[Chap, xxxvij INQUIRERS INTO SPIRITUALISM 301 



searched, and all requisite precautions taken. I was not 

 surprised, because of all I had heard from you and others ; 

 but the phenomenon was to me convincing. One such fact 

 is as good as a hundred. 



"At the third seance (last night) I preferred to ask 

 questions to having a repetition of the flowers. The value 

 of the answers received time may show. I have received a 

 wrong answer (as to a person being tall), also as to there 

 being a letter awaiting me at my hotel. Altogether the 

 conclusions I have arrived at are as follows : — 



"I. I have encountered a power capable of removing 

 sensible objects in a way altogether new to me. 



■ II. I have encountered an intelligence other than that 

 of the visible assistants. 



" III. In my seances this intelligence has shown itself 

 capable of reading my thought, but yet either liable to fall 

 into error or else not strictly truthful. 



"IV. It has been sometimes capricious, saying it will 

 not do what it has afterwards done, and that it will do what, 

 nevertheless, it has failed to perform. 



****** 



"I am precluded from saying how much I like your 

 friends, because I think this letter is to be read by them ; 

 but I am not precluded from thanking you, my dear Wallace, 

 for the introduction, which I do very heartily, remaining 

 always, 



" Yours very truly, 



"St. George Mivart." 



I was somewhat surprised at Mivart's appreciation of the 

 Guppys, because of the great contrast between them : he 

 extremely refined in speech and manners, and somewhat 

 fastidious in his acquaintances ; they both rather brusque and 

 utterly unconventional ; yet he evidently recognized in them 

 a straightforwardness of character, kindness of heart, love of 

 truth, and earnestness of purpose, which are vastly more 

 important than any amount of superficial polish. I may here 

 note that he would probably have had more satisfactory 



