventeen years, ma'am.
+Father and mother came here the year I was born."
+
+This did not help me much. I asked who had rented the house previously.
+Referring this question to her mother, she told me it had been taken
+from some people who had left Cambridge, and "_Mother thought they were
+both dead now_."
+
+This was a second _cul-de-sac_ for me!
+
+But I was determined to go on with my investigations, simply grounded
+upon the strong conviction that such repeated experiences _must_ have
+some foundation in fact.
+
+The girl saw I looked disappointed. "Did you want to know about anyone
+who lived here long ago?" she ventured timidly.
+
+"Yes; I wanted to find out whether an old friend of mine ever lodged
+here; he belonged to Peterhouse," was my answer.
+
+"Ah, then, I am sure he would not have lodged here," said the girl
+confidently. "None of the Peterhouse gentlemen come here. It is always
+the Pembroke men who come to this house."
+
+It seemed fated that I should hear no more about my living ghost.
+
+A few days later, however, the luck turned.
+
+I was told quite casually that Mr Pound, the well-known Cambridge
+chemist, had occupied our house years before, and I determined to verify
+this some day. As Mr Pound combined the post office with his drugs, one
+often went into the shop, but hitherto I had only seen his assistants.
+
+Going in one day with my friend for some stamps, Mr Pound himself handed
+them to me.
+
+Here was my chance! I must confess that I hesitated to ask such an
+apparently absurd question on such slender grounds. In any case, was it
+likely that he would remember the names of all the undergraduates in
+the University who might have lodged with him twenty or thirty years
+before? I whispered to my friend: "Shall I ask him?" but she did not
+hear, so even this small encouragement was denied me. I was actually
+turning to leave the shop, when resolution at length took the reins, and
+I found myself asking:
+
+"Is it true, Mr Pound, that you lived many years ago at No. --
+Trumpington Street?"
+
+"Quite true," was the ready answer. "I went there in the year
+fifty-five." (I quote this from memory, but it was in the fifties
+certainly.)
+
+"I wanted to ask a question about a gentleman who may have lodged with
+you a good deal later than that--about seventy, I should think." And I
+mentioned the name of my friend.
+
+Mr Pound's brow cleared at once, and he looked up with a beaming smile.
+"Mr Forbes," he said--"why, of course, I remember him well. He lodged
+with me over eighteen months." Then turning to his assistant, he told
+him to go into the parlour and bring out the large photograph album.
+There was my friend, sure enough, with his big dog--the very photograph
+I had of him, given me in the early days of our acquaintance.
+
+Mr Pound was full of reminiscences. My friend had evidently been a prime
+favourite with him, and it was some minutes before I could squeeze in my
+crucial question. It seemed almost impossible to expect him to remember
+the exact rooms occupied by Mr Forbes, considering there were two or
+three "sets" of rooms in the house, in addition to several bedrooms
+which were let separately.
+
+But even here Mr Pound's memory proved invaluable. "Which room he slept
+in? Why, of course, I remember distinctly. He had the large front
+sitting-room and the bedroom at the back of it; over our living-room in
+those days."
+
+So I was living in Mr Forbes' sitting-room, and sleeping in the bedroom,
+he had occupied for more than eighteen months.
+
+My Cambridgeshire friend was, fortunately, present as a witness that no
+word of mine had indicated this fact before Mr Pound corroborated my
+intuitive impression. She said afterwards, laughingly, that Mr Myers
+would certainly think I had got up a special ghost story for him the
+moment I set foot in Cambridge.
+
+However this may be, both he and Professor Sidgwick were greatly
+interested in it, for, as they explained, there were fifty accounts of
+haunting by the dead to one such example of haunting by the living.
+
+Of course, such a case presents innumerable difficulties; still the
+salient fact remains, that after a lapse of nearly thirty years I traced
+the rooms occupied by an old friend, in a city I had never before
+entered, and that this knowledge did not come to me by chance, but _as
+the result of a series of investigations, started by me solely on
+account of the experiences that came to me in a house and in a room of
+which I had absolutely no previous knowledge_. Those interested in these
+subjects will naturally ask: "_Do you suppose that the spirit of Mr
+Forbes came to you at the moment of your remarks to him and his to you?
+If so, was he conscious of any such experience?_"
+
+I can answer this last question decidedly, and in the negative; for four
+years later, circumstances brought me once more within the orbit of Mr
+Forbes' life. He was then living in the north of England, and he and his
+wife and I have discussed the question more than once.
+
+We can only suppose that the impression of his presence did in some way
+cling to the surroundings; that my sleeping there, even in complete
+ignorance of his tenancy, enabled me, as a "sensitive," to pick up this
+special influence from many others presumably present; and that the
+memories of the past galvanised the impression into some sort of
+temporary astral existence. The entity to whom I seemed to be speaking
+was doubtless _not_ the Judge Forbes of later life, but some distorted
+image of his earlier days of disappointed and often reproachful
+affection.
+
+When Mr Myers suggested that I should get Mr Pound to sign a paper
+mentioning that he had told me that Mr Forbes had occupied these special
+rooms twenty-seven years previously, the latter did so readily, only
+remarking that he had naturally concluded that I _knew_ my friend had
+lodged with him.
+
+"Pound will 'smell a rat' if I go," said Mr Myers.
+
+So I went myself, and thus the story was made evidentially complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA
+
+
+My second visit to America was paid in the year of the Diamond Jubilee,
+1897.
+
+After wintering in the West Indies, I went on to America in the spring,
+chiefly with the view of meeting Mrs Piper for the first time, and
+securing a few sittings with her if possible.[5]
+
+ [5] The portion of this chapter referring to "Mrs Piper and her
+ Controls" is published by kind permission of Mr Ralph Shirley, editor
+ of _The Occult Review_, in which my article under this heading appeared
+ in March 1906.
+
+I was writing some articles for _Borderland_ at the time, and Mr Stead
+was specially anxious for me to take this opportunity of "sampling" the
+famous American sensitive.
+
+This proved no easy task. My visit to Boston, unfortunately, occurred at
+the very time when an organised attempt was being made by the American
+branch of the Society for Psychical Research to get into some sort of
+evidential communication with the late Mr Stainton Moses through his
+"controls" _Imperator_, _Rector_, etc.
+
+In vain I wrote to Dr Hodgson (to whom I carried letters of
+introduction) telling him of my chief reason for visiting America a
+second time. Even the plea that I had known Mr Stainton Moses in earth
+life, and that we had several intimate friends in common, was of no
+avail.
+
+Dr Hodgson expressed regrets, but assured me that _no_ sittings could be
+allowed under existing circumstances, and that it was impossible to make
+any exception to this rule.
+
+We seemed to have arrived at a _cul-de-sac_, when a bright idea struck
+me.
+
+Why not ask the UNSEEN themselves for a decision in the matter?
+
+I wrote again, therefore, to Dr Hodgson, suggesting this idea, and
+mentioning that I should arrive in Boston on a certain date, and could
+be found at the Hotel Bellevue in that city.
+
+The next day but one after my arrival, and quite early in the morning,
+Dr Hodgson came to call upon me.
+
+It was my first sight of that genial and delightful personality. At the
+very moment of shaking hands, he said cheerily, and with a look of
+half-rueful amusement at his own discomfiture:
+
+"Well, you've got to come! They insist upon it, so there is nothing more
+to be said."
+
+My preconceived ideas of a critical, elderly, and white-haired
+professor, taking himself very seriously, were dissipated on the spot;
+and this was the beginning of a sincere and loyal friendship between us
+which lasted for nine years on this sphere, and will last, I trust and
+believe, through whatever forms of existence may succeed to this one.
+
+We made arrangements at once for my joining Dr Hodgson next morning at
+Arlington Heights, where my first sitting with Mrs Piper took place,
+and where I met for the first time this refined and interesting-looking
+woman.
+
+I was told that with the advent of the Imperator and Stainton Moses'
+controls, the character of Mrs Piper's mediumship had undergone a
+complete change. The former communications through the voice ceased, and
+gave place to automatic writing, except at the moment of return to the
+physical body, when a chance sentence or two might be uttered during the
+transition period, but that these were not always intelligible to the
+listener.
+
+Mrs Piper's arm and hand became curiously "dead" and limp when
+unconsciousness set in; the blood departed, leaving it as white and
+helpless as that of a corpse. By degrees this dead look disappeared. The
+blood flowed once more through the veins, and as I noticed this change,
+the hand moved gropingly towards the pencil held out by Dr Hodgson, and
+finally grasped it. The latter's long practice and infinite patience
+were invaluable in making out the often rather illegible script. The
+hospitality he gave to all attempts at definite communications, however
+vague and shadowy at first; the infinite patience with which he repeated
+again and again a question not fully comprehended--all this, combined
+with intelligent criticism, alert, dispassionate judgment and balance of
+mind, made an investigator of psychic phenomena very rarely to be met in
+a world where most of us evince in a marked degree "_les défauts de nos
+qualités_."
+
+To combine sympathy, patience, and receptivity with cool and critical
+judgment is well-nigh impossible for ordinary men and women.
+
+Dr Richard Hodgson certainly solved the problem to a very remarkable
+extent.
+
+The first thing that struck me in the two sittings I had with Mrs Piper,
+was the hopeless breakdown of the Thought Transference Theory, as
+accounting for the automatic writing.
+
+The ostensible reason for my presence at Arlington Heights was the idea
+entertained by the "controls" that, having known Mr Stainton Moses in
+earth life, I might be able to facilitate his communications. I hope
+this may have been the case, but if so, it was certainly not due to any
+power of Thought Transference I may have possessed.
+
+Again and again I asked for names of friends we had known in common, but
+nearly always in vain. Even when, in despair of getting these normally,
+I concentrated my mind consciously on some short and easy name, the
+latter was not given.
+
+Yet next day some of these names would appear spontaneously on the
+script, when my mind was entirely occupied by other subjects.
+
+References were made to Mr Moses' lack of appreciation for music, and he
+asked whether our mutual friend Mrs Stratton still played LISZT. He also
+referred to his visiting the Strattons, and finding them playing duets
+together, in London.
+
+On my return to town Mrs Stratton fully endorsed the fact that Mr Moses
+disliked music (this was unknown to me), but she denied emphatically
+that she and her husband ever played duets in his presence. Mr Stratton,
+however, corrected this impression, and reminded her of several
+occasions when Mr Moses had come to them from University College, found
+them at the piano, and being on very intimate terms, had begged they
+would finish the passage or movement; and on one or two occasions this
+had been done.
+
+These slight but evidential incidents, forgotten by Mrs Stratton
+herself, and unknown to me, were conveyed quite correctly in the
+automatic script through Mrs Piper--three thousand miles across the
+Atlantic--and nearly six years after the death of Mr Stainton Moses.
+
+The most convincing test upon these occasions, however, was the
+reference to a Mrs Lane--the lady to whom Mr Moses had been engaged when
+he passed away.
+
+Very few of his friends knew of this engagement, even in England. Dr
+Hodgson, who had never met Stainton Moses in earth life, had naturally
+not heard of it. It was only by chance that I knew anything of the
+matter, and this merely through once meeting the lady at Mrs Stratton's
+house some time after Mr Moses had died. On that occasion Mrs Lane had a
+young daughter with her; I knew nothing of any other members of the
+family.
+
+During my second visit to Mrs Piper I mentioned meeting this
+lady--already a dim memory with me--and the "control" at once asked if I
+had met a _sister_ also.
+
+I answered "No," remarking that a young daughter had been with her.
+
+The writing at once continued in these words:
+
+"Well, now I am giving you this as a test: she _has_ a sister, and one
+who has been the cause of the deepest sorrow of her life. You will find
+this is true when you go back to England."
+
+These words were amply justified.
+
+On applying to Mrs Stratton for information, she denied the possibility
+of there being any truth in the test. She said: "I have come to know Mrs
+Lane very intimately since you met her here. I don't believe she has any
+sister; anyway, I am _quite_ sure she would have told me if a sister had
+caused her such sorrow as you mention."
+
+I persevered, however, in getting at the truth of the matter by writing
+to Mrs Lane herself (an almost entire stranger), and asking if she cared
+to hear the references to herself in the Piper records; if so, would she
+come and lunch with me?
+
+She came, and when I reached the passage about the sister, expecting
+that she would endorse Mrs Stratton's denial, I noticed, to my great
+surprise, that her eyes filled suddenly with tears, and that she was
+literally unable to speak through emotion.
+
+The tears ran down her cheeks, when at length she said in a broken
+voice: "_That_ is the most convincing test he could have given me! No! I
+have never mentioned that sister, even to Mrs Stratton, kind and good as
+she has been" (by this time I had spoken of Mrs Stratton's denial of the
+sister's existence). "I could not speak of her to _anyone_. She was the
+cause of the greatest sorrow in my life; _but no one upon earth knew
+this except Mr Stainton Moses_. I was engaged to him at the time, and he
+was the natural person to turn to in my deep tribulation. No one else
+ever heard of the circumstances."
+
+At this second sitting of mine Mr Stainton Moses spoke also of a
+valuable watch he had possessed, and expressed some regret that it had
+not been given to Mrs Lane at the time of his death.
+
+I knew nothing at all about any watch of his, but on appealing to one of
+his executors, an old friend of mine, found there was such a watch,
+which had been a presentation one, and was of considerable value. Upon
+the death of Mr Moses it had been given (quite with the approval of Mrs
+Lane) to the son of a very old and esteemed friend.
+
+This executor also told me, as a curious coincidence, that when I was
+staying with the excitable sensitive in Sussex Gardens, mentioned in a
+previous chapter, and he and his wife had come to tea with me one
+afternoon (to be introduced to this remarkable lady), she had given him
+a similar message about the same watch, purporting to come from Stainton
+Moses.
+
+I remember perfectly well having asked Mr and Mrs Harrington to come to
+tea with me one afternoon to meet my eccentric landlady, and I also
+remember his having a long talk with her whilst his wife and I were
+immersed in our own conversation. But I heard no details of this talk.
+He had merely said how much interested he had been in meeting Mrs
+Peters, and that she evidently had some mediumistic power.
+
+It was certainly curious that the watch should have been mentioned,
+first in Sussex Gardens, London, and six years later in Arlington
+Heights, Boston, and that on each occasion the same wish with regard to
+it should have been expressed!
+
+During this Arlington Heights sitting (the second one), Mr Moses also
+referred to an MS., of which I knew nothing at the time. This allusion
+also was verified by his other executor, the late Mr Alaric Watts, upon
+my return to England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During this visit to America I also came across a Mr Knapton Thompson, a
+hard-headed Yorkshire man, who had invented a new kind of smokeless
+combustion stove, which must have been a good one, for our shrewd
+American cousins were employing him to put up these stoves in several
+public buildings, including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
+
+Mr Thompson combined psychic proclivities with his smokeless invention,
+and had become greatly interested in the New York medium, Mrs Stoddart
+Gray, who has been already mentioned in connection with my own
+investigations, twelve years previous to my present visit. He had
+written to tell Mr Stead of his experiences, which included several in
+which the Julia of "Julia's Letters" had purported to be present.
+
+Mr Stead had turned this gentleman over to me by giving me an
+introduction, accompanied by the request that "I should see the man and
+report what I thought about him and his wonderful experiences."
+
+So I asked Mr Thompson to call upon me, and arranged to be present with
+him next day (Saturday) at Mrs Stoddart Gray's circle.
+
+I found that he had taken up his abode with the medium and her son
+during his short stays in New York, with the openly expressed intention
+of finding out if there were any trickery behind the scenes. He had,
+however, convinced himself of her _bonâ fides_, and was deeply
+interested in the interviews he was able to obtain by means of these
+mediums, with a daughter he had lost some years previously. He was much
+pleased to find that I knew Mrs Gray already and could also testify to
+some very remarkable phenomena occurring to me at her house.
+
+So I met him there next afternoon, with every expectation of a good
+sitting. These hopes, however, were entirely destroyed owing to the
+presence of a noisy, vulgar man, whom they called the "Whisky King." He
+made the most inane remarks, cracked stupid jokes, antagonised every
+respectable person in the room, I should suppose; and as all this took
+place without a word of protest from the lady of the house, one can only
+conclude that she considered it worth her while to endure his
+vulgarities.
+
+Certainly the afternoon was spoilt for the rest of us, and I remarked
+upon this to a very pleasant, smart-looking young American lady when the
+sitting was over and we had retired to the reception-room to find wraps
+and galoshes, etc.
+
+"Oh yes; wasn't he just exasperating?" she said, with ready sympathy.
+
+She looked much too young and smart and good-looking for the ordinary
+type of "investigator," and I could not refrain from asking how she had
+come into this _galère_.
+
+She explained her position readily, and it was very interesting to me.
+
+She was a young married lady, and had first been brought to the house,
+six months before, by a cousin of hers who was staying with them in New
+York, and thought the experience might be amusing.
+
+"We just came in for a joke," she said; "but something happened which
+interested me so much that I have come again several times, and until
+to-day have always had an interesting time."
+
+Then she told me about her first sitting.
+
+I had noticed upon her ungloved hand a very beautiful _scarabæus_, set
+in fine gold, and evidently by an artist in the craft. "Yes, it is a
+Tiffany setting," she observed, seeing my eyes drawn to it. She took off
+the ring, and gave it into my hands.
+
+"That ring is really the cause of my being here to-day," she continued.
+"The scarabæus was given to me some years ago by Professor----" (she
+gave the name of a well-known American Egyptologist). "He made a great
+pet of me when I was a child, and I begged it from him. When I was going
+to be married last year he insisted upon having it set for me by Tiffany
+as a wedding present, and he then told me there was no doubt at all
+about its being a genuine _antique_. He had come across it many years
+before by a curious chance when travelling in Egypt, and had been
+assured that it was a genuine _Cleopatra_ relic. 'I can't answer for
+that,' he said, laughing, 'but it is certainly many centuries old. I
+have no doubt it is genuine so far as age goes.' Well, the night my
+cousin and I came here together I did not take off my gloves until
+_after_ we had gone in to the _séance_ room, so no one could have seen
+my ring--and you know Mrs Gray's sittings always begin in the dark? I
+took my gloves off when I found we had to sit in a circle holding hands,
+and one of the first materialisations was announced to be that of
+Cleopatra." (_I_ had seen "Cleopatra" more than once in 1886, in the
+same house--E. K. B.) "She rushed across the room in the complete
+darkness, seized my right hand, amongst all the hands in a circle of
+twenty people or more, almost tore this special ring from my finger, and
+said in a tone of indescribable grief and longing: '_Mine! Mine!_ Ah,
+_Chem!_ CHEM!'"
+
+This was sufficiently startling, even apart from the mention of _Chem_,
+as the ancient name for Egypt, in a _milieu_ of this kind!
+
+The ring was faithfully restored later in the evening; and the young
+lady who owned it had been sufficiently impressed by the circumstances
+to confide them to her kind professor, and also to pay more than one
+visit to Mrs Stoddart Gray since the episode had occurred, which was
+just six months before our meeting there.
+
+During this second visit to America I made the acquaintance, and, I
+trust I may say, gained the friendship, of Miss Lilian Whiting, so well
+known by many thousands of grateful readers. We saw a great deal of each
+other in Boston, and during one of my long chats with her in her pretty
+sitting-room at the Brunswick Hotel, she told me of the visit of Lady
+Henry Somerset and Miss Frances Willard to that city, some years before
+our conversation. Miss Whiting also mentioned a friend who had
+accompanied these two ladies, and who had been taken ill, and had died
+very suddenly in the hospital at Boston.
+
+"I never met the lady," said Miss Whiting, "but Miss Willard and Lady
+Henry told me they had been obliged to leave their friend behind owing
+to an attack of influenza, and asked me to call upon her someday. I went
+a day or two later, carrying some fruit and newspapers with me. The
+matron, whom I knew well, said her patient was doing splendidly, and was
+likely to be leaving in a few days, but that as I was a stranger, it
+would perhaps be better for me not to come in and see her that
+afternoon. So I left my little gifts, and was shocked next day to hear
+of her sudden and quite unexpected death. By-the-by, I believe she was
+Stead's 'Julia'--I am not sure about this, but somebody told me so
+lately."
+
+Miss Whiting then mentioned the lady's name, which I withhold, as Mr
+Stead still makes use of it as a test when strangers profess to be in
+communication with "Julia."
+
+The day following the _séance_ just described as taking place in New
+York, Mr Knapton Thompson called at my hotel to ask me to accompany him
+to Mrs Stoddart Gray, as he had arranged to have a short "_writing
+séance_" that afternoon.
+
+The son was the agent as usual. On this occasion he had an alphabet
+mounted on card, and pointed to the letters in turn, whilst his mother
+wrote them down as indicated. Thinking I would verify Miss Whiting's
+story if possible, my first question was:
+
+"Can Stead's Julia give me her surname?"
+
+"Julia O." was spelt out, and then the O was given again.
+
+"They often do that," said Mrs Gray casually--"begin the name over
+again, I mean."
+
+So it passed at that. The rest of the letters corroborated the surname
+mentioned by Miss Whiting.
+
+Then I asked: "In what country did you pass away--Europe or America, or
+elsewhere?"
+
+"_America_" was spelt out at once.
+
+"In what city?"
+
+"_Boston._"
+
+"Was it in a private house, a hospital, a hotel, or _where_ did you
+die?"
+
+"In a hospital" was again spelt out.
+
+"How long ago?"
+
+"_Five years_" was the answer.
+
+I may note here that Miss Whiting had _not_ mentioned the number of
+years, only having said "A few years ago" when speaking of the event.
+_Five years_ proved to be true. My last question was:
+
+"What was your age when you passed over?"
+
+"_Twenty-three_" was the answer.
+
+This last, I felt sure, must be wrong. Miss Whiting had not mentioned
+any age, but it seemed to me unlikely that so young a woman should have
+been travelling round the country with two temperance lecturers.
+
+When these answers were being given, Mrs Gray's son, the medium, asked
+if he might put one hand on my wrist to come into magnetic conditions
+with me.
+
+I agreed to this, but said I should turn my eyes away from the alphabet,
+lest my muscles should give him any unconscious indications.
+
+When I sent these answers to Mr Stead on returning to England, I wrote
+down Julia O. (ignoring the repetition of the O); and in connection with
+the other answers, told him, of course, of my previous conversation
+with Miss Whiting, which reduced the whole episode to one of possible
+Thought Transference.
+
+In answering me he said: "I am glad Julia was able to give her name,
+even if it were Thought Transference; but, as a matter of fact, it is
+not her whole name which you received--she always signed her letters to
+me '_Julia O. O...._'" This makes rather a good bit of evidence, seeing
+that the second O _had_ been given, but discarded by Mrs Gray and myself
+as a repetition of the first letter of the _surname!_
+
+To resume my experiences with Mr Knapton Thompson.
+
+In the evening of this writing incident Mrs Gray had another public
+_séance_, at which I was again present, Mr Thompson sitting on one side
+of me.
+
+After some "materialisations," for other members of the circle had
+appeared, Mrs Gray announced that Stead's "Julia" was present in the
+cabinet, and wished to speak to me.
+
+I went up at once, and the form came out and stood in very fair light
+from the gas-burners. She seized my hands with every appearance of
+delight and eagerness, and her grasp was strong and tense. It is my
+peculiarity always to notice hands very accurately. They always seem to
+me to indicate character very closely; and apart from this, I am
+attracted by people who have well-shaped hands (not necessarily _small_
+ones), and find it very difficult to ignore clumsy or ugly fingers,
+which, unfortunately, never escape my notice.
+
+Now the medium's hands were broad, short, and flabby, as I had had
+plenty of opportunities of noting in the afternoon when he held my
+wrist. The hands which grasped mine now were, on the contrary, well
+made, small, and rather narrow, the true type of the American female
+hand.
+
+Mr Thompson had come up also to greet "Julia," and I whispered to him:
+
+"Do ask Julia if there was not a mistake about her age this afternoon."
+
+"No; you ask the question yourself, Miss Bates," he answered.
+
+So I said rather eagerly: "Julia, do tell us, please, if there was not a
+mistake this afternoon in your age--the answer was twenty-three. Is that
+correct?"
+
+A very emphatic shake of the head signifying "No" was the reply to this
+last question, but no sounds proceeded from the lips.
+
+Disappointed by this, I asked; "Can you not speak to us?"
+
+She made a little gesture of rather helpless dissent; and Mrs Gray, who
+stood by, explained that probably all her strength had gone to building
+up the materialised body sufficiently to make it visible to us. Julia
+bowed her head in assent to this, and then, still speechless, retired
+once more behind the curtains.
+
+I did not mention this appearance of Julia when writing to Mr Stead on
+my return--I was so anxiously hoping that she might have tried to
+impress the fact of having appeared to me, upon his consciousness, as a
+test; but he said nothing about it in his first letters. So I let the
+matter alone for a time, determining to tell him some day, but much
+disappointed by the usual failure in getting corroborative evidence.
+
+A week later, however, at the end of a long letter on other subjects, I
+put this short P. S. in a casual way to him:
+
+"Did Julia ever tell you that she had appeared to me in New York?"
+
+In answering my letter he replied--also in a P. S.:
+
+"By-the-by, to answer your last query--yes. Julia told me weeks ago that
+she had appeared to you in New York, _but that she could not give you
+her age on that occasion, because she was not accustomed to speaking
+through the embodiment_."
+
+Now in sending the list of questions and answers to Mr Stead I had
+merely marked against the answer as to her age, "_twenty-three_," that
+doubtless it was an error, _but I had never hinted to him that I had
+asked her to correct the error in New York, or that she had been unable
+to speak on that occasion_.
+
+This again was a good bit of independent evidence.
+
+I will now give a description of Mr Knapton Thompson's interview with
+his daughter, on the same evening that Julia appeared to me. I have
+already said that the magnet which drew Mr Thompson to these _séances_
+was the opportunity given to him of meeting and talking to a daughter
+who had passed away some years previously.
+
+On this special evening the daughter materialised as usual, and came out
+from the cabinet. As Mr Thompson was sitting next to me at the time, I
+could distinctly hear Mrs Gray whisper to him:
+
+"Would you not like to take your daughter into the other room, Mr
+Thompson? It is rather crowded here to-night. You would be quieter in
+there."
+
+Mr Thompson got up at once, and greeted the materialised form, and they
+disappeared through the folding doors to the reception-room. Other
+matters of interest were occurring, and I had quite forgotten the
+absence of Mr Thompson in the dimly lighted room (in those days the
+light was always dim _at first_), until I found he was again occupying
+the seat next to my own. I had not noticed his return, and asked him at
+once 'what he had done with his daughter.' A good half hour must have
+elapsed between his disappearance and return. He said, quite simply and
+as a matter of course: "Oh, she did not care to come back into this
+crowded room. We had half-an-hour's chat, and then she de-materialised
+in the other room, and I returned alone."
+
+I can only repeat that Mr Knapton Thompson was a shrewd, practical
+Yorkshireman, and a very successful man of business, as was proved by
+the orders he received in America for the stoves he had invented.
+
+He was certainly under the impression that he could be trusted to
+recognise his own daughter when allowed the privilege of half-an-hour's
+conversation with her, _tête-à-tête_ in a private room.
+
+I cannot end this chapter without saying something about Keely of
+Philadelphia and his intuitional genius.
+
+I had hoped to have the opportunity of meeting this wonderful man during
+my last stay in Philadelphia, U.S.A. (March 1897), but was disappointed
+in this expectation. Therefore, on the outer plane, my connection with
+Keely never went beyond a single interview with his wife; but this is a
+record of personal intuitions as well as of personal events, and I know
+no one with regard to whom my intuitions--absolutely lacking in any
+physical ground of proof, or even mental ground of comprehension--have
+been stronger or more obstinate.
+
+At the time of my first visit to America, so far back as 1885, I had not
+the faintest conception of Keely's work, or what he claimed to have
+discovered or to be on the track of discovering. I never heard his name
+mentioned without being told at the same time that he was either a silly
+madman or a conscious impostor, and as I came with an entirely
+unprejudiced mind (for I had never heard of Keely before landing in
+America), it would have been natural to accept this universal opinion.
+
+Yet something stronger than reason was always silently contradicting
+these assertions, when made in my presence. Friends and acquaintances
+alike in those days laughed at Keely's claims, and denounced his boasted
+discovery as pure imposture.
+
+"'Tisn't! 'Tisn't! 'Tisn't!" that persistent little voice kept
+whispering in my ear all the time, like a naughty, obstinate child who
+contradicts from sheer ignorance--or was it a spiritual intuition? Time
+alone can answer that question; anyway, I kept my ideas to myself, for
+they had no foundation in fact at the time of which I speak.
+
+In 1897 the position for me was altered. A sensible and dependable
+friend of mine--a well-known banker in Philadelphia--described to me his
+experiences and those of other prominent citizens during a demonstration
+of Mr Keely's powers; and the old insistent voice that spoke to my
+ignorance before, spoke now to some glimmering understanding of the
+claim put forth. This claim--even then jeered at by the world at
+large--had to wait shivering in the cold another nine years, before Mr
+Frederic Soddy clothed it in respectable scientific garb by speaking
+publicly of the possibilities in the future connected with atomic
+disintegration and consequent liberation of energy.
+
+But the yelping curs of Calumny that pursued Keely during his lifetime
+are still upon the dead man's tracks.
+
+"_His_ methods were fraud and imposture, anyway"; "His wires were tubes
+containing compressed air," and so forth. The M.F.H. of this pack of
+hounds was the son of a lady whose name will always be honourably
+mentioned with that of Keely as one of his most generous supporters.
+
+The initial misfortune in the whole matter was the forming and starting
+of the Keely Motor Company to utilise the discovery, which should first
+have been placed under the protection of Science.
+
+Ignorant and impatient shareholders thought only of their own material
+advantages and dividends. They were Keely's first enemies, with their
+sensational and premature advertisements of results and "_200
+horse-power engines ready to patent, etc._," whilst the poor man was
+still struggling with his tremendous problem--_i.e. to control_ the
+force that he had discovered.
+
+He attempted this first by confining it, but it blew everything to
+atoms, and his own fingers off into the bargain!
+
+Occultists--including Madame Blavatsky--always declared this latent
+atomic energy was a _fact_, but that Keely would never be allowed to
+demonstrate it, for the world was not yet prepared for such a tremendous
+dynamic force to be let loose upon it, and that the most serious abuses
+and disasters would follow, if once he succeeded in bringing his
+discovery into practical working order.
+
+They said it would be one of two things: either Keely's experiments in
+this direction would continue to fail in the crucial point necessary,
+_or_ that if he succeeded it would be his own death warrant, lest any
+mischief should accrue from his making his methods public.
+
+In view of these pronouncements, the succeeding events in Keely's career
+are interesting.
+
+_The Times_ (U.S.A.) of 6th March 1898 contained the following
+announcement, under Keely's own signature:--
+
+
+After twenty-five years' labour I have solved the problem of harnessing
+the ether (which elsewhere he says is only the _medium_ of the force he
+discovered) and adapting it to commercial uses. I have finished
+experimenting.--My work is now completed.
+                                      (Signed)    JOHN W. KEELY.
+
+_On 18th November of this same year he died._
+
+Within two months, his generous friend and patron, Mrs Blomfield Moore,
+followed him to another sphere. Keely's final discovery of the means of
+"harnessing the ether," as he calls it, was through holding it _in
+rotation_ instead of in confinement.
+
+I am allowed to quote an extract from a private letter with regard to
+this statement.
+
+"This instrument ruptures the luminous envelopes of the hydrogen
+corpuscles, liberating the mysterious substance, which is put into such
+high rotation that it forms its own wall of confinement at 420,000
+revolutions per second, as calculated. Independent of this rotation in
+the tube, where it is projected, it could be no more held in suspension
+than a ray of sunshine could be held in a darkened room."
+
+I have been given to understand that a faithful account of everything
+that has occurred in connection with Keely's discovery has been
+compiled, and will be published "_when the time comes for the truth to
+be made known_."
+
+It is, of course, possible that this disclosure may be anticipated by
+the arrival of another "crank and impostor" of the Keely type. Let us
+trust he may arise from _within_ and not from without, scientific
+circles, and thus avoid his martyrdom!
+
+Meanwhile it may be interesting to quote from a published letter of
+Lascelles-Scott, the Government physicist from Forest Gate, who visited
+Keely's workshop in the interests of Science, and who was allowed to cut
+and bring away with him pieces of the wire Keely was using. (Said to be
+_tubes_ by the wiseacres!)
+
+The following is the essential portion of Mr Lascelles-Scott's letter. I
+only omit courteous expressions of gratitude to the editor and "to the
+institutions and individuals alike" of the "beautiful city of
+Philadelphia" where he was able to carry out his investigations.
+
+            Letter from Mr Lascelles-Scott to the Editor
+               of _The Public Ledger_, Philadelphia.
+
+The only corrections of sufficient importance, to the general sense of
+my observations at the Franklin Institute last Wednesday night, to call
+for notice in your otherwise admirable report, are the following:--
+
+Although my observations were only put forward as "preliminary,"
+inasmuch as I have not yet _completed_ the outlined programme I had in
+view, no words actually used by me justified the expression that "_I had
+formed no very definite opinions_."
+
+On the contrary, I stated more than once the very _definite opinion that
+Mr Keely has demonstrated to me, in a way which is absolutely
+unquestionable, the existence of a force hitherto unknown_. (The italics
+are mine.--E. K. B.)
+
+The conditions under which the experiments were carried out (as I
+distinctly stated) _were such as to preclude the possibility of the
+results obtained being due to any ordinary source of power, evident or
+concealed_.
+
+Moreover, I satisfied myself that the rotation of the "vibrodyne" was
+neither due to, nor accompanied by, any traces of electricity or
+magnetism. So far my opinion is and was expressed as being of the most
+definite kind possible.
+
+... I stated, and the statement was greeted by the audience with great
+and prolonged applause, that, after a little adjustment of the
+"Sympathetic Transmitter," it was found that by the sounding of one of
+the small English tuning forks I had brought with me from the other side
+of the Atlantic, upon the said "Transmitter," I could myself start the
+vibrodyne, and cause it to revolve rapidly, without Mr Keely's
+intervention, and I exhibited to the meeting, the fork actually used by
+me.--Thanking you in anticipation, etc., I am, sir, yours obediently,
+                                                     W. LASCELLES-SCOTT.
+
+
+One would have supposed that this testimony, in addition to that of
+other scientists and practical electricians, would have sufficed to
+disintegrate Atomic Stupidity and Calumny, and liberate the forces of
+Humility and Sane Investigation.
+
+But prejudiced Ignorance dies hard!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To end my chapter on a pleasanter note than this, I will quote from a
+private letter which I have been privileged to read, the beautiful words
+in which Keely describes his own achievements.
+
+
+_I have no power that is not communicated to me in the same way that
+this machine receives its power: through celestial radiation from the
+Soul of Matter, the Mind force of the Creator, whose instrument I am. I
+know who is leading me and making all things work together for good._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND
+
+
+In the year 1898 I was spending a few days in Castle Rush, which has
+been described by Mr W. T. Stead as the most haunted castle in Ireland.
+It is one of the few old Irish castles still inhabited, and is naturally
+haunted by the ghosts of the past in every meaning of the word.
+
+At the time of my stay I was recovering from a severe illness, and, in
+fact, was sent off to bed immediately upon arrival by my kind hostess,
+who, with true hospitality, thought more of her guest's comfort than the
+conventionalities of life, and would not hear of my lingering, even to
+make acquaintance with my host, on the dark autumnal evening of my
+arrival.
+
+This had taken place after driving many miles and waiting for a dreary
+long time in the little inn of a small Irish township. My doctor would
+not hear of any railway travelling just then, so the whole forty miles
+from my last stopping-place had to be negotiated between the carriages
+of my past and present hospitable hosts.
+
+As a matter of fact, I believe I slept in one of the haunted rooms, but
+it looked cheerful enough when I entered from the gloom and darkness
+outside; and a dainty little dinner sent up by my kind friends below,
+and eaten when snugly tucked in between the sheets and resting on soft
+downy pillows, was enough to drive all thoughts of ghostly visitors from
+my head.
+
+I am thankful to say that I neither heard nor saw anything during my
+short visit, and should not even have known that my room had had any
+evil reputation but for the visit of an eccentric and clever old lady,
+who had been specially asked to the castle to meet me.
+
+After luncheon we adjourned to my bedroom, at her suggestion, and she
+said casually:
+
+"Ah, you have this room, I see. It was terribly haunted once, but I held
+a sort of little service here some time ago, and cleared them all out."
+
+I must explain that this good lady took a very optimistic view of her
+own capacities and powers in general, and spoke--from the psychic point
+of view--with the honest pride that a flesh and blood charwoman might
+display on going over premises that she had thoroughly scrubbed and
+"cleaned out"!
+
+One morning after breakfast, my hostess, Mrs Kent, called to me to come
+quickly and see a curious sight. It was a pouring wet day--one of those
+days when the heavens open and the rain descends in buckets! I could see
+nothing more remarkable than the damp, autumnal leaves, the bare trees
+swaying in the wind-washed spaces, and the pouring, ceaseless rain.
+
+"Don't you see that girl over there?"
+
+I looked again, and did see a girl just emerging from a clump of
+beeches, and carrying a small trunk upon her head.
+
+"What an extraordinary day to choose for travelling," I said drily.
+
+"Ah, that is Irish superstition!" rejoined my hostess. "That is my last
+kitchen-maid you see--she is walking seven miles, with that trunk on
+her head, sooner than wait a few hours, when I could have sent her to
+the station."
+
+"Is she mad?" was my natural comment.
+
+"Oh no! only desperately frightened. She has not been here a week yet,
+and she is much too terrified to be coherent. All I can make out is that
+nothing on earth would induce her to spend another night at Rush. I
+could have sent her over to Marley easily to-morrow morning at eight
+o'clock, but she would not hear of it. And whether she has really seen
+anything, or only been frightened by the stories of the other servants,
+I don't know. Anyway, she has certainly the courage of her opinions, and
+is prepared to suffer for them! I would rather meet half-a-dozen ghosts
+than carry that trunk on my head seven miles in this pouring rain." Then
+turning round carelessly, she remarked: "I suppose _you_ have not seen
+or heard anything, Miss Bates, since you came? I hope not, for I am sure
+you are not strong enough for mundane visitors yet, let alone the other
+kind."
+
+We were passing through the handsome circular hall at the time, and I
+said eagerly: "Oh no! Thank goodness, I've seen and heard nothing. I
+don't think I should be allowed to see anything whilst I am so weak and
+poorly."
+
+Almost at the moment of saying these words something impelled me to
+place my hand upon a particular spot in the great stone wall by my side.
+"But there is something _here_ I don't like," I said, tapping
+it--"something uncanny--but I don't know what it is."
+
+Mrs Kent made no remark; and I thought no more of the circumstance until
+the following year, when I was told by Mr Stead that Mrs Kent was over
+in England, and had been lunching with him and asking for me.
+
+"She was giving me a most graphic account of the way you 'spotted' those
+skeletons at Rush Castle," he said.
+
+I was completely puzzled by this remark. I had never spotted a single
+skeleton to my knowledge, either at Rush or elsewhere, and I told him
+so; but he persisted in saying that Mrs Kent had told him a very
+different story, and that most certainly she had mentioned me as the
+percipient.
+
+"She must have mixed me up with somebody else," was my final comment.
+"No doubt many people have queer experiences there, and she might
+naturally make such a mistake."
+
+"Well, I gave her your address, and she is writing to ask you to have
+tea with her at the club, so you and she can fight it out there," he
+said; and the conversation drifted into other channels.
+
+Next afternoon I met Mrs Kent at her club, and before leaving,
+fortunately remembered the curious mistake about the skeletons I had
+"spotted."
+
+"But you _did_ 'spot' them," she said, laughing. "Don't you remember my
+asking you if you had noticed anything curious, or heard or seen
+anything, during your visit? At first you said 'Thank goodness, no!' But
+immediately afterwards you put your hand on a particular part of the
+circular hall, and said: 'There is something uncanny just
+here--something I don't like.'"
+
+"Yes; I remember all that. But what of it? You never told me anything
+about skeletons."
+
+"Of course not--you were not in a condition of health to discuss such
+eerie questions just then. All the same, you had located the exact spot
+where only a week before your visit, my husband's agent told him that
+two skeletons had been found bricked up!"
+
+She then explained that the agent had been on the estate for many years,
+even before the death of the late owner of Rush--her father-in-law.
+Having some business with her husband the week before my arrival, this
+agent had casually mentioned that he and the former owner had found
+these skeletons in the very spot indicated by me, about forty years
+previously, and, strange to relate, had bricked them up again instead of
+burying them. This last fact may account in part at least for the spooky
+reputation of Castle Rush.
+
+All good psychics know that nothing disturbs a spirit so much as any
+informality about his funeral arrangements!
+
+To return to my visit to Castle Rush.
+
+Some years previously I had met, on an Orient steamer sailing from
+Ceylon to Naples, a brother of the owner of Rush. He was a sailor, and
+as hard-headed and practical a man as it has ever been my lot to meet.
+It was in no way through meeting him that my visit to Rush came about,
+but owing to my acquaintance with Mrs Kent and _her_ family.
+
+I had been greatly taken by the genial common-sense of this Captain
+Kent, and was much grieved to hear of his death when I stayed with his
+sister-in-law. It had occurred shortly before my visit, and under sad
+circumstances.
+
+On the surface he was certainly more lacking in sentiment than anyone I
+ever met, but must have been capable of very deep affection. When I met
+him he had only been married for a few months. His wife died within two
+years of their marriage, and going for a short holiday to Castle Rush
+soon afterwards, he said to his sister-in-law:
+
+"_I shall not live a year after her, I know!_" He was the last kind of
+man to make such a speech, as both Mrs Kent and I observed when she
+mentioned it to me.
+
+"But he was quite right, all the same," she added. "_He died just three
+days within the year from the time of his wife's death._" Yet he was an
+exceptionally strong, sturdy, and wiry man at the time of his great
+sorrow.
+
+From Castle Rush I was going to the south of Ireland to visit relations
+at Cork.
+
+On the morning of my departure I was down in the drawing-room, rather
+wondering _why_ I had been brought to this old Irish castle. No special
+object seemed to have been achieved by my visit. I did not even know
+then that I had discovered two skeletons! In those days I found so often
+some train of circumstances--a borrowed book, a stranger coming across
+my path, some unexpected visit paid, which were later found to have been
+factors in a special experience--that I was rather surprised to realise
+that I was leaving the "most haunted castle in Ireland" and that nothing
+had happened.
+
+But in the very moment of saying this to myself a curiously insistent
+impression came to me quite suddenly, and "out of the blue."
+
+The impression was that the brother of my host, Captain Kent, was
+wishing very urgently to communicate something through me. I did not
+feel equal to taking any message at the time--I have already explained
+that I was only just recovering from a severe illness. Lunch and a long
+drive to the station and a weary railway journey lay before me, so I
+determined to do nothing until I was safely established with my cousins
+near Cork.
+
+After a long, cold, and wet journey I arrived in pouring rain, my train
+being more than a hour late. The kind General who came to meet me was
+still patiently standing on the platform, but one of the two "cars" he
+had engaged for me and my baggage had taken itself off! As the rain was
+descending in water-spouts, I need scarcely say it was the "covered car"
+which had driven away!
+
+This meant a thorough wetting for my cousin and me. How all the luggage
+(including a large bicycle, and two people, in addition to the driver)
+was ever piled up on that small "outside Irish car" I have never been
+able to understand. Suffice it to say the miracle was performed, and we
+drove up a hill at an angle of about forty-five degrees into the
+bargain!
+
+Clearly these were not ideal conditions for receiving automatic
+messages!
+
+I was put to bed at once with hot bottles and hot soup, and soon forgot
+my past troubles in a long refreshing sleep.
+
+I was still in the invalid stage of "breakfast in bed," and when this
+had been cleared away, the remembrance of Captain Kent flashed into my
+mind, and I found pencil and papers at once, in order to redeem my
+promise.
+
+The message was rather a curious one, and its opening sentence evidently
+referred to the eccentric old lady whom I have mentioned as being asked
+to meet me at luncheon at Castle Rush.
+
+So far as I can remember them, the words (very characteristic of Captain
+Kent's genial but rather brusque style) ran as follows:--
+
+After speaking of the alleged hauntings at Castle Rush as having only
+too much foundation in fact, he went on: "It's all rubbish, that old
+woman saying she had cleared them all away! Nothing of the kind. There
+are plenty of malicious spirits about still, _and now that an heir is
+coming to Rush they are keener than ever to try and work some mischief_.
+No use saying anything to Tom (his brother). He will only laugh, and say
+it is all skittles. But tell my little sister-in-law to
+PRAY--PRAY--PRAY. That is all they need and all she needs either."
+
+Now this was not exactly the message one cared to send to a rather
+recent acquaintance. To begin with, the reference to Mrs Kent's valued
+friend in the opening sentence was scarcely polite! Then again, the
+prophecy of an heir to Rush was one that I regretted should have been
+made, as it would probably only lead to disappointment. Mrs Kent's first
+child had been a little son, from whose loss she had never recovered.
+When I was staying at the castle, two nice little girls, old enough to
+come down to early dinner, at our luncheon hour, comprised the family.
+Another child was certainly expected to arrive about Christmas-time (my
+visit was paid in September), but Mrs Kent herself was fully convinced
+that this would be _another girl_, as she said rather sadly. It seemed a
+pity to disturb her mind by raising false hopes.
+
+But, as usual, I felt bound to send the message, with the customary
+explanations and apologies.
+
+Mrs Kent was greatly interested by it and by the "PRAY--PRAY--PRAY,"
+which, as she explained to me, had a very special meaning for her. It
+had only struck me as an exceedingly _unlikely_ message for the Captain
+Kent I had known, to send to anyone.
+
+I am glad to be able to record that the Christmas gift did arrive in the
+shape of a baby boy, "_heir to Rush_," who is still alive and
+flourishing, thank God! I hear that he calls himself "the master," with
+a true Irish brogue, and lords it over his elder sisters in the regular
+chieftain style!
+
+To this year belongs another strong impression of psychic atmosphere,
+left in a room which I occupied in the south of England.
+
+It was a most comfortable room, with nothing in the least ghostly about
+it. Merely I had an unpleasant feeling that controversies and
+discussions had taken place in the room, and that a want of harmony hung
+about it in consequence.
+
+On mentioning this rather tentatively to the master of the house--a very
+orthodox clergyman--I was told: "Oh dear, no! Nothing of the kind--you
+are certainly mistaken!"
+
+But when an opportunity arose I changed my room, and felt very much more
+comfortable in consequence of doing so.
+
+Several times I had noticed on the hall table, letters which had come by
+post addressed to another clergyman, whose name I had not heard, and
+who was certainly not staying in the house. Remarking upon this casually
+to a nice young governess one day, she said at once that the gentleman
+in question had spent several months with Mr and Mrs Dale in the
+Vicarage, but that he had died a few weeks before my arrival. "He slept
+in the room you had when you first came, by-the-by. I was so glad when
+you changed your room."
+
+"He was a clergyman, I see," was my next remark; and I looked at the
+envelope which had led to this explanation.
+
+"Yes; he was in orders, but he had become a complete agnostic for some
+years. During the last few weeks of his life--when he had to keep his
+bed--Mr Dale was always going up there, and having long arguments and
+discussions with him; but I don't suppose it did much good: it only
+worried him very much. He was too ill to listen to long arguments then,
+and wanted just kind, soothing words, I should have thought."
+
+As the girl retreated to the school-room I naturally pondered over this
+fresh testimony to the truth of psychic atmosphere. No sensitive can
+question the _fact_, but at present we know little or nothing of the
+laws which condition the fact.
+
+My friend Mr W. T. Stead kindly allows me to mention another incident
+connected with personal experiences of mine in the year 1898.
+
+In the opening month of that year he lost a much-valued friend, who had
+worked for him loyally, both in his office and also with regard to some
+of his philanthropic schemes.
+
+This lady in a fit of delirium, incident upon a severe attack of
+illness, threw herself out of a window in her flat. A fortnight before
+this sad occurrence, she had seen another resident in the same set of
+flats throw herself out of the window, and Mr Stead has always feared
+that this acted as a suggestion upon her mind in delirium, and led her
+to do the same thing. Her own account of the cause of her action differs
+somewhat from this impression, as will be seen later.
+
+Mr Stead was naturally greatly affected by Mrs Morris' sudden death and
+the circumstances attending it, and having some of her hair cut off
+after her death, he sent portions of it to at least twelve well-known
+clairvoyants, hoping to receive some satisfactory solution of the
+mystery, and also, possibly, a sign decided upon between him and this
+lady. They were both interested in psychic matters, and had agreed to
+believe in no communications from the other side purporting to come from
+one or other of them, unless this preliminary sign were given.
+
+Mrs Besant--an intimate friend of Mr Stead--was one of the oracles
+consulted, and was very confident of being able to find out all details,
+including the mystic sign.
+
+But both she and Mr Leadbeater were as absolutely unsuccessful as less
+gifted mortals proved to be.
+
+In spite of exceptional opportunities for coming in touch with the most
+noted psychics, in spite of the valuable clue given by hair cut after
+death, the test seemed quite hopeless, since twelve of the best
+clairvoyants had been consulted, and all had failed in turn.
+
+A few weeks after hearing about this from Mr Stead, I was invited by an
+old friend in London to meet at her house, at luncheon, Miss Rowan
+Vincent, a non-professional sensitive, well known to many of my readers.
+
+I had never seen this lady before, and had little speech with her during
+the meal.
+
+She was talking very earnestly to a military man--the son-in-law of our
+hostess--whilst the latter and I were having an interesting conversation
+to ourselves.
+
+General Maxwell, having a train to catch, did not accompany us to the
+drawing-room.
+
+On arrival there Miss Rowan Vincent said to me very kindly: "Can I do
+anything for _you_ now, Miss Bates? Shall I try if I can see anything
+for you?"
+
+Something induced me, quite against my will, to say: "Do you ever get
+messages by writing, Miss Vincent?"
+
+"No; I have never done so, but I can try," she answered rather eagerly.
+
+How I bewailed my stupidity in making such a suggestion! I had diverted
+her mind from her own special gift, which was that of seeing a person's
+psychic surroundings, and had switched her on to an entirely novel and
+untried experiment. I had not even the excuse of being specially
+interested in automatic writing, which was so easily obtained at home;
+whereas I was greatly interested in seeing whether any of my "other
+side" friends could make themselves perceptible through this sensitive.
+
+However, the mischief was done past remedy. The suggestion had taken
+firm root in Miss Rowan Vincent's mind, and she was not to be diverted
+from it. So I resigned myself patiently to the results of my own
+foolish remark, whilst she took pencil and paper and sat down
+expectantly.
+
+Soon she looked up, the writing having already begun.
+
+"Do you know any William? There seems to be some message from a William,
+as far as I can make out."
+
+Having had a favourite cousin of that name, I told her it might be quite
+correct, and I should be glad to receive any message that came.
+
+A few moments passed, and then Miss Vincent said, in a puzzled tone:
+
+"It is not _from_ William--the message is _to_ some William--I cannot
+understand it at all." She pushed the paper rather impatiently towards
+me. Written upon it clearly but faintly were these words:
+
+DEAR WILLIAM,--I want to explain to you how I came to fall out of that
+window--it was not my fault really--someone came up behind and pushed me
+out.                                                      ETHEL.
+
+The signature was rather indistinct, but quite unmistakable to _me_; but
+then I knew the Christian name of Mr Stead's friend, and realised at
+once that she was taking this opportunity of sending a message to him.
+
+I asked Miss Vincent what name was written at the bottom of the paper.
+"It looks like Ethel," she said, "but it is not very clear. I will ask
+the spirit to write it again." A very bold and unmistakable signature
+was at once given.
+
+I concealed my excitement, and said quietly to Miss Vincent:
+
+"I think I know from whom the message comes and for whom it is intended,
+but to make quite sure it would be very satisfactory if the spirit could
+give through you a sign agreed upon by the sender and the recipient and
+unknown to everyone else."
+
+"Well, I will try," said Miss Vincent at once. She had scarcely touched
+the pencil when it began describing a circle. "There is no doubt about
+my having to make a circle," she said, laughing. "Oh, now I am to put a
+cross into it," she added.
+
+Within a few seconds both these were given, and to _our_ great
+delight--as well as to his--the sign was recognised by Mr Stead as being
+the one agreed upon, and which had hopelessly puzzled all the other
+mediums.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+1900-1901
+
+
+I must now note a curious episode connected with my friend Judge Forbes,
+whose astral influence I had traced clinging to the rooms he once
+occupied in Cambridge.
+
+As before mentioned, he had married, and I had lost sight of him and his
+whole family for many years. But we had several mutual friends, through
+whom I had heard of the birth of his only son and only child, and later
+of the boy being sent to Eton, and eventually entering the army.
+
+This was very shortly before the breaking out of the South African War,
+and the young fellow was one of many who were drafted from India, after
+a few months' service there, to help to defend their Queen's possessions
+and their countrymen's lives and property in South Africa.
+
+Later, young Forbes was shut up in Ladysmith, and one cold, dismal day
+in January (6th January 1900) I was lying very ill in bed with a severe
+bronchial attack in the house of my eldest brother in Hampshire, when
+the latter came home one evening from the Winchester Club and told us of
+the celebrated _sortie_ and the death of three young English officers.
+The name of Forbes of the Royal Rifles figured amongst these, and I
+felt convinced that it must be the only child of my old friend.
+
+Without hesitation I prepared to write a few short lines of sympathy
+with the heart-broken father. In vain my sister-in-law protested against
+my concluding at once that it must be the judge's son, since other
+members of the family of the same name were known to be in the army. I
+had not a moment's doubt that this was the boy already mentioned, and
+even a silence of over twenty years seemed to present no difficulty in
+expressing one's deep sympathy, in the face of such a sorrow.
+
+The real drawback lay in my weak state of health and physical inability
+to write more than a few lines. But in these I expressed a hope that _in
+time_ my poor friend might come to realise that his boy was "as much
+alive and as near to him as ever--perhaps nearer."
+
+It will indicate how entirely all relations between us had been broken
+off for many years, when I say that I did not even know the judge's
+private address, and was forced to send my letter to his court. In a day
+or two I received a very touching and grateful answer, pathetic not only
+in its grief, but even more in his frankly avowed inability to derive
+any consolation from the thoughts that my short note had suggested.
+Resignation to the inscrutable will of God was the keynote of the
+letter. In some far-distant future he might be permitted once more to
+see his beloved son, but meanwhile all was gloom and misery.
+
+The episode was over. I had expressed my sincere sympathy with an
+overwhelming sorrow, I had received a most kind and appreciative
+answer--no more could be done in the matter.
+
+This was _my_ conclusion, but evidently not the conclusion of young
+Talbot Forbes. I had never seen this boy in my life, nor his mother; but
+I suppose my old friendship with his father, and my deep sympathy with
+the latter, enabled the son to approach me soon after he had passed into
+the next sphere.
+
+Anyway, he made me conscious of his presence by my bedside during the
+greater part of the night following my receipt of his father's letter.
+
+Owing to my severe illness I was sleeping very little, and once or twice
+in the night an attendant came in to make up my fire and keep the
+temperature of the room even, so that I had ample opportunity for
+realising the presence of my hitherto unknown visitor.
+
+Those who know what "hearing with the inner ear" means will realise the
+method through which the following conversation took place, so far as I
+can now recall it:--
+
+_TALBOT._--"_Yes, it is Talbot Forbes. I want to speak to you. Please
+listen to me! I want to tell you, you must do more for them than
+this--you have to help them about me._"
+
+E. K. B.--"Who do you mean by '_them_'?"
+
+_TALBOT._--"_My parents, of course. Don't you understand what I am
+saying? You have to do more for them--you must make them know I am close
+to them._"
+
+Now I could only suppose that he wished me to write again to his father,
+and explain more fully my own ideas on the subject of our departed
+friends. As this would have involved a wearisome and almost certainly
+_useless_ discussion on a topic which I had reason to know was very
+distasteful to the boy's father, I said rather shortly, and I am afraid
+with some of the petulance of an invalid:
+
+"Oh, do be quiet, and leave me alone! I have done all I can, and there
+is no more to be said about it. I am very sorry for you, but I really
+can't help you in this. I don't know your mother or what her views about
+it may be; and as for your father--well, I am not going to worry and
+torment him about ideas that he dislikes and disapproves of, and just
+now, too, when he is so miserable! No, I won't do it, not even if you
+come and worry me about it every night."
+
+I was feeling ill and weary, and longing for sleep, and hoped this would
+be a quietus to my young friend. Not a bit of it! His next remark was:
+
+"_What does it matter what_ YOU _think or what you mean to do or not to
+do? You have to help them, not to think about your own feelings._"
+
+This was frank at anyrate, but not altogether convincing. Soon
+afterwards, tired out with the discussion, I really did fall asleep, and
+only woke a short time before my breakfast and daily budget of letters
+arrived. Amongst these letters was one in an unknown handwriting, which
+proved to be from _Mrs_ Forbes, saying she had seen my letter to her
+husband, and begging that I would tell her the grounds I had for my
+assurance that those we love are close to us after the great change we
+call death.
+
+Evidently the boy knew that this letter was coming to me, and was trying
+to prepare me to answer it in such a way as should help him to convince
+his mother of his continued existence in her immediate presence.
+
+As this case is one well known to the Society for Psychical Research
+(the lady I have called Mrs Forbes appearing on their records both as
+Mrs Scott and under the pseudonym I have borrowed from them), it is
+unnecessary to go into further details. Suffice it to say that my
+nocturnal visitor was successful in his aim.
+
+I answered his mother's letter as he wished. This led to a long
+correspondence between us, and to my making her acquaintance shortly
+afterwards and renewing my old friendship with her husband.
+
+Mrs Forbes had several sittings with Mrs Thompson and other mediums,
+became convinced of her son's presence with her, and very soon was
+independent of outside assistance in communicating with him. The judge
+also declared himself "unable to resist the evidence," but I don't think
+he ever quite honestly _rejoiced_ in his convictions. It is hard to
+eradicate prejudices and traditions after fifty years of age, and the
+_human_ element in his son's bright and happy messages always seemed to
+worry and perplex him a little.
+
+He knows all about it now! Much as I deplore the earthly disappearance
+of such an old and faithful friend of my youth, I can sincerely rejoice
+in thinking of him as once more united with his son, in ways that will
+no longer appear to him unnatural or undesirable.
+
+During the judge's lifetime, and after the son's death, I often stayed
+with him and his wife in their northern home. Mrs Forbes used frequently
+to say: "It was _Talbot_ who brought us all three together, we must
+remember!"
+
+
+PEKIN STORY
+
+It was during my first visit to Judge and Mrs Forbes, in the north of
+England, that another curious experience came to me.
+
+This happened on the 4th of July 1900, for I remember saying to Mrs
+Forbes next morning: "I shall remember the date from its being American
+Independence Day."
+
+It was the year of the Boxer rebellion in China, when the Pekin Embassy
+was in a state of siege, and by July almost all hope that any Europeans
+would be saved from their dire peril had faded away.
+
+The Memorial Service, arranged by a too eager dignitary of the Church to
+take place in St Paul's, had certainly been adjourned at the last
+moment; but as days and weeks passed, and the little garrison was still
+unrelieved, very little hope was entertained. In fact, by July most
+people hoped and believed that their troubles must be already over,
+through the merciful interposition of death.
+
+A connection of mine, whom I had known well when she was a child, but
+had not seen for many years, was shut up with her husband, children, and
+sister in the Pekin Embassy at the time. Thousands were lamenting her
+sad fate, and I naturally amongst them; but I wish to make clear that,
+owing to the years that had elapsed since I had seen this special member
+of the family, it was not in any sense a very personal sorrow, nor was I
+then--nor am I now--aware of any special tie of affinity between this
+lady and myself.
+
+I had gone to bed about eleven o'clock on the night of 4th July 1900,
+and had been in bed about half-an-hour, without any attempt at going to
+sleep, when suddenly I felt extremely alert in mind, very much as Miss
+Porter described herself in the Captain Carbury episode. Almost
+immediately upon this feeling of mental alertness came the conviction
+that Mabel M'Leod (as I will call her) was in the room, close to me, and
+that she was in some dire and urgent need of help--instantaneous help, I
+mean. I could neither see nor hear on this occasion--I only _knew_ these
+facts through some power of intuition, all the more remarkable because,
+having made up my mind that all was over at the Embassy, I had not been
+thinking of her or of her fellow-sufferers for some days past.
+
+My thoughts were fully engaged at the time with the grief of my host and
+hostess.
+
+With the knowledge of Mabel's presence came also the conviction that she
+was _still alive_--in the physical body--and that it was no excarnate
+spirit that was appealing to me for help.
+
+The impression was so vivid that I called out instinctively: "What is
+it, Mabel? What can I do for you?" There was no response, either by
+outward or inner voice, only the insistent appeal for help, and
+knowledge of some imminent danger at hand for her. I am trying to
+explain that something more than the usual hourly peril in which they
+must be living, _if on this side the veil_, was implied by the
+impression I received. _It was some acute and additional danger which
+threatened her at the moment._ Feeling it was useless to waste time
+trying to find out by writing or other means what the exact nature of
+this danger might be, I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible,
+saying: "Never mind trying to make me understand--I will pray for you,
+whatever it is!" So I knelt down, and prayed most earnestly that this
+poor woman, whose spirit had appealed for help at some dread crisis,
+might be comforted, and delivered from any dangers threatening her at
+the time.
+
+I had been very comfortably tucked up in bed, looking forward to the
+pleasant drowsiness which promises sleep, and I am quite sure I should
+not have put myself to all this inconvenience without a very strong
+motive.
+
+When I felt the poor, tormented spirit was calmed and soothed by the
+atmosphere of prayer, I returned to my bed, and eventually fell asleep.
+
+Next morning I told Mrs Forbes of my experience, making the remark
+quoted about the date.
+
+The following week she and I were together at one of the meetings of the
+Society for Psychical Research, at the close of which, in shaking hands
+with Mr Frederic Myers, I begged him to make a note of my experience and
+the date.
+
+"Ah, Miss Bates!" he said, taking out a small note-book, "I will make a
+note of it, but I fear there is not the remotest chance of any of them
+having been alive ten days ago."
+
+"Then my experience goes for nothing," I answered. "It was a living
+woman, not an excarnate one, who came to my bedside on the 4th July."
+
+Later, when the Embassy was relieved, and this lady (who had presented
+such a "stiff upper lip" to Fortune) was once more safe at home for a
+much-needed rest, I found that she had gone through a special time of
+accentuated suffering just when I felt her presence in my room. Her
+husband was down with dysentery, and she had not enough food either for
+him or for her poor little children, and the strain was almost too
+great, even for that brave soul.
+
+Of course, she had been quite unconscious of any appeal to me.
+
+But she has Scottish as well as Irish blood in her veins, and this
+heredity may have enabled her subconscious self to sense my locality and
+to realise my power and will to help her in her desperate need.
+
+Truly it was a case of "vain is the help of man," or woman either! But
+we know too little of spiritual laws to be able to deny off-hand the
+efficacy of _any_ earnest prayer.
+
+I saw Mr Myers make a note of the circumstance, but, unfortunately, this
+cannot be found amongst his papers. I asked Mrs Myers about it, and she
+remembered distinctly her husband having mentioned the case to her when
+he returned home after that meeting, but when I last saw her, she had
+hunted amongst his papers in vain for the note which he made at the
+time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in January 1901, the day after Lord Robert's triumphant procession
+through London, I went to spend some weeks at an "open-air cure" in
+Devonshire, high up in the hills, and in a bleak part of the county.
+Several severe illnesses had left me so supersensitive to colds and
+draughts that it seemed a vital necessity to take some such drastic
+step, even at this inclement time of the year, unless I were prepared to
+sink into a state of chronic invalidism, and become a burden to myself
+and my neighbours for the rest of my natural life.
+
+An old friend was "second in command" in this special establishment,
+which she had asked me to recommend, and a bright thought struck me that
+I might do my friend a good turn, and myself also, by spending a few
+weeks in the house.
+
+I did not bargain, however, for the deep snow which fell on the very day
+after my arrival, nor for the howling west winds, which continued to
+blow during the whole of my stay.
+
+In these parts, the west wind corresponds with our eastern variety, and
+is quite as cold and disagreeable.
+
+Nor were the surroundings inside of a very cheerful nature. All the
+other patients (six or seven) were quite young girls, and all more or
+less consumptive. Several of them were very attractive, which made it
+seem all the more sad. Without exception, all were, or had been, engaged
+to be married, as the coping-stone to this tragedy of their lives! In
+several cases the engagements had been broken off, sometimes by mutual
+consent, on the score of health. In a few exceptions, where love had
+proved stronger than prudence and common-sense, it was equally
+melancholy to realise that the future could hold nothing but
+disappointment on the one side, and a hopeless regret on the other.
+
+Under these circumstances it was perhaps only to be expected that my
+first impressions of the establishment should not be entirely _couleur
+de rose_. Yet the house itself was pleasant enough, and the view from
+the drawing-room windows was simply magnificent, including sea as well
+as moor.
+
+Curtainless windows, with sashes thrown wide open, and chilly linoleum
+to replace warm carpets, were rather a trial to the uninitiated, early
+in January, with deep snow on the ground and fires none too plentiful.
+In addition to these drawbacks I had another personal one. Coming in the
+middle of the winter, it was naturally Hobson's choice as regarded the
+bedrooms. All the best and warmest aspects had been appropriated in the
+autumn, and an ugly little room, with cold, west outlook and depressing,
+mustard-coloured distempered walls, fell to my lot.
+
+Yet even these facts did not sufficiently account for the extremely
+depressing effect of that room upon me.
+
+"Has anyone died here lately?" was my first and natural query in a house
+of this kind.
+
+I had heard the girls casually mention two gentlemen patients who had
+been in the house the previous year--one of these had gone into rooms in
+a neighbouring town with his nurse. I did not hear what had become of
+the other one, and had not sufficient curiosity to ask the question.
+
+My friend reassured me by saying she was sure no one had died recently
+in _my_ room. She had only lately come to the house herself, as I knew;
+having been matron for some years of a small hospital in the country.
+
+"The second poor gentleman, who was a patient here, did die in the
+house, I believe, but that was months ago," she said, "and I understand
+that he had Laura Pearce's room," mentioning one of the girls, who had a
+specially cheerful apartment. It seemed quite natural that a sick man,
+confined to his bed, should occupy a large and sunny room, so I thought
+no more of the matter. Still, I was always conscious of an unpleasant
+and sad atmosphere in my own room, and took occasion one day to ask the
+lady at the head of the establishment whether she knew anything of the
+predecessors in the house.
+
+It struck me that the psychic atmosphere in my room might be connected
+with some of _them_.
+
+Miss Hunter replied laughingly: "I can't tell you anything about them,
+for the very good reason that they don't exist. _I_ am the first tenant
+of this house. It was only built two years ago, and remained vacant for
+the first twelve months."
+
+Then I told her very cautiously of my feeling about my room, and that I
+had supposed it might have to do with someone who had slept there before
+she took the house.
+
+Two or three of the young girls were in the room at the time, and it
+struck me that one of them--the one who was there for her second
+winter--looked a little surprised and interested; but the matron passed
+off the subject with a few bantering words, and again I had no suspicion
+of the truth.
+
+Six weeks passed, and my last night in the house had arrived. My nurse
+friend was in the habit of giving me massage twice a day, before getting
+up in the morning and the last thing at night. She left me on this
+occasion about ten-thirty P.M., expressing a hope that I should soon
+sleep, and have a good night before my long journey next day.
+
+"Not much doubt of that," I murmured. "Why, I'm half asleep already!"
+And I turned round, tired and yet soothed by the massage, and soon fell
+into a deep and dreamless sleep.
+
+Several hours must have passed, when I woke up, trembling and
+terror-struck, after passing through an experience which seems as vivid
+to me to-day as on that February night or early morning. My heart was
+beating, my limbs trembling, beads of perspiration covered my face, as I
+discovered later.
+
+No wonder! I had been through an experience from which few, I imagine,
+return to tell the tale. For I had passed through every detail of dying,
+and dying a very hard and difficult death.
+
+Body and soul were being literally _torn apart_, in spite of the
+desperate effort to cling together, and my spirit seemed to be launched
+into unknown depths of darkness and possible horror. It was the feeling
+that _I did not know where I was going nor what awaited me_ that seemed
+so terrible--this and the horrible fight for mastery between my poor
+body and soul and some unknown force that was inexorably set upon
+dividing them.
+
+This, so far as I can express it, exactly describes the experience I had
+just gone through, and from which I had awakened in such abject terror.
+
+As the beating of my heart subsided, and I could think more calmly, I
+remembered with startling distinctness that in the very worst of the
+struggle I had been vainly endeavouring to say that text in the
+twenty-third Psalm which begins:
+
+"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
+evil; for Thou art with me: _Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me._" I
+could say the first part of it quite easily, but some fiendish enemy
+seemed bent upon preventing my saying the last sentence, and in my
+terrible dream, rescue and safety depended upon my getting to the end of
+the text. I tried again and again, always to be driven back in despair
+before the crucial words were uttered. At last, with a desperate effort,
+I seemed to shake off the incubus which was weighing me down, and I
+finished the words triumphantly, and so loud that I had positively
+wakened myself up _by shouting them out_. With returning memory I knew
+this had happened, and hearing a door open and shut on the half landing
+below my room, I thought for the moment that someone must have heard me,
+and must be coming to see what was the matter. I looked at my
+watch--just two-thirty A.M. No one appeared; and to my relief I
+remembered that this was just the hour when either Miss Hunter or my
+friend went round to the invalids, giving them milk or bovril, in the
+night.
+
+I had no inclination to seek out either of these ladies. The horror was
+past, and no one could undo what I had endured; so I lay quiet, and in
+course of time managed to go to sleep again, not waking until the
+servant came into my room to light the fire at seven-thirty A.M.
+
+It happened to be a certain _Minnie_ on this occasion, a very
+respectable young woman, who had accompanied Miss Hunter when she gave
+up the matronship of a well-known hospital, and who had therefore been
+with her since this establishment had been started.
+
+My night's experience convinced me so absolutely that, in spite of all
+that had been said, the gentleman patient _had_ died in this room, and
+that I had just gone through his death agonies, that instead of asking
+any question about it, I said very quietly to Minnie, as she was on her
+knees lighting my fire: "The poor gentleman who died here last summer
+_died in this room, I find_."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," she said quietly, not knowing, as it turned out, that any
+mystery had been made about the fact.
+
+My personal friend was guiltless of any deceit, for she had been told
+the story about Laura Pearce's room, but the young girls confessed when
+I went down to breakfast that they had been specially warned not to let
+me know the true facts.
+
+Miss Hunter did not appear at breakfast, as she was suffering from a
+chill, so I went to her bedroom to say good-bye before going up to
+London.
+
+Feeling naturally annoyed and rather shaken by my night's experience, I
+said to her rather drily:
+
+"You need not have taken the trouble to deceive me about my room, Miss
+Hunter, nor to warn the girls to do the same. I know that gentleman died
+there, for I have just gone through his experiences." And then I told
+her about my terrible night.
+
+Although forced to admit the facts, Miss Hunter fought every inch of the
+ground, so far as the _painful_ experiences were concerned.
+
+"Such an excellent man! so interested in everything--a _clergyman_, my
+dear Miss Bates, and so _good!_ How could there be anything painful
+connected with his death?" etc. etc.
+
+I suggested that, as Christians, we had the most overwhelming proof that
+holiness of life does not always preclude even mental suffering at
+death; but she would not hear of this argument, and doubtless considered
+it blasphemous.
+
+By dint of questioning, however, I made two discoveries--first, that
+the death was quite unexpected. The man had only been a fortnight in the
+house, and when I expressed surprise that he should have been moved
+there so late in a fatal illness, she said unguardedly:
+
+"_Oh, but he was very slightly ill when he came--it was more a
+preventive measure. None of us had any idea that he was a dying man, the
+symptoms developed so suddenly._"
+
+I also elicited another fact--_i.e._ that this delightfully interesting
+personality "so intellectual--so full of interest in everything" (to
+quote Miss Hunter's words), had died at the age of forty, in the very
+prime of life. No wonder, under the circumstances of so short an
+illness, in the very zenith of life and enjoyment, that body and soul
+should have been loath to separate, and thus free the imprisoned spirit!
+But Miss Hunter was adamant, and would admit nothing.
+
+Just before leaving her, it struck me that I had not yet told her about
+the text, so I repeated that episode, and then, for the first time, a
+startled look came into her eyes. She was taken by surprise, and said
+hastily: "That _is_ extraordinary! I was with him when he died in the
+night, and he kept on asking for that text. That is not so remarkable,
+many might have asked for that text, but I stopped once or twice after
+the first sentence, and he kept on urging me: "_Say it to the end, Miss
+Hunter! Say it to the end!_"
+
+Later the good lady even consented to write out the evidential points in
+this story, which I sent at once to my friend Dr Richard Hodgson.
+
+Immediately upon my return to London on this occasion, I was attacked
+quite suddenly by a very acute form of rheumatism, which laid me on my
+back--perfectly helpless--for several days.
+
+When the doctor arrived, his first question was: "Have you had any
+special shock lately? This particular form of rheumatism does not
+generally come on with so little warning _unless there has been a
+previous shock_."
+
+I was about to deny this, thinking he referred to unexpected news, but
+with the memory of my Devonshire experience so keen and clear, I felt
+bound to tell him that I had certainly had a shock to my nerves
+twenty-four hours previously.
+
+Soon after this sudden and sharp attack of illness I found myself in
+Portugal for the first time in my life.
+
+I had gone there with an English friend--Mrs Frampton--in order to be
+near connections who had lived in the country for many years.
+
+A cousin and I spent a delightful afternoon in that Cintra paradise of
+_Monserrat_, with General and Mrs Sartorius, who were living there at
+the time of my visit to Portugal. I have heard that even this charming
+house could tell strange tales if only walls could speak. It is easy to
+imagine that any spirits--carnate or discarnate--might deem it a
+privilege to haunt so exquisite a spot. Personally, I can only testify
+to the hospitality of our kind host and hostess and the excellence of
+the spirit of "Robur," which refreshed our weary bodies, and made the
+walk back to the Cintra Hotel, through the lovely woodland paths, a
+"thing of beauty and a joy for ever."
+
+To return to Lisbon. My friend Mrs Frampton had never been present at
+any sort of psychic phenomena, so we planned a little sitting for her
+during one of these Lisbon evenings.
+
+She and I descended in solemn state to the fine library of our host, on
+the ground floor, whilst his wife and sister elected to remain in the
+drawing-room upstairs. A sister-in-law also begged to be excused from
+accompanying us, and spent the whole time occupied by our _séance_, in
+playing Moody and Sankey hymns, doubtless hoping thereby to exorcise the
+evil spirits whom we should presumably evoke.
+
+Unfortunately, she did not play loud enough to divert the attention of
+the Portuguese cook, who promptly gave warning next day, saying she
+could not stand these "devilish practices"! We had failed to realise
+that the very wall, close to which our small table was placed, divided
+the kitchen from the large ground-floor library, so the poor woman
+doubtless sat with her ear well jammed up against this partition, and
+considered every rap of the table leg on the floor, a distinct footstep
+of the devil!
+
+Nothing more terrible happened to _us_ that evening than being forced to
+look up our English history once more, in "Hume" and "Green's Short
+History of the English People," both of which volumes were close at
+hand. For the whole _séance_ might have been an "easy lesson in English
+history," with John, Duke of Northumberland, Lady Jane Grey, the Earl of
+Leicester, and the famous Elizabeth as its exponents. All these
+purported to be with us that evening, and I am bound to say that all
+dates and details mentioned, which our middle-aged memories could not
+verify at the moment, were in every case corroborated by reference to
+the library books later.
+
+It was just before leaving England for Portugal that I first met a lady
+(with whom I have since become more intimate), under rather exceptional
+circumstances--these latter were unknown to me at the time.
+
+My brother, Colonel C. E. Bates, was living at this time (1901) in rooms
+in Cambridge Terrace, and the drawing-room floor was occupied by a Miss
+Isabel Smith, who was then only a name to us both. His landlady had
+given him to understand that this lady had connections in India, and was
+the niece of a General Propert, still on the active list, and an old
+friend of my brother's in Indian days.
+
+The last Sunday before starting for Lisbon I called in as usual to spend
+the afternoon in Cambridge Terrace, and found that the "drawing-room
+lady" had just been paying him a visit, and had left him most
+enthusiastic.
+
+This visit surprised me, because my brother, being a very great invalid,
+had an inveterate dislike to meeting strangers, with whom he generally
+found it difficult to carry on any lengthy conversation. But this
+visitor had evidently been an exception. My brother expressed some
+regret that I should have missed seeing her, so to please him I
+suggested sending his valet upstairs with his compliments, and asking if
+I might pay the lady a short visit, should she be disengaged.
+
+She came downstairs kindly, a second time, and we had a pleasant chat,
+whilst my brother and an old Indian brother officer carried on their
+conversation.
+
+I left England a few days later, and scarcely expected to see or hear
+any more of Miss Isabel Smith. Fate, however, ordained otherwise. Some
+weeks elapsed, and then I received a letter from my brother, mentioning
+the curious circumstances that, he had just heard, had led to his making
+the acquaintance of this pleasant neighbour. "It is too long a story to
+write," he concluded, "but I will tell you all about it next time we
+meet."
+
+He did so, and as his account exactly tallies with the one Miss Isabel
+Smith (now Mrs Finch) has kindly written out for me for insertion in
+this volume, I will quote the latter from her own words. I must premise
+that Miss Smith turned out to be naturally clairvoyant and
+clair-audient, rather to the disgust of my brother, who considered
+himself superior to these "superstitions." Her narrative is interesting
+not only in itself, but because it is an object lesson in the curious
+"hits and misses" in psychic investigation. In this case a spirit
+confessed to an impersonation; but it was an impersonation of the
+brother of a man whom my brother had really known in India--a fact
+entirely apart from any possible knowledge on the part of Miss Smith,
+who had never met my brother at the time of her adventure. I will now
+give Miss Smith's narrative.
+
+
+"When at Grindelwald in the winter 1900-1901 an excarnate entity came
+and spoke to me. He seemed much interested in the South African
+campaign; told me he had been a soldier, first in the Rifle Brigade,
+then in the Indian army. When I asked his name he said he was Henry
+Arthur Chomley (the name of a celebrated ambassador was the one given),
+that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, and had been in the
+Rifle Brigade and in India, _and had passed over two or three years
+before_.
+
+When, shortly afterwards, I returned to Cambridge Terrace, he realised
+the changed surroundings, and asked where I was. On learning I was in
+rooms he asked whether there was anyone else in the house, and on my
+telling him there was a paralysed military man downstairs named Bates,
+he exclaimed 'What! Charlie Bates? I knew him very well in India--do ask
+him if he remembers me!'
+
+I said I did not know the gentleman, but would certainly ask him if an
+opportunity should occur.
+
+A few days after this, a message was brought up to me from Colonel
+Bates, asking for my uncle, General Propert's, address in Burmah. This
+gave me the opening. I wrote giving the required information, and
+suggested that I might come and have a talk with him.
+
+In my next conversation with 'Colonel Chomley' I told him all this, and
+he again said: '_Mind you ask him about me!_' I answered: '_How can I,
+when I don't know what Colonel Bates' ideas are on these subjects? He
+might look on me as a dangerous lunatic!_'
+
+Colonel Chomley remarked: '_I think you will find that he is interested
+in psychic matters._'
+
+I discovered that this was true, for on my first visit I saw a copy of
+the S.P.R. Proceedings lying on the table.
+
+I found him interested, but unable to get beyond the 'subliminal
+consciousness' theory.
+
+A few days later I asked Colonel Bates if he had ever met a Colonel
+Henry Arthur Chomley in India. He thought for a moment, then said:
+
+'Chomley? Why, of course I knew a Chomley, but I don't know his
+Christian name. He was Brigade Major at Meean Meer, and I took over the
+brigade from him, and bought his horses, etc. Where did _you_ know him?'
+
+I then told him of the spirit who had given me the name of Henry Arthur
+Chomley, who said he had known him in India, and had over and over again
+begged to be remembered to him.
+
+The day following this conversation Colonel Bates sent me up his Army
+List, open, and marked at the name of Colonel _Walter_ Chomley, and a
+note explaining that it was not Henry Arthur, but _Walter Chomley_ whom
+he had known at Meean Meer.
+
+I then asked 'Henry Arthur' if his name was Walter or Henry Arthur.
+
+He said: '_Henry Arthur. Surely I ought to know my own name!_'
+
+Colonel Bates told the story to you the next time you (_i.e._ E. K.
+Bates) came to see him, and I remember we discussed it together when we
+met again.
+
+Shortly afterwards you wrote to tell me that you had looked up a
+_Debrett_ for 1895, and had there found _Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley, a
+brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, of the Rifle Brigade, etc._, so that
+Henry Arthur Chomley was evidently alive in that year, and _had_ been in
+the Rifle Brigade.
+
+I was much pleased to get this corroborative evidence, though the
+mistake in initials must have been Colonel Bates' error, and apologised
+to Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in the Unseen.
+
+A few weeks later, however, you wrote again, and told me that you had
+been staying with a friend, who drove you over to call upon Colonel and
+Mrs Henry Arthur Chomley, that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley,
+and was certainly _alive_, although not _at home_, at the time of your
+visit!
+
+This information startled me, and my guide, at my request, went to look
+up the _soi-disant_ Colonel to find out what it all meant.
+
+The latter then confessed to having taken a friend's name, said a sudden
+impulse came over him when I first asked his name, and having told one
+lie, he felt bound to go on deceiving me, but that he had known both
+Colonel Bates and Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in India, and that his
+own real name was Anstruther!"
+
+
+This was Miss Smith's narrative.
+
+Now out of this curious jumble of true and false, two points remain
+clear:
+
+My brother _had_ known a Chomley in India, and had succeeded him as
+Brigade Major at Meean Meer. This Chomley _was_ a brother of Sir
+Frederic Chomley, the well-known diplomatist, but his name was Walter,
+not Henry Arthur. Yet Sir Frederic _had_ a brother named Henry Arthur,
+and the impersonating Anstruther had borrowed the wrong brother's name
+when trying to pose as the friend of Colonel Charles Bates. To make
+confusion worse confounded, _Walter Chomley_ was alive, as well as
+_Henry Arthur_, at the time of Miss Mabel Smith's experiences, for I
+have seen his death within the last eight months!
+
+The second point is that, personally, my brother and I had reason to be
+grateful to the deceiving Anstruther. He was certainly the means of
+introducing a pleasant acquaintance to my brother and to me.
+
+Miss Mabel Smith's experience at Grindelwald reminds me of one of my own
+in the same place during the following year.
+
+I had gone there with a cousin, who was eager for skating and
+tobogganing, in January 1902, on my way to Rome. After a pleasant week
+at a charmingly quiet and comfortable hotel--the _Alpenrühe_ I think was
+the name--my cousin wished, for purposes of policy, to change over to a
+more famous, but noisy and overcrowded one.
+
+So on the evening of 3rd February we found ourselves in this immense
+caravanserai, having exchanged our large, comfortable, steam-heated
+rooms for small, oblong apartments, each provided with three doors as
+well as the window, and a wood fire to be fed from small "five-franc
+baskets," and always going out at that!
+
+There was deep snow on the ground and a heavy fog of snow falling when
+we made our change, so that one was not in the most brilliant spirits;
+and being suddenly thrust into the midst of a big, heterogeneous company
+of strangers is never exhilarating.
+
+Our bedrooms, though small and not specially comfortable, were perfectly
+commonplace, the very last _milieu_ with which one would have associated
+any interesting experience. The window of my room faced the door into
+the passage, my bed lay between the two; right and left of it were two
+other doors, each communicating with other occupied rooms.
+
+Therefore I thought little the first night of noises and moving of
+furniture, taking for granted that these must be occurring either right
+or left of me, and that the clearness of the atmosphere accounted for my
+odd impression that a table and chair--between my bed and the
+window--were being moved.
+
+The following night (4th February), however, this fact was indisputable.
+I had heard both my neighbours retire to bed by ten P.M., as so many do
+who have been skating and tobogganing all day long. I had sat up reading
+for half-an-hour beyond this, and went to bed at eleven P.M., by which
+time there was perfect silence in the hotel, as no special entertainment
+was going on.
+
+Very shortly, this movement of the furniture began again, unmistakably
+in my room this time. Curiously enough, it did not frighten me at all
+nor suggest burglars (a far greater terror to me than ghosts!). I cannot
+at this distance of time remember _why_ the idea of Mr Myers should have
+come to me in connection with these noises; but I am quite certain that
+I _did_ think of him at the time, and fully expected his name to be
+given, when I asked if anyone wished to speak to me and were trying to
+attract my attention by moving the furniture about.
+
+It was greatly to my surprise, therefore, that the name of _Gifford_ was
+given. I may here note that this was the real name given to me. He said
+he was a judge, one who had lived fifty or sixty years previously, that
+he had once unintentionally condemned an innocent man to be hanged, and
+he was evidently still greatly perturbed about this, and begged for my
+prayers.
+
+All this put Mr Myers entirely out of my head--_unfortunately_, as
+events proved.
+
+I had some further talk with Judge Gifford, but do not remember it in
+detail.
+
+Next morning I told my cousin of my experience, and on the evening of
+the following day mentioned it in the presence of some neighbours at
+_table d'hôte_ who had introduced psychic subjects to us.
+
+This gentleman and his wife were both impressed, and yet incredulous,
+and when my cousin laughingly declared that "Gifford had come to _her_
+the second night, but that she told him she was too tired out to listen
+to him," we all three supposed that she was turning the whole subject
+into ridicule. This would have been quite characteristic of her,
+although I have always thought she had some mediumistic faculty, and was
+one of the many people whom I should advise to leave these matters
+alone. I was the more convinced that she was merely "chaffing" on this
+occasion, because when I warned our acquaintances of her powers of
+exaggeration in "making fun" of things, she said nothing.
+
+But when we had returned to our rooms that night she remarked quite
+quietly: "But he _did_ come, Emmie! When you said that at _table d'hôte_
+about my exaggerating things, I let it pass, because very often it is
+true. But what I said this evening was _absolutely correct_, though
+perhaps it is as well those people should not believe it. Someone _did_
+come to my bedside last night, and said: 'I am Gifford--will you listen
+to me?' And I said: 'No; not to-night. I am too tired,' just as I told
+you."
+
+I think poor Gifford came again more than once to me; but I had done all
+I could for him, and explained this, adding that he must now leave me
+alone, which he did.
+
+Later my cousin returned to Paris, and I went on to Rome, where I
+received a letter from Dr Richard Hodgson enclosing some Piper script.
+
+_F. W. H. Myers communicating_, said that he had come to me on the
+evening of 4th February, that I seemed to recognise him, and that he
+thought he had "got his message through to me," and hoped that I should
+write to Dr Hodgson to that effect.
+
+In answering Dr Hodgson's letter I denied the Myers' episode _in toto_,
+so far as _my_ consciousness was concerned. In fact, the Gifford
+incident put all else so entirely out of my mind that I fear I did not
+even mention to Dr Hodgson that my _first_ thought that night had been
+connected with Mr Myers.
+
+Anyway, the next letter from Boston enclosed an account of a sitting,
+where Mr Myers came and apologised for having misled Dr Hodgson about my
+recognition of him.
+
+His words were almost literally as follows:--
+
+"I am extremely sorry, my dear Hodgson, about that affair with Miss
+Bates. I should not have thought of mentioning it to you had I not felt
+convinced that she recognised me. _Her astral body was quite aware of my
+presence_, and I quite thought she had realised it on the physical
+plane" (the italics are mine).
+
+It would seem that the Myers' message was in the very act of
+transmission from my astral to my normal consciousness when this man
+Gifford must have come, switching off the telephone for Mr Myers, and
+getting on to it himself. Probably his great distress of mind would
+have made him the stronger force of the two for the time being.
+
+There must always be many disappointments of this kind in our research.
+There is always something which so nearly succeeds and then just fails
+at last. This _must_ be the case where conditions are so fine and subtle
+and so easily disturbed, and where our own ignorance of many necessary
+factors is so profound. This makes it none the less disheartening at
+times!
+
+Later I made an attempt with my friend Baroness Rosenkrantz of Rome to
+get a message through the other way--_i.e._ from Mr Myers and myself to
+Dr Hodgson, _via_ Mrs Piper.
+
+The Baroness and I had a little "sitting" alone, wrote one or two short
+messages with a couple of extracts from Mr Myers' own writings, sealed
+up the envelope carefully, and I forwarded it to Dr Hodgson.
+
+But the test failed. Two years later Dr Hodgson spoke of the letter as
+being still intact.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA, 1903
+
+
+My second visit to India took place in the early months of 1903, and I
+approached it this time from Burmah. Fielding Hall's "Soul of a People"
+had thrown its magic spell over me, and Miss Greenlow and I were both
+anxious also to see the far-famed Shwé Dagon Temple.
+
+I came to the conclusion from what I saw, and still more from what I
+heard, that Mr Fielding Hall must have appealed sometimes to his
+imagination for his facts, and allowed an exquisite poetical fancy to
+cast its glamour even over these. But the beautiful Golden Temple of
+Rangoon defies all powers of exaggeration. We went there again and
+again, and wandered amongst its endless small temples, representing
+various forms of worship, including even a Chinese joss-house, which is
+stamped upon my memory through a disaster, which I have always connected
+with this special temple; rank superstition though it be.
+
+We had spent several weeks upon the Irrawaddy River; had wandered
+through beautiful, dusty Mandalay; had explored Bhamo and marvelled over
+the exquisite visions of fairy-like beauty, painted anew for us morning
+and evening, on this most glorious river; and had finally returned to
+Rangoon for a few days' rest before starting for Calcutta.
+
+It was an exquisite evening, just before our departure, when we went,
+towards sunset, to say farewell to the Shwé Dagon. At that hour it is to
+be seen at its best, for the level rays of the Eastern sun, light up the
+golden cupola into startling and fairy-like magnificence.
+
+Having watched this glorious spectacle for some minutes, the air grew
+chilly, compared with the intense heat of the day, and darkness was
+coming on apace as we turned to retrace our steps.
+
+A few days before, we had noticed a Chinese joss-house, standing in one
+corner of the huge elevated platform upon which the Shwé Dagon rests. In
+the maze of buildings, and owing to the swiftly falling darkness, we
+could not at once locate this temple; and most unfortunately for _me_,
+with the stupid persistence which such a failure sometimes brings, both
+Miss Greenlow and I were determined to find it out before leaving the
+Golden Temple. At last a joyous exclamation warned me that my friend had
+been successful in her quest.
+
+The first time I had seen this joss-house I had run up the steps
+heedlessly, but felt such an unpleasant influence on entering it that I
+came away at once, and only regret not having been equally prudent a
+second time.
+
+Miss Greenlow was gazing at some grotesque carvings in one corner of the
+temple, still dimly visible, and called out to me to come and look at
+them also. Very reluctantly I joined her, and stood for a few minutes
+waiting, till she was ready to leave.
+
+There was something so gloomy, so uncanny, and depressing--I must even
+say _malignant_--in the building at this twilight hour, that I could
+stand the influence no longer, and as Miss Greenlow seemed inclined to
+linger, I hurried down the stone steps, saying: "_I can't stay in that
+place! I will wait for you at the top of the marble stairs._"
+
+Now these steps, broken and dirty, and lined by small booths selling
+every imaginable toy and bit of tinsel, including small models of the
+various temples, led by steep flights up and down from the huge platform
+of ground I have mentioned. Some small link-boys were crowding round as
+Miss Greenlow rejoined me, clamouring to be allowed to light us down the
+steps--a very necessary precaution, for the darkness was quickly
+replacing the exquisite sunset colouring.
+
+I am, as a rule, rather a remarkably sure-footed person, and the
+lanterns of the boys threw ample light upon the steps, yet the first
+moment of my descent I was considerably surprised to find myself at the
+bottom of the first whole flight of hard marble steps! I had no
+recollection of a slip even--one moment I was standing, carefully
+prepared to descend; the next I was lying on my back at the bottom of a
+long flight of steps, with the link-boys gaping in astonishment. They
+could not have been more astonished than I was! The very swiftness of
+the fall was probably my salvation; otherwise I think my spine _must_
+have been injured. As it was, I was very much hurt, however; the pain
+was intense for a time, and the muscles of my back were so swollen that
+they stood up in ridges as big as a good-sized finger, for some time
+after the escapade. In fact, it was quite six weeks before all local
+trouble was over, and many more weeks before I had recovered from the
+unexpected shock.
+
+I have had several falls in my life, but never one other where there was
+absolutely _no_ preliminary warning or sense of slipping, however swift.
+
+The experience was exactly that of being suddenly _hurled down_ the
+steps by some outside force. I can only add that I deeply deplored my
+unguarded words to Miss Greenlow, when I told her I was sure there was
+some malignant spirit in the joss-house.
+
+Perhaps he wished politely to demonstrate the correctness of my remark.
+
+The short voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta was made pleasant by the
+kindness of a European friend in Rangoon, who came "to see us off," and
+asked if he should introduce to me a little Burmese lady, very rich and
+very _dévote_, who was on board with us, going to Calcutta to pay a
+visit to her husband, who lived in that city.
+
+"She is one of our principal native residents," my Rangoon friend
+explained to me before introducing her. "She is also intensely
+interested in her Buddhist religion, and I think this may interest you,
+from what you have told me of your investigations."
+
+So the little lady was duly presented, and thinking to open our
+conversation pleasantly, I remarked that Mr Rowell had told me that she
+was much interested in religious questions, and that although not a
+theosophist myself, I numbered several of them amongst my friends.
+
+But I found myself quite on the wrong tack. She screwed up her little
+mouth, as if tasting some nasty medicine, and then said in excellent
+colloquial English:
+
+"Oh, they are no good at all. They have muddled everything up, and got
+it all wrong. That is why we are beginning to write tracts and send out
+missionaries. The great Buddha made no propaganda; neither did we for
+many, many centuries. We believe that people must grow into this
+knowledge; but now when you Western people come and take little bits of
+our system, and piece them together all wrong--well, then, we are forced
+to show you what is the truth! It is like a puzzle map, and all you
+theosophists are trying to fit the pieces in, wrong side upward." And
+she finished with a merry and apologetic laugh, remembering, no doubt,
+that I had spoken of having friends amongst these "stupid muddlers"!
+
+She gave me quite a number of the "tracts" of which she had spoken,
+setting forth the true Buddhism, and mostly printed in Mandalay, and I
+made a point of passing these on to some of the friends I had mentioned
+to her.
+
+I can only trust they were appreciated, and efficacious in reducing the
+confusion resulting from trying to adapt Eastern mysticism to Western
+consumption!
+
+Our conversation became still more interesting when I discovered that a
+mysterious fellow-passenger of ours on board the _Devonshire_, sailing
+from Marseilles to Rangoon, had taken this voyage at the expense of the
+Burmese lady, and, I am sorry to say, had occasioned her a great and
+quite inexcusable disappointment.
+
+This man, whom I will call Dr Gröne, was a professor at a celebrated
+university in the south of Europe, and was certainly a scholar--if not a
+gentleman!
+
+He had studied the Buddhist writings very deeply, and his name had been
+conveyed to this Burmese lady as that of one eager to throw off all ties
+of kinship, and retire--like the great Buddha himself--from the world,
+and find repose and enlightenment in a Burmese monastery. The only thing
+lacking in carrying out this excellent resolve was--as usual--_money_.
+
+The native lady, delighted to hear of so learned a gentleman, and one
+holding such an honourable position in Europe, being converted to the
+tenets of her religion, and thus wishing to give the best example of
+their influence upon him, agreed joyfully to forward the funds for his
+journey and to make arrangements for his stay in Rangoon before
+proceeding to Mandalay, where he was to be received as a Buddhist priest
+after a certain course of initiation.
+
+We had all remarked Dr Gröne on board--partly because he was so thin and
+tall, and walked the deck so persistently in fine weather or foul;
+partly because he owned an exceptionally fine and long beard, which
+parted and waved in the breeze as he passed to and fro in his lonely
+perambulations. I never saw him speak to anyone on board except my own
+table companion, Dr Gall, the Secretary of the Church Missionary
+Society, and a very interesting and intelligent man. This latter was
+also a distinguished Arabic scholar, and had lent me some striking
+monographs he had written on the Mohammedan faith, striking both by the
+scholarship and breadth of view and tolerance, which one does not
+generally associate with the Society that he represented.
+
+I had seen him more than once in the company of Dr Gröne, and when we
+reached Colombo, and read in the papers handed to us on broad that our
+ship contained the famous European professor who was journeying to
+Mandalay to become a Buddhist priest, after a touching farewell with
+wife and children, Dr Gall expressed both astonishment and incredulity.
+
+"He never said a word about it to me," was his remark. "I know he has
+studied the Buddhist religion very deeply, and he is anxious to get
+access to some MSS., which he hopes to find in Burmah; but that is not
+the same thing as becoming a priest. I expect the papers have
+exaggerated the facts."
+
+As a matter of fact, Dr Gröne certainly gave a lecture on Buddhism in
+Colombo on the day of our arrival, for one of our fellow-passengers had
+the curiosity to be present, but he, also, told me nothing had been said
+about the lecturer becoming a priest.
+
+The matter did not specially interest me; but on arrival at Rangoon, the
+only decent (?) hotel was crowded, and most of us had to put up with a
+very inferior class of accommodation.
+
+A few hours of this establishment sufficed for most of the passengers,
+who promptly went up country or on the river; but Miss Greenlow and I
+were obliged to spend three or four days in Rangoon, and Dr Gröne was at
+first our only companion.
+
+So, of course, we spoke to each other in self-defence. He talked of his
+home life and university work, and casually mentioned the death of his
+wife, _five years previously_, and the children who were awaiting him
+at home.
+
+This certainly tallied more with Dr Gall's ideas than the sensational
+Colombo newspaper account of his wife and children, to whom, like the
+great Buddha, he had bidden an eternal farewell! Naturally one did not
+touch upon this delicate subject, but I asked him how long he expected
+to remain in Rangoon. To my surprise, he said at once that his stay was
+quite uncertain--he might even be returning by the _Devonshire_, which
+was to sail within a week of her arrival.
+
+It seemed a long and expensive journey to take for so short a stay; but
+doubtless he had business reasons, and the matter dropped from my mind.
+
+When we returned, three or four weeks later, he was no longer in Rangoon
+apparently, and I did not expect to come upon his tracks again.
+
+The Burmese lady explained the Gröne mystery with some bitterness, and
+no wonder!
+
+Having come out free, upon the understanding with her, already
+mentioned, she had taken a room for him at the hotel, and had busied
+herself in buying blankets and a carpet and other small luxuries, to
+break the Mandalay monastery to him as gently as possible.
+
+When three days passed and he made no sign of moving on, she quietly
+intimated that it might be as well to begin the new life without delay,
+and said she had written to her brother, himself a priest in the
+monastery, to meet Dr Gröne at Mandalay and present him to the
+authorities at the monastery.
+
+This must probably have been about the time that I asked him innocently
+how long he would be staying in Rangoon.
+
+His plan had doubtless been to go to Mandalay in a dilettante sort of
+fashion, and to live in the monastery for a time, with the hope of
+getting access to some valuable and little known MSS.; but it did not
+suit his plans at all to be met at once by the brother of his
+benefactress, and kept under the eye of this priest, who knew exactly
+the circumstances under which he had been enabled to take the long
+journey from Marseilles.
+
+Being evidently a prudent man, he determined to seize the first
+opportunity for retreat from an impossible situation. How he raised
+enough money for the return voyage is not known. My Burmese acquaintance
+thought he must have applied to one of the Consulates, and that his
+university position would doubtless ensure his raising a loan.
+
+Anyway, he shipped himself surreptitiously once more on board the
+_Devonshire_, and arranged that the letter, containing the usual excuse
+of a "sudden telegram from Marseilles announcing the unexpected death of
+a near relation," should not be handed to his benefactress until the
+anchor was safely weighed.
+
+It was not a pleasant story, and treachery is no less perfidious for
+having an intellectual motive. I felt glad that Dr Gröne was not a
+fellow-countryman.
+
+Having disburdened herself on this one point of righteous indignation,
+our little Burmese lady became as bright and cheery as a child, wearing
+her collection of pretty native dresses, which could all have been
+packed easily into a fair-sized doll's trunk, with singular grace and
+charm. When the tender arrived to disembark us in Calcutta, her husband
+came with it, and was speedily introduced.
+
+We had tea with them a few days later in their handsome Calcutta flat,
+and this gave me the opportunity for a long and interesting talk with
+the husband, who proved to be a most intelligent and open-minded man.
+
+He spoke of Fielding Hall's delightful book with appreciation tinged by
+kindly amusement.
+
+"He has been many years in the country, but he still judges us as a
+foreigner."
+
+When I suggested that the judgment was at least very flattering to the
+Burmese, this Burmese gentleman laughed, and said:
+
+"Flattering? Yes--but not always quite true. One must see from _inside_,
+not from outside, to be quite true in one's judgments; and no foreigner
+can see from outside. It is a question of race and heredity, not of
+having spent twenty or thirty years, or even a lifetime, in a foreign
+land."
+
+I suggested that those who saw from _inside_ only, might also lack some
+essential factor in forming an accurate judgment.
+
+He agreed heartily to this, adding: "Yes, indeed. The ideal critic must
+have lived neither too near nor too far--mentally as well as physically;
+also he must have intuition. Now Mr Fielding Hall is an artist as well
+as a poet, but in judging my country he lets his intuition run riot
+sometimes, as well as his imagination."
+
+After reporting this conversation, it is unnecessary to add that my
+Burmese friend spoke English rather better than I did myself.
+
+We then talked about the position of woman in Burmah, and how much this
+had been extolled and held up as a object lesson to the rest of the
+world.
+
+If the position of woman is the true test of a nation's civilisation, as
+has been so often affirmed, then certainly Burmah must be in the van of
+the nations! Yet this is scarcely borne out by facts.
+
+I put this point as politely as I could, and my mind was at once set at
+ease by the purely impersonal way in which he met my remark.
+
+"Of course, we are not in the van of the nations, and yet it is quite
+true that our women have an exceptional position--quite a good enough
+one for an election cry for the Woman's Suffrage! Ah, yes! I have been
+in England," he added, with a merry twinkle in his little black eyes.
+"But you must realise that the unique position of woman with us is
+somewhat accidental. It is not the result of philosophical or moral
+conviction on the part of our men; it has been the natural outcome of
+circumstances, and a question of expediency rather than of ethics. So it
+was not really a 'test paper' for us at all! Our frequent wars in the
+past have taken the men out of their homes, and the women, at such
+times, were left alone to cope with not only the domestic, but the
+agricultural problems. All business of this kind passed through their
+hands, and in time they developed the qualities of industry, good
+judgment and power of taking responsibility, necessary for success in
+such a life. Then when the husbands came back and found everything going
+on so well and without trouble to themselves, they were only too glad to
+fall in with the existing state of things. We Burmese are lazy fellows
+after all. We can rise to a big call, but if our women will look after
+our business for us, we are quite content to smoke our pipes in peace
+and look on--and, of course, the one who makes the wheels go round is
+the one who really drives the coach. Believe me, there is more of
+expediency than nobility in the attitude of our men towards our women,
+and more of laziness than either, perhaps! But Fielding Hall would call
+this blasphemy, I am afraid!"
+
+And so, with a joking word, our interesting talk came to an end, leaving
+me with a sincere hope that I might some day meet again both the
+intelligent husband and the charming wife.
+
+I found the air at Simla quite marvellous for psychic possibilities,
+and this was certainly a great surprise to me; nor was it only a
+question of altitude and a dry atmosphere. Missouri and the Dhera Doon
+are celebrated for the purity of air and climate generally, but the
+influences there were quite different.
+
+Even Peshawar, with its glorious crown of snow-capped mountains, brought
+no special psychic atmosphere to me; nor the Khyber Pass, where I had
+thoroughly expected to be haunted by the horrors of the past; nothing of
+the kind occurred. The beauty of the day when we visited this historic
+pass was only to be matched by its own extreme natural beauty; but no
+haunting memories hung round it for me.
+
+Perhaps a night passed in those rocky defiles might have brought some
+weird experience, but no European would be allowed to woo adventure in
+this way, even with the laudable desire for advance in psychological
+phenomena! But I stayed there quite long enough to prove--for the
+hundredth time--that _an attitude of expectation_ acts with me as a
+deterrent rather than encouragement, where the Unseen is in question.
+
+I had heard so much of Simla Society and Simla Scandals, and so little
+of Simla Beauty and Loveliness!--in Nature, I mean--not Human Nature.
+
+It is true we were there at the most exquisite time in the year, when
+the air was still fresh and keen, when the last snows and the first
+blooms of rhododendrons were greeting each other, when the long
+stretches of valley, brown and purple and emerald green, lay like soft
+velvet in the immense distances towards the horizon line.
+
+As I looked at all this, day after day, it seemed to me that Simla,
+without its crowds of social butterflies, male and female, and the dust
+and the flies, and even the heat that they bring with them, was one of
+the most exquisitely beautiful spots that the Great Creator ever
+"thought out" in His mind. Nowhere have I seen such a _velvety_ effect
+of rolling hill and soft mountain-side; such gorgeous atmospheric
+visions; such a carnival of beauty and colour.
+
+We must have seen Simla at the most ideal time in the year, or people
+must become _blasé_ and blinded to its intoxicating beauty, thanks to
+tennis tournaments and Government House receptions and the whole stupid
+Social mill.
+
+Not even the beauties of Kashmir have dimmed the memory of Simla for me;
+but I would not go there again, and in the season, for anything that
+could be offered to me.
+
+All beauty is sacred, and I guard jealously my sacred memory of the
+place, known to so many merely as a byword for folly and flirtation.
+
+Some strange and curious experiences came to me there, both in automatic
+writing and other ways; but these are of too private a nature for
+publication.
+
+And so, with the beauty of Simla and the romance of Kashmir as jewels in
+my memory, I must end my second visit to India.
+
+It is said that pleasant as well as painful experiences are apt to run
+in _threes_. I trust this may be the case. If so, it will mean that once
+again I shall tread upon Indian soil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY
+
+
+In the very heart of Warwickshire there is a beautiful old "half timber"
+hall, approached by a noble avenue of elms. The hall has come down from
+father to son, in the direct line, for nearly six hundred years, as the
+dates upon the front of the house testify.
+
+The present Squire is not only an old friend of my early youth, but is
+connected through marriage, and he and his wife and I have always been
+on very friendly terms. He is the usual type of fox-hunting squire and
+county magistrate, did good service during the South African War by
+raising a corps of Yeomanry from the estate, and going out with them to
+fight his country's battles, and, needless to say, he received a hearty
+ovation from his wife and his county when he returned to them in safety.
+He is devoted to his beautiful house and estate, and is the last man to
+entertain fancies or superstitions in connection with either.
+
+It is necessary to give these few words of explanation before relating
+an "incident in my life" for which I have always found it difficult to
+account, except on the supposition that some germ of psychic
+sensitiveness may exist, even under a hunting squire's "pink coat and
+top-boots."
+
+I have known Greba Hall since I was a child, and all its quaint old
+family portraits, especially those in the fine oak-panelled hall, with
+the old-fashioned open fireplace and "dogs" of the fifteenth century.
+But there were so many of these pictures massed together that I have
+never distinguished one from the other, with the exception of the few
+immediate ancestors of my friend.
+
+Some years ago I was staying with a lady who lived about three miles
+from Greba, and we had driven over there to have tea with the Squire's
+wife, whom I will call Mrs Lyon. The friend I have mentioned had become
+interested in psychic matters since my acquaintance with her, and I had
+discovered that she possessed some psychometric capacity.
+
+In the interests of non-psychic readers, I may explain that psychometry
+is the science of learning to receive impressions and intuitions from
+the atmosphere surrounding any material object--a letter, a ring, a
+piece of pebble or shell, and so forth. We seem capable of impressing
+all material objects with our personality, and naturally this is
+especially the case in letters written and signed by us.
+
+The lady with whom I was then staying--Mrs Fitz Herbert--had tried
+receiving impressions from letters several times, at my suggestion, and
+always with more or less success. We had been speaking of this with Mrs
+Lyon, who was always very sympathetic, and she suggested giving one of
+her own letters to Mrs Fitz Herbert to be "psychometrised."
+
+The latter was sitting facing a door which led from the hall to an inner
+room, and over this door hung the half-length portrait of an old
+gentleman, whom I had never specially remarked before, as the picture
+was hung rather high, and there was nothing very characteristic about
+the face.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert glanced at the portrait once or twice as she held the
+letter, and began her remarks upon the writer; but I had no reason to
+suppose that the glance was other than casual and accidental.
+
+She gave, however, a very remarkably accurate description (as it turned
+out) of Mrs Lyon's unknown friend, both as to his character and the
+special and rather unique conditions of his life.
+
+I was feeling naturally gratified that my "pupil" should have acquitted
+herself so well, when she suddenly uttered a little expression of pain
+and complained of severe headache.
+
+I knew that she suffered from these headaches at times, and was
+therefore not surprised by her asking leave to ring for the pony
+carriage at once, and we were soon on our way home.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert was driving the pony, and as we turned out of the long
+elm avenue she murmured in a tone of relief:
+
+"How thankful I am to have got away from that old man! I knew he was
+telling me what to say about that letter, but afterwards he wanted to
+give me some message himself, and I could not understand it, and that is
+what made my head so bad." Then she explained, seeing my bewilderment,
+that she was referring to the old gentleman whose portrait hung over the
+door I have mentioned.
+
+I suggested that we had better try to find out what the old man wanted
+to say, and we arranged to do so that evening after dinner; but as Mr
+Fitz Herbert (who had a very charming tenor voice) elected to come in
+and sing to us, the old gentleman's communication had to be postponed
+until the morning.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert and I sat down in the drawing-room the next day, armed
+with pencils and paper, so soon as her domestic duties were over. She
+was most anxious that _I_ should take the message, but this seemed to me
+absurd, considering that I had received no sort of impression about the
+picture and could not even recall the face. So she took up the pencil
+very unwillingly, and after some difficulty the name of _Richard Lyon_
+was given, with the information that he had owned Greba, and had passed
+over to the next sphere about one hundred and thirty years previously.
+But when it came to trying to find out what he wanted to say, she
+professed herself quite unable to grasp it, and passed the pencil
+determinedly over to me.
+
+Much to my surprise (for I had seemed to have no link with the old man
+at all), he was able to write through my hand with great ease.
+
+He explained to me that he had been much devoted to the property, had
+lived only to improve it in every possible way, and that through his
+concentration of interest on this one subject his life had been a very
+limited one, and that now he could not get away from the remembrance of
+his earth life and his beloved Greba.
+
+"I suppose he is trying to explain that he is earth-bound," suggested
+Mrs Fitz Herbert.
+
+"Yes; that is just the truth," was the eager response through my hand,
+"and it is so sad to think that my own descendants are the ones to keep
+me imprisoned in this way. I am told that I could progress, as they call
+it here, and be much happier if I could only forget Greba, even for a
+time. And it worries me to see things done so differently and not to be
+able to do anything myself for the old place. There is no happiness for
+me here. Do ask them to set me free," he continued rather pathetically.
+
+"But they don't _want_ to hold you down," I answered. "Tell me how they
+do it and what you wish them to do."
+
+The old man then explained the position very carefully and sensibly. He
+admitted that his own deep love for his old property and surroundings
+and his failure in life to develop any other very deep affection, was
+chiefly in fault, but he added, that his portrait being hung there, in
+the hall of his descendants, was also very unfortunate for him.
+
+"It drags me down--I don't know why--but I am sure I could get away more
+easily if they would not keep that picture in the old hall."
+
+A few more practical questions elicited the following instructions:--He
+said the picture might remain in the _county_, so long as it was not in
+any house owned by a _Lyon_ (there were several members of the family in
+Warwickshire); or it might be sent to London or elsewhere, and kept by
+members of the Lyon family, so long as they were not in the direct
+descent, and _did not live in his old county_.
+
+We drove over to Greba that afternoon, and took the "message" with us,
+knowing there was no fear of encountering the gibes of my fox-hunting
+friend at three P.M. on any week day in the hunting season.
+
+Mrs Lyon was extremely interested; she not only endorsed the _Richard
+Lyon_ and his dates, but told us that he had done an immense deal for
+the property, as her husband had often impressed upon her, and that at
+his death, about one hundred and thirty years before, he had lain in
+state for three days in the very hall where we had taken our tea, and
+where his picture now hung. This was great encouragement, so we put our
+heads together, wondering _how_ the poor old man's entreaty might be
+complied with.
+
+Mrs Lyon remembered that several of the old portraits were shortly to be
+sent to a picture dealer in the neighbouring town (some ten miles away)
+to be cleaned, but this special picture was not in need of restoration,
+unfortunately.
+
+"Still, I could put it with the others, and let it go to Warwick, and
+then tell the man not to do anything with it--but what would Edward say?
+Can you _imagine_ his allowing the picture to be taken down upon this
+evidence?"
+
+From an acquaintance with "Edward" extending over large tracts of years,
+I was forced to admit that even my robust imagination could not reach so
+far. "_Skittles!_" or "_Confounded cheek!_" would be his mildest reply
+to such a request, even from the friend of his youth! I did not care to
+think how much further his indignation might carry him!
+
+But I felt so strongly that something outside myself had inspired the
+message, with its accurate instructions, that at last I prevailed upon
+Mrs Lyon to promise she would mention the matter to her husband, and
+thus leave the responsibility of refusal with _him_.
+
+She did so, and the refusal was all my fancy had painted--and more!
+
+Several months passed, and the following spring I was once more in the
+neighbourhood, staying with my own relations this time, who were related
+also to the Squire and his wife.
+
+The first piece of news I received at dinner the night of my arrival was
+that the Greba Hall picture _had been sent in to Warwick!_
+
+I could hardly believe my ears. My relatives could tell me nothing
+beyond the fact, and advised my paying an early visit to Greba Hall
+during the absence of the master.
+
+I did this, and Mrs Lyon told me all she knew about the matter, which
+was not very much.
+
+"After you were here last," she said, "I spoke to Edward as I promised,
+and, of course, he laughed the whole thing to scorn, and was very rude
+about our tomfoolery."
+
+"Yes, I know all about that," I answered hastily. "But what happened
+_afterwards_--after I left Warwickshire, I mean?"
+
+"That was the queerest part of it all," she resumed. "A few days after
+you had gone away he stood under the picture one evening, coming in from
+hunting and waiting for tea in the hall, and said as he looked up at old
+Richard Lyon:
+
+"'Do you suppose I should allow _your_ picture to be taken down--_you_
+who did so much for my property? Of course not!'"
+
+"This happened once or twice, at intervals. Then he _said_ nothing, but
+I used to notice that he always looked up at the picture whenever he
+came into the hall or stood by the fireplace. At last, about three
+months ago, he turned round suddenly, and said:
+
+"'When are you going to send those pictures to be cleaned?' Now you know
+I had been keeping the other pictures back, with a dim hope that Edward
+might relent. But I saw it was quite useless, so I told him they were
+going next day. To my intense surprise he said rather abruptly: 'Then
+send this picture with them, and don't ask me any questions.'"
+
+His wife took the hint, and waited for no second bidding. Off went the
+picture to the Warwick shop, and there it remained for nearly six
+months.
+
+When it came back eventually, the Squire was very triumphant on the
+subject, but I was equally triumphant in pointing out that nothing could
+alter the fact that the picture _had_ been sent away, in spite of his
+earlier denunciations of our folly.
+
+Also I suggested that a good deal can happen in six months on either
+side of the veil, and that no doubt poor old Richard Lyon had had ample
+opportunity to "get free," as he called it, thanks to the unaccountable
+action of his descendant!
+
+I have reserved this story for my last chapter for two reasons. It
+happened within the last few years, but I cannot remember the exact
+date, and dare not inquire from my irascible hunting friend; and also it
+did not specially link on to any of the previous incidents described.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I must now pass on to the autumn months of 1905, which found me in
+Eastbourne, where I have various kind friends.
+
+I had been going through a time of great anxiety, owing to family
+reasons, and went down to Eastbourne with every prospect of finding rest
+and peace there. I arrived on the 11th of November, and the first few
+days amply justified my hopes.
+
+Then a feeling of the most intense depression came over me, quite
+unexpected and unaccountable. My family anxieties and responsibilities
+were happily over. I had been able to make a wise, and, as it turned
+out, most admirable choice, in finding a fresh attendant for an invalid
+brother, and there was nothing now to be done but to rest on my oars and
+be thankful that a most trying time--requiring infinite patience and
+tact--was over.
+
+When this unaccountable depression came on so suddenly, I put it down to
+reaction, and expected it to pass away with returning strength, after
+the heavy strain. But it _increased_ as the weeks passed on into
+December, and did not lift until about eight A.M. on the morning of 22nd
+December.
+
+Then I had one of the most vivid experiences of my life. As suddenly as
+they had enveloped me some weeks before, so did the heavy clouds now
+roll off, leaving me with a sense of freedom and exaltation such as I
+have seldom experienced. This sense of freedom and joy and happiness was
+so marked that I mentioned it at once to an intimate friend, who came to
+see me that day after breakfast. I said to her: "I can only describe it
+as if one had suddenly been let out of prison or taken from a dark,
+dismal room into one with glorious sunshine streaming through the
+windows, where the very sense of being alive is sufficient joy; in fact,
+I never felt so thoroughly alive before. And the curious thing is that
+there is no apparent reason for this--nothing is changed--I have not
+even had any specially pleasant letters. Life is just the same on the
+outer; but on the _inner?_ Well, I cannot describe it!"
+
+"But can't you account for it at all?" asked my friend, who had been
+with me through all the depressing influences of the former weeks and
+was astounded, as well as delighted, by the inexplicable change in my
+spirits.
+
+"Well, it is the day after the shortest day," I said, laughing. "But it
+has never had such an extraordinary effect upon me before."
+
+All day long this exuberant feeling of delight and happiness remained. I
+had no specially spiritual or religious experience in connection with
+it, but rather the happy feeling of confidence that a child might have,
+who, after wandering about in unknown lanes and thorny paths, suddenly
+found himself transported, with no effort of his own, to the dear,
+familiar house and loving home faces.
+
+Five days later, in a private letter, I read the first allusion to the
+death of Dr Richard Hodgson. It came to me in a letter from Mrs Forbes,
+not as a fact, but as an uncorroborated report, which would probably be
+found incorrect.
+
+"_There is nothing about it in The Times this morning, so I don't
+suppose it is true._" These were her exact words. I don't think I ever
+really doubted the truth of it, although it came as a bolt out of the
+blue.
+
+Only a few days previously, a letter from an intimate friend of Dr
+Hodgson in America (he had brought us together) mentioned her having
+seen him lately and thinking he was really much depressed over his work
+and other matters, "_though, doubtless, if I taxed him with this he
+would say it was quite untrue; but I feel quite convinced that it is
+true_."
+
+These words had not at the time given me any clue to my own curious
+depression, but when the first _rumour_ of his death reached me, I felt
+convinced that it was true, and that I must have taken on his joyful
+conditions when he first found himself on the other side of the veil. I
+can only surmise, therefore, that the weeks of my depression _may_ have
+corresponded with feelings alluded to by his intimate friend; although
+less intuitive, if not less valued associates, may have noticed nothing
+but his usual cheery and genial spirits.
+
+A telegram sent to Mr Stead showed me clearly that my inquiry had been
+_his_ first intimation of anything wrong. Then, in despair of getting
+accurate information, I wrote to Sir Oliver Lodge, who kindly responded
+at once, confirming my worst fears. He was good enough to send me later
+the particulars of the event, supplied by Professor William James.
+
+It was a bitter blow for _us_, but for _him_ how joyous an awakening!
+
+I am grateful for having had, through personal experience, even a dim
+reflection of that wonderful New Life, so overwhelming and so exuberant,
+that its rays could reach to the hearts of some of those who had been
+honoured by his friendship.
+
+On comparing notes I found that, allowing for difference of time,
+forty-eight hours must have elapsed between his physical departure and
+my experience of his awakening to new conditions.
+
+There may be various ways of accounting for this. The spirit may not
+have been wholly freed at once from its physical envelope, but may have
+remained possibly, in some condition of unconsciousness, after the
+strangely sudden severance of the tie that binds body and soul together.
+
+
+_Note._--Since the above was written, I have received an explanation of
+the lapse of time between the passing of Doctor Hodgson, 20th December,
+and my experience of 22nd December 1905.
+
+On 6th February 1907 I had the privilege of a sitting with Miss
+MacCreadie, who not only gave an accurate description of Doctor
+Hodgson's personal appearance, and of his sudden call hence, but added
+that this spirit wished to explain to me that he had not been able to
+get entirely away from the body for quite two days after physical death,
+and that meanwhile he must have been in a state of trance. Miss
+MacCreadie did not know the name of the spirit whom she described so
+accurately, and whose message was thus conveyed to me.--E. K. B.
+
+
+Some time after Dr Hodgson left us, a friend in London wrote to me that
+she had either just read or heard that he had made some communication,
+to the effect that "_he was not very happy, as he had regarded his work
+only from the intellectual point of view_."
+
+This seemed to me a most unlikely sort of message to come from such a
+man.
+
+In such cases there is nothing like going to the fountain-head for
+information, and this came to me in the following words, which are, I
+think, characteristic and certainly sensible:--
+
+"My work _was_ intellectual--how could I regard it from any other point
+of view? That has nothing to do with the spiritual side of things. My
+spiritual life was very latent, it is true; but it was sincere, so far
+as it went, and in this more favourable atmosphere, the buds are
+unfolding, and I am learning more and more of the love and wisdom which
+I always dimly saw and appreciated. It is the attitude of mind which is
+all-important, and my attitude, though critical, was never obstructive,
+as you know."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I should like to say a few words now on the subject of superstitions. We
+are _all_ superstitious in various ways and upon different points--I may
+laugh at _your_ superstition because it does not happen to appeal to me,
+but you may be quite sure you could find out my "Achilles Heel" if we
+lived together long enough.
+
+The only difference between people is, that some are honest about their
+superstitions and others--are not!
+
+I met a lady not long ago at a foreign _table d'hôte_ who started our
+acquaintance by remarking that she was thankful to say she had not a
+single superstition. Before we had spent ten days under the same roof I
+discovered that she believed in portents and lucky stones and the "whole
+bag of tricks," and possessed the power of seeing people in their astral
+bodies.
+
+This is to introduce my own strongest superstition, which is a horror of
+seeing the new moon for the first time through glass. _Breaking_ glass
+is almost as disastrous in my experience, even if the article itself
+only costs a few pence.
+
+Now I do not for one moment suggest that either one or other is the
+_cause_ of my subsequent misfortunes. No one surely can be childish
+enough to suppose such a thing; yet I have known sensible people labour
+this point in order to show me the folly of my ways--and thoughts.
+
+Again, I am quite aware that some people may break as much glass or
+china as the proverbial bull, and see the moon through the former medium
+every month of their lives, and not be a penny the worse for it--beyond
+the amount of their breakages. I only maintain that for _me_ these two
+things are invariably the precursors of misfortune.
+
+When people say to me: "How can a sensible woman like yourself be so
+foolish as to think such things?" I can only truthfully answer that I
+should be very much _more_ foolish if so many years of my life had
+passed without my noticing the sequence of events.
+
+But to _explain_ the phenomena is quite another matter.
+
+It seems to me quite reasonable that, allowing the possibility of
+influences coming to us from the other side, some sign--no matter how
+trivial--might be impressed upon us as a gentle warning to be prepared
+for disasters, more or less severe.
+
+Another curious thing is this: I have never found that avoiding seeing
+the moon through glass _in any artificial way_ prevents disaster. I used
+to let kind friends, indulgent to my "folly," lead me blindfold up to
+the window, carefully thrown open for my benefit. I can remember a most
+elaborate scene of precaution once, in an American railway carriage
+between Philadelphia and Boston, when a charming American lady, about to
+lecture on Woman's Suffrage, and grateful to me for some points I had
+given her with regard to the woman's question in New Zealand, insisted
+upon having a heavy window pulled up by a negro attendant, when she
+found out my little weakness.
+
+It was all of no avail. Left alone, I should most certainly have seen
+the moon through glass on that occasion, and I felt, even at the moment,
+that I had not really altered anything by falling in with the kind
+American lady's suggestion.
+
+In September 1906 I was going through a course of baths at Buxton, and
+on a certain Sunday (2nd September) I saw the moon through glass in my
+bedroom window in the most unmistakable way. There was no friendly
+cloud, no other twinkling light to throw the smallest shadow of doubt
+upon the fact. There was much good-humoured laughter over my
+"superstition" in the house; but I knew _some_ trouble was on its way,
+little dreaming that it was one which would alter my whole life.
+
+On the Wednesday morning (5th September) I received the first intimation
+of what proved to be the last illness of a brother who has been
+mentioned in these pages already, and who had been an invalid for nearly
+thirty years. A point to be noticed is that on the Sunday, when the sign
+came to me, he was in his usual health, and even on Monday went out for
+a long drive. The first attack of angina pectoris only came on in the
+middle of the night of Monday-Tuesday, 3rd to 4th September.
+
+Later, when the disease had become acute, and I was in the south of
+England, living in hourly suspense, and receiving telegrams and letters
+several times a day, another curious incident occurred which has a
+bearing upon our subject.
+
+As my readers are probably aware, in this sad and painful illness the
+only proof of unselfish affection which one can give, may be to keep
+away from the patient, when you know that all is being done for him that
+skill and devotion can suggest. The smallest agitation is almost certain
+to bring on a fresh attack of the terrible pain, and so long as there is
+_any_ hope of a rally, or, in fact, any consciousness that can possibly
+result in increased suffering, _everyone_ should be kept away from the
+patient except those who are in actual and necessary attendance.
+
+This naturally entails great mental distress and suffering upon those
+who are living from hour to hour, in a state of tension and suspense.
+
+After more than a fortnight of alternate hopes and fears, the position
+became almost unendurable, and I was making all preparations for a visit
+to the patient, or at least to the house where he lay (against my better
+judgment), when letters and a telegram arrived imploring me not to come,
+as a short visit from another relative had proved most disastrous in
+bringing on another attack of the terrible pain; from which he never
+really rallied.
+
+Under these distressing circumstances, there could be but one course
+open to me.
+
+I was staying with my kind friends Admiral and Mrs Usborne Moore at this
+sad time, and can never feel sufficiently grateful for their goodness
+to me and sympathy with my distress.
+
+The Admiral, as many of us know, is a most persevering student of
+psychic science, and I think it was by his suggestion, or at anyrate
+with his approval, that I determined to pay a visit to a lady of whom he
+had spoken to me--Mrs Arnold, a daughter-in-law of Sir Edwin Arnold--who
+is a gifted clairvoyant.
+
+I went alone to the house, that she might not be able to connect me with
+my host and hostess; and the interview was a remarkable one.
+
+There were many evidential points given, which, for family reasons, it
+is impossible to publish. She gave me the crystal ball to hold for a
+good five minutes, in order that it might become impregnated by my
+influence; and then she took it from me, and began making a series of
+statements, without pausing for a moment or attempting to "fish," to use
+a technical term.
+
+These statements included my own life and studies and chief interests,
+and the number and sex of my immediate family; also the attitude of the
+various members towards myself, and in each case the special statement
+was absolutely correct.
+
+Her first words were: "You are in great anxiety, I see. It is about the
+illness of an elderly man. _Two_ people with whom you are in very
+intimate relations are ill, I see, but I will tell you now of the one
+you wish to hear about especially."
+
+She went on to describe not only my brother's surroundings and illness
+at the time, but also his permanent state of paralysis, adding that he
+was now in the country, for she saw green trees all round him and
+waving grass. As my brother's life for many years had been spent
+entirely between London and the seaside, this was a good bit of
+evidence. As a matter of fact, he was spending a few weeks in a
+country cottage for the first time in his life.
+
+The single point where she failed was as to the _time_ of his passing
+away. She saw at once that the illness was one from which he could not
+permanently recover, and gave the approximate time very tentatively. "We
+cannot see times exactly--they come only in symbols. For instance, I see
+now falling leaves; it looks like an autumn scene, and so I infer that
+means later on--perhaps October or November."
+
+This, as I have said, was the only mistake in the whole interview. My
+brother passed to the Higher Life on 24th September.
+
+When I saw his valet in town later, I asked him about the trees, and he
+explained that owing to the great heat, the leaves were all over the
+ground, and gave an autumnal look to everything.
+
+Most of us noticed the same appearance in London and elsewhere, even
+quite early in September 1906.
+
+The _second_ friend lying dangerously ill was a puzzle to me at the
+time; but within five days of my brother's transition, I heard of the
+death of Judge Forbes, who was one of my most intimate friends, as Mrs
+Arnold had truly observed. His illness was a very short one; but on
+comparing notes with members of his family I found that he had taken to
+his bed three days _before_ my visit to Mrs Arnold, and was already very
+seriously ill, although I had no knowledge of the fact for more than a
+week after my interview with her.
+
+Before closing these personal records I must say a few words on the much
+vexed question of psychic photographs.
+
+As my friend Admiral Usborne Moore observes in a letter received from
+him as I write these words: "We are dealing with a great mystery here."
+He is himself one of those who by persevering effort is helping us to
+solve the mystery.
+
+It is certainly the branch of psychic science which promises the best
+results from an evidential point of view, but it must be a case of "each
+man his own photographer."
+
+There is always a tendency in human nature to be over-credulous as to
+our own achievements, and over-sceptical as to those of our neighbours.
