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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
+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: There is no Death
+
+Author: Florence Marryatt
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39212]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE IS NO DEATH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Maria Grist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THERE IS NO DEATH
+
+  Works by Florence Marryat
+
+  PUBLISHED IN THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.
+
+
+     NO.                                 CTS.
+
+     85. Blindfold,                       50
+
+    135. Brave Heart and True,            50
+
+     42. Mount Eden,                      30
+
+     13. On Circumstantial Evidence,      30
+
+    148. Risen Dead, The,                 50
+
+     77. Scarlet Sin, A,                  50
+
+    159. There Is No Death,               50
+
+
+
+
+   THERE IS NO DEATH
+
+   BY
+   FLORENCE MARRYAT
+
+   AUTHOR OF
+   "LOVE'S CONFLICT," "VERONIQUE," ETC., ETC.
+
+     "There is no Death--what seems so is transition.
+     This life of mortal breath
+     Is but a suburb of the Life Elysian
+     Whose portal we call----Death."--Longfellow.
+
+
+   NEW YORK
+   NATIONAL BOOK COMPANY
+   3, 4, 5 AND 6 MISSION PLACE
+
+
+   Copyright, 1891,
+   by
+   United States Book Company
+
+
+
+
+THERE IS NO DEATH.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FAMILY GHOSTS.
+
+
+It has been strongly impressed upon me for some years past to write an
+account of the wonderful experiences I have passed through in my
+investigation of the science of Spiritualism. In doing so I intend to
+confine myself to recording facts. I will describe the scenes I have
+witnessed with my own eyes, and repeat the words I have heard with my
+own ears, leaving the deduction to be drawn from them wholly to my
+readers. I have no ambition to start a theory nor to promulgate a
+doctrine; above all things I have no desire to provoke an argument. I
+have had more than enough of arguments, philosophical, scientific,
+religious, and purely aggressive, to last a lifetime; and were I called
+upon for my definition of the rest promised to the weary, I should
+reply--a place where every man may hold his own opinion, and no one is
+permitted to dispute it.
+
+But though I am about to record a great many incidents that are so
+marvellous as to be almost incredible, I do not expect to be
+disbelieved, except by such as are capable of deception themselves.
+They--conscious of their own infirmity--invariably believe that other
+people must be telling lies. Byron wrote, "He is a fool who denies that
+which he cannot disprove;" and though Carlyle gives us the comforting
+assurance that the population of Great Britain consists "chiefly of
+fools," I pin my faith upon receiving credence from the few who are not
+so.
+
+Why should I be disbelieved? When the late Lady Brassey published the
+"Cruise of the _Sunbeam_," and Sir Samuel and Lady Baker related their
+experiences in Central Africa, and Livingstone wrote his account of the
+wonders he met with whilst engaged in the investigation of the source of
+the Nile, and Henry Stanley followed up the story and added thereto, did
+they anticipate the public turning up its nose at their narrations, and
+declaring it did not believe a word they had written? Yet their readers
+had to accept the facts they offered for credence, on their authority
+alone. Very few of them had even _heard_ of the places described before;
+scarcely one in a thousand could, either from personal experience or
+acquired knowledge, attest the truth of the description. What was
+there--for the benefit of the general public--to _prove_ that the
+_Sunbeam_ had sailed round the world, or that Sir Samuel Baker had met
+with the rare beasts, birds, and flowers he wrote of, or that
+Livingstone and Stanley met and spoke with those curious, unknown tribes
+that never saw white men till they set eyes on them? Yet had any one of
+those writers affirmed that in his wanderings he had encountered a gold
+field of undoubted excellence, thousands of fortune-seekers would have
+left their native land on his word alone, and rushed to secure some of
+the glittering treasure.
+
+Why? Because the authors of those books were persons well known in
+society, who had a reputation for veracity to maintain, and who would
+have been quickly found out had they dared to deceive. I claim the same
+grounds for obtaining belief. I have a well-known name and a public
+reputation, a tolerable brain, and two sharp eyes. What I have
+witnessed, others, with equal assiduity and perseverance, may witness
+for themselves. It would demand a voyage round the world to see all that
+the owners of the _Sunbeam_ saw. It would demand time and trouble and
+money to see what I have seen, and to some people, perhaps, it would not
+be worth the outlay. But if I have journeyed into the Debateable Land
+(which so few really believe in, and most are terribly afraid of), and
+come forward now to tell what I have seen there, the world has no more
+right to disbelieve me than it had to disbelieve Lady Brassey. Because
+the general public has not penetrated Central Africa, is no reason that
+Livingstone did not do so; because the general public has not seen (and
+does not care to see) what I have seen, is no argument against the truth
+of what I write. To those who _do_ believe in the possibility of
+communion with disembodied spirits, my story will be interesting
+perhaps, on account of its dealing throughout in a remarkable degree
+with the vexed question of identity and recognition. To the
+materialistic portion of creation who may credit me with not being a
+bigger fool than the remainder of the thirty-eight millions of Great
+Britain, it may prove a new source of speculation and research. And for
+those of my fellow-creatures who possess no curiosity, nor imagination,
+nor desire to prove for themselves what they cannot accept on the
+testimony of others, I never had, and never shall have, anything in
+common. They are the sort of people who ask you with a pleasing smile if
+Irving wrote "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and say they like
+Byron's "Sardanapalus" very well, but it is not so funny as "Our Boys."
+
+Now, before going to work in right earnest, I do not think it is
+generally known that my father, the late Captain Marryat, was not only a
+believer in ghosts, but himself a ghost-seer. I am delighted to be able
+to record this fact as an introduction to my own experiences. Perhaps
+the ease with which such manifestations have come to me is a gift which
+I inherit from him, anyway I am glad he shared the belief and the power
+of spiritual sight with me. If there were no other reason to make me
+bold to repeat what I have witnessed, the circumstance would give me
+courage. My father was not like his intimate friends, Charles Dickens,
+Lord Lytton, and many other men of genius, highly strung, nervous, and
+imaginative. I do not believe my father had any "nerves," and I think he
+had very little imagination. Almost all his works are founded on his
+personal experiences. His _forte_ lay in a humorous description of what
+he had seen. He possessed a marvellous power of putting his
+recollections into graphic and forcible language, and the very reason
+that his books are almost as popular to-day as when they were written,
+is because they are true histories of their time. There is scarcely a
+line of fiction in them. His body was as powerful and muscular as his
+brain. His courage was indomitable--his moral courage as well as his
+physical (as many people remember to their cost to this day), and his
+hardness of belief on many subjects is no secret. What I am about to
+relate therefore did not happen to some excitable, nervous, sickly
+sentimentalist, and I repeat that I am proud to have inherited his
+constitutional tendencies, and quite willing to stand judgment after
+him.
+
+I have heard that my father had a number of stories to relate of
+supernatural (as they are usually termed) incidents that had occurred to
+him, but I will content myself with relating such as were proved to be
+(at the least) very remarkable coincidences. In my work, "The Life and
+Letters of Captain Marryat," I relate an anecdote of him that was
+entered in his private "log," and found amongst his papers. He had a
+younger brother, Samuel, to whom he was very much attached, and who died
+unexpectedly in England whilst my father, in command of H. M. S.
+_Larne_, was engaged in the first Burmese war. His men broke out with
+scurvy and he was ordered to take his vessel over to Pulu Pinang for a
+few weeks in order to get the sailors fresh fruit and vegetables. As my
+father was lying in his berth one night, anchored off the island, with
+the brilliant tropical moonlight making everything as bright as day, he
+saw the door of his cabin open, and his brother Samuel entered and
+walked quietly up to his side. He looked just the same as when they had
+parted, and uttered in a perfectly distinct voice, "Fred! I have come to
+tell you that I am dead!" When the figure entered the cabin my father
+jumped up in his berth, thinking it was some one coming to rob him, and
+when he saw who it was and heard it speak, he leaped out of bed with the
+intention of detaining it, but it was gone. So vivid was the impression
+made upon him by the apparition that he drew out his log at once and
+wrote down all particulars concerning it, with the hour and day of its
+appearance. On reaching England after the war was over, the first
+dispatches put into his hand were to announce the death of his brother,
+who had passed away at the very hour when he had seen him in the cabin.
+
+But the story that interests me most is one of an incident which
+occurred to my father during my lifetime, and which we have always
+called "The Brown Lady of Rainham." I am aware that this narrative has
+reached the public through other sources, and I have made it the
+foundation of a Christmas story myself. But it is too well authenticated
+to be omitted here. The last fifteen years of my father's life were
+passed on his own estate of Langham, in Norfolk, and amongst his county
+friends were Sir Charles and Lady Townshend of Rainham Hall. At the time
+I speak of, the title and property had lately changed hands, and the new
+baronet had re-papered, painted, and furnished the Hall throughout, and
+come down with his wife and a large party of friends to take possession.
+But to their annoyance, soon after their arrival, rumors arose that the
+house was haunted, and their guests began, one and all (like those in
+the parable), to make excuses to go home again. Sir Charles and Lady
+Townshend might have sung, "Friend after friend departs," with due
+effect, but it would have had none on the general exodus that took place
+from Rainham. And it was all on account of a Brown Lady, whose portrait
+hung in one of the bedrooms, and in which she was represented as wearing
+a brown satin dress with yellow trimmings, and a ruff around her
+throat--a very harmless, innocent-looking young woman. But they all
+declared they had seen her walking about the house--some in the
+corridor, some in their bedrooms, others in the lower premises, and
+neither guests nor servants would remain in the Hall. The baronet was
+naturally very much annoyed about it, and confided his trouble to my
+father, and my father was indignant at the trick he believed had been
+played upon him. There was a great deal of smuggling and poaching in
+Norfolk at that period, as he knew well, being a magistrate of the
+county, and he felt sure that some of these depredators were trying to
+frighten the Townshends away from the Hall again. The last baronet had
+been a solitary sort of being, and lead a retired life, and my father
+imagined some of the tenantry had their own reasons for not liking the
+introduction of revelries and "high jinks" at Rainham. So he asked his
+friends to let him stay with them and sleep in the haunted chamber, and
+he felt sure he could rid them of the nuisance. They accepted his offer,
+and he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the
+apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each
+night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he
+saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the
+third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet) knocked at
+his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over
+to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give
+them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in
+his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had
+retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he
+was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, "in case
+we meet the Brown Lady," he said, laughing. When the inspection of the
+gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would
+accompany my father back again, "in case you meet the Brown Lady," they
+repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in
+company.
+
+The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished,
+but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp
+coming towards them from the other end. "One of the ladies going to
+visit the nurseries," whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now
+the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a
+double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned
+country houses. My father (as I have said) was in a shirt and trousers
+only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped
+within one of the _outer_ doors (his friends following his example), in
+order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by. I have
+heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer,
+through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to
+distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognized the
+figure as the facsimile of the portrait of "The Brown Lady." He had his
+finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to
+stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted
+of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the
+lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and
+diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was
+anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor
+with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure
+instantly disappeared--the figure at which for the space of several
+minutes _three_ men had been looking together--and the bullet passed
+through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor,
+and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted
+again to interfere with "The Brown Lady of Rainham," and I have heard
+that she haunts the premises to this day. That she did so at that time,
+however, there is no shadow of doubt.
+
+But Captain Marryat not only held these views and believed in them from
+personal experience--he promulgated them in his writings. There are many
+passages in his works which, read by the light of my assertion, prove
+that he had faith in the possibility of the departed returning to visit
+this earth, and in the theory of re-incarnation or living more than one
+life upon it, but nowhere does he speak more plainly than in the
+following extract from the "Phantom Ship":--
+
+"Think you, Philip," (says Amine to her husband), "that this world is
+solely peopled by such dross as we are?--things of clay, perishable and
+corruptible, lords over beasts and ourselves, but little better? Have
+you not, from your own sacred writings, repeated acknowledgments and
+proofs of higher intelligences, mixing up with mankind, and acting here
+below? Why should what was _then_ not be _now_, and what more harm is
+there to apply for their aid now than a few thousand years ago? Why
+should you suppose that they were permitted on the earth then and not
+permitted now? What has become of them? Have they perished? Have they
+been ordered back? to where?--to heaven? If to heaven, the world and
+mankind have been left to the mercy of the devil and his agents. Do you
+suppose that we poor mortals have been thus abandoned? I tell you
+plainly, I think not. We no longer have the communication with those
+intelligences that we once had, because as we become more enlightened we
+become more proud and seek them not, but that they still exist a host of
+good against a host of evil, invisibly opposing each other, is my
+conviction."
+
+One testimony to such a belief, from the lips of my father, is
+sufficient. He would not have written it unless he had been prepared to
+maintain it. He was not one of those wretched literary cowards who we
+meet but too often now-a-days, who are too much afraid of the world to
+confess with their mouths the opinions they hold in their hearts. Had he
+lived to this time I believe he would have been one of the most
+energetic and outspoken believers in Spiritualism that we possess. So
+much, however, for his testimony to the possibility of spirits, good and
+evil, revisiting this earth. I think few will be found to gainsay the
+assertion that where _he_ trod, his daughter need not be ashamed to
+follow.
+
+Before the question of Spiritualism, however, arose in modern times, I
+had had my own little private experiences on the subject. From an early
+age I was accustomed to see, and to be very much alarmed at seeing,
+certain forms that appeared to me at night. One in particular, I
+remember, was that of a very short or deformed old woman, who was very
+constant to me. She used to stand on tiptoe to look at me as I lay in
+bed, and however dark the room might be, I could always see every
+article in it, as if illuminated, whilst she remained there.
+
+I was in the habit of communicating these visions to my mother and
+sisters (my father had passed from us by that time), and always got well
+ridiculed for my pains. "Another of Flo's optical illusions," they would
+cry, until I really came to think that the appearances I saw were due to
+some defect in my eye-sight. I have heard my first husband say, that
+when he married me he thought he should never rest for an entire night
+in his bed, so often did I wake him with the description of some man or
+woman I had seen in the room. I recall these figures distinctly. They
+were always dressed in white, from which circumstance I imagined that
+they were natives who had stolen in to rob us, until, from repeated
+observation, I discovered they only formed part of another and more
+enlarged series of my "optical illusions." All this time I was very much
+afraid of seeing what I termed "ghosts." No love of occult science led
+me to investigate the cause of my alarm. I only wished never to see the
+"illusions" again, and was too frightened to remain by myself lest they
+should appear to me.
+
+When I had been married for about two years, the head-quarters of my
+husband's regiment, the 12th Madras Native Infantry, was ordered to
+Rangoon, whilst the left wing, commanded by a Major Cooper, was sent to
+assist in the bombardment of Canton. Major Cooper had only been married
+a short time, and by rights his wife had no claim to sail with the
+head-quarters for Burmah, but as she had no friends in Madras, and was
+moreover expecting her confinement, our colonel permitted her to do so,
+and she accompanied us to Rangoon, settling herself in a house not far
+from our own. One morning, early in July, I was startled by receiving a
+hurried scrawl from her, containing only these words, "Come! come!
+come!" I set off at once, thinking she had been taken ill, but on my
+arrival I found Mrs. Cooper sitting up in bed with only her usual
+servants about her. "What is the matter?" I exclaimed. "Mark is dead,"
+she answered me; "he sat in that chair" (pointing to one by the bedside)
+"all last night. I noticed every detail of his face and figure. He was
+in undress, and he never raised his eyes, but sat with the peak of his
+forage cap pulled down over his face. But I could see the back of his
+head and his hair, and I know it was he. I spoke to him but he did not
+answer me, and I am _sure_ he is dead."
+
+Naturally, I imagined this vision to have been dictated solely by fear
+and the state of her health. I laughed at her for a simpleton, and told
+her it was nothing but fancy, and reminded her that by the last accounts
+received from the seat of war, Major Cooper was perfectly well and
+anticipating a speedy reunion with her. Laugh as I would, however, I
+could not laugh her out of her belief, and seeing how low-spirited she
+was, I offered to pass the night with her. It was a very nice night
+indeed. As soon as ever we had retired to bed, although a lamp burned in
+the room, Mrs. Cooper declared that her husband was sitting in the same
+chair as the night before, and accused me of deception when I declared
+that I saw nothing at all. I sat up in bed and strained my eyes, but I
+could discern nothing but an empty arm-chair, and told her so. She
+persisted that Major Cooper sat there, and described his personal
+appearance and actions. I got out of bed and sat in the chair, when she
+cried out, "Don't, don't! _You are sitting right on him!_" It was
+evident that the apparition was as real to her as if it had been flesh
+and blood. I jumped up again fast enough, not feeling very comfortable
+myself, and lay by her side for the remainder of the night, listening to
+her asseverations that Major Cooper was either dying or dead. She would
+not part with me, and on the third night I had to endure the same ordeal
+as on the second. After the third night the apparition ceased to appear
+to her, and I was permitted to return home. But before I did so, Mrs.
+Cooper showed me her pocket-book, in which she had written down against
+the 8th, 9th, and 10th of July this sentence: "Mark sat by my bedside
+all night."
+
+The time passed on, and no bad news arrived from China, but the mails
+had been intercepted and postal communication suspended. Occasionally,
+however, we received letters by a sailing vessel. At last came
+September, and on the third of that month Mrs. Cooper's baby was born
+and died. She was naturally in great distress about it, and I was doubly
+horrified when I was called from her bedside to receive the news of her
+husband's death, which had taken place from a sudden attack of fever at
+Macao. We did not intend to let Mrs. Cooper hear of this until she was
+convalescent, but as soon as I re-entered her room she broached the
+subject.
+
+"Are there any letters from China?" she asked. (Now this question was
+remarkable in itself, because the mails having been cut off, there was
+no particular date when letters might be expected to arrive from the
+seat of war.) Fearing she would insist upon hearing the news, I
+temporized and answered her, "We have received none." "But there is a
+letter for me," she continued: "a letter with the intelligence of Mark's
+death. It is useless denying it. I know he is dead. He died on the 10th
+of July." And on reference to the official memorandum, this was found to
+be true. Major Cooper had been taken ill on the first day he had
+appeared to his wife, and died on the third. And this incident was the
+more remarkable, because they were neither of them young nor sentimental
+people, neither had they lived long enough together to form any very
+strong sympathy or accord between them. But as I have related it, so it
+occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY FIRST SÉANCE.
+
+
+I had returned from India and spent several years in England before the
+subject of Modern Spiritualism was brought under my immediate notice.
+Cursorily I had heard it mentioned by some people as a dreadfully wicked
+thing, diabolical to the last degree, by others as a most amusing
+pastime for evening parties, or when one wanted to get some "fun out of
+the table." But neither description charmed me, nor tempted me to pursue
+the occupation. I had already lost too many friends. Spiritualism (so it
+seemed to me) must either be humbug or a very solemn thing, and I
+neither wished to trifle with it or to be trifled with by it. And after
+twenty years' continued experience I hold the same opinion. I have
+proved Spiritualism _not_ to be humbug, therefore I regard it in a
+sacred light. For, _from whatever cause_ it may proceed, it opens a vast
+area for thought to any speculative mind, and it is a matter of constant
+surprise to me to see the indifference with which the world regards it.
+That it _exists_ is an undeniable fact. Men of science have acknowledged
+it, and the churches cannot deny it. The only question appears to be,
+"_What_ is it, and _whence_ does the power proceed?" If (as many clever
+people assert) from ourselves, then must these bodies and minds of ours
+possess faculties hitherto undreamed of, and which we have allowed to
+lie culpably fallow. If our bodies contain magnetic forces sufficient to
+raise substantial and apparently living forms from the bare earth, which
+our eyes are clairvoyant enough to see, and which can articulate words
+which our ears are clairaudient enough to hear--if, in addition to this,
+our minds can read each other's inmost thoughts, can see what is passing
+at a distance, and foretell what will happen in the future, then are our
+human powers greater than we have ever imagined, and we ought to do a
+great deal more with them than we do. And even regarding Spiritualism
+from _that_ point of view, I cannot understand the lack of interest
+displayed in the discovery, to turn these marvellous powers of the human
+mind to greater account.
+
+To discuss it, however, from the usual meaning given to the word,
+namely, as a means of communication with the departed, leaves me as
+puzzled as before. All Christians acknowledge they have spirits
+independent of their bodies, and that when their bodies die, their
+spirits will continue to live on. Wherein, then, lies the terror of the
+idea that these liberated spirits will have the privilege of roaming the
+universe as they will? And if they argue the _impossibility_ of their
+return, they deny the records which form the only basis of their
+religion. No greater proof can be brought forward of the truth of
+Spiritualism than the truth of the Bible, which teems and bristles with
+accounts of it from beginning to end. From the period when the Lord God
+walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and the angels came to
+Abram's tent, and pulled Lot out of the doomed city; when the witch of
+Endor raised up Samuel, and Balaam's ass spoke, and Ezekiel wrote that
+the hair of his head stood up because "a spirit" passed before him, to
+the presence of Satan with Jesus in the desert, and the reappearance of
+Moses and Elias, the resurrection of Christ Himself, and His talking and
+eating with His disciples, and the final account of John being caught up
+to Heaven to receive the Revelations--_all is Spiritualism, and nothing
+else_. The Protestant Church that pins its faith upon the Bible, and
+nothing but the Bible, cannot deny that the spirits of mortal men have
+reappeared and been recognized upon this earth, as when the graves
+opened at the time of the Christ's crucifixion, and "many bodies of
+those that were dead arose and went into the city, and were seen of
+many." The Catholic Church does not attempt to deny it. All her legends
+and miracles (which are disbelieved and ridiculed by the Protestants
+aforesaid) are founded on the same truth--the miraculous or supernatural
+return (as it is styled) of those who are gone, though I hope to make my
+readers believe, as I do, that there is nothing miraculous in it, and
+far from being _super_natural it is only a continuation of Nature.
+Putting the churches and the Bible, however, on one side, the History of
+Nations proves it to be possible. There is not a people on the face of
+the globe that has not its (so-called) superstitions, nor a family
+hardly, which has not experienced some proofs of spiritual communion
+with earth. Where learning and science have thrust all belief out of
+sight, it is only natural that the man who does not believe in a God nor
+a Hereafter should not credit the existence of spirits, nor the
+possibility of communicating with them. But the lower we go in the scale
+of society, the more simple and childlike the mind, the more readily
+does such a faith gain credence, and the more stories you will hear to
+justify belief. It is just the same with religion, which is hid from the
+wise and prudent, and revealed to babes.
+
+If I am met here with the objection that the term "Spiritualism" has
+been at times mixed up with so much that is evil as to become an
+offence, I have no better answer to make than by turning to the
+irrefragable testimony of the Past and Present to prove that in all
+ages, and of all religions, there have been corrupt and demoralized
+exponents whose vices have threatened to pull down the fabric they lived
+to raise. Christianity itself would have been overthrown before now, had
+we been unable to separate its doctrine from its practice.
+
+I held these views in the month of February, 1873, when I made one of a
+party of friends assembled at the house of Miss Elizabeth Philip, in
+Gloucester Crescent, and was introduced to Mr. Henry Dunphy of the
+_Morning Post_, both of them since gone to join the great majority. Mr.
+Dunphy soon got astride of his favorite hobby of Spiritualism, and gave
+me an interesting account of some of the _séances_ he had attended. I
+had heard so many clever men and women discuss the subject before, that
+I had begun to believe on their authority that there must be "something
+in it," but I held the opinion that sittings in the dark must afford so
+much liberty for deception, that I would engage in none where I was not
+permitted the use of my eyesight.
+
+I expressed myself somewhat after this fashion to Mr. Dunphy. He
+replied, "Then the time has arrived for you to investigate Spiritualism,
+for I can introduce you to a medium who will show you the faces of the
+dead." This proposal exactly met my wishes, and I gladly accepted it.
+Annie Thomas (Mrs. Pender Cudlip,) the novelist, who is an intimate
+friend of mine, was staying with me at the time and became as eager as I
+was to investigate the phenomena. We took the address Mr. Dunphy gave us
+of Mrs. Holmes, the American medium, then visiting London, and lodging
+in Old Quebec Street, Portman Square, but we refused his introduction,
+preferring to go _incognito_. Accordingly, the next evening, when she
+held a public _séance_, we presented ourselves at Mrs. Holmes' door; and
+having first removed our wedding-rings, and tried to look as virginal as
+possible, sent up our names as Miss Taylor and Miss Turner. I am
+perfectly aware that this medium was said afterwards to be
+untrustworthy. So may a servant who was perfectly honest, whilst in my
+service, leave me for a situation where she is detected in theft. That
+does not alter the fact that she stole nothing from me. I do not think I
+know _a single medium_ of whom I have not (at some time or other) heard
+the same thing, and I do not think I know a single woman whom I have not
+also, at some time or other, heard scandalized by her own sex, however
+pure and chaste she may imagine the world holds her. The question
+affects me in neither case. I value my acquaintances for what they are
+_to me_, not for what they may be to others; and I have placed trust in
+my media from what I individually have seen and heard, and proved to be
+genuine in their presence, and not from what others may imagine they
+have found out about them. It is no detriment to my witness that the
+media I sat with cheated somebody else, either before or after. My
+business was only to take care that _I_ was not cheated, and I have
+never, in Spiritualism, accepted anything at the hands of others that I
+could not prove for myself.
+
+Mrs. Holmes did not receive us very graciously on the present occasion.
+We were strangers to her--probably sceptics, and she eyed us rather
+coldly. It was a bitter night, and the snow lay so thick upon the ground
+that we had some difficulty in procuring a hansom to take us from
+Bayswater to Old Quebec Street. No other visitors arrived, and after a
+little while Mrs. Holmes offered to return our money (ten shillings), as
+she said if she did sit with us, there would probably be no
+manifestations on account of the inclemency of the weather. (Often since
+then I have proved her assertion to be true, and found that any extreme
+of heat or cold is liable to make a _séance_ a dead failure).
+
+But Annie Thomas had to return to her home in Torquay on the following
+day, and so we begged the medium to try at least to show us something,
+as we were very curious on the subject. I am not quite sure what I
+expected or hoped for on this occasion. I was full of curiosity and
+anticipation, but I am sure that I never thought I should see any face
+which I could recognize as having been on earth. We waited till nine
+o'clock in hopes that a circle would be formed, but as no one else came,
+Mrs. Holmes consented to sit with us alone, warning us, however, several
+times to prepare for a disappointment. The lights were therefore
+extinguished, and we sat for the usual preliminary dark _séance_, which
+was good, perhaps, but has nothing to do with a narrative of facts,
+proved to be so. When it concluded, the gas was re-lit and we sat for
+"Spirit Faces."
+
+There were two small rooms connected by folding doors. Annie Thomas and
+I, were asked to go into the back room--to lock the door communicating
+with the landings, and secure it with our own seal, stamped upon a piece
+of tape stretched across the opening--to examine the window and bar the
+shutter inside--to search the room thoroughly, in fact, to see that no
+one was concealed in it--and we did all this as a matter of business.
+When we had satisfied ourselves that no one could enter from the back,
+Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, Annie Thomas, and I were seated on four chairs in
+the front room, arranged in a row before the folding doors, which were
+opened, and a square of black calico fastened across the aperture from
+one wall to the other. In this piece of calico was cut a square hole
+about the size of an ordinary window, at which we were told the spirit
+faces (if any) would appear. There was no singing, nor noise of any sort
+made to drown the sounds of preparation, and we could have heard even a
+rustle in the next room. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes talked to us of their
+various experiences, until, we were almost tired of waiting, when
+something white and indistinct like a cloud of tobacco smoke, or a
+bundle of gossamer, appeared and disappeared again.
+
+"They are coming! I _am_ glad!" said Mrs. Holmes. "I didn't think we
+should get anything to-night,"--and my friend and I were immediately on
+the tiptoe of expectation. The white mass advanced and retreated several
+times, and finally settled before the aperture and opened in the
+middle, when a female face was distinctly to be seen above the black
+calico. What was our amazement to recognize the features of Mrs. Thomas,
+Annie Thomas' mother. Here I should tell my readers that Annie's father,
+who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and captain of the coastguard at
+Morston in Norfolk, had been a near neighbor and great friend of my
+father, Captain Marryat, and their children had associated like brothers
+and sisters. I had therefore known Mrs. Thomas well, and recognized her
+at once, as, of course, did her daughter. The witness of two people is
+considered sufficient in law. It ought to be accepted by society. Poor
+Annie was very much affected, and talked to her mother in the most
+incoherent manner. The spirit did not appear able to answer in words,
+but she bowed her head or shook it, according as she wished to say "yes"
+or "no." I could not help feeling awed at the appearance of the dear old
+lady, but the only thing that puzzled me was the cap she wore, which was
+made of white net, quilled closely round her face, and unlike any I had
+ever seen her wear in life. I whispered this to Annie, and she replied
+at once, "It is the cap she was buried in," which settled the question.
+Mrs. Thomas had possessed a very pleasant but very uncommon looking
+face, with bright black eyes, and a complexion of pink and white like
+that of a child. It was some time before Annie could be persuaded to let
+her mother go, but the next face that presented itself astonished her
+quite as much, for she recognized it as that of Captain Gordon, a
+gentleman whom she had known intimately and for a length of time. I had
+never seen Captain Gordon in the flesh, but I had heard of him, and knew
+he had died from a sudden accident. All I saw was the head of a
+good-looking, fair, young man, and not feeling any personal interest in
+his appearance, I occupied the time during which my friend conversed
+with him about olden days, by minutely examining the working of the
+muscles of his throat, which undeniably stretched when his head moved.
+As I was doing so, he leaned forward, and I saw a dark stain, which
+looked like a clot of blood, on his fair hair, on the left side of the
+forehead.
+
+"Annie! what did Captain Gordon die of?" I asked. "He fell from a
+railway carriage," she replied, "and struck his head upon the line." I
+then pointed out to her the blood upon his hair. Several other faces
+appeared, which we could not recognize. At last came one of a gentleman,
+apparently moulded like a bust in plaster of Paris. He had a kind of
+smoking cap upon the head, curly hair, and a beard, but from being
+perfectly colorless, he looked so unlike nature, that I could not trace
+a resemblance to any friend of mine, though he kept on bowing in my
+direction, to indicate that I knew, or had known him. I examined this
+face again and again in vain. Nothing in it struck me as familiar, until
+the mouth broke into a grave, amused smile at my perplexity. In a moment
+I recognized it as that of my dear old friend, John Powles, whose
+history I shall relate _in extenso_ further on. I exclaimed "Powles,"
+and sprang towards it, but with my hasty action the figure disappeared.
+I was terribly vexed at my imprudence, for this was the friend of all
+others I desired to see, and sat there, hoping and praying the spirit
+would return, but it did not. Annie Thomas' mother and friend both came
+back several times; indeed, Annie recalled Captain Gordon so often, that
+on his last appearance the power was so exhausted, his face looked like
+a faded sketch in water-colors, but "Powles" had vanished altogether.
+The last face we saw that night was that of a little girl, and only her
+eyes and nose were visible, the rest of her head and face being
+enveloped in some white flimsy material like muslin. Mrs. Holmes asked
+her for whom she came, and she intimated that it was for me. I said she
+must be mistaken, and that I had known no one in life like her. The
+medium questioned her very closely, and tried to put her "out of court,"
+as it were. Still, the child persisted that she came for me. Mrs. Holmes
+said to me, "Cannot you remember _anyone_ of that age connected with you
+in the spirit world? No cousin, nor niece, nor sister, nor the child of
+a friend?" I tried to remember, but I could not, and answered, "No! no
+child of that age." She then addressed the little spirit. "You have made
+a mistake. There is no one here who knows you. You had better move on."
+So the child did move on, but very slowly and reluctantly. I could read
+her disappointment in her eyes, and after she had disappeared, she
+peeped round the corner again and looked at me, longingly. This was
+"Florence," my dear _lost_ child (as I then called her), who had left me
+as a little infant of ten days old, and whom I could not at first
+recognize as a young girl of ten years. Her identity, however, has been
+proved to me since, beyond all doubt, as will be seen in the chapter
+which relates my reunion with her, and is headed "My Spirit Child." Thus
+ended the first _séance_ at which I ever assisted, and it made a
+powerful impression upon my mind. Mrs. Holmes, in bidding us good-night,
+said, "You two ladies must be very powerful mediums. I never held so
+successful a _séance_ with strangers in my life before." This news
+elated us--we were eager to pursue our investigations, and were
+enchanted to think we could have _séances_ at home, and as soon as Annie
+Thomas took up her residence in London, we agreed to hold regular
+meetings for the purpose. This was the _séance_ that made me a student
+of the psychological phenomena, which the men of the nineteenth century
+term Spiritualism. Had it turned out a failure, I might now have been as
+most men are. _Quien sabe?_ As it was, it incited me to go on and on,
+until I have seen and heard things which at that moment would have
+seemed utterly impossible to me. And I would not have missed the
+experience I have passed through for all the good this world could offer
+me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CURIOUS COINCIDENCES.
+
+
+Before I proceed to write down the results of my private and
+premeditated investigations, I am reminded to say a word respecting the
+permission I received for the pursuit of Spiritualism. As soon as I
+expressed my curiosity on the subject, I was met on all sides with the
+objection that, as I am a Catholic, I could not possibly have anything
+to do with the matter, and it is a fact that the Church strictly forbids
+all meddling with necromancy, or communion with the departed. Necromancy
+is a terrible word, is it not? especially to such people as do not
+understand its meaning, and only associate it with the dead of night and
+charmed circles, and seething caldrons, and the arch fiend, in _propria
+persona_, with two horns and a tail. Yet it seems strange to me that the
+Catholic Church, whose very doctrine is overlaid with Spiritualism, and
+who makes it a matter of belief that the Saints hear and help us in our
+prayers and the daily actions of our lives, and recommends our kissing
+the ground every morning at the feet of our guardian angel, should
+consider it unlawful for us to communicate with our departed relatives.
+I cannot see the difference in iniquity between speaking to John Powles,
+who was and is a dear and trusted friend of mine, and Saint Peter of
+Alcantara, who is an old man whom I never saw in this life. They were
+both men, both mortal, and are both spirits. Again, surely my mother who
+was a pious woman all her life, and is now in the other world, would be
+just as likely to take an interest in my welfare, and to try and promote
+the prospect of our future meeting, as Saint Veronica Guiliani, who is
+my patron. Yet were I to spend half my time in prayer before Saint
+Veronica's altar, asking her help and guidance, I should be doing right
+(according to the Church), but if I did the same thing at my mother's
+grave, or spoke to her at a _séance_, I should be doing wrong. These
+distinctions without a difference were hard nuts to crack, and I was
+bound to settle the matter with my conscience before I went on with my
+investigations.
+
+It is a fact that I have met quite as many Catholics as Protestants
+(especially of the higher classes) amongst the investigators of
+Spiritualism, and I have not been surprised at it, for who could better
+understand and appreciate the beauty of communications from the spirit
+world than members of that Church which instructs us to believe in the
+communion of saints, as an ever-present, though invisible mystery.
+Whether my Catholic acquaintances had received permission to attend
+_séances_ or not, was no concern of mine, but I took good care to
+procure it for myself, and I record it here, because rumors have
+constantly reached me of people having said behind my back that I can be
+"no Catholic" because I am a spiritualist.
+
+My director at that time was Father Dalgairn, of the Oratory at
+Brompton, and it was to him I took my difficulty. I was a very constant
+press writer and reviewer, and to be unable to attend and report on
+spiritualistic meetings would have seriously militated against my
+professional interests. I represented this to the Father, and (although
+under protest) I received his permission to pursue the research in the
+cause of science. He did more than ease my conscience. He became
+interested in what I had to tell him on the subject, and we had many
+conversations concerning it. He also lent me from his own library the
+lives of such saints as had heard voices and seen visions, of those in
+fact who (like myself) had been the victims of "Optical Illusions."
+Amongst these I found the case of Saint Anne-Catherine of Emmerich, so
+like my own, that I began to think that I too might turn out to be a
+saint in disguise. It has not come to pass yet, but there is no knowing
+what may happen.
+
+She used to see the spirits floating beside her as she walked to mass,
+and heard them asking her to pray for them as they pointed to "les
+taches sur leurs robes." The musical instruments used to play without
+hands in her presence, and voices from invisible throats sound in her
+ears, as they have done in mine. I have only inserted this clause,
+however, for the satisfaction of those Catholic acquaintances with whom
+I have sat at _séances_, and who will probably be the first to exclaim
+against the publication of _our_ joint experiences. I trust they will
+acknowledge, after reading it, that I am not worse than themselves,
+though I may be a little bolder in avowing my opinions.
+
+Before I began this chapter, I had an argument with that friend of mine
+called Self (who has but too often worsted me in the Battle of Life), as
+to whether I should say anything about table-rapping or tilting. The
+very fact of so common an article of furniture as a table, as an agent
+of communication with the unseen world, has excited so much ridicule and
+opens so wide a field for chicanery, that I thought it would be wiser to
+drop the subject, and confine myself to those phases of the science or
+art, or religion, or whatever the reader may like to call it, that can
+be explained or described on paper. The philosophers of the nineteenth
+century have invented so many names for the cause that makes a table
+turn round--tilt--or rap--that I feel quite unable (not being a
+philosopher) to cope with them. It is "magnetic force" or "psychic
+force,"--it is "unconscious cerebration" or "brain-reading"--and it is
+exceedingly difficult to tell the outside world of the private reasons
+that convince individuals that the answers they receive are _not_
+emanations from their own brains. I shall not attempt to refute their
+reasonings from their own standpoint. I see the difficulties in the way,
+so much so that I have persistently refused for many years past to sit
+at the table with strangers, for it is only a lengthened study of the
+matter that can possibly convince a person of its truth. I cannot,
+however, see the extreme folly myself of holding communication (under
+the circumstances) through the raps or tilts of a table, or any other
+object. These tiny indications of an influence ulterior to our own are
+not necessarily confined to a table. I have received them through a
+cardboard box, a gentleman's hat, a footstool, the strings of a guitar,
+and on the back of my chair, even on the pillow of my bed. And which,
+amongst the philosophers I have alluded to, could suggest a simpler mode
+of communication?
+
+I have put the question to clever men thus: "Suppose yourself, after
+having been able to write and talk to me, suddenly deprived of the
+powers of speech and touch, and made invisible, so that we could not
+understand each other by signs, what better means than by taps or tilts
+on any article, when the right word or letter is named, could you think
+of by which to communicate with me?"
+
+And my clever men have never been able to propose an easier or more
+sensible plan, and if anybody can suggest one, I should very much like
+to hear of it. The following incidents all took place through the
+much-ridiculed tipping of the table, but managed to knock some sense out
+of it nevertheless. On looking over the note book which I faithfully
+kept when we first held _séances_ at home, I find many tests of identity
+which took place through my own mediumship, and which could not possibly
+have been the effects of thought-reading. I devote this chapter to their
+relation. I hope it will be observed with what admirable caution I have
+headed it. I have a few drops of Scotch blood in me by the mother's
+side, and I think they must have aided me here. "Curious coincidences."
+Why, not the most captious and unbelieving critic of them all can find
+fault with so modest and unpretending a title. Everyone believes in the
+occasional possibility of "curious coincidences."
+
+It was not until the month of June, 1873, that we formed a home circle,
+and commenced regularly to sit together. We became so interested in the
+pursuit, that we used to sit every evening, and sometimes till three and
+four o'clock in the morning, greatly to our detriment, both mental and
+physical. We seldom sat alone, being generally joined by two or three
+friends from outside, and the results were sometimes very startling, as
+we were a strong circle. The memoranda of these sittings, sometimes with
+one party and sometimes with another, extend over a period of years, but
+I shall restrict myself to relating a few incidents that were verified
+by subsequent events.
+
+The means by which we communicated with the influences around us was the
+usual one. We sat round the table and laid our hands upon it, and I (or
+anyone who might be selected for the purpose) spelled over the alphabet,
+and raps or tilts occurred when the desired letter was reached. This in
+reality is not so tedious a process as it may appear, and once used to
+it, one may get through a vast amount of conversation in an hour by this
+means. A medium is soon able to guess the word intended to be spelt, for
+there are not so many after all in use in general conversation.
+
+Some one had come to our table on several occasions, giving the name of
+"Valerie," but refusing to say any more, so we thought she was an idle
+or frivolous spirit, and had been in the habit of driving her away. One
+evening, on the 1st of July, however, our circle was augmented by Mr.
+Henry Stacke, when "Valerie" was immediately spelled out, and the
+following conversation ensued. Mr. Stacke said to me, "Who is this?" and
+I replied carelessly, "O! she's a little devil! She never has anything
+to say." The table rocked violently at this, and the taps spelled out.
+
+"Je ne suis pas diable."
+
+"Hullo! Valerie, so you can talk now! For whom do you come?"
+
+"Monsieur Stacke."
+
+"Where did you meet him?"
+
+"On the Continent."
+
+"Whereabouts?"
+
+"Between Dijon and Macon."
+
+"How did you meet him?"
+
+"In a railway carriage."
+
+"What where you doing there?"
+
+Here she relapsed into French, and said,
+
+"Ce m'est impossible de dire."
+
+At this juncture Mr. Stacke observed that he had never been in a train
+between Dijon and Macon but once in his life, and if the spirit was with
+him then, she must remember what was the matter with their
+fellow-passenger.
+
+"Mais oui, oui--il etait fou," she replied, which proved to be perfectly
+correct. Mr. Stacke also remembered that two ladies in the same carriage
+had been terribly frightened, and he had assisted them to get into
+another. "Valerie" continued, "Priez pour moi."
+
+"Pourquoi, Valerie?"
+
+"Parce que j'ai beaucoup péché."
+
+There was an influence who frequented our society at that time and
+called himself "Charlie."
+
+He stated that his full name had been "Stephen Charles Bernard
+Abbot,"--that he had been a monk of great literary attainments--that he
+had embraced the monastic life in the reign of Queen Mary, and
+apostatized for political reasons in that of Elizabeth, and been "earth
+bound" in consequence ever since.
+
+"Charlie" asked us to sing one night, and we struck up the very vulgar
+refrain of "Champagne Charlie," to which he greatly objected, asking for
+something more serious.
+
+I began, "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon."
+
+"Why, that's as bad as the other," said Charlie. "It was a ribald and
+obscene song in the reign of Elizabeth. The drunken roysterers used to
+sing it in the street as they rolled home at night."
+
+"You must be mistaken, Charlie! It's a well-known Scotch air."
+
+"It's no more Scotch than I am," he replied. "The Scotch say they
+invented everything. It's a tune of the time of Elizabeth. Ask Brinley
+Richards."
+
+Having the pleasure of the acquaintance of that gentleman, who was the
+great authority on the origin of National Ballads, I applied to him for
+the information, and received an answer to say that "Charlie" was right,
+but that Mr. Richards had not been aware of the fact himself until he
+had searched some old MSS. in the British Museum for the purpose of
+ascertaining the truth.
+
+I was giving a sitting once to an officer from Aldershot, a cousin of my
+own, who was quite prepared to ridicule every thing that took place.
+After having teased me into giving him a _séance_, he began by cheating
+himself, and then accused me of cheating him, and altogether tired out
+my patience. At last I proposed a test, though with little hope of
+success.
+
+"Let us ask John Powles to go down to Aldershot," I said, "and bring us
+word what your brother officers are doing."
+
+"O, yes! by Jove! Capital idea! Here! you fellow Powles, cut off to the
+camp, will you, and go to the barracks of the 84th, and let us know what
+Major R---- is doing." The message came back in about three minutes.
+"Major R---- has just come in from duty," spelt out Powles. "He is
+sitting on the side of his bed, changing his uniform trousers for a pair
+of grey tweed."
+
+"I'm sure that's wrong," said my cousin, "because the men are never
+called out at this time of the day."
+
+It was then four o'clock, as we had been careful to ascertain. My cousin
+returned to camp the same evening, and the next day I received a note
+from him to say, "That fellow Powles is a brick. It was quite right.
+R---- was unexpectedly ordered to turn out his company yesterday
+afternoon, and he returned to barracks and changed his things for the
+grey tweed suit exactly at four o'clock."
+
+But I have always found my friend Powles (when he _will_ condescend to
+do anything for strangers, which is seldom) remarkably correct in
+detailing the thoughts and actions of absentees, sometimes on the other
+side of the globe.
+
+I went one afternoon to pay an ordinary social call on a lady named Mrs.
+W----, and found her engaged in an earnest conversation on Spiritualism
+with a stout woman and a commonplace man--two as material looking
+individuals as ever I saw, and who appeared all the more so under a
+sultry August sun. As soon as Mrs. W---- saw me, she exclaimed, "O! here
+is Mrs. Ross-Church. She will tell you all about the spirits. Do, Mrs.
+Ross-Church, sit down at the table and let us have a _séance_."
+
+A _séance_ on a burning, blazing afternoon in August, with two stolid
+and uninteresting, and worse still, _uninterested_ looking strangers,
+who appeared to think Mrs. W---- had a "bee in her bonnet." I
+protested--I reasoned--I pleaded--all in vain. My hostess continued to
+urge, and society places the guest at the mercy of her hostess. So, in
+an evil temper, I pulled off my gloves, and placed my hands
+indifferently on the table. The following words were at once rapped
+out--
+
+"I am Edward G----. Did you ever pay Johnson the seventeen pounds twelve
+you received for my saddlery?"
+
+The gentleman opposite to me turned all sorts of colors, and began to
+stammer out a reply, whilst his wife looked very confused. I asked the
+influence, "Who are you?" It replied, "_He_ knows! His late colonel! Why
+hasn't Johnson received that money?" This is what I call an "awkward"
+coincidence, and I have had many such occur through me--some that have
+driven acquaintances away from the table, vowing vengeance against me,
+and racking their brains to discover _who_ had told me of their secret
+peccadilloes. The gentleman in question (whose name even I do not
+remember) confessed that the identity and main points of the message
+were true, but he did _not_ confide to us whether Johnson had ever
+received that seventeen pounds twelve.
+
+I had a beautiful English greyhound, called "Clytie," a gift from Annie
+Thomas to me, and this dog was given to straying from my house in
+Colville Road, Bayswater, which runs parallel to Portobello Road, a
+rather objectionable quarter, composed of inferior shops, one of which,
+a fried fish shop, was an intolerable nuisance, and used to fill the
+air around with its rich perfume. On one occasion "Clytie" stayed away
+from home so much longer than usual, that I was afraid she was lost in
+good earnest, and posted bills offering a reward for her. "Charlie" came
+to the table that evening and said, "Don't offer a reward for the dog.
+Send for her."
+
+"Where am I to send?" I asked.
+
+"She is tied up at the fried fish shop in Portobello Road. Send the cook
+to see."
+
+I told the servant in question that I had heard the greyhound was
+detained at the fish shop, and sent her to inquire. She returned with
+"Clytie." Her account was, that on making inquiries, the man in the shop
+had been very insolent to her, and she had raised her voice in reply;
+that she had then heard and recognized the sharp, peculiar bark of the
+greyhound from an upper storey, and, running up before the man could
+prevent her, she had found "Clytie" tied up to a bedstead with a piece
+of rope, and had called in a policeman to enable her to take the dog
+away. I have often heard the assertion that Spiritualism is of no
+practical good, and, doubtless, it was never intended to be so, but this
+incident was, at least, an exception to the rule.
+
+When abroad, on one occasion, I was asked by a Catholic Abbé to sit with
+him. He had never seen any manifestations before, and he did not believe
+in them, but he was curious on the subject. I knew nothing of him
+further than that he was a priest, and a Jesuit, and a great friend of
+my sister's, at whose house I was staying. He spoke English, and the
+conversation was carried on in that language. He had told me beforehand
+that if he could receive a perfectly private test, that he should never
+doubt the truth of the manifestations again. I left him, therefore, to
+conduct the investigation entirely by himself, I acting only as the
+medium between him and the influence. As soon as the table moved he put
+his question direct, without asking who was there to answer it.
+
+"Where is my chasuble?"
+
+Now a priest's chasuble, _I_ should have said, must be either hanging in
+the sacristy or packed away at home, or been sent away to be altered or
+mended. But the answer was wide of all my speculations.
+
+"At the bottom of the Red Sea."
+
+The priest started, but continued--
+
+"Who put it there?"
+
+"Elias Dodo."
+
+"What was his object in doing so?"
+
+"He found the parcel a burthen, and did not expect any reward for
+delivering it."
+
+The Abbé really looked as if he had encountered the devil. He wiped the
+perspiration from his forehead, and put one more question.
+
+"Of what was my chasuble made?"
+
+"Your sister's wedding dress."
+
+The priest then explained to me that his sister had made him a chasuble
+out of her wedding dress--one of the forms of returning thanks in the
+Church, but that after a while it became old fashioned, and the Bishop,
+going his rounds, ordered him to get another. He did not like to throw
+away his sister's gift, so he decided to send the old chasuble to a
+priest in India, where they are very poor, and not so particular as to
+fashion. He confided the packet to a man called Elias Dodo, a
+sufficiently singular name, but neither he nor the priest he sent it to
+had ever heard anything more of the chasuble, or the man who promised to
+deliver it.
+
+A young artist of the name of Courtney was a visitor at my house. He
+asked me to sit with him alone, when the table began rapping out a
+number of consonants--a farrago of nonsense, it appeared to me, and I
+stopped and said so. But Mr. Courtney, who appeared much interested,
+begged me to proceed. When the communication was finished, he said to
+me, "This is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard. My father has
+been at the table talking to me in Welsh. He has told me our family
+motto, and all about my birth-place and relations in Wales." I said, "I
+never heard you were a Welshman." "Yes! I am," he replied, "my real name
+is Powell. I have only adopted the name of Courtney for professional
+purposes."
+
+This was all news to me, but had it not been, _I cannot speak Welsh_.
+
+I could multiply such cases by the dozen, but that I fear to tire my
+readers, added to which the majority of them were of so strictly private
+a nature that it would be impossible to put them into print. This is
+perhaps the greatest drawback that one encounters in trying to prove
+the truth of Spiritualism. The best tests we receive are when the very
+secrets of our hearts, which we have not confided to our nearest
+friends, are revealed to us. I could relate (had I the permission of the
+persons most interested) the particulars of a well-known law suit, in
+which the requisite evidence, and names and addresses of witnesses, were
+all given though my mediumship, and were the cause of the case being
+gained by the side that came to me for "information." Some of the
+coincidences I have related in this chapter might, however, be ascribed
+by the sceptical to the mysterious and unknown power of brain reading,
+whatever that may be, and however it may come, apart from mediumship,
+but how is one to account for the facts I shall tell you in my next
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+EMBODIED SPIRITS.
+
+
+I was having a sitting one day in my own house with a lady friend, named
+Miss Clark, when a female spirit came to the table and spelt out the
+name "Tiny."
+
+"Who are you?" I asked, "and for whom do you come?"
+
+"I am a friend of Major M----" (mentioning the full name), "and I want
+your help."
+
+"Are you any relation to Major M----?"
+
+"I am the mother of his child."
+
+"What do you wish me to do for you?"
+
+"Tell him he must go down to Portsmouth and look after my daughter. He
+has not seen her for years. The old woman is dead, and the man is a
+drunkard. She is falling into evil courses. He must save her from them."
+
+"What is your real name?"
+
+"I will not give it. There is no need. He always called me 'Tiny.'"
+
+"How old is your daughter."
+
+"Nineteen! Her name is Emily! I want her to be married. Tell him to
+promise her a wedding trousseau. It may induce her to marry."
+
+The influence divulged a great deal more on the subject which I cannot
+write down here. It was an account of one of those cruel acts of
+seduction by which a young girl had been led into trouble in order to
+gratify a man's selfish lust, and astonished both Miss Clark and myself,
+who had never heard of such a person as "Tiny" before. It was too
+delicate a matter for me to broach to Major M---- (who was a married
+man, and an intimate friend of mine), but the spirit came so many times
+and implored me so earnestly to save her daughter, that at last I
+ventured to repeat the communication to him. He was rather taken aback,
+but confessed it was true, and that the child, being left to his care,
+had been given over to the charge of some common people at Portsmouth,
+and he had not enquired after it for some time past. Neither had he ever
+heard of the death of the mother, who had subsequently married, and had
+a family. He instituted inquiries, however, at once, and found the
+statement to be quite true, and that the girl Emily, being left with no
+better protection than that of the drunken old man, had actually gone
+astray, and not long after she was had up at the police court for
+stabbing a soldier in a public-house--a fit ending for the unfortunate
+offspring of a man's selfish passions. But the strangest part of the
+story to the uninitiated will lie in the fact that the woman whose
+spirit thus manifested itself to two utter strangers, who knew neither
+her history nor her name, was at the time _alive_, and living with her
+husband and family, as Major M---- took pains to ascertain.
+
+And now I have something to say on the subject of communicating with the
+spirits of persons still in the flesh. This will doubtless appear the
+most incomprehensible and fanatical assertion of all, that we wear our
+earthly garb so loosely, that the spirits of people still living in this
+world can leave the body and manifest themselves either visibly or
+orally to others in their normal condition. And yet it is a fact that
+spirits have so visited myself (as in the case I have just recorded),
+and given me information of which I had not the slightest previous idea.
+The matter has been explained to me after this fashion--that it is not
+really the spirit of the living person who communicates, but the spirit,
+or "control," that is nearest to him: in effect what the Church calls
+his "guardian angel," and that this guardian angel, who knows his inmost
+thoughts and desires better even than he knows them himself, is equally
+capable of speaking in his name. This idea of the matter may shift the
+marvel from one pair of shoulders to another, but it does not do away
+with it. If I can receive information of events before they occur (as I
+will prove that I have), I present a nut for the consideration of the
+public jaw, which even the scientists will find difficult to crack. It
+was at one time my annual custom to take my children to the sea-side,
+and one summer, being anxious to ascertain how far the table could be
+made to act without the aid of "unconscious cerebration," I arranged
+with my friends, Mr. Helmore and Mrs. Colnaghi, who had been in the
+habit of sitting with us at home, that _we_ should continue to sit at
+the sea-side on Tuesday evenings as theretofore, and _they_ should sit
+in London on the Thursdays, when I would try to send them messages
+through "Charlie," the spirit I have already mentioned as being
+constantly with us.
+
+The first Tuesday my message was, "Ask them how they are getting on
+without us," which was faithfully delivered at their table on the
+following Thursday. The return message from them which "Charlie" spelled
+out for us on the second Tuesday, was: "Tell her London is a desert
+without her," to which I emphatically, if not elegantly, answered,
+"Fiddle-de-dee!" A few days afterwards I received a letter from Mr.
+Helmore, in which he said, "I am afraid 'Charlie' is already tired of
+playing at postman, for to all our questions about you last Thursday, he
+would only rap out, 'Fiddle-de-dee.'"
+
+The circumstance to which this little episode is but an introduction
+happened a few days later. Mr. Colnaghi and Mr. Helmore, sitting
+together as usual on Thursday evening, were discussing the possibility
+of summoning the spirits of _living persons_ to the table, when
+"Charlie" rapped three times to intimate they could.
+
+"Will you fetch some one for us, Charlie?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Whom will you bring?"
+
+"Mrs. Ross-Church."
+
+"How long will it take you to do so?"
+
+"Fifteen minutes."
+
+It was in the middle of the night when I must have been fast asleep, and
+the two young men told me afterwards that they waited the results of
+their experiment with much trepidation, wondering (I suppose) if I
+should be conveyed bodily into their presence and box their ears well
+for their impertinence. Exactly fifteen minutes afterwards, however, the
+table was violently shaken and the words were spelt out. "I am Mrs.
+Ross-Church. How _dared_ you send for me?" They were very penitent (or
+they said they were), but they described my manner as most arbitrary,
+and said I went on repeating, "Let me go back! Let me go back! There is
+a great danger hanging over my children! I must go back to my children!"
+(And here I would remark _par parenthèse_, and in contradiction of the
+guardian angel theory, that I have always found that whilst the spirits
+of the departed come and go as they feel inclined, the spirits of the
+living invariably _beg_ to be sent back again or permitted to go, as if
+they were chained by the will of the medium.) On this occasion I was so
+positive that I made a great impression on my two friends, and the next
+day Mr. Helmore sent me a cautiously worded letter to find out if all
+was well with us at Charmouth, but without disclosing the reason for his
+curiosity.
+
+The _facts_ are, that on the morning of _Friday_, the day _after_ the
+_séance_ in London, my seven children and two nurses were all sitting in
+a small lodging-house room, when my brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Norris,
+came in from ball practice with the volunteers, and whilst exhibiting
+his rifle to my son, accidentally discharged it in the midst of them,
+the ball passing through the wall within two inches of my eldest
+daughter's head. When I wrote the account of this to Mr. Helmore, he
+told me of my visit to London and the words I had spelt out on the
+occasion. But how did I know of the occurrence the _night before_ it
+took place? And if I--being asleep and unconscious--did _not_ know of
+it, "Charlie" must have done so.
+
+My ærial visits to my friends, however, whilst my body was in quite
+another place, have been made still more palpable than this. Once, when
+living in the Regent's Park, I passed a very terrible and painful night.
+Grief and fear kept me awake most of the time, and the morning found me
+exhausted with the emotion I had gone through. About eleven o'clock
+there walked in, to my surprise, Mrs. Fitzgerald (better known as a
+medium under her maiden name of Bessie Williams), who lived in the
+Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush. "I couldn't help coming to you," she
+commenced, "for I shall not be easy until I know how you are after the
+terrible scene you have passed through." I stared at her. "Whom have you
+seen?" I asked. "Who has told you of it?" "Yourself," she replied. "I
+was waked up this morning between two and three o'clock by the sound of
+sobbing and crying in the front garden. I got out of bed and opened the
+window, and then I saw you standing on the grass plat in your
+night-dress and crying bitterly. I asked you what was the matter, and
+you told me so and so, and so and so." And here followed a detailed
+account of all that had happened in my own house on the other side of
+London, with the _very words_ that had been used, and every action that
+had happened. I had seen no one and spoken to no one between the
+occurrence and the time Mrs. Fitzgerald called upon me. If her story was
+untrue, _who_ had so minutely informed her of a circumstance which it
+was to the interest of all concerned to keep to themselves?
+
+When I first joined Mr. d'Oyley Carte's "Patience" Company in the
+provinces, to play the part of "Lady Jane," I understood I was to have
+four days' rehearsal. However, the lady whom I succeeded, hearing I had
+arrived, took herself off, and the manager requested I would appear the
+same night of my arrival. This was rather an ordeal to an artist who had
+never sung on the operatic stage before, and who was not note perfect.
+However, as a matter of obligation, I consented to do my best, but I was
+very nervous. At the end of the second act, during the balloting scene,
+Lady Jane has to appear suddenly on the stage, with the word "Away!" I
+forget at this distance of time whether I made a mistake in pitching the
+note a third higher or lower. I know it was not out of harmony, but it
+was sufficiently wrong to send the chorus astray, and bring my heart up
+into my mouth. It never occurred after the first night, but I never
+stood at the wings again waiting for that particular entrance but I
+"girded my loins together," as it were, with a kind of dread lest I
+should repeat the error. After a while I perceived a good deal of
+whispering about me in the company, and I asked poor Federici (who
+played the colonel) the reason of it, particularly as he had previously
+asked me to stand as far from him as I could upon the stage, as I
+magnetized him so strongly that he couldn't sing if I was near him.
+"Well! do you know," he said to me in answer, "that a very strange thing
+occurs occasionally with reference to you, Miss Marryat. While you are
+standing on the stage sometimes, you appear seated in the stalls.
+Several people have seen it beside myself. I assure you it is true."
+
+"But _when_ do you see me?" I enquired with amazement.
+
+"It's always at the same time," he answered, "just before you run on at
+the end of the second act. Of course it's only an appearance, but it's
+very queer." I told him then of the strange feelings of distrust of
+myself I experienced each night at that very moment, when my spirit
+seems to have preceded myself upon the stage.
+
+I had a friend many years ago in India, who (like many other friends)
+had permitted time and separation to come between us, and alienate us
+from each other. I had not seen him nor heard from him for eleven years,
+and to all appearance our friendship was at an end. One evening the
+medium I have alluded to above, Mrs. Fitzgerald, who was a personal
+friend of mine, was at my house, and after dinner she put her feet up on
+the sofa--a very unusual thing for her--and closed her eyes. She and I
+were quite alone in the drawing-room, and after a little while I
+whispered softly, "Bessie, are you asleep?" The answer came from her
+control "Dewdrop," a wonderfully sharp Red Indian girl. "No! she's in a
+trance. There's somebody coming to speak to you! I don't want him to
+come. He'll make the medium ill. But it's no use. I see him creeping
+round the corner now."
+
+"But why should it make her ill?" I argued, believing we were about to
+hold an ordinary _séance_.
+
+"Because he's a _live_ one, he hasn't passed over yet," replied Dewdrop,
+"and live ones always make my medium feel sick. But it's no use. I can't
+keep him out. He may as well come. But don't let him stay long."
+
+"Who is he, Dewdrop?" I demanded curiously.
+
+"_I_ don't know! Guess _you_ will! He's an old friend of yours, and his
+name is George." Whereupon Bessie Fitzgerald laid back on the sofa
+cushions, and Dewdrop ceased to speak. It was some time before there was
+any result. The medium tossed and turned, and wiped the perspiration
+from her forehead, and pushed back her hair, and beat up the cushions
+and threw herself back upon them with a sigh, and went through all the
+pantomime of a man trying to court sleep in a hot climate. Presently she
+opened her eyes and glanced languidly around her. Her unmistakable
+actions and the name "George" (which was that of my friend, then
+resident in India) had naturally aroused my suspicions as to the
+identity of the influence, and when Bessie opened her eyes, I asked
+softly, "George, is that you?" At the sound of my voice the medium
+started violently and sprung into a sitting posture, and then, looking
+all round the room in a scared manner, she exclaimed, "Where am I? Who
+brought me here?" Then catching sight of me, she continued, "Mrs.
+Ross-Church!--Florence! Is this _your_ room? O! let me go! _Do_ let me
+go!"
+
+This was not complimentary, to say the least of it, from a friend whom I
+had not met for eleven years, but now that I had got him I had no
+intention of letting him go, until I was convinced of his identity. But
+the terror of the spirit at finding himself in a strange place seemed so
+real and uncontrollable that I had the greatest difficulty in persuading
+him to stay, even for a few minutes. He kept on reiterating, "Who
+brought me here? I did not wish to come. Do let me go back. I am so very
+cold" (shivering convulsively), "so very, _very_ cold."
+
+"Answer me a few questions," I said, "and then you shall go. Do you know
+who I am?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you are Florence."
+
+"And what is your name?" He gave it at full length. "And do you care for
+me still?"
+
+"Very much. But let me go."
+
+"In a minute. Why do you never write to me?"
+
+"There are reasons. I am not a free agent. It is better as it is."
+
+"I don't think so. I miss your letters very much. Shall I ever hear from
+you again?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"And see you?"
+
+"Yes; but not yet. Let me go now. I don't wish to stay. You are making
+me very unhappy."
+
+If I could describe the fearful manner in which, during this
+conversation, he glanced every moment at the door, like a man who is
+afraid of being discovered in a guilty action, it would carry with it to
+my readers, as it did to me, the most convincing proof that the medium's
+body was animated by a totally different influence from her own. I kept
+the spirit under control until I had fully convinced myself that he knew
+everything about our former friendship and his own present surroundings;
+and then I let him fly back to India, and wondered if he would wake up
+the next morning and imagine he had been laboring under nightmare.
+
+These experiences with the spirits of the living are certainly amongst
+the most curious I have obtained. On more than one occasion, when I
+have been unable to extract the truth of a matter from my acquaintances
+I have sat down alone, as soon as I believed them to be asleep, and
+summoned their spirits to the table and compelled them to speak out.
+Little have they imagined sometimes how I came to know things which they
+had scrupulously tried to hide from me. I have heard that the power to
+summons the spirits of the living is not given to all media, but I have
+always possessed it. I can do so when they are awake as well as when
+they are asleep, though it is not so easy. A gentleman once _dared_ me
+to do this with him, and I only conceal his name because I made him look
+ridiculous. I waited till I knew he was engaged at a dinner-party, and
+then about nine o'clock in the evening I sat down and summoned him to
+come to me. It was some little time before he obeyed, and when he did
+come, he was eminently sulky. I got a piece of paper and pencil, and
+from his dictation I wrote down the number and names of the guests at
+the dinner-table, also the dishes of which he had partaken, and then in
+pity for his earnest entreaties I let him go again. "You are making me
+ridiculous," he said, "everyone is laughing at me."
+
+"But why? What are you doing?" I urged.
+
+"I am standing by the mantel-piece, and I have fallen fast asleep," he
+answered. The next morning he came pell-mell into my presence.
+
+"What did you do to me last night?" he demanded. "I was at the Watts
+Philips, and after dinner I went fast asleep with my head upon my hand,
+standing by the mantel-piece, and they were all trying to wake me and
+couldn't. Have you been playing any of your tricks upon me?"
+
+"I only made you do what you declared I couldn't," I replied. "How did
+you like the white soup and the turbot, and the sweetbreads, etc., etc."
+
+He opened his eyes at my nefariously obtained knowledge, and still more
+when I produced the paper written from his dictation. This is not a
+usual custom of mine--it would not be interesting enough to pursue as a
+custom--but I am a dangerous person to _dare_ to do anything.
+
+The old friend whose spirit visited me through Mrs. Fitzgerald had lost
+a sister to whom he was very tenderly attached before he made my
+acquaintance, and I knew little of her beyond her name. One evening,
+not many months after the interview with him which I have recorded, a
+spirit came to me, giving the name of my friend's sister, with this
+message, "My brother has returned to England, and would like to know
+your address. Write to him to the Club, Leamington, and tell him where
+to find you." I replied, "Your brother has not written to me, nor
+inquired after me for the last eleven years. He has lost all interest in
+me, and I cannot be the first to write to him, unless I am sure that he
+wishes it."
+
+"He has _not_ lost all interest in you," said the spirit; "he thinks of
+you constantly, and I hear him pray for you. He wishes to hear from
+you."
+
+"That may be true," I replied, "but I cannot accept it on your
+authority. If your brother really wishes to renew our acquaintance, let
+him write and tell me so."
+
+"He does not know your address, and I cannot get near enough to him to
+influence him."
+
+"Then things must remain as they are," I replied somewhat testily. "I am
+a public person. He can find out my address, if he chooses to do so."
+
+The spirit seemed to reflect for a moment; then she rapped out, "Wait,
+and I will fetch my brother. He shall come here himself and tell you
+what he thinks about it." In a short time there was a different movement
+of the table, and the name of my old friend was given. After we had
+exchanged a few words, and I had told him I required a test of his
+identity, he asked me to get a pencil and paper, and write from his
+dictation. I did as he requested, and he dictated the following
+sentence, "Long time, indeed, has passed since the days you call to
+mind, but time, however long, does not efface the past. It has never
+made me cease to think of and pray for you as I felt you, too, did think
+of and pray for me. Write to the address my sister gave you. I want to
+hear from you."
+
+Notwithstanding the perspicuity and apparent genuineness of this
+message, it was some time before I could make up my mind to follow the
+directions it gave me. My pride stood in the way to prevent it. _Ten
+days afterwards_, however, having received several more visits from the
+sister, I did as she desired me, and sent a note to her brother to the
+Leamington Club. The answer came by return of post, and contained
+(amongst others) _the identical words_ he had told me to write down.
+Will Mr. Stuart Cumberland, or any other clever man, explain to me
+_what_ or _who_ it was that had visited me ten days beforehand, and
+dictated words which could hardly have been in my correspondent's brain
+before he received my letter? I am ready to accept any reasonable
+explanation of the matter from the scientists, philosophers, chemists,
+or arguists of the world, and I am open to conviction, when my sense
+convinces me, that their reasoning is true. But my present belief is,
+that not a single man or woman will be found able to account on any
+ordinary grounds for such an extraordinary instance of "unconscious
+cerebration."
+
+Being subject to "optical illusions," I naturally had several with
+regard to my spirit child, "Florence," and she always came to me clothed
+in a white dress. One night, however, when I was living alone in the
+Regent's Park, I saw "Florence" (as I imagined) standing in the centre
+of the room, dressed in a green riding habit slashed with orange color,
+with a cavalier hat of grey felt on her head, ornamented with a long
+green feather and a gold buckle. She stood with her back to me, but I
+could see her profile as she looked over her shoulder, with the skirt of
+her habit in her hand. This being a most extraordinary attire in which
+to see "Florence," I felt curious on the subject, and the next day I
+questioned her about it.
+
+"Florence!" I said, "why did you come to me last night in a green riding
+habit?"
+
+"I did not come to you last night, mother! It was my sister Eva."
+
+"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, "is anything wrong with her?"
+
+"No! she is quite well."
+
+"How could she come to me then?"
+
+"She did not come in reality, but her thoughts were much with you, and
+so you saw her spirit clairvoyantly."
+
+My daughter Eva, who was on the stage, was at that time fulfilling a
+stock engagement in Glasgow, and very much employed. I had not heard
+from her for a fortnight, which was a most unusual occurrence, and I had
+begun to feel uneasy. This vision made me more so, and I wrote at once
+to ask her if all was as it should be. Her answer was to this effect: "I
+am so sorry I have had no time to write to you this week, but I have
+been so awfully busy. We play 'The Colleen Bawn' here next week, and I
+have had to get my dress ready for 'Anne Chute.' It's so effective. I
+wish you could see it. _A green habit slashed with orange, and a grey
+felt hat with a long green feather and a big gold buckle._ I tried it on
+the other night, and it looked so nice, etc., etc."
+
+Well, my darling girl had had her wish, and I _had_ seen it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OPTICAL ILLUSIONS.
+
+
+As I have alluded to what my family termed my "optical illusions," I
+think it as well to describe a few of them, which appeared by the
+context to be something more than a mere temporary disturbance of my
+visual organs. I will pass over such as might be traced, truly or
+otherwise, to physical causes, and confine myself to those which were
+subsequently proved to be the reflection of something that, unknown to
+me, had gone before. In 1875 I was much engaged in giving dramatic
+readings in different parts of the country, and I visited Dublin for the
+first time in my life, for that purpose, and put up at the largest and
+best-frequented hotel there. Through the hospitality of the residents
+and the duties of my professional business, I was engaged both day and
+night, and when I _did_ get to bed, I had every disposition to sleep, as
+the saying is, like a "top." But there was something in the hotel that
+would not let me do so. I had a charming bedroom, cheerful, bright and
+pretty, and replete with every comfort, and I would retire to rest "dead
+beat," and fall off to sleep at once, to be waked perhaps half-a-dozen
+times a night by that inexplicable something (or nothing) that rouses me
+whenever I am about to enjoy an "optical illusion," and to see figures,
+sometimes one, sometimes two or three, sometimes a whole group standing
+by my bedside and gazing at me with looks of the greatest astonishment,
+as much as to ask what right I had to be there. But the most remarkable
+part of the matter to me was, that all the figures were those of men,
+and military men, to whom I was too well accustomed to be able to
+mistake. Some were officers and others soldiers, some were in uniform,
+others in undress, but they all belonged to the army, and they all
+seemed to labor under the same feeling of intense surprise at seeing
+_me_ in the hotel. These apparitions were so life-like and appeared so
+frequently, that I grew quite uncomfortable about them, for however
+much one may be used to see "optical illusions," it is not pleasant to
+fancy there are about twenty strangers gazing at one every night as one
+lies asleep. Spiritualism is, or was, a tabooed subject in Dublin, and I
+had been expressly cautioned not to mention it before my new
+acquaintances. However, I could not keep entire silence on this subject,
+and dining _en famille_ one day, with a hospitable family of the name of
+Robinson, I related to them my nightly experiences at the hotel. Father,
+mother, and son exclaimed simultaneously. "Good gracious," they said,
+"don't you know that that hotel was built on the site of the old
+barracks? The house immediately behind it, which formed part of the old
+building, was vacated by its last tenants on account of its being
+haunted. Every evening at the hour the soldiers used to be marched up to
+bed, they heard the tramp, tramp, tramp of the feet ascending the
+staircase."
+
+"That may be," I replied, "but they _knew_ their house stood on the site
+of the barracks, and _I didn't_."
+
+My eldest daughter was spending a holiday with me once after my second
+marriage, and during the month of August. She had been very much
+overworked, and I made her lie in bed till noon. One morning I had been
+to her room at that hour to wake her, and on turning to leave it (in the
+broad daylight, remember), I encountered a man on the landing outside
+her door. He was dressed in a white shirt with black studs down the
+front, and a pair of black cloth trousers. He had dark hair and eyes,
+and small features; altogether, he struck me as having rather a sinister
+and unpleasant appearance. I stood still, with the open door in my hand,
+and gazed at him. He looked at me also for a minute, and then turned and
+walked upstairs to an upper storey where the nursery was situated,
+beckoning me, with a jerk of his hand, to follow him. My daughter
+(remarking a peculiar expression in my eyes, which I am told they assume
+on such occasions) said, "Mother! what do you see?"
+
+"Only a spirit," I answered, "and he has gone upstairs."
+
+"Now, what _is_ the good of seeing them in that way," said Eva, rather
+impatiently (for this dear child always disliked and avoided
+Spiritualism), and I was fain to confess that I really did _not_ know
+the especial good of encountering a sinister-looking gentleman in shirt
+and trousers, on a blazing noon in August. After which the circumstance
+passed from my mind, until recalled again.
+
+A few months later I had occasion to change the children's nurse, and
+the woman who took her place was an Icelandic girl named Margaret
+Thommassen, who had only been in England for three weeks. I found that
+she had been educated far above the average run of domestic servants,
+and was well acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg and other
+authors. One day as I walked up the nursery stairs to visit the children
+in bed, I encountered the same man I had seen outside my daughter's
+room, standing on the upper landing, as though waiting my approach. He
+was dressed as before, but this time his arms were folded across his
+breast and his face downcast, as though he were unhappy about something.
+He disappeared as I reached the landing, and I mentioned the
+circumstance to no one. A few days later, Margaret Thommassen asked me
+timidly if I believed in the possibility of the spirits of the departed
+returning to this earth. When I replied that I did, she appeared
+overjoyed, and said she had never hoped to find anyone in England to
+whom she could speak about it. She then gave me a mass of evidence on
+the subject which forms a large part of the religion of the Icelanders.
+She told me that she felt uneasy about her eldest brother, to whom she
+was strongly attached. He had left Iceland a year before to become a
+waiter in Germany, and had promised faithfully that so long as he lived
+she should hear from him every month, and when he failed to write she
+must conclude he was dead. Margaret told me she had heard nothing from
+him now for three months, and each night when the nursery light was put
+out, someone came and sat at the foot of her bed and sighed. She then
+produced his photograph, and to my astonishment I recognized at once the
+man who had appeared to me some months before I knew that such a woman
+as Margaret Thommassen existed. He was taken in a shirt and trousers,
+just as I had seen him, and wore the same repulsive (to me) and sinister
+expression. I then told his sister that I had already seen him twice in
+that house, and she grew very excited and anxious to learn the truth. In
+consequence I sat with her in hopes of obtaining some news of her
+brother, who immediately came to the table, and told her that he was
+dead, with the circumstances under which he had died, and the address
+where she was to write to obtain particulars. And on Margaret Thommassen
+writing as she was directed, she obtained the practical proofs of her
+brother's death, without which this story would be worthless.
+
+My sister Cecil lives with her family in Somerset, and many years ago I
+went down there to visit her for the first time since she had moved into
+a new house which I had never seen before. She put me to sleep in the
+guest chamber, a large, handsome room, just newly furnished by Oetzmann.
+But I could not sleep in it. The very first night some one walked up and
+down the room, groaning and sighing close to my ears, and he, she, or it
+especially annoyed me by continually touching the new stiff counterpane
+with a "scrooping" sound that set my teeth on edge, and sent my heart up
+into my mouth. I kept on saying, "Go away! Don't come near me!" for its
+proximity inspired me with a horror and repugnance which I have seldom
+felt under similar circumstances. I did not say anything at first to my
+sister, who is rather nervous on the subject of "bogies," but on the
+third night I could stand it no longer, and told her plainly the room
+was haunted, and I wished she would put me in her dressing-room, or with
+her servants, sooner than let me remain there, as I could get no rest.
+Then the truth came out, and she confessed that the last owner of the
+house had committed suicide in that very room, and showed me the place
+on the boards, underneath the carpet, where the stain of his blood still
+remained. A lively sort of room to sleep all alone in.
+
+Another sister of mine, Blanche, used to live in a haunted house in
+Bruges, of which a description will be found in the chapter headed, "The
+Story of the Monk." Long, however, before the monk was heard of, I could
+not sleep in her house on account of the disturbances in my room, for
+which my sister used to laugh at me. But even when my husband, Colonel
+Lean, and I stayed there together, it was much the same. One night I
+waked him to see the figure of a woman, who had often visited me,
+standing at the foot of the bed. She was quaintly attired in a sort of
+leathern boddice or jerkin, laced up the front over a woollen petticoat
+of some dark color. She wore a cap of Mechlin lace, with the large flaps
+at the side, adopted by Flemish women to this day; her hair was combed
+tightly off her forehead, and she wore a profusion of gold ornaments.
+
+My husband could describe her as vividly as I did, which proves how
+plainly the apparition must have shown itself. I waked on several
+occasions to see this woman busy (apparently) with the contents of an
+old carved oak armoir which stood in a corner of the room, and which, I
+suppose, must have had something to do with herself. My eldest son
+joined me at Bruges on this occasion. He was a young fellow of twenty,
+who had never practised, nor even enquired into Spiritualism--fresh from
+sea, and about as free from fear or superstitious fancies as a mortal
+could be. He was put to sleep in a room on the other side of the house,
+and I saw from the first that he was grave about it, but I did not ask
+him the reason, though I felt sure, from personal experience, that he
+would hear or see something before long. In a few days he came to me and
+said--
+
+"Mother! I'm going to take my mattress into the colonel's dressing-room
+to-night and sleep there." I asked him why. He replied, "It's impossible
+to stay in that room any longer. I wouldn't mind if they'd let me sleep,
+but they won't. There's something walks about half the night, whispering
+and muttering, and touching the bed-clothes, and though I don't believe
+in any of your rubbishy spirits, I'll be 'jiggered' if I sleep there any
+longer." So he was not "jiggered" (whatever that may be), as he refused
+to enter the room again.
+
+I cannot end this chapter more appropriately than by relating a very
+remarkable case of "optical illusion" which was seen by myself alone. It
+was in the month of July, 1880, and I had gone down alone to Brighton
+for a week's quiet. I had some important literary work to finish, and
+the exigencies of the London season made too many demands upon my time.
+So I packed up my writing materials, and took a lodging all to myself,
+and set hard to work. I used to write all day and walk in the evening.
+It was light then till eight or nine o'clock, and the Esplanade used to
+be crowded till a late hour. I was pushing my way, on the evening of the
+9th of July, through the crowd, thinking of my work more than anything
+else, when I saw, as I fully thought, my step-son, Francis Lean, leaning
+with his back against the palings at the edge of the cliff and smiling
+at me. He was a handsome lad of eighteen who was supposed to have sailed
+in his ship for the Brazils five months before. But he had been a wild
+young fellow, causing his father much trouble and anxiety, and my first
+impression was one of great annoyance, thinking naturally that, since I
+saw him there, he had never sailed at all, but run away from his ship at
+the last moment. I hastened up to him, therefore, but as I reached his
+side, he turned round quite methodically, and walked quickly down a
+flight of steps that led to the beach. I followed him, and found myself
+amongst a group of ordinary seamen mending their nets, but I could see
+Francis nowhere. I did not know what to make of the occurrence, but it
+never struck me that it was not either the lad himself or some one
+remarkably like him. The same night, however, after I had retired to bed
+in a room that was unpleasantly brilliant with the moonlight streaming
+in at the window, I was roused from my sleep by someone turning the
+handle of my door, and there stood Francis in his naval uniform, with
+the peaked cap on his head, smiling at me as he had done upon the cliff.
+I started up in bed intending to speak to him, when he laid his finger
+on his lips and faded away. This second vision made me think something
+must have happened to the boy, but I determined not to say anything to
+my husband about it until it was verified. Shortly after my return to
+London, we were going, in company with my own son (also a sailor), to
+see his ship which was lying in the docks, when, as we were driving
+through Poplar, I again saw my stepson Francis standing on the pavement,
+and smiling at me. That time I spoke. I said to Colonel Lean, "I am sure
+I saw Francis standing there. Do you think it is possible he may not
+have sailed after all?" But Colonel Lean laughed at the idea. He
+believed it to be a chance likeness I had seen. Only the lad was too
+good-looking to have many duplicates in this world. We visited the
+seaside after that, and in September, whilst we were staying at
+Folkestone, Colonel Lean received a letter to say that his son Francis
+had been drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surf of the Bay of
+Callao, in the Brazils, _on the 9th of July_--the day I had seen him
+twice in Brighton, two months before we heard that he was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON SCEPTICISM.
+
+
+There are two classes of people who have done more harm to the cause of
+Spiritualism than the testimony of all the scientists has done good, and
+those are the enthusiasts and the sceptics. The first believe everything
+they see or hear. Without giving themselves the trouble to obtain proofs
+of the genuineness of the manifestations, they rush impetuously from one
+acquaintance to the other, detailing their experience with so much
+exaggeration and such unbounded faith, that they make the absurdity of
+it patent to all. They are generally people of low intellect, credulous
+dispositions, and weak nerves. They bow down before the influences as if
+they were so many little gods descended from heaven, instead of being,
+as in the majority of instances, spirits a shade less holy than our own,
+who, for their very shortcomings, are unable to rise above the
+atmosphere that surrounds this gross and material world. These are the
+sort of spiritualists whom _Punch_ and other comic papers have very
+justly ridiculed. Who does not remember the picture of the afflicted
+widow, for whom the medium has just called up the departed Jones?
+
+"Jones," she falters, "are you happy?"
+
+"Much happier than I was down here," growls Jones.
+
+"O! then you _must_ be in heaven!"
+
+"On the contrary, quite the reverse," is the reply.
+
+Who also has not sat a _séance_ where such people have not made
+themselves so ridiculous as to bring the cause they profess to adore
+into contempt and ignominy. Yet to allow the words and deeds of fools to
+affect one's inward and private conviction of a matter would be
+tantamount to giving up the pursuit of everything in which one's fellow
+creatures can take a part.
+
+The second class to which I alluded--the sceptics--have not done so much
+injury to Spiritualism as the enthusiasts, because they are as a rule,
+so intensely bigoted and hard-headed, and narrow-minded, that they
+overdo their protestations, and render them harmless. The sceptic
+refuses to believe _anything_, because he has found out _one_ thing to
+be a fraud. If one medium deceives, all the mediums must deceive. If one
+_séance_ is a failure, none can be successful. If he gains no
+satisfactory test of the presence of the spirits of the departed, no one
+has ever gained such a test. Now, such reason is neither just nor
+logical. Again, a sceptic fully expects _his_ testimony to be accepted
+and believed, yet he will never believe any truth on the testimony of
+another person. And if he is told that, given certain conditions, he can
+see this or hear the other, he says, "No! I will see it and hear it
+without any conditions, or else I will proclaim it all a fraud." In like
+manner, we might say to a savage, on showing him a watch, "If you will
+keep your eye on those hands, you will see them move round to tell the
+hours and minutes," and he should reply, "I must put the watch into
+boiling water--those are my conditions--and if it won't go then, I will
+not believe it can go at all."
+
+I don't mind a man being a sceptic in Spiritualism. I don't see how he
+can help (considering the belief in which we are reared) being a
+sceptic, until he has proved so strange a matter for himself. But I _do_
+object to a man or a woman taking part in a _séance_ with the sole
+intention of detecting deceit, not _when_ it has happened, but before it
+has happened--of bringing an argumentative, disputatious mind, full of
+the idea that it is going to be tricked and humbugged into (perhaps) a
+private circle who are sitting (like Rosa Dartle) "simply for
+information," and scattering all the harmony and good-will about him
+broadcast. He couldn't do it to a human assembly without breaking up the
+party. Why should he expect to be more kindly welcomed by a spiritual
+one? I have seen an immense deal of courtesy shown under such
+circumstances to men whom I should have liked to see kicked downstairs.
+I have seen them enter a lady's private drawing-room, by invitation, to
+witness manifestations which were never, under any circumstances, made a
+means of gain, and have heard them argue, and doubt, and contradict,
+until they have given their hostess and her friends the lie to their
+faces. And the world in general would be quite ready to side with these
+(so-called) gentlemen, not because their word or their wisdom was
+better worth than that of their fellow guests, but because they
+protested against the truth of a thing which it had made up its mind to
+be impossible. I don't mind a sceptic myself, as I said before, but he
+must be unbiassed, which few sceptics are. As a rule, they have decided
+the question at issue for themselves before they commence to investigate
+it.
+
+I find that few people outside the pale of Spiritualism have heard of
+the Dialectical Society, which was a scientific society assembled a few
+years ago for the sole purpose of enquiring into the truth of the
+matter. It was composed of forty members,--ten lawyers, ten scientists,
+ten clergymen, and ten chemists (I think that was the arrangement), and
+they held forty _séances_, and the published report at the close of them
+was, that not one of these men of learning and repute could find any
+natural cause for the wonders he had witnessed. I know that there are a
+thousand obstacles in the way of belief. The extraordinarily
+contradictory manner in which Protestants are brought up, to believe in
+one and the same breath that spirits were common visitants to earth at
+the periods of which the Bible treats, but that it is impossible they
+can return to it now, although the Lord is the same yesterday, to-day,
+and for ever. The conditions of darkness for the creation of
+materialized spirits, and the resemblance they sometimes bear to the
+medium, are two fearful stumbling-blocks. Yet one must know that _all_
+things are created in the dark, and that even a seed cannot sprout if
+you let the light in upon it, while as for the resemblance between the
+spirit and the medium, from whom it takes the material being that
+enables it to appear, if investigators would only persevere with their
+enquiries, they would find, as I have, that that is a disappointment
+which has its remedy in Time. When people call on me to explain such
+things, I can only say that I know no more how they come than they do,
+or that I know how _I_ came, a living, sentient creature, into the
+world. Besides (as I have said before), I write these pages to tell only
+_what I have seen_, and not to argue how it came to pass that I saw it.
+
+I have a little story to tell here which powerfully illustrates the
+foregoing remarks. The lines,
+
+    "A woman convinced against her will
+    Is of the same opinion still,"
+
+might have been penned with as much truth of sceptics. Men who are
+sceptical, _i.e._, so thoroughly wrapt up in conceit of their powers of
+judgment and determination that it becomes impossible for them to
+believe themselves mistaken, will deny the evidence of all their senses
+sooner than confess they may be in the wrong. Such an one may be a
+clever scientist or a shrewd man of business, but he can never be a
+genius. For genius is invariably humble of its own powers, and,
+therefore, open to conviction. But the lesser minds, who are only equal
+to grasping such details as may have been drummed into them by sheer
+force of study, appear to have no capability of stretching beyond a
+certain limit. They are hedged in and cramped by the opinions in which
+they have been reared, or that they have built up for themselves out of
+the petty material their brain affords them, and have lost their powers
+of elasticity. "Thus far shalt thou go and no further," seems to be the
+fiat pronounced on too many men's reasoning faculties. Instead of
+believing the power of God and the resources of nature to be
+illimitable, they want to keep them within the little circle that
+encompasses their own brains. "I can't see it, and therefore it cannot
+be." There was a time when I used to take the trouble to try and
+convince such men, but I have long ceased to do so. It is quite
+indifferent to me what they believe or don't believe. And with such
+minds, even if they _were_ convinced of its possibility, they would
+probably make no good use of spiritual intercourse. For there is no
+doubt it can be turned to evil uses as well as to good.
+
+Some years ago I was on friendly terms with a man of this sort. He was a
+doctor, accounted clever in his profession, and I knew him to be an able
+arguist, and thought he had common sense enough not to eat his own
+words, but the sequel proved that I was mistaken. We had several
+conversations together on Spiritualism, and as Dr. H---- was a complete
+disbeliever in the existence of a God and a future life, I was naturally
+not surprised to find that he did not place any credence in the account
+I gave him of my spiritualistic experiences. Many medical men attribute
+such experiences entirely to a diseased condition of mind or body.
+
+But when I asked Dr. H---- what he should think if he saw them with his
+own eyes, I confess I was startled to hear him answer that he should
+say his eyes deceived him. "But if you heard them speak?" I continued.
+
+"I should disbelieve my ears."
+
+"And if you touched and handled them?"
+
+"I should mistrust my sense of feeling."
+
+"Then by what means," I argued, "do you know that I am Florence Marryat?
+You can only see me and hear me and touch me! What is there to prevent
+your senses misleading you at the present moment?"
+
+But to this argument Dr. H---- only returned a pitying smile, professing
+to think me, on this point at least, too feeble-minded to be worthy of
+reply, but in reality not knowing what on earth to say. He often,
+however, recurred to the subject of Spiritualism, and on several
+occasions told me that if I could procure him the opportunity of
+submitting a test which he might himself suggest, he should be very much
+obliged to me. It was about this time that a young medium named William
+Haxby, now passed away, went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Olive in Ainger
+Terrace, and we were invited to attend a _séance_ given by him. Mrs.
+Olive, when giving the invitation, informed me that Mr. Haxby had been
+very successful in procuring direct writing in sealed boxes, and she
+asked me, if I wished to try the experiment, to take a secured box, with
+writing materials in it, to the _séance_, and see what would happen to
+it.
+
+Here was, I thought, an excellent opportunity for Dr. H----'s test, and
+I sent for him and told him what had been proposed. I urged him to
+prepare the test entirely by himself, and to accompany me to the
+_séance_ and see what occurred,--to all of which he readily consented.
+Indeed, he became quite excited on the subject, being certain it would
+prove a failure; and in my presence he made the following
+preparations:--
+
+I. Half a sheet of ordinary cream-laid note-paper and half a cedar-wood
+black lead pencil were placed in a jeweller's cardwood box.
+
+II. The lid of the box was carefully glued down all round to the bottom
+part.
+
+III. The box was wrapt in white writing paper, which was gummed over it.
+
+IV. It was tied eight times with a peculiar kind of silk made for tying
+up arteries, and the eight knots were knots known to (as Dr. H----
+informed me) medical men only.
+
+V. Each of the eight knots was sealed with sealing-wax, and impressed
+with Dr. H----'s crest seal, which he always wore on his watch-chain.
+
+VI. The packet was again folded in brown paper, and sealed and tied to
+preserve the inside from injury.
+
+When Dr. H---- had finished it, he said to me, "If the spirits (or
+anybody) can write on that paper without cutting the silk, _I will
+believe whatever you wish_." I asked, "Are you _quite_ sure that the
+packet could not be undone without your detecting it?" His answer
+was--"That silk is not to be procured except from a medical man; it is
+manufactured expressly for the tying of arteries; and the knots I have
+made are known only to medical men. They are the knots we use in tying
+arteries. The seal is my own crest, which never leaves my watch-chain,
+and I defy anyone to undo those knots without cutting them, or to tie
+them again, if cut. I repeat--if your friends can make, or cause to be
+made, the smallest mark on that paper, and return me the box in the
+condition it now is, _I will believe anything you choose_." And I
+confess I was very dubious of the result myself, and almost sorry that I
+had subjected the doctor's incredulity to so severe a test.
+
+On the evening appointed we attended the _séance_, Dr. H---- taking the
+prepared packet with him. He was directed to place it under his chair,
+but he tied a string to it and put it under his foot, retaining the
+other end of the string in his hand. The meeting was not one for
+favorably impressing an unbeliever in Spiritualism. There were too many
+people present, and too many strangers. The ordinary manifestations, to
+my mind, are worse than useless, unless they have been preceded by
+extraordinary ones; so that the doctor returned home more sceptical than
+before, and I repented that I had taken him there. One thing had
+occurred, however, that he could not account for. The packet which he
+had kept, as he thought, under his foot the whole time, was found, at
+the close of the meeting, to have disappeared. Another gentleman had
+brought a sealed box, with paper and pencil in it, to the _séance_; and
+at the close it was opened in the presence of all assembled, and found
+to contain a closely written letter from his deceased wife. But the
+doctor's box had evaporated, and was nowhere to be found. The door of
+the room had been locked all the time, and we searched the room
+thoroughly, but without success. Dr. H---- was naturally triumphant.
+
+"They couldn't undo _my_ knots and _my_ seals," he said, exulting over
+me, "and so they wisely did not return the packet. Both packets were of
+course taken from the room during the sitting by some confederate of the
+medium. The other one was easily managed, and put back again--_mine_
+proved unmanageable, and so they have retained it. I _knew_ it would be
+so!"
+
+And he twinkled his eyes at me as much as to say, "I have shut _you_ up.
+You will not venture to describe any of the marvels you have seen to me
+after this." Of course the failure did not discompose me, nor shake my
+belief. I never believed spiritual beings to be omnipotent, omnipresent,
+nor omniscient. They had failed before, and doubtless they would fail
+again. But if an acrobatic performer fails to turn a double somersault
+on to another man's head two or three times, it does not falsify the
+fact that he succeeds on the fourth occasion. I was sorry that the test
+had been a failure, for Dr. H----'s sake, but I did not despair of
+seeing the box again. And at the end of a fortnight it was left at my
+house by Mr. Olive, with a note to say that it had been found that
+morning on the mantel-piece in Mr. Haxby's bedroom, and he lost no time
+in returning it to me. It was wrapt in the brown paper, tied and sealed,
+apparently just as we had carried it to the _séance_ in Ainger Terrace;
+and I wrote at once to Dr. H---- announcing its return, and asking him
+to come over and open it in my presence. He came, took the packet in his
+hand, and having stripped off the outer wrapper, examined it carefully.
+There were four tests, it may be remembered, applied to the packet.
+
+I. The arterial silk, procurable only from a medical man.
+
+II. The knots to be tied only by medical men.
+
+III. Dr. H----'s own crest, always kept on his watch chain, as a seal.
+
+IV. The lid of the cardboard box, glued all round to the bottom part.
+
+As the doctor scrutinized the silk, the knots, and the seals, I watched
+him narrowly.
+
+"Are you _quite sure_," I asked, "that it is the same paper in which you
+wrapt it?"
+
+"I am _quite sure_."
+
+"And the same silk?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Your knots have not been untied?"
+
+"I am positive that they have not."
+
+"Nor your seal been tampered with?"
+
+"Certainly not! It is just as I sealed it."
+
+"Be careful, Dr. H----," I continued. "Remember I shall write down all
+you say."
+
+"I am willing to swear to it in a court of justice," he replied.
+
+"Then will you open the packet?"
+
+Dr. H---- took the scissors and cut the silk at each seal and knot, then
+tore off the gummed white writing paper (which was as fresh as when he
+had put it on), and tried to pull open the card-board box. But as he
+could not do this in consequence of the lid being glued down, he took
+out his penknife and cut it all round. As he did so, he looked at me and
+said, "Mark my words. There will be nothing written on the paper. It is
+impossible!"
+
+He lifted the lid, and behold _the box was empty_! The half sheet of
+notepaper and the half cedar wood pencil had both _entirely
+disappeared_. Not a crumb of lead, nor a shred of paper remained behind.
+I looked at the doctor, and the doctor looked completely bewildered.
+
+"_Well!_" I said, interrogatively.
+
+He shifted about--grew red--and began to bluster.
+
+"What do you make of it?" I asked. "How do you account for it?"
+
+"In the easiest way in the world," he replied, trying to brave it out.
+"It's the most transparent deception I ever saw. They've kept the thing
+a fortnight and had time to do anything with it. A child could see
+through this. Surely your bright wits can want no help to an
+explanation."
+
+"I am not so bright as you give me credit for," I answered. "Will you
+explain your meaning to me?"
+
+"With pleasure. They have evidently made an invisible slit in the
+joining of the box cover, and with a pair of fine forceps drawn the
+paper through it, bit by bit. For the pencil, they drew that by the same
+means to the slit and then pared it, little by little, with a lancet,
+till they could shake out the fragments."
+
+"That must have required very careful manipulation," I observed.
+
+"Naturally. But they've taken a fortnight to do it in."
+
+"But how about the arterial silk?" I said.
+
+"They must have procured some from a surgeon."
+
+"And your famous knots?"
+
+"They got some surgeon to tie them!"
+
+"But your crest and seal?"
+
+"Oh! they must have taken a facsimile of that in order to reproduce it.
+It is very cleverly done, but quite explicable!"
+
+"But you told me before you opened the packet that you would take your
+oath in a court of justice it had not been tampered with."
+
+"I was evidently deceived."
+
+"And you really believe, then, that an uneducated lad like Mr. Haxby
+would take the trouble to take impressions of seals and to procure
+arterial silk and the services of a surgeon, in order, not to mystify or
+convert _you_, but to gratify _me_, whose box he believes it to be."
+
+"I am sure he has done so!"
+
+"But just now you were equally sure he had _not_ done so. Why should you
+trust your senses in one case more than in the other? And if Mr. Haxby
+has played a trick on me, as you suppose, why did you not discover the
+slit when you examined the box, before opening?"
+
+"Because my eyes misled me!"
+
+"Then after all," I concluded, "the best thing you can say of yourself
+is that you--a man of reputed science, skill, and sense, and with a
+strong belief in your own powers--are unable to devise a test in which
+you shall not be outwitted by a person so inferior to yourself in age,
+intellect and education as young Haxby. But I will give you another
+chance. Make up another packet in any way you like. Apply to it the
+severest tests which your ingenuity can devise, or other men of genius
+can suggest to you, and let me give it to Haxby and see if the contents
+can be extracted, or tampered with a second time."
+
+"It would be useless," said Dr. H----. "If they were extracted through
+the iron panels of a fireproof safe, I would not believe it was done by
+any but natural means."
+
+"Because you do not _wish_ to believe," I argued.
+
+"You are right," he confessed, "I do _not_ wish to believe. If you
+convinced me of the truth of Spiritualism, you would upset all the
+theories I have held for the best part of my life. I don't believe in a
+God, nor a soul, nor a future existence, and I would rather not believe
+in them. We have quite enough trouble, in my opinion, in this life,
+without looking forward to another, and I would rather cling to my
+belief that when we die we have done with it once and for ever."
+
+So there ended my attempt to convince Dr. H----, and I have often
+thought since that he was but a type of the genus sceptic. In this
+world, we mostly believe what we want to believe, and the thought of a
+future troubles us in proportion to the lives we lead here. It must
+often strike spiritualists (who mostly look forward to the day of their
+departure for another world, as a schoolboy looks forward to the
+commencement of the holidays) as a very strange thing, that people, as a
+rule, evince so little curiosity on the subject of Spiritualism. The
+idea of the spirits of the departed returning to this world to hold
+communication with their friends may be a new and startling one to them,
+but the very wonder of it would make one expect to see them evince a
+little interest in a matter which concerns us all. Yet the generality of
+Carlyle's British millions either pooh-pooh the notion as too utterly
+ridiculous for their exalted minds to entertain, or inform you, with
+superior wisdom, that if Spiritualism is true, they cannot see the use
+of it, and have no craving for any further knowledge. If these same
+people expected to go to Canada or Australia in a few months' time, how
+eagerly they would ask questions concerning their future home, and
+procure the best information on what to do, whilst they remained in
+England, in order to fit themselves for the journey and the change.
+
+But a journey to the other world--to the many worlds which perhaps await
+us--a certain proof that we shall live again (or rather, that we shall
+never die but need only time and patience and well-living here to
+reunite us to the dear one gone before)--_that_ is a subject not worthy
+of our trying to believe--of not sufficient importance for us to take
+the trouble of ascertaining. I pity from my soul the men and women who
+have no dead darling buried in their hearts whom they _know_ they shall
+meet in a home of God's own choosing when this life ends.
+
+The old, cold faiths have melted away beneath the sun of Progress. We
+can no longer be made to believe, like little children, in a shadowy
+indefinite Heaven where the saints sit on damp clouds with harps in
+their hands forever singing psalms and hymns and heavenly songs. That
+sort of existence could be a Heaven to none, and to most it would be a
+Hell. We do not accept it now, any more than we do the other place, with
+its typical fire and brimstone, and pitch-forking devils with horns and
+tails. But what has Religion given us instead? Those whose common-sense
+will not permit them to believe in the parson's Heaven and Hell
+generally believe (like Dr. H----) in nothing at all. But Spiritualism,
+earnestly and faithfully followed, leaves us in no doubt. Spiritualists
+know where they are going to. The spheres are almost as familiar to them
+as this earth--it is not too much to say that many live in them as much
+as they do here, and often they seem the more real, as they are the more
+lasting of the two. Spiritualists are in no manner of doubt _who_ their
+eyes will see when opening on another phase of life. _They_ do not
+expect to be carried straight up into Abraham's bosom, and lie snugly
+there, whilst revengeful demons are torturing those who were, perhaps,
+nearest and dearest to them down below. They have a better and more
+substantial religion than that--a revelation that teaches them that the
+works we do in the flesh must bear their fruit in the spirit, and that
+no tardy deathbed repentance, no crying out for mercy because Justice is
+upon us, like an unruly child howling as soon as the stick is produced
+for chastisement--will avail to wipe off the sins we have indulged in
+upon earth. They know their expiation will be a bitter one, yet not
+without Hope, and that they will be helped, as well as help others, in
+the upward path that leads to ultimate perfection. The teaching of
+Spiritualism is such as largely to increase belief in our Divine
+Father's love, our Saviour's pity, and the angels' ministering help. But
+it does more than this, more than any religion has done before. It
+affords the _proof_--the only proof we have ever received, and our
+finite natures can accept--of a future existence. The majority of
+Christians _hope_ and _trust_, and say they _believe_. It is the
+Spiritualist only that _knows_.
+
+I think that the marvellous indifference displayed by the crowd to
+ascertain these truths for themselves must be due, in a large number of
+instances, to the unnatural but universal fear which is entertained of
+Death and all things connected with it. The same people who loudly
+declaim again the possibility of seeing a "ghost," shudder at the idea
+of doing so. The creature whom they have adored and waited on with
+tenderest devotion passes away, and they are afraid to enter the room
+where his body lies. That which they clung to and wept over yesterday,
+they fear to look at or touch to-day, and the idea that he would return
+and speak to them would inspire them with horror. But why afraid of an
+impossibility? Their very fears should teach them that there is a cause.
+From numerous notes made on the subject I have invariably found that
+those who have had the opportunity of testing the reality of
+Spiritualism, and either rejected or denied it, have been selfish,
+worldly, and cold-hearted people who neither care, nor are cared for, by
+those who have passed on to another sphere. Plenty of love is sure to
+bring you plenty of proof. The mourners, who have lost sight of what is
+dearest to them, and would give all they possess for one more look at
+the face they loved so much, or one more tone of the voice that was
+music to their ears, are only too eager and grateful to hear of a way by
+which their longings may be gratified, and would take any trouble and go
+to any expense to accomplish what they desire.
+
+It is this intense yearning to speak again with those that have left us,
+on the part of the bereaved, that has led to chicanery on the part of
+media in order to gratify it. Wherever money is to be made,
+unfortunately cheating will step in; but because some tradesmen will
+sell you brass for gold is no reason to vote all jewellers thieves. The
+account of the raising of Samuel by the witch of Endor is an instance
+that my argument is correct. The witch was evidently an impostor, for
+she had no expectation of seeing Samuel, and was frightened by the
+apparition she had evoked; but Spiritualism must be a truth, because it
+was Samuel himself who appeared and rebuked Saul for calling him back to
+this earth. What becomes, in the face of this story, of the impassable
+gulf between the earthly and spiritual spheres? That atheists who
+believe in nothing should not believe in Spiritualism is credible,
+natural, and consistent. But that Christians should reject the theory is
+tantamount to acknowledging that they found their hopes of salvation
+upon a lie. There is no way of getting out of it. If it be _impossible_
+that the spirits of the departed can communicate with men, the Bible
+must be simply a collection of fabulous statements; if it be _wrong_ to
+speak with spirits, all the men whose histories are therein related were
+sinners, and the Almighty helped them to sin; and if all the spirits who
+have been heard and seen and touched in modern times are devils sent on
+earth to lure us to our destruction, how are we to distinguish between
+them and the Greatest Spirit of all, who walked with mortal Adam and Eve
+in the garden of Eden. "O! yes!" I think I hear somebody cry, "but that
+was in the Bible;" as if the Bible were a period or a place. And did it
+ever strike you that there is something else recorded in the Bible? "And
+He did not many miracles there because of their _unbelief_." And yet
+Christ came to call "not the righteous but the sinners to repentance."
+Surely, then, the unbelieving required the conviction of the miracles
+more than those who knew Him to be God. Yet there He did them not,
+_because_ of their unbelief, because their _scepticism_ produced a
+condition in which miracles could not be wrought. And yet the nineteenth
+century is surprised because a sceptic, whose jarring element upsets all
+union and harmony, is not an acceptable addition to a spiritual meeting,
+and that the miracles of the present--gross and feeble, compared to
+those of the past, because worked by grosser material though grosser
+agents--ceased to be manifested when his unbelief intrudes itself upon
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE STORY OF JOHN POWLES.
+
+
+On the 4th of April, 1860, there died in India a young officer in the
+12th Regiment M.N.I., of the name of John Powles. He was an intimate
+friend of my first husband for several years before his death, and had
+consequently become intimate with me; indeed, on several occasions he
+shared our house and lived with us on the terms of a brother. I was very
+young at that time and susceptible to influence of all sorts--extremely
+nervous, moreover, on the subject of "ghosts," and yet burning with
+curiosity to learn something of the other world--a topic which it is
+most difficult to induce anybody to discuss with you. People will talk
+of dress, or dinner, or their friend's private affairs--of anything, in
+fact, sooner than Death and Immortality and the world to come which we
+must all inevitably enter. Even parsons--the legalized exponents of what
+lies beyond the grave--are no exceptions to the rule. When the bereaved
+sufferer goes to them for comfort, they shake their heads and "hope" and
+"trust," and say "God's mercy has no limits," but they cannot give him
+one reasonable proof to rest upon that Death is but a name. John Powles,
+however, though a careless and irreligious man, liked to discuss the
+Unseen. We talked continually on the subject, even when he was
+apparently in perfect health, and he often ended our conversation by
+assuring me that should he die first (and he always prophesied truly
+that he should not reach the age of thirty) he would (were such a thing
+possible) come back to me. I used to laugh at the absurdity of the idea,
+and remind him how many friends had made the same promise to each other
+and never fulfilled it. For though I firmly believed that such things
+_had_ been, I could not realize that they would ever happen to me, or
+that I should survive the shock if they did. John Powles' death at the
+last was very sudden, although the disease he died of was of long
+standing. He had been under the doctor's hands for a few days when he
+took an unexpected turn for the worse, and my husband and myself, with
+other friends, were summoned to his bedside to say good-bye to him. When
+I entered the room he said to me, "So you see it has come at last. Don't
+forget what I said to you about it." They were his last intelligible
+words to me, though for several hours he grasped my dress with his hand
+to prevent my leaving him, and became violent and unmanageable if I
+attempted to quit his side. During this time, in the intervals of his
+delirium, he kept on entreating me to sing a certain old ballad, which
+had always been a great favorite with him, entitled "Thou art gone from
+my gaze." I am sure if I sung that song once during that miserable day,
+I must have sung it a dozen times. At last our poor friend fell into
+convulsions which recurred with little intermission until his death,
+which took place the same evening.
+
+His death and the manner of it caused me a great shock. He had been a
+true friend to my husband and myself for years, and we both mourned his
+loss very sincerely. That, and other troubles combined, had a serious
+effect upon my health, and the doctors advised my immediate return to
+England. When an officer dies in India, it is the custom to sell all his
+minor effects by auction. Before this took place, my husband asked me if
+there was anything belonging to John Powles that I should like to keep
+in remembrance of him. The choice I made was a curious one. He had
+possessed a dark green silk necktie, which was a favorite of his, and
+when it became soiled I offered to turn it for him, when it looked as
+good as new. Whereupon he had worn it so long that it was twice as dirty
+as before, so I turned it for him the second time, much to the amusement
+of the regiment. When I was asked to choose a keepsake of him, I said,
+"Give me the green tie," and I brought it to England with me.
+
+The voyage home was a terrible affair. I was suffering mentally and
+physically, to such a degree that I cannot think of the time without a
+shudder. John Powles' death, of course, added to my distress, and during
+the many months that occupied a voyage "by long sea," I hoped and
+expected that his spirit would appear to me. With the very strong belief
+in the possibility of the return to earth of the departed--or rather, I
+should say, with my strong belief _in_ my belief--I lay awake night
+after night, thinking to see my lost friend, who had so often promised
+to come back to me. I even cried aloud to him to appear and tell me
+where he was, or what he was doing, but I never heard or saw a single
+thing. There was silence on every side of me. Ten days only after I
+landed in England I was delivered of a daughter, and when I had somewhat
+recovered my health and spirits--when I had lost the physical weakness
+and nervous excitability, to which most medical men would have
+attributed any mysterious sights or sounds I might have experienced
+before--then I commenced to _know_ and to _feel_ that John Powles was
+with me again. I did not see him, but I felt his presence. I used to lie
+awake at night, trembling under the consciousness that he was sitting at
+my bedside, and I had no means of penetrating the silence between us.
+Often I entreated him to speak, but when a low, hissing sound came close
+to my ear, I would scream with terror and rush from my room. All my
+desire to see or communicate with my lost friend had deserted me. The
+very idea was a terror. I was horror-struck to think he had returned,
+and I would neither sleep alone nor remain alone. I was advised to try a
+livelier place than Winchester (where I then resided), and a house was
+taken for me at Sydenham. But there, the sense of the presence of John
+Powles was as keen as before, and so, at intervals, I continued to feel
+it for the space of several years--until, indeed, I became an inquirer
+into Spiritualism as a science.
+
+I have related in the chapter that contains an account of my first
+_séance_, that the only face I recognized as belonging to me was that of
+my friend John Powles, and how excited I became on seeing it. It was
+that recognition that brought back all my old longing and curiosity to
+communicate with the inhabitants of the Unseen World. As soon as I
+commenced investigations in my home circle, John Powles was the very
+first spirit who spoke to me through the table, and from that time until
+the present I have never ceased to hold communion with him. He is very
+shy, however, (as he was, whilst with us) of conversing before
+strangers, and seldom intimates his presence except I am alone. At such
+times, however, he will talk by the hour of all such topics as
+interested him during his earth life.
+
+Soon after it became generally known that I was attending _séances_, I
+was introduced to Miss Showers, the daughter of General Showers of the
+Bombay Army. This young lady, besides being little more than a child--I
+think she was about sixteen when we met--was not a professional medium.
+The _séances_ to which her friends were invited to witness the
+extraordinary manifestations that took place in her presence were
+strictly private. They offered therefore an enormous advantage to
+investigators, as the occurrences were all above suspicion, whilst Miss
+Showers was good enough to allow herself to be tested in every possible
+way. I shall have occasion to refer more particularly to Miss Showers'
+mediumship further on--at present, therefore, I will confine myself to
+those occasions which afforded proofs of John Powles' presence.
+
+Mrs. and Miss Showers were living in apartments when I visited them, and
+there was no means nor opportunity of deceiving their friends, even had
+they had any object in doing so. I must add also, that they knew nothing
+of my Indian life nor experiences, which were things of the past long
+before I met them. At the first sitting Miss Showers gave me for "spirit
+faces," she merely sat on a chair behind the window curtains, which were
+pinned together half-way up, so as to leave a V-shaped opening at the
+top. The voice of "Peter" (Miss Showers' principal control) kept talking
+to us and the medium from behind the curtains all the time, and making
+remarks on the faces as they appeared at the opening. Presently he said
+to me, "Mrs. Ross-Church, here's a fellow says his name is Powles, and
+he wants to speak to you, only he doesn't like to show himself because
+he's not a bit like what he used to be." "Tell him not to mind that," I
+answered, "I shall know him under any circumstances." "Well! if he was
+anything like that, he was a beauty," exclaimed Peter; and presently a
+face appeared which I could not, by any stretch of imagination, decide
+to resemble in the slightest degree my old friend. It was hard, stiff
+and unlifelike. After it had disappeared, Peter said, "Powles says if
+you'll come and sit with Rosie (Miss Showers) often, he'll look quite
+like himself by-and-by," and of course I was only too anxious to accept
+the invitation.
+
+As I was setting out another evening to sit with Miss Showers, the
+thought suddenly occurred to me to put the green necktie in my pocket.
+My two daughters accompanied me on that occasion, but I said nothing to
+them about the necktie. As soon as we had commenced, however, Peter
+called out, "Now, Mrs. Ross-Church, hand over that necktie. Powles is
+coming." "What necktie?" I asked, and he answered, "Why Powles' necktie,
+of course, that you've got in your pocket. He wants you to put it round
+his neck." The assembled party looked at me inquisitively as I produced
+the tie. The face of John Powles appeared, very different from the time
+before, as he had his own features and complexion, but his hair and
+beard (which were auburn during life) appeared phosphoric, as though
+made of living fire. I mounted on a chair and tied the necktie round his
+throat, and asked him if he would kiss me. He shook his head. Peter
+called out, "Give him your hand." I did so, and as he kissed it, his
+moustaches _burned_ me. I cannot account for it. I can only relate the
+fact. After which he disappeared with the necktie, which I have never
+seen since, though we searched the little room for it thoroughly.
+
+The next thing I have to relate about John Powles is so startling that I
+dread the criticism it will evoke; but if I had not startling stories to
+tell, I should not consider them worth writing down. I left my house in
+Bayswater one Sunday evening to dine with Mr. and Mrs. George Neville in
+Regent's Park Terrace, to have a _séance_ afterwards with Miss Showers.
+There was a large company present, and I was placed next to Miss Showers
+at table. During dinner she told me complainingly that her mother had
+gone to Norwood to spend the night, and she (Rosie) was afraid of
+sleeping alone, as the spirits worried her so. In a moment it flashed
+across me to ask her to return to Bayswater and sleep with me, for I was
+most desirous of testing her powers when we were alone together. Miss
+Showers accepted my invitation, and we arranged that she should go home
+with me. After dinner, the guests sat for a _séance_, but to everybody's
+surprise and disappointment, nothing occurred. It was one o'clock in the
+morning when Miss Showers and I entered a cab to return to Bayswater. We
+had hardly started when we were greeted with a loud peal of laughter
+close to our ears. "What's the matter, Peter?" demanded Miss Showers.
+"I can't help laughing," he replied, "to think of their faces when no
+one appeared! Did you suppose I was going to let you waste all your
+power with them, when I knew I was going home with you and Mrs.
+Ross-Church? I mean to show you what a real good _séance_ is to-night."
+
+When we reached home I let myself in with a latchkey. The house was
+full, for I had seven children, four servants, and a married sister
+staying with me; but they were all in bed and asleep. It was cold
+weather, and when I took Miss Showers into my bedroom a fire was burning
+in the grate. My sister was occupying a room which opened into mine; but
+I locked her door and my own, and put the keys under my pillow. Miss
+Showers and I then undressed and got into bed. When we had extinguished
+the gas, we found the room was, comparatively speaking, light, for I had
+stirred the fire into a blaze, and a street lamp just opposite the
+window threw bars of light through the venetian blinds, right across the
+ceiling. As soon as Miss Showers had settled herself in bed, she said,
+"I wonder what Peter is going to do," and I replied, "I hope he won't
+strip off the bed-clothes." We were lying under four blankets, a
+counterpane, and an eider-down _duvet_, and as I spoke, the whole mass
+rose in the air, and fell over the end of the bed, leaving us quite
+unprotected. We got up, lit a candle, and made the bed again, tucking
+the clothes well in all round, but the minute we laid down the same
+thing was repeated. We were rather cross the second time, and abused
+Peter for being so disagreeable, upon which the voice declared he
+wouldn't do it any more, but we shouldn't have provoked him to try. I
+said, "You had much better shew yourself to us, Peter. That is what I
+want you to do." He replied, "Here I am, my dear, close to you!" I
+turned my head, and there stood a dark figure beside the bed, whilst
+another could be plainly distinguished walking about the room. I said,
+"I can't see your face," and he replied, "I'll come nearer to you!" Upon
+this the figure rose in the air until it hung suspended, face downward,
+over the bed. In this position it looked like a huge bat with outspread
+wings. It was still indistinct, except as to substance, but Peter said
+we had exhausted all the phosphorus in our bodies by the long evening we
+had spent, and left him nothing to light himself up with. After a while
+he lowered himself on to the bed, and lay between Miss Showers and
+myself on the outside of the _duvet_. To this we greatly objected, as he
+was very heavy and took up a great deal of room; but it was some time
+before he would go away.
+
+During this manifestation, the other spirit, whom Peter called the
+"Pope," kept walking about and touching everything in the room, which
+was full of ornaments; and Peter called out several times, "Take care,
+Pope! take care! Don't break Mrs. Ross-Church's things." The two made so
+much noise that they waked my sister in the adjoining room, and she
+knocked at the door, asking in an alarmed voice, "Florence! _whom_ have
+you there? You will wake the whole house." When I replied, "Never mind,
+it's only spirits," she gave one fell shriek and dived under her
+bed-clothes. She maintains to this day that she fully believed the steps
+and voices to be human. At last the manifestations became so rapid, as
+many as eight and ten hands touching us at once, that I asked Miss
+Showers if she would mind my tying hers together. She was very amiable
+and consented willingly. I therefore got out of bed again, and having
+securely fastened her hands in the sleeves of the nightdress she wore, I
+sewed them with needle and thread to the mattress. Miss Showers then
+said she felt sleepy, and with her back to me--a position she was
+obliged to maintain on account of her hands being sewn down--she
+apparently dropt off to sleep, though I knew subsequently she was in a
+trance.
+
+For some time afterwards nothing occurred, the figures had disappeared,
+the voices ceased, and I thought the _séance_ was over. Presently,
+however, I felt a hand laid on my head and the fingers began to gently
+stroke and pull the short curls upon my forehead. I whispered, "Who is
+this?" and the answer came back, "Don't you know me? I am Powles! At
+last--at last--after a silence of ten years I see you and speak with you
+again, face to face." "How can I tell this is _your_ hand?" I said.
+"Peter might be materializing a hand in order to deceive me." The hand
+immediately left my head and the _back_ of it passed over my mouth, when
+I felt it was covered with short hair. I then remembered how hairy John
+Powles' hands had become from exposure to the Indian sun whilst
+shooting, and how I had nicknamed him "Esau" in consequence. I
+recollected also that he had dislocated the left wrist with a cricket
+ball. "Let me feel your wrist," I said, and my hand was at once placed
+on the enlarged bone. "I want to trace your hand to where it springs
+from," I next suggested; and on receiving permission I felt from the
+fingers and wrist to the elbow and shoulder, where it terminated _in the
+middle of Miss Showers' back_. Still I was not quite satisfied, for I
+used to find it very hard to believe in the identity of a person I had
+cared for. I was so terribly afraid of being deceived. "I want to see
+your face," I continued. "I cannot show you my face to-night," the voice
+replied, "but you shall feel it;" and the face, with beard and
+moustaches, was laid for a moment against my own. Then the hand was
+replaced on my hair, and whilst it kept on pulling and stroking my
+curls, John Powles' own voice spoke to me of everything that had
+occurred of importance when he and I were friends on earth. Fancy, two
+people who were intimately associated for years, meeting alone after a
+long and painful separation, think of all the private things they would
+talk about together, and you will understand why I cannot write down the
+conversation that took place between us that night here. In order to
+convince me of his identity, John Powles spoke of all the troubles I had
+passed through and was then enduring--he mentioned scenes, both sad and
+merry, which we had witnessed together; he recalled incidents which had
+slipped my memory, and named places and people known only to ourselves.
+Had I been a disbeliever in Spiritualism, that night must have made a
+convert of me. Whilst the voice, in the well-remembered tones of my old
+friend, was speaking, and his hand wandered through my hair, Miss
+Showers continued to sleep, or to appear to sleep, with her back towards
+me, and her hands sewn into her nightdress sleeves, and the sleeves sewn
+down to the bed. But had she been wide awake and with both hands free,
+she could not have spoken to me in John Powles' unforgotten voice of
+things that had occurred when she was an infant and thousands of miles
+away. And I affirm that the voice spoke to me of things that no one but
+John Powles could possibly have known. He did not fail to remind me of
+the promise he had made, and the many times he had tried to fulfil it
+before, and he assured me he should be constantly with me from that
+time. It was daylight before the voice ceased speaking, and then both
+Miss Showers and I were so exhausted, we could hardly raise our heads
+from the pillows. I must not forget to add that when we _did_ open our
+eyes again upon this work-a-day world, we found there was hardly an
+article in the room that had not changed places. The pictures were all
+turned with their faces to the wall--the crockery from the washstand was
+piled in the fender--the ornaments from the mantel-piece were on the
+dressing-table--in fact, the whole room was topsy-turvy.
+
+When Mr. William Fletcher gave his first lecture in England, in the
+Steinway Hall, my husband, Colonel Lean, and I, went to hear him. We had
+never seen Mr. Fletcher before, nor any of his family, nor did he know
+we were amongst the audience. Our first view of him was when he stepped
+upon the platform, and we were seated quite in the body of the hall,
+which was full. It was Mr. Fletcher's custom, after his lecture was
+concluded, to describe such visions as were presented to him, and he
+only asked in return that if the people and places were recognized,
+those who recognized them would be brave enough to say so, for the sake
+of the audience and himself. I can understand that strangers who went
+there and heard nothing that concerned themselves would be very apt to
+imagine it was all humbug, and that those who claimed a knowledge of the
+visions were simply confederates of Mr. Fletcher. But there is nothing
+more true than that circumstances alter cases. I entered Steinway Hall
+as a perfect stranger, and as a press-writer, quite prepared to expose
+trickery if I detected it. And this is what I heard. After Mr. Fletcher
+had described several persons and scenes unknown to me, he took out a
+handkerchief and began to wipe his face, as though he were very warm.
+
+"I am no longer in England, now," he said. "The scene has quite changed,
+and I am taken over the sea, thousands of miles away, and I am in a
+chamber with all the doors and windows open. Oh! how hot it is! I think
+I am somewhere in the tropics. O! I see why I have been brought here! It
+is to see a young man die! This is a death chamber. He is lying on a
+bed. He looks very pale, and he is very near death, but he has only been
+ill a short time. His hair is a kind of golden chestnut color, and he
+has blue eyes. He is an Englishman, and I can see the letter 'P' above
+his head. He has not been happy on earth, and he is quite content to
+die. He pushes all the influences that are round his bed away from him.
+Now I see a lady come and sit down beside him. He holds her hand, and
+appears to ask her to do something, and I hear a strain of sweet music.
+It is a song he has heard in happier times, and on the breath of it his
+spirit passes away. It is to this lady he seems to come now. She is
+sitting on my left about half way down the hall. A little girl, with her
+hands full of blue flowers, points her out to me. The little girl holds
+up the flowers, and I see they are woven into a resemblance of the
+letter F. She tells me that is the initial letter of her mother's name
+and her own. And I see this message written.
+
+"'To my dearest friend, for such you ever were to me from the beginning.
+I have been with you through all your time of trial and sorrow, and I am
+rejoiced to see that a happier era is beginning for you. I am always
+near you. The darkness is fast rolling away, and happiness will succeed
+it. Pray for me, and I shall be near you in your prayers. I pray God to
+bless you and to bless me, and to bring us together again in the summer
+land.'
+
+"And I see the spirit pointing with his hand far away, as though to
+intimate that the happiness he speaks of is only the beginning of some
+that will extend to a long distance of time. I see this scene more
+plainly than any I have ever seen before."
+
+These words were written down at the time they were spoken. Colonel Lean
+and I were sitting in the very spot indicated by Mr. Fletcher, and the
+little girl with the blue flowers was my spirit child, "Florence," whose
+history I shall give in the next chapter. But my communications with
+John Powles, though very extraordinary, were not satisfactory to me. I
+am the "Thomas, surnamed Didymus," of the spiritualistic world, who
+wants to see and touch and handle before I can altogether believe. I
+wanted to meet John Powles and talk with him face to face, and it seemed
+such an impossibility for him to materialize in the light that, after
+his two failures with Miss Showers, he refused to try. I was always
+worrying him to tell me if we should meet in the body before I left this
+world, and his answer was always, "Yes! but not just yet!" I had no idea
+then that I should have to cross the Atlantic before I saw my dear old
+friend again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MY SPIRIT CHILD.
+
+
+The same year that John Powles died, 1860, I passed through the greatest
+trouble of my life. It is quite unnecessary to my narrative to relate
+what that trouble was, nor how it affected me, but I suffered terribly
+both in mind and body, and it was chiefly for this reason that the
+medical men advised my return to England, which I reached on the 14th of
+December, and on the 30th of the same month a daughter was born to me,
+who survived her birth for only ten days. The child was born with a most
+peculiar blemish, which it is necessary for the purpose of my argument
+to describe. On the left side of the upper lip was a mark as though a
+semi-circular piece of flesh had been cut out by a bullet-mould, which
+exposed part of the gum. The swallow also had been submerged in the
+gullet, so that she had for the short period of her earthly existence to
+be fed by artificial means, and the jaw itself had been so twisted that
+could she have lived to cut her teeth, the double ones would have been
+in front. This blemish was considered to be of so remarkable a type that
+Dr. Frederick Butler of Winchester, who attended me, invited several
+other medical men, from Southampton and other places, to examine the
+infant with him, and they all agreed that _a similar case had never come
+under their notice before_. This is a very important factor in my
+narrative. I was closely catechized as to whether I had suffered any
+physical or mental shock, that should account for the injury to my
+child, and it was decided that the trouble I had experienced was
+sufficient to produce it. The case, under feigned names, was fully
+reported in the _Lancet_ as something quite out of the common way. My
+little child, who was baptized by the name of "Florence," lingered until
+the 10th of January, 1861, and then passed quietly away, and when my
+first natural disappointment was over I ceased to think of her except as
+of something which "might have been," but never would be again. In this
+world of misery, the loss of an infant is soon swallowed up in more
+active trouble. Still I never quite forgot my poor baby, perhaps because
+at that time she was happily the "one dead lamb" of my little flock. In
+recounting the events of my first _séance_ with Mrs. Holmes, I have
+mentioned how a young girl much muffled up about the mouth and chin
+appeared, and intimated that she came for me, although I could not
+recognize her. I was so ignorant of the life beyond the grave at that
+period, that it never struck me that the baby who had left me at ten
+days old had been growing since our separation, until she had reached
+the age of ten years. I could not interpret Longfellow (whom I consider
+one of the sublimest spiritualists of the age) as I can now.
+
+    "Day after day we think what she is doing,
+      In those bright realms of air:
+    Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,
+      Behold her grown more fair.
+
+               . . . . .
+
+    "Not as a child shall we again behold her:
+      For when, with rapture wild,
+    In our embraces we again enfold her,
+      She will not be a child;
+    But a fair maiden in her father's mansion,
+      Clothed with celestial grace.
+    And beautiful with all the soul's expansion,
+      Shall we behold her face!"
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first _séance_ made such an impression on my mind that two nights
+afterwards I again presented myself (this time alone) at Mrs. Holmes'
+rooms to attend another. It was a very different circle on the second
+occasion. There were about thirty people present, all strangers to each
+other, and the manifestations were proportionately ordinary. Another
+professional medium, a Mrs. Davenport, was present, as one of her
+controls, whom she called "Bell," had promised, if possible, to show her
+face to her. As soon, therefore, as the first spirit face appeared
+(which was that of the same little girl that I had seen before), Mrs.
+Davenport exclaimed, "There's 'Bell,'" "Why!" I said, "that's the little
+nun we saw on Monday." "O! no! that's my 'Bell,'" persisted Mrs.
+Davenport. But Mrs. Holmes took my side, and was positive the spirit
+came for me. She told me she had been trying to communicate with her
+since the previous _séance_. "I know she is nearly connected with you,"
+she said. "Have you never lost a relation of her age?" "_Never!_" I
+replied; and at that declaration the little spirit moved away,
+sorrowfully as before.
+
+A few weeks after I received an invitation from Mr. Henry Dunphy (the
+gentleman who had introduced me to Mrs. Holmes) to attend a private
+_séance_, given at his own house in Upper Gloucester Place, by the
+well-known medium Florence Cook. The double drawing-rooms were divided
+by velvet curtains, behind which Miss Cook was seated in an arm-chair,
+the curtains being pinned together half-way up, leaving a large aperture
+in the shape of a V. Being a complete stranger to Miss Cook, I was
+surprised to hear the voice of her control direct that _I_ should stand
+by the curtains and hold the lower parts together whilst the forms
+appeared above, lest the pins should give way, and necessarily from my
+position I could hear every word that passed between Miss Cook and her
+guide. The first face that showed itself was that of a man unknown to
+me; then ensued a kind of frightened colloquy between the medium and her
+control. "Take it away. Go away! I don't like you. Don't touch me--you
+frighten me! Go away!" I heard Miss Cook exclaim, and then her guide's
+voice interposed itself, "Don't be silly, Florrie. Don't be unkind. It
+won't hurt you," etc., and immediately afterwards the same little girl I
+had seen at Mrs. Holmes' rose to view at the aperture of the curtains,
+muffled up as before, but smiling with her eyes at me. I directed the
+attention of the company to her, calling her again my "little nun." I
+was surprised, however, at the evident distaste Miss Cook had displayed
+towards the spirit, and when the _séance_ was concluded and she had
+regained her normal condition, I asked her if she could recall the faces
+she saw under trance. "Sometimes," she replied. I told her of the
+"little nun," and demanded the reason of her apparent dread of her. "I
+can hardly tell you," said Miss Cook; "I don't know anything about her.
+She is quite a stranger to me, but her face is not fully developed, I
+think. There is _something wrong about her mouth_. She frightens me."
+
+This remark, though made with the utmost carelessness, set me thinking,
+and after I had returned home, I wrote to Miss Cook, asking her to
+inquire of her guides _who_ the little spirit was.
+
+She replied as follows:
+
+"Dear Mrs. Ross-Church, I have asked 'Katie King,' but she cannot tell
+me anything further about the spirit that came through me the other
+evening than that she is a young girl closely connected with yourself."
+
+I was not, however, yet convinced of the spirit's identity, although
+"John Powles" constantly assured me that it _was_ my child. I tried hard
+to communicate with her at home, but without success. I find in the
+memoranda I kept of our private _séances_ at that period several
+messages from "Powles" referring to "Florence." In one he says, "Your
+child's want of power to communicate with you is not because she is too
+pure, but because she is too weak. She will speak to you some day. She
+is _not_ in heaven." This last assertion, knowing so little as I did of
+a future state, both puzzled and grieved me. I could not believe that an
+innocent infant was not in the Beatific Presence--yet I could not
+understand what motive my friend could have in leading me astray. I had
+yet to learn that once received into Heaven no spirit could return to
+earth, and that a spirit may have a training to undergo, even though it
+has never committed a mortal sin. A further proof, however, that my dead
+child had never died was to reach me from a quarter where I least
+expected it. I was editor of the magazine _London Society_ at that time,
+and amongst my contributors was Dr. Keningale Cook, who had married
+Mabel Collins, the now well-known writer of spiritualistic novels. One
+day Dr. Cook brought me an invitation from his wife (whom I had never
+met) to spend Saturday to Monday with them in their cottage at Redhill,
+and I accepted it, knowing nothing of the proclivities of either of
+them, and they knowing as little of my private history as I did of
+theirs. And I must take this opportunity to observe that, at this
+period, I had never made my lost child the subject of conversation even
+with my most intimate friends. The memory of her life and death, and the
+troubles that caused it, was not a happy one, and of no interest to any
+but myself. So little, therefore, had it been discussed amongst us that
+until "Florence" reappeared to revive the topic, my _elder children were
+ignorant_ that their sister had been marked in any way differently from
+themselves. It may, therefore, be supposed how unlikely it was that
+utter strangers and public media should have gained any inkling of the
+matter. I went down to Redhill, and as I was sitting with the Keningale
+Cooks after dinner, the subject of Spiritualism came on the _tapis_, and
+I was informed that the wife was a powerful trance medium, which much
+interested me, as I had not, at that period, had any experience of her
+particular class of mediumship. In the evening we "sat" together, and
+Mrs. Cook having become entranced, her husband took shorthand notes of
+her utterances. Several old friends of their family spoke through her,
+and I was listening to them in the listless manner in which we hear the
+conversation of strangers, when my attention was aroused by the medium
+suddenly leaving her seat, and falling on her knees before me, kissing
+my hands and face, and sobbing violently the while. I waited in
+expectation of hearing who this might be, when the manifestations as
+suddenly ceased, the medium returned to her seat, and the voice of one
+of her guides said that the spirit was unable to speak through excess of
+emotion, but would try again later in the evening. I had almost
+forgotten the circumstance in listening to other communications, when I
+was startled by hearing the word "_Mother!_" sighed rather than spoken.
+I was about to make some excited reply, when the medium raised her hand
+to enjoin silence, and the following communication was taken down by Mr.
+Cook as she pronounced the words. The sentences in parentheses are my
+replies to her.
+
+"Mother! I am 'Florence.' I must be very quiet. I want to feel I have a
+mother still. I am so lonely. Why should I be so? I cannot speak well. I
+want to be like one of you. I want to feel I have a mother and sisters.
+I am so far away from you all now."
+
+("But I always think of you, my dear dead baby.")
+
+"That's just it--your _baby_. But I'm not a baby now. I shall get
+nearer. They tell me I shall. I do not know if I can come when you are
+alone. It's all so dark. I know you are there, but _so dimly_. I've
+grown _all by myself_. I'm not really unhappy, but I want to get nearer
+you. I know you think of me, but you think of me as a baby. You don't
+know me as I _am_. You've seen me, because in my love I have forced
+myself upon you. I've not been amongst the flowers yet, but I shall be,
+very soon now; but I want _my mother_ to take me there. All has been
+given me that can be given me, but I cannot receive it, except in so
+far----"
+
+Here she seemed unable to express herself.
+
+("Did the trouble I had before your birth affect your spirit,
+Florence?")
+
+"Only as things cause each other. I was with you, mother, all through
+that trouble. I should be nearer to you, _than any child you have_, if I
+could only get close to you."
+
+("I can't bear to hear you speak so sadly, dear. I have always believed
+that _you_, at least, were happy in Heaven.")
+
+"I am _not_ in Heaven! But there will come a day, mother--I can laugh
+when I say it--when we shall go to heaven _together_ and pick blue
+flowers--_blue flowers_. They are so good to me here, but if your eye
+cannot bear the daylight you cannot see the buttercups and daisies."
+
+I did not learn till afterwards that in the spiritual language blue
+flowers are typical of happiness. The next question I asked her was if
+she thought she could write through me.
+
+"I don't seem able to write through you, but why, I know not."
+
+("Do you know your sisters, Eva and Ethel?")
+
+"No! no!" in a weary voice. "The link of sisterhood is only through the
+mother. That kind of sisterhood does not last, because there is a
+higher."
+
+("Do you ever see your father?")
+
+"No! he is far, far away. I went once, not more. Mother, dear, he'll
+love me when he comes here. They've told me so, and they always tell
+truth here! I am but a child, yet not so very little. I seem composed of
+two things--a child in ignorance and a woman in years. Why can't I speak
+at other places? I have wished and tried! I've come very near, but it
+seems so easy to speak now. This medium seems so different."
+
+("I wish you could come to me when I am alone, Florence.")
+
+"You _shall_ know me! I _will_ come, mother, dear. I shall always be
+able to come here. I _do_ come to you, but not in the same way."
+
+She spoke in such a plaintive, melancholy voice that Mrs. Cook, thinking
+she would depress my spirits, said, "Don't make your state out to be
+sadder than it really is." Her reply was very remarkable.
+
+"_I am, as I am!_ Friend! when you come here, if you find that sadness
+_is_, you will not be able to alter it by plunging into material
+pleasures. _Our sadness makes the world we live in._ It is not deeds
+that make us wrong. It is the state in which _we were born_. Mother! you
+say I died sinless. That is nothing. I was born _in a state_. Had I
+lived, I should have caused you more pain than you can know. I am better
+here. I was not fit to battle with the world, and they took me from it.
+Mother! you won't let this make you sad. You must not."
+
+("What can I do to bring you nearer to me?")
+
+"I don't know what will bring me nearer, but I'm helped already by just
+talking to you. There's a ladder of brightness--every step. I believe
+I've gained just one step now. O! the Divine teachings are so
+mysterious. Mother! does it seem strange to you to hear your 'baby' say
+things as if she knew them? I'm going now. Good-bye!"
+
+And so "Florence" went. The next voice that spoke was that of a guide of
+the medium, and I asked her for a personal description of my daughter as
+she then appeared. She replied, "Her face is downcast. We have tried to
+cheer her, but she is very sad. It is the _state in which she was born_.
+Every physical deformity is the mark of a condition. A weak body is not
+necessarily the mark of a weak spirit, but the _prison_ of it, because
+the spirit might be too passionate otherwise. You cannot judge in what
+way the mind is deformed because the body is deformed. It does not
+follow that a canker in the body is a canker in the mind. But the mind
+may be too exuberant--may need a canker to restrain it."
+
+I have copied this conversation, word for word, from the shorthand notes
+taken at the time of utterance; and when it is remembered that neither
+Mrs. Keningale Cook nor her husband knew that I had lost a child--that
+they had never been in my house nor associated with any of my
+friends--it will at least be acknowledged, even by the most sceptical,
+that it was a very remarkable coincidence that I should receive such a
+communication from the lips of a perfect stranger. Only once after this
+did "Florence" communicate with me through the same source. She found
+congenial media nearer home, and naturally availed herself of them. But
+the second occasion was almost more convincing than the first. I went
+one afternoon to consult my solicitor in the strictest confidence as to
+how I should act under some very painful circumstances, and he gave me
+his advice. The next morning as I sat at breakfast, Mrs. Cook, who was
+still living at Redhill, ran into my room with an apology for the
+unceremoniousness of her visit, on the score that she had received a
+message for me the night before which "Florence" had begged her to
+deliver without delay. The message was to this effect: "Tell my mother
+that I was with her this afternoon at the lawyer's, and she is _not_ to
+follow the advice given her, as it will do harm instead of good." Mrs.
+Cook added, "I don't know to what 'Florence' alludes, of course, but I
+thought it best, as I was coming to town, to let you know at once."
+
+The force of this anecdote does not lie in the context. The mystery is
+contained in the fact of a secret interview having been overheard and
+commented upon. But the truth is, that having greater confidence in the
+counsel of my visible guide than in that of my invisible one, I abided
+by the former, and regretted it ever afterwards.
+
+The first conversation I held with "Florence" had a great effect upon
+me. I knew before that my uncontrolled grief had been the cause of the
+untimely death of her body, but it had never struck me that her spirit
+would carry the effects of it into the unseen world. It was a warning to
+me (as it should be to all mothers) not to take the solemn
+responsibility of maternity upon themselves without being prepared to
+sacrifice their own feelings for the sake of their children. "Florence"
+assured me, however, that communion with myself in my improved condition
+of happiness would soon lift her spirit from its state of depression,
+and consequently I seized every opportunity of seeing and speaking with
+her. During the succeeding twelve months I attended numerous _séances_
+with various media, and my spirit child (as she called herself) never
+failed to manifest through the influence of any one of them, though, of
+course, in different ways. Through some she touched me only, and always
+with an infant's hand, that I might recognize it as hers, or laid her
+mouth against mine that I might feel the scar upon her lip; through
+others she spoke, or wrote, or showed her face, but I never attended a
+_séance_ at which she omitted to notify her presence. Once at a dark
+circle, held with Mr. Charles Williams, after having had my dress and
+that of my next neighbor, Lady Archibald Campbell, pulled several times
+as if to attract our attention, the darkness opened before us, and there
+stood my child, smiling at us like a happy dream, her fair hair waving
+about her temples, and her blue eyes fixed on me. She was clothed in
+white, but we saw no more than her head and bust, about which her hands
+held her drapery. Lady Archibald Campbell saw her as plainly as I did.
+On another occasion Mr. William Eglinton proposed to me to try and
+procure the spirit-writing on his arm. He directed me to go into another
+room and write the name of the friend I loved best in the spirit world
+upon a scrap of paper, which I was to twist up tightly and take back to
+him. I did so, writing the name of "John Powles." When I returned to Mr.
+Eglinton, he bared his arm, and holding the paper to the candle till it
+was reduced to tinder, rubbed his flesh with the ashes. I knew what was
+expected to ensue. The name written on the paper was to reappear in red
+or white letters on the medium's arm. The sceptic would say it was a
+trick of thought-reading, and that, the medium knowing what I had
+written, had prepared the writing during my absence. But to his surprise
+and mine, when at last he shook the ashes from his arm, we read, written
+in a bold, clear hand, the words--"Florence is the dearest," as though
+my spirit child had given me a gentle rebuke for writing any name but
+her own. It seems curious to me now to look back and remember how
+melancholy she used to be when she first came back to me, for as soon as
+she had established an unbroken communication between us, she developed
+into the merriest little spirit I have ever known, and though her
+childhood has now passed away, and she is more dignified and thoughtful
+and womanly, she always appears joyous and happy. She has manifested
+largely to me through the mediumship of Mr. Arthur Colman. I had known
+her, during a dark _séance_ with a very small private circle (the medium
+being securely held and fastened the while) run about the room, like the
+child she was, and speak to and kiss each sitter in turn, pulling off
+the sofa and chair covers and piling them up in the middle of the table,
+and changing the ornaments of everyone present--placing the gentlemen's
+neckties round the throats of the ladies, and hanging the ladies'
+earrings in the buttonholes of the gentlemen's coats--just as she might
+have done had she been still with us, a happy, petted child, on earth. I
+have known her come in the dark and sit on my lap and kiss my face and
+hands, and let me feel the defect in her mouth with my own. One bright
+evening on the 9th of July--my birthday--Arthur Colman walked in quite
+unexpectedly to pay me a visit, and as I had some friends with me, we
+agreed to have a _séance_. It was impossible to make the room dark, as
+the windows were only shaded by venetian blinds, but we lowered them,
+and sat in the twilight. The first thing we heard was the voice of
+"Florence" whispering--"A present for dear mother's birthday," when
+something was put into my hand. Then she crossed to the side of a lady
+present and dropped something into her hand, saying, "And a present for
+dear mother's friend!" I knew at once by the feel of it that what
+"Florence" had given me was a chaplet of beads, and knowing how often,
+under similar circumstances, articles are merely carried about a room, I
+concluded it was one which lay upon my drawing-room mantel-piece, and
+said as much. I was answered by the voice of "Aimée," the medium's
+nearest control.
+
+"You are mistaken," she said, "'Florence' has given you a chaplet you
+have never seen before. She was exceedingly anxious to give you a
+present on your birthday, so I gave her the beads which were buried with
+me. They came from my coffin. I held them in my hand. All I ask is, that
+you will not shew them to Arthur until I give you leave. He is not well
+at present, and the sight of them will upset him."
+
+I was greatly astonished, but, of course, I followed her instructions,
+and when I had an opportunity to examine the beads, I found that they
+really were strangers to me, and had not been in the house before. The
+present my lady friend had received was a large, unset topaz. The
+chaplet was made of carved wood and steel. It was not till months had
+elapsed that I was given permission to show it to Arthur Colman. He
+immediately recognized it as the one he had himself placed in the hands
+of "Aimée" as she lay in her coffin, and when I saw how the sight
+affected him, I regretted I had told him anything about it. I offered to
+give the beads up to him, but he refused to receive them, and they
+remain in my possession to this day.
+
+But the great climax that was to prove beyond all question the personal
+identity of the spirit who communicated with me, with the body I had
+brought into the world, was yet to come. Mr. William Harrison, the
+editor of the _Spiritualist_ (who, after seventeen years' patient
+research into the science of Spiritualism, had never received a personal
+proof of the return of his own friends, or relations) wrote me word that
+he had received a message from his lately deceased friend, Mrs. Stewart,
+to the effect that if he would sit with the medium, Florence Cook, and
+one or two harmonious companions, she would do her best to appear to him
+in her earthly likeness and afford him the test he had so long sought
+after. Mr. Harrison asked me, therefore, if I would join him and Miss
+Kidlingbury--the secretary to the British National Association of
+Spiritualists--in holding a _séance_ with Miss Cook, to which I agreed,
+and we met in one of the rooms of the Association for that purpose. It
+was a very small room, about 8 feet by 16 feet, was uncarpeted and
+contained no furniture, so we carried in three cane-bottomed chairs for
+our accommodation. Across one corner of the room, about four feet from
+the floor, we nailed an old black shawl, and placed a cushion behind it
+for Miss Cook to lean her head against. Miss Florence Cook, who is a
+brunette, of a small, slight figure, with dark eyes and hair which she
+wore in a profusion of curls, was dressed in a high grey merino,
+ornamented with crimson ribbons. She informed me previous to sitting,
+that she had become restless during her trances lately, and in the habit
+of walking out amongst the circle, and she asked me as a friend (for
+such we had by that time become) to scold her well should such a thing
+occur, and order her to go back into the cabinet as if she were "a child
+or a dog;" and I promised her I would do so. After Florence Cook had sat
+down on the floor, behind the black shawl (which left her grey merino
+skirt exposed), and laid her head against the cushion, we lowered the
+gas a little, and took our seats on the three cane chairs. The medium
+appeared very uneasy at first, and we heard her remonstrating with the
+influences for using her so roughly. In a few minutes, however, there
+was a tremulous movement of the black shawl, and a large white hand was
+several times thrust into view and withdrawn again. I had never seen
+Mrs. Stewart (for whom we were expressly sitting) in this life, and
+could not, therefore, recognize the hand; but we all remarked how large
+and white it was. In another minute the shawl was lifted up, and a
+female figure crawled on its hands and knees from behind it, and then
+stood up and regarded us. It was impossible, in the dim light and at the
+distance she stood from us, to identify the features, so Mr. Harrison
+asked if she were Mrs. Stewart. The figure shook its head. I had lost a
+sister a few months previously, and the thought flashed across me that
+it might be her. "Is it you, Emily?" I asked; but the head was still
+shaken to express a negative, and a similar question on the part of Miss
+Kidlingbury, with respect to a friend of her own, met with the same
+response. "Who _can_ it be?" I remarked curiously to Mr. Harrison.
+
+"Mother! don't you know me?" sounded in "Florence's" whispering voice. I
+started up to approach her, exclaiming, "O! my darling child! I never
+thought I should meet you here!" But she said, "Go back to your chair,
+and I will come to you!" I reseated myself, and "Florence" crossed the
+room and sat down _on my lap_. She was more unclothed on that occasion
+than any materialized spirit I have ever seen. She wore nothing on her
+head, only her hair, of which she appears to have an immense quantity,
+fell down her back and covered her shoulders. Her arms were bare and her
+feet and part of her legs, and the dress she wore had no shape or style,
+but seemed like so many yards of soft thick muslin, wound round her body
+from the bosom to below the knees. She was a heavy weight--perhaps ten
+stone--and had well-covered limbs. In fact, she was then, and has
+appeared for several years past, to be, in point of size and shape, so
+like her eldest sister Eva, that I always observe the resemblance
+between them. This _séance_ took place at a period when "Florence" must
+have been about seventeen years old.
+
+"Florence, my darling," I said, "is this _really_ you?" "Turn up the
+gas," she answered, "and look at my mouth." Mr. Harrison did as she
+desired, and we all saw distinctly _that peculiar defect on the lip_
+with which she was born--a defect, be it remembered, which some of the
+most experienced members of the profession had affirmed to be "_so rare
+as never to have fallen under their notice before_." She also opened her
+mouth that we might see she had no gullet. I promised at the
+commencement of my book to confine myself to facts, and leave the
+deduction to be drawn from them to my readers, so I will not interrupt
+my narrative to make any remarks upon this incontrovertible proof of
+identity. I know it struck me dumb, and melted me into tears. At this
+juncture Miss Cook, who had been moaning and moving about a good deal
+behind the black shawl, suddenly exclaimed, "I can't stand this any
+longer," and walked out into the room. There she stood in her grey dress
+and crimson ribbons whilst "Florence" sat on my lap in white drapery.
+But only for a moment, for directly the medium was fully in view, the
+spirit sprung up and darted behind the curtain. Recalling Miss Cook's
+injunctions to me, I scolded her heartily for leaving her seat, until
+she crept back, whimpering, to her former position. The shawl had
+scarcely closed behind her before "Florence" reappeared and clung to me,
+saying, "Don't let her do that again. She frightens me so." She was
+actually trembling all over. "Why, Florence," I replied. "Do you mean to
+tell me you are frightened of your medium? In this world it is we poor
+mortals who are frightened of the spirits." "I am afraid she will send
+me away, mother," she whispered. However, Miss Cook did not disturb us
+again, and "Florence" stayed with us for some time longer. She clasped
+her arms round my neck, and laid her head upon my bosom, and kissed me
+dozens of times. She took my hand and spread it out, and said she felt
+sure I should recognize her hand when she thrust it outside the curtain,
+because it was so much like my own. I was suffering much trouble at that
+time, and "Florence" told me the reason God had permitted her to show
+herself to me in her earthly deformity was so that I might be sure that
+she was herself, and that Spiritualism was a truth to comfort me.
+"Sometimes you doubt, mother," she said, "and think your eyes and ears
+have misled you; but after this you must never doubt again. Don't fancy
+I am like this in the spirit land. The blemish left me long ago. But I
+put it on to-night to make you certain. Don't fret, dear mother.
+Remember _I_ am always near you. No one can take _me_ away. Your earthly
+children may grow up and go out into the world and leave you, but you
+will always have your spirit child close to you." I did not, and cannot,
+calculate for how long "Florence" remained visible on that occasion.
+Mr. Harrison told me afterwards that she had remained for nearly twenty
+minutes. But her undoubted presence was such a stupendous fact to me,
+that I could only think that _she was there_--that I actually held in my
+arms the tiny infant I had laid with my own hands in her coffin--that
+she was no more dead than I was myself, but had grown to be a woman. So
+I sat, with my arms tight round her, and my heart beating against hers,
+until the power decreased, and "Florence" was compelled to give me a
+last kiss and leave me stupefied and bewildered by what had so
+unexpectedly occurred. Two other spirits materialized and appeared after
+she had left us, but as neither of them was Mrs. Stewart, the _séance_,
+as far as Mr. Harrison was concerned, was a failure. I have seen and
+heard "Florence" on numerous occasions since the one I have narrated,
+but not with the mark upon her mouth, which she assures me will never
+trouble either of us again. I could fill pages with accounts of her
+pretty, caressing ways and her affectionate and sometimes solemn
+messages; but I have told as much of her story as will interest the
+general reader. It has been wonderful to me to mark how her ways and
+mode of communication have changed with the passing years. It was a
+simple child who did not know how to express itself that appeared to me
+in 1873. It is a woman full of counsel and tender warning that comes to
+me in 1890. But yet she is only nineteen. When she reached that age,
+"Florence" told me she should never grow any older in years or
+appearance, and that she had reached the climax of womanly perfection in
+the spirit world. Only to-night--the night before Christmas Day--as I
+write her story, she comes to me and says, "Mother! you must not give
+way to sad thoughts. The Past is past. Let it be buried in the blessings
+that remain to you."
+
+And amongst the greatest of those blessings I reckon my belief in the
+existence of my spirit-child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE STORY OF EMILY.
+
+
+My sister Emily was the third daughter of my late father, and several
+years older than myself. She was a handsome woman--strictly speaking,
+perhaps, the handsomest of the family, and quite unlike the others. She
+had black hair and eyes, a pale complexion, a well-shaped nose, and
+small, narrow hands and feet. But her beauty had slight detractions--so
+slight, indeed, as to be imperceptible to strangers, but well known to
+her intimate friends. Her mouth was a little on one side, one shoulder
+was half an inch higher than the other, her fingers were not quite
+straight, nor her toes, and her hips corresponded with her shoulders.
+She was clever, with a versatile, all-round talent, and of a very happy
+and contented disposition. She married Dr. Henry Norris of Charmouth, in
+Dorset, and lived there many years before her death. She was an
+excellent wife and mother, a good friend, and a sincere Christian;
+indeed, I do not believe that a more earnest, self-denying, better woman
+ever lived in this world. But she had strong feelings, and in some
+things she was very bigoted. One was Spiritualism. She vehemently
+opposed even the mention of it, declared it to be diabolical, and never
+failed to blame me for pursuing such a wicked and unholy occupation. She
+was therefore about the last person whom I should have expected to take
+advantage of it to communicate with her friends.
+
+My sister Emily died on the 20th of April, 1875. Her death resulted from
+a sudden attack of pleurisy, and was most unexpected. I was sitting at
+an early dinner with my children on the same day when I received a
+telegram from my brother-in-law to say, "Emily very ill; will telegraph
+when change occurs," and I had just despatched an answer to ask if I
+should go down to Charmouth, or could be of any use, when a second
+message arrived, "All is over. She died quietly at two o'clock." Those
+who have received similar shocks will understand what I felt. I was
+quite stunned, and could not realize that my sister had passed away from
+us, so completely unanticipated had been the news. I made the necessary
+arrangements for going down to her funeral, but my head was filled with
+nothing but thoughts of Emily the while, and conjectures of _how_ she
+had died and of _what_ she had died (for that was, as yet, unknown to
+me), and what she had thought and said; above all, what she was thinking
+and feeling at that moment. I retired to rest with my brain in a whirl,
+and lay half the night wide awake, staring into the darkness, and
+wondering where my sister was. _Now_ was the time (if any) for my
+cerebral organs to play me a trick, and conjure up a vision of the
+person I was thinking of. But I saw nothing; no sound broke the
+stillness; my eyes rested only on the darkness. I was quite
+disappointed, and in the morning I told my children so. I loved my
+sister Emily dearly, and I hoped she would have come to wish me
+good-bye. On the following night I was exhausted by want of sleep and
+the emotion I had passed through, and when I went to bed I was very
+sleepy. I had not been long asleep, however, before I was waked up--I
+can hardly say by what--and there at my bedside stood Emily, smiling at
+me. When I lost my little "Florence," Emily had been unmarried, and she
+had taken a great interest in my poor baby, and nursed her during her
+short lifetime, and, I believe, really mourned her loss, for (although
+she had children of her own) she always wore a little likeness of
+"Florence" in a locket on her watch-chain. When Emily died I had of
+course been for some time in communication with my spirit-child, and
+when my sister appeared to me that night, "Florence" was in her arms,
+with her head resting on her shoulder. I recognized them both at once,
+and the only thing which looked strange to me was that Emily's long
+black hair was combed right back in the Chinese fashion, giving her
+forehead an unnaturally high appearance. This circumstance made the
+greater impression on me, because we all have such high foreheads with
+the hair growing off the temples that we have never been able to wear it
+in the style I speak of. With this exception my sister looked beautiful
+and most happy, and my little girl clung to her lovingly. Emily did not
+speak aloud, but she kept on looking down at "Florence," and up at me,
+whilst her lips formed the words, "Little Baby," which was the name by
+which she had always mentioned my spirit-child. In the morning I
+mentioned what I had seen to my elder girls, adding, "I hardly knew dear
+Aunt Emily, with her hair scratched back in that fashion."
+
+This apparition happened on the Wednesday night, and on the Friday
+following I travelled down to Charmouth to be present at the funeral,
+which was fixed for Saturday. I found my sister Cecil there before me.
+As soon as we were alone, she said to me, "I am so glad you came to-day.
+I want you to arrange dear Emily nicely in her coffin. The servants had
+laid her out before my arrival, and she doesn't look a bit like herself.
+But I haven't the nerve to touch her." It was late at night, but I took
+a candle at once and accompanied Cecil to the death-chamber. Our sister
+was lying, pale and calm, with a smile upon her lips, much as she had
+appeared to me, and with _all her black hair combed back from her
+forehead_. The servants had arranged it so, thinking it looked neater.
+It was impossible to make any alteration till the morning, but when our
+dear sister was carried to her grave, her hair framed her dead face in
+the wavy curls in which it always fell when loose; a wreath of flowering
+syringa was round her head, a cross of violets on her breast, and in her
+waxen, beautifully-moulded hands, she held three tall, white lilies. I
+mention this because she has come to me since with the semblance of
+these very flowers to ensure her recognition. After the funeral, my
+brother-in-law gave me the details of her last illness. He told me that
+on the Monday afternoon, when her illness first took a serious turn and
+she became (as he said) delirious, she talked continually to her father,
+Captain Marryat (to whom she had been most reverentially attached), and
+who, she affirmed, was sitting by the side of the bed. Her conversation
+was perfectly rational, and only disjointed when she waited for a reply
+to her own remarks. She spoke to him of Langham and all that had
+happened there, and particularly expressed her surprise at his having _a
+beard_, saying, "Does hair grow up there, father?" I was the more
+impressed by this account, because Dr. Norris, like most medical men,
+attributed the circumstance entirely to the distorted imagination of a
+wandering brain. And yet my father (whom I have never seen since his
+death) has been described to me by various clairvoyants, and always as
+_wearing a beard_, a thing he never did during his lifetime, as it was
+the fashion then for naval officers to wear only side whiskers. In all
+his pictures he is represented as clean shorn, and as he was so well
+known a man, one would think that (were they dissembling) the
+clairvoyants, in describing his personal characteristics, would follow
+the clue given by his portraits.
+
+For some time after my sister Emily's death I heard nothing more of her,
+and for the reasons I have given, I never expected to see her again
+until we met in the spirit-world. About two years after her death,
+however, my husband, Colonel Lean, bought two tickets for a series of
+_séances_ to be held in the rooms of the British National Association of
+Spiritualists under the mediumship of Mr. William Eglinton. This was
+the first time we had ever seen or sat with Mr. Eglinton, but we had
+heard a great deal of his powers, and were curious to test them. On the
+first night, which was a Saturday, we assembled with a party of twelve,
+all complete strangers, in the rooms I have mentioned, which were
+comfortably lighted with gas. Mr. Eglinton, who is a young man inclined
+to stoutness, went into the cabinet, which was placed in the centre of
+us, with spectators all round it. The cabinet was like a large cupboard,
+made of wood and divided into two parts, the partition being of
+wire-work, so that the medium might be padlocked into it, and a curtain
+drawn in front of both sides. After a while, a voice called out to us
+not to be frightened, as the medium was coming out to get more power,
+and Mr. Eglinton, in a state of trance and dressed in a suit of evening
+clothes, walked out of the cabinet and commenced a tour of the circle.
+He touched every one in turn, but did not stop until he reached Colonel
+Lean, before whom he remained for some time, making magnetic passes down
+his face and figure. He then turned to re-enter the cabinet, but as he
+did so, some one moved the curtain from inside and Mr. Eglinton
+_actually held the curtain to one side to permit the materialized form
+to pass out_ before he went into the cabinet himself. The figure that
+appeared was that of a woman clothed in loose white garments that fell
+to her feet. Her eyes were black and her long black hair fell over her
+shoulders. I suspected at the time who she was, but each one in the
+circle was so certain she came for him or for her, that I said nothing,
+and only mentally asked if it were my sister that I might receive a
+proof of her identity. On the following evening (Sunday) Colonel Lean
+and I were "sitting" together, when Emily came to the table to assure us
+that it was she whom we had seen, and that she would appear again on
+Monday and show herself more clearly. I asked her to think of some means
+by which she could prove her identity with the spirit that then spoke to
+us, and she said, "I will hold up my right hand." Colonel Lean cautioned
+me not to mention this promise to any one, that we might be certain of
+the correctness of the test. Accordingly, on the Monday evening we
+assembled for our second _séance_ with Mr. Eglinton, and the same form
+appeared, and walking out much closer to us, _held up the right hand_.
+Colonel Lean, anxious not to be deceived by his own senses, asked the
+company what the spirit was doing. "Cannot you see?" was the answer.
+"She is holding up her hand." On this occasion Emily came with all her
+old characteristics about her, and there would have been no possibility
+of mistaking her (at least on my part) without the proof she had
+promised to give us.
+
+The next startling assurance we received of her proximity happened in a
+much more unexpected manner. We were staying, in the autumn of the
+following year, at a boarding-house in the Rue de Vienne at Brussels,
+with a large party of English visitors, none of whom we had ever seen
+till we entered the house. Amongst them were several girls, who had
+never heard of Spiritualism before, and were much interested in
+listening to the relation of our experiences on the subject. One evening
+when I was not well, and keeping my own room, some of these young ladies
+got hold of Colonel Lean and said, "Oh! do come and sit in the dark with
+us and tell us ghost stories." Now sitting in the dark and telling ghost
+stories to five or six nice looking girls is an occupation few men would
+object to, and they were all soon ensconced in the dark and deserted
+_salle-à-manger_. Amongst them was a young girl of sixteen, Miss Helen
+Hill, who had never shown more interest than the rest in such matters.
+After they had been seated in the dark for some minutes, she said to
+Colonel Lean, "Do you know, I can see a lady on the opposite side of the
+table quite distinctly, and she is nodding and smiling at you." The
+colonel asked what the lady was like. "She is very nice looking,"
+replied the girl, "with dark eyes and hair, but she seems to want me to
+notice her ring. She wears a ring with a large blue stone in it, of such
+a funny shape, and she keeps on twisting it round and round her finger,
+and pointing to it. Oh! now she has got up and is walking round the
+room. Only fancy! she is holding up her feet for me to see. They are
+bare and very white, but her toes are crooked!" Then Miss Hill became
+frightened and asked them to get a light. She declared that the figure
+had come up, close to her, and torn the lace off her wrists. And when
+the light was procured and her dress examined, a frill of lace that had
+been tacked into her sleeve that morning had totally disappeared. The
+young ladies grew nervous and left the room, and Colonel Lean, thinking
+the description Helen Hill had given of the spirit tallied with that of
+my sister Emily, came straight up to me and surprised me by an abrupt
+question as to whether she had been in the habit of wearing any
+particular ring (for he had not seen her for several years before her
+death). I told him that her favorite ring was an uncut turquoise--so
+large and uneven that she used to call it her "potato." "Had she any
+peculiarity about her feet?" he went on, eagerly. "Why do you wish to
+know?" I said. "She had crooked toes, that is all." "Good heavens!" he
+exclaimed, "then she has been with us in the _salle-à-manger_." I have
+never met Miss Hill since, and I am not in a position to say if she has
+evinced any further possession of clairvoyant power; but she certainly
+displayed it on that occasion to a remarkable degree; for she had never
+even heard of the existence of my sister Emily, and was very much
+disturbed and annoyed when told that the apparition she had described
+was reality and not imagination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE STORY OF THE GREEN LADY.
+
+
+The story I have to tell now happened a very short time ago, and every
+detail is as fresh in my mind as if I had heard and seen it yesterday.
+Mrs. Guppy-Volckman has been long known to the spiritualistic world as a
+very powerful medium, also as taking a great private interest in
+Spiritualism, which all media do not. Her means justify her, too, in
+gratifying her whims; and hearing that a certain house in Broadstairs
+was haunted, she became eager to ascertain the truth. The house being
+empty, she procured the keys from the landlord, and proceeded on a
+voyage of discovery alone. She had barely recovered, at the time, from a
+most dangerous illness, which had left a partial paralysis of the lower
+limbs behind it; it was therefore with considerable difficulty that she
+gained the drawing-room of the house, which was on the first floor, and
+when there she abandoned her crutches, and sat down on the floor to
+recover herself. Mrs. Volckman was now perfectly alone. She had closed
+the front door after her, and she was moreover almost helpless, as it
+was with great difficulty that she could rise without assistance. It was
+on a summer's evening towards the dusky hour, and she sat on the bare
+floor of the empty house waiting to see what might happen. After some
+time (I tell this part of the story as I received it from her lips) she
+heard a rustling or sweeping sound, as of a long silk train coming down
+the uncarpeted stairs from the upper storey. The room in which she sat
+communicated with another, which led out upon the passage, and it was
+not long before the door between these two apartments opened and the
+figure of a woman appeared. She entered the room in which Mrs. Volckman
+sat, very cautiously, and commenced to walk round it, feeling her way
+along the walls as though she were blind or tipsy. She was dressed in a
+green satin robe that swept behind her--round the upper part of her body
+was a kind of scarf of glistening white material, like silk gauze--and
+on her head was a black velvet cap, or coif, from underneath which her
+long black hair fell down her back. Mrs. Volckman, although used all her
+life to manifestations and apparitions of all sorts, told me she had
+never felt so frightened at the sight of one before. She attempted to
+rise, but feeling her incapability of doing so quickly, she screamed
+with fear. As soon as she did so, the woman turned round and ran out of
+the room, apparently as frightened as herself. Mrs. Volckman got hold of
+her crutches, scrambled to her feet, found her way downstairs, and
+reached the outside of the house in safety. Most people would never have
+entered it again. She, on the contrary, had an interview with the
+landlord, and actually, then and there, purchased a lease of the house
+and entered upon possession, and as soon as it was furnished and ready
+for occupation, she invited a party of friends to go down and stay with
+her at Broadstairs, and make the acquaintance of the "Green Lady," as we
+had christened her. Colonel Lean and I were amongst the visitors, the
+others consisting of Lady Archibald Campbell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Olive,
+Mrs. Bellew, Colonel Greck, Mr. Charles Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry
+Volckman, which, with our host and hostess, made up a circle of twelve.
+We assembled there on a bright day in July, and the house, with its
+large rooms and windows facing the sea, looked cheerful enough. The room
+in which Mrs. Volckman had seen the apparition was furnished as a
+drawing-room, and the room adjoining it, which was divided by a
+_portière_ only from the larger apartment, she had converted for
+convenience sake into her bedroom. The first evening we sat it was about
+seven o'clock, and so light that we let down all the venetians, which,
+however, did little to remedy the evil. We had no cabinet, nor curtains,
+nor darkness, for it was full moon at the time, and the dancing,
+sparkling waves were quite visible through the interstices of the
+venetians. We simply sat round the table, holding hands in an unbroken
+circle and laughing and chatting with each other. In a few minutes Mrs.
+Volckman said something was rising beside her from the carpet, and in a
+few more the "Green Lady" was visible to us all standing between the
+medium and Mr. Williams. She was just as she had been described to us,
+both in dress and appearance, but her face was as white and as cold as
+that of a corpse, and her eyes were closed. She leaned over the table
+and brought her face close to each of us in turn, but she seemed to have
+no power of speech. After staying with us about ten minutes, she sunk as
+she had risen, through the carpet, and disappeared. The next evening,
+under precisely similar circumstances, she came again. This time she had
+evidently gained more vitality in a materialized condition, for when I
+urged her to tell me her name, she whispered, though with much
+difficulty, "Julia!" and when Lady Archibald observed that she thought
+she had no hands, the spirit suddenly thrust out a little hand, and
+grasped the curls on her forehead with a violence that gave her pain.
+Unfortunately, Mr. Williams' professional engagements compelled him to
+leave us on the following day, and Mrs. Volckman had been too recently
+ill to permit her to sit alone, so that we were not able to hold another
+_séance_ for the "Green Lady" during our visit. But we had not seen the
+last of her. One evening Mrs. Bellew and I were sitting in the bay
+window of the drawing-room, just "between the lights," and discussing a
+very private matter indeed, when I saw (as I thought) my hostess maid
+raise the _portière_ that hung between the apartments and stand there in
+a listening attitude. I immediately gave Mrs. Volckman the hint. "Let us
+talk of something else," I said, in a low voice. "Jane is in your
+bedroom." "O! no! she's not," was the reply. "But I saw her lift the
+_portière_," I persisted; "she has only just dropped it." "You are
+mistaken," replied my hostess, "for Jane has gone on the beach with the
+child." I felt sure I had _not_ been mistaken, but I held my tongue and
+said no more. The conversation was resumed, and as we were deep in the
+delicate matter, the woman appeared for the second time.
+
+"Mrs. Volckman," I whispered, "Jane is really there. She has just looked
+in again."
+
+My friend rose from her seat. "Come with me," she said, "and I will
+convince you that you are wrong."
+
+I followed her into the bedroom, where she showed me that the door
+communicating with the passage was locked _inside_.
+
+"Now, do you see," she continued, "that no one but the 'Green Lady'
+could enter this room but through the one we are sitting in."
+
+"Then it must have been the 'Green Lady,'" I replied, "for I assuredly
+saw a woman standing in the doorway."
+
+"That is likely enough," said Mrs. Volckman; "but if she comes again she
+shall have the trouble of drawing back the curtains."
+
+And thereupon she unhooped the _portière_, which consisted of two
+curtains, and drew them right across the door. We had hardly regained
+our seats in the bay window before the two curtains were sharply drawn
+aside, making the brass rings rattle on the rod, and the "Green Lady"
+stood in the opening we had just passed through. Mrs. Volckman told her
+not to be afraid, but to come out and speak to us; but she was
+apparently not equal to doing so, and only stood there for a few minutes
+gazing at us. I imprudently left my seat and approached her, with a view
+to making overtures of friendship, when she dropped the curtains over
+her figure. I passed through them immediately to the other side, and
+found the bedroom empty and the door locked inside, as before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE STORY OF THE MONK.
+
+
+A lady named Uniacke, a resident in Bruges, whilst on a visit to my
+house in London, met and had a _séance_ with William Eglinton, with
+which she was so delighted that she immediately invited him to go and
+stay with her abroad, and as my husband and I were about to cross over
+to Bruges to see my sister, who also resided there, we travelled in
+company--Mr. Eglinton living at Mrs. Uniacke's home, whilst we stayed
+with our own relations. Mrs. Uniacke was a medium herself, and had
+already experienced some very noisy and violent demonstrations in her
+own house. She was, therefore, quite prepared for her visitor, and had
+fitted up a spare room with a cabinet and blinds to the windows, and
+everything that was necessary. But, somewhat to her chagrin, we were
+informed at the first sitting by Mr. Eglinton's control, "Joey," that
+all future _séances_ were to take place at my sister's house instead. We
+were given no reason for the change; we were simply told to obey it. My
+sister's house was rather a peculiar one, and I have already alluded to
+it, and some of the sights and sounds by which it was haunted, in the
+chapter headed "Optical Illusions." The building is so ancient that the
+original date has been completely lost. A stone set into one of the
+walls bore an inscription to the effect that it was restored in the year
+1616. And an obsolete plan of the city shows it to have stood in its
+present condition in 1562. Prior to that period, however, probably about
+the thirteenth century, it is supposed, with three houses on either side
+of it, to have formed a convent, but no printed record remains of the
+fact. Beneath it are subterraneous passages, choked with rubbish, which
+lead, no one knows whither. I had stayed in this house several times
+before, and always felt unpleasant influences from it, as I have
+related, especially in a large room on the lower floor, then used as a
+drawing-room, but which is said to have formed, originally, the chapel
+to the convent. Others had felt the influence beside myself, though we
+never had had reason to suppose that there was any particular cause for
+it. When we expressed curiosity, however, to learn why "Joey" desired us
+to hold our _séance_ in my sister's house, he told us that the medium
+had not been brought over to Bruges for _our_ pleasure or edification,
+but that there was a great work to be done there, and Mrs. Uniacke had
+been expressly influenced to invite him over, that the purposes of a
+higher power than his own should be accomplished. Consequently, on the
+following evening Mrs. Uniacke brought Mr. Eglinton over to my sister's
+house, and "Joey" having been asked to choose a room for the sitting,
+selected an _entresol_ on the upper floor, which led by two short
+passages to the bedrooms. The bedroom doors being locked a dark curtain
+was hung at the entrance of one of these passages, and "Joey" declared
+it was a first-rate cabinet. We then assembled in the drawing-room, for
+the purposes of music and conversation, for we intended to hold the
+_séance_ later in the evening. The party consisted only of the medium,
+Mrs. Uniacke, my sister, my husband, and myself. After I had sung a song
+or two, Mr. Eglinton became restless and moved away from the piano,
+saying the influence was too strong for him. He began walking up and
+down the room, and staring fixedly at the door, before which hung a
+_portière_. Several times he exclaimed with knitted brows, "What is the
+matter with that door? There is something very peculiar about it." Once
+he approached it quickly, but "Joey's" voice was heard from behind the
+_portière_, saying, "Don't come too near." Mr. Eglinton then retreated
+to a sofa, and appeared to be fighting violently with some unpleasant
+influence. He made the sign of the cross, then extended his fingers
+towards the door, as though to exorcise it: finally he burst into a
+mocking, scornful peal of laughter that lasted for some minutes. As it
+concluded, a diabolical expression came over his face. He clenched his
+hands, gnashed his teeth, and commenced to grope in a crouching position
+towards the door. We concluded he wished to get up to the room where the
+cabinet was, and let him have his way. He crawled, rather than walked,
+up the steep turret stairs, but on reaching the top, came to himself
+suddenly and fell back several steps. My husband, fortunately, was just
+behind him and saved him from a fall. He complained greatly of the
+influence and of a pain in his head, and we sat at the table to receive
+directions. In a few seconds the same spirit had taken possession of
+him. He left the table and groped his way towards the bedrooms,
+listening apparently to every sound, and with his hand holding an
+imaginary knife which was raised every now and then as if to strike. The
+expression on Mr. Eglinton's face during this possession is too horrible
+to describe. The worst passions were written as legibly there as though
+they had been labelled. There was a short flight of stairs leading from
+the _entresol_ to the corridor, closed at the head by a padded door,
+which we had locked for fear of accident. When, apparently in pursuit of
+his object, the spirit led the medium up to this door and he found it
+fastened, his moans were terrible. Half-a-dozen times he made his weary
+round of the room, striving to get downstairs to accomplish some end,
+and to return to us moaning and baffled. At this juncture, he was so
+exhausted that one of his controls, "Daisy," took possession of him and
+talked with us for some time. We asked "Daisy" what the spirit was like
+that had controlled Mr. Eglinton last, and she said she did not like
+him--he had a bad face, no hair on the top of his head, and a long black
+frock. From this we concluded he had been a monk or a priest. When
+"Daisy" had finished speaking to us "Joey" desired Mr. Eglinton to go
+into the cabinet; but as soon as he rose, the same spirit got possession
+again and led him grovelling as before towards the bedrooms. His
+"guides" therefore carried him into the cabinet before our eyes. He was
+elevated far above our heads, his feet touching each of us in turn; he
+was then carried past the unshaded window, which enabled us to judge of
+the height he was from the ground, and finally over a large table, into
+the cabinet.
+
+Nothing, however, of consequence occurred, and "Joey" advised us to take
+the medium downstairs to the supper room.
+
+Accordingly we adjourned there, and during supper Mr. Eglinton appeared
+to be quite himself, and laughed with us over what had taken place. As
+soon as the meal was over, however, the old restlessness returned on
+him, and he began pacing up and down the room, walking out every now and
+then into the corridor. In a few minutes we perceived that the uneasy
+spirit again controlled him, and we all followed. He went steadily
+towards the drawing-room, but, on finding himself pursued, turned back,
+and three times pronounced emphatically the word "Go." He then entered
+the drawing-room, which was in darkness, and closed the door behind him,
+whilst we waited outside. In a little while he reopened it, and speaking
+in quite a different voice, said "Bring a light! I have something to say
+to you." When we reassembled with a lamp we found the medium controlled
+by a new spirit, whom "Joey" afterwards told us was one of his highest
+guides. Motioning us to be seated, he stood before us and said, "I have
+been selected from amongst the controls of this medium to tell you the
+history of the unhappy being who has so disturbed you this evening. He
+is present now, and the confession of his crime through my lips will
+help him to throw off the earthbound condition to which it has condemned
+him. Many years ago, the house in which we now stand was a convent, and
+underneath it were four subterraneous passages running north, south,
+east, and west, which communicated with all parts of the town. (I must
+here state that Mr. Eglinton had not previously been informed of any
+particulars relating to the former history of my sister's home, neither
+were Mrs. Uniacke or myself acquainted with it.)
+
+"In this convent there lived a most beautiful woman--a nun, and in one
+of the neighboring monasteries a priest who, against the strict law of
+his Church, had conceived and nourished a passion for her. He was an
+Italian who had been obliged to leave his own country, for reasons best
+known to himself, and nightly he would steal his way to this house, by
+means of one of the subterraneous passages, and attempt to overcome the
+nun's scruples, and make her listen to his tale of love; but she, strong
+in the faith, resisted him. At last, maddened one day by her repeated
+refusals, and his own guilty passion, he hid himself in one of the
+northern rooms in the upper story of this house, and watched there in
+the dark for her to pass him on her way from her devotions in the
+chapel; but she did not come. Then he crept downstairs stealthily, with
+a dagger hid beneath his robes, and met her in the hall. He conjured her
+again to yield to him, but again she resisted, and he stabbed her within
+the door on the very spot where the medium first perceived him. Her
+pure soul sought immediate consolation in the spirit spheres, but his
+has been chained down ever since to the scene of his awful crime. He
+dragged her body down the secret stairs (which are still existent) to
+the vaults beneath, and hid it in the subterraneous passage.
+
+"After a few days he sought it again, and buried it. He lived many years
+after, and committed many other crimes, though none so foul as this. It
+is his unhappy spirit that asks your prayers to help it to progress. It
+is for this purpose that we were brought to this city, that we might aid
+in releasing the miserable soul that cannot rest."
+
+I asked, "By what name shall we pray for him?"
+
+"Pray for 'the distressed Being.' Call him by no other name."
+
+"What is your own name?"
+
+"I prefer to be unknown. May God bless you all and keep you in the way
+of prayer and truth and from all evil courses, and bring you to
+everlasting life. Amen."
+
+The medium then walked up to the spot he had indicated as the scene of
+the murder, and knelt there for some minutes in prayer.
+
+Thus concluded the first _séance_ at which the monk was introduced to
+us. But the next day as I sat at the table with my sister only, the name
+of "Hortense Dupont" was given us, and the following conversation was
+rapped out.
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I am the nun. I did love him. I couldn't help it. It is such a relief
+to think that he will be prayed for."
+
+"When did he murder you?"
+
+"In 1498."
+
+"What was his name?"
+
+"I cannot tell you."
+
+"His age."
+
+"Thirty-five!"
+
+"And yours."
+
+"Twenty-three."
+
+"Are you coming to see us to-morrow?"
+
+"I am not sure."
+
+On that evening, by "Joey's" orders, we assembled at seven. Mr. Eglinton
+did not feel the influence in the drawing-room that day, but directly he
+entered the _séance_ room, he was possessed by the same spirit. His
+actions were still more graphic than on the first occasion. He watched
+from the window for the coming of his victim through the courtyard, and
+then recommenced his crawling stealthy pursuit, coming back each time
+from the locked door that barred his egress with such heart-rending
+moans that no one could have listened to him unmoved. At last, his agony
+was so great, as he strove again and again, like some dumb animal, to
+pass through the walls that divided him from the spot he wished to
+visit, whilst the perspiration streamed down the medium's face with the
+struggle, that we attempted to make him speak to us. We implored him in
+French to tell us his trouble, and believe us to be his friends; but he
+only pushed us away. At last we were impressed to pray for him, and
+kneeling down, we repeated all the well-known Catholic prayers. As we
+commenced the "De Profundis" the medium fell prostrate on the earth, and
+seemed to wrestle with his agony. At the "Salve Regina" and "Ave Maria"
+he lifted his eyes to heaven and clasped his hands, and in the "Pater
+Noster" he appeared to join. But directly we ceased praying the evil
+passions returned, and his face became distorted in the thirst for
+blood. It was an experience that no one who had seen could ever forget.
+At last my sister fetched a crucifix, which we placed upon his breast.
+It had not been there many seconds before a different expression came
+over his face. He seized it in both hands, straining it to his eyes,
+lips, and heart, holding it from him at arm's length, then passionately
+kissing it, as we repeated the "Anima Christi." Finally, he held the
+crucifix out for each of us to kiss; a beautiful smile broke out on the
+medium's face, and the spirit passed out of him.
+
+Mr. Eglinton awoke on that occasion terribly exhausted. His face was as
+white as a sheet, and he trembled violently. His first words were: "They
+are doing something to my forehead. Burn a piece of paper, and give me
+the ashes." He rubbed them between his eyes, when the sign of the cross
+became distinctly visible, drawn in deep red lines upon his forehead.
+The controls then said, exhausted as Mr. Eglinton was, we were to place
+him in the cabinet, as their work was not yet done. He was accordingly
+led in trance to the arm-chair behind the curtain, whilst we formed a
+circle in front of him. In a few seconds the cabinet was illuminated,
+and a cross of fire appeared outside of it. This manifestation having
+been seen twice, the head and shoulders of a nun appeared floating
+outside the curtain. Her white coif and "chin-piece" were pinned just as
+the "_religieuses_" are in the habit of pinning them, and she seemed
+very anxious to show herself, coming close to each of us in turn, and
+re-appearing several times. Her face was that of a young and pretty
+woman. "Joey" said, "That's the nun, but you'll understand that this is
+only a preliminary trial, preparatory to a more perfect
+materialization." I asked the apparition if she were the "Hortense
+Dupont" that had communicated through me, and she nodded her head
+several times in acquiescence. Thus ended our second _séance_ with the
+Monk of Bruges.
+
+On the third day we were all sitting at supper in my sister's house at
+about ten o'clock at night, when loud raps were heard about the room,
+and on giving the alphabet, "Joey" desired us to go upstairs and sit,
+and to have the door at the head of the staircase (which we had hitherto
+locked for fear of accidents) left open; which we accordingly did. As
+soon as we were seated at the table, the medium became entranced, and
+the same pantomime which I have related was gone through. He watched
+from the window that looked into the courtyard, and silently groped his
+way round the room, until he had crawled on his stomach up the stairs
+that led to the padded door. When he found, however, that the obstacle
+that had hitherto stood in his way was removed (by its being open) he
+drew a long breath and started away for the winding turret staircase,
+listening at the doors he passed to find out if he were overheard. When
+he came to the stairs, in descending which we had been so afraid he
+might hurt himself, he was carried down them in the most wonderful
+manner, only placing his hand on the balustrades, and swooping to the
+bottom in one flight. We had placed a lamp in the hall, so that as we
+followed him we could observe all his actions. When he reached the
+bottom of the staircase he crawled on his stomach to the door of the
+drawing-room (originally the chapel) and there waited and listened,
+darting back into the shadow every time he fancied he heard a sound.
+Imagine our little party of four in that sombre old house, the only
+ones waking at that time of night, watching by the ghastly light of a
+turned-down lamp the acting of that terrible tragedy. We held our breath
+as the murderer crouched by the chapel door, opening it noiselessly to
+peep within, and then, retreating with his imaginary dagger in his hand,
+ready to strike as soon as his victim appeared. At last she seemed to
+come. In an instant he had sprung to meet her, stabbing her first in a
+half-stooping attitude, and then, apparently, finding her not dead, he
+rose to his full height and stabbed her twice, straight downwards. For a
+moment he seemed paralyzed at what he had done, starting back with both
+hands clasped to his forehead. Then he flung himself prostrate on the
+supposed body, kissing the ground frantically in all directions.
