XXXV] MESMERISM TO SPIRITUALISM 283 



that "he had forced Mrs. Hayden to avow herself an 

 impostor." As this was important if true, because this lady- 

 was the medium whose phenomena had convinced Professor 

 de Morgan, I inquired further about it, and found from 

 Mr. Lewes*s own statement of his experiment that he had 

 asked a series of written questions which were answered 

 through the alphabet by raps in the usual way, most of the 

 answers being either vague or altogether wrong, and the 

 last question was, " Is Mrs. Hayden an impostor " to which 

 the answer was " Yes." And this ingenious trick he after- 

 wards termed "forcing Mrs. Hayden to avow herself an 

 impostor ! " 



As it is always of interest to have at first-hand an 

 expression of the frame of mind of eminent men upon this 

 subject, I here give a letter from John Stuart Mill to a 

 gentleman who sent him a tract in which it was stated that 

 he, along with Ruskin, Tennyson, and Longfellow, had 

 become believers in spiritualism, and asking if it were true. 

 This gentleman, Mr. N. Kilburn, of Bishop Auckland, sent 

 me a copy of Mill's reply, which was as follows : — 



" It is the first time I ever heard that I was a believer 

 in spiritualism, and I am not sorry to be able to suppose 

 that some of the other names I have seen mentioned as 

 believers in it are no more so than myself. 



"For my own part I not only have never seen any 

 evidence that I think of the slightest weight in favour of 

 spiritualism, but I should also find it very difficult to believe 

 any of it on any evidence whatever, and I am in the habit 

 of expressing my opinion to that effect very freely when- 

 ever the subject is mentioned in my presence. You are at 

 liberty to make any use you please of this letter." 



This was dated "March 18, 1868," but I did not know 

 of it till 1874, or I might have mentioned the subject when 

 I dined with him in 1870. If by "any evidence whatever" 

 Mr. Mill meant testimony of others, I myself, and most 

 spiritualists, were in the same frame of mind when we began 

 our inquiries ; but as he used the word ^* evidence," he no 

 doubt included personal evidence, and to decide beforehand 