+
+So for many years probably, we shall only accept our "very own" psychic
+photographs as quite genuine; but when a sufficient number of people are
+convinced by their personal experiences in this line of research, there
+will be some hope that the subject will go through the usual stages--(1)
+Impossible and absurd; (2) Possible, but very improbable; (3) Possible,
+and not even abnormal; (4) Finally, normal, and "_Just what we knew all
+about from the first!_"
+
+Meanwhile some of us have been experimenting, with professional
+assistance, and in these cases the question is not "Can such photographs
+be faked?" We all know nowadays that faking photographs is the easiest
+of all possible frauds. I have spent many a half hour doing the faking
+myself, with an amateur photographer, by sitting for so many seconds in
+a chair and then vacating it in favour of some other "spook"!
+
+No, the whole question at present must be determined by our recognition
+or non-recognition of the photographs produced.
+
+If Mr Boursnell or any other photographer can produce (_as he has done_)
+my old nurse, who died twenty-three years ago, and was never
+photographed in her life, then we must find some other suggestion than
+that of "common or garden faking" as a solution of the mystery. There
+she sits, as in life, with a little knitted shawl round her shoulders
+and the head of a tiny child upon her lap. The eyes are closed, and give
+a dead look to the face, yet the features are to me quite unmistakable,
+and no one knew the dear old woman so well as I did.
+
+Again, I have in my little picture gallery, an old and very well-known
+Oxford professor, in whose house I stayed many times.
+
+Quite unexpectedly he appeared on one of Mr Boursnell's plates last
+summer, and although this special photograph is fainter than the one
+just described, the likeness can only be denied by someone more anxious
+to be sceptical than truthful. I compared the photograph with an
+engraving of the professor in much earlier life--which is to be found in
+the Life published since he passed away--with an artist friend (who had
+not known him). We went over the features one by one, and my friend said
+she noticed only one small difference, the exact length of the upper
+lip, and this, she considered, would be amply accounted for by the lapse
+of time between the two pictures and the slight lengthening of the upper
+lip owing to loss of teeth. The professor passed away as an old man; the
+picture engraved in the Life represents him as he was at least twenty
+years before his death.
+
+But the most interesting point to me in this photograph, is the
+appearance on his lap of a much loved dog, a rather large fox terrier
+named "Bob." I had not noticed Bob until a daughter of the professor
+pointed him out to me, and now I cannot understand having missed him at
+first.
+
+Bob was not only the most important person in the Oxford household, but
+he was good enough to be very fond of me, so it seems to me quite
+natural that he should have come with his master to pay me a visit.
+
+I remember arriving at the house one dark winter's evening after an
+absence of over two years, and Bob's welcome to me was so ecstatic that
+he nearly knocked me down in a vain attempt to get his paws round my
+neck.
+
+I heard the professor, who was always rather jealous of Bob's
+affections, say in a whisper to his wife: "Most touching thing I ever
+saw, that dog's welcome when Miss Bates arrived!"
+
+Dear Bob! I am so glad he can still come and see me, with his dearly
+loved master.
+
+Another shuffle of the photographs brings to the top a sweet girlish
+face and figure, "sixteen summers or something less."
+
+She appeared first upon a plate in the summer of 1905, but so
+indistinctly as to the _face_ that I could not recognise it.
+
+A few months ago the same figure appeared again, but quite clearly this
+time, and involuntarily, as I looked at it, I exclaimed: "_Why, of
+course, it is Lily Blake!_"
+
+Now it is nearly thirty years since I met this charming child; during my
+first visit to Egypt. She and her father (a well-known physician) and
+her aunt, were spending a six weeks' holiday in Cairo, and I saw more of
+her than would otherwise have been the case, because she was the
+playmate of another young girl--the child of friends of mine at
+Shepheard's Hotel.
+
+Lily was a sweet-looking, delicate girl, with soft, sleepy blue eyes,
+and was always dressed in a simple, artistic fashion. A few months after
+our return to England I saw in the papers the death of this pretty
+child; for she was little more at the time. I wrote a letter of
+condolence and sympathy, which was at once answered by the aunt in very
+kind fashion; and since then I have seen nothing to remind me of Lily
+until this last year has brought her once more within my ken. I am only
+too thankful to realise that any influence so pure and beautiful as
+hers, may be around me sometimes in my daily life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now let me say, in the words of our great novelist:
+
+"Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is
+played out!"
+
+Only I trust in this case we have managed to rise a little above the
+usual atmosphere of Vanity Fair.
+
+Surely the aim of all psychic research should be to give us a
+_scientific_, as we have already, thank God, a spiritual, foundation for
+the "Hope that is in us."
+
+Spirit photographs and spirit materialisations and abnormal visions or
+abnormal sounds amount to very little, if we look upon them as an end
+in themselves, and not as the symbols and the earnest of those greater
+things which "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
+into the heart of _man_ to conceive."
+
+I remember, years ago, in the course of a deeply interesting
+conversation with Phillipps Brooks, the late Bishop of Massachusetts,
+that I asked him what he thought about modern theosophy, which was just
+then becoming a _culte_ in his native town of Boston. There was a great
+deal of talk at the time about the new philosophy and the wonderful
+phenomena said to accompany its propaganda. Sir Edwin Arnold had written
+his "Light of Asia," and Oliver Wendell Holmes had welcomed it with
+wondering awe, as something approaching a new revelation. And smaller
+people were talking about the historical Blavatsky tea-cups, and hidden
+heirlooms found in Indian gardens, and some of us were wondering how
+soon we should learn to fly, and what would come next.
+
+The bishop's answer to my question was so genial, so characteristic, and
+showed such divine common-sense!
+
+"It is not a question of _flying_," he said. "I should like to fly as
+much as anybody; and a queer sort of bird I should appear!" (He was well
+over six feet, and broad in proportion.)
+
+"If you suddenly found you could fly," he continued, "it would be
+_absorbing_ on Monday morning, _intensely interesting_ on Tuesday,
+_interesting_ on Wednesday, and _quite pleasant_ on Thursday, but by the
+end of the week it would be getting normal, and you would want to
+discover some other new power. No, believe me, the real question is not
+_flying_, but WHERE you would fly, and WHAT YOU WOULD DO WHEN YOU GOT
+THERE."
+
+This sums up the case in a nut shell, and seems to me only another way
+of saying: "Don't forget the spiritual significance beneath the
+scientific symbol."
+
+And I would add: "Let us all join hands in the interesting and absorbing
+work of trying to make our symbols as scientific as we can, by finding
+out the laws which govern them, as well as all other things, in this
+universe of Love and Law. Probably we are here to learn, above all
+things else, that Love and Law are ONE."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many people have had far more remarkable experiences than mine. For
+various good reasons I have carefully abstained from any attempt to
+cultivate, or in any way increase, the sensitiveness which is natural to
+me.
+
+I can only assure my readers that my record has been absolutely
+accurate. In many cases it would have been very easy to write up the
+stories into some far more dramatic form; but by doing so the whole aim
+and object of my book would have been destroyed.
+
+I wanted to trace the thread of what we at present consider abnormal,
+through the whole skein of a single life, hoping thereby to encourage
+others to do the same.
+
+It is only by putting these things down, if not for publication, then in
+some diary or commonplace book, that we can realise how far our normal
+life is, even now and here, interpenetrated by another plane of
+existence.
+
+And so farewell to all kind readers who have followed me to the end of
+my personal record of curious events--curious chiefly by reason of our
+present imperfect knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+I
+
+
+Much has been said of the folly and triviality of all messages coming,
+or purporting to come, from the Unseen. I think here, as elsewhere, like
+clings to like, and we get very much what we deserve; or rather, to put
+it in a more philosophical and Emersonian way, we receive _what belongs
+to us_.
+
+Emerson tells us in one of his most illuminating passages, that
+everything which belongs to our spiritual estate is coming to us as
+quickly as it can travel. All the winds of heaven, all the waves of
+earth, are bringing it to us, and neither angel nor devil can prevent
+our taking what is ours or rejecting what is _not_ ours.
+
+This is a universal law, and applies to automatic writing as to
+everything else. Emphatically we get what belongs to our spiritual
+estate.
+
+Therefore any casual and general remarks as to the foolishness of all
+automatic writing, must of necessity be made by those who are ignorant
+of this spiritual law, or whose experience of such messages is very
+limited.
+
+I intend to give a few which I have myself received, in the form of an
+Appendix to my book. With one exception, they all come from a very dear
+friend, who passed into the other sphere little more than a year ago
+under peculiarly happy circumstances. I do not wish to give his name,
+although it would add considerably to the interest of the narrative. I
+shall therefore call him Mr Harry Denton. The messages will be given
+exactly in the form in which they were received, and without any
+editing. We never discussed theological ideas from any standpoint of
+_creed_; but I imagine that my friend, when here, would have looked upon
+Jesus Christ as one of the many inspired teachers of the world, and that
+his views were cosmic rather than religious--_in any narrow sense_--and
+certainly _religious_, in the broad sense of the term, rather than
+_theological_.
+
+The first conversation (for this is a better description of my friend's
+communications than the word _message_) refers to my own attitude, as
+compared with that of a lady friend of mine, regarding Jesus of
+Nazareth.
+
+
+H. D.--I see a great stream of light round you, Kate, and it seems to
+have come with your truer conception of Jesus Christ. It is all right
+for your friend to say she prefers to put the matter aside and leave it
+alone. That is just the best thing she can do; in fact, the _only_ thing
+she can do at present.
+
+The seed is still underground, and the moment of emergence has not come.
+To try and force it above ground just now, would be fatal. It would also
+be immature and uncalled for. The old husks of man-made creeds must drop
+off gradually, leaving the bud they protected intact, not be torn off by
+an impatient hand.
+
+So far her instinct seems to me a true one. But the case is widely
+different for _you_. The husks _have_ fallen off, as a matter of fact,
+and the discomfort and sense of something wrong arose from your knowing
+that you were only striving desperately to clutch on to them, when the
+fine, strong bud was there, able and ready to take its proper share of
+sunshine and rain, and even to bear the cold winds of misrepresentation
+and misunderstanding if need be.
+
+"QUIT YOU LIKE MEN, BE STRONG." That is _your_ lesson-book, and you will
+never feel happy or content until you are learning it.
+
+Surely you must feel how much you have gained since you faced your own
+facts?
+
+E. K. B.--Yes, Harry, I do; but I don't quite understand _your_
+position. Are you at the same point of view?
+
+H. D.--No; not yet. It is all rather foreign to my previous notions. I
+thought of Jesus of Nazareth as a great teacher--one of _the_ great
+teachers of the world--but I had still to learn His unique position as
+regards our chain of worlds.
+
+They tell me here that He was the _first_ to attain to the full stature
+of the _Divine Man_ as he existed in the thought of the Absolute.
+
+Spiritual evolution is the process, apparently the only process, whereby
+a Son of God in this sense can appear. And æons of time have been
+necessary to produce this fine Flower of Humanity. Your own band are
+helping me to understand this. _Having attained, being the anointed
+One_, it is given to Him to bring the whole race after Him.
+
+This is quite a different conception from my former one, and the one
+held by most of those whom in old days we called Unitarians.
+
+_You_ have had to _unlearn_, or rather to drop, some of the husks of old
+tradition which have been guarding the truth for you, whereas I have
+still _to come up to the truth_; but the point reached will be the same,
+whether the approach to it is from north or south--do you see?
+
+In Christ Jesus, they tell me, we are _all_ new creatures, as a matter
+of fact; because, consciously or unconsciously, we are working together
+with Him to realise and manifest ourselves, as made after the Image of
+God.
+
+He is the example and the pledge for us. St Paul saw this, of course,
+and your present position illuminates his teaching for me enormously. So
+I have much to thank you for, Kate. It is easier to learn from those we
+know and trust, than from strangers.
+
+And, moreover, when we can learn from the loved ones on earth _as well
+as through the loved ones here_, it makes the links in the golden chain
+complete, and helps us to realise the unity and solidarity of our common
+existence, _in the Father--with the Son_.             H. D.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Another morning I had told H. D. that I had been reading an article in
+_The Nineteenth Century--and After_, I think, entitled "An Agnostic's
+Progress," and asked if he had sensed it through me at all.
+
+H. D.--Yes. We will begin with that this morning. I am very glad you
+read it, for it is curiously like my own experiences in the same line.
+
+Since coming over here, and thereby coming into such direct touch with
+you, I have been able to grasp the key to much that puzzled me on the
+other side.
+
+As my views became more spiritualised I saw there _must_ be more truth
+in the Christian religion than outsiders supposed, and yet I knew it
+could not be absolutely true _in the form in which it has been handed
+down_.
+
+_That_ was for me unthinkable, because I saw it would be a sudden and
+catastrophic incursion upon a cosmos of Law and Order.
+
+It would mean God working in the highest departments of His Creation, as
+He is never seen to work in the lower ones. And my faith in Him
+prevented my entertaining such an idea! Schemes and plans of salvation
+belong to the comparative childhood of the race, not to the full-grown
+spiritual man. They are still in the fairy-tale stage, holding a truth,
+but acting only as the husk of the truth.
+
+The unity of the race; the necessity for self-sacrifice in realising
+that unity: that by giving our life for our brothers we save our _Life_,
+which is that unity in which the brethren are included--all this I could
+accept in Christ's teaching or the teaching of the Apostles; but the
+rest: the detail, the carefully arranged _scheme_ of the Atonement,
+etc., as dogmatic doctrines--all these seemed to me so obviously the
+desperate attempts of man at a certain stage of development to fit in
+spiritual facts with the most probable theories; and to say that men who
+wrote of these things were inspired, and _therefore infallible_, was
+absurd.
+
+Even in my short life, I had seen the world pass through several stages
+of belief and assimilate them in turn.
+
+As a child, I was told that God was angry with people for sinning and
+breaking His commandments, and so Jesus Christ offered to come and die
+on the cross to appease His just wrath.
+
+That seemed a great puzzle to me, because, although it might account for
+what happened _before_ Christ came and _until_ He came, I could not
+understand why God _should go on letting people come into the world_ who
+would break His laws, and make Him still more angry for centuries and
+centuries. That seemed to me, as a child, so unnecessary.
+
+Later I was told it was not God's anger but His sense of justice that
+had to be appeased and satisfied, which was a distinct step in advance.
+
+A little later, however, I read that this was not the hidden truth of
+the doctrine. The religious world (the thoughtful section of it) now
+arrived at the idea that it was not God who needed to be satisfied or
+appeased in any of His attributes, but MAN, and that GOD--in the person
+of his Son--came into the world to reconcile the world to Him, and not
+Himself to the world.
+
+This was a complete _bouleversement_ of the whole situation, though it
+came so gradually that few appreciated that fact.
+
+The last suggestion appeared to me by far the most luminous. In human
+life it is invariably the _lower_ nature that needs to be reconciled and
+conciliated; whilst the higher nature, in proportion to its
+development, is forgiving and tolerant and wide-minded, and does not
+prate about its own high sense of justice requiring to be appeased. The
+best type of _man_ punishes a wrong-doer in order that he may learn to
+do better and leave off tormenting and wronging his fellow-creatures;
+not to appease any instinct in his own breast, for that would be
+egotism, no matter how we might try to disguise the fact.
+
+Now if it would be a blot upon the best conceivable _man_ to be
+egotistical, _a fortiori_ must it be upon God.
+
+To conceive otherwise is to make God in the likeness of the lower and
+not the higher humanity. I thought all that out very clearly.
+
+Still this crux remained for me, that to be suddenly, at any arbitrary
+moment in the world's history, obliged, as it were, to send an
+absolutely divine part of Himself into the world, was the way a _man_
+would act faced by an unforeseen catastrophe, but not the way in which
+God has acted throughout the rest of our history.
+
+A succession of teachers, enlightening the world by degrees, and
+culminating in the ANOINTED Son of God--the Flower of Humanity--_this_
+is entirely in line with the processes of Nature and the laws of God, so
+far as we know them.
+
+All progress has its culminating point.
+
+Æons have passed to produce the most exquisite crystals, the highest
+forms of vegetation, of animals, of men. Then came the slow processes of
+civilising and educating men; the dim instincts of fear and
+propitiation, merging, by slow degrees, in the first conceptions of
+Love, as something apart from desire, and so forth.
+
+Was I to be expected to shut my eyes to all these known facts, and bolt
+down the theories contained in one Book, written by human authors, no
+matter how admirable?
+
+I felt it was impossible.
+
+Then I remembered with relief that these very dogmas, as a matter of
+fact, were in so fluent a state, that my own bare fifty years of living
+had seen at least four different high-water marks!
+
+Here again therefore, under my very eyes, was the universal law of
+progress working, the moment it _could_ work, by being released from the
+swaddling-clothes of the Roman Catholic Church, which, so far as it is
+orthodox, is fossilised.
+
+I saw also that the whole body of dissent had moved on, taking up its
+pegs and planting them a little further on each time; till a City
+temple, with its widening theology, was an established fact.
+
+Progress everywhere--slow, but sure--and the pace getting quicker, even
+in my short span! Still, the _uniqueness_ of Jesus of Nazareth and His
+influence over the nineteen centuries was a puzzle.
+
+Buddha's influence has lasted longer, Mahomet's almost as long (the two
+cancel any way), but I have always recognised an _advance_ in the
+teaching of Jesus Christ. He brought a fresh element, in the personal
+note of the Sonship with GOD.
+
+I was at this point when I came over here. Now through your mind I have
+been able to see, and, oddly enough, to quicken in your soul, the seed
+already planted there.
+
+They tell me the illumination came to you years ago, at
+Oberammergau--no, not when you were there for the Passion Play--four
+years earlier.
+
+You took it in with your head then, not with your heart. Old traditions
+were too strong, I suppose, and you had not made up the last little bit
+of your mind, to be true to the convictions that had come to you through
+your prayers for light.
+
+And so you have gone on, see-sawing to and fro, not really believing the
+old orthodox ideas, but not courageously sweeping them away for
+yourself. So although the key was in your hands, you have not used it
+until now. You have given me the key, and I have been allowed, as _my_
+New Year's gift, to fit it in the door.
+
+This is how Jesus Christ has stood so long at the door of _your_ heart
+and knocked. He could only enter through the one door--namely, _that one
+opened in the highest point of your spiritual realisation_. I see now
+that He comes in at that door in each soul, and, as spiritual evolution
+unfolds in each heart, so is the special position of that door shifted;
+but the fact of His presence is the vital one! It was not possible for
+Him to do otherwise than hide His face, as it were, whilst you were
+barring His only door of access--_i.e. your true point of realisation_.
+
+It all seems so clear to me now. And this is how He comes to so many in
+different guises.
+
+He is the Perfected Manifestation of GOD, as the Divine Man--the Flower
+of Humanity.
+
+But He can come into the heart in the narrowest creed, so long as the
+holder of that creed is at _his true point of growth_ and not trying to
+stifle God's gift of ever-advancing truth by cowardly want of trust, or
+fear of being worse off in the end, by being absolutely honest to
+himself and his own convictions in the present.
+
+It has been a long message, and you have taken much of it awkwardly, but
+on the whole it represents what I wanted to say.             H. D.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+H. D.--I feel now that you want to know what I meant by telling Miss R.
+it was the _likeness_ to the old world which puzzled me here.
+
+You see, we have all imbibed traditional ideas with our mother's milk,
+however much our intellects may have modified them. Instinct is stronger
+than intellect, because it is more elemental.
+
+The first thing that struck me was that truths which are latent on
+earth are made manifest here.
+
+(Here comes an interpolation.)
+
+You can take my words so easily that we must guard against wasting time
+in mere verbosity. I must teach you to condense more. We must strike
+some sort of balance between my brevity and your amplification. At
+present it is as well to get the instrument into proper working order
+before worrying too much over these details.
+
+(He then resumed.)
+
+It is as if you turned the old earth garment inside out, and saw the
+very fabric of it, which the earth looms have hitherto concealed by the
+warp and woof of the manufactured article.
+
+For instance, you are told on earth that you are making your own future
+conditions by right or wrong thinking. _Here_ you see the absolute,
+_material_ results of right and wrong thinking, just as if you were
+looking at two different patterns, woven by two different workers. I
+said material results, because matter here is just as real as it was on
+earth, and just as illusory, in one sense, in both spheres. Your matter
+is unreal to us. Our matter is unreal to you. The truth is, both are
+shadows cast by an antecedent reality on the Screens of the Universe.
+
+The screens are the school-houses through which humanity learns its
+lessons.
+
+Don't be worried! There is no real difficulty in using your hand; it is
+only trying to compromise between your redundancy and my brevity.
+
+Earth is like a gallery of sculpture. (Note by E. K. B.--This simile had
+flashed through my brain, and H. D. at once said: "Yes, that is very
+good; you started it, and I pick it up and apply it.") All the figures
+and groups are perfected and complete in their marble or bronze or
+terra-cotta, as the case may be.
+
+Some groups or figures are noble, others mediocre, others again may be
+sensual and degrading, but they have one quality in common--for good or
+bad, they are _ready made_.
+
+Now go into the sculptor's studio, having studied well in the great
+sculpture galleries of the world. You go to the studio, we will suppose,
+as a pupil. He puts a lump of clay into your hands, and for the first
+time you are invited to model your own statues and figures, to embody
+your own ideas in this clay, which corresponds to thought stuff _here_.
+You are even made to understand that your houses will only be worthily
+furnished by the work of your own hands. _Here_ it is the work of your
+own hearts, of your loving or unloving thoughts.
+
+So the first lesson we learn over here is that THOUGHT is not only
+Creative Power, as you are often told on earth, but it is also the very
+stuff out of which the creation must be moulded. It is, in very truth,
+the clay of the modeller.
+
+Shakespeare said truly enough "We are such stuff as dreams are made of,"
+but he was referring to our embodied selves.
+
+The difference between the two worlds seems to me, so far as I have
+arrived, as the difference between the pupil in the sculpture gallery
+and in the experimental studio. The chief part of the earth modelling is
+ready made--made by the racial thought stuff and the racial manipulation
+of it.
+
+_Here_, for the first time, we must turn to and take a hand in the work
+ourselves. It would not be possible to give such individual power in any
+lower sphere than this, for it would be misused, and would lead to
+terrible tragedies.
+
+You see some slight hints of this in what is called Black Magic--the
+wilful and intentional throwing of evil conditions on other people,
+making hard and cruel images of them in the mind, and so forth. But all
+that is as child's play to what would happen if the absolute clay were
+put into their hands, as it is here.
+
+It is the difference between thinking out an ugly picture; and painting
+it and hanging it up in a gallery; for we have objectivity here as with
+you. Naturally what comes into objective existence has more power than
+what remains latent. The latter can only influence exceptionally
+sensitive souls, and that to a comparatively small extent, whereas the
+former, here as with you, has a much farther range of influence.
+
+So this sort of gunpowder is not given to us until we are old enough to
+know better than to burn our fingers with it, in trying to make
+fireworks!
+
+At the same time, as all stages of evolution overlap, it is inevitable
+that some hint of these possibilities should be already in your world.
+Woe be to those who misuse them!
+
+You have taken enough for this morning.          H. D.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+The friend I have called Mr Harry Denton, during his psychic researches,
+came, as many others have done, very strongly under the influence of
+"Imperator," the chief of the Stainton Moses controls.
+
+I knew that this was the case, especially during the last three or four
+years of my friend's life, and I always rather resented the fact, for
+the limitations of Imperator have always appealed to me so strongly, as
+to dim, perhaps unduly, his undoubted claims to appreciation.
+
+I have read many of the private Stainton Moses' records (thanks to my
+friendship with the executor, with whom these journals were left), and
+in all those referring to Imperator's communications, there was to my
+mind the same note of cock-sureness and mental tyranny.
+
+There was too much of finality and self-assertion, too much of "_Thus
+saith the Lord_," about Imperator's remarks for my rebellious soul. I
+could never be strongly impressed by any personality, however admirable,
+that so palpably exacted allegiance and unquestioning obedience. These
+must be the unconscious tribute to the Genius of Holiness, as to any
+other sort of genius; never an enforced levy upon us.
+
+So at least it seems to me. Certainly I would not escape one sort of
+priestcraft to set up another in its place, whether the niche be filled
+by Mrs Besant or Mrs Eddy or Mr Sinnett, or any other fallible
+fellow-creature. Not even Imperator can strike me as infallible; and his
+own evident belief in that direction does not affect the question.
+
+It seemed to me rather to be deplored that Mr Denton, with his wide
+outlook and cosmic conceptions, should fall so strongly under any
+special influence, even that of the admirable Imperator!
+
+So I was curious to know what his views were upon this subject from the
+other side of the veil. I will now leave him to speak for himself.
+
+
+H. D.--You want me to tell you just my position about the Imperator
+group before and since I passed to this side? That is easily done.
+Remember, the teaching I got through Imperator was practically the first
+_spiritual_ teaching I ever had--the first I mean, of course, that I
+could assimilate, because it appealed to my reason, as well as to my
+sense of the fitness of things--and therefore I can never feel
+sufficiently grateful to him and his group; and I see that they can
+teach many who would not be amenable to a more distinctly spiritual
+appeal.
+
+Imperator is a great force in his way; a sort of plough that goes over
+the hard, caked-up earth and throws it open to the sunshine and rain and
+all Nature's beautiful influences, to all the possibility of Divine
+influences on the corresponding sphere.
+
+But the limitation of Imperator I see clearly now, as you always appear
+to have done.
+
+He is, as you say, too final and too dogmatic. This is at once his
+weakness and his strength: his weakness, because it limits his own
+spiritual receptivity; his strength, because it focusses his power in
+dealing with materialistic minds.
+
+A more spiritually true perspective in his communications would rule out
+half the souls to whom his appeal is made.
+
+_Stainton Moses has also progressed beyond the Imperator influence, and
+this is why the communications between them had become so clogged and so
+liable to error._
+
+S. M. could not switch on to the old wires, as in the days when his
+horizon was bounded by them. This accounts, I see, for much of the
+misconception and apparent inconsistency of the remarks made through Mrs
+Piper, but it was very disheartening for the investigator as time went
+on and the "Light" became more and more clouded. Then there was the
+additional fact to be faced, that Mrs Piper herself became, psychically
+rather than physically, exhausted, and less able to be used from this
+side.
+
+Now I see you want to know about Frank Strong, and what he said about
+sin existing only on your plane, and how inconsistent this was with the
+previous teachings of Stainton Moses, who was supposed to be speaking
+through Frank's assistance.
+
+It is so difficult to explain everything in black and white when there
+are so many shades of grey, so many degrees and amounts to be
+considered. It is like a question in mechanics.
+
+With increased momentum you get an increased rate as multiplied by
+space. I am not an expert, but this is practically true. In the same
+way, spiritual perception acts with increased momentum.
+
+All sin is failure in spiritual perception. Spiritual perception
+corresponds with the momentum of a falling body in mechanics. Only in
+Divine mechanics it is a _rising_ body; but the same law holds good.
+
+You say truly that an action can only be called sinful when the sinner
+knows the higher and deliberately turns to the lower.
+
+That is true; but it is only half a truth. It is still the _lack of
+knowledge_ that causes sin. With the fulness of knowledge of the higher
+(only another way of putting fulness of spiritual perception) _must_
+come the righteousness of life.
+
+It is the broken gleams, the little knowledge, which is truly a
+dangerous thing, for it brings responsibility, and therefore the
+capacity for sinning. Yet the _choice_ between good and evil fully made,
+is the schoolmaster to bring us to the full realisation of our nature as
+Sons of God.
+
+Now when Frank came over here, he was so greatly impressed by the
+dynamic force of spiritual perception that for the time he lost all
+sense of proportion and accuracy of judgment. Compared with the old
+earth temptations, those in his sphere seemed non-existent, whilst the
+temptations to goodness were enormously increased.
+
+What wonder that in the delightful sensation caused by his sense of
+moral and spiritual freedom from old shackles, he should exclaim with
+youthful fervour: "Sin is only possible in your sphere--it is unknown
+here!" Any communications of which he formed the channel, would of
+necessity be coloured by this dominant idea of his. Everything is a
+question of degree, and he is learning that lesson now, I find. He says:
+"Why do people in the earth life quote our words as if we were Delphic
+Oracles?"
+
+Why, indeed? But I am afraid I did much the same whilst so strongly
+under the Imperator influence.
+
+E. K. B.--Why is Imperator so slow in throwing off his own spiritual
+limitations?
+
+H. D.--I can read your mind so easily. It is quick and alert, and has
+already answered its own question. It is because he has a work to do on
+your plane amongst those who could not come in touch with a higher
+spiritual development. There are spiritual as well as scientific
+martyrs, you must remember; and he is one of them. But the Divine
+Economy works very beautifully here. He is not conscious of any
+spiritual limitation, and therefore he is happy in his work, and the
+martyrdom I spoke of is _unconscious_. When it becomes conscious, with
+him it will mean that his present plane of work is finished, and that he
+will be removed to another "_Form_" so soon as he is prepared to teach
+there.
+
+He is essentially a teacher, and a valuable one, for those who have not
+soared beyond his present perceptions. It is all so much more simple and
+reasonable than you suppose. It is these crusted old creeds that have
+misrepresented actual conditions, and yet they also have been, as
+Imperator; doing their own work amongst the people to whom they have
+acted as necessary stepping-stones.
+
+That is enough for to-day; take a rest now.            H. D.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The following conversation between Mr Denton and myself (the last of the
+series which I propose to give) took place, I see, at Buxton, 4th
+September 1906.
+
+There had been some correspondence in _The Daily Telegraph_ about Time
+as a fourth Dimension, and I asked my friend if he could say anything to
+me on the subject. His reply was as follows:--
+
+
+Time is really a form of perception, _not a thing in itself_--do you
+understand?
+
+Your limitation of perception you call _Time_.
+
+Another limitation is called _Distance_.
+
+This also is an illusion, or a limitation, whichever you choose to call
+it.
+
+_The White Ray is the Absolute._ The spectroscope gives you the
+limitation which makes the colours perceptible to your human eyes. For
+the one who is free from these limitations, all colours exist and are
+present in consciousness at the same moment. But they must be split up
+and observed severally to enter into the earth consciousness. It is
+exactly the parallel of Time.
+
+_Events in Time coincide with the colours in the Ray._ All exist
+simultaneously for the one who is free from limitations. All must be
+brought into sequence for the one who is bound by limitations.
+
+This is really the key to so many puzzles, and accounts for so many
+occult phenomena.
+
+As we transcend the normal earth limits ever so little, so do we develop
+these abnormal powers, as they are called. But here, as everywhere, the
+reality is just the converse of the apparent.
+
+The true norm is the Perfect Ray--the Ceaseless Sound--the Perfect
+Vision; and the abnormal is the limitation upon the earth, or upon any
+succeeding plane, short of the Absolute. But naturally we consider that
+normal which happens to be our standpoint for the moment.
+
+Already to me the earth limitations appear _abnormal_, and my more
+extended capacities mark the norm of existence for me. This must be the
+case naturally.
+
+_Prevision_ would be more accurately termed _Whole vision_--seeing the
+whole and not the tiny section.
+
+In moments of intense joy or realisation of any kind, Time seems to
+cease, and a moment may hold an Eternity. Any absorbing emotion, joyful
+or sorrowful, may bring this experience. For the moment _you are out of
+yourselves_. This is literally true. You are living in the next
+Dimension. Time and Space no longer exist for you. Most of you have had
+some such experience, but of necessity it can be a flash only in the
+midst of your normal life. Ask me something now.
+
+E. K. B.--A man writing lately in _The Daily Telegraph_ of Time as a
+fourth Dimension said something about the cube as being an infinite
+number of flat planes of infinite tenuity, heaped up one over the other.
+To the person who knew only length and breadth, the cube would have no
+existence. Such a person would realise only an infinite number of planes
+in sequence. Yet they would all _co-exist_ for the three-dimensional man
+of the present day. The suggestion appeared to be that, in exactly a
+similar way, events which to the three-dimensional man can only be
+perceived normally _in sequence_, would _co-exist_ for a
+four-dimensional being. This would mean practically the annihilation of
+Time, as giving sequence. Do you see Truth in this idea, and can you
+tell me if it extends also to Space?
+
+H. D.--Certainly. That is just what I meant as regards Distance. _All_
+limitations are mental, as a matter of fact. We have them here, but
+infinitely fewer than in the old earth life.
+
+Mind has always been able to flash from pole to pole and to affect those
+at a distance, because mind and distance occupy two different planes.
+The latter is an earth limitation. As the veil lifts a little, even on
+your side, so you become conscious that mind has these powers; but the
+powers were always there. It merely means that you have come up with
+your own mental capacities to some small degree.
+
+E. K. B.--Is there any help here for my constant problem: Why should
+one's individual life be only _now_ evolving in Eternity? Do you see
+what I mean?
+
+H. D.--Yes; but I hardly know the answer to that tremendous problem.
+Still, I will try to suggest a few thoughts to you.
+
+To be conscious of holiness and virtue we must have known its
+antithesis--evil and separation, which are really synonymous. Separation
+from Holiness _is_ evil. It is a condition, a limitation.
+
+It is to the Divine Essence just such a limitation as Time is to the
+mortal. Separation is therefore the antecedent cause of all
+limitations. These _must_ exist where the Wholeness or Holiness is
+absent.
+
+I must use the language of earth or you would not understand. Logically,
+of course, Holiness can never be absent, since it is the cause of all
+Existence; but it is _apparently absent_, and this apparent absence,
+this separation, this evil in fact, acts as a spectroscope. _It
+analyses, and thus brings into our consciousness the White Ray of the
+Divine Nature._
+
+We can go no further than that. The Divine Chemistry, beyond this fact,
+must remain a mystery, probably for ages to come.
+
+We cannot tell _why_ things are thus arranged; we only know that it is
+so.
+
+As well ask _why_ the White Ray of Light gives out its colours only
+through separating them.
+
+But it is easier to speak of the co-ordination of _events_. Take your
+own suggestion of the cube--that will help us best.
+
+Take it that each life is a cube of planes, of experiences. These
+experiences are co-existent and knit together, as firmly in the life of
+a human being as the many planes are co-existing, and knit together in a
+mathematical cube. You can dissect the cube and slice off infinitesimal
+small planes in sections.
+
+So is the individual life sliced off into an infinite number of planes
+by the sequences of Time (our three-dimensional condition).
+
+But these experiences--great or small, important or trivial (from your
+point of view)--_exist in the cube of that person's earth pilgrimage_,
+as the colours exist in the White Ray.
+
+The Ray may be split up into sequence, but the colours belong to it all
+the same, and by a _perfectly seeing eye_ would be known and recognised
+without the help of the spectroscope.
+
+The true seer is the one who sees the cube of your life; before whom it
+is spread out, without Time Separations, into planes of experience. This
+is the real secret of all _foretelling_. Such people, when honest, have
+some amount of access to the cube of earth life, some more, some less.
+
+Many mix up and confuse what they see; but they do see beyond the plane
+section which Time gives to the normal human being.
+
+I think you have taken enough now.
+
+I will only add that, of course--as you know--there is nothing arbitrary
+in the cube of life, as I have called it. It is built up of necessary
+experiences and necessary consequences. But it is built up by Love and
+Wisdom, the two Elements of the Divine Nature, in which we live and move
+and have our being.                H. D.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The next selection that I shall give from my automatic script comes from
+an entirely different personality, which can be sufficiently indicated
+by the initials E. G.
+
+
+E. G.--Worship is a necessary part of each soul's training, and we can
+only worship that which we feel to be above and beyond ourselves. As we
+grow older and become more developed in spiritual consciousness, so do
+we tend more and more to worship the inner and intangible, rather than
+the outer and manifest. So whilst the instinct of worship is always the
+same, the objects and methods must continually change with our own
+advancing realisation and unfolding consciousness.
+
+Those limitations which once made for reverence are in time found to be
+cramping and to lead to superstition.
+
+It is the same with the education of either children or of childish
+nations.
+
+In both cases a _display_ of power is necessary to command obedience,
+because the childish mind can only apprehend from the outer, and realise
+the existence of that which it sees physically demonstrated. Tell a
+child of tender years that to be naughty is to be unhappy, and in
+ninety-nine cases out of one hundred he will neither understand nor
+believe you. But take away his toys or his sweets or put him in a
+corner; make him, in fact, _physically_ aware of the truth that to be
+naughty is to bring unpleasant consequences upon himself, and you have
+taken the only argument which he is capable of realising at a certain
+point of consciousness.
+
+This is why certain nations, at the child point of development, _must_
+be treated as children. They don't realise the appeal to the spiritual,
+and will only misconceive you and your motives, and read cowardice in
+your attempt to treat from a standpoint they have not reached.
+
+It is the same with certain religions, and this is the cause of much
+failure in mission work.
+
+Theosophy and Roman Catholicism appeal strongly to comparatively
+immature minds.
+
+Those who care more for form than for essence are always in the immature
+stage.
+
+They love big words and mysterious sayings and doings. To have something
+apart from others--whether it be happiness or knowledge--is their idea
+of bliss. Hence in most theosophists, as in all Roman Catholic converts,
+you find this note of immaturity and monopoly. I say _converts_, because
+those born in the Roman Catholic faith are on different ground. Their
+spiritual life may grow and develop in spite of the creed limitations
+into which Fate has cast them, but those who deliberately _choose_ such
+limitations give the best possible proof of their own standpoint. And
+the same may be said also of all strict creed religions.
+
+They have their great and valuable uses, as prison bars have their uses
+in a community which has not learnt to respect the rights and property
+of its neighbours.
+
+Withdraw these bars and you let loose upon society a pestilential crew
+of murderers and marauders. Relax the bars of creed and you will find
+the same result. But as bars are not necessary for the advanced souls
+who recognise that to murder or defraud their fellow-creatures leads to
+their own misery, apart from any detection or punishment, so creeds are
+not necessary, under a corresponding evolution of the spiritual
+instinct, which tallies with the social and moral instincts noted above.
+
+And as treadmills and oakum picking can be dismissed in the one case, so
+can much of the theological machinery for the discipline and punishment
+of sinners against spiritual laws be dispensed with, in the case of
+those who are, spiritually speaking, _coming of age_.
+
+They come then into the full liberty of Sons of God, and shall be no
+more treated as servants, _but as sons_, as the Apostle puts it.
+
+This brings me to my special subject.
+
+There are many things of great and transcending interest which we are
+obliged to keep secret from our younger children, partly because they
+would fail to understand, but still more because they would
+_misunderstand_, and this to their own hurt and disadvantage; not to
+speak of possible injury to others through them.
+
+Spiritual Evolution is the true Doctrine, but it is not food for babes
+in spiritual life.
+
+To have an unlimited series of advancing lives and advancing experiences
+unfolded before their eyes would not only dismay and bewilder, but would
+also paralyse their energy for good, and terribly augment their capacity
+for evil--for the _not good_.
+
+Until they are sufficiently versed in spiritual experience to realise
+the difference between purity and impurity, good and evil, God and the
+world, fame and peace, pleasure and happiness, the peace which passes
+understanding and the false glamour of sensual passion and sensuous
+self-indulgence, so long it is dangerous for them to know, with absolute
+certainty, the real facts of the case.
+
+Even the terrible and abhorrent pictures of an Eternal Hell, of endless
+flames and of undying worms, have had their uses.
+
+In this form alone could the thoroughly immature mind be made to realise
+the discomfort and misery that would inevitably attend wrong-doing. It
+_was_ a truth, although not a literal truth. Many literal truths convey
+a false impression to the immature mind, whilst a symbolic truth may
+convey as true an impression as such a mind is capable of receiving.
+
+The old ideas of Heaven and Hell are already doomed; but other ideas,
+equally untrue from the literal point of view, still hold their own, and
+will be more slowly eradicated. It is well this should be so. The world
+at large is not prepared yet to take this further step.
+
+Frequent examinations have been found useful and inevitable in school
+training, both as a test of progress and still more as an encouragement.
+
+If you tell a school of boys and girls in January that a grand
+examination will be held the following December, do you suppose they
+will work as well and as diligently as if they knew there will be short
+examinations at Easter and more important ones at midsummer?
+
+Again, if you tell boys of ten years old, who are learning a little
+history, geography, and arithmetic, just in the Rule of Three and simple
+fractions, with perhaps a little Latin; of the Algebra and Euclid and
+Conic sections and higher Mathematics, and Latin and Greek verse and
+Hebrew and Philosophy, which they must some day confront, you will
+puzzle and paralyse their brains, and leave only a sense of misery and
+revolt and helplessness, which will quickly show forth in reckless
+despair, even concerning the tasks which are well within their present
+capacity.
+
+God, in His Infinite Wisdom (of which ours is the feeblest reflection),
+acts in precisely the same way as wise fathers and wise teachers.
+
+Your earth is more or less of an infant school, but before leaving it,
+some of you must prepare for the higher classes and learn to take your
+own spiritual responsibilities.
+
+It is seen that in these days of reaction and readjustment, many minds
+are puzzled and perplexed by the old doctrines, which they have
+outgrown, and which were never more than the outer husk and protection
+for the inner kernel--the casket for the jewel of spiritual truth.
+
+The one term of probation--the one chance for progress--the immediate
+Heaven or Hell--the Great White Throne of Judgment, instant and
+inevitable--all these correspond with the frequent examinations, with
+the good and bad marks--the judging of the school work at the end of
+each term. The only difference lies in the fact that the schoolboy
+_knows_ he has other terms in front of him, and we are all aware that
+this is a very unfortunate fact where an idle boy is concerned.
+
+How often you may hear them say: "Never mind! I'm a bit behind now--but
+I have three years more--I shall catch up later." And this is probably
+just what they fail to do; for with such characters it is always
+_to-morrow_ that is to see the reformation which so often comes only
+when life has taught its hard lessons to the defaulter.
+
+Is it not apparent, therefore, that there has been wisdom and goodness
+in our very theological mistakes and illusions?
+
+The opposition to spiritualistic teachings has its good and healthy
+side. It is really the fierce antagonism of the undeveloped nature
+towards a truth it dimly apprehends to be ahead of its own development;
+and, tiresome as it seems, and _is_ from one point of view, it is the
+best safeguard for the world at large.
+
+Unimaginable horrors would come to pass upon the earth were Power as
+well as Knowledge put into the hands of the crude and undeveloped.
+
+It would be arming savages with Winchester rifles and quick-firing guns.
+
+_Never regret_, therefore, this opposition, even whilst fighting against
+it in individual cases.
+
+Both _must_ grow together till the Harvest--the Tares and Wheat, the
+Crude and the Developed--and the former are the enormous majority.
+
+This is the reason why all Truth must be born into each world through a
+fight and an agony; for it always comes as an advance upon normal
+conditions, no matter in which sphere it may be. And it is through the
+struggle that the Victory comes and the Light is born.
+
+Let people jeer and deride when they hear of a future life, not so very
+different from your own; of houses and lectures and boats and horses, of
+pet animals, and so forth.
+
+Those who jeer and deride or talk of blasphemy are still at the orthodox
+stage, when it is well for them to know only of _one_ school, of _one_
+term, of _one_ chance, and of an immediate and final judgment for the
+deeds done on earth.
+
+Others are old enough (spiritually speaking) to know the truth
+_i.e._--that GOD is in _all_, of an infinite series of spheres, through
+which each travelling soul must pass, gaining ever fresh light, growing
+ever into fresh knowledge and realisation of Divine Beauty and Divine
+Love; spheres differing little externally from the one left behind, but
+enormously in the capacities and qualities which by degrees the soul
+will unfold in the Cosmic Journey.
+
+The outer will become more and more the result of the inner condition;
+for the creative faculty, scarcely born with you, flourishes in the
+ascending spiral. Down here you are babes, with your clothes made for
+you, your bottles filled for you, and dependent on others for the
+conditions of life, but by degrees you will enter on the full
+responsibility and the full joy and glory of independent existence,
+which yet will be unified--first into the life of the Affinities--the
+True and completed Being--and then into the life of that Body of
+_Christ_, of which St Paul speaks in his prophetic moments, where "there
+shall be neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, Bond nor Free," but
+_Christos_, the glorified and crowned Humanity, shall be all in all--GOD
+IN MAN; the coping-stone of the Building, whose foundations were laid as
+MAN (the Image and Likeness of God) IN GOD.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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+
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+Title: Seen and Unseen
+
+Author: E. Katharine Bates
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2007 [EBook #21041]
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<p>Transcriber's Note: Inconsistency between TOC and Chapter headings
+have been retained as in the original.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 100%;" />
+
+<h1><big>SEEN AND UNSEEN</big><br />
+<small>BY</small><br />
+E. KATHARINE BATES<br /></h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+NEW YORK<br />
+DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY<br />
+214-220 EAST 23<span class="smcap">rd</span> STREET<br />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+1908</div>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<em>First Published    July 1907</em><br />
+<em>Second Impression  October 1907</em><br />
+<em>Third Impression   March 1908</em>
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+<em>Popular Edition    1908</em></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+To<br /><br />
+C. E. B.<br /><br />
+IN MEMORY OF<br /><br />
+ONE WHO LOVED AND SUFFERED<br /><br />
+AND IN THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE<br /><br />
+OF A JOYFUL MEETING WITH<br /><br />
+HIM, AND WITH OTHERS<br /><br />
+WHO HAVE CROSSED<br /><br />
+THE BAR</div>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<div class='center'><big>CONTENTS</big></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='right'>CHAPTER</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><a href="#SEEN_AND_UNSEEN">EARLY RECOLLECTIONS</a></td><td align='right'>1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886</a></td><td align='right'>13</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND</a></td><td align='right'>49</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK</a></td><td align='right'>71</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">INDIA, 1890-1891</a></td><td align='right'>80</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892</a></td><td align='right'>97</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><a href="#AN_INTERLUDE">AN INTERLUDE</a></td><td align='right'>129</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">LADY CAITHNESS AND THE AVENUE WAGRAM</a></td><td align='right'>144</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON</a></td><td align='right'>161</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">1896, HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD</a></td><td align='right'>176</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA</a></td><td align='right'>195</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND</a></td><td align='right'>218</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">1900-1901, ODDS AND ENDS</a></td><td align='right'>232</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">1903, A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA</a></td><td align='right'>260</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY</a></td><td align='right'>274</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX</a></td><td align='right'>298</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p>Many years ago, whilst living at Oxford, I was invited by a very old
+friend, who had recently taken his degree, to a river picnic; with
+Nuneham, I think, as its alleged object.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the day proved unfavourable, and we returned in open
+boats, also with open umbrellas; a generally drenched and bedraggled
+appearance, and nothing to cheer us on the physical plane except a
+quantity of iced coffee which had been ordered in anticipation of a
+tropical day.</p>
+
+<p>Under these rather trying conditions I can remember getting a good deal
+of amusement out of the companions in the special boat which proved to
+be my fate. Our host, being a clever and interesting man himself, had
+collected clever and interesting people round him, on the "Birds of a
+Feather" principle, and I happened to sit between two ladies, one the
+wife (now, alas! the widow) of a man who was to become later on one of
+our most famous bishops; the other&mdash;her bosom friend and deadly
+rival&mdash;the wife of an equally distinguished Oxford don.</p>
+
+<p>The iced coffee combined with the pouring rain may have been partly to
+blame, but certainly the conversation that went on between the two
+ladies, across my umbrella, was decidedly <em>Feline</em>.</p>
+
+<p>To pass the time we were valiantly endeavouring to play "Twenty
+Questions" from the bottom of the boat, and the Bishop's widow was
+asking the questions. She had triumphantly elicited the fact that we had
+thought of a <em>cinder</em>&mdash;and an historical cinder&mdash;and the twentieth and
+last permissible question was actually hovering on her lips. "It was the
+cinder that Richard C&oelig;ur de Lion's horse fell upon," she said
+eagerly. Of course, we all realised that this was a most obvious "slip"
+in the case of so highly educated a woman; but the Bosom Friend could
+not resist putting out the velvet paw: "A little confusion in the
+centuries, I think, dear," she said sweetly. The unfortunate questioner
+practically "never smiled again" during <em>that</em> expedition. But a still
+more crushing blow was in store for her.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation turned later upon questions of style in writing or
+speaking, and with perhaps pardonable revenge, she said to her rival:</p>
+
+<p>"I always notice that you say 'one' so often&mdash;'<em>one</em> does this or that,'
+and so forth."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, dear? That is curious. Now I always notice that <em>you</em> say 'I'
+so continually!"</p>
+
+<p>The cut and thrust came with the rapidity of expert fencers.</p>
+
+<p>And this brings me to the real gist of my story.</p>
+
+<p>It is considered the most heinous offence "<em>to say I</em>," and every
+conceivable device is resorted to, no matter how clumsy, in order to
+prevent the catastrophe of a writer being forced to speak of himself in
+the first person.</p>
+
+<p>To my mind, there is a good deal of affectation and pose about this, and
+in anything of an autobiography it becomes insupportable.</p>
+
+<p>"The writer happened upon one occasion to be present, etc." "He who pens
+these unworthy pages was once travelling to Scotland, etc. etc."</p>
+
+<p>Which of us has not groaned under these self-conscious euphemisms? "Why
+not say '<em>I</em>' and have done with it?" we are wont to exclaim in
+desperation after pages of this kind of thing.</p>
+
+<p>Now I propose "to say <em>I</em>" and "have done with it," and not waste time
+in trying to find ingenious and wearisome equivalents.</p>
+
+<p>That is my first point.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, in this record of psychic experiences I mean to keep clear of
+another intolerable nuisance&mdash;I mean the continual introduction of
+capital letters and long dashes in order to conceal identity in such
+episodes.</p>
+
+<p>The motive is admirable, but the method is detestable.</p>
+
+<p>One can only judge by personal experience. I know that when I read a
+rather involved narrative of sufficiently involved psychic doings, and
+Mr Q&mdash;&mdash;, Miss B&mdash;&mdash;, Mr C&mdash;&mdash;, and Mr C.'s maternal aunt Mrs G&mdash;&mdash;
+figure wildly in it, I am driven desperate in trying to force some idea
+of personality into these meaningless letters of the alphabet.</p>
+
+<p>To conceal the identity of Mr Brown, who was once guilty of seeing a
+ghost, may be and most frequently is, a point of honour, but why not
+call him Mr Smith, and say he lived in Buckinghamshire, and thus rouse a
+definite mental conception in your reader's brain, instead of calling
+him Mr Z. of W&mdash;&mdash;, and thus setting up mental irritation before the
+ghost comes upon the scene?</p>
+
+<p>Having cleared the ground so far, I will now mention my third and last
+point.</p>
+
+<p>It is usual when writing reminiscences of any kind to anticipate your
+reader's criticisms, and try to increase his interest in your
+experiences by a sort of false humility in deprecating their value. The
+idea is doubtless founded on a sound knowledge of Human Nature, but it
+may easily fall into exaggeration. Nothing is, of course, so disastrous
+as to praise beforehand a person, a picture, a voice, a poem, a book, or
+anything else in the wide world, in which we wish our friends to take
+any special interest. Such a course naturally rouses unconscious
+antagonism in poor, fallen Human Nature before we even see or hear the
+object of our later bitter aversion. But there is a medium in all
+things, and it is scarcely polite to put the intelligence of our readers
+sufficiently low to be manipulated by such obvious arts.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, it has been well said that the history of any one human
+being&mdash;truthfully told (I would add, intelligently assimilated)&mdash;would
+be of enthralling interest and value. If this be true on the ordinary
+physical, intellectual, and spiritual planes it should not be <em>less</em>
+true, surely, where a fourth plane of psychic experience is added to the
+other three?</p>
+
+<p>Then again, there is no need to apologise for experiences limited in
+interest or in amount.</p>
+
+<p>These terms are of necessity comparative. For example, my experiences
+are limited compared with those of some people I have known, who have
+been either more highly endowed with psychic gifts or who have
+considered it advisable to cultivate such gifts to a high point of
+efficiency; or lastly, with whom opportunities for experience have been
+more numerous. But, on the other hand, my experiences have been great
+compared with those of some people at least equally interested in these
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p>Geographically speaking, I have been peculiarly fortunate, having had
+the opportunity of witnessing phenomena of this kind in many countries,
+differing widely in Race, Climate, and other conditions.</p>
+
+<p>I have been told many times that I could develop clairvoyance,
+clairaudience, or sit as a materialising medium, but have had no desire
+to go further in these matters.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen quite as much as I wish to see, I have heard quite as much
+as I wish to hear, and should be very sorry personally to increase
+either of these psychic possibilities by the practice that makes more
+perfect.</p>
+
+<p>Some consider this lamentable cowardice and want of faith. Each one must
+judge for himself in such a matter. Faith in this connection may easily
+degenerate into foolhardiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Greater is He that is for you than all those who are against you" has
+been quoted to me again and again in deprecation of my attitude in these
+things. It has always appeared to me a matter in which individual
+judgment must be exercised, and upon which no broad and general lines of
+conduct can be laid down.</p>
+
+<p>One man can cycle fifty miles in the day, and dance all night, and be
+the better for the experience. Another attempting the same feat, but
+not having the same constitution, might do himself lasting injury. It is
+exactly the same thing on the psychic plane. Our psychic constitutions
+differ at least as much as our physical ones. We may overtax either, and
+with similar consequences. We have no right to expect protection or
+immunity on either plane, where we neglect the warnings of that inner
+monitor who is always our best guide.</p>
+
+<p>As a final word of warning, I would say: "Beware of your motives in
+cultivating psychic capacity." It is so easy to mistake love of
+notoriety, even in one's own little <em>milieu</em>, for love of Truth. There
+is always an eager, curious crowd anxious to get "messages" or "hear
+raps," or to see any other little psychic parlour tricks which we may be
+induced to play for their benefit. At first one feels it is almost a
+sacred duty to satisfy, or attempt to satisfy, these psychic cormorants;
+but later, wisdom comes with experience.</p>
+
+<p>At one time I felt bound to collect my friends and acquaintances round
+me and tell them all I knew upon these subjects, and doubtless it was
+right to do so whilst I "<em>felt that way</em>," to quote an expressive
+Americanism.</p>
+
+<p>But the inevitable day came when I realised that I had spent my strength
+and my muffins in vain; for these gatherings generally took the form of
+tea-parties, not too large to cope with single-handed&mdash;say from ten to
+twenty people. They came at 4.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> and stayed till 8 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, when most
+of them remembered they ought to have dined at 7.45 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and went away
+saying "How immensely they had enjoyed themselves," and "How
+interesting it all was."</p>
+
+<p>And so far as any permanent good came of it, there the matter ended.</p>
+
+<p>Believe me, when people are prepared for this development of their finer
+senses <em>they will come to you</em>. There is no need to go into the highways
+and hedges and compel them to come in. If they do come they won't
+stay&mdash;why should they? <em>They have not got there yet</em>, to use a
+thoroughly hateful and ungrammatical but absolutely accurate sentence.</p>
+
+<p>If you try to carry them on the back of your own knowledge and
+experiences, you can do so for a time, but eventually they will struggle
+down, or you will put them down from sheer fatigue, and then they will
+run back to the spot where you found them, and thence work out their own
+psychic evolution either in this or in some future term of existence.</p>
+
+<p>When their interest is exhausted&mdash;to say nothing of your patience&mdash;you
+will hear that they have called you a crank and lamented your "wasting
+your time over such nonsense." That will be <em>your</em> share of the
+transaction.</p>
+
+<p>I know this <em>because I have been there</em>&mdash;<em>moi qui vous parle</em>.</p>
+
+<p>"Let every man be persuaded in his own mind," but don't try to persuade
+anyone else. When the right time comes he will ask your help and counsel
+without any persuasion.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I am speaking only of private work. Lectures and congresses
+are of the greatest possible value; for no one knows whom he may be
+addressing on these occasions, and the seed may be falling into soil
+prepared, but often unconsciously prepared, for its reception.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the whole matter:</p>
+
+<p>1. Be strong in the conviction that eventually good must always conquer
+evil, but remember also that you individually may have a very bad time
+meanwhile if you go amongst mixed influences and evoke that which at
+present you are not strong enough to withstand.</p>
+
+<p>2. Know when to speak and when to be silent.</p>
+
+<p>3. Receive what comes to you spontaneously, but never allow yourself to
+be cajoled or persuaded into developing your mediumship to gratify
+curiosity; not even on the plea of scientific duty, unless you are fully
+conscious in your own mind that this is the special work which is laid
+upon you.</p>
+
+<p>And bearing these three simple rules in mind, we may go forward with
+brave hearts and level heads on the Quest which has been so plainly
+opened out to us in this twentieth century.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 47.5em;"><span class="smcap">E. Katharine Bates.</span></span></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 95%;' />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="SEEN_AND_UNSEEN" id="SEEN_AND_UNSEEN"></a>SEEN AND UNSEEN</h2>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>EARLY RECOLLECTIONS</h3>
+
+<p>Having set myself to write a personal record of psychic experiences, I
+must "begin at the beginning," as the children say.</p>
+
+<p>When only nine years old I lost my father&mdash;the Rev. John Ellison Bates
+of Christ Church, Dover&mdash;and my earliest childish experience of anything
+supernormal was connected with him. He had been an invalid all my short
+life, and I was quite accustomed to spending days at a time without
+seeing him. His last illness, which lasted about a fortnight, had
+therefore no special significance for me, and my nurse, elder brother,
+and godmother, who were the only three people in the house at the time,
+gave strict orders that none of the servants should give me a hint of
+his being dangerously ill. These instructions were carefully carried
+out, and yet I dreamed three nights running&mdash;the three nights preceding
+his decease&mdash;that he was dead. I was entirely devoted to my father, who
+had been father and mother to me in one, and these dreams no doubt broke
+the terrible shock of his death to me. How well I remember, that cold,
+dreary February morning, being hastily dressed by candle-light by
+strange hands, and then my dear old nurse (who had been by his bedside
+all night) coming in and telling me the sad news with tears streaming
+down her cheeks. It seemed no news at the moment; and yet I had spoken
+of my dreams to no one, "for fear they should come true," having some
+pathetic, childish notion that silence on my part might avert the
+catastrophe. In all his previous and numerous illnesses I had never
+dreamt that any special one was fatal.</p>
+
+<p>During the next few years of school life my psychic faculty remained
+absolutely in abeyance. In a fashionable school, surrounded by
+chattering companions and the usual paraphernalia of school work,
+classes, and masters, etc., I can, however, recall many a time when
+suddenly everything around me became unreal and I alone seemed to have
+any true existence; and even that was for the time merged in a rather
+unpleasant dream, from which I hoped soon to wake up. This sensation was
+quite distinct from the one&mdash;also well known to me in those days and
+later&mdash;of having "done all this before," and knowing just what somebody
+was about to say.</p>
+
+<p>Probably both these sensations are common to most young people. It would
+be interesting to note which of the two is the more universal.</p>
+
+<p>I pass on now to the time when I was about eighteen years old, and a
+constant visitor, for weeks and months at a time, in the house of my
+godfather, the archdeacon of a northern diocese. His grandson, then a
+young student at Oxford, of about my own age, must have been what we
+should now call a very good sensitive. It was with him that I sat at my
+first "table," more as a matter of amusement than anything else, and
+certainly young Morton Freer treated the "spirits" in the most cavalier
+fashion. They did not seem to resent this, and he could do pretty much
+what he liked with them. This may be a good opportunity for explaining
+that when I speak in this narrative of "spirits" I do so to save
+constant periphrasis, and am quite consciously "begging the question"
+very often, as a matter of verbal convenience.</p>
+
+<p>In those days I don't think we troubled ourselves much about theories,
+and when we found that Morton and I alone could move a heavy dining-room
+table, or any other piece of heavy furniture quite beyond our normal
+powers, practically without exerting any strength at all, we looked upon
+it as an amusing experience without caring to inquire whether the energy
+involved had been generated on this side the veil or on the other side.
+We could certainly not have moved such weights under ordinary
+circumstances, even by putting forth all our combined strength, and we
+could only do so, for some mysterious reason, when we had been "sitting
+at the table" beforehand. Ingenious Theories of Human Electricity raised
+to a higher power by making a Human Battery, etc. etc., were not so
+common then as now, and we accepted facts without trying to solve their
+problems.</p>
+
+<p>The dear, hospitable Archdeacon would put his venerable head inside the
+door now and then, shake it at us half in fun, and yet a good deal in
+earnest, and I think he was more than doubtful whether our parlour
+games were quite lawful!</p>
+
+<p>We were very innocent and very ignorant in those days on the subject of
+psychic laws; and probably this was our salvation, for I can remember no
+terrible or weird experience, such as one reads of nowadays when tyros
+take to experiments.</p>
+
+<p>And yet my knowledge and experiences of later days lead me to endorse
+most heartily the well-known dictum of Lawrence Oliphant&mdash;namely, that
+when he saw people sitting down in a casual, irresponsible way to "<em>get
+messages through a table</em>," it reminded him of an ignorant child going
+into a powder magazine with a lighted match in its hand.</p>
+
+<p>Staying in this same house, I can next recall a flying visit from a
+brother of mine, who had just spent three months, on leave from India,
+in America, where he had taken introductions, and had been the guest of
+various hospitable naval and military men, who had shown him round the
+Washington Arsenal, West Point Academy, and so forth. My kind old host
+had begged him to take us on his way back to London; and I remember well
+his look of utter amazement when Morton and I had lured him to "the
+table" one afternoon, and he was told correctly the names of two or
+three of these American gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>"I <em>must</em> have mentioned them to my sister in my letters," he said,
+turning to the younger man. I knew this was <em>not</em> the case, but it was
+difficult to prove a negative.</p>
+
+<p>It was a relief, therefore, when my brother suggested what he
+considered a "real test," where previous knowledge on my part must be
+excluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Let them tell me the name of a bearer I had once in India&mdash;he lived
+with me for more than twelve years&mdash;always returning to me when I came
+back from English furlough, and yet at the end of that time he suddenly
+disappeared, without rhyme or reason, and I have neither seen nor heard
+of him since. I <em>know</em> my sister has never heard his name. <em>That</em> would
+be something like a test, but, of course, it won't come off," he added
+cynically.</p>
+
+<p>The wearisome spelling out began.</p>
+
+<p>The table rose up at R, then at A.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite wrong," my brother called out in triumph. "I knew how it would be
+when any real test came. Fortunately, too, it is wildly wrong&mdash;neither
+the letter before nor the letter after the right one, so you cannot
+wriggle out of it that way."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Major Bates," said Morton Freer good-naturedly. "Let us go
+on all the same, and see what they mean to spell out."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, we did so, with a most interesting result; for the right
+name was given after all, but spelt in the Hindoostanee and not the
+European fashion. The name in true Hindoostanee was R&aacute;m D&iacute;n&mdash;but
+Europeans spelt it Rham Deen&mdash;and so my brother himself had entirely
+forgotten when the A was given that it had any connection with the man's
+name. When the whole word was spelt out, of course he remembered, and
+then his face was a study!</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious! it is right enough, and that is the real Hindoostanee
+spelling, too. I never thought of that when the A came!"</p>
+
+<p>I think this episode knocked the bottom out of his scepticism for some
+years to come.</p>
+
+<p>Even now this case precludes ordinary and conscious telepathy. Mr
+Podmore would be reduced to explaining that the Hindoostanee spelling
+was latent in my brother's consciousness, though his normal self
+repudiated it.</p>
+
+<p>Another curious incident&mdash;still more difficult to explain upon the
+Thought Transference Theory (unless we stretch it to include a possible
+impact of <em>all</em> thoughts, at all times and from all quarters of the
+globe, upon everyone else's brain)&mdash;occurred under the same hospitable
+roof.</p>
+
+<p>One of the Archdeacon's nieces came to stay in the house about this
+time. She was considerably my senior, and was very kind to me, with the
+thoughtful kindness an older woman can show to a sensitive young girl.
+This awakened in me an affection which, I am thankful to say, still
+exists between us. This lady was considerably under thirty years old at
+the time, but to my young ideas she seemed already in the sear and
+yellow leaf from the matrimonial point of view! One must remember how
+different the standard of age was more than thirty years ago!</p>
+
+<p>It was also the time when marriage was looked upon not only as the most
+desirable, but as almost the only <em>possible</em>, career for a woman.</p>
+
+<p>So when Morton and this lady and I were "sitting at the table" in the
+gloaming one evening, I said, with trembling eagerness: "Morton, <em>do</em>
+ask if Carrie will ever be married," for the case seemed to me almost
+desperate at the advanced age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight!</p>
+
+<p>I must mention that for some occult reason (which I have entirely
+forgotten) I trusted fervently that a Hungarian or Polish name might be
+given after the satisfactory "Yes" had been spelt out, but, alas!
+nothing of the kind occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"The table" began with a D, and then successively E, H, A, V were given.
+No one ever heard of a Polish or Hungarian name of the kind, and I
+remember saying petulantly: "Oh, give it up, Morton. It's all nonsense!
+Nobody ever heard of a Mr <em>Dehav</em>."</p>
+
+<p>Once more Morton rescued a really good bit of evidence by his
+imperturbable perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit! Let us see what is coming," he said.</p>
+
+<p>I took no further personal interest in the experiment. Either Morton
+concluded the name was finished, or there was some confusion in getting
+the next letters, owing doubtless to my impetuous disgust. Anyway, he
+went on to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us ask where the fellow lives at the present time." This was
+instantly answered by "<em>Freshwater</em>," and the further information given
+that he was a widower.</p>
+
+<p>None of us knew any man, married or single, who lived at Freshwater, and
+the incident was relegated to the limbo of failures.</p>
+
+<p>Several years later, however, my friend <em>did</em> marry a gentleman whose
+name (a very pretty one) began with the five despised letters, and he
+was a widower, and <em>had</em> been living in his own house at Freshwater at
+the time mentioned. She did not meet him until some years after our
+curious experience.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time, but in the south of England, my attention was again
+drawn to metapsychics by an experience connected with the death of the
+famous Marquis of Hastings, of horse-racing repute. As a young girl I
+lived close to the Mote Park at Maidstone, where his sister, the present
+Lady Romney, was then living as Lady Constance Marsham. The Reverend
+David Dale Stewart and his wife (he was Vicar of Maidstone, and I made
+my home with them for some years after leaving school) were friends of
+hers, and she sometimes came to see them in a friendly way in the
+morning. On one of these occasions, when Lady Constance had just
+returned from paying her brother a visit in a small shooting-box in the
+eastern counties (I think), Mrs Stewart remarked that she was afraid the
+change had not done Lady Constance much good, as she was looking far
+from well. In those days Lady Romney was an exceptionally strong and
+healthy young woman.</p>
+
+<p>She said rather impatiently: "Well, the fact is I did a very stupid
+thing the other day&mdash;I never did such a thing before&mdash;I fainted dead
+away for the first time in my life."</p>
+
+<p>Asked for the reason of this, she told us that she and her husband and
+Lord and Lady Hastings were dining quietly one evening together, two
+guests who had been expected not having arrived by the train specified.</p>
+
+<p>Looking up Bradshaw, and finding no other train that could bring them
+until quite late at night, the other four sat down to dinner. Soup and
+fish had already been discussed, when a carriage was heard driving up to
+the door, and they naturally concluded that their guests had discovered
+some means of getting across country by another line. Lord Hastings
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Colonel and Mrs &mdash;&mdash; that we began dinner, thinking they could not
+arrive till much later, but that we are quite alone, and beg they will
+join us as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>The servant went to the door, prepared with the message given, flung it
+open&mdash;but no carriage, no horses were there! Everybody had heard it
+driving up, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>Remembering the old family legend that a carriage and pair is heard
+driving up the avenue before the head of the Hastings family dies, Lady
+Romney fainted dead away, very much to her own surprise and
+mortification; for she was, and doubtless is still, an uncommonly
+sensible woman, "quite above all superstitions."</p>
+
+<p>The episode struck me as curious at the time; but the impression passed,
+and a few days later I went to pay a visit to friends of mine in
+Buckinghamshire. Soon after my arrival I happened to mention the story,
+and was much laughed at as a "superstitious little creature, to think
+twice of such nonsense." "Of course, everyone had been mistaken in
+supposing they heard wheels or horses' hoofs&mdash;nothing could be simpler!"</p>
+
+<p>And yet before I left that house, three weeks later, all the newspapers
+were full of long obituary notices of the Marquis of Hastings. These
+were so interesting that my friend's husband had reached the second
+long column in <em>The Times</em> before any of us remembered my story, which
+had been treated with so much contempt. It suddenly flashed across my
+mind: "Owen! Remember the carriage and pair and how you laughed at me!"
+They were forced to confess "<em>it was certainly rather odd</em>," the usual
+refuge of the psychically destitute!</p>
+
+<p>A shake of the kaleidoscope, and I see another incident before me of
+more personal interest.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the outbreak of the Afghan War, in the autumn of 1878, I
+was living with very old friends in Oxford. My brother of the R&aacute;m D&iacute;n
+incident was once more in India, and had been Military Secretary for
+some years at Lahore to Sir Robert Egerton, who was at that time
+Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.</p>
+
+<p>When the war broke out, my brother, of course, went off to join his
+regiment for active service; but at the time of my experience it was
+impossible that he could have reached the seat of war, and I knew this
+well.</p>
+
+<p>I was in excellent spirits about him, for he had been through many
+campaigns, and loved active service, as all good soldiers do. Moreover,
+I had just read a charming letter which Sir Robert Egerton had sent him
+on resigning his appointment as Military Secretary to take up more
+active duty to his country.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was just at this juncture&mdash;when, humanly speaking, there was no
+cause for any special anxiety&mdash;that I woke up one morning with the
+gloomiest and most miserable forebodings about this special brother.
+Nothing of the kind had ever occurred to me before, though he had been
+through many campaigns in India, China, Abyssinia, and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>It was an overwhelming conviction of some great and definite disaster to
+him, and my friends in vain tried to argue me out of such an
+unreasonable terror by pointing out, truly enough, that he could not
+possibly be within the zone of danger at that time. I could only repeat:
+"I <em>know</em> that something terrible has happened to him, wherever he is.
+It may not be death, but it is some terrible calamity."</p>
+
+<p>I spent the day in tears and in absolute despair, and wrote to tell him
+of my conviction. Allowing for difference of time between Quetta and
+Oxford, my mental telegram reached me in the same hour that my brother,
+whilst on the march, and only thirty miles beyond Quetta, was suddenly
+struck down in his tent by the paralysis which kept him confined to his
+chair&mdash;a helpless sufferer&mdash;for twenty-eight years.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, now that I know so much more of mental currents, I might have
+received a more definite message as regards the true <em>nature</em> of the
+calamity. It could not have been more marked, nor more definite as
+regards the <em>fact</em> of it.</p>
+
+<p>My condition of hopeless misery obliged me to put off all engagements
+that day, and I did nothing but fret and lament over him, with the
+exception of writing the one letter mentioned, in which I told him of my
+strange and sad experience.</p>
+
+<p>In time, of course, the first sharp impression passed, and soon a cheery
+letter arrived from him, written, of course, before the fatal day. My
+experience in Oxford occurred on the morning of 4th December 1878. It
+was well on in January 1879 before the corroboration arrived, in a
+letter written to us by a stranger. Communication was delayed not only
+by the war, but also by the fact that my poor brother was lying at the
+time deprived of both movement and speech, and could only spell out
+later, by the alphabet, the address of his people at home.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886</h3>
+
+<p>An interval of seven years occurs between the events recorded in the
+last chapter and my first visit to America, which took place in the
+autumn of 1885.</p>
+
+<p>During these years no abnormal experiences came to me, nor had I the
+smallest wish for any.</p>
+
+<p>The table turnings with Morton Freer were a thing of the past, and were
+looked back upon by me in the light of a childish amusement rather than
+anything else. Quite other interests had come into my life, specially as
+regards literature and music; and I never gave a thought to spooks or
+spiritualism, nor did I really know anything about the latter subject.
+It is true that on one occasion a curate at Great Marlow had spoken to
+me about Mr S. C. Hall and his researches, and I think he must have
+given me an introduction to the dear old man, for I remember going to
+see him "with a lady friend" (he made a great point of this, somewhat to
+my amusement), and finding a charming old man with silver locks, a fine
+head, and a nice white frilly shirt.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of his dear friend "Mrs Jencken," whom he considered the only
+reliable medium, and showed us some sheets full of hieroglyphics, which
+he said were messages obtained through her influence from "his dear
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>It was all so much Greek to me in those days, and only true sympathy
+with the poor old man's evident loneliness and adoration of his wife's
+memory prevented my making merry over the extraordinary delusions of the
+old gentleman, when my companion and I had left his rooms in Sussex
+villas.</p>
+
+<p>Later, I lived during two years with Mrs Lankester and her daughters
+whilst looking after an invalid brother in London; and I need scarcely
+point out that constant intercourse with Professor Ray Lankester in his
+mother's house was not calculated to encourage any psychic proclivities,
+even had these latter not been entirely latent with me at that time.</p>
+
+<p>I heard a great deal about the "Slade exposure," both from Professor
+Lankester and his friend Dr Donkin, who often came to us with him. When
+arranging my American tour in 1885, Mrs Lankester kindly gave me an
+introduction to Mrs Edna Hall, an old friend of theirs, who had been
+living in their house during the whole period of the Slade trial. This
+lady&mdash;an American&mdash;lived permanently in Boston, and curiously enough (in
+view of the preceding facts) it was she who persuaded Miss Greenlow and
+me to attend our first <em>s&eacute;ance</em> in Boston. Mrs Edna Hall had honoured
+Mrs Lankester's introduction most hospitably; but she was too busy a
+woman to do as much for us as her kindness suggested, and she had
+therefore introduced us to another friend&mdash;Mrs Maria Porter&mdash;a most
+picturesque, clever, and characteristic figure in Boston society in the
+eighties.</p>
+
+<p>Both these ladies accompanied us to the "Sisters Berry." Mrs Edna Hall
+had no sort of illusions on the subject. She said quite frankly that she
+only took us there because it was a feature of American life which we
+ought not to miss, and which would probably amuse us, if only by showing
+the gullibility of Human Nature.</p>
+
+<p>One is always apt to read past experiences in the light of present
+convictions. Fortunately, I kept a diary at the time, and have a
+faithful record of what took place, and, which is still more valuable,
+of the impressions formed at the time.</p>
+
+<p>The extracts connected with this <em>s&eacute;ance</em> in Boston, and later
+experiences in New York, are taken partly from my record at the time and
+partly from the chapter on "Spiritualism in America," published in my
+book entitled "A Year in the Great Republic."</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of this first <em>s&eacute;ance</em> in Boston, I see that I have said:</p>
+
+<p>"I went to the 'Sisters Berry' in a very antagonistic frame of mind,
+<em>determined beforehand that the whole thing was a swindle</em> (italics are
+recent), accompanied by friends who were even more sceptical than
+myself, if that were possible." I go on then to describe the usual
+cabinet, and pass on to the following extract:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>An old Egyptian now appeared, and a man in the circle, who had been
+sitting near my friend Miss Greenlow all the evening, went up and spoke
+to him, and then asked "<em>that the lady who had been sitting near him</em>"
+might come up also, which she did; but she said she could distinguish no
+features, and only felt a warm, damp hand passed over hers. Miss
+Greenlow was next called up by the spirit of a young man who wished to
+embrace her, but who was finally proved to be the departed friend of the
+lady who sat next to her. Miss Greenlow returned to her seat, furious,
+declaring that it was a horrible, coarse-looking creature, unlike anyone
+she had ever seen in her life.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Porter made valiant attempts to investigate the figures who came
+forth at intervals, but was invariably waved back by the master of the
+ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>"Will that lady kindly sit down? This spirit is not for her. It wishes
+to communicate with its own friends, and she is disturbing the
+conditions, and forcing the spirit back into the cabinet."</p>
+
+<p>There were evidently many old stagers there, who flew up like
+lamp-lighters on every possible occasion, with exclamations of: "Oh,
+Uncle Charlie, is that you?" "How do you do, Jem?" and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>One old lady, in a mob cap and black gown, was introduced as a certain
+Sister Margaret who had taught in St Peter's School, Boston. She came to
+speak to a former pupil, who gave her spiritualistic experiences in such
+remarkably bad grammar as reflected small credit on Sister Margaret's
+teaching of the English language.</p>
+
+<p>This girl told us how anxious she had always been to see her old
+teacher, who had appeared to her several times in the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> room, but
+never in her old garments&mdash;a sort of sister's dress. After wishing very
+fervently one night, Sister Margaret appeared dressed in mob cap and
+gown, saying: "Don't you see my dress? I came in it at your wish."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered the girl; "and I thank you for gratifying my wish. Since
+which time," she added, "I have been a firm believer in spiritualism."</p>
+
+<p>A young French girl, in draggly black garments and a shock of thick
+black hair, then came forward and rushed amongst us, trying to find
+someone to talk French with her. My friend Mrs Hall went up first, and
+then I was told to go up and speak to her. I took hold of her hands, and
+grasped them firmly for a moment. They seemed to be ordinary flesh and
+blood, but I am bound to confess that they appeared to <em>lengthen out</em> in
+a somewhat abnormal fashion when the pressure was removed.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was very cadaverous, and she spoke in a quick, hurried way, <em>as
+if time were an object</em>. She said she understood a little English, but
+could not speak it. Her mother had been French; her father an Indian,
+"un brave homme."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that a good deal of kissing and embracing went on. One
+old grey-headed gentleman was constantly walking up to the cabinet and
+being embraced by a white figure, whose arms we could just see, thrown
+round his neck, in the dim light. (I note that the light here was much
+less than with Mrs Stoddart Gray in New York.)</p>
+
+<p>The only excitement was the chance of some disturbance before we left;
+for Mrs Porter became more and more indignant with the "gross
+imposture," which culminated when at length she was called up and told
+that "a young man wished to speak with her." She asserted that it was
+"the most horrible, grinning, painted creature who hissed into her
+ears."</p>
+
+<p>The master of the house begged her to be patient, and try to hear what
+the spirit wished to say, but with a very emphatic "<span class="smcap">No, no, no</span>" she
+resumed her seat, amidst a general titter of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>At the last we were told that three little girls, whose mother sat near
+the cabinet, wished to materialise, but found it difficult to do so,
+owing to the absence of children in the audience.</p>
+
+<p>The mother seemed very anxious to see them; but suddenly the gas was
+turned up, and the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> declared over&mdash;a very abrupt finale to a
+piece of unmitigated humbug, I should say.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>These extracts sufficiently show the spirit in which I entered upon my
+investigations and the result of that spirit. I think even Mr Podmore
+would have considered me <em>thoroughly sound</em> on that first evening. I
+have no doubt that the violence of Mrs Porter's antagonism, and the
+smiling cynicism of Mrs Hall in face of the "American experience" she
+had proposed for us, added to my own preconceived prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>I am aware that the Berry Sisters have been "exposed," thus sharing the
+fate of all other public mediums. In the light of later experiences,
+however, I feel sure that I might have received something personally
+evidential on this occasion had my attitude of mind given hospitality to
+any possible visitors from the Unseen.</p>
+
+<p>The next extracts from my diary refer to a <em>s&eacute;ance</em> which we attended in
+New York a few days after our arrival there, and some two or three
+weeks later than the Boston sitting already described.</p>
+
+<p>Our stay in Boston had extended to three months from the original
+fortnight we had planned for the visit. I had taken a few very good
+introductions there: to Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, Colonel Wentworth
+Higginson, and others of the Boston <em>alumni</em>, and as several receptions
+had been kindly arranged for us, and my name had appeared many times
+during the winter in various local papers, it would have been easy for
+the Sisters Berry to find out something about me and my companion, and
+utilise the knowledge by faking up a convenient spirit, who could have
+talked glibly of my literary tastes, and so forth. Nothing of the sort
+occurred, however, although our first <em>s&eacute;ance</em> only took place a week or
+two before we left Boston, after my three months' stay there.</p>
+
+<p>This fact should certainly be "counted as righteousness" to the much
+abused Sisters!</p>
+
+<p>It was the more curious, that our first <em>s&eacute;ance</em> in New York, within a
+few days of our arrival, and in a metropolis where at the time we were
+<em>absolute strangers</em>, should have been so much more successful as
+regards evidential experiences.</p>
+
+<p>I will again quote from my diary of 1886. The medium visited on this
+occasion was Mrs Cadwell, who has since died.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>We knew nothing beforehand of the medium, who lived in a small flat in
+an unfashionable quarter. Some eight people only were assembled in the
+extremely small room. All were perfect strangers to Miss Greenlow and
+me, but a fancied likeness in one lady present to a picture I had seen
+of Mrs Beecher Stowe led me to ask if it were she, and I was told that
+my surmise was correct.</p>
+
+<p>There was no room for a cabinet, so a curtain was hung across a tiny
+alcove, just the ordinary "arch" found in most rooms of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>When I went behind the curtain with the female medium, before the
+sitting began, there was barely space for us both to turn round in. The
+carpet on either side the curtain was one piece. There was absolutely no
+room for any trap-door machinery, even could such have been worked
+successfully in the perfect silence in which we sat, within two feet of
+the alcove. The room was about the size of the small back dining-room in
+an ordinary London lodging&mdash;say in Oxford or Cambridge Terrace, for
+example.</p>
+
+<p>The medium sat amongst us at first, only going behind the curtain after
+a few moments, when she was "under control" as it is called.</p>
+
+<p>A little child of hers, who died some years ago at the age of four, is
+supposed to help in the materialisations, but is never seen outside the
+curtains. If she came out herself she would not be able to help the
+others to do so. I mention these things in the words in which they were
+told to me, offering no comment, but putting the case for the moment as
+spiritualists would put it. To do this, and then to give a faithful and
+unprejudiced account of what took place, seems to me the only fair way
+of treating such a subject.</p>
+
+<p>I was told again and again that too much concentration of thought on
+the part of the audience was deterrent. This accounts for music as an
+invariable accompaniment of all such sittings. It seems to harmonise the
+circle, to break up over-concentration, and may also, unfortunately,
+serve to cover the doings of dishonest mediums.</p>
+
+<p>It must not, however, be supposed that in this case the materialisations
+went on only whilst we were singing. This might point to a possible
+"trap-door theory," although in a city where flats abound (rooms, not
+human beings!) there would still be the difficulty of getting your
+downstairs neighbours to look kindly upon such proceedings. As a matter
+of fact, we were often sitting in absolute silence when fresh "spirits"
+appeared.</p>
+
+<p>I can corroborate the assertion that too much concentration of thought
+upon them proves deterrent to the spirits, for on more than one occasion
+I heard a voice from the curtain or cabinet saying: "Do get the people's
+minds off us; we can do nothing whilst they are fixed upon us so
+intensely," as though <em>thought</em> in spirit life corresponded to some
+physical obstacle on the earth plane.</p>
+
+<p>The first spirit who came (the daughter of an old gentleman sitting near
+me) intimated through him that she would like me to go up and help her
+to materialise the white veil which all in turn wore, and which, though
+perfectly transparent, is considered a necessary shield between them and
+the earth's influences; on the same principle, I suppose, that we put on
+blue spectacles to protect us from the blinding rays of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>She came out from the alcove, held both her hands in front of her,
+turning them backward and forward that I might be satisfied that nothing
+was concealed in them. The soft, clinging material of her gown ended
+high up on the shoulders, so there were no sleeves to be reckoned with.
+I stood close over her, holding out my own dress, and as she rubbed her
+hands to and fro a sort of white lace or net came from them, like a
+foam, and lay upon my gown which I was holding up towards her.</p>
+
+<p>I touched this material, and held it in my hands. It had substance, but
+was light as gossamer, and quite unlike any stuff I ever saw in a shop.</p>
+
+<p>The very softest gossamer tulle that old ladies sometimes produce as
+having belonged to their grandmothers is perhaps the nearest approach to
+what I then lifted in my hands, but even this does not accurately
+describe it.</p>
+
+<p>When long enough she took up the veil, unfolded it, covering her head
+with it, and saying very graciously "Thank you" to me.</p>
+
+<p>Other spirits now appeared for the other people in the room, who
+conversed with them in low tones.</p>
+
+<p>All these had evidently materialised before and could consequently speak
+with comparative ease. One, called the "Angel Mother" (the mother of the
+medium), answered questions on the spirit life in a loud American voice,
+prefacing every remark, whether to man or woman, by an affectionate
+"Well, de-ar!" Her answers showed considerable shrewdness, but not much
+depth, and were often rather wide of the mark.</p>
+
+<p>"Nels Seymour" (who appears to have belonged to a sort of Christy
+Minstrel Company over here) cracked jokes all the time with a gentleman
+amongst the audience in a good-natured but flippant and very unspiritual
+manner, and even the ladies joined in the undignified punning and "play
+upon words" that went on all the time.</p>
+
+<p>The little child's voice came in as a relief every now and then. She
+spoke broken, childish English, but used the expressions of a grown-up
+person. She described several spirits as "chying" (trying) to come, but
+not being strong enough.</p>
+
+<p>I was becoming drowsy, and rather tired of the performance, when my
+attention was once more aroused by hearing that a very beautiful female
+spirit, with a diamond star in her forehead, had appeared and asked for
+me, saying she had been a friend of mine on earth, and wished to
+communicate with me.</p>
+
+<p>This was conveyed to me by the little child's voice, the spirit herself
+not having yet emerged from the curtain; but the medium's husband looked
+behind it, and told me of the diamond star, which he said was some
+"order" in spirit life.</p>
+
+<p>Having no idea who the friend might be, I begged for some further
+particulars before going up to speak to her.</p>
+
+<p>"She passed from earth life about five years ago, and in Germany,"
+answered the medium's husband, who had conducted the conversation behind
+the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>This was less vague, and now for the first time a suspicion of the
+spirit's identity crossed my mind; but I would not go up until a name
+had been given, and I asked for this before leaving my seat.</p>
+
+<p>My travelling companion&mdash;a recent acquaintance&mdash;had never heard me
+mention the lady in question, who <em>had</em> died in Germany at the time
+specified. The little child said the spirit would give the name through
+her, and the process was a curious one. Instead of mentioning the whole
+name or each letter of it to her father, the child <em>described</em> each
+letter to him as you might describe the lines of the large capitals in a
+child's reading-book. The father guessed the letter from the child's
+description, and asked me if the first one were correct? It was; but I
+did not tell him so, merely saying I should like to have the Christian
+name in full before giving any opinion.</p>
+
+<p>In due time the six letters (Muriel, we will call it) were correctly
+given, and I had then no further excuse for refusing to speak to the
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>I went up to the curtain, and she appeared in front of it. I have been
+frequently asked: "Should you have recognised her as your friend had no
+name been given?" With every wish to be perfectly truthful, I find it
+difficult to answer this question, for the following reason:&mdash;None of
+the "materialisations" I saw were exactly human in face. There was no
+idea of a mask or clever "get up," but if one could accept the theory of
+a body hastily put together and assumed for a time, the result is
+exactly what might have been expected under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>My friend in real life was very pale, and had exquisitely chiselled
+features, and the ones I now looked upon were of the same <em>cast</em>. The
+height was also similar, and an indescribable atmosphere of refinement,
+purity, and quiet dignity, for which she had been remarkable; all this
+was present with this materialisation. More than this I cannot say, for
+no materialisation I have ever seen could be truthfully considered
+<em>identical</em> with the human original.</p>
+
+<p>I did not feel frightened, but I did feel embarrassed, and naturally so,
+considering how unwilling and grudging my recognition of her
+individuality must have appeared. She seemed conscious of this, for
+almost immediately she mentioned her hands, holding them out for
+inspection, and saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember my hands? I was so proud of my hands!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, as a matter of fact, my friend was noted for her beautiful hands,
+but she was too sensible and clever a woman to have been conceited about
+them, and had too much good taste ever to have made their beauty a
+subject of remark, even to an intimate friend.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, the hands now <em>en &eacute;vidence</em>, although well shaped and with
+tapering fingers, were as little identical with a human hand as the face
+was identical with a human face.</p>
+
+<p>Casting about for something to say to her, my first thought was for an
+only and dearly loved married sister of hers, also a friend of mine, and
+I mentioned the latter in a guarded way, saying: "If you are in reality
+my friend, have you no message for <em>your sister</em>?"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment, and without the slightest hesitation, she said: "<em>Tell poor
+Jessie</em>," going on with a message peculiarly appropriate to the facts of
+the case, but of much too private a nature for publication.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately afterwards, and <em>with no shadow of suggestion from
+me</em>, she added:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Poor Jessie! She suffered terribly when I passed away so suddenly.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>My friend had died in a foreign country, under peculiarly sad
+circumstances. She was young, beautiful, and accomplished; a prominent
+local figure in the well-known capital where she had spent several
+winters. Her death was so sudden that there was not even time to put off
+a large afternoon "At Home" arranged for that day. Moreover, this
+sister, by a most merciful chance, happened to be spending a few months
+with her, out of England, at the time. These were all special facts,
+spontaneously referred to by her, but which would <em>not</em> have applied
+equally well to the death of any other friend, even supposing such a
+death to have occurred abroad.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit spoke feebly and with difficulty, "not having much strength,"
+she told me.</p>
+
+<p>I asked if her father (who had died a few months previously) were with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," she said gently; "but I know that he has passed over." She
+then kissed my hand, and faded away before my eyes, not apparently
+returning to the curtain (close to which I stood), but vanishing into
+thin air.</p>
+
+<p>Some ten days later my friend and I went again to an evening <em>s&eacute;ance</em> at
+the same house, different people being present on this occasion. A
+stupid, "<em>unintelligent</em> sceptic" woman put us all out of harmony by
+making inane suggestions, always declaring that "<em>she would not for the
+world interfere with the conditions</em>," but doing so all the same. The
+"Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with
+an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about
+Faraday's opinions on the spirit world without much idea of what he was
+talking about. "Nels Seymour" <em>appeared</em>, as well as spoke, this time.
+He took my hand and kissed it; but he does not leave the cabinet, as he
+is the "control." It was eleven years on this day since he had "passed
+over," so he called it his "birthday."</p>
+
+<p>A very beautiful female spirit materialised and offered to sit on my
+lap; an offer I closed with at once.</p>
+
+<p>She was some five feet eight inches in height, and a large,
+well-developed woman. Anticipating the possibility of her resting her
+feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my own
+feet from the ground the moment she sat down, which was easily done, as
+my chair was a high one.</p>
+
+<p>She remained for several minutes in this position, resting, of
+necessity, her whole weight upon me, which was about equal to that of a
+small kitten or a lady's muff, in the days when small muffs were in
+fashion. There was an <em>appreciable</em> weight, but I have never nursed any
+baby that was not far heavier.</p>
+
+<p>The veil this time was materialised in the usual way, my friend going up
+to watch the process.</p>
+
+<p>My spirit friend appeared again, and more strongly this time. At a
+public <em>s&eacute;ance</em>, where so many are eager to communicate with their
+friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the
+public time, and consequently any communications are as hurried and
+unsatisfactory as a conversation with an intimate friend in the public
+reading-room of a hotel would be.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I pass over another most excellent and evidential incident as a
+concession to family prejudice. It has already appeared in my book on
+America entitled "A Year in the Great Republic," and may be found there.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>At a third materialising <em>s&eacute;ance</em> at the same house an excitable Italian
+friend of mine, who had never seen anything of the kind before, came
+with much the same prejudices as I had felt at the Boston <em>s&eacute;ance</em>, and
+disturbed the conditions very much by his attitude of determined
+antagonism; whilst his comparative ignorance of English, and my feeble
+Italian, made explanations, under the circumstances, rather hopeless.
+The whole circle was put out of harmony, and a dead weight lay upon us
+all. The materialisations continued, it is true; but personally it was a
+great relief to me when my excitable friend left, declaring that
+everything he had seen was "<em>physiquement impossible mon ange</em>."</p>
+
+<p>He departed so abruptly as to bring down much abuse upon his absent head
+for having "broken the battery" and almost "killed the medium" by his
+sudden disappearance from the circle.</p>
+
+<p>This awful threat had so much power over the rest of the party that we
+sat out to the bitter end, leaving the medium at last still in her
+trance, with husband and son hovering over her in an anxiety which, if
+acted, showed first-class dramatic power.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I had made the acquaintance of a very beautiful and charming
+woman in New York, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction.</p>
+
+<p>She has had a tragic and remarkable history; is a woman of great mental
+powers, in addition to very remarkable beauty; and is of the highest
+rank, being an Austrian princess, I believe, in her own right, and
+having spent her youth in foreign courts.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from these facts, which had been told me by a mutual friend before
+we met, I knew nothing whatever of her family history, nor whether she
+had brothers or sisters, alive or dead.</p>
+
+<p>I had spoken to her of my curious experiences, and she had discussed the
+matter with me from the standpoint of a thorough woman of the world, of
+strong mental power, who had seen too much of life to be dogmatic or
+narrow in her views, but too much also to believe in what is called the
+"supernatural," before every possible <em>natural</em> hypothesis had been
+admitted and dismissed as untenable.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting in her pretty room the day before I left New York, we had talked
+for some two hours on various subjects connected with life and
+literature, and before the final "adieux" she said laughingly: "Well,
+have you been to any more <em>s&eacute;ances</em>?"</p>
+
+<p>I said "No," and that we did not intend to do so, as our time was now so
+short. A few moments of careless talk on the subject ensued, and picking
+up a newspaper, I cast my eye over the usual list of mediums,
+clairvoyants, etc. A half-defined wish to see whether any spirit friend
+would come to me under totally different conditions and surroundings,
+and in an entirely different quarter of the city, led to my copying out
+one of the addresses at haphazard.</p>
+
+<p>I could not prevail upon my hostess to accompany me (she is delicate,
+and dreads night air), but I took the slip of paper to my hotel,
+thinking that my friend there might care to take the cars after dinner
+to this distant end of the city.</p>
+
+<p>My English companion proved rather indifferent and disinclined towards
+the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>This was very natural. She was not magnetic in temperament, and had no
+expectation of seeing any of her own friends, although, of course, she
+had both seen and spoken to those who came for me.</p>
+
+<p>However, a good dinner at the excellent Windsor Hotel fortified us so
+much after our fatigues that at the last moment we agreed to make one
+more attempt, no one, ourselves included, having known five minutes
+previously that we should leave the house.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion we were ushered into a much more imposing drawing-room,
+and the lady herself was evidently some degrees higher in the social
+scale than our first mediumistic friend.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangements also were quite different. As we sat waiting for a few
+minutes (having arrived very punctually), Mrs Gray looked at my friend,
+and then described an elderly lady with grey hair who was standing over
+her, but, of course, invisible to our eyes. Almost immediately Mrs Gray
+began rubbing her knees, and complained of pain in them, adding: "The
+impression of dropsy is being conveyed to me. This spirit seems to have
+suffered from disease of that nature."</p>
+
+<p>My friend&mdash;who was very self-contained and unemotional&mdash;gave no clue to
+the fact that she recognised anyone by this description, but as we were
+returning home in the cars she said quietly: "It is curious Mrs Gray
+should have described that old lady with grey hair&mdash;I suppose she meant
+my mother. <em>She</em> had grey hair, and died of dropsy."</p>
+
+<p>On my expostulating with this lady for having given the impression that
+she did not recognise the description at the time she said, with
+conscious pride: "You don't suppose I was going to let the woman know
+that she had described my mother?"</p>
+
+<p>To give a false impression in so good a cause as determined incredulity,
+seems not only justifiable, but actually praiseworthy to many minds.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the evening, the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> being in full swing, a spirit dressed
+in some kind of white "sister's" dress appeared at the door of the
+cabinet; and Mrs Stoddart Gray asked if anyone in the circle could speak
+German, as this spirit did not seem to understand French, Italian, or
+English, and she herself only recognised German by the sound.</p>
+
+<p>A gentleman volunteered his assistance, but apparently without much
+effect, and being a German scholar, I then offered to come to the
+rescue. The moment I went up to the figure she seemed to gain strength,
+and came quite out of the cabinet, and said to me in the most refined
+German (any readers who have studied the language know that there is as
+wide a difference between the highest and lowest type of German accent
+as between an educated Irish "accent" and an Irish brogue):</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Ich bin die schwester von Madame Schewitsch</em>," mentioning the name of
+the foreign friend with whom I had been spending that afternoon: "<em>Ich
+weisz das Sie Heute Nach mittag bei meiner schwester waren.</em>"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Translation: "I am the sister of Madame Schewitsch&mdash;I know
+that you spent this afternoon with my sister."</p></div>
+
+<p>She had evidently a strong, almost overwhelming desire to make some
+communication to me for her sister, but the difficulty in doing so
+seemed equally strong.</p>
+
+<p>It lay beyond the question of language. She spoke with sufficient
+strength, and I could understand perfectly her well-chosen and
+well-pronounced words. But some insuperable obstacle seemed to prevent
+her telling me what she wished to convey, and the despairing attempt to
+surmount this was painful in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>I assured her of my willingness to help in any way possible, and made a
+few suggestions, but all in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it that you are not happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no! That is not it."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me some sort of warning which she wished to convey, and had
+some connection with illness, for the words <em>achtung</em> and <em>krankheit</em>
+(warning and illness) were repeated more than once, but no definite
+message came.</p>
+
+<p>I then asked if she could <em>write</em> it, and she caught eagerly at the
+idea. So I borrowed a pencil and some paper, and placed them on a small
+table in the middle of the room, with a chair in front of it. She came
+quite close to the table (five gas burners were more than half turned
+on, so there was plenty of light), sat down, and took up the pencil, but
+almost immediately threw it down again, saying in a most unhappy and
+despairing voice: "<em>Nein! nein! Ich kann es selbst nicht schreiben!</em>"<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+and vanished before my very eyes as she rose from the table. Now had
+this been a case of fraud, and supposing that some woman had means of
+discovering the name of my New York friend and the fact of my having
+spent that very afternoon with her, what would have been easier than to
+write or give some commonplace message in a language of which she had
+already proved herself mistress?</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Translation: "No! no! I cannot even write it!"</p></div>
+
+<p>The episode was so painful that I decided <em>not</em> to write to Madame
+Schewitsch about it. I have therefore no absolute corroboration of the
+fact that the lady mentioned had a sister who became a nun, or who was
+connected with some such establishment, and had passed over. This,
+however, is much more probable than not, because in every high-born
+Catholic family in Austria, one member in a large family almost
+invariably takes the veil. I have given the real name in this case,
+hoping Madame Schewitsch may perchance come across my book, and supply
+the information needed. I may remark, finally, that three or four months
+later, whilst travelling in California, I heard from my excitable and
+sceptical Italian friend (who had given me the introduction to Madame
+Schewitsch) that this lady had had a long and most serious illness
+during my absence in the West, and that her husband and he had both
+feared she would never recover from it. This fear, fortunately, proved
+to be groundless.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the sitting.</p>
+
+<p>About twenty minutes after the "sister" had disappeared, a figure in
+white came forward very swiftly, and without a moment's hesitation
+pointed towards me, saying quickly: "<em>For you.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>I went up at once, recognising who it was, but determined to give no
+sign of this fact.</p>
+
+<p>The "spirit" looked at me for a moment with surprise, as one might look
+at any well-known friend who passed us in the street without a greeting.</p>
+
+<p>As I remained silent she whispered: "Don't you know me?" I am afraid <em>I</em>
+gave the false impression this time, and asked her for her name.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Why, I am Muriel!</em>" came the instant answer, mentioning the name of
+the first friend who had appeared to me, after spelling out her name, at
+the previous <em>s&eacute;ances</em> held in another part of New York.</p>
+
+<p>On this third appearance my spirit friend asked me to kiss her. I must
+confess that I complied with some amount of trepidation, which proved to
+be quite unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing the least repulsive to the touch, although it was not
+exactly like kissing anyone on earth; but an indescribable atmosphere of
+freshness and purity, which seemed always to surround this friend whilst
+living, was very apparent under these changed conditions. Another
+curious little point is that I had entirely forgotten my friend's love
+of violets (she always wore them when possible, and used violet scent)
+until I smelt them distinctly whilst speaking to her.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that until the day of the sitting, we had never
+dreamed of going to Mrs Gray's house, nor had we even heard her name. I
+picked it out of a newspaper by chance&mdash;amongst at least thirty others.</p>
+
+<p>Until past seven o'clock that evening we had not decided to visit her,
+and the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> began at eight <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, no single person in the room being
+present who had been at the house of the other medium some weeks
+previously. Under these circumstances it would be difficult to account
+for the fact of my friend's reappearance on the ground of collusion
+between the two mediums. Moreover, such collusion would not account for
+the appearance earlier in the evening of a spirit claiming to be the
+sister of Madame Schewitsch.</p>
+
+<p>No one hitherto has been able to suggest any <em>intelligent</em> explanation
+of my personal experiences on these occasions. Conjuring tricks and trap
+doors are, of course, "trotted out" by the <em>unintelligent</em> sceptic, but
+these do not meet the difficulty of an <em>accurate knowledge of names and
+of family matters of comparatively small importance</em>.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>As I am just now chiefly concerned with presenting incidents in my life
+rather than in prosing over them, I resist the temptation to go further
+into the question of <em>Materialisations</em> either from the historical or
+ethical point of view, and pass on to the subject of clairvoyance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II&mdash;<em>continued</em></h2>
+
+<h3>INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886</h3>
+
+<p>In speaking of clairvoyance I shall again have recourse to my notes
+taken at the time of my American visit and on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>I am quite convinced that where a life has been in any way eventful or
+at all marked, any fairly developed clairvoyant can in some way "sense"
+your mental and moral atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>In some three or four personal cases, the notes taken at the time of
+such visits, paid several thousands of miles apart, might almost be read
+as descriptive of the same interview, with different witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>My travelling companion, who had led a very uneventful life, seemed to
+puzzle them much more. There was apparently nothing to lay hold of, and
+only a very shadowy, indistinct picture was given in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>In my own case the colours were put on freely, firmly, and without the
+least hesitation, and in every single instance the sketch was remarkably
+truthful, and yet would not have described the life of one other woman
+in three or four hundred.</p>
+
+<p>That there is a good deal of guesswork done even under the supposed
+influence of "trance" is quite evident to me. I am not prepared to say
+that such trances were in no case genuine, but the remarks made during
+them were frequently of a tentative nature, and the slightest good "hit"
+was followed up with as much ingenuity as Sir Richard Owen displayed in
+putting together his skeleton from a single bone.</p>
+
+<p>I was told some six or seven times that my mother (who died during my
+infancy) was my guardian spirit, and six times her name was given to me,
+with some difficulty in one or two cases, but invariably without the
+smallest guessing on the part of the clairvoyant or any hint from me.</p>
+
+<p>One of my most successful interviews in New York was with a Mrs Parks of
+Philadelphia&mdash;a very pleasant, good-looking, healthy woman, quite unlike
+the usual cadaverous medium with whom one is more familiar.</p>
+
+<p>Her terms being rather higher than those usually asked in America (where
+competition has made mediums a cheap luxury), I demurred at first; upon
+which she said brightly: "Well, don't come if you don't feel like paying
+that; but I never alter my prices. But I won't take your money if I
+don't give you satisfaction. Some get satisfaction from one person and
+some from another&mdash;you will soon see if I am telling you the truth about
+your friends, and I won't take a penny from you if you are
+dissatisfied."</p>
+
+<p>I left the house saying I would think it over, and Mrs Parks did not at
+all press me to come, and from my manner could hardly have expected to
+see me.</p>
+
+<p>I had a most satisfactory interview with her next day.</p>
+
+<p>After referring to my mother's presence, and giving her name without any
+hesitation, she gave me several messages with regard to character which
+were singularly appropriate, and finished up by saying: "Your mother
+does not wish you to go to mediums or mix yourself too much up with such
+persons. It is not necessary for you to do so; she says you have enough
+mediumistic power for her to be able to communicate with you directly."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help saying: "Well, Mrs Parks, you are going very much
+against your own interests in giving me this message. I am a perfect
+stranger to you in this city. I have told you that I am making some
+little stay here, and as you have given me so much satisfaction I might
+have been induced to come and see you several times again before
+leaving."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed, and answered: "That is quite true; but I am an honest
+woman, and I am bound to give you the message that is given to me for
+you, even when it goes against my interest."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing her bright, pleasant home, with every trace of comfort about it,
+and having received personal proof that money alone was not her
+consideration, I could not help asking why she continued such an arduous
+life.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she answered, "the truth is that I do it now against my own
+wish. My husband has always objected to it more or less. He was afraid
+it might injure my health, and for two years I gave it up entirely.
+But," she added, "the spirits would not leave me alone. It seemed as if
+I <em>had</em> to come back to it, as if I were refusing to use the powers
+that had been given to me for the help and comfort of my
+fellow-creatures. I name a higher price than others, to limit my work
+and to keep away those who would only come from idle curiosity." She
+also told me that sometimes she had to give orders beforehand that
+certain people should not be admitted on any pretext whatever. "I can
+see their spirits round them before they reach the door very often, and
+I would not have such people, bringing such an atmosphere into my
+house&mdash;no, not if they gave me a hundred dollars for each sitting."</p>
+
+<p>I must mention one more incident connected with this period of my
+investigations, because it throws a strong light on some obscure
+problems.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst consulting these clairvoyants, in widely different parts of
+America, two very near relatives of mine were almost invariably
+described, and the names&mdash;one male and one female&mdash;were generally given.
+The mediums invariably went on to say that the female spirit was further
+on in development than the male spirit. Now there were circumstances
+which made this statement, viewed from this world's standpoint, not only
+absolutely mistaken, but almost ludicrously so. The woman's nature had
+been a far more faulty one&mdash;more impetuous, less balanced, and so forth.
+The male spirit described had been a man of very exceptional character
+and spirituality, whilst on earth.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of these facts the same "mistake," as I considered it, had
+consistently been made by every clairvoyant who described them; which,
+by-the-by, rules out telepathy as an explanation of these special
+experiences. It certainly seemed strange that after giving accurate
+descriptions of the two relatives referred to&mdash;names included&mdash;each
+clairvoyant should make exactly the same mistake upon so obvious a
+matter as the question involved.</p>
+
+<p>Some months later, in the course of my travels, I found myself at Denver
+in Colorado. We stayed here, at first, one day only, to break our
+journey farther up into the Rocky Mountains. The previous day, when
+wandering about Colorado Springs, my friend and I had come across a lady
+doctor by chance; and having asked some trivial question, we were
+invited into her pretty little house, where we chatted for half-an-hour
+on various subjects&mdash;including spiritualism. We gave no account of our
+experiences, but simply mentioned the fact that we had some interest in
+the investigation.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing this, and that we were going on to Denver next day, this lady
+gave me the address of a young married friend who lived in that city,
+and who had during the previous two years suddenly developed strong
+mediumistic power, but was in no way a professional. She begged us to
+call if possible, and I took down the address, but said it was very
+doubtful if we could do so in the short time we should have at our
+disposal.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of a long afternoon's drive to the most interesting points of
+view in Denver, we found ourselves close to the quarter where this young
+woman lived, and called at the house mentioned. The lady was not at
+home, and a friend who received us explained that it would be impossible
+for her to come down in the evening to see us, as she was delicate, and
+not allowed to go out at night.</p>
+
+<p>As we were leaving Denver early next morning, this made a meeting
+impossible, so we left our cards, and a note to explain our visit. Going
+into the hotel office after dinner that evening, I heard a gentleman
+inquiring for me by name, saying he had brought his wife to see me. I
+explained that I was the lady he asked for, and he then said, with the
+stoical resignation of the typical American husband: "I did not like her
+to come out, but she was bound to have her own way."</p>
+
+<p>The lady in question came into my bedroom upstairs after dismissing her
+husband, and said she "preferred a room already permeated by my
+influence." She then continued very simply: "I do not know whether I
+shall be able to help you at all, but it seems there is something I have
+to tell you or explain. When I read your note I felt bound to come,
+although my husband tried to dissuade me. It seemed to me as if the
+spirits came all the way with me in the cars."</p>
+
+<p>She then gave me quite a good sitting, but on the ordinary lines, ending
+up by the description of the relatives mentioned, and by making the
+usual "mistake" about their relative spiritual positions.</p>
+
+<p>This was all said in trance. When she returned to consciousness I said:
+"Now, Mrs Brown (her real name), I must tell you honestly that you have
+made one cardinal mistake, but I am also bound to say that five or six
+professional mediums have done just the same as regards the same
+matter." I then explained, and asked if she could account for such a
+persistent and obvious misconception.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," she answered; "perhaps the spirits will tell me."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up with a very intent expression for a minute, as though
+listening to some explanation which did not cover the ground of her own
+experience, and then said very quickly and in a monotonous voice, as
+though repeating a verbal message:</p>
+
+<p>"It has nothing exactly to do with our earthly idea of 'goodness.'
+Spiritual life can only come to those prepared for it, within the limits
+of their capacity. The male spirit you mention was a clergyman of the
+Church of England. He was a very holy man, but he was in some way creed
+bound. He was a man of strong creed; he clung to his creed here, and
+cannot quite free himself from it even now, although he has advanced
+very much in spiritual perception. Now his wife had a very sympathetic,
+<em>apprehending</em> nature. She can therefore receive spiritual light more
+fully and freely. That is why she has risen to a higher plane. This is
+not a question of character so much as of <em>spiritual capacity</em>, and in
+this she is the more highly gifted of the two. She is on a different
+plane, but she is able to help her husband very much, and in time he
+will join her, and they will progress together."</p>
+
+<p>All this was said in a quick, decided way, and without the smallest
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>One would hardly have expected a young woman in the midst of the Rocky
+Mountains to know the exact meaning of the term "<em>clergyman of the
+Church of England</em>," for the word is almost unknown in America, where
+they speak invariably of a <em>minister</em>. Yet the words were given with
+quick, firm precision, exactly as written down.</p>
+
+<p>Later, in San Francisco, a clairvoyant at once referred to my friend
+"Muriel," and described her, but in rather vague terms. When I pointed
+this fact out she said a little impatiently, as though we were wasting
+time in quibbling: "<em>Oh, well, it does not matter. The spirit tells me
+you know perfectly well who it is. She has already appeared to you in
+New York.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>I had gone to this particular medium with several young friends, who
+were all in a very sceptical and rather frivolous state of mind. She
+described "an uncle," apparently over the heads of two of my friends,
+and gave the further information that he was surrounded by water, and
+appeared to have been drowned; also that he was extremely musical.</p>
+
+<p>This was declared to be perfectly untrue and without a grain of
+foundation, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>The woman looked puzzled and a little mortified, but turned to others in
+the circle, with better success, let us hope!</p>
+
+<p>On our return home, when the young people were telling their mother of
+the "awful humbug" amid shouts of laughter, the mother said quietly:
+"But surely you remember, my dear children, hearing of your Uncle
+Robert, who was drowned years ago, before any of you were born? He <em>was</em>
+a great musician. He wanted to give up his life to art, but he was
+persuaded to take up another profession."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>I give this as an instance of the carelessness with which, when we are
+<em>determined</em> to find fraud, we may do so sometimes at the expense of
+truth. These young girls had doubtless heard of their uncle, but the
+fact had possibly escaped their memories for the moment, and probably
+they had no wish to recall anything which could cast a doubt on their
+preconceived notion that "the whole thing was a swindle!"</p>
+
+<p>Before closing the chapter of my American experiences in the years 1885
+and 1886, I must give one more personal detail.</p>
+
+<p>When investigating various clairvoyants in the Eastern States in March
+and April of the year 1886, I had been told more than once that a
+guardian band of six spirits was forming round me, and would be later
+supplemented by another band of six protectors. Whether this had any
+bearing upon the following incident, I must leave my readers to decide.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>About three months after this pronouncement I found myself at Victoria,
+Vancouver's Island. Miss Greenlow and I had gone there from San
+Francisco for a week or two, not being able at that time to make the
+further trip to Alaska. After a very stormy voyage of two or three days
+we reached Victoria one morning about six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> There was only one large
+double-bedded room available at the hotel, and we took this on the
+understanding that two separate rooms should be found for us before the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>As we lay on our beds for a few hours of much needed rest, quite
+suddenly I realised that I saw something abnormal in the air&mdash;just above
+and in front of my head. I mentioned this with much surprise to my
+companion, who at once suggested the effects of liver after a sea
+voyage so tempestuous as ours had been. For the first few moments I was
+inclined to agree with her, and said so; but very shortly my opinion was
+altered by the fact that what I saw first as an indistinct blur
+gradually assumed a definite shape, and I then found there were six
+little swallows in front of me, apparently connected with each other by
+a waving ribbon, or so it appeared to me.</p>
+
+<p>Opening and shutting one's eyes did not affect the vision. There they
+remained, both at the moment and for several succeeding years, during
+which time I was constantly in the habit of seeing "<em>my birds</em>," as we
+used to call them. About six months after their first appearance in the
+pure, clear atmosphere of Victoria (Vancouver), I was driving across the
+Blackheath Common on a very bright, frosty day, and looking out of the
+open window of my carriage, I saw my six birds as usual; but for the
+first time, parallel with them and lower down, were six new birds of
+just the same size and appearance (about half-an-inch between the tips
+of the wings).</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the new birds and the old ones had amalgamated, and
+twelve little swallows floated in the air before my eyes. I could not
+see them in the house. It needed the background of uninterrupted sky
+apparently to throw them into sufficient relief to be recognised. After
+some years, this special sign was withdrawn, and others have taken its
+place. For example, I have seen in the same way, during the last
+fourteen years, an anchor, with the chain attached to it, and caught
+through one end of the former, a short reaping hook. This, doubtless,
+has some symbolical meaning. Near the anchor I see a sacrificial altar,
+with flames rising up from it; then a triangle, with loops at the
+corners, which I was once told was the sign of Nostradamus. Then an
+old-fashioned mirror in a quaintly-shaped frame, and finally a long
+staff, with the sign of Aries at one end. I have since realised that
+this is very much like the "Staff of Faith" found on the top of many of
+the tombs in the Roman catacombs. All these latter emblems come together
+as a rule, with a connecting thread binding them to each other. I cannot
+see them at will, but when the atmosphere is at all clear they are
+rarely absent, when I have time to look for them. I was much amused once
+by an earnest Christian scientist, with whom I happened to be spending a
+few days on the coast of the eastern counties. She had warned me
+repeatedly against "phenomena" of every kind, spontaneous or induced. On
+a specially bright morning we were sitting together in a beautiful park,
+which is thrown open to strangers on special days, and, forgetting my
+companion's prejudices, I exclaimed involuntarily:</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw my signs more clearly than just now!&mdash;there must be
+something very pure about the atmosphere."</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for my friend, who bent forward eagerly, saying:&mdash;"<em>Do
+let me try if I cannot see them too!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Well, she "tried" for the greater part of two hours, but absolutely in
+vain, and then got up, and suggested going home to luncheon. She added
+na&iuml;vely: "I <em>thought</em> they must have something wrong about them, and I
+am quite sure of it now, <em>or I should have seen them</em>."</p>
+
+<p>But it had taken her two hours of failure to be absolutely convinced
+that they came straight from the devil!</p>
+
+<p>One sign&mdash;also birds&mdash;appeared to me on one occasion only. We had
+returned to Denver, where Miss Greenlow and I were to separate after a
+year's constant travel together. She was going back to San Francisco to
+take steamer for the Sandwich Islands, and thence on to Australia;
+whilst I was returning to England for family reasons.</p>
+
+<p>I had arranged to dine with the hospitable Dean of Denver the evening of
+the day of her departure, and I had not realised how much less lonely
+one would have felt had my journey East corresponded more closely with
+her journey West, especially as she was obliged to leave the hotel about
+nine o'clock in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Waking early, and lying in bed, feeling very melancholy at the idea of
+being left behind and alone in the very centre of America, I looked up,
+and, to my delight, saw a new sign.</p>
+
+<p>Not my little birds this time, but two big, plump father and mother
+birds, with a short string attached, not horizontally as before, but
+perpendicularly. At the end of this little string was a tiny bird, even
+smaller than the swallows, being evidently guided by the two big birds,
+and quite safe in their charge.</p>
+
+<p>My room communicated with that of my companion, whose door was open,
+and I told her of this new "sign in the heavens," adding that I hoped it
+had come to stay. Fortunately, I found a pencil, and made a rough sketch
+at the time, or I might have been tempted to imagine that I had never
+seen it at all, for the trio never appeared again, though I have longed
+to see them, and have certainly required the consolation quite as much,
+many times, since that far-away summer morning in Denver, Colorado.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>On reaching home after this long American trip, I found a budget of
+letters awaiting me&mdash;amongst them a little registered box containing a
+kind birthday present from the brother who has been mentioned in the
+Introduction to this book. Was it another case of mental affinity which
+had induced him unconsciously to choose a gold brooch with two swallows
+in gold and pearls? Not an uncommon design; but <em>the birds were exactly
+the same size as those I was in the habit of seeing just at that time</em>.</p>
+
+<p>I never told him how extraordinarily <em>&agrave; propos</em> his present had proved,
+but I have always looked upon that brooch as a mascot, and have
+certainly worn it every day since it came into my possession.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND</h3>
+
+<p>Shortly after the Jubilee of 1887 had taken place, I sailed for
+Australia and New Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>My first psychic experience in the Colonies took place in Melbourne,
+some months after my landing in Tasmania.</p>
+
+<p>The wife of one of the "prominent citizens" in Melbourne had been
+specially invited to meet me at an afternoon reception in the house of
+friends to whom I had carried letters of introduction, as she was said
+to be so deeply interested in everything psychic, and would greatly
+enjoy hearing my American experiences. Fortunately, the lady arrived
+late, and we had already enjoyed some interesting conversation before
+she came. A wetter "wet blanket" it has never been my fortune to
+encounter. She was a very handsome woman, and therefore good to look at,
+but in the <em>r&ocirc;le</em> of sympathetic audience she was a miserable failure.
+She sat with a cold, glassy eye fixed upon me, whilst I endeavoured to
+continue the conversation which had been interrupted by her arrival.</p>
+
+<p>She might just as well have <em>said</em> as have looked the words: "Now go on
+making a fool of yourself!&mdash;that is just what I have come to see."</p>
+
+<p>The position was hopeless. So I began to talk about the weather, which
+is disagreeable enough from sirocco in the hot spring months (it was the
+end of October) to be useful.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the daughter of the house came up to me, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do, please, go on telling us your interesting experiences, Miss Bates;
+we can talk about other things at any time, and we asked Mrs Burroughes
+on purpose to meet you."</p>
+
+<p>The lady in question had joined another group by this time, so I was
+able to whisper in reply: "I am so very sorry, but I cannot possibly
+talk of these things before your friend&mdash;she paralyses me absolutely
+from any psychic point of view. She is very handsome, and I like looking
+at her, but I cannot talk to her except about the weather."</p>
+
+<p>"How very odd!" was the unexpected reply. "That is just what Lizzie
+Maynard says. And I did very much want Lizzie to hear about America too,
+but she has gone off to the other end of the room, saying she knows you
+won't be able to talk whilst Mrs Burroughes is here."</p>
+
+<p>This was interesting, for I had not noticed the young girl mentioned,
+who had not been introduced to me. So when my young hostess asked "if
+she might bring Lizzie to see me at my hotel next day," I gladly
+acquiesced, in spite of feeling very far from well at the moment.</p>
+
+<p>This feeling of <em>malaise</em> increased in the night, and was, in fact, the
+precursor of a short but sharp attack of a form of typhoid which was
+running through the hotel at the time. Being in bed next afternoon about
+four o'clock, I was dismayed to hear that Miss Maynard had arrived to
+see me, and, moreover, had arrived <em>alone</em>. I had never spoken to the
+girl nor even consciously set eyes on her before, but I knew she must
+have come at least three miles from the suburb where she lived, and
+would probably refuse to have a cup of tea downstairs during my absence.
+There was nothing for it, therefore, but to make an effort, order tea to
+be brought for her to my room, and send a message hoping she would not
+mind seeing me in my bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>She came up&mdash;a modest, charming-looking girl of about twenty. I
+explained the circumstances, and apologised for being unable to join in
+the tea-party, but felt rather desperate when I realised that even the
+effort of taking any share in the conversation was beyond me.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a brilliant idea passed through my throbbing head. The day
+before, in planning the visit, which Miss Boyle had been unable to carry
+out herself, she had mentioned that her friend Lizzie Maynard was a very
+good automatic writer, and this seemed a solution of the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>So when my little friend had finished her tea, but was still looking
+tired from the long walk, I said to her: "I am so sorry to be so stupid
+to-day, Miss Maynard. I cannot talk, but I can listen; or do you think
+possibly you could get a little writing for me? Miss Boyle told me you
+wrote automatically sometimes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will try, certainly," was the ready response. "I never know, of
+course, what may come, and as this is our first meeting, it may be a
+little more difficult, but I should like to try."</p>
+
+<p>She found paper and pencil, and sat by my bedside, holding the pencil
+very loosely between the second and third fingers, instead of between
+the thumb and first two fingers in the usual way.</p>
+
+<p>She continued talking to me during the whole time, and not being well
+versed in automatic writing then, I could not believe that any writing
+could really be going on in this very casual sort of way.</p>
+
+<p>"Is any writing really coming?" I questioned at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes; but I can't make out the last long word," she said, turning the
+paper round, so that she could see it, for the first time. "Kindly give
+me that word again," she remarked casually, and continued her
+conversation with me.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the three or four sheets of rather large but not always very
+distinct caligraphy were submitted to me, and I saw that "Miscellaneous"
+had been the long word at the beginning which Lizzie had asked to have
+repeated.</p>
+
+<p>The whole message was intensely interesting to me, for it began: "<em>I who
+on earth was known as George Eliot.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Now I had more than once seen, but had never spoken to, George Eliot in
+earth life, and although admiring her genius, as all who read her books
+are bound to do, there seemed no very obvious reason why she should come
+to me. Moreover, Lizzie Maynard, a charming but not highly educated girl
+(as I discovered later), seemed to know little about the famous author
+beyond her name. Another, and infinitely inferior, lady writer had been
+discussed with bated breath the day before in Lizzie's presence. Her
+books&mdash;just then in the zenith of their popularity&mdash;had newly penetrated
+to the Colonies, and were being talked of there as though Minerva
+herself, helmet and all complete, had suddenly arrived in Melbourne. I
+had personally been greatly interested by one of this lady's earlier
+books, and had a much less definite opinion of the author then, than I
+have at the present moment.</p>
+
+<p>Threshing my brains for any sort of tie with George Eliot, I remembered
+having often stayed at Oxford as a young woman, when Jowett of Balliol
+was entertaining her and Mr Lewes, in his own home.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there was no question in those far-away days of my being
+asked to meet such a brilliant star; but it amused me often to hear the
+dull and uninteresting people of some standing in the University, whom
+Jowett had <em>not</em> favoured with an invitation, declaring that nothing
+would have induced them to accept it!</p>
+
+<p>This was, however, but a feeble link, even when added to the righteous
+indignation one had so often experienced on hearing similar remarks
+made, about a woman too far above her critics both in genius and morals,
+for them to be able to catch the faintest glimpse of her personality.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently it only now lay with me to cease asking <em>why</em>, and accept the
+goods provided by the gods, making the most of such an opportunity. On
+these occasions so many possible questions tumble over each other in
+the brain that it is difficult to select any one to start with.</p>
+
+<p>At length I asked the following question:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What did George Eliot think of the author who had been so much
+discussed and so highly applauded on the previous afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>Very quickly came the answer: "<em>I have no sympathy there&mdash;a mere
+puppet.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Certainly this was not thought reading; for my own opinion then was very
+indefinite, and Lizzie's views, as it turned out, were as enthusiastic
+as those of most people in the Colony. It was not until several years
+later that I realised that an extraordinarily <em>apt</em> criticism had been
+made; for a puppet is made to dance by other entities.</p>
+
+<p>I was longing to ask another question, but had some natural hesitation
+in doing so before such a young girl. Moreover, I feared the answer must
+almost of necessity be coloured by the traditions of the latter, and
+therefore would be of no great value either way. But taking my courage
+"in both hands," I put the question:</p>
+
+<p>"Please ask George Eliot if she <em>now</em> thinks that she was justified in
+the position she took up with regard to George Lewes?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer came in a flash: "<span class="smcap">Certainly.</span> <em>We are one here, as we were on
+earth.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Anything less likely to emanate from the brain of an orthodox young girl
+can hardly be conceived!</p>
+
+<p>Amongst other details, George Eliot said finally that she had come to
+know my mother in spirit life, where she was called <span class="smcap">Stella</span>. Now my
+mother's name in earth life was Ellen, which has the same root for its
+origin. Of course, Miss Maynard did not then know whether my mother were
+alive or dead, and nothing naturally concerning her Christian name.</p>
+
+<p>The last statement made by George Eliot on this occasion was that
+"<em>before another year had rolled by, a great gift would come to me, and
+I must be very careful to use without abusing it</em>." I was too tired at
+the moment to ask whether "another year rolling by" meant a whole year
+from 28th October 1887 (the date of the message), or the end of the
+current year&mdash;namely, 31st December 1887.</p>
+
+<p>When the message had come to an end, Miss Maynard gathered up the
+scattered sheets, and promising to copy them out for me, took her
+departure, and left me to muse&mdash;so far as a racking brain would
+allow&mdash;on the curious and interesting result of her visit. No cup of tea
+to thirsty wayfarer was ever surely so grandly rewarded!</p>
+
+<p>My next adventure had a distant connection with these Australian
+experiences.</p>
+
+<p>I had come out to join the friend (Miss Greenlow) who had been my
+companion in America, and who had thence sailed for Sydney when I
+returned for a year to England. She had been anxious for me to rejoin
+her in Australia, and from thence visit Japan and China; but my arrival
+having been delayed by literary matters, this lady had finally lost
+patience, and, without my knowledge, had gone on to New Zealand, and
+thence, as it turned out, to Samoa. When I heard of the New Zealand
+episode there was nothing for it but to follow her there, on a
+will-o'-the-wisp expedition, as it turned out, but, fortunately, I was
+unaware of this at the time. I say fortunately, because had I known that
+she had already left Australia for Samoa, I should certainly have
+returned to England, in despair of tracing her any further, and thereby
+one of my most interesting experiences would have been lost.</p>
+
+<p>The illness in Melbourne, already referred to, detained me for over a
+fortnight, so it was necessary to transfer my New Zealand ticket from
+one boat to another. So the illness also must have been one of the
+factors that was involved in the adventure, as I have called it. For the
+delay led to my meeting&mdash;in a friend's house&mdash;Mr Arthur Kitchener (a
+younger brother of Lord Kitchener), who was introduced to me on the
+special ground that we were to be fellow-travellers to New Zealand a day
+or two later. As a matter of fact, Mr Kitchener was on his way from
+England to New Zealand, where he was superintending a sheep-run for his
+father in those days. He had come out by P. &amp; O., and transhipped at
+Melbourne after two or three days' delay there.</p>
+
+<p>Several other passengers from the <em>Massilia</em> were also going on to New
+Zealand, and naturally they felt like old friends after the five or six
+weeks already spent together. They thought <em>I</em> wanted to be alone, and I
+thought <em>they</em> wanted to be alone, and so I kept severely to the upper
+deck, feeling often lonely, and they all remained on the lower deck,
+wishing I would come down and talk to them sometimes. In spite of these
+misconceptions on either side, Mr Kitchener and I became sufficiently
+friendly for him to give me a very kind and hospitable invitation to
+spend the last few days of the year at his "station," about nine miles
+from Dunback, in the Dunedin district. I think I must have told him of
+my disappointment in missing my companion in Sydney, after travelling so
+many thousand miles to join her, and doubtless he felt some interest in
+this Stanley and Livingstone sort of chase, with two women taking the
+principal characters!</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, the invitation was given and accepted, and he kindly promised to
+ask one or two people to meet me in his house.</p>
+
+<p>All this came to pass some weeks later, on my return from the New
+Zealand lakes, and just before an expedition to the "Sounds," generally
+known as the "Sounds Trip."</p>
+
+<p>This is a pleasure trip, organised for early January, which is, of
+course, midsummer there. It lasts for ten days, and gives one the
+opportunity of seeing to the best advantage these glorious inlets of the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>My week at the sheep station was to precede this, as I have explained;
+in fact, as the steamer sailed late in the afternoon, it was possible to
+go on board without stopping for the night at Dunedin, whence we were to
+sail. But at the last moment a slight contretemps took place. Owing to
+some delay the steamer would not be able to leave till Monday, instead
+of the Saturday morning as arranged, and our kind host insisted on
+extending his hospitality for the two extra days.</p>
+
+<p>Now each day there had been some talk about having an impromptu
+<em>s&eacute;ance</em>, and each day I had successfully evaded the arrangement. I have
+a great dislike to sitting in casual circles with strangers, and it
+seemed to me that no good purpose would be served by doing so. It is
+impossible on these occasions to convince anyone else that you are not
+pushing or "muscle moving," or generally playing tricks, and it has
+always seemed to me that the time wasted over mutual recriminations on
+these points, or the silly jokes that appear inevitable, when two or
+three human beings at a table get together in a private house; might be
+much more profitably spent.</p>
+
+<p>Table turning as a parlour game is about as stupid and aimless an
+amusement as I know. I represented all this to Mr Kitchener, but in
+vain. He had attended some psychic meetings in Dunback or Dunedin, and
+evidently wished me to reconsider the matter. Also it happened to be the
+last day of the year, when people are always more inclined to be
+obliging, I suppose; anyway that Saturday night, 31st December 1887,
+found me sitting down to a table in the little drawing-room of that
+far-away sheep station.</p>
+
+<p>As some reward for any virtue there may have been in yielding my point,
+I remembered suddenly that George Eliot's message on 28th October&mdash;two
+months previously&mdash;had been rather vague, and that it might be
+interesting, if the chance came, to find out whether "<em>before another
+year has rolled away</em>" meant a year from 28th October, or the year of
+which so few hours still remained to us.</p>
+
+<p>After the usual inanities&mdash;"<em>I am sure you are pushing.</em>" "No; <em>you</em>
+are! <em>I saw your fingers pressing heavily.</em>" "<em>Why, how extraordinary!
