1872.] Nottces of Books. 243 
doors, and took with him privately marked slips of paper. He 
held the medium's hands; yet writing was somehow effected on 
the paper placed under the table, both in pencil and ink. Yet 
more ; on one occasion he saw part of the writing done, by a 
small luminous hand on the floor, holding the pencil. Cn this 
experiment Mr. Owen remarks as follows: ‘‘ Were these sp:ritual 
autographs? What else? Had I not seen one of them wr.tten ? 
Had I not seen one of these slips rise higher than the table, and 
sink back again? Had I not felt Kate’s two hands under mine 
at the very time when that hand wrote and that paper rose and 
fell? Did Kate write eight or ten lines with both her hands 
clasped? Did I write them with my left hand without knowing 
it? Or had Kate brought the slips ready written? I picked them 
up, and examined them critically, one by one. My private mark 
on one corner of each—letters of the German alphabet, written 
in the German character—still there! What way out? Are the 
senses of seeing, hearing, and touch, in sane healthy persons, 
unworthy to be trusted? For me, common sense bars that way 
out. I see nothing unlikely—not to say incredible—in the theory 
that God may vouchsafe to man sensible proof of his immor- 
tality. For others, to whom spiritual intercourse seems an 
absurdity,—for those more especially to whom the hypothesis of 
another life wears the aspect of a baseless dream,—let them 
select their own path out of the difficulty. I think that, on any 
path they may take, they will have to accept theories infinitely 
less tenable than those they decide to reject.” 
Mr. Owen also saw much of Mr. Foster, the medium who has 
names written on his hands and arms. On one occasion 
Mr. Foster extended his hand upon the table; it was perfectly 
free from any mark whatever. Gradually a faint red mark ap- 
peared on the wrist, which increased till it formed the letter F, 
remained visible two or three minutes, and then faded away. 
This was the initial letter of a name Mr. Owen had secretly 
written on a piece of paper, and folded up tightly, and which was 
mixed with about twenty others on the table. Dr. Carpenter 
tells us (in a letter published in ‘“‘ The Spiritualist ” of March 1s, 
p- 21) that this is done by first tracing the writing on the tense 
skin with a hard point, and then rubbing the place to bring out 
the red blush. But unless we are to believe that Mr. Owen and 
the late Dr. Robert Chambers, as well as many other careful 
observers who have narrated their experiences with Mr. Foster, 
all make grossly false or imperfect statements, this explanation 
by no means covers the fa¢ts; as will be admitted by all who 
read Mr. Owen’s narrative or the evidence of Mr. E. L. Blanchard 
given at page 135 of the ‘‘ Report of the Committee of the 
Dialectical Society.” 
Having seen so many inexplicable things himself, Mr. Owen 
is quite ready to believe others, when they narrate their expe- 
riences; yet he often takes an immense deal of trouble to test 
