{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28699/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28699","id":"gutenberg_28699","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28699","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Ghosts"],"text":"Produced by Irma Spehar, S.D., and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHISTORIC GHOSTS\n\nAND\n\nGHOST HUNTERS\n\n\n\n\nHISTORIC GHOSTS\n\nAND\n\nGHOST HUNTERS\n\nBY\n\nH. ADDINGTON BRUCE\n\n_Author of \"The Riddle of Personality\"_\n\nNEW YORK\n\nMOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY\n\n1908\n\n\n\n\n_Copyright_, 1908, _by_\n\nMOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY\n\nNEW YORK\n\n***\n\n_Published, September, 1908_\n\n\n_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A._\n\n\n\n\nTo\n\nTHE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND\n\nJOHN J. HENRY\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                  PAGE\n\n        PREFACE                                     ix\n\n     I. THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN                         1\n\n    II. THE DRUMMER OF TEDWORTH                     17\n\n   III. THE HAUNTING OF THE WESLEYS                 36\n\n    IV. THE VISIONS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG           56\n\n     V. THE COCK LANE GHOST                         81\n\n    VI. THE GHOST SEEN BY LORD BROUGHAM            102\n\n   VII. THE SEERESS OF PREVORST                    120\n\n  VIII. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. HOME                    143\n\n    IX. THE WATSEKA WONDER                         171\n\n     X. A MEDIEVAL GHOST HUNTER                    198\n\n    XI. GHOST HUNTERS OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY      216\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe following pages represent in the main a discussion of certain\ncelebrated mysteries, as viewed in the light of the discoveries set\nforth in the writer's earlier work \"The Riddle of Personality.\"\n\nThat dealt, it may briefly be recalled, with the achievements of those\nscientists whose special endeavor it is to illumine the nature of human\npersonality. On the one hand, it reviewed the work of the\npsychopathologists, or investigators of abnormal mental life; and, on\nthe other hand, the labors of the psychical researchers, those\nenthusiastic and patient explorers of the seemingly supernormal in human\nexperience. Emphasis was laid on the fact that the two lines of inquiry\nare more closely interrelated than is commonly supposed, and that the\ndiscoveries made in each aid in the solution of problems apparently\nbelonging exclusively in the other.\n\nTo this phase of the subject the writer now returns. The problems under\nexamination are, all of them, problems in psychical research: yet, as\nwill be found, the majority in no small measure depend for elucidation\non facts brought to light by the psychopathologists. Of course, it is\nnot claimed that the last word has here been said with respect to any\none of these human enigmas. But it is believed that, thanks to the\nknowledge gained by the investigations of the past quarter of a century,\napproximately correct solutions have been reached; and that, in any\nevent, it is by no means imperative to regard the phenomena in question\nas inexplicable, or as explicable only on a spiritistic basis.\n\nBefore attempting to solve the problems, it manifestly was necessary to\nstate them. In doing this the writer has sought to present them in a\nreadable and attractive form, but without any distortion or omission of\nmaterial facts.\n\n                                               H. ADDINGTON BRUCE.\n\nBROOKLINE, N. H., July, 1908.\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE DEVILS OF LOUDUN\n\n\nLoudun is a small town in France about midway between the ancient and\nromantic cities of Tours and Poitiers. To-day it is an exceedingly\nunpretentious and an exceedingly sleepy place; but in the seventeenth\ncentury it was in vastly better estate. Then its markets, its shops, its\ninns, lacked not business. Its churches were thronged with worshipers.\nThrough its narrow streets proud noble and prouder ecclesiastic, thrifty\nmerchant and active artisan, passed and repassed in an unceasing stream.\nIt was rich in points of interest, preeminent among which were its\ncastle and its convent. In the castle the stout-hearted Loudunians found\na refuge and a stronghold against the ambitions of the feudal lords and\nthe tyranny of the crown. To its convent, pleasantly situated in a grove\nof time-honored trees, they sent their children to be educated.\n\nIt is to the convent that we must turn our steps; for it was from the\nconvent that the devils were let loose to plague the good people of\nLoudun. And in order to understand the course of events, we must first\nmake ourselves acquainted with its history. Very briefly, then, it, like\nmany other institutions of its kind, was a product of the Catholic\ncounter-reformation designed to stem the rising tide of Protestantism.\nIt came into being in 1616, and was of the Ursuline order, which had\nbeen introduced into France not many years earlier. From the first it\nproved a magnet for the daughters of the nobility, and soon boasted a\ngoodly complement of nuns.\n\nAt their head, as mother superior, was a certain Jeanne de Belfiel, of\nnoble birth and many attractive qualities, but with characteristics\nwhich, as the sequel will show, wrought much woe to others as well as to\nthe poor gentlewoman herself. Whatever her defects, however, she labored\ntirelessly in the interests of the convent, and in this respect was ably\nseconded by its father confessor, worthy Father Moussaut, a man of rare\ngood sense and possessing a firm hold on the consciences and affections\nof the nuns.\n\nConceive their grief, therefore, when he suddenly sickened and died. Now\nensued an anxious time pending the appointment of his successor. Two\nnames were foremost for consideration--that of Jean Mignon, chief canon\nof the Church of the Holy Cross, and that of Urbain Grandier, cure of\nSaint Peter's of Loudun. Mignon was a zealous and learned ecclesiastic,\nbut belied his name by being cold, suspicious, and, some would have it,\nunscrupulous. Grandier, on the contrary, was frank and ardent and\ngenerous, and was idolized by the people of Loudun. But he had serious\nfailings. He was most unclerically gallant, was tactless, was overready\nto take offense, and, his wrath once fully roused, was unrelenting.\nAccordingly, little surprise was felt when the choice ultimately fell,\nnot on him but on Mignon.\n\nWith Mignon the devils entered the Ursuline convent. Hardly had he been\ninstalled when rumors began to go about of strange doings within its\nquiet walls; and that there was something in these rumors became evident\non the night of October 12, 1632, when two magistrates of Loudun, the\nbailie and the civil lieutenant, were hurriedly summoned to the convent\nto listen to an astonishing story. For upwards of a fortnight, it\nappeared, several of the nuns, including Mother Superior Belfiel, had\nbeen tormented by specters and frightful visions. Latterly they had\ngiven every evidence of being possessed by evil spirits. With the\nassistance of another priest, Father Barre, Mignon had succeeded in\nexorcising the demons out of all the afflicted save the mother superior\nand a Sister Claire.\n\nIn their case every formula known to the ritual had failed. The only\nconclusion was that they were not merely possessed but bewitched, and\nmuch as he disliked to bring notoriety on the convent, the father\nconfessor had decided it was high time to learn who was responsible for\nthe dire visitation. He had called the magistrates, he explained, in\norder that legal steps might be taken to apprehend the wizard, it being\nwell established that \"devils when duly exorcised must speak the truth,\"\nand that consequently there could be no doubt as to the identity of the\noffender, should the evil spirits be induced to name the source of their\nauthority.\n\nWithout giving the officials time to recover from their amazement,\nMignon led them to an upper room, where they found the mother superior\nand Sister Claire, wan-faced and fragile looking creatures on whose\ncountenances were expressions of fear that would have inspired pity in\nthe most stony-hearted. About them hovered monks and nuns. At sight of\nthe strangers, Sister Claire lapsed into a semi-comatose condition; but\nthe mother superior uttered piercing shrieks, and was attacked by\nviolent convulsions that lasted until the father confessor spoke to her\nin a commanding tone. Then followed a startling dialogue, carried on in\nLatin between Mignon and the soi-disant demon possessing her.\n\n\"Why have you entered this maiden's body?\"\n\n\"Because of hatred.\"\n\n\"What sign do you bring?\"\n\n\"Flowers.\"\n\n\"What flowers?\"\n\n\"Roses.\"\n\n\"Who has sent them?\"\n\nA moment's hesitation, then the single word--\"Urbain.\"\n\n\"Tell us his surname?\"\n\n\"Grandier.\"\n\nIn an instant the room was in an uproar. But the magistrates did not\nlose their heads. To the bailie in especial the affair had a suspicious\nlook. He had heard the devil \"speak worse Latin than a boy of the fourth\nclass,\" he had noted the mother superior's hesitancy in pronouncing\nGrandier's name, and he was well aware that deadly enmity had long\nexisted between Grandier and Mignon. So he placed little faith in the\nlatter's protestation that the naming of his rival had taken him\ncompletely by surprise. Consulting with his colleague, he coldly\ninformed Mignon that before any arrest could be made there must be\nfurther investigation, and, promising to return next day, bade them good\nnight.\n\nNext day found the convent besieged by townspeople, indignant at the\naccusation against the popular priest, and determined to laugh the\ndevils out of existence. Grandier himself, burning with rage, hastened\nto the bailie and demanded that the nuns be separately interrogated, and\nby other inquisitors than Mignon and Barre. In these demands the bailie\nproperly acquiesced; but, on attempting in person to enforce his orders\nto that effect, he was denied admittance to the convent. Excitement ran\nhigh; so high that, fearful for his personal safety, Mignon consented\nto accept as exorcists two priests appointed, not by the bailie, but by\nthe Bishop of Poitiers--who, it might incidentally be mentioned, had his\nown reasons for disliking Grandier.\n\nExorcising now went on daily, to the disgust of the serious-minded, the\nmystification of the incredulous, the delight of sensation-mongers, and\nthe baffled fury of Grandier. So far the play, if melodramatic, had not\napproached the tragic. Sometimes it degenerated to the broadest farce\ncomedy. Thus, on one occasion when the devil was being read out of the\nmother superior, a crashing sound was heard and a huge black cat tumbled\ndown the chimney and scampered about the room. At once the cry was\nraised that the devil had taken the form of a cat, a mad chase ensued,\nand it would have gone hard with pussy had not a nun chanced to\nrecognize in it the pet of the convent.\n\nStill, there were circumstances which tended to inspire conviction in\nthe mind of many. The convulsions of the possessed were undoubtedly\ngenuine, and undoubtedly they manifested phenomena seemingly\ninexplicable on any naturalistic basis. A contemporary writer,\ndescribing events of a few months later, when several recruits had been\nadded to their ranks, states that some \"when comatose became supple like\na thin piece of lead, so that their body could be bent in every\ndirection, forward, backward, or sideways, till their head touched the\nground,\" and that others showed no sign of pain when struck, pinched, or\npricked. Then, too, they whirled and danced and grimaced and howled in a\nmanner impossible to any one in a perfectly normal state.[A]\n\nFor a few brief weeks Grandier enjoyed a respite, thanks to the\nintervention of his friend, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who threatened\nto send a physician and priests of his own choice to examine the\npossessed, a threat of itself sufficient, apparently, to put the devils\nto flight. But they returned with undiminished vigor upon the arrival in\nLoudun of a powerful state official who, unfortunately for Grandier,\nwas a relative of Mother Superior Belfiel's. This official, whose name\nwas Laubardemont, had come to Loudun on a singular mission. Richelieu,\nthe celebrated cardinal statesman, in the pursuit of his policy of\nstrengthening the crown and weakening the nobility, had resolved to\nlevel to the ground the fortresses and castles of interior France, and\namong those marked for destruction was the castle of Loudun. Thither,\ntherefore, he dispatched Laubardemont to see that his orders were\nfaithfully executed.\n\nNaturally, the cardinal's commissioner became interested in the trouble\nthat had befallen his kinswoman, and the more interested when Mignon\nhinted to him that there was reason to believe that the suspected wizard\nwas also the author of a recent satire which had set the entire court\nlaughing at Richelieu's expense. What lent plausibility to this charge\nwas the fact that the satire had been universally accredited to a court\nbeauty formerly one of Grandier's parishioners. Also there was the fact\nthat in days gone by, when Richelieu was merely a deacon, he had had a\nviolent quarrel with Grandier over a question of precedence. Putting two\nand two together, and knowing that it would result to his own advantage\nto unearth the real author to the satire, Laubardemont turned a willing\near to the suggestion that the woman in question had allowed her old\npastor to shield himself behind her name.\n\nBack to Paris the commissioner galloped to carry the story to Richelieu.\nThe cardinal's anger knew no bounds. From the King he secured a warrant\nfor Grandier's arrest, and to this he added a decree investing\nLaubardemont with full inquisitorial powers. Events now moved rapidly.\nThough forewarned by Parisian friends, Grandier refused to seek safety\nby flight, and was arrested in spectacular fashion while on his way to\nsay mass. His home was searched, his papers were seized, and he himself\nwas thrown into an improvised dungeon in a house belonging to Mignon.\nWitnesses in his favor were intimidated, while those willing to testify\nagainst him were liberally rewarded. To such lengths did the prosecution\ngo that, discovering a strong undercurrent of popular indignation,\nLaubardemont actually procured from the King and council a decree\nprohibiting any appeal from his decisions, and gave out that, since\nKing and cardinal believed in the enchantment, any one denying it would\nbe held guilty of lese majesty divine and human.\n\nUnder these circumstances Grandier was doomed from the outset. But he\nmade a desperate struggle, and his opponents were driven to sore straits\nto bolster up their case. The devils persisted in speaking bad Latin,\nand continually failed to meet tests which they themselves had\nsuggested. Sometimes their failures were only too plainly the result of\nhuman intervention.\n\nFor instance, the mother superior's devil promised that, on a given\nnight and in the church of the Holy Cross, he would lift Laubardemont's\ncap from his head and keep it suspended in mid-air while the\ncommissioner intoned a _miserere_. When the time came for the fulfilment\nof this promise two of the spectators noticed that Laubardemont had\ntaken care to seat himself at a goodly distance from the other\nparticipants. Quietly leaving the church, these amateur detectives made\ntheir way to the roof, where they found a man in the act of dropping a\nlong horsehair line, to which was attached a small hook, through a hole\ndirectly over the spot where Laubardemont was sitting. The culprit\nfled, and that night another failure was recorded against the devil.\n\nBut such fiascos availed nothing to save Grandier. Neither did it avail\nhim that, before sentence was finally passed, Sister Claire, broken in\nbody and mind, sobbingly affirmed his innocence, protesting that she did\nnot know what she was saying when she accused him; nor that the mother\nsuperior, after two hours of agonizing torture self-imposed, fell on her\nknees before Laubardemont, made a similar admission, and, passing into\nthe convent orchard, tried to hang herself. The commissioner and his\ncolleagues remained obdurate, averring that these confessions were in\nthemselves evidence of witchcraft, since they could be prompted only by\nthe desire of the devils to save their master from his just fate. In\nAugust, 1634, Grandier's doom was pronounced. He was to be put to the\ntorture, strangled, and burned. This judgment was carried out to the\nletter, save that when the executioner approached to strangle him, the\nropes binding him to the stake loosened, and he fell forward among the\nflames, perishing miserably.\n\nIt only remains to analyze this medieval tragedy in the light of modern\nknowledge. To the people of his own generation Grandier was either a\nwizard most foul, or the victim of a dastardly plot in which all\nconcerned in harrying him to his death knowingly participated. These\nopinions posterity long shared. But now it is quite possible to reach\nanother conclusion. That there was a conspiracy is evident even from the\nfacts set down by those hostile to Grandier. On the other hand, it is as\nunnecessary as it is incredible to believe that the plotters included\nevery one instrumental in fixing on the unhappy cure the crime of\nwitchcraft.\n\nBearing in mind the discoveries of recent years in the twin fields of\nphysiology and psychology, it seems evident that the conspirators were\nactually limited in number to Mignon, Barre, Laubardemont, and a few of\ntheir intimates. In Laubardemont's case, indeed, there is some reason\nfor supposing that he was more dupe than knave, and is therefore to be\nplaced in the same category as the superstitious monks and townspeople\non whom Mignon and Barre so successfully imposed. As to the\npossessed--the mother superior and her nuns--they may one and all be\nincluded in a third group as the unwitting tools of Mignon's vengeance.\nIn fine, it is not only possible but entirely reasonable to regard\nMignon as a seventeenth-century forerunner of Mesmer, Elliotson,\nEsdaile, Braid, Charcot, and the present day exponents of hypnotism; and\nthe nuns as his helpless \"subjects,\" obeying his every command with the\nfidelity observable to-day in the patients of the Salpetriere and other\ncenters of hypnotic practice.\n\nThe justness of this view is borne out by the facts recorded by\ncontemporary annalists, of which only an outline has been given here.\nThe nuns of Loudun were, as has been said, mostly daughters of the\nnobility, and were thus, in all likelihood, temperamentally unstable,\nsensitive, high-strung, nervous. The seclusion of their lives, the\nmonotonous routine of their every-day occupations, and the possibilities\nafforded for dangerous, morbid introspection, could not but have a\nbaneful effect on such natures, leading inevitably to actual insanity or\nto hysteria. That the possessed were hysterical is abundantly shown by\nthe descriptions their historians give of the character of their\nconvulsions, contortions, etc., and by the references to the anesthetic,\nor non-sensitive, spots on their bodies. Now, as we know, the convent at\nLoudun had been in existence for only a few years before Mignon became\nits father confessor, and so, we may believe, it fell out that he\nappeared on the scene precisely when sufficient time had elapsed for\nenvironment and heredity to do their deadly work and provoke an epidemic\nof hysteria.\n\nIn those benighted times such attacks were popularly ascribed to\npossession by evil spirits. The hysterical nuns, as the chronicles tell\nus, explained their condition to Mignon by informing him that, shortly\nbefore the onset of their trouble, they had been haunted by the ghost of\ntheir former confessor, Father Moussaut. Here Mignon found his\nopportunity. Picture him gently rebuking the unhappy women, admonishing\nthem that such a good man as Father Moussaut would never return to\ntorment those who had been in his charge, and insisting that the source\nof their woes must be sought elsewhere; in, say, some evil disposed\nperson, hostile to Father Moussaut's successor, and hoping, through thus\nafflicting them, to bring the convent into disrepute and in this way\nstrike a deadly blow at its new father confessor. Who might be this evil\ndisposed person? Who, in truth, save Urbain Grandier?\n\nPicture Mignon, again, observing that his suggestion had taken root in\nthe minds of two of the most emotional and impressionable, the mother\nsuperior and Sister Claire. Then would follow a course of lessons\ndesigned to aid the suggestion to blossom into open accusation. And\npresently Mignon would make the discovery that the mother superior and\nSister Claire would, when in a hysterical state, blindly obey any\ncommand he might make, cease from their convulsions, respond\nintelligently and at his will to questions put to them, renew their\nconvulsions, lapse even into seeming dementia.\n\nDoubtless he did not grasp the full significance and possibilities of\nhis discovery--had he done so the devils would not have bungled matters\nso often, and no embarrassing confessions would have been forthcoming.\nBut he saw clearly enough that he had in his hand a mighty weapon\nagainst his rival, and history has recorded the manner and effectiveness\nwith which he used it.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] Aubin's \"Histoire des Diables de Loudun,\" a book by a writer who\nscoffed at the idea that the nuns had actually been bewitched. For an\naccount by a contemporary who firmly believed the charges brought\nagainst Grandier, consult Niau's \"La Veritable Histoire des Diables de\nLoudun.\" This latter work is accessible in an English translation by\nEdmund Goldsmid.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE DRUMMER OF TEDWORTH\n\n\nThere have been drummers a plenty in all countries and all ages, but\nthere surely has never been the equal of the drummer of Tedworth. His\nwas the distinction to inspire terror the length and breadth of a\nkingdom, to set a nation by the ears--nay, even to disturb the peace of\nChurch and Crown.\n\nWhen the Cromwellian wars broke out, he was in his prime, a stout,\nsturdy Englishman, suffering, as did his fellows, from the misrule of\nthe Stuarts, and ready for any desperate step that might better his\nfortunes. Volunteering, therefore, under the man of blood and iron,\ntradition has it that from the first battle to the last his drum was\nheard inspiring the revolutionists to mighty deeds of valor. The\nconflict at an end, Charles beheaded, and the Fifth Monarchy men\ncreating chaos in their noisy efforts to establish the Kingdom of God on\nearth, he lapsed into an obscurity that endured until the Restoration.\nThen he reemerged, not as a veteran living at ease on laurels well won,\nbut as a wandering beggar, roving from shire to shire in quest of alms,\nwhich he implored to the accompaniment of fearsome music from his\nbeloved drum.\n\nThus he journeyed, undisturbed and gaining a sufficient living, until he\nchanced in the spring of 1661 to invade the quiet Wiltshire village of\nTedworth. At that time the interests of Tedworth were identical with the\ninterests of a certain Squire Mompesson, and he, being a gouty,\nirritable individual, was little disposed to have his peace and the\npeace of Tedworth disturbed by the drummer's loud bawling and louder\ndrumming. At his orders rough hands seized the unhappy wanderer, blows\nrained upon him, and he was driven from Tedworth minus his drum. In vain\nhe begged the wrathful Mompesson to restore it to him; in vain, with the\ntears streaming down his battle-worn, weather-beaten face, he protested\nthat the drum was the only friend left to him in all the world; and in\nvain he related the happy memories it held for him. \"Go,\" he was roughly\ntold--\"go, and be thankful thou escapest so lightly!\" So go he did, and\nwhither he went nobody knew, and for the moment nobody cared.\n\nBut all Tedworth soon had occasion to wish that his lamentations had\nmoved the Squire to pity. Hardly a month later, when Mompesson had\njourneyed to the capital to pay his respects to the King, his family\nwere aroused in the middle of the night by angry voices and an incessant\nbanging on the front door. Windows were tried; entrance was vehemently\ndemanded. Within, panic reigned at once. The house was situated in a\nlonely spot, and it seemed certain that, having heard of its master's\nabsence, a band of highwaymen, with whom the countryside abounded, had\nplanned to turn burglars. The occupants, consisting as they did of women\nand children, could at best make scant resistance; and consequently\nthere was much quaking and trembling, until, finding the bolts and bars\ntoo strong for them, the unwelcome visitors withdrew.\n\nUnmeasured was Mompesson's wrath when he returned and learned of the\nalarm. He only hoped, he declared, that the villains would venture\nback--he would give them a greeting such as had not been known since\nthe days of the great war. That very night he had opportunity to make\ngood his boast, for soon after the household had sought repose the\ndisturbance broke out anew. Lighting a lantern, slipping into a\ndressing-gown, and snatching up a brace of pistols, the Squire dashed\ndown-stairs, the noise becoming louder the nearer he reached the door.\nClick, clash--the bolts were slipped back, the key was turned, and,\nlantern extended, he peered into the night.\n\nThe moment he opened the door all became still, and nothing but empty\ndarkness met his eyes. Almost immediately, however, the knocking began\nat a second door, to which, after making the first fast, he hurried,\nonly to find the same result, and to hear, with mounting anger, a tumult\nat yet another door. Again silence when this was thrown open. But,\nstepping outside, as he afterward told the story, Mompesson became aware\nof \"a strange and hollow sound in the air.\" Forthwith the suspicion\nentered his mind that the noises he had heard might be of supernatural\norigin. To him, true son of the seventeenth century, a suspicion of this\nsort was tantamount to certainty, and an unreasoning alarm filled his\nsoul; an alarm that grew into deadly fear when, safe in the bed he had\nhurriedly sought, a tremendous booming sound came from the top of the\nhouse.\n\nHere, in an upper room, for safe-keeping and as an interesting relic of\nthe Civil War, had been placed the beggar's drum, and the terrible\nthought occurred to Mompesson: \"Can it be that the drummer is dead, and\nthat his spirit has returned to torment me?\"\n\nA few nights later no room for doubt seemed left. Instead of the\nnocturnal shouting and knocking, there began a veritable concert from\nthe room containing the drum. This concert, Mompesson informed his\nfriends, opened with a peculiar \"hurling in the air over the house,\" and\nclosed with \"the beating of a drum like that at the breaking up of a\nguard.\" The mental torture of the Squire and his family may be easier\nimagined than described. And before long matters grew much worse, when,\nbecoming emboldened, the ghostly drummer laid aside his drum to play\npractical, and sometimes exceedingly painful, jokes on the members of\nthe household.\n\nCuriously enough, his malice was chiefly directed against Mompesson's\nchildren, who--poor little dears--had certainly never worked him any\ninjury. Yet we are told that for a time \"it haunted none particularly\nbut them.\" When they were in bed the coverings were dragged off and\nthrown on the floor; there was heard a scratching noise under the bed as\nof some animal with iron claws; sometimes they were lifted bodily, \"so\nthat six men could not hold them down,\" and their limbs were beaten\nviolently against the bedposts. Nor did the unseen and unruly visitant\nscruple to plague Mompesson's aged mother, whose Bible was frequently\nhidden from her, and in whose bed ashes, knives, and other articles were\nplaced.\n\nAs time passed marvels multiplied. The assurance is solemnly given that\n\"chairs moved of themselves.\" A board, it is insisted, rose out of the\nfloor of its own accord and flung itself violently at a servant. Strange\nlights, \"like corpse candles,\" floated about. The Squire's personal\nattendant John, \"a stout fellow and of sober conversation,\" was one\nnight confronted by a ghastly apparition in the form of \"a great body\nwith two red and glaring eyes.\" Frequently, too, when John was in bed\nhe was treated as were the children, his coverings removed, his body\nstruck, etc. But it was noticed that whenever he grasped and brandished\na sword he was left in peace. Clearly, the ghost had a healthy respect\nfor cold steel.\n\nIt had less respect for exorcising, which, of course, was tried, but\ntried in vain. All went well as long as the clergyman was on his knees\nsaying the prescribed prayers by the bedside of the tormented children,\nbut the moment he rose a bed staff was thrown at him and other articles\nof furniture danced about so madly that body and limb were endangered.\n\nMompesson was at his wits' end. Well might he be! Apart from the injury\ndone to his family and belongings, his house was thronged night and day\nby inquisitive visitors from all sections of the country. He was\ndenounced on the one hand as a trickster, and on the other as a man who\nmust be guilty of some terrible secret sin, else he would not thus be\nvexed. Sermons were preached with him as the text. Factions were formed,\nangrily affirming and denying the supernatural character of the\ndisturbances. News of the affair traveled even to the ears of the King,\nwho dispatched an investigating commission to Mompesson House, where,\ngreatly to the delight of the unbelieving, nothing untoward occurred\nduring the commissioners' visit. But thereafter, as if to make up for\nlost time, the most sensational and vexatious phenomena of the haunting\nwere produced.\n\nThus matters continued for many months, until it dawned on Mompesson and\nhis friends that possibly the case was not one of ghosts but one of\nwitchcraft. This suspicion rose from the singular circumstance that\nvoices in the children's room began, \"for a hundred times together,\" to\ncry \"A witch! A witch!\" Resolved to put matters to a test, one of the\nboldest of a company of spectators suddenly demanded, \"Satan, if the\ndrummer set thee to work, give three knocks and no more!\" To which three\nknocks were distinctly heard, and afterward, by way of confirmation,\nfive knocks as requested by another onlooker.\n\nNow began an eager hunt for the once despised drummer, who was presently\nfound in jail at Gloucester accused of theft. And with this discovery\nword was brought to Mompesson that the drummer had openly boasted of\nhaving bewitched him. This was enough for the outraged Squire. There was\nin existence an act of King James I. holding it a felony to \"feed,\nemploy, or reward any evil spirit,\" and under its provisions he speedily\nhad his alleged persecutor indicted as a wizard.\n\nAmid great excitement the aged veteran was brought from Gloucester to\nSalisbury to stand trial. But his spirit remained unbroken. Instead of\nconfessing, humbly begging mercy, and promising amends, he undertook to\nbargain with Mompesson, promising that if the latter secured his liberty\nand gave him employment as a farm hand, he would rid him of the\nhaunting. Perhaps because he feared treachery, perhaps because, as he\nsaid, he felt sure the drummer \"could do him no good in any honest way,\"\nMompesson rejected this ingenuous proposal.\n\nSo the drummer was left to his fate, which, for those days, was most\nunexpected. A packed and attentive court room listened to the tale of\nthe mishaps and misadventures that had made Mompesson House a national\ncenter of interest; it was proved that the accused had been intimate\nwith an old vagabond who pretended to possess supernatural powers; and\nemphasis was laid on the alleged fact that he had boasted of having\nrevenged himself on Mompesson for the confiscation of his drum. Luckily\nfor him, Mompesson was not the power in Salisbury that he was in\nTedworth, and the drummer's eloquent defense moved the jury to acquit\nhim and to send him on his way rejoicing. Thereafter he was never again\nheard of in Wiltshire or in the pages of history, and with his\ndisappearance came an end to the knockings, the corpse candles, and all\nthe other uncanny phenomena that had made life a ceaseless nightmare for\nthe Mompessons.\n\nSuch is the astonishing story of the drummer of Tedworth, still cited by\nthe superstitious as a capital example of the intermeddling of\nsuperhuman agencies in human affairs, and still mentioned by the\nskeptical as one of the most amusing and most successful hoaxes on\nrecord.\n\nTo us of the twentieth century its chief significance lies in the\nstriking resemblance between the tribulations of the Mompesson family\nand the so-called physical phenomena of modern spiritism. All who have\nattended spiritistic seances are familiar with the invisible and\nperverse ghost, which, for no apparent reason other than to mystify,\ncauses furniture to gyrate violently, rings bells, plays tambourines,\nlevitates the \"medium,\" and favors the spectators with sundry taps,\npinches, even blows. Precisely thus was it with the doings at Mompesson\nHouse, where many of the salient phenomena of modern spiritism were\nanticipated nearly two hundred and fifty years ago.\n\nThe inference is irresistible that a more or less intimate connection\nexists between the disturbances at Tedworth and the triumphs of\nlatter-day mediumship, and it thus becomes doubly interesting to examine\nthe evidence for and against the supernatural origin of the performances\nthat so perplexed the Englishmen of the Restoration. This evidence is\npresented in far greater detail than is here possible, in a curious\ndocument written by the Reverend Joseph Glanvill, a clergyman of the\nChurch of England and an eye witness of some of the phenomena. His point\nof view is that of an ardent believer in the verity of witchcraft, and\nhis narrative of the Tedworth affair finds place in a treatise designed\nto discomfit those irreligious persons who maintained the opposite.