+Presently he woke to the fear of detection, and raised the corpse
+suddenly in his arms. He fell once beneath the supposed weight, but
+staggering to his feet again, seized and dragged it, slipping on the
+stone floor as he went, to the head of the staircase that led to the
+cellars below, where the mouth of one of the subterraneous passages was
+still to be seen. The door at the head of this flight was modern, and he
+could not undo the lock, so, prevented from dragging the body down the
+steps, he cast himself again upon it, kissing the stone floor of the
+hall and moaning. At last he dragged himself on his knees to the spot of
+the murder, and began to pray. We knelt with him, and as he heard our
+voices he turned on his knees towards us with outstretched hands. I
+suggested that he wanted the crucifix again, and went upstairs to fetch
+it, when the medium followed me. When I had found what I sought, he
+seized it from me eagerly, and carrying it to the window, whence he had
+so often watched, fell down again upon his knees. After praying for some
+time he tried to speak to us. His lips moved and his tongue protruded,
+but he was unable to articulate. Suddenly he seized each of our hands in
+turn in both of his own, and wrung them violently. He tried to bless us,
+but the words would not come. The same beautiful smile we had seen the
+night before broke out over his countenance, the crucifix dropped from
+his hands, and he fell prostrate on the floor. The next moment Mr.
+Eglinton was asking us where he was and what on earth had happened to
+him, as he felt so queer. He declared himself fearfully exhausted, but
+said he felt that a great calm and peace had come over him
+notwithstanding the weakness, and he believed some great good had been
+accomplished. He was not again entranced, but "Joey" ordered the light
+to be put out, and spoke to us in the direct voice as follows:--
+
+"I've just come to tell you what I know you will be very glad to hear,
+that through the medium's power, and our power, and the great power of
+God, the unhappy spirit who has been confessing his crime to you is
+freed to-night from the heaviest part of his burden--the being
+earth-chained to the spot. I don't mean to say that he will go away at
+once to the spheres, because he's got a lot to do still to alter the
+conditions under which he labors, but the worst is over. This was the
+special work Mr. Eglinton was brought to Bruges to do, and Ernest and I
+can truly say that, during the whole course of our control of him, we
+have never had to put forth our own powers, nor to ask so earnestly for
+the help of God, as in the last three days. You have all helped in a
+good work,--to free a poor soul from earth, and to set him on the right
+road, and _we_ are grateful to you and to the medium, as well as he. He
+will be able to progress rapidly now until he reaches his proper sphere,
+and hereafter the spirits of himself and the woman he murdered will work
+together to undo for others the harm they brought upon themselves. She
+is rejoicing in her high sphere at the work we have done for him, and
+will be the first to help and welcome him upward. There are many more
+earth-bound spirits in this house and the surrounding houses who are
+suffering as he was, though not to the same extent, nor for the same
+reason. But they all ask for and need your help and your prayers, and
+this is the greatest and noblest end of Spiritualism--to aid poor,
+unhappy spirits to free themselves from earth and progress upwards.
+After a while when this spirit can control the medium with calmness, he
+will come himself and tell you, through him, all his history and how he
+came to fall. Meanwhile, we thank you very much for allowing us to draw
+so much strength from you and helping us with your sympathy, and I hope
+you will believe me always to remain, your loving friend, Joey."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This account, with very little alteration, was published in the
+_Spiritualist_ newspaper, August 29th, 1879, when the _séances_ had
+just occurred. There is a sequel to the story, however, which is almost
+as remarkable as itself, and which has not appeared in print till now.
+From Bruges on this occasion my husband and I went to Brussels, where we
+diverted ourselves by means very dissimilar to anything so grave as
+Spiritualism. There were many sales going on in Brussels at that moment,
+and one of our amusements was to make a tour of the salerooms and
+inspect the articles put up for competition. During one of these visits
+I was much taken by a large oil pointing, in a massive frame, measuring
+some six or seven feet square. It represented a man in the dress of a
+Franciscan monk--_i.e._, a brown serge robe, knotted with cords about
+the waist--kneeling in prayer with outstretched hands upon a mass of
+burning embers. It was labelled in the catalogue as the picture of a
+Spanish monk of the order of Saint Francis Xavier, and was evidently a
+painting of some value. I was drawn to go and look at it several days in
+succession before the sale, and I told my husband that I coveted its
+possession. He laughed at me and said it would fetch a great deal more
+money than we could afford to give for it, in which opinion I
+acquiesced. The day of the sale, however, found us in our places to
+watch the proceedings, and when the picture of the monk was put up I bid
+a small sum for it. Col. Lean looked at me in astonishment, but I
+whispered to him that I was only in fun, and I should stop at a hundred
+francs. The bidding was very languid, however, and to my utter
+amazement, the picture was knocked down to me for _seventy-two francs_.
+I could hardly believe that it was true. Directly the sale was
+concluded, the brokers crowded round me to ask what I would take for the
+painting, and they told me they had not thought of bidding until it
+should have reached a few hundred francs. But I told them I had got my
+bargain, and I meant to stick by it. When we returned next day to make
+arrangements for its being sent to us, the auctioneer informed us that
+the frame alone in which it had been sent for sale had cost three
+hundred francs, so that I was well satisfied with my purchase. This
+occurrence took place a short time before we returned to England, where
+we arrived long before the painting, which, with many others, was left
+to follow us by a cheaper and slower route.
+
+The Sunday after we reached home (having seen no friends in the
+meanwhile), we walked into Steinway Hall to hear Mr. Fletcher's
+lecture. At its conclusion he passed as usual into a state of trance,
+and described what he saw before him. In the midst of mentioning people,
+places, and incidents unknown to us, he suddenly exclaimed: "Now I see a
+very strange thing, totally unlike anything I have ever seen before, and
+I hardly know how to describe it. A man comes before me--a
+foreigner--and in a dress belonging to some monastic order, a brown robe
+of coarse cloth or flannel, with a rope round his waist and beads
+hanging, and bare feet and a shaved head. He is dragging a picture on to
+the platform, a very large painting in a frame, and it looks to me like
+a portrait of himself, kneeling on a carpet of burning wood. No! I am
+wrong. The man tells me the picture is _not_ a portrait of himself, but
+of the founder of his Order, and it is in the possession of some people
+in this hall to-night. The man tells me to tell these people that it was
+_his_ spirit that influenced them to buy this painting at some place
+over the water, and he did so in order that they might keep it in
+remembrance of what they have done for him. And he desires that they
+shall hang that picture in some room where they may see it every day,
+that they may never forget the help which spirits on this earth may
+render by their prayers to spirits that have passed away. And he offers
+them through me his heartfelt thanks for the assistance given him, and
+he says the day is not far off when he shall pray for himself and for
+them, that their kindness may return into their own bosoms."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The oil painting reached England in safety some weeks afterwards, and
+was hung over the mantel-piece in our dining-room, where it remained, a
+familiar object to all our personal acquaintances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MISS SHOWERS.
+
+
+Some time before I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Showers, I heard,
+through friends living in the west of England, of the mysterious and
+marvellous powers possessed by a young lady of their acquaintance, who
+was followed by voices in the air, which held conversations with her,
+and the owners of which were said to have made themselves visible. I
+listened with curiosity, the more so, as my informants utterly
+disbelieved in Spiritualism, and thought the phenomena were due to
+trickery. At the same time I conceived a great desire to see the girl of
+sixteen, who, for no gain or apparent object of her own, was so clever
+as to mystify everyone around her; and when she and her mother came to
+London, I was amongst the first to beg for an introduction, and I shall
+never forget the experiences I had with her. She was the first _private_
+medium through whom my personal friends returned to converse with me;
+and no one but a Spiritualist can appreciate the blessing of spiritual
+communications through a source that is above the breath of suspicion. I
+have already written at length about Miss Showers in "The story of John
+Powles." She was a child, compared to myself, whose life had hardly
+commenced when mine was virtually over, and neither she, nor any member
+of her family, had ever had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with
+even the names of my former friends. Yet (as I have related) John Powles
+made Miss Showers his especial mouthpiece, and my daughter "Florence"
+(then a little child) also appeared through her, though at long
+intervals, and rather timidly. Her own controls, however, or cabinet
+spirits (as they call them in America)--_i.e._, such spirits as are
+always about the medium, and help the strangers to appear--"Peter,"
+"Florence," "Lenore," and "Sally," were very familiar with me, and
+afforded me such facilities of testing their medium as do not often fall
+to the lot of inquirers. Indeed, at one time, they always requested
+that I should be present at their _séances_, so that I considered myself
+to be highly favored. And I may mention here that Miss Showers and I
+were so much _en rapport_ that her manifestations were always much
+stronger in my presence. We could not sit next each other at an ordinary
+tea or supper table, when we had no thought of, or desire to hold a
+_séance_, without manifestations occurring in the full light. A hand,
+that did not belong to either of us, would make itself apparent under
+the table-cloth between us--a hand with power to grasp ours--or our feet
+would be squeezed or kicked beneath the table, or fingers would suddenly
+appear, and whisk the food off our plates. Some of their jests were
+inconvenient. I have had the whole contents of a tumbler, which I was
+raising to my lips, emptied over my dress. It was generally known that
+our powers were sympathetic, and at last "Peter" gave me leave, or,
+rather, ordered me to sit in the cabinet with "Rosie," whilst the
+manifestations went on outside. He used to say he didn't care for me any
+more than if I had been "a spirit myself." One evening "Peter" called me
+into the cabinet (which was simply a large box cupboard at one end of
+the dining-room) before the _séance_ began, and told me to sit down at
+the medium's feet and "be a good girl and keep quiet." Miss Showers was
+in a low chair, and I sat with my arms resting on her lap. She did not
+become entranced, and we talked the whole time together. Presently,
+without any warning, two figures stood beside us. I could not have said
+where they came from. I neither saw them rise from the floor nor descend
+from the ceiling. There was no beginning to their appearance. In a
+moment they were simply _there_--"Peter" and "Florence" (not my child,
+but Miss Showers' control of the same names).
+
+"Peter" sent "Florence" out to the audience, where we heard her speaking
+to them and their remarks upon her (there being only a thin curtain hung
+before the entrance of the cabinet), but he stayed with us himself. We
+could not see him distinctly in the dim light, but we could distinctly
+hear and feel him. He changed our ornaments and ribbons, and pulled the
+hair-pins out of our hair, and made comments on what was going on
+outside. After a while "Florence" returned to get more power, and both
+spirits spoke to and touched us at the same time. During the whole of
+this _séance_ my arms rested on Miss Showers' lap, and she was awake and
+talking to me about the spirits.
+
+One evening, at a sitting at Mr. Luxmore's house in Hyde Park Square,
+the spirit "Florence" had been walking amongst the audience in the
+lighted front drawing-room for a considerable time--even sitting at the
+piano and accompanying herself whilst she sung us a song in what she
+called "the planetary language." She greatly resembled her medium on
+that occasion, and several persons present remarked that she did so. I
+suppose the inferred doubt annoyed her, for before she finally left us
+she asked for a light, and a small oil lamp was brought to her which she
+placed in my hand, telling me to follow her and look at her medium,
+which I accordingly did. "Florence" led the way into the back
+drawing-room, where I found Miss Showers reposing in an arm-chair. The
+first sight of her terrified me. For the purpose of making any change in
+her dress as difficult as possible, she wore a high, tight-fitting black
+velvet frock, fastened at the back, and high Hessian boots, with
+innumerable buttons. But she now appeared to be shrunk to half her usual
+size, and the dress hung loosely on her figure. Her arms had
+disappeared, but putting my hands up the dress sleeves, I found them
+diminished to the size of those of a little child--the fingers reaching
+only to where the elbows had been. The same miracle had happened to her
+feet, which only occupied half her boots. She looked in fact like the
+mummy of a girl of four or six years old. The spirit told me to feel her
+face. The forehead was dry, rough, and burning hot, but from the chin
+water was dropping freely on to the bosom of her dress. "Florence" said
+to me, "I wanted _you_ to see her, because I know you are brave enough
+to tell people what you have seen."
+
+There was a marked difference in the personality of the two influences
+"Florence" and "Lenore," although both at times resembled Miss Showers,
+and sometimes more than others. "Florence" was taller than her medium,
+and a very beautiful woman. "Lenore" was much shorter and smaller, and
+not so pretty, but more vivacious and pert. By the invitation of Mrs.
+Macdougal Gregory, I attended several _séances_ with Miss Showers at her
+residence in Green Street, when these spirits appeared. "Lenore" was
+fond of saying that she wouldn't or couldn't come out unless _I_ held
+her hand, or put my arm round her waist. To tell the truth, I didn't
+care for the distinction, for this influence was very peculiar in some
+things, and to me she always appeared "uncanny," and to leave an
+unpleasant feeling behind her. She was seldom completely formed, and
+would hold up a foot which felt like wet clay, and had no toes to it, or
+not the proper quantity. On occasions, too, there was a charnel-house
+smell about her, as if she had been buried a few weeks and dug up again,
+an odor which I have never smelt from any materialized spirit before or
+after. One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, when "Lenore" had insisted upon
+walking round the circle supported by my arm, I nearly fainted from the
+smell. It resembled nothing but that of a putrid corpse, and when she
+returned to the cabinet, I was compelled to leave the room and retch
+from the nausea it had caused me. It was on this occasion that the
+sitters called "Lenore" so many times back into the circle, that all the
+power was gone, and she was in danger of melting away before their eyes.
+Still they entreated her to remain with them a little longer. At last
+she grew impatient, and complained to me of their unreasonableness. She
+was then raised from the floor--actually floating just outside the
+curtain--and she asked me to put my hands up her skirts and convince
+myself that she was half-dematerialized. I did as she told me, and felt
+that she had _no legs_, although she had been walking round the room a
+few minutes before. I could feel nothing but the trunk of a body, which
+was completely lifted off the ground. Her voice, too, had grown faint
+and her face indistinct, and in another moment she had totally
+disappeared.
+
+One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, after the _séance_ was concluded,
+"Florence" looked round the curtain and called to me to come inside of
+it. I did so and found myself in total darkness. I said, "What's the
+good of my coming here? I can't see anything." "Florence" took me by one
+hand, and answered, "I will lead you! Don't be afraid." Then some one
+else grasped my other hand, and "Peter's" voice said, "We've got you
+safe. We want you to feel the medium." The two figures led me between
+them to the sofa on which Miss Showers was lying. They passed my hand
+all over her head and body. I felt, as before, her hands and feet
+shrunk to half their usual size, but her heart appeared to have become
+proportionately increased. When my hand was placed upon it, it was
+leaping up and down violently, and felt like a rabbit or some other live
+animal bounding in her bosom. Her brain was burning as before, but her
+extremities were icy cold. There was no doubt at all of the abnormal
+condition into which the medium had been thrown, in order to produce
+these strong physical manifestations which were borrowed, for the time
+being, from her life, and could never (so they informed me) put the
+_whole_ of what they borrowed back again. This seems to account for the
+invariable deterioration of health and strength that follows physical
+manifestations in both sexes. These were the grounds alone on which they
+explained to me the fact that, on several occasions, when the
+materialized spirit has been violently seized and held apart from the
+medium, it has been found to have become, or been changed into the
+medium, and always with injury to the latter--as in the case of Florence
+Cook being seized by Mr. Volckman and Sir George Sitwell. Mr. Volckman
+concluded because when he seized the spirit "Katie King," he found he
+was holding Florence Cook, that the latter must have impersonated the
+former; yet I shall tell you in its proper place how I have sat in the
+same room with "Katie King," whilst Miss Cook lay in a trance between
+us. The medium nearly lost her life on the occasion alluded to, from the
+sudden disturbance of the mysterious link that bound her to the spirit.
+I have had it from the lips of the Countess of Caithness, who was one of
+the sitters, and stayed with Miss Cook till she was better, that she was
+in convulsions the whole night after, and that it was some time before
+they believed she would recover. If a medium could simulate a
+materialized spirit, it is hardly likely that she would (or could)
+simulate convulsions with a medical man standing by her bedside. "You
+see," said Miss Showers' "Florence," whilst pointing out to me the
+decreased size of her medium under trance, "that 'Rosie' is half her
+usual size and weight. _I_ have borrowed the other half from her, which,
+combined with contributions from the sitters, goes to make up the body
+in which I shew myself to you. If you seize and hold me tight, you _are_
+holding her, _i.e._, half of her, and you increase the action of the
+vital half to such a degree that, if the two halves did not reunite, you
+would kill her. You see that I can detach certain particles from her
+organism for my own use, and when I dematerialize, I restore these
+particles to her, and she becomes once more her normal size. You only
+hurry the reunion by violently detaining me, so as to injure her. But
+you might drive her mad, or kill her in the attempt, because the
+particles of brain, or body, might become injured by such a violent
+collision. If you believe I can take them from her (as you see I do) in
+order to render my invisible body visible to you, why can't you believe
+I can make them fly together again on the approach of danger. And
+granted the one power, I see no difficulty in acknowledging the other."
+
+One day Mrs. Showers invited me to assist at a _séance_ to be given
+expressly for friends living at a distance. When I reached the house,
+however, I found the friends were unable to be present, and the meeting
+was adjourned. Mrs. Showers apologized for the alteration of plan, but I
+was glad of it. I had often sat with "Rosie" in company with others, and
+I wanted to sit with her quite alone, or rather to sit with her in a
+room quite alone, and see what would spontaneously occur, without any
+solicitation on our parts. We accordingly annexed the drawing-room for
+our sole use--locked the door, extinguished the lights, and sat down on
+a sofa side by side, with our arms round each other. The manifestations
+that followed were not all nice ones. They formed an experience to be
+passed through once, but not willingly repeated, and I should not relate
+them here, excepting that they afford so strong a proof that they were
+produced by a power outside and entirely distinct from our own--a power,
+which having once called into action, we had no means of repressing. We
+had sat in the dark for some minutes, without hearing or seeing
+anything, when I thoughtlessly called out, "Now, Peter, do your worst,"
+and extending my arms, singing, "Come! for my arms are empty." In a
+moment a large, heavy figure fell with such force into my outstretched
+arms as to bruise my shoulder--it seemed like a form made of wood or
+iron, rather than flesh and blood--and the rough treatment that ensued
+for both of us is almost beyond description. It seemed as if the room
+were filled with materialized creatures, who were determined to let us
+know they were not to be trifled with. Our faces and hands were slapped,
+our hair pulled down, and our clothes nearly torn off our backs. My silk
+skirt being separate from the bodice was torn off at the waistband, and
+the trimming ripped from it, and Miss Showers' muslin dress was also
+much damaged. We were both thoroughly frightened, but no expostulations
+or entreaties had any effect with our tormentors. At the same time we
+heard the sound as of a multitude of large birds or bats swooping about
+the room. The fluttering of wings was incessant, and we could hear them
+"scrooping" up and down the walls. In the midst of the confusion,
+"Rosie" was whisked out of my arms (for fright had made us cling tighter
+than ever together) and planted on the top of a table at some distance
+from me, at which she was so frightened she began to cry, and I called
+out, "Powles, where are you? Can't you stop them?" My appeal was heard.
+Peter's voice exclaimed, "Hullo! here's Powles coming!" and all the
+noise ceased. We heard the advent of my friend, and in another moment he
+was smoothing down the ruffled hair and arranging the disordered dresses
+and telling me to light the gas and not be frightened. As soon as I
+could I obeyed his directions and found Rosie sitting doubled up in the
+centre of the table, but the rest of the room and furniture in its usual
+condition. "Peter" and his noisy crowd had vanished--so had "Powles,"
+and there was nothing but our torn skirts and untidy appearance to prove
+that we had not been having an unholy dream. "Peter" is not a wicked
+spirit--far from it--but he is a very earthly and frivolous one. But
+when we consider that nine-tenths of the spirits freed from the flesh
+are both earthly and frivolous (if not worse), I know not what right we
+have to expect to receive back angels in their stead.
+
+At one time when my sister Blanche (who was very sceptical as to the
+possibility of the occurrences I related having taken place before me)
+was staying in my house at Bayswater, I asked Miss Showers if she would
+give us a _séance_ in my own home, to which she kindly assented. This
+was an unusual concession on her part, because, in consequence of
+several accidents and scandals that had occurred from media being
+forcibly detained (as I have just alluded to), her mother was naturally
+averse to her sitting anywhere but in their own circle. However, on my
+promising to invite no strangers, Mrs. Showers herself brought her
+daughter to my house. We had made no preparation for the _séance_ except
+by opening part of the folding doors between the dining-room and study,
+and hanging a curtain over the aperture. But I had carefully locked the
+door of the study, so that there should be no egress from it excepting
+through the dining-room, and had placed against the locked door a heavy
+writing-table laden with books and ornaments to make "assurance doubly
+sure." We sat first in the drawing-room above, where there was a piano.
+The lights were extinguished, and Miss Showers sat down to the
+instrument and played the accompaniment to a very simple melody, "Under
+the willow she's sleeping." Four voices, sometimes alone and sometimes
+_all together_, accompanied her own. One was a baritone, supposed to
+proceed from "Peter," the second, a soprano, from "Lenore." The third
+was a rumbling bass, from an influence who called himself "The Vicar of
+Croydon," and sung in a fat, unctuous, and conceited voice; and the
+fourth was a cracked and quavering treble, from another spirit called
+"The Abbess." These were the voices, Mrs. Showers told me, that first
+followed her daughter about the house in Devonshire, and gained her such
+an unenviable notoriety there. The four voices were perfectly distinct
+from one another, and sometimes blended most ludicrously and tripped
+each other up in a way which made the song a medley--upon which each one
+would declare it was the fault of the other. "The Vicar of Croydon"
+always required a great deal of solicitation before he could be induced
+to exhibit his powers, but having once commenced, it was difficult to
+make him leave off again, whereas "The Abbess" was always complaining
+that they would not allow her to sing the solos. An infant's voice also
+sung some baby songs in a sweet childish treble, but she was also very
+shy and seldom was heard, in comparison with the rest. "All
+ventriloquism!" I hear some reader cry. If so, Miss Showers ought to
+have made a fortune in exhibiting her talent in public. I have heard the
+best ventriloquists in the world, but I never heard one who could
+produce _four_ voices at the same time.
+
+After the musical portion of the _séance_ was over, we descended to the
+dining-room, where the gas was burning, and the medium passed through
+it to the secured study, where a mattress was laid upon the floor for
+her accommodation. "Florence" was the first to appear, tall and
+beautiful in appearance, and with upraised eyes like a nun. She measured
+her height against the wall with me, and we found she was the taller of
+the two by a couple of inches,--my height being five feet six, the
+medium's five feet, and the spirit's five feet eight, an abnormal height
+for a woman. "Lenore" came next, very short indeed, looking like a child
+of four or six, but she grew before our eyes, until her head was on a
+level with mine. She begged us all to observe that she had _not_ got on
+"Rosie's" petticoat body. She said she had borrowed it on one occasion,
+and Mrs. Showers had recognized it, and slipped upstairs in the middle
+of the _séance_ and found it missing from her daughter's chest of
+drawers, and that she had been so angry in consequence (fearing Rosie's
+honor might be impeached) that she said if "Lenore" did not promise
+never to do so again, she should not be allowed to assist at the
+_séances_ at all. So Miss "Lenore," in rather a pert and defiant mood,
+begged Mrs. Showers to see that what she wore was her own property, and
+not that of the medium. She was succeeded on that occasion by a strange
+being, totally different from the other two, who called herself "Sally,"
+and said she had been a cook. She was one of those extraordinary
+influences for whose return to earth one can hardly account; quick, and
+clever, and amusing as she could be, but with an unrefined wit and
+manner, and to all appearance, more earthly-minded than ourselves. But
+do we not often ask the same question with respect to those still
+existent here below? What were they born for? What good do they do? Why
+were they ever permitted to come? God, without whose permission nothing
+happens, alone can answer it.
+
+We had often to tease "Peter" to materialize and show himself, but he
+invariably refused, or postponed the work to another occasion. His
+excuse was that the medium being so small, he could not obtain
+sufficient power from her to make himself appear as a big man, and he
+didn't like to come, "looking like a girl in a billycock hat." "I came
+once to Mrs. Showers," he said, "and she declared I was 'Rosie' dressed
+up, and so I have resolved never to show myself again." At the close of
+that _séance_, however, "Peter" asked me to go into the study and see
+him wake the medium. When I entered it and made my way up to the
+mattress, I found Miss Showers extended on it in a deep sleep, whilst
+"Peter," materialized, sat at her feet. He made me sit down next to him
+and take his hand and feel his features with my own hand. Then he
+proceeded to rouse "Rosie" by shaking her and calling her by name,
+holding me by one hand, as he did so. As Miss Showers yawned and woke up
+from her trance, the hand slipped from mine, and "Peter" evaporated.
+When she sat up I said to her gently, "I am here! Peter brought me in
+and was sitting on the mattress by my side till just this moment." "Ha,
+ha!" laughed his voice close to my ear, "and I'm here still, my dears,
+though you can't see me."
+
+Who can account for such things? I have witnessed them over and over
+again, yet I am unable, even to this day, to do more than believe and
+wonder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM EGLINTON.
+
+
+In the stones I have related of "Emily" and "The Monk" I have alluded
+freely to the wonderful powers exhibited by William Eglinton, but the
+marvels there spoken of were by no means the only ones I have witnessed
+through his mediumship. At the _séance_ which produced the apparition of
+my sister Emily, Mr. Eglinton's control "Joey" made himself very
+familiar. "Joey" is a remarkably small man--perhaps two-thirds lighter
+in weight than the medium--and looks more like a little jockey than
+anything else, though he says he was a clown whilst in this world, and
+claims to be the spirit of the immortal Joe Grimaldi. He has always
+appeared to us clothed in a tight-fitting white dress like a woven
+jersey suit, which makes him look still smaller than he is. He usually
+keeps up a continuous chatter, whether visible or invisible, and is one
+of the cleverest and kindest controls I know. He is also very
+devotional, for which the public will perhaps give him as little credit
+now as they did whilst he was on earth. On the first occasion of our
+meeting in the Russell Street Rooms he did not show himself until quite
+the last, but he talked incessantly of and for the other spirits that
+appeared. My sister was, as I have said, the first to show herself--then
+came an extraordinary apparition. On the floor, about three feet from
+the cabinet, appeared a head--only the head and throat of a dark man,
+with black beard and moustaches, surmounted by the white turban usually
+worn by natives. It did not speak, but the eyes rolled and the lips
+moved, as if it tried to articulate, but without success. "Joey" said
+the spirit came for Colonel Lean, and was that of a foreigner who had
+been decapitated. Colonel Lean could not recognize the features; but,
+strange to say, he had been present at the beheading of two natives in
+Japan who had been found guilty of murdering some English officers, and
+we concluded from "Joey's" description that this must be the head of
+one of them. I knelt down on the floor and put my face on a level with
+that of the spirit, that I might assure myself there was no body
+attached to it and concealed by the curtain of the cabinet, and I can
+affirm that it was _a head only_, resting on the neck--that its eyes
+moved and its features worked, but that there was nothing further on the
+floor. I questioned it, and it evidently tried hard to speak in return.
+The mouth opened and the tongue was thrust out, and made a sort of dumb
+sound, but was unable to form any words, and after a while the head sunk
+through the floor and disappeared. If this was not one of the
+pleasantest apparitions I have seen, it was one of the most remarkable.
+There was no possibility of trickery or deception. The decapitated head
+rested in full sight of the audience, and had all the peculiarities of
+the native appearance and expression. After this the figures of two or
+three Englishmen came, friends of others of the audience--then "Joey"
+said he would teach us how to "make muslin." He walked right outside the
+cabinet, a quaint little figure, not much bigger than a boy of twelve or
+thirteen, with a young, old face, and dressed in the white suit I have
+described. He sat down by me and commenced to toss his hands in the air,
+as though he were juggling with balls, saying the while, "This is the
+way we make ladies' dresses." As he did so, a small quantity of muslin
+appeared in his hands, which he kept on moving in the same manner,
+whilst the flimsy fabric increased and increased before our eyes, until
+it rose in billows of muslin above "Joey's" head and fell over his body
+to his feet, and enveloped him until he was completely hidden from view.
+He kept on chattering till the last moment from under the heap of snowy
+muslin, telling us to be sure and "remember how he made ladies'
+dresses"--when, all of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, the heap of
+muslin rose into the air, and before us stood the tall figure of
+"Abdullah," Mr. Eglinton's Eastern guide. There had been no darkness, no
+pause to effect this change. The muslin had remained on the spot where
+it was fabricated until "Joey" evaporated, and "Abdullah" rose up from
+beneath it. Now "Abdullah" is not a spirit to be concealed easily. He is
+six foot two--a great height for a native--and his high turban adds to
+his stature. He is a very handsome man, with an aquiline nose and
+bright black eyes--a Persian, I believe, by birth, and naturally dark
+in complexion. He does not speak English, but "salaams" continually, and
+will approach the sitters when requested, and let them examine the
+jewels, of which he wears a large quantity in his turban and ears and
+round his throat, or to show them and let them feel that he has lost one
+arm, the stump being plainly discernible through his thin clothing.
+"Abdullah" possesses all the characteristics of the Eastern nation,
+which are unmistakable to one who, like myself, has been familiar with
+them in the flesh. His features are without doubt those of a Persian; so
+is his complexion. His figure is long and lithe and supple, as that of a
+cat, and he can bend to the ground and rise again with the utmost ease
+and grace. Anybody who could pretend for a moment to suppose that Mr.
+Eglinton by "making up" could personate "Abdullah" must be a fool. It
+would be an impossibility, even were he given unlimited time and
+assistance, to dress for the character. There is a peculiar boneless
+elasticity in the movements of a native which those who have lived in
+the East know that no Englishmen can imitate successfully. "Abdullah's"
+hand and feet also possess all the characteristics of his nationality,
+being narrow, long and nerveless, although I have heard that he can give
+rather too good a grip with his one hand when he chooses to exert his
+power or to show his dislike to any particular sitter. He has always,
+however, shown the utmost urbanity towards us, but he is not a
+particularly friendly or familiar spirit. When "Abdullah" had retired on
+this occasion, "Joey" drew back the curtain that shaded the cabinet, and
+showed us his medium and himself. There sat Mr. Eglinton attired in
+evening dress, with the front of his shirt as smooth and spotless as
+when it left the laundress' hands, lying back in his chair in a deep
+sleep, whilst little Joey sat astride his knee, his white suit
+contrasting strangely with his medium's black trousers. Whilst in this
+position he kissed Mr. Eglinton several times, telling him to wake up,
+and not look so sulky; then, having asked if we all saw him distinctly,
+and were satisfied he was not the medium, he bade God bless us, and the
+curtains closed once more upon this incomprehensible scene. Mr. Eglinton
+subsequently became an intimate friend of ours, and we often had the
+pleasure of sitting with him, but we never saw anything more wonderful
+(to my mind) than we did on our first acquaintance. When he accompanied
+us to Bruges (as told in the history of the "Monk"), "Joey" took great
+trouble to prove to us incontrovertibly that he is not an "emanation,"
+or double, of his medium, but a creature completely separate and wholly
+distinct. My sister's house being built on a very old-fashioned
+principle, had all the bedrooms communicating with each other. The
+entresol in which we usually assembled formed the connecting link to a
+series of six chambers, all of which opened into each other, and the
+entrance to the first and last of which was from the entresol.
+
+We put Mr. Eglinton into No. 1, locking the connecting door with No. 2,
+so that he had no exit except into our circle as we sat round the
+curtain, behind which we placed his chair. "Joey" having shown himself
+outside the curtain, informed us he was going through the locked door at
+the back into our bedrooms, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and would bring us
+something from each room.
+
+Accordingly, in another minute we heard his voice in No. 2, commenting
+on all he saw there; then he passed into No. 3, and so on, making a tour
+of the rooms, until he appeared at the communicating door of No. 5, and
+threw an article taken from each room into the entresol. He then told us
+to lift the curtain and inspect the medium, which we did, finding him
+fast asleep in his chair, with the door behind him locked. "Joey" then
+returned by the way he had gone, and presented himself once more outside
+the cabinet, the key of the locked door being all the time in our
+possession.
+
+"Ernest" is another well-known control of Mr. Eglinton's, though he
+seldom appears, except to give some marvellous test or advice. He is a
+very earnest, deep-feeling spirit, like his name, and his symbol is a
+cross of light; sometimes large and sometimes small, but always bright
+and luminous. "Ernest" seldom shows his whole body. It is generally only
+his face that is apparent in the midst of the circle, a more convincing
+manifestation for the sceptic or inquirer than any number of bodies
+which are generally attributed to the chicanery of the medium. "Ernest"
+always speaks in the direct voice in a gentle, bass tone, entirely
+distinct from "Joey's" treble, and his appearance is usually indicative
+of a harmonious and successful meeting. "Daisy," a North American
+Indian girl, is another control of William Eglinton's, but I have only
+heard her speak in trance. I do not know which of these spirits it is
+who conducts the manifestations of writing on the arm, with which Mr.
+Eglinton is very successful; sometimes it seems to be one, and sometimes
+the other. As he was sitting with our family at supper one evening, I
+mentally asked "Joey" to write something on some part of his body where
+his hand could not reach. This was in order to prove that the writing
+had not been prepared by chemical means beforehand, as some people are
+apt to assert. In a short time Mr. Eglinton was observed to stop eating,
+and grow very fidgety and look uncomfortable, and on being questioned as
+to the cause, he blushed and stammered, and could give no answer. After
+a while he rose from table, and asked leave to retire to his room. The
+next morning he told us that he had been so uneasy at supper, it had
+become impossible for him to sit it out; that on reaching his room he
+had found that his back, which irritated him as though covered with a
+rash, _had a sentence written across it_, of which he could only make
+out a few words by looking at it backwards in a glass; and as there were
+only ladies in the house beside himself, he could not call in an
+interpreter to his assistance. One day, without consulting him, I placed
+a small card and a tiny piece of black lead between the leaves of a
+volume of the _Leisure Hour_, and asked him to hold the book with me on
+the dining table. I never let the book out of my hand, and it was so
+thick that I had difficulty afterwards in finding my card (from the
+corner of which I had torn a piece) again. Mr. Eglinton sat with me in
+the daylight with the family about, and all he did was to place his hand
+on mine, which rested on the book. The perspiration ran down his face
+whilst he did so, but there was no other sign of power, and, honestly, I
+did not expect to find any writing on my card. When I had shaken it out
+of the leaves of the book, however, I found a letter closely written on
+it from my daughter "Florence" to this effect:--
+
+     "Dear Mama,--I am so glad to be able to communicate with you again,
+     and to demonstrate by actual fact that I am really present. Of
+     course, you quite understand that I do not write this myself.
+     'Charlie' is present with me, and so are many more, and we all
+     unite in sending you our love.
+                                   "Your daughter, Florence."
+
+Mr. Eglinton's mediumship embraces various phases of phenomena, as may
+be gathered from his own relations of them, and the testimony of his
+friends. A narrative of his spiritual work, under the title of "'Twixt
+two Worlds," has been written and published by Mr. John T. Farmer, and
+contains some exhaustive descriptions of, and testimonies to, his
+undoubtedly wonderful gifts. In it appear several accounts written by
+myself, and which, for the benefit of such of my readers as have not
+seen the book in question, I will repeat here. The first is that of the
+"Monk," given _in extenso_, as I have given it in the eleventh chapter
+of this book. The second is of a _séance_ held on the 5th September,
+1884. The circle consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Colonel and Mrs.
+Wynch, Mr. and Mrs. Russell-Davies, Mr. Morgan, and Colonel Lean and
+myself, and was held in Mr. Eglinton's private chambers in Quebec
+Street. We sat in the front drawing-room, with one gas-burner alight,
+and the door having been properly secured, Mr. Eglinton went into the
+back room, which was divided by curtains from the front. He had not left
+us a couple of minutes before a man stepped out through the _portière_,
+and walked right into the midst of us. He was a large, stout man, and
+very dark, and most of the sitters remarked that he had a very peculiar
+smell. No one recognized him, and after appearing two or three times he
+left, and was _immediately_ succeeded by a woman, very much like him,
+who also had to leave us without any recognition. These two spirits,
+before taking a final leave, came out _together_, and seemed to examine
+the circle curiously. After a short interval a much smaller and slighter
+man came forward, and darted in a peculiar slouching attitude round the
+circle. Colonel Lean asked him to shake hands. He replied by seizing his
+hand, and nearly dragging him off his seat. He then darted across the
+room, and gave a similar proof of his muscular power to Mr. Stewart. But
+when I asked him to notice _me_, he took my hand and squeezed it firmly
+between his own. He had scarcely disappeared before "Abdullah," with his
+one arm and his six feet two of height, stood before us, and salaamed
+all round. Then came my daughter Florence, a girl of nineteen by that
+time, very slight and feminine in appearance. She advanced two or three
+times, near enough to touch me with her hand, but seemed fearful to
+approach nearer. But the next moment she returned, dragging Mr.
+Eglinton after her. He was in deep trance, breathing with difficulty,
+but "Florence" held him by the hand and brought him up to my side, when
+he detached my hands from those of the sitters either side of me, and
+making me stand up, he placed my daughter in my arms. As she stood
+folded in my embrace, she whispered a few words to me relative to a
+subject _known to no one but myself_, and she placed my hand upon her
+heart, that I might feel she was a living woman. Colonel Lean asked her
+to go to him. She tried and failed, but having retreated behind the
+curtain to gather strength, she appeared the second time _with Mr.
+Eglinton_, and calling Colonel Lean to her, embraced him. This is one of
+the most perfect instances on record of a spirit form being seen
+distinctly by ten witnesses with the medium under gas. The next
+materialization that appeared was for Mr. Stewart. This gentleman was
+newly arrived from Australia, and a stranger to Mr. Eglinton. As soon as
+he saw the female form, who beckoned him to the _portière_ to speak to
+her, he exclaimed, "My God! Pauline," with such genuine surprise and
+conviction as were unmistakable. The spirit then whispered to him, and
+putting her arms round his neck, affectionately kissed him. He turned
+after a while, and addressing his wife, told her that the spirit bore
+the very form and features of their niece Pauline, whom they had lost
+the year before. Mr. Stewart expressed himself entirely satisfied with
+the identity of his niece, and said she looked just as she had done
+before she was taken ill. I must not omit to say that the medium also
+appeared with this figure, making the third time of showing himself in
+one evening with the spirit form.
+
+The next apparition, being the seventh that appeared, was that of a
+little child apparently about two years old, who supported itself in
+walking by holding on to a chair. I stooped down, and tried to talk to
+this baby, but it only cried in a fretful manner, as though frightened
+at finding itself with strangers, and turned away. The attention of the
+circle was diverted from this sight by seeing "Abdullah" dart between
+the curtains, and stand with the child in our view, whilst Mr. Eglinton
+appeared at the same moment between the two forms, making a _tria juncta
+in uno_.
+
+Thus ended the _séance_. The second one of which I wrote took place on
+the 27th of the same month, and under very similar circumstances. The
+circle this time consisted of Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Woods, Mr. Gordon, The
+Honorable Gordon Sandeman, my daughter Eva, my son Frank, Colonel Lean,
+and myself. Mr. Eglinton appeared on this occasion to find some
+difficulty in passing under control, and he came out so frequently into
+the circle to gather power, that I guessed we were going to have
+uncommonly good manifestations. The voice of "Joey," too, begged us
+under _no circumstances whatever_, to lose hands, as they were going to
+try something very difficult, and we might defeat their efforts at the
+very moment of victory. When the medium was at last under control in the
+back drawing room, a tall man, with an uncovered head of dark hair, and
+a large beard, appeared and walked up to a lady in the company. She was
+very much affected by the recognition of the spirit, which she affirmed
+to be that of her brother. She called him by name and kissed him, and
+informed us, that he was just as he had been in earth life. Her emotion
+was so great, we thought she would have fainted, but after a while she
+became calm again. We next heard the notes of a clarionet. I had been
+told that Mr. Woods (a stranger just arrived from the Antipodes) had
+lost a brother under peculiarly distressing circumstances, and that he
+hoped (though hardly expected) to see his brother that evening. It was
+the first time I had ever seen Mr. Woods; yet so remarkable was the
+likeness between the brothers, that when a spirit appeared with a
+clarionet in his hand, I could not help knowing who it was, and
+exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. Woods, there is your brother!" The figure walked up
+to Mr. Woods and grasped his hand. As they appeared thus with their
+faces turned to one another, they were _strikingly_ alike both in
+feature and expression. This spirit's head was also bare, an unusual
+occurrence, and covered with thick, crisp hair. He appeared twice, and
+said distinctly, "God bless you!" each time to his brother. Mrs.
+Wheeler, who had known the spirit in earth life, was startled by the
+tone of the voice, which she recognized at once; and Mr. Morgan, who had
+been an intimate friend of his in Australia, confirmed the recognition.
+We asked Mr. Woods the meaning of the clarionet, which was a black one,
+handsomely inlaid with silver. He told us his brother had been an
+excellent musician, and had won a similar instrument as a prize at some
+musical competition. "But," he added wonderingly, "his clarionet is
+locked up in my house in Australia." My daughter "Florence" came out
+next, but only a little way, at which I was disappointed, but "Joey"
+said they were reserving the strength for a manifestation further on. He
+then said, "Here comes a friend for Mr. Sandeman," and a man, wearing
+the masonic badge and scarf, appeared, and made the tour of the circle,
+giving the masonic grip to those of the craft present. He was a good
+looking young man, and said he had met some of those present in
+Australia, but no one seemed to recognize him. He was succeeded by a
+male figure, who had materialized on the previous occasion. As he passed
+through the curtain, a female figure appeared beside him, bearing a very
+bright light, as though to show him the way. She did not come beyond the
+_portière_, but every one in the room saw her distinctly. On account of
+the dress and complexion of the male figure, we had wrongly christened
+him "The Bedouin;" but my son, Frank Marryat, who is a sailor, now found
+out he was an East Indian by addressing him in Hindustani, to which he
+responded in a low voice. Some one asked him to take a seat amongst us,
+upon which he seized a heavy chair in one hand and flourished it above
+his head. He then squatted, native fashion, on his haunches on the floor
+and left us, as before, by vanishing suddenly.
+
+"Joey" now announced that they were going to try the experiment of
+"_showing us how the spirits were made from the medium_." This was the
+crowning triumph of the evening. Mr. Eglinton appeared in the very midst
+of us in trance. He entered the room backwards, and as if fighting with
+the power that pushed him in, his eyes were shut, and his breath was
+drawn with difficulty. As he stood thus, holding on to a chair for
+support, an airy mass like a cloud of tobacco smoke was seen on his left
+hip, his legs became illuminated by lights travelling up and down them,
+and a white film settled about his head and shoulders. The mass
+increased, and he breathed harder and harder, whilst invisible hands
+_pulled the filmy drapery out of his hip_ in long strips, that
+amalgamated as soon as formed, and fell to the ground to be succeeded by
+others. The cloud continued to grow thicker, and we were eagerly
+watching the process, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the mass had
+evaporated, and a spirit, full formed, stood beside him. No one could
+say _how_ it had been raised in the very midst of us, nor whence it
+came, but _it was there_. Mr. Eglinton then retired with the new-born
+spirit behind the curtains, but in another moment he came (or he was
+thrown out) amongst us again, and fell upon the floor. The curtains
+opened again, and the full figure of "Ernest" appeared and raised the
+medium by the hand. As he saw him, Mr. Eglinton fell on his knees, and
+"Ernest" drew him out of sight. Thus ended the second of these two
+wonderful _séances_. Thus published reports of them were signed with the
+full names and addresses of those who witnessed them.
+
+William Eglinton's powers embrace various phases of phenomena, amongst
+which levitation is a common occurrence; indeed, I do not think I have
+ever sat with him at a _séance_ during which he has _not_ been
+levitated. I have seen him on several occasions rise, or be carried,
+into the air, so that his head touched the ceiling, and his feet were
+above the sitters' heads. On one occasion whilst sitting with him a
+perfectly new manifestation was developed. As each spirit came the name
+was announced, written on the air in letters of fire, which moved round
+the circle in front of the sitters. As the names were those of friends
+of the audience and not of friends of Mr. Eglinton, and the phenomenon
+ended with a letter written to me in the same manner on private affairs,
+it could not be attributed to a previously arranged trick. I have
+accompanied Mr. Eglinton, in the capacity of interpreter, to a
+professional _séance_ in Paris consisting of some forty persons, not one
+of whom could speak a word of English whilst he was equally ignorant of
+foreign languages. And I have heard French and German spirits return
+through him to converse with their friends, who were radiant with joy at
+communicating with them again, whilst their medium could not (had he
+been conscious) have understood or pronounced a single word of all the
+news he was so glibly repeating. I will conclude this testimony to his
+powers by the account of a sitting with him for slate writing--that much
+abused and most maligned manifestation. Because a few ignorant
+pig-headed people who have never properly investigated the science of
+Spiritualism decide that a thing cannot be, "because it can't," men of
+honor and truth are voted charlatans and tricksters, and those who
+believe in them fools and blind. The day will dawn yet when it will be
+seen which of the two classes best deserve the name.
+
+Some years ago, when I first became connected in business with Mr. Edgar
+Lee of the _St. Stephen's Review_, I found him much interested in the
+subject of Spiritualism, though he had never had an opportunity of
+investigating it, and through my introduction I procured him a test
+_séance_ with William Eglinton. We met one afternoon at the medium's
+house in Nottingham Place for that purpose, and sat at an ordinary table
+in the back dining-room for slate-writing. The slate used on the
+occasion (as Mr. Lee had neglected to bring his own slate as requested)
+was one which was presented to Mr. Eglinton by Mr. Gladstone. It
+consisted of two slates of medium size, set in mahogany frames, with box
+hinges, and which, when shut, were fastened with a Bramah lock and key.
+On the table cloth was a collection of tiny pieces of different colored
+chalk. In the front room, which was divided from us by folding doors,
+were some bookcases. Mr. Eglinton commenced by asking Mr. Lee to go into
+the front room by himself, and select, in his mind's eye, any book he
+chose as the one from which extracts should be given. Mr. Lee having
+done as he was told, returned to his former place beside us, without
+giving a hint as to which book he had selected. Mr. Gladstone's slate
+was then delivered over to him to clean with sponge and water; that
+done, he was directed to choose four pieces of chalk and place them
+between the slates, to lock them and retain the key. The slates were
+left on the table in the sight of all; Mr. Lee's hand remained on them
+all the time. All that Mr. Eglinton did was to place _his_ hand above
+Mr. Lee's.
+
+"You chose, I think," he commenced, "four morsels of chalk--white, blue,
+yellow and red. Please say which word, on which line, on which page of
+the book you selected just now, the white chalk shall transcribe."
+
+Mr. Lee answered (I forget the exact numbers) somewhat in this wise,
+"The 3rd word on the 15th line of the 102nd page," he having, it must be
+remembered, no knowledge of the contents of the volume, which he had not
+even touched with his hand. Immediately he had spoken, a scratching
+noise was heard between the two slates. When it ceased, Mr. Eglinton put
+the same question with regard to the blue, yellow and red chalks, which
+was similarly responded to. He then asked Mr. Lee to unlock the slates,
+read the words, and then fetch the book he had selected, and compare
+notes, and in each instance the word had been given correctly. Several
+other experiments were then made, equally curious, the number of Mr.
+Lee's watch, which he had not taken from his pocket, and which he said
+he did not know himself, being amongst them. Then Mr. Eglinton said to
+Mr. Lee, "Have you any friend in the spirit-world from whom you would
+like to hear? If so, and you will mentally recall the name, we will try
+and procure some writing from him or her." (I must say here that these
+two were utter strangers to each other, and had met for the first time
+that afternoon, and indeed [as will be seen by the context] _I_ had a
+very slight knowledge of Mr. Edgar Lee myself at that time.) Mr. Lee
+thought for a moment, and then replied that there was a dead friend of
+his from whom he should like to hear. The cleaning and locking process
+was gone through again, and the scratching re-commenced, and when it
+concluded, Mr. Lee unlocked the slates and read a letter to this
+effect:--
+
+     "My Dear Will,--I am quite satisfied with your decision respecting
+     Bob. By all means, send him to the school you are thinking of. He
+     will get on better there. His education requires more pushing than
+     it gets at present. Thanks for all you have done for him. God bless
+     you.--Your affectionate cousin,                        R. Tasker."
+
+I do not pretend to give the exact words of this letter; for though they
+were afterwards published, I have not a copy by me. But the gist of the
+experiment does not lie in the exactitude of the words. When I saw the
+slate, I looked at Mr. Lee in astonishment.
+
+"Who is it for?" I asked.
+
+"It is all right," he replied; "it is for me. It is from my cousin, who
+left his boy in my charge. _My real name is William Tasker._"
+
+Now, I had never heard it hinted before that Edgar Lee was only a _nom
+de plume_, and the announcement came on me as a genuine surprise. So
+satisfied was Mr. William Tasker Edgar Lee with his experimental
+_séance_, that he had the slate photographed and reproduced in the _St.
+Stephen's Review_, with an account of the whole proceedings, which were
+sufficient to make any one stop for a moment in the midst of the world's
+harassing duties and think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF ARTHUR COLMAN.
+
+
+Arthur Colman was so intimate a friend of Mr. Eglinton's, and so much
+associated with him in my thoughts in the days when I first knew them
+both, that it seems only natural that I should write of him next. His
+powers were more confined to materialization than Eglinton's, but in
+that he excelled. He is the most wonderful materializing medium I ever
+met in England; but of late years, owing to the injury it did him in his
+profession, he has been compelled, in justice to himself, to give up
+sitting for physical manifestations, and, indeed, sitting at all, except
+to oblige his friends. I cannot but consider this decision on his part
+as a great public loss; but until the public takes more interest in the
+next world than they do in this, it will not make it worth the while of
+such as Mr. Colman to devote their lives, health and strength to their
+enlightenment. For to be a good physical medium means literally to part,
+little by little, with one's own life, and no man can be expected to do
+so much for the love of a set of unbelievers and sceptics, who will use
+up all his powers, and then go home to call him a rogue and a cheat and
+a trickster. If, as I am persuaded, each one of us is surrounded by the
+influences we gather of our own free-will about us--the loving and
+noble-hearted by angels, the selfish and unbelieving by devils--and we
+consider how the latter preponderate over the former in this world, is
+it to be wondered at that most _séances_ are conducted by an assemblage
+of evil spirits brought there by the sitters themselves? Sceptical,
+blasphemous and sensual men and women collect together to try and find
+out the falsehood, _not the truth_, of Spiritualism, and are tricked by
+the very influences that attend their footsteps and direct their daily
+lives; and therein lies the danger of Spiritualism as a pursuit, taken
+up out of curiosity rather than a desire to learn. It gives increased
+power to the evil that surrounds ourselves, and the devil that goes out
+of us returns with seven other devils worse than himself. The drunkard,
+who, by giving rein to a weakness which he knows he should resist, has
+attracted to him the spirits of drunkards gone before, joins a _séance_,
+and by the collaboration of forces, as it were, bestows increased power
+on the guides he has chosen for himself to lead him into greater evil.
+This dissertation, however, called forth by the never-ceasing wonder I
+feel at the indifference of the world towards such sights as I have
+seen, has led me further than I intended from the subject of my chapter.
+
+Arthur Colman is a young man of delicate constitution and appearance,
+who was at one time almost brought down to death's door by the demands
+made by physical phenomena upon his strength; but since he has given up
+sitting, he has regained his health, and looks quite a different person.
+This fact proves of itself what a tax is laid upon the unfortunate
+medium for such manifestations. Since he has resolved, however, never to
+sit again, I am all the more anxious to record what I have seen through
+him, probably for the last time. When I first knew my husband Colonel
+Lean, he had seen nothing of Spiritualism, and was proportionately
+curious, and naturally a little sceptical on the subject, or, rather let
+me say, incredulous. He was hardly prepared to receive all the marvels I
+told him of without proof; and Mr. Colman's guide, "Aimée," was very
+anxious to convince him of their truth. She arranged, therefore, a
+_séance_ at which he was to be present, and which was to be held at the
+house of Mr. and Mrs. George Neville. The party dined there together
+previously, and consisted only of Mr. and Mrs. Neville, Arthur Colman,
+Colonel Lean, and myself. As we were in the drawing-room, however, after
+dinner, and before we had commenced the _séance_, an American lady, who
+was but slightly known to any of us, was announced. We had particularly
+wished to have no strangers present, and her advent proportionately
+annoyed us, but we did not know on what excuse to get rid of her. She
+was a pushing sort of person; and when Mrs. Neville told her we were
+going to hold a _séance_, as a sort of hint that she might take her
+leave, it only made her resolve to stay; indeed, she declared she had
+had a premonition of the fact. She said that whilst in her own room that
+morning, a figure had appeared standing by her bed, dressed in blue and
+white, like the pictures of the Virgin Mary, and that all day she had
+had an impression that she must spend the evening with the Nevilles, and
+she should hear something more about it. We could not get rid of the
+lady, so we were obliged to ask her to remain and assist at the
+_séance_, which she had already made up her mind to do, so we commenced
+our preparations. The two drawing-rooms communicated by folding doors,
+which were opened, and a _portière_ drawn across the opening. In the
+back room we placed Mr. Colman's chair. He was dressed in a light grey
+suit, which we secured in the following manner:--His hands were first
+sewn inside the sleeves of the coat, then his arms were placed behind
+his back, and the coat sleeves sewn together to the elbow. We then sewed
+his trouser legs together in the same way. We then tied him round the
+throat, waist and legs with _white cotton_, which the least movement on
+his part would break, and the ends of each ligament were sealed to the
+wall of the room with wax and stamped with my seal with "_Florence
+Marryat_" on it. Considering him thus secure, without any _possibility_
+of escape unless we discovered it, we left him in the back room, and
+arranged ourselves on a row of five chairs before the _portière_ in the
+front one, which was lighted by a single gas-burner. I sat at the head
+of the row, then the American lady, Mrs. Neville, Colonel Lean and Mr.
+Neville. I am not sure how long we waited for the manifestations; but I
+do not think it was many minutes before a female figure glided from the
+side of the curtain and took a vacant chair by my side. I said, "_Who is
+this?_" and she whispered, "_Florence_," and laid her head down on my
+shoulder, and kissed my neck. I was turning towards her to distinguish
+her features more fully, when I became aware that a second figure was
+standing in front of me, and "Florence" said "Mother, there is Powles;"
+and at the same time, as he bent down to speak to me, his beard touched
+my face. I had not had time to draw the attention of my friends to the
+spirits that stood by me, when I was startled by hearing one exclamation
+after another from the various sitters. The American lady called out,
+"There's the woman that came to me this morning." Mr. Neville said,
+"That is my father," and Colonel Lean was asking some one if he would
+not give his name, I looked down the line of sitters. Before Colonel
+Lean there stood an old man with a long, white beard; a somewhat similar
+figure was in front of Mr. Neville. Before the dark curtain appeared a
+woman dressed in blue and white, like a nun; and meanwhile, "Florence"
+and "Powles" still maintained their station by my side. As if this were
+not enough of itself to turn a mortal's brain, the _portière_ was at the
+same moment drawn aside, and there stood Arthur Colman in his grey suit,
+freed from all his bonds, but under the control of "Aimée," who called
+out joyously to my husband, "_Now, Frank, will you believe?_" She
+dropped the curtain, the apparitions glided or faded away, and we passed
+into the back drawing-room, to find Mr. Colman still in trance, just as
+we had left him, and _with all the seals and stitches_ intact. Not a
+thread of them all was broken. This is the largest number of spirits I
+have ever seen at one time with one medium. I have seen two materialized
+spirits at a time, and even three, from Mr. Williams and Miss Showers
+and Katie Cook; but on this occasion there were five apparent with the
+medium, all standing together before us. And this is the sort of thing
+that the majority of people do not consider it worth their while to take
+a little trouble to see. I have already related how successfully
+"Florence" used to materialize through this medium, and numerous
+friends, utterly unknown to him, have revisited us through his means.
+His trance mediumship is as wonderful as his physical phenomena; some
+people might think more so. Amongst others, two spirits have come back
+to us through Mr. Colman, neither of whom he knew in this life, and both
+of whom are, in their way, too characteristic to be mistaken. One is
+Phillis Glover the actress; the other my stepson, Francis Lean, who was
+drowned by an accident at sea. Phillis Glover was a woman who led a very
+eventful life, chiefly in America, and was a versatile genius in
+conversation, as in everything else. She was peculiar also, and had a
+half-Yankee way of talking, and a store of familiar sayings and
+anecdotes, which she constantly introduced into her conversation. She
+was by no means an ordinary person whilst in this life, and in order to
+imitate her manner and speech successfully, one would need to be as
+clever a person as herself. And, without wishing to derogate from the
+powers of Mr. Colman's mind, he knows, and I know, that Phillis Glover
+was cleverer than either of us. When her influence or spirit therefore
+returns through him, it is quite unmistakable. It is not only that she
+retains all her little tricks of voice and feature and manner (which Mr.
+Colman has never seen), but she alludes to circumstances that took place
+in this life and people she was associated with here that he has never
+heard of. More, she will relate her old stories and anecdotes, and sing
+her old songs, and give the most incontrovertible tests of her identity,
+even to recalling facts and incidents that have entirely passed from our
+minds. When she appears through him, it is Phillis Glover we are sitting
+with again and talking with, as familiarly as we did in the days gone
+by. "Francis," in his way too, is quite as remarkable. The circumstances
+of his death and the events leading to it were unknown to us, till he
+related them through Mr. Colman; and he speaks to us of the contents of
+private letters, and repeats conversations and alludes to circumstances
+and names that are known only to him and ourselves. He had a peculiar
+manner also--quick and nervous--and a way of cutting his words short,
+which his spirit preserves to the smallest particular, and which furnish
+the strongest proofs possible of his identity to those who knew him here
+below. But these are but a very few amongst the innumerable tests
+furnished by Arthur Colman's occult powers of the assured possibility of
+communicating with the spirits of those gone before us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. GUPPY VOLCKMAN.
+
+
+The mediumship of this lady is so well known, and has been so
+universally attested, that nothing I can write of could possibly add to
+her fame; and as I made her acquaintance but a short time before she
+relinquished sitting for manifestations, I have had but little
+experience of her powers, but such as I enjoyed were very remarkable. I
+have alluded to them in the story of "The Green Lady," whose apparition
+was due solely to Mrs. Guppy Volckman's presence, and on that occasion
+she gave us another wonderful proof of her mediumship. A sheet was
+procured and held up at either end by Mr. Charles Williams and herself.
+It was held in the light, in the centre of the room, forming a white
+wall of about five feet high, _i.e._, as high as their arms could
+conveniently reach. _Both_ the hands of Mrs. Volckman and Mr. Williams
+were placed _outside_ the sheet, so that no trickery might be suspected
+through their being concealed. In a short time the head of a woman
+appeared above the sheet, followed by that of a man, and various pairs
+of hands, both large and small, which bobbed up and down, and seized the
+hands of the spectators, whilst the faces went close to the media, as if
+with the intention of kissing them. This frightened Mrs. Volckman, so
+that she frequently screamed and dropped her end of the sheet, which,
+had there been any deception, must inevitably have exposed it. It seemed
+to make no difference to the spirits, however, who reappeared directly
+they had the opportunity, and made her at last so nervous that she threw
+the sheet down and refused to hold it any more. The faces were
+life-size, and could move their eyes and lips; the hands were some as
+large as a man's, and covered with hair, and others like those of a
+woman or child. They had all the capability of working the fingers and
+grasping objects presented to them; whilst the four hands belonging to
+the media were kept in sight of the audience, and could not have worked
+machinery even if they could have concealed it.
+
+The first time I was introduced to Mrs. Volckman (then Mrs. Guppy) was
+at a _séance_ at her own house in Victoria Road, where she had assembled
+a large party of guests, including several names well known in art and
+literature. We sat in a well-lighted drawing-room, and the party was so
+large that the circle round the table was three deep. Mrs. Mary Hardy,
+the American medium (since dead), was present, and the honors of the
+manifestations may be therefore, I conclude, divided between the two
+ladies. The table, a common deal one, made for such occasions, with a
+round hole of about twenty inches in diameter in the middle of it, was
+covered with a cloth that hung down, and was nailed to the ground,
+leaving only the aperture free. (I must premise that this cloth had been
+nailed down by a committee of the gentlemen visitors, in order that
+there might be no suspicion of a confederate hidden underneath it.) We
+then sat round the table, but without placing our hands on it. In a
+short time hands began to appear through the open space in the table,
+all sorts of hands, from the woman's taper fingers and the baby's
+dimpled fist, to the hands of old and young men, wrinkled or muscular.
+Some of the hands had rings on the fingers, by which the sitters
+recognized them, some stretched themselves out to be grasped; and some
+appeared in pairs, clasped together or separate. One hand took a glove
+from a sitter and put it on the other, showing the muscular force it
+possessed by the way in which it pressed down each finger and then
+buttoned the glove. Another pair of hands talked through the dumb
+alphabet to us, and a third played on a musical instrument. I was
+leaning forward, before I had witnessed the above, peering inquisitively
+down the hole, and saying, "I wonder if they would have strength to take
+anything down with them," when a large hand suddenly appeared and very
+nearly took _me_ down, by seizing my nose as if it never meant to let go
+again. At all events, it took me a peg or two down, for I remember it
+brought the tears into my eyes with the force it exhibited. After the
+hands had ceased to appear, the table was moved away, and we sat in a
+circle in the light. Mrs. Guppy did not wish to take a part in the
+_séance_, except as a spectator, so she retired to the back
+drawing-room with the Baroness Adelma Vay and other visitors, and left
+Mrs. Hardy with the circle in the front. Suddenly, however, she was
+levitated and carried in the sight of us all into the midst of our
+circle. As she felt herself rising in the air, she called out, "Don't
+let go hands for Heaven's sake." We were standing in a ring, and I had
+hold of the hand of Prince Albert of Solms. As Mrs. Guppy came sailing
+over our heads, her feet caught his neck and mine, and in our anxiety to
+do as she had told us, we gripped tight hold of each other, and were
+thrown forward on our knees by the force with which she was carried past
+us into the centre. This was a pretty strong proof to us, whatever it
+may be to others, that our senses did not deceive us when we thought we
+saw Mrs. Guppy over our heads in the air. The influence that levitated
+her, moreover, placed her on a chair with such a bump that it broke the
+two front legs off. As soon as Mrs. Guppy had rejoined us, the order was
+given to put out the light and to wish for something. We unanimously
+asked for flowers, it being the middle of December, and a hard frost.
+Simultaneously we smelt the smell of fresh earth, and were told to light
+the gas again, when the following extraordinary sight met our view. In
+the middle of the sitters, still holding hands, was piled up _on the
+carpet_ an immense quantity of mould, which had been torn up apparently
+with the roots that accompanied it. There were laurestinus, and laurels,
+and holly, and several others, just as they had been pulled out of the
+earth and thrown down in the midst of us. Mrs. Guppy looked anything but
+pleased at the state of her carpet, and begged the spirits would bring
+something cleaner next time. They then told us to extinguish the lights
+again, and each sitter was to wish _mentally_ for something for himself.
+I wished for a yellow butterfly, knowing it was December, and as I
+thought of it, a little cardboard box was put into my hand. Prince
+Albert whispered to me, "Have you got anything?" "Yes," I said; "but not
+what I asked for. I expect they have given me a piece of jewellery."
+When the gas was re-lit, I opened the box, and there lay _two yellow
+butterflies_; dead, of course, but none the less extraordinary for that.
+I wore at that _séance_ a tight-fitting, high white muslin dress, over a
+tight petticoat body. The dress had no pocket, and I carried my
+handkerchief, a fine cambric one, in my hand. When the _séance_ was
+over, I found this handkerchief had disappeared, at which I was vexed,
+as it had been embroidered for me by my sister Emily, then dead. I
+inquired of every sitter if they had seen it, even making them turn out
+their pockets in case they had taken it in mistake for their own, but it
+was not to be found, and I returned home, as I thought, without it. What
+was my surprise on removing my dress and petticoat bodice to find the
+handkerchief, neatly folded into a square of about four inches,
+_between_ my stays and the garment beneath them; placed, moreover, over
+the smallest part of my waist, where no fingers could have penetrated
+even had my dress been loose. My woman readers may be able better than
+the men to appreciate the difficulty of such a manoeuvre by mortal
+means; indeed it would have been quite impossible for myself or anybody
+else to place the handkerchief in such a position without removing the
+stays. And it was folded so neatly also, and placed so smoothly, that
+there was not a crumple in the cambric.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF FLORENCE COOK.
+
+
+In writing of my own mediumship, or the mediumship of any other person,
+I wish it particularly to be understood that I do not intend my
+narrative to be, by any means, an account of _all séances_ held under
+that control (for were I to include everything that I have seen and
+heard during my researches into Spiritualism, this volume would swell to
+unconscionable dimensions), but only of certain events which I believe
+to be remarkable, and not enjoyed by every one in like measure. Most
+people have read of the ordinary phenomena that take place at such
+meetings. My readers, therefore, will find no description here of
+marvels which--whether true or false--can be accounted for upon natural
+grounds. Miss Florence Cook, now Mrs. Elgie Corner, is one of the media
+who have been most talked of and written about. Mr. Alfred Crookes took
+an immense interest in her, and published a long account of his
+investigation of Spiritualism under her mediumship. Mr. Henry Dunphy, of
+the _Morning Post_, wrote a series of papers for _London Society_ (of
+which magazine I was then the editor), describing her powers, and the
+proof she gave of them. The first time I ever met Florence Cook was in
+his private house, when my little daughter appeared through her (_vide_
+"The Story of my Spirit Child"). On that occasion, as we were sitting at
+supper after the _séance_--a party of perhaps thirty people--the whole
+dinner-table, with everything upon it, rose bodily in the air to a level
+with our knees, and the dishes and glasses swayed about in a perilous
+manner, without, however, coming to any permanent harm. I was so much
+astonished at, and interested by, what I saw that evening, that I became
+most anxious to make the personal acquaintance of Miss Cook. She was the
+medium for the celebrated spirit, "Katie King," of whom so much has been
+believed and disbelieved, and the _séances_ she gave at her parents'
+house in Hackney for the purpose of seeing this figure alone used to be
+crowded by the cleverest and most scientific men of the day, Sergeants
+Cox and Ballantyne, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Alfred Crookes, and many others,
+being on terms of the greatest intimacy with her. Mr. William Harrison,
+of the _Spiritualist_ paper, was the one to procure me an introduction
+to the family and an entrance to the _séances_, for which I shall always
+feel grateful to him.
+
+For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me begin by telling _who_ "Katie
+King" was supposed to be. Her account of herself was that her name was
+"Annie Owens Morgan;" that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Morgan, a
+famous buccaneer who lived about the time of the Commonwealth, and
+suffered death upon the high seas, being, in fact, a pirate; that she
+herself was about twelve years old when Charles the First was beheaded;
+that she married and had two little children; that she committed more
+crimes than we should like to hear of, having murdered men with her own
+hands, but yet died quite young, at about two or three and twenty. To
+all questions concerning the reason of her reappearance on earth, she
+returned but one answer, That it was part of the work given her to do to
+convince the world of the truth of Spiritualism. This was the
+information I received from her own lips. She had appeared to the Cooks
+some years before I saw her, and had become so much one of the family as
+to walk about the house at all times without alarming the inmates. She
+often materialized and got into bed with her medium at night, much to
+Florrie's annoyance; and after Miss Cook's marriage to Captain Corner,
+he told me himself that he used to feel at first as if he had married
+two women, and was not quite sure which was his wife of the two.
+
+The order of these _séances_ was always the same. Miss Cook retired to a
+back room, divided from the audience by a thin damask curtain, and
+presently the form of "Katie King" would appear dressed in white, and
+walk out amongst the sitters in gaslight, and talk like one of
+themselves. Florence Cook (as I mentioned before) is a very small,
+slight brunette, with dark eyes and dark curly hair and a delicate
+aquiline nose. Sometimes "Katie" resembled her exactly; at others, she
+was totally different. Sometimes, too, she measured the same height as
+her medium; at others, she was much taller. I have a large photograph
+of "Katie" taken under limelight. In it she appears as the double of
+Florrie Cook, yet Florrie was looking on whilst the picture was taken. I
+have sat for her several times with Mr. Crookes, and seen the tests
+applied which are mentioned in his book on the subject. I have seen
+Florrie's dark curls _nailed down to the floor_, outside the curtain, in
+view of the audience, whilst "Katie" walked about and talked with us. I
+have seen Florrie placed on the scale of a weighing machine constructed
+by Mr. Crookes for the purpose, behind the curtain, whilst the balance
+remained in sight. I have seen under these circumstances that the medium
+weighed eight stone in a normal condition, and that as soon as the
+materialized form was fully developed, the balance ran up to four stone.
+Moreover, I have seen both Florrie and "Katie" together on several
+occasions, so I can have no doubt on the subject that they were two
+separate creatures. Still, I can quite understand how difficult it must
+have been for strangers to compare the strong likeness that existed
+between the medium and the spirit, without suspecting they were one and
+the same person. One evening "Katie" walked out and perched herself upon
+my knee. I could feel she was a much plumper and heavier woman than Miss
+Cook, but she wonderfully resembled her in features, and I told her so.
+"Katie" did not seem to consider it a compliment. She shrugged her
+shoulders, made a grimace, and said, "I know I am; I can't help it, but
+I was much prettier than that in earth life. You shall see, some
+day--you shall see." After she had finally retired that evening, she put
+her head out at the curtain again and said, with the strong lisp she
+always had, "I want Mrs. Ross-Church." I rose and went to her, when she
+pulled me inside the curtain, when I found it was so thin that the gas
+shining through it from the outer room made everything in the inner
+quite visible. "Katie" pulled my dress impatiently and said, "Sit down
+on the ground," which I did. She then seated herself in my lap, saying,
+"And now, dear, we'll have a good 'confab,' like women do on earth."
+Florence Cook, meanwhile, was lying on a mattress on the ground close to
+us, wrapped in a deep trance. "Katie" seemed very anxious I should
+ascertain beyond doubt that it was Florrie. "Touch her," she said, "take
+her hand, pull her curls. Do you see that it is Florrie lying there?"
+When I assured her I was quite satisfied there was no doubt of it, the
+spirit said, "Then look round this way, and see what I was like in earth
+life." I turned to the form in my arms, and what was my amazement to see
+a woman fair as the day, with large grey or blue eyes, a white skin, and
+a profusion of golden red hair. "Katie" enjoyed my surprise, and asked
+me, "Ain't I prettier than Florrie now?" She then rose and procured a
+pair of scissors from the table, and cut off a lock of her own hair and
+a lock of the medium's, and gave them to me. I have them safe to this
+day. One is almost black, soft and silky; the other a coarse golden red.
+After she had made me this present, "Katie" said, "Go back now, but
+don't tell the others to-night, or they'll all want to see me." On
+another very warm evening she sat on my lap amongst the audience, and I
+felt perspiration on her arm. This surprised me; and I asked her if, for
+the time being, she had the veins, nerves, and secretions of a human
+being; if blood ran through her body, and she had a heart and lungs. Her
+answer was, "I have everything that Florrie has." On that occasion also
+she called me after her into the back room, and, dropping her white
+garment, stood perfectly naked before me. "Now," she said "you can see
+that I am a woman." Which indeed she was, and a most beautifully-made
+woman too; and I examined her well, whilst Miss Cook lay beside us on
+the floor. Instead of dismissing me this time, "Katie" told me to sit
+down by the medium, and, having brought me a candle and matches, said I
+was to strike a light as soon as she gave three knocks, as Florrie would
+be hysterical on awaking, and need my assistance. She then knelt down
+and kissed me, and I saw she was still naked. "Where is your dress,
+Katie?" I asked. "Oh that's gone," she said; "I've sent it on before
+me." As she spoke thus, kneeling beside me, she rapped three times on
+the floor. I struck the match almost simultaneously with the signal; but
+as it flared up, "Katie King" was gone like a flash of lightning, and
+Miss Cook, as she had predicted, awoke with a burst of frightened tears,
+and had to be soothed into tranquillity again. On another occasion
+"Katie King" was asked at the beginning of the _séance_, by one of the
+company, to say _why_ she could not appear in the light of more than one
+gasburner. The question seemed to irritate her, and she replied, "I have
+told you all, several times before, that I can't stay under a searching
+light. I don't know _why_; but I can't, and if you want to prove the
+truth of what I say, turn up all the gas and see what will happen to me.
+Only remember, it you do there will be no _séance_ to-night, because I
+shan't be able to come back again, and you must take your choice."
+
+Upon this assertion it was put to the vote if the trial should be made
+or not, and all present (Mr. S. C. Hall was one of the party) decided we
+would prefer to witness the effect of a full glare of gas upon the
+materialized form than to have the usual sitting, as it would settle the
+vexed question of the necessity of gloom (if not darkness) for a
+materializing _séance_ for ever. We accordingly told "Katie" of our
+choice, and she consented to stand the test, though she said afterwards
+we had put her to much pain. She took up her station against the
+drawing-room wall, with her arms extended as if she were crucified. Then
+three gas-burners were turned on to their full extent in a room about
+sixteen feet square. The effect upon "Katie King" was marvellous. She
+looked like herself for the space of a second only, then she began
+gradually to melt away. I can compare the dematerialization of her form
+to nothing but a wax doll melting before a hot fire. First, the features
+became blurred and indistinct; they seemed to run into each other. The
+eyes sunk in the sockets, the nose disappeared, the frontal bone fell
+in. Next the limbs appeared to give way under her, and she sank lower
+and lower on the carpet like a crumbling edifice. At last there was
+_nothing but her head_ left above the ground--then a heap of white
+drapery only, which disappeared with a whisk, as if a hand had pulled it
+after her--and we were left staring by the light of three gas-burners at
+the spot on which "Katie King" had stood.
+
+She was always attired in white drapery, but it varied in quality.
+Sometimes it looked like long cloth; at others like mull muslin or
+jaconet; oftenest it was a species of thick cotton net. The sitters were
+much given to asking "Katie" for a piece of her dress to keep as a
+souvenir of their visit; and when they received it, would seal it up
+carefully in an envelope and convey it home; and were much surprised on
+examining their treasure to find it had totally disappeared.
+
+"Katie" used to say that nothing material about her could be made to
+last without taking away some of the medium's vitality, and weakening
+her in consequence. One evening, when she was cutting off pieces of her
+dress rather lavishly, I remarked that it would require a great deal of
+mending. She answered, "I'll show you how we mend dresses in the Spirit
+World." She then doubled up the front breadth of her garment a dozen
+times, and cut two or three round holes in it. I am sure when she let it
+fall again there must have been thirty or forty holes, and "Katie" said,
+"Isn't that a nice cullender?"
+
+She then commenced, whilst we stood close to her, to shake her skirt
+gently about, and in a minute it was as perfect as before, without a
+hole to be seen. When we expressed our astonishment, she told me to take
+the scissors and cut off her hair. She had a profusion of ringlets
+falling to her waist that night. I obeyed religiously, hacking the hair
+wherever I could, whilst she kept on saying, "Cut more! cut more! not
+for yourself, you know, because you can't take it away."
+
+So I cut off curl after curl, and as fast as they fell to the ground,
+_the hair grew again upon her head_. When I had finished, "Katie" asked
+me to examine her hair, to see if I could detect any place where I had
+used the scissors, and I did so without any effect. Neither was the
+severed hair to be found. It had vanished out of sight. "Katie" was
+photographed many times, by limelight, by Mr. Alfred Crookes, but her
+portraits are all too much like her medium to be of any value in
+establishing her claim to a separate identity. She had always stated she
+should not appear on this earth after the month of May, 1874; and
+accordingly, on the 21st, she assembled her friends to say "Good-bye" to
+them, and I was one of the number. "Katie" had asked Miss Cook to
+provide her with a large basket of flowers and ribbons, and she sat on
+the floor and made up a bouquet for each of her friends to keep in
+remembrance of her.
+
+Mine, which consists of lilies of the valley and pink geranium, looks
+almost as fresh to-day, nearly seventeen years after, as it did when she
+gave it to me. It was accompanied by the following words, which "Katie"
+wrote on a sheet of paper in my presence:--
+
+     "From Annie Owen de Morgan (_alias_ 'Katie') to her friend Florence
+     Marryat Ross-Church. With love. _Pensez à moi._
+     "_May 21st, 1874._"
+
+The farewell scene was as pathetic as if we had been parting with a dear
+companion by death. "Katie" herself did not seem to know how to go. She
+returned again and again to have a last look, especially at Mr. Alfred
+Crookes, who was as attached to her as she was to him. Her prediction
+has been fulfilled, and from that day, Florence Cook never saw her again
+nor heard anything about her. Her place was shortly filled by another
+influence, who called herself "Marie," and who danced and sung in a
+truly professional style, and certainly as Miss Cook never either danced
+or sung. I should not have mentioned the appearance of this spirit, whom
+I only saw once or twice, excepting for the following reason. On one
+occasion Miss Cook (then Mrs. Corner) was giving a public _séance_ at
+the rooms of the National British Association of Spiritualists, at which
+a certain Sir George Sitwell, a very young man, was present, and at
+which he declared that the medium cheated, and that the spirit "Marie"
+was herself, dressed up to deceive the audience. Letters appeared in the
+newspapers about it, and the whole press came down upon Spiritualists,
+and declared them all to be either knaves or fools. These notices were
+published on the morning of a day on which Miss Cook was engaged to give
+another public _séance_, at which I was present. She was naturally very
+much cut up about them. Her reputation was at stake; her honor had been
+called into question, and being a proud girl, she resented it bitterly.
+Her present audience was chiefly composed of friends; but, before
+commencing, she put it to us whether, whilst under such a stigma, she
+had better not sit at all. We, who had all tested her and believed in
+her, were unanimous in repudiating the vile charges brought against her,
+and in begging the _séance_ should proceed. Florrie refused, however, to
+sit unless some one remained in the cabinet with her, and she chose me
+for the purpose. I was therefore tied to her securely with a stout rope,
+and we remained thus fastened together for the whole of the evening.
+Under which conditions "Marie" appeared, and sung and danced outside the
+cabinet, just as she had done to Sir George Sitwell whilst her medium
+remained tied to me. So much for men who decide a matter before they
+have sifted it to the bottom. Mrs. Elgie Corner has long since given up
+mediumship either private or public, and lives deep down in the heart
+of Wales, where the babble and scandal of the city affect her no longer.
+But she told me, only last year, that she would not pass through the
+suffering she had endured on account of Spiritualism again for all the
+good this world could give her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF KATIE COOK.
+
+
+In the matter of producing physical phenomena the Cooks are a most
+remarkable family, all three daughters being powerful media, and that
+without any solicitation on their part. The second one, Katie, is by no
+means the least powerful of the three, although she has sat more
+privately than her sister Florence, and not had the same scientific
+tests (I believe) applied to her. The first time I had an opportunity of
+testing Katie's mediumship was at the private rooms of Signor Rondi, in
+a circle of nine or ten friends. The apartment was small and sparsely
+furnished, being an artist's studio. The gas was kept burning, and
+before the sitting commenced the door was locked and strips of paper
+pasted over the opening inside. The cabinet was formed of a window
+curtain nailed across one corner of the room, behind which a chair was
+placed for the medium, who is a remarkably small and slight girl--much
+slighter than her sister Florence--with a thin face and delicate
+features. She was dressed, on this occasion, in a tight-fitting black
+gown and Hessian boots that buttoned half-way to her knee, and which,
+she informed me, she always wore when sitting (just as Miss Showers
+did), because they had each eighteen buttons, which took a long time to
+fasten and unfasten. The party sat in a semicircle, close outside the
+curtain, and the light was lowered, but not extinguished. There was no
+darkness, and no holding of hands. I mention these facts to show how
+very simple the preparations were. In a few minutes the curtain was
+lifted, and a form, clothed in white, who called herself "Lily," was
+presented to our view. She answered several questions relative to
+herself and the medium; and perceiving some doubt on the part of some of
+the sitters, she seated herself on my knee, I being nearest the curtain,
+and asked me to feel her body, and tell the others how differently she
+was made from the medium. I had already realized that she was much
+heavier than Katie Cook, as she felt like a heavy girl of nine or ten
+stone. I then passed my hand up and down her figure. She had full
+breasts and plump arms and legs, and could not have been mistaken by the
+most casual observers for Miss Cook. Whilst she sat on my knee, however,
+she desired my husband and Signor Rondi to go inside the curtain and
+feel that the medium was seated in her chair. When they did so, they
+found Katie was only half entranced. She thrust her feet out to view,
+and said, "I am not 'Lily;' feel my boots." My husband had, at the same
+moment, one hand on Miss Cook's knee, and the other stretched out to
+feel the figure seated on my lap. There remained no doubt in _his_ mind
+of there being two bodies there at the same time. Presently "Lily"
+passed her hand over my dress, and remarked how nice and warm it was,
+and how she wished she had one on too. I asked her, "Are you cold?" and
+she said, "Wouldn't you be cold if you had nothing but this white thing
+on?" Half-jestingly, I took my fur cloak, which was on a sofa close by,
+and put it round her shoulders, and told her to wear it. "Lily" seemed
+delighted. She exclaimed, "Oh, how warm it is! May I take it away with
+me?" I said, "Yes, if you will bring it back before I go home. I have
+nothing else to wear, remember." She promised she would, and left my
+side. In another moment she called out, "Turn up the gas!" We did so.
+"Lily" was gone, and so was my large fur cloak! We searched the little
+room round for it. It had entirely disappeared. There was a locked
+cupboard in which Signor Rondi kept drawing materials. I insisted on its
+being opened, although he declared it had not been unlocked for weeks,
+and we found it full of dust and drawing blocks, but nothing else, so
+the light was again lowered, and the _séance_ resumed. In a short time
+the heavy cloak was flung, apparently from the ceiling, evidently from
+somewhere higher than my head, and fell right over it.
+
+I laid it again on the sofa, and thought no more about it until I
+returned home. I then found, to my astonishment, and considerably to my
+annoyance, that the fur of my cloak (which was a new one) was all coming
+out. My dress was covered with it, and from that day I was never able to
+wear the cloak again. "Lily" said she had _de_-materialized it, to take
+it away. Of the truth of that assertion I had no proof, but I am quite
+sure that she did not put it together again when she brought it back. An
+army of moths encamped in it could not have damaged it more, and I can
+vouch that until that evening the fur had been as perfect as when I
+purchased it.
+
+I think my next sitting with Katie Cook was at a _séance_ held in Museum
+Street, and on the invitation of Mr. Chas. Blackburn, who is one of the
+most earnest friends of Spiritualism, and has expended a large amount of
+money in its research. The only other guests were my husband, and
+General and Mrs. Maclean. We sat round a small uncovered table with the
+gas burning and _without a cabinet_, Miss Katie Cook had a seat between
+General Maclean and myself, and we made sure of her proximity to us
+during the whole _séance_. In fact, I never let go of her hand, and even
+when she wished to use her pocket-handkerchief, she had to do it with my
+hand clinging to her own. Neither did she go into a trance. We spoke to
+her occasionally during the sitting, and she answered us, though in a
+very subdued voice, as she complained of being sick and faint. In about
+twenty minutes, during which the usual manifestations occurred, the
+materialized form of "Lily" appeared _in the middle of the table_, and
+spoke to us and kissed us all in turn. Her face was very small, and she
+was _only formed to the waist_, but her flesh was quite firm and warm.
+Whilst "Lily" occupied the table in the full sight of all the sitters,
+and I had my hand upon Miss Cook's figure (for I kept passing my hand up
+and down from her face to her knees, to make sure it was not only a hand
+I held), some one grasped my chair from behind and shook it, and when I
+turned my head and spoke, in a moment one arm was round my neck and one
+round the neck of my husband, who sat next to me, whilst the voice of my
+daughter "Florence" spoke to us both, and her long hair and her soft
+white dress swept over our faces and hands. Her hair was so abundant and
+long, that she shook it out over my lap, that I might feel its length
+and texture. I asked "Florence" for a piece of her hair and dress, and
+scissors not being forthcoming, "Lily" materialized more fully, and
+walked round from the other side of the table and cut off a piece of
+"Florence's" dress herself with my husband's penknife, but said they
+could not give me the hair that time. The two spirits remained with us
+for, perhaps, half an hour or more, whilst General Maclean and I
+continued to hold Miss Cook a prisoner. The power then failing, they
+disappeared, but every one present was ready to take his oath that two
+presences had been with us that never entered at the door. The room was
+small and unfurnished, the gas was burning, the medium sat for the whole
+time in our sight. Mrs. Maclean and I were the only other women present,
+yet two girls bent over and kissed us, spoke to us, and placed their
+bare arms on our necks at one and the same time. There was again also a
+marked difference between the medium and the materializations. I have
+already described her appearance. Both of these spirits had plump faces
+and figures, my daughter "Florence's" hands especially being large and
+firm, and her loose hair nearly down to her knees.
+
+I had the pleasure of holding another _séance_ with Katie Cook in the
+same rooms, when a new manifestation occurred. She is (as I have said) a
+very small woman, with very short arms. I am, on the contrary, a very
+large woman, with very long arms, yet the arm of the hand I held was
+elongated to such an extent that it reached the sitters on the other
+side of the table, where it would have been impossible for mine to
+follow it. I should think the limb must have been stretched to thrice
+its natural length, and that in the sight of everybody. I sat again with
+Katie Cook in her own house, where, if trickery is employed, she had
+every opportunity of tricking us, but the manifestations were much the
+same, and certainly not more marvellous than those she had exhibited in
+the houses of strangers. "Lily" and "Florence" both appeared at the same
+time, under circumstances that admitted of no possibility of fraud. My
+husband and I were accompanied on that occasion by our friends, Captain
+and Mrs. Kendal, and the order of sitting round the table was as
+follows:--Myself, Katie, Captain K., Florence Cook, my husband, Mrs.
+Cook, Mrs. Kendal. Each member of the family, it will be observed, was
+held between two detectives, and their hands were not once set free. I
+must say also that the _séance_ was a free one, courteously accorded us
+on the invitation of Mrs. Cook; and if deception had been intended, we
+and our friends might just as well have been left to sit with Katie
+alone, whilst the other members of the family superintended the
+manifestation of the "ghosts" outside. Miss Florence Cook, indeed (Mrs.
+Corner), objected at first to sitting with us, on the score that her
+mediumship usually neutralized that of her sister, but her mother
+insisted on her joining the circle, lest any suspicion should be excited
+by her absence. The Cooks, indeed, are, all of them, rather averse to
+sitting than not, and cordially agree in disliking the powers that have
+been thrust upon them against their own will.
+
+These influences take possession of them, unfitting them for more
+practical work, and they must live. This is, I believe, the sole reason
+that they have never tried to make money by the exercise of their
+mediumship. But I, for one, fully believe them when they tell me that
+they consider the fact of their being media as the greatest misfortune
+that has ever happened to them. On the occasion of this last _séance_,
+cherries and rosebuds were showered in profusion on the table during the
+evening. These may easily be believed to have been secreted in the room
+before the commencement of the sitting, and produced at the proper
+opportunity, although the hands of everybody interested in their
+production were fast held by strangers. But it is less easy to believe
+that a lady of limited income, like Mrs. Cook, should go to such an
+expense for an unpaid _séance_, for the purpose of making converts of
+people who were strangers to her. Mediumship pays very badly as it is. I
+am afraid it would pay still worse if the poor media had to purchase the
+means for producing the phenomena, especially when, in a town like
+London, they run (as in this instance) to hothouse fruit and flowers.
+
+One more example of Katie Cook's powers and I have done. We were
+assembled one evening by the invitation of Mr. Charles Blackburn at his
+house, Elgin Crescent. We sat in a small breakfast room on the basement
+floor, so small, indeed, for the size of the party, that as we encircled
+a large round table, the sitters' backs touched the wall on either side,
+thus entirely preventing any one crossing the room whilst we were
+established there. The only piece of furniture of any consequence in the
+room, beside the chairs and table, was a trichord cabinet piano,
+belonging to Mrs. Cook (who was keeping house at the time for Mr.
+Blackburn), and which she much valued.
+
+Katie Cook sat amongst us as usual. In the middle of the _séance_ her
+control "Lily," who was materialized, called out, "Keep hands fast.
+Don't let go, whatever you do!" And at the same time, without seeing
+anything (for we were sitting in complete darkness), we became conscious
+that something large and heavy was passing or being carried over our
+heads. One of the ladies of the party became nervous, and dropped her
+neighbor's hand with a cry of alarm, and, at the same moment, a weighty
+body fell with a fearful crash on the other side of the room. "Lily"
+exclaimed, "Some one has let go hands," and Mrs. Cook called out; "Oh!
+it's my piano." Lights were struck, when we found the cabinet piano had
+actually been carried from its original position right over our heads to
+the opposite side of the room, where it had fallen on the floor and been
+seriously damaged. The two carved legs were broken off, and the sounding
+board smashed in. Any one who had heard poor Mrs. Cook's lamentations
+over the ruin of her favorite instrument, and the expense it would
+entail to get it restored, would have felt little doubt as to whether
+_she_ had been a willing victim to this unwelcome proof of her
+daughter's physical mediumship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF BESSIE FITZGERALD.
+
+
+One evening I went to have a cup of tea with my friend Miss Schonberg at
+Shepherd's Bush, when she proposed that we should go and have a _séance_
+with Mrs. Henry Jencken (Kate Fox), who lived close by. I hailed the
+idea, as I had heard such great things of the medium in question, and
+never had an opportunity of testing them. Consequently, I was
+proportionately disappointed when, on sending round to her house to ask
+if she could receive us that evening, we received a message to say that
+Mr. Jencken, her husband, had died that morning, and she could see no
+one. Miss Schonberg and I immediately cast about in our minds to see
+what we should do with our time, and she suggested we should call on
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. "Who is Mrs. Fitzgerald?" I queried. "A wonderful
+medium," replied my friend, "whom I met at Mrs. Wilson's last week, and
+who gave me leave to call on her. Let us go together." And accordingly
+we set forth for Mrs. Fitzgerald's residence in the Goldhawk Road. I
+only mention these circumstances to show how utterly unpremeditated was
+my first visit to her. We arrived at her house, and were ushered into a
+sitting-room, Miss Schonberg only sending up her name. In a few minutes
+the door opened, and a small, fair woman, dressed in black velvet,
+entered the room. Miss Schonberg saluted her, and was about to tender
+some explanation regarding _my_ presence there, when Mrs. Fitzgerald
+walked straight up to me and took my hand. Her eyes seemed to dilate and
+contract, like the opening and shutting off of a light, in a manner
+which I have often seen since, and she uttered rapidly, "You have been
+married once; you have been married twice; and you will be married a
+third time." I answered, "If you know anything, Mrs. Fitzgerald, you
+must know that I am very much attached to my husband, and that your
+information can give me no pleasure to hear." "No!" she said, "no! I
+suppose not, but you cannot alter Fate." She then proceeded to speak of
+things in my past life which had had the greatest influence over the
+whole of it, occurrences of so private and important a nature that it
+becomes impossible to write them down here, and for that very reason
+doubly convincing to the person whom they concern. Presently Mrs.
+Fitzgerald wandered to her piano, and commenced to play the air of the
+ballad so firmly connected in my mind with John Powles, "Thou art gone
+from my gaze," whilst she turned and nodded at me saying, "_He's_ here!"
+In fact, after a couple of hours' conversation with her, I felt that
+this stranger in the black velvet dress had turned out every secret of
+my life, and laid it naked and bare before me. I was wonderfully
+attracted to her. Her personality pleased me; her lonely life, living
+with her two babies in the Goldhawk Road, made me anxious to give her
+society and pleasure, and her wonderful gifts of clairvoyance and trance
+mediumship, all combined to make me desire her friendship, and I gave
+her a cordial invitation to my house in the Regent's Park, where for
+some years she was a constant visitor, and always sure of a hearty
+welcome. It was due to her kindness that I first had the opportunity to
+study trance mediumship at my leisure, and in a short time we became so
+familiar with her most constant control, "Dewdrop," a Red Indian girl,
+and so accustomed to speak through Mrs. Fitzgerald with our own friends
+gone before, that we welcomed her advent to our house as the signal for
+holding a spiritual party. For the sake of the uninitiated and curious,
+I think I had better here describe what is meant by trance mediumship. A
+person thus gifted has the power of giving him or herself up to the
+control of the influences in command, who send him or her off to sleep,
+a sleep so deep and so like death that the spirit is actually parted
+_pro tem_ from the body, which other spirits, sometimes living, but far
+oftener dead, enter and use as if it were their own. I have mentioned in
+my chapter on "Embodied Spirits" how my living friend in India conversed
+with me through Bessie Fitzgerald in this way, also how "Florence" spoke
+to me through the unconscious lips of Mabel Keningale Cook.
+
+Of course, I am aware that it would be so easy for a medium simply to
+close her eyes, and, professing to be entranced, talk a lot of
+commonplaces, which open-mouthed fools might accept as a new gospel,
+that it becomes imperative to test this class of media strictly by _what
+they utter_, and to place no faith in them until you are convinced that
+the matters they speak of cannot possibly have been known to any one
+except the friend whose mouthpiece they profess to be. All this I fully
+proved for myself from repeated trials and researches; but the
+unfortunate part of it is, that the more forcible and convincing the
+private proof, the more difficult it is to place it before the public. I
+must content myself, therefore, with saying that some of my dead friends
+(so called) came back to me so frequently through Bessie Fitzgerald, and
+familiarized themselves so completely with my present life, that I
+forgot sometimes that they had left this world, and flew to them (or
+rather to Bessie) to seek their advice or ask their sympathy as
+naturally as if she were their earthly form. Of these my daughter
+"Florence" was necessarily the most often with me, and she and "Dewdrop"
+generally divided the time which Mrs. Fitzgerald spent with us between
+them. I never saw a control so completely identified with its medium as
+"Dewdrop" was with Bessie. It was difficult at times to know which was
+which, and one could never be certain until she spoke whether the spirit
+or the medium had entered the house. When she _did_ speak, however,
+there was no mistaking them. Their characters were so different. Bessie
+Fitzgerald, a quiet, soft spoken little woman, devoted to her children,
+and generally unobtrusive; "Dewdrop," a Sioux Indian girl, wary and deep
+as her tribe and cute and saucy as a Yankee, with an amount of devilry
+in her that must at times have proved very inconvenient. She used to
+play Mrs. Fitzgerald tricks in those days that might have brought her
+into serious trouble, such as controlling her whilst travelling in an
+omnibus, and talking her Yankee Indian to the passengers until she had
+made their hair stand on end, with the suspicion that they had a lunatic
+for a companion. One evening we had a large and rather "swell" evening
+party, chiefly composed of ladies and gentlemen of the theatrical
+profession, and entirely of non-spiritualists, excepting ourselves. Mrs.
+Fitzgerald had been invited to this party, and declined, because it was
+out of her line. We were therefore rather astonished, when all the
+guests were assembled, to hear her name announced and see her enter the
+room in a morning dress. Directly I cast eyes upon her, however, I saw
+that it was not herself, but "Dewdrop." The stride with which she
+walked, the waggish way she rolled from side to side, the devilry in her
+eye, all betokened the Indian control. To make matters worse, she went
+straight up to Colonel Lean, and, throwing herself on the ground at his
+feet, affectionately laid her head upon his knee, and said, "I'se come
+to the party." Imagine the astonishment of our guests! I was obliged at
+once, in defence of my friend, to explain to them how matters stood; and
+though they looked rather incredulous, they were immensely interested,
+and "Dewdrop's" visit proved to be _the_ event of the evening. She
+talked to each one separately, telling them home truths, and prophesying
+their future in a way that made their cheeks go pale with fright, or red
+with conscious shame, and there was quite a contest between the men as
+to who should take "Dewdrop" down to the supper table. When there, she
+made herself particularly lively, making personal remarks aloud that
+were, in some instances, rather trying to listen to, and which Bessie
+Fitzgerald would have cut out her tongue sooner than utter. She ate,
+too, of dishes which would have made Bessie ill for a week. This was
+another strange peculiarity of "Dewdrop's" control. She not only ousted
+the spirit; she regulated the internal machinery of her medium's body.
+Bessie in her normal condition was a very delicate woman with a weak
+heart and lungs, and obliged to be most careful in her diet. She ate
+like a sparrow, and of the simplest things. "Dewdrop," on the other
+hand, liked indigestible food, and devoured it freely; yet Bessie has
+told me that she never felt any inconvenience from the food amalgamated
+with her system whilst under "Dewdrop's" control. One day when Mrs.
+Fitzgerald was dining with us, we had some apples at dessert, which she
+would have liked to partake of, but was too much afraid of the after
+consequences. "I _dare_ not," she said; "if I were to eat a raw apple, I
+should have indigestion for a week." She took some preserved ginger
+instead; and we were proceeding with our dessert, when I saw her hand
+steal out and grasp an apple. I looked in her face. "Dewdrop" had taken
+her place. "Dewdrop," I said, authoritatively, "you must not eat that.
+You will hurt Bessie. Put it down directly."
+
+"I shan't," replied "Dewdrop," drawing the dish towards her; "I like
+apples. I'm always wanting 'Medy' to eat them, and she won't, so she
+must go away till I've had as many as I want." And in effect she ate
+three or four of them, and Bessie would never have been cognizant of the
+fact unless I had informed her. On the occasion of the party to which
+she came uninvited, "Dewdrop" remained with us to the very last, and
+went home in a cab, and landed Mrs. Fitzgerald at her house without her
+being aware that she had ever left it. At that time we were constantly
+at each other's houses, and many an evening have I spent alone with
+Bessie in the Goldhawk Road, her servant out marketing and her little
+children asleep in the room overhead. Her baby was then a great fat
+fellow of about fifteen months old, who was given to waking and crying
+for his mother. If "Dewdrop" were present, she was always very impatient
+with these interruptions. "Bother dat George," she would say; "I must go
+up and quiet him." Then she would disappear for a few minutes, while
+Bessie woke and talked to me, and then, in the twinkling of an eye,
+"Dewdrop" would be back again. One day, apparently, "George" would not
+be comforted, for on "Dewdrop's" return she said to me, "It's no good;
+I've had to bring him down. He's on the mat outside the door;" and
+there, sure enough, we found the poor baby wailing in his nightshirt.
+Not being able to walk, how he had been spirited from the top storey to
+the bottom I leave my readers to determine. Bessie's little girl Mabel
+promised to be as wonderful a medium as her mother. She would come in
+from the garden flushed from her play with the "spirit-children," of
+whom she talked as familiarly as of her little neighbors next door. I
+have watched her playing at ball with an invisible child, and have seen
+the ball thrown, arrested half-way in the air, and then tossed back
+again just as if a living child had been Mab's opponent. I had lost
+several infants from premature birth during my second marriage, and the
+eldest of these, a girl, appeared to be a constant companion of Mabel's.
+She was always talking of what "Mrs. Lean's girl" (as she called her)
+had done and said; and one day she had a violent fit of weeping because
+her mother would not promise to buy her a frock like the one "Mrs.
+Lean's girl" wore.
+
+_Apropos_ of these still-born children, I had a curious experience with
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. I had had no idea until then that children so born
+possessed any souls, or lived again, but "Florence" undeceived me when
+she told me she had charge of her little brothers and sisters. She even
+professed to know the names by which they were known in the spirit
+world. When a still-born baby is launched upon the other side, she said
+it is delivered over to the nearest relative of its parent, to be called
+by what name he may choose. Thus my first girl was christened by Colonel
+Lean's mother "Gertrude," after a bosom friend of hers, and my second my
+father named "Joan," as he said it was his favorite female name. Upon
+subsequent inquiry, we found that Mrs. Lean _had_ a friend called
+"Gertrude," and that "Joan" was distinctly Captain Marryat's _beau
+ideal_ of a woman's name. However, that signified but little. I became
+very curious to see or speak with these unknown babies of mine, and used
+to worry "Florence" to bring them to me. She would expostulate with me
+after this fashion: "Dear mother, be reasonable. Remember what babies
+they are, and that this world is quite strange to them. When your
+earthly children were small you never allowed them to be brought down
+before strangers, for fear they should cry. 'Gertie' and 'Yonnie' would
+behave just the same if I brought them back to you now." However, I went
+on teasing her till she made the attempt, and "Gertie" returned through
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. It was a long time before we could coax her to remain
+with us, and when she overcame her first shyness, it was like talking to
+a little savage. "Gertie" didn't know the meaning of anything, or the
+names of anything. Her incessant questions of "What's a father?" "What a
+mother?" "What's a dog?" were very difficult to answer; but she would
+chatter about the spirit-world, and what she did there, as glibly as
+possible. She told us that she knew her brother Francis (the lad who was
+drowned at sea) very well, and she "ran races, and Francis 'chivied'
+her; and when he caught her, he held her under the fountain, and the
+spray wetted her frock, and made it look like silver." The word
+"_chivied_" sounding to me very much of a mundane character, I asked
+"Gertie" where she learned it; and she said, "Francis says 'chivy,' so
+_I_ may," and it was indeed a common expression with him. "Gertie" took,
+after a while, such a keen interest in my ornaments and china, rather to
+their endangerment, that I bought a doll to see if she would play with
+it. At first she was vastly delighted with the "little spirit," as she
+called it, and nursed it just as a mortal child would have done. But
+when she began to question me as to the reason the doll did not look at
+her, or answer her, or move about, and I said it was because it was not
+alive, she was dreadfully disappointed. "_Not alive!_" she echoed;
+"didn't God make it?" and when I replied in the negative, she threw it
+to the other end of the room, and would never look at it again.
+
+"Gertie" was about five years old at this period, and seemed to have a
+great idea of her own importance. She always announced herself as "The
+Princess Gertie," and was very dignified in her behavior. One day, when
+a lady friend was present when "Gertie" came and asked her to kiss her,
+she extended her hand instead of her face, saying, "You may kiss my
+hand."
+
+"Yonnie" (as "Joan" called herself) was but eighteen months old, and
+used to manifest herself, _roaring_ like a child forcibly dragged before
+strangers, and the only word we could ever extract from her was
+"Sugar-plums." Accordingly, I invested in some for her benefit, with
+which she filled her mouth so full as nearly to choke the medium, and
+"Florence" rebuked me seriously for my carelessness, and threatened
+never to bring "Yonnie" down to this earth again. There had been three
+other children--boys--whom I was equally anxious to see again, but, for
+some inexplicable reason, "Florence" said it was impossible that they
+could manifest. The little girls, however, came until we were quite
+familiar with them. I am aware that all this must sound very childish,
+but had it not borne a remarkable context, I should not have related it.
+All the wonder of it will be found later on.
+
+Mrs. Fitzgerald suffered very much at this time from insomnia, which she
+always declared was benefitted after a visit to me. I proposed one
+night, therefore, when she had stayed with us later than usual, that she
+should remain and share my bed, and return home in the morning. She
+consented, and at the usual hour we retired to rest together, I taking
+care to lock the bedroom door and keep the gas burning; indeed, Bessie
+was so nervous of what she might see that she would not have remained in
+the dark for any consideration. The bed we occupied was what is called a
+half tester, with a canopy and curtains on either side. As soon as ever
+Bessie got into it, she burrowed under the clothes like a dormouse, and
+went fast asleep. I was too curious to see what might happen to follow
+her example, so my head remained on the pillow, and my eyes wide open,
+and turning in every direction. Presently I saw the curtains on the
+opposite side of the bed gently shaken, next a white hand and arm
+appeared round them, and was passed up and down the ridge that
+represented Bessie Fitzgerald's body; finally, after several times
+stepping forward and retreating again, a female figure emerged and
+walked to the foot of the bedstead and stood there regarding me. She
+was, to all appearance, as solidly formed as any human creature could
+be, and she was as perfectly distinct as though seen by daylight. Her
+head and bust reminded me at once of the celebrated "Clytie," they were
+so classically and beautifully formed. Her hair and skin were fair, her
+eyes luminously liquid and gentle, her whole attitude one of modest
+dignity. She was clothed in some creamy white material, thick and soft,
+and intermixed with dull gold. She wore no ornaments, but in her right
+hand she carried a long branch of palm, or olive, or myrtle, something
+tall and tapering, and of dark green. She scarcely could be said to
+smile at me, but there was an indescribable appearance of peace and
+tranquillity about her. When I described this apparition to Bessie in
+the morning, she recognized it at once as that of her control,
+"Goodness," whom she had seen clairvoyantly, but she affirmed that I was
+the only person who had ever given her a correct description of this
+influence, which was the best and purest about her. After "Goodness" had
+remained in the same position for a few minutes, she walked back again
+behind the curtain, which served as a cabinet, and "Florence" came out
+and had a whispered conversation with me. Next a dark face, but only a
+face, said to be that of "Dewdrop," peeped out four or five times, and
+disappeared again; then a voice said, "No more! good-night," and I
+turned round to where Bessie lay sleeping beside me, and went to sleep
+myself. After that, she often came, when suffering worse than usual from
+insomnia, to pass the night with me, as she said my magnetism caused her
+to sleep, and similar manifestations always occurred when we were alone
+and together.
+
+Mrs. Fitzgerald's mediumship was by no means used, however, for the sole
+purpose of gratifying curiosity or foretelling the future. She was a
+wonderful medical diagnoser, and sat for a long time in the service of a
+well-known medical man. She would be ensconced in a corner of his
+waiting-room and tell him the exact disease of each patient that
+entered. She told me she could see the inside of everybody as perfectly
+as though they were made of glass. This gift, however, induced her to
+take on a reflection (as it were) of the disease she diagnosed, and
+after a while her failing strength compelled her to give it up. Her
+control "Dewdrop" was what she called herself, "a metal spirit," _i.e._,
+her advice was very trustworthy with regard to all speculations and
+monetary transactions. Many stockbrokers and city men used regularly to
+consult Bessie before they engaged in any speculation, and she received
+many valuable presents in return for her assistance in "making a pile."
+One gentleman, indeed, settled a large sum of money when he died on her
+little son in gratitude for the fortune "Dewdrop" had helped him to
+accumulate. Persons who sneer at Spiritualism and declare it to be
+useless, little know how much advantage is taken of spiritual
+forethought and prevision by those who believe in it. I have never been
+sorry but when I have neglected to follow the advice of a medium whom I
+had proved to be trustworthy.
+
+In the autumn of 1883 I introduced my own entertainment of "Love
+Letters" to the provincial British public, and it had an immediate and
+undeniable success. My engagements poured in rapidly, and I had already
+booked dates for the whole spring of 1884, when Mr. Edgar Bruce offered
+me an engagement at the Prince of Wales' (then the Prince's) Theatre,
+about to be opened in Piccadilly. I had been anxiously waiting to obtain
+an engagement on the London boards, and was eager to accept it; still, I
+did not know if I would be wise in relinquishing my provincial
+engagements. I wrote to Bessie to ask "Dewdrop" what I should do; the
+answer was, "Don't accept, only a flash in the pan." Thereupon I sent to
+Mr. Bruce to ask how long the engagement was likely to last, and his
+answer was that he expected "The Palace of Truth" to run a year at
+least, and at any rate I was to consider myself one of a "stock
+company." Thereupon I cancelled all my entertainment engagements,
+returned to London, appeared at the Prince's Theatre for just _eleven_
+_weeks_, and got into four law suits with my disappointed patrons for my
+trouble.
+
+It is one of the commonest remarks made by stupid people, "If the
+spirits know anything, let them tell me the name of the winner of the
+Derby, and then I will believe them," etc. I was speaking of this once
+to "Dewdrop," and she said, "We _could_ tell if we choose, but we are
+not allowed to do so. If Spiritualism was generally used for such
+things, all the world would rush to it in order to cheat one another.
+But if you will promise me not to open it until after the Derby is run,
+I will give you the name of the winner now in a sealed envelope, to
+prove that what I say is the truth." We gave her the requisite
+materials, and she made a few pencil marks on a piece of paper, and
+sealed it up. It was the year that "Shotover" won the Derby. The day
+after the race, we opened the envelope and found the drawing of a man
+with a gun in his hand, a hedge, and a bird flying away on the other
+side; very sketchy, but perfectly intelligible to one who could read
+between the lines.
+
+I was at the theatre one night with Bessie in a box, when I found out
+that "Dewdrop" had taken her place. "Dewdrop" was very fond of going to
+the play, and her remarks were so funny and so naïve as to keep one
+constantly amused. Presently, between the acts, she said to me, "Do you
+see that man in the front row of the stalls with a bald head, sitting
+next to the old lady with a fat neck?" I replied I did. "Now you watch,"
+said "Dewdrop;" "I'm going down there to have some fun. First I'll
+tickle the old man's head, and then I'll scratch the old woman's neck.
+Now, you and 'Medie' watch." The next moment Bessie spoke to me in her
+own voice, and I told her what "Dewdrop" proposed to do. "Oh, poor
+things!" she said, compassionately, "how she will torment them!" To
+watch what followed was a perfect farce. First, the old man put his hand
+up to his bald head, and then he took out his handkerchief and flicked
+it, then he rubbed it, and finally _scrubbed_ it to alleviate the
+increasing irritation. Then the old lady began the same business with
+her neck, and finding it of no avail, glared at the old man as if she
+thought _he_ had done it; in fact, they were both in such evident
+torture that there was no doubt "Dewdrop" had kept her promise. When she
+returned to me she said, "There! didn't you see me walking along the
+front row of stalls, in my moccasins and beads and feathers, and all my
+war-paint on, tickling the old fellow's head?" "I didn't _see_ you,
+'Dewdrop,'" I answered, "but I'm sure you were there." "Ah! but the old
+fellow _felt_ me, and so did the old girl," she replied.
+
+Bessie Fitzgerald is now Mrs. Russell Davies, and carries on her
+_séances_ in Upper Norwood. No one who attends them can fail to feel
+interested in the various phenomena he will meet with there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF LOTTIE FOWLER.
+
+
+As I was introduced to Lottie Fowler many years before I met Bessie
+Fitzgerald, I suppose the account of her mediumship should have come
+first; but I am writing this veracious narrative on no fixed or
+artificial plan, but just as it occurs to me, though not from memory,
+because notes were taken of every particular at the time of occurrence.
+In 1874 I was largely employed on the London Press, and constantly sent
+to report on anything novel or curious, and likely to afford matter for
+an interesting article. It was for such a purpose that I received an
+order from one of the principal newspapers in town to go and have a
+complimentary _séance_ with an American clairvoyant newly arrived in
+England, Miss Lottie Fowler. Until I received my directions I had never
+heard the medium's name, and I knew very little of clairvoyance. She was
+lodging in Conduit Street, and I reached her house one morning as early
+as ten o'clock, and sent in a card with the name of the paper only
+written on it. I was readily admitted. Miss Fowler was naturally anxious
+to be noticed by the press and introduced to London society. I found her
+a stylish-looking, well-dressed woman of about thirty, with a pleasant,
+intelligent face. Those of my readers who have only met her since
+sickness and misfortune made inroads on her appearance may smile at my
+description, but I repeat that seventeen years ago Lottie Fowler was
+prosperous and energetic-looking. She received me very cordially, and
+asked me into a little back parlor, of which, as it was summer weather,
+both the windows and doors were left open. Here, in the sunshine, she
+sat down and took my hand in hers, and began chatting of what she wished
+and hoped to do in London. Suddenly her eyes closed and her head fell
+back. She breathed hard for a few minutes, and then sat up, still with
+her eyes closed, and began to talk in a high key, and in broken English.
+This was her well-known control, "Annie," without doubt one of the best
+clairvoyants living. She began by explaining to me that she had been a
+German girl in earth life, and couldn't speak English properly, but I
+should understand her better when I was more familiar with her. She then
+commenced with my birth by the sea, described my father's personality
+and occupation, spoke of my mother, my brothers and sisters, my
+illnesses, my marriage, and my domestic life. Then she said, "Wait! now
+I'll go to your house, and tell you what I see there." She then repeated
+the names of all my children, giving a sketch of the character of each
+one, down to the "baby with the flower name," as she called my little
+Daisy. After she had really exhausted the subject of my past and
+present, she said, "You'll say I've read all this out of your mind, so
+now I'll tell you what I see in the future. You'll be married a second
+time." Now, at this period I was editing a fashionable magazine, and
+drew a large number of literary men around me. I kept open house on
+Tuesday evenings, and had innumerable friends, and I _may_ (I don't say
+I _had_), but I may have sometimes speculated what my fate might be in
+the event of my becoming free. The _séance_ I speak of took place on a
+Wednesday morning; and when "Annie" told me I should be married a second
+time, my thoughts involuntarily took to themselves wings, I suppose, for
+she immediately followed up her assertion by saying, "No! not to the man
+who broke the tumbler at your house last night. You will marry another
+soldier." "No, thank-you," I exclaimed; "no more army men for me. I've
+had enough of soldiers to last me a lifetime." "Annie" looked very
+grave. "You _will_ marry another soldier," she reiterated; "I can see
+him now, walking up a terrace. He is very tall and big, and has brown
+hair cut quite short, but so soft and shiny. At the back of his head he
+looks as sleek as a mole. He has a broad face, a pleasant, smiling face,
+and when he laughs he shows very white teeth. I see him knocking at your
+door. He says, 'Is Mrs. Ross-Church at home?' 'Yes, sir.' Then he goes
+into a room full of books. 'Florence, my wife is dead. Will you be my
+wife?' And you say 'Yes.'" "Annie" spoke so naturally, and I was so
+astonished at her knowledge of my affairs, that it never struck me till
+I returned home that she had called me by my name, which had been kept
+carefully from her. I asked her, "When will my husband die?" "I don't
+see his death anywhere," she answered. "But how can I marry again unless
+he dies?" I said. "I don't know, but I can't tell you what I don't see.
+I see a house all in confusion, papers are thrown about, and everything
+is topsy-turvy, and two people are going different ways; and, oh, there
+is so much trouble and so many tears! But I don't see any death
+anywhere."
+
+I returned home, very much astonished at all Miss Fowler had said
+regarding my past and present, but very incredulous with respect to her
+prophecies for the future. Yet, three years afterwards, when much of
+what she told me had come to pass, I was travelling from Charing Cross
+to Fareham with Mr. Grossmith, to give our entertainment of "_Entre
+Nous_," when the train stopped as usual to water at Chatham. On the
+platform stood Colonel Lean, in uniform, talking to some friends. I had
+never set eyes on him till that moment; but I said at once to Mr.
+Grossmith, "Do you see that officer in the undress uniform? That is the
+man Lottie Fowler told me I should marry." Her description had been so
+exact that I recognized him at once. Of course, I got well laughed at,
+and was ready after a while to laugh at myself. Two months afterwards,
+however, I was engaged to recite at the Literary Institute at Chatham,
+where I had never set foot in my life before. Colonel Lean came to the
+Recital, and introduced himself to me. He became a visitor at my house
+in London (which, by the by, had been changed for one in a _terrace_),
+and two years afterwards, in, June 1879, we were married. I have so far
+overcome a natural scruple to make my private affairs public, in justice
+to Lottie Fowler. It is useless narrating anything to do with the
+supernatural (although I have been taught that this is a wrong term, and
+that nothing that exists is _above_ nature, but only a continuation of
+it), unless one is prepared to prove that it was true. Lottie Fowler did
+not make a long stay in England on that occasion. She returned to
+America for some time, and I was Mrs. Lean before I met her again. The
+second visit was a remarkable one. I had been to another medium, who had
+made me very unhappy by some prophecies with regard to my husband's
+health; indeed, she had said he would not live a couple of years, and I
+was so excited about it that my friend Miss Schonberg advised our going
+then and there to see Lottie Fowler, who had just arrived in England,
+and was staying in Vernon Place, Bloomsbury; and though it was late at
+night, we set off at once. The answer to our request to see Miss Fowler
+was that she was too tired to receive any more visitors that day. "Do
+ask her to see me," I urged. "I won't detain her a moment; I only want
+to ask her one question." Upon this, we were admitted, and found Lottie
+nearly asleep. "Miss Fowler," I began, "you told me five years ago that
+I should be married a second time. Well, I _am_ married, and now they
+tell me I shall loose my husband." And then I told her how ill he was,
+and what the doctors said, and what the medium said. "You told me the
+truth before," I continued; "tell it me now. Will he die?" Lottie took a
+locket containing his hair in her hand for a minute, and then replied
+confidently, "They know nothing about it. He will not die--that is not
+yet--not for a long while." "But _when_?" I said, despairingly. "Leave
+that to God, child," she answered, "and be happy now." And in effect
+Colonel Lean recovered from his illness, and became strong and hearty
+again. But whence did Miss Fowler gain the confidence to assert that a
+man whom she had never seen, nor even heard of, should recover from a
+disease which the doctors pronounced to be mortal? From that time Lottie
+and I became fast friends, and continue so to this day. It is a
+remarkable thing that she would never take a sixpence from me in payment
+for her services, though I have sat with her scores of times, nor would
+she accept a present, and that when she has been sorely in need of
+funds. She said she had been told she should never prosper if she
+touched my money. She has one of the most grateful and affectionate and
+generous natures possible, and has half-starved herself for the sake of
+others who lived upon her. I have seen her under sickness, and poverty,
+and trouble, and I think she is one of the kindest-hearted and best
+women living, and I am glad of even this slight opportunity to bear
+testimony to her disposition. At one time she had a large and
+fashionable _clientèle_ of sitters, who used to pay her handsomely for a
+_séance_, but of late years her clients have fallen off, and her
+fortunes have proportionately decreased. She has now returned to the
+Southern States of America, and says she has seen the last of England.
+All I can say is, that I consider her a great personal loss as a referee
+in all business matters as well as a prophet for the future. She also,
+like Bessie Fitzgerald, is a great medical diagnoser. She was largely
+consulted by physicians about the Court at the time of the Prince of
+Wales' dangerous illness, and predicted his recovery from the
+commencement. It was through her mediumship that the body of the late
+Lord Lindesay of Balcarres, which was stolen from the family vault, was
+eventually recovered; and the present Lord Lindesay gave her a beautiful
+little watch, enamelled and set in diamonds, in commemoration of the
+event. She predicted the riot that took place in London some years ago,
+and the Tay Bridge disaster; but who is so silly as to believe the
+prophecies of media now-a-days? There has hardly been an event in my
+life, since I have known Lottie Fowler, that she has not prepared me for
+beforehand, but the majority of them are too insignificant to interest
+the reader. One, however, the saddest I have ever been called upon to
+encounter, was wonderfully foretold. In February, 1886, Lottie (or
+rather, "Annie") said to me, "There is a great trouble in store for you,
+Florris" (she always called me "Florris"); "you are passing under black
+clouds, and there is a coffin hanging over you. It will leave your
+house." This made me very uneasy. No one lived in my house but my
+husband and myself. I asked, "Is it my own coffin?" "No!" "Is it my
+husband's?" "No; it is that of a much younger person."
+
+I questioned her very closely, but she would not tell me any more, and I
+tried to dismiss the idea from my mind. Still it would constantly recur,
+for I knew, from experience, how true her predictions were. At last I
+felt as if I could bear the suspense no longer, and I went to her and
+said, "You _must_ tell me that the coffin you spoke of is not for one of
+my children, or the uncertainty will drive me mad." "Annie" thought a
+minute, and then said slowly, "No; it is not for one of your children."
+"Then I can bear anything else," I replied. The time went on, and in
+April an uncle of mine died. I rushed again to Lottie Fowler. "Is _this_
+the death you prophesied?" I asked her. "No," she replied; "the coffin
+must leave your house. But this death will be followed by another in the
+family," which it was within the week. The following February my
+next-door neighbors lost their only son. I had known the boy for years,
+and I was very sorry for them. As I was watching the funeral
+preparations from my bedroom window, I saw the coffin carried out of the
+hall door, which adjoined mine with only a railing between. Knowing that
+many prophetical media _see_ the future in a series of pictures, it
+struck me that Lottie must have seen this coffin leaving, and mistaken
+the house for mine. I went to her again. This proves how the prediction
+had weighed all this time upon my mind. "Has not the death you spoke of
+taken place _now_?" I asked her. "Has not the coffin left my house?"
+"No," she answered; "it will be a relative, one of the family. It is
+much nearer now than it was." I felt uncomfortable, but I would not
+allow it to make me unhappy. "Annie" had said it was not one of my own
+children, and so long as they were spared I felt strong enough for
+anything.
+
+In the July following my eldest daughter came to me in much distress.
+She had heard of the death of a friend, one who had been associated with
+her in her professional life, and the news had shocked her greatly. She
+had always been opposed to Spiritualism. She didn't see the good of it,
+and thought I believed in it a great deal more than was necessary. I had
+often asked her to accompany me to _séances_, or to see trance media,
+and she had refused. She used to say she had no one on the other side
+she cared to speak to. But when her young friend died, she begged me to
+take her to a medium to hear some news of him, and we went together to
+Lottie Fowler. "Annie" did not wait for any prompting, but opened the
+ball at once. "You've come here to ask me how you can see your friend
+who has just passed over," she said. "Well, he's all right. He's in this
+room now, and he says you will see him very soon." "To which medium
+shall I go?" said my daughter. "Don't go to any medium. Wait a little
+while, and you will see him with your own eyes." My daughter was a
+physical medium herself, though I had prevented her sitting for fear it
+should injure her health; and I believed, with her, that "Annie" meant
+that her friend would manifest through her own power. She turned to me
+and said, "Oh, mother, I shall be awfully frightened if he appears to me
+at night;" and "Annie" answered, "No, you won't be frightened when you
+see him. You will be very pleased. Your meeting will be a source of
+great pleasure on both sides." My daughter had just signed a lucrative
+engagement, and was about to start on a provincial tour. Her next
+request was, "Tell me what you see for me in the future." "Annie"
+replied, "I cannot see it clearly. Another day I may be able to tell you
+more, but to-day it is all dim. Every time I try to see it a wall seems
+to rise behind your head and shut it out." Then she turned to me and
+said, "Florris, that coffin is very near you now. It hangs right over
+your head!" I answered carelessly, "I wish it would come and have done
+with it. It is eighteen months now, Annie, since you uttered that dismal
+prophecy!" Little did I really believe that it was to be so quickly and
+so terribly fulfilled. Three weeks after that _séance_, my beloved child
+(who was staying with me) was carried out of my house in her coffin to
+Kensal Green. I was so stunned by the blow, that it was not for some
+time after that I remembered "Annie's" prediction. When I asked her
+_why_ she had tortured me with the suspense of coming evil for eighteen
+months, she said she had been told to do so by my guardian spirits, or
+my brain would have been injured by the suddenness of the shock. When I
+asked why she had denied it would be one of my children, she still
+maintained that she had obeyed a higher order, because to tell the truth
+so long beforehand would have half-killed me as indeed it would. "Annie"
+said she had no idea, even during that last interview, that the death
+she predicted was that of the girl before her. She saw her future was
+misty, and that the coffin was over my head, but she did not connect the
+two facts together. In like manner I have heard almost every event of my
+future through Lottie Fowler's lips, and she has never yet proved to be
+wrong, except in one instance of _time_. She predicted an event for a
+certain year and it did not take place till afterwards; and it has made
+"Annie" so wary, that she steadfastly refuses now to give any dates. I
+always warn inquirers not to place faith in any given dates. The spirits
+have told me they have _no time_ in the spheres, but judge of it simply
+as the reflection of the future appears nearer, or further, from the
+sitter's face. Thus, something that will happen years hence appears
+cloudy and far off, whilst the events of next week or next month seem
+bright and distinct, and quite near. This is a method of judging which
+can only be gained by practice, and must at all times be uncertain and
+misleading.
+
+I have often acted as amanuensis for Lottie Fowler, for letters are
+constantly arriving for her from every part of the world which can only
+be answered under trance, and she has asked me to take down the replies
+as "Annie" dictated them. I have answered by this means the most
+searching questions from over the seas relating to health and money and
+lost articles whilst Lottie was fast asleep and "Annie" dictated the
+letters, and have received many answers thanking me for acting
+go-between, and saying how wonderfully correct and valuable the
+information "Annie" had sent them had proved to be. Of course, it would
+be impossible, in this paper, to tell of the constant intercourse I have
+had with Lottie Fowler during the last ten or twelve years, and the
+manner in which she has mapped out my future for me, preventing my
+cherishing false hopes that would never be realized, making bad bargains
+that would prove monetary losses, and believing in apparent friendship
+that was only a cloak for selfishness and treachery. I have learned many
+bitter lessons from her lips. I have also made a good deal of money
+through her means. She has told me what will happen to me between this
+time and the time of my death, and I feel prepared for the evil and
+content with the good. Lottie Fowler had very bad health for some time
+before she left England, and it had become quite necessary that she
+should go; but I think if the British public had known what a wonderful
+woman was in their midst, they would have made it better worth her while
+to stay amongst them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM FLETCHER.
+
+
+It may be remembered in the "Story of John Powles" that when, as a
+perfect stranger to Mr. Fletcher, I walked one evening into the Steinway
+Hall, I heard him describe the circumstances of my old friend's death in
+a very startling manner. It made such an impression on me that I became
+anxious to hear what more Mr. Fletcher might have to say to me in
+private, and for that purpose I wrote and made an appointment with him
+at his private residence in Gordon Square. I did not conceal my name,
+and I knew my name must be familiar to him; for although he had only
+just arrived from America, I am better known as an author in that
+country perhaps than in this. But I had no intention of gauging his
+powers by what he told me of my exterior life; and by what followed, his
+guide "Winona" evidently guessed my ideas upon the subject. After the
+_séance_ I wrote thus concerning it to the _Banner of Light_, a New York
+Spiritualistic paper:--
+
+"I had seen many clairvoyants before, both in public and private, and
+had witnessed wonderful feats of skill on their part in naming and
+describing concealed objects, and reading print or writing when held far
+beyond their reach of sight; but I knew the trick of all that. If Mr.
+Fletcher is going to treat me to any mental legerdemain, I thought, as I
+took my way to Gordon Square, I shall have wasted both my time and
+trouble upon him; and, I confess, as I approached the house, that I felt
+doubtful whether I might not be deceived against my senses by the clever
+lecturer, whose eloquence had charmed me into desiring a more intimate
+acquaintance with him. Even the private life of a professional person
+soon becomes public property in London; and had Mr. Fletcher wished to
+find out my faults and failings, he had but to apply to ----, say, my
+dearest friend, or the one upon whom I had bestowed most benefits, to
+learn the worst aspect of the worst side of my character. But the neat
+little page-boy answered my summons so promptly that I had no time to
+think of turning back again; and I was ushered through a carpeted hall,
+and up a staircase into a double drawing-room, strewn with evidence that
+my clairvoyant friend possessed not only artistic taste, but the means
+to indulge it. The back room into which I was shown was hung with
+paintings and fitted with a luxurious _causeuse_, covered with art
+needlework, and drawn against the open window, through which might be
+seen some fine old trees in the garden below, and Mr. Fletcher's dogs
+enjoying themselves beneath their shade. Nothing could be further
+removed from one's ideas of a haunt of mystery or magic, or the abode of
+a man who was forced to descend to trickery for a livelihood. In a few
+minutes Mr. Fletcher entered the room and saluted me with the air of a
+gentleman. We did not proceed to business, however, until he had taken
+me round his rooms, and shown me his favorite pictures, including a
+portrait of Sara Bernhardt, etched by herself, in the character of Mrs.
+Clarkson in _L'Etrangère_. After which we returned to the back
+drawing-room, and without darkening the windows or adopting any
+precautions, we took our seats upon the _causeuse_ facing each other,
+whilst Mr. Fletcher laid his left hand lightly upon mine. In the course
+of a minute I observed several convulsive shivers pass through his
+frame, his eyes closed, and his head sunk back upon the cushions,
+apparently in sleep. I sat perfectly still and silent with my hand in
+his. Presently he reopened his eyes quite naturally, and sitting
+upright, began to speak to me in a very soft, thin, feminine voice. He
+(or rather his guide "Winona") began by saying that she would not waste
+my time on facts that she might have gathered from the world, but would
+confine herself to speaking of my inner life. Thereupon, with the most
+astonishing astuteness, she told me of my thoughts and feelings, reading
+them off like a book. She repeated to me words and actions that had been
+said and done in privacy hundred of miles away. She detailed the
+characters of my acquaintance, showing who were true and who were false,
+giving me their names and places of residence. She told me the motives I
+had had for certain actions, and what was more strange, revealed truths
+concerning myself which I had not recognized until they were presented
+to me through the medium of a perfect stranger. Every question I put to
+her was accurately answered, and I was repeatedly invited to draw
+further revelations from her. The fact being that I was struck almost
+dumb by what I had heard, and rendered incapable of doing anything but
+marvel at the wonderful gift that enabled a man, not only to read each
+thought that passed through my brain, but to see, as in a mirror, scenes
+that were being enacted miles away with the actors concerned in them and
+the motives that animated them. "Winona" read the future for me as well
+as the past, and the first distinct prophecy she uttered has already
+most unexpectedly come to pass. When I announced that I was satisfied,
+the clairvoyant laid his head back again upon the cushions, the same
+convulsive shudders passed through his frame, and in another minute he
+was smiling in my face, and hoping I had a good _séance_."
+
+This is part of the letter I wrote concerning Mr. Fletcher to the
+_Banner of Light_. But a description of words, however strongly put, can
+never carry the same weight as the words themselves. So anxious am I to
+make this statement as trustworthy as possible, however, that I will now
+go further, and give the exact words as "Winona" spoke them to me on
+that occasion, and as I took them down from her lips. _Some_ parts I
+_must_ omit, not for my own sake, but because of the treachery they
+justly ascribed to persons still living in this world. But enough will,
+I trust, remain to prove how intimately the spirit must have penetrated
+to my inner life. This is, then, the greater part of what "Winona" said
+to me on the 27th of June, 1879:
+
+"You are a Child of Destiny, who never was a child. Your life is fuller
+of tragedies than any life I ever read yet. I will not tell you of the
+past _facts_, because they are known to the world, and I might have
+heard them from others. But I will speak of yourself. I have to leave
+the earth-world when I come in contact with you, and enter a planetary
+sphere in which you dwell (and ever must dwell) _alone_. It is as if you
+were in a room shut off from the rest of mankind. You are one of the
+world's magnets. You have nothing really in common with the rest. You
+draw people to you, and live upon their life; and when they have no more
+to give, nor you to demand, the liking fades on both sides. It must be
+so, because the spirit requires food the same as the body; and when the
+store is exhausted, the affection is starved out, and the persons pass
+out of your life. You have often wondered to yourself why an
+acquaintance who seemed necessary to you to-day you can live perfectly
+well without to-morrow. This is the reason. More than that, if you
+continue to cling to those whose spiritual system you have exhausted,
+they would poison you, instead of nourishing you. You may not like it,
+but those you value most you should oftenest part with. Separation will
+not decrease your influence over them; it will increase it. Constant
+intercourse may be fatal to your dearest affections. You draw so much on
+others, you _empty_ them, and they have nothing more to give you. You
+have often wondered, too, why, after you have lived in a place a little
+while, you become sad, weary, and ill--not physically ill, but mentally
+so--and you feel as if you _must_ leave it, and go to another place.
+When you settle in this fresh place, you think at first that it is the
+very place where you will be content to live and die; but after a little
+while the same weariness and faintness comes back again, and you think
+you cannot breathe till you leave it, as you did the other. This is not
+fancy. It is because your nature has exhausted all it can draw from its
+surroundings, and change becomes a necessity to life. You will never be
+able to live long in any place without change, and let me warn you never
+to settle yourself down anywhere with the idea of living there entirely.
+Were you forced to do so, you would soon die. You would be starved to
+death spiritually. All people are not born under a fate, but you were,
+and you can do very little to change it. England is the country of your
+fate. You will never prosper in health, mind, or money in a foreign
+country. It is good to go abroad for change, but never try to live
+there. You are thinking of going abroad now, but you will not remain
+there nearly so long as you anticipate. Something will arise to make you
+alter your plans--not a real trouble--but an uneasiness. The plan you
+think of will not answer." (This prediction was fulfilled to the
+letter.) "This year completes an era in your professional career--not of
+ill-luck, so much as of stagnation. Your work has been rather duller of
+late years. The Christmas of 1879 will bring you brighter fortune. Some
+one who has appeared to drop you will come forward again, and take up
+your cause, and bring you in much money." (This also came to pass.)
+"You have not nearly reached the zenith of your success. It is yet to
+come. It is only beginning. You will have another child, certainly
+_one_, but I am not sure if it will live in this world. I do not see its
+earth-life, but I see you in that condition.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Your nervous system was for many years strung up to its highest
+tension--now it is relaxed, and your physical powers are at their lowest
+ebb. You could not bear a child in your present condition. You must
+become much lighter-hearted, more contented and at ease before that
+comes to pass. You must have ceased to wish for a child, or even to
+expect it. You have never had a heart really at ease yet. All your
+happiness has been feverish.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I see your evil genius. She is out of your life at present, but she
+crossed your path last year, and caused you much heart-burning, and not
+without reason. It seems to me that some sudden shock or accident put an
+end to the acquaintance; but she will cross your path again, and cause
+you more misery, perhaps, than anything else has done. She is not young,
+but stout, and not handsome, as it seems to me. She is addicted to
+drinking. I see her rolling about now under the influence of liquor. She
+has been married more than once. I see the name ---- ---- written in the
+air. She would go any lengths to take that you value from you, even to
+compassing your death. She is madly in love with what is yours. She
+would do anything to compass her ends--not only immoral things, but
+filth--filth. I have no hesitation in saying this. Whenever she crosses
+your path, in public or private, flee from her as from a pestilence."
+(This information was correct in every detail. The name was given at
+full length. I repeat it as a specimen of the succinctness of
+intelligence given through trance mediumship.) "1883 will be a most
+unfortunate year for you. You will have a severe illness, your friends
+will not know if you are going to live or die, and during this illness
+you will endure great mental agony, caused through a woman, one of whose
+names begins with ----. You will meet her some time before, and she
+will profess to be your dearest friend. I see her bending over you, and
+telling you she is your best friend, and you are disposed to believe it.
+She is as tall as you are, but does not look so tall from a habit she
+has of carrying herself. She is not handsome, strictly speaking, but
+dark and very fascinating. She has a trick of keeping her eyes down when
+she speaks. She is possibly French, or of French extraction, but speaks
+English. She will get a hold upon ----'s mind that will nearly separate
+you." (At this juncture I asked, "How can I prevent it?") "If I told
+you, that if you went by the 3 o'clock train from Gower Street, you
+would be smashed, you would not take that train. When you meet a woman
+answering this description, stop and ask yourself whether she is the one
+I have warned you against, before you admit her across the threshold of
+your house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"----'s character is positive for good, and negative for evil. If what
+is even for his good were urged upon him, he would refuse to comply; but
+present evil to him as a possible good, and he will stop to consider
+whether it is not so. If he is to be guided aright, it must be by making
+him believe it would be impossible for him to go wrong. Elevate his
+nature by elevating his standard of right. Make it impossible for him to
+lower himself, by convincing him that he _would_ be lowered. He is very
+conceited. Admiration is the breath of his life. He is always thinking
+what people will say of him or his actions. He is very weak under
+temptation, especially the temptation of flattery. He is much too fond
+of women. You have a difficult task before you, and you have done much
+harm already through your own fault. He believes too little in the evil
+of others--much too little. If he were unfaithful to those who trust
+him, he would be quite surprised to find he had broken their hearts.
+Your work is but beginning. Hitherto all has been excitement, and there
+has been but little danger. Now comes monotony and the fear of satiety.
+Your fault through life has been in not asserting the positive side of
+your character. You were born to rule, and you have sat down a slave.
+Either through indolence or despair of success, you have presented a
+negative side to the insults offered you, and in the end you have been
+beaten. You make a great mistake in letting your female friends read all
+your joys and sorrows. Men would sympathize and pity. Women will only
+take advantage of them. Assert your dignity as mistress in your own
+house, and don't let those visitors invite themselves who do not come
+for you. You are, as it were, the open door for more than one false
+friend. I warn you especially against two unmarried women--at least, if
+they are married, I don't see their husbands anywhere. They are both too
+fond of ----; one _very much_ too fond of him, and you laugh at it, and
+give your leave for caresses and endearments, which should never be
+permitted. If I were to tell them that they visit at your house for
+----, and not for you, they would be very indignant. They give you
+presents, and really like you; but ---- is the attraction, and with one
+of them it only needs time, place and opportunity to cause the ruin of
+---- and yourself. She has an impediment in walking. I need say no more.
+She wants to become still more familiar, and live under the same roof
+with you. You must prevent it. The other is doing more harm to herself
+than to anyone else. She is silly and romantic, and must dream of some
+one. It is a pity it should be encouraged by familiarity. ---- has no
+feeling for them beyond pity and friendship, but it is not necessary he
+should love a woman to make her dangerous to him. As far as I can see
+your lives extend, ---- will love you, and you will retain your
+influence over him if you _choose_ to do so. But it is in your own hands
+what you make of him. You must not judge his nature by your own. You are
+shutting yourself up too much. You should be surrounded by a circle of
+men, so that you might not draw influence from ---- alone. You should go
+out more, and associate with clever men, and hear what they have to say
+to you. You must not keep so entirely with ----. It is bad for both of
+you. You are making too great a demand upon his spiritual powers, and
+you will exhaust them too soon. A woman cannot draw spiritual life from
+women only. She must take it from men. There is another acquaintance I
+must warn you against ----; a widow, fair hair, light eyes, not clever,
+but cunning. She has but one purpose in visiting you. She would like to
+stand in your shoes. She would not hesitate to usurp your rights. Be
+civil to her if you will, but do not encourage her visits. It were best
+if she passed out of your lives altogether. She can never bring you any
+good luck. She may be the cause of much annoyance yet. ---- should have
+work, active and constant, or his health will fail, living in idleness,
+spiritually and bodily. You tell him too often that you love him. Let
+him feel there is always a higher height to gain, a lower depth to fall
+to, in your esteem. He is not the only man in the world. Why should you
+deceive him by saying so? You are much to blame." (Considering that Mr.
+Fletcher had never seen, or, as far as I knew, heard of the persons he
+mentioned in this tirade, it becomes a matter of speculation where or
+from whom he gathered this keen insight to their character and
+personalities, every word of which I can vouch for as being strictly
+true.)
+
+"Many spirits are round you. Some wish to speak.... A grand and noble
+spirit stands behind you, with his hands spread in blessing over your
+head. He is your father. He sends this message: 'My dear child, there
+were so many influences antagonistic to my own in your late married
+life, that I found it very difficult to get near you. Now they are
+removed. The present conditions are much more favorable to me, and I
+hope to be with you often, and to help you through the life that lies
+before you.' There is the face of a glorified spirit, just above
+your head, and I see the name 'Powles.' This spirit is nearer you, and
+more attached to you than any other in Spirit Land. He comes only to
+you, and one other creature through you--your second child. He says you
+will know him by the token, the song; you sung to him upon his
+death-bed. His love for you is the best and purest, and he is always by
+you, though lower influences sometimes forbid his manifesting himself.
+Your child comes floating down, and joins hands with him. She is a very
+pure and beautiful spirit. She intimates that her name on earth was the
+same as yours, but she is called by another name in the spheres--a name
+that has something to do with flowers. She brings me a bunch of pure
+white lilies, tinged with blue, with blue petals, tied with a piece of
+blue ribbon, and she intimates to me by gesture that her spirit-name has
+something to do with them. I think I must go now, but I hope you will
+come and sit with me again. I shall be able to tell you more next time.
+My name is 'Winona,' and when you ask for me I will come. Good-bye...."
+
+This was the end of my first _séance_ with Mr. Fletcher, and I think
+even sceptics will allow that it was sufficiently startling for the
+first interview with an entire stranger. The following year I wrote
+again to the _Banner of Light_ concerning Mr. Fletcher, but will only
+give an extract from my letter. "I told you in my letter of last year
+that I had held a _séance_ with Mr. Fletcher of so private a nature that
+it was impossible to make it public. During that interview 'Winona' made
+several startling prophecies concerning the future, which, it may
+interest your readers to know, have already been fulfilled. Wishing to
+procure some further proofs of Mr. Fletcher's power before I wrote this
+letter to you, I prepared a different sort of test for him last week.
+From a drawer full of old letters I selected, _with my eyes shut_, four
+folded sheets of paper, which I slipped into four blank envelopes, ready
+prepared for them--still without looking--and closed them in the usual
+manner with the adhesive gum, after which I sealed them with sealing
+wax. I carried these envelopes to Mr. Fletcher, and requested "Winona"
+to tell me the characters of the persons by whom their contents had been
+written. She placed them consecutively to the medium's forehead, and as
+she returned them to me, one by one, I wrote her comments on each on the
+side of the cover. On breaking the seals, the character of each writer
+was found to be most accurately defined, although the letters had all
+been written years before--(a fact which "Winona" had immediately
+discovered). She also told me which of my correspondents were dead, and
+which living. Here, you will observe, there could have been no reaction
+of my own brain upon that of the sensitive, as I was perfectly ignorant,
+until I reopened the envelopes, by whom the letters had been sent to me.
+Two months ago I was invited to join in a speculation, of the
+advisability of which I felt uncertain. I went therefore to Mr.
+Fletcher, and asked for an interview with "Winona," intending to consult
+her in the matter. But before I had time to mention the subject, she
+broached it to me, and went on to speak of the speculation itself, of
+the people concerned in it, and the money it was expected to produce;
+and, finally, she explained to me how it would collapse, with the means
+that would bring it to an end, putting her decided veto on my having
+anything to do with it. I followed "Winona's" advice, and have been
+thankful since that I did so, as everything has turned out just as she
+predicted."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I think those people who desire to gain the utmost good they can out of
+clairvoyance should be more ready to listen and learn, and less to cavil
+and to question. Many who have heard me relate the results of my
+experience have rushed off pell-mell to the same medium, perhaps, and
+came away woefully disappointed. Were they to review the interview they
+would probably find they had done all the talking, and supplied all the
+information, leaving the clairvoyant no work to do whatever. To such I
+always say, whether their aim is to obtain advice in their business, or
+news of a lost friend, _Be perfectly passive_, until the medium has said
+all he or she may have to say. Give them time to become _en rapport_
+with you, and quietude, that he may commune with the spirits you bring
+with you; for it is _they_, and not _his_ controls, that furnish him
+with the history of your life, or point out the dangers that are
+threatening. When he has finished speaking, he will probably ask if you
+have any questions to put to him, and _then_ is your turn for talking,
+and for gaining any particular information you may wish to acquire. If
+these directions are carried out, you are likely to have a much more
+satisfactory _séance_ than otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+PRIVATE MEDIA.
+
+
+People who wish to argue against Spiritualism are quite sure, as a rule,
+that media will descend to any trickery and cheating for the sake of
+gain. If you reply, as in my own case, that the _séances_ have been
+given as a free-will offering, they say that they expected introductions
+or popularity or advertisement in exchange. But what can be adduced
+against the medium who lends his or her powers to a person whom he has
+never seen, and probably never will see, and for no reason, excepting
+that his controls urge him to the deed? Such a man is Mr. George Plummer
+of Massachusetts, America. In December, 1887, when my mind was very
+unsettled, my friend Miss Schonberg advised me to write to this medium
+and ask his advice. She told me I must not expect an immediate reply, as
+Mr. Plummer kept a box into which he threw all the letters he received
+from strangers on spiritualistic subjects, and when he felt impressed to
+do so, he went and took out one, haphazard, and wrote the answer that
+was dictated to him. All I had to do was to enclose an addressed
+envelope, not a _stamped_ one, in my letter, to convey the answer back
+again. Accordingly, I prepared a diplomatic epistle to this effect.
+"Dear sir,--Hearing that you are good enough to sit for strangers, I
+shall be much obliged if you will let me know what you see for
+me.--Yours truly, F. Lane." It will be seen that I transposed the
+letters of my name "Lean." I addressed the return envelope in the same
+manner to the house in Regent's Park, which I then occupied, and I wrote
+it all in a feigned hand to conceal my identity as much as possible. The
+time went on and I heard nothing from Mr. Plummer. I was touring in the
+provinces for the whole of 1888, and at the end of the year I came back
+to London and settled down in a new house in a different quarter of the
+town. By this time I had almost forgotten Mr. Plummer and my letter to
+him, and when in _December_, 1889, two years after I had sent it, my
+own envelope in my own handwriting, forwarded by the postal authorities
+from Regent's Park, was brought to me, I did not at first recognize it.
+I kept twisting it about, and thinking how like it was to my own
+writing, when the truth suddenly flashed on me. I opened it and read as
+follows:
+
+    "Georgetown, November 28th, 1889.
+
+     "Mrs. Lane,--Dear Madam,--Please pardon me for seeming neglect in
+     answering your request. At the time of receiving your letter I
+     could not write, and it got mislaid. Coming across it now, even at
+     the eleventh hour, I place myself in condition to answer. I see a
+     lady with dark blue eyes before me, of a very nervous
+     life--warm-hearted--impulsive--tropical in her nature. A woman of
+     intense feeling--a woman whose life has been one of constant
+     disappointment. To-day the current of life flows on smoothly but
+     monotonous. I sense from the sphere of this lady, a weariness of
+     life--should think she felt like Alexander, because there are no
+     more worlds for her to conquer. She is her own worst enemy.
+     Naturally generous, she radiates her refined magnetic sphere to
+     others, and does not get back that which she can utilize. I see a
+     bright-complexioned gentleman in earth life--brave, generous, and
+     kind--but does not comprehend your interior life. And yet thinks
+     the world of you to-day. I feel from you talent of a marked order.
+     And yet life is a disappointment. Not but what you have been
+     successful in a refined, worldly sense, but your spiritual nature
+     has been repressed. The society you move in is one of intellectual
+     culture; that is not of the soul. And it is soul food that you are
+     hungering for to-day. You are an inspired woman. Thought seems to
+     you, all prepared, so to speak. But it does not seem to free the
+     tiny little messengers of your soul life. Somehow I don't feel that
+     confidence in myself in writing to you. The best kind of a reading
+     is usually obtained in reading to a person direct. But if I don't
+     meet your case we will call it a failure and let it go. The year of
+     1890 is going to be more favorable to you than for the last ten
+     years. I think in some way you are to meet with more reciprocity of
+     soul. As the divining rod points to the stream of water in the
+     earth, so I find my intuitive eye takes cognizance of your interior
+     life. You will in a degree catch my meaning through this, and it
+     will come clearer, more through your intuition than through your
+     intellect. I should say to you, follow your instincts and
+     intuitions always through life. If this throws any light over your
+     path I am glad.--I remain, most respectfully yours,
+                                                      George Plummer."
+
+Now there are two noticeable things in this letter. First, Mr. Plummer's
+estimate of my interior life almost coincides with Mr. Fletcher's given
+in 1879, ten years before. Next, although he read it through the medium
+of a letter written in 1887, he draws a picture of my position and
+surroundings in 1889. Both these things appeared to me very curious as
+coming from a stranger across the Atlantic, and I answered his letter at
+once, still preserving my slight incognita, and telling him that as he
+had read so much of my life from my handwriting of so long ago, I wished
+he would try to read more from words which went fresh from me to him. I
+also enclosed a piece of the handwriting of a friend. Mr. Plummer did
+not keep me waiting this time. His next letter was dated February 8th,
+1890.
+
+     "Dear Madam,--I received yours of January 3rd, and would have
+     answered before, but the spirit did not move. I have been tied to a
+     sick room going on three months, with its cares and anxieties. Not
+     the best condition for writing. The best condition to reflect your
+     life, to give your soul strength, is to be at rest and have all
+     earth conditions nullified. But that cannot be to-day. So I will
+     try to penetrate the mystery of your life as best I can, and
+     radiate to you at least some strength. The relation of soul is the
+     difficulty of your life, and you are so perfectly inspirational
+     that it makes the condition worse. Grand types of Manhood and
+     Womanhood come to you from the higher life, and your spirit and
+     soul catch the reflection, and are disappointed because they cannot
+     live that life. But you are getting a development out of all this
+     friction. Now if you would come in contact with that nature that
+     could radiate to you just what you could give to it, you would be
+     happy. Love is absolute, you well know. Often in the exchange of
+     thought we give each other strength. And then every letter we
+     write, every time we shake hands, we give some of our own
+     personality out. You are too sensitive to the spheres of people.
+     You have such a strong personality of life that the power that
+     inspires you could not make the perfect junction until you get so,
+     you had rather die than live. That was a condition of negation. Now
+     you have been running on a dead level of nothingness for two years
+     and a half." (This was exactly the time since my daughter had been
+     taken from me). "_I mean it seems so to you._ Such a sameness of
+     things. I get from the writing of the gentleman. A good
+     sphere--warm hearted--true to his understanding of things. He seems
+     to be a sort of a half-way house to you. That is, you roam in the
+     sea of Ideality, down deep, you know. And he rather holds on to
+     matter-of-fact--sort of ballast for you. You need it. For you are,
+     in fact, ripe for the other life, though it is not time to go yet.
+     Although a writer, yet you are a disappointed one. No mortal but
+     yourself knows this. You have winged your way in flights, grand and
+     lofty, and cannot _pen it_, is what is the matter. Now, in time you
+     will, more perfectly than to-day, by the touch of your pen, portray
+     your soul and its flights. Then I see you happy. This gentleman is
+     an auxiliary power, whether the power in full of your life I do not
+     to-day get. You are emphatically a woman of Destiny, and should
+     follow your _impressions_, for through that intuitive law you will
+     be saved. I mean by 'saved,' leap, as it were, across difficulties
+     instead of going round. For your soul is more positive and awake to
+     its necessities to-day than ever before in your life, particularly
+     in the last six months. Body marriages are good under the physical
+     law--bring certain unfoldments. But when mortal man and woman reach
+     a certain condition of development, they become dissatisfied, and
+     yearn for the full fruition of love. And there is no limitation of
+     this law. Women usually bow to the heart-love law, that sometimes
+     brings great joy and misery. The time is ripe for rulers. There
+     will be put into the field men, and more specifically women, who
+     have exemplified love divine. They will teach the law so plainly
+     that they who run can read. And it can only be taught by those who
+     have embodied it. Some years ago, in this country, there was a
+     stir-up. It did its work in fermentation. The next must be
+     humanization. The material world must come under the spiritual.
+     Women will come to the front as inspired powers. This is what comes
+     to me to write to you to-day. If it brings strength, or one ray of
+     sun-shine to you, I am glad.--I remain, most respectfully yours,
+                                                   George Plummer."
+
+Mr. Plummer is not occupying a high position in the world, nor is he a
+rich man. He gains no popularity by his letters--he hears no
+applause--he reaps no personal benefit, nor will he take any money. It
+would be difficult, with any degree of reason, to charge him with
+cheating the public for the sake of emptying their pockets. I fail to
+see, therefore, how he can obtain his insight to one's interior life by
+mortal means, nor, unless compelled by a power superior to his own, why
+he should take the trouble to obtain it.
+
+Another medium, whose health paid the sacrifice demanded of her for the
+exhibition of a power over which, at one time, she had no control, and
+which never brought her in anything but the thanks of her friends, is
+Mrs. Keningale Cook (Mabel Collins), whom I have mentioned in the "Story
+of my Spirit Child." There was a photographer in London, named Hudson,
+who had been very successful in developing spirit photographs. He would
+prepare to take an ordinary photograph, and on developing the plate, one
+or more spirit forms would be found standing by the sitter, in which
+forms were recognized the faces of deceased friends. Of course, the
+generality of people said that the plates were prepared beforehand with
+vague misty figures, and the imagination of the sitter did the rest. I
+had been for some time anxious to test Mr. Hudson's powers for myself,
+and one morning very early, between nine and ten o'clock, I asked Mrs.
+Cook, as a medium, to accompany me to his studio. He was not personally
+acquainted with either of us, and we went so early that we found him
+rather unwilling to set to work. Indeed, at first he declined. We
+disturbed him at breakfast and in his shirt sleeves, and he told us his
+studio had been freshly painted, and it was quite impossible to use it
+until dry. But we pressed him to take our photographs until he
+consented, and we ascended to the studio. It was certainly very
+difficult to avoid painting ourselves, and the screen placed behind was
+perfectly wet. We had not mentioned a word to Mr. Hudson about spirit
+photographs, and the first plate he took out and held up to the light,
+we saw him draw his coat sleeve across. When we asked him what he was
+doing, he turned to us and said, "Are you ladies Spiritualists?" When we
+answered in the affirmative, he continued, "I rubbed out the plate
+because I thought there was something on it, and most sitters would
+object. I often have to destroy three or four negatives before I get a
+clear picture." We begged him not to rub out any more as we were curious
+to see the results. He, consequently, developed three photographs of us,
+sitting side by side. The first was too indistinct to be of any use. It
+represented us, with a third form, merely a patch of white, lying on the
+ground, whilst a mass of hair was over my knee. "Florence" afterwards
+informed me that this was an attempt to depict herself. The second
+picture showed Mrs. Cook and myself as before, with "Charlie" standing
+behind me. I have spoken of "Charlie" (Stephen Charles Bernard Abbott)
+in "Curious Coincidences," and how much he was attached to me and mine.
+In the photograph he is represented in his cowl and monk's frock--with
+ropes round his waist, and his face looking down. In the third picture,
+an old lady in a net cap and white shawl was standing with her two hands
+on Mrs. Cook's shoulders. This was her grandmother, and the profile was
+so distinctly delineated, that her father, Mr. Mortimer Collins,
+recognized it at once as the portrait of his mother. The old lady had
+been a member of the Plymouth Brethren sect, and wore the identical
+shawl of white silk with an embroidered border which she used to wear
+during her last years on earth. I have seen many other spirit
+photographs taken by Mr. Hudson, but I adhere to my resolution to speak
+only of that which I have proved by the exercise of my own senses. I
+have the two photographs I mention to this day, and have often wished
+that Mr. Hudson's removal from town had not prevented my sitting again
+to him in order to procure the likenesses of other friends.
+
+Miss Caroline Pawley is a lady who advertises her willingness to obtain
+messages for others from the spirit world, but is forbidden by her
+guides to take presents or money. I thought at first this must be a
+"_ruse_." "Surely," I said to a friend who knew Miss Pawley, "I ought to
+take books, or flowers, or some little offering in my hand." "If you do
+she will return them," was the reply. "All that is necessary is to write
+and make an appointment, as her time is very much taken up." Accordingly
+I did write, and Miss Pawley kindly named an early date for my visit. It
+was but a few months after I had lost my beloved daughter, and I longed
+for news of her. I arrived at Miss Pawley's residence, a neat little
+house in the suburbs, and was received by my hostess, a sweet,
+placid-faced woman, who looked the embodiment of peace and calm
+happiness. After we had exchanged greetings she said to me, "You have
+lost a daughter." "I lost one about twenty years ago--a baby of ten days
+old," I replied. "I don't mean her," said Miss Pawley, "I mean a young
+woman. I will tell you how I came to know of it. I took out my memoranda
+yesterday and was looking it through to see what engagements I had made
+for to-day, and I read the names aloud to myself. As I came to the
+entry, 'Mrs. Lean, 3 o'clock,' I heard a low voice say behind me, 'That
+is my dear, _dear_ mother!' and when I turned round, I saw standing at
+my elbow a young woman about the middle height, with blue eyes and very
+long brown hair, and she told me that it is _she_ whom you are grieving
+for at present." I made no answer to this speech, for my wound was too
+fresh to permit me to talk of her; and Miss Pawley proceeded. "Come!"
+she said cheerfully, "let us get paper and pencil and see what the dear
+child has to say to us." She did not go under trance, but wrote rapidly
+for a few moments and then handed me a letter written in the following
+manner. I repeat (what I have said before) that I do not test the
+genuineness of such a manifestation by the act itself. _Anyone_ might
+have written the letter, but no one but myself could recognize the
+familiar expressions and handwriting, nor detect the apparent
+inconsistencies that made it so convincing. It was written in two
+different hands on alternate lines, the first line being written by
+"Eva," and the next by "Florence," and so on. Now, my earthly children
+from their earliest days have never called me anything but "Mother,"
+whilst "Florence," who left me before she could speak, constantly calls
+me "Mamma." This fact alone could never have been known to Miss Pawley.
+Added to which the portion written by my eldest daughter was in her own
+clear decided hand, whilst "Florence's" contribution was in rather a
+childish, or "young ladylike" scribble.
+
+The lines ran thus. The italics are Florence's:--
+
+    "My own beloved mother.
+    _My dear, dear, dearest Mamma._
+    You must not grieve so terribly for me.
+    _And knowing all we have taught you, you should not grieve._
+    Believe me, I am not unhappy.
+    _Of course not, and she will be very happy soon._
+    But I suffer pain in seeing you suffer.
+    _Dear Mamma, do try to see that it is for the best._
+    Florence is right. It is best! dear Mother.
+    _And we shall all meet so soon, you know._
+    God bless you for all your love for me.
+    _Good-bye, dear, dearest Mamma._
+                 Your own girl.
+                 _Your loving little Florence._"
+
+I cannot comment on this letter. I only make it public in a cause that
+is sacred to me.
+
+To instance another case of mediumship which is exercised for neither
+remuneration nor applause. I am obliged in this example to withhold the
+name, because to betray their identity would be to ill requite a favor
+which was courteously accorded me. I had heard of a family of the name
+of D---- who held private sittings once a week, at which the mother and
+brothers and sisters gone before materialized and joined the circle; and
+having expressed my desire, through a mutual acquaintance, to assist at
+their _séances_, Mr. D---- kindly sent me an invitation to one. I found
+he was a high-class tradesman, living in a good house in the suburbs,
+and that strangers were very seldom (if ever) admitted to their circle.
+Mr. D---- explained to me before the _séance_ commenced, that they
+regarded Spiritualism as a most sacred thing, that they sat only to have
+communication with their own relations, his wife and children, and that
+his wife never manifested except when they were alone. His earth family
+consisted of a young married daughter and her husband, and four or five
+children of different ages. He had lost, I think he told me, a grown-up
+son, and two little ones. William Haxby, the medium, whom I wrote of in
+my chapter "On Sceptics," and who had passed over since then, had been
+intimate with their family, and often came back to them. These
+explanations over, the _séance_ began. The back and front parlors were
+divided by lace curtains only. In the back, where the young married
+daughter took up her position on a sofa, were a piano and an American
+organ. In the front parlor, which was lighted by an oil lamp, we sat
+about on chairs and sofas, but without any holding of hands. In a very
+short time the lace curtains parted and a young man's face appeared.
+This was the grown-up brother. "Hullo! Tom," they all exclaimed, and the
+younger ones went up and kissed him. He spoke a while to his father,
+telling what they proposed to do that evening, but saying his mother
+would not be able to materialize. As he was speaking, a little boy stood
+by his side. "Here's Harry," cried the children, and they brought their
+spirit brother out into the room between them. He seemed to be about
+five years old. His father told him to come and speak to me, and he
+obeyed, just like a little human child, and stood before me with his
+hand resting on my knee. Then a little girl joined the party, and the
+two children walked about the room, talking to everybody in turn. As we
+were occupied with them, we heard the notes of the American organ.
+"Here's Haxby," said Mr. D----. "Now we shall have a treat." (I must say
+here that Mr. Haxby was an accomplished organist on earth.) As he heard
+his name, he, too, came to the curtains, and showed his face with its
+ungainly features, and intimated that he and "Tom" would play a duet.
+Accordingly the two instruments pealed forth together, and the spirits
+really played gloriously--a third influence joining in with some
+stringed instrument. This _séance_ was so much less wonderful than many
+I have written of, that I should not have included a description of it,
+except to prove that all media do not ply their profession in order to
+prey upon their fellow-creatures. The D---- family are only anxious to
+avoid observation. There could be no fun or benefit in deceiving each
+other, and yet they devote one evening in each week to holding communion
+with those they loved whilst on earth and feel are only hidden from them
+for a little while, and by a very flimsy veil. Their _séances_ truly
+carry out the great poet's belief.
+
+    "Then the forms of the departed
+      Enter at the open door;
+    The belovéd, the true-hearted,
+      Come to visit me once more.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    With a slow and noiseless footstep
+      Comes that messenger divine,
+    Takes the vacant chair beside me,
+      Lays her gentle hand in mine.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Uttered not, yet, comprehended,
+      Is the spirit's voiceless prayer.
+    Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,
+      Breathing from her lips of air."
+
+In the house of the lady I have mentioned in "The Story of the Monk,"
+Mrs. Uniacke of Bruges, I have witnessed marvellous phenomena. They were
+not pleasant manifestations, very far from it, but there was no doubt
+that they were genuine. Whether they proceeded from the agency of Mrs.
+Uniacke, my sister Blanche, or a young lady called Miss Robinson, who
+sat with them, or from the power of all three combined, I cannot say,
+but they had experienced them on several occasions before I joined them,
+and were eager that I should be a witness of them. We sat in Mrs.
+Uniacke's house, in a back drawing-room, containing a piano and several
+book-cases, full of books--some of them very heavy. We sat round a table
+in complete darkness, only we four women, with locked doors and bolted
+windows. Accustomed as I was to all sorts of manifestations and
+mediumship, I was really frightened by what occurred. The table was most
+violent in its movements, our chairs were dragged from under us, and
+heavy articles were thrown about the room. The more Mrs. Uniacke
+expostulated and Miss Robinson laughed, the worse the tumult became. The
+books were taken from the shelves and hurled at our heads, several of
+the blows seriously hurting us; the keys of the piano at the further end
+of the room were thumped and crashed upon, as if they would be broken;
+and in the midst of it all Miss Robinson fell prone upon the floor, and
+commenced talking in Flemish, a language of which she had no knowledge.
+My sister understands it, and held a conversation with the girl; and she
+told us afterwards that Miss Robinson had announced herself by the name
+of a Fleming lately deceased in the town, and detailed many events of
+his life, and messages which he wished to be delivered to his
+family--all of which were conveyed in good and intelligible Flemish.
+When the young lady had recovered she resumed her place at the table, as
+my sister was anxious I should see another table, which they called
+"Mademoiselle" dance, whilst unseen hands thumped the piano. The
+manifestation not occurring, however, they thought it must be my
+presence, and ordered me away from the table. I went and stood up close
+against the folding doors that led into the front room, keeping my hand,
+with a purpose, on the handle. The noise and confusion palpably
+increased when the three ladies were left alone. "Mademoiselle," who
+stood in a corner of the room, commenced to dance about, and the notes
+of the piano crashed forcibly. There was something strange to me about
+the manifestation of the piano. It sounded as if it were played with
+feet instead of hands. When the tumult was at its height, I suddenly,
+and without warning, threw open the folding door and let the light in
+upon the scene, and I saw _the music-stool mounted on the keyboard_ and
+hammering the notes down. As the light was admitted, both "Mademoiselle"
+and the music-stool fell with a crash to the floor, and the _séance_ was
+over. The ladies were seated at the table, and the floor and articles of
+furniture were strewn with the books which had been thrown down--the
+bookshelves being nearly emptied--and pots of flowers. I was never at
+such a pandemonium before or after.
+
+The late Sir Percy Shelley and his wife Lady Shelley, having no children
+of their own, adopted a little girl, who, when about four or five years,
+was seriously burned about the chest and shoulders, and confined for
+some months to her bed. The child's cot stood in Lady Shelley's bedroom,
+and when her adopted mother was about to say her prayers, she was
+accustomed to give the little girl a pencil and piece of paper to keep
+her quiet. One day the child asked for pen and ink instead of a pencil,
+and on being refused began to cry, and said, "The _man_ said she must
+have pen and ink." As it was particularly enjoined that she must not cry
+for fear of reopening her wounds, Lady Shelley provided her with the
+desired articles, and proceeded to her devotions. When she rose from
+them, she saw to her surprise that the child had drawn an outline of a
+group of figures in the Flaxman style, representing mourners kneeling
+round a couch with a sick man laid upon it. She did not understand the
+meaning of the picture, but she was struck with amazement at the
+execution of it, as was everybody who saw it. From that day she gave the
+little girl a sheet of card-board each morning, with pen and ink, and
+obtained a different design, the child always talking glibly of "the
+man" who helped her to draw. This went on until the drawings numbered
+thirty or forty, when a "glossary of symbols" was written out by this
+baby, who could neither write nor spell, which explained the whole
+matter. It was then discovered that the series of drawings represented
+the life of the soul on leaving the body, until it was lost "in the
+Infinity of God"--a likely subject to be chosen, or understood, by a
+child of five. I heard this story from Lady Shelley's lips, and I have
+seen (and well examined) the original designs. They were at one time to
+be published by subscription, but I believe it never came to pass. I
+have also seen the girl who drew them, most undoubtedly under control.
+She was then a young married woman and completely ignorant of anything
+relating to Spiritualism. I asked her if she remembered the
+circumstances under which she drew the outlines, and she laughed and
+said no. She knew she had drawn them, but she had no idea how. All she
+could tell me was that she had never done anything wonderful since, and
+she had no interest in Spiritualism whatever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+VARIOUS MEDIA.
+
+
+A very strong and remarkable clairvoyant is Mr. Towns, of Portobello
+Road. As a business adviser or foreteller of the Future, I don't think
+he is excelled. The inquirer after prophecy will not find a grand
+mansion to receive him in Portobello Road. On the contrary, this
+soothsayer keeps a small shop in the oil trade, and is himself only an
+honest, and occasionally rather rough spoken, tradesman. He will see
+clients privately on any day when he is at home, though it is better to
+make an appointment, but he holds a circle on his premises each Tuesday
+evening, to which everybody is admitted, and where the contribution is
+anything you may be disposed to give, from coppers to gold. These
+meetings, which are very well attended, are always opened by Mr. Towns
+with prayer, after which a hymn is sung, and the _séance_ commences.
+There is full gas on all the time, and Mr. Towns sits in the midst of
+the circle. He does not go under trance, but rubs his forehead for a few
+minutes and then turns round suddenly and addresses members of his
+audience, as it may seem, promiscuously, but it is just as he is
+impressed. He talks, as a rule, in metaphor, or allegorically, but his
+meaning is perfectly plain to the person he addresses. It is not only
+silly women, or curious inquirers, who attend Mr. Towns' circles. You
+may see plenty of grave, and often anxious, business men around him,
+waiting to hear if they shall sell out their shares, or hold on till the
+market rises; where they are to search for lost certificates or papers
+of value; or on whom they are to fix the blame of money or articles of
+value that have disappeared. Once in my presence a serious-looking man
+had kept his eye fixed on him for some time, evidently anxious to speak.
+Mr. Towns turned suddenly to him. "You want to know, sir," he commenced,
+without any preface, "where that baptismal certificate is to be found."
+"I do, indeed," replied the man; "it is a case of a loss of thousands
+if it is not forthcoming." "Let me see," said Mr. Towns, with his finger
+to his forehead. "Have you tried a church with a square tower without
+any steeple, an ugly, clumsy building, white-washed inside, standing in
+a village. Stop! I can see the registrar books--the village's name is
+----. The entry is at page 200. The name is ----. The mother's name is
+----. Is that the certificate you want?" "It is, indeed," said the man;
+"and it is in the church at ----?" "Didn't I say it was in the church at
+----?" replied Mr. Towns, who does not like to be doubted or
+contradicted. "Go and you will find it there." And the man _did_ go and
+did find it there. To listen to the conversations that go on between him
+and his clients at these meetings, Mr. Towns is apparently not less
+successful with love affairs than with business affairs, and it is an
+interesting experience to attend them, if only for the sake of
+curiosity. But naturally, to visit him privately is to command much more
+of his attention. He will not, however, sit for everybody, and it is of
+no use attempting to deceive him. He is exceedingly keen-sighted into
+character, and if he takes a dislike to a man he will tell him so
+without the slightest hesitation. No society lies are manufactured in
+the little oil shop. A relative of mine, who was not the most faithful
+husband in the world, and who, in consequence, judged of his wife's
+probity by his own, went, during her temporary absence, to Mr. Towns to
+ask him a delicate question. The lady was well known to the medium, but
+the husband he had never seen before, and had no notion who his sitter
+was, until he pulled out a letter from his pocket, thrust it across the
+table, and said, "There! look at that letter and tell me if the writer
+is faithful to me." Mr. Towns told me that as he took the envelope in
+his hand, he saw the lady's face photographed upon it, and at the same
+moment, all the blackness of the husband's own life. He rose up like an
+avenging deity and pointed to the door. "This letter," he said, "was
+written by Mrs. ----. Go! man, and wash your own hands clean, and _then_
+come and ask me questions about your wife." And so the "heavy swell" had
+to slink downstairs again. I have often gone myself to Mr. Towns before
+engaging in any new business, and always received the best advice, and
+been told exactly what would occur during its progress. When I was about
+to start on the "Golden Goblin" tour in management with my son--I went
+to him to ask if it would be successful. He not only told me what money
+it would bring in, but where the weak points would occur. The drama was
+then completed, and in course of rehearsal, and had been highly
+commended by all who had heard and seen it. Mr. Towns, however, who had
+neither seen nor heard it, insisted it would have to be altered before
+it was a complete success. This annoyed me, and I knew it would annoy my
+son, the author; besides, I believed it was a mistake, so I said nothing
+about it. Before it had run a month, however, the alterations were
+admitted on all sides to be necessary, and were consequently made.
+Everything that Mr. Towns prognosticated on that occasion came to pass,
+even to the strangers I should encounter on tour, and how their
+acquaintance would affect my future life; also how long the tour would
+last, and in which towns it would achieve the greatest success. I can
+assure some of my professional friends, that if they would take the
+trouble to consult a trustworthy clairvoyant about their engagements
+before booking them, they would not find themselves so often in the
+hands of the bogus manager as they do now. A short time ago I received a
+summons to the county court, and although I _knew_ I was in the right,
+yet law has so many loopholes that I felt nervous. The case was called
+for eleven o'clock on a certain Wednesday, and the evening before I
+joined Mr. Towns' circle. When it came to my turn to question him, I
+said, "Do you see where I shall be to-morrow morning?" He replied, "I
+can see you are called to appear in a court-house, but the case will be
+put off." "_Put off_," I repeated, "but it is fixed for eleven. It can't
+be put off." "Cases are sometimes relegated to another court," said Mr.
+Towns. Then I thought he had quite got out of his depth, and replied,
+"You are making a mistake. This is quite an ordinary business. It can't
+go to a higher court. But shall I gain it?" "In the afternoon," said the
+medium. His answers so disappointed me that I placed no confidence in
+them, and went to the county court on the following morning in a nervous
+condition. But he was perfectly correct. The case was called for eleven,
+but as the defendant was not forthcoming, it was passed over, and the
+succeeding hearings occupied so much time, that the magistrate thought
+mine would never come off, so he _relegated it at two o'clock to
+another court_ to be heard before the registrar, who decided it at once
+in my favor, so that I _gained it in the afternoon_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One afternoon in my "green sallet" days of Spiritualism, when every
+fresh experience almost made my breath stop, I turned into the
+Progressive Library in Southampton Row, to ask if there were any new
+media come to town. Mr. Burns did not know of any, but asked me if I had
+ever attended one of Mrs. Olive's _séances_, a series of which were
+being held weekly in the Library Rooms. I had not, and I bought a
+half-crown ticket for admission, and returned there the same evening.
+When I entered the _séance_ room, the medium had not arrived, and I had
+time to take stock of the audience. It seemed a very sad and serious
+one. There was no whispering nor giggling going on, and it struck me
+they looked more like patients waiting the advent of the doctor, than
+people bound on an evening's amusement. And that, to my surprise, was
+what I afterwards found they actually were. Mrs. Olive did not keep us
+long waiting, and when she came in, dressed in a lilac muslin dress,
+with her golden hair parted plainly on her forehead, her _very_ blue
+eyes, and a sweet, womanly smile for her circle, she looked as unlike
+the popular idea of a professional medium as anyone could possibly do.
+She sat down on a chair in the middle of the circle, and, having closed
+her eyes, went off to sleep. Presently she sat up, and, still with her
+eyes closed, said in a very pleasant, but decidedly _manly_, voice: "And
+now, my friends, what can I do for you?"
+
+A lady in the circle began to ask advice about her daughter. The medium
+held up her hand. "Stop!" she exclaimed, "you are doing _my_ work.
+Friend, your daughter is ill, you say. Then it is _my_ business to see
+what is the matter with her. Will you come here, young lady, and let me
+feel your pulse." Having done which, the medium proceeded to detail
+exactly the contents of the girl's stomach, and to advise her what to
+eat and drink for the future. Another lady then advanced with a written
+prescription. The medium examined her, made an alteration or two in the
+prescription, and told her to go on with it till further orders. My
+curiosity was aroused, and I whispered to my next neighbor to tell me
+who the control was. "Sir John Forbes, a celebrated physician," she
+replied. "He has almost as large a connection now as he had when alive."
+I was not exactly ill at the time, but I was not strong, and nothing
+that my family doctor prescribed for me seemed to do me any good. So
+wishing to test the abilities of "Sir John Forbes," I went up to the
+medium and knelt down by her side. "What is the matter with me, Sir
+John?" I began. "Don't call me by that name, little friend," he
+answered; "we have no titles on this side the world." "What shall I call
+you, then?" I said. "Doctor, plain Doctor," was the reply, but in such a
+kind voice. "Then tell me what is the matter with me, Doctor." "Come
+nearer, and I'll whisper it in your ear." He then gave me a detailed
+account of the manner in which I suffered, and asked what I had been
+taking. When I told him, "All wrong, all wrong," he said, shaking his
+head. "Here! give me a pencil and paper." I had a notebook in my pocket,
+with a metallic pencil, which I handed over to him, and he wrote a
+prescription in it. "Take that, and you'll be all the better, little
+friend," he said, as he gave it to me back again. When I had time to
+examine what he had written, I found to my surprise that the
+prescription was in abbreviated Latin, with the amount of each
+ingredient given in the regular medical shorthand. Mrs. Olive, a simple
+though intelligent looking woman, seemed a very unlikely person to me to
+be educated up to this degree. However, I determined to obtain a better
+opinion than my own, so the next time my family doctor called to see me,
+I said: "I have had a prescription given me, Doctor, which I am anxious,
+with your permission, to try. I wish you would glance your eye over it
+and see if you approve of my taking it." At the same time I handed him
+the note-book, and I saw him grow very red as he looked at the
+prescription. "Anything wrong?" I inquired. "O! dear no!" he replied in
+an offended tone; "you can try your remedy, and welcome, for aught I
+care--only, next time you wish to consult a new doctor, I advise you to
+dismiss the old one first." "But this prescription was not written by a
+doctor," I argued. At this he looked still more offended. "It's no use
+trying to deceive me, Mrs. Ross-Church! That prescription was written by
+no one but a medical man." It was a long time before I could make him
+really believe _who_ had transcribed it, and under what circumstances.
+When he was convinced of the truth of my statement, he was very much
+astonished, and laid all his professional pique aside. He did more. He
+not only urged me to have the prescription made up, but he confessed
+that his first chagrin was due to the fact that he felt he should have
+thought of it himself. "_That_," he said, pointing to one ingredient,
+"is the very thing to suit your case, and it makes me feel such a fool
+to think that a _woman_ should think of what _I_ passed over."
+
+Nothing would make this doctor believe in Spiritualism, though he
+continued to aver that only a medical man could have prescribed the
+medicine; but as I saw dozens of other cases treated at the time by Mrs.
+Olive, and have seen dozens since, I know that she does it by a power
+not her own. For several years after that "Sir John Forbes" used to give
+me advice about my health, and when his medium married Colonel Greck and
+went to live in Russia, he was so sorry to leave his numerous patients,
+and they to lose him, that he wanted to control _me_ in order that I
+might carry on his practice, but after several attempts he gave it up as
+hopeless. He said my brain was too active for any spirit to magnetize;
+and he is not the first, nor last, who has made the same attempt, and
+failed. "Sir John Forbes" was not Mrs. Olive's only control. She had a
+charming spirit called "Sunshine," who used to come for clairvoyance and
+prophecy; and a very comical negro named "Hambo," who was as humorous
+and full of native wit and repartee, as negroes generally are, and as
+Mrs. Olive, who is a very gentle, quiet woman, decidedly was _not_.
+"Hambo" was the business adviser and director, and sometimes
+materialized, which the others did not. These three influences were just
+as opposite from one another, and from Mrs. Olive, as any creatures
+could possibly be. "Sir John Forbes," so dignified, courteous, and truly
+benevolent--such a thorough old _gentleman_; "Sunshine," a sweet,
+sympathetic Indian girl, full of gentle reproof for wrong and
+exhortations to lead a higher life; and "Hambo," humorous and witty,
+calling a spade a spade, and occasionally descending to coarseness, but
+never unkind or wicked. I knew them all over a space of years until I
+regarded them as old friends. Mrs. Greck is now a widow, and residing in
+England, and, I hear, sitting again for her friends. If so, a great
+benefit in the person of "Sir John Forbes" has returned for a portion of
+mankind.
+
+I have kept a well-known physical medium to the last, not because I do
+not consider his powers to be completely genuine, but because they are
+of a nature that will not appeal to such as have not witnessed them. I
+allude to Mr. Charles Williams, with whom I have sat many times alone,
+and also with Mrs. Guppy Volckman. The manifestations that take place at
+his _séances_ are always material. The much written of "John King" is
+his principal control, and invariably appears under his mediumship; and
+"Ernest" is the name of another. I have seen Charles Williams leave the
+cabinet under trance and wander in an aimless manner about the room,
+whilst both "John King" and "Ernest" were with the circle, and have
+heard them reprove him for rashness. I have also seen him under the same
+circumstances, during an afternoon _séance_, mistake the window curtains
+for the curtains of the cabinet, and draw them suddenly aside, letting
+the full light of day in upon the scene, and showing vacancy where a
+moment before two figures had been standing and talking.
+
+Once when "John King" asked Colonel Lean what he should bring him, he
+was told _mentally_ to fetch the half-hoop diamond ring from my finger
+and place it on that of my husband.
+
+This half-hoop ring was worn between my wedding ring and a heavy gold
+snake ring, and I was holding the hand of my neighbor all the time, and
+yet the ring was abstracted from between the other two and transferred
+to Colonel Lean's finger without my being aware of the circumstance.
+These and various other marvels, I have seen under Mr. Williams'
+mediumship; but as I can adduce no proof that they were genuine, except
+my own conviction, it would be useless to write them down here. Only I
+could not close the list of the media with whom I have familiarly sat in
+London, and from whom I have received both kindness and courtesy,
+without including his name. It is the same with several others--with Mr.
+Frank Herne (now deceased) and his wife Mrs. Herne, whom I first knew as
+Mrs. Bassett, a famous medium for the direct spirit voice; with Mrs.
+Wilkinson, a clairvoyant who has a large _clientèle_ of wealthy and
+aristocratic patrons; with Mrs. Wilkins and Mr. Vango, both reliable,
+though, as yet, less well known to the spiritualistic public; and with
+Dr. Wilson, the astrologer, who will tell you all you have ever done,
+and all you are ever going to do, if you will only give him the
+opportunity of casting your horoscope. To all and each I tender my
+thanks for having afforded me increased opportunities of searching into
+the truth of a science that possesses the utmost interest for me, and
+that has given me the greatest pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ON LAYING THE CARDS.
+
+
+At the risk of being laughed at, I cannot refrain, in the course of this
+narrative of my spiritualistic experiences, from saying a few words
+about what is called "laying the cards." "Imagine!" I fancy I hear some
+dear creature with nose "tip-tilted like a flower" exclaim, "any
+sensible woman believing in cards." And yet Napoleon believed in them,
+and regulated the fate of nations by them; and the only times he
+neglected their admonitions were followed by the retreat from Moscow and
+the defeat at Waterloo. Still I did not believe in card-telling till the
+belief was forced upon me. I always thought it rather cruel to give
+imprisonment and hard labor to old women who laid the cards for servant
+girls. Who can tell whether or no it is obtaining money upon false
+pretences; and if it is, why not inflict the same penalty on every
+cheating tradesman who sells inferior articles or gives short weight?
+Women would be told they should look after their own interests in the
+one case--so why not in the other? But all the difference lies in _who_
+lays the cards. Very few people can do it successfully, and my belief is
+that it must be done by a person with mediumistic power, which, in some
+mysterious manner, influences the disposition of the pack. I have seen
+cards shuffled and cut twenty times in the hope of getting rid of some
+number antagonistic to the inquirer's good fortune, and yet each time
+the same card would turn up in the juxtaposition least to be desired.
+However, to narrate my own experience. When I was living in Brussels,
+years before I heard of modern Spiritualism, I made the acquaintance of
+an Irish lady called Mrs. Thorpe, a widow who was engaged as a
+_châperon_ for some young Belgian ladies of high birth, who had lost
+their mother. We lived near each other, and she often came in to have a
+chat with me. After a while I heard through some other friends that Mrs.
+Thorpe was a famous hand at "laying the cards;" and one day, when we
+were alone, I asked her to tell me my fortune. I didn't in the least
+believe in it, but I wanted to be amused. Mrs. Thorpe begged to be
+excused at once. She told me her predictions had proved so true, she was
+afraid to look into futurity any more. She had seen a son and heir for a
+couple who had been married twenty years without having any children,
+and death for a girl just about to become a bride--and both had come
+true; and, in fact, her employer, the Baron, had strictly forbidden her
+doing it any more whilst in his house. However, this only fired my
+curiosity, and I teased her until, on my promising to preserve the
+strictest secrecy, she complied with my request. She predicted several
+things in which I had little faith, but which I religiously wrote down
+in case they came true--the three most important being that my husband,
+Colonel Ross-Church (who was then most seriously ill in India), would
+not die, but that his brother, Edward Church, would; that I should have
+one more child by my first marriage--a daughter with exceedingly fair
+skin and hair, who would prove to be the cleverest of all my children,
+and that after her birth I should never live with my husband again. All
+these events were most unlikely to come to pass at that time, and,
+indeed, did not come to pass for years afterwards, yet each one was
+fulfilled, and the daughter who, unlike all her brothers and sisters, is
+fair as a lily, will be by no means the last in the race for talent. Yet
+these cards were laid four years before her birth. Mrs. Thorpe told me
+she had learnt the art from a pupil of the identical Italian countess
+who used to lay the cards for the Emperor Napoleon. But it is not an
+art, and it is not to be learnt. It is inspiration.
+
+Many years after this, when I had just begun to study Spiritualism, my
+sister told me of a wonderful old lady, a neighbor of hers, who had
+gained quite an evil reputation in the village by her prophetical powers
+with the cards. Like Mrs. Thorpe, she had become afraid of herself, and
+professed to have given up the practice. The last time she had laid
+them, a girl acquaintance had walked over joyously from an adjacent
+village to introduce her affianced husband to her, and to beg her to
+tell them what would happen in their married life. The old lady had laid
+the cards, and saw the death card turn up three times with the marriage
+ring, and told the young people, much to their chagrin, that they must
+prepare for a disappointment, as their marriage would certainly be
+postponed from some obstacle arising in the way. She told me afterwards
+that she dared not tell them more than this. They left her somewhat
+sobered, but still full of hope, and started on their way home. Before
+they reached it the young man staggered and fell down dead. No one had
+expected such a catastrophe. He had been apparently in the best of
+health and spirits. _What_ was it that had made this old lady foresee
+what no one else had seen?
+
+These are no trumped-up tales after the prediction had been fulfilled.
+Everyone knew it to be true, and became frightened to look into the
+future for themselves. I was an exception to the general rule, however,
+and persuaded Mrs. Simmonds to lay the cards for me. I had just
+completed a two months' sojourn at the seaside, was in robust health,
+and anticipating my return home for the sake of meeting again with a
+friend who was very dear to me. I shuffled and cut the cards according
+to directions. The old lady looked rather grave. "I don't like your
+cards," she said, "there is a good deal of trouble before you--trouble
+and sickness. You will not return home so soon as you anticipate. You
+will be detained by illness, and when you do return, you will find a
+letter on the table that will cut you to the heart. I am sorry you have
+stayed away so long. There has been treachery in your absence, and a
+woman just your opposite, with dark eyes and hair, has got the better of
+you. However, it will be a sharp trouble, but not a lengthy one. You
+will see the wisdom of it before long, and be thankful it has happened."