+that is exactly what I thought about you,</em>" etc. etc., it was intimated
+that a spirit was there giving the name of George Eliot, so I put my
+question at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean another year from October last&mdash;I referred to this
+year," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I be able to write automatically?" was my next query.</p>
+
+<p>"No; leave that alone&mdash;it would be very dangerous for you at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I be able to hear? Shall I become clair-audient?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," came for the second time.</p>
+
+<p>My next question naturally was: "Then shall I be able to <em>see</em> very
+soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for you will become clairvoyant for the first time. Remember my
+warning to use but not abuse the gift."</p>
+
+<p>Now I must explain that all this time a good deal of the usual kind of
+joking had been going on. Moreover, I felt intuitively that Mr Kitchener
+thought I was deceiving myself into the idea that human muscles could
+not account for the movements, and, in fact, the very worst possible
+conditions for getting anything of value were present.</p>
+
+<p>So much so that I did not for one moment suppose that it was really
+George Eliot, or that she would countenance that particular sort of
+buffoonery, and the incident made no impression upon me at all. I had
+already taken my hands off the table, when someone&mdash;Mr Kitchener, I
+think&mdash;banged it down four times, and then triumphantly observed: "<em>Yes,
+of course, you will see somebody during the night, or rather at four
+o'clock in the morning, you see!</em>" The whole thing was the kind of
+fiasco I had expected, "degenerating into a romp," as poor Corney Grain
+used to remark about the "Lancers" and the stern old lady in the
+suburban villa.</p>
+
+<p>The bathos of table turning had surely been reached when it came to
+banging the leg of the table down four times, and calmly announcing four
+o'clock as the time for my first vision!</p>
+
+<p>But the remarkable point is that I <em>did</em> have my first vision that
+night, though it had come and gone long before four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span></p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to remember that the sun rises about three-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>
+during the end of December or first week in January out there, so it
+would have been fairly light before four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>; whereas when I woke out
+of my first sleep that night, it was pitch dark.</p>
+
+<p>My room was the usual whitewashed apartment to be found in the ordinary
+colonial "station," with a wooden bed standing about two or three feet
+from the wall, and parallel with the only window in the room; which
+faced the door (at the foot of my bed), and was fitted with a very dark
+green blind, on account of the hot summer sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>But it was now pitch dark in the room. I woke facing the window, but
+turned on my side, as one generally does on such occasions, and this
+brought me face to face with the wall. To my infinite amazement there
+stood between the wall and my bed, a diaphanous figure of a woman, quite
+life size or rather more, with one arm held out in a protecting fashion
+towards me, and some drapery about the head. The features were,
+moreover, quite distinct, and, as I afterwards realised, the counterpart
+of George Eliot's curious and Savonarola-like countenance. But at the
+moment, oddly enough, I only thought of two things&mdash;first, how
+extraordinary that what had appeared to me such a silly waste of time
+overnight should have had any element of reality about it! Then swiftly
+came the second idea: "And how in the world does it happen that I don't
+feel a bit frightened?"</p>
+
+<p>I lay there absolutely content and peaceful, with a feeling of blissful
+satisfaction which I have never exactly realised either before or since
+that one occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Everything is all right&mdash;nothing can really ever go wrong&mdash;nothing at
+least that matters at all. All the real things are all right. I can
+never doubt the truth of these things after this experience. It was
+promised, and the promise has been redeemed.</em>" These were the thoughts
+that passed idly through my brain as I lay&mdash;fully awake&mdash;and looked up
+at the comforting woman's figure. For it seemed more&mdash;much more&mdash;than a
+mere vision. I have spoken of the figure as diaphanous because it was
+not as solid as an ordinary human being, but, on the other hand, I could
+not see the wall through it: it was too solid for that. Then I
+remembered a story told in <em>The Athen&aelig;um</em>&mdash;of all papers&mdash;and written by
+a Dr Jephson, of his experience whilst paying a visit to Lord Offord,
+and making notes&mdash;late at night&mdash;in the library of the house for some
+literary work on hand. He had finished his notes, put away the book of
+reference, looked at his watch, found the hands marking two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> (so
+far as I remember), and had just said to himself: "Well, I shall be in
+bed by two-thirty after all," when, turning round, he found a large
+leather chair close to his own, tenanted by a Spanish priest in some
+ancient dress!</p>
+
+<p>Thinking it might be an hallucination, he deliberately turned
+round&mdash;<em>away</em> from the priest&mdash;rubbed his eyes, and then slowly looked
+back again. Still the priest was there, and Dr Jephson then realised for
+the first time that, although not <em>consciously frightened</em> or alarmed in
+any way, he was quite unable to <em>speak</em> to the intruder. So he quietly
+chose a pencil, sat down, and calmly took his portrait. The priest
+politely remained until the sketch was completed, and then vanished.</p>
+
+<p>This story, read some years previously, flashed through my brain, and I
+thought: "<em>I</em> will try turning round, and then seeing if she is still
+there." I turned deliberately, facing the window, and then realised that
+it was pitch dark in my room&mdash;not the faintest glimmer of light came
+through the heavily shrouded window. "<em>Then it can't be four o'clock</em>,"
+was my triumphant comment.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been too disappointing had my distinguished visitor
+condoned the unblushing banging down four times of the table leg, by
+choosing that hour for her arrival in my room! But then again, how could
+I <em>see</em> her, since the room was quite dark? It was only necessary to
+turn round once more to the wall to realise that I <em>did</em> see her in
+fact, although I ought not to have done so in theory! I saw her as
+distinctly as I ever saw a marble statue in the Vatican Gallery by the
+light of noon. Although I had recalled the Jephson story so
+circumstantially, it never struck me that it might be interesting to
+attempt any conversation, and see whether I also were tongue-tied. I did
+not <em>want</em> to speak&mdash;there seemed no special reason for speaking. It was
+quite enough to lie there with this blissful feeling of protection and
+love folding me round like a cloud with golden lining. And as this
+consciousness held me in its loving grasp, to my infinite sorrow the
+kind, protecting figure disappeared, gently and very slowly, sinking
+into the ground on the spot where I had first seen her; and once more
+all was dark in the room.</p>
+
+<p>I lay, too happy and peaceful for movement or even speculation for some
+ten minutes, and then it struck me that I had better light the candle by
+my side, and find out what o'clock it might be.</p>
+
+<p>Now I have a rather accurate idea of time, and can generally tell within
+a minute or two how long any special work may have taken me. Looking at
+my watch, I saw it was just two-twenty-five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, so I settled in my own
+mind that I must have seen the figure at two-fifteen <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, or possibly
+at two-ten <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, for I think the experience lasted nearly five minutes
+altogether. Anyway, I felt sure that ten minutes, as nearly as possible,
+had elapsed between the sinking of the figure out of sight and my
+lighting the match in order to consult my watch. It may have been nine
+minutes, or possibly eleven, but I feel confident the time mentioned
+would be within these limits.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore next morning, when our host appeared, and I was chaffed about
+"the vision," I said boldly: "You think it all nonsense, and I confess
+I did not believe anything that came last night when so much joking was
+going on, but I was mistaken. I <em>did</em> see, for the first time in my
+life, anything abnormal." And I repeated my experience, just as I have
+now written it down.</p>
+
+<p>Incredulous looks greeted me, and then Mr Kitchener said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you saw something at four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> I am not at all surprised to
+hear that."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>," I answered, "but at two-fifteen <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> I made a
+special note of the time. I was asleep again long before four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, and
+never slept better in my life."</p>
+
+<p>He looked puzzled, and then suggested that my watch must have gone
+wrong; but we compared notes, and our watches were registering exactly
+the same hour within a minute or two.</p>
+
+<p>I found out later that, having learnt something of the Thought
+Transference Theory at the Dunedin Circle or Metaphysical Club which he
+had attended, Mr Kitchener had attempted to <em>make me see</em> a vision at
+four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, but as he confessed he had been fast asleep <em>when</em> I <em>did</em>
+see (<em>an hour and three quarters before his efforts started</em>), it would
+take a very ingenious person to prove that the latter had anything to do
+with the occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>A deeply interesting corroboration reached me, however, a few weeks
+later, by which time I had visited the "Sounds," and many other places
+of interest, and had arrived safely at Auckland, in the North Island.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of my vision, I must not forget to mention, that I had
+spoken of it to Mr Kitchener's faithful Irish housekeeper, whose
+nationality I knew would prevent her thinking me a mere lunatic. By this
+time scepticism had the upper hand, and I was beginning to try to
+explain away everything in the true Podmorian spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Could Mr Kitchener or any other person present have had to do with the
+matter? In this case my blissful feelings would naturally be merely the
+result of imagination, and easily disposed of on this ground. So I
+questioned the little housekeeper when she brought my hot water as to
+whether it could have been possible for Mr Kitchener or anyone else in
+the house to have access to a clean sheet or tablecloth, and to have
+masqueraded in the garden outside my room. She indignantly denied the
+possibility. "The linen is all locked up by me; besides, no one would
+have been so wicked. It might have frightened you out of your senses,
+ma'am! Do you suppose the master would have done such a thing?"</p>
+
+<p>No; I did not really accuse anyone of such a cruel and stupid joke.
+Moreover, it was a little difficult, even for Podmorian ingenuity, to
+explain how man or woman, masquerading in a white sheet in the garden
+outside, could convey the fairly solid figure of a faked "George Eliot,"
+who stood well out between the wall and my bed; and this through a thick
+green blind and curtains, when garden and room alike were shrouded in
+<em>absolute</em> darkness!</p>
+
+<p>Foiled in all my attempts to find a "sensible solution" to the mystery,
+I determined to write and ask Lizzie Maynard of Melbourne if <em>she</em> could
+throw any light upon matters, my decision in taking this step being
+strengthened by the curious coincidence which I had just
+discovered&mdash;<em>i.e.</em> that Mr Kitchener's housekeeper had lived with the
+Maynards when they had had a house in Dunedin, which was later burnt
+down, as so often happens in the Colonies. "Jane" had lost sight of the
+Maynard family for years, and was much excited by my promising to write
+and tell them of my meeting with her.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I mentioned my strange experience and all the details
+connected with it&mdash;<em>except</em> the exact hour of the occurrence. It was by
+a pure oversight (as I supposed) that this fact was omitted. I have had
+reason since to believe that I was unconsciously impressed to leave out
+this special detail, in order that I might receive far better evidence
+than would have been possible under other circumstances. Had I mentioned
+the hour of the vision, the imagination of my young friends in Melbourne
+might have been at work as regards the hour of <em>their</em> experience, which
+was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Several weeks after leaving Dunback I reached Auckland, and received
+amongst other letters one from Lizzie Maynard in answer to mine. Mr
+Kitchener had also written, saying what nice girls my friends the
+Maynards must be, and how kindly they had written to his excellent
+little housekeeper, sending her welcome gifts, and saying that her place
+had never been filled in their hearts, and so forth. Lizzie's letter to
+me began also about the excellences of "Jane," and the curious
+coincidence through which she had been once more put in touch with her;
+then she went on to say:</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed very remarkable about your experience, dear Miss Bates,
+but I think you will consider it much more remarkable when I tell you
+what <em>we</em> were doing that night. I was spending the week-end with our
+mutual friends Captain and Mrs Boyle" (in whose house she and I had
+encountered Mrs Burroughes), "and Lily Boyle and I were sleeping in the
+same room, as the house was full.</p>
+
+<p>"On the evening of 31st December there was a little dance arranged, to
+'dance the old year out and the new year in,' and at midnight we
+dispersed, the visitors going home, and those in the house retiring to
+bed. Lily and I were too much excited to get into bed at once, so I
+suggested that we should try to compose a letter to Miss Pearl" (this
+being the lady whose writings they greatly admired. I had allowed them
+to use my name as an introduction, should they wish to communicate with
+her at any time).</p>
+
+<p>Lizzie went on to say how nervous they were about writing the letter,
+fearing that so popular an author might not take any notice of the badly
+expressed letter of two young colonial girls. However, she did her best,
+and Lily Boyle did <em>her</em> best, and the result was a hopeless failure!
+"Then," continued Lizzie, "a happy thought struck me&mdash;George Eliot had
+used my hand to convey her message to you last October; might we not,
+remembering this, appeal to her to help us in our difficulty? So we gave
+up trying to write the letter ourselves, took down planchette from its
+shelf, and started again. In a few moments an excellent letter was
+written, giving your name as an introduction, with all the little
+points you had specially begged us to remember in connection with Miss
+Pearl's probable prejudices. It was so splendidly written, and so
+quickly, that you can imagine our delight! We could not bear to give up
+planchette even after both our names had been signed, and I said
+pleadingly: '<em>Oh, don't go away! Do stop and tell us something more.</em>'</p>
+
+<p>"In large letters, as you see" (Lizzie enclosed the script), "was
+written very decidedly:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">No, I cannot stay with you now&mdash;I have promised to go and see Stella's
+daughter.</span></p>
+
+<p>"I remembered, dear Miss Bates, that G. Eliot had said your mother's
+name in spirit life was <em>Stella</em>, so, of course, we knew that she meant
+us to understand that she was going to see <em>you</em>.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately, you did not mention the hour of her visit, but we took
+the time when enclosed message was written&mdash;very accurately&mdash;in order to
+tell you about it, and the hour was just twelve-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Do write and
+tell us that was the time when she appeared to you&mdash;we feel sure it must
+have been&mdash;but are longing to have our idea confirmed, etc. etc."</p>
+
+<p>Now my young friends had evidently entirely forgotten the difference in
+time between Dunedin and Melbourne, and I must confess to my own
+amazement when I found that it was considerably over the sixty minutes,
+which I should have vaguely supposed it to be.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, I was rather disappointed to think there was so wide a margin
+between the two occurrences, until I casually asked a gentleman, who was
+staying in my hotel, if he could tell me the difference in time between
+the two cities.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, I'm afraid, but it is considerably over an hour. Ah, there
+is a good atlas! I can easily calculate it for you." He remained silent
+for a moment, and then raising his head, said: "As nearly an hour and
+three quarters as possible." This was pretty good evidence of the
+practically simultaneous experience of my friends in Melbourne at
+twelve-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, with my own at two-fifteen <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> in the neighbourhood
+of Dunedin.</p>
+
+<p>When I first became acquainted with Mr Myers, shortly after my return
+from Australia and New Zealand, I told him this story. He was greatly
+interested, but pointed out that it was useless from the evidential
+point of view unless I would take the trouble to write one or two
+letters to the Colonies.</p>
+
+<p>So I wrote to Mr Kitchener for confirmation of the fact that I was
+staying in his house on the night of 31st December 1887, and had told
+him of my experience next morning, exactly as here related. Then I had
+to get Miss Lizzie Maynard's testimony with regard to her letter to me,
+and finally, I think, the testimony of Lily Boyle and her father that
+Miss Maynard was their guest in Melbourne on the occasion of the New
+Year's Eve dance. These letters are presumably still amongst the
+archives of the Society of Psychical Research, and the story was printed
+by them in their Proceedings some years ago.</p>
+
+<p>I may add a last evidential touch by saying that when I met Miss Pearl
+for the first time after my travels, she referred to the letter she had
+received&mdash;under favour of my introduction&mdash;and quite spontaneously
+remarked upon its excellence, adding:</p>
+
+<p>"I could scarcely believe that two young Australian girls, as they
+described themselves to me, could have written such an admirable
+letter."</p>
+
+<p>I did not disclose the real source of the composition, as the popular
+author thinks that she has no belief in spiritualism.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK</h3>
+
+<p>The spring months of 1888 found me at Brisbane, <em>en route</em> for China,
+after spending a pleasant month with old friends on a well-known station
+belonging to the late Sir Arthur Hodgson, named Eton Vale, and situated
+on the beautiful and healthy Darling Downs of Queensland.</p>
+
+<p>Before returning to Sydney from New Zealand, my female "Dr Livingstone"
+had reappeared upon the scene in the most unexpected manner. Our
+"historical meeting" took place in an Auckland hotel, where she suddenly
+turned up one day, driven back from Samoa by the intense heat. So after
+some gentle recriminations, she "having supposed the delay on my part
+might mean an entire change of plan," and I having supposed&mdash;from her
+letters&mdash;that Sydney was such a Paradise that she could hardly be
+dragged from it even by a flaming sword, we agreed to cry "quits," and
+continue our travels together. So Miss Greenlow spent the month of March
+in Sydney, whilst I paid my visit to Queensland, and we met once more at
+Brisbane to take steamer for Thursday Island, Cape Darwin, and
+eventually Hong Kong. Only one small matter of psychic interest occurred
+during this voyage.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned in a previous chapter the little "swallows," which I
+first saw in San Francisco in the year 1886. I had been accustomed to
+seeing them ever since that date, and had been frequently commiserated
+for incipient eye trouble in consequence, by more than one sceptical
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>On the very day we went on board the Hong Kong steamer at Brisbane, a
+new sign appeared: a single bird, holding in its beak a ring with half
+hoop of five stones, presumably diamonds. I told my friend about this,
+but neither she nor I could imagine any significance in it. At that time
+we had not even met any of our fellow-passengers to speak to, for we
+were all taken up with settling into our cabins and trying to make
+ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit.</p>
+
+<p>For a whole week the same little bird and the same ring were
+persistently held up before me. Then an inkling of the possible meaning
+broke upon me suddenly. Within a fortnight of our sailing this suspicion
+was confirmed, and the little bird's warning or suggestion amply
+justified. But "that is another story!" Curiously enough, the new "sign
+in the heavens" was withdrawn as soon as I had grasped its meaning.</p>
+
+<p>I must hasten over our delightful stay in Japan, because amongst much of
+extreme interest from artistic, social, and various other points of
+view, nothing occurred which has any special bearing on my present
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Japan eventually by sailing from Yokohama to Vancouver
+(Washington territory), the old threads were once more put into my
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>We made the acquaintance on board the old P. &amp; O. <em>Abyssinia</em> of the
+late Captain MacArthur, a kindly and genial naval man. He was an
+Australian by birth, but belonged to our English navy, and was just
+returning home on his promotion as commander.</p>
+
+<p>He became rather interested in my "queer ideas," and ended by suggesting
+some experiments with "the table," so he persuaded the ship's carpenter
+to put together a small rough wooden table. The sittings were held,
+generally after dinner, in either my cabin or that of my "stable
+companion" Miss Greenlow. So far as I remember, we three were the only
+sitters, and I am bound to confess the sittings were sometimes very
+monotonous, even viewed from the indulgent perspective of a sea voyage.
+In fact, I can now recall only one incident of any real value.</p>
+
+<p>The dear old nurse, spoken of in my opening chapter, had now been for
+three or four years on the other side of the veil, but had never given
+me the slightest sign of her presence. But she came several times during
+this voyage, and always with the same object&mdash;namely, to entreat, and
+finally <em>implore me</em>, to give up a projected tour in Alaska.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greenlow and I had been prevented from undertaking this, two years
+earlier, when visiting Victoria (Vancouver), and she was very keen to go
+there from Washington territory on this occasion. I was <em>not</em> keen for
+the expedition, but had made no strong objection to it, and it was
+understood that we should go together.</p>
+
+<p>This was the tour which my old nurse now pleaded so anxiously should be
+given up, so far as <em>I</em> was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>It will ruin your health, my darling</em>," she said more than once.
+"<em>Don't go there; take my advice.</em>" And on one occasion, just before
+landing, she added: "<em>You will find letters awaiting you which will
+enable you to make other plans.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>This proved true&mdash;in a certain way. The first letter opened in the
+budget which fell to my share, told me of the sudden death of our family
+solicitor, which would have been a good excuse for a hasty return to
+England had any such pretext been necessary.</p>
+
+<p>But this was not the case, for my companion, although quite determined
+to go to Alaska herself, was not in the least inclined to over-persuade
+me to accompany her. She was a very independent woman, quite accustomed
+to travelling alone, and I knew that neither her enjoyment nor her
+convenience would be affected by my decision one way or the other. I had
+no wish to go myself, and, moreover, thought it quite probable that my
+dear old nurse's warnings might be amply justified. But there were other
+grave considerations to be taken into account, and I still feel that I
+adopted the right, although not the pleasanter course, when I allowed my
+fellow-passengers to depart East, joking me on my want of faith in the
+warnings from the spirits, and accompanied my friend, very unwillingly,
+to Alaska.</p>
+
+<p>My nurse's earnest entreaties were only too fully justified on the
+physical plane, to say nothing of the miserable discomfort of the trip
+(which in those days had to be made in an overcrowded cargo boat.) I
+took a chill in those Arctic regions, which later developed into the
+longest and most serious illness of my life. It took months to make even
+a partial recovery, and the effects will remain during my life. Yet I
+have never regretted my decision.</p>
+
+<p>This little episode seems to throw some light upon the way such warnings
+should be treated. To give no heed to them on the one hand, or to follow
+them blindly, <em>in spite of every other consideration</em>, on the other;
+these seem to me the Scylla and Charybdis of our lives. It shows that we
+<em>must</em> judge for ourselves; we cannot shift the burden of responsibility
+on any other shoulders. How could we gain the real education of life
+were it otherwise?</p>
+
+<p>Had I turned my back on Alaska I should have gained enormously,
+physically speaking, and yet failed in a moral test. But my dear old
+nurse, who considered only&mdash;probably <em>saw</em> only&mdash;the physical evils to
+be avoided, was entirely in the right, <em>from her standpoint</em>. The
+faithful soul was doing her best to shield her nursling from danger.</p>
+
+<p>A severe illness was entailed by my Alaska experiences. "Livingstone and
+Stanley" were once more separated. In other words, Miss Greenlow was
+obliged to return to England alone, leaving me to be nursed through a
+long and painful illness by kind friends and connections in Toronto. One
+of my doctors&mdash;the brother of my hostess&mdash;kindly made time to take me
+and my nurse to New York, in order that he might put me under the
+special care of the ship's doctor, and also be able to certify, as
+required, that I was in a fit condition to undertake the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the day or two spent in New York before sailing, that I
+induced this gentleman to accompany me one evening to a <em>s&eacute;ance</em> held by
+Mrs Stoddart Gray, who has been previously mentioned in this narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Theodore Covernton had all the ordinary doctor's prejudices against
+anything unseen or unknown. He had read my book on America, and
+considered the chapter on "Spiritualism" a lamentable lapse "from the
+good sense shown in the rest of the book!" I represented to him that for
+a physician to deny all possibilities of Hypnotism or Mesmerism, Thought
+Transmission, etc., meant losing some very valuable aids in his
+profession, and would probably soon mean being left pretty badly behind
+in the race.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing of no specially good hypnotist in New York, and as there was no
+time to find one out, I boldly suggested that he should plunge into
+still deeper depths of "folly," and accompany me to the house of Mrs
+Stoddart Gray.</p>
+
+<p>The usual performances went on, but whether owing to Dr Covernton's
+attitude of mind or other causes, nothing of any special interest to him
+or to me occurred.</p>
+
+<p>One incident impressed him, I think; certainly he could suggest no
+possible explanation of it, for it happened in a very fair amount of
+light and close to our feet. A gentleman and lady were sitting in the
+circle who had brought with them their little boy, a child of seven
+years old. I had asked the lady if she considered it wise to bring so
+young a child into such a <em>milieu</em>, several hours after an English child
+would have been put to bed, and her answer was cheery and
+characteristic:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I guess we shouldn't have much peace at home if we didn't bring
+Charlie along with us to see his Granny. We took him once, and since
+then he always insists upon coming. He loves talking to his Granny, and
+he is not a bit afraid of her."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a small frail woman stepped out from the cabinet, and
+came right up towards us, motioning to the little grandson that she
+wished him to go into the cabinet with her. This he did without a
+moment's hesitation, and the curtain fell, and concealed them both from
+view. The interview lasted for some minutes, and when the little boy
+reappeared, he was holding his Granny by the hand, and was evidently on
+the best of terms with her. I do not expect my readers to believe me,
+but this is exactly what happened next:</p>
+
+<p>The child had brought some toys&mdash;a little train and some building
+blocks&mdash;"to get Granny to play with him as usual," and the fragile old
+lady knelt down on the floor, and played with him just as any ordinary
+Granny might have done, only with far more agility.</p>
+
+<p>In the very midst of their brick building and train starting, a terrible
+catastrophe occurred, which spoilt the rest of the evening for the poor
+child. Granny had evidently forgotten that her time was limited, by
+conditions of which we are still profoundly ignorant.</p>
+
+<p>Quite suddenly, and without a word of warning, she disappeared, not into
+the cabinet at her back, but right through the carpet under our feet,
+and well within a yard of the said feet, and this with two or three
+gas-jets burning over our heads!</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistake about it. Dr Covernton and I were sitting next to
+the father and mother, whilst the child and his grandmother played at
+our feet. One moment she was there; the next she had disappeared like a
+flash into a mere cloud of mist, and even this was quickly withdrawn,
+apparently through the floor. No trap-door theory could account for
+this, because the <em>woman</em> had disappeared, and only the wisp of ethereal
+garments remained, before the latter were also dissipated. We must,
+moreover, note the difficulty of working a trap door immediately under
+the feet of a sceptical young physician, who at once investigated the
+carpet, hoping in vain to find in it some solution of the mystery!</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned that the whole incident took place, in light
+sufficiently good to read a book without straining the eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The poor little boy was terribly upset, and sobbed bitterly. His parents
+said they had brought him many times before, and such a <em>fiasco</em> had
+never before taken place. Mrs Stoddart Gray was very indignant about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad! She ought to have <em>known</em> she was staying too long, and
+risking a fright for the child. If she had only gone back into the
+cabinet he would not have been frightened. But she stayed too long and
+had not enough strength to get back."</p>
+
+<p>The child was too thoroughly frightened and upset to admit of any
+consolation, and the parents were obliged to take him away, still
+sobbing, and asking <em>why</em> Granny had gone away like that and given him
+such a fright.</p>
+
+<p>A year later, in London, I took Dr Covernton&mdash;by appointment&mdash;to see Dr
+Carl Hansen, who was then giving hypnotic treatment, and also doing some
+work in demonstrations for the Society for Psychical Research. Dr Hansen
+tried in vain to put either Dr Theodore Covernton or myself under the
+influence, so was obliged to have recourse to his wife. Naturally this
+was considered a "<em>most suspicious circumstance</em>" by my companion; but I
+noticed that he was very much interested in his conversation with
+her&mdash;from the medical point of view&mdash;and he was sufficiently honest to
+admit that he could not explain what happened in his presence, upon any
+normal hypothesis.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>INDIA, 1890-1891</h3>
+
+<p>In the month of November 1890 I started with a young friend for my first
+visit to India.</p>
+
+<p>My companion was still at the age when social India was naturally more
+interesting to her than either the historical or mystical aspects of the
+country. And, for myself, I went there in those days rather to see the
+glorious buildings of a magnificent Past, than with any view of wresting
+occult secrets from the Fakirs and Yogis of the Present.</p>
+
+<p>It was well perhaps that one's ambitions were so limited by the
+Possible, for I am very much inclined to think that Mystic India is and
+must remain a sealed book for the English.</p>
+
+<p>We must always remember the natural prejudices of a conquered race
+towards the conqueror. In addition to this, the Hindoostanees consider
+(and who shall say without ample cause?) that Englishmen are hopelessly
+"<em>born&eacute;</em>" and sunk in materialism, incapable of exercising an
+imagination which they don't possess; with a top dressing of
+conventional orthodoxy, so far as their own special religion is
+concerned, but with nothing but ridicule or thinly veiled contempt for
+the religious channels through which other races may be taking their
+spiritual food. We have given them only too much reason for these
+conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>As a consequence of this state of things, Englishmen and women are
+looked upon as "quite impossible" from the Indian point of view, and a
+devout and educated Hindoo would no more think of discussing his
+transcendental ideas with such people than we should think of discussing
+delicate questions of Art&mdash;in its various branches&mdash;with the first
+village yokel we happened to meet in the road. I was confirmed in these
+ideas by noticing the difference in the welcome accorded to a charming
+young Swedish lady, whom we met at Benares on her wedding tour. She had
+brought excellent native introductions from her own country, where
+certain Rajahs and Maharajahs had been entertained by her King, and
+thanks to these, and, as she said, "<em>to the fact of my not being
+English</em>," she had access to many interesting places, and took part in
+interesting functions, from which the rest of us were debarred.</p>
+
+<p>I am hoping to pay a third visit to India some day, with the special
+object in view of occult investigation. It remains to be seen whether,
+by any fortunate accident, I may then be more successful in encountering
+anything more interesting than the ordinary clever conjurers, who
+sometimes pose as Fakirs, and may be found by the tourist on every hotel
+veranda in India.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I am limited by the title of my book to personal incidents, as
+to which I find one or two notes in my Indian diary.</p>
+
+<p>Making the usual tour, but including Lahore&mdash;where my brother had lived
+at Government House for several years as Military Secretary to Sir
+Robert Egerton (who was in <em>his</em> day), Lieutenant-Governor of the
+Punjab&mdash;we came in due course to Delhi.</p>
+
+<p>Our first day there was devoted to tracing Mutiny relics of all kinds,
+and about four <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> in the afternoon we drove out to the famous Ridge to
+see the Mutiny Memorial. This, as most people nowadays know, is a red
+standstone tower, with staircase of rough stone inside, and small
+windows pierced through at varying intervals. It stands upon an
+extensive marble flooring, which is inscribed with the names of the
+various regiments&mdash;officers and men&mdash;who took part in the renowned
+siege, and died for their country in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>As we drove towards the Memorial, the whole place seemed to be in a
+flutter of excitement. Hundreds of coolies were flocking round, and we
+both remarked how much more interested they appeared to be in these
+monuments of past events than the corresponding class of English
+labourers would have been. But on arrival we found there was no question
+of intelligent historical interest. The fact was that a poor coolie&mdash;who
+had just climbed up the Memorial Tower by the inner staircase&mdash;had
+fallen out of one of the windows described, and was lying on the marble
+floor below, at the far side from us, crushed and dying. We were told
+that an Englishman had, fortunately, been present, and had driven off at
+once for a doctor. So nothing could be done for the poor man until the
+latter arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile our native servant&mdash;Bobajee&mdash;had, of course, rushed off to
+see what was to be seen of the tragedy, and, rather to my horror, my
+girl friend seemed about to follow his example! It was terrible to think
+of the poor man lying there in his death agony; but he was already
+surrounded by natives, and no real help could be given without fear of
+doing more harm than good before the doctor was brought to the spot.
+Therefore merely to go and look on, without being able to succour,
+seemed to me an added horror to the tragedy, and I turned round rather
+sharply on my young friend, and expostulated with her. As a matter of
+fact, she did <em>not</em> go; but I am obliged to mention the incident as
+accounting for a certain momentary excitement and annoyance on my part,
+which proved to be factors in the story about to be related.</p>
+
+<p>Allowing for difference of time between Delhi and London, a very old
+friend of mine, Lady Wincote (who was then living in London, where I was
+in the habit of visiting her constantly when in town), was lying in bed,
+resting after a disturbed night, at the very hour of our visit to the
+Mutiny Memorial.</p>
+
+<p>It was about noon in England; she was fully awake, and had been reading.
+Looking at her watch she realised it was time to make a move if she
+meant to come down for luncheon. Suddenly the door opened, and <em>I</em>
+walked into her bedroom, and right round the bed, until I stood between
+her and the window, which was to her left as she lay in bed.</p>
+
+<p>I was dressed in ordinary outdoor attire, and seemed much excited and
+annoyed about something. I was talking continuously, as it seemed to
+her; but she could not make out any connected sentences, and "wondered
+what had upset me" so much. She spoke to me, asking what had happened;
+but I took no notice of her questions, standing with my face to the
+window and my back to her for a few moments. Then I turned round, and
+deliberately retraced my steps, past the ottoman, skirting round the
+bed, and was just disappearing through the door, when she made a final
+effort to attract my attention, asking a very practical question:</p>
+
+<p>"Emmie! Do tell me before you go, what number you are staying at in
+Oxford Terrace" (the part of town where I always stayed at that time).
+Lady Wincote said: "You made no answer at all, but whisked out of the
+door in a great hurry, and then for the first time I remembered <em>that
+you were in India</em>. It had all seemed so natural, as you had often been
+in my bedroom, that I only thought at the moment that you must have
+returned unexpectedly to London from the country. My one anxiety was to
+know which number on the Terrace would find you, in case you had changed
+your address there."</p>
+
+<p>Now all this was, fortunately, written out to me by my friend on the
+very day that it happened&mdash;<em>i.e.</em> 8th January 1891&mdash;and <em>crossed my
+letter to her telling her of the incident</em>. My letter was written a day
+or two later I think; but I was keeping a strict diary at the time, and
+under date of 8th January have the record of the event, corresponding
+with the date of Lady Wincote's letter to me.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Both my diary and Lady Wincote's letter were shown to Mr
+Myers on my return to England, also my letter which crossed the one from
+Lady Wincote to me. He was greatly interested in the account.</p></div>
+
+<p>Probably in any case I should have written to tell this friend of the
+incident, on account of a conversation I had with Bobajee when he
+returned from his ghastly entertainment. I had looked inside the
+Memorial, and had seen that the stone steps were crumbling away and
+looked very unsafe, so when he came back and said: "<em>Something bad
+inside there, Lady Sahib</em>," I concluded naturally that he was referring
+to the state of the staircase, and attributing the poor coolie's fall to
+some such cause.</p>
+
+<p>But he denied this strenuously: "<em>No! no! Lady Sahib&mdash;some bad debil
+inside there. He threw coolie over!</em>" Then he went on to tell us that on
+one special night in the year no native man, woman, or child in the
+whole city could be induced to pass the Mutiny Memorial at midnight. The
+few daring souls who <em>had</em> passed there, had found the tower all lighted
+up inside, and the Sepoys and the British soldiers had come back, and
+were fighting their battles over again! The man spoke in simple good
+faith, and assured me that all Delhi people knew this to be a fact, and
+gave the place a wide berth on that anniversary.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of the "bad debil" throwing the poor coolie down from the top
+of the tower, followed by this curious legend, interested me as a bit of
+folk-lore, but my companion was drastic in her remarks. "Silly nonsense,
+Bobajee!" was her reception of the story; and this made me feel
+intensely sorry for the moment, that Lady Wincote, who would have been
+as much interested as myself, should not have been present. Did this
+moment of intense desire for her, project itself into the appearance she
+saw in her room? Who can say? Certainly it was a curious coincidence
+that she should see me in an annoyed and excited state just when I was
+feeling annoyed and excited&mdash;so many thousand miles away.</p>
+
+<p>Delhi seems to have been specially favourable to psychic experiences,
+for I find another one recorded on the very day succeeding the last
+event.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, having some slight ailment, I had driven out alone with our
+native servant, and we made a long tour, returning about six <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> past
+Ludlow Castle, of famous Mutiny memory, and still&mdash;in the year 1891&mdash;a
+Government bungalow.</p>
+
+<p>The present Czar of Russia was travelling through India at the time as
+Czarewitch, with his cousin, Prince George of Greece, and they were
+expected to arrive in Delhi that same evening. The Royal party and suite
+were to be lodged at Ludlow Castle, and were expected within an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Bobajee jumped off the box of my carriage, and urged me to "go look,
+see!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Bobajee! Drive on&mdash;can't go look see&mdash;they no let me in."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, Lady Sahib," he said eagerly&mdash;"everything ready&mdash;all gone
+away&mdash;nobody in there yet."</p>
+
+<p>With our English notions this seems inconceivable, but it proved to be
+absolutely true. I went in, expecting to be turned back ignominiously
+before I had crossed the hall, but there was positively no one there!
+The place was like a City of the Dead. Yet within an hour, a banquet
+arranged for about seventy people was to take place! I made the best of
+my opportunity, ranged through the numerous bedrooms&mdash;with hanging
+Japanese blinds shutting them off and each one inscribed with the card
+of the special Russian or Greek general who formed part of the suite. At
+length I strolled into the dining-room&mdash;a long, narrow room&mdash;arranged
+for the coming festivity (at least sixty to seventy covers were laid),
+the flowers arranged on the tablecloth in the pretty, artistic Indian
+fashion, all the beautiful glass and silver placed in readiness.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing was wanting but the presence of the guests for whom all this
+preparation had been made.</p>
+
+<p>The short Indian twilight was already upon us as I stood there for a
+moment, contrasting the dead and almost eerie silence, with the lights
+and laughter that would so quickly replace it.</p>
+
+<p>A fireplace was close to me as I stood at the far end of the room,
+looking down the whole length of the table. Glancing up, I realised that
+the only picture in the room was hung over this fireplace. The picture
+in question had no artistic value&mdash;the painting was flat and poor; even
+the subject did not strike me for the first moment as anything very
+remarkable. It was the portrait of a man in the prime of life&mdash;about
+thirty-five, I should have supposed&mdash;with the long whiskers and rather
+prim pose of a portrait made by an evidently poor artist, probably
+thirty or forty years previous to my visit.</p>
+
+<p>But as I looked again, a curious sensation came over me. In spite of the
+painter's failure to convey anything more like a living man than a dead
+pressed rose is like a living rose, there was something in the eyes of
+the portrait that held me, something that rose triumphant above the
+artist's limitations. At the same moment I was conscious of a Presence
+behind my back; of <em>somebody who was looking at the picture with me</em>; of
+somebody who was saying to me (not with the outer, but an inner voice):
+"<em>That is a picture of me, but I am not there&mdash;I am here, close to you;
+behind your shoulder&mdash;I am looking at it with you.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>The impression was so strong that it seemed almost as if a hand were
+pressing on my shoulder. I turned round involuntarily, but no one was
+there. Then I looked at the picture again, and always with the same
+weird sensation that the man whom the picture represented had been
+strong enough to make me feel his actual presence in the room, although
+I could see nothing. There was no name on the picture of either subject
+or artist, no possible clue to identity, and looked at as a picture
+alone, there was nothing in the flat, conventional presentment of the
+features to account for my experience. This made it the more remarkable.
+I could scarcely tear myself away from the almost overwhelming sense of
+the presence of some strong and strangely magnetic personality, but the
+fast fading twilight warned me not to risk an ignominious retreat. So I
+went hurriedly through the large and handsome drawing-room, which was
+filled with portraits, chiefly of deceased governors and generals, many
+of them admirably painted, and a striking contrast to the one poor and
+commonplace picture already seen.</p>
+
+<p>The absolute incongruity between the impression received and the object
+which roused it, led me to make inquiries, in spite of my friend's jokes
+over my powers of imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, I am going to clear this up," I said with determination; and in
+a few days my perseverance was rewarded, and my impression amply
+justified, by finding that I had been looking at the portrait&mdash;feeble
+and poor as it was&mdash;of <em>Brigadier-General Nicholson</em>.</p>
+
+<p>None of my readers need to be told that if any dead man could impress
+himself upon the living, this would be the man capable of such a feat.</p>
+
+<p>Even to this day there is a small religious sect in India called the
+<em>Nicholasain</em>, who have handed down the memory of this "god rather than
+man," who had to dismount from his horse occasionally, to thrash his
+would-be worshippers, and put a stop to their inconvenient adoration!</p>
+
+<p>Nicholson's brilliant achievements in the Mutiny; his absolute control
+over men of the most diverse character; the devotion with which he
+inspired his soldiers, and his own glorious death in the very moment of
+victory&mdash;all these are matters of history.</p>
+
+<p>I feel glad and grateful to have known, even for a few passing moments,
+what that influence had been; and when I found out Brigadier-General
+Nicholson's grave at Delhi, after my Ludlow Castle experience, I left my
+flowers on the grave of an honoured acquaintance, rather than of a man
+known to me only through historical records.</p>
+
+<p>One more incident, or rather coincidence, and I must close my Indian
+chapter.</p>
+
+<p>This also is connected with the Mutiny and with Delhi, but the special
+coincidence, to which I refer, took place at Agra, when my friend and I
+were staying at the hotel there in the early spring of 1891.</p>
+
+<p>One of my oldest and most valued friends is Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred S.
+Jones, V.C., formerly of the 9th Lancers, and one of our Mutiny heroes.
+As everything connected with that historical tragedy seems to have
+perennial interest for every Englishman&mdash;no matter what his creed or
+politics&mdash;I make no excuse for furnishing some details connected with my
+friend's career. His record from Hart's Army List is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant-Colonel Jones was present at the battle of Budlekee Serai,
+and at Delhi throughout the siege operations, including the assault and
+capture of the city, having been D.A.Q.M.G. from 8th August to 23rd
+September 1857. Served with the 9th Lancers in Greathead's pursuing
+column, and was present in the actions of Bolimshuhur and Alighur and
+battle of Agra&mdash;where he was dangerously wounded, having received a
+musket-shot wound and twenty-two sabre cuts. He was mentioned in the
+despatches of Sir Hope Grant on three different occasions, and has
+received the Victoria Cross for taking a nine-pounder gun, with the
+assistance of some men from his squadron, in the action of Budlekee
+Serai (medal with clasp and Brevet of Major)."</p>
+
+<p>Although, as a child, I had heard of the bravery and the terrible wounds
+of one who was to become later in life one of my greatest friends, the
+actual details of the Agra catastrophe were hazy in my memory. Two
+things, however, had remained firmly imbedded in my mind&mdash;first, that a
+brother officer had told me that he was standing close by Colonel Jones
+when, as a young officer, the latter attended the Lev&eacute;e to receive his
+Victoria Cross, and that the Queen was so much agitated by his
+appearance that she could hardly pin it on. Also, that this brother
+officer heard her whisper to her husband: "My God, Albert! look at that
+poor boy! He has been cut to pieces!"</p>
+
+<p>The other childish memory is that the Taj had been turned into a
+hospital at the time of the Mutiny, and that my friend, amongst others,
+had been nursed there. This latter proved to have been a mistake on the
+part of my informants. It was the Moti Musjid (the Pearl Mosque) which
+was turned to this account, and in which my friend was nursed back to
+life, to the surprise of all who knew the extent of his disaster.</p>
+
+<p>It is specially important for people blessed, or cursed, with psychic
+gifts "to give no occasion to the enemy" by exaggeration or inexact
+memory of details. So, with the wholesome dread of a well-read reviewer
+before my eyes, I determined to go to the fountain-head, and ask Colonel
+Jones himself to supply me with the true incidents which make the Agra
+episode a moving picture before our eyes. He has kindly consented to do
+this, and I give the narrative in his own words:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>After the fall of Delhi, a column, under General Greathead, was sent
+down to Lucknow, and as three squadrons of the 9th Lancers were told off
+to go, I resigned my staff appointment, and went with my troop.</p>
+
+<p>After two fights&mdash;Bolimshuhur and Alighur&mdash;we were hurried off to Agra,
+sixty-six miles in thirty-six hours. But on arrival we found that the
+Agra people had recovered from their fright and Greathead was fool
+enough to believe their story that the enemy was twelve miles away, and
+therefore took up ground for our camp, just by the graveyard and
+parade-ground, which you will remember. There was a high crop of
+sugar-cane, concealing everything beyond the parade-ground, and after
+most of the officers of the whole force had gone off to Agra Fort to
+breakfast with friends, cannon-shot began to fall amongst us; and
+everyone had time to fall in, as the horses had not been unsaddled.</p>
+
+<p>My squadron, consisting of French's and my troops, was told off as an
+escort to Blunt's Battery, F.A., which formed the left of the line,
+consisting of our other two squadrons, more F. Artillery, 8th and 75th
+Regiments, etc., all moving to the front through high crops.</p>
+
+<p>Then we saw the enemy&mdash;700 or 800 yards off&mdash;and Blunt unlimbered his
+guns, and began to fire, when we soon saw a body of cavalry moving off
+across our front, to turn our left flank, and Blunt said we must go back
+to defend our camp. So he limbered up, and we all (<em>i.e.</em> our squadron
+and Blunt's guns) began to straggle back through the high crops. But
+Blunt said he must leave one troop with two of his guns, and French's
+troop was stopped for the purpose. Instead of staying with it, he felt
+so sure we should have a chance at the cavalry we had seen (Mutineers)
+that he came on with me, and together we formed up my troop on the
+parade-ground, close to Blunt's guns, which we saw already unlimbered.</p>
+
+<p>A squadron of Irregular (mutinied) cavalry was coming in our direction
+over the parade-ground, with a blue squadron of (mutinied) regular
+cavalry in support, both trotting; so, of course, we went for the Red
+(head of the echellon they formed).</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw French shot, and the hind quarters of his grey horse pass
+round the left flank of my little troop; then I gave the word <span class="smcap">Gallop</span>,
+and the Red squadron, to my surprise, <em>halted</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Observing its leader taking aim at me with his carbine, I inclined a
+little to my left, in order to stick him, never dreaming that I should
+be hit before I could do so, and I was almost within reach before he
+fired, and his bullet went through my bridle arm, so I had to take my
+reins on my sword hand and jam my horse into the ranks, just behind the
+squadron leader who had shot me.</p>
+
+<p>Now to clear up your mystery about my being left to my fate (I had
+specially asked Colonel Jones how he happened to be left alone amongst
+the Sepoys, whose numbers were registered by his sabre cuts in so
+ghastly a fashion), I was not left to my fate; on the contrary, the man
+on the left of my troop, who alone could see, put his lance through the
+squadron leader, and stayed about&mdash;outside the ring&mdash;trying to get to me
+to the last, and got the V.C. on my report to that effect.</p>
+
+<p>My troop, occupying, in double rank, about twenty yards, went straight
+on after the twenty yards or so front of the enemy's probable front of
+perhaps fifty yards. So there were plenty of Sowars left to mob round
+me and to keep off the man who tried to save me. Of course, my men were
+quite right in pursuing the broken force as they did, right off the
+field.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>This account has the immense advantage of being taken verbatim from
+Colonel Jones' letter just received by me. It has the <em>disadvantage</em>
+that such a letter, from a brave man, would naturally possess&mdash;<em>i.e.</em>
+that of minimising his share in the episode to the point of making it
+difficult for the lay mind to realise where the heroism came in&mdash;which
+heroism is a vital point in my "coincidence." Fortunately, I have the
+best authority for saying that the "Blunt" mentioned in this record
+always maintained that Colonel Alfred Jones had "saved his guns." It
+appears that at the time of the unexpected attack from the enemy,
+Colonel Jones and two or three friends (who had not gone to the fort)
+were breakfasting under the shade of the cemetery wall when the alarm
+was given. My friend, wishing to rest his charger after the long forced
+march from Agra, had taken a spare troop horse, saddled with a <em>hunting
+saddle</em>.</p>
+
+<p>When the round shot began to fall, there was no time to get his charger.
+There was nothing for it but to put on sword and pistol and ride
+straight in to the enemy's ranks. No wonder the poor people shut up in
+Agra were enthusiastic over this "charge of cavalry in their shirt
+sleeves," as they called it.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891 I was staying in Agra, at the hotel, with my friend of the Delhi
+incident. A certain Major Pulford, who had come to Agra to race some
+ponies, divided us at the <em>table d'h&ocirc;te</em>. He and I had been neighbours
+for two or three days, when he asked me carelessly one evening what <em>I</em>
+had been doing that afternoon, as my friend confessed to having taken a
+"day off."</p>
+
+<p>Now I had spent the afternoon at the Taj, and had made many inquiries
+about the tradition that this building had once been turned into a
+hospital. No one knew anything about it. One old Hindoo, evidently
+thinking I wished him to say "<em>Yes</em>," remembered hearing that this <em>had</em>
+been the case "<em>about eighty years ago</em>." This last artistic touch of
+accuracy was fatal to his <em>bon&acirc; fides</em>, and I turned away in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>So I told Major Pulford my story, and we laughed over the well-known
+fact that a Hindoo of that class always tries to find out what you wish
+him to say, and <em>then says it!</em></p>
+
+<p>Major Pulford asked why I was so keen on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Because a very old friend of mine was badly wounded at Agra during the
+Mutiny, and from a child I have had the impression that he was nursed in
+the Taj."</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered. "I am sure the Taj was never used as a hospital, but
+I think the Pearl Mosque may have been. This would account for the
+mistake, probably."</p>
+
+<p>Now the point in this incident is the fact that I <em>had not mentioned my
+friend's name to Major Pulford</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Had the name been a more distinctive one, I might have mentioned it,
+although realising that Major Pulford was too young a man to have known
+anything about the Mutiny at first hand.</p>
+
+<p>We talked casually on the subject for a few minutes, and then he said:
+"Of course, I was a baby at the time, but I have read and heard any
+amount about it, naturally. <em>My</em> boyish hero was a fellow named Jones of
+the 9th Lancers, who was so awfully plucky in their celebrated charge,
+when surprised by the enemy on the Agra parade-ground. I know nothing
+about the fellow except what I have read. I believe he is alive still,
+but they say he was almost cut to pieces then."</p>
+
+<p>"<em>That is the friend whom I thought had been nursed in the Taj</em>," was my
+astonished answer.</p>
+
+<p>Major Pulford's delight was unbounded to have come by so strange a
+coincidence even thus near to the hero of his youth. For myself, I
+recognised that I had sat next to the only man, probably then in India,
+who could have given me the accurate and precise details of the whole
+affair!</p>
+
+<p>"I know every inch of the ground, and just where it all happened," he
+said eagerly. "Do let me drive you and your friend over there to-morrow
+in my buggy, and I will point out every detail."</p>
+
+<p>He did so next day, leaving me with the most vivid impression of the
+scene of my friend's gallant fight for life, against such overwhelming
+odds.</p>
+
+<p>That he should still be alive and active&mdash;nearly fifty years
+later&mdash;seems little short of a miracle!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892</h3>
+
+<p>Travelling in Sweden in the spring of 1892, I carried with me from
+England an introduction to the Swedish Consul at Gottenburg. One of the
+sisters of this gentleman was married to an Englishman&mdash;a Mr
+Romilly&mdash;and he and his wife chanced to come over for a visit during my
+stay.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of psychic matters one day, Mr Romilly told me the story of his
+first cousin (a well-known woman of title) and her Egyptian necklace. A
+present had been made to her (I think on her marriage) of a very
+beautiful Egyptian necklace with stones of the exquisite blue shade so
+well known by travellers in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>These special stones, alas! must evidently have been genuine, and rifled
+from some old tomb, for the owner of the necklace appeared one night by
+the lady's bedside, and warned her that she would have no peace so long
+as she persisted in wearing his property.</p>
+
+<p>So the lady very wisely locked up the necklace in her dressing-case, and
+fondly trusted the Egyptian ghost would be satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Not a bit of it! In a short time he appeared again, and told her that
+she would be haunted by his unwelcome presence so long as the necklace
+<em>remained in her possession</em>. She then drove off with it, and deposited
+it with her lawyer, who locked it up in a tin case, doubtless with a
+secret smile at his noble client's superstitions. But Nemesis lay in
+wait for him, and the last thing Mr Romilly had heard upon the subject
+was that the lawyer himself was made so exceedingly uncomfortable by the
+attentions of the Egyptian gentleman that he was obliged to have
+necklace and tin case buried together in his back garden! To have forced
+a lawyer into such extreme measures was certainly a "score" for the
+ghost!</p>
+
+<p>A few months later, I met the heroine of the story at a friend's house
+at tea, and speaking of her relation, who had married a Swedish wife,
+and whom I had met in Gottenburg, I alluded discreetly to the story of
+the blue necklace.</p>
+
+<p>My companion at once endorsed it <em>in toto</em>, and did not seem at all
+annoyed by the fact that her cousin had mentioned it to me. I remember
+that Mrs Romilly "laid the cards" for me, with astonishing success, and
+told me she had learnt the mystic lore from an old Finnish nurse, who
+had been brought over from Finland by her own Swedish grandfather when
+quite a young girl, and had lived in the family until her death. She
+assured me that the Finns were specially gifted in all kinds of gipsy
+lore.</p>
+
+<p>From Stockholm we paid a visit to Russia, and in St Petersburg I had my
+first personal experience since leaving home.</p>
+
+<p>We had engaged, as courier during our stay in the city, a German who had
+lived there for forty years, named K&uuml;ntze, I think.</p>
+
+<p>We were staying at the Hotel de France, and this man told me one day
+that a celebrated French <em>modiste</em> had rooms in our hotel, having come
+there to show her beautiful Parisian costumes, and to take orders as
+usual from the Russian Royal Family and Ladies of the Court. He also
+mentioned the Frenchwoman's recent misfortune in hearing&mdash;since her
+arrival in Russia&mdash;that her trusted manager in Paris had disappeared
+suddenly, carrying away with him 100,000 francs.</p>
+
+<p>Two nights later I had gone to bed as usual about ten-thirty <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and
+must have slept for nearly four hours, when I awoke feeling the heat
+very oppressive. It was almost the end of June at the time. Getting out
+of bed to open my window still farther, I gazed down upon the courtyard
+which it overlooked, noting the absolute stillness of the house and the
+hot, oppressive air outside.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly this stillness was rent by the most horrible and appalling
+shrieks! Peal after peal rang out. I have never heard anything so
+ghastly nor so blood-curdling either before or since. For a moment it
+seemed that one <em>must</em> be dreaming. What horrors, to justify such awful
+shrieks, could be taking place at this quiet hour and in this quiet,
+respectable hotel?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing less than murder suggested itself to me, and I quickly crossed
+the room, and turned the key in the lock. My next thought was for my
+companion&mdash;the Miss Greenlow of American days. She was sleeping next
+door to me, with an intervening door between us.</p>
+
+<p>I hammered loudly upon this, and finally opened it. I knew she always
+locked her outer door, but feared she might go into the passage, not
+realising the danger in the moment of waking, and might fall into the
+murderer's hands. So I called out: "Wake up&mdash;wake up, Miss
+Greenlow!&mdash;<em>but don't open your door</em>. Someone is being murdered out
+there."</p>
+
+<p>I had heard every other door in the passage opening, and the scared
+inmates rushing to and fro, so there was no question of feeling bound to
+give the alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greenlow, being an extremely lymphatic person, was still sleeping
+the sleep of the just. I gave her a good shake at last, finding knocks
+and calls of no avail; but she only turned over sleepily, murmuring:
+"Oh, it's all right! I don't suppose there is anything much the
+matter&mdash;do go to bed again!"</p>
+
+<p>So I returned to my own room, and as the horrible screams had now
+ceased, I opened my door very gently, and looked down the dimly lighted
+passage. My room was a corner one, exactly at the head of the wide
+staircase; to the left-hand side, for anyone mounting the stairs.
+Exactly opposite my door, with a wide passage between, was the room
+which had been pointed out to me as belonging to the famous French
+<em>modiste</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greenlow was evidently the only person in the hotel who had slept
+through the horrors of that night, for small groups were gathered
+together at various points along the corridor, and at every door some
+scared man or woman was looking out, anxious, like myself, to solve the
+dreadful mystery.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment my eyes lighted on my special German waiter talking in a
+hushed whisper to a musjig&mdash;in the usual red coat. So I beckoned to him,
+and very reluctantly he came to my door.</p>
+
+<p>Being asked in German what was the meaning of the shrieks we had heard,
+he said at once that a lady had been taken ill suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The man was a bad liar, and a child would have seen that he was
+repeating a made-up story. But nothing more could be got out of him, so
+I dismissed him impatiently, saying: "What is the good of telling me
+such nonsense? I shall find out for myself to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Once more I shut and locked the door, and lay for an hour or two
+thinking over the ghastly disturbance, and wondering who could have been
+the hapless victim. It was now about five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, and full dawn. As so
+often happens, even after the most sleepless night, I dozed off then,
+and slept for more than an hour, and during my sleep I dreamed&mdash;and this
+was my dream. It must first be noted that the wide staircase I have
+described as passing close to my room was thence continued upward to the
+next floor. In my dream or vision I saw distinctly a woman in a white
+nightgown, with dark hair streaming down her back, rushing up this
+second flight of stairs in the most distraught and reckless fashion. In
+one hand she held a knife, and was trying to stab herself with it, as a
+musjig&mdash;in crimson coat&mdash;rushed after her, and endeavoured to wrench it
+out of her hand. Two or three other people ran up the stairs behind her,
+but only this peasant seemed to have the courage or presence of mind to
+grapple with her. In a few moments, as it seemed to me, the vision, so
+startling and clear cut, faded away, and I sank into a dreamless sleep,
+I suppose, for it was past six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> when I woke finally.</p>
+
+<p>When the German waiter appeared with my breakfast I said rather curtly
+to him: "You need not have troubled to make up that foolish story last
+night; I know what happened&mdash;<em>I have seen it</em>."</p>
+
+<p>He looked very incredulous, so I went on: "The lady was trying to kill
+herself, and rushed up to the next floor with a knife in her hand. I saw
+the musjig run after her and force it from her."</p>
+
+<p>The man was absolutely speechless. He said not one syllable, either of
+corroboration or denial, but left the room as quickly as possible,
+looking scared, and certainly left the impression upon my mind that my
+vision represented what had actually taken place an hour or two
+previously.</p>
+
+<p>To my great surprise, however, our respectable and dependable courier,
+K&uuml;ntze, gave quite a different version of the affair.</p>
+
+<p>He came as usual to my room to take his orders for the day&mdash;Miss
+Greenlow being present&mdash;and at once referred to the terrible tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, poor lady! you remember my telling you about her the other day, and
+how her manager had run away with all that money? Now <em>this</em> frightful
+misfortune has happened to her, and no one knows if she will survive it.
+She is still alive, however, and is to be taken to the hospital at one
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"But what has happened, K&uuml;ntze?" I said impatiently, rather irritated,
+if the truth must be told, by his mysterious allusions and Miss
+Greenlow's assumption of profound indifference. Of course, no
+self-respecting person, having calmly slept through such a tragedy,
+could be otherwise than indifferent next morning! K&uuml;ntze's story was far
+more artistic than that of the waiter, and was skilfully interwoven with
+shreds of truth, as I discovered later.</p>
+
+<p>He said that "the poor lady" was in the habit of making herself a cup of
+tea in the middle of the night when wakeful; also that she wore wide,
+hanging muslin sleeves with her night attire. She had risen as usual
+from a sleepless bed to make tea with her little Etna. Unfortunately,
+she had set fire to a sleeve, which at once burned up, and in a few
+moments she was enveloped in flames, owing to the flimsy material she
+wore. Then the shrieks began which had so thrilled our nerves. A Russian
+gentleman, sleeping near her, was awakened by the noise, and knowing
+that she was a rich woman, and had brought many valuables with her, he
+concluded she was being murdered; so he rushed to the rescue with a
+revolver, found the burning woman, and he and the musjig at length
+succeeded in putting out the flames.</p>
+
+<p>The story was well told, and perfectly credible. Miss Greenlow could not
+resist pointing out how entirely it annihilated my vision. No
+suicide!&mdash;no knife!&mdash;no rush up the staircase!&mdash;nothing, in fact, that
+might not have been, and, of course, <em>must have been</em> a mere freak of
+imagination during my troubled sleep. In the face of K&uuml;ntze's quiet and
+detailed statement I could only agree with her, and so the matter rested
+for some months. The poor woman meanwhile remained in the hospital, and
+her son and daughter were telegraphed for from Paris. We found them at
+the hotel on our return there, three weeks later, from Moscow. There was
+then some slight hope of ultimate recovery, but within six or seven
+weeks from the "accident" the unfortunate woman died from shock and
+exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>From Russia we returned to Stockholm and Christiania, where Miss
+Greenlow took the steamer for Hull, and I went up into the Dovre Feld
+Mountains to join a Swedish friend, already mentioned in my chapter on
+India.</p>
+
+<p>I told her my story of the poor French <em>modiste</em> and her sad and painful
+accident, also about my curiously vivid and yet inaccurate vision, and
+we discussed the latter in quite an S.P.R. spirit! We were then in a
+very remote part of the Dovre Feld, where foreign papers were
+practically inaccessible.</p>
+
+<p>I had left my friend in Norway, and returned to England a week or two
+before receiving a very interesting letter from her.</p>
+
+<p>In it she said: "I have just got hold of some French papers, and I see
+that poor woman you told me about, has just died in Petersburg, and the
+real story has now come out.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems that it <em>was</em> suicide after all, so your vision was quite
+true!</p>
+
+<p>"She had received large sums in advance for commissions from some of the
+Russian nobility, and had either spent or speculated with them. That was
+why she had to invent the story of an embezzling manager, to cover her
+own shortcomings. But the truth was leaking out in spite of her
+endeavours, and she made up her mind to commit suicide rather than face
+the horrors of a Russian prison. The paper goes on to say that she chose
+a most terrible death, little realising what the torture would be. It
+seems that she waited till the middle of the night you described, and
+then covered her whole body with oil, and set fire to it! This accounts,
+of course, for the horrible shrieks you heard. In her awful agony she
+seized a knife&mdash;that she had either secreted or found in her
+room&mdash;rushed out into the passage in a blaze, and when the musjig tried
+to stop her, she ran from him, and attempted to stab herself as she made
+her way up the stairs. All this you seem to have seen accurately; also
+the fact that the musjig pursued her and succeeded in wrenching the
+knife from her hands before she had injured herself with it. The paper
+mentions that a Russian gentleman had gone to the rescue when he heard
+the shrieks, but this was before she had got hold of the knife, and it
+was the musjig alone who saved her, in the end, from immediate death."</p>
+
+<p>During this Russian visit we had gone down to Moscow from Petersburg,
+and here again a curious adventure befell me.</p>
+
+<p>It was, as I have said, in the height of the summer, and one was
+thankful to have a large, handsome room, with three windows looking over
+the square, and the famous Kremlin Palace in the distance. My room was
+divided into two unequal parts, separated from each other by a door
+which was, during the hot season, thrown wide open and <em>fastened back
+securely</em>. Between this door and the one opening into the outer corridor
+the washing apparatus stood, and also a wardrobe of white painted deal,
+with a very poor lock to it, as I discovered later.</p>
+
+<p>On retiring to rest the first night, I locked the outer door, undressed
+in this ante-room, and finally hung up my gown in the wardrobe I have
+mentioned. Then, after looking out of the windows on the fast
+diminishing crowd below in the square, I went to bed, feeling quite
+cheerful, and looking forward to a long night's rest after a journey
+which had been hot and tiring.</p>
+
+<p>As so often happens, one was probably over-tired, and sleep was not to
+be wooed by any of the usual methods. In vain I counted sheep getting
+over a hedge, added a hundred up backward and forward, tried deep
+breathing, and other little "parlour games." It was absolutely useless.
+Twelve o'clock struck, then the half hour, and I gathered from the
+stillness below that the good Moscow citizens had retired to their
+respective homes. This seemed an added insult! Then one o'clock struck,
+and after that I lay for a seeming eternity, before two strokes from the
+clock outside indicated the half hour. Scarcely had the reverberation
+ceased when I heard cautious sounds in the corridor, which gave me a
+good fright, and made me regret the silence I had found so irksome. The
+outer door of my room was quietly being opened, creaking on its hinges
+in the most ordinary and commonplace way, but evidently opening under a
+very wary hand. "Then I could not have locked it after all!" And yet I
+felt so convinced that I had done so! Certainly I had <em>intended</em> to do
+so on my first night in a strange hotel! The best I could hope was that
+some other new arrival had mistaken his room, and was returning late,
+and consequently trying to be as quiet as possible. This flashed through
+my mind, and brought a moment's comfort. I expected to see a man's head
+round the open door at the foot of my bed, and to hear a hurried apology
+and still more hurried retreat. I say a <em>man's</em> head, for the footsteps,
+though so quiet and cautious, were without doubt a man's footsteps. But
+several moments passed in horrible suspense. The outer door had creaked
+on its hinges and opened without a shadow of doubt. <em>Where was the man?</em></p>
+
+<p>The door had not closed again, so far as I could hear. From my bed I
+could not command a view of the smaller portion of the room, where,
+presumably, he must be hidden. There was nothing but the wash-hand stand
+and the wardrobe there. What could he be doing or <em>waiting for</em>? My
+comforting supposition of a mistake in the number of his room, made by
+an innocent guest, could not be stretched wide enough to account for the
+long pause. Perhaps it was some robber lurking about the passages! He
+had tried my door gently, and found it open. I had heard the door creak
+on its hinges in spite of all his care. Now he was doubtless waiting to
+make sure that this noise had not awakened me before beginning his
+operations!</p>
+
+<p>This was the only reasonable supposition, and I lay in absolute terror
+for some minutes, fearing to stir or almost to breathe at such close
+quarters, and quite incapable of rising and putting an end to my
+terrible suspense. I longed to hear the next "quarter" strike, but
+nothing relieved the dead silence in my room and in the streets outside.
+At long last the <em>quarter to two</em> struck, and something in the friendly
+tones of the massive clock relieved the tension and gave me courage&mdash;the
+courage of desperation&mdash;to strike a match and light my candle before
+starting on a tour of discovery. The middle door was fastened back, as I
+had found it when taking possession of the room. In any case, that was
+not the door which had been opened&mdash;the sound came from the <em>outer</em>
+door. I <em>must</em> find out if anyone were hiding in the little
+dressing-room; and in any case, I must lock the outer door, which I had
+felt so certain I had locked on coming up to my room. I passed through
+the open <em>inner door</em> with fear and trembling. To my relief, the small
+apartment was apparently empty. The wardrobe stood partly open, but
+nothing more terrible than my own gown was inside it. Then I made my way
+to the outer door, which gave on to the corridor, determined to make
+sure of locking it firmly <em>this</em> time. After all, it must have been a
+wandering guest, who had discovered his mistake at once, and retreated
+noiselessly!</p>
+
+<p>I have seldom been more absolutely dumfounded than when I turned the
+handle of that door, preparatory to locking it, and found <em>that it was
+securely locked already</em>, just as I had supposed! How could the hinges
+have creaked then, and whose cautious footsteps had I heard?</p>
+
+<p>Once more my eyes fell upon the wardrobe, with its cheap varnish and
+lock. I had certainly not locked <em>this</em> overnight. Could it have creaked
+itself farther open? It did not for the moment strike me that the noise
+came from another quarter, and that the footsteps were still to be
+explained. I was only too thankful to find the barest apology of an
+explanation. So I locked the wardrobe as carefully as possible, noticing
+that the lock was not one of the first quality, and once more retired to
+bed, and put out my candle, greatly relieved.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely ten minutes had passed (as I afterwards ascertained) when the
+whole scene was enacted once more! The same cautious tread, the same
+sound of the <em>outer door</em> creaking slowly on its hinges&mdash;there was
+nothing in the least uncanny about it <em>per se</em>. It was just the normal
+noise that any late comer would make who was thoughtful enough not to
+disturb a sleeping house.</p>
+
+<p>But my impatience got the better of my fears this time. I was not going
+to be decoyed out of bed a second time on a wild-goose chase. "It must
+have been that wardrobe door after all! As to the footsteps, I don't
+know and I don't care! The cheap lock must have given way, and I shall
+find the wardrobe door has swung open, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>With this comforting assurance I turned round, and in a few minutes fell
+into a deep sleep, after the varied excitements of the night.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I stepped gaily into the smaller division of the room to
+begin my toilet, and triumphantly turned round to convince myself of the
+truth of my theory about the wardrobe door. To my infinite astonishment
+and perplexity <em>the wardrobe was securely locked</em>, just as I had left it
+in the middle of the night.</p>
+
+<p>I have never had any explanation of this mystery; but I changed my fine
+big room for a much less desirable one that morning, and made some
+excuse about wishing for a quieter room at the back of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening, sitting in my new abode with my travelling companion,
+she showed far more interest in my adventure than in the Petersburg
+tragedy and subsequent vision of mine.</p>
+
+<p>So much so that I invited her to take a pencil and see if she could get
+any sort of explanation of the mystery; for although not at all
+<em>intuitive</em>, she knew something of what is called automatic writing.</p>
+
+<p>I give her narrative, not as being in the slightest degree evidential,
+but for its intrinsic interest, and because I am personally convinced
+that she had not sufficient imagination to have made it up on the spur
+of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greenlow's "message" was to the following effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>About fifty years previously, a Russian gentleman (an officer, I
+<em>think</em>, but am not certain of this) and his mistress had occupied this
+large front room. The man had spent all day at a rifle competition,
+combined with some sort of merry-making, and had returned home very
+late&mdash;at one-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, in fact&mdash;very much the worse for drink. He had
+opened the door very carefully, trusting he should find the lady asleep;
+but, unfortunately, she was not only wide awake, but extremely annoyed
+by his late return and the state in which he had come back to her. A
+desperate quarrel had ensued, and getting frightened by his violence,
+she seized his rifle, giving him a blow on the head with the butt end of
+it, hoping to stun him, but with no idea of murder in her mind. Whether
+she gave a more severe blow, in her nervousness, than she had intended,
+or whether the rifle fell on some specially vital spot, was not
+explained in the writing. Anyway, the blow proved fatal&mdash;to her extreme
+regret and remorse.</p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances one would have supposed that it would be more
+reasonable for the lady to haunt the room, and not the gentleman; but I
+"tell the tale as 'twas told to us."</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, remarkable that in most of these stories it is the
+victim who appears&mdash;determined to enact the scene of his or her
+death&mdash;and not the murderer.</p>
+
+<p>I think we were also told, by-the-by, that I had slept in the room on
+the anniversary of the occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>It was obviously impossible to get any corroboration of such a story.
+Two small points in it, however, were proved to be true.</p>
+
+<p>The Moscow hotels, as a rule, were comparatively modern at the time of
+our visit, and therefore the "fifty years ago" seemed highly improbable.
+We learned, however, through a few discreet questions later, that this
+particular hotel <em>had</em> been in existence so far back as fifty years, and
+also that rifle competitions had taken place on certain occasions in
+those far-off days.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest I claim nothing. I have truthfully recounted my experience
+without a word of exaggeration, and have never been able to account for
+it normally.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation given to us is, of course, just worth the paper it was
+written upon from any <em>evidential</em> point of view.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI&mdash;<em>continued</em></h2>
+
+<h3>SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892</h3>
+
+<p>Taking my experiences chronologically, I must now carry my readers back
+to England, where the autumn of this year found me in London.</p>
+
+<p>I had been asked to recommend a house for paying guests, well situated,
+in the West End of London, and newly started by a lady who had been left
+a widow with very slender provision. Several kind women had interested
+themselves in the case, and had wisely suggested thinking out a means of
+livelihood in the future rather than merely supplying present wants.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to imagine a person <em>less</em> suited for the sort of
+employment chosen; but that is "another story."</p>
+
+<p>I never care to recommend anything or anybody of which or of whom I have
+no personal knowledge; at the same time, I was anxious to help my kindly
+acquaintance in her philanthropy, and as I had arranged to spend some
+weeks in London that autumn&mdash;to be near an invalid brother&mdash;it struck me
+that I might stay at the house so strongly recommended, instead of
+taking private rooms as usual.</p>
+
+<p>So I journeyed to Sussex Gardens, found a charming house, newly
+furnished and decorated, and as clean as the proverbial "new pin," and,
+moreover, a very good-looking mistress of the house, still a youngish
+woman of five or six and thirty.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke most warmly of the kindness she had received from the lady who
+had given me her address, showed me some pleasant rooms, and the
+arrangement was quickly completed.</p>
+
+<p>I chose a small sitting-room in addition to my bedroom, although, as a
+matter of fact, this was scarcely necessary, as I was the first guest
+received. Only one deaf old lady appeared upon the scene during the six
+weeks I spent there.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been forty-eight hours in the house before I discovered that
+my hostess was a convinced and very remarkable psychic. Naturally she
+was delighted to find someone to whom she could speak of her various
+experiences without being laughed at or put down as a lunatic. At the
+same time I am bound to confess that Mrs Peters, although extremely
+interesting, was also rather agitating, and certainly much too erratic
+to make an entirely satisfactory <em>Chatelaine</em>. She was given to reading
+"Aurora Leigh," instead of ordering dinner, and had to be sent for
+occasionally to sit at the head of the table, with a volume of
+<em>Browning</em> or <em>Tennyson</em> firmly clutched in her reluctant hand. Even
+when duly "found and delivered," curious things happened during the
+meals&mdash;especially at dinner in the evening, when she often put down
+knife and fork and directed my attention to the far end of the handsome
+dining-room, where she was wont to see the ghost of her late husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, dear Miss Bates! Surely you <em>must</em> see him&mdash;dear Henry, I mean.
+There he stands, beard and all, just between the sofa and the wall. I
+can see him as clearly as I see you!"</p>
+
+<p>I am bound to say I never <em>did</em> see "dear Henry"; but the fine tabby cat
+certainly saw something in that corner, for it would rush most
+frantically to the sofa, jump on to one end, and sit staring at Henry
+(presumably), with its tail stuck out and its fur rising up, glaring
+into the corner with a look of combined fear and fascination.</p>
+
+<p>My little sitting-room was invaded at all hours by my too interesting
+landlady, who would suddenly remember some thrilling experience, which
+she wished to share with me. At length I took to my bed for three days,
+not in the least ill, but simply for a much-needed rest in the midst of
+all these excitements.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two after emerging from this haven of peace, I received a visit
+from a young lady, whose parents were well known to me in Yorkshire, and
+who had recently become engaged to a very rich man, many years her
+senior; in fact, considerably older than her own father, who had lately
+passed away. The daughters of this family were all devoted to their
+father, and most of the visit was occupied in giving me details of his
+last illness, and in my sympathising with her upon his loss. It was, in
+fact, far more a visit of condolence than of congratulation upon her
+future prospects of happiness. As to the latter, I found it difficult to
+be quite truthful and yet conventionally ecstatic.</p>
+
+<p>To marry a man nearly old enough to be your grandfather struck me as
+risky, to say the least of it, even with all the emollients which
+riches and position undoubtedly add to domestic life.</p>
+
+<p>The young woman in question did not at all resent my frankness on the
+subject, but assured me that her greatest consolation in thinking of her
+late father was the fact that she was about to make a marriage which he
+had always wished, and of which he had emphatically given his approval
+on his death-bed. "I told him I had decided upon it, just before he
+died, and he was so relieved and happy about it," she said simply as she
+turned to leave the room. Having mentioned that a younger sister was
+also in town, I sent a message to the latter, asking her to take early
+dinner with me on the following Sunday, which happened to be my only
+spare day just then.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of this visit from the coming bride, I had accepted an
+invitation to a large musical party in the house of the lady who had
+begged me to interest myself in Mrs Peters. It was within a
+stone's-throw of Sussex Gardens, and I came down to dinner at
+seven-thirty <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, intending to dress later, and go round there about
+nine <span class="smcap">p.m.</span></p>
+
+<p>For an hour or so before dinner I had been conscious of a growing
+despondency, to which I could attribute no cause, and this increased so
+much during the meal that Mrs Peters noticed it at last, and asked me if
+I were feeling unwell.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;not unwell&mdash;but I am absolutely miserable, and cannot imagine why."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have not had bad news?" was the next remark. "I feared you
+must have had, seeing you so silent and not able to eat anything."</p>
+
+<p>In answer to this I said that I had not even the excuse of hearing of
+other people's misfortunes, for a young lady had been calling upon me
+that afternoon, who was about to make what the world calls a very
+successful marriage. I did not, however, mention her name, as Mrs Peters
+knew none of my friends.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner over, I felt still so unaccountably wretched that I determined to
+give up the evening party, and write my excuses. Mrs Peters did her best
+to combat this decision, fearing that her kind benefactress might be
+disappointed, and also urging that the evening's enjoyment would cheer
+me up. But finding me inexorable, she then said: "Well, if you have
+quite determined not to go, shall I come into your sitting-room and see
+if we can get any explanation of your curious feeling of depression?"</p>
+
+<p>I closed with this suggestion, knowing Mrs Peters to be a really
+remarkable sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>So we sat in the dark for a few minutes; and then I heard a soft
+<em>frou-frou</em> on Mrs Peters' silk gown, and knew she was tracing out words
+with her hand in a fashion of her own.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a spirit that young lady brought with her," she announced at
+length. "The spirit has remained here with <em>you</em>, and is worried about
+this marriage you spoke of. She wants you to try and break it off. She
+seems to have been nearly related to the lady, or perhaps a godmother;
+anyway, she takes great interest in her."</p>
+
+<p>"Will she give a name?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Eliza</span> is all I get," Mrs Peters replied.</p>
+
+<p>It then occurred to me that my young friend's name <em>was</em> Eliza, and
+that she had been so named after a great-aunt, to the best of my
+recollection; but as she was invariably called Elsa, by friends and
+relations alike, it was only by chance that I remembered hearing her
+teased about her far less romantic baptismal name.</p>
+
+<p>I asked if no surname could be given, thinking at the moment that it
+would be Waverly&mdash;the family name; but my thought was evidently not
+transferred to Mrs Peters, who said she could not get the name
+accurately, but that it was certainly <em>not</em> Waverly. I found later that
+the Great-Aunt Eliza had a name entirely different from that of her
+descendants.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing further happened on this occasion, except that I sent a message
+to "Great-Aunt Eliza" to say that nothing would induce me to take the
+responsibility of trying to break off any marriage, either by the advice
+of people in this sphere or in any other sphere. In this case I should
+have had neither the authority nor the influence to make any such unwise
+attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday came round in due course, and brought the bride's younger sister,
+then a girl of twenty-four or twenty-five. We discussed the usual midday
+Sunday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Mrs Peters sitting at
+the head of the table, I on her right hand, and Carrie Waverly next to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly realising that my remarks to the latter were receiving very
+scant attention, I looked up, and found the girl's black eyes fixed in a
+basilisk stare upon our unfortunate hostess, whose own eyes were cast
+down, but who appeared uneasy and troubled by the determined gaze of my
+guest. At length the poor woman threw down her knife and fork, rose
+hastily from the dining-table, and made her way eagerly to the sofa at
+the other end of the room, where she lay down at full length, murmuring:
+"<em>I can't stand it any longer!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Carrie Waverly was at length induced to come away to my sitting-room and
+leave the poor woman in peace, which she did, asserting her complete
+innocence, and assuring me she "<em>only wanted to see if she could make
+Mrs Peters look up at her!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>I explained to her that "sensitives" may be as much upset by this sort
+of thing as another person would be by a blow on the back. She looked
+incredulous, and then said cheerfully: "Well, if it is as bad as that,
+don't you think you ought to go and see how she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two for yourself and your own curiosity and one for her!" I thought;
+but I took the hint, and found Mrs Peters still prostrate on the sofa,
+but full of apologies for her sudden collapse:</p>
+
+<p>"You must have thought me so very rude," etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>I reassured her on this point, and expressed regret that my visitor
+should have upset her so much by looking so fixedly at her.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not her fault," said Mrs Peters eagerly. "<em>It was the man
+standing over her.</em> He had his hands upon her shoulders, and was trying
+so hard to influence her, and she was resisting it all the time, and the
+whole conflict of their wills was thrown upon <em>me</em>, and I could not
+stand it at last&mdash;that was why I left the table," she gasped out.</p>
+
+<p>"Could you describe the man at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite clearly," she said. "I shall never forget his face&mdash;I saw him so
+distinctly." She then proceeded to describe in detail the very clear-cut
+features and bushy eyebrows of Carrie Waverly's father, giving also his
+colouring, which was very distinctive. I suggested trying to find out
+what he wanted to say to his daughter, but this distressed Mrs Peters so
+much that I was sorry to have made the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"No! no! dear Miss Bates!&mdash;don't ask me to do that&mdash;dear Henry never
+likes my taking messages from strangers&mdash;I have promised him that I
+would never do it without his permission. It upsets me so much, and I
+feel so weak already."</p>
+
+<p>So I came away, promising to look in later and see if I could do
+anything for her.</p>
+
+<p>Carrie was naturally greatly interested by the accurate description
+given of her father, and was very impatient for me to pay Mrs Peters a
+second visit.</p>
+
+<p>I went in presently, and found the latter standing up, and in a state of
+great excitement. She had, in fact, been on the point of coming to us
+when I entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Henry told me to take that message after all," were the words with
+which she greeted me. "There was some misunderstanding between the
+father and this daughter, and he wants her to know that it is all right
+now." (This seemed to me most improbable, as the devoted daughters and
+father were always on terms of the greatest harmony and mutual
+understanding. <em>Yet it proved to be quite true.</em>)</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Peters continued: "He is very much upset about this marriage. He
+tells me he was so anxious for it when on this side, but now he sees all
+the difficulties and possible dangers. But he says it is too late to
+reconsider the step now; only he is so very anxious to secure the
+interests of his daughter before she marries. He wishes to know whether
+her settlement is signed. <em>It is not one of which he would have
+approved.</em> And he says there are two houses, and one ought to be settled
+upon her&mdash;you <em>must</em> ask about it, dear Miss Bates. He is most decided
+and so dreadfully upset about it all, because he says it was he who
+urged the marriage upon her."</p>
+
+<p>I spent the following fifteen or twenty minutes as a sort of
+messenger-boy between Mrs Peters in the dining-room and Carrie Waverly
+in my sitting-room. Needless to say, <em>I</em> knew nothing at all about the
+settlements or how many houses the prospective bridegroom might possess,
+and having no sort of curiosity about the financial affairs of my
+neighbours, it was not at all pleasant to be employed in this way.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Peters, on the contrary, seemed to know everything connected with
+the estate and the marriage settlement, <em>except the fact that the latter
+had not yet been signed</em>, although reluctantly "passed" by both the
+lady's trustees. Wherefore this special limitation in the father's
+knowledge it is impossible to say. He certainly showed no limitation in
+his knowledge of the bridegroom's character and disposition, and gave
+the most elaborate and detailed instructions as to how his daughter
+should behave towards her husband, and where she might, with advantage,
+cultivate tact and patience.</p>
+
+<p>My advice to Miss Waverly was to say nothing on the subject to her
+sister, but she wisely, as it turned out, determined to take the
+responsibility of telling her <em>everything</em>. She telegraphed to me next
+day, asking if she might come and see Mrs Peters and bring the bride
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>This was done, and they arrived, with several photographs, large and
+small, of the father, and also of the bridegroom, for identification.
+Carrie, in fact, tried&mdash;a little unfairly perhaps&mdash;to make Mrs Peters
+identify the wrong person by forcing into notice a large photograph of
+the <em>bridegroom</em> (some years senior to the father), and saying
+carelessly: "<em>There, Mrs Peters&mdash;that is the face you saw yesterday of
+my father, is it not?</em>" But Mrs Peters would have none of it. She looked
+staggered for a moment, then caught sight of the second picture, and
+turned to it with relief: "<em>This</em> is the face I saw, whether it is your
+father or not," she answered, with decision.</p>
+
+<p>The bride begged for a private interview with Mrs Peters, which lasted
+for a considerable time. Of course, I knew nothing of this interview,
+nor should I feel at liberty to speak of it if I did know. I may,
+however, be permitted to say that I have the bride's own assurance that
+the accurate knowledge then given her of her future husband's
+characteristics physical and mental, and the best way of dealing with
+them, "made all the difference in her married life."</p>
+
+<p>During that interview Mrs Peters also told her the number of years she
+would be married; and the prophecy was accurately fulfilled, which is
+the more remarkable, because, as a rule, it seems impossible to
+predicate time, even when events can be foreseen.</p>
+
+<p>I am happy to add that the marriage turned out a complete success, and
+that a marriage settlement was made more in accordance with the father's
+wishes, although neither trustees nor principal in the transaction, had
+any idea that the actual arrangements were in any way due to the
+strongly expressed wishes of a discarnate spirit.</p>
+
+<p>If this book should ever fall into their hands, and they should trace
+the story in spite of the thick veil I have thrown over all the
+circumstances, I can only trust that, in gratitude for the results, they
+may become reconciled with the channel through which these were made
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>People may say: "What a terrible idea that a father or a husband should
+trouble himself about such sordid details as money, houses, etc."</p>
+
+<p>But this is an extremely foolish remark, although it may appear very
+spiritual on the surface. It is surely the most natural thing in the
+world that a near relation&mdash;if permitted&mdash;should endeavour to secure
+comfort and happiness for a dearly loved wife or daughter; especially
+when, as in the above case, he felt mainly responsible for a state of
+affairs which might have turned out so disastrously, save for his loving
+care and foresight, exercised as these were from the other side of the
+veil.</p>
+
+<p>At anyrate it disposes once for all of the weary old "<em>Cui Bono</em>"
+argument, which is so futile, and yet so constantly and triumphantly
+quoted by stupid people, who seem to took upon it as a patent
+extinguisher for any psychic gifts or experiences.</p>
+
+<p>It is mainly in order to meet this senseless observation that I have
+included this story in my reminiscences.</p>
+
+<p>Most of us are debarred from answering the "<em>Cui Bono</em>" bray, by the
+fact that our most helpful experiences are generally of a too intimate
+and often sacred nature to be given to a scoffing world.</p>
+
+<p>But this instance has the advantage of dealing entirely with material
+matters, and thus being on a level with the ordinary intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody can say in this case <em>no good was done</em>. It only remains to be
+deeply shocked by the undignified, "nay, almost blasphemous,"
+intervention in mundane affairs of a spirit "who should certainly have
+had some more worthy occupation."</p>
+
+<p>It is another case of the old man and the donkey. If discarnate spirits
+<em>don't</em> trouble about the personal affairs of those on earth, the "<em>Cui
+Bono</em>" argument is hurled at them. If they <em>do</em>, they are called
+blasphemous and irreverent!</p>
+
+<p>The mention of the Waverly family reminds me of an incident which took
+place when I was staying in their house in the country, a year or two
+earlier than the time of which I am writing. I have reserved it
+purposely as a sequel to this last story, which is in its proper
+chronological setting.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1889 I was spending a pleasant fortnight with the Waverlys
+in Yorkshire, at the very time when a dear old friend of mine (Mrs
+Tennant) was dying in London. I had seen her only a week or two before,
+but had no knowledge of her illness, as we were not in constant
+correspondence, although there was a deep and strong affection between
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I did not even hear of her death, in fact, till a few weeks after it
+took place, having missed the announcement in the papers. When Mrs
+Tennant's sister, Mrs Lane, wrote me the details, I had left Yorkshire,
+and was staying with cousins in Worcestershire. Thinking over the dates
+mentioned in describing the illness, I realised with a shock of pained
+surprise that the final state of unconsciousness must have set in the
+very evening when I was enjoying myself in Yorkshire, at a large
+dinner-party given by my host and hostess.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed terrible to think that my dear and much loved friend should
+have been lying unconscious upon her death-bed, and that no word or sign
+should have come to me.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly I remembered a curious little incident connected with that
+dinner-party.</p>
+
+<p>I had been admiring a pretty little slate-coloured kitten belonging to
+the house, which was calmly sitting upon the grand piano after dinner,
+when the ladies were alone in the drawing-room. After the gentlemen
+joined us, I was deep in conversation with my host (a remarkably
+interesting and intelligent man), when I noticed a small <em>black</em> kitten
+run past my dress. Probably I should have remarked upon it had we been
+less occupied in talking, for I am extremely fond of cats and animals in
+general. I did glance up, as a matter of fact, and satisfied myself that
+it was not the little slate-coloured kitty, which sat in still triumph
+on the piano. Besides, this kitten was <em>black</em>, not slate. I thought no
+more of it until the guests had left and Mrs Waverly and I were going
+upstairs to bed. She and I were very affinitive, but neither she nor her
+family had any special interest in psychology.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, however, she said rather mysteriously: "<em>I think
+something will happen to-night to you.</em>" A good many jokes had been made
+about the probably uncanny atmosphere of my room, and the various spooks
+who were doubtless sharing it with me, so I laughed, thinking this was
+only the usual family joke. But Mrs Waverly was quite in earnest. At
+first she would give no reason for her remark, "fearing I should tell
+her daughters," and that she would be laughed at in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>Reassured on this point, she said to me quite seriously:</p>
+
+<p>"Whilst you were talking to my husband this evening I saw a black kitten
+run straight across your dress&mdash;just opposite to me."</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Well, of course, I saw the kitten!</em>" I answered, to her surprise; "but
+there is nothing very remarkable about a black kitten in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"<em>But we have no black kitten</em> in the house, or anywhere on the
+premises. Where did it go to? You never saw it again? No; it was not an
+ordinary kitten, and I did not suppose till this moment that anyone had
+seen it but myself."</p>
+
+<p>It was a fact that no one but Mrs Waverly and I had seen any kitten but
+the slate-coloured one already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking over this in the light of the sad news of my dear old friend's
+death, and noting the correspondence in time between her loss of
+consciousness and the appearance of the mysterious black kitten&mdash;seen
+only by Mrs Waverly and myself&mdash;it was impossible not to ask in the
+depths of my heart whether, perchance, the spirit of my faithful friend
+had been trying to send me some symbol of her approaching death.</p>
+
+<p>It may be objected that black cats are generally connected with good
+luck. Well, I think my dear "London mother," as she called herself
+sometimes, would have explained this apparent contradiction very simply.
+She had lived through much sorrow, and was often oppressed by sore
+doubts of the Cosmic Love. I never knew any woman with such strong and
+passionate human sympathy, and to such fine spirits, the world, under
+present conditions, must always offer terrible problems. Her sympathies
+were sometimes too keen for that robust faith which can <em>always</em> say:
+"God's in His heaven! All's right with the world!" Yet her last words
+were: "<em>I am so tired, and God will understand; and I am so glad to
+go.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>To finish my chapter on a merrier note, I will mention an amusing
+episode connected with the evening of the black kitten's appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the guests invited to that dinner-party was a clergyman-squire,
+a man of some means who had taken orders. A "squarson" is the
+"portmanteau name" for such a gentleman in Yorkshire, I believe; one who
+combines squire and parson.</p>
+
+<p>This particular specimen of the genus was both a vegetarian and a
+celibate. The latter fact had been made clear to me by the many regrets
+expressed in the neighbourhood that he had remained a bachelor owing to
+religious scruples. The vegetarianism was equally certain, for I had
+heard orders given for special dishes to be prepared for this guest; and
+sitting next to him at the dinner-table, I knew that he had not touched
+either meat or game, although it was not a fast day.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, when the gentlemen had joined us in the drawing-room, the
+conversation turned upon psychic matters and my experiences in America
+of a few years before. This extreme High Churchman denounced all these,
+"lock, stock, and barrel."</p>
+
+<p>He believed that everything might have happened as described, but was
+equally certain that the devil alone could have had a hand in "such
+goings on"! Perhaps it will be wise to explain that he did not make use
+of this latter expression!</p>
+
+<p>My host, instead of coming to the rescue, which he might have done, as
+one of "the Cloth"; looked much amused when I fielded most of my
+adversary's theological balls.</p>
+
+<p>At length, being unaccustomed to such irreverent handling, my enemy lost
+his temper, and, as usual on such occasions, he tried to "take my
+wicket" by quoting texts against me!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, all I can say is that everything you have told us is in direct
+opposition to Holy Writ. In fact, <em>we are specially warned in the
+Scriptures that in the latter days seducing spirits shall arise</em>."</p>
+
+<p>At this fatal moment, when the Theological Closure was descending upon
+my unhappy head, a really brilliant thought occurred to me.</p>
+
+<p>Was it a seducing spirit or a friendly intelligence who reminded me
+that my opponent had only quoted half the text&mdash;<em>the half that suited
+him</em>?</p>
+
+<p>I pointed this fact out meekly.</p>
+
+<p>He looked puzzled, and probably had honestly forgotten what he did not
+wish to remember.</p>
+
+<p>"Finish the text? What do you mean?" he said irritably.</p>
+
+<p>So I finished it for him:</p>
+
+<p>"In the latter days seducing spirits shall arise, <em>forbidding to marry
+and commanding to abstain from meats</em>."</p>
+
+<p>He had pressed me very hard and rather unfairly. Still, the counsel of
+perfection would have been to refrain from the comment that, if <em>I</em> were
+a celibate and vegetarian, it was not the text I should have chosen with
+which to clinch an argument!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="AN_INTERLUDE" id="AN_INTERLUDE"></a>AN INTERLUDE</h2>
+
+<p>I have headed this chapter an <em>Interlude</em>, for the following reason:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>It is the only one in this book which does not record a personal
+experience.</p>
+
+<p>The opportunity came to me at Florence, two years ago, of hearing one of
+the best old-fashioned Christmas ghost stories I ever came across; also
+a ghost story which has two rather unique advantages. First, it has
+never been published before; secondly, the percipient was the matron of
+a boys' school (a well-known one), and wrote out her experiences <em>within
+twelve hours of their occurrence</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the matron of a large boys' school must, of necessity, be an
+exceptionally practical woman, and her daily experiences can scarcely
+tend to encourage undue Romance or Imagination.</p>
+
+<p>When I add that this story was given to me, and a copy of the original
+letter placed in my hands, by a sister of two of the schoolboys who were
+under the matron's supervision, I shall have cleared the way for my
+ghost to appear upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p>I must add, however, that I met this sister, a young widow, in Florence,
+two years ago. She then told me this story, finding that I was
+intimately acquainted both with the county and the small county town
+where it happened.</p>
+
+<p>The matron had gone there for the prosaic purpose of taking the baths
+for her rheumatism.</p>
+
+<p>The adventure took place in the early morning of 14th April 1875, and
+was recorded, within a few hours, in a long letter written by the
+percipient to a favourite cousin.</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Mrs Barker's brothers being at school at the time, begged to
+be allowed to read this letter and take a copy of it. The copy was made
+by their sister&mdash;then a young girl&mdash;and I have it in my hands at the
+present moment of writing.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, necessary to change the name of the county and town,
+as the old family mansion, let in lodgings in 1875, has since then been
+sold and turned into a boarding-house.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Barker's mother made an expedition to this town, a few years ago, to
+verify the facts, and went over the house, which has been considerably
+altered and reconstructed inside since 1875.</p>
+
+<p>The small park mentioned in the story is now built over entirely, as the
+town has increased in popularity, owing to its baths, and the family
+portraits here mentioned have been removed since the house was sold.</p>
+
+<p>I will now quote <em>verbatim</em> from the matron's letter, <em>written on the
+morning of her experiences</em>.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 42em;">"The Priory, Grantwich.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 43em;">"14th April 1875.</span></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Edie,</span>&mdash;When you asked me once for a ghost story, I daresay you
+as little expected, as I did, how soon I should have to reveal to you an
+experience which will doubtless give you, as it has me, much ground for
+thought and speculation about those mysterious laws which rule the
+spirit world.</p>
+
+<p>"How true it is that Thought and Feeling annihilate Time and Space!
+Since last night, I seem to have lived through half a lifetime, such an
+effect have its events had upon my inner life. But before I begin to
+relate the strange circumstances I have to tell you, I must describe to
+you more particularly this house in which they happened.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I told you that 'The Priory'&mdash;where I am now lodging&mdash;is an old
+mansion, belonging to the Carbury family. For some years past, it has
+been let to the present occupiers who make the rent by letting lodgings.
+Some ancient pieces of furniture remain, and a great many portraits,
+none of the earliest date, but a handsome and respectable
+collection&mdash;soldiers, bishops, and judges, in their uniforms, robes, and
+wigs, and ladies with powdered hair, hoops, and trains.</p>
+
+<p>"Of these portraits, <em>two have engaged my attention, especially, from
+the first moment of seeing them</em>, but I am not going to speak of them
+yet; my first object is to give you an idea of the house, or rather that
+part of it with which my story is connected.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have told you that the grand staircase goes up from the inner
+hall, and that round the staircase runs a gallery; in this gallery and
+in the hall below, are hung most of the portraits.</p>
+
+<p>"On the first turn and landing of the staircase, there is a door opening
+into a trellised walk which leads into the garden. On a level with this
+door is a large window which looks on to sweeps of soft turf, shaded by
+fine trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Standing often to look from this window, as I passed up and down the
+staircase, one tree has always riveted my attention. It is a large old
+plane-tree, standing by itself, and having a strange, melancholy,
+decayed look about it. I noticed&mdash;why, I cannot imagine&mdash;that on one
+side of it the ground was bare and black, though everywhere else the
+grass was green and fresh. I mention this, because it had struck me
+<em>before</em> the strange events occurred which I am going to tell you.</p>
+
+<p>"You must now go with me to the top of the staircase. Just at the top,
+on your right hand, hangs one of the portraits I mentioned. It is a
+life-sized painting of Captain Richard Carbury, who landed, on the 19th
+September 1738, in the Colony of Georgia, with General Oglethorpe's
+regiment.</p>
+
+<p>"Opposite to this, on the other side of the gallery, is the portrait of
+a lady, with black, resolute brows and full, voluptuous mouth and chin.
+She has a high colour, an exquisite hand and arm, and an Amazonian
+bearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Passing from the gallery, you enter a long passage, leading to other
+passages and staircases, with which we have nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>"I only want you now to become acquainted with my own rooms. As you
+enter the passage from the gallery, two doors open, one on either hand.
+To the right is my sitting-room, a square, cheerful room, looking on the
+street; to the left is my bedroom, which will require a more particular
+description.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a large, low room. As you enter from the passage, the window,
+which looks into the garden, is opposite to you. In the middle of the
+wall to your right hand stands the bed, and opposite to that, the
+fireplace, and, as you will see, if you have taken in my description,
+just at the back of the portrait of the lady with the black eyebrows, is
+another door. Opposite to this last is yet another, which caught my
+attention when I first entered the room from a peculiarity about it. The
+upper part of this door is of glass, rendered opaque by being washed or
+lined with some red substance.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I was alone in the room I tried to open this door, but it
+was firmly fastened. I don't know why I should have felt disquieted by
+this circumstance, but certainly I did feel annoyed. I thought at first
+that it probably opened into a dressing-room. There must have been a
+strong light behind it, for a red light always fell on that side of the
+room through the coloured glass, and I could see that red light in the
+morning, before any light penetrated the window-blind.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have now told you all that is necessary for understanding my
+experience.</p>
+
+<p>"I must ask you to remember that yesterday was the thirteenth of April.
+I went to bed about eleven o'clock, and soon fell asleep. I could not,
+however, have slept long before I woke with an unusual feeling that
+something strange was going to happen.</p>
+
+<p>"I awoke, not as one does in the morning, with a drowsy resolve not to
+go to sleep again because it is time to get up, but as one awakes when a
+journey or some similar event is imminent, for which one's faculties
+have to be clear, and one's body active and alert. I was rather
+wondering at and enjoying the unusual clearness and energy of thought of
+which I felt capable, when the clock in the hall began striking, and,
+almost at the same moment, the clock of the old Church of St Andrew
+began striking also.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew that both were striking twelve, though I did not count the
+blows, but just as the last stroke of the church clock died away,
+another sound caught my ear.</p>
+
+<p>"The door by the fireplace gave a loud crack and then opened, as if with
+some difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"The <em>red door</em> at the same time rattled, as if someone were trying
+vainly to open it. The room had previously been dark, but I now plainly
+saw a tall figure come through the doorway and stand near the foot of
+the bed. There was a dull, yellowish light round the figure, which
+illumined it, leaving the rest of the room in darkness; but this yellow
+light, I perceived, became red at one point of the figure's left side,
+and shone down on the floor with a red glow, like that which came
+through the opposite door.</p>
+
+<p>"The apparition stood quite silent whilst I looked at it. <em>The features
+and figure were familiar to me</em> for they were those of Captain Richard
+Carbury, in the portrait, who had gone out to Georgia with the regiment
+of His Excellency, General Oglethorpe!</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I was sure of this, I said: 'You are Captain Richard
+Carbury?'</p>
+
+<p>"The apparition nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why do you come to me?' I said. 'Cannot you speak?'</p>
+
+<p>"He seemed to have some difficulty in doing so, but after two or three
+efforts, such as one makes to move a rusty hinge, he parted his lips,
+and said: 'Yes! I am Richard Carbury, and I am come to make you a
+witness.'</p>
+
+<p>"'A witness of what?' I said. 'Can I be of use to you? You come from the
+spirit world. Is it then permitted to mortals to have personal
+intercourse with spirits?'</p>
+
+<p>"He held up his hand as if to silence me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Listen to me,' he said. 'You are not frightened of me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I replied; nor did I feel the slightest awe or fear. I felt
+stimulated, a kind of electricity ran through my veins&mdash;I longed
+earnestly to learn something of the mysterious realm from which he came,
+but I had no vulgar or superstitious fear.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nor need you have any dread,' he returned. 'I have no wish nor power
+to hurt you, but you must listen to my story. Once in fifty years I am
+allowed to leave my grave and revisit the scene of my tragical death,
+and this must always be on the 14th of April, which is the anniversary
+of the event.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> I am also permitted to recount my story if I find
+anyone sleeping in this room who is willing to listen to me. Are you
+willing?'</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> There is evidently some mistake here in the figures given
+by the ghost or received by the matron. If his death took place in 1741
+(three years after landing in Georgia), his first spirit return was due
+in 1791, the second, 1841, and the third, not till 1891. It appears to
+have been anticipated by sixteen years, if the dates given are correct.
+A friend suggests that "once <em>in</em> fifty years" does not necessitate
+exact <em>intervals</em> of fifty years.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I replied that I should gladly hear what he had to tell, but would he
+allow me to ask him one question?</p>
+
+<p>"He inclined his head in assent, and I said I had always thought that
+the spirits of the dead, if they were allowed to appear on earth, came
+with shadowy and skeleton forms. Why did he appear with flesh like a
+living man?</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' he said, 'that is owing to the peculiarity of my grave. I am
+buried in salt.'</p>
+
+<p>"' Have you anything more to ask?' said my visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nothing more at present,' I replied. 'I am ready now to hear your
+story.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will make it as short as possible and not detain you long. You have
+noticed my portrait in the gallery?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And that of the lady opposite, my cousin, Lucretia Carbury?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly.' (Here the red door was violently shaken).</p>
+
+<p>"'She cannot open it,' said Captain Carbury, 'it is sealed.'</p>
+
+<p>"'When I went out to Georgia,' he resumed, 'in 1738, I was engaged to be
+married to her; we had been betrothed by our parents in our childhood,
+and family reasons made it almost a necessity that we should be united,
+but as we grew up neither of us was very anxious to fulfil the
+engagement, and, to tell the truth, I was glad of the summons to join my
+regiment. However, after three years in that distant colony, I came
+home, having made up my mind I would marry Lucretia and settle down on
+the family property&mdash;which could only be enjoyed by that means&mdash;for we
+were the only representatives of the family, and the property was so
+left by our fathers that only by marrying could we enter into
+possession. <em>Either by marrying or by the death of one of us; when the
+whole of the property would go to the other.</em> I knew that Lucretia was
+at the old house at Grantwich, and I came straight to her.</p>
+
+<p>"'I had written to say when she might expect me, and she received me
+with apparent kindness and agreed to all my propositions about our
+marriage. I arrived late at night, and she let me into the house herself
+and got food for me. We supped together, and she pledged me in a cup,
+which I now know was drugged to make me sleep heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"'I then retired to my room&mdash;this room, this bed, on which you now lie!</p>
+
+<p>"'What I am now going to tell you has been made clear to me since; at
+the time I was conscious of nothing. As soon as I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and whilst I thus slept Lucretia came through that door
+(pointing to the red door opposite), and stabbed me to the heart. I will
+show you the instrument with which she did it, if you like.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Pray do,' I said, and he unbuttoned his scarlet uniform coat and drew
+from his left side a slender dagger or stiletto.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked at it with great interest and asked if I might take it in my
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly, if you wish it,' he said, 'but I do not advise you to touch
+it. It is rusty now from the salt, but I assure you it was bright and
+keen when she drove it into my heart. The stroke was so cleverly aimed
+that I died instantly. Lucretia then made a signal, which was answered
+by the entrance of a man, and between them they carried my body through
+the door by which I entered to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>"He paused, and I thought he looked more ghastly. 'Is anything the
+matter?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am thinking,' he answered, 'that I can show you the rest, if you
+will follow me, but I must tell you that when we leave this room and
+enter the gallery, it is possible the murderess will follow us. Shall
+you be afraid?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not in the least,' I said, 'I will follow you with pleasure, but you
+must allow me to put something on, as I am suffering from rheumatism,
+and am afraid of the cold and damp.'</p>
+
+<p>"'By all means,' said Captain Carbury. 'I will wait for you in the
+gallery.'</p>
+
+<p>"I then got up and put on my dressing-gown and slippers. Whilst I was
+doing so, I heard a rustling in the passage as of a woman passing slowly
+along. I found Captain Carbury, and followed him along the gallery
+without looking round, but when we reached the end of the gallery and
+turned to go down the first flight of stairs, I saw the lady with the
+black brows&mdash;whom I now knew to be Lucretia Carbury, the
+murderess&mdash;standing in the doorway, between the gallery and the passage.</p>
+
+<p>"'I do not think she can come any farther,' said my guide, and he opened
+the door leading from the staircase into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am showing you just where they brought me,' said he.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who was the man?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'I never knew his name, but she married him afterwards.'</p>
+
+<p>"He then moved across the lawn <em>to the bare spot under the plane-tree</em>.
+Here he stopped, and, pointing downwards, showed me on the bare ground
+an exact outline of the dagger which he had drawn from his side.</p>
+
+<p>"'Here they dug my grave and here they buried me; a salt spring washes
+over me.'</p>
+
+<p>"At this moment the great clock of St Andrew struck <span class="smcap">one</span>.</p>
+
+<p>"'All that you have told me is very sad and strange,' I said, 'but now,
+will you allow me to ask you why you have appeared to me? Is there
+anything you want done on earth that I can do? Is there any restitution
+to be made, or justice to be administered? Anything that you require, I
+am ready to do, if you will grant me one favour when you return to the
+spirit realm.'</p>
+
+<p>"I had been speaking with my eyes fixed on the ground, but now,
+happening to raise them, I was surprised to see that my companion
+appeared to be sinking into the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"'My time is up,' he said. '<em>Remember!</em>'&mdash;and, as his head disappeared,
+his words came in a hollow, sepulchral voice from beneath <em>that spot of
+black earth</em>&mdash;'remember you are my witness!'</p>
+
+<p>"I was left standing alone under the plane-tree, with the thought, that
+in returning to my room, I might probably meet the restless spirit of
+Lucretia Carbury.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the kind, however, occurred. I passed through the doors that
+had opened at the touch of Captain Carbury, and I noticed that they
+closed behind me without any effort on my part. I regained my bed, and
+almost immediately fell asleep. All had passed so naturally, and as a
+matter of course, that only when I woke this morning, and thought over
+the events of the night, did I realise that I had passed through such an
+experience as is given to few human beings.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, dear Edie, that my narrative has taken so long to write that I
+have no time to speak of other things, even if I could bring my mind to
+think of anything else, which, I confess, I should have great difficulty
+in doing.&mdash;Ever your very affectionate,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "<span class="smcap">M. Porter.</span>"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p>Copied <em>verbatim</em> from Miss Porter's letter, written on the morning of
+14th April 1875.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>So ends the story, with apologies to the S.P.R.!</p>
+
+<p>I claim nothing for it beyond the following <em>facts</em>:</p>
+
+<p>The Priory still exists at Grantwich, and is known to have been the
+family mansion of the Carbury family.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Porter was undoubtedly matron of the school where my friend's
+brothers were educated. She was a woman of unblemished character and
+truthfulness, and would certainly not have <em>invented</em> this long and
+detailed account of her personal experiences within a few hours of their
+occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>My friend most certainly copied this letter, which her brothers had
+obtained leave to read, from their school matron&mdash;Miss Porter herself.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, my friend, Mrs Barker's mother (who is still alive), verified
+the existence of the Priory (as I have called it) in the town of
+Grantwich, and it <em>had</em> been turned into a boarding-house at the time of
+her visit, having been previously let in lodgings. Also she found that
+Captain Richard Carbury was <em>supposed to have died in Georgia in the
+year 1741</em>, as is inferred in the story.</p>
+
+<p>As the murderess and her accomplice alone seem to have been aware of his
+return on that fateful night, this would be the natural opinion of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>As an old associate of the S.P.R., and quite conversant with their
+methods, two criticisms of the story at once suggest themselves, in
+addition to the confusion of dates, which might perhaps be excused,
+owing to the abnormal nature of the interview described. But the obvious
+Podmorian remark would be that the whole adventure was a dream on the
+part of Miss Porter, induced by her interest in the two family portraits
+she had seen, and the curious sensations she had experienced in looking
+at a specially gloomy tree in the park.</p>
+
+<p>This would certainly cover the ground, but it proves, perhaps, rather
+too much.</p>
+
+<p>It requires very robust "Faith in Unfaith" to suppose that a sensible,
+practical woman, suffering from rheumatism, should carry her dream to
+the verge of following her dream man into the garden and grounds of the
+house. It may be urged that <em>she dreamt all this also</em>, but "that way
+madness lies." We must be able to formulate that certain acts of ours
+took place during full consciousness, or daily life would become
+impossible and moral responsibility would cease.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Porter might have been in a dream all through the night&mdash;granted.</p>
+
+<p>But in these cases it is the "morning that brings counsel." We are all
+aware of the extraordinary lifelike dreams which, with the return of
+normal memory, we recognise as dream visions, no matter how vivid and
+credible they may have appeared to us in the night.</p>
+
+<p>But with Miss Porter this normal process was reversed. She went to sleep
+quite calmly, and first realised, upon waking in the morning, how
+thoroughly <em>abnormal</em> her experiences had been.</p>
+
+<p>I pass on to the next criticism, which a little "editing" on my part
+could have averted:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it credible that a woman, only just recovering from the surprise and
+marvel of such an experience, should write about it, within a few hours,
+to a favourite cousin, as if she were preparing a story for <em>The Family
+Herald</em>?"</p>
+
+<p>I confess that this was my own feeling when the record was placed in my
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>We must, however, remember&mdash;first, that the percipient was obviously a
+lady of great courage, or she would not have followed her ghost into the
+garden; secondly, that she was a keen observer and very accurate in
+details. Probably, many generations of schoolboys, passing through her
+hands, may have quickened her perceptions in both these ways.</p>
+
+<p>As for the stilted style, that presents little difficulty, when one
+remembers that people of a certain rank in life never use a short word
+when a long one will answer the purpose!</p>
+
+<p>I claim nothing for the story, beyond the points already mentioned.
+These are matters of <em>fact</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Each one must interpret it according to his own views and prejudices.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite enough for me to be responsible for the truth and accuracy
+of <em>my own</em> experiences, to which we will now return.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><em>Note.</em>&mdash;Since writing the above I have consulted the "Century
+Encyclop&aelig;dia," and find there:</p>
+
+<p>"Oglethorpe&mdash;James Edward, born in London, December 21st, 1696, died at
+Cranham Hall, Essex, England, 1785. An English General and
+Philanthropist. He projected the Colony of Georgia for insolvent
+debtors, and persecuted Protestants; conducted the expedition for its
+settlement, 1733, and returned to England, 1743."</p>
+
+<p>The apparent discrepancy between the date 1733 given in the
+Encyclop&aelig;dia, and the 1738 of Captain Carbury's ghostly narrative, may
+be due to one of two causes:</p>
+
+<p>The young girl copying Miss Porter's letter may have mistaken a three
+for an eight rather easily.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Captain Carbury did not state that he landed <em>with</em> General
+Oglethorpe, 19th September 1738, but with General Oglethorpe's
+regiment. This latter may have been a reinforcement sent out to the
+General after his first landing in the Colony.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>LADY CAITHNESS AND AVENUE WAGRAM</h3>
+
+<p>Having spent the winter months of 1894 (from January to April) in Egypt,
+I was returning thence in the latter month with my friend Mrs Judge of
+Windsor. Our route was <em>via</em> Paris, and I had arranged to spend a week
+there in the same hotel as the young Swedish lady whom I first met in
+India, and who has been referred to more than once in this record.</p>
+
+<p>She told me she had made the acquaintance that winter of the famous
+"Countess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar," and thinking it would
+interest me to meet this lady, she had asked for permission to introduce
+me to her.</p>
+
+<p>As it turned out, Madame Br&uuml;gel was unable to accompany me to the house,
+having several engagements for the afternoon, but she promised to "put
+in an appearance" later. So Mrs Judge and I drove off to the well-known
+mansion in the Avenue de Wagram, and were received very cordially by
+Lady Caithness.</p>
+
+<p>I had once tried to read a very abstruse and mystic book by this lady,
+and had heard her spoken of as a more or less hopeless lunatic, "who
+imagined herself Mary Queen of Scots," and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise I went without prejudice, and being accustomed to judge for
+myself in such matters, came to the conclusion that Lady Caithness was
+an extremely shrewd woman, with her head remarkably "well screwed on,"
+as the saying is. As regards her claims to be Mary Queen of Scots, I
+never heard these from her own lips, although I saw her daily for a
+week, and we had many interesting talks.</p>
+
+<p>She certainly <em>did</em> claim to be in very close relations with the
+ill-fated Queen of Scotland, but I do not know what views she may have
+held privately as to varied manifestations of the one spirit. I have
+heard Lord Monkswell propound an interesting theory, with Archdeacon
+Wilberforce in the chair, to the effect that as one short earth life
+gave small scope for spiritual experience and development, he thought it
+quite possible that the same spirit might have several bodily
+manifestations simultaneously, and that the judge and the criminal might
+conceivably be one and the same individual in two personalities!</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that Lady Caithness may have had some such view, not
+theoretically (as was the case with Lord Monkswell), but as a matter of
+conviction, and apart from the limits of Time and Space involved in the
+conception of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>I can only say that I never heard her speak of Mary Queen of Scots
+except as an entity, quite distinct from herself. But that she carried
+the "Marie" <em>culte</em> to great extremes is an undoubted fact. The hall and
+rooms on the ground floor of the Avenue Wagram House were arranged and
+furnished in close imitation of Holyrood Palace. I counted over fifty
+miniatures and other pictures of the Scottish Queen in the Countess's
+beautiful bedroom alone, and later on shall have to speak more
+definitely of one life size and exquisitely painted portrait of the
+Queen.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to this first reception.</p>
+
+<p>I must confess that a somewhat inconveniently keen sense of humour found
+only too much nourishment on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess was magnificently dressed, as was usual with her, in
+priceless lace, falling over head and shoulders, and a beautiful tiara
+of various coloured jewels arranged over the lace. This was eccentric
+perhaps, considering the occasion, but not laughable. Lady Caithness, in
+addition to geniality, had enough quiet dignity to carry off the lace
+and jewels with success. I was chiefly amused by the attitude of adoring
+humility and flattering appreciation shown by the numerous ladies
+already assembled when we arrived. Only one man was present, and he was
+a priest. Later I learned to appreciate the friendliness of the Abb&eacute;
+Petit and to admire his intellectual courage and manliness.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment, seeing him surrounded by these female worshippers,
+hanging upon his lips as he discoursed to us about new readings of old
+truths, one was irresistibly reminded of certain scenes in Moli&egrave;re's
+"<em>Femmes Savantes</em>."</p>
+
+<p>A lively little American lady (married to an Italian count) plied him
+with numerous questions in fluent French, spoken with an atrocious
+accent. Finally, she wished to hear the Abb&eacute;'s views upon
+<em>Melchisedech!</em> In the midst of other questions and answers, the kindly
+little man managed to turn round to her with a cheery "<em>Ah, Madame la
+Comtesse! pour le Melchisedech&mdash;nous reviendrons tout de suite &agrave;
+Melchisedech!</em>" All the affairs of the religious universe were being
+wound up at a similar pace and in like fashion, and this final word of
+cheerful assurance would have proved absolutely disastrous to me had I
+not been sitting close to my friend and able to whisper to her: "<em>Please
+dig your nails into my wrist&mdash;hard.</em>" Any bodily pain was preferable to
+the hysterical laughter which had been so long suppressed and seemed now
+imminent.</p>
+
+<p>But there was worse to come!</p>
+
+<p>An Englishwoman, the very type of the characteristic British spinster,
+turned round, and addressed M. l'Abb&eacute; in laboured and extremely British
+French (I must leave the accent to be imagined and supplied by my
+reader):</p>
+
+<p>"Mais, Monsieur l'Abb&eacute;! c'est le Protestantisme que vous nous enseignez
+la."</p>
+
+<p>He turned round upon her in his wrath:</p>
+
+<p>"Mais, Madame&mdash;ou <span class="smcap">Mademoiselle</span>." (No print can convey the utter scorn
+and contempt of this last word.)</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the sentence was lost to us in the loud laugh of the genial,
+good-tempered woman: "<em>Moi</em>, Mademoiselle! J'ai &eacute;t&eacute; mari&eacute;e vingt ans et
+j'ai six enfants!"</p>
+
+<p>The whole scene was too funny for words, and, with the exception of this
+good lady, all present took themselves as seriously as a University don!</p>
+
+<p>It was a real relief when the solemnity of the reception broke up and we
+were ushered into the adjoining dining-room for an excellent tea. Here
+I came upon my Swedish friend, who had only just arrived, and "missed
+all the fun." She told me there was to be a <em>s&eacute;ance</em> held in the house
+next day, and that she had been asking the Countess if I might not be
+present. "<em>It might amuse you, Kat!</em>" was her irreverent way of putting
+it. "<em>Unfortunately, there seems to be some difficulty about it.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Lady Caithness came up, and cordially expressed her
+regrets that she could not accede to Madame Br&uuml;gel's suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you been staying until next week, Miss Bates, I would gladly have
+arranged for it, but to-morrow is a very special occasion. As a matter
+of fact, I have promised M. Petit that no one shall be present except
+himself and me, and the two female mediums, of course. On Wednesday we
+are to have a crowded meeting here&mdash;all the well-known people in Paris
+will come&mdash;and M. l'Abb&eacute; will read his paper explaining that he can no
+longer blind his eyes to the new light breaking upon the world through
+scientific discovery, etc., but that he remains a loyal son of the
+Church, if the Church will allow him to do so. It is, of course, a very
+trying and anxious ordeal; for many priests will be present, also a
+cardinal and one or more of our bishops. So the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> to-morrow will
+be specially devoted to receiving last instructions for the paper he is
+about to read, and some words, we trust, of encouragement and hope."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I hastened to assure Lady Caithness of my full comprehension
+of her point, and added that I was only sorry she should have been asked
+to alter her arrangements on my account.</p>
+
+<p>"But you will join us on Wednesday at the meeting, I trust? It will be
+held at three <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, in a large room on the ground floor, which is
+arranged for such gatherings. I shall expect you then, so we will not
+say good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>This was heaping coals of fire on my head; for so observant a woman as
+Lady Caithness must have noticed my difficulty in keeping a grave face
+earlier in the afternoon!</p>
+
+<p>Now comes a curious point. As we left the house Madame Br&uuml;gel in
+expressing disappointment about the next evening, added: "And yet
+somehow I think you will go after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said involuntarily. "I believe I <em>shall</em> go, but I cannot think
+how it will come about; nothing could be more decided than what we have
+just heard, and I cannot possibly put off my journey to England the end
+of this week."</p>
+
+<p>I think we were both a little disappointed when no letter arrived by the
+morning's post. "Local letters often come by second post," urged my
+friend, who was very keen upon her presentiment.</p>
+
+<p>A long morning at the Louvre prevented my reaching home till one <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>,
+when the <em>d&eacute;jeuner &agrave; la fourchette</em> was half way through its course. No
+letter on my plate! So Madame Br&uuml;gel and I agreed that the wish must
+have been father to the thought with both of us, and put the matter out
+of our heads once for all.</p>
+
+<p>At two-thirty <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, however, a <em>d&eacute;p&ecirc;che</em> letter arrived for me.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Caithness wrote to <em>beg that I would make a point of being with her
+that evening by nine p.m.</em> "You will think this very inconsistent with
+what I told you yesterday," she wrote, "but I said only what was the
+exact truth, as matters then stood. It is the Queen herself who has
+communicated with me this morning, and <em>insists</em> upon your being present
+this evening. The Abb&eacute; and I can only bow to this decision. I need not
+tell you how pleased I shall be personally to greet you this evening."</p>
+
+<p>I was again shown into the spacious bedroom of the Countess, where she
+"received" in general, quite after the manner of the French kings in the
+days of the old monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Her bed was quite a State bed too, with its beautiful silk furnishings
+and heavy velvet hangings. On the wall behind this, was a very valuable
+fresco painting, representing Jacob's ladder, with the angels ascending
+and descending, executed by a famous modern artist.</p>
+
+<p>We soon descended to the ground floor, and passing through the large
+lecture-room, of which Lady Caithness had spoken, and which had
+sufficient gilt and cane chairs to seat a large audience; we stepped
+down some marble stairs into a small but exquisitely appointed room. It
+was a sort of chapel, in fact, built "by the Queen's instructions," and
+used for all purposes and occasions of direct communication with her. A
+general impression remains with me of rare woods and exquisite marbles,
+and the walls were hung with framed tapestries representing various
+scenes in the Queen's life.</p>
+
+<p>To me the most striking and beautiful thing in the room was a
+full-length, life-sized portrait of Mary herself, so arranged that a
+hidden lamp threw its soft light on the features; whilst the hanging
+velvet curtains of deep crimson on either side concealed the frame of
+the picture, and conveyed the illusion that a living woman was standing
+there ready to receive her guests.</p>
+
+<p>I have never seen anything more perfect than the way in which this
+impression was conveyed, without a jarring note of sensational effect.</p>
+
+<p>The two French women mediums were already in the room, and I am bound to
+say they did not attract me pleasantly nor impress me very favourably.
