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"SHADOWS:" 
 
 A FAMILIAR PRESENTATION 
 
 THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES 
 
 SPIRITUAL MATTERS, 
 
 WITH 
 ILLUSTRATIVE NARRATIONS. 
 
 frl 
 
 l/ BT 
 
 JOHN WETHERBEE. 
 
 " Concerning those spiritual beings which 
 
 ' Walk the earth 
 Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.' 
 
 Are there, indeed, such beings ? Is this space between us and the 
 Deity filled up by innumerable orders of spiritual beings ?" — W. Irving. 
 
 TAN 5/ 
 
 BOSTOX: 
 
 COLBY & RICH, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 Corner Boswortk and Province Sts. 
 
 1885. 
 
* 
 
 y 
 
 Copyrighted by John Wetherbee, 1885. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 Jo J^ouise, 
 
 The wife of my youth, who is also my wife and inspirer now in my matu- 
 rity. How much during the past two or three decades have we together 
 thought over these once strange, but now, by long association, familiar 
 realities? When our first-born passed into the world of silence, where she 
 is now, — the unseen but not an unperceived member of our otherwise 
 unbroken family, — how sweet to have found the "Gates Ajar." so that 
 we both realized that, though invisible, she was not absent, — when with 
 fear, but hopefully, we wrote, inspired by our grief : — 
 
 Oh, philosophy ! destroy not the charm 
 That cheers thus our hours of sadness; 
 
 Dissolve not the spell, if 't is but a dream, 
 That changes our sorrow to gladness. 
 
 These little soft raps we now and then hear 
 
 I feel are the voice of my daughter; 
 They seem to be saying : " Dear mother, I 'm here," 
 
 Though they sound like the dropping of water. 
 
 Our two little boys when they hear these raps, 
 Too young, like us, to have missed her, 
 
 Look up with a smile, and say : " Do you hear 
 The voice of our dear little sister? " 
 
 Neither philosophy nor experience has disturbed the current of our 
 happy belief; and while our loved little one has grown into womanhood 
 in the land of souls, the inspiring fact has strengthened in us with our 
 years. I have felt like saying this much, and to say also that this book is 
 due to you, for I doubt if I would have put my thoughts into this form but 
 for your persuasion from appreciation of my written words and of me; so 
 to you, my beloved, the well-preserved mother of our Hattie, at an age 
 when sentiment is apt to have gone into eclipse, — happily not in our case, 
 —I dedicate these M Shadows " to you, feeling assured that in the alembic 
 of your own mind and heart they will show up both as summer and sun- 
 shine, J. W. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 T have been rather arbitrary in calling these pages 
 -*- " Shadows," for there is nothing particularly shadowy 
 in them, except that the subject in many minds is suggestive 
 of the shadowy. The following colloquy, which lately 
 occurred, as given below, will explain its title as well as in 
 any other way, if an explanation is of any consequence : — 
 
 Mr. Shadows was seated, pen in hand, at his writing table, 
 when his friend, Mr. Boulder Scratches, entered the room, 
 and, seeing the situation, said: "Well, Shadows, what are 
 you at now ?" "I have a book inside of me," said he, or the 
 matter of one, and I have made up my mind to make it 
 manifest in the form." "On what subject?" said Scratches; 
 or, I need not ask that, but what is the special point in 
 Spiritualism to be treated, or what is the name or title of the 
 book to be ? " "I do not know myself yet," said Shadows ; 
 there is time enough for a name before it will be ready for 
 the printer." Scratches said : " When I write anything, I 
 start with a title." " I never do," said Shadows ; but now 
 you have spoken of it, and are not a novice in book-making, 
 I think a name would help me some. I wish I had one cut 
 and dried, and adapted to my thought." "Why do n't you 
 name it after yourself," said he ; your name and Spiritual- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 ism seem to be suggestive of each other. i Come like shadows, 
 so depart? " h§ said, quoting from Macbeth, — the low or 
 deep voice in which he spoke it struck him favorably, and 
 he said : " I think I will ; my name or your name, ' Shadows, 
 or ' Scratches,' — I do n't know but I like ' Scratches ' the 
 better, — but as you may wish some day to use ' Scratches,' 
 I guess I will christen mine ' Shadows.' " 
 
 The endeavor has been in these chapters, or, as now 
 called, Shadows, first, that each one should be a finished one 
 of itself, using the word finish in rather a liberal sense, — 
 that is, that each chapter should be a readable one, without 
 any special connection with the other, and aiming at no 
 logical or consecutive order, so that in reading them one can 
 skip about without any confusion. 
 
 The endeavor has also been, in the matter presented, to 
 make the chapters in their wholeness give the reason, with- 
 out particularly saying so, why I am a Spiritualist, not that 
 it is of any consequence to the public what I am, or in what 
 I believe, but being rather a man of the world and of busi- 
 ness, one who has touched current life actively, if not broadly, 
 and who is not constitutionally a dreamer or a sentimentalist. 
 In my retired or private social circle I am not thought to be 
 one whose tendencies would be either religious or spiritual, 
 but being, I trust, both, the chapters, or shadows, that com- 
 pose this book, will explain the reason why, if it be a mat- 
 ter of interest to anyone. 
 
 The endeavor has also been to make this book a familiar 
 presentation of the subject of modern Spiritualism to those 
 whom it may concern, both among its exponents and among 
 
PEEFACE. T 
 
 that wider world who feel interested in the subject, and wish 
 
 it were true, and who. like myself, want the ;; bottom facts." 
 
 In what I have said I have aimed at simplicity, and I 
 
 know I have been truthful. If I have used the personal 
 
 pronoun too much for good taste,, no one is more aware of it 
 
 than I am. but it could not very well be avoided with what 
 
 I had in contemplation. My apology then is my desire, by 
 
 this familiar, confidential way of expressing myself, to be 
 
 persuasive, or, at least, to command the attention of the 
 
 thoughtful reader. 
 
 J. W. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Giving in a familiar way the Genesis and the Exodus of these 
 chapters, which the author has somewhat arbitrarily called 
 " Shadows" 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ITS RAISON D'ETRE. 
 
 A substitute for faith. — The Bible a sealed book without it. 
 
 — With it, a rational one 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GATES AJAR. 
 
 Explaining why the writer is a Spiritualist, and obliged to 
 be one 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST INTERVIEW WITH SPIRITS. 
 
 Its permanent entry into the writer's mental life. — Details 
 of the interview 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LIFE'S AFTERNOON. 
 
 The " Dawning Light" seems to be a boon or consolation 
 to advancing years. — An extension-claim . . . .57 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDEPENDENT SLATE- WRITING. 
 
 An elaborate description of an experience under the most 
 rigid conditions 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PHENOMENA WITH COLCHESTER. 
 
 Thoughts on sensuous phenomena, and illustrations from 
 experience 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PHANTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 
 
 Being an article illustrative of the subject in general . . 95 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EPES SARGENT. 
 
 Some description of him, and experiences he and the writer 
 have had together. — Joseph Cook 104 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON LEANNESS OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The deficiency is made up by the sensuous proof of a spirit- 
 ual source 117 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PRO-SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 An article written for, and published in, The Radical • . 125 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOME MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 Giving a brief account of phenomena which are both " bot- 
 tom facts " and " startling facts" • 138 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SEERSHIP OR CLAIRVOYANCE. 
 
 Giving an account of phenomena with an intelligent and 
 sometimes a prophetic basis 147 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SUBJECTIVE APPARITIONS. 
 
 A visit of consolation where the consoler got consoled • 154 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EMELLNE'S APPARITION. 
 
 Other " white ladies " besides the one of Avenel, related by 
 Sir Walter Scott 160 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 
 
 The Sage of Galveston returns according to promise . . 169 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 UNKNOWN QUANTITIES. 
 
 Prime factors. — Philosophical musings on human happi- 
 ness .... 182 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ALLEN DOLE. 
 
 A reliable family tradition that amounts almost to a personal 
 experience 189 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 INDIAN-SPIRIT INFLUENCES. 
 
 What the subject suggests, and a supplement of poetry. — 
 Astronomical 197 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 
 
 An entertaining sketch that will fill up some deficiencies hi 
 the course of these " Shadows" 207 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MATTER AND SPIRIT. 
 
 Of intercourse with spirits. — Some couditions worth know- 
 ing. — Illustrations. — Sealed letters .... 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A PENUMBRAL SKETCH. 
 
 An afternoon with the spirits. — A departed friend returns 
 from over the river, and owns up 229 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 M ATERIALIZ ATION. 
 
 Affirmations. — Critical comments. — Illustrative Experi- 
 ences . 238 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 CUI BONO ? 
 
 What is the good of it all, even admitting it to be true ? — 
 The answer self-evident 254 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 PREVISION. 
 
 Containing some thoughts on prophecy, critical and illus- 
 trative . . . 259 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DETACHED THOUGHTS. 
 
 Conclusions on several interesting and important points . 267 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 
 
 Thoughts that the locality suggests to a Spiritualist . . 278 
 Theodore Parker c .288 
 
11 A few years since I had a long conversation with a bishop, 
 who is held in deservedly high reputation by the orthodox body 
 of Christians to which he belongs. He introduced the subject 
 of modern Spiritualism, and I asked him how he regarded its 
 phenomena. He answered frankly and satisfactorily. He said 
 that evidences of infidelity were multiplying among us ; he lately 
 heard a professor of Harvard College say that three-fourths of 
 the scientific men of our day are unbelievers, and skepticism is 
 beginning to intrude among the clergy. He told me that he 
 himself, a few weeks before, had visited the death-bed of an 
 aged brother in the ministry, a man who had devoted a long life 
 with rare faithfulness to the duties of his profession. As they 
 spoke of the evidences of Christianity, a shade of sadness passed 
 over the dying man's face. 'Ah, bishop,' said he, 'the proof, 
 the proof ! If we only had it ! ■ "— M. D. Owen, in "Debatable Land'* 
 
 U 
 
I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Giving in a familiar way the Grenesis and the Exodus 
 of these chapters, which the author has somewhat 
 arbitrarily called "Shadows " 
 
 The writer trusts that what he may say in the way 
 of introduction will be as much a part of the main 
 argument of the book as if he had written it under 
 some more definite heading. His intention or object 
 can be better set forth in this way than in the sev- 
 eral chapters that follow, saving superfluity, enabling 
 him to better present the subject in its many points 
 with simplicity and brevity. 
 
 If one writes, or rather publishes, a book, he 
 should have something to say, and a motive for say- 
 ing it. The writer thinks he has something to say 
 on what he considers the most important subject for 
 human consideration; and most thoughtful people 
 will agree with him on that point, very likely, how- 
 ever, qualifying this superlative expression with an 
 "if" saying, if there were anything definitely known 
 about it. If the writer, by his long experience and 
 investigation under great advantages, did not con- 
 sider the qualifying if a superfluity, and that he 
 
 13 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 knew with about as much certainty the truth of this 
 somewhat transcendental subject as he did of things 
 in general that are considered by thoughtful, schol- 
 arly people as true and worthy of attention, he would 
 show his wisdom by remaining silent. Whether he 
 has anything to say, therefore, the production must 
 speak for itself. As for the motive he has for writ- 
 ing the book, he has many ; the principal one is, he 
 has been persuaded that what he has to say is really 
 wanted, and deserves a hearing. In this connection, 
 by way of explanation, the following circumstance 
 will not be out of place : — 
 
 He will now more familiarly address the reader ; 
 thinks he can come closer, and express himself bet- 
 ter in a change from the third to the first person, 
 even at the expense of apparent egotism, for which 
 he asks pardon. 
 
 A very venerable minister, residing in the State of 
 New York, attracted by the fascinating subject of a 
 future life, began a correspondence with me. He 
 was much nearer his ninetieth than to his eightieth 
 year ; had had a long, successful, and useful career ; 
 had been for many years the settled minister over a 
 church of the liberal, or Unitarian, order. He had, 
 of course, in that capacity, performed the marriage 
 and the funeral services of his people and neighbor- 
 hood during all that time. He had consoled the 
 mourners in their bereavement when death had 
 drafted from their midst the old or the young faces 
 of the family circles in his parish or town. I do not 
 know at what period these ministerial consolations 
 
ESTTPwODUCTORY. 15 
 
 had become merely a form, his faith in a future life 
 having gone into eclipse, and agnostic ideas had 
 taken possession of his mind ; but when he began his 
 correspondence with me he had doubts of the future 
 or continued existence of man after the death of the 
 body, and on that account he had retired from his 
 pulpit into a private, scholarly, thoughtful life. 
 
 Somebody had sent him an article that I had writ- 
 ten, in which I had narrated an experience which, 
 he said, "if true to the letter, would settle the ques- 
 tion affirmatively in his mind," and he began the cor- 
 respondence of which I have spoken, and which grew 
 interesting to both of us. I found him so penetrat- 
 ing, acute, and mentally vigorous that I never 
 dreamed of his being so old a man, as later I learned 
 he was. 
 
 Now I will take the liberty of digressing just for 
 a minute, following my impression, and, doing so, 
 w r ill be in keeping with my statement that, though 
 this is an u Introduction," it is also something more 
 than one. Thinking of this thoughtful old man 
 leads me to say, in this episodical way, that mental 
 activity in the line of hopeful thought is a great 
 lengthener of human life, — occupation of one's mind 
 on high matters, whether on the scientific plane or 
 in the religious or the spiritual direction, so long as 
 the pabulum is mentally nutritious, that is truthful, 
 or seemingly so. I hope the reader will understand 
 me when I say rational thought, for a man may be 
 very earnest, very fluent, and very full of moral and 
 religious ideas, based on what, in his own mind, he 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 does not consider reasonable or true, no matter how 
 sure he pretends to be of his premises, having scrip- 
 tural endorsement and the whole army of Bible be- 
 lievers to sustain him, — that kind of truth which 
 may in a man's heart seem untrue, — I do not offer as 
 nutritious food or life-prolonging. A sure and happy 
 future life, after the mortal one has ended, in one's 
 mind, based on sensuous proof, or even on intuition, 
 if it amounts to proof, is a lengthener of life in this 
 world, and, all other things being equal both in a 
 man's Genesis and his Exodus, it adds youthfulness 
 also to his longevity. Let no one now quote the 
 many exceptional instances to this bold statement, 
 and mention, perhaps, Theodore Parker, who was 
 really eighty when he was only fifty, and who on thu 
 theory was entitled to duration ; nor many a poor, 
 thoughtless, hard-working, and very ignorant person 
 who outstays his threescore-and-ten a decade or two, 
 for these are the exceptions. Statistics show that 
 the studious and scholarly class outlast the laboring 
 class in longevity. With the sensuous, proof that a 
 man not only has a future beyond the dark valley, 
 but one that is an extension of this life into the 
 domain of the spiritual, as it becomes a matter of 
 general acceptance, will add to human longevity. 
 
 Many things have already extended the average 
 length of human life from what it was a hundred 
 years ago, — sanitary attention, wisdom in living, 
 better ventilation, and the principle of the survival 
 of the fittest, carrying its momentum with it, have 
 effected this improvement, which is a matter of fact, 
 
IKTEODUCTOTtY. 17 
 
 now add to these important factors not only the hope 
 but the demonstration of the survival of the man 
 beyond the death of the body, then, when its belief 
 is as general as is the belief in the Copernican sys- 
 tem, or as it is to those who constitute the body 
 politic of Spiritualism, it will add still more to the 
 years of human duration, and to its usefulness also, 
 for the face behind the mask is not supposed to be a 
 wrinkled one. 
 
 Returning now from this episode to our venerable 
 ^-minister, with whom, as has been stated, I have 
 had much correspondence, — whose earnest, vigorous 
 words have impressed me both with his command of 
 language, his logic, and his sincerity. I liked very 
 much his interrogatories, his incisive thrusts into my 
 statements, his desire for the "bottom facts." I think 
 he did me good, whether I relieved hiru from his 
 doubts or not. I really made no effort to convert 
 him. I never do to anyone; am making none now 
 in writing this book. To make converts, or the con- 
 version of anyone, is to me a matter of indifference. 
 I sometimes think the doctrine of election shows 
 itself in this matter, as it does in many others, as a 
 constitutional quality, so that the old orthodox point 
 may after all have had some natural basis of truth. 
 I simply gave this correspondent what, from my 
 point of view, appeared to be the truth regarding 
 modern Spiritualism, illustrating it from my experi- 
 ence. 
 
 I want it to be understood by all that I am a 
 Spiritualist from experience. I do not think I could 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 believe as I do on anyone's testimony. People are 
 differently constituted; some believe more readily 
 than others; some people are helped by their intui- 
 tions. Theodore Parker once said to me, speaking 
 of "spiritual manifestations," that he needed no 
 proofs of another life ; if he had any doubts, it was of 
 this life,- — Whether this world was a reality, — none 
 at all of the other. Blessed are these men who are 
 such born believers. They are the ones who in all 
 ages have kept the sacred fire of hope alive and burn- 
 ing. The mass of mankind, particularly in this 
 materialistic age, lack this inspiring intuition, and so 
 need sensuous proof, and, without it, are without 
 faith. 
 
 Our venerable minister says, in one of his letters, 
 that if he had my experience, and knew that it was 
 so, he would be a believer, and be happy. Some- 
 times he is afraid, he says, I am beguiled by others, 
 or, perhaps, by my own desires. It is possible I am ; 
 I am only human, but I hardly think so ; if I in any 
 degree thought so, I would at once lay down my pen. 
 I am as sure of my facts, in this line of thought, as I 
 am of them in any other department of knowledge. 
 
 As I propose in the following chapters to give 
 some of my experiences as well as some of my infer- 
 ences and deductions, I am taking some liberty in 
 this introductory chapter to impress upon the reader, 
 as I did upon this minister, that I am dealing with 
 positive facts, and not suppositions. I am sure there 
 is a power, impulse, or force in nature not recognized 
 as yet by science, or as something outside of the rec- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 19 
 
 ognized domain of science ; the best exoteric defini- 
 tion of it is Psychic Force. This power, or force, is 
 certainly intelligent, even if ultra human. It claims 
 to be a voice from " over the river " from departed 
 spirits ; it claims to be from the loved and lost, from 
 those whose bodies are moldering in the grave, 
 assuring us mortals that they still live. This intelli- 
 gent "psychic force " has never claimed to be any- 
 thing else but a departed human being, in a single 
 instance, from the first manifestation in 1848 to the 
 present time. It probably never will. It looks to 
 me as if it was going, as the saying is, " to laugh 
 last," or best. 
 
 With the evidence I have, some of which I pro- 
 pose to present, I am obliged to take this "Psychic 
 Force's " word, and believe in dealing with it I am 
 dealing, not with the dead, but with those whose 
 mortal forms only are tenants of the world's sepul- 
 chers, but who are still living entities; I am obliged 
 to respect that claim, for I would stultify my under- 
 standing if I did not. I am aware that outside of 
 this mysterious source of information, this " spiritual 
 environment," that the subject suggests, is not 
 proved; so, in a sense, to assume it, is begging the 
 question; but if it be admitted as a verity, as the 
 Bible, and as poetry in general is authority for, 
 " that w T e are surrounded by a countless multitude of 
 witnesses," or, in the words of the poet, that 
 
 "The spiritual world 
 JLies all about us, and its avenues 
 Are open to the unseen feet of phantoms 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 That come and go, and we perceive them not, 
 Save by their influence." 
 
 That is, make the scriptural or sentimental idea a 
 matter of fact, then one must explain the phenomena 
 of modern Spiritualism as being what it claims to be, 
 — the spirits of the departed, as poetically expressed 
 in the following lines : — 
 
 " There is a world of spirits fair 
 
 All around us and unseen ; 
 And those whom we call ' dead ' are there 
 With all that erst on earth hath been." 
 