[B]\nIt is therefore evident that his account of the case is to be regarded\nas a piece of special pleading, and as such must be received with\ncritical caution.\n\nThe need for caution is further emphasized by the important circumstance\nthat of all the phenomena described, only those most susceptible of\nmundane interpretation were witnessed by Glanvill or Mompesson. All of\nthe more extraordinary--the great body with the red and glaring eyes,\nthe levitated children, etc.--came to the narrator from second or third\nor fourth hand sources not always clearly indicated, and doubtless\nuneducated and superstitious persons, such as peasants or servants,\nwhose fears would lend wings to their imagination.\n\nKeeping these facts before us, what do we find? We find that, so far\nfrom supporting the supernatural view, the evidence points to a\nsystematic course of fraud and deceit carried out, not by the drummer,\nnot by Mompesson and Glanvill (as many of that generation were unkind\nenough to suggest), not by the Mompesson servants, but by the Mompesson\nchildren, and particularly by the oldest child, a girl of ten.\n\nIt was about the children that the disturbances centered, it was in\ntheir room that the manifestations usually took place, and--what should\nhave served to direct suspicion to them at once--when, in the hope of\naffording them relief, their father separated them, sending the youngest\nto lodge with a neighbor and taking the oldest into his own room, it was\nremarked that the neighbor's house immediately became the scene of\ndemoniac activity, as did the Squire's apartment, which had previously\nbeen virtually undisturbed. Here and now developed a phenomenon that\nplaces little Miss Mompesson on a par with the celebrated Fox sisters,\nfor her father's bed chamber was turned into a seance room in which\nmessages were rapped out very much as messages have been rapped out ever\nsince the fateful night in 1848 that saw modern spiritism ushered into\nthe world.\n\nGlanvill's personal testimony, the most precise and circumstantial in\nthe entire case, strongly, albeit unwittingly, supports this view of the\naffair. It appears that he passed only one night in the haunted house,\nand of his several experiences there is none that cannot be set down to\nfraud plus imagination, with the children the active agents. Witness the\nfollowing from his story of what he heard and beheld in the\noft-mentioned \"children's room\":\n\n\"At this time it used to haunt the children, and that as soon as they\nwere laid. They went to bed the night I was there about eight of the\nclock, when a maid servant, coming down from them, told us that it was\ncome.... Mr. Mompesson and I and a gentleman that came with me went up.\nI heard a strange scratching as I went up the stairs, and when we came\ninto the room I perceived _it was just behind the bolster of the\nchildren's bed and seemed to be against the tick. It was as loud a\nscratching as one with long nails could make upon a bolster_. There were\ntwo modest little girls in the bed, between seven and eight years old,\nas I guessed. I saw their hands out of the clothes, and they could not\ncontribute to the noise that was behind their heads. _They had been used\nto it and still[C] had somebody or other in the chamber with them, and\ntherefore seemed not to be much affrighted._\n\n\"I, standing at the bed's head, thrust my hand behind the bolster,\ndirecting it to the place whence the noise seemed to come. _Whereupon\nthe noise ceased there, and was heard in another part of the bed; but\nwhen I had taken out my hand it returned and was heard in the same place\nas before._[D] I had been told it would imitate noises, and made trial\nby scratching several times upon the sheet, as five, and seven, and ten,\nwhich it followed, and still stopped at my number. I searched under and\nbehind the bed, turned up the clothes to the bed cords, grasped the\nbolster, sounded the wall behind, and made all the search that possibly\nI could, to find if there were any trick, contrivance, or common cause\nof it. The like did my friend, but we could discover nothing.\n\n\"So that I was then verily persuaded, and am so still, that the noise\nwas made by some demon or spirit.\"\n\nDoubtless his countenance betrayed the receptiveness of his mind, and it\nis not surprising that the naughty little girls proceeded to work\nindustriously upon his imagination. He speaks of having heard under the\nbed a panting sound, which, he is certain, caused \"a motion so strong\nthat it shook the room and windows very sensibly\"; and it also appears\nthat he was induced to believe that he saw something moving in a \"linen\nbag\" hanging in the room, which bag, on being emptied, was found to\ncontain nothing animate. Therefore--spirits again! After bidding the\nchildren good night and retiring to the room set apart for him, he was\nwakened from a sound sleep by a tremendous knocking on his door, and to\nhis terrified inquiry, \"In the name of God, who is it, and what would\nyou have?\" received the not wholly reassuring reply, \"Nothing with you.\"\nIn the morning, when he spoke of the incident and remarked that he\nsupposed a servant must have rapped at the wrong door, he learned to his\nprofound astonishment that \"no one of the house lay that way or had\nbusiness thereabout.\" This being so, it could not possibly have been\nanything but a ghost.\n\nThus runs the argument of the superstitious clergyman. And all the\nwhile, we may feel tolerably sure, little Miss Mompesson was chuckling\ninwardly at the panic into which she had thrown the reverend gentleman.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf it be objected that no girl of ten could successfully execute such a\nsustained imposture, one need only point to the many instances in which\nchildren of equally tender years or little older have since ventured on\nsimilar mystifications, with even more startling results. Incredible as\nit may seem to those who have not looked into the subject, it is a fact\nthat there are boys and girls--especially girls--who take a morbid\ndelight in playing pranks that will astound and perplex their elders.\nThe mere suggestion that Satan or a discarnate spirit is at the bottom\nof the mischief will then act as a powerful stimulus to the elaboration\nof even more sensational performances, and the result, if detection does\nnot soon occur, will be a full-fledged \"poltergeist,\" as the\ncrockery-breaking, furniture-throwing ghost is technically called.\n\nThe singular affair of Hetty Wesley, which we shall take up next, is a\ncase in point. So, too, is the history of the Fox sisters, who were\nextremely juvenile when they discovered the possibilities latent in the\nproperly manipulated rap and knock. And the spirits who so maliciously\ndisturbed the peace of good old Dr. Phelps in Stratford, Connecticut, a\nhalf century and more ago, unquestionably owed their being to the nimble\nwit and abnormal fancy of his two step-children, aged sixteen and\neleven.\n\nIt is to be remembered, further, that contemporary conditions were\nexceptionally favorable to the success of the Tedworth hoax. In all\nlikelihood the children had nothing to do with the first alarm, the\nalarm that occurred during Mompesson's absence in London; and possibly\nthe second was only a rude practical joke by some village lads who had\nheard of the first and wished to put the Squire's courage to a test. But\nonce the little Mompessons learned, or suspected, that their father\nassociated the noises with the vagrant drummer, a wide vista of\nenjoyment would open before their mischief-loving minds. Entering on a\ncareer of mystification, they would find the road made easy by the\ngullibility of those about them; and the chances are that had they been\ncaught _in flagrante delicto_ they would have put in the plea that\nfraudulent mediums so frequently offer to-day--\"An evil spirit took\npossession of me.\" As it was, the superstition of the times--and\ndoubtless the rats and shaky timbers of Mompesson House did their\npart--was their constant and unfailing support. Everything that happened\nwould be magnified and distorted by the witnesses, either at the moment\nor in retrospect, until in the end the Rev. Mr. Glanvill, recording\nhonestly enough what he himself had seen, could find material for a\nhistory of the most marvelous marvels.\n\nIn short, the more closely one examines the details of the Tedworth\nmystery, the more will he find himself in agreement with George\nCruikshank's brutally frank opinion:\n\n    \"All this seems very strange, about this drummer and his drum;\n    But for myself I really think this drumming ghost was all a hum.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[B] Glanvill's \"Sadducismus Triumphatus,\" a most instructive and\nentertaining contribution to the literature of witchcraft. Contemporary\nopinion of Glanvill is well expressed in Anthony a Wood's statement that\n\"he was a person of more than ordinary parts, of a quick, warm, spruce,\nand gay fancy, and was more lucky, at least in his own judgment, in his\nfirst hints and thoughts of things, than in his after notions, examined\nand digested by longer and more mature deliberation. He had a very\ntenacious memory, and was a great master of the English language,\nexpressing himself therein with easy fluency, and in a manly, yet withal\na clear style.\" Glanvill died in 1680 at the early age of forty-four.\n\n[C] Used here in the sense of \"always.\"\n\n[D] The Italics are mine.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE HAUNTING OF THE WESLEYS\n\n\nThe Rev. Samuel Wesley is chiefly known to posterity as the father of\nthe famous John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and of the hardly less\nfamous Charles Wesley. But the Rev. Samuel has further claims to\nremembrance. If he gave to the world John and Charles Wesley, he was\nalso the sire of seventeen other Wesleys, eight of whom, like their\ncelebrated brothers, grew to maturity and attained varying degrees of\ndistinction.\n\nHe was himself a man of distinction as preacher, poet, and\ncontroversialist. His sermons were sermons in the good, old-fashioned\nsense of the term. His poems were the despair of the critics, but won\nhim a wide reputation. He was an adept in what Whistler called the\ngentle art of making enemies. Though more familiar with the inside of a\npulpit, he was not unacquainted with the inside of a jail. He raised his\nnumerous progeny on an income seldom exceeding one thousand dollars a\nyear. And, what is perhaps the most astonishing fact in a career replete\nwith surprises, he was the hero of one of the best authenticated ghost\nstories on record.\n\nThis visitation from the supermundane came as a climax to a series of\nworldly annoyances that would have upset the equanimity of a very\nJob--and the Rev. Samuel, in temper at any rate, was the reverse of\nJob-like. His troubles began in the closing years of the seventeenth\ncentury, when he became rector of the established church at Epworth,\nLincolnshire, a venerable edifice dating back to the stormy days of\nEdward II., and as damp as it was old. The story goes that this living\nwas granted him as a reward because he dedicated one of his poems to\nQueen Mary. But the Queen would seem to have had punishment in mind for\nhim, rather than reward.\n\nLocated in the Isle of Axholme, in the midst of a long stretch of fen\ncountry bounded by four rivers, and for a great part under water,\nEpworth was at that epoch dreariness itself. The Rev. Samuel's spirits\nmust have sunk within him as the carts bearing his already large family\nand his few household belongings toiled through quagmire and morass;\nthey must have fallen still farther when he gazed down the one\nstraggling street at the rectory of mud and thatch that was to be his\nhome; and they must have touched the zero mark, zealous High Churchman\nthat he was, with the discovery that his peasant parishioners were\nPresbyterian-minded folk who hated ritualism as cordially as they hated\nthe Pope.\n\nWhatever his secret sentiments, he lost no time in endeavoring to stamp\nthe imprint of his vigorous personality on Epworth. Forgetful, or\nunheedful, of the fact that the natives of the Isle of Axholme were\nnotoriously violent and lawless, he began to rule them with a rod of\niron. Thus they should think, thus they should do, thus they should go!\nAbove all, the Rev. Samuel never permitted them to forget that in\naddition to spiritual they owed him temporal obligations. In the matter\nof tithes--always a sore subject in a community hard put to extract a\nliving from the soil--he was unrelenting.\n\nNecessity may have driven him; but it was only to be expected that\nmurmurings should arise, and from words the angry islanders passed to\ndeeds. For a time they contented themselves with burning the rector's\nbarn and trying to burn his house. Then, when he was so indiscreet as to\nbecome indebted to one of their number, they clapped him into prison.\nHis speedy release, through the intervention of clerical friends, and\nhis blunt refusal to seek a new sphere of activity, were followed by\nmore barn burning, by the slaughter of his cattle, and finally by a fire\nthat utterly destroyed the rectory and all but cost the lives of several\nof its inmates, who by that time included the future father of\nMethodism.\n\nThe bravery with which the Rev. Samuel met this crowning disaster, and\nthe energy with which he set about the task of rebuilding his home--not\nin mud and thatch, but in substantial brick--seem to have shamed the\nvillagers into giving him peace, seem even to have inspired them with a\ngenuine regard for him. He for his part, if we read the difficult pages\nof his biographers aright, appears to have grown less exacting and more\ndiplomatic. In any event, he was left in quiet to prepare his sermons,\nwrite his poems, and assist his devoted wife (who, by the way, he is\nsaid to have deserted for an entire year because of a little difference\nof opinion respecting the right of William of Orange to the English\ncrown) in the upbringing of their children. Thus his life ran along in\ncomparative smoothness until the momentous advent of the ghost.\n\nThis unexpected and unwelcome visitor made its first appearance early in\nDecember, 1716. At the time the Wesley boys were away from home, but the\nhousehold was still sufficiently numerous, consisting of the Rev.\nSamuel, Mrs. Wesley, seven daughters,--Emilia, Susannah, Maria,\nMehetabel, Anne, Martha, and Kezziah,--a man servant named Robert Brown,\nand a maid servant known as Nanny Marshall. Nanny was the first to whom\nthe ghost paid its respects, in a series of blood-curdling groans that\n\"caused the upstarting of her hair, and made her ears prick forth at an\nunusual rate.\" In modern parlance, she was greatly alarmed, and hastened\nto tell the Misses Wesley of the extraordinary noises, which, she\nassured them, sounded exactly like the groans of a dying man. The\nderisive laughter of the young women left her state of mind unchanged;\nand they too gave way to alarm when, a night or so later, loud knocks\nbegan to be heard in different parts of the house, accompanied by sundry\n\"groans, squeaks, and tinglings.\"\n\nOddly enough, the only member of the family unvisited by the ghost was\nthe Rev. Samuel, and upon learning that he had heard none of the direful\nsounds his wife and children made up their minds that his death was\nimminent; for a local superstition had it that in all such cases of\nhaunting the person undisturbed is marked for an early demise. But the\nworthy clergyman continued hale and hearty, as did the ghost, whose\nknockings, indeed, soon grew so terrifying that \"few or none of the\nfamily durst be alone.\" It was then resolved that, whatever the noises\nportended, counsel and aid must be sought from the head of the\nhousehold. At first the Rev. Samuel listened in silence to his spouse's\nrecital; but as she proceeded he burst into a storm of wrath. A ghost?\nStuff and nonsense! Not a bit of it! Only some mischief-makers bent on\nplaguing them. Possibly, and his choler rose higher, a trick played by\nhis daughters themselves, or by their lovers.\n\nNow it was the turn of the Wesley girls to become angry, and we read\nthat they forthwith showed themselves exceedingly \"desirous of its\ncontinuance till he was convinced.\" Their desire was speedily granted.\nThe very next night paterfamilias had no sooner tumbled into bed than\nthere came nine resounding knocks \"just by his bedside.\" In an instant\nhe was up and groping for a light. \"You heard it, then?\" we may imagine\nMrs. Wesley anxiously asking, and we may also imagine the robust\nAnglo-Saxon of his response.\n\nAnother night and more knockings, followed by \"a noise in the room over\nour heads, as if several people were walking.\" This time, to quote\nfurther from Mrs. Wesley's narrative as given in a letter to her absent\nson Samuel, the tumult \"was so outrageous that we thought the children\nwould be frightened; so your father and I rose, and went down in the\ndark to light a candle. Just as we came to the bottom of the broad\nstairs, having hold of each other, on my side there seemed as if\nsomebody had emptied a bag of money at my feet; and on his, as if all\nthe bottles under the stairs (which were many) had been dashed in a\nthousand pieces. We passed through the hall into the kitchen, and got a\ncandle and went to see the children, whom we found asleep.\"\n\nWith this the Rev. Samuel seems to have come round to the family's way\nof thinking; for in the morning he sent a messenger to the nearby\nvillage of Haxey with the request that the vicar of Haxey, a certain Mr.\nHoole, would ride over and assist him in \"conjuring\" the evil spirit out\nof his house. Burning with curiosity, Mr. Hoole made such good time to\nEpworth that before noon he was at the rectory and eagerly listening to\nan account of the marvels that had so alarmed the Wesleys.\n\nIn addition to the phenomena already set forth, he learned that while\nthe knocks were heard in all parts of the house, they were most frequent\nin the children's room; that at prayers they almost invariably\ninterrupted the family's devotions, especially when Mr. Wesley began the\nprayers for King George and the Prince of Wales, from which it was\ninferred that the ghost was a Jacobite; that often a sound was heard\nlike the rocking of a cradle, and another sound like the gobbling of a\nturkey, and yet another \"something like a man, in a loose nightgown\ntrailing after him\"; and that if one stamped his foot, \"Old Jeffrey,\"\nas the younger children had named the ghost, would knock precisely as\nmany times as there had been stampings.\n\nNone of these major marvels was vouchsafed to Mr. Hoole; but he heard\nknockings in plenty, and, after a night of terror, made haste back to\nHaxey, having lost all desire to play the role of exorcist. His fears\nmay possibly have been increased by the violence of Mr. Wesley, who,\nafter vainly exhorting the ghost to speak out and tell his business,\nflourished a pistol and threatened to discharge it in the direction\nwhence the knockings came. This was too much for peace-loving,\nspook-fearing Mr. Hoole. \"Sir,\" he protested, \"you are convinced this is\nsomething preternatural. If so, you cannot hurt it; but you give it\npower to hurt you.\" The logic of Mr. Hoole's argument is hardly so\nevident as his panic. Off he galloped, leaving the Rev. Samuel to lay\nthe ghost as best he could.\n\nAfter his departure wonders grew apace. Thus far the manifestations had\nbeen wholly auditory; now visual phenomena were added. One evening Mrs.\nWesley beheld something dart out from beneath a bed and quickly\ndisappear. Sister Emilia, who was present, reported to brother Samuel\nthat this something was \"like a badger, only without any head that was\ndiscernible.\" The same apparition came to confound the man servant,\nRobert Brown, once in the badger form, and once in the form of a white\nrabbit which \"turned round before him several times.\" Robert was also\nthe witness of an even more peculiar performance by the elusive ghost.\n\"Being grinding corn in the garrets, and happening to stop a little, the\nhandle of the mill was turn [_sic_] round with great swiftness.\" It is\ninteresting to note that Robert subsequently declared that \"nothing\nvexed him but that the mill was empty. If corn had been in it, Old\nJeffrey might have ground his heart out for him; he would never have\ndisturbed him.\" More annoying was a habit into which the ghost fell of\nrattling latches, jingling warming pans and other metal utensils, and\nbrushing rudely against people in the dark. \"Thrice,\" asserted the Rev.\nSamuel, \"I have been pushed by an invisible power, once against the\ncorner of my desk in the study, a second time against the door of the\nmatted chamber, a third time against the right side of the frame of my\nstudy door.\"\n\nOn at least one occasion Old Jeffrey indulged in a pastime popular with\nthe spiritistic mediums of a later day. John Wesley tells us, on the\nauthority of sister Nancy, that one night, when she was playing cards\nwith some of the many other sisters, the bed on which she sat was\nsuddenly lifted from the ground. \"She leapt down and said, 'Surely Old\nJeffrey would not run away with her.' However, they persuaded her to sit\ndown again, which she had scarce done when it was again lifted up\nseveral times successively, a considerable height, upon which she left\nher seat and would not be prevailed upon to sit there any more.\"\n\nClearly, the Wesley family were in a bad way. Entreaties, threats,\nexorcism, had alike failed to banish the obstinate ghost. But though\nthey knew it not, relief was at hand. Whether repenting of his\nmisdoings, or desirous of seeking pastures new, Jeffrey, after a\nvisitation lasting nearly two months, took his departure almost as\nunceremoniously as he had arrived, and left the unhappy Wesleys to\nresume by slow degrees their wonted ways of life.\n\nSuch is the story unfolded by the Wesleys themselves in a series of\nletters and memoranda, which, taken together, form, as was said, one of\nthe best authenticated narratives of haunting extant. But before\nendeavoring to ascertain the source of the phenomena credited to the\nsoi-disant Jeffrey, another and fully as important inquiry must be made.\nWhat, it is necessary to ask, did the Wesleys actually hear and see in\nthe course of the two months that they had their ghost with them? The\nanswer obviously must be sought through an analysis of the evidence for\nthe haunting. This chronologically falls into three divisions. The first\nconsists of letters addressed to young Samuel Wesley by his father,\nmother, and two of his sisters, and written at the time of the\ndisturbances; the second, of letters written by Mrs. Wesley and four of\nher daughters to John Wesley in the summer and autumn of 1726 (that is\nto say, more than nine years after the haunting), of an account written\nby the senior Samuel Wesley, and of statements by Hoole and Robert\nBrown; the third, of an article contributed to \"The Arminian Magazine\"\nin 1784 (nearly seventy years after the event) by John Wesley.\n\nNow, the most cursory examination of the various documents shows\nremarkable discrepancies between the earlier and later versions. Writing\nto her son Samuel, when the ghost was still active, and she would not be\nlikely to minimize its doings, Mrs. Wesley thus describes the first\noccurrences:\n\n\"On the first of December, our maid heard, at the door of the\ndining-room, several dismal groans like a person in extremes, at the\npoint of death. We gave little heed to her relation and endeavored to\nlaugh her out of her fears. Some nights (two or three) after, several of\nthe family heard a strange knocking in divers places, usually three or\nfour knocks at a time, and then stayed a little. This continued every\nnight for a fortnight; sometimes it was in the garret, but most commonly\nin the nursery, or green chamber.\"\n\nContrast with this the portion of John Wesley's \"Arminian Magazine\"\narticle referring to the same period:\n\n\"On the second of December, 1716, while Robert Brown, my father's\nservant, was sitting with one of the maids, a little before ten at\nnight, in the dining-room which opened into the garden, they both heard\none knocking at the door. Robert rose and opened it, but could see\nnobody. Quickly it knocked again and groaned.... He opened the door\nagain twice or thrice, the knocking being twice or thrice repeated; but\nstill seeing nothing, and being a little startled, they rose and went up\nto bed. When Robert came to the top of the garret stairs, he saw a\nhandmill, which was at a little distance, whirled about very swiftly....\nWhen he was in bed, he heard as it were the gobbling of a turkey cock\nclose to the bedside; and soon after, the sound of one stumbling over\nhis shoes and boots; but there were none there, he had left them\nbelow.... The next evening, between five and six o'clock, my sister\nMolly, then about twenty years of age, sitting in the dining-room\nreading, heard as if it were the door that led into the hall open, and a\nperson walking in, that seemed to have on a silk nightgown, rustling and\ntrailing along. It seemed to walk round her, then to the door, then\nround again; but she could see nothing.\"\n\nAs a matter of fact, the contemporary records are silent respecting the\nextraordinary happenings that overshadow all else in the records of 1726\nand 1784. In the former, for example, we find no reference to the\naffair of the mill handle, the levitation of the bed, the rude bumpings\ngiven to Mr. Wesley. There is much talk of knockings and groanings, of\nsounds like footsteps, rustling silks, falling coals, breaking bottles,\nand moving latches; allusion is made to the badger like and rabbit like\napparition; and there is mention of a peculiar dancing of father's\n\"trencher\" without \"anybody's stirring the table\"; but the sum total\nmakes very tame reading compared with the material to be found in the\naccounts written in after years and commonly utilized--as it has been\nutilized here--to form the narrative of the haunting. Not only this, but\na rigorous division of the contemporary evidence into first hand and\nsecond hand still further eliminates the element of the marvelous.\nAdmitting as evidence only the fact set forth as having been observed by\nthe relators themselves, the haunting is reduced to a matter of knocks,\ngroans, tinglings, squeaks, creakings, crashings, and footsteps.\n\nWe are, therefore, justified in believing that in this case, like so\nmany others of its kind, the fallibility of human memory has played an\noverwhelming part in exaggerating the experiences actually undergone;\nthat, in fine, nothing occurred in the rectory at Epworth, between\nDecember 1, 1716, and January 31, 1717, that may not be attributed to\nhuman agency.\n\nWho, then, was the agent? Knowing what we do of Wesley's previous\nrelations with the villagers, the first impulse is to place the\nresponsibility at their door. But for this there is no real warrant.\nYears had elapsed since the culminating catastrophe of the burning of\nthe rectory, and in the interim matters had been put on an amicable\nbasis. Moreover, the evidence as to the haunting itself goes to show\nthat the phenomena could not possibly have been produced by a person, or\npersons, operating from outdoors; but must, on the contrary, have been\nthe work of some one intimately acquainted with the arrangements of the\nhouse and enjoying the full confidence of its master.\n\nThus our inquiry narrows to the inmates of the rectory. Of these, Mr.\nand Mrs. Wesley, may at once be left out of consideration, as also may\nthe servants, all accounts agreeing that from the outset they were\ngenuinely alarmed. There remain only the Wesley girls, and our effort\nmust be to discover which of them was the culprit.\n\nAt first blush this seems an impossible task; but let us scan the\nevidence carefully. We find, to begin with, that only four of the seven\nsisters are represented in the correspondence relating to the haunting.\nTwo of the others, Kezziah and Martha, were mere children and not of\nletter-writing age, and their silence in the matter is thus\nsatisfactorily accounted for. But that the third, Mehetabel, should\nlikewise be silent is distinctly puzzling. Not only was she quite able\nto give an account of her experiences (she was at least between eighteen\nand nineteen years of age), but it is known that she had a veritable\npassion for pen and ink, a passion which in after years won her no mean\nreputation as a poetess. And, more than this, she seems to have enjoyed\na far greater share of Jeffrey's attentions than did any other member of\nthe family. \"My sister Hetty, I find,\" remarks the observing Samuel,\n\"was more particularly troubled.\" And Emilia declares, almost in the\nlanguage of complaint, that \"it was never near me, except two or three\ntimes, and never followed me as it did my sister Hetty.\"\n\nManifestly, it may be worth while to inquire into the history and\ncharacteristics of this young woman. Her biographer, Dr. Adam Clarke,\ninforms us that \"from her childhood she was gay and sprightly; full of\nmirth, good humor, and keen wit. She indulged this disposition so much\nthat it was said to have given great uneasiness to her parents; because\nshe was in consequence often betrayed into inadvertencies which, though\nof small moment in themselves, showed that her mind was not under proper\ndiscipline; and that fancy, not reason, often dictated that line of\nconduct which she thought proper to pursue.\"\n\nThis information is the more interesting, in the present connection,\nsince it contrasts strongly with the unqualified commendation Dr. Clarke\naccords the other sisters. From the same authority we learn that as a\nchild Miss Mehetabel was so precocious that at the age of eight she\ncould read the Greek Testament in the original; that she was from her\nearliest youth emotional and sentimental; that despite her intellectual\ntastes and attainments she gave her hand to an illiterate journeyman\nplumber and glazier; and that when the fruit of this union lay dying by\nher side she insisted on dictating to her husband a poem afterward\npublished under the moving caption of \"A Mother's Address to Her Dying\nInfant.\" Another of her poems, by the way, is significantly entitled,\n\"The Lucid Interval.\"\n\nThere can, then, be little question that Hetty Wesley was precisely the\ntype of girl to derive amusement by working on the superstitious fears\nof those about her. We find, too, in the evidence itself certain\nfugitive references directly pointing to her as the creator of Old\nJeffrey. It seems that she had a practice of sitting up and moving about\nthe house long after all the other inmates, except her father, had\nretired for the night. The ghost was especially noisy and malevolent\nwhen in her vicinity, knocking boisterously on the bed in which she\nslept, and even knocking under her feet. And what is most suggestive,\ntwo witnesses, her father and her sister Susannah, testify that on some\noccasions the noises failed to wake her, but caused her \"to tremble\nexceedingly in her sleep.\" It must, indeed, have been a difficult matter\nto restrain laughter at the spectacle of the night-gowned, night-capped,\nmuch bewildered parson, candle in one hand and pistol in the other,\npeering under and about the bed in quest of the invisible ghost.\n\nTo be sure, it is impossible to adduce positive proof that Hetty Wesley\nand Old Jeffrey were one and the same. But the evidence supports this\nview of the case as it supports no other, and, taken in conjunction with\nthe facts of her earlier and later life, leaves little doubt that had\nthe Rev. Samuel paid closer attention to the comings and goings of this\nparticular daughter the ghost that so sorely tried him would have taken\nits flight much sooner than it did. Her motive for the deception must be\nleft to conjecture. In all probability it was only the desire to amaze\nand terrorize, a desire as was said before, not infrequently operative\nalong similar lines in the case of young people of a lively disposition\nand morbid imagination.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE VISIONS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG\n\n\nIn mid April of the memorable year 1745, two men, hastening through a\nbusy London thoroughfare, paused for a moment to follow with their eyes\na third, whom they had greeted but who had passed without so much as a\nglance in their direction. The face of one betrayed chagrin; but the\nother smiled amusedly.\n\n\"You must not mind, dear fellow,\" said he; \"that is only Swedenborg's\nway, as you will discover when you know him better. His feet are on the\nearth; but for the moment his mind is in the clouds, pondering some\nsolution to the wonderful problems he has set himself, marvelous man\nthat he is.\"\n\n\"Yet,\" objected the other, \"he seems such a thorough man of the world,\nso finely dressed, so courtly as a rule in speech and manner.\"\n\n\"He is a man of the world, a true cosmopolitan,\" was the quick response.\n\"I warrant few are so widely and so favorably known. He is as much at\nhome in London, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Amsterdam, or Copenhagen as in\nhis native city of Stockholm. Kings and Queens, grand dames and gallant\nwits, statesmen and soldiers, scientists and philosophers, find pleasure\nin his society. He can meet all on their own ground, and to all he has\nsomething fresh and interesting to say. But he is nevertheless, and\nabove everything else, a dreamer.\"\n\n\"A dreamer?\"\n\n\"Aye. They tell me that he will not rest content until he has found the\nseat of the soul in man. Up through mathematics, mechanics, mineralogy,\nastronomy, chemistry, even physiology, has he gone, mastering every\nscience in turn, until he is now perhaps the most learned man in Europe.\nBut his learning satisfies him not a whit, since the soul still eludes\nhim,--and eludes him, mark you, despite month upon month of toil in the\ndissecting room. If the study of anatomy fail him, I know not where he\nwill next turn. For my part, I fancy he need not look beyond the\nstomach. The wonder is that his own stomach has not given him the clue\nere this; for, metaphysician though he be, he enjoys the good things of\nearth. Let me tell you a story--\"\n\nThus, chatting and laughing, the friends continued on their way, every\nstep taking them farther from the unwitting subject of their words. He,\nfor his part, absorbed in thought, pressed steadily forward to his\ndestination, a quiet inn in a sequestered quarter of the city. The\nfamiliar sounds of eighteenth-century London--the bawling of apprentices\nshouting their masters' wares, the crying of fishwives, the quarreling\nof drunkards, the barking of curs, the bellowing of cattle on their way\nto market and slaughter house--broke unheeded about him.