SCIENCE AND THE "SPIRITS." 337 



there was no trickery in the furniture. This was done; 

 and I then first learned that my hospitable host had 

 arranged that the seance should be a dinner-party. This 

 was to me an unusual form of investigation; but I accepted 

 it, as one of the accidents of the occasion. 



The " medium " arrived a delicate-looking young lady, 

 who appeared to have suffered much from ill-health. I 

 took her to dinner and sat close beside her. Facts were 

 absent for a considerable time, a series of very wonderful 

 narratives supplying their place. The duty of belief on 

 the testimony of witnesses was frequently insisted on. X. 

 appeared to be a chosen spiritual agent, and told us many 

 surprising things. He affirmed that, when he took a pen 

 in his hand, an influence ran from his shoulder downward, 

 and impelled him to write oracular sentences. I listened 

 for a time, offering no observation. " And now," con- 

 tinued X., " this power has so risen as to reveal to me the 

 thoughts of others. Only this morning I told a friend 

 what he was thinking of, and what he intended to do 

 during the day." Here, I thought, is something that can 

 be at once tested. I said immediately to X.: "If you 

 wish to win to your cause an apostle, who will proclaim 

 your principles to the world from the housetop, tell me 

 what I am now thinking of." X. reddened, and did not 

 tell me my thought. 



Some time previously I had visited Baron Reichenbach, 

 in Vienna, and I now asked the young lady who sat beside 

 me, whether she could see any of the curious things which 

 he describes the light emitted by crystals, for example? 

 Here is the conversation which followed, as extracted from 

 my notes, written on the day following the seance. 



Medium. "Oh, yes; but I see light around all bodies." 



/. " Even in perfect darkness?" 



Medium. " Yes; I see luminous atmospheres round all 

 people. The atmosphere which surrounds Mr. R. C. would 

 fill this room with light." 



/. " You are aware of the effects ascribed by Baron 

 Reichenbach to magnets?" 



Medium. " Yes; but a magnet makes me terribly ill." 



/. "Am I to understand that, if this room were per- 

 fectly dark, you could tell whether it contained a magnet, 

 without being informed of the fact? " 



Mwliunt. " I should know of its presence on entering 

 the room." 