+They were mother and daughter, and "Harpy" was written large over either
+countenance. Doubtless they were very good mediums, in spite of this
+fact. They <em>must</em> have been so, unless one supposes that Lady Caithness
+and the Abb&eacute; Petit were themselves abnormally strong sensitives; in
+which case one would have thought this extraneous help would have been
+unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>We sat down at a fairly large wooden table, polished, but without
+covering of any kind, and having only one solid support to it, coming
+from the centre, passing down as a single wooden pillar, and spreading
+out in the usual fashion at the bottom. I had noted this on first
+entering the room.</p>
+
+<p>The two women sat together on my right-hand side. On my left was the
+Abb&eacute;, and the Countess sat exactly opposite to me, with a printed
+alphabet pasted on to a card, and a long pencil as pointer.</p>
+
+<p>This made up the party. At a side table, placed some distance away, sat
+a pleasant young French lady, who was writing automatically all the
+time; a secretary to the Countess, I believe. This young lady had no
+possible connection with the table.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>s&eacute;ance</em> began with a few words of prayer from the Abb&eacute; for light
+and guidance.</p>
+
+<p>The process was as follows:&mdash;First, the Countess and then I took the
+printed alphabet, and pointed silently and at a fair pace to the
+letters, going on from one to the other without pause. At the letter
+needed the table did not rise, but gave a sound more like a bang than a
+rap. I have never heard anything <em>quite</em> so loud and definite in my long
+investigation. The sound seemed to come from <em>within the wood</em>, as in
+ordinary "raps," when these are genuine, but it was far louder and more
+rapid and decided than the usual <em>s&eacute;ance</em> rap. There was no hesitation,
+no gathering up of force. Any amount of vitality was evidently present,
+and the intelligence, from whatever source, was unerring. The Countess
+and I were the only two persons who held the alphabet and pointed, and
+when <em>she</em> held it the mediums could not have seen the letters from
+their position at the table with regard to hers. Yet the letters were
+banged out (I can use no other expression) with absolute accuracy, and
+at a pace which, quick to start with, became more and more rapid as we
+wearied of the monotonous task and handed the alphabet to each other in
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>When the name of <span class="smcap">God</span> or of <span class="smcap">Our Lord</span> came, only the first letter was
+indicated, and then the table swayed slowly to and fro in a very
+reverent and characteristic way for a few seconds; after which we began
+the alphabet again for the next word.</p>
+
+<p>When these loud bangs came I could trace the reverberation in the wood,
+and it seemed to me practically impossible that the Harpies could be
+producing them by any unlawful methods, whilst sitting in full light and
+with immovable faces, the daughter writing down the letters as quickly
+as these were indicated.</p>
+
+<p>One did not feel quite comfortable about making investigations in a
+private house without being invited to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Again, if the women were tricking, and I caught them at it, there was
+always the chance of a disagreeable scene with people of their class.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, it was losing a great opportunity, to refrain, as a
+mere matter of courtesy. Also I comforted myself by thinking that if
+anyone needed to feel ashamed it would be the ones who cheated, and not
+the detective.</p>
+
+<p>So I pushed my chair a little nearer to the table, and the next time the
+Countess took the alphabet from me and the bangs were in full swing, I
+put my foot cautiously but very effectually <em>entirely round the one leg
+of the table, moving it also up and down freely</em>. Not a vestige of
+another foot, nor even of the flimsiest particle of dress or other
+obstruction! I could positively and distinctly hear the reverberation of
+the loud bangs on the wood, <em>between me and the centre of the table</em>,
+whilst my own leg and foot were firmly embracing the single wooden
+pillar upon which the latter stood. So the Harpies were justified, so
+far as this one phenomenon was concerned. The letters written down so
+rapidly by the daughter on large sheets of paper presented an apparently
+hopeless jumble, but when the sitting was over at the last, the Abb&eacute;
+and I were able to make out the words and sentences without great
+difficulty (he being accustomed to the task), and we then found a long,
+coherent, and at anyrate perfectly sensible, message addressed to him,
+and referring to the points of his coming discourse. This had to be
+proved upon its own merits, and without prejudice, arising from the fact
+that St Paul's name was given as the author. It was quite as helpful as
+some of the Apostle's letters, with the advantage of being up to date as
+regarded the question in hand. After all, the Abb&eacute; was about to embark
+upon an enterprise requiring much courage and great tact, in the forlorn
+hope that the walls of narrow Orthodoxy and Priestcraft might fall down
+before the trumpets of advancing Knowledge and Light.</p>
+
+<p>It may or may not have been St Paul who stood by the Abb&eacute; with words of
+encouragement that night; but I, for one, find no difficulty in thinking
+it conceivable that the great Apostle should take a keen interest in the
+evolution of the planet upon which he once lived.</p>
+
+<p>The charming young lady delivered up her script also. It was interesting
+and well written, but the only paragraph which remains in my memory was
+an excellent analysis of the initial difference between Christianity and
+Theosophy.</p>
+
+<p>The Abb&eacute; kindly copied it out for me next day, but I must quote from
+memory.</p>
+
+<p>"Christianity is a stretching down of the Divinity to Man.</p>
+
+<p>"Theosophy is the attempt of Man, by his own efforts, to reach the
+Divine."</p>
+
+<p>This seems to me both terse and true.</p>
+
+<p>We had sat from nine <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> till one <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, and I think we were all
+relieved when an adjournment for supper was suggested by Lady Caithness.</p>
+
+<p>Her son, the Duc de Pomar, joined us for <em>this</em> part of the evening, and
+was introduced to me. My enjoyment of the excellent fare, after so many
+hours of exhaustion, was only tempered by an unfortunate and violent
+quarrel between the mother and daughter mediums, on the score of the age
+of the latter! The mother declared her daughter was forty-five; the
+daughter said: "Not a day over thirty-five," and intimated that she
+surely might be supposed to know her own age! The mother, however,
+murmured provokingly: "<em>Moi, je sais mieux que &ccedil;a</em>"; and so the wrangle
+went on, until I made a diversion by taking leave of my hostess and
+promising to be present at the lecture the "following afternoon," which,
+by the way, had become "this afternoon" by the time I left the Hotel
+Wagram.</p>
+
+<p>When I entered the house once more, it was to be shown into the large
+lecture-room previously described, which was already three parts full,
+and very shortly entirely so.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Caithness had kindly reserved a front seat for me, so I could see
+and hear without difficulty. On the raised platform stood my friend the
+Abb&eacute; looking very grave and rather nervous. A cardinal, two bishops, and
+some half-dozen priests were seated close to him, and very shortly the
+lecture, which was, I think, extempore, began.</p>
+
+<p>The Abb&eacute; was so manifestly in dead earnest and without any suspicion of
+<em>pose</em>, that one could not fail to be deeply impressed by the scene. It
+needed all the help of a sincere purpose and a brave heart, to stand up
+amongst those of his own cloth, and, in face of a partially indifferent
+and partially unfriendly audience, to declare boldly "the faith that was
+in him"&mdash;a faith that burned all the more brightly and warmly from the
+fact that it was being purged of the superstitions which must always
+become the accretions of every form of religion; the clinging refuse of
+weed and shell, which from time to time must be scraped off the bottom
+of the grand old ship if it is to convey us safely from port to harbour.</p>
+
+<p>The Cardinal sat twirling his big seal ring, with a look of cynical
+amusement on his face, or so it seemed to me.</p>
+
+<p>As the Abb&eacute; proceeded to mention the advances made in science and the
+necessity for a restatement of old truths, which should bring them into
+line with other truths of the nineteenth century, proving the essential
+unity of <em>all truth</em>, and breaking down the fallacy that the vital part
+of religion and the vital part of science have anything to fear from one
+another, the Cardinal's face was a study to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course, we know all that, you and I, but what is the use of
+making this fuss about it? We belong to a system, and this system has
+worked very well for centuries past, and will work very well for
+centuries to come if fools don't attempt to upset the coach by
+restatements and readjustments, as they are called. The people <em>don't
+want restatements</em>; they want a dead certainty, and that is just what we
+give them."</p>
+
+<p>All this I seemed to read in his clever, cynical countenance, in direct
+opposition to the thrilling sentences of the Abb&eacute; Petit as he leant
+forward and said, with uplifted finger and prophetic intensity:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>La lumi&egrave;re est venue, mes fr&egrave;res&mdash;et si vous ne la suivez pas&mdash;vous
+serez laiss&eacute;s seuls dans vos &eacute;glises.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to exaggerate the affectionate solemnity of this appeal
+to his brother priests. The tragic note was relieved later by an amused
+smile which rippled round the audience. This puzzled me until a kind
+French lady sitting next to me explained that the audience were amused
+by the "<em>tr&egrave;s chers fr&egrave;res</em>" (dearly beloved brethren), with which the
+Abb&eacute; addressed them in this rather unorthodox lecture. It was evidently
+looked upon as a curious bit of "professional survival."</p>
+
+<p>On the following day (Thursday) I was invited to lunch with Lady
+Caithness at two <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and being a punctual person, I arrived at that
+hour. The powdered footman announced that his mistress had not yet
+emerged from her bedroom, and showed me up into the dining-room
+adjoining, where I awaited her. In a few minutes I was joined here by
+the Abb&eacute;, who politely expressed his sorrow that he had not known of my
+arrival earlier.</p>
+
+<p>As we sat chatting together, he told me a curious experience of his of
+the previous night, which will certainly "cause the enemy" to smile, if
+not "to blaspheme."</p>
+
+<p>He said (of course, in French): "I was sitting last night in my room,
+which looks over the back of the house, and where I can hear no sounds
+from the Avenue, and I was talking to 'La Reine.' Suddenly '<em>Elle m'a
+frapp&eacute; sur l'&eacute;paule</em>,' and then said she must leave me at once, in order
+to meet the Duchesse, who had just returned home. At that moment twelve
+o'clock struck from a neighbouring church, and I looked at my watch, and
+found it was indeed midnight. When Madame la Duchesse comes in, I am
+most anxious to find out whether she and the Duc were returning home at
+that hour. You will be my witness, madame, that I have told you of this
+occurrence before seeing the Duchesse."</p>
+
+<p>I assured him that I would gladly testify to this; and in a few moments
+the Duc de Pomar arrived, and almost immediately after him, Lady
+Caithness emerged from her bedroom on the other side of the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>We sat down to luncheon, and I was much amused by the form of the Abb&eacute;'s
+question later in the meal.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Madame la Duchesse! puis je vous demander sans indiscr&eacute;tion, a quelle
+heure vous &ecirc;tes revenue hier au soir?</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Lady Caithness looked a little surprised, but answered readily enough:
+"Well, it must have been past midnight; I did not notice very
+specially."</p>
+
+<p>"Not past midnight, mother," corrected the Duc de Pomar; "I heard a
+clock strike twelve just as we were driving through the Porte Coch&egrave;re."</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Bien, Madame, qu'est-ce-que je vous ai dit?</em>" demanded the Abb&eacute;,
+turning to me in triumph. He then repeated his story, and I was able to
+certify that he had already mentioned it to me on my arrival.</p>
+
+<p>The following day I took my leave of Lady Caithness, with a happy
+remembrance of her and her great kindness and hospitality to me during
+this pleasant week. She made me promise to let her know whenever I might
+happen to be passing through Paris. I wrote to her the next year, when
+about to make a short stay in Paris, on returning from Algeria, and
+received an answer from the Riviera. She had been wintering there, and
+had been packed and ready for the return to Paris, when an obstinate
+chill had upset all plans. She begged me to go to the Avenue Wagram when
+I arrived and find out the latest news of her, as the doctors might give
+leave for the journey at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>Ten days later I <em>did</em> go to her house and interview the lady secretary
+(not the one I had seen), who was very grudging in her answers, and gave
+me the impression that she was accustomed to deal with persons who had
+some "axe to grind" by claiming acquaintance with the Countess.</p>
+
+<p>I did not happen to have the letter in my pocket which authorised my
+visit, and should probably not have produced it in any case. So I turned
+away rather shortly, leaving my card, saying: "I must trouble you to
+forward this at once to Lady Caithness."</p>
+
+<p>The moment the secretary saw my name, her manner entirely changed, and
+became as servile as it had been "cavalier."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Bates, I see? Oh, certainly, I shall communicate at once with her
+ladyship. I had no idea it was Miss Bates. Pray excuse me, so many come
+and ask for the Duchesse, and we have to be so very particular. But, of
+course, <em>you</em> must be the lady the Duchesse is so very fond of. She has
+mentioned you often, and warned us to receive you with every courtesy."</p>
+
+<p>And that is my last recollection of the kindly woman, who died a few
+months later. No, not absolutely my last recollection: visiting Scotland
+in 1896, I made a point of going to Holyrood Chapel for the express
+purpose of finding her grave.</p>
+
+<p>The plain stone slab and simple inscription seemed at first a curious
+contrast to the gorgeous magnificence of her home and dress and
+surroundings. Yet I am inclined to think that they represented a side of
+her character which was quite as real as the other.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner, no one who knew of her only as a "wild visionary" could
+have realised the shrewd, practical woman of business and of
+common-sense who shared the personality of Countess of Caithness and
+Duchesse de Pomar.</p>
+
+<p>I remember that Mr Frederic Myers made the same remark to me after a
+visit he paid to her, just after my return to England, for the purpose
+of arranging matters with regard to her generous bequest to the Society
+for Psychical Research.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON</h3>
+
+<p>From Paris to England is not a long cry, and my next reminiscence is
+connected with the University of Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>I was spending a few days there with a friend in the spring of 1896, and
+went with her one afternoon to an Oxford tea-party, with its usual
+sprinkling of women, married and unmarried; a few dons captured as a
+question of friendship, and more than a few undergraduates.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the latter I chanced to hear the name of a very well-known
+bishop, whom I had first met and known rather intimately when I was a
+young girl, and he a young married curate. I had also known his wife (a
+few years my senior) very intimately in those far-off days, so my
+curiosity was aroused to know if the young man in this Oxford
+drawing-room should chance to be a son of this bishop, whom we will call
+the Bishop of Granchester. I found that my surmise was correct; the
+young man was introduced to me, and we were soon deep in an interesting
+conversation about his parents, especially his mother, who had died when
+he was barely three years old. He knew little or nothing about her. His
+father had married again, and his paternal grandmother (still alive in
+1896) had never cared for his mother&mdash;from feelings of jealousy
+probably&mdash;so there was no one to speak to the boy about her, and he was
+naturally delighted to hear all my girlish recollections of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do come and have tea with me to-morrow afternoon, or any day that suits
+you," he said eagerly. "I have one or two old photographs taken of my
+mother when she was young, and I should like so much to know which of
+them you consider the best."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I agreed to go, Mr Blake-Mason promising to ask a "chum" to
+entertain my hostess whilst he and I discussed the photographs and the
+old days before he was born.</p>
+
+<p>Returning home from his rooms that February evening, I was conscious
+once more of an unaccountable depression, and also a certain amount of
+nervous irritability, which other sensitives will understand, and which
+often precedes some psychic happening. Just after we had finished
+dinner, it struck me suddenly, and <em>for the first time</em>, that my
+discomfort might be connected with my afternoon visit. This young man's
+mother might be wishing to impress me in some way! I found that this was
+the fact, but felt unequal to going further into the matter that night.</p>
+
+<p>I promised to listen to anything she might wish to say next morning, and
+having given this promise, all unpleasant and disturbing influences
+disappeared, and I had a good night's rest. Next morning, after
+breakfast, my hostess said very practically:</p>
+
+<p>"Now do get this matter off your mind at once, or you will be worried
+about it all day. I am going to order dinner, and shall then be in the
+drawing-room, so you can have this room entirely to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down, and a very beautiful message was given to me by the friend
+of my girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>She was evidently very much perturbed and very anxious about something
+connected with her youngest son, whom I had met for the first time two
+days previously, and about whose affairs, I need scarcely say, I was in
+a state of profound ignorance. The little mother was anxious not to
+"give him away," nor betray confidences, and so her words were very
+guarded. There was evidently nothing in the least dishonourable or in
+any way <em>unworthy</em> of her son in question. I gathered, rather, that he
+might be contemplating some step which she, from her wider outlook,
+considered undesirable and inexpedient; possibly even disastrous in the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>It was no business of mine, and I make it a point of honour not to "try
+to guess" more than I am told, and to forget what I <em>am</em> told as soon as
+possible, where the affairs of other people are involved.</p>
+
+<p>This is, fortunately, easy for me as a rule, but in this case one
+sentence remains even now ringing in my ears, and if the son ever comes
+across this record I hope he will forgive my reproducing his mother's
+last beautiful words to me:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Tell my darling boy that life is so solemn and true love so sacred a
+thing. Tell him to be very, very sure, lest he lose the substance in
+pursuing the shadow.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>The first sentence is given verbatim. In the second my memory may be
+producing the sense without the exact wording, but I have no doubt at
+all that my words practically convey what the mother wished me to "tell
+her boy."</p>
+
+<p>This message gave me a hard problem to solve: "What should I do with
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand, my having agreed to take the message, tacitly bound me
+to let him have it.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, there were various questions to consider. In the
+first place, Mr Blake-Mason might probably, and very naturally, resent
+my writing to him on the subject, especially as I had no reason to
+suppose he had any knowledge of psychic matters.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, he might suppose (quite untruly) that I had heard some private
+affairs of his discussed, and had taken upon myself to convey a personal
+warning, under cover of his dead mother's wishes.</p>
+
+<p>This was perhaps exaggerating a possibility, which, nevertheless, could
+not be ignored.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, he might consider me a harmless lunatic, conveying a message
+which had no slightest foundation in truth.</p>
+
+<p>Fourthly, it might, on the other hand, give him the impression that his
+mother must have some access to his most private affairs; in which case
+he might become intensely interested in psychic matters, to the
+exclusion of more mundane affairs&mdash;always a danger with young
+people&mdash;not to mention other possibilities of psychic disaster for
+<em>inexperienced investigators</em>.</p>
+
+<p>I went over all these chances <em>con</em>, to put against the one <em>pro</em> of his
+mother's loving anxiety, and my sense of responsibility to her.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, I decided that there was no choice left for me but to send the
+message, and trust the consequences to a Higher Wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>I did this, adding a few words of explanation, and also of warning, in
+case he should recognise my absolute <em>bon&acirc; fides</em> and his mother's
+personality, and become too much absorbed by these psychic
+possibilities. Unfortunately, I added, in his own interests, <em>that it
+was not necessary to acknowledge the letter.</em></p>
+
+<p>"It would doubtless reach him, and I had nothing more to do with the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>I left Oxford next day, and have never seen the young man since; nor
+have I ever heard from him. I concluded that he was annoyed, or that the
+message was quite wide of the mark. I never doubted his mother's
+presence with me, but I might have failed to reproduce her words to her
+son with sufficient accuracy for recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, I put the matter out of my head as one of those trying episodes
+to which all sensitives are exposed at times, when they think more of
+conscience than personal convenience.</p>
+
+<p>Three or four years passed before the corroboration of that message came
+to me, in a rather curious manner.</p>
+
+<p>A cousin of mine, having been badly wounded in the West African War, was
+sent to a London hospital to have the bullet, which had puzzled all the
+local surgeons, located and extracted.</p>
+
+<p>He was at the hospital for several weeks during the London season of
+1899, I think. During these weeks I, in common with many other friends
+and relations, was in the habit of paying him occasional visits. I had
+gone to say good-bye to him on leaving town, when "by chance" (as we
+call it) he mentioned, for the <em>first</em> time, the name of his ward
+sister, adding how charming and kind and capable she had proved. "By the
+way, she is a daughter of the Bishop of Granchester," he added. "You
+know everybody, Cousin Emmie! perhaps you know <em>her</em>," he said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I don't know her, Bertie! but I knew her mother and father very
+well many years ago."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing would satisfy him but that I should ask to see her when I left
+the hospital, and as he seemed really anxious on the point I promised to
+do so, though inwardly averse from disturbing a busy woman.</p>
+
+<p>I asked the hall porter for her, but said I had no special business, and
+would not ask to see her unless she happened to be quite free. In a few
+moments he returned, and showed me into a pretty sitting-room on the
+ground floor, saying that the sister would be with me shortly. The door
+opened again to admit a bright, pleasant-looking young woman of seven or
+eight and twenty, who gave me a most cordial greeting when she heard my
+name, saying: "Oh yes, Frank told me all about meeting you at Oxford."</p>
+
+<p>I did not feel very keen about talking of "Frank" just then; but we sat
+down, and had a long half hour's chat on much the same lines as my
+conversation with her brother three years before.</p>
+
+<p>I had said good-bye, and she had accompanied me across the hall to the
+fine stone steps leading from the hospital&mdash;she had, in fact, turned
+towards her own apartments&mdash;when I felt I <em>must</em> ask her one more
+question, so I also turned, and hurried back to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Did your brother Frank ever tell you of a letter he received from me in
+Oxford?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," she answered, without a touch of embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>Then I continued: "I never heard from him about it. I told him he need
+not write at the time, but I have been afraid he was hurt or annoyed,
+and thought it an impertinence on my part perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Frank never write?" she asked, with genuine astonishment. "I know
+he intended to do so. Certainly he was not annoyed in any way. Far from
+it. He was intensely interested, and <em>I have the best of reasons for
+knowing that that message from our mother made a very great difference
+in his life</em>."</p>
+
+<p>I thanked her for these words, without asking anything further. As I
+have said, it was no affair of mine, from first to last; but the
+verification, after such a lapse of time, was doubly satisfactory to me.</p>
+
+<p>Again I ask: How about the "<em>Cui Bono</em>" argument?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Another shake of the kaleidoscope, and I find myself at Wimbledon,
+staying with a friend&mdash;now, alas! passed away&mdash;who had then a pretty
+house not far from the Common, and with whom I often spent a few days
+when in London.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion she had asked some friends to meet me at tea, amongst
+them Mrs Alfred Wedgwood, to whom I had introduced her some years
+previously, and my friends "V. C. Desertis" and his wife.</p>
+
+<p>A Miss Farquhar, whom I knew very slightly, was sharing a sofa with me,
+she sitting at one end and I at the other, leaving a vacant space
+between us. Mrs Wedgwood was talking to Mr Desertis at the moment, but
+suddenly looked across the room at our sofa, and began describing very
+graphically an old man of benevolent aspect sitting between Miss
+Farquhar and myself, leaning on a stick, and wearing a soft felt hat.</p>
+
+<p>"He has long hair, almost down to his coat collar, and he looks such a
+dear, kind old man!" Mrs Wedgwood said; then turning round, she added:
+"Surely some of you must recognise him! he is so very clear and distinct
+in his whole personality."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Desertis whispered something to her husband, who asked at once if
+the old gentleman's hair was very white.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; quite white," said Mrs Wedgwood hopefully.</p>
+
+<p>"And curly and long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; curly and quite long, reaching to his collar," continued Mrs
+Wedgwood, still more confidently.</p>
+
+<p>But our hopes were dashed when Mr Desertis turned round drily to his
+wife: "Then it cannot possibly be my father, as you suggested. His hair
+was white, but <em>quite short</em>."</p>
+
+<p>It was a cruel blow! But Mrs Wedgwood still affirmed that she had never
+seen anyone more distinctly, whether we recognised him or not.</p>
+
+<p>I may here mention that I had been sleeping very badly in this house for
+some nights past, and regretted this the more, because I was shortly
+going to stay with a friend at Windsor for my first "Fourth of June,"
+and wished to be specially bright and well for the coming festivities.</p>
+
+<p>These bad nights were later proved to have some connection with the
+benevolent old gentleman just described!</p>
+
+<p>Now I will continue the sequence of events.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Wedgwood's clairvoyant description had been forgotten by us all, as
+I supposed, long before the afternoon came to an end. It had passed
+unrecognised, and other interesting matters arose in conversation.</p>
+
+<p>The following day Miss Farquhar wrote a line to my hostess, asking if
+she might come to tea towards the end of the week, as she had something
+very interesting to tell us. She came, of course, and thus unfolded her
+budget:</p>
+
+<p>"None of you seemed very much impressed about that old gentleman Mrs
+Wedgwood described here the other day, but her words were so graphic
+that I felt sure she was really seeing him at the moment, so I
+determined to try and find out something about him.</p>
+
+<p>"I went to an old lady I know, one of the oldest inhabitants, and asked
+her if she knew anything of your predecessors in this house. She told me
+an elderly couple had lived here, a husband and wife, that the husband
+had died, and that although the wife lived away from Wimbledon now, she
+could not bear to part with the house which her husband had been so fond
+of; so let it. In fact, my old friend seemed to think she must be your
+present landlady."</p>
+
+<p>This was said to my hostess, and proved to be quite true. The house had
+been let through an agent, and as the present owner lived in a distant
+county, nothing was known of her personally by my friend.</p>
+
+<p>Then Miss Farquhar continued: "Hearing that the old man was so devoted
+to the house rather suggested a reason for Mrs Wedgwood seeing him here,
+so I asked my old lady if she had known this gentleman, and if so, would
+she describe him. She did this, <em>almost word for word as Mrs Wedgwood
+had seen him</em>. Also, she added, that he was a good deal of an invalid,
+often sat indoors, with a hat on for fear of draughts, and carried a
+stick, upon which he constantly leant for support."</p>
+
+<p>This was very satisfactory, and we applauded Miss Farquhar's detective
+instincts, and promised to let Mrs Wedgwood know about the matter.</p>
+
+<p>The latter took it all very quietly, only remarking that she felt sure
+someone ought to be able to find out about the old man.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden thought struck me that my disturbed nights and uncomfortable
+feelings, in a very cheerful and pretty bedroom, might possibly be
+connected with the same old man. Without saying a word about this, I
+asked Mrs Wedgwood to come up into my room before she returned to
+London, and then I told her that I could not sleep, and had not had a
+peaceful night since I arrived. Could she find out what was the cause?</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Wedgwood looked round for a moment, and then said in the most casual
+way: "Not the smallest doubt of the cause. It is that old man, of
+course. He is earth-bound, I expect, and haunting the house. You had
+better take a message from him if you want to get rid of him. I would
+help you if I could, but I shall be late for my train if I don't start
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I took the poor old gentleman's message, which began with
+an apology and regrets for disturbing me, but went on pathetically:</p>
+
+<p>"You must forgive me, I was so very anxious to send a message to my
+wife, and I saw that you were a sensitive and could take it from me&mdash;I
+did not realise that it might cause you so much discomfort. That lady
+called me earth-bound, but if I am, it is only through my deep love for
+my dear wife, and I am permitted to watch over her. I was drawn here by
+my old affection for this house, and also by your presence here, knowing
+you could help me."</p>
+
+<p>He then gave the message, of which I can only remember that it was most
+touching in its expressions of deep affection and watchful care for his
+widow.</p>
+
+<p>As we did not know this lady's present address, and could not procure it
+without raising inconvenient questions, my hostess and I settled that
+she should lock up the message, in the hope that some day we might be
+able to forward it.</p>
+
+<p>A year later I had a most unpleasant experience of being made to feel
+seriously ill when I came down for a night from town, and as another
+clairvoyant assured me that this resulted from the message remaining
+undelivered and the poor old man's frantic endeavours to reach his
+wife's consciousness, I told my Wimbledon friend that something <em>must</em>
+be done. Either she must procure the lady's address "<em>co&ucirc;te que co&ucirc;te</em>,"
+or I could not come down again to Wimbledon until this step had been
+taken.</p>
+
+<p>Under pressure of this determination of mine the address was procured,
+and this led to a rather unpleasant experience.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote a very courteous letter to the lady, enclosing the message, and
+explaining that I was quite debarred from visiting my Wimbledon friend
+until it was delivered, that I hoped, therefore, she would excuse my
+sending it, after more than a year's consideration of the question. I
+further intimated that although she might consider me a lunatic for my
+pains, I trusted there could be nothing to vex or hurt her in so
+touching an evidence of her husband's constant care and love, however
+little faith she might be disposed to place in the source from which the
+message was supposed to emanate.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came as a shower bath on my unfortunate head.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady (?) was furious. She had never heard of such wicked
+nonsense! "<em>Her dear husband was quite the gentleman, both in clothes
+and appearance, and he was not old&mdash;not a day over sixty-eight&mdash;when he
+died</em>," etc. etc.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been amusing if it had not been rather pitiful to think of
+the poor "young" man of sixty-eight trying so hard to reach such a
+termagant!</p>
+
+<p>Later, I heard that the military man, through whom the old lady's
+address had been given to my Wimbledon hostess, had asked the husband of
+the latter if I were a lunatic, by any chance!</p>
+
+<p>And this is how some of us welcome our friends from the other side of
+the veil! The marvel to me is that Love can still be stronger than
+Death, in face of such ingratitude and stupidity!</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned my extreme sensitiveness to the atmosphere
+(psychic) of rooms, especially rooms where one sleeps. I find another
+instance of this in my notes.</p>
+
+<p>I was paying a first visit to a friend in the south of England, and a
+very bright, cheerful room had been allotted to me there.</p>
+
+<p>From the first night I felt a strong influence of a man in the room.
+Kindly note that I do not say the influence of a <em>strong</em> man; on the
+contrary, the character appeared to me that of an essentially weak
+man&mdash;weak rather than wicked&mdash;sensual as well as
+sensuous&mdash;self-indulgent, and greatly wanting in grit and will power.</p>
+
+<p>My hostess had two sons, one whom I knew, and the other, living abroad,
+whom I had never met. The influence I felt was certainly not that of the
+son I knew, who was both manly and strong-willed, a fine soldier, and
+"hard as nails," as men would say.</p>
+
+<p>I feared it might be the other son, however, and took an early
+opportunity of asking to see a photograph of the latter. My mind was
+quite set at rest. It was certainly not this man's influence that I had
+felt so strongly in my room.</p>
+
+<p>Asking my hostess, <em>who</em> had chiefly occupied the room, she said at
+once: "Both my sons have slept there at different times," adding, "I am
+sure you have some of your queer ideas about the room&mdash;what is the
+matter with it?"</p>
+
+<p>I told her; "Now that I am quite convinced that neither of your sons is
+implicated, I will describe to you the character of a man whom I feel
+sure must have slept in that room and has left a strong psychic
+influence behind him."</p>
+
+<p>I then mentioned the characteristics already given, and one or two more
+which have escaped my memory.</p>
+
+<p>My sceptical friend looked a little surprised. She said nothing at the
+moment, but crossed the room to a cabinet, whence she took a photograph
+of a man which I had never seen, and placed it in my hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I am bound to confess," she added, "that you have exactly described the
+character of my brother-in-law, who certainly has occupied the room more
+than once."</p>
+
+<p>The sequel to this little incident is rather significant.</p>
+
+<p>A year or two later, this lady and I, having both succumbed to influenza
+and bronchitis, were sent off to the same place abroad to recuperate.</p>
+
+<p>Her attack had ended sooner than mine, so that I joined her there, and
+one of the first pieces of news she gave me was of the death of this
+brother-in-law, adding: "Poor fellow! He died from a very painful
+disease, and suffered terribly. He had grave faults, but, as you said,
+they came from weakness rather than wickedness. At anyrate, he was
+humble-minded, for he wrote a touching letter to me when I lost a very
+dear relation lately, wondering why such a valuable life should have
+been taken and such a 'useless log' as himself be left alive."</p>
+
+<p>This poor man had only just passed over when I joined my friend, and I
+felt that he was in a very bewildered and sad state of mind. I could
+realise his presence so clearly, partly, no doubt, from having sensed
+his character so strongly, that the obvious thing seemed to be to try
+and help him on his new plane of life.</p>
+
+<p>To the superficial mind it appears very absurd, and equally irreverent,
+to suppose that a faulty creature on this side the veil can help a
+faulty creature on the <em>other</em> side. Personally, I have never had any
+difficulty in realising the power of prayer for those who have passed
+beyond our mortal sight.</p>
+
+<p>Surely we are one large family, whether here or there? The best way to
+make children love each other is to persuade them to <em>help</em> each other.
+Is it strange that the same rule should apply to the universe that
+applies to the tiny portion of it that we know?</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, I am quite sure in this case that my prayers did help and
+comfort this poor man in his dark experience.</p>
+
+<p>In a few weeks the position seemed to be altogether lightened. He
+thanked me for my sympathy and companionship, and I have never heard of
+him since.</p>
+
+<p>The caviller will say at once: "Could not someone else have done the
+work equally well&mdash;either a near relation in the other sphere or a
+ministering angel?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer is: "Certainly they could have done it equally well, probably
+far better."</p>
+
+<p>But the point is that it happened to be the bit of work put into <em>my</em>
+hands, and at least I did my best. What more can any of us say?</p>
+
+<p>Again I ask: How about the "<em>Cui Bono</em>" argument?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD</h3>
+
+<h3>1896</h3>
+
+<p>In this same year (1896) I remember another curious incident.</p>
+
+<p>I was staying in London during the season, and some girl friends were
+very anxious that I should meet a lady whom they knew intimately and
+wished me to know also. As so often happens under these circumstances,
+we were not in the least degree interested in each other; but that has
+nothing to do with my story.</p>
+
+<p>The girls had asked various other friends, but this special lady was the
+<em>raison d'&ecirc;tre</em> of the tea-party, and they begged me to come in good
+time, because Mrs Halifax had several other engagements, and could not
+pay them a long visit.</p>
+
+<p>So I dressed hurriedly in order to keep the appointment, and went to the
+house feeling rather bored by the whole arrangement, little dreaming
+that it would be the occasion of such an interesting personal
+experience. The lady turned out to be exceedingly prosperous and
+extremely uninteresting, from my point of view. Probably she would have
+given her ideas of me in much the same way! I realised that she had
+brought a son and a daughter with her, but did <em>not</em> know that another
+young man (whose <em>face</em> I have never seen) was also a son of hers. I
+talked to the mother for the conventional quarter of an hour, and then
+turned with relief to the other son whom she had mentioned, and with
+whom I found several old friends in common.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the room was filling up with guests; amongst these late comers
+I noticed the entrance of a man whose face did not impress me at all
+favourably. He looked dissipated and conceited. I did not speak to this
+man, but my strong impression about him is a factor in the story.</p>
+
+<p>When the lady, <em>par excellence</em>, of the entertainment rose to leave the
+room, followed by her son and daughter, I noticed that a second young
+man was also in her train; but I had not seen him previously, for the
+very good reason that he had been sitting behind my back all the
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>I did not see his face even now. My attention had been diverted from the
+Halifax party as they rose to take leave, and I only noticed the <em>back</em>
+of the second young man as they left the room, and was told later that
+this was another son of Mrs Halifax, no other comment upon him being
+made.</p>
+
+<p>In those days I was able to do more work on the psychic plane than at
+present, and often tried to help sad or wandering spirits by praying for
+them when made conscious of their presence near me.</p>
+
+<p>When I woke in the night&mdash;after this tea-party&mdash;therefore, and felt a
+presence near me, it did not at first alarm me in any way.</p>
+
+<p>When fully awake, however, I quickly realised that this was no poor,
+sad, bewildered spirit, but a very malignant and revengeful one. I <em>did
+not recognise the sex at the moment</em>. In fact, my consciousness was
+entirely engrossed by realising that this was a question of my prayers
+being needed by no spirit more urgently than by my own.</p>
+
+<p>Something very malignant was in the room&mdash;something or someone far too
+actively and insistently wrathful and malignant to listen to any prayers
+or entreaties.</p>
+
+<p>This conviction grew so strong upon me that I lighted my candle, and
+getting out of bed, prayed for protection against the evil thing that
+was present in my room.</p>
+
+<p>I think I must have remained at least ten minutes on my knees, and I can
+remember distinctly the feeling of alarm and hopelessness that came over
+me when I realised how strong were the Powers of Darkness and how little
+my prayers <em>seemed</em> to avail me.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly, however, faith returned, and with it the confidence of victory.
+I returned to my bed quite calm and strong, and fell asleep knowing that
+the malignant presence was no longer there to worry and torment me.</p>
+
+<p>I have always found it as easy to communicate with incarnate spirits at
+a distance as with discarnate ones, so on awaking in the morning, and
+remembering my disagreeable experience, I asked a friend, "still in the
+body," what was the meaning of it.</p>
+
+<p>I had made up my mind that if it were in any way connected with the
+visitors of the previous afternoon, it must be with the
+dissipated-looking young man, for whom I had conceived an instinctive
+aversion.</p>
+
+<p>To my infinite surprise <em>his</em> name was not given, but that of the
+younger Halifax son. "It was Henry Halifax. It is a spirit which was
+haunting him and came to you afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Now, as I had not even seen this young man, as already explained, I
+could not bear to think of any false and fanciful accusation being made
+against him; so remonstrated with my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Do be careful in giving me the name. Are you quite sure you mean Henry
+Halifax? Are you not thinking of Mr Loseby?" (Mentioning the name that
+had been given me of the other gentleman.)</p>
+
+<p>"No; I mean Henry Halifax."</p>
+
+<p>"But I did not even <em>see</em> him," I urged.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>No; but you were sitting with your back to him all afternoon. Don't
+you know the back is more psychically sensitive than any other part of
+the body?</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing was said about the malignant spirit beyond the fact that it was
+someone "haunting" Henry Halifax.</p>
+
+<p>The matter, once explained, I put it out of my head, having no special
+curiosity as to the reason of the haunting, and supposing it might have
+been some male acquaintance of his.</p>
+
+<p>That morning I went down to my Wimbledon friend for a night. I arrived
+in time for luncheon on Saturday morning, and after a pleasant walk on
+the Common in the afternoon my friend suggested our coming home by a
+certain florist's shop, as she wished to buy some plants for her
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>I had already met this florist's wife, a very "spooky" person, who had
+been introduced by us to Mr Myers and the Society for Psychical
+Research. She was a handsome, fresh-coloured, practical woman, with
+nothing of the weird and pallid "ghost seer" about her comely face. But
+she had had some wonderful experiences, and her children also; and these
+had been already imparted to Mr Frederic Myers.</p>
+
+<p>When the business part of our interview was concluded Mrs Levret turned
+to me, and said: "Well, ma'am, I <em>am</em> glad to see you again in these
+parts. Have you had any curious experiences since I saw you last?"</p>
+
+<p>Now Mrs Levret had so many curious experiences of her own, as to which
+she was wont to be very voluble, that I had never before known her
+express curiosity about those of anybody else.</p>
+
+<p>This just flashed through my mind as I answered her:</p>
+
+<p>"No; nothing particular, Mrs Levret. By-the-by, I had a rather
+disagreeable experience last night, but it has been explained." And in a
+few words I mentioned what has been already described at length.</p>
+
+<p>From my words she must have gathered that I supposed the haunting spirit
+to be that of a <em>man</em>, and that I did not attach much importance to it
+any way.</p>
+
+<p>As we left the shop my charming hostess, who was equally beloved by
+those in her own class and those out of it, turned round, and said
+pleasantly: "We must hurry home now, Mrs Levret, but do come up
+to-morrow and see Miss Bates. She does not leave me till the evening,
+and I know you will enjoy having a talk with her."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Levret promised to come, and appeared next morning, having first
+ascertained that the sceptical husband of my hostess would not be upon
+the premises. "He does laugh at me so, ma'am," she said apologetically.
+So she was brought straight up to my bedroom next day, and we had an
+interesting talk over her own strange adventures.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she looked up, and said: "<em>&Agrave; propos des bottes.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>"How about that young man, ma'am? What are you going to do about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"What young man?" I said, honestly puzzled. "And what can I do about any
+young man?"</p>
+
+<p>The Halifax incident had so completely faded from my mind that I could
+not for the moment imagine what she meant.</p>
+
+<p>"The young man you told me about yesterday afternoon, ma'am," Mrs Levret
+answered stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>"But I can't do anything about him. What <em>should</em> I do?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she took up her parable in these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ma'am, I have been thinking a deal about that young man since
+yesterday. It seemed to take a sort of hold upon me. It seems given to
+me, ma'am, <em>that it is a young woman who is haunting him&mdash;a young woman
+who is not in his own rank in life&mdash;someone whom he wronged</em>."</p>
+
+<p>I was amazed by these words, and still more by the keen interest Mrs
+Levret showed in the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"But what can <em>I</em> do in the matter, even if it be as you say?" was my
+next question.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ma'am, they give me to understand that the young man must be made
+to confess. He will never have any peace until he does. It seems to me
+<em>you</em> might get him to confess."</p>
+
+<p>Now there could be no question of confession on the outer plane, as the
+young man was a perfect stranger to me, and there was small chance of
+our ever meeting again.</p>
+
+<p>But I was aware that Mrs Levret was not speaking of the outer plane, so
+I agreed to take pencil and paper, and see if I could bring the spirit
+of Henry Halifax to me, and having done so, whether I could induce him
+to tell me the truth.</p>
+
+<p>He came, but for a long time would say neither <span class="smcap">Yes</span> nor <span class="smcap">No</span>. "<em>What
+business is it of yours?</em>" was the constant reply to my questions. And I
+am bound to say it appeared a very pertinent one, from the ordinary
+point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Clearly it <em>was</em> no business of mine; but Mrs Levret was so much in
+earnest, and had impressed me so strongly with what "<em>had been given to
+her</em>," that I felt I must persevere, in the young fellow's own
+interests.</p>
+
+<p>So I explained that I had no wish to pry into his private affairs from
+any mere unworthy curiosity, but that having myself felt the malignant
+presence that was said to be haunting him, and being told that only
+confession would remove it, I hoped he would consider the matter
+seriously before obstinately closing the door of opportunity now open to
+him. "Who could foretell when he might have another chance?"</p>
+
+<p>A long pause succeeded these words. I felt that the angry, irritable
+mood was passing over, and when my hand was next influenced to write,
+the words that came were not the usual curt "<em>None of your business</em>,"
+but an apology for his rude reception of my efforts to help him, and a
+full confession, which entirely bore out Mrs Levret's impressions.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that it was only too true that he had betrayed a young woman
+in a different rank of life from his own. She had died in child-birth
+<em>the preceding midsummer</em>, and had died cursing him for his perfidy.
+Ever since (it was now late in June) he had been haunted by her
+presence, seeing nothing, but always conscious of a malignant spirit
+tempting him to his own destruction. The mental agony was so great that
+he told me he did not think he could endure it much longer, and had
+almost decided to put an end to his life (little realising, poor fellow,
+that bad as this life might be, the next phase would be far worse for
+him).</p>
+
+<p>After trying to soothe and comfort him, without in any way minimising
+the weight of his sin or attempting to lessen his remorse for it, it
+struck me that it would be well to try and have a little talk with his
+poor young victim. So saying good-bye, and promising to remember him in
+future, I asked mentally for <em>her</em> spirit to come, and then tried to
+influence her in the direction of forgiveness. It was a hard struggle,
+and no wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The poor young woman had trusted him, had been deceived, and finally
+launched into another sphere without any preparation for it. What wonder
+that she haunted the man who had wronged her so terribly, through pure
+selfishness, and that any love she had ever borne him had long since
+turned to deadly hate!</p>
+
+<p>It needed both time and patience to rouse even mere passive feelings
+towards him. I spoke of his deep remorse and misery. At first she only
+answered that she was very glad to hear it, because it showed she had
+succeeded in making her presence felt.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, however, a more womanly view of the subject seemed to come
+to her. After all, he was the father of her child; the poor little baby
+that had mercifully followed its mother into the Great Unseen. She had
+loved him once, by her own showing. I made the most of this point, and
+very slowly, very grudgingly, she gave me the promise I asked
+for&mdash;<em>i.e.</em> that she would at least cease this revengeful haunting, even
+if she could not yet feel more kindly towards the one who had injured
+her so deeply.</p>
+
+<p>Having extracted this promise I felt that no more could be done for the
+time being, and Mrs Levret, who had been sitting in unwonted silence
+during both interviews, then took her leave.</p>
+
+<p>I have given this case and its treatment very much <em>in extenso</em>, not
+only because it may be helpful to others dealing with erring and
+revengeful spirits, but because on my return to London <em>every important
+point in this true narrative was amply corroborated</em>.</p>
+
+<p>It took some time and a good deal of tact before the case was complete.</p>
+
+<p>First, I learned that Henry Halifax was by no means a <em>persona grata</em> in
+the house where I first met him, and that my young friends there had
+only been allowed to ask him under some protest, and because the rest
+of his family were to be present.</p>
+
+<p>Asked <em>why</em> this should be the case, their answers were naturally vague:
+they only knew he was not very welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I did not pursue the matter with these young people. They
+told me, however, that he was very much changed of late, and seemed so
+often moody, unhappy, and discontented.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure <em>we</em> should be happy enough if we had such a luxurious home
+and all that money," said one of them na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>Now I happened to know rather intimately at that time another friend of
+the Halifax family; a woman considerably older than the young girls
+mentioned, and as she had some little knowledge of psychic possibilities
+I determined to lay the whole story before her, trusting to her honour
+to keep it to herself, and not to allow any prejudice against Henry
+Halifax to arise in her mind should she know nothing of the
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>She had known the family from her childhood, and I knew, therefore,
+would not be influenced by the word of an outsider under these
+circumstances. But I discovered that the confession of Henry Halifax,
+the spirit, was no illusion on my part, but <em>the absolute truth</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Young, handsome, rich, with all the world before him (he was only
+twenty-four at the time), this lady had been greatly puzzled by his
+intense depression of the last few months, and told me that he was
+constantly speaking of suicide. It was supposed to be a purely physical
+condition by his parents and others. She, however, knew an intimate man
+friend of his. By one of those not uncommon mistakes, whereby each one
+supposes the other to be in the confidence of a mutual acquaintance, she
+had discovered that the real trouble was mental rather than physical,
+and that the death of the young woman of lower social position, in
+child-birth, "<em>last midsummer</em>" was an actual fact!</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say how great was her astonishment to find that the whole
+story had been made known to me through such a curious train of
+circumstances&mdash;first, my experience of the malignant spirit; secondly,
+my happening to go to Wimbledon next day and mention the circumstances
+to the wife of the florist there; thirdly, <em>her</em> strong and, as it
+proved, quite accurate impressions upon the subject; and fourthly, my
+two interviews:&mdash;first, with the betrayer, and then with the betrayed on
+the psychic plane.</p>
+
+<p>Some few months later I was asked by the lady just mentioned if I should
+object to meeting Henry Halifax at dinner next evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," was my answer. In fact, I felt it might be part of some
+psychic plan that I should do so. Evidently this was not the case, for
+at the last moment a telegram came to his hostess to say he was
+unexpectedly prevented from returning to town.</p>
+
+<p>So we have never met at all! But I trust the confession may have been as
+efficacious as Mrs Levret was told that it would be. Anyway, I can
+testify that the gentleman in question is now happily married, and,
+therefore, presumably no longer haunted by the revengeful spirit, who
+has long since, let us trust, found happiness and peace in a higher
+world than this.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Speaking of haunting by the so-called dead reminds me of haunting by the
+so-called living.</p>
+
+<p>In this same year (1896) I was staying in Cambridge for the first time
+in my life.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford I have known since girlhood, but this was my first visit to the
+Sister University; needless to say, however, that I have met many men
+who have graduated there. Not knowing the town of Cambridge myself, I
+had never made it a subject of discussion, and ten years ago I was not
+even aware that such a street as Trumpington Street existed, difficult
+as it may be for Cambridge people to credit this statement.</p>
+
+<p>In any case, most emphatically, I did <em>not</em> know that a very old friend
+of mine, who became later in life a judge, had ever lived in this
+street.</p>
+
+<p>Having been a sailor in youth, he had gone up to Cambridge comparatively
+late; this was shortly before my acquaintance with him began.</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing Cambridge at all, the question of where he lived there had
+never entered into our conversations together. Probably I took it for
+granted that he was living in his college (Peterhouse). The strong
+feeling of friendship between us had become a warmer sentiment on his
+side, and this led later, and inevitably, to a thorough break in our
+pleasant relations with each other.</p>
+
+<p>Long years passed, during which I neither saw nor heard of my friend.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that he had married, and had had a somewhat successful career as
+a barrister in London, and that was all I knew about him.</p>
+
+<p>After staying for a week or two with friends in the neighbourhood of
+Cambridge in 1896, I had taken rooms for a month <em>in</em> Cambridge,
+inviting one of these friends to stay with me as my guest.</p>
+
+<p>We came upon these special rooms in a curious way. Having worked through
+a list of those suggested to us by a friend, none of which quite suited,
+I heard, by the merest chance, that possibly I might find what I wanted
+in Trumpington Street, at the house of a very respectable Cambridge
+tradesman. We went there, but only to find that the rooms vacant could
+not be ready for me at the time specified, as some old customers were
+coming to them for three or four days.</p>
+
+<p>"But I want them for a <em>month</em>," I expostulated.</p>
+
+<p>The landlady was firm; she could not disappoint these people after
+promising to take them in.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of my disappointment, I admired her so much for this strict
+sense of honour that I determined to look at the rooms in case of
+requiring any at a future date.</p>
+
+<p>We went upstairs. The rooms were exactly what I required, and very clean
+and well furnished, so it ended by my agreeing to take them for a week
+later, although at a considerable inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this casual way that I entered the house about the middle of
+May 1896. My friend was not able to join me until the morning after my
+arrival, so I spent the first evening alone, and retired to bed rather
+early. I slept well enough during the earlier part of the night, but
+awoke about two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, having had a tiresome, worrying dream about the
+very man I have mentioned, who had certainly not been in my thoughts for
+many months, or possibly years.</p>
+
+<p>Even when fully awake, his influence was still in the room with me, and
+falling asleep again, there he was once more in my dream, twitting me
+with my want of appreciation of him in the past, and suggesting what a
+much more successful career I might have had through marrying him. This
+sort of thing went on for the rest of the night. Either I woke up with a
+disagreeable start, still feeling the man's influence in the room, or
+sank into a troubled sleep, to be once more at the mercy of his
+reproaches!</p>
+
+<p>When morning came I was only too thankful to get up, and when my friend
+arrived on her bicycle about noon, and asked me how I had slept in the
+strange house, I was forced to confess that my night had been much
+troubled by dreams about an old friend, of whom she had never heard,
+by-the-by.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, we all dream about old friends sometimes," she said, "but I'm
+afraid in this case your dreams were not pleasant; you look tired out!
+Anyway, it is a mercy that it was not F&mdash;&mdash;'s!"</p>
+
+<p>And so with a joke the matter dropped.</p>
+
+<p>But the following night the trouble was renewed. Even then I did not in
+any way connect it with the room in which I was sleeping, and I said
+nothing next day to my friend on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>But the <em>third</em> night matters had gone beyond a joke. The influence was
+stronger than ever, the gibes and reproaches more accentuated, and, in
+addition to these, there was on my side the exasperation engendered by
+three sleepless nights.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of feeling depressed&mdash;as on the two previous occasions&mdash;the
+"worm turned" at last!</p>
+
+<p>I spoke out loud in my vexation, as though the man himself were there
+listening to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I said, "I have no unkindly feeling towards <em>you</em> of any kind.
+If you have nothing better to do than to come worrying me and keeping me
+awake in this way, it just shows how wise I was <em>not</em> to marry you! You
+have nothing to do with my life now. And <span class="smcap">you can go</span>."</p>
+
+<p>"Standing up" in this way to the ghost of the living had a most
+excellent effect, upon my mind at anyrate. I felt intensely relieved,
+and soon fell into a long and dreamless sleep.</p>
+
+<p>This last experience first suggested the idea that this old friend <em>must
+have some special connection with that house</em>. In the morning I
+confessed to my friend that my second night had been as disturbed as the
+first, and the last the worst of all, adding: "That man is simply
+haunting the place. I am determined to try and find out if he ever
+lodged here."</p>
+
+<p>This was by no means easy, as it turned out. His College career was
+already buried in the snows of some twenty-five years. Moreover, when I
+questioned the young daughter of our landlady as to how long her parents
+had lived in the house, she said at once: "Just seventeen years, ma'am.
+Father and mother came here the year I was born."</p>
+
+<p>This did not help me much. I asked who had rented the house previously.
+Referring this question to her mother, she told me it had been taken
+from some people who had left Cambridge, and "<em>Mother thought they were
+both dead now</em>."</p>
+
+<p>This was a second <em>cul-de-sac</em> for me!</p>
+
+<p>But I was determined to go on with my investigations, simply grounded
+upon the strong conviction that such repeated experiences <em>must</em> have
+some foundation in fact.</p>
+
+<p>The girl saw I looked disappointed. "Did you want to know about anyone
+who lived here long ago?" she ventured timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I wanted to find out whether an old friend of mine ever lodged
+here; he belonged to Peterhouse," was my answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then, I am sure he would not have lodged here," said the girl
+confidently. "None of the Peterhouse gentlemen come here. It is always
+the Pembroke men who come to this house."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed fated that I should hear no more about my living ghost.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later, however, the luck turned.</p>
+
+<p>I was told quite casually that Mr Pound, the well-known Cambridge
+chemist, had occupied our house years before, and I determined to verify
+this some day. As Mr Pound combined the post office with his drugs, one
+often went into the shop, but hitherto I had only seen his assistants.</p>
+
+<p>Going in one day with my friend for some stamps, Mr Pound himself handed
+them to me.</p>
+
+<p>Here was my chance! I must confess that I hesitated to ask such an
+apparently absurd question on such slender grounds. In any case, was it
+likely that he would remember the names of all the undergraduates in
+the University who might have lodged with him twenty or thirty years
+before? I whispered to my friend: "Shall I ask him?" but she did not
+hear, so even this small encouragement was denied me. I was actually
+turning to leave the shop, when resolution at length took the reins, and
+I found myself asking:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, Mr Pound, that you lived many years ago at No. &mdash; Trumpington
+Street?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true," was the ready answer. "I went there in the year
+fifty-five." (I quote this from memory, but it was in the fifties
+certainly.)</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to ask a question about a gentleman who may have lodged with
+you a good deal later than that&mdash;about seventy, I should think." And I
+mentioned the name of my friend.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Pound's brow cleared at once, and he looked up with a beaming smile.
+"Mr Forbes," he said&mdash;"why, of course, I remember him well. He lodged
+with me over eighteen months." Then turning to his assistant, he told
+him to go into the parlour and bring out the large photograph album.
+There was my friend, sure enough, with his big dog&mdash;the very photograph
+I had of him, given me in the early days of our acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Pound was full of reminiscences. My friend had evidently been a prime
+favourite with him, and it was some minutes before I could squeeze in my
+crucial question. It seemed almost impossible to expect him to remember
+the exact rooms occupied by Mr Forbes, considering there were two or
+three "sets" of rooms in the house, in addition to several bedrooms
+which were let separately.</p>
+
+<p>But even here Mr Pound's memory proved invaluable. "Which room he slept
+in? Why, of course, I remember distinctly. He had the large front
+sitting-room and the bedroom at the back of it; over our living-room in
+those days."</p>
+
+<p>So I was living in Mr Forbes' sitting-room, and sleeping in the bedroom,
+he had occupied for more than eighteen months.</p>
+
+<p>My Cambridgeshire friend was, fortunately, present as a witness that no
+word of mine had indicated this fact before Mr Pound corroborated my
+intuitive impression. She said afterwards, laughingly, that Mr Myers
+would certainly think I had got up a special ghost story for him the
+moment I set foot in Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>However this may be, both he and Professor Sidgwick were greatly
+interested in it, for, as they explained, there were fifty accounts of
+haunting by the dead to one such example of haunting by the living.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, such a case presents innumerable difficulties; still the
+salient fact remains, that after a lapse of nearly thirty years I traced
+the rooms occupied by an old friend, in a city I had never before
+entered, and that this knowledge did not come to me by chance, but <em>as
+the result of a series of investigations, started by me solely on
+account of the experiences that came to me in a house and in a room of
+which I had absolutely no previous knowledge</em>. Those interested in these
+subjects will naturally ask: "<em>Do you suppose that the spirit of Mr
+Forbes came to you at the moment of your remarks to him and his to you?
+If so, was he conscious of any such experience?</em>"</p>
+
+<p>I can answer this last question decidedly, and in the negative; for four
+years later, circumstances brought me once more within the orbit of Mr
+Forbes' life. He was then living in the north of England, and he and his
+wife and I have discussed the question more than once.</p>
+
+<p>We can only suppose that the impression of his presence did in some way
+cling to the surroundings; that my sleeping there, even in complete
+ignorance of his tenancy, enabled me, as a "sensitive," to pick up this
+special influence from many others presumably present; and that the
+memories of the past galvanised the impression into some sort of
+temporary astral existence. The entity to whom I seemed to be speaking
+was doubtless <em>not</em> the Judge Forbes of later life, but some distorted
+image of his earlier days of disappointed and often reproachful
+affection.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr Myers suggested that I should get Mr Pound to sign a paper
+mentioning that he had told me that Mr Forbes had occupied these special
+rooms twenty-seven years previously, the latter did so readily, only
+remarking that he had naturally concluded that I <em>knew</em> my friend had
+lodged with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Pound will 'smell a rat' if I go," said Mr Myers.</p>
+
+<p>So I went myself, and thus the story was made evidentially complete.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA</h3>
+
+<p>My second visit to America was paid in the year of the Diamond Jubilee,
+1897.</p>
+
+<p>After wintering in the West Indies, I went on to America in the spring,
+chiefly with the view of meeting Mrs Piper for the first time, and
+securing a few sittings with her if possible.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The portion of this chapter referring to "Mrs Piper and her
+Controls" is published by kind permission of Mr Ralph Shirley, editor of
+<em>The Occult Review</em>, in which my article under this heading appeared in
+March 1906.</p></div>
+
+<p>I was writing some articles for <em>Borderland</em> at the time, and Mr Stead
+was specially anxious for me to take this opportunity of "sampling" the
+famous American sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>This proved no easy task. My visit to Boston, unfortunately, occurred at
+the very time when an organised attempt was being made by the American
+branch of the Society for Psychical Research to get into some sort of
+evidential communication with the late Mr Stainton Moses through his
+"controls" <em>Imperator</em>, <em>Rector</em>, etc.</p>
+
+<p>In vain I wrote to Dr Hodgson (to whom I carried letters of
+introduction) telling him of my chief reason for visiting America a
+second time. Even the plea that I had known Mr Stainton Moses in earth
+life, and that we had several intimate friends in common, was of no
+avail.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Hodgson expressed regrets, but assured me that <em>no</em> sittings could be
+allowed under existing circumstances, and that it was impossible to make
+any exception to this rule.</p>
+
+<p>We seemed to have arrived at a <em>cul-de-sac</em>, when a bright idea struck
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Why not ask the <span class="smcap">unseen</span> themselves for a decision in the matter?</p>
+
+<p>I wrote again, therefore, to Dr Hodgson, suggesting this idea, and
+mentioning that I should arrive in Boston on a certain date, and could
+be found at the Hotel Bellevue in that city.</p>
+
+<p>The next day but one after my arrival, and quite early in the morning,
+Dr Hodgson came to call upon me.</p>
+
+<p>It was my first sight of that genial and delightful personality. At the
+very moment of shaking hands, he said cheerily, and with a look of
+half-rueful amusement at his own discomfiture:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've got to come! They insist upon it, so there is nothing more
+to be said."</p>
+
+<p>My preconceived ideas of a critical, elderly, and white-haired
+professor, taking himself very seriously, were dissipated on the spot;
+and this was the beginning of a sincere and loyal friendship between us
+which lasted for nine years on this sphere, and will last, I trust and
+believe, through whatever forms of existence may succeed to this one.</p>
+
+<p>We made arrangements at once for my joining Dr Hodgson next morning at
+Arlington Heights, where my first sitting with Mrs Piper took place,
+and where I met for the first time this refined and interesting-looking
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>I was told that with the advent of the Imperator and Stainton Moses'
+controls, the character of Mrs Piper's mediumship had undergone a
+complete change. The former communications through the voice ceased, and
+gave place to automatic writing, except at the moment of return to the
+physical body, when a chance sentence or two might be uttered during the
+transition period, but that these were not always intelligible to the
+listener.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Piper's arm and hand became curiously "dead" and limp when
+unconsciousness set in; the blood departed, leaving it as white and
+helpless as that of a corpse. By degrees this dead look disappeared. The
+blood flowed once more through the veins, and as I noticed this change,
+the hand moved gropingly towards the pencil held out by Dr Hodgson, and
+finally grasped it. The latter's long practice and infinite patience
+were invaluable in making out the often rather illegible script. The
+hospitality he gave to all attempts at definite communications, however
+vague and shadowy at first; the infinite patience with which he repeated
+again and again a question not fully comprehended&mdash;all this, combined
+with intelligent criticism, alert, dispassionate judgment and balance of
+mind, made an investigator of psychic phenomena very rarely to be met in
+a world where most of us evince in a marked degree "<em>les d&eacute;fauts de nos
+qualit&eacute;s</em>."</p>
+
+<p>To combine sympathy, patience, and receptivity with cool and critical
+judgment is well-nigh impossible for ordinary men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Richard Hodgson certainly solved the problem to a very remarkable
+extent.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that struck me in the two sittings I had with Mrs Piper,
+was the hopeless breakdown of the Thought Transference Theory, as
+accounting for the automatic writing.</p>
+
+<p>The ostensible reason for my presence at Arlington Heights was the idea
+entertained by the "controls" that, having known Mr Stainton Moses in
+earth life, I might be able to facilitate his communications. I hope
+this may have been the case, but if so, it was certainly not due to any
+power of Thought Transference I may have possessed.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again I asked for names of friends we had known in common, but
+nearly always in vain. Even when, in despair of getting these normally,
+I concentrated my mind consciously on some short and easy name, the
+latter was not given.</p>
+
+<p>Yet next day some of these names would appear spontaneously on the
+script, when my mind was entirely occupied by other subjects.</p>
+
+<p>References were made to Mr Moses' lack of appreciation for music, and he
+asked whether our mutual friend Mrs Stratton still played <span class="smcap">Liszt</span>. He also
+referred to his visiting the Strattons, and finding them playing duets
+together, in London.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to town Mrs Stratton fully endorsed the fact that Mr Moses
+disliked music (this was unknown to me), but she denied emphatically
+that she and her husband ever played duets in his presence. Mr Stratton,
+however, corrected this impression, and reminded her of several
+occasions when Mr Moses had come to them from University College, found
+them at the piano, and being on very intimate terms, had begged they
+would finish the passage or movement; and on one or two occasions this
+had been done.</p>
+
+<p>These slight but evidential incidents, forgotten by Mrs Stratton
+herself, and unknown to me, were conveyed quite correctly in the
+automatic script through Mrs Piper&mdash;three thousand miles across the
+Atlantic&mdash;and nearly six years after the death of Mr Stainton Moses.</p>
+
+<p>The most convincing test upon these occasions, however, was the
+reference to a Mrs Lane&mdash;the lady to whom Mr Moses had been engaged when
+he passed away.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of his friends knew of this engagement, even in England. Dr
+Hodgson, who had never met Stainton Moses in earth life, had naturally
+not heard of it. It was only by chance that I knew anything of the
+matter, and this merely through once meeting the lady at Mrs Stratton's
+house some time after Mr Moses had died. On that occasion Mrs Lane had a
+young daughter with her; I knew nothing of any other members of the
+family.</p>
+
+<p>During my second visit to Mrs Piper I mentioned meeting this
+lady&mdash;already a dim memory with me&mdash;and the "control" at once asked if I
+had met a <em>sister</em> also.</p>
+
+<p>I answered "No," remarking that a young daughter had been with her.</p>
+
+<p>The writing at once continued in these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now I am giving you this as a test: she <em>has</em> a sister, and one
+who has been the cause of the deepest sorrow of her life. You will find
+this is true when you go back to England."</p>
+
+<p>These words were amply justified.</p>
+
+<p>On applying to Mrs Stratton for information, she denied the possibility
+of there being any truth in the test. She said: "I have come to know Mrs
+Lane very intimately since you met her here. I don't believe she has any
+sister; anyway, I am <em>quite</em> sure she would have told me if a sister had
+caused her such sorrow as you mention."</p>
+
+<p>I persevered, however, in getting at the truth of the matter by writing
+to Mrs Lane herself (an almost entire stranger), and asking if she cared
+to hear the references to herself in the Piper records; if so, would she
+come and lunch with me?</p>
+
+<p>She came, and when I reached the passage about the sister, expecting
+that she would endorse Mrs Stratton's denial, I noticed, to my great
+surprise, that her eyes filled suddenly with tears, and that she was
+literally unable to speak through emotion.</p>
+
+<p>The tears ran down her cheeks, when at length she said in a broken
+voice: "<em>That</em> is the most convincing test he could have given me! No! I
+have never mentioned that sister, even to Mrs Stratton, kind and good as
+she has been" (by this time I had spoken of Mrs Stratton's denial of the
+sister's existence). "I could not speak of her to <em>anyone</em>. She was the
+cause of the greatest sorrow in my life; <em>but no one upon earth knew
+this except Mr Stainton Moses</em>. I was engaged to him at the time, and he
+was the natural person to turn to in my deep tribulation. No one else
+ever heard of the circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>At this second sitting of mine Mr Stainton Moses spoke also of a
+valuable watch he had possessed, and expressed some regret that it had
+not been given to Mrs Lane at the time of his death.</p>
+
+<p>I knew nothing at all about any watch of his, but on appealing to one of
+his executors, an old friend of mine, found there was such a watch,
+which had been a presentation one, and was of considerable value. Upon
+the death of Mr Moses it had been given (quite with the approval of Mrs
+Lane) to the son of a very old and esteemed friend.</p>
+
+<p>This executor also told me, as a curious coincidence, that when I was
+staying with the excitable sensitive in Sussex Gardens, mentioned in a
+previous chapter, and he and his wife had come to tea with me one
+afternoon (to be introduced to this remarkable lady), she had given him
+a similar message about the same watch, purporting to come from Stainton
+Moses.</p>
+
+<p>I remember perfectly well having asked Mr and Mrs Harrington to come to
+tea with me one afternoon to meet my eccentric landlady, and I also
+remember his having a long talk with her whilst his wife and I were
+immersed in our own conversation. But I heard no details of this talk.
+He had merely said how much interested he had been in meeting Mrs
+Peters, and that she evidently had some mediumistic power.</p>
+
+<p>It was certainly curious that the watch should have been mentioned,
+first in Sussex Gardens, London, and six years later in Arlington
+Heights, Boston, and that on each occasion the same wish with regard to
+it should have been expressed!</p>
+
+<p>During this Arlington Heights sitting (the second one), Mr Moses also
+referred to an MS., of which I knew nothing at the time. This allusion
+also was verified by his other executor, the late Mr Alaric Watts, upon
+my return to England.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>During this visit to America I also came across a Mr Knapton Thompson, a
+hard-headed Yorkshire man, who had invented a new kind of smokeless
+combustion stove, which must have been a good one, for our shrewd
+American cousins were employing him to put up these stoves in several
+public buildings, including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Thompson combined psychic proclivities with his smokeless invention,
+and had become greatly interested in the New York medium, Mrs Stoddart
+Gray, who has been already mentioned in connection with my own
+investigations, twelve years previous to my present visit. He had
+written to tell Mr Stead of his experiences, which included several in
+which the Julia of "Julia's Letters" had purported to be present.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Stead had turned this gentleman over to me by giving me an
+introduction, accompanied by the request that "I should see the man and
+report what I thought about him and his wonderful experiences."</p>
+
+<p>So I asked Mr Thompson to call upon me, and arranged to be present with
+him next day (Saturday) at Mrs Stoddart Gray's circle.</p>
+
+<p>I found that he had taken up his abode with the medium and her son
+during his short stays in New York, with the openly expressed intention
+of finding out if there were any trickery behind the scenes. He had,
+however, convinced himself of her <em>bon&acirc; fides</em>, and was deeply
+interested in the interviews he was able to obtain by means of these
+mediums, with a daughter he had lost some years previously. He was much
+pleased to find that I knew Mrs Gray already and could also testify to
+some very remarkable phenomena occurring to me at her house.</p>
+
+<p>So I met him there next afternoon, with every expectation of a good
+sitting. These hopes, however, were entirely destroyed owing to the
+presence of a noisy, vulgar man, whom they called the "Whisky King." He
+made the most inane remarks, cracked stupid jokes, antagonised every
+respectable person in the room, I should suppose; and as all this took
+place without a word of protest from the lady of the house, one can only
+conclude that she considered it worth her while to endure his
+vulgarities.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly the afternoon was spoilt for the rest of us, and I remarked
+upon this to a very pleasant, smart-looking young American lady when the
+sitting was over and we had retired to the reception-room to find wraps
+and galoshes, etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes; wasn't he just exasperating?" she said, with ready sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>She looked much too young and smart and good-looking for the ordinary
+type of "investigator," and I could not refrain from asking how she had
+come into this <em>gal&egrave;re</em>.</p>
+
+<p>She explained her position readily, and it was very interesting to me.</p>
+
+<p>She was a young married lady, and had first been brought to the house,
+six months before, by a cousin of hers who was staying with them in New
+York, and thought the experience might be amusing.</p>
+
+<p>"We just came in for a joke," she said; "but something happened which
+interested me so much that I have come again several times, and until
+to-day have always had an interesting time."</p>
+
+<p>Then she told me about her first sitting.</p>
+
+<p>I had noticed upon her ungloved hand a very beautiful <em>scarab&aelig;us</em>, set
+in fine gold, and evidently by an artist in the craft. "Yes, it is a
+Tiffany setting," she observed, seeing my eyes drawn to it. She took off
+the ring, and gave it into my hands.</p>
+
+<p>"That ring is really the cause of my being here to-day," she continued.
+"The scarab&aelig;us was given to me some years ago by Professor&mdash;&mdash;" (she
+gave the name of a well-known American Egyptologist). "He made a great pet of me when I was a child, and I begged it from him.
+When I was going to be married last year he insisted upon having it set
+for me by Tiffany as a wedding present, and he then told me there was no
+doubt at all about its being a genuine <em>antique</em>. He had come across it
+many years before by a curious chance when travelling in Egypt, and had
+been assured that it was a genuine <em>Cleopatra</em> relic. 'I can't answer
+for that,' he said, laughing, 'but it is certainly many centuries old. I
+have no doubt it is genuine so far as age goes.' Well, the night my
+cousin and I came here together I did not take off my gloves until
+<em>after</em> we had gone in to the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> room, so no one could have seen
+my ring&mdash;and you know Mrs Gray's sittings always begin in the dark? I
+took my gloves off when I found we had to sit in a circle holding hands,
+and one of the first materialisations was announced to be that of
+Cleopatra." (<em>I</em> had seen "Cleopatra" more than once in 1886, in the
+same house&mdash;E. K. B.) "She rushed across the room in the complete
+darkness, seized my right hand, amongst all the hands in a circle of
+twenty people or more, almost tore this special ring from my finger, and
+said in a tone of indescribable grief and longing: '<em>Mine! Mine!</em> Ah,
+<em>Chem!</em> <span class="smcap">Chem!</span>'"</p>
+
+<p>This was sufficiently startling, even apart from the mention of <em>Chem</em>,
+as the ancient name for Egypt, in a <em>milieu</em> of this kind!</p>
+
+<p>The ring was faithfully restored later in the evening; and the young
+lady who owned it had been sufficiently impressed by the circumstances
+to confide them to her kind professor, and also to pay more than one
+visit to Mrs Stoddart Gray since the episode had occurred, which was
+just six months before our meeting there.</p>
+
+<p>During this second visit to America I made the acquaintance, and, I
+trust I may say, gained the friendship, of Miss Lilian Whiting, so well
+known by many thousands of grateful readers. We saw a great deal of each
+other in Boston, and during one of my long chats with her in her pretty
+sitting-room at the Brunswick Hotel, she told me of the visit of Lady
+Henry Somerset and Miss Frances Willard to that city, some years before
+our conversation. Miss Whiting also mentioned a friend who had
+accompanied these two ladies, and who had been taken ill, and had died
+very suddenly in the hospital at Boston.</p>
+
+<p>"I never met the lady," said Miss Whiting, "but Miss Willard and Lady
+Henry told me they had been obliged to leave their friend behind owing
+to an attack of influenza, and asked me to call upon her someday. I went
+a day or two later, carrying some fruit and newspapers with me. The
+matron, whom I knew well, said her patient was doing splendidly, and was
+likely to be leaving in a few days, but that as I was a stranger, it
+would perhaps be better for me not to come in and see her that
+afternoon. So I left my little gifts, and was shocked next day to hear
+of her sudden and quite unexpected death. By-the-by, I believe she was
+Stead's 'Julia'&mdash;I am not sure about this, but somebody told me so
+lately."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Whiting then mentioned the lady's name, which I withhold, as Mr
+Stead still makes use of it as a test when strangers profess to be in
+communication with "Julia."</p>
+
+<p>The day following the <em>s&eacute;ance</em> just described as taking place in New
+York, Mr Knapton Thompson called at my hotel to ask me to accompany him
+to Mrs Stoddart Gray, as he had arranged to have a short "<em>writing
+s&eacute;ance</em>" that afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>The son was the agent as usual. On this occasion he had an alphabet
+mounted on card, and pointed to the letters in turn, whilst his mother
+wrote them down as indicated. Thinking I would verify Miss Whiting's
+story if possible, my first question was:</p>
+
+<p>"Can Stead's Julia give me her surname?"</p>
+
+<p>"Julia O." was spelt out, and then the O was given again.</p>
+
+<p>"They often do that," said Mrs Gray casually&mdash;"begin the name over
+again, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>So it passed at that. The rest of the letters corroborated the surname
+mentioned by Miss Whiting.</p>
+
+<p>Then I asked: "In what country did you pass away&mdash;Europe or America, or
+elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"<em>America</em>" was spelt out at once.</p>
+
+<p>"In what city?"</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Boston.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>"Was it in a private house, a hospital, a hotel, or <em>where</em> did you
+die?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a hospital" was again spelt out.</p>
+
+<p>"How long ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Five years</em>" was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>I may note here that Miss Whiting had <em>not</em> mentioned the number of
+years, only having said "A few years ago" when speaking of the event.
+<em>Five years</em> proved to be true. My last question was:</p>
+
+<p>"What was your age when you passed over?"</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Twenty-three</em>" was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>This last, I felt sure, must be wrong. Miss Whiting had not mentioned
+any age, but it seemed to me unlikely that so young a woman should have
+been travelling round the country with two temperance lecturers.</p>
+
+<p>When these answers were being given, Mrs Gray's son, the medium, asked
+if he might put one hand on my wrist to come into magnetic conditions
+with me.</p>
+
+<p>I agreed to this, but said I should turn my eyes away from the alphabet,
+lest my muscles should give him any unconscious indications.</p>
+
+<p>When I sent these answers to Mr Stead on returning to England, I wrote
+down Julia O. (ignoring the repetition of the O); and in connection with
+the other answers, told him, of course, of my previous conversation
+with Miss Whiting, which reduced the whole episode to one of possible
+Thought Transference.</p>
+
+<p>In answering me he said: "I am glad Julia was able to give her name,
+even if it were Thought Transference; but, as a matter of fact, it is
+not her whole name which you received&mdash;she always signed her letters to
+me '<em>Julia O. O....</em>'" This makes rather a good bit of evidence, seeing
+that the second O <em>had</em> been given, but discarded by Mrs Gray and myself
+as a repetition of the first letter of the <em>surname!</em></p>
+
+<p>To resume my experiences with Mr Knapton Thompson.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening of this writing incident Mrs Gray had another public
+<em>s&eacute;ance</em>, at which I was again present, Mr Thompson sitting on one side
+of me.</p>
+
+<p>After some "materialisations," for other members of the circle had
+appeared, Mrs Gray announced that Stead's "Julia" was present in the
+cabinet, and wished to speak to me.</p>
+
+<p>I went up at once, and the form came out and stood in very fair light
+from the gas-burners. She seized my hands with every appearance of
+delight and eagerness, and her grasp was strong and tense. It is my
+peculiarity always to notice hands very accurately. They always seem to
+me to indicate character very closely; and apart from this, I am
+attracted by people who have well-shaped hands (not necessarily <em>small</em>
+ones), and find it very difficult to ignore clumsy or ugly fingers,
+which, unfortunately, never escape my notice.</p>
+
+<p>Now the medium's hands were broad, short, and flabby, as I had had
+plenty of opportunities of noting in the afternoon when he held my
+wrist. The hands which grasped mine now were, on the contrary, well
+made, small, and rather narrow, the true type of the American female
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Thompson had come up also to greet "Julia," and I whispered to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Do ask Julia if there was not a mistake about her age this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"No; you ask the question yourself, Miss Bates," he answered.</p>
+
+<p>So I said rather eagerly: "Julia, do tell us, please, if there was not a
+mistake this afternoon in your age&mdash;the answer was twenty-three. Is that
+correct?"</p>
+
+<p>A very emphatic shake of the head signifying "No" was the reply to this
+last question, but no sounds proceeded from the lips.</p>
+
+<p>Disappointed by this, I asked; "Can you not speak to us?"</p>
+
+<p>She made a little gesture of rather helpless dissent; and Mrs Gray, who
+stood by, explained that probably all her strength had gone to building
+up the materialised body sufficiently to make it visible to us. Julia
+bowed her head in assent to this, and then, still speechless, retired
+once more behind the curtains.</p>
+
+<p>I did not mention this appearance of Julia when writing to Mr Stead on
+my return&mdash;I was so anxiously hoping that she might have tried to
+impress the fact of having appeared to me, upon his consciousness, as a
+test; but he said nothing about it in his first letters. So I let the
+matter alone for a time, determining to tell him some day, but much
+disappointed by the usual failure in getting corroborative evidence.</p>
+
+<p>A week later, however, at the end of a long letter on other subjects, I
+put this short P. S. in a casual way to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Did Julia ever tell you that she had appeared to me in New York?"</p>
+
+<p>In answering my letter he replied&mdash;also in a P. S.:</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-by, to answer your last query&mdash;yes. Julia told me weeks ago that
+she had appeared to you in New York, <em>but that she could not give you
+her age on that occasion, because she was not accustomed to speaking
+through the embodiment</em>."</p>
+
+<p>Now in sending the list of questions and answers to Mr Stead I had
+merely marked against the answer as to her age, "<em>twenty-three</em>," that
+doubtless it was an error, <em>but I had never hinted to him that I had
+asked her to correct the error in New York, or that she had been unable
+to speak on that occasion</em>.</p>
+
+<p>This again was a good bit of independent evidence.</p>
+
+<p>I will now give a description of Mr Knapton Thompson's interview with
+his daughter, on the same evening that Julia appeared to me. I have
+already said that the magnet which drew Mr Thompson to these <em>s&eacute;ances</em>
+was the opportunity given to him of meeting and talking to a daughter
+who had passed away some years previously.</p>
+
+<p>On this special evening the daughter materialised as usual, and came out
+from the cabinet. As Mr Thompson was sitting next to me at the time, I
+could distinctly hear Mrs Gray whisper to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Would you not like to take your daughter into the other room, Mr
+Thompson? It is rather crowded here to-night. You would be quieter in
+there."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Thompson got up at once, and greeted the materialised form, and they
+disappeared through the folding doors to the reception-room. Other
+matters of interest were occurring, and I had quite forgotten the
+absence of Mr Thompson in the dimly lighted room (in those days the
+light was always dim <em>at first</em>), until I found he was again occupying
+the seat next to my own. I had not noticed his return, and asked him at
+once 'what he had done with his daughter.' A good half hour must have
+elapsed between his disappearance and return. He said, quite simply and
+as a matter of course: "Oh, she did not care to come back into this
+crowded room. We had half-an-hour's chat, and then she de-materialised
+in the other room, and I returned alone."</p>
+
+<p>I can only repeat that Mr Knapton Thompson was a shrewd, practical
+Yorkshireman, and a very successful man of business, as was proved by
+the orders he received in America for the stoves he had invented.</p>
+
+<p>He was certainly under the impression that he could be trusted to
+recognise his own daughter when allowed the privilege of half-an-hour's
+conversation with her, <em>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</em> in a private room.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot end this chapter without saying something about Keely of
+Philadelphia and his intuitional genius.</p>
+
+<p>I had hoped to have the opportunity of meeting this wonderful man during
+my last stay in Philadelphia, U.S.A. (March 1897), but was disappointed
+in this expectation. Therefore, on the outer plane, my connection with
+Keely never went beyond a single interview with his wife; but this is a
+record of personal intuitions as well as of personal events, and I know
+no one with regard to whom my intuitions&mdash;absolutely lacking in any
+physical ground of proof, or even mental ground of comprehension&mdash;have
+been stronger or more obstinate.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of my first visit to America, so far back as 1885, I had not
+the faintest conception of Keely's work, or what he claimed to have
+discovered or to be on the track of discovering. I never heard his name
+mentioned without being told at the same time that he was either a silly
+madman or a conscious impostor, and as I came with an entirely
+unprejudiced mind (for I had never heard of Keely before landing in
+America), it would have been natural to accept this universal opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Yet something stronger than reason was always silently contradicting
+these assertions, when made in my presence. Friends and acquaintances
+alike in those days laughed at Keely's claims, and denounced his boasted
+discovery as pure imposture.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tisn't! 'Tisn't! 'Tisn't!" that persistent little voice kept
+whispering in my ear all the time, like a naughty, obstinate child who
+contradicts from sheer ignorance&mdash;or was it a spiritual intuition? Time
+alone can answer that question; anyway, I kept my ideas to myself, for
+they had no foundation in fact at the time of which I speak.</p>
+
+<p>In 1897 the position for me was altered. A sensible and dependable
+friend of mine&mdash;a well-known banker in Philadelphia&mdash;described to me his
+experiences and those of other prominent citizens during a demonstration
+of Mr Keely's powers; and the old insistent voice that spoke to my
+ignorance before, spoke now to some glimmering understanding of the
+claim put forth. This claim&mdash;even then jeered at by the world at
+large&mdash;had to wait shivering in the cold another nine years, before Mr
+Frederic Soddy clothed it in respectable scientific garb by speaking
+publicly of the possibilities in the future connected with atomic
+disintegration and consequent liberation of energy.</p>
+
+<p>But the yelping curs of Calumny that pursued Keely during his lifetime
+are still upon the dead man's tracks.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>His</em> methods were fraud and imposture, anyway"; "His wires were tubes
+containing compressed air," and so forth. The M.F.H. of this pack of
+hounds was the son of a lady whose name will always be honourably
+mentioned with that of Keely as one of his most generous supporters.</p>
+
+<p>The initial misfortune in the whole matter was the forming and starting
+of the Keely Motor Company to utilise the discovery, which should first
+have been placed under the protection of Science.</p>
+
+<p>Ignorant and impatient shareholders thought only of their own material
+advantages and dividends. They were Keely's first enemies, with their
+sensational and premature advertisements of results and "<em>200
+horse-power engines ready to patent, etc.</em>," whilst the poor man was
+still struggling with his tremendous problem&mdash;<em>i.e. to control</em> the
+force that he had discovered.</p>
+
+<p>He attempted this first by confining it, but it blew everything to
+atoms, and his own fingers off into the bargain!</p>
+
+<p>Occultists&mdash;including Madame Blavatsky&mdash;always declared this latent
+atomic energy was a <em>fact</em>, but that Keely would never be allowed to
+demonstrate it, for the world was not yet prepared for such a tremendous
+dynamic force to be let loose upon it, and that the most serious abuses
+and disasters would follow, if once he succeeded in bringing his
+discovery into practical working order.</p>
+
+<p>They said it would be one of two things: either Keely's experiments in
+this direction would continue to fail in the crucial point necessary,
+<em>or</em> that if he succeeded it would be his own death warrant, lest any
+mischief should accrue from his making his methods public.</p>
+
+<p>In view of these pronouncements, the succeeding events in Keely's career
+are interesting.</p>
+
+<p><em>The Times</em> (U.S.A.) of 6th March 1898 contained the following
+announcement, under Keely's own signature:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>After twenty-five years' labour I have solved the problem of harnessing
+the ether (which elsewhere he says is only the <em>medium</em> of the force he
+discovered) and adapting it to commercial uses. I have finished
+experimenting.&mdash;My work is now completed.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 28.5em;">(Signed)&nbsp; <span class="smcap">John W. Keely.</span></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><em>On 18th November of this same year he died.</em></p>
+
+<p>Within two months, his generous friend and patron, Mrs Blomfield Moore,
+followed him to another sphere. Keely's final discovery of the means of
+"harnessing the ether," as he calls it, was through holding it <em>in
+rotation</em> instead of in confinement.</p>
+
+<p>I am allowed to quote an extract from a private letter with regard to
+this statement.</p>
+
+<p>"This instrument ruptures the luminous envelopes of the hydrogen
+corpuscles, liberating the mysterious substance, which is put into such
+high rotation that it forms its own wall of confinement at 420,000
+revolutions per second, as calculated. Independent of this rotation in
+the tube, where it is projected, it could be no more held in suspension
+than a ray of sunshine could be held in a darkened room."</p>
+
+<p>I have been given to understand that a faithful account of everything
+that has occurred in connection with Keely's discovery has been
+compiled, and will be published "<em>when the time comes for the truth to
+be made known</em>."</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, possible that this disclosure may be anticipated by
+the arrival of another "crank and impostor" of the Keely type. Let us
+trust he may arise from <em>within</em> and not from without, scientific
+circles, and thus avoid his martyrdom!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it may be interesting to quote from a published letter of
+Lascelles-Scott, the Government physicist from Forest Gate, who visited
+Keely's workshop in the interests of Science, and who was allowed to cut
+and bring away with him pieces of the wire Keely was using. (Said to be
+<em>tubes</em> by the wiseacres!)</p>
+
+<p>The following is the essential portion of Mr Lascelles-Scott's letter. I
+only omit courteous expressions of gratitude to the editor and "to the
+institutions and individuals alike" of the "beautiful city of
+Philadelphia" where he was able to carry out his investigations.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+Letter from Mr Lascelles-Scott to the Editor<br />
+of <em>The Public Ledger</em>, Philadelphia.</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The only corrections of sufficient importance, to the general sense of
+my observations at the Franklin Institute last Wednesday night, to call
+for notice in your otherwise admirable report, are the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Although my observations were only put forward as "preliminary,"
+inasmuch as I have not yet <em>completed</em> the outlined programme I had in
+view, no words actually used by me justified the expression that "<em>I had
+formed no very definite opinions</em>."</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, I stated more than once the very <em>definite opinion that
+Mr Keely has demonstrated to me, in a way which is absolutely
+unquestionable, the existence of a force hitherto unknown</em>. (The italics
+are mine.&mdash;E. K. B.)</p>
+
+<p>The conditions under which the experiments were carried out (as I
+distinctly stated) <em>were such as to preclude the possibility of the
+results obtained being due to any ordinary source of power, evident or
+concealed</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, I satisfied myself that the rotation of the "vibrodyne" was
+neither due to, nor accompanied by, any traces of electricity or
+magnetism. So far my opinion is and was expressed as being of the most
+definite kind possible.</p>
+
+<p>... I stated, and the statement was greeted by the audience with great
+and prolonged applause, that, after a little adjustment of the
+"Sympathetic Transmitter," it was found that by the sounding of one of
+the small English tuning forks I had brought with me from the other side
+of the Atlantic, upon the said "Transmitter," I could myself start the
+vibrodyne, and cause it to revolve rapidly, without Mr Keely's
+intervention, and I exhibited to the meeting, the fork actually used by
+me.&mdash;Thanking you in anticipation, etc., I am, sir, yours obediently,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 42.5em;">W. <span class="smcap">Lascelles-Scott.</span></span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>One would have supposed that this testimony, in addition to that of
+other scientists and practical electricians, would have sufficed to
+disintegrate Atomic Stupidity and Calumny, and liberate the forces of
+Humility and Sane Investigation.</p>
+
+<p>But prejudiced Ignorance dies hard!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>To end my chapter on a pleasanter note than this, I will quote from a
+private letter which I have been privileged to read, the beautiful words
+in which Keely describes his own achievements.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><em>I have no power that is not communicated to me in the same way that
+this machine receives its power: through celestial radiation from the
+Soul of Matter, the Mind force of the Creator, whose instrument I am. I
+know who is leading me and making all things work together for good.</em></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND</h3>
+
+<p>In the year 1898 I was spending a few days in Castle Rush, which has
+been described by Mr W. T. Stead as the most haunted castle in Ireland.
+It is one of the few old Irish castles still inhabited, and is naturally
+haunted by the ghosts of the past in every meaning of the word.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of my stay I was recovering from a severe illness, and, in
+fact, was sent off to bed immediately upon arrival by my kind hostess,
+who, with true hospitality, thought more of her guest's comfort than the
+conventionalities of life, and would not hear of my lingering, even to
+make acquaintance with my host, on the dark autumnal evening of my
+arrival.</p>
+
+<p>This had taken place after driving many miles and waiting for a dreary
+long time in the little inn of a small Irish township. My doctor would
+not hear of any railway travelling just then, so the whole forty miles
+from my last stopping-place had to be negotiated between the carriages
+of my past and present hospitable hosts.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, I believe I slept in one of the haunted rooms, but
+it looked cheerful enough when I entered from the gloom and darkness
+outside; and a dainty little dinner sent up by my kind friends below,
+and eaten when snugly tucked in between the sheets and resting on soft
+downy pillows, was enough to drive all thoughts of ghostly visitors from
+my head.</p>
+
+<p>I am thankful to say that I neither heard nor saw anything during my
+short visit, and should not even have known that my room had had any
+evil reputation but for the visit of an eccentric and clever old lady,
+who had been specially asked to the castle to meet me.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon we adjourned to my bedroom, at her suggestion, and she
+said casually:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you have this room, I see. It was terribly haunted once, but I held
+a sort of little service here some time ago, and cleared them all out."</p>
+
+<p>I must explain that this good lady took a very optimistic view of her
+own capacities and powers in general, and spoke&mdash;from the psychic point
+of view&mdash;with the honest pride that a flesh and blood charwoman might
+display on going over premises that she had thoroughly scrubbed and
+"cleaned out"!</p>
+
+<p>One morning after breakfast, my hostess, Mrs Kent, called to me to come
+quickly and see a curious sight. It was a pouring wet day&mdash;one of those
+days when the heavens open and the rain descends in buckets! I could see
+nothing more remarkable than the damp, autumnal leaves, the bare trees
+swaying in the wind-washed spaces, and the pouring, ceaseless rain.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see that girl over there?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked again, and did see a girl just emerging from a clump of
+beeches, and carrying a small trunk upon her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What an extraordinary day to choose for travelling," I said drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that is Irish superstition!" rejoined my hostess. "That is my last
+kitchen-maid you see&mdash;she is walking seven miles, with that trunk on
+her head, sooner than wait a few hours, when I could have sent her to
+the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she mad?" was my natural comment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! only desperately frightened. She has not been here a week yet,
+and she is much too terrified to be coherent. All I can make out is that
+nothing on earth would induce her to spend another night at Rush. I
+could have sent her over to Marley easily to-morrow morning at eight
+o'clock, but she would not hear of it. And whether she has really seen
+anything, or only been frightened by the stories of the other servants,
+I don't know. Anyway, she has certainly the courage of her opinions, and
+is prepared to suffer for them! I would rather meet half-a-dozen ghosts
+than carry that trunk on my head seven miles in this pouring rain." Then
+turning round carelessly, she remarked: "I suppose <em>you</em> have not seen
+or heard anything, Miss Bates, since you came? I hope not, for I am sure
+you are not strong enough for mundane visitors yet, let alone the other
+kind."</p>
+
+<p>We were passing through the handsome circular hall at the time, and I
+said eagerly: "Oh no! Thank goodness, I've seen and heard nothing. I
+don't think I should be allowed to see anything whilst I am so weak and
+poorly."</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the moment of saying these words something impelled me to
+place my hand upon a particular spot in the great stone wall by my side.
+"But there is something <em>here</em> I don't like," I said, tapping
+it&mdash;"something uncanny&mdash;but I don't know what it is."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Kent made no remark; and I thought no more of the circumstance until
+the following year, when I was told by Mr Stead that Mrs Kent was over
+in England, and had been lunching with him and asking for me.</p>
+
+<p>"She was giving me a most graphic account of the way you 'spotted' those
+skeletons at Rush Castle," he said.</p>
+
+<p>I was completely puzzled by this remark. I had never spotted a single
+skeleton to my knowledge, either at Rush or elsewhere, and I told him
+so; but he persisted in saying that Mrs Kent had told him a very
+different story, and that most certainly she had mentioned me as the
+percipient.</p>
+
+<p>"She must have mixed me up with somebody else," was my final comment.
+"No doubt many people have queer experiences there, and she might
+naturally make such a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I gave her your address, and she is writing to ask you to have
+tea with her at the club, so you and she can fight it out there," he
+said; and the conversation drifted into other channels.</p>
+
+<p>Next afternoon I met Mrs Kent at her club, and before leaving,
+fortunately remembered the curious mistake about the skeletons I had
+"spotted."</p>
+
+<p>"But you <em>did</em> 'spot' them," she said, laughing. "Don't you remember my
+asking you if you had noticed anything curious, or heard or seen
+anything, during your visit? At first you said 'Thank goodness, no!' But
+immediately afterwards you put your hand on a particular part of the
+circular hall, and said: 'There is something uncanny just
+here&mdash;something I don't like.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I remember all that. But what of it? You never told me anything
+about skeletons."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not&mdash;you were not in a condition of health to discuss such
+eerie questions just then. All the same, you had located the exact spot
+where only a week before your visit, my husband's agent told him that
+two skeletons had been found bricked up!"</p>
+
+<p>She then explained that the agent had been on the estate for many years,
+even before the death of the late owner of Rush&mdash;her father-in-law.
+Having some business with her husband the week before my arrival, this
+agent had casually mentioned that he and the former owner had found
+these skeletons in the very spot indicated by me, about forty years
+previously, and, strange to relate, had bricked them up again instead of
+burying them. This last fact may account in part at least for the spooky
+reputation of Castle Rush.</p>
+
+<p>All good psychics know that nothing disturbs a spirit so much as any
+informality about his funeral arrangements!</p>
+
+<p>To return to my visit to Castle Rush.</p>
+
+<p>Some years previously I had met, on an Orient steamer sailing from
+Ceylon to Naples, a brother of the owner of Rush. He was a sailor, and
+as hard-headed and practical a man as it has ever been my lot to meet.
+It was in no way through meeting him that my visit to Rush came about,
+but owing to my acquaintance with Mrs Kent and <em>her</em> family.</p>
+
+<p>I had been greatly taken by the genial common-sense of this Captain
+Kent, and was much grieved to hear of his death when I stayed with his
+sister-in-law. It had occurred shortly before my visit, and under sad
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>On the surface he was certainly more lacking in sentiment than anyone I
+ever met, but must have been capable of very deep affection. When I met
+him he had only been married for a few months. His wife died within two
+years of their marriage, and going for a short holiday to Castle Rush
+soon afterwards, he said to his sister-in-law:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>I shall not live a year after her, I know!</em>" He was the last kind of
+man to make such a speech, as both Mrs Kent and I observed when she
+mentioned it to me.</p>
+
+<p>"But he was quite right, all the same," she added. "<em>He died just three
+days within the year from the time of his wife's death.</em>" Yet he was an
+exceptionally strong, sturdy, and wiry man at the time of his great
+sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>From Castle Rush I was going to the south of Ireland to visit relations
+at Cork.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of my departure I was down in the drawing-room, rather
+wondering <em>why</em> I had been brought to this old Irish castle. No special
+object seemed to have been achieved by my visit. I did not even know
+then that I had discovered two skeletons! In those days I found so often
+some train of circumstances&mdash;a borrowed book, a stranger coming across
+my path, some unexpected visit paid, which were later found to have been
+factors in a special experience&mdash;that I was rather surprised to realise
+that I was leaving the "most haunted castle in Ireland" and that nothing
+had happened.</p>
+
+<p>But in the very moment of saying this to myself a curiously insistent
+impression came to me quite suddenly, and "out of the blue."</p>
+
+<p>The impression was that the brother of my host, Captain Kent, was
+wishing very urgently to communicate something through me. I did not
+feel equal to taking any message at the time&mdash;I have already explained
+that I was only just recovering from a severe illness. Lunch and a long
+drive to the station and a weary railway journey lay before me, so I
+determined to do nothing until I was safely established with my cousins
+near Cork.</p>
+
+<p>After a long, cold, and wet journey I arrived in pouring rain, my train
+being more than a hour late. The kind General who came to meet me was
+still patiently standing on the platform, but one of the two "cars" he
+had engaged for me and my baggage had taken itself off! As the rain was
+descending in water-spouts, I need scarcely say it was the "covered car"
+which had driven away!</p>
+
+<p>This meant a thorough wetting for my cousin and me. How all the luggage
+(including a large bicycle, and two people, in addition to the driver)
+was ever piled up on that small "outside Irish car" I have never been
+able to understand. Suffice it to say the miracle was performed, and we
+drove up a hill at an angle of about forty-five degrees into the
+bargain!</p>
+
+<p>Clearly these were not ideal conditions for receiving automatic
+messages!</p>
+
+<p>I was put to bed at once with hot bottles and hot soup, and soon forgot
+my past troubles in a long refreshing sleep.</p>
+
+<p>I was still in the invalid stage of "breakfast in bed," and when this
+had been cleared away, the remembrance of Captain Kent flashed into my
+mind, and I found pencil and papers at once, in order to redeem my
+promise.</p>
+
+<p>The message was rather a curious one, and its opening sentence evidently
+referred to the eccentric old lady whom I have mentioned as being asked
+to meet me at luncheon at Castle Rush.</p>
+
+<p>So far as I can remember them, the words (very characteristic of Captain
+Kent's genial but rather brusque style) ran as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>After speaking of the alleged hauntings at Castle Rush as having only
+too much foundation in fact, he went on: "It's all rubbish, that old
+woman saying she had cleared them all away! Nothing of the kind. There
+are plenty of malicious spirits about still, <em>and now that an heir is
+coming to Rush they are keener than ever to try and work some mischief</em>.
+No use saying anything to Tom (his brother). He will only laugh, and say
+it is all skittles. But tell my little sister-in-law to
+PRAY&mdash;PRAY&mdash;PRAY. That is all they need and all she needs either."</p>
+
+<p>Now this was not exactly the message one cared to send to a rather
+recent acquaintance. To begin with, the reference to Mrs Kent's valued
+friend in the opening sentence was scarcely polite! Then again, the
+prophecy of an heir to Rush was one that I regretted should have been
+made, as it would probably only lead to disappointment. Mrs Kent's first
+child had been a little son, from whose loss she had never recovered.
+When I was staying at the castle, two nice little girls, old enough to
+come down to early dinner, at our luncheon hour, comprised the family.
+Another child was certainly expected to arrive about Christmas-time (my
+visit was paid in September), but Mrs Kent herself was fully convinced
+that this would be <em>another girl</em>, as she said rather sadly. It seemed a
+pity to disturb her mind by raising false hopes.</p>
+
+<p>But, as usual, I felt bound to send the message, with the customary
+explanations and apologies.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Kent was greatly interested by it and by the "PRAY&mdash;PRAY&mdash;PRAY,"
+which, as she explained to me, had a very special meaning for her. It
+had only struck me as an exceedingly <em>unlikely</em> message for the Captain
+Kent I had known, to send to anyone.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad to be able to record that the Christmas gift did arrive in the
+shape of a baby boy, "<em>heir to Rush</em>," who is still alive and
+flourishing, thank God! I hear that he calls himself "the master," with
+a true Irish brogue, and lords it over his elder sisters in the regular
+chieftain style!</p>
+
+<p>To this year belongs another strong impression of psychic atmosphere,
+left in a room which I occupied in the south of England.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most comfortable room, with nothing in the least ghostly about
+it. Merely I had an unpleasant feeling that controversies and
+discussions had taken place in the room, and that a want of harmony hung
+about it in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>On mentioning this rather tentatively to the master of the house&mdash;a very
+orthodox clergyman&mdash;I was told: "Oh dear, no! Nothing of the kind&mdash;you
+are certainly mistaken!"</p>
+
+<p>But when an opportunity arose I changed my room, and felt very much more
+comfortable in consequence of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>Several times I had noticed on the hall table, letters which had come by
+post addressed to another clergyman, whose name I had not heard, and
+who was certainly not staying in the house. Remarking upon this casually
+to a nice young governess one day, she said at once that the gentleman
+in question had spent several months with Mr and Mrs Dale in the
+Vicarage, but that he had died a few weeks before my arrival. "He slept
+in the room you had when you first came, by-the-by. I was so glad when
+you changed your room."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a clergyman, I see," was my next remark; and I looked at the
+envelope which had led to this explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he was in orders, but he had become a complete agnostic for some
+years. During the last few weeks of his life&mdash;when he had to keep his
+bed&mdash;Mr Dale was always going up there, and having long arguments and
+discussions with him; but I don't suppose it did much good: it only
+worried him very much. He was too ill to listen to long arguments then,
+and wanted just kind, soothing words, I should have thought."</p>
+
+<p>As the girl retreated to the school-room I naturally pondered over this
+fresh testimony to the truth of psychic atmosphere. No sensitive can
+question the <em>fact</em>, but at present we know little or nothing of the
+laws which condition the fact.</p>
+
+<p>My friend Mr W. T. Stead kindly allows me to mention another incident
+connected with personal experiences of mine in the year 1898.</p>
+
+<p>In the opening month of that year he lost a much-valued friend, who had
+worked for him loyally, both in his office and also with regard to some
+of his philanthropic schemes.</p>
+
+<p>This lady in a fit of delirium, incident upon a severe attack of
+illness, threw herself out of a window in her flat. A fortnight before
+this sad occurrence, she had seen another resident in the same set of
+flats throw herself out of the window, and Mr Stead has always feared
+that this acted as a suggestion upon her mind in delirium, and led her
+to do the same thing. Her own account of the cause of her action differs
+somewhat from this impression, as will be seen later.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Stead was naturally greatly affected by Mrs Morris' sudden death and
+the circumstances attending it, and having some of her hair cut off
+after her death, he sent portions of it to at least twelve well-known
+clairvoyants, hoping to receive some satisfactory solution of the
+mystery, and also, possibly, a sign decided upon between him and this
+lady. They were both interested in psychic matters, and had agreed to
+believe in no communications from the other side purporting to come from
+one or other of them, unless this preliminary sign were given.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Besant&mdash;an intimate friend of Mr Stead&mdash;was one of the oracles
+consulted, and was very confident of being able to find out all details,
+including the mystic sign.</p>
+
+<p>But both she and Mr Leadbeater were as absolutely unsuccessful as less
+gifted mortals proved to be.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of exceptional opportunities for coming in touch with the most
+noted psychics, in spite of the valuable clue given by hair cut after
+death, the test seemed quite hopeless, since twelve of the best
+clairvoyants had been consulted, and all had failed in turn.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks after hearing about this from Mr Stead, I was invited by an
+old friend in London to meet at her house, at luncheon, Miss Rowan
+Vincent, a non-professional sensitive, well known to many of my readers.</p>
+
+<p>I had never seen this lady before, and had little speech with her during
+the meal.</p>
+
+<p>She was talking very earnestly to a military man&mdash;the son-in-law of our
+hostess&mdash;whilst the latter and I were having an interesting conversation
+to ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>General Maxwell, having a train to catch, did not accompany us to the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival there Miss Rowan Vincent said to me very kindly: "Can I do
+anything for <em>you</em> now, Miss Bates? Shall I try if I can see anything
+for you?"</p>
+
+<p>Something induced me, quite against my will, to say: "Do you ever get
+messages by writing, Miss Vincent?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have never done so, but I can try," she answered rather eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>How I bewailed my stupidity in making such a suggestion! I had diverted
+her mind from her own special gift, which was that of seeing a person's
+psychic surroundings, and had switched her on to an entirely novel and
+untried experiment. I had not even the excuse of being specially
+interested in automatic writing, which was so easily obtained at home;
+whereas I was greatly interested in seeing whether any of my "other
+side" friends could make themselves perceptible through this sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>However, the mischief was done past remedy. The suggestion had taken
+firm root in Miss Rowan Vincent's mind, and she was not to be diverted
+from it. So I resigned myself patiently to the results of my own
+foolish remark, whilst she took pencil and paper and sat down
+expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>Soon she looked up, the writing having already begun.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know any William? There seems to be some message from a William,
+as far as I can make out."</p>
+
+<p>Having had a favourite cousin of that name, I told her it might be quite
+correct, and I should be glad to receive any message that came.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments passed, and then Miss Vincent said, in a puzzled tone:</p>
+
+<p>"It is not <em>from</em> William&mdash;the message is <em>to</em> some William&mdash;I cannot
+understand it at all." She pushed the paper rather impatiently towards
+me. Written upon it clearly but faintly were these words:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear William,</span>&mdash;I want to explain to you how I came to fall out of that
+window&mdash;it was not my fault really&mdash;someone came up behind and pushed me
+out.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    <span class="smcap">Ethel.</span></p>
+
+<p>The signature was rather indistinct, but quite unmistakable to <em>me</em>; but
+then I knew the Christian name of Mr Stead's friend, and realised at
+once that she was taking this opportunity of sending a message to him.</p>
+
+<p>I asked Miss Vincent what name was written at the bottom of the paper.
+"It looks like Ethel," she said, "but it is not very clear. I will ask
+the spirit to write it again." A very bold and unmistakable signature
+was at once given.</p>
+
+<p>I concealed my excitement, and said quietly to Miss Vincent:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I know from whom the message comes and for whom it is intended,
+but to make quite sure it would be very satisfactory if the spirit could
+give through you a sign agreed upon by the sender and the recipient and
+unknown to everyone else."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will try," said Miss Vincent at once. She had scarcely touched
+the pencil when it began describing a circle. "There is no doubt about
+my having to make a circle," she said, laughing. "Oh, now I am to put a
+cross into it," she added.</p>
+
+<p>Within a few seconds both these were given, and to <em>our</em> great
+delight&mdash;as well as to his&mdash;the sign was recognised by Mr Stead as being
+the one agreed upon, and which had hopelessly puzzled all the other
+mediums.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>1900-1901</h3>
+
+<p>I must now note a curious episode connected with my friend Judge Forbes,
+whose astral influence I had traced clinging to the rooms he once
+occupied in Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>As before mentioned, he had married, and I had lost sight of him and his
+whole family for many years. But we had several mutual friends, through
+whom I had heard of the birth of his only son and only child, and later
+of the boy being sent to Eton, and eventually entering the army.</p>
+
+<p>This was very shortly before the breaking out of the South African War,
+and the young fellow was one of many who were drafted from India, after
+a few months' service there, to help to defend their Queen's possessions
+and their countrymen's lives and property in South Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Later, young Forbes was shut up in Ladysmith, and one cold, dismal day
+in January (6th January 1900) I was lying very ill in bed with a severe
+bronchial attack in the house of my eldest brother in Hampshire, when
+the latter came home one evening from the Winchester Club and told us of
+the celebrated <em>sortie</em> and the death of three young English officers.
+The name of Forbes of the Royal Rifles figured amongst these, and I
+felt convinced that it must be the only child of my old friend.</p>
+
+<p>Without hesitation I prepared to write a few short lines of sympathy
+with the heart-broken father. In vain my sister-in-law protested against
+my concluding at once that it must be the judge's son, since other
+members of the family of the same name were known to be in the army. I
+had not a moment's doubt that this was the boy already mentioned, and
+even a silence of over twenty years seemed to present no difficulty in
+expressing one's deep sympathy, in the face of such a sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>The real drawback lay in my weak state of health and physical inability
+to write more than a few lines. But in these I expressed a hope that <em>in
+time</em> my poor friend might come to realise that his boy was "as much
+alive and as near to him as ever&mdash;perhaps nearer."</p>
+
+<p>It will indicate how entirely all relations between us had been broken
+off for many years, when I say that I did not even know the judge's
+private address, and was forced to send my letter to his court. In a day
+or two I received a very touching and grateful answer, pathetic not only
+in its grief, but even more in his frankly avowed inability to derive
+any consolation from the thoughts that my short note had suggested.
+Resignation to the inscrutable will of God was the keynote of the
+letter. In some far-distant future he might be permitted once more to
+see his beloved son, but meanwhile all was gloom and misery.</p>
+
+<p>The episode was over. I had expressed my sincere sympathy with an
+overwhelming sorrow, I had received a most kind and appreciative
+answer&mdash;no more could be done in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>This was <em>my</em> conclusion, but evidently not the conclusion of young
+Talbot Forbes. I had never seen this boy in my life, nor his mother; but
+I suppose my old friendship with his father, and my deep sympathy with
+the latter, enabled the son to approach me soon after he had passed into
+the next sphere.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, he made me conscious of his presence by my bedside during the
+greater part of the night following my receipt of his father's letter.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to my severe illness I was sleeping very little, and once or twice
+in the night an attendant came in to make up my fire and keep the
+temperature of the room even, so that I had ample opportunity for
+realising the presence of my hitherto unknown visitor.</p>
+
+<p>Those who know what "hearing with the inner ear" means will realise the
+method through which the following conversation took place, so far as I
+can now recall it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><em>TALBOT.</em>&mdash;"<em>Yes, it is Talbot Forbes. I want to speak to you. Please
+listen to me! I want to tell you, you must do more for them than
+this&mdash;you have to help them about me.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>E. K. B.&mdash;"Who do you mean by '<em>them</em>'?"</p>
+
+<p><em>TALBOT.</em>&mdash;"<em>My parents, of course. Don't you understand what I am
+saying? You have to do more for them&mdash;you must make them know I am close
+to them.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Now I could only suppose that he wished me to write again to his father,
+and explain more fully my own ideas on the subject of our departed
+friends. As this would have involved a wearisome and almost certainly
+<em>useless</em> discussion on a topic which I had reason to know was very
+distasteful to the boy's father, I said rather shortly, and I am afraid
+with some of the petulance of an invalid:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do be quiet, and leave me alone! I have done all I can, and there
+is no more to be said about it. I am very sorry for you, but I really
+can't help you in this. I don't know your mother or what her views about
+it may be; and as for your father&mdash;well, I am not going to worry and
+torment him about ideas that he dislikes and disapproves of, and just
+now, too, when he is so miserable! No, I won't do it, not even if you
+come and worry me about it every night."</p>
+
+<p>I was feeling ill and weary, and longing for sleep, and hoped this would
+be a quietus to my young friend. Not a bit of it! His next remark was:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>What does it matter what</em> <span class="smcap">you</span> <em>think or what you mean to do or not to
+do? You have to help them, not to think about your own feelings.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>This was frank at anyrate, but not altogether convincing. Soon
+afterwards, tired out with the discussion, I really did fall asleep, and
+only woke a short time before my breakfast and daily budget of letters
+arrived. Amongst these letters was one in an unknown handwriting, which
+proved to be from <em>Mrs</em> Forbes, saying she had seen my letter to her
+husband, and begging that I would tell her the grounds I had for my
+assurance that those we love are close to us after the great change we
+call death.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the boy knew that this letter was coming to me, and was trying
+to prepare me to answer it in such a way as should help him to convince
+his mother of his continued existence in her immediate presence.</p>
+
+<p>As this case is one well known to the Society for Psychical Research
+(the lady I have called Mrs Forbes appearing on their records both as
+Mrs Scott and under the pseudonym I have borrowed from them), it is
+unnecessary to go into further details. Suffice it to say that my
+nocturnal visitor was successful in his aim.</p>
+
+<p>I answered his mother's letter as he wished. This led to a long
+correspondence between us, and to my making her acquaintance shortly
+afterwards and renewing my old friendship with her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Forbes had several sittings with Mrs Thompson and other mediums,
+became convinced of her son's presence with her, and very soon was
+independent of outside assistance in communicating with him. The judge
+also declared himself "unable to resist the evidence," but I don't think
+he ever quite honestly <em>rejoiced</em> in his convictions. It is hard to
+eradicate prejudices and traditions after fifty years of age, and the
+<em>human</em> element in his son's bright and happy messages always seemed to
+worry and perplex him a little.</p>
+
+<p>He knows all about it now! Much as I deplore the earthly disappearance
+of such an old and faithful friend of my youth, I can sincerely rejoice
+in thinking of him as once more united with his son, in ways that will
+no longer appear to him unnatural or undesirable.</p>
+
+<p>During the judge's lifetime, and after the son's death, I often stayed
+with him and his wife in their northern home. Mrs Forbes used frequently
+to say: "It was <em>Talbot</em> who brought us all three together, we must
+remember!"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>PEKIN STORY</h4>
+
+<p>It was during my first visit to Judge and Mrs Forbes, in the north of
+England, that another curious experience came to me.</p>
+
+<p>This happened on the 4th of July 1900, for I remember saying to Mrs
+Forbes next morning: "I shall remember the date from its being American
+Independence Day."</p>
+
+<p>It was the year of the Boxer rebellion in China, when the Pekin Embassy
+was in a state of siege, and by July almost all hope that any Europeans
+would be saved from their dire peril had faded away.</p>
+
+<p>The Memorial Service, arranged by a too eager dignitary of the Church to
+take place in St Paul's, had certainly been adjourned at the last
+moment; but as days and weeks passed, and the little garrison was still
+unrelieved, very little hope was entertained. In fact, by July most
+people hoped and believed that their troubles must be already over,
+through the merciful interposition of death.</p>
+
+<p>A connection of mine, whom I had known well when she was a child, but
+had not seen for many years, was shut up with her husband, children, and
+sister in the Pekin Embassy at the time. Thousands were lamenting her
+sad fate, and I naturally amongst them; but I wish to make clear that,
+owing to the years that had elapsed since I had seen this special member
+of the family, it was not in any sense a very personal sorrow, nor was I
+then&mdash;nor am I now&mdash;aware of any special tie of affinity between this
+lady and myself.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone to bed about eleven o'clock on the night of 4th July 1900,
+and had been in bed about half-an-hour, without any attempt at going to
+sleep, when suddenly I felt extremely alert in mind, very much as Miss
+Porter described herself in the Captain Carbury episode. Almost
+immediately upon this feeling of mental alertness came the conviction
+that Mabel M&#699;Leod (as I will call her) was in the room, close to me, and
+that she was in some dire and urgent need of help&mdash;instantaneous help, I
+mean. I could neither see nor hear on this occasion&mdash;I only <em>knew</em> these
+facts through some power of intuition, all the more remarkable because,
+having made up my mind that all was over at the Embassy, I had not been
+thinking of her or of her fellow-sufferers for some days past.</p>
+
+<p>My thoughts were fully engaged at the time with the grief of my host and
+hostess.</p>
+
+<p>With the knowledge of Mabel's presence came also the conviction that she
+was <em>still alive</em>&mdash;in the physical body&mdash;and that it was no excarnate
+spirit that was appealing to me for help.</p>
+
+<p>The impression was so vivid that I called out instinctively: "What is
+it, Mabel? What can I do for you?" There was no response, either by
+outward or inner voice, only the insistent appeal for help, and
+knowledge of some imminent danger at hand for her. I am trying to
+explain that something more than the usual hourly peril in which they
+must be living, <em>if on this side the veil</em>, was implied by the
+impression I received. <em>It was some acute and additional danger which
+threatened her at the moment.</em> Feeling it was useless to waste time
+trying to find out by writing or other means what the exact nature of
+this danger might be, I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible,
+saying: "Never mind trying to make me understand&mdash;I will pray for you,
+whatever it is!" So I knelt down, and prayed most earnestly that this
+poor woman, whose spirit had appealed for help at some dread crisis,
+might be comforted, and delivered from any dangers threatening her at
+the time.</p>
+
+<p>I had been very comfortably tucked up in bed, looking forward to the
+pleasant drowsiness which promises sleep, and I am quite sure I should
+not have put myself to all this inconvenience without a very strong
+motive.</p>
+
+<p>When I felt the poor, tormented spirit was calmed and soothed by the
+atmosphere of prayer, I returned to my bed, and eventually fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I told Mrs Forbes of my experience, making the remark
+quoted about the date.</p>
+
+<p>The following week she and I were together at one of the meetings of the
+Society for Psychical Research, at the close of which, in shaking hands
+with Mr Frederic Myers, I begged him to make a note of my experience and
+the date.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Miss Bates!" he said, taking out a small note-book, "I will make a
+note of it, but I fear there is not the remotest chance of any of them
+having been alive ten days ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Then my experience goes for nothing," I answered. "It was a living
+woman, not an excarnate one, who came to my bedside on the 4th July."</p>
+
+<p>Later, when the Embassy was relieved, and this lady (who had presented
+such a "stiff upper lip" to Fortune) was once more safe at home for a
+much-needed rest, I found that she had gone through a special time of
+accentuated suffering just when I felt her presence in my room. Her
+husband was down with dysentery, and she had not enough food either for
+him or for her poor little children, and the strain was almost too
+great, even for that brave soul.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, she had been quite unconscious of any appeal to me.</p>
+
+<p>But she has Scottish as well as Irish blood in her veins, and this
+heredity may have enabled her subconscious self to sense my locality and
+to realise my power and will to help her in her desperate need.</p>
+
+<p>Truly it was a case of "vain is the help of man," or woman either! But
+we know too little of spiritual laws to be able to deny off-hand the
+efficacy of <em>any</em> earnest prayer.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Mr Myers make a note of the circumstance, but, unfortunately, this
+cannot be found amongst his papers. I asked Mrs Myers about it, and she
+remembered distinctly her husband having mentioned the case to her when
+he returned home after that meeting, but when I last saw her, she had
+hunted amongst his papers in vain for the note which he made at the
+time.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Early in January 1901, the day after Lord Robert's triumphant procession
+through London, I went to spend some weeks at an "open-air cure" in
+Devonshire, high up in the hills, and in a bleak part of the county.
+Several severe illnesses had left me so supersensitive to colds and
+draughts that it seemed a vital necessity to take some such drastic
+step, even at this inclement time of the year, unless I were prepared to
+sink into a state of chronic invalidism, and become a burden to myself
+and my neighbours for the rest of my natural life.</p>
+
+<p>An old friend was "second in command" in this special establishment,
+which she had asked me to recommend, and a bright thought struck me that
+I might do my friend a good turn, and myself also, by spending a few
+weeks in the house.</p>
+
+<p>I did not bargain, however, for the deep snow which fell on the very day
+after my arrival, nor for the howling west winds, which continued to
+blow during the whole of my stay.</p>
+
+<p>In these parts, the west wind corresponds with our eastern variety, and
+is quite as cold and disagreeable.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were the surroundings inside of a very cheerful nature. All the
+other patients (six or seven) were quite young girls, and all more or
+less consumptive. Several of them were very attractive, which made it
+seem all the more sad. Without exception, all were, or had been, engaged
+to be married, as the coping-stone to this tragedy of their lives! In
+several cases the engagements had been broken off, sometimes by mutual
+consent, on the score of health. In a few exceptions, where love had
+proved stronger than prudence and common-sense, it was equally
+melancholy to realise that the future could hold nothing but
+disappointment on the one side, and a hopeless regret on the other.</p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances it was perhaps only to be expected that my
+first impressions of the establishment should not be entirely <em>couleur
+de rose</em>. Yet the house itself was pleasant enough, and the view from
+the drawing-room windows was simply magnificent, including sea as well
+as moor.</p>
+
+<p>Curtainless windows, with sashes thrown wide open, and chilly linoleum
+to replace warm carpets, were rather a trial to the uninitiated, early
+in January, with deep snow on the ground and fires none too plentiful.
+In addition to these drawbacks I had another personal one. Coming in the
+middle of the winter, it was naturally Hobson's choice as regarded the
+bedrooms. All the best and warmest aspects had been appropriated in the
+autumn, and an ugly little room, with cold, west outlook and depressing,
+mustard-coloured distempered walls, fell to my lot.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even these facts did not sufficiently account for the extremely
+depressing effect of that room upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anyone died here lately?" was my first and natural query in a house
+of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>I had heard the girls casually mention two gentlemen patients who had
+been in the house the previous year&mdash;one of these had gone into rooms in
+a neighbouring town with his nurse. I did not hear what had become of
+the other one, and had not sufficient curiosity to ask the question.</p>
+
+<p>My friend reassured me by saying she was sure no one had died recently
+in <em>my</em> room. She had only lately come to the house herself, as I knew;
+having been matron for some years of a small hospital in the country.</p>
+
+<p>"The second poor gentleman, who was a patient here, did die in the
+house, I believe, but that was months ago," she said, "and I understand
+that he had Laura Pearce's room," mentioning one of the girls, who had a
+specially cheerful apartment. It seemed quite natural that a sick man,
+confined to his bed, should occupy a large and sunny room, so I thought
+no more of the matter. Still, I was always conscious of an unpleasant
+and sad atmosphere in my own room, and took occasion one day to ask the
+lady at the head of the establishment whether she knew anything of the
+predecessors in the house.</p>
+
+<p>It struck me that the psychic atmosphere in my room might be connected
+with some of <em>them</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hunter replied laughingly: "I can't tell you anything about them,
+for the very good reason that they don't exist. <em>I</em> am the first tenant
+of this house. It was only built two years ago, and remained vacant for
+the first twelve months."</p>
+
+<p>Then I told her very cautiously of my feeling about my room, and that I
+had supposed it might have to do with someone who had slept there before
+she took the house.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three of the young girls were in the room at the time, and it
+struck me that one of them&mdash;the one who was there for her second
+winter&mdash;looked a little surprised and interested; but the matron passed
+off the subject with a few bantering words, and again I had no suspicion
+of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Six weeks passed, and my last night in the house had arrived. My nurse
+friend was in the habit of giving me massage twice a day, before getting
+up in the morning and the last thing at night. She left me on this
+occasion about ten-thirty <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, expressing a hope that I should soon
+sleep, and have a good night before my long journey next day.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much doubt of that," I murmured. "Why, I'm half asleep already!"
+And I turned round, tired and yet soothed by the massage, and soon fell
+into a deep and dreamless sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Several hours must have passed, when I woke up, trembling and
+terror-struck, after passing through an experience which seems as vivid
+to me to-day as on that February night or early morning. My heart was
+beating, my limbs trembling, beads of perspiration covered my face, as I
+discovered later.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder! I had been through an experience from which few, I imagine,
+return to tell the tale. For I had passed through every detail of dying,
+and dying a very hard and difficult death.</p>
+
+<p>Body and soul were being literally <em>torn apart</em>, in spite of the
+desperate effort to cling together, and my spirit seemed to be launched
+into unknown depths of darkness and possible horror. It was the feeling
+that <em>I did not know where I was going nor what awaited me</em> that seemed
+so terrible&mdash;this and the horrible fight for mastery between my poor
+body and soul and some unknown force that was inexorably set upon
+dividing them.</p>
+
+<p>This, so far as I can express it, exactly describes the experience I had
+just gone through, and from which I had awakened in such abject terror.</p>
+
+<p>As the beating of my heart subsided, and I could think more calmly, I
+remembered with startling distinctness that in the very worst of the
+struggle I had been vainly endeavouring to say that text in the
+twenty-third Psalm which begins:</p>
+
+<p>"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
+evil; for Thou art with me: <em>Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.</em>" I
+could say the first part of it quite easily, but some fiendish enemy
+seemed bent upon preventing my saying the last sentence, and in my
+terrible dream, rescue and safety depended upon my getting to the end of
+the text. I tried again and again, always to be driven back in despair
+before the crucial words were uttered. At last, with a desperate effort,
+I seemed to shake off the incubus which was weighing me down, and I
+finished the words triumphantly, and so loud that I had positively
+wakened myself up <em>by shouting them out</em>. With returning memory I knew
+this had happened, and hearing a door open and shut on the half landing
+below my room, I thought for the moment that someone must have heard me,
+and must be coming to see what was the matter. I looked at my
+watch&mdash;just two-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> No one appeared; and to my relief I
+remembered that this was just the hour when either Miss Hunter or my
+friend went round to the invalids, giving them milk or bovril, in the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>I had no inclination to seek out either of these ladies. The horror was
+past, and no one could undo what I had endured; so I lay quiet, and in
+course of time managed to go to sleep again, not waking until the
+servant came into my room to light the fire at seven-thirty <span class="smcap">a.m.</span></p>
+
+<p>It happened to be a certain <em>Minnie</em> on this occasion, a very
+respectable young woman, who had accompanied Miss Hunter when she gave
+up the matronship of a well-known hospital, and who had therefore been
+with her since this establishment had been started.</p>
+
+<p>My night's experience convinced me so absolutely that, in spite of all
+that had been said, the gentleman patient <em>had</em> died in this room, and
+that I had just gone through his death agonies, that instead of asking
+any question about it, I said very quietly to Minnie, as she was on her
+knees lighting my fire: "The poor gentleman who died here last summer
+<em>died in this room, I find</em>."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," she said quietly, not knowing, as it turned out, that any
+mystery had been made about the fact.</p>
+
+<p>My personal friend was guiltless of any deceit, for she had been told
+the story about Laura Pearce's room, but the young girls confessed when
+I went down to breakfast that they had been specially warned not to let
+me know the true facts.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Hunter did not appear at breakfast, as she was suffering from a
+chill, so I went to her bedroom to say good-bye before going up to
+London.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling naturally annoyed and rather shaken by my night's experience, I
+said to her rather drily:</p>
+
+<p>"You need not have taken the trouble to deceive me about my room, Miss
+Hunter, nor to warn the girls to do the same. I know that gentleman died
+there, for I have just gone through his experiences." And then I told
+her about my terrible night.</p>
+
+<p>Although forced to admit the facts, Miss Hunter fought every inch of the
+ground, so far as the <em>painful</em> experiences were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"Such an excellent man! so interested in everything&mdash;a <em>clergyman</em>, my
+dear Miss Bates, and so <em>good!</em> How could there be anything painful
+connected with his death?" etc. etc.</p>
+
+<p>I suggested that, as Christians, we had the most overwhelming proof that
+holiness of life does not always preclude even mental suffering at
+death; but she would not hear of this argument, and doubtless considered
+it blasphemous.</p>
+
+<p>By dint of questioning, however, I made two discoveries&mdash;first, that
+the death was quite unexpected. The man had only been a fortnight in the
+house, and when I expressed surprise that he should have been moved
+there so late in a fatal illness, she said unguardedly:</p>
+
+<p>"<em>Oh, but he was very slightly ill when he came&mdash;it was more a
+preventive measure. None of us had any idea that he was a dying man, the
+symptoms developed so suddenly.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>I also elicited another fact&mdash;<em>i.e.</em> that this delightfully interesting
+personality "so intellectual&mdash;so full of interest in everything" (to
+quote Miss Hunter's words), had died at the age of forty, in the very
+prime of life. No wonder, under the circumstances of so short an
+illness, in the very zenith of life and enjoyment, that body and soul
+should have been loath to separate, and thus free the imprisoned spirit!
+But Miss Hunter was adamant, and would admit nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Just before leaving her, it struck me that I had not yet told her about
+the text, so I repeated that episode, and then, for the first time, a
+startled look came into her eyes. She was taken by surprise, and said
+hastily: "That <em>is</em> extraordinary! I was with him when he died in the
+night, and he kept on asking for that text. That is not so remarkable,
+many might have asked for that text, but I stopped once or twice after
+the first sentence, and he kept on urging me: "<em>Say it to the end, Miss
+Hunter! Say it to the end!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Later the good lady even consented to write out the evidential points in
+this story, which I sent at once to my friend Dr Richard Hodgson.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately upon my return to London on this occasion, I was attacked
+quite suddenly by a very acute form of rheumatism, which laid me on my
+back&mdash;perfectly helpless&mdash;for several days.</p>
+
+<p>When the doctor arrived, his first question was: "Have you had any
+special shock lately? This particular form of rheumatism does not
+generally come on with so little warning <em>unless there has been a
+previous shock</em>."</p>
+
+<p>I was about to deny this, thinking he referred to unexpected news, but
+with the memory of my Devonshire experience so keen and clear, I felt
+bound to tell him that I had certainly had a shock to my nerves
+twenty-four hours previously.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this sudden and sharp attack of illness I found myself in
+Portugal for the first time in my life.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone there with an English friend&mdash;Mrs Frampton&mdash;in order to be
+near connections who had lived in the country for many years.</p>
+
+<p>A cousin and I spent a delightful afternoon in that Cintra paradise of
+<em>Monserrat</em>, with General and Mrs Sartorius, who were living there at
+the time of my visit to Portugal. I have heard that even this charming
+house could tell strange tales if only walls could speak. It is easy to
+imagine that any spirits&mdash;carnate or discarnate&mdash;might deem it a
+privilege to haunt so exquisite a spot. Personally, I can only testify
+to the hospitality of our kind host and hostess and the excellence of
+the spirit of "Robur," which refreshed our weary bodies, and made the
+walk back to the Cintra Hotel, through the lovely woodland paths, a
+"thing of beauty and a joy for ever."</p>
+
+<p>To return to Lisbon. My friend Mrs Frampton had never been present at
+any sort of psychic phenomena, so we planned a little sitting for her
+during one of these Lisbon evenings.</p>
+
+<p>She and I descended in solemn state to the fine library of our host, on
+the ground floor, whilst his wife and sister elected to remain in the
+drawing-room upstairs. A sister-in-law also begged to be excused from
+accompanying us, and spent the whole time occupied by our <em>s&eacute;ance</em>, in
+playing Moody and Sankey hymns, doubtless hoping thereby to exorcise the
+evil spirits whom we should presumably evoke.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, she did not play loud enough to divert the attention of
+the Portuguese cook, who promptly gave warning next day, saying she
+could not stand these "devilish practices"! We had failed to realise
+that the very wall, close to which our small table was placed, divided
+the kitchen from the large ground-floor library, so the poor woman
+doubtless sat with her ear well jammed up against this partition, and
+considered every rap of the table leg on the floor, a distinct footstep
+of the devil!</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more terrible happened to <em>us</em> that evening than being forced to
+look up our English history once more, in "Hume" and "Green's Short
+History of the English People," both of which volumes were close at
+hand. For the whole <em>s&eacute;ance</em> might have been an "easy lesson in English
+history," with John, Duke of Northumberland, Lady Jane Grey, the Earl of
+Leicester, and the famous Elizabeth as its exponents. All these
+purported to be with us that evening, and I am bound to say that all
+dates and details mentioned, which our middle-aged memories could not
+verify at the moment, were in every case corroborated by reference to
+the library books later.</p>
+
+<p>It was just before leaving England for Portugal that I first met a lady
+(with whom I have since become more intimate), under rather exceptional
+circumstances&mdash;these latter were unknown to me at the time.</p>
+
+<p>My brother, Colonel C. E. Bates, was living at this time (1901) in rooms
+in Cambridge Terrace, and the drawing-room floor was occupied by a Miss
+Isabel Smith, who was then only a name to us both. His landlady had
+given him to understand that this lady had connections in India, and was
+the niece of a General Propert, still on the active list, and an old
+friend of my brother's in Indian days.</p>
+
+<p>The last Sunday before starting for Lisbon I called in as usual to spend
+the afternoon in Cambridge Terrace, and found that the "drawing-room
+lady" had just been paying him a visit, and had left him most
+enthusiastic.</p>
+
+<p>This visit surprised me, because my brother, being a very great invalid,
+had an inveterate dislike to meeting strangers, with whom he generally
+found it difficult to carry on any lengthy conversation. But this
+visitor had evidently been an exception. My brother expressed some
+regret that I should have missed seeing her, so to please him I
+suggested sending his valet upstairs with his compliments, and asking if
+I might pay the lady a short visit, should she be disengaged.</p>
+
+<p>She came downstairs kindly, a second time, and we had a pleasant chat,
+whilst my brother and an old Indian brother officer carried on their
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>I left England a few days later, and scarcely expected to see or hear
+any more of Miss Isabel Smith. Fate, however, ordained otherwise. Some
+weeks elapsed, and then I received a letter from my brother, mentioning
+the curious circumstances that, he had just heard, had led to his making
+the acquaintance of this pleasant neighbour. "It is too long a story to
+write," he concluded, "but I will tell you all about it next time we
+meet."</p>
+
+<p>He did so, and as his account exactly tallies with the one Miss Isabel
+Smith (now Mrs Finch) has kindly written out for me for insertion in
+this volume, I will quote the latter from her own words. I must premise
+that Miss Smith turned out to be naturally clairvoyant and
+clair-audient, rather to the disgust of my brother, who considered
+himself superior to these "superstitions." Her narrative is interesting
+not only in itself, but because it is an object lesson in the curious
+"hits and misses" in psychic investigation. In this case a spirit
+confessed to an impersonation; but it was an impersonation of the
+brother of a man whom my brother had really known in India&mdash;a fact
+entirely apart from any possible knowledge on the part of Miss Smith,
+who had never met my brother at the time of her adventure. I will now
+give Miss Smith's narrative.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"When at Grindelwald in the winter 1900-1901 an excarnate entity came
+and spoke to me. He seemed much interested in the South African
+campaign; told me he had been a soldier, first in the Rifle Brigade,
+then in the Indian army. When I asked his name he said he was Henry
+Arthur Chomley (the name of a celebrated ambassador was the one given),
+that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, and had been in the
+Rifle Brigade and in India, <em>and had passed over two or three years
+before</em>.</p>
+
+<p>When, shortly afterwards, I returned to Cambridge Terrace, he realised
+the changed surroundings, and asked where I was. On learning I was in
+rooms he asked whether there was anyone else in the house, and on my
+telling him there was a paralysed military man downstairs named Bates,
+he exclaimed 'What! Charlie Bates? I knew him very well in India&mdash;do ask
+him if he remembers me!'</p>
+
+<p>I said I did not know the gentleman, but would certainly ask him if an
+opportunity should occur.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this, a message was brought up to me from Colonel
+Bates, asking for my uncle, General Propert's, address in Burmah. This
+gave me the opening. I wrote giving the required information, and
+suggested that I might come and have a talk with him.</p>
+
+<p>In my next conversation with 'Colonel Chomley' I told him all this, and
+he again said: '<em>Mind you ask him about me!</em>' I answered: '<em>How can I,
+when I don't know what Colonel Bates' ideas are on these subjects? He
+might look on me as a dangerous lunatic!</em>'</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Chomley remarked: '<em>I think you will find that he is interested
+in psychic matters.</em>'</p>
+
+<p>I discovered that this was true, for on my first visit I saw a copy of
+the S.P.R. Proceedings lying on the table.</p>
+
+<p>I found him interested, but unable to get beyond the 'subliminal
+consciousness' theory.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later I asked Colonel Bates if he had ever met a Colonel
+Henry Arthur Chomley in India. He thought for a moment, then said:</p>
+
+<p>'Chomley? Why, of course I knew a Chomley, but I don't know his
+Christian name. He was Brigade Major at Meean Meer, and I took over the
+brigade from him, and bought his horses, etc. Where did <em>you</em> know him?'</p>
+
+<p>I then told him of the spirit who had given me the name of Henry Arthur
+Chomley, who said he had known him in India, and had over and over again
+begged to be remembered to him.</p>
+
+<p>The day following this conversation Colonel Bates sent me up his Army
+List, open, and marked at the name of Colonel <em>Walter</em> Chomley, and a
+note explaining that it was not Henry Arthur, but <em>Walter Chomley</em> whom
+he had known at Meean Meer.</p>
+
+<p>I then asked 'Henry Arthur' if his name was Walter or Henry Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>He said: '<em>Henry Arthur. Surely I ought to know my own name!</em>'</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Bates told the story to you the next time you (<em>i.e.</em> E. K.
+Bates) came to see him, and I remember we discussed it together when we
+met again.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards you wrote to tell me that you had looked up a
+<em>Debrett</em> for 1895, and had there found <em>Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley, a
+brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, of the Rifle Brigade, etc.</em>, so that
+Henry Arthur Chomley was evidently alive in that year, and <em>had</em> been in
+the Rifle Brigade.</p>
+
+<p>I was much pleased to get this corroborative evidence, though the
+mistake in initials must have been Colonel Bates' error, and apologised
+to Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in the Unseen.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks later, however, you wrote again, and told me that you had
+been staying with a friend, who drove you over to call upon Colonel and
+Mrs Henry Arthur Chomley, that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley,
+and was certainly <em>alive</em>, although not <em>at home</em>, at the time of your
+visit!</p>
+
+<p>This information startled me, and my guide, at my request, went to look
+up the <em>soi-disant</em> Colonel to find out what it all meant.</p>
+
+<p>The latter then confessed to having taken a friend's name, said a sudden
+impulse came over him when I first asked his name, and having told one
+lie, he felt bound to go on deceiving me, but that he had known both
+Colonel Bates and Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in India, and that his
+own real name was Anstruther!"</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>This was Miss Smith's narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Now out of this curious jumble of true and false, two points remain
+clear:</p>
+
+<p>My brother <em>had</em> known a Chomley in India, and had succeeded him as
+Brigade Major at Meean Meer. This Chomley <em>was</em> a brother of Sir
+Frederic Chomley, the well-known diplomatist, but his name was Walter,
+not Henry Arthur. Yet Sir Frederic <em>had</em> a brother named Henry Arthur,
+and the impersonating Anstruther had borrowed the wrong brother's name
+when trying to pose as the friend of Colonel Charles Bates. To make
+confusion worse confounded, <em>Walter Chomley</em> was alive, as well as
+<em>Henry Arthur</em>, at the time of Miss Mabel Smith's experiences, for I
+have seen his death within the last eight months!</p>
+
+<p>The second point is that, personally, my brother and I had reason to be
+grateful to the deceiving Anstruther. He was certainly the means of
+introducing a pleasant acquaintance to my brother and to me.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mabel Smith's experience at Grindelwald reminds me of one of my own
+in the same place during the following year.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone there with a cousin, who was eager for skating and
+tobogganing, in January 1902, on my way to Rome. After a pleasant week
+at a charmingly quiet and comfortable hotel&mdash;the <em>Alpenr&uuml;he</em> I think was
+the name&mdash;my cousin wished, for purposes of policy, to change over to a
+more famous, but noisy and overcrowded one.</p>
+
+<p>So on the evening of 3rd February we found ourselves in this immense
+caravanserai, having exchanged our large, comfortable, steam-heated
+rooms for small, oblong apartments, each provided with three doors as
+well as the window, and a wood fire to be fed from small "five-franc
+baskets," and always going out at that!</p>
+
+<p>There was deep snow on the ground and a heavy fog of snow falling when
+we made our change, so that one was not in the most brilliant spirits;
+and being suddenly thrust into the midst of a big, heterogeneous company
+of strangers is never exhilarating.</p>
+
+<p>Our bedrooms, though small and not specially comfortable, were perfectly
+commonplace, the very last <em>milieu</em> with which one would have associated
+any interesting experience. The window of my room faced the door into
+the passage, my bed lay between the two; right and left of it were two
+other doors, each communicating with other occupied rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore I thought little the first night of noises and moving of
+furniture, taking for granted that these must be occurring either right
+or left of me, and that the clearness of the atmosphere accounted for my
+odd impression that a table and chair&mdash;between my bed and the
+window&mdash;were being moved.</p>
+
+<p>The following night (4th February), however, this fact was indisputable.