\n\nHe was, as the gossip had put it, in the clouds, intent on the riddles\nhis learning had rendered only the more complex, riddles having to do\nwith the nature of the universe and with man's place in the universe.\nNor did he rouse himself from his meditations until the door of the inn\nhad closed behind him and he found himself in its common room. Then he\nbecame the Emanuel Swedenborg of benignity, geniality, and courtesy, the\nSwedenborg whom all men loved.\n\n\"I am going to my room,\" said he to the innkeeper, in charming, broken\nEnglish, \"and I wish to be served there. I find I am very hungry; so see\nthat you spare not.\"\n\nWhile he is standing at the window, waiting for his dinner, and gazing\nabstractedly into the ill-paved, muddy street illumined by a transitory\ngleam of April sunshine, let us try to gain a closer view of him than\nthat afforded by the brief account of his unrecognized acquaintance. The\nattempt will be worth while; for at this very moment he has, all\nunconsciously, reached the great crisis of his life, and is about to\nleave behind him the achievements of his earlier years, setting himself\ninstead to tasks of a very different nature. We see him, then, a man\nnearing the age of sixty, of rather more than average height, smooth\nshaven, bewigged, bespectacled, and scrupulously dressed according to\nthe fashion of the day. Time in its passing has dealt gently with him.\nThere is no stoop to his shoulders, no tremor in the fingers that play\nrestlessly on the window-pane. Not a wrinkle mars the placid features.\n\nWell may he feel at peace with the world. His whole career has been a\nsteady progress, his record that of one who has attempted many things\nand failed in few. Before he was twenty-one his learning had gained for\nhim a doctorate in philosophy. Then, enthusiastic, open-minded, and\nopen-eyed, he had hurried abroad, to pursue in England, Holland, France,\nand Germany his chosen studies of mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy.\nReturning to Sweden to assume the duties of assessor of mines, he\nspeedily proved that he was no mere theorizer, his inventive genius\nenabling the warlike Charles XII. to transport overland galleys and\nsloops for the siege of Frederikshald, sea passage being barred by\nhostile fleets. Ennobled for this feat, he plunged with ardor into the\ncomplicated problems of statecraft, problems rendered the more difficult\nby the economic distress in which Charles's wars had involved his\nKingdom. Here again he attained distinction.\n\nYet always the problems of science and philosophy claimed his chief\ndevotion. From the study of stars and minerals he passed to the\ncontemplation of other marvels of nature as revealed in man himself. And\nnow behold him turned chemist, anatomist, physiologist, and\npsychologist, and repeating in these fields of research his former\ntriumphs. Still, indomitable man, he refused to stop. He would press\non, far beyond the confines of what his generation held to be the\nknowable. \"The end of the senses,\" to quote his own words, \"is that God\nmay be seen.\" He would peer into the innermost recesses of man's being,\nto discern the soul of man, mayhap to discern God himself.\n\nBut, if he were scientist and metaphysician, he was also human, and that\npleasant April afternoon the humanity in him bulked large when he\nfinally turned from the window and took his seat at the bountifully\nheaped table. He was, as he had told the innkeeper, very hungry, and he\nate with a zest that abundantly confirmed his statement. How pleasant\nthe odors from this dish and that--how agreeable the flavor of\neverything! Surely he had never enjoyed meal more, and surely he was no\nlonger \"in the clouds\"; but was instead recalling pleasant reminiscences\nof his doings in one and another of the gay capitals of Europe! There\nwould be not a little to bring a twinkle of delight to his beaming eyes,\nnot a little to soften his scholastic lips into a gentle smile. And so,\nin solitary state, he ate and drank, with nothing to warn him of the\nimpending and momentous change that was to shape anew his career and\nhis view-point.\n\nConceive his astonishment, therefore, when, his dinner still unfinished,\nhe felt a strange languor creeping over him and a mysterious obscurity\ndimming his eyes. Conceive, further, his horror at sight of the floor\nabout him covered with frogs and toads and snakes and creeping things.\nAnd picture, finally, his amazement when, the darkness that enveloped\nhim suddenly clearing, he beheld a man sitting in the far corner of the\nroom and eying him, as it seemed, reproachfully, even disdainfully.\n\nIn vain, he essayed to rise, to lift his hand, to speak. Invisible bonds\nheld him in his chair, an unseen power kept him mute. For an instant he\nfancied that he must be dreaming; but the noises from outdoors and the\nsight of the table and food before him brought conviction that he was in\nfull possession of his senses. Now his visitor spoke, and spoke only\nfour words, which astonished no less than alarmed him. \"Eat not so\nmuch.\" Only this--then utter silence. Again the enveloping\ndarkness--frogs, toads, snakes, faded in its depths--and with returning\nlight Swedenborg was once more alone in the room.\n\nSmall wonder that the remaining hours of the day were spent in fruitless\ncogitation of this weird and disagreeable experience which far\ntranscended metaphysician's normal ken. Nor is it surprising to find him\nnaively admitting that \"this unexpected event hastened my return home.\"\nImagination can easily round out the picture,--the rising in terror, the\noverturning of the chair, the seizing of cocked hat and gold-headed\ncane, the few explanatory words to the astonished innkeeper, the hurried\ndeparture, and the progress, perchance at a more rapid gait than usual,\nto the sleeping quarters in another section of the town. Arrived there,\nsafe in the refuge of his commodious bed-room, sage argument would\nfollow in the effort to attain persuasion that the terrifying vision had\nbeen but \"the effect of accidental causes.\" Be sure, though, that our\nphilosopher, dreading a return of the specter if he permitted food to\npass his lips, would go hungry to bed that night.\n\nThat night--more visions. To the wakeful, restless, perturbed Swedenborg\nthe same figure appeared, this time without snakes or frogs or toads,\nand not in darkness, but in the midst of a great white light that filled\nthe bed chamber with a wonderful radiance. Then a voice spoke:\n\n\"I am God the Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen\nthee to lay before men the spiritual sense of the Holy Word. I will\nteach thee what thou art to write.\"\n\nSlowly the light faded, the figure disappeared. And now the astounded\nphilosopher, his amazement growing with each passing moment, found\nhimself transported as it seemed to another world,--the world of the\ndead. Men and women of his acquaintance greeted him as they had been\nwont to do when on earth, pressed about him, eagerly questioned him.\nTheir faces still wore the familiar expressions of kindliness, anxiety,\nsincerity, ill will, as the case might be. In every way they appeared to\nbe still numbered among the living. They were clad in the clothes they\nhad been accustomed to wear, they ate and drank, they lived in houses\nand towns. The philosophers among them continued to dispute, the clergy\nto admonish, the authors to write.\n\nBut, his perception enlarging, Swedenborg presently discovered that this\nwas in reality only an intermediate state of existence; that beyond it\nat the one end was heaven and at the other hell, to one or the other of\nwhich the dead ultimately gravitated according to their desires and\nconduct. For, as he was to learn later, the spiritual world was a world\nof law and order fully as much as was the natural world. Men were free\nto do as they chose; but they must bear the consequences. If they were\nevil-minded, it would be their wish to consort with those of like mind,\nand in time they must pass to the abode of the wicked; if pure-minded,\nthey would seek out kindred spirits, and, when finally purged of the\ndross of earth, be translated to the realm of bliss. To heaven, then,\nvoyaged Swedenborg, on a journey of discovery; and to hell likewise.\nWhat he saw he has set down in many bulky volumes, than which\nphilosopher has written none more strange.[E]\n\nWith the return of daylight it might seem that he would be prompt to\ndismiss all memory of these peculiar experiences as fantasies of sleep.\nBut he was satisfied that he had not slept; that on the contrary he had\nbeen preternaturally conscious throughout the long, eventful night. In\nsolemn retrospect he retraced his past career. He remembered that for\nsome years he had had symbolic dreams and symbolic hallucinations--as of\na golden key, a tongue of flame, and voices--which had at the time\nbaffled his understanding, but which he now interpreted as premonitory\nwarnings that God had set him apart for a great mission. He remembered\ntoo that when still a child his mind had been engrossed by thoughts of\nGod, and that in talking with his parents he had uttered words which\ncaused them to declare that the angels spoke through his mouth.\nRemembering all these things, he could no longer doubt that Divinity had\nactually visited him in his humble London boarding house, and he made up\nhis mind that he must bestir himself to carry out the divine command of\nexpounding to his fellow men the hidden meaning of Holy Writ.\n\nForthwith, being still fired with the true scientist's passion for\noriginal research, he set himself to the task of learning Hebrew. He\nwas, it will be remembered, approaching sixty, an age when the\nacquisition of a new language is exceedingly difficult and rare. Yet\nsuch progress did he make that within a very few months he was writing\nnotes in explanation of the book of Genesis. And thus he continued not\nfor months but years, patiently traversing the entire Bible, and at the\nsame time carefully committing to paper everything \"seen and heard\" in\nthe spiritual world; for his London excursion beyond the borderland\nwhich separates the here from the hereafter had been only the first of\nsimilar journeys taken not merely by night but in broad daylight. To use\nhis own phraseology: \"The Lord opened daily, very often, my bodily eyes;\nso that in the middle of the day I could see into the other world, and\nin a state of perfect wakefulness converse with angels and spirits.\"\n\nHis increasing absorption--absent-mindedness, his friends would call\nit--his habit of falling into trances, and his claim to interworld\ncommunication, could not fail to excite the surprise of all who had\nknown him as scientist and philosopher. But these vagaries, as people\ndeemed them, met the greater toleration because of the evident fact that\nthey did not dim his intellectual powers and did not interfere with his\nactivities in behalf of the public good. True, in 1747 he resigned his\noffice of assessor of mines in order to have more leisure to prosecute\nhis adventures into the unknown; but as a member of the Swedish Diet he\ncontinued to play a prominent part in the affairs of the Kingdom, giving\nlong and profound study to the critical problems of administration,\neconomics, and finance with which the nation's leaders were confronted\nduring the third quarter of the century. So that--bearing in mind the\nfurther fact that he was no blatant advocate of his opinions--it seems\naltogether likely his spiritistic ideas would have gained no great\nmeasure of attention, had it not been for a series of singular\noccurrences that took place between 1759 and 1762.\n\nToward the end of July in the first of these years, Swedenborg (whose\nfondness for travel ceased only with his death) arrived in Gottenburg\nhomeward bound from England, and on the invitation of a friend decided\nto break his journey by spending a few days in that city. Two hours\nafter his arrival, while attending a small reception given in his honor,\nhe electrified the company by abruptly declaring that at that moment a\ndangerous fire had broken out at Stockholm, three hundred miles away,\nand was spreading rapidly. Becoming excited, he rushed from the room, to\nreenter with the news that the house of one of his friends was in ashes,\nand that his own house was threatened. Anxious moments passed, while he\nrestlessly paced up and down, in and out. Then, with a cry of joy, he\nexclaimed, \"Thank God the fire is out, the third door from my house!\"\n\nLike wild the tidings spread through Gottenburg, and the greatest\ncommotion prevailed. Some were inclined to give credence to Swedenborg's\nstatements; more, who did not know the man, derided him as a sensation\nmonger. But all had to wait with what patience they could, for those\nwere the days before steam engine and telegraph. Forty-eight anxious\nhours passed. Then letters were received confirming the philosopher's\nannouncement, and, we are assured, showing that the fire had taken\nprecisely the path described by him, and had stopped where he had\nindicated.\n\nNo peace now for Swedenborg. His home at Stockholm, with its quaint\ngambrel roof, its summer houses, its neat flower beds, its curious box\ntrees, instantly became a Mecca for the inquisitive, burning to see the\nman who held converse with the dead and was instructed by the latter in\nmany portentous secrets. Most of those who gained admission, and through\nhim sought to be put into touch with departed friends, received a\ncourteous but firm refusal, accompanied by the explanation: \"God having\nfor wise and good purposes separated the world of spirits from ours, a\ncommunication is never granted without cogent reasons.\" When, however,\nhis visitors satisfied him that they were imbued with something more\nthan curiosity, he made an effort to meet their wishes, and occasionally\nwith astonishing results.\n\nIt was thus in the case of Madam Marteville, widow of the Dutch\nAmbassador to Sweden. In 1761, some months after her husband's death, a\ngoldsmith demanded from her payment for a silver service the Ambassador\nhad bought from him. Feeling sure that the bill had already been paid,\nshe made search for the receipt, but could find none. The sum involved\nwas large, and she sought Swedenborg and asked him to seek her husband\nin the world of spirits and ascertain whether the debt had been settled.\nThree days later, when she was entertaining some friends, Swedenborg\ncalled, and in the most matter of fact way stated that he had had a\nconversation with Marteville, and had learned from him that the debt had\nbeen canceled seven months before his death, and that the receipt would\nbe found in a certain bureau.\n\n\"But I have searched all through it,\" protested Madam Marteville.\n\n\"Ah,\" was Swedenborg's rejoinder; \"but it has a secret drawer of which\nyou know nothing.\"\n\nAt once all present hurried to the bureau, and there, in the private\ncompartment which he quickly located, lay the missing receipt.\n\nIn similar fashion did Swedenborg relate to the Queen of Sweden, Louisa\nUlrica, the substance of the last interview between her and her dead\nbrother, the Crown Prince of Prussia, an interview which had been\nstrictly private, and the subject of which, she affirmed, was such that\nno third person could possibly have known what passed between them.\n\nMore startling still was his declaration to a merry company at Amsterdam\nthat at that same hour, in far away Russia, the Emperor Peter III. was\nbeing foully done to death in prison. Once more time proved that the\nspirit seer, as Swedenborg was now popularly known, had told the truth.\n\nA decade more, and again we meet him in London, his whole being, at\neighty-four, animated with the same energy and enthusiasm that had led\nhim to seek and attain in his earlier manhood such a vast store of\nknowledge. And here, as Christmas drew near, he found lodging with two\nold friends, a wig maker and his wife. But ere Christmas dawned he lay a\nhelpless victim of that dread disease paralysis. Not a word, not a\nmovement, for full three weeks.\n\nThen, with returning consciousness, a call for pen and paper. He would,\nhe muttered with thickened speech, send a note to inform a certain John\nWesley that the spirits had made known to him Wesley's desire to meet\nhim, and that he would be glad to receive a visit at any time. In reply\ncame word that the great evangelist had indeed wished to make the great\nmystic's acquaintance, and that after returning from a six months'\ncircuit he would give himself the pleasure of waiting upon Swedenborg.\n\"Too late,\" was the aged philosopher's comment as the story goes, \"too\nlate; for on the 29th of March I shall be in the world of spirits never\nmore to return.\"\n\nMarch came and went, and with it went his soul on the day predicted, if\nprediction there were. They buried him in London, and there in early\nseason, out of his grave blossomed the religion that has preserved his\nname, his fame, his doctrines. To the dead Swedenborg succeeded the\nliving Swedenborgianism.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut what shall those of us who are not Swedenborgians think of the\nmaster? Shall we accept at face value the story of his life as gathered\nfrom the documents left behind him and as set forth here; and, accepting\nit, believe that he was in reality a man set apart by God and granted\nthe rare favor of insight into that unknown world to which all of us\nmust some day go?\n\nThe true explanation, it seems to me, can be had only when we view\nSwedenborg in the light of the marvelous discoveries made during the\nlast few years in the field of abnormal psychology. Beginning in France,\nand continuing more recently in the United States and other countries,\ninvestigations have been set on foot resulting in the solution of many\nhuman problems not unlike the riddle of Swedenborg, and occasionally far\nmore complicated than that presented in his case. All these solutions,\nin the last analysis, rest on the basic discovery that human personality\nis by no means the single indivisible entity it is commonly supposed to\nbe, but is instead singularly unstable and singularly complex. It has\nbeen found that under some unusual stimulus--such as an injury, an\nillness, or the strain of an intense emotion--there may result a\ndisintegration, or, as it is technically termed, a dissociation, of\npersonality, giving rise it may be to hysteria, it may be to\nhallucinations, it may even be to a complete disappearance of the\noriginal personality and its replacement by a new personality,\nsometimes of radically different characteristics.[F]\n\nIt has also been found, by another group of investigators working\nprincipally in England, that side by side with the original, the waking,\npersonality of every-day life, there coexists a hidden personality\npossessing faculties far transcending those enjoyed by the waking\npersonality, but as a rule coming into play only at moments of crisis,\nthough by some favored mortals invocable more frequently. To this hidden\npersonality, as distinguished from the secondary personality of\ndissociation, has been given the name of the subliminal self, and to its\noperation some attribute alike the productions of men of genius and the\nphenomena of clairvoyance and thought transference that have puzzled\nmankind from time immemorial.\n\nNow, arguing by analogy from the cases scattered through the writings of\nJanet, Sidis, Prince, Myers, Gurney, and many others whose works the\nreader may consult for himself in any good public library, it is my\nbelief that in Swedenborg we have a preeminent illustration both of\ndissociation and of subliminal action, and that it is therefore equally\nunnecessary to stigmatize him as insane or to adopt the spiritistic\nhypothesis in explanation of his utterances. The records show that from\nhis father he inherited a tendency to hallucinations, checked for a time\nby the nature of his studies, but fostered as these expanded into\npursuit of the absolute and the infinite. They further show that for a\nlong time before the London visions he was in a disturbed state of\nhealth, his nervous system unstrung, his whole being so unhinged that at\ntimes he suffered from attacks of what was probably hystero-epilepsy.\n\nIt seems altogether likely, then, that in London the process of\ndissociation, after this period of gradual growth, suddenly leaped into\nactivity. Thereafter his hallucinations, from being sporadic and vague,\nbecame habitual and definite, his hystero-epileptic attacks more\nfrequent. But, happily for him, the dissociation never became complete.\nHe was left in command of his original personality, his mental powers\ncontinued unabated; and he was still able to adjust himself to the\nenvironment of the world about him.\n\nBut, it may be objected, how explain his revelations in the matter of\nthe fire at Stockholm, the missing receipt, the message to Queen Ulrica,\nand the death of Peter III.? This brings us to the question of\nsubliminal action. Swedenborg himself, far in advance of his generation\nin this as in much else, appears to have realized that there was no need\nof invoking spirits to account for such transactions. \"I need not\nmention,\" he once wrote, \"the manifest sympathies acknowledged to exist\nin this lower world, and which are too many to be recounted; so great\nbeing the sympathy and magnetism of man that communication often takes\nplace between those who are miles apart.\"\n\nHere, in language that admits of no misinterpretation, we see stated the\ndoctrine of telepathy, which is only now beginning to find acceptance\namong scientific men, but which, as I view it, has been amply\ndemonstrated by the experiments of recent years and by the thousands of\ncases of spontaneous occurrence recorded in such publications as the\n\"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.\" And if these\nexperiments and spontaneous instances prove anything, they prove that\ntelepathy is distinctively a faculty of the subliminal self; and that a\ngreater or less degree of dissociation is essential, not to the receipt,\nbut to the objective realization, of telepathic messages. Thus, the\nentranced \"medium\" of modern days extracts from the depths of his\nsitter's subconsciousness facts which the sitter has consciously\nforgotten, facts even of which he may never have been consciously aware,\nbut which have been transmitted telepathically to his subliminal self by\nthe subliminal self of some third person.[G]\n\nSo with Swedenborg. Admitting the authenticity of the afore-mentioned\nanecdotes--none of which, it is as well to point out, reaches us\nsupported by first-hand evidence--it is quite unnecessary to appeal to\nspirits as his purveyors of knowledge. In every instance telepathy--or\nclairvoyance, which is after all explicable itself only by\ntelepathy--will suffice. In the Marteville affair, for example, it is\nnot unreasonable to assume that before his death the Ambassador\ntelepathically told his devoted wife of the existence of the secret\ndrawer and its contents; if, indeed, she had not known and forgotten. It\nwould then be an exceedingly simple matter for the dissociated\nSwedenborg to acquire the desired information from the wife's\nsubconsciousness. Nor does this reflect on his honesty. Doubtless he\nbelieved, as he represented, that he had actually had a conversation\nwith the dead Marteville, and had learned from him the whereabouts of\nthe missing receipt. In the form his dissociation took he could no more\nescape such a hallucination than can the twentieth-century medium avoid\nthe belief that he is a veritable intermediary between the visible and\nthe invisible world.\n\nNot that I would put Swedenborg on a par with the ordinary medium. He\nwas unquestionably a man of gigantic intellect, and he was\nunquestionably inspired, if by inspiration be understood the gift of\ncombining subliminal with supraliminal powers to a degree granted to few\nof those whom the world counts truly great. If his fanciful and\nfantastic pictures of life in heaven and hell and in our neighboring\nplanets welled up from the depths of his inmost mind, far more did the\nnoble truths to which he gave expression. It is by these he should be\njudged; it is in these, not in his hallucinations nor in his telepathic\nexhibitions, that lies the secret of the commanding, if not always\nrecognized, influence he has exercised on the thought of posterity. A\nsolitary figure? True: but a grand figure, even in his saddest moment of\ndelusion.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[E] The most complete enumeration of the writings of Swedenborg will be\nfound in the Rev. James Hyde's \"A Bibliography of the Works of Emanuel\nSwedenborg,\" published in 1906 by the Swedenborg Society of London.\nIncluding books on Swedenborg, this bibliography contains no fewer than\nthirty-five hundred items. For a detailed account of Swedenborg's life\nthe reader may consult Dr. R. L. Tafel's \"Documents concerning the Life\nand Character of Swedenborg,\" or the biographies by William White,\nBenjamin Worcester, James J. G. Wilkinson, and Nathaniel Hobart. Of\nthese, the White biography is the most critical.\n\n[F] Illustrative cases will be cited in the discussion of \"The Watseka\nWonder\" on a later page. For a detailed explanation of \"dissociation\"\nthe reader is referred to Dr. Morton Prince's \"The Dissociation of a\nPersonality,\" or Dr. Boris Sidis's \"Multiple Personality.\"\n\n[G] This point is more fully discussed in my earlier book, \"The Riddle\nof Personality.\"\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE COCK LANE GHOST\n\n\nThe quaint old London church of St. Sepulchre's could not by any stretch\nof the imagination be called a fashionable place of worship. It stood in\na crowded quarter of the city, and the gentry were content to leave it\nto the small tradesfolk and humble working people who made up its\nparish. Now and again a stray antiquarian paid it a fleeting visit; but,\nspeaking generally, the coming of a stranger was so rare as to be\naccounted an event.\n\nIt is easy, then, to understand the sensation occasioned by the\nappearance at prayers one morning, in the year of grace, 1759, of a\nyoung and well dressed couple whose natural habitat was obviously in\nquite other surroundings. As they waited in the aisle--the man tall,\nerect, and easy of bearing, the woman fair and graceful--there was an\ninstant craning of necks and vast nudging of one's neighbor; and long\nafter they had seated themselves a subdued whispering bore further, if\nunnecessary, testimony to the curiosity they had aroused.\n\nProbably no one felt a more lively interest than did the parish clerk,\nwho, in showing them to a pew, had noted the tenderness with which they\nregarded each other. It needed nothing more to persuade him that they\nwere eloping lovers, and that a snug gratuity was as good as in his\npocket. All through the service he fidgeted impatiently in the shadows\nnear the door, and as soon as the congregation was dismissed and he\nperceived that the visitors were lingering in their places, he hurried\nforward and accosted them. His name, he volubly explained, was Parsons;\nhe was officiating clerk of the parish; likewise master in the charity\nschool nearby. No doubt they would like to inspect the church, perhaps\nto visit the school; it might even be they were desirous of meeting the\npastor? He would be delighted if he could serve them in any way.\n\n\"Possibly you can,\" said the man, \"for you doubtless know the\nneighborhood like a book. My name is Knight, and this lady is my wife.\nWe--\" He stopped short at sight of the changed expression on the\nother's face, and breesquely demanded, \"How now, man? What are you\ngaping at?\"\n\n\"No offense, sir, no offense,\" stammered the disappointed and\nembarrassed clerk. \"I beg your pardon, sir and madam.\"\n\nThere was an awkward pause before the man began again. \"As I was saying,\nmy name is Knight and this lady is my wife. We have only recently come\nto London and are in search of lodgings. If you know of any good place\nto which you can recommend us, we shall be heartily obliged to you.\"\n\nWhatever he was, Clerk Parsons was not a fool, and these few words\nshowed him plainly that he was face to face with a mystery. Elopers or\nno, such a well born couple would not from choice bury themselves in\nthis forbidding section of London. With a cunning fostered by long years\nof precarious livelihood, he at once resolved to profit if he could from\ntheir need.\n\n\"I fear, sir,\" said he, \"that I know of no lodgings that would be at all\nsuitable for you. We are poor folk, all of us, and--\"\n\n\"If you are honest folk,\" interrupted the lady, with an enchanting\nsmile, \"we ask no more.\"\n\nHer husband checked her with a gesture and a look that was not lost on\nthe now all-observing clerk, though it was long before he understood its\nsignificance.\n\n\"We are willing to pay a reasonable charge, and shall require only a\nbed-room and a sitting-room. If possible, we should prefer to be where\nthere are no other lodgers.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" responded the clerk, with an eagerness he could scarcely\nveil, \"I can accommodate you in my own house. It is simple but\ncommodious, and I can answer that my wife will deal fairly by you.\"\n\n\"What think you, Fanny?\" asked the man, turning to his wife.\n\n\"We can at least go and see.\"\n\nThis they immediately did, and to Clerk Parsons's joy decided to make\ntheir home with him. Nor did their coming gladden the clerk alone. His\nwife and children, two little girls of nine and ten, from the moment\nthey saw the \"beautiful lady\" conceived a warm attachment for her. Her\ngeniality, her kindliness, her manifest love for her husband, appealed\nto their sympathies, as did the sadness which from time to time clouded\nher face. If, like Parsons himself, they soon became convinced that she\nand her husband shared some momentous secret, they could not bring\nthemselves to believe that it involved her in wrongdoing. For the\nhusband too they entertained the friendliest feelings. He was of a\nblunt, outspoken disposition and perhaps a trifle quick tempered, but he\nwas frank and liberal and sincerely devoted to his wife. For all in the\nhousehold, therefore, the days passed pleasantly; and when Mrs. Parsons\none fine spring morning discovered her fair guest in tears she felt that\ntime had established between them relations sufficiently confidential to\nwarrant her motherly intervention.\n\n\"Come, my dear,\" said she, \"I have long seen that something is troubling\nyou. Tell me what it is, that I may be able to comfort, perhaps aid\nyou.\"\n\n\"It is nothing, good Mrs. Parsons, nothing. I am very foolish. I was\nthinking of what would become of me if anything should happen to my\nhusband.\"\n\n\"Dear, dear! and nothing will. But you could then turn to your\nrelatives.\"\n\n\"I have no relatives.\"\n\n\"What, my dear, are they all dead?\"\n\n\"No,\" in a solemn tone, \"but I am dead to them.\"\n\nIn a voice shaken by sobs, she now unfolded her story, and pitiful\nenough it was. She was, it appeared, the sister of Knight's first wife,\nwho had died in Norfolk leaving a new born child that survived its\nmother only a few hours. At Knight's request she then went to keep house\nfor him, and presently they found themselves very much in love with each\nother. But in the canon law they discovered an insuperable obstacle to\nmarriage. Had the wife died without issue, or had her child not been\nborn alive, the law would have permitted her, even though a \"deceased\nwife's sister,\" to wed the man of her choice. As things stood, a\nlegitimate union was out of the question. Learning this, they resolved\nto separate; but separation brought only increased longing. Thence grew\na rapid and mutual persuasion that, under the circumstances, it would be\nno sin to bid defiance to the canon law and live together as man and\nwife. This view not finding favor with their relatives, and becoming\napprehensive of arrest and imprisonment, they had fled to London and had\nhidden themselves in its depths. Surely, she concluded, with a\ndesperate intensity, surely fair-minded people would not condemn them;\nsurely all who knew what true love was would feel that they could not\nhave acted otherwise?\n\nThis confession, though it did not in the least diminish her landlady's\nregard for her, worked indirectly in a most disastrous way. Whether\ndriven by necessity, or emboldened by the belief that his lodgers were\nat his mercy, the clerk soon afterward approached Knight for a small\nloan; and, obtaining it, repeated the request on several other\noccasions, until he had borrowed in all about twelve pounds. Payment he\npostponed on one pretext and another, until the lender finally lost all\npatience and informed him roundly that he must settle or stand suit.\nThen followed an interchange of words that in an instant terminated the\npleasant connection of the preceding months. Parsons was described as\n\"an impudent scoundrel who would be taught what honesty meant.\" Parsons\ndescribed himself as \"knowing what honesty meant full well, and needing\nno lessons from a fugitive from justice.\" White with rage, Knight\nbundled his belongings together, called a hackney coach, and within the\nhour had shaken the dust of Cock Lane from his feet, finding new\nlodgings in Clerkenwell and at once haling his whilom landlord to the\ndebtors' court.\n\nA little time, and all else was forgotten in the serious illness of his\nbeloved Fanny. At first the physician declared that the malady would\nprove slight; but she herself seemed to feel that she was doomed. \"Send\nfor a lawyer,\" she urged; \"I want to make my will. It is little enough I\nhave, God knows; but I wish to be sure you will get it all, dear\nhusband.