+I accepted my destiny with complacency, never supposing (notwithstanding
+all that I had heard) that it would come true. I was within a few days
+of starting for home, and had received affectionate letters from my
+friend all the time I had been away. However, as Fate and the cards
+would have it, I was taken ill the very day after they were laid for me,
+and confined for three weeks with a kind of low fever to my bed; and
+when weakened and depressed I returned to my home I found _the letter on
+my table_ that Mrs. Simmonds had predicted for me, to say that my
+friendship with my (supposed) friend _was over and done with for ever_.
+After this I began to have more respect for cards, or rather for the
+persons who successfully laid them. In 1888, when I was touring with my
+company with the "Golden Goblin," I stayed for the first time in my life
+in Accrington. Our sojourn there was to be only for a week, and, as may
+be supposed, the accommodation in the way of lodgings was very poor.
+When we had been there a few days a lady of the company said to me,
+"There is such a funny old woman at my lodgings, Miss Marryat! I wish
+you'd come and see her. She can tell fortunes with the cards, and I know
+you believe in such things. She has told my husband and me all about
+ourselves in the most wonderful manner; but you mustn't come when the
+old man is at home, because he says it's devilry, and he has forbidden
+her doing it." "I _am_ very much interested in that sort of thing," I
+replied, "and I will certainly pay her a visit, if you will tell me when
+I may come." A time was accordingly fixed for my going to the lady's
+rooms, and on my arrival there I was introduced to a greasy, snuffy old
+landlady, who didn't look as if she had a soul above a bottle of gin.
+However, I sat down at a table with her, and the cards were cut. She
+told me nothing that my friends might have told her concerning me, but
+dived at once into the future. My domestic affairs were in a very
+complicated state at that period, and I had no idea myself how they
+would end. She saw the whole situation at a glance--described the actors
+in the scene, the places they lived in, the people by whom they were
+surrounded, and exactly how the whole business would end, and _did_ end.
+She foretold the running of the tour, how long it would last, and which
+of the company would leave before it concluded. She told me that a woman
+in the company, whom I believed at that time to be attached to me, would
+prove to be one of my greatest enemies, and be the cause of estrangement
+between me and one of my nearest relations, and she opened my eyes to
+that woman's character in a way which forced me afterwards to find out
+that to which I might have been blind forever. And this information
+emanated from a dirty, ignorant, old lodging keeper, who had probably
+never heard of my name until it was thrust before her, and yet told me
+things that my most intimate and cleverest friends had no power to tell
+me. After the woman at Accrington I never looked at a card for the
+purpose of divination until my attention was directed last year to a
+woman in London who is very clever at the same thing, and a friend
+asked me to go with her and see what she could tell us. This woman, who
+is quite of the lower class, and professedly a dressmaker, received us
+in a bedroom, the door of which was carefully locked. She was an elderly
+woman and rather intelligent and well educated for her position, but she
+could adduce no reason whatever for her facility in reading the cards.
+She told me "it _came_ to her," she didn't know why or how.
+
+It "came to her" with a vengeance for me. She rattled off my past,
+present and future as if she had been reading from an open book, and she
+mentioned the description of a person (which I completely recognized) so
+constantly with reference to my future, that I thought I would try her
+by a question. "Stop a minute," I said, "this person whom you have
+alluded to so often--have I ever met him?" "Of course you have met him,"
+she replied, "you know him intimately." "I don't recognize the
+description," I returned, fallaciously. The woman turned round and
+looked me full in the face. "_You don't recognize him?_" she repeated in
+an incredulous tone, "then you must be very dull. Well! I'll tell you
+how to recognize him. Next time you meet a gentleman out walking who
+raises his hat, and before he shakes hands with you, draws a written or
+printed paper from his pocket and presents it to you, you can remember
+my words. _That_ is the man I mean."
+
+I laughed at the quaintness of the idea and returned home. As I was
+walking from the station to my own house I met the person she had
+described. As he neared me he raised his hat, and then putting his hand
+in his pocket he said, "Good afternoon! I have something for you! I met
+Burrows this morning. He was going on to you, but as he was in a great
+hurry he asked me if I was likely to see you to-day to give you this."
+And he presented me with a printed paper of regulations which I had
+asked the man he mentioned to procure for me.
+
+Now, here was no stereotyped utterance of the cards--no stock
+phrase--but a deliberate prophecy of an unfulfilled event. It is upon
+such things that I base my opinion that, given certain persons and
+certain circumstances, the cards are a very fertile source of
+information. It is absurd in cases like those I have related to lay it
+all down to chance, to clever guessing, or to trickery. If my readers
+believe so, let me ask them to try it for themselves. If it is all
+folly, and any stupid, ignorant old woman can do it, of course _they_
+must be able to master the trick. Let them get a pack of cards and lay
+them according to the usual directions--there are any number of books
+published that will tell them how to do it--and then see if they can
+foretell a single event of importance correctly. They will probably find
+(as _I_ do) that the cards are a sealed book to them. I would give a
+great deal to be able to lay the cards with any degree of success for
+myself or my friends. But nothing "comes to me." The cards remain
+painted pieces of cardboard, and nothing more. And yet an ignorant
+creature who has no brains of her own can dive deep into the mysteries
+of my mind, and turn my inmost thoughts and wishes inside out,--more,
+can pierce futurity and tell me what _shall_ be. However, if my hearers
+continue to doubt my story, I can only repeat my admonition to try it
+for themselves. If they once succeed, they will not give it up again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA.
+
+I. _Mrs. M. A. Williams._
+
+
+I went to America on a professional engagement in October, 1884. Some
+months beforehand a very liberal offer had been made me by the
+Spiritualists of Great Britain to write my experiences for the English
+press, but I declined to do so until I could add my American notes to
+them. I had corresponded (as I have shown) with the _Banner of Light_ in
+New York; and what I had heard of Spiritualism in America had made me
+curious to witness it. But I was determined to test it on a strictly
+private plan. I said to myself: "I have seen and heard pretty nearly all
+there is to be seen and heard on the subject in England, but, with one
+or two exceptions, I have never sat at any _séance_ where I was not
+known. Now I am going to visit a strange country where, in a matter like
+Spiritualism, I can conceal my identity, so as to afford the media no
+clue to my surroundings or the names of my deceased friends." I sailed
+for America quite determined to pursue a strictly secret investigation,
+and with that end in view I never mentioned the subject to anyone.
+
+I had a few days holiday in New York before proceeding to Boston, where
+my work opened, and I stayed at one of the largest hotels in the city. I
+landed on Sunday morning, and on Monday evening I resolved to make my
+first venture. Had I been a visitor in London, I should have had to
+search out the right sort of people, and make a dozen inquiries before I
+heard where the media were hiding themselves from dread of the law; but
+they order such things better on the other side of the Atlantic. People
+are allowed to hold their private opinions and their private religion
+there without being swooped down upon and clapped into prison for rogues
+and vagabonds. Whatever the views of the majority may be, upon this
+subject or any other (and Heaven knows I would have each man strong
+enough to cling to his opinion, and brave enough to acknowledge it
+before the world), I think it is a discredit to a civilized country to
+allow old laws, that were made when we were little better than savages,
+to remain in force at the present day. We are far too much over-ridden
+by a paternal Government, which has grown so blind and senile that it
+swallows camels while it is straining after a gnat.
+
+There was no obstacle to my wish, however, in New York. I had but to
+glance down the advertisement columns of the newspapers to learn where
+the media lived, and on what days they held their public _séances_. It
+so happened that Mrs. M. A. Williams was the only one who held open
+house on Monday evenings for Materialization; and thither I determined
+to go. There is no such privacy as in a large _hôtel_, where no one has
+the opportunity to see what his neighbor is doing. As soon, therefore,
+as my dinner was concluded, I put on a dark cloak, hat and veil, and
+walking out into the open, got into one of the cars that ran past the
+street where Mrs. Williams resided. Arrived at the house, I knocked at
+the door, and was about to inquire if there was to be any _séance_
+there, that evening, when the attendant saved me the trouble by saying,
+"Upstairs, if you please, madam," and nothing more passed between us.
+When I had mounted the stairs, I found myself in a large room, the floor
+of which was covered with a thick carpet, nailed all round the
+wainscotting. On one side were some thirty or forty cane-bottomed
+chairs, and directly facing them was the cabinet. This consisted of four
+uprights nailed over the carpet, with iron rods connecting them at the
+top. There was no roof to it, but curtains of a dark maroon color were
+usually drawn around, but when I entered, they were flung back over the
+iron rods, so as to disclose the interior. There was a stuffed armchair
+for the use of the medium, and in front of the cabinet a narrow table
+with papers and pencils on it, the use of which I did not at first
+discover. At the third side of the room was a harmonium, so placed that
+the performer sat with his back both to the cabinet and the sitters. A
+large gas lamp, almost like a limelight, made in a square form like a
+lantern, was fixed against the wall, so as to throw the light upon the
+cabinet, but it was fitted with a sliding shade of red silk, with which
+it could be darkened if necessary. I was early, and only a few visitors
+were occupying the chairs. I asked a lady if I might sit where I chose,
+and on her answering "Yes," I took the chair in the front row, exactly
+opposite the cabinet, not forgetting that I was there in the cause of
+Spiritualism as well as for my own interests. The seats filled rapidly
+and there must have been thirty-five or forty people present, when Mrs.
+Williams entered the room, and nodding to those she knew, went into the
+cabinet. Mrs. Williams is a stout woman of middle age, with dark hair
+and eyes, and a fresh complexion. She was dressed in a tight-fitting
+gown of pale blue, with a good deal of lace about the neck and sleeves.
+She was accompanied by a gentleman, and I then discovered for the first
+time that it is usual in America to have, what they call, a "conductor"
+of the _séance_. The conductor sits close to the cabinet curtains, and,
+if any spirit is too weak to shew itself outside, or to speak audibly,
+he conveys the message it may wish to send to its friends; and when I
+knew how very few precautions the Americans take to prevent such
+outrages as have occurred in England, and how many more materializations
+take place in an evening there than here, I saw the necessity of a
+conductor to protect the medium, and to regulate the order of the
+_séance_.
+
+Mrs. Williams' conductor opened the proceedings with a very neat little
+speech. He said, "I see several strange faces here this evening, and I
+am very pleased to see them, and I hope they may derive both pleasure
+and profit from our meeting. We have only one rule for the conduct of
+our _séances_, that you shall behave like ladies and gentlemen. You may
+not credit all you see, but remember this is our religion, and the
+religion of many present, and as you would behave yourselves reverently
+and decorously, if you were in a church of another persuasion to your
+own, so I beg of you to behave yourselves here. And if any spirits
+should come for you whom you do not immediately recognize, don't wound
+them by denying their identity. They may have been longing for this
+moment to meet you again, and doing their very utmost to assume once
+more the likeness they wore on earth; yet some fail. Don't make their
+failure harder to bear by roughly repudiating all knowledge of them. The
+strangers who are present to-night may mistake the reason of this little
+table being placed in front of the cabinet, and think it is intended to
+keep them from too close an inspection of the spirits. No such thing! On
+the contrary, all will be invited in turn to come up and recognize their
+friends. But we make it a rule at these _séances_ that no materialized
+spirit, who is strong enough to come beyond that table, shall be
+permitted to return to the cabinet. They must dematerialize in sight of
+the sitters, that no possible suspicion may rest upon the medium. These
+pencils and papers are placed here in case any spirit who is unable to
+speak may be impressed to write instead. And now we will begin the
+evening with a song."
+
+The accompanist then played "Footsteps of Angels," the audience sung it
+with a will, and the curtains having been drawn round Mrs. Williams, the
+shade was drawn across the gaslight, and the _séance_ began.
+
+I don't think it could have been more than a minute or two before we
+heard a voice whispering, "Father," and _three girls_, dressed in white
+clinging garments, appeared at the opening in the curtains. An old man
+with white hair left his seat and walked up to the cabinet, when they
+all three came out at once and hung about his neck and kissed him, and
+whispered to him. I almost forgot where I was. They looked so perfectly
+human, so joyous and girl-like, somewhere between seventeen and twenty,
+and they all spoke at once, so like what girls on earth would do, that
+it was most mystifying. The old man came back to his seat, wiping his
+eyes. "Are those your daughters, sir?" asked one of the sitters. "Yes!
+my three girls," he replied. "I lost them all before ten years old, but
+you see I've got them back again here."
+
+Several other forms appeared after this--one, a little child of about
+three years old, who fluttered in and out of the cabinet like a
+butterfly, and ran laughing away from the sitters who tried to catch
+her. Some of the meetings that took place for the first time were very
+affecting. One young man of about seventeen or eighteen, who was called
+up to see his mother's spirit, sobbed so bitterly, it broke my heart to
+hear him. There was not the least doubt if _he_ recognized her or no. He
+was so overcome, he hardly raised his eyes for the rest of the evening.
+One lady brought her spirit-son up to me, that I might see how perfectly
+he had materialized. She spoke of it as proudly as she might have done
+if he had passed some difficult examination. The young man was dressed
+in a suit of evening clothes, and he shook hands with me at his mother's
+bidding, with the firm grasp of a mortal. Naturally, I had seen too much
+in England for all this to surprise me. Still I had never assisted at a
+_séance_ where everything appeared to be so strangely human--so little
+mystical, except indeed the rule of dematerializing before the sitters,
+which I had only seen "Katie King" do before. But here, each form, after
+having been warned by the conductor that its time was up, sunk down
+right through the carpet as though it were the most ordinary mode of
+egression. Some, and more especially the men, did not advance beyond the
+curtains; then their friends were invited to go up and speak to them,
+and several went inside the cabinet. There were necessarily a good many
+forms, familiar to the rest, of whom I knew nothing; one was an old
+minister under whom they had all sat, another a gentleman who had been a
+constant attendant at Mrs. Williams' _séances_.
+
+Once the conductor spoke to me. "I am not aware of your name," he said
+(and I thought, "No! my friend, and you won't be aware of it just yet
+either!"), "but a spirit here wishes you would come up to the cabinet."
+I advanced, expecting to see some friend, and there stood a Catholic
+priest with his hand extended in blessing. I knelt down, and he gave me
+the usual benediction and then closed the curtains. "Did you know the
+spirit?" the conductor asked me. I shook my head; and he continued, "He
+was Father Hayes, a well-known priest in this city. I suppose you are a
+Catholic?" I told him "Yes," and went back to my seat. The conductor
+addressed me again. "I think Father Hayes must have come to pave the way
+for some of your friends," he said. "Here is a spirit who says she has
+come for a lady named 'Florence,' who has just crossed the sea. Do you
+answer to the description?" I was about to say "Yes," when the curtains
+parted again and my daughter "Florence" ran across the room and fell
+into my arms. "Mother!" she exclaimed, "I said I would come with you and
+look after you--didn't I?"
+
+I looked at her. She was exactly the same in appearance as when she had
+come to me in England--the same luxuriant brown hair and features and
+figure, as I had seen under the different mediumships of Florence Cook,
+Arthur Colman, Charles Williams and William Eglinton; the same form
+which in England had been declared to be half-a-dozen different media
+dressed up to represent my daughter stood before me there in New York,
+thousands of miles across the sea, and by the power of a person who did
+not even know who I was. If I had not been convinced before, how could I
+have helped being convinced then?
+
+"Florence" appeared as delighted as I was, and kept on kissing me and
+talking of what had happened to me on board ship coming over, and was
+evidently quite _au fait_ of all my proceedings. Presently she said,
+"There's another friend of yours here, mother! We came over together.
+I'll go and fetch him." She was going back to the cabinet when the
+conductor stopped her. "You must not return this way, please. Any other
+you like," and she immediately made a kind of court curtsey and went
+down through the carpet. I was standing where "Florence" had left me,
+wondering what would happen next, when she came _up again_ a few feet
+off from me, head first, and smiling as if she had discovered a new
+game. She was allowed to enter the cabinet this time, but a moment
+afterwards she popped her head out again, and said, "Here's your friend,
+mother!" and by her side was standing William Eglinton's control,
+"Joey," clad in his white suit, with a white cap drawn over his head.
+"'Florence' and I have come over to make new lines for you here," he
+said: "at least, I've come over to put her in the way of doing it, but I
+can't stay long, you know, because I have to go back to 'Willy.'"
+
+I really didn't care if he stayed long or not. I seemed to have procured
+the last proof I needed of the truth of the doctrine I had held so long,
+that there is no such thing as Death, as we understand it in this world.
+Here were the two spiritual beings (for believing in the identity of
+whom I had called myself a credulous fool fifty times over, only to
+believe in them more deeply still) in _prôpria personæ_ in New York,
+claiming me in a land of strangers, who had not yet found out who I was.
+I was more deeply affected than I had ever been under such circumstances
+before, and more deeply thankful. "Florence" made great friends with our
+American cousins even on her first appearance. Mrs. Williams' conductor
+told me he thought he had never heard anything more beautiful than the
+idea of the spirit-child crossing the ocean to guard its mother in a
+strange country, and particularly, as he could feel by her influence,
+what a pure and beautiful spirit she was. When I told him she had left
+this world at ten days old, he said that accounted for it, but he could
+see there was nothing earthly about her.
+
+I was delighted with this _séance_, and hoped to sit with Mrs. Williams
+many times more, but fate decreed that I should leave New York sooner
+than I had anticipated. The perfect freedom with which it was conducted
+charmed me, and the spirits seemed so familiar with the sitters. There
+was no "Sweet Spirit, hear my prayer," business about it. No fear of
+being detained or handled among the spirits, and no awe, only intense
+tenderness on the part of their relations. It was to this cause I
+chiefly attributed the large number of materializations I
+witnessed--_forty_ having taken place that evening. They spoke far more
+distinctly and audibly too than those I had seen in England, but I
+believe the dry atmosphere of the United States is far more favorable to
+the process of materialization. I perceived another difference. Although
+the female spirits were mostly clad in white, they wore dresses and not
+simply drapery, whilst the men were invariably attired in the clothes
+(or semblances of the clothes) they would have worn had they been still
+on earth. I left Mrs. Williams' rooms, determined to see as much as I
+possibly could of mediumship whilst I was in the United States.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+II. _Mrs. Eva Hatch._
+
+
+I was so disappointed at being hurried off to Boston before I had seen
+any more of the New York media, that I took the earliest opportunity of
+attending a _séance_ there. A few words I had heard dropped about Eva
+Hatch made me resolve to visit her first. She was one of the Shaker
+sect, and I heard her spoken of as a remarkably pure and honest woman,
+and most reliable medium. Her first appearance quite gave me that
+impression. She had a fair, placid countenance, full of sweetness and
+serenity, and a plump matronly figure. I went incognita, as I had done
+to Mrs. Williams, and mingled unnoticed with the crowd. Mrs. Hatch's
+cabinet was quite different from Mrs. Williams'. It was built of planks
+like a little cottage, and the roof was pierced with numerous round
+holes for ventilation, like a pepper-box. There was a door in the
+centre, with a window on either side, all three of which were shaded by
+dark curtains. The windows, I was told, were for the accommodation of
+those spirits who had not the power to materialize more than a face, or
+head and bust. Mrs. Hatch's conductor was a woman, who sat near the
+cabinet, as in the other case.
+
+Mrs. Eva Hatch had not entered the cabinet five minutes before she came
+out again, under trance, with a very old lady with silver hair clinging
+to her arm, and walked round the circle. As they did so, the old lady
+extended her withered hand, and blessed the sitters. She came quite
+close to each one and was distinctly visible to all. I was told that
+this was the spirit of Mrs. Hatch's mother, and that it was her regular
+custom to come first and give her blessing to the _séance_. I had never
+seen the spirit of an aged person before, and it was a beautiful sight.
+She was the sweetest old lady too, very small and fragile looking, and
+half reclining on her daughter's bosom, but smiling serenely upon every
+one there. When they had made the tour of the room, Mrs. Hatch
+re-entered the cabinet, and did not leave it again until the sitting was
+concluded.
+
+There were a great many sitters present, most of whom were old patrons
+of Mrs. Hatch, and so, naturally, their friends came for them first. It
+is surprising though, when once familiarized with materialization, how
+little one grows to care to see the spirits who come for one's next door
+neighbor. They are like a lot of prisoners let out, one by one, to see
+their friends and relations. The few moments they have to spare are
+entirely devoted to home matters of no possible interest to the
+bystander. The first wonder and possible shock at seeing the supposed
+dead return in their old likeness to greet those they left on earth
+over, one listens with languid indifference, and perhaps a little
+impatience for one's own turn to come, to the whispered utterances of
+strangers. Mrs. Hatch's "cabinet spirits" or "controls," however, were
+very interesting. One, who called herself the "Spirit of Prayer," came
+and knelt down in the middle of the circle, and prayed with us. She had
+asked for the gas to be extinguished first, and as she prayed she became
+illuminated with flashes of light, in the shape of stars and crosses,
+until she was visible from head to foot, and we could see her features
+and dress as if she had been surrounded by electricity.
+
+Two more cabinet spirits were a negro and negress, who appeared
+together, chanting some of their native hymns and melodies. When I saw
+these apparitions, I thought to myself: "Here is a good opportunity to
+discover trickery, if trickery there is." The pair were undoubtedly of
+the negro race. There was no mistaking their thick lips and noses and
+yellow-white eyes, nor their polished brown skins, which no charcoal can
+properly imitate. They were negroes without doubt; but how about the
+negro bouquet? Everyone who has mixed with colored people in the East or
+the West knows what that is, though it is very difficult to describe,
+being something like warm rancid oil mingled with the fumes of charcoal,
+with a little worse thrown in. "Now," I thought, "if these forms are
+human, there will be some odor attached to them, and that I am
+determined to find out." I caught, therefore, at the dress of the young
+woman as she passed, and asked her if she would kiss me. She left her
+companion directly, and put her arms (which were bare) round my neck,
+and embraced me several times; and I can declare, on my oath, that she
+was as completely free from anything like the smell of a colored woman
+as it was possible for her to be. She felt as fresh and sweet and pure
+as a little child.
+
+Many other forms appeared and were recognized by the circle, notably a
+very handsome one who called herself the Empress Josephine; but as they
+could not add a grain's weight to my testimony I pass them over. I had
+begun to think that "Florence" was not going to visit me that evening,
+when the conductor of the _séance_ asked if there was anybody in the
+room who answered to the name of "Bluebell." I must indulge in a little
+retrospect here, and tell my readers that ten years previous to the time
+I am writing of, I had lost my brother-in-law, Edward Church, under very
+painful circumstances. He had been left an orphan and in control of his
+fortune at a very early age, and had lived with my husband, Colonel
+Ross-Church, and myself. But poor "Ted" had been his own worst enemy. He
+had possessed a most generous heart and affectionate disposition, but
+these had led him into extravagances that swallowed up his fortune, and
+then he had taken to drinking and killed himself by it. I and my
+children had loved him dearly, but all our prayers and entreaties had
+had no avail, and in the end he had become so bad that the doctors had
+insisted upon our separation. Poor "Ted" had consequently died in exile,
+and this had been a further aggravation of our grief. For ten years I
+had been trying to procure communication with him in vain, and I had
+quite given up expecting to see him again. Only once had I heard
+"Bluebell" (his pet name for me) gasped out by an entranced clairvoyant,
+but nothing further had come of it. Now, as I heard it for the second
+time, from a stranger's lips in a foreign country, it naturally roused
+my expectations, but I thought it might be only a message for me from
+"Ted."
+
+"Is there anyone here who recognizes the name of 'Bluebell'?" repeated
+the conductor. "I was once called so by a friend," I said. "Someone is
+asking for that name. You had better come up to the cabinet," she
+replied. I rose at once and did as she told me, but when I reached the
+curtain I encountered "Florence." "My darling child," I said, as I
+embraced her, "why did you ask for 'Bluebell'?" She did not answer me,
+except by shaking her head, placing her finger on her lips, and
+pointing downwards to the carpet. I did not know what to make of it. I
+had never known her unable to articulate before. "What is the matter,
+dear?" I said; "can't you speak to me to-night?" Still she shook her
+head, and tapped my arm with her hand, to attract my attention to the
+fact that she was pointing vigorously downwards. I looked down, too,
+when, to my astonishment, I saw rise through the carpet what looked to
+me like the bald head of a baby or an old man, and a little figure, _not
+more than three feet in height_, with Edward Church's features, but no
+hair on its head, came gradually into view, and looked up in my face
+with a pitiful, deprecating expression, as if he were afraid I should
+strike him. The face, however, was so unmistakably Ted's, though the
+figure was so ludicrously insignificant, that I could not fail to
+recognize him. "Why, Ted!" I exclaimed, "have you come back to see me at
+last?" and held out my hand. The little figure seized it, tried to
+convey it to his lips, burst into tears, and sank down through the
+carpet much more rapidly than he had come up.
+
+I began to cry too. It was so pitiful. With her uncle's disappearance
+"Florence" found her tongue. "Don't cry, mother," she said; "poor Uncle
+Ted is overcome at seeing you. That's why he couldn't materialize
+better. He was in such a terrible hurry. He'll look more like himself
+next time. I was trying so hard to help him, I didn't dare to use up any
+of the power by speaking. He'll be so much better, now he's seen you.
+You'll come here again, won't you?" I told her I certainly would, if I
+could; and, indeed, I was all anxiety to see my poor brother-in-law
+again. To prove how difficult it would have been to deceive me on this
+subject, I should like to say a little about Edward Church's personal
+appearance. He was a very remarkable looking man--indeed, I have never
+seen anyone a bit like him before or after. He was very small; not short
+only, but small altogether, with tiny hands and feet, and a little head.
+His hair and eyes were of the deepest black--the former parted in the
+middle, with a curl on either side, and was naturally waved. His
+complexion was very dark, his features delicate, and he wore a small
+pointed moustache. As a child he had suffered from an attack of
+confluent small-pox, which had deeply pitted his face, and almost eaten
+away the tip of his nose. Such a man was not to be easily imitated, even
+if anyone in Boston had ever heard of his inconsequential existence. To
+me, though, he had been a dear friend and brother, before the curse of
+Drink had seemed to change his nature, and I had always been anxious to
+hear how he fared in that strange country whither he had been forced to
+journey, like all of us, _alone_. I was very pleased then to find that
+business would not interfere with my second visit to Mrs. Eva Hatch,
+which took place two nights afterward. On this occasion "Florence" was
+one of the first to appear, and "Ted" came with her, rather weak and
+trembling on his second introduction to this mundane sphere, but no
+longer bald-headed nor under-sized. He was his full height now, about
+five feet seven; his head was covered with his black crisp hair, parted
+just as he used to wear it while on earth; in every particular he
+resembled what he used to be, even down to his clothes. I could have
+sworn I had seen that very suit of clothes; the little cut-away coat he
+always wore, with the natty tie and collar, and a dark blue velvet
+smoking cap upon his head, exactly like one I remembered being in his
+possession. "Florence" still seemed to be acting as his interpreter and
+guide. When I said to him, "Why! Ted, you look quite like your old self
+to-day," she answered, "He can't talk to you, mamma, he is weak still,
+and he is so thankful to meet you again. He wants me to tell you that he
+has been trying to communicate with you often, but he never could manage
+it in England. He will be so glad when he can talk freely to you."
+Whilst she was speaking, "Ted" kept on looking from her to me like a
+deaf and dumb animal trying to understand what was going on in a manner
+that was truly pitiful. I stooped down and kissed his forehead. The
+touch seemed to break the spell that hung over him. "_Forgive_," he
+uttered in a choked voice. "There is nothing to forgive, dear," I
+replied, "except as we all have need to forgive each other. You know how
+we all loved you, Ted, and we loved you to the last and grieved for you
+deeply. You remember the children, and how fond you were of them and
+they of you. They often speak to this day of their poor Uncle Ted."
+"Eva--Ethel," he gasped out, naming my two elder children. At this
+juncture he seemed suddenly to fail, and became so weak that "Florence"
+took him back into the cabinet again. No more spirits came for me that
+evening, but towards the close of the _séance_ "Florence" and "Ted"
+appeared again together and embraced me fondly. "Florence" said, "He's
+so happy now, mother; he says he shall rest in peace now that he knows
+that you have forgiven him. And he won't come without his hair again,"
+she added, laughing. "I hope he won't," I answered, "for he frightened
+me." And then they both kissed me "good-night," and retreated to the
+cabinet, and I looked after them longingly and wished I could go there
+too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+III. _The Misses Berry._
+
+
+No one introduced me to the Misses Berry. I saw their advertisement in
+the public papers and went incognita to their _séance_, as I had done to
+those of others. The first thing that struck me about them was the
+superior class of patrons whom they drew. In the ladies' cloak room,
+where they left their heavy wraps and umbrellas, the conversation that
+took place made this sufficiently evident. Helen and Gertrude Berry were
+pretty, unaffected, lady-like girls; and their conductor, Mr. Abrow, one
+of the most courteous gentlemen I have ever met. The sisters, both
+highly mediumistic, never sat together, but on alternate nights, but the
+one who did _not_ sit always took a place in the audience, in order to
+prevent suspicion attaching to her absence. Gertrude Berry had been
+lately married to a Mr. Thompson, and on account of her health gave up
+her _séances_, soon after I made her acquaintance She was a tall,
+finely-formed young woman, with golden hair and a beautiful complexion.
+Her sister Helen was smaller, paler and more slightly built. She had
+been engaged to be married to a gentleman who died shortly before the
+time fixed for their wedding, and his spirit, whom she called "Charley,"
+was the principal control at her _séances_, though he never showed
+himself. I found the _séance_ room, which was not very large, crammed
+with chairs which had all been engaged beforehand, so Mr. Abrow fetched
+one from downstairs and placed it next his own for me, which was the
+very position I should have chosen. I asked him afterwards how he dared
+admit a stranger to such close proximity, and he replied that he was a
+medium himself and knew who he could and who he could _not_ trust at a
+glance. As my professional duties took me backwards and forwards to
+Boston, which was my central starting-point, sometimes giving me only a
+day's rest there, I was in the habit afterwards, when I found I should
+have "a night off," of wiring to Mr. Abrow to keep me a seat, so
+difficult was it to secure one unless it were bespoken. Altogether I sat
+five or six times with the Berry sisters, and wished I could have sat
+fifty or sixty times instead, for I never enjoyed any _séances_ so
+_much_ in my life before. The cabinet was formed of an inner room with a
+separate door, which had to undergo the process of being sealed up by a
+committee of strangers every evening. Strips of gummed paper were
+provided for them, on which they wrote their names before affixing them
+across the inside opening of the door. On the first night I inspected
+the cabinet also as a matter of principle, and gummed my paper with
+"Mrs. Richardson" written on it across the door. The cabinet contained
+only a sofa for Miss Helen Berry to recline upon. The floor was covered
+with a nailed-down carpet. The door which led into the cabinet was
+shaded by two dark curtains hung with rings upon a brass rod. The door
+of the _séance_ room was situated at a right angle with that of the
+cabinet, both opening upon a square landing, and, to make "assurance
+doubly sure," the door of the _séance_ room was left open, so that the
+eyes of the sitters at that end commanded a view, during the entire
+sitting, of the outside of the locked and gummed-over cabinet door. To
+make this fully understood, I append a diagram of the two rooms--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+By the position of these doors, it will be seen how impossible it would
+have been for anybody to leave or enter the cabinet without being
+detected by the sitters, who had their faces turned towards the _séance_
+room door. The first materialization that appeared that evening was a
+bride, dressed in her bridal costume; and a gentleman, who was occupying
+a chair in the front row, and holding a white flower in his hand,
+immediately rose, went up to her, embraced her, and whispered a few
+words, then gave her the white flower, which she fastened in the bosom
+of her dress, after which he bowed slightly to the company, and, instead
+of resuming his seat, left the room. Mr. Abrow then said to me, "If you
+like, madam, you can take that seat now," and as the scene had excited
+my curiosity I accepted his offer, hoping to find some one to tell me
+the meaning of it. I found myself next to a very sweet-looking lady,
+whom I afterwards knew personally as Mrs. Seymour. "Can you tell me why
+that gentleman left so suddenly?" I asked her in a whisper. "He seldom
+stays through a _séance_," she replied; "he is a business man, and has
+no time to spare, but he is here every night. The lady you saw him speak
+to is his wife. She died on her wedding day, eleven years ago, and he
+has never failed to meet her on every opportunity since. He brings her a
+white flower every time he comes. She appears always first, in order
+that he may be able to return to his work." This story struck me as very
+interesting, and I always watched for this gentleman afterwards, and
+never failed to see him waiting for his bride, with the white flower in
+his hand. "Do you expect to see any friends to-night?" I said to my new
+acquaintance. "O! yes!" she replied. "I have come to see my daughter
+'Bell.' She died some years ago, and I am bringing up the two little
+children she left behind her. I never do anything for them without
+consulting their mother. Just now I have to change their nurse, and I
+have received several excellent characters of others, and I have brought
+them here this evening that 'Bell' may tell me which to write for. I
+have the pattern for the children's winter frocks, too," she continued,
+producing some squares of woolen cloths, "and I always like to let
+'Bell' choose which she likes best." This will give my readers some idea
+of how much more the American spiritualists regard their departed
+friends as still forming part of the home circle, and interested in
+their domestic affairs. "Bell" soon after made her appearance, and Mrs.
+Seymour brought her up to me. She was a young woman of about three or
+four and twenty, and looked very happy and smiling. She perused the
+servants' characters as practically as her mother might have done, but
+said she would have none of them, and Mrs. Seymour was to wait till she
+received some more. The right one had not come yet. She also looked at
+the patterns, and indicated the one she liked best. Then, as she was
+about to retire, she whispered to her mother, and Mrs. Seymour said, to
+my surprise (for it must be remembered I had not disclosed my name to
+her), "Bell tells me she knows a daughter of yours in the spirit life,
+called 'Florence.' Is that the case?" I answered I had a daughter of
+that name; and Mrs. Seymour added "'Bell' says she will be here this
+evening, that she is a very pure and very elevated spirit, and they are
+great friends." Very shortly after this, Mr. Abrow remarked, "There is a
+young girl in the cabinet now, who says that if her mother's name is
+'Mrs. Richardson,' she must have married for the third time since she
+saw her last, for she was 'Mrs. Lean' then." At this remark I laughed;
+and Mr. Abrow said, "Is she come for you, madam? Does the cap fit?" I
+was obliged to acknowledge then that I _had_ given a false name in order
+to avoid recognition. But the mention of my married name attracted no
+attention to me, and was only a proof that it had not been given from
+any previous knowledge of Mr. Abrow's concerning myself. I was known in
+the United States as "Florence Marryat" only, and to this day they
+believe me to be still "Mrs. Ross-Church," that being the name under
+which my first novels were written. So I recognized "Florence" at once
+in the trick that had been played me, and had risen to approach the
+curtain, when she came _bounding_ out and ran into my arms. I don't
+think I had ever seen her look so charming and girlish before. She
+looked like an embodiment of sunshine. She was dressed in a low frock
+which seemed manufactured of lace and muslin, her hair fell loose down
+her back to her knees, and her hands were full of damask roses. This was
+in December, when hot-house roses were selling for a dollar a piece in
+Boston, and she held, perhaps, twenty. Their scent was delicious, and
+she kept thrusting them under my nose, saying, "Smell my roses, mother.
+Don't you wish you had my garden? We have _fields_ of them in the Summer
+Land! O! how I wish you were there." "Shan't I come soon, darling?" I
+said. "No! not yet," replied "Florence." "You have a lot of work to do
+still. But when you come, it will be all flowers for you and me." I
+asked her if she knew "Bell," and she said, "O! yes! We came together
+this evening." Then I asked her to come and speak to "Bell's" mother,
+and her manner changed at once. She became shy and timid, like a young
+girl, unused to strangers, and quite hung on my arm, as I took her up to
+Mrs. Seymour's side. When she had spoken a few words to her in a very
+low voice, she turned to me and said, "I must go now, because we have a
+great surprise for you this evening--a _very_ great surprise." I told
+her I liked great surprises, when they were pleasant ones, and
+"Florence" laughed, and went away. I found that her _début_ had created
+such a sensation amongst the sitters--it being so unusual for a
+materialized spirit to appear so strong and perfect on the first
+occasion of using a medium--that I felt compelled to give them a little
+explanation on the subject. And when I told them how I had lost her as a
+tiny infant of ten days old--how she had returned to me through various
+media in England, and given such unmistakable proofs of her
+_identity_--and how I, being a stranger in their country, and only
+landed there a few weeks, had already met her through Mrs. Williams,
+Mrs. Hatch and Miss Berry--they said it was one of the most wonderful
+and perfect instances of materialization they had ever heard of. And
+when one considers how perfect the chain is, from the time when
+"Florence" first came back to me as a child, too weak to speak, or even
+to understand where she was, to the years through which she had grown
+and became strong almost beneath my eyes, till she could "_bound_" (as I
+have narrated) into my arms like a human being, and talk as distinctly
+as (and far more sensible than) I did myself, I think my readers will
+acknowledge also, that hers is no common story, and that I have some
+reason to believe in Spiritualism.
+
+Miss Berry's cabinet spirits were quite different from the common type.
+One was, or rather had been, a dancing girl--not European, but rather
+more, I fancy, of the Asiatic or Egyptian type. Anyway she used to come
+out of the cabinet--a lithe lissom creature like a panther or a
+snake--and execute such twists and bounds and pirouettes, as would have
+made her fortune on the stage. Indeed I used to think (being always on
+the lookout for chicanery) that no _human_ creature who could dance
+as she did would ever waste her talents, especially in a smart country
+like America, on an audience of spiritualists, whose only motive for
+meeting was to see their friends, and who would not pay an extra cent to
+look at a "cabinet spirit." Another one was an Indian whom they called
+"The Brave." He was also a lithe, active creature, without an ounce of
+superfluous flesh upon his body, but plenty of muscle. He appeared to
+like the ladies of the company very much, but evidently distrusted the
+men. One stout, big man who was, I fancy, a bit of a sceptic, wished to
+test the "Brave's" muscular power by feeling his biceps, and was invited
+to step in front of the circle for that purpose. He had no sooner
+approached him than the Indian seized him up in his arms and threw him
+_right over his head_. He did not hurt him, but as the gentleman got up
+again, he said, "Well! I weigh 200 pounds, and I didn't think any man in
+the room could have done that." The ladies in the circle mostly wore
+flowers in their bosom--bouquets, after the custom of American
+ladies--and they began, one and all, to detach flowers from their
+bouquets and give them to the "Brave," "to give to his squaw." He nodded
+and gabbled some unintelligible Sioux or Cherokee in reply, and went all
+round the circle on his knees. The stout man had surmised that he was
+painted, and his long, straight, black hair was a wig. When he came to
+me I said, "Brave! may I try if your hair is a wig?" He nodded and said,
+"Pull--pull!" which I did, and found that it undoubtedly grew on his
+head. Then he took my finger and drew it across his face several times
+to show he was not painted. I had no flowers to present him with, so I
+said, "Come here, Brave, and I'll give you something for your squaw,"
+and when he approached near enough I kissed him. He chuckled, and his
+eyes sparkled with mischief as he ran chatting in his native dialect
+behind the curtains. In another minute he dashed out again, and coming
+up to me ejaculated, "No--give--squaw!" and rushed back. Mr. Abrow
+laughed heartily at this incident, and so did all the sitters, the
+former declaring I had entirely captivated the "Brave." Presently the
+cabinet curtains were shaken, and after a pause they parted slowly, and
+the figure of an Indian squaw crept out. Anything more malignant and
+vicious than her look I have seldom seen. Mr. Abrow asked her _who_ she
+wanted and _what_ she wanted, but she would not speak. She stood there
+silent, but scowling at me from beneath the tangles of her long black
+hair. At last Mr. Abrow said to her, "If you don't want to speak to
+anyone in the circle you must go away, as you are only preventing other
+spirits from coming." The squaw backed behind the curtains again rather
+sulkily, but the next time the "Brave" appeared she came with him, and
+_never_ did he come again in my presence but what his "squaw" stood at
+the curtains and watched his actions. Mrs. Abrow told me that the
+"Brave" had been in the habit of manifesting at their _séances_ for
+years, but that they had never seen the "squaw" until that evening.
+Indeed, I don't think they were very grateful to me for having by my
+rashness eliminated this new feature in their evening's entertainment,
+for the "squaw" proved to be a very earthly and undeveloped spirit, and
+subsequently gave them some trouble, as they could not drive her away
+when they wanted to do so. Towards the close of the evening Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a spirit here now who is very anxious to show himself,
+but it is the first time he has ever attempted to fully materialize, and
+he is not at all certain of success. He tells me there is a lady in the
+circle who has newly arrived in America, and that this lady years ago
+sang a song by his dying bed in India. If she will step up to the
+cabinet now and sing that song again he will try and shew himself to
+her."
+
+Such of my readers as have perused "The story of John Powles" will
+recognize at once who this was. I did, of course, and I confess that as
+I rose to approach the cabinet I trembled like an aspen leaf. I had
+tried so often, and failed so often to see this dear old friend of mine,
+that to think of meeting him now was like a veritable resurrection from
+the dead. Think of it! We had parted in 1860, and this was
+1884--twenty-four years afterwards. I had been a girl when we said
+"Good-bye," and he went forth on that journey which seemed then so
+mysterious an one to me. I was a middle-aged woman now, who had passed
+through so much from which _he_ had been saved, that I felt more like
+his mother than his friend. Of all my experiences this was to me really
+the most solemn and interesting. I hardly expected to see more than his
+face, but I walked up to the cabinet and commenced to sing in a very
+shaky voice the first stanza of the old song he was so fond of:--
+
+    "Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream,
+    And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream;
+    Oft I breathe thy dear name to the winds passing by,
+    But thy sweet voice is mute to my bosom's lone sigh.
+    In the stillness of night when the stars mildly shine,
+    O! then oft my heart holds communion with thine,
+    For I feel thou art near, and where'er I may be,
+    That the Spirit of Love keeps a watch over me."
+
+I had scarcely reached the finish of these lines when both the curtains
+of the cabinet were drawn apart so sharply that the brass rings rattled
+on the rod, and John Powles stood before me. Not a face, nor a
+half-formed figure, nor an apparition that was afraid to pass into the
+light--but _John Powles himself_, stalwart and living, who stepped out
+briskly and took me in his arms and kissed me four or five times, as a
+long-parted brother might have done; and strange to say, I didn't feel
+the least surprised at it, but clung to him like a sister. For John
+Powles had never once kissed me during his lifetime. Although we had
+lived for four years in the closest intimacy, often under the same roof,
+we had never indulged in any familiarities. I think men and women were
+not so lax in their manners then as they are now; at anyrate, the only
+time I had ever kissed him was when he lay dead, and my husband had told
+me to do so. And yet it seemed quite natural on meeting him again to
+kiss him and cry over him. At last I ventured to say, "O, Powles! is
+this really you?" "Look at me and see for yourself," he answered. I
+looked up. It was indeed himself. He had possessed _very_ blue eyes in
+earth life, good features, a florid complexion, auburn hair, and quite a
+golden beard and moustache. The eyes and hair and features were just the
+same, only his complexion was paler, and he wore no beard. "O!" I
+exclaimed, "where is your beard?" "Don't you remember I cut it off just
+before I left this world?" he said; and then I recalled the fact that he
+had done so owing to a Government order on the subject.
+
+And bearing on this question I may mention what seems a curious
+thing--that spirits almost invariably return to earth the first time
+_just as they left it_, as though their thoughts at the moment of
+parting clothed them on their return. This, however, was not John
+Powles' first _attempt_ at materialization, although it was his first
+success, for it may be remembered he tried to show himself through Miss
+Showers, and then he _had_ a beard. However, when I saw him through Miss
+Berry, he had none, nor did he resume it during my stay in America. When
+we had got over the excitement of meeting, he began to speak to me of my
+children, especially of the three who were born before his death, and of
+whom he had been very fond. He spoke of them all by name, and seemed
+quite interested in their prospects and affairs. But when I began to
+speak of other things he stopped me. "I know it all," he said, "I have
+been with you in spirit through all your trials, and I can never feel
+the slightest interest in, or affection for, those who caused them. My
+poor friend, you have indeed had your purgatory upon earth." "But tell
+me of yourself, dear Powles! Are you quite happy?" I asked him. He
+paused a moment and then replied, "Quite happy, waiting for you."
+"Surely you are not suffering still?" I said, "after all these years?"
+"My dear Florence," he answered, "it takes more than a few years to
+expiate a life of sin. But I am happier than I was, and every year the
+burden is lighter, and coming back to you will help me so much."
+
+As he was speaking to me the curtain opened again, and there stood my
+brother-in-law, Edward Church, not looking down-spirited and miserable,
+as he had done at Mrs. Eva Hatch's, but bright and smiling, and dressed
+in evening clothes, as also I perceived, when I had time to think of it,
+was John Powles. I didn't know which to talk to first, but kept turning
+from one to the other in a dazed manner. John Powles was telling me that
+_he_ was preparing my house for me in the Summer Land, and would come to
+take me over to it when I died, when "Ted" interrupted him. "That ought
+to have been _my_ work, Bluebell," he said, "only Powles had anticipated
+me." "I wish I could go back with you both at once, I am sick of this
+world," I replied. "Ted" threw his arms round me and strained me to his
+breast. "O! it is so hard to part again. How I wish I could carry you
+away in my arms to the Summer Land! I should have nothing left to wish
+for then." "You don't want to come back then, Ted?" I asked him. "_Want
+to come back_," he said with a shudder; "not for anything! Why,
+Bluebell, death is like an operation which you must inevitably undergo,
+but which you fear because you know so little about it. Well, with me
+_the operation's over_. I know the worst, and every day makes the term
+of punishment shorter. I am _thankful_ I left the earth so soon." "You
+look just like your old self, Ted," I said; "the same little curls and
+scrubby little moustache." "Pull them," he answered gaily. "Don't go
+away, Bluebell, and say they were false and I was Miss Berry dressed up.
+Feel my biceps," he continued, throwing up his arm as men do, "and feel
+my heart," placing my hand above it, "feel how it is beating for my
+sister Bluebell."
+
+I said to John Powles, "I hardly know you in evening costume. I never
+saw you in it before" (which was true, as all our acquaintance had taken
+place in India, where the officers are never allowed to appear in
+anything but uniform, especially in the evenings). "I wish," I
+continued, "that you would come next time in uniform." "I will try," he
+replied, and then their time was up for that occasion, and they were
+obliged to go.
+
+A comical thing occurred on my second visit to the Berrys. Of course I
+was all eagerness to see my brother-in-law and "Powles" again, and when
+I was called up to the cabinet and saw a slim, dark, young man standing
+there, I took him at once for "Ted," and, without looking at him, was
+just about to kiss him, when he drew backwards and said, "I am not
+'Edward!' I am his friend 'Joseph,' to whom he has given permission to
+make your acquaintance." I then perceived that "Joseph" was very
+different from "Ted," taller and better looking, with a Jewish cast of
+countenance. I stammered and apologized, and felt as awkward as if I had
+nearly kissed a mortal man by mistake. "Joseph" smiled as if it were of
+very little consequence. He said he had never met "Ted" on earth, but
+they were close friends in the spirit world, and "Ted" had talked so
+much to him of me, that he had become very anxious to see me, and speak
+to me. He was a very elegant looking young man, but he did not seem to
+have very much to say for himself, and he gave me the impression that he
+had been a "masher" whilst here below, and had not quite shaken off the
+remembrance in the spirit world.
+
+There was one spirit who often made her appearance at these sittings and
+greatly interested me. This was a mother with her infant of a few weeks
+old. The lady was sweet and gentle looking, but it was the baby that so
+impressed me--a baby that never whined nor squalled, nor turned red in
+the face, and yet was made of neither wax nor wood, but was palpably
+living and breathing. I used always to go up to the cabinet when this
+spirit came, and ask her to let me feel the little baby. It was a tiny
+creature, with a waxen-looking face, and she always carried it enveloped
+in a full net veil, yet when I touched its hand, the little fingers
+tightened round mine in baby fashion, as it tried to convey them to its
+mouth. I had seen several spirit children materialized before, but never
+such a young infant as this. The mother told me she had passed away in
+child-birth, and the baby had gone with her. She had been a friend of
+the Misses Berry, and came to them for that reason.
+
+On Christmas Eve I happened to be in Boston, and disengaged, and as I
+found it was a custom of the American Spiritualists to hold meetings on
+that anniversary for the purpose of seeing their spirit friends, I
+engaged a seat for the occasion. I arrived some time before the _séance_
+commenced, and next to me was seated a gentleman, rather roughly
+dressed, who was eyeing everything about him with the greatest
+attention. Presently he turned to me and said, rather sheepishly, "Do
+you believe in this sort of thing?" "I do," I replied, "and I have
+believed in it for the last fifteen years." "Have you ever seen anybody
+whom you recognized?" he continued. "Plenty," I said. Then he edged a
+little nearer to me, and lowered his voice. "Do you know," he commenced,
+"that I have ridden on horseback forty miles through the snow to-day to
+be present at this meeting, because my old mother sent me a message that
+she would meet me here! I don't believe in it, you know. I've never been
+at a _séance_ before, and I feel as if I was making a great fool of
+myself now, but I couldn't neglect my poor old mother's message,
+whatever came of it." "Of course not," I answered, "and I hope your
+trouble will be rewarded." I had not much faith in my own words, though,
+because I had seen people disappointed again and again over their first
+_séance_, from either the spirits of their friends being too weak to
+materialize, or from too many trying to draw power at once, and so
+neutralizing the effect on all. My bridegroom friend was all ready on
+that occasion with his white flowers in his hand and I ventured to
+address him and tell him how very beautiful I considered his wife's
+fidelity and his own. He seemed pleased at my notice, and began to talk
+quite freely about her. He told me she had returned to him before her
+body was buried, and had been with him ever since. "She is so really and
+truly _my wife_," he said, "as I received her at the altar, that I could
+no more marry again than I could if she were living in my house." When
+the _séance_ commenced she appeared first as usual, and her husband
+brought her up to my side. "This is Miss Florence Marryat, dear," he
+said (for by this time I had laid aside my _incognita_ with the Berrys).
+"You know her name, don't you?" "O! yes," she answered, as she gave me
+her hand, "I know you quite well. I used to read your books." Her face
+was covered with her bridal veil, and her husband turned it back that I
+might see her. She was a very pretty girl of perhaps twenty--quite a
+gipsy, with large dark eyes and dark curling hair, and a brown
+complexion. "She has not altered one bit since the day we were married,"
+said her husband, looking fondly at her, "whilst I have grown into an
+old man." She put up her hand and stroked his cheek. "We shall be young
+together some day," she said. Then he asked her if she was not going to
+kiss me, and she held up her face to mine like a child, and he dropped
+the veil over her again and led her away. The very next spirit that
+appeared was my rough friend's mother, and his astonishment and emotion
+at seeing her were very unmistakeable. When first he went up to the
+cabinet and saw her his head drooped, and his shoulders shook with the
+sobs he could not repress. After a while he became calmer, and talked to
+her, and then I saw him also bringing her up to me. "I must bring my
+mother to you," he said, "that you may see she has really come back to
+me." I rose, and the old lady shook hands with me. She must have been,
+at the least, seventy years old, and was a most perfect specimen of old
+age. Her face was like wax, and her hair like silver; but every wrinkle
+was distinct, and her hands were lined with blue veins. She had lost her
+teeth, and mumbled somewhat in speaking, and her son said, "She is
+afraid you will not understand what she says; but she wants you to know
+that she will be quite happy if her return will make me believe in a
+future existence." "And will it?" I asked. He looked at his mother. "I
+don't understand it," he replied. "It seems too marvellous to be true;
+but how _can_ I disbelieve it, when _here she is_?" And his words were
+so much the echo of my own grounds for belief, that I quite sympathized
+with them. "John Powles," and "Ted," and "Florence," all came to see me
+that evening; and when I bid "Florence" "good-bye" she said, "Oh, it
+isn't 'good-bye' yet, mother! I'm coming again, before you go."
+Presently something that was the very farthest thing from my mind--that
+had, indeed, never entered it--happened to me. I was told that a young
+lady wanted to speak to me, and on going up to the cabinet I recognized
+a girl whom _I knew by sight, but had never spoken to_--one of a large
+family of children, living in the same terrace in London as myself, and
+who had died of malignant scarlet fever about a year before. "Mrs.
+Lean," she said, hurriedly, noting my surprise, "don't you know me? I am
+May ----." "Yes, I do recognize you, my dear child," I replied; "but
+what makes you come to me?" "Minnie and Katie are so unhappy about me,"
+she said. "They do not understand. They think I have gone away. They do
+not know what death is--that it is only like going into the next room,
+and shutting the door." "And what can I do, May?" I asked her. "Tell
+them you have seen me, Mrs. Lean. Say I am alive--more alive than they
+are; that if they sit for me, I will come to them and tell them so much
+they know nothing of now." "But where are your sisters?" I said. She
+looked puzzled. "I don't know. I can't say the place; but you will meet
+them soon, and you will tell them." "If I meet them, I certainly will
+tell them," I said; but I had not the least idea at that moment where
+the other girls might be. Four months later, however, when I was staying
+in London, Ontario, they burst unexpectedly into my hotel room, having
+driven over (I forget how many miles) to see me play. Naturally I kept
+my promise; but though they cried when "May" was alluded to, they
+evidently could not believe my story of having seen her, and so, I
+suppose, the poor little girl's wish remains ungratified. I think the
+worst purgatory in the next world must be to find how comfortably our
+friends get on without us in this. As a rule, I did not take much
+interest in the spirits that did not come for me; but there was one who
+appeared several times with the Berrys, and seemed quite like an old
+friend to me. This was "John Brown," not her Majesty's "John Brown," but
+the hero of the song--
+
+    "Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree,
+    But his soul goes touting around.
+    Glory! glory! Halleluia!
+    For his soul goes touting around."
+
+When I used to hear this song sung with much shouting and some profanity
+in England, I imagined (and I fancy most people did) that it was a comic
+song in America. But it was no such thing. It was a patriotic song, and
+the motive is (however comically put) to give glory to God, that,
+_although_ they may hang "John Brown" on a sour apple tree, his soul
+will yet "go touting around." So, rightly or wrongly, it was explained
+to me. "John Brown" is a patriotic hero in America, and when he
+appeared, the whole room crowded round to see him. He was a short man,
+with a _singularly_ benevolent countenance, iron grey hair, mutton-chop
+whiskers, and deep china blue eyes. A kind of man, as he appeared to me,
+made for deeds of love rather than heroism, but from all accounts he was
+both kind and heroic. A gentleman present on Christmas eve pushed
+forward eagerly to see the materialization, and called out, "Aye! that's
+him--that's my old friend--that's 'John Brown'--the best man that ever
+trod this earth." Before this evening's _séance_ was concluded Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a little lady in the cabinet at present who announces
+herself as a very high personage. She says she is the 'Princess
+Gertrude.'" "_What_ did you say, Mr. Abrow?" I exclaimed, unable to
+believe my own ears. "'The Princess Gertie,' mother," said "Florence,"
+popping her head out of the curtains. "You've met her before in England,
+you know." I went up to the cabinet, the curtains divided, there stood
+my daughter "Florence" as usual, but holding in front of her a little
+child of about seven years old. I knelt down before this spirit of my
+own creation. She was a fragile-looking little creature, very fair and
+pale, with large grey eyes and brown hair lying over her forehead. She
+looked like a lily with her little white hands folded meekly in front of
+her. "Are you my little Gertie, darling?" I said. "I am the 'Princess
+Gertie,'" she replied, "and 'Florence' says you are my mother." "And are
+you glad to see me, Gertie?" I asked. She looked up at her sister, who
+immediately prompted her. "Say, 'yes, mother,' Gertie." "Yes! mother,"
+repeated the little one, like a parrot. "Will you come to me, darling?"
+I said. "May I take you in my arms?" "Not this evening, mother,"
+whispered 'Florence,' "you couldn't. She is attached to me. We are tied
+together. You couldn't separate us. Next time, perhaps, the 'Princess'
+will be stronger, and able to talk more. I will take her back now." "But
+where is 'Yonnie'?" I asked, and "Florence" laughed. "Couldn't manage
+two of them at once," she said. "'Yonnie' shall come another day," and I
+returned to my seat, more mystified than usual.
+
+I alluded to the "Princess Gertie" in my account of the mediumship of
+Bessie Fitzgerald, and said that my allusion would find its
+signification further on. At that time I had hardly believed it could be
+true that the infants who had been born prematurely and never breathed
+in this world should be living, sentient spirits to meet me in the next,
+and half thought some grown spirit must be tricking me for its own
+pleasure. But here, in this strange land, where my blighted babies had
+never been mentioned or thought of, to meet the "Princess Gertie" here,
+calling herself by her own name, and brought by her sister "Florence,"
+set the matter beyond a doubt. It recalled to my mind how once, long
+before, when "Aimée" (Mr. Arthur Colman's guide), on being questioned as
+to her occupation in the spirit spheres, had said she was "a little
+nurse maid," and that "Florence" was one too, my daughter had added,
+"Yes! I'm mamma's nurse maid. I have enough to do to look after her
+babies. She just looked at me, and 'tossed' me back into the spirit
+world, and she's been 'tossing' babies after me ever since."
+
+I had struck up a pleasant acquaintanceship with Mrs. Seymour, "Bell's"
+mother, by that time, and when I went back to my seat and told her what
+had occurred, she said to me, "I wish you would share the expenses of a
+private _séance_ with me here. We can have one all to ourselves for ten
+dollars (two pounds), and it would be so charming to have an afternoon
+quite alone with our children and friends." I agreed readily, and we
+made arrangements with Mr. Abrow before we left that evening, to have a
+private sitting on the afternoon following Christmas Day, when no one
+was to be admitted except our two selves. When we met there the _séance_
+room was lighted with gas as for the evening, but we preferred to close
+the door. Helen Berry was the medium, and Mr. Abrow only sat with us.
+The rows of chairs looked very empty without any sitters, but we
+established ourselves on those which faced the cabinet in the front row.
+The first thing which happened was the advent of the "Squaw," looking as
+malignant and vicious as ever, who crept in in her dirty blanket, with
+her black hair hanging over her face, and deliberately took a seat at
+the further end of the room. Mr. Abrow was unmistakably annoyed at the
+occurrence. He particularly disliked the influence of this spirit, which
+he considered had a bad effect on the _séance_. He first asked her why
+she had come, and told her her "Brave" was not coming, and to go back to
+him. Then he tried severity, and ordered her to leave the _séance_, but
+it was all in vain. She kept her seat with persistent obstinacy, and
+showed no signs of "budging." I thought I would try what kindness would
+do for her, and approached her with that intention, but she looked so
+fierce and threatening, that Mr. Abrow begged me not to go near her, for
+fear she should do me some harm. So I left her alone, and she kept her
+seat through the whole of the _séance_, evidently with an eye upon me,
+and distrusting my behavior when removed from the criticism of the
+public. Her presence, however, seemed to make no difference to our
+spirit friends. They trooped out of the cabinet one after another, until
+we had Mrs. Seymour's brother and her daughter "Bell," who brought
+little "Jimmie" (a little son who had gone home before herself) with
+her, and "Florence," "Ted," and "John Powles," all so happy and strong
+and talkative, that I told Mrs. Seymour we only wanted a tea-table to
+think we were holding an "At Home." Last, but not least (at all events
+in her own estimation) came the "Princess Gertie." Mr. Abrow tried to
+make friends with her, but she repulsed his advances vehemently. "I
+don't like you, Mr. Mans," she kept on saying, "you's nasty. I don't
+like any mans. They's _all_ nasty." When I told her she was very rude,
+and Mr. Abrow was a very kind gentleman and loved little children, she
+still persisted she wouldn't speak "to no mans." She came quite alone
+on this occasion, and I took her in my arms and carried her across to
+Mrs. Seymour. She was a feather weight. I felt as if I had nothing in my
+arms. I said to Mrs. Seymour, "Please tell me what this child is like. I
+am so afraid of my senses deceiving me that I cannot trust myself." Mrs.
+Seymour looked at her and answered, "She has a broad forehead, with dark
+brown hair cut across it, and falling straight to her shoulders on
+either side. Her eyes are a greyish blue, large and heavy lidded, her
+nose is short, and her mouth decided for such a child."
+
+This testimony, given by a stranger, of the apparition of a child that
+had never lived, was an exact description (of course in embryo) of her
+father, Colonel Lean, who had never set foot in America. Perhaps this is
+as good a proof of identity as I have given yet. Our private _séance_
+lasted for two hours, and although the different spirits kept on
+entering the cabinet at intervals to gain more power, they were all with
+us on and off during the entire time. The last pleasant thing I saw was
+my dear "Florence" making the "Princess" kiss her hand in farewell to
+me, and the only unpleasant one, the sight of the sulky "Squaw" creeping
+in after them with the evident conviction that her afternoon had been
+wasted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IV. _The Doctor._
+
+
+I wonder if it has struck any of my readers as strange that, during all
+these manifestations in England and America, I had never seen the form,
+nor heard the voice, of my late father, Captain Marryat. Surely if these
+various media lived by trickery and falsehood, and wished successfully
+to deceive me, _some_ of them would have thought of trying to represent
+a man so well known, and whose appearance was so familiar. Other
+celebrated men and women have come back and been recognized from their
+portraits only, but, though I have sat at numbers of _séances_ given
+_for me_ alone, and at which I have been the principal person, my father
+has never reappeared at any. Especially, if these manifestations are all
+fraud, might this have been expected in America. Captain Marryat's name
+is still "a household word" amongst the Americans, and his works largely
+read and appreciated, and wherever I appeared amongst them I was
+cordially welcomed on that account. When once I had acknowledged my
+identity and my views on Spiritualism, every medium in Boston and New
+York had ample time to get up an imitation of my father for my benefit
+had they desired to do so. But never has he appeared to me; never have I
+been told that he was present. Twice only in the whole course of my
+experience have I received the slightest sign from him, and on those
+occasions he sent me a message--once through Mr. Fletcher (as I have
+related), and once through his grandson and my son, Frank Marryat. That
+time he told me he should never appear to me and I need never expect
+him. But since the American media knew nothing of this strictly private
+communication, and I had seen, before I parted with them, _seventeen_ of
+my friends and relations, none of whom (except "Florence," "Powles," and
+"Emily,") I had ever seen in England, it is at the least strange,
+considering his popularity (and granted their chicanery) that Captain
+Marryat was not amongst them.
+
+As soon as I became known at the Berry's _séances_ several people
+introduced themselves to me, and amongst others Mrs. Isabella Beecher
+Hooker, the sister of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.
+She was delighted to find me so interested in Spiritualism, and anxious
+I should sit with a friend of hers, a great medium whose name became so
+rubbed out in my pencil notes, that I am not sure if it was Doctor
+Carter, or Carteret, and therefore I shall speak of him here as simply
+"the doctor." The doctor was bound to start for Washington the following
+afternoon, so Mrs. Hooker asked me to breakfast with her the next
+morning, by which time she would have found out if he could spare us an
+hour before he set out on his journey. When I arrived at her house I
+heard that he had very obligingly offered to give me a complimentary
+_séance_ at eleven o'clock, so, as soon as we had finished breakfast, we
+set out for his abode. I found the doctor was quite a young man, and
+professed himself perfectly ignorant on the subject of Spiritualism. He
+said to me, "I don't know and I don't profess to know _what_ or _who_ it
+is that appears to my sitters whilst I am asleep. I know nothing of what
+goes on, except from hearsay. I don't know whether the forms that appear
+are spirits, or transformations, or materializations. You must judge of
+that for yourself. There is one peculiarity in my _séances_. They take
+place in utter darkness. When the apparitions (or whatever you choose to
+call them) appear, they must bring their own lights or you won't see
+them, I have no conductor to my _séances_. If whatever comes can't
+announce itself it must remain unknown. But I think you will find that,
+as a rule, they can shift for themselves. This is my _séance_ room."
+
+As he spoke he led us into an unfurnished bedroom, I say bedroom,
+because it was provided with the dressing closet fitted with pegs, usual
+to all bedrooms in America. This closet the doctor used as his cabinet.
+The door was left open, and there was no curtain hung before it. The
+darkness he sat in rendered that unnecessary. The bedroom was darkened
+by two frames, covered with black American cloth, which fitted into the
+windows. The doctor, having locked the bedroom door, delivered the key
+to me. He then requested us to go and sit for a few minutes in the
+cabinet to throw our influence about it. As we did so we naturally
+examined it. It was only a large cupboard. It had no window and no door,
+except that which led into the room, and no furniture except a
+cane-bottomed chair. When we returned to the _séance_ room, the doctor
+saw us comfortably established on two armchairs before he put up the
+black frames to exclude the light. The room was then pitch dark, and the
+doctor had to grope his way to his cabinet. Mrs. Hooker and I sat for
+some minutes in silent expectation. Then we heard the voice of a
+negress, singing "darkey" songs, and my friend told me it was that of
+"Rosa," the doctor's control. Presently "Rosa" was heard to be
+expostulating with, or encouraging some one, and faint lights, like
+sparks from a fire, could be seen flitting about the open door of the
+cabinet. Then the lights seemed to congregate together, and cluster
+about a tall form, draped in some misty material, standing just outside
+the cabinet. "Can't you tell us who you are?" asked Mrs. Hooker. "You
+must tell your name, you know," interposed "Rosa," whereupon a low voice
+said, "I am Janet E. Powles."
+
+Now this was an extraordinary coincidence. I had seen Mrs. Powles, the
+mother of my friend "John Powles," only once--when she travelled from
+Liverpool to London to meet me on my return from India, and hear all the
+particulars of her son's death. But she had continued to correspond with
+me, and show me kindness till the day of her own death, and as she had a
+daughter of the same name, she always signed herself "Janet _E._
+Powles." Even had I expected to see the old lady, and published the fact
+in the Boston papers, that initial _E_ would have settled the question
+of her identity in my mind.
+
+"Mrs. Powles," I exclaimed, "how good of you to come and see me."
+"Johnny has helped me to come," she replied. "He is so happy at having
+met you again. He has been longing for it for so many years, and I have
+come to thank you for making him happy." (Here was another coincidence.
+"John Powles" was never called anything but "Powles" by my husband and
+myself. But his mother had retained the childish name of "Johnny," and I
+could remember how it used to vex him when she used it in her letters to
+him. He would say to me, "If she would only call me 'John' or 'Jack,' or
+anything but 'Johnny.'") I replied, "I may not leave my seat to go to
+you. Will you not come to me?" For the doctor had requested us not to
+leave our seats, but to insist on the spirits approaching us. "Mrs.
+Powles" said, "I cannot come out further into the room to-day. I am too
+weak. But you shall see me." The lights then appeared to travel about
+her face and dress till they became stationary, and she was completely
+revealed to view under the semblance of her earthly likeness. She smiled
+and said, "We were all at the Opera House on Thursday night, and
+rejoiced at your success. 'Johnny' was so proud of you. Many of your
+friends were there beside ourselves."
+
+I then saw that, unlike the spirits at Miss Berry's, the form of "Mrs.
+Powles" was draped in a kind of filmy white, _over_ a dark dress. All
+the spirits that appeared with the doctor were so clothed, and I
+wondered if the filmy substance had anything to do with the lights,
+which looked like electricity. An incident which occurred further on
+seemed to confirm my idea. When "Mrs. Powles" had gone, which we guessed
+by the extinguishing of the lights, the handsome face and form of "Harry
+Montagu" appeared. I had known him well in England, before he took his
+fatal journey to America, and could never be mistaken in his sweet smile
+and fascinating manner. He did not come further than the door, either,
+but he was standing within twelve or fourteen feet of us for all that.
+He only said, "Good-luck to you. We can't lose an interest in the old
+profession, you know, any more than in the old people." "I wish you'd
+come and help me, Harry," I answered. "Oh, I do!" he said, brightly;
+"several of us do. We are all links of the same chain. Half the
+inspiration in the world comes from those who have gone before. But I
+must go! I'm getting crowded out. Here's Ada waiting to see you.
+Good-bye!" And as his light went out, the sweet face of Adelaide Neilson
+appeared in his stead. She said, "You wept when you heard of my death;
+and yet you never knew me. How was that?" "Did I weep?" I answered, half
+forgetting; "if so, it must have been because I thought it so sad that a
+woman so young, and beautiful, and gifted as you were, should leave the
+world so soon." "Oh no! not sad," she answered, brightly; "glorious!
+glorious! I would not be back again for worlds." "Have you ever seen
+your grave?" I asked her. She shook her head. "What are _graves_ to us?
+Only cupboards, where you keep our cast-off clothes." "You don't ask me
+what the world says about you, now," I said to her. "And I don't care,"
+she answered. "Don't _you_ forget me! Good-bye!"
+
+She was succeeded by a spirit who called herself "Charlotte Cushman,"
+and who spoke to me kindly about my professional life. Mrs. Hooker told
+me that, to the best of her knowledge, none of these three spirits had
+ever appeared under the doctor's mediumship before. But now came out
+"Florence," dancing into the room--_literally dancing_, holding out in
+both hands the skirt of a dress, which looked as if it were made of the
+finest muslin or lace, and up and down which fireflys were darting with
+marvellous rapidity. She looked as if clothed in electricity, and
+infinitely well pleased with herself. "Look!" she exclaimed; "look at my
+dress! isn't it lovely? Look at the fire! The more I shake it, the more
+fire comes! Oh, mother! if you could only have a dress like this for the
+stage, what a _sensation_ you would make!" And she shook her skirts
+about, till the fire seemed to set a light to every part of her drapery,
+and she looked as if she were in flames. I observed, "I never knew you
+to take so much interest in your dress before, darling." "Oh, it isn't
+the dress," she replied; "it's the _fire_!" And she really appeared as
+charmed with the novel experience as a child with a new toy.
+
+As she left us, a dark figure advanced into the room, and ejaculated,
+"Ma! ma!" I recognized at once the peculiar intonation and mode of
+address of my stepson, Francis Lean, with whom, since he had announced
+his own death to me, I had had no communication, except through trance
+mediumship. "Is that you, my poor boy," I said, "come closer to me. You
+are not afraid of me, are you?" "O, no! Ma! of course not, only I was at
+the Opera House, you know, with the others, and that piece you recited,
+Ma--you know the one--it's all true, Ma--and I don't want you to go back
+to England. Stay here, Ma--stay here!" I knew perfectly well to what the
+lad alluded, but I would not enter upon it before a stranger. So I only
+said, "You forget my children, Francis--what would they say if I never
+went home again." This seemed to puzzle him, but after a while he
+answered, "Then go to _them_, Ma; go to _them_." All this time he had
+been talking in the dark, and I only knew him by the sound of his voice.
+I said, "Are you not going to show yourself to me, Francis. It is such a
+long time since we met." "Never since you saw me at the docks. That was
+_me_, Ma, and at Brighton, too, only you didn't half believe it till you
+heard I was gone." "Tell me the truth of the accident, Francis," I asked
+him. "Was there foul play?" "No," he replied, "but we got quarrelling
+about _her_ you know, and fighting, and that's how the boat upset. It
+was _my_ fault, Ma, as much as anybody else's."
+
+"How was it your body was never found?" "It got dragged down in an
+undercurrent, Ma. It was out at Cape Horn before they offered a reward
+for it." Then he began to light up, and as soon as the figure was
+illuminated I saw that the boy was dressed in "jumpers" and "jersey" of
+dark woollen material, such as they wear in the merchant service in hot
+climates, but over it all--his head and shoulders included--was wound a
+quantity of flimsy white material I have before mentioned. "I can't bear
+this stuff. It makes me look like a girl," said "Francis," and with his
+hands he tore it off. Simultaneously the illumination ceased, and he was
+gone. I called him by name several times, but no sound came out of the
+darkness. It seemed as though the veiling which he disliked preserved
+his materialization, and that, with its protection removed, he had
+dissolved again.
+
+When another dark figure came out of the cabinet, and approaching me,
+knelt at my feet, I supposed it to be "Francis" come back again, and
+laying my hand on the bent head, I asked, "Is this you again, dear?" A
+strange voice answered, with the words, "Forgive! forgive!" "_Forgive!_"
+I repeated, "What have I to forgive?" "The attempt to murder your
+husband in 1856. Arthur Yelverton Brooking has forgiven. He is here with
+me now. Will you forgive too?" "Certainly," I replied, "I have forgiven
+long ago. You expiated your sin upon the gallows. You could do no more."
+
+The figure sprung into a standing position, and lit up from head to
+foot, when I saw the two men standing together, Arthur Yelverton
+Brooking and the Madras sepoy who had murdered him. I never saw anything
+more brilliant than the appearance of the sepoy. He was dressed
+completely in white, in the native costume, with a white "puggree" or
+turban on his head. But his "puggree" was flashing with jewels--strings
+of them were hung round his neck--and his sash held a magnificent
+jewelled dagger. You must please to remember that I was not alone, but
+that this sight was beheld by Mrs. Hooker as well as myself (to whom it
+was as unexpected as to her), and that I know she would testify to it
+to-day. And now to explain the reason of these unlooked-for apparitions.
+
+In 1856 my husband, then Lieutenant Ross-Church, was Adjutant of the
+12th Madras Native Infantry, and Arthur Yelverton Brooking, who had for
+some time done duty with the 12th, was adjutant of another native corps,
+both of which were stationed at Madras. Lieutenant Church was not a
+favorite with his men, by whom he was considered a martinet, and one day
+when there had been a review on the island at Madras, and the two
+adjutants were riding home together, a sepoy of the 12th fired at
+Lieutenant Church's back with the intent to kill him, but unfortunately
+the bullet struck Lieutenant Brooking instead, who, after lingering for
+twelve hours, died, leaving a young wife and a baby behind him. For this
+offence the sepoy was tried and hung, and on his trial the whole truth
+of course came out. This then was the reason that the spirits of the
+murdered and the murderer came like friends, because the injury had
+never been really intended for Brooking.
+
+When I said that I had forgiven, the sepoy became (as I have told) a
+blaze of light, and then knelt again and kissed the hem of my dress. As
+he knelt there he became covered, or heaped over, with a mass of the
+same filmy drapery as enveloped "Francis," and when he rose again he was
+standing in a cloud. He gathered an end of it, and laying it on my head
+he wound me and himself round and round with it, until we were bound up
+in a kind of cocoon. Mrs. Hooker, who watched the whole proceeding, told
+me afterwards that she had never seen anything like it before--that she
+could distinctly see the dark face and the white face close together all
+the time beneath the drapery, and that I was as brightly illuminated as
+the spirit. Of this I was not aware myself, but _his_ brightness almost
+dazzled me.
+
+Let me observe also that I have been in the East Indies, and within a
+few yards' length of sepoys, and that I am sure I could never have been
+wrapt in the same cloth with a mortal one without having been made
+painfully aware of it in more ways than one. The spirit did not _unwind_
+me again, although the winding process had taken him some time. He
+whisked off the wrapping with one pull, and I stood alone once more. I
+asked him by what name I should call him, and he said, "The Spirit of
+Light." He then expressed a wish to magnetize something I wore, so as to
+be the better able to approach me. I gave him a brooch containing "John
+Powles'" hair, which his mother had given me after his death, and he
+carried it back into the cabinet with him. It was a valuable brooch of
+onyx and pearls, and I was hoping my eastern friend would not carry it
+_too_ far, when I found it had been replaced and fastened at my throat
+without my being aware of the circumstance. "Arthur Yelverton Brooking"
+had disappeared before this, and neither of them came back again. These
+were not all the spirits that came under the doctor's mediumship during
+that _séance_, but only those whom I had known and recognized. Several
+of Mrs. Hooker's friends appeared and some of the doctor's controls, but
+as I have said before, they could not help my narrative, and so I omit
+to describe them. The _séance_ lasted altogether two hours, and I was
+very grateful to the doctor for giving me the opportunity to study an
+entirely new phase of the science to me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+V. _Mrs. Fay._
+
+
+There was a young woman called "Annie Eva Fay," who came over from
+America to London some years ago, and appeared at the Hanover Square
+Rooms, in an exhibition after the manner of the Davenport Brothers and
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook. She must not be confounded with the Mrs. Fay
+who forms the subject of this chapter, because they had nothing to do
+with one another. Some one in Boston advised me _not_ to go and sit at
+one of this Mrs. Fay's public _séances_. They were described to me as
+being too physical and unrefined; that the influences were of a low
+order, and the audiences matched them. However, when I am studying a
+matter, I like to see everything I can and hear everything I can
+concerning it, and to form my own opinion independent of that of anybody
+else. So I walked off by myself one night to Mrs. Fay's address, and sat
+down in a quiet corner, watching everything that occurred. The circle
+certainly numbered some members of a humble class, but I conclude we
+should see that everywhere if the fees were lower. Media, like other
+professional people, fix their charges according to the quarter of the
+city in which they live. But every member was silent and respectful, and
+evidently a believer.
+
+One young man, in deep mourning, with a little girl also in black, of
+about five or six years old, attracted my attention at once, from his
+sorrowful and abstracted manner. He had evidently come there, I thought,
+in the hope of seeing some one whom he had lost. Mrs. Fay (as she passed
+through the room to her cabinet) appeared a very quiet, simple-looking
+little woman to me, without any loudness or vulgarity about her. Her
+cabinet was composed of two curtains only, made of some white material,
+and hung on uprights at one angle, in a corner of the room, the most
+transparent contrivance possible. Anything like a bustle or confusion
+inside it, such as would be occasioned by dressing or "making up,"
+would have been apparent at once to the audience outside, who were
+sitting by the light of an ordinary gas-burner and globe. Yet Mrs. Fay
+had not been seated there above a few minutes, when there ran out into
+the _séance_ room two of the most extraordinary materializations I had
+ever seen, and both of them about as opposite to Mrs. Fay in appearance
+as any creatures could be.
+
+One was an Irish charwoman or apple-woman (she might have been either)
+with a brown, wrinkled face, a broken nose, tangled grey hair, a crushed
+bonnet, general dirt and disorder, and a tongue that could talk broad
+Irish, and call "a spade a spade" at one and the same time. "Biddy," as
+she was named, was accompanied by a street newspaper boy--one of those
+urchins who run after carriages and turn Catherine-wheels in the mud,
+and who talked "gutter-slang" in a style that was utterly unintelligible
+to the decent portion of the sitters. These two went on in a manner that
+was undoubtedly funny, but not at all edifying and calculated to drive
+any enquirer into Spiritualism out of the room, under the impression
+that they were evil spirits bent on our destruction. That either of them
+was represented by Mrs. Fay was out of the question. In the first place,
+she would, in that instance, have been so clever an actress and mimic,
+that she would have made her fortune on the stage--added to which the
+boy "Teddy" was much too small for her, and "Biddy" was much too large.
+Besides, no actress, however experienced, could have "made up" in the
+time. I was quite satisfied, therefore, that neither of them was the
+medium, even if I could not have seen her figure the while, through the
+thin curtains, sitting in her chair. _Why_ such low, physical
+manifestations are permitted I am unable to say. It was no wonder they
+had shocked the sensibility of my friend. I felt half inclined myself
+when they appeared to get up and run away. However, I was very glad
+afterwards that I did not. They disappeared after a while, and were
+succeeded by a much pleasanter person, a cabinet spirit called "Gipsy,"
+who looked as if she might have belonged to one of the gipsy tribes when
+on earth, she was so brown and arch and lively. Presently the young man
+in black was called up, and I saw him talking to a female spirit very
+earnestly. After a while he took her hand and led her outside the
+curtain, and called the little girl whom he had left on his seat by her
+name. The child looked up, screamed "Mamma! mamma!" and flew into the
+arms of the spirit, who knelt down and kissed her, and we could hear the
+child sobbing and saying, "Oh! mamma, why did you go away?--why did you
+go away?" It was a very affecting scene--at least it seemed so to me.
+The instant recognition by the little girl, and her perfect
+unconsciousness but that her mother had returned _in propria persona_,
+would have been more convincing proof of the genuineness of Spiritualism
+to a sceptic, than fifty miracles of greater importance. When the spirit
+mother had to leave again the child's agony at parting was very
+apparent. "Take me with you," she kept on saying, and her father had
+actually to carry her back to her seat. When they got there they both
+wept in unison. Afterwards he said to me in an apologetic sort of
+way--he was sitting next to me--"It is the first time, you see, that
+Mary has seen her poor mother, but I wanted to have her testimony to her
+identity, and I think she gave it pretty plainly, poor child! She'll
+never be content to let me come alone now." I said, "I think it is a
+pity you brought her so young," and so I did.
+
+"Florence" did not appear (she told me afterwards the atmosphere was so
+"rough" that she could not), and I began to think that no one would come
+for me, when a common seaman, dressed in ordinary sailor's clothes, ran
+out of the cabinet and began dancing a hornpipe in front of me. He
+danced it capitally too, and with any amount of vigorous snapping his
+fingers to mark the time, and when he had finished he "made a leg," as
+sailors call it, and stood before me. "Have you come for me, my friend?"
+I enquired. "Not exactly," he answered, "but I came with the Cap'en. I
+came to pave the way for him. The Cap'en will be here directly. We was
+in the _Avenger_ together." (Now all the world knows that my eldest
+brother, Frederick Marryat, was drowned in the wreck of the _Avenger_ in
+1847; but as I was a little child at the time, and had no remembrance of
+him, I had never dreamt of seeing him again. He was a first lieutenant
+when he died, so I do not know why the seaman gave him brevet rank, but
+I repeat his words as he said them.) After a minute or two I was called
+up to the cabinet, and saw my brother Frederick (whom I recognized from
+his likeness) standing there dressed in naval uniform, but looking very
+stiff and unnatural. He smiled when he saw me, but did not attempt to
+kiss me. I said, "Why! Fred! is it really you? I thought you would have
+forgotten all about me." He replied, "Forgotten little Flo? Why should
+I? Do you think I have never seen you since that time, nor heard
+anything about you? I know everything--everything!" "You must know,
+then, that I have not spent a very happy life," I said. "Never mind," he
+answered, "you needed it. It has done you good!" But all he said was
+without any life in it, as if he spoke mechanically--perhaps because it
+was the first time he had materialized.
+
+I had said "Good-bye" to him, and dropped the curtain, when I heard my
+name called twice, "Flo! Flo!" and turned to receive my sister "Emily"
+in my arms. She looked like herself exactly, but she had only time to
+kiss me and gasp out, "So glad, so happy to meet again," when she
+appeared to faint. Her eyes closed, her head fell back on my shoulder,
+and before I had time to realize what was going to happen, she had
+passed _through_ the arm that supported her, and sunk down _through_ the
+floor. The sensation of her weight was still making my arm tingle, but
+"Emily" was gone--_clean gone_. I was very much disappointed. I had
+longed to see this sister again, and speak to her confidentially; but
+whether it was something antagonistic in the influence of this _séance_
+room ("Florence" said afterwards that it _was_), or there was some other
+cause for it, I know not, but most certainly my friends did not seem to
+flourish there.
+
+I had another horrible disappointment before I left. A voice from inside
+the cabinet called out, "Here are two babies who want the lady sitting
+under the picture." Now, there was only one picture hanging in the room,
+and I was sitting under it. I looked eagerly towards the cabinet, and
+saw issue from it the "Princess Gertie" leading a little toddler with a
+flaxen poll and bare feet, and no clothing but a kind of white chemise.
+This was "Joan," the "Yonnie" I had so often asked to see, and I rose in
+the greatest expectation to receive the little pair. Just as they gained
+the centre of the room, however, taking very short and careful steps,
+like babies first set on their feet, the cabinet spirit "Gipsy"
+_bounced_ out of the curtains, and saying decidedly, "Here! we don't
+want any children about," she placed her hand on the heads of my little
+ones, and _pressed them down_ through the floor. They seemed to crumble
+to pieces before my eyes, and their place knew them no more. I couldn't
+help feeling angry. I exclaimed, "O! what did you do that for? Those
+were my babies, and I have been longing to see them so." "I can't help
+it," replied "Gipsy," "but this isn't a _séance_ for children." I was so
+vexed that I took no more interest in the proceedings. A great number of
+forms appeared, thirty or forty in all, but by the time I returned to my
+hotel and began to jot down my notes, I could hardly remember what they
+were. I had been dreaming all the time of how much I should have liked
+to hold that little flaxen-haired "Yonnie" in my arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+VI. _Virginia Roberts._
+
+
+When I returned to New York, it was under exceptional circumstances. I
+had taken cold whilst travelling in the Western States, had had a severe
+attack of bronchitis and pneumonia at Chicago, was compelled to
+relinquish my business, and as soon as I was well enough to travel, was
+ordered back to New York to recuperate my health. Here I took up my
+abode in the Victoria Hotel, where a lady, whose acquaintance I had made
+on my former visit to the city, was living. As I have no permission to
+publish this lady's name, I must call her Mrs. S----. She had been a
+Spiritualist for some time before I knew her, and she much interested me
+by showing me an entry in her diary, made _four years_ previous to my
+arrival in America. It was an account of the utterances of a Mrs.
+Philips, a clairvoyant then resident in New York, during which she had
+prophesied my arrival in the city, described my personal appearance,
+profession, and general surroundings perfectly, and foretold my
+acquaintanceship with Mrs. S----. The prophecy ended with words to the
+effect that our meeting would be followed by certain effects that would
+influence her future life, and that on the 17th of March, 1885, would
+commence a new era in her existence. It was at the beginning of March
+that we first lived under the same roof. As soon as Mrs. S---- found
+that I was likely to have some weeks of leisure, she became very anxious
+that we should visit the New York media together; for although she had
+so long been a believer in Spiritualism, she had not (owing to family
+opposition) met with much sympathy on the subject, or had the
+opportunity of much investigation. So we determined, as soon as I was
+well enough to go out in the evening, that we would attend some
+_séances_. As it happened, when that time came, we found the medium most
+accessible to be Miss Virginia Roberts, of whom neither of us knew
+anything but what we had learned from the public papers. However, it
+was necessary that I should be exposed as little as possible to the
+night air, and so we fixed, by chance as it were, to visit Miss Roberts
+first. We found her living with her mother and brother in a small house
+in one of the back streets of the city. She was a young girl of sixteen,
+very reserved and rather timid-looking, who had to be drawn out before
+she could be made to talk. She had only commenced sitting a few months
+before, and that because her brother (who was also a medium) had had an
+illness and been obliged to give up his _séances_ for a while. The
+_séance_ room was very small, the manifestations taking place almost in
+the midst of the circle, and the cabinet (so-called) was the flimsiest
+contrivance I had ever seen. Four uprights of iron, not thicker than the
+rod of a muslin blind, with cross-bars of the same, on which were hung
+thin curtains of lilac print, formed the construction of this cabinet,
+which shook and swayed about each time a form left or entered it. A
+harmonium for accompanying the voices, and a few chairs for the
+audience, was all the furniture the room contained. The first evening we
+went to see Miss Roberts there were only two or three sitters beside
+ourselves. The medium seemed to be pretty nearly unknown, and I
+resolved, as I usually do in such cases, not to expect anything, for
+fear I should be disappointed.
+
+Mrs. S----, on the contrary, was all expectation and excitement. If she
+had ever sat for materializations, it had been long before, and the idea
+was like a new one to her. After two or three forms had appeared, of no
+interest to us, a gentleman in full evening dress walked suddenly out of
+the cabinet, and said, "Kate," which was the name of Mrs. S----. He was
+a stout, well-formed man, of an imposing presence, with dark hair and
+eyes, and he wore a solitaire of diamonds of unusual brilliancy in his
+shirt front. I had no idea who he was; but Mrs. S---- recognized him at
+once as an old lover who had died whilst under a misunderstanding with
+her, and she was powerfully affected--more, she was terribly frightened.
+It seems that she wore at her throat a brooch which he had given her;
+but every time he approached her with the view of touching it, she
+shrieked so loudly, and threw herself into such a state of nervous
+agitation, that I thought she would have to return home again. However,
+on her being accommodated with a chair in the last row so that she
+might have the other sitters between her and the materialized spirits,
+she managed to calm herself. The only friend who appeared for me that
+evening was "John Powles;" and, to my surprise and pleasure, he appeared
+in the old uniform of the 12th Madras Native Infantry. This corps wore
+facings of fawn, with buttons bearing the word "Ava," encircled by a
+wreath of laurel. The mess jackets were lined with wadded fawn silk, and
+the waistcoats were trimmed with three lines of narrow gold braid. Their
+"karkee," or undress uniform, established in 1859, consisted of a tunic
+and trousers of a sad green cloth, with the regimental buttons and a
+crimson silk sash. The marching dress of all officers in the Indian
+service is made of white drill, with a cap cover of the same material.
+Their forage cloak is of dark blue cloth, and hangs to their heels.
+Their forage cap has a broad square peak to shelter the face and eyes. I
+mention these details for the benefit of those who are not acquainted
+with the general dress of the Indian army, and to show how difficult it
+would have been for Virginia Roberts, or any other medium, to have
+procured them, even had she known the private wish expressed by me to
+"John Powles" in Boston, that he would try and come to me in uniform. On
+this first occasion of his appearing so, he wore the usual everyday
+coat, buttoned up to his chin, and he made me examine the buttons to see
+that they bore the crest and motto of the regiment. And I may say here,
+that before I left New York he appeared to me in every one of the
+various dresses I have described above, and became quite a marked figure
+in the city.
+
+When it was made known through the papers that an old friend of Florence
+Marryat had appeared through the mediumship of Virginia Roberts, in a
+uniform of thirty years before, I received numbers of private letters
+inquiring if it were true, and dozens of people visited Miss Roberts'
+_séances_ for the sole purpose of seeing him. He took a great liking for
+Mrs. S----, and when she had conquered her first fear she became quite
+friendly with him, and I heard, after leaving New York, that he
+continued to appear for her as long as she attended those _séances_.
+
+There was one difference in the female spirits that came through
+Virginia Roberts from those of other media. Those that were strong
+enough to leave the cabinet invariably disappeared by floating upwards
+through the ceiling. Their mode of doing this was most graceful. They
+would first clasp their hands behind their heads and lean backward; then
+their feet were lifted off the ground, and they were borne upward in a
+recumbent position. When I related this to my friend, Dr. George
+Lefferts (under whom I was for throat treatment to recover my voice), he
+declared there must be some machinery connected with the uprights that
+supported the cabinet, by which the forms were elevated. He had got it
+all so "pat" that he was able to take a pencil and demonstrate to me on
+paper exactly how the machinery worked, and how easy it would be to
+swing full-sized human bodies up to the ceiling with it. How they
+managed to disappear when they got there he was not quite prepared to
+say; but if he once saw the trick done, he would explain the whole
+matter to me, and expose it into the bargain. I told Dr. Lefferts, as I
+have told many other clever men, that I shall be the first person open
+to conviction when they can convince me, and I bore him off to a private
+_séance_ with Virginia Roberts for that purpose only. He was all that
+was charming on the occasion. He gave me a most delightful dinner at
+Delmonico's first (for which I tender him in print my grateful
+recollection), and he tested all Miss Roberts' manifestations in the
+most delicate and gentlemanly manner (sceptics as a rule are neither
+delicate nor gentlemanly), but he could neither open my eyes to
+chicanery nor detect it himself. He handled and shook the frail supports
+of the cabinet, and confessed they were much too weak to bear any such
+weight as he had imagined. He searched the carpeted floor and the
+adjoining room for hidden machinery without finding the slightest thing
+to rouse his suspicions, and yet he saw the female forms float upwards
+through the whitewashed ceiling, and came away from the _séance_ room as
+wise as when he had entered it.
+
+But this occurred some weeks after. I must relate first what happened
+after our first _séance_ with Miss Roberts. Mrs. S---- and I were well
+enough pleased with the result to desire to test her capabilities
+further, and with that intent we invited her to visit us at our hotel.
+Spiritualism is as much tabooed by one section of the American public as
+it is encouraged by the other, and so we resolved to breathe nothing of
+our intentions, but invite the girl to dine and spend the evening in
+our rooms with us just as if she were an ordinary visitor. Consequently,
+we dined together at the _table d'hôte_ before we took our way upstairs.
+Mrs. S---- and I had a private sitting-room, the windows of which were
+draped with white lace curtains only, and we had no other means to shut
+out the light. Consequently, when we wished to sit, all we could do was
+to place a chair for Virginia Roberts in the window recess, behind one
+of these pairs of curtains, and pin them together in front of her, which
+formed the airiest cabinet imaginable. We then locked the door, lowered
+the gas, and sat down on a sofa before the curtains.
+
+In the space of five minutes, without the lace curtains having been in
+the slightest degree disturbed, Francis Lean, my stepson, walked
+_through_ them, and came up to my side. He was dressed in his ordinary
+costume of jersey and "jumpers," and had a little worsted cap upon his
+head. He displayed all the peculiarities of speech and manner I have
+noticed before; but he was much less timid, and stood by me for a long
+time talking of my domestic affairs, which were rather complicated, and
+giving me a detailed account of the accident which caused his death, and
+which had been always somewhat of a mystery. In doing this, he mentioned
+names of people hitherto unknown to me, but which I found on after
+inquiry to be true. He seemed quite delighted to be able to manifest so
+indisputably like himself, and remarked more than once, "I'm not much
+like a girl now, am I, Ma?"
+
+Next, Mrs. S----'s old lover came, of whom she was still considerably
+alarmed, and her father, who had been a great politician and a
+well-known man. "Florence," too, of course, though never so lively
+through Miss Roberts as through other media, but still happy though
+pensive, and full of advice how I was to act when I reached England
+again. Presently a soft voice said, "Aunt Flo, don't you know me?" And I
+saw standing in front of me my niece and godchild, Lilian Thomas, who
+had died as a nun in the Convent of the "Dames Anglaises" at Bruges. She
+was clothed in her nun's habit, which was rather peculiar, the face
+being surrounded by a white cap, with a crimped border that hid all the
+hair, and surmounted by a white veil of some heavy woollen material
+which covered the head and the black serge dress. "Lilian" had died of
+consumption, and the death-like, waxy complexion which she had had for
+some time before was exactly reproduced. She had not much to say for
+herself; indeed, we had been completely separated since she had entered
+the convent, but she was undoubtedly _there_. She was succeeded by my
+sister "Emily," whom I have already so often described. And these
+apparitions, six in number, and all recognizable, were produced in the
+private room of Mrs. S---- and myself, and with no other person but
+Virginia Roberts, sixteen years old.
+
+It was about this time that we received an invitation to attend a
+private _séance_ in a large house in the city, occupied by Mr. and Mrs.
+Newman, who had Maud Lord staying with them as a visitor. Maud Lord's
+mediumship is a peculiar one. She places her sitters in a circle,
+holding hands. She then seats herself on a chair in the centre, and
+keeps on clapping her hands, to intimate that she has not changed her
+position. The _séance_ is held in darkness, and the manifestations
+consist of "direct voices," _i.e._ voices that every one can hear, and
+by what they say to you, you must judge of their identity and
+truthfulness. I had only witnessed powers of this kind once
+before--through Mrs. Bassett, who is now Mrs. Herne--but as no one spoke
+to me through her whom I recognized, I have omitted to give any account
+of it.
+
+As soon as Maud Lord's sitting was fully established, I heard her
+addressing various members of the company, telling them who stood beside
+them, and I heard them putting questions to, or holding conversations
+with, creature who were invisible to me. The time went on, and I
+believed I was going to be left out of it, when I heard a voice close to
+my ear whisper, "Arthur." At the same moment Maud Lord's voice sounded
+in my direction, saying that the lady in the brown velvet hat had a
+gentleman standing near her, named "Arthur," who wished to be
+recognized. I was the only lady present in a brown velvet hat, yet I
+could not recall any deceased friend of the name of "Arthur" who might
+wish to communicate with me. (It is a constant occurrence at a _séance_
+that the mind refuses to remember a name, or a circumstance, and on
+returning home, perhaps the whole situation makes itself clear, and one
+wonders how one could have been so dull as not to perceive it.) So I
+said that I knew no one in the spirit-world of that name, and Maud Lord
+replied, "Well, _he_ knows _you_, at all events." A few more minutes
+elapsed, when I felt a touch on the third finger of my left hand, and
+the voice spoke again and said, "Arthur! 'Arthur's ring.' Have you quite
+forgotten?" This action brought the person to my memory, and I
+exclaimed, "Oh! Johnny Cope, is it you?"
+
+To explain this, I must tell my readers that when I went out to India in
+1854, Arthur Cope of the Lancers was a passenger by the same steamer;
+and when we landed in Madras, he made me a present of a diamond ring,
+which I wore at that _séance_ as a guard. But he was never called by
+anything but his nickname of "Johnny," so that his real appellation had
+quite slipped my memory. The poor fellow died in 1856 or 1857, and I had
+been ungrateful enough to forget all about him, and should never have
+remembered his name had it not been coupled with the ring. It would have
+been still more remarkable, though, if Maud Lord, who had never seen me
+till that evening, had discovered an incident which happened thirty
+years before, and which I had completely forgotten.
+
+Before I had been many days in New York, I fell ill again from exposing
+myself to the weather, this time with a bad throat. Mrs. S---- and I
+slept in the same room, and our sitting-room opened into the bedroom.
+She was indefatigable in her attentions and kindness to me during my
+illness, and kept running backwards and forwards from the bedroom to the
+sitting-room, both by night and day, to get me fresh poultices, which
+she kept hot on the steam stove.
+
+One evening about eleven o'clock she got out of bed in her nightdress,
+and went into the next room for this purpose. Almost directly after she
+entered it, I heard a heavy fall. I called her by name, and receiving no
+answer, became frightened, jumped out of bed, and followed her. To my
+consternation, I found her stretched out, at full length, on a white
+bearskin rug, and quite insensible. She was a delicate woman, and I
+thought at first that she had fainted from fatigue; but when she showed
+no signs of returning consciousness, I became alarmed. I was very weak
+myself from my illness, and hardly able to stand, but I managed to put
+on a dressing-gown and summon the assistance of a lady who occupied the
+room next to us, and whose acquaintance we had already made. She was
+strong and capable, and helped me to place Mrs. S---- upon the sofa,
+where she lay in the same condition. After we had done all we could
+think of to bring her to herself without effect, the next-door lady
+became frightened. She said to me, "I don't like this. I think we ought
+to call in a doctor. Supposing she were to die without regaining
+consciousness." I replied, "I should say the same, excepting I begin to
+believe she has not fainted at all, but is in a trance; and in that
+case, any violent attempts to bring her to herself might injure her.
+Just see how quietly she breathes, and how very young she looks."
+
+When her attention was called to this fact, the next-door lady was
+astonished. Mrs. S----, who was a woman past forty, looked like a girl
+of sixteen. She was a very pretty woman, but with a dash of temper in
+her expression which spoiled it. Now with all the passions and lines
+smoothed out of it, she looked perfectly lovely. So she might have
+looked in death. But she was not dead. She was breathing. So I felt sure
+that the spirit had escaped for a while and left her free. I covered her
+up warmly on the sofa, and determined to leave her there till the trance
+had passed. After a while I persuaded the next-door lady to think as I
+did, and to go back to her own bed. As soon as she had gone, I
+administered my own poultice, and sat down to watch beside my friend.
+The time went on until seven in the morning--seven hours she had lain,
+without moving a limb, upon the sofa--when, without any warning, she sat
+up and gazed about her. I called her by name, and asked her what she
+wanted; but I could see at once, by her expression, that she did not
+know me. Presently she asked me, "Who are you?" I told her. "Are you
+Kate's friend?" she said. I answered, "Yes." "Do you know who _I_ am?"
+was the next question, which, of course, I answered in the negative.
+Mrs. S---- thereupon gave me the name of a German gentleman which I had
+never heard before. An extraordinary scene then followed. Influenced by
+the spirit that possessed her, Mrs. S---- rose and unlocked a cabinet of
+her own, which stood in the room, and taking thence a bundle of old
+letters, she selected several and read portions of them aloud to me. She
+then told me a history of herself and the gentleman whose spirit was
+speaking through her, and gave me several messages to deliver to
+herself the following day. It will be sufficient for me to say that this
+history was of so private a nature, that it was most unlikely she would
+have confided it to me or any one, particularly as she was a woman of a
+most secretive nature; but names, addresses, and even words of
+conversations were given, in a manner which would have left no room for
+doubt of their truthfulness, even if Mrs. S---- had not confirmed them
+to be facts afterwards. This went on for a long time, the spirit
+expressing the greatest animosity against Mrs. S---- all the while, and
+then the power seemed suddenly to be spent, and she went off to sleep
+again upon the sofa, waking up naturally about an hour afterwards, and
+very much surprised to hear what had happened to her meanwhile. When we
+came to consider the matter, we found that this unexpected seizure had
+taken place upon _the 17th of March_, the day predicted by Mrs. Philips
+four years previously as one on which a new era would commence for Mrs.
+S----. From that time she continually went into trances, and used to
+predict the future for herself and others; but whether she has kept it
+up to this day I am unable to say, as I have heard nothing from her
+since I left America.
+
+That event took place on the 13th of June, 1885. We had been in the
+habit of spending our Sunday evenings in Miss Roberts' _séance_ room,
+and she begged me not to miss the last opportunity. When we arrived
+there, we found that the accompanist who usually played the harmonium
+for them was unable to be present, and Miss Roberts asked if I would be
+his substitute. I said I would, on condition that they moved the
+instrument on a line with the cabinet, so that I might not lose a sight
+of what was going on. This was accordingly done, and I commenced to play
+"Thou art gone from my gaze." Almost immediately "John Powles" stepped
+out, dressed in uniform, and stood by the harmonium with his hand upon
+my shoulder. "I never was much of a singer, you know, Flo," he said to
+me; "but if you will sing that song with me, I'll try and go through
+it." And he actually did sing (after a fashion) the entire two verses of
+the ballad, keeping his hand on my shoulder the whole time. When we came
+to the line, "I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream," he stooped
+down and whispered in my ear, "Not _quite_ in vain, Flo, has it been?"
+I do not know if my English Spiritualistic friends can "cap" this story,
+but in America they told me it was quite a unique performance,
+particularly at a public _séance_, where the jarring of so many diverse
+influences often hinders instead of helping the manifestations.
+
+"Powles" appeared to be especially strong on that occasion. Towards the
+middle of the evening a kind of whining was heard to proceed from the
+cabinet; and Miss Roberts, who was not entranced, said, "There's a baby
+coming out for Miss Marryat." At the same time the face of little
+"Yonnie" appeared at the opening of the curtains, but nearly level with
+the ground, as she was crawling out on all fours. Before she had had
+time to advance beyond them, "Powles" stepped over her and came amongst
+us. "Oh, Powles!" I exclaimed, "you used to love my little babies. Do
+pick up that one for me that I may see it properly." He immediately
+returned, took up "Yonnie," and brought her out into the circle on his
+arm. The contrast of the baby's white kind of nightgown with his scarlet
+uniform was very striking. He carried the child to each sitter that it
+might be thoroughly examined; and when he had returned "Yonnie" to the
+cabinet, he came out again on his own account. That evening I was
+summoned into the cabinet myself by the medium's guide, a little Italian
+girl, who had materialized several times for our benefit. When I entered
+it, I stumbled up against Miss Roberts' chair. There was barely room for
+me to stand beside it. She said to me, "Is that _you_, Miss Marryat?"
+and I replied, "Yes; didn't you send for me?" She said "No; I didn't
+send, I know nothing about it!" A voice behind me said, "_I_ sent for
+you!" and at the same moment two strong arms were clasped round my
+waist, and a man's face kissed me over my shoulder. I asked, "Who are
+you?" and he replied, "Walk out of the cabinet and you shall see." I
+turned round, two hands were placed upon my shoulders, and I walked back
+into the circle with a tall man walking behind me in that position. When
+I could look at him in the gaslight, I recognized my brother, Frank
+Marryat, who died in 1855, and whom I had never seen since. Of course,
+the other spirits who were familiar with Mrs. S---- and myself came to
+wish me a pleasant voyage across the Atlantic, but I have mentioned them
+all so often that I fear I must already have tired out the patience of
+my readers. But in order to be impressive it is so necessary to be
+explicit. All I can bring forward in excuse is, that every word I have
+written is the honest and unbiassed truth. Here, therefore, ends the
+account of my experience in Spiritualism up to the present moment--not,
+by any means, the half, nor yet _the quarter of it_, but all I consider
+likely to interest the general public. And those who have been
+interested in it may see their own friends as I have done, if they will
+only take the same trouble that I have done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+"QUI BONO?"
+
+
+My friends have so often asked me this question, that I think, before I
+close this book, I am justified in answering it, at all events, as far
+as I myself am concerned. How often have I sat, surrounded by an
+interested audience, who knew me too well to think me either a lunatic
+or a liar; and after I have told them some of the most marvellous and
+thrilling of my experiences, they have assailed me with these questions,
+"But what _is_ it? And what _good_ does it do? _What is it?_" There, my
+friends, I confess you stagger me! I can no more tell you what it is
+than I can tell you what _you_ are or what _I_ am. We know that, like
+Topsy, we "grew." We know that, given certain conditions and favorable
+accessories, a child comes into this world, and a seed sprouts through
+the dark earth and becomes a flower; but though we know the cause and
+see the effect, the greatest man of science, or the greatest botanist,
+cannot tell you how the child is made, nor how the plant grows. Neither
+can I (or any one) tell you _what_ the power is that enables a spirit to
+make itself apparent. I can only say that it can do so, and refer you to
+the Creator of you and me and the entire universe. The commonest things
+the earth produces are all miracles, from the growing of a mustard seed
+to the expansion of a human brain. What is more wonderful than the
+hatching of an egg? You see it done every day. It has become so common
+that you regard it as an event of no consequence. You know the exact
+number of days the bird must sit to produce a live chicken with all its
+functions ready for nature's use, but you see nothing wonderful in it.
+All birds can do the same, and you would not waste your time in
+speculating on the wondrous effect of heat upon a liquid substance which
+turns to bone and blood and flesh and feathers.
+
+If you were as familiar with the reappearance of those who have gone
+before as you are with chickens, you would see nothing supernatural in
+their manifesting themselves to you, and nothing more miraculous than in
+the birth of a child or the hatching of an egg. Why should it be? Who
+has fixed the abode of the spirit after death? Who can say where it
+dwells, or that it is not permitted to return to this world, perhaps to
+live in it altogether? Still, however the Almighty sends them, the fact
+remains that they come, and that thousands can testify to the fact. As
+to the theory advanced by some people that they are devils, sent to lure
+us to our destruction, that is an insult to the wisdom or mercy of an
+Omnipotent Creator. They cannot come except by His permission, just as
+He sends children to some people and withholds them from others. And the
+conversation of most of those that I have talked with is all on the side
+of religion, prayer, and self-sacrifice. _My_ friends, at all events,
+have never denied the existence of a God or a Saviour. They have, on the
+contrary (and especially "Florence"), been very quick to rebuke me for
+anything I may have done that was wrong, for neglect of prayer and
+church-going, for speaking evil of my neighbors, or any other fault.
+They have continually inculcated the doctrine that religion consists in
+unselfish love to our fellow-creatures, and in devotion to God. I do not
+deny that there are frivolous and occasionally wicked spirits about us.
+Is it to be wondered at? For one spirit that leaves this world
+calculated to do good to his fellow-creatures, a hundred leave it who
+will do him harm. That is really the reason that the Church discourages
+Spiritualism. She does not disbelieve in it. She knows it to be true;
+but she also knows it to be dangerous. Since like attracts like, the
+numbers of thoughtless spirits who still dwell on earth would naturally
+attract the numbers of thoughtless spirits who have left it, and their
+influence is best dispensed with. Talk of devils. I have known many more
+devils in the flesh than out of it, and could name a number of
+acquaintances who, when once passed out of this world, I should
+steadfastly refuse to have any communication with. I have no doubt
+myself whatever as to _what_ it is, or that I have seen my dear friends
+and children as I knew them upon earth. But _how_ they come or _where_
+they go, I must wait until I join them to ascertain, even if I shall do
+it then.
+
+The second question, however, I can more easily deal with, _What good is
+it?_ The only wonder to me is that people who are not stone-blind to
+what is going on in this world can put such a question. What good is it
+to have one's faith in Immortality and another life confirmed in an age
+of freethought, scepticism and utter callousness? When I look around me
+and see the young men nowadays--ay, and the young women too--who believe
+in no hereafter, who lie down and die, like the dumb animals who cannot
+be made to understand the love of the dear God who created them although
+they feel it, I cannot think of anything calculated to do them more good
+than the return of a father or a mother or a friend, who could convince
+them by ocular demonstration that there is a future life and happiness
+and misery, according to the one we have led here below.
+
+"Oh, but," I seem to hear some readers exclaim, "we _do_ believe in all
+that you say. We have been taught so from our youth up, and the Bible
+points to it in every line." You may _think_ you believe it, my friends,
+and in a theoretical way you may; but you do not _realize_ it, and the
+whole of your lives proves it. Death, instead of being the blessed
+portal to the Life Elysian, the gate of which may swing open for you any
+day, and admit you to eternal and unfading happiness, is a far-off misty
+phantom, whose approach you dread, and the sight of which in others you
+run away from. The majority of people avoid the very mention of death.
+They would not look at a corpse for anything; the sight of a coffin or a
+funeral or a graveyard fills them with horror; the idea of it for
+themselves makes them turn pale with fright. Is _this_ belief in the
+existence of a tender Father and a blessed home waiting to receive them
+on the other side? Even professed Christians experience what they term a
+"natural" horror at the thought of death! I have known persons of fixed
+religious principles who had passed their lives (apparently) in prayer,
+and expressed their firm belief in Heaven waiting for them, fight
+against death with all their mortal energies, and try their utmost to
+baffle the disease that was sent to carry them to everlasting happiness.
+Is this logical? It is tantamount in my idea to the pauper in the
+workhouse who knows that directly the gate is open to let him through,
+he will pass from skilly, oakum, and solitary confinement to the King's
+Palace to enjoy youth, health, and prosperity evermore; and who, when he
+sees the gates beginning to unclose, puts his back and all his
+neighbors' backs against them to keep them shut as long as possible.
+
+Death should not be a "horror" to any one; and if we knew more about it,
+it would cease to be so. It is the _mystery_ that appals us. We see our
+friends die, and no word or sign comes back to tell us that there _is_
+no death, so we picture them to ourselves mouldering in the damp earth
+till we nearly go mad with grief and dismay. Some people think me
+heartless because I never go near the graves of those whom I love best.
+Why should I? I might with more reason go and sit beside a pile of their
+cast-off garments. I could _see_ them, and they would actually retain
+more of their identity and influence than the corpse which I could _not_
+see. I mourn their loss just the same, but I mourn it as I should do if
+they had settled for life in a far distant land, from which I could only
+enjoy occasional glimpses of their happiness.
+
+And I may say emphatically that the greatest good Spiritualism does is
+to remove the fear of one's own death. One can never be quite certain of
+the changes that circumstances may bring about, nor do I like to boast
+overmuch. Disease and weakness may destroy the nerve I flatter myself on
+possessing; but I think I may say that as matters stand at present _I
+have no fear of death whatever_, and the only trouble I can foresee in
+passing through it will be to witness the distress of my friends. But
+when I remember all those who have gathered on the other side, and whom
+I firmly believe will be present to help me in my passage there, I can
+feel nothing but a great curiosity to pierce the mysteries as yet
+unrevealed to me, and a great longing for the time to come when I shall
+join those whom I loved so much on earth. Not to be happy at once by any
+manner of means. I am too sinful a mortal for that, but "to work out my
+salvation" in the way God sees best for me, to make my own heaven or
+hell according as I have loved and succoured my fellow-creatures here
+below. Yet however much I may be destined to suffer, never without hope
+and assistance from those whom I have loved, and never without feeling
+that through the goodness of God each struggle or reparation brings me
+near to the fruition of eternal happiness. _This_ is my belief, _this_
+is the good that the certain knowledge that we can never die has done
+for me, and the worst I wish for anybody is that they may share it with
+me.
+
+    "Oh! though oft depressed and lonely,
+      All my fears are laid aside,
+    If I but remember only
+      Such as these have lived and died."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY'S Announcements AND New Publications.
+
+     *.*_The books mentioned in this List can be obtained_ to
+     order _by any Bookseller if not in stock, or will be sent by the
+     Publisher post free on receipt of price_.
+
+LOVELL'S INTERNATIONAL SERIES
+
+=_13. On Circumstantial Evidence_=--By Florence Marryat
+
+This is a story in which love and intrigue are the two disturbing
+elements. Miss Marryat is well-known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining.--_Boston Herald._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_14. Miss Kate, or the Confessions of a Caretaker_=--By Rita
+
+This is a novel of much interest in the first part, of the objectionable
+"guilty love" order in the latter half. There are some beautiful bits of
+character drawing in it, and some very clever hits at American foibles.
+This story is exceedingly well told.--_Nashville American._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_15. A Vagabond Lover_=--By Rita
+
+Is a mere sketch. The hero having been a child who was washed on shore
+from a shipwreck during a storm, and found by a man who believed that he
+had discovered the cause and generation of life. The child was made a
+subject for experiment; life was breathed into it, but only physical
+life and not its higher principle. The result is that the child grows up
+to manhood without one redeeming virtue, and seems to delight in doing
+all manner of evil.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 20 CENTS.
+
+_=16. The Search for Basil Lyndhurst=_--By Rosa N. Carey
+
+Is a well written English novel, into which are woven numerous
+historical sketches, adding the merit of instructiveness to its other
+qualities.--_Pittsburgh Post._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_39. Sylvia Arden_=--By Oswald Crawfurd
+
+Is a novel whose story is supposed to be told by a man who confesses at
+the outset that life has been with him a failure. He has been successful
+in nothing though trying everything--and the novel deals with the most
+remarkable incidents in that sort of a career. It is a cleverly done
+book, and there is much in it which is fresh as well as
+exciting.--_Columbus, O., Journal._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_40. Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship_=--By F. C. Philips
+
+It seems impossible for F. C. Philips, the author of "As in a Looking
+Glass," to keep sensational tragedy out of his novels. In "Young Mr.
+Ainslie's Courtship" he has written a story which is charming, witty?
+and agreeable up to the very last chapter.--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+_=41. The Haute Noblesse=_--By Geo. Manville Fenn
+
+Is a well wrought story of which the heroine is a child of the high
+aristocracy, but nevertheless such admirable traits and qualities that
+even the humblest reader cannot fail to love her.--_Columbus, O.,
+Journal._
+
+CLOTH. $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_42. Mount Eden_=--By Florence Marryat
+
+Miss Florence Marryat is well known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining, even if they are
+devoid of all good moral purpose. They open one's eyes to the
+inconsistencies of life without wholly destroying his faith in his
+fellow citizens.--_Boston Herald._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+_=82. A Woman's Heart=_--By Mrs. Alexander
+
+The name of this author is familiar to all lovers of fiction who will
+need nothing more to assure them that they will not regret the time
+spent in reading "A Woman's Heart." It is a refined and interesting
+story, pleasant and easy reading, as is usual with all Mrs. Alexander's
+works.
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+_=83. Syrlin=_--By Ouida
+
+The announcement of a new novel by Ouida, sends a thrill of delight
+through the countless host of faithful admirers of that petulant
+priestess of mild improprieties. Her new books are just like her old
+ones. There is the usual abundance of gilded vice and wilful wickedness
+lugged in to give the book its wonted flavor.--_N. O. States._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+=_84. The Rival Princess_=--By Justin McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell Praed
+
+It is a romance of contemporary English politics wherein many well-known
+public men appear under thin disguises. There is a Stuart princess with
+lineal claims to the English throne, and there is an unmasked Mr.
+Gladstone, who boldly urges the abolition of the House of
+Lords.-_-Charleston Sunday Times._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+_=85. Blindfold=_--By Florence Marryat
+
+Is, in many respects, the best novel which has been given us by the
+prolific pen of the well-known Englishwoman. The story is novel, well
+told, and events follow upon each other quickly, never allowing the
+interest to flag.--_Denver News._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Text that was written in bold is marked =like this=.
+
+Page 4, "MARRYATT" changed to "MARRYAT" (Normalising spelling of
+author's name)
+
+Page 18, "nor" changed to "not" (a single medium of whom I have not)
+
+Page 47, "bood" changed to "blood" (where the stain of his blood still
+remained)
+
+Page 49, "briliant" changed to "brilliant" (a room that was unpleasantly
+brilliant)
+
+Page 58, "tempered" changed to "tampered" (it had not been tampered
+with)
+
+Page 61, "seing" changed to "seeing" (the possibility of seeing a
+"ghost,")
+
+Page 127, "foreigh" changed to "foreign" (he was equally ignorant of
+foreign languages)
+
+Page 134, "succssefully" changed to "successfully" (in order to imitate
+her manner and speech successfully)
+
+Page 137, "Gupyy" changed to "Guppy" (As Mrs. Guppy came sailing over
+our heads)
+
+Page 138, "it" changed to "if" (I inquired of every sitter if they had
+seen)
+
+Page 155, "eartly" changed to "earthly" (as naturally as if she were
+their earthly form)
+
+Page 156, "Fitzgarald" changed to "Fitzgerald" (Mrs. Fitzgerald was
+dining with us)
+
+Page 158, "Fitzgereld" changed to "Fitzgerald" (returned through Mrs.
+Fitzgerald)
+
+Page 176, "don" changed to "done" (perhaps, than anything else has done)
+
+Page 180, Added missing end single quote in probable correct place
+(through the life that lies before you.')
+
+Page 182, "forgetten" changed to "forgotten" (I had almost forgotten Mr.
+Plummer)
+
+Page 185, "mamed" changed to "named" (a photographer in London, named
+Hudson)
+
+Page 189, "instrument" changed to "instruments" (the two instruments
+pealed forth)
+
+Page 198, "ocsion" changed to "occasion" (Mr. Towns prognosticated on
+that occasion)
+
+Page 201, "conducter" changed to "conductor" ("Did you know the spirit?"
+the conductor asked)
+
+Page 220, "aquaintance" changed to "acquaintance" (soon after I made her
+acquaintance)
+
+Page 255, "creature" changed to "creatures" (creatures who were
+invisible to me)
+
+Page 256, "Mr" changed to "Mrs" (Mrs. S---- and I slept in the same
+room)
+
+Page 264, "Christian" changed to "Christians" (Even professed Christians
+experience what they term)
+
+End catalogue, No. 13, "Circumstatial" changed to "Circumstantial" (On
+Circumstantial Evidence)
+
+End catalogue, No. 39, "successfu" changed to "successful" (He has been
+successful in nothing)
+
+N.B. 1. Some punctuation corrections have not been noted here.
+2. Two non-matching instances of latin word: "prôpria" and "propria".
+Left as-is.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE IS NO DEATH ***
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of /* There Is No Death */, by FLORENCE MARRYAT.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
+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: There is no Death
+
+Author: Florence Marryatt
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39212]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE IS NO DEATH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Maria Grist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h2 class="p2">THERE IS NO DEATH</h2>
+
+<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="ad">
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="3" class="tdc"><div class="center"> <span class="smcap">Works by Florence Marryat</span><br />
+        <span class="xsmalltext">PUBLISHED IN THE</span><br />
+       <span class="smalltext">INTERNATIONAL SERIES. </span></div></th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td align="right" class="smalltext">NO.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="smalltext">CTS.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">85.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">Blindfold,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">50</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">135.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">Brave Heart and True,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">50</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">42.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">Mount Eden,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">30</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">13.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">On Circumstantial Evidence,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">30</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">148.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">Risen Dead, The,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">50</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">77.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">Scarlet Sin, A,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">50</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">159.</td>
+    <td class="smcap">There Is No Death,</td>
+    <td class="tdr">50</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<h2 class="p4"><strong>THERE IS NO DEATH</strong></h2>
+<p class="p4 center small"><b>BY</b><br />
+<span class="large"><b>FLORENCE MARRYAT</b></span></p>
+
+<p class="center small">AUTHOR OF<br />
+&quot;LOVE'S CONFLICT,&quot; &quot;VERONIQUE,&quot; ETC., ETC.</p>
+
+<div class="poem p4">
+  <div class="stanza">
+<div class="line">&quot;There is no Death--what seems so is transition.<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line i2">This life of mortal breath<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">Is but a suburb of the Life Elysian<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line i2">Whose portal we call----Death.&quot;--<span class="smcap">Longfellow</span>.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4 center">NEW YORK<br />
+  <span class="large">NATIONAL BOOK COMPANY</span><br />
+3, 4, 5 AND 6 MISSION PLACE</p>
+
+<p class="p4 smcap center">Copyright, 1891,<br />
+  by<br />
+  United States Book Company</p>
+
+<h1 class="p4"> THERE IS NO DEATH</h1>
+
+<p class="p4 left30">
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a><br />
+  <a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></p>
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>FAMILY GHOSTS.</h3>
+
+<p>It has been strongly impressed upon me for some years past to write an
+account of the wonderful experiences I have passed through in my
+investigation of the science of Spiritualism. In doing so I intend to
+confine myself to recording facts. I will describe the scenes I have
+witnessed with my own eyes, and repeat the words I have heard with my
+own ears, leaving the deduction to be drawn from them wholly to my
+readers. I have no ambition to start a theory nor to promulgate a
+doctrine; above all things I have no desire to provoke an argument. I
+have had more than enough of arguments, philosophical, scientific,
+religious, and purely aggressive, to last a lifetime; and were I called
+upon for my definition of the rest promised to the weary, I should
+reply&mdash;a place where every man may hold his own opinion, and no one is
+permitted to dispute it.</p>
+
+<p>But though I am about to record a great many incidents that are so
+marvellous as to be almost incredible, I do not expect to be
+disbelieved, except by such as are capable of deception themselves.
+They&mdash;conscious of their own infirmity&mdash;invariably believe that other
+people must be telling lies. Byron wrote, "He is a fool who denies that
+which he cannot disprove;" and though Carlyle gives us the comforting
+assurance that the population of Great Britain consists "chiefly of
+fools," I pin my faith upon receiving credence from the few who are not
+so.</p>
+
+<p>Why should I be disbelieved? When the late Lady Brassey published the
+"Cruise of the <i>Sunbeam</i>," and Sir Samuel and Lady Baker related their
+experiences in Central Africa, and Livingstone wrote his account of the
+wonders he met with whilst engaged in the investigation of the source of
+the Nile, and Henry Stanley followed up the story and added thereto, did
+they anticipate the public turning up its nose at their narrations, and
+declaring it did not believe a word they had written? Yet their readers
+had to accept the facts they offered for credence, on their authority
+alone. Very few of them had even <i>heard</i> of the places described before;
+scarcely one in a thousand could, either from personal experience or
+acquired knowledge, attest the truth of the description. What was
+there&mdash;for the benefit of the general public&mdash;to <i>prove</i> that the
+<i>Sunbeam</i> had sailed round the world, or that Sir Samuel Baker had met
+with the rare beasts, birds, and flowers he wrote of, or that
+Livingstone and Stanley met and spoke with those curious, unknown tribes
+that never saw white men till they set eyes on them? Yet had any one of
+those writers affirmed that in his wanderings he had encountered a gold
+field of undoubted excellence, thousands of fortune-seekers would have
+left their native land on his word alone, and rushed to secure some of
+the glittering treasure.</p>
+
+<p>Why? Because the authors of those books were persons well known in
+society, who had a reputation for veracity to maintain, and who would
+have been quickly found out had they dared to deceive. I claim the same
+grounds for obtaining belief. I have a well-known name and a public
+reputation, a tolerable brain, and two sharp eyes. What I have
+witnessed, others, with equal assiduity and perseverance, may witness
+for themselves. It would demand a voyage round the world to see all that
+the owners of the <i>Sunbeam</i> saw. It would demand time and trouble and
+money to see what I have seen, and to some people, perhaps, it would not
+be worth the outlay. But if I have journeyed into the Debateable Land
+(which so few really believe in, and most are terribly afraid of), and
+come forward now to tell what I have seen there, the world has no more
+right to disbelieve me than it had to disbelieve Lady Brassey. Because
+the general public has not penetrated Central Africa, is no reason that
+Livingstone did not do so; because the general public has not seen (and
+does not care to see) what I have seen, is no argument against the truth
+of what I write. To those who <i>do</i> believe in the possibility of
+communion with disembodied spirits, my story will be interesting
+perhaps, on account of its dealing throughout in a remarkable degree
+with the vexed question of identity and recognition. To the
+materialistic portion of creation who may credit me with not being a
+bigger fool than the remainder of the thirty-eight millions of Great
+Britain, it may prove a new source of speculation and research. And for
+those of my fellow-creatures who possess no curiosity, nor imagination,
+nor desire to prove for themselves what they cannot accept on the
+testimony of others, I never had, and never shall have, anything in
+common. They are the sort of people who ask you with a pleasing smile if
+Irving wrote "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and say they like
+Byron's "Sardanapalus" very well, but it is not so funny as "Our Boys."</p>
+
+<p>Now, before going to work in right earnest, I do not think it is
+generally known that my father, the late Captain Marryat, was not only a
+believer in ghosts, but himself a ghost-seer. I am delighted to be able
+to record this fact as an introduction to my own experiences. Perhaps
+the ease with which such manifestations have come to me is a gift which
+I inherit from him, anyway I am glad he shared the belief and the power
+of spiritual sight with me. If there were no other reason to make me
+bold to repeat what I have witnessed, the circumstance would give me
+courage. My father was not like his intimate friends, Charles Dickens,
+Lord Lytton, and many other men of genius, highly strung, nervous, and
+imaginative. I do not believe my father had any "nerves," and I think he
+had very little imagination. Almost all his works are founded on his
+personal experiences. His <i>forte</i> lay in a humorous description of what
+he had seen. He possessed a marvellous power of putting his
+recollections into graphic and forcible language, and the very reason
+that his books are almost as popular to-day as when they were written,
+is because they are true histories of their time. There is scarcely a
+line of fiction in them. His body was as powerful and muscular as his
+brain. His courage was indomitable&mdash;his moral courage as well as his
+physical (as many people remember to their cost to this day), and his
+hardness of belief on many subjects is no secret. What I am about to
+relate therefore did not happen to some excitable, nervous, sickly
+sentimentalist, and I repeat that I am proud to have inherited his
+constitutional tendencies, and quite willing to stand judgment after
+him.</p>
+
+<p>I have heard that my father had a number of stories to relate of
+supernatural (as they are usually termed) incidents that had occurred to
+him, but I will content myself with relating such as were proved to be
+(at the least) very remarkable coincidences. In my work, "The Life and
+Letters of Captain Marryat," I relate an anecdote of him that was
+entered in his private "log," and found amongst his papers. He had a
+younger brother, Samuel, to whom he was very much attached, and who died
+unexpectedly in England whilst my father, in command of H. M. S.
+<i>Larne</i>, was engaged in the first Burmese war. His men broke out with
+scurvy and he was ordered to take his vessel over to Pulu Pinang for a
+few weeks in order to get the sailors fresh fruit and vegetables. As my
+father was lying in his berth one night, anchored off the island, with
+the brilliant tropical moonlight making everything as bright as day, he
+saw the door of his cabin open, and his brother Samuel entered and
+walked quietly up to his side. He looked just the same as when they had
+parted, and uttered in a perfectly distinct voice, "Fred! I have come to
+tell you that I am dead!" When the figure entered the cabin my father
+jumped up in his berth, thinking it was some one coming to rob him, and
+when he saw who it was and heard it speak, he leaped out of bed with the
+intention of detaining it, but it was gone. So vivid was the impression
+made upon him by the apparition that he drew out his log at once and
+wrote down all particulars concerning it, with the hour and day of its
+appearance. On reaching England after the war was over, the first
+dispatches put into his hand were to announce the death of his brother,
+who had passed away at the very hour when he had seen him in the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>But the story that interests me most is one of an incident which
+occurred to my father during my lifetime, and which we have always
+called "The Brown Lady of Rainham." I am aware that this narrative has
+reached the public through other sources, and I have made it the
+foundation of a Christmas story myself. But it is too well authenticated
+to be omitted here. The last fifteen years of my father's life were
+passed on his own estate of Langham, in Norfolk, and amongst his county
+friends were Sir Charles and Lady Townshend of Rainham Hall. At the time
+I speak of, the title and property had lately changed hands, and the new
+baronet had re-papered, painted, and furnished the Hall throughout, and
+come down with his wife and a large party of friends to take possession.
+But to their annoyance, soon after their arrival, rumors arose that the
+house was haunted, and their guests began, one and all (like those in
+the parable), to make excuses to go home again. Sir Charles and Lady
+Townshend might have sung, "Friend after friend departs," with due
+effect, but it would have had none on the general exodus that took place
+from Rainham. And it was all on account of a Brown Lady, whose portrait
+hung in one of the bedrooms, and in which she was represented as wearing
+a brown satin dress with yellow trimmings, and a ruff around her
+throat&mdash;a very harmless, innocent-looking young woman. But they all
+declared they had seen her walking about the house&mdash;some in the
+corridor, some in their bedrooms, others in the lower premises, and
+neither guests nor servants would remain in the Hall. The baronet was
+naturally very much annoyed about it, and confided his trouble to my
+father, and my father was indignant at the trick he believed had been
+played upon him. There was a great deal of smuggling and poaching in
+Norfolk at that period, as he knew well, being a magistrate of the
+county, and he felt sure that some of these depredators were trying to
+frighten the Townshends away from the Hall again. The last baronet had
+been a solitary sort of being, and lead a retired life, and my father
+imagined some of the tenantry had their own reasons for not liking the
+introduction of revelries and "high jinks" at Rainham. So he asked his
+friends to let him stay with them and sleep in the haunted chamber, and
+he felt sure he could rid them of the nuisance. They accepted his offer,
+and he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the
+apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each
+night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he
+saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the
+third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet) knocked at
+his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over
+to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give
+them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in
+his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had
+retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he
+was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, "in case
+we meet the Brown Lady," he said, laughing. When the inspection of the
+gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would
+accompany my father back again, "in case you meet the Brown Lady," they
+repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in
+company.</p>
+
+<p>The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished,
+but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp
+coming towards them from the other end. "One of the ladies going to
+visit the nurseries," whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now
+the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a
+double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned
+country houses. My father (as I have said) was in a shirt and trousers
+only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped
+within one of the <i>outer</i> doors (his friends following his example), in
+order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by. I have
+heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer,
+through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to
+distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognized the
+figure as the facsimile of the portrait of "The Brown Lady." He had his
+finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to
+stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted
+of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the
+lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and
+diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was
+anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor
+with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure
+instantly disappeared&mdash;the figure at which for the space of several
+minutes <i>three</i> men had been looking together&mdash;and the bullet passed
+through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor,
+and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted
+again to interfere with "The Brown Lady of Rainham," and I have heard
+that she haunts the premises to this day. That she did so at that time,
+however, there is no shadow of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Marryat not only held these views and believed in them from
+personal experience&mdash;he promulgated them in his writings. There are many
+passages in his works which, read by the light of my assertion, prove
+that he had faith in the possibility of the departed returning to visit
+this earth, and in the theory of re-incarnation or living more than one
+life upon it, but nowhere does he speak more plainly than in the
+following extract from the "Phantom Ship":&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Think you, Philip," (says Amine to her husband), "that this world is
+solely peopled by such dross as we are?&mdash;things of clay, perishable and
+corruptible, lords over beasts and ourselves, but little better? Have
+you not, from your own sacred writings, repeated acknowledgments and
+proofs of higher intelligences, mixing up with mankind, and acting here
+below? Why should what was <i>then</i> not be <i>now</i>, and what more harm is
+there to apply for their aid now than a few thousand years ago? Why
+should you suppose that they were permitted on the earth then and not
+permitted now? What has become of them? Have they perished? Have they
+been ordered back? to where?&mdash;to heaven? If to heaven, the world and
+mankind have been left to the mercy of the devil and his agents. Do you
+suppose that we poor mortals have been thus abandoned? I tell you
+plainly, I think not. We no longer have the communication with those
+intelligences that we once had, because as we become more enlightened we
+become more proud and seek them not, but that they still exist a host of
+good against a host of evil, invisibly opposing each other, is my
+conviction."</p>
+
+<p>One testimony to such a belief, from the lips of my father, is
+sufficient. He would not have written it unless he had been prepared to
+maintain it. He was not one of those wretched literary cowards who we
+meet but too often now-a-days, who are too much afraid of the world to
+confess with their mouths the opinions they hold in their hearts. Had he
+lived to this time I believe he would have been one of the most
+energetic and outspoken believers in Spiritualism that we possess. So
+much, however, for his testimony to the possibility of spirits, good and
+evil, revisiting this earth. I think few will be found to gainsay the
+assertion that where <i>he</i> trod, his daughter need not be ashamed to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p>Before the question of Spiritualism, however, arose in modern times, I
+had had my own little private experiences on the subject. From an early
+age I was accustomed to see, and to be very much alarmed at seeing,
+certain forms that appeared to me at night. One in particular, I
+remember, was that of a very short or deformed old woman, who was very
+constant to me. She used to stand on tiptoe to look at me as I lay in
+bed, and however dark the room might be, I could always see every
+article in it, as if illuminated, whilst she remained there.</p>
+
+<p>I was in the habit of communicating these visions to my mother and
+sisters (my father had passed from us by that time), and always got well
+ridiculed for my pains. "Another of Flo's optical illusions," they would
+cry, until I really came to think that the appearances I saw were due to
+some defect in my eye-sight. I have heard my first husband say, that
+when he married me he thought he should never rest for an entire night
+in his bed, so often did I wake him with the description of some man or
+woman I had seen in the room. I recall these figures distinctly. They
+were always dressed in white, from which circumstance I imagined that
+they were natives who had stolen in to rob us, until, from repeated
+observation, I discovered they only formed part of another and more
+enlarged series of my "optical illusions." All this time I was very much
+afraid of seeing what I termed "ghosts." No love of occult science led
+me to investigate the cause of my alarm. I only wished never to see the
+"illusions" again, and was too frightened to remain by myself lest they
+should appear to me.</p>
+
+<p>When I had been married for about two years, the head-quarters of my
+husband's regiment, the 12th Madras Native Infantry, was ordered to
+Rangoon, whilst the left wing, commanded by a Major Cooper, was sent to
+assist in the bombardment of Canton. Major Cooper had only been married
+a short time, and by rights his wife had no claim to sail with the
+head-quarters for Burmah, but as she had no friends in Madras, and was
+moreover expecting her confinement, our colonel permitted her to do so,
+and she accompanied us to Rangoon, settling herself in a house not far
+from our own. One morning, early in July, I was startled by receiving a
+hurried scrawl from her, containing only these words, "Come! come!
+come!" I set off at once, thinking she had been taken ill, but on my
+arrival I found Mrs. Cooper sitting up in bed with only her usual
+servants about her. "What is the matter?" I exclaimed. "Mark is dead,"
+she answered me; "he sat in that chair" (pointing to one by the bedside)
+"all last night. I noticed every detail of his face and figure. He was
+in undress, and he never raised his eyes, but sat with the peak of his
+forage cap pulled down over his face. But I could see the back of his
+head and his hair, and I know it was he. I spoke to him but he did not
+answer me, and I am <i>sure</i> he is dead."</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, I imagined this vision to have been dictated solely by fear
+and the state of her health. I laughed at her for a simpleton, and told
+her it was nothing but fancy, and reminded her that by the last accounts
+received from the seat of war, Major Cooper was perfectly well and
+anticipating a speedy reunion with her. Laugh as I would, however, I
+could not laugh her out of her belief, and seeing how low-spirited she
+was, I offered to pass the night with her. It was a very nice night
+indeed. As soon as ever we had retired to bed, although a lamp burned in
+the room, Mrs. Cooper declared that her husband was sitting in the same
+chair as the night before, and accused me of deception when I declared
+that I saw nothing at all. I sat up in bed and strained my eyes, but I
+could discern nothing but an empty arm-chair, and told her so. She
+persisted that Major Cooper sat there, and described his personal
+appearance and actions. I got out of bed and sat in the chair, when she
+cried out, "Don't, don't! <i>You are sitting right on him!</i>" It was
+evident that the apparition was as real to her as if it had been flesh
+and blood. I jumped up again fast enough, not feeling very comfortable
+myself, and lay by her side for the remainder of the night, listening to
+her asseverations that Major Cooper was either dying or dead. She would
+not part with me, and on the third night I had to endure the same ordeal
+as on the second. After the third night the apparition ceased to appear
+to her, and I was permitted to return home. But before I did so, Mrs.
+Cooper showed me her pocket-book, in which she had written down against
+the 8th, 9th, and 10th of July this sentence: "Mark sat by my bedside
+all night."</p>
+
+<p>The time passed on, and no bad news arrived from China, but the mails
+had been intercepted and postal communication suspended. Occasionally,
+however, we received letters by a sailing vessel. At last came
+September, and on the third of that month Mrs. Cooper's baby was born
+and died. She was naturally in great distress about it, and I was doubly
+horrified when I was called from her bedside to receive the news of her
+husband's death, which had taken place from a sudden attack of fever at
+Macao. We did not intend to let Mrs. Cooper hear of this until she was
+convalescent, but as soon as I re-entered her room she broached the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Are there any letters from China?" she asked. (Now this question was
+remarkable in itself, because the mails having been cut off, there was
+no particular date when letters might be expected to arrive from the
+seat of war.) Fearing she would insist upon hearing the news, I
+temporized and answered her, "We have received none." "But there is a
+letter for me," she continued: "a letter with the intelligence of Mark's
+death. It is useless denying it. I know he is dead. He died on the 10th
+of July." And on reference to the official memorandum, this was found to
+be true. Major Cooper had been taken ill on the first day he had
+appeared to his wife, and died on the third. And this incident was the
+more remarkable, because they were neither of them young nor sentimental
+people, neither had they lived long enough together to form any very
+strong sympathy or accord between them. But as I have related it, so it
+occurred.</p>
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>MY FIRST S&Eacute;ANCE.</h3>
+
+<p>I had returned from India and spent several years in England before the
+subject of Modern Spiritualism was brought under my immediate notice.
+Cursorily I had heard it mentioned by some people as a dreadfully wicked
+thing, diabolical to the last degree, by others as a most amusing
+pastime for evening parties, or when one wanted to get some "fun out of
+the table." But neither description charmed me, nor tempted me to pursue
+the occupation. I had already lost too many friends. Spiritualism (so it
+seemed to me) must either be humbug or a very solemn thing, and I
+neither wished to trifle with it or to be trifled with by it. And after
+twenty years' continued experience I hold the same opinion. I have
+proved Spiritualism <i>not</i> to be humbug, therefore I regard it in a
+sacred light. For, <i>from whatever cause</i> it may proceed, it opens a vast
+area for thought to any speculative mind, and it is a matter of constant
+surprise to me to see the indifference with which the world regards it.
+That it <i>exists</i> is an undeniable fact. Men of science have acknowledged
+it, and the churches cannot deny it. The only question appears to be,
+"<i>What</i> is it, and <i>whence</i> does the power proceed?" If (as many clever
+people assert) from ourselves, then must these bodies and minds of ours
+possess faculties hitherto undreamed of, and which we have allowed to
+lie culpably fallow. If our bodies contain magnetic forces sufficient to
+raise substantial and apparently living forms from the bare earth, which
+our eyes are clairvoyant enough to see, and which can articulate words
+which our ears are clairaudient enough to hear&mdash;if, in addition to this,
+our minds can read each other's inmost thoughts, can see what is passing
+at a distance, and foretell what will happen in the future, then are our
+human powers greater than we have ever imagined, and we ought to do a
+great deal more with them than we do. And even regarding Spiritualism
+from <i>that</i> point of view, I cannot understand the lack of interest
+displayed in the discovery, to turn these marvellous powers of the human
+mind to greater account.</p>
+
+<p>To discuss it, however, from the usual meaning given to the word,
+namely, as a means of communication with the departed, leaves me as
+puzzled as before. All Christians acknowledge they have spirits
+independent of their bodies, and that when their bodies die, their
+spirits will continue to live on. Wherein, then, lies the terror of the
+idea that these liberated spirits will have the privilege of roaming the
+universe as they will? And if they argue the <i>impossibility</i> of their
+return, they deny the records which form the only basis of their
+religion. No greater proof can be brought forward of the truth of
+Spiritualism than the truth of the Bible, which teems and bristles with
+accounts of it from beginning to end. From the period when the Lord God
+walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and the angels came to
+Abram's tent, and pulled Lot out of the doomed city; when the witch of
+Endor raised up Samuel, and Balaam's ass spoke, and Ezekiel wrote that
+the hair of his head stood up because "a spirit" passed before him, to
+the presence of Satan with Jesus in the desert, and the reappearance of
+Moses and Elias, the resurrection of Christ Himself, and His talking and
+eating with His disciples, and the final account of John being caught up
+to Heaven to receive the Revelations&mdash;<i>all is Spiritualism, and nothing
+else</i>. The Protestant Church that pins its faith upon the Bible, and
+nothing but the Bible, cannot deny that the spirits of mortal men have
+reappeared and been recognized upon this earth, as when the graves
+opened at the time of the Christ's crucifixion, and "many bodies of
+those that were dead arose and went into the city, and were seen of
+many." The Catholic Church does not attempt to deny it. All her legends
+and miracles (which are disbelieved and ridiculed by the Protestants
+aforesaid) are founded on the same truth&mdash;the miraculous or supernatural
+return (as it is styled) of those who are gone, though I hope to make my
+readers believe, as I do, that there is nothing miraculous in it, and
+far from being <i>super</i>natural it is only a continuation of Nature.
+Putting the churches and the Bible, however, on one side, the History of
+Nations proves it to be possible. There is not a people on the face of
+the globe that has not its (so-called) superstitions, nor a family
+hardly, which has not experienced some proofs of spiritual communion
+with earth. Where learning and science have thrust all belief out of
+sight, it is only natural that the man who does not believe in a God nor
+a Hereafter should not credit the existence of spirits, nor the
+possibility of communicating with them. But the lower we go in the scale
+of society, the more simple and childlike the mind, the more readily
+does such a faith gain credence, and the more stories you will hear to
+justify belief. It is just the same with religion, which is hid from the
+wise and prudent, and revealed to babes.</p>
+
+<p>If I am met here with the objection that the term "Spiritualism" has
+been at times mixed up with so much that is evil as to become an
+offence, I have no better answer to make than by turning to the
+irrefragable testimony of the Past and Present to prove that in all
+ages, and of all religions, there have been corrupt and demoralized
+exponents whose vices have threatened to pull down the fabric they lived
+to raise. Christianity itself would have been overthrown before now, had
+we been unable to separate its doctrine from its practice.</p>
+
+<p>I held these views in the month of February, 1873, when I made one of a
+party of friends assembled at the house of Miss Elizabeth Philip, in
+Gloucester Crescent, and was introduced to Mr. Henry Dunphy of the
+<i>Morning Post</i>, both of them since gone to join the great majority. Mr.
+Dunphy soon got astride of his favorite hobby of Spiritualism, and gave
+me an interesting account of some of the <i>s&eacute;ances</i> he had attended. I
+had heard so many clever men and women discuss the subject before, that
+I had begun to believe on their authority that there must be "something
+in it," but I held the opinion that sittings in the dark must afford so
+much liberty for deception, that I would engage in none where I was not
+permitted the use of my eyesight.</p>
+
+<p>I expressed myself somewhat after this fashion to Mr. Dunphy. He
+replied, "Then the time has arrived for you to investigate Spiritualism,
+for I can introduce you to a medium who will show you the faces of the
+dead." This proposal exactly met my wishes, and I gladly accepted it.
+Annie Thomas (Mrs. Pender Cudlip,) the novelist, who is an intimate
+friend of mine, was staying with me at the time and became as eager as I
+was to investigate the phenomena. We took the address Mr. Dunphy gave us
+of Mrs. Holmes, the American medium, then visiting London, and lodging
+in Old Quebec Street, Portman Square, but we refused his introduction,
+preferring to go <i>incognito</i>. Accordingly, the next evening, when she
+held a public <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, we presented ourselves at Mrs. Holmes' door; and
+having first removed our wedding-rings, and tried to look as virginal as
+possible, sent up our names as Miss Taylor and Miss Turner. I am
+perfectly aware that this medium was said afterwards to be
+untrustworthy. So may a servant who was perfectly honest, whilst in my
+service, leave me for a situation where she is detected in theft. That
+does not alter the fact that she stole nothing from me. I do not think I
+know <i>a single medium</i> of whom I have not (at some time or other) heard
+the same thing, and I do not think I know a single woman whom I have not
+also, at some time or other, heard scandalized by her own sex, however
+pure and chaste she may imagine the world holds her. The question
+affects me in neither case. I value my acquaintances for what they are
+<i>to me</i>, not for what they may be to others; and I have placed trust in
+my media from what I individually have seen and heard, and proved to be
+genuine in their presence, and not from what others may imagine they
+have found out about them. It is no detriment to my witness that the
+media I sat with cheated somebody else, either before or after. My
+business was only to take care that <i>I</i> was not cheated, and I have
+never, in Spiritualism, accepted anything at the hands of others that I
+could not prove for myself.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Holmes did not receive us very graciously on the present occasion.
+We were strangers to her&mdash;probably sceptics, and she eyed us rather
+coldly. It was a bitter night, and the snow lay so thick upon the ground
+that we had some difficulty in procuring a hansom to take us from
+Bayswater to Old Quebec Street. No other visitors arrived, and after a
+little while Mrs. Holmes offered to return our money (ten shillings), as
+she said if she did sit with us, there would probably be no
+manifestations on account of the inclemency of the weather. (Often since
+then I have proved her assertion to be true, and found that any extreme
+of heat or cold is liable to make a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> a dead failure).</p>
+
+<p>But Annie Thomas had to return to her home in Torquay on the following
+day, and so we begged the medium to try at least to show us something,
+as we were very curious on the subject. I am not quite sure what I
+expected or hoped for on this occasion. I was full of curiosity and
+anticipation, but I am sure that I never thought I should see any face
+which I could recognize as having been on earth. We waited till nine
+o'clock in hopes that a circle would be formed, but as no one else came,
+Mrs. Holmes consented to sit with us alone, warning us, however, several
+times to prepare for a disappointment. The lights were therefore
+extinguished, and we sat for the usual preliminary dark <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, which
+was good, perhaps, but has nothing to do with a narrative of facts,
+proved to be so. When it concluded, the gas was re-lit and we sat for
+"Spirit Faces."</p>
+
+<p>There were two small rooms connected by folding doors. Annie Thomas and
+I, were asked to go into the back room&mdash;to lock the door communicating
+with the landings, and secure it with our own seal, stamped upon a piece
+of tape stretched across the opening&mdash;to examine the window and bar the
+shutter inside&mdash;to search the room thoroughly, in fact, to see that no
+one was concealed in it&mdash;and we did all this as a matter of business.
+When we had satisfied ourselves that no one could enter from the back,
+Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, Annie Thomas, and I were seated on four chairs in
+the front room, arranged in a row before the folding doors, which were
+opened, and a square of black calico fastened across the aperture from
+one wall to the other. In this piece of calico was cut a square hole
+about the size of an ordinary window, at which we were told the spirit
+faces (if any) would appear. There was no singing, nor noise of any sort
+made to drown the sounds of preparation, and we could have heard even a
+rustle in the next room. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes talked to us of their
+various experiences, until, we were almost tired of waiting, when
+something white and indistinct like a cloud of tobacco smoke, or a
+bundle of gossamer, appeared and disappeared again.</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming! I <i>am</i> glad!" said Mrs. Holmes. "I didn't think we
+should get anything to-night,"&mdash;and my friend and I were immediately on
+the tiptoe of expectation. The white mass advanced and retreated several
+times, and finally settled before the aperture and opened in the
+middle, when a female face was distinctly to be seen above the black
+calico. What was our amazement to recognize the features of Mrs. Thomas,
+Annie Thomas' mother. Here I should tell my readers that Annie's father,
+who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and captain of the coastguard at
+Morston in Norfolk, had been a near neighbor and great friend of my
+father, Captain Marryat, and their children had associated like brothers
+and sisters. I had therefore known Mrs. Thomas well, and recognized her
+at once, as, of course, did her daughter. The witness of two people is
+considered sufficient in law. It ought to be accepted by society. Poor
+Annie was very much affected, and talked to her mother in the most
+incoherent manner. The spirit did not appear able to answer in words,
+but she bowed her head or shook it, according as she wished to say "yes"
+or "no." I could not help feeling awed at the appearance of the dear old
+lady, but the only thing that puzzled me was the cap she wore, which was
+made of white net, quilled closely round her face, and unlike any I had
+ever seen her wear in life. I whispered this to Annie, and she replied
+at once, "It is the cap she was buried in," which settled the question.
+Mrs. Thomas had possessed a very pleasant but very uncommon looking
+face, with bright black eyes, and a complexion of pink and white like
+that of a child. It was some time before Annie could be persuaded to let
+her mother go, but the next face that presented itself astonished her
+quite as much, for she recognized it as that of Captain Gordon, a
+gentleman whom she had known intimately and for a length of time. I had
+never seen Captain Gordon in the flesh, but I had heard of him, and knew
+he had died from a sudden accident. All I saw was the head of a
+good-looking, fair, young man, and not feeling any personal interest in
+his appearance, I occupied the time during which my friend conversed
+with him about olden days, by minutely examining the working of the
+muscles of his throat, which undeniably stretched when his head moved.
+As I was doing so, he leaned forward, and I saw a dark stain, which
+looked like a clot of blood, on his fair hair, on the left side of the
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Annie! what did Captain Gordon die of?" I asked. "He fell from a
+railway carriage," she replied, "and struck his head upon the line." I
+then pointed out to her the blood upon his hair. Several other faces
+appeared, which we could not recognize. At last came one of a gentleman,
+apparently moulded like a bust in plaster of Paris. He had a kind of
+smoking cap upon the head, curly hair, and a beard, but from being
+perfectly colorless, he looked so unlike nature, that I could not trace
+a resemblance to any friend of mine, though he kept on bowing in my
+direction, to indicate that I knew, or had known him. I examined this
+face again and again in vain. Nothing in it struck me as familiar, until
+the mouth broke into a grave, amused smile at my perplexity. In a moment
+I recognized it as that of my dear old friend, John Powles, whose
+history I shall relate <i>in extenso</i> further on. I exclaimed "Powles,"
+and sprang towards it, but with my hasty action the figure disappeared.
+I was terribly vexed at my imprudence, for this was the friend of all
+others I desired to see, and sat there, hoping and praying the spirit
+would return, but it did not. Annie Thomas' mother and friend both came
+back several times; indeed, Annie recalled Captain Gordon so often, that
+on his last appearance the power was so exhausted, his face looked like
+a faded sketch in water-colors, but "Powles" had vanished altogether.
+The last face we saw that night was that of a little girl, and only her
+eyes and nose were visible, the rest of her head and face being
+enveloped in some white flimsy material like muslin. Mrs. Holmes asked
+her for whom she came, and she intimated that it was for me. I said she
+must be mistaken, and that I had known no one in life like her. The
+medium questioned her very closely, and tried to put her "out of court,"
+as it were. Still, the child persisted that she came for me. Mrs. Holmes
+said to me, "Cannot you remember <i>anyone</i> of that age connected with you
+in the spirit world? No cousin, nor niece, nor sister, nor the child of
+a friend?" I tried to remember, but I could not, and answered, "No! no
+child of that age." She then addressed the little spirit. "You have made
+a mistake. There is no one here who knows you. You had better move on."
+So the child did move on, but very slowly and reluctantly. I could read
+her disappointment in her eyes, and after she had disappeared, she
+peeped round the corner again and looked at me, longingly. This was
+"Florence," my dear <i>lost</i> child (as I then called her), who had left me
+as a little infant of ten days old, and whom I could not at first
+recognize as a young girl of ten years. Her identity, however, has been
+proved to me since, beyond all doubt, as will be seen in the chapter
+which relates my reunion with her, and is headed "My Spirit Child." Thus
+ended the first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> at which I ever assisted, and it made a
+powerful impression upon my mind. Mrs. Holmes, in bidding us good-night,
+said, "You two ladies must be very powerful mediums. I never held so
+successful a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with strangers in my life before." This news
+elated us&mdash;we were eager to pursue our investigations, and were
+enchanted to think we could have <i>s&eacute;ances</i> at home, and as soon as Annie
+Thomas took up her residence in London, we agreed to hold regular
+meetings for the purpose. This was the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> that made me a student
+of the psychological phenomena, which the men of the nineteenth century
+term Spiritualism. Had it turned out a failure, I might now have been as
+most men are. <i>Quien sabe?</i> As it was, it incited me to go on and on,
+until I have seen and heard things which at that moment would have
+seemed utterly impossible to me. And I would not have missed the
+experience I have passed through for all the good this world could offer
+me.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>CURIOUS COINCIDENCES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Before I proceed to write down the results of my private and
+premeditated investigations, I am reminded to say a word respecting the
+permission I received for the pursuit of Spiritualism. As soon as I
+expressed my curiosity on the subject, I was met on all sides with the
+objection that, as I am a Catholic, I could not possibly have anything
+to do with the matter, and it is a fact that the Church strictly forbids
+all meddling with necromancy, or communion with the departed. Necromancy
+is a terrible word, is it not? especially to such people as do not
+understand its meaning, and only associate it with the dead of night and
+charmed circles, and seething caldrons, and the arch fiend, in <i>propria
+persona</i>, with two horns and a tail. Yet it seems strange to me that the
+Catholic Church, whose very doctrine is overlaid with Spiritualism, and
+who makes it a matter of belief that the Saints hear and help us in our
+prayers and the daily actions of our lives, and recommends our kissing
+the ground every morning at the feet of our guardian angel, should
+consider it unlawful for us to communicate with our departed relatives.
+I cannot see the difference in iniquity between speaking to John Powles,
+who was and is a dear and trusted friend of mine, and Saint Peter of
+Alcantara, who is an old man whom I never saw in this life. They were
+both men, both mortal, and are both spirits. Again, surely my mother who
+was a pious woman all her life, and is now in the other world, would be
+just as likely to take an interest in my welfare, and to try and promote
+the prospect of our future meeting, as Saint Veronica Guiliani, who is
+my patron. Yet were I to spend half my time in prayer before Saint
+Veronica's altar, asking her help and guidance, I should be doing right
+(according to the Church), but if I did the same thing at my mother's
+grave, or spoke to her at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, I should be doing wrong. These
+distinctions without a difference were hard nuts to crack, and I was
+bound to settle the matter with my conscience before I went on with my
+investigations.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact that I have met quite as many Catholics as Protestants
+(especially of the higher classes) amongst the investigators of
+Spiritualism, and I have not been surprised at it, for who could better
+understand and appreciate the beauty of communications from the spirit
+world than members of that Church which instructs us to believe in the
+communion of saints, as an ever-present, though invisible mystery.
+Whether my Catholic acquaintances had received permission to attend
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i> or not, was no concern of mine, but I took good care to
+procure it for myself, and I record it here, because rumors have
+constantly reached me of people having said behind my back that I can be
+"no Catholic" because I am a spiritualist.</p>
+
+<p>My director at that time was Father Dalgairn, of the Oratory at
+Brompton, and it was to him I took my difficulty. I was a very constant
+press writer and reviewer, and to be unable to attend and report on
+spiritualistic meetings would have seriously militated against my
+professional interests. I represented this to the Father, and (although
+under protest) I received his permission to pursue the research in the
+cause of science. He did more than ease my conscience. He became
+interested in what I had to tell him on the subject, and we had many
+conversations concerning it. He also lent me from his own library the
+lives of such saints as had heard voices and seen visions, of those in
+fact who (like myself) had been the victims of "Optical Illusions."
+Amongst these I found the case of Saint Anne-Catherine of Emmerich, so
+like my own, that I began to think that I too might turn out to be a
+saint in disguise. It has not come to pass yet, but there is no knowing
+what may happen.</p>
+
+<p>She used to see the spirits floating beside her as she walked to mass,
+and heard them asking her to pray for them as they pointed to "les
+taches sur leurs robes." The musical instruments used to play without
+hands in her presence, and voices from invisible throats sound in her
+ears, as they have done in mine. I have only inserted this clause,
+however, for the satisfaction of those Catholic acquaintances with whom
+I have sat at <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, and who will probably be the first to exclaim
+against the publication of <i>our</i> joint experiences. I trust they will
+acknowledge, after reading it, that I am not worse than themselves,
+though I may be a little bolder in avowing my opinions.</p>
+
+<p>Before I began this chapter, I had an argument with that friend of mine
+called Self (who has but too often worsted me in the Battle of Life), as
+to whether I should say anything about table-rapping or tilting. The
+very fact of so common an article of furniture as a table, as an agent
+of communication with the unseen world, has excited so much ridicule and
+opens so wide a field for chicanery, that I thought it would be wiser to
+drop the subject, and confine myself to those phases of the science or
+art, or religion, or whatever the reader may like to call it, that can
+be explained or described on paper. The philosophers of the nineteenth
+century have invented so many names for the cause that makes a table
+turn round&mdash;tilt&mdash;or rap&mdash;that I feel quite unable (not being a
+philosopher) to cope with them. It is "magnetic force" or "psychic
+force,"&mdash;it is "unconscious cerebration" or "brain-reading"&mdash;and it is
+exceedingly difficult to tell the outside world of the private reasons
+that convince individuals that the answers they receive are <i>not</i>
+emanations from their own brains. I shall not attempt to refute their
+reasonings from their own standpoint. I see the difficulties in the way,
+so much so that I have persistently refused for many years past to sit
+at the table with strangers, for it is only a lengthened study of the
+matter that can possibly convince a person of its truth. I cannot,
+however, see the extreme folly myself of holding communication (under
+the circumstances) through the raps or tilts of a table, or any other
+object. These tiny indications of an influence ulterior to our own are
+not necessarily confined to a table. I have received them through a
+cardboard box, a gentleman's hat, a footstool, the strings of a guitar,
+and on the back of my chair, even on the pillow of my bed. And which,
+amongst the philosophers I have alluded to, could suggest a simpler mode
+of communication?</p>
+
+<p>I have put the question to clever men thus: "Suppose yourself, after
+having been able to write and talk to me, suddenly deprived of the
+powers of speech and touch, and made invisible, so that we could not
+understand each other by signs, what better means than by taps or tilts
+on any article, when the right word or letter is named, could you think
+of by which to communicate with me?"</p>
+
+<p>And my clever men have never been able to propose an easier or more
+sensible plan, and if anybody can suggest one, I should very much like
+to hear of it. The following incidents all took place through the
+much-ridiculed tipping of the table, but managed to knock some sense out
+of it nevertheless. On looking over the note book which I faithfully
+kept when we first held <i>s&eacute;ances</i> at home, I find many tests of identity
+which took place through my own mediumship, and which could not possibly
+have been the effects of thought-reading. I devote this chapter to their
+relation. I hope it will be observed with what admirable caution I have
+headed it. I have a few drops of Scotch blood in me by the mother's
+side, and I think they must have aided me here. "Curious coincidences."
+Why, not the most captious and unbelieving critic of them all can find
+fault with so modest and unpretending a title. Everyone believes in the
+occasional possibility of "curious coincidences."</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the month of June, 1873, that we formed a home circle,
+and commenced regularly to sit together. We became so interested in the
+pursuit, that we used to sit every evening, and sometimes till three and
+four o'clock in the morning, greatly to our detriment, both mental and
+physical. We seldom sat alone, being generally joined by two or three
+friends from outside, and the results were sometimes very startling, as
+we were a strong circle. The memoranda of these sittings, sometimes with
+one party and sometimes with another, extend over a period of years, but
+I shall restrict myself to relating a few incidents that were verified
+by subsequent events.</p>
+
+<p>The means by which we communicated with the influences around us was the
+usual one. We sat round the table and laid our hands upon it, and I (or
+anyone who might be selected for the purpose) spelled over the alphabet,
+and raps or tilts occurred when the desired letter was reached. This in
+reality is not so tedious a process as it may appear, and once used to
+it, one may get through a vast amount of conversation in an hour by this
+means. A medium is soon able to guess the word intended to be spelt, for
+there are not so many after all in use in general conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Some one had come to our table on several occasions, giving the name of
+"Valerie," but refusing to say any more, so we thought she was an idle
+or frivolous spirit, and had been in the habit of driving her away. One
+evening, on the 1st of July, however, our circle was augmented by Mr.
+Henry Stacke, when "Valerie" was immediately spelled out, and the
+following conversation ensued. Mr. Stacke said to me, "Who is this?" and
+I replied carelessly, "O! she's a little devil! She never has anything
+to say." The table rocked violently at this, and the taps spelled out.</p>
+
+<p>"Je ne suis pas diable."</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo! Valerie, so you can talk now! For whom do you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Stacke."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the Continent."</p>
+
+<p>"Whereabouts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Between Dijon and Macon."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a railway carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"What where you doing there?"</p>
+
+<p>Here she relapsed into French, and said,</p>
+
+<p>"Ce m'est impossible de dire."</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture Mr. Stacke observed that he had never been in a train
+between Dijon and Macon but once in his life, and if the spirit was with
+him then, she must remember what was the matter with their
+fellow-passenger.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais oui, oui&mdash;il etait fou," she replied, which proved to be perfectly
+correct. Mr. Stacke also remembered that two ladies in the same carriage
+had been terribly frightened, and he had assisted them to get into
+another. "Valerie" continued, "Priez pour moi."</p>
+
+<p>"Pourquoi, Valerie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Parce que j'ai beaucoup p&eacute;ch&eacute;."</p>
+
+<p>There was an influence who frequented our society at that time and
+called himself "Charlie."</p>
+
+<p>He stated that his full name had been "Stephen Charles Bernard
+Abbot,"&mdash;that he had been a monk of great literary attainments&mdash;that he
+had embraced the monastic life in the reign of Queen Mary, and
+apostatized for political reasons in that of Elizabeth, and been "earth
+bound" in consequence ever since.</p>
+
+<p>"Charlie" asked us to sing one night, and we struck up the very vulgar
+refrain of "Champagne Charlie," to which he greatly objected, asking for
+something more serious.</p>
+
+<p>I began, "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's as bad as the other," said Charlie. "It was a ribald and
+obscene song in the reign of Elizabeth. The drunken roysterers used to
+sing it in the street as they rolled home at night."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be mistaken, Charlie! It's a well-known Scotch air."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no more Scotch than I am," he replied. "The Scotch say they
+invented everything. It's a tune of the time of Elizabeth. Ask Brinley
+Richards."</p>
+
+<p>Having the pleasure of the acquaintance of that gentleman, who was the
+great authority on the origin of National Ballads, I applied to him for
+the information, and received an answer to say that "Charlie" was right,
+but that Mr. Richards had not been aware of the fact himself until he
+had searched some old MSS. in the British Museum for the purpose of
+ascertaining the truth.</p>
+
+<p>I was giving a sitting once to an officer from Aldershot, a cousin of my
+own, who was quite prepared to ridicule every thing that took place.
+After having teased me into giving him a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, he began by cheating
+himself, and then accused me of cheating him, and altogether tired out
+my patience. At last I proposed a test, though with little hope of
+success.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us ask John Powles to go down to Aldershot," I said, "and bring us
+word what your brother officers are doing."</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes! by Jove! Capital idea! Here! you fellow Powles, cut off to the
+camp, will you, and go to the barracks of the 84th, and let us know what
+Major R&mdash;&mdash; is doing." The message came back in about three minutes.
+"Major R&mdash;&mdash; has just come in from duty," spelt out Powles. "He is
+sitting on the side of his bed, changing his uniform trousers for a pair
+of grey tweed."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure that's wrong," said my cousin, "because the men are never
+called out at this time of the day."</p>
+
+<p>It was then four o'clock, as we had been careful to ascertain. My cousin
+returned to camp the same evening, and the next day I received a note
+from him to say, "That fellow Powles is a brick. It was quite right.
+R&mdash;&mdash; was unexpectedly ordered to turn out his company yesterday
+afternoon, and he returned to barracks and changed his things for the
+grey tweed suit exactly at four o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>But I have always found my friend Powles (when he <i>will</i> condescend to
+do anything for strangers, which is seldom) remarkably correct in
+detailing the thoughts and actions of absentees, sometimes on the other
+side of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>I went one afternoon to pay an ordinary social call on a lady named Mrs.
+W&mdash;&mdash;, and found her engaged in an earnest conversation on Spiritualism
+with a stout woman and a commonplace man&mdash;two as material looking
+individuals as ever I saw, and who appeared all the more so under a
+sultry August sun. As soon as Mrs. W&mdash;&mdash; saw me, she exclaimed, "O! here
+is Mrs. Ross-Church. She will tell you all about the spirits. Do, Mrs.
+Ross-Church, sit down at the table and let us have a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>."</p>
+
+<p>A <i>s&eacute;ance</i> on a burning, blazing afternoon in August, with two stolid
+and uninteresting, and worse still, <i>uninterested</i> looking strangers,
+who appeared to think Mrs. W&mdash;&mdash; had a "bee in her bonnet." I
+protested&mdash;I reasoned&mdash;I pleaded&mdash;all in vain. My hostess continued to
+urge, and society places the guest at the mercy of her hostess. So, in
+an evil temper, I pulled off my gloves, and placed my hands
+indifferently on the table. The following words were at once rapped
+out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am Edward G&mdash;&mdash;. Did you ever pay Johnson the seventeen pounds twelve
+you received for my saddlery?"</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman opposite to me turned all sorts of colors, and began to
+stammer out a reply, whilst his wife looked very confused. I asked the
+influence, "Who are you?" It replied, "<i>He</i> knows! His late colonel! Why
+hasn't Johnson received that money?" This is what I call an "awkward"
+coincidence, and I have had many such occur through me&mdash;some that have
+driven acquaintances away from the table, vowing vengeance against me,
+and racking their brains to discover <i>who</i> had told me of their secret
+peccadilloes. The gentleman in question (whose name even I do not
+remember) confessed that the identity and main points of the message
+were true, but he did <i>not</i> confide to us whether Johnson had ever
+received that seventeen pounds twelve.</p>
+
+<p>I had a beautiful English greyhound, called "Clytie," a gift from Annie
+Thomas to me, and this dog was given to straying from my house in
+Colville Road, Bayswater, which runs parallel to Portobello Road, a
+rather objectionable quarter, composed of inferior shops, one of which,
+a fried fish shop, was an intolerable nuisance, and used to fill the
+air around with its rich perfume. On one occasion "Clytie" stayed away
+from home so much longer than usual, that I was afraid she was lost in
+good earnest, and posted bills offering a reward for her. "Charlie" came
+to the table that evening and said, "Don't offer a reward for the dog.
+Send for her."</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I to send?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She is tied up at the fried fish shop in Portobello Road. Send the cook
+to see."</p>
+
+<p>I told the servant in question that I had heard the greyhound was
+detained at the fish shop, and sent her to inquire. She returned with
+"Clytie." Her account was, that on making inquiries, the man in the shop
+had been very insolent to her, and she had raised her voice in reply;
+that she had then heard and recognized the sharp, peculiar bark of the
+greyhound from an upper storey, and, running up before the man could
+prevent her, she had found "Clytie" tied up to a bedstead with a piece
+of rope, and had called in a policeman to enable her to take the dog
+away. I have often heard the assertion that Spiritualism is of no
+practical good, and, doubtless, it was never intended to be so, but this
+incident was, at least, an exception to the rule.</p>
+
+<p>When abroad, on one occasion, I was asked by a Catholic Abb&eacute; to sit with
+him. He had never seen any manifestations before, and he did not believe
+in them, but he was curious on the subject. I knew nothing of him
+further than that he was a priest, and a Jesuit, and a great friend of
+my sister's, at whose house I was staying. He spoke English, and the
+conversation was carried on in that language. He had told me beforehand
+that if he could receive a perfectly private test, that he should never
+doubt the truth of the manifestations again. I left him, therefore, to
+conduct the investigation entirely by himself, I acting only as the
+medium between him and the influence. As soon as the table moved he put
+his question direct, without asking who was there to answer it.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my chasuble?"</p>
+
+<p>Now a priest's chasuble, <i>I</i> should have said, must be either hanging in
+the sacristy or packed away at home, or been sent away to be altered or
+mended. But the answer was wide of all my speculations.</p>
+
+<p>"At the bottom of the Red Sea."</p>
+
+<p>The priest started, but continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who put it there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Elias Dodo."</p>
+
+<p>"What was his object in doing so?"</p>
+
+<p>"He found the parcel a burthen, and did not expect any reward for
+delivering it."</p>
+
+<p>The Abb&eacute; really looked as if he had encountered the devil. He wiped the
+perspiration from his forehead, and put one more question.</p>
+
+<p>"Of what was my chasuble made?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister's wedding dress."</p>
+
+<p>The priest then explained to me that his sister had made him a chasuble
+out of her wedding dress&mdash;one of the forms of returning thanks in the
+Church, but that after a while it became old fashioned, and the Bishop,
+going his rounds, ordered him to get another. He did not like to throw
+away his sister's gift, so he decided to send the old chasuble to a
+priest in India, where they are very poor, and not so particular as to
+fashion. He confided the packet to a man called Elias Dodo, a
+sufficiently singular name, but neither he nor the priest he sent it to
+had ever heard anything more of the chasuble, or the man who promised to
+deliver it.</p>
+
+<p>A young artist of the name of Courtney was a visitor at my house. He
+asked me to sit with him alone, when the table began rapping out a
+number of consonants&mdash;a farrago of nonsense, it appeared to me, and I
+stopped and said so. But Mr. Courtney, who appeared much interested,
+begged me to proceed. When the communication was finished, he said to
+me, "This is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard. My father has
+been at the table talking to me in Welsh. He has told me our family
+motto, and all about my birth-place and relations in Wales." I said, "I
+never heard you were a Welshman." "Yes! I am," he replied, "my real name
+is Powell. I have only adopted the name of Courtney for professional
+purposes."</p>
+
+<p>This was all news to me, but had it not been, <i>I cannot speak Welsh</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I could multiply such cases by the dozen, but that I fear to tire my
+readers, added to which the majority of them were of so strictly private
+a nature that it would be impossible to put them into print. This is
+perhaps the greatest drawback that one encounters in trying to prove
+the truth of Spiritualism. The best tests we receive are when the very
+secrets of our hearts, which we have not confided to our nearest
+friends, are revealed to us. I could relate (had I the permission of the
+persons most interested) the particulars of a well-known law suit, in
+which the requisite evidence, and names and addresses of witnesses, were
+all given though my mediumship, and were the cause of the case being
+gained by the side that came to me for "information." Some of the
+coincidences I have related in this chapter might, however, be ascribed
+by the sceptical to the mysterious and unknown power of brain reading,
+whatever that may be, and however it may come, apart from mediumship,
+but how is one to account for the facts I shall tell you in my next
+chapter.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>EMBODIED SPIRITS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>I was having a sitting one day in my own house with a lady friend, named
+Miss Clark, when a female spirit came to the table and spelt out the
+name "Tiny."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" I asked, "and for whom do you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a friend of Major M&mdash;&mdash;" (mentioning the full name), "and I want
+your help."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you any relation to Major M&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the mother of his child."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you wish me to do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him he must go down to Portsmouth and look after my daughter. He
+has not seen her for years. The old woman is dead, and the man is a
+drunkard. She is falling into evil courses. He must save her from them."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your real name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not give it. There is no need. He always called me 'Tiny.'"</p>
+
+<p>"How old is your daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Nineteen! Her name is Emily! I want her to be married. Tell him to
+promise her a wedding trousseau. It may induce her to marry."</p>
+
+<p>The influence divulged a great deal more on the subject which I cannot
+write down here. It was an account of one of those cruel acts of
+seduction by which a young girl had been led into trouble in order to
+gratify a man's selfish lust, and astonished both Miss Clark and myself,
+who had never heard of such a person as "Tiny" before. It was too
+delicate a matter for me to broach to Major M&mdash;&mdash; (who was a married
+man, and an intimate friend of mine), but the spirit came so many times
+and implored me so earnestly to save her daughter, that at last I
+ventured to repeat the communication to him. He was rather taken aback,
+but confessed it was true, and that the child, being left to his care,
+had been given over to the charge of some common people at Portsmouth,
+and he had not enquired after it for some time past. Neither had he ever
+heard of the death of the mother, who had subsequently married, and had
+a family. He instituted inquiries, however, at once, and found the
+statement to be quite true, and that the girl Emily, being left with no
+better protection than that of the drunken old man, had actually gone
+astray, and not long after she was had up at the police court for
+stabbing a soldier in a public-house&mdash;a fit ending for the unfortunate
+offspring of a man's selfish passions. But the strangest part of the
+story to the uninitiated will lie in the fact that the woman whose
+spirit thus manifested itself to two utter strangers, who knew neither
+her history nor her name, was at the time <i>alive</i>, and living with her
+husband and family, as Major M&mdash;&mdash; took pains to ascertain.</p>
+
+<p>And now I have something to say on the subject of communicating with the
+spirits of persons still in the flesh. This will doubtless appear the
+most incomprehensible and fanatical assertion of all, that we wear our
+earthly garb so loosely, that the spirits of people still living in this
+world can leave the body and manifest themselves either visibly or
+orally to others in their normal condition. And yet it is a fact that
+spirits have so visited myself (as in the case I have just recorded),
+and given me information of which I had not the slightest previous idea.
+The matter has been explained to me after this fashion&mdash;that it is not
+really the spirit of the living person who communicates, but the spirit,
+or "control," that is nearest to him: in effect what the Church calls
+his "guardian angel," and that this guardian angel, who knows his inmost
+thoughts and desires better even than he knows them himself, is equally
+capable of speaking in his name. This idea of the matter may shift the
+marvel from one pair of shoulders to another, but it does not do away
+with it. If I can receive information of events before they occur (as I
+will prove that I have), I present a nut for the consideration of the
+public jaw, which even the scientists will find difficult to crack. It
+was at one time my annual custom to take my children to the sea-side,
+and one summer, being anxious to ascertain how far the table could be
+made to act without the aid of "unconscious cerebration," I arranged
+with my friends, Mr. Helmore and Mrs. Colnaghi, who had been in the
+habit of sitting with us at home, that <i>we</i> should continue to sit at
+the sea-side on Tuesday evenings as theretofore, and <i>they</i> should sit
+in London on the Thursdays, when I would try to send them messages
+through "Charlie," the spirit I have already mentioned as being
+constantly with us.</p>
+
+<p>The first Tuesday my message was, "Ask them how they are getting on
+without us," which was faithfully delivered at their table on the
+following Thursday. The return message from them which "Charlie" spelled
+out for us on the second Tuesday, was: "Tell her London is a desert
+without her," to which I emphatically, if not elegantly, answered,
+"Fiddle-de-dee!" A few days afterwards I received a letter from Mr.
+Helmore, in which he said, "I am afraid 'Charlie' is already tired of
+playing at postman, for to all our questions about you last Thursday, he
+would only rap out, 'Fiddle-de-dee.'"</p>
+
+<p>The circumstance to which this little episode is but an introduction
+happened a few days later. Mr. Colnaghi and Mr. Helmore, sitting
+together as usual on Thursday evening, were discussing the possibility
+of summoning the spirits of <i>living persons</i> to the table, when
+"Charlie" rapped three times to intimate they could.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you fetch some one for us, Charlie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom will you bring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Ross-Church."</p>
+
+<p>"How long will it take you to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen minutes."</p>
+
+<p>It was in the middle of the night when I must have been fast asleep, and
+the two young men told me afterwards that they waited the results of
+their experiment with much trepidation, wondering (I suppose) if I
+should be conveyed bodily into their presence and box their ears well
+for their impertinence. Exactly fifteen minutes afterwards, however, the
+table was violently shaken and the words were spelt out. "I am Mrs.
+Ross-Church. How <i>dared</i> you send for me?" They were very penitent (or
+they said they were), but they described my manner as most arbitrary,
+and said I went on repeating, "Let me go back! Let me go back! There is
+a great danger hanging over my children! I must go back to my children!"
+(And here I would remark <i>par parenth&egrave;se</i>, and in contradiction of the
+guardian angel theory, that I have always found that whilst the spirits
+of the departed come and go as they feel inclined, the spirits of the
+living invariably <i>beg</i> to be sent back again or permitted to go, as if
+they were chained by the will of the medium.) On this occasion I was so
+positive that I made a great impression on my two friends, and the next
+day Mr. Helmore sent me a cautiously worded letter to find out if all
+was well with us at Charmouth, but without disclosing the reason for his
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>facts</i> are, that on the morning of <i>Friday</i>, the day <i>after</i> the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> in London, my seven children and two nurses were all sitting in
+a small lodging-house room, when my brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Norris,
+came in from ball practice with the volunteers, and whilst exhibiting
+his rifle to my son, accidentally discharged it in the midst of them,
+the ball passing through the wall within two inches of my eldest
+daughter's head. When I wrote the account of this to Mr. Helmore, he
+told me of my visit to London and the words I had spelt out on the
+occasion. But how did I know of the occurrence the <i>night before</i> it
+took place? And if I&mdash;being asleep and unconscious&mdash;did <i>not</i> know of
+it, "Charlie" must have done so.</p>
+
+<p>My ærial visits to my friends, however, whilst my body was in quite
+another place, have been made still more palpable than this. Once, when
+living in the Regent's Park, I passed a very terrible and painful night.
+Grief and fear kept me awake most of the time, and the morning found me
+exhausted with the emotion I had gone through. About eleven o'clock
+there walked in, to my surprise, Mrs. Fitzgerald (better known as a
+medium under her maiden name of Bessie Williams), who lived in the
+Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush. "I couldn't help coming to you," she
+commenced, "for I shall not be easy until I know how you are after the
+terrible scene you have passed through." I stared at her. "Whom have you
+seen?" I asked. "Who has told you of it?" "Yourself," she replied. "I
+was waked up this morning between two and three o'clock by the sound of
+sobbing and crying in the front garden. I got out of bed and opened the
+window, and then I saw you standing on the grass plat in your
+night-dress and crying bitterly. I asked you what was the matter, and
+you told me so and so, and so and so." And here followed a detailed
+account of all that had happened in my own house on the other side of
+London, with the <i>very words</i> that had been used, and every action that
+had happened. I had seen no one and spoken to no one between the
+occurrence and the time Mrs. Fitzgerald called upon me. If her story was
+untrue, <i>who</i> had so minutely informed her of a circumstance which it
+was to the interest of all concerned to keep to themselves?</p>
+
+<p>When I first joined Mr. d'Oyley Carte's "Patience" Company in the
+provinces, to play the part of "Lady Jane," I understood I was to have
+four days' rehearsal. However, the lady whom I succeeded, hearing I had
+arrived, took herself off, and the manager requested I would appear the
+same night of my arrival. This was rather an ordeal to an artist who had
+never sung on the operatic stage before, and who was not note perfect.
+However, as a matter of obligation, I consented to do my best, but I was
+very nervous. At the end of the second act, during the balloting scene,
+Lady Jane has to appear suddenly on the stage, with the word "Away!" I
+forget at this distance of time whether I made a mistake in pitching the
+note a third higher or lower. I know it was not out of harmony, but it
+was sufficiently wrong to send the chorus astray, and bring my heart up
+into my mouth. It never occurred after the first night, but I never
+stood at the wings again waiting for that particular entrance but I
+"girded my loins together," as it were, with a kind of dread lest I
+should repeat the error. After a while I perceived a good deal of
+whispering about me in the company, and I asked poor Federici (who
+played the colonel) the reason of it, particularly as he had previously
+asked me to stand as far from him as I could upon the stage, as I
+magnetized him so strongly that he couldn't sing if I was near him.
+"Well! do you know," he said to me in answer, "that a very strange thing
+occurs occasionally with reference to you, Miss Marryat. While you are
+standing on the stage sometimes, you appear seated in the stalls.
+Several people have seen it beside myself. I assure you it is true."</p>
+
+<p>"But <i>when</i> do you see me?" I enquired with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"It's always at the same time," he answered, "just before you run on at
+the end of the second act. Of course it's only an appearance, but it's
+very queer." I told him then of the strange feelings of distrust of
+myself I experienced each night at that very moment, when my spirit
+seems to have preceded myself upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>I had a friend many years ago in India, who (like many other friends)
+had permitted time and separation to come between us, and alienate us
+from each other. I had not seen him nor heard from him for eleven years,
+and to all appearance our friendship was at an end. One evening the
+medium I have alluded to above, Mrs. Fitzgerald, who was a personal
+friend of mine, was at my house, and after dinner she put her feet up on
+the sofa&mdash;a very unusual thing for her&mdash;and closed her eyes. She and I
+were quite alone in the drawing-room, and after a little while I
+whispered softly, "Bessie, are you asleep?" The answer came from her
+control "Dewdrop," a wonderfully sharp Red Indian girl. "No! she's in a
+trance. There's somebody coming to speak to you! I don't want him to
+come. He'll make the medium ill. But it's no use. I see him creeping
+round the corner now."</p>
+
+<p>"But why should it make her ill?" I argued, believing we were about to
+hold an ordinary <i>s&eacute;ance</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he's a <i>live</i> one, he hasn't passed over yet," replied Dewdrop,
+"and live ones always make my medium feel sick. But it's no use. I can't
+keep him out. He may as well come. But don't let him stay long."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he, Dewdrop?" I demanded curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> don't know! Guess <i>you</i> will! He's an old friend of yours, and his
+name is George." Whereupon Bessie Fitzgerald laid back on the sofa
+cushions, and Dewdrop ceased to speak. It was some time before there was
+any result. The medium tossed and turned, and wiped the perspiration
+from her forehead, and pushed back her hair, and beat up the cushions
+and threw herself back upon them with a sigh, and went through all the
+pantomime of a man trying to court sleep in a hot climate. Presently she
+opened her eyes and glanced languidly around her. Her unmistakable
+actions and the name "George" (which was that of my friend, then
+resident in India) had naturally aroused my suspicions as to the
+identity of the influence, and when Bessie opened her eyes, I asked
+softly, "George, is that you?" At the sound of my voice the medium
+started violently and sprung into a sitting posture, and then, looking
+all round the room in a scared manner, she exclaimed, "Where am I? Who
+brought me here?" Then catching sight of me, she continued, "Mrs.
+Ross-Church!&mdash;Florence! Is this <i>your</i> room? O! let me go! <i>Do</i> let me
+go!"</p>
+
+<p>This was not complimentary, to say the least of it, from a friend whom I
+had not met for eleven years, but now that I had got him I had no
+intention of letting him go, until I was convinced of his identity. But
+the terror of the spirit at finding himself in a strange place seemed so
+real and uncontrollable that I had the greatest difficulty in persuading
+him to stay, even for a few minutes. He kept on reiterating, "Who
+brought me here? I did not wish to come. Do let me go back. I am so very
+cold" (shivering convulsively), "so very, <i>very</i> cold."</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me a few questions," I said, "and then you shall go. Do you know
+who I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, you are Florence."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is your name?" He gave it at full length. "And do you care for
+me still?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much. But let me go."</p>
+
+<p>"In a minute. Why do you never write to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are reasons. I am not a free agent. It is better as it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so. I miss your letters very much. Shall I ever hear from
+you again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"And see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but not yet. Let me go now. I don't wish to stay. You are making
+me very unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>If I could describe the fearful manner in which, during this
+conversation, he glanced every moment at the door, like a man who is
+afraid of being discovered in a guilty action, it would carry with it to
+my readers, as it did to me, the most convincing proof that the medium's
+body was animated by a totally different influence from her own. I kept
+the spirit under control until I had fully convinced myself that he knew
+everything about our former friendship and his own present surroundings;
+and then I let him fly back to India, and wondered if he would wake up
+the next morning and imagine he had been laboring under nightmare.</p>
+
+<p>These experiences with the spirits of the living are certainly amongst
+the most curious I have obtained. On more than one occasion, when I
+have been unable to extract the truth of a matter from my acquaintances
+I have sat down alone, as soon as I believed them to be asleep, and
+summoned their spirits to the table and compelled them to speak out.