 As I believe in this spiritual environment, I be- 
 lieve the claim that in every case this "Psychic 
 Force " makes, which it made eighteen hundred years 
 ago, and which in the modern form it makes today. 
 Perhaps the older affirmation will express the idea 
 as well as any other, — so I will quote that, where 
 John the Revelator, in the presence of the angel, 
 which it seems was only a departed spirit, said (Rev. 
 xix:10): "And I fell at his feet to worship him. 
 And he said unto me, See thou do it not : I am thy 
 fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the tes- 
 timony of Jesus : worship God." 
 
 I do not know anything in the whole realm of 
 physics, or what are called real things, more surely 
 than I know that there is this spiritual surrounding 
 which is taught in the Bible, and taught by modern 
 Spiritualism. 
 
 The human intellect, as Ernest Renan says, is infi- 
 del; it asks questions, and so it should; but the 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 21 
 
 heart is the true believer ; hence poetry bubbles out 
 of it full of nutritious sentiment that ought to be 
 true, and what the sensuous proof, through modern 
 Spiritualism, makes literal and true. Here is one of 
 its expressions ; what a dreary world this would be 
 if it were not a hope and a possibility : — 
 
 "Oh! Heaven is nearer than mortals think, 
 When they look with a trembling dread 
 At the misty future that stretches on 
 From the silent home of the dead." 
 
 In corresponding with this aged but strong-minded 
 man, I found myself drawn to him, and though he 
 was at that period of life that demonstration of this 
 matter was soon to be in the order of nature, I felt 
 moved to be very open and frank with him, — am 
 astonished sometimes that I made the effort I did to 
 justify my belief and to defend my perspicuity. Per- 
 haps I was influenced to do so ; knowing what I do, 
 I am obliged to believe that there is this influence, 
 or watchful supervision of the world of spirits on or 
 over the affairs of every-day life. At any rate, writ- 
 ing, as I generally do, to be printed rather than for 
 autographical correspondence, it was singular that I 
 wrote this man so extensively as I did, and which, I 
 trust, as I have said, has benefited both of us. 
 
 When I received his last letter, which only ante- 
 dates this chapter a few days, it seemed to call for 
 this, may I say, " diffusion of knowledge." If what 
 I had written to him in this fugitive way seemed to 
 him valuable enough to say, rather urgingly, that I 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ought to print it, and knowing his sincerity when he 
 says in the last letter, to which I have referred: "I 
 am not well, and so cannot answer your last, but my 
 main object in this is to make a suggestion, and it is 
 this : that you gather what you have written to me 
 on this subject, including some of your experiences 
 from which you so freely draft, into a book, which 
 would be of a very interesting and readable charac- 
 ter, and just what thoughtful people want to read. 
 Is not this a suggestion worthy of your serious 
 thought? I have not less than fourteen articles from 
 you that, of themselves, would make an attractive 
 volume. Your letters to me on the subject are very 
 valuable, and are worthy of a more extended peru- 
 sal/' 
 
 It would seem, then, by a person competent to 
 judge, that some of my thoughts, experiences, and 
 hurried reflections have a value. I have had other 
 similar suggestions from various sources. A letter 
 from Alabama, just received, written in a very per- 
 suasive manner, " to put some of my thoughts into a 
 book form on this subject, in which we are all so in- 
 terested, and know so little about, and I feel, when- 
 ever I read anything of yours, I am getting an 
 honest and intelligent view of the subject from your 
 standpoint." These letters, coming so together, 
 seemed to say to me that I had better venture to do 
 so* Perhaps the intimation to do so dates higher 
 than the State of New York, or of Alabama, or other 
 mundane localities. We do not always know the 
 sources of our inspiration. I am inclined to think 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 23 
 
 our thoughts and acts, great and small, are the result 
 of influences from the world of spirits, so near and 
 yet so remote. It seems to be asking the reader to 
 take it for granted that the claim is proved before I 
 begin my story, so I will close this preliminary chap- 
 ter, it having done its work by embodying the rea- 
 sons for issuing the book. Whether there are any 
 occult or mystic influences mixed up with the reasons 
 mentioned can be better told after it is finished than 
 now in its preliminary pages. I am inclined to 
 indorse most heartily, from close observation of the 
 matter, the affirmation of the quaint Thoreau, some- 
 times called the Walden hermit: "We should con- 
 sider that the flow of thought is more like a tidal 
 wave than a prone river, and is the result of a celes- 
 tial influence, not of any declivity in its channel." 
 
" Where are now the fabled beings that peopled space, 
 That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, 
 Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, 
 Or chasm, or wat'ry depths? All these have vanished ; 
 TUey live no longer in the faith of reason ! 
 But still the heart doth need a language ; still 
 Doth the old instinct bring back the old names, 
 And to yon starry world they now are gone ; 
 Spirits, or gods, that used to share this earth 
 With man as with their friends. 
 Oh, never more will I blame his faith, 
 In the might of stars and angels 
 This visible nature and this common world 
 Is all too narrow." — Coleridge. 
 
 25 
 
II. 
 
 its RAisosr d'etre. 
 
 A substitute for faith. — The Bible a sealed book 
 without it. — With it, a rational one. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism is not so much a matter of 
 argument as it is a matter of experience; still some 
 may like to know a little of the experience that has 
 made me (who am something of a worldly man, or 
 one who has touched the world rather broadly) one 
 of its adherents. Its truth, or foundation in fact, 
 came to me in such a perfectly satisfactory manner 
 over a quarter of a century ago that it established it- 
 self in my mind, and has been my religion ever since. 
 No one can foretell with certainty how the future 
 may find him, but I think it one of the certain things 
 in my future career that I will not backslide or fall 
 from its grace ; that it has come to me to stay, and, 
 as it is my religion now, so will it continue to be. 
 
 It certainly ought to be true. If death ended all, 
 and there was no future conscious life to departed 
 human beings, that when a man died that was the 
 end of him, certainly to most people this life would 
 be a failure. A continuation of a man's career 
 
 27 
 
28 SHADOWS. 
 
 beyond the grave, from a human standpoint, is 
 demanded on the score of justice. The Christian, or 
 civilized world, sees that everj T where, and rests its 
 hope on Divine revelation, or God's word, for assur- 
 ance. If the Bible were God's word, that would be 
 an assurance. That holy and very valuable old book 
 has, however, a very human flavor. God may speak 
 in it, or through it, but certainly not in any real or 
 literal manner. He speaks through it only as the 
 Great First Cause speaks in and through everything 
 in the world around us, and in the heavens above us. 
 Men in old times, as now, may have been inspired, 
 and uttered or written wise thoughts even beyond 
 their own normal powers, many of them worthy of 
 high sources, but certainly no one in this age will 
 consider the Bible as God's word literally in any 
 sense, even admitting it to be the most valuable book 
 extant. My experience in spiritual manifestations 
 has enhanced its value to me, because I see permeat- 
 ing that book, from Genesis to Revelations, evidences 
 of an intelligent spiritual environment, interested in 
 and influencing mankind, and that, also, is the teach- 
 ing of modern Spiritualism today. Expressed by a 
 modern poet thus : — 
 
 " The spirit world, around this world of sense, 
 Rests like an atmosphere, and everywhere 
 Wafts through these earthly mists aud vapors dense, 
 A vital breath of more ethereal air." 
 
 In an age when this world was the center of the 
 universe, and the sun a ball of molten iron about the 
 
ITS eAison d'etre. 29 
 
 size of the territory of Greece, these influences, or 
 " strange visitants "' from this environment, were mis- 
 understood, intentionally or otherwise. In one case, 
 it will be remembered, a correction was made by the 
 angel, or divine messenger, or departed spirit, by his 
 saying to the saintly apostle : " I am one of thy breth- 
 ren of the prophets." At last we are learning to take 
 the spirit of that book and not its letter, but that does 
 not make the basis of a future life any better, or any 
 more certain, for the definition of the spirit of it will 
 vary in differently constituted minds; in the last 
 analysis it becomes nothing but human testimony, 
 and of no authority. In fact, the Bible is a sealed 
 book without modern Spiritualism. Interpreted by 
 it, there is proof that man survives death, but that 
 makes one a Spiritualist. Outside of modern Spirit- 
 ualism there is no proof that the man survives the 
 death of his body. Helped by this later light, many 
 things in the Bible, and outside of it, become point- 
 ers, or proofs, of man's survival, but that aid is the 
 property of and belongs to modern Spiritualism. 
 
 To make a future conscious life certain one must 
 return from the dead, or a message must come 
 from one who has ended his mortal career, and it 
 must be unmistakable. 
 
 " Ah ! blow me the scent of one lily, to tell 
 
 That it grew outside of the world at most; 
 Ah ! show me a plume to touch, or a shell 
 That whispers of some unearthly coast," 
 
 is what the hungry human heart says, and has a right 
 to say, and that is what modern Spiritualism claims 
 
30 SHADOWS. 
 
 to do, and what it certainly has done to me. It is 
 the object of these chapters, which I have called 
 " Shadows," to try to establish that claim. I hardly 
 expect to do it, for the reason already stated, that 
 the subject is more a matter of experience than of 
 argument ; but we will do the best we can, and we 
 will certainly be truthful, 
 
 "and give to our airy ' something ' 
 A local habitation and a name." 
 
 Intuitive souls all over the world, and all through 
 the ages, have felt their immortality, and the earth 
 itself is ominous with the idea. The poet interviews 
 it with his soul, and utters his thought in verse, 
 speaking wiser than he knows, and thus often breath- 
 ing the spirit of man's post-mortem life ; hungry 
 humanity reads the sentiment, and wishes it was real, 
 as well as poetic. One message from the world of 
 spirits, one soul returning after having passed through 
 death, would change poetry into truth, and bring the 
 heart's intuitions into the domain of the positive. 
 Until that message comes, or that "departed" one 
 returns, the woman of Endor may raise Samuel, 
 Moses and Elias be transfigured before Peter, James 
 and John and the Revelator bow before the angel, 
 and Hamlet may see the ghost of the royal Dane 
 armed, cap-a-pie, and Longfellow may tell in his 
 pensive, almost truthful, way that 
 
 " Through the open doors 
 The harmless phantoms on their errands glide 
 With feet that make no noise upon the floors. 
 
ITS RAISON D'ETRE. 31 
 
 We meet them at the door-way, on the stair, 
 Along the passages they come and go, 
 
 Impalpable impressions on the air, 
 
 A sense of something moving to and fro ; " 
 
 and nervous women may see sainted shadows pass 
 the open doors of darkened rooms that even prove 
 sometimes to be premonitions ; but they are all 
 " such stuff as dreams are made of," whether records 
 of revelation or drafts of imagination bodying forth 
 the forms of things unseen for the poet's pen to 
 mold into shape ; they are punctured bubbles, van- 
 ishing in the light of reason and common sense, and 
 are at best but what the following agnostic lines ex- 
 press : — 
 
 " The hollow sea- shell, which for years hath stood 
 On dusty shelves, when held against the ear 
 Proclaims its stormy parent, and we hear 
 The faint, far murmur of the distant flood. 
 We hear the sea. The sea? It is the blood 
 In our own veins, impetuous and near, 
 And pulses keeping pace with hope and fear. 
 So in my heart I hear, as in a shell, 
 
 Distinct, distinct, though faint and far it be. 
 Thou fool ! this echo is a cheat as well, 
 The hum of earthly instincts ; and we crave 
 A world unreal as the shell-heard sea." 
 
 If modern Spiritualism has any basis, any raison 
 d'etre in its claim, that there are messages from the 
 loved and lost, that the spirit world can, and does, 
 more or less intelligently, communicate with the inhab- 
 itants of earth ; and if this is true, the ideal world be- 
 comes more or less a real one, many a fascinating fable 
 becomes a reality, and it puts a torch behind the cur- 
 
32 SHADOWS. 
 
 tain in the picture of human life, making it a trans- 
 parency of light and warmth, as well as beauty. 
 And we can feel it to be really so when the poet 
 
 says : — 
 
 " That ever near us, though unseen, 
 The dear immortals tread ; 
 For all the boundless universe 
 Is life, — there are no dead." 
 
 
"Can it be true, this wondrous story old, 
 Of fair green pastures where the waters flow 
 J.n sweetest music over golden sands, 
 Where we shall meet again the lost of earth? 
 
 Can such a country be 
 As this of which our hopeful spirits dream, 
 For which we yearn, and hope, and trust, and pray 
 Such prayers to Him, the Being Infinite? 
 Oh ! can it be that we shall grasp again 
 The cold white hands which here we fold to rest 
 Upon the breast, thrilling with life anew? 
 And feel again upon our lips and brow 
 The kisses of the lips that have grown cold 
 While kissing us? And is the grave 
 Only a narrow gate, through which we pass 
 To peace and rest and calm? " — Anonymous. 
 
 33 
 

 
III. 
 
 THE GATES AJAR. 
 
 Explaining why the writer is a Spiritualist, and why 
 obliged to be one. 
 
 When death entered my family, we had three 
 young children ; the oldest was a girl. She was six 
 years old when death took her. I had a religious 
 experience in my early life, was a church-member for 
 a decade. At the period of this grief I was, and had 
 been for many years, a materialist. When this little 
 girl's light went out, leaving us in the dark, I felt 
 that that was the end of her. The mother took the 
 loss naturally harder than I did. I was, and am, of 
 a philosophical turn of mind, and considered this the 
 fate and the end of all ; but it had come early to this 
 bright flower in the garden of our home. As there 
 was no help for it, it must be submitted to. This 
 was our grief. The mother, it may have been provi- 
 dential, and, from later experiences, I think it was, 
 came accidentally in contact with some of those who 
 were interested in the new light of modern Spiritual- 
 ism, and seeing a medium was suggested to her. As 
 the drowning man catches at a straw, she caught at 
 
 35 
 
36 SHADOWS. 
 
 this. Afterwards, when hearing her report of what 
 she had heard and seen in her contact with the sub- 
 ject from time to time, it seemed silly business, and 
 made no impression upon me ; but I saw no harm in 
 it, as it occupied her mind, and gave her something 
 to think of. My wife was not reconciled to the loss 
 of our child, and looking into this matter might be a 
 harmless benefit to her, but otherwise I saw no sense 
 in it, and certainly none in the phenomena, as she 
 related to me from time to time what took place. I 
 could not see anything sensible in supposing spirits 
 made raps, or of the tipping of tables, or any percep- 
 tion of clairvoyant images of little girls that nobody 
 could see but the medium, or woman who called her- 
 self a seeress. I think it grieved my wife that I did 
 not interest myself more, and it seemed to partake a 
 little of cold-heartedness on my part. She was wrong 
 there, for I was all feeling, but felt, as the majority 
 feel today, that the subject was beneath the notice or 
 attention of sensible people. My wife having confi- 
 dence in me and my acuteness, thought I could and 
 ought to settle this matter as either something or 
 nothing. I felt, as a matter of course, that it was a 
 delusion. I hated to stoop to conquer it, and I saw 
 it was occupying her mind, and it was, at best, an 
 innocent amusement. This interest continued many 
 weeks, even a month or two, and was my wife's prin- 
 cipal thought, and I hated to disabuse her of it, and 
 yet, from what I heard or read in the papers, I began 
 to have fears that it possibly might be an injury, 
 and I had begun to think to myself how I could 
 
THE GATES AJAR. 37 
 
 adroitly puncture it so that she could see it herself 
 to be a delusion without any overt act of mine, for 
 I felt that I would be belittling myself to meddle with 
 it as I would to go to a Gypsy to get my fortune told. 
 
 Early one afternoon, just as she was going out for 
 a walk or a call, she met her sister on the steps just 
 coming to see her. After exchanging a few words, 
 my wife said to her sister that she was going to see 
 a medium, and asked her if she did not want to go 
 to. The sister had never been at or heard of such 
 sittings, rather liked the idea, and they went together, 
 it seems to me it was to a Mrs. Leeds, of whom my 
 wife had incidentally heard. On reaching the house in 
 Carver Street, they found Mrs. Leeds was absent on 
 a visit to Judge Edmonds, in Xew York. They were, 
 of course, disappointed, and, turning to go away, 
 they asked the girl who had waited on the door if 
 she knew any good medium, and she gave them the 
 address of Mrs. Hayden, of Hay ward Place, and the 
 ladies went directly there. 
 
 I am being very minute in relating this occurrence, 
 as it turned out to be the "Dawning Li^ht" to me, 
 and would to anyone under the same circumstances, 
 as it covers the whole ground claimed by modern 
 Spiritualism, and every solution for it conceivable, 
 and nothing but an admittance of the truth of it, as 
 founded in fact, can explain this one experience. 
 
 I never conversed with an intelligent person who 
 did not admit that it compelled a belief, if the facts 
 were as I have stated them. Hence my being so 
 particular in this narrative which I offer, as I do in 
 
38 SHADOWS. 
 
 fact the whole of this book as well as this chapter, 
 as the exact truth. 
 
 I was left at home, as these ladies departed, I 
 knowing nothing of their intentions. I did not know 
 where they were going, or that they had started 
 on a spiritual expedition. What I have said in the 
 foregoing lines I learned afterwards, and the follow- 
 ing cogitative and circumstantial statement will ex- 
 plain it : — 
 
 I was in my library up stairs, and alone. I had 
 some writing to do, but the subject of spiritual mani- 
 festations was for the moment occupying my mind, 
 and in their connection with my wife who had just 
 gone out, as I have described, and I began to cogi- 
 tate. I said to myself, ought I not to look into this 
 matter, and why is it necessary to go to a stranger to 
 get a message from any of my departed frienda? 
 That has, thought I, an unreasonable look to begin 
 with. I had forgotten, or it did not occur to me, 
 that King Saul, when in grief and sore distressed, had 
 to go in that way to the woman of Endor before he 
 could connect himself with or get a message from 
 his departed friend Samuel. In beginning this cogi- 
 tation, it rather appeared to me that if my little 
 daughter was alive, though invisible, or any spirit of 
 my loved and lost relatives or friends had any mes- 
 sage for me, here and now was the time and place for 
 the manifestations. Here in this room is the old 
 table, and on it the old Bible, printed in 1751, that 
 old familiar faces of my youth sat at and turned the 
 leaves of the book, and show and explain the pic- 
 
THE GATES AJAR. 39 
 
 tures in it, and I began to grow sentimental with tlie 
 pleasures of memory. I seemed to grow hospitable 
 to the idea, or rather to the images of these old faces 
 that were as vivid, in my mind, as the old book was 
 that had outlasted them to my senses. I believed 
 everything was subject to law, and that it was pos- 
 sible that the room was then full of spirits, though my 
 intellect was infidel to the idea ; still in my heart there 
 arose a sacred voice which said it was a possible thing. 
 Perhaps there is something wanting which I have 
 not got, thought I, which, if I had, or was in the 
 right condition, these old familiar faces, or some of 
 them, might issue out of the silent air, or in some 
 way manifest or reach me. Some remembrances of 
 family love, that need not be mentioned now, but 
 may be before this book is ended, had some effect 
 upon me, and I began to dwell on it in my imagina- 
 tion, — build castles in the air, as some call it, — I did 
 alone what I would have been ashamed to have done 
 in any company. I said to the circumambient, vacant 
 air vocally, if there are any beings present who 
 can hear me (thinking then of my child, Hattie, 
 and my sister), I wish you would be present when 
 my wife attends any of these sittings, and will you 
 send me a message? and remembering I had had 
 messages now and then, — love-sending, or remem- 
 brances which had no convincing character to them, 
 and what anyone could say, and not be out of the 
 way ; so I said, send me this message, — which I then 
 repeated. I will not repeat here the message I asked 
 for ; it was characteristic of me, and was religiously 
 
40 SHADOWS. 
 
 asked for, but it might be construed humorously, and 
 in the connection seem frivolous, for though I am 
 constitutionally light-hearted and cheerful, I have a 
 very pensive undertone, and on this subject, whatever 
 may be my manner, I am at heart always serious. 
 
