1874 A SPIRITUALISTIC STANCE 145 



shutter and curtains opposite the door. A small light 

 table with two flaps and four legs, unsteady and easily 

 moved, occupied the middle of the room, leaving not 

 much more than enough space for the chairs at the sides. 

 There was a chair at each end, two chairs on the fireplace 

 side, and one on the other. Mr. X (the medium) was 

 seated in the chair at the door end, Mr. Y (the host) in 

 the opposite chair, Mr. G. Darwin on the medium's right, 

 Mr. Huxley on his left, Mr. Z between Mr. Huxley and 

 Mr. [Darwin] Y. The table was small enough to allow 

 these five people to rest their hands on it, linking them 

 together. On the table was a guitar which lay obliquely 

 across it, an accordion on the medium's side of the guitar, 

 a couple of paper horns, a Japanese fan, a matchbox, and 

 a candlestick with a candle. 



At first the room was slightly darkened (leaving 

 plenty of light from the window, however) and we all 

 sat round for half an hour. My right foot was against 

 the medium's left foot, and two fingers of my right hand 

 had a good grip of the little finger of his left hand. I 

 compared my hand (which is not small and is strong) with 

 his, and was edified by its much greater massiveness and 

 strength. (No, we didn't link until the darkness. G. D.) 



G. D.'s left hand was, as I learn, linked with medium's 

 right hand, and left foot on medium's [left] right foot. 



We sat thus for half an hour as aforesaid and nothing 

 happened. 



The room was next thoroughly darkened by shutting 

 the shutters and drawing the curtains. Nevertheless, by 

 great good fortune I espied three points of light, coming 

 from the lighted passage outside the door. One of these 

 came beneath the door straight to my eye, the other two 

 were on the wall (or on a press) obliquely opposite. By 

 still greater good fortune, these three points of light had 

 such a position in reference to my eye that they gave me 

 three straight lines traversing and bounding the space 

 in which the medium sat, and I at once saw that if 



VOL. II L 