\"\n\nTo humor her, the will was drawn, and now it developed that the disease\nwhich had attacked her was smallpox in its worst form. No need to dwell\non the fearful hours that followed, the fond farewells, the lapsing into\na merciful unconsciousness, the death. They buried her in the vaults of\nSt. John's Clerkenwell, and from her tomb her husband came forth to give\nbattle to the relatives who, shunning her while alive, did not disdain\nto seek possession of the small legacy she had left him. In this they\nfailed, but scarcely had the smoke of the legal canonading cleared away,\nbefore he was called upon to meet a new issue so unexpected and so\nmysterious that history affords no stranger sequel to tale of love.\n\nThe first intimation of its coming and of its nature was revealed to\nhim, as to the public generally, by a brief paragraph printed in a mid\nJanuary, 1762, issue of _The London Ledger_:\n\n\"For some time past a great knocking having been heard in the night, at\nthe officiating parish clerk's of St. Sepulchre's, in Cock Lane near\nSmithfield, to the great terror of the family, and all means used to\ndiscover the meaning of it, four gentlemen sat up there last Friday\nnight, among whom was a clergyman standing withinside the door, who\nasked various questions. On his asking whether any one had been\nmurdered, no answer was made; but on his asking whether any one had been\npoisoned, it knocked one and thirty times. The report current in the\nneighborhood is that a woman was some time ago poisoned, and buried at\nSt. John's Clerkenwell, by her brother-in-law.\"\n\nInstantly the city was agog, and for the next fortnight _The Ledger_,\n_The Chronicle_, and other newspapers gave much of their space to\ndetails of the pretended revelations, though they were careful to refer\nto names by blanks or initials only.[H] These accounts informed their\nreaders that the knocking had first been heard in the life time of the\ndeceased when, during the absence of her supposed husband, she had\nshared her bed with Clerk Parsons's oldest daughter; that she had then\npronounced it an omen of her early death; that it did not occur again\nuntil after she had died; that, if the soi-disant spirit could be\nbelieved, the earlier knocking had been due to the agency of her dead\nsister; and that, in her own turn, she had come back to bring to justice\nthe villain who had murdered her for the little she possessed. In\ncommenting on this amazing story, the papers were prompt to point out\nthat the knocking was heard only in the presence of the afore-mentioned\ndaughter, now a girl of twelve; and while one or two, like _The\nLedger_, inclined to credence, the majority followed _The Chronicle_ in\ndenouncing the affair as an \"imposture.\"\n\nThe outraged husband, as may be imagined, lost not a moment in demanding\nadmission to the seances which were proceeding merrily under the\ndirection of a servant in the Parsons family and a clergyman of the\nneighborhood. He found that the method practised was to put the girl to\nbed, wait until the knocking should begin, and then question the alleged\nspirit; when answers were received according to a code of one knock for\nan affirmative and two knocks for a negative. It was in his presence,\nthen, though not at a single sitting, that the following dialogue was in\nthis way carried on:\n\n\"Are you Miss Fanny?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Did you die naturally?\"--\"No.\"\n\n\"Did you die by poison?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Do you know what kind of poison it was?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Was it arsenic?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Was it given to you by any person other than Mr. Knight?\"--\"No.\"\n\n\"Do you wish that he be hanged?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Was it given to you in gruel?\"--\"No.\"\n\n\"In beer?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\nHere a spectator interrupted with the remark that the deceased was never\nknown to drink beer, but had been fond of purl, and the question was\nhastily put:\n\n\"Was it not in purl?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"How long did you live after taking it?\"--Three knocks, held to mean\nthree hours.\n\n\"Did Carrots\" (her maid) \"know of your being poisoned?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Did you tell her?\"--\"Yes.\"\n\n\"How long was it after you took it before you told her?\" One knock, for\none hour.\n\nHere was something tangible, and Knight went to work with a will to\nrefute the terrible charge brought by the invisible accuser. As reported\nin _The Daily Gazetteer_, which had promised that \"the reader may expect\nto be enlightened from time to time to the utmost of our power in this\nintricate and dark affair,\" the maid Carrots was found, and from her was\nprocured a sworn statement that Mrs. Knight had said not a word to her\nabout being poisoned; that, indeed, she had become unconscious twelve\nhours before her death and remained unconscious to the end. The\nphysician and apothecary who had attended her made affidavit to the same\neffect, and described the fatal nature of her illness. It was further\nshown that her death at most benefited Knight by not more than a hundred\npounds, of which he had no need, as he was of independent means.\n\nAltogether, he would seem to have cleared himself effectually. Still the\nknocking continued, and night after night the accusation was repeated.\nHe now resorted, therefore, to a radical step to convince the public\nthat he was the victim of a monstrous fraud.\n\nAsserting that little Miss Parsons herself produced the mysterious\nsounds, and that she did so at the instigation of her father, he secured\nan order for her removal to the house of a friend of his, a Clerkenwell\nclergyman. Here a decisive failure was recorded against the ghost. It\nhad promised that it would knock on the coffin containing Mrs. Knight's\nremains; and about one o'clock in the morning, after hours of silent\nwatching, during which the spirit gave not a sign of its presence, the\nentire company adjourned to the church. Only one member was found of\nsufficient boldness to plunge with Knight into the gloomy depths where\nthe dead lay entombed; and that one bore out his statement that never a\nknock had been heard. The girl was urged to confess, but persisted in\nher assertions that the ghost was in nowise of her making.\n\nAfterward, when the knocking had been resumed under more favorable\nauspices, word came from the unseen world that the fiasco in the church\nwas ascribable to the very good reason that Knight had caused his wife's\ncoffin to be secretly removed. \"I will show them!\" cried the desperate\nman. With clergyman, sexton, and undertaker, he visited the vaults once\nmore and not only identified but opened the coffin.\n\nMeanwhile all London was flocking to Cock Lane as to a raree-show, on\nfoot, on horseback, in vehicles of every description. Some, like the\ncelebrated Dr. Johnson who took part in the coffin opening episode in\nClerkenwell, were animated by scientific zeal; but idle curiosity\ninspired the great majority. The gossiping Walpole, in a letter to his\nfriend Montagu, has left a graphic picture of the stir created by the\nnewspaper reports.\n\n\"I went to hear it,\" he writes; \"for it is not an apparition but an\naudition. We set out from the opera, changed our clothes at\nNorthumberland House, the Duke of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary\nCoke, Lord Hertford, and I, all in one hackney coach, and drove to the\nspot; it rained in torrents; yet the lane was full of mob, and the house\nso full we could not get in; at last they discovered it was the Duke of\nYork, and the company squeezed themselves into one another's pockets to\nmake room for us. The house, which is borrowed, and to which the ghost\nhas adjourned, is wretchedly small and miserable; when we opened the\nchamber, in which were fifty people with no light but one tallow candle\nat the end, we tumbled over the bed of the child to whom the ghost\ncomes, and whom they are murdering by inches in such insufferable heat\nand stench. At the top of the room are clothes to dry. I asked if we\nwere to have rope dancing between the acts. We heard nothing; they told\nus (as they would at a puppet show) that it would not come that night\ntill seven in the morning, that is, when there are only prentices and\nold women. We stayed, however, till half an hour after one.\"\n\nThe skepticism patent in this letter was shared by all thinking men.\nLetter after letter of criticism, even of abuse, was poured into the\nnewspapers. No less a personage than Oliver Goldsmith wrote, under the\ntitle of \"The Mystery Revealed,\" a long pamphlet which was intended both\nto explain away the disturbances and to defend the luckless Knight. The\nactor Garrick dragged into a prologue a riming and sneering reference to\nthe mystery; the artist Hogarth invoked his genius to deride it. Yet\nthere were believers in plenty, and there even seem to have been some\nwho thought of preying on the credulous by opening up a business in\n\"knocking ghosts.\"\n\n\"On Tuesday last,\" one reads in _The Chronicle_, \"it was given out that\na new knocking ghost was to perform that evening at a house in Broad\nCourt near Bow Street, Covent Garden; information of which being given\nto a certain magistrate in the neighborhood, he sent his compliments\nwith an intimation that it should not meet with that lenity the Cock\nLane ghost did, but that it should knock hemp in Bridewell. On which the\nghost very discreetly omitted the intended exhibition.\"\n\nWhether or no he took a hint from this publication, it is certain that,\nfinding all other means failing, Knight now resolved to try to lay by\nlegal process the ghost that had rendered him the most unhappy and the\nmost talked of man in London. Going before a magistrate, he brought a\ncharge of criminal conspiracy against Clerk Parsons, Mrs. Parsons, the\nParsons servant, the clergyman who had aided the servant in eliciting\nthe murder story from the talkative ghost, and a Cock Lane tradesman.\nAll of these, he alleged, had banded themselves together to ruin him,\ntheir malice arising from the quarrel which had led him to remove to\nClerkenwell and enter a lawsuit against Parsons. The girl herself he did\nnot desire punished, because she was too young to understand the evil\nthat she wrought. Warrants were forthwith issued, and, protesting their\ninnocence frantically, the accused were dragged to prison.\n\nTheir conviction soon followed, after a trial of which the only\nobtainable evidence is that it was held at the Guildhall before a\nspecial jury and was presided over by Lord Mansfield. Then, \"the court\ndesiring that Mr. K----, who had been so much injured on this occasion,\nshould receive some reparation,\"[I] sentence was deferred for several\nmonths. This enabled the clergyman and the tradesman \"to purchase their\npardon\" by the payment of some five hundred or six hundred pounds to\nKnight. But the clerk either would not or could not pay a farthing, and\non him and his, sentence was now passed. \"The father,\" to quote once\nmore from the meager account in _The Annual Register_, \"was ordered to\nbe set in the pillory three times in one month, once at the end of Cock\nLane, and after that to be imprisoned two years; Elizabeth his wife, one\nyear; and Mary Frazer, six months to Bridewell, and to be kept there to\nhard labor.\" Thus, in wig and gown, did the law solemnly and severely\nplace the seal of disbelief on the Cock Lane ghost; which, it is worth\nobserving, seems to have vanished forever the moment the arrests were\nmade.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut, looking back at the case from the vantage point of chronological\ndistance and of recent research into kindred affairs, it is difficult to\naccept as final the verdict reached by the \"special jury\" and concurred\nin by the public opinion of the day. It is preposterous to suppose that\nfor so slight a cause as a dispute over twelve pounds Clerk Parsons and\nhis associates would conspire to ruin a man's reputation and if possible\nto take his life; and still more preposterous to imagine that they would\nadopt such a means to attain this end. Of course, they may have had\nstronger reasons for being hostile to Knight than appears from the\npublished facts. Yet it is significant that when the clerk was placed in\nthe pillory he seemed to \"be out of his mind,\" and so evident was his\nmisery that the assembled mob \"instead of using him ill, made a handsome\ncollection for him.\"\n\nThe more likely, nay the only defensible solution of the problem, is\nthat he, his fellow sufferers, and Knight himself were one and all the\nvictims of the uncontrollable impulses of a hysterical child. The case\nbears too strong a resemblance to the Tedworth and Epworth disturbances\nto admit of any other hypothesis. Not that the Parsons girl is to be\nplaced on exactly the same footing as the Mompesson children and Hetty\nWesley, and held to some extent responsible for the mischievous\nphenomena she produced.\n\nOn the contrary, the more one studies the evidence the stronger grows\nthe conviction that in her we have a striking and singular instance of\n\"dissociation.\" She was, it is very evident, strongly attached to the\nunfortunate Mrs. Knight, doubtless felt keenly the separation from her,\nand, whether consciously or subconsciously, would cherish a grudge\nagainst Knight as the cause of that separation. The news of Mrs.\nKnight's death would come as a great shock, and might easily act, so to\nspeak, as the fulcrum of the lever of mental disintegration. Then, dimly\nenough at first but soon with portentous rapidity, her disordered\nconsciousness would conceive the idea that her friend had been murdered\nand that it was her duty to bring the slayer to justice. From this it\nwould be an easy step to the development, in the neurotic child, of a\nfull fledged secondary personality, akin to that found in the\nspiritistic mediums of later times.\n\nNow, for the first time, her faculties would seem to her astonished\nparents to be in the keeping and under the control of an extraneous\nbeing, a departed, discarnate spirit; and in this error she and they\nwould be confirmed by the suggestions and foolish questions of those who\ncame to marvel. It needed another great shock--there being in those days\nno Janet or Prince or Sidis to take charge of the case--the shock of\nthe arrest and imprisonment of her parents, to effect at least partial\nreintegration and the consequent disappearance of the secondary self,\nthe much debated, malevolent Cock Lane ghost.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[H] It is proper to observe that the name Knight given to the leading\nactor in this singular drama rests on inference merely. Doubtless from a\nfear of libel suits, the contemporary newspapers and magazines speak of\nhim only as Mr. ----, or Mr. K----, there being, so far as the present\nwriter has been able to discover, only one publication (_The Gentleman's\nMagazine_) so bold as to refer to him as Mr. K----t. Nowhere is his\nidentity made clear. Judging from the prominence of those who rushed to\nhis defense, he would seem to have been a person of considerable\nimportance.\n\n[I] _The Annual Register_ for 1762.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nTHE GHOST SEEN BY LORD BROUGHAM\n\n\nIt is comparatively easy, when seated before a roaring fire in a\nwell-lighted room, to sneer ghosts out of existence, and roundly affirm\nthat they are without exception the fanciful products of a heated\nimagination. But the matter takes on a very different complexion, when\nin that same room and without so much as the opening of a door, one is\nunexpectedly confronted by the figure of an absent friend, who, it\nsubsequently appears, is about that time breathing his last in another\npart of the world. Especially would it seem impossible to remain\nskeptical if there existed between oneself and the friend in question a\ncompact, drawn up years before in an access of youthful enthusiasm,\nbinding whichever should die first to appear to the other at the moment\nof death.\n\nThis, as all students of ghostology are aware, has frequently been the\ncase; and it was precisely the case with the ghost seen by the famous\nLord Brougham, the brilliant and versatile Scotchman, whose\nastonishingly long and successful career in England as statesman, judge,\nlawyer, man of science, philanthropist, orator, and author won him a\nplace among the immortals both of the Georgian and of the Victorian era.\n\nAt the time he saw the ghost he was still a young man, thinking far less\nof what the future might hold than of the pleasures of the present. In\nfact, it is difficult to imagine a more unlikely subject for a ghostly\nexperience. From his earliest youth, his father, a most matter of fact\nperson, sedulously endeavored to impress him with the belief that the\nonly spirits deserving of the name were those which came in oddly\nlabeled bottles; and in support of this view the elder Brougham\nfrequently related the adventures of sundry persons of his acquaintance\nwho had engaged in the mischievous pastime of ghost hunting. Added to\nthe natural effect of such tales as these was the inherent exuberance of\nBrougham's disposition and the bent of his mind to mathematics and\nkindred exact sciences.\n\nIt was at the Edinburgh high school that he first met his future ghost,\nwho at the time was a youngster like himself, and became and long\nremained his most intimate friend. The two lads were graduated together\nfrom the high school, and together matriculated into the university,\nwhere, in the intervals Brougham could spare from his favorite studies\nand recreations, and from the company of the daredevil students with\nwhom he soon began to associate, they continued their old time walks and\ntalks.\n\nOn one of these walks, the conversation happened to turn to the\nperennial problem of life beyond the grave and the possibility of the\ndead communicating with the living. Brougham, mindful of the views\nmaintained by his father, doubtless treated the subject lightly, if not\nscoffingly; but one word led to another, until finally, in what he\nafterward described as a moment of folly, he covenanted with his friend\nthat whichever of them should happen to pass from earth first would, if\nit were at all possible, show himself in spirit to the other, and thus\nprove beyond peradventure that the soul of man survived the death of the\nbody.\n\nSo far as Brougham was concerned, this undertaking was speedily\nforgotten in the pressure of the many activities into which he plunged\nwith all the ardor of his impetuous nature. His days were given wholly\nto the pursuit of knowledge; his nights to the pursuit of pleasure, as\npleasure was then counted by the roystering young Scotchmen, whose\nfavorite resort was the tavern, and whose most popular pastime was\nfilching signs, bell handles, and knockers, and stirring the city guard\nto unwonted energy. Under such conditions neither the death pact nor the\nsolemn minded youth with whom he had made it could remain long in his\nmemory; and it is not surprising to find that with the end of college\nlife and the removal of his boyhood's friend to India, where he entered\nthe civil service, they soon became as strangers to each other.\n\nBrougham himself remained in Edinburgh to read for the law, and\nincidentally to develop with the aid of an amateur debating society the\noratorical talents that were in time to make him the logical successor\nof Pitt, Fox, and Burke in the House of Commons. He continued none the\nless a lover of pleasure, some of which, however, he now took in the\nhealthy form of long walking trips through the Highlands. In this way he\nacquired a desire for travel, and when, in the autumn of 1799, an\nopportunity came for an extended tour of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, he\ngrasped it eagerly. Together with the future diplomat, Lord Stuart of\nRothsay, then plain Charles Stuart and the boon companion of many a\npedestrian excursion, he sailed for Copenhagen late in September, and by\nleisurely stages made his way thence to Stockholm, alive to all the\nvaried interests of the novel scenes in which he found himself; but\nencountering little that was exciting or adventurous, until, after a\nprolonged sojourn in the Swedish capital and a brief visit to Goeteborg,\nhe started for Norway.\n\nBy this time the weather had turned so cold that the travelers resolved\nto bring their tour to a sudden end, and to press on as rapidly as the\nbad roads would permit to some Norwegian port, where they hoped to find\na ship that would carry them back to Scotland. Accordingly, leaving\nGoeteborg early in the morning of December 19, they journeyed steadily\nuntil after midnight, when they came to an inn that seemed to promise\ncomfortable sleeping accommodations. Stuart lost no time in going to\nbed; but Brougham decided to wait until a hot bath could be prepared\nfor him.\n\nPlunging into it, and forgetful of everything save the warmth that was\ndoubly welcome after the cold of the long drive, he suddenly became\naware that he was not alone in the room. No door had opened, not a\nfootstep had been heard; but in the light of the flickering candles he\nplainly saw the figure of a man seated in the chair on which he had\ncarelessly thrown his clothes. And this figure he instantly recognized\nas that of his early playmate, the forgotten chum who, as he well knew,\nhad years before gone from the land of the heather to the land of the\nblazing sun. Yet here he sat, in the quaintly furnished sleeping chamber\nof a Swedish roadside inn, gazing composedly at his astounded friend. At\nonce there flashed into Brougham's mind remembrance of the death pact,\nand he leaped from the bath, only to lose all consciousness and fall\nheadlong to the floor. When he revived, the apparition had disappeared.\n\nThere was little sleep for the hard headed Scotchman that night. The\nvision had been too definite, the shock too intense. But, dressing, he\nsat down and strove to debate the matter in the light of cold reason.\nHe must, he argued, have dozed off in the bath and experienced a strange\ndream. To be sure, he had not been thinking of his old comrade, and for\nyears had had no communication with him. Nor had anything taken place\nduring the tour to bring to memory either him or any member of his\nfamily, or to turn Brougham's mind to thoughts of India. Still, he found\nit impossible to believe that he had seen a ghost. At most, he\nreiterated to himself, it could have been nothing more than an\nexceptionally clear cut dream. And to this opinion he stubbornly\nadhered, notwithstanding the receipt, soon after his return to\nEdinburgh, of a letter from India announcing the death of the friend who\nhad been so mysteriously recalled to his recollection, and giving\nDecember 19 as the date of death. More than sixty years later we find\nhim, in his autobiography commenting on the experience anew, granting\nthat it was a strange coincidence but refusing to admit that it was\nanything more than the coincidence of a dream.\n\nIt was in his autobiography, by the way, that he first referred to the\nconfirmatory letter. This fact, taken in connection with his reputation\nfor holding the truth in light esteem and with several vague and\npuzzling statements contained in the detailed account of the experience\nitself as set forth in his journal of the Scandinavian tour, has led\nsome critics to make the suggestion that his narrative partakes of the\nnature of fiction rather than of a sober recital of facts. Against this,\nhowever, must be set Brougham's complete and invincible repugnance to\naccept at face value anything bordering on the supernatural. He took no\npleasure in the thought that he had possibly been the recipient of a\nvisit from a departed spirit. On the contrary, it annoyed him, and he\nsought earnestly to find a natural explanation for an occurrence which\nremained unique throughout his long life. No one would have been readier\nto point out the futility of the apparition if the absent friend had\nreally continued hale and hearty after December 19. And it is therefore\nreasonable to assume that had he wished to falsify at all, he would have\ngiven an altogether different sequel to the story of his vision or\ndream, as he preferred to call it, though the evidence which he himself\nfurnishes shows that he was not asleep.\n\nThe question still remains, of course, whether he was justified in\ndismissing it as a sheer chance coincidence. If it stood by itself, it\nwould obviously be permissible to accept this explanation as all\nsufficient. But the fact is that it is only one of many similar\ninstances. This was strikingly brought out only a few years ago through\na far reaching inquiry, a \"census of hallucinations,\" instituted by a\nspecial committee of the Society for Psychical Research.\n\nEnlisting the services of some four hundred \"collectors,\" the committee\ninstructed each of these to address to twenty-five adults, selected at\nrandom, the query, \"Have you ever, when believing yourself to be\ncompletely awake, had a vivid impression of seeing or being touched by a\nliving being or inanimate object, or of hearing a voice; which\nimpression, so far as you could discover, was not due to any external\nphysical cause?\" In all, seventeen thousand people were thus questioned,\nand almost ten per cent. of the answers received proved to be in the\naffirmative. More than this, it appeared that out of a total of three\nhundred and fifty recognized apparitions of living persons, no fewer\nthan sixty-five were \"death coincidences,\" in which the hallucinatory\nexperience occurred within from one hour to twelve hours after the death\nof the person seen.\n\nSifting these death coincidences carefully, the committee for various\nreasons rejected more than half, and at the same time raised the total\nof recognized apparitions of living persons from three hundred and fifty\nto thirteen hundred. This was done in order to make generous allowance\nfor the number of such apparitions forgotten by those to whom the\nquestion had been put, investigation showing that the great majority of\nhallucinations reported were given as of comparatively recent\noccurrence, and that there was a rapid decrease as the years of\noccurrence became more remote.\n\nAs a final result, therefore, the committee found about thirty death\ncoincidences out of thirteen hundred cases, or a proportion of one in\nforty-three. Computing from the average annual death-rate for England\nand Wales, it was calculated that the probability that any one person\nwould die on a given day was about one in nineteen thousand; in other\nwords, out of every nineteen thousand apparitions of living persons,\nthere should occur, by chance alone, one death coincidence. The actual\nproportion, however, as established by the inquiry, was equivalent to\nabout four hundred and forty in nineteen thousand, or four hundred and\nforty times the most probable number, and this when the apparitions\nreported were considered merely collectively as having been seen at any\ntime within twelve hours after death. Not a few, as a matter of fact,\nwere reported as having been seen within one hour after death, and for\nthese the improbability of occurrence by chance alone was manifestly\ntwelve times four hundred and forty. In view of these considerations the\ncommittee felt warranted in declaring that \"between deaths and\napparitions of dying persons a connection exists which is not due to\nchance.\"[J]\n\nHad Lord Brougham lived to study the statistics of this remarkable\ncensus of hallucinations, he might have formed a higher opinion of his\nghost; but he would also have been in a better position to deny its\nsupernatural attributes. For, if the Society for Psychical Research has\nmade it impossible to doubt the existence of such ghosts as that which\nhe beheld during his travels in Sweden, it has likewise made discoveries\nwhich afford a really substantial reason for asserting that they no more\nhail from the world beyond than do ghosts that are unmistakably the\ncreations of fancy or fraud. This results from the society's\ninvestigations of thought transference or telepathy, to use the term now\ncommonly employed.\n\nAt an early stage of the experiments undertaken to determine the\npossibility of transmitting thought from mind to mind without the\nintervention of any known means of communication, it was found that when\nsuccess attended the efforts of the experimenters the telepathic message\nwas frequently received not in the form of pure thought but as a\nhallucinatory image; and what is still more important in the present\nconnection, it was further found possible so to produce not merely\nimages of cards, flowers, books, and other inanimate objects, but also\nimages of living persons.\n\nThus, as chronicled with corroborative evidence in the society's\n\"Proceedings,\" an English clergyman named Godfrey telepathically caused\na distant friend to see an apparition of him one night; the same result\nwas achieved by a Mr. Sinclair of New Jersey, who, during a visit to New\nYork, succeeded in projecting a phantasm of himself which was clearly\nseen by his wife in Lakewood; and similarly a Mr. Kirk, while seated in\nhis London office, paid a telepathic visit to the home of a young woman,\nwho saw him as distinctly as though he had gone there in the flesh. In\nall of these, as in other cases recorded by the society, the persons to\nwhom the apparitions were vouchsafed had no idea that any experiment of\nthe kind was being attempted.\n\nIndeed, there is on record an apparently well authenticated instance of\nthe experimental production of an apparition not of the living but of\nthe dead. This occurred in Germany many years ago, when a certain Herr\nWesermann undertook to \"will\" a military friend into dreaming of a woman\nwho had long been dead. The sequel may be related in Herr Wesermann's\nown words:\n\n\"A lady, who had been dead five years, was to appear to Lieutenant N. in\na dream at 10.30 P.M., and incite him to good deeds. At half-past ten,\ncontrary to expectation, Herr N. had not gone to bed but was discussing\nthe French campaign with his friend Lieutenant S. in the ante-room.\nSuddenly the door of the room opened, the lady entered dressed in white,\nwith a black kerchief and uncovered head, greeted S. with her hand three\ntimes in a friendly manner; then turned to N., nodded to him, and\nreturned again through the doorway.\n\n\"As this story, related to me by Lieutenant N., seemed to be too\nremarkable from a psychological point of view for the truth of it not to\nbe duly established, I wrote to Lieutenant S., who was living six miles\naway, and asked him to give me his account of it. He sent me the\nfollowing reply:\n\n\"'On the thirteenth of March, 1817, Herr N. came to pay me a visit at my\nlodgings about a league from A----. He stayed the night with me. After\nsupper, and when we were both undressed, I was sitting on my bed and\nHerr N. was standing by the door of the next room on the point also of\ngoing to bed. This was about half-past ten. We were speaking partly\nabout indifferent subjects and partly about the events of the French\ncampaign. Suddenly the door of the kitchen opened without a sound, and\na lady entered, very pale, taller than Herr N., about five feet four\ninches in height, strong and broad of figure, dressed in white, but with\na large black kerchief which reached to below the waist.\n\n\"'She entered with bare head, greeted me with the hand three times in\ncomplimentary fashion, turned round to the left toward Herr N., and\nwaved her hand to him three times; after which the figure quietly, and\nagain without any creaking of the door, went out. We followed at once in\norder to discover whether there were any deception, but found nothing.\nThe strangest thing was this, that our night-watch of two men whom I had\nshortly found on the watch were now asleep, though at my first call they\nwere on the alert; and that the door of the room, which always opens\nwith a good deal of noise, did not make the slightest sound when opened\nby the figure.'\"[K]\n\nIt is also significant that, as was made evident by the census of\nhallucinations, by far the larger number of apparitions reported are\nthose of persons still alive and well. In these cases, nobody being\ndead, it is absurd[L] to raise the cry of spirits, and the only tenable\nhypothesis is that, through one of the several causes which seem to\nquicken telepathic action, a spontaneous telepathic hallucination has\nbeen produced. Now, the experiments conducted by the society and by\nindependent investigators have shown that telepathic messages often lie\ndormant for hours beneath the threshold of the receiver's consciousness,\nbeing consciously apprehended only when certain favoring conditions\narise; as, for example, when the receiver has fallen asleep, or into a\nstate of reverie, or when, tired out after a long day's work, he has\nutterly relaxed mentally. This is technically known as \"deferred\npercipience,\" and, considered in conjunction with the discoveries\nmentioned, it is amply sufficient to dislodge from the realm of the\nsupernatural the ghost seen by Lord Brougham, and every ghost that is\nnot a mere imposter.\n\nIn the Brougham case the exciting cause of the hallucination seems to\nhave been the death pact. As he lay dying in India, the mind of the\nwhilom schoolboy would, consciously or unconsciously, revert to that\nagreement with the friend of his youth, and thence would arise the\ndesire to let him know that the plighted word had not been forgotten.\nAcross the vast intervening space, by what mechanism we as yet do not\nknow, the message would flash instantaneously, to remain unapprehended,\nperhaps for hours after the death of the sender, until, in the quiet of\nthe Swedish inn and resting from the fatigues of the journey, Brougham's\nmental faculties passed momentarily into the condition necessary for its\nobjective realization.\n\nThen, precisely as in experimental telepathy the receiver sees a\nhallucinatory image of the trinket or the book; with a suddenness and\nvividness that could not fail to shock him, the message would find\nexpression by the creation before Brougham's startled eyes of a\nhallucinatory image of the friend who, as he was to learn later, had\ndied that same day thousands of miles from Sweden. Knowing nothing of\nthe possibilities of the human mind, as revealed, if only faintly, by\nthe labors of a later generation, it was inevitable he should believe he\nhad no alternative between dismissing the experience as a peculiar dream\nor admitting that in very truth he had looked upon a ghost.