+Little have they imagined sometimes how I came to know things which they
+had scrupulously tried to hide from me. I have heard that the power to
+summons the spirits of the living is not given to all media, but I have
+always possessed it. I can do so when they are awake as well as when
+they are asleep, though it is not so easy. A gentleman once <i>dared</i> me
+to do this with him, and I only conceal his name because I made him look
+ridiculous. I waited till I knew he was engaged at a dinner-party, and
+then about nine o'clock in the evening I sat down and summoned him to
+come to me. It was some little time before he obeyed, and when he did
+come, he was eminently sulky. I got a piece of paper and pencil, and
+from his dictation I wrote down the number and names of the guests at
+the dinner-table, also the dishes of which he had partaken, and then in
+pity for his earnest entreaties I let him go again. "You are making me
+ridiculous," he said, "everyone is laughing at me."</p>
+
+<p>"But why? What are you doing?" I urged.</p>
+
+<p>"I am standing by the mantel-piece, and I have fallen fast asleep," he
+answered. The next morning he came pell-mell into my presence.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do to me last night?" he demanded. "I was at the Watts
+Philips, and after dinner I went fast asleep with my head upon my hand,
+standing by the mantel-piece, and they were all trying to wake me and
+couldn't. Have you been playing any of your tricks upon me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only made you do what you declared I couldn't," I replied. "How did
+you like the white soup and the turbot, and the sweetbreads, etc., etc."</p>
+
+<p>He opened his eyes at my nefariously obtained knowledge, and still more
+when I produced the paper written from his dictation. This is not a
+usual custom of mine&mdash;it would not be interesting enough to pursue as a
+custom&mdash;but I am a dangerous person to <i>dare</i> to do anything.</p>
+
+<p>The old friend whose spirit visited me through Mrs. Fitzgerald had lost
+a sister to whom he was very tenderly attached before he made my
+acquaintance, and I knew little of her beyond her name. One evening,
+not many months after the interview with him which I have recorded, a
+spirit came to me, giving the name of my friend's sister, with this
+message, "My brother has returned to England, and would like to know
+your address. Write to him to the Club, Leamington, and tell him where
+to find you." I replied, "Your brother has not written to me, nor
+inquired after me for the last eleven years. He has lost all interest in
+me, and I cannot be the first to write to him, unless I am sure that he
+wishes it."</p>
+
+<p>"He has <i>not</i> lost all interest in you," said the spirit; "he thinks of
+you constantly, and I hear him pray for you. He wishes to hear from
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"That may be true," I replied, "but I cannot accept it on your
+authority. If your brother really wishes to renew our acquaintance, let
+him write and tell me so."</p>
+
+<p>"He does not know your address, and I cannot get near enough to him to
+influence him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then things must remain as they are," I replied somewhat testily. "I am
+a public person. He can find out my address, if he chooses to do so."</p>
+
+<p>The spirit seemed to reflect for a moment; then she rapped out, "Wait,
+and I will fetch my brother. He shall come here himself and tell you
+what he thinks about it." In a short time there was a different movement
+of the table, and the name of my old friend was given. After we had
+exchanged a few words, and I had told him I required a test of his
+identity, he asked me to get a pencil and paper, and write from his
+dictation. I did as he requested, and he dictated the following
+sentence, "Long time, indeed, has passed since the days you call to
+mind, but time, however long, does not efface the past. It has never
+made me cease to think of and pray for you as I felt you, too, did think
+of and pray for me. Write to the address my sister gave you. I want to
+hear from you."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the perspicuity and apparent genuineness of this
+message, it was some time before I could make up my mind to follow the
+directions it gave me. My pride stood in the way to prevent it. <i>Ten
+days afterwards</i>, however, having received several more visits from the
+sister, I did as she desired me, and sent a note to her brother to the
+Leamington Club. The answer came by return of post, and contained
+(amongst others) <i>the identical words</i> he had told me to write down.
+Will Mr. Stuart Cumberland, or any other clever man, explain to me
+<i>what</i> or <i>who</i> it was that had visited me ten days beforehand, and
+dictated words which could hardly have been in my correspondent's brain
+before he received my letter? I am ready to accept any reasonable
+explanation of the matter from the scientists, philosophers, chemists,
+or arguists of the world, and I am open to conviction, when my sense
+convinces me, that their reasoning is true. But my present belief is,
+that not a single man or woman will be found able to account on any
+ordinary grounds for such an extraordinary instance of "unconscious
+cerebration."</p>
+
+<p>Being subject to "optical illusions," I naturally had several with
+regard to my spirit child, "Florence," and she always came to me clothed
+in a white dress. One night, however, when I was living alone in the
+Regent's Park, I saw "Florence" (as I imagined) standing in the centre
+of the room, dressed in a green riding habit slashed with orange color,
+with a cavalier hat of grey felt on her head, ornamented with a long
+green feather and a gold buckle. She stood with her back to me, but I
+could see her profile as she looked over her shoulder, with the skirt of
+her habit in her hand. This being a most extraordinary attire in which
+to see "Florence," I felt curious on the subject, and the next day I
+questioned her about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Florence!" I said, "why did you come to me last night in a green riding
+habit?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come to you last night, mother! It was my sister Eva."</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, "is anything wrong with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! she is quite well."</p>
+
+<p>"How could she come to me then?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did not come in reality, but her thoughts were much with you, and
+so you saw her spirit clairvoyantly."</p>
+
+<p>My daughter Eva, who was on the stage, was at that time fulfilling a
+stock engagement in Glasgow, and very much employed. I had not heard
+from her for a fortnight, which was a most unusual occurrence, and I had
+begun to feel uneasy. This vision made me more so, and I wrote at once
+to ask her if all was as it should be. Her answer was to this effect: "I
+am so sorry I have had no time to write to you this week, but I have
+been so awfully busy. We play 'The Colleen Bawn' here next week, and I
+have had to get my dress ready for 'Anne Chute.' It's so effective. I
+wish you could see it. <i>A green habit slashed with orange, and a grey
+felt hat with a long green feather and a big gold buckle.</i> I tried it on
+the other night, and it looked so nice, etc., etc."</p>
+
+<p>Well, my darling girl had had her wish, and I <i>had</i> seen it.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>OPTICAL ILLUSIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>As I have alluded to what my family termed my "optical illusions," I
+think it as well to describe a few of them, which appeared by the
+context to be something more than a mere temporary disturbance of my
+visual organs. I will pass over such as might be traced, truly or
+otherwise, to physical causes, and confine myself to those which were
+subsequently proved to be the reflection of something that, unknown to
+me, had gone before. In 1875 I was much engaged in giving dramatic
+readings in different parts of the country, and I visited Dublin for the
+first time in my life, for that purpose, and put up at the largest and
+best-frequented hotel there. Through the hospitality of the residents
+and the duties of my professional business, I was engaged both day and
+night, and when I <i>did</i> get to bed, I had every disposition to sleep, as
+the saying is, like a "top." But there was something in the hotel that
+would not let me do so. I had a charming bedroom, cheerful, bright and
+pretty, and replete with every comfort, and I would retire to rest "dead
+beat," and fall off to sleep at once, to be waked perhaps half-a-dozen
+times a night by that inexplicable something (or nothing) that rouses me
+whenever I am about to enjoy an "optical illusion," and to see figures,
+sometimes one, sometimes two or three, sometimes a whole group standing
+by my bedside and gazing at me with looks of the greatest astonishment,
+as much as to ask what right I had to be there. But the most remarkable
+part of the matter to me was, that all the figures were those of men,
+and military men, to whom I was too well accustomed to be able to
+mistake. Some were officers and others soldiers, some were in uniform,
+others in undress, but they all belonged to the army, and they all
+seemed to labor under the same feeling of intense surprise at seeing
+<i>me</i> in the hotel. These apparitions were so life-like and appeared so
+frequently, that I grew quite uncomfortable about them, for however
+much one may be used to see "optical illusions," it is not pleasant to
+fancy there are about twenty strangers gazing at one every night as one
+lies asleep. Spiritualism is, or was, a tabooed subject in Dublin, and I
+had been expressly cautioned not to mention it before my new
+acquaintances. However, I could not keep entire silence on this subject,
+and dining <i>en famille</i> one day, with a hospitable family of the name of
+Robinson, I related to them my nightly experiences at the hotel. Father,
+mother, and son exclaimed simultaneously. "Good gracious," they said,
+"don't you know that that hotel was built on the site of the old
+barracks? The house immediately behind it, which formed part of the old
+building, was vacated by its last tenants on account of its being
+haunted. Every evening at the hour the soldiers used to be marched up to
+bed, they heard the tramp, tramp, tramp of the feet ascending the
+staircase."</p>
+
+<p>"That may be," I replied, "but they <i>knew</i> their house stood on the site
+of the barracks, and <i>I didn't</i>."</p>
+
+<p>My eldest daughter was spending a holiday with me once after my second
+marriage, and during the month of August. She had been very much
+overworked, and I made her lie in bed till noon. One morning I had been
+to her room at that hour to wake her, and on turning to leave it (in the
+broad daylight, remember), I encountered a man on the landing outside
+her door. He was dressed in a white shirt with black studs down the
+front, and a pair of black cloth trousers. He had dark hair and eyes,
+and small features; altogether, he struck me as having rather a sinister
+and unpleasant appearance. I stood still, with the open door in my hand,
+and gazed at him. He looked at me also for a minute, and then turned and
+walked upstairs to an upper storey where the nursery was situated,
+beckoning me, with a jerk of his hand, to follow him. My daughter
+(remarking a peculiar expression in my eyes, which I am told they assume
+on such occasions) said, "Mother! what do you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a spirit," I answered, "and he has gone upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, what <i>is</i> the good of seeing them in that way," said Eva, rather
+impatiently (for this dear child always disliked and avoided
+Spiritualism), and I was fain to confess that I really did <i>not</i> know
+the especial good of encountering a sinister-looking gentleman in shirt
+and trousers, on a blazing noon in August. After which the circumstance
+passed from my mind, until recalled again.</p>
+
+<p>A few months later I had occasion to change the children's nurse, and
+the woman who took her place was an Icelandic girl named Margaret
+Thommassen, who had only been in England for three weeks. I found that
+she had been educated far above the average run of domestic servants,
+and was well acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg and other
+authors. One day as I walked up the nursery stairs to visit the children
+in bed, I encountered the same man I had seen outside my daughter's
+room, standing on the upper landing, as though waiting my approach. He
+was dressed as before, but this time his arms were folded across his
+breast and his face downcast, as though he were unhappy about something.
+He disappeared as I reached the landing, and I mentioned the
+circumstance to no one. A few days later, Margaret Thommassen asked me
+timidly if I believed in the possibility of the spirits of the departed
+returning to this earth. When I replied that I did, she appeared
+overjoyed, and said she had never hoped to find anyone in England to
+whom she could speak about it. She then gave me a mass of evidence on
+the subject which forms a large part of the religion of the Icelanders.
+She told me that she felt uneasy about her eldest brother, to whom she
+was strongly attached. He had left Iceland a year before to become a
+waiter in Germany, and had promised faithfully that so long as he lived
+she should hear from him every month, and when he failed to write she
+must conclude he was dead. Margaret told me she had heard nothing from
+him now for three months, and each night when the nursery light was put
+out, someone came and sat at the foot of her bed and sighed. She then
+produced his photograph, and to my astonishment I recognized at once the
+man who had appeared to me some months before I knew that such a woman
+as Margaret Thommassen existed. He was taken in a shirt and trousers,
+just as I had seen him, and wore the same repulsive (to me) and sinister
+expression. I then told his sister that I had already seen him twice in
+that house, and she grew very excited and anxious to learn the truth. In
+consequence I sat with her in hopes of obtaining some news of her
+brother, who immediately came to the table, and told her that he was
+dead, with the circumstances under which he had died, and the address
+where she was to write to obtain particulars. And on Margaret Thommassen
+writing as she was directed, she obtained the practical proofs of her
+brother's death, without which this story would be worthless.</p>
+
+<p>My sister Cecil lives with her family in Somerset, and many years ago I
+went down there to visit her for the first time since she had moved into
+a new house which I had never seen before. She put me to sleep in the
+guest chamber, a large, handsome room, just newly furnished by Oetzmann.
+But I could not sleep in it. The very first night some one walked up and
+down the room, groaning and sighing close to my ears, and he, she, or it
+especially annoyed me by continually touching the new stiff counterpane
+with a "scrooping" sound that set my teeth on edge, and sent my heart up
+into my mouth. I kept on saying, "Go away! Don't come near me!" for its
+proximity inspired me with a horror and repugnance which I have seldom
+felt under similar circumstances. I did not say anything at first to my
+sister, who is rather nervous on the subject of "bogies," but on the
+third night I could stand it no longer, and told her plainly the room
+was haunted, and I wished she would put me in her dressing-room, or with
+her servants, sooner than let me remain there, as I could get no rest.
+Then the truth came out, and she confessed that the last owner of the
+house had committed suicide in that very room, and showed me the place
+on the boards, underneath the carpet, where the stain of his blood still
+remained. A lively sort of room to sleep all alone in.</p>
+
+<p>Another sister of mine, Blanche, used to live in a haunted house in
+Bruges, of which a description will be found in the chapter headed, "The
+Story of the Monk." Long, however, before the monk was heard of, I could
+not sleep in her house on account of the disturbances in my room, for
+which my sister used to laugh at me. But even when my husband, Colonel
+Lean, and I stayed there together, it was much the same. One night I
+waked him to see the figure of a woman, who had often visited me,
+standing at the foot of the bed. She was quaintly attired in a sort of
+leathern boddice or jerkin, laced up the front over a woollen petticoat
+of some dark color. She wore a cap of Mechlin lace, with the large flaps
+at the side, adopted by Flemish women to this day; her hair was combed
+tightly off her forehead, and she wore a profusion of gold ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>My husband could describe her as vividly as I did, which proves how
+plainly the apparition must have shown itself. I waked on several
+occasions to see this woman busy (apparently) with the contents of an
+old carved oak armoir which stood in a corner of the room, and which, I
+suppose, must have had something to do with herself. My eldest son
+joined me at Bruges on this occasion. He was a young fellow of twenty,
+who had never practised, nor even enquired into Spiritualism&mdash;fresh from
+sea, and about as free from fear or superstitious fancies as a mortal
+could be. He was put to sleep in a room on the other side of the house,
+and I saw from the first that he was grave about it, but I did not ask
+him the reason, though I felt sure, from personal experience, that he
+would hear or see something before long. In a few days he came to me and
+said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mother! I'm going to take my mattress into the colonel's dressing-room
+to-night and sleep there." I asked him why. He replied, "It's impossible
+to stay in that room any longer. I wouldn't mind if they'd let me sleep,
+but they won't. There's something walks about half the night, whispering
+and muttering, and touching the bed-clothes, and though I don't believe
+in any of your rubbishy spirits, I'll be 'jiggered' if I sleep there any
+longer." So he was not "jiggered" (whatever that may be), as he refused
+to enter the room again.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot end this chapter more appropriately than by relating a very
+remarkable case of "optical illusion" which was seen by myself alone. It
+was in the month of July, 1880, and I had gone down alone to Brighton
+for a week's quiet. I had some important literary work to finish, and
+the exigencies of the London season made too many demands upon my time.
+So I packed up my writing materials, and took a lodging all to myself,
+and set hard to work. I used to write all day and walk in the evening.
+It was light then till eight or nine o'clock, and the Esplanade used to
+be crowded till a late hour. I was pushing my way, on the evening of the
+9th of July, through the crowd, thinking of my work more than anything
+else, when I saw, as I fully thought, my step-son, Francis Lean, leaning
+with his back against the palings at the edge of the cliff and smiling
+at me. He was a handsome lad of eighteen who was supposed to have sailed
+in his ship for the Brazils five months before. But he had been a wild
+young fellow, causing his father much trouble and anxiety, and my first
+impression was one of great annoyance, thinking naturally that, since I
+saw him there, he had never sailed at all, but run away from his ship at
+the last moment. I hastened up to him, therefore, but as I reached his
+side, he turned round quite methodically, and walked quickly down a
+flight of steps that led to the beach. I followed him, and found myself
+amongst a group of ordinary seamen mending their nets, but I could see
+Francis nowhere. I did not know what to make of the occurrence, but it
+never struck me that it was not either the lad himself or some one
+remarkably like him. The same night, however, after I had retired to bed
+in a room that was unpleasantly brilliant with the moonlight streaming
+in at the window, I was roused from my sleep by someone turning the
+handle of my door, and there stood Francis in his naval uniform, with
+the peaked cap on his head, smiling at me as he had done upon the cliff.
+I started up in bed intending to speak to him, when he laid his finger
+on his lips and faded away. This second vision made me think something
+must have happened to the boy, but I determined not to say anything to
+my husband about it until it was verified. Shortly after my return to
+London, we were going, in company with my own son (also a sailor), to
+see his ship which was lying in the docks, when, as we were driving
+through Poplar, I again saw my stepson Francis standing on the pavement,
+and smiling at me. That time I spoke. I said to Colonel Lean, "I am sure
+I saw Francis standing there. Do you think it is possible he may not
+have sailed after all?" But Colonel Lean laughed at the idea. He
+believed it to be a chance likeness I had seen. Only the lad was too
+good-looking to have many duplicates in this world. We visited the
+seaside after that, and in September, whilst we were staying at
+Folkestone, Colonel Lean received a letter to say that his son Francis
+had been drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surf of the Bay of
+Callao, in the Brazils, <i>on the 9th of July</i>&mdash;the day I had seen him
+twice in Brighton, two months before we heard that he was gone.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>ON SCEPTICISM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There are two classes of people who have done more harm to the cause of
+Spiritualism than the testimony of all the scientists has done good, and
+those are the enthusiasts and the sceptics. The first believe everything
+they see or hear. Without giving themselves the trouble to obtain proofs
+of the genuineness of the manifestations, they rush impetuously from one
+acquaintance to the other, detailing their experience with so much
+exaggeration and such unbounded faith, that they make the absurdity of
+it patent to all. They are generally people of low intellect, credulous
+dispositions, and weak nerves. They bow down before the influences as if
+they were so many little gods descended from heaven, instead of being,
+as in the majority of instances, spirits a shade less holy than our own,
+who, for their very shortcomings, are unable to rise above the
+atmosphere that surrounds this gross and material world. These are the
+sort of spiritualists whom <i>Punch</i> and other comic papers have very
+justly ridiculed. Who does not remember the picture of the afflicted
+widow, for whom the medium has just called up the departed Jones?</p>
+
+<p>"Jones," she falters, "are you happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Much happier than I was down here," growls Jones.</p>
+
+<p>"O! then you <i>must</i> be in heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, quite the reverse," is the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Who also has not sat a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> where such people have not made
+themselves so ridiculous as to bring the cause they profess to adore
+into contempt and ignominy. Yet to allow the words and deeds of fools to
+affect one's inward and private conviction of a matter would be
+tantamount to giving up the pursuit of everything in which one's fellow
+creatures can take a part.</p>
+
+<p>The second class to which I alluded&mdash;the sceptics&mdash;have not done so much
+injury to Spiritualism as the enthusiasts, because they are as a rule,
+so intensely bigoted and hard-headed, and narrow-minded, that they
+overdo their protestations, and render them harmless. The sceptic
+refuses to believe <i>anything</i>, because he has found out <i>one</i> thing to
+be a fraud. If one medium deceives, all the mediums must deceive. If one
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> is a failure, none can be successful. If he gains no
+satisfactory test of the presence of the spirits of the departed, no one
+has ever gained such a test. Now, such reason is neither just nor
+logical. Again, a sceptic fully expects <i>his</i> testimony to be accepted
+and believed, yet he will never believe any truth on the testimony of
+another person. And if he is told that, given certain conditions, he can
+see this or hear the other, he says, "No! I will see it and hear it
+without any conditions, or else I will proclaim it all a fraud." In like
+manner, we might say to a savage, on showing him a watch, "If you will
+keep your eye on those hands, you will see them move round to tell the
+hours and minutes," and he should reply, "I must put the watch into
+boiling water&mdash;those are my conditions&mdash;and if it won't go then, I will
+not believe it can go at all."</p>
+
+<p>I don't mind a man being a sceptic in Spiritualism. I don't see how he
+can help (considering the belief in which we are reared) being a
+sceptic, until he has proved so strange a matter for himself. But I <i>do</i>
+object to a man or a woman taking part in a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with the sole
+intention of detecting deceit, not <i>when</i> it has happened, but before it
+has happened&mdash;of bringing an argumentative, disputatious mind, full of
+the idea that it is going to be tricked and humbugged into (perhaps) a
+private circle who are sitting (like Rosa Dartle) "simply for
+information," and scattering all the harmony and good-will about him
+broadcast. He couldn't do it to a human assembly without breaking up the
+party. Why should he expect to be more kindly welcomed by a spiritual
+one? I have seen an immense deal of courtesy shown under such
+circumstances to men whom I should have liked to see kicked downstairs.
+I have seen them enter a lady's private drawing-room, by invitation, to
+witness manifestations which were never, under any circumstances, made a
+means of gain, and have heard them argue, and doubt, and contradict,
+until they have given their hostess and her friends the lie to their
+faces. And the world in general would be quite ready to side with these
+(so-called) gentlemen, not because their word or their wisdom was
+better worth than that of their fellow guests, but because they
+protested against the truth of a thing which it had made up its mind to
+be impossible. I don't mind a sceptic myself, as I said before, but he
+must be unbiassed, which few sceptics are. As a rule, they have decided
+the question at issue for themselves before they commence to investigate
+it.</p>
+
+<p>I find that few people outside the pale of Spiritualism have heard of
+the Dialectical Society, which was a scientific society assembled a few
+years ago for the sole purpose of enquiring into the truth of the
+matter. It was composed of forty members,&mdash;ten lawyers, ten scientists,
+ten clergymen, and ten chemists (I think that was the arrangement), and
+they held forty <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, and the published report at the close of them
+was, that not one of these men of learning and repute could find any
+natural cause for the wonders he had witnessed. I know that there are a
+thousand obstacles in the way of belief. The extraordinarily
+contradictory manner in which Protestants are brought up, to believe in
+one and the same breath that spirits were common visitants to earth at
+the periods of which the Bible treats, but that it is impossible they
+can return to it now, although the Lord is the same yesterday, to-day,
+and for ever. The conditions of darkness for the creation of
+materialized spirits, and the resemblance they sometimes bear to the
+medium, are two fearful stumbling-blocks. Yet one must know that <i>all</i>
+things are created in the dark, and that even a seed cannot sprout if
+you let the light in upon it, while as for the resemblance between the
+spirit and the medium, from whom it takes the material being that
+enables it to appear, if investigators would only persevere with their
+enquiries, they would find, as I have, that that is a disappointment
+which has its remedy in Time. When people call on me to explain such
+things, I can only say that I know no more how they come than they do,
+or that I know how <i>I</i> came, a living, sentient creature, into the
+world. Besides (as I have said before), I write these pages to tell only
+<i>what I have seen</i>, and not to argue how it came to pass that I saw it.</p>
+
+<p>I have a little story to tell here which powerfully illustrates the
+foregoing remarks. The lines,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">"A woman convinced against her will<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line">Is of the same opinion still,"<br /></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>might have been penned with as much truth of sceptics. Men who are
+sceptical, <i>i.e.</i>, so thoroughly wrapt up in conceit of their powers of
+judgment and determination that it becomes impossible for them to
+believe themselves mistaken, will deny the evidence of all their senses
+sooner than confess they may be in the wrong. Such an one may be a
+clever scientist or a shrewd man of business, but he can never be a
+genius. For genius is invariably humble of its own powers, and,
+therefore, open to conviction. But the lesser minds, who are only equal
+to grasping such details as may have been drummed into them by sheer
+force of study, appear to have no capability of stretching beyond a
+certain limit. They are hedged in and cramped by the opinions in which
+they have been reared, or that they have built up for themselves out of
+the petty material their brain affords them, and have lost their powers
+of elasticity. "Thus far shalt thou go and no further," seems to be the
+fiat pronounced on too many men's reasoning faculties. Instead of
+believing the power of God and the resources of nature to be
+illimitable, they want to keep them within the little circle that
+encompasses their own brains. "I can't see it, and therefore it cannot
+be." There was a time when I used to take the trouble to try and
+convince such men, but I have long ceased to do so. It is quite
+indifferent to me what they believe or don't believe. And with such
+minds, even if they <i>were</i> convinced of its possibility, they would
+probably make no good use of spiritual intercourse. For there is no
+doubt it can be turned to evil uses as well as to good.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago I was on friendly terms with a man of this sort. He was a
+doctor, accounted clever in his profession, and I knew him to be an able
+arguist, and thought he had common sense enough not to eat his own
+words, but the sequel proved that I was mistaken. We had several
+conversations together on Spiritualism, and as Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; was a complete
+disbeliever in the existence of a God and a future life, I was naturally
+not surprised to find that he did not place any credence in the account
+I gave him of my spiritualistic experiences. Many medical men attribute
+such experiences entirely to a diseased condition of mind or body.</p>
+
+<p>But when I asked Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; what he should think if he saw them with his
+own eyes, I confess I was startled to hear him answer that he should
+say his eyes deceived him. "But if you heard them speak?" I continued.</p>
+
+<p>"I should disbelieve my ears."</p>
+
+<p>"And if you touched and handled them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should mistrust my sense of feeling."</p>
+
+<p>"Then by what means," I argued, "do you know that I am Florence Marryat?
+You can only see me and hear me and touch me! What is there to prevent
+your senses misleading you at the present moment?"</p>
+
+<p>But to this argument Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; only returned a pitying smile, professing
+to think me, on this point at least, too feeble-minded to be worthy of
+reply, but in reality not knowing what on earth to say. He often,
+however, recurred to the subject of Spiritualism, and on several
+occasions told me that if I could procure him the opportunity of
+submitting a test which he might himself suggest, he should be very much
+obliged to me. It was about this time that a young medium named William
+Haxby, now passed away, went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Olive in Ainger
+Terrace, and we were invited to attend a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> given by him. Mrs.
+Olive, when giving the invitation, informed me that Mr. Haxby had been
+very successful in procuring direct writing in sealed boxes, and she
+asked me, if I wished to try the experiment, to take a secured box, with
+writing materials in it, to the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, and see what would happen to
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Here was, I thought, an excellent opportunity for Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;'s test, and
+I sent for him and told him what had been proposed. I urged him to
+prepare the test entirely by himself, and to accompany me to the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> and see what occurred,&mdash;to all of which he readily consented.
+Indeed, he became quite excited on the subject, being certain it would
+prove a failure; and in my presence he made the following
+preparations:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I. Half a sheet of ordinary cream-laid note-paper and half a cedar-wood
+black lead pencil were placed in a jeweller's cardwood box.</p>
+
+<p>II. The lid of the box was carefully glued down all round to the bottom
+part.</p>
+
+<p>III. The box was wrapt in white writing paper, which was gummed over it.</p>
+
+<p>IV. It was tied eight times with a peculiar kind of silk made for tying
+up arteries, and the eight knots were knots known to (as Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;
+informed me) medical men only.</p>
+
+<p>V. Each of the eight knots was sealed with sealing-wax, and impressed
+with Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;'s crest seal, which he always wore on his watch-chain.</p>
+
+<p>VI. The packet was again folded in brown paper, and sealed and tied to
+preserve the inside from injury.</p>
+
+<p>When Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; had finished it, he said to me, "If the spirits (or
+anybody) can write on that paper without cutting the silk, <i>I will
+believe whatever you wish</i>." I asked, "Are you <i>quite</i> sure that the
+packet could not be undone without your detecting it?" His answer
+was&mdash;"That silk is not to be procured except from a medical man; it is
+manufactured expressly for the tying of arteries; and the knots I have
+made are known only to medical men. They are the knots we use in tying
+arteries. The seal is my own crest, which never leaves my watch-chain,
+and I defy anyone to undo those knots without cutting them, or to tie
+them again, if cut. I repeat&mdash;if your friends can make, or cause to be
+made, the smallest mark on that paper, and return me the box in the
+condition it now is, <i>I will believe anything you choose</i>." And I
+confess I was very dubious of the result myself, and almost sorry that I
+had subjected the doctor's incredulity to so severe a test.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening appointed we attended the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; taking the
+prepared packet with him. He was directed to place it under his chair,
+but he tied a string to it and put it under his foot, retaining the
+other end of the string in his hand. The meeting was not one for
+favorably impressing an unbeliever in Spiritualism. There were too many
+people present, and too many strangers. The ordinary manifestations, to
+my mind, are worse than useless, unless they have been preceded by
+extraordinary ones; so that the doctor returned home more sceptical than
+before, and I repented that I had taken him there. One thing had
+occurred, however, that he could not account for. The packet which he
+had kept, as he thought, under his foot the whole time, was found, at
+the close of the meeting, to have disappeared. Another gentleman had
+brought a sealed box, with paper and pencil in it, to the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>; and
+at the close it was opened in the presence of all assembled, and found
+to contain a closely written letter from his deceased wife. But the
+doctor's box had evaporated, and was nowhere to be found. The door of
+the room had been locked all the time, and we searched the room
+thoroughly, but without success. Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; was naturally triumphant.</p>
+
+<p>"They couldn't undo <i>my</i> knots and <i>my</i> seals," he said, exulting over
+me, "and so they wisely did not return the packet. Both packets were of
+course taken from the room during the sitting by some confederate of the
+medium. The other one was easily managed, and put back again&mdash;<i>mine</i>
+proved unmanageable, and so they have retained it. I <i>knew</i> it would be
+so!"</p>
+
+<p>And he twinkled his eyes at me as much as to say, "I have shut <i>you</i> up.
+You will not venture to describe any of the marvels you have seen to me
+after this." Of course the failure did not discompose me, nor shake my
+belief. I never believed spiritual beings to be omnipotent, omnipresent,
+nor omniscient. They had failed before, and doubtless they would fail
+again. But if an acrobatic performer fails to turn a double somersault
+on to another man's head two or three times, it does not falsify the
+fact that he succeeds on the fourth occasion. I was sorry that the test
+had been a failure, for Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;'s sake, but I did not despair of
+seeing the box again. And at the end of a fortnight it was left at my
+house by Mr. Olive, with a note to say that it had been found that
+morning on the mantel-piece in Mr. Haxby's bedroom, and he lost no time
+in returning it to me. It was wrapt in the brown paper, tied and sealed,
+apparently just as we had carried it to the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> in Ainger Terrace;
+and I wrote at once to Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; announcing its return, and asking him
+to come over and open it in my presence. He came, took the packet in his
+hand, and having stripped off the outer wrapper, examined it carefully.
+There were four tests, it may be remembered, applied to the packet.</p>
+
+<p>I. The arterial silk, procurable only from a medical man.</p>
+
+<p>II. The knots to be tied only by medical men.</p>
+
+<p>III. Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;'s own crest, always kept on his watch chain, as a seal.</p>
+
+<p>IV. The lid of the cardboard box, glued all round to the bottom part.</p>
+
+<p>As the doctor scrutinized the silk, the knots, and the seals, I watched
+him narrowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you <i>quite sure</i>," I asked, "that it is the same paper in which you
+wrapt it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am <i>quite sure</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And the same silk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Your knots have not been untied?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am positive that they have not."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor your seal been tampered with?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not! It is just as I sealed it."</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful, Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;," I continued. "Remember I shall write down all
+you say."</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to swear to it in a court of justice," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then will you open the packet?"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. H&mdash;&mdash; took the scissors and cut the silk at each seal and knot, then
+tore off the gummed white writing paper (which was as fresh as when he
+had put it on), and tried to pull open the card-board box. But as he
+could not do this in consequence of the lid being glued down, he took
+out his penknife and cut it all round. As he did so, he looked at me and
+said, "Mark my words. There will be nothing written on the paper. It is
+impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>He lifted the lid, and behold <i>the box was empty</i>! The half sheet of
+notepaper and the half cedar wood pencil had both <i>entirely
+disappeared</i>. Not a crumb of lead, nor a shred of paper remained behind.
+I looked at the doctor, and the doctor looked completely bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Well!</i>" I said, interrogatively.</p>
+
+<p>He shifted about&mdash;grew red&mdash;and began to bluster.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you make of it?" I asked. "How do you account for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the easiest way in the world," he replied, trying to brave it out.
+"It's the most transparent deception I ever saw. They've kept the thing
+a fortnight and had time to do anything with it. A child could see
+through this. Surely your bright wits can want no help to an
+explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so bright as you give me credit for," I answered. "Will you
+explain your meaning to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure. They have evidently made an invisible slit in the
+joining of the box cover, and with a pair of fine forceps drawn the
+paper through it, bit by bit. For the pencil, they drew that by the same
+means to the slit and then pared it, little by little, with a lancet,
+till they could shake out the fragments."</p>
+
+<p>"That must have required very careful manipulation," I observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. But they've taken a fortnight to do it in."</p>
+
+<p>"But how about the arterial silk?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"They must have procured some from a surgeon."</p>
+
+<p>"And your famous knots?"</p>
+
+<p>"They got some surgeon to tie them!"</p>
+
+<p>"But your crest and seal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! they must have taken a facsimile of that in order to reproduce it.
+It is very cleverly done, but quite explicable!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you told me before you opened the packet that you would take your
+oath in a court of justice it had not been tampered with."</p>
+
+<p>"I was evidently deceived."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really believe, then, that an uneducated lad like Mr. Haxby
+would take the trouble to take impressions of seals and to procure
+arterial silk and the services of a surgeon, in order, not to mystify or
+convert <i>you</i>, but to gratify <i>me</i>, whose box he believes it to be."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he has done so!"</p>
+
+<p>"But just now you were equally sure he had <i>not</i> done so. Why should you
+trust your senses in one case more than in the other? And if Mr. Haxby
+has played a trick on me, as you suppose, why did you not discover the
+slit when you examined the box, before opening?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because my eyes misled me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then after all," I concluded, "the best thing you can say of yourself
+is that you&mdash;a man of reputed science, skill, and sense, and with a
+strong belief in your own powers&mdash;are unable to devise a test in which
+you shall not be outwitted by a person so inferior to yourself in age,
+intellect and education as young Haxby. But I will give you another
+chance. Make up another packet in any way you like. Apply to it the
+severest tests which your ingenuity can devise, or other men of genius
+can suggest to you, and let me give it to Haxby and see if the contents
+can be extracted, or tampered with a second time."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be useless," said Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;. "If they were extracted through
+the iron panels of a fireproof safe, I would not believe it was done by
+any but natural means."</p>
+
+<p>"Because you do not <i>wish</i> to believe," I argued.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," he confessed, "I do <i>not</i> wish to believe. If you
+convinced me of the truth of Spiritualism, you would upset all the
+theories I have held for the best part of my life. I don't believe in a
+God, nor a soul, nor a future existence, and I would rather not believe
+in them. We have quite enough trouble, in my opinion, in this life,
+without looking forward to another, and I would rather cling to my
+belief that when we die we have done with it once and for ever."</p>
+
+<p>So there ended my attempt to convince Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;, and I have often
+thought since that he was but a type of the genus sceptic. In this
+world, we mostly believe what we want to believe, and the thought of a
+future troubles us in proportion to the lives we lead here. It must
+often strike spiritualists (who mostly look forward to the day of their
+departure for another world, as a schoolboy looks forward to the
+commencement of the holidays) as a very strange thing, that people, as a
+rule, evince so little curiosity on the subject of Spiritualism. The
+idea of the spirits of the departed returning to this world to hold
+communication with their friends may be a new and startling one to them,
+but the very wonder of it would make one expect to see them evince a
+little interest in a matter which concerns us all. Yet the generality of
+Carlyle's British millions either pooh-pooh the notion as too utterly
+ridiculous for their exalted minds to entertain, or inform you, with
+superior wisdom, that if Spiritualism is true, they cannot see the use
+of it, and have no craving for any further knowledge. If these same
+people expected to go to Canada or Australia in a few months' time, how
+eagerly they would ask questions concerning their future home, and
+procure the best information on what to do, whilst they remained in
+England, in order to fit themselves for the journey and the change.</p>
+
+<p>But a journey to the other world&mdash;to the many worlds which perhaps await
+us&mdash;a certain proof that we shall live again (or rather, that we shall
+never die but need only time and patience and well-living here to
+reunite us to the dear one gone before)&mdash;<i>that</i> is a subject not worthy
+of our trying to believe&mdash;of not sufficient importance for us to take
+the trouble of ascertaining. I pity from my soul the men and women who
+have no dead darling buried in their hearts whom they <i>know</i> they shall
+meet in a home of God's own choosing when this life ends.</p>
+
+<p>The old, cold faiths have melted away beneath the sun of Progress. We
+can no longer be made to believe, like little children, in a shadowy
+indefinite Heaven where the saints sit on damp clouds with harps in
+their hands forever singing psalms and hymns and heavenly songs. That
+sort of existence could be a Heaven to none, and to most it would be a
+Hell. We do not accept it now, any more than we do the other place, with
+its typical fire and brimstone, and pitch-forking devils with horns and
+tails. But what has Religion given us instead? Those whose common-sense
+will not permit them to believe in the parson's Heaven and Hell
+generally believe (like Dr. H&mdash;&mdash;) in nothing at all. But Spiritualism,
+earnestly and faithfully followed, leaves us in no doubt. Spiritualists
+know where they are going to. The spheres are almost as familiar to them
+as this earth&mdash;it is not too much to say that many live in them as much
+as they do here, and often they seem the more real, as they are the more
+lasting of the two. Spiritualists are in no manner of doubt <i>who</i> their
+eyes will see when opening on another phase of life. <i>They</i> do not
+expect to be carried straight up into Abraham's bosom, and lie snugly
+there, whilst revengeful demons are torturing those who were, perhaps,
+nearest and dearest to them down below. They have a better and more
+substantial religion than that&mdash;a revelation that teaches them that the
+works we do in the flesh must bear their fruit in the spirit, and that
+no tardy deathbed repentance, no crying out for mercy because Justice is
+upon us, like an unruly child howling as soon as the stick is produced
+for chastisement&mdash;will avail to wipe off the sins we have indulged in
+upon earth. They know their expiation will be a bitter one, yet not
+without Hope, and that they will be helped, as well as help others, in
+the upward path that leads to ultimate perfection. The teaching of
+Spiritualism is such as largely to increase belief in our Divine
+Father's love, our Saviour's pity, and the angels' ministering help. But
+it does more than this, more than any religion has done before. It
+affords the <i>proof</i>&mdash;the only proof we have ever received, and our
+finite natures can accept&mdash;of a future existence. The majority of
+Christians <i>hope</i> and <i>trust</i>, and say they <i>believe</i>. It is the
+Spiritualist only that <i>knows</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I think that the marvellous indifference displayed by the crowd to
+ascertain these truths for themselves must be due, in a large number of
+instances, to the unnatural but universal fear which is entertained of
+Death and all things connected with it. The same people who loudly
+declaim again the possibility of seeing a "ghost," shudder at the idea
+of doing so. The creature whom they have adored and waited on with
+tenderest devotion passes away, and they are afraid to enter the room
+where his body lies. That which they clung to and wept over yesterday,
+they fear to look at or touch to-day, and the idea that he would return
+and speak to them would inspire them with horror. But why afraid of an
+impossibility? Their very fears should teach them that there is a cause.
+From numerous notes made on the subject I have invariably found that
+those who have had the opportunity of testing the reality of
+Spiritualism, and either rejected or denied it, have been selfish,
+worldly, and cold-hearted people who neither care, nor are cared for, by
+those who have passed on to another sphere. Plenty of love is sure to
+bring you plenty of proof. The mourners, who have lost sight of what is
+dearest to them, and would give all they possess for one more look at
+the face they loved so much, or one more tone of the voice that was
+music to their ears, are only too eager and grateful to hear of a way by
+which their longings may be gratified, and would take any trouble and go
+to any expense to accomplish what they desire.</p>
+
+<p>It is this intense yearning to speak again with those that have left us,
+on the part of the bereaved, that has led to chicanery on the part of
+media in order to gratify it. Wherever money is to be made,
+unfortunately cheating will step in; but because some tradesmen will
+sell you brass for gold is no reason to vote all jewellers thieves. The
+account of the raising of Samuel by the witch of Endor is an instance
+that my argument is correct. The witch was evidently an impostor, for
+she had no expectation of seeing Samuel, and was frightened by the
+apparition she had evoked; but Spiritualism must be a truth, because it
+was Samuel himself who appeared and rebuked Saul for calling him back to
+this earth. What becomes, in the face of this story, of the impassable
+gulf between the earthly and spiritual spheres? That atheists who
+believe in nothing should not believe in Spiritualism is credible,
+natural, and consistent. But that Christians should reject the theory is
+tantamount to acknowledging that they found their hopes of salvation
+upon a lie. There is no way of getting out of it. If it be <i>impossible</i>
+that the spirits of the departed can communicate with men, the Bible
+must be simply a collection of fabulous statements; if it be <i>wrong</i> to
+speak with spirits, all the men whose histories are therein related were
+sinners, and the Almighty helped them to sin; and if all the spirits who
+have been heard and seen and touched in modern times are devils sent on
+earth to lure us to our destruction, how are we to distinguish between
+them and the Greatest Spirit of all, who walked with mortal Adam and Eve
+in the garden of Eden. "O! yes!" I think I hear somebody cry, "but that
+was in the Bible;" as if the Bible were a period or a place. And did it
+ever strike you that there is something else recorded in the Bible? "And
+He did not many miracles there because of their <i>unbelief</i>." And yet
+Christ came to call "not the righteous but the sinners to repentance."
+Surely, then, the unbelieving required the conviction of the miracles
+more than those who knew Him to be God. Yet there He did them not,
+<i>because</i> of their unbelief, because their <i>scepticism</i> produced a
+condition in which miracles could not be wrought. And yet the nineteenth
+century is surprised because a sceptic, whose jarring element upsets all
+union and harmony, is not an acceptable addition to a spiritual meeting,
+and that the miracles of the present&mdash;gross and feeble, compared to
+those of the past, because worked by grosser material though grosser
+agents&mdash;ceased to be manifested when his unbelief intrudes itself upon
+them.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF JOHN POWLES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the 4th of April, 1860, there died in India a young officer in the
+12th Regiment M.N.I., of the name of John Powles. He was an intimate
+friend of my first husband for several years before his death, and had
+consequently become intimate with me; indeed, on several occasions he
+shared our house and lived with us on the terms of a brother. I was very
+young at that time and susceptible to influence of all sorts&mdash;extremely
+nervous, moreover, on the subject of "ghosts," and yet burning with
+curiosity to learn something of the other world&mdash;a topic which it is
+most difficult to induce anybody to discuss with you. People will talk
+of dress, or dinner, or their friend's private affairs&mdash;of anything, in
+fact, sooner than Death and Immortality and the world to come which we
+must all inevitably enter. Even parsons&mdash;the legalized exponents of what
+lies beyond the grave&mdash;are no exceptions to the rule. When the bereaved
+sufferer goes to them for comfort, they shake their heads and "hope" and
+"trust," and say "God's mercy has no limits," but they cannot give him
+one reasonable proof to rest upon that Death is but a name. John Powles,
+however, though a careless and irreligious man, liked to discuss the
+Unseen. We talked continually on the subject, even when he was
+apparently in perfect health, and he often ended our conversation by
+assuring me that should he die first (and he always prophesied truly
+that he should not reach the age of thirty) he would (were such a thing
+possible) come back to me. I used to laugh at the absurdity of the idea,
+and remind him how many friends had made the same promise to each other
+and never fulfilled it. For though I firmly believed that such things
+<i>had</i> been, I could not realize that they would ever happen to me, or
+that I should survive the shock if they did. John Powles' death at the
+last was very sudden, although the disease he died of was of long
+standing. He had been under the doctor's hands for a few days when he
+took an unexpected turn for the worse, and my husband and myself, with
+other friends, were summoned to his bedside to say good-bye to him. When
+I entered the room he said to me, "So you see it has come at last. Don't
+forget what I said to you about it." They were his last intelligible
+words to me, though for several hours he grasped my dress with his hand
+to prevent my leaving him, and became violent and unmanageable if I
+attempted to quit his side. During this time, in the intervals of his
+delirium, he kept on entreating me to sing a certain old ballad, which
+had always been a great favorite with him, entitled "Thou art gone from
+my gaze." I am sure if I sung that song once during that miserable day,
+I must have sung it a dozen times. At last our poor friend fell into
+convulsions which recurred with little intermission until his death,
+which took place the same evening.</p>
+
+<p>His death and the manner of it caused me a great shock. He had been a
+true friend to my husband and myself for years, and we both mourned his
+loss very sincerely. That, and other troubles combined, had a serious
+effect upon my health, and the doctors advised my immediate return to
+England. When an officer dies in India, it is the custom to sell all his
+minor effects by auction. Before this took place, my husband asked me if
+there was anything belonging to John Powles that I should like to keep
+in remembrance of him. The choice I made was a curious one. He had
+possessed a dark green silk necktie, which was a favorite of his, and
+when it became soiled I offered to turn it for him, when it looked as
+good as new. Whereupon he had worn it so long that it was twice as dirty
+as before, so I turned it for him the second time, much to the amusement
+of the regiment. When I was asked to choose a keepsake of him, I said,
+"Give me the green tie," and I brought it to England with me.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage home was a terrible affair. I was suffering mentally and
+physically, to such a degree that I cannot think of the time without a
+shudder. John Powles' death, of course, added to my distress, and during
+the many months that occupied a voyage "by long sea," I hoped and
+expected that his spirit would appear to me. With the very strong belief
+in the possibility of the return to earth of the departed&mdash;or rather, I
+should say, with my strong belief <i>in</i> my belief&mdash;I lay awake night
+after night, thinking to see my lost friend, who had so often promised
+to come back to me. I even cried aloud to him to appear and tell me
+where he was, or what he was doing, but I never heard or saw a single
+thing. There was silence on every side of me. Ten days only after I
+landed in England I was delivered of a daughter, and when I had somewhat
+recovered my health and spirits&mdash;when I had lost the physical weakness
+and nervous excitability, to which most medical men would have
+attributed any mysterious sights or sounds I might have experienced
+before&mdash;then I commenced to <i>know</i> and to <i>feel</i> that John Powles was
+with me again. I did not see him, but I felt his presence. I used to lie
+awake at night, trembling under the consciousness that he was sitting at
+my bedside, and I had no means of penetrating the silence between us.
+Often I entreated him to speak, but when a low, hissing sound came close
+to my ear, I would scream with terror and rush from my room. All my
+desire to see or communicate with my lost friend had deserted me. The
+very idea was a terror. I was horror-struck to think he had returned,
+and I would neither sleep alone nor remain alone. I was advised to try a
+livelier place than Winchester (where I then resided), and a house was
+taken for me at Sydenham. But there, the sense of the presence of John
+Powles was as keen as before, and so, at intervals, I continued to feel
+it for the space of several years&mdash;until, indeed, I became an inquirer
+into Spiritualism as a science.</p>
+
+<p>I have related in the chapter that contains an account of my first
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, that the only face I recognized as belonging to me was that of
+my friend John Powles, and how excited I became on seeing it. It was
+that recognition that brought back all my old longing and curiosity to
+communicate with the inhabitants of the Unseen World. As soon as I
+commenced investigations in my home circle, John Powles was the very
+first spirit who spoke to me through the table, and from that time until
+the present I have never ceased to hold communion with him. He is very
+shy, however, (as he was, whilst with us) of conversing before
+strangers, and seldom intimates his presence except I am alone. At such
+times, however, he will talk by the hour of all such topics as
+interested him during his earth life.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after it became generally known that I was attending <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, I
+was introduced to Miss Showers, the daughter of General Showers of the
+Bombay Army. This young lady, besides being little more than a child&mdash;I
+think she was about sixteen when we met&mdash;was not a professional medium.
+The <i>s&eacute;ances</i> to which her friends were invited to witness the
+extraordinary manifestations that took place in her presence were
+strictly private. They offered therefore an enormous advantage to
+investigators, as the occurrences were all above suspicion, whilst Miss
+Showers was good enough to allow herself to be tested in every possible
+way. I shall have occasion to refer more particularly to Miss Showers'
+mediumship further on&mdash;at present, therefore, I will confine myself to
+those occasions which afforded proofs of John Powles' presence.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. and Miss Showers were living in apartments when I visited them, and
+there was no means nor opportunity of deceiving their friends, even had
+they had any object in doing so. I must add also, that they knew nothing
+of my Indian life nor experiences, which were things of the past long
+before I met them. At the first sitting Miss Showers gave me for "spirit
+faces," she merely sat on a chair behind the window curtains, which were
+pinned together half-way up, so as to leave a V-shaped opening at the
+top. The voice of "Peter" (Miss Showers' principal control) kept talking
+to us and the medium from behind the curtains all the time, and making
+remarks on the faces as they appeared at the opening. Presently he said
+to me, "Mrs. Ross-Church, here's a fellow says his name is Powles, and
+he wants to speak to you, only he doesn't like to show himself because
+he's not a bit like what he used to be." "Tell him not to mind that," I
+answered, "I shall know him under any circumstances." "Well! if he was
+anything like that, he was a beauty," exclaimed Peter; and presently a
+face appeared which I could not, by any stretch of imagination, decide
+to resemble in the slightest degree my old friend. It was hard, stiff
+and unlifelike. After it had disappeared, Peter said, "Powles says if
+you'll come and sit with Rosie (Miss Showers) often, he'll look quite
+like himself by-and-by," and of course I was only too anxious to accept
+the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>As I was setting out another evening to sit with Miss Showers, the
+thought suddenly occurred to me to put the green necktie in my pocket.
+My two daughters accompanied me on that occasion, but I said nothing to
+them about the necktie. As soon as we had commenced, however, Peter
+called out, "Now, Mrs. Ross-Church, hand over that necktie. Powles is
+coming." "What necktie?" I asked, and he answered, "Why Powles' necktie,
+of course, that you've got in your pocket. He wants you to put it round
+his neck." The assembled party looked at me inquisitively as I produced
+the tie. The face of John Powles appeared, very different from the time
+before, as he had his own features and complexion, but his hair and
+beard (which were auburn during life) appeared phosphoric, as though
+made of living fire. I mounted on a chair and tied the necktie round his
+throat, and asked him if he would kiss me. He shook his head. Peter
+called out, "Give him your hand." I did so, and as he kissed it, his
+moustaches <i>burned</i> me. I cannot account for it. I can only relate the
+fact. After which he disappeared with the necktie, which I have never
+seen since, though we searched the little room for it thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing I have to relate about John Powles is so startling that I
+dread the criticism it will evoke; but if I had not startling stories to
+tell, I should not consider them worth writing down. I left my house in
+Bayswater one Sunday evening to dine with Mr. and Mrs. George Neville in
+Regent's Park Terrace, to have a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> afterwards with Miss Showers.
+There was a large company present, and I was placed next to Miss Showers
+at table. During dinner she told me complainingly that her mother had
+gone to Norwood to spend the night, and she (Rosie) was afraid of
+sleeping alone, as the spirits worried her so. In a moment it flashed
+across me to ask her to return to Bayswater and sleep with me, for I was
+most desirous of testing her powers when we were alone together. Miss
+Showers accepted my invitation, and we arranged that she should go home
+with me. After dinner, the guests sat for a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, but to everybody's
+surprise and disappointment, nothing occurred. It was one o'clock in the
+morning when Miss Showers and I entered a cab to return to Bayswater. We
+had hardly started when we were greeted with a loud peal of laughter
+close to our ears. "What's the matter, Peter?" demanded Miss Showers.
+"I can't help laughing," he replied, "to think of their faces when no
+one appeared! Did you suppose I was going to let you waste all your
+power with them, when I knew I was going home with you and Mrs.
+Ross-Church? I mean to show you what a real good <i>s&eacute;ance</i> is to-night."</p>
+
+<p>When we reached home I let myself in with a latchkey. The house was
+full, for I had seven children, four servants, and a married sister
+staying with me; but they were all in bed and asleep. It was cold
+weather, and when I took Miss Showers into my bedroom a fire was burning
+in the grate. My sister was occupying a room which opened into mine; but
+I locked her door and my own, and put the keys under my pillow. Miss
+Showers and I then undressed and got into bed. When we had extinguished
+the gas, we found the room was, comparatively speaking, light, for I had
+stirred the fire into a blaze, and a street lamp just opposite the
+window threw bars of light through the venetian blinds, right across the
+ceiling. As soon as Miss Showers had settled herself in bed, she said,
+"I wonder what Peter is going to do," and I replied, "I hope he won't
+strip off the bed-clothes." We were lying under four blankets, a
+counterpane, and an eider-down <i>duvet</i>, and as I spoke, the whole mass
+rose in the air, and fell over the end of the bed, leaving us quite
+unprotected. We got up, lit a candle, and made the bed again, tucking
+the clothes well in all round, but the minute we laid down the same
+thing was repeated. We were rather cross the second time, and abused
+Peter for being so disagreeable, upon which the voice declared he
+wouldn't do it any more, but we shouldn't have provoked him to try. I
+said, "You had much better shew yourself to us, Peter. That is what I
+want you to do." He replied, "Here I am, my dear, close to you!" I
+turned my head, and there stood a dark figure beside the bed, whilst
+another could be plainly distinguished walking about the room. I said,
+"I can't see your face," and he replied, "I'll come nearer to you!" Upon
+this the figure rose in the air until it hung suspended, face downward,
+over the bed. In this position it looked like a huge bat with outspread
+wings. It was still indistinct, except as to substance, but Peter said
+we had exhausted all the phosphorus in our bodies by the long evening we
+had spent, and left him nothing to light himself up with. After a while
+he lowered himself on to the bed, and lay between Miss Showers and
+myself on the outside of the <i>duvet</i>. To this we greatly objected, as he
+was very heavy and took up a great deal of room; but it was some time
+before he would go away.</p>
+
+<p>During this manifestation, the other spirit, whom Peter called the
+"Pope," kept walking about and touching everything in the room, which
+was full of ornaments; and Peter called out several times, "Take care,
+Pope! take care! Don't break Mrs. Ross-Church's things." The two made so
+much noise that they waked my sister in the adjoining room, and she
+knocked at the door, asking in an alarmed voice, "Florence! <i>whom</i> have
+you there? You will wake the whole house." When I replied, "Never mind,
+it's only spirits," she gave one fell shriek and dived under her
+bed-clothes. She maintains to this day that she fully believed the steps
+and voices to be human. At last the manifestations became so rapid, as
+many as eight and ten hands touching us at once, that I asked Miss
+Showers if she would mind my tying hers together. She was very amiable
+and consented willingly. I therefore got out of bed again, and having
+securely fastened her hands in the sleeves of the nightdress she wore, I
+sewed them with needle and thread to the mattress. Miss Showers then
+said she felt sleepy, and with her back to me&mdash;a position she was
+obliged to maintain on account of her hands being sewn down&mdash;she
+apparently dropt off to sleep, though I knew subsequently she was in a
+trance.</p>
+
+<p>For some time afterwards nothing occurred, the figures had disappeared,
+the voices ceased, and I thought the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was over. Presently,
+however, I felt a hand laid on my head and the fingers began to gently
+stroke and pull the short curls upon my forehead. I whispered, "Who is
+this?" and the answer came back, "Don't you know me? I am Powles! At
+last&mdash;at last&mdash;after a silence of ten years I see you and speak with you
+again, face to face." "How can I tell this is <i>your</i> hand?" I said.
+"Peter might be materializing a hand in order to deceive me." The hand
+immediately left my head and the <i>back</i> of it passed over my mouth, when
+I felt it was covered with short hair. I then remembered how hairy John
+Powles' hands had become from exposure to the Indian sun whilst
+shooting, and how I had nicknamed him "Esau" in consequence. I
+recollected also that he had dislocated the left wrist with a cricket
+ball. "Let me feel your wrist," I said, and my hand was at once placed
+on the enlarged bone. "I want to trace your hand to where it springs
+from," I next suggested; and on receiving permission I felt from the
+fingers and wrist to the elbow and shoulder, where it terminated <i>in the
+middle of Miss Showers' back</i>. Still I was not quite satisfied, for I
+used to find it very hard to believe in the identity of a person I had
+cared for. I was so terribly afraid of being deceived. "I want to see
+your face," I continued. "I cannot show you my face to-night," the voice
+replied, "but you shall feel it;" and the face, with beard and
+moustaches, was laid for a moment against my own. Then the hand was
+replaced on my hair, and whilst it kept on pulling and stroking my
+curls, John Powles' own voice spoke to me of everything that had
+occurred of importance when he and I were friends on earth. Fancy, two
+people who were intimately associated for years, meeting alone after a
+long and painful separation, think of all the private things they would
+talk about together, and you will understand why I cannot write down the
+conversation that took place between us that night here. In order to
+convince me of his identity, John Powles spoke of all the troubles I had
+passed through and was then enduring&mdash;he mentioned scenes, both sad and
+merry, which we had witnessed together; he recalled incidents which had
+slipped my memory, and named places and people known only to ourselves.
+Had I been a disbeliever in Spiritualism, that night must have made a
+convert of me. Whilst the voice, in the well-remembered tones of my old
+friend, was speaking, and his hand wandered through my hair, Miss
+Showers continued to sleep, or to appear to sleep, with her back towards
+me, and her hands sewn into her nightdress sleeves, and the sleeves sewn
+down to the bed. But had she been wide awake and with both hands free,
+she could not have spoken to me in John Powles' unforgotten voice of
+things that had occurred when she was an infant and thousands of miles
+away. And I affirm that the voice spoke to me of things that no one but
+John Powles could possibly have known. He did not fail to remind me of
+the promise he had made, and the many times he had tried to fulfil it
+before, and he assured me he should be constantly with me from that
+time. It was daylight before the voice ceased speaking, and then both
+Miss Showers and I were so exhausted, we could hardly raise our heads
+from the pillows. I must not forget to add that when we <i>did</i> open our
+eyes again upon this work-a-day world, we found there was hardly an
+article in the room that had not changed places. The pictures were all
+turned with their faces to the wall&mdash;the crockery from the washstand was
+piled in the fender&mdash;the ornaments from the mantel-piece were on the
+dressing-table&mdash;in fact, the whole room was topsy-turvy.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. William Fletcher gave his first lecture in England, in the
+Steinway Hall, my husband, Colonel Lean, and I, went to hear him. We had
+never seen Mr. Fletcher before, nor any of his family, nor did he know
+we were amongst the audience. Our first view of him was when he stepped
+upon the platform, and we were seated quite in the body of the hall,
+which was full. It was Mr. Fletcher's custom, after his lecture was
+concluded, to describe such visions as were presented to him, and he
+only asked in return that if the people and places were recognized,
+those who recognized them would be brave enough to say so, for the sake
+of the audience and himself. I can understand that strangers who went
+there and heard nothing that concerned themselves would be very apt to
+imagine it was all humbug, and that those who claimed a knowledge of the
+visions were simply confederates of Mr. Fletcher. But there is nothing
+more true than that circumstances alter cases. I entered Steinway Hall
+as a perfect stranger, and as a press-writer, quite prepared to expose
+trickery if I detected it. And this is what I heard. After Mr. Fletcher
+had described several persons and scenes unknown to me, he took out a
+handkerchief and began to wipe his face, as though he were very warm.</p>
+
+<p>"I am no longer in England, now," he said. "The scene has quite changed,
+and I am taken over the sea, thousands of miles away, and I am in a
+chamber with all the doors and windows open. Oh! how hot it is! I think
+I am somewhere in the tropics. O! I see why I have been brought here! It
+is to see a young man die! This is a death chamber. He is lying on a
+bed. He looks very pale, and he is very near death, but he has only been
+ill a short time. His hair is a kind of golden chestnut color, and he
+has blue eyes. He is an Englishman, and I can see the letter 'P' above
+his head. He has not been happy on earth, and he is quite content to
+die. He pushes all the influences that are round his bed away from him.
+Now I see a lady come and sit down beside him. He holds her hand, and
+appears to ask her to do something, and I hear a strain of sweet music.
+It is a song he has heard in happier times, and on the breath of it his
+spirit passes away. It is to this lady he seems to come now. She is
+sitting on my left about half way down the hall. A little girl, with her
+hands full of blue flowers, points her out to me. The little girl holds
+up the flowers, and I see they are woven into a resemblance of the
+letter F. She tells me that is the initial letter of her mother's name
+and her own. And I see this message written.</p>
+
+<p>"'To my dearest friend, for such you ever were to me from the beginning.
+I have been with you through all your time of trial and sorrow, and I am
+rejoiced to see that a happier era is beginning for you. I am always
+near you. The darkness is fast rolling away, and happiness will succeed
+it. Pray for me, and I shall be near you in your prayers. I pray God to
+bless you and to bless me, and to bring us together again in the summer
+land.'</p>
+
+<p>"And I see the spirit pointing with his hand far away, as though to
+intimate that the happiness he speaks of is only the beginning of some
+that will extend to a long distance of time. I see this scene more
+plainly than any I have ever seen before."</p>
+
+<p>These words were written down at the time they were spoken. Colonel Lean
+and I were sitting in the very spot indicated by Mr. Fletcher, and the
+little girl with the blue flowers was my spirit child, "Florence," whose
+history I shall give in the next chapter. But my communications with
+John Powles, though very extraordinary, were not satisfactory to me. I
+am the "Thomas, surnamed Didymus," of the spiritualistic world, who
+wants to see and touch and handle before I can altogether believe. I
+wanted to meet John Powles and talk with him face to face, and it seemed
+such an impossibility for him to materialize in the light that, after
+his two failures with Miss Showers, he refused to try. I was always
+worrying him to tell me if we should meet in the body before I left this
+world, and his answer was always, "Yes! but not just yet!" I had no idea
+then that I should have to cross the Atlantic before I saw my dear old
+friend again.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>MY SPIRIT CHILD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The same year that John Powles died, 1860, I passed through the greatest
+trouble of my life. It is quite unnecessary to my narrative to relate
+what that trouble was, nor how it affected me, but I suffered terribly
+both in mind and body, and it was chiefly for this reason that the
+medical men advised my return to England, which I reached on the 14th of
+December, and on the 30th of the same month a daughter was born to me,
+who survived her birth for only ten days. The child was born with a most
+peculiar blemish, which it is necessary for the purpose of my argument
+to describe. On the left side of the upper lip was a mark as though a
+semi-circular piece of flesh had been cut out by a bullet-mould, which
+exposed part of the gum. The swallow also had been submerged in the
+gullet, so that she had for the short period of her earthly existence to
+be fed by artificial means, and the jaw itself had been so twisted that
+could she have lived to cut her teeth, the double ones would have been
+in front. This blemish was considered to be of so remarkable a type that
+Dr. Frederick Butler of Winchester, who attended me, invited several
+other medical men, from Southampton and other places, to examine the
+infant with him, and they all agreed that <i>a similar case had never come
+under their notice before</i>. This is a very important factor in my
+narrative. I was closely catechized as to whether I had suffered any
+physical or mental shock, that should account for the injury to my
+child, and it was decided that the trouble I had experienced was
+sufficient to produce it. The case, under feigned names, was fully
+reported in the <i>Lancet</i> as something quite out of the common way. My
+little child, who was baptized by the name of "Florence," lingered until
+the 10th of January, 1861, and then passed quietly away, and when my
+first natural disappointment was over I ceased to think of her except as
+of something which "might have been," but never would be again. In this
+world of misery, the loss of an infant is soon swallowed up in more
+active trouble. Still I never quite forgot my poor baby, perhaps because
+at that time she was happily the "one dead lamb" of my little flock. In
+recounting the events of my first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Mrs. Holmes, I have
+mentioned how a young girl much muffled up about the mouth and chin
+appeared, and intimated that she came for me, although I could not
+recognize her. I was so ignorant of the life beyond the grave at that
+period, that it never struck me that the baby who had left me at ten
+days old had been growing since our separation, until she had reached
+the age of ten years. I could not interpret Longfellow (whom I consider
+one of the sublimest spiritualists of the age) as I can now.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">"Day after day we think what she is doing,<br /> </div>
+    <div class="line i2">In those bright realms of air:<br /></div>
+     <div class="line i2">Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,<br /></div>
+     <div class="line">Behold her grown more fair.</div>
+     <div class="line"><p class="left5">. . . . . . . . . . . . . </p></div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+   <div class="line">"Not as a child shall we again behold her:<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">For when, with rapture wild,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line">In our embraces we again enfold her,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">She will not be a child;</div>
+    <div class="line">But a fair maiden in her father's mansion,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">Clothed with celestial grace.<br /></div>
+    <div class="line">And beautiful with all the soul's expansion,<br /></div>
+  <div class="line i2">Shall we behold her face!"</div>  </div>
+</div>
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> made such an impression on my mind that two nights
+afterwards I again presented myself (this time alone) at Mrs. Holmes'
+rooms to attend another. It was a very different circle on the second
+occasion. There were about thirty people present, all strangers to each
+other, and the manifestations were proportionately ordinary. Another
+professional medium, a Mrs. Davenport, was present, as one of her
+controls, whom she called "Bell," had promised, if possible, to show her
+face to her. As soon, therefore, as the first spirit face appeared
+(which was that of the same little girl that I had seen before), Mrs.
+Davenport exclaimed, "There's 'Bell,'" "Why!" I said, "that's the little
+nun we saw on Monday." "O! no! that's my 'Bell,'" persisted Mrs.
+Davenport. But Mrs. Holmes took my side, and was positive the spirit
+came for me. She told me she had been trying to communicate with her
+since the previous <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. "I know she is nearly connected with you,"
+she said. "Have you never lost a relation of her age?" "<i>Never!</i>" I
+replied; and at that declaration the little spirit moved away,
+sorrowfully as before.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks after I received an invitation from Mr. Henry Dunphy (the
+gentleman who had introduced me to Mrs. Holmes) to attend a private
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, given at his own house in Upper Gloucester Place, by the
+well-known medium Florence Cook. The double drawing-rooms were divided
+by velvet curtains, behind which Miss Cook was seated in an arm-chair,
+the curtains being pinned together half-way up, leaving a large aperture
+in the shape of a V. Being a complete stranger to Miss Cook, I was
+surprised to hear the voice of her control direct that <i>I</i> should stand
+by the curtains and hold the lower parts together whilst the forms
+appeared above, lest the pins should give way, and necessarily from my
+position I could hear every word that passed between Miss Cook and her
+guide. The first face that showed itself was that of a man unknown to
+me; then ensued a kind of frightened colloquy between the medium and her
+control. "Take it away. Go away! I don't like you. Don't touch me&mdash;you
+frighten me! Go away!" I heard Miss Cook exclaim, and then her guide's
+voice interposed itself, "Don't be silly, Florrie. Don't be unkind. It
+won't hurt you," etc., and immediately afterwards the same little girl I
+had seen at Mrs. Holmes' rose to view at the aperture of the curtains,
+muffled up as before, but smiling with her eyes at me. I directed the
+attention of the company to her, calling her again my "little nun." I
+was surprised, however, at the evident distaste Miss Cook had displayed
+towards the spirit, and when the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was concluded and she had
+regained her normal condition, I asked her if she could recall the faces
+she saw under trance. "Sometimes," she replied. I told her of the
+"little nun," and demanded the reason of her apparent dread of her. "I
+can hardly tell you," said Miss Cook; "I don't know anything about her.
+She is quite a stranger to me, but her face is not fully developed, I
+think. There is <i>something wrong about her mouth</i>. She frightens me."</p>
+
+<p>This remark, though made with the utmost carelessness, set me thinking,
+and after I had returned home, I wrote to Miss Cook, asking her to
+inquire of her guides <i>who</i> the little spirit was.</p>
+
+<p>She replied as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mrs. Ross-Church, I have asked 'Katie King,' but she cannot tell
+me anything further about the spirit that came through me the other
+evening than that she is a young girl closely connected with yourself."</p>
+
+<p>I was not, however, yet convinced of the spirit's identity, although
+"John Powles" constantly assured me that it <i>was</i> my child. I tried hard
+to communicate with her at home, but without success. I find in the
+memoranda I kept of our private <i>s&eacute;ances</i> at that period several
+messages from "Powles" referring to "Florence." In one he says, "Your
+child's want of power to communicate with you is not because she is too
+pure, but because she is too weak. She will speak to you some day. She
+is <i>not</i> in heaven." This last assertion, knowing so little as I did of
+a future state, both puzzled and grieved me. I could not believe that an
+innocent infant was not in the Beatific Presence&mdash;yet I could not
+understand what motive my friend could have in leading me astray. I had
+yet to learn that once received into Heaven no spirit could return to
+earth, and that a spirit may have a training to undergo, even though it
+has never committed a mortal sin. A further proof, however, that my dead
+child had never died was to reach me from a quarter where I least
+expected it. I was editor of the magazine <i>London Society</i> at that time,
+and amongst my contributors was Dr. Keningale Cook, who had married
+Mabel Collins, the now well-known writer of spiritualistic novels. One
+day Dr. Cook brought me an invitation from his wife (whom I had never
+met) to spend Saturday to Monday with them in their cottage at Redhill,
+and I accepted it, knowing nothing of the proclivities of either of
+them, and they knowing as little of my private history as I did of
+theirs. And I must take this opportunity to observe that, at this
+period, I had never made my lost child the subject of conversation even
+with my most intimate friends. The memory of her life and death, and the
+troubles that caused it, was not a happy one, and of no interest to any
+but myself. So little, therefore, had it been discussed amongst us that
+until "Florence" reappeared to revive the topic, my <i>elder children were
+ignorant</i> that their sister had been marked in any way differently from
+themselves. It may, therefore, be supposed how unlikely it was that
+utter strangers and public media should have gained any inkling of the
+matter. I went down to Redhill, and as I was sitting with the Keningale
+Cooks after dinner, the subject of Spiritualism came on the <i>tapis</i>, and
+I was informed that the wife was a powerful trance medium, which much
+interested me, as I had not, at that period, had any experience of her
+particular class of mediumship. In the evening we "sat" together, and
+Mrs. Cook having become entranced, her husband took shorthand notes of
+her utterances. Several old friends of their family spoke through her,
+and I was listening to them in the listless manner in which we hear the
+conversation of strangers, when my attention was aroused by the medium
+suddenly leaving her seat, and falling on her knees before me, kissing
+my hands and face, and sobbing violently the while. I waited in
+expectation of hearing who this might be, when the manifestations as
+suddenly ceased, the medium returned to her seat, and the voice of one
+of her guides said that the spirit was unable to speak through excess of
+emotion, but would try again later in the evening. I had almost
+forgotten the circumstance in listening to other communications, when I
+was startled by hearing the word "<i>Mother!</i>" sighed rather than spoken.
+I was about to make some excited reply, when the medium raised her hand
+to enjoin silence, and the following communication was taken down by Mr.
+Cook as she pronounced the words. The sentences in parentheses are my
+replies to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother! I am 'Florence.' I must be very quiet. I want to feel I have a
+mother still. I am so lonely. Why should I be so? I cannot speak well. I
+want to be like one of you. I want to feel I have a mother and sisters.
+I am so far away from you all now."</p>
+
+<p>("But I always think of you, my dear dead baby.")</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it&mdash;your <i>baby</i>. But I'm not a baby now. I shall get
+nearer. They tell me I shall. I do not know if I can come when you are
+alone. It's all so dark. I know you are there, but <i>so dimly</i>. I've
+grown <i>all by myself</i>. I'm not really unhappy, but I want to get nearer
+you. I know you think of me, but you think of me as a baby. You don't
+know me as I <i>am</i>. You've seen me, because in my love I have forced
+myself upon you. I've not been amongst the flowers yet, but I shall be,
+very soon now; but I want <i>my mother</i> to take me there. All has been
+given me that can be given me, but I cannot receive it, except in so
+far&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here she seemed unable to express herself.</p>
+
+<p>("Did the trouble I had before your birth affect your spirit,
+Florence?")</p>
+
+<p>"Only as things cause each other. I was with you, mother, all through
+that trouble. I should be nearer to you, <i>than any child you have</i>, if I
+could only get close to you."</p>
+
+<p>("I can't bear to hear you speak so sadly, dear. I have always believed
+that <i>you</i>, at least, were happy in Heaven.")</p>
+
+<p>"I am <i>not</i> in Heaven! But there will come a day, mother&mdash;I can laugh
+when I say it&mdash;when we shall go to heaven <i>together</i> and pick blue
+flowers&mdash;<i>blue flowers</i>. They are so good to me here, but if your eye
+cannot bear the daylight you cannot see the buttercups and daisies."</p>
+
+<p>I did not learn till afterwards that in the spiritual language blue
+flowers are typical of happiness. The next question I asked her was if
+she thought she could write through me.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't seem able to write through you, but why, I know not."</p>
+
+<p>("Do you know your sisters, Eva and Ethel?")</p>
+
+<p>"No! no!" in a weary voice. "The link of sisterhood is only through the
+mother. That kind of sisterhood does not last, because there is a
+higher."</p>
+
+<p>("Do you ever see your father?")</p>
+
+<p>"No! he is far, far away. I went once, not more. Mother, dear, he'll
+love me when he comes here. They've told me so, and they always tell
+truth here! I am but a child, yet not so very little. I seem composed of
+two things&mdash;a child in ignorance and a woman in years. Why can't I speak
+at other places? I have wished and tried! I've come very near, but it
+seems so easy to speak now. This medium seems so different."</p>
+
+<p>("I wish you could come to me when I am alone, Florence.")</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>shall</i> know me! I <i>will</i> come, mother, dear. I shall always be
+able to come here. I <i>do</i> come to you, but not in the same way."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke in such a plaintive, melancholy voice that Mrs. Cook, thinking
+she would depress my spirits, said, "Don't make your state out to be
+sadder than it really is." Her reply was very remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I am, as I am!</i> Friend! when you come here, if you find that sadness
+<i>is</i>, you will not be able to alter it by plunging into material
+pleasures. <i>Our sadness makes the world we live in.</i> It is not deeds
+that make us wrong. It is the state in which <i>we were born</i>. Mother! you
+say I died sinless. That is nothing. I was born <i>in a state</i>. Had I
+lived, I should have caused you more pain than you can know. I am better
+here. I was not fit to battle with the world, and they took me from it.
+Mother! you won't let this make you sad. You must not."</p>
+
+<p>("What can I do to bring you nearer to me?")</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what will bring me nearer, but I'm helped already by just
+talking to you. There's a ladder of brightness&mdash;every step. I believe
+I've gained just one step now. O! the Divine teachings are so
+mysterious. Mother! does it seem strange to you to hear your 'baby' say
+things as if she knew them? I'm going now. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>And so "Florence" went. The next voice that spoke was that of a guide of
+the medium, and I asked her for a personal description of my daughter as
+she then appeared. She replied, "Her face is downcast. We have tried to
+cheer her, but she is very sad. It is the <i>state in which she was born</i>.
+Every physical deformity is the mark of a condition. A weak body is not
+necessarily the mark of a weak spirit, but the <i>prison</i> of it, because
+the spirit might be too passionate otherwise. You cannot judge in what
+way the mind is deformed because the body is deformed. It does not
+follow that a canker in the body is a canker in the mind. But the mind
+may be too exuberant&mdash;may need a canker to restrain it."</p>
+
+<p>I have copied this conversation, word for word, from the shorthand notes
+taken at the time of utterance; and when it is remembered that neither
+Mrs. Keningale Cook nor her husband knew that I had lost a child&mdash;that
+they had never been in my house nor associated with any of my
+friends&mdash;it will at least be acknowledged, even by the most sceptical,
+that it was a very remarkable coincidence that I should receive such a
+communication from the lips of a perfect stranger. Only once after this
+did "Florence" communicate with me through the same source. She found
+congenial media nearer home, and naturally availed herself of them. But
+the second occasion was almost more convincing than the first. I went
+one afternoon to consult my solicitor in the strictest confidence as to
+how I should act under some very painful circumstances, and he gave me
+his advice. The next morning as I sat at breakfast, Mrs. Cook, who was
+still living at Redhill, ran into my room with an apology for the
+unceremoniousness of her visit, on the score that she had received a
+message for me the night before which "Florence" had begged her to
+deliver without delay. The message was to this effect: "Tell my mother
+that I was with her this afternoon at the lawyer's, and she is <i>not</i> to
+follow the advice given her, as it will do harm instead of good." Mrs.
+Cook added, "I don't know to what 'Florence' alludes, of course, but I
+thought it best, as I was coming to town, to let you know at once."</p>
+
+<p>The force of this anecdote does not lie in the context. The mystery is
+contained in the fact of a secret interview having been overheard and
+commented upon. But the truth is, that having greater confidence in the
+counsel of my visible guide than in that of my invisible one, I abided
+by the former, and regretted it ever afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>The first conversation I held with "Florence" had a great effect upon
+me. I knew before that my uncontrolled grief had been the cause of the
+untimely death of her body, but it had never struck me that her spirit
+would carry the effects of it into the unseen world. It was a warning to
+me (as it should be to all mothers) not to take the solemn
+responsibility of maternity upon themselves without being prepared to
+sacrifice their own feelings for the sake of their children. "Florence"
+assured me, however, that communion with myself in my improved condition
+of happiness would soon lift her spirit from its state of depression,
+and consequently I seized every opportunity of seeing and speaking with
+her. During the succeeding twelve months I attended numerous <i>s&eacute;ances</i>
+with various media, and my spirit child (as she called herself) never
+failed to manifest through the influence of any one of them, though, of
+course, in different ways. Through some she touched me only, and always
+with an infant's hand, that I might recognize it as hers, or laid her
+mouth against mine that I might feel the scar upon her lip; through
+others she spoke, or wrote, or showed her face, but I never attended a
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> at which she omitted to notify her presence. Once at a dark
+circle, held with Mr. Charles Williams, after having had my dress and
+that of my next neighbor, Lady Archibald Campbell, pulled several times
+as if to attract our attention, the darkness opened before us, and there
+stood my child, smiling at us like a happy dream, her fair hair waving
+about her temples, and her blue eyes fixed on me. She was clothed in
+white, but we saw no more than her head and bust, about which her hands
+held her drapery. Lady Archibald Campbell saw her as plainly as I did.
+On another occasion Mr. William Eglinton proposed to me to try and
+procure the spirit-writing on his arm. He directed me to go into another
+room and write the name of the friend I loved best in the spirit world
+upon a scrap of paper, which I was to twist up tightly and take back to
+him. I did so, writing the name of "John Powles." When I returned to Mr.
+Eglinton, he bared his arm, and holding the paper to the candle till it
+was reduced to tinder, rubbed his flesh with the ashes. I knew what was
+expected to ensue. The name written on the paper was to reappear in red
+or white letters on the medium's arm. The sceptic would say it was a
+trick of thought-reading, and that, the medium knowing what I had
+written, had prepared the writing during my absence. But to his surprise
+and mine, when at last he shook the ashes from his arm, we read, written
+in a bold, clear hand, the words&mdash;"Florence is the dearest," as though
+my spirit child had given me a gentle rebuke for writing any name but
+her own. It seems curious to me now to look back and remember how
+melancholy she used to be when she first came back to me, for as soon as
+she had established an unbroken communication between us, she developed
+into the merriest little spirit I have ever known, and though her
+childhood has now passed away, and she is more dignified and thoughtful
+and womanly, she always appears joyous and happy. She has manifested
+largely to me through the mediumship of Mr. Arthur Colman. I had known
+her, during a dark <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with a very small private circle (the medium
+being securely held and fastened the while) run about the room, like the
+child she was, and speak to and kiss each sitter in turn, pulling off
+the sofa and chair covers and piling them up in the middle of the table,
+and changing the ornaments of everyone present&mdash;placing the gentlemen's
+neckties round the throats of the ladies, and hanging the ladies'
+earrings in the buttonholes of the gentlemen's coats&mdash;just as she might
+have done had she been still with us, a happy, petted child, on earth. I
+have known her come in the dark and sit on my lap and kiss my face and
+hands, and let me feel the defect in her mouth with my own. One bright
+evening on the 9th of July&mdash;my birthday&mdash;Arthur Colman walked in quite
+unexpectedly to pay me a visit, and as I had some friends with me, we
+agreed to have a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. It was impossible to make the room dark, as
+the windows were only shaded by venetian blinds, but we lowered them,
+and sat in the twilight. The first thing we heard was the voice of
+"Florence" whispering&mdash;"A present for dear mother's birthday," when
+something was put into my hand. Then she crossed to the side of a lady
+present and dropped something into her hand, saying, "And a present for
+dear mother's friend!" I knew at once by the feel of it that what
+"Florence" had given me was a chaplet of beads, and knowing how often,
+under similar circumstances, articles are merely carried about a room, I
+concluded it was one which lay upon my drawing-room mantel-piece, and
+said as much. I was answered by the voice of "Aim&eacute;e," the medium's
+nearest control.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken," she said, "'Florence' has given you a chaplet you
+have never seen before. She was exceedingly anxious to give you a
+present on your birthday, so I gave her the beads which were buried with
+me. They came from my coffin. I held them in my hand. All I ask is, that
+you will not shew them to Arthur until I give you leave. He is not well
+at present, and the sight of them will upset him."</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly astonished, but, of course, I followed her instructions,
+and when I had an opportunity to examine the beads, I found that they
+really were strangers to me, and had not been in the house before. The
+present my lady friend had received was a large, unset topaz. The
+chaplet was made of carved wood and steel. It was not till months had
+elapsed that I was given permission to show it to Arthur Colman. He
+immediately recognized it as the one he had himself placed in the hands
+of "Aim&eacute;e" as she lay in her coffin, and when I saw how the sight
+affected him, I regretted I had told him anything about it. I offered to
+give the beads up to him, but he refused to receive them, and they
+remain in my possession to this day.</p>
+
+<p>But the great climax that was to prove beyond all question the personal
+identity of the spirit who communicated with me, with the body I had
+brought into the world, was yet to come. Mr. William Harrison, the
+editor of the <i>Spiritualist</i> (who, after seventeen years' patient
+research into the science of Spiritualism, had never received a personal
+proof of the return of his own friends, or relations) wrote me word that
+he had received a message from his lately deceased friend, Mrs. Stewart,
+to the effect that if he would sit with the medium, Florence Cook, and
+one or two harmonious companions, she would do her best to appear to him
+in her earthly likeness and afford him the test he had so long sought
+after. Mr. Harrison asked me, therefore, if I would join him and Miss
+Kidlingbury&mdash;the secretary to the British National Association of
+Spiritualists&mdash;in holding a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Miss Cook, to which I agreed,
+and we met in one of the rooms of the Association for that purpose. It
+was a very small room, about 8 feet by 16 feet, was uncarpeted and
+contained no furniture, so we carried in three cane-bottomed chairs for
+our accommodation. Across one corner of the room, about four feet from
+the floor, we nailed an old black shawl, and placed a cushion behind it
+for Miss Cook to lean her head against. Miss Florence Cook, who is a
+brunette, of a small, slight figure, with dark eyes and hair which she
+wore in a profusion of curls, was dressed in a high grey merino,
+ornamented with crimson ribbons. She informed me previous to sitting,
+that she had become restless during her trances lately, and in the habit
+of walking out amongst the circle, and she asked me as a friend (for
+such we had by that time become) to scold her well should such a thing
+occur, and order her to go back into the cabinet as if she were "a child
+or a dog;" and I promised her I would do so. After Florence Cook had sat
+down on the floor, behind the black shawl (which left her grey merino
+skirt exposed), and laid her head against the cushion, we lowered the
+gas a little, and took our seats on the three cane chairs. The medium
+appeared very uneasy at first, and we heard her remonstrating with the
+influences for using her so roughly. In a few minutes, however, there
+was a tremulous movement of the black shawl, and a large white hand was
+several times thrust into view and withdrawn again. I had never seen
+Mrs. Stewart (for whom we were expressly sitting) in this life, and
+could not, therefore, recognize the hand; but we all remarked how large
+and white it was. In another minute the shawl was lifted up, and a
+female figure crawled on its hands and knees from behind it, and then
+stood up and regarded us. It was impossible, in the dim light and at the
+distance she stood from us, to identify the features, so Mr. Harrison
+asked if she were Mrs. Stewart. The figure shook its head. I had lost a
+sister a few months previously, and the thought flashed across me that
+it might be her. "Is it you, Emily?" I asked; but the head was still
+shaken to express a negative, and a similar question on the part of Miss
+Kidlingbury, with respect to a friend of her own, met with the same
+response. "Who <i>can</i> it be?" I remarked curiously to Mr. Harrison.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother! don't you know me?" sounded in "Florence's" whispering voice. I
+started up to approach her, exclaiming, "O! my darling child! I never
+thought I should meet you here!" But she said, "Go back to your chair,
+and I will come to you!" I reseated myself, and "Florence" crossed the
+room and sat down <i>on my lap</i>. She was more unclothed on that occasion
+than any materialized spirit I have ever seen. She wore nothing on her
+head, only her hair, of which she appears to have an immense quantity,
+fell down her back and covered her shoulders. Her arms were bare and her
+feet and part of her legs, and the dress she wore had no shape or style,
+but seemed like so many yards of soft thick muslin, wound round her body
+from the bosom to below the knees. She was a heavy weight&mdash;perhaps ten
+stone&mdash;and had well-covered limbs. In fact, she was then, and has
+appeared for several years past, to be, in point of size and shape, so
+like her eldest sister Eva, that I always observe the resemblance
+between them. This <i>s&eacute;ance</i> took place at a period when "Florence" must
+have been about seventeen years old.</p>
+
+<p>"Florence, my darling," I said, "is this <i>really</i> you?" "Turn up the
+gas," she answered, "and look at my mouth." Mr. Harrison did as she
+desired, and we all saw distinctly <i>that peculiar defect on the lip</i>
+with which she was born&mdash;a defect, be it remembered, which some of the
+most experienced members of the profession had affirmed to be "<i>so rare
+as never to have fallen under their notice before</i>." She also opened her
+mouth that we might see she had no gullet. I promised at the
+commencement of my book to confine myself to facts, and leave the
+deduction to be drawn from them to my readers, so I will not interrupt
+my narrative to make any remarks upon this incontrovertible proof of
+identity. I know it struck me dumb, and melted me into tears. At this
+juncture Miss Cook, who had been moaning and moving about a good deal
+behind the black shawl, suddenly exclaimed, "I can't stand this any
+longer," and walked out into the room. There she stood in her grey dress
+and crimson ribbons whilst "Florence" sat on my lap in white drapery.
+But only for a moment, for directly the medium was fully in view, the
+spirit sprung up and darted behind the curtain. Recalling Miss Cook's
+injunctions to me, I scolded her heartily for leaving her seat, until
+she crept back, whimpering, to her former position. The shawl had
+scarcely closed behind her before "Florence" reappeared and clung to me,
+saying, "Don't let her do that again. She frightens me so." She was
+actually trembling all over. "Why, Florence," I replied. "Do you mean to
+tell me you are frightened of your medium? In this world it is we poor
+mortals who are frightened of the spirits." "I am afraid she will send
+me away, mother," she whispered. However, Miss Cook did not disturb us
+again, and "Florence" stayed with us for some time longer. She clasped
+her arms round my neck, and laid her head upon my bosom, and kissed me
+dozens of times. She took my hand and spread it out, and said she felt
+sure I should recognize her hand when she thrust it outside the curtain,
+because it was so much like my own. I was suffering much trouble at that
+time, and "Florence" told me the reason God had permitted her to show
+herself to me in her earthly deformity was so that I might be sure that
+she was herself, and that Spiritualism was a truth to comfort me.
+"Sometimes you doubt, mother," she said, "and think your eyes and ears
+have misled you; but after this you must never doubt again. Don't fancy
+I am like this in the spirit land. The blemish left me long ago. But I
+put it on to-night to make you certain. Don't fret, dear mother.
+Remember <i>I</i> am always near you. No one can take <i>me</i> away. Your earthly
+children may grow up and go out into the world and leave you, but you
+will always have your spirit child close to you." I did not, and cannot,
+calculate for how long "Florence" remained visible on that occasion.
+Mr. Harrison told me afterwards that she had remained for nearly twenty
+minutes. But her undoubted presence was such a stupendous fact to me,
+that I could only think that <i>she was there</i>&mdash;that I actually held in my
+arms the tiny infant I had laid with my own hands in her coffin&mdash;that
+she was no more dead than I was myself, but had grown to be a woman. So
+I sat, with my arms tight round her, and my heart beating against hers,
+until the power decreased, and "Florence" was compelled to give me a
+last kiss and leave me stupefied and bewildered by what had so
+unexpectedly occurred. Two other spirits materialized and appeared after
+she had left us, but as neither of them was Mrs. Stewart, the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>,
+as far as Mr. Harrison was concerned, was a failure. I have seen and
+heard "Florence" on numerous occasions since the one I have narrated,
+but not with the mark upon her mouth, which she assures me will never
+trouble either of us again. I could fill pages with accounts of her
+pretty, caressing ways and her affectionate and sometimes solemn
+messages; but I have told as much of her story as will interest the
+general reader. It has been wonderful to me to mark how her ways and
+mode of communication have changed with the passing years. It was a
+simple child who did not know how to express itself that appeared to me
+in 1873. It is a woman full of counsel and tender warning that comes to
+me in 1890. But yet she is only nineteen. When she reached that age,
+"Florence" told me she should never grow any older in years or
+appearance, and that she had reached the climax of womanly perfection in
+the spirit world. Only to-night&mdash;the night before Christmas Day&mdash;as I
+write her story, she comes to me and says, "Mother! you must not give
+way to sad thoughts. The Past is past. Let it be buried in the blessings
+that remain to you."</p>
+
+<p>And amongst the greatest of those blessings I reckon my belief in the
+existence of my spirit-child.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF EMILY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>My sister Emily was the third daughter of my late father, and several
+years older than myself. She was a handsome woman&mdash;strictly speaking,
+perhaps, the handsomest of the family, and quite unlike the others. She
+had black hair and eyes, a pale complexion, a well-shaped nose, and
+small, narrow hands and feet. But her beauty had slight detractions&mdash;so
+slight, indeed, as to be imperceptible to strangers, but well known to
+her intimate friends. Her mouth was a little on one side, one shoulder
+was half an inch higher than the other, her fingers were not quite
+straight, nor her toes, and her hips corresponded with her shoulders.
+She was clever, with a versatile, all-round talent, and of a very happy
+and contented disposition. She married Dr. Henry Norris of Charmouth, in
+Dorset, and lived there many years before her death. She was an
+excellent wife and mother, a good friend, and a sincere Christian;
+indeed, I do not believe that a more earnest, self-denying, better woman
+ever lived in this world. But she had strong feelings, and in some
+things she was very bigoted. One was Spiritualism. She vehemently
+opposed even the mention of it, declared it to be diabolical, and never
+failed to blame me for pursuing such a wicked and unholy occupation. She
+was therefore about the last person whom I should have expected to take
+advantage of it to communicate with her friends.</p>
+
+<p>My sister Emily died on the 20th of April, 1875. Her death resulted from
+a sudden attack of pleurisy, and was most unexpected. I was sitting at
+an early dinner with my children on the same day when I received a
+telegram from my brother-in-law to say, "Emily very ill; will telegraph
+when change occurs," and I had just despatched an answer to ask if I
+should go down to Charmouth, or could be of any use, when a second
+message arrived, "All is over. She died quietly at two o'clock." Those
+who have received similar shocks will understand what I felt. I was
+quite stunned, and could not realize that my sister had passed away from
+us, so completely unanticipated had been the news. I made the necessary
+arrangements for going down to her funeral, but my head was filled with
+nothing but thoughts of Emily the while, and conjectures of <i>how</i> she
+had died and of <i>what</i> she had died (for that was, as yet, unknown to
+me), and what she had thought and said; above all, what she was thinking
+and feeling at that moment. I retired to rest with my brain in a whirl,
+and lay half the night wide awake, staring into the darkness, and
+wondering where my sister was. <i>Now</i> was the time (if any) for my
+cerebral organs to play me a trick, and conjure up a vision of the
+person I was thinking of. But I saw nothing; no sound broke the
+stillness; my eyes rested only on the darkness. I was quite
+disappointed, and in the morning I told my children so. I loved my
+sister Emily dearly, and I hoped she would have come to wish me
+good-bye. On the following night I was exhausted by want of sleep and
+the emotion I had passed through, and when I went to bed I was very
+sleepy. I had not been long asleep, however, before I was waked up&mdash;I
+can hardly say by what&mdash;and there at my bedside stood Emily, smiling at
+me. When I lost my little "Florence," Emily had been unmarried, and she
+had taken a great interest in my poor baby, and nursed her during her
+short lifetime, and, I believe, really mourned her loss, for (although
+she had children of her own) she always wore a little likeness of
+"Florence" in a locket on her watch-chain. When Emily died I had of
+course been for some time in communication with my spirit-child, and
+when my sister appeared to me that night, "Florence" was in her arms,
+with her head resting on her shoulder. I recognized them both at once,
+and the only thing which looked strange to me was that Emily's long
+black hair was combed right back in the Chinese fashion, giving her
+forehead an unnaturally high appearance. This circumstance made the
+greater impression on me, because we all have such high foreheads with
+the hair growing off the temples that we have never been able to wear it
+in the style I speak of. With this exception my sister looked beautiful
+and most happy, and my little girl clung to her lovingly. Emily did not
+speak aloud, but she kept on looking down at "Florence," and up at me,
+whilst her lips formed the words, "Little Baby," which was the name by
+which she had always mentioned my spirit-child. In the morning I
+mentioned what I had seen to my elder girls, adding, "I hardly knew dear
+Aunt Emily, with her hair scratched back in that fashion."</p>
+
+<p>This apparition happened on the Wednesday night, and on the Friday
+following I travelled down to Charmouth to be present at the funeral,
+which was fixed for Saturday. I found my sister Cecil there before me.
+As soon as we were alone, she said to me, "I am so glad you came to-day.
+I want you to arrange dear Emily nicely in her coffin. The servants had
+laid her out before my arrival, and she doesn't look a bit like herself.
+But I haven't the nerve to touch her." It was late at night, but I took
+a candle at once and accompanied Cecil to the death-chamber. Our sister
+was lying, pale and calm, with a smile upon her lips, much as she had
+appeared to me, and with <i>all her black hair combed back from her
+forehead</i>. The servants had arranged it so, thinking it looked neater.
+It was impossible to make any alteration till the morning, but when our
+dear sister was carried to her grave, her hair framed her dead face in
+the wavy curls in which it always fell when loose; a wreath of flowering
+syringa was round her head, a cross of violets on her breast, and in her
+waxen, beautifully-moulded hands, she held three tall, white lilies. I
+mention this because she has come to me since with the semblance of
+these very flowers to ensure her recognition. After the funeral, my
+brother-in-law gave me the details of her last illness. He told me that
+on the Monday afternoon, when her illness first took a serious turn and
+she became (as he said) delirious, she talked continually to her father,
+Captain Marryat (to whom she had been most reverentially attached), and
+who, she affirmed, was sitting by the side of the bed. Her conversation
+was perfectly rational, and only disjointed when she waited for a reply
+to her own remarks. She spoke to him of Langham and all that had
+happened there, and particularly expressed her surprise at his having <i>a
+beard</i>, saying, "Does hair grow up there, father?" I was the more
+impressed by this account, because Dr. Norris, like most medical men,
+attributed the circumstance entirely to the distorted imagination of a
+wandering brain. And yet my father (whom I have never seen since his
+death) has been described to me by various clairvoyants, and always as
+<i>wearing a beard</i>, a thing he never did during his lifetime, as it was
+the fashion then for naval officers to wear only side whiskers. In all
+his pictures he is represented as clean shorn, and as he was so well
+known a man, one would think that (were they dissembling) the
+clairvoyants, in describing his personal characteristics, would follow
+the clue given by his portraits.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after my sister Emily's death I heard nothing more of her,
+and for the reasons I have given, I never expected to see her again
+until we met in the spirit-world. About two years after her death,
+however, my husband, Colonel Lean, bought two tickets for a series of
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i> to be held in the rooms of the British National Association of
+Spiritualists under the the mediumship of Mr. William Eglinton. This was
+the first time we had ever seen or sat with Mr. Eglinton, but we had
+heard a great deal of his powers, and were curious to test them. On the
+first night, which was a Saturday, we assembled with a party of twelve,
+all complete strangers, in the rooms I have mentioned, which were
+comfortably lighted with gas. Mr. Eglinton, who is a young man inclined
+to stoutness, went into the cabinet, which was placed in the centre of
+us, with spectators all round it. The cabinet was like a large cupboard,
+made of wood and divided into two parts, the partition being of
+wire-work, so that the medium might be padlocked into it, and a curtain
+drawn in front of both sides. After a while, a voice called out to us
+not to be frightened, as the medium was coming out to get more power,
+and Mr. Eglinton, in a state of trance and dressed in a suit of evening
+clothes, walked out of the cabinet and commenced a tour of the circle.
+He touched every one in turn, but did not stop until he reached Colonel
+Lean, before whom he remained for some time, making magnetic passes down
+his face and figure. He then turned to re-enter the cabinet, but as he
+did so, some one moved the curtain from inside and Mr. Eglinton
+<i>actually held the curtain to one side to permit the materialized form
+to pass out</i> before he went into the cabinet himself. The figure that
+appeared was that of a woman clothed in loose white garments that fell
+to her feet. Her eyes were black and her long black hair fell over her
+shoulders. I suspected at the time who she was, but each one in the
+circle was so certain she came for him or for her, that I said nothing,
+and only mentally asked if it were my sister that I might receive a
+proof of her identity. On the following evening (Sunday) Colonel Lean
+and I were "sitting" together, when Emily came to the table to assure us
+that it was she whom we had seen, and that she would appear again on
+Monday and show herself more clearly. I asked her to think of some means
+by which she could prove her identity with the spirit that then spoke to
+us, and she said, "I will hold up my right hand." Colonel Lean cautioned
+me not to mention this promise to any one, that we might be certain of
+the correctness of the test. Accordingly, on the Monday evening we
+assembled for our second <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Mr. Eglinton, and the same form
+appeared, and walking out much closer to us, <i>held up the right hand</i>.
+Colonel Lean, anxious not to be deceived by his own senses, asked the
+company what the spirit was doing. "Cannot you see?" was the answer.
+"She is holding up her hand." On this occasion Emily came with all her
+old characteristics about her, and there would have been no possibility
+of mistaking her (at least on my part) without the proof she had
+promised to give us.</p>
+
+<p>The next startling assurance we received of her proximity happened in a
+much more unexpected manner. We were staying, in the autumn of the
+following year, at a boarding-house in the Rue de Vienne at Brussels,
+with a large party of English visitors, none of whom we had ever seen
+till we entered the house. Amongst them were several girls, who had
+never heard of Spiritualism before, and were much interested in
+listening to the relation of our experiences on the subject. One evening
+when I was not well, and keeping my own room, some of these young ladies
+got hold of Colonel Lean and said, "Oh! do come and sit in the dark with
+us and tell us ghost stories." Now sitting in the dark and telling ghost
+stories to five or six nice looking girls is an occupation few men would
+object to, and they were all soon ensconced in the dark and deserted
+<i>salle-&agrave;-manger</i>. Amongst them was a young girl of sixteen, Miss Helen
+Hill, who had never shown more interest than the rest in such matters.
+After they had been seated in the dark for some minutes, she said to
+Colonel Lean, "Do you know, I can see a lady on the opposite side of the
+table quite distinctly, and she is nodding and smiling at you." The
+colonel asked what the lady was like. "She is very nice looking,"
+replied the girl, "with dark eyes and hair, but she seems to want me to
+notice her ring. She wears a ring with a large blue stone in it, of such
+a funny shape, and she keeps on twisting it round and round her finger,
+and pointing to it. Oh! now she has got up and is walking round the
+room. Only fancy! she is holding up her feet for me to see. They are
+bare and very white, but her toes are crooked!" Then Miss Hill became
+frightened and asked them to get a light. She declared that the figure
+had come up, close to her, and torn the lace off her wrists. And when
+the light was procured and her dress examined, a frill of lace that had
+been tacked into her sleeve that morning had totally disappeared. The
+young ladies grew nervous and left the room, and Colonel Lean, thinking
+the description Helen Hill had given of the spirit tallied with that of
+my sister Emily, came straight up to me and surprised me by an abrupt
+question as to whether she had been in the habit of wearing any
+particular ring (for he had not seen her for several years before her
+death). I told him that her favorite ring was an uncut turquoise&mdash;so
+large and uneven that she used to call it her "potato." "Had she any
+peculiarity about her feet?" he went on, eagerly. "Why do you wish to
+know?" I said. "She had crooked toes, that is all." "Good heavens!" he
+exclaimed, "then she has been with us in the <i>salle-&agrave;-manger</i>." I have
+never met Miss Hill since, and I am not in a position to say if she has
+evinced any further possession of clairvoyant power; but she certainly
+displayed it on that occasion to a remarkable degree; for she had never
+even heard of the existence of my sister Emily, and was very much
+disturbed and annoyed when told that the apparition she had described
+was reality and not imagination.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF THE GREEN LADY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The story I have to tell now happened a very short time ago, and every
+detail is as fresh in my mind as if I had heard and seen it yesterday.
+Mrs. Guppy-Volckman has been long known to the spiritualistic world as a
+very powerful medium, also as taking a great private interest in
+Spiritualism, which all media do not. Her means justify her, too, in
+gratifying her whims; and hearing that a certain house in Broadstairs
+was haunted, she became eager to ascertain the truth. The house being
+empty, she procured the keys from the landlord, and proceeded on a
+voyage of discovery alone. She had barely recovered, at the time, from a
+most dangerous illness, which had left a partial paralysis of the lower
+limbs behind it; it was therefore with considerable difficulty that she
+gained the drawing-room of the house, which was on the first floor, and
+when there she abandoned her crutches, and sat down on the floor to
+recover herself. Mrs. Volckman was now perfectly alone. She had closed
+the front door after her, and she was moreover almost helpless, as it
+was with great difficulty that she could rise without assistance. It was
+on a summer's evening towards the dusky hour, and she sat on the bare
+floor of the empty house waiting to see what might happen. After some
+time (I tell this part of the story as I received it from her lips) she
+heard a rustling or sweeping sound, as of a long silk train coming down
+the uncarpeted stairs from the upper storey. The room in which she sat
+communicated with another, which led out upon the passage, and it was
+not long before the door between these two apartments opened and the
+figure of a woman appeared. She entered the room in which Mrs. Volckman
+sat, very cautiously, and commenced to walk round it, feeling her way
+along the walls as though she were blind or tipsy. She was dressed in a
+green satin robe that swept behind her&mdash;round the upper part of her body
+was a kind of scarf of glistening white material, like silk gauze&mdash;and
+on her head was a black velvet cap, or coif, from underneath which her
+long black hair fell down her back. Mrs. Volckman, although used all her
+life to manifestations and apparitions of all sorts, told me she had
+never felt so frightened at the sight of one before. She attempted to
+rise, but feeling her incapability of doing so quickly, she screamed
+with fear. As soon as she did so, the woman turned round and ran out of
+the room, apparently as frightened as herself. Mrs. Volckman got hold of
+her crutches, scrambled to her feet, found her way downstairs, and
+reached the outside of the house in safety. Most people would never have
+entered it again. She, on the contrary, had an interview with the
+landlord, and actually, then and there, purchased a lease of the house
+and entered upon possession, and as soon as it was furnished and ready
+for occupation, she invited a party of friends to go down and stay with
+her at Broadstairs, and make the acquaintance of the "Green Lady," as we
+had christened her. Colonel Lean and I were amongst the visitors, the
+others consisting of Lady Archibald Campbell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Olive,
+Mrs. Bellew, Colonel Greck, Mr. Charles Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry
+Volckman, which, with our host and hostess, made up a circle of twelve.
+We assembled there on a bright day in July, and the house, with its
+large rooms and windows facing the sea, looked cheerful enough. The room
+in which Mrs. Volckman had seen the apparition was furnished as a
+drawing-room, and the room adjoining it, which was divided by a
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i> only from the larger apartment, she had converted for
+convenience sake into her bedroom. The first evening we sat it was about
+seven o'clock, and so light that we let down all the venetians, which,
+however, did little to remedy the evil. We had no cabinet, nor curtains,
+nor darkness, for it was full moon at the time, and the dancing,
+sparkling waves were quite visible through the interstices of the
+venetians. We simply sat round the table, holding hands in an unbroken
+circle and laughing and chatting with each other. In a few minutes Mrs.
+Volckman said something was rising beside her from the carpet, and in a
+few more the "Green Lady" was visible to us all standing between the
+medium and Mr. Williams. She was just as she had been described to us,
+both in dress and appearance, but her face was as white and as cold as
+that of a corpse, and her eyes were closed. She leaned over the table
+and brought her face close to each of us in turn, but she seemed to have
+no power of speech. After staying with us about ten minutes, she sunk as
+she had risen, through the carpet, and disappeared. The next evening,
+under precisely similar circumstances, she came again. This time she had
+evidently gained more vitality in a materialized condition, for when I
+urged her to tell me her name, she whispered, though with much
+difficulty, "Julia!" and when Lady Archibald observed that she thought
+she had no hands, the spirit suddenly thrust out a little hand, and
+grasped the curls on her forehead with a violence that gave her pain.
+Unfortunately, Mr. Williams' professional engagements compelled him to
+leave us on the following day, and Mrs. Volckman had been too recently
+ill to permit her to sit alone, so that we were not able to hold another
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> for the "Green Lady" during our visit. But we had not seen the
+last of her. One evening Mrs. Bellew and I were sitting in the bay
+window of the drawing-room, just "between the lights," and discussing a
+very private matter indeed, when I saw (as I thought) my hostess maid
+raise the <i>porti&egrave;re</i> that hung between the apartments and stand there in
+a listening attitude. I immediately gave Mrs. Volckman the hint. "Let us
+talk of something else," I said, in a low voice. "Jane is in your
+bedroom." "O! no! she's not," was the reply. "But I saw her lift the
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i>," I persisted; "she has only just dropped it." "You are
+mistaken," replied my hostess, "for Jane has gone on the beach with the
+child." I felt sure I had <i>not</i> been mistaken, but I held my tongue and
+said no more. The conversation was resumed, and as we were deep in the
+delicate matter, the woman appeared for the second time.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Volckman," I whispered, "Jane is really there. She has just looked
+in again."</p>
+
+<p>My friend rose from her seat. "Come with me," she said, "and I will
+convince you that you are wrong."</p>
+
+<p>I followed her into the bedroom, where she showed me that the door
+communicating with the passage was locked <i>inside</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, do you see," she continued, "that no one but the 'Green Lady'
+could enter this room but through the one we are sitting in."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it must have been the 'Green Lady,'" I replied, "for I assuredly
+saw a woman standing in the doorway."</p>
+
+<p>"That is likely enough," said Mrs. Volckman; "but if she comes again she
+shall have the trouble of drawing back the curtains."</p>
+
+<p>And thereupon she unhooped the <i>porti&egrave;re</i>, which consisted of two
+curtains, and drew them right across the door. We had hardly regained
+our seats in the bay window before the two curtains were sharply drawn
+aside, making the brass rings rattle on the rod, and the "Green Lady"
+stood in the opening we had just passed through. Mrs. Volckman told her
+not to be afraid, but to come out and speak to us; but she was
+apparently not equal to doing so, and only stood there for a few minutes
+gazing at us. I imprudently left my seat and approached her, with a view
+to making overtures of friendship, when she dropped the curtains over
+her figure. I passed through them immediately to the other side, and
+found the bedroom empty and the door locked inside, as before.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF THE MONK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A lady named Uniacke, a resident in Bruges, whilst on a visit to my
+house in London, met and had a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with William Eglinton, with
+which she was so delighted that she immediately invited him to go and
+stay with her abroad, and as my husband and I were about to cross over
+to Bruges to see my sister, who also resided there, we travelled in
+company&mdash;Mr. Eglinton living at Mrs. Uniacke's home, whilst we stayed
+with our own relations. Mrs. Uniacke was a medium herself, and had
+already experienced some very noisy and violent demonstrations in her
+own house. She was, therefore, quite prepared for her visitor, and had
+fitted up a spare room with a cabinet and blinds to the windows, and
+everything that was necessary. But, somewhat to her chagrin, we were
+informed at the first sitting by Mr. Eglinton's control, "Joey," that
+all future <i>s&eacute;ances</i> were to take place at my sister's house instead. We
+were given no reason for the change; we were simply told to obey it. My
+sister's house was rather a peculiar one, and I have already alluded to
+it, and some of the sights and sounds by which it was haunted, in the
+chapter headed "Optical Illusions." The building is so ancient that the
+original date has been completely lost. A stone set into one of the
+walls bore an inscription to the effect that it was restored in the year
+1616. And an obsolete plan of the city shows it to have stood in its
+present condition in 1562. Prior to that period, however, probably about
+the thirteenth century, it is supposed, with three houses on either side
+of it, to have formed a convent, but no printed record remains of the
+fact. Beneath it are subterraneous passages, choked with rubbish, which
+lead, no one knows whither. I had stayed in this house several times
+before, and always felt unpleasant influences from it, as I have
+related, especially in a large room on the lower floor, then used as a
+drawing-room, but which is said to have formed, originally, the chapel
+to the convent. Others had felt the influence beside myself, though we
+never had had reason to suppose that there was any particular cause for
+it. When we expressed curiosity, however, to learn why "Joey" desired us
+to hold our <i>s&eacute;ance</i> in my sister's house, he told us that the medium
+had not been brought over to Bruges for <i>our</i> pleasure or edification,
+but that there was a great work to be done there, and Mrs. Uniacke had
+been expressly influenced to invite him over, that the purposes of a
+higher power than his own should be accomplished. Consequently, on the
+following evening Mrs. Uniacke brought Mr. Eglinton over to my sister's
+house, and "Joey" having been asked to choose a room for the sitting,
+selected an <i>entresol</i> on the upper floor, which led by two short
+passages to the bedrooms. The bedroom doors being locked a dark curtain
+was hung at the entrance of one of these passages, and "Joey" declared
+it was a first-rate cabinet. We then assembled in the drawing-room, for
+the purposes of music and conversation, for we intended to hold the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> later in the evening. The party consisted only of the medium,
+Mrs. Uniacke, my sister, my husband, and myself. After I had sung a song
+or two, Mr. Eglinton became restless and moved away from the piano,
+saying the influence was too strong for him. He began walking up and
+down the room, and staring fixedly at the door, before which hung a
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i>. Several times he exclaimed with knitted brows, "What is the
+matter with that door? There is something very peculiar about it." Once
+he approached it quickly, but "Joey's" voice was heard from behind the
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i>, saying, "Don't come too near." Mr. Eglinton then retreated
+to a sofa, and appeared to be fighting violently with some unpleasant
+influence. He made the sign of the cross, then extended his fingers
+towards the door, as though to exorcise it: finally he burst into a
+mocking, scornful peal of laughter that lasted for some minutes. As it
+concluded, a diabolical expression came over his face. He clenched his
+hands, gnashed his teeth, and commenced to grope in a crouching position
+towards the door. We concluded he wished to get up to the room where the
+cabinet was, and let him have his way. He crawled, rather than walked,
+up the steep turret stairs, but on reaching the top, came to himself
+suddenly and fell back several steps. My husband, fortunately, was just
+behind him and saved him from a fall. He complained greatly of the
+influence and of a pain in his head, and we sat at the table to receive
+directions. In a few seconds the same spirit had taken possession of
+him. He left the table and groped his way towards the bedrooms,
+listening apparently to every sound, and with his hand holding an
+imaginary knife which was raised every now and then as if to strike. The
+expression on Mr. Eglinton's face during this possession is too horrible
+to describe. The worst passions were written as legibly there as though
+they had been labelled. There was a short flight of stairs leading from
+the <i>entresol</i> to the corridor, closed at the head by a padded door,
+which we had locked for fear of accident. When, apparently in pursuit of
+his object, the spirit led the medium up to this door and he found it
+fastened, his moans were terrible. Half-a-dozen times he made his weary
+round of the room, striving to get downstairs to accomplish some end,
+and to return to us moaning and baffled. At this juncture, he was so
+exhausted that one of his controls, "Daisy," took possession of him and
+talked with us for some time. We asked "Daisy" what the spirit was like
+that had controlled Mr. Eglinton last, and she said she did not like
+him&mdash;he had a bad face, no hair on the top of his head, and a long black
+frock. From this we concluded he had been a monk or a priest. When
+"Daisy" had finished speaking to us "Joey" desired Mr. Eglinton to go
+into the cabinet; but as soon as he rose, the same spirit got possession
+again and led him grovelling as before towards the bedrooms. His
+"guides" therefore carried him into the cabinet before our eyes. He was
+elevated far above our heads, his feet touching each of us in turn; he
+was then carried past the unshaded window, which enabled us to judge of
+the height he was from the ground, and finally over a large table, into
+the cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, however, of consequence occurred, and "Joey" advised us to take
+the medium downstairs to the supper room.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly we adjourned there, and during supper Mr. Eglinton appeared
+to be quite himself, and laughed with us over what had taken place. As
+soon as the meal was over, however, the old restlessness returned on
+him, and he began pacing up and down the room, walking out every now and
+then into the corridor. In a few minutes we perceived that the uneasy
+spirit again controlled him, and we all followed. He went steadily
+towards the drawing-room, but, on finding himself pursued, turned back,
+and three times pronounced emphatically the word "Go." He then entered
+the drawing-room, which was in darkness, and closed the door behind him,
+whilst we waited outside. In a little while he reopened it, and speaking
+in quite a different voice, said "Bring a light! I have something to say
+to you." When we reassembled with a lamp we found the medium controlled
+by a new spirit, whom "Joey" afterwards told us was one of his highest
+guides. Motioning us to be seated, he stood before us and said, "I have
+been selected from amongst the controls of this medium to tell you the
+history of the unhappy being who has so disturbed you this evening. He
+is present now, and the confession of his crime through my lips will
+help him to throw off the earthbound condition to which it has condemned
+him. Many years ago, the house in which we now stand was a convent, and
+underneath it were four subterraneous passages running north, south,
+east, and west, which communicated with all parts of the town. (I must
+here state that Mr. Eglinton had not previously been informed of any
+particulars relating to the former history of my sister's home, neither
+were Mrs. Uniacke or myself acquainted with it.)</p>
+
+<p>"In this convent there lived a most beautiful woman&mdash;a nun, and in one
+of the neighboring monasteries a priest who, against the strict law of
+his Church, had conceived and nourished a passion for her. He was an
+Italian who had been obliged to leave his own country, for reasons best
+known to himself, and nightly he would steal his way to this house, by
+means of one of the subterraneous passages, and attempt to overcome the
+nun's scruples, and make her listen to his tale of love; but she, strong
+in the faith, resisted him. At last, maddened one day by her repeated
+refusals, and his own guilty passion, he hid himself in one of the
+northern rooms in the upper story of this house, and watched there in
+the dark for her to pass him on her way from her devotions in the
+chapel; but she did not come. Then he crept downstairs stealthily, with
+a dagger hid beneath his robes, and met her in the hall. He conjured her
+again to yield to him, but again she resisted, and he stabbed her within
+the door on the very spot where the medium first perceived him. Her
+pure soul sought immediate consolation in the spirit spheres, but his
+has been chained down ever since to the scene of his awful crime. He
+dragged her body down the secret stairs (which are still existent) to
+the vaults beneath, and hid it in the subterraneous passage.</p>
+
+<p>"After a few days he sought it again, and buried it. He lived many years
+after, and committed many other crimes, though none so foul as this. It
+is his unhappy spirit that asks your prayers to help it to progress. It
+is for this purpose that we were brought to this city, that we might aid
+in releasing the miserable soul that cannot rest."</p>
+
+<p>I asked, "By what name shall we pray for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray for 'the distressed Being.' Call him by no other name."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your own name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer to be unknown. May God bless you all and keep you in the way
+of prayer and truth and from all evil courses, and bring you to
+everlasting life. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>The medium then walked up to the spot he had indicated as the scene of
+the murder, and knelt there for some minutes in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Thus concluded the first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> at which the monk was introduced to
+us. But the next day as I sat at the table with my sister only, the name
+of "Hortense Dupont" was given us, and the following conversation was
+rapped out.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the nun. I did love him. I couldn't help it. It is such a relief
+to think that he will be prayed for."</p>
+
+<p>"When did he murder you?"</p>
+
+<p>"In 1498."</p>
+
+<p>"What was his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"His age."</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-five!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-three."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you coming to see us to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure."</p>
+
+<p>On that evening, by "Joey's" orders, we assembled at seven. Mr. Eglinton
+did not feel the influence in the drawing-room that day, but directly he
+entered the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room, he was possessed by the same spirit. His
+actions were still more graphic than on the first occasion. He watched
+from the window for the coming of his victim through the courtyard, and
+then recommenced his crawling stealthy pursuit, coming back each time
+from the locked door that barred his egress with such heart-rending
+moans that no one could have listened to him unmoved. At last, his agony
+was so great, as he strove again and again, like some dumb animal, to
+pass through the walls that divided him from the spot he wished to
+visit, whilst the perspiration streamed down the medium's face with the
+struggle, that we attempted to make him speak to us. We implored him in
+French to tell us his trouble, and believe us to be his friends; but he
+only pushed us away. At last we were impressed to pray for him, and
+kneeling down, we repeated all the well-known Catholic prayers. As we
+commenced the "De Profundis" the medium fell prostrate on the earth, and
+seemed to wrestle with his agony. At the "Salve Regina" and "Ave Maria"
+he lifted his eyes to heaven and clasped his hands, and in the "Pater
+Noster" he appeared to join. But directly we ceased praying the evil
+passions returned, and his face became distorted in the thirst for
+blood. It was an experience that no one who had seen could ever forget.
+At last my sister fetched a crucifix, which we placed upon his breast.
+It had not been there many seconds before a different expression came
+over his face. He seized it in both hands, straining it to his eyes,
+lips, and heart, holding it from him at arm's length, then passionately
+kissing it, as we repeated the "Anima Christi." Finally, he held the
+crucifix out for each of us to kiss; a beautiful smile broke out on the
+medium's face, and the spirit passed out of him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Eglinton awoke on that occasion terribly exhausted. His face was as
+white as a sheet, and he trembled violently. His first words were: "They
+are doing something to my forehead. Burn a piece of paper, and give me
+the ashes." He rubbed them between his eyes, when the sign of the cross
+became distinctly visible, drawn in deep red lines upon his forehead.
+The controls then said, exhausted as Mr. Eglinton was, we were to place
+him in the cabinet, as their work was not yet done. He was accordingly
+led in trance to the arm-chair behind the curtain, whilst we formed a
+circle in front of him. In a few seconds the cabinet was illuminated,
+and a cross of fire appeared outside of it. This manifestation having
+been seen twice, the head and shoulders of a nun appeared floating
+outside the curtain. Her white coif and "chin-piece" were pinned just as
+the "<i>religieuses</i>" are in the habit of pinning them, and she seemed
+very anxious to show herself, coming close to each of us in turn, and
+re-appearing several times. Her face was that of a young and pretty
+woman. "Joey" said, "That's the nun, but you'll understand that this is
+only a preliminary trial, preparatory to a more perfect
+materialization." I asked the apparition if she were the "Hortense
+Dupont" that had communicated through me, and she nodded her head
+several times in acquiescence. Thus ended our second <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with the
+Monk of Bruges.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day we were all sitting at supper in my sister's house at
+about ten o'clock at night, when loud raps were heard about the room,
+and on giving the alphabet, "Joey" desired us to go upstairs and sit,
+and to have the door at the head of the staircase (which we had hitherto
+locked for fear of accidents) left open; which we accordingly did. As
+soon as we were seated at the table, the medium became entranced, and
+the same pantomime which I have related was gone through. He watched
+from the window that looked into the courtyard, and silently groped his
+way round the room, until he had crawled on his stomach up the stairs
+that led to the padded door. When he found, however, that the obstacle
+that had hitherto stood in his way was removed (by its being open) he
+drew a long breath and started away for the winding turret staircase,
+listening at the doors he passed to find out if he were overheard. When
+he came to the stairs, in descending which we had been so afraid he
+might hurt himself, he was carried down them in the most wonderful
+manner, only placing his hand on the balustrades, and swooping to the
+bottom in one flight. We had placed a lamp in the hall, so that as we
+followed him we could observe all his actions. When he reached the
+bottom of the staircase he crawled on his stomach to the door of the
+drawing-room (originally the chapel) and there waited and listened,
+darting back into the shadow every time he fancied he heard a sound.
+Imagine our little party of four in that sombre old house, the only
+ones waking at that time of night, watching by the ghastly light of a
+turned-down lamp the acting of that terrible tragedy. We held our breath
+as the murderer crouched by the chapel door, opening it noiselessly to
+peep within, and then, retreating with his imaginary dagger in his hand,
+ready to strike as soon as his victim appeared. At last she seemed to
+come. In an instant he had sprung to meet her, stabbing her first in a
+half-stooping attitude, and then, apparently, finding her not dead, he
+rose to his full height and stabbed her twice, straight downwards. For a
+moment he seemed paralyzed at what he had done, starting back with both
+hands clasped to his forehead. Then he flung himself prostrate on the
+supposed body, kissing the ground frantically in all directions.
+Presently he woke to the fear of detection, and raised the corpse
+suddenly in his arms. He fell once beneath the supposed weight, but
+staggering to his feet again, seized and dragged it, slipping on the
+stone floor as he went, to the head of the staircase that led to the
+cellars below, where the mouth of one of the subterraneous passages was
+still to be seen. The door at the head of this flight was modern, and he
+could not undo the lock, so, prevented from dragging the body down the
+steps, he cast himself again upon it, kissing the stone floor of the
+hall and moaning. At last he dragged himself on his knees to the spot of
+the murder, and began to pray. We knelt with him, and as he heard our
+voices he turned on his knees towards us with outstretched hands. I
+suggested that he wanted the crucifix again, and went upstairs to fetch
+it, when the medium followed me. When I had found what I sought, he
+seized it from me eagerly, and carrying it to the window, whence he had
+so often watched, fell down again upon his knees. After praying for some
+time he tried to speak to us. His lips moved and his tongue protruded,
+but he was unable to articulate. Suddenly he seized each of our hands in
+turn in both of his own, and wrung them violently. He tried to bless us,
+but the words would not come. The same beautiful smile we had seen the
+night before broke out over his countenance, the crucifix dropped from
+his hands, and he fell prostrate on the floor. The next moment Mr.
+Eglinton was asking us where he was and what on earth had happened to
+him, as he felt so queer. He declared himself fearfully exhausted, but
+said he felt that a great calm and peace had come over him
+notwithstanding the weakness, and he believed some great good had been
+accomplished. He was not again entranced, but "Joey" ordered the light
+to be put out, and spoke to us in the direct voice as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I've just come to tell you what I know you will be very glad to hear,
+that through the medium's power, and our power, and the great power of
+God, the unhappy spirit who has been confessing his crime to you is
+freed to-night from the heaviest part of his burden&mdash;the being
+earth-chained to the spot. I don't mean to say that he will go away at
+once to the spheres, because he's got a lot to do still to alter the
+conditions under which he labors, but the worst is over. This was the
+special work Mr. Eglinton was brought to Bruges to do, and Ernest and I
+can truly say that, during the whole course of our control of him, we
+have never had to put forth our own powers, nor to ask so earnestly for
+the help of God, as in the last three days. You have all helped in a
+good work,&mdash;to free a poor soul from earth, and to set him on the right
+road, and <i>we</i> are grateful to you and to the medium, as well as he. He
+will be able to progress rapidly now until he reaches his proper sphere,
+and hereafter the spirits of himself and the woman he murdered will work
+together to undo for others the harm they brought upon themselves. She
+is rejoicing in her high sphere at the work we have done for him, and
+will be the first to help and welcome him upward. There are many more
+earth-bound spirits in this house and the surrounding houses who are
+suffering as he was, though not to the same extent, nor for the same
+reason. But they all ask for and need your help and your prayers, and
+this is the greatest and noblest end of Spiritualism&mdash;to aid poor,
+unhappy spirits to free themselves from earth and progress upwards.
+After a while when this spirit can control the medium with calmness, he
+will come himself and tell you, through him, all his history and how he
+came to fall. Meanwhile, we thank you very much for allowing us to draw
+so much strength from you and helping us with your sympathy, and I hope
+you will believe me always to remain, your loving friend, Joey."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>This account, with very little alteration, was published in the
+<i>Spiritualist</i> newspaper, August 29th, 1879, when the <i>s&eacute;ances</i> had
+just occurred. There is a sequel to the story, however, which is almost
+as remarkable as itself, and which has not appeared in print till now.
+From Bruges on this occasion my husband and I went to Brussels, where we
+diverted ourselves by means very dissimilar to anything so grave as
+Spiritualism. There were many sales going on in Brussels at that moment,
+and one of our amusements was to make a tour of the salerooms and
+inspect the articles put up for competition. During one of these visits
+I was much taken by a large oil pointing, in a massive frame, measuring
+some six or seven feet square. It represented a man in the dress of a
+Franciscan monk&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, a brown serge robe, knotted with cords about
+the waist&mdash;kneeling in prayer with outstretched hands upon a mass of
+burning embers. It was labelled in the catalogue as the picture of a
+Spanish monk of the order of Saint Francis Xavier, and was evidently a
+painting of some value. I was drawn to go and look at it several days in
+succession before the sale, and I told my husband that I coveted its
+possession. He laughed at me and said it would fetch a great deal more
+money than we could afford to give for it, in which opinion I
+acquiesced. The day of the sale, however, found us in our places to
+watch the proceedings, and when the picture of the monk was put up I bid
+a small sum for it. Col. Lean looked at me in astonishment, but I
+whispered to him that I was only in fun, and I should stop at a hundred
+francs. The bidding was very languid, however, and to my utter
+amazement, the picture was knocked down to me for <i>seventy-two francs</i>.
+I could hardly believe that it was true. Directly the sale was
+concluded, the brokers crowded round me to ask what I would take for the
+painting, and they told me they had not thought of bidding until it
+should have reached a few hundred francs. But I told them I had got my
+bargain, and I meant to stick by it. When we returned next day to make
+arrangements for its being sent to us, the auctioneer informed us that
+the frame alone in which it had been sent for sale had cost three
+hundred francs, so that I was well satisfied with my purchase. This
+occurrence took place a short time before we returned to England, where
+we arrived long before the painting, which, with many others, was left
+to follow us by a cheaper and slower route.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday after we reached home (having seen no friends in the
+meanwhile), we walked into Steinway Hall to hear Mr. Fletcher's
+lecture. At its conclusion he passed as usual into a state of trance,
+and described what he saw before him. In the midst of mentioning people,
+places, and incidents unknown to us, he suddenly exclaimed: "Now I see a
+very strange thing, totally unlike anything I have ever seen before, and
+I hardly know how to describe it. A man comes before me&mdash;a
+foreigner&mdash;and in a dress belonging to some monastic order, a brown robe
+of coarse cloth or flannel, with a rope round his waist and beads
+hanging, and bare feet and a shaved head. He is dragging a picture on to
+the platform, a very large painting in a frame, and it looks to me like
+a portrait of himself, kneeling on a carpet of burning wood. No! I am
+wrong. The man tells me the picture is <i>not</i> a portrait of himself, but
+of the founder of his Order, and it is in the possession of some people
+in this hall to-night. The man tells me to tell these people that it was
+<i>his</i> spirit that influenced them to buy this painting at some place
+over the water, and he did so in order that they might keep it in
+remembrance of what they have done for him. And he desires that they
+shall hang that picture in some room where they may see it every day,
+that they may never forget the help which spirits on this earth may
+render by their prayers to spirits that have passed away. And he offers
+them through me his heartfelt thanks for the assistance given him, and
+he says the day is not far off when he shall pray for himself and for
+them, that their kindness may return into their own bosoms."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The oil painting reached England in safety some weeks afterwards, and
+was hung over the mantel-piece in our dining-room, where it remained, a
+familiar object to all our personal acquaintances.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MISS SHOWERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some time before I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Showers, I heard,
+through friends living in the west of England, of the mysterious and
+marvellous powers possessed by a young lady of their acquaintance, who
+was followed by voices in the air, which held conversations with her,
+and the owners of which were said to have made themselves visible. I
+listened with curiosity, the more so, as my informants utterly
+disbelieved in Spiritualism, and thought the phenomena were due to
+trickery. At the same time I conceived a great desire to see the girl of
+sixteen, who, for no gain or apparent object of her own, was so clever
+as to mystify everyone around her; and when she and her mother came to
+London, I was amongst the first to beg for an introduction, and I shall
+never forget the experiences I had with her. She was the first <i>private</i>
+medium through whom my personal friends returned to converse with me;
+and no one but a Spiritualist can appreciate the blessing of spiritual
+communications through a source that is above the breath of suspicion. I
+have already written at length about Miss Showers in "The story of John
+Powles." She was a child, compared to myself, whose life had hardly
+commenced when mine was virtually over, and neither she, nor any member
+of her family, had ever had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with
+even the names of my former friends. Yet (as I have related) John Powles
+made Miss Showers his especial mouthpiece, and my daughter "Florence"
+(then a little child) also appeared through her, though at long
+intervals, and rather timidly. Her own controls, however, or cabinet
+spirits (as they call them in America)&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, such spirits as are
+always about the medium, and help the strangers to appear&mdash;"Peter,"
+"Florence," "Lenore," and "Sally," were very familiar with me, and
+afforded me such facilities of testing their medium as do not often fall
+to the lot of inquirers. Indeed, at one time, they always requested
+that I should be present at their <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, so that I considered myself
+to be highly favored. And I may mention here that Miss Showers and I
+were so much <i>en rapport</i> that her manifestations were always much
+stronger in my presence. We could not sit next each other at an ordinary
+tea or supper table, when we had no thought of, or desire to hold a
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, without manifestations occurring in the full light. A hand,
+that did not belong to either of us, would make itself apparent under
+the table-cloth between us&mdash;a hand with power to grasp ours&mdash;or our feet
+would be squeezed or kicked beneath the table, or fingers would suddenly
+appear, and whisk the food off our plates. Some of their jests were
+inconvenient. I have had the whole contents of a tumbler, which I was
+raising to my lips, emptied over my dress. It was generally known that
+our powers were sympathetic, and at last "Peter" gave me leave, or,
+rather, ordered me to sit in the cabinet with "Rosie," whilst the
+manifestations went on outside. He used to say he didn't care for me any
+more than if I had been "a spirit myself." One evening "Peter" called me
+into the cabinet (which was simply a large box cupboard at one end of
+the dining-room) before the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> began, and told me to sit down at
+the medium's feet and "be a good girl and keep quiet." Miss Showers was
+in a low chair, and I sat with my arms resting on her lap. She did not
+become entranced, and we talked the whole time together. Presently,
+without any warning, two figures stood beside us. I could not have said
+where they came from. I neither saw them rise from the floor nor descend
+from the ceiling. There was no beginning to their appearance. In a
+moment they were simply <i>there</i>&mdash;"Peter" and "Florence" (not my child,
+but Miss Showers' control of the same names).</p>
+
+<p>"Peter" sent "Florence" out to the audience, where we heard her speaking
+to them and their remarks upon her (there being only a thin curtain hung
+before the entrance of the cabinet), but he stayed with us himself. We
+could not see him distinctly in the dim light, but we could distinctly
+hear and feel him. He changed our ornaments and ribbons, and pulled the
+hair-pins out of our hair, and made comments on what was going on
+outside. After a while "Florence" returned to get more power, and both
+spirits spoke to and touched us at the same time. During the whole of
+this <i>s&eacute;ance</i> my arms rested on Miss Showers' lap, and she was awake and
+talking to me about the spirits.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, at a sitting at Mr. Luxmore's house in Hyde Park Square,
+the spirit "Florence" had been walking amongst the audience in the
+lighted front drawing-room for a considerable time&mdash;even sitting at the
+piano and accompanying herself whilst she sung us a song in what she
+called "the planetary language." She greatly resembled her medium on
+that occasion, and several persons present remarked that she did so. I
+suppose the inferred doubt annoyed her, for before she finally left us
+she asked for a light, and a small oil lamp was brought to her which she
+placed in my hand, telling me to follow her and look at her medium,
+which I accordingly did. "Florence" led the way into the back
+drawing-room, where I found Miss Showers reposing in an arm-chair. The
+first sight of her terrified me. For the purpose of making any change in
+her dress as difficult as possible, she wore a high, tight-fitting black
+velvet frock, fastened at the back, and high Hessian boots, with
+innumerable buttons. But she now appeared to be shrunk to half her usual
+size, and the dress hung loosely on her figure. Her arms had
+disappeared, but putting my hands up the dress sleeves, I found them
+diminished to the size of those of a little child&mdash;the fingers reaching
+only to where the elbows had been. The same miracle had happened to her
+feet, which only occupied half her boots. She looked in fact like the
+mummy of a girl of four or six years old. The spirit told me to feel her
+face. The forehead was dry, rough, and burning hot, but from the chin
+water was dropping freely on to the bosom of her dress. "Florence" said
+to me, "I wanted <i>you</i> to see her, because I know you are brave enough
+to tell people what you have seen."</p>
+
+<p>There was a marked difference in the personality of the two influences
+"Florence" and "Lenore," although both at times resembled Miss Showers,
+and sometimes more than others. "Florence" was taller than her medium,
+and a very beautiful woman. "Lenore" was much shorter and smaller, and
+not so pretty, but more vivacious and pert. By the invitation of Mrs.
+Macdougal Gregory, I attended several <i>s&eacute;ances</i> with Miss Showers at her
+residence in Green Street, when these spirits appeared. "Lenore" was
+fond of saying that she wouldn't or couldn't come out unless <i>I</i> held
+her hand, or put my arm round her waist. To tell the truth, I didn't
+care for the distinction, for this influence was very peculiar in some
+things, and to me she always appeared "uncanny," and to leave an
+unpleasant feeling behind her. She was seldom completely formed, and
+would hold up a foot which felt like wet clay, and had no toes to it, or
+not the proper quantity. On occasions, too, there was a charnel-house
+smell about her, as if she had been buried a few weeks and dug up again,
+an odor which I have never smelt from any materialized spirit before or
+after. One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, when "Lenore" had insisted upon
+walking round the circle supported by my arm, I nearly fainted from the
+smell. It resembled nothing but that of a putrid corpse, and when she
+returned to the cabinet, I was compelled to leave the room and retch
+from the nausea it had caused me. It was on this occasion that the
+sitters called "Lenore" so many times back into the circle, that all the
+power was gone, and she was in danger of melting away before their eyes.
+Still they entreated her to remain with them a little longer. At last
+she grew impatient, and complained to me of their unreasonableness. She
+was then raised from the floor&mdash;actually floating just outside the
+curtain&mdash;and she asked me to put my hands up her skirts and convince
+myself that she was half-dematerialized. I did as she told me, and felt
+that she had <i>no legs</i>, although she had been walking round the room a
+few minutes before. I could feel nothing but the trunk of a body, which
+was completely lifted off the ground. Her voice, too, had grown faint
+and her face indistinct, and in another moment she had totally
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, after the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was concluded,
+"Florence" looked round the curtain and called to me to come inside of
+it. I did so and found myself in total darkness. I said, "What's the
+good of my coming here? I can't see anything." "Florence" took me by one
+hand, and answered, "I will lead you! Don't be afraid." Then some one
+else grasped my other hand, and "Peter's" voice said, "We've got you
+safe. We want you to feel the medium." The two figures led me between
+them to the sofa on which Miss Showers was lying. They passed my hand
+all over her head and body. I felt, as before, her hands and feet
+shrunk to half their usual size, but her heart appeared to have become
+proportionately increased. When my hand was placed upon it, it was
+leaping up and down violently, and felt like a rabbit or some other live
+animal bounding in her bosom. Her brain was burning as before, but her
+extremities were icy cold. There was no doubt at all of the abnormal
+condition into which the medium had been thrown, in order to produce
+these strong physical manifestations which were borrowed, for the time
+being, from her life, and could never (so they informed me) put the
+<i>whole</i> of what they borrowed back again. This seems to account for the
+invariable deterioration of health and strength that follows physical
+manifestations in both sexes. These were the grounds alone on which they
+explained to me the fact that, on several occasions, when the
+materialized spirit has been violently seized and held apart from the
+medium, it has been found to have become, or been changed into the
+medium, and always with injury to the latter&mdash;as in the case of Florence
+Cook being seized by Mr. Volckman and Sir George Sitwell. Mr. Volckman
+concluded because when he seized the spirit "Katie King," he found he
+was holding Florence Cook, that the latter must have impersonated the
+former; yet I shall tell you in its proper place how I have sat in the
+same room with "Katie King," whilst Miss Cook lay in a trance between
+us. The medium nearly lost her life on the occasion alluded to, from the
+sudden disturbance of the mysterious link that bound her to the spirit.
+I have had it from the lips of the Countess of Caithness, who was one of
+the sitters, and stayed with Miss Cook till she was better, that she was
+in convulsions the whole night after, and that it was some time before
+they believed she would recover. If a medium could simulate a
+materialized spirit, it is hardly likely that she would (or could)
+simulate convulsions with a medical man standing by her bedside. "You
+see," said Miss Showers' "Florence," whilst pointing out to me the
+decreased size of her medium under trance, "that 'Rosie' is half her
+usual size and weight. <i>I</i> have borrowed the other half from her, which,
+combined with contributions from the sitters, goes to make up the body
+in which I shew myself to you. If you seize and hold me tight, you <i>are</i>
+holding her, <i>i.e.</i>, half of her, and you increase the action of the
+vital half to such a degree that, if the two halves did not reunite, you
+would kill her. You see that I can detach certain particles from her
+organism for my own use, and when I dematerialize, I restore these
+particles to her, and she becomes once more her normal size. You only
+hurry the reunion by violently detaining me, so as to injure her. But
+you might drive her mad, or kill her in the attempt, because the
+particles of brain, or body, might become injured by such a violent
+collision. If you believe I can take them from her (as you see I do) in
+order to render my invisible body visible to you, why can't you believe
+I can make them fly together again on the approach of danger. And
+granted the one power, I see no difficulty in acknowledging the other."</p>
+
+<p>One day Mrs. Showers invited me to assist at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> to be given
+expressly for friends living at a distance. When I reached the house,
+however, I found the friends were unable to be present, and the meeting
+was adjourned. Mrs. Showers apologized for the alteration of plan, but I
+was glad of it. I had often sat with "Rosie" in company with others, and
+I wanted to sit with her quite alone, or rather to sit with her in a
+room quite alone, and see what would spontaneously occur, without any
+solicitation on our parts. We accordingly annexed the drawing-room for
+our sole use&mdash;locked the door, extinguished the lights, and sat down on
+a sofa side by side, with our arms round each other. The manifestations
+that followed were not all nice ones. They formed an experience to be
+passed through once, but not willingly repeated, and I should not relate
+them here, excepting that they afford so strong a proof that they were
+produced by a power outside and entirely distinct from our own&mdash;a power,
+which having once called into action, we had no means of repressing. We
+had sat in the dark for some minutes, without hearing or seeing
+anything, when I thoughtlessly called out, "Now, Peter, do your worst,"
+and extending my arms, singing, "Come! for my arms are empty." In a
+moment a large, heavy figure fell with such force into my outstretched
+arms as to bruise my shoulder&mdash;it seemed like a form made of wood or
+iron, rather than flesh and blood&mdash;and the rough treatment that ensued
+for both of us is almost beyond description. It seemed as if the room
+were filled with materialized creatures, who were determined to let us
+know they were not to be trifled with. Our faces and hands were slapped,
+our hair pulled down, and our clothes nearly torn off our backs. My silk
+skirt being separate from the bodice was torn off at the waistband, and
+the trimming ripped from it, and Miss Showers' muslin dress was also
+much damaged. We were both thoroughly frightened, but no expostulations
+or entreaties had any effect with our tormentors. At the same time we
+heard the sound as of a multitude of large birds or bats swooping about
+the room. The fluttering of wings was incessant, and we could hear them
+"scrooping" up and down the walls. In the midst of the confusion,
+"Rosie" was whisked out of my arms (for fright had made us cling tighter
+than ever together) and planted on the top of a table at some distance
+from me, at which she was so frightened she began to cry, and I called
+out, "Powles, where are you? Can't you stop them?" My appeal was heard.
+Peter's voice exclaimed, "Hullo! here's Powles coming!" and all the
+noise ceased. We heard the advent of my friend, and in another moment he
+was smoothing down the ruffled hair and arranging the disordered dresses
+and telling me to light the gas and not be frightened. As soon as I
+could I obeyed his directions and found Rosie sitting doubled up in the
+centre of the table, but the rest of the room and furniture in its usual
+condition. "Peter" and his noisy crowd had vanished&mdash;so had "Powles,"
+and there was nothing but our torn skirts and untidy appearance to prove
+that we had not been having an unholy dream. "Peter" is not a wicked
+spirit&mdash;far from it&mdash;but he is a very earthly and frivolous one. But
+when we consider that nine-tenths of the spirits freed from the flesh
+are both earthly and frivolous (if not worse), I know not what right we
+have to expect to receive back angels in their stead.</p>
+
+<p>At one time when my sister Blanche (who was very sceptical as to the
+possibility of the occurrences I related having taken place before me)
+was staying in my house at Bayswater, I asked Miss Showers if she would
+give us a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> in my own home, to which she kindly assented. This
+was an unusual concession on her part, because, in consequence of
+several accidents and scandals that had occurred from media being
+forcibly detained (as I have just alluded to), her mother was naturally
+averse to her sitting anywhere but in their own circle. However, on my
+promising to invite no strangers, Mrs. Showers herself brought her
+daughter to my house. We had made no preparation for the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> except
+by opening part of the folding doors between the dining-room and study,
+and hanging a curtain over the aperture. But I had carefully locked the
+door of the study, so that there should be no egress from it excepting
+through the dining-room, and had placed against the locked door a heavy
+writing-table laden with books and ornaments to make "assurance doubly
+sure." We sat first in the drawing-room above, where there was a piano.
+The lights were extinguished, and Miss Showers sat down to the
+instrument and played the accompaniment to a very simple melody, "Under
+the willow she's sleeping." Four voices, sometimes alone and sometimes
+<i>all together</i>, accompanied her own. One was a baritone, supposed to
+proceed from "Peter," the second, a soprano, from "Lenore." The third
+was a rumbling bass, from an influence who called himself "The Vicar of
+Croydon," and sung in a fat, unctuous, and conceited voice; and the
+fourth was a cracked and quavering treble, from another spirit called
+"The Abbess." These were the voices, Mrs. Showers told me, that first
+followed her daughter about the house in Devonshire, and gained her such
+an unenviable notoriety there. The four voices were perfectly distinct
+from one another, and sometimes blended most ludicrously and tripped
+each other up in a way which made the song a medley&mdash;upon which each one
+would declare it was the fault of the other. "The Vicar of Croydon"
+always required a great deal of solicitation before he could be induced
+to exhibit his powers, but having once commenced, it was difficult to
+make him leave off again, whereas "The Abbess" was always complaining
+that they would not allow her to sing the solos. An infant's voice also
+sung some baby songs in a sweet childish treble, but she was also very
+shy and seldom was heard, in comparison with the rest. "All
+ventriloquism!" I hear some reader cry. If so, Miss Showers ought to
+have made a fortune in exhibiting her talent in public. I have heard the
+best ventriloquists in the world, but I never heard one who could
+produce <i>four</i> voices at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>After the musical portion of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was over, we descended to the
+dining-room, where the gas was burning, and the medium passed through
+it to the secured study, where a mattress was laid upon the floor for
+her accommodation. "Florence" was the first to appear, tall and
+beautiful in appearance, and with upraised eyes like a nun. She measured
+her height against the wall with me, and we found she was the taller of
+the two by a couple of inches,&mdash;my height being five feet six, the
+medium's five feet, and the spirit's five feet eight, an abnormal height
+for a woman. "Lenore" came next, very short indeed, looking like a child
+of four or six, but she grew before our eyes, until her head was on a
+level with mine. She begged us all to observe that she had <i>not</i> got on
+"Rosie's" petticoat body. She said she had borrowed it on one occasion,
+and Mrs. Showers had recognized it, and slipped upstairs in the middle
+of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> and found it missing from her daughter's chest of
+drawers, and that she had been so angry in consequence (fearing Rosie's
+honor might be impeached) that she said if "Lenore" did not promise
+never to do so again, she should not be allowed to assist at the
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i> at all. So Miss "Lenore," in rather a pert and defiant mood,
+begged Mrs. Showers to see that what she wore was her own property, and
+not that of the medium. She was succeeded on that occasion by a strange
+being, totally different from the other two, who called herself "Sally,"
+and said she had been a cook. She was one of those extraordinary
+influences for whose return to earth one can hardly account; quick, and
+clever, and amusing as she could be, but with an unrefined wit and
+manner, and to all appearance, more earthly-minded than ourselves. But
+do we not often ask the same question with respect to those still
+existent here below? What were they born for? What good do they do? Why
+were they ever permitted to come? God, without whose permission nothing
+happens, alone can answer it.</p>
+
+<p>We had often to tease "Peter" to materialize and show himself, but he
+invariably refused, or postponed the work to another occasion. His
+excuse was that the medium being so small, he could not obtain
+sufficient power from her to make himself appear as a big man, and he
+didn't like to come, "looking like a girl in a billycock hat." "I came
+once to Mrs. Showers," he said, "and she declared I was 'Rosie' dressed
+up, and so I have resolved never to show myself again." At the close of
+that <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, however, "Peter" asked me to go into the study and see
+him wake the medium. When I entered it and made my way up to the
+mattress, I found Miss Showers extended on it in a deep sleep, whilst
+"Peter," materialized, sat at her feet. He made me sit down next to him
+and take his hand and feel his features with my own hand. Then he
+proceeded to rouse "Rosie" by shaking her and calling her by name,
+holding me by one hand, as he did so. As Miss Showers yawned and woke up
+from her trance, the hand slipped from mine, and "Peter" evaporated.
+When she sat up I said to her gently, "I am here! Peter brought me in
+and was sitting on the mattress by my side till just this moment." "Ha,
+ha!" laughed his voice close to my ear, "and I'm here still, my dears,
+though you can't see me."</p>
+
+<p>Who can account for such things? I have witnessed them over and over
+again, yet I am unable, even to this day, to do more than believe and
+wonder.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM EGLINTON.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the stones I have related of "Emily" and "The Monk" I have alluded
+freely to the wonderful powers exhibited by William Eglinton, but the
+marvels there spoken of were by no means the only ones I have witnessed
+through his mediumship. At the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> which produced the apparition of
+my sister Emily, Mr. Eglinton's control "Joey" made himself very
+familiar. "Joey" is a remarkably small man&mdash;perhaps two-thirds lighter
+in weight than the medium&mdash;and looks more like a little jockey than
+anything else, though he says he was a clown whilst in this world, and
+claims to be the spirit of the immortal Joe Grimaldi. He has always
+appeared to us clothed in a tight-fitting white dress like a woven
+jersey suit, which makes him look still smaller than he is. He usually
+keeps up a continuous chatter, whether visible or invisible, and is one
+of the cleverest and kindest controls I know. He is also very
+devotional, for which the public will perhaps give him as little credit
+now as they did whilst he was on earth. On the first occasion of our
+meeting in the Russell Street Rooms he did not show himself until quite
+the last, but he talked incessantly of and for the other spirits that
+appeared. My sister was, as I have said, the first to show herself&mdash;then
+came an extraordinary apparition. On the floor, about three feet from
+the cabinet, appeared a head&mdash;only the head and throat of a dark man,
+with black beard and moustaches, surmounted by the white turban usually
+worn by natives. It did not speak, but the eyes rolled and the lips
+moved, as if it tried to articulate, but without success. "Joey" said
+the spirit came for Colonel Lean, and was that of a foreigner who had
+been decapitated. Colonel Lean could not recognize the features; but,
+strange to say, he had been present at the beheading of two natives in
+Japan who had been found guilty of murdering some English officers, and
+we concluded from "Joey's" description that this must be the head of
+one of them. I knelt down on the floor and put my face on a level with
+that of the spirit, that I might assure myself there was no body
+attached to it and concealed by the curtain of the cabinet, and I can
+affirm that it was <i>a head only</i>, resting on the neck&mdash;that its eyes
+moved and its features worked, but that there was nothing further on the
+floor. I questioned it, and it evidently tried hard to speak in return.
+The mouth opened and the tongue was thrust out, and made a sort of dumb
+sound, but was unable to form any words, and after a while the head sunk
+through the floor and disappeared. If this was not one of the
+pleasantest apparitions I have seen, it was one of the most remarkable.
+There was no possibility of trickery or deception. The decapitated head
+rested in full sight of the audience, and had all the peculiarities of
+the native appearance and expression. After this the figures of two or
+three Englishmen came, friends of others of the audience&mdash;then "Joey"
+said he would teach us how to "make muslin." He walked right outside the
+cabinet, a quaint little figure, not much bigger than a boy of twelve or
+thirteen, with a young, old face, and dressed in the white suit I have
+described. He sat down by me and commenced to toss his hands in the air,
+as though he were juggling with balls, saying the while, "This is the
+way we make ladies' dresses." As he did so, a small quantity of muslin
+appeared in his hands, which he kept on moving in the same manner,
+whilst the flimsy fabric increased and increased before our eyes, until
+it rose in billows of muslin above "Joey's" head and fell over his body
+to his feet, and enveloped him until he was completely hidden from view.
+He kept on chattering till the last moment from under the heap of snowy
+muslin, telling us to be sure and "remember how he made ladies'
+dresses"&mdash;when, all of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, the heap of
+muslin rose into the air, and before us stood the tall figure of
+"Abdullah," Mr. Eglinton's Eastern guide. There had been no darkness, no
+pause to effect this change. The muslin had remained on the spot where
+it was fabricated until "Joey" evaporated, and "Abdullah" rose up from
+beneath it. Now "Abdullah" is not a spirit to be concealed easily. He is
+six foot two&mdash;a great height for a native&mdash;and his high turban adds to
+his stature. He is a very handsome man, with an aquiline nose and
+bright black eyes&mdash;a Persian, I believe, by birth, and naturally dark
+in complexion. He does not speak English, but "salaams" continually, and
+will approach the sitters when requested, and let them examine the
+jewels, of which he wears a large quantity in his turban and ears and
+round his throat, or to show them and let them feel that he has lost one
+arm, the stump being plainly discernible through his thin clothing.
+"Abdullah" possesses all the characteristics of the Eastern nation,
+which are unmistakable to one who, like myself, has been familiar with
+them in the flesh. His features are without doubt those of a Persian; so
+is his complexion. His figure is long and lithe and supple, as that of a
+cat, and he can bend to the ground and rise again with the utmost ease
+and grace. Anybody who could pretend for a moment to suppose that Mr.
+Eglinton by "making up" could personate "Abdullah" must be a fool. It
+would be an impossibility, even were he given unlimited time and
+assistance, to dress for the character. There is a peculiar boneless
+elasticity in the movements of a native which those who have lived in
+the East know that no Englishmen can imitate successfully. "Abdullah's"
+hand and feet also possess all the characteristics of his nationality,
+being narrow, long and nerveless, although I have heard that he can give
+rather too good a grip with his one hand when he chooses to exert his
+power or to show his dislike to any particular sitter. He has always,
+however, shown the utmost urbanity towards us, but he is not a
+particularly friendly or familiar spirit. When "Abdullah" had retired on
+this occasion, "Joey" drew back the curtain that shaded the cabinet, and
+showed us his medium and himself. There sat Mr. Eglinton attired in
+evening dress, with the front of his shirt as smooth and spotless as
+when it left the laundress' hands, lying back in his chair in a deep
+sleep, whilst little Joey sat astride his knee, his white suit
+contrasting strangely with his medium's black trousers. Whilst in this
+position he kissed Mr. Eglinton several times, telling him to wake up,
+and not look so sulky; then, having asked if we all saw him distinctly,
+and were satisfied he was not the medium, he bade God bless us, and the
+curtains closed once more upon this incomprehensible scene. Mr. Eglinton
+subsequently became an intimate friend of ours, and we often had the
+pleasure of sitting with him, but we never saw anything more wonderful
+(to my mind) than we did on our first acquaintance. When he accompanied
+us to Bruges (as told in the history of the "Monk"), "Joey" took great
+trouble to prove to us incontrovertibly that he is not an "emanation,"
+or double, of his medium, but a creature completely separate and wholly
+distinct. My sister's house being built on a very old-fashioned
+principle, had all the bedrooms communicating with each other. The
+entresol in which we usually assembled formed the connecting link to a
+series of six chambers, all of which opened into each other, and the
+entrance to the first and last of which was from the entresol.</p>
+
+<p>We put Mr. Eglinton into No. 1, locking the connecting door with No. 2,
+so that he had no exit except into our circle as we sat round the
+curtain, behind which we placed his chair. "Joey" having shown himself
+outside the curtain, informed us he was going through the locked door at
+the back into our bedrooms, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and would bring us
+something from each room.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, in another minute we heard his voice in No. 2, commenting
+on all he saw there; then he passed into No. 3, and so on, making a tour
+of the rooms, until he appeared at the communicating door of No. 5, and
+threw an article taken from each room into the entresol. He then told us
+to lift the curtain and inspect the medium, which we did, finding him
+fast asleep in his chair, with the door behind him locked. "Joey" then
+returned by the way he had gone, and presented himself once more outside
+the cabinet, the key of the locked door being all the time in our
+possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Ernest" is another well-known control of Mr. Eglinton's, though he
+seldom appears, except to give some marvellous test or advice. He is a
+very earnest, deep-feeling spirit, like his name, and his symbol is a
+cross of light; sometimes large and sometimes small, but always bright
+and luminous. "Ernest" seldom shows his whole body. It is generally only
+his face that is apparent in the midst of the circle, a more convincing
+manifestation for the sceptic or inquirer than any number of bodies
+which are generally attributed to the chicanery of the medium. "Ernest"
+always speaks in the direct voice in a gentle, bass tone, entirely
+distinct from "Joey's" treble, and his appearance is usually indicative
+of a harmonious and successful meeting. "Daisy," a North American
+Indian girl, is another control of William Eglinton's, but I have only
+heard her speak in trance. I do not know which of these spirits it is
+who conducts the manifestations of writing on the arm, with which Mr.
+Eglinton is very successful; sometimes it seems to be one, and sometimes
+the other. As he was sitting with our family at supper one evening, I
+mentally asked "Joey" to write something on some part of his body where
+his hand could not reach. This was in order to prove that the writing
+had not been prepared by chemical means beforehand, as some people are
+apt to assert. In a short time Mr. Eglinton was observed to stop eating,
+and grow very fidgety and look uncomfortable, and on being questioned as
+to the cause, he blushed and stammered, and could give no answer. After
+a while he rose from table, and asked leave to retire to his room. The
+next morning he told us that he had been so uneasy at supper, it had
+become impossible for him to sit it out; that on reaching his room he
+had found that his back, which irritated him as though covered with a
+rash, <i>had a sentence written across it</i>, of which he could only make
+out a few words by looking at it backwards in a glass; and as there were
+only ladies in the house beside himself, he could not call in an
+interpreter to his assistance. One day, without consulting him, I placed
+a small card and a tiny piece of black lead between the leaves of a
+volume of the <i>Leisure Hour</i>, and asked him to hold the book with me on
+the dining table. I never let the book out of my hand, and it was so
+thick that I had difficulty afterwards in finding my card (from the
+corner of which I had torn a piece) again. Mr. Eglinton sat with me in
+the daylight with the family about, and all he did was to place his hand
+on mine, which rested on the book. The perspiration ran down his face
+whilst he did so, but there was no other sign of power, and, honestly, I
+did not expect to find any writing on my card. When I had shaken it out
+of the leaves of the book, however, I found a letter closely written on
+it from my daughter "Florence" to this effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Mama</span>,&mdash;I am so glad to be able to communicate with you again,
+and to demonstrate by actual fact that I am really present. Of
+course, you quite understand that I do not write this myself.
+'Charlie' is present with me, and so are many more, and we all
+unite in sending you our love.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+"Your daughter, <span class="smcap">Florence</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Eglinton's mediumship embraces various phases of phenomena, as may
+be gathered from his own relations of them, and the testimony of his
+friends. A narrative of his spiritual work, under the title of "'Twixt
+two Worlds," has been written and published by Mr. John T. Farmer, and
+contains some exhaustive descriptions of, and testimonies to, his
+undoubtedly wonderful gifts. In it appear several accounts written by
+myself, and which, for the benefit of such of my readers as have not
+seen the book in question, I will repeat here. The first is that of the
+"Monk," given <i>in extenso</i>, as I have given it in the eleventh chapter
+of this book. The second is of a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> held on the 5th September,
+1884. The circle consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Colonel and Mrs.
+Wynch, Mr. and Mrs. Russell-Davies, Mr. Morgan, and Colonel Lean and
+myself, and was held in Mr. Eglinton's private chambers in Quebec
+Street. We sat in the front drawing-room, with one gas-burner alight,
+and the door having been properly secured, Mr. Eglinton went into the
+back room, which was divided by curtains from the front. He had not left
+us a couple of minutes before a man stepped out through the <i>porti&egrave;re</i>,
+and walked right into the midst of us. He was a large, stout man, and
+very dark, and most of the sitters remarked that he had a very peculiar
+smell. No one recognized him, and after appearing two or three times he
+left, and was <i>immediately</i> succeeded by a woman, very much like him,
+who also had to leave us without any recognition. These two spirits,
+before taking a final leave, came out <i>together</i>, and seemed to examine
+the circle curiously. After a short interval a much smaller and slighter
+man came forward, and darted in a peculiar slouching attitude round the
+circle. Colonel Lean asked him to shake hands. He replied by seizing his
+hand, and nearly dragging him off his seat. He then darted across the
+room, and gave a similar proof of his muscular power to Mr. Stewart. But
+when I asked him to notice <i>me</i>, he took my hand and squeezed it firmly
+between his own. He had scarcely disappeared before "Abdullah," with his
+one arm and his six feet two of height, stood before us, and salaamed
+all round. Then came my daughter Florence, a girl of nineteen by that
+time, very slight and feminine in appearance. She advanced two or three
+times, near enough to touch me with her hand, but seemed fearful to
+approach nearer. But the next moment she returned, dragging Mr.
+Eglinton after her. He was in deep trance, breathing with difficulty,
+but "Florence" held him by the hand and brought him up to my side, when
+he detached my hands from those of the sitters either side of me, and
+making me stand up, he placed my daughter in my arms. As she stood
+folded in my embrace, she whispered a few words to me relative to a
+subject <i>known to no one but myself</i>, and she placed my hand upon her
+heart, that I might feel she was a living woman. Colonel Lean asked her
+to go to him. She tried and failed, but having retreated behind the
+curtain to gather strength, she appeared the second time <i>with Mr.
+Eglinton</i>, and calling Colonel Lean to her, embraced him. This is one of
+the most perfect instances on record of a spirit form being seen
+distinctly by ten witnesses with the medium under gas. The next
+materialization that appeared was for Mr. Stewart. This gentleman was
+newly arrived from Australia, and a stranger to Mr. Eglinton. As soon as
+he saw the female form, who beckoned him to the <i>porti&egrave;re</i> to speak to
+her, he exclaimed, "My God! Pauline," with such genuine surprise and
+conviction as were unmistakable. The spirit then whispered to him, and
+putting her arms round his neck, affectionately kissed him. He turned
+after a while, and addressing his wife, told her that the spirit bore
+the very form and features of their niece Pauline, whom they had lost
+the year before. Mr. Stewart expressed himself entirely satisfied with
+the identity of his niece, and said she looked just as she had done
+before she was taken ill. I must not omit to say that the medium also
+appeared with this figure, making the third time of showing himself in
+one evening with the spirit form.</p>
+
+<p>The next apparition, being the seventh that appeared, was that of a
+little child apparently about two years old, who supported itself in
+walking by holding on to a chair. I stooped down, and tried to talk to
+this baby, but it only cried in a fretful manner, as though frightened
+at finding itself with strangers, and turned away. The attention of the
+circle was diverted from this sight by seeing "Abdullah" dart between
+the curtains, and stand with the child in our view, whilst Mr. Eglinton
+appeared at the same moment between the two forms, making a <i>tria juncta
+in uno</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. The second one of which I wrote took place on
+the 27th of the same month, and under very similar circumstances. The
+circle this time consisted of Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Woods, Mr. Gordon, The
+Honorable Gordon Sandeman, my daughter Eva, my son Frank, Colonel Lean,
+and myself. Mr. Eglinton appeared on this occasion to find some
+difficulty in passing under control, and he came out so frequently into
+the circle to gather power, that I guessed we were going to have
+uncommonly good manifestations. The voice of "Joey," too, begged us
+under <i>no circumstances whatever</i>, to lose hands, as they were going to
+try something very difficult, and we might defeat their efforts at the
+very moment of victory. When the medium was at last under control in the
+back drawing room, a tall man, with an uncovered head of dark hair, and
+a large beard, appeared and walked up to a lady in the company. She was
+very much affected by the recognition of the spirit, which she affirmed
+to be that of her brother. She called him by name and kissed him, and
+informed us, that he was just as he had been in earth life. Her emotion
+was so great, we thought she would have fainted, but after a while she
+became calm again. We next heard the notes of a clarionet. I had been
+told that Mr. Woods (a stranger just arrived from the Antipodes) had
+lost a brother under peculiarly distressing circumstances, and that he
+hoped (though hardly expected) to see his brother that evening. It was
+the first time I had ever seen Mr. Woods; yet so remarkable was the
+likeness between the brothers, that when a spirit appeared with a
+clarionet in his hand, I could not help knowing who it was, and
+exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. Woods, there is your brother!" The figure walked up
+to Mr. Woods and grasped his hand. As they appeared thus with their
+faces turned to one another, they were <i>strikingly</i> alike both in
+feature and expression. This spirit's head was also bare, an unusual
+occurrence, and covered with thick, crisp hair. He appeared twice, and
+said distinctly, "God bless you!" each time to his brother. Mrs.
+Wheeler, who had known the spirit in earth life, was startled by the
+tone of the voice, which she recognized at once; and Mr. Morgan, who had
+been an intimate friend of his in Australia, confirmed the recognition.
+We asked Mr. Woods the meaning of the clarionet, which was a black one,
+handsomely inlaid with silver. He told us his brother had been an
+excellent musician, and had won a similar instrument as a prize at some
+musical competition. "But," he added wonderingly, "his clarionet is
+locked up in my house in Australia." My daughter "Florence" came out
+next, but only a little way, at which I was disappointed, but "Joey"
+said they were reserving the strength for a manifestation further on. He
+then said, "Here comes a friend for Mr. Sandeman," and a man, wearing
+the masonic badge and scarf, appeared, and made the tour of the circle,
+giving the masonic grip to those of the craft present. He was a good
+looking young man, and said he had met some of those present in
+Australia, but no one seemed to recognize him. He was succeeded by a
+male figure, who had materialized on the previous occasion. As he passed
+through the curtain, a female figure appeared beside him, bearing a very
+bright light, as though to show him the way. She did not come beyond the
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i>, but every one in the room saw her distinctly. On account of
+the dress and complexion of the male figure, we had wrongly christened
+him "The Bedouin;" but my son, Frank Marryat, who is a sailor, now found
+out he was an East Indian by addressing him in Hindustani, to which he
+responded in a low voice. Some one asked him to take a seat amongst us,
+upon which he seized a heavy chair in one hand and flourished it above
+his head. He then squatted, native fashion, on his haunches on the floor
+and left us, as before, by vanishing suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Joey" now announced that they were going to try the experiment of
+"<i>showing us how the spirits were made from the medium</i>." This was the
+crowning triumph of the evening. Mr. Eglinton appeared in the very midst
+of us in trance. He entered the room backwards, and as if fighting with
+the power that pushed him in, his eyes were shut, and his breath was
+drawn with difficulty. As he stood thus, holding on to a chair for
+support, an airy mass like a cloud of tobacco smoke was seen on his left
+hip, his legs became illuminated by lights travelling up and down them,
+and a white film settled about his head and shoulders. The mass
+increased, and he breathed harder and harder, whilst invisible hands
+<i>pulled the filmy drapery out of his hip</i> in long strips, that
+amalgamated as soon as formed, and fell to the ground to be succeeded by
+others. The cloud continued to grow thicker, and we were eagerly
+watching the process, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the mass had
+evaporated, and a spirit, full formed, stood beside him. No one could
+say <i>how</i> it had been raised in the very midst of us, nor whence
+it came, but <i>it was there</i>. Mr. Eglinton then retired with the new-born
+spirit behind the curtains, but in another moment he came (or he was
+thrown out) amongst us again, and fell upon the floor. The curtains
+opened again, and the full figure of "Ernest" appeared and raised the
+medium by the hand. As he saw him, Mr. Eglinton fell on his knees, and
+"Ernest" drew him out of sight. Thus ended the second of these two
+wonderful <i>s&eacute;ances</i>. Thus published reports of them were signed with the
+full names and addresses of those who witnessed them.</p>
+
+<p>William Eglinton's powers embrace various phases of phenomena, amongst
+which levitation is a common occurrence; indeed, I do not think I have
+ever sat with him at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> during which he has <i>not</i> been
+levitated. I have seen him on several occasions rise, or be carried,
+into the air, so that his head touched the ceiling, and his feet were
+above the sitters' heads. On one occasion whilst sitting with him a
+perfectly new manifestation was developed. As each spirit came the name
+was announced, written on the air in letters of fire, which moved round
+the circle in front of the sitters. As the names were those of friends
+of the audience and not of friends of Mr. Eglinton, and the phenomenon
+ended with a letter written to me in the same manner on private affairs,
+it could not be attributed to a previously arranged trick. I have
+accompanied Mr. Eglinton, in the capacity of interpreter, to a
+professional <i>s&eacute;ance</i> in Paris consisting of some forty persons, not one
+of whom could speak a word of English whilst he was equally ignorant of
+foreign languages. And I have heard French and German spirits return
+through him to converse with their friends, who were radiant with joy at
+communicating with them again, whilst their medium could not (had he
+been conscious) have understood or pronounced a single word of all the
+news he was so glibly repeating. I will conclude this testimony to his
+powers by the account of a sitting with him for slate writing&mdash;that much
+abused and most maligned manifestation. Because a few ignorant
+pig-headed people who have never properly investigated the science of
+Spiritualism decide that a thing cannot be, "because it can't," men of
+honor and truth are voted charlatans and tricksters, and those who
+believe in them fools and blind. The day will dawn yet when it will be
+seen which of the two classes best deserve the name.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, when I first became connected in business with Mr. Edgar
+Lee of the <i>St. Stephen's Review</i>, I found him much interested in the
+subject of Spiritualism, though he had never had an opportunity of
+investigating it, and through my introduction I procured him a test
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> with William Eglinton. We met one afternoon at the medium's
+house in Nottingham Place for that purpose, and sat at an ordinary table
+in the back dining-room for slate-writing. The slate used on the
+occasion (as Mr. Lee had neglected to bring his own slate as requested)
+was one which was presented to Mr. Eglinton by Mr. Gladstone. It
+consisted of two slates of medium size, set in mahogany frames, with box
+hinges, and which, when shut, were fastened with a Bramah lock and key.
+On the table cloth was a collection of tiny pieces of different colored
+chalk. In the front room, which was divided from us by folding doors,
+were some bookcases. Mr. Eglinton commenced by asking Mr. Lee to go into
+the front room by himself, and select, in his mind's eye, any book he
+chose as the one from which extracts should be given. Mr. Lee having
+done as he was told, returned to his former place beside us, without
+giving a hint as to which book he had selected. Mr. Gladstone's slate
+was then delivered over to him to clean with sponge and water; that
+done, he was directed to choose four pieces of chalk and place them
+between the slates, to lock them and retain the key. The slates were
+left on the table in the sight of all; Mr. Lee's hand remained on them
+all the time. All that Mr. Eglinton did was to place <i>his</i> hand above
+Mr. Lee's.</p>
+
+<p>"You chose, I think," he commenced, "four morsels of chalk&mdash;white, blue,
+yellow and red. Please say which word, on which line, on which page of
+the book you selected just now, the white chalk shall transcribe."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lee answered (I forget the exact numbers) somewhat in this wise,
+"The 3rd word on the 15th line of the 102nd page," he having, it must be
+remembered, no knowledge of the contents of the volume, which he had not
+even touched with his hand. Immediately he had spoken, a scratching
+noise was heard between the two slates. When it ceased, Mr. Eglinton put
+the same question with regard to the blue, yellow and red chalks, which
+was similarly responded to. He then asked Mr. Lee to unlock the slates,
+read the words, and then fetch the book he had selected, and compare
+notes, and in each instance the word had been given correctly. Several
+other experiments were then made, equally curious, the number of Mr.
+Lee's watch, which he had not taken from his pocket, and which he said
+he did not know himself, being amongst them. Then Mr. Eglinton said to
+Mr. Lee, "Have you any friend in the spirit-world from whom you would
+like to hear? If so, and you will mentally recall the name, we will try
+and procure some writing from him or her." (I must say here that these
+two were utter strangers to each other, and had met for the first time
+that afternoon, and indeed [as will be seen by the context] <i>I</i> had a
+very slight knowledge of Mr. Edgar Lee myself at that time.) Mr. Lee
+thought for a moment, and then replied that there was a dead friend of
+his from whom he should like to hear. The cleaning and locking process
+was gone through again, and the scratching re-commenced, and when it
+concluded, Mr. Lee unlocked the slates and read a letter to this
+effect:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote> <p> <span class="smcap">My Dear Will,</span>&mdash;I am quite satisfied with your decision respecting
+Bob. By all means, send him to the school you are thinking of. He
+will get on better there. His education requires more pushing than
+it gets at present. Thanks for all you have done for him. God bless
+you.&mdash;Your affectionate cousin, </p>
+  <p class="right"><span class="smcap ">R. Tasker.</span>"
+  </p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>I do not pretend to give the exact words of this letter; for though they
+were afterwards published, I have not a copy by me. But the gist of the
+experiment does not lie in the exactitude of the words. When I saw the
+slate, I looked at Mr. Lee in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it for?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all right," he replied; "it is for me. It is from my cousin, who
+left his boy in my charge. <i>My real name is William Tasker.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Now, I had never heard it hinted before that Edgar Lee was only a <i>nom
+de plume</i>, and the announcement came on me as a genuine surprise. So
+satisfied was Mr. William Tasker Edgar Lee with his experimental
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, that he had the slate photographed and reproduced in the <i>St.
+Stephen's Review</i>, with an account of the whole proceedings, which were
+sufficient to make any one stop for a moment in the midst of the world's
+harassing duties and think.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF ARTHUR COLMAN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Arthur Colman was so intimate a friend of Mr. Eglinton's, and so much
+associated with him in my thoughts in the days when I first knew them
+both, that it seems only natural that I should write of him next. His
+powers were more confined to materialization than Eglinton's, but in
+that he excelled. He is the most wonderful materializing medium I ever
+met in England; but of late years, owing to the injury it did him in his
+profession, he has been compelled, in justice to himself, to give up
+sitting for physical manifestations, and, indeed, sitting at all, except
+to oblige his friends. I cannot but consider this decision on his part
+as a great public loss; but until the public takes more interest in the
+next world than they do in this, it will not make it worth the while of
+such as Mr. Colman to devote their lives, health and strength to their
+enlightenment. For to be a good physical medium means literally to part,
+little by little, with one's own life, and no man can be expected to do
+so much for the love of a set of unbelievers and sceptics, who will use
+up all his powers, and then go home to call him a rogue and a cheat and
+a trickster. If, as I am persuaded, each one of us is surrounded by the
+influences we gather of our own free-will about us&mdash;the loving and
+noble-hearted by angels, the selfish and unbelieving by devils&mdash;and we
+consider how the latter preponderate over the former in this world, is
+it to be wondered at that most <i>s&eacute;ances</i> are conducted by an assemblage
+of evil spirits brought there by the sitters themselves? Sceptical,
+blasphemous and sensual men and women collect together to try and find
+out the falsehood, <i>not the truth</i>, of Spiritualism, and are tricked by
+the very influences that attend their footsteps and direct their daily
+lives; and therein lies the danger of Spiritualism as a pursuit, taken
+up out of curiosity rather than a desire to learn. It gives increased
+power to the evil that surrounds ourselves, and the devil that goes out
+of us returns with seven other devils worse than himself. The drunkard,
+who, by giving rein to a weakness which he knows he should resist, has
+attracted to him the spirits of drunkards gone before, joins a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>,
+and by the collaboration of forces, as it were, bestows increased power
+on the guides he has chosen for himself to lead him into greater evil.
+This dissertation, however, called forth by the never-ceasing wonder I
+feel at the indifference of the world towards such sights as I have
+seen, has led me further than I intended from the subject of my chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Colman is a young man of delicate constitution and appearance,
+who was at one time almost brought down to death's door by the demands
+made by physical phenomena upon his strength; but since he has given up
+sitting, he has regained his health, and looks quite a different person.
+This fact proves of itself what a tax is laid upon the unfortunate
+medium for such manifestations. Since he has resolved, however, never to
+sit again, I am all the more anxious to record what I have seen through
+him, probably for the last time. When I first knew my husband Colonel
+Lean, he had seen nothing of Spiritualism, and was proportionately
+curious, and naturally a little sceptical on the subject, or, rather let
+me say, incredulous. He was hardly prepared to receive all the marvels I
+told him of without proof; and Mr. Colman's guide, "Aim&eacute;e," was very
+anxious to convince him of their truth. She arranged, therefore, a
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> at which he was to be present, and which was to be held at the
+house of Mr. and Mrs. George Neville. The party dined there together
+previously, and consisted only of Mr. and Mrs. Neville, Arthur Colman,
+Colonel Lean, and myself. As we were in the drawing-room, however, after
+dinner, and before we had commenced the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, an American lady, who
+was but slightly known to any of us, was announced. We had particularly
+wished to have no strangers present, and her advent proportionately
+annoyed us, but we did not know on what excuse to get rid of her. She
+was a pushing sort of person; and when Mrs. Neville told her we were
+going to hold a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, as a sort of hint that she might take her
+leave, it only made her resolve to stay; indeed, she declared she had
+had a premonition of the fact. She said that whilst in her own room that
+morning, a figure had appeared standing by her bed, dressed in blue and
+white, like the pictures of the Virgin Mary, and that all day she had
+had an impression that she must spend the evening with the Nevilles, and
+she should hear something more about it. We could not get rid of the
+lady, so we were obliged to ask her to remain and assist at the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, which she had already made up her mind to do, so we commenced
+our preparations. The two drawing-rooms communicated by folding doors,
+which were opened, and a <i>porti&egrave;re</i> drawn across the opening. In the
+back room we placed Mr. Colman's chair. He was dressed in a light grey
+suit, which we secured in the following manner:&mdash;His hands were first
+sewn inside the sleeves of the coat, then his arms were placed behind
+his back, and the coat sleeves sewn together to the elbow. We then sewed
+his trouser legs together in the same way. We then tied him round the
+throat, waist and legs with <i>white cotton</i>, which the least movement on
+his part would break, and the ends of each ligament were sealed to the
+wall of the room with wax and stamped with my seal with "<i>Florence
+Marryat</i>" on it. Considering him thus secure, without any <i>possibility</i>
+of escape unless we discovered it, we left him in the back room, and
+arranged ourselves on a row of five chairs before the <i>porti&egrave;re</i> in the
+front one, which was lighted by a single gas-burner. I sat at the head
+of the row, then the American lady, Mrs. Neville, Colonel Lean and Mr.
+Neville. I am not sure how long we waited for the manifestations; but I
+do not think it was many minutes before a female figure glided from the
+side of the curtain and took a vacant chair by my side. I said, "<i>Who is
+this?</i>" and she whispered, "<i>Florence</i>," and laid her head down on my
+shoulder, and kissed my neck. I was turning towards her to distinguish
+her features more fully, when I became aware that a second figure was
+standing in front of me, and "Florence" said "Mother, there is Powles;"
+and at the same time, as he bent down to speak to me, his beard touched
+my face. I had not had time to draw the attention of my friends to the
+spirits that stood by me, when I was startled by hearing one exclamation
+after another from the various sitters. The American lady called out,
+"There's the woman that came to me this morning." Mr. Neville said,
+"That is my father," and Colonel Lean was asking some one if he would
+not give his name, I looked down the line of sitters. Before Colonel
+Lean there stood an old man with a long, white beard; a somewhat similar
+figure was in front of Mr. Neville. Before the dark curtain appeared a
+woman dressed in blue and white, like a nun; and meanwhile, "Florence"
+and "Powles" still maintained their station by my side. As if this were
+not enough of itself to turn a mortal's brain, the <i>porti&egrave;re</i> was at the
+same moment drawn aside, and there stood Arthur Colman in his grey suit,
+freed from all his bonds, but under the control of "Aim&eacute;e," who called
+out joyously to my husband, "<i>Now, Frank, will you believe?</i>" She
+dropped the curtain, the apparitions glided or faded away, and we passed
+into the back drawing-room, to find Mr. Colman still in trance, just as
+we had left him, and <i>with all the seals and stitches</i> intact. Not a
+thread of them all was broken. This is the largest number of spirits I
+have ever seen at one time with one medium. I have seen two materialized
+spirits at a time, and even three, from Mr. Williams and Miss Showers
+and Katie Cook; but on this occasion there were five apparent with the
+medium, all standing together before us. And this is the sort of thing
+that the majority of people do not consider it worth their while to take
+a little trouble to see. I have already related how successfully
+"Florence" used to materialize through this medium, and numerous
+friends, utterly unknown to him, have revisited us through his means.
+His trance mediumship is as wonderful as his physical phenomena; some
+people might think more so. Amongst others, two spirits have come back
+to us through Mr. Colman, neither of whom he knew in this life, and both
+of whom are, in their way, too characteristic to be mistaken. One is
+Phillis Glover the actress; the other my stepson, Francis Lean, who was
+drowned by an accident at sea. Phillis Glover was a woman who led a very
+eventful life, chiefly in America, and was a versatile genius in
+conversation, as in everything else. She was peculiar also, and had a
+half-Yankee way of talking, and a store of familiar sayings and
+anecdotes, which she constantly introduced into her conversation. She
+was by no means an ordinary person whilst in this life, and in order to
+imitate her manner and speech successfully, one would need to be as
+clever a person as herself. And, without wishing to derogate from the
+powers of Mr. Colman's mind, he knows, and I know, that Phillis Glover
+was cleverer than either of us. When her influence or spirit therefore
+returns through him, it is quite unmistakable. It is not only that she
+retains all her little tricks of voice and feature and manner (which Mr.
+Colman has never seen), but she alludes to circumstances that took place
+in this life and people she was associated with here that he has never
+heard of. More, she will relate her old stories and anecdotes, and sing
+her old songs, and give the most incontrovertible tests of her identity,
+even to recalling facts and incidents that have entirely passed from our
+minds. When she appears through him, it is Phillis Glover we are sitting
+with again and talking with, as familiarly as we did in the days gone
+by. "Francis," in his way too, is quite as remarkable. The circumstances
+of his death and the events leading to it were unknown to us, till he
+related them through Mr. Colman; and he speaks to us of the contents of
+private letters, and repeats conversations and alludes to circumstances
+and names that are known only to him and ourselves. He had a peculiar
+manner also&mdash;quick and nervous&mdash;and a way of cutting his words short,
+which his spirit preserves to the smallest particular, and which furnish
+the strongest proofs possible of his identity to those who knew him here
+below. But these are but a very few amongst the innumerable tests
+furnished by Arthur Colman's occult powers of the assured possibility of
+communicating with the spirits of those gone before us.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. GUPPY VOLCKMAN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The mediumship of this lady is so well known, and has been so
+universally attested, that nothing I can write of could possibly add to
+her fame; and as I made her acquaintance but a short time before she
+relinquished sitting for manifestations, I have had but little
+experience of her powers, but such as I enjoyed were very remarkable. I
+have alluded to them in the story of "The Green Lady," whose apparition
+was due solely to Mrs. Guppy Volckman's presence, and on that occasion
+she gave us another wonderful proof of her mediumship. A sheet was
+procured and held up at either end by Mr. Charles Williams and herself.
+It was held in the light, in the centre of the room, forming a white
+wall of about five feet high, <i>i.e.</i>, as high as their arms could
+conveniently reach. <i>Both</i> the hands of Mrs. Volckman and Mr. Williams
+were placed <i>outside</i> the sheet, so that no trickery might be suspected
+through their being concealed. In a short time the head of a woman
+appeared above the sheet, followed by that of a man, and various pairs
+of hands, both large and small, which bobbed up and down, and seized the
+hands of the spectators, whilst the faces went close to the media, as if
+with the intention of kissing them. This frightened Mrs. Volckman, so
+that she frequently screamed and dropped her end of the sheet, which,
+had there been any deception, must inevitably have exposed it. It seemed
+to make no difference to the spirits, however, who reappeared directly
+they had the opportunity, and made her at last so nervous that she threw
+the sheet down and refused to hold it any more. The faces were
+life-size, and could move their eyes and lips; the hands were some as
+large as a man's, and covered with hair, and others like those of a
+woman or child. They had all the capability of working the fingers and
+grasping objects presented to them; whilst the four hands belonging to
+the media were kept in sight of the audience, and could not have worked
+machinery even if they could have concealed it.</p>
+
+<p>The first time I was introduced to Mrs. Volckman (then Mrs. Guppy) was
+at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> at her own house in Victoria Road, where she had assembled
+a large party of guests, including several names well known in art and
+literature. We sat in a well-lighted drawing-room, and the party was so
+large that the circle round the table was three deep. Mrs. Mary Hardy,
+the American medium (since dead), was present, and the honors of the
+manifestations may be therefore, I conclude, divided between the two
+ladies. The table, a common deal one, made for such occasions, with a
+round hole of about twenty inches in diameter in the middle of it, was
+covered with a cloth that hung down, and was nailed to the ground,
+leaving only the aperture free. (I must premise that this cloth had been
+nailed down by a committee of the gentlemen visitors, in order that
+there might be no suspicion of a confederate hidden underneath it.) We
+then sat round the table, but without placing our hands on it. In a
+short time hands began to appear through the open space in the table,
+all sorts of hands, from the woman's taper fingers and the baby's
+dimpled fist, to the hands of old and young men, wrinkled or muscular.
