1872.] ( 237 ) 
NOTICES. OF. BOOK’. 
The Debatable Land between This World and the Next. With 
Illustrative Narrations. By RoBerrt DALE Owen. London: 
Triibner and Co. 
SIXTEEN years ago the author of this book, then American 
Minister at Naples, spent the evening of the 25th of March at 
the house of the Russian Minister, Mons. K—, in the company 
of several visitors from different parts of the world, among whom 
were the Chevalier de F— (the Tuscan Minister) and his lady. 
Madame K— introduced the subject of automatic writing; and 
declared her conviction that some persons had the power of thus 
replying correctly to questions, the true answers to which were 
entirely unknown to them. It was proposed to try the experi- 
ment; and each person present accordingly took pencil and 
paper, and waited the result. After a few minutes one lady’s 
hand began to move, making irregular figures on the paper. 
Mr. Owen proposed that questions should be asked ; whereupon 
Madame de F— said ‘* Who gave me these pins?” pointing to 
three gold-headed pins that fastened her dress; adding “If 
Mrs. M— can answer that I shall believe.” After a short time 
the lady’s pencil slowly wrote out—(the last two words being 
written backwards)—‘‘ The one that gives you a Maid and a 
Cook. E.” Madame de F— turned pale, and cried ‘“ Magic, if 
there be such a thing;” and then told the company that the 
pins had been given her by her cousin Elizabeth, who lived at 
Florence, and who at her request had sent her, a few days before, 
a lady’s maid and a cook. Mr. Owen pondered over this strange 
occurrence, and determined to get to the bottom of it. Mrs. M— 
was not a Spiritualist. Madame de F— had only been a few 
weeks in Naples, had not mentioned even her cousin’s name to 
any one, and had the slightest possible acquaintance with 
Mrs. M—, having only just exchanged cards with her. She ex- 
pressed the strongest conviction that the three or four facts, 
accurately stated in the few words written, could not possibly 
have become known out of her own family. Mr. Owen was 
then a complete sceptic; but this circumstance induced a course 
of study which has been continued for fifteen years, and which 
eventually changed the whole feelings and tenour of his life. 
He is now a confirmed Spiritualist; that is, he not only believes 
the phenomena to be real, but he has satisfied himself that they 
furnish a sufficient proof of a future existence for man. Yet, it 
may surprise some of our readers to hear, he is fully imbued with 
the spirit and teachings of modern science; and his book is one 
continued protest against the miraculous. He maintains that all 
these phenomena happen under law, just as much as do the 
various phenomena (many of them still inexplicable by science) 
