IMMORTALITY 369 



while he evidently hailed from some Western State. 

 ' Mr. Curtin,' he said, ' I have a very urgent message 

 for you which I must put in writing.' He forthwith sat 

 down and began to scribble, Curtin watching him with 

 feelings that turned to utter amazement when he recog- 

 nised, in what flowed from the pen of this entire stranger, 

 the unmistakable handwriting of the mother he had lost 

 not long before, and to vv^hom he was devotedly attached. 

 The message was not lengthy, but of an extraordinary 

 character. The man repeated that he had simply been 

 impelled to deliver the message in this form. 



" What he had written was a rough forecast of the 

 chief events of the great contest which then had not 

 yet broken out. Curtin was so struck by the circum- 

 stances that he imparted them in confidence at the time 

 to friends in Philadelphia ; who, with him, afterwards 

 watched with intense interest the developments predicted 

 in the message. That Mr. Curtin told me this singular 

 story in perfect faith I cannot for a moment doubt." 



These are a few " inexplicable " cases where no fraud 

 was possible ; as no knowledge of the events was pos- 

 sessed by any one in England or America. 



The question, then, remains, which is more probable 

 — that it is merely the automatic action of the brain, as 

 in dreams ; but, unlike dreams, the writing is always 

 intelligent, and without any of the incongruities that are 

 associated with dreams — or is it really the work of 

 spiritual intelligences acting through the brain and 

 fingers of the operator? 



Regarding the writing alone — z,e., if it were not known 

 whose fingers wrote it — the conclusion would certainly 

 be that it could not be that of the lady in question, as 

 it is always so completely different to her characteristic 

 features both in handwriting and subject-matter. 



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