The physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul isa complete duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallestparticular, although constructed in some far more tenuousmaterial. In ordinary conditions these two bodies areintermingled so that the identity of the finer one is entirelyobscured. At death, however, and under certain conditions in thecourse of life, the two divide and can be seen separately. Deathdiffers from the conditions of separation before death in thatthere is a complete break between the two bodies, and life iscarried on entirely by the lighter of the two, while the heavier,like a cocoon from which the living occupant has escaped,degenerates and disappears, the world burying the cocoon withmuch solemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what hasbecome of its nobler contents. It is a vain thing tourge that science has not admitted this contention, and that thestatement is pure dogmatism. The science which has not examinedthe facts has, it is true, not admitted the contention, but itsopinion is manifestly worthless, or at the best of less weightthan that of the humblest student of psychic phenomena. The realscience which has examined the facts is the only valid authority,and it is practically unanimous. I have made personal appeals toat least one great leader of science to examine the facts,however superficially, without any success, while Sir WilliamCrookes appealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the RoyalSociety, one of the most bitter opponents of the movement, tocome down to his laboratory and see the psychic force at work,but he took no notice. What weight has science of that sort? Itcan only be compared to that theological prejudice which causedthe Ecclesiastics in the days of Galileo to refuse to lookthrough the telescope which he held out to them.It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors ingreat seats of learning who have examined and endorsed thesefacts, and the list would include many of the greatestintellects which the world has produced in our time--Flammarionand Lombroso, Charles Richet and Russel Wallace, Willie Reichel,Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and Crookes. Therefore the factsHAVE been endorsed by the only science that has the right toexpress an opinion. I have never, in my thirty years ofexperience, known one single scientific man who went thoroughlyinto this matter and did not end by accepting the Spiritualsolution. Such may exist, but I repeat that I have never heardof him. Let us, then, with confidence examine this matter of the"spiritual body," to use the term made classical by Saint Paul. There are many signs in his writings that Paul was deeply versedin psychic matters, and one of these is his exact definition ofthe natural and spiritual bodies in the service which is thefinal farewell to life of every Christian. Paul picked hiswords, and if he had meant that man consisted of a natural bodyand a spirit he would have said so. When he said "a spiritualbody" he meant a body which contained the spirit and yet wasdistinct from the ordinary natural body. That is exactlywhat psychic science has now shown to be true.When a man has taken hashish or certain other drugs, he notinfrequently has the experience that he is standing or floatingbeside his own body, which he can see stretched senseless uponthe couch. So also under anaesthetics, particularly underlaughing gas, many people are conscious of a detachment fromtheir bodies, and of experiences at a distance. I have myselfseen very clearly my wife and children inside a cab while I wassenseless in the dentist's chair. Again, when a man is faintingor dying, and his system in an unstable condition, it is assertedin very many definite instances that he can, and does, manifesthimself to others at a distance. These phantasms of the living,which have been so carefully explored and docketed by Messrs. Myers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of cases. Some people claimthat by an effort of will they can, after going to sleep, propeltheir own doubles in the direction which they desire, and visitthose whom they wish to see. Thus there is a great volume ofevidence--how great no man can say who has not spent diligentyears in exploring it--which vouches for the existence ofthis finer body containing the precious jewels of the mind andspirit, and leaving only gross confused animal functions in itsheavier companion.Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, andalso the joint compiler of the standard American dictionary,narrates a story in point which could be matched from othersources. He tells of an American doctor of his acquaintance, andhe vouches personally for the truth of the incident. Thisdoctor, in the course of a cataleptic seizure in Florida, wasaware that he had left his body, which he saw lying beside him. He had none the less preserved his figure and his identity. Thethought of some friend at a distance came into his mind, andafter an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend'sroom, half way across the continent. He saw his friend, and wasconscious that his friend saw him. He afterwards returned to hisown room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued withinhimself whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, dutyovercoming inclination, he merged his two frames together andcontinued his life. A letter from him to his friendexplaining matters crossed a letter from the friend, in which hetold how he also had been aware of his presence. The incident isnarrated in detail in Mr. Funk's "Psychic Riddle."I do not understand how any man can examine the manyinstances coming from various angles of approach withoutrecognising that there really is a second body of this sort,which incidentally goes far to account for all stories, sacred orprofane, of ghosts, apparitions