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[J] The committee's report will be found in the tenth volume of the\n\"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.\"\n\n[K] Translation from the \"Journal of the Society for Psychical\nResearch,\" Vol. IV. p. 218.\n\n[L] I had originally written \"impossible,\" but a critic of my \"Riddle of\nPersonality,\" in which this point was taken up, has convinced me that\n\"absurd\" is the better word. The critic in question writes: \"what\nevidence has the author that an apparition of the living is not a\nspirit? Why may not the spirit of the living person have left his body\nand appeared to his friend? Such is the view of many people, and it\ncoincides with certain phenomena in dreams.\" But, to raise only one\nobjection: If the apparition appear at a moment when the person seen is\nactively engaged elsewhere--it may be in writing a book, or preaching a\nsermon--what is it that is seen, and what is it that is writing or\npreaching? Is the \"spirit\" present in both places at the same time--in\nthe shadowy apparition, and in the living, breathing, busily-occupied\nhuman entity? Assuredly, if it be not \"impossible\" to raise the cry of\nspirits in such a case, it would at all events seem \"absurd\" to do so.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE SEERESS OF PREVORST\n\n\nModern spiritism, as every student of that fascinating if elusive\nsubject is aware, dates from the closing years of the first half of the\nnineteenth century. But the celebrated Fox sisters, whose revelations at\nthat time served to crystallize into an organized religious system the\nidea of the possibility of communication between this world and the\nworld beyond, were by no means the first of spiritistic mediums. Long\nbefore their day there were those who professed to have cognizance of\nthings unseen and to act as intermediaries between the living and the\ndead; and although lost to sight amid the throng of latter-day claimants\nto similar powers, the achievements of some of these early adventurers\ninto the unknown have not been surpassed by the best performances of the\nFox girls and their long line of successors.\n\nEspecially is this true of the mediumship of a young German woman,\nFrederica Hauffe, who in the course of her short, pitiful, and tragic\ncareer is credited with having displayed more varied and picturesque\nsupernatural gifts than the most renowned wonder-worker of to-day. Like\nmany modern mediums she was of humble origin, her birthplace being a\nforester's hut in the Wuertemberg mountain village of Prevorst; and\nhere, among wood-cutters and charcoal-burners, she passed the first\nyears of her life. Even while still a child she seems to have attracted\nwide-spread attention on account of certain peculiarities of temperament\nand conduct. It was noticed that though naturally gay and playful she\noccasionally assumed a strangely intent and serious manner; that in her\nhappiest moments she was subject to unaccountable fits of shuddering and\nshivering; and that she seemed keenly alive not merely to the sights and\nsounds of every-day life but to influences unfelt by those about her.\nThis last trait received a sudden and unexpected development when, at\nthe age of twelve or thirteen, she was sent to the neighboring town of\nLoewenstein to be educated under the care of her grand-parents, a worthy\ncouple named Schmidgall.\n\nGrandfather Schmidgall was an exceedingly superstitious old man, with a\nsingular fondness for visiting solitary and gloomy places, particularly\nchurchyards; and he soon began to take the little girl with him on such\nstrolls. But he discovered, much to his amazement, that though she\nlistened with avidity to the tales he told her of the romantic and\nmysterious events that had occurred within the somber ruins with which\nthe countryside was liberally endowed, she was reluctant to explore\nthose ruins or wander among the graves where he delighted to resort. At\nfirst he was inclined to ascribe her reluctance to weak and sentimental\ntimidity, but he speedily found reason to adopt an altogether different\nview. He noticed that whenever he took her to graveyards or to churches\nin which there were graves, her frail form became greatly agitated, and\nat times she seemed rooted to the ground; and that there were certain\nplaces, especially an old kitchen in a nearby castle, which he could not\npersuade her to enter, and the mere sight of which caused her to quake\nand tremble. \"The child,\" he told his wife, \"feels the presence of the\ndead, and, mark you, she will end by seeing the dead.\"\n\nHe was, therefore, more alarmed than surprised when one midnight, long\nafter he had fancied her in bed and asleep, she ran to his room and\ninformed him that she had just beheld in the hall a tall, dark figure\nwhich, sighing heavily, passed her and disappeared in the vestibule.\nWith awe, not unmixed with satisfaction, Schmidgall remembered that he\nhad once seen the self-same apparition; but he prudently endeavored to\nconvince her that she had been dreaming and sent her back to her room,\nwhich, thenceforward, he never allowed her to leave at night.\n\nIn this way Frederica Hauffe's mediumship began. But several years were\nto pass before she saw another ghost or gave evidence of possessing\nsupernormal powers other than by occasional dreams of a prophetic and\nrevelatory nature. In the meanwhile she rejoined her parents and moved\nwith them from Prevorst to Oberstenfeld, where, in her nineteenth year,\nshe was married. It was distinctly a marriage of convenience, arranged\nwithout regard to her wishes, and the moment the engagement was\nannounced she secluded herself from her friends and passed her days and\nnights in weeping. For weeks together she went without sleep, ate\nscarcely anything, and became thin, pale, and feeble. It was rumored\nthat she had set her affections in another quarter: but her relatives\nangrily denied this and asserted that once married she would soon become\nherself again.\n\nThey were mistaken. From her wedding day, which she celebrated by\nattending the funeral of a venerable clergyman to whom she had been\nwarmly attached, her health broke rapidly. One morning she awoke in a\nhigh fever that lasted a fortnight and was followed by convulsive\nspasms, during which she beheld at the bedside the image of her\ngrandmother Schmidgall, who, it subsequently developed, was at that\nmoment dying in distant Loewenstein. The spasms continuing, despite the\napplication of the customary rude remedies of the time, it was decided\nto send for a physician with some knowledge of mesmerism, which was then\nbecoming popular in Germany. To the astonishment of those who thronged\nthe sick room, the first touch of his hand on her forehead brought\nrelief. The convulsions ceased, she became calm, and presently she fell\nasleep. But on awaking she was attacked as before, and try as he might\nthe physician could not effect a permanent cure. To all his \"passes\" she\nresponded with gratifying promptitude, only to suffer a relapse the\nmoment she was released from the mesmeric influence.\n\nAt this juncture aid was received from a most extraordinary source,\naccording to the story Frederica told her wondering friends. With benign\nvisage and extended hand, the spirit of her grandmother appeared to her\nfor seven successive nights, mesmerized her, and taught her how to\nmesmerize herself. The results of this visitation, if not altogether\nfortunate, were at least to some extent curative. There were periods\nwhen she was able not merely to leave her bed but to attend to household\nduties and indulge in long walks and drives. But it was painfully\napparent that she was still in a precarious condition.\n\nFrom her infancy she had always been powerfully affected by the touch of\ndifferent metals, and now this phenomenon was intensified a\nthousand-fold. The placing of a magnet on her forehead caused her\nfeatures to be contorted as though by a stroke of paralysis; contact\nwith glass and sand made her cataleptic. Once she was found seated on a\nsandstone bench, unable to move hand or foot. About this time also she\nacquired the faculty of crystal-gazing; that is to say, by looking into\na bowl of water she could correctly describe scenes transpiring at a\ndistance. More than this, she now declared that behind the persons in\nwhose company she was she perceived ghostly forms, some of which she\nrecognized as dead acquaintances.\n\nUnlike her grandmother, these new visitants from the unknown world did\nnot provide her with the means of regaining her lost health. On the\ncontrary, from the time they first put in their appearance she grew far\nworse, suffering not so much from convulsive attacks as from an\nincreasing lassitude. She complained that eating was a great tax on her\nstrength, and that rising and walking were out of the question. Unable\nto comprehend this new turn of affairs, her attendants lost all\npatience, declared that if she had made up her mind to die she might as\nwell do so as at once, and tried to force her to leave her bed. Finally\nher parents intervened, and at their request she was brought back to\nOberstenfeld.\n\nHere she found an altogether congenial environment, and for a while\nshowed marked improvement. Here too, and in a most sensational way, her\nmediumship blossomed into full fruition. She had been home for only a\nshort time when the family began to be disturbed by mysterious noises\nfor which they could find no cause. A sound like the ringing of glasses\nwas frequently heard, as were footsteps and knockings on the walls. Her\nfather, in particular, asserted that sometimes he felt a strange\npressure on his shoulder or his foot. The impression grew that the\nhouse, which was part of the ancient, picturesque, and none too well\npreserved cathedral of Oberstenfeld, was haunted by the spirits of its\nformer occupants.\n\nOne night, shortly after retiring to the room which they shared in\ncommon, Frederica, her sister, and a maid servant saw a lighted candle,\napparently of its own volition, move up and down the table on which it\nwas burning. The sister and the servant saw nothing more; but Frederica\nthe next instant beheld a thin, grayish cloud, which presently resolved\ninto the form of a man, about fifty years old, attired in the costume of\na medieval knight. Approaching, this strange apparition gazed\nsteadfastly at her, and in a low but clear tone urged her to rise and\nfollow it, saying that she alone could loosen its bonds. Overcome with\nterror, she cried out that she would not follow, then ran across the\nroom and hid herself in the bed where her sister and the servant lay\npanic-stricken. That night she saw no more of the apparition: but the\nmaid, whom they sent to sleep in the bed she had so hurriedly vacated,\ndeclared that the coverings were forcibly drawn off her by an unseen\nhand.\n\nThe next night the apparition appeared to Frederica again, and to her\nalone. This time it seemed not sorrowful but angry, and threatened that\nif she did not rise and follow she would be hurled out of the window. At\nher bold retort, \"In the name of Jesus, do it!\" the apparition vanished,\nto return a few nights later, and after that to show itself to her by\nday as well as by night.\n\nIt now informed her that it was the ghost of a nobleman named Weiler,\nwho had slain his brother and for that crime was condemned to wander\nceaselessly until it recovered a certain piece of paper hidden in a\nvault under the cathedral. On hearing this, she solemnly assured it that\nby prayer alone could its sins be forgiven and pardon obtained, and\nthereupon she set herself to teach it to pray. Ultimately, with a most\njoyous countenance, the ghost told her that she had indeed led it to its\nRedeemer and won its release; and at the same time seven tiny\nspirits--the spirits of the children it had had on earth--appeared in a\ncircle about it and sang melodiously. Nor did they leave her until the\nprotecting apparition of her grandmother interrupted their thanksgivings\nand bade them be gone.\n\nWhether or no the happy ghost notified others in kindred plight of the\nsuccess that had attended her efforts, it is certain that, if the\ncontemporary records are to be accepted, the few short years of life\nremaining to her were largely occupied in ministering to the wants of\ndistressed spirits. Phantom monks, nobles, peasants, pressed upon her\nwith terrible tales of misdeeds unatoned, and begged her to instruct\nthem in the prayers which were essential to salvation. There was one\nspecially importunate group, the apparitions of a young man, a young\nwoman, and a new-born child wrapped in ghostly rags, which gave her no\npeace for months. The child, they said, was theirs and had been murdered\nby them, and the young woman in her turn had been murdered by the young\nman. Naturally, they were in an unhappy frame of mind, and until she was\nable to send them on their way rejoicing their conduct and language were\nso extravagant that they appalled her more than did any other of the\nnumerous seekers for grace and rest.\n\nThe dead were not the only ones to whom she ministered. Side by side\nwith the gift of ghost-seeing and ghost-conversing, and with the no less\nremarkable gift of speaking in an unknown tongue and of setting forth\nthe mysteries of the hereafter, she developed the peculiar faculty of\npeering into the innermost being of spirits still in the flesh,\ndetecting the obscure causes of disease, and prescribing remedies.\nStrange to say, her own health remained poor, and gradually she became\nso feeble that from day to day her death seemed imminent. But her\nparents were resolved to do all they could for her, and at last\nbethought themselves of placing her in the hands of the much talked of\nphysician, Justinus Kerner, who lived in the pleasant valley town of\nWeinsberg and was said to be an adept in every branch of the healing\nart, notably in the mesmerism which alone appeared to benefit her. To\nKerner, therefore, she was sent; and it is not difficult to imagine the\ndelight with which she exchanged the gloomy mountain forests for the\nverdant meadows and fragrant vineyards of Weinsberg.\n\nKerner, who is better known to the present generation as mystic and poet\nthan as physician, was justly accounted one of the celebrities of the\nday. Eccentric and visionary, he was yet a man of solid learning and an\nintense patriot. It was owing to him, as his biographers fondly recall,\nthat Weinsberg's most glorious monument, the well named Weibertrube, was\nnot suffered to fall into utter neglect, but was instead restored to\nremind all Germans of that distant day, in the long gone twelfth\ncentury, when the women of Weinsberg, securing from the conqueror the\npromise that their lives would be spared, and that they might take with\nthem from the doomed city their most precious belongings, staggered\nforth under the burden not of jewels and treasure but of their husbands,\nwhom they carried in their arms or on their backs. Thus was a massacre\naverted, and thus did the name of \"Woman's Faithfulness\" attach itself\nto the castle in the shadow of which Kerner spent his days. But at the\ntime of which we write neither the castle nor poetry held first place in\nhis thoughts; instead, he was absorbed in the practice of his\nprofession. And so, with the ardor of the enthusiast and the sympathy of\nthe true physician, he welcomed to Weinsberg the sufferer of whom he had\nheard much and of whom he was to become both doctor and biographer.[M]\n\nIt was in November, 1826, that he first met her. She was then\ntwenty-five, and thus had been for six years in a state of almost\nconstant ill health. Her very appearance moved him profoundly. Her\nfragile body, he relates in the graphic word picture he drew, enveloped\nher spirit but as a gauzy veil. She was extremely small, with Oriental\nfeatures and dark-lashed eyes that were at once penetrating and\n\"prophetic.\" When she spoke his conviction deepened that he was looking\non one who belonged more to the world of the dead than to the world of\nthe living; and he speedily became persuaded that she actually did, as\nshe claimed, commune with the dead.\n\nLess than a month after her arrival at Weinsberg, and being in the\ntrance condition that was now frequent with her, she announced to him\nthat she had been visited by a ghost, which insisted on showing her a\nsheet of paper covered with figures and begged her to give it to his\nwife, who was still alive and would understand its significance and the\nduty devolving upon her of making restitution to the man he had wronged\nin life.\n\nKerner was thunderstruck at recognizing from her description a Weinsberg\nlawyer who had been dead for some years and was thought to have\ndefrauded a client out of a large sum of money. Eagerly he plied\nFrederica with questions, among other things asking her to endeavor to\nlocate the paper of which the ghost spoke.\n\n\"I see it,\" said she, dreamily. \"It lies in a building which is sixty\npaces from my bed. In this I see a large and a smaller room. In the\nlatter sits a tall gentleman, who is working at a table. Now he goes\nout, and now he returns. Beyond these rooms there is one still larger,\nin which are some chests and a long table. On the table is a wooden\nthing--I cannot name it--and on this lie three heaps of paper; and in\nthe center one, about the middle of the heap, lies the sheet which so\ntorments him.\"\n\nKnowing that this was an exact account of the office of the local\nbailiff, Kerner hastened to that functionary with the astonishing news,\nand was still more astonished when the bailiff told him that he had been\noccupied precisely as she said. Together they searched among the papers\non the table; but could find none in the lawyer's handwriting.\nFrederica, however, was insistent, adding that one corner of the paper\nin question was turned down and that it was enclosed in a stout brown\nenvelope. A second search proved that she was right, and on opening the\npaper it was found to contain not only figures but an explicit reference\nto a private account book of which the lawyer's widow had denied all\nknowledge. Still more striking was the fact, according to Kerner's\nnarrative, that when the bailiff, as a test, placed the paper in a\ncertain position on his desk and went to Frederica, pretending that he\nhad it with him, she correctly informed him where it was and read it off\nto him word by word.\n\nAlthough the sequel was rather unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the widow\npersisted in asserting that she knew nothing of a private account book\nand refused to yield a penny to the injured client, Kerner was so\nimpressed by this exhibition of supernatural power that, in order to\nstudy his patient more closely, he had her removed from her lodgings to\nhis own house. Thither also, as soon as he learned that their presence\nseemed to increase her susceptibility to the occult influences by which\nshe was surrounded, he brought her sister and the maid servant of the\ndancing candle episode.\n\nThen ensued greater marvels than had ever bewitched the family at\nOberstenfeld. Invisible hands threw articles of furniture at the\nenthusiastic doctor and his friends; ghostly fingers sprinkled lime and\ngravel on the flooring of his halls and rooms; spirit knuckles beat\nlively tattoos on walls, tables, chairs, and bedsteads. And all the\nwhile ghosts with criminal pasts flocked in and out, seeking consolation\nand advice. Only once or twice, however, did the physician himself see\nanything even remotely resembling a ghost. On one occasion a cloudy\nshape floated past his window; and on another he saw at Frederica's\nbedside a pillar of vapor, which she afterward told him was the specter\nof a tall old man who had visited her twice before.\n\nBut if he neither saw the ghosts nor heard them speak, it was\nsufficiently demonstrated to him that they were really in evidence. The\nknocking, furniture throwing, and gravel sprinkling were the least of\nthe wonders of which it was permitted him to be a witness. Once, when\nFrederica was taking an afternoon nap, a spirit that was evidently\nsolicitous for her comfort drew off her boots, and in his presence\ncarried them across the room to where her sister was standing by a\nwindow. Again at midnight, after a preliminary knocking on the walls, he\nobserved another spirit, or possibly the same, open a book she had been\nreading which was lying on her bed.\n\nMost marvelous of all, when her father died she herself enacted the role\nof ghost, the news of his death being conveyed to her supernaturally and\nher cry of anguish being supernaturally conveyed back to the room where\nhis corpse lay, in Oberstenfeld, and where it was distinctly heard by\nthe physician who had attended him in his last moments. After this\ncrowning piece of testimony the good Kerner felt that no doubt of her\nunheard of powers could remain in the most skeptical mind.\n\nJudge, then, of his dismay and grief when he saw her visibly fading\naway, daily growing more ethereal of form and feature, more weak in body\nand spirit. It was his belief that the ghosts were robbing her of her\nvitality, and earnestly but vainly he strove to banish them. She herself\ndeclared, with a tone of indescribable relief, that she knew the end was\nnear, and that she welcomed it, as she longed to attain the quiet of the\ngrave with her father and Grandfather and Grandmother Schmidgall. When\nKerner sought to cheer her by the assurance that she yet had many years\nto live, she silenced him with the tale of a gruesome vision. Three\ntimes, she said, there had appeared to her at dead of night a female\nfigure, wrapped in black and standing beside an open and empty coffin,\nto which it beckoned her. But before she died she wished to see again\nthe mountains of her childhood; and to the mountains Kerner carried her.\nThere, on August 5, 1829, peacefully and happily, to the singing of\nhymns and the sobbing utterance of prayers, her soul took its flight.\n\nBut, unlike Kerner, who hastened back to Weinsberg to write the\nbiography of this \"delicate flower who lived upon sunbeams,\" we must\nshake off the spell of her strange personality and ask seriously what\nmanner of mortal she was. This inquiry is the more imperative since the\ndoings of the tambourine players and automatic writers, of whom so much\nis made in certain quarters to-day, pale into insignificance beside the\nstory of her remarkable career.\n\nNow, in point of fact, the evidence bearing out the claim that she saw\nand talked with the dead is practically confined to the account written\nby the mourning Kerner, whom no one would for a moment call an\nunprejudiced witness. Already deeply immersed in the study of the\nmarvelous, his mind absorbed in the weird phenomena of the recently\ndiscovered science of animal magnetism, she came to him both as a\npatient and as a living embodiment of the mysteries that held for him a\nboundless fascination, and once he found reason to believe in her\nalleged supernormal powers, there was nothing too fantastic or\nextravagant to which he would not give ready credence and assent.\n\nHis lengthy record of \"facts\" includes not only what he himself saw or\nthought he saw, but every tale and anecdote related to him by the\nseeress and her friends, and also includes so many incidents of\nsupernaturalism on the part of others that it would well seem that half\nthe peasant population of Wuertemberg were ghost seers. Besides this,\ndetailed as his narrative is, it is lacking in precisely those details\nwhich would give it evidential value; so lacking, indeed, that even such\na spiritistic advocate as the late F. W. H. Myers pronounced it \"quite\ninadequate\" for citation in support of the spiritistic theory.\n\nNevertheless, taking his extraordinary document for what it is worth,\ncareful consideration of it leads to the conclusion that it contains the\nstory not so much of a great fraud as of a great tragedy. It is obvious\nthat there was frequent and barefaced trickery, particularly on the part\nof Frederica's sister and the ubiquitous servant girl; but it is equally\ncertain that Frederica herself was a wholly abnormal creature, firmly\nself-deluded, one might say self-hypnotized, into the belief that the\ndead consorted with her. And it is hardly less certain that in her\nsingular state of body and mind she gave evidence not indeed of\nsupernatural but of telepathic and clairvoyant powers on which she and\nthose about her, in that unenlightened age, could not but put a\nsupernatural interpretation.\n\nIt is not difficult to trace the origin of the nervous and mental\ndisease from which she suffered. Kerner's account of her childhood shows\nplainly that she was born temperamentally imaginative and unstable and\nthat she was raised in an environment well calculated to exaggerate her\nimaginativeness and instability. Ghosts and goblins were favorite topics\nof conversation among the peasantry of Prevorst, while the children with\nwhom she played were many of them unstable like herself, neurotic,\nhysterical, and the victims of St. Vitus's dance. The weird and uneasy\nideas and feelings which thus early took possession of her were given\nfirmer lodgment by her unfortunate sojourn with grave-haunting\nGrandfather Schmidgall. After this, it seems, she suffered for a year\nfrom some eye trouble, and every physician knows how close the\nconnection is between optical disease and hallucinations. Then came a\nbrief period of seeming normality, the lull before the storm which\nburst in full force with her marriage to a man she did not love. From\nthat time, the helpless victim of hysteria in its most deep-seated and\nobstinate form, she gave herself unreservedly to the delusions which\nboth arose from and intensified her physical ills--ills which after all\nhad a purely mental basis. \"If I doubted the reality of these\napparitions,\" she once told Kerner, \"I should be in danger of insanity;\nfor it would make me doubt the reality of everything I saw.\"\n\nIt does not affect this view of the case that she unquestionably\ncooperated with her conscienceless sister and the servant girl in the\nproduction of the fraudulent phenomena to which Kerner testifies. Their\ncheating was probably done for the sole purpose of making sure of the\ncomfortable berth in which the physician's credulity had placed them.\nHers, on the other hand, was the deceit of an irresponsible mind, of one\nliving in such an atmosphere of unreality that she could readily\npersuade herself that the knockings, candle dancings, book openings, and\nsimilar acts were the work not of her own hands but of the ghosts which\ntormented her. Indeed, researches of recent years in the field of\nabnormal psychology show it is quite possible that she was absolutely\nignorant of any personal participation in the movements and sounds which\ncaused such wide-spread mystification. Sympathy and pity, therefore,\nshould take the place of condemnation when we follow the course of her\neventful and unhappy life.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[M] Kerner's account of Frederica Hauffe is found in his \"Die Seherin\nvon Prevorst,\" accessible in an English translation by Mrs. Catharine\nCrowe. Students of the supernatural, it may be added, will find a great\ndeal of interesting material in Mrs. Crowe's \"The Night Side of\nNature.\"\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nTHE MYSTERIOUS MR. HOME\n\n\n\"So you've brought the devil to my house, have you?\"\n\n\"No, no, aunty, no! It's not my fault.\"\n\nWith an angry gesture the woman, tall, large boned, harsh visaged,\npushed back her chair and advanced threateningly toward the pale, anemic\nlooking youth of seventeen, who sat cowering at the far end of the\nbreakfast table.\n\n\"You know this is your doing. Stop it at once!\"\n\nThe other gazed helplessly about him, while from every side of the room\ncame a volley of raps and knocks. \"It is not my doing,\" he muttered. \"I\ncannot help it.\"\n\n\"Begone then! Out of my sight!\"\n\nLeft to herself and to silence,--for with her nephew's departure the\nnoise instantly ceased,--she fell into gloomy meditation. She was an\nexceedingly ignorant, but a profoundly religious woman. She had heard\nmuch of the celebrated Fox sisters, with tales of whose strange actions\nin the neighboring State of New York the countryside was then ringing,\nand she recognized, or imagined she recognized, a striking similarity\nbetween their performances and the tumult of the last few minutes. It\nwas her firm belief that the Fox girls were victims of demoniac\ninfluence, and no less surely did she deem it impossible to attribute\nthe recent disturbance to human agency. Her nephew was not given to\npractical jokes; there had been nothing unusual in his manner; he had\ngreeted her cheerily as usual, and quietly taken his seat. But with his\nadvent, and she shuddered at the remembrance, the knockings had begun.\nThere could be only one explanation--the boy, however unwittingly, had\nplaced himself in the power of the devil. What to do, however, she knew\nnot, and fumed and fretted the entire morning, until upon his\nreappearance at noon the knockings broke out again. Then her mind was\nquickly made up.\n\n\"Look you!\" said she to him. \"We must rid you of the evil that is in\nyou. I will have the ministers reason with you and pray for you, and\nthat at once.\"\n\nTrue to her word, she despatched a messenger to the three clergymen of\nthe little Connecticut village in which she made her home, and all three\npromptly responded to her request. But their visits and their prayers\nproved fruitless. Indeed, the more they prayed the louder the knocks\nbecame; and presently, to their astonishment and dismay, the very\nfurniture appeared bewitched, dancing and leaping as though alive.\n\"Verily,\" said one to his irate aunt, \"the boy is possessed of the\ndevil.\" To make matters worse, the neighbors, hearing of the weird\noccurrences, besieged the house day and night, their curiosity whetted\nby a report that, exactly as in the case of the Fox sisters,\ncommunications from the dead were being received through the knockings.\nIncredible as it seemed, this report found speedy confirmation. Before\nthe week was out the lad told his aunt:\n\n\"Last night there came raps to me spelling words, and they brought me a\nmessage from the spirit of my mother.\"\n\n\"And what, pray, was the message?\"\n\n\"My mother's spirit said to me, 'Daniel, fear not, my child. God is with\nyou, and who shall be against you? Seek to do good. Be truthful and\ntruth loving, and you will prosper, my child. Yours is a glorious\nmission--you will convince the infidel, cure the sick, and console the\nweeping.'\"\n\n\"A glorious mission,\" mocked the aunt, her patience utterly\nexhausted,--\"a glorious mission to bedevil and deceive, to plague and\ntorment! Away, away, and darken my doors no more!\"\n\n\"Do you mean this, aunty?\"\n\n\"Mean it, Daniel? Never shall it be said of me that I gave aid and\ncomfort to Satan or child of Satan's. Pack, and be off!\"\n\nIn this way was Daniel Dunglas Home launched on a career that was to\nprove one of the most marvelous, if not the most marvelous, in the\nannals of mystification. But at the time there was no reason to\nanticipate the remarkable achievements which the future held in store\nfor him. He was fitted for no calling. Ever since his aunt had adopted\nhim in far-away Scotland, where he was born of obscure parentage in\n1833, he had led a life of complete dependence, not altogether cheerless\nbut deadening to initiative and handicapping him terribly for the task\nof making his way in the world. His health was broken, his pockets were\nempty, he was without friends. Cast upon his own resources under such\nconditions, it seemed but too probable that failure and an early death\nwould be his portion.\n\nTwo things only were in his favor. The first was his native\ndetermination and optimism; the second, the interest aroused by\npublished reports of the phenomena that had led to his expulsion from\nhis aunt's house. Already, although only a few days had elapsed since\nthe knockings were first heard, the newspapers had given the story great\npublicity, and their accounts were greedily devoured by an ever-widening\ncircle of readers, quite willing to regard such happenings as evidence\nof the intervention of the dead in the affairs of the living. It was, it\nmust be remembered, an era of wide-spread enthusiasm and credulity, the\nheyday period of spiritism. So soon, therefore, as it became known that\nyoung Home was at liberty to go where he would, invitations were\nshowered on him.\n\nAmong these was one from the nearby town of Willimantic, and thither\nHome journeyed in the early spring of 1851. It was determined that an\nattempt should be made to demonstrate his mediumship by the table\ntilting process then coming into vogue among spiritists, and the result\nexceeded all expectations. The table, according to an eye-witness of the\nfirst seance, not only moved without physical contact, but on request\nturned itself upside down, and overcame a spectator's efforts to prevent\nits motion. True, when this spectator \"grasped its leg and held it with\nall his strength\" the table \"did not move so freely as before.\" Still,\nit moved, and Home's fame mounted apace. From town to town he traveled,\nholding seances at which, if contemporary accounts are to be believed,\nhe gave exhibitions of supernatural power far and away ahead of all\nother of the numerous mediums who were by this time springing up\nthroughout the Eastern States. On one occasion, we are told, the spirits\ncommunicated through him the whereabouts of missing title deeds to a\ntract of land then in litigation; on another, they enabled him to\nprescribe successfully for an invalid for whom no hope was entertained;\nand time after time they conveyed to those in his seance room messages\nof more or less vital import, besides vouchsafing to them \"physical\"\nphenomena of the greatest variety.\n\nWhat was most remarkable was the fact that the young medium steadfastly\nrefused to accept payment for his services. \"My gift,\" he would solemnly\nsay, \"is free to all, without money and without price. I have a mission\nto fulfil, and to its fulfilment I will cheerfully give my life.