+Some of the hands had rings on the fingers, by which the sitters
+recognized them, some stretched themselves out to be grasped; and some
+appeared in pairs, clasped together or separate. One hand took a glove
+from a sitter and put it on the other, showing the muscular force it
+possessed by the way in which it pressed down each finger and then
+buttoned the glove. Another pair of hands talked through the dumb
+alphabet to us, and a third played on a musical instrument. I was
+leaning forward, before I had witnessed the above, peering inquisitively
+down the hole, and saying, "I wonder if they would have strength to take
+anything down with them," when a large hand suddenly appeared and very
+nearly took <i>me</i> down, by seizing my nose as if it never meant to let go
+again. At all events, it took me a peg or two down, for I remember it
+brought the tears into my eyes with the force it exhibited. After the
+hands had ceased to appear, the table was moved away, and we sat in a
+circle in the light. Mrs. Guppy did not wish to take a part in the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, except as a spectator, so she retired to the back
+drawing-room with the Baroness Adelma Vay and other visitors, and left
+Mrs. Hardy with the circle in the front. Suddenly, however, she was
+levitated and carried in the sight of us all into the midst of our
+circle. As she felt herself rising in the air, she called out, "Don't
+let go hands for Heaven's sake." We were standing in a ring, and I had
+hold of the hand of Prince Albert of Solms. As Mrs. Guppy came sailing
+over our heads, her feet caught his neck and mine, and in our anxiety to
+do as she had told us, we gripped tight hold of each other, and were
+thrown forward on our knees by the force with which she was carried past
+us into the centre. This was a pretty strong proof to us, whatever it
+may be to others, that our senses did not deceive us when we thought we
+saw Mrs. Guppy over our heads in the air. The influence that levitated
+her, moreover, placed her on a chair with such a bump that it broke the
+two front legs off. As soon as Mrs. Guppy had rejoined us, the order was
+given to put out the light and to wish for something. We unanimously
+asked for flowers, it being the middle of December, and a hard frost.
+Simultaneously we smelt the smell of fresh earth, and were told to light
+the gas again, when the following extraordinary sight met our view. In
+the middle of the sitters, still holding hands, was piled up <i>on the
+carpet</i> an immense quantity of mould, which had been torn up apparently
+with the roots that accompanied it. There were laurestinus, and laurels,
+and holly, and several others, just as they had been pulled out of the
+earth and thrown down in the midst of us. Mrs. Guppy looked anything but
+pleased at the state of her carpet, and begged the spirits would bring
+something cleaner next time. They then told us to extinguish the lights
+again, and each sitter was to wish <i>mentally</i> for something for himself.
+I wished for a yellow butterfly, knowing it was December, and as I
+thought of it, a little cardboard box was put into my hand. Prince
+Albert whispered to me, "Have you got anything?" "Yes," I said; "but not
+what I asked for. I expect they have given me a piece of jewellery."
+When the gas was re-lit, I opened the box, and there lay <i>two yellow
+butterflies</i>; dead, of course, but none the less extraordinary for that.
+I wore at that <i>s&eacute;ance</i> a tight-fitting, high white muslin dress, over a
+tight petticoat body. The dress had no pocket, and I carried my
+handkerchief, a fine cambric one, in my hand. When the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was
+over, I found this handkerchief had disappeared, at which I was vexed,
+as it had been embroidered for me by my sister Emily, then dead. I
+inquired of every sitter if they had seen it, even making them turn out
+their pockets in case they had taken it in mistake for their own, but it
+was not to be found, and I returned home, as I thought, without it. What
+was my surprise on removing my dress and petticoat bodice to find the
+handkerchief, neatly folded into a square of about four inches,
+<i>between</i> my stays and the garment beneath them; placed, moreover, over
+the smallest part of my waist, where no fingers could have penetrated
+even had my dress been loose. My woman readers may be able better than
+the men to appreciate the difficulty of such a man&oelig;uvre by mortal
+means; indeed it would have been quite impossible for myself or anybody
+else to place the handkerchief in such a position without removing the
+stays. And it was folded so neatly also, and placed so smoothly, that
+there was not a crumple in the cambric.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF FLORENCE COOK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In writing of my own mediumship, or the mediumship of any other person,
+I wish it particularly to be understood that I do not intend my
+narrative to be, by any means, an account of <i>all s&eacute;ances</i> held under
+that control (for were I to include everything that I have seen and
+heard during my researches into Spiritualism, this volume would swell to
+unconscionable dimensions), but only of certain events which I believe
+to be remarkable, and not enjoyed by every one in like measure. Most
+people have read of the ordinary phenomena that take place at such
+meetings. My readers, therefore, will find no description here of
+marvels which&mdash;whether true or false&mdash;can be accounted for upon natural
+grounds. Miss Florence Cook, now Mrs. Elgie Corner, is one of the media
+who have been most talked of and written about. Mr. Alfred Crookes took
+an immense interest in her, and published a long account of his
+investigation of Spiritualism under her mediumship. Mr. Henry Dunphy, of
+the <i>Morning Post</i>, wrote a series of papers for <i>London Society</i> (of
+which magazine I was then the editor), describing her powers, and the
+proof she gave of them. The first time I ever met Florence Cook was in
+his private house, when my little daughter appeared through her (<i>vide</i>
+"The Story of my Spirit Child"). On that occasion, as we were sitting at
+supper after the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>&mdash;a party of perhaps thirty people&mdash;the whole
+dinner-table, with everything upon it, rose bodily in the air to a level
+with our knees, and the dishes and glasses swayed about in a perilous
+manner, without, however, coming to any permanent harm. I was so much
+astonished at, and interested by, what I saw that evening, that I became
+most anxious to make the personal acquaintance of Miss Cook. She was the
+medium for the celebrated spirit, "Katie King," of whom so much has been
+believed and disbelieved, and the <i>s&eacute;ances</i> she gave at her parents'
+house in Hackney for the purpose of seeing this figure alone used to be
+crowded by the cleverest and most scientific men of the day, Sergeants
+Cox and Ballantyne, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Alfred Crookes, and many others,
+being on terms of the greatest intimacy with her. Mr. William Harrison,
+of the <i>Spiritualist</i> paper, was the one to procure me an introduction
+to the family and an entrance to the <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, for which I shall always
+feel grateful to him.</p>
+
+<p>For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me begin by telling <i>who</i> "Katie
+King" was supposed to be. Her account of herself was that her name was
+"Annie Owens Morgan;" that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Morgan, a
+famous buccaneer who lived about the time of the Commonwealth, and
+suffered death upon the high seas, being, in fact, a pirate; that she
+herself was about twelve years old when Charles the First was beheaded;
+that she married and had two little children; that she committed more
+crimes than we should like to hear of, having murdered men with her own
+hands, but yet died quite young, at about two or three and twenty. To
+all questions concerning the reason of her reappearance on earth, she
+returned but one answer, That it was part of the work given her to do to
+convince the world of the truth of Spiritualism. This was the
+information I received from her own lips. She had appeared to the Cooks
+some years before I saw her, and had become so much one of the family as
+to walk about the house at all times without alarming the inmates. She
+often materialized and got into bed with her medium at night, much to
+Florrie's annoyance; and after Miss Cook's marriage to Captain Corner,
+he told me himself that he used to feel at first as if he had married
+two women, and was not quite sure which was his wife of the two.</p>
+
+<p>The order of these <i>s&eacute;ances</i> was always the same. Miss Cook retired to a
+back room, divided from the audience by a thin damask curtain, and
+presently the form of "Katie King" would appear dressed in white, and
+walk out amongst the sitters in gaslight, and talk like one of
+themselves. Florence Cook (as I mentioned before) is a very small,
+slight brunette, with dark eyes and dark curly hair and a delicate
+aquiline nose. Sometimes "Katie" resembled her exactly; at others, she
+was totally different. Sometimes, too, she measured the same height as
+her medium; at others, she was much taller. I have a large photograph
+of "Katie" taken under limelight. In it she appears as the double of
+Florrie Cook, yet Florrie was looking on whilst the picture was taken. I
+have sat for her several times with Mr. Crookes, and seen the tests
+applied which are mentioned in his book on the subject. I have seen
+Florrie's dark curls <i>nailed down to the floor</i>, outside the curtain, in
+view of the audience, whilst "Katie" walked about and talked with us. I
+have seen Florrie placed on the scale of a weighing machine constructed
+by Mr. Crookes for the purpose, behind the curtain, whilst the balance
+remained in sight. I have seen under these circumstances that the medium
+weighed eight stone in a normal condition, and that as soon as the
+materialized form was fully developed, the balance ran up to four stone.
+Moreover, I have seen both Florrie and "Katie" together on several
+occasions, so I can have no doubt on the subject that they were two
+separate creatures. Still, I can quite understand how difficult it must
+have been for strangers to compare the strong likeness that existed
+between the medium and the spirit, without suspecting they were one and
+the same person. One evening "Katie" walked out and perched herself upon
+my knee. I could feel she was a much plumper and heavier woman than Miss
+Cook, but she wonderfully resembled her in features, and I told her so.
+"Katie" did not seem to consider it a compliment. She shrugged her
+shoulders, made a grimace, and said, "I know I am; I can't help it, but
+I was much prettier than that in earth life. You shall see, some
+day&mdash;you shall see." After she had finally retired that evening, she put
+her head out at the curtain again and said, with the strong lisp she
+always had, "I want Mrs. Ross-Church." I rose and went to her, when she
+pulled me inside the curtain, when I found it was so thin that the gas
+shining through it from the outer room made everything in the inner
+quite visible. "Katie" pulled my dress impatiently and said, "Sit down
+on the ground," which I did. She then seated herself in my lap, saying,
+"And now, dear, we'll have a good 'confab,' like women do on earth."
+Florence Cook, meanwhile, was lying on a mattress on the ground close to
+us, wrapped in a deep trance. "Katie" seemed very anxious I should
+ascertain beyond doubt that it was Florrie. "Touch her," she said, "take
+her hand, pull her curls. Do you see that it is Florrie lying there?"
+When I assured her I was quite satisfied there was no doubt of it, the
+spirit said, "Then look round this way, and see what I was like in earth
+life." I turned to the form in my arms, and what was my amazement to see
+a woman fair as the day, with large grey or blue eyes, a white skin, and
+a profusion of golden red hair. "Katie" enjoyed my surprise, and asked
+me, "Ain't I prettier than Florrie now?" She then rose and procured a
+pair of scissors from the table, and cut off a lock of her own hair and
+a lock of the medium's, and gave them to me. I have them safe to this
+day. One is almost black, soft and silky; the other a coarse golden red.
+After she had made me this present, "Katie" said, "Go back now, but
+don't tell the others to-night, or they'll all want to see me." On
+another very warm evening she sat on my lap amongst the audience, and I
+felt perspiration on her arm. This surprised me; and I asked her if, for
+the time being, she had the veins, nerves, and secretions of a human
+being; if blood ran through her body, and she had a heart and lungs. Her
+answer was, "I have everything that Florrie has." On that occasion also
+she called me after her into the back room, and, dropping her white
+garment, stood perfectly naked before me. "Now," she said "you can see
+that I am a woman." Which indeed she was, and a most beautifully-made
+woman too; and I examined her well, whilst Miss Cook lay beside us on
+the floor. Instead of dismissing me this time, "Katie" told me to sit
+down by the medium, and, having brought me a candle and matches, said I
+was to strike a light as soon as she gave three knocks, as Florrie would
+be hysterical on awaking, and need my assistance. She then knelt down
+and kissed me, and I saw she was still naked. "Where is your dress,
+Katie?" I asked. "Oh that's gone," she said; "I've sent it on before
+me." As she spoke thus, kneeling beside me, she rapped three times on
+the floor. I struck the match almost simultaneously with the signal; but
+as it flared up, "Katie King" was gone like a flash of lightning, and
+Miss Cook, as she had predicted, awoke with a burst of frightened tears,
+and had to be soothed into tranquillity again. On another occasion
+"Katie King" was asked at the beginning of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, by one of the
+company, to say <i>why</i> she could not appear in the light of more than one
+gasburner. The question seemed to irritate her, and she replied, "I have
+told you all, several times before, that I can't stay under a searching
+light. I don't know <i>why</i>; but I can't, and if you want to prove the
+truth of what I say, turn up all the gas and see what will happen to me.
+Only remember, it you do there will be no <i>s&eacute;ance</i> to-night, because I
+shan't be able to come back again, and you must take your choice."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this assertion it was put to the vote if the trial should be made
+or not, and all present (Mr. S. C. Hall was one of the party) decided we
+would prefer to witness the effect of a full glare of gas upon the
+materialized form than to have the usual sitting, as it would settle the
+vexed question of the necessity of gloom (if not darkness) for a
+materializing <i>s&eacute;ance</i> for ever. We accordingly told "Katie" of our
+choice, and she consented to stand the test, though she said afterwards
+we had put her to much pain. She took up her station against the
+drawing-room wall, with her arms extended as if she were crucified. Then
+three gas-burners were turned on to their full extent in a room about
+sixteen feet square. The effect upon "Katie King" was marvellous. She
+looked like herself for the space of a second only, then she began
+gradually to melt away. I can compare the dematerialization of her form
+to nothing but a wax doll melting before a hot fire. First, the features
+became blurred and indistinct; they seemed to run into each other. The
+eyes sunk in the sockets, the nose disappeared, the frontal bone fell
+in. Next the limbs appeared to give way under her, and she sank lower
+and lower on the carpet like a crumbling edifice. At last there was
+<i>nothing but her head</i> left above the ground&mdash;then a heap of white
+drapery only, which disappeared with a whisk, as if a hand had pulled it
+after her&mdash;and we were left staring by the light of three gas-burners at
+the spot on which "Katie King" had stood.</p>
+
+<p>She was always attired in white drapery, but it varied in quality.
+Sometimes it looked like long cloth; at others like mull muslin or
+jaconet; oftenest it was a species of thick cotton net. The sitters were
+much given to asking "Katie" for a piece of her dress to keep as a
+souvenir of their visit; and when they received it, would seal it up
+carefully in an envelope and convey it home; and were much surprised on
+examining their treasure to find it had totally disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Katie" used to say that nothing material about her could be made to
+last without taking away some of the medium's vitality, and weakening
+her in consequence. One evening, when she was cutting off pieces of her
+dress rather lavishly, I remarked that it would require a great deal of
+mending. She answered, "I'll show you how we mend dresses in the Spirit
+World." She then doubled up the front breadth of her garment a dozen
+times, and cut two or three round holes in it. I am sure when she let it
+fall again there must have been thirty or forty holes, and "Katie" said,
+"Isn't that a nice cullender?"</p>
+
+<p>She then commenced, whilst we stood close to her, to shake her skirt
+gently about, and in a minute it was as perfect as before, without a
+hole to be seen. When we expressed our astonishment, she told me to take
+the scissors and cut off her hair. She had a profusion of ringlets
+falling to her waist that night. I obeyed religiously, hacking the hair
+wherever I could, whilst she kept on saying, "Cut more! cut more! not
+for yourself, you know, because you can't take it away."</p>
+
+<p>So I cut off curl after curl, and as fast as they fell to the ground,
+<i>the hair grew again upon her head</i>. When I had finished, "Katie" asked
+me to examine her hair, to see if I could detect any place where I had
+used the scissors, and I did so without any effect. Neither was the
+severed hair to be found. It had vanished out of sight. "Katie" was
+photographed many times, by limelight, by Mr. Alfred Crookes, but her
+portraits are all too much like her medium to be of any value in
+establishing her claim to a separate identity. She had always stated she
+should not appear on this earth after the month of May, 1874; and
+accordingly, on the 21st, she assembled her friends to say "Good-bye" to
+them, and I was one of the number. "Katie" had asked Miss Cook to
+provide her with a large basket of flowers and ribbons, and she sat on
+the floor and made up a bouquet for each of her friends to keep in
+remembrance of her.</p>
+
+<p>Mine, which consists of lilies of the valley and pink geranium, looks
+almost as fresh to-day, nearly seventeen years after, as it did when she
+gave it to me. It was accompanied by the following words, which "Katie"
+wrote on a sheet of paper in my presence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"From Annie Owen de Morgan (<i>alias</i> 'Katie') to her friend Florence
+Marryat Ross-Church. With love. <i>Pensez &agrave; moi.</i></p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>May 21st, 1874.</i>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The farewell scene was as pathetic as if we had been parting with a dear
+companion by death. "Katie" herself did not seem to know how to go. She
+returned again and again to have a last look, especially at Mr. Alfred
+Crookes, who was as attached to her as she was to him. Her prediction
+has been fulfilled, and from that day, Florence Cook never saw her again
+nor heard anything about her. Her place was shortly filled by another
+influence, who called herself "Marie," and who danced and sung in a
+truly professional style, and certainly as Miss Cook never either danced
+or sung. I should not have mentioned the appearance of this spirit, whom
+I only saw once or twice, excepting for the following reason. On one
+occasion Miss Cook (then Mrs. Corner) was giving a public <i>s&eacute;ance</i> at
+the rooms of the National British Association of Spiritualists, at which
+a certain Sir George Sitwell, a very young man, was present, and at
+which he declared that the medium cheated, and that the spirit "Marie"
+was herself, dressed up to deceive the audience. Letters appeared in the
+newspapers about it, and the whole press came down upon Spiritualists,
+and declared them all to be either knaves or fools. These notices were
+published on the morning of a day on which Miss Cook was engaged to give
+another public <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, at which I was present. She was naturally very
+much cut up about them. Her reputation was at stake; her honor had been
+called into question, and being a proud girl, she resented it bitterly.
+Her present audience was chiefly composed of friends; but, before
+commencing, she put it to us whether, whilst under such a stigma, she
+had better not sit at all. We, who had all tested her and believed in
+her, were unanimous in repudiating the vile charges brought against her,
+and in begging the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> should proceed. Florrie refused, however, to
+sit unless some one remained in the cabinet with her, and she chose me
+for the purpose. I was therefore tied to her securely with a stout rope,
+and we remained thus fastened together for the whole of the evening.
+Under which conditions "Marie" appeared, and sung and danced outside the
+cabinet, just as she had done to Sir George Sitwell whilst her medium
+remained tied to me. So much for men who decide a matter before they
+have sifted it to the bottom. Mrs. Elgie Corner has long since given up
+mediumship either private or public, and lives deep down in the heart
+of Wales, where the babble and scandal of the city affect her no longer.
+But she told me, only last year, that she would not pass through the
+suffering she had endured on account of Spiritualism again for all the
+good this world could give her.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF KATIE COOK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the matter of producing physical phenomena the Cooks are a most
+remarkable family, all three daughters being powerful media, and that
+without any solicitation on their part. The second one, Katie, is by no
+means the least powerful of the three, although she has sat more
+privately than her sister Florence, and not had the same scientific
+tests (I believe) applied to her. The first time I had an opportunity of
+testing Katie's mediumship was at the private rooms of Signor Rondi, in
+a circle of nine or ten friends. The apartment was small and sparsely
+furnished, being an artist's studio. The gas was kept burning, and
+before the sitting commenced the door was locked and strips of paper
+pasted over the opening inside. The cabinet was formed of a window
+curtain nailed across one corner of the room, behind which a chair was
+placed for the medium, who is a remarkably small and slight girl&mdash;much
+slighter than her sister Florence&mdash;with a thin face and delicate
+features. She was dressed, on this occasion, in a tight-fitting black
+gown and Hessian boots that buttoned half-way to her knee, and which,
+she informed me, she always wore when sitting (just as Miss Showers
+did), because they had each eighteen buttons, which took a long time to
+fasten and unfasten. The party sat in a semicircle, close outside the
+curtain, and the light was lowered, but not extinguished. There was no
+darkness, and no holding of hands. I mention these facts to show how
+very simple the preparations were. In a few minutes the curtain was
+lifted, and a form, clothed in white, who called herself "Lily," was
+presented to our view. She answered several questions relative to
+herself and the medium; and perceiving some doubt on the part of some of
+the sitters, she seated herself on my knee, I being nearest the curtain,
+and asked me to feel her body, and tell the others how differently she
+was made from the medium. I had already realized that she was much
+heavier than Katie Cook, as she felt like a heavy girl of nine or ten
+stone. I then passed my hand up and down her figure. She had full
+breasts and plump arms and legs, and could not have been mistaken by the
+most casual observers for Miss Cook. Whilst she sat on my knee, however,
+she desired my husband and Signor Rondi to go inside the curtain and
+feel that the medium was seated in her chair. When they did so, they
+found Katie was only half entranced. She thrust her feet out to view,
+and said, "I am not 'Lily;' feel my boots." My husband had, at the same
+moment, one hand on Miss Cook's knee, and the other stretched out to
+feel the figure seated on my lap. There remained no doubt in <i>his</i> mind
+of there being two bodies there at the same time. Presently "Lily"
+passed her hand over my dress, and remarked how nice and warm it was,
+and how she wished she had one on too. I asked her, "Are you cold?" and
+she said, "Wouldn't you be cold if you had nothing but this white thing
+on?" Half-jestingly, I took my fur cloak, which was on a sofa close by,
+and put it round her shoulders, and told her to wear it. "Lily" seemed
+delighted. She exclaimed, "Oh, how warm it is! May I take it away with
+me?" I said, "Yes, if you will bring it back before I go home. I have
+nothing else to wear, remember." She promised she would, and left my
+side. In another moment she called out, "Turn up the gas!" We did so.
+"Lily" was gone, and so was my large fur cloak! We searched the little
+room round for it. It had entirely disappeared. There was a locked
+cupboard in which Signor Rondi kept drawing materials. I insisted on its
+being opened, although he declared it had not been unlocked for weeks,
+and we found it full of dust and drawing blocks, but nothing else, so
+the light was again lowered, and the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> resumed. In a short time
+the heavy cloak was flung, apparently from the ceiling, evidently from
+somewhere higher than my head, and fell right over it.</p>
+
+<p>I laid it again on the sofa, and thought no more about it until I
+returned home. I then found, to my astonishment, and considerably to my
+annoyance, that the fur of my cloak (which was a new one) was all coming
+out. My dress was covered with it, and from that day I was never able to
+wear the cloak again. "Lily" said she had <i>de</i>-materialized it, to take
+it away. Of the truth of that assertion I had no proof, but I am quite
+sure that she did not put it together again when she brought it back. An
+army of moths encamped in it could not have damaged it more, and I can
+vouch that until that evening the fur had been as perfect as when I
+purchased it.</p>
+
+<p>I think my next sitting with Katie Cook was at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> held in Museum
+Street, and on the invitation of Mr. Chas. Blackburn, who is one of the
+most earnest friends of Spiritualism, and has expended a large amount of
+money in its research. The only other guests were my husband, and
+General and Mrs. Maclean. We sat round a small uncovered table with the
+gas burning and <i>without a cabinet</i>, Miss Katie Cook had a seat between
+General Maclean and myself, and we made sure of her proximity to us
+during the whole <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. In fact, I never let go of her hand, and even
+when she wished to use her pocket-handkerchief, she had to do it with my
+hand clinging to her own. Neither did she go into a trance. We spoke to
+her occasionally during the sitting, and she answered us, though in a
+very subdued voice, as she complained of being sick and faint. In about
+twenty minutes, during which the usual manifestations occurred, the
+materialized form of "Lily" appeared <i>in the middle of the table</i>, and
+spoke to us and kissed us all in turn. Her face was very small, and she
+was <i>only formed to the waist</i>, but her flesh was quite firm and warm.
+Whilst "Lily" occupied the table in the full sight of all the sitters,
+and I had my hand upon Miss Cook's figure (for I kept passing my hand up
+and down from her face to her knees, to make sure it was not only a hand
+I held), some one grasped my chair from behind and shook it, and when I
+turned my head and spoke, in a moment one arm was round my neck and one
+round the neck of my husband, who sat next to me, whilst the voice of my
+daughter "Florence" spoke to us both, and her long hair and her soft
+white dress swept over our faces and hands. Her hair was so abundant and
+long, that she shook it out over my lap, that I might feel its length
+and texture. I asked "Florence" for a piece of her hair and dress, and
+scissors not being forthcoming, "Lily" materialized more fully, and
+walked round from the other side of the table and cut off a piece of
+"Florence's" dress herself with my husband's penknife, but said they
+could not give me the hair that time. The two spirits remained with us
+for, perhaps, half an hour or more, whilst General Maclean and I
+continued to hold Miss Cook a prisoner. The power then failing, they
+disappeared, but every one present was ready to take his oath that two
+presences had been with us that never entered at the door. The room was
+small and unfurnished, the gas was burning, the medium sat for the whole
+time in our sight. Mrs. Maclean and I were the only other women present,
+yet two girls bent over and kissed us, spoke to us, and placed their
+bare arms on our necks at one and the same time. There was again also a
+marked difference between the medium and the materializations. I have
+already described her appearance. Both of these spirits had plump faces
+and figures, my daughter "Florence's" hands especially being large and
+firm, and her loose hair nearly down to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>I had the pleasure of holding another <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Katie Cook in the
+same rooms, when a new manifestation occurred. She is (as I have said) a
+very small woman, with very short arms. I am, on the contrary, a very
+large woman, with very long arms, yet the arm of the hand I held was
+elongated to such an extent that it reached the sitters on the other
+side of the table, where it would have been impossible for mine to
+follow it. I should think the limb must have been stretched to thrice
+its natural length, and that in the sight of everybody. I sat again with
+Katie Cook in her own house, where, if trickery is employed, she had
+every opportunity of tricking us, but the manifestations were much the
+same, and certainly not more marvellous than those she had exhibited in
+the houses of strangers. "Lily" and "Florence" both appeared at the same
+time, under circumstances that admitted of no possibility of fraud. My
+husband and I were accompanied on that occasion by our friends, Captain
+and Mrs. Kendal, and the order of sitting round the table was as
+follows:&mdash;Myself, Katie, Captain K., Florence Cook, my husband, Mrs.
+Cook, Mrs. Kendal. Each member of the family, it will be observed, was
+held between two detectives, and their hands were not once set free. I
+must say also that the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was a free one, courteously accorded us
+on the invitation of Mrs. Cook; and if deception had been intended, we
+and our friends might just as well have been left to sit with Katie
+alone, whilst the other members of the family superintended the
+manifestation of the "ghosts" outside. Miss Florence Cook, indeed (Mrs.
+Corner), objected at first to sitting with us, on the score that her
+mediumship usually neutralized that of her sister, but her mother
+insisted on her joining the circle, lest any suspicion should be excited
+by her absence. The Cooks, indeed, are, all of them, rather averse to
+sitting than not, and cordially agree in disliking the powers that have
+been thrust upon them against their own will.</p>
+
+<p>These influences take possession of them, unfitting them for more
+practical work, and they must live. This is, I believe, the sole reason
+that they have never tried to make money by the exercise of their
+mediumship. But I, for one, fully believe them when they tell me that
+they consider the fact of their being media as the greatest misfortune
+that has ever happened to them. On the occasion of this last <i>s&eacute;ance</i>,
+cherries and rosebuds were showered in profusion on the table during the
+evening. These may easily be believed to have been secreted in the room
+before the commencement of the sitting, and produced at the proper
+opportunity, although the hands of everybody interested in their
+production were fast held by strangers. But it is less easy to believe
+that a lady of limited income, like Mrs. Cook, should go to such an
+expense for an unpaid <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, for the purpose of making converts of
+people who were strangers to her. Mediumship pays very badly as it is. I
+am afraid it would pay still worse if the poor media had to purchase the
+means for producing the phenomena, especially when, in a town like
+London, they run (as in this instance) to hothouse fruit and flowers.</p>
+
+<p>One more example of Katie Cook's powers and I have done. We were
+assembled one evening by the invitation of Mr. Charles Blackburn at his
+house, Elgin Crescent. We sat in a small breakfast room on the basement
+floor, so small, indeed, for the size of the party, that as we encircled
+a large round table, the sitters' backs touched the wall on either side,
+thus entirely preventing any one crossing the room whilst we were
+established there. The only piece of furniture of any consequence in the
+room, beside the chairs and table, was a trichord cabinet piano,
+belonging to Mrs. Cook (who was keeping house at the time for Mr.
+Blackburn), and which she much valued.</p>
+
+<p>Katie Cook sat amongst us as usual. In the middle of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> her
+control "Lily," who was materialized, called out, "Keep hands fast.
+Don't let go, whatever you do!" And at the same time, without seeing
+anything (for we were sitting in complete darkness), we became conscious
+that something large and heavy was passing or being carried over our
+heads. One of the ladies of the party became nervous, and dropped her
+neighbor's hand with a cry of alarm, and, at the same moment, a weighty
+body fell with a fearful crash on the other side of the room. "Lily"
+exclaimed, "Some one has let go hands," and Mrs. Cook called out; "Oh!
+it's my piano." Lights were struck, when we found the cabinet piano had
+actually been carried from its original position right over our heads to
+the opposite side of the room, where it had fallen on the floor and been
+seriously damaged. The two carved legs were broken off, and the sounding
+board smashed in. Any one who had heard poor Mrs. Cook's lamentations
+over the ruin of her favorite instrument, and the expense it would
+entail to get it restored, would have felt little doubt as to whether
+<i>she</i> had been a willing victim to this unwelcome proof of her
+daughter's physical mediumship.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF BESSIE FITZGERALD.</h3>
+
+
+<p>One evening I went to have a cup of tea with my friend Miss Schonberg at
+Shepherd's Bush, when she proposed that we should go and have a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+with Mrs. Henry Jencken (Kate Fox), who lived close by. I hailed the
+idea, as I had heard such great things of the medium in question, and
+never had an opportunity of testing them. Consequently, I was
+proportionately disappointed when, on sending round to her house to ask
+if she could receive us that evening, we received a message to say that
+Mr. Jencken, her husband, had died that morning, and she could see no
+one. Miss Schonberg and I immediately cast about in our minds to see
+what we should do with our time, and she suggested we should call on
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. "Who is Mrs. Fitzgerald?" I queried. "A wonderful
+medium," replied my friend, "whom I met at Mrs. Wilson's last week, and
+who gave me leave to call on her. Let us go together." And accordingly
+we set forth for Mrs. Fitzgerald's residence in the Goldhawk Road. I
+only mention these circumstances to show how utterly unpremeditated was
+my first visit to her. We arrived at her house, and were ushered into a
+sitting-room, Miss Schonberg only sending up her name. In a few minutes
+the door opened, and a small, fair woman, dressed in black velvet,
+entered the room. Miss Schonberg saluted her, and was about to tender
+some explanation regarding <i>my</i> presence there, when Mrs. Fitzgerald
+walked straight up to me and took my hand. Her eyes seemed to dilate and
+contract, like the opening and shutting off of a light, in a manner
+which I have often seen since, and she uttered rapidly, "You have been
+married once; you have been married twice; and you will be married a
+third time." I answered, "If you know anything, Mrs. Fitzgerald, you
+must know that I am very much attached to my husband, and that your
+information can give me no pleasure to hear." "No!" she said, "no! I
+suppose not, but you cannot alter Fate." She then proceeded to speak of
+things in my past life which had had the greatest influence over the
+whole of it, occurrences of so private and important a nature that it
+becomes impossible to write them down here, and for that very reason
+doubly convincing to the person whom they concern. Presently Mrs.
+Fitzgerald wandered to her piano, and commenced to play the air of the
+ballad so firmly connected in my mind with John Powles, "Thou art gone
+from my gaze," whilst she turned and nodded at me saying, "<i>He's</i> here!"
+In fact, after a couple of hours' conversation with her, I felt that
+this stranger in the black velvet dress had turned out every secret of
+my life, and laid it naked and bare before me. I was wonderfully
+attracted to her. Her personality pleased me; her lonely life, living
+with her two babies in the Goldhawk Road, made me anxious to give her
+society and pleasure, and her wonderful gifts of clairvoyance and trance
+mediumship, all combined to make me desire her friendship, and I gave
+her a cordial invitation to my house in the Regent's Park, where for
+some years she was a constant visitor, and always sure of a hearty
+welcome. It was due to her kindness that I first had the opportunity to
+study trance mediumship at my leisure, and in a short time we became so
+familiar with her most constant control, "Dewdrop," a Red Indian girl,
+and so accustomed to speak through Mrs. Fitzgerald with our own friends
+gone before, that we welcomed her advent to our house as the signal for
+holding a spiritual party. For the sake of the uninitiated and curious,
+I think I had better here describe what is meant by trance mediumship. A
+person thus gifted has the power of giving him or herself up to the
+control of the influences in command, who send him or her off to sleep,
+a sleep so deep and so like death that the spirit is actually parted
+<i>pro tem</i> from the body, which other spirits, sometimes living, but far
+oftener dead, enter and use as if it were their own. I have mentioned in
+my chapter on "Embodied Spirits" how my living friend in India conversed
+with me through Bessie Fitzgerald in this way, also how "Florence" spoke
+to me through the unconscious lips of Mabel Keningale Cook.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I am aware that it would be so easy for a medium simply to
+close her eyes, and, professing to be entranced, talk a lot of
+commonplaces, which open-mouthed fools might accept as a new gospel,
+that it becomes imperative to test this class of media strictly by <i>what
+they utter</i>, and to place no faith in them until you are convinced that
+the matters they speak of cannot possibly have been known to any one
+except the friend whose mouthpiece they profess to be. All this I fully
+proved for myself from repeated trials and researches; but the
+unfortunate part of it is, that the more forcible and convincing the
+private proof, the more difficult it is to place it before the public. I
+must content myself, therefore, with saying that some of my dead friends
+(so called) came back to me so frequently through Bessie Fitzgerald, and
+familiarized themselves so completely with my present life, that I
+forgot sometimes that they had left this world, and flew to them (or
+rather to Bessie) to seek their advice or ask their sympathy as
+naturally as if she were their earthly form. Of these my daughter
+"Florence" was necessarily the most often with me, and she and "Dewdrop"
+generally divided the time which Mrs. Fitzgerald spent with us between
+them. I never saw a control so completely identified with its medium as
+"Dewdrop" was with Bessie. It was difficult at times to know which was
+which, and one could never be certain until she spoke whether the spirit
+or the medium had entered the house. When she <i>did</i> speak, however,
+there was no mistaking them. Their characters were so different. Bessie
+Fitzgerald, a quiet, soft spoken little woman, devoted to her children,
+and generally unobtrusive; "Dewdrop," a Sioux Indian girl, wary and deep
+as her tribe and cute and saucy as a Yankee, with an amount of devilry
+in her that must at times have proved very inconvenient. She used to
+play Mrs. Fitzgerald tricks in those days that might have brought her
+into serious trouble, such as controlling her whilst travelling in an
+omnibus, and talking her Yankee Indian to the passengers until she had
+made their hair stand on end, with the suspicion that they had a lunatic
+for a companion. One evening we had a large and rather "swell" evening
+party, chiefly composed of ladies and gentlemen of the theatrical
+profession, and entirely of non-spiritualists, excepting ourselves. Mrs.
+Fitzgerald had been invited to this party, and declined, because it was
+out of her line. We were therefore rather astonished, when all the
+guests were assembled, to hear her name announced and see her enter the
+room in a morning dress. Directly I cast eyes upon her, however, I saw
+that it was not herself, but "Dewdrop." The stride with which she
+walked, the waggish way she rolled from side to side, the devilry in her
+eye, all betokened the Indian control. To make matters worse, she went
+straight up to Colonel Lean, and, throwing herself on the ground at his
+feet, affectionately laid her head upon his knee, and said, "I'se come
+to the party." Imagine the astonishment of our guests! I was obliged at
+once, in defence of my friend, to explain to them how matters stood; and
+though they looked rather incredulous, they were immensely interested,
+and "Dewdrop's" visit proved to be <i>the</i> event of the evening. She
+talked to each one separately, telling them home truths, and prophesying
+their future in a way that made their cheeks go pale with fright, or red
+with conscious shame, and there was quite a contest between the men as
+to who should take "Dewdrop" down to the supper table. When there, she
+made herself particularly lively, making personal remarks aloud that
+were, in some instances, rather trying to listen to, and which Bessie
+Fitzgerald would have cut out her tongue sooner than utter. She ate,
+too, of dishes which would have made Bessie ill for a week. This was
+another strange peculiarity of "Dewdrop's" control. She not only ousted
+the spirit; she regulated the internal machinery of her medium's body.
+Bessie in her normal condition was a very delicate woman with a weak
+heart and lungs, and obliged to be most careful in her diet. She ate
+like a sparrow, and of the simplest things. "Dewdrop," on the other
+hand, liked indigestible food, and devoured it freely; yet Bessie has
+told me that she never felt any inconvenience from the food amalgamated
+with her system whilst under "Dewdrop's" control. One day when Mrs.
+Fitzgerald was dining with us, we had some apples at dessert, which she
+would have liked to partake of, but was too much afraid of the after
+consequences. "I <i>dare</i> not," she said; "if I were to eat a raw apple, I
+should have indigestion for a week." She took some preserved ginger
+instead; and we were proceeding with our dessert, when I saw her hand
+steal out and grasp an apple. I looked in her face. "Dewdrop" had taken
+her place. "Dewdrop," I said, authoritatively, "you must not eat that.
+You will hurt Bessie. Put it down directly."</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't," replied "Dewdrop," drawing the dish towards her; "I like
+apples. I'm always wanting 'Medy' to eat them, and she won't, so she
+must go away till I've had as many as I want." And in effect she ate
+three or four of them, and Bessie would never have been cognizant of the
+fact unless I had informed her. On the occasion of the party to which
+she came uninvited, "Dewdrop" remained with us to the very last, and
+went home in a cab, and landed Mrs. Fitzgerald at her house without her
+being aware that she had ever left it. At that time we were constantly
+at each other's houses, and many an evening have I spent alone with
+Bessie in the Goldhawk Road, her servant out marketing and her little
+children asleep in the room overhead. Her baby was then a great fat
+fellow of about fifteen months old, who was given to waking and crying
+for his mother. If "Dewdrop" were present, she was always very impatient
+with these interruptions. "Bother dat George," she would say; "I must go
+up and quiet him." Then she would disappear for a few minutes, while
+Bessie woke and talked to me, and then, in the twinkling of an eye,
+"Dewdrop" would be back again. One day, apparently, "George" would not
+be comforted, for on "Dewdrop's" return she said to me, "It's no good;
+I've had to bring him down. He's on the mat outside the door;" and
+there, sure enough, we found the poor baby wailing in his nightshirt.
+Not being able to walk, how he had been spirited from the top storey to
+the bottom I leave my readers to determine. Bessie's little girl Mabel
+promised to be as wonderful a medium as her mother. She would come in
+from the garden flushed from her play with the "spirit-children," of
+whom she talked as familiarly as of her little neighbors next door. I
+have watched her playing at ball with an invisible child, and have seen
+the ball thrown, arrested half-way in the air, and then tossed back
+again just as if a living child had been Mab's opponent. I had lost
+several infants from premature birth during my second marriage, and the
+eldest of these, a girl, appeared to be a constant companion of Mabel's.
+She was always talking of what "Mrs. Lean's girl" (as she called her)
+had done and said; and one day she had a violent fit of weeping because
+her mother would not promise to buy her a frock like the one "Mrs.
+Lean's girl" wore.</p>
+
+<p><i>Apropos</i> of these still-born children, I had a curious experience with
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. I had had no idea until then that children so born
+possessed any souls, or lived again, but "Florence" undeceived me when
+she told me she had charge of her little brothers and sisters. She even
+professed to know the names by which they were known in the spirit
+world. When a still-born baby is launched upon the other side, she said
+it is delivered over to the nearest relative of its parent, to be called
+by what name he may choose. Thus my first girl was christened by Colonel
+Lean's mother "Gertrude," after a bosom friend of hers, and my second my
+father named "Joan," as he said it was his favorite female name. Upon
+subsequent inquiry, we found that Mrs. Lean <i>had</i> a friend called
+"Gertrude," and that "Joan" was distinctly Captain Marryat's <i>beau
+ideal</i> of a woman's name. However, that signified but little. I became
+very curious to see or speak with these unknown babies of mine, and used
+to worry "Florence" to bring them to me. She would expostulate with me
+after this fashion: "Dear mother, be reasonable. Remember what babies
+they are, and that this world is quite strange to them. When your
+earthly children were small you never allowed them to be brought down
+before strangers, for fear they should cry. 'Gertie' and 'Yonnie' would
+behave just the same if I brought them back to you now." However, I went
+on teasing her till she made the attempt, and "Gertie" returned through
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. It was a long time before we could coax her to remain
+with us, and when she overcame her first shyness, it was like talking to
+a little savage. "Gertie" didn't know the meaning of anything, or the
+names of anything. Her incessant questions of "What's a father?" "What a
+mother?" "What's a dog?" were very difficult to answer; but she would
+chatter about the spirit-world, and what she did there, as glibly as
+possible. She told us that she knew her brother Francis (the lad who was
+drowned at sea) very well, and she "ran races, and Francis 'chivied'
+her; and when he caught her, he held her under the fountain, and the
+spray wetted her frock, and made it look like silver." The word
+"<i>chivied</i>" sounding to me very much of a mundane character, I asked
+"Gertie" where she learned it; and she said, "Francis says 'chivy,' so
+<i>I</i> may," and it was indeed a common expression with him. "Gertie" took,
+after a while, such a keen interest in my ornaments and china, rather to
+their endangerment, that I bought a doll to see if she would play with
+it. At first she was vastly delighted with the "little spirit," as she
+called it, and nursed it just as a mortal child would have done. But
+when she began to question me as to the reason the doll did not look at
+her, or answer her, or move about, and I said it was because it was not
+alive, she was dreadfully disappointed. "<i>Not alive!</i>" she echoed;
+"didn't God make it?" and when I replied in the negative, she threw it
+to the other end of the room, and would never look at it again.</p>
+
+<p>"Gertie" was about five years old at this period, and seemed to have a
+great idea of her own importance. She always announced herself as "The
+Princess Gertie," and was very dignified in her behavior. One day, when
+a lady friend was present when "Gertie" came and asked her to kiss her,
+she extended her hand instead of her face, saying, "You may kiss my
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Yonnie" (as "Joan" called herself) was but eighteen months old, and
+used to manifest herself, <i>roaring</i> like a child forcibly dragged before
+strangers, and the only word we could ever extract from her was
+"Sugar-plums." Accordingly, I invested in some for her benefit, with
+which she filled her mouth so full as nearly to choke the medium, and
+"Florence" rebuked me seriously for my carelessness, and threatened
+never to bring "Yonnie" down to this earth again. There had been three
+other children&mdash;boys&mdash;whom I was equally anxious to see again, but, for
+some inexplicable reason, "Florence" said it was impossible that they
+could manifest. The little girls, however, came until we were quite
+familiar with them. I am aware that all this must sound very childish,
+but had it not borne a remarkable context, I should not have related it.
+All the wonder of it will be found later on.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fitzgerald suffered very much at this time from insomnia, which she
+always declared was benefitted after a visit to me. I proposed one
+night, therefore, when she had stayed with us later than usual, that she
+should remain and share my bed, and return home in the morning. She
+consented, and at the usual hour we retired to rest together, I taking
+care to lock the bedroom door and keep the gas burning; indeed, Bessie
+was so nervous of what she might see that she would not have remained in
+the dark for any consideration. The bed we occupied was what is called a
+half tester, with a canopy and curtains on either side. As soon as ever
+Bessie got into it, she burrowed under the clothes like a dormouse, and
+went fast asleep. I was too curious to see what might happen to follow
+her example, so my head remained on the pillow, and my eyes wide open,
+and turning in every direction. Presently I saw the curtains on the
+opposite side of the bed gently shaken, next a white hand and arm
+appeared round them, and was passed up and down the ridge that
+represented Bessie Fitzgerald's body; finally, after several times
+stepping forward and retreating again, a female figure emerged and
+walked to the foot of the bedstead and stood there regarding me. She
+was, to all appearance, as solidly formed as any human creature could
+be, and she was as perfectly distinct as though seen by daylight. Her
+head and bust reminded me at once of the celebrated "Clytie," they were
+so classically and beautifully formed. Her hair and skin were fair, her
+eyes luminously liquid and gentle, her whole attitude one of modest
+dignity. She was clothed in some creamy white material, thick and soft,
+and intermixed with dull gold. She wore no ornaments, but in her right
+hand she carried a long branch of palm, or olive, or myrtle, something
+tall and tapering, and of dark green. She scarcely could be said to
+smile at me, but there was an indescribable appearance of peace and
+tranquillity about her. When I described this apparition to Bessie in
+the morning, she recognized it at once as that of her control,
+"Goodness," whom she had seen clairvoyantly, but she affirmed that I was
+the only person who had ever given her a correct description of this
+influence, which was the best and purest about her. After "Goodness" had
+remained in the same position for a few minutes, she walked back again
+behind the curtain, which served as a cabinet, and "Florence" came out
+and had a whispered conversation with me. Next a dark face, but only a
+face, said to be that of "Dewdrop," peeped out four or five times, and
+disappeared again; then a voice said, "No more! good-night," and I
+turned round to where Bessie lay sleeping beside me, and went to sleep
+myself. After that, she often came, when suffering worse than usual from
+insomnia, to pass the night with me, as she said my magnetism caused her
+to sleep, and similar manifestations always occurred when we were alone
+and together.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fitzgerald's mediumship was by no means used, however, for the sole
+purpose of gratifying curiosity or foretelling the future. She was a
+wonderful medical diagnoser, and sat for a long time in the service of a
+well-known medical man. She would be ensconced in a corner of his
+waiting-room and tell him the exact disease of each patient that
+entered. She told me she could see the inside of everybody as perfectly
+as though they were made of glass. This gift, however, induced her to
+take on a reflection (as it were) of the disease she diagnosed, and
+after a while her failing strength compelled her to give it up. Her
+control "Dewdrop" was what she called herself, "a metal spirit," <i>i.e.</i>,
+her advice was very trustworthy with regard to all speculations and
+monetary transactions. Many stockbrokers and city men used regularly to
+consult Bessie before they engaged in any speculation, and she received
+many valuable presents in return for her assistance in "making a pile."
+One gentleman, indeed, settled a large sum of money when he died on her
+little son in gratitude for the fortune "Dewdrop" had helped him to
+accumulate. Persons who sneer at Spiritualism and declare it to be
+useless, little know how much advantage is taken of spiritual
+forethought and prevision by those who believe in it. I have never been
+sorry but when I have neglected to follow the advice of a medium whom I
+had proved to be trustworthy.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1883 I introduced my own entertainment of "Love
+Letters" to the provincial British public, and it had an immediate and
+undeniable success. My engagements poured in rapidly, and I had already
+booked dates for the whole spring of 1884, when Mr. Edgar Bruce offered
+me an engagement at the Prince of Wales' (then the Prince's) Theatre,
+about to be opened in Piccadilly. I had been anxiously waiting to obtain
+an engagement on the London boards, and was eager to accept it; still, I
+did not know if I would be wise in relinquishing my provincial
+engagements. I wrote to Bessie to ask "Dewdrop" what I should do; the
+answer was, "Don't accept, only a flash in the pan." Thereupon I sent to
+Mr. Bruce to ask how long the engagement was likely to last, and his
+answer was that he expected "The Palace of Truth" to run a year at
+least, and at any rate I was to consider myself one of a "stock
+company." Thereupon I cancelled all my entertainment engagements,
+returned to London, appeared at the Prince's Theatre for just <i>eleven</i>
+<i>weeks</i>, and got into four law suits with my disappointed patrons for my
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the commonest remarks made by stupid people, "If the
+spirits know anything, let them tell me the name of the winner of the
+Derby, and then I will believe them," etc. I was speaking of this once
+to "Dewdrop," and she said, "We <i>could</i> tell if we choose, but we are
+not allowed to do so. If Spiritualism was generally used for such
+things, all the world would rush to it in order to cheat one another.
+But if you will promise me not to open it until after the Derby is run,
+I will give you the name of the winner now in a sealed envelope, to
+prove that what I say is the truth." We gave her the requisite
+materials, and she made a few pencil marks on a piece of paper, and
+sealed it up. It was the year that "Shotover" won the Derby. The day
+after the race, we opened the envelope and found the drawing of a man
+with a gun in his hand, a hedge, and a bird flying away on the other
+side; very sketchy, but perfectly intelligible to one who could read
+between the lines.</p>
+
+<p>I was at the theatre one night with Bessie in a box, when I found out
+that "Dewdrop" had taken her place. "Dewdrop" was very fond of going to
+the play, and her remarks were so funny and so na&iuml;ve as to keep one
+constantly amused. Presently, between the acts, she said to me, "Do you
+see that man in the front row of the stalls with a bald head, sitting
+next to the old lady with a fat neck?" I replied I did. "Now you watch,"
+said "Dewdrop;" "I'm going down there to have some fun. First I'll
+tickle the old man's head, and then I'll scratch the old woman's neck.
+Now, you and 'Medie' watch." The next moment Bessie spoke to me in her
+own voice, and I told her what "Dewdrop" proposed to do. "Oh, poor
+things!" she said, compassionately, "how she will torment them!" To
+watch what followed was a perfect farce. First, the old man put his hand
+up to his bald head, and then he took out his handkerchief and flicked
+it, then he rubbed it, and finally <i>scrubbed</i> it to alleviate the
+increasing irritation. Then the old lady began the same business with
+her neck, and finding it of no avail, glared at the old man as if she
+thought <i>he</i> had done it; in fact, they were both in such evident
+torture that there was no doubt "Dewdrop" had kept her promise. When she
+returned to me she said, "There! didn't you see me walking along the
+front row of stalls, in my moccasins and beads and feathers, and all my
+war-paint on, tickling the old fellow's head?" "I didn't <i>see</i> you,
+'Dewdrop,'" I answered, "but I'm sure you were there." "Ah! but the old
+fellow <i>felt</i> me, and so did the old girl," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>Bessie Fitzgerald is now Mrs. Russell Davies, and carries on her
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i> in Upper Norwood. No one who attends them can fail to feel
+interested in the various phenomena he will meet with there.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF LOTTIE FOWLER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>As I was introduced to Lottie Fowler many years before I met Bessie
+Fitzgerald, I suppose the account of her mediumship should have come
+first; but I am writing this veracious narrative on no fixed or
+artificial plan, but just as it occurs to me, though not from memory,
+because notes were taken of every particular at the time of occurrence.
+In 1874 I was largely employed on the London Press, and constantly sent
+to report on anything novel or curious, and likely to afford matter for
+an interesting article. It was for such a purpose that I received an
+order from one of the principal newspapers in town to go and have a
+complimentary <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with an American clairvoyant newly arrived in
+England, Miss Lottie Fowler. Until I received my directions I had never
+heard the medium's name, and I knew very little of clairvoyance. She was
+lodging in Conduit Street, and I reached her house one morning as early
+as ten o'clock, and sent in a card with the name of the paper only
+written on it. I was readily admitted. Miss Fowler was naturally anxious
+to be noticed by the press and introduced to London society. I found her
+a stylish-looking, well-dressed woman of about thirty, with a pleasant,
+intelligent face. Those of my readers who have only met her since
+sickness and misfortune made inroads on her appearance may smile at my
+description, but I repeat that seventeen years ago Lottie Fowler was
+prosperous and energetic-looking. She received me very cordially, and
+asked me into a little back parlor, of which, as it was summer weather,
+both the windows and doors were left open. Here, in the sunshine, she
+sat down and took my hand in hers, and began chatting of what she wished
+and hoped to do in London. Suddenly her eyes closed and her head fell
+back. She breathed hard for a few minutes, and then sat up, still with
+her eyes closed, and began to talk in a high key, and in broken English.
+This was her well-known control, "Annie," without doubt one of the best
+clairvoyants living. She began by explaining to me that she had been a
+German girl in earth life, and couldn't speak English properly, but I
+should understand her better when I was more familiar with her. She then
+commenced with my birth by the sea, described my father's personality
+and occupation, spoke of my mother, my brothers and sisters, my
+illnesses, my marriage, and my domestic life. Then she said, "Wait! now
+I'll go to your house, and tell you what I see there." She then repeated
+the names of all my children, giving a sketch of the character of each
+one, down to the "baby with the flower name," as she called my little
+Daisy. After she had really exhausted the subject of my past and
+present, she said, "You'll say I've read all this out of your mind, so
+now I'll tell you what I see in the future. You'll be married a second
+time." Now, at this period I was editing a fashionable magazine, and
+drew a large number of literary men around me. I kept open house on
+Tuesday evenings, and had innumerable friends, and I <i>may</i> (I don't say
+I <i>had</i>), but I may have sometimes speculated what my fate might be in
+the event of my becoming free. The <i>s&eacute;ance</i> I speak of took place on a
+Wednesday morning; and when "Annie" told me I should be married a second
+time, my thoughts involuntarily took to themselves wings, I suppose, for
+she immediately followed up her assertion by saying, "No! not to the man
+who broke the tumbler at your house last night. You will marry another
+soldier." "No, thank-you," I exclaimed; "no more army men for me. I've
+had enough of soldiers to last me a lifetime." "Annie" looked very
+grave. "You <i>will</i> marry another soldier," she reiterated; "I can see
+him now, walking up a terrace. He is very tall and big, and has brown
+hair cut quite short, but so soft and shiny. At the back of his head he
+looks as sleek as a mole. He has a broad face, a pleasant, smiling face,
+and when he laughs he shows very white teeth. I see him knocking at your
+door. He says, 'Is Mrs. Ross-Church at home?' 'Yes, sir.' Then he goes
+into a room full of books. 'Florence, my wife is dead. Will you be my
+wife?' And you say 'Yes.'" "Annie" spoke so naturally, and I was so
+astonished at her knowledge of my affairs, that it never struck me till
+I returned home that she had called me by my name, which had been kept
+carefully from her. I asked her, "When will my husband die?" "I don't
+see his death anywhere," she answered. "But how can I marry again unless
+he dies?" I said. "I don't know, but I can't tell you what I don't see.
+I see a house all in confusion, papers are thrown about, and everything
+is topsy-turvy, and two people are going different ways; and, oh, there
+is so much trouble and so many tears! But I don't see any death
+anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>I returned home, very much astonished at all Miss Fowler had said
+regarding my past and present, but very incredulous with respect to her
+prophecies for the future. Yet, three years afterwards, when much of
+what she told me had come to pass, I was travelling from Charing Cross
+to Fareham with Mr. Grossmith, to give our entertainment of "<i>Entre
+Nous</i>," when the train stopped as usual to water at Chatham. On the
+platform stood Colonel Lean, in uniform, talking to some friends. I had
+never set eyes on him till that moment; but I said at once to Mr.
+Grossmith, "Do you see that officer in the undress uniform? That is the
+man Lottie Fowler told me I should marry." Her description had been so
+exact that I recognized him at once. Of course, I got well laughed at,
+and was ready after a while to laugh at myself. Two months afterwards,
+however, I was engaged to recite at the Literary Institute at Chatham,
+where I had never set foot in my life before. Colonel Lean came to the
+Recital, and introduced himself to me. He became a visitor at my house
+in London (which, by the by, had been changed for one in a <i>terrace</i>),
+and two years afterwards, in, June 1879, we were married. I have so far
+overcome a natural scruple to make my private affairs public, in justice
+to Lottie Fowler. It is useless narrating anything to do with the
+supernatural (although I have been taught that this is a wrong term, and
+that nothing that exists is <i>above</i> nature, but only a continuation of
+it), unless one is prepared to prove that it was true. Lottie Fowler did
+not make a long stay in England on that occasion. She returned to
+America for some time, and I was Mrs. Lean before I met her again. The
+second visit was a remarkable one. I had been to another medium, who had
+made me very unhappy by some prophecies with regard to my husband's
+health; indeed, she had said he would not live a couple of years, and I
+was so excited about it that my friend Miss Schonberg advised our going
+then and there to see Lottie Fowler, who had just arrived in England,
+and was staying in Vernon Place, Bloomsbury; and though it was late at
+night, we set off at once. The answer to our request to see Miss Fowler
+was that she was too tired to receive any more visitors that day. "Do
+ask her to see me," I urged. "I won't detain her a moment; I only want
+to ask her one question." Upon this, we were admitted, and found Lottie
+nearly asleep. "Miss Fowler," I began, "you told me five years ago that
+I should be married a second time. Well, I <i>am</i> married, and now they
+tell me I shall loose my husband." And then I told her how ill he was,
+and what the doctors said, and what the medium said. "You told me the
+truth before," I continued; "tell it me now. Will he die?" Lottie took a
+locket containing his hair in her hand for a minute, and then replied
+confidently, "They know nothing about it. He will not die&mdash;that is not
+yet&mdash;not for a long while." "But <i>when</i>?" I said, despairingly. "Leave
+that to God, child," she answered, "and be happy now." And in effect
+Colonel Lean recovered from his illness, and became strong and hearty
+again. But whence did Miss Fowler gain the confidence to assert that a
+man whom she had never seen, nor even heard of, should recover from a
+disease which the doctors pronounced to be mortal? From that time Lottie
+and I became fast friends, and continue so to this day. It is a
+remarkable thing that she would never take a sixpence from me in payment
+for her services, though I have sat with her scores of times, nor would
+she accept a present, and that when she has been sorely in need of
+funds. She said she had been told she should never prosper if she
+touched my money. She has one of the most grateful and affectionate and
+generous natures possible, and has half-starved herself for the sake of
+others who lived upon her. I have seen her under sickness, and poverty,
+and trouble, and I think she is one of the kindest-hearted and best
+women living, and I am glad of even this slight opportunity to bear
+testimony to her disposition. At one time she had a large and
+fashionable <i>client&egrave;le</i> of sitters, who used to pay her handsomely for a
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, but of late years her clients have fallen off, and her
+fortunes have proportionately decreased. She has now returned to the
+Southern States of America, and says she has seen the last of England.
+All I can say is, that I consider her a great personal loss as a referee
+in all business matters as well as a prophet for the future. She also,
+like Bessie Fitzgerald, is a great medical diagnoser. She was largely
+consulted by physicians about the Court at the time of the Prince of
+Wales' dangerous illness, and predicted his recovery from the
+commencement. It was through her mediumship that the body of the late
+Lord Lindesay of Balcarres, which was stolen from the family vault, was
+eventually recovered; and the present Lord Lindesay gave her a beautiful
+little watch, enamelled and set in diamonds, in commemoration of the
+event. She predicted the riot that took place in London some years ago,
+and the Tay Bridge disaster; but who is so silly as to believe the
+prophecies of media now-a-days? There has hardly been an event in my
+life, since I have known Lottie Fowler, that she has not prepared me for
+beforehand, but the majority of them are too insignificant to interest
+the reader. One, however, the saddest I have ever been called upon to
+encounter, was wonderfully foretold. In February, 1886, Lottie (or
+rather, "Annie") said to me, "There is a great trouble in store for you,
+Florris" (she always called me "Florris"); "you are passing under black
+clouds, and there is a coffin hanging over you. It will leave your
+house." This made me very uneasy. No one lived in my house but my
+husband and myself. I asked, "Is it my own coffin?" "No!" "Is it my
+husband's?" "No; it is that of a much younger person."</p>
+
+<p>I questioned her very closely, but she would not tell me any more, and I
+tried to dismiss the idea from my mind. Still it would constantly recur,
+for I knew, from experience, how true her predictions were. At last I
+felt as if I could bear the suspense no longer, and I went to her and
+said, "You <i>must</i> tell me that the coffin you spoke of is not for one of
+my children, or the uncertainty will drive me mad." "Annie" thought a
+minute, and then said slowly, "No; it is not for one of your children."
+"Then I can bear anything else," I replied. The time went on, and in
+April an uncle of mine died. I rushed again to Lottie Fowler. "Is <i>this</i>
+the death you prophesied?" I asked her. "No," she replied; "the coffin
+must leave your house. But this death will be followed by another in the
+family," which it was within the week. The following February my
+next-door neighbors lost their only son. I had known the boy for years,
+and I was very sorry for them. As I was watching the funeral
+preparations from my bedroom window, I saw the coffin carried out of the
+hall door, which adjoined mine with only a railing between. Knowing that
+many prophetical media <i>see</i> the future in a series of pictures, it
+struck me that Lottie must have seen this coffin leaving, and mistaken
+the house for mine. I went to her again. This proves how the prediction
+had weighed all this time upon my mind. "Has not the death you spoke of
+taken place <i>now</i>?" I asked her. "Has not the coffin left my house?"
+"No," she answered; "it will be a relative, one of the family. It is
+much nearer now than it was." I felt uncomfortable, but I would not
+allow it to make me unhappy. "Annie" had said it was not one of my own
+children, and so long as they were spared I felt strong enough for
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>In the July following my eldest daughter came to me in much distress.
+She had heard of the death of a friend, one who had been associated with
+her in her professional life, and the news had shocked her greatly. She
+had always been opposed to Spiritualism. She didn't see the good of it,
+and thought I believed in it a great deal more than was necessary. I had
+often asked her to accompany me to <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, or to see trance media,
+and she had refused. She used to say she had no one on the other side
+she cared to speak to. But when her young friend died, she begged me to
+take her to a medium to hear some news of him, and we went together to
+Lottie Fowler. "Annie" did not wait for any prompting, but opened the
+ball at once. "You've come here to ask me how you can see your friend
+who has just passed over," she said. "Well, he's all right. He's in this
+room now, and he says you will see him very soon." "To which medium
+shall I go?" said my daughter. "Don't go to any medium. Wait a little
+while, and you will see him with your own eyes." My daughter was a
+physical medium herself, though I had prevented her sitting for fear it
+should injure her health; and I believed, with her, that "Annie" meant
+that her friend would manifest through her own power. She turned to me
+and said, "Oh, mother, I shall be awfully frightened if he appears to me
+at night;" and "Annie" answered, "No, you won't be frightened when you
+see him. You will be very pleased. Your meeting will be a source of
+great pleasure on both sides." My daughter had just signed a lucrative
+engagement, and was about to start on a provincial tour. Her next
+request was, "Tell me what you see for me in the future." "Annie"
+replied, "I cannot see it clearly. Another day I may be able to tell you
+more, but to-day it is all dim. Every time I try to see it a wall seems
+to rise behind your head and shut it out." Then she turned to me and
+said, "Florris, that coffin is very near you now. It hangs right over
+your head!" I answered carelessly, "I wish it would come and have done
+with it. It is eighteen months now, Annie, since you uttered that dismal
+prophecy!" Little did I really believe that it was to be so quickly and
+so terribly fulfilled. Three weeks after that <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, my beloved child
+(who was staying with me) was carried out of my house in her coffin to
+Kensal Green. I was so stunned by the blow, that it was not for some
+time after that I remembered "Annie's" prediction. When I asked her
+<i>why</i> she had tortured me with the suspense of coming evil for eighteen
+months, she said she had been told to do so by my guardian spirits, or
+my brain would have been injured by the suddenness of the shock. When I
+asked why she had denied it would be one of my children, she still
+maintained that she had obeyed a higher order, because to tell the truth
+so long beforehand would have half-killed me as indeed it would. "Annie"
+said she had no idea, even during that last interview, that the death
+she predicted was that of the girl before her. She saw her future was
+misty, and that the coffin was over my head, but she did not connect the
+two facts together. In like manner I have heard almost every event of my
+future through Lottie Fowler's lips, and she has never yet proved to be
+wrong, except in one instance of <i>time</i>. She predicted an event for a
+certain year and it did not take place till afterwards; and it has made
+"Annie" so wary, that she steadfastly refuses now to give any dates. I
+always warn inquirers not to place faith in any given dates. The spirits
+have told me they have <i>no time</i> in the spheres, but judge of it simply
+as the reflection of the future appears nearer, or further, from the
+sitter's face. Thus, something that will happen years hence appears
+cloudy and far off, whilst the events of next week or next month seem
+bright and distinct, and quite near. This is a method of judging which
+can only be gained by practice, and must at all times be uncertain and
+misleading.</p>
+
+<p>I have often acted as amanuensis for Lottie Fowler, for letters are
+constantly arriving for her from every part of the world which can only
+be answered under trance, and she has asked me to take down the replies
+as "Annie" dictated them. I have answered by this means the most
+searching questions from over the seas relating to health and money and
+lost articles whilst Lottie was fast asleep and "Annie" dictated the
+letters, and have received many answers thanking me for acting
+go-between, and saying how wonderfully correct and valuable the
+information "Annie" had sent them had proved to be. Of course, it would
+be impossible, in this paper, to tell of the constant intercourse I have
+had with Lottie Fowler during the last ten or twelve years, and the
+manner in which she has mapped out my future for me, preventing my
+cherishing false hopes that would never be realized, making bad bargains
+that would prove monetary losses, and believing in apparent friendship
+that was only a cloak for selfishness and treachery. I have learned many
+bitter lessons from her lips. I have also made a good deal of money
+through her means. She has told me what will happen to me between this
+time and the time of my death, and I feel prepared for the evil and
+content with the good. Lottie Fowler had very bad health for some time
+before she left England, and it had become quite necessary that she
+should go; but I think if the British public had known what a wonderful
+woman was in their midst, they would have made it better worth her while
+to stay amongst them.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM FLETCHER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It may be remembered in the "Story of John Powles" that when, as a
+perfect stranger to Mr. Fletcher, I walked one evening into the Steinway
+Hall, I heard him describe the circumstances of my old friend's death in
+a very startling manner. It made such an impression on me that I became
+anxious to hear what more Mr. Fletcher might have to say to me in
+private, and for that purpose I wrote and made an appointment with him
+at his private residence in Gordon Square. I did not conceal my name,
+and I knew my name must be familiar to him; for although he had only
+just arrived from America, I am better known as an author in that
+country perhaps than in this. But I had no intention of gauging his
+powers by what he told me of my exterior life; and by what followed, his
+guide "Winona" evidently guessed my ideas upon the subject. After the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> I wrote thus concerning it to the <i>Banner of Light</i>, a New York
+Spiritualistic paper:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I had seen many clairvoyants before, both in public and private, and
+had witnessed wonderful feats of skill on their part in naming and
+describing concealed objects, and reading print or writing when held far
+beyond their reach of sight; but I knew the trick of all that. If Mr.
+Fletcher is going to treat me to any mental legerdemain, I thought, as I
+took my way to Gordon Square, I shall have wasted both my time and
+trouble upon him; and, I confess, as I approached the house, that I felt
+doubtful whether I might not be deceived against my senses by the clever
+lecturer, whose eloquence had charmed me into desiring a more intimate
+acquaintance with him. Even the private life of a professional person
+soon becomes public property in London; and had Mr. Fletcher wished to
+find out my faults and failings, he had but to apply to &mdash;&mdash;, say, my
+dearest friend, or the one upon whom I had bestowed most benefits, to
+learn the worst aspect of the worst side of my character. But the neat
+little page-boy answered my summons so promptly that I had no time to
+think of turning back again; and I was ushered through a carpeted hall,
+and up a staircase into a double drawing-room, strewn with evidence that
+my clairvoyant friend possessed not only artistic taste, but the means
+to indulge it. The back room into which I was shown was hung with
+paintings and fitted with a luxurious <i>causeuse</i>, covered with art
+needlework, and drawn against the open window, through which might be
+seen some fine old trees in the garden below, and Mr. Fletcher's dogs
+enjoying themselves beneath their shade. Nothing could be further
+removed from one's ideas of a haunt of mystery or magic, or the abode of
+a man who was forced to descend to trickery for a livelihood. In a few
+minutes Mr. Fletcher entered the room and saluted me with the air of a
+gentleman. We did not proceed to business, however, until he had taken
+me round his rooms, and shown me his favorite pictures, including a
+portrait of Sara Bernhardt, etched by herself, in the character of Mrs.
+Clarkson in <i>L'Etrang&egrave;re</i>. After which we returned to the back
+drawing-room, and without darkening the windows or adopting any
+precautions, we took our seats upon the <i>causeuse</i> facing each other,
+whilst Mr. Fletcher laid his left hand lightly upon mine. In the course
+of a minute I observed several convulsive shivers pass through his
+frame, his eyes closed, and his head sunk back upon the cushions,
+apparently in sleep. I sat perfectly still and silent with my hand in
+his. Presently he reopened his eyes quite naturally, and sitting
+upright, began to speak to me in a very soft, thin, feminine voice. He
+(or rather his guide "Winona") began by saying that she would not waste
+my time on facts that she might have gathered from the world, but would
+confine herself to speaking of my inner life. Thereupon, with the most
+astonishing astuteness, she told me of my thoughts and feelings, reading
+them off like a book. She repeated to me words and actions that had been
+said and done in privacy hundred of miles away. She detailed the
+characters of my acquaintance, showing who were true and who were false,
+giving me their names and places of residence. She told me the motives I
+had had for certain actions, and what was more strange, revealed truths
+concerning myself which I had not recognized until they were presented
+to me through the medium of a perfect stranger. Every question I put to
+her was accurately answered, and I was repeatedly invited to draw
+further revelations from her. The fact being that I was struck almost
+dumb by what I had heard, and rendered incapable of doing anything but
+marvel at the wonderful gift that enabled a man, not only to read each
+thought that passed through my brain, but to see, as in a mirror, scenes
+that were being enacted miles away with the actors concerned in them and
+the motives that animated them. "Winona" read the future for me as well
+as the past, and the first distinct prophecy she uttered has already
+most unexpectedly come to pass. When I announced that I was satisfied,
+the clairvoyant laid his head back again upon the cushions, the same
+convulsive shudders passed through his frame, and in another minute he
+was smiling in my face, and hoping I had a good <i>s&eacute;ance</i>."</p>
+
+<p>This is part of the letter I wrote concerning Mr. Fletcher to the
+<i>Banner of Light</i>. But a description of words, however strongly put, can
+never carry the same weight as the words themselves. So anxious am I to
+make this statement as trustworthy as possible, however, that I will now
+go further, and give the exact words as "Winona" spoke them to me on
+that occasion, and as I took them down from her lips. <i>Some</i> parts I
+<i>must</i> omit, not for my own sake, but because of the treachery they
+justly ascribed to persons still living in this world. But enough will,
+I trust, remain to prove how intimately the spirit must have penetrated
+to my inner life. This is, then, the greater part of what "Winona" said
+to me on the 27th of June, 1879:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a Child of Destiny, who never was a child. Your life is fuller
+of tragedies than any life I ever read yet. I will not tell you of the
+past <i>facts</i>, because they are known to the world, and I might have
+heard them from others. But I will speak of yourself. I have to leave
+the earth-world when I come in contact with you, and enter a planetary
+sphere in which you dwell (and ever must dwell) <i>alone</i>. It is as if you
+were in a room shut off from the rest of mankind. You are one of the
+world's magnets. You have nothing really in common with the rest. You
+draw people to you, and live upon their life; and when they have no more
+to give, nor you to demand, the liking fades on both sides. It must be
+so, because the spirit requires food the same as the body; and when the
+store is exhausted, the affection is starved out, and the persons pass
+out of your life. You have often wondered to yourself why an
+acquaintance who seemed necessary to you to-day you can live perfectly
+well without to-morrow. This is the reason. More than that, if you
+continue to cling to those whose spiritual system you have exhausted,
+they would poison you, instead of nourishing you. You may not like it,
+but those you value most you should oftenest part with. Separation will
+not decrease your influence over them; it will increase it. Constant
+intercourse may be fatal to your dearest affections. You draw so much on
+others, you <i>empty</i> them, and they have nothing more to give you. You
+have often wondered, too, why, after you have lived in a place a little
+while, you become sad, weary, and ill&mdash;not physically ill, but mentally
+so&mdash;and you feel as if you <i>must</i> leave it, and go to another place.
+When you settle in this fresh place, you think at first that it is the
+very place where you will be content to live and die; but after a little
+while the same weariness and faintness comes back again, and you think
+you cannot breathe till you leave it, as you did the other. This is not
+fancy. It is because your nature has exhausted all it can draw from its
+surroundings, and change becomes a necessity to life. You will never be
+able to live long in any place without change, and let me warn you never
+to settle yourself down anywhere with the idea of living there entirely.
+Were you forced to do so, you would soon die. You would be starved to
+death spiritually. All people are not born under a fate, but you were,
+and you can do very little to change it. England is the country of your
+fate. You will never prosper in health, mind, or money in a foreign
+country. It is good to go abroad for change, but never try to live
+there. You are thinking of going abroad now, but you will not remain
+there nearly so long as you anticipate. Something will arise to make you
+alter your plans&mdash;not a real trouble&mdash;but an uneasiness. The plan you
+think of will not answer." (This prediction was fulfilled to the
+letter.) "This year completes an era in your professional career&mdash;not of
+ill-luck, so much as of stagnation. Your work has been rather duller of
+late years. The Christmas of 1879 will bring you brighter fortune. Some
+one who has appeared to drop you will come forward again, and take up
+your cause, and bring you in much money." (This also came to pass.)
+"You have not nearly reached the zenith of your success. It is yet to
+come. It is only beginning. You will have another child, certainly
+<i>one</i>, but I am not sure if it will live in this world. I do not see its
+earth-life, but I see you in that condition.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Your nervous system was for many years strung up to its highest
+tension&mdash;now it is relaxed, and your physical powers are at their lowest
+ebb. You could not bear a child in your present condition. You must
+become much lighter-hearted, more contented and at ease before that
+comes to pass. You must have ceased to wish for a child, or even to
+expect it. You have never had a heart really at ease yet. All your
+happiness has been feverish.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"I see your evil genius. She is out of your life at present, but she
+crossed your path last year, and caused you much heart-burning, and not
+without reason. It seems to me that some sudden shock or accident put an
+end to the acquaintance; but she will cross your path again, and cause
+you more misery, perhaps, than anything else has done. She is not young,
+but stout, and not handsome, as it seems to me. She is addicted to
+drinking. I see her rolling about now under the influence of liquor. She
+has been married more than once. I see the name &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; written in the
+air. She would go any lengths to take that you value from you, even to
+compassing your death. She is madly in love with what is yours. She
+would do anything to compass her ends&mdash;not only immoral things, but
+filth&mdash;filth. I have no hesitation in saying this. Whenever she crosses
+your path, in public or private, flee from her as from a pestilence."
+(This information was correct in every detail. The name was given at
+full length. I repeat it as a specimen of the succinctness of
+intelligence given through trance mediumship.) "1883 will be a most
+unfortunate year for you. You will have a severe illness, your friends
+will not know if you are going to live or die, and during this illness
+you will endure great mental agony, caused through a woman, one of whose
+names begins with &mdash;&mdash;. You will meet her some time before, and she
+will profess to be your dearest friend. I see her bending over you, and
+telling you she is your best friend, and you are disposed to believe it.
+She is as tall as you are, but does not look so tall from a habit she
+has of carrying herself. She is not handsome, strictly speaking, but
+dark and very fascinating. She has a trick of keeping her eyes down when
+she speaks. She is possibly French, or of French extraction, but speaks
+English. She will get a hold upon &mdash;&mdash;'s mind that will nearly separate
+you." (At this juncture I asked, "How can I prevent it?") "If I told
+you, that if you went by the 3 o'clock train from Gower Street, you
+would be smashed, you would not take that train. When you meet a woman
+answering this description, stop and ask yourself whether she is the one
+I have warned you against, before you admit her across the threshold of
+your house.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"&mdash;&mdash;'s character is positive for good, and negative for evil. If what
+is even for his good were urged upon him, he would refuse to comply; but
+present evil to him as a possible good, and he will stop to consider
+whether it is not so. If he is to be guided aright, it must be by making
+him believe it would be impossible for him to go wrong. Elevate his
+nature by elevating his standard of right. Make it impossible for him to
+lower himself, by convincing him that he <i>would</i> be lowered. He is very
+conceited. Admiration is the breath of his life. He is always thinking
+what people will say of him or his actions. He is very weak under
+temptation, especially the temptation of flattery. He is much too fond
+of women. You have a difficult task before you, and you have done much
+harm already through your own fault. He believes too little in the evil
+of others&mdash;much too little. If he were unfaithful to those who trust
+him, he would be quite surprised to find he had broken their hearts.
+Your work is but beginning. Hitherto all has been excitement, and there
+has been but little danger. Now comes monotony and the fear of satiety.
+Your fault through life has been in not asserting the positive side of
+your character. You were born to rule, and you have sat down a slave.
+Either through indolence or despair of success, you have presented a
+negative side to the insults offered you, and in the end you have been
+beaten. You make a great mistake in letting your female friends read all
+your joys and sorrows. Men would sympathize and pity. Women will only
+take advantage of them. Assert your dignity as mistress in your own
+house, and don't let those visitors invite themselves who do not come
+for you. You are, as it were, the open door for more than one false
+friend. I warn you especially against two unmarried women&mdash;at least, if
+they are married, I don't see their husbands anywhere. They are both too
+fond of &mdash;&mdash;; one <i>very much</i> too fond of him, and you laugh at it, and
+give your leave for caresses and endearments, which should never be
+permitted. If I were to tell them that they visit at your house for
+----, and not for you, they would be very indignant. They give you
+presents, and really like you; but &mdash;&mdash; is the attraction, and with one
+of them it only needs time, place and opportunity to cause the ruin of
+---- and yourself. She has an impediment in walking. I need say no more.
+She wants to become still more familiar, and live under the same roof
+with you. You must prevent it. The other is doing more harm to herself
+than to anyone else. She is silly and romantic, and must dream of some
+one. It is a pity it should be encouraged by familiarity. &mdash;&mdash; has no
+feeling for them beyond pity and friendship, but it is not necessary he
+should love a woman to make her dangerous to him. As far as I can see
+your lives extend, &mdash;&mdash; will love you, and you will retain your
+influence over him if you <i>choose</i> to do so. But it is in your own hands
+what you make of him. You must not judge his nature by your own. You are
+shutting yourself up too much. You should be surrounded by a circle of
+men, so that you might not draw influence from &mdash;&mdash; alone. You should go
+out more, and associate with clever men, and hear what they have to say
+to you. You must not keep so entirely with &mdash;&mdash;. It is bad for both of
+you. You are making too great a demand upon his spiritual powers, and
+you will exhaust them too soon. A woman cannot draw spiritual life from
+women only. She must take it from men. There is another acquaintance I
+must warn you against &mdash;&mdash;; a widow, fair hair, light eyes, not clever,
+but cunning. She has but one purpose in visiting you. She would like to
+stand in your shoes. She would not hesitate to usurp your rights. Be
+civil to her if you will, but do not encourage her visits. It were best
+if she passed out of your lives altogether. She can never bring you any
+good luck. She may be the cause of much annoyance yet. &mdash;&mdash; should have
+work, active and constant, or his health will fail, living in idleness,
+spiritually and bodily. You tell him too often that you love him. Let
+him feel there is always a higher height to gain, a lower depth to fall
+to, in your esteem. He is not the only man in the world. Why should you
+deceive him by saying so? You are much to blame." (Considering that Mr.
+Fletcher had never seen, or, as far as I knew, heard of the persons he
+mentioned in this tirade, it becomes a matter of speculation where or
+from whom he gathered this keen insight to their character and
+personalities, every word of which I can vouch for as being strictly
+true.)</p>
+
+<p>"Many spirits are round you. Some wish to speak.... A grand and noble
+spirit stands behind you, with his hands spread in blessing over your
+head. He is your father. He sends this message: 'My dear child, there
+were so many influences antagonistic to my own in your late married
+life, that I found it very difficult to get near you. Now they are
+removed. The present conditions are much more favorable to me, and I
+hope to be with you often, and to help you through the life that lies
+before you.' There is the face of a glorified spirit, just above
+your head, and I see the name 'Powles.' This spirit is nearer you, and
+more attached to you than any other in Spirit Land. He comes only to
+you, and one other creature through you&mdash;your second child. He says you
+will know him by the token, the song; you sung to him upon his
+death-bed. His love for you is the best and purest, and he is always by
+you, though lower influences sometimes forbid his manifesting himself.
+Your child comes floating down, and joins hands with him. She is a very
+pure and beautiful spirit. She intimates that her name on earth was the
+same as yours, but she is called by another name in the spheres&mdash;a name
+that has something to do with flowers. She brings me a bunch of pure
+white lilies, tinged with blue, with blue petals, tied with a piece of
+blue ribbon, and she intimates to me by gesture that her spirit-name has
+something to do with them. I think I must go now, but I hope you will
+come and sit with me again. I shall be able to tell you more next time.
+My name is 'Winona,' and when you ask for me I will come. Good-bye...."</p>
+
+<p>This was the end of my first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Mr. Fletcher, and I think
+even sceptics will allow that it was sufficiently startling for the
+first interview with an entire stranger. The following year I wrote
+again to the <i>Banner of Light</i> concerning Mr. Fletcher, but will only
+give an extract from my letter. "I told you in my letter of last year
+that I had held a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Mr. Fletcher of so private a nature that
+it was impossible to make it public. During that interview 'Winona' made
+several startling prophecies concerning the future, which, it may
+interest your readers to know, have already been fulfilled. Wishing to
+procure some further proofs of Mr. Fletcher's power before I wrote this
+letter to you, I prepared a different sort of test for him last week.
+From a drawer full of old letters I selected, <i>with my eyes shut</i>, four
+folded sheets of paper, which I slipped into four blank envelopes, ready
+prepared for them&mdash;still without looking&mdash;and closed them in the usual
+manner with the adhesive gum, after which I sealed them with sealing
+wax. I carried these envelopes to Mr. Fletcher, and requested "Winona"
+to tell me the characters of the persons by whom their contents had been
+written. She placed them consecutively to the medium's forehead, and as
+she returned them to me, one by one, I wrote her comments on each on the
+side of the cover. On breaking the seals, the character of each writer
+was found to be most accurately defined, although the letters had all
+been written years before&mdash;(a fact which "Winona" had immediately
+discovered). She also told me which of my correspondents were dead, and
+which living. Here, you will observe, there could have been no reaction
+of my own brain upon that of the sensitive, as I was perfectly ignorant,
+until I reopened the envelopes, by whom the letters had been sent to me.
+Two months ago I was invited to join in a speculation, of the
+advisability of which I felt uncertain. I went therefore to Mr.
+Fletcher, and asked for an interview with "Winona," intending to consult
+her in the matter. But before I had time to mention the subject, she
+broached it to me, and went on to speak of the speculation itself, of
+the people concerned in it, and the money it was expected to produce;
+and, finally, she explained to me how it would collapse, with the means
+that would bring it to an end, putting her decided veto on my having
+anything to do with it. I followed "Winona's" advice, and have been
+thankful since that I did so, as everything has turned out just as she
+predicted."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I think those people who desire to gain the utmost good they can out of
+clairvoyance should be more ready to listen and learn, and less to cavil
+and to question. Many who have heard me relate the results of my
+experience have rushed off pell-mell to the same medium, perhaps, and
+came away woefully disappointed. Were they to review the interview they
+would probably find they had done all the talking, and supplied all the
+information, leaving the clairvoyant no work to do whatever. To such I
+always say, whether their aim is to obtain advice in their business, or
+news of a lost friend, <i>Be perfectly passive</i>, until the medium has said
+all he or she may have to say. Give them time to become <i>en rapport</i>
+with you, and quietude, that he may commune with the spirits you bring
+with you; for it is <i>they</i>, and not <i>his</i> controls, that furnish him
+with the history of your life, or point out the dangers that are
+threatening. When he has finished speaking, he will probably ask if you
+have any questions to put to him, and <i>then</i> is your turn for talking,
+and for gaining any particular information you may wish to acquire. If
+these directions are carried out, you are likely to have a much more
+satisfactory <i>s&eacute;ance</i> than otherwise.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>PRIVATE MEDIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>People who wish to argue against Spiritualism are quite sure, as a rule,
+that media will descend to any trickery and cheating for the sake of
+gain. If you reply, as in my own case, that the <i>s&eacute;ances</i> have been
+given as a free-will offering, they say that they expected introductions
+or popularity or advertisement in exchange. But what can be adduced
+against the medium who lends his or her powers to a person whom he has
+never seen, and probably never will see, and for no reason, excepting
+that his controls urge him to the deed? Such a man is Mr. George Plummer
+of Massachusetts, America. In December, 1887, when my mind was very
+unsettled, my friend Miss Schonberg advised me to write to this medium
+and ask his advice. She told me I must not expect an immediate reply, as
+Mr. Plummer kept a box into which he threw all the letters he received
+from strangers on spiritualistic subjects, and when he felt impressed to
+do so, he went and took out one, haphazard, and wrote the answer that
+was dictated to him. All I had to do was to enclose an addressed
+envelope, not a <i>stamped</i> one, in my letter, to convey the answer back
+again. Accordingly, I prepared a diplomatic epistle to this effect.
+"Dear sir,&mdash;Hearing that you are good enough to sit for strangers, I
+shall be much obliged if you will let me know what you see for
+me.&mdash;Yours truly, <span class="smcap">F. Lane</span>." It will be seen that I transposed the
+letters of my name "Lean." I addressed the return envelope in the same
+manner to the house in Regent's Park, which I then occupied, and I wrote
+it all in a feigned hand to conceal my identity as much as possible. The
+time went on and I heard nothing from Mr. Plummer. I was touring in the
+provinces for the whole of 1888, and at the end of the year I came back
+to London and settled down in a new house in a different quarter of the
+town. By this time I had almost forgotten Mr. Plummer and my letter to
+him, and when in <i>December</i>, 1889, two years after I had sent it, my
+own envelope in my own handwriting, forwarded by the postal authorities
+from Regent's Park, was brought to me, I did not at first recognize it.
+I kept twisting it about, and thinking how like it was to my own
+writing, when the truth suddenly flashed on me. I opened it and read as
+follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+
+"<span class="smcap">Georgetown</span>, November 28th, 1889.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Mrs. Lane</span>,&mdash;Dear Madam,&mdash;Please pardon me for seeming neglect in
+answering your request. At the time of receiving your letter I
+could not write, and it got mislaid. Coming across it now, even at
+the eleventh hour, I place myself in condition to answer. I see a
+lady with dark blue eyes before me, of a very nervous
+life&mdash;warm-hearted&mdash;impulsive&mdash;tropical in her nature. A woman of
+intense feeling&mdash;a woman whose life has been one of constant
+disappointment. To-day the current of life flows on smoothly but
+monotonous. I sense from the sphere of this lady, a weariness of
+life&mdash;should think she felt like Alexander, because there are no
+more worlds for her to conquer. She is her own worst enemy.
+Naturally generous, she radiates her refined magnetic sphere to
+others, and does not get back that which she can utilize. I see a
+bright-complexioned gentleman in earth life&mdash;brave, generous, and
+kind&mdash;but does not comprehend your interior life. And yet thinks
+the world of you to-day. I feel from you talent of a marked order.
+And yet life is a disappointment. Not but what you have been
+successful in a refined, worldly sense, but your spiritual nature
+has been repressed. The society you move in is one of intellectual
+culture; that is not of the soul. And it is soul food that you are
+hungering for to-day. You are an inspired woman. Thought seems to
+you, all prepared, so to speak. But it does not seem to free the
+tiny little messengers of your soul life. Somehow I don't feel that
+confidence in myself in writing to you. The best kind of a reading
+is usually obtained in reading to a person direct. But if I don't
+meet your case we will call it a failure and let it go. The year of
+1890 is going to be more favorable to you than for the last ten
+years. I think in some way you are to meet with more reciprocity of
+soul. As the divining rod points to the stream of water in the
+earth, so I find my intuitive eye takes cognizance of your interior
+life. You will in a degree catch my meaning through this, and it
+will come clearer, more through your intuition than through your
+intellect. I should say to you, follow your instincts and
+intuitions always through life. If this throws any light over your
+path I am glad.&mdash;I remain, most respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="i9 right">
+<span class="smcap">George Plummer</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Now there are two noticeable things in this letter. First, Mr. Plummer's
+estimate of my interior life almost coincides with Mr. Fletcher's given
+in 1879, ten years before. Next, although he read it through the medium
+of a letter written in 1887, he draws a picture of my position and
+surroundings in 1889. Both these things appeared to me very curious as
+coming from a stranger across the Atlantic, and I answered his letter at
+once, still preserving my slight incognita, and telling him that as he
+had read so much of my life from my handwriting of so long ago, I wished
+he would try to read more from words which went fresh from me to him. I
+also enclosed a piece of the handwriting of a friend. Mr. Plummer did
+not keep me waiting this time. His next letter was dated February 8th,
+1890.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>,&mdash;I received yours of January 3rd, and would have
+answered before, but the spirit did not move. I have been tied to a
+sick room going on three months, with its cares and anxieties. Not
+the best condition for writing. The best condition to reflect your
+life, to give your soul strength, is to be at rest and have all
+earth conditions nullified. But that cannot be to-day. So I will
+try to penetrate the mystery of your life as best I can, and
+radiate to you at least some strength. The relation of soul is the
+difficulty of your life, and you are so perfectly inspirational
+that it makes the condition worse. Grand types of Manhood and
+Womanhood come to you from the higher life, and your spirit and
+soul catch the reflection, and are disappointed because they cannot
+live that life. But you are getting a development out of all this
+friction. Now if you would come in contact with that nature that
+could radiate to you just what you could give to it, you would be
+happy. Love is absolute, you well know. Often in the exchange of
+thought we give each other strength. And then every letter we
+write, every time we shake hands, we give some of our own
+personality out. You are too sensitive to the spheres of people.
+You have such a strong personality of life that the power that
+inspires you could not make the perfect junction until you get so,
+you had rather die than live. That was a condition of negation. Now
+you have been running on a dead level of nothingness for two years
+and a half." (This was exactly the time since my daughter had been
+taken from me). "<i>I mean it seems so to you.</i> Such a sameness of
+things. I get from the writing of the gentleman. A good
+sphere&mdash;warm hearted&mdash;true to his understanding of things. He seems
+to be a sort of a half-way house to you. That is, you roam in the
+sea of Ideality, down deep, you know. And he rather holds on to
+matter-of-fact&mdash;sort of ballast for you. You need it. For you are,
+in fact, ripe for the other life, though it is not time to go yet.
+Although a writer, yet you are a disappointed one. No mortal but
+yourself knows this. You have winged your way in flights, grand and
+lofty, and cannot <i>pen it</i>, is what is the matter. Now, in time you
+will, more perfectly than to-day, by the touch of your pen, portray
+your soul and its flights. Then I see you happy. This gentleman is
+an auxiliary power, whether the power in full of your life I do not
+to-day get. You are emphatically a woman of Destiny, and should
+follow your <i>impressions</i>, for through that intuitive law you will
+be saved. I mean by 'saved,' leap, as it were, across difficulties
+instead of going round. For your soul is more positive and awake to
+its necessities to-day than ever before in your life, particularly
+in the last six months. Body marriages are good under the physical
+law&mdash;bring certain unfoldments. But when mortal man and woman reach
+a certain condition of development, they become dissatisfied, and
+yearn for the full fruition of love. And there is no limitation of
+this law. Women usually bow to the heart-love law, that sometimes
+brings great joy and misery. The time is ripe for rulers. There
+will be put into the field men, and more specifically women, who
+have exemplified love divine. They will teach the law so plainly
+that they who run can read. And it can only be taught by those who
+have embodied it. Some years ago, in this country, there was a
+stir-up. It did its work in fermentation. The next must be
+humanization. The material world must come under the spiritual.
+Women will come to the front as inspired powers. This is what comes
+to me to write to you to-day. If it brings strength, or one ray of
+sun-shine to you, I am glad.&mdash;I remain, most respectfully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap">George Plummer</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Plummer is not occupying a high position in the world, nor is he a
+rich man. He gains no popularity by his letters&mdash;he hears no
+applause&mdash;he reaps no personal benefit, nor will he take any money. It
+would be difficult, with any degree of reason, to charge him with
+cheating the public for the sake of emptying their pockets. I fail to
+see, therefore, how he can obtain his insight to one's interior life by
+mortal means, nor, unless compelled by a power superior to his own, why
+he should take the trouble to obtain it.</p>
+
+<p>Another medium, whose health paid the sacrifice demanded of her for the
+exhibition of a power over which, at one time, she had no control, and
+which never brought her in anything but the thanks of her friends, is
+Mrs. Keningale Cook (Mabel Collins), whom I have mentioned in the "Story
+of my Spirit Child." There was a photographer in London, named Hudson,
+who had been very successful in developing spirit photographs. He would
+prepare to take an ordinary photograph, and on developing the plate, one
+or more spirit forms would be found standing by the sitter, in which
+forms were recognized the faces of deceased friends. Of course, the
+generality of people said that the plates were prepared beforehand with
+vague misty figures, and the imagination of the sitter did the rest. I
+had been for some time anxious to test Mr. Hudson's powers for myself,
+and one morning very early, between nine and ten o'clock, I asked Mrs.
+Cook, as a medium, to accompany me to his studio. He was not personally
+acquainted with either of us, and we went so early that we found him
+rather unwilling to set to work. Indeed, at first he declined. We
+disturbed him at breakfast and in his shirt sleeves, and he told us his
+studio had been freshly painted, and it was quite impossible to use it
+until dry. But we pressed him to take our photographs until he
+consented, and we ascended to the studio. It was certainly very
+difficult to avoid painting ourselves, and the screen placed behind was
+perfectly wet. We had not mentioned a word to Mr. Hudson about spirit
+photographs, and the first plate he took out and held up to the light,
+we saw him draw his coat sleeve across. When we asked him what he was
+doing, he turned to us and said, "Are you ladies Spiritualists?" When we
+answered in the affirmative, he continued, "I rubbed out the plate
+because I thought there was something on it, and most sitters would
+object. I often have to destroy three or four negatives before I get a
+clear picture." We begged him not to rub out any more as we were curious
+to see the results. He, consequently, developed three photographs of us,
+sitting side by side. The first was too indistinct to be of any use. It
+represented us, with a third form, merely a patch of white, lying on the
+ground, whilst a mass of hair was over my knee. "Florence" afterwards
+informed me that this was an attempt to depict herself. The second
+picture showed Mrs. Cook and myself as before, with "Charlie" standing
+behind me. I have spoken of "Charlie" (Stephen Charles Bernard Abbott)
+in "Curious Coincidences," and how much he was attached to me and mine.
+In the photograph he is represented in his cowl and monk's frock&mdash;with
+ropes round his waist, and his face looking down. In the third picture,
+an old lady in a net cap and white shawl was standing with her two hands
+on Mrs. Cook's shoulders. This was her grandmother, and the profile was
+so distinctly delineated, that her father, Mr. Mortimer Collins,
+recognized it at once as the portrait of his mother. The old lady had
+been a member of the Plymouth Brethren sect, and wore the identical
+shawl of white silk with an embroidered border which she used to wear
+during her last years on earth. I have seen many other spirit
+photographs taken by Mr. Hudson, but I adhere to my resolution to speak
+only of that which I have proved by the exercise of my own senses. I
+have the two photographs I mention to this day, and have often wished
+that Mr. Hudson's removal from town had not prevented my sitting again
+to him in order to procure the likenesses of other friends.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Caroline Pawley is a lady who advertises her willingness to obtain
+messages for others from the spirit world, but is forbidden by her
+guides to take presents or money. I thought at first this must be a
+"<i>ruse</i>." "Surely," I said to a friend who knew Miss Pawley, "I ought to
+take books, or flowers, or some little offering in my hand." "If you do
+she will return them," was the reply. "All that is necessary is to write
+and make an appointment, as her time is very much taken up." Accordingly
+I did write, and Miss Pawley kindly named an early date for my visit. It
+was but a few months after I had lost my beloved daughter, and I longed
+for news of her. I arrived at Miss Pawley's residence, a neat little
+house in the suburbs, and was received by my hostess, a sweet,
+placid-faced woman, who looked the embodiment of peace and calm
+happiness. After we had exchanged greetings she said to me, "You have
+lost a daughter." "I lost one about twenty years ago&mdash;a baby of ten days
+old," I replied. "I don't mean her," said Miss Pawley, "I mean a young
+woman. I will tell you how I came to know of it. I took out my memoranda
+yesterday and was looking it through to see what engagements I had made
+for to-day, and I read the names aloud to myself. As I came to the
+entry, 'Mrs. Lean, 3 o'clock,' I heard a low voice say behind me, 'That
+is my dear, <i>dear</i> mother!' and when I turned round, I saw standing at
+my elbow a young woman about the middle height, with blue eyes and very
+long brown hair, and she told me that it is <i>she</i> whom you are grieving
+for at present." I made no answer to this speech, for my wound was too
+fresh to permit me to talk of her; and Miss Pawley proceeded. "Come!"
+she said cheerfully, "let us get paper and pencil and see what the dear
+child has to say to us." She did not go under trance, but wrote rapidly
+for a few moments and then handed me a letter written in the following
+manner. I repeat (what I have said before) that I do not test the
+genuineness of such a manifestation by the act itself. <i>Anyone</i> might
+have written the letter, but no one but myself could recognize the
+familiar expressions and handwriting, nor detect the apparent
+inconsistencies that made it so convincing. It was written in two
+different hands on alternate lines, the first line being written by
+"Eva," and the next by "Florence," and so on. Now, my earthly children
+from their earliest days have never called me anything but "Mother,"
+whilst "Florence," who left me before she could speak, constantly calls
+me "Mamma." This fact alone could never have been known to Miss Pawley.
+Added to which the portion written by my eldest daughter was in her own
+clear decided hand, whilst "Florence's" contribution was in rather a
+childish, or "young ladylike" scribble.</p>
+
+<p>The lines ran thus. The italics are Florence's:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+
+"My own beloved mother.<br />
+<i>My dear, dear, dearest Mamma.</i><br />
+You must not grieve so terribly for me.<br />
+<i>And knowing all we have taught you, you should not grieve.</i><br />
+Believe me, I am not unhappy.<br />
+<i>Of course not, and she will be very happy soon.</i><br />
+But I suffer pain in seeing you suffer.<br />
+<i>Dear Mamma, do try to see that it is for the best.</i><br />
+Florence is right. It is best! dear Mother.<br />
+<i>And we shall all meet so soon, you know.</i><br />
+God bless you for all your love for me.<br />
+<i>Good-bye, dear, dearest Mamma.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your own girl.<br />
+<i>Your loving little Florence.</i>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I cannot comment on this letter. I only make it public in a cause that
+is sacred to me.</p>
+
+<p>To instance another case of mediumship which is exercised for neither
+remuneration nor applause. I am obliged in this example to withhold the
+name, because to betray their identity would be to ill requite a favor
+which was courteously accorded me. I had heard of a family of the name
+of D&mdash;&mdash; who held private sittings once a week, at which the mother and
+brothers and sisters gone before materialized and joined the circle; and
+having expressed my desire, through a mutual acquaintance, to assist at
+their <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, Mr. D&mdash;&mdash; kindly sent me an invitation to one. I found
+he was a high-class tradesman, living in a good house in the suburbs,
+and that strangers were very seldom (if ever) admitted to their circle.
+Mr. D&mdash;&mdash; explained to me before the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> commenced, that they
+regarded Spiritualism as a most sacred thing, that they sat only to have
+communication with their own relations, his wife and children, and that
+his wife never manifested except when they were alone. His earth family
+consisted of a young married daughter and her husband, and four or five
+children of different ages. He had lost, I think he told me, a grown-up
+son, and two little ones. William Haxby, the medium, whom I wrote of in
+my chapter "On Sceptics," and who had passed over since then, had been
+intimate with their family, and often came back to them. These
+explanations over, the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> began. The back and front parlors were
+divided by lace curtains only. In the back, where the young married
+daughter took up her position on a sofa, were a piano and an American
+organ. In the front parlor, which was lighted by an oil lamp, we sat
+about on chairs and sofas, but without any holding of hands. In a very
+short time the lace curtains parted and a young man's face appeared.
+This was the grown-up brother. "Hullo! Tom," they all exclaimed, and the
+younger ones went up and kissed him. He spoke a while to his father,
+telling what they proposed to do that evening, but saying his mother
+would not be able to materialize. As he was speaking, a little boy stood
+by his side. "Here's Harry," cried the children, and they brought their
+spirit brother out into the room between them. He seemed to be about
+five years old. His father told him to come and speak to me, and he
+obeyed, just like a little human child, and stood before me with his
+hand resting on my knee. Then a little girl joined the party, and the
+two children walked about the room, talking to everybody in turn. As we
+were occupied with them, we heard the notes of the American organ.
+"Here's Haxby," said Mr. D&mdash;&mdash;. "Now we shall have a treat." (I must say
+here that Mr. Haxby was an accomplished organist on earth.) As he heard
+his name, he, too, came to the curtains, and showed his face with its
+ungainly features, and intimated that he and "Tom" would play a duet.
+Accordingly the two instruments pealed forth together, and the spirits
+really played gloriously&mdash;a third influence joining in with some
+stringed instrument. This <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was so much less wonderful than many
+I have written of, that I should not have included a description of it,
+except to prove that all media do not ply their profession in order to
+prey upon their fellow-creatures. The D&mdash;&mdash; family are only anxious to
+avoid observation. There could be no fun or benefit in deceiving each
+other, and yet they devote one evening in each week to holding communion
+with those they loved whilst on earth and feel are only hidden from them
+for a little while, and by a very flimsy veil. Their <i>s&eacute;ances</i> truly
+carry out the great poet's belief.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">"Then the forms of the departed<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line i2">Enter at the open door;<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line">The belov&eacute;d, the true-hearted,<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line i2">Come to visit me once more.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">With a slow and noiseless footstep<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">Comes that messenger divine,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line">Takes the vacant chair beside me,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">Lays her gentle hand in mine.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">Uttered not, yet, comprehended,<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line i2">Is the spirit's voiceless prayer.<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line">Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line i2">Breathing from her lips of air."</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+<p>In the house of the lady I have mentioned in "The Story of the Monk,"
+  Mrs. Uniacke of Bruges, I have witnessed marvellous phenomena. They were
+  not pleasant manifestations, very far from it, but there was no doubt
+  that they were genuine. Whether they proceeded from the agency of Mrs.
+  Uniacke, my sister Blanche, or a young lady called Miss Robinson, who
+  sat with them, or from the power of all three combined, I cannot say,
+  but they had experienced them on several occasions before I joined them,
+  and were eager that I should be a witness of them. We sat in Mrs.
+  Uniacke's house, in a back drawing-room, containing a piano and several
+  book-cases, full of books&mdash;some of them very heavy. We sat round a table
+  in complete darkness, only we four women, with locked doors and bolted
+  windows. Accustomed as I was to all sorts of manifestations and
+  mediumship, I was really frightened by what occurred. The table was most
+  violent in its movements, our chairs were dragged from under us, and
+  heavy articles were thrown about the room. The more Mrs. Uniacke
+  expostulated and Miss Robinson laughed, the worse the tumult became. The
+  books were taken from the shelves and hurled at our heads, several of
+  the blows seriously hurting us; the keys of the piano at the further end
+  of the room were thumped and crashed upon, as if they would be broken;
+  and in the midst of it all Miss Robinson fell prone upon the floor, and
+  commenced talking in Flemish, a language of which she had no knowledge.
+  My sister understands it, and held a conversation with the girl; and she
+  told us afterwards that Miss Robinson had announced herself by the name
+  of a Fleming lately deceased in the town, and detailed many events of
+  his life, and messages which he wished to be delivered to his
+  family&mdash;all of which were conveyed in good and intelligible Flemish.
+  When the young lady had recovered she resumed her place at the table, as
+  my sister was anxious I should see another table, which they called
+  "Mademoiselle" dance, whilst unseen hands thumped the piano. The
+  manifestation not occurring, however, they thought it must be my
+  presence, and ordered me away from the table. I went and stood up close
+  against the folding doors that led into the front room, keeping my hand,
+  with a purpose, on the handle. The noise and confusion palpably
+  increased when the three ladies were left alone. "Mademoiselle," who
+  stood in a corner of the room, commenced to dance about, and the notes
+  of the piano crashed forcibly. There was something strange to me about
+  the manifestation of the piano. It sounded as if it were played with
+  feet instead of hands. When the tumult was at its height, I suddenly,
+  and without warning, threw open the folding door and let the light in
+  upon the scene, and I saw <i>the music-stool mounted on the keyboard</i> and
+  hammering the notes down. As the light was admitted, both "Mademoiselle"
+  and the music-stool fell with a crash to the floor, and the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was
+  over. The ladies were seated at the table, and the floor and articles of
+  furniture were strewn with the books which had been thrown down&mdash;the
+  bookshelves being nearly emptied&mdash;and pots of flowers. I was never at
+such a pandemonium before or after.</p>
+
+<p>The late Sir Percy Shelley and his wife Lady Shelley, having no children
+of their own, adopted a little girl, who, when about four or five years,
+was seriously burned about the chest and shoulders, and confined for
+some months to her bed. The child's cot stood in Lady Shelley's bedroom,
+and when her adopted mother was about to say her prayers, she was
+accustomed to give the little girl a pencil and piece of paper to keep
+her quiet. One day the child asked for pen and ink instead of a pencil,
+and on being refused began to cry, and said, "The <i>man</i> said she must
+have pen and ink." As it was particularly enjoined that she must not cry
+for fear of reopening her wounds, Lady Shelley provided her with the
+desired articles, and proceeded to her devotions. When she rose from
+them, she saw to her surprise that the child had drawn an outline of a
+group of figures in the Flaxman style, representing mourners kneeling
+round a couch with a sick man laid upon it. She did not understand the
+meaning of the picture, but she was struck with amazement at the
+execution of it, as was everybody who saw it. From that day she gave the
+little girl a sheet of card-board each morning, with pen and ink, and
+obtained a different design, the child always talking glibly of "the
+man" who helped her to draw. This went on until the drawings numbered
+thirty or forty, when a "glossary of symbols" was written out by this
+baby, who could neither write nor spell, which explained the whole
+matter. It was then discovered that the series of drawings represented
+the life of the soul on leaving the body, until it was lost "in the
+Infinity of God"&mdash;a likely subject to be chosen, or understood, by a
+child of five. I heard this story from Lady Shelley's lips, and I have
+seen (and well examined) the original designs. They were at one time to
+be published by subscription, but I believe it never came to pass. I
+have also seen the girl who drew them, most undoubtedly under control.
+She was then a young married woman and completely ignorant of anything
+relating to Spiritualism. I asked her if she remembered the
+circumstances under which she drew the outlines, and she laughed and
+said no. She knew she had drawn them, but she had no idea how. All she
+could tell me was that she had never done anything wonderful since, and
+she had no interest in Spiritualism whatever.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>VARIOUS MEDIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A very strong and remarkable clairvoyant is Mr. Towns, of Portobello
+Road. As a business adviser or foreteller of the Future, I don't think
+he is excelled. The inquirer after prophecy will not find a grand
+mansion to receive him in Portobello Road. On the contrary, this
+soothsayer keeps a small shop in the oil trade, and is himself only an
+honest, and occasionally rather rough spoken, tradesman. He will see
+clients privately on any day when he is at home, though it is better to
+make an appointment, but he holds a circle on his premises each Tuesday
+evening, to which everybody is admitted, and where the contribution is
+anything you may be disposed to give, from coppers to gold. These
+meetings, which are very well attended, are always opened by Mr. Towns
+with prayer, after which a hymn is sung, and the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> commences.
+There is full gas on all the time, and Mr. Towns sits in the midst of
+the circle. He does not go under trance, but rubs his forehead for a few
+minutes and then turns round suddenly and addresses members of his
+audience, as it may seem, promiscuously, but it is just as he is
+impressed. He talks, as a rule, in metaphor, or allegorically, but his
+meaning is perfectly plain to the person he addresses. It is not only
+silly women, or curious inquirers, who attend Mr. Towns' circles. You
+may see plenty of grave, and often anxious, business men around him,
+waiting to hear if they shall sell out their shares, or hold on till the
+market rises; where they are to search for lost certificates or papers
+of value; or on whom they are to fix the blame of money or articles of
+value that have disappeared. Once in my presence a serious-looking man
+had kept his eye fixed on him for some time, evidently anxious to speak.
+Mr. Towns turned suddenly to him. "You want to know, sir," he commenced,
+without any preface, "where that baptismal certificate is to be found."
+"I do, indeed," replied the man; "it is a case of a loss of thousands
+if it is not forthcoming." "Let me see," said Mr. Towns, with his finger
+to his forehead. "Have you tried a church with a square tower without
+any steeple, an ugly, clumsy building, white-washed inside, standing in
+a village. Stop! I can see the registrar books&mdash;the village's name is
+----. The entry is at page 200. The name is &mdash;&mdash;. The mother's name is
+----. Is that the certificate you want?" "It is, indeed," said the man;
+"and it is in the church at &mdash;&mdash;?" "Didn't I say it was in the church at
+----?" replied Mr. Towns, who does not like to be doubted or
+contradicted. "Go and you will find it there." And the man <i>did</i> go and
+did find it there. To listen to the conversations that go on between him
+and his clients at these meetings, Mr. Towns is apparently not less
+successful with love affairs than with business affairs, and it is an
+interesting experience to attend them, if only for the sake of
+curiosity. But naturally, to visit him privately is to command much more
+of his attention. He will not, however, sit for everybody, and it is of
+no use attempting to deceive him. He is exceedingly keen-sighted into
+character, and if he takes a dislike to a man he will tell him so
+without the slightest hesitation. No society lies are manufactured in
+the little oil shop. A relative of mine, who was not the most faithful
+husband in the world, and who, in consequence, judged of his wife's
+probity by his own, went, during her temporary absence, to Mr. Towns to
+ask him a delicate question. The lady was well known to the medium, but
+the husband he had never seen before, and had no notion who his sitter
+was, until he pulled out a letter from his pocket, thrust it across the
+table, and said, "There! look at that letter and tell me if the writer
+is faithful to me." Mr. Towns told me that as he took the envelope in
+his hand, he saw the lady's face photographed upon it, and at the same
+moment, all the blackness of the husband's own life. He rose up like an
+avenging deity and pointed to the door. "This letter," he said, "was
+written by Mrs. &mdash;&mdash;. Go! man, and wash your own hands clean, and <i>then</i>
+come and ask me questions about your wife." And so the "heavy swell" had
+to slink downstairs again. I have often gone myself to Mr. Towns before
+engaging in any new business, and always received the best advice, and
+been told exactly what would occur during its progress. When I was about
+to start on the "Golden Goblin" tour in management with my son&mdash;I went
+to him to ask if it would be successful. He not only told me what money
+it would bring in, but where the weak points would occur. The drama was
+then completed, and in course of rehearsal, and had been highly
+commended by all who had heard and seen it. Mr. Towns, however, who had
+neither seen nor heard it, insisted it would have to be altered before
+it was a complete success. This annoyed me, and I knew it would annoy my
+son, the author; besides, I believed it was a mistake, so I said nothing
+about it. Before it had run a month, however, the alterations were
+admitted on all sides to be necessary, and were consequently made.
+Everything that Mr. Towns prognosticated on that occasion came to pass,
+even to the strangers I should encounter on tour, and how their
+acquaintance would affect my future life; also how long the tour would
+last, and in which towns it would achieve the greatest success. I can
+assure some of my professional friends, that if they would take the
+trouble to consult a trustworthy clairvoyant about their engagements
+before booking them, they would not find themselves so often in the
+hands of the bogus manager as they do now. A short time ago I received a
+summons to the county court, and although I <i>knew</i> I was in the right,
+yet law has so many loopholes that I felt nervous. The case was called
+for eleven o'clock on a certain Wednesday, and the evening before I
+joined Mr. Towns' circle. When it came to my turn to question him, I
+said, "Do you see where I shall be to-morrow morning?" He replied, "I
+can see you are called to appear in a court-house, but the case will be
+put off." "<i>Put off</i>," I repeated, "but it is fixed for eleven. It can't
+be put off." "Cases are sometimes relegated to another court," said Mr.
+Towns. Then I thought he had quite got out of his depth, and replied,
+"You are making a mistake. This is quite an ordinary business. It can't
+go to a higher court. But shall I gain it?" "In the afternoon," said the
+medium. His answers so disappointed me that I placed no confidence in
+them, and went to the county court on the following morning in a nervous
+condition. But he was perfectly correct. The case was called for eleven,
+but as the defendant was not forthcoming, it was passed over, and the
+succeeding hearings occupied so much time, that the magistrate thought
+mine would never come off, so he <i>relegated it at two o'clock to
+another court</i> to be heard before the registrar, who decided it at once
+in my favor, so that I <i>gained it in the afternoon</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>One afternoon in my "green sallet" days of Spiritualism, when every
+fresh experience almost made my breath stop, I turned into the
+Progressive Library in Southampton Row, to ask if there were any new
+media come to town. Mr. Burns did not know of any, but asked me if I had
+ever attended one of Mrs. Olive's <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, a series of which were
+being held weekly in the Library Rooms. I had not, and I bought a
+half-crown ticket for admission, and returned there the same evening.
+When I entered the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room, the medium had not arrived, and I had
+time to take stock of the audience. It seemed a very sad and serious
+one. There was no whispering nor giggling going on, and it struck me
+they looked more like patients waiting the advent of the doctor, than
+people bound on an evening's amusement. And that, to my surprise, was
+what I afterwards found they actually were. Mrs. Olive did not keep us
+long waiting, and when she came in, dressed in a lilac muslin dress,
+with her golden hair parted plainly on her forehead, her <i>very</i> blue
+eyes, and a sweet, womanly smile for her circle, she looked as unlike
+the popular idea of a professional medium as anyone could possibly do.
+She sat down on a chair in the middle of the circle, and, having closed
+her eyes, went off to sleep. Presently she sat up, and, still with her
+eyes closed, said in a very pleasant, but decidedly <i>manly</i>, voice: "And
+now, my friends, what can I do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>A lady in the circle began to ask advice about her daughter. The medium
+held up her hand. "Stop!" she exclaimed, "you are doing <i>my</i> work.
+Friend, your daughter is ill, you say. Then it is <i>my</i> business to see
+what is the matter with her. Will you come here, young lady, and let me
+feel your pulse." Having done which, the medium proceeded to detail
+exactly the contents of the girl's stomach, and to advise her what to
+eat and drink for the future. Another lady then advanced with a written
+prescription. The medium examined her, made an alteration or two in the
+prescription, and told her to go on with it till further orders. My
+curiosity was aroused, and I whispered to my next neighbor to tell me
+who the control was. "Sir John Forbes, a celebrated physician," she
+replied. "He has almost as large a connection now as he had when alive."
+I was not exactly ill at the time, but I was not strong, and nothing
+that my family doctor prescribed for me seemed to do me any good. So
+wishing to test the abilities of "Sir John Forbes," I went up to the
+medium and knelt down by her side. "What is the matter with me, Sir
+John?" I began. "Don't call me by that name, little friend," he
+answered; "we have no titles on this side the world." "What shall I call
+you, then?" I said. "Doctor, plain Doctor," was the reply, but in such a
+kind voice. "Then tell me what is the matter with me, Doctor." "Come
+nearer, and I'll whisper it in your ear." He then gave me a detailed
+account of the manner in which I suffered, and asked what I had been
+taking. When I told him, "All wrong, all wrong," he said, shaking his
+head. "Here! give me a pencil and paper." I had a notebook in my pocket,
+with a metallic pencil, which I handed over to him, and he wrote a
+prescription in it. "Take that, and you'll be all the better, little
+friend," he said, as he gave it to me back again. When I had time to
+examine what he had written, I found to my surprise that the
+prescription was in abbreviated Latin, with the amount of each
+ingredient given in the regular medical shorthand. Mrs. Olive, a simple
+though intelligent looking woman, seemed a very unlikely person to me to
+be educated up to this degree. However, I determined to obtain a better
+opinion than my own, so the next time my family doctor called to see me,
+I said: "I have had a prescription given me, Doctor, which I am anxious,
+with your permission, to try. I wish you would glance your eye over it
+and see if you approve of my taking it." At the same time I handed him
+the note-book, and I saw him grow very red as he looked at the
+prescription. "Anything wrong?" I inquired. "O! dear no!" he replied in
+an offended tone; "you can try your remedy, and welcome, for aught I
+care&mdash;only, next time you wish to consult a new doctor, I advise you to
+dismiss the old one first." "But this prescription was not written by a
+doctor," I argued. At this he looked still more offended. "It's no use
+trying to deceive me, Mrs. Ross-Church! That prescription was written by
+no one but a medical man." It was a long time before I could make him
+really believe <i>who</i> had transcribed it, and under what circumstances.
+When he was convinced of the truth of my statement, he was very much
+astonished, and laid all his professional pique aside. He did more. He
+not only urged me to have the prescription made up, but he confessed
+that his first chagrin was due to the fact that he felt he should have
+thought of it himself. "<i>That</i>," he said, pointing to one ingredient,
+"is the very thing to suit your case, and it makes me feel such a fool
+to think that a <i>woman</i> should think of what <i>I</i> passed over."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing would make this doctor believe in Spiritualism, though he
+continued to aver that only a medical man could have prescribed the
+medicine; but as I saw dozens of other cases treated at the time by Mrs.
+Olive, and have seen dozens since, I know that she does it by a power
+not her own. For several years after that "Sir John Forbes" used to give
+me advice about my health, and when his medium married Colonel Greck and
+went to live in Russia, he was so sorry to leave his numerous patients,
+and they to lose him, that he wanted to control <i>me</i> in order that I
+might carry on his practice, but after several attempts he gave it up as
+hopeless. He said my brain was too active for any spirit to magnetize;
+and he is not the first, nor last, who has made the same attempt, and
+failed. "Sir John Forbes" was not Mrs. Olive's only control. She had a
+charming spirit called "Sunshine," who used to come for clairvoyance and
+prophecy; and a very comical negro named "Hambo," who was as humorous
+and full of native wit and repartee, as negroes generally are, and as
+Mrs. Olive, who is a very gentle, quiet woman, decidedly was <i>not</i>.
+"Hambo" was the business adviser and director, and sometimes
+materialized, which the others did not. These three influences were just
+as opposite from one another, and from Mrs. Olive, as any creatures
+could possibly be. "Sir John Forbes," so dignified, courteous, and truly
+benevolent&mdash;such a thorough old <i>gentleman</i>; "Sunshine," a sweet,
+sympathetic Indian girl, full of gentle reproof for wrong and
+exhortations to lead a higher life; and "Hambo," humorous and witty,
+calling a spade a spade, and occasionally descending to coarseness, but
+never unkind or wicked. I knew them all over a space of years until I
+regarded them as old friends. Mrs. Greck is now a widow, and residing in
+England, and, I hear, sitting again for her friends. If so, a great
+benefit in the person of "Sir John Forbes" has returned for a portion of
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>I have kept a well-known physical medium to the last, not because I do
+not consider his powers to be completely genuine, but because they are
+of a nature that will not appeal to such as have not witnessed them. I
+allude to Mr. Charles Williams, with whom I have sat many times alone,
+and also with Mrs. Guppy Volckman. The manifestations that take place at
+his <i>s&eacute;ances</i> are always material. The much written of "John King" is
+his principal control, and invariably appears under his mediumship; and
+"Ernest" is the name of another. I have seen Charles Williams leave the
+cabinet under trance and wander in an aimless manner about the room,
+whilst both "John King" and "Ernest" were with the circle, and have
+heard them reprove him for rashness. I have also seen him under the same
+circumstances, during an afternoon <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, mistake the window curtains
+for the curtains of the cabinet, and draw them suddenly aside, letting
+the full light of day in upon the scene, and showing vacancy where a
+moment before two figures had been standing and talking.</p>
+
+<p>Once when "John King" asked Colonel Lean what he should bring him, he
+was told <i>mentally</i> to fetch the half-hoop diamond ring from my finger
+and place it on that of my husband.</p>
+
+<p>This half-hoop ring was worn between my wedding ring and a heavy gold
+snake ring, and I was holding the hand of my neighbor all the time, and
+yet the ring was abstracted from between the other two and transferred
+to Colonel Lean's finger without my being aware of the circumstance.
+These and various other marvels, I have seen under Mr. Williams'
+mediumship; but as I can adduce no proof that they were genuine, except
+my own conviction, it would be useless to write them down here. Only I
+could not close the list of the media with whom I have familiarly sat in
+London, and from whom I have received both kindness and courtesy,
+without including his name. It is the same with several others&mdash;with Mr.
+Frank Herne (now deceased) and his wife Mrs. Herne, whom I first knew as
+Mrs. Bassett, a famous medium for the direct spirit voice; with Mrs.
+Wilkinson, a clairvoyant who has a large <i>client&egrave;le</i> of wealthy and
+aristocratic patrons; with Mrs. Wilkins and Mr. Vango, both reliable,
+though, as yet, less well known to the spiritualistic public; and with
+Dr. Wilson, the astrologer, who will tell you all you have ever done,
+and all you are ever going to do, if you will only give him the
+opportunity of casting your horoscope. To all and each I tender my
+thanks for having afforded me increased opportunities of searching into
+the truth of a science that possesses the utmost interest for me, and
+that has given me the greatest pleasure.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>ON LAYING THE CARDS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>At the risk of being laughed at, I cannot refrain, in the course of this
+narrative of my spiritualistic experiences, from saying a few words
+about what is called "laying the cards." "Imagine!" I fancy I hear some
+dear creature with nose "tip-tilted like a flower" exclaim, "any
+sensible woman believing in cards." And yet Napoleon believed in them,
+and regulated the fate of nations by them; and the only times he
+neglected their admonitions were followed by the retreat from Moscow and
+the defeat at Waterloo. Still I did not believe in card-telling till the
+belief was forced upon me. I always thought it rather cruel to give
+imprisonment and hard labor to old women who laid the cards for servant
+girls. Who can tell whether or no it is obtaining money upon false
+pretences; and if it is, why not inflict the same penalty on every
+cheating tradesman who sells inferior articles or gives short weight?
+Women would be told they should look after their own interests in the
+one case&mdash;so why not in the other? But all the difference lies in <i>who</i>
+lays the cards. Very few people can do it successfully, and my belief is
+that it must be done by a person with mediumistic power, which, in some
+mysterious manner, influences the disposition of the pack. I have seen
+cards shuffled and cut twenty times in the hope of getting rid of some
+number antagonistic to the inquirer's good fortune, and yet each time
+the same card would turn up in the juxtaposition least to be desired.
+However, to narrate my own experience. When I was living in Brussels,
+years before I heard of modern Spiritualism, I made the acquaintance of
+an Irish lady called Mrs. Thorpe, a widow who was engaged as a
+<i>ch&acirc;peron</i> for some young Belgian ladies of high birth, who had lost
+their mother. We lived near each other, and she often came in to have a
+chat with me. After a while I heard through some other friends that Mrs.
+Thorpe was a famous hand at "laying the cards;" and one day, when we
+were alone, I asked her to tell me my fortune. I didn't in the least
+believe in it, but I wanted to be amused. Mrs. Thorpe begged to be
+excused at once. She told me her predictions had proved so true, she was
+afraid to look into futurity any more. She had seen a son and heir for a
+couple who had been married twenty years without having any children,
+and death for a girl just about to become a bride&mdash;and both had come
+true; and, in fact, her employer, the Baron, had strictly forbidden her
+doing it any more whilst in his house. However, this only fired my
+curiosity, and I teased her until, on my promising to preserve the
+strictest secrecy, she complied with my request. She predicted several
+things in which I had little faith, but which I religiously wrote down
+in case they came true&mdash;the three most important being that my husband,
+Colonel Ross-Church (who was then most seriously ill in India), would
+not die, but that his brother, Edward Church, would; that I should have
+one more child by my first marriage&mdash;a daughter with exceedingly fair
+skin and hair, who would prove to be the cleverest of all my children,
+and that after her birth I should never live with my husband again. All
+these events were most unlikely to come to pass at that time, and,
+indeed, did not come to pass for years afterwards, yet each one was
+fulfilled, and the daughter who, unlike all her brothers and sisters, is
+fair as a lily, will be by no means the last in the race for talent. Yet
+these cards were laid four years before her birth. Mrs. Thorpe told me
+she had learnt the art from a pupil of the identical Italian countess
+who used to lay the cards for the Emperor Napoleon. But it is not an
+art, and it is not to be learnt. It is inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Many years after this, when I had just begun to study Spiritualism, my
+sister told me of a wonderful old lady, a neighbor of hers, who had
+gained quite an evil reputation in the village by her prophetical powers
+with the cards. Like Mrs. Thorpe, she had become afraid of herself, and
+professed to have given up the practice. The last time she had laid
+them, a girl acquaintance had walked over joyously from an adjacent
+village to introduce her affianced husband to her, and to beg her to
+tell them what would happen in their married life. The old lady had laid
+the cards, and saw the death card turn up three times with the marriage
+ring, and told the young people, much to their chagrin, that they must
+prepare for a disappointment, as their marriage would certainly be
+postponed from some obstacle arising in the way. She told me afterwards
+that she dared not tell them more than this. They left her somewhat
+sobered, but still full of hope, and started on their way home. Before
+they reached it the young man staggered and fell down dead. No one had
+expected such a catastrophe. He had been apparently in the best of
+health and spirits. <i>What</i> was it that had made this old lady foresee
+what no one else had seen?</p>
+
+<p>These are no trumped-up tales after the prediction had been fulfilled.
+Everyone knew it to be true, and became frightened to look into the
+future for themselves. I was an exception to the general rule, however,
+and persuaded Mrs. Simmonds to lay the cards for me. I had just
+completed a two months' sojourn at the seaside, was in robust health,
+and anticipating my return home for the sake of meeting again with a
+friend who was very dear to me. I shuffled and cut the cards according
+to directions. The old lady looked rather grave. "I don't like your
+cards," she said, "there is a good deal of trouble before you&mdash;trouble
+and sickness. You will not return home so soon as you anticipate. You
+will be detained by illness, and when you do return, you will find a
+letter on the table that will cut you to the heart. I am sorry you have
+stayed away so long. There has been treachery in your absence, and a
+woman just your opposite, with dark eyes and hair, has got the better of
+you. However, it will be a sharp trouble, but not a lengthy one. You
+will see the wisdom of it before long, and be thankful it has happened."
+I accepted my destiny with complacency, never supposing (notwithstanding
+all that I had heard) that it would come true. I was within a few days
+of starting for home, and had received affectionate letters from my
+friend all the time I had been away. However, as Fate and the cards
+would have it, I was taken ill the very day after they were laid for me,
+and confined for three weeks with a kind of low fever to my bed; and
+when weakened and depressed I returned to my home I found <i>the letter on
+my table</i> that Mrs. Simmonds had predicted for me, to say that my
+friendship with my (supposed) friend <i>was over and done with for ever</i>.
+After this I began to have more respect for cards, or rather for the
+persons who successfully laid them. In 1888, when I was touring with my
+company with the "Golden Goblin," I stayed for the first time in my life
+in Accrington. Our sojourn there was to be only for a week, and, as may
+be supposed, the accommodation in the way of lodgings was very poor.
+When we had been there a few days a lady of the company said to me,
+"There is such a funny old woman at my lodgings, Miss Marryat! I wish
+you'd come and see her. She can tell fortunes with the cards, and I know
+you believe in such things. She has told my husband and me all about
+ourselves in the most wonderful manner; but you mustn't come when the
+old man is at home, because he says it's devilry, and he has forbidden
+her doing it." "I <i>am</i> very much interested in that sort of thing," I
+replied, "and I will certainly pay her a visit, if you will tell me when
+I may come." A time was accordingly fixed for my going to the lady's
+rooms, and on my arrival there I was introduced to a greasy, snuffy old
+landlady, who didn't look as if she had a soul above a bottle of gin.
+However, I sat down at a table with her, and the cards were cut. She
+told me nothing that my friends might have told her concerning me, but
+dived at once into the future. My domestic affairs were in a very
+complicated state at that period, and I had no idea myself how they
+would end. She saw the whole situation at a glance&mdash;described the actors
+in the scene, the places they lived in, the people by whom they were
+surrounded, and exactly how the whole business would end, and <i>did</i> end.
+She foretold the running of the tour, how long it would last, and which
+of the company would leave before it concluded. She told me that a woman
+in the company, whom I believed at that time to be attached to me, would
+prove to be one of my greatest enemies, and be the cause of estrangement
+between me and one of my nearest relations, and she opened my eyes to
+that woman's character in a way which forced me afterwards to find out
+that to which I might have been blind forever. And this information
+emanated from a dirty, ignorant, old lodging keeper, who had probably
+never heard of my name until it was thrust before her, and yet told me
+things that my most intimate and cleverest friends had no power to tell
+me. After the woman at Accrington I never looked at a card for the
+purpose of divination until my attention was directed last year to a
+woman in London who is very clever at the same thing, and a friend
+asked me to go with her and see what she could tell us. This woman, who
+is quite of the lower class, and professedly a dressmaker, received us
+in a bedroom, the door of which was carefully locked. She was an elderly
+woman and rather intelligent and well educated for her position, but she
+could adduce no reason whatever for her facility in reading the cards.
+She told me "it <i>came</i> to her," she didn't know why or how.</p>
+
+<p>It "came to her" with a vengeance for me. She rattled off my past,
+present and future as if she had been reading from an open book, and she
+mentioned the description of a person (which I completely recognized) so
+constantly with reference to my future, that I thought I would try her
+by a question. "Stop a minute," I said, "this person whom you have
+alluded to so often&mdash;have I ever met him?" "Of course you have met him,"
+she replied, "you know him intimately." "I don't recognize the
+description," I returned, fallaciously. The woman turned round and
+looked me full in the face. "<i>You don't recognize him?</i>" she repeated in
+an incredulous tone, "then you must be very dull. Well! I'll tell you
+how to recognize him. Next time you meet a gentleman out walking who
+raises his hat, and before he shakes hands with you, draws a written or
+printed paper from his pocket and presents it to you, you can remember
+my words. <i>That</i> is the man I mean."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed at the quaintness of the idea and returned home. As I was
+walking from the station to my own house I met the person she had
+described. As he neared me he raised his hat, and then putting his hand
+in his pocket he said, "Good afternoon! I have something for you! I met
+Burrows this morning. He was going on to you, but as he was in a great
+hurry he asked me if I was likely to see you to-day to give you this."
+And he presented me with a printed paper of regulations which I had
+asked the man he mentioned to procure for me.</p>
+
+<p>Now, here was no stereotyped utterance of the cards&mdash;no stock
+phrase&mdash;but a deliberate prophecy of an unfulfilled event. It is upon
+such things that I base my opinion that, given certain persons and
+certain circumstances, the cards are a very fertile source of
+information. It is absurd in cases like those I have related to lay it
+all down to chance, to clever guessing, or to trickery. If my readers
+believe so, let me ask them to try it for themselves. If it is all
+folly, and any stupid, ignorant old woman can do it, of course <i>they</i>
+must be able to master the trick. Let them get a pack of cards and lay
+them according to the usual directions&mdash;there are any number of books
+published that will tell them how to do it&mdash;and then see if they can
+foretell a single event of importance correctly. They will probably find
+(as <i>I</i> do) that the cards are a sealed book to them. I would give a
+great deal to be able to lay the cards with any degree of success for
+myself or my friends. But nothing "comes to me." The cards remain
+painted pieces of cardboard, and nothing more. And yet an ignorant
+creature who has no brains of her own can dive deep into the mysteries
+of my mind, and turn my inmost thoughts and wishes inside out,&mdash;more,
+can pierce futurity and tell me what <i>shall</i> be. However, if my hearers
+continue to doubt my story, I can only repeat my admonition to try it
+for themselves. If they once succeed, they will not give it up again.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA.</h3>
+
+<p>I. <i>Mrs. M. A. Williams.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>I went to America on a professional engagement in October, 1884. Some
+months beforehand a very liberal offer had been made me by the
+Spiritualists of Great Britain to write my experiences for the English
+press, but I declined to do so until I could add my American notes to
+them. I had corresponded (as I have shown) with the <i>Banner of Light</i> in
+New York; and what I had heard of Spiritualism in America had made me
+curious to witness it. But I was determined to test it on a strictly
+private plan. I said to myself: "I have seen and heard pretty nearly all
+there is to be seen and heard on the subject in England, but, with one
+or two exceptions, I have never sat at any <i>s&eacute;ance</i> where I was not
+known. Now I am going to visit a strange country where, in a matter like
+Spiritualism, I can conceal my identity, so as to afford the media no
+clue to my surroundings or the names of my deceased friends." I sailed
+for America quite determined to pursue a strictly secret investigation,
+and with that end in view I never mentioned the subject to anyone.</p>
+
+<p>I had a few days holiday in New York before proceeding to Boston, where
+my work opened, and I stayed at one of the largest hotels in the city. I
+landed on Sunday morning, and on Monday evening I resolved to make my
+first venture. Had I been a visitor in London, I should have had to
+search out the right sort of people, and make a dozen inquiries before I
+heard where the media were hiding themselves from dread of the law; but
+they order such things better on the other side of the Atlantic. People
+are allowed to hold their private opinions and their private religion
+there without being swooped down upon and clapped into prison for rogues
+and vagabonds. Whatever the views of the majority may be, upon this
+subject or any other (and Heaven knows I would have each man strong
+enough to cling to his opinion, and brave enough to acknowledge it
+before the world), I think it is a discredit to a civilized country to
+allow old laws, that were made when we were little better than savages,
+to remain in force at the present day. We are far too much over-ridden
+by a paternal Government, which has grown so blind and senile that it
+swallows camels while it is straining after a gnat.</p>
+
+<p>There was no obstacle to my wish, however, in New York. I had but to
+glance down the advertisement columns of the newspapers to learn where
+the media lived, and on what days they held their public <i>s&eacute;ances</i>. It
+so happened that Mrs. M. A. Williams was the only one who held open
+house on Monday evenings for Materialization; and thither I determined
+to go. There is no such privacy as in a large <i>h&ocirc;tel</i>, where no one has
+the opportunity to see what his neighbor is doing. As soon, therefore,
+as my dinner was concluded, I put on a dark cloak, hat and veil, and
+walking out into the open, got into one of the cars that ran past the
+street where Mrs. Williams resided. Arrived at the house, I knocked at
+the door, and was about to inquire if there was to be any <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+there, that evening, when the attendant saved me the trouble by saying,
+"Upstairs, if you please, madam," and nothing more passed between us.
+When I had mounted the stairs, I found myself in a large room, the floor
+of which was covered with a thick carpet, nailed all round the
+wainscotting. On one side were some thirty or forty cane-bottomed
+chairs, and directly facing them was the cabinet. This consisted of four
+uprights nailed over the carpet, with iron rods connecting them at the
+top. There was no roof to it, but curtains of a dark maroon color were
+usually drawn around, but when I entered, they were flung back over the
+iron rods, so as to disclose the interior. There was a stuffed armchair
+for the use of the medium, and in front of the cabinet a narrow table
+with papers and pencils on it, the use of which I did not at first
+discover. At the third side of the room was a harmonium, so placed that
+the performer sat with his back both to the cabinet and the sitters. A
+large gas lamp, almost like a limelight, made in a square form like a
+lantern, was fixed against the wall, so as to throw the light upon the
+cabinet, but it was fitted with a sliding shade of red silk, with which
+it could be darkened if necessary. I was early, and only a few visitors
+were occupying the chairs. I asked a lady if I might sit where I chose,
+and on her answering "Yes," I took the chair in the front row, exactly
+opposite the cabinet, not forgetting that I was there in the cause of
+Spiritualism as well as for my own interests. The seats filled rapidly
+and there must have been thirty-five or forty people present, when Mrs.
+Williams entered the room, and nodding to those she knew, went into the
+cabinet. Mrs. Williams is a stout woman of middle age, with dark hair
+and eyes, and a fresh complexion. She was dressed in a tight-fitting
+gown of pale blue, with a good deal of lace about the neck and sleeves.
+She was accompanied by a gentleman, and I then discovered for the first
+time that it is usual in America to have, what they call, a "conductor"
+of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. The conductor sits close to the cabinet curtains, and,
+if any spirit is too weak to shew itself outside, or to speak audibly,
+he conveys the message it may wish to send to its friends; and when I
+knew how very few precautions the Americans take to prevent such
+outrages as have occurred in England, and how many more materializations
+take place in an evening there than here, I saw the necessity of a
+conductor to protect the medium, and to regulate the order of the
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Williams' conductor opened the proceedings with a very neat little
+speech. He said, "I see several strange faces here this evening, and I
+am very pleased to see them, and I hope they may derive both pleasure
+and profit from our meeting. We have only one rule for the conduct of
+our <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, that you shall behave like ladies and gentlemen. You may
+not credit all you see, but remember this is our religion, and the
+religion of many present, and as you would behave yourselves reverently
+and decorously, if you were in a church of another persuasion to your
+own, so I beg of you to behave yourselves here. And if any spirits
+should come for you whom you do not immediately recognize, don't wound
+them by denying their identity. They may have been longing for this
+moment to meet you again, and doing their very utmost to assume once
+more the likeness they wore on earth; yet some fail. Don't make their
+failure harder to bear by roughly repudiating all knowledge of them. The
+strangers who are present to-night may mistake the reason of this little
+table being placed in front of the cabinet, and think it is intended to
+keep them from too close an inspection of the spirits. No such thing! On
+the contrary, all will be invited in turn to come up and recognize their
+friends. But we make it a rule at these <i>s&eacute;ances</i> that no materialized
+spirit, who is strong enough to come beyond that table, shall be
+permitted to return to the cabinet. They must dematerialize in sight of
+the sitters, that no possible suspicion may rest upon the medium. These
+pencils and papers are placed here in case any spirit who is unable to
+speak may be impressed to write instead. And now we will begin the
+evening with a song."</p>
+
+<p>The accompanist then played "Footsteps of Angels," the audience sung it
+with a will, and the curtains having been drawn round Mrs. Williams, the
+shade was drawn across the gaslight, and the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> began.</p>
+
+<p>I don't think it could have been more than a minute or two before we
+heard a voice whispering, "Father," and <i>three girls</i>, dressed in white
+clinging garments, appeared at the opening in the curtains. An old man
+with white hair left his seat and walked up to the cabinet, when they
+all three came out at once and hung about his neck and kissed him, and
+whispered to him. I almost forgot where I was. They looked so perfectly
+human, so joyous and girl-like, somewhere between seventeen and twenty,
+and they all spoke at once, so like what girls on earth would do, that
+it was most mystifying. The old man came back to his seat, wiping his
+eyes. "Are those your daughters, sir?" asked one of the sitters. "Yes!
+my three girls," he replied. "I lost them all before ten years old, but
+you see I've got them back again here."</p>
+
+<p>Several other forms appeared after this&mdash;one, a little child of about
+three years old, who fluttered in and out of the cabinet like a
+butterfly, and ran laughing away from the sitters who tried to catch
+her. Some of the meetings that took place for the first time were very
+affecting. One young man of about seventeen or eighteen, who was called
+up to see his mother's spirit, sobbed so bitterly, it broke my heart to
+hear him. There was not the least doubt if <i>he</i> recognized her or no. He
+was so overcome, he hardly raised his eyes for the rest of the evening.
+One lady brought her spirit-son up to me, that I might see how perfectly
+he had materialized. She spoke of it as proudly as she might have done
+if he had passed some difficult examination. The young man was dressed
+in a suit of evening clothes, and he shook hands with me at his mother's
+bidding, with the firm grasp of a mortal. Naturally, I had seen too much
+in England for all this to surprise me. Still I had never assisted at a
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> where everything appeared to be so strangely human&mdash;so little
+mystical, except indeed the rule of dematerializing before the sitters,
+which I had only seen "Katie King" do before. But here, each form, after
+having been warned by the conductor that its time was up, sunk down
+right through the carpet as though it were the most ordinary mode of
+egression. Some, and more especially the men, did not advance beyond the
+curtains; then their friends were invited to go up and speak to them,
+and several went inside the cabinet. There were necessarily a good many
+forms, familiar to the rest, of whom I knew nothing; one was an old
+minister under whom they had all sat, another a gentleman who had been a
+constant attendant at Mrs. Williams' <i>s&eacute;ances</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Once the conductor spoke to me. "I am not aware of your name," he said
+(and I thought, "No! my friend, and you won't be aware of it just yet
+either!"), "but a spirit here wishes you would come up to the cabinet."
+I advanced, expecting to see some friend, and there stood a Catholic
+priest with his hand extended in blessing. I knelt down, and he gave me
+the usual benediction and then closed the curtains. "Did you know the
+spirit?" the conductor asked me. I shook my head; and he continued, "He
+was Father Hayes, a well-known priest in this city. I suppose you are a
+Catholic?" I told him "Yes," and went back to my seat. The conductor
+addressed me again. "I think Father Hayes must have come to pave the way
+for some of your friends," he said. "Here is a spirit who says she has
+come for a lady named 'Florence,' who has just crossed the sea. Do you
+answer to the description?" I was about to say "Yes," when the curtains
+parted again and my daughter "Florence" ran across the room and fell
+into my arms. "Mother!" she exclaimed, "I said I would come with you and
+look after you&mdash;didn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>I looked at her. She was exactly the same in appearance as when she had
+come to me in England&mdash;the same luxuriant brown hair and features and
+figure, as I had seen under the different mediumships of Florence Cook,
+Arthur Colman, Charles Williams and William Eglinton; the same form
+which in England had been declared to be half-a-dozen different media
+dressed up to represent my daughter stood before me there in New York,
+thousands of miles across the sea, and by the power of a person who did
+not even know who I was. If I had not been convinced before, how could I
+have helped being convinced then?</p>
+
+<p>"Florence" appeared as delighted as I was, and kept on kissing me and
+talking of what had happened to me on board ship coming over, and was
+evidently quite <i>au fait</i> of all my proceedings. Presently she said,
+"There's another friend of yours here, mother! We came over together.
+I'll go and fetch him." She was going back to the cabinet when the
+conductor stopped her. "You must not return this way, please. Any other
+you like," and she immediately made a kind of court curtsey and went
+down through the carpet. I was standing where "Florence" had left me,
+wondering what would happen next, when she came <i>up again</i> a few feet
+off from me, head first, and smiling as if she had discovered a new
+game. She was allowed to enter the cabinet this time, but a moment
+afterwards she popped her head out again, and said, "Here's your friend,
+mother!" and by her side was standing William Eglinton's control,
+"Joey," clad in his white suit, with a white cap drawn over his head.
+"'Florence' and I have come over to make new lines for you here," he
+said: "at least, I've come over to put her in the way of doing it, but I
+can't stay long, you know, because I have to go back to 'Willy.'"</p>
+
+<p>I really didn't care if he stayed long or not. I seemed to have procured
+the last proof I needed of the truth of the doctrine I had held so long,
+that there is no such thing as Death, as we understand it in this world.
+Here were the two spiritual beings (for believing in the identity of
+whom I had called myself a credulous fool fifty times over, only to
+believe in them more deeply still) in <i>pr&ocirc;pria personæ</i> in New York,
+claiming me in a land of strangers, who had not yet found out who I was.
+I was more deeply affected than I had ever been under such circumstances
+before, and more deeply thankful. "Florence" made great friends with our
+American cousins even on her first appearance. Mrs. Williams' conductor
+told me he thought he had never heard anything more beautiful than the
+idea of the spirit-child crossing the ocean to guard its mother in a
+strange country, and particularly, as he could feel by her influence,
+what a pure and beautiful spirit she was. When I told him she had left
+this world at ten days old, he said that accounted for it, but he could
+see there was nothing earthly about her.</p>
+
+<p>I was delighted with this <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, and hoped to sit with Mrs. Williams
+many times more, but fate decreed that I should leave New York sooner
+than I had anticipated. The perfect freedom with which it was conducted
+charmed me, and the spirits seemed so familiar with the sitters. There
+was no "Sweet Spirit, hear my prayer," business about it. No fear of
+being detained or handled among the spirits, and no awe, only intense
+tenderness on the part of their relations. It was to this cause I
+chiefly attributed the large number of materializations I
+witnessed&mdash;<i>forty</i> having taken place that evening. They spoke far more
+distinctly and audibly too than those I had seen in England, but I
+believe the dry atmosphere of the United States is far more favorable to
+the process of materialization. I perceived another difference. Although
+the female spirits were mostly clad in white, they wore dresses and not
+simply drapery, whilst the men were invariably attired in the clothes
+(or semblances of the clothes) they would have worn had they been still
+on earth. I left Mrs. Williams' rooms, determined to see as much as I
+possibly could of mediumship whilst I was in the United States.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></h2>
+
+<p>II. <i>Mrs. Eva Hatch.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>I was so disappointed at being hurried off to Boston before I had seen
+any more of the New York media, that I took the earliest opportunity of
+attending a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> there. A few words I had heard dropped about Eva
+Hatch made me resolve to visit her first. She was one of the Shaker
+sect, and I heard her spoken of as a remarkably pure and honest woman,
+and most reliable medium. Her first appearance quite gave me that
+impression. She had a fair, placid countenance, full of sweetness and
+serenity, and a plump matronly figure. I went incognita, as I had done
+to Mrs. Williams, and mingled unnoticed with the crowd. Mrs. Hatch's
+cabinet was quite different from Mrs. Williams'. It was built of planks
+like a little cottage, and the roof was pierced with numerous round
+holes for ventilation, like a pepper-box. There was a door in the
+centre, with a window on either side, all three of which were shaded by
+dark curtains. The windows, I was told, were for the accommodation of
+those spirits who had not the power to materialize more than a face, or
+head and bust. Mrs. Hatch's conductor was a woman, who sat near the
+cabinet, as in the other case.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eva Hatch had not entered the cabinet five minutes before she came
+out again, under trance, with a very old lady with silver hair clinging
+to her arm, and walked round the circle. As they did so, the old lady
+extended her withered hand, and blessed the sitters. She came quite
+close to each one and was distinctly visible to all. I was told that
+this was the spirit of Mrs. Hatch's mother, and that it was her regular
+custom to come first and give her blessing to the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. I had never
+seen the spirit of an aged person before, and it was a beautiful sight.
+She was the sweetest old lady too, very small and fragile looking, and
+half reclining on her daughter's bosom, but smiling serenely upon every
+one there. When they had made the tour of the room, Mrs. Hatch
+re-entered the cabinet, and did not leave it again until the sitting was
+concluded.</p>
+
+<p>There were a great many sitters present, most of whom were old patrons
+of Mrs. Hatch, and so, naturally, their friends came for them first. It
+is surprising though, when once familiarized with materialization, how
+little one grows to care to see the spirits who come for one's next door
+neighbor. They are like a lot of prisoners let out, one by one, to see
+their friends and relations. The few moments they have to spare are
+entirely devoted to home matters of no possible interest to the
+bystander. The first wonder and possible shock at seeing the supposed
+dead return in their old likeness to greet those they left on earth
+over, one listens with languid indifference, and perhaps a little
+impatience for one's own turn to come, to the whispered utterances of
+strangers. Mrs. Hatch's "cabinet spirits" or "controls," however, were
+very interesting. One, who called herself the "Spirit of Prayer," came
+and knelt down in the middle of the circle, and prayed with us. She had
+asked for the gas to be extinguished first, and as she prayed she became
+illuminated with flashes of light, in the shape of stars and crosses,
+until she was visible from head to foot, and we could see her features
+and dress as if she had been surrounded by electricity.</p>
+
+<p>Two more cabinet spirits were a negro and negress, who appeared
+together, chanting some of their native hymns and melodies. When I saw
+these apparitions, I thought to myself: "Here is a good opportunity to
+discover trickery, if trickery there is." The pair were undoubtedly of
+the negro race. There was no mistaking their thick lips and noses and
+yellow-white eyes, nor their polished brown skins, which no charcoal can
+properly imitate. They were negroes without doubt; but how about the
+negro bouquet? Everyone who has mixed with colored people in the East or
+the West knows what that is, though it is very difficult to describe,
+being something like warm rancid oil mingled with the fumes of charcoal,
+with a little worse thrown in. "Now," I thought, "if these forms are
+human, there will be some odor attached to them, and that I am
+determined to find out." I caught, therefore, at the dress of the young
+woman as she passed, and asked her if she would kiss me. She left her
+companion directly, and put her arms (which were bare) round my neck,
+and embraced me several times; and I can declare, on my oath, that she
+was as completely free from anything like the smell of a colored woman
+as it was possible for her to be. She felt as fresh and sweet and pure
+as a little child.</p>
+
+<p>Many other forms appeared and were recognized by the circle, notably a
+very handsome one who called herself the Empress Josephine; but as they
+could not add a grain's weight to my testimony I pass them over. I had
+begun to think that "Florence" was not going to visit me that evening,
+when the conductor of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> asked if there was anybody in the
+room who answered to the name of "Bluebell." I must indulge in a little
+retrospect here, and tell my readers that ten years previous to the time
+I am writing of, I had lost my brother-in-law, Edward Church, under very
+painful circumstances. He had been left an orphan and in control of his
+fortune at a very early age, and had lived with my husband, Colonel
+Ross-Church, and myself. But poor "Ted" had been his own worst enemy. He
+had possessed a most generous heart and affectionate disposition, but
+these had led him into extravagances that swallowed up his fortune, and
+then he had taken to drinking and killed himself by it. I and my
+children had loved him dearly, but all our prayers and entreaties had
+had no avail, and in the end he had become so bad that the doctors had
+insisted upon our separation. Poor "Ted" had consequently died in exile,
+and this had been a further aggravation of our grief. For ten years I
+had been trying to procure communication with him in vain, and I had
+quite given up expecting to see him again. Only once had I heard
+"Bluebell" (his pet name for me) gasped out by an entranced clairvoyant,
+but nothing further had come of it. Now, as I heard it for the second
+time, from a stranger's lips in a foreign country, it naturally roused
+my expectations, but I thought it might be only a message for me from
+"Ted."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anyone here who recognizes the name of 'Bluebell'?" repeated
+the conductor. "I was once called so by a friend," I said. "Someone is
+asking for that name. You had better come up to the cabinet," she
+replied. I rose at once and did as she told me, but when I reached the
+curtain I encountered "Florence." "My darling child," I said, as I
+embraced her, "why did you ask for 'Bluebell'?" She did not answer me,
+except by shaking her head, placing her finger on her lips, and
+pointing downwards to the carpet. I did not know what to make of it. I
+had never known her unable to articulate before. "What is the matter,
+dear?" I said; "can't you speak to me to-night?" Still she shook her
+head, and tapped my arm with her hand, to attract my attention to the
+fact that she was pointing vigorously downwards. I looked down, too,
+when, to my astonishment, I saw rise through the carpet what looked to
+me like the bald head of a baby or an old man, and a little figure, <i>not
+more than three feet in height</i>, with Edward Church's features, but no
+hair on its head, came gradually into view, and looked up in my face
+with a pitiful, deprecating expression, as if he were afraid I should
+strike him. The face, however, was so unmistakably Ted's, though the
+figure was so ludicrously insignificant, that I could not fail to
+recognize him. "Why, Ted!" I exclaimed, "have you come back to see me at
+last?" and held out my hand. The little figure seized it, tried to
+convey it to his lips, burst into tears, and sank down through the
+carpet much more rapidly than he had come up.</p>
+
+<p>I began to cry too. It was so pitiful. With her uncle's disappearance
+"Florence" found her tongue. "Don't cry, mother," she said; "poor Uncle
+Ted is overcome at seeing you. That's why he couldn't materialize
+better. He was in such a terrible hurry. He'll look more like himself
+next time. I was trying so hard to help him, I didn't dare to use up any
+of the power by speaking. He'll be so much better, now he's seen you.
+You'll come here again, won't you?" I told her I certainly would, if I
+could; and, indeed, I was all anxiety to see my poor brother-in-law
+again. To prove how difficult it would have been to deceive me on this
+subject, I should like to say a little about Edward Church's personal
+appearance. He was a very remarkable looking man&mdash;indeed, I have never
+seen anyone a bit like him before or after. He was very small; not short
+only, but small altogether, with tiny hands and feet, and a little head.
+His hair and eyes were of the deepest black&mdash;the former parted in the
+middle, with a curl on either side, and was naturally waved. His
+complexion was very dark, his features delicate, and he wore a small
+pointed moustache. As a child he had suffered from an attack of
+confluent small-pox, which had deeply pitted his face, and almost eaten
+away the tip of his nose. Such a man was not to be easily imitated, even
+if anyone in Boston had ever heard of his inconsequential existence. To
+me, though, he had been a dear friend and brother, before the curse of
+Drink had seemed to change his nature, and I had always been anxious to
+hear how he fared in that strange country whither he had been forced to
+journey, like all of us, <i>alone</i>. I was very pleased then to find that
+business would not interfere with my second visit to Mrs. Eva Hatch,
+which took place two nights afterward. On this occasion "Florence" was
+one of the first to appear, and "Ted" came with her, rather weak and
+trembling on his second introduction to this mundane sphere, but no
+longer bald-headed nor under-sized. He was his full height now, about
+five feet seven; his head was covered with his black crisp hair, parted
+just as he used to wear it while on earth; in every particular he
+resembled what he used to be, even down to his clothes. I could have
+sworn I had seen that very suit of clothes; the little cut-away coat he
+always wore, with the natty tie and collar, and a dark blue velvet
+smoking cap upon his head, exactly like one I remembered being in his
+possession. "Florence" still seemed to be acting as his interpreter and
+guide. When I said to him, "Why! Ted, you look quite like your old self
+to-day," she answered, "He can't talk to you, mamma, he is weak still,
+and he is so thankful to meet you again. He wants me to tell you that he
+has been trying to communicate with you often, but he never could manage
+it in England. He will be so glad when he can talk freely to you."
+Whilst she was speaking, "Ted" kept on looking from her to me like a
+deaf and dumb animal trying to understand what was going on in a manner
+that was truly pitiful. I stooped down and kissed his forehead. The
+touch seemed to break the spell that hung over him. "<i>Forgive</i>," he
+uttered in a choked voice. "There is nothing to forgive, dear," I
+replied, "except as we all have need to forgive each other. You know how
+we all loved you, Ted, and we loved you to the last and grieved for you
+deeply. You remember the children, and how fond you were of them and
+they of you. They often speak to this day of their poor Uncle Ted."
+"Eva&mdash;Ethel," he gasped out, naming my two elder children. At this
+juncture he seemed suddenly to fail, and became so weak that "Florence"
+took him back into the cabinet again. No more spirits came for me that
+evening, but towards the close of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> "Florence" and "Ted"
+appeared again together and embraced me fondly. "Florence" said, "He's
+so happy now, mother; he says he shall rest in peace now that he knows
+that you have forgiven him. And he won't come without his hair again,"
+she added, laughing. "I hope he won't," I answered, "for he frightened
+me." And then they both kissed me "good-night," and retreated to the
+cabinet, and I looked after them longingly and wished I could go there
+too.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></h2>
+
+<p>III. <i>The Misses Berry.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>No one introduced me to the Misses Berry. I saw their advertisement in
+the public papers and went incognita to their <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, as I had done to
+those of others. The first thing that struck me about them was the
+superior class of patrons whom they drew. In the ladies' cloak room,
+where they left their heavy wraps and umbrellas, the conversation that
+took place made this sufficiently evident. Helen and Gertrude Berry were
+pretty, unaffected, lady-like girls; and their conductor, Mr. Abrow, one
+of the most courteous gentlemen I have ever met. The sisters, both
+highly mediumistic, never sat together, but on alternate nights, but the
+one who did <i>not</i> sit always took a place in the audience, in order to
+prevent suspicion attaching to her absence. Gertrude Berry had been
+lately married to a Mr. Thompson, and on account of her health gave up
+her <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, soon after I made her acquaintance She was a tall,
+finely-formed young woman, with golden hair and a beautiful complexion.
+Her sister Helen was smaller, paler and more slightly built. She had
+been engaged to be married to a gentleman who died shortly before the
+time fixed for their wedding, and his spirit, whom she called "Charley,"
+was the principal control at her <i>s&eacute;ances</i>, though he never showed
+himself. I found the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room, which was not very large, crammed
+with chairs which had all been engaged beforehand, so Mr. Abrow fetched
+one from downstairs and placed it next his own for me, which was the
+very position I should have chosen. I asked him afterwards how he dared
+admit a stranger to such close proximity, and he replied that he was a
+medium himself and knew who he could and who he could <i>not</i> trust at a
+glance. As my professional duties took me backwards and forwards to
+Boston, which was my central starting-point, sometimes giving me only a
+day's rest there, I was in the habit afterwards, when I found I should
+have "a night off," of wiring to Mr. Abrow to keep me a seat, so
+difficult was it to secure one unless it were bespoken. Altogether I sat
+five or six times with the Berry sisters, and wished I could have sat
+fifty or sixty times instead, for I never enjoyed any <i>s&eacute;ances</i> so
+<i>much</i> in my life before. The cabinet was formed of an inner room with a
+separate door, which had to undergo the process of being sealed up by a
+committee of strangers every evening. Strips of gummed paper were
+provided for them, on which they wrote their names before affixing them
+across the inside opening of the door. On the first night I inspected
+the cabinet also as a matter of principle, and gummed my paper with
+"Mrs. Richardson" written on it across the door. The cabinet contained
+only a sofa for Miss Helen Berry to recline upon. The floor was covered
+with a nailed-down carpet. The door which led into the cabinet was
+shaded by two dark curtains hung with rings upon a brass rod. The door
+of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room was situated at a right angle with that of the
+cabinet, both opening upon a square landing, and, to make "assurance
+doubly sure," the door of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room was left open, so that the
+eyes of the sitters at that end commanded a view, during the entire
+sitting, of the outside of the locked and gummed-over cabinet door. To
+make this fully understood, I append a diagram of the two rooms&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/plan.png" width="500" height="312" alt="Floor plan" /></p>
+
+<p>By the position of these doors, it will be seen how impossible it would
+have been for anybody to leave or enter the cabinet without being
+detected by the sitters, who had their faces turned towards the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+room door. The first materialization that appeared that evening was a
+bride, dressed in her bridal costume; and a gentleman, who was occupying
+a chair in the front row, and holding a white flower in his hand,
+immediately rose, went up to her, embraced her, and whispered a few
+words, then gave her the white flower, which she fastened in the bosom
+of her dress, after which he bowed slightly to the company, and, instead
+of resuming his seat, left the room. Mr. Abrow then said to me, "If you
+like, madam, you can take that seat now," and as the scene had excited
+my curiosity I accepted his offer, hoping to find some one to tell me
+the meaning of it. I found myself next to a very sweet-looking lady,
+whom I afterwards knew personally as Mrs. Seymour. "Can you tell me why
+that gentleman left so suddenly?" I asked her in a whisper. "He seldom
+stays through a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>," she replied; "he is a business man, and has
+no time to spare, but he is here every night. The lady you saw him speak
+to is his wife. She died on her wedding day, eleven years ago, and he
+has never failed to meet her on every opportunity since. He brings her a
+white flower every time he comes. She appears always first, in order
+that he may be able to return to his work." This story struck me as very
+interesting, and I always watched for this gentleman afterwards, and
+never failed to see him waiting for his bride, with the white flower in
+his hand. "Do you expect to see any friends to-night?" I said to my new
+acquaintance. "O! yes!" she replied. "I have come to see my daughter
+'Bell.' She died some years ago, and I am bringing up the two little
+children she left behind her. I never do anything for them without
+consulting their mother. Just now I have to change their nurse, and I
+have received several excellent characters of others, and I have brought
+them here this evening that 'Bell' may tell me which to write for. I
+have the pattern for the children's winter frocks, too," she continued,
+producing some squares of woolen cloths, "and I always like to let
+'Bell' choose which she likes best." This will give my readers some idea
+of how much more the American spiritualists regard their departed
+friends as still forming part of the home circle, and interested in
+their domestic affairs. "Bell" soon after made her appearance, and Mrs.
+Seymour brought her up to me. She was a young woman of about three or
+four and twenty, and looked very happy and smiling. She perused the
+servants' characters as practically as her mother might have done, but
+said she would have none of them, and Mrs. Seymour was to wait till she
+received some more. The right one had not come yet. She also looked at
+the patterns, and indicated the one she liked best. Then, as she was
+about to retire, she whispered to her mother, and Mrs. Seymour said, to
+my surprise (for it must be remembered I had not disclosed my name to
+her), "Bell tells me she knows a daughter of yours in the spirit life,
+called 'Florence.' Is that the case?" I answered I had a daughter of
+that name; and Mrs. Seymour added "'Bell' says she will be here this
+evening, that she is a very pure and very elevated spirit, and they are
+great friends." Very shortly after this, Mr. Abrow remarked, "There is a
+young girl in the cabinet now, who says that if her mother's name is
+'Mrs. Richardson,' she must have married for the third time since she
+saw her last, for she was 'Mrs. Lean' then." At this remark I laughed;
+and Mr. Abrow said, "Is she come for you, madam? Does the cap fit?" I
+was obliged to acknowledge then that I <i>had</i> given a false name in order
+to avoid recognition. But the mention of my married name attracted no
+attention to me, and was only a proof that it had not been given from
+any previous knowledge of Mr. Abrow's concerning myself. I was known in
+the United States as "Florence Marryat" only, and to this day they
+believe me to be still "Mrs. Ross-Church," that being the name under
+which my first novels were written. So I recognized "Florence" at once
+in the trick that had been played me, and had risen to approach the
+curtain, when she came <i>bounding</i> out and ran into my arms. I don't
+think I had ever seen her look so charming and girlish before. She
+looked like an embodiment of sunshine. She was dressed in a low frock
+which seemed manufactured of lace and muslin, her hair fell loose down
+her back to her knees, and her hands were full of damask roses. This was
+in December, when hot-house roses were selling for a dollar a piece in
+Boston, and she held, perhaps, twenty. Their scent was delicious, and
+she kept thrusting them under my nose, saying, "Smell my roses, mother.
+Don't you wish you had my garden? We have <i>fields</i> of them in the Summer
+Land! O! how I wish you were there." "Shan't I come soon, darling?" I
+said. "No! not yet," replied "Florence." "You have a lot of work to do
+still. But when you come, it will be all flowers for you and me." I
+asked her if she knew "Bell," and she said, "O! yes! We came together
+this evening." Then I asked her to come and speak to "Bell's" mother,
+and her manner changed at once. She became shy and timid, like a young
+girl, unused to strangers, and quite hung on my arm, as I took her up to
+Mrs. Seymour's side. When she had spoken a few words to her in a very
+low voice, she turned to me and said, "I must go now, because we have a
+great surprise for you this evening&mdash;a <i>very</i> great surprise." I told
+her I liked great surprises, when they were pleasant ones, and
+"Florence" laughed, and went away. I found that her <i>d&eacute;but</i> had created
+such a sensation amongst the sitters&mdash;it being so unusual for a
+materialized spirit to appear so strong and perfect on the first
+occasion of using a medium&mdash;that I felt compelled to give them a little
+explanation on the subject. And when I told them how I had lost her as a
+tiny infant of ten days old&mdash;how she had returned to me through various
+media in England, and given such unmistakable proofs of her
+<i>identity</i>&mdash;and how I, being a stranger in their country, and only
+landed there a few weeks, had already met her through Mrs. Williams,
+Mrs. Hatch and Miss Berry&mdash;they said it was one of the most wonderful
+and perfect instances of materialization they had ever heard of. And
+when one considers how perfect the chain is, from the time when
+"Florence" first came back to me as a child, too weak to speak, or even
+to understand where she was, to the years through which she had grown
+and became strong almost beneath my eyes, till she could "<i>bound</i>" (as I
+have narrated) into my arms like a human being, and talk as distinctly
+as (and far more sensible than) I did myself, I think my readers will
+acknowledge also, that hers is no common story, and that I have some
+reason to believe in Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Berry's cabinet spirits were quite different from the common type.
+One was, or rather had been, a dancing girl&mdash;not European, but rather
+more, I fancy, of the Asiatic or Egyptian type. Anyway she used to come
+out of the cabinet&mdash;a lithe lissom creature like a panther or a
+snake&mdash;and execute such twists and bounds and pirouettes, as would have
+made her fortune on the stage. Indeed I used to think (being always on
+the lookout for chicanery) that no <i>human</i> creature who could dance
+as she did would ever waste her talents, especially in a smart country
+like America, on an audience of spiritualists, whose only motive for
+meeting was to see their friends, and who would not pay an extra cent to
+look at a "cabinet spirit." Another one was an Indian whom they called
+"The Brave." He was also a lithe, active creature, without an ounce of
+superfluous flesh upon his body, but plenty of muscle. He appeared to
+like the ladies of the company very much, but evidently distrusted the
+men. One stout, big man who was, I fancy, a bit of a sceptic, wished to
+test the "Brave's" muscular power by feeling his biceps, and was invited
+to step in front of the circle for that purpose. He had no sooner
+approached him than the Indian seized him up in his arms and threw him
+<i>right over his head</i>. He did not hurt him, but as the gentleman got up
+again, he said, "Well! I weigh 200 pounds, and I didn't think any man in
+the room could have done that." The ladies in the circle mostly wore
+flowers in their bosom&mdash;bouquets, after the custom of American
+ladies&mdash;and they began, one and all, to detach flowers from their
+bouquets and give them to the "Brave," "to give to his squaw." He nodded
+and gabbled some unintelligible Sioux or Cherokee in reply, and went all
+round the circle on his knees. The stout man had surmised that he was
+painted, and his long, straight, black hair was a wig. When he came to
+me I said, "Brave! may I try if your hair is a wig?" He nodded and said,
+"Pull&mdash;pull!" which I did, and found that it undoubtedly grew on his
+head. Then he took my finger and drew it across his face several times
+to show he was not painted. I had no flowers to present him with, so I
+said, "Come here, Brave, and I'll give you something for your squaw,"
+and when he approached near enough I kissed him. He chuckled, and his
+eyes sparkled with mischief as he ran chatting in his native dialect
+behind the curtains. In another minute he dashed out again, and coming
+up to me ejaculated, "No&mdash;give&mdash;squaw!" and rushed back. Mr. Abrow
+laughed heartily at this incident, and so did all the sitters, the
+former declaring I had entirely captivated the "Brave." Presently the
+cabinet curtains were shaken, and after a pause they parted slowly, and
+the figure of an Indian squaw crept out. Anything more malignant and
+vicious than her look I have seldom seen. Mr. Abrow asked her <i>who</i> she
+wanted and <i>what</i> she wanted, but she would not speak. She stood there
+silent, but scowling at me from beneath the tangles of her long black
+hair. At last Mr. Abrow said to her, "If you don't want to speak to
+anyone in the circle you must go away, as you are only preventing other
+spirits from coming." The squaw backed behind the curtains again rather
+sulkily, but the next time the "Brave" appeared she came with him, and
+<i>never</i> did he come again in my presence but what his "squaw" stood at
+the curtains and watched his actions. Mrs. Abrow told me that the
+"Brave" had been in the habit of manifesting at their <i>s&eacute;ances</i> for
+years, but that they had never seen the "squaw" until that evening.
+Indeed, I don't think they were very grateful to me for having by my
+rashness eliminated this new feature in their evening's entertainment,
+for the "squaw" proved to be a very earthly and undeveloped spirit, and
+subsequently gave them some trouble, as they could not drive her away
+when they wanted to do so. Towards the close of the evening Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a spirit here now who is very anxious to show himself,
+but it is the first time he has ever attempted to fully materialize, and
+he is not at all certain of success. He tells me there is a lady in the
+circle who has newly arrived in America, and that this lady years ago
+sang a song by his dying bed in India. If she will step up to the
+cabinet now and sing that song again he will try and shew himself to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>Such of my readers as have perused "The story of John Powles" will
+recognize at once who this was. I did, of course, and I confess that as
+I rose to approach the cabinet I trembled like an aspen leaf. I had
+tried so often, and failed so often to see this dear old friend of mine,
+that to think of meeting him now was like a veritable resurrection from
+the dead. Think of it! We had parted in 1860, and this was
+1884&mdash;twenty-four years afterwards. I had been a girl when we said
+"Good-bye," and he went forth on that journey which seemed then so
+mysterious an one to me. I was a middle-aged woman now, who had passed
+through so much from which <i>he</i> had been saved, that I felt more like
+his mother than his friend. Of all my experiences this was to me really
+the most solemn and interesting. I hardly expected to see more than his
+face, but I walked up to the cabinet and commenced to sing in a very
+shaky voice the first stanza of the old song he was so fond of:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+<div class="line">"Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream,<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream;<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">Oft I breathe thy dear name to the winds passing by,<br /></div>
+<div class="line">But thy sweet voice is mute to my bosom's lone sigh.</div>
+<br />
+<div class="line">In the stillness of night when the stars mildly shine,<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">O! then oft my heart holds communion with thine,<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">For I feel thou art near, and where'er I may be,<br />
+</div>
+<div class="line">That the Spirit of Love keeps a watch over me." </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>I had scarcely reached the finish of these lines when both the curtains
+of the cabinet were drawn apart so sharply that the brass rings rattled
+on the rod, and John Powles stood before me. Not a face, nor a
+half-formed figure, nor an apparition that was afraid to pass into the
+light&mdash;but <i>John Powles himself</i>, stalwart and living, who stepped out
+briskly and took me in his arms and kissed me four or five times, as a
+long-parted brother might have done; and strange to say, I didn't feel
+the least surprised at it, but clung to him like a sister. For John
+Powles had never once kissed me during his lifetime. Although we had
+lived for four years in the closest intimacy, often under the same roof,
+we had never indulged in any familiarities. I think men and women were
+not so lax in their manners then as they are now; at anyrate, the only
+time I had ever kissed him was when he lay dead, and my husband had told
+me to do so. And yet it seemed quite natural on meeting him again to
+kiss him and cry over him. At last I ventured to say, "O, Powles! is
+this really you?" "Look at me and see for yourself," he answered. I
+looked up. It was indeed himself. He had possessed <i>very</i> blue eyes in
+earth life, good features, a florid complexion, auburn hair, and quite a
+golden beard and moustache. The eyes and hair and features were just the
+same, only his complexion was paler, and he wore no beard. "O!" I
+exclaimed, "where is your beard?" "Don't you remember I cut it off just
+before I left this world?" he said; and then I recalled the fact that he
+had done so owing to a Government order on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>And bearing on this question I may mention what seems a curious
+thing&mdash;that spirits almost invariably return to earth the first time
+<i>just as they left it</i>, as though their thoughts at the moment of
+parting clothed them on their return. This, however, was not John
+Powles' first <i>attempt</i> at materialization, although it was his first
+success, for it may be remembered he tried to show himself through Miss
+Showers, and then he <i>had</i> a beard. However, when I saw him through Miss
+Berry, he had none, nor did he resume it during my stay in America. When
+we had got over the excitement of meeting, he began to speak to me of my
+children, especially of the three who were born before his death, and of
+whom he had been very fond. He spoke of them all by name, and seemed
+quite interested in their prospects and affairs. But when I began to
+speak of other things he stopped me. "I know it all," he said, "I have
+been with you in spirit through all your trials, and I can never feel
+the slightest interest in, or affection for, those who caused them. My
+poor friend, you have indeed had your purgatory upon earth." "But tell
+me of yourself, dear Powles! Are you quite happy?" I asked him. He
+paused a moment and then replied, "Quite happy, waiting for you."
+"Surely you are not suffering still?" I said, "after all these years?"
+"My dear Florence," he answered, "it takes more than a few years to
+expiate a life of sin. But I am happier than I was, and every year the
+burden is lighter, and coming back to you will help me so much."</p>
+
+<p>As he was speaking to me the curtain opened again, and there stood my
+brother-in-law, Edward Church, not looking down-spirited and miserable,
+as he had done at Mrs. Eva Hatch's, but bright and smiling, and dressed
+in evening clothes, as also I perceived, when I had time to think of it,
+was John Powles. I didn't know which to talk to first, but kept turning
+from one to the other in a dazed manner. John Powles was telling me that
+<i>he</i> was preparing my house for me in the Summer Land, and would come to
+take me over to it when I died, when "Ted" interrupted him. "That ought
+to have been <i>my</i> work, Bluebell," he said, "only Powles had anticipated
+me." "I wish I could go back with you both at once, I am sick of this
+world," I replied. "Ted" threw his arms round me and strained me to his
+breast. "O! it is so hard to part again. How I wish I could carry you
+away in my arms to the Summer Land! I should have nothing left to wish
+for then." "You don't want to come back then, Ted?" I asked him. "<i>Want
+to come back</i>," he said with a shudder; "not for anything! Why,
+Bluebell, death is like an operation which you must inevitably undergo,
+but which you fear because you know so little about it. Well, with me
+<i>the operation's over</i>. I know the worst, and every day makes the term
+of punishment shorter. I am <i>thankful</i> I left the earth so soon." "You
+look just like your old self, Ted," I said; "the same little curls and
+scrubby little moustache." "Pull them," he answered gaily. "Don't go
+away, Bluebell, and say they were false and I was Miss Berry dressed up.
+Feel my biceps," he continued, throwing up his arm as men do, "and feel
+my heart," placing my hand above it, "feel how it is beating for my
+sister Bluebell."</p>
+
+<p>I said to John Powles, "I hardly know you in evening costume. I never
+saw you in it before" (which was true, as all our acquaintance had taken
+place in India, where the officers are never allowed to appear in
+anything but uniform, especially in the evenings). "I wish," I
+continued, "that you would come next time in uniform." "I will try," he
+replied, and then their time was up for that occasion, and they were
+obliged to go.</p>
+
+<p>A comical thing occurred on my second visit to the Berrys. Of course I
+was all eagerness to see my brother-in-law and "Powles" again, and when
+I was called up to the cabinet and saw a slim, dark, young man standing
+there, I took him at once for "Ted," and, without looking at him, was
+just about to kiss him, when he drew backwards and said, "I am not
+'Edward!' I am his friend 'Joseph,' to whom he has given permission to
+make your acquaintance." I then perceived that "Joseph" was very
+different from "Ted," taller and better looking, with a Jewish cast of
+countenance. I stammered and apologized, and felt as awkward as if I had
+nearly kissed a mortal man by mistake. "Joseph" smiled as if it were of
+very little consequence. He said he had never met "Ted" on earth, but
+they were close friends in the spirit world, and "Ted" had talked so
+much to him of me, that he had become very anxious to see me, and speak
+to me. He was a very elegant looking young man, but he did not seem to
+have very much to say for himself, and he gave me the impression that he
+had been a "masher" whilst here below, and had not quite shaken off the
+remembrance in the spirit world.</p>
+
+<p>There was one spirit who often made her appearance at these sittings and
+greatly interested me. This was a mother with her infant of a few weeks
+old. The lady was sweet and gentle looking, but it was the baby that so
+impressed me&mdash;a baby that never whined nor squalled, nor turned red in
+the face, and yet was made of neither wax nor wood, but was palpably
+living and breathing. I used always to go up to the cabinet when this
+spirit came, and ask her to let me feel the little baby. It was a tiny
+creature, with a waxen-looking face, and she always carried it enveloped
+in a full net veil, yet when I touched its hand, the little fingers
+tightened round mine in baby fashion, as it tried to convey them to its
+mouth. I had seen several spirit children materialized before, but never
+such a young infant as this. The mother told me she had passed away in
+child-birth, and the baby had gone with her. She had been a friend of
+the Misses Berry, and came to them for that reason.</p>
+
+<p>On Christmas Eve I happened to be in Boston, and disengaged, and as I
+found it was a custom of the American Spiritualists to hold meetings on
+that anniversary for the purpose of seeing their spirit friends, I
+engaged a seat for the occasion. I arrived some time before the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+commenced, and next to me was seated a gentleman, rather roughly
+dressed, who was eyeing everything about him with the greatest
+attention. Presently he turned to me and said, rather sheepishly, "Do
+you believe in this sort of thing?" "I do," I replied, "and I have
+believed in it for the last fifteen years." "Have you ever seen anybody
+whom you recognized?" he continued. "Plenty," I said. Then he edged a
+little nearer to me, and lowered his voice. "Do you know," he commenced,
+"that I have ridden on horseback forty miles through the snow to-day to
+be present at this meeting, because my old mother sent me a message that
+she would meet me here! I don't believe in it, you know. I've never been
+at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> before, and I feel as if I was making a great fool of
+myself now, but I couldn't neglect my poor old mother's message,
+whatever came of it." "Of course not," I answered, "and I hope your
+trouble will be rewarded." I had not much faith in my own words, though,
+because I had seen people disappointed again and again over their first
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>, from either the spirits of their friends being too weak to
+materialize, or from too many trying to draw power at once, and so
+neutralizing the effect on all. My bridegroom friend was all ready on
+that occasion with his white flowers in his hand and I ventured to
+address him and tell him how very beautiful I considered his wife's
+fidelity and his own. He seemed pleased at my notice, and began to talk
+quite freely about her. He told me she had returned to him before her
+body was buried, and had been with him ever since. "She is so really and
+truly <i>my wife</i>," he said, "as I received her at the altar, that I could
+no more marry again than I could if she were living in my house." When
+the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> commenced she appeared first as usual, and her husband
+brought her up to my side. "This is Miss Florence Marryat, dear," he
+said (for by this time I had laid aside my <i>incognita</i> with the Berrys).
+"You know her name, don't you?" "O! yes," she answered, as she gave me
+her hand, "I know you quite well. I used to read your books." Her face
+was covered with her bridal veil, and her husband turned it back that I
+might see her. She was a very pretty girl of perhaps twenty&mdash;quite a
+gipsy, with large dark eyes and dark curling hair, and a brown
+complexion. "She has not altered one bit since the day we were married,"
+said her husband, looking fondly at her, "whilst I have grown into an
+old man." She put up her hand and stroked his cheek. "We shall be young
+together some day," she said. Then he asked her if she was not going to
+kiss me, and she held up her face to mine like a child, and he dropped
+the veil over her again and led her away. The very next spirit that
+appeared was my rough friend's mother, and his astonishment and emotion
+at seeing her were very unmistakeable. When first he went up to the
+cabinet and saw her his head drooped, and his shoulders shook with the
+sobs he could not repress. After a while he became calmer, and talked to
+her, and then I saw him also bringing her up to me. "I must bring my
+mother to you," he said, "that you may see she has really come back to
+me." I rose, and the old lady shook hands with me. She must have been,
+at the least, seventy years old, and was a most perfect specimen of old
+age. Her face was like wax, and her hair like silver; but every wrinkle
+was distinct, and her hands were lined with blue veins. She had lost her
+teeth, and mumbled somewhat in speaking, and her son said, "She is
+afraid you will not understand what she says; but she wants you to know
+that she will be quite happy if her return will make me believe in a
+future existence." "And will it?" I asked. He looked at his mother. "I
+don't understand it," he replied. "It seems too marvellous to be true;
+but how <i>can</i> I disbelieve it, when <i>here she is</i>?" And his words were
+so much the echo of my own grounds for belief, that I quite sympathized
+with them. "John Powles," and "Ted," and "Florence," all came to see me
+that evening; and when I bid "Florence" "good-bye" she said, "Oh, it
+isn't 'good-bye' yet, mother! I'm coming again, before you go."
+Presently something that was the very farthest thing from my mind&mdash;that
+had, indeed, never entered it&mdash;happened to me. I was told that a young
+lady wanted to speak to me, and on going up to the cabinet I recognized
+a girl whom <i>I knew by sight, but had never spoken to</i>&mdash;one of a large
+family of children, living in the same terrace in London as myself, and
+who had died of malignant scarlet fever about a year before. "Mrs.
+Lean," she said, hurriedly, noting my surprise, "don't you know me? I am
+May &mdash;&mdash;." "Yes, I do recognize you, my dear child," I replied; "but
+what makes you come to me?" "Minnie and Katie are so unhappy about me,"
+she said. "They do not understand. They think I have gone away. They do
+not know what death is&mdash;that it is only like going into the next room,
+and shutting the door." "And what can I do, May?" I asked her. "Tell
+them you have seen me, Mrs. Lean. Say I am alive&mdash;more alive than they
+are; that if they sit for me, I will come to them and tell them so much
+they know nothing of now." "But where are your sisters?" I said. She
+looked puzzled. "I don't know. I can't say the place; but you will meet
+them soon, and you will tell them." "If I meet them, I certainly will
+tell them," I said; but I had not the least idea at that moment where
+the other girls might be. Four months later, however, when I was staying
+in London, Ontario, they burst unexpectedly into my hotel room, having
+driven over (I forget how many miles) to see me play. Naturally I kept
+my promise; but though they cried when "May" was alluded to, they
+evidently could not believe my story of having seen her, and so, I
+suppose, the poor little girl's wish remains ungratified. I think the
+worst purgatory in the next world must be to find how comfortably our
+friends get on without us in this. As a rule, I did not take much
+interest in the spirits that did not come for me; but there was one who
+appeared several times with the Berrys, and seemed quite like an old
+friend to me. This was "John Brown," not her Majesty's "John Brown," but
+the hero of the song&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line"> "Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line">But his soul goes touting around. <br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line">Glory! glory! Halleluia! <br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line">For his soul goes touting around."</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>When I used to hear this song sung with much shouting and some profanity
+in England, I imagined (and I fancy most people did) that it was a comic
+song in America. But it was no such thing. It was a patriotic song, and
+the motive is (however comically put) to give glory to God, that,
+<i>although</i> they may hang "John Brown" on a sour apple tree, his soul
+will yet "go touting around." So, rightly or wrongly, it was explained
+to me. "John Brown" is a patriotic hero in America, and when he
+appeared, the whole room crowded round to see him. He was a short man,
+with a <i>singularly</i> benevolent countenance, iron grey hair, mutton-chop
+whiskers, and deep china blue eyes. A kind of man, as he appeared to me,
+made for deeds of love rather than heroism, but from all accounts he was
+both kind and heroic. A gentleman present on Christmas eve pushed
+forward eagerly to see the materialization, and called out, "Aye! that's
+him&mdash;that's my old friend&mdash;that's 'John Brown'&mdash;the best man that ever
+trod this earth." Before this evening's <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was concluded Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a little lady in the cabinet at present who announces
+herself as a very high personage. She says she is the 'Princess
+Gertrude.'" "<i>What</i> did you say, Mr. Abrow?" I exclaimed, unable to
+believe my own ears. "'The Princess Gertie,' mother," said "Florence,"
+popping her head out of the curtains. "You've met her before in England,
+you know." I went up to the cabinet, the curtains divided, there stood
+my daughter "Florence" as usual, but holding in front of her a little
+child of about seven years old. I knelt down before this spirit of my
+own creation. She was a fragile-looking little creature, very fair and
+pale, with large grey eyes and brown hair lying over her forehead. She
+looked like a lily with her little white hands folded meekly in front of
+her. "Are you my little Gertie, darling?" I said. "I am the 'Princess
+Gertie,'" she replied, "and 'Florence' says you are my mother." "And are
+you glad to see me, Gertie?" I asked. She looked up at her sister, who
+immediately prompted her. "Say, 'yes, mother,' Gertie." "Yes! mother,"
+repeated the little one, like a parrot. "Will you come to me, darling?"