and visions. Now, what is thissecond body, and how does it fit into modern religiousrevelation?What it is, is a difficult question, and yet when science andimagination unite, as Tyndall said they should unite, to throw asearchlight into the unknown, they may produce a beam sufficientto outline vaguely what will become clearer with the futureadvance of our race. Science has demonstrated that while etherpervades everything the ether which is actually in a body isdifferent from the ether outside it. "Bound" ether is the namegiven to this, which Fresnel and others have shown to be denser. Now, if this fact be applied to the human body, the resultwould be that, if all that is visible of that body were removed,there would still remain a complete and absolute mould of thebody, formed in bound ether which would be different from theether around it. This argument is more solid than merespeculation, and it shows that even the soul may come to bedefined in terms of matter and is not altogether "such stuff asdreams are made of."It has been shown that there is some good evidence for theexistence of this second body apart from psychic religion, but tothose who have examined that religion it is the centre of thewhole system, sufficiently real to be recognised by clairvoyants,to be heard by clairaudients, and even to make an exactimpression upon a photographic plate. Of the latter phenomenon,of which I have had some very particular opportunities ofjudging, I have no more doubt than I have of the ordinaryphotography of commerce. It had already been shown by theastronomers that the sensitized plate is a more delicaterecording instrument than the human retina, and that it can showstars upon a long exposure which the eye has never seen. Itwould appear that the spirit world is really so near to us that avery little extra help under correct conditions of mediumshipwill make all the difference. Thus the plate, instead of theeye, may bring the loved face within the range of vision, whilethe trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may bring back the familiarvoice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical aid was stillinaudible. So loud may the latter phenomenon be that in onecase, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was soexcited at hearing once more his master's voice that he broke hischain, and deeply scarred the outside of the seance room door inhis efforts to force an entrance.Now, having said so much of the spirit body, and havingindicated that its presence is not vouched for by only one lineof evidence or school of thought, let us turn to what happens atthe time of death, according to the observation of clairvoyantson this side and the posthumous accounts of the dead upon theother. It is exactly what we should expect to happen, grantedthe double identity. In a painless and natural process thelighter disengages itself from the heavier, and slowly drawsitself off until it stands with the same mind, the same emotions,and an exactly similar body, beside the couch of death, aware ofthose around and yet unable to make them aware of it, save wherethat finer spiritual eyesight called clairvoyance exists. How,we may well ask, can it see without the natural organs? How didthe hashish victim see his own unconscious body? How did theFlorida doctor see his friend? There is a power of perception inthe spiritual body which does give the power. We can say nomore. To the clairvoyant the new spirit seems like a filmyoutline. To the ordinary man it is invisible. To another spiritit would, no doubt, seem as normal and substantial as we appearto each other. There is some evidence that it refines with time,and is therefore nearer to the material at the moment of death orclosely after it, than after a lapse of months or years. Hence,it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and most commonabout the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact thatthe cataleptic physician already quoted was seen andrecognised by his friend. The meshes of his ether, if the phrasebe permitted, were still heavy with the matter from which theyhad only just been disentangled.Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens tothis spirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in allupon this voyage into unknown seas? Very many accounts have comeback to us, verbal and written, detailing the experiences ofthose who have passed on. The verbal are by trance mediums,whose utterances appear to be controlled by outsideintelligences. The written from automatic writers whose scriptis produced in the same way. At these words the critic naturallyand reasonably shies, with a "What nonsense! How can you controlthe statement of this medium who is consciously or unconsciouslypretending to inspiration?" This is a healthy scepticism, andshould animate every experimenter who tests a new medium. Theproofs must lie in the communication itself. If they are notpresent, then, as always, we must accept natural rather thanunknown explanations. But they are continually present, and insuch obvious forms that no one can deny them. There is acertain professional medium to whom I have sent many, mothers whowere in need of consolation. I always ask the applicants toreport the result to me, and I have their letters of surprise andgratitude before me as I write. "Thank you for this beautifuland interesting experience. She did not make a single mistakeabout their names, and everything she said was correct." In thiscase there was a rift between husband and wife before death, butthe medium was able, unaided, to explain and clear up the wholematter, mentioning the correct circumstances, and names ofeveryone concerned, and showing the reasons for the non-arrivalof certain letters, which had been the cause of themisunderstanding. The next case was also one of husband andwife, but it is the husband who is the survivor. He says: "Itwas a most successful sitting. Among other things, I addressed aremark in Danish to my wife (who is a Danish girl), and theanswer came back in English without the least hesitation." Thenext case was again of a man who had lost a very dear malefriend. "I have had the most wonderful results with Mrs.