 It occurred to me, also, that spirits might see and 
 not hear, and, having a pen before me, I wrote the 
 message as well as spoke it, and folded up the paper 
 on which it was written, and put it into my desk, 
 where no one could see or get it. I certainly did 
 not expect any response. I did not ask for it with 
 any faith. I do not kuow as if I ever would have 
 thought of it again, except that the subject, in its 
 connection with my wife, was often in my mind, and 
 this trifling circumstance would, therefore, not have 
 been forgotten. I however had the feeling that I 
 would give all I had in the world if there had been 
 any foundation of truth in this matter, which, how- 
 ever, did not seem to me at all probable or possible. 
 
 I did not know, as I have already said, where my 
 wife had gone. What I had said, thought, and done 
 alone in my library was known only to myself. Late 
 in the afternoon I went out, and on my return at 
 tea-time, the first thing my wife said to me was : 
 "There is a message for you from Hattie," handing 
 me a small, rolled-up strip of paper, she looking at 
 me, all alive with expectation, for she knew, under 
 any circumstances, the message would please me, as 
 a definitely characteristic one, of or for me. I un- 
 rolled, read it, and found a long string of letters not 
 divided into words, but it was the message exactly, 
 
THE GATES AJAR. 41 
 
 when divided off into words, that I had asked for a 
 few hours before. 
 
 Now, suppose I am telling the exact truth, setting 
 nothing down for effect or for argument, and I assure 
 the reader such is the fact exactly as I have stated 
 it, — what else can it be but the message from a 
 spirit? It purported to come from Hattie; but she 
 could not write. She was a little girl only a few 
 months over six years old ; but that is a matter of 
 minor importance. Did it come from the other 
 world ? That settled, settles the whole matter ; and 
 how could it have been anything else ? This matter 
 being so important, some reflections and deductions 
 will not be superfluous. 
 
 There was certainly no mind-reading (mind-read- 
 ing seems to be the bete noir of the skeptic in this 
 department of thought), for I concocted the message 
 alone, and I was not present at this Endoric inter- 
 view. No one knew but myself what I had done but 
 the " circumambient air," or the invisible dwellers in 
 it, and of course around me. My wife and her sister 
 knew nothing of it, and if the medium had been a 
 fraud and had made the raps herself, she must have 
 had a royal road of information to have got cogniz- 
 ance of my act or wishes. I did not know there was 
 such a woman in the world. It was the first time 
 my wife had ever been at her house, and did not 
 know she was going there when she left home. The 
 reader will remember she got the address from a 
 domestic at a house where she had never been, and 
 was unknown, and Hay ward Place was over a mile off 
 
42 SHADOWS. 
 
 from where I lived, and had had this private colloquy 
 with what I now consider my spiritual surrounding, 
 or environment. 
 
 So, look at the matter in any light one chooses, if 
 the writer's head is level, and is telling the truth, 
 there certainly was a message from " over the river." 
 If anyone doubts me, thinks I am a special pleader 
 for the cause, and am overstating, when I assure him 
 I am exact and truthful, then this book of "shad- 
 ows " is not for him, and he may as well skip me and 
 pass on to something that, to him, will be more inter- 
 esting or instructive. 
 
 As I have said, I feel like being very particular, 
 and, perhaps, long-drawn out in this statement more 
 than I intend to be in the chapters that follow, for 
 this one experience is, in the writer's mind, a clincher, 
 so to speak, and settles the whole question in his 
 mind affirmatively. I will now close it with a brief 
 account of the sitting itself. 
 
 These ladies, when they reached the medium's 
 house in Hayward Place, found there the lady, and 
 stated what they had come for, and were invited to 
 sit down at the table used for the purpose of spirit 
 communications, the medium sitting at it also. The 
 sister held the pencil, — she had been requested to 
 by my wife before entering, to see if it made any 
 difference. Raps were at once heard, the spirits an- 
 swering yes and no to questions. Soon the alphabet 
 was used, and as the letter wanted was reached a rap 
 was heard, and thus some singular but very true 
 messages were given intelligently in this way, but 
 
THE GATES AJAR. 43 
 
 they need not be recorded here. After a little while 
 the letters of a message read : "Hattie is here : " My 
 wife said: "I am glad you have come; have you 
 anything to say to your father ? " — and three raps 
 indicated "Yes." The alphabet was then used, and 
 the letters noted down as the raps signified the right • 
 one ; and, when finished, it was a string of letters, as 
 I have said, not divided into words, but which were 
 easily read, particularly by my wife, who saw that it 
 was somewhat characteristic, and knew it would 
 please me, and perhaps be a test. She did not know 
 until she had got home and given it to me, and I had 
 told her the facts, that I had asked the spirits to send 
 the message, and the string of letters written down 
 -in that way, — the letter wanted being rapped at 
 when it was reached, — and in their wholeness was 
 the message I had asked for in the manner stated. 
 
 As a finish to this chapter, let me close with a 
 suggestive verse or two that I find in my scrap-book, 
 and then the reader can do his own thinking : — 
 
 " But, hark ! I hear a gentle rap, 
 Most strange to human ears ! 
 May it not be some message sent 
 
 From those bright-shining spheres? 
 
 The questions put, the answers come 
 
 As plain as A, B, C, 
 Which tell me that departed friends 
 
 Are coming back to me. 
 
 No voice I hear, no form behold, 
 
 And yet I feel impressed 
 The loving message surely comes 
 
 From loved ones gone to rest." 
 
" I have reason to think it no delusion — 
 
 And therefore fancy that my child is near, 
 And so I feel amid this world's confusion 
 
 The influence of her sereener sphere. 
 I doubt if she is in the church-yard sleeping, 
 
 And have at last become aware 
 That she eluded us while we were weeping, 
 And that my child was never buried there." 
 
 — Anonymous. 
 
 45 
 

IV. 
 
 FIRST INTERVIEW WITH SPIRITS. 
 
 Its permanent entrance into the writer s mental life. 
 — Details of the interview. 
 
 When I received and read the message that in this 
 mysterious way (as I have stated in the preceding 
 chapter) had come from the spirit of my little daugh- 
 ter that I had seen laid in the tomb a few months 
 before, it surprised me very much, it was certainly so 
 unexpected. I knew I held the secret as surely as 
 Junius did of his "letters," but here was my mes- 
 sage, word for word. My request must have been 
 heard by the invisible intelligences in that room 
 where I was sitting and cogitating alone, who must 
 have known the location of my wife, where she had 
 gone, for I did not, so they could not have got 
 it from my mind, and who there, at that sitting, 
 answered me. Does it not look as if, all unseen by 
 me, I was open and visible to some of my departed 
 friends in the spirit world ? as if they, knowing my 
 wishes, had said : u Let us go to that seance where 
 his wife, our sister or mother had gone, and see if 
 we cannot prove to him that he is encompassed 
 
 47 
 
48 SHADOWS. 
 
 round about with intelligences ; " or, as expressed in 
 the words of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe : — 
 
 " It is a beautiful belief, 
 
 That ever round our head 
 Are hovering with viewless wings 
 The spirits of the dead." 
 
 I do not know why I should be so much favored 
 when so many better and wiser men, as hungry for 
 the truth as I am, have been slighted. And then I 
 have asked a great many times since for a similar 
 manifestation for just such a purpose, but the "vacant 
 air " has been deaf. Angels' visits of the kind most 
 wanted are, indeed, few and far between; perhaps I 
 have had my share of attention. Here is the fact 
 once anyway; perhaps that was a compensation for 
 other deficiencies, but that is not the point to be 
 treated now. 
 
 I have had a quarter of a century of experience in 
 spiritual matters. A large percentage of it is of no 
 account. The identification of a spirit is a very 
 difficult thing to do. I have had hundreds of proofs 
 of spirits communicating with me to one of identifi- 
 cation. I think I could discount seventy-five per cent 
 of my experiences in this line of thought, and the 
 substance of the whole might be included in the 
 remaining one-quarter, oT twenty-five per cent. Some 
 may think I have wasted a great deal of time in wash- 
 ing, so to speak, in this lean gulch, and the amount of 
 gold gathered has been small for the time and labor 
 spent; but what I have got is what I want, and what 
 
FIRST INTERVIEW WITH SPIRITS. 49 
 
 the world wants today, more than anything else, and 
 is not to be found outside of "these diggings." 
 Where in the whole world of thought can one find 
 such a nugget of value as the message and the cir- 
 cumstances of which I have spoken in the last chap- 
 ter. If it had never been duplicated (and it never 
 has exactly, and seldom anything near it) it would, 
 as I have said, have settled the matter in my own 
 mind. I feel thankful for succeeding so well the first 
 time, for it has encouraged me in years of lean perse- 
 verance, so that I never was discouraged, even if not 
 always satisfied ; but all along the years of my expe- 
 rience in these matters have I found (though some- 
 times it may have been at long intervals) nuggets of 
 value that are evidences of the truth fur which I was 
 seeking. 
 
 When this message from Hattie came to me, I 
 went at once to see this modern woman of Endor, to 
 see if she could raise any of my Samuels. I went 
 into her parlor a stranger both to her and to the sub- 
 ject. She was sitting on a sofa in her modestly-fur- 
 nished room ; near the center of it was a round, 
 mahogany table. I hardly knew what to say, or 
 what to do. It was new business to me. The lady 
 helped me by saying : "Do you want to talk with the 
 spirits? " I said : " Most certainly." She remarked, 
 in a courteous manner, that there were a great many 
 here, or that I had brought a great many with me. 
 She said : " Take a seat at the table," pointing to the 
 one I had noticed, which was about three feet from 
 her. I did so, moving it a little so as to detect any 
 
50 SHADOWS. 
 
 deceptive mechanism, for I was of a suspicious 
 nature, at least in a matter of this kind. She, notic- 
 ing it, said : " That 's right ; put the table anywhere 
 you please." Her manners pleased me ; she seemed 
 honest ; I was satisfied, and sat down to it, my hands 
 resting on it. 
 
 It seems now that I ought to narrate, in tolerable 
 detail, the circumstances of this my first interview 
 with the spirits of the other world ; but it seems to 
 me also that they ought to have been on some ele- 
 vated matters, and not at all common-place, and 
 which seem almost, when dealing with the dead, or 
 rather " departed," trifling. The query arises in my 
 mind now whether I had not better compose a presen- 
 tation analogously true, but one more in conformity 
 with one's expectation from such a supposed source, 
 the heavenly world. I think this would be the way 
 usually such a matter would be given to the public, 
 and not draw out of obscurity the domestic social 
 life and names of quiet, unknown people. Yet, if a 
 person that I respected, and was worth listening to, 
 was talking to me, I would want the simple facts, and 
 when given, as they have been colloqualty often by 
 me, they have always been impressively interesting, 
 and as I am with sincerity, and also simplicity, now 
 talking with the reader, I think the literal state- 
 ment, with this apology, will be the best one. My 
 hesitancy is owing in a measure from feeling, or did 
 feel at the time, and as others do at that stage of 
 their belief, that the spirit world was a sanctified 
 and holy place, and that one must feel serious or 
 
FIRST INTERVIEW WITH SPIRITS. 51 
 
 religious when dealing with it. There was nothing 
 serious or religious in the pabulum that then came 
 to me from that world of light. Yet there was a 
 charming and complicated truthfulness in it, and 
 that, after all, is the main thing. Some one has said 
 the laws of crystalization, manifested in the freezing 
 of ditch water, are as interesting a study as they are 
 in the crystalization of the diamond ; so I trust in 
 this trifle that I propose to relate, as the illustrative 
 point, — the underlying laws, — will make my simple 
 water diamondish in character. 
 
 I came to this medium's house under the assumed 
 name of Johnson, and, hearing the raps, was told 
 they were the spirits, and that I could ask them any 
 questions. I began by asking the invisible if they 
 knew me, and the reply being "Yes," I said : "What 
 is my name?" and the answer was, "John Wether- 
 bee." I was both surprised and interested, for, as I 
 have said, I was entirely unknown to the medium, 
 and though she sat very near the table, I could see 
 she did not touch it, and if she had, under all the 
 circumstances, it would have made no difference. 
 I then asked : " Will you tell me who you are ? " 
 And the raps spelled the name of " Susan Gibson." 
 
 I was expecting it would have been Adeline, Hattie, 
 or some other near spirit, and I did not know any 
 Susan Gibson ; and hoping to bring her to mind, 
 among other questions, I said : "Where did you die?" 
 The reply was : "Providence." That fact did not 
 help any, but was interesting, as I had relatives in 
 that city, and had visited it a great deal. I then 
 
52 SHADOWS. 
 
 asked : "When did you die ? " And the reply was : 
 "About nine years ago." This was interesting, for 
 my sister was living there ; had been married a year 
 or more before that time. My unmarried sister was 
 a guest of hers much of the time, and for the year or 
 two prior to the nine years mentioned by the spirit, 
 I was there near half of my time, and so I concluded 
 that Susan Gibson might have been some person that 
 I had met there that I had forgotten, though it seems 
 she had not forgotten me. I then asked the spirit: 
 " Do you know my sister ? " The reply was : " Yes." 
 "What is her name?" And the letters, in reply, 
 rapped out were, ELI. Noticing them thus, I 
 thought to myself she is mistaken ; it is going to be 
 Eliza or Elizabeth, and I have no sister by that 
 name. I said nothing, and the next letter was an 0, 
 then a T, and the rapping stopped. At first, I did 
 not recognize it, but as quickly as I saw it read, 
 Eliot, then I saw it was my sister's name, Elliott. 
 The spirit had spelled the name in the usual waj r , 
 but our Elliotts spelled it with two Z's and two £'s, 
 and in the diminished form I at first did not recog- 
 nize it. It was far better in the way manifested, for 
 it showed the spirit was not getting it from my mind. 
 I then saw that that w r as the name of my living sister; 
 but I wanted the name of my dead one, or who was 
 now a spirit, and the reply was: "Adeline," which 
 was correct. 
 
 Speaking of this to my sister in Providence, I 
 found her no better off than I was ; she could remem- 
 ber no Susan Gibson among her acquaintances, but 
 
FIE ST INTERVIEW WITH SPIRITS. 53 
 
 in the early part of her married life — say ten or 
 eleven years before this interview — she had a domes- 
 tie living with her by the name of Susan ; it might 
 have been Susan Gibson, but she did not know 
 whether it was or not. As the communication was 
 so correct, even free from any mind-reading, it seems 
 to me reasonable to suppose it was the Susan that 
 was the domestic. Imagine the situation, and see 
 how natural it is, on that basis. She was the family- 
 servant of Mrs. Elliott, my sister visiting her, whose 
 name was Adeline, and I was often there. I asked 
 her, as a spirit, for my sister's name. I was thinking 
 of Adeline, who was a spirit, but the spirit of the 
 domestic said "Eliot," speaking of her mistress by 
 the name she was known, and then of Adeline, as 
 she would have been known in that household. In 
 the long, tedious way of getting messages, with the 
 aid of an alphabet, one cannot use superfluous words 
 any more than one does in a telegram. If Susan had 
 been giving those messages in her living state, or a 
 free translation of them into a polite vernacular, 
 they would read: "Your living sister's name is Mrs. 
 Eliot, and the sister who is now a spirit her name is 
 Miss Adeline." We must understand the superflu- 
 ous appellations Mrs. and Miss are understood, and 
 not necessarily expressed in spiritual as well as in 
 telegraphic messages. 
 
" It is the hour of prayer. All day the din of active life over- 
 whelms, and the latent soul speaks not. Thankful are we for 
 the return of evening, bringing us back to serious thought, 
 when hearts speak and voices oft are silent, — vain wanderings 
 o'er a sea of thoughts we cannot fathom. It is the hour when 
 children talk with angels. It is the hour we feel our immortal- 
 ity. It is the hour when old familiar faces look at us from the 
 dark corners of the room. Old portraits on the wall attract 
 expression, and the recognitions make us feel their living pres- 
 ence. Can the witching hour of twilight make vivid the shadows 
 of loved faces who dwell beyond the vale, — whose silent voices 
 ignite thought, whose footsteps leave no track behind?" 
 
 — Shadows. 
 55 
 

 
V. 
 
 LIFE S AFTERNOON. 
 
 The "D atoning Light" seems to be a loon or consola- 
 tion to advancing years. — An extension-claim. 
 
 " The day is past and gone, 
 
 The evening shades appear ; 
 Oh, may we all remember well 
 The night of death draws near." 
 
 There is a religious association that comes up in 
 the mind with this oft-repeated and oft-sung hymn 
 to which no reference is now intended. Take it as 
 it reads, — not its associations, or what in a pious direc- 
 tion it may suggest, — how differently the thought 
 strikes the mind of a youth of twenty from what it 
 does the adult, or mature one of sixty ! 
 
 The grim messenger, as death is sometimes called, 
 is near youth, of course ; but when one is thus early 
 called, it seems somewhat out of order, — a mistake 
 somewhere, a payment anticipated, one made before 
 it was due. When the noon of a man's life is past, 
 or if it is four o'clock or five or six in the afternoon 
 of his life, the sun nearing his western horizon, — the 
 "Night of Death," — then is a vivid point; it seems 
 
 57 
 
58 SHADOWS. 
 
 near or nearer then, mathematically, no matter how 
 much of time there still may be left for him. 
 
 It is wisely provided that youth and young man- 
 hood should be hopeful, and even thoughtless, and 
 death but lightly considered. With sixty years of 
 probable life before a man, or only six, the future 
 prospect differs. When one reads a thoughtful verse 
 like this, which is so suggestive and truthful also, — 
 
 " The end of life comes nearer, 
 
 Every year ; 
 The friends left become dearer, 
 
 Every year ; 
 And the goal of all that 's mortal, 
 Opens wider still its portal 
 To the land of the immortal, 
 
 Every year," 
 
 it will strike the mind of a man who, on the princi- 
 ple of life assurance or of annuities, has fifty years 
 before him very differently from one whose chances 
 are but for five, or ten, on the statistical ground. It 
 is well that it is so, for the youth has the world's 
 affairs on his hands, the old man more naturally 
 begins to set his house in order. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism then seems to come as a boon 
 or a comfort to old people. It is a beautiful and 
 inspiring thought to the young also, especially if the 
 pale angel is beckoning to one. These " anticipated 
 payments " are very common. There comes a time 
 also when the end of life is falling due, in the natu- 
 ral order of things. Three-score-and-ten is an indefi- 
 nite point in one's lifet-ime, though definitely ex- 
 
life's afternoon. 59 
 
 , but is reached by all, like a promissory note 
 falling due. It is only a question of time. 
 
 How cheering, then, the thought that the little 
 span of life that a man sees before him when he 
 reaches nearer and nearer this indefinite but certain 
 point is extended into a perpetuity — a continuous 
 life — under new conditions. That is what modern 
 Spiritualism teaches, and. if based on truth, what an 
 acquisition it is ! 
 