+I said. "May I take you in my arms?" "Not this evening, mother,"
+whispered 'Florence,' "you couldn't. She is attached to me. We are tied
+together. You couldn't separate us. Next time, perhaps, the 'Princess'
+will be stronger, and able to talk more. I will take her back now." "But
+where is 'Yonnie'?" I asked, and "Florence" laughed. "Couldn't manage
+two of them at once," she said. "'Yonnie' shall come another day," and I
+returned to my seat, more mystified than usual.</p>
+
+<p>I alluded to the "Princess Gertie" in my account of the mediumship of
+Bessie Fitzgerald, and said that my allusion would find its
+signification further on. At that time I had hardly believed it could be
+true that the infants who had been born prematurely and never breathed
+in this world should be living, sentient spirits to meet me in the next,
+and half thought some grown spirit must be tricking me for its own
+pleasure. But here, in this strange land, where my blighted babies had
+never been mentioned or thought of, to meet the "Princess Gertie" here,
+calling herself by her own name, and brought by her sister "Florence,"
+set the matter beyond a doubt. It recalled to my mind how once, long
+before, when "Aim&eacute;e" (Mr. Arthur Colman's guide), on being questioned as
+to her occupation in the spirit spheres, had said she was "a little
+nurse maid," and that "Florence" was one too, my daughter had added,
+"Yes! I'm mamma's nurse maid. I have enough to do to look after her
+babies. She just looked at me, and 'tossed' me back into the spirit
+world, and she's been 'tossing' babies after me ever since."</p>
+
+<p>I had struck up a pleasant acquaintanceship with Mrs. Seymour, "Bell's"
+mother, by that time, and when I went back to my seat and told her what
+had occurred, she said to me, "I wish you would share the expenses of a
+private <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with me here. We can have one all to ourselves for ten
+dollars (two pounds), and it would be so charming to have an afternoon
+quite alone with our children and friends." I agreed readily, and we
+made arrangements with Mr. Abrow before we left that evening, to have a
+private sitting on the afternoon following Christmas Day, when no one
+was to be admitted except our two selves. When we met there the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+room was lighted with gas as for the evening, but we preferred to close
+the door. Helen Berry was the medium, and Mr. Abrow only sat with us.
+The rows of chairs looked very empty without any sitters, but we
+established ourselves on those which faced the cabinet in the front row.
+The first thing which happened was the advent of the "Squaw," looking as
+malignant and vicious as ever, who crept in in her dirty blanket, with
+her black hair hanging over her face, and deliberately took a seat at
+the further end of the room. Mr. Abrow was unmistakably annoyed at the
+occurrence. He particularly disliked the influence of this spirit, which
+he considered had a bad effect on the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>. He first asked her why
+she had come, and told her her "Brave" was not coming, and to go back to
+him. Then he tried severity, and ordered her to leave the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, but
+it was all in vain. She kept her seat with persistent obstinacy, and
+showed no signs of "budging." I thought I would try what kindness would
+do for her, and approached her with that intention, but she looked so
+fierce and threatening, that Mr. Abrow begged me not to go near her, for
+fear she should do me some harm. So I left her alone, and she kept her
+seat through the whole of the <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, evidently with an eye upon me,
+and distrusting my behavior when removed from the criticism of the
+public. Her presence, however, seemed to make no difference to our
+spirit friends. They trooped out of the cabinet one after another, until
+we had Mrs. Seymour's brother and her daughter "Bell," who brought
+little "Jimmie" (a little son who had gone home before herself) with
+her, and "Florence," "Ted," and "John Powles," all so happy and strong
+and talkative, that I told Mrs. Seymour we only wanted a tea-table to
+think we were holding an "At Home." Last, but not least (at all events
+in her own estimation) came the "Princess Gertie." Mr. Abrow tried to
+make friends with her, but she repulsed his advances vehemently. "I
+don't like you, Mr. Mans," she kept on saying, "you's nasty. I don't
+like any mans. They's <i>all</i> nasty." When I told her she was very rude,
+and Mr. Abrow was a very kind gentleman and loved little children, she
+still persisted she wouldn't speak "to no mans." She came quite alone
+on this occasion, and I took her in my arms and carried her across to
+Mrs. Seymour. She was a feather weight. I felt as if I had nothing in my
+arms. I said to Mrs. Seymour, "Please tell me what this child is like. I
+am so afraid of my senses deceiving me that I cannot trust myself." Mrs.
+Seymour looked at her and answered, "She has a broad forehead, with dark
+brown hair cut across it, and falling straight to her shoulders on
+either side. Her eyes are a greyish blue, large and heavy lidded, her
+nose is short, and her mouth decided for such a child."</p>
+
+<p>This testimony, given by a stranger, of the apparition of a child that
+had never lived, was an exact description (of course in embryo) of her
+father, Colonel Lean, who had never set foot in America. Perhaps this is
+as good a proof of identity as I have given yet. Our private <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+lasted for two hours, and although the different spirits kept on
+entering the cabinet at intervals to gain more power, they were all with
+us on and off during the entire time. The last pleasant thing I saw was
+my dear "Florence" making the "Princess" kiss her hand in farewell to
+me, and the only unpleasant one, the sight of the sulky "Squaw" creeping
+in after them with the evident conviction that her afternoon had been
+wasted.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></h2>
+
+<p>IV. <i>The Doctor.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>I wonder if it has struck any of my readers as strange that, during all
+these manifestations in England and America, I had never seen the form,
+nor heard the voice, of my late father, Captain Marryat. Surely if these
+various media lived by trickery and falsehood, and wished successfully
+to deceive me, <i>some</i> of them would have thought of trying to represent
+a man so well known, and whose appearance was so familiar. Other
+celebrated men and women have come back and been recognized from their
+portraits only, but, though I have sat at numbers of <i>s&eacute;ances</i> given
+<i>for me</i> alone, and at which I have been the principal person, my father
+has never reappeared at any. Especially, if these manifestations are all
+fraud, might this have been expected in America. Captain Marryat's name
+is still "a household word" amongst the Americans, and his works largely
+read and appreciated, and wherever I appeared amongst them I was
+cordially welcomed on that account. When once I had acknowledged my
+identity and my views on Spiritualism, every medium in Boston and New
+York had ample time to get up an imitation of my father for my benefit
+had they desired to do so. But never has he appeared to me; never have I
+been told that he was present. Twice only in the whole course of my
+experience have I received the slightest sign from him, and on those
+occasions he sent me a message&mdash;once through Mr. Fletcher (as I have
+related), and once through his grandson and my son, Frank Marryat. That
+time he told me he should never appear to me and I need never expect
+him. But since the American media knew nothing of this strictly private
+communication, and I had seen, before I parted with them, <i>seventeen</i> of
+my friends and relations, none of whom (except "Florence," "Powles," and
+"Emily,") I had ever seen in England, it is at the least strange,
+considering his popularity (and granted their chicanery) that Captain
+Marryat was not amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I became known at the Berry's <i>s&eacute;ances</i> several people
+introduced themselves to me, and amongst others Mrs. Isabella Beecher
+Hooker, the sister of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.
+She was delighted to find me so interested in Spiritualism, and anxious
+I should sit with a friend of hers, a great medium whose name became so
+rubbed out in my pencil notes, that I am not sure if it was Doctor
+Carter, or Carteret, and therefore I shall speak of him here as simply
+"the doctor." The doctor was bound to start for Washington the following
+afternoon, so Mrs. Hooker asked me to breakfast with her the next
+morning, by which time she would have found out if he could spare us an
+hour before he set out on his journey. When I arrived at her house I
+heard that he had very obligingly offered to give me a complimentary
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> at eleven o'clock, so, as soon as we had finished breakfast, we
+set out for his abode. I found the doctor was quite a young man, and
+professed himself perfectly ignorant on the subject of Spiritualism. He
+said to me, "I don't know and I don't profess to know <i>what</i> or <i>who</i> it
+is that appears to my sitters whilst I am asleep. I know nothing of what
+goes on, except from hearsay. I don't know whether the forms that appear
+are spirits, or transformations, or materializations. You must judge of
+that for yourself. There is one peculiarity in my <i>s&eacute;ances</i>. They take
+place in utter darkness. When the apparitions (or whatever you choose to
+call them) appear, they must bring their own lights or you won't see
+them, I have no conductor to my <i>s&eacute;ances</i>. If whatever comes can't
+announce itself it must remain unknown. But I think you will find that,
+as a rule, they can shift for themselves. This is my <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke he led us into an unfurnished bedroom, I say bedroom,
+because it was provided with the dressing closet fitted with pegs, usual
+to all bedrooms in America. This closet the doctor used as his cabinet.
+The door was left open, and there was no curtain hung before it. The
+darkness he sat in rendered that unnecessary. The bedroom was darkened
+by two frames, covered with black American cloth, which fitted into the
+windows. The doctor, having locked the bedroom door, delivered the key
+to me. He then requested us to go and sit for a few minutes in the
+cabinet to throw our influence about it. As we did so we naturally
+examined it. It was only a large cupboard. It had no window and no door,
+except that which led into the room, and no furniture except a
+cane-bottomed chair. When we returned to the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room, the doctor
+saw us comfortably established on two armchairs before he put up the
+black frames to exclude the light. The room was then pitch dark, and the
+doctor had to grope his way to his cabinet. Mrs. Hooker and I sat for
+some minutes in silent expectation. Then we heard the voice of a
+negress, singing "darkey" songs, and my friend told me it was that of
+"Rosa," the doctor's control. Presently "Rosa" was heard to be
+expostulating with, or encouraging some one, and faint lights, like
+sparks from a fire, could be seen flitting about the open door of the
+cabinet. Then the lights seemed to congregate together, and cluster
+about a tall form, draped in some misty material, standing just outside
+the cabinet. "Can't you tell us who you are?" asked Mrs. Hooker. "You
+must tell your name, you know," interposed "Rosa," whereupon a low voice
+said, "I am Janet E. Powles."</p>
+
+<p>Now this was an extraordinary coincidence. I had seen Mrs. Powles, the
+mother of my friend "John Powles," only once&mdash;when she travelled from
+Liverpool to London to meet me on my return from India, and hear all the
+particulars of her son's death. But she had continued to correspond with
+me, and show me kindness till the day of her own death, and as she had a
+daughter of the same name, she always signed herself "Janet <i>E.</i>
+Powles." Even had I expected to see the old lady, and published the fact
+in the Boston papers, that initial <i>E</i> would have settled the question
+of her identity in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Powles," I exclaimed, "how good of you to come and see me."
+"Johnny has helped me to come," she replied. "He is so happy at having
+met you again. He has been longing for it for so many years, and I have
+come to thank you for making him happy." (Here was another coincidence.
+"John Powles" was never called anything but "Powles" by my husband and
+myself. But his mother had retained the childish name of "Johnny," and I
+could remember how it used to vex him when she used it in her letters to
+him. He would say to me, "If she would only call me 'John' or 'Jack,' or
+anything but 'Johnny.'") I replied, "I may not leave my seat to go to
+you. Will you not come to me?" For the doctor had requested us not to
+leave our seats, but to insist on the spirits approaching us. "Mrs.
+Powles" said, "I cannot come out further into the room to-day. I am too
+weak. But you shall see me." The lights then appeared to travel about
+her face and dress till they became stationary, and she was completely
+revealed to view under the semblance of her earthly likeness. She smiled
+and said, "We were all at the Opera House on Thursday night, and
+rejoiced at your success. 'Johnny' was so proud of you. Many of your
+friends were there beside ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>I then saw that, unlike the spirits at Miss Berry's, the form of "Mrs.
+Powles" was draped in a kind of filmy white, <i>over</i> a dark dress. All
+the spirits that appeared with the doctor were so clothed, and I
+wondered if the filmy substance had anything to do with the lights,
+which looked like electricity. An incident which occurred further on
+seemed to confirm my idea. When "Mrs. Powles" had gone, which we guessed
+by the extinguishing of the lights, the handsome face and form of "Harry
+Montagu" appeared. I had known him well in England, before he took his
+fatal journey to America, and could never be mistaken in his sweet smile
+and fascinating manner. He did not come further than the door, either,
+but he was standing within twelve or fourteen feet of us for all that.
+He only said, "Good-luck to you. We can't lose an interest in the old
+profession, you know, any more than in the old people." "I wish you'd
+come and help me, Harry," I answered. "Oh, I do!" he said, brightly;
+"several of us do. We are all links of the same chain. Half the
+inspiration in the world comes from those who have gone before. But I
+must go! I'm getting crowded out. Here's Ada waiting to see you.
+Good-bye!" And as his light went out, the sweet face of Adelaide Neilson
+appeared in his stead. She said, "You wept when you heard of my death;
+and yet you never knew me. How was that?" "Did I weep?" I answered, half
+forgetting; "if so, it must have been because I thought it so sad that a
+woman so young, and beautiful, and gifted as you were, should leave the
+world so soon." "Oh no! not sad," she answered, brightly; "glorious!
+glorious! I would not be back again for worlds." "Have you ever seen
+your grave?" I asked her. She shook her head. "What are <i>graves</i> to us?
+Only cupboards, where you keep our cast-off clothes." "You don't ask me
+what the world says about you, now," I said to her. "And I don't care,"
+she answered. "Don't <i>you</i> forget me! Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>She was succeeded by a spirit who called herself "Charlotte Cushman,"
+and who spoke to me kindly about my professional life. Mrs. Hooker told
+me that, to the best of her knowledge, none of these three spirits had
+ever appeared under the doctor's mediumship before. But now came out
+"Florence," dancing into the room&mdash;<i>literally dancing</i>, holding out in
+both hands the skirt of a dress, which looked as if it were made of the
+finest muslin or lace, and up and down which fireflys were darting with
+marvellous rapidity. She looked as if clothed in electricity, and
+infinitely well pleased with herself. "Look!" she exclaimed; "look at my
+dress! isn't it lovely? Look at the fire! The more I shake it, the more
+fire comes! Oh, mother! if you could only have a dress like this for the
+stage, what a <i>sensation</i> you would make!" And she shook her skirts
+about, till the fire seemed to set a light to every part of her drapery,
+and she looked as if she were in flames. I observed, "I never knew you
+to take so much interest in your dress before, darling." "Oh, it isn't
+the dress," she replied; "it's the <i>fire</i>!" And she really appeared as
+charmed with the novel experience as a child with a new toy.</p>
+
+<p>As she left us, a dark figure advanced into the room, and ejaculated,
+"Ma! ma!" I recognized at once the peculiar intonation and mode of
+address of my stepson, Francis Lean, with whom, since he had announced
+his own death to me, I had had no communication, except through trance
+mediumship. "Is that you, my poor boy," I said, "come closer to me. You
+are not afraid of me, are you?" "O, no! Ma! of course not, only I was at
+the Opera House, you know, with the others, and that piece you recited,
+Ma&mdash;you know the one&mdash;it's all true, Ma&mdash;and I don't want you to go back
+to England. Stay here, Ma&mdash;stay here!" I knew perfectly well to what the
+lad alluded, but I would not enter upon it before a stranger. So I only
+said, "You forget my children, Francis&mdash;what would they say if I never
+went home again." This seemed to puzzle him, but after a while he
+answered, "Then go to <i>them</i>, Ma; go to <i>them</i>." All this time he had
+been talking in the dark, and I only knew him by the sound of his voice.
+I said, "Are you not going to show yourself to me, Francis. It is such a
+long time since we met." "Never since you saw me at the docks. That was
+<i>me</i>, Ma, and at Brighton, too, only you didn't half believe it till you
+heard I was gone." "Tell me the truth of the accident, Francis," I asked
+him. "Was there foul play?" "No," he replied, "but we got quarrelling
+about <i>her</i> you know, and fighting, and that's how the boat upset. It
+was <i>my</i> fault, Ma, as much as anybody else's."</p>
+
+<p>"How was it your body was never found?" "It got dragged down in an
+undercurrent, Ma. It was out at Cape Horn before they offered a reward
+for it." Then he began to light up, and as soon as the figure was
+illuminated I saw that the boy was dressed in "jumpers" and "jersey" of
+dark woollen material, such as they wear in the merchant service in hot
+climates, but over it all&mdash;his head and shoulders included&mdash;was wound a
+quantity of flimsy white material I have before mentioned. "I can't bear
+this stuff. It makes me look like a girl," said "Francis," and with his
+hands he tore it off. Simultaneously the illumination ceased, and he was
+gone. I called him by name several times, but no sound came out of the
+darkness. It seemed as though the veiling which he disliked preserved
+his materialization, and that, with its protection removed, he had
+dissolved again.</p>
+
+<p>When another dark figure came out of the cabinet, and approaching me,
+knelt at my feet, I supposed it to be "Francis" come back again, and
+laying my hand on the bent head, I asked, "Is this you again, dear?" A
+strange voice answered, with the words, "Forgive! forgive!" "<i>Forgive!</i>"
+I repeated, "What have I to forgive?" "The attempt to murder your
+husband in 1856. Arthur Yelverton Brooking has forgiven. He is here with
+me now. Will you forgive too?" "Certainly," I replied, "I have forgiven
+long ago. You expiated your sin upon the gallows. You could do no more."</p>
+
+<p>The figure sprung into a standing position, and lit up from head to
+foot, when I saw the two men standing together, Arthur Yelverton
+Brooking and the Madras sepoy who had murdered him. I never saw anything
+more brilliant than the appearance of the sepoy. He was dressed
+completely in white, in the native costume, with a white "puggree" or
+turban on his head. But his "puggree" was flashing with jewels&mdash;strings
+of them were hung round his neck&mdash;and his sash held a magnificent
+jewelled dagger. You must please to remember that I was not alone, but
+that this sight was beheld by Mrs. Hooker as well as myself (to whom it
+was as unexpected as to her), and that I know she would testify to it
+to-day. And now to explain the reason of these unlooked-for apparitions.</p>
+
+<p>In 1856 my husband, then Lieutenant Ross-Church, was Adjutant of the
+12th Madras Native Infantry, and Arthur Yelverton Brooking, who had for
+some time done duty with the 12th, was adjutant of another native corps,
+both of which were stationed at Madras. Lieutenant Church was not a
+favorite with his men, by whom he was considered a martinet, and one day
+when there had been a review on the island at Madras, and the two
+adjutants were riding home together, a sepoy of the 12th fired at
+Lieutenant Church's back with the intent to kill him, but unfortunately
+the bullet struck Lieutenant Brooking instead, who, after lingering for
+twelve hours, died, leaving a young wife and a baby behind him. For this
+offence the sepoy was tried and hung, and on his trial the whole truth
+of course came out. This then was the reason that the spirits of the
+murdered and the murderer came like friends, because the injury had
+never been really intended for Brooking.</p>
+
+<p>When I said that I had forgiven, the sepoy became (as I have told) a
+blaze of light, and then knelt again and kissed the hem of my dress. As
+he knelt there he became covered, or heaped over, with a mass of the
+same filmy drapery as enveloped "Francis," and when he rose again he was
+standing in a cloud. He gathered an end of it, and laying it on my head
+he wound me and himself round and round with it, until we were bound up
+in a kind of cocoon. Mrs. Hooker, who watched the whole proceeding, told
+me afterwards that she had never seen anything like it before&mdash;that she
+could distinctly see the dark face and the white face close together all
+the time beneath the drapery, and that I was as brightly illuminated as
+the spirit. Of this I was not aware myself, but <i>his</i> brightness almost
+dazzled me.</p>
+
+<p>Let me observe also that I have been in the East Indies, and within a
+few yards' length of sepoys, and that I am sure I could never have been
+wrapt in the same cloth with a mortal one without having been made
+painfully aware of it in more ways than one. The spirit did not <i>unwind</i>
+me again, although the winding process had taken him some time. He
+whisked off the wrapping with one pull, and I stood alone once more. I
+asked him by what name I should call him, and he said, "The Spirit of
+Light." He then expressed a wish to magnetize something I wore, so as to
+be the better able to approach me. I gave him a brooch containing "John
+Powles'" hair, which his mother had given me after his death, and he
+carried it back into the cabinet with him. It was a valuable brooch of
+onyx and pearls, and I was hoping my eastern friend would not carry it
+<i>too</i> far, when I found it had been replaced and fastened at my throat
+without my being aware of the circumstance. "Arthur Yelverton Brooking"
+had disappeared before this, and neither of them came back again. These
+were not all the spirits that came under the doctor's mediumship during
+that <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, but only those whom I had known and recognized. Several
+of Mrs. Hooker's friends appeared and some of the doctor's controls, but
+as I have said before, they could not help my narrative, and so I omit
+to describe them. The <i>s&eacute;ance</i> lasted altogether two hours, and I was
+very grateful to the doctor for giving me the opportunity to study an
+entirely new phase of the science to me.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></h2>
+
+<p>V. <i>Mrs. Fay.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>There was a young woman called "Annie Eva Fay," who came over from
+America to London some years ago, and appeared at the Hanover Square
+Rooms, in an exhibition after the manner of the Davenport Brothers and
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook. She must not be confounded with the Mrs. Fay
+who forms the subject of this chapter, because they had nothing to do
+with one another. Some one in Boston advised me <i>not</i> to go and sit at
+one of this Mrs. Fay's public <i>s&eacute;ances</i>. They were described to me as
+being too physical and unrefined; that the influences were of a low
+order, and the audiences matched them. However, when I am studying a
+matter, I like to see everything I can and hear everything I can
+concerning it, and to form my own opinion independent of that of anybody
+else. So I walked off by myself one night to Mrs. Fay's address, and sat
+down in a quiet corner, watching everything that occurred. The circle
+certainly numbered some members of a humble class, but I conclude we
+should see that everywhere if the fees were lower. Media, like other
+professional people, fix their charges according to the quarter of the
+city in which they live. But every member was silent and respectful, and
+evidently a believer.</p>
+
+<p>One young man, in deep mourning, with a little girl also in black, of
+about five or six years old, attracted my attention at once, from his
+sorrowful and abstracted manner. He had evidently come there, I thought,
+in the hope of seeing some one whom he had lost. Mrs. Fay (as she passed
+through the room to her cabinet) appeared a very quiet, simple-looking
+little woman to me, without any loudness or vulgarity about her. Her
+cabinet was composed of two curtains only, made of some white material,
+and hung on uprights at one angle, in a corner of the room, the most
+transparent contrivance possible. Anything like a bustle or confusion
+inside it, such as would be occasioned by dressing or "making up,"
+would have been apparent at once to the audience outside, who were
+sitting by the light of an ordinary gas-burner and globe. Yet Mrs. Fay
+had not been seated there above a few minutes, when there ran out into
+the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room two of the most extraordinary materializations I had
+ever seen, and both of them about as opposite to Mrs. Fay in appearance
+as any creatures could be.</p>
+
+<p>One was an Irish charwoman or apple-woman (she might have been either)
+with a brown, wrinkled face, a broken nose, tangled grey hair, a crushed
+bonnet, general dirt and disorder, and a tongue that could talk broad
+Irish, and call "a spade a spade" at one and the same time. "Biddy," as
+she was named, was accompanied by a street newspaper boy&mdash;one of those
+urchins who run after carriages and turn Catherine-wheels in the mud,
+and who talked "gutter-slang" in a style that was utterly unintelligible
+to the decent portion of the sitters. These two went on in a manner that
+was undoubtedly funny, but not at all edifying and calculated to drive
+any enquirer into Spiritualism out of the room, under the impression
+that they were evil spirits bent on our destruction. That either of them
+was represented by Mrs. Fay was out of the question. In the first place,
+she would, in that instance, have been so clever an actress and mimic,
+that she would have made her fortune on the stage&mdash;added to which the
+boy "Teddy" was much too small for her, and "Biddy" was much too large.
+Besides, no actress, however experienced, could have "made up" in the
+time. I was quite satisfied, therefore, that neither of them was the
+medium, even if I could not have seen her figure the while, through the
+thin curtains, sitting in her chair. <i>Why</i> such low, physical
+manifestations are permitted I am unable to say. It was no wonder they
+had shocked the sensibility of my friend. I felt half inclined myself
+when they appeared to get up and run away. However, I was very glad
+afterwards that I did not. They disappeared after a while, and were
+succeeded by a much pleasanter person, a cabinet spirit called "Gipsy,"
+who looked as if she might have belonged to one of the gipsy tribes when
+on earth, she was so brown and arch and lively. Presently the young man
+in black was called up, and I saw him talking to a female spirit very
+earnestly. After a while he took her hand and led her outside the
+curtain, and called the little girl whom he had left on his seat by her
+name. The child looked up, screamed "Mamma! mamma!" and flew into the
+arms of the spirit, who knelt down and kissed her, and we could hear the
+child sobbing and saying, "Oh! mamma, why did you go away?&mdash;why did you
+go away?" It was a very affecting scene&mdash;at least it seemed so to me.
+The instant recognition by the little girl, and her perfect
+unconsciousness but that her mother had returned <i>in propria persona</i>,
+would have been more convincing proof of the genuineness of Spiritualism
+to a sceptic, than fifty miracles of greater importance. When the spirit
+mother had to leave again the child's agony at parting was very
+apparent. "Take me with you," she kept on saying, and her father had
+actually to carry her back to her seat. When they got there they both
+wept in unison. Afterwards he said to me in an apologetic sort of
+way&mdash;he was sitting next to me&mdash;"It is the first time, you see, that
+Mary has seen her poor mother, but I wanted to have her testimony to her
+identity, and I think she gave it pretty plainly, poor child! She'll
+never be content to let me come alone now." I said, "I think it is a
+pity you brought her so young," and so I did.</p>
+
+<p>"Florence" did not appear (she told me afterwards the atmosphere was so
+"rough" that she could not), and I began to think that no one would come
+for me, when a common seaman, dressed in ordinary sailor's clothes, ran
+out of the cabinet and began dancing a hornpipe in front of me. He
+danced it capitally too, and with any amount of vigorous snapping his
+fingers to mark the time, and when he had finished he "made a leg," as
+sailors call it, and stood before me. "Have you come for me, my friend?"
+I enquired. "Not exactly," he answered, "but I came with the Cap'en. I
+came to pave the way for him. The Cap'en will be here directly. We was
+in the <i>Avenger</i> together." (Now all the world knows that my eldest
+brother, Frederick Marryat, was drowned in the wreck of the <i>Avenger</i> in
+1847; but as I was a little child at the time, and had no remembrance of
+him, I had never dreamt of seeing him again. He was a first lieutenant
+when he died, so I do not know why the seaman gave him brevet rank, but
+I repeat his words as he said them.) After a minute or two I was called
+up to the cabinet, and saw my brother Frederick (whom I recognized from
+his likeness) standing there dressed in naval uniform, but looking very
+stiff and unnatural. He smiled when he saw me, but did not attempt to
+kiss me. I said, "Why! Fred! is it really you? I thought you would have
+forgotten all about me." He replied, "Forgotten little Flo? Why should
+I? Do you think I have never seen you since that time, nor heard
+anything about you? I know everything&mdash;everything!" "You must know,
+then, that I have not spent a very happy life," I said. "Never mind," he
+answered, "you needed it. It has done you good!" But all he said was
+without any life in it, as if he spoke mechanically&mdash;perhaps because it
+was the first time he had materialized.</p>
+
+<p>I had said "Good-bye" to him, and dropped the curtain, when I heard my
+name called twice, "Flo! Flo!" and turned to receive my sister "Emily"
+in my arms. She looked like herself exactly, but she had only time to
+kiss me and gasp out, "So glad, so happy to meet again," when she
+appeared to faint. Her eyes closed, her head fell back on my shoulder,
+and before I had time to realize what was going to happen, she had
+passed <i>through</i> the arm that supported her, and sunk down <i>through</i> the
+floor. The sensation of her weight was still making my arm tingle, but
+"Emily" was gone&mdash;<i>clean gone</i>. I was very much disappointed. I had
+longed to see this sister again, and speak to her confidentially; but
+whether it was something antagonistic in the influence of this <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+room ("Florence" said afterwards that it <i>was</i>), or there was some other
+cause for it, I know not, but most certainly my friends did not seem to
+flourish there.</p>
+
+<p>I had another horrible disappointment before I left. A voice from inside
+the cabinet called out, "Here are two babies who want the lady sitting
+under the picture." Now, there was only one picture hanging in the room,
+and I was sitting under it. I looked eagerly towards the cabinet, and
+saw issue from it the "Princess Gertie" leading a little toddler with a
+flaxen poll and bare feet, and no clothing but a kind of white chemise.
+This was "Joan," the "Yonnie" I had so often asked to see, and I rose in
+the greatest expectation to receive the little pair. Just as they gained
+the centre of the room, however, taking very short and careful steps,
+like babies first set on their feet, the cabinet spirit "Gipsy"
+<i>bounced</i> out of the curtains, and saying decidedly, "Here! we don't
+want any children about," she placed her hand on the heads of my little
+ones, and <i>pressed them down</i> through the floor. They seemed to crumble
+to pieces before my eyes, and their place knew them no more. I couldn't
+help feeling angry. I exclaimed, "O! what did you do that for? Those
+were my babies, and I have been longing to see them so." "I can't help
+it," replied "Gipsy," "but this isn't a <i>s&eacute;ance</i> for children." I was so
+vexed that I took no more interest in the proceedings. A great number of
+forms appeared, thirty or forty in all, but by the time I returned to my
+hotel and began to jot down my notes, I could hardly remember what they
+were. I had been dreaming all the time of how much I should have liked
+to hold that little flaxen-haired "Yonnie" in my arms.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></h2>
+
+<p>VI. <i>Virginia Roberts.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>When I returned to New York, it was under exceptional circumstances. I
+had taken cold whilst travelling in the Western States, had had a severe
+attack of bronchitis and pneumonia at Chicago, was compelled to
+relinquish my business, and as soon as I was well enough to travel, was
+ordered back to New York to recuperate my health. Here I took up my
+abode in the Victoria Hotel, where a lady, whose acquaintance I had made
+on my former visit to the city, was living. As I have no permission to
+publish this lady's name, I must call her Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;. She had been a
+Spiritualist for some time before I knew her, and she much interested me
+by showing me an entry in her diary, made <i>four years</i> previous to my
+arrival in America. It was an account of the utterances of a Mrs.
+Philips, a clairvoyant then resident in New York, during which she had
+prophesied my arrival in the city, described my personal appearance,
+profession, and general surroundings perfectly, and foretold my
+acquaintanceship with Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;. The prophecy ended with words to the
+effect that our meeting would be followed by certain effects that would
+influence her future life, and that on the 17th of March, 1885, would
+commence a new era in her existence. It was at the beginning of March
+that we first lived under the same roof. As soon as Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; found
+that I was likely to have some weeks of leisure, she became very anxious
+that we should visit the New York media together; for although she had
+so long been a believer in Spiritualism, she had not (owing to family
+opposition) met with much sympathy on the subject, or had the
+opportunity of much investigation. So we determined, as soon as I was
+well enough to go out in the evening, that we would attend some
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i>. As it happened, when that time came, we found the medium most
+accessible to be Miss Virginia Roberts, of whom neither of us knew
+anything but what we had learned from the public papers. However, it
+was necessary that I should be exposed as little as possible to the
+night air, and so we fixed, by chance as it were, to visit Miss Roberts
+first. We found her living with her mother and brother in a small house
+in one of the back streets of the city. She was a young girl of sixteen,
+very reserved and rather timid-looking, who had to be drawn out before
+she could be made to talk. She had only commenced sitting a few months
+before, and that because her brother (who was also a medium) had had an
+illness and been obliged to give up his <i>s&eacute;ances</i> for a while. The
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> room was very small, the manifestations taking place almost in
+the midst of the circle, and the cabinet (so-called) was the flimsiest
+contrivance I had ever seen. Four uprights of iron, not thicker than the
+rod of a muslin blind, with cross-bars of the same, on which were hung
+thin curtains of lilac print, formed the construction of this cabinet,
+which shook and swayed about each time a form left or entered it. A
+harmonium for accompanying the voices, and a few chairs for the
+audience, was all the furniture the room contained. The first evening we
+went to see Miss Roberts there were only two or three sitters beside
+ourselves. The medium seemed to be pretty nearly unknown, and I
+resolved, as I usually do in such cases, not to expect anything, for
+fear I should be disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;, on the contrary, was all expectation and excitement. If she
+had ever sat for materializations, it had been long before, and the idea
+was like a new one to her. After two or three forms had appeared, of no
+interest to us, a gentleman in full evening dress walked suddenly out of
+the cabinet, and said, "Kate," which was the name of Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;. He was
+a stout, well-formed man, of an imposing presence, with dark hair and
+eyes, and he wore a solitaire of diamonds of unusual brilliancy in his
+shirt front. I had no idea who he was; but Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; recognized him at
+once as an old lover who had died whilst under a misunderstanding with
+her, and she was powerfully affected&mdash;more, she was terribly frightened.
+It seems that she wore at her throat a brooch which he had given her;
+but every time he approached her with the view of touching it, she
+shrieked so loudly, and threw herself into such a state of nervous
+agitation, that I thought she would have to return home again. However,
+on her being accommodated with a chair in the last row so that she
+might have the other sitters between her and the materialized spirits,
+she managed to calm herself. The only friend who appeared for me that
+evening was "John Powles;" and, to my surprise and pleasure, he appeared
+in the old uniform of the 12th Madras Native Infantry. This corps wore
+facings of fawn, with buttons bearing the word "Ava," encircled by a
+wreath of laurel. The mess jackets were lined with wadded fawn silk, and
+the waistcoats were trimmed with three lines of narrow gold braid. Their
+"karkee," or undress uniform, established in 1859, consisted of a tunic
+and trousers of a sad green cloth, with the regimental buttons and a
+crimson silk sash. The marching dress of all officers in the Indian
+service is made of white drill, with a cap cover of the same material.
+Their forage cloak is of dark blue cloth, and hangs to their heels.
+Their forage cap has a broad square peak to shelter the face and eyes. I
+mention these details for the benefit of those who are not acquainted
+with the general dress of the Indian army, and to show how difficult it
+would have been for Virginia Roberts, or any other medium, to have
+procured them, even had she known the private wish expressed by me to
+"John Powles" in Boston, that he would try and come to me in uniform. On
+this first occasion of his appearing so, he wore the usual everyday
+coat, buttoned up to his chin, and he made me examine the buttons to see
+that they bore the crest and motto of the regiment. And I may say here,
+that before I left New York he appeared to me in every one of the
+various dresses I have described above, and became quite a marked figure
+in the city.</p>
+
+<p>When it was made known through the papers that an old friend of Florence
+Marryat had appeared through the mediumship of Virginia Roberts, in a
+uniform of thirty years before, I received numbers of private letters
+inquiring if it were true, and dozens of people visited Miss Roberts'
+<i>s&eacute;ances</i> for the sole purpose of seeing him. He took a great liking for
+Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;, and when she had conquered her first fear she became quite
+friendly with him, and I heard, after leaving New York, that he
+continued to appear for her as long as she attended those <i>s&eacute;ances</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There was one difference in the female spirits that came through
+Virginia Roberts from those of other media. Those that were strong
+enough to leave the cabinet invariably disappeared by floating upwards
+through the ceiling. Their mode of doing this was most graceful. They
+would first clasp their hands behind their heads and lean backward; then
+their feet were lifted off the ground, and they were borne upward in a
+recumbent position. When I related this to my friend, Dr. George
+Lefferts (under whom I was for throat treatment to recover my voice), he
+declared there must be some machinery connected with the uprights that
+supported the cabinet, by which the forms were elevated. He had got it
+all so "pat" that he was able to take a pencil and demonstrate to me on
+paper exactly how the machinery worked, and how easy it would be to
+swing full-sized human bodies up to the ceiling with it. How they
+managed to disappear when they got there he was not quite prepared to
+say; but if he once saw the trick done, he would explain the whole
+matter to me, and expose it into the bargain. I told Dr. Lefferts, as I
+have told many other clever men, that I shall be the first person open
+to conviction when they can convince me, and I bore him off to a private
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Virginia Roberts for that purpose only. He was all that
+was charming on the occasion. He gave me a most delightful dinner at
+Delmonico's first (for which I tender him in print my grateful
+recollection), and he tested all Miss Roberts' manifestations in the
+most delicate and gentlemanly manner (sceptics as a rule are neither
+delicate nor gentlemanly), but he could neither open my eyes to
+chicanery nor detect it himself. He handled and shook the frail supports
+of the cabinet, and confessed they were much too weak to bear any such
+weight as he had imagined. He searched the carpeted floor and the
+adjoining room for hidden machinery without finding the slightest thing
+to rouse his suspicions, and yet he saw the female forms float upwards
+through the whitewashed ceiling, and came away from the <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room as
+wise as when he had entered it.</p>
+
+<p>But this occurred some weeks after. I must relate first what happened
+after our first <i>s&eacute;ance</i> with Miss Roberts. Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and I were well
+enough pleased with the result to desire to test her capabilities
+further, and with that intent we invited her to visit us at our hotel.
+Spiritualism is as much tabooed by one section of the American public as
+it is encouraged by the other, and so we resolved to breathe nothing of
+our intentions, but invite the girl to dine and spend the evening in
+our rooms with us just as if she were an ordinary visitor. Consequently,
+we dined together at the <i>table d'h&ocirc;te</i> before we took our way upstairs.
+Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and I had a private sitting-room, the windows of which were
+draped with white lace curtains only, and we had no other means to shut
+out the light. Consequently, when we wished to sit, all we could do was
+to place a chair for Virginia Roberts in the window recess, behind one
+of these pairs of curtains, and pin them together in front of her, which
+formed the airiest cabinet imaginable. We then locked the door, lowered
+the gas, and sat down on a sofa before the curtains.</p>
+
+<p>In the space of five minutes, without the lace curtains having been in
+the slightest degree disturbed, Francis Lean, my stepson, walked
+<i>through</i> them, and came up to my side. He was dressed in his ordinary
+costume of jersey and "jumpers," and had a little worsted cap upon his
+head. He displayed all the peculiarities of speech and manner I have
+noticed before; but he was much less timid, and stood by me for a long
+time talking of my domestic affairs, which were rather complicated, and
+giving me a detailed account of the accident which caused his death, and
+which had been always somewhat of a mystery. In doing this, he mentioned
+names of people hitherto unknown to me, but which I found on after
+inquiry to be true. He seemed quite delighted to be able to manifest so
+indisputably like himself, and remarked more than once, "I'm not much
+like a girl now, am I, Ma?"</p>
+
+<p>Next, Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;'s old lover came, of whom she was still considerably
+alarmed, and her father, who had been a great politician and a
+well-known man. "Florence," too, of course, though never so lively
+through Miss Roberts as through other media, but still happy though
+pensive, and full of advice how I was to act when I reached England
+again. Presently a soft voice said, "Aunt Flo, don't you know me?" And I
+saw standing in front of me my niece and godchild, Lilian Thomas, who
+had died as a nun in the Convent of the "Dames Anglaises" at Bruges. She
+was clothed in her nun's habit, which was rather peculiar, the face
+being surrounded by a white cap, with a crimped border that hid all the
+hair, and surmounted by a white veil of some heavy woollen material
+which covered the head and the black serge dress. "Lilian" had died of
+consumption, and the death-like, waxy complexion which she had had for
+some time before was exactly reproduced. She had not much to say for
+herself; indeed, we had been completely separated since she had entered
+the convent, but she was undoubtedly <i>there</i>. She was succeeded by my
+sister "Emily," whom I have already so often described. And these
+apparitions, six in number, and all recognizable, were produced in the
+private room of Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and myself, and with no other person but
+Virginia Roberts, sixteen years old.</p>
+
+<p>It was about this time that we received an invitation to attend a
+private <i>s&eacute;ance</i> in a large house in the city, occupied by Mr. and Mrs.
+Newman, who had Maud Lord staying with them as a visitor. Maud Lord's
+mediumship is a peculiar one. She places her sitters in a circle,
+holding hands. She then seats herself on a chair in the centre, and
+keeps on clapping her hands, to intimate that she has not changed her
+position. The <i>s&eacute;ance</i> is held in darkness, and the manifestations
+consist of "direct voices," <i>i.e.</i> voices that every one can hear, and
+by what they say to you, you must judge of their identity and
+truthfulness. I had only witnessed powers of this kind once
+before&mdash;through Mrs. Bassett, who is now Mrs. Herne&mdash;but as no one spoke
+to me through her whom I recognized, I have omitted to give any account
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Maud Lord's sitting was fully established, I heard her
+addressing various members of the company, telling them who stood beside
+them, and I heard them putting questions to, or holding conversations
+with, creature who were invisible to me. The time went on, and I
+believed I was going to be left out of it, when I heard a voice close to
+my ear whisper, "Arthur." At the same moment Maud Lord's voice sounded
+in my direction, saying that the lady in the brown velvet hat had a
+gentleman standing near her, named "Arthur," who wished to be
+recognized. I was the only lady present in a brown velvet hat, yet I
+could not recall any deceased friend of the name of "Arthur" who might
+wish to communicate with me. (It is a constant occurrence at a <i>s&eacute;ance</i>
+that the mind refuses to remember a name, or a circumstance, and on
+returning home, perhaps the whole situation makes itself clear, and one
+wonders how one could have been so dull as not to perceive it.) So I
+said that I knew no one in the spirit-world of that name, and Maud Lord
+replied, "Well, <i>he</i> knows <i>you</i>, at all events." A few more minutes
+elapsed, when I felt a touch on the third finger of my left hand, and
+the voice spoke again and said, "Arthur! 'Arthur's ring.' Have you quite
+forgotten?" This action brought the person to my memory, and I
+exclaimed, "Oh! Johnny Cope, is it you?"</p>
+
+<p>To explain this, I must tell my readers that when I went out to India in
+1854, Arthur Cope of the Lancers was a passenger by the same steamer;
+and when we landed in Madras, he made me a present of a diamond ring,
+which I wore at that <i>s&eacute;ance</i> as a guard. But he was never called by
+anything but his nickname of "Johnny," so that his real appellation had
+quite slipped my memory. The poor fellow died in 1856 or 1857, and I had
+been ungrateful enough to forget all about him, and should never have
+remembered his name had it not been coupled with the ring. It would have
+been still more remarkable, though, if Maud Lord, who had never seen me
+till that evening, had discovered an incident which happened thirty
+years before, and which I had completely forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Before I had been many days in New York, I fell ill again from exposing
+myself to the weather, this time with a bad throat. Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and I
+slept in the same room, and our sitting-room opened into the bedroom.
+She was indefatigable in her attentions and kindness to me during my
+illness, and kept running backwards and forwards from the bedroom to the
+sitting-room, both by night and day, to get me fresh poultices, which
+she kept hot on the steam stove.</p>
+
+<p>One evening about eleven o'clock she got out of bed in her nightdress,
+and went into the next room for this purpose. Almost directly after she
+entered it, I heard a heavy fall. I called her by name, and receiving no
+answer, became frightened, jumped out of bed, and followed her. To my
+consternation, I found her stretched out, at full length, on a white
+bearskin rug, and quite insensible. She was a delicate woman, and I
+thought at first that she had fainted from fatigue; but when she showed
+no signs of returning consciousness, I became alarmed. I was very weak
+myself from my illness, and hardly able to stand, but I managed to put
+on a dressing-gown and summon the assistance of a lady who occupied the
+room next to us, and whose acquaintance we had already made. She was
+strong and capable, and helped me to place Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; upon the sofa,
+where she lay in the same condition. After we had done all we could
+think of to bring her to herself without effect, the next-door lady
+became frightened. She said to me, "I don't like this. I think we ought
+to call in a doctor. Supposing she were to die without regaining
+consciousness." I replied, "I should say the same, excepting I begin to
+believe she has not fainted at all, but is in a trance; and in that
+case, any violent attempts to bring her to herself might injure her.
+Just see how quietly she breathes, and how very young she looks."</p>
+
+<p>When her attention was called to this fact, the next-door lady was
+astonished. Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash;, who was a woman past forty, looked like a girl
+of sixteen. She was a very pretty woman, but with a dash of temper in
+her expression which spoiled it. Now with all the passions and lines
+smoothed out of it, she looked perfectly lovely. So she might have
+looked in death. But she was not dead. She was breathing. So I felt sure
+that the spirit had escaped for a while and left her free. I covered her
+up warmly on the sofa, and determined to leave her there till the trance
+had passed. After a while I persuaded the next-door lady to think as I
+did, and to go back to her own bed. As soon as she had gone, I
+administered my own poultice, and sat down to watch beside my friend.
+The time went on until seven in the morning&mdash;seven hours she had lain,
+without moving a limb, upon the sofa&mdash;when, without any warning, she sat
+up and gazed about her. I called her by name, and asked her what she
+wanted; but I could see at once, by her expression, that she did not
+know me. Presently she asked me, "Who are you?" I told her. "Are you
+Kate's friend?" she said. I answered, "Yes." "Do you know who <i>I</i> am?"
+was the next question, which, of course, I answered in the negative.
+Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; thereupon gave me the name of a German gentleman which I had
+never heard before. An extraordinary scene then followed. Influenced by
+the spirit that possessed her, Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; rose and unlocked a cabinet of
+her own, which stood in the room, and taking thence a bundle of old
+letters, she selected several and read portions of them aloud to me. She
+then told me a history of herself and the gentleman whose spirit was
+speaking through her, and gave me several messages to deliver to
+herself the following day. It will be sufficient for me to say that this
+history was of so private a nature, that it was most unlikely she would
+have confided it to me or any one, particularly as she was a woman of a
+most secretive nature; but names, addresses, and even words of
+conversations were given, in a manner which would have left no room for
+doubt of their truthfulness, even if Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; had not confirmed them
+to be facts afterwards. This went on for a long time, the spirit
+expressing the greatest animosity against Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; all the while, and
+then the power seemed suddenly to be spent, and she went off to sleep
+again upon the sofa, waking up naturally about an hour afterwards, and
+very much surprised to hear what had happened to her meanwhile. When we
+came to consider the matter, we found that this unexpected seizure had
+taken place upon <i>the 17th of March</i>, the day predicted by Mrs. Philips
+four years previously as one on which a new era would commence for Mrs.
+S&mdash;&mdash;. From that time she continually went into trances, and used to
+predict the future for herself and others; but whether she has kept it
+up to this day I am unable to say, as I have heard nothing from her
+since I left America.</p>
+
+<p>That event took place on the 13th of June, 1885. We had been in the
+habit of spending our Sunday evenings in Miss Roberts' <i>s&eacute;ance</i> room,
+and she begged me not to miss the last opportunity. When we arrived
+there, we found that the accompanist who usually played the harmonium
+for them was unable to be present, and Miss Roberts asked if I would be
+his substitute. I said I would, on condition that they moved the
+instrument on a line with the cabinet, so that I might not lose a sight
+of what was going on. This was accordingly done, and I commenced to play
+"Thou art gone from my gaze." Almost immediately "John Powles" stepped
+out, dressed in uniform, and stood by the harmonium with his hand upon
+my shoulder. "I never was much of a singer, you know, Flo," he said to
+me; "but if you will sing that song with me, I'll try and go through
+it." And he actually did sing (after a fashion) the entire two verses of
+the ballad, keeping his hand on my shoulder the whole time. When we came
+to the line, "I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream," he stooped
+down and whispered in my ear, "Not <i>quite</i> in vain, Flo, has it been?"
+I do not know if my English Spiritualistic friends can "cap" this story,
+but in America they told me it was quite a unique performance,
+particularly at a public <i>s&eacute;ance</i>, where the jarring of so many diverse
+influences often hinders instead of helping the manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>"Powles" appeared to be especially strong on that occasion. Towards the
+middle of the evening a kind of whining was heard to proceed from the
+cabinet; and Miss Roberts, who was not entranced, said, "There's a baby
+coming out for Miss Marryat." At the same time the face of little
+"Yonnie" appeared at the opening of the curtains, but nearly level with
+the ground, as she was crawling out on all fours. Before she had had
+time to advance beyond them, "Powles" stepped over her and came amongst
+us. "Oh, Powles!" I exclaimed, "you used to love my little babies. Do
+pick up that one for me that I may see it properly." He immediately
+returned, took up "Yonnie," and brought her out into the circle on his
+arm. The contrast of the baby's white kind of nightgown with his scarlet
+uniform was very striking. He carried the child to each sitter that it
+might be thoroughly examined; and when he had returned "Yonnie" to the
+cabinet, he came out again on his own account. That evening I was
+summoned into the cabinet myself by the medium's guide, a little Italian
+girl, who had materialized several times for our benefit. When I entered
+it, I stumbled up against Miss Roberts' chair. There was barely room for
+me to stand beside it. She said to me, "Is that <i>you</i>, Miss Marryat?"
+and I replied, "Yes; didn't you send for me?" She said "No; I didn't
+send, I know nothing about it!" A voice behind me said, "<i>I</i> sent for
+you!" and at the same moment two strong arms were clasped round my
+waist, and a man's face kissed me over my shoulder. I asked, "Who are
+you?" and he replied, "Walk out of the cabinet and you shall see." I
+turned round, two hands were placed upon my shoulders, and I walked back
+into the circle with a tall man walking behind me in that position. When
+I could look at him in the gaslight, I recognized my brother, Frank
+Marryat, who died in 1855, and whom I had never seen since. Of course,
+the other spirits who were familiar with Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and myself came to
+wish me a pleasant voyage across the Atlantic, but I have mentioned them
+all so often that I fear I must already have tired out the patience of
+my readers. But in order to be impressive it is so necessary to be
+explicit. All I can bring forward in excuse is, that every word I have
+written is the honest and unbiassed truth. Here, therefore, ends the
+account of my experience in Spiritualism up to the present moment&mdash;not,
+by any means, the half, nor yet <i>the quarter of it</i>, but all I consider
+likely to interest the general public. And those who have been
+interested in it may see their own friends as I have done, if they will
+only take the same trouble that I have done.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>"QUI BONO?"</h3>
+
+
+<p>My friends have so often asked me this question, that I think, before I
+close this book, I am justified in answering it, at all events, as far
+as I myself am concerned. How often have I sat, surrounded by an
+interested audience, who knew me too well to think me either a lunatic
+or a liar; and after I have told them some of the most marvellous and
+thrilling of my experiences, they have assailed me with these questions,
+"But what <i>is</i> it? And what <i>good</i> does it do? <i>What is it?</i>" There, my
+friends, I confess you stagger me! I can no more tell you what it is
+than I can tell you what <i>you</i> are or what <i>I</i> am. We know that, like
+Topsy, we "grew." We know that, given certain conditions and favorable
+accessories, a child comes into this world, and a seed sprouts through
+the dark earth and becomes a flower; but though we know the cause and
+see the effect, the greatest man of science, or the greatest botanist,
+cannot tell you how the child is made, nor how the plant grows. Neither
+can I (or any one) tell you <i>what</i> the power is that enables a spirit to
+make itself apparent. I can only say that it can do so, and refer you to
+the Creator of you and me and the entire universe. The commonest things
+the earth produces are all miracles, from the growing of a mustard seed
+to the expansion of a human brain. What is more wonderful than the
+hatching of an egg? You see it done every day. It has become so common
+that you regard it as an event of no consequence. You know the exact
+number of days the bird must sit to produce a live chicken with all its
+functions ready for nature's use, but you see nothing wonderful in it.
+All birds can do the same, and you would not waste your time in
+speculating on the wondrous effect of heat upon a liquid substance which
+turns to bone and blood and flesh and feathers.</p>
+
+<p>If you were as familiar with the reappearance of those who have gone
+before as you are with chickens, you would see nothing supernatural in
+their manifesting themselves to you, and nothing more miraculous than in
+the birth of a child or the hatching of an egg. Why should it be? Who
+has fixed the abode of the spirit after death? Who can say where it
+dwells, or that it is not permitted to return to this world, perhaps to
+live in it altogether? Still, however the Almighty sends them, the fact
+remains that they come, and that thousands can testify to the fact. As
+to the theory advanced by some people that they are devils, sent to lure
+us to our destruction, that is an insult to the wisdom or mercy of an
+Omnipotent Creator. They cannot come except by His permission, just as
+He sends children to some people and withholds them from others. And the
+conversation of most of those that I have talked with is all on the side
+of religion, prayer, and self-sacrifice. <i>My</i> friends, at all events,
+have never denied the existence of a God or a Saviour. They have, on the
+contrary (and especially "Florence"), been very quick to rebuke me for
+anything I may have done that was wrong, for neglect of prayer and
+church-going, for speaking evil of my neighbors, or any other fault.
+They have continually inculcated the doctrine that religion consists in
+unselfish love to our fellow-creatures, and in devotion to God. I do not
+deny that there are frivolous and occasionally wicked spirits about us.
+Is it to be wondered at? For one spirit that leaves this world
+calculated to do good to his fellow-creatures, a hundred leave it who
+will do him harm. That is really the reason that the Church discourages
+Spiritualism. She does not disbelieve in it. She knows it to be true;
+but she also knows it to be dangerous. Since like attracts like, the
+numbers of thoughtless spirits who still dwell on earth would naturally
+attract the numbers of thoughtless spirits who have left it, and their
+influence is best dispensed with. Talk of devils. I have known many more
+devils in the flesh than out of it, and could name a number of
+acquaintances who, when once passed out of this world, I should
+steadfastly refuse to have any communication with. I have no doubt
+myself whatever as to <i>what</i> it is, or that I have seen my dear friends
+and children as I knew them upon earth. But <i>how</i> they come or <i>where</i>
+they go, I must wait until I join them to ascertain, even if I shall do
+it then.</p>
+
+<p>The second question, however, I can more easily deal with, <i>What good is
+it?</i> The only wonder to me is that people who are not stone-blind to
+what is going on in this world can put such a question. What good is it
+to have one's faith in Immortality and another life confirmed in an age
+of freethought, scepticism and utter callousness? When I look around me
+and see the young men nowadays&mdash;ay, and the young women too&mdash;who believe
+in no hereafter, who lie down and die, like the dumb animals who cannot
+be made to understand the love of the dear God who created them although
+they feel it, I cannot think of anything calculated to do them more good
+than the return of a father or a mother or a friend, who could convince
+them by ocular demonstration that there is a future life and happiness
+and misery, according to the one we have led here below.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but," I seem to hear some readers exclaim, "we <i>do</i> believe in all
+that you say. We have been taught so from our youth up, and the Bible
+points to it in every line." You may <i>think</i> you believe it, my friends,
+and in a theoretical way you may; but you do not <i>realize</i> it, and the
+whole of your lives proves it. Death, instead of being the blessed
+portal to the Life Elysian, the gate of which may swing open for you any
+day, and admit you to eternal and unfading happiness, is a far-off misty
+phantom, whose approach you dread, and the sight of which in others you
+run away from. The majority of people avoid the very mention of death.
+They would not look at a corpse for anything; the sight of a coffin or a
+funeral or a graveyard fills them with horror; the idea of it for
+themselves makes them turn pale with fright. Is <i>this</i> belief in the
+existence of a tender Father and a blessed home waiting to receive them
+on the other side? Even professed Christians experience what they term a
+"natural" horror at the thought of death! I have known persons of fixed
+religious principles who had passed their lives (apparently) in prayer,
+and expressed their firm belief in Heaven waiting for them, fight
+against death with all their mortal energies, and try their utmost to
+baffle the disease that was sent to carry them to everlasting happiness.
+Is this logical? It is tantamount in my idea to the pauper in the
+workhouse who knows that directly the gate is open to let him through,
+he will pass from skilly, oakum, and solitary confinement to the King's
+Palace to enjoy youth, health, and prosperity evermore; and who, when he
+sees the gates beginning to unclose, puts his back and all his
+neighbors' backs against them to keep them shut as long as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Death should not be a "horror" to any one; and if we knew more about it,
+it would cease to be so. It is the <i>mystery</i> that appals us. We see our
+friends die, and no word or sign comes back to tell us that there <i>is</i>
+no death, so we picture them to ourselves mouldering in the damp earth
+till we nearly go mad with grief and dismay. Some people think me
+heartless because I never go near the graves of those whom I love best.
+Why should I? I might with more reason go and sit beside a pile of their
+cast-off garments. I could <i>see</i> them, and they would actually retain
+more of their identity and influence than the corpse which I could <i>not</i>
+see. I mourn their loss just the same, but I mourn it as I should do if
+they had settled for life in a far distant land, from which I could only
+enjoy occasional glimpses of their happiness.</p>
+
+<p>And I may say emphatically that the greatest good Spiritualism does is
+to remove the fear of one's own death. One can never be quite certain of
+the changes that circumstances may bring about, nor do I like to boast
+overmuch. Disease and weakness may destroy the nerve I flatter myself on
+possessing; but I think I may say that as matters stand at present <i>I
+have no fear of death whatever</i>, and the only trouble I can foresee in
+passing through it will be to witness the distress of my friends. But
+when I remember all those who have gathered on the other side, and whom
+I firmly believe will be present to help me in my passage there, I can
+feel nothing but a great curiosity to pierce the mysteries as yet
+unrevealed to me, and a great longing for the time to come when I shall
+join those whom I loved so much on earth. Not to be happy at once by any
+manner of means. I am too sinful a mortal for that, but "to work out my
+salvation" in the way God sees best for me, to make my own heaven or
+hell according as I have loved and succoured my fellow-creatures here
+below. Yet however much I may be destined to suffer, never without hope
+and assistance from those whom I have loved, and never without feeling
+that through the goodness of God each struggle or reparation brings me
+near to the fruition of eternal happiness. <i>This</i> is my belief, <i>this</i>
+is the good that the certain knowledge that we can never die has done
+for me, and the worst I wish for anybody is that they may share it with
+me.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="line">"Oh! though oft depressed and lonely,<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line i2">All my fears are laid aside,<br /></div>
+    <div class="line">If I but remember only<br />
+    </div>
+    <div class="line i2">Such as these have lived and died."</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;
+</p>
+
+
+<p class=" p2 center">THE END.</p>
+<h2 class="p4">UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY'S <span class="smcap">Announcements</span> AND <span class="smcap">New Publications</span>.</h2>
+<p class="p4 left45"><i>The books mentioned in this List can be obtained</i> to
+    order <i>by any Bookseller if not in stock, or will be sent by the
+    Publisher post free on receipt of price</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">LOVELL'S INTERNATIONAL SERIES</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>13. On Circumstantial Evidence</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Florence Marryat</span></p>
+
+<p>This is a story in which love and intrigue are the two disturbing
+elements. Miss Marryat is well-known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining.&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>14. Miss Kate, or the Confessions of a Caretaker</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Rita</span></p>
+<p>This is a novel of much interest in the first part, of the objectionable
+  "guilty love" order in the latter half. There are some beautiful bits of
+  character drawing in it, and some very clever hits at American foibles.
+This story is exceedingly well told.&mdash;<i>Nashville American.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>15. A Vagabond Lover</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Rita</span></p>
+
+<p>Is a mere sketch. The hero having been a child who was washed on shore
+from a shipwreck during a storm, and found by a man who believed that he
+had discovered the cause and generation of life. The child was made a
+subject for experiment; life was breathed into it, but only physical
+life and not its higher principle. The result is that the child grows up
+to manhood without one redeeming virtue, and seems to delight in doing
+all manner of evil.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Record.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 20 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i><b>16. The Search for Basil Lyndhurst</b></i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Rosa N. Carey</span></p>
+
+<p>Is a well written English novel, into which are woven numerous
+historical sketches, adding the merit of instructiveness to its other
+qualities.&mdash;<i>Pittsburgh Post.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>39. Sylvia Arden</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Oswald Crawfurd</span></p>
+
+<p>Is a novel whose story is supposed to be told by a man who confesses at
+the outset that life has been with him a failure. He has been successful
+in nothing though trying everything&mdash;and the novel deals with the most
+remarkable incidents in that sort of a career. It is a cleverly done
+book, and there is much in it which is fresh as well as
+exciting.&mdash;<i>Columbus, O., Journal.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>40. Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By F. C. Philips</span></p>
+
+<p>It seems impossible for F. C. Philips, the author of "As in a Looking
+Glass," to keep sensational tragedy out of his novels. In "Young Mr.
+Ainslie's Courtship" he has written a story which is charming, witty?
+and agreeable up to the very last chapter.&mdash;<i>San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i><b>41. The Haute Noblesse</b></i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Geo. Manville Fenn</span></p>
+
+<p>Is a well wrought story of which the heroine is a child of the high
+aristocracy, but nevertheless such admirable traits and qualities that
+even the humblest reader cannot fail to love her.&mdash;<i>Columbus, O.,
+Journal.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH. $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>42. Mount Eden</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Florence Marryat</span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Florence Marryat is well known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining, even if they are
+devoid of all good moral purpose. They open one's eyes to the
+inconsistencies of life without wholly destroying his faith in his
+fellow citizens.&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i><b>82. A Woman's Heart</b></i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Mrs. Alexander</span></p>
+
+<p>The name of this author is familiar to all lovers of fiction who will
+need nothing more to assure them that they will not regret the time
+spent in reading "A Woman's Heart." It is a refined and interesting
+story, pleasant and easy reading, as is usual with all Mrs. Alexander's
+works.</p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i><b>83. Syrlin</b></i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Ouida</span></p>
+
+<p>The announcement of a new novel by Ouida, sends a thrill of delight
+through the countless host of faithful admirers of that petulant
+priestess of mild improprieties. Her new books are just like her old
+ones. There is the usual abundance of gilded vice and wilful wickedness
+lugged in to give the book its wonted flavor.&mdash;<i>N. O. States.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><b><i>84. The Rival Princess</i></b>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Justin McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell Praed</span></p>
+
+<p>It is a romance of contemporary English politics wherein many well-known
+public men appear under thin disguises. There is a Stuart princess with
+lineal claims to the English throne, and there is an unmasked Mr.
+Gladstone, who boldly urges the abolition of the House of
+Lords.-<i>-Charleston Sunday Times.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i><b>85. Blindfold</b></i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">By Florence Marryat</span></p>
+
+<p>Is, in many respects, the best novel which has been given us by the
+prolific pen of the well-known Englishwoman. The story is novel, well
+told, and events follow upon each other quickly, never allowing the
+interest to flag.&mdash;<i>Denver News.</i></p>
+<p class="left5 small">CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.</p>
+<div class="transnote">
+  <p class="center">Transcriber's Notes:</p>
+  <ul>
+    <li>Page 4, "MARRYATT" changed to "MARRYAT" (Normalising spelling of author's name)</li>
+    <li>Page 18, "nor" changed to "not" (a single medium of whom I have not)</li>
+    <li>Page 47, "bood" changed to "blood" (where the stain of his blood still
+      remained)</li>
+    <li>Page 49, "briliant" changed to "brilliant" (a room that was unpleasantly
+      brilliant)</li>
+    <li>Page 58, "tempered" changed to "tampered" (it had not been tampered
+      with)</li>
+    <li>Page 61, "seing" changed to "seeing" (the possibility of seeing a
+      "ghost,")</li>
+    <li>Page 127, "foreigh" changed to "foreign" (he was equally ignorant of
+      foreign languages)</li>
+    <li>Page 134, "succssefully" changed to "successfully" (in order to imitate
+      her manner and speech successfully)</li>
+    <li>Page 137, "Gupyy" changed to "Guppy" (As Mrs. Guppy came sailing over
+      our heads)</li>
+    <li>Page 138, "it" changed to "if" (I inquired of every sitter if they had
+      seen)</li>
+    <li>Page 155, "eartly" changed to "earthly" (as naturally as if she were
+      their earthly form)</li>
+    <li>Page 156, "Fitzgarald" changed to "Fitzgerald" (Mrs. Fitzgerald was
+      dining with us)</li>
+    <li>Page 158, "Fitzgereld" changed to "Fitzgerald" (returned through Mrs.
+      Fitzgerald)</li>
+    <li>Page 176, "don" changed to "done" (perhaps, than anything else has done)</li>
+    <li>Page 180, Added missing end single quote in probable correct place (through the life that lies before you.') </li>
+    <li>Page 182, "forgetten" changed to "forgotten" (I had almost forgotten Mr.
+      Plummer)</li>
+    <li>Page 185, "mamed" changed to "named" (a photographer in London, named
+      Hudson)</li>
+    <li>Page 189, "instrument" changed to "instruments" (the two instruments
+      pealed forth)</li>
+    <li>Page 198, "ocsion" changed to "occasion" (Mr. Towns prognosticated on
+      that occasion)</li>
+    <li>Page 201, "conducter" changed to "conductor" ("Did you know the spirit?"
+      the conductor asked)</li>
+    <li>Page 220, "aquaintance" changed to "acquaintance" (soon after I made her
+      acquaintance)</li>
+    <li>Page 255, "creature" changed to "creatures" (creatures who were
+      invisible to me)</li>
+    <li>Page 256, "Mr" changed to "Mrs" (Mrs. S&mdash;&mdash; and I slept in the same
+      room)</li>
+    <li>Page 264, "Christian" changed to "Christians" (Even professed Christians
+      experience what they term)</li>
+    <li>End catalogue, No. 13, "Circumstatial" changed to "Circumstantial" (On
+      Circumstantial Evidence)</li>
+    <li>End catalogue, No. 39, "successfu" changed to "successful" (He has been
+      successful in nothing)</li>
+    <li>N.B. 1. Some punctuation corrections have not been noted here.<br />
+    2. Two non-matching instances of latin word: "pr&ocirc;pria" and "propria". Left as-is.</li>
+  </ul>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
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+</pre>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
+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: There is no Death
+
+Author: Florence Marryatt
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2012 [EBook #39212]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE IS NO DEATH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Maria Grist, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THERE IS NO DEATH
+
+  Works by Florence Marryat
+
+  PUBLISHED IN THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.
+
+
+     NO.                                 CTS.
+
+     85. Blindfold,                       50
+
+    135. Brave Heart and True,            50
+
+     42. Mount Eden,                      30
+
+     13. On Circumstantial Evidence,      30
+
+    148. Risen Dead, The,                 50
+
+     77. Scarlet Sin, A,                  50
+
+    159. There Is No Death,               50
+
+
+
+
+   THERE IS NO DEATH
+
+   BY
+   FLORENCE MARRYAT
+
+   AUTHOR OF
+   "LOVE'S CONFLICT," "VERONIQUE," ETC., ETC.
+
+     "There is no Death--what seems so is transition.
+     This life of mortal breath
+     Is but a suburb of the Life Elysian
+     Whose portal we call----Death."--Longfellow.
+
+
+   NEW YORK
+   NATIONAL BOOK COMPANY
+   3, 4, 5 AND 6 MISSION PLACE
+
+
+   Copyright, 1891,
+   by
+   United States Book Company
+
+
+
+
+THERE IS NO DEATH.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FAMILY GHOSTS.
+
+
+It has been strongly impressed upon me for some years past to write an
+account of the wonderful experiences I have passed through in my
+investigation of the science of Spiritualism. In doing so I intend to
+confine myself to recording facts. I will describe the scenes I have
+witnessed with my own eyes, and repeat the words I have heard with my
+own ears, leaving the deduction to be drawn from them wholly to my
+readers. I have no ambition to start a theory nor to promulgate a
+doctrine; above all things I have no desire to provoke an argument. I
+have had more than enough of arguments, philosophical, scientific,
+religious, and purely aggressive, to last a lifetime; and were I called
+upon for my definition of the rest promised to the weary, I should
+reply--a place where every man may hold his own opinion, and no one is
+permitted to dispute it.
+
+But though I am about to record a great many incidents that are so
+marvellous as to be almost incredible, I do not expect to be
+disbelieved, except by such as are capable of deception themselves.
+They--conscious of their own infirmity--invariably believe that other
+people must be telling lies. Byron wrote, "He is a fool who denies that
+which he cannot disprove;" and though Carlyle gives us the comforting
+assurance that the population of Great Britain consists "chiefly of
+fools," I pin my faith upon receiving credence from the few who are not
+so.
+
+Why should I be disbelieved? When the late Lady Brassey published the
+"Cruise of the _Sunbeam_," and Sir Samuel and Lady Baker related their
+experiences in Central Africa, and Livingstone wrote his account of the
+wonders he met with whilst engaged in the investigation of the source of
+the Nile, and Henry Stanley followed up the story and added thereto, did
+they anticipate the public turning up its nose at their narrations, and
+declaring it did not believe a word they had written? Yet their readers
+had to accept the facts they offered for credence, on their authority
+alone. Very few of them had even _heard_ of the places described before;
+scarcely one in a thousand could, either from personal experience or
+acquired knowledge, attest the truth of the description. What was
+there--for the benefit of the general public--to _prove_ that the
+_Sunbeam_ had sailed round the world, or that Sir Samuel Baker had met
+with the rare beasts, birds, and flowers he wrote of, or that
+Livingstone and Stanley met and spoke with those curious, unknown tribes
+that never saw white men till they set eyes on them? Yet had any one of
+those writers affirmed that in his wanderings he had encountered a gold
+field of undoubted excellence, thousands of fortune-seekers would have
+left their native land on his word alone, and rushed to secure some of
+the glittering treasure.
+
+Why? Because the authors of those books were persons well known in
+society, who had a reputation for veracity to maintain, and who would
+have been quickly found out had they dared to deceive. I claim the same
+grounds for obtaining belief. I have a well-known name and a public
+reputation, a tolerable brain, and two sharp eyes. What I have
+witnessed, others, with equal assiduity and perseverance, may witness
+for themselves. It would demand a voyage round the world to see all that
+the owners of the _Sunbeam_ saw. It would demand time and trouble and
+money to see what I have seen, and to some people, perhaps, it would not
+be worth the outlay. But if I have journeyed into the Debateable Land
+(which so few really believe in, and most are terribly afraid of), and
+come forward now to tell what I have seen there, the world has no more
+right to disbelieve me than it had to disbelieve Lady Brassey. Because
+the general public has not penetrated Central Africa, is no reason that
+Livingstone did not do so; because the general public has not seen (and
+does not care to see) what I have seen, is no argument against the truth
+of what I write. To those who _do_ believe in the possibility of
+communion with disembodied spirits, my story will be interesting
+perhaps, on account of its dealing throughout in a remarkable degree
+with the vexed question of identity and recognition. To the
+materialistic portion of creation who may credit me with not being a
+bigger fool than the remainder of the thirty-eight millions of Great
+Britain, it may prove a new source of speculation and research. And for
+those of my fellow-creatures who possess no curiosity, nor imagination,
+nor desire to prove for themselves what they cannot accept on the
+testimony of others, I never had, and never shall have, anything in
+common. They are the sort of people who ask you with a pleasing smile if
+Irving wrote "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and say they like
+Byron's "Sardanapalus" very well, but it is not so funny as "Our Boys."
+
+Now, before going to work in right earnest, I do not think it is
+generally known that my father, the late Captain Marryat, was not only a
+believer in ghosts, but himself a ghost-seer. I am delighted to be able
+to record this fact as an introduction to my own experiences. Perhaps
+the ease with which such manifestations have come to me is a gift which
+I inherit from him, anyway I am glad he shared the belief and the power
+of spiritual sight with me. If there were no other reason to make me
+bold to repeat what I have witnessed, the circumstance would give me
+courage. My father was not like his intimate friends, Charles Dickens,
+Lord Lytton, and many other men of genius, highly strung, nervous, and
+imaginative. I do not believe my father had any "nerves," and I think he
+had very little imagination. Almost all his works are founded on his
+personal experiences. His _forte_ lay in a humorous description of what
+he had seen. He possessed a marvellous power of putting his
+recollections into graphic and forcible language, and the very reason
+that his books are almost as popular to-day as when they were written,
+is because they are true histories of their time. There is scarcely a
+line of fiction in them. His body was as powerful and muscular as his
+brain. His courage was indomitable--his moral courage as well as his
+physical (as many people remember to their cost to this day), and his
+hardness of belief on many subjects is no secret. What I am about to
+relate therefore did not happen to some excitable, nervous, sickly
+sentimentalist, and I repeat that I am proud to have inherited his
+constitutional tendencies, and quite willing to stand judgment after
+him.
+
+I have heard that my father had a number of stories to relate of
+supernatural (as they are usually termed) incidents that had occurred to
+him, but I will content myself with relating such as were proved to be
+(at the least) very remarkable coincidences. In my work, "The Life and
+Letters of Captain Marryat," I relate an anecdote of him that was
+entered in his private "log," and found amongst his papers. He had a
+younger brother, Samuel, to whom he was very much attached, and who died
+unexpectedly in England whilst my father, in command of H. M. S.
+_Larne_, was engaged in the first Burmese war. His men broke out with
+scurvy and he was ordered to take his vessel over to Pulu Pinang for a
+few weeks in order to get the sailors fresh fruit and vegetables. As my
+father was lying in his berth one night, anchored off the island, with
+the brilliant tropical moonlight making everything as bright as day, he
+saw the door of his cabin open, and his brother Samuel entered and
+walked quietly up to his side. He looked just the same as when they had
+parted, and uttered in a perfectly distinct voice, "Fred! I have come to
+tell you that I am dead!" When the figure entered the cabin my father
+jumped up in his berth, thinking it was some one coming to rob him, and
+when he saw who it was and heard it speak, he leaped out of bed with the
+intention of detaining it, but it was gone. So vivid was the impression
+made upon him by the apparition that he drew out his log at once and
+wrote down all particulars concerning it, with the hour and day of its
+appearance. On reaching England after the war was over, the first
+dispatches put into his hand were to announce the death of his brother,
+who had passed away at the very hour when he had seen him in the cabin.
+
+But the story that interests me most is one of an incident which
+occurred to my father during my lifetime, and which we have always
+called "The Brown Lady of Rainham." I am aware that this narrative has
+reached the public through other sources, and I have made it the
+foundation of a Christmas story myself. But it is too well authenticated
+to be omitted here. The last fifteen years of my father's life were
+passed on his own estate of Langham, in Norfolk, and amongst his county
+friends were Sir Charles and Lady Townshend of Rainham Hall. At the time
+I speak of, the title and property had lately changed hands, and the new
+baronet had re-papered, painted, and furnished the Hall throughout, and
+come down with his wife and a large party of friends to take possession.
+But to their annoyance, soon after their arrival, rumors arose that the
+house was haunted, and their guests began, one and all (like those in
+the parable), to make excuses to go home again. Sir Charles and Lady
+Townshend might have sung, "Friend after friend departs," with due
+effect, but it would have had none on the general exodus that took place
+from Rainham. And it was all on account of a Brown Lady, whose portrait
+hung in one of the bedrooms, and in which she was represented as wearing
+a brown satin dress with yellow trimmings, and a ruff around her
+throat--a very harmless, innocent-looking young woman. But they all
+declared they had seen her walking about the house--some in the
+corridor, some in their bedrooms, others in the lower premises, and
+neither guests nor servants would remain in the Hall. The baronet was
+naturally very much annoyed about it, and confided his trouble to my
+father, and my father was indignant at the trick he believed had been
+played upon him. There was a great deal of smuggling and poaching in
+Norfolk at that period, as he knew well, being a magistrate of the
+county, and he felt sure that some of these depredators were trying to
+frighten the Townshends away from the Hall again. The last baronet had
+been a solitary sort of being, and lead a retired life, and my father
+imagined some of the tenantry had their own reasons for not liking the
+introduction of revelries and "high jinks" at Rainham. So he asked his
+friends to let him stay with them and sleep in the haunted chamber, and
+he felt sure he could rid them of the nuisance. They accepted his offer,
+and he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the
+apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each
+night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he
+saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the
+third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet) knocked at
+his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over
+to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give
+them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in
+his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had
+retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he
+was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, "in case
+we meet the Brown Lady," he said, laughing. When the inspection of the
+gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would
+accompany my father back again, "in case you meet the Brown Lady," they
+repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in
+company.
+
+The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished,
+but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp
+coming towards them from the other end. "One of the ladies going to
+visit the nurseries," whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now
+the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a
+double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned
+country houses. My father (as I have said) was in a shirt and trousers
+only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped
+within one of the _outer_ doors (his friends following his example), in
+order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by. I have
+heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer,
+through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to
+distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognized the
+figure as the facsimile of the portrait of "The Brown Lady." He had his
+finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to
+stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted
+of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the
+lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and
+diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was
+anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor
+with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure
+instantly disappeared--the figure at which for the space of several
+minutes _three_ men had been looking together--and the bullet passed
+through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor,
+and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted
+again to interfere with "The Brown Lady of Rainham," and I have heard
+that she haunts the premises to this day. That she did so at that time,
+however, there is no shadow of doubt.
+
+But Captain Marryat not only held these views and believed in them from
+personal experience--he promulgated them in his writings. There are many
+passages in his works which, read by the light of my assertion, prove
+that he had faith in the possibility of the departed returning to visit
+this earth, and in the theory of re-incarnation or living more than one
+life upon it, but nowhere does he speak more plainly than in the
+following extract from the "Phantom Ship":--
+
+"Think you, Philip," (says Amine to her husband), "that this world is
+solely peopled by such dross as we are?--things of clay, perishable and
+corruptible, lords over beasts and ourselves, but little better? Have
+you not, from your own sacred writings, repeated acknowledgments and
+proofs of higher intelligences, mixing up with mankind, and acting here
+below? Why should what was _then_ not be _now_, and what more harm is
+there to apply for their aid now than a few thousand years ago? Why
+should you suppose that they were permitted on the earth then and not
+permitted now? What has become of them? Have they perished? Have they
+been ordered back? to where?--to heaven? If to heaven, the world and
+mankind have been left to the mercy of the devil and his agents. Do you
+suppose that we poor mortals have been thus abandoned? I tell you
+plainly, I think not. We no longer have the communication with those
+intelligences that we once had, because as we become more enlightened we
+become more proud and seek them not, but that they still exist a host of
+good against a host of evil, invisibly opposing each other, is my
+conviction."
+
+One testimony to such a belief, from the lips of my father, is
+sufficient. He would not have written it unless he had been prepared to
+maintain it. He was not one of those wretched literary cowards who we
+meet but too often now-a-days, who are too much afraid of the world to
+confess with their mouths the opinions they hold in their hearts. Had he
+lived to this time I believe he would have been one of the most
+energetic and outspoken believers in Spiritualism that we possess. So
+much, however, for his testimony to the possibility of spirits, good and
+evil, revisiting this earth. I think few will be found to gainsay the
+assertion that where _he_ trod, his daughter need not be ashamed to
+follow.
+
+Before the question of Spiritualism, however, arose in modern times, I
+had had my own little private experiences on the subject. From an early
+age I was accustomed to see, and to be very much alarmed at seeing,
+certain forms that appeared to me at night. One in particular, I
+remember, was that of a very short or deformed old woman, who was very
+constant to me. She used to stand on tiptoe to look at me as I lay in
+bed, and however dark the room might be, I could always see every
+article in it, as if illuminated, whilst she remained there.
+
+I was in the habit of communicating these visions to my mother and
+sisters (my father had passed from us by that time), and always got well
+ridiculed for my pains. "Another of Flo's optical illusions," they would
+cry, until I really came to think that the appearances I saw were due to
+some defect in my eye-sight. I have heard my first husband say, that
+when he married me he thought he should never rest for an entire night
+in his bed, so often did I wake him with the description of some man or
+woman I had seen in the room. I recall these figures distinctly. They
+were always dressed in white, from which circumstance I imagined that
+they were natives who had stolen in to rob us, until, from repeated
+observation, I discovered they only formed part of another and more
+enlarged series of my "optical illusions." All this time I was very much
+afraid of seeing what I termed "ghosts." No love of occult science led
+me to investigate the cause of my alarm. I only wished never to see the
+"illusions" again, and was too frightened to remain by myself lest they
+should appear to me.
+
+When I had been married for about two years, the head-quarters of my
+husband's regiment, the 12th Madras Native Infantry, was ordered to
+Rangoon, whilst the left wing, commanded by a Major Cooper, was sent to
+assist in the bombardment of Canton. Major Cooper had only been married
+a short time, and by rights his wife had no claim to sail with the
+head-quarters for Burmah, but as she had no friends in Madras, and was
+moreover expecting her confinement, our colonel permitted her to do so,
+and she accompanied us to Rangoon, settling herself in a house not far
+from our own. One morning, early in July, I was startled by receiving a
+hurried scrawl from her, containing only these words, "Come! come!
+come!" I set off at once, thinking she had been taken ill, but on my
+arrival I found Mrs. Cooper sitting up in bed with only her usual
+servants about her. "What is the matter?" I exclaimed. "Mark is dead,"
+she answered me; "he sat in that chair" (pointing to one by the bedside)
+"all last night. I noticed every detail of his face and figure. He was
+in undress, and he never raised his eyes, but sat with the peak of his
+forage cap pulled down over his face. But I could see the back of his
+head and his hair, and I know it was he. I spoke to him but he did not
+answer me, and I am _sure_ he is dead."
+
+Naturally, I imagined this vision to have been dictated solely by fear
+and the state of her health. I laughed at her for a simpleton, and told
+her it was nothing but fancy, and reminded her that by the last accounts
+received from the seat of war, Major Cooper was perfectly well and
+anticipating a speedy reunion with her. Laugh as I would, however, I
+could not laugh her out of her belief, and seeing how low-spirited she
+was, I offered to pass the night with her. It was a very nice night
+indeed. As soon as ever we had retired to bed, although a lamp burned in
+the room, Mrs. Cooper declared that her husband was sitting in the same
+chair as the night before, and accused me of deception when I declared
+that I saw nothing at all. I sat up in bed and strained my eyes, but I
+could discern nothing but an empty arm-chair, and told her so. She
+persisted that Major Cooper sat there, and described his personal
+appearance and actions. I got out of bed and sat in the chair, when she
+cried out, "Don't, don't! _You are sitting right on him!_" It was
+evident that the apparition was as real to her as if it had been flesh
+and blood. I jumped up again fast enough, not feeling very comfortable
+myself, and lay by her side for the remainder of the night, listening to
+her asseverations that Major Cooper was either dying or dead. She would
+not part with me, and on the third night I had to endure the same ordeal
+as on the second. After the third night the apparition ceased to appear
+to her, and I was permitted to return home. But before I did so, Mrs.
+Cooper showed me her pocket-book, in which she had written down against
+the 8th, 9th, and 10th of July this sentence: "Mark sat by my bedside
+all night."
+
+The time passed on, and no bad news arrived from China, but the mails
+had been intercepted and postal communication suspended. Occasionally,
+however, we received letters by a sailing vessel. At last came
+September, and on the third of that month Mrs. Cooper's baby was born
+and died. She was naturally in great distress about it, and I was doubly
+horrified when I was called from her bedside to receive the news of her
+husband's death, which had taken place from a sudden attack of fever at
+Macao. We did not intend to let Mrs. Cooper hear of this until she was
+convalescent, but as soon as I re-entered her room she broached the
+subject.
+
+"Are there any letters from China?" she asked. (Now this question was
+remarkable in itself, because the mails having been cut off, there was
+no particular date when letters might be expected to arrive from the
+seat of war.) Fearing she would insist upon hearing the news, I
+temporized and answered her, "We have received none." "But there is a
+letter for me," she continued: "a letter with the intelligence of Mark's
+death. It is useless denying it. I know he is dead. He died on the 10th
+of July." And on reference to the official memorandum, this was found to
+be true. Major Cooper had been taken ill on the first day he had
+appeared to his wife, and died on the third. And this incident was the
+more remarkable, because they were neither of them young nor sentimental
+people, neither had they lived long enough together to form any very
+strong sympathy or accord between them. But as I have related it, so it
+occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY FIRST SEANCE.
+
+
+I had returned from India and spent several years in England before the
+subject of Modern Spiritualism was brought under my immediate notice.
+Cursorily I had heard it mentioned by some people as a dreadfully wicked
+thing, diabolical to the last degree, by others as a most amusing
+pastime for evening parties, or when one wanted to get some "fun out of
+the table." But neither description charmed me, nor tempted me to pursue
+the occupation. I had already lost too many friends. Spiritualism (so it
+seemed to me) must either be humbug or a very solemn thing, and I
+neither wished to trifle with it or to be trifled with by it. And after
+twenty years' continued experience I hold the same opinion. I have
+proved Spiritualism _not_ to be humbug, therefore I regard it in a
+sacred light. For, _from whatever cause_ it may proceed, it opens a vast
+area for thought to any speculative mind, and it is a matter of constant
+surprise to me to see the indifference with which the world regards it.
+That it _exists_ is an undeniable fact. Men of science have acknowledged
+it, and the churches cannot deny it. The only question appears to be,
+"_What_ is it, and _whence_ does the power proceed?" If (as many clever
+people assert) from ourselves, then must these bodies and minds of ours
+possess faculties hitherto undreamed of, and which we have allowed to
+lie culpably fallow. If our bodies contain magnetic forces sufficient to
+raise substantial and apparently living forms from the bare earth, which
+our eyes are clairvoyant enough to see, and which can articulate words
+which our ears are clairaudient enough to hear--if, in addition to this,
+our minds can read each other's inmost thoughts, can see what is passing
+at a distance, and foretell what will happen in the future, then are our
+human powers greater than we have ever imagined, and we ought to do a
+great deal more with them than we do. And even regarding Spiritualism
+from _that_ point of view, I cannot understand the lack of interest
+displayed in the discovery, to turn these marvellous powers of the human
+mind to greater account.
+
+To discuss it, however, from the usual meaning given to the word,
+namely, as a means of communication with the departed, leaves me as
+puzzled as before. All Christians acknowledge they have spirits
+independent of their bodies, and that when their bodies die, their
+spirits will continue to live on. Wherein, then, lies the terror of the
+idea that these liberated spirits will have the privilege of roaming the
+universe as they will? And if they argue the _impossibility_ of their
+return, they deny the records which form the only basis of their
+religion. No greater proof can be brought forward of the truth of
+Spiritualism than the truth of the Bible, which teems and bristles with
+accounts of it from beginning to end. From the period when the Lord God
+walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and the angels came to
+Abram's tent, and pulled Lot out of the doomed city; when the witch of
+Endor raised up Samuel, and Balaam's ass spoke, and Ezekiel wrote that
+the hair of his head stood up because "a spirit" passed before him, to
+the presence of Satan with Jesus in the desert, and the reappearance of
+Moses and Elias, the resurrection of Christ Himself, and His talking and
+eating with His disciples, and the final account of John being caught up
+to Heaven to receive the Revelations--_all is Spiritualism, and nothing
+else_. The Protestant Church that pins its faith upon the Bible, and
+nothing but the Bible, cannot deny that the spirits of mortal men have
+reappeared and been recognized upon this earth, as when the graves
+opened at the time of the Christ's crucifixion, and "many bodies of
+those that were dead arose and went into the city, and were seen of
+many." The Catholic Church does not attempt to deny it. All her legends
+and miracles (which are disbelieved and ridiculed by the Protestants
+aforesaid) are founded on the same truth--the miraculous or supernatural
+return (as it is styled) of those who are gone, though I hope to make my
+readers believe, as I do, that there is nothing miraculous in it, and
+far from being _super_natural it is only a continuation of Nature.
+Putting the churches and the Bible, however, on one side, the History of
+Nations proves it to be possible. There is not a people on the face of
+the globe that has not its (so-called) superstitions, nor a family
+hardly, which has not experienced some proofs of spiritual communion
+with earth. Where learning and science have thrust all belief out of
+sight, it is only natural that the man who does not believe in a God nor
+a Hereafter should not credit the existence of spirits, nor the
+possibility of communicating with them. But the lower we go in the scale
+of society, the more simple and childlike the mind, the more readily
+does such a faith gain credence, and the more stories you will hear to
+justify belief. It is just the same with religion, which is hid from the
+wise and prudent, and revealed to babes.
+
+If I am met here with the objection that the term "Spiritualism" has
+been at times mixed up with so much that is evil as to become an
+offence, I have no better answer to make than by turning to the
+irrefragable testimony of the Past and Present to prove that in all
+ages, and of all religions, there have been corrupt and demoralized
+exponents whose vices have threatened to pull down the fabric they lived
+to raise. Christianity itself would have been overthrown before now, had
+we been unable to separate its doctrine from its practice.
+
+I held these views in the month of February, 1873, when I made one of a
+party of friends assembled at the house of Miss Elizabeth Philip, in
+Gloucester Crescent, and was introduced to Mr. Henry Dunphy of the
+_Morning Post_, both of them since gone to join the great majority. Mr.
+Dunphy soon got astride of his favorite hobby of Spiritualism, and gave
+me an interesting account of some of the _seances_ he had attended. I
+had heard so many clever men and women discuss the subject before, that
+I had begun to believe on their authority that there must be "something
+in it," but I held the opinion that sittings in the dark must afford so
+much liberty for deception, that I would engage in none where I was not
+permitted the use of my eyesight.
+
+I expressed myself somewhat after this fashion to Mr. Dunphy. He
+replied, "Then the time has arrived for you to investigate Spiritualism,
+for I can introduce you to a medium who will show you the faces of the
+dead." This proposal exactly met my wishes, and I gladly accepted it.
+Annie Thomas (Mrs. Pender Cudlip,) the novelist, who is an intimate
+friend of mine, was staying with me at the time and became as eager as I
+was to investigate the phenomena. We took the address Mr. Dunphy gave us
+of Mrs. Holmes, the American medium, then visiting London, and lodging
+in Old Quebec Street, Portman Square, but we refused his introduction,
+preferring to go _incognito_. Accordingly, the next evening, when she
+held a public _seance_, we presented ourselves at Mrs. Holmes' door; and
+having first removed our wedding-rings, and tried to look as virginal as
+possible, sent up our names as Miss Taylor and Miss Turner. I am
+perfectly aware that this medium was said afterwards to be
+untrustworthy. So may a servant who was perfectly honest, whilst in my
+service, leave me for a situation where she is detected in theft. That
+does not alter the fact that she stole nothing from me. I do not think I
+know _a single medium_ of whom I have not (at some time or other) heard
+the same thing, and I do not think I know a single woman whom I have not
+also, at some time or other, heard scandalized by her own sex, however
+pure and chaste she may imagine the world holds her. The question
+affects me in neither case. I value my acquaintances for what they are
+_to me_, not for what they may be to others; and I have placed trust in
+my media from what I individually have seen and heard, and proved to be
+genuine in their presence, and not from what others may imagine they
+have found out about them. It is no detriment to my witness that the
+media I sat with cheated somebody else, either before or after. My
+business was only to take care that _I_ was not cheated, and I have
+never, in Spiritualism, accepted anything at the hands of others that I
+could not prove for myself.
+
+Mrs. Holmes did not receive us very graciously on the present occasion.
+We were strangers to her--probably sceptics, and she eyed us rather
+coldly. It was a bitter night, and the snow lay so thick upon the ground
+that we had some difficulty in procuring a hansom to take us from
+Bayswater to Old Quebec Street. No other visitors arrived, and after a
+little while Mrs. Holmes offered to return our money (ten shillings), as
+she said if she did sit with us, there would probably be no
+manifestations on account of the inclemency of the weather. (Often since
+then I have proved her assertion to be true, and found that any extreme
+of heat or cold is liable to make a _seance_ a dead failure).
+
+But Annie Thomas had to return to her home in Torquay on the following
+day, and so we begged the medium to try at least to show us something,
+as we were very curious on the subject. I am not quite sure what I
+expected or hoped for on this occasion. I was full of curiosity and
+anticipation, but I am sure that I never thought I should see any face
+which I could recognize as having been on earth. We waited till nine
+o'clock in hopes that a circle would be formed, but as no one else came,
+Mrs. Holmes consented to sit with us alone, warning us, however, several
+times to prepare for a disappointment. The lights were therefore
+extinguished, and we sat for the usual preliminary dark _seance_, which
+was good, perhaps, but has nothing to do with a narrative of facts,
+proved to be so. When it concluded, the gas was re-lit and we sat for
+"Spirit Faces."
+
+There were two small rooms connected by folding doors. Annie Thomas and
+I, were asked to go into the back room--to lock the door communicating
+with the landings, and secure it with our own seal, stamped upon a piece
+of tape stretched across the opening--to examine the window and bar the
+shutter inside--to search the room thoroughly, in fact, to see that no
+one was concealed in it--and we did all this as a matter of business.
+When we had satisfied ourselves that no one could enter from the back,
+Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, Annie Thomas, and I were seated on four chairs in
+the front room, arranged in a row before the folding doors, which were
+opened, and a square of black calico fastened across the aperture from
+one wall to the other. In this piece of calico was cut a square hole
+about the size of an ordinary window, at which we were told the spirit
+faces (if any) would appear. There was no singing, nor noise of any sort
+made to drown the sounds of preparation, and we could have heard even a
+rustle in the next room. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes talked to us of their
+various experiences, until, we were almost tired of waiting, when
+something white and indistinct like a cloud of tobacco smoke, or a
+bundle of gossamer, appeared and disappeared again.
+
+"They are coming! I _am_ glad!" said Mrs. Holmes. "I didn't think we
+should get anything to-night,"--and my friend and I were immediately on
+the tiptoe of expectation. The white mass advanced and retreated several
+times, and finally settled before the aperture and opened in the
+middle, when a female face was distinctly to be seen above the black
+calico. What was our amazement to recognize the features of Mrs. Thomas,
+Annie Thomas' mother. Here I should tell my readers that Annie's father,
+who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and captain of the coastguard at
+Morston in Norfolk, had been a near neighbor and great friend of my
+father, Captain Marryat, and their children had associated like brothers
+and sisters. I had therefore known Mrs. Thomas well, and recognized her
+at once, as, of course, did her daughter. The witness of two people is
+considered sufficient in law. It ought to be accepted by society. Poor
+Annie was very much affected, and talked to her mother in the most
+incoherent manner. The spirit did not appear able to answer in words,
+but she bowed her head or shook it, according as she wished to say "yes"
+or "no." I could not help feeling awed at the appearance of the dear old
+lady, but the only thing that puzzled me was the cap she wore, which was
+made of white net, quilled closely round her face, and unlike any I had
+ever seen her wear in life. I whispered this to Annie, and she replied
+at once, "It is the cap she was buried in," which settled the question.
+Mrs. Thomas had possessed a very pleasant but very uncommon looking
+face, with bright black eyes, and a complexion of pink and white like
+that of a child. It was some time before Annie could be persuaded to let
+her mother go, but the next face that presented itself astonished her
+quite as much, for she recognized it as that of Captain Gordon, a
+gentleman whom she had known intimately and for a length of time. I had
+never seen Captain Gordon in the flesh, but I had heard of him, and knew
+he had died from a sudden accident. All I saw was the head of a
+good-looking, fair, young man, and not feeling any personal interest in
+his appearance, I occupied the time during which my friend conversed
+with him about olden days, by minutely examining the working of the
+muscles of his throat, which undeniably stretched when his head moved.
+As I was doing so, he leaned forward, and I saw a dark stain, which
+looked like a clot of blood, on his fair hair, on the left side of the
+forehead.
+
+"Annie! what did Captain Gordon die of?" I asked. "He fell from a
+railway carriage," she replied, "and struck his head upon the line." I
+then pointed out to her the blood upon his hair. Several other faces
+appeared, which we could not recognize. At last came one of a gentleman,
+apparently moulded like a bust in plaster of Paris. He had a kind of
+smoking cap upon the head, curly hair, and a beard, but from being
+perfectly colorless, he looked so unlike nature, that I could not trace
+a resemblance to any friend of mine, though he kept on bowing in my
+direction, to indicate that I knew, or had known him. I examined this
+face again and again in vain. Nothing in it struck me as familiar, until
+the mouth broke into a grave, amused smile at my perplexity. In a moment
+I recognized it as that of my dear old friend, John Powles, whose
+history I shall relate _in extenso_ further on. I exclaimed "Powles,"
+and sprang towards it, but with my hasty action the figure disappeared.
+I was terribly vexed at my imprudence, for this was the friend of all
+others I desired to see, and sat there, hoping and praying the spirit
+would return, but it did not. Annie Thomas' mother and friend both came
+back several times; indeed, Annie recalled Captain Gordon so often, that
+on his last appearance the power was so exhausted, his face looked like
+a faded sketch in water-colors, but "Powles" had vanished altogether.
+The last face we saw that night was that of a little girl, and only her
+eyes and nose were visible, the rest of her head and face being
+enveloped in some white flimsy material like muslin. Mrs. Holmes asked
+her for whom she came, and she intimated that it was for me. I said she
+must be mistaken, and that I had known no one in life like her. The
+medium questioned her very closely, and tried to put her "out of court,"
+as it were. Still, the child persisted that she came for me. Mrs. Holmes
+said to me, "Cannot you remember _anyone_ of that age connected with you
+in the spirit world? No cousin, nor niece, nor sister, nor the child of
+a friend?" I tried to remember, but I could not, and answered, "No! no
+child of that age." She then addressed the little spirit. "You have made
+a mistake. There is no one here who knows you. You had better move on."
+So the child did move on, but very slowly and reluctantly. I could read
+her disappointment in her eyes, and after she had disappeared, she
+peeped round the corner again and looked at me, longingly. This was
+"Florence," my dear _lost_ child (as I then called her), who had left me
+as a little infant of ten days old, and whom I could not at first
+recognize as a young girl of ten years. Her identity, however, has been
+proved to me since, beyond all doubt, as will be seen in the chapter
+which relates my reunion with her, and is headed "My Spirit Child." Thus
+ended the first _seance_ at which I ever assisted, and it made a
+powerful impression upon my mind. Mrs. Holmes, in bidding us good-night,
+said, "You two ladies must be very powerful mediums. I never held so
+successful a _seance_ with strangers in my life before." This news
+elated us--we were eager to pursue our investigations, and were
+enchanted to think we could have _seances_ at home, and as soon as Annie
+Thomas took up her residence in London, we agreed to hold regular
+meetings for the purpose. This was the _seance_ that made me a student
+of the psychological phenomena, which the men of the nineteenth century
+term Spiritualism. Had it turned out a failure, I might now have been as
+most men are. _Quien sabe?_ As it was, it incited me to go on and on,
+until I have seen and heard things which at that moment would have
+seemed utterly impossible to me. And I would not have missed the
+experience I have passed through for all the good this world could offer
+me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CURIOUS COINCIDENCES.
+
+
+Before I proceed to write down the results of my private and
+premeditated investigations, I am reminded to say a word respecting the
+permission I received for the pursuit of Spiritualism. As soon as I
+expressed my curiosity on the subject, I was met on all sides with the
+objection that, as I am a Catholic, I could not possibly have anything
+to do with the matter, and it is a fact that the Church strictly forbids
+all meddling with necromancy, or communion with the departed. Necromancy
+is a terrible word, is it not? especially to such people as do not
+understand its meaning, and only associate it with the dead of night and
+charmed circles, and seething caldrons, and the arch fiend, in _propria
+persona_, with two horns and a tail. Yet it seems strange to me that the
+Catholic Church, whose very doctrine is overlaid with Spiritualism, and
+who makes it a matter of belief that the Saints hear and help us in our
+prayers and the daily actions of our lives, and recommends our kissing
+the ground every morning at the feet of our guardian angel, should
+consider it unlawful for us to communicate with our departed relatives.
+I cannot see the difference in iniquity between speaking to John Powles,
+who was and is a dear and trusted friend of mine, and Saint Peter of
+Alcantara, who is an old man whom I never saw in this life. They were
+both men, both mortal, and are both spirits. Again, surely my mother who
+was a pious woman all her life, and is now in the other world, would be
+just as likely to take an interest in my welfare, and to try and promote
+the prospect of our future meeting, as Saint Veronica Guiliani, who is
+my patron. Yet were I to spend half my time in prayer before Saint
+Veronica's altar, asking her help and guidance, I should be doing right
+(according to the Church), but if I did the same thing at my mother's
+grave, or spoke to her at a _seance_, I should be doing wrong. These
+distinctions without a difference were hard nuts to crack, and I was
+bound to settle the matter with my conscience before I went on with my
+investigations.
+
+It is a fact that I have met quite as many Catholics as Protestants
+(especially of the higher classes) amongst the investigators of
+Spiritualism, and I have not been surprised at it, for who could better
+understand and appreciate the beauty of communications from the spirit
+world than members of that Church which instructs us to believe in the
+communion of saints, as an ever-present, though invisible mystery.
+Whether my Catholic acquaintances had received permission to attend
+_seances_ or not, was no concern of mine, but I took good care to
+procure it for myself, and I record it here, because rumors have
+constantly reached me of people having said behind my back that I can be
+"no Catholic" because I am a spiritualist.
+
+My director at that time was Father Dalgairn, of the Oratory at
+Brompton, and it was to him I took my difficulty. I was a very constant
+press writer and reviewer, and to be unable to attend and report on
+spiritualistic meetings would have seriously militated against my
+professional interests. I represented this to the Father, and (although
+under protest) I received his permission to pursue the research in the
+cause of science. He did more than ease my conscience. He became
+interested in what I had to tell him on the subject, and we had many
+conversations concerning it. He also lent me from his own library the
+lives of such saints as had heard voices and seen visions, of those in
+fact who (like myself) had been the victims of "Optical Illusions."
+Amongst these I found the case of Saint Anne-Catherine of Emmerich, so
+like my own, that I began to think that I too might turn out to be a
+saint in disguise. It has not come to pass yet, but there is no knowing
+what may happen.
+
+She used to see the spirits floating beside her as she walked to mass,
+and heard them asking her to pray for them as they pointed to "les
+taches sur leurs robes." The musical instruments used to play without
+hands in her presence, and voices from invisible throats sound in her
+ears, as they have done in mine. I have only inserted this clause,
+however, for the satisfaction of those Catholic acquaintances with whom
+I have sat at _seances_, and who will probably be the first to exclaim
+against the publication of _our_ joint experiences. I trust they will
+acknowledge, after reading it, that I am not worse than themselves,
+though I may be a little bolder in avowing my opinions.
+
+Before I began this chapter, I had an argument with that friend of mine
+called Self (who has but too often worsted me in the Battle of Life), as
+to whether I should say anything about table-rapping or tilting. The
+very fact of so common an article of furniture as a table, as an agent
+of communication with the unseen world, has excited so much ridicule and
+opens so wide a field for chicanery, that I thought it would be wiser to
+drop the subject, and confine myself to those phases of the science or
+art, or religion, or whatever the reader may like to call it, that can
+be explained or described on paper. The philosophers of the nineteenth
+century have invented so many names for the cause that makes a table
+turn round--tilt--or rap--that I feel quite unable (not being a
+philosopher) to cope with them. It is "magnetic force" or "psychic
+force,"--it is "unconscious cerebration" or "brain-reading"--and it is
+exceedingly difficult to tell the outside world of the private reasons
+that convince individuals that the answers they receive are _not_
+emanations from their own brains. I shall not attempt to refute their
+reasonings from their own standpoint. I see the difficulties in the way,
+so much so that I have persistently refused for many years past to sit
+at the table with strangers, for it is only a lengthened study of the
+matter that can possibly convince a person of its truth. I cannot,
+however, see the extreme folly myself of holding communication (under
+the circumstances) through the raps or tilts of a table, or any other
+object. These tiny indications of an influence ulterior to our own are
+not necessarily confined to a table. I have received them through a
+cardboard box, a gentleman's hat, a footstool, the strings of a guitar,
+and on the back of my chair, even on the pillow of my bed. And which,
+amongst the philosophers I have alluded to, could suggest a simpler mode
+of communication?
+
+I have put the question to clever men thus: "Suppose yourself, after
+having been able to write and talk to me, suddenly deprived of the
+powers of speech and touch, and made invisible, so that we could not
+understand each other by signs, what better means than by taps or tilts
+on any article, when the right word or letter is named, could you think
+of by which to communicate with me?"
+
+And my clever men have never been able to propose an easier or more
+sensible plan, and if anybody can suggest one, I should very much like
+to hear of it. The following incidents all took place through the
+much-ridiculed tipping of the table, but managed to knock some sense out
+of it nevertheless. On looking over the note book which I faithfully
+kept when we first held _seances_ at home, I find many tests of identity
+which took place through my own mediumship, and which could not possibly
+have been the effects of thought-reading. I devote this chapter to their
+relation. I hope it will be observed with what admirable caution I have
+headed it. I have a few drops of Scotch blood in me by the mother's
+side, and I think they must have aided me here. "Curious coincidences."
+Why, not the most captious and unbelieving critic of them all can find
+fault with so modest and unpretending a title. Everyone believes in the
+occasional possibility of "curious coincidences."
+
+It was not until the month of June, 1873, that we formed a home circle,
+and commenced regularly to sit together. We became so interested in the
+pursuit, that we used to sit every evening, and sometimes till three and
+four o'clock in the morning, greatly to our detriment, both mental and
+physical. We seldom sat alone, being generally joined by two or three
+friends from outside, and the results were sometimes very startling, as
+we were a strong circle. The memoranda of these sittings, sometimes with
+one party and sometimes with another, extend over a period of years, but
+I shall restrict myself to relating a few incidents that were verified
+by subsequent events.
+
+The means by which we communicated with the influences around us was the
+usual one. We sat round the table and laid our hands upon it, and I (or
+anyone who might be selected for the purpose) spelled over the alphabet,
+and raps or tilts occurred when the desired letter was reached. This in
+reality is not so tedious a process as it may appear, and once used to
+it, one may get through a vast amount of conversation in an hour by this
+means. A medium is soon able to guess the word intended to be spelt, for
+there are not so many after all in use in general conversation.
+
+Some one had come to our table on several occasions, giving the name of
+"Valerie," but refusing to say any more, so we thought she was an idle
+or frivolous spirit, and had been in the habit of driving her away. One
+evening, on the 1st of July, however, our circle was augmented by Mr.
+Henry Stacke, when "Valerie" was immediately spelled out, and the
+following conversation ensued. Mr. Stacke said to me, "Who is this?" and
+I replied carelessly, "O! she's a little devil! She never has anything
+to say." The table rocked violently at this, and the taps spelled out.
+
+"Je ne suis pas diable."
+
+"Hullo! Valerie, so you can talk now! For whom do you come?"
+
+"Monsieur Stacke."
+
+"Where did you meet him?"
+
+"On the Continent."
+
+"Whereabouts?"
+
+"Between Dijon and Macon."
+
+"How did you meet him?"
+
+"In a railway carriage."
+
+"What where you doing there?"
+
+Here she relapsed into French, and said,
+
+"Ce m'est impossible de dire."
+
+At this juncture Mr. Stacke observed that he had never been in a train
+between Dijon and Macon but once in his life, and if the spirit was with
+him then, she must remember what was the matter with their
+fellow-passenger.
+
+"Mais oui, oui--il etait fou," she replied, which proved to be perfectly
+correct. Mr. Stacke also remembered that two ladies in the same carriage
+had been terribly frightened, and he had assisted them to get into
+another. "Valerie" continued, "Priez pour moi."
+
+"Pourquoi, Valerie?"
+
+"Parce que j'ai beaucoup peche."
+
+There was an influence who frequented our society at that time and
+called himself "Charlie."
+
+He stated that his full name had been "Stephen Charles Bernard
+Abbot,"--that he had been a monk of great literary attainments--that he
+had embraced the monastic life in the reign of Queen Mary, and
+apostatized for political reasons in that of Elizabeth, and been "earth
+bound" in consequence ever since.
+
+"Charlie" asked us to sing one night, and we struck up the very vulgar
+refrain of "Champagne Charlie," to which he greatly objected, asking for
+something more serious.
+
+I began, "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon."
+
+"Why, that's as bad as the other," said Charlie. "It was a ribald and
+obscene song in the reign of Elizabeth. The drunken roysterers used to
+sing it in the street as they rolled home at night."
+
+"You must be mistaken, Charlie! It's a well-known Scotch air."
+
+"It's no more Scotch than I am," he replied. "The Scotch say they
+invented everything. It's a tune of the time of Elizabeth. Ask Brinley
+Richards."
+
+Having the pleasure of the acquaintance of that gentleman, who was the
+great authority on the origin of National Ballads, I applied to him for
+the information, and received an answer to say that "Charlie" was right,
+but that Mr. Richards had not been aware of the fact himself until he
+had searched some old MSS. in the British Museum for the purpose of
+ascertaining the truth.
+
+I was giving a sitting once to an officer from Aldershot, a cousin of my
+own, who was quite prepared to ridicule every thing that took place.
+After having teased me into giving him a _seance_, he began by cheating
+himself, and then accused me of cheating him, and altogether tired out
+my patience. At last I proposed a test, though with little hope of
+success.
+
+"Let us ask John Powles to go down to Aldershot," I said, "and bring us
+word what your brother officers are doing."
+
+"O, yes! by Jove! Capital idea! Here! you fellow Powles, cut off to the
+camp, will you, and go to the barracks of the 84th, and let us know what
+Major R---- is doing." The message came back in about three minutes.
+"Major R---- has just come in from duty," spelt out Powles. "He is
+sitting on the side of his bed, changing his uniform trousers for a pair
+of grey tweed."
+
+"I'm sure that's wrong," said my cousin, "because the men are never
+called out at this time of the day."
+
+It was then four o'clock, as we had been careful to ascertain. My cousin
+returned to camp the same evening, and the next day I received a note
+from him to say, "That fellow Powles is a brick. It was quite right.
+R---- was unexpectedly ordered to turn out his company yesterday
+afternoon, and he returned to barracks and changed his things for the
+grey tweed suit exactly at four o'clock."
+
+But I have always found my friend Powles (when he _will_ condescend to
+do anything for strangers, which is seldom) remarkably correct in
+detailing the thoughts and actions of absentees, sometimes on the other
+side of the globe.
+
+I went one afternoon to pay an ordinary social call on a lady named Mrs.
+W----, and found her engaged in an earnest conversation on Spiritualism
+with a stout woman and a commonplace man--two as material looking
+individuals as ever I saw, and who appeared all the more so under a
+sultry August sun. As soon as Mrs. W---- saw me, she exclaimed, "O! here
+is Mrs. Ross-Church. She will tell you all about the spirits. Do, Mrs.
+Ross-Church, sit down at the table and let us have a _seance_."
+
+A _seance_ on a burning, blazing afternoon in August, with two stolid
+and uninteresting, and worse still, _uninterested_ looking strangers,
+who appeared to think Mrs. W---- had a "bee in her bonnet." I
+protested--I reasoned--I pleaded--all in vain. My hostess continued to
+urge, and society places the guest at the mercy of her hostess. So, in
+an evil temper, I pulled off my gloves, and placed my hands
+indifferently on the table. The following words were at once rapped
+out--
+
+"I am Edward G----. Did you ever pay Johnson the seventeen pounds twelve
+you received for my saddlery?"
+
+The gentleman opposite to me turned all sorts of colors, and began to
+stammer out a reply, whilst his wife looked very confused. I asked the
+influence, "Who are you?" It replied, "_He_ knows! His late colonel! Why
+hasn't Johnson received that money?" This is what I call an "awkward"
+coincidence, and I have had many such occur through me--some that have
+driven acquaintances away from the table, vowing vengeance against me,
+and racking their brains to discover _who_ had told me of their secret
+peccadilloes. The gentleman in question (whose name even I do not
+remember) confessed that the identity and main points of the message
+were true, but he did _not_ confide to us whether Johnson had ever
+received that seventeen pounds twelve.
+
+I had a beautiful English greyhound, called "Clytie," a gift from Annie
+Thomas to me, and this dog was given to straying from my house in
+Colville Road, Bayswater, which runs parallel to Portobello Road, a
+rather objectionable quarter, composed of inferior shops, one of which,
+a fried fish shop, was an intolerable nuisance, and used to fill the
+air around with its rich perfume. On one occasion "Clytie" stayed away
+from home so much longer than usual, that I was afraid she was lost in
+good earnest, and posted bills offering a reward for her. "Charlie" came
+to the table that evening and said, "Don't offer a reward for the dog.
+Send for her."
+
+"Where am I to send?" I asked.
+
+"She is tied up at the fried fish shop in Portobello Road. Send the cook
+to see."
+
+I told the servant in question that I had heard the greyhound was
+detained at the fish shop, and sent her to inquire. She returned with
+"Clytie." Her account was, that on making inquiries, the man in the shop
+had been very insolent to her, and she had raised her voice in reply;
+that she had then heard and recognized the sharp, peculiar bark of the
+greyhound from an upper storey, and, running up before the man could
+prevent her, she had found "Clytie" tied up to a bedstead with a piece
+of rope, and had called in a policeman to enable her to take the dog
+away. I have often heard the assertion that Spiritualism is of no
+practical good, and, doubtless, it was never intended to be so, but this
+incident was, at least, an exception to the rule.
+
+When abroad, on one occasion, I was asked by a Catholic Abbe to sit with
+him. He had never seen any manifestations before, and he did not believe
+in them, but he was curious on the subject. I knew nothing of him
+further than that he was a priest, and a Jesuit, and a great friend of
+my sister's, at whose house I was staying. He spoke English, and the
+conversation was carried on in that language. He had told me beforehand
+that if he could receive a perfectly private test, that he should never
+doubt the truth of the manifestations again. I left him, therefore, to
+conduct the investigation entirely by himself, I acting only as the
+medium between him and the influence. As soon as the table moved he put
+his question direct, without asking who was there to answer it.
+
+"Where is my chasuble?"
+
+Now a priest's chasuble, _I_ should have said, must be either hanging in
+the sacristy or packed away at home, or been sent away to be altered or
+mended. But the answer was wide of all my speculations.
+
+"At the bottom of the Red Sea."
+
+The priest started, but continued--
+
+"Who put it there?"
+
+"Elias Dodo."
+
+"What was his object in doing so?"
+
+"He found the parcel a burthen, and did not expect any reward for
+delivering it."
+
+The Abbe really looked as if he had encountered the devil. He wiped the
+perspiration from his forehead, and put one more question.
+
+"Of what was my chasuble made?"
+
+"Your sister's wedding dress."
+
+The priest then explained to me that his sister had made him a chasuble
+out of her wedding dress--one of the forms of returning thanks in the
+Church, but that after a while it became old fashioned, and the Bishop,
+going his rounds, ordered him to get another. He did not like to throw
+away his sister's gift, so he decided to send the old chasuble to a
+priest in India, where they are very poor, and not so particular as to
+fashion. He confided the packet to a man called Elias Dodo, a
+sufficiently singular name, but neither he nor the priest he sent it to
+had ever heard anything more of the chasuble, or the man who promised to
+deliver it.
+
+A young artist of the name of Courtney was a visitor at my house. He
+asked me to sit with him alone, when the table began rapping out a
+number of consonants--a farrago of nonsense, it appeared to me, and I
+stopped and said so. But Mr. Courtney, who appeared much interested,
+begged me to proceed. When the communication was finished, he said to
+me, "This is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard. My father has
+been at the table talking to me in Welsh. He has told me our family
+motto, and all about my birth-place and relations in Wales." I said, "I
+never heard you were a Welshman." "Yes! I am," he replied, "my real name
+is Powell. I have only adopted the name of Courtney for professional
+purposes."
+
+This was all news to me, but had it not been, _I cannot speak Welsh_.
+
+I could multiply such cases by the dozen, but that I fear to tire my
+readers, added to which the majority of them were of so strictly private
+a nature that it would be impossible to put them into print. This is
+perhaps the greatest drawback that one encounters in trying to prove
+the truth of Spiritualism. The best tests we receive are when the very
+secrets of our hearts, which we have not confided to our nearest
+friends, are revealed to us. I could relate (had I the permission of the
+persons most interested) the particulars of a well-known law suit, in
+which the requisite evidence, and names and addresses of witnesses, were
+all given though my mediumship, and were the cause of the case being
+gained by the side that came to me for "information." Some of the
+coincidences I have related in this chapter might, however, be ascribed
+by the sceptical to the mysterious and unknown power of brain reading,
+whatever that may be, and however it may come, apart from mediumship,
+but how is one to account for the facts I shall tell you in my next
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+EMBODIED SPIRITS.
+
+
+I was having a sitting one day in my own house with a lady friend, named
+Miss Clark, when a female spirit came to the table and spelt out the
+name "Tiny."
+
+"Who are you?" I asked, "and for whom do you come?"
+
+"I am a friend of Major M----" (mentioning the full name), "and I want
+your help."
+
+"Are you any relation to Major M----?"
+
+"I am the mother of his child."
+
+"What do you wish me to do for you?"
+
+"Tell him he must go down to Portsmouth and look after my daughter. He
+has not seen her for years. The old woman is dead, and the man is a
+drunkard. She is falling into evil courses. He must save her from them."
+
+"What is your real name?"
+
+"I will not give it. There is no need. He always called me 'Tiny.'"
+
+"How old is your daughter."
+
+"Nineteen! Her name is Emily! I want her to be married. Tell him to
+promise her a wedding trousseau. It may induce her to marry."
+
+The influence divulged a great deal more on the subject which I cannot
+write down here. It was an account of one of those cruel acts of
+seduction by which a young girl had been led into trouble in order to
+gratify a man's selfish lust, and astonished both Miss Clark and myself,
+who had never heard of such a person as "Tiny" before. It was too
+delicate a matter for me to broach to Major M---- (who was a married
+man, and an intimate friend of mine), but the spirit came so many times
+and implored me so earnestly to save her daughter, that at last I
+ventured to repeat the communication to him. He was rather taken aback,
+but confessed it was true, and that the child, being left to his care,
+had been given over to the charge of some common people at Portsmouth,
+and he had not enquired after it for some time past. Neither had he ever
+heard of the death of the mother, who had subsequently married, and had
+a family. He instituted inquiries, however, at once, and found the
+statement to be quite true, and that the girl Emily, being left with no
+better protection than that of the drunken old man, had actually gone
+astray, and not long after she was had up at the police court for
+stabbing a soldier in a public-house--a fit ending for the unfortunate
+offspring of a man's selfish passions. But the strangest part of the
+story to the uninitiated will lie in the fact that the woman whose
+spirit thus manifested itself to two utter strangers, who knew neither
+her history nor her name, was at the time _alive_, and living with her
+husband and family, as Major M---- took pains to ascertain.
+
+And now I have something to say on the subject of communicating with the
+spirits of persons still in the flesh. This will doubtless appear the
+most incomprehensible and fanatical assertion of all, that we wear our
+earthly garb so loosely, that the spirits of people still living in this
+world can leave the body and manifest themselves either visibly or
+orally to others in their normal condition. And yet it is a fact that
+spirits have so visited myself (as in the case I have just recorded),
+and given me information of which I had not the slightest previous idea.
+The matter has been explained to me after this fashion--that it is not
+really the spirit of the living person who communicates, but the spirit,
+or "control," that is nearest to him: in effect what the Church calls
+his "guardian angel," and that this guardian angel, who knows his inmost
+thoughts and desires better even than he knows them himself, is equally
+capable of speaking in his name. This idea of the matter may shift the
+marvel from one pair of shoulders to another, but it does not do away
+with it. If I can receive information of events before they occur (as I
+will prove that I have), I present a nut for the consideration of the
+public jaw, which even the scientists will find difficult to crack. It
+was at one time my annual custom to take my children to the sea-side,
+and one summer, being anxious to ascertain how far the table could be
+made to act without the aid of "unconscious cerebration," I arranged
+with my friends, Mr. Helmore and Mrs. Colnaghi, who had been in the
+habit of sitting with us at home, that _we_ should continue to sit at
+the sea-side on Tuesday evenings as theretofore, and _they_ should sit
+in London on the Thursdays, when I would try to send them messages
+through "Charlie," the spirit I have already mentioned as being
+constantly with us.
+
+The first Tuesday my message was, "Ask them how they are getting on
+without us," which was faithfully delivered at their table on the
+following Thursday. The return message from them which "Charlie" spelled
+out for us on the second Tuesday, was: "Tell her London is a desert
+without her," to which I emphatically, if not elegantly, answered,
+"Fiddle-de-dee!" A few days afterwards I received a letter from Mr.
+Helmore, in which he said, "I am afraid 'Charlie' is already tired of
+playing at postman, for to all our questions about you last Thursday, he
+would only rap out, 'Fiddle-de-dee.'"
+
+The circumstance to which this little episode is but an introduction
+happened a few days later. Mr. Colnaghi and Mr. Helmore, sitting
+together as usual on Thursday evening, were discussing the possibility
+of summoning the spirits of _living persons_ to the table, when
+"Charlie" rapped three times to intimate they could.
+
+"Will you fetch some one for us, Charlie?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Whom will you bring?"
+
+"Mrs. Ross-Church."
+
+"How long will it take you to do so?"
+
+"Fifteen minutes."
+
+It was in the middle of the night when I must have been fast asleep, and
+the two young men told me afterwards that they waited the results of
+their experiment with much trepidation, wondering (I suppose) if I
+should be conveyed bodily into their presence and box their ears well
+for their impertinence. Exactly fifteen minutes afterwards, however, the
+table was violently shaken and the words were spelt out. "I am Mrs.
+Ross-Church. How _dared_ you send for me?" They were very penitent (or
+they said they were), but they described my manner as most arbitrary,
+and said I went on repeating, "Let me go back! Let me go back! There is
+a great danger hanging over my children! I must go back to my children!"
+(And here I would remark _par parenthese_, and in contradiction of the
+guardian angel theory, that I have always found that whilst the spirits
+of the departed come and go as they feel inclined, the spirits of the
+living invariably _beg_ to be sent back again or permitted to go, as if
+they were chained by the will of the medium.) On this occasion I was so
+positive that I made a great impression on my two friends, and the next
+day Mr. Helmore sent me a cautiously worded letter to find out if all
+was well with us at Charmouth, but without disclosing the reason for his
+curiosity.
+
+The _facts_ are, that on the morning of _Friday_, the day _after_ the
+_seance_ in London, my seven children and two nurses were all sitting in
+a small lodging-house room, when my brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Norris,
+came in from ball practice with the volunteers, and whilst exhibiting
+his rifle to my son, accidentally discharged it in the midst of them,
+the ball passing through the wall within two inches of my eldest
+daughter's head. When I wrote the account of this to Mr. Helmore, he
+told me of my visit to London and the words I had spelt out on the
+occasion. But how did I know of the occurrence the _night before_ it
+took place? And if I--being asleep and unconscious--did _not_ know of
+it, "Charlie" must have done so.
+
+My aerial visits to my friends, however, whilst my body was in quite
+another place, have been made still more palpable than this. Once, when
+living in the Regent's Park, I passed a very terrible and painful night.
+Grief and fear kept me awake most of the time, and the morning found me
+exhausted with the emotion I had gone through. About eleven o'clock
+there walked in, to my surprise, Mrs. Fitzgerald (better known as a
+medium under her maiden name of Bessie Williams), who lived in the
+Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush. "I couldn't help coming to you," she
+commenced, "for I shall not be easy until I know how you are after the
+terrible scene you have passed through." I stared at her. "Whom have you
+seen?" I asked. "Who has told you of it?" "Yourself," she replied. "I
+was waked up this morning between two and three o'clock by the sound of
+sobbing and crying in the front garden. I got out of bed and opened the
+window, and then I saw you standing on the grass plat in your
+night-dress and crying bitterly. I asked you what was the matter, and
+you told me so and so, and so and so." And here followed a detailed
+account of all that had happened in my own house on the other side of
+London, with the _very words_ that had been used, and every action that
+had happened. I had seen no one and spoken to no one between the
+occurrence and the time Mrs. Fitzgerald called upon me. If her story was
+untrue, _who_ had so minutely informed her of a circumstance which it
+was to the interest of all concerned to keep to themselves?
+
+When I first joined Mr. d'Oyley Carte's "Patience" Company in the
+provinces, to play the part of "Lady Jane," I understood I was to have
+four days' rehearsal. However, the lady whom I succeeded, hearing I had
+arrived, took herself off, and the manager requested I would appear the
+same night of my arrival. This was rather an ordeal to an artist who had
+never sung on the operatic stage before, and who was not note perfect.
+However, as a matter of obligation, I consented to do my best, but I was
+very nervous. At the end of the second act, during the balloting scene,
+Lady Jane has to appear suddenly on the stage, with the word "Away!" I
+forget at this distance of time whether I made a mistake in pitching the
+note a third higher or lower. I know it was not out of harmony, but it
+was sufficiently wrong to send the chorus astray, and bring my heart up
+into my mouth. It never occurred after the first night, but I never
+stood at the wings again waiting for that particular entrance but I
+"girded my loins together," as it were, with a kind of dread lest I
+should repeat the error. After a while I perceived a good deal of
+whispering about me in the company, and I asked poor Federici (who
+played the colonel) the reason of it, particularly as he had previously
+asked me to stand as far from him as I could upon the stage, as I
+magnetized him so strongly that he couldn't sing if I was near him.
+"Well! do you know," he said to me in answer, "that a very strange thing
+occurs occasionally with reference to you, Miss Marryat. While you are
+standing on the stage sometimes, you appear seated in the stalls.
+Several people have seen it beside myself. I assure you it is true."
+
+"But _when_ do you see me?" I enquired with amazement.
+
+"It's always at the same time," he answered, "just before you run on at
+the end of the second act. Of course it's only an appearance, but it's
+very queer." I told him then of the strange feelings of distrust of
+myself I experienced each night at that very moment, when my spirit
+seems to have preceded myself upon the stage.
+
+I had a friend many years ago in India, who (like many other friends)
+had permitted time and separation to come between us, and alienate us
+from each other. I had not seen him nor heard from him for eleven years,
+and to all appearance our friendship was at an end. One evening the
+medium I have alluded to above, Mrs. Fitzgerald, who was a personal
+friend of mine, was at my house, and after dinner she put her feet up on
+the sofa--a very unusual thing for her--and closed her eyes. She and I
+were quite alone in the drawing-room, and after a little while I
+whispered softly, "Bessie, are you asleep?" The answer came from her
+control "Dewdrop," a wonderfully sharp Red Indian girl. "No! she's in a
+trance. There's somebody coming to speak to you! I don't want him to
+come. He'll make the medium ill. But it's no use. I see him creeping
+round the corner now."
+
+"But why should it make her ill?" I argued, believing we were about to
+hold an ordinary _seance_.
+
+"Because he's a _live_ one, he hasn't passed over yet," replied Dewdrop,
+"and live ones always make my medium feel sick. But it's no use. I can't
+keep him out. He may as well come. But don't let him stay long."
+
+"Who is he, Dewdrop?" I demanded curiously.
+
+"_I_ don't know! Guess _you_ will! He's an old friend of yours, and his
+name is George." Whereupon Bessie Fitzgerald laid back on the sofa
+cushions, and Dewdrop ceased to speak. It was some time before there was
+any result. The medium tossed and turned, and wiped the perspiration
+from her forehead, and pushed back her hair, and beat up the cushions
+and threw herself back upon them with a sigh, and went through all the
+pantomime of a man trying to court sleep in a hot climate. Presently she
+opened her eyes and glanced languidly around her. Her unmistakable
+actions and the name "George" (which was that of my friend, then
+resident in India) had naturally aroused my suspicions as to the
+identity of the influence, and when Bessie opened her eyes, I asked
+softly, "George, is that you?" At the sound of my voice the medium
+started violently and sprung into a sitting posture, and then, looking
+all round the room in a scared manner, she exclaimed, "Where am I? Who
+brought me here?" Then catching sight of me, she continued, "Mrs.
+Ross-Church!--Florence! Is this _your_ room? O! let me go! _Do_ let me
+go!"
+
+This was not complimentary, to say the least of it, from a friend whom I
+had not met for eleven years, but now that I had got him I had no
+intention of letting him go, until I was convinced of his identity. But
+the terror of the spirit at finding himself in a strange place seemed so
+real and uncontrollable that I had the greatest difficulty in persuading
+him to stay, even for a few minutes. He kept on reiterating, "Who
+brought me here? I did not wish to come. Do let me go back. I am so very
+cold" (shivering convulsively), "so very, _very_ cold."
+
+"Answer me a few questions," I said, "and then you shall go. Do you know
+who I am?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you are Florence."
+
+"And what is your name?" He gave it at full length. "And do you care for
+me still?"
+
+"Very much. But let me go."
+
+"In a minute. Why do you never write to me?"
+
+"There are reasons. I am not a free agent. It is better as it is."
+
+"I don't think so. I miss your letters very much. Shall I ever hear from
+you again?"
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"And see you?"
+
+"Yes; but not yet. Let me go now. I don't wish to stay. You are making
+me very unhappy."
+
+If I could describe the fearful manner in which, during this
+conversation, he glanced every moment at the door, like a man who is
+afraid of being discovered in a guilty action, it would carry with it to
+my readers, as it did to me, the most convincing proof that the medium's
+body was animated by a totally different influence from her own. I kept
+the spirit under control until I had fully convinced myself that he knew
+everything about our former friendship and his own present surroundings;
+and then I let him fly back to India, and wondered if he would wake up
+the next morning and imagine he had been laboring under nightmare.
+
+These experiences with the spirits of the living are certainly amongst
+the most curious I have obtained. On more than one occasion, when I
+have been unable to extract the truth of a matter from my acquaintances
+I have sat down alone, as soon as I believed them to be asleep, and
+summoned their spirits to the table and compelled them to speak out.
+Little have they imagined sometimes how I came to know things which they
+had scrupulously tried to hide from me. I have heard that the power to
+summons the spirits of the living is not given to all media, but I have
+always possessed it. I can do so when they are awake as well as when
+they are asleep, though it is not so easy. A gentleman once _dared_ me
+to do this with him, and I only conceal his name because I made him look
+ridiculous. I waited till I knew he was engaged at a dinner-party, and
+then about nine o'clock in the evening I sat down and summoned him to
+come to me. It was some little time before he obeyed, and when he did
+come, he was eminently sulky. I got a piece of paper and pencil, and
+from his dictation I wrote down the number and names of the guests at
+the dinner-table, also the dishes of which he had partaken, and then in
+pity for his earnest entreaties I let him go again. "You are making me
+ridiculous," he said, "everyone is laughing at me."
+
+"But why? What are you doing?" I urged.
+
+"I am standing by the mantel-piece, and I have fallen fast asleep," he
+answered. The next morning he came pell-mell into my presence.
+
+"What did you do to me last night?" he demanded. "I was at the Watts
+Philips, and after dinner I went fast asleep with my head upon my hand,
+standing by the mantel-piece, and they were all trying to wake me and
+couldn't. Have you been playing any of your tricks upon me?"
+
+"I only made you do what you declared I couldn't," I replied. "How did
+you like the white soup and the turbot, and the sweetbreads, etc., etc."
+
+He opened his eyes at my nefariously obtained knowledge, and still more
+when I produced the paper written from his dictation. This is not a
+usual custom of mine--it would not be interesting enough to pursue as a
+custom--but I am a dangerous person to _dare_ to do anything.
+
+The old friend whose spirit visited me through Mrs. Fitzgerald had lost
+a sister to whom he was very tenderly attached before he made my
+acquaintance, and I knew little of her beyond her name. One evening,
+not many months after the interview with him which I have recorded, a
+spirit came to me, giving the name of my friend's sister, with this
+message, "My brother has returned to England, and would like to know
+your address. Write to him to the Club, Leamington, and tell him where
+to find you." I replied, "Your brother has not written to me, nor
+inquired after me for the last eleven years. He has lost all interest in
+me, and I cannot be the first to write to him, unless I am sure that he
+wishes it."
+
+"He has _not_ lost all interest in you," said the spirit; "he thinks of
+you constantly, and I hear him pray for you. He wishes to hear from
+you."
+
+"That may be true," I replied, "but I cannot accept it on your
+authority. If your brother really wishes to renew our acquaintance, let
+him write and tell me so."
+
+"He does not know your address, and I cannot get near enough to him to
+influence him."
+
+"Then things must remain as they are," I replied somewhat testily. "I am
+a public person. He can find out my address, if he chooses to do so."
+
+The spirit seemed to reflect for a moment; then she rapped out, "Wait,
+and I will fetch my brother. He shall come here himself and tell you
+what he thinks about it." In a short time there was a different movement
+of the table, and the name of my old friend was given. After we had
+exchanged a few words, and I had told him I required a test of his
+identity, he asked me to get a pencil and paper, and write from his
+dictation. I did as he requested, and he dictated the following
+sentence, "Long time, indeed, has passed since the days you call to
+mind, but time, however long, does not efface the past. It has never
+made me cease to think of and pray for you as I felt you, too, did think
+of and pray for me. Write to the address my sister gave you. I want to
+hear from you."
+
+Notwithstanding the perspicuity and apparent genuineness of this
+message, it was some time before I could make up my mind to follow the
+directions it gave me. My pride stood in the way to prevent it. _Ten
+days afterwards_, however, having received several more visits from the
+sister, I did as she desired me, and sent a note to her brother to the
+Leamington Club. The answer came by return of post, and contained
+(amongst others) _the identical words_ he had told me to write down.
+Will Mr. Stuart Cumberland, or any other clever man, explain to me
+_what_ or _who_ it was that had visited me ten days beforehand, and
+dictated words which could hardly have been in my correspondent's brain
+before he received my letter? I am ready to accept any reasonable
+explanation of the matter from the scientists, philosophers, chemists,
+or arguists of the world, and I am open to conviction, when my sense
+convinces me, that their reasoning is true. But my present belief is,
+that not a single man or woman will be found able to account on any
+ordinary grounds for such an extraordinary instance of "unconscious
+cerebration."
+
+Being subject to "optical illusions," I naturally had several with
+regard to my spirit child, "Florence," and she always came to me clothed
+in a white dress. One night, however, when I was living alone in the
+Regent's Park, I saw "Florence" (as I imagined) standing in the centre
+of the room, dressed in a green riding habit slashed with orange color,
+with a cavalier hat of grey felt on her head, ornamented with a long
+green feather and a gold buckle. She stood with her back to me, but I
+could see her profile as she looked over her shoulder, with the skirt of
+her habit in her hand. This being a most extraordinary attire in which
+to see "Florence," I felt curious on the subject, and the next day I
+questioned her about it.
+
+"Florence!" I said, "why did you come to me last night in a green riding
+habit?"
+
+"I did not come to you last night, mother! It was my sister Eva."
+
+"Good heavens!" I exclaimed, "is anything wrong with her?"
+
+"No! she is quite well."
+
+"How could she come to me then?"
+
+"She did not come in reality, but her thoughts were much with you, and
+so you saw her spirit clairvoyantly."
+
+My daughter Eva, who was on the stage, was at that time fulfilling a
+stock engagement in Glasgow, and very much employed. I had not heard
+from her for a fortnight, which was a most unusual occurrence, and I had
+begun to feel uneasy. This vision made me more so, and I wrote at once
+to ask her if all was as it should be. Her answer was to this effect: "I
+am so sorry I have had no time to write to you this week, but I have
+been so awfully busy. We play 'The Colleen Bawn' here next week, and I
+have had to get my dress ready for 'Anne Chute.' It's so effective. I
+wish you could see it. _A green habit slashed with orange, and a grey
+felt hat with a long green feather and a big gold buckle._ I tried it on
+the other night, and it looked so nice, etc., etc."
+
+Well, my darling girl had had her wish, and I _had_ seen it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OPTICAL ILLUSIONS.
+
+
+As I have alluded to what my family termed my "optical illusions," I
+think it as well to describe a few of them, which appeared by the
+context to be something more than a mere temporary disturbance of my
+visual organs. I will pass over such as might be traced, truly or
+otherwise, to physical causes, and confine myself to those which were
+subsequently proved to be the reflection of something that, unknown to
+me, had gone before. In 1875 I was much engaged in giving dramatic
+readings in different parts of the country, and I visited Dublin for the
+first time in my life, for that purpose, and put up at the largest and
+best-frequented hotel there. Through the hospitality of the residents
+and the duties of my professional business, I was engaged both day and
+night, and when I _did_ get to bed, I had every disposition to sleep, as
+the saying is, like a "top." But there was something in the hotel that
+would not let me do so. I had a charming bedroom, cheerful, bright and
+pretty, and replete with every comfort, and I would retire to rest "dead
+beat," and fall off to sleep at once, to be waked perhaps half-a-dozen
+times a night by that inexplicable something (or nothing) that rouses me
+whenever I am about to enjoy an "optical illusion," and to see figures,
+sometimes one, sometimes two or three, sometimes a whole group standing
+by my bedside and gazing at me with looks of the greatest astonishment,
+as much as to ask what right I had to be there. But the most remarkable
+part of the matter to me was, that all the figures were those of men,
+and military men, to whom I was too well accustomed to be able to
+mistake. Some were officers and others soldiers, some were in uniform,
+others in undress, but they all belonged to the army, and they all
+seemed to labor under the same feeling of intense surprise at seeing
+_me_ in the hotel. These apparitions were so life-like and appeared so
+frequently, that I grew quite uncomfortable about them, for however
+much one may be used to see "optical illusions," it is not pleasant to
+fancy there are about twenty strangers gazing at one every night as one
+lies asleep. Spiritualism is, or was, a tabooed subject in Dublin, and I
+had been expressly cautioned not to mention it before my new
+acquaintances. However, I could not keep entire silence on this subject,
+and dining _en famille_ one day, with a hospitable family of the name of
+Robinson, I related to them my nightly experiences at the hotel. Father,
+mother, and son exclaimed simultaneously. "Good gracious," they said,
+"don't you know that that hotel was built on the site of the old
+barracks? The house immediately behind it, which formed part of the old
+building, was vacated by its last tenants on account of its being
+haunted. Every evening at the hour the soldiers used to be marched up to
+bed, they heard the tramp, tramp, tramp of the feet ascending the
+staircase."
+
+"That may be," I replied, "but they _knew_ their house stood on the site
+of the barracks, and _I didn't_."
+
+My eldest daughter was spending a holiday with me once after my second
+marriage, and during the month of August. She had been very much
+overworked, and I made her lie in bed till noon. One morning I had been
+to her room at that hour to wake her, and on turning to leave it (in the
+broad daylight, remember), I encountered a man on the landing outside
+her door. He was dressed in a white shirt with black studs down the
+front, and a pair of black cloth trousers. He had dark hair and eyes,
+and small features; altogether, he struck me as having rather a sinister
+and unpleasant appearance. I stood still, with the open door in my hand,
+and gazed at him. He looked at me also for a minute, and then turned and
+walked upstairs to an upper storey where the nursery was situated,
+beckoning me, with a jerk of his hand, to follow him. My daughter
+(remarking a peculiar expression in my eyes, which I am told they assume
+on such occasions) said, "Mother! what do you see?"
+
+"Only a spirit," I answered, "and he has gone upstairs."
+
+"Now, what _is_ the good of seeing them in that way," said Eva, rather
+impatiently (for this dear child always disliked and avoided
+Spiritualism), and I was fain to confess that I really did _not_ know
+the especial good of encountering a sinister-looking gentleman in shirt
+and trousers, on a blazing noon in August. After which the circumstance
+passed from my mind, until recalled again.
+
+A few months later I had occasion to change the children's nurse, and
+the woman who took her place was an Icelandic girl named Margaret
+Thommassen, who had only been in England for three weeks. I found that
+she had been educated far above the average run of domestic servants,
+and was well acquainted with the writings of Swedenborg and other
+authors. One day as I walked up the nursery stairs to visit the children
+in bed, I encountered the same man I had seen outside my daughter's
+room, standing on the upper landing, as though waiting my approach. He
+was dressed as before, but this time his arms were folded across his
+breast and his face downcast, as though he were unhappy about something.
+He disappeared as I reached the landing, and I mentioned the
+circumstance to no one. A few days later, Margaret Thommassen asked me
+timidly if I believed in the possibility of the spirits of the departed
+returning to this earth. When I replied that I did, she appeared
+overjoyed, and said she had never hoped to find anyone in England to
+whom she could speak about it. She then gave me a mass of evidence on
+the subject which forms a large part of the religion of the Icelanders.
+She told me that she felt uneasy about her eldest brother, to whom she
+was strongly attached. He had left Iceland a year before to become a
+waiter in Germany, and had promised faithfully that so long as he lived
+she should hear from him every month, and when he failed to write she
+must conclude he was dead. Margaret told me she had heard nothing from
+him now for three months, and each night when the nursery light was put
+out, someone came and sat at the foot of her bed and sighed. She then
+produced his photograph, and to my astonishment I recognized at once the
+man who had appeared to me some months before I knew that such a woman
+as Margaret Thommassen existed. He was taken in a shirt and trousers,
+just as I had seen him, and wore the same repulsive (to me) and sinister
+expression. I then told his sister that I had already seen him twice in
+that house, and she grew very excited and anxious to learn the truth. In
+consequence I sat with her in hopes of obtaining some news of her
+brother, who immediately came to the table, and told her that he was
+dead, with the circumstances under which he had died, and the address
+where she was to write to obtain particulars. And on Margaret Thommassen
+writing as she was directed, she obtained the practical proofs of her
+brother's death, without which this story would be worthless.
+
+My sister Cecil lives with her family in Somerset, and many years ago I
+went down there to visit her for the first time since she had moved into
+a new house which I had never seen before. She put me to sleep in the
+guest chamber, a large, handsome room, just newly furnished by Oetzmann.
+But I could not sleep in it. The very first night some one walked up and
+down the room, groaning and sighing close to my ears, and he, she, or it
+especially annoyed me by continually touching the new stiff counterpane
+with a "scrooping" sound that set my teeth on edge, and sent my heart up
+into my mouth. I kept on saying, "Go away! Don't come near me!" for its
+proximity inspired me with a horror and repugnance which I have seldom
+felt under similar circumstances. I did not say anything at first to my
+sister, who is rather nervous on the subject of "bogies," but on the
+third night I could stand it no longer, and told her plainly the room
+was haunted, and I wished she would put me in her dressing-room, or with
+her servants, sooner than let me remain there, as I could get no rest.
+Then the truth came out, and she confessed that the last owner of the
+house had committed suicide in that very room, and showed me the place
+on the boards, underneath the carpet, where the stain of his blood still
+remained. A lively sort of room to sleep all alone in.
+
+Another sister of mine, Blanche, used to live in a haunted house in
+Bruges, of which a description will be found in the chapter headed, "The
+Story of the Monk." Long, however, before the monk was heard of, I could
+not sleep in her house on account of the disturbances in my room, for
+which my sister used to laugh at me. But even when my husband, Colonel
+Lean, and I stayed there together, it was much the same. One night I
+waked him to see the figure of a woman, who had often visited me,
+standing at the foot of the bed. She was quaintly attired in a sort of
+leathern boddice or jerkin, laced up the front over a woollen petticoat
+of some dark color. She wore a cap of Mechlin lace, with the large flaps
+at the side, adopted by Flemish women to this day; her hair was combed
+tightly off her forehead, and she wore a profusion of gold ornaments.
+
+My husband could describe her as vividly as I did, which proves how
+plainly the apparition must have shown itself. I waked on several
+occasions to see this woman busy (apparently) with the contents of an
+old carved oak armoir which stood in a corner of the room, and which, I
+suppose, must have had something to do with herself. My eldest son
+joined me at Bruges on this occasion. He was a young fellow of twenty,
+who had never practised, nor even enquired into Spiritualism--fresh from
+sea, and about as free from fear or superstitious fancies as a mortal
+could be. He was put to sleep in a room on the other side of the house,
+and I saw from the first that he was grave about it, but I did not ask
+him the reason, though I felt sure, from personal experience, that he
+would hear or see something before long. In a few days he came to me and
+said--
+
+"Mother! I'm going to take my mattress into the colonel's dressing-room
+to-night and sleep there." I asked him why. He replied, "It's impossible
+to stay in that room any longer. I wouldn't mind if they'd let me sleep,
+but they won't. There's something walks about half the night, whispering
+and muttering, and touching the bed-clothes, and though I don't believe
+in any of your rubbishy spirits, I'll be 'jiggered' if I sleep there any
+longer." So he was not "jiggered" (whatever that may be), as he refused
+to enter the room again.
+
+I cannot end this chapter more appropriately than by relating a very
+remarkable case of "optical illusion" which was seen by myself alone. It
+was in the month of July, 1880, and I had gone down alone to Brighton
+for a week's quiet. I had some important literary work to finish, and
+the exigencies of the London season made too many demands upon my time.
+So I packed up my writing materials, and took a lodging all to myself,
+and set hard to work. I used to write all day and walk in the evening.
+It was light then till eight or nine o'clock, and the Esplanade used to
+be crowded till a late hour. I was pushing my way, on the evening of the
+9th of July, through the crowd, thinking of my work more than anything
+else, when I saw, as I fully thought, my step-son, Francis Lean, leaning
+with his back against the palings at the edge of the cliff and smiling
+at me. He was a handsome lad of eighteen who was supposed to have sailed
+in his ship for the Brazils five months before. But he had been a wild
+young fellow, causing his father much trouble and anxiety, and my first
+impression was one of great annoyance, thinking naturally that, since I
+saw him there, he had never sailed at all, but run away from his ship at
+the last moment. I hastened up to him, therefore, but as I reached his
+side, he turned round quite methodically, and walked quickly down a
+flight of steps that led to the beach. I followed him, and found myself
+amongst a group of ordinary seamen mending their nets, but I could see
+Francis nowhere. I did not know what to make of the occurrence, but it
+never struck me that it was not either the lad himself or some one
+remarkably like him. The same night, however, after I had retired to bed
+in a room that was unpleasantly brilliant with the moonlight streaming
+in at the window, I was roused from my sleep by someone turning the
+handle of my door, and there stood Francis in his naval uniform, with
+the peaked cap on his head, smiling at me as he had done upon the cliff.
+I started up in bed intending to speak to him, when he laid his finger
+on his lips and faded away. This second vision made me think something
+must have happened to the boy, but I determined not to say anything to
+my husband about it until it was verified. Shortly after my return to
+London, we were going, in company with my own son (also a sailor), to
+see his ship which was lying in the docks, when, as we were driving
+through Poplar, I again saw my stepson Francis standing on the pavement,
+and smiling at me. That time I spoke. I said to Colonel Lean, "I am sure
+I saw Francis standing there. Do you think it is possible he may not
+have sailed after all?" But Colonel Lean laughed at the idea. He
+believed it to be a chance likeness I had seen. Only the lad was too
+good-looking to have many duplicates in this world. We visited the
+seaside after that, and in September, whilst we were staying at
+Folkestone, Colonel Lean received a letter to say that his son Francis
+had been drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surf of the Bay of
+Callao, in the Brazils, _on the 9th of July_--the day I had seen him
+twice in Brighton, two months before we heard that he was gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON SCEPTICISM.
+
+
+There are two classes of people who have done more harm to the cause of
+Spiritualism than the testimony of all the scientists has done good, and
+those are the enthusiasts and the sceptics. The first believe everything
+they see or hear. Without giving themselves the trouble to obtain proofs
+of the genuineness of the manifestations, they rush impetuously from one
+acquaintance to the other, detailing their experience with so much
+exaggeration and such unbounded faith, that they make the absurdity of
+it patent to all. They are generally people of low intellect, credulous
+dispositions, and weak nerves. They bow down before the influences as if
+they were so many little gods descended from heaven, instead of being,
+as in the majority of instances, spirits a shade less holy than our own,
+who, for their very shortcomings, are unable to rise above the
+atmosphere that surrounds this gross and material world. These are the
+sort of spiritualists whom _Punch_ and other comic papers have very
+justly ridiculed. Who does not remember the picture of the afflicted
+widow, for whom the medium has just called up the departed Jones?
+
+"Jones," she falters, "are you happy?"
+
+"Much happier than I was down here," growls Jones.
+
+"O! then you _must_ be in heaven!"
+
+"On the contrary, quite the reverse," is the reply.
+
+Who also has not sat a _seance_ where such people have not made
+themselves so ridiculous as to bring the cause they profess to adore
+into contempt and ignominy. Yet to allow the words and deeds of fools to
+affect one's inward and private conviction of a matter would be
+tantamount to giving up the pursuit of everything in which one's fellow
+creatures can take a part.
+
+The second class to which I alluded--the sceptics--have not done so much
+injury to Spiritualism as the enthusiasts, because they are as a rule,
+so intensely bigoted and hard-headed, and narrow-minded, that they
+overdo their protestations, and render them harmless. The sceptic
+refuses to believe _anything_, because he has found out _one_ thing to
+be a fraud. If one medium deceives, all the mediums must deceive. If one
+_seance_ is a failure, none can be successful. If he gains no
+satisfactory test of the presence of the spirits of the departed, no one
+has ever gained such a test. Now, such reason is neither just nor
+logical. Again, a sceptic fully expects _his_ testimony to be accepted
+and believed, yet he will never believe any truth on the testimony of
+another person. And if he is told that, given certain conditions, he can
+see this or hear the other, he says, "No! I will see it and hear it
+without any conditions, or else I will proclaim it all a fraud." In like
+manner, we might say to a savage, on showing him a watch, "If you will
+keep your eye on those hands, you will see them move round to tell the
+hours and minutes," and he should reply, "I must put the watch into
+boiling water--those are my conditions--and if it won't go then, I will
+not believe it can go at all."
+
+I don't mind a man being a sceptic in Spiritualism. I don't see how he
+can help (considering the belief in which we are reared) being a
+sceptic, until he has proved so strange a matter for himself. But I _do_
+object to a man or a woman taking part in a _seance_ with the sole
+intention of detecting deceit, not _when_ it has happened, but before it
+has happened--of bringing an argumentative, disputatious mind, full of
+the idea that it is going to be tricked and humbugged into (perhaps) a
+private circle who are sitting (like Rosa Dartle) "simply for
+information," and scattering all the harmony and good-will about him
+broadcast. He couldn't do it to a human assembly without breaking up the
+party. Why should he expect to be more kindly welcomed by a spiritual
+one? I have seen an immense deal of courtesy shown under such
+circumstances to men whom I should have liked to see kicked downstairs.
+I have seen them enter a lady's private drawing-room, by invitation, to
+witness manifestations which were never, under any circumstances, made a
+means of gain, and have heard them argue, and doubt, and contradict,
+until they have given their hostess and her friends the lie to their
+faces. And the world in general would be quite ready to side with these
+(so-called) gentlemen, not because their word or their wisdom was
+better worth than that of their fellow guests, but because they
+protested against the truth of a thing which it had made up its mind to
+be impossible. I don't mind a sceptic myself, as I said before, but he
+must be unbiassed, which few sceptics are. As a rule, they have decided
+the question at issue for themselves before they commence to investigate
+it.
+
+I find that few people outside the pale of Spiritualism have heard of
+the Dialectical Society, which was a scientific society assembled a few
+years ago for the sole purpose of enquiring into the truth of the
+matter. It was composed of forty members,--ten lawyers, ten scientists,
+ten clergymen, and ten chemists (I think that was the arrangement), and
+they held forty _seances_, and the published report at the close of them
+was, that not one of these men of learning and repute could find any
+natural cause for the wonders he had witnessed. I know that there are a
+thousand obstacles in the way of belief. The extraordinarily
+contradictory manner in which Protestants are brought up, to believe in
+one and the same breath that spirits were common visitants to earth at
+the periods of which the Bible treats, but that it is impossible they
+can return to it now, although the Lord is the same yesterday, to-day,
+and for ever. The conditions of darkness for the creation of
+materialized spirits, and the resemblance they sometimes bear to the
+medium, are two fearful stumbling-blocks. Yet one must know that _all_
+things are created in the dark, and that even a seed cannot sprout if
+you let the light in upon it, while as for the resemblance between the
+spirit and the medium, from whom it takes the material being that
+enables it to appear, if investigators would only persevere with their
+enquiries, they would find, as I have, that that is a disappointment
+which has its remedy in Time. When people call on me to explain such
+things, I can only say that I know no more how they come than they do,
+or that I know how _I_ came, a living, sentient creature, into the
+world. Besides (as I have said before), I write these pages to tell only
+_what I have seen_, and not to argue how it came to pass that I saw it.
+
+I have a little story to tell here which powerfully illustrates the
+foregoing remarks. The lines,
+
+    "A woman convinced against her will
+    Is of the same opinion still,"
+
+might have been penned with as much truth of sceptics. Men who are
+sceptical, _i.e._, so thoroughly wrapt up in conceit of their powers of
+judgment and determination that it becomes impossible for them to
+believe themselves mistaken, will deny the evidence of all their senses
+sooner than confess they may be in the wrong. Such an one may be a
+clever scientist or a shrewd man of business, but he can never be a
+genius. For genius is invariably humble of its own powers, and,
+therefore, open to conviction. But the lesser minds, who are only equal
+to grasping such details as may have been drummed into them by sheer
+force of study, appear to have no capability of stretching beyond a
+certain limit. They are hedged in and cramped by the opinions in which
+they have been reared, or that they have built up for themselves out of
+the petty material their brain affords them, and have lost their powers
+of elasticity. "Thus far shalt thou go and no further," seems to be the
+fiat pronounced on too many men's reasoning faculties. Instead of
+believing the power of God and the resources of nature to be
+illimitable, they want to keep them within the little circle that
+encompasses their own brains. "I can't see it, and therefore it cannot
+be." There was a time when I used to take the trouble to try and
+convince such men, but I have long ceased to do so. It is quite
+indifferent to me what they believe or don't believe. And with such
+minds, even if they _were_ convinced of its possibility, they would
+probably make no good use of spiritual intercourse. For there is no
+doubt it can be turned to evil uses as well as to good.
+
+Some years ago I was on friendly terms with a man of this sort. He was a
+doctor, accounted clever in his profession, and I knew him to be an able
+arguist, and thought he had common sense enough not to eat his own
+words, but the sequel proved that I was mistaken. We had several
+conversations together on Spiritualism, and as Dr. H---- was a complete
+disbeliever in the existence of a God and a future life, I was naturally
+not surprised to find that he did not place any credence in the account
+I gave him of my spiritualistic experiences. Many medical men attribute
+such experiences entirely to a diseased condition of mind or body.
+
+But when I asked Dr. H---- what he should think if he saw them with his
+own eyes, I confess I was startled to hear him answer that he should
+say his eyes deceived him. "But if you heard them speak?" I continued.
+
+"I should disbelieve my ears."
+
+"And if you touched and handled them?"
+
+"I should mistrust my sense of feeling."
+
+"Then by what means," I argued, "do you know that I am Florence Marryat?
+You can only see me and hear me and touch me! What is there to prevent
+your senses misleading you at the present moment?"
+
+But to this argument Dr. H---- only returned a pitying smile, professing
+to think me, on this point at least, too feeble-minded to be worthy of
+reply, but in reality not knowing what on earth to say. He often,
+however, recurred to the subject of Spiritualism, and on several
+occasions told me that if I could procure him the opportunity of
+submitting a test which he might himself suggest, he should be very much
+obliged to me. It was about this time that a young medium named William
+Haxby, now passed away, went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Olive in Ainger
+Terrace, and we were invited to attend a _seance_ given by him. Mrs.
+Olive, when giving the invitation, informed me that Mr. Haxby had been
+very successful in procuring direct writing in sealed boxes, and she
+asked me, if I wished to try the experiment, to take a secured box, with
+writing materials in it, to the _seance_, and see what would happen to
+it.
+
+Here was, I thought, an excellent opportunity for Dr. H----'s test, and
+I sent for him and told him what had been proposed. I urged him to
+prepare the test entirely by himself, and to accompany me to the
+_seance_ and see what occurred,--to all of which he readily consented.
+Indeed, he became quite excited on the subject, being certain it would
+prove a failure; and in my presence he made the following
+preparations:--
+
+I. Half a sheet of ordinary cream-laid note-paper and half a cedar-wood
+black lead pencil were placed in a jeweller's cardwood box.
+
+II. The lid of the box was carefully glued down all round to the bottom
+part.
+
+III. The box was wrapt in white writing paper, which was gummed over it.
+
+IV. It was tied eight times with a peculiar kind of silk made for tying
+up arteries, and the eight knots were knots known to (as Dr. H----
+informed me) medical men only.
+
+V. Each of the eight knots was sealed with sealing-wax, and impressed
+with Dr. H----'s crest seal, which he always wore on his watch-chain.
+
+VI. The packet was again folded in brown paper, and sealed and tied to
+preserve the inside from injury.
+
+When Dr. H---- had finished it, he said to me, "If the spirits (or
+anybody) can write on that paper without cutting the silk, _I will
+believe whatever you wish_." I asked, "Are you _quite_ sure that the
+packet could not be undone without your detecting it?" His answer
+was--"That silk is not to be procured except from a medical man; it is
+manufactured expressly for the tying of arteries; and the knots I have
+made are known only to medical men. They are the knots we use in tying
+arteries. The seal is my own crest, which never leaves my watch-chain,
+and I defy anyone to undo those knots without cutting them, or to tie
+them again, if cut. I repeat--if your friends can make, or cause to be
+made, the smallest mark on that paper, and return me the box in the
+condition it now is, _I will believe anything you choose_." And I
+confess I was very dubious of the result myself, and almost sorry that I
+had subjected the doctor's incredulity to so severe a test.
+
+On the evening appointed we attended the _seance_, Dr. H---- taking the
+prepared packet with him. He was directed to place it under his chair,
+but he tied a string to it and put it under his foot, retaining the
+other end of the string in his hand. The meeting was not one for
+favorably impressing an unbeliever in Spiritualism. There were too many
+people present, and too many strangers. The ordinary manifestations, to
+my mind, are worse than useless, unless they have been preceded by
+extraordinary ones; so that the doctor returned home more sceptical than
+before, and I repented that I had taken him there. One thing had
+occurred, however, that he could not account for. The packet which he
+had kept, as he thought, under his foot the whole time, was found, at
+the close of the meeting, to have disappeared. Another gentleman had
+brought a sealed box, with paper and pencil in it, to the _seance_; and
+at the close it was opened in the presence of all assembled, and found
+to contain a closely written letter from his deceased wife. But the
+doctor's box had evaporated, and was nowhere to be found. The door of
+the room had been locked all the time, and we searched the room
+thoroughly, but without success. Dr. H---- was naturally triumphant.
+
+"They couldn't undo _my_ knots and _my_ seals," he said, exulting over
+me, "and so they wisely did not return the packet. Both packets were of
+course taken from the room during the sitting by some confederate of the
+medium. The other one was easily managed, and put back again--_mine_
+proved unmanageable, and so they have retained it. I _knew_ it would be
+so!"
+
+And he twinkled his eyes at me as much as to say, "I have shut _you_ up.
+You will not venture to describe any of the marvels you have seen to me
+after this." Of course the failure did not discompose me, nor shake my
+belief. I never believed spiritual beings to be omnipotent, omnipresent,
+nor omniscient. They had failed before, and doubtless they would fail
+again. But if an acrobatic performer fails to turn a double somersault
+on to another man's head two or three times, it does not falsify the
+fact that he succeeds on the fourth occasion. I was sorry that the test
+had been a failure, for Dr. H----'s sake, but I did not despair of
+seeing the box again. And at the end of a fortnight it was left at my
+house by Mr. Olive, with a note to say that it had been found that
+morning on the mantel-piece in Mr. Haxby's bedroom, and he lost no time
+in returning it to me. It was wrapt in the brown paper, tied and sealed,
+apparently just as we had carried it to the _seance_ in Ainger Terrace;
+and I wrote at once to Dr. H---- announcing its return, and asking him
+to come over and open it in my presence. He came, took the packet in his
+hand, and having stripped off the outer wrapper, examined it carefully.
+There were four tests, it may be remembered, applied to the packet.
+
+I. The arterial silk, procurable only from a medical man.
+
+II. The knots to be tied only by medical men.
+
+III. Dr. H----'s own crest, always kept on his watch chain, as a seal.
+
+IV. The lid of the cardboard box, glued all round to the bottom part.
+
+As the doctor scrutinized the silk, the knots, and the seals, I watched
+him narrowly.
+
+"Are you _quite sure_," I asked, "that it is the same paper in which you
+wrapt it?"
+
+"I am _quite sure_."
+
+"And the same silk?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"Your knots have not been untied?"
+
+"I am positive that they have not."
+
+"Nor your seal been tampered with?"
+
+"Certainly not! It is just as I sealed it."
+
+"Be careful, Dr. H----," I continued. "Remember I shall write down all
+you say."
+
+"I am willing to swear to it in a court of justice," he replied.
+
+"Then will you open the packet?"
+
+Dr. H---- took the scissors and cut the silk at each seal and knot, then
+tore off the gummed white writing paper (which was as fresh as when he
+had put it on), and tried to pull open the card-board box. But as he
+could not do this in consequence of the lid being glued down, he took
+out his penknife and cut it all round. As he did so, he looked at me and
+said, "Mark my words. There will be nothing written on the paper. It is
+impossible!"
+
+He lifted the lid, and behold _the box was empty_! The half sheet of
+notepaper and the half cedar wood pencil had both _entirely
+disappeared_. Not a crumb of lead, nor a shred of paper remained behind.
+I looked at the doctor, and the doctor looked completely bewildered.
+
+"_Well!_" I said, interrogatively.
+
+He shifted about--grew red--and began to bluster.
+
+"What do you make of it?" I asked. "How do you account for it?"
+
+"In the easiest way in the world," he replied, trying to brave it out.
+"It's the most transparent deception I ever saw. They've kept the thing
+a fortnight and had time to do anything with it. A child could see
+through this. Surely your bright wits can want no help to an
+explanation."
+
+"I am not so bright as you give me credit for," I answered. "Will you
+explain your meaning to me?"
+
+"With pleasure. They have evidently made an invisible slit in the
+joining of the box cover, and with a pair of fine forceps drawn the
+paper through it, bit by bit. For the pencil, they drew that by the same
+means to the slit and then pared it, little by little, with a lancet,
+till they could shake out the fragments."
+
+"That must have required very careful manipulation," I observed.
+
+"Naturally. But they've taken a fortnight to do it in."
+
+"But how about the arterial silk?" I said.
+
+"They must have procured some from a surgeon."
+
+"And your famous knots?"
+
+"They got some surgeon to tie them!"
+
+"But your crest and seal?"
+
+"Oh! they must have taken a facsimile of that in order to reproduce it.
+It is very cleverly done, but quite explicable!"
+
+"But you told me before you opened the packet that you would take your
+oath in a court of justice it had not been tampered with."
+
+"I was evidently deceived."
+
+"And you really believe, then, that an uneducated lad like Mr. Haxby
+would take the trouble to take impressions of seals and to procure
+arterial silk and the services of a surgeon, in order, not to mystify or
+convert _you_, but to gratify _me_, whose box he believes it to be."
+
+"I am sure he has done so!"
+
+"But just now you were equally sure he had _not_ done so. Why should you
+trust your senses in one case more than in the other? And if Mr. Haxby
+has played a trick on me, as you suppose, why did you not discover the
+slit when you examined the box, before opening?"
+
+"Because my eyes misled me!"
+
+"Then after all," I concluded, "the best thing you can say of yourself
+is that you--a man of reputed science, skill, and sense, and with a
+strong belief in your own powers--are unable to devise a test in which
+you shall not be outwitted by a person so inferior to yourself in age,
+intellect and education as young Haxby. But I will give you another
+chance. Make up another packet in any way you like. Apply to it the
+severest tests which your ingenuity can devise, or other men of genius
+can suggest to you, and let me give it to Haxby and see if the contents
+can be extracted, or tampered with a second time."
+
+"It would be useless," said Dr. H----. "If they were extracted through
+the iron panels of a fireproof safe, I would not believe it was done by
+any but natural means."
+
+"Because you do not _wish_ to believe," I argued.
+
+"You are right," he confessed, "I do _not_ wish to believe. If you
+convinced me of the truth of Spiritualism, you would upset all the
+theories I have held for the best part of my life. I don't believe in a
+God, nor a soul, nor a future existence, and I would rather not believe
+in them. We have quite enough trouble, in my opinion, in this life,
+without looking forward to another, and I would rather cling to my
+belief that when we die we have done with it once and for ever."
+
+So there ended my attempt to convince Dr. H----, and I have often
+thought since that he was but a type of the genus sceptic. In this
+world, we mostly believe what we want to believe, and the thought of a
+future troubles us in proportion to the lives we lead here. It must
+often strike spiritualists (who mostly look forward to the day of their
+departure for another world, as a schoolboy looks forward to the
+commencement of the holidays) as a very strange thing, that people, as a
+rule, evince so little curiosity on the subject of Spiritualism. The
+idea of the spirits of the departed returning to this world to hold
+communication with their friends may be a new and startling one to them,
+but the very wonder of it would make one expect to see them evince a
+little interest in a matter which concerns us all. Yet the generality of
+Carlyle's British millions either pooh-pooh the notion as too utterly
+ridiculous for their exalted minds to entertain, or inform you, with
+superior wisdom, that if Spiritualism is true, they cannot see the use
+of it, and have no craving for any further knowledge. If these same
+people expected to go to Canada or Australia in a few months' time, how
+eagerly they would ask questions concerning their future home, and
+procure the best information on what to do, whilst they remained in
+England, in order to fit themselves for the journey and the change.
+
+But a journey to the other world--to the many worlds which perhaps await
+us--a certain proof that we shall live again (or rather, that we shall
+never die but need only time and patience and well-living here to
+reunite us to the dear one gone before)--_that_ is a subject not worthy
+of our trying to believe--of not sufficient importance for us to take
+the trouble of ascertaining. I pity from my soul the men and women who
+have no dead darling buried in their hearts whom they _know_ they shall
+meet in a home of God's own choosing when this life ends.
+
+The old, cold faiths have melted away beneath the sun of Progress. We
+can no longer be made to believe, like little children, in a shadowy
+indefinite Heaven where the saints sit on damp clouds with harps in
+their hands forever singing psalms and hymns and heavenly songs. That
+sort of existence could be a Heaven to none, and to most it would be a
+Hell. We do not accept it now, any more than we do the other place, with
+its typical fire and brimstone, and pitch-forking devils with horns and
+tails. But what has Religion given us instead? Those whose common-sense
+will not permit them to believe in the parson's Heaven and Hell
+generally believe (like Dr. H----) in nothing at all. But Spiritualism,
+earnestly and faithfully followed, leaves us in no doubt. Spiritualists
+know where they are going to. The spheres are almost as familiar to them
+as this earth--it is not too much to say that many live in them as much
+as they do here, and often they seem the more real, as they are the more
+lasting of the two. Spiritualists are in no manner of doubt _who_ their
+eyes will see when opening on another phase of life. _They_ do not
+expect to be carried straight up into Abraham's bosom, and lie snugly
+there, whilst revengeful demons are torturing those who were, perhaps,
+nearest and dearest to them down below. They have a better and more
+substantial religion than that--a revelation that teaches them that the
+works we do in the flesh must bear their fruit in the spirit, and that
+no tardy deathbed repentance, no crying out for mercy because Justice is
+upon us, like an unruly child howling as soon as the stick is produced
+for chastisement--will avail to wipe off the sins we have indulged in
+upon earth. They know their expiation will be a bitter one, yet not
+without Hope, and that they will be helped, as well as help others, in
+the upward path that leads to ultimate perfection. The teaching of
+Spiritualism is such as largely to increase belief in our Divine
+Father's love, our Saviour's pity, and the angels' ministering help. But
+it does more than this, more than any religion has done before. It
+affords the _proof_--the only proof we have ever received, and our
+finite natures can accept--of a future existence. The majority of
+Christians _hope_ and _trust_, and say they _believe_. It is the
+Spiritualist only that _knows_.
+
+I think that the marvellous indifference displayed by the crowd to
+ascertain these truths for themselves must be due, in a large number of
+instances, to the unnatural but universal fear which is entertained of
+Death and all things connected with it. The same people who loudly
+declaim again the possibility of seeing a "ghost," shudder at the idea
+of doing so. The creature whom they have adored and waited on with
+tenderest devotion passes away, and they are afraid to enter the room
+where his body lies. That which they clung to and wept over yesterday,
+they fear to look at or touch to-day, and the idea that he would return
+and speak to them would inspire them with horror. But why afraid of an
+impossibility? Their very fears should teach them that there is a cause.
+From numerous notes made on the subject I have invariably found that
+those who have had the opportunity of testing the reality of
+Spiritualism, and either rejected or denied it, have been selfish,
+worldly, and cold-hearted people who neither care, nor are cared for, by
+those who have passed on to another sphere. Plenty of love is sure to
+bring you plenty of proof. The mourners, who have lost sight of what is
+dearest to them, and would give all they possess for one more look at
+the face they loved so much, or one more tone of the voice that was
+music to their ears, are only too eager and grateful to hear of a way by
+which their longings may be gratified, and would take any trouble and go
+to any expense to accomplish what they desire.
+
+It is this intense yearning to speak again with those that have left us,
+on the part of the bereaved, that has led to chicanery on the part of
+media in order to gratify it. Wherever money is to be made,
+unfortunately cheating will step in; but because some tradesmen will
+sell you brass for gold is no reason to vote all jewellers thieves. The
+account of the raising of Samuel by the witch of Endor is an instance
+that my argument is correct. The witch was evidently an impostor, for
+she had no expectation of seeing Samuel, and was frightened by the
+apparition she had evoked; but Spiritualism must be a truth, because it
+was Samuel himself who appeared and rebuked Saul for calling him back to
+this earth. What becomes, in the face of this story, of the impassable
+gulf between the earthly and spiritual spheres? That atheists who
+believe in nothing should not believe in Spiritualism is credible,
+natural, and consistent. But that Christians should reject the theory is
+tantamount to acknowledging that they found their hopes of salvation
+upon a lie. There is no way of getting out of it. If it be _impossible_
+that the spirits of the departed can communicate with men, the Bible
+must be simply a collection of fabulous statements; if it be _wrong_ to
+speak with spirits, all the men whose histories are therein related were
+sinners, and the Almighty helped them to sin; and if all the spirits who
+have been heard and seen and touched in modern times are devils sent on
+earth to lure us to our destruction, how are we to distinguish between
+them and the Greatest Spirit of all, who walked with mortal Adam and Eve
+in the garden of Eden. "O! yes!" I think I hear somebody cry, "but that
+was in the Bible;" as if the Bible were a period or a place. And did it
+ever strike you that there is something else recorded in the Bible? "And
+He did not many miracles there because of their _unbelief_." And yet
+Christ came to call "not the righteous but the sinners to repentance."
+Surely, then, the unbelieving required the conviction of the miracles
+more than those who knew Him to be God. Yet there He did them not,
+_because_ of their unbelief, because their _scepticism_ produced a
+condition in which miracles could not be wrought. And yet the nineteenth
+century is surprised because a sceptic, whose jarring element upsets all
+union and harmony, is not an acceptable addition to a spiritual meeting,
+and that the miracles of the present--gross and feeble, compared to
+those of the past, because worked by grosser material though grosser
+agents--ceased to be manifested when his unbelief intrudes itself upon
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE STORY OF JOHN POWLES.
+
+
+On the 4th of April, 1860, there died in India a young officer in the
+12th Regiment M.N.I., of the name of John Powles. He was an intimate
+friend of my first husband for several years before his death, and had
+consequently become intimate with me; indeed, on several occasions he
+shared our house and lived with us on the terms of a brother. I was very
+young at that time and susceptible to influence of all sorts--extremely
+nervous, moreover, on the subject of "ghosts," and yet burning with
+curiosity to learn something of the other world--a topic which it is
+most difficult to induce anybody to discuss with you. People will talk
+of dress, or dinner, or their friend's private affairs--of anything, in
+fact, sooner than Death and Immortality and the world to come which we
+must all inevitably enter. Even parsons--the legalized exponents of what
+lies beyond the grave--are no exceptions to the rule. When the bereaved
+sufferer goes to them for comfort, they shake their heads and "hope" and
+"trust," and say "God's mercy has no limits," but they cannot give him
+one reasonable proof to rest upon that Death is but a name. John Powles,
+however, though a careless and irreligious man, liked to discuss the
+Unseen. We talked continually on the subject, even when he was
+apparently in perfect health, and he often ended our conversation by
+assuring me that should he die first (and he always prophesied truly
+that he should not reach the age of thirty) he would (were such a thing
+possible) come back to me. I used to laugh at the absurdity of the idea,
+and remind him how many friends had made the same promise to each other
+and never fulfilled it. For though I firmly believed that such things
+_had_ been, I could not realize that they would ever happen to me, or
+that I should survive the shock if they did. John Powles' death at the
+last was very sudden, although the disease he died of was of long
+standing. He had been under the doctor's hands for a few days when he
+took an unexpected turn for the worse, and my husband and myself, with
+other friends, were summoned to his bedside to say good-bye to him. When
+I entered the room he said to me, "So you see it has come at last. Don't
+forget what I said to you about it." They were his last intelligible
+words to me, though for several hours he grasped my dress with his hand
+to prevent my leaving him, and became violent and unmanageable if I
+attempted to quit his side. During this time, in the intervals of his
+delirium, he kept on entreating me to sing a certain old ballad, which
+had always been a great favorite with him, entitled "Thou art gone from
+my gaze." I am sure if I sung that song once during that miserable day,
+I must have sung it a dozen times. At last our poor friend fell into
+convulsions which recurred with little intermission until his death,
+which took place the same evening.
+
+His death and the manner of it caused me a great shock. He had been a
+true friend to my husband and myself for years, and we both mourned his
+loss very sincerely. That, and other troubles combined, had a serious
+effect upon my health, and the doctors advised my immediate return to
+England. When an officer dies in India, it is the custom to sell all his
+minor effects by auction. Before this took place, my husband asked me if
+there was anything belonging to John Powles that I should like to keep
+in remembrance of him. The choice I made was a curious one. He had
+possessed a dark green silk necktie, which was a favorite of his, and
+when it became soiled I offered to turn it for him, when it looked as
+good as new. Whereupon he had worn it so long that it was twice as dirty
+as before, so I turned it for him the second time, much to the amusement
+of the regiment. When I was asked to choose a keepsake of him, I said,
+"Give me the green tie," and I brought it to England with me.
+
+The voyage home was a terrible affair. I was suffering mentally and
+physically, to such a degree that I cannot think of the time without a
+shudder. John Powles' death, of course, added to my distress, and during
+the many months that occupied a voyage "by long sea," I hoped and
+expected that his spirit would appear to me. With the very strong belief
+in the possibility of the return to earth of the departed--or rather, I
+should say, with my strong belief _in_ my belief--I lay awake night
+after night, thinking to see my lost friend, who had so often promised
+to come back to me. I even cried aloud to him to appear and tell me
+where he was, or what he was doing, but I never heard or saw a single
+thing. There was silence on every side of me. Ten days only after I
+landed in England I was delivered of a daughter, and when I had somewhat
+recovered my health and spirits--when I had lost the physical weakness
+and nervous excitability, to which most medical men would have
+attributed any mysterious sights or sounds I might have experienced
+before--then I commenced to _know_ and to _feel_ that John Powles was
+with me again. I did not see him, but I felt his presence. I used to lie
+awake at night, trembling under the consciousness that he was sitting at
+my bedside, and I had no means of penetrating the silence between us.
+Often I entreated him to speak, but when a low, hissing sound came close
+to my ear, I would scream with terror and rush from my room. All my
+desire to see or communicate with my lost friend had deserted me. The
+very idea was a terror. I was horror-struck to think he had returned,
+and I would neither sleep alone nor remain alone. I was advised to try a
+livelier place than Winchester (where I then resided), and a house was
+taken for me at Sydenham. But there, the sense of the presence of John
+Powles was as keen as before, and so, at intervals, I continued to feel
+it for the space of several years--until, indeed, I became an inquirer
+into Spiritualism as a science.
+
+I have related in the chapter that contains an account of my first
+_seance_, that the only face I recognized as belonging to me was that of
+my friend John Powles, and how excited I became on seeing it. It was
+that recognition that brought back all my old longing and curiosity to
+communicate with the inhabitants of the Unseen World. As soon as I
+commenced investigations in my home circle, John Powles was the very
+first spirit who spoke to me through the table, and from that time until
+the present I have never ceased to hold communion with him. He is very
+shy, however, (as he was, whilst with us) of conversing before
+strangers, and seldom intimates his presence except I am alone. At such
+times, however, he will talk by the hour of all such topics as
+interested him during his earth life.
+
+Soon after it became generally known that I was attending _seances_, I
+was introduced to Miss Showers, the daughter of General Showers of the
+Bombay Army. This young lady, besides being little more than a child--I
+think she was about sixteen when we met--was not a professional medium.
+The _seances_ to which her friends were invited to witness the
+extraordinary manifestations that took place in her presence were
+strictly private. They offered therefore an enormous advantage to
+investigators, as the occurrences were all above suspicion, whilst Miss
+Showers was good enough to allow herself to be tested in every possible
+way. I shall have occasion to refer more particularly to Miss Showers'
+mediumship further on--at present, therefore, I will confine myself to
+those occasions which afforded proofs of John Powles' presence.
+
+Mrs. and Miss Showers were living in apartments when I visited them, and
+there was no means nor opportunity of deceiving their friends, even had
+they had any object in doing so. I must add also, that they knew nothing
+of my Indian life nor experiences, which were things of the past long
+before I met them. At the first sitting Miss Showers gave me for "spirit
+faces," she merely sat on a chair behind the window curtains, which were
+pinned together half-way up, so as to leave a V-shaped opening at the
+top. The voice of "Peter" (Miss Showers' principal control) kept talking
+to us and the medium from behind the curtains all the time, and making
+remarks on the faces as they appeared at the opening. Presently he said
+to me, "Mrs. Ross-Church, here's a fellow says his name is Powles, and
+he wants to speak to you, only he doesn't like to show himself because
+he's not a bit like what he used to be." "Tell him not to mind that," I
+answered, "I shall know him under any circumstances." "Well! if he was
+anything like that, he was a beauty," exclaimed Peter; and presently a
+face appeared which I could not, by any stretch of imagination, decide
+to resemble in the slightest degree my old friend. It was hard, stiff
+and unlifelike. After it had disappeared, Peter said, "Powles says if
+you'll come and sit with Rosie (Miss Showers) often, he'll look quite
+like himself by-and-by," and of course I was only too anxious to accept
+the invitation.
+
+As I was setting out another evening to sit with Miss Showers, the
+thought suddenly occurred to me to put the green necktie in my pocket.
+My two daughters accompanied me on that occasion, but I said nothing to
+them about the necktie. As soon as we had commenced, however, Peter
+called out, "Now, Mrs. Ross-Church, hand over that necktie. Powles is
+coming." "What necktie?" I asked, and he answered, "Why Powles' necktie,
+of course, that you've got in your pocket. He wants you to put it round
+his neck." The assembled party looked at me inquisitively as I produced
+the tie. The face of John Powles appeared, very different from the time
+before, as he had his own features and complexion, but his hair and
+beard (which were auburn during life) appeared phosphoric, as though
+made of living fire. I mounted on a chair and tied the necktie round his
+throat, and asked him if he would kiss me. He shook his head. Peter
+called out, "Give him your hand." I did so, and as he kissed it, his
+moustaches _burned_ me. I cannot account for it. I can only relate the
+fact. After which he disappeared with the necktie, which I have never
+seen since, though we searched the little room for it thoroughly.
+
+The next thing I have to relate about John Powles is so startling that I
+dread the criticism it will evoke; but if I had not startling stories to
+tell, I should not consider them worth writing down. I left my house in
+Bayswater one Sunday evening to dine with Mr. and Mrs. George Neville in
+Regent's Park Terrace, to have a _seance_ afterwards with Miss Showers.
+There was a large company present, and I was placed next to Miss Showers
+at table. During dinner she told me complainingly that her mother had
+gone to Norwood to spend the night, and she (Rosie) was afraid of
+sleeping alone, as the spirits worried her so. In a moment it flashed
+across me to ask her to return to Bayswater and sleep with me, for I was
+most desirous of testing her powers when we were alone together. Miss
+Showers accepted my invitation, and we arranged that she should go home
+with me. After dinner, the guests sat for a _seance_, but to everybody's
+surprise and disappointment, nothing occurred. It was one o'clock in the
+morning when Miss Showers and I entered a cab to return to Bayswater. We
+had hardly started when we were greeted with a loud peal of laughter
+close to our ears. "What's the matter, Peter?" demanded Miss Showers.
+"I can't help laughing," he replied, "to think of their faces when no
+one appeared! Did you suppose I was going to let you waste all your
+power with them, when I knew I was going home with you and Mrs.
+Ross-Church? I mean to show you what a real good _seance_ is to-night."
+
+When we reached home I let myself in with a latchkey. The house was
+full, for I had seven children, four servants, and a married sister
+staying with me; but they were all in bed and asleep. It was cold
+weather, and when I took Miss Showers into my bedroom a fire was burning
+in the grate. My sister was occupying a room which opened into mine; but
+I locked her door and my own, and put the keys under my pillow. Miss
+Showers and I then undressed and got into bed. When we had extinguished
+the gas, we found the room was, comparatively speaking, light, for I had
+stirred the fire into a blaze, and a street lamp just opposite the
+window threw bars of light through the venetian blinds, right across the
+ceiling. As soon as Miss Showers had settled herself in bed, she said,
+"I wonder what Peter is going to do," and I replied, "I hope he won't
+strip off the bed-clothes." We were lying under four blankets, a
+counterpane, and an eider-down _duvet_, and as I spoke, the whole mass
+rose in the air, and fell over the end of the bed, leaving us quite
+unprotected. We got up, lit a candle, and made the bed again, tucking
+the clothes well in all round, but the minute we laid down the same
+thing was repeated. We were rather cross the second time, and abused
+Peter for being so disagreeable, upon which the voice declared he
+wouldn't do it any more, but we shouldn't have provoked him to try. I
+said, "You had much better shew yourself to us, Peter. That is what I
+want you to do." He replied, "Here I am, my dear, close to you!" I
+turned my head, and there stood a dark figure beside the bed, whilst
+another could be plainly distinguished walking about the room. I said,
+"I can't see your face," and he replied, "I'll come nearer to you!" Upon
+this the figure rose in the air until it hung suspended, face downward,
+over the bed. In this position it looked like a huge bat with outspread
+wings. It was still indistinct, except as to substance, but Peter said
+we had exhausted all the phosphorus in our bodies by the long evening we
+had spent, and left him nothing to light himself up with. After a while
+he lowered himself on to the bed, and lay between Miss Showers and
+myself on the outside of the _duvet_. To this we greatly objected, as he
+was very heavy and took up a great deal of room; but it was some time
+before he would go away.
+
+During this manifestation, the other spirit, whom Peter called the
+"Pope," kept walking about and touching everything in the room, which
+was full of ornaments; and Peter called out several times, "Take care,
+Pope! take care! Don't break Mrs. Ross-Church's things." The two made so
+much noise that they waked my sister in the adjoining room, and she
+knocked at the door, asking in an alarmed voice, "Florence! _whom_ have
+you there? You will wake the whole house." When I replied, "Never mind,
+it's only spirits," she gave one fell shriek and dived under her
+bed-clothes. She maintains to this day that she fully believed the steps
+and voices to be human. At last the manifestations became so rapid, as
+many as eight and ten hands touching us at once, that I asked Miss
+Showers if she would mind my tying hers together. She was very amiable
+and consented willingly. I therefore got out of bed again, and having
+securely fastened her hands in the sleeves of the nightdress she wore, I
+sewed them with needle and thread to the mattress. Miss Showers then
+said she felt sleepy, and with her back to me--a position she was
+obliged to maintain on account of her hands being sewn down--she
+apparently dropt off to sleep, though I knew subsequently she was in a
+trance.
+
+For some time afterwards nothing occurred, the figures had disappeared,
+the voices ceased, and I thought the _seance_ was over. Presently,
+however, I felt a hand laid on my head and the fingers began to gently
+stroke and pull the short curls upon my forehead. I whispered, "Who is
+this?" and the answer came back, "Don't you know me? I am Powles! At
+last--at last--after a silence of ten years I see you and speak with you
+again, face to face." "How can I tell this is _your_ hand?" I said.
+"Peter might be materializing a hand in order to deceive me." The hand
+immediately left my head and the _back_ of it passed over my mouth, when
+I felt it was covered with short hair. I then remembered how hairy John
+Powles' hands had become from exposure to the Indian sun whilst
+shooting, and how I had nicknamed him "Esau" in consequence. I
+recollected also that he had dislocated the left wrist with a cricket
+ball. "Let me feel your wrist," I said, and my hand was at once placed
+on the enlarged bone. "I want to trace your hand to where it springs
+from," I next suggested; and on receiving permission I felt from the
+fingers and wrist to the elbow and shoulder, where it terminated _in the
+middle of Miss Showers' back_. Still I was not quite satisfied, for I
+used to find it very hard to believe in the identity of a person I had
+cared for. I was so terribly afraid of being deceived. "I want to see
+your face," I continued. "I cannot show you my face to-night," the voice
+replied, "but you shall feel it;" and the face, with beard and
+moustaches, was laid for a moment against my own. Then the hand was
+replaced on my hair, and whilst it kept on pulling and stroking my
+curls, John Powles' own voice spoke to me of everything that had
+occurred of importance when he and I were friends on earth. Fancy, two
+people who were intimately associated for years, meeting alone after a
+long and painful separation, think of all the private things they would
+talk about together, and you will understand why I cannot write down the
+conversation that took place between us that night here. In order to
+convince me of his identity, John Powles spoke of all the troubles I had
+passed through and was then enduring--he mentioned scenes, both sad and
+merry, which we had witnessed together; he recalled incidents which had
+slipped my memory, and named places and people known only to ourselves.