---- to-day. I cannot tell you the joy it has been to me. Manygrateful thanks for your help." The next one says: "Mrs. ----was simply wonderful. If only more people knew, what agony theywould be spared." In this case the wife got in touch with thehusband, and the medium mentioned correctly five dead relativeswho were in his company. The next is a case of mother and son. "I saw Mrs. ---- to-day, and obtained very wonderful results. She told me nearly everything quite correctly--a very fewmistakes." The next is similar. "We were quite successful. Myboy even reminded me of something that only he and I knew." Saysanother: "My boy reminded me of the day when he sowed turnipseed upon the lawn. Only he could have known of this." Theseare fair samples of the letters, of which I hold a large number. They are from people who present themselves from among themillions living in London, or the provinces, and about whoseaffairs the medium had no possible normal way of knowing. Of allthe very numerous cases which I have sent to this medium I haveonly had a few which have been complete failures. On quotingmy results to Sir Oliver Lodge, he remarked that his ownexperience with another medium had been almost identical. It isno exaggeration to say that our British telephone systems wouldprobably give a larger proportion of useless calls. How is anycritic to get beyond these facts save by ignoring ormisrepresenting them? Healthy, scepticism is the basis of allaccurate observation, but there comes a time when incredulitymeans either culpable ignorance or else imbecility, and this timehas been long past in the matter of spirit intercourse.In my own case, this medium mentioned correctly the firstname of a lady who had died in our house, gave several verycharacteristic messages from her, described the only two dogswhich we have ever kept, and ended by saying that a young officerwas holding up a gold coin by which I would recognise him. I hadlost my brother-in-law, an army doctor, in the war, and I hadgiven him a spade guinea for his first fee, which he always woreon his chain. There were not more than two or three closerelatives who knew about this incident, so that the test was aparticularly good one. She made no incorrect statements,though some were vague. After I had revealed the identity ofthis medium several pressmen attempted to have test seances withher--a test seance being, in most cases, a seance which begins bybreaking every psychic condition and making success mostimprobable. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Ulyss Rogers, had veryfair results. Another sent from "Truth" had complete failure. It must be understood that these powers do not work from themedium, but through the medium, and that the forces in the beyondhave not the least sympathy with a smart young pressman in searchof clever copy, while they have a very different feeling to abereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart that someassurance may be given her that the child of her love is not gonefrom her for ever. When this fact is mastered, and it isunderstood that "Stand and deliver" methods only excite gentlederision on the other side, we shall find some more intelligentmanner of putting things of the spirit to the proof.[3]

[3] See Appendix D.

I have dwelt upon these results, which could be matchedby other mediums, to show that we have solid and certain reasonsto say that the verbal reports are not from the mediumsthemselves. Readers of Arthur Hill's "Psychical Investigations"will find many even more convincing cases. So in the writtencommunications, I have in a previous paper pointed to the "Gateof Remembrance" case, but there is a great mass of material whichproves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there really is achannel of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, butentirely beyond coincidence or fraud. These, then, are the usualmeans by which we receive psychic messages, though table tilting,ouija boards, glasses upon a smooth surface, or anything whichcan be moved by the vital animal-magnetic force already discussedwill equally serve the purpose. Often information is conveyedorally or by writing which could not have been known to anyoneconcerned. Mr. Wilkinson has given details of the case where hisdead son drew attention to the fact that a curio (a coin bent bya bullet) had been overlooked among his effects. Sir WilliamBarrett has narrated how a young officer sent a messageleaving a pearl tie-pin to a friend. No one knew that such a pinexisted, but it was found among his things. The death of SirHugh Lane was given at a private seance in Dublin before thedetails of the Lusitania disaster had been published.[4] On thatmorning we ourselves, in a small seance, got the message "It isterrible, terrible, and will greatly affect the war," at a timewhen we were convinced that no great loss of life could haveoccurred. Such examples are very numerous, and are only quotedhere to show how impossible it is to invoke telepathy as theorigin of such messages. There is only one explanation whichcovers the facts. They are what they say they are, messages fromthose who have passed on, from the spiritual body which was seento rise from the deathbed, which has been so often photographed,which pervades all religion in every age, and which has beenable, under proper circumstances, to materialise back into atemporary solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal,whether in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or in thelaboratory of Mr. Crookes, in Mornington Road, London.