\"\nNaturally this attitude of itself made for converts to the spiritistic\nbeliefs of which he was such a successful exponent, and its influence\nwas powerfully reinforced by the result of an investigation conducted in\nthe spring of 1852 by a committee headed by the poet, William Cullen\nBryant, and the Harvard professor, David G. Wells. Briefly, these\ndeclared in their report that they had attended a seance with Home in a\nwell lighted room, had seen a table move in every direction and with\ngreat force, \"when we could not perceive any cause of motion,\" and even\n\"rise clear of the floor and float in the atmosphere for several\nseconds\"; had in vain tried to inhibit its action by sitting on it; had\noccasionally been made \"conscious of the occurrence of a powerful shock,\nwhich produced a vibratory motion of the floor of the apartment in which\nwe were seated\"; and finally were absolutely certain that they had not\nbeen \"imposed upon or deceived.\"\n\nThe report, to be sure, did not specify what, if any, means had been\ntaken to guard against fraud, its only reference in this connection\nbeing a statement that \"Mr. D. D. Home frequently urged us to hold his\nhands and feet.\" But it none the less created a tremendous sensation,\npublic attention being focused on the fact that an awkward, callow,\ncountry lad had successfully sustained the scrutiny of men of learning,\nintelligence, and high repute. No longer, it would seem, could there be\ndoubt of the validity of his claims, and greater demands than ever were\nmade on him. As before, he willingly responded, adding to his\nrepertoire, if the term be permissible, new feats of the most startling\ncharacter. Thus, at a seance in New York a table on which a pencil, two\ncandles, a tumbler, and some papers had been placed, tipped over at an\nangle of thirty degrees without disturbing in the slightest the position\nof the movable objects on its surface. Then at the medium's bidding the\npencil was dislodged, rolling to the floor, while the rest remained\nmotionless; and afterward the tumbler.\n\nA little later occurred the first of Home's levitations when at the\nhouse of a Mr. Cheney in South Manchester, Connecticut, he is said to\nhave been lifted without visible means of support to the ceiling of the\nseance room. To quote from an eye-witness's narrative: \"Suddenly, and\nwithout any expectation on the part of the company, Mr. Home was taken\nup in the air. I had hold of his feet at the time, and I and others felt\nhis feet--they were lifted a foot from the floor.... Again and again he\nwas taken from the floor, and the third time he was carried to the lofty\nceiling of the apartment, with which his hand and head came in gentle\ncontact.\" A far cry, this, from the simple raps and knocks that had\nushered in his mediumship.\n\nNow, however, an event occurred that threatened to cut short alike his\n\"mission\" and his life. Never of robust health, he fell seriously ill of\nan affection that developed into tuberculosis. The medical men whom he\nconsulted unanimously declared that his only hope lay in a change of\nclimate, and, taking alarm, his spiritistic friends generously\nsubscribed a large sum to enable him to visit Europe. Incidentally, no\ndoubt, they expected him to serve as a missionary of the new faith, and\nit may be said at once that in this expectation they were not deceived.\nNo one ever labored more earnestly and successfully in behalf of\nspiritism than did Daniel Dunglas Home from the moment he set foot on\nthe shores of England in April, 1855; and no one in all the history of\nspiritism achieved such individual renown, not in England alone but in\nalmost every country of the Continent.\n\nIt is from this point that the mystery of his career really becomes\nconspicuous. Hitherto, with the exception of the Bryant-Wells\ninvestigation, which could hardly be called scientific, his pretensions\nhad not been seriously tested, and operating as he did among avowed\nspiritists he had enjoyed unlimited opportunities for the perpetration\nof fraud. But henceforth, skeptics as well as believers having ready\naccess to him, he found himself not infrequently in a thoroughly hostile\nenvironment, and subjected to the sharpest criticism and most\nunrestrained abuse. Nevertheless, he was able not simply to maintain but\nto augment the fame of his youth, and after a mediumship of more than\nthirty years, could claim the unique distinction of not once having had\na charge of trickery proved against him.\n\nBesides this, overcoming with astounding ease the handicaps of his\nhumble birth and lack of education, his life was one continued round of\nsocial triumphs of the highest order; for he speedily won and retained\nto the day of his death the confidence and friendship of leaders of\nsociety in every European capital. With them, in castle, chateau, and\nmansion, he made his home, always welcome and always trusted; and in his\ndays of greatest stress, days of ill health, vilification, and legal\nentanglements, they rallied unfailingly to his aid. Add again that Kings\nand Queens vied with one another in entertaining and rewarding him, and\nit is possible to gain some idea of the heights scaled by this erstwhile\nConnecticut country boy.\n\nHe began modestly enough by taking rooms at a quiet London hotel, where,\nhis fame having spread through the city, he soon had the pleasure of\ngiving a seance to two such distinguished personages as Lord Brougham\nand Sir David Brewster. Both retired thoroughly mystified, though the\nlatter some months later asserted that while he \"could not account for\nall\" he had witnessed, he had seen enough to satisfy himself \"that they\ncould all be produced by hands and feet,\"--a statement which, by the\nway, was at variance from one he had made at the time, and involved him\nin a most unpleasant controversy. After Brougham and Brewster came a\nlong succession of other notables, including the novelist Sir Bulwer\nLytton, to whom a most edifying experience was granted. Rapping away as\nusual, the table suddenly indicated that it had a message for him, and\nthe alphabet being called over in the customary spiritistic style, it\nspelled out:\n\n\"I am the spirit who influenced you to write Zanoni.\"\n\n\"Indeed!\" quoth Lytton, with a skeptical smile. \"Suppose you give me a\ntangible proof of your presence?\"\n\n\"Put your hand under the table.\"\n\nNo sooner done, than the invisible being gave him a hearty handshake,\nand proceeded:\n\n\"We wish you to believe in the--\" It stopped.\n\n\"In what? In the medium?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\nAt that moment there came a gentle tapping on his knee, and looking down\nhe found on it a small cardboard cross that had been lying on another\ntable. Lytton, the story goes, begged permission to keep the cross as a\nsouvenir, and promised that he would remember the spirit's injunction.\nFor Home, of course, the incident was a splendid advertisement, as were\nthe extravagant reports spread broadcast by other visitors.\nConsequently, when he visited Italy in the autumn as the guest of one of\nhis English patrons, he gained instant recognition and was enabled to\nembark with phenomenal ease on his Continental crusade.\n\nIn order to reach the most striking manifestations of his peculiar\nability, we must pass hurriedly over the events of the next few years,\nalthough they are perhaps the most picturesque of his career, including\nas they do seances with the third Napoleon and his Empress, with the\nKing of Prussia, and with the Emperor of Russia. In Russia he was\nmarried to the daughter of a noble Russian family, and for groomsmen at\nhis wedding had Count Alexis Tolstoi, the famous poet, and Count\nBobrinski, one of the Emperor's chamberlains. This was in 1858, and\nshortly afterward he returned to England to repeat his spiritistic\ntriumphs of 1855, and increase the already large group of influential\nand titled friends whose doors were ever open to him. Had it not been\nfor their generosity, it is difficult, indeed, to see how he could have\nlived, for his time was almost altogether devoted to the practice of\nspiritism, and he was never known to accept a fee for a seance. As it\nwas, he lived very well, now the guest of one, now of another, and the\nfrequent recipient of costly presents. From England he fared back to the\nContinent, again traversing it by leisurely stages. Thus nearly a decade\npassed before the occurrence of the first of the several phenomena that\nhave won Home an enduring place among the greatest lights of spiritism.\n\nAt that time his English patrons included the Viscount Adare and the\nMaster of Lindsay, who have since become respectively the Earl of\nDunraven and the Earl of Crawford. They were sitting one evening\n(December 16, 1868) in an upper room of a house in London with Home and\na Captain Wynne, when Home suddenly left the room and entered the\nadjoining chamber. The opening of a window was then heard, and the next\nmoment, to the amazement of all three, they perceived Home's form\nfloating in the dim moonlight outside the window of the room in which\nthey were seated. For an instant it hovered there, at a height of fully\nseventy feet above the pavement, and then, smiling and debonnair, Home\nwas with them again. Another marvel immediately followed. At Home's\nrequest Lord Dunraven closed the window out of which the medium was\nsupposed to have been carried by the spirits, and on returning observed\nthat the window had not been raised a foot, and he did not see how a man\ncould have squeezed through it. \"Come,\" said Home, \"I will show you.\"\nTogether they went into the next room.\n\n\"He told me,\" Lord Dunraven reported, \"to open the window as it was\nbefore. I did so. He told me to stand a little distance off; he then\nwent through the open space, head first, quite rapidly, his body being\nnearly horizontal and apparently rigid. He came in again feet foremost,\nand we returned to the other room. It was so dark I could not see\nclearly how he was supported outside. He did not appear to grasp, or\nrest upon the balustrade, but rather to be swung out and in.\"\n\nTo Lord Dunraven and Lord Crawford again was given the boon of\nwitnessing another of Home's most sensational performances, and on more\nthan one occasion. This may best be described in Lord Crawford's own\nwords, as related in his testimony to the London Dialectical Society's\ncommittee which in 1869 undertook an inquiry into the claims of\nspiritism.\n\n\"I saw Mr. Home,\" declared Lord Crawford, \"in a trance elongated eleven\ninches. I measured him standing up against the wall, and marked the\nplace; not being satisfied with that, I put him in the middle of the\nroom and placed a candle in front of him, so as to throw a shadow on the\nwall, which I also marked. When he awoke I measured him again in his\nnatural size, both directly and by the shadow, and the results were\nequal. I can swear that he was not off the ground or standing on tiptoe,\nas I had full view of his feet, and, moreover, a gentleman present had\none of his feet placed over Home's insteps.... I once saw him elongated\nhorizontally on the ground. Lord Adare was present. Home seemed to grow\nat both ends, and pushed myself and Adare away.\"\n\nThe publication of this evidence and of the details of the mid-air\nexcursion provoked, as may be imagined, a heated discussion, and\ndoubtless had considerable influence in inducing the famous scientist,\nSir William Crookes, to engage in the series of experiments which he\ncarried out with Home two years later. This was at once the most\nsearching investigation to which Home was ever subjected, and the most\nsignal triumph of his career. Sir William's proposal was hailed with the\ngreatest satisfaction by the critics of spiritism in general and of Home\nin particular. Here, it was said, was a man fully qualified to expose\nthe archimpostor who had been so justly pilloried in Browning's \"Mr.\nSludge the Medium\"; here was a scientist, trained to exact knowledge and\nclose observation, who would not be deceived by the artful tricks of a\nconjurer. It was pleasant too to learn that in order to circumvent any\nattempts at sleight of hand, Sir William intended using instruments\nspecially designed for test purposes, and which he was confident could\nnot be operated fraudulently.\n\nBut Home, or the spirits proved too strong for even Sir William Crookes\nand his instruments. In Sir William's presence, in fact, there was a\nmultiplication of mysteries. The instruments registered results which\nseemed inexplicable by any natural law; a lath, cast carelessly on a\ntable, rose in the air, nodded gravely to the astonished scientist, and\nproceeded to tap out messages alleged to come from the world beyond;\nchairs moved in ghostly fashion up and down the room; invisible beings\nlifted Home himself from the floor; spirit hands were seen and felt; an\naccordeon, held by Sir William, played tunes apparently of its own\nvolition, and afterward floated about the room, still playing. And all\nthis, according to the learned investigator, \"in a private room that\nalmost up to the commencement of the seance has been occupied as a\nliving room, and surrounded by private friends of my own, who not only\nwill not countenance the slightest deception, but who are watching\nnarrowly everything that takes place.\"\n\nIn the end, so far from announcing that he had convicted Home of fraud,\nSir William published an elaborate account of his seances, and gave it\nas his solemn belief that with Home's assistance he had succeeded in\ndemonstrating the existence of a hitherto unknown force. This was\nscarcely what had been expected by the scientific world, which had\neagerly awaited his verdict, and loud was the tumult that followed. But\nSir William stood manfully by his guns, and Home--bland, inscrutable,\nmysterious Home--figuratively shrugging his shoulders at denunciations\nto which he had by this time become perfectly accustomed, added another\nleaf to his spiritistic crown of laurels, and betook himself anew to his\nfriends on the Continent, where, despite increasing ill health, he\ncontinued to prosecute his \"mission\" for many prosperous years.\n\nAs a matter of fact, throughout the period of his mediumship, that is to\nsay, from 1851 to 1886, the year of his death, he experienced only one\nserious reverse, and this did not involve any exposure of the falsity of\nhis claims. But it was serious enough, in all conscience, and calls for\nmention both because it emphasizes the contrast between his earlier and\nhis later life, and because it throws a luminous sidelight on the\nmethods by which he achieved his unparalleled success. When he was in\nLondon in 1867 he made the acquaintance of an elderly, impressionable\nEnglish-woman named Lyon, who immediately conceived a warm attachment\nfor him and stated her intention of adopting him as her son. Carrying\nout this plan, she settled on him the snug little fortune of one hundred\nand twenty thousand dollars, which she subsequently increased until it\namounted to no less than three hundred thousand dollars. Home at the\ntime was a widower, and it was his belief, as he afterward stated in\ncourt, that the woman desired him to marry her.\n\nIn any event her affection cooled as rapidly as it had begun, and the\nnext thing he knew he was being sued for the recovery of the three\nhundred thousand dollars. The trial was a celebrated case in English\nlaw. Lord Dunraven, Lord Crawford, and other of Home's titled and\ninfluential friends hurried to his assistance, and many were the\naffidavits forthcoming to combat the contentions of Mrs. Lyon, who swore\nthat she had been influenced to adopt Home by communications alleged to\ncome through him from her dead husband. Home himself denied that there\nwere any manifestations whatever relating to Mrs. Lyon, whose story, in\nfact, was so discredited on cross-examination that the presiding judge,\nthe vice-chancellor, caustically declared that her testimony was quite\nunworthy of belief. Notwithstanding which, he did not hesitate to give\njudgment in her favor, on the ground that, however worthless her\nevidence, it had not been satisfactorily shown that her gifts to Home\nwere \"acts of pure volition,\" the presumption being that no reasonable\nman or woman would have pursued the course she did unless under the\npressure of undue influence by the party to be benefited.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf for \"undue influence\" we read \"hypnotism,\" we shall have a\nsufficient, and what seems to me the only satisfactory, explanation of\nthe Lyon episode and of the most baffling of Home's feats, his\nlevitations, elongations, and the like. For the rest, bearing in mind\nthe fate of other dealers in turning tables and dancing chairs, he may\nfairly be regarded in the light Browning regarded him, that is to say as\nan exceptionally able conjurer who enjoyed the singular good fortune of\nnever being found out.[N] It must be remembered that not once was there\napplied to him the test which is now recognized as absolutely\nindispensable in the investigation of mediums who, like Home, are\nspecialists in the production of \"physical\" phenomena. This test is the\ndemand that the phenomena in question be produced under conditions doing\naway with the necessity for constant observation of the medium himself.\n\nEven Sir William Crookes, who appreciated to the full the extreme\nfallibility of the human eye and the ease with which the most careful\nobserver may be deceived by a clever prestidigitator, failed to apply\nthis test to Home; and by so failing laid himself open on the one hand\nto deception and on the other to the flood of criticism let loose by his\nscientific colleagues. Thus, the apparatus used in the experiment on\nwhich he seems to have laid greatest stress, is described as follows:\n\n\"In another part of the room an apparatus was fitted up for\nexperimenting on the alterations in the weight of a body. It consisted\nof a mahogany board thirty-six inches long by nine and one-half inches\nwide and one inch thick. At each end a strip of mahogany one and\none-half inches wide was screwed on, forming feet. One end of the board\nrested on a firm table, whilst the other end was supported by a spring\nbalance hanging from a substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted\nwith a self-registering index, in such a manner that it would record the\nmaximum weight indicated by the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted so\nthat the mahogany board was horizontal, its foot resting flat on the\nsupport. In this position its weight was three pounds, as marked by the\npointer of the balance. Before Mr. Home entered the room the apparatus\nhad been arranged in position, and he had not seen the object of some\nparts explained before sitting down.\"\n\nNow, to give this \"test\" evidential value, the disembodied spirit\nsupposed to be acting through Home should have caused the registering\nindex to record a change in weight without necessitating, on the\nspectators' part, constant scrutiny of the medium's movements. But, in\npoint of fact, a change in weight was recorded only when Home placed his\nfingers on the mahogany board. It is true, that he placed them on the\nend furthest from the balance, and the evidence seems sufficient that he\ndid not cause the pointer to move by exerting a downward pressure. But\nas one critic, Mr. Frank Podmore, has suggested there is no proof that\nhe did not find opportunity to tamper with the pointer itself or with\nsome other part of the apparatus by attaching thereto a looped thread or\nhair. To quote Mr. Podmore:\n\n\"It is by the use of such a thread, I venture to suggest, that the\nwatchful observation of Mr. Crookes and his colleagues was evaded. Given\na subdued light and opportunity to move about the room--and from\ndetailed notes of later seances it seems probable that Home could do as\nhe liked in both respects--the loop could be attached without much risk\nof detection to some part of the apparatus, preferably the hook from\nwhich the distal end of the board was suspended, the ends [of the\nthread] being fastened to some part of Home's dress, _e.g._, the knees\nof his trousers, if his feet and hands were under effectual\nobservation.\"[O]\n\nMoreover, it must not be forgotten that, barring the Crookes\ninvestigation, Home's manifestations for the most part occurred in the\npresence of men and women who, if not spiritists themselves, had\nimplicit confidence in his good faith and could by no stretch of the\nimagination be called trained investigators. Indeed, it seems safe to\nsay that had present day methods of inquiry been employed, as they are\nemployed by the experts of the Society for Psychical Research, Home, so\nfar at any rate as concerned the great bulk of his phenomena, would\nquickly have been placed in the same gallery as Madam Blavatsky, Eusapia\nPaladino, and those other wonder workers whom the society has\ndiscredited.\n\nIn the matter of the levitations and elongations, however, it is not so\neasy to raise the cry of sheer fraud. Here the only rational\nexplanation, short of supposing that Home availed himself if not of the\naid of \"spirits\" at least of the aid of some unknown physical force,\nseems to be, as was said, the exercise of hypnotic power. The accounts\ngiven by Lord Dunraven, Lord Crawford, and Sir William Crookes show that\nhe had ample scope for the employment of suggestion as a means of\ninducing those about him to imagine they had seen things which they\nactually had not seen. In this connection, it seems to me, considerable\nsignificance attaches to the following bit of evidence contributed by\nLord Crawford with regard to the London levitation:\n\n\"I saw the levitations in Victoria Street when Home floated out of the\nwindow. He first went into a trance and walked about uneasily; he then\nwent into the hall. While he was away I heard a voice whisper in my ear\n'He will go out of one window and in at another.' I was alarmed and\nshocked at the idea of so dangerous an experiment. I told the company\nwhat I had heard and we then waited for Home's return.\"\n\nAfter it is stated that Lord Crawford, not long before, had fancied he\nbeheld an apparition of a man seated in a chair, it is easy to imagine\nthe attitude of credulous expectancy with which he, at all events, would\n\"wait for Home's return\" via the open window. And the others were\ndoubtless in the same expectant frame of mind. \"Expectancy\" and\n\"suggestibility\" will, indeed, work marvels. I shall never forget how\nthe truth of this was borne home to me some years ago. A friend of\nmine--now a physician in Maryland, but at that time a medical student in\nToronto--occasionally amused himself by giving table-tipping seances, in\nwhich he enacted the role of medium. There was no suspicion on his\nsitters' part that he was a \"fraud.\" One evening he invoked the \"spirit\"\nof a little child, who had been dead a couple of years, and proceeded\nto \"spell out\" some highly edifying messages. Suddenly the seance was\ninterrupted by a shriek and a lady present, not a relative of the dead\nchild, fell to the floor in a faint. When revived, she declared that\nwhile the messages were being delivered she had seen the head of a child\nappear through the top of the table.\n\nWith such an instance before us, it can hardly be deemed surprising that\nHome should be able to play on the imagination of sitters so sympathetic\nand receptive as Lords Dunraven and Crawford unquestionably were. To\ntell the truth, Home's whole career, with its scintillating,\nmelodramatic, and uniformly successful phases is altogether inexplicable\nunless it be assumed that he possessed the hypnotist's qualities in a\nsuperlative degree.\n\nIt may well be, however, that in the last analysis he not only deceived\nothers but also deceived himself--that his charlatanry was the work of a\nman constitutionally incapable of distinguishing between reality and\nfiction in so far as related to the performance of feats contributing to\nthe success of his \"mission.\" In other words, that he was, like other\nhistoric personages whom we have already encountered, a victim of\ndissociation. There is no gainsaying the fact that he was of a\ndistinctly nervous temperament; and it is equally certain that he chose\na vocation, and placed himself in an environment, which would tend to\nmake a dissociated state habitual with him. But this is bringing us to\nthe consideration of a psychological problem which would itself require\na volume for adequate discussion. Enough to add that, when all is said,\nand viewed from whatever angle, Daniel Dunglas Home, was, and remains, a\nfascinating human riddle.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[N] But a \"conjurer\" who in all probability should not be held to strict\naccount for his deceptions. On this point, see below.\n\n[O] \"Modern Spiritualism,\" Vol. II, p. 242.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nTHE WATSEKA WONDER\n\n\nWhen the biography of the late Richard Hodgson is written one of its\nmost interesting chapters will be the story of his investigation into\nthe strange case of Lurancy Vennum. Archinquisitor of the Society for\nPsychical Research, the Sherlock Holmes of professional detectives of\nthe supernatural, in this instance Hodgson was forced to confess himself\nbeaten and to acknowledge that in his belief the only satisfactory\nsolution of the problem before him was to be had through recourse to the\nhypothesis that the dead can and do communicate with the living.\n\nAs is well known, subsequent inquiries, and notably his experiences with\nthe famous Mrs. Piper, led him to the enthusiastic indorsement of this\nhypothesis; but at the time of the Vennum affair, with the recollection\nof his triumphs in Europe and Asia fresh in his mind, he was still a\nthoroughgoing if open minded skeptic; and to Lurancy Vennum must\naccordingly be given the credit of having brought him, so to speak, to\nthe turning of the ways. Oddly enough too, scarce an effort has been\nmade to assemble evidence in disproof of his findings in that case and\nto develop a purely naturalistic explanation of a mystery which his\nverdict went far to establish in the minds of many as a classic\nillustration of supernatural action. Yet, while it must be admitted that\nuntil recently such a task would have been extremely difficult, it may\nsafely be declared that the phenomena manifested through Lurancy Vennum\nwere not a whit more other-worldly than the phenomena produced by the\ntricksters whom Hodgson himself so skilfully and mercilessly exposed.\n\nTo refresh the reader's memory with regard to the facts in the case, it\nwill be recalled that Lurancy Vennum was a young girl, between thirteen\nand fourteen years old, the daughter of respectable parents living at\nWatseka, Illinois, a town about eighty-five miles south of Chicago and\nboasting at the time a population of perhaps fifteen hundred. On the\nafternoon of July 11, 1877, while sitting sewing with her mother, she\nsuddenly complained of feeling ill, and immediately afterward fell to\nthe floor unconscious, in which state she remained for five hours. The\nnext day the same thing happened; but now, while still apparently\ninsensible to all about her, she began to talk, affirming that she was\nin heaven and in the company of numerous spirits, whom she described,\nnaming among others the spirit of her brother who had died when she was\nonly three years old. Her parents, deeply religious people of an\northodox denomination, feared that she had become insane, and their\nfears were increased when, with the passage of time, her \"fits,\" as they\ncalled her trances, became more frequent and of longer duration, lasting\nfrom one to eight hours and occurring from three to twelve times a day.\nPhysicians could do nothing for her, and by January, 1878, it was\ndecided that she was beyond all hope of cure and that the proper place\nfor her was an insane asylum.\n\nAt this juncture her father was visited by Mr. Asa B. Roff, also a\nresident of Watseka, but having no more than a casual acquaintanceship\nwith the Vennums. He had become interested in the case, he explained,\nthrough hearing reports of the intercourse Lurancy claimed to have with\nthe world of the dead, the possibility of which, being a devout\nspiritist, he did not in the slightest doubt. Moreover, he himself had\nhad a daughter, Mary, long dead, who had been subject to conditions\nexactly like Lurancy's and had given incontrovertible evidence of\npossessing supernatural powers of a clairvoyant nature. In her time she\ntoo had been deemed insane, but Mr. Roff was confident that she had\nreally been of entirely sound mind, and equally confident that the\npresent victim of \"spirit infestation,\" to use the singular term\nemployed by a later spiritistic eulogist of Lurancy, was also of sound\nmind. He therefore begged Mr. Vennum not to immure his daughter in an\nasylum; and Mrs. Roff adding her entreaties, it was finally resolved as\na last resort to call in a physician from Janesville, Wisconsin, who was\nhimself a spiritist and would, the Roffs felt sure, be able to treat the\ncase with great success.\n\nThis physician, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, paid his first visit to\nLurancy in Mr. Roff's company on the afternoon of January 31. He found\nthe girl, as he afterward related, sitting \"near a stove, in a common\nchair, her elbows on her knees, her hands under her chin, feet curled\nup on the chair, eyes staring, looking every way like an old hag.\" She\nwas evidently in an ugly mood, for she refused even to shake hands,\ncalled her father \"Old Black Dick\" and her mother \"Old Granny,\" and at\nfirst kept an obstinate silence. But presently, brightening up, she\nannounced that she had discovered that Dr. Stevens was a \"spiritual\"\ndoctor and could help her, and that she was ready to answer any\nquestions he might put. Now followed a strange dialogue. In reply to his\nqueries she said that her name was not Lurancy Vennum but Katrina Hogan,\nthat she was sixty-three years old, and had come from Germany \"through\nthe air\" three days before. Changing her manner quickly, she confessed\nthat she had lied and was in reality a boy, Willie Canning, who had died\nand \"now is here because he wants to be.\" More than an hour passed in\nthis \"insane talk,\" as her weeping parents accounted it, and then,\nflinging up her hands, she fell headlong in a state of cataleptic\nrigidity.\n\nDr. Stevens promptly renewed his questioning, at the same time taking\nboth her hands in his and endeavoring to \"magnetize\" her, to quote his\nown expression. It soon developed, according to the replies she made,\nthat she was no longer on earth but in heaven and surrounded by spirits\nof a far more beneficent character than the so-called Katrina and\nWillie. With all the earnestness of an ardent spiritist, the doctor\nimmediately suggested that she allow herself to be controlled by a\nspirit who would prevent those that were evil and insane from returning\nto trouble her and her family, and would assist her to regain health. To\nwhich she answered that she would gladly do so, and that among the\nspirits around her was one that the angels strongly recommended for this\nvery purpose. It was, she said, the spirit of a young girl who on earth\nhad been named Mary Roff.\n\n\"Why,\" cried Mr. Roff, \"that is my daughter, who has been in heaven\nthese twelve years. Yes, let her come. We'll be glad to have her come.\"\n\nCome she did, as the greatly bewildered Mr. Vennum testified next\nmorning during a hasty visit to Mr. Roff's office.\n\n\"My girl,\" said he, \"had a sound night's sleep after you and Dr. Stevens\nleft us; but to-day she asserts that she is Mary Roff, refuses to\nrecognize her mother or myself, and demands to be taken to your house.\"\n\nAt this amazing information, Mrs. Roff and her surviving daughter\nMinerva, who since Mary's death had married a Mr. Alter, promptly went\nto see Lurancy. From a seat at the window she beheld them approaching\ndown the street, and with an exultant cry exclaimed, \"Here comes my ma,\nand 'Nervie'!\" the name by which Mary Roff had been accustomed to call\nher sister in girlhood. Running to the door and throwing her arms about\nthem as they entered, she hugged and kissed them with expressions of\nendearment and with whispering allusions to past events of which she as\nLurancy could in their opinion have had absolutely no knowledge.\n\nMr. Roff who came afterward, she greeted in the same affectionate way,\nwhile treating the members of her own family as though they were entire\nstrangers. To her father and mother it seemed that this must be only a\nnew phase of her insanity, but to the Roffs there remained no doubt that\nin her they beheld an actual reincarnation of the girl whom they had\nburied twelve years before--that is to say, when Lurancy herself was a\npuny, wailing infant. Eagerly they seconded her entreaties to be\nallowed to return with them; and, Mrs. Vennum being completely\nprostrated by this unexpected development, it was soon decided that the\nlittle girl should for the time being take up her residence under the\nRoff roof.\n\nShe removed there February 11, and on the way an event occurred that\nvastly strengthened belief in the reality of her claims. The Vennums and\nthe Roffs lived at opposite ends of Watseka; but the latter family, at\nthe time of Mary's death in 1865, had been occupying a dwelling in a\ncentral section of the town. Arrived at this house, Lurancy\nunhesitatingly turned to enter it, and seemed much astonished when told\nthat her home was elsewhere. \"Why,\" said she, in a positive tone, \"I\nknow that I live here.\" It was indeed with some difficulty that she was\npersuaded to continue her journey; but once at its end all signs of\ndisappointment vanished and she passed gaily from room to room,\nidentifying objects which she had never seen before but which had been\nwell-known to Mary Roff. Her pseudo-parents were in ecstacies of joy.\n\"Truly,\" they said to each other, \"our daughter who was dead has been\nrestored to us,\" and anxiously they inquired of her how long they might\nhope to have her with them. \"The angels,\" was her response, \"will let me\nstay till some time in May--and oh how happy I am!