+I had heard both my neighbours retire to bed by ten <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, as so many do
+who have been skating and tobogganing all day long. I had sat up reading
+for half-an-hour beyond this, and went to bed at eleven <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, by which
+time there was perfect silence in the hotel, as no special entertainment
+was going on.</p>
+
+<p>Very shortly, this movement of the furniture began again, unmistakably
+in my room this time. Curiously enough, it did not frighten me at all
+nor suggest burglars (a far greater terror to me than ghosts!). I cannot
+at this distance of time remember <em>why</em> the idea of Mr Myers should have
+come to me in connection with these noises; but I am quite certain that
+I <em>did</em> think of him at the time, and fully expected his name to be
+given, when I asked if anyone wished to speak to me and were trying to
+attract my attention by moving the furniture about.</p>
+
+<p>It was greatly to my surprise, therefore, that the name of <em>Gifford</em> was
+given. I may here note that this was the real name given to me. He said
+he was a judge, one who had lived fifty or sixty years previously, that
+he had once unintentionally condemned an innocent man to be hanged, and
+he was evidently still greatly perturbed about this, and begged for my
+prayers.</p>
+
+<p>All this put Mr Myers entirely out of my head&mdash;<em>unfortunately</em>, as
+events proved.</p>
+
+<p>I had some further talk with Judge Gifford, but do not remember it in
+detail.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I told my cousin of my experience, and on the evening of
+the following day mentioned it in the presence of some neighbours at
+<em>table d'h&ocirc;te</em> who had introduced psychic subjects to us.</p>
+
+<p>This gentleman and his wife were both impressed, and yet incredulous,
+and when my cousin laughingly declared that "Gifford had come to <em>her</em>
+the second night, but that she told him she was too tired out to listen
+to him," we all three supposed that she was turning the whole subject
+into ridicule. This would have been quite characteristic of her,
+although I have always thought she had some mediumistic faculty, and was
+one of the many people whom I should advise to leave these matters
+alone. I was the more convinced that she was merely "chaffing" on this
+occasion, because when I warned our acquaintances of her powers of
+exaggeration in "making fun" of things, she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>But when we had returned to our rooms that night she remarked quite
+quietly: "But he <em>did</em> come, Emmie! When you said that at <em>table d'h&ocirc;te</em>
+about my exaggerating things, I let it pass, because very often it is
+true. But what I said this evening was <em>absolutely correct</em>, though
+perhaps it is as well those people should not believe it. Someone <em>did</em>
+come to my bedside last night, and said: 'I am Gifford&mdash;will you listen
+to me?' And I said: 'No; not to-night. I am too tired,' just as I told
+you."</p>
+
+<p>I think poor Gifford came again more than once to me; but I had done all
+I could for him, and explained this, adding that he must now leave me
+alone, which he did.</p>
+
+<p>Later my cousin returned to Paris, and I went on to Rome, where I
+received a letter from Dr Richard Hodgson enclosing some Piper script.</p>
+
+<p><em>F. W. H. Myers communicating</em>, said that he had come to me on the
+evening of 4th February, that I seemed to recognise him, and that he
+thought he had "got his message through to me," and hoped that I should
+write to Dr Hodgson to that effect.</p>
+
+<p>In answering Dr Hodgson's letter I denied the Myers' episode <em>in toto</em>,
+so far as <em>my</em> consciousness was concerned. In fact, the Gifford
+incident put all else so entirely out of my mind that I fear I did not
+even mention to Dr Hodgson that my <em>first</em> thought that night had been
+connected with Mr Myers.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, the next letter from Boston enclosed an account of a sitting,
+where Mr Myers came and apologised for having misled Dr Hodgson about my
+recognition of him.</p>
+
+<p>His words were almost literally as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am extremely sorry, my dear Hodgson, about that affair with Miss
+Bates. I should not have thought of mentioning it to you had I not felt
+convinced that she recognised me. <em>Her astral body was quite aware of my
+presence</em>, and I quite thought she had realised it on the physical
+plane" (the italics are mine).</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that the Myers' message was in the very act of
+transmission from my astral to my normal consciousness when this man
+Gifford must have come, switching off the telephone for Mr Myers, and
+getting on to it himself. Probably his great distress of mind would
+have made him the stronger force of the two for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>There must always be many disappointments of this kind in our research.
+There is always something which so nearly succeeds and then just fails
+at last. This <em>must</em> be the case where conditions are so fine and subtle
+and so easily disturbed, and where our own ignorance of many necessary
+factors is so profound. This makes it none the less disheartening at
+times!</p>
+
+<p>Later I made an attempt with my friend Baroness Rosenkrantz of Rome to
+get a message through the other way&mdash;<em>i.e.</em> from Mr Myers and myself to
+Dr Hodgson, <em>via</em> Mrs Piper.</p>
+
+<p>The Baroness and I had a little "sitting" alone, wrote one or two short
+messages with a couple of extracts from Mr Myers' own writings, sealed
+up the envelope carefully, and I forwarded it to Dr Hodgson.</p>
+
+<p>But the test failed. Two years later Dr Hodgson spoke of the letter as
+being still intact.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA, 1903</h3>
+
+<p>My second visit to India took place in the early months of 1903, and I
+approached it this time from Burmah. Fielding Hall's "Soul of a People"
+had thrown its magic spell over me, and Miss Greenlow and I were both
+anxious also to see the far-famed Shw&eacute; Dagon Temple.</p>
+
+<p>I came to the conclusion from what I saw, and still more from what I
+heard, that Mr Fielding Hall must have appealed sometimes to his
+imagination for his facts, and allowed an exquisite poetical fancy to
+cast its glamour even over these. But the beautiful Golden Temple of
+Rangoon defies all powers of exaggeration. We went there again and
+again, and wandered amongst its endless small temples, representing
+various forms of worship, including even a Chinese joss-house, which is
+stamped upon my memory through a disaster, which I have always connected
+with this special temple; rank superstition though it be.</p>
+
+<p>We had spent several weeks upon the Irrawaddy River; had wandered
+through beautiful, dusty Mandalay; had explored Bhamo and marvelled over
+the exquisite visions of fairy-like beauty, painted anew for us morning
+and evening, on this most glorious river; and had finally returned to
+Rangoon for a few days' rest before starting for Calcutta.</p>
+
+<p>It was an exquisite evening, just before our departure, when we went,
+towards sunset, to say farewell to the Shw&eacute; Dagon. At that hour it is to
+be seen at its best, for the level rays of the Eastern sun, light up the
+golden cupola into startling and fairy-like magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>Having watched this glorious spectacle for some minutes, the air grew
+chilly, compared with the intense heat of the day, and darkness was
+coming on apace as we turned to retrace our steps.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before, we had noticed a Chinese joss-house, standing in one
+corner of the huge elevated platform upon which the Shw&eacute; Dagon rests. In
+the maze of buildings, and owing to the swiftly falling darkness, we
+could not at once locate this temple; and most unfortunately for <em>me</em>,
+with the stupid persistence which such a failure sometimes brings, both
+Miss Greenlow and I were determined to find it out before leaving the
+Golden Temple. At last a joyous exclamation warned me that my friend had
+been successful in her quest.</p>
+
+<p>The first time I had seen this joss-house I had run up the steps
+heedlessly, but felt such an unpleasant influence on entering it that I
+came away at once, and only regret not having been equally prudent a
+second time.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greenlow was gazing at some grotesque carvings in one corner of the
+temple, still dimly visible, and called out to me to come and look at
+them also. Very reluctantly I joined her, and stood for a few minutes
+waiting, till she was ready to leave.</p>
+
+<p>There was something so gloomy, so uncanny, and depressing&mdash;I must even
+say <em>malignant</em>&mdash;in the building at this twilight hour, that I could
+stand the influence no longer, and as Miss Greenlow seemed inclined to
+linger, I hurried down the stone steps, saying: "<em>I can't stay in that
+place! I will wait for you at the top of the marble stairs.</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Now these steps, broken and dirty, and lined by small booths selling
+every imaginable toy and bit of tinsel, including small models of the
+various temples, led by steep flights up and down from the huge platform
+of ground I have mentioned. Some small link-boys were crowding round as
+Miss Greenlow rejoined me, clamouring to be allowed to light us down the
+steps&mdash;a very necessary precaution, for the darkness was quickly
+replacing the exquisite sunset colouring.</p>
+
+<p>I am, as a rule, rather a remarkably sure-footed person, and the
+lanterns of the boys threw ample light upon the steps, yet the first
+moment of my descent I was considerably surprised to find myself at the
+bottom of the first whole flight of hard marble steps! I had no
+recollection of a slip even&mdash;one moment I was standing, carefully
+prepared to descend; the next I was lying on my back at the bottom of a
+long flight of steps, with the link-boys gaping in astonishment. They
+could not have been more astonished than I was! The very swiftness of
+the fall was probably my salvation; otherwise I think my spine <em>must</em>
+have been injured. As it was, I was very much hurt, however; the pain
+was intense for a time, and the muscles of my back were so swollen that
+they stood up in ridges as big as a good-sized finger, for some time
+after the escapade. In fact, it was quite six weeks before all local
+trouble was over, and many more weeks before I had recovered from the
+unexpected shock.</p>
+
+<p>I have had several falls in my life, but never one other where there was
+absolutely <em>no</em> preliminary warning or sense of slipping, however swift.</p>
+
+<p>The experience was exactly that of being suddenly <em>hurled down</em> the
+steps by some outside force. I can only add that I deeply deplored my
+unguarded words to Miss Greenlow, when I told her I was sure there was
+some malignant spirit in the joss-house.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he wished politely to demonstrate the correctness of my remark.</p>
+
+<p>The short voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta was made pleasant by the
+kindness of a European friend in Rangoon, who came "to see us off," and
+asked if he should introduce to me a little Burmese lady, very rich and
+very <em>d&eacute;vote</em>, who was on board with us, going to Calcutta to pay a
+visit to her husband, who lived in that city.</p>
+
+<p>"She is one of our principal native residents," my Rangoon friend
+explained to me before introducing her. "She is also intensely
+interested in her Buddhist religion, and I think this may interest you,
+from what you have told me of your investigations."</p>
+
+<p>So the little lady was duly presented, and thinking to open our
+conversation pleasantly, I remarked that Mr Rowell had told me that she
+was much interested in religious questions, and that although not a
+theosophist myself, I numbered several of them amongst my friends.</p>
+
+<p>But I found myself quite on the wrong tack. She screwed up her little
+mouth, as if tasting some nasty medicine, and then said in excellent
+colloquial English:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they are no good at all. They have muddled everything up, and got
+it all wrong. That is why we are beginning to write tracts and send out
+missionaries. The great Buddha made no propaganda; neither did we for
+many, many centuries. We believe that people must grow into this
+knowledge; but now when you Western people come and take little bits of
+our system, and piece them together all wrong&mdash;well, then, we are forced
+to show you what is the truth! It is like a puzzle map, and all you
+theosophists are trying to fit the pieces in, wrong side upward." And
+she finished with a merry and apologetic laugh, remembering, no doubt,
+that I had spoken of having friends amongst these "stupid muddlers"!</p>
+
+<p>She gave me quite a number of the "tracts" of which she had spoken,
+setting forth the true Buddhism, and mostly printed in Mandalay, and I
+made a point of passing these on to some of the friends I had mentioned
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>I can only trust they were appreciated, and efficacious in reducing the
+confusion resulting from trying to adapt Eastern mysticism to Western
+consumption!</p>
+
+<p>Our conversation became still more interesting when I discovered that a
+mysterious fellow-passenger of ours on board the <em>Devonshire</em>, sailing
+from Marseilles to Rangoon, had taken this voyage at the expense of the
+Burmese lady, and, I am sorry to say, had occasioned her a great and
+quite inexcusable disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>This man, whom I will call Dr Gr&ouml;ne, was a professor at a celebrated
+university in the south of Europe, and was certainly a scholar&mdash;if not a
+gentleman!</p>
+
+<p>He had studied the Buddhist writings very deeply, and his name had been
+conveyed to this Burmese lady as that of one eager to throw off all ties
+of kinship, and retire&mdash;like the great Buddha himself&mdash;from the world,
+and find repose and enlightenment in a Burmese monastery. The only thing
+lacking in carrying out this excellent resolve was&mdash;as usual&mdash;<em>money</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The native lady, delighted to hear of so learned a gentleman, and one
+holding such an honourable position in Europe, being converted to the
+tenets of her religion, and thus wishing to give the best example of
+their influence upon him, agreed joyfully to forward the funds for his
+journey and to make arrangements for his stay in Rangoon before
+proceeding to Mandalay, where he was to be received as a Buddhist priest
+after a certain course of initiation.</p>
+
+<p>We had all remarked Dr Gr&ouml;ne on board&mdash;partly because he was so thin and
+tall, and walked the deck so persistently in fine weather or foul;
+partly because he owned an exceptionally fine and long beard, which
+parted and waved in the breeze as he passed to and fro in his lonely
+perambulations. I never saw him speak to anyone on board except my own
+table companion, Dr Gall, the Secretary of the Church Missionary
+Society, and a very interesting and intelligent man. This latter was
+also a distinguished Arabic scholar, and had lent me some striking
+monographs he had written on the Mohammedan faith, striking both by the
+scholarship and breadth of view and tolerance, which one does not
+generally associate with the Society that he represented.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen him more than once in the company of Dr Gr&ouml;ne, and when we
+reached Colombo, and read in the papers handed to us on broad that our
+ship contained the famous European professor who was journeying to
+Mandalay to become a Buddhist priest, after a touching farewell with
+wife and children, Dr Gall expressed both astonishment and incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>"He never said a word about it to me," was his remark. "I know he has
+studied the Buddhist religion very deeply, and he is anxious to get
+access to some MSS., which he hopes to find in Burmah; but that is not
+the same thing as becoming a priest. I expect the papers have
+exaggerated the facts."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Dr Gr&ouml;ne certainly gave a lecture on Buddhism in
+Colombo on the day of our arrival, for one of our fellow-passengers had
+the curiosity to be present, but he, also, told me nothing had been said
+about the lecturer becoming a priest.</p>
+
+<p>The matter did not specially interest me; but on arrival at Rangoon, the
+only decent (?) hotel was crowded, and most of us had to put up with a
+very inferior class of accommodation.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours of this establishment sufficed for most of the passengers,
+who promptly went up country or on the river; but Miss Greenlow and I
+were obliged to spend three or four days in Rangoon, and Dr Gr&ouml;ne was at
+first our only companion.</p>
+
+<p>So, of course, we spoke to each other in self-defence. He talked of his
+home life and university work, and casually mentioned the death of his
+wife, <em>five years previously</em>, and the children who were awaiting him
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>This certainly tallied more with Dr Gall's ideas than the sensational
+Colombo newspaper account of his wife and children, to whom, like the
+great Buddha, he had bidden an eternal farewell! Naturally one did not
+touch upon this delicate subject, but I asked him how long he expected
+to remain in Rangoon. To my surprise, he said at once that his stay was
+quite uncertain&mdash;he might even be returning by the <em>Devonshire</em>, which
+was to sail within a week of her arrival.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a long and expensive journey to take for so short a stay; but
+doubtless he had business reasons, and the matter dropped from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>When we returned, three or four weeks later, he was no longer in Rangoon
+apparently, and I did not expect to come upon his tracks again.</p>
+
+<p>The Burmese lady explained the Gr&ouml;ne mystery with some bitterness, and
+no wonder!</p>
+
+<p>Having come out free, upon the understanding with her, already
+mentioned, she had taken a room for him at the hotel, and had busied
+herself in buying blankets and a carpet and other small luxuries, to
+break the Mandalay monastery to him as gently as possible.</p>
+
+<p>When three days passed and he made no sign of moving on, she quietly
+intimated that it might be as well to begin the new life without delay,
+and said she had written to her brother, himself a priest in the
+monastery, to meet Dr Gr&ouml;ne at Mandalay and present him to the
+authorities at the monastery.</p>
+
+<p>This must probably have been about the time that I asked him innocently
+how long he would be staying in Rangoon.</p>
+
+<p>His plan had doubtless been to go to Mandalay in a dilettante sort of
+fashion, and to live in the monastery for a time, with the hope of
+getting access to some valuable and little known MSS.; but it did not
+suit his plans at all to be met at once by the brother of his
+benefactress, and kept under the eye of this priest, who knew exactly
+the circumstances under which he had been enabled to take the long
+journey from Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>Being evidently a prudent man, he determined to seize the first
+opportunity for retreat from an impossible situation. How he raised
+enough money for the return voyage is not known. My Burmese acquaintance
+thought he must have applied to one of the Consulates, and that his
+university position would doubtless ensure his raising a loan.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway, he shipped himself surreptitiously once more on board the
+<em>Devonshire</em>, and arranged that the letter, containing the usual excuse
+of a "sudden telegram from Marseilles announcing the unexpected death of
+a near relation," should not be handed to his benefactress until the
+anchor was safely weighed.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a pleasant story, and treachery is no less perfidious for
+having an intellectual motive. I felt glad that Dr Gr&ouml;ne was not a
+fellow-countryman.</p>
+
+<p>Having disburdened herself on this one point of righteous indignation,
+our little Burmese lady became as bright and cheery as a child, wearing
+her collection of pretty native dresses, which could all have been
+packed easily into a fair-sized doll's trunk, with singular grace and
+charm. When the tender arrived to disembark us in Calcutta, her husband
+came with it, and was speedily introduced.</p>
+
+<p>We had tea with them a few days later in their handsome Calcutta flat,
+and this gave me the opportunity for a long and interesting talk with
+the husband, who proved to be a most intelligent and open-minded man.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke of Fielding Hall's delightful book with appreciation tinged by
+kindly amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been many years in the country, but he still judges us as a
+foreigner."</p>
+
+<p>When I suggested that the judgment was at least very flattering to the
+Burmese, this Burmese gentleman laughed, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Flattering? Yes&mdash;but not always quite true. One must see from <em>inside</em>,
+not from outside, to be quite true in one's judgments; and no foreigner
+can see from outside. It is a question of race and heredity, not of
+having spent twenty or thirty years, or even a lifetime, in a foreign
+land."</p>
+
+<p>I suggested that those who saw from <em>inside</em> only, might also lack some
+essential factor in forming an accurate judgment.</p>
+
+<p>He agreed heartily to this, adding: "Yes, indeed. The ideal critic must
+have lived neither too near nor too far&mdash;mentally as well as physically;
+also he must have intuition. Now Mr Fielding Hall is an artist as well
+as a poet, but in judging my country he lets his intuition run riot
+sometimes, as well as his imagination."</p>
+
+<p>After reporting this conversation, it is unnecessary to add that my
+Burmese friend spoke English rather better than I did myself.</p>
+
+<p>We then talked about the position of woman in Burmah, and how much this
+had been extolled and held up as a object lesson to the rest of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>If the position of woman is the true test of a nation's civilisation, as
+has been so often affirmed, then certainly Burmah must be in the van of
+the nations! Yet this is scarcely borne out by facts.</p>
+
+<p>I put this point as politely as I could, and my mind was at once set at
+ease by the purely impersonal way in which he met my remark.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, we are not in the van of the nations, and yet it is quite
+true that our women have an exceptional position&mdash;quite a good enough
+one for an election cry for the Woman's Suffrage! Ah, yes! I have been
+in England," he added, with a merry twinkle in his little black eyes.
+"But you must realise that the unique position of woman with us is
+somewhat accidental. It is not the result of philosophical or moral
+conviction on the part of our men; it has been the natural outcome of
+circumstances, and a question of expediency rather than of ethics. So it
+was not really a 'test paper' for us at all! Our frequent wars in the
+past have taken the men out of their homes, and the women, at such
+times, were left alone to cope with not only the domestic, but the
+agricultural problems. All business of this kind passed through their
+hands, and in time they developed the qualities of industry, good
+judgment and power of taking responsibility, necessary for success in
+such a life. Then when the husbands came back and found everything going
+on so well and without trouble to themselves, they were only too glad to
+fall in with the existing state of things. We Burmese are lazy fellows
+after all. We can rise to a big call, but if our women will look after
+our business for us, we are quite content to smoke our pipes in peace
+and look on&mdash;and, of course, the one who makes the wheels go round is
+the one who really drives the coach. Believe me, there is more of
+expediency than nobility in the attitude of our men towards our women,
+and more of laziness than either, perhaps! But Fielding Hall would call
+this blasphemy, I am afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>And so, with a joking word, our interesting talk came to an end, leaving
+me with a sincere hope that I might some day meet again both the
+intelligent husband and the charming wife.</p>
+
+<p>I found the air at Simla quite marvellous for psychic possibilities, and
+this was certainly a great surprise to me; nor was it only a question of
+altitude and a dry atmosphere. Missouri and the Dhera Doon are
+celebrated for the purity of air and climate generally, but the
+influences there were quite different.</p>
+
+<p>Even Peshawar, with its glorious crown of snow-capped mountains, brought
+no special psychic atmosphere to me; nor the Khyber Pass, where I had
+thoroughly expected to be haunted by the horrors of the past; nothing of
+the kind occurred. The beauty of the day when we visited this historic
+pass was only to be matched by its own extreme natural beauty; but no
+haunting memories hung round it for me.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a night passed in those rocky defiles might have brought some
+weird experience, but no European would be allowed to woo adventure in
+this way, even with the laudable desire for advance in psychological
+phenomena! But I stayed there quite long enough to prove&mdash;for the
+hundredth time&mdash;that <em>an attitude of expectation</em> acts with me as a
+deterrent rather than encouragement, where the Unseen is in question.</p>
+
+<p>I had heard so much of Simla Society and Simla Scandals, and so little
+of Simla Beauty and Loveliness!&mdash;in Nature, I mean&mdash;not Human Nature.</p>
+
+<p>It is true we were there at the most exquisite time in the year, when
+the air was still fresh and keen, when the last snows and the first
+blooms of rhododendrons were greeting each other, when the long
+stretches of valley, brown and purple and emerald green, lay like soft
+velvet in the immense distances towards the horizon line.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked at all this, day after day, it seemed to me that Simla,
+without its crowds of social butterflies, male and female, and the dust
+and the flies, and even the heat that they bring with them, was one of
+the most exquisitely beautiful spots that the Great Creator ever
+"thought out" in His mind. Nowhere have I seen such a <em>velvety</em> effect
+of rolling hill and soft mountain-side; such gorgeous atmospheric
+visions; such a carnival of beauty and colour.</p>
+
+<p>We must have seen Simla at the most ideal time in the year, or people
+must become <em>blas&eacute;</em> and blinded to its intoxicating beauty, thanks to
+tennis tournaments and Government House receptions and the whole stupid
+Social mill.</p>
+
+<p>Not even the beauties of Kashmir have dimmed the memory of Simla for me;
+but I would not go there again, and in the season, for anything that
+could be offered to me.</p>
+
+<p>All beauty is sacred, and I guard jealously my sacred memory of the
+place, known to so many merely as a byword for folly and flirtation.</p>
+
+<p>Some strange and curious experiences came to me there, both in automatic
+writing and other ways; but these are of too private a nature for
+publication.</p>
+
+<p>And so, with the beauty of Simla and the romance of Kashmir as jewels in
+my memory, I must end my second visit to India.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that pleasant as well as painful experiences are apt to run
+in <em>threes</em>. I trust this may be the case. If so, it will mean that once
+again I shall tread upon Indian soil.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY</h3>
+
+<p>In the very heart of Warwickshire there is a beautiful old "half timber"
+hall, approached by a noble avenue of elms. The hall has come down from
+father to son, in the direct line, for nearly six hundred years, as the
+dates upon the front of the house testify.</p>
+
+<p>The present Squire is not only an old friend of my early youth, but is
+connected through marriage, and he and his wife and I have always been
+on very friendly terms. He is the usual type of fox-hunting squire and
+county magistrate, did good service during the South African War by
+raising a corps of Yeomanry from the estate, and going out with them to
+fight his country's battles, and, needless to say, he received a hearty
+ovation from his wife and his county when he returned to them in safety.
+He is devoted to his beautiful house and estate, and is the last man to
+entertain fancies or superstitions in connection with either.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to give these few words of explanation before relating
+an "incident in my life" for which I have always found it difficult to
+account, except on the supposition that some germ of psychic
+sensitiveness may exist, even under a hunting squire's "pink coat and
+top-boots."</p>
+
+<p>I have known Greba Hall since I was a child, and all its quaint old
+family portraits, especially those in the fine oak-panelled hall, with
+the old-fashioned open fireplace and "dogs" of the fifteenth century.
+But there were so many of these pictures massed together that I have
+never distinguished one from the other, with the exception of the few
+immediate ancestors of my friend.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago I was staying with a lady who lived about three miles
+from Greba, and we had driven over there to have tea with the Squire's
+wife, whom I will call Mrs Lyon. The friend I have mentioned had become
+interested in psychic matters since my acquaintance with her, and I had
+discovered that she possessed some psychometric capacity.</p>
+
+<p>In the interests of non-psychic readers, I may explain that psychometry
+is the science of learning to receive impressions and intuitions from
+the atmosphere surrounding any material object&mdash;a letter, a ring, a
+piece of pebble or shell, and so forth. We seem capable of impressing
+all material objects with our personality, and naturally this is
+especially the case in letters written and signed by us.</p>
+
+<p>The lady with whom I was then staying&mdash;Mrs Fitz Herbert&mdash;had tried
+receiving impressions from letters several times, at my suggestion, and
+always with more or less success. We had been speaking of this with Mrs
+Lyon, who was always very sympathetic, and she suggested giving one of
+her own letters to Mrs Fitz Herbert to be "psychometrised."</p>
+
+<p>The latter was sitting facing a door which led from the hall to an inner
+room, and over this door hung the half-length portrait of an old
+gentleman, whom I had never specially remarked before, as the picture
+was hung rather high, and there was nothing very characteristic about
+the face.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Fitz Herbert glanced at the portrait once or twice as she held the
+letter, and began her remarks upon the writer; but I had no reason to
+suppose that the glance was other than casual and accidental.</p>
+
+<p>She gave, however, a very remarkably accurate description (as it turned
+out) of Mrs Lyon's unknown friend, both as to his character and the
+special and rather unique conditions of his life.</p>
+
+<p>I was feeling naturally gratified that my "pupil" should have acquitted
+herself so well, when she suddenly uttered a little expression of pain
+and complained of severe headache.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that she suffered from these headaches at times, and was
+therefore not surprised by her asking leave to ring for the pony
+carriage at once, and we were soon on our way home.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Fitz Herbert was driving the pony, and as we turned out of the long
+elm avenue she murmured in a tone of relief:</p>
+
+<p>"How thankful I am to have got away from that old man! I knew he was
+telling me what to say about that letter, but afterwards he wanted to
+give me some message himself, and I could not understand it, and that is
+what made my head so bad." Then she explained, seeing my bewilderment,
+that she was referring to the old gentleman whose portrait hung over the
+door I have mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>I suggested that we had better try to find out what the old man wanted
+to say, and we arranged to do so that evening after dinner; but as Mr
+Fitz Herbert (who had a very charming tenor voice) elected to come in
+and sing to us, the old gentleman's communication had to be postponed
+until the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Fitz Herbert and I sat down in the drawing-room the next day, armed
+with pencils and paper, so soon as her domestic duties were over. She
+was most anxious that <em>I</em> should take the message, but this seemed to me
+absurd, considering that I had received no sort of impression about the
+picture and could not even recall the face. So she took up the pencil
+very unwillingly, and after some difficulty the name of <em>Richard Lyon</em>
+was given, with the information that he had owned Greba, and had passed
+over to the next sphere about one hundred and thirty years previously.
+But when it came to trying to find out what he wanted to say, she
+professed herself quite unable to grasp it, and passed the pencil
+determinedly over to me.</p>
+
+<p>Much to my surprise (for I had seemed to have no link with the old man
+at all), he was able to write through my hand with great ease.</p>
+
+<p>He explained to me that he had been much devoted to the property, had
+lived only to improve it in every possible way, and that through his
+concentration of interest on this one subject his life had been a very
+limited one, and that now he could not get away from the remembrance of
+his earth life and his beloved Greba.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he is trying to explain that he is earth-bound," suggested
+Mrs Fitz Herbert.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that is just the truth," was the eager response through my hand,
+"and it is so sad to think that my own descendants are the ones to keep
+me imprisoned in this way. I am told that I could progress, as they call
+it here, and be much happier if I could only forget Greba, even for a
+time. And it worries me to see things done so differently and not to be
+able to do anything myself for the old place. There is no happiness for
+me here. Do ask them to set me free," he continued rather pathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"But they don't <em>want</em> to hold you down," I answered. "Tell me how they
+do it and what you wish them to do."</p>
+
+<p>The old man then explained the position very carefully and sensibly. He
+admitted that his own deep love for his old property and surroundings
+and his failure in life to develop any other very deep affection, was
+chiefly in fault, but he added, that his portrait being hung there, in
+the hall of his descendants, was also very unfortunate for him.</p>
+
+<p>"It drags me down&mdash;I don't know why&mdash;but I am sure I could get away more
+easily if they would not keep that picture in the old hall."</p>
+
+<p>A few more practical questions elicited the following instructions:&mdash;He
+said the picture might remain in the <em>county</em>, so long as it was not in
+any house owned by a <em>Lyon</em> (there were several members of the family in
+Warwickshire); or it might be sent to London or elsewhere, and kept by
+members of the Lyon family, so long as they were not in the direct
+descent, and <em>did not live in his old county</em>.</p>
+
+<p>We drove over to Greba that afternoon, and took the "message" with us,
+knowing there was no fear of encountering the gibes of my fox-hunting
+friend at three <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> on any week day in the hunting season.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Lyon was extremely interested; she not only endorsed the <em>Richard
+Lyon</em> and his dates, but told us that he had done an immense deal for
+the property, as her husband had often impressed upon her, and that at
+his death, about one hundred and thirty years before, he had lain in
+state for three days in the very hall where we had taken our tea, and
+where his picture now hung. This was great encouragement, so we put our
+heads together, wondering <em>how</em> the poor old man's entreaty might be
+complied with.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Lyon remembered that several of the old portraits were shortly to be
+sent to a picture dealer in the neighbouring town (some ten miles away)
+to be cleaned, but this special picture was not in need of restoration,
+unfortunately.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I could put it with the others, and let it go to Warwick, and
+then tell the man not to do anything with it&mdash;but what would Edward say?
+Can you <em>imagine</em> his allowing the picture to be taken down upon this
+evidence?"</p>
+
+<p>From an acquaintance with "Edward" extending over large tracts of years,
+I was forced to admit that even my robust imagination could not reach so
+far. "<em>Skittles!</em>" or "<em>Confounded cheek!</em>" would be his mildest reply
+to such a request, even from the friend of his youth! I did not care to
+think how much further his indignation might carry him!</p>
+
+<p>But I felt so strongly that something outside myself had inspired the
+message, with its accurate instructions, that at last I prevailed upon
+Mrs Lyon to promise she would mention the matter to her husband, and
+thus leave the responsibility of refusal with <em>him</em>.</p>
+
+<p>She did so, and the refusal was all my fancy had painted&mdash;and more!</p>
+
+<p>Several months passed, and the following spring I was once more in the
+neighbourhood, staying with my own relations this time, who were related
+also to the Squire and his wife.</p>
+
+<p>The first piece of news I received at dinner the night of my arrival was
+that the Greba Hall picture <em>had been sent in to Warwick!</em></p>
+
+<p>I could hardly believe my ears. My relatives could tell me nothing
+beyond the fact, and advised my paying an early visit to Greba Hall
+during the absence of the master.</p>
+
+<p>I did this, and Mrs Lyon told me all she knew about the matter, which
+was not very much.</p>
+
+<p>"After you were here last," she said, "I spoke to Edward as I promised,
+and, of course, he laughed the whole thing to scorn, and was very rude
+about our tomfoolery."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know all about that," I answered hastily. "But what happened
+<em>afterwards</em>&mdash;after I left Warwickshire, I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was the queerest part of it all," she resumed. "A few days after
+you had gone away he stood under the picture one evening, coming in from
+hunting and waiting for tea in the hall, and said as he looked up at old
+Richard Lyon:</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you suppose I should allow <em>your</em> picture to be taken down&mdash;<em>you</em>
+who did so much for my property? Of course not!'"</p>
+
+<p>"This happened once or twice, at intervals. Then he <em>said</em> nothing, but
+I used to notice that he always looked up at the picture whenever he
+came into the hall or stood by the fireplace. At last, about three
+months ago, he turned round suddenly, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'When are you going to send those pictures to be cleaned?' Now you know
+I had been keeping the other pictures back, with a dim hope that Edward
+might relent. But I saw it was quite useless, so I told him they were
+going next day. To my intense surprise he said rather abruptly: 'Then
+send this picture with them, and don't ask me any questions.'"</p>
+
+<p>His wife took the hint, and waited for no second bidding. Off went the
+picture to the Warwick shop, and there it remained for nearly six
+months.</p>
+
+<p>When it came back eventually, the Squire was very triumphant on the
+subject, but I was equally triumphant in pointing out that nothing could
+alter the fact that the picture <em>had</em> been sent away, in spite of his
+earlier denunciations of our folly.</p>
+
+<p>Also I suggested that a good deal can happen in six months on either
+side of the veil, and that no doubt poor old Richard Lyon had had ample
+opportunity to "get free," as he called it, thanks to the unaccountable
+action of his descendant!</p>
+
+<p>I have reserved this story for my last chapter for two reasons. It
+happened within the last few years, but I cannot remember the exact
+date, and dare not inquire from my irascible hunting friend; and also it
+did not specially link on to any of the previous incidents described.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I must now pass on to the autumn months of 1905, which found me in
+Eastbourne, where I have various kind friends.</p>
+
+<p>I had been going through a time of great anxiety, owing to family
+reasons, and went down to Eastbourne with every prospect of finding rest
+and peace there. I arrived on the 11th of November, and the first few
+days amply justified my hopes.</p>
+
+<p>Then a feeling of the most intense depression came over me, quite
+unexpected and unaccountable. My family anxieties and responsibilities
+were happily over. I had been able to make a wise, and, as it turned
+out, most admirable choice, in finding a fresh attendant for an invalid
+brother, and there was nothing now to be done but to rest on my oars and
+be thankful that a most trying time&mdash;requiring infinite patience and
+tact&mdash;was over.</p>
+
+<p>When this unaccountable depression came on so suddenly, I put it down to
+reaction, and expected it to pass away with returning strength, after
+the heavy strain. But it <em>increased</em> as the weeks passed on into
+December, and did not lift until about eight <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on the morning of 22nd
+December.</p>
+
+<p>Then I had one of the most vivid experiences of my life. As suddenly as
+they had enveloped me some weeks before, so did the heavy clouds now
+roll off, leaving me with a sense of freedom and exaltation such as I
+have seldom experienced. This sense of freedom and joy and happiness was
+so marked that I mentioned it at once to an intimate friend, who came to
+see me that day after breakfast. I said to her: "I can only describe it
+as if one had suddenly been let out of prison or taken from a dark,
+dismal room into one with glorious sunshine streaming through the
+windows, where the very sense of being alive is sufficient joy; in fact,
+I never felt so thoroughly alive before. And the curious thing is that
+there is no apparent reason for this&mdash;nothing is changed&mdash;I have not
+even had any specially pleasant letters. Life is just the same on the
+outer; but on the <em>inner?</em> Well, I cannot describe it!"</p>
+
+<p>"But can't you account for it at all?" asked my friend, who had been
+with me through all the depressing influences of the former weeks and
+was astounded, as well as delighted, by the inexplicable change in my
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is the day after the shortest day," I said, laughing. "But it
+has never had such an extraordinary effect upon me before."</p>
+
+<p>All day long this exuberant feeling of delight and happiness remained. I
+had no specially spiritual or religious experience in connection with
+it, but rather the happy feeling of confidence that a child might have,
+who, after wandering about in unknown lanes and thorny paths, suddenly
+found himself transported, with no effort of his own, to the dear,
+familiar house and loving home faces.</p>
+
+<p>Five days later, in a private letter, I read the first allusion to the
+death of Dr Richard Hodgson. It came to me in a letter from Mrs Forbes,
+not as a fact, but as an uncorroborated report, which would probably be
+found incorrect.</p>
+
+<p>"<em>There is nothing about it in The Times this morning, so I don't
+suppose it is true.</em>" These were her exact words. I don't think I ever
+really doubted the truth of it, although it came as a bolt out of the
+blue.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few days previously, a letter from an intimate friend of Dr
+Hodgson in America (he had brought us together) mentioned her having
+seen him lately and thinking he was really much depressed over his work
+and other matters, "<em>though, doubtless, if I taxed him with this he would
+say it was quite untrue; but I feel quite convinced that it is true</em>."</p>
+
+<p>These words had not at the time given me any clue to my own curious
+depression, but when the first <em>rumour</em> of his death reached me, I felt
+convinced that it was true, and that I must have taken on his joyful
+conditions when he first found himself on the other side of the veil. I
+can only surmise, therefore, that the weeks of my depression <em>may</em> have
+corresponded with feelings alluded to by his intimate friend; although
+less intuitive, if not less valued associates, may have noticed nothing
+but his usual cheery and genial spirits.</p>
+
+<p>A telegram sent to Mr Stead showed me clearly that my inquiry had been
+<em>his</em> first intimation of anything wrong. Then, in despair of getting
+accurate information, I wrote to Sir Oliver Lodge, who kindly responded
+at once, confirming my worst fears. He was good enough to send me later
+the particulars of the event, supplied by Professor William James.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bitter blow for <em>us</em>, but for <em>him</em> how joyous an awakening!</p>
+
+<p>I am grateful for having had, through personal experience, even a dim
+reflection of that wonderful New Life, so overwhelming and so exuberant,
+that its rays could reach to the hearts of some of those who had been
+honoured by his friendship.</p>
+
+<p>On comparing notes I found that, allowing for difference of time,
+forty-eight hours must have elapsed between his physical departure and
+my experience of his awakening to new conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There may be various ways of accounting for this. The spirit may not
+have been wholly freed at once from its physical envelope, but may have
+remained possibly, in some condition of unconsciousness, after the
+strangely sudden severance of the tie that binds body and soul together.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><em>Note.</em>&mdash;Since the above was written, I have received an explanation of
+the lapse of time between the passing of Doctor Hodgson, 20th December,
+and my experience of 22nd December 1905.</p>
+
+<p>On 6th February 1907 I had the privilege of a sitting with Miss
+MacCreadie, who not only gave an accurate description of Doctor
+Hodgson's personal appearance, and of his sudden call hence, but added
+that this spirit wished to explain to me that he had not been able to
+get entirely away from the body for quite two days after physical death,
+and that meanwhile he must have been in a state of trance. Miss
+MacCreadie did not know the name of the spirit whom she described so
+accurately, and whose message was thus conveyed to me.&mdash;E. K. B.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Some time after Dr Hodgson left us, a friend in London wrote to me that
+she had either just read or heard that he had made some communication,
+to the effect that "<em>he was not very happy, as he had regarded his work
+only from the intellectual point of view</em>."</p>
+
+<p>This seemed to me a most unlikely sort of message to come from such a
+man.</p>
+
+<p>In such cases there is nothing like going to the fountain-head for
+information, and this came to me in the following words, which are, I
+think, characteristic and certainly sensible:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My work <em>was</em> intellectual&mdash;how could I regard it from any other point
+of view? That has nothing to do with the spiritual side of things. My
+spiritual life was very latent, it is true; but it was sincere, so far
+as it went, and in this more favourable atmosphere, the buds are
+unfolding, and I am learning more and more of the love and wisdom which
+I always dimly saw and appreciated. It is the attitude of mind which is
+all-important, and my attitude, though critical, was never obstructive,
+as you know."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>I should like to say a few words now on the subject of superstitions. We
+are <em>all</em> superstitious in various ways and upon different points&mdash;I may
+laugh at <em>your</em> superstition because it does not happen to appeal to me,
+but you may be quite sure you could find out my "Achilles Heel" if we
+lived together long enough.</p>
+
+<p>The only difference between people is, that some are honest about their
+superstitions and others&mdash;are not!</p>
+
+<p>I met a lady not long ago at a foreign <em>table d'h&ocirc;te</em> who started our
+acquaintance by remarking that she was thankful to say she had not a
+single superstition. Before we had spent ten days under the same roof I
+discovered that she believed in portents and lucky stones and the "whole
+bag of tricks," and possessed the power of seeing people in their astral
+bodies.</p>
+
+<p>This is to introduce my own strongest superstition, which is a horror of
+seeing the new moon for the first time through glass. <em>Breaking</em> glass
+is almost as disastrous in my experience, even if the article itself
+only costs a few pence.</p>
+
+<p>Now I do not for one moment suggest that either one or other is the
+<em>cause</em> of my subsequent misfortunes. No one surely can be childish
+enough to suppose such a thing; yet I have known sensible people labour
+this point in order to show me the folly of my ways&mdash;and thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Again, I am quite aware that some people may break as much glass or
+china as the proverbial bull, and see the moon through the former medium
+every month of their lives, and not be a penny the worse for it&mdash;beyond
+the amount of their breakages. I only maintain that for <em>me</em> these two
+things are invariably the precursors of misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>When people say to me: "How can a sensible woman like yourself be so
+foolish as to think such things?" I can only truthfully answer that I
+should be very much <em>more</em> foolish if so many years of my life had
+passed without my noticing the sequence of events.</p>
+
+<p>But to <em>explain</em> the phenomena is quite another matter.</p>
+
+<p>It seems to me quite reasonable that, allowing the possibility of
+influences coming to us from the other side, some sign&mdash;no matter how
+trivial&mdash;might be impressed upon us as a gentle warning to be prepared
+for disasters, more or less severe.</p>
+
+<p>Another curious thing is this: I have never found that avoiding seeing
+the moon through glass <em>in any artificial way</em> prevents disaster. I used
+to let kind friends, indulgent to my "folly," lead me blindfold up to
+the window, carefully thrown open for my benefit. I can remember a most
+elaborate scene of precaution once, in an American railway carriage
+between Philadelphia and Boston, when a charming American lady, about to
+lecture on Woman's Suffrage, and grateful to me for some points I had
+given her with regard to the woman's question in New Zealand, insisted
+upon having a heavy window pulled up by a negro attendant, when she
+found out my little weakness.</p>
+
+<p>It was all of no avail. Left alone, I should most certainly have seen
+the moon through glass on that occasion, and I felt, even at the moment,
+that I had not really altered anything by falling in with the kind
+American lady's suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>In September 1906 I was going through a course of baths at Buxton, and
+on a certain Sunday (2nd September) I saw the moon through glass in my
+bedroom window in the most unmistakable way. There was no friendly
+cloud, no other twinkling light to throw the smallest shadow of doubt
+upon the fact. There was much good-humoured laughter over my
+"superstition" in the house; but I knew <em>some</em> trouble was on its way,
+little dreaming that it was one which would alter my whole life.</p>
+
+<p>On the Wednesday morning (5th September) I received the first intimation
+of what proved to be the last illness of a brother who has been
+mentioned in these pages already, and who had been an invalid for nearly
+thirty years. A point to be noticed is that on the Sunday, when the sign
+came to me, he was in his usual health, and even on Monday went out for
+a long drive. The first attack of angina pectoris only came on in the
+middle of the night of Monday-Tuesday, 3rd to 4th September.</p>
+
+<p>Later, when the disease had become acute, and I was in the south of
+England, living in hourly suspense, and receiving telegrams and letters
+several times a day, another curious incident occurred which has a
+bearing upon our subject.</p>
+
+<p>As my readers are probably aware, in this sad and painful illness the
+only proof of unselfish affection which one can give, may be to keep
+away from the patient, when you know that all is being done for him that
+skill and devotion can suggest. The smallest agitation is almost certain
+to bring on a fresh attack of the terrible pain, and so long as there is
+<em>any</em> hope of a rally, or, in fact, any consciousness that can possibly
+result in increased suffering, <em>everyone</em> should be kept away from the
+patient except those who are in actual and necessary attendance.</p>
+
+<p>This naturally entails great mental distress and suffering upon those
+who are living from hour to hour, in a state of tension and suspense.</p>
+
+<p>After more than a fortnight of alternate hopes and fears, the position
+became almost unendurable, and I was making all preparations for a visit
+to the patient, or at least to the house where he lay (against my better
+judgment), when letters and a telegram arrived imploring me not to come,
+as a short visit from another relative had proved most disastrous in
+bringing on another attack of the terrible pain; from which he never
+really rallied.</p>
+
+<p>Under these distressing circumstances, there could be but one course
+open to me.</p>
+
+<p>I was staying with my kind friends Admiral and Mrs Usborne Moore at this
+sad time, and can never feel sufficiently grateful for their goodness
+to me and sympathy with my distress.</p>
+
+<p>The Admiral, as many of us know, is a most persevering student of
+psychic science, and I think it was by his suggestion, or at anyrate
+with his approval, that I determined to pay a visit to a lady of whom he
+had spoken to me&mdash;Mrs Arnold, a daughter-in-law of Sir Edwin Arnold&mdash;who
+is a gifted clairvoyant.</p>
+
+<p>I went alone to the house, that she might not be able to connect me with
+my host and hostess; and the interview was a remarkable one.</p>
+
+<p>There were many evidential points given, which, for family reasons, it
+is impossible to publish. She gave me the crystal ball to hold for a
+good five minutes, in order that it might become impregnated by my
+influence; and then she took it from me, and began making a series of
+statements, without pausing for a moment or attempting to "fish," to use
+a technical term.</p>
+
+<p>These statements included my own life and studies and chief interests,
+and the number and sex of my immediate family; also the attitude of the
+various members towards myself, and in each case the special statement
+was absolutely correct.</p>
+
+<p>Her first words were: "You are in great anxiety, I see. It is about the
+illness of an elderly man. <em>Two</em> people with whom you are in very
+intimate relations are ill, I see, but I will tell you now of the one
+you wish to hear about especially."</p>
+
+<p>She went on to describe not only my brother's surroundings and illness
+at the time, but also his permanent state of paralysis, adding that he
+was now in the country, for she saw green trees all round him and
+waving grass. As my brother's life for many years had been spent
+entirely between London and the seaside, this was a good bit of
+evidence. As a matter of fact, he was spending a few weeks in a country
+cottage for the first time in his life.</p>
+
+<p>The single point where she failed was as to the <em>time</em> of his passing
+away. She saw at once that the illness was one from which he could not
+permanently recover, and gave the approximate time very tentatively. "We
+cannot see times exactly&mdash;they come only in symbols. For instance, I see
+now falling leaves; it looks like an autumn scene, and so I infer that
+means later on&mdash;perhaps October or November."</p>
+
+<p>This, as I have said, was the only mistake in the whole interview. My
+brother passed to the Higher Life on 24th September.</p>
+
+<p>When I saw his valet in town later, I asked him about the trees, and he
+explained that owing to the great heat, the leaves were all over the
+ground, and gave an autumnal look to everything.</p>
+
+<p>Most of us noticed the same appearance in London and elsewhere, even
+quite early in September 1906.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>second</em> friend lying dangerously ill was a puzzle to me at the
+time; but within five days of my brother's transition, I heard of the
+death of Judge Forbes, who was one of my most intimate friends, as Mrs
+Arnold had truly observed. His illness was a very short one; but on
+comparing notes with members of his family I found that he had taken to
+his bed three days <em>before</em> my visit to Mrs Arnold, and was already very
+seriously ill, although I had no knowledge of the fact for more than a
+week after my interview with her.</p>
+
+<p>Before closing these personal records I must say a few words on the much
+vexed question of psychic photographs.</p>
+
+<p>As my friend Admiral Usborne Moore observes in a letter received from
+him as I write these words: "We are dealing with a great mystery here."
+He is himself one of those who by persevering effort is helping us to
+solve the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>It is certainly the branch of psychic science which promises the best
+results from an evidential point of view, but it must be a case of "each
+man his own photographer."</p>
+
+<p>There is always a tendency in human nature to be over-credulous as to
+our own achievements, and over-sceptical as to those of our neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>So for many years probably, we shall only accept our "very own" psychic
+photographs as quite genuine; but when a sufficient number of people are
+convinced by their personal experiences in this line of research, there
+will be some hope that the subject will go through the usual stages&mdash;(1)
+Impossible and absurd; (2) Possible, but very improbable; (3) Possible,
+and not even abnormal; (4) Finally, normal, and "<em>Just what we knew all
+about from the first!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile some of us have been experimenting, with professional
+assistance, and in these cases the question is not "Can such photographs
+be faked?" We all know nowadays that faking photographs is the easiest
+of all possible frauds. I have spent many a half hour doing the faking
+myself, with an amateur photographer, by sitting for so many seconds in
+a chair and then vacating it in favour of some other "spook"!</p>
+
+<p>No, the whole question at present must be determined by our recognition
+or non-recognition of the photographs produced.</p>
+
+<p>If Mr Boursnell or any other photographer can produce (<em>as he has done</em>)
+my old nurse, who died twenty-three years ago, and was never
+photographed in her life, then we must find some other suggestion than
+that of "common or garden faking" as a solution of the mystery. There
+she sits, as in life, with a little knitted shawl round her shoulders
+and the head of a tiny child upon her lap. The eyes are closed, and give
+a dead look to the face, yet the features are to me quite unmistakable,
+and no one knew the dear old woman so well as I did.</p>
+
+<p>Again, I have in my little picture gallery, an old and very well-known
+Oxford professor, in whose house I stayed many times.</p>
+
+<p>Quite unexpectedly he appeared on one of Mr Boursnell's plates last
+summer, and although this special photograph is fainter than the one
+just described, the likeness can only be denied by someone more anxious
+to be sceptical than truthful. I compared the photograph with an
+engraving of the professor in much earlier life&mdash;which is to be found in
+the Life published since he passed away&mdash;with an artist friend (who had
+not known him). We went over the features one by one, and my friend said
+she noticed only one small difference, the exact length of the upper
+lip, and this, she considered, would be amply accounted for by the lapse
+of time between the two pictures and the slight lengthening of the upper
+lip owing to loss of teeth. The professor passed away as an old man; the
+picture engraved in the Life represents him as he was at least twenty
+years before his death.</p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting point to me in this photograph, is the
+appearance on his lap of a much loved dog, a rather large fox terrier
+named "Bob." I had not noticed Bob until a daughter of the professor
+pointed him out to me, and now I cannot understand having missed him at
+first.</p>
+
+<p>Bob was not only the most important person in the Oxford household, but
+he was good enough to be very fond of me, so it seems to me quite
+natural that he should have come with his master to pay me a visit.</p>
+
+<p>I remember arriving at the house one dark winter's evening after an
+absence of over two years, and Bob's welcome to me was so ecstatic that
+he nearly knocked me down in a vain attempt to get his paws round my
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>I heard the professor, who was always rather jealous of Bob's
+affections, say in a whisper to his wife: "Most touching thing I ever
+saw, that dog's welcome when Miss Bates arrived!"</p>
+
+<p>Dear Bob! I am so glad he can still come and see me, with his dearly
+loved master.</p>
+
+<p>Another shuffle of the photographs brings to the top a sweet girlish
+face and figure, "sixteen summers or something less."</p>
+
+<p>She appeared first upon a plate in the summer of 1905, but so
+indistinctly as to the <em>face</em> that I could not recognise it.</p>
+
+<p>A few months ago the same figure appeared again, but quite clearly this
+time, and involuntarily, as I looked at it, I exclaimed: "<em>Why, of
+course, it is Lily Blake!</em>"</p>
+
+<p>Now it is nearly thirty years since I met this charming child; during my
+first visit to Egypt. She and her father (a well-known physician) and
+her aunt, were spending a six weeks' holiday in Cairo, and I saw more of
+her than would otherwise have been the case, because she was the
+playmate of another young girl&mdash;the child of friends of mine at
+Shepheard's Hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Lily was a sweet-looking, delicate girl, with soft, sleepy blue eyes,
+and was always dressed in a simple, artistic fashion. A few months after
+our return to England I saw in the papers the death of this pretty
+child; for she was little more at the time. I wrote a letter of
+condolence and sympathy, which was at once answered by the aunt in very
+kind fashion; and since then I have seen nothing to remind me of Lily
+until this last year has brought her once more within my ken. I am only
+too thankful to realise that any influence so pure and beautiful as
+hers, may be around me sometimes in my daily life.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And now let me say, in the words of our great novelist:</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>"Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is
+played out!"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Only I trust in this case we have managed to rise a little above the
+usual atmosphere of Vanity Fair.</p>
+
+<p>Surely the aim of all psychic research should be to give us a
+<em>scientific</em>, as we have already, thank God, a spiritual, foundation for
+the "Hope that is in us."</p>
+
+<p>Spirit photographs and spirit materialisations and abnormal visions or
+abnormal sounds amount to very little, if we look upon them as an end
+in themselves, and not as the symbols and the earnest of those greater
+things which "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
+into the heart of <em>man</em> to conceive."</p>
+
+<p>I remember, years ago, in the course of a deeply interesting
+conversation with Phillipps Brooks, the late Bishop of Massachusetts,
+that I asked him what he thought about modern theosophy, which was just
+then becoming a <em>culte</em> in his native town of Boston. There was a great
+deal of talk at the time about the new philosophy and the wonderful
+phenomena said to accompany its propaganda. Sir Edwin Arnold had written
+his "Light of Asia," and Oliver Wendell Holmes had welcomed it with
+wondering awe, as something approaching a new revelation. And smaller
+people were talking about the historical Blavatsky tea-cups, and hidden
+heirlooms found in Indian gardens, and some of us were wondering how
+soon we should learn to fly, and what would come next.</p>
+
+<p>The bishop's answer to my question was so genial, so characteristic, and
+showed such divine common-sense!</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a question of <em>flying</em>," he said. "I should like to fly as
+much as anybody; and a queer sort of bird I should appear!" (He was well
+over six feet, and broad in proportion.)</p>
+
+<p>"If you suddenly found you could fly," he continued, "it would be
+<em>absorbing</em> on Monday morning, <em>intensely interesting</em> on Tuesday,
+<em>interesting</em> on Wednesday, and <em>quite pleasant</em> on Thursday, but by the
+end of the week it would be getting normal, and you would want to
+discover some other new power. No, believe me, the real question is not
+<em>flying</em>, but <span class="smcap">where</span> you would fly, and <span class="smcap">what you would do when you got
+there</span>."</p>
+
+<p>This sums up the case in a nut shell, and seems to me only another way
+of saying: "Don't forget the spiritual significance beneath the
+scientific symbol."</p>
+
+<p>And I would add: "Let us all join hands in the interesting and absorbing
+work of trying to make our symbols as scientific as we can, by finding
+out the laws which govern them, as well as all other things, in this
+universe of Love and Law. Probably we are here to learn, above all
+things else, that Love and Law are ONE."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Many people have had far more remarkable experiences than mine. For
+various good reasons I have carefully abstained from any attempt to
+cultivate, or in any way increase, the sensitiveness which is natural to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>I can only assure my readers that my record has been absolutely
+accurate. In many cases it would have been very easy to write up the
+stories into some far more dramatic form; but by doing so the whole aim
+and object of my book would have been destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>I wanted to trace the thread of what we at present consider abnormal,
+through the whole skein of a single life, hoping thereby to encourage
+others to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>It is only by putting these things down, if not for publication, then in
+some diary or commonplace book, that we can realise how far our normal
+life is, even now and here, interpenetrated by another plane of
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>And so farewell to all kind readers who have followed me to the end of
+my personal record of curious events&mdash;curious chiefly by reason of our
+present imperfect knowledge.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>Much has been said of the folly and triviality of all messages coming,
+or purporting to come, from the Unseen. I think here, as elsewhere, like
+clings to like, and we get very much what we deserve; or rather, to put
+it in a more philosophical and Emersonian way, we receive <em>what belongs
+to us</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Emerson tells us in one of his most illuminating passages, that
+everything which belongs to our spiritual estate is coming to us as
+quickly as it can travel. All the winds of heaven, all the waves of
+earth, are bringing it to us, and neither angel nor devil can prevent
+our taking what is ours or rejecting what is <em>not</em> ours.</p>
+
+<p>This is a universal law, and applies to automatic writing as to
+everything else. Emphatically we get what belongs to our spiritual
+estate.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore any casual and general remarks as to the foolishness of all
+automatic writing, must of necessity be made by those who are ignorant
+of this spiritual law, or whose experience of such messages is very
+limited.</p>
+
+<p>I intend to give a few which I have myself received, in the form of an
+Appendix to my book. With one exception, they all come from a very dear
+friend, who passed into the other sphere little more than a year ago
+under peculiarly happy circumstances. I do not wish to give his name,
+although it would add considerably to the interest of the narrative. I
+shall therefore call him Mr Harry Denton. The messages will be given
+exactly in the form in which they were received, and without any
+editing. We never discussed theological ideas from any standpoint of
+<em>creed</em>; but I imagine that my friend, when here, would have looked upon
+Jesus Christ as one of the many inspired teachers of the world, and that
+his views were cosmic rather than religious&mdash;<em>in any narrow sense</em>&mdash;and
+certainly <em>religious</em>, in the broad sense of the term, rather than
+<em>theological</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The first conversation (for this is a better description of my friend's
+communications than the word <em>message</em>) refers to my own attitude, as
+compared with that of a lady friend of mine, regarding Jesus of
+Nazareth.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;I see a great stream of light round you, Kate, and it seems to
+have come with your truer conception of Jesus Christ. It is all right
+for your friend to say she prefers to put the matter aside and leave it
+alone. That is just the best thing she can do; in fact, the <em>only</em> thing
+she can do at present.</p>
+
+<p>The seed is still underground, and the moment of emergence has not come.
+To try and force it above ground just now, would be fatal. It would also
+be immature and uncalled for. The old husks of man-made creeds must drop
+off gradually, leaving the bud they protected intact, not be torn off by
+an impatient hand.</p>
+
+<p>So far her instinct seems to me a true one. But the case is widely
+different for <em>you</em>. The husks <em>have</em> fallen off, as a matter of fact,
+and the discomfort and sense of something wrong arose from your knowing
+that you were only striving desperately to clutch on to them, when the
+fine, strong bud was there, able and ready to take its proper share of
+sunshine and rain, and even to bear the cold winds of misrepresentation
+and misunderstanding if need be.</p>
+
+<p>"QUIT YOU LIKE MEN, BE STRONG." That is <em>your</em> lesson-book, and you will
+never feel happy or content until you are learning it.</p>
+
+<p>Surely you must feel how much you have gained since you faced your own
+facts?</p>
+
+<p>E. K. B.&mdash;Yes, Harry, I do; but I don't quite understand <em>your</em>
+position. Are you at the same point of view?</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;No; not yet. It is all rather foreign to my previous notions. I
+thought of Jesus of Nazareth as a great teacher&mdash;one of <em>the</em> great
+teachers of the world&mdash;but I had still to learn His unique position as
+regards our chain of worlds.</p>
+
+<p>They tell me here that He was the <em>first</em> to attain to the full stature
+of the <em>Divine Man</em> as he existed in the thought of the Absolute.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritual evolution is the process, apparently the only process, whereby
+a Son of God in this sense can appear. And &aelig;ons of time have been
+necessary to produce this fine Flower of Humanity. Your own band are
+helping me to understand this. <em>Having attained, being the anointed
+One</em>, it is given to Him to bring the whole race after Him.</p>
+
+<p>This is quite a different conception from my former one, and the one
+held by most of those whom in old days we called Unitarians.</p>
+
+<p><em>You</em> have had to <em>unlearn</em>, or rather to drop, some of the husks of old
+tradition which have been guarding the truth for you, whereas I have
+still <em>to come up to the truth</em>; but the point reached will be the same,
+whether the approach to it is from north or south&mdash;do you see?</p>
+
+<p>In Christ Jesus, they tell me, we are <em>all</em> new creatures, as a matter
+of fact; because, consciously or unconsciously, we are working together
+with Him to realise and manifest ourselves, as made after the Image of
+God.</p>
+
+<p>He is the example and the pledge for us. St Paul saw this, of course,
+and your present position illuminates his teaching for me enormously. So
+I have much to thank you for, Kate. It is easier to learn from those we
+know and trust, than from strangers.</p>
+
+<p>And, moreover, when we can learn from the loved ones on earth <em>as well
+as through the loved ones here</em>, it makes the links in the golden chain
+complete, and helps us to realise the unity and solidarity of our common
+existence, <em>in the Father&mdash;with the Son</em>.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 41em;">H. D.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Another morning I had told H. D. that I had been reading an article in
+<em>The Nineteenth Century&mdash;and After</em>, I think, entitled "An Agnostic's
+Progress," and asked if he had sensed it through me at all.</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;Yes. We will begin with that this morning. I am very glad you
+read it, for it is curiously like my own experiences in the same line.</p>
+
+<p>Since coming over here, and thereby coming into such direct touch with
+you, I have been able to grasp the key to much that puzzled me on the
+other side.</p>
+
+<p>As my views became more spiritualised I saw there <em>must</em> be more truth
+in the Christian religion than outsiders supposed, and yet I knew it
+could not be absolutely true <em>in the form in which it has been handed
+down</em>.</p>
+
+<p><em>That</em> was for me unthinkable, because I saw it would be a sudden and
+catastrophic incursion upon a cosmos of Law and Order.</p>
+
+<p>It would mean God working in the highest departments of His Creation, as
+He is never seen to work in the lower ones. And my faith in Him
+prevented my entertaining such an idea! Schemes and plans of salvation
+belong to the comparative childhood of the race, not to the full-grown
+spiritual man. They are still in the fairy-tale stage, holding a truth,
+but acting only as the husk of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The unity of the race; the necessity for self-sacrifice in realising
+that unity: that by giving our life for our brothers we save our <em>Life</em>,
+which is that unity in which the brethren are included&mdash;all this I could
+accept in Christ's teaching or the teaching of the Apostles; but the
+rest: the detail, the carefully arranged <em>scheme</em> of the Atonement,
+etc., as dogmatic doctrines&mdash;all these seemed to me so obviously the
+desperate attempts of man at a certain stage of development to fit in
+spiritual facts with the most probable theories; and to say that men who
+wrote of these things were inspired, and <em>therefore infallible</em>, was
+absurd.</p>
+
+<p>Even in my short life, I had seen the world pass through several stages
+of belief and assimilate them in turn.</p>
+
+<p>As a child, I was told that God was angry with people for sinning and
+breaking His commandments, and so Jesus Christ offered to come and die
+on the cross to appease His just wrath.</p>
+
+<p>That seemed a great puzzle to me, because, although it might account for
+what happened <em>before</em> Christ came and <em>until</em> He came, I could not
+understand why God <em>should go on letting people come into the world</em> who
+would break His laws, and make Him still more angry for centuries and
+centuries. That seemed to me, as a child, so unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>Later I was told it was not God's anger but His sense of justice that
+had to be appeased and satisfied, which was a distinct step in advance.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, however, I read that this was not the hidden truth of
+the doctrine. The religious world (the thoughtful section of it) now
+arrived at the idea that it was not God who needed to be satisfied or
+appeased in any of His attributes, but MAN, and that GOD&mdash;in the person
+of his Son&mdash;came into the world to reconcile the world to Him, and not
+Himself to the world.</p>
+
+<p>This was a complete <em>bouleversement</em> of the whole situation, though it
+came so gradually that few appreciated that fact.</p>
+
+<p>The last suggestion appeared to me by far the most luminous. In human
+life it is invariably the <em>lower</em> nature that needs to be reconciled and
+conciliated; whilst the higher nature, in proportion to its
+development, is forgiving and tolerant and wide-minded, and does not
+prate about its own high sense of justice requiring to be appeased. The
+best type of <em>man</em> punishes a wrong-doer in order that he may learn to
+do better and leave off tormenting and wronging his fellow-creatures;
+not to appease any instinct in his own breast, for that would be
+egotism, no matter how we might try to disguise the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Now if it would be a blot upon the best conceivable <em>man</em> to be
+egotistical, <em>a fortiori</em> must it be upon God.</p>
+
+<p>To conceive otherwise is to make God in the likeness of the lower and
+not the higher humanity. I thought all that out very clearly.</p>
+
+<p>Still this crux remained for me, that to be suddenly, at any arbitrary
+moment in the world's history, obliged, as it were, to send an
+absolutely divine part of Himself into the world, was the way a <em>man</em>
+would act faced by an unforeseen catastrophe, but not the way in which
+God has acted throughout the rest of our history.</p>
+
+<p>A succession of teachers, enlightening the world by degrees, and
+culminating in the ANOINTED Son of God&mdash;the Flower of Humanity&mdash;<em>this</em>
+is entirely in line with the processes of Nature and the laws of God, so
+far as we know them.</p>
+
+<p>All progress has its culminating point.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;ons have passed to produce the most exquisite crystals, the highest
+forms of vegetation, of animals, of men. Then came the slow processes of
+civilising and educating men; the dim instincts of fear and
+propitiation, merging, by slow degrees, in the first conceptions of
+Love, as something apart from desire, and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Was I to be expected to shut my eyes to all these known facts, and bolt
+down the theories contained in one Book, written by human authors, no
+matter how admirable?</p>
+
+<p>I felt it was impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Then I remembered with relief that these very dogmas, as a matter of
+fact, were in so fluent a state, that my own bare fifty years of living
+had seen at least four different high-water marks!</p>
+
+<p>Here again therefore, under my very eyes, was the universal law of
+progress working, the moment it <em>could</em> work, by being released from the
+swaddling-clothes of the Roman Catholic Church, which, so far as it is
+orthodox, is fossilised.</p>
+
+<p>I saw also that the whole body of dissent had moved on, taking up its
+pegs and planting them a little further on each time; till a City
+temple, with its widening theology, was an established fact.</p>
+
+<p>Progress everywhere&mdash;slow, but sure&mdash;and the pace getting quicker, even
+in my short span! Still, the <em>uniqueness</em> of Jesus of Nazareth and His
+influence over the nineteen centuries was a puzzle.</p>
+
+<p>Buddha's influence has lasted longer, Mahomet's almost as long (the two
+cancel any way), but I have always recognised an <em>advance</em> in the
+teaching of Jesus Christ. He brought a fresh element, in the personal
+note of the Sonship with GOD.</p>
+
+<p>I was at this point when I came over here. Now through your mind I have
+been able to see, and, oddly enough, to quicken in your soul, the seed
+already planted there.</p>
+
+<p>They tell me the illumination came to you years ago, at
+Oberammergau&mdash;no, not when you were there for the Passion Play&mdash;four
+years earlier.</p>
+
+<p>You took it in with your head then, not with your heart. Old traditions
+were too strong, I suppose, and you had not made up the last little bit
+of your mind, to be true to the convictions that had come to you through
+your prayers for light.</p>
+
+<p>And so you have gone on, see-sawing to and fro, not really believing the
+old orthodox ideas, but not courageously sweeping them away for
+yourself. So although the key was in your hands, you have not used it
+until now. You have given me the key, and I have been allowed, as <em>my</em>
+New Year's gift, to fit it in the door.</p>
+
+<p>This is how Jesus Christ has stood so long at the door of <em>your</em> heart
+and knocked. He could only enter through the one door&mdash;namely, <em>that one
+opened in the highest point of your spiritual realisation</em>. I see now
+that He comes in at that door in each soul, and, as spiritual evolution
+unfolds in each heart, so is the special position of that door shifted;
+but the fact of His presence is the vital one! It was not possible for
+Him to do otherwise than hide His face, as it were, whilst you were
+barring His only door of access&mdash;<em>i.e. your true point of realisation</em>.</p>
+
+<p>It all seems so clear to me now. And this is how He comes to so many in
+different guises.</p>
+
+<p>He is the Perfected Manifestation of GOD, as the Divine Man&mdash;the Flower
+of Humanity.</p>
+
+<p>But He can come into the heart in the narrowest creed, so long as the
+holder of that creed is at <em>his true point of growth</em> and not trying to
+stifle God's gift of ever-advancing truth by cowardly want of trust, or
+fear of being worse off in the end, by being absolutely honest to himself
+and his own convictions in the present.</p>
+
+<p>It has been a long message, and you have taken much of it awkwardly, but
+on the whole it represents what I wanted to say.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 46em;">H. D.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;I feel now that you want to know what I meant by telling Miss R.
+it was the <em>likeness</em> to the old world which puzzled me here.</p>
+
+<p>You see, we have all imbibed traditional ideas with our mother's milk,
+however much our intellects may have modified them. Instinct is stronger
+than intellect, because it is more elemental.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that struck me was that truths which are latent on
+earth are made manifest here.</p>
+
+<p>(Here comes an interpolation.)</p>
+
+<p>You can take my words so easily that we must guard against wasting time
+in mere verbosity. I must teach you to condense more. We must strike
+some sort of balance between my brevity and your amplification. At
+present it is as well to get the instrument into proper working order
+before worrying too much over these details.</p>
+
+<p>(He then resumed.)</p>
+
+<p>It is as if you turned the old earth garment inside out, and saw the
+very fabric of it, which the earth looms have hitherto concealed by the
+warp and woof of the manufactured article.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, you are told on earth that you are making your own future
+conditions by right or wrong thinking. <em>Here</em> you see the absolute,
+<em>material</em> results of right and wrong thinking, just as if you were
+looking at two different patterns, woven by two different workers. I
+said material results, because matter here is just as real as it was on
+earth, and just as illusory, in one sense, in both spheres. Your matter
+is unreal to us. Our matter is unreal to you. The truth is, both are
+shadows cast by an antecedent reality on the Screens of the Universe.</p>
+
+<p>The screens are the school-houses through which humanity learns its
+lessons.</p>
+
+<p>Don't be worried! There is no real difficulty in using your hand; it is
+only trying to compromise between your redundancy and my brevity.</p>
+
+<p>Earth is like a gallery of sculpture. (Note by E. K. B.&mdash;This simile had
+flashed through my brain, and H. D. at once said: "Yes, that is very
+good; you started it, and I pick it up and apply it.") All the figures
+and groups are perfected and complete in their marble or bronze or
+terra-cotta, as the case may be.</p>
+
+<p>Some groups or figures are noble, others mediocre, others again may be
+sensual and degrading, but they have one quality in common&mdash;for good or
+bad, they are <em>ready made</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Now go into the sculptor's studio, having studied well in the great
+sculpture galleries of the world. You go to the studio, we will suppose,
+as a pupil. He puts a lump of clay into your hands, and for the first
+time you are invited to model your own statues and figures, to embody
+your own ideas in this clay, which corresponds to thought stuff <em>here</em>.
+You are even made to understand that your houses will only be worthily
+furnished by the work of your own hands. <em>Here</em> it is the work of your
+own hearts, of your loving or unloving thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>So the first lesson we learn over here is that THOUGHT is not only
+Creative Power, as you are often told on earth, but it is also the very
+stuff out of which the creation must be moulded. It is, in very truth,
+the clay of the modeller.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare said truly enough "We are such stuff as dreams are made of,"
+but he was referring to our embodied selves.</p>
+
+<p>The difference between the two worlds seems to me, so far as I have
+arrived, as the difference between the pupil in the sculpture gallery
+and in the experimental studio. The chief part of the earth modelling is
+ready made&mdash;made by the racial thought stuff and the racial manipulation
+of it.</p>
+
+<p><em>Here</em>, for the first time, we must turn to and take a hand in the work
+ourselves. It would not be possible to give such individual power in any
+lower sphere than this, for it would be misused, and would lead to
+terrible tragedies.</p>
+
+<p>You see some slight hints of this in what is called Black Magic&mdash;the
+wilful and intentional throwing of evil conditions on other people,
+making hard and cruel images of them in the mind, and so forth. But all
+that is as child's play to what would happen if the absolute clay were
+put into their hands, as it is here.</p>
+
+<p>It is the difference between thinking out an ugly picture; and painting
+it and hanging it up in a gallery; for we have objectivity here as with
+you. Naturally what comes into objective existence has more power than
+what remains latent. The latter can only influence exceptionally
+sensitive souls, and that to a comparatively small extent, whereas the
+former, here as with you, has a much farther range of influence.</p>
+
+<p>So this sort of gunpowder is not given to us until we are old enough to
+know better than to burn our fingers with it, in trying to make
+fireworks!</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, as all stages of evolution overlap, it is inevitable
+that some hint of these possibilities should be already in your world.
+Woe be to those who misuse them!</p>
+
+<p>You have taken enough for this morning.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;H. D.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>IV</h3>
+
+<p>The friend I have called Mr Harry Denton, during his psychic researches,
+came, as many others have done, very strongly under the influence of
+"Imperator," the chief of the Stainton Moses controls.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that this was the case, especially during the last three or four
+years of my friend's life, and I always rather resented the fact, for
+the limitations of Imperator have always appealed to me so strongly, as
+to dim, perhaps unduly, his undoubted claims to appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>I have read many of the private Stainton Moses' records (thanks to my
+friendship with the executor, with whom these journals were left), and
+in all those referring to Imperator's communications, there was to my
+mind the same note of cock-sureness and mental tyranny.</p>
+
+<p>There was too much of finality and self-assertion, too much of "<em>Thus
+saith the Lord</em>," about Imperator's remarks for my rebellious soul. I
+could never be strongly impressed by any personality, however admirable,
+that so palpably exacted allegiance and unquestioning obedience. These
+must be the unconscious tribute to the Genius of Holiness, as to any
+other sort of genius; never an enforced levy upon us.</p>
+
+<p>So at least it seems to me. Certainly I would not escape one sort of
+priestcraft to set up another in its place, whether the niche be filled
+by Mrs Besant or Mrs Eddy or Mr Sinnett, or any other fallible
+fellow-creature. Not even Imperator can strike me as infallible; and his
+own evident belief in that direction does not affect the question.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me rather to be deplored that Mr Denton, with his wide
+outlook and cosmic conceptions, should fall so strongly under any
+special influence, even that of the admirable Imperator!</p>
+
+<p>So I was curious to know what his views were upon this subject from the
+other side of the veil. I will now leave him to speak for himself.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;You want me to tell you just my position about the Imperator
+group before and since I passed to this side? That is easily done.
+Remember, the teaching I got through Imperator was practically the first
+<em>spiritual</em> teaching I ever had&mdash;the first I mean, of course, that I
+could assimilate, because it appealed to my reason, as well as to my
+sense of the fitness of things&mdash;and therefore I can never feel
+sufficiently grateful to him and his group; and I see that they can
+teach many who would not be amenable to a more distinctly spiritual
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Imperator is a great force in his way; a sort of plough that goes over
+the hard, caked-up earth and throws it open to the sunshine and rain and
+all Nature's beautiful influences, to all the possibility of Divine
+influences on the corresponding sphere.</p>
+
+<p>But the limitation of Imperator I see clearly now, as you always appear
+to have done.</p>
+
+<p>He is, as you say, too final and too dogmatic. This is at once his
+weakness and his strength: his weakness, because it limits his own
+spiritual receptivity; his strength, because it focusses his power in
+dealing with materialistic minds.</p>
+
+<p>A more spiritually true perspective in his communications would rule out
+half the souls to whom his appeal is made.</p>
+
+<p><em>Stainton Moses has also progressed beyond the Imperator influence, and
+this is why the communications between them had become so clogged and so
+liable to error.</em></p>
+
+<p>S. M. could not switch on to the old wires, as in the days when his
+horizon was bounded by them. This accounts, I see, for much of the
+misconception and apparent inconsistency of the remarks made through Mrs
+Piper, but it was very disheartening for the investigator as time went
+on and the "Light" became more and more clouded. Then there was the
+additional fact to be faced, that Mrs Piper herself became, psychically
+rather than physically, exhausted, and less able to be used from this
+side.</p>
+
+<p>Now I see you want to know about Frank Strong, and what he said about
+sin existing only on your plane, and how inconsistent this was with the
+previous teachings of Stainton Moses, who was supposed to be speaking
+through Frank's assistance.</p>
+
+<p>It is so difficult to explain everything in black and white when there
+are so many shades of grey, so many degrees and amounts to be
+considered. It is like a question in mechanics.</p>
+
+<p>With increased momentum you get an increased rate as multiplied by
+space. I am not an expert, but this is practically true. In the same
+way, spiritual perception acts with increased momentum.</p>
+
+<p>All sin is failure in spiritual perception. Spiritual perception
+corresponds with the momentum of a falling body in mechanics. Only in
+Divine mechanics it is a <em>rising</em> body; but the same law holds good.</p>
+
+<p>You say truly that an action can only be called sinful when the sinner
+knows the higher and deliberately turns to the lower.</p>
+
+<p>That is true; but it is only half a truth. It is still the <em>lack of
+knowledge</em> that causes sin. With the fulness of knowledge of the higher
+(only another way of putting fulness of spiritual perception) <em>must</em>
+come the righteousness of life.</p>
+
+<p>It is the broken gleams, the little knowledge, which is truly a
+dangerous thing, for it brings responsibility, and therefore the
+capacity for sinning. Yet the <em>choice</em> between good and evil fully made,
+is the schoolmaster to bring us to the full realisation of our nature as
+Sons of God.</p>
+
+<p>Now when Frank came over here, he was so greatly impressed by the
+dynamic force of spiritual perception that for the time he lost all
+sense of proportion and accuracy of judgment. Compared with the old
+earth temptations, those in his sphere seemed non-existent, whilst the
+temptations to goodness were enormously increased.</p>
+
+<p>What wonder that in the delightful sensation caused by his sense of
+moral and spiritual freedom from old shackles, he should exclaim with
+youthful fervour: "Sin is only possible in your sphere&mdash;it is unknown
+here!" Any communications of which he formed the channel, would of
+necessity be coloured by this dominant idea of his. Everything is a
+question of degree, and he is learning that lesson now, I find. He says:
+"Why do people in the earth life quote our words as if we were Delphic
+Oracles?"</p>
+
+<p>Why, indeed? But I am afraid I did much the same whilst so strongly
+under the Imperator influence.</p>
+
+<p>E. K. B.&mdash;Why is Imperator so slow in throwing off his own spiritual
+limitations?</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;I can read your mind so easily. It is quick and alert, and has
+already answered its own question. It is because he has a work to do on
+your plane amongst those who could not come in touch with a higher
+spiritual development. There are spiritual as well as scientific
+martyrs, you must remember; and he is one of them. But the Divine
+Economy works very beautifully here. He is not conscious of any
+spiritual limitation, and therefore he is happy in his work, and the
+martyrdom I spoke of is <em>unconscious</em>. When it becomes conscious, with
+him it will mean that his present plane of work is finished, and that he
+will be removed to another "<em>Form</em>" so soon as he is prepared to teach
+there.</p>
+
+<p>He is essentially a teacher, and a valuable one, for those who have not
+soared beyond his present perceptions. It is all so much more simple and
+reasonable than you suppose. It is these crusted old creeds that have
+misrepresented actual conditions, and yet they also have been, as
+Imperator; doing their own work amongst the people to whom they have
+acted as necessary stepping-stones.</p>
+
+<p>That is enough for to-day; take a rest now.  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;H.D.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>V</h3>
+
+<p>The following conversation between Mr Denton and myself (the last of the
+series which I propose to give) took place, I see, at Buxton, 4th
+September 1906.</p>
+
+<p>There had been some correspondence in <em>The Daily Telegraph</em> about Time
+as a fourth Dimension, and I asked my friend if he could say anything to
+me on the subject. His reply was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Time is really a form of perception, <em>not a thing in itself</em>&mdash;do you
+understand?</p>
+
+<p>Your limitation of perception you call <em>Time</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Another limitation is called <em>Distance</em>.</p>
+
+<p>This also is an illusion, or a limitation, whichever you choose to call
+it.</p>
+
+<p><em>The White Ray is the Absolute.</em> The spectroscope gives you the
+limitation which makes the colours perceptible to your human eyes. For
+the one who is free from these limitations, all colours exist and are
+present in consciousness at the same moment. But they must be split up
+and observed severally to enter into the earth consciousness. It is
+exactly the parallel of Time.</p>
+
+<p><em>Events in Time coincide with the colours in the Ray.</em> All exist
+simultaneously for the one who is free from limitations. All must be
+brought into sequence for the one who is bound by limitations.</p>
+
+<p>This is really the key to so many puzzles, and accounts for so many
+occult phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>As we transcend the normal earth limits ever so little, so do we develop
+these abnormal powers, as they are called. But here, as everywhere, the
+reality is just the converse of the apparent.</p>
+
+<p>The true norm is the Perfect Ray&mdash;the Ceaseless Sound&mdash;the Perfect
+Vision; and the abnormal is the limitation upon the earth, or upon any
+succeeding plane, short of the Absolute. But naturally we consider that
+normal which happens to be our standpoint for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Already to me the earth limitations appear <em>abnormal</em>, and my more
+extended capacities mark the norm of existence for me. This must be the
+case naturally.</p>
+
+<p><em>Prevision</em> would be more accurately termed <em>Whole vision</em>&mdash;seeing the
+whole and not the tiny section.</p>
+
+<p>In moments of intense joy or realisation of any kind, Time seems to
+cease, and a moment may hold an Eternity. Any absorbing emotion, joyful
+or sorrowful, may bring this experience. For the moment <em>you are out of
+yourselves</em>. This is literally true. You are living in the next
+Dimension. Time and Space no longer exist for you. Most of you have had
+some such experience, but of necessity it can be a flash only in the
+midst of your normal life. Ask me something now.</p>
+
+<p>E. K. B.&mdash;A man writing lately in <em>The Daily Telegraph</em> of Time as a
+fourth Dimension said something about the cube as being an infinite
+number of flat planes of infinite tenuity, heaped up one over the other.
+To the person who knew only length and breadth, the cube would have no
+existence. Such a person would realise only an infinite number of planes
+in sequence. Yet they would all <em>co-exist</em> for the three-dimensional man
+of the present day. The suggestion appeared to be that, in exactly a
+similar way, events which to the three-dimensional man can only be
+perceived normally <em>in sequence</em>, would <em>co-exist</em> for a
+four-dimensional being. This would mean practically the annihilation of
+Time, as giving sequence. Do you see Truth in this idea, and can you
+tell me if it extends also to Space?</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;Certainly. That is just what I meant as regards Distance. <em>All</em>
+limitations are mental, as a matter of fact. We have them here, but
+infinitely fewer than in the old earth life.</p>
+
+<p>Mind has always been able to flash from pole to pole and to affect those
+at a distance, because mind and distance occupy two different planes.
+The latter is an earth limitation. As the veil lifts a little, even on
+your side, so you become conscious that mind has these powers; but the
+powers were always there. It merely means that you have come up with
+your own mental capacities to some small degree.</p>
+
+<p>E. K. B.&mdash;Is there any help here for my constant problem: Why should
+one's individual life be only <em>now</em> evolving in Eternity? Do you see
+what I mean?</p>
+
+<p>H. D.&mdash;Yes; but I hardly know the answer to that tremendous problem.
+Still, I will try to suggest a few thoughts to you.</p>
+
+<p>To be conscious of holiness and virtue we must have known its
+antithesis&mdash;evil and separation, which are really synonymous. Separation
+from Holiness <em>is</em> evil. It is a condition, a limitation.</p>
+
+<p>It is to the Divine Essence just such a limitation as Time is to the
+mortal. Separation is therefore the antecedent cause of all
+limitations. These <em>must</em> exist where the Wholeness or Holiness is
+absent.</p>
+
+<p>I must use the language of earth or you would not understand. Logically,
+of course, Holiness can never be absent, since it is the cause of all
+Existence; but it is <em>apparently absent</em>, and this apparent absence,
+this separation, this evil in fact, acts as a spectroscope. <em>It
+analyses, and thus brings into our consciousness the White Ray of the
+Divine Nature.</em></p>
+
+<p>We can go no further than that. The Divine Chemistry, beyond this fact,
+must remain a mystery, probably for ages to come.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot tell <em>why</em> things are thus arranged; we only know that it is
+so.</p>
+
+<p>As well ask <em>why</em> the White Ray of Light gives out its colours only
+through separating them.</p>
+
+<p>But it is easier to speak of the co-ordination of <em>events</em>. Take your
+own suggestion of the cube&mdash;that will help us best.</p>
+
+<p>Take it that each life is a cube of planes, of experiences. These
+experiences are co-existent and knit together, as firmly in the life of
+a human being as the many planes are co-existing, and knit together in a
+mathematical cube. You can dissect the cube and slice off infinitesimal
+small planes in sections.</p>
+
+<p>So is the individual life sliced off into an infinite number of planes
+by the sequences of Time (our three-dimensional condition).</p>
+
+<p>But these experiences&mdash;great or small, important or trivial (from your
+point of view)&mdash;<em>exist in the cube of that person's earth pilgrimage</em>,
+as the colours exist in the White Ray.</p>
+
+<p>The Ray may be split up into sequence, but the colours belong to it all
+the same, and by a <em>perfectly seeing eye</em> would be known and recognised
+without the help of the spectroscope.</p>
+
+<p>The true seer is the one who sees the cube of your life; before whom it
+is spread out, without Time Separations, into planes of experience. This
+is the real secret of all <em>foretelling</em>. Such people, when honest, have
+some amount of access to the cube of earth life, some more, some less.</p>
+
+<p>Many mix up and confuse what they see; but they do see beyond the plane
+section which Time gives to the normal human being.</p>
+
+<p>I think you have taken enough now.</p>
+
+<p>I will only add that, of course&mdash;as you know&mdash;there is nothing arbitrary
+in the cube of life, as I have called it. It is built up of necessary
+experiences and necessary consequences. But it is built up by Love and
+Wisdom, the two Elements of the Divine Nature, in which we live and move
+and have our being.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 56em;">H. D.</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>VI</h3>
+
+<p>The next selection that I shall give from my automatic script comes from
+an entirely different personality, which can be sufficiently indicated
+by the initials E. G.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>E. G.&mdash;Worship is a necessary part of each soul's training, and we can
+only worship that which we feel to be above and beyond ourselves. As we
+grow older and become more developed in spiritual consciousness, so do
+we tend more and more to worship the inner and intangible, rather than
+the outer and manifest. So whilst the instinct of worship is always the
+same, the objects and methods must continually change with our own
+advancing realisation and unfolding consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Those limitations which once made for reverence are in time found to be
+cramping and to lead to superstition.</p>
+
+<p>It is the same with the education of either children or of childish
+nations.</p>
+
+<p>In both cases a <em>display</em> of power is necessary to command obedience,
+because the childish mind can only apprehend from the outer, and realise
+the existence of that which it sees physically demonstrated. Tell a
+child of tender years that to be naughty is to be unhappy, and in
+ninety-nine cases out of one hundred he will neither understand nor
+believe you. But take away his toys or his sweets or put him in a
+corner; make him, in fact, <em>physically</em> aware of the truth that to be
+naughty is to bring unpleasant consequences upon himself, and you have
+taken the only argument which he is capable of realising at a certain
+point of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>This is why certain nations, at the child point of development, <em>must</em>
+be treated as children. They don't realise the appeal to the spiritual,
+and will only misconceive you and your motives, and read cowardice in
+your attempt to treat from a standpoint they have not reached.</p>
+
+<p>It is the same with certain religions, and this is the cause of much
+failure in mission work.</p>
+
+<p>Theosophy and Roman Catholicism appeal strongly to comparatively
+immature minds.</p>
+
+<p>Those who care more for form than for essence are always in the immature
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>They love big words and mysterious sayings and doings. To have something
+apart from others&mdash;whether it be happiness or knowledge&mdash;is their idea
+of bliss. Hence in most theosophists, as in all Roman Catholic converts,
+you find this note of immaturity and monopoly. I say <em>converts</em>, because
+those born in the Roman Catholic faith are on different ground. Their
+spiritual life may grow and develop in spite of the creed limitations
+into which Fate has cast them, but those who deliberately <em>choose</em> such
+limitations give the best possible proof of their own standpoint. And
+the same may be said also of all strict creed religions.</p>
+
+<p>They have their great and valuable uses, as prison bars have their uses
+in a community which has not learnt to respect the rights and property
+of its neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>Withdraw these bars and you let loose upon society a pestilential crew
+of murderers and marauders. Relax the bars of creed and you will find
+the same result. But as bars are not necessary for the advanced souls
+who recognise that to murder or defraud their fellow-creatures leads to
+their own misery, apart from any detection or punishment, so creeds are
+not necessary, under a corresponding evolution of the spiritual
+instinct, which tallies with the social and moral instincts noted above.</p>
+
+<p>And as treadmills and oakum picking can be dismissed in the one case, so
+can much of the theological machinery for the discipline and punishment
+of sinners against spiritual laws be dispensed with, in the case of
+those who are, spiritually speaking, <em>coming of age</em>.</p>
+
+<p>They come then into the full liberty of Sons of God, and shall be no
+more treated as servants, <em>but as sons</em>, as the Apostle puts it.</p>
+
+<p>This brings me to my special subject.</p>
+
+<p>There are many things of great and transcending interest which we are
+obliged to keep secret from our younger children, partly because they
+would fail to understand, but still more because they would
+<em>misunderstand</em>, and this to their own hurt and disadvantage; not to
+speak of possible injury to others through them.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritual Evolution is the true Doctrine, but it is not food for babes
+in spiritual life.</p>
+
+<p>To have an unlimited series of advancing lives and advancing experiences
+unfolded before their eyes would not only dismay and bewilder, but would
+also paralyse their energy for good, and terribly augment their capacity
+for evil&mdash;for the <em>not good</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Until they are sufficiently versed in spiritual experience to realise
+the difference between purity and impurity, good and evil, God and the
+world, fame and peace, pleasure and happiness, the peace which passes
+understanding and the false glamour of sensual passion and sensuous
+self-indulgence, so long it is dangerous for them to know, with absolute
+certainty, the real facts of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Even the terrible and abhorrent pictures of an Eternal Hell, of endless
+flames and of undying worms, have had their uses.</p>
+
+<p>In this form alone could the thoroughly immature mind be made to realise
+the discomfort and misery that would inevitably attend wrong-doing. It
+<em>was</em> a truth, although not a literal truth. Many literal truths convey
+a false impression to the immature mind, whilst a symbolic truth may
+convey as true an impression as such a mind is capable of receiving.</p>
+
+<p>The old ideas of Heaven and Hell are already doomed; but other ideas,
+equally untrue from the literal point of view, still hold their own, and
+will be more slowly eradicated. It is well this should be so. The world
+at large is not prepared yet to take this further step.</p>
+
+<p>Frequent examinations have been found useful and inevitable in school
+training, both as a test of progress and still more as an encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>If you tell a school of boys and girls in January that a grand
+examination will be held the following December, do you suppose they
+will work as well and as diligently as if they knew there will be short
+examinations at Easter and more important ones at midsummer?</p>
+
+<p>Again, if you tell boys of ten years old, who are learning a little
+history, geography, and arithmetic, just in the Rule of Three and simple
+fractions, with perhaps a little Latin; of the Algebra and Euclid and
+Conic sections and higher Mathematics, and Latin and Greek verse and
+Hebrew and Philosophy, which they must some day confront, you will
+puzzle and paralyse their brains, and leave only a sense of misery and
+revolt and helplessness, which will quickly show forth in reckless
+despair, even concerning the tasks which are well within their present
+capacity.</p>
+
+<p>God, in His Infinite Wisdom (of which ours is the feeblest reflection),
+acts in precisely the same way as wise fathers and wise teachers.</p>
+
+<p>Your earth is more or less of an infant school, but before leaving it,
+some of you must prepare for the higher classes and learn to take your
+own spiritual responsibilities.</p>
+
+<p>It is seen that in these days of reaction and readjustment, many minds
+are puzzled and perplexed by the old doctrines, which they have
+outgrown, and which were never more than the outer husk and protection
+for the inner kernel&mdash;the casket for the jewel of spiritual truth.</p>
+
+<p>The one term of probation&mdash;the one chance for progress&mdash;the immediate
+Heaven or Hell&mdash;the Great White Throne of Judgment, instant and
+inevitable&mdash;all these correspond with the frequent examinations, with
+the good and bad marks&mdash;the judging of the school work at the end of
+each term. The only difference lies in the fact that the schoolboy
+<em>knows</em> he has other terms in front of him, and we are all aware that
+this is a very unfortunate fact where an idle boy is concerned.</p>
+
+<p>How often you may hear them say: "Never mind! I'm a bit behind now&mdash;but
+I have three years more&mdash;I shall catch up later." And this is probably
+just what they fail to do; for with such characters it is always
+<em>to-morrow</em> that is to see the reformation which so often comes only
+when life has taught its hard lessons to the defaulter.</p>
+
+<p>Is it not apparent, therefore, that there has been wisdom and goodness
+in our very theological mistakes and illusions?</p>
+
+<p>The opposition to spiritualistic teachings has its good and healthy
+side. It is really the fierce antagonism of the undeveloped nature
+towards a truth it dimly apprehends to be ahead of its own development;
+and, tiresome as it seems, and <em>is</em> from one point of view, it is the
+best safeguard for the world at large.</p>
+
+<p>Unimaginable horrors would come to pass upon the earth were Power as
+well as Knowledge put into the hands of the crude and undeveloped.</p>
+
+<p>It would be arming savages with Winchester rifles and quick-firing guns.</p>
+
+<p><em>Never regret</em>, therefore, this opposition, even whilst fighting against
+it in individual cases.</p>
+
+<p>Both <em>must</em> grow together till the Harvest&mdash;the Tares and Wheat, the
+Crude and the Developed&mdash;and the former are the enormous majority.</p>
+
+<p>This is the reason why all Truth must be born into each world through a
+fight and an agony; for it always comes as an advance upon normal
+conditions, no matter in which sphere it may be. And it is through the
+struggle that the Victory comes and the Light is born.</p>
+
+<p>Let people jeer and deride when they hear of a future life, not so very
+different from your own; of houses and lectures and boats and horses, of
+pet animals, and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Those who jeer and deride or talk of blasphemy are still at the orthodox
+stage, when it is well for them to know only of <em>one</em> school, of <em>one</em>
+term, of <em>one</em> chance, and of an immediate and final judgment for the
+deeds done on earth.</p>
+
+<p>Others are old enough (spiritually speaking) to know the truth
+<em>i.e.</em>&mdash;that GOD is in <em>all</em>, of an infinite series of spheres, through
+which each travelling soul must pass, gaining ever fresh light, growing
+ever into fresh knowledge and realisation of Divine Beauty and Divine
+Love; spheres differing little externally from the one left behind, but
+enormously in the capacities and qualities which by degrees the soul
+will unfold in the Cosmic Journey.</p>
+
+<p>The outer will become more and more the result of the inner condition;
+for the creative faculty, scarcely born with you, flourishes in the
+ascending spiral. Down here you are babes, with your clothes made for
+you, your bottles filled for you, and dependent on others for the
+conditions of life, but by degrees you will enter on the full
+responsibility and the full joy and glory of independent existence,
+which yet will be unified&mdash;first into the life of the Affinities&mdash;the
+True and completed Being&mdash;and then into the life of that Body of
+<em>Christ</em>, of which St Paul speaks in his prophetic moments, where "there
+shall be neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, Bond nor Free," but
+<em>Christos</em>, the glorified and crowned Humanity, shall be all in all&mdash;GOD
+IN MAN; the coping-stone of the Building, whose foundations were laid as
+MAN (the Image and Likeness of God) IN GOD.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 100%;' />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Seen and Unseen
+
+Author: E. Katharine Bates
+
+Release Date: April 12, 2007 [EBook #21041]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEN AND UNSEEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Storer, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Inconsistency between TOC and Chapter headings
+have been retained as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+                            SEEN AND UNSEEN
+
+                                  BY
+                          E. KATHARINE BATES
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                        DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY
+                        214-220 EAST 23RD STREET
+
+                                 1908
+
+
+
+
+                   _First Published    July    1907_
+
+                   _Second Impression  October 1907_
+
+                   _Third Impression   March   1908_
+
+                               ----------
+
+                   _Popular Edition            1908_
+
+
+
+
+                                  To
+
+                               C. E. B.
+
+                             IN MEMORY OF
+
+                      ONE WHO LOVED AND SUFFERED
+
+                   AND IN THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE
+
+                       OF A JOYFUL MEETING WITH
+
+                         HIM, AND WITH OTHERS
+
+                           WHO HAVE CROSSED
+
+                               THE BAR
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+          INTRODUCTION                                  ix
+      I.  EARLY RECOLLECTIONS                            1
+     II.  INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886          13
+    III.  AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND                     49
+     IV.  HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK               71
+      V.  INDIA, 1890-1891                              80
+     VI.  SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892                       97
+          AN INTERLUDE                                 129
+    VII.  LADY CAITHNESS AND THE AVENUE WAGRAM         144
+   VIII.  FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON                     161
+     IX.  1896, HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD   176
+      X.  FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA               195
+     XI.  A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND                  218
+    XII.  1900-1901, ODDS AND ENDS                     232
+   XIII.  1903, A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA                260
+    XIV.  A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY    274
+          APPENDIX                                     298
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Many years ago, whilst living at Oxford, I was invited by a very old
+friend, who had recently taken his degree, to a river picnic; with
+Nuneham, I think, as its alleged object.
+
+Unfortunately, the day proved unfavourable, and we returned in open
+boats, also with open umbrellas; a generally drenched and bedraggled
+appearance, and nothing to cheer us on the physical plane except a
+quantity of iced coffee which had been ordered in anticipation of a
+tropical day.
+
+Under these rather trying conditions I can remember getting a good
+deal of amusement out of the companions in the special boat which
+proved to be my fate. Our host, being a clever and interesting man
+himself, had collected clever and interesting people round him, on the
+"Birds of a Feather" principle, and I happened to sit between two
+ladies, one the wife (now, alas! the widow) of a man who was to become
+later on one of our most famous bishops; the other--her bosom friend
+and deadly rival--the wife of an equally distinguished Oxford don.
+
+The iced coffee combined with the pouring rain may have been partly to
+blame, but certainly the conversation that went on between the two
+ladies, across my umbrella, was decidedly _Feline_.
+
+To pass the time we were valiantly endeavouring to play "Twenty
+Questions" from the bottom of the boat, and the Bishop's widow was
+asking the questions. She had triumphantly elicited the fact that we
+had thought of a _cinder_--and an historical cinder--and the twentieth
+and last permissible question was actually hovering on her lips. "It
+was the cinder that Richard Coeur de Lion's horse fell upon," she
+said eagerly. Of course, we all realised that this was a most obvious
+"slip" in the case of so highly educated a woman; but the Bosom Friend
+could not resist putting out the velvet paw: "A little confusion in
+the centuries, I think, dear," she said sweetly. The unfortunate
+questioner practically "never smiled again" during _that_ expedition.
+But a still more crushing blow was in store for her.
+
+The conversation turned later upon questions of style in writing or
+speaking, and with perhaps pardonable revenge, she said to her rival:
+
+"I always notice that you say 'one' so often--'_one_ does this or
+that,' and so forth."
+
+"Really, dear? That is curious. Now I always notice that _you_ say 'I'
+so continually!"
+
+The cut and thrust came with the rapidity of expert fencers.
+
+And this brings me to the real gist of my story.
+
+It is considered the most heinous offence "_to say I_," and every
+conceivable device is resorted to, no matter how clumsy, in order to
+prevent the catastrophe of a writer being forced to speak of himself in
+the first person.
+
+To my mind, there is a good deal of affectation and pose about this, and
+in anything of an autobiography it becomes insupportable.
+
+"The writer happened upon one occasion to be present, etc." "He who pens
+these unworthy pages was once travelling to Scotland, etc. etc."
+
+Which of us has not groaned under these self-conscious euphemisms? "Why
+not say '_I_' and have done with it?" we are wont to exclaim in
+desperation after pages of this kind of thing.
+
+Now I propose "to say _I_" and "have done with it," and not waste time
+in trying to find ingenious and wearisome equivalents.
+
+That is my first point.
+
+Secondly, in this record of psychic experiences I mean to keep clear of
+another intolerable nuisance--I mean the continual introduction of
+capital letters and long dashes in order to conceal identity in such
+episodes.
+
+The motive is admirable, but the method is detestable.
+
+One can only judge by personal experience. I know that when I read a
+rather involved narrative of sufficiently involved psychic doings, and
+Mr Q----, Miss B----, Mr C----, and Mr C.'s maternal aunt Mrs G----
+figure wildly in it, I am driven desperate in trying to force some idea
+of personality into these meaningless letters of the alphabet.
+
+To conceal the identity of Mr Brown, who was once guilty of seeing a
+ghost, may be and most frequently is, a point of honour, but why not
+call him Mr Smith, and say he lived in Buckinghamshire, and thus rouse
+a definite mental conception in your reader's brain, instead of
+calling him Mr Z. of W----, and thus setting up mental irritation
+before the ghost comes upon the scene?
+
+Having cleared the ground so far, I will now mention my third and last
+point.
+
+It is usual when writing reminiscences of any kind to anticipate your
+reader's criticisms, and try to increase his interest in your
+experiences by a sort of false humility in deprecating their value.
+The idea is doubtless founded on a sound knowledge of Human Nature,
+but it may easily fall into exaggeration. Nothing is, of course, so
+disastrous as to praise beforehand a person, a picture, a voice, a
+poem, a book, or anything else in the wide world, in which we wish our
+friends to take any special interest. Such a course naturally rouses
+unconscious antagonism in poor, fallen Human Nature before we even see
+or hear the object of our later bitter aversion. But there is a medium
+in all things, and it is scarcely polite to put the intelligence of
+our readers sufficiently low to be manipulated by such obvious arts.
+
+Moreover, it has been well said that the history of any one human
+being--truthfully told (I would add, intelligently assimilated)--would
+be of enthralling interest and value. If this be true on the ordinary
+physical, intellectual, and spiritual planes it should not be _less_
+true, surely, where a fourth plane of psychic experience is added to the
+other three?
+
+Then again, there is no need to apologise for experiences limited in
+interest or in amount.
+
+These terms are of necessity comparative. For example, my experiences
+are limited compared with those of some people I have known, who have
+been either more highly endowed with psychic gifts or who have
+considered it advisable to cultivate such gifts to a high point of
+efficiency; or lastly, with whom opportunities for experience have been
+more numerous. But, on the other hand, my experiences have been great
+compared with those of some people at least equally interested in these
+subjects.
+
+Geographically speaking, I have been peculiarly fortunate, having had
+the opportunity of witnessing phenomena of this kind in many countries,
+differing widely in Race, Climate, and other conditions.
+
+I have been told many times that I could develop clairvoyance,
+clairaudience, or sit as a materialising medium, but have had no desire
+to go further in these matters.
+
+I have seen quite as much as I wish to see, I have heard quite as much
+as I wish to hear, and should be very sorry personally to increase
+either of these psychic possibilities by the practice that makes more
+perfect.
+
+Some consider this lamentable cowardice and want of faith. Each one must
+judge for himself in such a matter. Faith in this connection may easily
+degenerate into foolhardiness.
+
+"Greater is He that is for you than all those who are against you" has
+been quoted to me again and again in deprecation of my attitude in these
+things. It has always appeared to me a matter in which individual
+judgment must be exercised, and upon which no broad and general lines of
+conduct can be laid down.
+
+One man can cycle fifty miles in the day, and dance all night, and be
+the better for the experience. Another attempting the same feat, but
+not having the same constitution, might do himself lasting injury. It is
+exactly the same thing on the psychic plane. Our psychic constitutions
+differ at least as much as our physical ones. We may overtax either, and
+with similar consequences. We have no right to expect protection or
+immunity on either plane, where we neglect the warnings of that inner
+monitor who is always our best guide.
+
+As a final word of warning, I would say: "Beware of your motives in
+cultivating psychic capacity." It is so easy to mistake love of
+notoriety, even in one's own little _milieu_, for love of Truth. There
+is always an eager, curious crowd anxious to get "messages" or "hear
+raps," or to see any other little psychic parlour tricks which we may be
+induced to play for their benefit. At first one feels it is almost a
+sacred duty to satisfy, or attempt to satisfy, these psychic cormorants;
+but later, wisdom comes with experience.
+
+At one time I felt bound to collect my friends and acquaintances round
+me and tell them all I knew upon these subjects, and doubtless it was
+right to do so whilst I "_felt that way_," to quote an expressive
+Americanism.
+
+But the inevitable day came when I realised that I had spent my strength
+and my muffins in vain; for these gatherings generally took the form of
+tea-parties, not too large to cope with single-handed--say from ten to
+twenty people. They came at 4.30 P.M. and stayed till 8 P.M., when most
+of them remembered they ought to have dined at 7.45 P.M., and went away
+saying "How immensely they had enjoyed themselves," and "How
+interesting it all was."
+
+And so far as any permanent good came of it, there the matter ended.
+
+Believe me, when people are prepared for this development of their finer
+senses _they will come to you_. There is no need to go into the highways
+and hedges and compel them to come in. If they do come they won't
+stay--why should they? _They have not got there yet_, to use a
+thoroughly hateful and ungrammatical but absolutely accurate sentence.
+
+If you try to carry them on the back of your own knowledge and
+experiences, you can do so for a time, but eventually they will struggle
+down, or you will put them down from sheer fatigue, and then they will
+run back to the spot where you found them, and thence work out their own
+psychic evolution either in this or in some future term of existence.
+
+When their interest is exhausted--to say nothing of your patience--you
+will hear that they have called you a crank and lamented your "wasting
+your time over such nonsense." That will be _your_ share of the
+transaction.
+
+I know this _because I have been there--moi qui vous parle_.
+
+"Let every man be persuaded in his own mind," but don't try to persuade
+anyone else. When the right time comes he will ask your help and counsel
+without any persuasion.
+
+Of course, I am speaking only of private work. Lectures and congresses
+are of the greatest possible value; for no one knows whom he may be
+addressing on these occasions, and the seed may be falling into soil
+prepared, but often unconsciously prepared, for its reception.
+
+To sum up the whole matter:
+
+1. Be strong in the conviction that eventually good must always conquer
+evil, but remember also that you individually may have a very bad time
+meanwhile if you go amongst mixed influences and evoke that which at
+present you are not strong enough to withstand.
+
+2. Know when to speak and when to be silent.
+
+3. Receive what comes to you spontaneously, but never allow yourself to
+be cajoled or persuaded into developing your mediumship to gratify
+curiosity; not even on the plea of scientific duty, unless you are fully
+conscious in your own mind that this is the special work which is laid
+upon you.
+
+And bearing these three simple rules in mind, we may go forward with
+brave hearts and level heads on the Quest which has been so plainly
+opened out to us in this twentieth century.
+                                              E. KATHARINE BATES.
+
+
+
+
+SEEN AND UNSEEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
+
+
+Having set myself to write a personal record of psychic experiences, I
+must "begin at the beginning," as the children say.
+
+When only nine years old I lost my father--the Rev. John Ellison Bates
+of Christ Church, Dover--and my earliest childish experience of anything
+supernormal was connected with him. He had been an invalid all my short
+life, and I was quite accustomed to spending days at a time without
+seeing him. His last illness, which lasted about a fortnight, had
+therefore no special significance for me, and my nurse, elder brother,
+and godmother, who were the only three people in the house at the time,
+gave strict orders that none of the servants should give me a hint of
+his being dangerously ill. These instructions were carefully carried
+out, and yet I dreamed three nights running--the three nights preceding
+his decease--that he was dead. I was entirely devoted to my father, who
+had been father and mother to me in one, and these dreams no doubt broke
+the terrible shock of his death to me. How well I remember, that cold,
+dreary February morning, being hastily dressed by candle-light by
+strange hands, and then my dear old nurse (who had been by his bedside
+all night) coming in and telling me the sad news with tears streaming
+down her cheeks. It seemed no news at the moment; and yet I had spoken
+of my dreams to no one, "for fear they should come true," having some
+pathetic, childish notion that silence on my part might avert the
+catastrophe. In all his previous and numerous illnesses I had never
+dreamt that any special one was fatal.
+
+During the next few years of school life my psychic faculty remained
+absolutely in abeyance. In a fashionable school, surrounded by
+chattering companions and the usual paraphernalia of school work,
+classes, and masters, etc., I can, however, recall many a time when
+suddenly everything around me became unreal and I alone seemed to have
+any true existence; and even that was for the time merged in a rather
+unpleasant dream, from which I hoped soon to wake up. This sensation was
+quite distinct from the one--also well known to me in those days and
+later--of having "done all this before," and knowing just what somebody
+was about to say.
+
+Probably both these sensations are common to most young people. It would
+be interesting to note which of the two is the more universal.
+
+I pass on now to the time when I was about eighteen years old, and a
+constant visitor, for weeks and months at a time, in the house of my
+godfather, the archdeacon of a northern diocese. His grandson, then a
+young student at Oxford, of about my own age, must have been what we
+should now call a very good sensitive. It was with him that I sat at my
+first "table," more as a matter of amusement than anything else, and
+certainly young Morton Freer treated the "spirits" in the most cavalier
+fashion. They did not seem to resent this, and he could do pretty much
+what he liked with them. This may be a good opportunity for explaining
+that when I speak in this narrative of "spirits" I do so to save
+constant periphrasis, and am quite consciously "begging the question"
+very often, as a matter of verbal convenience.
+
+In those days I don't think we troubled ourselves much about theories,
+and when we found that Morton and I alone could move a heavy dining-room
+table, or any other piece of heavy furniture quite beyond our normal
+powers, practically without exerting any strength at all, we looked upon
+it as an amusing experience without caring to inquire whether the energy
+involved had been generated on this side the veil or on the other side.
+We could certainly not have moved such weights under ordinary
+circumstances, even by putting forth all our combined strength, and we
+could only do so, for some mysterious reason, when we had been "sitting
+at the table" beforehand. Ingenious Theories of Human Electricity raised
+to a higher power by making a Human Battery, etc. etc., were not so
+common then as now, and we accepted facts without trying to solve their
+problems.
+
+The dear, hospitable Archdeacon would put his venerable head inside the
+door now and then, shake it at us half in fun, and yet a good deal in
+earnest, and I think he was more than doubtful whether our parlour
+games were quite lawful!
+
+We were very innocent and very ignorant in those days on the subject of
+psychic laws; and probably this was our salvation, for I can remember no
+terrible or weird experience, such as one reads of nowadays when tyros
+take to experiments.
+
+And yet my knowledge and experiences of later days lead me to endorse
+most heartily the well-known dictum of Lawrence Oliphant--namely, that
+when he saw people sitting down in a casual, irresponsible way to "_get
+messages through a table_," it reminded him of an ignorant child going
+into a powder magazine with a lighted match in its hand.
+
+Staying in this same house, I can next recall a flying visit from a
+brother of mine, who had just spent three months, on leave from India,
+in America, where he had taken introductions, and had been the guest of
+various hospitable naval and military men, who had shown him round the
+Washington Arsenal, West Point Academy, and so forth. My kind old host
+had begged him to take us on his way back to London; and I remember well
+his look of utter amazement when Morton and I had lured him to "the
+table" one afternoon, and he was told correctly the names of two or
+three of these American gentlemen.
+
+"I _must_ have mentioned them to my sister in my letters," he said,
+turning to the younger man. I knew this was _not_ the case, but it was
+difficult to prove a negative.
+
+It was a relief, therefore, when my brother suggested what he
+considered a "real test," where previous knowledge on my part must be
+excluded.
+
+"Let them tell me the name of a bearer I had once in India--he lived
+with me for more than twelve years--always returning to me when I came
+back from English furlough, and yet at the end of that time he suddenly
+disappeared, without rhyme or reason, and I have neither seen nor heard
+of him since. I _know_ my sister has never heard his name. _That_ would
+be something like a test, but, of course, it won't come off," he added
+cynically.
+
+The wearisome spelling out began.
+
+The table rose up at R, then at A.
+
+"Quite wrong," my brother called out in triumph. "I knew how it would be
+when any real test came. Fortunately, too, it is wildly wrong--neither
+the letter before nor the letter after the right one, so you cannot
+wriggle out of it that way."
+
+"Never mind, Major Bates," said Morton Freer good-naturedly. "Let us go
+on all the same, and see what they mean to spell out."
+
+Fortunately, we did so, with a most interesting result; for the right
+name was given after all, but spelt in the Hindoostanee and not the
+European fashion. The name in true Hindoostanee was Ram Din--but
+Europeans spelt it Rham Deen--and so my brother himself had entirely
+forgotten when the A was given that it had any connection with the man's
+name. When the whole word was spelt out, of course he remembered, and
+then his face was a study!
+
+"Good gracious! it is right enough, and that is the real Hindoostanee
+spelling, too. I never thought of that when the A came!"
+
+I think this episode knocked the bottom out of his scepticism for some
+years to come.
+
+Even now this case precludes ordinary and conscious telepathy. Mr
+Podmore would be reduced to explaining that the Hindoostanee spelling
+was latent in my brother's consciousness, though his normal self
+repudiated it.
+
+Another curious incident--still more difficult to explain upon the
+Thought Transference Theory (unless we stretch it to include a possible
+impact of _all_ thoughts, at all times and from all quarters of the
+globe, upon everyone else's brain)--occurred under the same hospitable
+roof.
+
+One of the Archdeacon's nieces came to stay in the house about this
+time. She was considerably my senior, and was very kind to me, with the
+thoughtful kindness an older woman can show to a sensitive young girl.
+This awakened in me an affection which, I am thankful to say, still
+exists between us. This lady was considerably under thirty years old at
+the time, but to my young ideas she seemed already in the sear and
+yellow leaf from the matrimonial point of view! One must remember how
+different the standard of age was more than thirty years ago!
+
+It was also the time when marriage was looked upon not only as the most
+desirable, but as almost the only _possible_, career for a woman.
+
+So when Morton and this lady and I were "sitting at the table" in the
+gloaming one evening, I said, with trembling eagerness: "Morton, _do_
+ask if Carrie will ever be married," for the case seemed to me almost
+desperate at the advanced age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight!
+
+I must mention that for some occult reason (which I have entirely
+forgotten) I trusted fervently that a Hungarian or Polish name might be
+given after the satisfactory "Yes" had been spelt out, but, alas!
+nothing of the kind occurred.
+
+"The table" began with a D, and then successively E, H, A, V were given.
+No one ever heard of a Polish or Hungarian name of the kind, and I
+remember saying petulantly: "Oh, give it up, Morton. It's all nonsense!
+Nobody ever heard of a Mr _Dehav_."
+
+Once more Morton rescued a really good bit of evidence by his
+imperturbable perseverance.
+
+"Wait a bit! Let us see what is coming," he said.
+
+I took no further personal interest in the experiment. Either Morton
+concluded the name was finished, or there was some confusion in getting
+the next letters, owing doubtless to my impetuous disgust. Anyway, he
+went on to say:
+
+"Let us ask where the fellow lives at the present time." This was
+instantly answered by "_Freshwater_," and the further information given
+that he was a widower.
+
+None of us knew any man, married or single, who lived at Freshwater, and
+the incident was relegated to the limbo of failures.
+
+Several years later, however, my friend _did_ marry a gentleman whose
+name (a very pretty one) began with the five despised letters, and he
+was a widower, and _had_ been living in his own house at Freshwater at
+the time mentioned. She did not meet him until some years after our
+curious experience.
+
+About the same time, but in the south of England, my attention was again
+drawn to metapsychics by an experience connected with the death of the
+famous Marquis of Hastings, of horse-racing repute. As a young girl I
+lived close to the Mote Park at Maidstone, where his sister, the present
+Lady Romney, was then living as Lady Constance Marsham. The Reverend
+David Dale Stewart and his wife (he was Vicar of Maidstone, and I made
+my home with them for some years after leaving school) were friends of
+hers, and she sometimes came to see them in a friendly way in the
+morning. On one of these occasions, when Lady Constance had just
+returned from paying her brother a visit in a small shooting-box in the
+eastern counties (I think), Mrs Stewart remarked that she was afraid the
+change had not done Lady Constance much good, as she was looking far
+from well. In those days Lady Romney was an exceptionally strong and
+healthy young woman.
+
+She said rather impatiently: "Well, the fact is I did a very stupid
+thing the other day--I never did such a thing before--I fainted dead
+away for the first time in my life."
+
+Asked for the reason of this, she told us that she and her husband and
+Lord and Lady Hastings were dining quietly one evening together, two
+guests who had been expected not having arrived by the train specified.
+
+Looking up Bradshaw, and finding no other train that could bring them
+until quite late at night, the other four sat down to dinner. Soup and
+fish had already been discussed, when a carriage was heard driving up to
+the door, and they naturally concluded that their guests had discovered
+some means of getting across country by another line. Lord Hastings
+said:
+
+"Tell Colonel and Mrs ---- that we began dinner, thinking they could not
+arrive till much later, but that we are quite alone, and beg they will
+join us as soon as possible."
+
+The servant went to the door, prepared with the message given, flung it
+open--but no carriage, no horses were there! Everybody had heard it
+driving up, nevertheless.
+
+Remembering the old family legend that a carriage and pair is heard
+driving up the avenue before the head of the Hastings family dies, Lady
+Romney fainted dead away, very much to her own surprise and
+mortification; for she was, and doubtless is still, an uncommonly
+sensible woman, "quite above all superstitions."
+
+The episode struck me as curious at the time; but the impression passed,
+and a few days later I went to pay a visit to friends of mine in
+Buckinghamshire. Soon after my arrival I happened to mention the story,
+and was much laughed at as a "superstitious little creature, to think
+twice of such nonsense." "Of course, everyone had been mistaken in
+supposing they heard wheels or horses' hoofs--nothing could be simpler!"
+
+And yet before I left that house, three weeks later, all the newspapers
+were full of long obituary notices of the Marquis of Hastings. These
+were so interesting that my friend's husband had reached the second
+long column in _The Times_ before any of us remembered my story, which
+had been treated with so much contempt. It suddenly flashed across my
+mind: "Owen! Remember the carriage and pair and how you laughed at me!"
+They were forced to confess "_it was certainly rather odd_," the usual
+refuge of the psychically destitute!
+
+A shake of the kaleidoscope, and I see another incident before me of
+more personal interest.
+
+At the time of the outbreak of the Afghan War, in the autumn of 1878, I
+was living with very old friends in Oxford. My brother of the Ram Din
+incident was once more in India, and had been Military Secretary for
+some years at Lahore to Sir Robert Egerton, who was at that time
+Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.
+
+When the war broke out, my brother, of course, went off to join his
+regiment for active service; but at the time of my experience it was
+impossible that he could have reached the seat of war, and I knew this
+well.
+
+I was in excellent spirits about him, for he had been through many
+campaigns, and loved active service, as all good soldiers do. Moreover,
+I had just read a charming letter which Sir Robert Egerton had sent him
+on resigning his appointment as Military Secretary to take up more
+active duty to his country.
+
+Yet it was just at this juncture--when, humanly speaking, there was no
+cause for any special anxiety--that I woke up one morning with the
+gloomiest and most miserable forebodings about this special brother.
+Nothing of the kind had ever occurred to me before, though he had been
+through many campaigns in India, China, Abyssinia, and elsewhere.
+
+It was an overwhelming conviction of some great and definite disaster
+to him, and my friends in vain tried to argue me out of such an
+unreasonable terror by pointing out, truly enough, that he could not
+possibly be within the zone of danger at that time. I could only
+repeat: "I _know_ that something terrible has happened to him,
+wherever he is. It may not be death, but it is some terrible
+calamity."
+
+I spent the day in tears and in absolute despair, and wrote to tell him
+of my conviction. Allowing for difference of time between Quetta and
+Oxford, my mental telegram reached me in the same hour that my brother,
+whilst on the march, and only thirty miles beyond Quetta, was suddenly
+struck down in his tent by the paralysis which kept him confined to his
+chair--a helpless sufferer--for twenty-eight years.
+
+Perhaps, now that I know so much more of mental currents, I might have
+received a more definite message as regards the true _nature_ of the
+calamity. It could not have been more marked, nor more definite as
+regards the _fact_ of it.
+
+My condition of hopeless misery obliged me to put off all engagements
+that day, and I did nothing but fret and lament over him, with the
+exception of writing the one letter mentioned, in which I told him of my
+strange and sad experience.
+
+In time, of course, the first sharp impression passed, and soon a cheery
+letter arrived from him, written, of course, before the fatal day. My
+experience in Oxford occurred on the morning of 4th December 1878. It
+was well on in January 1879 before the corroboration arrived, in a
+letter written to us by a stranger. Communication was delayed not only
+by the war, but also by the fact that my poor brother was lying at the
+time deprived of both movement and speech, and could only spell out
+later, by the alphabet, the address of his people at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886
+
+
+An interval of seven years occurs between the events recorded in the
+last chapter and my first visit to America, which took place in the
+autumn of 1885.
+
+During these years no abnormal experiences came to me, nor had I the
+smallest wish for any.
+
+The table turnings with Morton Freer were a thing of the past, and were
+looked back upon by me in the light of a childish amusement rather than
+anything else. Quite other interests had come into my life, specially as
+regards literature and music; and I never gave a thought to spooks or
+spiritualism, nor did I really know anything about the latter subject.
+It is true that on one occasion a curate at Great Marlow had spoken to
+me about Mr S. C. Hall and his researches, and I think he must have
+given me an introduction to the dear old man, for I remember going to
+see him "with a lady friend" (he made a great point of this, somewhat to
+my amusement), and finding a charming old man with silver locks, a fine
+head, and a nice white frilly shirt.
+
+He spoke of his dear friend "Mrs Jencken," whom he considered the only
+reliable medium, and showed us some sheets full of hieroglyphics, which
+he said were messages obtained through her influence from "his dear
+wife."
+
+It was all so much Greek to me in those days, and only true sympathy
+with the poor old man's evident loneliness and adoration of his wife's
+memory prevented my making merry over the extraordinary delusions of the
+old gentleman, when my companion and I had left his rooms in Sussex
+villas.
+
+Later, I lived during two years with Mrs Lankester and her daughters
+whilst looking after an invalid brother in London; and I need scarcely
+point out that constant intercourse with Professor Ray Lankester in his
+mother's house was not calculated to encourage any psychic proclivities,
+even had these latter not been entirely latent with me at that time.
+
+I heard a great deal about the "Slade exposure," both from Professor
+Lankester and his friend Dr Donkin, who often came to us with him. When
+arranging my American tour in 1885, Mrs Lankester kindly gave me an
+introduction to Mrs Edna Hall, an old friend of theirs, who had been
+living in their house during the whole period of the Slade trial. This
+lady--an American--lived permanently in Boston, and curiously enough (in
+view of the preceding facts) it was she who persuaded Miss Greenlow and
+me to attend our first _seance_ in Boston. Mrs Edna Hall had honoured
+Mrs Lankester's introduction most hospitably; but she was too busy a
+woman to do as much for us as her kindness suggested, and she had
+therefore introduced us to another friend--Mrs Maria Porter--a most
+picturesque, clever, and characteristic figure in Boston society in the
+eighties.
+
+Both these ladies accompanied us to the "Sisters Berry." Mrs Edna Hall
+had no sort of illusions on the subject. She said quite frankly that she
+only took us there because it was a feature of American life which we
+ought not to miss, and which would probably amuse us, if only by showing
+the gullibility of Human Nature.
+
+One is always apt to read past experiences in the light of present
+convictions. Fortunately, I kept a diary at the time, and have a
+faithful record of what took place, and, which is still more valuable,
+of the impressions formed at the time.
+
+The extracts connected with this _seance_ in Boston, and later
+experiences in New York, are taken partly from my record at the time and
+partly from the chapter on "Spiritualism in America," published in my
+book entitled "A Year in the Great Republic."
+
+Speaking of this first _seance_ in Boston, I see that I have said:
+
+"I went to the 'Sisters Berry' in a very antagonistic frame of mind,
+_determined beforehand that the whole thing was a swindle_ (italics are
+recent), accompanied by friends who were even more sceptical than
+myself, if that were possible." I go on then to describe the usual
+cabinet, and pass on to the following extract:--
+
+
+An old Egyptian now appeared, and a man in the circle, who had been
+sitting near my friend Miss Greenlow all the evening, went up and spoke
+to him, and then asked "_that the lady who had been sitting near him_"
+might come up also, which she did; but she said she could distinguish no
+features, and only felt a warm, damp hand passed over hers. Miss
+Greenlow was next called up by the spirit of a young man who wished to
+embrace her, but who was finally proved to be the departed friend of the
+lady who sat next to her. Miss Greenlow returned to her seat, furious,
+declaring that it was a horrible, coarse-looking creature, unlike anyone
+she had ever seen in her life.
+
+Mrs Porter made valiant attempts to investigate the figures who came
+forth at intervals, but was invariably waved back by the master of the
+ceremonies.
+
+"Will that lady kindly sit down? This spirit is not for her. It wishes
+to communicate with its own friends, and she is disturbing the
+conditions, and forcing the spirit back into the cabinet."
+
+There were evidently many old stagers there, who flew up like
+lamp-lighters on every possible occasion, with exclamations of: "Oh,
+Uncle Charlie, is that you?" "How do you do, Jem?" and so forth.
+
+One old lady, in a mob cap and black gown, was introduced as a certain
+Sister Margaret who had taught in St Peter's School, Boston. She came to
+speak to a former pupil, who gave her spiritualistic experiences in such
+remarkably bad grammar as reflected small credit on Sister Margaret's
+teaching of the English language.
+
+This girl told us how anxious she had always been to see her old
+teacher, who had appeared to her several times in the _seance_ room, but
+never in her old garments--a sort of sister's dress. After wishing very
+fervently one night, Sister Margaret appeared dressed in mob cap and
+gown, saying: "Don't you see my dress? I came in it at your wish."
+
+"Yes," answered the girl; "and I thank you for gratifying my wish. Since
+which time," she added, "I have been a firm believer in spiritualism."
+
+A young French girl, in draggly black garments and a shock of thick
+black hair, then came forward and rushed amongst us, trying to find
+someone to talk French with her. My friend Mrs Hall went up first, and
+then I was told to go up and speak to her. I took hold of her hands, and
+grasped them firmly for a moment. They seemed to be ordinary flesh and
+blood, but I am bound to confess that they appeared to _lengthen out_ in
+a somewhat abnormal fashion when the pressure was removed.
+
+Her face was very cadaverous, and she spoke in a quick, hurried way, _as
+if time were an object_. She said she understood a little English, but
+could not speak it. Her mother had been French; her father an Indian,
+"un brave homme."
+
+It seemed to me that a good deal of kissing and embracing went on. One
+old grey-headed gentleman was constantly walking up to the cabinet and
+being embraced by a white figure, whose arms we could just see, thrown
+round his neck, in the dim light. (I note that the light here was much
+less than with Mrs Stoddart Gray in New York.)
+
+The only excitement was the chance of some disturbance before we left;
+for Mrs Porter became more and more indignant with the "gross
+imposture," which culminated when at length she was called up and told
+that "a young man wished to speak with her." She asserted that it was
+"the most horrible, grinning, painted creature who hissed into her
+ears."
+
+The master of the house begged her to be patient, and try to hear what
+the spirit wished to say, but with a very emphatic "NO, NO, NO" she
+resumed her seat, amidst a general titter of laughter.
+
+At the last we were told that three little girls, whose mother sat near
+the cabinet, wished to materialise, but found it difficult to do so,
+owing to the absence of children in the audience.
+
+The mother seemed very anxious to see them; but suddenly the gas was
+turned up, and the _seance_ declared over--a very abrupt finale to a
+piece of unmitigated humbug, I should say.
+
+
+These extracts sufficiently show the spirit in which I entered upon my
+investigations and the result of that spirit. I think even Mr Podmore
+would have considered me _thoroughly sound_ on that first evening. I
+have no doubt that the violence of Mrs Porter's antagonism, and the
+smiling cynicism of Mrs Hall in face of the "American experience" she
+had proposed for us, added to my own preconceived prejudices.
+
+I am aware that the Berry Sisters have been "exposed," thus sharing the
+fate of all other public mediums. In the light of later experiences,
+however, I feel sure that I might have received something personally
+evidential on this occasion had my attitude of mind given hospitality to
+any possible visitors from the Unseen.
+
+The next extracts from my diary refer to a _seance_ which we attended in
+New York a few days after our arrival there, and some two or three
+weeks later than the Boston sitting already described.
+
+Our stay in Boston had extended to three months from the original
+fortnight we had planned for the visit. I had taken a few very good
+introductions there: to Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes, Colonel Wentworth
+Higginson, and others of the Boston _alumni_, and as several receptions
+had been kindly arranged for us, and my name had appeared many times
+during the winter in various local papers, it would have been easy for
+the Sisters Berry to find out something about me and my companion, and
+utilise the knowledge by faking up a convenient spirit, who could have
+talked glibly of my literary tastes, and so forth. Nothing of the sort
+occurred, however, although our first _seance_ only took place a week or
+two before we left Boston, after my three months' stay there.
+
+This fact should certainly be "counted as righteousness" to the much
+abused Sisters!
+
+It was the more curious, that our first _seance_ in New York, within a
+few days of our arrival, and in a metropolis where at the time we were
+_absolute strangers_, should have been so much more successful as
+regards evidential experiences.