 In the light of some facts, which will appear in the 
 course of these chapters, how can it be anything tdse 
 but what it claims to be ? This extension of life is 
 not exactly an ethereal one. but one as real to the 
 as this one is that we are now living. It 
 seems to be a very human life, if not a mortal one. 
 Our aims and tastes, and sometimes our misfortunes 
 here, are continued there on, perhaps, a higher plane 
 ntlook. the misfortunes here being the beginnings 
 of what may be successes there, and possibly view- 
 ing them retrospectively may be the most lust: 
 ones of our human experience. To be sure thei 
 no ticketing: our bao^a^e through the gates of death 
 to the summer land. All our wealth is left on this 
 side of the grave, — useful here, of no account there. 
 
 What empty ur rich people — even 
 
 millionaires — must be when discretely separated 
 from their possessions ! H«;>w important for such. 
 and all. to keep a sinking-fund of enduring posses- 
 sions as this life's years glide by that will be income- 
 lucing (using our vernacular) when this life's 
 fitful fever is over ! It may not be out of place to 
 
60 SHADOWS. 
 
 quote a communication that this latter remark sug- 
 gests that came to me once through the medium 
 Mary Hardy, she being unconscious, — in a trance. 
 
 This was from an aged, well-known citizen, an 
 intimate friend of mine, who had departed from this 
 life some years before. Besides the communication, 
 I could give some circumstances that insure its gen- 
 uineness, but I must refrain from doing so here for 
 the sake of brevity. Please take my word for it, and 
 read the characteristic message. I do not quote it as 
 evidence of spirit existence, though I receive it as 
 such myself, from the circumstances referred to 
 attending it, but which would not be of any interest 
 to the general reader. The communication itself 
 will be illustrative of the idea above suggested, of 
 keeping a " sinking-fund " that will be, in a spiritual 
 sense, income-producing "in the sweet bj^-and-bye." 
 
 " Summer-Land securities, like the securities current on 
 'change, do not come by the asking, or by inheritance, they 
 all have to be earned. A man may be poor in one and may 
 be rich in the other. The former boil no pots, and in the 
 affairs of life, or the settlement of estates, are not counted 
 as assets. Successful business men often make a poor show- 
 ing when they close in on the mortal and open out into the 
 immortal state. 
 
 " There is but one way by which the gilt-edged securities 
 of earth can be converted into the gilt-edged of the Summer 
 Land, and that is by unselfish uses. Both kinds are in your 
 market now ; the enduring find comparatively but few tak- 
 ers, the passing are in active demand. If I had known ten 
 years ago what I know now, I would have left less money 
 
life's afternoon. 61 
 
 to my heirs, but I would have been more affluent now. I 
 did, you know, an unselfish act of considerable magnitude, 
 and worried soma about it. I was glad before I died that I 
 did it, and I am gladder still now. It has proved to be the 
 best investment I have now in this Summer Land, and it 
 makes me quite comfortable." 
 
 The principal feature in the teachings of modern 
 Spiritualism is that the grave is not merely a hole in 
 the ground, or blind alley, but, figuratively speaking, 
 is a thoroughfare opening out into eternal light. 
 Our night of death comes, but our life is not ended. 
 Our day may have ended and its work done, but we 
 awake and find it the morning of a new day. 
 
 I do not know how it is with other people, but to 
 me this extension of our life beyond the valley and 
 the shadow of death, and free from its anxieties and 
 troubles, and yet retaining our identities, or consci- 
 ous ego, — our personality, — with a busy and pro- 
 gressive future, is a joyous vision, an inheritance of 
 priceless value. 
 
 It changes the whole aspect of human life, and 
 certainly adds sunshine to the remainder of this, 
 which cannot now be, to this writer, but a decade or 
 two at most. Though, as I have said, this sometimes 
 called the "Dawning Light" is the bright gift to 
 old age, and it is the bright gift to all who are 
 open-eyed to it, and to all, anyway, at last, for " old 
 age " is the possibility of all ; so, in time, these sug- 
 gestions will be in order for all those who have been 
 lucky enough to have been undrafted from their life 
 
62 SHADOWS. 
 
 in the former, until (using a mercantile phrase) they 
 have become clue. 
 
 I have a friend, whose ancestors lived in this old 
 Bay State ; but, in the long ago, his parents emigrated 
 to the far west, and grew up with it in what is now 
 the State of Iowa. While writing this chapter, I 
 have received a letter from him. Its contents seem 
 almost a contribution to, or corroboration of, what I 
 have been saying. His communication embraced the 
 celebration of the ninety-first anniversary of the birth- 
 day of his mother, — in good health, for her years, 
 and mind unclouded. 
 
 I have always been pleased with the tender and 
 rational tones of his poetic effusions on previous 
 similar and other festive occasions which he has gen- 
 erally sent to me, as he has this one. At this time 
 were gathered children, grandchildren, and relatives 
 and friends; and he among them gave and read a 
 poetic tribute, which the old lady and all enjoyed for 
 its beauty and fitness. He, like this writer, is getting 
 to be somewhat venerable, but our souls are young, 
 as, on my theory, all Spiritualists' souls ought to be ; 
 and the fact of being believers in our hopeful philos- 
 ophy takes these tributes out of mere poetry and sen- 
 timent, and gives the luster of reality, that no one 
 who does not only feel, but knows, that this life is 
 but the vestibule of the one that follows, can realize 
 these mortal sunsets so radient with blue, green, and 
 gold, bespeaking a pleasant day on the " tomorrow 
 of death," as a true Spiritualist can. 
 
 Feeling now in this special case more than it may 
 
 
life's afterxoox. 63 
 
 be prudent to say in a book, I will print his verses 
 for the sake of their preservation, and as a reminder 
 to this writer and others of much that is suggested 
 but not expressed here. 
 
 ANNIVERSARIUS.* 
 
 "October, seventeen ninety-three, 
 Shall ever to us children be 
 A month and year of jubilee ; 
 For then was born to life and light 
 The being of our heart's delight, 
 Who modestly through life's long light, 
 Hath honor's shield kept clean and bright, — 
 Our mother. 
 
 Who in our country's early dawn 
 Hath listened, rapt, to tales and song 
 Of Washington and Jefferson, 
 Amidst New England's Christian spires, 
 Of lofty deeds through battle's fires 
 That Freedom won for glorious sires, — 
 Oar mother. 
 
 Who in young womanhood's first grace 
 Hath joined her brothers in the race 
 Through forests dark new paths to trace; 
 And plant new States on fields afar, 
 W^here brightly shone that ' Western Star ■ 
 W r hich hostile foes should ne'er debar, — 
 Our mother. 
 
 Full many a task is bravely done. 
 Full many a trial nobly won, 
 Through her ripe years of ninety-one. 
 May peace and honor crown her days ; 
 Let trust in God her courage raise, 
 While all her children join to praise, — 
 Our mother." 
 * C. A. K. — Keokuk, October 28, 1884. 
 
64 SHADOWS. 
 
 In the course of this chapter, which seems to have 
 been inspired by what might be called the approach 
 of evening, one may have noticed a thoughtfully- 
 expressed verse from an " Old Man's Story." I do 
 not know who was the author, but think I will use 
 the rest of it, it expresses so well what I want to say, 
 and better than I can say it in prose briefly. I do 
 not think the author will object to my thus drafting 
 it from my scrap-book, with the setting I have thus 
 given to his words, which are as follows : — 
 
 " To the past go more dead faces 
 
 Every year, 
 As the loved leave vacant places 
 
 Every year. 
 Everywhere the sad eyes meet us, 
 In the evening dusk they greet us, 
 And to come to them entreat us 
 
 Every year. 
 
 You are growing old, they tell us, 
 
 Every year ; 
 You are more alone, they tell us, 
 
 Every year ; 
 You can win no more affection, 
 You have only recollection, 
 Deeper sorrow and dejection, 
 
 Every year. 
 
 Yes, the shores of life are shifting 
 
 Every year, 
 And we are all seaward drifting 
 
 Every year ; 
 Old places changing, fret us, 
 The living now forget us, 
 There are fewer to regret us 
 
 Every year. 
 
life's afternoon. 65 
 
 But the truer life draws nigher 
 
 Every year, 
 And its morning star climbs higher 
 
 Every year ; 
 Earth's hold on us grows slighter, 
 And the heavy burdens lighter, 
 And the dawn of the immortal brighter, 
 
 Every year." 
 
"All who appreciate the influence of high ideals, and an 
 exalted faith in immortality on individual and national destiny, 
 must admit that the transit of a pencil, proved beyond a doubt 
 to be guided by unseen force and intelligence, is a phenomenon 
 of infinitely more value and concern to the world today than 
 the whole science of astronomy." — Epes Sargent. 
 
 67 
 
VI. 
 
 indepe:nt>ent slate-writing. 
 
 An elaborate description of an experience under the 
 most rigid conditions. 
 
 One of the most interesting and satisfying phases 
 of the spiritual phenomena is independent slate-writ- 
 ing. It interested the late Epes Sargent more than any 
 other phase, and so it does me ; but I include writ- 
 ing or written messages made otherwise when I know 
 them to be genuine, that is, from a super-mundane 
 source. I think, however, there are many other 
 phases of the phenomena equally interesting and 
 important. There is something, nevertheless, that is 
 very convincing in this slate-writing phase, and I 
 have had much interesting experience in it. 
 
 No one is more aware than I am of its liability to 
 be fraudulent, but no amount of fraud lessens the 
 value of a genuine manifestation. Liability of being 
 cheated should lead us to be open-eyed so as to be 
 sure of our facts. I am happy to say that I am sure; 
 and if there are any " bottom facts " in anything, 
 the facts that I offer under this head, as well as the 
 facts offered in the other chapters of this book, can 
 be depended upon as " bottom " ones. 
 
70 SHADOWS. 
 
 It would require a book by itself to relate all my 
 experiences in this line that are unmistakable, but 
 that is not now the object. I will relate one experi- 
 ence, and do it somewhat elaborately, some of the 
 outcome of it being rather important, because it 
 extended some beyond my personal experience after- 
 wards, even into the public life of Rev. Joseph Cook, 
 and local history. 
 
 I was not particularly attracted to Charles E. Wat- 
 kins, but that, of course, is a matter of taste. I some- 
 times think Ralph Waldo Emerson must have had 
 the mediumistic class in his mind when he said : 
 " There is a crack in everything that God has made, 
 but the light of heaven shines through the crevice." 
 But this class, so prominent in modern Spiritualism, 
 knows that I appreciate it, and that I do not make 
 this remark as any reflection, only from my experi- 
 ence. I am glad I am not a medium, and I dare say 
 they are glad that they are not this writer. But 
 what would we do without them ? 
 
 I said I was not much attracted to Watkins, but 
 from my experience with him under crucial test con- 
 ditions, I think I had been prejudiced, so I say this 
 to do him justice. Meeting him one day in the 
 Banner of Light bookstore, he asked me, rather pat- 
 ronizingly, why I had not been to see him or his 
 manifestations, and said he would like to have me 
 do so, if I was willing. I replied that I had not 
 much leisure time for such things, except for my own 
 benefit, and then I wanted to have everything my 
 own way. "You can have everything your own 
 
 
INDEPENDENT SLATE-WRITING. 71 
 
 way," said he, " if you will come.*' I said: "If you 
 mean exactly that, Mr. Watkins, I will come and 
 
 have a sitting with you.*' He replied that he did 
 mean exactly that, and I fixed the next day in the 
 afternoon, at three o'clock, as the time that I would 
 call upon him. I hope the reader will notice very par- 
 ticularly, and in detail, my method, and as I intend 
 to be very exact, and the result being very import- 
 ant, my statement will be worth listening to. 
 
 The next day, on my way to his residence, I 
 stopped at a hardware store on Washington Street, 
 and bought two new slates. In size they were about 
 twelve inches by eight, with the usual wooden 
 frames. As the storekeeper had no double slates, I 
 got him to bore a hole through them both on their 
 sides, through which I run a strong twine, and tied 
 them together, making them practically a double 
 slate, putting between them a small bit of slate pen- 
 cil before tying them thus together. I then, in that 
 form, knowing they were new and clean, put them 
 into my bag, which, as usual, 1 was carrying, and 
 continued my way to Mr. Watkins's residence. I 
 found him at home and alone in his parlor. 
 
 It was one of the long, warm days of summer, tbe^ 
 curtains were up, and the bright afternoon sun was 
 shining into the room, so it was very light, and one 
 could read easity in any part of it. There were sofa 
 and chairs in the room, and in the center was a plain, 
 wooden table, rectangular in shape, about four feet 
 long and two wide. On the table, on one side, were 
 two slates. 
 
72 SHADOWS. 
 
 I kept my satchel in my hands, and took my seat 
 at the table as he suggested, Mr. Watkins taking his 
 seat at the table, and was my vis-a-vis. Being seated, 
 he said : "Wetherbee, now take the slates there " 
 [pointing to those on the table] "to the sink, and 
 see that they are perfectly clean. I don't want to 
 touch them," said he, " for the better test ; the mani- 
 festation will be to you, if we get any." " That is 
 very fair," said I, "but I have brought my own 
 slates" [taking them out of my bag], "and I guess 
 I will use them." "That is right," said he; "I am 
 glad you did so." 
 
 The slates I took out of the bag just as they were 
 tied together in the store ; they had never been out 
 of my hands from the time I had tied them and put 
 them in the bag ; then laid them before me flat on 
 the table, and laid my two hands flat on them just as 
 they laid tied together, one then, of course, on the 
 top of the other. The medium, who was sitting, as 
 I have said, opposite to me, in a short time placed 
 his two hands on the top of mine, — mine being 
 unmoved and flat on the slates as I had first put them, 
 and the tied slates one on top of the other flat on the 
 table under my two hands. I hardly think his hands 
 touched the slates ; possibly his fingers did slightly ; 
 it would make no difference if they had, for the 
 slates nor my hands were not moved from where I 
 first put them. 
 
 Nothing occurred for a few minutes, wiien he said 
 it will probably take longer for the spirits with new 
 unmagnetized slates than it would if I had used his. 
 
IlsTDEPENDENT SLATE- WHITING. 73 
 
 I told him I was in no hurry ; that there would be a 
 great satisfaction to rne if the spirits would write on 
 these new ones of mine, not but what it would be all 
 right for them to use his, but if I afterwards should 
 have occasion to speak of it, it would not carry the 
 same conviction as it would if done on these new 
 ones, and which had never been apart since I tied 
 them together in the store. I must confess I had 
 taken such a rigid course to prevent any fraud or 
 imposition that I hardly expected any writing would 
 be produced. I only hoped without much faith. 
 
 In a little while, to my great surprise, I heard a 
 faint but perceptible scratching of, probably, the bit 
 of pencil between the two slates under my hands. 
 The medium's hands were still on mine, and neither 
 his hands nor mine had been moved in the least, and 
 my eyes had not once been off of them. If nothing 
 had been written, it would have been an external 
 sensuous or objective phenomenon, for we both had 
 had auricular evidence that there was some sort of 
 movement without material contact or connection 
 with the operation. 
 
 Soon the scratching ended with three prett}^ dis- 
 tinct taps, seemingly by the pencil inside, and the 
 medium said: " That means they are done." Remov- 
 ing his hands from the top of mine, I then lifted the 
 slates, untied one of the strings, and opened them 
 before me like a double slate, and found on one of 
 the inside faces, in a plain, easy, oblique, running- 
 hand, a message from a well-known departed friend. 
 
 It was the name of my father-in-law. The face of 
 
74 SHADOWS. 
 
 the other slate was untouched and clean. The fol- 
 lowing is the message that was written by, what it 
 would seem, invisible hands: — . 
 
 Summer Land 
 " My dear son 
 
 I do thank God that I can give you this test of spirit 
 power over matter. I trust you will ever strive and search 
 after truth as you are now I am truly your father in law 
 
 William Beak." 
 
 Perhaps it would have been better to have left the 
 name in blank, but I am aiming to be exact, and so 
 will be thus outspoken. 
 
 I remarked when I read this message, purporting 
 to come from my venerable friend, that it was quite 
 remarkable and very satisfactory, for it was written 
 without mortal contact or mechanical action, — that 
 is, the bit of -pencil was used, it would seem, by an 
 invisible intelligence, hence must have been done by 
 a spirit, for no human being in the form did it. The 
 reader can see that, if I have stated the matter 
 clearly. 
 
 "Do you know the person ?" said the medium, 
 after I had read it. "Oh, yes, perfectly well," said 
 I, "but it does not sound like him, nor is it his hand- 
 writing. He wrote rather a bold, perpendicular hand, 
 — but that is of no consequence. The fact is just 
 the same, for it is the act of an invisible intelligence, 
 and no matter who wrote it, I am sure you did not, 
 and no other human being, for we are alone, and if a 
 spirit wrote it, whether it was my friend or some 
 
INDEPENDENT SLATE-WRITING. 75 
 
 alias using his name, it settles the question of a 
 future life." 
 
 I do not think the medium knew my connection 
 with the name of that spirit, or any of my social sur- 
 roundings, and if he had it would not, under such 
 rigid circumstances, have made any difference. He 
 said, in reply to my remark or criticism: "Let us 
 try again." 
 
 I closed the slates, and put my hands flat on them 
 as before, and he put his hands on mine. The 
 scratching noise began this time at once, and stopped 
 as before, with three signifying taps, as if with the 
 pencil. On opening them, the other face on which 
 nothing had been written the first time, was the fol- 
 lowing message. I have them both now, and the 
 slates : — 
 
 " My Dear Son. I am going to try & write more like 
 the way I used to, but 1 may not. Still I want to say tell 
 your wife I still live 
 
 William Beals " 
 
 It will be noticed that the invisible actor in this 
 matter heard my remark about his hand-writing, for 
 he, she, or it acted on the hint. I do not feel as 
 if this was a message from Mr. Beals. There were 
 more important things to have said if it were he. 
 Still it may have been ; but I am sure as I am of 
 anything — in fact, I positively know — that it was 
 not the act of anyone in the form. The proof of 
 identity in the manifestations generally is a far more 
 difficult thing than is the proof of its being a spirit.' 
 
76 SHADOWS. 
 
 I will add, in this connection, that at the bottom 
 of the slate that had the second message written on 
 it was the following message, which was not noticed 
 at first, as it was written very fine, but still very dis- 
 tinctly. It purports to be from my little daughter : — 
 
 " Dear father I will now write when you are not expect- 
 ing me 
 
 Your own Hattie " 
 
 Not wishing to lose these slates with this experi- 
 ence of perfectly independent slate-writing on them, 
 I tied them up again and put them back into my bag 
 for safe-keeping, and then gave my attention to further 
 manifestations, using the medium's slates, as pro- 
 posed at first. I will mention but one experiment, 
 which was as follows : — 
 
 I took the two slates that were on the table and 
 washed them, , though they were clean before, and 
 was going to pass them to him, and was about doing 
 so, holding them both together in my right hand. 
 "No," said he, "I do not want to touch them. Sit 
 down, as before, and hold them together at arm's 
 length as far from me as you can." I did so with my 
 right hand, he sitting vis-a-vis, holding my left hand 
 with both of his. 
 
 There was, as before, a bit of pencil between the 
 two slates, and, as I held them, they must have been 
 four or five feet from the medium. The writing was 
 at once heard, and there was quite a pressure on the 
 extended slates, so that it was some exertion to hold 
 them out. When the writing had stopped, I laid them 
 
INDEPENDENT SLATE-WRITING. 77 
 
 open before me, the medium, of course, never having 
 touched them, and there was a letter on each from 
 two of my well-remembered departed friends. 
 