\"\n\nHappy and contented she proved herself and, which was remarked by all\nwho saw her, entirely free from the maladies that had so sorely beset\nboth the living Lurancy and the dead Mary. For her life as Lurancy she\nappeared to have no remembrance; but she readily and unfailingly\nrecollected everything connected with the career of Mary. She was well\naware also that she was masquerading, as it were, in a borrowed body.\n\"Do you remember,\" Dr. Stevens asked her one day, \"the time that you cut\nyour arm?\" \"Yes, indeed. And,\" slipping up her sleeve, \"I can show you\nthe scar. It was--\" She paused, and quickly added, \"Oh, this is not the\narm; that one is in the ground,\" and proceeded to describe the spot\nwhere Mary had been buried and the circumstances attending her funeral.\nOld acquaintances of Mary's were greeted as though they had been seen\nonly the day before, although in one or two cases there was lack of\nrecognition, due, it was inferred, to physical changes in the visitor's\nappearance since Mary had known her on earth.\n\nTests, suggested and carried out by Dr. Stevens and Mr. Roff, only\nreinforced the view that they were really dealing with a visitant from\nthe unseen world. For instance, while the little girl was playing\noutdoors one afternoon, Mr. Roff suggested to his wife that she bring\ndown-stairs a velvet hat that their daughter had worn the last year of\nher life, place it on the hat stand, and see if Lurancy would recognize\nit. This was done, and the recognition was instant. With a smile of\ndelight Lurancy picked up the hat, mentioned an incident connected with\nit, and asked, \"Have you my box of letters also?\" The box was found, and\nrummaging through it the child presently cried, \"Oh, ma, here is a\ncollar I tatted! Ma, why did you not show me my letters and things\nbefore?\" One by one she picked out and identified relics dating back to\nMary's girlhood, long before Lurancy Vennum had come into the world.\n\nShe displayed, too, not a little of the clairvoyant ability ascribed to\nMary. The story is told that on one occasion she affirmed that her\nsupposed brother, Frank Roff, would be taken seriously ill during the\nnight; and when, about two o'clock in the morning, he was actually\nstricken with what is vaguely said to have been \"something like a spasm\nand congestive chill,\" she directed Mr. Roff to hurry next door where he\nwould find Dr. Stevens.\n\n\"But,\" protested Mr. Roff, \"Dr. Stevens is in quite another part of the\ncity to-night.\"\n\n\"No,\" she calmly said, \"he has come back, and you will find him where I\nsay.\"\n\nQuite incredulous, Mr. Roff gave his neighbor's door-bell a lusty pull,\nand the next moment was talking to the doctor, who, unknown to the\nRoffs, was spending the night there. With his aid, it is perhaps worth\nadding, brother Frank was soon relieved of the \"spasm and congestive\nchill.\"\n\nIn this way, continually surprising but constantly delighting the happy\nRoffs, Lurancy Vennum remained with them for more than three months,\nprofessing complete ignorance of her identity and enacting with the\ngreatest fidelity the role of the spirit who was supposed to have taken\npossession of her. Early in May, however, she called Mrs. Roff to one\nside and informed her in a voice broken by sobs that Lurancy was \"coming\nback\" and that they would soon have to take another farewell of their\nMary. This said, a change became apparent in her. She glared wildly\naround, and in an agitated tone demanded, \"Where am I? I was never here\nbefore. I want to go home.\" Mrs. Roff, heartbroken, explained that she\nhad been under the control of Mary's spirit for the purpose of \"curing\nher body,\" and told her that her parents would be sent for. But within\nfive minutes she had again lost all knowledge of her true identity, and\nseemingly was Mary Roff once more, overjoyed that she had been permitted\nto return.\n\nFor some days she continued in this state, with only occasional lapses\ninto her original self; then, on the morning of May 21, she announced\nthat the time for definite leave-taking had at last arrived, and with\nevident grief went about among the neighbors bidding them good-by. It\nwas arranged that \"sister Nervie\" should take her to Mr. Roff's office,\nand that Mr. Roff should thence escort her home. En route there were\nsharp interchanges of personality, with the spirit control dominant; but\nwhen the office was reached it became evident that she had fully come\ninto her own again. The night before she had wept bitterly at the\nthought of leaving her \"father.\" Now she addressed him calmly as \"Mr.\nRoff,\" called herself Lurancy, and said that her one wish was to see her\nparents as soon as possible. Nor, as the Vennums were quickly to\ndiscover, did she return to torment and alarm them by the weird actions\nof the preceding months. On the contrary, they found her healthy and\nnormal in mind and body, completely cured, as a result, the Roffs\nemphatically declared, of the intervention of the spirit of their\nbeloved daughter.\n\nNeedless to say, the people of Watseka and the surrounding country had\nwatched with breathless interest the progress of this curious affair;\nbut it was not until three months after the \"possession\" had ended that\nthe public at large obtained any knowledge of it. The first intimation,\noutside of unnoticed reports in local newspapers, came through the\nmedium of two articles contributed by Dr. Stevens to the August 3 and\n10, 1878, issues of _The Religio-Philosophical Journal_, one of the\nleading spiritist organs of the United States. Traversing the case in\nthe fullest detail, and emphasizing the fact that up to the moment of\nwriting the principal actor had had no return of the ills from which she\nhad previously suffered, Dr. Stevens gave it as his unqualified\nconviction that the spirit of Mary Roff had actually revisited earth in\nthe person of Lurancy Vennum, and had been the instrument of her cure.\nThis view naturally commended itself to spiritists, but by the\nunbelieving it was vigorously combatted, not a few insinuating or openly\nalleging that Dr. Stevens's narrative was a work of fiction. The\nveracity of the Roffs was also attacked. \"Can the truthfulness of the\nnarrative,\" one skeptical inquirer wrote Mr. Roff, \"be substantiated\noutside of yourself and those immediately interested? Can it be shown\nthat there was no collusion between the parties?\" And another asked him,\n\"Is it a fact, or is it a story made up to see how cunning a tale one\ncan tell?\"\n\nWaxing indignant, Mr. Roff wrote a long letter to _The\nReligio-Philosophical Journal_ denouncing the imputation of fraud,\ngiving the names of a number of men who would vouch for his integrity,\nand concluding with the statement: \"I am now sixty years old; have\nresided in Iroquois county thirty years; and would not now sacrifice\nwhat reputation I may have by being party to the publication of such a\nnarrative, if it was not perfectly true.\"\n\nFollowing this there appeared in _The Religio-Philosophical Journal_\nseveral letters from well-known Illinois professional men warmly\nindorsing Mr. Roff's character, and an announcement to the effect that\nthe editor, Colonel J. C. Bundy, himself of undoubted honesty, \"has\nentire confidence in the truthfulness of the narrative and believes from\nhis knowledge of the witnesses that the account is unimpeachable in\nevery particular.\" As for Dr. Stevens, Colonel Bundy declared that he\nhad been personally acquainted with the physician for years, and had\n\"implicit confidence in his veracity.\" After all this, accusations of\nperjury and deception were obviously futile, and, no adequate\nnon-spiritistic interpretation being forthcoming, there was an\nincreasing tendency to accept the view advanced by those who had\nparticipated in the affair.\n\nSuch was the situation at the time of Richard Hodgson's advent.\nPrimarily, as will be remembered by all who have followed the work of\nthe Society for Psychical Research, Dr. Hodgson had come to this country\nto investigate the trance mediumship of Mrs. Leonora Piper. But his\nattention having been called to the Vennum mystery, he visited Watseka\nin April, 1890, and instituted a rigorous cross-examination of the\nsurviving witnesses. Dr. Stevens was dead, and Lurancy herself had\nmarried and moved with her husband to Kansas, but Dr. Hodgson was able\nto interview Mr. and Mrs. Roff, Mrs. Alter, and half a dozen neighbors\nwho had personal knowledge of the \"possession.\" All answered his\nquestions freely and fully, reiterating the facts as given in Dr.\nStevens's narrative, and adding some interesting information hitherto\nnot made public. In the main this bore on the question of identity and\ntended to vindicate the reincarnation theory. It also developed that\nwhile Lurancy had grown to be a strong, healthy woman, she had had\noccasional returns of Mary's spirit in the years immediately following\nthe chief visitation; but that these had ceased with her marriage to a\nman who, Roff regretfully observed, had never made himself acquainted\nwith spiritism and therefore \"furnished poor conditions for further\ndevelopment in that direction.\"\n\nAppreciating the fact that Mr. Roff and his family would furnish the\nbest possible conditions for such development, and that he must be on\nhis guard against unconscious exaggeration and misstatement, Dr. Hodgson\nnevertheless deemed the evidence presented to him too strong to be\nexplained away on naturalistic grounds. Contributing to _The\nReligio-Philosophical Journal_ an account of his inquiry and of the\nadditional data it had brought to light, he described the case as\n\"unique among the records of supernormal occurrences,\" and frankly\nadmitted that he could not \"find any satisfactory interpretation of it\nexcept the spiritistic.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nYet, as was said at the outset, it may now be affirmed that another\ninterpretation is possible, and one far more satisfactory than the\nspiritistic; this, too, without impeaching in any way the truthfulness\nof the testimony given by Dr. Stevens, the Roffs, and the numerous other\nwitnesses. To begin: apart from the supernatural implications forced\ninto it by the appearance of the so-called spirit control, it is clear\nthat the affair bears a striking resemblance to the instances of\n\"secondary\" or \"multiple\" personality which recent research has\ndiscovered in such numbers, and which are due to perfectly natural, if\noften obscure, causes. In these, it has already been pointed out, as the\nresult of an illness, a blow, a shock, or some other unusual stimulus,\nthere is a partial or complete effacement of the original personality of\nthe victim and its replacement by a new personality, sometimes of\nradically different characteristics from the normal self.\n\nA sufficient example is the case of the Rev. Thomas C. Hanna, for\nknowledge of which the scientific world is indebted to Dr. Boris\nSidis.[P] Following a fall from his carriage, Mr. Hanna, a Connecticut\nclergyman, lost all consciousness of his identity, had no memory for the\nevents of his life prior to the accident, recognized none of his\nfriends, could not read or write, nor so much as walk or talk,--was, in\nfact, like a child new born. On the other hand, as soon as the rudiments\nof education were acquired by him once more, he showed himself the\npossessor of a vigorous, independent, self-reliant personality, lacking\nall knowledge of the original personality, but still able to adapt\nhimself readily to his environment and make headway in the world.\nUltimately, through methods which are distinctively modern, Dr. Sidis\nwas able to recall the vanished self, and, fusing the secondary self\nwith it, restore the clergyman to his former sphere of usefulness.\n\nThis, of course, is an extreme example. The usual procedure is for the\nsecondary personality to retain some of the characteristics of the\noriginal self--as the ability to read, write, etc.--and give itself a\nname. In this way Ansel Bourne, the Rhode Island itinerant preacher,\nbecame metamorphosed into A. J. Brown, and, without any recollection of\nhis former career or relationships, drifted to Pennsylvania and began an\nentirely new existence as a shopkeeper in a small country town.\nSimilarly with Dr. R. Osgood Mason's patient, Alma Z., in whom the\nsecondary personality assumed the odd name of \"Twoey,\" spoke, as Dr.\nMason phrased it, \"in a peculiar child-like and Indianlike dialect,\" and\nannounced that her mission was to cure the broken down physical organism\nof the original self, which remained completely in abeyance so long as\n\"Twoey\" was in evidence. Here, as is apparent, we have a case almost\nidentical with that of Lurancy Vennum, the sole difference being that\n\"Twoey\"--who, by the way, is credited with having exercised seemingly\nsupernormal powers--did not pose as a returned visitant from the world\nof spirits.\n\nThus far, then, depending on the argument from analogy, the presumption\nis strong that Lurancy's case belongs to the same category as the cases\njust mentioned. In the one, as in the others, we have loss of the\noriginal self, development of a new self, and the enactment by the\nlatter of a role conspicuously alien from that played by the former. The\none difficulty in the way of unreserved acceptance of this view is the\ncharacter of the secondary personality which replaced Lurancy's original\npersonality. Here the positive claim was made that the secondary\npersonality was in reality the personality of a girl long dead, and by\nway of proof vivid knowledge of the life, circumstances, and conduct of\nthat girl was offered. But on this point considerable light is shed by\nthe discovery that in a number of instances of secondary personality in\nwhich no supernatural pretensions are advanced there is a notable\nsharpening of the faculties, knowledge being obtained telepathically or\nclairvoyantly; and by the further discovery that it is quite possible to\ncreate experimentally secondary selves assuming the characteristics of\nreal persons who have died.\n\nIn this the creative force is nothing more or less than suggestion.\nThere is on record, indeed, an instance of mediumship in which the\nmedium, an amateur investigator of the phenomena of spiritism, clearly\nrecognized that his various impersonations were suggested to him by the\nspectators. This gentleman, Mr. Charles H. Tout, of Vancouver, records\nthat after attending a few seances with some friends he felt a strong\nimpulse to turn medium himself, and assume a foreign personality.\nYielding to the impulse, he discovered, much to his amazement, that\nwithout losing complete control of his consciousness, he could develop a\nsecondary self that would impose on the beholders as a discarnate\nspirit. On one occasion he thus acted in a semi-conscious way the part\nof a dead woman, the mother of a friend present, and the impersonation\nwas accepted as a genuine case of spirit control. On another, having\ngiven several successful impersonations, he suddenly felt weak and ill,\nand almost fell to the floor.\n\nAt this point, he stated, one of the sitters \"made the remark, which I\nremember to have overheard, 'It is father controlling him,' and I then\nseemed to realize who I was and whom I was seeking. I began to be\ndistressed in my lungs, and should have fallen if they had not held me\nby the hands and let me back gently upon the floor.... I was in a\nmeasure still conscious of my actions, though not of my surroundings,\nand I have a clear memory of seeing myself in the character of my dying\nfather lying in the bed and in the room in which he died. It was a most\ncurious sensation. I saw his shrunken hands and face, and lived again\nthrough his dying moments; only now I was both myself, in an indistinct\nsort of way, and my father, with his feelings and appearance.\"\n\nAll of this Tout explained correctly as \"the dramatic working out, by\nsome half conscious stratum of his personality, of suggestions made at\nthe time by other members of the circle, or received in prior\nexperiences of the kind.\" In most instances, however, the original self\nis completely effaced, and no consciousness is retained of the\nperformances of the secondary self; but that an avenue of sense is still\nopen is sufficiently demonstrated by the readiness with which, in\nhypnotic experiments, seemingly insensible subjects respond to the\nsuggestions of the operator. Here, therefore, we find our clue to the\nsolution of the mystery of Lurancy Vennum. A victim of a psychic\ncatastrophe, the cause of which must be left to conjecture in the\nabsence of knowledge of her previous history, she was placed in\nprecisely the position of the adventurous Mr. Tout and of the inert\nsubjects of the hypnotist's art. That is to say, having lost momentarily\nall knowledge and control of her own personality, the character her new\npersonality would assume depended on the suggestions received from those\nabout her.\n\nYet not altogether. Dr. Stevens's detailed record contains a reference\nwhich indicates strongly that the spiritistic tendency manifest from the\nonset of her trouble was to some extent predetermined. A few days before\nthe first attack she informed the family that \"there were persons in my\nroom last night, and they called 'Rancy, Rancy!' and I felt their breath\non my face\"; and the next night, repeating the same story, she sought\nrefuge in her mother's bed. These fanciful notions, symptomatic of the\ncoming trouble and possibly provocative of it, would act in the way of a\npowerful autosuggestion, and would of themselves explain why there\nresulted an inchoate, tentative, vague personality, instead of the\nrobust, definite personality that assumes control in most cases.\n\nAt first, the reader will remember, she sought vainly and wildly and\nwholly subconsciously--it cannot be made too clear that she was no\nlonger consciously responsible for her acts--for a satisfactory self of\nghostly origin. The aged Katrina, the masculine Willie, and other\nimaginary beings were tried and rejected; principally, no doubt, because\nher thirteen-year-old imagination was unequal to the task of investing\nthem with satisfactory attributes. From her relatives she obtained no\nassistance in the strange quest. They, disbelieving in \"spirits,\"\npersisted in calling her insane--a comfortless and far from beneficial\nsuggestion. But with the intervention of the Roffs and Dr. Stevens\neverything changed. Not questioning the truth of her assertions, they\nconfirmed her in them, and offered her into the bargain a ready-made\npersonality.\n\nHere at last was something tangible, a starting-point, a\nfoundation-stone. Mary Roff had had a real existence, had had thoughts,\nfeelings, desires, a life of flesh and blood. And Mary, they assured the\npoor, perturbed, disintegrated self, could help her regain all that she\nhad lost. Very well, let Mary come, and the sooner she came the better.\nFor knowledge of Mary, of her characteristics, her relationships, her\nfriends, her earthly career, it was necessary only to tap telepathically\nthe reservoir of information possessed by Mary's family; and there would\nbe available besides a wealth of data in chance remarks, unconscious\nhints, unnoticed promptings. She had been too long in search of a\npersonality not to grasp at the opening now afforded. Focused thus by\nsuggestion,--that subtle, all-pervasive influence which man is only now\nbeginning to appreciate,--the basic delusional idea promptly took root,\nblossomed, and burst into an amazing fruition. Banished were the\nspurious Katrinas and Willies. In their stead reigned Mary, no less\nspurious in point of fact, but so cunningly counterfeiting the true\nMary that the deception was not once detected.\n\nMark too how suggestion sufficed not only to create the Mary personality\nbut to expel it and restore the hapless Lurancy to perfect health. If\nthe responsibility for the creation rests on Dr. Stevens and the Roffs,\nto them likewise belongs the credit for the cure. Their insistence on\nthe fact that Mary's spirit could and would be of assistance, was itself\nas powerful a suggestion as could be hit upon by the most expert of\nmodern practitioners of psychotherapeutics; and in unconsciously\npersuading the spirit to set a limit to its time of \"possession\" they\nmade another suggestion of rare curative value. To the suggestionally\ninspired fixed idea that she was not Lurancy Vennum but Mary Roff was\nthus added the fixed idea, derived from the same source, that in May she\nwould become Lurancy Vennum again, and a perfectly well Lurancy. It was\nas though the Roffs had actually hypnotized her and given her commands\nthat were to be obeyed with the fidelity characteristic of the obedience\nhypnotized subjects render to the operator.\n\nWhen the time came the transformation was duly effected, though, as has\nbeen seen, not without a struggle, a period of alternating personality,\nwith Mary at one moment supreme and Lurancy at another. But this is a\nphenomenon that need give us no concern. Exactly the same thing happened\nin the last stages of the Hanna case. Nor do the fugitive recurrences of\nthe Mary personality signify aught than that Lurancy was still unduly\nsuggestionable. Note that these recurrences, according to the available\nevidence, developed only when the Roffs paid her visits; and that they\nceased entirely upon her marriage to a man not interested in spiritism,\nand her removal to a distant part of the country.[Q]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[P] In his \"Multiple Personality.\"\n\n[Q] It is proper to add that since the recent publication of this paper\nas a contribution to _The Associated Sunday Magazine_, the charge of\nfraud has been revived in connection with the \"Watseka Wonder.\" It is\nasserted by a resident of Watseka that although Lurancy Vennum\nunquestionably was a sufferer from \"nervous trouble,\" she consciously\nimpersonated the \"spirit\" of Mary Roff, her motive being a desire to be\nnear one of the Roff boys, with whom she imagined herself in love.\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nA MEDIEVAL GHOST HUNTER\n\n\nThe name of Dr. John Dee is scarcely known to-day, yet Dr. Dee has some\nexceedingly well-defined claims to remembrance. He was one of the\nforemost scientists of the Tudor period in English history. He was famed\nas a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher not only in his native\nland but in every European center of learning. Before he was twenty he\npenned a remarkable treatise on logic, and he left behind him at his\ndeath a total of nearly a hundred works on all manner of recondite\nsubjects. He was the means of introducing into England a number of\nastronomical instruments hitherto unused, and even unknown, in that\ncountry. His lectures on geometry were the delight of all who heard\nthem. In Elizabeth's reign he was frequently consulted by the highest\nministers of the crown with regard to affairs of State, and was the\nconfidant of the queen herself, who more than once employed him on\nsecret missions. He was interested in everyday affairs as well as in\nquestions of theoretical importance. The reformation of the calendar\nlong engaged his attention. He charted for Elizabeth her distant\ncolonial dominions. He preached the doctrine of sea-power, and, like\nHakluyt, advocated the upbuilding of a strong navy. He was, in some\nsort, a participant in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's scheme for New World\ncolonization.\n\nIn a word, Dr. John Dee was a phenomenally many-sided man in an age that\nwas peculiarly productive of many-sided men. Even yet, the catalogue of\nhis interests and accomplishments is by no means exhausted. Indeed, his\nchief claim to fame--and, paradoxically enough, the great reason why his\nreputation practically died with him--lies in the fact that he was one\nof the earliest of psychical researchers. At a time when all men\nunhesitatingly entertained a belief in the overshadowing presence of\nspirits and their constant intervention in human affairs, Dr. Dee\nresolved to prove, if possible, the actual existence of these mysterious\nand unseen beings. To encourage him in his ghost-hunting zeal was the\nhope that the spirits, if actually located by him, might reward his\nenterprise by unfolding a secret that had long been the despair of all\nmedieval scientists--the secret of the philosopher's stone, of the\nprecious formula whereby the baser metals could be transmuted into\nshining gold. With the heartiest enthusiasm, therefore, Dr. Dee went to\nwork, and although the spirits with whom he ultimately came into\nconstant communication brought him no gold but many tribulations, he\nremained an ardent psychical researcher to the day of his death.\n\nJust when he began his explorations of the invisible world it is\nimpossible to say. But it must have been at a very early age, for he was\nbarely twenty-five when a rumor spread that he was dabbling in the black\narts. Two years later, in 1554, he was definitely accused of trying to\ntake the life of Queen Mary by enchantments, and on this charge was\nthrown into prison. For cellmate he had Barthlet Green, who parted from\nhim only to meet an agonizing death in the flames, as an arch-heretic.\nDee himself was threatened with the stake, and was actually placed on\ntrial for his life before the dread Court of the Star Chamber. But he\nseems to have had, throughout his entire career, a singularly plausible\nmanner, and a magnetic, winning personality. He succeeded in convincing\nhis judges both of his innocence of traitorous designs and his religious\northodoxy, and was allowed to go scot free. Elizabeth, on her accession\nto the throne, naturally looked on him with favor, as one who had been\npersecuted by her sister; and with the more favor since it was widely\nreported that he was on the eve of making the grand discovery for which\nother alchemists had ever labored in vain. A man who might some day make\ngold at will was certainly not to be despised; rather, he should be\ncultivated. Nor was her esteem for Dee lessened by the success with\nwhich, by astrological calculations, he named a favorable day for her\ncoronation; and, a little later, by solemn disenchantment warded off the\nill effects of the Lincoln's Inn Fields incident, when a puppet of wax,\nrepresenting Elizabeth, was found lying on the ground with a huge pin\nstuck through its breast.\n\nAs a matter of fact, however, Dee was making headway neither in his\nquest for the philosopher's stone nor in his efforts to prove the\nexistence of a spiritual world. In vain he pored over every work of\noccultism upon which he could lay his hands, and tried all known means\nof incantation. Year after year passed without result, until at last he\nhit on the expedient of crystal-gazing. As every student of things\npsychical is aware, if one takes a crystal, or glass of water, or other\nbody with a reflecting surface, and gaze at it steadily, he may possibly\nperceive, after a greater or less length of time, shadowy images of\npersons or scenes in the substance that fixes his attention. It was so\nwith Dr. Dee, and not having any understanding of the laws of\nsubconscious mental action he soon came to the conclusion that the\nshadowy figures he saw in the crystal were veritable spirits. From this\nit was an easy step to imagine that they really talked to him and sought\nto convey to him a knowledge of the great secrets of this world and the\nnext.\n\nThe only difficulty was that he could not understand what they said--or,\nrather, what he fancied they said. The obvious thing to do was to find a\ncrystal-gazer with the gift of the spirit language, and induce him to\ninterpret for Dr. Dee's benefit the revelations of the images in the\nglass. Such a crystal-gazer was ready at hand in the person of a young\nman named Edward Kelley. Among the common people, as Dee well knew,\nKelley had the reputation of being a bold and wicked wizard. He had been\nborn in Worcester, and trained in the apothecary's business, but,\ntempted by the prospect of securing great wealth at a minimum of\ntrouble, he had turned alchemist and magician. It was rumored that on at\nleast one occasion he had disinterred a freshly buried corpse, and by\nhis incantations had compelled the spirit of the dead man to speak to\nhim. There was more truth in the report that the reason he always wore a\nclose-fitting skull-cap was to conceal the loss of his ears, which had\nbeen forfeited to the Government of England on his conviction for\nforgery. Of this last unpleasant incident Dr. Dee seems to have known\nnothing. At any rate, with child-like confidence, he sent for Kelley,\ntold him of the properties of his magic crystal--which the now\nthoroughly infatuated doctor represented as having been bestowed on him\nby the angel Uriel--and asked Kelley if he would interpret for him the\nwonderful words of the spirits.\n\nKelley, as shrewd and unscrupulous a man as any in the annals of\nimposture, readily consented, but on pretty hard terms. He was to be\ntaken in as a member of Dr. Dee's family, retained on a contract, and\npaid an annual stipend of fifty pounds, quite a large sum in those\ntimes. On this understanding he went to work, and day after day, for\nyears, regaled the credulous Dee with monologues purporting to be\ndelivered by the spirits in the crystal. Everything Kelley told him, Dr.\nDee faithfully noted down, and many years later, long after both Dee and\nKelley had been carried to their graves, these manuscript notes of the\nseances were published. The volume containing them--a massive, closely\nprinted folio entitled \"A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for\nMany Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits\"--is one of the great\ncuriosities of literature. A copy of the original edition is before me\nas I write, and I will quote from it just enough to show the character\nof the \"revelations\" vouchsafed to Dee through the mediumship of the\ncunning Kelley.\n\n\"Wednesday, 19 Junii, I made a prayer to God and there appeared one,\nhaving two garments in his hands, who answered, 'A good praise, with a\nwavering mind.'\n\n\"God made my mind stable, and to be seasoned with the intellectual\nleaven, free of all sensible mutability.\n\n\"E. K. [said] 'One of these two garments is pure white: the other is\nspeckled of divers colors; he layeth them down before him, he layeth\nalso a speckled cap down before him at his feet; he hath no cap on his\nhead: his hair is long and yellow, but his face cannot be seen.... Now\nhe putteth on his pied coat and his pied cap, he casteth one side of his\ngown over his shoulder and he danceth, and saith, \"There is a God, let\nus be merry!\"'\n\n\"E. K. 'He danceth still.'\n\n\"'There is a heaven, let us be merry.'\n\n\"'Doth this doctrine teach you to know God, or to be skilful in the\nheavens?'\n\n\"'Note it.'\n\n\"E. K. 'Now he putteth off his clothes again: now he kneeleth down, and\nwasheth his head and his neck and his face, and shaketh his clothes, and\nplucketh off the uttermost sole of his shoes, and falleth prostrate on\nthe ground, and saith, \"Vouchsafe, oh God, to take away the weariness of\nmy body and to cleanse the filthiness of this dust, that I may be apt\nfor this pureness.\"'\n\n\"E. K. 'Now he taketh the white garment, and putteth it on him.... Now\nhe sitteth down on the desk-top and looketh toward me.... He seemeth now\nto be turned to a woman, and the very same which we call Galvah.'\"\n\nSide by side with the esoteric and transcendental utterances which\nKelley credited to the spirits, he cleverly introduced sufficient in the\nway of references to the elixir of life and the transmutation of metals,\nto keep alive in Dee's breast the hope of ultimately solving the crucial\nproblems of medieval science. All the money Dee could procure was spent\non ingredients for magical formulas, and to such lengths did his\nenthusiasm carry him that before long he was reduced to poverty. He\nbecame so poor, in fact, that when, in the summer of 1583, the Earl of\nLeicester announced his intention of bringing a notable foreign visitor,\nCount Albert Lasky of Bohemia, to dine with Dee, the unhappy doctor was\ncompelled to send word that he could not provide a proper dinner.\nLeicester, moved to pity, reported his plight to the queen, who at once\nbelied her reputation for niggardliness by bestowing a liberal gift on\nthe Sage of Mortlake, as Dee was now styled at the Court. The dinner\naccordingly took place, and was a tremendous success in more ways than\none.\n\nLasky turned out to be an exceedingly excitable and impressionable man,\nand his curiosity was so aroused by the occult discourse of his host\nthat he begged to be admitted to the seances. Always alert to the main\nchance, Kelley, after a few preliminary sittings of unusual\npicturesqueness, inspired the spirits to predict that Lasky would one\nday be elected King of Poland. It needed nothing more to induce the\nhappy and hopeful count to invite both Dee and Kelley to return with him\nto Bohemia. He would, he promised, protect and provide for them; they\nshould live with him in his many turreted castle, and want for nothing.\nHere, indeed, was a pleasant way out of their present poverty, and Dee\nand Kelley readily gave consent. Nor did they leave England a moment too\nsoon. Scarcely had they taken ship before a mob, roused to fury by\nsuperstitious fears, broke into the philosopher's house at Mortlake and\ndestroyed almost everything that they did not steal--furniture, books,\nmanuscripts, and costly scientific apparatus.\n\nOf this, though, Dee for the moment happily knew nothing. Nor, for all\nhis long intercourse with the spirits, was he able to foresee that he\nwas now embarking on a career of tragic adventure that falls to the lot\nof few scientists. At first, however, all went well enough. Lasky\nentertained his learned guests in lavish fashion, and, assuming their\ngarb of long, flowing gown, joined heartily with them in the ceremonies\nof the seance room. But as time passed and their incantations redounded\nin no way to his advantage, he gradually lost patience, and broadly\nhinted that they might better transfer their services to another patron.\nWhereupon, closely followed by the irrepressible Kelley, Dee removed to\nthe court of the emperor, Rudolph II, at Prague. He had dedicated one of\nhis scientific treatises to the emperor's father, and in his simplicity\nfirmly believed that this would insure him a warm and lasting welcome.