+
+I will again quote from my diary of 1886. The medium visited on this
+occasion was Mrs Cadwell, who has since died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We knew nothing beforehand of the medium, who lived in a small flat in
+an unfashionable quarter. Some eight people only were assembled in the
+extremely small room. All were perfect strangers to Miss Greenlow and
+me, but a fancied likeness in one lady present to a picture I had seen
+of Mrs Beecher Stowe led me to ask if it were she, and I was told that
+my surmise was correct.
+
+There was no room for a cabinet, so a curtain was hung across a tiny
+alcove, just the ordinary "arch" found in most rooms of the kind.
+
+When I went behind the curtain with the female medium, before the
+sitting began, there was barely space for us both to turn round in. The
+carpet on either side the curtain was one piece. There was absolutely no
+room for any trap-door machinery, even could such have been worked
+successfully in the perfect silence in which we sat, within two feet of
+the alcove. The room was about the size of the small back dining-room in
+an ordinary London lodging--say in Oxford or Cambridge Terrace, for
+example.
+
+The medium sat amongst us at first, only going behind the curtain after
+a few moments, when she was "under control" as it is called.
+
+A little child of hers, who died some years ago at the age of four, is
+supposed to help in the materialisations, but is never seen outside the
+curtains. If she came out herself she would not be able to help the
+others to do so. I mention these things in the words in which they were
+told to me, offering no comment, but putting the case for the moment as
+spiritualists would put it. To do this, and then to give a faithful and
+unprejudiced account of what took place, seems to me the only fair way
+of treating such a subject.
+
+I was told again and again that too much concentration of thought on
+the part of the audience was deterrent. This accounts for music as an
+invariable accompaniment of all such sittings. It seems to harmonise the
+circle, to break up over-concentration, and may also, unfortunately,
+serve to cover the doings of dishonest mediums.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that in this case the materialisations
+went on only whilst we were singing. This might point to a possible
+"trap-door theory," although in a city where flats abound (rooms, not
+human beings!) there would still be the difficulty of getting your
+downstairs neighbours to look kindly upon such proceedings. As a matter
+of fact, we were often sitting in absolute silence when fresh "spirits"
+appeared.
+
+I can corroborate the assertion that too much concentration of thought
+upon them proves deterrent to the spirits, for on more than one occasion
+I heard a voice from the curtain or cabinet saying: "Do get the people's
+minds off us; we can do nothing whilst they are fixed upon us so
+intensely," as though _thought_ in spirit life corresponded to some
+physical obstacle on the earth plane.
+
+The first spirit who came (the daughter of an old gentleman sitting near
+me) intimated through him that she would like me to go up and help her
+to materialise the white veil which all in turn wore, and which, though
+perfectly transparent, is considered a necessary shield between them and
+the earth's influences; on the same principle, I suppose, that we put on
+blue spectacles to protect us from the blinding rays of the sun.
+
+She came out from the alcove, held both her hands in front of her,
+turning them backward and forward that I might be satisfied that nothing
+was concealed in them. The soft, clinging material of her gown ended
+high up on the shoulders, so there were no sleeves to be reckoned with.
+I stood close over her, holding out my own dress, and as she rubbed her
+hands to and fro a sort of white lace or net came from them, like a
+foam, and lay upon my gown which I was holding up towards her.
+
+I touched this material, and held it in my hands. It had substance, but
+was light as gossamer, and quite unlike any stuff I ever saw in a shop.
+
+The very softest gossamer tulle that old ladies sometimes produce as
+having belonged to their grandmothers is perhaps the nearest approach to
+what I then lifted in my hands, but even this does not accurately
+describe it.
+
+When long enough she took up the veil, unfolded it, covering her head
+with it, and saying very graciously "Thank you" to me.
+
+Other spirits now appeared for the other people in the room, who
+conversed with them in low tones.
+
+All these had evidently materialised before and could consequently speak
+with comparative ease. One, called the "Angel Mother" (the mother of the
+medium), answered questions on the spirit life in a loud American voice,
+prefacing every remark, whether to man or woman, by an affectionate
+"Well, de-ar!" Her answers showed considerable shrewdness, but not much
+depth, and were often rather wide of the mark.
+
+"Nels Seymour" (who appears to have belonged to a sort of Christy
+Minstrel Company over here) cracked jokes all the time with a gentleman
+amongst the audience in a good-natured but flippant and very unspiritual
+manner, and even the ladies joined in the undignified punning and "play
+upon words" that went on all the time.
+
+The little child's voice came in as a relief every now and then. She
+spoke broken, childish English, but used the expressions of a grown-up
+person. She described several spirits as "chying" (trying) to come, but
+not being strong enough.
+
+I was becoming drowsy, and rather tired of the performance, when my
+attention was once more aroused by hearing that a very beautiful female
+spirit, with a diamond star in her forehead, had appeared and asked for
+me, saying she had been a friend of mine on earth, and wished to
+communicate with me.
+
+This was conveyed to me by the little child's voice, the spirit herself
+not having yet emerged from the curtain; but the medium's husband looked
+behind it, and told me of the diamond star, which he said was some
+"order" in spirit life.
+
+Having no idea who the friend might be, I begged for some further
+particulars before going up to speak to her.
+
+"She passed from earth life about five years ago, and in Germany,"
+answered the medium's husband, who had conducted the conversation behind
+the curtain.
+
+This was less vague, and now for the first time a suspicion of the
+spirit's identity crossed my mind; but I would not go up until a name
+had been given, and I asked for this before leaving my seat.
+
+My travelling companion--a recent acquaintance--had never heard me
+mention the lady in question, who _had_ died in Germany at the time
+specified. The little child said the spirit would give the name through
+her, and the process was a curious one. Instead of mentioning the whole
+name or each letter of it to her father, the child _described_ each
+letter to him as you might describe the lines of the large capitals in a
+child's reading-book. The father guessed the letter from the child's
+description, and asked me if the first one were correct? It was; but I
+did not tell him so, merely saying I should like to have the Christian
+name in full before giving any opinion.
+
+In due time the six letters (Muriel, we will call it) were correctly
+given, and I had then no further excuse for refusing to speak to the
+spirit.
+
+I went up to the curtain, and she appeared in front of it. I have been
+frequently asked: "Should you have recognised her as your friend had no
+name been given?" With every wish to be perfectly truthful, I find it
+difficult to answer this question, for the following reason:--None of
+the "materialisations" I saw were exactly human in face. There was no
+idea of a mask or clever "get up," but if one could accept the theory of
+a body hastily put together and assumed for a time, the result is
+exactly what might have been expected under the circumstances.
+
+My friend in real life was very pale, and had exquisitely chiselled
+features, and the ones I now looked upon were of the same _cast_. The
+height was also similar, and an indescribable atmosphere of refinement,
+purity, and quiet dignity, for which she had been remarkable; all this
+was present with this materialisation. More than this I cannot say, for
+no materialisation I have ever seen could be truthfully considered
+_identical_ with the human original.
+
+I did not feel frightened, but I did feel embarrassed, and naturally so,
+considering how unwilling and grudging my recognition of her
+individuality must have appeared. She seemed conscious of this, for
+almost immediately she mentioned her hands, holding them out for
+inspection, and saying:
+
+"Don't you remember my hands? I was so proud of my hands!"
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, my friend was noted for her beautiful hands,
+but she was too sensible and clever a woman to have been conceited about
+them, and had too much good taste ever to have made their beauty a
+subject of remark, even to an intimate friend.
+
+Moreover, the hands now _en evidence_, although well shaped and with
+tapering fingers, were as little identical with a human hand as the face
+was identical with a human face.
+
+Casting about for something to say to her, my first thought was for an
+only and dearly loved married sister of hers, also a friend of mine, and
+I mentioned the latter in a guarded way, saying: "If you are in reality
+my friend, have you no message for _your sister_?"
+
+In a moment, and without the slightest hesitation, she said: "_Tell poor
+Jessie_," going on with a message peculiarly appropriate to the facts of
+the case, but of much too private a nature for publication.
+
+Almost immediately afterwards, and _with no shadow of suggestion from
+me_, she added:
+
+"_Poor Jessie! She suffered terribly when I passed away so suddenly._"
+
+My friend had died in a foreign country, under peculiarly sad
+circumstances. She was young, beautiful, and accomplished; a prominent
+local figure in the well-known capital where she had spent several
+winters. Her death was so sudden that there was not even time to put off
+a large afternoon "At Home" arranged for that day. Moreover, this
+sister, by a most merciful chance, happened to be spending a few months
+with her, out of England, at the time. These were all special facts,
+spontaneously referred to by her, but which would _not_ have applied
+equally well to the death of any other friend, even supposing such a
+death to have occurred abroad.
+
+The spirit spoke feebly and with difficulty, "not having much strength,"
+she told me.
+
+I asked if her father (who had died a few months previously) were with
+her.
+
+"Not yet," she said gently; "but I know that he has passed over." She
+then kissed my hand, and faded away before my eyes, not apparently
+returning to the curtain (close to which I stood), but vanishing into
+thin air.
+
+Some ten days later my friend and I went again to an evening _seance_ at
+the same house, different people being present on this occasion. A
+stupid, "_unintelligent_ sceptic" woman put us all out of harmony by
+making inane suggestions, always declaring that "_she would not for the
+world interfere with the conditions_," but doing so all the same. The
+"Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with
+an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about
+Faraday's opinions on the spirit world without much idea of what he was
+talking about. "Nels Seymour" _appeared_, as well as spoke, this time.
+He took my hand and kissed it; but he does not leave the cabinet, as he
+is the "control." It was eleven years on this day since he had "passed
+over," so he called it his "birthday."
+
+A very beautiful female spirit materialised and offered to sit on my
+lap; an offer I closed with at once.
+
+She was some five feet eight inches in height, and a large,
+well-developed woman. Anticipating the possibility of her resting her
+feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my own
+feet from the ground the moment she sat down, which was easily done, as
+my chair was a high one.
+
+She remained for several minutes in this position, resting, of
+necessity, her whole weight upon me, which was about equal to that of a
+small kitten or a lady's muff, in the days when small muffs were in
+fashion. There was an _appreciable_ weight, but I have never nursed any
+baby that was not far heavier.
+
+The veil this time was materialised in the usual way, my friend going up
+to watch the process.
+
+My spirit friend appeared again, and more strongly this time. At a
+public _seance_, where so many are eager to communicate with their
+friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the
+public time, and consequently any communications are as hurried and
+unsatisfactory as a conversation with an intimate friend in the public
+reading-room of a hotel would be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I pass over another most excellent and evidential incident as a
+concession to family prejudice. It has already appeared in my book on
+America entitled "A Year in the Great Republic," and may be found there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At a third materialising _seance_ at the same house an excitable Italian
+friend of mine, who had never seen anything of the kind before, came
+with much the same prejudices as I had felt at the Boston _seance_, and
+disturbed the conditions very much by his attitude of determined
+antagonism; whilst his comparative ignorance of English, and my feeble
+Italian, made explanations, under the circumstances, rather hopeless.
+The whole circle was put out of harmony, and a dead weight lay upon us
+all. The materialisations continued, it is true; but personally it was a
+great relief to me when my excitable friend left, declaring that
+everything he had seen was "_physiquement impossible mon ange_."
+
+He departed so abruptly as to bring down much abuse upon his absent head
+for having "broken the battery" and almost "killed the medium" by his
+sudden disappearance from the circle.
+
+This awful threat had so much power over the rest of the party that we
+sat out to the bitter end, leaving the medium at last still in her
+trance, with husband and son hovering over her in an anxiety which, if
+acted, showed first-class dramatic power.
+
+Meanwhile I had made the acquaintance of a very beautiful and charming
+woman in New York, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction.
+
+She has had a tragic and remarkable history; is a woman of great mental
+powers, in addition to very remarkable beauty; and is of the highest
+rank, being an Austrian princess, I believe, in her own right, and
+having spent her youth in foreign courts.
+
+Apart from these facts, which had been told me by a mutual friend before
+we met, I knew nothing whatever of her family history, nor whether she
+had brothers or sisters, alive or dead.
+
+I had spoken to her of my curious experiences, and she had discussed the
+matter with me from the standpoint of a thorough woman of the world, of
+strong mental power, who had seen too much of life to be dogmatic or
+narrow in her views, but too much also to believe in what is called the
+"supernatural," before every possible _natural_ hypothesis had been
+admitted and dismissed as untenable.
+
+Sitting in her pretty room the day before I left New York, we had talked
+for some two hours on various subjects connected with life and
+literature, and before the final "adieux" she said laughingly: "Well,
+have you been to any more _seances_?"
+
+I said "No," and that we did not intend to do so, as our time was now so
+short. A few moments of careless talk on the subject ensued, and picking
+up a newspaper, I cast my eye over the usual list of mediums,
+clairvoyants, etc. A half-defined wish to see whether any spirit friend
+would come to me under totally different conditions and surroundings,
+and in an entirely different quarter of the city, led to my copying out
+one of the addresses at haphazard.
+
+I could not prevail upon my hostess to accompany me (she is delicate,
+and dreads night air), but I took the slip of paper to my hotel,
+thinking that my friend there might care to take the cars after dinner
+to this distant end of the city.
+
+My English companion proved rather indifferent and disinclined towards
+the expedition.
+
+This was very natural. She was not magnetic in temperament, and had no
+expectation of seeing any of her own friends, although, of course, she
+had both seen and spoken to those who came for me.
+
+However, a good dinner at the excellent Windsor Hotel fortified us so
+much after our fatigues that at the last moment we agreed to make one
+more attempt, no one, ourselves included, having known five minutes
+previously that we should leave the house.
+
+On this occasion we were ushered into a much more imposing drawing-room,
+and the lady herself was evidently some degrees higher in the social
+scale than our first mediumistic friend.
+
+The arrangements also were quite different. As we sat waiting for a few
+minutes (having arrived very punctually), Mrs Gray looked at my friend,
+and then described an elderly lady with grey hair who was standing over
+her, but, of course, invisible to our eyes. Almost immediately Mrs Gray
+began rubbing her knees, and complained of pain in them, adding: "The
+impression of dropsy is being conveyed to me. This spirit seems to have
+suffered from disease of that nature."
+
+My friend--who was very self-contained and unemotional--gave no clue to
+the fact that she recognised anyone by this description, but as we were
+returning home in the cars she said quietly: "It is curious Mrs Gray
+should have described that old lady with grey hair--I suppose she meant
+my mother. _She_ had grey hair, and died of dropsy."
+
+On my expostulating with this lady for having given the impression that
+she did not recognise the description at the time she said, with
+conscious pride: "You don't suppose I was going to let the woman know
+that she had described my mother?"
+
+To give a false impression in so good a cause as determined incredulity,
+seems not only justifiable, but actually praiseworthy to many minds.
+
+Later in the evening, the _seance_ being in full swing, a spirit dressed
+in some kind of white "sister's" dress appeared at the door of the
+cabinet; and Mrs Stoddart Gray asked if anyone in the circle could speak
+German, as this spirit did not seem to understand French, Italian, or
+English, and she herself only recognised German by the sound.
+
+A gentleman volunteered his assistance, but apparently without much
+effect, and being a German scholar, I then offered to come to the
+rescue. The moment I went up to the figure she seemed to gain strength,
+and came quite out of the cabinet, and said to me in the most refined
+German (any readers who have studied the language know that there is as
+wide a difference between the highest and lowest type of German accent
+as between an educated Irish "accent" and an Irish brogue):
+
+"_Ich bin die schwester von Madame Schewitsch_," mentioning the name of
+the foreign friend with whom I had been spending that afternoon: "_Ich
+weisz das Sie Heute Nach mittag bei meiner schwester waren._"[1]
+
+ [1] Translation: "I am the sister of Madame Schewitsch--I know that you
+ spent this afternoon with my sister."
+
+She had evidently a strong, almost overwhelming desire to make some
+communication to me for her sister, but the difficulty in doing so
+seemed equally strong.
+
+It lay beyond the question of language. She spoke with sufficient
+strength, and I could understand perfectly her well-chosen and
+well-pronounced words. But some insuperable obstacle seemed to prevent
+her telling me what she wished to convey, and the despairing attempt to
+surmount this was painful in the extreme.
+
+I assured her of my willingness to help in any way possible, and made a
+few suggestions, but all in vain.
+
+"Is it that you are not happy?"
+
+"No--no! That is not it."
+
+It seemed to me some sort of warning which she wished to convey, and had
+some connection with illness, for the words _achtung_ and _krankheit_
+(warning and illness) were repeated more than once, but no definite
+message came.
+
+I then asked if she could _write_ it, and she caught eagerly at the
+idea. So I borrowed a pencil and some paper, and placed them on a small
+table in the middle of the room, with a chair in front of it. She came
+quite close to the table (five gas burners were more than half turned
+on, so there was plenty of light), sat down, and took up the pencil, but
+almost immediately threw it down again, saying in a most unhappy and
+despairing voice: "_Nein! nein! Ich kann es selbst nicht schreiben!_"[2]
+and vanished before my very eyes as she rose from the table. Now had
+this been a case of fraud, and supposing that some woman had means of
+discovering the name of my New York friend and the fact of my having
+spent that very afternoon with her, what would have been easier than to
+write or give some commonplace message in a language of which she had
+already proved herself mistress?
+
+ [2] Translation: "No! no! I cannot even write it!"
+
+The episode was so painful that I decided _not_ to write to Madame
+Schewitsch about it. I have therefore no absolute corroboration of the
+fact that the lady mentioned had a sister who became a nun, or who was
+connected with some such establishment, and had passed over. This,
+however, is much more probable than not, because in every high-born
+Catholic family in Austria, one member in a large family almost
+invariably takes the veil. I have given the real name in this case,
+hoping Madame Schewitsch may perchance come across my book, and supply
+the information needed. I may remark, finally, that three or four months
+later, whilst travelling in California, I heard from my excitable and
+sceptical Italian friend (who had given me the introduction to Madame
+Schewitsch) that this lady had had a long and most serious illness
+during my absence in the West, and that her husband and he had both
+feared she would never recover from it. This fear, fortunately, proved
+to be groundless.
+
+To return to the sitting.
+
+About twenty minutes after the "sister" had disappeared, a figure in
+white came forward very swiftly, and without a moment's hesitation
+pointed towards me, saying quickly: "_For you._"
+
+I went up at once, recognising who it was, but determined to give no
+sign of this fact.
+
+The "spirit" looked at me for a moment with surprise, as one might look
+at any well-known friend who passed us in the street without a greeting.
+
+As I remained silent she whispered: "Don't you know me?" I am afraid _I_
+gave the false impression this time, and asked her for her name.
+
+"_Why, I am Muriel!_" came the instant answer, mentioning the name of
+the first friend who had appeared to me, after spelling out her name, at
+the previous _seances_ held in another part of New York.
+
+On this third appearance my spirit friend asked me to kiss her. I must
+confess that I complied with some amount of trepidation, which proved to
+be quite unnecessary.
+
+There was nothing the least repulsive to the touch, although it was not
+exactly like kissing anyone on earth; but an indescribable atmosphere of
+freshness and purity, which seemed always to surround this friend whilst
+living, was very apparent under these changed conditions. Another
+curious little point is that I had entirely forgotten my friend's love
+of violets (she always wore them when possible, and used violet scent)
+until I smelt them distinctly whilst speaking to her.
+
+It must be remembered that until the day of the sitting, we had never
+dreamed of going to Mrs Gray's house, nor had we even heard her name. I
+picked it out of a newspaper by chance--amongst at least thirty others.
+
+Until past seven o'clock that evening we had not decided to visit her,
+and the _seance_ began at eight P.M., no single person in the room being
+present who had been at the house of the other medium some weeks
+previously. Under these circumstances it would be difficult to account
+for the fact of my friend's reappearance on the ground of collusion
+between the two mediums. Moreover, such collusion would not account for
+the appearance earlier in the evening of a spirit claiming to be the
+sister of Madame Schewitsch.
+
+No one hitherto has been able to suggest any _intelligent_ explanation
+of my personal experiences on these occasions. Conjuring tricks and trap
+doors are, of course, "trotted out" by the _unintelligent_ sceptic, but
+these do not meet the difficulty of an _accurate knowledge of names and
+of family matters of comparatively small importance_.
+
+
+As I am just now chiefly concerned with presenting incidents in my life
+rather than in prosing over them, I resist the temptation to go further
+into the question of _Materialisations_ either from the historical or
+ethical point of view, and pass on to the subject of clairvoyance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--_continued_
+
+INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA, 1885-1886
+
+
+In speaking of clairvoyance I shall again have recourse to my notes
+taken at the time of my American visit and on the spot.
+
+I am quite convinced that where a life has been in any way eventful or
+at all marked, any fairly developed clairvoyant can in some way "sense"
+your mental and moral atmosphere.
+
+In some three or four personal cases, the notes taken at the time of
+such visits, paid several thousands of miles apart, might almost be read
+as descriptive of the same interview, with different witnesses.
+
+My travelling companion, who had led a very uneventful life, seemed to
+puzzle them much more. There was apparently nothing to lay hold of, and
+only a very shadowy, indistinct picture was given in consequence.
+
+In my own case the colours were put on freely, firmly, and without the
+least hesitation, and in every single instance the sketch was remarkably
+truthful, and yet would not have described the life of one other woman
+in three or four hundred.
+
+That there is a good deal of guesswork done even under the supposed
+influence of "trance" is quite evident to me. I am not prepared to say
+that such trances were in no case genuine, but the remarks made during
+them were frequently of a tentative nature, and the slightest good "hit"
+was followed up with as much ingenuity as Sir Richard Owen displayed in
+putting together his skeleton from a single bone.
+
+I was told some six or seven times that my mother (who died during my
+infancy) was my guardian spirit, and six times her name was given to me,
+with some difficulty in one or two cases, but invariably without the
+smallest guessing on the part of the clairvoyant or any hint from me.
+
+One of my most successful interviews in New York was with a Mrs Parks of
+Philadelphia--a very pleasant, good-looking, healthy woman, quite unlike
+the usual cadaverous medium with whom one is more familiar.
+
+Her terms being rather higher than those usually asked in America (where
+competition has made mediums a cheap luxury), I demurred at first; upon
+which she said brightly: "Well, don't come if you don't feel like paying
+that; but I never alter my prices. But I won't take your money if I
+don't give you satisfaction. Some get satisfaction from one person and
+some from another--you will soon see if I am telling you the truth about
+your friends, and I won't take a penny from you if you are
+dissatisfied."
+
+I left the house saying I would think it over, and Mrs Parks did not at
+all press me to come, and from my manner could hardly have expected to
+see me.
+
+I had a most satisfactory interview with her next day.
+
+After referring to my mother's presence, and giving her name without any
+hesitation, she gave me several messages with regard to character which
+were singularly appropriate, and finished up by saying: "Your mother
+does not wish you to go to mediums or mix yourself too much up with such
+persons. It is not necessary for you to do so; she says you have enough
+mediumistic power for her to be able to communicate with you directly."
+
+I could not help saying: "Well, Mrs Parks, you are going very much
+against your own interests in giving me this message. I am a perfect
+stranger to you in this city. I have told you that I am making some
+little stay here, and as you have given me so much satisfaction I might
+have been induced to come and see you several times again before
+leaving."
+
+She laughed, and answered: "That is quite true; but I am an honest
+woman, and I am bound to give you the message that is given to me for
+you, even when it goes against my interest."
+
+Seeing her bright, pleasant home, with every trace of comfort about it,
+and having received personal proof that money alone was not her
+consideration, I could not help asking why she continued such an arduous
+life.
+
+"Well," she answered, "the truth is that I do it now against my own
+wish. My husband has always objected to it more or less. He was afraid
+it might injure my health, and for two years I gave it up entirely.
+But," she added, "the spirits would not leave me alone. It seemed as if
+I _had_ to come back to it, as if I were refusing to use the powers
+that had been given to me for the help and comfort of my
+fellow-creatures. I name a higher price than others, to limit my work
+and to keep away those who would only come from idle curiosity." She
+also told me that sometimes she had to give orders beforehand that
+certain people should not be admitted on any pretext whatever. "I can
+see their spirits round them before they reach the door very often, and
+I would not have such people, bringing such an atmosphere into my
+house--no, not if they gave me a hundred dollars for each sitting."
+
+I must mention one more incident connected with this period of my
+investigations, because it throws a strong light on some obscure
+problems.
+
+Whilst consulting these clairvoyants, in widely different parts of
+America, two very near relatives of mine were almost invariably
+described, and the names--one male and one female--were generally given.
+The mediums invariably went on to say that the female spirit was further
+on in development than the male spirit. Now there were circumstances
+which made this statement, viewed from this world's standpoint, not only
+absolutely mistaken, but almost ludicrously so. The woman's nature had
+been a far more faulty one--more impetuous, less balanced, and so forth.
+The male spirit described had been a man of very exceptional character
+and spirituality, whilst on earth.
+
+In spite of these facts the same "mistake," as I considered it, had
+consistently been made by every clairvoyant who described them; which,
+by-the-by, rules out telepathy as an explanation of these special
+experiences. It certainly seemed strange that after giving accurate
+descriptions of the two relatives referred to--names included--each
+clairvoyant should make exactly the same mistake upon so obvious a
+matter as the question involved.
+
+Some months later, in the course of my travels, I found myself at Denver
+in Colorado. We stayed here, at first, one day only, to break our
+journey farther up into the Rocky Mountains. The previous day, when
+wandering about Colorado Springs, my friend and I had come across a lady
+doctor by chance; and having asked some trivial question, we were
+invited into her pretty little house, where we chatted for half-an-hour
+on various subjects--including spiritualism. We gave no account of our
+experiences, but simply mentioned the fact that we had some interest in
+the investigation.
+
+Hearing this, and that we were going on to Denver next day, this lady
+gave me the address of a young married friend who lived in that city,
+and who had during the previous two years suddenly developed strong
+mediumistic power, but was in no way a professional. She begged us to
+call if possible, and I took down the address, but said it was very
+doubtful if we could do so in the short time we should have at our
+disposal.
+
+At the end of a long afternoon's drive to the most interesting points of
+view in Denver, we found ourselves close to the quarter where this young
+woman lived, and called at the house mentioned. The lady was not at
+home, and a friend who received us explained that it would be impossible
+for her to come down in the evening to see us, as she was delicate, and
+not allowed to go out at night.
+
+As we were leaving Denver early next morning, this made a meeting
+impossible, so we left our cards, and a note to explain our visit. Going
+into the hotel office after dinner that evening, I heard a gentleman
+inquiring for me by name, saying he had brought his wife to see me. I
+explained that I was the lady he asked for, and he then said, with the
+stoical resignation of the typical American husband: "I did not like her
+to come out, but she was bound to have her own way."
+
+The lady in question came into my bedroom upstairs after dismissing her
+husband, and said she "preferred a room already permeated by my
+influence." She then continued very simply: "I do not know whether I
+shall be able to help you at all, but it seems there is something I have
+to tell you or explain. When I read your note I felt bound to come,
+although my husband tried to dissuade me. It seemed to me as if the
+spirits came all the way with me in the cars."
+
+She then gave me quite a good sitting, but on the ordinary lines, ending
+up by the description of the relatives mentioned, and by making the
+usual "mistake" about their relative spiritual positions.
+
+This was all said in trance. When she returned to consciousness I said:
+"Now, Mrs Brown (her real name), I must tell you honestly that you have
+made one cardinal mistake, but I am also bound to say that five or six
+professional mediums have done just the same as regards the same
+matter." I then explained, and asked if she could account for such a
+persistent and obvious misconception.
+
+"Wait a moment," she answered; "perhaps the spirits will tell me."
+
+She looked up with a very intent expression for a minute, as though
+listening to some explanation which did not cover the ground of her own
+experience, and then said very quickly and in a monotonous voice, as
+though repeating a verbal message:
+
+"It has nothing exactly to do with our earthly idea of 'goodness.'
+Spiritual life can only come to those prepared for it, within the limits
+of their capacity. The male spirit you mention was a clergyman of the
+Church of England. He was a very holy man, but he was in some way creed
+bound. He was a man of strong creed; he clung to his creed here, and
+cannot quite free himself from it even now, although he has advanced
+very much in spiritual perception. Now his wife had a very sympathetic,
+_apprehending_ nature. She can therefore receive spiritual light more
+fully and freely. That is why she has risen to a higher plane. This is
+not a question of character so much as of _spiritual capacity_, and in
+this she is the more highly gifted of the two. She is on a different
+plane, but she is able to help her husband very much, and in time he
+will join her, and they will progress together."
+
+All this was said in a quick, decided way, and without the smallest
+hesitation.
+
+One would hardly have expected a young woman in the midst of the Rocky
+Mountains to know the exact meaning of the term "_clergyman of the
+Church of England_," for the word is almost unknown in America, where
+they speak invariably of a _minister_. Yet the words were given with
+quick, firm precision, exactly as written down.
+
+Later, in San Francisco, a clairvoyant at once referred to my friend
+"Muriel," and described her, but in rather vague terms. When I pointed
+this fact out she said a little impatiently, as though we were wasting
+time in quibbling: "_Oh, well, it does not matter. The spirit tells me
+you know perfectly well who it is. She has already appeared to you in
+New York._"
+
+I had gone to this particular medium with several young friends, who
+were all in a very sceptical and rather frivolous state of mind. She
+described "an uncle," apparently over the heads of two of my friends,
+and gave the further information that he was surrounded by water, and
+appeared to have been drowned; also that he was extremely musical.
+
+This was declared to be perfectly untrue and without a grain of
+foundation, in fact.
+
+The woman looked puzzled and a little mortified, but turned to others in
+the circle, with better success, let us hope!
+
+On our return home, when the young people were telling their mother of
+the "awful humbug" amid shouts of laughter, the mother said quietly:
+"But surely you remember, my dear children, hearing of your Uncle
+Robert, who was drowned years ago, before any of you were born? He _was_
+a great musician. He wanted to give up his life to art, but he was
+persuaded to take up another profession."
+
+
+I give this as an instance of the carelessness with which, when we are
+_determined_ to find fraud, we may do so sometimes at the expense of
+truth. These young girls had doubtless heard of their uncle, but the
+fact had possibly escaped their memories for the moment, and probably
+they had no wish to recall anything which could cast a doubt on their
+preconceived notion that "the whole thing was a swindle!"
+
+Before closing the chapter of my American experiences in the years 1885
+and 1886, I must give one more personal detail.
+
+When investigating various clairvoyants in the Eastern States in March
+and April of the year 1886, I had been told more than once that a
+guardian band of six spirits was forming round me, and would be later
+supplemented by another band of six protectors. Whether this had any
+bearing upon the following incident, I must leave my readers to decide.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About three months after this pronouncement I found myself at Victoria,
+Vancouver's Island. Miss Greenlow and I had gone there from San
+Francisco for a week or two, not being able at that time to make the
+further trip to Alaska. After a very stormy voyage of two or three days
+we reached Victoria one morning about six A.M. There was only one large
+double-bedded room available at the hotel, and we took this on the
+understanding that two separate rooms should be found for us before the
+evening.
+
+As we lay on our beds for a few hours of much needed rest, quite
+suddenly I realised that I saw something abnormal in the air--just above
+and in front of my head. I mentioned this with much surprise to my
+companion, who at once suggested the effects of liver after a sea
+voyage so tempestuous as ours had been. For the first few moments I was
+inclined to agree with her, and said so; but very shortly my opinion was
+altered by the fact that what I saw first as an indistinct blur
+gradually assumed a definite shape, and I then found there were six
+little swallows in front of me, apparently connected with each other by
+a waving ribbon, or so it appeared to me.
+
+Opening and shutting one's eyes did not affect the vision. There they
+remained, both at the moment and for several succeeding years, during
+which time I was constantly in the habit of seeing "_my birds_," as we
+used to call them. About six months after their first appearance in the
+pure, clear atmosphere of Victoria (Vancouver), I was driving across the
+Blackheath Common on a very bright, frosty day, and looking out of the
+open window of my carriage, I saw my six birds as usual; but for the
+first time, parallel with them and lower down, were six new birds of
+just the same size and appearance (about half-an-inch between the tips
+of the wings).
+
+A few days later the new birds and the old ones had amalgamated, and
+twelve little swallows floated in the air before my eyes. I could not
+see them in the house. It needed the background of uninterrupted sky
+apparently to throw them into sufficient relief to be recognised. After
+some years, this special sign was withdrawn, and others have taken its
+place. For example, I have seen in the same way, during the last
+fourteen years, an anchor, with the chain attached to it, and caught
+through one end of the former, a short reaping hook. This, doubtless,
+has some symbolical meaning. Near the anchor I see a sacrificial altar,
+with flames rising up from it; then a triangle, with loops at the
+corners, which I was once told was the sign of Nostradamus. Then an
+old-fashioned mirror in a quaintly-shaped frame, and finally a long
+staff, with the sign of Aries at one end. I have since realised that
+this is very much like the "Staff of Faith" found on the top of many of
+the tombs in the Roman catacombs. All these latter emblems come together
+as a rule, with a connecting thread binding them to each other. I cannot
+see them at will, but when the atmosphere is at all clear they are
+rarely absent, when I have time to look for them. I was much amused once
+by an earnest Christian scientist, with whom I happened to be spending a
+few days on the coast of the eastern counties. She had warned me
+repeatedly against "phenomena" of every kind, spontaneous or induced. On
+a specially bright morning we were sitting together in a beautiful park,
+which is thrown open to strangers on special days, and, forgetting my
+companion's prejudices, I exclaimed involuntarily:
+
+"I never saw my signs more clearly than just now!--there must be
+something very pure about the atmosphere."
+
+This was too much for my friend, who bent forward eagerly, saying:--"_Do
+let me try if I cannot see them too!_"
+
+Well, she "tried" for the greater part of two hours, but absolutely in
+vain, and then got up, and suggested going home to luncheon. She added
+naively: "I _thought_ they must have something wrong about them, and I
+am quite sure of it now, _or I should have seen them_."
+
+But it had taken her two hours of failure to be absolutely convinced
+that they came straight from the devil!
+
+One sign--also birds--appeared to me on one occasion only. We had
+returned to Denver, where Miss Greenlow and I were to separate after a
+year's constant travel together. She was going back to San Francisco to
+take steamer for the Sandwich Islands, and thence on to Australia;
+whilst I was returning to England for family reasons.
+
+I had arranged to dine with the hospitable Dean of Denver the evening of
+the day of her departure, and I had not realised how much less lonely
+one would have felt had my journey East corresponded more closely with
+her journey West, especially as she was obliged to leave the hotel about
+nine o'clock in the morning.
+
+Waking early, and lying in bed, feeling very melancholy at the idea of
+being left behind and alone in the very centre of America, I looked up,
+and, to my delight, saw a new sign.
+
+Not my little birds this time, but two big, plump father and mother
+birds, with a short string attached, not horizontally as before, but
+perpendicularly. At the end of this little string was a tiny bird, even
+smaller than the swallows, being evidently guided by the two big birds,
+and quite safe in their charge.
+
+My room communicated with that of my companion, whose door was open,
+and I told her of this new "sign in the heavens," adding that I hoped it
+had come to stay. Fortunately, I found a pencil, and made a rough sketch
+at the time, or I might have been tempted to imagine that I had never
+seen it at all, for the trio never appeared again, though I have longed
+to see them, and have certainly required the consolation quite as much,
+many times, since that far-away summer morning in Denver, Colorado.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On reaching home after this long American trip, I found a budget of
+letters awaiting me--amongst them a little registered box containing a
+kind birthday present from the brother who has been mentioned in the
+Introduction to this book. Was it another case of mental affinity which
+had induced him unconsciously to choose a gold brooch with two swallows
+in gold and pearls? Not an uncommon design; but _the birds were exactly
+the same size as those I was in the habit of seeing just at that time_.
+
+I never told him how extraordinarily _a propos_ his present had proved,
+but I have always looked upon that brooch as a mascot, and have
+certainly worn it every day since it came into my possession.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+Shortly after the Jubilee of 1887 had taken place, I sailed for
+Australia and New Zealand.
+
+My first psychic experience in the Colonies took place in Melbourne,
+some months after my landing in Tasmania.
+
+The wife of one of the "prominent citizens" in Melbourne had been
+specially invited to meet me at an afternoon reception in the house of
+friends to whom I had carried letters of introduction, as she was said
+to be so deeply interested in everything psychic, and would greatly
+enjoy hearing my American experiences. Fortunately, the lady arrived
+late, and we had already enjoyed some interesting conversation before
+she came. A wetter "wet blanket" it has never been my fortune to
+encounter. She was a very handsome woman, and therefore good to look at,
+but in the _role_ of sympathetic audience she was a miserable failure.
+She sat with a cold, glassy eye fixed upon me, whilst I endeavoured to
+continue the conversation which had been interrupted by her arrival.
+
+She might just as well have _said_ as have looked the words: "Now go on
+making a fool of yourself!--that is just what I have come to see."
+
+The position was hopeless. So I began to talk about the weather, which
+is disagreeable enough from sirocco in the hot spring months (it was the
+end of October) to be useful.
+
+Presently the daughter of the house came up to me, and said:
+
+"Do, please, go on telling us your interesting experiences, Miss Bates;
+we can talk about other things at any time, and we asked Mrs Burroughes
+on purpose to meet you."
+
+The lady in question had joined another group by this time, so I was
+able to whisper in reply: "I am so very sorry, but I cannot possibly
+talk of these things before your friend--she paralyses me absolutely
+from any psychic point of view. She is very handsome, and I like looking
+at her, but I cannot talk to her except about the weather."
+
+"How very odd!" was the unexpected reply. "That is just what Lizzie
+Maynard says. And I did very much want Lizzie to hear about America too,
+but she has gone off to the other end of the room, saying she knows you
+won't be able to talk whilst Mrs Burroughes is here."
+
+This was interesting, for I had not noticed the young girl mentioned,
+who had not been introduced to me. So when my young hostess asked "if
+she might bring Lizzie to see me at my hotel next day," I gladly
+acquiesced, in spite of feeling very far from well at the moment.
+
+This feeling of _malaise_ increased in the night, and was, in fact, the
+precursor of a short but sharp attack of a form of typhoid which was
+running through the hotel at the time. Being in bed next afternoon about
+four o'clock, I was dismayed to hear that Miss Maynard had arrived to
+see me, and, moreover, had arrived _alone_. I had never spoken to the
+girl nor even consciously set eyes on her before, but I knew she must
+have come at least three miles from the suburb where she lived, and
+would probably refuse to have a cup of tea downstairs during my absence.
+There was nothing for it, therefore, but to make an effort, order tea to
+be brought for her to my room, and send a message hoping she would not
+mind seeing me in my bedroom.
+
+She came up--a modest, charming-looking girl of about twenty. I
+explained the circumstances, and apologised for being unable to join in
+the tea-party, but felt rather desperate when I realised that even the
+effort of taking any share in the conversation was beyond me.
+
+Suddenly a brilliant idea passed through my throbbing head. The day
+before, in planning the visit, which Miss Boyle had been unable to carry
+out herself, she had mentioned that her friend Lizzie Maynard was a very
+good automatic writer, and this seemed a solution of the difficulty.
+
+So when my little friend had finished her tea, but was still looking
+tired from the long walk, I said to her: "I am so sorry to be so stupid
+to-day, Miss Maynard. I cannot talk, but I can listen; or do you think
+possibly you could get a little writing for me? Miss Boyle told me you
+wrote automatically sometimes?"
+
+"I will try, certainly," was the ready response. "I never know, of
+course, what may come, and as this is our first meeting, it may be a
+little more difficult, but I should like to try."
+
+She found paper and pencil, and sat by my bedside, holding the pencil
+very loosely between the second and third fingers, instead of between
+the thumb and first two fingers in the usual way.
+
+She continued talking to me during the whole time, and not being well
+versed in automatic writing then, I could not believe that any writing
+could really be going on in this very casual sort of way.
+
+"Is any writing really coming?" I questioned at last.
+
+"Oh yes; but I can't make out the last long word," she said, turning the
+paper round, so that she could see it, for the first time. "Kindly give
+me that word again," she remarked casually, and continued her
+conversation with me.
+
+Finally the three or four sheets of rather large but not always very
+distinct caligraphy were submitted to me, and I saw that "Miscellaneous"
+had been the long word at the beginning which Lizzie had asked to have
+repeated.
+
+The whole message was intensely interesting to me, for it began: "_I who
+on earth was known as George Eliot._"
+
+Now I had more than once seen, but had never spoken to, George Eliot in
+earth life, and although admiring her genius, as all who read her books
+are bound to do, there seemed no very obvious reason why she should come
+to me. Moreover, Lizzie Maynard, a charming but not highly educated girl
+(as I discovered later), seemed to know little about the famous author
+beyond her name. Another, and infinitely inferior, lady writer had been
+discussed with bated breath the day before in Lizzie's presence. Her
+books--just then in the zenith of their popularity--had newly penetrated
+to the Colonies, and were being talked of there as though Minerva
+herself, helmet and all complete, had suddenly arrived in Melbourne. I
+had personally been greatly interested by one of this lady's earlier
+books, and had a much less definite opinion of the author then, than I
+have at the present moment.
+
+Threshing my brains for any sort of tie with George Eliot, I remembered
+having often stayed at Oxford as a young woman, when Jowett of Balliol
+was entertaining her and Mr Lewes, in his own home.
+
+Of course, there was no question in those far-away days of my being
+asked to meet such a brilliant star; but it amused me often to hear the
+dull and uninteresting people of some standing in the University, whom
+Jowett had _not_ favoured with an invitation, declaring that nothing
+would have induced them to accept it!
+
+This was, however, but a feeble link, even when added to the righteous
+indignation one had so often experienced on hearing similar remarks
+made, about a woman too far above her critics both in genius and morals,
+for them to be able to catch the faintest glimpse of her personality.
+
+Apparently it only now lay with me to cease asking _why_, and accept the
+goods provided by the gods, making the most of such an opportunity. On
+these occasions so many possible questions tumble over each other in
+the brain that it is difficult to select any one to start with.
+
+At length I asked the following question:--
+
+"What did George Eliot think of the author who had been so much
+discussed and so highly applauded on the previous afternoon?"
+
+Very quickly came the answer: "_I have no sympathy there--a mere
+puppet._"
+
+Certainly this was not thought reading; for my own opinion then was very
+indefinite, and Lizzie's views, as it turned out, were as enthusiastic
+as those of most people in the Colony. It was not until several years
+later that I realised that an extraordinarily _apt_ criticism had been
+made; for a puppet is made to dance by other entities.
+
+I was longing to ask another question, but had some natural hesitation
+in doing so before such a young girl. Moreover, I feared the answer must
+almost of necessity be coloured by the traditions of the latter, and
+therefore would be of no great value either way. But taking my courage
+"in both hands," I put the question:
+
+"Please ask George Eliot if she _now_ thinks that she was justified in
+the position she took up with regard to George Lewes?"
+
+The answer came in a flash: "CERTAINLY. _We are one here, as we were on
+earth._"
+
+Anything less likely to emanate from the brain of an orthodox young girl
+can hardly be conceived!
+
+Amongst other details, George Eliot said finally that she had come to
+know my mother in spirit life, where she was called STELLA. Now my
+mother's name in earth life was Ellen, which has the same root for its
+origin. Of course, Miss Maynard did not then know whether my mother were
+alive or dead, and nothing naturally concerning her Christian name.
+
+The last statement made by George Eliot on this occasion was that
+"_before another year had rolled by, a great gift would come to me, and
+I must be very careful to use without abusing it_." I was too tired at
+the moment to ask whether "another year rolling by" meant a whole year
+from 28th October 1887 (the date of the message), or the end of the
+current year--namely, 31st December 1887.
+
+When the message had come to an end, Miss Maynard gathered up the
+scattered sheets, and promising to copy them out for me, took her
+departure, and left me to muse--so far as a racking brain would
+allow--on the curious and interesting result of her visit. No cup of tea
+to thirsty wayfarer was ever surely so grandly rewarded!
+
+My next adventure had a distant connection with these Australian
+experiences.
+
+I had come out to join the friend (Miss Greenlow) who had been my
+companion in America, and who had thence sailed for Sydney when I
+returned for a year to England. She had been anxious for me to rejoin
+her in Australia, and from thence visit Japan and China; but my arrival
+having been delayed by literary matters, this lady had finally lost
+patience, and, without my knowledge, had gone on to New Zealand, and
+thence, as it turned out, to Samoa. When I heard of the New Zealand
+episode there was nothing for it but to follow her there, on a
+will-o'-the-wisp expedition, as it turned out, but, fortunately, I was
+unaware of this at the time. I say fortunately, because had I known that
+she had already left Australia for Samoa, I should certainly have
+returned to England, in despair of tracing her any further, and thereby
+one of my most interesting experiences would have been lost.
+
+The illness in Melbourne, already referred to, detained me for over a
+fortnight, so it was necessary to transfer my New Zealand ticket from
+one boat to another. So the illness also must have been one of the
+factors that was involved in the adventure, as I have called it. For the
+delay led to my meeting--in a friend's house--Mr Arthur Kitchener (a
+younger brother of Lord Kitchener), who was introduced to me on the
+special ground that we were to be fellow-travellers to New Zealand a day
+or two later. As a matter of fact, Mr Kitchener was on his way from
+England to New Zealand, where he was superintending a sheep-run for his
+father in those days. He had come out by P. & O., and transhipped at
+Melbourne after two or three days' delay there.
+
+Several other passengers from the _Massilia_ were also going on to New
+Zealand, and naturally they felt like old friends after the five or six
+weeks already spent together. They thought _I_ wanted to be alone, and I
+thought _they_ wanted to be alone, and so I kept severely to the upper
+deck, feeling often lonely, and they all remained on the lower deck,
+wishing I would come down and talk to them sometimes. In spite of these
+misconceptions on either side, Mr Kitchener and I became sufficiently
+friendly for him to give me a very kind and hospitable invitation to
+spend the last few days of the year at his "station," about nine miles
+from Dunback, in the Dunedin district. I think I must have told him of
+my disappointment in missing my companion in Sydney, after travelling so
+many thousand miles to join her, and doubtless he felt some interest in
+this Stanley and Livingstone sort of chase, with two women taking the
+principal characters!
+
+Anyway, the invitation was given and accepted, and he kindly promised to
+ask one or two people to meet me in his house.
+
+All this came to pass some weeks later, on my return from the New
+Zealand lakes, and just before an expedition to the "Sounds," generally
+known as the "Sounds Trip."
+
+This is a pleasure trip, organised for early January, which is, of
+course, midsummer there. It lasts for ten days, and gives one the
+opportunity of seeing to the best advantage these glorious inlets of the
+sea.
+
+My week at the sheep station was to precede this, as I have explained;
+in fact, as the steamer sailed late in the afternoon, it was possible to
+go on board without stopping for the night at Dunedin, whence we were to
+sail. But at the last moment a slight contretemps took place. Owing to
+some delay the steamer would not be able to leave till Monday, instead
+of the Saturday morning as arranged, and our kind host insisted on
+extending his hospitality for the two extra days.
+
+Now each day there had been some talk about having an impromptu
+_seance_, and each day I had successfully evaded the arrangement. I have
+a great dislike to sitting in casual circles with strangers, and it
+seemed to me that no good purpose would be served by doing so. It is
+impossible on these occasions to convince anyone else that you are not
+pushing or "muscle moving," or generally playing tricks, and it has
+always seemed to me that the time wasted over mutual recriminations on
+these points, or the silly jokes that appear inevitable, when two or
+three human beings at a table get together in a private house; might be
+much more profitably spent.
+
+Table turning as a parlour game is about as stupid and aimless an
+amusement as I know. I represented all this to Mr Kitchener, but in
+vain. He had attended some psychic meetings in Dunback or Dunedin, and
+evidently wished me to reconsider the matter. Also it happened to be the
+last day of the year, when people are always more inclined to be
+obliging, I suppose; anyway that Saturday night, 31st December 1887,
+found me sitting down to a table in the little drawing-room of that
+far-away sheep station.
+
+As some reward for any virtue there may have been in yielding my point,
+I remembered suddenly that George Eliot's message on 28th October--two
+months previously--had been rather vague, and that it might be
+interesting, if the chance came, to find out whether "_before another
+year has rolled away_" meant a year from 28th October, or the year of
+which so few hours still remained to us.
+
+After the usual inanities--"_I am sure you are pushing._" "No; _you_
+are! _I saw your fingers pressing heavily._" "_Why, how extraordinary!
+that is exactly what I thought about you_," etc. etc., it was intimated
+that a spirit was there giving the name of George Eliot, so I put my
+question at once.
+
+"I did not mean another year from October last--I referred to this
+year," was the answer.
+
+"Shall I be able to write automatically?" was my next query.
+
+"No; leave that alone--it would be very dangerous for you at present."
+
+"Shall I be able to hear? Shall I become clair-audient?"
+
+"No," came for the second time.
+
+My next question naturally was: "Then shall I be able to _see_ very
+soon?"
+
+"Yes; for you will become clairvoyant for the first time. Remember my
+warning to use but not abuse the gift."
+
+Now I must explain that all this time a good deal of the usual kind of
+joking had been going on. Moreover, I felt intuitively that Mr Kitchener
+thought I was deceiving myself into the idea that human muscles could
+not account for the movements, and, in fact, the very worst possible
+conditions for getting anything of value were present.
+
+So much so that I did not for one moment suppose that it was really
+George Eliot, or that she would countenance that particular sort of
+buffoonery, and the incident made no impression upon me at all. I had
+already taken my hands off the table, when someone--Mr Kitchener, I
+think--banged it down four times, and then triumphantly observed: "_Yes,
+of course, you will see somebody during the night, or rather at four
+o'clock in the morning, you see!_" The whole thing was the kind of
+fiasco I had expected, "degenerating into a romp," as poor Corney Grain
+used to remark about the "Lancers" and the stern old lady in the
+suburban villa.
+
+The bathos of table turning had surely been reached when it came to
+banging the leg of the table down four times, and calmly announcing four
+o'clock as the time for my first vision!
+
+But the remarkable point is that I _did_ have my first vision that
+night, though it had come and gone long before four A.M.
+
+It is necessary to remember that the sun rises about three-thirty A.M.
+during the end of December or first week in January out there, so it
+would have been fairly light before four A.M.; whereas when I woke out
+of my first sleep that night, it was pitch dark.
+
+My room was the usual whitewashed apartment to be found in the ordinary
+colonial "station," with a wooden bed standing about two or three feet
+from the wall, and parallel with the only window in the room; which
+faced the door (at the foot of my bed), and was fitted with a very dark
+green blind, on account of the hot summer sunshine.
+
+But it was now pitch dark in the room. I woke facing the window, but
+turned on my side, as one generally does on such occasions, and this
+brought me face to face with the wall. To my infinite amazement there
+stood between the wall and my bed, a diaphanous figure of a woman, quite
+life size or rather more, with one arm held out in a protecting fashion
+towards me, and some drapery about the head. The features were,
+moreover, quite distinct, and, as I afterwards realised, the counterpart
+of George Eliot's curious and Savonarola-like countenance. But at the
+moment, oddly enough, I only thought of two things--first, how
+extraordinary that what had appeared to me such a silly waste of time
+overnight should have had any element of reality about it! Then swiftly
+came the second idea: "And how in the world does it happen that I don't
+feel a bit frightened?"
+
+I lay there absolutely content and peaceful, with a feeling of blissful
+satisfaction which I have never exactly realised either before or since
+that one occasion.
+
+"_Everything is all right--nothing can really ever go wrong--nothing at
+least that matters at all. All the real things are all right. I can
+never doubt the truth of these things after this experience. It was
+promised, and the promise has been redeemed._" These were the thoughts
+that passed idly through my brain as I lay--fully awake--and looked up
+at the comforting woman's figure. For it seemed more--much more--than a
+mere vision. I have spoken of the figure as diaphanous because it was
+not as solid as an ordinary human being, but, on the other hand, I could
+not see the wall through it: it was too solid for that. Then I
+remembered a story told in _The Athenaeum_--of all papers--and written by
+a Dr Jephson, of his experience whilst paying a visit to Lord Offord,
+and making notes--late at night--in the library of the house for some
+literary work on hand. He had finished his notes, put away the book of
+reference, looked at his watch, found the hands marking two A.M. (so
+far as I remember), and had just said to himself: "Well, I shall be in
+bed by two-thirty after all," when, turning round, he found a large
+leather chair close to his own, tenanted by a Spanish priest in some
+ancient dress!
+
+Thinking it might be an hallucination, he deliberately turned
+round--_away_ from the priest--rubbed his eyes, and then slowly looked
+back again. Still the priest was there, and Dr Jephson then realised for
+the first time that, although not _consciously frightened_ or alarmed in
+any way, he was quite unable to _speak_ to the intruder. So he quietly
+chose a pencil, sat down, and calmly took his portrait. The priest
+politely remained until the sketch was completed, and then vanished.
+
+This story, read some years previously, flashed through my brain, and I
+thought: "_I_ will try turning round, and then seeing if she is still
+there." I turned deliberately, facing the window, and then realised that
+it was pitch dark in my room--not the faintest glimmer of light came
+through the heavily shrouded window. "_Then it can't be four o'clock_,"
+was my triumphant comment.
+
+It would have been too disappointing had my distinguished visitor
+condoned the unblushing banging down four times of the table leg, by
+choosing that hour for her arrival in my room! But then again, how could
+I _see_ her, since the room was quite dark? It was only necessary to
+turn round once more to the wall to realise that I _did_ see her in
+fact, although I ought not to have done so in theory! I saw her as
+distinctly as I ever saw a marble statue in the Vatican Gallery by the
+light of noon. Although I had recalled the Jephson story so
+circumstantially, it never struck me that it might be interesting to
+attempt any conversation, and see whether I also were tongue-tied. I did
+not _want_ to speak--there seemed no special reason for speaking. It was
+quite enough to lie there with this blissful feeling of protection and
+love folding me round like a cloud with golden lining. And as this
+consciousness held me in its loving grasp, to my infinite sorrow the
+kind, protecting figure disappeared, gently and very slowly, sinking
+into the ground on the spot where I had first seen her; and once more
+all was dark in the room.
+
+I lay, too happy and peaceful for movement or even speculation for some
+ten minutes, and then it struck me that I had better light the candle by
+my side, and find out what o'clock it might be.
+
+Now I have a rather accurate idea of time, and can generally tell within
+a minute or two how long any special work may have taken me. Looking at
+my watch, I saw it was just two-twenty-five A.M., so I settled in my own
+mind that I must have seen the figure at two-fifteen A.M., or possibly
+at two-ten A.M., for I think the experience lasted nearly five minutes
+altogether. Anyway, I felt sure that ten minutes, as nearly as possible,
+had elapsed between the sinking of the figure out of sight and my
+lighting the match in order to consult my watch. It may have been nine
+minutes, or possibly eleven, but I feel confident the time mentioned
+would be within these limits.
+
+Therefore next morning, when our host appeared, and I was chaffed about
+"the vision," I said boldly: "You think it all nonsense, and I confess
+I did not believe anything that came last night when so much joking was
+going on, but I was mistaken. I _did_ see, for the first time in my
+life, anything abnormal." And I repeated my experience, just as I have
+now written it down.
+
+Incredulous looks greeted me, and then Mr Kitchener said quietly:
+
+"Oh yes, you saw something at four A.M. I am not at all surprised to
+hear that."
+
+"Not at four A.M.," I answered, "but at two-fifteen A.M. I made a
+special note of the time. I was asleep again long before four A.M., and
+never slept better in my life."
+
+He looked puzzled, and then suggested that my watch must have gone
+wrong; but we compared notes, and our watches were registering exactly
+the same hour within a minute or two.
+
+I found out later that, having learnt something of the Thought
+Transference Theory at the Dunedin Circle or Metaphysical Club which he
+had attended, Mr Kitchener had attempted to _make me see_ a vision at
+four A.M., but as he confessed he had been fast asleep _when_ I _did_
+see (_an hour and three quarters before his efforts started_), it would
+take a very ingenious person to prove that the latter had anything to do
+with the occurrence.
+
+A deeply interesting corroboration reached me, however, a few weeks
+later, by which time I had visited the "Sounds," and many other places
+of interest, and had arrived safely at Auckland, in the North Island.
+
+On the morning of my vision, I must not forget to mention, that I had
+spoken of it to Mr Kitchener's faithful Irish housekeeper, whose
+nationality I knew would prevent her thinking me a mere lunatic. By this
+time scepticism had the upper hand, and I was beginning to try to
+explain away everything in the true Podmorian spirit.
+
+Could Mr Kitchener or any other person present have had to do with the
+matter? In this case my blissful feelings would naturally be merely the
+result of imagination, and easily disposed of on this ground. So I
+questioned the little housekeeper when she brought my hot water as to
+whether it could have been possible for Mr Kitchener or anyone else in
+the house to have access to a clean sheet or tablecloth, and to have
+masqueraded in the garden outside my room. She indignantly denied the
+possibility. "The linen is all locked up by me; besides, no one would
+have been so wicked. It might have frightened you out of your senses,
+ma'am! Do you suppose the master would have done such a thing?"
+
+No; I did not really accuse anyone of such a cruel and stupid joke.
+Moreover, it was a little difficult, even for Podmorian ingenuity, to
+explain how man or woman, masquerading in a white sheet in the garden
+outside, could convey the fairly solid figure of a faked "George Eliot,"
+who stood well out between the wall and my bed; and this through a thick
+green blind and curtains, when garden and room alike were shrouded in
+_absolute_ darkness!
+
+Foiled in all my attempts to find a "sensible solution" to the mystery,
+I determined to write and ask Lizzie Maynard of Melbourne if _she_ could
+throw any light upon matters, my decision in taking this step being
+strengthened by the curious coincidence which I had just
+discovered--_i.e._ that Mr Kitchener's housekeeper had lived with the
+Maynards when they had had a house in Dunedin, which was later burnt
+down, as so often happens in the Colonies. "Jane" had lost sight of the
+Maynard family for years, and was much excited by my promising to write
+and tell them of my meeting with her.
+
+Of course, I mentioned my strange experience and all the details
+connected with it--_except_ the exact hour of the occurrence. It was by
+a pure oversight (as I supposed) that this fact was omitted. I have had
+reason since to believe that I was unconsciously impressed to leave out
+this special detail, in order that I might receive far better evidence
+than would have been possible under other circumstances. Had I mentioned
+the hour of the vision, the imagination of my young friends in Melbourne
+might have been at work as regards the hour of _their_ experience, which
+was as follows:--
+
+Several weeks after leaving Dunback I reached Auckland, and received
+amongst other letters one from Lizzie Maynard in answer to mine. Mr
+Kitchener had also written, saying what nice girls my friends the
+Maynards must be, and how kindly they had written to his excellent
+little housekeeper, sending her welcome gifts, and saying that her
+place had never been filled in their hearts, and so forth. Lizzie's
+letter to me began also about the excellences of "Jane," and the
+curious coincidence through which she had been once more put in touch
+with her; then she went on to say:
+
+"It is indeed very remarkable about your experience, dear Miss Bates,
+but I think you will consider it much more remarkable when I tell you
+what _we_ were doing that night. I was spending the week-end with our
+mutual friends Captain and Mrs Boyle" (in whose house she and I had
+encountered Mrs Burroughes), "and Lily Boyle and I were sleeping in
+the same room, as the house was full.
+
+"On the evening of 31st December there was a little dance arranged, to
+'dance the old year out and the new year in,' and at midnight we
+dispersed, the visitors going home, and those in the house retiring to
+bed. Lily and I were too much excited to get into bed at once, so I
+suggested that we should try to compose a letter to Miss Pearl" (this
+being the lady whose writings they greatly admired. I had allowed them
+to use my name as an introduction, should they wish to communicate with
+her at any time).
+
+Lizzie went on to say how nervous they were about writing the letter,
+fearing that so popular an author might not take any notice of the badly
+expressed letter of two young colonial girls. However, she did her best,
+and Lily Boyle did _her_ best, and the result was a hopeless failure!
+"Then," continued Lizzie, "a happy thought struck me--George Eliot had
+used my hand to convey her message to you last October; might we not,
+remembering this, appeal to her to help us in our difficulty? So we gave
+up trying to write the letter ourselves, took down planchette from its
+shelf, and started again. In a few moments an excellent letter was
+written, giving your name as an introduction, with all the little
+points you had specially begged us to remember in connection with Miss
+Pearl's probable prejudices. It was so splendidly written, and so
+quickly, that you can imagine our delight! We could not bear to give up
+planchette even after both our names had been signed, and I said
+pleadingly: '_Oh, don't go away! Do stop and tell us something more._'
+
+"In large letters, as you see" (Lizzie enclosed the script), "was
+written very decidedly:
+
+"NO, I CANNOT STAY WITH YOU NOW--I HAVE PROMISED TO GO AND SEE
+STELLA'S DAUGHTER.
+
+"I remembered, dear Miss Bates, that G. Eliot had said your mother's
+name in spirit life was _Stella_, so, of course, we knew that she meant
+us to understand that she was going to see _you_.
+
+"Unfortunately, you did not mention the hour of her visit, but we took
+the time when enclosed message was written--very accurately--in order to
+tell you about it, and the hour was just twelve-thirty A.M. Do write and
+tell us that was the time when she appeared to you--we feel sure it must
+have been--but are longing to have our idea confirmed, etc. etc."
+
+Now my young friends had evidently entirely forgotten the difference
+in time between Dunedin and Melbourne, and I must confess to my own
+amazement when I found that it was considerably over the sixty
+minutes, which I should have vaguely supposed it to be.
+
+In fact, I was rather disappointed to think there was so wide a margin
+between the two occurrences, until I casually asked a gentleman, who was
+staying in my hotel, if he could tell me the difference in time between
+the two cities.
+
+"Not exactly, I'm afraid, but it is considerably over an hour. Ah,
+there is a good atlas! I can easily calculate it for you." He remained
+silent for a moment, and then raising his head, said: "As nearly an
+hour and three quarters as possible." This was pretty good evidence of
+the practically simultaneous experience of my friends in Melbourne at
+twelve-thirty A.M., with my own at two-fifteen A.M. in the
+neighbourhood of Dunedin.
+
+When I first became acquainted with Mr Myers, shortly after my return
+from Australia and New Zealand, I told him this story. He was greatly
+interested, but pointed out that it was useless from the evidential
+point of view unless I would take the trouble to write one or two
+letters to the Colonies.
+
+So I wrote to Mr Kitchener for confirmation of the fact that I was
+staying in his house on the night of 31st December 1887, and had told
+him of my experience next morning, exactly as here related. Then I had
+to get Miss Lizzie Maynard's testimony with regard to her letter to
+me, and finally, I think, the testimony of Lily Boyle and her father
+that Miss Maynard was their guest in Melbourne on the occasion of the
+New Year's Eve dance. These letters are presumably still amongst the
+archives of the Society of Psychical Research, and the story was
+printed by them in their Proceedings some years ago.
+
+I may add a last evidential touch by saying that when I met Miss Pearl
+for the first time after my travels, she referred to the letter she had
+received--under favour of my introduction--and quite spontaneously
+remarked upon its excellence, adding:
+
+"I could scarcely believe that two young Australian girls, as they
+described themselves to me, could have written such an admirable
+letter."
+
+I did not disclose the real source of the composition, as the popular
+author thinks that she has no belief in spiritualism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HONG KONG, ALASKA, AND NEW YORK
+
+
+The spring months of 1888 found me at Brisbane, _en route_ for China,
+after spending a pleasant month with old friends on a well-known
+station belonging to the late Sir Arthur Hodgson, named Eton Vale, and
+situated on the beautiful and healthy Darling Downs of Queensland.
+
+Before returning to Sydney from New Zealand, my female "Dr
+Livingstone" had reappeared upon the scene in the most unexpected
+manner. Our "historical meeting" took place in an Auckland hotel,
+where she suddenly turned up one day, driven back from Samoa by the
+intense heat. So after some gentle recriminations, she "having
+supposed the delay on my part might mean an entire change of plan,"
+and I having supposed--from her letters--that Sydney was such a
+Paradise that she could hardly be dragged from it even by a flaming
+sword, we agreed to cry "quits," and continue our travels together. So
+Miss Greenlow spent the month of March in Sydney, whilst I paid my
+visit to Queensland, and we met once more at Brisbane to take steamer
+for Thursday Island, Cape Darwin, and eventually Hong Kong. Only one
+small matter of psychic interest occurred during this voyage.
+
+I have mentioned in a previous chapter the little "swallows," which I
+first saw in San Francisco in the year 1886. I had been accustomed to
+seeing them ever since that date, and had been frequently commiserated
+for incipient eye trouble in consequence, by more than one sceptical
+friend.
+
+On the very day we went on board the Hong Kong steamer at Brisbane, a
+new sign appeared: a single bird, holding in its beak a ring with half
+hoop of five stones, presumably diamonds. I told my friend about this,
+but neither she nor I could imagine any significance in it. At that time
+we had not even met any of our fellow-passengers to speak to, for we
+were all taken up with settling into our cabins and trying to make
+ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit.
+
+For a whole week the same little bird and the same ring were
+persistently held up before me. Then an inkling of the possible meaning
+broke upon me suddenly. Within a fortnight of our sailing this suspicion
+was confirmed, and the little bird's warning or suggestion amply
+justified. But "that is another story!" Curiously enough, the new "sign
+in the heavens" was withdrawn as soon as I had grasped its meaning.
+
+I must hasten over our delightful stay in Japan, because amongst much of
+extreme interest from artistic, social, and various other points of
+view, nothing occurred which has any special bearing on my present
+subject.
+
+Leaving Japan eventually by sailing from Yokohama to Vancouver
+(Washington territory), the old threads were once more put into my
+hands.
+
+We made the acquaintance on board the old P. & O. _Abyssinia_ of the
+late Captain MacArthur, a kindly and genial naval man. He was an
+Australian by birth, but belonged to our English navy, and was just
+returning home on his promotion as commander.
+
+He became rather interested in my "queer ideas," and ended by suggesting
+some experiments with "the table," so he persuaded the ship's carpenter
+to put together a small rough wooden table. The sittings were held,
+generally after dinner, in either my cabin or that of my "stable
+companion" Miss Greenlow. So far as I remember, we three were the only
+sitters, and I am bound to confess the sittings were sometimes very
+monotonous, even viewed from the indulgent perspective of a sea voyage.
+In fact, I can now recall only one incident of any real value.
+
+The dear old nurse, spoken of in my opening chapter, had now been for
+three or four years on the other side of the veil, but had never given
+me the slightest sign of her presence. But she came several times during
+this voyage, and always with the same object--namely, to entreat, and
+finally _implore me_, to give up a projected tour in Alaska.
+
+Miss Greenlow and I had been prevented from undertaking this, two years
+earlier, when visiting Victoria (Vancouver), and she was very keen to go
+there from Washington territory on this occasion. I was _not_ keen for
+the expedition, but had made no strong objection to it, and it was
+understood that we should go together.
+
+This was the tour which my old nurse now pleaded so anxiously should be
+given up, so far as _I_ was concerned.
+
+"_It will ruin your health, my darling_," she said more than once.
+"_Don't go there; take my advice._" And on one occasion, just before
+landing, she added: "_You will find letters awaiting you which will
+enable you to make other plans._"
+
+This proved true--in a certain way. The first letter opened in the
+budget which fell to my share, told me of the sudden death of our family
+solicitor, which would have been a good excuse for a hasty return to
+England had any such pretext been necessary.
+
+But this was not the case, for my companion, although quite determined
+to go to Alaska herself, was not in the least inclined to over-persuade
+me to accompany her. She was a very independent woman, quite accustomed
+to travelling alone, and I knew that neither her enjoyment nor her
+convenience would be affected by my decision one way or the other. I had
+no wish to go myself, and, moreover, thought it quite probable that my
+dear old nurse's warnings might be amply justified. But there were other
+grave considerations to be taken into account, and I still feel that I
+adopted the right, although not the pleasanter course, when I allowed my
+fellow-passengers to depart East, joking me on my want of faith in the
+warnings from the spirits, and accompanied my friend, very unwillingly,
+to Alaska.
+
+My nurse's earnest entreaties were only too fully justified on the
+physical plane, to say nothing of the miserable discomfort of the trip
+(which in those days had to be made in an overcrowded cargo boat.) I
+took a chill in those Arctic regions, which later developed into the
+longest and most serious illness of my life. It took months to make even
+a partial recovery, and the effects will remain during my life. Yet I
+have never regretted my decision.
+
+This little episode seems to throw some light upon the way such warnings
+should be treated. To give no heed to them on the one hand, or to follow
+them blindly, _in spite of every other consideration_, on the other;
+these seem to me the Scylla and Charybdis of our lives. It shows that we
+_must_ judge for ourselves; we cannot shift the burden of responsibility
+on any other shoulders. How could we gain the real education of life
+were it otherwise?
+
+Had I turned my back on Alaska I should have gained enormously,
+physically speaking, and yet failed in a moral test. But my dear old
+nurse, who considered only--probably _saw_ only--the physical evils to
+be avoided, was entirely in the right, _from her standpoint_. The
+faithful soul was doing her best to shield her nursling from danger.
+
+A severe illness was entailed by my Alaska experiences. "Livingstone and
+Stanley" were once more separated. In other words, Miss Greenlow was
+obliged to return to England alone, leaving me to be nursed through a
+long and painful illness by kind friends and connections in Toronto. One
+of my doctors--the brother of my hostess--kindly made time to take me
+and my nurse to New York, in order that he might put me under the
+special care of the ship's doctor, and also be able to certify, as
+required, that I was in a fit condition to undertake the voyage.
+
+It was during the day or two spent in New York before sailing, that I
+induced this gentleman to accompany me one evening to a _seance_ held by
+Mrs Stoddart Gray, who has been previously mentioned in this narrative.
+
+Dr Theodore Covernton had all the ordinary doctor's prejudices against
+anything unseen or unknown. He had read my book on America, and
+considered the chapter on "Spiritualism" a lamentable lapse "from the
+good sense shown in the rest of the book!" I represented to him that for
+a physician to deny all possibilities of Hypnotism or Mesmerism, Thought
+Transmission, etc., meant losing some very valuable aids in his
+profession, and would probably soon mean being left pretty badly behind
+in the race.
+
+Knowing of no specially good hypnotist in New York, and as there was no
+time to find one out, I boldly suggested that he should plunge into
+still deeper depths of "folly," and accompany me to the house of Mrs
+Stoddart Gray.
+
+The usual performances went on, but whether owing to Dr Covernton's
+attitude of mind or other causes, nothing of any special interest to him
+or to me occurred.
+
+One incident impressed him, I think; certainly he could suggest no
+possible explanation of it, for it happened in a very fair amount of
+light and close to our feet. A gentleman and lady were sitting in the
+circle who had brought with them their little boy, a child of seven
+years old. I had asked the lady if she considered it wise to bring so
+young a child into such a _milieu_, several hours after an English child
+would have been put to bed, and her answer was cheery and
+characteristic:
+
+"Well, I guess we shouldn't have much peace at home if we didn't bring
+Charlie along with us to see his Granny. We took him once, and since
+then he always insists upon coming. He loves talking to his Granny, and
+he is not a bit afraid of her."
+
+At this moment a small frail woman stepped out from the cabinet, and
+came right up towards us, motioning to the little grandson that she
+wished him to go into the cabinet with her. This he did without a
+moment's hesitation, and the curtain fell, and concealed them both from
+view. The interview lasted for some minutes, and when the little boy
+reappeared, he was holding his Granny by the hand, and was evidently on
+the best of terms with her. I do not expect my readers to believe me,
+but this is exactly what happened next:
+
+The child had brought some toys--a little train and some building
+blocks--"to get Granny to play with him as usual," and the fragile old
+lady knelt down on the floor, and played with him just as any ordinary
+Granny might have done, only with far more agility.
+
+In the very midst of their brick building and train starting, a terrible
+catastrophe occurred, which spoilt the rest of the evening for the poor
+child. Granny had evidently forgotten that her time was limited, by
+conditions of which we are still profoundly ignorant.
+
+Quite suddenly, and without a word of warning, she disappeared, not into
+the cabinet at her back, but right through the carpet under our feet,
+and well within a yard of the said feet, and this with two or three
+gas-jets burning over our heads!
+
+There was no mistake about it. Dr Covernton and I were sitting next to
+the father and mother, whilst the child and his grandmother played at
+our feet. One moment she was there; the next she had disappeared like a
+flash into a mere cloud of mist, and even this was quickly withdrawn,
+apparently through the floor. No trap-door theory could account for
+this, because the _woman_ had disappeared, and only the wisp of ethereal
+garments remained, before the latter were also dissipated. We must,
+moreover, note the difficulty of working a trap door immediately under
+the feet of a sceptical young physician, who at once investigated the
+carpet, hoping in vain to find in it some solution of the mystery!
+
+I have already mentioned that the whole incident took place, in light
+sufficiently good to read a book without straining the eyes.
+
+The poor little boy was terribly upset, and sobbed bitterly. His parents
+said they had brought him many times before, and such a _fiasco_ had
+never before taken place. Mrs Stoddart Gray was very indignant about it.
+
+"Too bad! She ought to have _known_ she was staying too long, and
+risking a fright for the child. If she had only gone back into the
+cabinet he would not have been frightened. But she stayed too long and
+had not enough strength to get back."
+
+The child was too thoroughly frightened and upset to admit of any
+consolation, and the parents were obliged to take him away, still
+sobbing, and asking _why_ Granny had gone away like that and given him
+such a fright.
+
+A year later, in London, I took Dr Covernton--by appointment--to see Dr
+Carl Hansen, who was then giving hypnotic treatment, and also doing some
+work in demonstrations for the Society for Psychical Research. Dr Hansen
+tried in vain to put either Dr Theodore Covernton or myself under the
+influence, so was obliged to have recourse to his wife. Naturally this
+was considered a "_most suspicious circumstance_" by my companion; but I
+noticed that he was very much interested in his conversation with
+her--from the medical point of view--and he was sufficiently honest to
+admit that he could not explain what happened in his presence, upon any
+normal hypothesis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INDIA, 1890-1891
+
+
+In the month of November 1890 I started with a young friend for my first
+visit to India.
+
+My companion was still at the age when social India was naturally more
+interesting to her than either the historical or mystical aspects of the
+country. And, for myself, I went there in those days rather to see the
+glorious buildings of a magnificent Past, than with any view of wresting
+occult secrets from the Fakirs and Yogis of the Present.
+
+It was well perhaps that one's ambitions were so limited by the
+Possible, for I am very much inclined to think that Mystic India is
+and must remain a sealed book for the English.
+
+We must always remember the natural prejudices of a conquered race
+towards the conqueror. In addition to this, the Hindoostanees consider
+(and who shall say without ample cause?) that Englishmen are
+hopelessly "_borne_" and sunk in materialism, incapable of exercising
+an imagination which they don't possess; with a top dressing of
+conventional orthodoxy, so far as their own special religion is
+concerned, but with nothing but ridicule or thinly veiled contempt for
+the religious channels through which other races may be taking their
+spiritual food. We have given them only too much reason for these
+conclusions.
+
+As a consequence of this state of things, Englishmen and women are
+looked upon as "quite impossible" from the Indian point of view, and a
+devout and educated Hindoo would no more think of discussing his
+transcendental ideas with such people than we should think of discussing
+delicate questions of Art--in its various branches--with the first
+village yokel we happened to meet in the road. I was confirmed in these
+ideas by noticing the difference in the welcome accorded to a charming
+young Swedish lady, whom we met at Benares on her wedding tour. She had
+brought excellent native introductions from her own country, where
+certain Rajahs and Maharajahs had been entertained by her King, and
+thanks to these, and, as she said, "_to the fact of my not being
+English_," she had access to many interesting places, and took part in
+interesting functions, from which the rest of us were debarred.
+
+I am hoping to pay a third visit to India some day, with the special
+object in view of occult investigation. It remains to be seen whether,
+by any fortunate accident, I may then be more successful in encountering
+anything more interesting than the ordinary clever conjurers, who
+sometimes pose as Fakirs, and may be found by the tourist on every hotel
+veranda in India.
+
+Meanwhile I am limited by the title of my book to personal incidents, as
+to which I find one or two notes in my Indian diary.
+
+Making the usual tour, but including Lahore--where my brother had lived
+at Government House for several years as Military Secretary to Sir
+Robert Egerton (who was in _his_ day), Lieutenant-Governor of the
+Punjab--we came in due course to Delhi.
+
+Our first day there was devoted to tracing Mutiny relics of all kinds,
+and about four P.M. in the afternoon we drove out to the famous Ridge to
+see the Mutiny Memorial. This, as most people nowadays know, is a red
+standstone tower, with staircase of rough stone inside, and small
+windows pierced through at varying intervals. It stands upon an
+extensive marble flooring, which is inscribed with the names of the
+various regiments--officers and men--who took part in the renowned
+siege, and died for their country in consequence.
+
+As we drove towards the Memorial, the whole place seemed to be in a
+flutter of excitement. Hundreds of coolies were flocking round, and we
+both remarked how much more interested they appeared to be in these
+monuments of past events than the corresponding class of English
+labourers would have been. But on arrival we found there was no question
+of intelligent historical interest. The fact was that a poor coolie--who
+had just climbed up the Memorial Tower by the inner staircase--had
+fallen out of one of the windows described, and was lying on the marble
+floor below, at the far side from us, crushed and dying. We were told
+that an Englishman had, fortunately, been present, and had driven off at
+once for a doctor. So nothing could be done for the poor man until the
+latter arrived.
+
+Meanwhile our native servant--Bobajee--had, of course, rushed off to
+see what was to be seen of the tragedy, and, rather to my horror, my
+girl friend seemed about to follow his example! It was terrible to think
+of the poor man lying there in his death agony; but he was already
+surrounded by natives, and no real help could be given without fear of
+doing more harm than good before the doctor was brought to the spot.
+Therefore merely to go and look on, without being able to succour,
+seemed to me an added horror to the tragedy, and I turned round rather
+sharply on my young friend, and expostulated with her. As a matter of
+fact, she did _not_ go; but I am obliged to mention the incident as
+accounting for a certain momentary excitement and annoyance on my part,
+which proved to be factors in the story about to be related.
+
+Allowing for difference of time between Delhi and London, a very old
+friend of mine, Lady Wincote (who was then living in London, where I was
+in the habit of visiting her constantly when in town), was lying in bed,
+resting after a disturbed night, at the very hour of our visit to the
+Mutiny Memorial.
+
+It was about noon in England; she was fully awake, and had been reading.
+Looking at her watch she realised it was time to make a move if she
+meant to come down for luncheon. Suddenly the door opened, and _I_
+walked into her bedroom, and right round the bed, until I stood between
+her and the window, which was to her left as she lay in bed.
+
+I was dressed in ordinary outdoor attire, and seemed much excited and
+annoyed about something. I was talking continuously, as it seemed to
+her; but she could not make out any connected sentences, and "wondered
+what had upset me" so much. She spoke to me, asking what had happened;
+but I took no notice of her questions, standing with my face to the
+window and my back to her for a few moments. Then I turned round, and
+deliberately retraced my steps, past the ottoman, skirting round the
+bed, and was just disappearing through the door, when she made a final
+effort to attract my attention, asking a very practical question:
+
+"Emmie! Do tell me before you go, what number you are staying at in
+Oxford Terrace" (the part of town where I always stayed at that time).
+Lady Wincote said: "You made no answer at all, but whisked out of the
+door in a great hurry, and then for the first time I remembered _that
+you were in India_. It had all seemed so natural, as you had often been
+in my bedroom, that I only thought at the moment that you must have
+returned unexpectedly to London from the country. My one anxiety was to
+know which number on the Terrace would find you, in case you had changed
+your address there."
+
+Now all this was, fortunately, written out to me by my friend on the
+very day that it happened--_i.e._ 8th January 1891--and _crossed my
+letter to her telling her of the incident_. My letter was written a day
+or two later I think; but I was keeping a strict diary at the time, and
+under date of 8th January have the record of the event, corresponding
+with the date of Lady Wincote's letter to me.[3]
+
+ [3] Both my diary and Lady Wincote's letter were shown to Mr Myers on
+ my return to England, also my letter which crossed the one from Lady
+ Wincote to me. He was greatly interested in the account.
+
+Probably in any case I should have written to tell this friend of the
+incident, on account of a conversation I had with Bobajee when he
+returned from his ghastly entertainment. I had looked inside the
+Memorial, and had seen that the stone steps were crumbling away and
+looked very unsafe, so when he came back and said: "_Something bad
+inside there, Lady Sahib_," I concluded naturally that he was referring
+to the state of the staircase, and attributing the poor coolie's fall to
+some such cause.
+
+But he denied this strenuously: "_No! no! Lady Sahib--some bad debil
+inside there. He threw coolie over!_" Then he went on to tell us that on
+one special night in the year no native man, woman, or child in the
+whole city could be induced to pass the Mutiny Memorial at midnight. The
+few daring souls who _had_ passed there, had found the tower all lighted
+up inside, and the Sepoys and the British soldiers had come back, and
+were fighting their battles over again! The man spoke in simple good
+faith, and assured me that all Delhi people knew this to be a fact, and
+gave the place a wide berth on that anniversary.
+
+The idea of the "bad debil" throwing the poor coolie down from the top
+of the tower, followed by this curious legend, interested me as a bit of
+folk-lore, but my companion was drastic in her remarks. "Silly nonsense,
+Bobajee!" was her reception of the story; and this made me feel
+intensely sorry for the moment, that Lady Wincote, who would have been
+as much interested as myself, should not have been present. Did this
+moment of intense desire for her, project itself into the appearance she
+saw in her room? Who can say? Certainly it was a curious coincidence
+that she should see me in an annoyed and excited state just when I was
+feeling annoyed and excited--so many thousand miles away.
+
+Delhi seems to have been specially favourable to psychic experiences,
+for I find another one recorded on the very day succeeding the last
+event.
+
+My friend, having some slight ailment, I had driven out alone with our
+native servant, and we made a long tour, returning about six P.M. past
+Ludlow Castle, of famous Mutiny memory, and still--in the year 1891--a
+Government bungalow.
+
+The present Czar of Russia was travelling through India at the time as
+Czarewitch, with his cousin, Prince George of Greece, and they were
+expected to arrive in Delhi that same evening. The Royal party and suite
+were to be lodged at Ludlow Castle, and were expected within an hour.
+
+Bobajee jumped off the box of my carriage, and urged me to "go look,
+see!"
+
+"No, Bobajee! Drive on--can't go look see--they no let me in."
+
+"Yes, yes, Lady Sahib," he said eagerly--"everything ready--all gone
+away--nobody in there yet."
+
+With our English notions this seems inconceivable, but it proved to be
+absolutely true. I went in, expecting to be turned back ignominiously
+before I had crossed the hall, but there was positively no one there!
+The place was like a City of the Dead. Yet within an hour, a banquet
+arranged for about seventy people was to take place! I made the best of
+my opportunity, ranged through the numerous bedrooms--with hanging
+Japanese blinds shutting them off and each one inscribed with the card
+of the special Russian or Greek general who formed part of the suite. At
+length I strolled into the dining-room--a long, narrow room--arranged
+for the coming festivity (at least sixty to seventy covers were laid),
+the flowers arranged on the tablecloth in the pretty, artistic Indian
+fashion, all the beautiful glass and silver placed in readiness.
+
+Nothing was wanting but the presence of the guests for whom all this
+preparation had been made.
+
+The short Indian twilight was already upon us as I stood there for a
+moment, contrasting the dead and almost eerie silence, with the lights
+and laughter that would so quickly replace it.
+
+A fireplace was close to me as I stood at the far end of the room,
+looking down the whole length of the table. Glancing up, I realised that
+the only picture in the room was hung over this fireplace. The picture
+in question had no artistic value--the painting was flat and poor; even
+the subject did not strike me for the first moment as anything very
+remarkable. It was the portrait of a man in the prime of life--about
+thirty-five, I should have supposed--with the long whiskers and rather
+prim pose of a portrait made by an evidently poor artist, probably
+thirty or forty years previous to my visit.
+
+But as I looked again, a curious sensation came over me. In spite of the
+painter's failure to convey anything more like a living man than a dead
+pressed rose is like a living rose, there was something in the eyes of
+the portrait that held me, something that rose triumphant above the
+artist's limitations. At the same moment I was conscious of a Presence
+behind my back; of _somebody who was looking at the picture with me_; of
+somebody who was saying to me (not with the outer, but an inner voice):
+"_That is a picture of me, but I am not there--I am here, close to you;
+behind your shoulder--I am looking at it with you._"
+
+The impression was so strong that it seemed almost as if a hand were
+pressing on my shoulder. I turned round involuntarily, but no one was
+there. Then I looked at the picture again, and always with the same
+weird sensation that the man whom the picture represented had been
+strong enough to make me feel his actual presence in the room, although
+I could see nothing. There was no name on the picture of either subject
+or artist, no possible clue to identity, and looked at as a picture
+alone, there was nothing in the flat, conventional presentment of the
+features to account for my experience. This made it the more remarkable.
+I could scarcely tear myself away from the almost overwhelming sense of
+the presence of some strong and strangely magnetic personality, but the
+fast fading twilight warned me not to risk an ignominious retreat. So I
+went hurriedly through the large and handsome drawing-room, which was
+filled with portraits, chiefly of deceased governors and generals, many
+of them admirably painted, and a striking contrast to the one poor and
+commonplace picture already seen.
+
+The absolute incongruity between the impression received and the object
+which roused it, led me to make inquiries, in spite of my friend's jokes
+over my powers of imagination.
+
+"Anyway, I am going to clear this up," I said with determination; and in
+a few days my perseverance was rewarded, and my impression amply
+justified, by finding that I had been looking at the portrait--feeble
+and poor as it was--of _Brigadier-General Nicholson_.
+
+None of my readers need to be told that if any dead man could impress
+himself upon the living, this would be the man capable of such a feat.
+
+Even to this day there is a small religious sect in India called the
+_Nicholasain_, who have handed down the memory of this "god rather than
+man," who had to dismount from his horse occasionally, to thrash his
+would-be worshippers, and put a stop to their inconvenient adoration!
+
+Nicholson's brilliant achievements in the Mutiny; his absolute control
+over men of the most diverse character; the devotion with which he
+inspired his soldiers, and his own glorious death in the very moment of
+victory--all these are matters of history.
+
+I feel glad and grateful to have known, even for a few passing moments,
+what that influence had been; and when I found out Brigadier-General
+Nicholson's grave at Delhi, after my Ludlow Castle experience, I left my
+flowers on the grave of an honoured acquaintance, rather than of a man
+known to me only through historical records.
+
+One more incident, or rather coincidence, and I must close my Indian
+chapter.
+
+This also is connected with the Mutiny and with Delhi, but the special
+coincidence, to which I refer, took place at Agra, when my friend and I
+were staying at the hotel there in the early spring of 1891.
+
+One of my oldest and most valued friends is Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred S.
+Jones, V.C., formerly of the 9th Lancers, and one of our Mutiny heroes.
+As everything connected with that historical tragedy seems to have
+perennial interest for every Englishman--no matter what his creed or
+politics--I make no excuse for furnishing some details connected with my
+friend's career. His record from Hart's Army List is as follows:--
+
+"Lieutenant-Colonel Jones was present at the battle of Budlekee Serai,
+and at Delhi throughout the siege operations, including the assault and
+capture of the city, having been D.A.Q.M.G. from 8th August to 23rd
+September 1857. Served with the 9th Lancers in Greathead's pursuing
+column, and was present in the actions of Bolimshuhur and Alighur and
+battle of Agra--where he was dangerously wounded, having received a
+musket-shot wound and twenty-two sabre cuts. He was mentioned in the
+despatches of Sir Hope Grant on three different occasions, and has
+received the Victoria Cross for taking a nine-pounder gun, with the
+assistance of some men from his squadron, in the action of Budlekee
+Serai (medal with clasp and Brevet of Major)."
+
+Although, as a child, I had heard of the bravery and the terrible wounds
+of one who was to become later in life one of my greatest friends, the
+actual details of the Agra catastrophe were hazy in my memory. Two
+things, however, had remained firmly imbedded in my mind--first, that a
+brother officer had told me that he was standing close by Colonel Jones
+when, as a young officer, the latter attended the Levee to receive his
+Victoria Cross, and that the Queen was so much agitated by his
+appearance that she could hardly pin it on. Also, that this brother
+officer heard her whisper to her husband: "My God, Albert! look at that
+poor boy! He has been cut to pieces!"
+
+The other childish memory is that the Taj had been turned into a
+hospital at the time of the Mutiny, and that my friend, amongst others,
+had been nursed there. This latter proved to have been a mistake on the
+part of my informants. It was the Moti Musjid (the Pearl Mosque) which
+was turned to this account, and in which my friend was nursed back to
+life, to the surprise of all who knew the extent of his disaster.
+
+It is specially important for people blessed, or cursed, with psychic
+gifts "to give no occasion to the enemy" by exaggeration or inexact
+memory of details. So, with the wholesome dread of a well-read reviewer
+before my eyes, I determined to go to the fountain-head, and ask Colonel
+Jones himself to supply me with the true incidents which make the Agra
+episode a moving picture before our eyes. He has kindly consented to do
+this, and I give the narrative in his own words:--
+
+
+After the fall of Delhi, a column, under General Greathead, was sent
+down to Lucknow, and as three squadrons of the 9th Lancers were told off
+to go, I resigned my staff appointment, and went with my troop.
+
+After two fights--Bolimshuhur and Alighur--we were hurried off to Agra,
+sixty-six miles in thirty-six hours. But on arrival we found that the
+Agra people had recovered from their fright and Greathead was fool
+enough to believe their story that the enemy was twelve miles away, and
+therefore took up ground for our camp, just by the graveyard and
+parade-ground, which you will remember. There was a high crop of
+sugar-cane, concealing everything beyond the parade-ground, and after
+most of the officers of the whole force had gone off to Agra Fort to
+breakfast with friends, cannon-shot began to fall amongst us; and
+everyone had time to fall in, as the horses had not been unsaddled.
+
+My squadron, consisting of French's and my troops, was told off as an
+escort to Blunt's Battery, F.A., which formed the left of the line,
+consisting of our other two squadrons, more F. Artillery, 8th and 75th
+Regiments, etc., all moving to the front through high crops.
+
+Then we saw the enemy--700 or 800 yards off--and Blunt unlimbered his
+guns, and began to fire, when we soon saw a body of cavalry moving off
+across our front, to turn our left flank, and Blunt said we must go back
+to defend our camp. So he limbered up, and we all (_i.e._ our squadron
+and Blunt's guns) began to straggle back through the high crops. But
+Blunt said he must leave one troop with two of his guns, and French's
+troop was stopped for the purpose. Instead of staying with it, he felt
+so sure we should have a chance at the cavalry we had seen (Mutineers)
+that he came on with me, and together we formed up my troop on the
+parade-ground, close to Blunt's guns, which we saw already unlimbered.
+
+A squadron of Irregular (mutinied) cavalry was coming in our direction
+over the parade-ground, with a blue squadron of (mutinied) regular
+cavalry in support, both trotting; so, of course, we went for the Red
+(head of the echellon they formed).
+
+Then I saw French shot, and the hind quarters of his grey horse pass
+round the left flank of my little troop; then I gave the word GALLOP,
+and the Red squadron, to my surprise, _halted_.
+
+Observing its leader taking aim at me with his carbine, I inclined a
+little to my left, in order to stick him, never dreaming that I should
+be hit before I could do so, and I was almost within reach before he
+fired, and his bullet went through my bridle arm, so I had to take my
+reins on my sword hand and jam my horse into the ranks, just behind the
+squadron leader who had shot me.
+
+Now to clear up your mystery about my being left to my fate (I had
+specially asked Colonel Jones how he happened to be left alone amongst
+the Sepoys, whose numbers were registered by his sabre cuts in so
+ghastly a fashion), I was not left to my fate; on the contrary, the man
+on the left of my troop, who alone could see, put his lance through the
+squadron leader, and stayed about--outside the ring--trying to get to me
+to the last, and got the V.C. on my report to that effect.
+
+My troop, occupying, in double rank, about twenty yards, went straight
+on after the twenty yards or so front of the enemy's probable front of
+perhaps fifty yards. So there were plenty of Sowars left to mob round
+me and to keep off the man who tried to save me. Of course, my men were
+quite right in pursuing the broken force as they did, right off the
+field.
+
+
+This account has the immense advantage of being taken verbatim from
+Colonel Jones' letter just received by me. It has the _disadvantage_
+that such a letter, from a brave man, would naturally possess--_i.e._
+that of minimising his share in the episode to the point of making it
+difficult for the lay mind to realise where the heroism came in--which
+heroism is a vital point in my "coincidence." Fortunately, I have the
+best authority for saying that the "Blunt" mentioned in this record
+always maintained that Colonel Alfred Jones had "saved his guns." It
+appears that at the time of the unexpected attack from the enemy,
+Colonel Jones and two or three friends (who had not gone to the fort)
+were breakfasting under the shade of the cemetery wall when the alarm
+was given. My friend, wishing to rest his charger after the long forced
+march from Agra, had taken a spare troop horse, saddled with a _hunting
+saddle_.
+
+When the round shot began to fall, there was no time to get his charger.
+There was nothing for it but to put on sword and pistol and ride
+straight in to the enemy's ranks. No wonder the poor people shut up in
+Agra were enthusiastic over this "charge of cavalry in their shirt
+sleeves," as they called it.
+
+In 1891 I was staying in Agra, at the hotel, with my friend of the Delhi
+incident. A certain Major Pulford, who had come to Agra to race some
+ponies, divided us at the _table d'hote_. He and I had been neighbours
+for two or three days, when he asked me carelessly one evening what _I_
+had been doing that afternoon, as my friend confessed to having taken a
+"day off."
+
+Now I had spent the afternoon at the Taj, and had made many inquiries
+about the tradition that this building had once been turned into a
+hospital. No one knew anything about it. One old Hindoo, evidently
+thinking I wished him to say "_Yes_," remembered hearing that this _had_
+been the case "_about eighty years ago_." This last artistic touch of
+accuracy was fatal to his _bona fides_, and I turned away in disgust.
+
+So I told Major Pulford my story, and we laughed over the well-known
+fact that a Hindoo of that class always tries to find out what you wish
+him to say, and _then says it!_
+
+Major Pulford asked why I was so keen on the subject.
+
+"Because a very old friend of mine was badly wounded at Agra during the
+Mutiny, and from a child I have had the impression that he was nursed in
+the Taj."
+
+"No," he answered. "I am sure the Taj was never used as a hospital, but
+I think the Pearl Mosque may have been. This would account for the
+mistake, probably."
+
+Now the point in this incident is the fact that I _had not mentioned my
+friend's name to Major Pulford_.
+
+Had the name been a more distinctive one, I might have mentioned it,
+although realising that Major Pulford was too young a man to have known
+anything about the Mutiny at first hand.
+
+We talked casually on the subject for a few minutes, and then he said:
+"Of course, I was a baby at the time, but I have read and heard any
+amount about it, naturally. _My_ boyish hero was a fellow named Jones of
+the 9th Lancers, who was so awfully plucky in their celebrated charge,
+when surprised by the enemy on the Agra parade-ground. I know nothing
+about the fellow except what I have read. I believe he is alive still,
+but they say he was almost cut to pieces then."
+
+"_That is the friend whom I thought had been nursed in the Taj_," was my
+astonished answer.
+
+Major Pulford's delight was unbounded to have come by so strange a
+coincidence even thus near to the hero of his youth. For myself, I
+recognised that I had sat next to the only man, probably then in India,
+who could have given me the accurate and precise details of the whole
+affair!
+
+"I know every inch of the ground, and just where it all happened," he
+said eagerly. "Do let me drive you and your friend over there to-morrow
+in my buggy, and I will point out every detail."
+
+He did so next day, leaving me with the most vivid impression of the
+scene of my friend's gallant fight for life, against such overwhelming
+odds.
+
+That he should still be alive and active--nearly fifty years
+later--seems little short of a miracle!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892
+
+
+Travelling in Sweden in the spring of 1892, I carried with me from
+England an introduction to the Swedish Consul at Gottenburg. One of
+the sisters of this gentleman was married to an Englishman--a Mr
+Romilly--and he and his wife chanced to come over for a visit during
+my stay.
+
+Speaking of psychic matters one day, Mr Romilly told me the story of his
+first cousin (a well-known woman of title) and her Egyptian necklace. A
+present had been made to her (I think on her marriage) of a very
+beautiful Egyptian necklace with stones of the exquisite blue shade so
+well known by travellers in Egypt.
+
+These special stones, alas! must evidently have been genuine, and rifled
+from some old tomb, for the owner of the necklace appeared one night by
+the lady's bedside, and warned her that she would have no peace so long
+as she persisted in wearing his property.
+
+So the lady very wisely locked up the necklace in her dressing-case, and
+fondly trusted the Egyptian ghost would be satisfied.
+
+Not a bit of it! In a short time he appeared again, and told her that
+she would be haunted by his unwelcome presence so long as the necklace
+_remained in her possession_. She then drove off with it, and deposited
+it with her lawyer, who locked it up in a tin case, doubtless with a
+secret smile at his noble client's superstitions. But Nemesis lay in
+wait for him, and the last thing Mr Romilly had heard upon the subject
+was that the lawyer himself was made so exceedingly uncomfortable by the
+attentions of the Egyptian gentleman that he was obliged to have
+necklace and tin case buried together in his back garden! To have forced
+a lawyer into such extreme measures was certainly a "score" for the
+ghost!
+
+A few months later, I met the heroine of the story at a friend's house
+at tea, and speaking of her relation, who had married a Swedish wife,
+and whom I had met in Gottenburg, I alluded discreetly to the story of
+the blue necklace.
+
+My companion at once endorsed it _in toto_, and did not seem at all
+annoyed by the fact that her cousin had mentioned it to me. I remember
+that Mrs Romilly "laid the cards" for me, with astonishing success, and
+told me she had learnt the mystic lore from an old Finnish nurse, who
+had been brought over from Finland by her own Swedish grandfather when
+quite a young girl, and had lived in the family until her death. She
+assured me that the Finns were specially gifted in all kinds of gipsy
+lore.
+
+From Stockholm we paid a visit to Russia, and in St Petersburg I had my
+first personal experience since leaving home.
+
+We had engaged, as courier during our stay in the city, a German who had
+lived there for forty years, named Kuentze, I think.
+
+We were staying at the Hotel de France, and this man told me one day
+that a celebrated French _modiste_ had rooms in our hotel, having come
+there to show her beautiful Parisian costumes, and to take orders as
+usual from the Russian Royal Family and Ladies of the Court. He also
+mentioned the Frenchwoman's recent misfortune in hearing--since her
+arrival in Russia--that her trusted manager in Paris had disappeared
+suddenly, carrying away with him 100,000 francs.
+
+Two nights later I had gone to bed as usual about ten-thirty P.M., and
+must have slept for nearly four hours, when I awoke feeling the heat
+very oppressive. It was almost the end of June at the time. Getting out
+of bed to open my window still farther, I gazed down upon the courtyard
+which it overlooked, noting the absolute stillness of the house and the
+hot, oppressive air outside.
+
+Suddenly this stillness was rent by the most horrible and appalling
+shrieks! Peal after peal rang out. I have never heard anything so
+ghastly nor so blood-curdling either before or since. For a moment it
+seemed that one _must_ be dreaming. What horrors, to justify such awful
+shrieks, could be taking place at this quiet hour and in this quiet,
+respectable hotel?
+
+Nothing less than murder suggested itself to me, and I quickly crossed
+the room, and turned the key in the lock. My next thought was for my
+companion--the Miss Greenlow of American days. She was sleeping next
+door to me, with an intervening door between us.
+
+I hammered loudly upon this, and finally opened it. I knew she always
+locked her outer door, but feared she might go into the passage, not
+realising the danger in the moment of waking, and might fall into the
+murderer's hands. So I called out: "Wake up--wake up, Miss
+Greenlow!--_but don't open your door_. Someone is being murdered out
+there."
+
+I had heard every other door in the passage opening, and the scared
+inmates rushing to and fro, so there was no question of feeling bound to
+give the alarm.
+
+Miss Greenlow, being an extremely lymphatic person, was still sleeping
+the sleep of the just. I gave her a good shake at last, finding knocks
+and calls of no avail; but she only turned over sleepily, murmuring:
+"Oh, it's all right! I don't suppose there is anything much the
+matter--do go to bed again!"
+
+So I returned to my own room, and as the horrible screams had now
+ceased, I opened my door very gently, and looked down the dimly lighted
+passage. My room was a corner one, exactly at the head of the wide
+staircase; to the left-hand side, for anyone mounting the stairs.
+Exactly opposite my door, with a wide passage between, was the room
+which had been pointed out to me as belonging to the famous French
+_modiste_.
+
+Miss Greenlow was evidently the only person in the hotel who had slept
+through the horrors of that night, for small groups were gathered
+together at various points along the corridor, and at every door some
+scared man or woman was looking out, anxious, like myself, to solve the
+dreadful mystery.
+
+At that moment my eyes lighted on my special German waiter talking in a
+hushed whisper to a musjig--in the usual red coat. So I beckoned to him,
+and very reluctantly he came to my door.
+
+Being asked in German what was the meaning of the shrieks we had heard,
+he said at once that a lady had been taken ill suddenly.
+
+The man was a bad liar, and a child would have seen that he was
+repeating a made-up story. But nothing more could be got out of him, so
+I dismissed him impatiently, saying: "What is the good of telling me
+such nonsense? I shall find out for myself to-morrow."
+
+Once more I shut and locked the door, and lay for an hour or two
+thinking over the ghastly disturbance, and wondering who could have been
+the hapless victim. It was now about five A.M., and full dawn. As so
+often happens, even after the most sleepless night, I dozed off then,
+and slept for more than an hour, and during my sleep I dreamed--and this
+was my dream. It must first be noted that the wide staircase I have
+described as passing close to my room was thence continued upward to the
+next floor. In my dream or vision I saw distinctly a woman in a white
+nightgown, with dark hair streaming down her back, rushing up this
+second flight of stairs in the most distraught and reckless fashion. In
+one hand she held a knife, and was trying to stab herself with it, as a
+musjig--in crimson coat--rushed after her, and endeavoured to wrench it
+out of her hand. Two or three other people ran up the stairs behind her,
+but only this peasant seemed to have the courage or presence of mind to
+grapple with her. In a few moments, as it seemed to me, the vision, so
+startling and clear cut, faded away, and I sank into a dreamless sleep,
+I suppose, for it was past six A.M. when I woke finally.
+
+When the German waiter appeared with my breakfast I said rather curtly
+to him: "You need not have troubled to make up that foolish story last
+night; I know what happened--_I have seen it_."
+
+He looked very incredulous, so I went on: "The lady was trying to kill
+herself, and rushed up to the next floor with a knife in her hand. I saw
+the musjig run after her and force it from her."
+
+The man was absolutely speechless. He said not one syllable, either of
+corroboration or denial, but left the room as quickly as possible,
+looking scared, and certainly left the impression upon my mind that my
+vision represented what had actually taken place an hour or two
+previously.
+
+To my great surprise, however, our respectable and dependable courier,
+Kuentze, gave quite a different version of the affair.
+
+He came as usual to my room to take his orders for the day--Miss
+Greenlow being present--and at once referred to the terrible tragedy.
+
+"Ah, poor lady! you remember my telling you about her the other day, and
+how her manager had run away with all that money? Now _this_ frightful
+misfortune has happened to her, and no one knows if she will survive it.
+She is still alive, however, and is to be taken to the hospital at one
+P.M."
+
+"But what has happened, Kuentze?" I said impatiently, rather irritated,
+if the truth must be told, by his mysterious allusions and Miss
+Greenlow's assumption of profound indifference. Of course, no
+self-respecting person, having calmly slept through such a tragedy,
+could be otherwise than indifferent next morning! Kuentze's story was far
+more artistic than that of the waiter, and was skilfully interwoven with
+shreds of truth, as I discovered later.
+
+He said that "the poor lady" was in the habit of making herself a cup of
+tea in the middle of the night when wakeful; also that she wore wide,
+hanging muslin sleeves with her night attire. She had risen as usual
+from a sleepless bed to make tea with her little Etna. Unfortunately,
+she had set fire to a sleeve, which at once burned up, and in a few
+moments she was enveloped in flames, owing to the flimsy material she
+wore. Then the shrieks began which had so thrilled our nerves. A Russian
+gentleman, sleeping near her, was awakened by the noise, and knowing
+that she was a rich woman, and had brought many valuables with her, he
+concluded she was being murdered; so he rushed to the rescue with a
+revolver, found the burning woman, and he and the musjig at length
+succeeded in putting out the flames.
+
+The story was well told, and perfectly credible. Miss Greenlow could not
+resist pointing out how entirely it annihilated my vision. No
+suicide!--no knife!--no rush up the staircase!--nothing, in fact, that
+might not have been, and, of course, _must have been_ a mere freak of
+imagination during my troubled sleep. In the face of Kuentze's quiet and
+detailed statement I could only agree with her, and so the matter rested
+for some months. The poor woman meanwhile remained in the hospital, and
+her son and daughter were telegraphed for from Paris. We found them at
+the hotel on our return there, three weeks later, from Moscow. There was
+then some slight hope of ultimate recovery, but within six or seven
+weeks from the "accident" the unfortunate woman died from shock and
+exhaustion.
+
+From Russia we returned to Stockholm and Christiania, where Miss
+Greenlow took the steamer for Hull, and I went up into the Dovre Feld
+Mountains to join a Swedish friend, already mentioned in my chapter on
+India.
+
+I told her my story of the poor French _modiste_ and her sad and painful
+accident, also about my curiously vivid and yet inaccurate vision, and
+we discussed the latter in quite an S.P.R. spirit! We were then in a
+very remote part of the Dovre Feld, where foreign papers were
+practically inaccessible.
+
+I had left my friend in Norway, and returned to England a week or two
+before receiving a very interesting letter from her.
+
+In it she said: "I have just got hold of some French papers, and I see
+that poor woman you told me about, has just died in Petersburg, and the
+real story has now come out.
+
+"It seems that it _was_ suicide after all, so your vision was quite
+true!
+
+"She had received large sums in advance for commissions from some of the
+Russian nobility, and had either spent or speculated with them. That was
+why she had to invent the story of an embezzling manager, to cover her
+own shortcomings. But the truth was leaking out in spite of her
+endeavours, and she made up her mind to commit suicide rather than face
+the horrors of a Russian prison. The paper goes on to say that she chose
+a most terrible death, little realising what the torture would be. It
+seems that she waited till the middle of the night you described, and
+then covered her whole body with oil, and set fire to it! This accounts,
+of course, for the horrible shrieks you heard. In her awful agony she
+seized a knife--that she had either secreted or found in her
+room--rushed out into the passage in a blaze, and when the musjig tried
+to stop her, she ran from him, and attempted to stab herself as she made
+her way up the stairs. All this you seem to have seen accurately; also
+the fact that the musjig pursued her and succeeded in wrenching the
+knife from her hands before she had injured herself with it. The paper
+mentions that a Russian gentleman had gone to the rescue when he heard
+the shrieks, but this was before she had got hold of the knife, and it
+was the musjig alone who saved her, in the end, from immediate death."
+
+During this Russian visit we had gone down to Moscow from Petersburg,
+and here again a curious adventure befell me.
+
+It was, as I have said, in the height of the summer, and one was
+thankful to have a large, handsome room, with three windows looking over
+the square, and the famous Kremlin Palace in the distance. My room was
+divided into two unequal parts, separated from each other by a door
+which was, during the hot season, thrown wide open and _fastened back
+securely_. Between this door and the one opening into the outer corridor
+the washing apparatus stood, and also a wardrobe of white painted deal,
+with a very poor lock to it, as I discovered later.
+
+On retiring to rest the first night, I locked the outer door, undressed
+in this ante-room, and finally hung up my gown in the wardrobe I have
+mentioned. Then, after looking out of the windows on the fast
+diminishing crowd below in the square, I went to bed, feeling quite
+cheerful, and looking forward to a long night's rest after a journey
+which had been hot and tiring.
+
+As so often happens, one was probably over-tired, and sleep was not to
+be wooed by any of the usual methods. In vain I counted sheep getting
+over a hedge, added a hundred up backward and forward, tried deep
+breathing, and other little "parlour games." It was absolutely useless.
+Twelve o'clock struck, then the half hour, and I gathered from the
+stillness below that the good Moscow citizens had retired to their
+respective homes. This seemed an added insult! Then one o'clock struck,
+and after that I lay for a seeming eternity, before two strokes from the
+clock outside indicated the half hour. Scarcely had the reverberation
+ceased when I heard cautious sounds in the corridor, which gave me a
+good fright, and made me regret the silence I had found so irksome. The
+outer door of my room was quietly being opened, creaking on its hinges
+in the most ordinary and commonplace way, but evidently opening under a
+very wary hand. "Then I could not have locked it after all!" And yet I
+felt so convinced that I had done so! Certainly I had _intended_ to do
+so on my first night in a strange hotel! The best I could hope was that
+some other new arrival had mistaken his room, and was returning late,
+and consequently trying to be as quiet as possible. This flashed through
+my mind, and brought a moment's comfort. I expected to see a man's head
+round the open door at the foot of my bed, and to hear a hurried apology
+and still more hurried retreat. I say a _man's_ head, for the footsteps,
+though so quiet and cautious, were without doubt a man's footsteps. But
+several moments passed in horrible suspense. The outer door had creaked
+on its hinges and opened without a shadow of doubt. _Where was the man?_
+
+The door had not closed again, so far as I could hear. From my bed I
+could not command a view of the smaller portion of the room, where,
+presumably, he must be hidden. There was nothing but the wash-hand stand
+and the wardrobe there. What could he be doing or _waiting for_? My
+comforting supposition of a mistake in the number of his room, made by
+an innocent guest, could not be stretched wide enough to account for the
+long pause. Perhaps it was some robber lurking about the passages! He
+had tried my door gently, and found it open. I had heard the door creak
+on its hinges in spite of all his care. Now he was doubtless waiting to
+make sure that this noise had not awakened me before beginning his
+operations!
+
+This was the only reasonable supposition, and I lay in absolute terror
+for some minutes, fearing to stir or almost to breathe at such close
+quarters, and quite incapable of rising and putting an end to my
+terrible suspense. I longed to hear the next "quarter" strike, but
+nothing relieved the dead silence in my room and in the streets outside.
+At long last the _quarter to two_ struck, and something in the friendly
+tones of the massive clock relieved the tension and gave me courage--the
+courage of desperation--to strike a match and light my candle before
+starting on a tour of discovery. The middle door was fastened back, as I
+had found it when taking possession of the room. In any case, that was
+not the door which had been opened--the sound came from the _outer_
+door. I _must_ find out if anyone were hiding in the little
+dressing-room; and in any case, I must lock the outer door, which I had
+felt so certain I had locked on coming up to my room. I passed through
+the open _inner door_ with fear and trembling. To my relief, the small
+apartment was apparently empty. The wardrobe stood partly open, but
+nothing more terrible than my own gown was inside it. Then I made my way
+to the outer door, which gave on to the corridor, determined to make
+sure of locking it firmly _this_ time. After all, it must have been a
+wandering guest, who had discovered his mistake at once, and retreated
+noiselessly!
+
+I have seldom been more absolutely dumfounded than when I turned the
+handle of that door, preparatory to locking it, and found _that it was
+securely locked already_, just as I had supposed! How could the hinges
+have creaked then, and whose cautious footsteps had I heard?
+
+Once more my eyes fell upon the wardrobe, with its cheap varnish and
+lock. I had certainly not locked _this_ overnight. Could it have creaked
+itself farther open? It did not for the moment strike me that the noise
+came from another quarter, and that the footsteps were still to be
+explained. I was only too thankful to find the barest apology of an
+explanation. So I locked the wardrobe as carefully as possible, noticing
+that the lock was not one of the first quality, and once more retired to
+bed, and put out my candle, greatly relieved.
+
+Scarcely ten minutes had passed (as I afterwards ascertained) when the
+whole scene was enacted once more! The same cautious tread, the same
+sound of the _outer door_ creaking slowly on its hinges--there was
+nothing in the least uncanny about it _per se_. It was just the normal
+noise that any late comer would make who was thoughtful enough not to
+disturb a sleeping house.
+
+But my impatience got the better of my fears this time. I was not going
+to be decoyed out of bed a second time on a wild-goose chase. "It must
+have been that wardrobe door after all! As to the footsteps, I don't
+know and I don't care! The cheap lock must have given way, and I shall
+find the wardrobe door has swung open, I am sure."
+
+With this comforting assurance I turned round, and in a few minutes fell
+into a deep sleep, after the varied excitements of the night.
+
+Next morning I stepped gaily into the smaller division of the room to
+begin my toilet, and triumphantly turned round to convince myself of the
+truth of my theory about the wardrobe door. To my infinite astonishment
+and perplexity _the wardrobe was securely locked_, just as I had left it
+in the middle of the night.
+
+I have never had any explanation of this mystery; but I changed my fine
+big room for a much less desirable one that morning, and made some
+excuse about wishing for a quieter room at the back of the house.
+
+The next evening, sitting in my new abode with my travelling companion,
+she showed far more interest in my adventure than in the Petersburg
+tragedy and subsequent vision of mine.
+
+So much so that I invited her to take a pencil and see if she could get
+any sort of explanation of the mystery; for although not at all
+_intuitive_, she knew something of what is called automatic writing.
+
+I give her narrative, not as being in the slightest degree evidential,
+but for its intrinsic interest, and because I am personally convinced
+that she had not sufficient imagination to have made it up on the spur
+of the moment.
+
+Miss Greenlow's "message" was to the following effect:--
+
+About fifty years previously, a Russian gentleman (an officer, I
+_think_, but am not certain of this) and his mistress had occupied this
+large front room. The man had spent all day at a rifle competition,
+combined with some sort of merry-making, and had returned home very
+late--at one-thirty A.M., in fact--very much the worse for drink. He had
+opened the door very carefully, trusting he should find the lady asleep;
+but, unfortunately, she was not only wide awake, but extremely annoyed
+by his late return and the state in which he had come back to her. A
+desperate quarrel had ensued, and getting frightened by his violence,
+she seized his rifle, giving him a blow on the head with the butt end of
+it, hoping to stun him, but with no idea of murder in her mind. Whether
+she gave a more severe blow, in her nervousness, than she had intended,
+or whether the rifle fell on some specially vital spot, was not
+explained in the writing. Anyway, the blow proved fatal--to her extreme
+regret and remorse.
+
+Under these circumstances one would have supposed that it would be more
+reasonable for the lady to haunt the room, and not the gentleman; but I
+"tell the tale as 'twas told to us."
+
+It is, however, remarkable that in most of these stories it is the
+victim who appears--determined to enact the scene of his or her
+death--and not the murderer.
+
+I think we were also told, by-the-by, that I had slept in the room on
+the anniversary of the occurrence.
+
+It was obviously impossible to get any corroboration of such a story.
+Two small points in it, however, were proved to be true.
+
+The Moscow hotels, as a rule, were comparatively modern at the time of
+our visit, and therefore the "fifty years ago" seemed highly improbable.
+We learned, however, through a few discreet questions later, that this
+particular hotel _had_ been in existence so far back as fifty years, and
+also that rifle competitions had taken place on certain occasions in
+those far-off days.
+
+For the rest I claim nothing. I have truthfully recounted my experience
+without a word of exaggeration, and have never been able to account for
+it normally.
+
+The explanation given to us is, of course, just worth the paper it was
+written upon from any _evidential_ point of view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--_continued_
+
+SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, 1892
+
+
+Taking my experiences chronologically, I must now carry my readers back
+to England, where the autumn of this year found me in London.
+
+I had been asked to recommend a house for paying guests, well situated,
+in the West End of London, and newly started by a lady who had been left
+a widow with very slender provision. Several kind women had interested
+themselves in the case, and had wisely suggested thinking out a means of
+livelihood in the future rather than merely supplying present wants.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a person _less_ suited for the sort of
+employment chosen; but that is "another story."
+
+I never care to recommend anything or anybody of which or of whom I have
+no personal knowledge; at the same time, I was anxious to help my kindly
+acquaintance in her philanthropy, and as I had arranged to spend some
+weeks in London that autumn--to be near an invalid brother--it struck me
+that I might stay at the house so strongly recommended, instead of
+taking private rooms as usual.
+
+So I journeyed to Sussex Gardens, found a charming house, newly
+furnished and decorated, and as clean as the proverbial "new pin," and,
+moreover, a very good-looking mistress of the house, still a youngish
+woman of five or six and thirty.
+
+She spoke most warmly of the kindness she had received from the lady who
+had given me her address, showed me some pleasant rooms, and the
+arrangement was quickly completed.
+
+I chose a small sitting-room in addition to my bedroom, although, as a
+matter of fact, this was scarcely necessary, as I was the first guest
+received. Only one deaf old lady appeared upon the scene during the six
+weeks I spent there.
+
+I had not been forty-eight hours in the house before I discovered that
+my hostess was a convinced and very remarkable psychic. Naturally she
+was delighted to find someone to whom she could speak of her various
+experiences without being laughed at or put down as a lunatic. At the
+same time I am bound to confess that Mrs Peters, although extremely
+interesting, was also rather agitating, and certainly much too erratic
+to make an entirely satisfactory _Chatelaine_. She was given to reading
+"Aurora Leigh," instead of ordering dinner, and had to be sent for
+occasionally to sit at the head of the table, with a volume of
+_Browning_ or _Tennyson_ firmly clutched in her reluctant hand. Even
+when duly "found and delivered," curious things happened during the
+meals--especially at dinner in the evening, when she often put down
+knife and fork and directed my attention to the far end of the handsome
+dining-room, where she was wont to see the ghost of her late husband.
+
+"Look, dear Miss Bates! Surely you _must_ see him--dear Henry, I mean.
+There he stands, beard and all, just between the sofa and the wall. I
+can see him as clearly as I see you!"
+
+I am bound to say I never _did_ see "dear Henry"; but the fine tabby cat
+certainly saw something in that corner, for it would rush most
+frantically to the sofa, jump on to one end, and sit staring at Henry
+(presumably), with its tail stuck out and its fur rising up, glaring
+into the corner with a look of combined fear and fascination.
+
+My little sitting-room was invaded at all hours by my too interesting
+landlady, who would suddenly remember some thrilling experience, which
+she wished to share with me. At length I took to my bed for three days,
+not in the least ill, but simply for a much-needed rest in the midst of
+all these excitements.
+
+A day or two after emerging from this haven of peace, I received a visit
+from a young lady, whose parents were well known to me in Yorkshire, and
+who had recently become engaged to a very rich man, many years her
+senior; in fact, considerably older than her own father, who had lately
+passed away. The daughters of this family were all devoted to their
+father, and most of the visit was occupied in giving me details of his
+last illness, and in my sympathising with her upon his loss. It was, in
+fact, far more a visit of condolence than of congratulation upon her
+future prospects of happiness. As to the latter, I found it difficult to
+be quite truthful and yet conventionally ecstatic.
+
+To marry a man nearly old enough to be your grandfather struck me as
+risky, to say the least of it, even with all the emollients which
+riches and position undoubtedly add to domestic life.
+
+The young woman in question did not at all resent my frankness on the
+subject, but assured me that her greatest consolation in thinking of her
+late father was the fact that she was about to make a marriage which he
+had always wished, and of which he had emphatically given his approval
+on his death-bed. "I told him I had decided upon it, just before he
+died, and he was so relieved and happy about it," she said simply as she
+turned to leave the room. Having mentioned that a younger sister was
+also in town, I sent a message to the latter, asking her to take early
+dinner with me on the following Sunday, which happened to be my only
+spare day just then.
+
+On the evening of this visit from the coming bride, I had accepted an
+invitation to a large musical party in the house of the lady who had
+begged me to interest myself in Mrs Peters. It was within a
+stone's-throw of Sussex Gardens, and I came down to dinner at
+seven-thirty P.M., intending to dress later, and go round there about
+nine P.M.
+
+For an hour or so before dinner I had been conscious of a growing
+despondency, to which I could attribute no cause, and this increased so
+much during the meal that Mrs Peters noticed it at last, and asked me if
+I were feeling unwell.
+
+"No--not unwell--but I am absolutely miserable, and cannot imagine why."
+
+"Then you have not had bad news?" was the next remark. "I feared you
+must have had, seeing you so silent and not able to eat anything."
+
+In answer to this I said that I had not even the excuse of hearing of
+other people's misfortunes, for a young lady had been calling upon me
+that afternoon, who was about to make what the world calls a very
+successful marriage. I did not, however, mention her name, as Mrs Peters
+knew none of my friends.
+
+Dinner over, I felt still so unaccountably wretched that I determined to
+give up the evening party, and write my excuses. Mrs Peters did her best
+to combat this decision, fearing that her kind benefactress might be
+disappointed, and also urging that the evening's enjoyment would cheer
+me up. But finding me inexorable, she then said: "Well, if you have
+quite determined not to go, shall I come into your sitting-room and see
+if we can get any explanation of your curious feeling of depression?"
+
+I closed with this suggestion, knowing Mrs Peters to be a really
+remarkable sensitive.
+
+So we sat in the dark for a few minutes; and then I heard a soft
+_frou-frou_ on Mrs Peters' silk gown, and knew she was tracing out words
+with her hand in a fashion of her own.
+
+"It is a spirit that young lady brought with her," she announced at
+length. "The spirit has remained here with _you_, and is worried about
+this marriage you spoke of. She wants you to try and break it off. She
+seems to have been nearly related to the lady, or perhaps a godmother;
+anyway, she takes great interest in her."
+
+"Will she give a name?" I asked.
+
+"ELIZA is all I get," Mrs Peters replied.
+
+It then occurred to me that my young friend's name _was_ Eliza, and
+that she had been so named after a great-aunt, to the best of my
+recollection; but as she was invariably called Elsa, by friends and
+relations alike, it was only by chance that I remembered hearing her
+teased about her far less romantic baptismal name.
+
+I asked if no surname could be given, thinking at the moment that it
+would be Waverly--the family name; but my thought was evidently not
+transferred to Mrs Peters, who said she could not get the name
+accurately, but that it was certainly _not_ Waverly. I found later that
+the Great-Aunt Eliza had a name entirely different from that of her
+descendants.
+
+Nothing further happened on this occasion, except that I sent a message
+to "Great-Aunt Eliza" to say that nothing would induce me to take the
+responsibility of trying to break off any marriage, either by the advice
+of people in this sphere or in any other sphere. In this case I should
+have had neither the authority nor the influence to make any such unwise
+attempt.
+
+Sunday came round in due course, and brought the bride's younger sister,
+then a girl of twenty-four or twenty-five. We discussed the usual midday
+Sunday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Mrs Peters sitting at
+the head of the table, I on her right hand, and Carrie Waverly next to
+me.
+
+Suddenly realising that my remarks to the latter were receiving very
+scant attention, I looked up, and found the girl's black eyes fixed in a
+basilisk stare upon our unfortunate hostess, whose own eyes were cast
+down, but who appeared uneasy and troubled by the determined gaze of my
+guest. At length the poor woman threw down her knife and fork, rose
+hastily from the dining-table, and made her way eagerly to the sofa at
+the other end of the room, where she lay down at full length, murmuring:
+"_I can't stand it any longer!_"
+
+Carrie Waverly was at length induced to come away to my sitting-room and
+leave the poor woman in peace, which she did, asserting her complete
+innocence, and assuring me she "_only wanted to see if she could make
+Mrs Peters look up at her!_"
+
+I explained to her that "sensitives" may be as much upset by this sort
+of thing as another person would be by a blow on the back. She looked
+incredulous, and then said cheerfully: "Well, if it is as bad as that,
+don't you think you ought to go and see how she is?"
+
+"Two for yourself and your own curiosity and one for her!" I thought;
+but I took the hint, and found Mrs Peters still prostrate on the sofa,
+but full of apologies for her sudden collapse:
+
+"You must have thought me so very rude," etc., etc.
+
+I reassured her on this point, and expressed regret that my visitor
+should have upset her so much by looking so fixedly at her.
+
+"It was not her fault," said Mrs Peters eagerly. "_It was the man
+standing over her._ He had his hands upon her shoulders, and was trying
+so hard to influence her, and she was resisting it all the time, and the
+whole conflict of their wills was thrown upon _me_, and I could not
+stand it at last--that was why I left the table," she gasped out.
+
+"Could you describe the man at all?"
+
+"Quite clearly," she said. "I shall never forget his face--I saw him so
+distinctly." She then proceeded to describe in detail the very clear-cut
+features and bushy eyebrows of Carrie Waverly's father, giving also his
+colouring, which was very distinctive. I suggested trying to find out
+what he wanted to say to his daughter, but this distressed Mrs Peters so
+much that I was sorry to have made the suggestion.
+
+"No! no! dear Miss Bates!--don't ask me to do that--dear Henry never
+likes my taking messages from strangers--I have promised him that I
+would never do it without his permission. It upsets me so much, and I
+feel so weak already."
+
+So I came away, promising to look in later and see if I could do
+anything for her.
+
+Carrie was naturally greatly interested by the accurate description
+given of her father, and was very impatient for me to pay Mrs Peters a
+second visit.
+
+I went in presently, and found the latter standing up, and in a state of
+great excitement. She had, in fact, been on the point of coming to us
+when I entered.
+
+"Dear Henry told me to take that message after all," were the words with
+which she greeted me. "There was some misunderstanding between the
+father and this daughter, and he wants her to know that it is all right
+now." (This seemed to me most improbable, as the devoted daughters and
+father were always on terms of the greatest harmony and mutual
+understanding. _Yet it proved to be quite true._)
+
+Mrs Peters continued: "He is very much upset about this marriage. He
+tells me he was so anxious for it when on this side, but now he sees all
+the difficulties and possible dangers. But he says it is too late to
+reconsider the step now; only he is so very anxious to secure the
+interests of his daughter before she marries. He wishes to know whether
+her settlement is signed. _It is not one of which he would have
+approved._ And he says there are two houses, and one ought to be settled
+upon her--you _must_ ask about it, dear Miss Bates. He is most decided
+and so dreadfully upset about it all, because he says it was he who
+urged the marriage upon her."
+
+I spent the following fifteen or twenty minutes as a sort of
+messenger-boy between Mrs Peters in the dining-room and Carrie Waverly
+in my sitting-room. Needless to say, _I_ knew nothing at all about the
+settlements or how many houses the prospective bridegroom might possess,
+and having no sort of curiosity about the financial affairs of my
+neighbours, it was not at all pleasant to be employed in this way.
+
+Mrs Peters, on the contrary, seemed to know everything connected with
+the estate and the marriage settlement, _except the fact that the latter
+had not yet been signed_, although reluctantly "passed" by both the
+lady's trustees. Wherefore this special limitation in the father's
+knowledge it is impossible to say. He certainly showed no limitation in
+his knowledge of the bridegroom's character and disposition, and gave
+the most elaborate and detailed instructions as to how his daughter
+should behave towards her husband, and where she might, with advantage,
+cultivate tact and patience.
+
+My advice to Miss Waverly was to say nothing on the subject to her
+sister, but she wisely, as it turned out, determined to take the
+responsibility of telling her _everything_. She telegraphed to me next
+day, asking if she might come and see Mrs Peters and bring the bride
+with her.
+
+This was done, and they arrived, with several photographs, large and
+small, of the father, and also of the bridegroom, for identification.
+Carrie, in fact, tried--a little unfairly perhaps--to make Mrs Peters
+identify the wrong person by forcing into notice a large photograph of
+the _bridegroom_ (some years senior to the father), and saying
+carelessly: "_There, Mrs Peters--that is the face you saw yesterday of
+my father, is it not?_" But Mrs Peters would have none of it. She looked
+staggered for a moment, then caught sight of the second picture, and
+turned to it with relief: "_This_ is the face I saw, whether it is your
+father or not," she answered, with decision.
+
+The bride begged for a private interview with Mrs Peters, which lasted
+for a considerable time. Of course, I knew nothing of this interview,
+nor should I feel at liberty to speak of it if I did know. I may,
+however, be permitted to say that I have the bride's own assurance that
+the accurate knowledge then given her of her future husband's
+characteristics physical and mental, and the best way of dealing with
+them, "made all the difference in her married life."
+
+During that interview Mrs Peters also told her the number of years she
+would be married; and the prophecy was accurately fulfilled, which is
+the more remarkable, because, as a rule, it seems impossible to
+predicate time, even when events can be foreseen.
+
+I am happy to add that the marriage turned out a complete success, and
+that a marriage settlement was made more in accordance with the father's
+wishes, although neither trustees nor principal in the transaction, had
+any idea that the actual arrangements were in any way due to the
+strongly expressed wishes of a discarnate spirit.
+
+If this book should ever fall into their hands, and they should trace
+the story in spite of the thick veil I have thrown over all the
+circumstances, I can only trust that, in gratitude for the results, they
+may become reconciled with the channel through which these were made
+possible.
+
+People may say: "What a terrible idea that a father or a husband should
+trouble himself about such sordid details as money, houses, etc."
+
+But this is an extremely foolish remark, although it may appear very
+spiritual on the surface. It is surely the most natural thing in the
+world that a near relation--if permitted--should endeavour to secure
+comfort and happiness for a dearly loved wife or daughter; especially
+when, as in the above case, he felt mainly responsible for a state of
+affairs which might have turned out so disastrously, save for his loving
+care and foresight, exercised as these were from the other side of the
+veil.
+
+At anyrate it disposes once for all of the weary old "_Cui Bono_"
+argument, which is so futile, and yet so constantly and triumphantly
+quoted by stupid people, who seem to took upon it as a patent
+extinguisher for any psychic gifts or experiences.
+
+It is mainly in order to meet this senseless observation that I have
+included this story in my reminiscences.