[4] The details of both these latter cases are to be found in"Voices from the Void" by Mrs. Travers Smith, a book containingsome well weighed evidence.

Let us for a moment examine the facts in this Crookes'episode. A small book exists which describes them, though it isnot as accessible as it should be. In these wonderfulexperiments, which extended over several years, Miss FlorrieCook, who was a young lady of from 16 to 18 years of age, wasrepeatedly confined in Prof. Crookes' study, the door beinglocked on the inside. Here she lay unconscious upon a couch. The spectators assembled in the laboratory, which was separatedby a curtained opening from the study. After a short interval,through this opening there emerged a lady who was in all waysdifferent from Miss Cook. She gave her earth name as Katie King,and she proclaimed herself to be a materialised spirit, whosemission it was "to carry the knowledge of immortality to mortals.

She was of great beauty of face, figure, and manner. She wasfour and a half inches taller than Miss Cook, fair, whereas thelatter was dark, and as different from her as one woman could befrom another. Her pulse rate was markedly slower. She becamefor the time entirely one of the company, walking about,addressing each person present, and taking delight in thechildren. She made no objection to photography or any othertest. Forty-eight photographs of different degrees of excellencewere made of her. She was seen at the same time as the medium onseveral occasions. Finally she departed, saying that her missionwas over and that she had other work to do. When she vanishedmaterialism should have vanished also, if mankind had takenadequate notice of the facts.Now, what can the fair-minded inquirer say to such a story asthat--one of many, but for the moment we are concentrating uponit? Was Mr. Crookes a blasphemous liar? But there were verymany witnesses, as many sometimes as eight at a single sitting. And there are the photographs which include Miss Cook and showthat the two women were quite different. Was he honestlymistaken? But that is inconceivable. Read the originalnarrative and see if you can find any solution save that it istrue. If a man can read that sober, cautious statement and notbe convinced, then assuredly his brain, is out of gear. Finally, ask yourself whether any religious manifestation in theworld has had anything like the absolute proof which lies in thisone. Cannot the orthodox see that instead of combating such astory, or talking nonsense about devils, they should hail thatwhich is indeed the final answer to that materialism which istheir really dangerous enemy. Even as I write, my eye falls upona letter on my desk from an officer who had lost all faith inimmortality and become an absolute materialist. "I came to dreadmy return home, for I cannot stand hypocrisy, and I knew well myattitude would cause some members of my family deep grief. Yourbook has now brought me untold comfort, and I can face the futurecheerfully." Are these fruits from the Devil's tree, you timidorthodox critic?Having then got in touch with our dead, we proceed,naturally, to ask them how it is with them, and under whatconditions they exist. It is a very vital question, since whathas befallen them yesterday will surely befall us to-morrow. Butthe answer is tidings of great joy. Of the new vital messageto humanity nothing is more important than that. It rolls awayall those horrible man-bred fears and fancies, founded uponmorbid imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental. Wecome upon what is sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable,what is consistent with gradual evolution and with thebenevolence of God. Were there ever any conscious blasphemersupon earth who have insulted the Deity so deeply as thoseextremists, be they Calvinist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Jew,who pictured with their distorted minds an implacable torturer asthe Ruler of the Universe!The truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in itsvery nature never be absolutely established. It is far nearer tocomplete proof, however, than any religious revelation which hasever preceded it. We have the fact that these accounts are mixedup with others concerning our present life which are oftenabsolutely true. If a spirit can tell the truth about oursphere, it is difficult to suppose that he is entirely falseabout his own. Then, again, there is a very great similarityabout such accounts, though their origin may be from people veryfar apart. Thus though "non-veridical," to use the modernjargon, they do conform to all our canons of evidence. A seriesof books which have attracted far less attention than theydeserve have drawn the coming life in very close detail. Thesebooks are not found on railway bookstalls or in popularlibraries, but the successive editions through which they passshow that there is a deeper public which gets what it wants inspite of artificial obstacles.Looking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly adozen very interesting and detailed manuscript