+Had I been a disbeliever in Spiritualism, that night must have made a
+convert of me. Whilst the voice, in the well-remembered tones of my old
+friend, was speaking, and his hand wandered through my hair, Miss
+Showers continued to sleep, or to appear to sleep, with her back towards
+me, and her hands sewn into her nightdress sleeves, and the sleeves sewn
+down to the bed. But had she been wide awake and with both hands free,
+she could not have spoken to me in John Powles' unforgotten voice of
+things that had occurred when she was an infant and thousands of miles
+away. And I affirm that the voice spoke to me of things that no one but
+John Powles could possibly have known. He did not fail to remind me of
+the promise he had made, and the many times he had tried to fulfil it
+before, and he assured me he should be constantly with me from that
+time. It was daylight before the voice ceased speaking, and then both
+Miss Showers and I were so exhausted, we could hardly raise our heads
+from the pillows. I must not forget to add that when we _did_ open our
+eyes again upon this work-a-day world, we found there was hardly an
+article in the room that had not changed places. The pictures were all
+turned with their faces to the wall--the crockery from the washstand was
+piled in the fender--the ornaments from the mantel-piece were on the
+dressing-table--in fact, the whole room was topsy-turvy.
+
+When Mr. William Fletcher gave his first lecture in England, in the
+Steinway Hall, my husband, Colonel Lean, and I, went to hear him. We had
+never seen Mr. Fletcher before, nor any of his family, nor did he know
+we were amongst the audience. Our first view of him was when he stepped
+upon the platform, and we were seated quite in the body of the hall,
+which was full. It was Mr. Fletcher's custom, after his lecture was
+concluded, to describe such visions as were presented to him, and he
+only asked in return that if the people and places were recognized,
+those who recognized them would be brave enough to say so, for the sake
+of the audience and himself. I can understand that strangers who went
+there and heard nothing that concerned themselves would be very apt to
+imagine it was all humbug, and that those who claimed a knowledge of the
+visions were simply confederates of Mr. Fletcher. But there is nothing
+more true than that circumstances alter cases. I entered Steinway Hall
+as a perfect stranger, and as a press-writer, quite prepared to expose
+trickery if I detected it. And this is what I heard. After Mr. Fletcher
+had described several persons and scenes unknown to me, he took out a
+handkerchief and began to wipe his face, as though he were very warm.
+
+"I am no longer in England, now," he said. "The scene has quite changed,
+and I am taken over the sea, thousands of miles away, and I am in a
+chamber with all the doors and windows open. Oh! how hot it is! I think
+I am somewhere in the tropics. O! I see why I have been brought here! It
+is to see a young man die! This is a death chamber. He is lying on a
+bed. He looks very pale, and he is very near death, but he has only been
+ill a short time. His hair is a kind of golden chestnut color, and he
+has blue eyes. He is an Englishman, and I can see the letter 'P' above
+his head. He has not been happy on earth, and he is quite content to
+die. He pushes all the influences that are round his bed away from him.
+Now I see a lady come and sit down beside him. He holds her hand, and
+appears to ask her to do something, and I hear a strain of sweet music.
+It is a song he has heard in happier times, and on the breath of it his
+spirit passes away. It is to this lady he seems to come now. She is
+sitting on my left about half way down the hall. A little girl, with her
+hands full of blue flowers, points her out to me. The little girl holds
+up the flowers, and I see they are woven into a resemblance of the
+letter F. She tells me that is the initial letter of her mother's name
+and her own. And I see this message written.
+
+"'To my dearest friend, for such you ever were to me from the beginning.
+I have been with you through all your time of trial and sorrow, and I am
+rejoiced to see that a happier era is beginning for you. I am always
+near you. The darkness is fast rolling away, and happiness will succeed
+it. Pray for me, and I shall be near you in your prayers. I pray God to
+bless you and to bless me, and to bring us together again in the summer
+land.'
+
+"And I see the spirit pointing with his hand far away, as though to
+intimate that the happiness he speaks of is only the beginning of some
+that will extend to a long distance of time. I see this scene more
+plainly than any I have ever seen before."
+
+These words were written down at the time they were spoken. Colonel Lean
+and I were sitting in the very spot indicated by Mr. Fletcher, and the
+little girl with the blue flowers was my spirit child, "Florence," whose
+history I shall give in the next chapter. But my communications with
+John Powles, though very extraordinary, were not satisfactory to me. I
+am the "Thomas, surnamed Didymus," of the spiritualistic world, who
+wants to see and touch and handle before I can altogether believe. I
+wanted to meet John Powles and talk with him face to face, and it seemed
+such an impossibility for him to materialize in the light that, after
+his two failures with Miss Showers, he refused to try. I was always
+worrying him to tell me if we should meet in the body before I left this
+world, and his answer was always, "Yes! but not just yet!" I had no idea
+then that I should have to cross the Atlantic before I saw my dear old
+friend again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MY SPIRIT CHILD.
+
+
+The same year that John Powles died, 1860, I passed through the greatest
+trouble of my life. It is quite unnecessary to my narrative to relate
+what that trouble was, nor how it affected me, but I suffered terribly
+both in mind and body, and it was chiefly for this reason that the
+medical men advised my return to England, which I reached on the 14th of
+December, and on the 30th of the same month a daughter was born to me,
+who survived her birth for only ten days. The child was born with a most
+peculiar blemish, which it is necessary for the purpose of my argument
+to describe. On the left side of the upper lip was a mark as though a
+semi-circular piece of flesh had been cut out by a bullet-mould, which
+exposed part of the gum. The swallow also had been submerged in the
+gullet, so that she had for the short period of her earthly existence to
+be fed by artificial means, and the jaw itself had been so twisted that
+could she have lived to cut her teeth, the double ones would have been
+in front. This blemish was considered to be of so remarkable a type that
+Dr. Frederick Butler of Winchester, who attended me, invited several
+other medical men, from Southampton and other places, to examine the
+infant with him, and they all agreed that _a similar case had never come
+under their notice before_. This is a very important factor in my
+narrative. I was closely catechized as to whether I had suffered any
+physical or mental shock, that should account for the injury to my
+child, and it was decided that the trouble I had experienced was
+sufficient to produce it. The case, under feigned names, was fully
+reported in the _Lancet_ as something quite out of the common way. My
+little child, who was baptized by the name of "Florence," lingered until
+the 10th of January, 1861, and then passed quietly away, and when my
+first natural disappointment was over I ceased to think of her except as
+of something which "might have been," but never would be again. In this
+world of misery, the loss of an infant is soon swallowed up in more
+active trouble. Still I never quite forgot my poor baby, perhaps because
+at that time she was happily the "one dead lamb" of my little flock. In
+recounting the events of my first _seance_ with Mrs. Holmes, I have
+mentioned how a young girl much muffled up about the mouth and chin
+appeared, and intimated that she came for me, although I could not
+recognize her. I was so ignorant of the life beyond the grave at that
+period, that it never struck me that the baby who had left me at ten
+days old had been growing since our separation, until she had reached
+the age of ten years. I could not interpret Longfellow (whom I consider
+one of the sublimest spiritualists of the age) as I can now.
+
+    "Day after day we think what she is doing,
+      In those bright realms of air:
+    Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,
+      Behold her grown more fair.
+
+               . . . . .
+
+    "Not as a child shall we again behold her:
+      For when, with rapture wild,
+    In our embraces we again enfold her,
+      She will not be a child;
+    But a fair maiden in her father's mansion,
+      Clothed with celestial grace.
+    And beautiful with all the soul's expansion,
+      Shall we behold her face!"
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first _seance_ made such an impression on my mind that two nights
+afterwards I again presented myself (this time alone) at Mrs. Holmes'
+rooms to attend another. It was a very different circle on the second
+occasion. There were about thirty people present, all strangers to each
+other, and the manifestations were proportionately ordinary. Another
+professional medium, a Mrs. Davenport, was present, as one of her
+controls, whom she called "Bell," had promised, if possible, to show her
+face to her. As soon, therefore, as the first spirit face appeared
+(which was that of the same little girl that I had seen before), Mrs.
+Davenport exclaimed, "There's 'Bell,'" "Why!" I said, "that's the little
+nun we saw on Monday." "O! no! that's my 'Bell,'" persisted Mrs.
+Davenport. But Mrs. Holmes took my side, and was positive the spirit
+came for me. She told me she had been trying to communicate with her
+since the previous _seance_. "I know she is nearly connected with you,"
+she said. "Have you never lost a relation of her age?" "_Never!_" I
+replied; and at that declaration the little spirit moved away,
+sorrowfully as before.
+
+A few weeks after I received an invitation from Mr. Henry Dunphy (the
+gentleman who had introduced me to Mrs. Holmes) to attend a private
+_seance_, given at his own house in Upper Gloucester Place, by the
+well-known medium Florence Cook. The double drawing-rooms were divided
+by velvet curtains, behind which Miss Cook was seated in an arm-chair,
+the curtains being pinned together half-way up, leaving a large aperture
+in the shape of a V. Being a complete stranger to Miss Cook, I was
+surprised to hear the voice of her control direct that _I_ should stand
+by the curtains and hold the lower parts together whilst the forms
+appeared above, lest the pins should give way, and necessarily from my
+position I could hear every word that passed between Miss Cook and her
+guide. The first face that showed itself was that of a man unknown to
+me; then ensued a kind of frightened colloquy between the medium and her
+control. "Take it away. Go away! I don't like you. Don't touch me--you
+frighten me! Go away!" I heard Miss Cook exclaim, and then her guide's
+voice interposed itself, "Don't be silly, Florrie. Don't be unkind. It
+won't hurt you," etc., and immediately afterwards the same little girl I
+had seen at Mrs. Holmes' rose to view at the aperture of the curtains,
+muffled up as before, but smiling with her eyes at me. I directed the
+attention of the company to her, calling her again my "little nun." I
+was surprised, however, at the evident distaste Miss Cook had displayed
+towards the spirit, and when the _seance_ was concluded and she had
+regained her normal condition, I asked her if she could recall the faces
+she saw under trance. "Sometimes," she replied. I told her of the
+"little nun," and demanded the reason of her apparent dread of her. "I
+can hardly tell you," said Miss Cook; "I don't know anything about her.
+She is quite a stranger to me, but her face is not fully developed, I
+think. There is _something wrong about her mouth_. She frightens me."
+
+This remark, though made with the utmost carelessness, set me thinking,
+and after I had returned home, I wrote to Miss Cook, asking her to
+inquire of her guides _who_ the little spirit was.
+
+She replied as follows:
+
+"Dear Mrs. Ross-Church, I have asked 'Katie King,' but she cannot tell
+me anything further about the spirit that came through me the other
+evening than that she is a young girl closely connected with yourself."
+
+I was not, however, yet convinced of the spirit's identity, although
+"John Powles" constantly assured me that it _was_ my child. I tried hard
+to communicate with her at home, but without success. I find in the
+memoranda I kept of our private _seances_ at that period several
+messages from "Powles" referring to "Florence." In one he says, "Your
+child's want of power to communicate with you is not because she is too
+pure, but because she is too weak. She will speak to you some day. She
+is _not_ in heaven." This last assertion, knowing so little as I did of
+a future state, both puzzled and grieved me. I could not believe that an
+innocent infant was not in the Beatific Presence--yet I could not
+understand what motive my friend could have in leading me astray. I had
+yet to learn that once received into Heaven no spirit could return to
+earth, and that a spirit may have a training to undergo, even though it
+has never committed a mortal sin. A further proof, however, that my dead
+child had never died was to reach me from a quarter where I least
+expected it. I was editor of the magazine _London Society_ at that time,
+and amongst my contributors was Dr. Keningale Cook, who had married
+Mabel Collins, the now well-known writer of spiritualistic novels. One
+day Dr. Cook brought me an invitation from his wife (whom I had never
+met) to spend Saturday to Monday with them in their cottage at Redhill,
+and I accepted it, knowing nothing of the proclivities of either of
+them, and they knowing as little of my private history as I did of
+theirs. And I must take this opportunity to observe that, at this
+period, I had never made my lost child the subject of conversation even
+with my most intimate friends. The memory of her life and death, and the
+troubles that caused it, was not a happy one, and of no interest to any
+but myself. So little, therefore, had it been discussed amongst us that
+until "Florence" reappeared to revive the topic, my _elder children were
+ignorant_ that their sister had been marked in any way differently from
+themselves. It may, therefore, be supposed how unlikely it was that
+utter strangers and public media should have gained any inkling of the
+matter. I went down to Redhill, and as I was sitting with the Keningale
+Cooks after dinner, the subject of Spiritualism came on the _tapis_, and
+I was informed that the wife was a powerful trance medium, which much
+interested me, as I had not, at that period, had any experience of her
+particular class of mediumship. In the evening we "sat" together, and
+Mrs. Cook having become entranced, her husband took shorthand notes of
+her utterances. Several old friends of their family spoke through her,
+and I was listening to them in the listless manner in which we hear the
+conversation of strangers, when my attention was aroused by the medium
+suddenly leaving her seat, and falling on her knees before me, kissing
+my hands and face, and sobbing violently the while. I waited in
+expectation of hearing who this might be, when the manifestations as
+suddenly ceased, the medium returned to her seat, and the voice of one
+of her guides said that the spirit was unable to speak through excess of
+emotion, but would try again later in the evening. I had almost
+forgotten the circumstance in listening to other communications, when I
+was startled by hearing the word "_Mother!_" sighed rather than spoken.
+I was about to make some excited reply, when the medium raised her hand
+to enjoin silence, and the following communication was taken down by Mr.
+Cook as she pronounced the words. The sentences in parentheses are my
+replies to her.
+
+"Mother! I am 'Florence.' I must be very quiet. I want to feel I have a
+mother still. I am so lonely. Why should I be so? I cannot speak well. I
+want to be like one of you. I want to feel I have a mother and sisters.
+I am so far away from you all now."
+
+("But I always think of you, my dear dead baby.")
+
+"That's just it--your _baby_. But I'm not a baby now. I shall get
+nearer. They tell me I shall. I do not know if I can come when you are
+alone. It's all so dark. I know you are there, but _so dimly_. I've
+grown _all by myself_. I'm not really unhappy, but I want to get nearer
+you. I know you think of me, but you think of me as a baby. You don't
+know me as I _am_. You've seen me, because in my love I have forced
+myself upon you. I've not been amongst the flowers yet, but I shall be,
+very soon now; but I want _my mother_ to take me there. All has been
+given me that can be given me, but I cannot receive it, except in so
+far----"
+
+Here she seemed unable to express herself.
+
+("Did the trouble I had before your birth affect your spirit,
+Florence?")
+
+"Only as things cause each other. I was with you, mother, all through
+that trouble. I should be nearer to you, _than any child you have_, if I
+could only get close to you."
+
+("I can't bear to hear you speak so sadly, dear. I have always believed
+that _you_, at least, were happy in Heaven.")
+
+"I am _not_ in Heaven! But there will come a day, mother--I can laugh
+when I say it--when we shall go to heaven _together_ and pick blue
+flowers--_blue flowers_. They are so good to me here, but if your eye
+cannot bear the daylight you cannot see the buttercups and daisies."
+
+I did not learn till afterwards that in the spiritual language blue
+flowers are typical of happiness. The next question I asked her was if
+she thought she could write through me.
+
+"I don't seem able to write through you, but why, I know not."
+
+("Do you know your sisters, Eva and Ethel?")
+
+"No! no!" in a weary voice. "The link of sisterhood is only through the
+mother. That kind of sisterhood does not last, because there is a
+higher."
+
+("Do you ever see your father?")
+
+"No! he is far, far away. I went once, not more. Mother, dear, he'll
+love me when he comes here. They've told me so, and they always tell
+truth here! I am but a child, yet not so very little. I seem composed of
+two things--a child in ignorance and a woman in years. Why can't I speak
+at other places? I have wished and tried! I've come very near, but it
+seems so easy to speak now. This medium seems so different."
+
+("I wish you could come to me when I am alone, Florence.")
+
+"You _shall_ know me! I _will_ come, mother, dear. I shall always be
+able to come here. I _do_ come to you, but not in the same way."
+
+She spoke in such a plaintive, melancholy voice that Mrs. Cook, thinking
+she would depress my spirits, said, "Don't make your state out to be
+sadder than it really is." Her reply was very remarkable.
+
+"_I am, as I am!_ Friend! when you come here, if you find that sadness
+_is_, you will not be able to alter it by plunging into material
+pleasures. _Our sadness makes the world we live in._ It is not deeds
+that make us wrong. It is the state in which _we were born_. Mother! you
+say I died sinless. That is nothing. I was born _in a state_. Had I
+lived, I should have caused you more pain than you can know. I am better
+here. I was not fit to battle with the world, and they took me from it.
+Mother! you won't let this make you sad. You must not."
+
+("What can I do to bring you nearer to me?")
+
+"I don't know what will bring me nearer, but I'm helped already by just
+talking to you. There's a ladder of brightness--every step. I believe
+I've gained just one step now. O! the Divine teachings are so
+mysterious. Mother! does it seem strange to you to hear your 'baby' say
+things as if she knew them? I'm going now. Good-bye!"
+
+And so "Florence" went. The next voice that spoke was that of a guide of
+the medium, and I asked her for a personal description of my daughter as
+she then appeared. She replied, "Her face is downcast. We have tried to
+cheer her, but she is very sad. It is the _state in which she was born_.
+Every physical deformity is the mark of a condition. A weak body is not
+necessarily the mark of a weak spirit, but the _prison_ of it, because
+the spirit might be too passionate otherwise. You cannot judge in what
+way the mind is deformed because the body is deformed. It does not
+follow that a canker in the body is a canker in the mind. But the mind
+may be too exuberant--may need a canker to restrain it."
+
+I have copied this conversation, word for word, from the shorthand notes
+taken at the time of utterance; and when it is remembered that neither
+Mrs. Keningale Cook nor her husband knew that I had lost a child--that
+they had never been in my house nor associated with any of my
+friends--it will at least be acknowledged, even by the most sceptical,
+that it was a very remarkable coincidence that I should receive such a
+communication from the lips of a perfect stranger. Only once after this
+did "Florence" communicate with me through the same source. She found
+congenial media nearer home, and naturally availed herself of them. But
+the second occasion was almost more convincing than the first. I went
+one afternoon to consult my solicitor in the strictest confidence as to
+how I should act under some very painful circumstances, and he gave me
+his advice. The next morning as I sat at breakfast, Mrs. Cook, who was
+still living at Redhill, ran into my room with an apology for the
+unceremoniousness of her visit, on the score that she had received a
+message for me the night before which "Florence" had begged her to
+deliver without delay. The message was to this effect: "Tell my mother
+that I was with her this afternoon at the lawyer's, and she is _not_ to
+follow the advice given her, as it will do harm instead of good." Mrs.
+Cook added, "I don't know to what 'Florence' alludes, of course, but I
+thought it best, as I was coming to town, to let you know at once."
+
+The force of this anecdote does not lie in the context. The mystery is
+contained in the fact of a secret interview having been overheard and
+commented upon. But the truth is, that having greater confidence in the
+counsel of my visible guide than in that of my invisible one, I abided
+by the former, and regretted it ever afterwards.
+
+The first conversation I held with "Florence" had a great effect upon
+me. I knew before that my uncontrolled grief had been the cause of the
+untimely death of her body, but it had never struck me that her spirit
+would carry the effects of it into the unseen world. It was a warning to
+me (as it should be to all mothers) not to take the solemn
+responsibility of maternity upon themselves without being prepared to
+sacrifice their own feelings for the sake of their children. "Florence"
+assured me, however, that communion with myself in my improved condition
+of happiness would soon lift her spirit from its state of depression,
+and consequently I seized every opportunity of seeing and speaking with
+her. During the succeeding twelve months I attended numerous _seances_
+with various media, and my spirit child (as she called herself) never
+failed to manifest through the influence of any one of them, though, of
+course, in different ways. Through some she touched me only, and always
+with an infant's hand, that I might recognize it as hers, or laid her
+mouth against mine that I might feel the scar upon her lip; through
+others she spoke, or wrote, or showed her face, but I never attended a
+_seance_ at which she omitted to notify her presence. Once at a dark
+circle, held with Mr. Charles Williams, after having had my dress and
+that of my next neighbor, Lady Archibald Campbell, pulled several times
+as if to attract our attention, the darkness opened before us, and there
+stood my child, smiling at us like a happy dream, her fair hair waving
+about her temples, and her blue eyes fixed on me. She was clothed in
+white, but we saw no more than her head and bust, about which her hands
+held her drapery. Lady Archibald Campbell saw her as plainly as I did.
+On another occasion Mr. William Eglinton proposed to me to try and
+procure the spirit-writing on his arm. He directed me to go into another
+room and write the name of the friend I loved best in the spirit world
+upon a scrap of paper, which I was to twist up tightly and take back to
+him. I did so, writing the name of "John Powles." When I returned to Mr.
+Eglinton, he bared his arm, and holding the paper to the candle till it
+was reduced to tinder, rubbed his flesh with the ashes. I knew what was
+expected to ensue. The name written on the paper was to reappear in red
+or white letters on the medium's arm. The sceptic would say it was a
+trick of thought-reading, and that, the medium knowing what I had
+written, had prepared the writing during my absence. But to his surprise
+and mine, when at last he shook the ashes from his arm, we read, written
+in a bold, clear hand, the words--"Florence is the dearest," as though
+my spirit child had given me a gentle rebuke for writing any name but
+her own. It seems curious to me now to look back and remember how
+melancholy she used to be when she first came back to me, for as soon as
+she had established an unbroken communication between us, she developed
+into the merriest little spirit I have ever known, and though her
+childhood has now passed away, and she is more dignified and thoughtful
+and womanly, she always appears joyous and happy. She has manifested
+largely to me through the mediumship of Mr. Arthur Colman. I had known
+her, during a dark _seance_ with a very small private circle (the medium
+being securely held and fastened the while) run about the room, like the
+child she was, and speak to and kiss each sitter in turn, pulling off
+the sofa and chair covers and piling them up in the middle of the table,
+and changing the ornaments of everyone present--placing the gentlemen's
+neckties round the throats of the ladies, and hanging the ladies'
+earrings in the buttonholes of the gentlemen's coats--just as she might
+have done had she been still with us, a happy, petted child, on earth. I
+have known her come in the dark and sit on my lap and kiss my face and
+hands, and let me feel the defect in her mouth with my own. One bright
+evening on the 9th of July--my birthday--Arthur Colman walked in quite
+unexpectedly to pay me a visit, and as I had some friends with me, we
+agreed to have a _seance_. It was impossible to make the room dark, as
+the windows were only shaded by venetian blinds, but we lowered them,
+and sat in the twilight. The first thing we heard was the voice of
+"Florence" whispering--"A present for dear mother's birthday," when
+something was put into my hand. Then she crossed to the side of a lady
+present and dropped something into her hand, saying, "And a present for
+dear mother's friend!" I knew at once by the feel of it that what
+"Florence" had given me was a chaplet of beads, and knowing how often,
+under similar circumstances, articles are merely carried about a room, I
+concluded it was one which lay upon my drawing-room mantel-piece, and
+said as much. I was answered by the voice of "Aimee," the medium's
+nearest control.
+
+"You are mistaken," she said, "'Florence' has given you a chaplet you
+have never seen before. She was exceedingly anxious to give you a
+present on your birthday, so I gave her the beads which were buried with
+me. They came from my coffin. I held them in my hand. All I ask is, that
+you will not shew them to Arthur until I give you leave. He is not well
+at present, and the sight of them will upset him."
+
+I was greatly astonished, but, of course, I followed her instructions,
+and when I had an opportunity to examine the beads, I found that they
+really were strangers to me, and had not been in the house before. The
+present my lady friend had received was a large, unset topaz. The
+chaplet was made of carved wood and steel. It was not till months had
+elapsed that I was given permission to show it to Arthur Colman. He
+immediately recognized it as the one he had himself placed in the hands
+of "Aimee" as she lay in her coffin, and when I saw how the sight
+affected him, I regretted I had told him anything about it. I offered to
+give the beads up to him, but he refused to receive them, and they
+remain in my possession to this day.
+
+But the great climax that was to prove beyond all question the personal
+identity of the spirit who communicated with me, with the body I had
+brought into the world, was yet to come. Mr. William Harrison, the
+editor of the _Spiritualist_ (who, after seventeen years' patient
+research into the science of Spiritualism, had never received a personal
+proof of the return of his own friends, or relations) wrote me word that
+he had received a message from his lately deceased friend, Mrs. Stewart,
+to the effect that if he would sit with the medium, Florence Cook, and
+one or two harmonious companions, she would do her best to appear to him
+in her earthly likeness and afford him the test he had so long sought
+after. Mr. Harrison asked me, therefore, if I would join him and Miss
+Kidlingbury--the secretary to the British National Association of
+Spiritualists--in holding a _seance_ with Miss Cook, to which I agreed,
+and we met in one of the rooms of the Association for that purpose. It
+was a very small room, about 8 feet by 16 feet, was uncarpeted and
+contained no furniture, so we carried in three cane-bottomed chairs for
+our accommodation. Across one corner of the room, about four feet from
+the floor, we nailed an old black shawl, and placed a cushion behind it
+for Miss Cook to lean her head against. Miss Florence Cook, who is a
+brunette, of a small, slight figure, with dark eyes and hair which she
+wore in a profusion of curls, was dressed in a high grey merino,
+ornamented with crimson ribbons. She informed me previous to sitting,
+that she had become restless during her trances lately, and in the habit
+of walking out amongst the circle, and she asked me as a friend (for
+such we had by that time become) to scold her well should such a thing
+occur, and order her to go back into the cabinet as if she were "a child
+or a dog;" and I promised her I would do so. After Florence Cook had sat
+down on the floor, behind the black shawl (which left her grey merino
+skirt exposed), and laid her head against the cushion, we lowered the
+gas a little, and took our seats on the three cane chairs. The medium
+appeared very uneasy at first, and we heard her remonstrating with the
+influences for using her so roughly. In a few minutes, however, there
+was a tremulous movement of the black shawl, and a large white hand was
+several times thrust into view and withdrawn again. I had never seen
+Mrs. Stewart (for whom we were expressly sitting) in this life, and
+could not, therefore, recognize the hand; but we all remarked how large
+and white it was. In another minute the shawl was lifted up, and a
+female figure crawled on its hands and knees from behind it, and then
+stood up and regarded us. It was impossible, in the dim light and at the
+distance she stood from us, to identify the features, so Mr. Harrison
+asked if she were Mrs. Stewart. The figure shook its head. I had lost a
+sister a few months previously, and the thought flashed across me that
+it might be her. "Is it you, Emily?" I asked; but the head was still
+shaken to express a negative, and a similar question on the part of Miss
+Kidlingbury, with respect to a friend of her own, met with the same
+response. "Who _can_ it be?" I remarked curiously to Mr. Harrison.
+
+"Mother! don't you know me?" sounded in "Florence's" whispering voice. I
+started up to approach her, exclaiming, "O! my darling child! I never
+thought I should meet you here!" But she said, "Go back to your chair,
+and I will come to you!" I reseated myself, and "Florence" crossed the
+room and sat down _on my lap_. She was more unclothed on that occasion
+than any materialized spirit I have ever seen. She wore nothing on her
+head, only her hair, of which she appears to have an immense quantity,
+fell down her back and covered her shoulders. Her arms were bare and her
+feet and part of her legs, and the dress she wore had no shape or style,
+but seemed like so many yards of soft thick muslin, wound round her body
+from the bosom to below the knees. She was a heavy weight--perhaps ten
+stone--and had well-covered limbs. In fact, she was then, and has
+appeared for several years past, to be, in point of size and shape, so
+like her eldest sister Eva, that I always observe the resemblance
+between them. This _seance_ took place at a period when "Florence" must
+have been about seventeen years old.
+
+"Florence, my darling," I said, "is this _really_ you?" "Turn up the
+gas," she answered, "and look at my mouth." Mr. Harrison did as she
+desired, and we all saw distinctly _that peculiar defect on the lip_
+with which she was born--a defect, be it remembered, which some of the
+most experienced members of the profession had affirmed to be "_so rare
+as never to have fallen under their notice before_." She also opened her
+mouth that we might see she had no gullet. I promised at the
+commencement of my book to confine myself to facts, and leave the
+deduction to be drawn from them to my readers, so I will not interrupt
+my narrative to make any remarks upon this incontrovertible proof of
+identity. I know it struck me dumb, and melted me into tears. At this
+juncture Miss Cook, who had been moaning and moving about a good deal
+behind the black shawl, suddenly exclaimed, "I can't stand this any
+longer," and walked out into the room. There she stood in her grey dress
+and crimson ribbons whilst "Florence" sat on my lap in white drapery.
+But only for a moment, for directly the medium was fully in view, the
+spirit sprung up and darted behind the curtain. Recalling Miss Cook's
+injunctions to me, I scolded her heartily for leaving her seat, until
+she crept back, whimpering, to her former position. The shawl had
+scarcely closed behind her before "Florence" reappeared and clung to me,
+saying, "Don't let her do that again. She frightens me so." She was
+actually trembling all over. "Why, Florence," I replied. "Do you mean to
+tell me you are frightened of your medium? In this world it is we poor
+mortals who are frightened of the spirits." "I am afraid she will send
+me away, mother," she whispered. However, Miss Cook did not disturb us
+again, and "Florence" stayed with us for some time longer. She clasped
+her arms round my neck, and laid her head upon my bosom, and kissed me
+dozens of times. She took my hand and spread it out, and said she felt
+sure I should recognize her hand when she thrust it outside the curtain,
+because it was so much like my own. I was suffering much trouble at that
+time, and "Florence" told me the reason God had permitted her to show
+herself to me in her earthly deformity was so that I might be sure that
+she was herself, and that Spiritualism was a truth to comfort me.
+"Sometimes you doubt, mother," she said, "and think your eyes and ears
+have misled you; but after this you must never doubt again. Don't fancy
+I am like this in the spirit land. The blemish left me long ago. But I
+put it on to-night to make you certain. Don't fret, dear mother.
+Remember _I_ am always near you. No one can take _me_ away. Your earthly
+children may grow up and go out into the world and leave you, but you
+will always have your spirit child close to you." I did not, and cannot,
+calculate for how long "Florence" remained visible on that occasion.
+Mr. Harrison told me afterwards that she had remained for nearly twenty
+minutes. But her undoubted presence was such a stupendous fact to me,
+that I could only think that _she was there_--that I actually held in my
+arms the tiny infant I had laid with my own hands in her coffin--that
+she was no more dead than I was myself, but had grown to be a woman. So
+I sat, with my arms tight round her, and my heart beating against hers,
+until the power decreased, and "Florence" was compelled to give me a
+last kiss and leave me stupefied and bewildered by what had so
+unexpectedly occurred. Two other spirits materialized and appeared after
+she had left us, but as neither of them was Mrs. Stewart, the _seance_,
+as far as Mr. Harrison was concerned, was a failure. I have seen and
+heard "Florence" on numerous occasions since the one I have narrated,
+but not with the mark upon her mouth, which she assures me will never
+trouble either of us again. I could fill pages with accounts of her
+pretty, caressing ways and her affectionate and sometimes solemn
+messages; but I have told as much of her story as will interest the
+general reader. It has been wonderful to me to mark how her ways and
+mode of communication have changed with the passing years. It was a
+simple child who did not know how to express itself that appeared to me
+in 1873. It is a woman full of counsel and tender warning that comes to
+me in 1890. But yet she is only nineteen. When she reached that age,
+"Florence" told me she should never grow any older in years or
+appearance, and that she had reached the climax of womanly perfection in
+the spirit world. Only to-night--the night before Christmas Day--as I
+write her story, she comes to me and says, "Mother! you must not give
+way to sad thoughts. The Past is past. Let it be buried in the blessings
+that remain to you."
+
+And amongst the greatest of those blessings I reckon my belief in the
+existence of my spirit-child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE STORY OF EMILY.
+
+
+My sister Emily was the third daughter of my late father, and several
+years older than myself. She was a handsome woman--strictly speaking,
+perhaps, the handsomest of the family, and quite unlike the others. She
+had black hair and eyes, a pale complexion, a well-shaped nose, and
+small, narrow hands and feet. But her beauty had slight detractions--so
+slight, indeed, as to be imperceptible to strangers, but well known to
+her intimate friends. Her mouth was a little on one side, one shoulder
+was half an inch higher than the other, her fingers were not quite
+straight, nor her toes, and her hips corresponded with her shoulders.
+She was clever, with a versatile, all-round talent, and of a very happy
+and contented disposition. She married Dr. Henry Norris of Charmouth, in
+Dorset, and lived there many years before her death. She was an
+excellent wife and mother, a good friend, and a sincere Christian;
+indeed, I do not believe that a more earnest, self-denying, better woman
+ever lived in this world. But she had strong feelings, and in some
+things she was very bigoted. One was Spiritualism. She vehemently
+opposed even the mention of it, declared it to be diabolical, and never
+failed to blame me for pursuing such a wicked and unholy occupation. She
+was therefore about the last person whom I should have expected to take
+advantage of it to communicate with her friends.
+
+My sister Emily died on the 20th of April, 1875. Her death resulted from
+a sudden attack of pleurisy, and was most unexpected. I was sitting at
+an early dinner with my children on the same day when I received a
+telegram from my brother-in-law to say, "Emily very ill; will telegraph
+when change occurs," and I had just despatched an answer to ask if I
+should go down to Charmouth, or could be of any use, when a second
+message arrived, "All is over. She died quietly at two o'clock." Those
+who have received similar shocks will understand what I felt. I was
+quite stunned, and could not realize that my sister had passed away from
+us, so completely unanticipated had been the news. I made the necessary
+arrangements for going down to her funeral, but my head was filled with
+nothing but thoughts of Emily the while, and conjectures of _how_ she
+had died and of _what_ she had died (for that was, as yet, unknown to
+me), and what she had thought and said; above all, what she was thinking
+and feeling at that moment. I retired to rest with my brain in a whirl,
+and lay half the night wide awake, staring into the darkness, and
+wondering where my sister was. _Now_ was the time (if any) for my
+cerebral organs to play me a trick, and conjure up a vision of the
+person I was thinking of. But I saw nothing; no sound broke the
+stillness; my eyes rested only on the darkness. I was quite
+disappointed, and in the morning I told my children so. I loved my
+sister Emily dearly, and I hoped she would have come to wish me
+good-bye. On the following night I was exhausted by want of sleep and
+the emotion I had passed through, and when I went to bed I was very
+sleepy. I had not been long asleep, however, before I was waked up--I
+can hardly say by what--and there at my bedside stood Emily, smiling at
+me. When I lost my little "Florence," Emily had been unmarried, and she
+had taken a great interest in my poor baby, and nursed her during her
+short lifetime, and, I believe, really mourned her loss, for (although
+she had children of her own) she always wore a little likeness of
+"Florence" in a locket on her watch-chain. When Emily died I had of
+course been for some time in communication with my spirit-child, and
+when my sister appeared to me that night, "Florence" was in her arms,
+with her head resting on her shoulder. I recognized them both at once,
+and the only thing which looked strange to me was that Emily's long
+black hair was combed right back in the Chinese fashion, giving her
+forehead an unnaturally high appearance. This circumstance made the
+greater impression on me, because we all have such high foreheads with
+the hair growing off the temples that we have never been able to wear it
+in the style I speak of. With this exception my sister looked beautiful
+and most happy, and my little girl clung to her lovingly. Emily did not
+speak aloud, but she kept on looking down at "Florence," and up at me,
+whilst her lips formed the words, "Little Baby," which was the name by
+which she had always mentioned my spirit-child. In the morning I
+mentioned what I had seen to my elder girls, adding, "I hardly knew dear
+Aunt Emily, with her hair scratched back in that fashion."
+
+This apparition happened on the Wednesday night, and on the Friday
+following I travelled down to Charmouth to be present at the funeral,
+which was fixed for Saturday. I found my sister Cecil there before me.
+As soon as we were alone, she said to me, "I am so glad you came to-day.
+I want you to arrange dear Emily nicely in her coffin. The servants had
+laid her out before my arrival, and she doesn't look a bit like herself.
+But I haven't the nerve to touch her." It was late at night, but I took
+a candle at once and accompanied Cecil to the death-chamber. Our sister
+was lying, pale and calm, with a smile upon her lips, much as she had
+appeared to me, and with _all her black hair combed back from her
+forehead_. The servants had arranged it so, thinking it looked neater.
+It was impossible to make any alteration till the morning, but when our
+dear sister was carried to her grave, her hair framed her dead face in
+the wavy curls in which it always fell when loose; a wreath of flowering
+syringa was round her head, a cross of violets on her breast, and in her
+waxen, beautifully-moulded hands, she held three tall, white lilies. I
+mention this because she has come to me since with the semblance of
+these very flowers to ensure her recognition. After the funeral, my
+brother-in-law gave me the details of her last illness. He told me that
+on the Monday afternoon, when her illness first took a serious turn and
+she became (as he said) delirious, she talked continually to her father,
+Captain Marryat (to whom she had been most reverentially attached), and
+who, she affirmed, was sitting by the side of the bed. Her conversation
+was perfectly rational, and only disjointed when she waited for a reply
+to her own remarks. She spoke to him of Langham and all that had
+happened there, and particularly expressed her surprise at his having _a
+beard_, saying, "Does hair grow up there, father?" I was the more
+impressed by this account, because Dr. Norris, like most medical men,
+attributed the circumstance entirely to the distorted imagination of a
+wandering brain. And yet my father (whom I have never seen since his
+death) has been described to me by various clairvoyants, and always as
+_wearing a beard_, a thing he never did during his lifetime, as it was
+the fashion then for naval officers to wear only side whiskers. In all
+his pictures he is represented as clean shorn, and as he was so well
+known a man, one would think that (were they dissembling) the
+clairvoyants, in describing his personal characteristics, would follow
+the clue given by his portraits.
+
+For some time after my sister Emily's death I heard nothing more of her,
+and for the reasons I have given, I never expected to see her again
+until we met in the spirit-world. About two years after her death,
+however, my husband, Colonel Lean, bought two tickets for a series of
+_seances_ to be held in the rooms of the British National Association of
+Spiritualists under the mediumship of Mr. William Eglinton. This was
+the first time we had ever seen or sat with Mr. Eglinton, but we had
+heard a great deal of his powers, and were curious to test them. On the
+first night, which was a Saturday, we assembled with a party of twelve,
+all complete strangers, in the rooms I have mentioned, which were
+comfortably lighted with gas. Mr. Eglinton, who is a young man inclined
+to stoutness, went into the cabinet, which was placed in the centre of
+us, with spectators all round it. The cabinet was like a large cupboard,
+made of wood and divided into two parts, the partition being of
+wire-work, so that the medium might be padlocked into it, and a curtain
+drawn in front of both sides. After a while, a voice called out to us
+not to be frightened, as the medium was coming out to get more power,
+and Mr. Eglinton, in a state of trance and dressed in a suit of evening
+clothes, walked out of the cabinet and commenced a tour of the circle.
+He touched every one in turn, but did not stop until he reached Colonel
+Lean, before whom he remained for some time, making magnetic passes down
+his face and figure. He then turned to re-enter the cabinet, but as he
+did so, some one moved the curtain from inside and Mr. Eglinton
+_actually held the curtain to one side to permit the materialized form
+to pass out_ before he went into the cabinet himself. The figure that
+appeared was that of a woman clothed in loose white garments that fell
+to her feet. Her eyes were black and her long black hair fell over her
+shoulders. I suspected at the time who she was, but each one in the
+circle was so certain she came for him or for her, that I said nothing,
+and only mentally asked if it were my sister that I might receive a
+proof of her identity. On the following evening (Sunday) Colonel Lean
+and I were "sitting" together, when Emily came to the table to assure us
+that it was she whom we had seen, and that she would appear again on
+Monday and show herself more clearly. I asked her to think of some means
+by which she could prove her identity with the spirit that then spoke to
+us, and she said, "I will hold up my right hand." Colonel Lean cautioned
+me not to mention this promise to any one, that we might be certain of
+the correctness of the test. Accordingly, on the Monday evening we
+assembled for our second _seance_ with Mr. Eglinton, and the same form
+appeared, and walking out much closer to us, _held up the right hand_.
+Colonel Lean, anxious not to be deceived by his own senses, asked the
+company what the spirit was doing. "Cannot you see?" was the answer.
+"She is holding up her hand." On this occasion Emily came with all her
+old characteristics about her, and there would have been no possibility
+of mistaking her (at least on my part) without the proof she had
+promised to give us.
+
+The next startling assurance we received of her proximity happened in a
+much more unexpected manner. We were staying, in the autumn of the
+following year, at a boarding-house in the Rue de Vienne at Brussels,
+with a large party of English visitors, none of whom we had ever seen
+till we entered the house. Amongst them were several girls, who had
+never heard of Spiritualism before, and were much interested in
+listening to the relation of our experiences on the subject. One evening
+when I was not well, and keeping my own room, some of these young ladies
+got hold of Colonel Lean and said, "Oh! do come and sit in the dark with
+us and tell us ghost stories." Now sitting in the dark and telling ghost
+stories to five or six nice looking girls is an occupation few men would
+object to, and they were all soon ensconced in the dark and deserted
+_salle-a-manger_. Amongst them was a young girl of sixteen, Miss Helen
+Hill, who had never shown more interest than the rest in such matters.
+After they had been seated in the dark for some minutes, she said to
+Colonel Lean, "Do you know, I can see a lady on the opposite side of the
+table quite distinctly, and she is nodding and smiling at you." The
+colonel asked what the lady was like. "She is very nice looking,"
+replied the girl, "with dark eyes and hair, but she seems to want me to
+notice her ring. She wears a ring with a large blue stone in it, of such
+a funny shape, and she keeps on twisting it round and round her finger,
+and pointing to it. Oh! now she has got up and is walking round the
+room. Only fancy! she is holding up her feet for me to see. They are
+bare and very white, but her toes are crooked!" Then Miss Hill became
+frightened and asked them to get a light. She declared that the figure
+had come up, close to her, and torn the lace off her wrists. And when
+the light was procured and her dress examined, a frill of lace that had
+been tacked into her sleeve that morning had totally disappeared. The
+young ladies grew nervous and left the room, and Colonel Lean, thinking
+the description Helen Hill had given of the spirit tallied with that of
+my sister Emily, came straight up to me and surprised me by an abrupt
+question as to whether she had been in the habit of wearing any
+particular ring (for he had not seen her for several years before her
+death). I told him that her favorite ring was an uncut turquoise--so
+large and uneven that she used to call it her "potato." "Had she any
+peculiarity about her feet?" he went on, eagerly. "Why do you wish to
+know?" I said. "She had crooked toes, that is all." "Good heavens!" he
+exclaimed, "then she has been with us in the _salle-a-manger_." I have
+never met Miss Hill since, and I am not in a position to say if she has
+evinced any further possession of clairvoyant power; but she certainly
+displayed it on that occasion to a remarkable degree; for she had never
+even heard of the existence of my sister Emily, and was very much
+disturbed and annoyed when told that the apparition she had described
+was reality and not imagination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE STORY OF THE GREEN LADY.
+
+
+The story I have to tell now happened a very short time ago, and every
+detail is as fresh in my mind as if I had heard and seen it yesterday.
+Mrs. Guppy-Volckman has been long known to the spiritualistic world as a
+very powerful medium, also as taking a great private interest in
+Spiritualism, which all media do not. Her means justify her, too, in
+gratifying her whims; and hearing that a certain house in Broadstairs
+was haunted, she became eager to ascertain the truth. The house being
+empty, she procured the keys from the landlord, and proceeded on a
+voyage of discovery alone. She had barely recovered, at the time, from a
+most dangerous illness, which had left a partial paralysis of the lower
+limbs behind it; it was therefore with considerable difficulty that she
+gained the drawing-room of the house, which was on the first floor, and
+when there she abandoned her crutches, and sat down on the floor to
+recover herself. Mrs. Volckman was now perfectly alone. She had closed
+the front door after her, and she was moreover almost helpless, as it
+was with great difficulty that she could rise without assistance. It was
+on a summer's evening towards the dusky hour, and she sat on the bare
+floor of the empty house waiting to see what might happen. After some
+time (I tell this part of the story as I received it from her lips) she
+heard a rustling or sweeping sound, as of a long silk train coming down
+the uncarpeted stairs from the upper storey. The room in which she sat
+communicated with another, which led out upon the passage, and it was
+not long before the door between these two apartments opened and the
+figure of a woman appeared. She entered the room in which Mrs. Volckman
+sat, very cautiously, and commenced to walk round it, feeling her way
+along the walls as though she were blind or tipsy. She was dressed in a
+green satin robe that swept behind her--round the upper part of her body
+was a kind of scarf of glistening white material, like silk gauze--and
+on her head was a black velvet cap, or coif, from underneath which her
+long black hair fell down her back. Mrs. Volckman, although used all her
+life to manifestations and apparitions of all sorts, told me she had
+never felt so frightened at the sight of one before. She attempted to
+rise, but feeling her incapability of doing so quickly, she screamed
+with fear. As soon as she did so, the woman turned round and ran out of
+the room, apparently as frightened as herself. Mrs. Volckman got hold of
+her crutches, scrambled to her feet, found her way downstairs, and
+reached the outside of the house in safety. Most people would never have
+entered it again. She, on the contrary, had an interview with the
+landlord, and actually, then and there, purchased a lease of the house
+and entered upon possession, and as soon as it was furnished and ready
+for occupation, she invited a party of friends to go down and stay with
+her at Broadstairs, and make the acquaintance of the "Green Lady," as we
+had christened her. Colonel Lean and I were amongst the visitors, the
+others consisting of Lady Archibald Campbell, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Olive,
+Mrs. Bellew, Colonel Greck, Mr. Charles Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry
+Volckman, which, with our host and hostess, made up a circle of twelve.
+We assembled there on a bright day in July, and the house, with its
+large rooms and windows facing the sea, looked cheerful enough. The room
+in which Mrs. Volckman had seen the apparition was furnished as a
+drawing-room, and the room adjoining it, which was divided by a
+_portiere_ only from the larger apartment, she had converted for
+convenience sake into her bedroom. The first evening we sat it was about
+seven o'clock, and so light that we let down all the venetians, which,
+however, did little to remedy the evil. We had no cabinet, nor curtains,
+nor darkness, for it was full moon at the time, and the dancing,
+sparkling waves were quite visible through the interstices of the
+venetians. We simply sat round the table, holding hands in an unbroken
+circle and laughing and chatting with each other. In a few minutes Mrs.
+Volckman said something was rising beside her from the carpet, and in a
+few more the "Green Lady" was visible to us all standing between the
+medium and Mr. Williams. She was just as she had been described to us,
+both in dress and appearance, but her face was as white and as cold as
+that of a corpse, and her eyes were closed. She leaned over the table
+and brought her face close to each of us in turn, but she seemed to have
+no power of speech. After staying with us about ten minutes, she sunk as
+she had risen, through the carpet, and disappeared. The next evening,
+under precisely similar circumstances, she came again. This time she had
+evidently gained more vitality in a materialized condition, for when I
+urged her to tell me her name, she whispered, though with much
+difficulty, "Julia!" and when Lady Archibald observed that she thought
+she had no hands, the spirit suddenly thrust out a little hand, and
+grasped the curls on her forehead with a violence that gave her pain.
+Unfortunately, Mr. Williams' professional engagements compelled him to
+leave us on the following day, and Mrs. Volckman had been too recently
+ill to permit her to sit alone, so that we were not able to hold another
+_seance_ for the "Green Lady" during our visit. But we had not seen the
+last of her. One evening Mrs. Bellew and I were sitting in the bay
+window of the drawing-room, just "between the lights," and discussing a
+very private matter indeed, when I saw (as I thought) my hostess maid
+raise the _portiere_ that hung between the apartments and stand there in
+a listening attitude. I immediately gave Mrs. Volckman the hint. "Let us
+talk of something else," I said, in a low voice. "Jane is in your
+bedroom." "O! no! she's not," was the reply. "But I saw her lift the
+_portiere_," I persisted; "she has only just dropped it." "You are
+mistaken," replied my hostess, "for Jane has gone on the beach with the
+child." I felt sure I had _not_ been mistaken, but I held my tongue and
+said no more. The conversation was resumed, and as we were deep in the
+delicate matter, the woman appeared for the second time.
+
+"Mrs. Volckman," I whispered, "Jane is really there. She has just looked
+in again."
+
+My friend rose from her seat. "Come with me," she said, "and I will
+convince you that you are wrong."
+
+I followed her into the bedroom, where she showed me that the door
+communicating with the passage was locked _inside_.
+
+"Now, do you see," she continued, "that no one but the 'Green Lady'
+could enter this room but through the one we are sitting in."
+
+"Then it must have been the 'Green Lady,'" I replied, "for I assuredly
+saw a woman standing in the doorway."
+
+"That is likely enough," said Mrs. Volckman; "but if she comes again she
+shall have the trouble of drawing back the curtains."
+
+And thereupon she unhooped the _portiere_, which consisted of two
+curtains, and drew them right across the door. We had hardly regained
+our seats in the bay window before the two curtains were sharply drawn
+aside, making the brass rings rattle on the rod, and the "Green Lady"
+stood in the opening we had just passed through. Mrs. Volckman told her
+not to be afraid, but to come out and speak to us; but she was
+apparently not equal to doing so, and only stood there for a few minutes
+gazing at us. I imprudently left my seat and approached her, with a view
+to making overtures of friendship, when she dropped the curtains over
+her figure. I passed through them immediately to the other side, and
+found the bedroom empty and the door locked inside, as before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE STORY OF THE MONK.
+
+
+A lady named Uniacke, a resident in Bruges, whilst on a visit to my
+house in London, met and had a _seance_ with William Eglinton, with
+which she was so delighted that she immediately invited him to go and
+stay with her abroad, and as my husband and I were about to cross over
+to Bruges to see my sister, who also resided there, we travelled in
+company--Mr. Eglinton living at Mrs. Uniacke's home, whilst we stayed
+with our own relations. Mrs. Uniacke was a medium herself, and had
+already experienced some very noisy and violent demonstrations in her
+own house. She was, therefore, quite prepared for her visitor, and had
+fitted up a spare room with a cabinet and blinds to the windows, and
+everything that was necessary. But, somewhat to her chagrin, we were
+informed at the first sitting by Mr. Eglinton's control, "Joey," that
+all future _seances_ were to take place at my sister's house instead. We
+were given no reason for the change; we were simply told to obey it. My
+sister's house was rather a peculiar one, and I have already alluded to
+it, and some of the sights and sounds by which it was haunted, in the
+chapter headed "Optical Illusions." The building is so ancient that the
+original date has been completely lost. A stone set into one of the
+walls bore an inscription to the effect that it was restored in the year
+1616. And an obsolete plan of the city shows it to have stood in its
+present condition in 1562. Prior to that period, however, probably about
+the thirteenth century, it is supposed, with three houses on either side
+of it, to have formed a convent, but no printed record remains of the
+fact. Beneath it are subterraneous passages, choked with rubbish, which
+lead, no one knows whither. I had stayed in this house several times
+before, and always felt unpleasant influences from it, as I have
+related, especially in a large room on the lower floor, then used as a
+drawing-room, but which is said to have formed, originally, the chapel
+to the convent. Others had felt the influence beside myself, though we
+never had had reason to suppose that there was any particular cause for
+it. When we expressed curiosity, however, to learn why "Joey" desired us
+to hold our _seance_ in my sister's house, he told us that the medium
+had not been brought over to Bruges for _our_ pleasure or edification,
+but that there was a great work to be done there, and Mrs. Uniacke had
+been expressly influenced to invite him over, that the purposes of a
+higher power than his own should be accomplished. Consequently, on the
+following evening Mrs. Uniacke brought Mr. Eglinton over to my sister's
+house, and "Joey" having been asked to choose a room for the sitting,
+selected an _entresol_ on the upper floor, which led by two short
+passages to the bedrooms. The bedroom doors being locked a dark curtain
+was hung at the entrance of one of these passages, and "Joey" declared
+it was a first-rate cabinet. We then assembled in the drawing-room, for
+the purposes of music and conversation, for we intended to hold the
+_seance_ later in the evening. The party consisted only of the medium,
+Mrs. Uniacke, my sister, my husband, and myself. After I had sung a song
+or two, Mr. Eglinton became restless and moved away from the piano,
+saying the influence was too strong for him. He began walking up and
+down the room, and staring fixedly at the door, before which hung a
+_portiere_. Several times he exclaimed with knitted brows, "What is the
+matter with that door? There is something very peculiar about it." Once
+he approached it quickly, but "Joey's" voice was heard from behind the
+_portiere_, saying, "Don't come too near." Mr. Eglinton then retreated
+to a sofa, and appeared to be fighting violently with some unpleasant
+influence. He made the sign of the cross, then extended his fingers
+towards the door, as though to exorcise it: finally he burst into a
+mocking, scornful peal of laughter that lasted for some minutes. As it
+concluded, a diabolical expression came over his face. He clenched his
+hands, gnashed his teeth, and commenced to grope in a crouching position
+towards the door. We concluded he wished to get up to the room where the
+cabinet was, and let him have his way. He crawled, rather than walked,
+up the steep turret stairs, but on reaching the top, came to himself
+suddenly and fell back several steps. My husband, fortunately, was just
+behind him and saved him from a fall. He complained greatly of the
+influence and of a pain in his head, and we sat at the table to receive
+directions. In a few seconds the same spirit had taken possession of
+him. He left the table and groped his way towards the bedrooms,
+listening apparently to every sound, and with his hand holding an
+imaginary knife which was raised every now and then as if to strike. The
+expression on Mr. Eglinton's face during this possession is too horrible
+to describe. The worst passions were written as legibly there as though
+they had been labelled. There was a short flight of stairs leading from
+the _entresol_ to the corridor, closed at the head by a padded door,
+which we had locked for fear of accident. When, apparently in pursuit of
+his object, the spirit led the medium up to this door and he found it
+fastened, his moans were terrible. Half-a-dozen times he made his weary
+round of the room, striving to get downstairs to accomplish some end,
+and to return to us moaning and baffled. At this juncture, he was so
+exhausted that one of his controls, "Daisy," took possession of him and
+talked with us for some time. We asked "Daisy" what the spirit was like
+that had controlled Mr. Eglinton last, and she said she did not like
+him--he had a bad face, no hair on the top of his head, and a long black
+frock. From this we concluded he had been a monk or a priest. When
+"Daisy" had finished speaking to us "Joey" desired Mr. Eglinton to go
+into the cabinet; but as soon as he rose, the same spirit got possession
+again and led him grovelling as before towards the bedrooms. His
+"guides" therefore carried him into the cabinet before our eyes. He was
+elevated far above our heads, his feet touching each of us in turn; he
+was then carried past the unshaded window, which enabled us to judge of
+the height he was from the ground, and finally over a large table, into
+the cabinet.
+
+Nothing, however, of consequence occurred, and "Joey" advised us to take
+the medium downstairs to the supper room.
+
+Accordingly we adjourned there, and during supper Mr. Eglinton appeared
+to be quite himself, and laughed with us over what had taken place. As
+soon as the meal was over, however, the old restlessness returned on
+him, and he began pacing up and down the room, walking out every now and
+then into the corridor. In a few minutes we perceived that the uneasy
+spirit again controlled him, and we all followed. He went steadily
+towards the drawing-room, but, on finding himself pursued, turned back,
+and three times pronounced emphatically the word "Go." He then entered
+the drawing-room, which was in darkness, and closed the door behind him,
+whilst we waited outside. In a little while he reopened it, and speaking
+in quite a different voice, said "Bring a light! I have something to say
+to you." When we reassembled with a lamp we found the medium controlled
+by a new spirit, whom "Joey" afterwards told us was one of his highest
+guides. Motioning us to be seated, he stood before us and said, "I have
+been selected from amongst the controls of this medium to tell you the
+history of the unhappy being who has so disturbed you this evening. He
+is present now, and the confession of his crime through my lips will
+help him to throw off the earthbound condition to which it has condemned
+him. Many years ago, the house in which we now stand was a convent, and
+underneath it were four subterraneous passages running north, south,
+east, and west, which communicated with all parts of the town. (I must
+here state that Mr. Eglinton had not previously been informed of any
+particulars relating to the former history of my sister's home, neither
+were Mrs. Uniacke or myself acquainted with it.)
+
+"In this convent there lived a most beautiful woman--a nun, and in one
+of the neighboring monasteries a priest who, against the strict law of
+his Church, had conceived and nourished a passion for her. He was an
+Italian who had been obliged to leave his own country, for reasons best
+known to himself, and nightly he would steal his way to this house, by
+means of one of the subterraneous passages, and attempt to overcome the
+nun's scruples, and make her listen to his tale of love; but she, strong
+in the faith, resisted him. At last, maddened one day by her repeated
+refusals, and his own guilty passion, he hid himself in one of the
+northern rooms in the upper story of this house, and watched there in
+the dark for her to pass him on her way from her devotions in the
+chapel; but she did not come. Then he crept downstairs stealthily, with
+a dagger hid beneath his robes, and met her in the hall. He conjured her
+again to yield to him, but again she resisted, and he stabbed her within
+the door on the very spot where the medium first perceived him. Her
+pure soul sought immediate consolation in the spirit spheres, but his
+has been chained down ever since to the scene of his awful crime. He
+dragged her body down the secret stairs (which are still existent) to
+the vaults beneath, and hid it in the subterraneous passage.
+
+"After a few days he sought it again, and buried it. He lived many years
+after, and committed many other crimes, though none so foul as this. It
+is his unhappy spirit that asks your prayers to help it to progress. It
+is for this purpose that we were brought to this city, that we might aid
+in releasing the miserable soul that cannot rest."
+
+I asked, "By what name shall we pray for him?"
+
+"Pray for 'the distressed Being.' Call him by no other name."
+
+"What is your own name?"
+
+"I prefer to be unknown. May God bless you all and keep you in the way
+of prayer and truth and from all evil courses, and bring you to
+everlasting life. Amen."
+
+The medium then walked up to the spot he had indicated as the scene of
+the murder, and knelt there for some minutes in prayer.
+
+Thus concluded the first _seance_ at which the monk was introduced to
+us. But the next day as I sat at the table with my sister only, the name
+of "Hortense Dupont" was given us, and the following conversation was
+rapped out.
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I am the nun. I did love him. I couldn't help it. It is such a relief
+to think that he will be prayed for."
+
+"When did he murder you?"
+
+"In 1498."
+
+"What was his name?"
+
+"I cannot tell you."
+
+"His age."
+
+"Thirty-five!"
+
+"And yours."
+
+"Twenty-three."
+
+"Are you coming to see us to-morrow?"
+
+"I am not sure."
+
+On that evening, by "Joey's" orders, we assembled at seven. Mr. Eglinton
+did not feel the influence in the drawing-room that day, but directly he
+entered the _seance_ room, he was possessed by the same spirit. His
+actions were still more graphic than on the first occasion. He watched
+from the window for the coming of his victim through the courtyard, and
+then recommenced his crawling stealthy pursuit, coming back each time
+from the locked door that barred his egress with such heart-rending
+moans that no one could have listened to him unmoved. At last, his agony
+was so great, as he strove again and again, like some dumb animal, to
+pass through the walls that divided him from the spot he wished to
+visit, whilst the perspiration streamed down the medium's face with the
+struggle, that we attempted to make him speak to us. We implored him in
+French to tell us his trouble, and believe us to be his friends; but he
+only pushed us away. At last we were impressed to pray for him, and
+kneeling down, we repeated all the well-known Catholic prayers. As we
+commenced the "De Profundis" the medium fell prostrate on the earth, and
+seemed to wrestle with his agony. At the "Salve Regina" and "Ave Maria"
+he lifted his eyes to heaven and clasped his hands, and in the "Pater
+Noster" he appeared to join. But directly we ceased praying the evil
+passions returned, and his face became distorted in the thirst for
+blood. It was an experience that no one who had seen could ever forget.
+At last my sister fetched a crucifix, which we placed upon his breast.
+It had not been there many seconds before a different expression came
+over his face. He seized it in both hands, straining it to his eyes,
+lips, and heart, holding it from him at arm's length, then passionately
+kissing it, as we repeated the "Anima Christi." Finally, he held the
+crucifix out for each of us to kiss; a beautiful smile broke out on the
+medium's face, and the spirit passed out of him.
+
+Mr. Eglinton awoke on that occasion terribly exhausted. His face was as
+white as a sheet, and he trembled violently. His first words were: "They
+are doing something to my forehead. Burn a piece of paper, and give me
+the ashes." He rubbed them between his eyes, when the sign of the cross
+became distinctly visible, drawn in deep red lines upon his forehead.
+The controls then said, exhausted as Mr. Eglinton was, we were to place
+him in the cabinet, as their work was not yet done. He was accordingly
+led in trance to the arm-chair behind the curtain, whilst we formed a
+circle in front of him. In a few seconds the cabinet was illuminated,
+and a cross of fire appeared outside of it. This manifestation having
+been seen twice, the head and shoulders of a nun appeared floating
+outside the curtain. Her white coif and "chin-piece" were pinned just as
+the "_religieuses_" are in the habit of pinning them, and she seemed
+very anxious to show herself, coming close to each of us in turn, and
+re-appearing several times. Her face was that of a young and pretty
+woman. "Joey" said, "That's the nun, but you'll understand that this is
+only a preliminary trial, preparatory to a more perfect
+materialization." I asked the apparition if she were the "Hortense
+Dupont" that had communicated through me, and she nodded her head
+several times in acquiescence. Thus ended our second _seance_ with the
+Monk of Bruges.
+
+On the third day we were all sitting at supper in my sister's house at
+about ten o'clock at night, when loud raps were heard about the room,
+and on giving the alphabet, "Joey" desired us to go upstairs and sit,
+and to have the door at the head of the staircase (which we had hitherto
+locked for fear of accidents) left open; which we accordingly did. As
+soon as we were seated at the table, the medium became entranced, and
+the same pantomime which I have related was gone through. He watched
+from the window that looked into the courtyard, and silently groped his
+way round the room, until he had crawled on his stomach up the stairs
+that led to the padded door. When he found, however, that the obstacle
+that had hitherto stood in his way was removed (by its being open) he
+drew a long breath and started away for the winding turret staircase,
+listening at the doors he passed to find out if he were overheard. When
+he came to the stairs, in descending which we had been so afraid he
+might hurt himself, he was carried down them in the most wonderful
+manner, only placing his hand on the balustrades, and swooping to the
+bottom in one flight. We had placed a lamp in the hall, so that as we
+followed him we could observe all his actions. When he reached the
+bottom of the staircase he crawled on his stomach to the door of the
+drawing-room (originally the chapel) and there waited and listened,
+darting back into the shadow every time he fancied he heard a sound.
+Imagine our little party of four in that sombre old house, the only
+ones waking at that time of night, watching by the ghastly light of a
+turned-down lamp the acting of that terrible tragedy. We held our breath
+as the murderer crouched by the chapel door, opening it noiselessly to
+peep within, and then, retreating with his imaginary dagger in his hand,
+ready to strike as soon as his victim appeared. At last she seemed to
+come. In an instant he had sprung to meet her, stabbing her first in a
+half-stooping attitude, and then, apparently, finding her not dead, he
+rose to his full height and stabbed her twice, straight downwards. For a
+moment he seemed paralyzed at what he had done, starting back with both
+hands clasped to his forehead. Then he flung himself prostrate on the
+supposed body, kissing the ground frantically in all directions.
+Presently he woke to the fear of detection, and raised the corpse
+suddenly in his arms. He fell once beneath the supposed weight, but
+staggering to his feet again, seized and dragged it, slipping on the
+stone floor as he went, to the head of the staircase that led to the
+cellars below, where the mouth of one of the subterraneous passages was
+still to be seen. The door at the head of this flight was modern, and he
+could not undo the lock, so, prevented from dragging the body down the
+steps, he cast himself again upon it, kissing the stone floor of the
+hall and moaning. At last he dragged himself on his knees to the spot of
+the murder, and began to pray. We knelt with him, and as he heard our
+voices he turned on his knees towards us with outstretched hands. I
+suggested that he wanted the crucifix again, and went upstairs to fetch
+it, when the medium followed me. When I had found what I sought, he
+seized it from me eagerly, and carrying it to the window, whence he had
+so often watched, fell down again upon his knees. After praying for some
+time he tried to speak to us. His lips moved and his tongue protruded,
+but he was unable to articulate. Suddenly he seized each of our hands in
+turn in both of his own, and wrung them violently. He tried to bless us,
+but the words would not come. The same beautiful smile we had seen the
+night before broke out over his countenance, the crucifix dropped from
+his hands, and he fell prostrate on the floor. The next moment Mr.
+Eglinton was asking us where he was and what on earth had happened to
+him, as he felt so queer. He declared himself fearfully exhausted, but
+said he felt that a great calm and peace had come over him
+notwithstanding the weakness, and he believed some great good had been
+accomplished. He was not again entranced, but "Joey" ordered the light
+to be put out, and spoke to us in the direct voice as follows:--
+
+"I've just come to tell you what I know you will be very glad to hear,
+that through the medium's power, and our power, and the great power of
+God, the unhappy spirit who has been confessing his crime to you is
+freed to-night from the heaviest part of his burden--the being
+earth-chained to the spot. I don't mean to say that he will go away at
+once to the spheres, because he's got a lot to do still to alter the
+conditions under which he labors, but the worst is over. This was the
+special work Mr. Eglinton was brought to Bruges to do, and Ernest and I
+can truly say that, during the whole course of our control of him, we
+have never had to put forth our own powers, nor to ask so earnestly for
+the help of God, as in the last three days. You have all helped in a
+good work,--to free a poor soul from earth, and to set him on the right
+road, and _we_ are grateful to you and to the medium, as well as he. He
+will be able to progress rapidly now until he reaches his proper sphere,
+and hereafter the spirits of himself and the woman he murdered will work
+together to undo for others the harm they brought upon themselves. She
+is rejoicing in her high sphere at the work we have done for him, and
+will be the first to help and welcome him upward. There are many more
+earth-bound spirits in this house and the surrounding houses who are
+suffering as he was, though not to the same extent, nor for the same
+reason. But they all ask for and need your help and your prayers, and
+this is the greatest and noblest end of Spiritualism--to aid poor,
+unhappy spirits to free themselves from earth and progress upwards.
+After a while when this spirit can control the medium with calmness, he
+will come himself and tell you, through him, all his history and how he
+came to fall. Meanwhile, we thank you very much for allowing us to draw
+so much strength from you and helping us with your sympathy, and I hope
+you will believe me always to remain, your loving friend, Joey."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This account, with very little alteration, was published in the
+_Spiritualist_ newspaper, August 29th, 1879, when the _seances_ had
+just occurred. There is a sequel to the story, however, which is almost
+as remarkable as itself, and which has not appeared in print till now.
+From Bruges on this occasion my husband and I went to Brussels, where we
+diverted ourselves by means very dissimilar to anything so grave as
+Spiritualism. There were many sales going on in Brussels at that moment,
+and one of our amusements was to make a tour of the salerooms and
+inspect the articles put up for competition. During one of these visits
+I was much taken by a large oil pointing, in a massive frame, measuring
+some six or seven feet square. It represented a man in the dress of a
+Franciscan monk--_i.e._, a brown serge robe, knotted with cords about
+the waist--kneeling in prayer with outstretched hands upon a mass of
+burning embers. It was labelled in the catalogue as the picture of a
+Spanish monk of the order of Saint Francis Xavier, and was evidently a
+painting of some value. I was drawn to go and look at it several days in
+succession before the sale, and I told my husband that I coveted its
+possession. He laughed at me and said it would fetch a great deal more
+money than we could afford to give for it, in which opinion I
+acquiesced. The day of the sale, however, found us in our places to
+watch the proceedings, and when the picture of the monk was put up I bid
+a small sum for it. Col. Lean looked at me in astonishment, but I
+whispered to him that I was only in fun, and I should stop at a hundred
+francs. The bidding was very languid, however, and to my utter
+amazement, the picture was knocked down to me for _seventy-two francs_.
+I could hardly believe that it was true. Directly the sale was
+concluded, the brokers crowded round me to ask what I would take for the
+painting, and they told me they had not thought of bidding until it
+should have reached a few hundred francs. But I told them I had got my
+bargain, and I meant to stick by it. When we returned next day to make
+arrangements for its being sent to us, the auctioneer informed us that
+the frame alone in which it had been sent for sale had cost three
+hundred francs, so that I was well satisfied with my purchase. This
+occurrence took place a short time before we returned to England, where
+we arrived long before the painting, which, with many others, was left
+to follow us by a cheaper and slower route.
+
+The Sunday after we reached home (having seen no friends in the
+meanwhile), we walked into Steinway Hall to hear Mr. Fletcher's
+lecture. At its conclusion he passed as usual into a state of trance,
+and described what he saw before him. In the midst of mentioning people,
+places, and incidents unknown to us, he suddenly exclaimed: "Now I see a
+very strange thing, totally unlike anything I have ever seen before, and
+I hardly know how to describe it. A man comes before me--a
+foreigner--and in a dress belonging to some monastic order, a brown robe
+of coarse cloth or flannel, with a rope round his waist and beads
+hanging, and bare feet and a shaved head. He is dragging a picture on to
+the platform, a very large painting in a frame, and it looks to me like
+a portrait of himself, kneeling on a carpet of burning wood. No! I am
+wrong. The man tells me the picture is _not_ a portrait of himself, but
+of the founder of his Order, and it is in the possession of some people
+in this hall to-night. The man tells me to tell these people that it was
+_his_ spirit that influenced them to buy this painting at some place
+over the water, and he did so in order that they might keep it in
+remembrance of what they have done for him. And he desires that they
+shall hang that picture in some room where they may see it every day,
+that they may never forget the help which spirits on this earth may
+render by their prayers to spirits that have passed away. And he offers
+them through me his heartfelt thanks for the assistance given him, and
+he says the day is not far off when he shall pray for himself and for
+them, that their kindness may return into their own bosoms."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The oil painting reached England in safety some weeks afterwards, and
+was hung over the mantel-piece in our dining-room, where it remained, a
+familiar object to all our personal acquaintances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MISS SHOWERS.
+
+
+Some time before I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Showers, I heard,
+through friends living in the west of England, of the mysterious and
+marvellous powers possessed by a young lady of their acquaintance, who
+was followed by voices in the air, which held conversations with her,
+and the owners of which were said to have made themselves visible. I
+listened with curiosity, the more so, as my informants utterly
+disbelieved in Spiritualism, and thought the phenomena were due to
+trickery. At the same time I conceived a great desire to see the girl of
+sixteen, who, for no gain or apparent object of her own, was so clever
+as to mystify everyone around her; and when she and her mother came to
+London, I was amongst the first to beg for an introduction, and I shall
+never forget the experiences I had with her. She was the first _private_
+medium through whom my personal friends returned to converse with me;
+and no one but a Spiritualist can appreciate the blessing of spiritual
+communications through a source that is above the breath of suspicion. I
+have already written at length about Miss Showers in "The story of John
+Powles." She was a child, compared to myself, whose life had hardly
+commenced when mine was virtually over, and neither she, nor any member
+of her family, had ever had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with
+even the names of my former friends. Yet (as I have related) John Powles
+made Miss Showers his especial mouthpiece, and my daughter "Florence"
+(then a little child) also appeared through her, though at long
+intervals, and rather timidly. Her own controls, however, or cabinet
+spirits (as they call them in America)--_i.e._, such spirits as are
+always about the medium, and help the strangers to appear--"Peter,"
+"Florence," "Lenore," and "Sally," were very familiar with me, and
+afforded me such facilities of testing their medium as do not often fall
+to the lot of inquirers. Indeed, at one time, they always requested
+that I should be present at their _seances_, so that I considered myself
+to be highly favored. And I may mention here that Miss Showers and I
+were so much _en rapport_ that her manifestations were always much
+stronger in my presence. We could not sit next each other at an ordinary
+tea or supper table, when we had no thought of, or desire to hold a
+_seance_, without manifestations occurring in the full light. A hand,
+that did not belong to either of us, would make itself apparent under
+the table-cloth between us--a hand with power to grasp ours--or our feet
+would be squeezed or kicked beneath the table, or fingers would suddenly
+appear, and whisk the food off our plates. Some of their jests were
+inconvenient. I have had the whole contents of a tumbler, which I was
+raising to my lips, emptied over my dress. It was generally known that
+our powers were sympathetic, and at last "Peter" gave me leave, or,
+rather, ordered me to sit in the cabinet with "Rosie," whilst the
+manifestations went on outside. He used to say he didn't care for me any
+more than if I had been "a spirit myself." One evening "Peter" called me
+into the cabinet (which was simply a large box cupboard at one end of
+the dining-room) before the _seance_ began, and told me to sit down at
+the medium's feet and "be a good girl and keep quiet." Miss Showers was
+in a low chair, and I sat with my arms resting on her lap. She did not
+become entranced, and we talked the whole time together. Presently,
+without any warning, two figures stood beside us. I could not have said
+where they came from. I neither saw them rise from the floor nor descend
+from the ceiling. There was no beginning to their appearance. In a
+moment they were simply _there_--"Peter" and "Florence" (not my child,
+but Miss Showers' control of the same names).
+
+"Peter" sent "Florence" out to the audience, where we heard her speaking
+to them and their remarks upon her (there being only a thin curtain hung
+before the entrance of the cabinet), but he stayed with us himself. We
+could not see him distinctly in the dim light, but we could distinctly
+hear and feel him. He changed our ornaments and ribbons, and pulled the
+hair-pins out of our hair, and made comments on what was going on
+outside. After a while "Florence" returned to get more power, and both
+spirits spoke to and touched us at the same time. During the whole of
+this _seance_ my arms rested on Miss Showers' lap, and she was awake and
+talking to me about the spirits.
+
+One evening, at a sitting at Mr. Luxmore's house in Hyde Park Square,
+the spirit "Florence" had been walking amongst the audience in the
+lighted front drawing-room for a considerable time--even sitting at the
+piano and accompanying herself whilst she sung us a song in what she
+called "the planetary language." She greatly resembled her medium on
+that occasion, and several persons present remarked that she did so. I
+suppose the inferred doubt annoyed her, for before she finally left us
+she asked for a light, and a small oil lamp was brought to her which she
+placed in my hand, telling me to follow her and look at her medium,
+which I accordingly did. "Florence" led the way into the back
+drawing-room, where I found Miss Showers reposing in an arm-chair. The
+first sight of her terrified me. For the purpose of making any change in
+her dress as difficult as possible, she wore a high, tight-fitting black
+velvet frock, fastened at the back, and high Hessian boots, with
+innumerable buttons. But she now appeared to be shrunk to half her usual
+size, and the dress hung loosely on her figure. Her arms had
+disappeared, but putting my hands up the dress sleeves, I found them
+diminished to the size of those of a little child--the fingers reaching
+only to where the elbows had been. The same miracle had happened to her
+feet, which only occupied half her boots. She looked in fact like the
+mummy of a girl of four or six years old. The spirit told me to feel her
+face. The forehead was dry, rough, and burning hot, but from the chin
+water was dropping freely on to the bosom of her dress. "Florence" said
+to me, "I wanted _you_ to see her, because I know you are brave enough
+to tell people what you have seen."
+
+There was a marked difference in the personality of the two influences
+"Florence" and "Lenore," although both at times resembled Miss Showers,
+and sometimes more than others. "Florence" was taller than her medium,
+and a very beautiful woman. "Lenore" was much shorter and smaller, and
+not so pretty, but more vivacious and pert. By the invitation of Mrs.
+Macdougal Gregory, I attended several _seances_ with Miss Showers at her
+residence in Green Street, when these spirits appeared. "Lenore" was
+fond of saying that she wouldn't or couldn't come out unless _I_ held
+her hand, or put my arm round her waist. To tell the truth, I didn't
+care for the distinction, for this influence was very peculiar in some
+things, and to me she always appeared "uncanny," and to leave an
+unpleasant feeling behind her. She was seldom completely formed, and
+would hold up a foot which felt like wet clay, and had no toes to it, or
+not the proper quantity. On occasions, too, there was a charnel-house
+smell about her, as if she had been buried a few weeks and dug up again,
+an odor which I have never smelt from any materialized spirit before or
+after. One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, when "Lenore" had insisted upon
+walking round the circle supported by my arm, I nearly fainted from the
+smell. It resembled nothing but that of a putrid corpse, and when she
+returned to the cabinet, I was compelled to leave the room and retch
+from the nausea it had caused me. It was on this occasion that the
+sitters called "Lenore" so many times back into the circle, that all the
+power was gone, and she was in danger of melting away before their eyes.
+Still they entreated her to remain with them a little longer. At last
+she grew impatient, and complained to me of their unreasonableness. She
+was then raised from the floor--actually floating just outside the
+curtain--and she asked me to put my hands up her skirts and convince
+myself that she was half-dematerialized. I did as she told me, and felt
+that she had _no legs_, although she had been walking round the room a
+few minutes before. I could feel nothing but the trunk of a body, which
+was completely lifted off the ground. Her voice, too, had grown faint
+and her face indistinct, and in another moment she had totally
+disappeared.
+
+One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, after the _seance_ was concluded,
+"Florence" looked round the curtain and called to me to come inside of
+it. I did so and found myself in total darkness. I said, "What's the
+good of my coming here? I can't see anything." "Florence" took me by one
+hand, and answered, "I will lead you! Don't be afraid." Then some one
+else grasped my other hand, and "Peter's" voice said, "We've got you
+safe. We want you to feel the medium." The two figures led me between
+them to the sofa on which Miss Showers was lying. They passed my hand
+all over her head and body. I felt, as before, her hands and feet
+shrunk to half their usual size, but her heart appeared to have become
+proportionately increased. When my hand was placed upon it, it was
+leaping up and down violently, and felt like a rabbit or some other live
+animal bounding in her bosom. Her brain was burning as before, but her
+extremities were icy cold. There was no doubt at all of the abnormal
+condition into which the medium had been thrown, in order to produce
+these strong physical manifestations which were borrowed, for the time
+being, from her life, and could never (so they informed me) put the
+_whole_ of what they borrowed back again. This seems to account for the
+invariable deterioration of health and strength that follows physical
+manifestations in both sexes. These were the grounds alone on which they
+explained to me the fact that, on several occasions, when the
+materialized spirit has been violently seized and held apart from the
+medium, it has been found to have become, or been changed into the
+medium, and always with injury to the latter--as in the case of Florence
+Cook being seized by Mr. Volckman and Sir George Sitwell. Mr. Volckman
+concluded because when he seized the spirit "Katie King," he found he
+was holding Florence Cook, that the latter must have impersonated the
+former; yet I shall tell you in its proper place how I have sat in the
+same room with "Katie King," whilst Miss Cook lay in a trance between
+us. The medium nearly lost her life on the occasion alluded to, from the
+sudden disturbance of the mysterious link that bound her to the spirit.
+I have had it from the lips of the Countess of Caithness, who was one of
+the sitters, and stayed with Miss Cook till she was better, that she was
+in convulsions the whole night after, and that it was some time before
+they believed she would recover. If a medium could simulate a
+materialized spirit, it is hardly likely that she would (or could)
+simulate convulsions with a medical man standing by her bedside. "You
+see," said Miss Showers' "Florence," whilst pointing out to me the
+decreased size of her medium under trance, "that 'Rosie' is half her
+usual size and weight. _I_ have borrowed the other half from her, which,
+combined with contributions from the sitters, goes to make up the body
+in which I shew myself to you. If you seize and hold me tight, you _are_
+holding her, _i.e._, half of her, and you increase the action of the
+vital half to such a degree that, if the two halves did not reunite, you
+would kill her. You see that I can detach certain particles from her
+organism for my own use, and when I dematerialize, I restore these
+particles to her, and she becomes once more her normal size. You only
+hurry the reunion by violently detaining me, so as to injure her. But
+you might drive her mad, or kill her in the attempt, because the
+particles of brain, or body, might become injured by such a violent
+collision. If you believe I can take them from her (as you see I do) in
+order to render my invisible body visible to you, why can't you believe
+I can make them fly together again on the approach of danger. And
+granted the one power, I see no difficulty in acknowledging the other."
+
+One day Mrs. Showers invited me to assist at a _seance_ to be given
+expressly for friends living at a distance. When I reached the house,
+however, I found the friends were unable to be present, and the meeting
+was adjourned. Mrs. Showers apologized for the alteration of plan, but I
+was glad of it. I had often sat with "Rosie" in company with others, and
+I wanted to sit with her quite alone, or rather to sit with her in a
+room quite alone, and see what would spontaneously occur, without any
+solicitation on our parts. We accordingly annexed the drawing-room for
+our sole use--locked the door, extinguished the lights, and sat down on
+a sofa side by side, with our arms round each other. The manifestations
+that followed were not all nice ones. They formed an experience to be
+passed through once, but not willingly repeated, and I should not relate
+them here, excepting that they afford so strong a proof that they were
+produced by a power outside and entirely distinct from our own--a power,
+which having once called into action, we had no means of repressing. We
+had sat in the dark for some minutes, without hearing or seeing
+anything, when I thoughtlessly called out, "Now, Peter, do your worst,"
+and extending my arms, singing, "Come! for my arms are empty." In a
+moment a large, heavy figure fell with such force into my outstretched
+arms as to bruise my shoulder--it seemed like a form made of wood or
+iron, rather than flesh and blood--and the rough treatment that ensued
+for both of us is almost beyond description. It seemed as if the room
+were filled with materialized creatures, who were determined to let us
+know they were not to be trifled with. Our faces and hands were slapped,
+our hair pulled down, and our clothes nearly torn off our backs. My silk
+skirt being separate from the bodice was torn off at the waistband, and
+the trimming ripped from it, and Miss Showers' muslin dress was also
+much damaged. We were both thoroughly frightened, but no expostulations
+or entreaties had any effect with our tormentors. At the same time we
+heard the sound as of a multitude of large birds or bats swooping about
+the room. The fluttering of wings was incessant, and we could hear them
+"scrooping" up and down the walls. In the midst of the confusion,
+"Rosie" was whisked out of my arms (for fright had made us cling tighter
+than ever together) and planted on the top of a table at some distance
+from me, at which she was so frightened she began to cry, and I called
+out, "Powles, where are you? Can't you stop them?" My appeal was heard.
+Peter's voice exclaimed, "Hullo! here's Powles coming!" and all the
+noise ceased. We heard the advent of my friend, and in another moment he
+was smoothing down the ruffled hair and arranging the disordered dresses
+and telling me to light the gas and not be frightened. As soon as I
+could I obeyed his directions and found Rosie sitting doubled up in the
+centre of the table, but the rest of the room and furniture in its usual
+condition. "Peter" and his noisy crowd had vanished--so had "Powles,"
+and there was nothing but our torn skirts and untidy appearance to prove
+that we had not been having an unholy dream. "Peter" is not a wicked
+spirit--far from it--but he is a very earthly and frivolous one. But
+when we consider that nine-tenths of the spirits freed from the flesh
+are both earthly and frivolous (if not worse), I know not what right we
+have to expect to receive back angels in their stead.
+
+At one time when my sister Blanche (who was very sceptical as to the
+possibility of the occurrences I related having taken place before me)
+was staying in my house at Bayswater, I asked Miss Showers if she would
+give us a _seance_ in my own home, to which she kindly assented. This
+was an unusual concession on her part, because, in consequence of
+several accidents and scandals that had occurred from media being
+forcibly detained (as I have just alluded to), her mother was naturally
+averse to her sitting anywhere but in their own circle. However, on my
+promising to invite no strangers, Mrs. Showers herself brought her
+daughter to my house. We had made no preparation for the _seance_ except
+by opening part of the folding doors between the dining-room and study,
+and hanging a curtain over the aperture. But I had carefully locked the
+door of the study, so that there should be no egress from it excepting
+through the dining-room, and had placed against the locked door a heavy
+writing-table laden with books and ornaments to make "assurance doubly
+sure." We sat first in the drawing-room above, where there was a piano.
+The lights were extinguished, and Miss Showers sat down to the
+instrument and played the accompaniment to a very simple melody, "Under
+the willow she's sleeping." Four voices, sometimes alone and sometimes
+_all together_, accompanied her own. One was a baritone, supposed to
+proceed from "Peter," the second, a soprano, from "Lenore." The third
+was a rumbling bass, from an influence who called himself "The Vicar of
+Croydon," and sung in a fat, unctuous, and conceited voice; and the
+fourth was a cracked and quavering treble, from another spirit called
+"The Abbess." These were the voices, Mrs. Showers told me, that first
+followed her daughter about the house in Devonshire, and gained her such
+an unenviable notoriety there. The four voices were perfectly distinct
+from one another, and sometimes blended most ludicrously and tripped
+each other up in a way which made the song a medley--upon which each one
+would declare it was the fault of the other. "The Vicar of Croydon"
+always required a great deal of solicitation before he could be induced
+to exhibit his powers, but having once commenced, it was difficult to
+make him leave off again, whereas "The Abbess" was always complaining
+that they would not allow her to sing the solos. An infant's voice also
+sung some baby songs in a sweet childish treble, but she was also very
+shy and seldom was heard, in comparison with the rest. "All
+ventriloquism!" I hear some reader cry. If so, Miss Showers ought to
+have made a fortune in exhibiting her talent in public. I have heard the
+best ventriloquists in the world, but I never heard one who could
+produce _four_ voices at the same time.
+
+After the musical portion of the _seance_ was over, we descended to the
+dining-room, where the gas was burning, and the medium passed through
+it to the secured study, where a mattress was laid upon the floor for
+her accommodation. "Florence" was the first to appear, tall and
+beautiful in appearance, and with upraised eyes like a nun. She measured
+her height against the wall with me, and we found she was the taller of
+the two by a couple of inches,--my height being five feet six, the
+medium's five feet, and the spirit's five feet eight, an abnormal height
+for a woman. "Lenore" came next, very short indeed, looking like a child
+of four or six, but she grew before our eyes, until her head was on a
+level with mine. She begged us all to observe that she had _not_ got on
+"Rosie's" petticoat body. She said she had borrowed it on one occasion,
+and Mrs. Showers had recognized it, and slipped upstairs in the middle
+of the _seance_ and found it missing from her daughter's chest of
+drawers, and that she had been so angry in consequence (fearing Rosie's
+honor might be impeached) that she said if "Lenore" did not promise
+never to do so again, she should not be allowed to assist at the
+_seances_ at all. So Miss "Lenore," in rather a pert and defiant mood,
+begged Mrs. Showers to see that what she wore was her own property, and
+not that of the medium. She was succeeded on that occasion by a strange
+being, totally different from the other two, who called herself "Sally,"
+and said she had been a cook. She was one of those extraordinary
+influences for whose return to earth one can hardly account; quick, and
+clever, and amusing as she could be, but with an unrefined wit and
+manner, and to all appearance, more earthly-minded than ourselves. But
+do we not often ask the same question with respect to those still
+existent here below? What were they born for? What good do they do? Why
+were they ever permitted to come? God, without whose permission nothing
+happens, alone can answer it.
+
+We had often to tease "Peter" to materialize and show himself, but he
+invariably refused, or postponed the work to another occasion. His
+excuse was that the medium being so small, he could not obtain
+sufficient power from her to make himself appear as a big man, and he
+didn't like to come, "looking like a girl in a billycock hat." "I came
+once to Mrs. Showers," he said, "and she declared I was 'Rosie' dressed
+up, and so I have resolved never to show myself again." At the close of
+that _seance_, however, "Peter" asked me to go into the study and see
+him wake the medium. When I entered it and made my way up to the
+mattress, I found Miss Showers extended on it in a deep sleep, whilst
+"Peter," materialized, sat at her feet. He made me sit down next to him
+and take his hand and feel his features with my own hand. Then he
+proceeded to rouse "Rosie" by shaking her and calling her by name,
+holding me by one hand, as he did so. As Miss Showers yawned and woke up
+from her trance, the hand slipped from mine, and "Peter" evaporated.
+When she sat up I said to her gently, "I am here! Peter brought me in
+and was sitting on the mattress by my side till just this moment." "Ha,
+ha!" laughed his voice close to my ear, "and I'm here still, my dears,
+though you can't see me."
+
+Who can account for such things? I have witnessed them over and over
+again, yet I am unable, even to this day, to do more than believe and
+wonder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM EGLINTON.
+
+
+In the stones I have related of "Emily" and "The Monk" I have alluded
+freely to the wonderful powers exhibited by William Eglinton, but the
+marvels there spoken of were by no means the only ones I have witnessed
+through his mediumship. At the _seance_ which produced the apparition of
+my sister Emily, Mr. Eglinton's control "Joey" made himself very
+familiar. "Joey" is a remarkably small man--perhaps two-thirds lighter
+in weight than the medium--and looks more like a little jockey than
+anything else, though he says he was a clown whilst in this world, and
+claims to be the spirit of the immortal Joe Grimaldi. He has always
+appeared to us clothed in a tight-fitting white dress like a woven
+jersey suit, which makes him look still smaller than he is. He usually
+keeps up a continuous chatter, whether visible or invisible, and is one
+of the cleverest and kindest controls I know. He is also very
+devotional, for which the public will perhaps give him as little credit
+now as they did whilst he was on earth. On the first occasion of our
+meeting in the Russell Street Rooms he did not show himself until quite
+the last, but he talked incessantly of and for the other spirits that
+appeared. My sister was, as I have said, the first to show herself--then
+came an extraordinary apparition. On the floor, about three feet from
+the cabinet, appeared a head--only the head and throat of a dark man,
+with black beard and moustaches, surmounted by the white turban usually
+worn by natives. It did not speak, but the eyes rolled and the lips
+moved, as if it tried to articulate, but without success. "Joey" said
+the spirit came for Colonel Lean, and was that of a foreigner who had
+been decapitated. Colonel Lean could not recognize the features; but,
+strange to say, he had been present at the beheading of two natives in
+Japan who had been found guilty of murdering some English officers, and
+we concluded from "Joey's" description that this must be the head of
+one of them. I knelt down on the floor and put my face on a level with
+that of the spirit, that I might assure myself there was no body
+attached to it and concealed by the curtain of the cabinet, and I can
+affirm that it was _a head only_, resting on the neck--that its eyes
+moved and its features worked, but that there was nothing further on the
+floor. I questioned it, and it evidently tried hard to speak in return.
+The mouth opened and the tongue was thrust out, and made a sort of dumb
+sound, but was unable to form any words, and after a while the head sunk
+through the floor and disappeared. If this was not one of the
+pleasantest apparitions I have seen, it was one of the most remarkable.
+There was no possibility of trickery or deception. The decapitated head
+rested in full sight of the audience, and had all the peculiarities of
+the native appearance and expression. After this the figures of two or
+three Englishmen came, friends of others of the audience--then "Joey"
+said he would teach us how to "make muslin." He walked right outside the
+cabinet, a quaint little figure, not much bigger than a boy of twelve or
+thirteen, with a young, old face, and dressed in the white suit I have
+described. He sat down by me and commenced to toss his hands in the air,
+as though he were juggling with balls, saying the while, "This is the
+way we make ladies' dresses." As he did so, a small quantity of muslin
+appeared in his hands, which he kept on moving in the same manner,
+whilst the flimsy fabric increased and increased before our eyes, until
+it rose in billows of muslin above "Joey's" head and fell over his body
+to his feet, and enveloped him until he was completely hidden from view.
+He kept on chattering till the last moment from under the heap of snowy
+muslin, telling us to be sure and "remember how he made ladies'
+dresses"--when, all of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, the heap of
+muslin rose into the air, and before us stood the tall figure of
+"Abdullah," Mr. Eglinton's Eastern guide. There had been no darkness, no
+pause to effect this change. The muslin had remained on the spot where
+it was fabricated until "Joey" evaporated, and "Abdullah" rose up from
+beneath it. Now "Abdullah" is not a spirit to be concealed easily. He is
+six foot two--a great height for a native--and his high turban adds to
+his stature. He is a very handsome man, with an aquiline nose and
+bright black eyes--a Persian, I believe, by birth, and naturally dark
+in complexion. He does not speak English, but "salaams" continually, and
+will approach the sitters when requested, and let them examine the
+jewels, of which he wears a large quantity in his turban and ears and
+round his throat, or to show them and let them feel that he has lost one
+arm, the stump being plainly discernible through his thin clothing.
+"Abdullah" possesses all the characteristics of the Eastern nation,
+which are unmistakable to one who, like myself, has been familiar with
+them in the flesh. His features are without doubt those of a Persian; so
+is his complexion. His figure is long and lithe and supple, as that of a
+cat, and he can bend to the ground and rise again with the utmost ease
+and grace. Anybody who could pretend for a moment to suppose that Mr.
+Eglinton by "making up" could personate "Abdullah" must be a fool. It
+would be an impossibility, even were he given unlimited time and
+assistance, to dress for the character. There is a peculiar boneless
+elasticity in the movements of a native which those who have lived in
+the East know that no Englishmen can imitate successfully. "Abdullah's"
+hand and feet also possess all the characteristics of his nationality,
+being narrow, long and nerveless, although I have heard that he can give
+rather too good a grip with his one hand when he chooses to exert his
+power or to show his dislike to any particular sitter. He has always,
+however, shown the utmost urbanity towards us, but he is not a
+particularly friendly or familiar spirit. When "Abdullah" had retired on
+this occasion, "Joey" drew back the curtain that shaded the cabinet, and
+showed us his medium and himself. There sat Mr. Eglinton attired in
+evening dress, with the front of his shirt as smooth and spotless as
+when it left the laundress' hands, lying back in his chair in a deep
+sleep, whilst little Joey sat astride his knee, his white suit
+contrasting strangely with his medium's black trousers. Whilst in this
+position he kissed Mr. Eglinton several times, telling him to wake up,
+and not look so sulky; then, having asked if we all saw him distinctly,
+and were satisfied he was not the medium, he bade God bless us, and the
+curtains closed once more upon this incomprehensible scene. Mr. Eglinton
+subsequently became an intimate friend of ours, and we often had the
+pleasure of sitting with him, but we never saw anything more wonderful
+(to my mind) than we did on our first acquaintance. When he accompanied
+us to Bruges (as told in the history of the "Monk"), "Joey" took great
+trouble to prove to us incontrovertibly that he is not an "emanation,"
+or double, of his medium, but a creature completely separate and wholly
+distinct. My sister's house being built on a very old-fashioned
+principle, had all the bedrooms communicating with each other. The
+entresol in which we usually assembled formed the connecting link to a
+series of six chambers, all of which opened into each other, and the
+entrance to the first and last of which was from the entresol.
+
+We put Mr. Eglinton into No. 1, locking the connecting door with No. 2,
+so that he had no exit except into our circle as we sat round the
+curtain, behind which we placed his chair. "Joey" having shown himself
+outside the curtain, informed us he was going through the locked door at
+the back into our bedrooms, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and would bring us
+something from each room.
+
+Accordingly, in another minute we heard his voice in No. 2, commenting
+on all he saw there; then he passed into No. 3, and so on, making a tour
+of the rooms, until he appeared at the communicating door of No. 5, and
+threw an article taken from each room into the entresol. He then told us
+to lift the curtain and inspect the medium, which we did, finding him
+fast asleep in his chair, with the door behind him locked. "Joey" then
+returned by the way he had gone, and presented himself once more outside
+the cabinet, the key of the locked door being all the time in our
+possession.
+
+"Ernest" is another well-known control of Mr. Eglinton's, though he
+seldom appears, except to give some marvellous test or advice. He is a
+very earnest, deep-feeling spirit, like his name, and his symbol is a
+cross of light; sometimes large and sometimes small, but always bright
+and luminous. "Ernest" seldom shows his whole body. It is generally only
+his face that is apparent in the midst of the circle, a more convincing
+manifestation for the sceptic or inquirer than any number of bodies
+which are generally attributed to the chicanery of the medium. "Ernest"
+always speaks in the direct voice in a gentle, bass tone, entirely
+distinct from "Joey's" treble, and his appearance is usually indicative
+of a harmonious and successful meeting. "Daisy," a North American
+Indian girl, is another control of William Eglinton's, but I have only
+heard her speak in trance. I do not know which of these spirits it is
+who conducts the manifestations of writing on the arm, with which Mr.
+Eglinton is very successful; sometimes it seems to be one, and sometimes
+the other. As he was sitting with our family at supper one evening, I
+mentally asked "Joey" to write something on some part of his body where
+his hand could not reach. This was in order to prove that the writing
+had not been prepared by chemical means beforehand, as some people are
+apt to assert. In a short time Mr. Eglinton was observed to stop eating,
+and grow very fidgety and look uncomfortable, and on being questioned as
+to the cause, he blushed and stammered, and could give no answer. After
+a while he rose from table, and asked leave to retire to his room. The
+next morning he told us that he had been so uneasy at supper, it had
+become impossible for him to sit it out; that on reaching his room he
+had found that his back, which irritated him as though covered with a
+rash, _had a sentence written across it_, of which he could only make
+out a few words by looking at it backwards in a glass; and as there were
+only ladies in the house beside himself, he could not call in an
+interpreter to his assistance. One day, without consulting him, I placed
+a small card and a tiny piece of black lead between the leaves of a
+volume of the _Leisure Hour_, and asked him to hold the book with me on
+the dining table. I never let the book out of my hand, and it was so
+thick that I had difficulty afterwards in finding my card (from the
+corner of which I had torn a piece) again. Mr. Eglinton sat with me in
+the daylight with the family about, and all he did was to place his hand
+on mine, which rested on the book. The perspiration ran down his face
+whilst he did so, but there was no other sign of power, and, honestly, I
+did not expect to find any writing on my card. When I had shaken it out
+of the leaves of the book, however, I found a letter closely written on
+it from my daughter "Florence" to this effect:--
+
+     "Dear Mama,--I am so glad to be able to communicate with you again,
+     and to demonstrate by actual fact that I am really present. Of
+     course, you quite understand that I do not write this myself.
+     'Charlie' is present with me, and so are many more, and we all
+     unite in sending you our love.
+                                   "Your daughter, Florence."
+
+Mr. Eglinton's mediumship embraces various phases of phenomena, as may
+be gathered from his own relations of them, and the testimony of his
+friends. A narrative of his spiritual work, under the title of "'Twixt
+two Worlds," has been written and published by Mr. John T. Farmer, and
+contains some exhaustive descriptions of, and testimonies to, his
+undoubtedly wonderful gifts. In it appear several accounts written by
+myself, and which, for the benefit of such of my readers as have not
+seen the book in question, I will repeat here. The first is that of the
+"Monk," given _in extenso_, as I have given it in the eleventh chapter
+of this book. The second is of a _seance_ held on the 5th September,
+1884. The circle consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Colonel and Mrs.
+Wynch, Mr. and Mrs. Russell-Davies, Mr. Morgan, and Colonel Lean and
+myself, and was held in Mr. Eglinton's private chambers in Quebec
+Street. We sat in the front drawing-room, with one gas-burner alight,
+and the door having been properly secured, Mr. Eglinton went into the
+back room, which was divided by curtains from the front. He had not left
+us a couple of minutes before a man stepped out through the _portiere_,
+and walked right into the midst of us. He was a large, stout man, and
+very dark, and most of the sitters remarked that he had a very peculiar
+smell. No one recognized him, and after appearing two or three times he
+left, and was _immediately_ succeeded by a woman, very much like him,
+who also had to leave us without any recognition. These two spirits,
+before taking a final leave, came out _together_, and seemed to examine
+the circle curiously. After a short interval a much smaller and slighter
+man came forward, and darted in a peculiar slouching attitude round the
+circle. Colonel Lean asked him to shake hands. He replied by seizing his
+hand, and nearly dragging him off his seat. He then darted across the
+room, and gave a similar proof of his muscular power to Mr. Stewart. But
+when I asked him to notice _me_, he took my hand and squeezed it firmly
+between his own. He had scarcely disappeared before "Abdullah," with his
+one arm and his six feet two of height, stood before us, and salaamed
+all round. Then came my daughter Florence, a girl of nineteen by that
+time, very slight and feminine in appearance. She advanced two or three
+times, near enough to touch me with her hand, but seemed fearful to
+approach nearer. But the next moment she returned, dragging Mr.
+Eglinton after her. He was in deep trance, breathing with difficulty,
+but "Florence" held him by the hand and brought him up to my side, when
+he detached my hands from those of the sitters either side of me, and
+making me stand up, he placed my daughter in my arms. As she stood
+folded in my embrace, she whispered a few words to me relative to a
+subject _known to no one but myself_, and she placed my hand upon her
+heart, that I might feel she was a living woman. Colonel Lean asked her
+to go to him. She tried and failed, but having retreated behind the
+curtain to gather strength, she appeared the second time _with Mr.
+Eglinton_, and calling Colonel Lean to her, embraced him. This is one of
+the most perfect instances on record of a spirit form being seen
+distinctly by ten witnesses with the medium under gas. The next
+materialization that appeared was for Mr. Stewart. This gentleman was
+newly arrived from Australia, and a stranger to Mr. Eglinton. As soon as
+he saw the female form, who beckoned him to the _portiere_ to speak to
+her, he exclaimed, "My God! Pauline," with such genuine surprise and
+conviction as were unmistakable. The spirit then whispered to him, and
+putting her arms round his neck, affectionately kissed him. He turned
+after a while, and addressing his wife, told her that the spirit bore
+the very form and features of their niece Pauline, whom they had lost
+the year before. Mr. Stewart expressed himself entirely satisfied with
+the identity of his niece, and said she looked just as she had done
+before she was taken ill. I must not omit to say that the medium also
+appeared with this figure, making the third time of showing himself in
+one evening with the spirit form.
+
+The next apparition, being the seventh that appeared, was that of a
+little child apparently about two years old, who supported itself in
+walking by holding on to a chair. I stooped down, and tried to talk to
+this baby, but it only cried in a fretful manner, as though frightened
+at finding itself with strangers, and turned away. The attention of the
+circle was diverted from this sight by seeing "Abdullah" dart between
+the curtains, and stand with the child in our view, whilst Mr. Eglinton
+appeared at the same moment between the two forms, making a _tria juncta
+in uno_.
+
+Thus ended the _seance_. The second one of which I wrote took place on
+the 27th of the same month, and under very similar circumstances. The
+circle this time consisted of Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Woods, Mr. Gordon, The
+Honorable Gordon Sandeman, my daughter Eva, my son Frank, Colonel Lean,
+and myself. Mr. Eglinton appeared on this occasion to find some
+difficulty in passing under control, and he came out so frequently into
+the circle to gather power, that I guessed we were going to have
+uncommonly good manifestations. The voice of "Joey," too, begged us
+under _no circumstances whatever_, to lose hands, as they were going to
+try something very difficult, and we might defeat their efforts at the
+very moment of victory. When the medium was at last under control in the
+back drawing room, a tall man, with an uncovered head of dark hair, and
+a large beard, appeared and walked up to a lady in the company. She was
+very much affected by the recognition of the spirit, which she affirmed
+to be that of her brother. She called him by name and kissed him, and
+informed us, that he was just as he had been in earth life. Her emotion
+was so great, we thought she would have fainted, but after a while she
+became calm again. We next heard the notes of a clarionet. I had been
+told that Mr. Woods (a stranger just arrived from the Antipodes) had
+lost a brother under peculiarly distressing circumstances, and that he
+hoped (though hardly expected) to see his brother that evening. It was
+the first time I had ever seen Mr. Woods; yet so remarkable was the
+likeness between the brothers, that when a spirit appeared with a
+clarionet in his hand, I could not help knowing who it was, and
+exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. Woods, there is your brother!" The figure walked up
+to Mr. Woods and grasped his hand. As they appeared thus with their
+faces turned to one another, they were _strikingly_ alike both in
+feature and expression. This spirit's head was also bare, an unusual
+occurrence, and covered with thick, crisp hair. He appeared twice, and
+said distinctly, "God bless you!" each time to his brother. Mrs.
+Wheeler, who had known the spirit in earth life, was startled by the
+tone of the voice, which she recognized at once; and Mr. Morgan, who had
+been an intimate friend of his in Australia, confirmed the recognition.
+We asked Mr. Woods the meaning of the clarionet, which was a black one,
+handsomely inlaid with silver. He told us his brother had been an
+excellent musician, and had won a similar instrument as a prize at some
+musical competition. "But," he added wonderingly, "his clarionet is
+locked up in my house in Australia." My daughter "Florence" came out
+next, but only a little way, at which I was disappointed, but "Joey"
+said they were reserving the strength for a manifestation further on. He
+then said, "Here comes a friend for Mr. Sandeman," and a man, wearing
+the masonic badge and scarf, appeared, and made the tour of the circle,
+giving the masonic grip to those of the craft present. He was a good
+looking young man, and said he had met some of those present in
+Australia, but no one seemed to recognize him. He was succeeded by a
+male figure, who had materialized on the previous occasion. As he passed
+through the curtain, a female figure appeared beside him, bearing a very
+bright light, as though to show him the way. She did not come beyond the
+_portiere_, but every one in the room saw her distinctly. On account of
+the dress and complexion of the male figure, we had wrongly christened
+him "The Bedouin;" but my son, Frank Marryat, who is a sailor, now found
+out he was an East Indian by addressing him in Hindustani, to which he
+responded in a low voice. Some one asked him to take a seat amongst us,
+upon which he seized a heavy chair in one hand and flourished it above
+his head. He then squatted, native fashion, on his haunches on the floor
+and left us, as before, by vanishing suddenly.
+
+"Joey" now announced that they were going to try the experiment of
+"_showing us how the spirits were made from the medium_." This was the
+crowning triumph of the evening. Mr. Eglinton appeared in the very midst
+of us in trance. He entered the room backwards, and as if fighting with
+the power that pushed him in, his eyes were shut, and his breath was
+drawn with difficulty. As he stood thus, holding on to a chair for
+support, an airy mass like a cloud of tobacco smoke was seen on his left
+hip, his legs became illuminated by lights travelling up and down them,
+and a white film settled about his head and shoulders. The mass
+increased, and he breathed harder and harder, whilst invisible hands
+_pulled the filmy drapery out of his hip_ in long strips, that
+amalgamated as soon as formed, and fell to the ground to be succeeded by
+others. The cloud continued to grow thicker, and we were eagerly
+watching the process, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the mass had
+evaporated, and a spirit, full formed, stood beside him. No one could
+say _how_ it had been raised in the very midst of us, nor whence it
+came, but _it was there_. Mr. Eglinton then retired with the new-born
+spirit behind the curtains, but in another moment he came (or he was
+thrown out) amongst us again, and fell upon the floor. The curtains
+opened again, and the full figure of "Ernest" appeared and raised the
+medium by the hand. As he saw him, Mr. Eglinton fell on his knees, and
+"Ernest" drew him out of sight. Thus ended the second of these two
+wonderful _seances_. Thus published reports of them were signed with the
+full names and addresses of those who witnessed them.
+
+William Eglinton's powers embrace various phases of phenomena, amongst
+which levitation is a common occurrence; indeed, I do not think I have
+ever sat with him at a _seance_ during which he has _not_ been
+levitated. I have seen him on several occasions rise, or be carried,
+into the air, so that his head touched the ceiling, and his feet were
+above the sitters' heads. On one occasion whilst sitting with him a
+perfectly new manifestation was developed. As each spirit came the name
+was announced, written on the air in letters of fire, which moved round
+the circle in front of the sitters. As the names were those of friends
+of the audience and not of friends of Mr. Eglinton, and the phenomenon
+ended with a letter written to me in the same manner on private affairs,
+it could not be attributed to a previously arranged trick. I have
+accompanied Mr. Eglinton, in the capacity of interpreter, to a
+professional _seance_ in Paris consisting of some forty persons, not one
+of whom could speak a word of English whilst he was equally ignorant of
+foreign languages. And I have heard French and German spirits return
+through him to converse with their friends, who were radiant with joy at
+communicating with them again, whilst their medium could not (had he
+been conscious) have understood or pronounced a single word of all the
+news he was so glibly repeating. I will conclude this testimony to his
+powers by the account of a sitting with him for slate writing--that much
+abused and most maligned manifestation. Because a few ignorant
+pig-headed people who have never properly investigated the science of
+Spiritualism decide that a thing cannot be, "because it can't," men of
+honor and truth are voted charlatans and tricksters, and those who
+believe in them fools and blind. The day will dawn yet when it will be
+seen which of the two classes best deserve the name.
+
+Some years ago, when I first became connected in business with Mr. Edgar
+Lee of the _St. Stephen's Review_, I found him much interested in the
+subject of Spiritualism, though he had never had an opportunity of
+investigating it, and through my introduction I procured him a test
+_seance_ with William Eglinton. We met one afternoon at the medium's
+house in Nottingham Place for that purpose, and sat at an ordinary table
+in the back dining-room for slate-writing. The slate used on the
+occasion (as Mr. Lee had neglected to bring his own slate as requested)
+was one which was presented to Mr. Eglinton by Mr. Gladstone. It
+consisted of two slates of medium size, set in mahogany frames, with box
+hinges, and which, when shut, were fastened with a Bramah lock and key.
+On the table cloth was a collection of tiny pieces of different colored
+chalk. In the front room, which was divided from us by folding doors,
+were some bookcases. Mr. Eglinton commenced by asking Mr. Lee to go into
+the front room by himself, and select, in his mind's eye, any book he
+chose as the one from which extracts should be given. Mr. Lee having
+done as he was told, returned to his former place beside us, without
+giving a hint as to which book he had selected. Mr. Gladstone's slate
+was then delivered over to him to clean with sponge and water; that
+done, he was directed to choose four pieces of chalk and place them
+between the slates, to lock them and retain the key. The slates were
+left on the table in the sight of all; Mr. Lee's hand remained on them
+all the time. All that Mr. Eglinton did was to place _his_ hand above
+Mr. Lee's.
+
+"You chose, I think," he commenced, "four morsels of chalk--white, blue,
+yellow and red. Please say which word, on which line, on which page of
+the book you selected just now, the white chalk shall transcribe."
+
+Mr. Lee answered (I forget the exact numbers) somewhat in this wise,
+"The 3rd word on the 15th line of the 102nd page," he having, it must be
+remembered, no knowledge of the contents of the volume, which he had not
+even touched with his hand. Immediately he had spoken, a scratching
+noise was heard between the two slates. When it ceased, Mr. Eglinton put
+the same question with regard to the blue, yellow and red chalks, which
+was similarly responded to. He then asked Mr. Lee to unlock the slates,
+read the words, and then fetch the book he had selected, and compare
+notes, and in each instance the word had been given correctly. Several
+other experiments were then made, equally curious, the number of Mr.
+Lee's watch, which he had not taken from his pocket, and which he said
+he did not know himself, being amongst them. Then Mr. Eglinton said to
+Mr. Lee, "Have you any friend in the spirit-world from whom you would
+like to hear? If so, and you will mentally recall the name, we will try
+and procure some writing from him or her." (I must say here that these
+two were utter strangers to each other, and had met for the first time
+that afternoon, and indeed [as will be seen by the context] _I_ had a
+very slight knowledge of Mr. Edgar Lee myself at that time.) Mr. Lee
+thought for a moment, and then replied that there was a dead friend of
+his from whom he should like to hear. The cleaning and locking process
+was gone through again, and the scratching re-commenced, and when it
+concluded, Mr. Lee unlocked the slates and read a letter to this
+effect:--
+
+     "My Dear Will,--I am quite satisfied with your decision respecting
+     Bob. By all means, send him to the school you are thinking of. He
+     will get on better there. His education requires more pushing than
+     it gets at present. Thanks for all you have done for him. God bless
+     you.--Your affectionate cousin,                        R. Tasker."
+
+I do not pretend to give the exact words of this letter; for though they
+were afterwards published, I have not a copy by me. But the gist of the
+experiment does not lie in the exactitude of the words. When I saw the
+slate, I looked at Mr. Lee in astonishment.
+
+"Who is it for?" I asked.
+
+"It is all right," he replied; "it is for me. It is from my cousin, who
+left his boy in my charge. _My real name is William Tasker._"
+
+Now, I had never heard it hinted before that Edgar Lee was only a _nom
+de plume_, and the announcement came on me as a genuine surprise. So
+satisfied was Mr. William Tasker Edgar Lee with his experimental
+_seance_, that he had the slate photographed and reproduced in the _St.
+Stephen's Review_, with an account of the whole proceedings, which were
+sufficient to make any one stop for a moment in the midst of the world's
+harassing duties and think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF ARTHUR COLMAN.
+
+
+Arthur Colman was so intimate a friend of Mr. Eglinton's, and so much
+associated with him in my thoughts in the days when I first knew them
+both, that it seems only natural that I should write of him next. His
+powers were more confined to materialization than Eglinton's, but in
+that he excelled. He is the most wonderful materializing medium I ever
+met in England; but of late years, owing to the injury it did him in his
+profession, he has been compelled, in justice to himself, to give up
+sitting for physical manifestations, and, indeed, sitting at all, except
+to oblige his friends. I cannot but consider this decision on his part
+as a great public loss; but until the public takes more interest in the
+next world than they do in this, it will not make it worth the while of
+such as Mr. Colman to devote their lives, health and strength to their
+enlightenment. For to be a good physical medium means literally to part,
+little by little, with one's own life, and no man can be expected to do
+so much for the love of a set of unbelievers and sceptics, who will use
+up all his powers, and then go home to call him a rogue and a cheat and
+a trickster. If, as I am persuaded, each one of us is surrounded by the
+influences we gather of our own free-will about us--the loving and
+noble-hearted by angels, the selfish and unbelieving by devils--and we
+consider how the latter preponderate over the former in this world, is
+it to be wondered at that most _seances_ are conducted by an assemblage
+of evil spirits brought there by the sitters themselves? Sceptical,
+blasphemous and sensual men and women collect together to try and find
+out the falsehood, _not the truth_, of Spiritualism, and are tricked by
+the very influences that attend their footsteps and direct their daily
+lives; and therein lies the danger of Spiritualism as a pursuit, taken
+up out of curiosity rather than a desire to learn. It gives increased
+power to the evil that surrounds ourselves, and the devil that goes out
+of us returns with seven other devils worse than himself. The drunkard,
+who, by giving rein to a weakness which he knows he should resist, has
+attracted to him the spirits of drunkards gone before, joins a _seance_,
+and by the collaboration of forces, as it were, bestows increased power
+on the guides he has chosen for himself to lead him into greater evil.
+This dissertation, however, called forth by the never-ceasing wonder I
+feel at the indifference of the world towards such sights as I have
+seen, has led me further than I intended from the subject of my chapter.
+
+Arthur Colman is a young man of delicate constitution and appearance,
+who was at one time almost brought down to death's door by the demands
+made by physical phenomena upon his strength; but since he has given up
+sitting, he has regained his health, and looks quite a different person.
+This fact proves of itself what a tax is laid upon the unfortunate
+medium for such manifestations. Since he has resolved, however, never to
+sit again, I am all the more anxious to record what I have seen through
+him, probably for the last time. When I first knew my husband Colonel
+Lean, he had seen nothing of Spiritualism, and was proportionately
+curious, and naturally a little sceptical on the subject, or, rather let
+me say, incredulous. He was hardly prepared to receive all the marvels I
+told him of without proof; and Mr. Colman's guide, "Aimee," was very
+anxious to convince him of their truth. She arranged, therefore, a
+_seance_ at which he was to be present, and which was to be held at the
+house of Mr. and Mrs. George Neville. The party dined there together
+previously, and consisted only of Mr. and Mrs. Neville, Arthur Colman,
+Colonel Lean, and myself. As we were in the drawing-room, however, after
+dinner, and before we had commenced the _seance_, an American lady, who
+was but slightly known to any of us, was announced. We had particularly
+wished to have no strangers present, and her advent proportionately
+annoyed us, but we did not know on what excuse to get rid of her. She
+was a pushing sort of person; and when Mrs. Neville told her we were
+going to hold a _seance_, as a sort of hint that she might take her
+leave, it only made her resolve to stay; indeed, she declared she had
+had a premonition of the fact. She said that whilst in her own room that
+morning, a figure had appeared standing by her bed, dressed in blue and
+white, like the pictures of the Virgin Mary, and that all day she had
+had an impression that she must spend the evening with the Nevilles, and
+she should hear something more about it. We could not get rid of the
+lady, so we were obliged to ask her to remain and assist at the
+_seance_, which she had already made up her mind to do, so we commenced
+our preparations. The two drawing-rooms communicated by folding doors,
+which were opened, and a _portiere_ drawn across the opening. In the
+back room we placed Mr. Colman's chair. He was dressed in a light grey
+suit, which we secured in the following manner:--His hands were first
+sewn inside the sleeves of the coat, then his arms were placed behind
+his back, and the coat sleeves sewn together to the elbow. We then sewed
+his trouser legs together in the same way. We then tied him round the
+throat, waist and legs with _white cotton_, which the least movement on
+his part would break, and the ends of each ligament were sealed to the
+wall of the room with wax and stamped with my seal with "_Florence
+Marryat_" on it. Considering him thus secure, without any _possibility_
+of escape unless we discovered it, we left him in the back room, and
+arranged ourselves on a row of five chairs before the _portiere_ in the
+front one, which was lighted by a single gas-burner. I sat at the head
+of the row, then the American lady, Mrs. Neville, Colonel Lean and Mr.
+Neville. I am not sure how long we waited for the manifestations; but I
+do not think it was many minutes before a female figure glided from the
+side of the curtain and took a vacant chair by my side. I said, "_Who is
+this?_" and she whispered, "_Florence_," and laid her head down on my
+shoulder, and kissed my neck. I was turning towards her to distinguish
+her features more fully, when I became aware that a second figure was
+standing in front of me, and "Florence" said "Mother, there is Powles;"
+and at the same time, as he bent down to speak to me, his beard touched
+my face. I had not had time to draw the attention of my friends to the
+spirits that stood by me, when I was startled by hearing one exclamation
+after another from the various sitters. The American lady called out,
+"There's the woman that came to me this morning." Mr. Neville said,
+"That is my father," and Colonel Lean was asking some one if he would
+not give his name, I looked down the line of sitters. Before Colonel
+Lean there stood an old man with a long, white beard; a somewhat similar
+figure was in front of Mr. Neville. Before the dark curtain appeared a
+woman dressed in blue and white, like a nun; and meanwhile, "Florence"
+and "Powles" still maintained their station by my side. As if this were
+not enough of itself to turn a mortal's brain, the _portiere_ was at the
+same moment drawn aside, and there stood Arthur Colman in his grey suit,
+freed from all his bonds, but under the control of "Aimee," who called
+out joyously to my husband, "_Now, Frank, will you believe?_" She
+dropped the curtain, the apparitions glided or faded away, and we passed
+into the back drawing-room, to find Mr. Colman still in trance, just as
+we had left him, and _with all the seals and stitches_ intact. Not a
+thread of them all was broken. This is the largest number of spirits I
+have ever seen at one time with one medium. I have seen two materialized
+spirits at a time, and even three, from Mr. Williams and Miss Showers
+and Katie Cook; but on this occasion there were five apparent with the
+medium, all standing together before us. And this is the sort of thing
+that the majority of people do not consider it worth their while to take
+a little trouble to see. I have already related how successfully
+"Florence" used to materialize through this medium, and numerous
+friends, utterly unknown to him, have revisited us through his means.
+His trance mediumship is as wonderful as his physical phenomena; some
+people might think more so. Amongst others, two spirits have come back
+to us through Mr. Colman, neither of whom he knew in this life, and both
+of whom are, in their way, too characteristic to be mistaken. One is
+Phillis Glover the actress; the other my stepson, Francis Lean, who was
+drowned by an accident at sea. Phillis Glover was a woman who led a very
+eventful life, chiefly in America, and was a versatile genius in
+conversation, as in everything else. She was peculiar also, and had a
+half-Yankee way of talking, and a store of familiar sayings and
+anecdotes, which she constantly introduced into her conversation. She
+was by no means an ordinary person whilst in this life, and in order to
+imitate her manner and speech successfully, one would need to be as
+clever a person as herself. And, without wishing to derogate from the
+powers of Mr. Colman's mind, he knows, and I know, that Phillis Glover
+was cleverer than either of us. When her influence or spirit therefore
+returns through him, it is quite unmistakable. It is not only that she
+retains all her little tricks of voice and feature and manner (which Mr.
+Colman has never seen), but she alludes to circumstances that took place
+in this life and people she was associated with here that he has never
+heard of. More, she will relate her old stories and anecdotes, and sing
+her old songs, and give the most incontrovertible tests of her identity,
+even to recalling facts and incidents that have entirely passed from our
+minds. When she appears through him, it is Phillis Glover we are sitting
+with again and talking with, as familiarly as we did in the days gone
+by. "Francis," in his way too, is quite as remarkable. The circumstances
+of his death and the events leading to it were unknown to us, till he
+related them through Mr. Colman; and he speaks to us of the contents of
+private letters, and repeats conversations and alludes to circumstances
+and names that are known only to him and ourselves. He had a peculiar
+manner also--quick and nervous--and a way of cutting his words short,
+which his spirit preserves to the smallest particular, and which furnish
+the strongest proofs possible of his identity to those who knew him here
+below. But these are but a very few amongst the innumerable tests
+furnished by Arthur Colman's occult powers of the assured possibility of
+communicating with the spirits of those gone before us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. GUPPY VOLCKMAN.
+
+
+The mediumship of this lady is so well known, and has been so
+universally attested, that nothing I can write of could possibly add to
+her fame; and as I made her acquaintance but a short time before she
+relinquished sitting for manifestations, I have had but little
+experience of her powers, but such as I enjoyed were very remarkable. I
+have alluded to them in the story of "The Green Lady," whose apparition
+was due solely to Mrs. Guppy Volckman's presence, and on that occasion
+she gave us another wonderful proof of her mediumship. A sheet was
+procured and held up at either end by Mr. Charles Williams and herself.
+It was held in the light, in the centre of the room, forming a white
+wall of about five feet high, _i.e._, as high as their arms could
+conveniently reach. _Both_ the hands of Mrs. Volckman and Mr. Williams
+were placed _outside_ the sheet, so that no trickery might be suspected
+through their being concealed. In a short time the head of a woman
+appeared above the sheet, followed by that of a man, and various pairs
+of hands, both large and small, which bobbed up and down, and seized the
+hands of the spectators, whilst the faces went close to the media, as if
+with the intention of kissing them. This frightened Mrs. Volckman, so
+that she frequently screamed and dropped her end of the sheet, which,
+had there been any deception, must inevitably have exposed it. It seemed
+to make no difference to the spirits, however, who reappeared directly
+they had the opportunity, and made her at last so nervous that she threw
+the sheet down and refused to hold it any more. The faces were
+life-size, and could move their eyes and lips; the hands were some as
+large as a man's, and covered with hair, and others like those of a
+woman or child. They had all the capability of working the fingers and
+grasping objects presented to them; whilst the four hands belonging to
+the media were kept in sight of the audience, and could not have worked
+machinery even if they could have concealed it.
+
+The first time I was introduced to Mrs. Volckman (then Mrs. Guppy) was
+at a _seance_ at her own house in Victoria Road, where she had assembled
+a large party of guests, including several names well known in art and
+literature. We sat in a well-lighted drawing-room, and the party was so
+large that the circle round the table was three deep. Mrs. Mary Hardy,
+the American medium (since dead), was present, and the honors of the
+manifestations may be therefore, I conclude, divided between the two
+ladies. The table, a common deal one, made for such occasions, with a
+round hole of about twenty inches in diameter in the middle of it, was
+covered with a cloth that hung down, and was nailed to the ground,
+leaving only the aperture free. (I must premise that this cloth had been
+nailed down by a committee of the gentlemen visitors, in order that
+there might be no suspicion of a confederate hidden underneath it.) We
+then sat round the table, but without placing our hands on it. In a
+short time hands began to appear through the open space in the table,
+all sorts of hands, from the woman's taper fingers and the baby's
+dimpled fist, to the hands of old and young men, wrinkled or muscular.
+Some of the hands had rings on the fingers, by which the sitters
+recognized them, some stretched themselves out to be grasped; and some
+appeared in pairs, clasped together or separate. One hand took a glove
+from a sitter and put it on the other, showing the muscular force it
+possessed by the way in which it pressed down each finger and then
+buttoned the glove. Another pair of hands talked through the dumb
+alphabet to us, and a third played on a musical instrument. I was
+leaning forward, before I had witnessed the above, peering inquisitively
+down the hole, and saying, "I wonder if they would have strength to take
+anything down with them," when a large hand suddenly appeared and very
+nearly took _me_ down, by seizing my nose as if it never meant to let go
+again. At all events, it took me a peg or two down, for I remember it
+brought the tears into my eyes with the force it exhibited. After the
+hands had ceased to appear, the table was moved away, and we sat in a
+circle in the light. Mrs. Guppy did not wish to take a part in the
+_seance_, except as a spectator, so she retired to the back
+drawing-room with the Baroness Adelma Vay and other visitors, and left
+Mrs. Hardy with the circle in the front. Suddenly, however, she was
+levitated and carried in the sight of us all into the midst of our
+circle. As she felt herself rising in the air, she called out, "Don't
+let go hands for Heaven's sake." We were standing in a ring, and I had
+hold of the hand of Prince Albert of Solms. As Mrs. Guppy came sailing
+over our heads, her feet caught his neck and mine, and in our anxiety to
+do as she had told us, we gripped tight hold of each other, and were
+thrown forward on our knees by the force with which she was carried past
+us into the centre. This was a pretty strong proof to us, whatever it
+may be to others, that our senses did not deceive us when we thought we
+saw Mrs. Guppy over our heads in the air. The influence that levitated
+her, moreover, placed her on a chair with such a bump that it broke the
+two front legs off. As soon as Mrs. Guppy had rejoined us, the order was
+given to put out the light and to wish for something. We unanimously
+asked for flowers, it being the middle of December, and a hard frost.
+Simultaneously we smelt the smell of fresh earth, and were told to light
+the gas again, when the following extraordinary sight met our view. In
+the middle of the sitters, still holding hands, was piled up _on the
+carpet_ an immense quantity of mould, which had been torn up apparently
+with the roots that accompanied it. There were laurestinus, and laurels,
+and holly, and several others, just as they had been pulled out of the
+earth and thrown down in the midst of us. Mrs. Guppy looked anything but
+pleased at the state of her carpet, and begged the spirits would bring
+something cleaner next time. They then told us to extinguish the lights
+again, and each sitter was to wish _mentally_ for something for himself.
+I wished for a yellow butterfly, knowing it was December, and as I
+thought of it, a little cardboard box was put into my hand. Prince
+Albert whispered to me, "Have you got anything?" "Yes," I said; "but not
+what I asked for. I expect they have given me a piece of jewellery."
+When the gas was re-lit, I opened the box, and there lay _two yellow
+butterflies_; dead, of course, but none the less extraordinary for that.
+I wore at that _seance_ a tight-fitting, high white muslin dress, over a
+tight petticoat body. The dress had no pocket, and I carried my
+handkerchief, a fine cambric one, in my hand. When the _seance_ was
+over, I found this handkerchief had disappeared, at which I was vexed,
+as it had been embroidered for me by my sister Emily, then dead. I
+inquired of every sitter if they had seen it, even making them turn out
+their pockets in case they had taken it in mistake for their own, but it
+was not to be found, and I returned home, as I thought, without it. What
+was my surprise on removing my dress and petticoat bodice to find the
+handkerchief, neatly folded into a square of about four inches,
+_between_ my stays and the garment beneath them; placed, moreover, over
+the smallest part of my waist, where no fingers could have penetrated
+even had my dress been loose. My woman readers may be able better than
+the men to appreciate the difficulty of such a manoeuvre by mortal
+means; indeed it would have been quite impossible for myself or anybody
+else to place the handkerchief in such a position without removing the
+stays. And it was folded so neatly also, and placed so smoothly, that
+there was not a crumple in the cambric.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF FLORENCE COOK.
+
+
+In writing of my own mediumship, or the mediumship of any other person,
+I wish it particularly to be understood that I do not intend my
+narrative to be, by any means, an account of _all seances_ held under
+that control (for were I to include everything that I have seen and
+heard during my researches into Spiritualism, this volume would swell to
+unconscionable dimensions), but only of certain events which I believe
+to be remarkable, and not enjoyed by every one in like measure. Most
+people have read of the ordinary phenomena that take place at such
+meetings. My readers, therefore, will find no description here of
+marvels which--whether true or false--can be accounted for upon natural
+grounds. Miss Florence Cook, now Mrs. Elgie Corner, is one of the media
+who have been most talked of and written about. Mr. Alfred Crookes took
+an immense interest in her, and published a long account of his
+investigation of Spiritualism under her mediumship. Mr. Henry Dunphy, of
+the _Morning Post_, wrote a series of papers for _London Society_ (of
+which magazine I was then the editor), describing her powers, and the
+proof she gave of them. The first time I ever met Florence Cook was in
+his private house, when my little daughter appeared through her (_vide_
+"The Story of my Spirit Child"). On that occasion, as we were sitting at
+supper after the _seance_--a party of perhaps thirty people--the whole
+dinner-table, with everything upon it, rose bodily in the air to a level
+with our knees, and the dishes and glasses swayed about in a perilous
+manner, without, however, coming to any permanent harm. I was so much
+astonished at, and interested by, what I saw that evening, that I became
+most anxious to make the personal acquaintance of Miss Cook. She was the
+medium for the celebrated spirit, "Katie King," of whom so much has been
+believed and disbelieved, and the _seances_ she gave at her parents'
+house in Hackney for the purpose of seeing this figure alone used to be
+crowded by the cleverest and most scientific men of the day, Sergeants
+Cox and Ballantyne, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Alfred Crookes, and many others,
+being on terms of the greatest intimacy with her. Mr. William Harrison,
+of the _Spiritualist_ paper, was the one to procure me an introduction
+to the family and an entrance to the _seances_, for which I shall always
+feel grateful to him.
+
+For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me begin by telling _who_ "Katie
+King" was supposed to be. Her account of herself was that her name was
+"Annie Owens Morgan;" that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Morgan, a
+famous buccaneer who lived about the time of the Commonwealth, and
+suffered death upon the high seas, being, in fact, a pirate; that she
+herself was about twelve years old when Charles the First was beheaded;
+that she married and had two little children; that she committed more
+crimes than we should like to hear of, having murdered men with her own
+hands, but yet died quite young, at about two or three and twenty. To
+all questions concerning the reason of her reappearance on earth, she
+returned but one answer, That it was part of the work given her to do to
+convince the world of the truth of Spiritualism. This was the
+information I received from her own lips. She had appeared to the Cooks
+some years before I saw her, and had become so much one of the family as
+to walk about the house at all times without alarming the inmates. She
+often materialized and got into bed with her medium at night, much to
+Florrie's annoyance; and after Miss Cook's marriage to Captain Corner,
+he told me himself that he used to feel at first as if he had married
+two women, and was not quite sure which was his wife of the two.
+
+The order of these _seances_ was always the same. Miss Cook retired to a
+back room, divided from the audience by a thin damask curtain, and
+presently the form of "Katie King" would appear dressed in white, and
+walk out amongst the sitters in gaslight, and talk like one of
+themselves. Florence Cook (as I mentioned before) is a very small,
+slight brunette, with dark eyes and dark curly hair and a delicate
+aquiline nose. Sometimes "Katie" resembled her exactly; at others, she
+was totally different. Sometimes, too, she measured the same height as
+her medium; at others, she was much taller. I have a large photograph
+of "Katie" taken under limelight. In it she appears as the double of
+Florrie Cook, yet Florrie was looking on whilst the picture was taken. I
+have sat for her several times with Mr. Crookes, and seen the tests
+applied which are mentioned in his book on the subject. I have seen
+Florrie's dark curls _nailed down to the floor_, outside the curtain, in
+view of the audience, whilst "Katie" walked about and talked with us. I
+have seen Florrie placed on the scale of a weighing machine constructed
+by Mr. Crookes for the purpose, behind the curtain, whilst the balance
+remained in sight. I have seen under these circumstances that the medium
+weighed eight stone in a normal condition, and that as soon as the
+materialized form was fully developed, the balance ran up to four stone.
+Moreover, I have seen both Florrie and "Katie" together on several
+occasions, so I can have no doubt on the subject that they were two
+separate creatures. Still, I can quite understand how difficult it must
+have been for strangers to compare the strong likeness that existed
+between the medium and the spirit, without suspecting they were one and
+the same person. One evening "Katie" walked out and perched herself upon
+my knee. I could feel she was a much plumper and heavier woman than Miss
+Cook, but she wonderfully resembled her in features, and I told her so.
+"Katie" did not seem to consider it a compliment. She shrugged her
+shoulders, made a grimace, and said, "I know I am; I can't help it, but
+I was much prettier than that in earth life. You shall see, some
+day--you shall see." After she had finally retired that evening, she put
+her head out at the curtain again and said, with the strong lisp she
+always had, "I want Mrs. Ross-Church." I rose and went to her, when she
+pulled me inside the curtain, when I found it was so thin that the gas
+shining through it from the outer room made everything in the inner
+quite visible. "Katie" pulled my dress impatiently and said, "Sit down
+on the ground," which I did. She then seated herself in my lap, saying,
+"And now, dear, we'll have a good 'confab,' like women do on earth."
+Florence Cook, meanwhile, was lying on a mattress on the ground close to
+us, wrapped in a deep trance. "Katie" seemed very anxious I should
+ascertain beyond doubt that it was Florrie. "Touch her," she said, "take
+her hand, pull her curls. Do you see that it is Florrie lying there?"
+When I assured her I was quite satisfied there was no doubt of it, the
+spirit said, "Then look round this way, and see what I was like in earth
+life." I turned to the form in my arms, and what was my amazement to see
+a woman fair as the day, with large grey or blue eyes, a white skin, and
+a profusion of golden red hair. "Katie" enjoyed my surprise, and asked
+me, "Ain't I prettier than Florrie now?" She then rose and procured a
+pair of scissors from the table, and cut off a lock of her own hair and
+a lock of the medium's, and gave them to me. I have them safe to this
+day. One is almost black, soft and silky; the other a coarse golden red.
+After she had made me this present, "Katie" said, "Go back now, but
+don't tell the others to-night, or they'll all want to see me." On
+another very warm evening she sat on my lap amongst the audience, and I
+felt perspiration on her arm. This surprised me; and I asked her if, for
+the time being, she had the veins, nerves, and secretions of a human
+being; if blood ran through her body, and she had a heart and lungs. Her
+answer was, "I have everything that Florrie has." On that occasion also
+she called me after her into the back room, and, dropping her white
+garment, stood perfectly naked before me. "Now," she said "you can see
+that I am a woman." Which indeed she was, and a most beautifully-made
+woman too; and I examined her well, whilst Miss Cook lay beside us on
+the floor. Instead of dismissing me this time, "Katie" told me to sit
+down by the medium, and, having brought me a candle and matches, said I
+was to strike a light as soon as she gave three knocks, as Florrie would
+be hysterical on awaking, and need my assistance. She then knelt down
+and kissed me, and I saw she was still naked. "Where is your dress,
+Katie?" I asked. "Oh that's gone," she said; "I've sent it on before
+me." As she spoke thus, kneeling beside me, she rapped three times on
+the floor. I struck the match almost simultaneously with the signal; but
+as it flared up, "Katie King" was gone like a flash of lightning, and
+Miss Cook, as she had predicted, awoke with a burst of frightened tears,
+and had to be soothed into tranquillity again. On another occasion
+"Katie King" was asked at the beginning of the _seance_, by one of the
+company, to say _why_ she could not appear in the light of more than one
+gasburner. The question seemed to irritate her, and she replied, "I have
+told you all, several times before, that I can't stay under a searching
+light. I don't know _why_; but I can't, and if you want to prove the
+truth of what I say, turn up all the gas and see what will happen to me.
+Only remember, it you do there will be no _seance_ to-night, because I
+shan't be able to come back again, and you must take your choice."
+
+Upon this assertion it was put to the vote if the trial should be made
+or not, and all present (Mr. S. C. Hall was one of the party) decided we
+would prefer to witness the effect of a full glare of gas upon the
+materialized form than to have the usual sitting, as it would settle the
+vexed question of the necessity of gloom (if not darkness) for a
+materializing _seance_ for ever. We accordingly told "Katie" of our
+choice, and she consented to stand the test, though she said afterwards
+we had put her to much pain. She took up her station against the
+drawing-room wall, with her arms extended as if she were crucified. Then
+three gas-burners were turned on to their full extent in a room about
+sixteen feet square. The effect upon "Katie King" was marvellous. She
+looked like herself for the space of a second only, then she began
+gradually to melt away. I can compare the dematerialization of her form
+to nothing but a wax doll melting before a hot fire. First, the features
+became blurred and indistinct; they seemed to run into each other. The
+eyes sunk in the sockets, the nose disappeared, the frontal bone fell
+in. Next the limbs appeared to give way under her, and she sank lower
+and lower on the carpet like a crumbling edifice. At last there was
+_nothing but her head_ left above the ground--then a heap of white
+drapery only, which disappeared with a whisk, as if a hand had pulled it
+after her--and we were left staring by the light of three gas-burners at
+the spot on which "Katie King" had stood.
+
+She was always attired in white drapery, but it varied in quality.
+Sometimes it looked like long cloth; at others like mull muslin or
+jaconet; oftenest it was a species of thick cotton net. The sitters were
+much given to asking "Katie" for a piece of her dress to keep as a
+souvenir of their visit; and when they received it, would seal it up
+carefully in an envelope and convey it home; and were much surprised on
+examining their treasure to find it had totally disappeared.
+
+"Katie" used to say that nothing material about her could be made to
+last without taking away some of the medium's vitality, and weakening
+her in consequence. One evening, when she was cutting off pieces of her
+dress rather lavishly, I remarked that it would require a great deal of
+mending. She answered, "I'll show you how we mend dresses in the Spirit
+World." She then doubled up the front breadth of her garment a dozen
+times, and cut two or three round holes in it. I am sure when she let it
+fall again there must have been thirty or forty holes, and "Katie" said,
+"Isn't that a nice cullender?"
+
+She then commenced, whilst we stood close to her, to shake her skirt
+gently about, and in a minute it was as perfect as before, without a
+hole to be seen. When we expressed our astonishment, she told me to take
+the scissors and cut off her hair. She had a profusion of ringlets
+falling to her waist that night. I obeyed religiously, hacking the hair
+wherever I could, whilst she kept on saying, "Cut more! cut more! not
+for yourself, you know, because you can't take it away."
+
+So I cut off curl after curl, and as fast as they fell to the ground,
+_the hair grew again upon her head_. When I had finished, "Katie" asked
+me to examine her hair, to see if I could detect any place where I had
+used the scissors, and I did so without any effect. Neither was the
+severed hair to be found. It had vanished out of sight. "Katie" was
+photographed many times, by limelight, by Mr. Alfred Crookes, but her
+portraits are all too much like her medium to be of any value in
+establishing her claim to a separate identity. She had always stated she
+should not appear on this earth after the month of May, 1874; and
+accordingly, on the 21st, she assembled her friends to say "Good-bye" to
+them, and I was one of the number. "Katie" had asked Miss Cook to
+provide her with a large basket of flowers and ribbons, and she sat on
+the floor and made up a bouquet for each of her friends to keep in
+remembrance of her.
+
+Mine, which consists of lilies of the valley and pink geranium, looks
+almost as fresh to-day, nearly seventeen years after, as it did when she
+gave it to me. It was accompanied by the following words, which "Katie"
+wrote on a sheet of paper in my presence:--
+
+     "From Annie Owen de Morgan (_alias_ 'Katie') to her friend Florence
+     Marryat Ross-Church. With love. _Pensez a moi._
+     "_May 21st, 1874._"
+
+The farewell scene was as pathetic as if we had been parting with a dear
+companion by death. "Katie" herself did not seem to know how to go. She
+returned again and again to have a last look, especially at Mr. Alfred
+Crookes, who was as attached to her as she was to him. Her prediction
+has been fulfilled, and from that day, Florence Cook never saw her again
+nor heard anything about her. Her place was shortly filled by another
+influence, who called herself "Marie," and who danced and sung in a
+truly professional style, and certainly as Miss Cook never either danced
+or sung. I should not have mentioned the appearance of this spirit, whom
+I only saw once or twice, excepting for the following reason. On one
+occasion Miss Cook (then Mrs. Corner) was giving a public _seance_ at
+the rooms of the National British Association of Spiritualists, at which
+a certain Sir George Sitwell, a very young man, was present, and at
+which he declared that the medium cheated, and that the spirit "Marie"
+was herself, dressed up to deceive the audience. Letters appeared in the
+newspapers about it, and the whole press came down upon Spiritualists,
+and declared them all to be either knaves or fools. These notices were
+published on the morning of a day on which Miss Cook was engaged to give
+another public _seance_, at which I was present. She was naturally very
+much cut up about them. Her reputation was at stake; her honor had been
+called into question, and being a proud girl, she resented it bitterly.
+Her present audience was chiefly composed of friends; but, before
+commencing, she put it to us whether, whilst under such a stigma, she
+had better not sit at all. We, who had all tested her and believed in
+her, were unanimous in repudiating the vile charges brought against her,
+and in begging the _seance_ should proceed. Florrie refused, however, to
+sit unless some one remained in the cabinet with her, and she chose me
+for the purpose. I was therefore tied to her securely with a stout rope,
+and we remained thus fastened together for the whole of the evening.
+Under which conditions "Marie" appeared, and sung and danced outside the
+cabinet, just as she had done to Sir George Sitwell whilst her medium
+remained tied to me. So much for men who decide a matter before they
+have sifted it to the bottom. Mrs. Elgie Corner has long since given up
+mediumship either private or public, and lives deep down in the heart
+of Wales, where the babble and scandal of the city affect her no longer.
+But she told me, only last year, that she would not pass through the
+suffering she had endured on account of Spiritualism again for all the
+good this world could give her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF KATIE COOK.
+
+
+In the matter of producing physical phenomena the Cooks are a most
+remarkable family, all three daughters being powerful media, and that
+without any solicitation on their part. The second one, Katie, is by no
+means the least powerful of the three, although she has sat more
+privately than her sister Florence, and not had the same scientific
+tests (I believe) applied to her. The first time I had an opportunity of
+testing Katie's mediumship was at the private rooms of Signor Rondi, in
+a circle of nine or ten friends. The apartment was small and sparsely
+furnished, being an artist's studio. The gas was kept burning, and
+before the sitting commenced the door was locked and strips of paper
+pasted over the opening inside. The cabinet was formed of a window
+curtain nailed across one corner of the room, behind which a chair was
+placed for the medium, who is a remarkably small and slight girl--much
+slighter than her sister Florence--with a thin face and delicate
+features. She was dressed, on this occasion, in a tight-fitting black
+gown and Hessian boots that buttoned half-way to her knee, and which,
+she informed me, she always wore when sitting (just as Miss Showers
+did), because they had each eighteen buttons, which took a long time to
+fasten and unfasten. The party sat in a semicircle, close outside the
+curtain, and the light was lowered, but not extinguished. There was no
+darkness, and no holding of hands. I mention these facts to show how
+very simple the preparations were. In a few minutes the curtain was
+lifted, and a form, clothed in white, who called herself "Lily," was
+presented to our view. She answered several questions relative to
+herself and the medium; and perceiving some doubt on the part of some of
+the sitters, she seated herself on my knee, I being nearest the curtain,
+and asked me to feel her body, and tell the others how differently she
+was made from the medium. I had already realized that she was much
+heavier than Katie Cook, as she felt like a heavy girl of nine or ten
+stone. I then passed my hand up and down her figure. She had full
+breasts and plump arms and legs, and could not have been mistaken by the
+most casual observers for Miss Cook. Whilst she sat on my knee, however,
+she desired my husband and Signor Rondi to go inside the curtain and
+feel that the medium was seated in her chair. When they did so, they
+found Katie was only half entranced. She thrust her feet out to view,
+and said, "I am not 'Lily;' feel my boots." My husband had, at the same
+moment, one hand on Miss Cook's knee, and the other stretched out to
+feel the figure seated on my lap. There remained no doubt in _his_ mind
+of there being two bodies there at the same time. Presently "Lily"
+passed her hand over my dress, and remarked how nice and warm it was,
+and how she wished she had one on too. I asked her, "Are you cold?" and
+she said, "Wouldn't you be cold if you had nothing but this white thing
+on?" Half-jestingly, I took my fur cloak, which was on a sofa close by,
+and put it round her shoulders, and told her to wear it. "Lily" seemed
+delighted. She exclaimed, "Oh, how warm it is! May I take it away with
+me?" I said, "Yes, if you will bring it back before I go home. I have
+nothing else to wear, remember." She promised she would, and left my
+side. In another moment she called out, "Turn up the gas!" We did so.
+"Lily" was gone, and so was my large fur cloak! We searched the little
+room round for it. It had entirely disappeared. There was a locked
+cupboard in which Signor Rondi kept drawing materials. I insisted on its
+being opened, although he declared it had not been unlocked for weeks,
+and we found it full of dust and drawing blocks, but nothing else, so
+the light was again lowered, and the _seance_ resumed. In a short time
+the heavy cloak was flung, apparently from the ceiling, evidently from
+somewhere higher than my head, and fell right over it.
+
+I laid it again on the sofa, and thought no more about it until I
+returned home. I then found, to my astonishment, and considerably to my
+annoyance, that the fur of my cloak (which was a new one) was all coming
+out. My dress was covered with it, and from that day I was never able to
+wear the cloak again. "Lily" said she had _de_-materialized it, to take
+it away. Of the truth of that assertion I had no proof, but I am quite
+sure that she did not put it together again when she brought it back. An
+army of moths encamped in it could not have damaged it more, and I can
+vouch that until that evening the fur had been as perfect as when I
+purchased it.
+
+I think my next sitting with Katie Cook was at a _seance_ held in Museum
+Street, and on the invitation of Mr. Chas. Blackburn, who is one of the
+most earnest friends of Spiritualism, and has expended a large amount of
+money in its research. The only other guests were my husband, and
+General and Mrs. Maclean. We sat round a small uncovered table with the
+gas burning and _without a cabinet_, Miss Katie Cook had a seat between
+General Maclean and myself, and we made sure of her proximity to us
+during the whole _seance_. In fact, I never let go of her hand, and even
+when she wished to use her pocket-handkerchief, she had to do it with my
+hand clinging to her own. Neither did she go into a trance. We spoke to
+her occasionally during the sitting, and she answered us, though in a
+very subdued voice, as she complained of being sick and faint. In about
+twenty minutes, during which the usual manifestations occurred, the
+materialized form of "Lily" appeared _in the middle of the table_, and
+spoke to us and kissed us all in turn. Her face was very small, and she
+was _only formed to the waist_, but her flesh was quite firm and warm.
+Whilst "Lily" occupied the table in the full sight of all the sitters,
+and I had my hand upon Miss Cook's figure (for I kept passing my hand up
+and down from her face to her knees, to make sure it was not only a hand
+I held), some one grasped my chair from behind and shook it, and when I
+turned my head and spoke, in a moment one arm was round my neck and one
+round the neck of my husband, who sat next to me, whilst the voice of my
+daughter "Florence" spoke to us both, and her long hair and her soft
+white dress swept over our faces and hands. Her hair was so abundant and
+long, that she shook it out over my lap, that I might feel its length
+and texture. I asked "Florence" for a piece of her hair and dress, and
+scissors not being forthcoming, "Lily" materialized more fully, and
+walked round from the other side of the table and cut off a piece of
+"Florence's" dress herself with my husband's penknife, but said they
+could not give me the hair that time. The two spirits remained with us
+for, perhaps, half an hour or more, whilst General Maclean and I
+continued to hold Miss Cook a prisoner. The power then failing, they
+disappeared, but every one present was ready to take his oath that two
+presences had been with us that never entered at the door. The room was
+small and unfurnished, the gas was burning, the medium sat for the whole
+time in our sight. Mrs. Maclean and I were the only other women present,
+yet two girls bent over and kissed us, spoke to us, and placed their
+bare arms on our necks at one and the same time. There was again also a
+marked difference between the medium and the materializations. I have
+already described her appearance. Both of these spirits had plump faces
+and figures, my daughter "Florence's" hands especially being large and
+firm, and her loose hair nearly down to her knees.
+
+I had the pleasure of holding another _seance_ with Katie Cook in the
+same rooms, when a new manifestation occurred. She is (as I have said) a
+very small woman, with very short arms. I am, on the contrary, a very
+large woman, with very long arms, yet the arm of the hand I held was
+elongated to such an extent that it reached the sitters on the other
+side of the table, where it would have been impossible for mine to
+follow it. I should think the limb must have been stretched to thrice
+its natural length, and that in the sight of everybody. I sat again with
+Katie Cook in her own house, where, if trickery is employed, she had
+every opportunity of tricking us, but the manifestations were much the
+same, and certainly not more marvellous than those she had exhibited in
+the houses of strangers. "Lily" and "Florence" both appeared at the same
+time, under circumstances that admitted of no possibility of fraud. My
+husband and I were accompanied on that occasion by our friends, Captain
+and Mrs. Kendal, and the order of sitting round the table was as
+follows:--Myself, Katie, Captain K., Florence Cook, my husband, Mrs.
+Cook, Mrs. Kendal. Each member of the family, it will be observed, was
+held between two detectives, and their hands were not once set free. I
+must say also that the _seance_ was a free one, courteously accorded us
+on the invitation of Mrs. Cook; and if deception had been intended, we
+and our friends might just as well have been left to sit with Katie
+alone, whilst the other members of the family superintended the
+manifestation of the "ghosts" outside. Miss Florence Cook, indeed (Mrs.
+Corner), objected at first to sitting with us, on the score that her
+mediumship usually neutralized that of her sister, but her mother
+insisted on her joining the circle, lest any suspicion should be excited
+by her absence. The Cooks, indeed, are, all of them, rather averse to
+sitting than not, and cordially agree in disliking the powers that have
+been thrust upon them against their own will.
+
+These influences take possession of them, unfitting them for more
+practical work, and they must live. This is, I believe, the sole reason
+that they have never tried to make money by the exercise of their
+mediumship. But I, for one, fully believe them when they tell me that
+they consider the fact of their being media as the greatest misfortune
+that has ever happened to them. On the occasion of this last _seance_,
+cherries and rosebuds were showered in profusion on the table during the
+evening. These may easily be believed to have been secreted in the room
+before the commencement of the sitting, and produced at the proper
+opportunity, although the hands of everybody interested in their
+production were fast held by strangers. But it is less easy to believe
+that a lady of limited income, like Mrs. Cook, should go to such an
+expense for an unpaid _seance_, for the purpose of making converts of
+people who were strangers to her. Mediumship pays very badly as it is. I
+am afraid it would pay still worse if the poor media had to purchase the
+means for producing the phenomena, especially when, in a town like
+London, they run (as in this instance) to hothouse fruit and flowers.
+
+One more example of Katie Cook's powers and I have done. We were
+assembled one evening by the invitation of Mr. Charles Blackburn at his
+house, Elgin Crescent. We sat in a small breakfast room on the basement
+floor, so small, indeed, for the size of the party, that as we encircled
+a large round table, the sitters' backs touched the wall on either side,
+thus entirely preventing any one crossing the room whilst we were
+established there. The only piece of furniture of any consequence in the
+room, beside the chairs and table, was a trichord cabinet piano,
+belonging to Mrs. Cook (who was keeping house at the time for Mr.
+Blackburn), and which she much valued.
+
+Katie Cook sat amongst us as usual. In the middle of the _seance_ her
+control "Lily," who was materialized, called out, "Keep hands fast.
+Don't let go, whatever you do!" And at the same time, without seeing
+anything (for we were sitting in complete darkness), we became conscious
+that something large and heavy was passing or being carried over our
+heads. One of the ladies of the party became nervous, and dropped her
+neighbor's hand with a cry of alarm, and, at the same moment, a weighty
+body fell with a fearful crash on the other side of the room. "Lily"
+exclaimed, "Some one has let go hands," and Mrs. Cook called out; "Oh!
+it's my piano." Lights were struck, when we found the cabinet piano had
+actually been carried from its original position right over our heads to
+the opposite side of the room, where it had fallen on the floor and been
+seriously damaged. The two carved legs were broken off, and the sounding
+board smashed in. Any one who had heard poor Mrs. Cook's lamentations
+over the ruin of her favorite instrument, and the expense it would
+entail to get it restored, would have felt little doubt as to whether
+_she_ had been a willing victim to this unwelcome proof of her
+daughter's physical mediumship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF BESSIE FITZGERALD.
+
+
+One evening I went to have a cup of tea with my friend Miss Schonberg at
+Shepherd's Bush, when she proposed that we should go and have a _seance_
+with Mrs. Henry Jencken (Kate Fox), who lived close by. I hailed the
+idea, as I had heard such great things of the medium in question, and
+never had an opportunity of testing them. Consequently, I was
+proportionately disappointed when, on sending round to her house to ask
+if she could receive us that evening, we received a message to say that
+Mr. Jencken, her husband, had died that morning, and she could see no
+one. Miss Schonberg and I immediately cast about in our minds to see
+what we should do with our time, and she suggested we should call on
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. "Who is Mrs. Fitzgerald?" I queried. "A wonderful
+medium," replied my friend, "whom I met at Mrs. Wilson's last week, and
+who gave me leave to call on her. Let us go together." And accordingly
+we set forth for Mrs. Fitzgerald's residence in the Goldhawk Road. I
+only mention these circumstances to show how utterly unpremeditated was
+my first visit to her. We arrived at her house, and were ushered into a
+sitting-room, Miss Schonberg only sending up her name. In a few minutes
+the door opened, and a small, fair woman, dressed in black velvet,
+entered the room. Miss Schonberg saluted her, and was about to tender
+some explanation regarding _my_ presence there, when Mrs. Fitzgerald
+walked straight up to me and took my hand. Her eyes seemed to dilate and
+contract, like the opening and shutting off of a light, in a manner
+which I have often seen since, and she uttered rapidly, "You have been
+married once; you have been married twice; and you will be married a
+third time." I answered, "If you know anything, Mrs. Fitzgerald, you
+must know that I am very much attached to my husband, and that your
+information can give me no pleasure to hear." "No!" she said, "no! I
+suppose not, but you cannot alter Fate." She then proceeded to speak of
+things in my past life which had had the greatest influence over the
+whole of it, occurrences of so private and important a nature that it
+becomes impossible to write them down here, and for that very reason
+doubly convincing to the person whom they concern. Presently Mrs.
+Fitzgerald wandered to her piano, and commenced to play the air of the
+ballad so firmly connected in my mind with John Powles, "Thou art gone
+from my gaze," whilst she turned and nodded at me saying, "_He's_ here!"
+In fact, after a couple of hours' conversation with her, I felt that
+this stranger in the black velvet dress had turned out every secret of
+my life, and laid it naked and bare before me. I was wonderfully
+attracted to her. Her personality pleased me; her lonely life, living
+with her two babies in the Goldhawk Road, made me anxious to give her
+society and pleasure, and her wonderful gifts of clairvoyance and trance
+mediumship, all combined to make me desire her friendship, and I gave
+her a cordial invitation to my house in the Regent's Park, where for
+some years she was a constant visitor, and always sure of a hearty
+welcome. It was due to her kindness that I first had the opportunity to
+study trance mediumship at my leisure, and in a short time we became so
+familiar with her most constant control, "Dewdrop," a Red Indian girl,
+and so accustomed to speak through Mrs. Fitzgerald with our own friends
+gone before, that we welcomed her advent to our house as the signal for
+holding a spiritual party. For the sake of the uninitiated and curious,
+I think I had better here describe what is meant by trance mediumship. A
+person thus gifted has the power of giving him or herself up to the
+control of the influences in command, who send him or her off to sleep,
+a sleep so deep and so like death that the spirit is actually parted
+_pro tem_ from the body, which other spirits, sometimes living, but far
+oftener dead, enter and use as if it were their own. I have mentioned in
+my chapter on "Embodied Spirits" how my living friend in India conversed
+with me through Bessie Fitzgerald in this way, also how "Florence" spoke
+to me through the unconscious lips of Mabel Keningale Cook.
+
+Of course, I am aware that it would be so easy for a medium simply to
+close her eyes, and, professing to be entranced, talk a lot of
+commonplaces, which open-mouthed fools might accept as a new gospel,
+that it becomes imperative to test this class of media strictly by _what
+they utter_, and to place no faith in them until you are convinced that
+the matters they speak of cannot possibly have been known to any one
+except the friend whose mouthpiece they profess to be. All this I fully
+proved for myself from repeated trials and researches; but the
+unfortunate part of it is, that the more forcible and convincing the
+private proof, the more difficult it is to place it before the public. I
+must content myself, therefore, with saying that some of my dead friends
+(so called) came back to me so frequently through Bessie Fitzgerald, and
+familiarized themselves so completely with my present life, that I
+forgot sometimes that they had left this world, and flew to them (or
+rather to Bessie) to seek their advice or ask their sympathy as
+naturally as if she were their earthly form. Of these my daughter
+"Florence" was necessarily the most often with me, and she and "Dewdrop"
+generally divided the time which Mrs. Fitzgerald spent with us between
+them. I never saw a control so completely identified with its medium as
+"Dewdrop" was with Bessie. It was difficult at times to know which was
+which, and one could never be certain until she spoke whether the spirit
+or the medium had entered the house. When she _did_ speak, however,
+there was no mistaking them. Their characters were so different. Bessie
+Fitzgerald, a quiet, soft spoken little woman, devoted to her children,
+and generally unobtrusive; "Dewdrop," a Sioux Indian girl, wary and deep
+as her tribe and cute and saucy as a Yankee, with an amount of devilry
+in her that must at times have proved very inconvenient. She used to
+play Mrs. Fitzgerald tricks in those days that might have brought her
+into serious trouble, such as controlling her whilst travelling in an
+omnibus, and talking her Yankee Indian to the passengers until she had
+made their hair stand on end, with the suspicion that they had a lunatic
+for a companion. One evening we had a large and rather "swell" evening
+party, chiefly composed of ladies and gentlemen of the theatrical
+profession, and entirely of non-spiritualists, excepting ourselves. Mrs.
+Fitzgerald had been invited to this party, and declined, because it was
+out of her line. We were therefore rather astonished, when all the
+guests were assembled, to hear her name announced and see her enter the
+room in a morning dress. Directly I cast eyes upon her, however, I saw
+that it was not herself, but "Dewdrop." The stride with which she
+walked, the waggish way she rolled from side to side, the devilry in her
+eye, all betokened the Indian control. To make matters worse, she went
+straight up to Colonel Lean, and, throwing herself on the ground at his
+feet, affectionately laid her head upon his knee, and said, "I'se come
+to the party." Imagine the astonishment of our guests! I was obliged at
+once, in defence of my friend, to explain to them how matters stood; and
+though they looked rather incredulous, they were immensely interested,
+and "Dewdrop's" visit proved to be _the_ event of the evening. She
+talked to each one separately, telling them home truths, and prophesying
+their future in a way that made their cheeks go pale with fright, or red
+with conscious shame, and there was quite a contest between the men as
+to who should take "Dewdrop" down to the supper table. When there, she
+made herself particularly lively, making personal remarks aloud that
+were, in some instances, rather trying to listen to, and which Bessie
+Fitzgerald would have cut out her tongue sooner than utter. She ate,
+too, of dishes which would have made Bessie ill for a week. This was
+another strange peculiarity of "Dewdrop's" control. She not only ousted
+the spirit; she regulated the internal machinery of her medium's body.
+Bessie in her normal condition was a very delicate woman with a weak
+heart and lungs, and obliged to be most careful in her diet. She ate
+like a sparrow, and of the simplest things. "Dewdrop," on the other
+hand, liked indigestible food, and devoured it freely; yet Bessie has
+told me that she never felt any inconvenience from the food amalgamated
+with her system whilst under "Dewdrop's" control. One day when Mrs.
+Fitzgerald was dining with us, we had some apples at dessert, which she
+would have liked to partake of, but was too much afraid of the after
+consequences. "I _dare_ not," she said; "if I were to eat a raw apple, I
+should have indigestion for a week." She took some preserved ginger
+instead; and we were proceeding with our dessert, when I saw her hand
+steal out and grasp an apple. I looked in her face. "Dewdrop" had taken
+her place. "Dewdrop," I said, authoritatively, "you must not eat that.
+You will hurt Bessie. Put it down directly."
+
+"I shan't," replied "Dewdrop," drawing the dish towards her; "I like
+apples. I'm always wanting 'Medy' to eat them, and she won't, so she
+must go away till I've had as many as I want." And in effect she ate
+three or four of them, and Bessie would never have been cognizant of the
+fact unless I had informed her. On the occasion of the party to which
+she came uninvited, "Dewdrop" remained with us to the very last, and
+went home in a cab, and landed Mrs. Fitzgerald at her house without her
+being aware that she had ever left it. At that time we were constantly
+at each other's houses, and many an evening have I spent alone with
+Bessie in the Goldhawk Road, her servant out marketing and her little
+children asleep in the room overhead. Her baby was then a great fat
+fellow of about fifteen months old, who was given to waking and crying
+for his mother. If "Dewdrop" were present, she was always very impatient
+with these interruptions. "Bother dat George," she would say; "I must go
+up and quiet him." Then she would disappear for a few minutes, while
+Bessie woke and talked to me, and then, in the twinkling of an eye,
+"Dewdrop" would be back again. One day, apparently, "George" would not
+be comforted, for on "Dewdrop's" return she said to me, "It's no good;
+I've had to bring him down. He's on the mat outside the door;" and
+there, sure enough, we found the poor baby wailing in his nightshirt.
+Not being able to walk, how he had been spirited from the top storey to
+the bottom I leave my readers to determine. Bessie's little girl Mabel
+promised to be as wonderful a medium as her mother. She would come in
+from the garden flushed from her play with the "spirit-children," of
+whom she talked as familiarly as of her little neighbors next door. I
+have watched her playing at ball with an invisible child, and have seen
+the ball thrown, arrested half-way in the air, and then tossed back
+again just as if a living child had been Mab's opponent. I had lost
+several infants from premature birth during my second marriage, and the
+eldest of these, a girl, appeared to be a constant companion of Mabel's.
+She was always talking of what "Mrs. Lean's girl" (as she called her)
+had done and said; and one day she had a violent fit of weeping because
+her mother would not promise to buy her a frock like the one "Mrs.
+Lean's girl" wore.
+
+_Apropos_ of these still-born children, I had a curious experience with
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. I had had no idea until then that children so born
+possessed any souls, or lived again, but "Florence" undeceived me when
+she told me she had charge of her little brothers and sisters. She even
+professed to know the names by which they were known in the spirit
+world. When a still-born baby is launched upon the other side, she said
+it is delivered over to the nearest relative of its parent, to be called
+by what name he may choose. Thus my first girl was christened by Colonel
+Lean's mother "Gertrude," after a bosom friend of hers, and my second my
+father named "Joan," as he said it was his favorite female name. Upon
+subsequent inquiry, we found that Mrs. Lean _had_ a friend called
+"Gertrude," and that "Joan" was distinctly Captain Marryat's _beau
+ideal_ of a woman's name. However, that signified but little. I became
+very curious to see or speak with these unknown babies of mine, and used
+to worry "Florence" to bring them to me. She would expostulate with me
+after this fashion: "Dear mother, be reasonable. Remember what babies
+they are, and that this world is quite strange to them. When your
+earthly children were small you never allowed them to be brought down
+before strangers, for fear they should cry. 'Gertie' and 'Yonnie' would
+behave just the same if I brought them back to you now." However, I went
+on teasing her till she made the attempt, and "Gertie" returned through
+Mrs. Fitzgerald. It was a long time before we could coax her to remain
+with us, and when she overcame her first shyness, it was like talking to
+a little savage. "Gertie" didn't know the meaning of anything, or the
+names of anything. Her incessant questions of "What's a father?" "What a
+mother?" "What's a dog?" were very difficult to answer; but she would
+chatter about the spirit-world, and what she did there, as glibly as
+possible. She told us that she knew her brother Francis (the lad who was
+drowned at sea) very well, and she "ran races, and Francis 'chivied'
+her; and when he caught her, he held her under the fountain, and the
+spray wetted her frock, and made it look like silver." The word
+"_chivied_" sounding to me very much of a mundane character, I asked
+"Gertie" where she learned it; and she said, "Francis says 'chivy,' so
+_I_ may," and it was indeed a common expression with him. "Gertie" took,
+after a while, such a keen interest in my ornaments and china, rather to
+their endangerment, that I bought a doll to see if she would play with
+it. At first she was vastly delighted with the "little spirit," as she
+called it, and nursed it just as a mortal child would have done. But
+when she began to question me as to the reason the doll did not look at
+her, or answer her, or move about, and I said it was because it was not
+alive, she was dreadfully disappointed. "_Not alive!_" she echoed;
+"didn't God make it?" and when I replied in the negative, she threw it
+to the other end of the room, and would never look at it again.
+
+"Gertie" was about five years old at this period, and seemed to have a
+great idea of her own importance. She always announced herself as "The
+Princess Gertie," and was very dignified in her behavior. One day, when
+a lady friend was present when "Gertie" came and asked her to kiss her,
+she extended her hand instead of her face, saying, "You may kiss my
+hand."
+
+"Yonnie" (as "Joan" called herself) was but eighteen months old, and
+used to manifest herself, _roaring_ like a child forcibly dragged before
+strangers, and the only word we could ever extract from her was
+"Sugar-plums." Accordingly, I invested in some for her benefit, with
+which she filled her mouth so full as nearly to choke the medium, and
+"Florence" rebuked me seriously for my carelessness, and threatened
+never to bring "Yonnie" down to this earth again. There had been three
+other children--boys--whom I was equally anxious to see again, but, for
+some inexplicable reason, "Florence" said it was impossible that they
+could manifest. The little girls, however, came until we were quite
+familiar with them. I am aware that all this must sound very childish,
+but had it not borne a remarkable context, I should not have related it.
+All the wonder of it will be found later on.
+
+Mrs. Fitzgerald suffered very much at this time from insomnia, which she
+always declared was benefitted after a visit to me. I proposed one
+night, therefore, when she had stayed with us later than usual, that she
+should remain and share my bed, and return home in the morning. She
+consented, and at the usual hour we retired to rest together, I taking
+care to lock the bedroom door and keep the gas burning; indeed, Bessie
+was so nervous of what she might see that she would not have remained in
+the dark for any consideration. The bed we occupied was what is called a
+half tester, with a canopy and curtains on either side. As soon as ever
+Bessie got into it, she burrowed under the clothes like a dormouse, and
+went fast asleep. I was too curious to see what might happen to follow
+her example, so my head remained on the pillow, and my eyes wide open,
+and turning in every direction. Presently I saw the curtains on the
+opposite side of the bed gently shaken, next a white hand and arm
+appeared round them, and was passed up and down the ridge that
+represented Bessie Fitzgerald's body; finally, after several times
+stepping forward and retreating again, a female figure emerged and
+walked to the foot of the bedstead and stood there regarding me. She
+was, to all appearance, as solidly formed as any human creature could
+be, and she was as perfectly distinct as though seen by daylight. Her
+head and bust reminded me at once of the celebrated "Clytie," they were
+so classically and beautifully formed. Her hair and skin were fair, her
+eyes luminously liquid and gentle, her whole attitude one of modest
+dignity. She was clothed in some creamy white material, thick and soft,
+and intermixed with dull gold. She wore no ornaments, but in her right
+hand she carried a long branch of palm, or olive, or myrtle, something
+tall and tapering, and of dark green. She scarcely could be said to
+smile at me, but there was an indescribable appearance of peace and
+tranquillity about her. When I described this apparition to Bessie in
+the morning, she recognized it at once as that of her control,
+"Goodness," whom she had seen clairvoyantly, but she affirmed that I was
+the only person who had ever given her a correct description of this
+influence, which was the best and purest about her. After "Goodness" had
+remained in the same position for a few minutes, she walked back again
+behind the curtain, which served as a cabinet, and "Florence" came out
+and had a whispered conversation with me. Next a dark face, but only a
+face, said to be that of "Dewdrop," peeped out four or five times, and
+disappeared again; then a voice said, "No more! good-night," and I
+turned round to where Bessie lay sleeping beside me, and went to sleep
+myself. After that, she often came, when suffering worse than usual from
+insomnia, to pass the night with me, as she said my magnetism caused her
+to sleep, and similar manifestations always occurred when we were alone
+and together.
+
+Mrs. Fitzgerald's mediumship was by no means used, however, for the sole
+purpose of gratifying curiosity or foretelling the future. She was a
+wonderful medical diagnoser, and sat for a long time in the service of a
+well-known medical man. She would be ensconced in a corner of his
+waiting-room and tell him the exact disease of each patient that
+entered. She told me she could see the inside of everybody as perfectly
+as though they were made of glass. This gift, however, induced her to
+take on a reflection (as it were) of the disease she diagnosed, and
+after a while her failing strength compelled her to give it up. Her
+control "Dewdrop" was what she called herself, "a metal spirit," _i.e._,
+her advice was very trustworthy with regard to all speculations and
+monetary transactions. Many stockbrokers and city men used regularly to
+consult Bessie before they engaged in any speculation, and she received
+many valuable presents in return for her assistance in "making a pile."
+One gentleman, indeed, settled a large sum of money when he died on her
+little son in gratitude for the fortune "Dewdrop" had helped him to
+accumulate. Persons who sneer at Spiritualism and declare it to be
+useless, little know how much advantage is taken of spiritual
+forethought and prevision by those who believe in it. I have never been
+sorry but when I have neglected to follow the advice of a medium whom I
+had proved to be trustworthy.
+
+In the autumn of 1883 I introduced my own entertainment of "Love
+Letters" to the provincial British public, and it had an immediate and
+undeniable success. My engagements poured in rapidly, and I had already
+booked dates for the whole spring of 1884, when Mr. Edgar Bruce offered
+me an engagement at the Prince of Wales' (then the Prince's) Theatre,
+about to be opened in Piccadilly. I had been anxiously waiting to obtain
+an engagement on the London boards, and was eager to accept it; still, I
+did not know if I would be wise in relinquishing my provincial
+engagements. I wrote to Bessie to ask "Dewdrop" what I should do; the
+answer was, "Don't accept, only a flash in the pan." Thereupon I sent to
+Mr. Bruce to ask how long the engagement was likely to last, and his
+answer was that he expected "The Palace of Truth" to run a year at
+least, and at any rate I was to consider myself one of a "stock
+company." Thereupon I cancelled all my entertainment engagements,
+returned to London, appeared at the Prince's Theatre for just _eleven_
+_weeks_, and got into four law suits with my disappointed patrons for my
+trouble.
+
+It is one of the commonest remarks made by stupid people, "If the
+spirits know anything, let them tell me the name of the winner of the
+Derby, and then I will believe them," etc. I was speaking of this once
+to "Dewdrop," and she said, "We _could_ tell if we choose, but we are
+not allowed to do so. If Spiritualism was generally used for such
+things, all the world would rush to it in order to cheat one another.
+But if you will promise me not to open it until after the Derby is run,
+I will give you the name of the winner now in a sealed envelope, to
+prove that what I say is the truth." We gave her the requisite
+materials, and she made a few pencil marks on a piece of paper, and
+sealed it up. It was the year that "Shotover" won the Derby. The day
+after the race, we opened the envelope and found the drawing of a man
+with a gun in his hand, a hedge, and a bird flying away on the other
+side; very sketchy, but perfectly intelligible to one who could read
+between the lines.
+
+I was at the theatre one night with Bessie in a box, when I found out
+that "Dewdrop" had taken her place. "Dewdrop" was very fond of going to
+the play, and her remarks were so funny and so naive as to keep one
+constantly amused. Presently, between the acts, she said to me, "Do you
+see that man in the front row of the stalls with a bald head, sitting
+next to the old lady with a fat neck?" I replied I did. "Now you watch,"
+said "Dewdrop;" "I'm going down there to have some fun. First I'll
+tickle the old man's head, and then I'll scratch the old woman's neck.
+Now, you and 'Medie' watch." The next moment Bessie spoke to me in her
+own voice, and I told her what "Dewdrop" proposed to do. "Oh, poor
+things!" she said, compassionately, "how she will torment them!" To
+watch what followed was a perfect farce. First, the old man put his hand
+up to his bald head, and then he took out his handkerchief and flicked
+it, then he rubbed it, and finally _scrubbed_ it to alleviate the
+increasing irritation. Then the old lady began the same business with
+her neck, and finding it of no avail, glared at the old man as if she
+thought _he_ had done it; in fact, they were both in such evident
+torture that there was no doubt "Dewdrop" had kept her promise. When she
+returned to me she said, "There! didn't you see me walking along the
+front row of stalls, in my moccasins and beads and feathers, and all my
+war-paint on, tickling the old fellow's head?" "I didn't _see_ you,
+'Dewdrop,'" I answered, "but I'm sure you were there." "Ah! but the old
+fellow _felt_ me, and so did the old girl," she replied.
+
+Bessie Fitzgerald is now Mrs. Russell Davies, and carries on her
+_seances_ in Upper Norwood. No one who attends them can fail to feel
+interested in the various phenomena he will meet with there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF LOTTIE FOWLER.
+
+
+As I was introduced to Lottie Fowler many years before I met Bessie
+Fitzgerald, I suppose the account of her mediumship should have come
+first; but I am writing this veracious narrative on no fixed or
+artificial plan, but just as it occurs to me, though not from memory,
+because notes were taken of every particular at the time of occurrence.
+In 1874 I was largely employed on the London Press, and constantly sent
+to report on anything novel or curious, and likely to afford matter for
+an interesting article. It was for such a purpose that I received an
+order from one of the principal newspapers in town to go and have a
+complimentary _seance_ with an American clairvoyant newly arrived in
+England, Miss Lottie Fowler. Until I received my directions I had never
+heard the medium's name, and I knew very little of clairvoyance. She was
+lodging in Conduit Street, and I reached her house one morning as early
+as ten o'clock, and sent in a card with the name of the paper only
+written on it. I was readily admitted. Miss Fowler was naturally anxious
+to be noticed by the press and introduced to London society. I found her
+a stylish-looking, well-dressed woman of about thirty, with a pleasant,
+intelligent face. Those of my readers who have only met her since
+sickness and misfortune made inroads on her appearance may smile at my
+description, but I repeat that seventeen years ago Lottie Fowler was
+prosperous and energetic-looking. She received me very cordially, and
+asked me into a little back parlor, of which, as it was summer weather,
+both the windows and doors were left open. Here, in the sunshine, she
+sat down and took my hand in hers, and began chatting of what she wished
+and hoped to do in London. Suddenly her eyes closed and her head fell
+back. She breathed hard for a few minutes, and then sat up, still with
+her eyes closed, and began to talk in a high key, and in broken English.
+This was her well-known control, "Annie," without doubt one of the best
+clairvoyants living. She began by explaining to me that she had been a
+German girl in earth life, and couldn't speak English properly, but I
+should understand her better when I was more familiar with her. She then
+commenced with my birth by the sea, described my father's personality
+and occupation, spoke of my mother, my brothers and sisters, my
+illnesses, my marriage, and my domestic life. Then she said, "Wait! now
+I'll go to your house, and tell you what I see there." She then repeated
+the names of all my children, giving a sketch of the character of each
+one, down to the "baby with the flower name," as she called my little
+Daisy. After she had really exhausted the subject of my past and
+present, she said, "You'll say I've read all this out of your mind, so
+now I'll tell you what I see in the future. You'll be married a second
+time." Now, at this period I was editing a fashionable magazine, and
+drew a large number of literary men around me. I kept open house on
+Tuesday evenings, and had innumerable friends, and I _may_ (I don't say
+I _had_), but I may have sometimes speculated what my fate might be in
+the event of my becoming free. The _seance_ I speak of took place on a
+Wednesday morning; and when "Annie" told me I should be married a second
+time, my thoughts involuntarily took to themselves wings, I suppose, for
+she immediately followed up her assertion by saying, "No! not to the man
+who broke the tumbler at your house last night. You will marry another
+soldier." "No, thank-you," I exclaimed; "no more army men for me. I've
+had enough of soldiers to last me a lifetime." "Annie" looked very
+grave. "You _will_ marry another soldier," she reiterated; "I can see
+him now, walking up a terrace. He is very tall and big, and has brown
+hair cut quite short, but so soft and shiny. At the back of his head he
+looks as sleek as a mole. He has a broad face, a pleasant, smiling face,
+and when he laughs he shows very white teeth. I see him knocking at your
+door. He says, 'Is Mrs. Ross-Church at home?' 'Yes, sir.' Then he goes
+into a room full of books. 'Florence, my wife is dead. Will you be my
+wife?' And you say 'Yes.'" "Annie" spoke so naturally, and I was so
+astonished at her knowledge of my affairs, that it never struck me till
+I returned home that she had called me by my name, which had been kept
+carefully from her. I asked her, "When will my husband die?" "I don't
+see his death anywhere," she answered. "But how can I marry again unless
+he dies?" I said. "I don't know, but I can't tell you what I don't see.
+I see a house all in confusion, papers are thrown about, and everything
+is topsy-turvy, and two people are going different ways; and, oh, there
+is so much trouble and so many tears! But I don't see any death
+anywhere."
+
+I returned home, very much astonished at all Miss Fowler had said
+regarding my past and present, but very incredulous with respect to her
+prophecies for the future. Yet, three years afterwards, when much of
+what she told me had come to pass, I was travelling from Charing Cross
+to Fareham with Mr. Grossmith, to give our entertainment of "_Entre
+Nous_," when the train stopped as usual to water at Chatham. On the
+platform stood Colonel Lean, in uniform, talking to some friends. I had
+never set eyes on him till that moment; but I said at once to Mr.
+Grossmith, "Do you see that officer in the undress uniform? That is the
+man Lottie Fowler told me I should marry." Her description had been so
+exact that I recognized him at once. Of course, I got well laughed at,
+and was ready after a while to laugh at myself. Two months afterwards,
+however, I was engaged to recite at the Literary Institute at Chatham,
+where I had never set foot in my life before. Colonel Lean came to the
+Recital, and introduced himself to me. He became a visitor at my house
+in London (which, by the by, had been changed for one in a _terrace_),
+and two years afterwards, in, June 1879, we were married. I have so far
+overcome a natural scruple to make my private affairs public, in justice
+to Lottie Fowler. It is useless narrating anything to do with the
+supernatural (although I have been taught that this is a wrong term, and
+that nothing that exists is _above_ nature, but only a continuation of
+it), unless one is prepared to prove that it was true. Lottie Fowler did
+not make a long stay in England on that occasion. She returned to
+America for some time, and I was Mrs. Lean before I met her again. The
+second visit was a remarkable one. I had been to another medium, who had
+made me very unhappy by some prophecies with regard to my husband's
+health; indeed, she had said he would not live a couple of years, and I
+was so excited about it that my friend Miss Schonberg advised our going
+then and there to see Lottie Fowler, who had just arrived in England,
+and was staying in Vernon Place, Bloomsbury; and though it was late at
+night, we set off at once. The answer to our request to see Miss Fowler
+was that she was too tired to receive any more visitors that day. "Do
+ask her to see me," I urged. "I won't detain her a moment; I only want
+to ask her one question." Upon this, we were admitted, and found Lottie
+nearly asleep. "Miss Fowler," I began, "you told me five years ago that
+I should be married a second time. Well, I _am_ married, and now they
+tell me I shall loose my husband." And then I told her how ill he was,
+and what the doctors said, and what the medium said. "You told me the
+truth before," I continued; "tell it me now. Will he die?" Lottie took a
+locket containing his hair in her hand for a minute, and then replied
+confidently, "They know nothing about it. He will not die--that is not
+yet--not for a long while." "But _when_?" I said, despairingly. "Leave
+that to God, child," she answered, "and be happy now." And in effect
+Colonel Lean recovered from his illness, and became strong and hearty
+again. But whence did Miss Fowler gain the confidence to assert that a
+man whom she had never seen, nor even heard of, should recover from a
+disease which the doctors pronounced to be mortal? From that time Lottie
+and I became fast friends, and continue so to this day. It is a
+remarkable thing that she would never take a sixpence from me in payment
+for her services, though I have sat with her scores of times, nor would
+she accept a present, and that when she has been sorely in need of
+funds. She said she had been told she should never prosper if she
+touched my money. She has one of the most grateful and affectionate and
+generous natures possible, and has half-starved herself for the sake of
+others who lived upon her. I have seen her under sickness, and poverty,
+and trouble, and I think she is one of the kindest-hearted and best
+women living, and I am glad of even this slight opportunity to bear
+testimony to her disposition. At one time she had a large and
+fashionable _clientele_ of sitters, who used to pay her handsomely for a
+_seance_, but of late years her clients have fallen off, and her
+fortunes have proportionately decreased. She has now returned to the
+Southern States of America, and says she has seen the last of England.
+All I can say is, that I consider her a great personal loss as a referee
+in all business matters as well as a prophet for the future. She also,
+like Bessie Fitzgerald, is a great medical diagnoser. She was largely
+consulted by physicians about the Court at the time of the Prince of
+Wales' dangerous illness, and predicted his recovery from the
+commencement. It was through her mediumship that the body of the late
+Lord Lindesay of Balcarres, which was stolen from the family vault, was
+eventually recovered; and the present Lord Lindesay gave her a beautiful
+little watch, enamelled and set in diamonds, in commemoration of the
+event. She predicted the riot that took place in London some years ago,
+and the Tay Bridge disaster; but who is so silly as to believe the
+prophecies of media now-a-days? There has hardly been an event in my
+life, since I have known Lottie Fowler, that she has not prepared me for
+beforehand, but the majority of them are too insignificant to interest
+the reader. One, however, the saddest I have ever been called upon to
+encounter, was wonderfully foretold. In February, 1886, Lottie (or
+rather, "Annie") said to me, "There is a great trouble in store for you,
+Florris" (she always called me "Florris"); "you are passing under black
+clouds, and there is a coffin hanging over you. It will leave your
+house." This made me very uneasy. No one lived in my house but my
+husband and myself. I asked, "Is it my own coffin?" "No!" "Is it my
+husband's?" "No; it is that of a much younger person."
+
+I questioned her very closely, but she would not tell me any more, and I
+tried to dismiss the idea from my mind. Still it would constantly recur,
+for I knew, from experience, how true her predictions were. At last I
+felt as if I could bear the suspense no longer, and I went to her and
+said, "You _must_ tell me that the coffin you spoke of is not for one of
+my children, or the uncertainty will drive me mad." "Annie" thought a
+minute, and then said slowly, "No; it is not for one of your children."
+"Then I can bear anything else," I replied. The time went on, and in
+April an uncle of mine died. I rushed again to Lottie Fowler. "Is _this_
+the death you prophesied?" I asked her. "No," she replied; "the coffin
+must leave your house. But this death will be followed by another in the
+family," which it was within the week. The following February my
+next-door neighbors lost their only son. I had known the boy for years,
+and I was very sorry for them. As I was watching the funeral
+preparations from my bedroom window, I saw the coffin carried out of the
+hall door, which adjoined mine with only a railing between. Knowing that
+many prophetical media _see_ the future in a series of pictures, it
+struck me that Lottie must have seen this coffin leaving, and mistaken
+the house for mine. I went to her again. This proves how the prediction
+had weighed all this time upon my mind. "Has not the death you spoke of
+taken place _now_?" I asked her. "Has not the coffin left my house?"