+
+Most of us are debarred from answering the "_Cui Bono_" bray, by the
+fact that our most helpful experiences are generally of a too intimate
+and often sacred nature to be given to a scoffing world.
+
+But this instance has the advantage of dealing entirely with material
+matters, and thus being on a level with the ordinary intelligence.
+
+Nobody can say in this case _no good was done_. It only remains to be
+deeply shocked by the undignified, "nay, almost blasphemous,"
+intervention in mundane affairs of a spirit "who should certainly have
+had some more worthy occupation."
+
+It is another case of the old man and the donkey. If discarnate spirits
+_don't_ trouble about the personal affairs of those on earth, the "_Cui
+Bono_" argument is hurled at them. If they _do_, they are called
+blasphemous and irreverent!
+
+The mention of the Waverly family reminds me of an incident which took
+place when I was staying in their house in the country, a year or two
+earlier than the time of which I am writing. I have reserved it
+purposely as a sequel to this last story, which is in its proper
+chronological setting.
+
+In the year 1889 I was spending a pleasant fortnight with the Waverlys
+in Yorkshire, at the very time when a dear old friend of mine (Mrs
+Tennant) was dying in London. I had seen her only a week or two before,
+but had no knowledge of her illness, as we were not in constant
+correspondence, although there was a deep and strong affection between
+us.
+
+I did not even hear of her death, in fact, till a few weeks after it
+took place, having missed the announcement in the papers. When Mrs
+Tennant's sister, Mrs Lane, wrote me the details, I had left Yorkshire,
+and was staying with cousins in Worcestershire. Thinking over the dates
+mentioned in describing the illness, I realised with a shock of pained
+surprise that the final state of unconsciousness must have set in the
+very evening when I was enjoying myself in Yorkshire, at a large
+dinner-party given by my host and hostess.
+
+It seemed terrible to think that my dear and much loved friend should
+have been lying unconscious upon her death-bed, and that no word or sign
+should have come to me.
+
+Then suddenly I remembered a curious little incident connected with that
+dinner-party.
+
+I had been admiring a pretty little slate-coloured kitten belonging to
+the house, which was calmly sitting upon the grand piano after dinner,
+when the ladies were alone in the drawing-room. After the gentlemen
+joined us, I was deep in conversation with my host (a remarkably
+interesting and intelligent man), when I noticed a small _black_ kitten
+run past my dress. Probably I should have remarked upon it had we been
+less occupied in talking, for I am extremely fond of cats and animals in
+general. I did glance up, as a matter of fact, and satisfied myself that
+it was not the little slate-coloured kitty, which sat in still triumph
+on the piano. Besides, this kitten was _black_, not slate. I thought no
+more of it until the guests had left and Mrs Waverly and I were going
+upstairs to bed. She and I were very affinitive, but neither she nor her
+family had any special interest in psychology.
+
+On this occasion, however, she said rather mysteriously: "_I think
+something will happen to-night to you._" A good many jokes had been made
+about the probably uncanny atmosphere of my room, and the various spooks
+who were doubtless sharing it with me, so I laughed, thinking this was
+only the usual family joke. But Mrs Waverly was quite in earnest. At
+first she would give no reason for her remark, "fearing I should tell
+her daughters," and that she would be laughed at in consequence.
+
+Reassured on this point, she said to me quite seriously:
+
+"Whilst you were talking to my husband this evening I saw a black kitten
+run straight across your dress--just opposite to me."
+
+"_Well, of course, I saw the kitten!_" I answered, to her surprise; "but
+there is nothing very remarkable about a black kitten in the house."
+
+"_But we have no black kitten_ in the house, or anywhere on the
+premises. Where did it go to? You never saw it again? No; it was not an
+ordinary kitten, and I did not suppose till this moment that anyone had
+seen it but myself."
+
+It was a fact that no one but Mrs Waverly and I had seen any kitten but
+the slate-coloured one already mentioned.
+
+Thinking over this in the light of the sad news of my dear old friend's
+death, and noting the correspondence in time between her loss of
+consciousness and the appearance of the mysterious black kitten--seen
+only by Mrs Waverly and myself--it was impossible not to ask in the
+depths of my heart whether, perchance, the spirit of my faithful friend
+had been trying to send me some symbol of her approaching death.
+
+It may be objected that black cats are generally connected with good
+luck. Well, I think my dear "London mother," as she called herself
+sometimes, would have explained this apparent contradiction very simply.
+She had lived through much sorrow, and was often oppressed by sore
+doubts of the Cosmic Love. I never knew any woman with such strong and
+passionate human sympathy, and to such fine spirits, the world, under
+present conditions, must always offer terrible problems. Her sympathies
+were sometimes too keen for that robust faith which can _always_ say:
+"God's in His heaven! All's right with the world!" Yet her last words
+were: "_I am so tired, and God will understand; and I am so glad to
+go._"
+
+To finish my chapter on a merrier note, I will mention an amusing
+episode connected with the evening of the black kitten's appearance.
+
+Amongst the guests invited to that dinner-party was a clergyman-squire,
+a man of some means who had taken orders. A "squarson" is the
+"portmanteau name" for such a gentleman in Yorkshire, I believe; one who
+combines squire and parson.
+
+This particular specimen of the genus was both a vegetarian and a
+celibate. The latter fact had been made clear to me by the many regrets
+expressed in the neighbourhood that he had remained a bachelor owing to
+religious scruples. The vegetarianism was equally certain, for I had
+heard orders given for special dishes to be prepared for this guest; and
+sitting next to him at the dinner-table, I knew that he had not touched
+either meat or game, although it was not a fast day.
+
+After dinner, when the gentlemen had joined us in the drawing-room, the
+conversation turned upon psychic matters and my experiences in America
+of a few years before. This extreme High Churchman denounced all these,
+"lock, stock, and barrel."
+
+He believed that everything might have happened as described, but was
+equally certain that the devil alone could have had a hand in "such
+goings on"! Perhaps it will be wise to explain that he did not make use
+of this latter expression!
+
+My host, instead of coming to the rescue, which he might have done, as
+one of "the Cloth"; looked much amused when I fielded most of my
+adversary's theological balls.
+
+At length, being unaccustomed to such irreverent handling, my enemy lost
+his temper, and, as usual on such occasions, he tried to "take my
+wicket" by quoting texts against me!
+
+"Well, all I can say is that everything you have told us is in direct
+opposition to Holy Writ. In fact, _we are specially warned in the
+Scriptures that in the latter days seducing spirits shall arise_."
+
+At this fatal moment, when the Theological Closure was descending upon
+my unhappy head, a really brilliant thought occurred to me.
+
+Was it a seducing spirit or a friendly intelligence who reminded me
+that my opponent had only quoted half the text--_the half that suited
+him_?
+
+I pointed this fact out meekly.
+
+He looked puzzled, and probably had honestly forgotten what he did not
+wish to remember.
+
+"Finish the text? What do you mean?" he said irritably.
+
+So I finished it for him:
+
+"In the latter days seducing spirits shall arise, _forbidding to marry
+and commanding to abstain from meats_."
+
+He had pressed me very hard and rather unfairly. Still, the counsel of
+perfection would have been to refrain from the comment that, if _I_ were
+a celibate and vegetarian, it was not the text I should have chosen with
+which to clinch an argument!
+
+
+
+
+AN INTERLUDE
+
+
+I have headed this chapter an _Interlude_, for the following reason:--
+
+It is the only one in this book which does not record a personal
+experience.
+
+The opportunity came to me at Florence, two years ago, of hearing one of
+the best old-fashioned Christmas ghost stories I ever came across; also
+a ghost story which has two rather unique advantages. First, it has
+never been published before; secondly, the percipient was the matron of
+a boys' school (a well-known one), and wrote out her experiences _within
+twelve hours of their occurrence_.
+
+Now, the matron of a large boys' school must, of necessity, be an
+exceptionally practical woman, and her daily experiences can scarcely
+tend to encourage undue Romance or Imagination.
+
+When I add that this story was given to me, and a copy of the original
+letter placed in my hands, by a sister of two of the schoolboys who were
+under the matron's supervision, I shall have cleared the way for my
+ghost to appear upon the scene.
+
+I must add, however, that I met this sister, a young widow, in
+Florence, two years ago. She then told me this story, finding that I
+was intimately acquainted both with the county and the small county
+town where it happened.
+
+The matron had gone there for the prosaic purpose of taking the baths
+for her rheumatism.
+
+The adventure took place in the early morning of 14th April 1875, and
+was recorded, within a few hours, in a long letter written by the
+percipient to a favourite cousin.
+
+My friend, Mrs Barker's brothers being at school at the time, begged to
+be allowed to read this letter and take a copy of it. The copy was made
+by their sister--then a young girl--and I have it in my hands at the
+present moment of writing.
+
+It is, of course, necessary to change the name of the county and town,
+as the old family mansion, let in lodgings in 1875, has since then been
+sold and turned into a boarding-house.
+
+Mrs Barker's mother made an expedition to this town, a few years ago, to
+verify the facts, and went over the house, which has been considerably
+altered and reconstructed inside since 1875.
+
+The small park mentioned in the story is now built over entirely, as the
+town has increased in popularity, owing to its baths, and the family
+portraits here mentioned have been removed since the house was sold.
+
+I will now quote _verbatim_ from the matron's letter, _written on the
+morning of her experiences_.
+
+
+                                          "The Priory, Grantwich.
+                                            "14th April 1875.
+"MY DEAR EDIE,--When you asked me once for a ghost story, I daresay you
+as little expected, as I did, how soon I should have to reveal to you an
+experience which will doubtless give you, as it has me, much ground for
+thought and speculation about those mysterious laws which rule the
+spirit world.
+
+"How true it is that Thought and Feeling annihilate Time and Space!
+Since last night, I seem to have lived through half a lifetime, such an
+effect have its events had upon my inner life. But before I begin to
+relate the strange circumstances I have to tell you, I must describe to
+you more particularly this house in which they happened.
+
+"I think I told you that 'The Priory'--where I am now lodging--is an
+old mansion, belonging to the Carbury family. For some years past, it
+has been let to the present occupiers who make the rent by letting
+lodgings. Some ancient pieces of furniture remain, and a great many
+portraits, none of the earliest date, but a handsome and respectable
+collection--soldiers, bishops, and judges, in their uniforms, robes,
+and wigs, and ladies with powdered hair, hoops, and trains.
+
+"Of these portraits, _two have engaged my attention, especially, from
+the first moment of seeing them_, but I am not going to speak of them
+yet; my first object is to give you an idea of the house, or rather that
+part of it with which my story is connected.
+
+"I think I have told you that the grand staircase goes up from the inner
+hall, and that round the staircase runs a gallery; in this gallery and
+in the hall below, are hung most of the portraits.
+
+"On the first turn and landing of the staircase, there is a door opening
+into a trellised walk which leads into the garden. On a level with this
+door is a large window which looks on to sweeps of soft turf, shaded by
+fine trees.
+
+"Standing often to look from this window, as I passed up and down the
+staircase, one tree has always riveted my attention. It is a large old
+plane-tree, standing by itself, and having a strange, melancholy,
+decayed look about it. I noticed--why, I cannot imagine--that on one
+side of it the ground was bare and black, though everywhere else the
+grass was green and fresh. I mention this, because it had struck me
+_before_ the strange events occurred which I am going to tell you.
+
+"You must now go with me to the top of the staircase. Just at the top,
+on your right hand, hangs one of the portraits I mentioned. It is a
+life-sized painting of Captain Richard Carbury, who landed, on the 19th
+September 1738, in the Colony of Georgia, with General Oglethorpe's
+regiment.
+
+"Opposite to this, on the other side of the gallery, is the portrait of
+a lady, with black, resolute brows and full, voluptuous mouth and chin.
+She has a high colour, an exquisite hand and arm, and an Amazonian
+bearing.
+
+"Passing from the gallery, you enter a long passage, leading to other
+passages and staircases, with which we have nothing to do.
+
+"I only want you now to become acquainted with my own rooms. As you
+enter the passage from the gallery, two doors open, one on either hand.
+To the right is my sitting-room, a square, cheerful room, looking on the
+street; to the left is my bedroom, which will require a more particular
+description.
+
+"It is a large, low room. As you enter from the passage, the window,
+which looks into the garden, is opposite to you. In the middle of the
+wall to your right hand stands the bed, and opposite to that, the
+fireplace, and, as you will see, if you have taken in my description,
+just at the back of the portrait of the lady with the black eyebrows, is
+another door. Opposite to this last is yet another, which caught my
+attention when I first entered the room from a peculiarity about it. The
+upper part of this door is of glass, rendered opaque by being washed or
+lined with some red substance.
+
+"As soon as I was alone in the room I tried to open this door, but it
+was firmly fastened. I don't know why I should have felt disquieted by
+this circumstance, but certainly I did feel annoyed. I thought at first
+that it probably opened into a dressing-room. There must have been a
+strong light behind it, for a red light always fell on that side of the
+room through the coloured glass, and I could see that red light in the
+morning, before any light penetrated the window-blind.
+
+"I think I have now told you all that is necessary for understanding my
+experience.
+
+"I must ask you to remember that yesterday was the thirteenth of April.
+I went to bed about eleven o'clock, and soon fell asleep. I could not,
+however, have slept long before I woke with an unusual feeling that
+something strange was going to happen.
+
+"I awoke, not as one does in the morning, with a drowsy resolve not to
+go to sleep again because it is time to get up, but as one awakes when a
+journey or some similar event is imminent, for which one's faculties
+have to be clear, and one's body active and alert. I was rather
+wondering at and enjoying the unusual clearness and energy of thought of
+which I felt capable, when the clock in the hall began striking, and,
+almost at the same moment, the clock of the old Church of St Andrew
+began striking also.
+
+"I knew that both were striking twelve, though I did not count the
+blows, but just as the last stroke of the church clock died away,
+another sound caught my ear.
+
+"The door by the fireplace gave a loud crack and then opened, as if with
+some difficulty.
+
+"The _red door_ at the same time rattled, as if someone were trying
+vainly to open it. The room had previously been dark, but I now plainly
+saw a tall figure come through the doorway and stand near the foot of
+the bed. There was a dull, yellowish light round the figure, which
+illumined it, leaving the rest of the room in darkness; but this yellow
+light, I perceived, became red at one point of the figure's left side,
+and shone down on the floor with a red glow, like that which came
+through the opposite door.
+
+"The apparition stood quite silent whilst I looked at it. _The features
+and figure were familiar to me_ for they were those of Captain Richard
+Carbury, in the portrait, who had gone out to Georgia with the regiment
+of His Excellency, General Oglethorpe!
+
+"As soon as I was sure of this, I said: 'You are Captain Richard
+Carbury?'
+
+"The apparition nodded.
+
+"'Why do you come to me?' I said. 'Cannot you speak?'
+
+"He seemed to have some difficulty in doing so, but after two or three
+efforts, such as one makes to move a rusty hinge, he parted his lips,
+and said: 'Yes! I am Richard Carbury, and I am come to make you a
+witness.'
+
+"'A witness of what?' I said. 'Can I be of use to you? You come from the
+spirit world. Is it then permitted to mortals to have personal
+intercourse with spirits?'
+
+"He held up his hand as if to silence me.
+
+"'Listen to me,' he said. 'You are not frightened of me?'
+
+"'No,' I replied; nor did I feel the slightest awe or fear. I felt
+stimulated, a kind of electricity ran through my veins--I longed
+earnestly to learn something of the mysterious realm from which he
+came, but I had no vulgar or superstitious fear.
+
+"'Nor need you have any dread,' he returned. 'I have no wish nor power
+to hurt you, but you must listen to my story. Once in fifty years I am
+allowed to leave my grave and revisit the scene of my tragical death,
+and this must always be on the 14th of April, which is the anniversary
+of the event.[4] I am also permitted to recount my story if I find
+anyone sleeping in this room who is willing to listen to me. Are you
+willing?'
+
+ [4] There is evidently some mistake here in the figures given by the
+ ghost or received by the matron. If his death took place in 1741 (three
+ years after landing in Georgia), his first spirit return was due in
+ 1791, the second, 1841, and the third, not till 1891. It appears to
+ have been anticipated by sixteen years, if the dates given are correct.
+ A friend suggests that "once _in_ fifty years" does not necessitate
+ exact _intervals_ of fifty years.
+
+"I replied that I should gladly hear what he had to tell, but would he
+allow me to ask him one question?
+
+"He inclined his head in assent, and I said I had always thought that
+the spirits of the dead, if they were allowed to appear on earth, came
+with shadowy and skeleton forms. Why did he appear with flesh like a
+living man?
+
+"'Ah!' he said, 'that is owing to the peculiarity of my grave. I am
+buried in salt.'
+
+"' Have you anything more to ask?' said my visitor.
+
+"'Nothing more at present,' I replied. 'I am ready now to hear your
+story.'
+
+"'I will make it as short as possible and not detain you long. You have
+noticed my portrait in the gallery?'
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'And that of the lady opposite, my cousin, Lucretia Carbury?'
+
+"'Certainly.' (Here the red door was violently shaken).
+
+"'She cannot open it,' said Captain Carbury, 'it is sealed.'
+
+"'When I went out to Georgia,' he resumed, 'in 1738, I was engaged to
+be married to her; we had been betrothed by our parents in our
+childhood, and family reasons made it almost a necessity that we
+should be united, but as we grew up neither of us was very anxious to
+fulfil the engagement, and, to tell the truth, I was glad of the
+summons to join my regiment. However, after three years in that
+distant colony, I came home, having made up my mind I would marry
+Lucretia and settle down on the family property--which could only be
+enjoyed by that means--for we were the only representatives of the
+family, and the property was so left by our fathers that only by
+marrying could we enter into possession. _Either by marrying or by the
+death of one of us; when the whole of the property would go to the
+other._ I knew that Lucretia was at the old house at Grantwich, and I
+came straight to her.
+
+"'I had written to say when she might expect me, and she received me
+with apparent kindness and agreed to all my propositions about our
+marriage. I arrived late at night, and she let me into the house herself
+and got food for me. We supped together, and she pledged me in a cup,
+which I now know was drugged to make me sleep heavily.
+
+"'I then retired to my room--this room, this bed, on which you now lie!
+
+"'What I am now going to tell you has been made clear to me since; at
+the time I was conscious of nothing. As soon as I got into bed, I fell
+asleep, and whilst I thus slept Lucretia came through that door
+(pointing to the red door opposite), and stabbed me to the heart. I
+will show you the instrument with which she did it, if you like.'
+
+"'Pray do,' I said, and he unbuttoned his scarlet uniform coat and drew
+from his left side a slender dagger or stiletto.
+
+"I looked at it with great interest and asked if I might take it in my
+hand.
+
+"'Certainly, if you wish it,' he said, 'but I do not advise you to touch
+it. It is rusty now from the salt, but I assure you it was bright and
+keen when she drove it into my heart. The stroke was so cleverly aimed
+that I died instantly. Lucretia then made a signal, which was answered
+by the entrance of a man, and between them they carried my body through
+the door by which I entered to-night.'
+
+"He paused, and I thought he looked more ghastly. 'Is anything the
+matter?' I asked.
+
+"'I am thinking,' he answered, 'that I can show you the rest, if you
+will follow me, but I must tell you that when we leave this room and
+enter the gallery, it is possible the murderess will follow us. Shall
+you be afraid?'
+
+"'Not in the least,' I said, 'I will follow you with pleasure, but you
+must allow me to put something on, as I am suffering from rheumatism,
+and am afraid of the cold and damp.'
+
+"'By all means,' said Captain Carbury. 'I will wait for you in the
+gallery.'
+
+"I then got up and put on my dressing-gown and slippers. Whilst I was
+doing so, I heard a rustling in the passage as of a woman passing
+slowly along. I found Captain Carbury, and followed him along the
+gallery without looking round, but when we reached the end of the
+gallery and turned to go down the first flight of stairs, I saw the
+lady with the black brows--whom I now knew to be Lucretia Carbury, the
+murderess--standing in the doorway, between the gallery and the
+passage.
+
+"'I do not think she can come any farther,' said my guide, and he
+opened the door leading from the staircase into the garden.
+
+"'I am showing you just where they brought me,' said he.
+
+"'Who was the man?' I asked.
+
+"'I never knew his name, but she married him afterwards.'
+
+"He then moved across the lawn _to the bare spot under the plane-tree_.
+Here he stopped, and, pointing downwards, showed me on the bare ground
+an exact outline of the dagger which he had drawn from his side.
+
+"'Here they dug my grave and here they buried me; a salt spring washes
+over me.'
+
+"At this moment the great clock of St Andrew struck ONE.
+
+"'All that you have told me is very sad and strange,' I said, 'but now,
+will you allow me to ask you why you have appeared to me? Is there
+anything you want done on earth that I can do? Is there any restitution
+to be made, or justice to be administered? Anything that you require, I
+am ready to do, if you will grant me one favour when you return to the
+spirit realm.'
+
+"I had been speaking with my eyes fixed on the ground, but now,
+happening to raise them, I was surprised to see that my companion
+appeared to be sinking into the ground.
+
+"'My time is up,' he said. '_Remember!_'--and, as his head disappeared,
+his words came in a hollow, sepulchral voice from beneath _that spot of
+black earth_--'remember you are my witness!'
+
+"I was left standing alone under the plane-tree, with the thought, that
+in returning to my room, I might probably meet the restless spirit of
+Lucretia Carbury.
+
+"Nothing of the kind, however, occurred. I passed through the doors that
+had opened at the touch of Captain Carbury, and I noticed that they
+closed behind me without any effort on my part. I regained my bed, and
+almost immediately fell asleep. All had passed so naturally, and as a
+matter of course, that only when I woke this morning, and thought over
+the events of the night, did I realise that I had passed through such an
+experience as is given to few human beings.
+
+"You see, dear Edie, that my narrative has taken so long to write that I
+have no time to speak of other things, even if I could bring my mind to
+think of anything else, which, I confess, I should have great difficulty
+in doing.--Ever your very affectionate,                  "M. PORTER."
+
+
+Copied _verbatim_ from Miss Porter's letter, written on the morning of
+14th April 1875.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So ends the story, with apologies to the S.P.R.!
+
+I claim nothing for it beyond the following _facts_:
+
+The Priory still exists at Grantwich, and is known to have been the
+family mansion of the Carbury family.
+
+Miss Porter was undoubtedly matron of the school where my friend's
+brothers were educated. She was a woman of unblemished character and
+truthfulness, and would certainly not have _invented_ this long and
+detailed account of her personal experiences within a few hours of their
+occurrence.
+
+My friend most certainly copied this letter, which her brothers had
+obtained leave to read, from their school matron--Miss Porter herself.
+
+Lastly, my friend, Mrs Barker's mother (who is still alive), verified
+the existence of the Priory (as I have called it) in the town of
+Grantwich, and it _had_ been turned into a boarding-house at the time of
+her visit, having been previously let in lodgings. Also she found that
+Captain Richard Carbury was _supposed to have died in Georgia in the
+year 1741_, as is inferred in the story.
+
+As the murderess and her accomplice alone seem to have been aware of his
+return on that fateful night, this would be the natural opinion of the
+world.
+
+As an old associate of the S.P.R., and quite conversant with their
+methods, two criticisms of the story at once suggest themselves, in
+addition to the confusion of dates, which might perhaps be excused,
+owing to the abnormal nature of the interview described. But the obvious
+Podmorian remark would be that the whole adventure was a dream on the
+part of Miss Porter, induced by her interest in the two family portraits
+she had seen, and the curious sensations she had experienced in looking
+at a specially gloomy tree in the park.
+
+This would certainly cover the ground, but it proves, perhaps, rather
+too much.
+
+It requires very robust "Faith in Unfaith" to suppose that a sensible,
+practical woman, suffering from rheumatism, should carry her dream to
+the verge of following her dream man into the garden and grounds of the
+house. It may be urged that _she dreamt all this also_, but "that way
+madness lies." We must be able to formulate that certain acts of ours
+took place during full consciousness, or daily life would become
+impossible and moral responsibility would cease.
+
+Miss Porter might have been in a dream all through the night--granted.
+
+But in these cases it is the "morning that brings counsel." We are all
+aware of the extraordinary lifelike dreams which, with the return of
+normal memory, we recognise as dream visions, no matter how vivid and
+credible they may have appeared to us in the night.
+
+But with Miss Porter this normal process was reversed. She went to sleep
+quite calmly, and first realised, upon waking in the morning, how
+thoroughly _abnormal_ her experiences had been.
+
+I pass on to the next criticism, which a little "editing" on my part
+could have averted:
+
+"Is it credible that a woman, only just recovering from the surprise and
+marvel of such an experience, should write about it, within a few hours,
+to a favourite cousin, as if she were preparing a story for _The Family
+Herald_?"
+
+I confess that this was my own feeling when the record was placed in my
+hands.
+
+We must, however, remember--first, that the percipient was obviously a
+lady of great courage, or she would not have followed her ghost into the
+garden; secondly, that she was a keen observer and very accurate in
+details. Probably, many generations of schoolboys, passing through her
+hands, may have quickened her perceptions in both these ways.
+
+As for the stilted style, that presents little difficulty, when one
+remembers that people of a certain rank in life never use a short word
+when a long one will answer the purpose!
+
+I claim nothing for the story, beyond the points already mentioned.
+These are matters of _fact_.
+
+Each one must interpret it according to his own views and prejudices.
+
+It is quite enough for me to be responsible for the truth and accuracy
+of _my own_ experiences, to which we will now return.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Note._--Since writing the above I have consulted the "Century
+Encyclopaedia," and find there:
+
+"Oglethorpe--James Edward, born in London, December 21st, 1696, died
+at Cranham Hall, Essex, England, 1785. An English General and
+Philanthropist. He projected the Colony of Georgia for insolvent
+debtors, and persecuted Protestants; conducted the expedition for its
+settlement, 1733, and returned to England, 1743."
+
+The apparent discrepancy between the date 1733 given in the
+Encyclopaedia, and the 1738 of Captain Carbury's ghostly narrative, may
+be due to one of two causes:
+
+The young girl copying Miss Porter's letter may have mistaken a three
+for an eight rather easily.
+
+Again, Captain Carbury did not state that he landed _with_ General
+Oglethorpe, 19th September 1738, but with General Oglethorpe's regiment.
+This latter may have been a reinforcement sent out to the General after
+his first landing in the Colony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+LADY CAITHNESS AND AVENUE WAGRAM
+
+
+Having spent the winter months of 1894 (from January to April) in Egypt,
+I was returning thence in the latter month with my friend Mrs Judge of
+Windsor. Our route was _via_ Paris, and I had arranged to spend a week
+there in the same hotel as the young Swedish lady whom I first met in
+India, and who has been referred to more than once in this record.
+
+She told me she had made the acquaintance that winter of the famous
+"Countess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar," and thinking it would
+interest me to meet this lady, she had asked for permission to introduce
+me to her.
+
+As it turned out, Madame Bruegel was unable to accompany me to the house,
+having several engagements for the afternoon, but she promised to "put
+in an appearance" later. So Mrs Judge and I drove off to the well-known
+mansion in the Avenue de Wagram, and were received very cordially by
+Lady Caithness.
+
+I had once tried to read a very abstruse and mystic book by this lady,
+and had heard her spoken of as a more or less hopeless lunatic, "who
+imagined herself Mary Queen of Scots," and so forth.
+
+Otherwise I went without prejudice, and being accustomed to judge for
+myself in such matters, came to the conclusion that Lady Caithness was
+an extremely shrewd woman, with her head remarkably "well screwed on,"
+as the saying is. As regards her claims to be Mary Queen of Scots, I
+never heard these from her own lips, although I saw her daily for a
+week, and we had many interesting talks.
+
+She certainly _did_ claim to be in very close relations with the
+ill-fated Queen of Scotland, but I do not know what views she may have
+held privately as to varied manifestations of the one spirit. I have
+heard Lord Monkswell propound an interesting theory, with Archdeacon
+Wilberforce in the chair, to the effect that as one short earth life
+gave small scope for spiritual experience and development, he thought it
+quite possible that the same spirit might have several bodily
+manifestations simultaneously, and that the judge and the criminal might
+conceivably be one and the same individual in two personalities!
+
+It is possible that Lady Caithness may have had some such view, not
+theoretically (as was the case with Lord Monkswell), but as a matter of
+conviction, and apart from the limits of Time and Space involved in the
+conception of the latter.
+
+I can only say that I never heard her speak of Mary Queen of Scots
+except as an entity, quite distinct from herself. But that she carried
+the "Marie" _culte_ to great extremes is an undoubted fact. The hall and
+rooms on the ground floor of the Avenue Wagram House were arranged and
+furnished in close imitation of Holyrood Palace. I counted over fifty
+miniatures and other pictures of the Scottish Queen in the Countess's
+beautiful bedroom alone, and later on shall have to speak more
+definitely of one life size and exquisitely painted portrait of the
+Queen.
+
+But to return to this first reception.
+
+I must confess that a somewhat inconveniently keen sense of humour found
+only too much nourishment on this occasion.
+
+The Countess was magnificently dressed, as was usual with her, in
+priceless lace, falling over head and shoulders, and a beautiful tiara
+of various coloured jewels arranged over the lace. This was eccentric
+perhaps, considering the occasion, but not laughable. Lady Caithness, in
+addition to geniality, had enough quiet dignity to carry off the lace
+and jewels with success. I was chiefly amused by the attitude of adoring
+humility and flattering appreciation shown by the numerous ladies
+already assembled when we arrived. Only one man was present, and he was
+a priest. Later I learned to appreciate the friendliness of the Abbe
+Petit and to admire his intellectual courage and manliness.
+
+For the moment, seeing him surrounded by these female worshippers,
+hanging upon his lips as he discoursed to us about new readings of old
+truths, one was irresistibly reminded of certain scenes in Moliere's
+"_Femmes Savantes_."
+
+A lively little American lady (married to an Italian count) plied him
+with numerous questions in fluent French, spoken with an atrocious
+accent. Finally, she wished to hear the Abbe's views upon
+_Melchisedech!_ In the midst of other questions and answers, the kindly
+little man managed to turn round to her with a cheery "_Ah, Madame la
+Comtesse! pour le Melchisedech--nous reviendrons tout de suite a
+Melchisedech!_" All the affairs of the religious universe were being
+wound up at a similar pace and in like fashion, and this final word of
+cheerful assurance would have proved absolutely disastrous to me had I
+not been sitting close to my friend and able to whisper to her: "_Please
+dig your nails into my wrist--hard._" Any bodily pain was preferable to
+the hysterical laughter which had been so long suppressed and seemed now
+imminent.
+
+But there was worse to come!
+
+An Englishwoman, the very type of the characteristic British spinster,
+turned round, and addressed M. l'Abbe in laboured and extremely British
+French (I must leave the accent to be imagined and supplied by my
+reader):
+
+"Mais, Monsieur l'Abbe! c'est le Protestantisme que vous nous enseignez
+la."
+
+He turned round upon her in his wrath:
+
+"Mais, Madame--ou MADEMOISELLE." (No print can convey the utter scorn
+and contempt of this last word.)
+
+The rest of the sentence was lost to us in the loud laugh of the genial,
+good-tempered woman: "_Moi_, Mademoiselle! J'ai ete mariee vingt ans et
+j'ai six enfants!"
+
+The whole scene was too funny for words, and, with the exception of this
+good lady, all present took themselves as seriously as a University don!
+
+It was a real relief when the solemnity of the reception broke up and we
+were ushered into the adjoining dining-room for an excellent tea. Here
+I came upon my Swedish friend, who had only just arrived, and "missed
+all the fun." She told me there was to be a _seance_ held in the house
+next day, and that she had been asking the Countess if I might not be
+present. "_It might amuse you, Kat!_" was her irreverent way of putting
+it. "_Unfortunately, there seems to be some difficulty about it._"
+
+At this moment Lady Caithness came up, and cordially expressed her
+regrets that she could not accede to Madame Bruegel's suggestion.
+
+"Had you been staying until next week, Miss Bates, I would gladly have
+arranged for it, but to-morrow is a very special occasion. As a matter
+of fact, I have promised M. Petit that no one shall be present except
+himself and me, and the two female mediums, of course. On Wednesday we
+are to have a crowded meeting here--all the well-known people in Paris
+will come--and M. l'Abbe will read his paper explaining that he can no
+longer blind his eyes to the new light breaking upon the world through
+scientific discovery, etc., but that he remains a loyal son of the
+Church, if the Church will allow him to do so. It is, of course, a very
+trying and anxious ordeal; for many priests will be present, also a
+cardinal and one or more of our bishops. So the _seance_ to-morrow will
+be specially devoted to receiving last instructions for the paper he is
+about to read, and some words, we trust, of encouragement and hope."
+
+Of course, I hastened to assure Lady Caithness of my full comprehension
+of her point, and added that I was only sorry she should have been asked
+to alter her arrangements on my account.
+
+"But you will join us on Wednesday at the meeting, I trust? It will be
+held at three P.M., in a large room on the ground floor, which is
+arranged for such gatherings. I shall expect you then, so we will not
+say good-bye."
+
+This was heaping coals of fire on my head; for so observant a woman as
+Lady Caithness must have noticed my difficulty in keeping a grave face
+earlier in the afternoon!
+
+Now comes a curious point. As we left the house Madame Bruegel in
+expressing disappointment about the next evening, added: "And yet
+somehow I think you will go after all."
+
+"Yes," I said involuntarily. "I believe I _shall_ go, but I cannot think
+how it will come about; nothing could be more decided than what we have
+just heard, and I cannot possibly put off my journey to England the end
+of this week."
+
+I think we were both a little disappointed when no letter arrived by the
+morning's post. "Local letters often come by second post," urged my
+friend, who was very keen upon her presentiment.
+
+A long morning at the Louvre prevented my reaching home till one P.M.,
+when the _dejeuner a la fourchette_ was half way through its course. No
+letter on my plate! So Madame Bruegel and I agreed that the wish must
+have been father to the thought with both of us, and put the matter out
+of our heads once for all.
+
+At two-thirty P.M., however, a _depeche_ letter arrived for me.
+
+Lady Caithness wrote to _beg that I would make a point of being with her
+that evening by nine p.m._ "You will think this very inconsistent with
+what I told you yesterday," she wrote, "but I said only what was the
+exact truth, as matters then stood. It is the Queen herself who has
+communicated with me this morning, and _insists_ upon your being present
+this evening. The Abbe and I can only bow to this decision. I need not
+tell you how pleased I shall be personally to greet you this evening."
+
+I was again shown into the spacious bedroom of the Countess, where she
+"received" in general, quite after the manner of the French kings in the
+days of the old monarchy.
+
+Her bed was quite a State bed too, with its beautiful silk furnishings
+and heavy velvet hangings. On the wall behind this, was a very valuable
+fresco painting, representing Jacob's ladder, with the angels ascending
+and descending, executed by a famous modern artist.
+
+We soon descended to the ground floor, and passing through the large
+lecture-room, of which Lady Caithness had spoken, and which had
+sufficient gilt and cane chairs to seat a large audience; we stepped
+down some marble stairs into a small but exquisitely appointed room. It
+was a sort of chapel, in fact, built "by the Queen's instructions," and
+used for all purposes and occasions of direct communication with her. A
+general impression remains with me of rare woods and exquisite marbles,
+and the walls were hung with framed tapestries representing various
+scenes in the Queen's life.
+
+To me the most striking and beautiful thing in the room was a
+full-length, life-sized portrait of Mary herself, so arranged that a
+hidden lamp threw its soft light on the features; whilst the hanging
+velvet curtains of deep crimson on either side concealed the frame of
+the picture, and conveyed the illusion that a living woman was standing
+there ready to receive her guests.
+
+I have never seen anything more perfect than the way in which this
+impression was conveyed, without a jarring note of sensational effect.
+
+The two French women mediums were already in the room, and I am bound to
+say they did not attract me pleasantly nor impress me very favourably.
+They were mother and daughter, and "Harpy" was written large over either
+countenance. Doubtless they were very good mediums, in spite of this
+fact. They _must_ have been so, unless one supposes that Lady Caithness
+and the Abbe Petit were themselves abnormally strong sensitives; in
+which case one would have thought this extraneous help would have been
+unnecessary.
+
+We sat down at a fairly large wooden table, polished, but without
+covering of any kind, and having only one solid support to it, coming
+from the centre, passing down as a single wooden pillar, and spreading
+out in the usual fashion at the bottom. I had noted this on first
+entering the room.
+
+The two women sat together on my right-hand side. On my left was the
+Abbe, and the Countess sat exactly opposite to me, with a printed
+alphabet pasted on to a card, and a long pencil as pointer.
+
+This made up the party. At a side table, placed some distance away, sat
+a pleasant young French lady, who was writing automatically all the
+time; a secretary to the Countess, I believe. This young lady had no
+possible connection with the table.
+
+The _seance_ began with a few words of prayer from the Abbe for light
+and guidance.
+
+The process was as follows:--First, the Countess and then I took the
+printed alphabet, and pointed silently and at a fair pace to the
+letters, going on from one to the other without pause. At the letter
+needed the table did not rise, but gave a sound more like a bang than a
+rap. I have never heard anything _quite_ so loud and definite in my long
+investigation. The sound seemed to come from _within the wood_, as in
+ordinary "raps," when these are genuine, but it was far louder and more
+rapid and decided than the usual _seance_ rap. There was no hesitation,
+no gathering up of force. Any amount of vitality was evidently present,
+and the intelligence, from whatever source, was unerring. The Countess
+and I were the only two persons who held the alphabet and pointed, and
+when _she_ held it the mediums could not have seen the letters from
+their position at the table with regard to hers. Yet the letters were
+banged out (I can use no other expression) with absolute accuracy, and
+at a pace which, quick to start with, became more and more rapid as we
+wearied of the monotonous task and handed the alphabet to each other in
+turn.
+
+When the name of GOD or of OUR LORD came, only the first letter was
+indicated, and then the table swayed slowly to and fro in a very
+reverent and characteristic way for a few seconds; after which we began
+the alphabet again for the next word.
+
+When these loud bangs came I could trace the reverberation in the wood,
+and it seemed to me practically impossible that the Harpies could be
+producing them by any unlawful methods, whilst sitting in full light and
+with immovable faces, the daughter writing down the letters as quickly
+as these were indicated.
+
+One did not feel quite comfortable about making investigations in a
+private house without being invited to do so.
+
+Again, if the women were tricking, and I caught them at it, there was
+always the chance of a disagreeable scene with people of their class.
+
+On the other hand, it was losing a great opportunity, to refrain, as a
+mere matter of courtesy. Also I comforted myself by thinking that if
+anyone needed to feel ashamed it would be the ones who cheated, and not
+the detective.
+
+So I pushed my chair a little nearer to the table, and the next time the
+Countess took the alphabet from me and the bangs were in full swing, I
+put my foot cautiously but very effectually _entirely round the one leg
+of the table, moving it also up and down freely_. Not a vestige of
+another foot, nor even of the flimsiest particle of dress or other
+obstruction! I could positively and distinctly hear the reverberation of
+the loud bangs on the wood, _between me and the centre of the table_,
+whilst my own leg and foot were firmly embracing the single wooden
+pillar upon which the latter stood. So the Harpies were justified, so
+far as this one phenomenon was concerned. The letters written down so
+rapidly by the daughter on large sheets of paper presented an apparently
+hopeless jumble, but when the sitting was over at the last, the Abbe
+and I were able to make out the words and sentences without great
+difficulty (he being accustomed to the task), and we then found a long,
+coherent, and at anyrate perfectly sensible, message addressed to him,
+and referring to the points of his coming discourse. This had to be
+proved upon its own merits, and without prejudice, arising from the fact
+that St Paul's name was given as the author. It was quite as helpful as
+some of the Apostle's letters, with the advantage of being up to date as
+regarded the question in hand. After all, the Abbe was about to embark
+upon an enterprise requiring much courage and great tact, in the forlorn
+hope that the walls of narrow Orthodoxy and Priestcraft might fall down
+before the trumpets of advancing Knowledge and Light.
+
+It may or may not have been St Paul who stood by the Abbe with words of
+encouragement that night; but I, for one, find no difficulty in thinking
+it conceivable that the great Apostle should take a keen interest in the
+evolution of the planet upon which he once lived.
+
+The charming young lady delivered up her script also. It was interesting
+and well written, but the only paragraph which remains in my memory was
+an excellent analysis of the initial difference between Christianity and
+Theosophy.
+
+The Abbe kindly copied it out for me next day, but I must quote from
+memory.
+
+"Christianity is a stretching down of the Divinity to Man.
+
+"Theosophy is the attempt of Man, by his own efforts, to reach the
+Divine."
+
+This seems to me both terse and true.
+
+We had sat from nine P.M. till one A.M., and I think we were all
+relieved when an adjournment for supper was suggested by Lady Caithness.
+
+Her son, the Duc de Pomar, joined us for _this_ part of the evening, and
+was introduced to me. My enjoyment of the excellent fare, after so many
+hours of exhaustion, was only tempered by an unfortunate and violent
+quarrel between the mother and daughter mediums, on the score of the age
+of the latter! The mother declared her daughter was forty-five; the
+daughter said: "Not a day over thirty-five," and intimated that she
+surely might be supposed to know her own age! The mother, however,
+murmured provokingly: "_Moi, je sais mieux que ca_"; and so the wrangle
+went on, until I made a diversion by taking leave of my hostess and
+promising to be present at the lecture the "following afternoon," which,
+by the way, had become "this afternoon" by the time I left the Hotel
+Wagram.
+
+When I entered the house once more, it was to be shown into the large
+lecture-room previously described, which was already three parts full,
+and very shortly entirely so.
+
+Lady Caithness had kindly reserved a front seat for me, so I could see
+and hear without difficulty. On the raised platform stood my friend the
+Abbe looking very grave and rather nervous. A cardinal, two bishops, and
+some half-dozen priests were seated close to him, and very shortly the
+lecture, which was, I think, extempore, began.
+
+The Abbe was so manifestly in dead earnest and without any suspicion of
+_pose_, that one could not fail to be deeply impressed by the scene. It
+needed all the help of a sincere purpose and a brave heart, to stand up
+amongst those of his own cloth, and, in face of a partially indifferent
+and partially unfriendly audience, to declare boldly "the faith that was
+in him"--a faith that burned all the more brightly and warmly from the
+fact that it was being purged of the superstitions which must always
+become the accretions of every form of religion; the clinging refuse of
+weed and shell, which from time to time must be scraped off the bottom
+of the grand old ship if it is to convey us safely from port to harbour.
+
+The Cardinal sat twirling his big seal ring, with a look of cynical
+amusement on his face, or so it seemed to me.
+
+As the Abbe proceeded to mention the advances made in science and the
+necessity for a restatement of old truths, which should bring them into
+line with other truths of the nineteenth century, proving the essential
+unity of _all truth_, and breaking down the fallacy that the vital part
+of religion and the vital part of science have anything to fear from one
+another, the Cardinal's face was a study to me.
+
+"Yes, of course, we know all that, you and I, but what is the use of
+making this fuss about it? We belong to a system, and this system has
+worked very well for centuries past, and will work very well for
+centuries to come if fools don't attempt to upset the coach by
+restatements and readjustments, as they are called. The people _don't
+want restatements_; they want a dead certainty, and that is just what we
+give them."
+
+All this I seemed to read in his clever, cynical countenance, in direct
+opposition to the thrilling sentences of the Abbe Petit as he leant
+forward and said, with uplifted finger and prophetic intensity:
+
+"_La lumiere est venue, mes freres--et si vous ne la suivez pas--vous
+serez laisses seuls dans vos eglises._"
+
+It is impossible to exaggerate the affectionate solemnity of this appeal
+to his brother priests. The tragic note was relieved later by an amused
+smile which rippled round the audience. This puzzled me until a kind
+French lady sitting next to me explained that the audience were amused
+by the "_tres chers freres_" (dearly beloved brethren), with which the
+Abbe addressed them in this rather unorthodox lecture. It was evidently
+looked upon as a curious bit of "professional survival."
+
+On the following day (Thursday) I was invited to lunch with Lady
+Caithness at two P.M., and being a punctual person, I arrived at that
+hour. The powdered footman announced that his mistress had not yet
+emerged from her bedroom, and showed me up into the dining-room
+adjoining, where I awaited her. In a few minutes I was joined here by
+the Abbe, who politely expressed his sorrow that he had not known of my
+arrival earlier.
+
+As we sat chatting together, he told me a curious experience of his of
+the previous night, which will certainly "cause the enemy" to smile, if
+not "to blaspheme."
+
+He said (of course, in French): "I was sitting last night in my room,
+which looks over the back of the house, and where I can hear no sounds
+from the Avenue, and I was talking to 'La Reine.' Suddenly '_Elle m'a
+frappe sur l'epaule_,' and then said she must leave me at once, in order
+to meet the Duchesse, who had just returned home. At that moment twelve
+o'clock struck from a neighbouring church, and I looked at my watch, and
+found it was indeed midnight. When Madame la Duchesse comes in, I am
+most anxious to find out whether she and the Duc were returning home at
+that hour. You will be my witness, madame, that I have told you of this
+occurrence before seeing the Duchesse."
+
+I assured him that I would gladly testify to this; and in a few moments
+the Duc de Pomar arrived, and almost immediately after him, Lady
+Caithness emerged from her bedroom on the other side of the dining-room.
+
+We sat down to luncheon, and I was much amused by the form of the Abbe's
+question later in the meal.
+
+"_Madame la Duchesse! puis je vous demander sans indiscretion, a quelle
+heure vous etes revenue hier au soir?_"
+
+Lady Caithness looked a little surprised, but answered readily enough:
+"Well, it must have been past midnight; I did not notice very
+specially."
+
+"Not past midnight, mother," corrected the Duc de Pomar; "I heard a
+clock strike twelve just as we were driving through the Porte Cochere."
+
+"_Bien, Madame, qu'est-ce-que je vous ai dit?_" demanded the Abbe,
+turning to me in triumph. He then repeated his story, and I was able to
+certify that he had already mentioned it to me on my arrival.
+
+The following day I took my leave of Lady Caithness, with a happy
+remembrance of her and her great kindness and hospitality to me during
+this pleasant week. She made me promise to let her know whenever I might
+happen to be passing through Paris. I wrote to her the next year, when
+about to make a short stay in Paris, on returning from Algeria, and
+received an answer from the Riviera. She had been wintering there, and
+had been packed and ready for the return to Paris, when an obstinate
+chill had upset all plans. She begged me to go to the Avenue Wagram when
+I arrived and find out the latest news of her, as the doctors might give
+leave for the journey at any moment.
+
+Ten days later I _did_ go to her house and interview the lady secretary
+(not the one I had seen), who was very grudging in her answers, and gave
+me the impression that she was accustomed to deal with persons who had
+some "axe to grind" by claiming acquaintance with the Countess.
+
+I did not happen to have the letter in my pocket which authorised my
+visit, and should probably not have produced it in any case. So I turned
+away rather shortly, leaving my card, saying: "I must trouble you to
+forward this at once to Lady Caithness."
+
+The moment the secretary saw my name, her manner entirely changed, and
+became as servile as it had been "cavalier."
+
+"Miss Bates, I see? Oh, certainly, I shall communicate at once with her
+ladyship. I had no idea it was Miss Bates. Pray excuse me, so many come
+and ask for the Duchesse, and we have to be so very particular. But, of
+course, _you_ must be the lady the Duchesse is so very fond of. She has
+mentioned you often, and warned us to receive you with every courtesy."
+
+And that is my last recollection of the kindly woman, who died a few
+months later. No, not absolutely my last recollection: visiting Scotland
+in 1896, I made a point of going to Holyrood Chapel for the express
+purpose of finding her grave.
+
+The plain stone slab and simple inscription seemed at first a curious
+contrast to the gorgeous magnificence of her home and dress and
+surroundings. Yet I am inclined to think that they represented a side of
+her character which was quite as real as the other.
+
+In like manner, no one who knew of her only as a "wild visionary" could
+have realised the shrewd, practical woman of business and of
+common-sense who shared the personality of Countess of Caithness and
+Duchesse de Pomar.
+
+I remember that Mr Frederic Myers made the same remark to me after a
+visit he paid to her, just after my return to England, for the purpose
+of arranging matters with regard to her generous bequest to the Society
+for Psychical Research.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FROM OXFORD TO WIMBLEDON
+
+
+From Paris to England is not a long cry, and my next reminiscence is
+connected with the University of Oxford.
+
+I was spending a few days there with a friend in the spring of 1896,
+and went with her one afternoon to an Oxford tea-party, with its usual
+sprinkling of women, married and unmarried; a few dons captured as a
+question of friendship, and more than a few undergraduates.
+
+Amongst the latter I chanced to hear the name of a very well-known
+bishop, whom I had first met and known rather intimately when I was a
+young girl, and he a young married curate. I had also known his wife
+(a few years my senior) very intimately in those far-off days, so my
+curiosity was aroused to know if the young man in this Oxford
+drawing-room should chance to be a son of this bishop, whom we will
+call the Bishop of Granchester. I found that my surmise was correct;
+the young man was introduced to me, and we were soon deep in an
+interesting conversation about his parents, especially his mother, who
+had died when he was barely three years old. He knew little or nothing
+about her. His father had married again, and his paternal grandmother
+(still alive in 1896) had never cared for his mother--from feelings
+of jealousy probably--so there was no one to speak to the boy about
+her, and he was naturally delighted to hear all my girlish
+recollections of her.
+
+"Do come and have tea with me to-morrow afternoon, or any day that suits
+you," he said eagerly. "I have one or two old photographs taken of my
+mother when she was young, and I should like so much to know which of
+them you consider the best."
+
+Of course, I agreed to go, Mr Blake-Mason promising to ask a "chum" to
+entertain my hostess whilst he and I discussed the photographs and the
+old days before he was born.
+
+Returning home from his rooms that February evening, I was conscious
+once more of an unaccountable depression, and also a certain amount of
+nervous irritability, which other sensitives will understand, and which
+often precedes some psychic happening. Just after we had finished
+dinner, it struck me suddenly, and _for the first time_, that my
+discomfort might be connected with my afternoon visit. This young man's
+mother might be wishing to impress me in some way! I found that this was
+the fact, but felt unequal to going further into the matter that night.
+
+I promised to listen to anything she might wish to say next morning, and
+having given this promise, all unpleasant and disturbing influences
+disappeared, and I had a good night's rest. Next morning, after
+breakfast, my hostess said very practically:
+
+"Now do get this matter off your mind at once, or you will be worried
+about it all day. I am going to order dinner, and shall then be in the
+drawing-room, so you can have this room entirely to yourself."
+
+I sat down, and a very beautiful message was given to me by the friend
+of my girlhood.
+
+She was evidently very much perturbed and very anxious about something
+connected with her youngest son, whom I had met for the first time two
+days previously, and about whose affairs, I need scarcely say, I was in
+a state of profound ignorance. The little mother was anxious not to
+"give him away," nor betray confidences, and so her words were very
+guarded. There was evidently nothing in the least dishonourable or in
+any way _unworthy_ of her son in question. I gathered, rather, that he
+might be contemplating some step which she, from her wider outlook,
+considered undesirable and inexpedient; possibly even disastrous in the
+future.
+
+It was no business of mine, and I make it a point of honour not to "try
+to guess" more than I am told, and to forget what I _am_ told as soon as
+possible, where the affairs of other people are involved.
+
+This is, fortunately, easy for me as a rule, but in this case one
+sentence remains even now ringing in my ears, and if the son ever comes
+across this record I hope he will forgive my reproducing his mother's
+last beautiful words to me:
+
+"_Tell my darling boy that life is so solemn and true love so sacred a
+thing. Tell him to be very, very sure, lest he lose the substance in
+pursuing the shadow._"
+
+The first sentence is given verbatim. In the second my memory may be
+producing the sense without the exact wording, but I have no doubt at
+all that my words practically convey what the mother wished me to "tell
+her boy."
+
+This message gave me a hard problem to solve: "What should I do with
+it?"
+
+On the one hand, my having agreed to take the message, tacitly bound me
+to let him have it.
+
+On the other hand, there were various questions to consider. In the
+first place, Mr Blake-Mason might probably, and very naturally, resent
+my writing to him on the subject, especially as I had no reason to
+suppose he had any knowledge of psychic matters.
+
+Secondly, he might suppose (quite untruly) that I had heard some private
+affairs of his discussed, and had taken upon myself to convey a personal
+warning, under cover of his dead mother's wishes.
+
+This was perhaps exaggerating a possibility, which, nevertheless, could
+not be ignored.
+
+Thirdly, he might consider me a harmless lunatic, conveying a message
+which had no slightest foundation in truth.
+
+Fourthly, it might, on the other hand, give him the impression that
+his mother must have some access to his most private affairs; in which
+case he might become intensely interested in psychic matters, to the
+exclusion of more mundane affairs--always a danger with young
+people--not to mention other possibilities of psychic disaster for
+_inexperienced investigators_.
+
+I went over all these chances _con_, to put against the one _pro_ of his
+mother's loving anxiety, and my sense of responsibility to her.
+
+Finally, I decided that there was no choice left for me but to send the
+message, and trust the consequences to a Higher Wisdom.
+
+I did this, adding a few words of explanation, and also of warning, in
+case he should recognise my absolute _bona fides_ and his mother's
+personality, and become too much absorbed by these psychic
+possibilities. Unfortunately, I added, in his own interests, _that it
+was not necessary to acknowledge the letter._
+
+"It would doubtless reach him, and I had nothing more to do with the
+matter."
+
+I left Oxford next day, and have never seen the young man since; nor
+have I ever heard from him. I concluded that he was annoyed, or that the
+message was quite wide of the mark. I never doubted his mother's
+presence with me, but I might have failed to reproduce her words to her
+son with sufficient accuracy for recognition.
+
+Anyway, I put the matter out of my head as one of those trying episodes
+to which all sensitives are exposed at times, when they think more of
+conscience than personal convenience.
+
+Three or four years passed before the corroboration of that message came
+to me, in a rather curious manner.
+
+A cousin of mine, having been badly wounded in the West African War, was
+sent to a London hospital to have the bullet, which had puzzled all the
+local surgeons, located and extracted.
+
+He was at the hospital for several weeks during the London season of
+1899, I think. During these weeks I, in common with many other friends
+and relations, was in the habit of paying him occasional visits. I had
+gone to say good-bye to him on leaving town, when "by chance" (as we
+call it) he mentioned, for the _first_ time, the name of his ward
+sister, adding how charming and kind and capable she had proved. "By the
+way, she is a daughter of the Bishop of Granchester," he added. "You
+know everybody, Cousin Emmie! perhaps you know _her_," he said, smiling.
+
+"No; I don't know her, Bertie! but I knew her mother and father very
+well many years ago."
+
+Nothing would satisfy him but that I should ask to see her when I left
+the hospital, and as he seemed really anxious on the point I promised to
+do so, though inwardly averse from disturbing a busy woman.
+
+I asked the hall porter for her, but said I had no special business, and
+would not ask to see her unless she happened to be quite free. In a few
+moments he returned, and showed me into a pretty sitting-room on the
+ground floor, saying that the sister would be with me shortly. The door
+opened again to admit a bright, pleasant-looking young woman of seven or
+eight and twenty, who gave me a most cordial greeting when she heard my
+name, saying: "Oh yes, Frank told me all about meeting you at Oxford."
+
+I did not feel very keen about talking of "Frank" just then; but we sat
+down, and had a long half hour's chat on much the same lines as my
+conversation with her brother three years before.
+
+I had said good-bye, and she had accompanied me across the hall to the
+fine stone steps leading from the hospital--she had, in fact, turned
+towards her own apartments--when I felt I _must_ ask her one more
+question, so I also turned, and hurried back to her.
+
+"Did your brother Frank ever tell you of a letter he received from me in
+Oxford?" I asked.
+
+"Oh yes," she answered, without a touch of embarrassment.
+
+Then I continued: "I never heard from him about it. I told him he need
+not write at the time, but I have been afraid he was hurt or annoyed,
+and thought it an impertinence on my part perhaps."
+
+"Did Frank never write?" she asked, with genuine astonishment. "I know
+he intended to do so. Certainly he was not annoyed in any way. Far from
+it. He was intensely interested, and _I have the best of reasons for
+knowing that that message from our mother made a very great difference
+in his life_."
+
+I thanked her for these words, without asking anything further. As I
+have said, it was no affair of mine, from first to last; but the
+verification, after such a lapse of time, was doubly satisfactory to me.
+
+Again I ask: How about the "_Cui Bono_" argument?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another shake of the kaleidoscope, and I find myself at Wimbledon,
+staying with a friend--now, alas! passed away--who had then a pretty
+house not far from the Common, and with whom I often spent a few days
+when in London.
+
+On this occasion she had asked some friends to meet me at tea, amongst
+them Mrs Alfred Wedgwood, to whom I had introduced her some years
+previously, and my friends "V. C. Desertis" and his wife.
+
+A Miss Farquhar, whom I knew very slightly, was sharing a sofa with me,
+she sitting at one end and I at the other, leaving a vacant space
+between us. Mrs Wedgwood was talking to Mr Desertis at the moment, but
+suddenly looked across the room at our sofa, and began describing very
+graphically an old man of benevolent aspect sitting between Miss
+Farquhar and myself, leaning on a stick, and wearing a soft felt hat.
+
+"He has long hair, almost down to his coat collar, and he looks such a
+dear, kind old man!" Mrs Wedgwood said; then turning round, she added:
+"Surely some of you must recognise him! he is so very clear and distinct
+in his whole personality."
+
+Mrs Desertis whispered something to her husband, who asked at once if
+the old gentleman's hair was very white.
+
+"Yes; quite white," said Mrs Wedgwood hopefully.
+
+"And curly and long?"
+
+"Yes; curly and quite long, reaching to his collar," continued Mrs
+Wedgwood, still more confidently.
+
+But our hopes were dashed when Mr Desertis turned round drily to his
+wife: "Then it cannot possibly be my father, as you suggested. His hair
+was white, but _quite short_."
+
+It was a cruel blow! But Mrs Wedgwood still affirmed that she had never
+seen anyone more distinctly, whether we recognised him or not.
+
+I may here mention that I had been sleeping very badly in this house for
+some nights past, and regretted this the more, because I was shortly
+going to stay with a friend at Windsor for my first "Fourth of June,"
+and wished to be specially bright and well for the coming festivities.
+
+These bad nights were later proved to have some connection with the
+benevolent old gentleman just described!
+
+Now I will continue the sequence of events.
+
+Mrs Wedgwood's clairvoyant description had been forgotten by us all, as
+I supposed, long before the afternoon came to an end. It had passed
+unrecognised, and other interesting matters arose in conversation.
+
+The following day Miss Farquhar wrote a line to my hostess, asking if
+she might come to tea towards the end of the week, as she had something
+very interesting to tell us. She came, of course, and thus unfolded her
+budget:
+
+"None of you seemed very much impressed about that old gentleman Mrs
+Wedgwood described here the other day, but her words were so graphic
+that I felt sure she was really seeing him at the moment, so I
+determined to try and find out something about him.
+
+"I went to an old lady I know, one of the oldest inhabitants, and asked
+her if she knew anything of your predecessors in this house. She told me
+an elderly couple had lived here, a husband and wife, that the husband
+had died, and that although the wife lived away from Wimbledon now, she
+could not bear to part with the house which her husband had been so fond
+of; so let it. In fact, my old friend seemed to think she must be your
+present landlady."
+
+This was said to my hostess, and proved to be quite true. The house had
+been let through an agent, and as the present owner lived in a distant
+county, nothing was known of her personally by my friend.
+
+Then Miss Farquhar continued: "Hearing that the old man was so devoted
+to the house rather suggested a reason for Mrs Wedgwood seeing him here,
+so I asked my old lady if she had known this gentleman, and if so, would
+she describe him. She did this, _almost word for word as Mrs Wedgwood
+had seen him_. Also, she added, that he was a good deal of an invalid,
+often sat indoors, with a hat on for fear of draughts, and carried a
+stick, upon which he constantly leant for support."
+
+This was very satisfactory, and we applauded Miss Farquhar's detective
+instincts, and promised to let Mrs Wedgwood know about the matter.
+
+The latter took it all very quietly, only remarking that she felt sure
+someone ought to be able to find out about the old man.
+
+A sudden thought struck me that my disturbed nights and uncomfortable
+feelings, in a very cheerful and pretty bedroom, might possibly be
+connected with the same old man. Without saying a word about this, I
+asked Mrs Wedgwood to come up into my room before she returned to
+London, and then I told her that I could not sleep, and had not had a
+peaceful night since I arrived. Could she find out what was the cause?
+
+Mrs Wedgwood looked round for a moment, and then said in the most casual
+way: "Not the smallest doubt of the cause. It is that old man, of
+course. He is earth-bound, I expect, and haunting the house. You had
+better take a message from him if you want to get rid of him. I would
+help you if I could, but I shall be late for my train if I don't start
+at once."
+
+Next morning I took the poor old gentleman's message, which began with
+an apology and regrets for disturbing me, but went on pathetically:
+
+"You must forgive me, I was so very anxious to send a message to my
+wife, and I saw that you were a sensitive and could take it from me--I
+did not realise that it might cause you so much discomfort. That lady
+called me earth-bound, but if I am, it is only through my deep love for
+my dear wife, and I am permitted to watch over her. I was drawn here by
+my old affection for this house, and also by your presence here, knowing
+you could help me."
+
+He then gave the message, of which I can only remember that it was most
+touching in its expressions of deep affection and watchful care for his
+widow.
+
+As we did not know this lady's present address, and could not procure it
+without raising inconvenient questions, my hostess and I settled that
+she should lock up the message, in the hope that some day we might be
+able to forward it.
+
+A year later I had a most unpleasant experience of being made to feel
+seriously ill when I came down for a night from town, and as another
+clairvoyant assured me that this resulted from the message remaining
+undelivered and the poor old man's frantic endeavours to reach his
+wife's consciousness, I told my Wimbledon friend that something _must_
+be done. Either she must procure the lady's address "_coute que coute_,"
+or I could not come down again to Wimbledon until this step had been
+taken.
+
+Under pressure of this determination of mine the address was procured,
+and this led to a rather unpleasant experience.
+
+I wrote a very courteous letter to the lady, enclosing the message, and
+explaining that I was quite debarred from visiting my Wimbledon friend
+until it was delivered, that I hoped, therefore, she would excuse my
+sending it, after more than a year's consideration of the question. I
+further intimated that although she might consider me a lunatic for my
+pains, I trusted there could be nothing to vex or hurt her in so
+touching an evidence of her husband's constant care and love, however
+little faith she might be disposed to place in the source from which the
+message was supposed to emanate.
+
+The answer came as a shower bath on my unfortunate head.
+
+The old lady (?) was furious. She had never heard of such wicked
+nonsense! "_Her dear husband was quite the gentleman, both in clothes
+and appearance, and he was not old--not a day over sixty-eight--when he
+died_," etc. etc.
+
+It would have been amusing if it had not been rather pitiful to think of
+the poor "young" man of sixty-eight trying so hard to reach such a
+termagant!
+
+Later, I heard that the military man, through whom the old lady's
+address had been given to my Wimbledon hostess, had asked the husband of
+the latter if I were a lunatic, by any chance!
+
+And this is how some of us welcome our friends from the other side of
+the veil! The marvel to me is that Love can still be stronger than
+Death, in face of such ingratitude and stupidity!
+
+I have already mentioned my extreme sensitiveness to the atmosphere
+(psychic) of rooms, especially rooms where one sleeps. I find another
+instance of this in my notes.
+
+I was paying a first visit to a friend in the south of England, and a
+very bright, cheerful room had been allotted to me there.
+
+From the first night I felt a strong influence of a man in the room.
+Kindly note that I do not say the influence of a _strong_ man; on the
+contrary, the character appeared to me that of an essentially weak
+man--weak rather than wicked--sensual as well as sensuous--self-indulgent,
+and greatly wanting in grit and will power.
+
+My hostess had two sons, one whom I knew, and the other, living abroad,
+whom I had never met. The influence I felt was certainly not that of the
+son I knew, who was both manly and strong-willed, a fine soldier, and
+"hard as nails," as men would say.
+
+I feared it might be the other son, however, and took an early
+opportunity of asking to see a photograph of the latter. My mind was
+quite set at rest. It was certainly not this man's influence that I had
+felt so strongly in my room.
+
+Asking my hostess, _who_ had chiefly occupied the room, she said at
+once: "Both my sons have slept there at different times," adding, "I am
+sure you have some of your queer ideas about the room--what is the
+matter with it?"
+
+I told her; "Now that I am quite convinced that neither of your sons is
+implicated, I will describe to you the character of a man whom I feel
+sure must have slept in that room and has left a strong psychic
+influence behind him."
+
+I then mentioned the characteristics already given, and one or two more
+which have escaped my memory.
+
+My sceptical friend looked a little surprised. She said nothing at the
+moment, but crossed the room to a cabinet, whence she took a photograph
+of a man which I had never seen, and placed it in my hands.
+
+"I am bound to confess," she added, "that you have exactly described the
+character of my brother-in-law, who certainly has occupied the room more
+than once."
+
+The sequel to this little incident is rather significant.
+
+A year or two later, this lady and I, having both succumbed to influenza
+and bronchitis, were sent off to the same place abroad to recuperate.
+
+Her attack had ended sooner than mine, so that I joined her there, and
+one of the first pieces of news she gave me was of the death of this
+brother-in-law, adding: "Poor fellow! He died from a very painful
+disease, and suffered terribly. He had grave faults, but, as you said,
+they came from weakness rather than wickedness. At anyrate, he was
+humble-minded, for he wrote a touching letter to me when I lost a very
+dear relation lately, wondering why such a valuable life should have
+been taken and such a 'useless log' as himself be left alive."
+
+This poor man had only just passed over when I joined my friend, and I
+felt that he was in a very bewildered and sad state of mind. I could
+realise his presence so clearly, partly, no doubt, from having sensed
+his character so strongly, that the obvious thing seemed to be to try
+and help him on his new plane of life.
+
+To the superficial mind it appears very absurd, and equally irreverent,
+to suppose that a faulty creature on this side the veil can help a
+faulty creature on the _other_ side. Personally, I have never had any
+difficulty in realising the power of prayer for those who have passed
+beyond our mortal sight.
+
+Surely we are one large family, whether here or there? The best way to
+make children love each other is to persuade them to _help_ each other.
+Is it strange that the same rule should apply to the universe that
+applies to the tiny portion of it that we know?
+
+Anyway, I am quite sure in this case that my prayers did help and
+comfort this poor man in his dark experience.
+
+In a few weeks the position seemed to be altogether lightened. He
+thanked me for my sympathy and companionship, and I have never heard of
+him since.
+
+The caviller will say at once: "Could not someone else have done the
+work equally well--either a near relation in the other sphere or a
+ministering angel?"
+
+The answer is: "Certainly they could have done it equally well, probably
+far better."
+
+But the point is that it happened to be the bit of work put into _my_
+hands, and at least I did my best. What more can any of us say?
+
+Again I ask: How about the "_Cui Bono_" argument?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HAUNTINGS BY THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
+
+1896
+
+
+In this same year (1896) I remember another curious incident.
+
+I was staying in London during the season, and some girl friends were
+very anxious that I should meet a lady whom they knew intimately and
+wished me to know also. As so often happens under these circumstances,
+we were not in the least degree interested in each other; but that has
+nothing to do with my story.
+
+The girls had asked various other friends, but this special lady was the
+_raison d'etre_ of the tea-party, and they begged me to come in good
+time, because Mrs Halifax had several other engagements, and could not
+pay them a long visit.
+
+So I dressed hurriedly in order to keep the appointment, and went to the
+house feeling rather bored by the whole arrangement, little dreaming
+that it would be the occasion of such an interesting personal
+experience. The lady turned out to be exceedingly prosperous and
+extremely uninteresting, from my point of view. Probably she would have
+given her ideas of me in much the same way! I realised that she had
+brought a son and a daughter with her, but did _not_ know that another
+young man (whose _face_ I have never seen) was also a son of hers. I
+talked to the mother for the conventional quarter of an hour, and then
+turned with relief to the other son whom she had mentioned, and with
+whom I found several old friends in common.
+
+Meanwhile the room was filling up with guests; amongst these late comers
+I noticed the entrance of a man whose face did not impress me at all
+favourably. He looked dissipated and conceited. I did not speak to this
+man, but my strong impression about him is a factor in the story.
+
+When the lady, _par excellence_, of the entertainment rose to leave the
+room, followed by her son and daughter, I noticed that a second young
+man was also in her train; but I had not seen him previously, for the
+very good reason that he had been sitting behind my back all the
+afternoon.
+
+I did not see his face even now. My attention had been diverted from the
+Halifax party as they rose to take leave, and I only noticed the _back_
+of the second young man as they left the room, and was told later that
+this was another son of Mrs Halifax, no other comment upon him being
+made.
+
+In those days I was able to do more work on the psychic plane than at
+present, and often tried to help sad or wandering spirits by praying for
+them when made conscious of their presence near me.
+
+When I woke in the night--after this tea-party--therefore, and felt a
+presence near me, it did not at first alarm me in any way.
+
+When fully awake, however, I quickly realised that this was no poor,
+sad, bewildered spirit, but a very malignant and revengeful one. I _did
+not recognise the sex at the moment_. In fact, my consciousness was
+entirely engrossed by realising that this was a question of my prayers
+being needed by no spirit more urgently than by my own.
+
+Something very malignant was in the room--something or someone far too
+actively and insistently wrathful and malignant to listen to any prayers
+or entreaties.
+
+This conviction grew so strong upon me that I lighted my candle, and
+getting out of bed, prayed for protection against the evil thing that
+was present in my room.
+
+I think I must have remained at least ten minutes on my knees, and I can
+remember distinctly the feeling of alarm and hopelessness that came over
+me when I realised how strong were the Powers of Darkness and how little
+my prayers _seemed_ to avail me.
+
+Shortly, however, faith returned, and with it the confidence of victory.
+I returned to my bed quite calm and strong, and fell asleep knowing that
+the malignant presence was no longer there to worry and torment me.
+
+I have always found it as easy to communicate with incarnate spirits at
+a distance as with discarnate ones, so on awaking in the morning, and
+remembering my disagreeable experience, I asked a friend, "still in the
+body," what was the meaning of it.
+
+I had made up my mind that if it were in any way connected with the
+visitors of the previous afternoon, it must be with the
+dissipated-looking young man, for whom I had conceived an instinctive
+aversion.
+
+To my infinite surprise _his_ name was not given, but that of the
+younger Halifax son. "It was Henry Halifax. It is a spirit which was
+haunting him and came to you afterwards."
+
+Now, as I had not even seen this young man, as already explained, I
+could not bear to think of any false and fanciful accusation being made
+against him; so remonstrated with my friend.
+
+"Do be careful in giving me the name. Are you quite sure you mean Henry
+Halifax? Are you not thinking of Mr Loseby?" (Mentioning the name that
+had been given me of the other gentleman.)
+
+"No; I mean Henry Halifax."
+
+"But I did not even _see_ him," I urged.
+
+"_No; but you were sitting with your back to him all afternoon. Don't
+you know the back is more psychically sensitive than any other part of
+the body?_"
+
+Nothing was said about the malignant spirit beyond the fact that it was
+someone "haunting" Henry Halifax.
+
+The matter, once explained, I put it out of my head, having no special
+curiosity as to the reason of the haunting, and supposing it might have
+been some male acquaintance of his.
+
+That morning I went down to my Wimbledon friend for a night. I arrived
+in time for luncheon on Saturday morning, and after a pleasant walk on
+the Common in the afternoon my friend suggested our coming home by a
+certain florist's shop, as she wished to buy some plants for her
+drawing-room.
+
+I had already met this florist's wife, a very "spooky" person, who had
+been introduced by us to Mr Myers and the Society for Psychical
+Research. She was a handsome, fresh-coloured, practical woman, with
+nothing of the weird and pallid "ghost seer" about her comely face. But
+she had had some wonderful experiences, and her children also; and these
+had been already imparted to Mr Frederic Myers.
+
+When the business part of our interview was concluded Mrs Levret turned
+to me, and said: "Well, ma'am, I _am_ glad to see you again in these
+parts. Have you had any curious experiences since I saw you last?"
+
+Now Mrs Levret had so many curious experiences of her own, as to which
+she was wont to be very voluble, that I had never before known her
+express curiosity about those of anybody else.
+
+This just flashed through my mind as I answered her:
+
+"No; nothing particular, Mrs Levret. By-the-by, I had a rather
+disagreeable experience last night, but it has been explained." And in a
+few words I mentioned what has been already described at length.
+
+From my words she must have gathered that I supposed the haunting spirit
+to be that of a _man_, and that I did not attach much importance to it
+any way.
+
+As we left the shop my charming hostess, who was equally beloved by
+those in her own class and those out of it, turned round, and said
+pleasantly: "We must hurry home now, Mrs Levret, but do come up
+to-morrow and see Miss Bates. She does not leave me till the evening,
+and I know you will enjoy having a talk with her."
+
+Mrs Levret promised to come, and appeared next morning, having first
+ascertained that the sceptical husband of my hostess would not be upon
+the premises. "He does laugh at me so, ma'am," she said apologetically.
+So she was brought straight up to my bedroom next day, and we had an
+interesting talk over her own strange adventures.
+
+Suddenly she looked up, and said: "_A propos des bottes._"
+
+"How about that young man, ma'am? What are you going to do about him?"
+
+"What young man?" I said, honestly puzzled. "And what can I do about any
+young man?"
+
+The Halifax incident had so completely faded from my mind that I could
+not for the moment imagine what she meant.
+
+"The young man you told me about yesterday afternoon, ma'am," Mrs Levret
+answered stoutly.
+
+"But I can't do anything about him. What _should_ I do?"
+
+Then she took up her parable in these words:
+
+"Well, ma'am, I have been thinking a deal about that young man since
+yesterday. It seemed to take a sort of hold upon me. It seems given to
+me, ma'am, _that it is a young woman who is haunting him--a young woman
+who is not in his own rank in life--someone whom he wronged_."
+
+I was amazed by these words, and still more by the keen interest Mrs
+Levret showed in the subject.
+
+"But what can _I_ do in the matter, even if it be as you say?" was my
+next question.
+
+"Well, ma'am, they give me to understand that the young man must be made
+to confess. He will never have any peace until he does. It seems to me
+_you_ might get him to confess."
+
+Now there could be no question of confession on the outer plane, as the
+young man was a perfect stranger to me, and there was small chance of
+our ever meeting again.
+
+But I was aware that Mrs Levret was not speaking of the outer plane, so
+I agreed to take pencil and paper, and see if I could bring the spirit
+of Henry Halifax to me, and having done so, whether I could induce him
+to tell me the truth.
+
+He came, but for a long time would say neither YES nor NO. "_What
+business is it of yours?_" was the constant reply to my questions. And I
+am bound to say it appeared a very pertinent one, from the ordinary
+point of view.
+
+Clearly it _was_ no business of mine; but Mrs Levret was so much in
+earnest, and had impressed me so strongly with what "_had been given to
+her_," that I felt I must persevere, in the young fellow's own
+interests.
+
+So I explained that I had no wish to pry into his private affairs from
+any mere unworthy curiosity, but that having myself felt the malignant
+presence that was said to be haunting him, and being told that only
+confession would remove it, I hoped he would consider the matter
+seriously before obstinately closing the door of opportunity now open to
+him. "Who could foretell when he might have another chance?"
+
+A long pause succeeded these words. I felt that the angry, irritable
+mood was passing over, and when my hand was next influenced to write,
+the words that came were not the usual curt "_None of your business_,"
+but an apology for his rude reception of my efforts to help him, and a
+full confession, which entirely bore out Mrs Levret's impressions.
+
+He told me that it was only too true that he had betrayed a young woman
+in a different rank of life from his own. She had died in child-birth
+_the preceding midsummer_, and had died cursing him for his perfidy.
+Ever since (it was now late in June) he had been haunted by her
+presence, seeing nothing, but always conscious of a malignant spirit
+tempting him to his own destruction. The mental agony was so great that
+he told me he did not think he could endure it much longer, and had
+almost decided to put an end to his life (little realising, poor fellow,
+that bad as this life might be, the next phase would be far worse for
+him).
+
+After trying to soothe and comfort him, without in any way minimising
+the weight of his sin or attempting to lessen his remorse for it, it
+struck me that it would be well to try and have a little talk with his
+poor young victim. So saying good-bye, and promising to remember him in
+future, I asked mentally for _her_ spirit to come, and then tried to
+influence her in the direction of forgiveness. It was a hard struggle,
+and no wonder.
+
+The poor young woman had trusted him, had been deceived, and finally
+launched into another sphere without any preparation for it. What wonder
+that she haunted the man who had wronged her so terribly, through pure
+selfishness, and that any love she had ever borne him had long since
+turned to deadly hate!
+
+It needed both time and patience to rouse even mere passive feelings
+towards him. I spoke of his deep remorse and misery. At first she only
+answered that she was very glad to hear it, because it showed she had
+succeeded in making her presence felt.
+
+By degrees, however, a more womanly view of the subject seemed to come
+to her. After all, he was the father of her child; the poor little
+baby that had mercifully followed its mother into the Great Unseen.
+She had loved him once, by her own showing. I made the most of this
+point, and very slowly, very grudgingly, she gave me the promise I
+asked for--_i.e._ that she would at least cease this revengeful
+haunting, even if she could not yet feel more kindly towards the one
+who had injured her so deeply.
+
+Having extracted this promise I felt that no more could be done for the
+time being, and Mrs Levret, who had been sitting in unwonted silence
+during both interviews, then took her leave.
+
+I have given this case and its treatment very much _in extenso_, not
+only because it may be helpful to others dealing with erring and
+revengeful spirits, but because on my return to London _every
+important point in this true narrative was amply corroborated_.
+
+It took some time and a good deal of tact before the case was complete.
+
+First, I learned that Henry Halifax was by no means a _persona grata_ in
+the house where I first met him, and that my young friends there had
+only been allowed to ask him under some protest, and because the rest
+of his family were to be present.
+
+Asked _why_ this should be the case, their answers were naturally vague:
+they only knew he was not very welcome.
+
+Of course, I did not pursue the matter with these young people. They
+told me, however, that he was very much changed of late, and seemed so
+often moody, unhappy, and discontented.
+
+"I am sure _we_ should be happy enough if we had such a luxurious home
+and all that money," said one of them naively.
+
+Now I happened to know rather intimately at that time another friend of
+the Halifax family; a woman considerably older than the young girls
+mentioned, and as she had some little knowledge of psychic possibilities
+I determined to lay the whole story before her, trusting to her honour
+to keep it to herself, and not to allow any prejudice against Henry
+Halifax to arise in her mind should she know nothing of the
+circumstances.
+
+She had known the family from her childhood, and I knew, therefore,
+would not be influenced by the word of an outsider under these
+circumstances. But I discovered that the confession of Henry Halifax,
+the spirit, was no illusion on my part, but _the absolute truth_.
+
+Young, handsome, rich, with all the world before him (he was only
+twenty-four at the time), this lady had been greatly puzzled by his
+intense depression of the last few months, and told me that he was
+constantly speaking of suicide. It was supposed to be a purely physical
+condition by his parents and others. She, however, knew an intimate man
+friend of his. By one of those not uncommon mistakes, whereby each one
+supposes the other to be in the confidence of a mutual acquaintance, she
+had discovered that the real trouble was mental rather than physical,
+and that the death of the young woman of lower social position, in
+child-birth, "_last midsummer_" was an actual fact!
+
+Needless to say how great was her astonishment to find that the whole
+story had been made known to me through such a curious train of
+circumstances--first, my experience of the malignant spirit; secondly,
+my happening to go to Wimbledon next day and mention the circumstances
+to the wife of the florist there; thirdly, _her_ strong and, as it
+proved, quite accurate impressions upon the subject; and fourthly, my
+two interviews:--first, with the betrayer, and then with the betrayed on
+the psychic plane.
+
+Some few months later I was asked by the lady just mentioned if I should
+object to meeting Henry Halifax at dinner next evening.
+
+"Not at all," was my answer. In fact, I felt it might be part of some
+psychic plan that I should do so. Evidently this was not the case, for
+at the last moment a telegram came to his hostess to say he was
+unexpectedly prevented from returning to town.
+
+So we have never met at all! But I trust the confession may have been as
+efficacious as Mrs Levret was told that it would be. Anyway, I can
+testify that the gentleman in question is now happily married, and,
+therefore, presumably no longer haunted by the revengeful spirit, who
+has long since, let us trust, found happiness and peace in a higher
+world than this.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Speaking of haunting by the so-called dead reminds me of haunting by the
+so-called living.
+
+In this same year (1896) I was staying in Cambridge for the first time
+in my life.
+
+Oxford I have known since girlhood, but this was my first visit to the
+Sister University; needless to say, however, that I have met many men
+who have graduated there. Not knowing the town of Cambridge myself, I
+had never made it a subject of discussion, and ten years ago I was not
+even aware that such a street as Trumpington Street existed, difficult
+as it may be for Cambridge people to credit this statement.
+
+In any case, most emphatically, I did _not_ know that a very old friend
+of mine, who became later in life a judge, had ever lived in this
+street.
+
+Having been a sailor in youth, he had gone up to Cambridge comparatively
+late; this was shortly before my acquaintance with him began.
+
+Not knowing Cambridge at all, the question of where he lived there had
+never entered into our conversations together. Probably I took it for
+granted that he was living in his college (Peterhouse). The strong
+feeling of friendship between us had become a warmer sentiment on his
+side, and this led later, and inevitably, to a thorough break in our
+pleasant relations with each other.
+
+Long years passed, during which I neither saw nor heard of my friend.
+
+I knew that he had married, and had had a somewhat successful career as
+a barrister in London, and that was all I knew about him.
+
+After staying for a week or two with friends in the neighbourhood of
+Cambridge in 1896, I had taken rooms for a month _in_ Cambridge,
+inviting one of these friends to stay with me as my guest.
+
+We came upon these special rooms in a curious way. Having worked through
+a list of those suggested to us by a friend, none of which quite suited,
+I heard, by the merest chance, that possibly I might find what I wanted
+in Trumpington Street, at the house of a very respectable Cambridge
+tradesman. We went there, but only to find that the rooms vacant could
+not be ready for me at the time specified, as some old customers were
+coming to them for three or four days.
+
+"But I want them for a _month_," I expostulated.
+
+The landlady was firm; she could not disappoint these people after
+promising to take them in.
+
+In spite of my disappointment, I admired her so much for this strict
+sense of honour that I determined to look at the rooms in case of
+requiring any at a future date.
+
+We went upstairs. The rooms were exactly what I required, and very clean
+and well furnished, so it ended by my agreeing to take them for a week
+later, although at a considerable inconvenience.
+
+It was in this casual way that I entered the house about the middle of
+May 1896. My friend was not able to join me until the morning after my
+arrival, so I spent the first evening alone, and retired to bed rather
+early. I slept well enough during the earlier part of the night, but
+awoke about two A.M., having had a tiresome, worrying dream about the
+very man I have mentioned, who had certainly not been in my thoughts for
+many months, or possibly years.
+
+Even when fully awake, his influence was still in the room with me, and
+falling asleep again, there he was once more in my dream, twitting me
+with my want of appreciation of him in the past, and suggesting what a
+much more successful career I might have had through marrying him. This
+sort of thing went on for the rest of the night. Either I woke up with a
+disagreeable start, still feeling the man's influence in the room, or
+sank into a troubled sleep, to be once more at the mercy of his
+reproaches!
+
+When morning came I was only too thankful to get up, and when my friend
+arrived on her bicycle about noon, and asked me how I had slept in the
+strange house, I was forced to confess that my night had been much
+troubled by dreams about an old friend, of whom she had never heard,
+by-the-by.
+
+"Oh, well, we all dream about old friends sometimes," she said, "but I'm
+afraid in this case your dreams were not pleasant; you look tired out!
+Anyway, it is a mercy that it was not F----'s!"
+
+And so with a joke the matter dropped.
+
+But the following night the trouble was renewed. Even then I did not in
+any way connect it with the room in which I was sleeping, and I said
+nothing next day to my friend on the subject.
+
+But the _third_ night matters had gone beyond a joke. The influence was
+stronger than ever, the gibes and reproaches more accentuated, and, in
+addition to these, there was on my side the exasperation engendered by
+three sleepless nights.
+
+Instead of feeling depressed--as on the two previous occasions--the
+"worm turned" at last!
+
+I spoke out loud in my vexation, as though the man himself were there
+listening to me.
+
+"Well," I said, "I have no unkindly feeling towards _you_ of any kind.
+If you have nothing better to do than to come worrying me and keeping me
+awake in this way, it just shows how wise I was _not_ to marry you! You
+have nothing to do with my life now. And YOU CAN GO."
+
+"Standing up" in this way to the ghost of the living had a most
+excellent effect, upon my mind at anyrate. I felt intensely relieved,
+and soon fell into a long and dreamless sleep.
+
+This last experience first suggested the idea that this old friend _must
+have some special connection with that house_. In the morning I
+confessed to my friend that my second night had been as disturbed as the
+first, and the last the worst of all, adding: "That man is simply
+haunting the place. I am determined to try and find out if he ever
+lodged here."
+
+This was by no means easy, as it turned out. His College career was
+already buried in the snows of some twenty-five years. Moreover, when I
+questioned the young daughter of our landlady as to how long her parents
+had lived in the house, she said at once: "Just seventeen years, ma'am.
+Father and mother came here the year I was born."
+
+This did not help me much. I asked who had rented the house previously.
+Referring this question to her mother, she told me it had been taken
+from some people who had left Cambridge, and "_Mother thought they were
+both dead now_."
+
+This was a second _cul-de-sac_ for me!
+
+But I was determined to go on with my investigations, simply grounded
+upon the strong conviction that such repeated experiences _must_ have
+some foundation in fact.
+
+The girl saw I looked disappointed. "Did you want to know about anyone
+who lived here long ago?" she ventured timidly.
+
+"Yes; I wanted to find out whether an old friend of mine ever lodged
+here; he belonged to Peterhouse," was my answer.
+
+"Ah, then, I am sure he would not have lodged here," said the girl
+confidently. "None of the Peterhouse gentlemen come here. It is always
+the Pembroke men who come to this house."
+
+It seemed fated that I should hear no more about my living ghost.
+
+A few days later, however, the luck turned.
+
+I was told quite casually that Mr Pound, the well-known Cambridge
+chemist, had occupied our house years before, and I determined to verify
+this some day. As Mr Pound combined the post office with his drugs, one
+often went into the shop, but hitherto I had only seen his assistants.
+
+Going in one day with my friend for some stamps, Mr Pound himself handed
+them to me.
+
+Here was my chance! I must confess that I hesitated to ask such an
+apparently absurd question on such slender grounds. In any case, was it
+likely that he would remember the names of all the undergraduates in
+the University who might have lodged with him twenty or thirty years
+before? I whispered to my friend: "Shall I ask him?" but she did not
+hear, so even this small encouragement was denied me. I was actually
+turning to leave the shop, when resolution at length took the reins, and
+I found myself asking:
+
+"Is it true, Mr Pound, that you lived many years ago at No. --
+Trumpington Street?"
+
+"Quite true," was the ready answer. "I went there in the year
+fifty-five." (I quote this from memory, but it was in the fifties
+certainly.)
+
+"I wanted to ask a question about a gentleman who may have lodged with
+you a good deal later than that--about seventy, I should think." And I
+mentioned the name of my friend.
+
+Mr Pound's brow cleared at once, and he looked up with a beaming smile.
+"Mr Forbes," he said--"why, of course, I remember him well. He lodged
+with me over eighteen months." Then turning to his assistant, he told
+him to go into the parlour and bring out the large photograph album.
+There was my friend, sure enough, with his big dog--the very photograph
+I had of him, given me in the early days of our acquaintance.
+
+Mr Pound was full of reminiscences. My friend had evidently been a prime
+favourite with him, and it was some minutes before I could squeeze in my
+crucial question. It seemed almost impossible to expect him to remember
+the exact rooms occupied by Mr Forbes, considering there were two or
+three "sets" of rooms in the house, in addition to several bedrooms
+which were let separately.
+
+But even here Mr Pound's memory proved invaluable. "Which room he slept
+in? Why, of course, I remember distinctly. He had the large front
+sitting-room and the bedroom at the back of it; over our living-room in
+those days."
+
+So I was living in Mr Forbes' sitting-room, and sleeping in the bedroom,
+he had occupied for more than eighteen months.
+
+My Cambridgeshire friend was, fortunately, present as a witness that no
+word of mine had indicated this fact before Mr Pound corroborated my
+intuitive impression. She said afterwards, laughingly, that Mr Myers
+would certainly think I had got up a special ghost story for him the
+moment I set foot in Cambridge.
+
+However this may be, both he and Professor Sidgwick were greatly
+interested in it, for, as they explained, there were fifty accounts of
+haunting by the dead to one such example of haunting by the living.
+
+Of course, such a case presents innumerable difficulties; still the
+salient fact remains, that after a lapse of nearly thirty years I traced
+the rooms occupied by an old friend, in a city I had never before
+entered, and that this knowledge did not come to me by chance, but _as
+the result of a series of investigations, started by me solely on
+account of the experiences that came to me in a house and in a room of
+which I had absolutely no previous knowledge_. Those interested in these
+subjects will naturally ask: "_Do you suppose that the spirit of Mr
+Forbes came to you at the moment of your remarks to him and his to you?
+If so, was he conscious of any such experience?_"
+
+I can answer this last question decidedly, and in the negative; for four
+years later, circumstances brought me once more within the orbit of Mr
+Forbes' life. He was then living in the north of England, and he and his
+wife and I have discussed the question more than once.
+
+We can only suppose that the impression of his presence did in some way
+cling to the surroundings; that my sleeping there, even in complete
+ignorance of his tenancy, enabled me, as a "sensitive," to pick up this
+special influence from many others presumably present; and that the
+memories of the past galvanised the impression into some sort of
+temporary astral existence. The entity to whom I seemed to be speaking
+was doubtless _not_ the Judge Forbes of later life, but some distorted
+image of his earlier days of disappointed and often reproachful
+affection.
+
+When Mr Myers suggested that I should get Mr Pound to sign a paper
+mentioning that he had told me that Mr Forbes had occupied these special
+rooms twenty-seven years previously, the latter did so readily, only
+remarking that he had naturally concluded that I _knew_ my friend had
+lodged with him.
+
+"Pound will 'smell a rat' if I go," said Mr Myers.
+
+So I went myself, and thus the story was made evidentially complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA
+
+
+My second visit to America was paid in the year of the Diamond Jubilee,
+1897.
+
+After wintering in the West Indies, I went on to America in the spring,
+chiefly with the view of meeting Mrs Piper for the first time, and
+securing a few sittings with her if possible.[5]
+
+ [5] The portion of this chapter referring to "Mrs Piper and her
+ Controls" is published by kind permission of Mr Ralph Shirley, editor
+ of _The Occult Review_, in which my article under this heading appeared
+ in March 1906.
+
+I was writing some articles for _Borderland_ at the time, and Mr Stead
+was specially anxious for me to take this opportunity of "sampling" the
+famous American sensitive.
+
+This proved no easy task. My visit to Boston, unfortunately, occurred at
+the very time when an organised attempt was being made by the American
+branch of the Society for Psychical Research to get into some sort of
+evidential communication with the late Mr Stainton Moses through his
+"controls" _Imperator_, _Rector_, etc.
+
+In vain I wrote to Dr Hodgson (to whom I carried letters of
+introduction) telling him of my chief reason for visiting America a
+second time. Even the plea that I had known Mr Stainton Moses in earth
+life, and that we had several intimate friends in common, was of no
+avail.
+
+Dr Hodgson expressed regrets, but assured me that _no_ sittings could be
+allowed under existing circumstances, and that it was impossible to make
+any exception to this rule.
+
+We seemed to have arrived at a _cul-de-sac_, when a bright idea struck
+me.
+
+Why not ask the UNSEEN themselves for a decision in the matter?
+
+I wrote again, therefore, to Dr Hodgson, suggesting this idea, and
+mentioning that I should arrive in Boston on a certain date, and could
+be found at the Hotel Bellevue in that city.
+
+The next day but one after my arrival, and quite early in the morning,
+Dr Hodgson came to call upon me.
+
+It was my first sight of that genial and delightful personality. At the
+very moment of shaking hands, he said cheerily, and with a look of
+half-rueful amusement at his own discomfiture:
+
+"Well, you've got to come! They insist upon it, so there is nothing more
+to be said."
+
+My preconceived ideas of a critical, elderly, and white-haired
+professor, taking himself very seriously, were dissipated on the spot;
+and this was the beginning of a sincere and loyal friendship between us
+which lasted for nine years on this sphere, and will last, I trust and
+believe, through whatever forms of existence may succeed to this one.
+
+We made arrangements at once for my joining Dr Hodgson next morning at
+Arlington Heights, where my first sitting with Mrs Piper took place,
+and where I met for the first time this refined and interesting-looking
+woman.
+
+I was told that with the advent of the Imperator and Stainton Moses'
+controls, the character of Mrs Piper's mediumship had undergone a
+complete change. The former communications through the voice ceased, and
+gave place to automatic writing, except at the moment of return to the
+physical body, when a chance sentence or two might be uttered during the
+transition period, but that these were not always intelligible to the
+listener.
+
+Mrs Piper's arm and hand became curiously "dead" and limp when
+unconsciousness set in; the blood departed, leaving it as white and
+helpless as that of a corpse. By degrees this dead look disappeared. The
+blood flowed once more through the veins, and as I noticed this change,
+the hand moved gropingly towards the pencil held out by Dr Hodgson, and
+finally grasped it. The latter's long practice and infinite patience
+were invaluable in making out the often rather illegible script. The
+hospitality he gave to all attempts at definite communications, however
+vague and shadowy at first; the infinite patience with which he repeated
+again and again a question not fully comprehended--all this, combined
+with intelligent criticism, alert, dispassionate judgment and balance of
+mind, made an investigator of psychic phenomena very rarely to be met in
+a world where most of us evince in a marked degree "_les defauts de nos
+qualites_."
+
+To combine sympathy, patience, and receptivity with cool and critical
+judgment is well-nigh impossible for ordinary men and women.
+
+Dr Richard Hodgson certainly solved the problem to a very remarkable
+extent.
+
+The first thing that struck me in the two sittings I had with Mrs Piper,
+was the hopeless breakdown of the Thought Transference Theory, as
+accounting for the automatic writing.
+
+The ostensible reason for my presence at Arlington Heights was the idea
+entertained by the "controls" that, having known Mr Stainton Moses in
+earth life, I might be able to facilitate his communications. I hope
+this may have been the case, but if so, it was certainly not due to any
+power of Thought Transference I may have possessed.
+
+Again and again I asked for names of friends we had known in common, but
+nearly always in vain. Even when, in despair of getting these normally,
+I concentrated my mind consciously on some short and easy name, the
+latter was not given.
+
+Yet next day some of these names would appear spontaneously on the
+script, when my mind was entirely occupied by other subjects.
+
+References were made to Mr Moses' lack of appreciation for music, and he
+asked whether our mutual friend Mrs Stratton still played LISZT. He also
+referred to his visiting the Strattons, and finding them playing duets
+together, in London.
+
+On my return to town Mrs Stratton fully endorsed the fact that Mr Moses
+disliked music (this was unknown to me), but she denied emphatically
+that she and her husband ever played duets in his presence. Mr Stratton,
+however, corrected this impression, and reminded her of several
+occasions when Mr Moses had come to them from University College, found
+them at the piano, and being on very intimate terms, had begged they
+would finish the passage or movement; and on one or two occasions this
+had been done.
+
+These slight but evidential incidents, forgotten by Mrs Stratton
+herself, and unknown to me, were conveyed quite correctly in the
+automatic script through Mrs Piper--three thousand miles across the
+Atlantic--and nearly six years after the death of Mr Stainton Moses.
+
+The most convincing test upon these occasions, however, was the
+reference to a Mrs Lane--the lady to whom Mr Moses had been engaged when
+he passed away.
+
+Very few of his friends knew of this engagement, even in England. Dr
+Hodgson, who had never met Stainton Moses in earth life, had naturally
+not heard of it. It was only by chance that I knew anything of the
+matter, and this merely through once meeting the lady at Mrs Stratton's
+house some time after Mr Moses had died. On that occasion Mrs Lane had a
+young daughter with her; I knew nothing of any other members of the
+family.
+
+During my second visit to Mrs Piper I mentioned meeting this
+lady--already a dim memory with me--and the "control" at once asked if I
+had met a _sister_ also.
+
+I answered "No," remarking that a young daughter had been with her.
+
+The writing at once continued in these words:
+
+"Well, now I am giving you this as a test: she _has_ a sister, and one
+who has been the cause of the deepest sorrow of her life. You will find
+this is true when you go back to England."
+
+These words were amply justified.
+
+On applying to Mrs Stratton for information, she denied the possibility
+of there being any truth in the test. She said: "I have come to know Mrs
+Lane very intimately since you met her here. I don't believe she has any
+sister; anyway, I am _quite_ sure she would have told me if a sister had
+caused her such sorrow as you mention."
+
+I persevered, however, in getting at the truth of the matter by writing
+to Mrs Lane herself (an almost entire stranger), and asking if she cared
+to hear the references to herself in the Piper records; if so, would she
+come and lunch with me?
+
+She came, and when I reached the passage about the sister, expecting
+that she would endorse Mrs Stratton's denial, I noticed, to my great
+surprise, that her eyes filled suddenly with tears, and that she was
+literally unable to speak through emotion.
+
+The tears ran down her cheeks, when at length she said in a broken
+voice: "_That_ is the most convincing test he could have given me! No! I
+have never mentioned that sister, even to Mrs Stratton, kind and good as
+she has been" (by this time I had spoken of Mrs Stratton's denial of the
+sister's existence). "I could not speak of her to _anyone_. She was the
+cause of the greatest sorrow in my life; _but no one upon earth knew
+this except Mr Stainton Moses_. I was engaged to him at the time, and he
+was the natural person to turn to in my deep tribulation. No one else
+ever heard of the circumstances."
+
+At this second sitting of mine Mr Stainton Moses spoke also of a
+valuable watch he had possessed, and expressed some regret that it had
+not been given to Mrs Lane at the time of his death.
+
+I knew nothing at all about any watch of his, but on appealing to one of
+his executors, an old friend of mine, found there was such a watch,
+which had been a presentation one, and was of considerable value. Upon
+the death of Mr Moses it had been given (quite with the approval of Mrs
+Lane) to the son of a very old and esteemed friend.
+
+This executor also told me, as a curious coincidence, that when I was
+staying with the excitable sensitive in Sussex Gardens, mentioned in a
+previous chapter, and he and his wife had come to tea with me one
+afternoon (to be introduced to this remarkable lady), she had given him
+a similar message about the same watch, purporting to come from Stainton
+Moses.
+
+I remember perfectly well having asked Mr and Mrs Harrington to come to
+tea with me one afternoon to meet my eccentric landlady, and I also
+remember his having a long talk with her whilst his wife and I were
+immersed in our own conversation. But I heard no details of this talk.
+He had merely said how much interested he had been in meeting Mrs
+Peters, and that she evidently had some mediumistic power.
+
+It was certainly curious that the watch should have been mentioned,
+first in Sussex Gardens, London, and six years later in Arlington
+Heights, Boston, and that on each occasion the same wish with regard to
+it should have been expressed!
+
+During this Arlington Heights sitting (the second one), Mr Moses also
+referred to an MS., of which I knew nothing at the time. This allusion
+also was verified by his other executor, the late Mr Alaric Watts, upon
+my return to England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During this visit to America I also came across a Mr Knapton Thompson, a
+hard-headed Yorkshire man, who had invented a new kind of smokeless
+combustion stove, which must have been a good one, for our shrewd
+American cousins were employing him to put up these stoves in several
+public buildings, including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
+
+Mr Thompson combined psychic proclivities with his smokeless invention,
+and had become greatly interested in the New York medium, Mrs Stoddart
+Gray, who has been already mentioned in connection with my own
+investigations, twelve years previous to my present visit. He had
+written to tell Mr Stead of his experiences, which included several in
+which the Julia of "Julia's Letters" had purported to be present.
+
+Mr Stead had turned this gentleman over to me by giving me an
+introduction, accompanied by the request that "I should see the man and
+report what I thought about him and his wonderful experiences."
+
+So I asked Mr Thompson to call upon me, and arranged to be present with
+him next day (Saturday) at Mrs Stoddart Gray's circle.
+
+I found that he had taken up his abode with the medium and her son
+during his short stays in New York, with the openly expressed intention
+of finding out if there were any trickery behind the scenes. He had,
+however, convinced himself of her _bona fides_, and was deeply
+interested in the interviews he was able to obtain by means of these
+mediums, with a daughter he had lost some years previously. He was much
+pleased to find that I knew Mrs Gray already and could also testify to
+some very remarkable phenomena occurring to me at her house.
+
+So I met him there next afternoon, with every expectation of a good
+sitting. These hopes, however, were entirely destroyed owing to the
+presence of a noisy, vulgar man, whom they called the "Whisky King." He
+made the most inane remarks, cracked stupid jokes, antagonised every
+respectable person in the room, I should suppose; and as all this took
+place without a word of protest from the lady of the house, one can only
+conclude that she considered it worth her while to endure his
+vulgarities.
+
+Certainly the afternoon was spoilt for the rest of us, and I remarked
+upon this to a very pleasant, smart-looking young American lady when the
+sitting was over and we had retired to the reception-room to find wraps
+and galoshes, etc.
+
+"Oh yes; wasn't he just exasperating?" she said, with ready sympathy.
+
+She looked much too young and smart and good-looking for the ordinary
+type of "investigator," and I could not refrain from asking how she had
+come into this _galere_.
+
+She explained her position readily, and it was very interesting to me.
+
+She was a young married lady, and had first been brought to the house,
+six months before, by a cousin of hers who was staying with them in New
+York, and thought the experience might be amusing.
+
+"We just came in for a joke," she said; "but something happened which
+interested me so much that I have come again several times, and until
+to-day have always had an interesting time."
+
+Then she told me about her first sitting.
+
+I had noticed upon her ungloved hand a very beautiful _scarabaeus_, set
+in fine gold, and evidently by an artist in the craft. "Yes, it is a
+Tiffany setting," she observed, seeing my eyes drawn to it. She took off
+the ring, and gave it into my hands.
+
+"That ring is really the cause of my being here to-day," she continued.
+"The scarabaeus was given to me some years ago by Professor----" (she
+gave the name of a well-known American Egyptologist). "He made a great
+pet of me when I was a child, and I begged it from him. When I was going
+to be married last year he insisted upon having it set for me by Tiffany
+as a wedding present, and he then told me there was no doubt at all
+about its being a genuine _antique_. He had come across it many years
+before by a curious chance when travelling in Egypt, and had been
+assured that it was a genuine _Cleopatra_ relic. 'I can't answer for
+that,' he said, laughing, 'but it is certainly many centuries old. I
+have no doubt it is genuine so far as age goes.' Well, the night my
+cousin and I came here together I did not take off my gloves until
+_after_ we had gone in to the _seance_ room, so no one could have seen
+my ring--and you know Mrs Gray's sittings always begin in the dark? I
+took my gloves off when I found we had to sit in a circle holding hands,
+and one of the first materialisations was announced to be that of
+Cleopatra." (_I_ had seen "Cleopatra" more than once in 1886, in the
+same house--E. K. B.) "She rushed across the room in the complete
+darkness, seized my right hand, amongst all the hands in a circle of
+twenty people or more, almost tore this special ring from my finger, and
+said in a tone of indescribable grief and longing: '_Mine! Mine!_ Ah,
+_Chem!_ CHEM!'"
+
+This was sufficiently startling, even apart from the mention of _Chem_,
+as the ancient name for Egypt, in a _milieu_ of this kind!
+
+The ring was faithfully restored later in the evening; and the young
+lady who owned it had been sufficiently impressed by the circumstances
+to confide them to her kind professor, and also to pay more than one
+visit to Mrs Stoddart Gray since the episode had occurred, which was
+just six months before our meeting there.
+
+During this second visit to America I made the acquaintance, and, I
+trust I may say, gained the friendship, of Miss Lilian Whiting, so well
+known by many thousands of grateful readers. We saw a great deal of each
+other in Boston, and during one of my long chats with her in her pretty
+sitting-room at the Brunswick Hotel, she told me of the visit of Lady
+Henry Somerset and Miss Frances Willard to that city, some years before
+our conversation. Miss Whiting also mentioned a friend who had
+accompanied these two ladies, and who had been taken ill, and had died
+very suddenly in the hospital at Boston.
+
+"I never met the lady," said Miss Whiting, "but Miss Willard and Lady
+Henry told me they had been obliged to leave their friend behind owing
+to an attack of influenza, and asked me to call upon her someday. I went
+a day or two later, carrying some fruit and newspapers with me. The
+matron, whom I knew well, said her patient was doing splendidly, and was
+likely to be leaving in a few days, but that as I was a stranger, it
+would perhaps be better for me not to come in and see her that
+afternoon. So I left my little gifts, and was shocked next day to hear
+of her sudden and quite unexpected death. By-the-by, I believe she was
+Stead's 'Julia'--I am not sure about this, but somebody told me so
+lately."
+
+Miss Whiting then mentioned the lady's name, which I withhold, as Mr
+Stead still makes use of it as a test when strangers profess to be in
+communication with "Julia."
+
+The day following the _seance_ just described as taking place in New
+York, Mr Knapton Thompson called at my hotel to ask me to accompany him
+to Mrs Stoddart Gray, as he had arranged to have a short "_writing
+seance_" that afternoon.
+
+The son was the agent as usual. On this occasion he had an alphabet
+mounted on card, and pointed to the letters in turn, whilst his mother
+wrote them down as indicated. Thinking I would verify Miss Whiting's
+story if possible, my first question was:
+
+"Can Stead's Julia give me her surname?"
+
+"Julia O." was spelt out, and then the O was given again.
+
+"They often do that," said Mrs Gray casually--"begin the name over
+again, I mean."
+
+So it passed at that. The rest of the letters corroborated the surname
+mentioned by Miss Whiting.
+
+Then I asked: "In what country did you pass away--Europe or America, or
+elsewhere?"
+
+"_America_" was spelt out at once.
+
+"In what city?"
+
+"_Boston._"
+
+"Was it in a private house, a hospital, a hotel, or _where_ did you
+die?"
+
+"In a hospital" was again spelt out.
+
+"How long ago?"
+
+"_Five years_" was the answer.
+
+I may note here that Miss Whiting had _not_ mentioned the number of
+years, only having said "A few years ago" when speaking of the event.
+_Five years_ proved to be true. My last question was:
+
+"What was your age when you passed over?"
+
+"_Twenty-three_" was the answer.
+
+This last, I felt sure, must be wrong. Miss Whiting had not mentioned
+any age, but it seemed to me unlikely that so young a woman should have
+been travelling round the country with two temperance lecturers.
+
+When these answers were being given, Mrs Gray's son, the medium, asked
+if he might put one hand on my wrist to come into magnetic conditions
+with me.
+
+I agreed to this, but said I should turn my eyes away from the alphabet,
+lest my muscles should give him any unconscious indications.
+
+When I sent these answers to Mr Stead on returning to England, I wrote
+down Julia O. (ignoring the repetition of the O); and in connection with
+the other answers, told him, of course, of my previous conversation
+with Miss Whiting, which reduced the whole episode to one of possible
+Thought Transference.
+
+In answering me he said: "I am glad Julia was able to give her name,
+even if it were Thought Transference; but, as a matter of fact, it is
+not her whole name which you received--she always signed her letters to
+me '_Julia O. O...._'" This makes rather a good bit of evidence, seeing
+that the second O _had_ been given, but discarded by Mrs Gray and myself
+as a repetition of the first letter of the _surname!_
+
+To resume my experiences with Mr Knapton Thompson.
+
+In the evening of this writing incident Mrs Gray had another public
+_seance_, at which I was again present, Mr Thompson sitting on one side
+of me.
+
+After some "materialisations," for other members of the circle had
+appeared, Mrs Gray announced that Stead's "Julia" was present in the
+cabinet, and wished to speak to me.
+
+I went up at once, and the form came out and stood in very fair light
+from the gas-burners. She seized my hands with every appearance of
+delight and eagerness, and her grasp was strong and tense. It is my
+peculiarity always to notice hands very accurately. They always seem to
+me to indicate character very closely; and apart from this, I am
+attracted by people who have well-shaped hands (not necessarily _small_
+ones), and find it very difficult to ignore clumsy or ugly fingers,
+which, unfortunately, never escape my notice.
+
+Now the medium's hands were broad, short, and flabby, as I had had
+plenty of opportunities of noting in the afternoon when he held my
+wrist. The hands which grasped mine now were, on the contrary, well
+made, small, and rather narrow, the true type of the American female
+hand.
+
+Mr Thompson had come up also to greet "Julia," and I whispered to him:
+
+"Do ask Julia if there was not a mistake about her age this afternoon."
+
+"No; you ask the question yourself, Miss Bates," he answered.
+
+So I said rather eagerly: "Julia, do tell us, please, if there was not a
+mistake this afternoon in your age--the answer was twenty-three. Is that
+correct?"
+
+A very emphatic shake of the head signifying "No" was the reply to this
+last question, but no sounds proceeded from the lips.
+
+Disappointed by this, I asked; "Can you not speak to us?"
+
+She made a little gesture of rather helpless dissent; and Mrs Gray, who
+stood by, explained that probably all her strength had gone to building
+up the materialised body sufficiently to make it visible to us. Julia
+bowed her head in assent to this, and then, still speechless, retired
+once more behind the curtains.
+
+I did not mention this appearance of Julia when writing to Mr Stead on
+my return--I was so anxiously hoping that she might have tried to
+impress the fact of having appeared to me, upon his consciousness, as a
+test; but he said nothing about it in his first letters. So I let the
+matter alone for a time, determining to tell him some day, but much
+disappointed by the usual failure in getting corroborative evidence.
+
+A week later, however, at the end of a long letter on other subjects, I
+put this short P. S. in a casual way to him:
+
+"Did Julia ever tell you that she had appeared to me in New York?"
+
+In answering my letter he replied--also in a P. S.:
+
+"By-the-by, to answer your last query--yes. Julia told me weeks ago that
+she had appeared to you in New York, _but that she could not give you
+her age on that occasion, because she was not accustomed to speaking
+through the embodiment_."
+
+Now in sending the list of questions and answers to Mr Stead I had
+merely marked against the answer as to her age, "_twenty-three_," that
+doubtless it was an error, _but I had never hinted to him that I had
+asked her to correct the error in New York, or that she had been unable
+to speak on that occasion_.
+
+This again was a good bit of independent evidence.
+
+I will now give a description of Mr Knapton Thompson's interview with
+his daughter, on the same evening that Julia appeared to me. I have
+already said that the magnet which drew Mr Thompson to these _seances_
+was the opportunity given to him of meeting and talking to a daughter
+who had passed away some years previously.
+
+On this special evening the daughter materialised as usual, and came out
+from the cabinet. As Mr Thompson was sitting next to me at the time, I
+could distinctly hear Mrs Gray whisper to him:
+
+"Would you not like to take your daughter into the other room, Mr
+Thompson? It is rather crowded here to-night. You would be quieter in
+there."
+
+Mr Thompson got up at once, and greeted the materialised form, and they
+disappeared through the folding doors to the reception-room. Other
+matters of interest were occurring, and I had quite forgotten the
+absence of Mr Thompson in the dimly lighted room (in those days the
+light was always dim _at first_), until I found he was again occupying
+the seat next to my own. I had not noticed his return, and asked him at
+once 'what he had done with his daughter.' A good half hour must have
+elapsed between his disappearance and return. He said, quite simply and
+as a matter of course: "Oh, she did not care to come back into this
+crowded room. We had half-an-hour's chat, and then she de-materialised
+in the other room, and I returned alone."
+
+I can only repeat that Mr Knapton Thompson was a shrewd, practical
+Yorkshireman, and a very successful man of business, as was proved by
+the orders he received in America for the stoves he had invented.
+
+He was certainly under the impression that he could be trusted to
+recognise his own daughter when allowed the privilege of half-an-hour's
+conversation with her, _tete-a-tete_ in a private room.
+
+I cannot end this chapter without saying something about Keely of
+Philadelphia and his intuitional genius.
+
+I had hoped to have the opportunity of meeting this wonderful man during
+my last stay in Philadelphia, U.S.A. (March 1897), but was disappointed
+in this expectation. Therefore, on the outer plane, my connection with
+Keely never went beyond a single interview with his wife; but this is a
+record of personal intuitions as well as of personal events, and I know
+no one with regard to whom my intuitions--absolutely lacking in any
+physical ground of proof, or even mental ground of comprehension--have
+been stronger or more obstinate.
+
+At the time of my first visit to America, so far back as 1885, I had not
+the faintest conception of Keely's work, or what he claimed to have
+discovered or to be on the track of discovering. I never heard his name
+mentioned without being told at the same time that he was either a silly
+madman or a conscious impostor, and as I came with an entirely
+unprejudiced mind (for I had never heard of Keely before landing in
+America), it would have been natural to accept this universal opinion.
+
+Yet something stronger than reason was always silently contradicting
+these assertions, when made in my presence. Friends and acquaintances
+alike in those days laughed at Keely's claims, and denounced his boasted
+discovery as pure imposture.
+
+"'Tisn't! 'Tisn't! 'Tisn't!" that persistent little voice kept
+whispering in my ear all the time, like a naughty, obstinate child who
+contradicts from sheer ignorance--or was it a spiritual intuition? Time
+alone can answer that question; anyway, I kept my ideas to myself, for
+they had no foundation in fact at the time of which I speak.
+
+In 1897 the position for me was altered. A sensible and dependable
+friend of mine--a well-known banker in Philadelphia--described to me his
+experiences and those of other prominent citizens during a demonstration
+of Mr Keely's powers; and the old insistent voice that spoke to my
+ignorance before, spoke now to some glimmering understanding of the
+claim put forth. This claim--even then jeered at by the world at
+large--had to wait shivering in the cold another nine years, before Mr
+Frederic Soddy clothed it in respectable scientific garb by speaking
+publicly of the possibilities in the future connected with atomic
+disintegration and consequent liberation of energy.
+
+But the yelping curs of Calumny that pursued Keely during his lifetime
+are still upon the dead man's tracks.
+
+"_His_ methods were fraud and imposture, anyway"; "His wires were tubes
+containing compressed air," and so forth. The M.F.H. of this pack of
+hounds was the son of a lady whose name will always be honourably
+mentioned with that of Keely as one of his most generous supporters.
+
+The initial misfortune in the whole matter was the forming and starting
+of the Keely Motor Company to utilise the discovery, which should first
+have been placed under the protection of Science.
+
+Ignorant and impatient shareholders thought only of their own material
+advantages and dividends. They were Keely's first enemies, with their
+sensational and premature advertisements of results and "_200
+horse-power engines ready to patent, etc._," whilst the poor man was
+still struggling with his tremendous problem--_i.e. to control_ the
+force that he had discovered.
+
+He attempted this first by confining it, but it blew everything to
+atoms, and his own fingers off into the bargain!
+
+Occultists--including Madame Blavatsky--always declared this latent
+atomic energy was a _fact_, but that Keely would never be allowed to
+demonstrate it, for the world was not yet prepared for such a tremendous
+dynamic force to be let loose upon it, and that the most serious abuses
+and disasters would follow, if once he succeeded in bringing his
+discovery into practical working order.
+
+They said it would be one of two things: either Keely's experiments in
+this direction would continue to fail in the crucial point necessary,
+_or_ that if he succeeded it would be his own death warrant, lest any
+mischief should accrue from his making his methods public.
+
+In view of these pronouncements, the succeeding events in Keely's career
+are interesting.
+
+_The Times_ (U.S.A.) of 6th March 1898 contained the following
+announcement, under Keely's own signature:--
+
+
+After twenty-five years' labour I have solved the problem of harnessing
+the ether (which elsewhere he says is only the _medium_ of the force he
+discovered) and adapting it to commercial uses. I have finished
+experimenting.--My work is now completed.
+                                      (Signed)    JOHN W. KEELY.
+
+_On 18th November of this same year he died._
+
+Within two months, his generous friend and patron, Mrs Blomfield Moore,
+followed him to another sphere. Keely's final discovery of the means of
+"harnessing the ether," as he calls it, was through holding it _in
+rotation_ instead of in confinement.
+
+I am allowed to quote an extract from a private letter with regard to
+this statement.
+
+"This instrument ruptures the luminous envelopes of the hydrogen
+corpuscles, liberating the mysterious substance, which is put into such
+high rotation that it forms its own wall of confinement at 420,000
+revolutions per second, as calculated. Independent of this rotation in
+the tube, where it is projected, it could be no more held in suspension
+than a ray of sunshine could be held in a darkened room."
+
+I have been given to understand that a faithful account of everything
+that has occurred in connection with Keely's discovery has been
+compiled, and will be published "_when the time comes for the truth to
+be made known_."
+
+It is, of course, possible that this disclosure may be anticipated by
+the arrival of another "crank and impostor" of the Keely type. Let us
+trust he may arise from _within_ and not from without, scientific
+circles, and thus avoid his martyrdom!
+
+Meanwhile it may be interesting to quote from a published letter of
+Lascelles-Scott, the Government physicist from Forest Gate, who visited
+Keely's workshop in the interests of Science, and who was allowed to cut
+and bring away with him pieces of the wire Keely was using. (Said to be
+_tubes_ by the wiseacres!)
+
+The following is the essential portion of Mr Lascelles-Scott's letter. I
+only omit courteous expressions of gratitude to the editor and "to the
+institutions and individuals alike" of the "beautiful city of
+Philadelphia" where he was able to carry out his investigations.
+
+            Letter from Mr Lascelles-Scott to the Editor
+               of _The Public Ledger_, Philadelphia.
+
+The only corrections of sufficient importance, to the general sense of
+my observations at the Franklin Institute last Wednesday night, to call
+for notice in your otherwise admirable report, are the following:--
+
+Although my observations were only put forward as "preliminary,"
+inasmuch as I have not yet _completed_ the outlined programme I had in
+view, no words actually used by me justified the expression that "_I had
+formed no very definite opinions_."
+
+On the contrary, I stated more than once the very _definite opinion that
+Mr Keely has demonstrated to me, in a way which is absolutely
+unquestionable, the existence of a force hitherto unknown_. (The italics
+are mine.--E. K. B.)
+
+The conditions under which the experiments were carried out (as I
+distinctly stated) _were such as to preclude the possibility of the
+results obtained being due to any ordinary source of power, evident or
+concealed_.
+
+Moreover, I satisfied myself that the rotation of the "vibrodyne" was
+neither due to, nor accompanied by, any traces of electricity or
+magnetism. So far my opinion is and was expressed as being of the most
+definite kind possible.
+
+... I stated, and the statement was greeted by the audience with great
+and prolonged applause, that, after a little adjustment of the
+"Sympathetic Transmitter," it was found that by the sounding of one of
+the small English tuning forks I had brought with me from the other side
+of the Atlantic, upon the said "Transmitter," I could myself start the
+vibrodyne, and cause it to revolve rapidly, without Mr Keely's
+intervention, and I exhibited to the meeting, the fork actually used by
+me.--Thanking you in anticipation, etc., I am, sir, yours obediently,
+                                                     W. LASCELLES-SCOTT.
+
+
+One would have supposed that this testimony, in addition to that of
+other scientists and practical electricians, would have sufficed to
+disintegrate Atomic Stupidity and Calumny, and liberate the forces of
+Humility and Sane Investigation.
+
+But prejudiced Ignorance dies hard!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To end my chapter on a pleasanter note than this, I will quote from a
+private letter which I have been privileged to read, the beautiful words
+in which Keely describes his own achievements.
+
+
+_I have no power that is not communicated to me in the same way that
+this machine receives its power: through celestial radiation from the
+Soul of Matter, the Mind force of the Creator, whose instrument I am. I
+know who is leading me and making all things work together for good._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A HAUNTED CASTLE IN IRELAND
+
+
+In the year 1898 I was spending a few days in Castle Rush, which has
+been described by Mr W. T. Stead as the most haunted castle in Ireland.
+It is one of the few old Irish castles still inhabited, and is naturally
+haunted by the ghosts of the past in every meaning of the word.
+
+At the time of my stay I was recovering from a severe illness, and, in
+fact, was sent off to bed immediately upon arrival by my kind hostess,
+who, with true hospitality, thought more of her guest's comfort than the
+conventionalities of life, and would not hear of my lingering, even to
+make acquaintance with my host, on the dark autumnal evening of my
+arrival.
+
+This had taken place after driving many miles and waiting for a dreary
+long time in the little inn of a small Irish township. My doctor would
+not hear of any railway travelling just then, so the whole forty miles
+from my last stopping-place had to be negotiated between the carriages
+of my past and present hospitable hosts.
+
+As a matter of fact, I believe I slept in one of the haunted rooms, but
+it looked cheerful enough when I entered from the gloom and darkness
+outside; and a dainty little dinner sent up by my kind friends below,
+and eaten when snugly tucked in between the sheets and resting on soft
+downy pillows, was enough to drive all thoughts of ghostly visitors from
+my head.
+
+I am thankful to say that I neither heard nor saw anything during my
+short visit, and should not even have known that my room had had any
+evil reputation but for the visit of an eccentric and clever old lady,
+who had been specially asked to the castle to meet me.
+
+After luncheon we adjourned to my bedroom, at her suggestion, and she
+said casually:
+
+"Ah, you have this room, I see. It was terribly haunted once, but I held
+a sort of little service here some time ago, and cleared them all out."
+
+I must explain that this good lady took a very optimistic view of her
+own capacities and powers in general, and spoke--from the psychic point
+of view--with the honest pride that a flesh and blood charwoman might
+display on going over premises that she had thoroughly scrubbed and
+"cleaned out"!
+
+One morning after breakfast, my hostess, Mrs Kent, called to me to come
+quickly and see a curious sight. It was a pouring wet day--one of those
+days when the heavens open and the rain descends in buckets! I could see
+nothing more remarkable than the damp, autumnal leaves, the bare trees
+swaying in the wind-washed spaces, and the pouring, ceaseless rain.
+
+"Don't you see that girl over there?"
+
+I looked again, and did see a girl just emerging from a clump of
+beeches, and carrying a small trunk upon her head.
+
+"What an extraordinary day to choose for travelling," I said drily.
+
+"Ah, that is Irish superstition!" rejoined my hostess. "That is my last
+kitchen-maid you see--she is walking seven miles, with that trunk on
+her head, sooner than wait a few hours, when I could have sent her to
+the station."
+
+"Is she mad?" was my natural comment.
+
+"Oh no! only desperately frightened. She has not been here a week yet,
+and she is much too terrified to be coherent. All I can make out is that
+nothing on earth would induce her to spend another night at Rush. I
+could have sent her over to Marley easily to-morrow morning at eight
+o'clock, but she would not hear of it. And whether she has really seen
+anything, or only been frightened by the stories of the other servants,
+I don't know. Anyway, she has certainly the courage of her opinions, and
+is prepared to suffer for them! I would rather meet half-a-dozen ghosts
+than carry that trunk on my head seven miles in this pouring rain." Then
+turning round carelessly, she remarked: "I suppose _you_ have not seen
+or heard anything, Miss Bates, since you came? I hope not, for I am sure
+you are not strong enough for mundane visitors yet, let alone the other
+kind."
+
+We were passing through the handsome circular hall at the time, and I
+said eagerly: "Oh no! Thank goodness, I've seen and heard nothing. I
+don't think I should be allowed to see anything whilst I am so weak and
+poorly."
+
+Almost at the moment of saying these words something impelled me to
+place my hand upon a particular spot in the great stone wall by my side.
+"But there is something _here_ I don't like," I said, tapping
+it--"something uncanny--but I don't know what it is."
+
+Mrs Kent made no remark; and I thought no more of the circumstance until
+the following year, when I was told by Mr Stead that Mrs Kent was over
+in England, and had been lunching with him and asking for me.
+
+"She was giving me a most graphic account of the way you 'spotted' those
+skeletons at Rush Castle," he said.
+
+I was completely puzzled by this remark. I had never spotted a single
+skeleton to my knowledge, either at Rush or elsewhere, and I told him
+so; but he persisted in saying that Mrs Kent had told him a very
+different story, and that most certainly she had mentioned me as the
+percipient.
+
+"She must have mixed me up with somebody else," was my final comment.
+"No doubt many people have queer experiences there, and she might
+naturally make such a mistake."
+
+"Well, I gave her your address, and she is writing to ask you to have
+tea with her at the club, so you and she can fight it out there," he
+said; and the conversation drifted into other channels.
+
+Next afternoon I met Mrs Kent at her club, and before leaving,
+fortunately remembered the curious mistake about the skeletons I had
+"spotted."
+
+"But you _did_ 'spot' them," she said, laughing. "Don't you remember my
+asking you if you had noticed anything curious, or heard or seen
+anything, during your visit? At first you said 'Thank goodness, no!' But
+immediately afterwards you put your hand on a particular part of the
+circular hall, and said: 'There is something uncanny just
+here--something I don't like.'"
+
+"Yes; I remember all that. But what of it? You never told me anything
+about skeletons."
+
+"Of course not--you were not in a condition of health to discuss such
+eerie questions just then. All the same, you had located the exact spot
+where only a week before your visit, my husband's agent told him that
+two skeletons had been found bricked up!"
+
+She then explained that the agent had been on the estate for many years,
+even before the death of the late owner of Rush--her father-in-law.
+Having some business with her husband the week before my arrival, this
+agent had casually mentioned that he and the former owner had found
+these skeletons in the very spot indicated by me, about forty years
+previously, and, strange to relate, had bricked them up again instead of
+burying them. This last fact may account in part at least for the spooky
+reputation of Castle Rush.
+
+All good psychics know that nothing disturbs a spirit so much as any
+informality about his funeral arrangements!
+
+To return to my visit to Castle Rush.
+
+Some years previously I had met, on an Orient steamer sailing from
+Ceylon to Naples, a brother of the owner of Rush. He was a sailor, and
+as hard-headed and practical a man as it has ever been my lot to meet.
+It was in no way through meeting him that my visit to Rush came about,
+but owing to my acquaintance with Mrs Kent and _her_ family.
+
+I had been greatly taken by the genial common-sense of this Captain
+Kent, and was much grieved to hear of his death when I stayed with his
+sister-in-law. It had occurred shortly before my visit, and under sad
+circumstances.
+
+On the surface he was certainly more lacking in sentiment than anyone I
+ever met, but must have been capable of very deep affection. When I met
+him he had only been married for a few months. His wife died within two
+years of their marriage, and going for a short holiday to Castle Rush
+soon afterwards, he said to his sister-in-law:
+
+"_I shall not live a year after her, I know!_" He was the last kind of
+man to make such a speech, as both Mrs Kent and I observed when she
+mentioned it to me.
+
+"But he was quite right, all the same," she added. "_He died just three
+days within the year from the time of his wife's death._" Yet he was an
+exceptionally strong, sturdy, and wiry man at the time of his great
+sorrow.
+
+From Castle Rush I was going to the south of Ireland to visit relations
+at Cork.
+
+On the morning of my departure I was down in the drawing-room, rather
+wondering _why_ I had been brought to this old Irish castle. No special
+object seemed to have been achieved by my visit. I did not even know
+then that I had discovered two skeletons! In those days I found so often
+some train of circumstances--a borrowed book, a stranger coming across
+my path, some unexpected visit paid, which were later found to have been
+factors in a special experience--that I was rather surprised to realise
+that I was leaving the "most haunted castle in Ireland" and that nothing
+had happened.
+
+But in the very moment of saying this to myself a curiously insistent
+impression came to me quite suddenly, and "out of the blue."
+
+The impression was that the brother of my host, Captain Kent, was
+wishing very urgently to communicate something through me. I did not
+feel equal to taking any message at the time--I have already explained
+that I was only just recovering from a severe illness. Lunch and a long
+drive to the station and a weary railway journey lay before me, so I
+determined to do nothing until I was safely established with my cousins
+near Cork.
+
+After a long, cold, and wet journey I arrived in pouring rain, my train
+being more than a hour late. The kind General who came to meet me was
+still patiently standing on the platform, but one of the two "cars" he
+had engaged for me and my baggage had taken itself off! As the rain was
+descending in water-spouts, I need scarcely say it was the "covered car"
+which had driven away!
+
+This meant a thorough wetting for my cousin and me. How all the luggage
+(including a large bicycle, and two people, in addition to the driver)
+was ever piled up on that small "outside Irish car" I have never been
+able to understand. Suffice it to say the miracle was performed, and we
+drove up a hill at an angle of about forty-five degrees into the
+bargain!
+
+Clearly these were not ideal conditions for receiving automatic
+messages!
+
+I was put to bed at once with hot bottles and hot soup, and soon forgot
+my past troubles in a long refreshing sleep.
+
+I was still in the invalid stage of "breakfast in bed," and when this
+had been cleared away, the remembrance of Captain Kent flashed into my
+mind, and I found pencil and papers at once, in order to redeem my
+promise.
+
+The message was rather a curious one, and its opening sentence evidently
+referred to the eccentric old lady whom I have mentioned as being asked
+to meet me at luncheon at Castle Rush.
+
+So far as I can remember them, the words (very characteristic of Captain
+Kent's genial but rather brusque style) ran as follows:--
+
+After speaking of the alleged hauntings at Castle Rush as having only
+too much foundation in fact, he went on: "It's all rubbish, that old
+woman saying she had cleared them all away! Nothing of the kind. There
+are plenty of malicious spirits about still, _and now that an heir is
+coming to Rush they are keener than ever to try and work some mischief_.
