330 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



Yet one more case of materialization may be given, 

 because it was even more remarkable in some respects than 

 any which have been here recorded. A Mr. Monk, a non- 

 conformist clergyman, was a remarkable medium, and in 

 order to be able to examine the phenomena carefully, and 

 to preserve the medium from the injury often caused by 

 repeated miscellaneous siances^ four gentlemen secured his 

 exclusive services for a year, hiring apartments for him on a 

 first floor in Bloomsbury, and paying him a moderate salary. 

 Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood and Mr. Stainton Moses were two 

 of these, and they invited me to see the phenomena that 

 occurred. It was a bright summer afternoon, and everything 

 happened in the full light of day. After a little conversation, 

 Monk, who was dressed in the usual clerical black, appeared 

 to go into a trance ; then stood up a few feet in front of us, 

 and after a little while pointed to his side, saying, " Look." 

 We saw there a faint white patch on his coat on the left side. 

 This grew brighter, then seemed to flicker, and extend both 

 upwards and downwards, till very gradually it formed a 

 cloudy pillar extending from his shoulder to his feet and 

 close to his body. Then he shifted himself a little sideways, 

 the cloudy figure standing still, but appearing joined to him 

 by a cloudy band at the height at which it had first begun to 

 form. Then, after a few minutes more. Monk again said 

 " Look," and passed his hand through the connecting band, 

 severing it. He and the figure then moved away from each 

 other till they were about five or six feet apart. The figure 

 had now assumed the appearance of a thickly draped female 

 form, with arms and hands just visible. Monk looked to- 

 wards it and again said to us " Look," and then clapped his 

 hands. On which the figure put out her hands, clapped them 

 as he had done, and we all distinctly heard her clap following 

 his, but fainter. The figure then moved slowly back to him, 

 grew fainter and shorter, and was apparently absorbed into 

 his body as it had grown out of it. 



Of course, such a narration as this, to those who know 

 nothing of the phenomena that gradually lead up to it, seems 

 mere midsummer madness. But to those who have for years 



