spiritualism 



next year. I maintain that as a matter of duty to the 

 Society you should be asked to accept the Presidency, though 

 of course it would be impossible for yon to be much more 

 than an Honorary President, as we could not expect you 

 often to come to London. I am anxious that in our records 

 for future reference your Presidency should appear. . . . 

 Podmore, who is proposed as President, represents the 

 attitude of resolute incredulity, and I consider this line 

 of action has been to some extent injurious to the S.P.R. 

 Crookes supported my proposal, and so did Lodge, and so 

 would Myers if he had lived. All this is of course between 

 ourselves. . . . 



I have a va-st amount of material unpublished on 

 " dowsing " and am convinced the explanation is subcon- 

 scious clairvoyance. . . . — Yours very sincerely, 



W. F. Barrett. 



To Mrs. Fisher 

 Broadstont, Wimbome. April 20, 1906. 



My dear Mrs. Fisher, — If you mean " honest " by 

 ** thoroughly reliable," there are plenty of such mediums, 

 but if you mean those who give equally good results always, 

 and to all persons, I should say there are none. . . . 



I am reading Herbert Spencer's " Autobiography " (just 

 finished Vol. I.). I find it very interesting, though tedious 

 in parts. I am glad I did not read it before I wrote mine. 

 He certainly brings out his own character most strikingly, 

 and a wonderful character it was. How extraordinarily 

 little he owed either to teaching or to reading ! I think , 

 he is best described as a ''reasoning genius." — Yours very 

 truly, Alfred R. Wallace. 



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