\nBut Rudolph, from the outset, showed himself far from well-disposed to\nDee, Kelley, and their attendant retinue of invisible spirits. When Dee\ngrandiloquently introduced himself, in a Latin oration, as a messenger\nfrom the unseen world, the emperor curtly checked him with the remark\nthat he did not understand Latin. And the next day a hint was given him\nthat, at the request of the papal nuncio, he and Kelley were to be\narrested and sent to Rome for trial as necromancers. Before night-fall\nthey were in full flight, to remain homeless wanderers until another\nBohemian count, hearing of their presence in his dominions, took them\nunder his protection on the proviso that they were to replenish his\nexchequer by converting humble pewter into silver and gold.\n\nIn this, of course, they signally failed, and the next few years of\ntheir lives were years of the greatest misery. This, at any rate, so far\nas Dee was concerned. Kelley, with pitiless insistence, drew his pay\nregularly, and when funds were not forthcoming, refused to act as\ncrystal-gazer and spirit interpreter. On one of these occasions Dee\ntried to replace him by training his son, Arthur Dee, as a\ncrystal-gazer; but, try as he might, the boy said he could see in the\ncrystal nothing but meaningless clouds and specks. Had Dee not been\nthoroughly infatuated this might have disillusioned him, and convinced\nhim that Kelley had simply been preying on his credulity. But the old\nman--he was now well advanced in years--saw in his son's failure only\nproof of Kelley's superior gifts, and by dint of great sacrifices\ncontrived to find the money necessary to persuade him to return to his\npost. At last a day came when money could no longer be found, and then\nKelley definitely determined to break the partnership. According to one\naccount, he informed Dee that, for the sake of his immortal soul, he\ncould no longer have dealings with the spirits; that they were spirits\nnot of good but of evil, and Mephistopheles was their master; and that,\ndid he continue to traffic with them, Mephistopheles would soon have\nhim, body and soul. Another version--given by the astrologer, William\nLilly, who is said to have been consulted by the friends of King Charles\nI. as to the best time for that unhappy monarch to attempt to escape\nfrom prison--says that one fine morning Kelley took French leave of Dee,\nrunning away with an alchemically inclined friar who had promised him a\ngood income. Whatever the facts of his final rupture with his\nlong-suffering master, it is certain that, after a romantic career, in\nwhich he gained a German baronetcy, Kelley was clapped into prison on a\ncharge of fraud, and broke his neck while trying to escape.\n\nDr. Dee, in the meantime, a sadder if not a really wiser man, had found\nhis way back to England, where he essayed the difficult task of\nretrieving his ruined fortunes. Elizabeth smiled on him as graciously as\never, and at Christmas time sent to him a royal gift of two hundred\nangels in gold. But he needed more than an occasional bounty; he needed\nthe assurance of a steady income, and the chance to pursue again his\nscientific studies undisturbed by the phantoms of gnawing want. So, in a\nmemorial, \"written with tears of blood,\" as he himself put it, Dee\nbegged the queen to appoint a commission to investigate his case and\nreview the evidence he would produce to prove that his services to the\nnation warranted a reward. Promptly the commission was appointed, and as\npromptly began its labors. This led to what Isaac Disraeli, perhaps\nDee's best biographer, has described as a \"literary scene of singular\nnovelty.\"\n\nLet me depict it in Disraeli's little known words: \"Dee, sitting in his\nlibrary,\" says Disraeli, \"received the royal commissioners. Two tables\nwere arranged; on one lay all the books he had published, with his\nunfinished manuscripts; the most extraordinary one was an elaborate\nnarrative of the transactions of his whole life. This manuscript his\nsecretary read, and, as it proceeded, from the other table Dee presented\nthe commissioners with every testimonial. These vouchers consisted of\nroyal letters from the Queen, and from princes, ambassadors, and the\nmost illustrious persons of England and of Europe; passports which\ntraced his routes, and journals which noted his arrivals and departures;\ngrants and appointments and other remarkable evidences; and when these\nwere wanting, he appealed to living witnesses.\n\n\"Among the employments which he had filled, he particularly alluded to a\n'painful journey in the winter season, of more than fifteen hundred\nmiles, to confer with learned physicians on the Continent, about her\nmajesty's health.' He showed the offers of many princes to the English\nphilosopher, to retire to their courts, and the princely establishment\nat Moscow proffered by the czar; but he had never faltered in his\ndevotion to his sovereign.... He complained that his house at Mortlake\nwas too public for his studies, and incommodious for receiving the\nnumerous foreign literati who resorted to him. Of all the promised\npreferments, he would have chosen the mastership of St. Cross for its\nseclusion. Here is a great man making great demands, but reposing with\ndignity on his claims; his wants were urgent, but the penury was not in\nhis spirit. The commissioners, as they listened to his autobiography,\nmust often have raised their eyes in wonder, on the venerable and\ndignified author before them.\"\n\nTheir report was terse, direct, and wholly favorable, inspiring the\nqueen to declare that Dee should have the mastership of St. Cross, and\nthat immediately. But days passed into months, and months into years,\nand Elizabeth's \"immediately\" still belonged to the future. For some\nreason she soon lost all interest in the returned Sage of Mortlake.\nAgain and again he memorialized her, once with a letter vindicating\nhimself from the accusation of practising sorcery. Her sole reply was to\ngrant him finally the uncongenial post of warden of Manchester College,\nfrom which he retired after some mortifying experiences with the minor\nofficials. Nor did he fare better at the hands of Elizabeth's successor.\nSteadily he sank lower in the scale of society, until at last he was\nforced to sell his books, one by one, to buy bread. And still, for all\nhis poverty, he pressed constantly forward in his adventurings into the\ninvisible world. If his friends deserted him, he would at least have the\ncompanionship of \"angels.\" As his hallucinations grew, his youthful\nbuoyancy returned. He would leave England, would fare across to the\nContinent, and there seek out men of a mind like unto his own. Joyfully,\nhe made ready for the journey; but, even while he packed and planned,\nthe call came for another and a longer voyage. In the eighty-first year\nof his age, 1608, the aged dreamer became in very fact a dweller in the\nspirit world.\n\nOf his place in the history of mankind, it is not easy to write with any\ndegree of finality. There can be no doubt that he was utterly swept off\nhis feet by the domination of a fixed idea. And it is not possible to\npoint to any specific contributions which he made to the advancement of\nlearning, worldly or otherwise. Still, it is equally certain that he\nwas anything but a negative quantity in an age resplendent for its\npositive men. He played his part, however mistakenly, in the\nintellectual awakening that has shed such luster on the times of\nElizabeth; and, if only for his overpowering curiosity, and his intense\nand unfailing ardor to get at the truth of all things, natural or\nsupernatural, he merits respect as a forerunner of the scientific spirit\nwhich in his day was but feebly striving to loose itself from the\nbondage of bigotry and intolerance.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nGHOST HUNTERS OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY\n\n\nPsychical research, of which so much mention has been made in the\npreceding pages, may be roughly yet sufficiently described as an effort\nto determine by strictly scientific methods the nature and significance\nof apparitions, hauntings, spiritistic phenomena, and those other weird\noccurrences that would seem to confirm the idea that the spirits of the\ndead can and do communicate with the living. It is something\ncomparatively new--and like all scientific endeavor is the outgrowth of\nmany minds. But so far as its origin may be attributed to any one man,\ncredit must chiefly be given to a Cambridge University professor named\nHenry Sidgwick.\n\nAt the time, Sidgwick was merely a lecturer in the university, a post\ngiven him as a reward for his brilliant career as an undergraduate. He\nwas a born student and investigator, a restless seeker after knowledge.\nPhilosophy, sociology, ethics, economics, mathematics, the classics,--he\nmade almost the whole wide field of thought his sphere of inquiry. And\nafter awhile, as is so often the case, his learning became too profound\nfor his peace of mind. He had been born and brought up in the faith of\nthe English Church, and had unhesitatingly made the religious\ndeclaration required of all members of the university faculty. But\nlittle by little he felt himself drifting from the moorings of his\nyouth, and doubting the truth of the ancient doctrines and traditions.\nHonestly skeptical, but still unwilling to lose his hold on religion, he\nturned feverishly to the study of oriental languages, of ancient\nphilosophies, of history, of science, in the hope of finding evidence\nthat would remove his doubts. But the more he read the greater grew his\nuncertainty, especially with respect to the vital question of the\nexistence of a spiritual world and its relation to mankind.\n\nWhile he was still laboring in this valley of indecision, Sidgwick was\nvisited by a young man, Frederic W. H. Myers, who had studied under him\na few years earlier and for whom he had formed a warm friendship.\nMyers, it seemed, was tormented by the same scruples that were harassing\nhim. It was his belief, he told Sidgwick, that if the teachings of the\nBible were true--if there existed a spiritual world which in days of old\nhad been manifest to mankind--then such a world should be manifest now.\nAnd one beautiful, starlit evening, when they were strolling together\nthrough the university grounds, he put to his old master the pointed\nquestion:\n\n\"Do you think that, although tradition, intuition, metaphysics, have\nfailed to solve the riddle of the universe, there is still a chance of\nsolving it by drawing from actual observable phenomena--ghosts, spirits,\nwhatsoever it may be--valid knowledge as to a world unseen?\"\n\nGazing gravely into the eager face of his companion, and weighing his\nwords with the caution that was characteristic of him, Sidgwick replied\nthat he had indeed entertained this thought; that, although not over\nhopeful of the result, he believed such an inquiry should be undertaken,\nnotwithstanding the unpleasant notoriety it would entail on those\nembarking in it. Would he, then, make the quest, and would he permit\nMyers to pursue it by his side? Long and earnestly the two friends\ntalked together, and when their walk ended, that December night in 1869,\npsychical research had at last come definitely into being.\n\nIn the beginning, however, progress was painfully slow and uncertain.\n\"Our methods,\" as Myers afterward explained, \"were all to make. In those\nearly days we were more devoid of precedents, of guidance, even of\ncriticism that went beyond mere expressions of contempt, than is now\nreadily conceived.\"\n\nIt was realized that no mere analysis of alleged experiences in the past\nwould do; that what was needed was a rigid scrutiny of present-day\nmanifestations of a seemingly supernormal character, and the collection\nof a mass of well authenticated evidence sufficient to justify\ninferences and conclusions. Earnestly and bravely the friends went to\nwork, and before long had the satisfaction of finding an invaluable\nassistant in the person of Edmund Gurney, another Cambridge man and an\nenthusiast in all matters metaphysical.\n\nAt first, to be sure, Gurney entered into psychical research in a\nhalf-hearted, quizzical way, expecting to be amused rather than\ninstructed. And he derived little encouragement from the investigations\ncarried on by Sidgwick, Myers, and himself in the field of spiritistic\nmediumship. Fraud seemed always to be at the bottom of the phenomena\nproduced in the seance room. But his interest was suddenly and\npermanently awakened by the discovery, following several years spent in\npatiently collecting evidence, of facts pointing to the possibility of\nthought being communicated from mind to mind by some agency other than\nthe recognized organs of sense. At once he made it his special business\nto accumulate data bearing on this point, his labors ultimately leading\nhim into an exhaustive examination of hypnotism, as he found that the\nhypnotic trance seemed peculiarly favorable to \"thought transference,\"\nor \"telepathy.\"\n\nMeantime, the example of this little Cambridge group had been followed\nby other investigators; and in 1876, before no less dignified and\nconservative a body than the British Association for the Advancement of\nScience, the proposal was made that a special committee be appointed for\nthe systematic examination of spiritistic and kindred phenomena. The\nidea was broached by Dr. W. F. Barrett, professor of physics at the\nRoyal College of Science, Dublin, and was warmly seconded by Dr. Alfred\nRussel Wallace and Sir William Crookes, two distinguished scientists who\nhad already made adventures in psychical research and were destined to\nwide renown as ghost hunters.\n\nFor some reason nothing was done at the time; but five years later\nProfessor Barrett renewed his suggestion, asking Myers and Gurney if\nthey would join him in the formation of such a society. That, they\nreplied, they would gladly do, provided Sidgwick could be induced to\naccept its presidency. Having long before realized that the field was\ntoo extensive for thorough exploration by any individual, however\ngifted, Sidgwick willingly gave his consent. And accordingly, in\nJanuary, 1882, the now celebrated Society for Psychical Research was\nformally organized, its first council including, besides Sidgwick,\nMyers, Gurney, and Barrett, such men as Arthur J. Balfour, afterward\nPrime Minister of Great Britain; the brilliant Richard Hutton; Prof.\nBalfour Stewart; and Frank Podmore, than whom no more merciless\nexecutioner of bogus ghosts is wielding the ax to-day.\n\nUnfortunately, the first council also numbered several avowed\nspiritists, notably the medium Stainton Moses; and the society's\nbirthplace was in the rooms of the British National Association of\nSpiritualists. These two facts created a wide-spread suspicion that the\nsociety was actually nothing more than an adjunct to the spiritistic\nmovement. Nor was confidence wholly restored by the hasty withdrawal of\nthe spiritistic representatives as soon as they learned that strictly\nscientific methods of inquiry were to prevail; or by the accession, as\nhonorary members, of national figures like W. E. Gladstone, John Ruskin,\nLord Tennyson, A. R. Wallace, Sir William Crookes, and G. F. Watts.\n\nTo the scientific as well as the popular consciousness, the society was\nlittle better than an assemblage of cranks, with strangely fantastic\nnotions, and only too likely to lose its mental balance and help\nignorant and superstitious people to lose theirs. Conscious, however, of\nthe really serious and important nature of their enterprise, and cheered\nby Gladstone's comforting assurance that no investigation of greater\nmoment to mankind could be made,[R] the members of the society applied\nthemselves zealously to the business that had brought them together.\n\nSensibly enough, they adopted the principle of specialization and\ndivision of labor. While one group carried on experiments designed to\nprove or disprove the telepathic hypothesis, another engaged in a\nsystematic examination of the alleged facts of clairvoyance. A third, in\nits turn, under the skilful guidance of Gurney, investigated the\nphenomena of the hypnotic trance, with results unexpectedly beneficial\nto medical science. A special committee was also appointed to collect\nand sift evidence as to the reality of apparitions and hauntings, making\nwhenever possible personal examinations of the seers of the visions and\nthe places of their occurrence. Finally, there were various\nsubcommittees of inquiry into the physical phenomena of spiritism,--the\nknockings, table turnings, production of spirit forms, and similar\nmarvels of the Dunglas Home type of \"medium.\" From the outset, these\nsubcommittees demonstrated the value of psychical research, as a\nprotection to the interests of society, by exposing, one after another,\nthe fraudulent character of the pretended intermediaries between the\nseen and the unseen world.\n\nIn this region of inquiry no one was more successful than a recruit from\ndistant Australia, by name Richard Hodgson. Hodgson, unlike Sidgwick and\nMyers and many others of his associates, had not engaged in psychical\nresearch from the hope that the truths of the Bible might thereby be\ndemonstrated. His motive was that of the detective eager to unravel\nmysteries. From his boyhood he had had a singular fondness for solving\ntricks and puzzles of all sorts; and when, in 1878, he came to England\nto complete his education at Cambridge, he naturally gravitated into the\ncompany of Sidgwick, Myers, and Gurney, as men busied in an undertaking\nthat appealed to his detective instinct. He was radically different from\nthem in temperament and point of view--not at all mystical, full of\nanimal spirits, fond of all manner of sports, and interested in occult\nsubjects only so far as they furnished working material for his nimble\nand inquiring mind. The Cambridge trio, however, took kindly to him,\ninvited him to join the Society for Psychical Research, and two years\nafter its formation were instrumental in sending him to India to\ninvestigate the methods of Madam Blavatsky, the high priestess of the\ntheosophic movement which was then winning adherents throughout the\ncivilized world.\n\nFrom this inquiry he returned to England with an international\nreputation as a detective of the supernatural. With the aid of two\ndisgruntled confederates of the theosophist leader, he had demonstrated\nthe falsity of the foundations on which her claims rested, and had shown\nthat downright swindling constituted a large part of her stock in trade.\nWith redoubled ardor he now plunged into the task of exposing the\nspiritistic mediums plying their vocation in England, and for this\npurpose enlisted the assistance of a professional conjurer, S. J. Davey,\nwho was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research.\n\nDavey, after a little practice, succeeded in duplicating by mere sleight\nof hand many of the most impressive feats of the mediums; doing this,\nindeed, so well that some spiritists alleged that he was in reality a\nmedium himself. Hodgson, for his part, by clever analysis of the Davey\nperformances and of the feats of Davey's mediumistic competitors,\nbrought home to his colleagues in the Society for Psychical Research a\nlively sense of the folly of depending on the human eye as a detector of\nfraudulent spiritistic phenomena. His crowning triumph came with his\nexposure of Eusapia Paladino, the Italian medium who is still enjoying\nan undeserved popularity on the European continent.\n\nBut in time even Hodgson met his Waterloo. Sent to the United States to\ninvestigate the trance phenomena of Mrs. Leonora Piper, he was forced to\nconfess that in her case the theory of fraud fell to the ground, and as\nis well known he ended by developing into an out and out spiritist. A\nfew days before Christmas, 1905, he suddenly died in Boston; and, if\nreports from the spirit world may be accepted, the once-renowned ghost\nhunter has himself become a ghost, visiting in especial two of his\nAmerican colleagues, Prof. William James and Prof. James H. Hyslop.[S]\n\nTo return, however, to the early days of the Society for Psychical\nResearch. Valuable as were the results obtained by Hodgson and his\nassociates on what may be called the anti-swindle committees, they had a\ndistinctly negative bearing on the supreme object of inquiry--proof of\nthe existence of a spiritual world in which human personality exists\nafter the death of the body. Some enthusiasts did not hesitate to\nproclaim at an early date that such proof had actually been secured,\nbasing this assertion on the seemingly supernatural facts brought to\nlight by the committees on telepathy, clairvoyance, and apparitions. But\nthe society, under the leadership of the cautious Sidgwick, who was its\npresident for many years, steadily refused to countenance this view, and\ninsisted that before any definite conclusions could be reached far more\nevidence would have to be assembled. Thus the first ten years of the\nsociety's existence were marked by few positive results,--the most\nimportant being the statement of the case for telepathy and of its\npossible relationships to apparitions and hauntings, as well as to the\npurely psychical phenomena of spiritualism.\n\nIndeed, the society formally expressed its acquiescence in the\ntelepathic hypothesis as early as 1884, in the words, \"Our society\nclaims to have proved the reality of thought transference--of the\ntransmission of thoughts, feelings, and images from one mind to another\nby no recognized channel of sense.\" But to no other dictum did it commit\nitself until ten years more had passed when, following the so-called\ncensus of hallucinations, it gave voice to its belief that between\ndeaths and apparitions of the dying person a connection existed that was\nnot due to chance. And since then the society has contented itself with\nsteadily accumulating evidence designed to throw light on the causal\nconnection between deaths and ghosts, and to illumine the central\nproblem of demonstrating scientifically the existence of an unseen world\nand the immortality of the soul.\n\nIndividuals, of course, have been free to express their views, and from\nthe pens of several have come striking and suggestive analyses of the\nevidence assembled in the course of the society's twenty-five years. In\nthis respect, beyond any question, primacy must be given the writings of\nMyers. Even before the organization of the society, his personal\nresearches had led him to suspect that, whatever the truth about the\nlife beyond the grave, there was reason for radical changes of belief\nregarding the nature of human personality itself. In the light of the\nphenomena of the hypnotic trance, clairvoyance, hallucinations, and even\nof natural sleep, it seemed to him that, instead of being a stable,\nindivisible unity, human personality was essentially unstable and\ndivisible.\n\nAnd as the years passed and he was enabled to coordinate the results of\nthe investigations carried on by the different committees, he gradually\nbecame convinced that over and beyond the self of which man is normally\nconscious there existed in every man a secondary self endowed with\nfaculties transcending those of the normal wake-a-day self. To this he\ngave the name of the \"subliminal self,\" and, in the words of Professor\nJames, \"endowed psychology with a new problem,--the exploration of the\nsubliminal region being destined to figure thereafter in that branch of\nlearning as Myers's problem.\"\n\nNot content with this, he gave himself, with all the earnestness that\nhad originally drawn him into activity with Sidgwick, to the\nformulation of a cosmic philosophy based on the hypothesis of the\nsubliminal self and its operations in that unseen world of whose\nexistence he no longer doubted. Here he laid himself open to the charge\nof extravagance and transcendentalism, and undoubtedly exceeded the\nlogical limit. But for all of that his labors--cut short by death six\nyears ago, and only a few months after the death of his beloved master,\nSidgwick--have been little short of epoch marking, and amply suffice to\nvindicate the existence of the once despised, and still by no means\nvenerated, Society for Psychical Research.\n\nSir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Mr. Frank Podmore are other\nmembers of the society who have granted the outside world informative\nglimpses of its workings and discoveries. Sir William Crookes, of\ncourse, is best known as a great chemist, discoverer of the element\nthallium, and inventor of numerous scientific instruments; while Sir\nOliver Lodge's most striking work has been in electricity, and more\nparticularly in the direction of improving wireless telegraphy. But both\nhave long been actively interested in psychical research, and perhaps\nmost of all in those phases of it bearing on the telepathic hypothesis,\ntheir great aim being to discover just what the technique of telepathic\ncommunication from mind to mind may be.\n\nMr. Podmore, on the other hand, like Richard Hodgson, has chiefly\nconcerned himself with psychical research from the detective, or\ncritical, standpoint. He began his labors late in the '70's, associating\nhimself with the Cambridge group, and has consistently maintained the\nattitude of a skeptical, though open minded, investigator. To-day, to a\ncertain extent, he may be said to occupy the place so long filled by\nHenry Sidgwick as a sane, restraining influence on the less judicial\nmembers of the society, who would unhesitatingly brush aside all\nobjections and embrace the spiritistic hypothesis with all its\nsupernatural implications.[T]\n\nOf course, psychical research has by no means been confined to the\nEnglish organization. All over the world investigators are now probing\ninto the mysteries of the seemingly supernormal. But, as a general\nthing, their methods scarcely reach the strict standards set by the\norganized inquirers of England, and as a natural consequence they are\nmore easily deceived by tricksters.\n\nThis is particularly true of the European ghost hunters, whose laxity of\nprocedure, not to say gullibility, was clearly shown by the ease with\nwhich Hodgson exposed the pretensions of Eusapia Paladino after\nContinental savants had pronounced her feats genuine. And it is even\nmore strikingly exhibited by the pathetic fidelity with which they still\ntrust in her, notwithstanding the Hodgson exposure, and the fact that\nthey themselves have on more than one occasion caught her committing\nfraud. In the United States, however, psychical research worthy of the\nname took root early, owing to the establishment of an American branch\nof the English society under the capable direction of Dr. Hodgson. A\nyear or so ago, after his death, this branch was abandoned. But in its\nplace, and organized along similar lines, there has arisen the American\nInstitute for Scientific Research, the creation of Prof. James H.\nHyslop.\n\nUntil a few years ago occupant of the chair of logic at Columbia\nUniversity, Professor Hyslop is unquestionably one of the most\nconspicuous figures in psychical research in this or any other country.\nLike Professor Sidgwick, he first became interested in the subject\nthrough religious doubt, and forthwith attacked its problems with the\nzeal of a man whose principal characteristics are intense enthusiasm,\nresourcefulness of wit, and intellectual fearlessness. As everybody\nknows, his experiences with Mrs. Piper led him to unite with Hodgson and\nMyers in regarding the spiritistic hypothesis as the only one capable of\nexplaining all the phenomena encountered. But he is none the less able\nand eager to expose fraud wherever found, and if only from the police\nview-point his society will undoubtedly do good work. Associated with\nhim are many of the American investigators formerly identified with the\nEnglish society; some of whom, notably Prof. William James of Harvard,\nthe dean of psychical research in the United States, also keep up their\nconnection with the parent organization.\n\nSumming up the results of the really scientific ghost hunting of the\nlast twenty-five years, it may be safely said that if the hunters have\nnot accomplished their main object of definitely proving the existence\nof a spiritual world, their labors have nevertheless been of high value\nin several important directions. They have exposed the fraudulent\npretensions of innumerable charlatans, and have thus acted as a\nprotection for the credulous. They have shown that, making all possible\nallowance for error of whatever kind, there still remains in the\nphenomena of apparitions, clairvoyance, etc., a residuum not explainable\non the hypothesis of fraud or chance coincidence. They have aided in\ngiving validity to the idea of the influence of suggestion as a factor\nboth in the cause and the cure of disease. They have given a needed\nstimulus to the study of abnormal mental conditions. And, finally, by\nthe discovery of the impressive facts that led Myers to formulate his\nhypothesis of the subliminal self, they have opened the door to\nfar-reaching reforms in the whole sociological domain,--in education, in\nthe treatment of vice and crime, in all else that makes for the\nuplifting of the human race.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[R] Gladstone's words were--\"Psychical research is the most important\nwork which is being done in the world--by far the most important.\"\n\n[S] For details of the Hodgson \"manifestations\" the reader may consult\nProfessor Hyslop's recently published book \"Psychical Research and the\nResurrection\"--particularly Chaps. V-VII.\n\n[T] A new work by Mr. Podmore is announced for immediate publication,\nwith the characteristic title of \"The Naturalization of the\nSupernatural.\" It is said to contain a detailed analysis of the work of\nvarious well-known mediums.\n\n\n\n\n_Up-To-Date Books on Great Subjects_\n\n\nSCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY\n\nBy SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S.\n\nIn this able and intensely modern work, the distinguished author sums up\nthe states of science, faith and theology in their bearing, separately\nand collectively, upon religion and immortality; and it constitutes,\ntherefore, an extremely valuable contribution to the literature of the\npresent important crisis in modern thought.\n\n8vo. $2.00 NET. POSTPAID $2.20\n\n***\n\nRELIGION AND MEDICINE\n\nBy Drs. WORCESTER, McCOMB and CORIAT\n\nThis is the celebrated Official Book of the celebrated Emmanuel\nMovement. Its effect upon the thought and the religion of its age is\nalready probably greater than that of any book published for many years.\nIt is a clear, non-technical statement of the principles it stands for.\nIt is unquestionably the most widely discussed book in America.\n\n12mo. $1.50 NET. POSTPAID $1.65\n\n***\n\nTHE LIVING WORD\n\nBy ELWOOD WORCESTER, D.D., Ph.D.\n\n\"For the past generation,\" says Dr. Worcester in his Preface, \"men have\nbeen groping for a theology which should approach the old mysteries,\nGod, evil, the soul and immortality from the point of view of modern\nscientific and philosophic thought. The old static aspect of the\nuniverse has been supplemented by the dynamic. The old transcendent\nconception of God has yielded to the immanent. The thought of God as\nmere ruler and judge is no longer sufficient for men's religious needs.\nScience has discovered God at work, and religion also craves a spiritual\nand an active Deity who works through laws and through us.\"\n\n12mo. $1.50 NET. POSTPAID $1.63\n\n***\n\nMOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY, NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n\"_The latest voice of modern scientific investigation._\"--CHICAGO DAILY\nNEWS.\n\n***\n\nTHE RIDDLE OF PERSONALITY\n\nBy H. ADDINGTON BRUCE\n\nAUTHOR OF \"HISTORIC GHOSTS AND GHOST HUNTERS\"\n\n***\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCHAPTERS\n\nI. Early Phases of the Problem\n\nII. The Subliminal Self\n\nIII. \"Pioneers of France in the New World\"\n\nIV. American Explorers of the Subconscious\n\nV. The Evidence for Survival\n\nVI. The Nemesis of Spiritism\n\nAPPENDICES\n\nI. D. D. Home and Eusapia Paladino\n\nII. The Census of Hallucinations\n\nIII. Hypnotism and the Drink Habit\n\nIV. Hypnoidization\n\nV. Spiritism vs Telepathy\n\nVI. Hints for further reading\n\n\"A singularly well balanced judgment is needed to succeed in the task\nset for himself by Mr. H. Addington Bruce in his discussion of men's\nlatent powers. But he has distinctly proved that he is possessed of that\nrare gift.... The book is one of great value and written in a style that\nwill bring enlightenment to many readers.\"--_The Outlook._\n\n\"A volume of genuine value and one that will be read with profit by those\nwho are interested in and have followed the arguments and experiments of\ncurious delvers into the mysteries of the human mind. It is a clear,\nlogical and impartial presentation of the whole subject from a\nscientific point of view, in which is set forth all that can be absolutely\nclassed as fact regarding the latent faculties of man, revealed\nby study, accident, personal observation and experiment.\"--_Boston\nEvening Transcript._\n\n8vo. $1.50 NET. POSTPAID $1.62\n\n***\n\nMOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY, NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\n\nPuctuation errors (e.g. commas used instead of periods, incorrect\nquotation marks) have been corrected without note. Unusual spellings\n(e.g. accordeon, breesquely, roystering) have been retained.\n\nThe following corrections were made:\n\n*p. 145: litttle to little (clergymen of the little Connecticut village)\n\n*p. 157: oustide to outside (how he was supported outside)\n\n*p. 181: ignoance to ignorance (professing complete ignorance)\n\nFor this ASCII version, the following diacritic marks were changed:\n\n*dieresis removed (2nd 'e' in preeminent; 2nd 'o' in cooperated,\ncoordinate; 2nd 'e' in reemerged, reenter; 'i' in naively)\n\n*o umlaut changed to oe (Goeteborg, Loewenstein)\n\n*u umlaut changed to ue (Wuertemberg)\n\n*circumflex removed ('o' in role; 'a' in chateau)\n\n*circumflex (1st 'e') and grave accent (2nd 'e') removed (Salpetriere)\n\n*grave accent removed ('a' in Anthony a Wood's)\n\n*acute/aigu accent removed (1st 'e' in seances, seance; 'e' in Barre,\ncure)\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------","title":"Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":46000}