IN LATER YEARS 1856-1905 563 



given her back to them. As they told me wonderful things 

 regarding the revelations made by sundry eminent me 

 diums, I accepted their invitation to witness some of 

 these, and went to the seances with a perfectly open and 

 impartial mind. I saw nothing antecedently improbable 

 in phenomena of that sort; indeed, it seemed to me that 

 it might be a blessed thing if there were really something 

 in it all; but examination showed me in this, as in all 

 other cases where I have investigated so-called &quot;spirit 

 revelations,&quot; nothing save the worthlessness of human 

 testimony to the miraculous. These miracles were the 

 cheapest and poorest of jugglery, and the mediums were, 

 without exception, of a type below contempt. There was, 

 indeed, a revelation to me, not of a spirit-world beyond 

 the grave, but of a spirit-world about me, peopled with 

 the spirits of good and loving men and women who find 

 &quot;joy in believing&quot; what they wish to believe. Com 

 pared with this new worship, I felt that the old was in 

 finitely more honest, substantial, and healthful ; and never 

 since have I desired to promote revolutionary changes 

 in religion. Such changes, to be good, must be evolution 

 ary, gradual, and in obedience to slowly increasing know 

 ledge : such a change is now evidently going on, irresist 

 ibly, and quite as rapidly as is desirable. 



There were other singular experiences. One day a 

 student said to me that an old man living not far froni 

 the university grounds was very ill and wished to see 

 me. I called at once, and found him stretched out on his 

 bed and greatly emaciated with consumption. He was 

 a Hicksite Quaker. As I entered the room he said, 

 &quot;Friend, I hear good things of thee: thou art telling the 

 truth ; let me bear my testimony before thee. I believe 

 in God and in a future life, but in little else which the 

 churches teach. I am dying. Within two or three days, 

 at furthest, I shall be in my coffin. Yet I look on the 

 future with no anxiety; I am in the hands of my loving 

 Father, and have no more fear of passing through the 

 gate of death into the future life than of passing through 