+No use saying anything to Tom (his brother). He will only laugh, and say
+it is all skittles. But tell my little sister-in-law to
+PRAY--PRAY--PRAY. That is all they need and all she needs either."
+
+Now this was not exactly the message one cared to send to a rather
+recent acquaintance. To begin with, the reference to Mrs Kent's valued
+friend in the opening sentence was scarcely polite! Then again, the
+prophecy of an heir to Rush was one that I regretted should have been
+made, as it would probably only lead to disappointment. Mrs Kent's first
+child had been a little son, from whose loss she had never recovered.
+When I was staying at the castle, two nice little girls, old enough to
+come down to early dinner, at our luncheon hour, comprised the family.
+Another child was certainly expected to arrive about Christmas-time (my
+visit was paid in September), but Mrs Kent herself was fully convinced
+that this would be _another girl_, as she said rather sadly. It seemed a
+pity to disturb her mind by raising false hopes.
+
+But, as usual, I felt bound to send the message, with the customary
+explanations and apologies.
+
+Mrs Kent was greatly interested by it and by the "PRAY--PRAY--PRAY,"
+which, as she explained to me, had a very special meaning for her. It
+had only struck me as an exceedingly _unlikely_ message for the Captain
+Kent I had known, to send to anyone.
+
+I am glad to be able to record that the Christmas gift did arrive in the
+shape of a baby boy, "_heir to Rush_," who is still alive and
+flourishing, thank God! I hear that he calls himself "the master," with
+a true Irish brogue, and lords it over his elder sisters in the regular
+chieftain style!
+
+To this year belongs another strong impression of psychic atmosphere,
+left in a room which I occupied in the south of England.
+
+It was a most comfortable room, with nothing in the least ghostly about
+it. Merely I had an unpleasant feeling that controversies and
+discussions had taken place in the room, and that a want of harmony hung
+about it in consequence.
+
+On mentioning this rather tentatively to the master of the house--a very
+orthodox clergyman--I was told: "Oh dear, no! Nothing of the kind--you
+are certainly mistaken!"
+
+But when an opportunity arose I changed my room, and felt very much more
+comfortable in consequence of doing so.
+
+Several times I had noticed on the hall table, letters which had come by
+post addressed to another clergyman, whose name I had not heard, and
+who was certainly not staying in the house. Remarking upon this casually
+to a nice young governess one day, she said at once that the gentleman
+in question had spent several months with Mr and Mrs Dale in the
+Vicarage, but that he had died a few weeks before my arrival. "He slept
+in the room you had when you first came, by-the-by. I was so glad when
+you changed your room."
+
+"He was a clergyman, I see," was my next remark; and I looked at the
+envelope which had led to this explanation.
+
+"Yes; he was in orders, but he had become a complete agnostic for some
+years. During the last few weeks of his life--when he had to keep his
+bed--Mr Dale was always going up there, and having long arguments and
+discussions with him; but I don't suppose it did much good: it only
+worried him very much. He was too ill to listen to long arguments then,
+and wanted just kind, soothing words, I should have thought."
+
+As the girl retreated to the school-room I naturally pondered over this
+fresh testimony to the truth of psychic atmosphere. No sensitive can
+question the _fact_, but at present we know little or nothing of the
+laws which condition the fact.
+
+My friend Mr W. T. Stead kindly allows me to mention another incident
+connected with personal experiences of mine in the year 1898.
+
+In the opening month of that year he lost a much-valued friend, who had
+worked for him loyally, both in his office and also with regard to some
+of his philanthropic schemes.
+
+This lady in a fit of delirium, incident upon a severe attack of
+illness, threw herself out of a window in her flat. A fortnight before
+this sad occurrence, she had seen another resident in the same set of
+flats throw herself out of the window, and Mr Stead has always feared
+that this acted as a suggestion upon her mind in delirium, and led her
+to do the same thing. Her own account of the cause of her action differs
+somewhat from this impression, as will be seen later.
+
+Mr Stead was naturally greatly affected by Mrs Morris' sudden death and
+the circumstances attending it, and having some of her hair cut off
+after her death, he sent portions of it to at least twelve well-known
+clairvoyants, hoping to receive some satisfactory solution of the
+mystery, and also, possibly, a sign decided upon between him and this
+lady. They were both interested in psychic matters, and had agreed to
+believe in no communications from the other side purporting to come from
+one or other of them, unless this preliminary sign were given.
+
+Mrs Besant--an intimate friend of Mr Stead--was one of the oracles
+consulted, and was very confident of being able to find out all details,
+including the mystic sign.
+
+But both she and Mr Leadbeater were as absolutely unsuccessful as less
+gifted mortals proved to be.
+
+In spite of exceptional opportunities for coming in touch with the most
+noted psychics, in spite of the valuable clue given by hair cut after
+death, the test seemed quite hopeless, since twelve of the best
+clairvoyants had been consulted, and all had failed in turn.
+
+A few weeks after hearing about this from Mr Stead, I was invited by an
+old friend in London to meet at her house, at luncheon, Miss Rowan
+Vincent, a non-professional sensitive, well known to many of my readers.
+
+I had never seen this lady before, and had little speech with her during
+the meal.
+
+She was talking very earnestly to a military man--the son-in-law of our
+hostess--whilst the latter and I were having an interesting conversation
+to ourselves.
+
+General Maxwell, having a train to catch, did not accompany us to the
+drawing-room.
+
+On arrival there Miss Rowan Vincent said to me very kindly: "Can I do
+anything for _you_ now, Miss Bates? Shall I try if I can see anything
+for you?"
+
+Something induced me, quite against my will, to say: "Do you ever get
+messages by writing, Miss Vincent?"
+
+"No; I have never done so, but I can try," she answered rather eagerly.
+
+How I bewailed my stupidity in making such a suggestion! I had diverted
+her mind from her own special gift, which was that of seeing a person's
+psychic surroundings, and had switched her on to an entirely novel and
+untried experiment. I had not even the excuse of being specially
+interested in automatic writing, which was so easily obtained at home;
+whereas I was greatly interested in seeing whether any of my "other
+side" friends could make themselves perceptible through this sensitive.
+
+However, the mischief was done past remedy. The suggestion had taken
+firm root in Miss Rowan Vincent's mind, and she was not to be diverted
+from it. So I resigned myself patiently to the results of my own
+foolish remark, whilst she took pencil and paper and sat down
+expectantly.
+
+Soon she looked up, the writing having already begun.
+
+"Do you know any William? There seems to be some message from a William,
+as far as I can make out."
+
+Having had a favourite cousin of that name, I told her it might be quite
+correct, and I should be glad to receive any message that came.
+
+A few moments passed, and then Miss Vincent said, in a puzzled tone:
+
+"It is not _from_ William--the message is _to_ some William--I cannot
+understand it at all." She pushed the paper rather impatiently towards
+me. Written upon it clearly but faintly were these words:
+
+DEAR WILLIAM,--I want to explain to you how I came to fall out of that
+window--it was not my fault really--someone came up behind and pushed me
+out.                                                      ETHEL.
+
+The signature was rather indistinct, but quite unmistakable to _me_; but
+then I knew the Christian name of Mr Stead's friend, and realised at
+once that she was taking this opportunity of sending a message to him.
+
+I asked Miss Vincent what name was written at the bottom of the paper.
+"It looks like Ethel," she said, "but it is not very clear. I will ask
+the spirit to write it again." A very bold and unmistakable signature
+was at once given.
+
+I concealed my excitement, and said quietly to Miss Vincent:
+
+"I think I know from whom the message comes and for whom it is intended,
+but to make quite sure it would be very satisfactory if the spirit could
+give through you a sign agreed upon by the sender and the recipient and
+unknown to everyone else."
+
+"Well, I will try," said Miss Vincent at once. She had scarcely touched
+the pencil when it began describing a circle. "There is no doubt about
+my having to make a circle," she said, laughing. "Oh, now I am to put a
+cross into it," she added.
+
+Within a few seconds both these were given, and to _our_ great
+delight--as well as to his--the sign was recognised by Mr Stead as being
+the one agreed upon, and which had hopelessly puzzled all the other
+mediums.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+1900-1901
+
+
+I must now note a curious episode connected with my friend Judge Forbes,
+whose astral influence I had traced clinging to the rooms he once
+occupied in Cambridge.
+
+As before mentioned, he had married, and I had lost sight of him and his
+whole family for many years. But we had several mutual friends, through
+whom I had heard of the birth of his only son and only child, and later
+of the boy being sent to Eton, and eventually entering the army.
+
+This was very shortly before the breaking out of the South African War,
+and the young fellow was one of many who were drafted from India, after
+a few months' service there, to help to defend their Queen's possessions
+and their countrymen's lives and property in South Africa.
+
+Later, young Forbes was shut up in Ladysmith, and one cold, dismal day
+in January (6th January 1900) I was lying very ill in bed with a severe
+bronchial attack in the house of my eldest brother in Hampshire, when
+the latter came home one evening from the Winchester Club and told us of
+the celebrated _sortie_ and the death of three young English officers.
+The name of Forbes of the Royal Rifles figured amongst these, and I
+felt convinced that it must be the only child of my old friend.
+
+Without hesitation I prepared to write a few short lines of sympathy
+with the heart-broken father. In vain my sister-in-law protested against
+my concluding at once that it must be the judge's son, since other
+members of the family of the same name were known to be in the army. I
+had not a moment's doubt that this was the boy already mentioned, and
+even a silence of over twenty years seemed to present no difficulty in
+expressing one's deep sympathy, in the face of such a sorrow.
+
+The real drawback lay in my weak state of health and physical inability
+to write more than a few lines. But in these I expressed a hope that _in
+time_ my poor friend might come to realise that his boy was "as much
+alive and as near to him as ever--perhaps nearer."
+
+It will indicate how entirely all relations between us had been broken
+off for many years, when I say that I did not even know the judge's
+private address, and was forced to send my letter to his court. In a day
+or two I received a very touching and grateful answer, pathetic not only
+in its grief, but even more in his frankly avowed inability to derive
+any consolation from the thoughts that my short note had suggested.
+Resignation to the inscrutable will of God was the keynote of the
+letter. In some far-distant future he might be permitted once more to
+see his beloved son, but meanwhile all was gloom and misery.
+
+The episode was over. I had expressed my sincere sympathy with an
+overwhelming sorrow, I had received a most kind and appreciative
+answer--no more could be done in the matter.
+
+This was _my_ conclusion, but evidently not the conclusion of young
+Talbot Forbes. I had never seen this boy in my life, nor his mother; but
+I suppose my old friendship with his father, and my deep sympathy with
+the latter, enabled the son to approach me soon after he had passed into
+the next sphere.
+
+Anyway, he made me conscious of his presence by my bedside during the
+greater part of the night following my receipt of his father's letter.
+
+Owing to my severe illness I was sleeping very little, and once or twice
+in the night an attendant came in to make up my fire and keep the
+temperature of the room even, so that I had ample opportunity for
+realising the presence of my hitherto unknown visitor.
+
+Those who know what "hearing with the inner ear" means will realise the
+method through which the following conversation took place, so far as I
+can now recall it:--
+
+_TALBOT._--"_Yes, it is Talbot Forbes. I want to speak to you. Please
+listen to me! I want to tell you, you must do more for them than
+this--you have to help them about me._"
+
+E. K. B.--"Who do you mean by '_them_'?"
+
+_TALBOT._--"_My parents, of course. Don't you understand what I am
+saying? You have to do more for them--you must make them know I am close
+to them._"
+
+Now I could only suppose that he wished me to write again to his father,
+and explain more fully my own ideas on the subject of our departed
+friends. As this would have involved a wearisome and almost certainly
+_useless_ discussion on a topic which I had reason to know was very
+distasteful to the boy's father, I said rather shortly, and I am afraid
+with some of the petulance of an invalid:
+
+"Oh, do be quiet, and leave me alone! I have done all I can, and there
+is no more to be said about it. I am very sorry for you, but I really
+can't help you in this. I don't know your mother or what her views about
+it may be; and as for your father--well, I am not going to worry and
+torment him about ideas that he dislikes and disapproves of, and just
+now, too, when he is so miserable! No, I won't do it, not even if you
+come and worry me about it every night."
+
+I was feeling ill and weary, and longing for sleep, and hoped this would
+be a quietus to my young friend. Not a bit of it! His next remark was:
+
+"_What does it matter what_ YOU _think or what you mean to do or not to
+do? You have to help them, not to think about your own feelings._"
+
+This was frank at anyrate, but not altogether convincing. Soon
+afterwards, tired out with the discussion, I really did fall asleep, and
+only woke a short time before my breakfast and daily budget of letters
+arrived. Amongst these letters was one in an unknown handwriting, which
+proved to be from _Mrs_ Forbes, saying she had seen my letter to her
+husband, and begging that I would tell her the grounds I had for my
+assurance that those we love are close to us after the great change we
+call death.
+
+Evidently the boy knew that this letter was coming to me, and was trying
+to prepare me to answer it in such a way as should help him to convince
+his mother of his continued existence in her immediate presence.
+
+As this case is one well known to the Society for Psychical Research
+(the lady I have called Mrs Forbes appearing on their records both as
+Mrs Scott and under the pseudonym I have borrowed from them), it is
+unnecessary to go into further details. Suffice it to say that my
+nocturnal visitor was successful in his aim.
+
+I answered his mother's letter as he wished. This led to a long
+correspondence between us, and to my making her acquaintance shortly
+afterwards and renewing my old friendship with her husband.
+
+Mrs Forbes had several sittings with Mrs Thompson and other mediums,
+became convinced of her son's presence with her, and very soon was
+independent of outside assistance in communicating with him. The judge
+also declared himself "unable to resist the evidence," but I don't think
+he ever quite honestly _rejoiced_ in his convictions. It is hard to
+eradicate prejudices and traditions after fifty years of age, and the
+_human_ element in his son's bright and happy messages always seemed to
+worry and perplex him a little.
+
+He knows all about it now! Much as I deplore the earthly disappearance
+of such an old and faithful friend of my youth, I can sincerely rejoice
+in thinking of him as once more united with his son, in ways that will
+no longer appear to him unnatural or undesirable.
+
+During the judge's lifetime, and after the son's death, I often stayed
+with him and his wife in their northern home. Mrs Forbes used frequently
+to say: "It was _Talbot_ who brought us all three together, we must
+remember!"
+
+
+PEKIN STORY
+
+It was during my first visit to Judge and Mrs Forbes, in the north of
+England, that another curious experience came to me.
+
+This happened on the 4th of July 1900, for I remember saying to Mrs
+Forbes next morning: "I shall remember the date from its being American
+Independence Day."
+
+It was the year of the Boxer rebellion in China, when the Pekin Embassy
+was in a state of siege, and by July almost all hope that any Europeans
+would be saved from their dire peril had faded away.
+
+The Memorial Service, arranged by a too eager dignitary of the Church to
+take place in St Paul's, had certainly been adjourned at the last
+moment; but as days and weeks passed, and the little garrison was still
+unrelieved, very little hope was entertained. In fact, by July most
+people hoped and believed that their troubles must be already over,
+through the merciful interposition of death.
+
+A connection of mine, whom I had known well when she was a child, but
+had not seen for many years, was shut up with her husband, children, and
+sister in the Pekin Embassy at the time. Thousands were lamenting her
+sad fate, and I naturally amongst them; but I wish to make clear that,
+owing to the years that had elapsed since I had seen this special member
+of the family, it was not in any sense a very personal sorrow, nor was I
+then--nor am I now--aware of any special tie of affinity between this
+lady and myself.
+
+I had gone to bed about eleven o'clock on the night of 4th July 1900,
+and had been in bed about half-an-hour, without any attempt at going to
+sleep, when suddenly I felt extremely alert in mind, very much as Miss
+Porter described herself in the Captain Carbury episode. Almost
+immediately upon this feeling of mental alertness came the conviction
+that Mabel M'Leod (as I will call her) was in the room, close to me, and
+that she was in some dire and urgent need of help--instantaneous help, I
+mean. I could neither see nor hear on this occasion--I only _knew_ these
+facts through some power of intuition, all the more remarkable because,
+having made up my mind that all was over at the Embassy, I had not been
+thinking of her or of her fellow-sufferers for some days past.
+
+My thoughts were fully engaged at the time with the grief of my host and
+hostess.
+
+With the knowledge of Mabel's presence came also the conviction that she
+was _still alive_--in the physical body--and that it was no excarnate
+spirit that was appealing to me for help.
+
+The impression was so vivid that I called out instinctively: "What is
+it, Mabel? What can I do for you?" There was no response, either by
+outward or inner voice, only the insistent appeal for help, and
+knowledge of some imminent danger at hand for her. I am trying to
+explain that something more than the usual hourly peril in which they
+must be living, _if on this side the veil_, was implied by the
+impression I received. _It was some acute and additional danger which
+threatened her at the moment._ Feeling it was useless to waste time
+trying to find out by writing or other means what the exact nature of
+this danger might be, I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible,
+saying: "Never mind trying to make me understand--I will pray for you,
+whatever it is!" So I knelt down, and prayed most earnestly that this
+poor woman, whose spirit had appealed for help at some dread crisis,
+might be comforted, and delivered from any dangers threatening her at
+the time.
+
+I had been very comfortably tucked up in bed, looking forward to the
+pleasant drowsiness which promises sleep, and I am quite sure I should
+not have put myself to all this inconvenience without a very strong
+motive.
+
+When I felt the poor, tormented spirit was calmed and soothed by the
+atmosphere of prayer, I returned to my bed, and eventually fell asleep.
+
+Next morning I told Mrs Forbes of my experience, making the remark
+quoted about the date.
+
+The following week she and I were together at one of the meetings of the
+Society for Psychical Research, at the close of which, in shaking hands
+with Mr Frederic Myers, I begged him to make a note of my experience and
+the date.
+
+"Ah, Miss Bates!" he said, taking out a small note-book, "I will make a
+note of it, but I fear there is not the remotest chance of any of them
+having been alive ten days ago."
+
+"Then my experience goes for nothing," I answered. "It was a living
+woman, not an excarnate one, who came to my bedside on the 4th July."
+
+Later, when the Embassy was relieved, and this lady (who had presented
+such a "stiff upper lip" to Fortune) was once more safe at home for a
+much-needed rest, I found that she had gone through a special time of
+accentuated suffering just when I felt her presence in my room. Her
+husband was down with dysentery, and she had not enough food either for
+him or for her poor little children, and the strain was almost too
+great, even for that brave soul.
+
+Of course, she had been quite unconscious of any appeal to me.
+
+But she has Scottish as well as Irish blood in her veins, and this
+heredity may have enabled her subconscious self to sense my locality and
+to realise my power and will to help her in her desperate need.
+
+Truly it was a case of "vain is the help of man," or woman either! But
+we know too little of spiritual laws to be able to deny off-hand the
+efficacy of _any_ earnest prayer.
+
+I saw Mr Myers make a note of the circumstance, but, unfortunately, this
+cannot be found amongst his papers. I asked Mrs Myers about it, and she
+remembered distinctly her husband having mentioned the case to her when
+he returned home after that meeting, but when I last saw her, she had
+hunted amongst his papers in vain for the note which he made at the
+time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in January 1901, the day after Lord Robert's triumphant procession
+through London, I went to spend some weeks at an "open-air cure" in
+Devonshire, high up in the hills, and in a bleak part of the county.
+Several severe illnesses had left me so supersensitive to colds and
+draughts that it seemed a vital necessity to take some such drastic
+step, even at this inclement time of the year, unless I were prepared to
+sink into a state of chronic invalidism, and become a burden to myself
+and my neighbours for the rest of my natural life.
+
+An old friend was "second in command" in this special establishment,
+which she had asked me to recommend, and a bright thought struck me that
+I might do my friend a good turn, and myself also, by spending a few
+weeks in the house.
+
+I did not bargain, however, for the deep snow which fell on the very day
+after my arrival, nor for the howling west winds, which continued to
+blow during the whole of my stay.
+
+In these parts, the west wind corresponds with our eastern variety, and
+is quite as cold and disagreeable.
+
+Nor were the surroundings inside of a very cheerful nature. All the
+other patients (six or seven) were quite young girls, and all more or
+less consumptive. Several of them were very attractive, which made it
+seem all the more sad. Without exception, all were, or had been, engaged
+to be married, as the coping-stone to this tragedy of their lives! In
+several cases the engagements had been broken off, sometimes by mutual
+consent, on the score of health. In a few exceptions, where love had
+proved stronger than prudence and common-sense, it was equally
+melancholy to realise that the future could hold nothing but
+disappointment on the one side, and a hopeless regret on the other.
+
+Under these circumstances it was perhaps only to be expected that my
+first impressions of the establishment should not be entirely _couleur
+de rose_. Yet the house itself was pleasant enough, and the view from
+the drawing-room windows was simply magnificent, including sea as well
+as moor.
+
+Curtainless windows, with sashes thrown wide open, and chilly linoleum
+to replace warm carpets, were rather a trial to the uninitiated, early
+in January, with deep snow on the ground and fires none too plentiful.
+In addition to these drawbacks I had another personal one. Coming in the
+middle of the winter, it was naturally Hobson's choice as regarded the
+bedrooms. All the best and warmest aspects had been appropriated in the
+autumn, and an ugly little room, with cold, west outlook and depressing,
+mustard-coloured distempered walls, fell to my lot.
+
+Yet even these facts did not sufficiently account for the extremely
+depressing effect of that room upon me.
+
+"Has anyone died here lately?" was my first and natural query in a house
+of this kind.
+
+I had heard the girls casually mention two gentlemen patients who had
+been in the house the previous year--one of these had gone into rooms in
+a neighbouring town with his nurse. I did not hear what had become of
+the other one, and had not sufficient curiosity to ask the question.
+
+My friend reassured me by saying she was sure no one had died recently
+in _my_ room. She had only lately come to the house herself, as I knew;
+having been matron for some years of a small hospital in the country.
+
+"The second poor gentleman, who was a patient here, did die in the
+house, I believe, but that was months ago," she said, "and I understand
+that he had Laura Pearce's room," mentioning one of the girls, who had a
+specially cheerful apartment. It seemed quite natural that a sick man,
+confined to his bed, should occupy a large and sunny room, so I thought
+no more of the matter. Still, I was always conscious of an unpleasant
+and sad atmosphere in my own room, and took occasion one day to ask the
+lady at the head of the establishment whether she knew anything of the
+predecessors in the house.
+
+It struck me that the psychic atmosphere in my room might be connected
+with some of _them_.
+
+Miss Hunter replied laughingly: "I can't tell you anything about them,
+for the very good reason that they don't exist. _I_ am the first tenant
+of this house. It was only built two years ago, and remained vacant for
+the first twelve months."
+
+Then I told her very cautiously of my feeling about my room, and that I
+had supposed it might have to do with someone who had slept there before
+she took the house.
+
+Two or three of the young girls were in the room at the time, and it
+struck me that one of them--the one who was there for her second
+winter--looked a little surprised and interested; but the matron passed
+off the subject with a few bantering words, and again I had no suspicion
+of the truth.
+
+Six weeks passed, and my last night in the house had arrived. My nurse
+friend was in the habit of giving me massage twice a day, before getting
+up in the morning and the last thing at night. She left me on this
+occasion about ten-thirty P.M., expressing a hope that I should soon
+sleep, and have a good night before my long journey next day.
+
+"Not much doubt of that," I murmured. "Why, I'm half asleep already!"
+And I turned round, tired and yet soothed by the massage, and soon fell
+into a deep and dreamless sleep.
+
+Several hours must have passed, when I woke up, trembling and
+terror-struck, after passing through an experience which seems as vivid
+to me to-day as on that February night or early morning. My heart was
+beating, my limbs trembling, beads of perspiration covered my face, as I
+discovered later.
+
+No wonder! I had been through an experience from which few, I imagine,
+return to tell the tale. For I had passed through every detail of dying,
+and dying a very hard and difficult death.
+
+Body and soul were being literally _torn apart_, in spite of the
+desperate effort to cling together, and my spirit seemed to be launched
+into unknown depths of darkness and possible horror. It was the feeling
+that _I did not know where I was going nor what awaited me_ that seemed
+so terrible--this and the horrible fight for mastery between my poor
+body and soul and some unknown force that was inexorably set upon
+dividing them.
+
+This, so far as I can express it, exactly describes the experience I had
+just gone through, and from which I had awakened in such abject terror.
+
+As the beating of my heart subsided, and I could think more calmly, I
+remembered with startling distinctness that in the very worst of the
+struggle I had been vainly endeavouring to say that text in the
+twenty-third Psalm which begins:
+
+"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
+evil; for Thou art with me: _Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me._" I
+could say the first part of it quite easily, but some fiendish enemy
+seemed bent upon preventing my saying the last sentence, and in my
+terrible dream, rescue and safety depended upon my getting to the end of
+the text. I tried again and again, always to be driven back in despair
+before the crucial words were uttered. At last, with a desperate effort,
+I seemed to shake off the incubus which was weighing me down, and I
+finished the words triumphantly, and so loud that I had positively
+wakened myself up _by shouting them out_. With returning memory I knew
+this had happened, and hearing a door open and shut on the half landing
+below my room, I thought for the moment that someone must have heard me,
+and must be coming to see what was the matter. I looked at my
+watch--just two-thirty A.M. No one appeared; and to my relief I
+remembered that this was just the hour when either Miss Hunter or my
+friend went round to the invalids, giving them milk or bovril, in the
+night.
+
+I had no inclination to seek out either of these ladies. The horror was
+past, and no one could undo what I had endured; so I lay quiet, and in
+course of time managed to go to sleep again, not waking until the
+servant came into my room to light the fire at seven-thirty A.M.
+
+It happened to be a certain _Minnie_ on this occasion, a very
+respectable young woman, who had accompanied Miss Hunter when she gave
+up the matronship of a well-known hospital, and who had therefore been
+with her since this establishment had been started.
+
+My night's experience convinced me so absolutely that, in spite of all
+that had been said, the gentleman patient _had_ died in this room, and
+that I had just gone through his death agonies, that instead of asking
+any question about it, I said very quietly to Minnie, as she was on her
+knees lighting my fire: "The poor gentleman who died here last summer
+_died in this room, I find_."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," she said quietly, not knowing, as it turned out, that any
+mystery had been made about the fact.
+
+My personal friend was guiltless of any deceit, for she had been told
+the story about Laura Pearce's room, but the young girls confessed when
+I went down to breakfast that they had been specially warned not to let
+me know the true facts.
+
+Miss Hunter did not appear at breakfast, as she was suffering from a
+chill, so I went to her bedroom to say good-bye before going up to
+London.
+
+Feeling naturally annoyed and rather shaken by my night's experience, I
+said to her rather drily:
+
+"You need not have taken the trouble to deceive me about my room, Miss
+Hunter, nor to warn the girls to do the same. I know that gentleman died
+there, for I have just gone through his experiences." And then I told
+her about my terrible night.
+
+Although forced to admit the facts, Miss Hunter fought every inch of the
+ground, so far as the _painful_ experiences were concerned.
+
+"Such an excellent man! so interested in everything--a _clergyman_, my
+dear Miss Bates, and so _good!_ How could there be anything painful
+connected with his death?" etc. etc.
+
+I suggested that, as Christians, we had the most overwhelming proof that
+holiness of life does not always preclude even mental suffering at
+death; but she would not hear of this argument, and doubtless considered
+it blasphemous.
+
+By dint of questioning, however, I made two discoveries--first, that
+the death was quite unexpected. The man had only been a fortnight in the
+house, and when I expressed surprise that he should have been moved
+there so late in a fatal illness, she said unguardedly:
+
+"_Oh, but he was very slightly ill when he came--it was more a
+preventive measure. None of us had any idea that he was a dying man, the
+symptoms developed so suddenly._"
+
+I also elicited another fact--_i.e._ that this delightfully interesting
+personality "so intellectual--so full of interest in everything" (to
+quote Miss Hunter's words), had died at the age of forty, in the very
+prime of life. No wonder, under the circumstances of so short an
+illness, in the very zenith of life and enjoyment, that body and soul
+should have been loath to separate, and thus free the imprisoned spirit!
+But Miss Hunter was adamant, and would admit nothing.
+
+Just before leaving her, it struck me that I had not yet told her about
+the text, so I repeated that episode, and then, for the first time, a
+startled look came into her eyes. She was taken by surprise, and said
+hastily: "That _is_ extraordinary! I was with him when he died in the
+night, and he kept on asking for that text. That is not so remarkable,
+many might have asked for that text, but I stopped once or twice after
+the first sentence, and he kept on urging me: "_Say it to the end, Miss
+Hunter! Say it to the end!_"
+
+Later the good lady even consented to write out the evidential points in
+this story, which I sent at once to my friend Dr Richard Hodgson.
+
+Immediately upon my return to London on this occasion, I was attacked
+quite suddenly by a very acute form of rheumatism, which laid me on my
+back--perfectly helpless--for several days.
+
+When the doctor arrived, his first question was: "Have you had any
+special shock lately? This particular form of rheumatism does not
+generally come on with so little warning _unless there has been a
+previous shock_."
+
+I was about to deny this, thinking he referred to unexpected news, but
+with the memory of my Devonshire experience so keen and clear, I felt
+bound to tell him that I had certainly had a shock to my nerves
+twenty-four hours previously.
+
+Soon after this sudden and sharp attack of illness I found myself in
+Portugal for the first time in my life.
+
+I had gone there with an English friend--Mrs Frampton--in order to be
+near connections who had lived in the country for many years.
+
+A cousin and I spent a delightful afternoon in that Cintra paradise of
+_Monserrat_, with General and Mrs Sartorius, who were living there at
+the time of my visit to Portugal. I have heard that even this charming
+house could tell strange tales if only walls could speak. It is easy to
+imagine that any spirits--carnate or discarnate--might deem it a
+privilege to haunt so exquisite a spot. Personally, I can only testify
+to the hospitality of our kind host and hostess and the excellence of
+the spirit of "Robur," which refreshed our weary bodies, and made the
+walk back to the Cintra Hotel, through the lovely woodland paths, a
+"thing of beauty and a joy for ever."
+
+To return to Lisbon. My friend Mrs Frampton had never been present at
+any sort of psychic phenomena, so we planned a little sitting for her
+during one of these Lisbon evenings.
+
+She and I descended in solemn state to the fine library of our host, on
+the ground floor, whilst his wife and sister elected to remain in the
+drawing-room upstairs. A sister-in-law also begged to be excused from
+accompanying us, and spent the whole time occupied by our _seance_, in
+playing Moody and Sankey hymns, doubtless hoping thereby to exorcise the
+evil spirits whom we should presumably evoke.
+
+Unfortunately, she did not play loud enough to divert the attention of
+the Portuguese cook, who promptly gave warning next day, saying she
+could not stand these "devilish practices"! We had failed to realise
+that the very wall, close to which our small table was placed, divided
+the kitchen from the large ground-floor library, so the poor woman
+doubtless sat with her ear well jammed up against this partition, and
+considered every rap of the table leg on the floor, a distinct footstep
+of the devil!
+
+Nothing more terrible happened to _us_ that evening than being forced to
+look up our English history once more, in "Hume" and "Green's Short
+History of the English People," both of which volumes were close at
+hand. For the whole _seance_ might have been an "easy lesson in English
+history," with John, Duke of Northumberland, Lady Jane Grey, the Earl of
+Leicester, and the famous Elizabeth as its exponents. All these
+purported to be with us that evening, and I am bound to say that all
+dates and details mentioned, which our middle-aged memories could not
+verify at the moment, were in every case corroborated by reference to
+the library books later.
+
+It was just before leaving England for Portugal that I first met a lady
+(with whom I have since become more intimate), under rather exceptional
+circumstances--these latter were unknown to me at the time.
+
+My brother, Colonel C. E. Bates, was living at this time (1901) in rooms
+in Cambridge Terrace, and the drawing-room floor was occupied by a Miss
+Isabel Smith, who was then only a name to us both. His landlady had
+given him to understand that this lady had connections in India, and was
+the niece of a General Propert, still on the active list, and an old
+friend of my brother's in Indian days.
+
+The last Sunday before starting for Lisbon I called in as usual to spend
+the afternoon in Cambridge Terrace, and found that the "drawing-room
+lady" had just been paying him a visit, and had left him most
+enthusiastic.
+
+This visit surprised me, because my brother, being a very great invalid,
+had an inveterate dislike to meeting strangers, with whom he generally
+found it difficult to carry on any lengthy conversation. But this
+visitor had evidently been an exception. My brother expressed some
+regret that I should have missed seeing her, so to please him I
+suggested sending his valet upstairs with his compliments, and asking if
+I might pay the lady a short visit, should she be disengaged.
+
+She came downstairs kindly, a second time, and we had a pleasant chat,
+whilst my brother and an old Indian brother officer carried on their
+conversation.
+
+I left England a few days later, and scarcely expected to see or hear
+any more of Miss Isabel Smith. Fate, however, ordained otherwise. Some
+weeks elapsed, and then I received a letter from my brother, mentioning
+the curious circumstances that, he had just heard, had led to his making
+the acquaintance of this pleasant neighbour. "It is too long a story to
+write," he concluded, "but I will tell you all about it next time we
+meet."
+
+He did so, and as his account exactly tallies with the one Miss Isabel
+Smith (now Mrs Finch) has kindly written out for me for insertion in
+this volume, I will quote the latter from her own words. I must premise
+that Miss Smith turned out to be naturally clairvoyant and
+clair-audient, rather to the disgust of my brother, who considered
+himself superior to these "superstitions." Her narrative is interesting
+not only in itself, but because it is an object lesson in the curious
+"hits and misses" in psychic investigation. In this case a spirit
+confessed to an impersonation; but it was an impersonation of the
+brother of a man whom my brother had really known in India--a fact
+entirely apart from any possible knowledge on the part of Miss Smith,
+who had never met my brother at the time of her adventure. I will now
+give Miss Smith's narrative.
+
+
+"When at Grindelwald in the winter 1900-1901 an excarnate entity came
+and spoke to me. He seemed much interested in the South African
+campaign; told me he had been a soldier, first in the Rifle Brigade,
+then in the Indian army. When I asked his name he said he was Henry
+Arthur Chomley (the name of a celebrated ambassador was the one given),
+that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, and had been in the
+Rifle Brigade and in India, _and had passed over two or three years
+before_.
+
+When, shortly afterwards, I returned to Cambridge Terrace, he realised
+the changed surroundings, and asked where I was. On learning I was in
+rooms he asked whether there was anyone else in the house, and on my
+telling him there was a paralysed military man downstairs named Bates,
+he exclaimed 'What! Charlie Bates? I knew him very well in India--do ask
+him if he remembers me!'
+
+I said I did not know the gentleman, but would certainly ask him if an
+opportunity should occur.
+
+A few days after this, a message was brought up to me from Colonel
+Bates, asking for my uncle, General Propert's, address in Burmah. This
+gave me the opening. I wrote giving the required information, and
+suggested that I might come and have a talk with him.
+
+In my next conversation with 'Colonel Chomley' I told him all this, and
+he again said: '_Mind you ask him about me!_' I answered: '_How can I,
+when I don't know what Colonel Bates' ideas are on these subjects? He
+might look on me as a dangerous lunatic!_'
+
+Colonel Chomley remarked: '_I think you will find that he is interested
+in psychic matters._'
+
+I discovered that this was true, for on my first visit I saw a copy of
+the S.P.R. Proceedings lying on the table.
+
+I found him interested, but unable to get beyond the 'subliminal
+consciousness' theory.
+
+A few days later I asked Colonel Bates if he had ever met a Colonel
+Henry Arthur Chomley in India. He thought for a moment, then said:
+
+'Chomley? Why, of course I knew a Chomley, but I don't know his
+Christian name. He was Brigade Major at Meean Meer, and I took over the
+brigade from him, and bought his horses, etc. Where did _you_ know him?'
+
+I then told him of the spirit who had given me the name of Henry Arthur
+Chomley, who said he had known him in India, and had over and over again
+begged to be remembered to him.
+
+The day following this conversation Colonel Bates sent me up his Army
+List, open, and marked at the name of Colonel _Walter_ Chomley, and a
+note explaining that it was not Henry Arthur, but _Walter Chomley_ whom
+he had known at Meean Meer.
+
+I then asked 'Henry Arthur' if his name was Walter or Henry Arthur.
+
+He said: '_Henry Arthur. Surely I ought to know my own name!_'
+
+Colonel Bates told the story to you the next time you (_i.e._ E. K.
+Bates) came to see him, and I remember we discussed it together when we
+met again.
+
+Shortly afterwards you wrote to tell me that you had looked up a
+_Debrett_ for 1895, and had there found _Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley, a
+brother of Sir Frederic Chomley, of the Rifle Brigade, etc._, so that
+Henry Arthur Chomley was evidently alive in that year, and _had_ been in
+the Rifle Brigade.
+
+I was much pleased to get this corroborative evidence, though the
+mistake in initials must have been Colonel Bates' error, and apologised
+to Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in the Unseen.
+
+A few weeks later, however, you wrote again, and told me that you had
+been staying with a friend, who drove you over to call upon Colonel and
+Mrs Henry Arthur Chomley, that he was a brother of Sir Frederic Chomley,
+and was certainly _alive_, although not _at home_, at the time of your
+visit!
+
+This information startled me, and my guide, at my request, went to look
+up the _soi-disant_ Colonel to find out what it all meant.
+
+The latter then confessed to having taken a friend's name, said a sudden
+impulse came over him when I first asked his name, and having told one
+lie, he felt bound to go on deceiving me, but that he had known both
+Colonel Bates and Colonel Henry Arthur Chomley in India, and that his
+own real name was Anstruther!"
+
+
+This was Miss Smith's narrative.
+
+Now out of this curious jumble of true and false, two points remain
+clear:
+
+My brother _had_ known a Chomley in India, and had succeeded him as
+Brigade Major at Meean Meer. This Chomley _was_ a brother of Sir
+Frederic Chomley, the well-known diplomatist, but his name was Walter,
+not Henry Arthur. Yet Sir Frederic _had_ a brother named Henry Arthur,
+and the impersonating Anstruther had borrowed the wrong brother's name
+when trying to pose as the friend of Colonel Charles Bates. To make
+confusion worse confounded, _Walter Chomley_ was alive, as well as
+_Henry Arthur_, at the time of Miss Mabel Smith's experiences, for I
+have seen his death within the last eight months!
+
+The second point is that, personally, my brother and I had reason to be
+grateful to the deceiving Anstruther. He was certainly the means of
+introducing a pleasant acquaintance to my brother and to me.
+
+Miss Mabel Smith's experience at Grindelwald reminds me of one of my own
+in the same place during the following year.
+
+I had gone there with a cousin, who was eager for skating and
+tobogganing, in January 1902, on my way to Rome. After a pleasant week
+at a charmingly quiet and comfortable hotel--the _Alpenruehe_ I think was
+the name--my cousin wished, for purposes of policy, to change over to a
+more famous, but noisy and overcrowded one.
+
+So on the evening of 3rd February we found ourselves in this immense
+caravanserai, having exchanged our large, comfortable, steam-heated
+rooms for small, oblong apartments, each provided with three doors as
+well as the window, and a wood fire to be fed from small "five-franc
+baskets," and always going out at that!
+
+There was deep snow on the ground and a heavy fog of snow falling when
+we made our change, so that one was not in the most brilliant spirits;
+and being suddenly thrust into the midst of a big, heterogeneous company
+of strangers is never exhilarating.
+
+Our bedrooms, though small and not specially comfortable, were perfectly
+commonplace, the very last _milieu_ with which one would have associated
+any interesting experience. The window of my room faced the door into
+the passage, my bed lay between the two; right and left of it were two
+other doors, each communicating with other occupied rooms.
+
+Therefore I thought little the first night of noises and moving of
+furniture, taking for granted that these must be occurring either right
+or left of me, and that the clearness of the atmosphere accounted for my
+odd impression that a table and chair--between my bed and the
+window--were being moved.
+
+The following night (4th February), however, this fact was indisputable.
+I had heard both my neighbours retire to bed by ten P.M., as so many do
+who have been skating and tobogganing all day long. I had sat up reading
+for half-an-hour beyond this, and went to bed at eleven P.M., by which
+time there was perfect silence in the hotel, as no special entertainment
+was going on.
+
+Very shortly, this movement of the furniture began again, unmistakably
+in my room this time. Curiously enough, it did not frighten me at all
+nor suggest burglars (a far greater terror to me than ghosts!). I cannot
+at this distance of time remember _why_ the idea of Mr Myers should have
+come to me in connection with these noises; but I am quite certain that
+I _did_ think of him at the time, and fully expected his name to be
+given, when I asked if anyone wished to speak to me and were trying to
+attract my attention by moving the furniture about.
+
+It was greatly to my surprise, therefore, that the name of _Gifford_ was
+given. I may here note that this was the real name given to me. He said
+he was a judge, one who had lived fifty or sixty years previously, that
+he had once unintentionally condemned an innocent man to be hanged, and
+he was evidently still greatly perturbed about this, and begged for my
+prayers.
+
+All this put Mr Myers entirely out of my head--_unfortunately_, as
+events proved.
+
+I had some further talk with Judge Gifford, but do not remember it in
+detail.
+
+Next morning I told my cousin of my experience, and on the evening of
+the following day mentioned it in the presence of some neighbours at
+_table d'hote_ who had introduced psychic subjects to us.
+
+This gentleman and his wife were both impressed, and yet incredulous,
+and when my cousin laughingly declared that "Gifford had come to _her_
+the second night, but that she told him she was too tired out to listen
+to him," we all three supposed that she was turning the whole subject
+into ridicule. This would have been quite characteristic of her,
+although I have always thought she had some mediumistic faculty, and was
+one of the many people whom I should advise to leave these matters
+alone. I was the more convinced that she was merely "chaffing" on this
+occasion, because when I warned our acquaintances of her powers of
+exaggeration in "making fun" of things, she said nothing.
+
+But when we had returned to our rooms that night she remarked quite
+quietly: "But he _did_ come, Emmie! When you said that at _table d'hote_
+about my exaggerating things, I let it pass, because very often it is
+true. But what I said this evening was _absolutely correct_, though
+perhaps it is as well those people should not believe it. Someone _did_
+come to my bedside last night, and said: 'I am Gifford--will you listen
+to me?' And I said: 'No; not to-night. I am too tired,' just as I told
+you."
+
+I think poor Gifford came again more than once to me; but I had done all
+I could for him, and explained this, adding that he must now leave me
+alone, which he did.
+
+Later my cousin returned to Paris, and I went on to Rome, where I
+received a letter from Dr Richard Hodgson enclosing some Piper script.
+
+_F. W. H. Myers communicating_, said that he had come to me on the
+evening of 4th February, that I seemed to recognise him, and that he
+thought he had "got his message through to me," and hoped that I should
+write to Dr Hodgson to that effect.
+
+In answering Dr Hodgson's letter I denied the Myers' episode _in toto_,
+so far as _my_ consciousness was concerned. In fact, the Gifford
+incident put all else so entirely out of my mind that I fear I did not
+even mention to Dr Hodgson that my _first_ thought that night had been
+connected with Mr Myers.
+
+Anyway, the next letter from Boston enclosed an account of a sitting,
+where Mr Myers came and apologised for having misled Dr Hodgson about my
+recognition of him.
+
+His words were almost literally as follows:--
+
+"I am extremely sorry, my dear Hodgson, about that affair with Miss
+Bates. I should not have thought of mentioning it to you had I not felt
+convinced that she recognised me. _Her astral body was quite aware of my
+presence_, and I quite thought she had realised it on the physical
+plane" (the italics are mine).
+
+It would seem that the Myers' message was in the very act of
+transmission from my astral to my normal consciousness when this man
+Gifford must have come, switching off the telephone for Mr Myers, and
+getting on to it himself. Probably his great distress of mind would
+have made him the stronger force of the two for the time being.
+
+There must always be many disappointments of this kind in our research.
+There is always something which so nearly succeeds and then just fails
+at last. This _must_ be the case where conditions are so fine and subtle
+and so easily disturbed, and where our own ignorance of many necessary
+factors is so profound. This makes it none the less disheartening at
+times!
+
+Later I made an attempt with my friend Baroness Rosenkrantz of Rome to
+get a message through the other way--_i.e._ from Mr Myers and myself to
+Dr Hodgson, _via_ Mrs Piper.
+
+The Baroness and I had a little "sitting" alone, wrote one or two short
+messages with a couple of extracts from Mr Myers' own writings, sealed
+up the envelope carefully, and I forwarded it to Dr Hodgson.
+
+But the test failed. Two years later Dr Hodgson spoke of the letter as
+being still intact.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A SECOND VISIT TO INDIA, 1903
+
+
+My second visit to India took place in the early months of 1903, and I
+approached it this time from Burmah. Fielding Hall's "Soul of a People"
+had thrown its magic spell over me, and Miss Greenlow and I were both
+anxious also to see the far-famed Shwe Dagon Temple.
+
+I came to the conclusion from what I saw, and still more from what I
+heard, that Mr Fielding Hall must have appealed sometimes to his
+imagination for his facts, and allowed an exquisite poetical fancy to
+cast its glamour even over these. But the beautiful Golden Temple of
+Rangoon defies all powers of exaggeration. We went there again and
+again, and wandered amongst its endless small temples, representing
+various forms of worship, including even a Chinese joss-house, which is
+stamped upon my memory through a disaster, which I have always connected
+with this special temple; rank superstition though it be.
+
+We had spent several weeks upon the Irrawaddy River; had wandered
+through beautiful, dusty Mandalay; had explored Bhamo and marvelled over
+the exquisite visions of fairy-like beauty, painted anew for us morning
+and evening, on this most glorious river; and had finally returned to
+Rangoon for a few days' rest before starting for Calcutta.
+
+It was an exquisite evening, just before our departure, when we went,
+towards sunset, to say farewell to the Shwe Dagon. At that hour it is to
+be seen at its best, for the level rays of the Eastern sun, light up the
+golden cupola into startling and fairy-like magnificence.
+
+Having watched this glorious spectacle for some minutes, the air grew
+chilly, compared with the intense heat of the day, and darkness was
+coming on apace as we turned to retrace our steps.
+
+A few days before, we had noticed a Chinese joss-house, standing in one
+corner of the huge elevated platform upon which the Shwe Dagon rests. In
+the maze of buildings, and owing to the swiftly falling darkness, we
+could not at once locate this temple; and most unfortunately for _me_,
+with the stupid persistence which such a failure sometimes brings, both
+Miss Greenlow and I were determined to find it out before leaving the
+Golden Temple. At last a joyous exclamation warned me that my friend had
+been successful in her quest.
+
+The first time I had seen this joss-house I had run up the steps
+heedlessly, but felt such an unpleasant influence on entering it that I
+came away at once, and only regret not having been equally prudent a
+second time.
+
+Miss Greenlow was gazing at some grotesque carvings in one corner of the
+temple, still dimly visible, and called out to me to come and look at
+them also. Very reluctantly I joined her, and stood for a few minutes
+waiting, till she was ready to leave.
+
+There was something so gloomy, so uncanny, and depressing--I must even
+say _malignant_--in the building at this twilight hour, that I could
+stand the influence no longer, and as Miss Greenlow seemed inclined to
+linger, I hurried down the stone steps, saying: "_I can't stay in that
+place! I will wait for you at the top of the marble stairs._"
+
+Now these steps, broken and dirty, and lined by small booths selling
+every imaginable toy and bit of tinsel, including small models of the
+various temples, led by steep flights up and down from the huge platform
+of ground I have mentioned. Some small link-boys were crowding round as
+Miss Greenlow rejoined me, clamouring to be allowed to light us down the
+steps--a very necessary precaution, for the darkness was quickly
+replacing the exquisite sunset colouring.
+
+I am, as a rule, rather a remarkably sure-footed person, and the
+lanterns of the boys threw ample light upon the steps, yet the first
+moment of my descent I was considerably surprised to find myself at the
+bottom of the first whole flight of hard marble steps! I had no
+recollection of a slip even--one moment I was standing, carefully
+prepared to descend; the next I was lying on my back at the bottom of a
+long flight of steps, with the link-boys gaping in astonishment. They
+could not have been more astonished than I was! The very swiftness of
+the fall was probably my salvation; otherwise I think my spine _must_
+have been injured. As it was, I was very much hurt, however; the pain
+was intense for a time, and the muscles of my back were so swollen that
+they stood up in ridges as big as a good-sized finger, for some time
+after the escapade. In fact, it was quite six weeks before all local
+trouble was over, and many more weeks before I had recovered from the
+unexpected shock.
+
+I have had several falls in my life, but never one other where there was
+absolutely _no_ preliminary warning or sense of slipping, however swift.
+
+The experience was exactly that of being suddenly _hurled down_ the
+steps by some outside force. I can only add that I deeply deplored my
+unguarded words to Miss Greenlow, when I told her I was sure there was
+some malignant spirit in the joss-house.
+
+Perhaps he wished politely to demonstrate the correctness of my remark.
+
+The short voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta was made pleasant by the
+kindness of a European friend in Rangoon, who came "to see us off," and
+asked if he should introduce to me a little Burmese lady, very rich and
+very _devote_, who was on board with us, going to Calcutta to pay a
+visit to her husband, who lived in that city.
+
+"She is one of our principal native residents," my Rangoon friend
+explained to me before introducing her. "She is also intensely
+interested in her Buddhist religion, and I think this may interest you,
+from what you have told me of your investigations."
+
+So the little lady was duly presented, and thinking to open our
+conversation pleasantly, I remarked that Mr Rowell had told me that she
+was much interested in religious questions, and that although not a
+theosophist myself, I numbered several of them amongst my friends.
+
+But I found myself quite on the wrong tack. She screwed up her little
+mouth, as if tasting some nasty medicine, and then said in excellent
+colloquial English:
+
+"Oh, they are no good at all. They have muddled everything up, and got
+it all wrong. That is why we are beginning to write tracts and send out
+missionaries. The great Buddha made no propaganda; neither did we for
+many, many centuries. We believe that people must grow into this
+knowledge; but now when you Western people come and take little bits of
+our system, and piece them together all wrong--well, then, we are forced
+to show you what is the truth! It is like a puzzle map, and all you
+theosophists are trying to fit the pieces in, wrong side upward." And
+she finished with a merry and apologetic laugh, remembering, no doubt,
+that I had spoken of having friends amongst these "stupid muddlers"!
+
+She gave me quite a number of the "tracts" of which she had spoken,
+setting forth the true Buddhism, and mostly printed in Mandalay, and I
+made a point of passing these on to some of the friends I had mentioned
+to her.
+
+I can only trust they were appreciated, and efficacious in reducing the
+confusion resulting from trying to adapt Eastern mysticism to Western
+consumption!
+
+Our conversation became still more interesting when I discovered that a
+mysterious fellow-passenger of ours on board the _Devonshire_, sailing
+from Marseilles to Rangoon, had taken this voyage at the expense of the
+Burmese lady, and, I am sorry to say, had occasioned her a great and
+quite inexcusable disappointment.
+
+This man, whom I will call Dr Groene, was a professor at a celebrated
+university in the south of Europe, and was certainly a scholar--if not a
+gentleman!
+
+He had studied the Buddhist writings very deeply, and his name had been
+conveyed to this Burmese lady as that of one eager to throw off all ties
+of kinship, and retire--like the great Buddha himself--from the world,
+and find repose and enlightenment in a Burmese monastery. The only thing
+lacking in carrying out this excellent resolve was--as usual--_money_.
+
+The native lady, delighted to hear of so learned a gentleman, and one
+holding such an honourable position in Europe, being converted to the
+tenets of her religion, and thus wishing to give the best example of
+their influence upon him, agreed joyfully to forward the funds for his
+journey and to make arrangements for his stay in Rangoon before
+proceeding to Mandalay, where he was to be received as a Buddhist priest
+after a certain course of initiation.
+
+We had all remarked Dr Groene on board--partly because he was so thin and
+tall, and walked the deck so persistently in fine weather or foul;
+partly because he owned an exceptionally fine and long beard, which
+parted and waved in the breeze as he passed to and fro in his lonely
+perambulations. I never saw him speak to anyone on board except my own
+table companion, Dr Gall, the Secretary of the Church Missionary
+Society, and a very interesting and intelligent man. This latter was
+also a distinguished Arabic scholar, and had lent me some striking
+monographs he had written on the Mohammedan faith, striking both by the
+scholarship and breadth of view and tolerance, which one does not
+generally associate with the Society that he represented.
+
+I had seen him more than once in the company of Dr Groene, and when we
+reached Colombo, and read in the papers handed to us on broad that our
+ship contained the famous European professor who was journeying to
+Mandalay to become a Buddhist priest, after a touching farewell with
+wife and children, Dr Gall expressed both astonishment and incredulity.
+
+"He never said a word about it to me," was his remark. "I know he has
+studied the Buddhist religion very deeply, and he is anxious to get
+access to some MSS., which he hopes to find in Burmah; but that is not
+the same thing as becoming a priest. I expect the papers have
+exaggerated the facts."
+
+As a matter of fact, Dr Groene certainly gave a lecture on Buddhism in
+Colombo on the day of our arrival, for one of our fellow-passengers had
+the curiosity to be present, but he, also, told me nothing had been said
+about the lecturer becoming a priest.
+
+The matter did not specially interest me; but on arrival at Rangoon, the
+only decent (?) hotel was crowded, and most of us had to put up with a
+very inferior class of accommodation.
+
+A few hours of this establishment sufficed for most of the passengers,
+who promptly went up country or on the river; but Miss Greenlow and I
+were obliged to spend three or four days in Rangoon, and Dr Groene was at
+first our only companion.
+
+So, of course, we spoke to each other in self-defence. He talked of his
+home life and university work, and casually mentioned the death of his
+wife, _five years previously_, and the children who were awaiting him
+at home.
+
+This certainly tallied more with Dr Gall's ideas than the sensational
+Colombo newspaper account of his wife and children, to whom, like the
+great Buddha, he had bidden an eternal farewell! Naturally one did not
+touch upon this delicate subject, but I asked him how long he expected
+to remain in Rangoon. To my surprise, he said at once that his stay was
+quite uncertain--he might even be returning by the _Devonshire_, which
+was to sail within a week of her arrival.
+
+It seemed a long and expensive journey to take for so short a stay; but
+doubtless he had business reasons, and the matter dropped from my mind.
+
+When we returned, three or four weeks later, he was no longer in Rangoon
+apparently, and I did not expect to come upon his tracks again.
+
+The Burmese lady explained the Groene mystery with some bitterness, and
+no wonder!
+
+Having come out free, upon the understanding with her, already
+mentioned, she had taken a room for him at the hotel, and had busied
+herself in buying blankets and a carpet and other small luxuries, to
+break the Mandalay monastery to him as gently as possible.
+
+When three days passed and he made no sign of moving on, she quietly
+intimated that it might be as well to begin the new life without delay,
+and said she had written to her brother, himself a priest in the
+monastery, to meet Dr Groene at Mandalay and present him to the
+authorities at the monastery.
+
+This must probably have been about the time that I asked him innocently
+how long he would be staying in Rangoon.
+
+His plan had doubtless been to go to Mandalay in a dilettante sort of
+fashion, and to live in the monastery for a time, with the hope of
+getting access to some valuable and little known MSS.; but it did not
+suit his plans at all to be met at once by the brother of his
+benefactress, and kept under the eye of this priest, who knew exactly
+the circumstances under which he had been enabled to take the long
+journey from Marseilles.
+
+Being evidently a prudent man, he determined to seize the first
+opportunity for retreat from an impossible situation. How he raised
+enough money for the return voyage is not known. My Burmese acquaintance
+thought he must have applied to one of the Consulates, and that his
+university position would doubtless ensure his raising a loan.
+
+Anyway, he shipped himself surreptitiously once more on board the
+_Devonshire_, and arranged that the letter, containing the usual excuse
+of a "sudden telegram from Marseilles announcing the unexpected death of
+a near relation," should not be handed to his benefactress until the
+anchor was safely weighed.
+
+It was not a pleasant story, and treachery is no less perfidious for
+having an intellectual motive. I felt glad that Dr Groene was not a
+fellow-countryman.
+
+Having disburdened herself on this one point of righteous indignation,
+our little Burmese lady became as bright and cheery as a child, wearing
+her collection of pretty native dresses, which could all have been
+packed easily into a fair-sized doll's trunk, with singular grace and
+charm. When the tender arrived to disembark us in Calcutta, her husband
+came with it, and was speedily introduced.
+
+We had tea with them a few days later in their handsome Calcutta flat,
+and this gave me the opportunity for a long and interesting talk with
+the husband, who proved to be a most intelligent and open-minded man.
+
+He spoke of Fielding Hall's delightful book with appreciation tinged by
+kindly amusement.
+
+"He has been many years in the country, but he still judges us as a
+foreigner."
+
+When I suggested that the judgment was at least very flattering to the
+Burmese, this Burmese gentleman laughed, and said:
+
+"Flattering? Yes--but not always quite true. One must see from _inside_,
+not from outside, to be quite true in one's judgments; and no foreigner
+can see from outside. It is a question of race and heredity, not of
+having spent twenty or thirty years, or even a lifetime, in a foreign
+land."
+
+I suggested that those who saw from _inside_ only, might also lack some
+essential factor in forming an accurate judgment.
+
+He agreed heartily to this, adding: "Yes, indeed. The ideal critic must
+have lived neither too near nor too far--mentally as well as physically;
+also he must have intuition. Now Mr Fielding Hall is an artist as well
+as a poet, but in judging my country he lets his intuition run riot
+sometimes, as well as his imagination."
+
+After reporting this conversation, it is unnecessary to add that my
+Burmese friend spoke English rather better than I did myself.
+
+We then talked about the position of woman in Burmah, and how much this
+had been extolled and held up as a object lesson to the rest of the
+world.
+
+If the position of woman is the true test of a nation's civilisation, as
+has been so often affirmed, then certainly Burmah must be in the van of
+the nations! Yet this is scarcely borne out by facts.
+
+I put this point as politely as I could, and my mind was at once set at
+ease by the purely impersonal way in which he met my remark.
+
+"Of course, we are not in the van of the nations, and yet it is quite
+true that our women have an exceptional position--quite a good enough
+one for an election cry for the Woman's Suffrage! Ah, yes! I have been
+in England," he added, with a merry twinkle in his little black eyes.
+"But you must realise that the unique position of woman with us is
+somewhat accidental. It is not the result of philosophical or moral
+conviction on the part of our men; it has been the natural outcome of
+circumstances, and a question of expediency rather than of ethics. So it
+was not really a 'test paper' for us at all! Our frequent wars in the
+past have taken the men out of their homes, and the women, at such
+times, were left alone to cope with not only the domestic, but the
+agricultural problems. All business of this kind passed through their
+hands, and in time they developed the qualities of industry, good
+judgment and power of taking responsibility, necessary for success in
+such a life. Then when the husbands came back and found everything going
+on so well and without trouble to themselves, they were only too glad to
+fall in with the existing state of things. We Burmese are lazy fellows
+after all. We can rise to a big call, but if our women will look after
+our business for us, we are quite content to smoke our pipes in peace
+and look on--and, of course, the one who makes the wheels go round is
+the one who really drives the coach. Believe me, there is more of
+expediency than nobility in the attitude of our men towards our women,
+and more of laziness than either, perhaps! But Fielding Hall would call
+this blasphemy, I am afraid!"
+
+And so, with a joking word, our interesting talk came to an end, leaving
+me with a sincere hope that I might some day meet again both the
+intelligent husband and the charming wife.
+
+I found the air at Simla quite marvellous for psychic possibilities,
+and this was certainly a great surprise to me; nor was it only a
+question of altitude and a dry atmosphere. Missouri and the Dhera Doon
+are celebrated for the purity of air and climate generally, but the
+influences there were quite different.
+
+Even Peshawar, with its glorious crown of snow-capped mountains, brought
+no special psychic atmosphere to me; nor the Khyber Pass, where I had
+thoroughly expected to be haunted by the horrors of the past; nothing of
+the kind occurred. The beauty of the day when we visited this historic
+pass was only to be matched by its own extreme natural beauty; but no
+haunting memories hung round it for me.
+
+Perhaps a night passed in those rocky defiles might have brought some
+weird experience, but no European would be allowed to woo adventure in
+this way, even with the laudable desire for advance in psychological
+phenomena! But I stayed there quite long enough to prove--for the
+hundredth time--that _an attitude of expectation_ acts with me as a
+deterrent rather than encouragement, where the Unseen is in question.
+
+I had heard so much of Simla Society and Simla Scandals, and so little
+of Simla Beauty and Loveliness!--in Nature, I mean--not Human Nature.
+
+It is true we were there at the most exquisite time in the year, when
+the air was still fresh and keen, when the last snows and the first
+blooms of rhododendrons were greeting each other, when the long
+stretches of valley, brown and purple and emerald green, lay like soft
+velvet in the immense distances towards the horizon line.
+
+As I looked at all this, day after day, it seemed to me that Simla,
+without its crowds of social butterflies, male and female, and the dust
+and the flies, and even the heat that they bring with them, was one of
+the most exquisitely beautiful spots that the Great Creator ever
+"thought out" in His mind. Nowhere have I seen such a _velvety_ effect
+of rolling hill and soft mountain-side; such gorgeous atmospheric
+visions; such a carnival of beauty and colour.
+
+We must have seen Simla at the most ideal time in the year, or people
+must become _blase_ and blinded to its intoxicating beauty, thanks to
+tennis tournaments and Government House receptions and the whole stupid
+Social mill.
+
+Not even the beauties of Kashmir have dimmed the memory of Simla for me;
+but I would not go there again, and in the season, for anything that
+could be offered to me.
+
+All beauty is sacred, and I guard jealously my sacred memory of the
+place, known to so many merely as a byword for folly and flirtation.
+
+Some strange and curious experiences came to me there, both in automatic
+writing and other ways; but these are of too private a nature for
+publication.
+
+And so, with the beauty of Simla and the romance of Kashmir as jewels in
+my memory, I must end my second visit to India.
+
+It is said that pleasant as well as painful experiences are apt to run
+in _threes_. I trust this may be the case. If so, it will mean that once
+again I shall tread upon Indian soil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A FAMILY PORTRAIT AND PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY
+
+
+In the very heart of Warwickshire there is a beautiful old "half timber"
+hall, approached by a noble avenue of elms. The hall has come down from
+father to son, in the direct line, for nearly six hundred years, as the
+dates upon the front of the house testify.
+
+The present Squire is not only an old friend of my early youth, but is
+connected through marriage, and he and his wife and I have always been
+on very friendly terms. He is the usual type of fox-hunting squire and
+county magistrate, did good service during the South African War by
+raising a corps of Yeomanry from the estate, and going out with them to
+fight his country's battles, and, needless to say, he received a hearty
+ovation from his wife and his county when he returned to them in safety.
+He is devoted to his beautiful house and estate, and is the last man to
+entertain fancies or superstitions in connection with either.
+
+It is necessary to give these few words of explanation before relating
+an "incident in my life" for which I have always found it difficult to
+account, except on the supposition that some germ of psychic
+sensitiveness may exist, even under a hunting squire's "pink coat and
+top-boots."
+
+I have known Greba Hall since I was a child, and all its quaint old
+family portraits, especially those in the fine oak-panelled hall, with
+the old-fashioned open fireplace and "dogs" of the fifteenth century.
+But there were so many of these pictures massed together that I have
+never distinguished one from the other, with the exception of the few
+immediate ancestors of my friend.
+
+Some years ago I was staying with a lady who lived about three miles
+from Greba, and we had driven over there to have tea with the Squire's
+wife, whom I will call Mrs Lyon. The friend I have mentioned had become
+interested in psychic matters since my acquaintance with her, and I had
+discovered that she possessed some psychometric capacity.
+
+In the interests of non-psychic readers, I may explain that psychometry
+is the science of learning to receive impressions and intuitions from
+the atmosphere surrounding any material object--a letter, a ring, a
+piece of pebble or shell, and so forth. We seem capable of impressing
+all material objects with our personality, and naturally this is
+especially the case in letters written and signed by us.
+
+The lady with whom I was then staying--Mrs Fitz Herbert--had tried
+receiving impressions from letters several times, at my suggestion, and
+always with more or less success. We had been speaking of this with Mrs
+Lyon, who was always very sympathetic, and she suggested giving one of
+her own letters to Mrs Fitz Herbert to be "psychometrised."
+
+The latter was sitting facing a door which led from the hall to an inner
+room, and over this door hung the half-length portrait of an old
+gentleman, whom I had never specially remarked before, as the picture
+was hung rather high, and there was nothing very characteristic about
+the face.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert glanced at the portrait once or twice as she held the
+letter, and began her remarks upon the writer; but I had no reason to
+suppose that the glance was other than casual and accidental.
+
+She gave, however, a very remarkably accurate description (as it turned
+out) of Mrs Lyon's unknown friend, both as to his character and the
+special and rather unique conditions of his life.
+
+I was feeling naturally gratified that my "pupil" should have acquitted
+herself so well, when she suddenly uttered a little expression of pain
+and complained of severe headache.
+
+I knew that she suffered from these headaches at times, and was
+therefore not surprised by her asking leave to ring for the pony
+carriage at once, and we were soon on our way home.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert was driving the pony, and as we turned out of the long
+elm avenue she murmured in a tone of relief:
+
+"How thankful I am to have got away from that old man! I knew he was
+telling me what to say about that letter, but afterwards he wanted to
+give me some message himself, and I could not understand it, and that is
+what made my head so bad." Then she explained, seeing my bewilderment,
+that she was referring to the old gentleman whose portrait hung over the
+door I have mentioned.
+
+I suggested that we had better try to find out what the old man wanted
+to say, and we arranged to do so that evening after dinner; but as Mr
+Fitz Herbert (who had a very charming tenor voice) elected to come in
+and sing to us, the old gentleman's communication had to be postponed
+until the morning.
+
+Mrs Fitz Herbert and I sat down in the drawing-room the next day, armed
+with pencils and paper, so soon as her domestic duties were over. She
+was most anxious that _I_ should take the message, but this seemed to me
+absurd, considering that I had received no sort of impression about the
+picture and could not even recall the face. So she took up the pencil
+very unwillingly, and after some difficulty the name of _Richard Lyon_
+was given, with the information that he had owned Greba, and had passed
+over to the next sphere about one hundred and thirty years previously.
+But when it came to trying to find out what he wanted to say, she
+professed herself quite unable to grasp it, and passed the pencil
+determinedly over to me.
+
+Much to my surprise (for I had seemed to have no link with the old man
+at all), he was able to write through my hand with great ease.
+
+He explained to me that he had been much devoted to the property, had
+lived only to improve it in every possible way, and that through his
+concentration of interest on this one subject his life had been a very
+limited one, and that now he could not get away from the remembrance of
+his earth life and his beloved Greba.
+
+"I suppose he is trying to explain that he is earth-bound," suggested
+Mrs Fitz Herbert.
+
+"Yes; that is just the truth," was the eager response through my hand,
+"and it is so sad to think that my own descendants are the ones to keep
+me imprisoned in this way. I am told that I could progress, as they call
+it here, and be much happier if I could only forget Greba, even for a
+time. And it worries me to see things done so differently and not to be
+able to do anything myself for the old place. There is no happiness for
+me here. Do ask them to set me free," he continued rather pathetically.
+
+"But they don't _want_ to hold you down," I answered. "Tell me how they
+do it and what you wish them to do."
+
+The old man then explained the position very carefully and sensibly. He
+admitted that his own deep love for his old property and surroundings
+and his failure in life to develop any other very deep affection, was
+chiefly in fault, but he added, that his portrait being hung there, in
+the hall of his descendants, was also very unfortunate for him.
+
+"It drags me down--I don't know why--but I am sure I could get away more
+easily if they would not keep that picture in the old hall."
+
+A few more practical questions elicited the following instructions:--He
+said the picture might remain in the _county_, so long as it was not in
+any house owned by a _Lyon_ (there were several members of the family in
+Warwickshire); or it might be sent to London or elsewhere, and kept by
+members of the Lyon family, so long as they were not in the direct
+descent, and _did not live in his old county_.
+
+We drove over to Greba that afternoon, and took the "message" with us,
+knowing there was no fear of encountering the gibes of my fox-hunting
+friend at three P.M. on any week day in the hunting season.
+
+Mrs Lyon was extremely interested; she not only endorsed the _Richard
+Lyon_ and his dates, but told us that he had done an immense deal for
+the property, as her husband had often impressed upon her, and that at
+his death, about one hundred and thirty years before, he had lain in
+state for three days in the very hall where we had taken our tea, and
+where his picture now hung. This was great encouragement, so we put our
+heads together, wondering _how_ the poor old man's entreaty might be
+complied with.
+
+Mrs Lyon remembered that several of the old portraits were shortly to be
+sent to a picture dealer in the neighbouring town (some ten miles away)
+to be cleaned, but this special picture was not in need of restoration,
+unfortunately.
+
+"Still, I could put it with the others, and let it go to Warwick, and
+then tell the man not to do anything with it--but what would Edward say?
+Can you _imagine_ his allowing the picture to be taken down upon this
+evidence?"
+
+From an acquaintance with "Edward" extending over large tracts of years,
+I was forced to admit that even my robust imagination could not reach so
+far. "_Skittles!_" or "_Confounded cheek!_" would be his mildest reply
+to such a request, even from the friend of his youth! I did not care to
+think how much further his indignation might carry him!
+
+But I felt so strongly that something outside myself had inspired the
+message, with its accurate instructions, that at last I prevailed upon
+Mrs Lyon to promise she would mention the matter to her husband, and
+thus leave the responsibility of refusal with _him_.
+
+She did so, and the refusal was all my fancy had painted--and more!
+
+Several months passed, and the following spring I was once more in the
+neighbourhood, staying with my own relations this time, who were related
+also to the Squire and his wife.
+
+The first piece of news I received at dinner the night of my arrival was
+that the Greba Hall picture _had been sent in to Warwick!_
+
+I could hardly believe my ears. My relatives could tell me nothing
+beyond the fact, and advised my paying an early visit to Greba Hall
+during the absence of the master.
+
+I did this, and Mrs Lyon told me all she knew about the matter, which
+was not very much.
+
+"After you were here last," she said, "I spoke to Edward as I promised,
+and, of course, he laughed the whole thing to scorn, and was very rude
+about our tomfoolery."
+
+"Yes, I know all about that," I answered hastily. "But what happened
+_afterwards_--after I left Warwickshire, I mean?"
+
+"That was the queerest part of it all," she resumed. "A few days after
+you had gone away he stood under the picture one evening, coming in from
+hunting and waiting for tea in the hall, and said as he looked up at old
+Richard Lyon:
+
+"'Do you suppose I should allow _your_ picture to be taken down--_you_
+who did so much for my property? Of course not!'"
+
+"This happened once or twice, at intervals. Then he _said_ nothing, but
+I used to notice that he always looked up at the picture whenever he
+came into the hall or stood by the fireplace. At last, about three
+months ago, he turned round suddenly, and said:
+
+"'When are you going to send those pictures to be cleaned?' Now you know
+I had been keeping the other pictures back, with a dim hope that Edward
+might relent. But I saw it was quite useless, so I told him they were
+going next day. To my intense surprise he said rather abruptly: 'Then
+send this picture with them, and don't ask me any questions.'"
+
+His wife took the hint, and waited for no second bidding. Off went the
+picture to the Warwick shop, and there it remained for nearly six
+months.
+
+When it came back eventually, the Squire was very triumphant on the
+subject, but I was equally triumphant in pointing out that nothing could
+alter the fact that the picture _had_ been sent away, in spite of his
+earlier denunciations of our folly.
+
+Also I suggested that a good deal can happen in six months on either
+side of the veil, and that no doubt poor old Richard Lyon had had ample
+opportunity to "get free," as he called it, thanks to the unaccountable
+action of his descendant!
+
+I have reserved this story for my last chapter for two reasons. It
+happened within the last few years, but I cannot remember the exact
+date, and dare not inquire from my irascible hunting friend; and also it
+did not specially link on to any of the previous incidents described.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I must now pass on to the autumn months of 1905, which found me in
+Eastbourne, where I have various kind friends.
+
+I had been going through a time of great anxiety, owing to family
+reasons, and went down to Eastbourne with every prospect of finding rest
+and peace there. I arrived on the 11th of November, and the first few
+days amply justified my hopes.
+
+Then a feeling of the most intense depression came over me, quite
+unexpected and unaccountable. My family anxieties and responsibilities
+were happily over. I had been able to make a wise, and, as it turned
+out, most admirable choice, in finding a fresh attendant for an invalid
+brother, and there was nothing now to be done but to rest on my oars and
+be thankful that a most trying time--requiring infinite patience and
+tact--was over.
+
+When this unaccountable depression came on so suddenly, I put it down to
+reaction, and expected it to pass away with returning strength, after
+the heavy strain. But it _increased_ as the weeks passed on into
+December, and did not lift until about eight A.M. on the morning of 22nd
+December.
+
+Then I had one of the most vivid experiences of my life. As suddenly as
+they had enveloped me some weeks before, so did the heavy clouds now
+roll off, leaving me with a sense of freedom and exaltation such as I
+have seldom experienced. This sense of freedom and joy and happiness was
+so marked that I mentioned it at once to an intimate friend, who came to
+see me that day after breakfast. I said to her: "I can only describe it
+as if one had suddenly been let out of prison or taken from a dark,
+dismal room into one with glorious sunshine streaming through the
+windows, where the very sense of being alive is sufficient joy; in fact,
+I never felt so thoroughly alive before. And the curious thing is that
+there is no apparent reason for this--nothing is changed--I have not
+even had any specially pleasant letters. Life is just the same on the
+outer; but on the _inner?_ Well, I cannot describe it!"
+
+"But can't you account for it at all?" asked my friend, who had been
+with me through all the depressing influences of the former weeks and
+was astounded, as well as delighted, by the inexplicable change in my
+spirits.
+
+"Well, it is the day after the shortest day," I said, laughing. "But it
+has never had such an extraordinary effect upon me before."
+
+All day long this exuberant feeling of delight and happiness remained. I
+had no specially spiritual or religious experience in connection with
+it, but rather the happy feeling of confidence that a child might have,
+who, after wandering about in unknown lanes and thorny paths, suddenly
+found himself transported, with no effort of his own, to the dear,
+familiar house and loving home faces.
+
+Five days later, in a private letter, I read the first allusion to the
+death of Dr Richard Hodgson. It came to me in a letter from Mrs Forbes,
+not as a fact, but as an uncorroborated report, which would probably be
+found incorrect.
+
+"_There is nothing about it in The Times this morning, so I don't
+suppose it is true._" These were her exact words. I don't think I ever
+really doubted the truth of it, although it came as a bolt out of the
+blue.
+
+Only a few days previously, a letter from an intimate friend of Dr
+Hodgson in America (he had brought us together) mentioned her having
+seen him lately and thinking he was really much depressed over his work
+and other matters, "_though, doubtless, if I taxed him with this he
+would say it was quite untrue; but I feel quite convinced that it is
+true_."
+
+These words had not at the time given me any clue to my own curious
+depression, but when the first _rumour_ of his death reached me, I felt
+convinced that it was true, and that I must have taken on his joyful
+conditions when he first found himself on the other side of the veil. I
+can only surmise, therefore, that the weeks of my depression _may_ have
+corresponded with feelings alluded to by his intimate friend; although
+less intuitive, if not less valued associates, may have noticed nothing
+but his usual cheery and genial spirits.
+
+A telegram sent to Mr Stead showed me clearly that my inquiry had been
+_his_ first intimation of anything wrong. Then, in despair of getting
+accurate information, I wrote to Sir Oliver Lodge, who kindly responded
+at once, confirming my worst fears. He was good enough to send me later
+the particulars of the event, supplied by Professor William James.
+
+It was a bitter blow for _us_, but for _him_ how joyous an awakening!
+
+I am grateful for having had, through personal experience, even a dim
+reflection of that wonderful New Life, so overwhelming and so exuberant,
+that its rays could reach to the hearts of some of those who had been
+honoured by his friendship.
+
+On comparing notes I found that, allowing for difference of time,
+forty-eight hours must have elapsed between his physical departure and
+my experience of his awakening to new conditions.
+
+There may be various ways of accounting for this. The spirit may not
+have been wholly freed at once from its physical envelope, but may have
+remained possibly, in some condition of unconsciousness, after the
+strangely sudden severance of the tie that binds body and soul together.
+
+
+_Note._--Since the above was written, I have received an explanation of
+the lapse of time between the passing of Doctor Hodgson, 20th December,
+and my experience of 22nd December 1905.
+
+On 6th February 1907 I had the privilege of a sitting with Miss
+MacCreadie, who not only gave an accurate description of Doctor
+Hodgson's personal appearance, and of his sudden call hence, but added
+that this spirit wished to explain to me that he had not been able to
+get entirely away from the body for quite two days after physical death,
+and that meanwhile he must have been in a state of trance. Miss
+MacCreadie did not know the name of the spirit whom she described so
+accurately, and whose message was thus conveyed to me.--E. K. B.
+
+
+Some time after Dr Hodgson left us, a friend in London wrote to me that
+she had either just read or heard that he had made some communication,
+to the effect that "_he was not very happy, as he had regarded his work
+only from the intellectual point of view_."
+
+This seemed to me a most unlikely sort of message to come from such a
+man.
+
+In such cases there is nothing like going to the fountain-head for
+information, and this came to me in the following words, which are, I
+think, characteristic and certainly sensible:--
+
+"My work _was_ intellectual--how could I regard it from any other point
+of view? That has nothing to do with the spiritual side of things. My
+spiritual life was very latent, it is true; but it was sincere, so far
+as it went, and in this more favourable atmosphere, the buds are
+unfolding, and I am learning more and more of the love and wisdom which
+I always dimly saw and appreciated. It is the attitude of mind which is
+all-important, and my attitude, though critical, was never obstructive,
+as you know."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I should like to say a few words now on the subject of superstitions. We
+are _all_ superstitious in various ways and upon different points--I may
+laugh at _your_ superstition because it does not happen to appeal to me,
+but you may be quite sure you could find out my "Achilles Heel" if we
+lived together long enough.
+
+The only difference between people is, that some are honest about their
+superstitions and others--are not!
+
+I met a lady not long ago at a foreign _table d'hote_ who started our
+acquaintance by remarking that she was thankful to say she had not a
+single superstition. Before we had spent ten days under the same roof I
+discovered that she believed in portents and lucky stones and the "whole
+bag of tricks," and possessed the power of seeing people in their astral
+bodies.
+
+This is to introduce my own strongest superstition, which is a horror of
+seeing the new moon for the first time through glass. _Breaking_ glass
+is almost as disastrous in my experience, even if the article itself
+only costs a few pence.
+
+Now I do not for one moment suggest that either one or other is the
+_cause_ of my subsequent misfortunes. No one surely can be childish
+enough to suppose such a thing; yet I have known sensible people labour
+this point in order to show me the folly of my ways--and thoughts.
+
+Again, I am quite aware that some people may break as much glass or
+china as the proverbial bull, and see the moon through the former medium
+every month of their lives, and not be a penny the worse for it--beyond
+the amount of their breakages. I only maintain that for _me_ these two
+things are invariably the precursors of misfortune.
+
+When people say to me: "How can a sensible woman like yourself be so
+foolish as to think such things?" I can only truthfully answer that I
+should be very much _more_ foolish if so many years of my life had
+passed without my noticing the sequence of events.
+
+But to _explain_ the phenomena is quite another matter.
+
+It seems to me quite reasonable that, allowing the possibility of
+influences coming to us from the other side, some sign--no matter how
+trivial--might be impressed upon us as a gentle warning to be prepared
+for disasters, more or less severe.
+
+Another curious thing is this: I have never found that avoiding seeing
+the moon through glass _in any artificial way_ prevents disaster. I used
+to let kind friends, indulgent to my "folly," lead me blindfold up to
+the window, carefully thrown open for my benefit. I can remember a most
+elaborate scene of precaution once, in an American railway carriage
+between Philadelphia and Boston, when a charming American lady, about to
+lecture on Woman's Suffrage, and grateful to me for some points I had
+given her with regard to the woman's question in New Zealand, insisted
+upon having a heavy window pulled up by a negro attendant, when she
+found out my little weakness.
+
+It was all of no avail. Left alone, I should most certainly have seen
+the moon through glass on that occasion, and I felt, even at the moment,
+that I had not really altered anything by falling in with the kind
+American lady's suggestion.
+
+In September 1906 I was going through a course of baths at Buxton, and
+on a certain Sunday (2nd September) I saw the moon through glass in my
+bedroom window in the most unmistakable way. There was no friendly
+cloud, no other twinkling light to throw the smallest shadow of doubt
+upon the fact. There was much good-humoured laughter over my
+"superstition" in the house; but I knew _some_ trouble was on its way,
+little dreaming that it was one which would alter my whole life.
+
+On the Wednesday morning (5th September) I received the first intimation
+of what proved to be the last illness of a brother who has been
+mentioned in these pages already, and who had been an invalid for nearly
+thirty years. A point to be noticed is that on the Sunday, when the sign
+came to me, he was in his usual health, and even on Monday went out for
+a long drive. The first attack of angina pectoris only came on in the
+middle of the night of Monday-Tuesday, 3rd to 4th September.
+
+Later, when the disease had become acute, and I was in the south of
+England, living in hourly suspense, and receiving telegrams and letters
+several times a day, another curious incident occurred which has a
+bearing upon our subject.
+
+As my readers are probably aware, in this sad and painful illness the
+only proof of unselfish affection which one can give, may be to keep
+away from the patient, when you know that all is being done for him that
+skill and devotion can suggest. The smallest agitation is almost certain
+to bring on a fresh attack of the terrible pain, and so long as there is
+_any_ hope of a rally, or, in fact, any consciousness that can possibly
+result in increased suffering, _everyone_ should be kept away from the
+patient except those who are in actual and necessary attendance.
+
+This naturally entails great mental distress and suffering upon those
+who are living from hour to hour, in a state of tension and suspense.
+
+After more than a fortnight of alternate hopes and fears, the position
+became almost unendurable, and I was making all preparations for a visit
+to the patient, or at least to the house where he lay (against my better
+judgment), when letters and a telegram arrived imploring me not to come,
+as a short visit from another relative had proved most disastrous in
+bringing on another attack of the terrible pain; from which he never
+really rallied.
+
+Under these distressing circumstances, there could be but one course
+open to me.
+
+I was staying with my kind friends Admiral and Mrs Usborne Moore at this
+sad time, and can never feel sufficiently grateful for their goodness
+to me and sympathy with my distress.
+
+The Admiral, as many of us know, is a most persevering student of
+psychic science, and I think it was by his suggestion, or at anyrate
+with his approval, that I determined to pay a visit to a lady of whom he
+had spoken to me--Mrs Arnold, a daughter-in-law of Sir Edwin Arnold--who
+is a gifted clairvoyant.
+
+I went alone to the house, that she might not be able to connect me with
+my host and hostess; and the interview was a remarkable one.
+
+There were many evidential points given, which, for family reasons, it
+is impossible to publish. She gave me the crystal ball to hold for a
+good five minutes, in order that it might become impregnated by my
+influence; and then she took it from me, and began making a series of
+statements, without pausing for a moment or attempting to "fish," to use
+a technical term.
+
+These statements included my own life and studies and chief interests,
+and the number and sex of my immediate family; also the attitude of the
+various members towards myself, and in each case the special statement
+was absolutely correct.
+
+Her first words were: "You are in great anxiety, I see. It is about the
+illness of an elderly man. _Two_ people with whom you are in very
+intimate relations are ill, I see, but I will tell you now of the one
+you wish to hear about especially."
+
+She went on to describe not only my brother's surroundings and illness
+at the time, but also his permanent state of paralysis, adding that he
+was now in the country, for she saw green trees all round him and
+waving grass. As my brother's life for many years had been spent
+entirely between London and the seaside, this was a good bit of
+evidence. As a matter of fact, he was spending a few weeks in a
+country cottage for the first time in his life.
+
+The single point where she failed was as to the _time_ of his passing
+away. She saw at once that the illness was one from which he could not
+permanently recover, and gave the approximate time very tentatively. "We
+cannot see times exactly--they come only in symbols. For instance, I see
+now falling leaves; it looks like an autumn scene, and so I infer that
+means later on--perhaps October or November."
+
+This, as I have said, was the only mistake in the whole interview. My
+brother passed to the Higher Life on 24th September.
+
+When I saw his valet in town later, I asked him about the trees, and he
+explained that owing to the great heat, the leaves were all over the
+ground, and gave an autumnal look to everything.
+
+Most of us noticed the same appearance in London and elsewhere, even
+quite early in September 1906.
+
+The _second_ friend lying dangerously ill was a puzzle to me at the
+time; but within five days of my brother's transition, I heard of the
+death of Judge Forbes, who was one of my most intimate friends, as Mrs
+Arnold had truly observed. His illness was a very short one; but on
+comparing notes with members of his family I found that he had taken to
+his bed three days _before_ my visit to Mrs Arnold, and was already very
+seriously ill, although I had no knowledge of the fact for more than a
+week after my interview with her.
+
+Before closing these personal records I must say a few words on the much
+vexed question of psychic photographs.
+
+As my friend Admiral Usborne Moore observes in a letter received from
+him as I write these words: "We are dealing with a great mystery here."
+He is himself one of those who by persevering effort is helping us to
+solve the mystery.
+
+It is certainly the branch of psychic science which promises the best
+results from an evidential point of view, but it must be a case of "each
+man his own photographer."
+
+There is always a tendency in human nature to be over-credulous as to
+our own achievements, and over-sceptical as to those of our neighbours.
+
+So for many years probably, we shall only accept our "very own" psychic
+photographs as quite genuine; but when a sufficient number of people are
+convinced by their personal experiences in this line of research, there
+will be some hope that the subject will go through the usual stages--(1)
+Impossible and absurd; (2) Possible, but very improbable; (3) Possible,
+and not even abnormal; (4) Finally, normal, and "_Just what we knew all
+about from the first!_"
+
+Meanwhile some of us have been experimenting, with professional
+assistance, and in these cases the question is not "Can such photographs
+be faked?" We all know nowadays that faking photographs is the easiest
+of all possible frauds. I have spent many a half hour doing the faking
+myself, with an amateur photographer, by sitting for so many seconds in
+a chair and then vacating it in favour of some other "spook"!
+
+No, the whole question at present must be determined by our recognition
+or non-recognition of the photographs produced.
+
+If Mr Boursnell or any other photographer can produce (_as he has done_)
+my old nurse, who died twenty-three years ago, and was never
+photographed in her life, then we must find some other suggestion than
+that of "common or garden faking" as a solution of the mystery. There
+she sits, as in life, with a little knitted shawl round her shoulders
+and the head of a tiny child upon her lap. The eyes are closed, and give
+a dead look to the face, yet the features are to me quite unmistakable,
+and no one knew the dear old woman so well as I did.
+
+Again, I have in my little picture gallery, an old and very well-known
+Oxford professor, in whose house I stayed many times.
+
+Quite unexpectedly he appeared on one of Mr Boursnell's plates last
+summer, and although this special photograph is fainter than the one
+just described, the likeness can only be denied by someone more anxious
+to be sceptical than truthful. I compared the photograph with an
+engraving of the professor in much earlier life--which is to be found in
+the Life published since he passed away--with an artist friend (who had
+not known him). We went over the features one by one, and my friend said
+she noticed only one small difference, the exact length of the upper
+lip, and this, she considered, would be amply accounted for by the lapse
+of time between the two pictures and the slight lengthening of the upper
+lip owing to loss of teeth. The professor passed away as an old man; the
+picture engraved in the Life represents him as he was at least twenty
+years before his death.
+
+But the most interesting point to me in this photograph, is the
+appearance on his lap of a much loved dog, a rather large fox terrier
+named "Bob." I had not noticed Bob until a daughter of the professor
+pointed him out to me, and now I cannot understand having missed him at
+first.
+
+Bob was not only the most important person in the Oxford household, but
+he was good enough to be very fond of me, so it seems to me quite
+natural that he should have come with his master to pay me a visit.
+
+I remember arriving at the house one dark winter's evening after an
+absence of over two years, and Bob's welcome to me was so ecstatic that
+he nearly knocked me down in a vain attempt to get his paws round my
+neck.
+
+I heard the professor, who was always rather jealous of Bob's
+affections, say in a whisper to his wife: "Most touching thing I ever
+saw, that dog's welcome when Miss Bates arrived!"
+
+Dear Bob! I am so glad he can still come and see me, with his dearly
+loved master.
+
+Another shuffle of the photographs brings to the top a sweet girlish
+face and figure, "sixteen summers or something less."
+
+She appeared first upon a plate in the summer of 1905, but so
+indistinctly as to the _face_ that I could not recognise it.
+
+A few months ago the same figure appeared again, but quite clearly this
+time, and involuntarily, as I looked at it, I exclaimed: "_Why, of
+course, it is Lily Blake!_"
+
+Now it is nearly thirty years since I met this charming child; during my
+first visit to Egypt. She and her father (a well-known physician) and
+her aunt, were spending a six weeks' holiday in Cairo, and I saw more of
+her than would otherwise have been the case, because she was the
+playmate of another young girl--the child of friends of mine at
+Shepheard's Hotel.
+
+Lily was a sweet-looking, delicate girl, with soft, sleepy blue eyes,
+and was always dressed in a simple, artistic fashion. A few months after
+our return to England I saw in the papers the death of this pretty
+child; for she was little more at the time. I wrote a letter of
+condolence and sympathy, which was at once answered by the aunt in very
+kind fashion; and since then I have seen nothing to remind me of Lily
+until this last year has brought her once more within my ken. I am only
+too thankful to realise that any influence so pure and beautiful as
+hers, may be around me sometimes in my daily life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now let me say, in the words of our great novelist:
+
+"Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is
+played out!"
+
+Only I trust in this case we have managed to rise a little above the
+usual atmosphere of Vanity Fair.
+
+Surely the aim of all psychic research should be to give us a
+_scientific_, as we have already, thank God, a spiritual, foundation for
+the "Hope that is in us."
+
+Spirit photographs and spirit materialisations and abnormal visions or
+abnormal sounds amount to very little, if we look upon them as an end
+in themselves, and not as the symbols and the earnest of those greater
+things which "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
+into the heart of _man_ to conceive."
+
+I remember, years ago, in the course of a deeply interesting
+conversation with Phillipps Brooks, the late Bishop of Massachusetts,
+that I asked him what he thought about modern theosophy, which was just
+then becoming a _culte_ in his native town of Boston. There was a great
+deal of talk at the time about the new philosophy and the wonderful
+phenomena said to accompany its propaganda. Sir Edwin Arnold had written
+his "Light of Asia," and Oliver Wendell Holmes had welcomed it with
+wondering awe, as something approaching a new revelation. And smaller
+people were talking about the historical Blavatsky tea-cups, and hidden
+heirlooms found in Indian gardens, and some of us were wondering how
+soon we should learn to fly, and what would come next.
+
+The bishop's answer to my question was so genial, so characteristic, and
+showed such divine common-sense!
+
+"It is not a question of _flying_," he said. "I should like to fly as
+much as anybody; and a queer sort of bird I should appear!" (He was well
+over six feet, and broad in proportion.)
+
+"If you suddenly found you could fly," he continued, "it would be
+_absorbing_ on Monday morning, _intensely interesting_ on Tuesday,
+_interesting_ on Wednesday, and _quite pleasant_ on Thursday, but by the
+end of the week it would be getting normal, and you would want to
+discover some other new power. No, believe me, the real question is not
+_flying_, but WHERE you would fly, and WHAT YOU WOULD DO WHEN YOU GOT
+THERE."
+
+This sums up the case in a nut shell, and seems to me only another way
+of saying: "Don't forget the spiritual significance beneath the
+scientific symbol."
+
+And I would add: "Let us all join hands in the interesting and absorbing
+work of trying to make our symbols as scientific as we can, by finding
+out the laws which govern them, as well as all other things, in this
+universe of Love and Law. Probably we are here to learn, above all
+things else, that Love and Law are ONE."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many people have had far more remarkable experiences than mine. For
+various good reasons I have carefully abstained from any attempt to
+cultivate, or in any way increase, the sensitiveness which is natural to
+me.
+
+I can only assure my readers that my record has been absolutely
+accurate. In many cases it would have been very easy to write up the
+stories into some far more dramatic form; but by doing so the whole aim
+and object of my book would have been destroyed.
+
+I wanted to trace the thread of what we at present consider abnormal,
+through the whole skein of a single life, hoping thereby to encourage
+others to do the same.
+
+It is only by putting these things down, if not for publication, then in
+some diary or commonplace book, that we can realise how far our normal
+life is, even now and here, interpenetrated by another plane of
+existence.
+
+And so farewell to all kind readers who have followed me to the end of
+my personal record of curious events--curious chiefly by reason of our
+present imperfect knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+I
+
+
+Much has been said of the folly and triviality of all messages coming,
+or purporting to come, from the Unseen. I think here, as elsewhere, like
+clings to like, and we get very much what we deserve; or rather, to put
+it in a more philosophical and Emersonian way, we receive _what belongs
+to us_.
+
+Emerson tells us in one of his most illuminating passages, that
+everything which belongs to our spiritual estate is coming to us as
+quickly as it can travel. All the winds of heaven, all the waves of
+earth, are bringing it to us, and neither angel nor devil can prevent
+our taking what is ours or rejecting what is _not_ ours.
+
+This is a universal law, and applies to automatic writing as to
+everything else. Emphatically we get what belongs to our spiritual
+estate.
+
+Therefore any casual and general remarks as to the foolishness of all
+automatic writing, must of necessity be made by those who are ignorant
+of this spiritual law, or whose experience of such messages is very
+limited.
+
+I intend to give a few which I have myself received, in the form of an
+Appendix to my book. With one exception, they all come from a very dear
+friend, who passed into the other sphere little more than a year ago
+under peculiarly happy circumstances. I do not wish to give his name,
+although it would add considerably to the interest of the narrative. I
+shall therefore call him Mr Harry Denton. The messages will be given
+exactly in the form in which they were received, and without any
+editing. We never discussed theological ideas from any standpoint of
+_creed_; but I imagine that my friend, when here, would have looked upon
+Jesus Christ as one of the many inspired teachers of the world, and that
+his views were cosmic rather than religious--_in any narrow sense_--and
+certainly _religious_, in the broad sense of the term, rather than
+_theological_.
+
+The first conversation (for this is a better description of my friend's
+communications than the word _message_) refers to my own attitude, as
+compared with that of a lady friend of mine, regarding Jesus of
+Nazareth.
+
+
+H. D.--I see a great stream of light round you, Kate, and it seems to
+have come with your truer conception of Jesus Christ. It is all right
+for your friend to say she prefers to put the matter aside and leave it
+alone. That is just the best thing she can do; in fact, the _only_ thing
+she can do at present.
+
+The seed is still underground, and the moment of emergence has not come.
+To try and force it above ground just now, would be fatal. It would also
+be immature and uncalled for. The old husks of man-made creeds must drop
+off gradually, leaving the bud they protected intact, not be torn off by
+an impatient hand.
+
+So far her instinct seems to me a true one. But the case is widely
+different for _you_. The husks _have_ fallen off, as a matter of fact,
+and the discomfort and sense of something wrong arose from your knowing
+that you were only striving desperately to clutch on to them, when the
+fine, strong bud was there, able and ready to take its proper share of
+sunshine and rain, and even to bear the cold winds of misrepresentation
+and misunderstanding if need be.
+
+"QUIT YOU LIKE MEN, BE STRONG." That is _your_ lesson-book, and you will
+never feel happy or content until you are learning it.
+
+Surely you must feel how much you have gained since you faced your own
+facts?
+
+E. K. B.--Yes, Harry, I do; but I don't quite understand _your_
+position. Are you at the same point of view?
+
+H. D.--No; not yet. It is all rather foreign to my previous notions. I
+thought of Jesus of Nazareth as a great teacher--one of _the_ great
+teachers of the world--but I had still to learn His unique position as
+regards our chain of worlds.
+
+They tell me here that He was the _first_ to attain to the full stature
+of the _Divine Man_ as he existed in the thought of the Absolute.
+
+Spiritual evolution is the process, apparently the only process, whereby
+a Son of God in this sense can appear. And aeons of time have been
+necessary to produce this fine Flower of Humanity. Your own band are
+helping me to understand this. _Having attained, being the anointed
+One_, it is given to Him to bring the whole race after Him.
+
+This is quite a different conception from my former one, and the one
+held by most of those whom in old days we called Unitarians.
+
+_You_ have had to _unlearn_, or rather to drop, some of the husks of old
+tradition which have been guarding the truth for you, whereas I have
+still _to come up to the truth_; but the point reached will be the same,
+whether the approach to it is from north or south--do you see?
+
+In Christ Jesus, they tell me, we are _all_ new creatures, as a matter
+of fact; because, consciously or unconsciously, we are working together
+with Him to realise and manifest ourselves, as made after the Image of
+God.
+
+He is the example and the pledge for us. St Paul saw this, of course,
+and your present position illuminates his teaching for me enormously. So
+I have much to thank you for, Kate. It is easier to learn from those we
+know and trust, than from strangers.
+
+And, moreover, when we can learn from the loved ones on earth _as well
+as through the loved ones here_, it makes the links in the golden chain
+complete, and helps us to realise the unity and solidarity of our common
+existence, _in the Father--with the Son_.             H. D.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Another morning I had told H. D. that I had been reading an article in
+_The Nineteenth Century--and After_, I think, entitled "An Agnostic's
+Progress," and asked if he had sensed it through me at all.
+
+H. D.--Yes. We will begin with that this morning. I am very glad you
+read it, for it is curiously like my own experiences in the same line.
+
+Since coming over here, and thereby coming into such direct touch with
+you, I have been able to grasp the key to much that puzzled me on the
+other side.
+
+As my views became more spiritualised I saw there _must_ be more truth
+in the Christian religion than outsiders supposed, and yet I knew it
+could not be absolutely true _in the form in which it has been handed
+down_.
+
+_That_ was for me unthinkable, because I saw it would be a sudden and
+catastrophic incursion upon a cosmos of Law and Order.
+
+It would mean God working in the highest departments of His Creation, as
+He is never seen to work in the lower ones. And my faith in Him
+prevented my entertaining such an idea! Schemes and plans of salvation
+belong to the comparative childhood of the race, not to the full-grown
+spiritual man. They are still in the fairy-tale stage, holding a truth,
+but acting only as the husk of the truth.
+
+The unity of the race; the necessity for self-sacrifice in realising
+that unity: that by giving our life for our brothers we save our _Life_,
+which is that unity in which the brethren are included--all this I could
+accept in Christ's teaching or the teaching of the Apostles; but the
+rest: the detail, the carefully arranged _scheme_ of the Atonement,
+etc., as dogmatic doctrines--all these seemed to me so obviously the
+desperate attempts of man at a certain stage of development to fit in
+spiritual facts with the most probable theories; and to say that men who
+wrote of these things were inspired, and _therefore infallible_, was
+absurd.
+
+Even in my short life, I had seen the world pass through several stages
+of belief and assimilate them in turn.
+
+As a child, I was told that God was angry with people for sinning and
+breaking His commandments, and so Jesus Christ offered to come and die
+on the cross to appease His just wrath.
+
+That seemed a great puzzle to me, because, although it might account for
+what happened _before_ Christ came and _until_ He came, I could not
+understand why God _should go on letting people come into the world_ who
+would break His laws, and make Him still more angry for centuries and
+centuries. That seemed to me, as a child, so unnecessary.
+
+Later I was told it was not God's anger but His sense of justice that
+had to be appeased and satisfied, which was a distinct step in advance.
+
+A little later, however, I read that this was not the hidden truth of
+the doctrine. The religious world (the thoughtful section of it) now
+arrived at the idea that it was not God who needed to be satisfied or
+appeased in any of His attributes, but MAN, and that GOD--in the person
+of his Son--came into the world to reconcile the world to Him, and not
+Himself to the world.
+
+This was a complete _bouleversement_ of the whole situation, though it
+came so gradually that few appreciated that fact.
+
+The last suggestion appeared to me by far the most luminous. In human
+life it is invariably the _lower_ nature that needs to be reconciled and
+conciliated; whilst the higher nature, in proportion to its
+development, is forgiving and tolerant and wide-minded, and does not
+prate about its own high sense of justice requiring to be appeased. The
+best type of _man_ punishes a wrong-doer in order that he may learn to
+do better and leave off tormenting and wronging his fellow-creatures;
+not to appease any instinct in his own breast, for that would be
+egotism, no matter how we might try to disguise the fact.
+
+Now if it would be a blot upon the best conceivable _man_ to be
+egotistical, _a fortiori_ must it be upon God.
+
+To conceive otherwise is to make God in the likeness of the lower and
+not the higher humanity. I thought all that out very clearly.
+
+Still this crux remained for me, that to be suddenly, at any arbitrary
+moment in the world's history, obliged, as it were, to send an
+absolutely divine part of Himself into the world, was the way a _man_
+would act faced by an unforeseen catastrophe, but not the way in which
+God has acted throughout the rest of our history.
+
+A succession of teachers, enlightening the world by degrees, and
+culminating in the ANOINTED Son of God--the Flower of Humanity--_this_
+is entirely in line with the processes of Nature and the laws of God, so
+far as we know them.
+
+All progress has its culminating point.
+
+AEons have passed to produce the most exquisite crystals, the highest
+forms of vegetation, of animals, of men. Then came the slow processes of
+civilising and educating men; the dim instincts of fear and
+propitiation, merging, by slow degrees, in the first conceptions of
+Love, as something apart from desire, and so forth.
+
+Was I to be expected to shut my eyes to all these known facts, and bolt
+down the theories contained in one Book, written by human authors, no
+matter how admirable?
+
+I felt it was impossible.
+
+Then I remembered with relief that these very dogmas, as a matter of
+fact, were in so fluent a state, that my own bare fifty years of living
+had seen at least four different high-water marks!
+
+Here again therefore, under my very eyes, was the universal law of
+progress working, the moment it _could_ work, by being released from the
+swaddling-clothes of the Roman Catholic Church, which, so far as it is
+orthodox, is fossilised.
+
+I saw also that the whole body of dissent had moved on, taking up its
+pegs and planting them a little further on each time; till a City
+temple, with its widening theology, was an established fact.
+
+Progress everywhere--slow, but sure--and the pace getting quicker, even
+in my short span! Still, the _uniqueness_ of Jesus of Nazareth and His
+influence over the nineteen centuries was a puzzle.
+
+Buddha's influence has lasted longer, Mahomet's almost as long (the two
+cancel any way), but I have always recognised an _advance_ in the
+teaching of Jesus Christ. He brought a fresh element, in the personal
+note of the Sonship with GOD.
+
+I was at this point when I came over here. Now through your mind I have
+been able to see, and, oddly enough, to quicken in your soul, the seed
+already planted there.
+
+They tell me the illumination came to you years ago, at
+Oberammergau--no, not when you were there for the Passion Play--four
+years earlier.
+
+You took it in with your head then, not with your heart. Old traditions
+were too strong, I suppose, and you had not made up the last little bit
+of your mind, to be true to the convictions that had come to you through
+your prayers for light.
+
+And so you have gone on, see-sawing to and fro, not really believing the
+old orthodox ideas, but not courageously sweeping them away for
+yourself. So although the key was in your hands, you have not used it
+until now. You have given me the key, and I have been allowed, as _my_
+New Year's gift, to fit it in the door.
+
+This is how Jesus Christ has stood so long at the door of _your_ heart
+and knocked. He could only enter through the one door--namely, _that one
+opened in the highest point of your spiritual realisation_. I see now
+that He comes in at that door in each soul, and, as spiritual evolution
+unfolds in each heart, so is the special position of that door shifted;
+but the fact of His presence is the vital one! It was not possible for
+Him to do otherwise than hide His face, as it were, whilst you were
+barring His only door of access--_i.e. your true point of realisation_.
+
+It all seems so clear to me now. And this is how He comes to so many in
+different guises.
+
+He is the Perfected Manifestation of GOD, as the Divine Man--the Flower
+of Humanity.
+
+But He can come into the heart in the narrowest creed, so long as the
+holder of that creed is at _his true point of growth_ and not trying to
+stifle God's gift of ever-advancing truth by cowardly want of trust, or
+fear of being worse off in the end, by being absolutely honest to
+himself and his own convictions in the present.
+
+It has been a long message, and you have taken much of it awkwardly, but
+on the whole it represents what I wanted to say.             H. D.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+H. D.--I feel now that you want to know what I meant by telling Miss R.
+it was the _likeness_ to the old world which puzzled me here.
+
+You see, we have all imbibed traditional ideas with our mother's milk,
+however much our intellects may have modified them. Instinct is stronger
+than intellect, because it is more elemental.
+
+The first thing that struck me was that truths which are latent on
+earth are made manifest here.
+
+(Here comes an interpolation.)
+
+You can take my words so easily that we must guard against wasting time
+in mere verbosity. I must teach you to condense more. We must strike
+some sort of balance between my brevity and your amplification. At
+present it is as well to get the instrument into proper working order
+before worrying too much over these details.
+
+(He then resumed.)
+
+It is as if you turned the old earth garment inside out, and saw the
+very fabric of it, which the earth looms have hitherto concealed by the
+warp and woof of the manufactured article.
+
+For instance, you are told on earth that you are making your own future
+conditions by right or wrong thinking. _Here_ you see the absolute,
+_material_ results of right and wrong thinking, just as if you were
+looking at two different patterns, woven by two different workers. I
+said material results, because matter here is just as real as it was on
+earth, and just as illusory, in one sense, in both spheres. Your matter
+is unreal to us. Our matter is unreal to you. The truth is, both are
+shadows cast by an antecedent reality on the Screens of the Universe.
+
+The screens are the school-houses through which humanity learns its
+lessons.
+
+Don't be worried! There is no real difficulty in using your hand; it is
+only trying to compromise between your redundancy and my brevity.
+
+Earth is like a gallery of sculpture. (Note by E. K. B.--This simile had
+flashed through my brain, and H. D. at once said: "Yes, that is very
+good; you started it, and I pick it up and apply it.") All the figures
+and groups are perfected and complete in their marble or bronze or
+terra-cotta, as the case may be.
+
+Some groups or figures are noble, others mediocre, others again may be
+sensual and degrading, but they have one quality in common--for good or
+bad, they are _ready made_.
+
+Now go into the sculptor's studio, having studied well in the great
+sculpture galleries of the world. You go to the studio, we will suppose,
+as a pupil. He puts a lump of clay into your hands, and for the first
+time you are invited to model your own statues and figures, to embody
+your own ideas in this clay, which corresponds to thought stuff _here_.
+You are even made to understand that your houses will only be worthily
+furnished by the work of your own hands. _Here_ it is the work of your
+own hearts, of your loving or unloving thoughts.
+
+So the first lesson we learn over here is that THOUGHT is not only
+Creative Power, as you are often told on earth, but it is also the very
+stuff out of which the creation must be moulded. It is, in very truth,
+the clay of the modeller.
+
+Shakespeare said truly enough "We are such stuff as dreams are made of,"
+but he was referring to our embodied selves.
+
+The difference between the two worlds seems to me, so far as I have
+arrived, as the difference between the pupil in the sculpture gallery
+and in the experimental studio. The chief part of the earth modelling is
+ready made--made by the racial thought stuff and the racial manipulation
+of it.
+
+_Here_, for the first time, we must turn to and take a hand in the work
+ourselves. It would not be possible to give such individual power in any
+lower sphere than this, for it would be misused, and would lead to
+terrible tragedies.
+
+You see some slight hints of this in what is called Black Magic--the
+wilful and intentional throwing of evil conditions on other people,
+making hard and cruel images of them in the mind, and so forth. But all
+that is as child's play to what would happen if the absolute clay were
+put into their hands, as it is here.
+
+It is the difference between thinking out an ugly picture; and painting
+it and hanging it up in a gallery; for we have objectivity here as with
+you. Naturally what comes into objective existence has more power than
+what remains latent. The latter can only influence exceptionally
+sensitive souls, and that to a comparatively small extent, whereas the
+former, here as with you, has a much farther range of influence.
+
+So this sort of gunpowder is not given to us until we are old enough to
+know better than to burn our fingers with it, in trying to make
+fireworks!
+
+At the same time, as all stages of evolution overlap, it is inevitable
+that some hint of these possibilities should be already in your world.
+Woe be to those who misuse them!
+
+You have taken enough for this morning.          H. D.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+The friend I have called Mr Harry Denton, during his psychic researches,
+came, as many others have done, very strongly under the influence of
+"Imperator," the chief of the Stainton Moses controls.
+
+I knew that this was the case, especially during the last three or four
+years of my friend's life, and I always rather resented the fact, for
+the limitations of Imperator have always appealed to me so strongly, as
+to dim, perhaps unduly, his undoubted claims to appreciation.
+
+I have read many of the private Stainton Moses' records (thanks to my
+friendship with the executor, with whom these journals were left), and
+in all those referring to Imperator's communications, there was to my
+mind the same note of cock-sureness and mental tyranny.
+
+There was too much of finality and self-assertion, too much of "_Thus
+saith the Lord_," about Imperator's remarks for my rebellious soul. I
+could never be strongly impressed by any personality, however admirable,
+that so palpably exacted allegiance and unquestioning obedience. These
+must be the unconscious tribute to the Genius of Holiness, as to any
+other sort of genius; never an enforced levy upon us.
+
+So at least it seems to me. Certainly I would not escape one sort of
+priestcraft to set up another in its place, whether the niche be filled
+by Mrs Besant or Mrs Eddy or Mr Sinnett, or any other fallible
+fellow-creature. Not even Imperator can strike me as infallible; and his
+own evident belief in that direction does not affect the question.
+
+It seemed to me rather to be deplored that Mr Denton, with his wide
+outlook and cosmic conceptions, should fall so strongly under any
+special influence, even that of the admirable Imperator!
+
+So I was curious to know what his views were upon this subject from the
+other side of the veil. I will now leave him to speak for himself.
+
+
+H. D.--You want me to tell you just my position about the Imperator
+group before and since I passed to this side? That is easily done.
+Remember, the teaching I got through Imperator was practically the first
+_spiritual_ teaching I ever had--the first I mean, of course, that I
+could assimilate, because it appealed to my reason, as well as to my
+sense of the fitness of things--and therefore I can never feel
+sufficiently grateful to him and his group; and I see that they can
+teach many who would not be amenable to a more distinctly spiritual
+appeal.
+
+Imperator is a great force in his way; a sort of plough that goes over
+the hard, caked-up earth and throws it open to the sunshine and rain and
+all Nature's beautiful influences, to all the possibility of Divine
+influences on the corresponding sphere.
+
+But the limitation of Imperator I see clearly now, as you always appear
+to have done.
+
+He is, as you say, too final and too dogmatic. This is at once his
+weakness and his strength: his weakness, because it limits his own
+spiritual receptivity; his strength, because it focusses his power in
+dealing with materialistic minds.
+
+A more spiritually true perspective in his communications would rule out
+half the souls to whom his appeal is made.
+
+_Stainton Moses has also progressed beyond the Imperator influence, and
+this is why the communications between them had become so clogged and so
+liable to error._
+
+S. M. could not switch on to the old wires, as in the days when his
+horizon was bounded by them. This accounts, I see, for much of the
+misconception and apparent inconsistency of the remarks made through Mrs
+Piper, but it was very disheartening for the investigator as time went
+on and the "Light" became more and more clouded. Then there was the
+additional fact to be faced, that Mrs Piper herself became, psychically
+rather than physically, exhausted, and less able to be used from this
+side.
+
+Now I see you want to know about Frank Strong, and what he said about
+sin existing only on your plane, and how inconsistent this was with the
+previous teachings of Stainton Moses, who was supposed to be speaking
+through Frank's assistance.
+
+It is so difficult to explain everything in black and white when there
+are so many shades of grey, so many degrees and amounts to be
+considered. It is like a question in mechanics.
+
+With increased momentum you get an increased rate as multiplied by
+space. I am not an expert, but this is practically true. In the same
+way, spiritual perception acts with increased momentum.
+
+All sin is failure in spiritual perception. Spiritual perception
+corresponds with the momentum of a falling body in mechanics. Only in
+Divine mechanics it is a _rising_ body; but the same law holds good.
+
+You say truly that an action can only be called sinful when the sinner
+knows the higher and deliberately turns to the lower.
+
+That is true; but it is only half a truth. It is still the _lack of
+knowledge_ that causes sin. With the fulness of knowledge of the higher
+(only another way of putting fulness of spiritual perception) _must_
+come the righteousness of life.
+
+It is the broken gleams, the little knowledge, which is truly a
+dangerous thing, for it brings responsibility, and therefore the
+capacity for sinning. Yet the _choice_ between good and evil fully made,
+is the schoolmaster to bring us to the full realisation of our nature as
+Sons of God.
+
+Now when Frank came over here, he was so greatly impressed by the
+dynamic force of spiritual perception that for the time he lost all
+sense of proportion and accuracy of judgment. Compared with the old
+earth temptations, those in his sphere seemed non-existent, whilst the
+temptations to goodness were enormously increased.
+
+What wonder that in the delightful sensation caused by his sense of
+moral and spiritual freedom from old shackles, he should exclaim with
+youthful fervour: "Sin is only possible in your sphere--it is unknown
+here!" Any communications of which he formed the channel, would of
+necessity be coloured by this dominant idea of his. Everything is a
+question of degree, and he is learning that lesson now, I find. He says:
+"Why do people in the earth life quote our words as if we were Delphic
+Oracles?"
+
+Why, indeed? But I am afraid I did much the same whilst so strongly
+under the Imperator influence.
+
+E. K. B.--Why is Imperator so slow in throwing off his own spiritual
+limitations?
+
+H. D.--I can read your mind so easily. It is quick and alert, and has
+already answered its own question. It is because he has a work to do on
+your plane amongst those who could not come in touch with a higher
+spiritual development. There are spiritual as well as scientific
+martyrs, you must remember; and he is one of them. But the Divine
+Economy works very beautifully here. He is not conscious of any
+spiritual limitation, and therefore he is happy in his work, and the
+martyrdom I spoke of is _unconscious_. When it becomes conscious, with
+him it will mean that his present plane of work is finished, and that he
+will be removed to another "_Form_" so soon as he is prepared to teach
+there.
+
+He is essentially a teacher, and a valuable one, for those who have not
+soared beyond his present perceptions. It is all so much more simple and
+reasonable than you suppose. It is these crusted old creeds that have
+misrepresented actual conditions, and yet they also have been, as
+Imperator; doing their own work amongst the people to whom they have
+acted as necessary stepping-stones.
+
+That is enough for to-day; take a rest now.            H. D.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The following conversation between Mr Denton and myself (the last of the
+series which I propose to give) took place, I see, at Buxton, 4th
+September 1906.
+
+There had been some correspondence in _The Daily Telegraph_ about Time
+as a fourth Dimension, and I asked my friend if he could say anything to
+me on the subject. His reply was as follows:--
+
+
+Time is really a form of perception, _not a thing in itself_--do you
+understand?
+
+Your limitation of perception you call _Time_.
+
+Another limitation is called _Distance_.
+
+This also is an illusion, or a limitation, whichever you choose to call
+it.
+
+_The White Ray is the Absolute._ The spectroscope gives you the
+limitation which makes the colours perceptible to your human eyes. For
+the one who is free from these limitations, all colours exist and are
+present in consciousness at the same moment. But they must be split up
+and observed severally to enter into the earth consciousness. It is
+exactly the parallel of Time.
+
+_Events in Time coincide with the colours in the Ray._ All exist
+simultaneously for the one who is free from limitations. All must be
+brought into sequence for the one who is bound by limitations.
+
+This is really the key to so many puzzles, and accounts for so many
+occult phenomena.
+
+As we transcend the normal earth limits ever so little, so do we develop
+these abnormal powers, as they are called. But here, as everywhere, the
+reality is just the converse of the apparent.
+
+The true norm is the Perfect Ray--the Ceaseless Sound--the Perfect
+Vision; and the abnormal is the limitation upon the earth, or upon any
+succeeding plane, short of the Absolute. But naturally we consider that
+normal which happens to be our standpoint for the moment.
+
+Already to me the earth limitations appear _abnormal_, and my more
+extended capacities mark the norm of existence for me. This must be the
+case naturally.
+
+_Prevision_ would be more accurately termed _Whole vision_--seeing the
+whole and not the tiny section.
+
+In moments of intense joy or realisation of any kind, Time seems to
+cease, and a moment may hold an Eternity. Any absorbing emotion, joyful
+or sorrowful, may bring this experience. For the moment _you are out of
+yourselves_. This is literally true. You are living in the next
+Dimension. Time and Space no longer exist for you. Most of you have had
+some such experience, but of necessity it can be a flash only in the
+midst of your normal life. Ask me something now.
+
+E. K. B.--A man writing lately in _The Daily Telegraph_ of Time as a
+fourth Dimension said something about the cube as being an infinite
+number of flat planes of infinite tenuity, heaped up one over the other.
+To the person who knew only length and breadth, the cube would have no
+existence. Such a person would realise only an infinite number of planes
+in sequence. Yet they would all _co-exist_ for the three-dimensional man
+of the present day. The suggestion appeared to be that, in exactly a
+similar way, events which to the three-dimensional man can only be
+perceived normally _in sequence_, would _co-exist_ for a
+four-dimensional being. This would mean practically the annihilation of
+Time, as giving sequence. Do you see Truth in this idea, and can you
+tell me if it extends also to Space?
+
+H. D.--Certainly. That is just what I meant as regards Distance. _All_
+limitations are mental, as a matter of fact. We have them here, but
+infinitely fewer than in the old earth life.
+
+Mind has always been able to flash from pole to pole and to affect those
+at a distance, because mind and distance occupy two different planes.
+The latter is an earth limitation. As the veil lifts a little, even on
+your side, so you become conscious that mind has these powers; but the
+powers were always there. It merely means that you have come up with
+your own mental capacities to some small degree.
+
+E. K. B.--Is there any help here for my constant problem: Why should
+one's individual life be only _now_ evolving in Eternity? Do you see
+what I mean?
+
+H. D.--Yes; but I hardly know the answer to that tremendous problem.
+Still, I will try to suggest a few thoughts to you.
+
+To be conscious of holiness and virtue we must have known its
+antithesis--evil and separation, which are really synonymous. Separation
+from Holiness _is_ evil. It is a condition, a limitation.
+
+It is to the Divine Essence just such a limitation as Time is to the
+mortal. Separation is therefore the antecedent cause of all
+limitations. These _must_ exist where the Wholeness or Holiness is
+absent.
+
+I must use the language of earth or you would not understand. Logically,
+of course, Holiness can never be absent, since it is the cause of all
+Existence; but it is _apparently absent_, and this apparent absence,
+this separation, this evil in fact, acts as a spectroscope. _It
+analyses, and thus brings into our consciousness the White Ray of the
+Divine Nature._
+
+We can go no further than that. The Divine Chemistry, beyond this fact,
+must remain a mystery, probably for ages to come.
+
+We cannot tell _why_ things are thus arranged; we only know that it is
+so.
+
+As well ask _why_ the White Ray of Light gives out its colours only
+through separating them.
+
+But it is easier to speak of the co-ordination of _events_. Take your
+own suggestion of the cube--that will help us best.
+
+Take it that each life is a cube of planes, of experiences. These
+experiences are co-existent and knit together, as firmly in the life of
+a human being as the many planes are co-existing, and knit together in a
+mathematical cube. You can dissect the cube and slice off infinitesimal
+small planes in sections.
+
+So is the individual life sliced off into an infinite number of planes
+by the sequences of Time (our three-dimensional condition).
+
+But these experiences--great or small, important or trivial (from your
+point of view)--_exist in the cube of that person's earth pilgrimage_,
+as the colours exist in the White Ray.
+
+The Ray may be split up into sequence, but the colours belong to it all
+the same, and by a _perfectly seeing eye_ would be known and recognised
+without the help of the spectroscope.
+
+The true seer is the one who sees the cube of your life; before whom it
+is spread out, without Time Separations, into planes of experience. This
+is the real secret of all _foretelling_. Such people, when honest, have
+some amount of access to the cube of earth life, some more, some less.
+
+Many mix up and confuse what they see; but they do see beyond the plane
+section which Time gives to the normal human being.
+
+I think you have taken enough now.
+
+I will only add that, of course--as you know--there is nothing arbitrary
+in the cube of life, as I have called it. It is built up of necessary
+experiences and necessary consequences. But it is built up by Love and
+Wisdom, the two Elements of the Divine Nature, in which we live and move
+and have our being.                H. D.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+The next selection that I shall give from my automatic script comes from
+an entirely different personality, which can be sufficiently indicated
+by the initials E. G.
+
+
+E. G.--Worship is a necessary part of each soul's training, and we can
+only worship that which we feel to be above and beyond ourselves. As we
+grow older and become more developed in spiritual consciousness, so do
+we tend more and more to worship the inner and intangible, rather than
+the outer and manifest. So whilst the instinct of worship is always the
+same, the objects and methods must continually change with our own
+advancing realisation and unfolding consciousness.
+
+Those limitations which once made for reverence are in time found to be
+cramping and to lead to superstition.
+
+It is the same with the education of either children or of childish
+nations.
+
+In both cases a _display_ of power is necessary to command obedience,
+because the childish mind can only apprehend from the outer, and realise
+the existence of that which it sees physically demonstrated. Tell a
+child of tender years that to be naughty is to be unhappy, and in
+ninety-nine cases out of one hundred he will neither understand nor
+believe you. But take away his toys or his sweets or put him in a
+corner; make him, in fact, _physically_ aware of the truth that to be
+naughty is to bring unpleasant consequences upon himself, and you have
+taken the only argument which he is capable of realising at a certain
+point of consciousness.
+
+This is why certain nations, at the child point of development, _must_
+be treated as children. They don't realise the appeal to the spiritual,
+and will only misconceive you and your motives, and read cowardice in
+your attempt to treat from a standpoint they have not reached.
+
+It is the same with certain religions, and this is the cause of much
+failure in mission work.
+
+Theosophy and Roman Catholicism appeal strongly to comparatively
+immature minds.
+
+Those who care more for form than for essence are always in the immature
+stage.
+
+They love big words and mysterious sayings and doings. To have something
+apart from others--whether it be happiness or knowledge--is their idea
+of bliss. Hence in most theosophists, as in all Roman Catholic converts,
+you find this note of immaturity and monopoly. I say _converts_, because
+those born in the Roman Catholic faith are on different ground. Their
+spiritual life may grow and develop in spite of the creed limitations
+into which Fate has cast them, but those who deliberately _choose_ such
+limitations give the best possible proof of their own standpoint. And
+the same may be said also of all strict creed religions.
+
+They have their great and valuable uses, as prison bars have their uses
+in a community which has not learnt to respect the rights and property
+of its neighbours.
+
+Withdraw these bars and you let loose upon society a pestilential crew
+of murderers and marauders. Relax the bars of creed and you will find
+the same result. But as bars are not necessary for the advanced souls
+who recognise that to murder or defraud their fellow-creatures leads to
+their own misery, apart from any detection or punishment, so creeds are
+not necessary, under a corresponding evolution of the spiritual
+instinct, which tallies with the social and moral instincts noted above.
+
+And as treadmills and oakum picking can be dismissed in the one case, so
+can much of the theological machinery for the discipline and punishment
+of sinners against spiritual laws be dispensed with, in the case of
+those who are, spiritually speaking, _coming of age_.
+
+They come then into the full liberty of Sons of God, and shall be no
+more treated as servants, _but as sons_, as the Apostle puts it.
+
+This brings me to my special subject.
+
+There are many things of great and transcending interest which we are
+obliged to keep secret from our younger children, partly because they
+would fail to understand, but still more because they would
+_misunderstand_, and this to their own hurt and disadvantage; not to
+speak of possible injury to others through them.
+
+Spiritual Evolution is the true Doctrine, but it is not food for babes
+in spiritual life.
+
+To have an unlimited series of advancing lives and advancing experiences
+unfolded before their eyes would not only dismay and bewilder, but would
+also paralyse their energy for good, and terribly augment their capacity
+for evil--for the _not good_.
+
+Until they are sufficiently versed in spiritual experience to realise
+the difference between purity and impurity, good and evil, God and the
+world, fame and peace, pleasure and happiness, the peace which passes
+understanding and the false glamour of sensual passion and sensuous
+self-indulgence, so long it is dangerous for them to know, with absolute
+certainty, the real facts of the case.
+
+Even the terrible and abhorrent pictures of an Eternal Hell, of endless
+flames and of undying worms, have had their uses.
+
+In this form alone could the thoroughly immature mind be made to realise
+the discomfort and misery that would inevitably attend wrong-doing. It
+_was_ a truth, although not a literal truth. Many literal truths convey
+a false impression to the immature mind, whilst a symbolic truth may
+convey as true an impression as such a mind is capable of receiving.
+
+The old ideas of Heaven and Hell are already doomed; but other ideas,
+equally untrue from the literal point of view, still hold their own, and
+will be more slowly eradicated. It is well this should be so. The world
+at large is not prepared yet to take this further step.
+
+Frequent examinations have been found useful and inevitable in school
+training, both as a test of progress and still more as an encouragement.
+
+If you tell a school of boys and girls in January that a grand
+examination will be held the following December, do you suppose they
+will work as well and as diligently as if they knew there will be short
+examinations at Easter and more important ones at midsummer?
+
+Again, if you tell boys of ten years old, who are learning a little
+history, geography, and arithmetic, just in the Rule of Three and simple
+fractions, with perhaps a little Latin; of the Algebra and Euclid and
+Conic sections and higher Mathematics, and Latin and Greek verse and
+Hebrew and Philosophy, which they must some day confront, you will
+puzzle and paralyse their brains, and leave only a sense of misery and
+revolt and helplessness, which will quickly show forth in reckless
+despair, even concerning the tasks which are well within their present
+capacity.
+
+God, in His Infinite Wisdom (of which ours is the feeblest reflection),
+acts in precisely the same way as wise fathers and wise teachers.
+
+Your earth is more or less of an infant school, but before leaving it,
+some of you must prepare for the higher classes and learn to take your
+own spiritual responsibilities.
+
+It is seen that in these days of reaction and readjustment, many minds
+are puzzled and perplexed by the old doctrines, which they have
+outgrown, and which were never more than the outer husk and protection
+for the inner kernel--the casket for the jewel of spiritual truth.
+
+The one term of probation--the one chance for progress--the immediate
+Heaven or Hell--the Great White Throne of Judgment, instant and
+inevitable--all these correspond with the frequent examinations, with
+the good and bad marks--the judging of the school work at the end of
+each term. The only difference lies in the fact that the schoolboy
+_knows_ he has other terms in front of him, and we are all aware that
+this is a very unfortunate fact where an idle boy is concerned.
+
+How often you may hear them say: "Never mind! I'm a bit behind now--but
+I have three years more--I shall catch up later." And this is probably
+just what they fail to do; for with such characters it is always
+_to-morrow_ that is to see the reformation which so often comes only
+when life has taught its hard lessons to the defaulter.
+
+Is it not apparent, therefore, that there has been wisdom and goodness
+in our very theological mistakes and illusions?
+
+The opposition to spiritualistic teachings has its good and healthy
+side. It is really the fierce antagonism of the undeveloped nature
+towards a truth it dimly apprehends to be ahead of its own development;
+and, tiresome as it seems, and _is_ from one point of view, it is the
+best safeguard for the world at large.
+
+Unimaginable horrors would come to pass upon the earth were Power as
+well as Knowledge put into the hands of the crude and undeveloped.
+
+It would be arming savages with Winchester rifles and quick-firing guns.
+
+_Never regret_, therefore, this opposition, even whilst fighting against
+it in individual cases.
+
+Both _must_ grow together till the Harvest--the Tares and Wheat, the
+Crude and the Developed--and the former are the enormous majority.
+
+This is the reason why all Truth must be born into each world through a
+fight and an agony; for it always comes as an advance upon normal
+conditions, no matter in which sphere it may be. And it is through the
+struggle that the Victory comes and the Light is born.
+
+Let people jeer and deride when they hear of a future life, not so very
+different from your own; of houses and lectures and boats and horses, of
+pet animals, and so forth.
+
+Those who jeer and deride or talk of blasphemy are still at the orthodox
+stage, when it is well for them to know only of _one_ school, of _one_
+term, of _one_ chance, and of an immediate and final judgment for the
+deeds done on earth.
+
+Others are old enough (spiritually speaking) to know the truth
+_i.e._--that GOD is in _all_, of an infinite series of spheres, through
+which each travelling soul must pass, gaining ever fresh light, growing
+ever into fresh knowledge and realisation of Divine Beauty and Divine
+Love; spheres differing little externally from the one left behind, but
+enormously in the capacities and qualities which by degrees the soul
+will unfold in the Cosmic Journey.
+
+The outer will become more and more the result of the inner condition;
+for the creative faculty, scarcely born with you, flourishes in the
+ascending spiral. Down here you are babes, with your clothes made for
+you, your bottles filled for you, and dependent on others for the
+conditions of life, but by degrees you will enter on the full
+responsibility and the full joy and glory of independent existence,
+which yet will be unified--first into the life of the Affinities--the
+True and completed Being--and then into the life of that Body of
+_Christ_, of which St Paul speaks in his prophetic moments, where "there
+shall be neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, Bond nor Free," but
+_Christos_, the glorified and crowned Humanity, shall be all in all--GOD
+IN MAN; the coping-stone of the Building, whose foundations were laid as
+MAN (the Image and Likeness of God) IN GOD.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seen and Unseen, by E. Katharine Bates
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