accounts, suchpublished narratives as "Claude's Book," purporting to come froma young British aviator; "Thy Son Liveth," from an Americansoldier, "Private Dowding"; "Raymond," from a British soldier;"Do Thoughts Perish?" which contains accounts from severalBritish soldiers and others; "I Heard a Voice," where a well-known K.C., through the mediumship of his two young daughters,has a very full revelation of the life beyond; "After Death,"with the alleged experiences of the famous Miss Julia Ames; "TheSeven Purposes," from an American pressman, and many others. They differ much in literary skill and are not all equallyimpressive, but the point which must strike any impartial mind isthe general agreement of these various accounts as to theconditions of spirit life. An examination would show that someof them must have been in the press at the same time, so thatthey could not have each inspired the other. "Claude's Book" and"Thy Son Liveth" appeared at nearly the same time on differentsides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely. "Raymond"and "Do Thoughts Perish?" must also have been in the presstogether, but the scheme of things is exactly the same. Surelythe agreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, beaccounted as a test of truth. They differ mainly, as it seems tome, when they deal with their own future including speculationsas to reincarnation, etc., which may well be as foggy to them asit is to us, or systems of philosophy where again individualopinion is apparent.Of all these accounts the one which is most deserving ofstudy is "Raymond." This is so because it has been compiled fromseveral famous mediums working independently of each other,and has been checked and chronicled by a man who is not only oneof the foremost scientists of the world, and probably the leadingintellectual force in Europe, but one who has also had a uniqueexperience of the precautions necessary for the observation ofpsychic phenomena. The bright and sweet nature of the youngsoldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of hisexperience is also a factor which will appeal to those who arealready satisfied as to the truth of the communications. For allthese reasons it is a most important document--indeed it would beno exaggeration to say that it is one of the most important inrecent literature. It is, as I believe, an authentic account ofthe life in the beyond, and it is often more interesting from itssidelights and reservations than for its actual assertions,though the latter bear the stamp of absolute frankness andsincerity. The compilation is in some ways faulty. Sir Oliverhas not always the art of writing so as to be understanded of thepeople, and his deeper and more weighty thoughts get in the wayof the clear utterances of his son. Then again, in his anxietyto be absolutely accurate, Sir Oliver has reproduced the factthat sometimes Raymond is speaking direct, and sometimes thecontrol is reporting what Raymond is saying, so that the sameparagraph may turn several times from the first person to thethird in a manner which must be utterly unintelligible to thosewho are not versed in the subject. Sir Oliver will, I am sure,not be offended if I say that, having satisfied his conscience bythe present edition, he should now leave it for reference, andput forth a new one which should contain nothing but the words ofRaymond and his spirit friends. Such a book, published at a lowprice, would, I think, have an amazing effect, and get all thisnew teaching to the spot that God has marked for it--the mindsand hearts of the people.So much has been said here about mediumship that perhaps itwould be well to consider this curious condition a little moreclosely. The question of mediumship, what it is and how it acts,is one of the most mysterious in the whole range of science. Itis a common objection to say if our dead are there why should weonly hear of them through people by no means remarkable formoral or mental gifts, who are often paid for theirministration. It is a plausible argument, and yet when wereceive a telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say: "It is strange that Tom should not communicate with me direct,but that the presence of that half-educated fellow in thetelegraph office should be necessary." The medium is in truth amere passive machine, clerk and telegraph in one. Nothing comesFROM him. Every message is THROUGH him. Why he or sheshould have the power more than anyone else is a very interestingproblem. This power may best be defined as the capacity forallowing the bodily powers, physical or mental, to be used by anoutside influence. In its higher forms there is temporaryextinction of personality and the substitution of some othercontrolling spirit. At such times the medium may entirely loseconsciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some externalexperience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while hisbodily house has been filled by the temporary tenant. Or themedium may retain consciousness, and with eyes and ears attunedto a higher key than the normal man can attain, he