4 i6 MY LIFE 



was the Starting-point of all my subsequent work. The very 

 next >ear brought me renewed health and strength to do the 

 work, as already described. Another year passed, and I re- 

 ceived a pressing invitation to take the chair and give a short 

 address to the International Congress of Spiritualists, which 

 I felt myself unable to refuse, and thus, as I had been told 

 I should, I " did something public for spiritualism." Yet 

 another year, and a great desire for life more in the country 

 than at Parkstone (where we were being surrounded by new 

 building operations) led me to join some friends in trying to 

 find a locality for a kind of home-colony of congenial per- 

 sons ; and though the plan was never carried out, it led ulti- 

 mately to my finding the site on which to build my present 

 house, and thus " get out of that hole," as I had been told by 

 Sunshine that I should do. And now, looking back upon the 

 eight years of renewed health I have enjoyed, and with con- 

 stant interesting work, how can this be better described than 

 as " the third chapter of my life " ; while " Man's Place in the 

 Universe " — a totally new subject for me — may well be termed 

 the " third chapter of my book," that is, of my literary work. 

 Again, this wholesome activity of body and mind, the obtain- 

 ing a beautiful site where I am surrounded by grass and 

 woodland, and have a splendid view over moor and water 

 to distant hills and the open sea, with abundance of pure air 

 and sunshine, the building of a comfortable house in one of 

 the choicest spots in the whole district — surely all this was 

 well foretold in the one word " Satisfaction." What has 

 chiefly occupied me in this house — an Autobiography extend- 

 ing over three-quarters of a century — is admirably described 

 by the word " Retrospection." And the whole of this process 

 has involved, or been the result of, continuous and pleasure- 

 able " Work." 



I will only add here that during the whole of this " third 

 chapter of my life " I had entirely forgotten the particular 

 words of the prediction which I had noted down at the time, 

 and was greatly surprised, on referring to them again for the 

 purpose of this chapter, to find how curiously they fitted the 

 subsequent events. Of course it may be said that every one 