 They were written, it would seem, simultaneously, 
 or in the one operation, in entirely different hands 
 and subjects. One, of course, must have been writ- 
 ten bottom upwards, — or rather, I should say, the 
 whole operation seems to be a psychical one, or by 
 will-power, rather than by a mechanical one. Here 
 are the two messages, which I copied at the time : — 
 
 " How glad I am to come " My son It is very pleas- 
 
 to you Weatherbee and tell ant to prove to you in this 
 
 you in this way that I am as way that we can communicate 
 
 alive as ever I was and am with our friends 
 
 often with you and am trying W? 1 Beals " 
 to be of service to you 
 
 Ralph Huntington " 
 
 There lacks in these messages the internal evidence 
 of their coming from the parties who have signed 
 them. For instance: my old and intimate friend 
 Ralph Huntington, who also knew my father before 
 me, would never have spelled my name "Weather- 
 bee." Still, we would not criticise, for we do not 
 know the difficulties or disabilities in connection 
 with these occult operations. 
 
 On reaching my home after this very satisfactory 
 seance, I saw my friend and neighbor Epes Sargent 
 coming down my street, and I waited at the garden 
 gate for him, and we went into the house together, 
 I having something important to tell him. I showed 
 
78 SHADOWS. 
 
 him the slates that were in m}' bag, and gave him an 
 account of all the circumstances* He was much 
 pleased, and was very much interested in my account 
 of the experience. 
 
 He went in a day or two after that, and had a 
 sitting himself, which, in the end, led to an important 
 circumstance, to be mentioned in another chapter. 
 
 Mr. Sargent was entirely unknown to Mr. Wat- 
 kins. When he called to have a seance, he was not 
 very hospitably received, or, as he would have been, 
 had he announced his name. It was better, how- 
 ever, as it was. Mr. Watkins, it seemed, was not in 
 a good frame of mind, and when this stranger, as it 
 seemed, called to have or see some of his manifesta- 
 tions, the medium was disinclined ; said he did not 
 feel very well ; did not think he could do anything, 
 and he had better call some other time. 
 
 Mr. Sargent said he lived some ways off, and would 
 like very much to have him sit then, as he did not 
 know when he could come again. "Well," says Mr. 
 Watkins, inviting him up stairs, "we will try and see 
 what we can do, but I guess you will be disappointed." 
 Mr. Sargent did not bring any slates, so he sat at the 
 table as I did, and after washing the slates, as he was 
 told to, which then lay on the table, he laid one of 
 them before him, with his two hands upon it. After 
 a little while the bit of pencil which had been placed 
 under it began its perceptible scratching, when sud- 
 denly the medium jumped up and said : "Why, you 
 are Epes Sargent ; " and the slate was then turned 
 over, at the same time showing a message addressed 
 
INDEPENDENT SLATE- WRITING. 79 
 
 to Epes Sargent, with his father's name at the end 
 of it. 
 
 Now, notice this : it seems that this mysterious 
 work is somehow connected with the mind of the 
 medium, for he had become cognizant that his vis-a- 
 vis was Epes Sargent by knowing what the spirit had 
 written on the slate before it had been turned over 
 for the message to be read. 
 
 It would seem by this act that the message came 
 into the medium's mind as it was being written on 
 the slate, and before it was turned over to be visible. 
 
 This does not alter the super-mundane fact, for it 
 was not in the medium's mind, for he did not know 
 the person before him was Epes Sargent until some 
 exoteric influence had impressed it on his brain, and 
 that seems to have been just when it was being 
 executed on the slate. This was a very interesting 
 point with Mr. Sargent, and more than compensated 
 him for the preliminary inhospitality or brusqueness. 
 
 Epes Sargent was one of our distinguished, schol- 
 arly Spiritualists. Watkins naturally knew him by 
 reputation, but did not know him personally, having 
 never before met him. Not knowing who his visitor 
 was when he called will account for his indifference, 
 or his state of mind, which so suddenly turned into 
 deference and obsequious civility as soon as he was 
 cognizant from the spirit's message in whose pres- 
 ence he was. 
 
 Sargent and I have many times spoken of this cir- 
 cumstance, and as being evidence not only of a royal 
 road for information, but of two distinct personali- 
 
80 
 
 SHADOWS. 
 
 ties, — the personality of the spirit who saw and knew 
 Mr. Sargent, and the personality of Charles E. Wat- 
 kins, who did not know Mr. Sargent until his invisi- 
 ble assistant had told him who he was by writing his 
 name. True, Watkins knew it intuitively in advance 
 of seeing it, but manifestly not until it had been 
 written by an invisible intelligence. 
 
 
" Copernicus, reasoning long and patiently about the planet 
 Venus, predicted confidently concerning it before the telescope 
 was invented, that if man ever came to see it more clearly they 
 would discover that it had phases like our moon ; and within a 
 century after his death the telescope was invented, and that pre- 
 diction verified. I am not without hope that we may even here 
 and now obtain some accurate information concerning that 
 * Other World,' which the instinct of mankind has so long pre- 
 dicted. 
 
 Indeed, all that we call science, as well as all we call poetry, 
 is a particle of such information, accurate, as far as it goes, 
 though it be but on the confines of the truth. If we can reason 
 so accurately and with such wonderful confirmation of our rea- 
 soning respecting so-called material objects infinitely removed 
 beyond the range of our natural vision, why may not our specu- 
 lations penetrate as well into the immaterial, starry system of 
 which the former is but the outward and visible type? Surely, 
 we are provided with senses as well fitted to penetrate the 
 spaces of the real, the substantial, the eternal, as those outward 
 are to penetrate the material universe. Veias, Zoroaster, Soc- 
 rates, Christ, Shakespeare, Swedenburg, — these are some of our 
 astronomers." — Henry D. Thoreau. 
 
 81 
 
VII. 
 
 PHENOMENA WITH COLCHESTER. 
 
 Thoughts on sensuous phenomena, and illustrations 
 from experience. 
 
 The interest felt in the spiritual manifestations is 
 in the fact of their being the work of the spirits 
 of departed human beings. The manifestations in 
 themselves are generally only trifles hardly worthy 
 of attention. My only purpose in writing about 
 them now is wholly owing to what I believe to be 
 their intelligent super-mundane source. There is, 
 however, a difference in them. Some would be 
 interesting simply as physical phenomena, and in 
 this respect those, through the mediumship of Mr. 
 Colchester, were very unique and interesting, and in 
 them I took a great interest and the psychical or 
 will-power in their production, instead of mechanical 
 power on the part of the spirits, or of the medium, 
 if one chooses so to consider it, was a source of light, 
 or, rather, suggested the rationale or explanation of 
 many other phases of a more mechanically-performed 
 appearance in their production. 
 
 Colchester died a decade or more ago, but many 
 
 83 
 
84 SHADOWS. 
 
 of the old Spiritualists will remember him well. The 
 thought of him comes up in connection with Epes 
 Sargent, whose name appears so frequently in the 
 last chapter. We went together very often to witness 
 these manifestations, and they interested him very 
 much, more than any other phase, unless it was that 
 of independent slate-writing. I might add that that 
 distinguished litterateur and scholar was always more 
 interested in the sensuous class of manifestations 
 than in the sometimes-called higher phases of the 
 mental, ethical, or trance descriptions. One can see 
 this preference by reading his publications, — " The 
 Planchette," or " The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism." 
 1 am also similarly inclined, with Mr. Sargent, for 
 a preference for the sensuous, but am as much inter- 
 ested in the intellectual also, because I am in those 
 of a sensuous or phenomenal character. If the phe- 
 nomenal or the sensuous were eliminated, the other, 
 and may be higher, phases in the minds of many 
 would not stand as spiritual manifestations if unsup- 
 ported by the former. The fact that raps are made, 
 and movements of material objects without material 
 contact, and other descriptions of physical phenom- 
 ena so clearly manifest by an intelligent invisible 
 power, or what I have called sensuous proof, it 
 throws a luster of truth, or, at least, a luster of rea- 
 sonableness on the other, of which the observation, 
 unaided by the sensuous phases, would not detect 
 any super-mundane source for the other, or trance or 
 inspirational utterances. They would, unaided by 
 the sensuous, all be considered normal qualities, — 
 
PHENOMENA WITH COLCHESTER. 85 
 
 hardly explainable, to be sure, as founded on educa- 
 tion, but nothing more than is noticeable all over the 
 world in the realm of thought and oratory. 
 
 With a knowledge of the fact that comes so dis- 
 tinctly in the sensuous phases of this impulse, force, 
 or power, it explains very rationally some extraordin- 
 ary gifts in quite uneducated people, indicating a 
 royal road of information and knowledge, besides 
 being independent of a scholastic one, and goes still 
 farther than that, extending the principle over the 
 mentality of mankind, whether Spiritualists or not. 
 
 All thoughtful people on this subject, and favoring 
 it, consider it of a natural and not a supernatural 
 character; therefore, there is a law for it, and, if 
 there is, "this divinity that shapes our ends,' 5 of 
 which Shakespeare fancifully spoke, and which 
 modern Spiritualism teaches under a more modest 
 name, this supervision or influence, whether we be- 
 lieve it or not, reaches all human beings, and many 
 an oration that is a masterpiece of intellectual and 
 eloquent effort may date more or less from a higher 
 source than the utterer of it, teaching us that there 
 are Davids, Ezekiels, Isaiahs, and St. Pauls todaj- in 
 the various walks of life as there w T ere in the days of 
 old. 
 
 It is possible that the Lulu Hursts, or other mag- 
 netically-strong people today, may teach us without 
 drawing on the supernatural how Sampson was able 
 to do what he did in his day, if he did, as recorded. 
 It seems to me, also, the poets, from Homer down to 
 Holmes, as Thoreau has said : * % Keeping in advance 
 
86 SHADOWS. 
 
 of the glare of philosophy, always dwelling in an 
 auroral atmosphere, writing glowing and ruddy fables 
 that precede the noonday thoughts of men as aurora 
 does the sun's rays." Certainly, if one wants to find 
 profound truths in harmony with modern Spiritual- 
 ism, and not intending any such harmony only as a 
 pleasing fancy, he will find them in abundance in the 
 writings of the poets. 
 
 Under the thought which I have expressed, I am 
 inclined to think when the poets, in this auroral state 
 of mind, write, as the bard of Avon did, when he 
 said : — 
 
 " As imagination bodies forth 
 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
 Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing 
 A local habitation and a name," 
 
 they will find that they had not been building 
 castles in the' air, but will find often that they are 
 proving what that great scholar Henry Thomas 
 Buckle said: "That the imagination of the poet in 
 one age forecasts the discoveries of science in the 
 next;" and then cited many pages of instances to 
 prove it, just as modern Spiritualism has been mak- 
 ing literal truth many of the poetical beauties of 
 Longfellow, and of many other well-remembered 
 poets. 
 
 I began this chapter with the intention of relating 
 some of Colchester's manifestations, and I think I 
 will not change my mind, but let what I have said 
 answer for an introduction, or a setting to them. 
 His manifestations were various in kind. He had 
 
PHENOMENA WITH COLCHESTER. 87 
 
 the red letters of initials and names of departed 
 friends come on his arms; he gave tests also with 
 pellets, and many other forms of the phenomena. 
 
 The phase most interesting to Epes Sargent, as 
 well as to me, was the artistic execution of pictures 
 on cards with colored pencils or crayons, without any 
 manipulation or mechanical action, the execution 
 being by will-power, and, it is reasonable to say, by 
 the spirits. I will describe an instance by way of 
 illustration : — 
 
 We were seated around a table at the pleasant 
 home of Daniel Farrar, of Hancock Street, Boston. 
 The table was about four feet by two, square. There 
 were six persons making this circle, consisting of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Farrar, Mrs. Wetherbee, Epes Sargent, 
 myself, and Colchester, — two on each of the long 
 sides, and one each on the ends. I had an end seat, 
 and the back of my chair was against the bureau that 
 was on the side of the room, and Sargent was my 
 vis-a-vis. We were having a very satisfactory time, 
 with a variety of manifestations, and the circle was 
 a remarkably good one. 
 
 Colchester said to me : " Take a few of those plain, 
 white cards " (they were on the table for the pur- 
 pose) " and put them in one of the drawers back of 
 you, marking them first so as to know them again." 
 I did so, cutting a crooked piece out of the corner of 
 each, and retaining them for the purpose. There 
 were six in number of the cards that I took and put 
 in the drawer. " Now, take a handful of those cray- 
 ons," said he, "and throw them in, and shut the 
 
88 SHADOWS. 
 
 drawer." It may be well to say that the drawer was 
 quite full of white, folded cotton materials, leaving 
 no spare room, so that the cards and pencils were in 
 tolerably close quarters. 
 
 We proceeded then with the manifestations as 
 before, and in perhaps about half an hour, in which 
 we had other manifestations, Mr. Colchester said to 
 me: "Better now open the drawer, and see how the 
 cards look." I got up, and had to, as before, in order 
 to move my chair so as to open the drawer, and took 
 out what w T ere once the six clean, white cards, and 
 found a picture, artistically drawn, on each of them, 
 — flowers, fruit, landscapes, birds, etc., — and the 
 colors used in the pictures thus drawn were the 
 colors of the crayons or pencils that were put in 
 the bureau drawer. Those crayons that we left on 
 the table were not expressed in the pictures. I 
 hardly need to say that this was done in a brightly- 
 lighted room, and nobody had any access to the 
 drawer, and could not if they had desired to, as I 
 was sitting so closely to it, and had to move my chair 
 before I could open it. 
 
 It would take much time to write out in detail all 
 my experiences with this medium. I will add one 
 other experience, — one of many, — it was certainly 
 very remarkable. 
 
 One day when Epes Sargent and I were going to 
 attend one of his seances, at the same gentleman's 
 house, he said to me: "Suppose you stop at some 
 store on your way there, and buy some white paste- 
 board, — the cards used are all right enough, but, 
 
PHENOMENA WITH COLCECESTER. 89 
 
 with our own, it will make the statement stronger, if 
 we should ever want to make one," — and I did so; 
 and, before the seance began, cut this purchased 
 pasteboard into pieces about six inches square, so 
 had about a dozen of them, which I laid in a pile on 
 the table that we were going to use. 
 
 This time — and usually the seance was in Mr. 
 Farrar's parlor — we used there an extension-table, 
 and, on this occasion, about a dozen of us were seated 
 around it, Mr. Colchester sitting next to me. After 
 having much writing on papers or pellets, and many 
 pictures drawn in this inscrutable way, Mr. Col- 
 chester said to me: "Take one of your pieces of 
 card, Mr. Wetherbee, and mark it so that you will 
 know it again, and pass it to me." I did so, cutting 
 off a crooked piece on the corner, and putting it in 
 my pocket, and passed the mutilated card, clean and 
 white, to him. He took it with his thumb and finger 
 and shied it over into the opposite corner of the 
 room, grabbed up a handful of the crayons that were 
 on the table, and threw them over altogether into 
 the corner where the card had been shied, saying, at 
 the same time: u Go and pick the card up;" and I 
 did so, and found an artistically-drawn picture on it. 
 
 In the execution of this picture, all the colors that 
 the crayons were composed of were used, and which 
 lay. as thej had fallen, helter-skelter about that cor- 
 ner of the room. The piece of it that I had kept in 
 my pocket as a detector fitted the mutilation exactly, 
 and the fact of its being the same identical piece of 
 cardboard was unmistakable. This was not a solitary 
 
90 SHADOWS. 
 
 experiment; there were many of them, and often, but 
 one instance is enough to relate. You will readily 
 see that this was not, and could not, have been a 
 mechanical experiment. 
 
 On one of these occasions, during the experiment 
 of writing the names of departed spirits on pellets, 
 this circumstance occurred. It also was not a soli- 
 tary instance ; but one is enough to mention. Col- 
 chester said to Mr. Farrar : " Now write a few names 
 on some slips of paper, and fix one of them in your 
 mind, without showing them to me, and go and throw 
 them out of the window;" and Mr. Farrar did so. 
 "Now," said he, "think of that name, and tell me 
 where you would like to find it." Remember, the 
 pellets were thrown out of the window, and were 
 somewhere out on Hancock Street, blowing wherever 
 the wind chose to waft them. 
 
 Being thus asked where he would like to find the 
 pellet with the special name on it, Mr. Farrar said : 
 "In the first vase on the mantel-shelf" (there were 
 three vases there). He went to the vase and found 
 a pellet there. " Do not open it," said Colchester ; 
 but he took a piece of paper and wrote a name, and 
 when the pellet was opened by Mr. Farrar it was the 
 same as written by Colchester, and was the name 
 Mr. Farrar had in his mind, and seemed to be one of 
 those that had been thrown out of the window ; at 
 any rate, it was one written by Mr. Farrar, and he 
 wrote no others but the batch he threw, by request, 
 out of the window. Epes Sargent, Hon. Charles E. 
 
PHENOMENA WITH COLCHESTER. 91 
 
 Jenkins, as well as myself and others, all had the 
 same opportunities, with the same success. 
 
 At some of these seances of Mr. Colchester's, at 
 the house of Mr. Farrar, there was present an inter- 
 esting French lady, of middle age. She was a stranger 
 to all but the Farrars, and had not been long in this 
 country. This lady had lost a daughter a few weeks 
 before she left Paris. She was a very spiritual-look- 
 ing and talking lady, and became very much inter- 
 ested in Spiritualism, and what she received at these 
 seances, and the way she expressed herself, made 
 everything she got as interesting to us or the others 
 as if personal to themselves. 
 
 There had been a great many pictures made on this 
 occasion. White cards were placed in a pile on the 
 floor, and a number of crayons on them, about four 
 feet from the medium. Each card in the pile was 
 marked severally by each one of the circle, and the 
 pile and the crayons were covered over with a table- 
 cloth to insure darkness, and there was a picture 
 found at short intervals on each, so that each person 
 got one. — all executed without human manipulation 
 or mechanical power. 
 
 This French lady was then told to take one of the 
 plain, white pieces of cardboard, and hold it under 
 the table. The hands of all present, including the 
 medium's, were in plain sight on the table. In a few 
 minutes the French lady was requested to lay the 
 card she was holding under the table on the table 
 for inspection. There was found upon it a picture 
 and a communication. I will try and describe it. 
 
92 SHADOWS. 
 
 Near the center was a circle drawn on it, around the 
 outside of which was a wreath of flowers. Inside of 
 this circle was written a very affectionate message 
 to the lady, signed with the name of her departed 
 daughter who had died, as has been mentioned, a few 
 weeks before she left Paris. The writing was so 
 neat and small it could with difficulty be read except 
 with a magnifying-glass. 
 
 No one knew anything about the circumstances of 
 this lady except the Farrars, and they only the circum- 
 stances named, and that she was an entire stranger 
 to the medium. This, then, all things considered, 
 was one of the most perfect tests of intelligent spirit 
 power and spirit presence, and even of identification, 
 that one could possibly have. 
 
 When relating this incident once in a newspaper 
 article, I closed it with the quotation of a line or two 
 of poetry ; and now, wanting to put a finish to this 
 long chapter, I will do so with the same lines, which 
 are as follows : — 
 
 "It may be 
 
 The thoughts that visit us — we know not whence — 
 Sudden as inspiration, are the whispers 
 Of disembodied spirits, speaking to us 
 As friends, who wait outside a prison wall, 
 Through tlie barred windows speak to those within. ,, 
 
" I am ready to admit that the heart cries out for love just as 
 loudly as the brain calls for law ; and, further, I am ready to admit 
 that to gain order for the head at the price of the loss of hap- 
 piness and trust for the heart is a most questionable advantage, 
 or even a positive loss ; for the heart and its needs are as real 
 and as true and high a part of human life as is the knowledge 
 and thought of the brain. I even believe that happiness and 
 peace are so necessary a part of life that any life is a failure that 
 in the long run does not gain them." — Bev. M, J Savage. 
 