+"No," she answered; "it will be a relative, one of the family. It is
+much nearer now than it was." I felt uncomfortable, but I would not
+allow it to make me unhappy. "Annie" had said it was not one of my own
+children, and so long as they were spared I felt strong enough for
+anything.
+
+In the July following my eldest daughter came to me in much distress.
+She had heard of the death of a friend, one who had been associated with
+her in her professional life, and the news had shocked her greatly. She
+had always been opposed to Spiritualism. She didn't see the good of it,
+and thought I believed in it a great deal more than was necessary. I had
+often asked her to accompany me to _seances_, or to see trance media,
+and she had refused. She used to say she had no one on the other side
+she cared to speak to. But when her young friend died, she begged me to
+take her to a medium to hear some news of him, and we went together to
+Lottie Fowler. "Annie" did not wait for any prompting, but opened the
+ball at once. "You've come here to ask me how you can see your friend
+who has just passed over," she said. "Well, he's all right. He's in this
+room now, and he says you will see him very soon." "To which medium
+shall I go?" said my daughter. "Don't go to any medium. Wait a little
+while, and you will see him with your own eyes." My daughter was a
+physical medium herself, though I had prevented her sitting for fear it
+should injure her health; and I believed, with her, that "Annie" meant
+that her friend would manifest through her own power. She turned to me
+and said, "Oh, mother, I shall be awfully frightened if he appears to me
+at night;" and "Annie" answered, "No, you won't be frightened when you
+see him. You will be very pleased. Your meeting will be a source of
+great pleasure on both sides." My daughter had just signed a lucrative
+engagement, and was about to start on a provincial tour. Her next
+request was, "Tell me what you see for me in the future." "Annie"
+replied, "I cannot see it clearly. Another day I may be able to tell you
+more, but to-day it is all dim. Every time I try to see it a wall seems
+to rise behind your head and shut it out." Then she turned to me and
+said, "Florris, that coffin is very near you now. It hangs right over
+your head!" I answered carelessly, "I wish it would come and have done
+with it. It is eighteen months now, Annie, since you uttered that dismal
+prophecy!" Little did I really believe that it was to be so quickly and
+so terribly fulfilled. Three weeks after that _seance_, my beloved child
+(who was staying with me) was carried out of my house in her coffin to
+Kensal Green. I was so stunned by the blow, that it was not for some
+time after that I remembered "Annie's" prediction. When I asked her
+_why_ she had tortured me with the suspense of coming evil for eighteen
+months, she said she had been told to do so by my guardian spirits, or
+my brain would have been injured by the suddenness of the shock. When I
+asked why she had denied it would be one of my children, she still
+maintained that she had obeyed a higher order, because to tell the truth
+so long beforehand would have half-killed me as indeed it would. "Annie"
+said she had no idea, even during that last interview, that the death
+she predicted was that of the girl before her. She saw her future was
+misty, and that the coffin was over my head, but she did not connect the
+two facts together. In like manner I have heard almost every event of my
+future through Lottie Fowler's lips, and she has never yet proved to be
+wrong, except in one instance of _time_. She predicted an event for a
+certain year and it did not take place till afterwards; and it has made
+"Annie" so wary, that she steadfastly refuses now to give any dates. I
+always warn inquirers not to place faith in any given dates. The spirits
+have told me they have _no time_ in the spheres, but judge of it simply
+as the reflection of the future appears nearer, or further, from the
+sitter's face. Thus, something that will happen years hence appears
+cloudy and far off, whilst the events of next week or next month seem
+bright and distinct, and quite near. This is a method of judging which
+can only be gained by practice, and must at all times be uncertain and
+misleading.
+
+I have often acted as amanuensis for Lottie Fowler, for letters are
+constantly arriving for her from every part of the world which can only
+be answered under trance, and she has asked me to take down the replies
+as "Annie" dictated them. I have answered by this means the most
+searching questions from over the seas relating to health and money and
+lost articles whilst Lottie was fast asleep and "Annie" dictated the
+letters, and have received many answers thanking me for acting
+go-between, and saying how wonderfully correct and valuable the
+information "Annie" had sent them had proved to be. Of course, it would
+be impossible, in this paper, to tell of the constant intercourse I have
+had with Lottie Fowler during the last ten or twelve years, and the
+manner in which she has mapped out my future for me, preventing my
+cherishing false hopes that would never be realized, making bad bargains
+that would prove monetary losses, and believing in apparent friendship
+that was only a cloak for selfishness and treachery. I have learned many
+bitter lessons from her lips. I have also made a good deal of money
+through her means. She has told me what will happen to me between this
+time and the time of my death, and I feel prepared for the evil and
+content with the good. Lottie Fowler had very bad health for some time
+before she left England, and it had become quite necessary that she
+should go; but I think if the British public had known what a wonderful
+woman was in their midst, they would have made it better worth her while
+to stay amongst them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM FLETCHER.
+
+
+It may be remembered in the "Story of John Powles" that when, as a
+perfect stranger to Mr. Fletcher, I walked one evening into the Steinway
+Hall, I heard him describe the circumstances of my old friend's death in
+a very startling manner. It made such an impression on me that I became
+anxious to hear what more Mr. Fletcher might have to say to me in
+private, and for that purpose I wrote and made an appointment with him
+at his private residence in Gordon Square. I did not conceal my name,
+and I knew my name must be familiar to him; for although he had only
+just arrived from America, I am better known as an author in that
+country perhaps than in this. But I had no intention of gauging his
+powers by what he told me of my exterior life; and by what followed, his
+guide "Winona" evidently guessed my ideas upon the subject. After the
+_seance_ I wrote thus concerning it to the _Banner of Light_, a New York
+Spiritualistic paper:--
+
+"I had seen many clairvoyants before, both in public and private, and
+had witnessed wonderful feats of skill on their part in naming and
+describing concealed objects, and reading print or writing when held far
+beyond their reach of sight; but I knew the trick of all that. If Mr.
+Fletcher is going to treat me to any mental legerdemain, I thought, as I
+took my way to Gordon Square, I shall have wasted both my time and
+trouble upon him; and, I confess, as I approached the house, that I felt
+doubtful whether I might not be deceived against my senses by the clever
+lecturer, whose eloquence had charmed me into desiring a more intimate
+acquaintance with him. Even the private life of a professional person
+soon becomes public property in London; and had Mr. Fletcher wished to
+find out my faults and failings, he had but to apply to ----, say, my
+dearest friend, or the one upon whom I had bestowed most benefits, to
+learn the worst aspect of the worst side of my character. But the neat
+little page-boy answered my summons so promptly that I had no time to
+think of turning back again; and I was ushered through a carpeted hall,
+and up a staircase into a double drawing-room, strewn with evidence that
+my clairvoyant friend possessed not only artistic taste, but the means
+to indulge it. The back room into which I was shown was hung with
+paintings and fitted with a luxurious _causeuse_, covered with art
+needlework, and drawn against the open window, through which might be
+seen some fine old trees in the garden below, and Mr. Fletcher's dogs
+enjoying themselves beneath their shade. Nothing could be further
+removed from one's ideas of a haunt of mystery or magic, or the abode of
+a man who was forced to descend to trickery for a livelihood. In a few
+minutes Mr. Fletcher entered the room and saluted me with the air of a
+gentleman. We did not proceed to business, however, until he had taken
+me round his rooms, and shown me his favorite pictures, including a
+portrait of Sara Bernhardt, etched by herself, in the character of Mrs.
+Clarkson in _L'Etrangere_. After which we returned to the back
+drawing-room, and without darkening the windows or adopting any
+precautions, we took our seats upon the _causeuse_ facing each other,
+whilst Mr. Fletcher laid his left hand lightly upon mine. In the course
+of a minute I observed several convulsive shivers pass through his
+frame, his eyes closed, and his head sunk back upon the cushions,
+apparently in sleep. I sat perfectly still and silent with my hand in
+his. Presently he reopened his eyes quite naturally, and sitting
+upright, began to speak to me in a very soft, thin, feminine voice. He
+(or rather his guide "Winona") began by saying that she would not waste
+my time on facts that she might have gathered from the world, but would
+confine herself to speaking of my inner life. Thereupon, with the most
+astonishing astuteness, she told me of my thoughts and feelings, reading
+them off like a book. She repeated to me words and actions that had been
+said and done in privacy hundred of miles away. She detailed the
+characters of my acquaintance, showing who were true and who were false,
+giving me their names and places of residence. She told me the motives I
+had had for certain actions, and what was more strange, revealed truths
+concerning myself which I had not recognized until they were presented
+to me through the medium of a perfect stranger. Every question I put to
+her was accurately answered, and I was repeatedly invited to draw
+further revelations from her. The fact being that I was struck almost
+dumb by what I had heard, and rendered incapable of doing anything but
+marvel at the wonderful gift that enabled a man, not only to read each
+thought that passed through my brain, but to see, as in a mirror, scenes
+that were being enacted miles away with the actors concerned in them and
+the motives that animated them. "Winona" read the future for me as well
+as the past, and the first distinct prophecy she uttered has already
+most unexpectedly come to pass. When I announced that I was satisfied,
+the clairvoyant laid his head back again upon the cushions, the same
+convulsive shudders passed through his frame, and in another minute he
+was smiling in my face, and hoping I had a good _seance_."
+
+This is part of the letter I wrote concerning Mr. Fletcher to the
+_Banner of Light_. But a description of words, however strongly put, can
+never carry the same weight as the words themselves. So anxious am I to
+make this statement as trustworthy as possible, however, that I will now
+go further, and give the exact words as "Winona" spoke them to me on
+that occasion, and as I took them down from her lips. _Some_ parts I
+_must_ omit, not for my own sake, but because of the treachery they
+justly ascribed to persons still living in this world. But enough will,
+I trust, remain to prove how intimately the spirit must have penetrated
+to my inner life. This is, then, the greater part of what "Winona" said
+to me on the 27th of June, 1879:
+
+"You are a Child of Destiny, who never was a child. Your life is fuller
+of tragedies than any life I ever read yet. I will not tell you of the
+past _facts_, because they are known to the world, and I might have
+heard them from others. But I will speak of yourself. I have to leave
+the earth-world when I come in contact with you, and enter a planetary
+sphere in which you dwell (and ever must dwell) _alone_. It is as if you
+were in a room shut off from the rest of mankind. You are one of the
+world's magnets. You have nothing really in common with the rest. You
+draw people to you, and live upon their life; and when they have no more
+to give, nor you to demand, the liking fades on both sides. It must be
+so, because the spirit requires food the same as the body; and when the
+store is exhausted, the affection is starved out, and the persons pass
+out of your life. You have often wondered to yourself why an
+acquaintance who seemed necessary to you to-day you can live perfectly
+well without to-morrow. This is the reason. More than that, if you
+continue to cling to those whose spiritual system you have exhausted,
+they would poison you, instead of nourishing you. You may not like it,
+but those you value most you should oftenest part with. Separation will
+not decrease your influence over them; it will increase it. Constant
+intercourse may be fatal to your dearest affections. You draw so much on
+others, you _empty_ them, and they have nothing more to give you. You
+have often wondered, too, why, after you have lived in a place a little
+while, you become sad, weary, and ill--not physically ill, but mentally
+so--and you feel as if you _must_ leave it, and go to another place.
+When you settle in this fresh place, you think at first that it is the
+very place where you will be content to live and die; but after a little
+while the same weariness and faintness comes back again, and you think
+you cannot breathe till you leave it, as you did the other. This is not
+fancy. It is because your nature has exhausted all it can draw from its
+surroundings, and change becomes a necessity to life. You will never be
+able to live long in any place without change, and let me warn you never
+to settle yourself down anywhere with the idea of living there entirely.
+Were you forced to do so, you would soon die. You would be starved to
+death spiritually. All people are not born under a fate, but you were,
+and you can do very little to change it. England is the country of your
+fate. You will never prosper in health, mind, or money in a foreign
+country. It is good to go abroad for change, but never try to live
+there. You are thinking of going abroad now, but you will not remain
+there nearly so long as you anticipate. Something will arise to make you
+alter your plans--not a real trouble--but an uneasiness. The plan you
+think of will not answer." (This prediction was fulfilled to the
+letter.) "This year completes an era in your professional career--not of
+ill-luck, so much as of stagnation. Your work has been rather duller of
+late years. The Christmas of 1879 will bring you brighter fortune. Some
+one who has appeared to drop you will come forward again, and take up
+your cause, and bring you in much money." (This also came to pass.)
+"You have not nearly reached the zenith of your success. It is yet to
+come. It is only beginning. You will have another child, certainly
+_one_, but I am not sure if it will live in this world. I do not see its
+earth-life, but I see you in that condition.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Your nervous system was for many years strung up to its highest
+tension--now it is relaxed, and your physical powers are at their lowest
+ebb. You could not bear a child in your present condition. You must
+become much lighter-hearted, more contented and at ease before that
+comes to pass. You must have ceased to wish for a child, or even to
+expect it. You have never had a heart really at ease yet. All your
+happiness has been feverish.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I see your evil genius. She is out of your life at present, but she
+crossed your path last year, and caused you much heart-burning, and not
+without reason. It seems to me that some sudden shock or accident put an
+end to the acquaintance; but she will cross your path again, and cause
+you more misery, perhaps, than anything else has done. She is not young,
+but stout, and not handsome, as it seems to me. She is addicted to
+drinking. I see her rolling about now under the influence of liquor. She
+has been married more than once. I see the name ---- ---- written in the
+air. She would go any lengths to take that you value from you, even to
+compassing your death. She is madly in love with what is yours. She
+would do anything to compass her ends--not only immoral things, but
+filth--filth. I have no hesitation in saying this. Whenever she crosses
+your path, in public or private, flee from her as from a pestilence."
+(This information was correct in every detail. The name was given at
+full length. I repeat it as a specimen of the succinctness of
+intelligence given through trance mediumship.) "1883 will be a most
+unfortunate year for you. You will have a severe illness, your friends
+will not know if you are going to live or die, and during this illness
+you will endure great mental agony, caused through a woman, one of whose
+names begins with ----. You will meet her some time before, and she
+will profess to be your dearest friend. I see her bending over you, and
+telling you she is your best friend, and you are disposed to believe it.
+She is as tall as you are, but does not look so tall from a habit she
+has of carrying herself. She is not handsome, strictly speaking, but
+dark and very fascinating. She has a trick of keeping her eyes down when
+she speaks. She is possibly French, or of French extraction, but speaks
+English. She will get a hold upon ----'s mind that will nearly separate
+you." (At this juncture I asked, "How can I prevent it?") "If I told
+you, that if you went by the 3 o'clock train from Gower Street, you
+would be smashed, you would not take that train. When you meet a woman
+answering this description, stop and ask yourself whether she is the one
+I have warned you against, before you admit her across the threshold of
+your house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"----'s character is positive for good, and negative for evil. If what
+is even for his good were urged upon him, he would refuse to comply; but
+present evil to him as a possible good, and he will stop to consider
+whether it is not so. If he is to be guided aright, it must be by making
+him believe it would be impossible for him to go wrong. Elevate his
+nature by elevating his standard of right. Make it impossible for him to
+lower himself, by convincing him that he _would_ be lowered. He is very
+conceited. Admiration is the breath of his life. He is always thinking
+what people will say of him or his actions. He is very weak under
+temptation, especially the temptation of flattery. He is much too fond
+of women. You have a difficult task before you, and you have done much
+harm already through your own fault. He believes too little in the evil
+of others--much too little. If he were unfaithful to those who trust
+him, he would be quite surprised to find he had broken their hearts.
+Your work is but beginning. Hitherto all has been excitement, and there
+has been but little danger. Now comes monotony and the fear of satiety.
+Your fault through life has been in not asserting the positive side of
+your character. You were born to rule, and you have sat down a slave.
+Either through indolence or despair of success, you have presented a
+negative side to the insults offered you, and in the end you have been
+beaten. You make a great mistake in letting your female friends read all
+your joys and sorrows. Men would sympathize and pity. Women will only
+take advantage of them. Assert your dignity as mistress in your own
+house, and don't let those visitors invite themselves who do not come
+for you. You are, as it were, the open door for more than one false
+friend. I warn you especially against two unmarried women--at least, if
+they are married, I don't see their husbands anywhere. They are both too
+fond of ----; one _very much_ too fond of him, and you laugh at it, and
+give your leave for caresses and endearments, which should never be
+permitted. If I were to tell them that they visit at your house for
+----, and not for you, they would be very indignant. They give you
+presents, and really like you; but ---- is the attraction, and with one
+of them it only needs time, place and opportunity to cause the ruin of
+---- and yourself. She has an impediment in walking. I need say no more.
+She wants to become still more familiar, and live under the same roof
+with you. You must prevent it. The other is doing more harm to herself
+than to anyone else. She is silly and romantic, and must dream of some
+one. It is a pity it should be encouraged by familiarity. ---- has no
+feeling for them beyond pity and friendship, but it is not necessary he
+should love a woman to make her dangerous to him. As far as I can see
+your lives extend, ---- will love you, and you will retain your
+influence over him if you _choose_ to do so. But it is in your own hands
+what you make of him. You must not judge his nature by your own. You are
+shutting yourself up too much. You should be surrounded by a circle of
+men, so that you might not draw influence from ---- alone. You should go
+out more, and associate with clever men, and hear what they have to say
+to you. You must not keep so entirely with ----. It is bad for both of
+you. You are making too great a demand upon his spiritual powers, and
+you will exhaust them too soon. A woman cannot draw spiritual life from
+women only. She must take it from men. There is another acquaintance I
+must warn you against ----; a widow, fair hair, light eyes, not clever,
+but cunning. She has but one purpose in visiting you. She would like to
+stand in your shoes. She would not hesitate to usurp your rights. Be
+civil to her if you will, but do not encourage her visits. It were best
+if she passed out of your lives altogether. She can never bring you any
+good luck. She may be the cause of much annoyance yet. ---- should have
+work, active and constant, or his health will fail, living in idleness,
+spiritually and bodily. You tell him too often that you love him. Let
+him feel there is always a higher height to gain, a lower depth to fall
+to, in your esteem. He is not the only man in the world. Why should you
+deceive him by saying so? You are much to blame." (Considering that Mr.
+Fletcher had never seen, or, as far as I knew, heard of the persons he
+mentioned in this tirade, it becomes a matter of speculation where or
+from whom he gathered this keen insight to their character and
+personalities, every word of which I can vouch for as being strictly
+true.)
+
+"Many spirits are round you. Some wish to speak.... A grand and noble
+spirit stands behind you, with his hands spread in blessing over your
+head. He is your father. He sends this message: 'My dear child, there
+were so many influences antagonistic to my own in your late married
+life, that I found it very difficult to get near you. Now they are
+removed. The present conditions are much more favorable to me, and I
+hope to be with you often, and to help you through the life that lies
+before you.' There is the face of a glorified spirit, just above
+your head, and I see the name 'Powles.' This spirit is nearer you, and
+more attached to you than any other in Spirit Land. He comes only to
+you, and one other creature through you--your second child. He says you
+will know him by the token, the song; you sung to him upon his
+death-bed. His love for you is the best and purest, and he is always by
+you, though lower influences sometimes forbid his manifesting himself.
+Your child comes floating down, and joins hands with him. She is a very
+pure and beautiful spirit. She intimates that her name on earth was the
+same as yours, but she is called by another name in the spheres--a name
+that has something to do with flowers. She brings me a bunch of pure
+white lilies, tinged with blue, with blue petals, tied with a piece of
+blue ribbon, and she intimates to me by gesture that her spirit-name has
+something to do with them. I think I must go now, but I hope you will
+come and sit with me again. I shall be able to tell you more next time.
+My name is 'Winona,' and when you ask for me I will come. Good-bye...."
+
+This was the end of my first _seance_ with Mr. Fletcher, and I think
+even sceptics will allow that it was sufficiently startling for the
+first interview with an entire stranger. The following year I wrote
+again to the _Banner of Light_ concerning Mr. Fletcher, but will only
+give an extract from my letter. "I told you in my letter of last year
+that I had held a _seance_ with Mr. Fletcher of so private a nature that
+it was impossible to make it public. During that interview 'Winona' made
+several startling prophecies concerning the future, which, it may
+interest your readers to know, have already been fulfilled. Wishing to
+procure some further proofs of Mr. Fletcher's power before I wrote this
+letter to you, I prepared a different sort of test for him last week.
+From a drawer full of old letters I selected, _with my eyes shut_, four
+folded sheets of paper, which I slipped into four blank envelopes, ready
+prepared for them--still without looking--and closed them in the usual
+manner with the adhesive gum, after which I sealed them with sealing
+wax. I carried these envelopes to Mr. Fletcher, and requested "Winona"
+to tell me the characters of the persons by whom their contents had been
+written. She placed them consecutively to the medium's forehead, and as
+she returned them to me, one by one, I wrote her comments on each on the
+side of the cover. On breaking the seals, the character of each writer
+was found to be most accurately defined, although the letters had all
+been written years before--(a fact which "Winona" had immediately
+discovered). She also told me which of my correspondents were dead, and
+which living. Here, you will observe, there could have been no reaction
+of my own brain upon that of the sensitive, as I was perfectly ignorant,
+until I reopened the envelopes, by whom the letters had been sent to me.
+Two months ago I was invited to join in a speculation, of the
+advisability of which I felt uncertain. I went therefore to Mr.
+Fletcher, and asked for an interview with "Winona," intending to consult
+her in the matter. But before I had time to mention the subject, she
+broached it to me, and went on to speak of the speculation itself, of
+the people concerned in it, and the money it was expected to produce;
+and, finally, she explained to me how it would collapse, with the means
+that would bring it to an end, putting her decided veto on my having
+anything to do with it. I followed "Winona's" advice, and have been
+thankful since that I did so, as everything has turned out just as she
+predicted."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I think those people who desire to gain the utmost good they can out of
+clairvoyance should be more ready to listen and learn, and less to cavil
+and to question. Many who have heard me relate the results of my
+experience have rushed off pell-mell to the same medium, perhaps, and
+came away woefully disappointed. Were they to review the interview they
+would probably find they had done all the talking, and supplied all the
+information, leaving the clairvoyant no work to do whatever. To such I
+always say, whether their aim is to obtain advice in their business, or
+news of a lost friend, _Be perfectly passive_, until the medium has said
+all he or she may have to say. Give them time to become _en rapport_
+with you, and quietude, that he may commune with the spirits you bring
+with you; for it is _they_, and not _his_ controls, that furnish him
+with the history of your life, or point out the dangers that are
+threatening. When he has finished speaking, he will probably ask if you
+have any questions to put to him, and _then_ is your turn for talking,
+and for gaining any particular information you may wish to acquire. If
+these directions are carried out, you are likely to have a much more
+satisfactory _seance_ than otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+PRIVATE MEDIA.
+
+
+People who wish to argue against Spiritualism are quite sure, as a rule,
+that media will descend to any trickery and cheating for the sake of
+gain. If you reply, as in my own case, that the _seances_ have been
+given as a free-will offering, they say that they expected introductions
+or popularity or advertisement in exchange. But what can be adduced
+against the medium who lends his or her powers to a person whom he has
+never seen, and probably never will see, and for no reason, excepting
+that his controls urge him to the deed? Such a man is Mr. George Plummer
+of Massachusetts, America. In December, 1887, when my mind was very
+unsettled, my friend Miss Schonberg advised me to write to this medium
+and ask his advice. She told me I must not expect an immediate reply, as
+Mr. Plummer kept a box into which he threw all the letters he received
+from strangers on spiritualistic subjects, and when he felt impressed to
+do so, he went and took out one, haphazard, and wrote the answer that
+was dictated to him. All I had to do was to enclose an addressed
+envelope, not a _stamped_ one, in my letter, to convey the answer back
+again. Accordingly, I prepared a diplomatic epistle to this effect.
+"Dear sir,--Hearing that you are good enough to sit for strangers, I
+shall be much obliged if you will let me know what you see for
+me.--Yours truly, F. Lane." It will be seen that I transposed the
+letters of my name "Lean." I addressed the return envelope in the same
+manner to the house in Regent's Park, which I then occupied, and I wrote
+it all in a feigned hand to conceal my identity as much as possible. The
+time went on and I heard nothing from Mr. Plummer. I was touring in the
+provinces for the whole of 1888, and at the end of the year I came back
+to London and settled down in a new house in a different quarter of the
+town. By this time I had almost forgotten Mr. Plummer and my letter to
+him, and when in _December_, 1889, two years after I had sent it, my
+own envelope in my own handwriting, forwarded by the postal authorities
+from Regent's Park, was brought to me, I did not at first recognize it.
+I kept twisting it about, and thinking how like it was to my own
+writing, when the truth suddenly flashed on me. I opened it and read as
+follows:
+
+    "Georgetown, November 28th, 1889.
+
+     "Mrs. Lane,--Dear Madam,--Please pardon me for seeming neglect in
+     answering your request. At the time of receiving your letter I
+     could not write, and it got mislaid. Coming across it now, even at
+     the eleventh hour, I place myself in condition to answer. I see a
+     lady with dark blue eyes before me, of a very nervous
+     life--warm-hearted--impulsive--tropical in her nature. A woman of
+     intense feeling--a woman whose life has been one of constant
+     disappointment. To-day the current of life flows on smoothly but
+     monotonous. I sense from the sphere of this lady, a weariness of
+     life--should think she felt like Alexander, because there are no
+     more worlds for her to conquer. She is her own worst enemy.
+     Naturally generous, she radiates her refined magnetic sphere to
+     others, and does not get back that which she can utilize. I see a
+     bright-complexioned gentleman in earth life--brave, generous, and
+     kind--but does not comprehend your interior life. And yet thinks
+     the world of you to-day. I feel from you talent of a marked order.
+     And yet life is a disappointment. Not but what you have been
+     successful in a refined, worldly sense, but your spiritual nature
+     has been repressed. The society you move in is one of intellectual
+     culture; that is not of the soul. And it is soul food that you are
+     hungering for to-day. You are an inspired woman. Thought seems to
+     you, all prepared, so to speak. But it does not seem to free the
+     tiny little messengers of your soul life. Somehow I don't feel that
+     confidence in myself in writing to you. The best kind of a reading
+     is usually obtained in reading to a person direct. But if I don't
+     meet your case we will call it a failure and let it go. The year of
+     1890 is going to be more favorable to you than for the last ten
+     years. I think in some way you are to meet with more reciprocity of
+     soul. As the divining rod points to the stream of water in the
+     earth, so I find my intuitive eye takes cognizance of your interior
+     life. You will in a degree catch my meaning through this, and it
+     will come clearer, more through your intuition than through your
+     intellect. I should say to you, follow your instincts and
+     intuitions always through life. If this throws any light over your
+     path I am glad.--I remain, most respectfully yours,
+                                                      George Plummer."
+
+Now there are two noticeable things in this letter. First, Mr. Plummer's
+estimate of my interior life almost coincides with Mr. Fletcher's given
+in 1879, ten years before. Next, although he read it through the medium
+of a letter written in 1887, he draws a picture of my position and
+surroundings in 1889. Both these things appeared to me very curious as
+coming from a stranger across the Atlantic, and I answered his letter at
+once, still preserving my slight incognita, and telling him that as he
+had read so much of my life from my handwriting of so long ago, I wished
+he would try to read more from words which went fresh from me to him. I
+also enclosed a piece of the handwriting of a friend. Mr. Plummer did
+not keep me waiting this time. His next letter was dated February 8th,
+1890.
+
+     "Dear Madam,--I received yours of January 3rd, and would have
+     answered before, but the spirit did not move. I have been tied to a
+     sick room going on three months, with its cares and anxieties. Not
+     the best condition for writing. The best condition to reflect your
+     life, to give your soul strength, is to be at rest and have all
+     earth conditions nullified. But that cannot be to-day. So I will
+     try to penetrate the mystery of your life as best I can, and
+     radiate to you at least some strength. The relation of soul is the
+     difficulty of your life, and you are so perfectly inspirational
+     that it makes the condition worse. Grand types of Manhood and
+     Womanhood come to you from the higher life, and your spirit and
+     soul catch the reflection, and are disappointed because they cannot
+     live that life. But you are getting a development out of all this
+     friction. Now if you would come in contact with that nature that
+     could radiate to you just what you could give to it, you would be
+     happy. Love is absolute, you well know. Often in the exchange of
+     thought we give each other strength. And then every letter we
+     write, every time we shake hands, we give some of our own
+     personality out. You are too sensitive to the spheres of people.
+     You have such a strong personality of life that the power that
+     inspires you could not make the perfect junction until you get so,
+     you had rather die than live. That was a condition of negation. Now
+     you have been running on a dead level of nothingness for two years
+     and a half." (This was exactly the time since my daughter had been
+     taken from me). "_I mean it seems so to you._ Such a sameness of
+     things. I get from the writing of the gentleman. A good
+     sphere--warm hearted--true to his understanding of things. He seems
+     to be a sort of a half-way house to you. That is, you roam in the
+     sea of Ideality, down deep, you know. And he rather holds on to
+     matter-of-fact--sort of ballast for you. You need it. For you are,
+     in fact, ripe for the other life, though it is not time to go yet.
+     Although a writer, yet you are a disappointed one. No mortal but
+     yourself knows this. You have winged your way in flights, grand and
+     lofty, and cannot _pen it_, is what is the matter. Now, in time you
+     will, more perfectly than to-day, by the touch of your pen, portray
+     your soul and its flights. Then I see you happy. This gentleman is
+     an auxiliary power, whether the power in full of your life I do not
+     to-day get. You are emphatically a woman of Destiny, and should
+     follow your _impressions_, for through that intuitive law you will
+     be saved. I mean by 'saved,' leap, as it were, across difficulties
+     instead of going round. For your soul is more positive and awake to
+     its necessities to-day than ever before in your life, particularly
+     in the last six months. Body marriages are good under the physical
+     law--bring certain unfoldments. But when mortal man and woman reach
+     a certain condition of development, they become dissatisfied, and
+     yearn for the full fruition of love. And there is no limitation of
+     this law. Women usually bow to the heart-love law, that sometimes
+     brings great joy and misery. The time is ripe for rulers. There
+     will be put into the field men, and more specifically women, who
+     have exemplified love divine. They will teach the law so plainly
+     that they who run can read. And it can only be taught by those who
+     have embodied it. Some years ago, in this country, there was a
+     stir-up. It did its work in fermentation. The next must be
+     humanization. The material world must come under the spiritual.
+     Women will come to the front as inspired powers. This is what comes
+     to me to write to you to-day. If it brings strength, or one ray of
+     sun-shine to you, I am glad.--I remain, most respectfully yours,
+                                                   George Plummer."
+
+Mr. Plummer is not occupying a high position in the world, nor is he a
+rich man. He gains no popularity by his letters--he hears no
+applause--he reaps no personal benefit, nor will he take any money. It
+would be difficult, with any degree of reason, to charge him with
+cheating the public for the sake of emptying their pockets. I fail to
+see, therefore, how he can obtain his insight to one's interior life by
+mortal means, nor, unless compelled by a power superior to his own, why
+he should take the trouble to obtain it.
+
+Another medium, whose health paid the sacrifice demanded of her for the
+exhibition of a power over which, at one time, she had no control, and
+which never brought her in anything but the thanks of her friends, is
+Mrs. Keningale Cook (Mabel Collins), whom I have mentioned in the "Story
+of my Spirit Child." There was a photographer in London, named Hudson,
+who had been very successful in developing spirit photographs. He would
+prepare to take an ordinary photograph, and on developing the plate, one
+or more spirit forms would be found standing by the sitter, in which
+forms were recognized the faces of deceased friends. Of course, the
+generality of people said that the plates were prepared beforehand with
+vague misty figures, and the imagination of the sitter did the rest. I
+had been for some time anxious to test Mr. Hudson's powers for myself,
+and one morning very early, between nine and ten o'clock, I asked Mrs.
+Cook, as a medium, to accompany me to his studio. He was not personally
+acquainted with either of us, and we went so early that we found him
+rather unwilling to set to work. Indeed, at first he declined. We
+disturbed him at breakfast and in his shirt sleeves, and he told us his
+studio had been freshly painted, and it was quite impossible to use it
+until dry. But we pressed him to take our photographs until he
+consented, and we ascended to the studio. It was certainly very
+difficult to avoid painting ourselves, and the screen placed behind was
+perfectly wet. We had not mentioned a word to Mr. Hudson about spirit
+photographs, and the first plate he took out and held up to the light,
+we saw him draw his coat sleeve across. When we asked him what he was
+doing, he turned to us and said, "Are you ladies Spiritualists?" When we
+answered in the affirmative, he continued, "I rubbed out the plate
+because I thought there was something on it, and most sitters would
+object. I often have to destroy three or four negatives before I get a
+clear picture." We begged him not to rub out any more as we were curious
+to see the results. He, consequently, developed three photographs of us,
+sitting side by side. The first was too indistinct to be of any use. It
+represented us, with a third form, merely a patch of white, lying on the
+ground, whilst a mass of hair was over my knee. "Florence" afterwards
+informed me that this was an attempt to depict herself. The second
+picture showed Mrs. Cook and myself as before, with "Charlie" standing
+behind me. I have spoken of "Charlie" (Stephen Charles Bernard Abbott)
+in "Curious Coincidences," and how much he was attached to me and mine.
+In the photograph he is represented in his cowl and monk's frock--with
+ropes round his waist, and his face looking down. In the third picture,
+an old lady in a net cap and white shawl was standing with her two hands
+on Mrs. Cook's shoulders. This was her grandmother, and the profile was
+so distinctly delineated, that her father, Mr. Mortimer Collins,
+recognized it at once as the portrait of his mother. The old lady had
+been a member of the Plymouth Brethren sect, and wore the identical
+shawl of white silk with an embroidered border which she used to wear
+during her last years on earth. I have seen many other spirit
+photographs taken by Mr. Hudson, but I adhere to my resolution to speak
+only of that which I have proved by the exercise of my own senses. I
+have the two photographs I mention to this day, and have often wished
+that Mr. Hudson's removal from town had not prevented my sitting again
+to him in order to procure the likenesses of other friends.
+
+Miss Caroline Pawley is a lady who advertises her willingness to obtain
+messages for others from the spirit world, but is forbidden by her
+guides to take presents or money. I thought at first this must be a
+"_ruse_." "Surely," I said to a friend who knew Miss Pawley, "I ought to
+take books, or flowers, or some little offering in my hand." "If you do
+she will return them," was the reply. "All that is necessary is to write
+and make an appointment, as her time is very much taken up." Accordingly
+I did write, and Miss Pawley kindly named an early date for my visit. It
+was but a few months after I had lost my beloved daughter, and I longed
+for news of her. I arrived at Miss Pawley's residence, a neat little
+house in the suburbs, and was received by my hostess, a sweet,
+placid-faced woman, who looked the embodiment of peace and calm
+happiness. After we had exchanged greetings she said to me, "You have
+lost a daughter." "I lost one about twenty years ago--a baby of ten days
+old," I replied. "I don't mean her," said Miss Pawley, "I mean a young
+woman. I will tell you how I came to know of it. I took out my memoranda
+yesterday and was looking it through to see what engagements I had made
+for to-day, and I read the names aloud to myself. As I came to the
+entry, 'Mrs. Lean, 3 o'clock,' I heard a low voice say behind me, 'That
+is my dear, _dear_ mother!' and when I turned round, I saw standing at
+my elbow a young woman about the middle height, with blue eyes and very
+long brown hair, and she told me that it is _she_ whom you are grieving
+for at present." I made no answer to this speech, for my wound was too
+fresh to permit me to talk of her; and Miss Pawley proceeded. "Come!"
+she said cheerfully, "let us get paper and pencil and see what the dear
+child has to say to us." She did not go under trance, but wrote rapidly
+for a few moments and then handed me a letter written in the following
+manner. I repeat (what I have said before) that I do not test the
+genuineness of such a manifestation by the act itself. _Anyone_ might
+have written the letter, but no one but myself could recognize the
+familiar expressions and handwriting, nor detect the apparent
+inconsistencies that made it so convincing. It was written in two
+different hands on alternate lines, the first line being written by
+"Eva," and the next by "Florence," and so on. Now, my earthly children
+from their earliest days have never called me anything but "Mother,"
+whilst "Florence," who left me before she could speak, constantly calls
+me "Mamma." This fact alone could never have been known to Miss Pawley.
+Added to which the portion written by my eldest daughter was in her own
+clear decided hand, whilst "Florence's" contribution was in rather a
+childish, or "young ladylike" scribble.
+
+The lines ran thus. The italics are Florence's:--
+
+    "My own beloved mother.
+    _My dear, dear, dearest Mamma._
+    You must not grieve so terribly for me.
+    _And knowing all we have taught you, you should not grieve._
+    Believe me, I am not unhappy.
+    _Of course not, and she will be very happy soon._
+    But I suffer pain in seeing you suffer.
+    _Dear Mamma, do try to see that it is for the best._
+    Florence is right. It is best! dear Mother.
+    _And we shall all meet so soon, you know._
+    God bless you for all your love for me.
+    _Good-bye, dear, dearest Mamma._
+                 Your own girl.
+                 _Your loving little Florence._"
+
+I cannot comment on this letter. I only make it public in a cause that
+is sacred to me.
+
+To instance another case of mediumship which is exercised for neither
+remuneration nor applause. I am obliged in this example to withhold the
+name, because to betray their identity would be to ill requite a favor
+which was courteously accorded me. I had heard of a family of the name
+of D---- who held private sittings once a week, at which the mother and
+brothers and sisters gone before materialized and joined the circle; and
+having expressed my desire, through a mutual acquaintance, to assist at
+their _seances_, Mr. D---- kindly sent me an invitation to one. I found
+he was a high-class tradesman, living in a good house in the suburbs,
+and that strangers were very seldom (if ever) admitted to their circle.
+Mr. D---- explained to me before the _seance_ commenced, that they
+regarded Spiritualism as a most sacred thing, that they sat only to have
+communication with their own relations, his wife and children, and that
+his wife never manifested except when they were alone. His earth family
+consisted of a young married daughter and her husband, and four or five
+children of different ages. He had lost, I think he told me, a grown-up
+son, and two little ones. William Haxby, the medium, whom I wrote of in
+my chapter "On Sceptics," and who had passed over since then, had been
+intimate with their family, and often came back to them. These
+explanations over, the _seance_ began. The back and front parlors were
+divided by lace curtains only. In the back, where the young married
+daughter took up her position on a sofa, were a piano and an American
+organ. In the front parlor, which was lighted by an oil lamp, we sat
+about on chairs and sofas, but without any holding of hands. In a very
+short time the lace curtains parted and a young man's face appeared.
+This was the grown-up brother. "Hullo! Tom," they all exclaimed, and the
+younger ones went up and kissed him. He spoke a while to his father,
+telling what they proposed to do that evening, but saying his mother
+would not be able to materialize. As he was speaking, a little boy stood
+by his side. "Here's Harry," cried the children, and they brought their
+spirit brother out into the room between them. He seemed to be about
+five years old. His father told him to come and speak to me, and he
+obeyed, just like a little human child, and stood before me with his
+hand resting on my knee. Then a little girl joined the party, and the
+two children walked about the room, talking to everybody in turn. As we
+were occupied with them, we heard the notes of the American organ.
+"Here's Haxby," said Mr. D----. "Now we shall have a treat." (I must say
+here that Mr. Haxby was an accomplished organist on earth.) As he heard
+his name, he, too, came to the curtains, and showed his face with its
+ungainly features, and intimated that he and "Tom" would play a duet.
+Accordingly the two instruments pealed forth together, and the spirits
+really played gloriously--a third influence joining in with some
+stringed instrument. This _seance_ was so much less wonderful than many
+I have written of, that I should not have included a description of it,
+except to prove that all media do not ply their profession in order to
+prey upon their fellow-creatures. The D---- family are only anxious to
+avoid observation. There could be no fun or benefit in deceiving each
+other, and yet they devote one evening in each week to holding communion
+with those they loved whilst on earth and feel are only hidden from them
+for a little while, and by a very flimsy veil. Their _seances_ truly
+carry out the great poet's belief.
+
+    "Then the forms of the departed
+      Enter at the open door;
+    The beloved, the true-hearted,
+      Come to visit me once more.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    With a slow and noiseless footstep
+      Comes that messenger divine,
+    Takes the vacant chair beside me,
+      Lays her gentle hand in mine.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Uttered not, yet, comprehended,
+      Is the spirit's voiceless prayer.
+    Soft rebukes, in blessings ended,
+      Breathing from her lips of air."
+
+In the house of the lady I have mentioned in "The Story of the Monk,"
+Mrs. Uniacke of Bruges, I have witnessed marvellous phenomena. They were
+not pleasant manifestations, very far from it, but there was no doubt
+that they were genuine. Whether they proceeded from the agency of Mrs.
+Uniacke, my sister Blanche, or a young lady called Miss Robinson, who
+sat with them, or from the power of all three combined, I cannot say,
+but they had experienced them on several occasions before I joined them,
+and were eager that I should be a witness of them. We sat in Mrs.
+Uniacke's house, in a back drawing-room, containing a piano and several
+book-cases, full of books--some of them very heavy. We sat round a table
+in complete darkness, only we four women, with locked doors and bolted
+windows. Accustomed as I was to all sorts of manifestations and
+mediumship, I was really frightened by what occurred. The table was most
+violent in its movements, our chairs were dragged from under us, and
+heavy articles were thrown about the room. The more Mrs. Uniacke
+expostulated and Miss Robinson laughed, the worse the tumult became. The
+books were taken from the shelves and hurled at our heads, several of
+the blows seriously hurting us; the keys of the piano at the further end
+of the room were thumped and crashed upon, as if they would be broken;
+and in the midst of it all Miss Robinson fell prone upon the floor, and
+commenced talking in Flemish, a language of which she had no knowledge.
+My sister understands it, and held a conversation with the girl; and she
+told us afterwards that Miss Robinson had announced herself by the name
+of a Fleming lately deceased in the town, and detailed many events of
+his life, and messages which he wished to be delivered to his
+family--all of which were conveyed in good and intelligible Flemish.
+When the young lady had recovered she resumed her place at the table, as
+my sister was anxious I should see another table, which they called
+"Mademoiselle" dance, whilst unseen hands thumped the piano. The
+manifestation not occurring, however, they thought it must be my
+presence, and ordered me away from the table. I went and stood up close
+against the folding doors that led into the front room, keeping my hand,
+with a purpose, on the handle. The noise and confusion palpably
+increased when the three ladies were left alone. "Mademoiselle," who
+stood in a corner of the room, commenced to dance about, and the notes
+of the piano crashed forcibly. There was something strange to me about
+the manifestation of the piano. It sounded as if it were played with
+feet instead of hands. When the tumult was at its height, I suddenly,
+and without warning, threw open the folding door and let the light in
+upon the scene, and I saw _the music-stool mounted on the keyboard_ and
+hammering the notes down. As the light was admitted, both "Mademoiselle"
+and the music-stool fell with a crash to the floor, and the _seance_ was
+over. The ladies were seated at the table, and the floor and articles of
+furniture were strewn with the books which had been thrown down--the
+bookshelves being nearly emptied--and pots of flowers. I was never at
+such a pandemonium before or after.
+
+The late Sir Percy Shelley and his wife Lady Shelley, having no children
+of their own, adopted a little girl, who, when about four or five years,
+was seriously burned about the chest and shoulders, and confined for
+some months to her bed. The child's cot stood in Lady Shelley's bedroom,
+and when her adopted mother was about to say her prayers, she was
+accustomed to give the little girl a pencil and piece of paper to keep
+her quiet. One day the child asked for pen and ink instead of a pencil,
+and on being refused began to cry, and said, "The _man_ said she must
+have pen and ink." As it was particularly enjoined that she must not cry
+for fear of reopening her wounds, Lady Shelley provided her with the
+desired articles, and proceeded to her devotions. When she rose from
+them, she saw to her surprise that the child had drawn an outline of a
+group of figures in the Flaxman style, representing mourners kneeling
+round a couch with a sick man laid upon it. She did not understand the
+meaning of the picture, but she was struck with amazement at the
+execution of it, as was everybody who saw it. From that day she gave the
+little girl a sheet of card-board each morning, with pen and ink, and
+obtained a different design, the child always talking glibly of "the
+man" who helped her to draw. This went on until the drawings numbered
+thirty or forty, when a "glossary of symbols" was written out by this
+baby, who could neither write nor spell, which explained the whole
+matter. It was then discovered that the series of drawings represented
+the life of the soul on leaving the body, until it was lost "in the
+Infinity of God"--a likely subject to be chosen, or understood, by a
+child of five. I heard this story from Lady Shelley's lips, and I have
+seen (and well examined) the original designs. They were at one time to
+be published by subscription, but I believe it never came to pass. I
+have also seen the girl who drew them, most undoubtedly under control.
+She was then a young married woman and completely ignorant of anything
+relating to Spiritualism. I asked her if she remembered the
+circumstances under which she drew the outlines, and she laughed and
+said no. She knew she had drawn them, but she had no idea how. All she
+could tell me was that she had never done anything wonderful since, and
+she had no interest in Spiritualism whatever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+VARIOUS MEDIA.
+
+
+A very strong and remarkable clairvoyant is Mr. Towns, of Portobello
+Road. As a business adviser or foreteller of the Future, I don't think
+he is excelled. The inquirer after prophecy will not find a grand
+mansion to receive him in Portobello Road. On the contrary, this
+soothsayer keeps a small shop in the oil trade, and is himself only an
+honest, and occasionally rather rough spoken, tradesman. He will see
+clients privately on any day when he is at home, though it is better to
+make an appointment, but he holds a circle on his premises each Tuesday
+evening, to which everybody is admitted, and where the contribution is
+anything you may be disposed to give, from coppers to gold. These
+meetings, which are very well attended, are always opened by Mr. Towns
+with prayer, after which a hymn is sung, and the _seance_ commences.
+There is full gas on all the time, and Mr. Towns sits in the midst of
+the circle. He does not go under trance, but rubs his forehead for a few
+minutes and then turns round suddenly and addresses members of his
+audience, as it may seem, promiscuously, but it is just as he is
+impressed. He talks, as a rule, in metaphor, or allegorically, but his
+meaning is perfectly plain to the person he addresses. It is not only
+silly women, or curious inquirers, who attend Mr. Towns' circles. You
+may see plenty of grave, and often anxious, business men around him,
+waiting to hear if they shall sell out their shares, or hold on till the
+market rises; where they are to search for lost certificates or papers
+of value; or on whom they are to fix the blame of money or articles of
+value that have disappeared. Once in my presence a serious-looking man
+had kept his eye fixed on him for some time, evidently anxious to speak.
+Mr. Towns turned suddenly to him. "You want to know, sir," he commenced,
+without any preface, "where that baptismal certificate is to be found."
+"I do, indeed," replied the man; "it is a case of a loss of thousands
+if it is not forthcoming." "Let me see," said Mr. Towns, with his finger
+to his forehead. "Have you tried a church with a square tower without
+any steeple, an ugly, clumsy building, white-washed inside, standing in
+a village. Stop! I can see the registrar books--the village's name is
+----. The entry is at page 200. The name is ----. The mother's name is
+----. Is that the certificate you want?" "It is, indeed," said the man;
+"and it is in the church at ----?" "Didn't I say it was in the church at
+----?" replied Mr. Towns, who does not like to be doubted or
+contradicted. "Go and you will find it there." And the man _did_ go and
+did find it there. To listen to the conversations that go on between him
+and his clients at these meetings, Mr. Towns is apparently not less
+successful with love affairs than with business affairs, and it is an
+interesting experience to attend them, if only for the sake of
+curiosity. But naturally, to visit him privately is to command much more
+of his attention. He will not, however, sit for everybody, and it is of
+no use attempting to deceive him. He is exceedingly keen-sighted into
+character, and if he takes a dislike to a man he will tell him so
+without the slightest hesitation. No society lies are manufactured in
+the little oil shop. A relative of mine, who was not the most faithful
+husband in the world, and who, in consequence, judged of his wife's
+probity by his own, went, during her temporary absence, to Mr. Towns to
+ask him a delicate question. The lady was well known to the medium, but
+the husband he had never seen before, and had no notion who his sitter
+was, until he pulled out a letter from his pocket, thrust it across the
+table, and said, "There! look at that letter and tell me if the writer
+is faithful to me." Mr. Towns told me that as he took the envelope in
+his hand, he saw the lady's face photographed upon it, and at the same
+moment, all the blackness of the husband's own life. He rose up like an
+avenging deity and pointed to the door. "This letter," he said, "was
+written by Mrs. ----. Go! man, and wash your own hands clean, and _then_
+come and ask me questions about your wife." And so the "heavy swell" had
+to slink downstairs again. I have often gone myself to Mr. Towns before
+engaging in any new business, and always received the best advice, and
+been told exactly what would occur during its progress. When I was about
+to start on the "Golden Goblin" tour in management with my son--I went
+to him to ask if it would be successful. He not only told me what money
+it would bring in, but where the weak points would occur. The drama was
+then completed, and in course of rehearsal, and had been highly
+commended by all who had heard and seen it. Mr. Towns, however, who had
+neither seen nor heard it, insisted it would have to be altered before
+it was a complete success. This annoyed me, and I knew it would annoy my
+son, the author; besides, I believed it was a mistake, so I said nothing
+about it. Before it had run a month, however, the alterations were
+admitted on all sides to be necessary, and were consequently made.
+Everything that Mr. Towns prognosticated on that occasion came to pass,
+even to the strangers I should encounter on tour, and how their
+acquaintance would affect my future life; also how long the tour would
+last, and in which towns it would achieve the greatest success. I can
+assure some of my professional friends, that if they would take the
+trouble to consult a trustworthy clairvoyant about their engagements
+before booking them, they would not find themselves so often in the
+hands of the bogus manager as they do now. A short time ago I received a
+summons to the county court, and although I _knew_ I was in the right,
+yet law has so many loopholes that I felt nervous. The case was called
+for eleven o'clock on a certain Wednesday, and the evening before I
+joined Mr. Towns' circle. When it came to my turn to question him, I
+said, "Do you see where I shall be to-morrow morning?" He replied, "I
+can see you are called to appear in a court-house, but the case will be
+put off." "_Put off_," I repeated, "but it is fixed for eleven. It can't
+be put off." "Cases are sometimes relegated to another court," said Mr.
+Towns. Then I thought he had quite got out of his depth, and replied,
+"You are making a mistake. This is quite an ordinary business. It can't
+go to a higher court. But shall I gain it?" "In the afternoon," said the
+medium. His answers so disappointed me that I placed no confidence in
+them, and went to the county court on the following morning in a nervous
+condition. But he was perfectly correct. The case was called for eleven,
+but as the defendant was not forthcoming, it was passed over, and the
+succeeding hearings occupied so much time, that the magistrate thought
+mine would never come off, so he _relegated it at two o'clock to
+another court_ to be heard before the registrar, who decided it at once
+in my favor, so that I _gained it in the afternoon_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One afternoon in my "green sallet" days of Spiritualism, when every
+fresh experience almost made my breath stop, I turned into the
+Progressive Library in Southampton Row, to ask if there were any new
+media come to town. Mr. Burns did not know of any, but asked me if I had
+ever attended one of Mrs. Olive's _seances_, a series of which were
+being held weekly in the Library Rooms. I had not, and I bought a
+half-crown ticket for admission, and returned there the same evening.
+When I entered the _seance_ room, the medium had not arrived, and I had
+time to take stock of the audience. It seemed a very sad and serious
+one. There was no whispering nor giggling going on, and it struck me
+they looked more like patients waiting the advent of the doctor, than
+people bound on an evening's amusement. And that, to my surprise, was
+what I afterwards found they actually were. Mrs. Olive did not keep us
+long waiting, and when she came in, dressed in a lilac muslin dress,
+with her golden hair parted plainly on her forehead, her _very_ blue
+eyes, and a sweet, womanly smile for her circle, she looked as unlike
+the popular idea of a professional medium as anyone could possibly do.
+She sat down on a chair in the middle of the circle, and, having closed
+her eyes, went off to sleep. Presently she sat up, and, still with her
+eyes closed, said in a very pleasant, but decidedly _manly_, voice: "And
+now, my friends, what can I do for you?"
+
+A lady in the circle began to ask advice about her daughter. The medium
+held up her hand. "Stop!" she exclaimed, "you are doing _my_ work.
+Friend, your daughter is ill, you say. Then it is _my_ business to see
+what is the matter with her. Will you come here, young lady, and let me
+feel your pulse." Having done which, the medium proceeded to detail
+exactly the contents of the girl's stomach, and to advise her what to
+eat and drink for the future. Another lady then advanced with a written
+prescription. The medium examined her, made an alteration or two in the
+prescription, and told her to go on with it till further orders. My
+curiosity was aroused, and I whispered to my next neighbor to tell me
+who the control was. "Sir John Forbes, a celebrated physician," she
+replied. "He has almost as large a connection now as he had when alive."
+I was not exactly ill at the time, but I was not strong, and nothing
+that my family doctor prescribed for me seemed to do me any good. So
+wishing to test the abilities of "Sir John Forbes," I went up to the
+medium and knelt down by her side. "What is the matter with me, Sir
+John?" I began. "Don't call me by that name, little friend," he
+answered; "we have no titles on this side the world." "What shall I call
+you, then?" I said. "Doctor, plain Doctor," was the reply, but in such a
+kind voice. "Then tell me what is the matter with me, Doctor." "Come
+nearer, and I'll whisper it in your ear." He then gave me a detailed
+account of the manner in which I suffered, and asked what I had been
+taking. When I told him, "All wrong, all wrong," he said, shaking his
+head. "Here! give me a pencil and paper." I had a notebook in my pocket,
+with a metallic pencil, which I handed over to him, and he wrote a
+prescription in it. "Take that, and you'll be all the better, little
+friend," he said, as he gave it to me back again. When I had time to
+examine what he had written, I found to my surprise that the
+prescription was in abbreviated Latin, with the amount of each
+ingredient given in the regular medical shorthand. Mrs. Olive, a simple
+though intelligent looking woman, seemed a very unlikely person to me to
+be educated up to this degree. However, I determined to obtain a better
+opinion than my own, so the next time my family doctor called to see me,
+I said: "I have had a prescription given me, Doctor, which I am anxious,
+with your permission, to try. I wish you would glance your eye over it
+and see if you approve of my taking it." At the same time I handed him
+the note-book, and I saw him grow very red as he looked at the
+prescription. "Anything wrong?" I inquired. "O! dear no!" he replied in
+an offended tone; "you can try your remedy, and welcome, for aught I
+care--only, next time you wish to consult a new doctor, I advise you to
+dismiss the old one first." "But this prescription was not written by a
+doctor," I argued. At this he looked still more offended. "It's no use
+trying to deceive me, Mrs. Ross-Church! That prescription was written by
+no one but a medical man." It was a long time before I could make him
+really believe _who_ had transcribed it, and under what circumstances.
+When he was convinced of the truth of my statement, he was very much
+astonished, and laid all his professional pique aside. He did more. He
+not only urged me to have the prescription made up, but he confessed
+that his first chagrin was due to the fact that he felt he should have
+thought of it himself. "_That_," he said, pointing to one ingredient,
+"is the very thing to suit your case, and it makes me feel such a fool
+to think that a _woman_ should think of what _I_ passed over."
+
+Nothing would make this doctor believe in Spiritualism, though he
+continued to aver that only a medical man could have prescribed the
+medicine; but as I saw dozens of other cases treated at the time by Mrs.
+Olive, and have seen dozens since, I know that she does it by a power
+not her own. For several years after that "Sir John Forbes" used to give
+me advice about my health, and when his medium married Colonel Greck and
+went to live in Russia, he was so sorry to leave his numerous patients,
+and they to lose him, that he wanted to control _me_ in order that I
+might carry on his practice, but after several attempts he gave it up as
+hopeless. He said my brain was too active for any spirit to magnetize;
+and he is not the first, nor last, who has made the same attempt, and
+failed. "Sir John Forbes" was not Mrs. Olive's only control. She had a
+charming spirit called "Sunshine," who used to come for clairvoyance and
+prophecy; and a very comical negro named "Hambo," who was as humorous
+and full of native wit and repartee, as negroes generally are, and as
+Mrs. Olive, who is a very gentle, quiet woman, decidedly was _not_.
+"Hambo" was the business adviser and director, and sometimes
+materialized, which the others did not. These three influences were just
+as opposite from one another, and from Mrs. Olive, as any creatures
+could possibly be. "Sir John Forbes," so dignified, courteous, and truly
+benevolent--such a thorough old _gentleman_; "Sunshine," a sweet,
+sympathetic Indian girl, full of gentle reproof for wrong and
+exhortations to lead a higher life; and "Hambo," humorous and witty,
+calling a spade a spade, and occasionally descending to coarseness, but
+never unkind or wicked. I knew them all over a space of years until I
+regarded them as old friends. Mrs. Greck is now a widow, and residing in
+England, and, I hear, sitting again for her friends. If so, a great
+benefit in the person of "Sir John Forbes" has returned for a portion of
+mankind.
+
+I have kept a well-known physical medium to the last, not because I do
+not consider his powers to be completely genuine, but because they are
+of a nature that will not appeal to such as have not witnessed them. I
+allude to Mr. Charles Williams, with whom I have sat many times alone,
+and also with Mrs. Guppy Volckman. The manifestations that take place at
+his _seances_ are always material. The much written of "John King" is
+his principal control, and invariably appears under his mediumship; and
+"Ernest" is the name of another. I have seen Charles Williams leave the
+cabinet under trance and wander in an aimless manner about the room,
+whilst both "John King" and "Ernest" were with the circle, and have
+heard them reprove him for rashness. I have also seen him under the same
+circumstances, during an afternoon _seance_, mistake the window curtains
+for the curtains of the cabinet, and draw them suddenly aside, letting
+the full light of day in upon the scene, and showing vacancy where a
+moment before two figures had been standing and talking.
+
+Once when "John King" asked Colonel Lean what he should bring him, he
+was told _mentally_ to fetch the half-hoop diamond ring from my finger
+and place it on that of my husband.
+
+This half-hoop ring was worn between my wedding ring and a heavy gold
+snake ring, and I was holding the hand of my neighbor all the time, and
+yet the ring was abstracted from between the other two and transferred
+to Colonel Lean's finger without my being aware of the circumstance.
+These and various other marvels, I have seen under Mr. Williams'
+mediumship; but as I can adduce no proof that they were genuine, except
+my own conviction, it would be useless to write them down here. Only I
+could not close the list of the media with whom I have familiarly sat in
+London, and from whom I have received both kindness and courtesy,
+without including his name. It is the same with several others--with Mr.
+Frank Herne (now deceased) and his wife Mrs. Herne, whom I first knew as
+Mrs. Bassett, a famous medium for the direct spirit voice; with Mrs.
+Wilkinson, a clairvoyant who has a large _clientele_ of wealthy and
+aristocratic patrons; with Mrs. Wilkins and Mr. Vango, both reliable,
+though, as yet, less well known to the spiritualistic public; and with
+Dr. Wilson, the astrologer, who will tell you all you have ever done,
+and all you are ever going to do, if you will only give him the
+opportunity of casting your horoscope. To all and each I tender my
+thanks for having afforded me increased opportunities of searching into
+the truth of a science that possesses the utmost interest for me, and
+that has given me the greatest pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ON LAYING THE CARDS.
+
+
+At the risk of being laughed at, I cannot refrain, in the course of this
+narrative of my spiritualistic experiences, from saying a few words
+about what is called "laying the cards." "Imagine!" I fancy I hear some
+dear creature with nose "tip-tilted like a flower" exclaim, "any
+sensible woman believing in cards." And yet Napoleon believed in them,
+and regulated the fate of nations by them; and the only times he
+neglected their admonitions were followed by the retreat from Moscow and
+the defeat at Waterloo. Still I did not believe in card-telling till the
+belief was forced upon me. I always thought it rather cruel to give
+imprisonment and hard labor to old women who laid the cards for servant
+girls. Who can tell whether or no it is obtaining money upon false
+pretences; and if it is, why not inflict the same penalty on every
+cheating tradesman who sells inferior articles or gives short weight?
+Women would be told they should look after their own interests in the
+one case--so why not in the other? But all the difference lies in _who_
+lays the cards. Very few people can do it successfully, and my belief is
+that it must be done by a person with mediumistic power, which, in some
+mysterious manner, influences the disposition of the pack. I have seen
+cards shuffled and cut twenty times in the hope of getting rid of some
+number antagonistic to the inquirer's good fortune, and yet each time
+the same card would turn up in the juxtaposition least to be desired.
+However, to narrate my own experience. When I was living in Brussels,
+years before I heard of modern Spiritualism, I made the acquaintance of
+an Irish lady called Mrs. Thorpe, a widow who was engaged as a
+_chaperon_ for some young Belgian ladies of high birth, who had lost
+their mother. We lived near each other, and she often came in to have a
+chat with me. After a while I heard through some other friends that Mrs.
+Thorpe was a famous hand at "laying the cards;" and one day, when we
+were alone, I asked her to tell me my fortune. I didn't in the least
+believe in it, but I wanted to be amused. Mrs. Thorpe begged to be
+excused at once. She told me her predictions had proved so true, she was
+afraid to look into futurity any more. She had seen a son and heir for a
+couple who had been married twenty years without having any children,
+and death for a girl just about to become a bride--and both had come
+true; and, in fact, her employer, the Baron, had strictly forbidden her
+doing it any more whilst in his house. However, this only fired my
+curiosity, and I teased her until, on my promising to preserve the
+strictest secrecy, she complied with my request. She predicted several
+things in which I had little faith, but which I religiously wrote down
+in case they came true--the three most important being that my husband,
+Colonel Ross-Church (who was then most seriously ill in India), would
+not die, but that his brother, Edward Church, would; that I should have
+one more child by my first marriage--a daughter with exceedingly fair
+skin and hair, who would prove to be the cleverest of all my children,
+and that after her birth I should never live with my husband again. All
+these events were most unlikely to come to pass at that time, and,
+indeed, did not come to pass for years afterwards, yet each one was
+fulfilled, and the daughter who, unlike all her brothers and sisters, is
+fair as a lily, will be by no means the last in the race for talent. Yet
+these cards were laid four years before her birth. Mrs. Thorpe told me
+she had learnt the art from a pupil of the identical Italian countess
+who used to lay the cards for the Emperor Napoleon. But it is not an
+art, and it is not to be learnt. It is inspiration.
+
+Many years after this, when I had just begun to study Spiritualism, my
+sister told me of a wonderful old lady, a neighbor of hers, who had
+gained quite an evil reputation in the village by her prophetical powers
+with the cards. Like Mrs. Thorpe, she had become afraid of herself, and
+professed to have given up the practice. The last time she had laid
+them, a girl acquaintance had walked over joyously from an adjacent
+village to introduce her affianced husband to her, and to beg her to
+tell them what would happen in their married life. The old lady had laid
+the cards, and saw the death card turn up three times with the marriage
+ring, and told the young people, much to their chagrin, that they must
+prepare for a disappointment, as their marriage would certainly be
+postponed from some obstacle arising in the way. She told me afterwards
+that she dared not tell them more than this. They left her somewhat
+sobered, but still full of hope, and started on their way home. Before
+they reached it the young man staggered and fell down dead. No one had
+expected such a catastrophe. He had been apparently in the best of
+health and spirits. _What_ was it that had made this old lady foresee
+what no one else had seen?
+
+These are no trumped-up tales after the prediction had been fulfilled.
+Everyone knew it to be true, and became frightened to look into the
+future for themselves. I was an exception to the general rule, however,
+and persuaded Mrs. Simmonds to lay the cards for me. I had just
+completed a two months' sojourn at the seaside, was in robust health,
+and anticipating my return home for the sake of meeting again with a
+friend who was very dear to me. I shuffled and cut the cards according
+to directions. The old lady looked rather grave. "I don't like your
+cards," she said, "there is a good deal of trouble before you--trouble
+and sickness. You will not return home so soon as you anticipate. You
+will be detained by illness, and when you do return, you will find a
+letter on the table that will cut you to the heart. I am sorry you have
+stayed away so long. There has been treachery in your absence, and a
+woman just your opposite, with dark eyes and hair, has got the better of
+you. However, it will be a sharp trouble, but not a lengthy one. You
+will see the wisdom of it before long, and be thankful it has happened."
+I accepted my destiny with complacency, never supposing (notwithstanding
+all that I had heard) that it would come true. I was within a few days
+of starting for home, and had received affectionate letters from my
+friend all the time I had been away. However, as Fate and the cards
+would have it, I was taken ill the very day after they were laid for me,
+and confined for three weeks with a kind of low fever to my bed; and
+when weakened and depressed I returned to my home I found _the letter on
+my table_ that Mrs. Simmonds had predicted for me, to say that my
+friendship with my (supposed) friend _was over and done with for ever_.
+After this I began to have more respect for cards, or rather for the
+persons who successfully laid them. In 1888, when I was touring with my
+company with the "Golden Goblin," I stayed for the first time in my life
+in Accrington. Our sojourn there was to be only for a week, and, as may
+be supposed, the accommodation in the way of lodgings was very poor.
+When we had been there a few days a lady of the company said to me,
+"There is such a funny old woman at my lodgings, Miss Marryat! I wish
+you'd come and see her. She can tell fortunes with the cards, and I know
+you believe in such things. She has told my husband and me all about
+ourselves in the most wonderful manner; but you mustn't come when the
+old man is at home, because he says it's devilry, and he has forbidden
+her doing it." "I _am_ very much interested in that sort of thing," I
+replied, "and I will certainly pay her a visit, if you will tell me when
+I may come." A time was accordingly fixed for my going to the lady's
+rooms, and on my arrival there I was introduced to a greasy, snuffy old
+landlady, who didn't look as if she had a soul above a bottle of gin.
+However, I sat down at a table with her, and the cards were cut. She
+told me nothing that my friends might have told her concerning me, but
+dived at once into the future. My domestic affairs were in a very
+complicated state at that period, and I had no idea myself how they
+would end. She saw the whole situation at a glance--described the actors
+in the scene, the places they lived in, the people by whom they were
+surrounded, and exactly how the whole business would end, and _did_ end.
+She foretold the running of the tour, how long it would last, and which
+of the company would leave before it concluded. She told me that a woman
+in the company, whom I believed at that time to be attached to me, would
+prove to be one of my greatest enemies, and be the cause of estrangement
+between me and one of my nearest relations, and she opened my eyes to
+that woman's character in a way which forced me afterwards to find out
+that to which I might have been blind forever. And this information
+emanated from a dirty, ignorant, old lodging keeper, who had probably
+never heard of my name until it was thrust before her, and yet told me
+things that my most intimate and cleverest friends had no power to tell
+me. After the woman at Accrington I never looked at a card for the
+purpose of divination until my attention was directed last year to a
+woman in London who is very clever at the same thing, and a friend
+asked me to go with her and see what she could tell us. This woman, who
+is quite of the lower class, and professedly a dressmaker, received us
+in a bedroom, the door of which was carefully locked. She was an elderly
+woman and rather intelligent and well educated for her position, but she
+could adduce no reason whatever for her facility in reading the cards.
+She told me "it _came_ to her," she didn't know why or how.
+
+It "came to her" with a vengeance for me. She rattled off my past,
+present and future as if she had been reading from an open book, and she
+mentioned the description of a person (which I completely recognized) so
+constantly with reference to my future, that I thought I would try her
+by a question. "Stop a minute," I said, "this person whom you have
+alluded to so often--have I ever met him?" "Of course you have met him,"
+she replied, "you know him intimately." "I don't recognize the
+description," I returned, fallaciously. The woman turned round and
+looked me full in the face. "_You don't recognize him?_" she repeated in
+an incredulous tone, "then you must be very dull. Well! I'll tell you
+how to recognize him. Next time you meet a gentleman out walking who
+raises his hat, and before he shakes hands with you, draws a written or
+printed paper from his pocket and presents it to you, you can remember
+my words. _That_ is the man I mean."
+
+I laughed at the quaintness of the idea and returned home. As I was
+walking from the station to my own house I met the person she had
+described. As he neared me he raised his hat, and then putting his hand
+in his pocket he said, "Good afternoon! I have something for you! I met
+Burrows this morning. He was going on to you, but as he was in a great
+hurry he asked me if I was likely to see you to-day to give you this."
+And he presented me with a printed paper of regulations which I had
+asked the man he mentioned to procure for me.
+
+Now, here was no stereotyped utterance of the cards--no stock
+phrase--but a deliberate prophecy of an unfulfilled event. It is upon
+such things that I base my opinion that, given certain persons and
+certain circumstances, the cards are a very fertile source of
+information. It is absurd in cases like those I have related to lay it
+all down to chance, to clever guessing, or to trickery. If my readers
+believe so, let me ask them to try it for themselves. If it is all
+folly, and any stupid, ignorant old woman can do it, of course _they_
+must be able to master the trick. Let them get a pack of cards and lay
+them according to the usual directions--there are any number of books
+published that will tell them how to do it--and then see if they can
+foretell a single event of importance correctly. They will probably find
+(as _I_ do) that the cards are a sealed book to them. I would give a
+great deal to be able to lay the cards with any degree of success for
+myself or my friends. But nothing "comes to me." The cards remain
+painted pieces of cardboard, and nothing more. And yet an ignorant
+creature who has no brains of her own can dive deep into the mysteries
+of my mind, and turn my inmost thoughts and wishes inside out,--more,
+can pierce futurity and tell me what _shall_ be. However, if my hearers
+continue to doubt my story, I can only repeat my admonition to try it
+for themselves. If they once succeed, they will not give it up again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA.
+
+I. _Mrs. M. A. Williams._
+
+
+I went to America on a professional engagement in October, 1884. Some
+months beforehand a very liberal offer had been made me by the
+Spiritualists of Great Britain to write my experiences for the English
+press, but I declined to do so until I could add my American notes to
+them. I had corresponded (as I have shown) with the _Banner of Light_ in
+New York; and what I had heard of Spiritualism in America had made me
+curious to witness it. But I was determined to test it on a strictly
+private plan. I said to myself: "I have seen and heard pretty nearly all
+there is to be seen and heard on the subject in England, but, with one
+or two exceptions, I have never sat at any _seance_ where I was not
+known. Now I am going to visit a strange country where, in a matter like
+Spiritualism, I can conceal my identity, so as to afford the media no
+clue to my surroundings or the names of my deceased friends." I sailed
+for America quite determined to pursue a strictly secret investigation,
+and with that end in view I never mentioned the subject to anyone.
+
+I had a few days holiday in New York before proceeding to Boston, where
+my work opened, and I stayed at one of the largest hotels in the city. I
+landed on Sunday morning, and on Monday evening I resolved to make my
+first venture. Had I been a visitor in London, I should have had to
+search out the right sort of people, and make a dozen inquiries before I
+heard where the media were hiding themselves from dread of the law; but
+they order such things better on the other side of the Atlantic. People
+are allowed to hold their private opinions and their private religion
+there without being swooped down upon and clapped into prison for rogues
+and vagabonds. Whatever the views of the majority may be, upon this
+subject or any other (and Heaven knows I would have each man strong
+enough to cling to his opinion, and brave enough to acknowledge it
+before the world), I think it is a discredit to a civilized country to
+allow old laws, that were made when we were little better than savages,
+to remain in force at the present day. We are far too much over-ridden
+by a paternal Government, which has grown so blind and senile that it
+swallows camels while it is straining after a gnat.
+
+There was no obstacle to my wish, however, in New York. I had but to
+glance down the advertisement columns of the newspapers to learn where
+the media lived, and on what days they held their public _seances_. It
+so happened that Mrs. M. A. Williams was the only one who held open
+house on Monday evenings for Materialization; and thither I determined
+to go. There is no such privacy as in a large _hotel_, where no one has
+the opportunity to see what his neighbor is doing. As soon, therefore,
+as my dinner was concluded, I put on a dark cloak, hat and veil, and
+walking out into the open, got into one of the cars that ran past the
+street where Mrs. Williams resided. Arrived at the house, I knocked at
+the door, and was about to inquire if there was to be any _seance_
+there, that evening, when the attendant saved me the trouble by saying,
+"Upstairs, if you please, madam," and nothing more passed between us.
+When I had mounted the stairs, I found myself in a large room, the floor
+of which was covered with a thick carpet, nailed all round the
+wainscotting. On one side were some thirty or forty cane-bottomed
+chairs, and directly facing them was the cabinet. This consisted of four
+uprights nailed over the carpet, with iron rods connecting them at the
+top. There was no roof to it, but curtains of a dark maroon color were
+usually drawn around, but when I entered, they were flung back over the
+iron rods, so as to disclose the interior. There was a stuffed armchair
+for the use of the medium, and in front of the cabinet a narrow table
+with papers and pencils on it, the use of which I did not at first
+discover. At the third side of the room was a harmonium, so placed that
+the performer sat with his back both to the cabinet and the sitters. A
+large gas lamp, almost like a limelight, made in a square form like a
+lantern, was fixed against the wall, so as to throw the light upon the
+cabinet, but it was fitted with a sliding shade of red silk, with which
+it could be darkened if necessary. I was early, and only a few visitors
+were occupying the chairs. I asked a lady if I might sit where I chose,
+and on her answering "Yes," I took the chair in the front row, exactly
+opposite the cabinet, not forgetting that I was there in the cause of
+Spiritualism as well as for my own interests. The seats filled rapidly
+and there must have been thirty-five or forty people present, when Mrs.
+Williams entered the room, and nodding to those she knew, went into the
+cabinet. Mrs. Williams is a stout woman of middle age, with dark hair
+and eyes, and a fresh complexion. She was dressed in a tight-fitting
+gown of pale blue, with a good deal of lace about the neck and sleeves.
+She was accompanied by a gentleman, and I then discovered for the first
+time that it is usual in America to have, what they call, a "conductor"
+of the _seance_. The conductor sits close to the cabinet curtains, and,
+if any spirit is too weak to shew itself outside, or to speak audibly,
+he conveys the message it may wish to send to its friends; and when I
+knew how very few precautions the Americans take to prevent such
+outrages as have occurred in England, and how many more materializations
+take place in an evening there than here, I saw the necessity of a
+conductor to protect the medium, and to regulate the order of the
+_seance_.
+
+Mrs. Williams' conductor opened the proceedings with a very neat little
+speech. He said, "I see several strange faces here this evening, and I
+am very pleased to see them, and I hope they may derive both pleasure
+and profit from our meeting. We have only one rule for the conduct of
+our _seances_, that you shall behave like ladies and gentlemen. You may
+not credit all you see, but remember this is our religion, and the
+religion of many present, and as you would behave yourselves reverently
+and decorously, if you were in a church of another persuasion to your
+own, so I beg of you to behave yourselves here. And if any spirits
+should come for you whom you do not immediately recognize, don't wound
+them by denying their identity. They may have been longing for this
+moment to meet you again, and doing their very utmost to assume once
+more the likeness they wore on earth; yet some fail. Don't make their
+failure harder to bear by roughly repudiating all knowledge of them. The
+strangers who are present to-night may mistake the reason of this little
+table being placed in front of the cabinet, and think it is intended to
+keep them from too close an inspection of the spirits. No such thing! On
+the contrary, all will be invited in turn to come up and recognize their
+friends. But we make it a rule at these _seances_ that no materialized
+spirit, who is strong enough to come beyond that table, shall be
+permitted to return to the cabinet. They must dematerialize in sight of
+the sitters, that no possible suspicion may rest upon the medium. These
+pencils and papers are placed here in case any spirit who is unable to
+speak may be impressed to write instead. And now we will begin the
+evening with a song."
+
+The accompanist then played "Footsteps of Angels," the audience sung it
+with a will, and the curtains having been drawn round Mrs. Williams, the
+shade was drawn across the gaslight, and the _seance_ began.
+
+I don't think it could have been more than a minute or two before we
+heard a voice whispering, "Father," and _three girls_, dressed in white
+clinging garments, appeared at the opening in the curtains. An old man
+with white hair left his seat and walked up to the cabinet, when they
+all three came out at once and hung about his neck and kissed him, and
+whispered to him. I almost forgot where I was. They looked so perfectly
+human, so joyous and girl-like, somewhere between seventeen and twenty,
+and they all spoke at once, so like what girls on earth would do, that
+it was most mystifying. The old man came back to his seat, wiping his
+eyes. "Are those your daughters, sir?" asked one of the sitters. "Yes!
+my three girls," he replied. "I lost them all before ten years old, but
+you see I've got them back again here."
+
+Several other forms appeared after this--one, a little child of about
+three years old, who fluttered in and out of the cabinet like a
+butterfly, and ran laughing away from the sitters who tried to catch
+her. Some of the meetings that took place for the first time were very
+affecting. One young man of about seventeen or eighteen, who was called
+up to see his mother's spirit, sobbed so bitterly, it broke my heart to
+hear him. There was not the least doubt if _he_ recognized her or no. He
+was so overcome, he hardly raised his eyes for the rest of the evening.
+One lady brought her spirit-son up to me, that I might see how perfectly
+he had materialized. She spoke of it as proudly as she might have done
+if he had passed some difficult examination. The young man was dressed
+in a suit of evening clothes, and he shook hands with me at his mother's
+bidding, with the firm grasp of a mortal. Naturally, I had seen too much
+in England for all this to surprise me. Still I had never assisted at a
+_seance_ where everything appeared to be so strangely human--so little
+mystical, except indeed the rule of dematerializing before the sitters,
+which I had only seen "Katie King" do before. But here, each form, after
+having been warned by the conductor that its time was up, sunk down
+right through the carpet as though it were the most ordinary mode of
+egression. Some, and more especially the men, did not advance beyond the
+curtains; then their friends were invited to go up and speak to them,
+and several went inside the cabinet. There were necessarily a good many
+forms, familiar to the rest, of whom I knew nothing; one was an old
+minister under whom they had all sat, another a gentleman who had been a
+constant attendant at Mrs. Williams' _seances_.
+
+Once the conductor spoke to me. "I am not aware of your name," he said
+(and I thought, "No! my friend, and you won't be aware of it just yet
+either!"), "but a spirit here wishes you would come up to the cabinet."
+I advanced, expecting to see some friend, and there stood a Catholic
+priest with his hand extended in blessing. I knelt down, and he gave me
+the usual benediction and then closed the curtains. "Did you know the
+spirit?" the conductor asked me. I shook my head; and he continued, "He
+was Father Hayes, a well-known priest in this city. I suppose you are a
+Catholic?" I told him "Yes," and went back to my seat. The conductor
+addressed me again. "I think Father Hayes must have come to pave the way
+for some of your friends," he said. "Here is a spirit who says she has
+come for a lady named 'Florence,' who has just crossed the sea. Do you
+answer to the description?" I was about to say "Yes," when the curtains
+parted again and my daughter "Florence" ran across the room and fell
+into my arms. "Mother!" she exclaimed, "I said I would come with you and
+look after you--didn't I?"
+
+I looked at her. She was exactly the same in appearance as when she had
+come to me in England--the same luxuriant brown hair and features and
+figure, as I had seen under the different mediumships of Florence Cook,
+Arthur Colman, Charles Williams and William Eglinton; the same form
+which in England had been declared to be half-a-dozen different media
+dressed up to represent my daughter stood before me there in New York,
+thousands of miles across the sea, and by the power of a person who did
+not even know who I was. If I had not been convinced before, how could I
+have helped being convinced then?
+
+"Florence" appeared as delighted as I was, and kept on kissing me and
+talking of what had happened to me on board ship coming over, and was
+evidently quite _au fait_ of all my proceedings. Presently she said,
+"There's another friend of yours here, mother! We came over together.
+I'll go and fetch him." She was going back to the cabinet when the
+conductor stopped her. "You must not return this way, please. Any other
+you like," and she immediately made a kind of court curtsey and went
+down through the carpet. I was standing where "Florence" had left me,
+wondering what would happen next, when she came _up again_ a few feet
+off from me, head first, and smiling as if she had discovered a new
+game. She was allowed to enter the cabinet this time, but a moment
+afterwards she popped her head out again, and said, "Here's your friend,
+mother!" and by her side was standing William Eglinton's control,
+"Joey," clad in his white suit, with a white cap drawn over his head.
+"'Florence' and I have come over to make new lines for you here," he
+said: "at least, I've come over to put her in the way of doing it, but I
+can't stay long, you know, because I have to go back to 'Willy.'"
+
+I really didn't care if he stayed long or not. I seemed to have procured
+the last proof I needed of the truth of the doctrine I had held so long,
+that there is no such thing as Death, as we understand it in this world.
+Here were the two spiritual beings (for believing in the identity of
+whom I had called myself a credulous fool fifty times over, only to
+believe in them more deeply still) in _propria personae_ in New York,
+claiming me in a land of strangers, who had not yet found out who I was.
+I was more deeply affected than I had ever been under such circumstances
+before, and more deeply thankful. "Florence" made great friends with our
+American cousins even on her first appearance. Mrs. Williams' conductor
+told me he thought he had never heard anything more beautiful than the
+idea of the spirit-child crossing the ocean to guard its mother in a
+strange country, and particularly, as he could feel by her influence,
+what a pure and beautiful spirit she was. When I told him she had left
+this world at ten days old, he said that accounted for it, but he could
+see there was nothing earthly about her.
+
+I was delighted with this _seance_, and hoped to sit with Mrs. Williams
+many times more, but fate decreed that I should leave New York sooner
+than I had anticipated. The perfect freedom with which it was conducted
+charmed me, and the spirits seemed so familiar with the sitters. There
+was no "Sweet Spirit, hear my prayer," business about it. No fear of
+being detained or handled among the spirits, and no awe, only intense
+tenderness on the part of their relations. It was to this cause I
+chiefly attributed the large number of materializations I
+witnessed--_forty_ having taken place that evening. They spoke far more
+distinctly and audibly too than those I had seen in England, but I
+believe the dry atmosphere of the United States is far more favorable to
+the process of materialization. I perceived another difference. Although
+the female spirits were mostly clad in white, they wore dresses and not
+simply drapery, whilst the men were invariably attired in the clothes
+(or semblances of the clothes) they would have worn had they been still
+on earth. I left Mrs. Williams' rooms, determined to see as much as I
+possibly could of mediumship whilst I was in the United States.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+II. _Mrs. Eva Hatch._
+
+
+I was so disappointed at being hurried off to Boston before I had seen
+any more of the New York media, that I took the earliest opportunity of
+attending a _seance_ there. A few words I had heard dropped about Eva
+Hatch made me resolve to visit her first. She was one of the Shaker
+sect, and I heard her spoken of as a remarkably pure and honest woman,
+and most reliable medium. Her first appearance quite gave me that
+impression. She had a fair, placid countenance, full of sweetness and
+serenity, and a plump matronly figure. I went incognita, as I had done
+to Mrs. Williams, and mingled unnoticed with the crowd. Mrs. Hatch's
+cabinet was quite different from Mrs. Williams'. It was built of planks
+like a little cottage, and the roof was pierced with numerous round
+holes for ventilation, like a pepper-box. There was a door in the
+centre, with a window on either side, all three of which were shaded by
+dark curtains. The windows, I was told, were for the accommodation of
+those spirits who had not the power to materialize more than a face, or
+head and bust. Mrs. Hatch's conductor was a woman, who sat near the
+cabinet, as in the other case.
+
+Mrs. Eva Hatch had not entered the cabinet five minutes before she came
+out again, under trance, with a very old lady with silver hair clinging
+to her arm, and walked round the circle. As they did so, the old lady
+extended her withered hand, and blessed the sitters. She came quite
+close to each one and was distinctly visible to all. I was told that
+this was the spirit of Mrs. Hatch's mother, and that it was her regular
+custom to come first and give her blessing to the _seance_. I had never
+seen the spirit of an aged person before, and it was a beautiful sight.
+She was the sweetest old lady too, very small and fragile looking, and
+half reclining on her daughter's bosom, but smiling serenely upon every
+one there. When they had made the tour of the room, Mrs. Hatch
+re-entered the cabinet, and did not leave it again until the sitting was
+concluded.
+
+There were a great many sitters present, most of whom were old patrons
+of Mrs. Hatch, and so, naturally, their friends came for them first. It
+is surprising though, when once familiarized with materialization, how
+little one grows to care to see the spirits who come for one's next door
+neighbor. They are like a lot of prisoners let out, one by one, to see
+their friends and relations. The few moments they have to spare are
+entirely devoted to home matters of no possible interest to the
+bystander. The first wonder and possible shock at seeing the supposed
+dead return in their old likeness to greet those they left on earth
+over, one listens with languid indifference, and perhaps a little
+impatience for one's own turn to come, to the whispered utterances of
+strangers. Mrs. Hatch's "cabinet spirits" or "controls," however, were
+very interesting. One, who called herself the "Spirit of Prayer," came
+and knelt down in the middle of the circle, and prayed with us. She had
+asked for the gas to be extinguished first, and as she prayed she became
+illuminated with flashes of light, in the shape of stars and crosses,
+until she was visible from head to foot, and we could see her features
+and dress as if she had been surrounded by electricity.
+
+Two more cabinet spirits were a negro and negress, who appeared
+together, chanting some of their native hymns and melodies. When I saw
+these apparitions, I thought to myself: "Here is a good opportunity to
+discover trickery, if trickery there is." The pair were undoubtedly of
+the negro race. There was no mistaking their thick lips and noses and
+yellow-white eyes, nor their polished brown skins, which no charcoal can
+properly imitate. They were negroes without doubt; but how about the
+negro bouquet? Everyone who has mixed with colored people in the East or
+the West knows what that is, though it is very difficult to describe,
+being something like warm rancid oil mingled with the fumes of charcoal,
+with a little worse thrown in. "Now," I thought, "if these forms are
+human, there will be some odor attached to them, and that I am
+determined to find out." I caught, therefore, at the dress of the young
+woman as she passed, and asked her if she would kiss me. She left her
+companion directly, and put her arms (which were bare) round my neck,
+and embraced me several times; and I can declare, on my oath, that she
+was as completely free from anything like the smell of a colored woman
+as it was possible for her to be. She felt as fresh and sweet and pure
+as a little child.
+
+Many other forms appeared and were recognized by the circle, notably a
+very handsome one who called herself the Empress Josephine; but as they
+could not add a grain's weight to my testimony I pass them over. I had
+begun to think that "Florence" was not going to visit me that evening,
+when the conductor of the _seance_ asked if there was anybody in the
+room who answered to the name of "Bluebell." I must indulge in a little
+retrospect here, and tell my readers that ten years previous to the time
+I am writing of, I had lost my brother-in-law, Edward Church, under very
+painful circumstances. He had been left an orphan and in control of his
+fortune at a very early age, and had lived with my husband, Colonel
+Ross-Church, and myself. But poor "Ted" had been his own worst enemy. He
+had possessed a most generous heart and affectionate disposition, but
+these had led him into extravagances that swallowed up his fortune, and
+then he had taken to drinking and killed himself by it. I and my
+children had loved him dearly, but all our prayers and entreaties had
+had no avail, and in the end he had become so bad that the doctors had
+insisted upon our separation. Poor "Ted" had consequently died in exile,
+and this had been a further aggravation of our grief. For ten years I
+had been trying to procure communication with him in vain, and I had
+quite given up expecting to see him again. Only once had I heard
+"Bluebell" (his pet name for me) gasped out by an entranced clairvoyant,
+but nothing further had come of it. Now, as I heard it for the second
+time, from a stranger's lips in a foreign country, it naturally roused
+my expectations, but I thought it might be only a message for me from
+"Ted."
+
+"Is there anyone here who recognizes the name of 'Bluebell'?" repeated
+the conductor. "I was once called so by a friend," I said. "Someone is
+asking for that name. You had better come up to the cabinet," she
+replied. I rose at once and did as she told me, but when I reached the
+curtain I encountered "Florence." "My darling child," I said, as I
+embraced her, "why did you ask for 'Bluebell'?" She did not answer me,
+except by shaking her head, placing her finger on her lips, and
+pointing downwards to the carpet. I did not know what to make of it. I
+had never known her unable to articulate before. "What is the matter,
+dear?" I said; "can't you speak to me to-night?" Still she shook her
+head, and tapped my arm with her hand, to attract my attention to the
+fact that she was pointing vigorously downwards. I looked down, too,
+when, to my astonishment, I saw rise through the carpet what looked to
+me like the bald head of a baby or an old man, and a little figure, _not
+more than three feet in height_, with Edward Church's features, but no
+hair on its head, came gradually into view, and looked up in my face
+with a pitiful, deprecating expression, as if he were afraid I should
+strike him. The face, however, was so unmistakably Ted's, though the
+figure was so ludicrously insignificant, that I could not fail to
+recognize him. "Why, Ted!" I exclaimed, "have you come back to see me at
+last?" and held out my hand. The little figure seized it, tried to
+convey it to his lips, burst into tears, and sank down through the
+carpet much more rapidly than he had come up.
+
+I began to cry too. It was so pitiful. With her uncle's disappearance
+"Florence" found her tongue. "Don't cry, mother," she said; "poor Uncle
+Ted is overcome at seeing you. That's why he couldn't materialize
+better. He was in such a terrible hurry. He'll look more like himself
+next time. I was trying so hard to help him, I didn't dare to use up any
+of the power by speaking. He'll be so much better, now he's seen you.
+You'll come here again, won't you?" I told her I certainly would, if I
+could; and, indeed, I was all anxiety to see my poor brother-in-law
+again. To prove how difficult it would have been to deceive me on this
+subject, I should like to say a little about Edward Church's personal
+appearance. He was a very remarkable looking man--indeed, I have never
+seen anyone a bit like him before or after. He was very small; not short
+only, but small altogether, with tiny hands and feet, and a little head.
+His hair and eyes were of the deepest black--the former parted in the
+middle, with a curl on either side, and was naturally waved. His
+complexion was very dark, his features delicate, and he wore a small
+pointed moustache. As a child he had suffered from an attack of
+confluent small-pox, which had deeply pitted his face, and almost eaten
+away the tip of his nose. Such a man was not to be easily imitated, even
+if anyone in Boston had ever heard of his inconsequential existence. To
+me, though, he had been a dear friend and brother, before the curse of
+Drink had seemed to change his nature, and I had always been anxious to
+hear how he fared in that strange country whither he had been forced to
+journey, like all of us, _alone_. I was very pleased then to find that
+business would not interfere with my second visit to Mrs. Eva Hatch,
+which took place two nights afterward. On this occasion "Florence" was
+one of the first to appear, and "Ted" came with her, rather weak and
+trembling on his second introduction to this mundane sphere, but no
+longer bald-headed nor under-sized. He was his full height now, about
+five feet seven; his head was covered with his black crisp hair, parted
+just as he used to wear it while on earth; in every particular he
+resembled what he used to be, even down to his clothes. I could have
+sworn I had seen that very suit of clothes; the little cut-away coat he
+always wore, with the natty tie and collar, and a dark blue velvet
+smoking cap upon his head, exactly like one I remembered being in his
+possession. "Florence" still seemed to be acting as his interpreter and
+guide. When I said to him, "Why! Ted, you look quite like your old self
+to-day," she answered, "He can't talk to you, mamma, he is weak still,
+and he is so thankful to meet you again. He wants me to tell you that he
+has been trying to communicate with you often, but he never could manage
+it in England. He will be so glad when he can talk freely to you."
+Whilst she was speaking, "Ted" kept on looking from her to me like a
+deaf and dumb animal trying to understand what was going on in a manner
+that was truly pitiful. I stooped down and kissed his forehead. The
+touch seemed to break the spell that hung over him. "_Forgive_," he
+uttered in a choked voice. "There is nothing to forgive, dear," I
+replied, "except as we all have need to forgive each other. You know how
+we all loved you, Ted, and we loved you to the last and grieved for you
+deeply. You remember the children, and how fond you were of them and
+they of you. They often speak to this day of their poor Uncle Ted."
+"Eva--Ethel," he gasped out, naming my two elder children. At this
+juncture he seemed suddenly to fail, and became so weak that "Florence"
+took him back into the cabinet again. No more spirits came for me that
+evening, but towards the close of the _seance_ "Florence" and "Ted"
+appeared again together and embraced me fondly. "Florence" said, "He's
+so happy now, mother; he says he shall rest in peace now that he knows
+that you have forgiven him. And he won't come without his hair again,"
+she added, laughing. "I hope he won't," I answered, "for he frightened
+me." And then they both kissed me "good-night," and retreated to the
+cabinet, and I looked after them longingly and wished I could go there
+too.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+III. _The Misses Berry._
+
+
+No one introduced me to the Misses Berry. I saw their advertisement in
+the public papers and went incognita to their _seance_, as I had done to
+those of others. The first thing that struck me about them was the
+superior class of patrons whom they drew. In the ladies' cloak room,
+where they left their heavy wraps and umbrellas, the conversation that
+took place made this sufficiently evident. Helen and Gertrude Berry were
+pretty, unaffected, lady-like girls; and their conductor, Mr. Abrow, one
+of the most courteous gentlemen I have ever met. The sisters, both
+highly mediumistic, never sat together, but on alternate nights, but the
+one who did _not_ sit always took a place in the audience, in order to
+prevent suspicion attaching to her absence. Gertrude Berry had been
+lately married to a Mr. Thompson, and on account of her health gave up
+her _seances_, soon after I made her acquaintance She was a tall,
+finely-formed young woman, with golden hair and a beautiful complexion.
+Her sister Helen was smaller, paler and more slightly built. She had
+been engaged to be married to a gentleman who died shortly before the
+time fixed for their wedding, and his spirit, whom she called "Charley,"
+was the principal control at her _seances_, though he never showed
+himself. I found the _seance_ room, which was not very large, crammed
+with chairs which had all been engaged beforehand, so Mr. Abrow fetched
+one from downstairs and placed it next his own for me, which was the
+very position I should have chosen. I asked him afterwards how he dared
+admit a stranger to such close proximity, and he replied that he was a
+medium himself and knew who he could and who he could _not_ trust at a
+glance. As my professional duties took me backwards and forwards to
+Boston, which was my central starting-point, sometimes giving me only a
+day's rest there, I was in the habit afterwards, when I found I should
+have "a night off," of wiring to Mr. Abrow to keep me a seat, so
+difficult was it to secure one unless it were bespoken. Altogether I sat
+five or six times with the Berry sisters, and wished I could have sat
+fifty or sixty times instead, for I never enjoyed any _seances_ so
+_much_ in my life before. The cabinet was formed of an inner room with a
+separate door, which had to undergo the process of being sealed up by a
+committee of strangers every evening. Strips of gummed paper were
+provided for them, on which they wrote their names before affixing them
+across the inside opening of the door. On the first night I inspected
+the cabinet also as a matter of principle, and gummed my paper with
+"Mrs. Richardson" written on it across the door. The cabinet contained
+only a sofa for Miss Helen Berry to recline upon. The floor was covered
+with a nailed-down carpet. The door which led into the cabinet was
+shaded by two dark curtains hung with rings upon a brass rod. The door
+of the _seance_ room was situated at a right angle with that of the
+cabinet, both opening upon a square landing, and, to make "assurance
+doubly sure," the door of the _seance_ room was left open, so that the
+eyes of the sitters at that end commanded a view, during the entire
+sitting, of the outside of the locked and gummed-over cabinet door. To
+make this fully understood, I append a diagram of the two rooms--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+By the position of these doors, it will be seen how impossible it would
+have been for anybody to leave or enter the cabinet without being
+detected by the sitters, who had their faces turned towards the _seance_
+room door. The first materialization that appeared that evening was a
+bride, dressed in her bridal costume; and a gentleman, who was occupying
+a chair in the front row, and holding a white flower in his hand,
+immediately rose, went up to her, embraced her, and whispered a few
+words, then gave her the white flower, which she fastened in the bosom
+of her dress, after which he bowed slightly to the company, and, instead
+of resuming his seat, left the room. Mr. Abrow then said to me, "If you
+like, madam, you can take that seat now," and as the scene had excited
+my curiosity I accepted his offer, hoping to find some one to tell me
+the meaning of it. I found myself next to a very sweet-looking lady,
+whom I afterwards knew personally as Mrs. Seymour. "Can you tell me why
+that gentleman left so suddenly?" I asked her in a whisper. "He seldom
+stays through a _seance_," she replied; "he is a business man, and has
+no time to spare, but he is here every night. The lady you saw him speak
+to is his wife. She died on her wedding day, eleven years ago, and he
+has never failed to meet her on every opportunity since. He brings her a
+white flower every time he comes. She appears always first, in order
+that he may be able to return to his work." This story struck me as very
+interesting, and I always watched for this gentleman afterwards, and
+never failed to see him waiting for his bride, with the white flower in
+his hand. "Do you expect to see any friends to-night?" I said to my new
+acquaintance. "O! yes!" she replied. "I have come to see my daughter
+'Bell.' She died some years ago, and I am bringing up the two little
+children she left behind her. I never do anything for them without
+consulting their mother. Just now I have to change their nurse, and I
+have received several excellent characters of others, and I have brought
+them here this evening that 'Bell' may tell me which to write for. I
+have the pattern for the children's winter frocks, too," she continued,
+producing some squares of woolen cloths, "and I always like to let
+'Bell' choose which she likes best." This will give my readers some idea
+of how much more the American spiritualists regard their departed
+friends as still forming part of the home circle, and interested in
+their domestic affairs. "Bell" soon after made her appearance, and Mrs.
+Seymour brought her up to me. She was a young woman of about three or
+four and twenty, and looked very happy and smiling. She perused the
+servants' characters as practically as her mother might have done, but
+said she would have none of them, and Mrs. Seymour was to wait till she
+received some more. The right one had not come yet. She also looked at
+the patterns, and indicated the one she liked best. Then, as she was
+about to retire, she whispered to her mother, and Mrs. Seymour said, to
+my surprise (for it must be remembered I had not disclosed my name to
+her), "Bell tells me she knows a daughter of yours in the spirit life,
+called 'Florence.' Is that the case?" I answered I had a daughter of
+that name; and Mrs. Seymour added "'Bell' says she will be here this
+evening, that she is a very pure and very elevated spirit, and they are
+great friends." Very shortly after this, Mr. Abrow remarked, "There is a
+young girl in the cabinet now, who says that if her mother's name is
+'Mrs. Richardson,' she must have married for the third time since she
+saw her last, for she was 'Mrs. Lean' then." At this remark I laughed;
+and Mr. Abrow said, "Is she come for you, madam? Does the cap fit?" I
+was obliged to acknowledge then that I _had_ given a false name in order
+to avoid recognition. But the mention of my married name attracted no
+attention to me, and was only a proof that it had not been given from
+any previous knowledge of Mr. Abrow's concerning myself. I was known in
+the United States as "Florence Marryat" only, and to this day they
+believe me to be still "Mrs. Ross-Church," that being the name under
+which my first novels were written. So I recognized "Florence" at once
+in the trick that had been played me, and had risen to approach the
+curtain, when she came _bounding_ out and ran into my arms. I don't
+think I had ever seen her look so charming and girlish before. She
+looked like an embodiment of sunshine. She was dressed in a low frock
+which seemed manufactured of lace and muslin, her hair fell loose down
+her back to her knees, and her hands were full of damask roses. This was
+in December, when hot-house roses were selling for a dollar a piece in
+Boston, and she held, perhaps, twenty. Their scent was delicious, and
+she kept thrusting them under my nose, saying, "Smell my roses, mother.
+Don't you wish you had my garden? We have _fields_ of them in the Summer
+Land! O! how I wish you were there." "Shan't I come soon, darling?" I
+said. "No! not yet," replied "Florence." "You have a lot of work to do
+still. But when you come, it will be all flowers for you and me." I
+asked her if she knew "Bell," and she said, "O! yes! We came together
+this evening." Then I asked her to come and speak to "Bell's" mother,
+and her manner changed at once. She became shy and timid, like a young
+girl, unused to strangers, and quite hung on my arm, as I took her up to
+Mrs. Seymour's side. When she had spoken a few words to her in a very
+low voice, she turned to me and said, "I must go now, because we have a
+great surprise for you this evening--a _very_ great surprise." I told
+her I liked great surprises, when they were pleasant ones, and
+"Florence" laughed, and went away. I found that her _debut_ had created
+such a sensation amongst the sitters--it being so unusual for a
+materialized spirit to appear so strong and perfect on the first
+occasion of using a medium--that I felt compelled to give them a little
+explanation on the subject. And when I told them how I had lost her as a
+tiny infant of ten days old--how she had returned to me through various
+media in England, and given such unmistakable proofs of her
+_identity_--and how I, being a stranger in their country, and only
+landed there a few weeks, had already met her through Mrs. Williams,
+Mrs. Hatch and Miss Berry--they said it was one of the most wonderful
+and perfect instances of materialization they had ever heard of. And
+when one considers how perfect the chain is, from the time when
+"Florence" first came back to me as a child, too weak to speak, or even
+to understand where she was, to the years through which she had grown
+and became strong almost beneath my eyes, till she could "_bound_" (as I
+have narrated) into my arms like a human being, and talk as distinctly
+as (and far more sensible than) I did myself, I think my readers will
+acknowledge also, that hers is no common story, and that I have some
+reason to believe in Spiritualism.
+
+Miss Berry's cabinet spirits were quite different from the common type.
+One was, or rather had been, a dancing girl--not European, but rather
+more, I fancy, of the Asiatic or Egyptian type. Anyway she used to come
+out of the cabinet--a lithe lissom creature like a panther or a
+snake--and execute such twists and bounds and pirouettes, as would have
+made her fortune on the stage. Indeed I used to think (being always on
+the lookout for chicanery) that no _human_ creature who could dance
+as she did would ever waste her talents, especially in a smart country
+like America, on an audience of spiritualists, whose only motive for
+meeting was to see their friends, and who would not pay an extra cent to
+look at a "cabinet spirit." Another one was an Indian whom they called
+"The Brave." He was also a lithe, active creature, without an ounce of
+superfluous flesh upon his body, but plenty of muscle. He appeared to
+like the ladies of the company very much, but evidently distrusted the
+men. One stout, big man who was, I fancy, a bit of a sceptic, wished to
+test the "Brave's" muscular power by feeling his biceps, and was invited
+to step in front of the circle for that purpose. He had no sooner
+approached him than the Indian seized him up in his arms and threw him
+_right over his head_. He did not hurt him, but as the gentleman got up
+again, he said, "Well! I weigh 200 pounds, and I didn't think any man in
+the room could have done that." The ladies in the circle mostly wore
+flowers in their bosom--bouquets, after the custom of American
+ladies--and they began, one and all, to detach flowers from their
+bouquets and give them to the "Brave," "to give to his squaw." He nodded
+and gabbled some unintelligible Sioux or Cherokee in reply, and went all
+round the circle on his knees. The stout man had surmised that he was
+painted, and his long, straight, black hair was a wig. When he came to
+me I said, "Brave! may I try if your hair is a wig?" He nodded and said,
+"Pull--pull!" which I did, and found that it undoubtedly grew on his
+head. Then he took my finger and drew it across his face several times
+to show he was not painted. I had no flowers to present him with, so I
+said, "Come here, Brave, and I'll give you something for your squaw,"
+and when he approached near enough I kissed him. He chuckled, and his
+eyes sparkled with mischief as he ran chatting in his native dialect
+behind the curtains. In another minute he dashed out again, and coming
+up to me ejaculated, "No--give--squaw!" and rushed back. Mr. Abrow
+laughed heartily at this incident, and so did all the sitters, the
+former declaring I had entirely captivated the "Brave." Presently the
+cabinet curtains were shaken, and after a pause they parted slowly, and
+the figure of an Indian squaw crept out. Anything more malignant and
+vicious than her look I have seldom seen. Mr. Abrow asked her _who_ she
+wanted and _what_ she wanted, but she would not speak. She stood there
+silent, but scowling at me from beneath the tangles of her long black
+hair. At last Mr. Abrow said to her, "If you don't want to speak to
+anyone in the circle you must go away, as you are only preventing other
+spirits from coming." The squaw backed behind the curtains again rather
+sulkily, but the next time the "Brave" appeared she came with him, and
+_never_ did he come again in my presence but what his "squaw" stood at
+the curtains and watched his actions. Mrs. Abrow told me that the
+"Brave" had been in the habit of manifesting at their _seances_ for
+years, but that they had never seen the "squaw" until that evening.
+Indeed, I don't think they were very grateful to me for having by my
+rashness eliminated this new feature in their evening's entertainment,
+for the "squaw" proved to be a very earthly and undeveloped spirit, and
+subsequently gave them some trouble, as they could not drive her away
+when they wanted to do so. Towards the close of the evening Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a spirit here now who is very anxious to show himself,
+but it is the first time he has ever attempted to fully materialize, and
+he is not at all certain of success. He tells me there is a lady in the
+circle who has newly arrived in America, and that this lady years ago
+sang a song by his dying bed in India. If she will step up to the
+cabinet now and sing that song again he will try and shew himself to
+her."
+
+Such of my readers as have perused "The story of John Powles" will
+recognize at once who this was. I did, of course, and I confess that as
+I rose to approach the cabinet I trembled like an aspen leaf. I had
+tried so often, and failed so often to see this dear old friend of mine,
+that to think of meeting him now was like a veritable resurrection from
+the dead. Think of it! We had parted in 1860, and this was
+1884--twenty-four years afterwards. I had been a girl when we said
+"Good-bye," and he went forth on that journey which seemed then so
+mysterious an one to me. I was a middle-aged woman now, who had passed
+through so much from which _he_ had been saved, that I felt more like
+his mother than his friend. Of all my experiences this was to me really
+the most solemn and interesting. I hardly expected to see more than his
+face, but I walked up to the cabinet and commenced to sing in a very
+shaky voice the first stanza of the old song he was so fond of:--
+
+    "Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream,
+    And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream;
+    Oft I breathe thy dear name to the winds passing by,
+    But thy sweet voice is mute to my bosom's lone sigh.
+    In the stillness of night when the stars mildly shine,
+    O! then oft my heart holds communion with thine,
+    For I feel thou art near, and where'er I may be,
+    That the Spirit of Love keeps a watch over me."
+
+I had scarcely reached the finish of these lines when both the curtains
+of the cabinet were drawn apart so sharply that the brass rings rattled
+on the rod, and John Powles stood before me. Not a face, nor a
+half-formed figure, nor an apparition that was afraid to pass into the
+light--but _John Powles himself_, stalwart and living, who stepped out
+briskly and took me in his arms and kissed me four or five times, as a
+long-parted brother might have done; and strange to say, I didn't feel
+the least surprised at it, but clung to him like a sister. For John
+Powles had never once kissed me during his lifetime. Although we had
+lived for four years in the closest intimacy, often under the same roof,
+we had never indulged in any familiarities. I think men and women were
+not so lax in their manners then as they are now; at anyrate, the only
+time I had ever kissed him was when he lay dead, and my husband had told
+me to do so. And yet it seemed quite natural on meeting him again to
+kiss him and cry over him. At last I ventured to say, "O, Powles! is
+this really you?" "Look at me and see for yourself," he answered. I
+looked up. It was indeed himself. He had possessed _very_ blue eyes in
+earth life, good features, a florid complexion, auburn hair, and quite a
+golden beard and moustache. The eyes and hair and features were just the
+same, only his complexion was paler, and he wore no beard. "O!" I
+exclaimed, "where is your beard?" "Don't you remember I cut it off just
+before I left this world?" he said; and then I recalled the fact that he
+had done so owing to a Government order on the subject.
+
+And bearing on this question I may mention what seems a curious
+thing--that spirits almost invariably return to earth the first time
+_just as they left it_, as though their thoughts at the moment of
+parting clothed them on their return. This, however, was not John
+Powles' first _attempt_ at materialization, although it was his first
+success, for it may be remembered he tried to show himself through Miss
+Showers, and then he _had_ a beard. However, when I saw him through Miss
+Berry, he had none, nor did he resume it during my stay in America. When
+we had got over the excitement of meeting, he began to speak to me of my
+children, especially of the three who were born before his death, and of
+whom he had been very fond. He spoke of them all by name, and seemed
+quite interested in their prospects and affairs. But when I began to
+speak of other things he stopped me. "I know it all," he said, "I have
+been with you in spirit through all your trials, and I can never feel
+the slightest interest in, or affection for, those who caused them. My
+poor friend, you have indeed had your purgatory upon earth." "But tell
+me of yourself, dear Powles! Are you quite happy?" I asked him. He
+paused a moment and then replied, "Quite happy, waiting for you."
+"Surely you are not suffering still?" I said, "after all these years?"
+"My dear Florence," he answered, "it takes more than a few years to
+expiate a life of sin. But I am happier than I was, and every year the
+burden is lighter, and coming back to you will help me so much."
+
+As he was speaking to me the curtain opened again, and there stood my
+brother-in-law, Edward Church, not looking down-spirited and miserable,
+as he had done at Mrs. Eva Hatch's, but bright and smiling, and dressed
+in evening clothes, as also I perceived, when I had time to think of it,
+was John Powles. I didn't know which to talk to first, but kept turning
+from one to the other in a dazed manner. John Powles was telling me that
+_he_ was preparing my house for me in the Summer Land, and would come to
+take me over to it when I died, when "Ted" interrupted him. "That ought
+to have been _my_ work, Bluebell," he said, "only Powles had anticipated
+me." "I wish I could go back with you both at once, I am sick of this
+world," I replied. "Ted" threw his arms round me and strained me to his
+breast. "O! it is so hard to part again. How I wish I could carry you
+away in my arms to the Summer Land! I should have nothing left to wish
+for then." "You don't want to come back then, Ted?" I asked him. "_Want
+to come back_," he said with a shudder; "not for anything! Why,
+Bluebell, death is like an operation which you must inevitably undergo,
+but which you fear because you know so little about it. Well, with me
+_the operation's over_. I know the worst, and every day makes the term
+of punishment shorter. I am _thankful_ I left the earth so soon." "You
+look just like your old self, Ted," I said; "the same little curls and
+scrubby little moustache." "Pull them," he answered gaily. "Don't go
+away, Bluebell, and say they were false and I was Miss Berry dressed up.
+Feel my biceps," he continued, throwing up his arm as men do, "and feel
+my heart," placing my hand above it, "feel how it is beating for my
+sister Bluebell."
+
+I said to John Powles, "I hardly know you in evening costume. I never
+saw you in it before" (which was true, as all our acquaintance had taken
+place in India, where the officers are never allowed to appear in
+anything but uniform, especially in the evenings). "I wish," I
+continued, "that you would come next time in uniform." "I will try," he
+replied, and then their time was up for that occasion, and they were
+obliged to go.
+
+A comical thing occurred on my second visit to the Berrys. Of course I
+was all eagerness to see my brother-in-law and "Powles" again, and when
+I was called up to the cabinet and saw a slim, dark, young man standing
+there, I took him at once for "Ted," and, without looking at him, was
+just about to kiss him, when he drew backwards and said, "I am not
+'Edward!' I am his friend 'Joseph,' to whom he has given permission to
+make your acquaintance." I then perceived that "Joseph" was very
+different from "Ted," taller and better looking, with a Jewish cast of
+countenance. I stammered and apologized, and felt as awkward as if I had
+nearly kissed a mortal man by mistake. "Joseph" smiled as if it were of
+very little consequence. He said he had never met "Ted" on earth, but
+they were close friends in the spirit world, and "Ted" had talked so
+much to him of me, that he had become very anxious to see me, and speak
+to me. He was a very elegant looking young man, but he did not seem to
+have very much to say for himself, and he gave me the impression that he
+had been a "masher" whilst here below, and had not quite shaken off the
+remembrance in the spirit world.
+
+There was one spirit who often made her appearance at these sittings and
+greatly interested me. This was a mother with her infant of a few weeks
+old. The lady was sweet and gentle looking, but it was the baby that so
+impressed me--a baby that never whined nor squalled, nor turned red in
+the face, and yet was made of neither wax nor wood, but was palpably
+living and breathing. I used always to go up to the cabinet when this
+spirit came, and ask her to let me feel the little baby. It was a tiny
+creature, with a waxen-looking face, and she always carried it enveloped
+in a full net veil, yet when I touched its hand, the little fingers
+tightened round mine in baby fashion, as it tried to convey them to its
+mouth. I had seen several spirit children materialized before, but never
+such a young infant as this. The mother told me she had passed away in
+child-birth, and the baby had gone with her. She had been a friend of
+the Misses Berry, and came to them for that reason.
+
+On Christmas Eve I happened to be in Boston, and disengaged, and as I
+found it was a custom of the American Spiritualists to hold meetings on
+that anniversary for the purpose of seeing their spirit friends, I
+engaged a seat for the occasion. I arrived some time before the _seance_
+commenced, and next to me was seated a gentleman, rather roughly
+dressed, who was eyeing everything about him with the greatest
+attention. Presently he turned to me and said, rather sheepishly, "Do
+you believe in this sort of thing?" "I do," I replied, "and I have
+believed in it for the last fifteen years." "Have you ever seen anybody
+whom you recognized?" he continued. "Plenty," I said. Then he edged a
+little nearer to me, and lowered his voice. "Do you know," he commenced,
+"that I have ridden on horseback forty miles through the snow to-day to
+be present at this meeting, because my old mother sent me a message that
+she would meet me here! I don't believe in it, you know. I've never been
+at a _seance_ before, and I feel as if I was making a great fool of
+myself now, but I couldn't neglect my poor old mother's message,
+whatever came of it." "Of course not," I answered, "and I hope your
+trouble will be rewarded." I had not much faith in my own words, though,
+because I had seen people disappointed again and again over their first
+_seance_, from either the spirits of their friends being too weak to
+materialize, or from too many trying to draw power at once, and so
+neutralizing the effect on all. My bridegroom friend was all ready on
+that occasion with his white flowers in his hand and I ventured to
+address him and tell him how very beautiful I considered his wife's
+fidelity and his own. He seemed pleased at my notice, and began to talk
+quite freely about her. He told me she had returned to him before her
+body was buried, and had been with him ever since. "She is so really and
+truly _my wife_," he said, "as I received her at the altar, that I could
+no more marry again than I could if she were living in my house." When
+the _seance_ commenced she appeared first as usual, and her husband
+brought her up to my side. "This is Miss Florence Marryat, dear," he
+said (for by this time I had laid aside my _incognita_ with the Berrys).
+"You know her name, don't you?" "O! yes," she answered, as she gave me
+her hand, "I know you quite well. I used to read your books." Her face
+was covered with her bridal veil, and her husband turned it back that I
+might see her. She was a very pretty girl of perhaps twenty--quite a
+gipsy, with large dark eyes and dark curling hair, and a brown
+complexion. "She has not altered one bit since the day we were married,"
+said her husband, looking fondly at her, "whilst I have grown into an
+old man." She put up her hand and stroked his cheek. "We shall be young
+together some day," she said. Then he asked her if she was not going to
+kiss me, and she held up her face to mine like a child, and he dropped
+the veil over her again and led her away. The very next spirit that
+appeared was my rough friend's mother, and his astonishment and emotion
+at seeing her were very unmistakeable. When first he went up to the
+cabinet and saw her his head drooped, and his shoulders shook with the
+sobs he could not repress. After a while he became calmer, and talked to
+her, and then I saw him also bringing her up to me. "I must bring my
+mother to you," he said, "that you may see she has really come back to
+me." I rose, and the old lady shook hands with me. She must have been,
+at the least, seventy years old, and was a most perfect specimen of old
+age. Her face was like wax, and her hair like silver; but every wrinkle
+was distinct, and her hands were lined with blue veins. She had lost her
+teeth, and mumbled somewhat in speaking, and her son said, "She is
+afraid you will not understand what she says; but she wants you to know
+that she will be quite happy if her return will make me believe in a
+future existence." "And will it?" I asked. He looked at his mother. "I
+don't understand it," he replied. "It seems too marvellous to be true;
+but how _can_ I disbelieve it, when _here she is_?" And his words were
+so much the echo of my own grounds for belief, that I quite sympathized
+with them. "John Powles," and "Ted," and "Florence," all came to see me
+that evening; and when I bid "Florence" "good-bye" she said, "Oh, it
+isn't 'good-bye' yet, mother! I'm coming again, before you go."
+Presently something that was the very farthest thing from my mind--that
+had, indeed, never entered it--happened to me. I was told that a young
+lady wanted to speak to me, and on going up to the cabinet I recognized
+a girl whom _I knew by sight, but had never spoken to_--one of a large
+family of children, living in the same terrace in London as myself, and
+who had died of malignant scarlet fever about a year before. "Mrs.
+Lean," she said, hurriedly, noting my surprise, "don't you know me? I am
+May ----." "Yes, I do recognize you, my dear child," I replied; "but
+what makes you come to me?" "Minnie and Katie are so unhappy about me,"
+she said. "They do not understand. They think I have gone away. They do
+not know what death is--that it is only like going into the next room,
+and shutting the door." "And what can I do, May?" I asked her. "Tell
+them you have seen me, Mrs. Lean. Say I am alive--more alive than they
+are; that if they sit for me, I will come to them and tell them so much
+they know nothing of now." "But where are your sisters?" I said. She
+looked puzzled. "I don't know. I can't say the place; but you will meet
+them soon, and you will tell them." "If I meet them, I certainly will
+tell them," I said; but I had not the least idea at that moment where
+the other girls might be. Four months later, however, when I was staying
+in London, Ontario, they burst unexpectedly into my hotel room, having
+driven over (I forget how many miles) to see me play. Naturally I kept
+my promise; but though they cried when "May" was alluded to, they
+evidently could not believe my story of having seen her, and so, I
+suppose, the poor little girl's wish remains ungratified. I think the
+worst purgatory in the next world must be to find how comfortably our
+friends get on without us in this. As a rule, I did not take much
+interest in the spirits that did not come for me; but there was one who
+appeared several times with the Berrys, and seemed quite like an old
+friend to me. This was "John Brown," not her Majesty's "John Brown," but
+the hero of the song--
+
+    "Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree,
+    But his soul goes touting around.
+    Glory! glory! Halleluia!
+    For his soul goes touting around."
+
+When I used to hear this song sung with much shouting and some profanity
+in England, I imagined (and I fancy most people did) that it was a comic
+song in America. But it was no such thing. It was a patriotic song, and
+the motive is (however comically put) to give glory to God, that,
+_although_ they may hang "John Brown" on a sour apple tree, his soul
+will yet "go touting around." So, rightly or wrongly, it was explained
+to me. "John Brown" is a patriotic hero in America, and when he
+appeared, the whole room crowded round to see him. He was a short man,
+with a _singularly_ benevolent countenance, iron grey hair, mutton-chop
+whiskers, and deep china blue eyes. A kind of man, as he appeared to me,
+made for deeds of love rather than heroism, but from all accounts he was
+both kind and heroic. A gentleman present on Christmas eve pushed
+forward eagerly to see the materialization, and called out, "Aye! that's
+him--that's my old friend--that's 'John Brown'--the best man that ever
+trod this earth." Before this evening's _seance_ was concluded Mr. Abrow
+said, "There is a little lady in the cabinet at present who announces
+herself as a very high personage. She says she is the 'Princess
+Gertrude.'" "_What_ did you say, Mr. Abrow?" I exclaimed, unable to
+believe my own ears. "'The Princess Gertie,' mother," said "Florence,"
+popping her head out of the curtains. "You've met her before in England,
+you know." I went up to the cabinet, the curtains divided, there stood
+my daughter "Florence" as usual, but holding in front of her a little
+child of about seven years old. I knelt down before this spirit of my
+own creation. She was a fragile-looking little creature, very fair and
+pale, with large grey eyes and brown hair lying over her forehead. She
+looked like a lily with her little white hands folded meekly in front of
+her. "Are you my little Gertie, darling?" I said. "I am the 'Princess
+Gertie,'" she replied, "and 'Florence' says you are my mother." "And are
+you glad to see me, Gertie?" I asked. She looked up at her sister, who
+immediately prompted her. "Say, 'yes, mother,' Gertie." "Yes! mother,"
+repeated the little one, like a parrot. "Will you come to me, darling?"
+I said. "May I take you in my arms?" "Not this evening, mother,"
+whispered 'Florence,' "you couldn't. She is attached to me. We are tied
+together. You couldn't separate us. Next time, perhaps, the 'Princess'
+will be stronger, and able to talk more. I will take her back now." "But
+where is 'Yonnie'?" I asked, and "Florence" laughed. "Couldn't manage
+two of them at once," she said. "'Yonnie' shall come another day," and I
+returned to my seat, more mystified than usual.
+
+I alluded to the "Princess Gertie" in my account of the mediumship of
+Bessie Fitzgerald, and said that my allusion would find its
+signification further on. At that time I had hardly believed it could be
+true that the infants who had been born prematurely and never breathed
+in this world should be living, sentient spirits to meet me in the next,
+and half thought some grown spirit must be tricking me for its own
+pleasure. But here, in this strange land, where my blighted babies had
+never been mentioned or thought of, to meet the "Princess Gertie" here,
+calling herself by her own name, and brought by her sister "Florence,"
+set the matter beyond a doubt. It recalled to my mind how once, long
+before, when "Aimee" (Mr. Arthur Colman's guide), on being questioned as
+to her occupation in the spirit spheres, had said she was "a little
+nurse maid," and that "Florence" was one too, my daughter had added,
+"Yes! I'm mamma's nurse maid. I have enough to do to look after her
+babies. She just looked at me, and 'tossed' me back into the spirit
+world, and she's been 'tossing' babies after me ever since."
+
+I had struck up a pleasant acquaintanceship with Mrs. Seymour, "Bell's"
+mother, by that time, and when I went back to my seat and told her what
+had occurred, she said to me, "I wish you would share the expenses of a
+private _seance_ with me here. We can have one all to ourselves for ten
+dollars (two pounds), and it would be so charming to have an afternoon
+quite alone with our children and friends." I agreed readily, and we
+made arrangements with Mr. Abrow before we left that evening, to have a
+private sitting on the afternoon following Christmas Day, when no one
+was to be admitted except our two selves. When we met there the _seance_
+room was lighted with gas as for the evening, but we preferred to close
+the door. Helen Berry was the medium, and Mr. Abrow only sat with us.
+The rows of chairs looked very empty without any sitters, but we
+established ourselves on those which faced the cabinet in the front row.
+The first thing which happened was the advent of the "Squaw," looking as
+malignant and vicious as ever, who crept in in her dirty blanket, with
+her black hair hanging over her face, and deliberately took a seat at
+the further end of the room. Mr. Abrow was unmistakably annoyed at the
+occurrence. He particularly disliked the influence of this spirit, which
+he considered had a bad effect on the _seance_. He first asked her why
+she had come, and told her her "Brave" was not coming, and to go back to
+him. Then he tried severity, and ordered her to leave the _seance_, but
+it was all in vain. She kept her seat with persistent obstinacy, and
+showed no signs of "budging." I thought I would try what kindness would
+do for her, and approached her with that intention, but she looked so
+fierce and threatening, that Mr. Abrow begged me not to go near her, for
+fear she should do me some harm. So I left her alone, and she kept her
+seat through the whole of the _seance_, evidently with an eye upon me,
+and distrusting my behavior when removed from the criticism of the
+public. Her presence, however, seemed to make no difference to our
+spirit friends. They trooped out of the cabinet one after another, until
+we had Mrs. Seymour's brother and her daughter "Bell," who brought
+little "Jimmie" (a little son who had gone home before herself) with
+her, and "Florence," "Ted," and "John Powles," all so happy and strong
+and talkative, that I told Mrs. Seymour we only wanted a tea-table to
+think we were holding an "At Home." Last, but not least (at all events
+in her own estimation) came the "Princess Gertie." Mr. Abrow tried to
+make friends with her, but she repulsed his advances vehemently. "I
+don't like you, Mr. Mans," she kept on saying, "you's nasty. I don't
+like any mans. They's _all_ nasty." When I told her she was very rude,
+and Mr. Abrow was a very kind gentleman and loved little children, she
+still persisted she wouldn't speak "to no mans." She came quite alone
+on this occasion, and I took her in my arms and carried her across to
+Mrs. Seymour. She was a feather weight. I felt as if I had nothing in my
+arms. I said to Mrs. Seymour, "Please tell me what this child is like. I
+am so afraid of my senses deceiving me that I cannot trust myself." Mrs.
+Seymour looked at her and answered, "She has a broad forehead, with dark
+brown hair cut across it, and falling straight to her shoulders on
+either side. Her eyes are a greyish blue, large and heavy lidded, her
+nose is short, and her mouth decided for such a child."
+
+This testimony, given by a stranger, of the apparition of a child that
+had never lived, was an exact description (of course in embryo) of her
+father, Colonel Lean, who had never set foot in America. Perhaps this is
+as good a proof of identity as I have given yet. Our private _seance_
+lasted for two hours, and although the different spirits kept on
+entering the cabinet at intervals to gain more power, they were all with
+us on and off during the entire time. The last pleasant thing I saw was
+my dear "Florence" making the "Princess" kiss her hand in farewell to
+me, and the only unpleasant one, the sight of the sulky "Squaw" creeping
+in after them with the evident conviction that her afternoon had been
+wasted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IV. _The Doctor._
+
+
+I wonder if it has struck any of my readers as strange that, during all
+these manifestations in England and America, I had never seen the form,
+nor heard the voice, of my late father, Captain Marryat. Surely if these
+various media lived by trickery and falsehood, and wished successfully
+to deceive me, _some_ of them would have thought of trying to represent
+a man so well known, and whose appearance was so familiar. Other
+celebrated men and women have come back and been recognized from their
+portraits only, but, though I have sat at numbers of _seances_ given
+_for me_ alone, and at which I have been the principal person, my father
+has never reappeared at any. Especially, if these manifestations are all
+fraud, might this have been expected in America. Captain Marryat's name
+is still "a household word" amongst the Americans, and his works largely
+read and appreciated, and wherever I appeared amongst them I was
+cordially welcomed on that account. When once I had acknowledged my
+identity and my views on Spiritualism, every medium in Boston and New
+York had ample time to get up an imitation of my father for my benefit
+had they desired to do so. But never has he appeared to me; never have I
+been told that he was present. Twice only in the whole course of my
+experience have I received the slightest sign from him, and on those
+occasions he sent me a message--once through Mr. Fletcher (as I have
+related), and once through his grandson and my son, Frank Marryat. That
+time he told me he should never appear to me and I need never expect
+him. But since the American media knew nothing of this strictly private
+communication, and I had seen, before I parted with them, _seventeen_ of
+my friends and relations, none of whom (except "Florence," "Powles," and
+"Emily,") I had ever seen in England, it is at the least strange,
+considering his popularity (and granted their chicanery) that Captain
+Marryat was not amongst them.
+
+As soon as I became known at the Berry's _seances_ several people
+introduced themselves to me, and amongst others Mrs. Isabella Beecher
+Hooker, the sister of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.
+She was delighted to find me so interested in Spiritualism, and anxious
+I should sit with a friend of hers, a great medium whose name became so
+rubbed out in my pencil notes, that I am not sure if it was Doctor
+Carter, or Carteret, and therefore I shall speak of him here as simply
+"the doctor." The doctor was bound to start for Washington the following
+afternoon, so Mrs. Hooker asked me to breakfast with her the next
+morning, by which time she would have found out if he could spare us an
+hour before he set out on his journey. When I arrived at her house I
+heard that he had very obligingly offered to give me a complimentary
+_seance_ at eleven o'clock, so, as soon as we had finished breakfast, we
+set out for his abode. I found the doctor was quite a young man, and
+professed himself perfectly ignorant on the subject of Spiritualism. He
+said to me, "I don't know and I don't profess to know _what_ or _who_ it
+is that appears to my sitters whilst I am asleep. I know nothing of what
+goes on, except from hearsay. I don't know whether the forms that appear
+are spirits, or transformations, or materializations. You must judge of
+that for yourself. There is one peculiarity in my _seances_. They take
+place in utter darkness. When the apparitions (or whatever you choose to
+call them) appear, they must bring their own lights or you won't see
+them, I have no conductor to my _seances_. If whatever comes can't
+announce itself it must remain unknown. But I think you will find that,
+as a rule, they can shift for themselves. This is my _seance_ room."
+
+As he spoke he led us into an unfurnished bedroom, I say bedroom,
+because it was provided with the dressing closet fitted with pegs, usual
+to all bedrooms in America. This closet the doctor used as his cabinet.
+The door was left open, and there was no curtain hung before it. The
+darkness he sat in rendered that unnecessary. The bedroom was darkened
+by two frames, covered with black American cloth, which fitted into the
+windows. The doctor, having locked the bedroom door, delivered the key
+to me. He then requested us to go and sit for a few minutes in the
+cabinet to throw our influence about it. As we did so we naturally
+examined it. It was only a large cupboard. It had no window and no door,
+except that which led into the room, and no furniture except a
+cane-bottomed chair. When we returned to the _seance_ room, the doctor
+saw us comfortably established on two armchairs before he put up the
+black frames to exclude the light. The room was then pitch dark, and the
+doctor had to grope his way to his cabinet. Mrs. Hooker and I sat for
+some minutes in silent expectation. Then we heard the voice of a
+negress, singing "darkey" songs, and my friend told me it was that of
+"Rosa," the doctor's control. Presently "Rosa" was heard to be
+expostulating with, or encouraging some one, and faint lights, like
+sparks from a fire, could be seen flitting about the open door of the
+cabinet. Then the lights seemed to congregate together, and cluster
+about a tall form, draped in some misty material, standing just outside
+the cabinet. "Can't you tell us who you are?" asked Mrs. Hooker. "You
+must tell your name, you know," interposed "Rosa," whereupon a low voice
+said, "I am Janet E. Powles."
+
+Now this was an extraordinary coincidence. I had seen Mrs. Powles, the
+mother of my friend "John Powles," only once--when she travelled from
+Liverpool to London to meet me on my return from India, and hear all the
+particulars of her son's death. But she had continued to correspond with
+me, and show me kindness till the day of her own death, and as she had a
+daughter of the same name, she always signed herself "Janet _E._
+Powles." Even had I expected to see the old lady, and published the fact
+in the Boston papers, that initial _E_ would have settled the question
+of her identity in my mind.
+
+"Mrs. Powles," I exclaimed, "how good of you to come and see me."
+"Johnny has helped me to come," she replied. "He is so happy at having
+met you again. He has been longing for it for so many years, and I have
+come to thank you for making him happy." (Here was another coincidence.
+"John Powles" was never called anything but "Powles" by my husband and
+myself. But his mother had retained the childish name of "Johnny," and I
+could remember how it used to vex him when she used it in her letters to
+him. He would say to me, "If she would only call me 'John' or 'Jack,' or
+anything but 'Johnny.'") I replied, "I may not leave my seat to go to
+you. Will you not come to me?" For the doctor had requested us not to
+leave our seats, but to insist on the spirits approaching us. "Mrs.
+Powles" said, "I cannot come out further into the room to-day. I am too
+weak. But you shall see me." The lights then appeared to travel about
+her face and dress till they became stationary, and she was completely
+revealed to view under the semblance of her earthly likeness. She smiled
+and said, "We were all at the Opera House on Thursday night, and
+rejoiced at your success. 'Johnny' was so proud of you. Many of your
+friends were there beside ourselves."
+
+I then saw that, unlike the spirits at Miss Berry's, the form of "Mrs.
+Powles" was draped in a kind of filmy white, _over_ a dark dress. All
+the spirits that appeared with the doctor were so clothed, and I
+wondered if the filmy substance had anything to do with the lights,
+which looked like electricity. An incident which occurred further on
+seemed to confirm my idea. When "Mrs. Powles" had gone, which we guessed
+by the extinguishing of the lights, the handsome face and form of "Harry
+Montagu" appeared. I had known him well in England, before he took his
+fatal journey to America, and could never be mistaken in his sweet smile
+and fascinating manner. He did not come further than the door, either,
+but he was standing within twelve or fourteen feet of us for all that.
+He only said, "Good-luck to you. We can't lose an interest in the old
+profession, you know, any more than in the old people." "I wish you'd
+come and help me, Harry," I answered. "Oh, I do!" he said, brightly;
+"several of us do. We are all links of the same chain. Half the
+inspiration in the world comes from those who have gone before. But I
+must go! I'm getting crowded out. Here's Ada waiting to see you.
+Good-bye!" And as his light went out, the sweet face of Adelaide Neilson
+appeared in his stead. She said, "You wept when you heard of my death;
+and yet you never knew me. How was that?" "Did I weep?" I answered, half
+forgetting; "if so, it must have been because I thought it so sad that a
+woman so young, and beautiful, and gifted as you were, should leave the
+world so soon." "Oh no! not sad," she answered, brightly; "glorious!
+glorious! I would not be back again for worlds." "Have you ever seen
+your grave?" I asked her. She shook her head. "What are _graves_ to us?
+Only cupboards, where you keep our cast-off clothes." "You don't ask me
+what the world says about you, now," I said to her. "And I don't care,"
+she answered. "Don't _you_ forget me! Good-bye!"
+
+She was succeeded by a spirit who called herself "Charlotte Cushman,"
+and who spoke to me kindly about my professional life. Mrs. Hooker told
+me that, to the best of her knowledge, none of these three spirits had
+ever appeared under the doctor's mediumship before. But now came out
+"Florence," dancing into the room--_literally dancing_, holding out in
+both hands the skirt of a dress, which looked as if it were made of the
+finest muslin or lace, and up and down which fireflys were darting with
+marvellous rapidity. She looked as if clothed in electricity, and
+infinitely well pleased with herself. "Look!" she exclaimed; "look at my
+dress! isn't it lovely? Look at the fire! The more I shake it, the more
+fire comes! Oh, mother! if you could only have a dress like this for the
+stage, what a _sensation_ you would make!" And she shook her skirts
+about, till the fire seemed to set a light to every part of her drapery,
+and she looked as if she were in flames. I observed, "I never knew you
+to take so much interest in your dress before, darling." "Oh, it isn't
+the dress," she replied; "it's the _fire_!" And she really appeared as
+charmed with the novel experience as a child with a new toy.
+
+As she left us, a dark figure advanced into the room, and ejaculated,
+"Ma! ma!" I recognized at once the peculiar intonation and mode of
+address of my stepson, Francis Lean, with whom, since he had announced
+his own death to me, I had had no communication, except through trance
+mediumship. "Is that you, my poor boy," I said, "come closer to me. You
+are not afraid of me, are you?" "O, no! Ma! of course not, only I was at
+the Opera House, you know, with the others, and that piece you recited,
+Ma--you know the one--it's all true, Ma--and I don't want you to go back
+to England. Stay here, Ma--stay here!" I knew perfectly well to what the
+lad alluded, but I would not enter upon it before a stranger. So I only
+said, "You forget my children, Francis--what would they say if I never
+went home again." This seemed to puzzle him, but after a while he
+answered, "Then go to _them_, Ma; go to _them_." All this time he had
+been talking in the dark, and I only knew him by the sound of his voice.
+I said, "Are you not going to show yourself to me, Francis. It is such a
+long time since we met." "Never since you saw me at the docks. That was
+_me_, Ma, and at Brighton, too, only you didn't half believe it till you
+heard I was gone." "Tell me the truth of the accident, Francis," I asked
+him. "Was there foul play?" "No," he replied, "but we got quarrelling
+about _her_ you know, and fighting, and that's how the boat upset. It
+was _my_ fault, Ma, as much as anybody else's."
+
+"How was it your body was never found?" "It got dragged down in an
+undercurrent, Ma. It was out at Cape Horn before they offered a reward
+for it." Then he began to light up, and as soon as the figure was
+illuminated I saw that the boy was dressed in "jumpers" and "jersey" of
+dark woollen material, such as they wear in the merchant service in hot
+climates, but over it all--his head and shoulders included--was wound a
+quantity of flimsy white material I have before mentioned. "I can't bear
+this stuff. It makes me look like a girl," said "Francis," and with his
+hands he tore it off. Simultaneously the illumination ceased, and he was
+gone. I called him by name several times, but no sound came out of the
+darkness. It seemed as though the veiling which he disliked preserved
+his materialization, and that, with its protection removed, he had
+dissolved again.
+
+When another dark figure came out of the cabinet, and approaching me,
+knelt at my feet, I supposed it to be "Francis" come back again, and
+laying my hand on the bent head, I asked, "Is this you again, dear?" A
+strange voice answered, with the words, "Forgive! forgive!" "_Forgive!_"
+I repeated, "What have I to forgive?" "The attempt to murder your
+husband in 1856. Arthur Yelverton Brooking has forgiven. He is here with
+me now. Will you forgive too?" "Certainly," I replied, "I have forgiven
+long ago. You expiated your sin upon the gallows. You could do no more."
+
+The figure sprung into a standing position, and lit up from head to
+foot, when I saw the two men standing together, Arthur Yelverton
+Brooking and the Madras sepoy who had murdered him. I never saw anything
+more brilliant than the appearance of the sepoy. He was dressed
+completely in white, in the native costume, with a white "puggree" or
+turban on his head. But his "puggree" was flashing with jewels--strings
+of them were hung round his neck--and his sash held a magnificent
+jewelled dagger. You must please to remember that I was not alone, but
+that this sight was beheld by Mrs. Hooker as well as myself (to whom it
+was as unexpected as to her), and that I know she would testify to it
+to-day. And now to explain the reason of these unlooked-for apparitions.
+
+In 1856 my husband, then Lieutenant Ross-Church, was Adjutant of the
+12th Madras Native Infantry, and Arthur Yelverton Brooking, who had for
+some time done duty with the 12th, was adjutant of another native corps,
+both of which were stationed at Madras. Lieutenant Church was not a
+favorite with his men, by whom he was considered a martinet, and one day
+when there had been a review on the island at Madras, and the two
+adjutants were riding home together, a sepoy of the 12th fired at
+Lieutenant Church's back with the intent to kill him, but unfortunately
+the bullet struck Lieutenant Brooking instead, who, after lingering for
+twelve hours, died, leaving a young wife and a baby behind him. For this
+offence the sepoy was tried and hung, and on his trial the whole truth
+of course came out. This then was the reason that the spirits of the
+murdered and the murderer came like friends, because the injury had
+never been really intended for Brooking.
+
+When I said that I had forgiven, the sepoy became (as I have told) a
+blaze of light, and then knelt again and kissed the hem of my dress. As
+he knelt there he became covered, or heaped over, with a mass of the
+same filmy drapery as enveloped "Francis," and when he rose again he was
+standing in a cloud. He gathered an end of it, and laying it on my head
+he wound me and himself round and round with it, until we were bound up
+in a kind of cocoon. Mrs. Hooker, who watched the whole proceeding, told
+me afterwards that she had never seen anything like it before--that she
+could distinctly see the dark face and the white face close together all
+the time beneath the drapery, and that I was as brightly illuminated as
+the spirit. Of this I was not aware myself, but _his_ brightness almost
+dazzled me.
+
+Let me observe also that I have been in the East Indies, and within a
+few yards' length of sepoys, and that I am sure I could never have been
+wrapt in the same cloth with a mortal one without having been made
+painfully aware of it in more ways than one. The spirit did not _unwind_
+me again, although the winding process had taken him some time. He
+whisked off the wrapping with one pull, and I stood alone once more. I
+asked him by what name I should call him, and he said, "The Spirit of
+Light." He then expressed a wish to magnetize something I wore, so as to
+be the better able to approach me. I gave him a brooch containing "John
+Powles'" hair, which his mother had given me after his death, and he
+carried it back into the cabinet with him. It was a valuable brooch of
+onyx and pearls, and I was hoping my eastern friend would not carry it
+_too_ far, when I found it had been replaced and fastened at my throat
+without my being aware of the circumstance. "Arthur Yelverton Brooking"
+had disappeared before this, and neither of them came back again. These
+were not all the spirits that came under the doctor's mediumship during
+that _seance_, but only those whom I had known and recognized. Several
+of Mrs. Hooker's friends appeared and some of the doctor's controls, but
+as I have said before, they could not help my narrative, and so I omit
+to describe them. The _seance_ lasted altogether two hours, and I was
+very grateful to the doctor for giving me the opportunity to study an
+entirely new phase of the science to me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+V. _Mrs. Fay._
+
+
+There was a young woman called "Annie Eva Fay," who came over from
+America to London some years ago, and appeared at the Hanover Square
+Rooms, in an exhibition after the manner of the Davenport Brothers and
+Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook. She must not be confounded with the Mrs. Fay
+who forms the subject of this chapter, because they had nothing to do
+with one another. Some one in Boston advised me _not_ to go and sit at
+one of this Mrs. Fay's public _seances_. They were described to me as
+being too physical and unrefined; that the influences were of a low
+order, and the audiences matched them. However, when I am studying a
+matter, I like to see everything I can and hear everything I can
+concerning it, and to form my own opinion independent of that of anybody
+else. So I walked off by myself one night to Mrs. Fay's address, and sat
+down in a quiet corner, watching everything that occurred. The circle
+certainly numbered some members of a humble class, but I conclude we
+should see that everywhere if the fees were lower. Media, like other
+professional people, fix their charges according to the quarter of the
+city in which they live. But every member was silent and respectful, and
+evidently a believer.
+
+One young man, in deep mourning, with a little girl also in black, of
+about five or six years old, attracted my attention at once, from his
+sorrowful and abstracted manner. He had evidently come there, I thought,
+in the hope of seeing some one whom he had lost. Mrs. Fay (as she passed
+through the room to her cabinet) appeared a very quiet, simple-looking
+little woman to me, without any loudness or vulgarity about her. Her
+cabinet was composed of two curtains only, made of some white material,
+and hung on uprights at one angle, in a corner of the room, the most
+transparent contrivance possible. Anything like a bustle or confusion
+inside it, such as would be occasioned by dressing or "making up,"
+would have been apparent at once to the audience outside, who were
+sitting by the light of an ordinary gas-burner and globe. Yet Mrs. Fay
+had not been seated there above a few minutes, when there ran out into
+the _seance_ room two of the most extraordinary materializations I had
+ever seen, and both of them about as opposite to Mrs. Fay in appearance
+as any creatures could be.
+
+One was an Irish charwoman or apple-woman (she might have been either)
+with a brown, wrinkled face, a broken nose, tangled grey hair, a crushed
+bonnet, general dirt and disorder, and a tongue that could talk broad
+Irish, and call "a spade a spade" at one and the same time. "Biddy," as
+she was named, was accompanied by a street newspaper boy--one of those
+urchins who run after carriages and turn Catherine-wheels in the mud,
+and who talked "gutter-slang" in a style that was utterly unintelligible
+to the decent portion of the sitters. These two went on in a manner that
+was undoubtedly funny, but not at all edifying and calculated to drive
+any enquirer into Spiritualism out of the room, under the impression
+that they were evil spirits bent on our destruction. That either of them
+was represented by Mrs. Fay was out of the question. In the first place,
+she would, in that instance, have been so clever an actress and mimic,
+that she would have made her fortune on the stage--added to which the
+boy "Teddy" was much too small for her, and "Biddy" was much too large.
+Besides, no actress, however experienced, could have "made up" in the
+time. I was quite satisfied, therefore, that neither of them was the
+medium, even if I could not have seen her figure the while, through the
+thin curtains, sitting in her chair. _Why_ such low, physical
+manifestations are permitted I am unable to say. It was no wonder they
+had shocked the sensibility of my friend. I felt half inclined myself
+when they appeared to get up and run away. However, I was very glad
+afterwards that I did not. They disappeared after a while, and were
+succeeded by a much pleasanter person, a cabinet spirit called "Gipsy,"
+who looked as if she might have belonged to one of the gipsy tribes when
+on earth, she was so brown and arch and lively. Presently the young man
+in black was called up, and I saw him talking to a female spirit very
+earnestly. After a while he took her hand and led her outside the
+curtain, and called the little girl whom he had left on his seat by her
+name. The child looked up, screamed "Mamma! mamma!" and flew into the
+arms of the spirit, who knelt down and kissed her, and we could hear the
+child sobbing and saying, "Oh! mamma, why did you go away?--why did you
+go away?" It was a very affecting scene--at least it seemed so to me.
+The instant recognition by the little girl, and her perfect
+unconsciousness but that her mother had returned _in propria persona_,
+would have been more convincing proof of the genuineness of Spiritualism
+to a sceptic, than fifty miracles of greater importance. When the spirit
+mother had to leave again the child's agony at parting was very
+apparent. "Take me with you," she kept on saying, and her father had
+actually to carry her back to her seat. When they got there they both
+wept in unison. Afterwards he said to me in an apologetic sort of
+way--he was sitting next to me--"It is the first time, you see, that
+Mary has seen her poor mother, but I wanted to have her testimony to her
+identity, and I think she gave it pretty plainly, poor child! She'll
+never be content to let me come alone now." I said, "I think it is a
+pity you brought her so young," and so I did.
+
+"Florence" did not appear (she told me afterwards the atmosphere was so
+"rough" that she could not), and I began to think that no one would come
+for me, when a common seaman, dressed in ordinary sailor's clothes, ran
+out of the cabinet and began dancing a hornpipe in front of me. He
+danced it capitally too, and with any amount of vigorous snapping his
+fingers to mark the time, and when he had finished he "made a leg," as
+sailors call it, and stood before me. "Have you come for me, my friend?"
+I enquired. "Not exactly," he answered, "but I came with the Cap'en. I
+came to pave the way for him. The Cap'en will be here directly. We was
+in the _Avenger_ together." (Now all the world knows that my eldest
+brother, Frederick Marryat, was drowned in the wreck of the _Avenger_ in
+1847; but as I was a little child at the time, and had no remembrance of
+him, I had never dreamt of seeing him again. He was a first lieutenant
+when he died, so I do not know why the seaman gave him brevet rank, but
+I repeat his words as he said them.) After a minute or two I was called
+up to the cabinet, and saw my brother Frederick (whom I recognized from
+his likeness) standing there dressed in naval uniform, but looking very
+stiff and unnatural. He smiled when he saw me, but did not attempt to
+kiss me. I said, "Why! Fred! is it really you? I thought you would have
+forgotten all about me." He replied, "Forgotten little Flo? Why should
+I? Do you think I have never seen you since that time, nor heard
+anything about you? I know everything--everything!" "You must know,
+then, that I have not spent a very happy life," I said. "Never mind," he
+answered, "you needed it. It has done you good!" But all he said was
+without any life in it, as if he spoke mechanically--perhaps because it
+was the first time he had materialized.
+
+I had said "Good-bye" to him, and dropped the curtain, when I heard my
+name called twice, "Flo! Flo!" and turned to receive my sister "Emily"
+in my arms. She looked like herself exactly, but she had only time to
+kiss me and gasp out, "So glad, so happy to meet again," when she
+appeared to faint. Her eyes closed, her head fell back on my shoulder,
+and before I had time to realize what was going to happen, she had
+passed _through_ the arm that supported her, and sunk down _through_ the
+floor. The sensation of her weight was still making my arm tingle, but
+"Emily" was gone--_clean gone_. I was very much disappointed. I had
+longed to see this sister again, and speak to her confidentially; but
+whether it was something antagonistic in the influence of this _seance_
+room ("Florence" said afterwards that it _was_), or there was some other
+cause for it, I know not, but most certainly my friends did not seem to
+flourish there.
+
+I had another horrible disappointment before I left. A voice from inside
+the cabinet called out, "Here are two babies who want the lady sitting
+under the picture." Now, there was only one picture hanging in the room,
+and I was sitting under it. I looked eagerly towards the cabinet, and
+saw issue from it the "Princess Gertie" leading a little toddler with a
+flaxen poll and bare feet, and no clothing but a kind of white chemise.
+This was "Joan," the "Yonnie" I had so often asked to see, and I rose in
+the greatest expectation to receive the little pair. Just as they gained
+the centre of the room, however, taking very short and careful steps,
+like babies first set on their feet, the cabinet spirit "Gipsy"
+_bounced_ out of the curtains, and saying decidedly, "Here! we don't
+want any children about," she placed her hand on the heads of my little
+ones, and _pressed them down_ through the floor. They seemed to crumble
+to pieces before my eyes, and their place knew them no more. I couldn't
+help feeling angry. I exclaimed, "O! what did you do that for? Those
+were my babies, and I have been longing to see them so." "I can't help
+it," replied "Gipsy," "but this isn't a _seance_ for children." I was so
+vexed that I took no more interest in the proceedings. A great number of
+forms appeared, thirty or forty in all, but by the time I returned to my
+hotel and began to jot down my notes, I could hardly remember what they
+were. I had been dreaming all the time of how much I should have liked
+to hold that little flaxen-haired "Yonnie" in my arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+VI. _Virginia Roberts._
+
+
+When I returned to New York, it was under exceptional circumstances. I
+had taken cold whilst travelling in the Western States, had had a severe
+attack of bronchitis and pneumonia at Chicago, was compelled to
+relinquish my business, and as soon as I was well enough to travel, was
+ordered back to New York to recuperate my health. Here I took up my
+abode in the Victoria Hotel, where a lady, whose acquaintance I had made
+on my former visit to the city, was living. As I have no permission to
+publish this lady's name, I must call her Mrs. S----. She had been a
+Spiritualist for some time before I knew her, and she much interested me
+by showing me an entry in her diary, made _four years_ previous to my
+arrival in America. It was an account of the utterances of a Mrs.
+Philips, a clairvoyant then resident in New York, during which she had
+prophesied my arrival in the city, described my personal appearance,
+profession, and general surroundings perfectly, and foretold my
+acquaintanceship with Mrs. S----. The prophecy ended with words to the
+effect that our meeting would be followed by certain effects that would
+influence her future life, and that on the 17th of March, 1885, would
+commence a new era in her existence. It was at the beginning of March
+that we first lived under the same roof. As soon as Mrs. S---- found
+that I was likely to have some weeks of leisure, she became very anxious
+that we should visit the New York media together; for although she had
+so long been a believer in Spiritualism, she had not (owing to family
+opposition) met with much sympathy on the subject, or had the
+opportunity of much investigation. So we determined, as soon as I was
+well enough to go out in the evening, that we would attend some
+_seances_. As it happened, when that time came, we found the medium most
+accessible to be Miss Virginia Roberts, of whom neither of us knew
+anything but what we had learned from the public papers. However, it
+was necessary that I should be exposed as little as possible to the
+night air, and so we fixed, by chance as it were, to visit Miss Roberts
+first. We found her living with her mother and brother in a small house
+in one of the back streets of the city. She was a young girl of sixteen,
+very reserved and rather timid-looking, who had to be drawn out before
+she could be made to talk. She had only commenced sitting a few months
+before, and that because her brother (who was also a medium) had had an
+illness and been obliged to give up his _seances_ for a while. The
+_seance_ room was very small, the manifestations taking place almost in
+the midst of the circle, and the cabinet (so-called) was the flimsiest
+contrivance I had ever seen. Four uprights of iron, not thicker than the
+rod of a muslin blind, with cross-bars of the same, on which were hung
+thin curtains of lilac print, formed the construction of this cabinet,
+which shook and swayed about each time a form left or entered it. A
+harmonium for accompanying the voices, and a few chairs for the
+audience, was all the furniture the room contained. The first evening we
+went to see Miss Roberts there were only two or three sitters beside
+ourselves. The medium seemed to be pretty nearly unknown, and I
+resolved, as I usually do in such cases, not to expect anything, for
+fear I should be disappointed.
+
+Mrs. S----, on the contrary, was all expectation and excitement. If she
+had ever sat for materializations, it had been long before, and the idea
+was like a new one to her. After two or three forms had appeared, of no
+interest to us, a gentleman in full evening dress walked suddenly out of
+the cabinet, and said, "Kate," which was the name of Mrs. S----. He was
+a stout, well-formed man, of an imposing presence, with dark hair and
+eyes, and he wore a solitaire of diamonds of unusual brilliancy in his
+shirt front. I had no idea who he was; but Mrs. S---- recognized him at
+once as an old lover who had died whilst under a misunderstanding with
+her, and she was powerfully affected--more, she was terribly frightened.
+It seems that she wore at her throat a brooch which he had given her;
+but every time he approached her with the view of touching it, she
+shrieked so loudly, and threw herself into such a state of nervous
+agitation, that I thought she would have to return home again. However,
+on her being accommodated with a chair in the last row so that she
+might have the other sitters between her and the materialized spirits,
+she managed to calm herself. The only friend who appeared for me that
+evening was "John Powles;" and, to my surprise and pleasure, he appeared
+in the old uniform of the 12th Madras Native Infantry. This corps wore
+facings of fawn, with buttons bearing the word "Ava," encircled by a
+wreath of laurel. The mess jackets were lined with wadded fawn silk, and
+the waistcoats were trimmed with three lines of narrow gold braid. Their
+"karkee," or undress uniform, established in 1859, consisted of a tunic
+and trousers of a sad green cloth, with the regimental buttons and a
+crimson silk sash. The marching dress of all officers in the Indian
+service is made of white drill, with a cap cover of the same material.
+Their forage cloak is of dark blue cloth, and hangs to their heels.
+Their forage cap has a broad square peak to shelter the face and eyes. I
+mention these details for the benefit of those who are not acquainted
+with the general dress of the Indian army, and to show how difficult it
+would have been for Virginia Roberts, or any other medium, to have
+procured them, even had she known the private wish expressed by me to
+"John Powles" in Boston, that he would try and come to me in uniform. On
+this first occasion of his appearing so, he wore the usual everyday
+coat, buttoned up to his chin, and he made me examine the buttons to see
+that they bore the crest and motto of the regiment. And I may say here,
+that before I left New York he appeared to me in every one of the
+various dresses I have described above, and became quite a marked figure
+in the city.
+
+When it was made known through the papers that an old friend of Florence
+Marryat had appeared through the mediumship of Virginia Roberts, in a
+uniform of thirty years before, I received numbers of private letters
+inquiring if it were true, and dozens of people visited Miss Roberts'
+_seances_ for the sole purpose of seeing him. He took a great liking for
+Mrs. S----, and when she had conquered her first fear she became quite
+friendly with him, and I heard, after leaving New York, that he
+continued to appear for her as long as she attended those _seances_.
+
+There was one difference in the female spirits that came through
+Virginia Roberts from those of other media. Those that were strong
+enough to leave the cabinet invariably disappeared by floating upwards
+through the ceiling. Their mode of doing this was most graceful. They
+would first clasp their hands behind their heads and lean backward; then
+their feet were lifted off the ground, and they were borne upward in a
+recumbent position. When I related this to my friend, Dr. George
+Lefferts (under whom I was for throat treatment to recover my voice), he
+declared there must be some machinery connected with the uprights that
+supported the cabinet, by which the forms were elevated. He had got it
+all so "pat" that he was able to take a pencil and demonstrate to me on
+paper exactly how the machinery worked, and how easy it would be to
+swing full-sized human bodies up to the ceiling with it. How they
+managed to disappear when they got there he was not quite prepared to
+say; but if he once saw the trick done, he would explain the whole
+matter to me, and expose it into the bargain. I told Dr. Lefferts, as I
+have told many other clever men, that I shall be the first person open
+to conviction when they can convince me, and I bore him off to a private
+_seance_ with Virginia Roberts for that purpose only. He was all that
+was charming on the occasion. He gave me a most delightful dinner at
+Delmonico's first (for which I tender him in print my grateful
+recollection), and he tested all Miss Roberts' manifestations in the
+most delicate and gentlemanly manner (sceptics as a rule are neither
+delicate nor gentlemanly), but he could neither open my eyes to
+chicanery nor detect it himself. He handled and shook the frail supports
+of the cabinet, and confessed they were much too weak to bear any such
+weight as he had imagined. He searched the carpeted floor and the
+adjoining room for hidden machinery without finding the slightest thing
+to rouse his suspicions, and yet he saw the female forms float upwards
+through the whitewashed ceiling, and came away from the _seance_ room as
+wise as when he had entered it.
+
+But this occurred some weeks after. I must relate first what happened
+after our first _seance_ with Miss Roberts. Mrs. S---- and I were well
+enough pleased with the result to desire to test her capabilities
+further, and with that intent we invited her to visit us at our hotel.
+Spiritualism is as much tabooed by one section of the American public as
+it is encouraged by the other, and so we resolved to breathe nothing of
+our intentions, but invite the girl to dine and spend the evening in
+our rooms with us just as if she were an ordinary visitor. Consequently,
+we dined together at the _table d'hote_ before we took our way upstairs.
+Mrs. S---- and I had a private sitting-room, the windows of which were
+draped with white lace curtains only, and we had no other means to shut
+out the light. Consequently, when we wished to sit, all we could do was
+to place a chair for Virginia Roberts in the window recess, behind one
+of these pairs of curtains, and pin them together in front of her, which
+formed the airiest cabinet imaginable. We then locked the door, lowered
+the gas, and sat down on a sofa before the curtains.
+
+In the space of five minutes, without the lace curtains having been in
+the slightest degree disturbed, Francis Lean, my stepson, walked
+_through_ them, and came up to my side. He was dressed in his ordinary
+costume of jersey and "jumpers," and had a little worsted cap upon his
+head. He displayed all the peculiarities of speech and manner I have
+noticed before; but he was much less timid, and stood by me for a long
+time talking of my domestic affairs, which were rather complicated, and
+giving me a detailed account of the accident which caused his death, and
+which had been always somewhat of a mystery. In doing this, he mentioned
+names of people hitherto unknown to me, but which I found on after
+inquiry to be true. He seemed quite delighted to be able to manifest so
+indisputably like himself, and remarked more than once, "I'm not much
+like a girl now, am I, Ma?"
+
+Next, Mrs. S----'s old lover came, of whom she was still considerably
+alarmed, and her father, who had been a great politician and a
+well-known man. "Florence," too, of course, though never so lively
+through Miss Roberts as through other media, but still happy though
+pensive, and full of advice how I was to act when I reached England
+again. Presently a soft voice said, "Aunt Flo, don't you know me?" And I
+saw standing in front of me my niece and godchild, Lilian Thomas, who
+had died as a nun in the Convent of the "Dames Anglaises" at Bruges. She
+was clothed in her nun's habit, which was rather peculiar, the face
+being surrounded by a white cap, with a crimped border that hid all the
+hair, and surmounted by a white veil of some heavy woollen material
+which covered the head and the black serge dress. "Lilian" had died of
+consumption, and the death-like, waxy complexion which she had had for
+some time before was exactly reproduced. She had not much to say for
+herself; indeed, we had been completely separated since she had entered
+the convent, but she was undoubtedly _there_. She was succeeded by my
+sister "Emily," whom I have already so often described. And these
+apparitions, six in number, and all recognizable, were produced in the
+private room of Mrs. S---- and myself, and with no other person but
+Virginia Roberts, sixteen years old.
+
+It was about this time that we received an invitation to attend a
+private _seance_ in a large house in the city, occupied by Mr. and Mrs.
+Newman, who had Maud Lord staying with them as a visitor. Maud Lord's
+mediumship is a peculiar one. She places her sitters in a circle,
+holding hands. She then seats herself on a chair in the centre, and
+keeps on clapping her hands, to intimate that she has not changed her
+position. The _seance_ is held in darkness, and the manifestations
+consist of "direct voices," _i.e._ voices that every one can hear, and
+by what they say to you, you must judge of their identity and
+truthfulness. I had only witnessed powers of this kind once
+before--through Mrs. Bassett, who is now Mrs. Herne--but as no one spoke
+to me through her whom I recognized, I have omitted to give any account
+of it.
+
+As soon as Maud Lord's sitting was fully established, I heard her
+addressing various members of the company, telling them who stood beside
+them, and I heard them putting questions to, or holding conversations
+with, creature who were invisible to me. The time went on, and I
+believed I was going to be left out of it, when I heard a voice close to
+my ear whisper, "Arthur." At the same moment Maud Lord's voice sounded
+in my direction, saying that the lady in the brown velvet hat had a
+gentleman standing near her, named "Arthur," who wished to be
+recognized. I was the only lady present in a brown velvet hat, yet I
+could not recall any deceased friend of the name of "Arthur" who might
+wish to communicate with me. (It is a constant occurrence at a _seance_
+that the mind refuses to remember a name, or a circumstance, and on
+returning home, perhaps the whole situation makes itself clear, and one
+wonders how one could have been so dull as not to perceive it.) So I
+said that I knew no one in the spirit-world of that name, and Maud Lord
+replied, "Well, _he_ knows _you_, at all events." A few more minutes
+elapsed, when I felt a touch on the third finger of my left hand, and
+the voice spoke again and said, "Arthur! 'Arthur's ring.' Have you quite
+forgotten?" This action brought the person to my memory, and I
+exclaimed, "Oh! Johnny Cope, is it you?"
+
+To explain this, I must tell my readers that when I went out to India in
+1854, Arthur Cope of the Lancers was a passenger by the same steamer;
+and when we landed in Madras, he made me a present of a diamond ring,
+which I wore at that _seance_ as a guard. But he was never called by
+anything but his nickname of "Johnny," so that his real appellation had
+quite slipped my memory. The poor fellow died in 1856 or 1857, and I had
+been ungrateful enough to forget all about him, and should never have
+remembered his name had it not been coupled with the ring. It would have
+been still more remarkable, though, if Maud Lord, who had never seen me
+till that evening, had discovered an incident which happened thirty
+years before, and which I had completely forgotten.
+
+Before I had been many days in New York, I fell ill again from exposing
+myself to the weather, this time with a bad throat. Mrs. S---- and I
+slept in the same room, and our sitting-room opened into the bedroom.
+She was indefatigable in her attentions and kindness to me during my
+illness, and kept running backwards and forwards from the bedroom to the
+sitting-room, both by night and day, to get me fresh poultices, which
+she kept hot on the steam stove.
+
+One evening about eleven o'clock she got out of bed in her nightdress,
+and went into the next room for this purpose. Almost directly after she
+entered it, I heard a heavy fall. I called her by name, and receiving no
+answer, became frightened, jumped out of bed, and followed her. To my
+consternation, I found her stretched out, at full length, on a white
+bearskin rug, and quite insensible. She was a delicate woman, and I
+thought at first that she had fainted from fatigue; but when she showed
+no signs of returning consciousness, I became alarmed. I was very weak
+myself from my illness, and hardly able to stand, but I managed to put
+on a dressing-gown and summon the assistance of a lady who occupied the
+room next to us, and whose acquaintance we had already made. She was
+strong and capable, and helped me to place Mrs. S---- upon the sofa,
+where she lay in the same condition. After we had done all we could
+think of to bring her to herself without effect, the next-door lady
+became frightened. She said to me, "I don't like this. I think we ought
+to call in a doctor. Supposing she were to die without regaining
+consciousness." I replied, "I should say the same, excepting I begin to
+believe she has not fainted at all, but is in a trance; and in that
+case, any violent attempts to bring her to herself might injure her.
+Just see how quietly she breathes, and how very young she looks."
+
+When her attention was called to this fact, the next-door lady was
+astonished. Mrs. S----, who was a woman past forty, looked like a girl
+of sixteen. She was a very pretty woman, but with a dash of temper in
+her expression which spoiled it. Now with all the passions and lines
+smoothed out of it, she looked perfectly lovely. So she might have
+looked in death. But she was not dead. She was breathing. So I felt sure
+that the spirit had escaped for a while and left her free. I covered her
+up warmly on the sofa, and determined to leave her there till the trance
+had passed. After a while I persuaded the next-door lady to think as I
+did, and to go back to her own bed. As soon as she had gone, I
+administered my own poultice, and sat down to watch beside my friend.
+The time went on until seven in the morning--seven hours she had lain,
+without moving a limb, upon the sofa--when, without any warning, she sat
+up and gazed about her. I called her by name, and asked her what she
+wanted; but I could see at once, by her expression, that she did not
+know me. Presently she asked me, "Who are you?" I told her. "Are you
+Kate's friend?" she said. I answered, "Yes." "Do you know who _I_ am?"
+was the next question, which, of course, I answered in the negative.
+Mrs. S---- thereupon gave me the name of a German gentleman which I had
+never heard before. An extraordinary scene then followed. Influenced by
+the spirit that possessed her, Mrs. S---- rose and unlocked a cabinet of
+her own, which stood in the room, and taking thence a bundle of old
+letters, she selected several and read portions of them aloud to me. She
+then told me a history of herself and the gentleman whose spirit was
+speaking through her, and gave me several messages to deliver to
+herself the following day. It will be sufficient for me to say that this
+history was of so private a nature, that it was most unlikely she would
+have confided it to me or any one, particularly as she was a woman of a
+most secretive nature; but names, addresses, and even words of
+conversations were given, in a manner which would have left no room for
+doubt of their truthfulness, even if Mrs. S---- had not confirmed them
+to be facts afterwards. This went on for a long time, the spirit
+expressing the greatest animosity against Mrs. S---- all the while, and
+then the power seemed suddenly to be spent, and she went off to sleep
+again upon the sofa, waking up naturally about an hour afterwards, and
+very much surprised to hear what had happened to her meanwhile. When we
+came to consider the matter, we found that this unexpected seizure had
+taken place upon _the 17th of March_, the day predicted by Mrs. Philips
+four years previously as one on which a new era would commence for Mrs.
+S----. From that time she continually went into trances, and used to
+predict the future for herself and others; but whether she has kept it
+up to this day I am unable to say, as I have heard nothing from her
+since I left America.
+
+That event took place on the 13th of June, 1885. We had been in the
+habit of spending our Sunday evenings in Miss Roberts' _seance_ room,
+and she begged me not to miss the last opportunity. When we arrived
+there, we found that the accompanist who usually played the harmonium
+for them was unable to be present, and Miss Roberts asked if I would be
+his substitute. I said I would, on condition that they moved the
+instrument on a line with the cabinet, so that I might not lose a sight
+of what was going on. This was accordingly done, and I commenced to play
+"Thou art gone from my gaze." Almost immediately "John Powles" stepped
+out, dressed in uniform, and stood by the harmonium with his hand upon
+my shoulder. "I never was much of a singer, you know, Flo," he said to
+me; "but if you will sing that song with me, I'll try and go through
+it." And he actually did sing (after a fashion) the entire two verses of
+the ballad, keeping his hand on my shoulder the whole time. When we came
+to the line, "I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream," he stooped
+down and whispered in my ear, "Not _quite_ in vain, Flo, has it been?"
+I do not know if my English Spiritualistic friends can "cap" this story,
+but in America they told me it was quite a unique performance,
+particularly at a public _seance_, where the jarring of so many diverse
+influences often hinders instead of helping the manifestations.
+
+"Powles" appeared to be especially strong on that occasion. Towards the
+middle of the evening a kind of whining was heard to proceed from the
+cabinet; and Miss Roberts, who was not entranced, said, "There's a baby
+coming out for Miss Marryat." At the same time the face of little
+"Yonnie" appeared at the opening of the curtains, but nearly level with
+the ground, as she was crawling out on all fours. Before she had had
+time to advance beyond them, "Powles" stepped over her and came amongst
+us. "Oh, Powles!" I exclaimed, "you used to love my little babies. Do
+pick up that one for me that I may see it properly." He immediately
+returned, took up "Yonnie," and brought her out into the circle on his
+arm. The contrast of the baby's white kind of nightgown with his scarlet
+uniform was very striking. He carried the child to each sitter that it
+might be thoroughly examined; and when he had returned "Yonnie" to the
+cabinet, he came out again on his own account. That evening I was
+summoned into the cabinet myself by the medium's guide, a little Italian
+girl, who had materialized several times for our benefit. When I entered
+it, I stumbled up against Miss Roberts' chair. There was barely room for
+me to stand beside it. She said to me, "Is that _you_, Miss Marryat?"
+and I replied, "Yes; didn't you send for me?" She said "No; I didn't
+send, I know nothing about it!" A voice behind me said, "_I_ sent for
+you!" and at the same moment two strong arms were clasped round my
+waist, and a man's face kissed me over my shoulder. I asked, "Who are
+you?" and he replied, "Walk out of the cabinet and you shall see." I
+turned round, two hands were placed upon my shoulders, and I walked back
+into the circle with a tall man walking behind me in that position. When
+I could look at him in the gaslight, I recognized my brother, Frank
+Marryat, who died in 1855, and whom I had never seen since. Of course,
+the other spirits who were familiar with Mrs. S---- and myself came to
+wish me a pleasant voyage across the Atlantic, but I have mentioned them
+all so often that I fear I must already have tired out the patience of
+my readers. But in order to be impressive it is so necessary to be
+explicit. All I can bring forward in excuse is, that every word I have
+written is the honest and unbiassed truth. Here, therefore, ends the
+account of my experience in Spiritualism up to the present moment--not,
+by any means, the half, nor yet _the quarter of it_, but all I consider
+likely to interest the general public. And those who have been
+interested in it may see their own friends as I have done, if they will
+only take the same trouble that I have done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+"QUI BONO?"
+
+
+My friends have so often asked me this question, that I think, before I
+close this book, I am justified in answering it, at all events, as far
+as I myself am concerned. How often have I sat, surrounded by an
+interested audience, who knew me too well to think me either a lunatic
+or a liar; and after I have told them some of the most marvellous and
+thrilling of my experiences, they have assailed me with these questions,
+"But what _is_ it? And what _good_ does it do? _What is it?_" There, my
+friends, I confess you stagger me! I can no more tell you what it is
+than I can tell you what _you_ are or what _I_ am. We know that, like
+Topsy, we "grew." We know that, given certain conditions and favorable
+accessories, a child comes into this world, and a seed sprouts through
+the dark earth and becomes a flower; but though we know the cause and
+see the effect, the greatest man of science, or the greatest botanist,
+cannot tell you how the child is made, nor how the plant grows. Neither
+can I (or any one) tell you _what_ the power is that enables a spirit to
+make itself apparent. I can only say that it can do so, and refer you to
+the Creator of you and me and the entire universe. The commonest things
+the earth produces are all miracles, from the growing of a mustard seed
+to the expansion of a human brain. What is more wonderful than the
+hatching of an egg? You see it done every day. It has become so common
+that you regard it as an event of no consequence. You know the exact
+number of days the bird must sit to produce a live chicken with all its
+functions ready for nature's use, but you see nothing wonderful in it.
+All birds can do the same, and you would not waste your time in
+speculating on the wondrous effect of heat upon a liquid substance which
+turns to bone and blood and flesh and feathers.
+
+If you were as familiar with the reappearance of those who have gone
+before as you are with chickens, you would see nothing supernatural in
+their manifesting themselves to you, and nothing more miraculous than in
+the birth of a child or the hatching of an egg. Why should it be? Who
+has fixed the abode of the spirit after death? Who can say where it
+dwells, or that it is not permitted to return to this world, perhaps to
+live in it altogether? Still, however the Almighty sends them, the fact
+remains that they come, and that thousands can testify to the fact. As
+to the theory advanced by some people that they are devils, sent to lure
+us to our destruction, that is an insult to the wisdom or mercy of an
+Omnipotent Creator. They cannot come except by His permission, just as
+He sends children to some people and withholds them from others. And the
+conversation of most of those that I have talked with is all on the side
+of religion, prayer, and self-sacrifice. _My_ friends, at all events,
+have never denied the existence of a God or a Saviour. They have, on the
+contrary (and especially "Florence"), been very quick to rebuke me for
+anything I may have done that was wrong, for neglect of prayer and
+church-going, for speaking evil of my neighbors, or any other fault.
+They have continually inculcated the doctrine that religion consists in
+unselfish love to our fellow-creatures, and in devotion to God. I do not
+deny that there are frivolous and occasionally wicked spirits about us.
+Is it to be wondered at? For one spirit that leaves this world
+calculated to do good to his fellow-creatures, a hundred leave it who
+will do him harm. That is really the reason that the Church discourages
+Spiritualism. She does not disbelieve in it. She knows it to be true;
+but she also knows it to be dangerous. Since like attracts like, the
+numbers of thoughtless spirits who still dwell on earth would naturally
+attract the numbers of thoughtless spirits who have left it, and their
+influence is best dispensed with. Talk of devils. I have known many more
+devils in the flesh than out of it, and could name a number of
+acquaintances who, when once passed out of this world, I should
+steadfastly refuse to have any communication with. I have no doubt
+myself whatever as to _what_ it is, or that I have seen my dear friends
+and children as I knew them upon earth. But _how_ they come or _where_
+they go, I must wait until I join them to ascertain, even if I shall do
+it then.
+
+The second question, however, I can more easily deal with, _What good is
+it?_ The only wonder to me is that people who are not stone-blind to
+what is going on in this world can put such a question. What good is it
+to have one's faith in Immortality and another life confirmed in an age
+of freethought, scepticism and utter callousness? When I look around me
+and see the young men nowadays--ay, and the young women too--who believe
+in no hereafter, who lie down and die, like the dumb animals who cannot
+be made to understand the love of the dear God who created them although
+they feel it, I cannot think of anything calculated to do them more good
+than the return of a father or a mother or a friend, who could convince
+them by ocular demonstration that there is a future life and happiness
+and misery, according to the one we have led here below.
+
+"Oh, but," I seem to hear some readers exclaim, "we _do_ believe in all
+that you say. We have been taught so from our youth up, and the Bible
+points to it in every line." You may _think_ you believe it, my friends,
+and in a theoretical way you may; but you do not _realize_ it, and the
+whole of your lives proves it. Death, instead of being the blessed
+portal to the Life Elysian, the gate of which may swing open for you any
+day, and admit you to eternal and unfading happiness, is a far-off misty
+phantom, whose approach you dread, and the sight of which in others you
+run away from. The majority of people avoid the very mention of death.
+They would not look at a corpse for anything; the sight of a coffin or a
+funeral or a graveyard fills them with horror; the idea of it for
+themselves makes them turn pale with fright. Is _this_ belief in the
+existence of a tender Father and a blessed home waiting to receive them
+on the other side? Even professed Christians experience what they term a
+"natural" horror at the thought of death! I have known persons of fixed
+religious principles who had passed their lives (apparently) in prayer,
+and expressed their firm belief in Heaven waiting for them, fight
+against death with all their mortal energies, and try their utmost to
+baffle the disease that was sent to carry them to everlasting happiness.
+Is this logical? It is tantamount in my idea to the pauper in the
+workhouse who knows that directly the gate is open to let him through,
+he will pass from skilly, oakum, and solitary confinement to the King's
+Palace to enjoy youth, health, and prosperity evermore; and who, when he
+sees the gates beginning to unclose, puts his back and all his
+neighbors' backs against them to keep them shut as long as possible.
+
+Death should not be a "horror" to any one; and if we knew more about it,
+it would cease to be so. It is the _mystery_ that appals us. We see our
+friends die, and no word or sign comes back to tell us that there _is_
+no death, so we picture them to ourselves mouldering in the damp earth
+till we nearly go mad with grief and dismay. Some people think me
+heartless because I never go near the graves of those whom I love best.
+Why should I? I might with more reason go and sit beside a pile of their
+cast-off garments. I could _see_ them, and they would actually retain
+more of their identity and influence than the corpse which I could _not_
+see. I mourn their loss just the same, but I mourn it as I should do if
+they had settled for life in a far distant land, from which I could only
+enjoy occasional glimpses of their happiness.
+
+And I may say emphatically that the greatest good Spiritualism does is
+to remove the fear of one's own death. One can never be quite certain of
+the changes that circumstances may bring about, nor do I like to boast
+overmuch. Disease and weakness may destroy the nerve I flatter myself on
+possessing; but I think I may say that as matters stand at present _I
+have no fear of death whatever_, and the only trouble I can foresee in
+passing through it will be to witness the distress of my friends. But
+when I remember all those who have gathered on the other side, and whom
+I firmly believe will be present to help me in my passage there, I can
+feel nothing but a great curiosity to pierce the mysteries as yet
+unrevealed to me, and a great longing for the time to come when I shall
+join those whom I loved so much on earth. Not to be happy at once by any
+manner of means. I am too sinful a mortal for that, but "to work out my
+salvation" in the way God sees best for me, to make my own heaven or
+hell according as I have loved and succoured my fellow-creatures here
+below. Yet however much I may be destined to suffer, never without hope
+and assistance from those whom I have loved, and never without feeling
+that through the goodness of God each struggle or reparation brings me
+near to the fruition of eternal happiness. _This_ is my belief, _this_
+is the good that the certain knowledge that we can never die has done
+for me, and the worst I wish for anybody is that they may share it with
+me.
+
+    "Oh! though oft depressed and lonely,
+      All my fears are laid aside,
+    If I but remember only
+      Such as these have lived and died."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY'S Announcements AND New Publications.
+
+     *.*_The books mentioned in this List can be obtained_ to
+     order _by any Bookseller if not in stock, or will be sent by the
+     Publisher post free on receipt of price_.
+
+LOVELL'S INTERNATIONAL SERIES
+
+=_13. On Circumstantial Evidence_=--By Florence Marryat
+
+This is a story in which love and intrigue are the two disturbing
+elements. Miss Marryat is well-known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining.--_Boston Herald._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_14. Miss Kate, or the Confessions of a Caretaker_=--By Rita
+
+This is a novel of much interest in the first part, of the objectionable
+"guilty love" order in the latter half. There are some beautiful bits of
+character drawing in it, and some very clever hits at American foibles.
+This story is exceedingly well told.--_Nashville American._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_15. A Vagabond Lover_=--By Rita
+
+Is a mere sketch. The hero having been a child who was washed on shore
+from a shipwreck during a storm, and found by a man who believed that he
+had discovered the cause and generation of life. The child was made a
+subject for experiment; life was breathed into it, but only physical
+life and not its higher principle. The result is that the child grows up
+to manhood without one redeeming virtue, and seems to delight in doing
+all manner of evil.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 20 CENTS.
+
+_=16. The Search for Basil Lyndhurst=_--By Rosa N. Carey
+
+Is a well written English novel, into which are woven numerous
+historical sketches, adding the merit of instructiveness to its other
+qualities.--_Pittsburgh Post._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_39. Sylvia Arden_=--By Oswald Crawfurd
+
+Is a novel whose story is supposed to be told by a man who confesses at
+the outset that life has been with him a failure. He has been successful
+in nothing though trying everything--and the novel deals with the most
+remarkable incidents in that sort of a career. It is a cleverly done
+book, and there is much in it which is fresh as well as
+exciting.--_Columbus, O., Journal._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_40. Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship_=--By F. C. Philips
+
+It seems impossible for F. C. Philips, the author of "As in a Looking
+Glass," to keep sensational tragedy out of his novels. In "Young Mr.
+Ainslie's Courtship" he has written a story which is charming, witty?
+and agreeable up to the very last chapter.--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+_=41. The Haute Noblesse=_--By Geo. Manville Fenn
+
+Is a well wrought story of which the heroine is a child of the high
+aristocracy, but nevertheless such admirable traits and qualities that
+even the humblest reader cannot fail to love her.--_Columbus, O.,
+Journal._
+
+CLOTH. $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+=_42. Mount Eden_=--By Florence Marryat
+
+Miss Florence Marryat is well known to the readers of sentimental
+novels. She has a bright and crisp way of presenting the frailties of
+the human race, which makes her stories entertaining, even if they are
+devoid of all good moral purpose. They open one's eyes to the
+inconsistencies of life without wholly destroying his faith in his
+fellow citizens.--_Boston Herald._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 30 CENTS.
+
+_=82. A Woman's Heart=_--By Mrs. Alexander
+
+The name of this author is familiar to all lovers of fiction who will
+need nothing more to assure them that they will not regret the time
+spent in reading "A Woman's Heart." It is a refined and interesting
+story, pleasant and easy reading, as is usual with all Mrs. Alexander's
+works.
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+_=83. Syrlin=_--By Ouida
+
+The announcement of a new novel by Ouida, sends a thrill of delight
+through the countless host of faithful admirers of that petulant
+priestess of mild improprieties. Her new books are just like her old
+ones. There is the usual abundance of gilded vice and wilful wickedness
+lugged in to give the book its wonted flavor.--_N. O. States._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+=_84. The Rival Princess_=--By Justin McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell Praed
+
+It is a romance of contemporary English politics wherein many well-known
+public men appear under thin disguises. There is a Stuart princess with
+lineal claims to the English throne, and there is an unmasked Mr.
+Gladstone, who boldly urges the abolition of the House of
+Lords.-_-Charleston Sunday Times._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+_=85. Blindfold=_--By Florence Marryat
+
+Is, in many respects, the best novel which has been given us by the
+prolific pen of the well-known Englishwoman. The story is novel, well
+told, and events follow upon each other quickly, never allowing the
+interest to flag.--_Denver News._
+
+CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS.
+
+UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Text that was written in bold is marked =like this=.
+
+Page 4, "MARRYATT" changed to "MARRYAT" (Normalising spelling of
+author's name)
+
+Page 18, "nor" changed to "not" (a single medium of whom I have not)
+
+Page 47, "bood" changed to "blood" (where the stain of his blood still
+remained)
+
+Page 49, "briliant" changed to "brilliant" (a room that was unpleasantly
+brilliant)
+
+Page 58, "tempered" changed to "tampered" (it had not been tampered
+with)
+
+Page 61, "seing" changed to "seeing" (the possibility of seeing a
+"ghost,")
+
+Page 127, "foreigh" changed to "foreign" (he was equally ignorant of
+foreign languages)
+
+Page 134, "succssefully" changed to "successfully" (in order to imitate
+her manner and speech successfully)
+
+Page 137, "Gupyy" changed to "Guppy" (As Mrs. Guppy came sailing over
+our heads)
+
+Page 138, "it" changed to "if" (I inquired of every sitter if they had
+seen)
+
+Page 155, "eartly" changed to "earthly" (as naturally as if she were
+their earthly form)
+
+Page 156, "Fitzgarald" changed to "Fitzgerald" (Mrs. Fitzgerald was
+dining with us)
+
+Page 158, "Fitzgereld" changed to "Fitzgerald" (returned through Mrs.
+Fitzgerald)
+
+Page 176, "don" changed to "done" (perhaps, than anything else has done)
+
+Page 180, Added missing end single quote in probable correct place
+(through the life that lies before you.')
+
+Page 182, "forgetten" changed to "forgotten" (I had almost forgotten Mr.
+Plummer)
+
+Page 185, "mamed" changed to "named" (a photographer in London, named
+Hudson)
+
+Page 189, "instrument" changed to "instruments" (the two instruments
+pealed forth)
+
+Page 198, "ocsion" changed to "occasion" (Mr. Towns prognosticated on
+that occasion)
+
+Page 201, "conducter" changed to "conductor" ("Did you know the spirit?"
+the conductor asked)
+
+Page 220, "aquaintance" changed to "acquaintance" (soon after I made her
+acquaintance)
+
+Page 255, "creature" changed to "creatures" (creatures who were
+invisible to me)
+
+Page 256, "Mr" changed to "Mrs" (Mrs. S---- and I slept in the same
+room)
+
+Page 264, "Christian" changed to "Christians" (Even professed Christians
+experience what they term)
+
+End catalogue, No. 13, "Circumstatial" changed to "Circumstantial" (On
+Circumstantial Evidence)
+
+End catalogue, No. 39, "successfu" changed to "successful" (He has been
+successful in nothing)
+
+N.B. 1. Some punctuation corrections have not been noted here.
+2. Two non-matching instances of latin word: "propria" and "propria".
+Left as-is.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of There is no Death, by Florence Marryatt
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE IS NO DEATH ***
+
+***** This file should be named 39212.txt or 39212.zip *****
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