may seeand hear what is beyond our senses. Or in writing mediumship, amotor centre of the brain regulating the nerves and muscles ofthe arm may be controlled while all else seems to be normal. Orit may take the more material form of the exudation of a strangewhite evanescent dough-like substance called the ectoplasm, whichhas been frequently photographed by scientific enquirers indifferent stages of its evolution, and which seems to possess aninherent quality of shaping itself into parts or the whole of abody, beginning in a putty-like mould and ending in a resemblanceto perfect human members. Or the ectoplasm, which seems to be anemanation of the medium to the extent that whatever it may weighis so much subtracted from his substance, may be used asprojections or rods which can convey objects or lift weights. Afriend, in whose judgment and veracity I have absoluteconfidence, was present at one of Dr. Crawford's experiments withKathleen Goligher, who is, it may be remarked, an unpaid medium. My friend touched the column of force, and found it could be feltby the hand though invisible to the eye. It is clear that weare in touch with some entirely new form both of matter and ofenergy. We know little of the properties of this extraordinarysubstance save that in its materialising form it seems extremelysensitive to the action of light. A figure built up in it anddetached from the medium dissolves in light quicker than a snowimage under a tropical sun, so that two successive flash-lightphotographs would show the one a perfect figure, and the next anamorphous mass. When still attached to the medium the ectoplasmflies back with great force on exposure to light, and, in spiteof the laughter of the scoffers, there is none the less goodevidence that several mediums have been badly injured by therecoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some amateurdetective. Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments,described the ectoplasm as appearing outside the black dress ofhis medium as if a hoar frost had descended upon her, thencoalescing into a continuous sheet of white substance, and oozingdown until it formed a sort of apron in front of her.[5] This process he has illustrated by a very complete series ofphotographs.

[5] For Geley's Experiments, Appendix A.

These are a few of the properties of mediumship. There arealso the beautiful phenomena of the production of lights, and therarer, but for evidential purposes even more valuable,manifestations of spirit photography. The fact that thephotograph does not correspond in many cases with any whichexisted in life, must surely silence the scoffer, though there isa class of bigoted sceptic who would still be sneering if anArchangel alighted in Trafalgar Square. Mr. Hope and Mrs.Buxton, of Crewe, have brought this phase of mediumship to greatperfection, though others have powers in that direction. Indeed,in some cases it is difficult to say who the medium may havebeen, for in one collective family group which was taken in theordinary way, and was sent me by a master in a well known publicschool, the young son who died has appeared in the plate seatedbetween his two little brothers.As to the personality of mediums, they have seemed to me tobe very average specimens of the community, neither markedlybetter nor markedly worse. I know many, and I have never metanything in the least like "Sludge," a poem which Browning mightbe excused for writing in some crisis of domestic disagreement,but which it was inexcusable to republish since it is admitted tobe a concoction, and the exposure described to have beenimaginary. The critic often uses the term medium as if itnecessarily meant a professional, whereas every investigator hasfound some of his best results among amateurs. In the two finestseances I ever attended, the psychic, in each case a man ofmoderate means, was resolutely determined never directly orindirectly to profit by his gift, though it entailed veryexhausting physical conditions. I have not heard of a clergymanof any denomination who has attained such a pitch of altruism--nor is it reasonable to expect it. As to professional mediums,Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most famous, is a diligent collectorof old books and an authority upon the Elizabethan drama; whileMr. Dickinson, another very remarkable discerner of spirits, whonamed twenty-four correctly during two meetings held on the sameday, is employed in loading canal barges. This man is onegifted clairvoyants in England, though Tom Tyrrell theweaver, Aaron Wilkinson, and others are very marvellous. Tyrrell, who is a man of the Anthony of Padua type, a walkingsaint, beloved of animals and children, is a figure who mighthave stepped out of some legend of the church. Thomas, thepowerful physical medium, is a working coal miner. Most mediumstake their responsibilities very seriously and view their work ina religious light. There is no denying that they are exposed tovery particular temptations, for the gift is, as I have explainedelsewhere, an intermittent one, and to admit its