VIII. 
 
 PHANTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 
 
 Being an article illustrative of the subject in general. 
 
 There are some things said in the following article 
 which I wrote for and was printed in the Boston 
 Commonwealth, that are worth mentioning in this 
 book, and will help incidentally to throw a luster on 
 some of its preceding and succeeding pages. I am 
 aware that part of it is superfluous in this connection, 
 but I think I had better present it without any muti- 
 lation. The reader can skip whatever seems to him 
 irrelevant : — 
 
 There it stands in the opposite corner of the room, 
 looking at me ; and yet how can a table without eyes 
 look at one? But I have reason to think that it 
 once did see me ; yes, and many times, or apparently 
 did, and perhaps it does now. But this needs an 
 explanation, and would perhaps be more properly 
 expressed if I said an invisible presence, acting 
 through it, made this piece of furniture seem to see 
 me, or act as if it did. 
 
 I am speaking of a small, old-fashioned table, or 
 ligfttstand, which was made in 1751, That was the 
 
 95 
 
96 SHADOWS. 
 
 year that Gray gave to the world his immortal 
 " Elegy." I did not know that fact once in this con- 
 nection, but this old table once told me so itself, and 
 the encyclopaedia indorsed the statement. What a 
 story this old table could tell — now one hundred and 
 thirty-three years old — if it were only sentient and 
 vocal! 
 
 Why should I say u if," after making the above 
 historic statement as voiced by the table ? If Robert 
 Southey could address a mummy whose cerements 
 had not been disturbed for three thousand years, and 
 make it poetically vocal, so may I address this table 
 and make it vocal. I think I have the advantage of 
 the poet as to the facts in the case, but that is a mat- 
 ter which will be brought out as I proceed. 
 
 Even now, as I am looking at the old table, and 
 the large, old Bible resting on it, of the same age, — 
 for the title-page of that shows it was printed in 
 MDCCLL, — how in fancy the old familiar ances- 
 tral faces are associated with them, — table and 
 book ; these, by some afinity, have always stuck by 
 each other. In their connection, in my mind's eye, 
 how plainly I see the venerable face of my grand- 
 mother, who used to explain the quaint old pictures 
 to my youthful mind, and her sister also (my mother's 
 aunt) often in the same instructive occupation, and 
 (using a line from Robert Burns) like 
 
 " The father, mixing a' wi' admonition due." 
 
 This latter relative of mine, when she ascended, was 
 ninety-three years old, and she was born also in 1751. 
 
 
PHAXTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 97 
 
 What a year 1751 must have been to the tribe of 
 " Shadows " ! This old table came into form, the 
 old Bible resting on it was printed, that same year ; 
 and in 1751 that old relative, Aunt Fales, was born ; 
 and, as I have said, Gray's " Elegy" was published. 
 Am I straining a point in associating this poem with 
 what is only personal property? Well, let us see. 
 
 That piece of immortal literature has nothing to do 
 with this old table, or with the Bible on it, or with 
 my venerable relative; and j^et an incident of an 
 Endoric character in its connection makes the poem 
 a feature in this quadrangular picture. Irrespective 
 of the incident referred to, I find an association 
 between it and my thought in one of its verses. Let 
 me quote it : — 
 
 "There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
 That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, 
 His listless length at noontide would he stretch, 
 And pore upon the brook that babbles by." 
 
 Am I not, even if not prone, poring on the table 
 that "babbles by"? I am quite literal, as well as 
 phantomatic, when I say "babble." But I may as 
 well relate the Endoric incident which gives me more 
 than a poetic connection with Gray's "Elegy," and 
 explain at the same time the significance of " babble," 
 and perhaps add a solemn luster to the matter on 
 which I am writing. 
 
 A woman was once living with me in the capacity 
 of nurse. Accidentally, both to her and myself, I 
 found that she possessed that constitutional quality 
 that some people have, that in their presence, and 
 
98 SHADOWS. 
 
 sometimes without contact, as was the case with this 
 young woman, inanimate tables and other objects 
 become animate, and intelligently move, it would 
 seem, by the said objects' own volition, or give off 
 audible sounds, or raps, as they are called, that are 
 intelligent, and as translatable as a ticker in a tele- 
 graph office. This old table was particularly apt to 
 be thus talkative, when near enough to this woman 
 to be within the sphere of her magnetism. 
 
 This person lived with us about two years, and I 
 thus had two years of very valuable experience. She 
 was not aware she had this power until I discovered 
 it, and she knew nothing at first of my dead and 
 buried relatives ; but noticing this phenomenon, and 
 investigating it with this old table, to her surprise 
 and mine the translation of the sounds and move- 
 ments by the alphabet proved to be communications 
 from individuals who had died. 
 
 This was no surprise to me, because I had had 
 experience before, but I was a little surprised to find 
 one of the invisibles giving the name of " Hannah," 
 particularly when in reply to u Hannah who?" the 
 response came "Fales," — for that was Aunt Fales, 
 the old relative who was born in 1751. The moment 
 I recognized her the table was violently active, as if 
 to express pleasant emotion at the recognition. I 
 was sure, under the circumstances, that I was in the 
 presence of my departed relative, whose body had 
 long before been laid away in the grave. 
 
 This was no solitary instance. The manifestations 
 during those two years were multitudinous, and of 
 
PHAXTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 99 
 
 every variety. I do not propose now to make any 
 record of them in detail, but will mention one 
 instance in connection with this relative, because her 
 birth-year and this table's and Bible's birth-year were 
 the same. I have other reasons, also, which will 
 explain themselves as I proceed. 
 
 It was at one of these Endoric interviews (I use the 
 word " Endoric,'' because during my life a picture in 
 that old book of the woman of Endor raising Samuel 
 was one that had often attracted her attention, and 
 of course mine), as if to prove an intelligence that 
 was distinct from and superior to the young woman's 
 through w T hose influence this old table was thus 
 vocal, and possibly to make the point certain that the 
 information did not come from me by mind-reading, 
 that the table-raps claiming to be from Aunt Fales 
 said this table and Bible and Gray's "Elegy" were 
 of the same age. As I have said, investigation 
 showed me that the poem was published -in 1751. 
 So this old table, or the invisible intelligence using 
 it as a mouthpiece, was a well-read institution, and 
 also had told the truth. 
 
 A little argument will seem to be in order here : 
 That poem then, as now, was very popular, and all 
 intelligent people, a hundred years ago, were famil- 
 iar with it ; the world was not then as full as it is 
 now of good productions, hence the minds of the 
 thoughtful were not as crowded as they are now ; 
 and so in this case the poem, being probably as 
 familiar to her as the Lord's Prayer, came readily to 
 the surface, when such a circumstance today might be 
 
100 SHADOWS. 
 
 called pedantry. Everyone will remember that Gen- 
 eral Wolfe, the hero of the successful battle on 
 the Heights of Abraham, declared admiringly that 
 he would rather be the author of that poem than the 
 winner of battles. 
 
 Speaking now of the communication, and the coin- 
 cidence of the date, which I knew nothing about in 
 any definite manner, it was a felicity in thought that 
 I appreciate, and I have no doubt the spirit of Aunt 
 Fales did, too ; and if that woman (I mean the nurse) 
 were now alive, and present at this moment, I have 
 no doubt this old table would signify its knowledge 
 of what I am writing about by a visible manifesta- 
 tion sufficient to joggle the old book that now rests 
 on it. But, old table, though you are now still, I 
 feel that the presence is there ; and so I will say, as 
 the poet said when lately speaking of Burns : — 
 
 ." A presence haunts this room tonight, 
 A force of mingled mist and light, 
 
 From that far coast. 
 Welcome beneath this roof of mine ! 
 Welcome ! this vacant chair is thine, 
 Dear friend and ghost ! " 
 
 I am writing very truthfully, and not drawing at 
 all on my imagination. This being admitted, is not 
 this incident pretty good evidence that this venerable 
 lady of 1751 was still alive and at this table at that 
 time, and possibly now ? Certainly some one was, 
 for a table cannot speak unaided ; and if anyone was, 
 it may as likely have been she as another. Does it 
 not almost make the tender fancy of Longfellow, 
 
PHANTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 101 
 
 when he speaks of the departed, as something more 
 than poetry, — something actual ? This, for instance, 
 may be wiser than he knew : — 
 
 " There are more guests at table than the hosts 
 Invited. This illumined hall 
 Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts 
 As silent as the pictures on the wall." 
 
 Though alone now in my library, I do not feel that 
 I am alone. Looking at that table and its associa- 
 tions, I almost feel, aided perhaps by my imagina- 
 tion, "a sense of something moving to and fro." 
 One of my ancestors was a seeress, — could at times 
 see the forms of the departed, and knew them, and 
 sometimes knew their wishes and intentions. As 
 this ancestor was, during her earthly life, the owner 
 of both table and Bible, she may, in a sentimental 
 sense, still hold the fee of them. 
 
 To be understood, let me quote again a verse from 
 the same poet, which expresses the idea better and 
 briefer than I otherwise can : — 
 
 " We have no title-deeds to house or lands ; 
 Owners and occupants of earlier dates 
 From graves forgotten stretch their dusky hands, 
 And hold in mortmain still their old estates." 
 
 She may have lent to these venerable articles a 
 charm that lingers, and, in a sentimental way, influ- 
 ences her descendant, inspiring his thought, as the 
 subject certainly does ; but memories of those ancients 
 out of the form, these old mementoes still in the 
 form, crowd upon me thick and fast, and for fear of 
 
102 SHADOWS. 
 
 being too lengthy for a newspaper article, I think I 
 had better turn off the gas, so to speak, or rather the 
 flow of ink; so, with the relation of an interesting 
 circumstance which old Aunt Fales has often told 
 me, I will close this article. 
 
 This, to be sure, will not be an item of " phanto- 
 matic table-talk," as I relate it from memory, but it 
 always interested me, and may be interesting to oth- 
 ers, as it is a fact in early Boston history; and the old 
 table, though at this moment voiceless, seems to 
 invite me to do what it could of itself if the old con- 
 ditions were now attainable. 
 
 Abiel Smith, who was Aunt Fales's brother, lived 
 on State Street, at the corner of Pudding Lane, now 
 Devonshire Street. This was before the war of the 
 Revolution. His store, where he and his wife had 
 done a thrifty business for some years, was on the 
 ground floor; over it, and in the rear, the family 
 lived. He had no children, so his family were his 
 wife and the shop-tenders, — who were generally his 
 relatives, — male and female, from the country. Times 
 had become warlike and troublesome, — the English 
 soldiers were encamped on the Neck, and ingress and 
 egress to and from the town were difficult, and, under 
 the circumstances, rather dangerous. 
 
 Aunt Fales, then a young woman, was living with 
 them at this period. Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Smith, 
 began to feel uneasj^ about their property, and wanted 
 to get out of the city with it ; but Abiel saw that 
 that was impossible. She proposed a division, and 
 she would try to take care of her half. They 
 
PHANTOMATIC TABLE-TALK. 103 
 
 made a fair division, — on the one side, the debts 
 and the stock, and, perhaps, the house ; and on 
 the other, the gold. Mrs. Smith took the gold, 
 which was about $20,000, for her part, leaving her 
 husband the more valuable half, but, of course, the 
 more risky half. Mrs. Smith and Aunt Fales then 
 made some petticoats and quilted a guinea in every 
 square, and when the two women were dressed for 
 their journey they had $20,000 in gold in their skirts. 
 In that way they rode through the British lines. 
 
 In their agitation, Mrs. Smith could not find the 
 key of their trunk, and the inspecting soldier broke it 
 open with his bayonet, and, finding nothing contra- 
 band, let them pass through the lines. Aunt Fales 
 said she never was so frightened in all her life ; but 
 they got safely out into the country, gold and all. 
 When the British evacuated, as they did a few months 
 after, Mrs. Smith returned with her gold. It was a 
 matter of some surprise among the merchants of 
 those days where " old Smith " got so much money, 
 for he became a larger buyer of goods, and always 
 had the " ready " to pay for his purchases. 
 
 This was the beginning of one of the large fortunes 
 of those times, and Abiel Smith, who survived his 
 wife a year or two, died early in this century, and, 
 having no children, his large fortune, for those days, 
 was divided among his relatives, chiefly the sons and 
 daughters of his eleven brothers and sisters. 
 
IX. 
 
 EPES SABGENT. 
 
 Some description of him, and experiences he and the 
 writer have had together. — Joseph Cook. 
 
 " My sprightly neighbor, gone before, 
 To that unknown and silent shore, 
 Shall we not meet as heretofore, 
 Some summer morning? " 
 
 I commence with this quotation a chapter on my 
 friend and neighbor, Epes Sargent, not because it in 
 any sense applies to him, but because he has often 
 quoted it as applicable to me, strained possibly, and 
 also as an illustration in his many conferences with 
 me. Although it is some of the "jubilant spray" 
 from Charles Lamb's flow of cheerful thought, I 
 always think of it in connection with our late schol- 
 arly brother, Epes Sargent. 
 
 How many times and how pleasantly has the calm 
 face of this friend and neighbor shone in upon me 
 while seated in my library room reading or writing, 
 as I am now. He could see me very plainly as he 
 came down the street past my library window, and 
 then, walking in, would spend a few minutes, and 
 
 104 
 
EPES SARGENT. 105 
 
 sometimes an hour or two, in pleasant conversation 
 on the subject of the spirits, in which we were both 
 so interested. 
 
 I do not say this for the sake of telling of our 
 intellectual intimacy, and the open and free manner 
 he communicated with me, sometimes reading a 
 manuscript of some book, or part of one, that he was 
 preparing for the press. Two or three of his later 
 works I knew something of in the composition of 
 them by this familiar ante-natal inspection. 
 
 I am now writing a chapter under his name as the 
 subject, and who knows but by his invisible direc- 
 tion ? I am sure it is by his influence. I can say 
 that much without encroaching upon the domain of 
 the super-mundane. I feel that anything I have to 
 say of our cultured friend will find a hospitable 
 reception from the readers of this book, which, I 
 suppose, will generally be Spiritualists, or the philo- 
 spiritual class ; for though the intellectual stars now 
 shining in our firmament of thought are many and 
 notable compared with the earlier days of the cause, 
 Epes Sargent, as editor, poet, scholar, and litterateur 
 was conspicuous, and a credit to this fast-rising and 
 spreading light. 
 
 I have known him as townsman and neighbor a 
 great many years, from a comparatively young man 
 to a somewhat old one, — that is, if a man is old 
 when he is in the sixties. I saw, however, much 
 more of him during his last decade than at any earlier 
 period of his life, our similarity of thought drawing 
 us into closer intellectual communion. 
 
106 SHADOWS. 
 
 I was somewhat informed of his last book, " The 
 Scientific Basis of Spiritualism," in advance of its 
 publication, and it was with much pleasure I said 
 " Yea, verily,'' to him when he presented me a copy, 
 and said he would be glad for me to give in print my 
 opinion of it. I said to Mr. Sargent : " I will do so 
 with pleasure, but you know my way of presenting a 
 thing is very different from your way. You are schol- 
 arly and methodic, and I make no pretensions to the 
 literary guild. I am, you know, a Bohemian in the 
 pen line, though well-behaved morally." "I want 
 you," said he in reply, " to express yourself in your 
 own way. I would prefer your sincerity, warmth, 
 and naturalness to any closet production from what 
 you call scholarly people." 
 
 As I have an interesting reminiscence to relate 
 before passing from his name in this connection, I 
 will copy a paragraph or two from my article on his 
 last book, both as an introduction to the reminis- 
 cence referred to and also as a fact in current liter- 
 ary life, showing the sacrifices a man even of estab- 
 lished reputation makes by identifying himself with 
 this subject. 
 
 This, however, is somewhat passing away, and the 
 fact that a popular metropolitan minister, like the 
 Rev. M. J. Savage, can say, and have it widely 
 reported as he did in a late Easter-Sunday sermon : 
 " Modern Spiritualism is too big a fact in modern life 
 to be ignored ; thousands and thousands in Europe 
 and America believe in its central claim. There are 
 thousands of silent believers also who do not like to 
 
EPES SARGENT. 107 
 
 be called knave or fool, and so keep still about it, 
 and, like Nicodenius, they come by night, lest they 
 be cast out of the synagogue." It shows, as he says, 
 it is too large a matter now to be ignored. 
 
 The paragraph referred to that I propose to copy 
 from the old article of which I have spoken, reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 " As plenty as books are, it is no ordinary thing 
 when a man of thought and culture, who has a hear- 
 ing, writes a book on a subject that has had his care- 
 ful study and investigation for a score or two of 
 years, and especially when, as in the matter before 
 us, after these pains and study, he writes a book on 
 an unpopular subject, a subject avoided by the leading 
 minds of the age, because prejudice and fashion are 
 against it, because no credit is to be gained by the 
 effort in its behalf in the world of letters; in fact, 
 when the history of its investigation has shown with- 
 out an exception that no amount of erudition, or 
 reputation for wisdom, no successes in other fields of 
 literary or scientific pursuits on their part, have been 
 sufficient to secure for its witnesses a respectful or 
 respectable hearing in the aristocracy of letters ; or, 
 putting it in the mildest form, any favorable report, 
 or any defense of the subject on the ground of its 
 basis of truth, or its worthiness of attention, — the 
 verdict has been in each case by his iellow-savants, 
 that the man thus bearing witness to the unpopular 
 fact is in his dotage, or getting credulous as he grows 
 old, or has been duped by imposition in fields where 
 he was not expert. 
 
108 SHADOWS. 
 
 "A book, then, on this subject 'with the image 
 and superscription of Caesar upon it,' so to speak, is 
 an extraordinary thing, and should be welcomed by 
 the body politic of Spiritualists, and also, to some 
 extent, by the educated outside world, who are so 
 apt to think that nothing good comes out of Naza- 
 reth. 
 
 "The history of every scholar, or man of estab- 
 lished reputation, who has become more or less iden- 
 tified with or has defended modern Spiritualism, will 
 warrant the assertion I have made, and that in a 
 popular sense the ' Light ' in literature and science 
 who undertakes its investigation, if fair and honest, 
 has everything to lose and nothing to gain, except 
 the consoling fact of its truth. 
 
 "If a man is in eclipse on account of it today, his 
 shining hour will arrive sometime, at least in the 
 hereafter, and this especial truth being the perpetuity 
 of individual conscious life beyond the grave, the 
 consolation referred to is a compensation in a very 
 peculiar sense." 
 
 The reminiscences to w 7 hich I have referred, and 
 considering what I have said and quoted in the light 
 of an introduction, is as follows : — 
 
 Jt was a short time, perhaps a week, after I had 
 attended Mr. Sargent's funeral, that I was sitting at 
 the writing-table in my library, pen in hand, calcu- 
 lating to work on a matter that I had put off until 
 then, and was proposing to devote the evening to it. 
 My eye accidentally fell on the lines with which I 
 began this chapter. They were in my scrap-book ; 
 
EPES SARGENT. 109 
 
 they had a red-pencil mark against them, as if at 
 some previous time they had made an impression 
 upon me. At that moment they seemed to speak to 
 me as if there really was a man or a spirit back of 
 them, and I have a strong impression there was. 
 
 I read them, and thinking of Epes Sargent who had 
 then so lately deceased, I said aloud, as if in response 
 to the Lamb lines: "Yes, of course, we will!" I 
 seemed to feel that he was speaking to me those 
 words, as he had done when he was alive and talking 
 with me. Only a few weeks before that evening he 
 was sitting opposite me at this table where I am now 
 writing. He spent, as he often had, an hour or so. 
 with me in social converse, — getting the news, as he 
 called it, — as he lived more in the closet than I did, 
 I living more in the world of affairs, so we could 
 change our center of gravity and be mutually bene- 
 ficial. 
 
