xxxv] MESMERISM TO SPIRITUALISM 287 



saw a detached hand holding it while Home's two hands 

 were seen above the table by all present. This was one 

 of the ordinary phenomena, and thousands of persons have 

 witnessed it ; and when we consider that Home's stances 

 almost always took place in private houses at which he was 

 a guest, and with people absolutely above suspicion of collusion 

 with an impostor, and also either in the daytime or in a fully 

 illuminated room, it will be admitted that no form of legerde- 

 main will explain what occurred. 



In view of the extraordinary misstatements that were 

 continually made by scientific men, who had influence with 

 the public (and are still made both on this and on other 

 subjects), it will be well to give a short account of one of 

 these, which caused much discussion at the time. 



Mr. Home first came to England (since his childhood) 

 early in 1855, and lived for some months with Mr. Cox, of 

 Cox's Hotel in Jermyn Street Here, among numerous other 

 eminent men, he gave a sitting to Lord Brougham accom- 

 panied by Sir David Brewster, " in order to assist in finding 

 out the trick," as Sir David himself stated. About six 

 months afterwards a not quite correct account of this stance 

 was given in the Morning Advertiser, copied from an American 

 paper, whereupon Sir David wrote to the editor to give his 

 own account, in which he said, " It is quite true that I saw 

 at Cox's Hotel, in company with Lord Brougham, and at 

 Ealing, in company with Mrs. Trollope, several mechanical 

 effects which I was unable to explain. But although I could 

 not account for all these effects, I never thought of ascribing 

 them to spirits stalking beneath the drapery of the table ; 

 and / saw enough to satisfy myself tJiat tJiey could all be 

 produced by human Jiands and feet, and to prove to others 

 that some of them, at least, had such an origin. 



" Were Mr. Home to assume the character of the Wizard 

 of the West, I should enjoy his exhibition as much as that of 

 other conjurors ; but when he pretends to possess the power 

 of introducing among the feet of his audience the spirits of 

 the dead, of bringing them into physical communication with 

 their dearest relatives, and of revealing the secrets of the 