temporaryabsence, and so discourage one's clients, needs greater moralprinciple than all men possess. Another temptation to whichseveral great mediums have succumbed is that of drink. Thiscomes about in a very natural way, for overworking the powerleaves them in a state of physical prostration, and the stimulusof alcohol affords a welcome relief, and may tend at last tobecome a custom and finally a curse. Alcoholism always weakensthe moral sense, so that these degenerate mediums yieldthemselves more readily to fraud, with the result thatseveral who had deservedly won honoured names and met all hostilecriticism have, in their later years, been detected in the mostcontemptible tricks. It is a thousand pities that it should beso, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its secrets, itwould be found that tippling and moral degeneration were by nomeans confined to psychics. At the same time, a psychic is sopeculiarly sensitive that I think he or she would always be welladvised to be a life long abstainer--as many actually are.As to the method by which they attain their results theyhave, when in the trance state, no recollection. In the case ofnormal clairvoyants and clairaudients, the information comes indifferent ways. Sometimes it is no more than a strong mentalimpression which gives a name or an address. Sometimes they saythat they see it written up before them. Sometimes the spiritfigures seem to call it to them. "They yell it at me," said one.

We need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we canformulate laws.It has been stated in a previous book by the author, but itwill bear repetition, that the use of the seance should, inhis opinion, be carefully regulated as well as reverentlyconducted. Having once satisfied himself of the absoluteexistence of the unseen world, and of its proximity to our own,the inquirer has got the great gift which psychical investigationcan give him, and thenceforth he can regulate his life upon thelines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be the best. There is much force in the criticism that too constantintercourse with the affairs of another world may distract ourattention and weaken our powers in dealing with our obviousduties in this one. A seance, with the object of satisfyingcuriosity or of rousing interest, cannot be an elevatinginfluence, and the mere sensation-monger can make this holy andwonderful thing as base as the over-indulgence in a stimulant. On the other hand, where the seance is used for the purpose ofsatisfying ourselves as to the condition of those whom we havelost, or of giving comfort to others who crave for a word frombeyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God to be usedwith moderation and with thankfulness. Our loved ones have theirown pleasant tasks in their new surroundings, and though theyassure us that they love to clasp the hands which we stretch outto them, we should still have some hesitation in intruding to anunreasonable extent upon the routine of their lives.A word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evilspirits which appears to have so much weight with some of thecritics of this subject. When one looks more closely at thisemotion it seems somewhat selfish and cowardly. These creaturesare in truth our own backward brothers, bound for the sameultimate destination as ourselves, but retarded by causes forwhich our earth conditions may have been partly responsible. Ourpity and sympathy should go out to them, and if they do indeedmanifest at a seance, the proper Christian attitude is, as itseems to me, that we should reason with them and pray for them inorder to help them upon their difficult way. Those who havetreated them in this way have found a very marked difference inthe subsequent communications. In Admiral Usborne Moore's"Glimpses of the Next State" there will be found some recordsof an American circle which devoted itself entirely to missionarywork of this sort. There is some reason to believe that thereare forms of imperfect development which can be helped more byearthly than by purely spiritual influences, for the reason,perhaps, that they are closer to the material.In a recent case I was called in to endeavour to check a verynoisy entity which frequented an old house in which there werestrong reasons to believe that crime had been committed, and alsothat the criminal was earth-bound. Names were given by theunhappy spirit which proved to be correct, and a cupboard wasdescribed, which was duly found, though it had never before beensuspected. On getting into touch with the spirit I endeavouredto reason with it and to explain how selfish it was to causemisery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of revengewhich it might have carried over from earth life. We then prayedfor its welfare, exhorted it to rise higher, and received a verysolemn assurance, tilted out at the table, that it would mend itsways. I have very gratifying reports that it has done so,and that all is now quiet in the old house.Let us now consider the life in the Beyond as it is shown tous by the new revelation.