 I had a very strong feeling that he was sitting 
 there then as an invisible spirit, — there was the same 
 soft chair that he occupied then as a visible one. I 
 often feel the presence of unseen company in this 
 way when I am alone. Longfellow expresses my 
 thought in this connection better than I can, so I 
 will quote the verse, and I did audibly at the time of 
 which I am speaking : — 
 
 "His presence haunts this room tonight, 
 A force of mingled mist and light 
 
 From that far coast. 
 Welcome beneath this roof of mine ! 
 Welcome ! this vacant chair is thine, 
 Dear friend and ghost ! " 
 
 i 
 
110 SHADOWS. 
 
 Referring to the lines again of Charles Lamb, 
 which set my pen in motion at the time in this direc- 
 tion, instead of doing the work that I was intending 
 to do, " Sprightly " hardly applies to oar late " guest 
 and ghost," for he was the reverse of that ; he was 
 genial, but very solid and thoughtful ; so far also 
 from my being sprightly, I have wondered what he 
 found to appreciate in me, for by the application of 
 my being his " sprightly neighbor," and he was my 
 sedate and thoughtful one. I do not claim the cog- 
 nomen ; I only mention it because he has expressed 
 an interest in my peculiar way of saying things, 
 which, as everyone knows, is quite the reverse of 
 his way. He was scholarly and very careful, — 1 am 
 only natural. 
 
 I appreciated his able additions to spiritual litera- 
 ture. How thankful we all ought to be that, with 
 his prestige of literary standing, he so identified him- 
 self with Spiritualism. 
 
 I had one or two sittings with Susan Nickerson 
 White, the late well-known medium, within a week 
 or two after his decease, one of them the next day after 
 his funeral, not for the purpose of communicating 
 with him, but for another object entirely, and one or 
 two during the subsequent week or two. I will give 
 a brief sketch of them where they refer to him. 
 They interested me as being worthy of record, so 
 that I now do not wholly draw on my memory, and 
 yet the circumstances are very distinct there also. 
 
 Mr. Sargent's funeral was on Sunday. On the 
 next afternoon I had a sitting, as I have said, with 
 
EPES SARGENT. Ill 
 
 Mrs. White. She said, before going into a trance : 
 " I see a man by the side of you ; he is a small man ; 
 hair thin and gray, and head a little bald ; he puts 
 his hand on your head."' The medium then became 
 entranced, and said with a slow, low, and distinct 
 voice : " Wetherbee, you can hardly realize it, but I 
 am Epes Sargent." I did realize it, and felt from 
 the first, when clairvoyantly she said she saw and 
 described the small man standing near me, that it 
 was Epes Sargent. He then, in the same low and 
 distinct voice, quite different from the medium's in 
 her normal state, spoke of his change, how he found 
 things as he expected, and so would I, he said : "It is 
 just the place that we used to expect it would be." 
 
 In the pause that followed, thinking of his funeral 
 that I had attended the day before, I remarked to 
 him that I was glad that Spiritualism was not ignored 
 at his funeral services. "Yes," he replied, "William 
 spoke well, did he not? — I mean Mr. William Mount- 
 ford." The spirit seemed to correct himself after 
 saying William, for I did not know the reverend 
 gentleman's name by William, but he, being an old 
 friend of Mr. Mountford, it was natural for him to 
 say William, but it required the Mountford for me 
 to know to whom he referred. I was aware of and 
 pleased with the funeral address by him, and so, in 
 reply to the spirit said: "Yes, he did speak well." 
 After talking in this way a little while, the spirit 
 said: "I could not resist the opportunity of com- 
 ing to you at this time, but as you are here, Wether- 
 
112 SHADOWS. 
 
 bee, for other matters, I will take my leave, for your 
 friends are already waiting to talk with you." 
 
 I think I have very good reason to think this was 
 Epes Sargent's spirit. Mrs. White told me after- 
 wards that she did not know Mr. Sargent only by 
 reputation ; never saw him in her life that she knew 
 of. Most people who knew me as well as Mr. Sargent 
 did would call me John when addressing me ; but 
 Sargent always called me Wetherbee, and omitting 
 the "Mr."; and it will be noticed on this occasion 
 that the medium, or the spirit rather, so addressed 
 me. It rather seems to me, if there had been a pre- 
 tence, at this time it would have been safer to have 
 said John (for a spirit is privileged to take liberties) 
 than to have called me Wetherbee, and though it is 
 only a straw it shows the direction of the wind. 
 
 At a subsequent sitting, Mr. Sargent came in the 
 same modest way, only using a very little of the time, 
 but enough to let me know that he was my " guest 
 and ghost " at my home, leading me to infer from 
 what he did say that he had influenced the change of 
 work or thought on the evening of which I have 
 spoken, where the Lamb-stanza so sentimentally hove 
 in sight, as the mariner would say. There is noth- 
 ing certain about this as there is about some of my 
 experiences, for the fact was very strongly in my 
 mind that Epes Sargent was concerned in the cogi- 
 tation of which I have spoken, and a spirit might 
 have reached it from me on the principle of mind- 
 reading ; but, believing as I do, what is the use of 
 straining for a negative solution? It pleases me 
 
 
EPES SARGENT. 113 
 
 whether it does anybody else or not. I give his 
 presence the benefit of the doubt. 
 
 A JOSEPH COOK REMINISCENCE. 
 
 While presenting this article under the heading of 
 Epes Sargent, I may as well add to it a page or two 
 in relation to the Rev. Joseph Cook, in connection 
 with him, referring to his investigation of the phe- 
 nomena at Mr. Sargent's house. I hardly need to 
 say that I am no hero-worshiper, and am very apt 
 to think that one man is about equal to another in 
 one sense, or, at least, in the absolute sense ; but 
 there are some people who, from luck, ability, or cir- 
 cumstances have a prestige or prominence among 
 their fellows, so that what they say or do has more 
 effect, gets a wider hearing, carrying with it an influ- 
 ence more than the average. 
 
 A suggestive statement may be made by a nobody, 
 so to speak, the utterer an obscure individual, and 
 but little attention given to it ; but the same state- 
 ment uttered by a Wendell Phillips, or other notable, 
 and it gets a hearing from one end of the country to 
 the other. It is an idea of this kind that leads me to 
 speak of Joseph Cook in this connection. He seems 
 to havQ become (or had in the day of which I am 
 now speaking) one of the prominent evangelical 
 lights, giving a course or two of lectures in the Old 
 South Church, in Boston, which was a feature in the 
 religious doings of that city. 
 
 His utterances were so sensational as well as bright, 
 aiming, or claiming also, to make modern science and 
 
114 SHADOWS. 
 
 religion coalesce or harmonize, that his discourses, 
 reported in full in the respectable dailies, were read 
 by a million people, and furnished the thought for 
 half the evangelical pulpits in New England. He, 
 therefore, is one of the prominent men whose sayings 
 and doings were of more consequence than any hun- 
 dred perhaps of equally able men. This, then, is the 
 reason why I think what I have to say of his investi- 
 gation a matter of more than passing notice. 
 
 After Mr. Sargent had received from me the per- 
 fect evidence I had had of spirit-writing, and having 
 gone himself, and under somewhat remarkable cir- 
 cumstances, got the communication that was so self- 
 satisfying, he followed it up, giving a good deal of 
 attention to Mr. Watkins's phenomenon, and it was 
 frequently given at his own house, and he and his 
 family had great proof of the perfect genuineness of 
 the manifestations. I have before me now a long com- 
 munication of his that was printed in the Boston 
 Transcript, full of such convincing points and de- 
 tailed statements that anyone believing the testi- 
 mony of Epes Sargent, the scholarly author of the 
 " Scientific Basis of Spiritualism," could not help 
 believing in modern Spritualism. Some of them are 
 worth repeating here, but having in my mind the 
 Cook investigation, I think I had better confine 
 myself to that. 
 
 Mr. Sargent, learning that Mr. Cook would like to 
 witness some of the phenomena with Watkins in 
 some respectable way, a seance was arranged for his 
 benefit. This was on March 13, 1880. In speaking 
 
EPES SARGENT. 115 
 
 of it afterwards at the next Monday's lecture to his 
 large audience in the Old South, he began with these 
 words (I copy them from the report in the Boston 
 Advertiser*) : — 
 
 "In the library of Epes Sargent, last Saturday, I con- 
 sented to see a psychic, of whom I had heard various things, 
 some of them not altogether reassuring. I took with me my 
 family physician (laughter) and my wife (laughter and 
 applause). In the company of nine persons assembled in 
 the library there were four believers and five unbelievers in 
 Spiritualism." 
 
 He then gave the details of the experiments, say- 
 ing where they were satisfactory and where they 
 were unsatisfactory. There were many points of 
 each. A careful reading of each of these depart- 
 ments will show to any fair-minded man that the 
 satisfactory points were in no way impaired by the 
 reading of the unsatisfactory ones. I suppose they 
 were qualifications, or loop-holes, for partial retreat, 
 should he be hurting his usefulness or popularity by his 
 admissions. The paper signed by all present, includ- 
 ing Joseph Cook, speaks for itself, and is all any 
 Spiritualist asks of an outsider, " that fraud does not 
 account for it ; " the solution will take care of itself. 
 Here is a copy of the document that Joseph Cook 
 and the others signed : — 
 
 " At the house of Epes Sargent, on the evening of Satur- 
 day, March 13, 1880, the undersigned saw two clean slates 
 placed face to face, with a bit of slate-pencil between them. 
 
116 SHADOWS. 
 
 We all held our hands clasped around the edges of the two 
 slates. Mr. Watkins's hands also clasped the slates. 
 
 " In this position, we all distinctly heard the pencil mov- 
 ing, and on opening the slates found an intelligent message, 
 in a strong, masculine hand, in answer to a question asked 
 by one of the company. 
 
 " Afterwards, two slates were clamped together with 
 strong brass fixtures, and held at arm's length by Mr. Cook, 
 while the rest of the company and the psychic had their 
 hands in full view on the table. Aiter a moment of wait- 
 ing, the slates were opened, and a message, in a feminine 
 hand, was found on one of the inner surfaces. There were 
 five lighted gas-burners in the room at the time. 
 
 "We cannot apply to these facts any theory of fraud, and 
 we do not see how the writing can be explained, unless mat- 
 ter in the slate-pencil was moved without contact." 
 
 The paper, of which the above is an exact copy, 
 signed by Mr. Cook and the others, speaks for itself. 
 Mr. Sargent often spoke to me of this seance, and the 
 circumstances, and said Mr. Cook was very much 
 pleased and interested in what he saw, and came to 
 him at starting, saying : " I thank you, Mr. Sargent, 
 for the opportunity of seeing the manifestations 
 under such favorable circumstances ; the back-bone 
 of materialism is broken." I am very particular in 
 the wording of this parting statement, and know I 
 have got it exactly right, for Mr. Sargent mentioned 
 it to me at least four times that I distinctly remem- 
 ber. 
 
ON LEAiraTESS OF THOUGHT. 
 
 The deficiency is made up by the sensuous proof of a 
 spiritual source. 
 
 There is much in current Spiritualism that violates 
 the taste of cultured, intellectual people, at least 
 those outside of our ranks. The phenomenal, or 
 sensuous, phases in themselves lack dignity, especi- 
 ally as in dealing with them we are dealing with the 
 dead. The intellectual or ethical phases, also, are 
 lean as mental efforts, especially when attributed to 
 departed people of celebrity. 
 
 In making this remark I have the latter phase 
 more especially in my mind. The source adds luster 
 to the sensuous, irrespective of its quality of thought, 
 as being instructive or entertaining. Crabs, scorpi- 
 ons, goats, and fishes become sublime when hung up 
 as signs of the zodiac, says Emerson ; and, in like 
 manner, do table-tippings, and grotesque movements 
 of ponderable bodies become sublime when such 
 movements are signs of invisible intelligence. 
 
 So does the source fatten any leanness in the 
 intellectual phase ; but the source in the latter is not 
 
 117 
 
118 SHADOWS. 
 
 so self-evident as is the sensuous class. There is 
 often so little bread to so much sack, when looked at 
 from an outside standpoint. So many communica- 
 tions or discourses coming from the vanished stars of 
 intellect, or historic lights, that show a shrinkage of 
 ability, that it often occurs to me, or, rather, it is 
 often said to me, is the product worth all the trouble ? 
 Wading through slaughter to a throne, is the throne 
 of the truth when reached worthy of the struggle ? 
 Is the button of value valuable enough to compen- 
 sate for the handling of so much scoria, or base 
 metal ? I think it is, for it supplies a human need, 
 a necessity, and it cannot be found outside of the 
 subject; but, finding it, it casts a luster outside and 
 beyond itself, and brings to the front and into notice 
 valuable lore, — truth that would otherwise remain 
 in the domain of fancy, fable, or disease. 
 
 Experiencing what I have, and the leanness of 
 much of that experience, I never blame anyone from 
 falling by the way and giving up the struggle, look- 
 ing a little ways, then retreating, as Prof. Tyndall 
 did, and as Prof. Crookes did not. Both of these 
 savants were satisfied, it seems, one in one way, and 
 one in the other. 
 
 I have nothing to do with superficial examinations 
 of an affair, or with people who presume they have 
 encompassed it, when I know they have not. I am 
 only too thankful that my first experience was such 
 an unmistakable clincher as to sustain me, in this 
 desert of thought, if one chooses to call it so, until I 
 reached another oasis, and so it has ever been. 
 
ON LEAXNESS OF THOUGHT. 119 
 
 A circumstance in my domestic life, lasting for 
 nearly two years, coming at an opportune time, 
 seems to have been all that I needed to make my 
 affirmative convictions enduring, even if one chooses 
 to consider it, as I have said, among the average 
 leanness of its- current thought. The momentum 
 obtained from the circumstance referred to would 
 have been sufficient had the " Gates Ajar " been for- 
 ever thereafter closed to have kept me constant in the 
 line of its thought. Of this, more will be said here- 
 after. 
 
 One cannot help noticing the manifest relative 
 weakness of the thought that comes from the spirit- 
 ual Channings and Parkers, the Shakespeares and 
 the Miltons, compared to their utterances when they 
 were in the form. They are often, however, master- 
 pieces of good intellectual work for the instruments 
 uttering the thoughts, who are often people without 
 education. I remember once a young lady, conspicu- 
 ous now on the spiritual platform, who was present 
 at a friend's house, where the parlors were filled with 
 intelligent and cultured people, some of them emi- 
 nently so ; and an erudite and difficult subject was 
 given to this young trance-speaker to address them 
 upon ; and it was a remarkable discourse, eloquent, 
 finished, and logical. That it would have been a 
 creditable effort for most anyone, the following col- 
 loquy will show: — 
 
 C. C. Felton, the then professor, afterwards presi- 
 dent, of Harvard College, who was one of the listen- 
 ers on that occasion, congratulated her on the dis- 
 
120 SHADOWS. 
 
 course, and added, rather pleasantly : "Now, own up 
 and say it was yourself, and take the credit that 
 would belong to you as one of the most cultivated 
 ladies of the country." She replied to him : " I 
 would be very glad to, if it was only true ; but 1 do 
 not claim it as my effort; I know it was not myself, 
 for I know nothing of the subject." I do not think 
 Prof. Felton believed her, but I did, for I knew well 
 the history or circumstances of her life. 
 
 For all that, and similar inspirational addresses, 
 most of the utterances made by the departed intel- 
 lectual lights through living organisms, as I have said, 
 show a great falling off in quality, that, judging from 
 a human standpoint, the parties, if in the form them 
 selves, would be ashamed of their productions, and 
 would never have uttered them ; and from such a 
 standpoint it is reasonable to suppose they never did, 
 and allowing their thought to partake of the channel, 
 the brain of the medium being used by such a spirit 
 with its deficiencies, so as to convey it in- bad gram- 
 mar and lack of characteristic finish, even if the 
 thought be in harmony, such a spirit would hardly 
 allow his thought to go abroad in such an ill dress. 
 
 It would seem as if the dictating spirit can only 
 know it as he expresses it, presuming it issues into 
 mortal hearing as he gives it out, not perceiving its 
 outcome in the mundane sphere. This can hardly be 
 the case, though it is possible. Of course there are 
 grand and eminent exceptions to this watering of 
 thought, but enough of the deficiencies are noticeable 
 to make the claim a subject of criticism, especially 
 
ON LEANNESS OF THOUGHT. 121 
 
 among those who view it superficially, or from the 
 outside, and have never looked inte the philosophy or 
 the dynamics of the subject only as a passing affair. 
 I have spoken of a domestic circumstance. Now, 
 to be more explicit, one of the most fruitful periods 
 of my life, in connection with this subject, was the 
 residence of a young woman in my house for a long 
 period as a wet-nurse for our youngest child. She 
 proved to be the best medium I ever met. This was 
 nearly a score of years ago. She did not live long 
 after her time was over with us. I hardly think I 
 appreciated as I ought this remarkable privilege that 
 I enjoyed. I had not the experience then that I have 
 had since, but I have many times been led to appre- 
 ciate the poetic truth, — 
 
 "That blessings brighten as they take their flight." 
 
 This young woman was a Catholic; did not know 
 she was a medium. When I discovered the manifes- 
 tations, she did not, in her ignorance, know what 
 Spiritualism meant. She had almost every phase of 
 the phenomena, — the movement of ponderable bodies 
 without physical contact, raps on tables, chairs, and 
 walls, at a distance or near ; and, by her aid, all the 
 old familiar names of departed friends, relations, and 
 ancestors announced themselves, and often proved, 
 in a remarkable manner, their identity. I often got 
 the full names of people, and circumstances that I 
 had to verify, proving her source of information to 
 be both authentic, and beyond her knowledge and 
 mine also until I had hunted up the matter. 
 
122 SHADOWS. 
 
 We had not then reached in the history of Spirit- 
 ualism the phase of materialization ; I have no doubt 
 she would have had that power also, if she had lived 
 longer. She had the feature of materialization in its 
 early type of that time, more apparent from the sense 
 of touch than of sight. For instance : In a perfectly 
 light room, perhaps of a sunny afternoon, seated 
 around a small, square table, wife and I, vis-a-vis, 
 this young woman on the side between us, sometimes 
 a fourth person would occupy the other vacant side, 
 but usually it was we three, our six hands were in 
 sight flat on the table, then one of the hands being 
 put under the table, leaving the other five hands 
 before us in sight. The hand under the table could 
 feel invisible hands, sensible to the touch, and intelli- 
 gent in their manipulations. This was to us a new 
 and very strange manifestation. 
 
 There was no deception about it, and could not 
 be, under the circumstances. They improved and 
 grew more distinct, even demonstrative, as we got 
 interested in them. It was worthy of notice that 
 some people who might make the fourth party were 
 obstacles to the phenomenon. I certainly did not 
 understand it, for it certainly was not due to any 
 skeptical element in the new comer. Sometimes the 
 party would be a Spiritualist who was the disturbing 
 element, and by no means positive or mentally 
 opposed, rather hoped for, and came expecting suc- 
 cess, while sometimes the fourth party would not be a 
 Spiritualist, had no faith in the belief, and we found 
 no interruption with him to the manifestations. 
 
OX LEANNESS OF THOUGHT. 123 
 
 This, certainly, shows that the obstacle is not a 
 mental one, and, whatever it is, it seems to be con- 
 stitutional, — a non-conducting element in the per- 
 son. But I will not enlarge upon that point here ; 
 but, it being an unmistakable fact, it will show that 
 the later and more extended phase of full-form mate- 
 rializations, the character of which good people differ, 
 may be affected for better or worse by the persons 
 constituting the circle. 
 
 I will close this chapter by describing some of my 
 our experiences in this phase ; that is, where I put my 
 hand under the table, of which I have spoken, and 
 the remaining five hands being in sight on the table. 
 I often had more than touches, or manipulations ; I 
 very often grasped what seemed a human hand, and 
 certainly was one, and certainly it was not the hand 
 of a mortal in the form, nor a dummy. It was, appar- 
 ently, flesh and blood and bones, and felt like any- 
 body's or human hand. 
 
 These hands at different times were of different 
 sizes and forms. Sometimes a child's hand, some- 
 times, by signification, it was a sister's hand, or a 
 grandmother's. We all had this experience many 
 times, I ought to say, myself, hundreds of times. 
 My sister, who did much sewing when she was in the 
 form, when the mysterious hand claimed to be hers, 
 and tried to have me identify it, she allowed me to 
 feel the end of her finger, the roughness of the cuti- 
 cle that much sewing caused was perceptible and 
 recognizable. I felt also the ring on her finger, and 
 as far as touch without sight could tell, it seemed like 
 
124 SHADOWS. 
 
 her ring ; but her ring then was owned by another 
 party in another State, so it must have been evolved 
 out of the circumambient air for the occasion, and 
 the same, of course, of the hand itself, that is mate- 
 rialized. 
 
 One thing I will notice. No matter how firm a 
 grip I might have had, I could never draw this spirit 
 hand out into the light so that I could have occular 
 proof as well as proof by touch and manipulation. I 
 would try sometimes to coax it out from under the 
 table, and the hand seemed to make no objection, but 
 it never would come ; the grip would limber, the hand 
 lose its density, and before it reached in my hand the 
 end of the table for optical demonstration, I held 
 nothing, — it had dissolved, so it never was an object 
 of sight, though it was tangibly manifest. 
 
 I will have occasion to speak again of some experi- 
 ences with this home-medium in other illustrations, 
 so I will leave this matter here, having said sufficient 
 for the purposes of this chapter, and certainly com- 
 pensates for any leanness of thought in some of the 
 inspired utterances referred to ; for who will not say 
 that the sensuous touch of a "vanished hand " exter- 
 nally, that is real in a material sense, is not more 
 eloquent than words, and by the side of which the 
 highest reaches of eloquence become insignificant 
 and tame ? 
 
 
XL 
 
 PRO-SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 An article written for. and published in* ; - The 
 Radical.*' 
 
 When The Radical, a bright magazine, was alive. I 
 was asked by its editor to write an article for it on 
 modern Spiritualism. That showed the liberality of 
 that able, "free religious" periodical, for the subject 
 then was more in literary eclipse than it is now, 
 though it is nut yet out of the Philistinian domain. 
 
 As this article did not reach the eye of many 
 Spiritualists, not being written for them. I have 
 thought, though it was written nearly a decade ago. 
 that I would copy it from that magazine for one of 
 the chapters of this book. It is not exactly as 1 
 would have written it today, but much of it is worth 
 perusal, and in some form should be herein pre 
 more, perhaps, for illustration of some of the ot 
 chapters of this book than for information. The fol- 
 lowing is the article to which I have referred : — ■ 
 
 Modern Spiritualism add] itself emphatically 
 
 to the senses, differing fundamentally from all forms 
 of religion in that respect, unless Roman Christianity 
 
 125 
 
126 SHADOWS. 
 
 be an exception. That, to be sure, addresses the 
 senses, but only to the ignorant ; the intelligent per- 
 ceive significations underlying the symbols ; but then 
 the significations, becoming definite in such minds, 
 are evangelical, — which means unscientific, hence 
 anti-rational. So, I repeat, it differs from all other 
 forms of religion on that point. Is it in conflict or in 
 harmony with the inner sense or soul deep, which no 
 mental plummet has ever yet sounded; which is 
 marked on the oldest charts " no bottom ; " and 
 which, with all the additions of later or modern 
 explorers, is still marked " no bottom ? " Perhaps 
 here is not the time or place to answer that question, 
 only to think of it. 
 
 Of all ages, this is the inductive or practical age ; 
 and we are a people marked with inductive or prac- 
 tical tendencies. Dealing with facts is always popu- 
 lar, and has on its side the multitude, who observe 
 rather than think, and, of course, are not inclined to 
 listen to the more subtle teachings of the prophets, 
 or those who live before their time, — that is, those 
 wdio reason from intuitions or principles downward 
 or outward to facts. Henry Thomas Buckle says : 
 •'Actions, facts, external manifestations of every 
 kind, often triumph for awhile ; but it is the progress 
 of ideas which ultimately determines the progress of 
 the world." I think few will dispute what is stated 
 here on this point : and it reduces itself to this, viz., 
 the observers are many, and the thinkers are few, 
 and ultimately the thinkers rule the world. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism, its facts or phenomena, is 
 
PRO-SPIRITUALISM. 127 
 
 here, in triumph, "for awhile," if you choose. It 
 may be here by virtue of the demand which the age 
 has for facts, as a taste for dreams increases the crop 
 of dreamers. It may be here to meet a want once 
 supplied by faith, — that faith which science and 
 reason (that is, rationalism) have killed. The logic 
 of deduction from established principles, so called, is 
 adverse to the claims of modern Spiritualism. The 
 logic of induction has had no place in this connec- 
 tion. There have been heretofore no facts. The 
 dead men were dead, and induction is inapplicable to 
 and has no connection with theology ; that is bom of 
 revelation, assumed. Therefore just as the logic of 
 theology was adverse to the fact that the earth was 
 a sphere, so is theology and all deductions from pre- 
 conceived notions, however liberal in statement, 
 adverse to the claim made by modern Spiritualism. 
 The world demonstrated to be a sphere, there was 
 revolution in the world of mind as well as in the 
 world of matter. Demonstrate as clearly this fact, 
 — or, rather, the claim based on the fact, — then 
 behold another revolution. That point no one will 
 dispute. But will it be demonstrated ? What are 
 the probabilities? The minds that reason from estab- 
 lished principles (or notions true or false), or, to be 
 more definite, a man who has the idea that heaven is 
 more or less a church-gathering, where dignity and 
 greatness have no light dressing of frivolity, but the 
 redeemed " are as the angels in heaven," all human 
 weaknesses having been left in the grave, and the 
 free spirit, or the souls of men, all great, good, and 
 
128 SHADOWS. 
 
 perfect, — in a word, a sort of rationalized heaven 
 with some or all the ancient evangelical features, — 
 such will answer, and, as far as heard from, do, that 
 the fact will not be demonstrated as a truth, and 
 never ought to be : it would be a libel upon a sensi- 
 ble conception of heaven, the dwelling-place of the 
 Infinite, and the resting-place for the weary pilgrims 
 of earth. 
 
 I am aware I have no authority for reconstructing 
 anyone's notion of heaven or its inhabitants, the 
 abode either of the blessed or the disembodied; but, 
 laying aside the "Planchette " authority, I have as 
 much an anyone ; and that, expressed by a symbol, 
 is 0. That means, on this subject, assuming, for the 
 moment, it is wholly devoid of fact, and wholly in the 
 domain of faith, that the thinker or the philosopher 
 has no right to assume what the facts or the phenom- 
 ena ought to be from logical inferences, and, if antag- 
 onistic to his idea, reject on the ground of absurdity 
 or trivialitj^, — in other words, judge before a hear- 
 ing. We came from monkeys says Charles Darwin. 
 We may go back at death to first principles, or be 
 monkeys again. No inference can possibly make us 
 fear such a destiny ; but no one can say it is not so ; 
 and, if investigations should demonstrate that fact, 
 it is scientific to follow where the facts lead, and it 
 is unscientific and irrational to reject phenomena, 
 trivial or silly, which, existing, exist for some pur- 
 pose, no matter what. We shall never know till we 
 study it ; and, in this connection, no matter the con- 
 sequences to our hopes, our expectations or our 
 
PBO-SPIEITUALIS}!. 129 
 
 vanity. "Where ignorance is bliss, 't is folly to be 
 wise," may be evangelical : it is by no means rational. 
 
 I know of no subject so deserving of careful, ten- 
 der, and critical attention as this one, whether in 
 reference to its peculiar associations with our destiny 
 or in reference to its wide-spreading influence as 
 manifested in the multitude of its adherents. In a 
 spirit of inquiry, then, not of dogmatism, let us look 
 at the subject. T do so, hoping it to be true; but 
 not prejudiced, I think, by that hope. From a great 
 multitude of facts, let me select one, for a starting- 
 point, from my own experience. I do not qualify 
 the word : I mean fact. This detailed statement will 
 be an episode in the argument, but it seems to be 
 required as an aid or setting to the points I have in 
 view. Here is the statement : — 
 
 Ellen was for many years a domestic in our family. 
 Ann was a wet-nurse for our baby. Both were Irish 
 and Catholics. Ellen was rather old, unmarried, 
 steady, and faithful. Ann, the nurse, was a widow 
 of about twenty, — ignorant, careless, and lively. 
 There had been, in the month or twqthat they had 
 lived together with us, several quarrels between 
 them ; one quite serious, where it was necessary for 
 me to interfere. Ann was accused by Ellen of pull- 
 ing the kitchen table from her with her foot while 
 kneading bread on it ; had done it, or similar pranks, 
 many times. Ann said she did not, and Ellen said 
 she did; which led to a "rolling-pin" fight. And, 
 without going into details too minutely, I had got to 
 part with a healthy nurse or a faithful girl. A nurse, 
 
130 SHADOWS. 
 
 being a mother by proxy for the time, is mistress in 
 the house. One cannot see his baby suffer. So we 
 make sacrifices, "hang our harps upon the willows 
 when we remember Zion," and pray for the weaning- 
 time and freedom. Had it not been for her office, 
 Ann would have been turned away without question, 
 and at once. As it was, I conciliated Ellen, and 
 compelled a truce. 
 
 .In a short time, the same thing occurred up stairs. 
 The light-stand seemed to be pulled away towards 
 Ann. She was scolded by the mistress. Ann denied 
 it, and in the plain evidence of the f iict ; for, while 
 scolding, the table jumped. The secret was out : 
 Ann was a medium. This girl did not know what 
 "medium" signified; and had never heard of the 
 word Spiritualism, and did not know its meaning or 
 its associations. We visited the kitchen. The table 
 moved a foot towards her, untouched. The wdiole 
 matter was explained. There had been no lies told. 
 As stated, we would have discharged, as a disturber 
 and a liar, on positive evidence, and injured an inno- 
 cent girl ; in my ignorance, would have done an 
 injustice. May not incarnated wisdom, higher up, 
 be doing injustice now to some for their honest con- 
 clusions on this subject, that a more careful investi- 
 gation might at least modify? 
 
 This matter was lengthily and critically examined 
 under very favorable circumstances. The details are 
 hardly needed here for my purpose. Ann's husband 
 and father assumed to be the operators at the spirit 
 end of the lines : and, through her, I got communi- 
 
PPwOSPIRITUALISM. 131 
 
 cations from many persons and relatives ; often some- 
 times in reference to furniture and pictures they 
 once owned, given for tests, the details of which this 
 chance girl could know nothing of; many unknown 
 to myself, that inquiry proved to be true. After 
 going to confession, she refused to sit any more ; said 
 her priest forbade it. He told her the spirit was her 
 father, etc. : but she must not sit any more. It was 
 wicked, and we were Protestants. The priest, then, 
 believed in the fact, it seemed. 
 
 The explanation of his objection did not seem to 
 be very intelligible or reasonable ; but I make allow- 
 ances for the medium, in mundane matters, just as I 
 would one in spiritual. Persuasion overcame her 
 objections. I asked her if she still loved her father 
 and husband (who were still Catholics on the other 
 side). She did, and she believed with the priest, 
 that it was her father and her husband, as the com- 
 munication claimed. "Then," said I, "suppose we 
 ask them ? " If Ann had an}' inclination in the mat- 
 ter, it was that they would say : ; * Mind the priest.'' 
 Their reply was : " You do perfectly right to sit ; 
 and we like it, too, and we love you/' 
 
 As the details of this or any of the phenomena is 
 not the object of this communication, I will leave 
 what I have inserted here as an episode, and say that 
 this matter seems determined to be heard, and will 
 not down at anyone's bidding. The scientific jour- 
 nals, hitting the right point, say : "What is Plan- 
 chette?" I do not expect science, as science, to 
 answer. Science deals with matter. When a great 
 
132 SHADOWS. 
 
 question is asked seriously, in the course of time the 
 interpreter will be born. He is as likely to be a car- 
 penter's son as a Gamaliel; rather more so, if any con- 
 clusions for the future can be gathered from past expe- 
 rience: the author of u Ecce Homo" says the world 
 is grandly debtor to lowly cradles, which is a truth. 
 
 An anti-Spiritualist, in the Atlantic Monthly, has 
 been in the front, and seen the phenomena. Now, 
 there is something in it, it has come to me, says he. 
 Professors explain it. They still neglect the unclean 
 thing, saying to this writer : "Watch it carefully: you 
 are deceived." He is snubbed ; he, who is religious 
 and respectable, not one of those Spiritualists. He 
 forgets it is not the man that makes the matter 
 worthy of notice : it is the matter that degrades the 
 man, as jet. This late writer tells his story outside 
 of the ring of fools. No more a fact for that ; but it 
 shows extension, pressing for expression on the line 
 of least resistance. It has got beyond the deluded ; 
 and, as the volume expands, the fracture extends 
 through this late and tougher material. If this sub- 
 ject is mythical, we shall know it in the next age if 
 not in this. In the meantime, let us soberly treat it. 
 Spiritualism is the only form of religion that Amer- 
 ica has yet produced ; (please not suggest Mormon- 
 ism in this connection, — that de facto is not con- 
 fined to Utah or America) ; and, aside from its 
 super-mundane claims, is, as to its ethics, just what a 
 free people, who, in flowering out, produced the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, might suppose to develop 
 as a religion. It is essentially independence, liberty, 
 
PRO-SPIRITUALISM. 133 
 
 and progress, in perfect harmony with the last circle 
 of the Protestant wave, — Parkerism, or free religion ; 
 just what The Radical represents a 1 ! but the one fact, 
 that disembodied Theodore Parker not only lives, 
 
 but speaks to and through mortals 
 
 Humanity grows; and in this age of facts, when 
 everything is met and handled in the inductive or 
 analytic spirit, which is the logical condition of 
 human progress, I am led to ask what the heart- 
 tendrils will reach hold of and entwine to support 
 this human vine ? I have the many in my mind, not 
 the richly endowed few, wealth of thought. Can 
 anyone believe that God has left us without a 
 witness, not of himself, that evidence is every- 
 where, but of his justice ? It is nowhere in material 
 philosophy. I go, says Faith; but I will send the 
 Comforter, and it will teach you all things. It must 
 needs be that I, Faith, go. If I go not, the Com- 
 forter will not come. In the midst of rationalism, I 
 am looking for what it has not in itself, — the Com- 
 forter. Has God left us without the witness ? Mr. 
 Weiss has it. He feels his immortality. That satis- 
 fies him : he needs no tables to tip for him. He gave 
 Theodore Parker the witness. He was sure of the 
 other world : this was the one he doubted. But why 
 give to Weiss and Frothingham and Parker and Bar- 
 tol, and not the many like this writer? Must the 
 many take it on trust? Because a few prophets 
 have the evidence, must the rest have only faith? 
 Rationalism says: No authority but truth. Whose 
 truth? Wiry not Calvin's as well as Parker's? 
 
134 SHADOWS. 
 
 Will God take away, by the law of progress, 
 almost universal faith, and leave me without a ray 
 of hope ? Because Weiss & Co. are fed with their 
 own deductions, and thrive by it, must I starve ? 
 Because Weiss's clover will not feed me, must I fall 
 back on worms? In the midst of his satisfying 
 clover, must Elijah starve because there are no 
 ravens ? 
 
 It would seem as though the only witness that the 
 age demands, or can satisfy it, is a voice from the 
 tomb. Here are phenomena that answer that de- 
 mand in its claims. True, it may be an hallucina- 
 tion. For reasons already mentioned, — its increas- 
 ing influence, and its moral effect, — is not its par- 
 ticular fact worthy of attention ? Is there any reason 
 why, in writing in its defense, I should lose some- 
 thing of my moral and intellectual position, unless I 
 weave into the structure of my communication the 
 respectable fact or apology that the writer is not a 
 believer in the spiritual explanation of these phe- 
 nomena ? He makes in this instance no such excuse. 
 
 Now, here is the fact desired, — if it be a fact. If 
 it be the once dead speaking, has there been so 
 important a question ever considered? Shall Ave 
 reject it because it keeps company with Publicans 
 and sinners? Shall we refuse to wash and be clean 
 because the river is simply Jordan ? Shall we say : 
 "What manner of departed spirits are these that play 
 on fiddles, and dance tables ; that rap loud and soft 
 on tables, walls, and doors?" Shall we say: "Non- 
 sense ! " while they every time say : " I am one of 
 
PPtOSPmiTUALISM. 135 
 
 thy brethren, the prophets " ? Why, it violates all my 
 ideas of respect for the departed, and their condition. 
 " How are the mighty fallen ! " Shades of great 
 Franklin ! you are in twenty places at the same 
 time, and all unknown to each other. He must be a 
 double-header. Oh, no! foolish dream! — I had 
 rather be without the proof, the sweet evidence of 
 life beyond the vale, if such is to be the end of all 
 my greatness. 
 
 In this connection, bear in mind, there have been 
 more atheists and infidels converted from their mate- 
 rialism to a belief in the soul's continued existence 
 than by all the religious and rational logic -during 
 the same time. The great number, among whom is 
 this writer, who have by these puerile phenomena, 
 perceiving the underlying truth irrespective of its 
 details and associations, who have passed from dark- 
 ness to light and hope, is a fact or a good so import- 
 ant as should command a tender regard for it, set as 
 it is so poorly. Pebbles become jewels sometimes by 
 their setting. Here may be a jewel spoiled by its 
 setting. Common sense (which is vulgar for ration- 
 alism) says : " Prove it worthless, or reset it." 
 
 It may be stated here, and truly, that Spiritualists 
 do not claim for it admission as a demonstrated truth, 
 to be universally accepted, unchallenged. They, of 
 all people, say : "Examine for yourselves, and believe 
 or reject as your conviction dictates." There may 
 be, and probably is, more error than truth in it. 
 What venerated institution but must make the same 
 confession ? Who would except the church on this 
 
136 SHADOWS. 
 
 point? Speaking for myself, the communication of 
 disembodied spirits with mortals is a demonstrated 
 truth. I make this statement with some little crit- 
 ical knowledge of mental phenomena, or what is 
 called the psychical side of life. A less cautious per- 
 son, on the same evidence, might also speak equally 
 strong of identity. The identity of individual spirits 
 is by no means so established, even in a Spiritualist's 
 mind, as that more indefinite one of disembodied 
 intelligence. In a word (I am speaking for no one 
 but myself now), there is no positive proof that 
 Theodore Parker ever spoke to or through a mortal. 
 The chances favor the assumption that he may have 
 done so, even if the result be silly,— de-Parkerized 
 by the process. But that a disembodied spirit, claim- 
 ing to be Theodore Parker, or was once some special 
 dweller of earth, has communicated through mortals, 
 is to me no more a matter of doubt than that a man 
 lives in Europe claiming to be Victor Hugo. The 
 identity of the living is easy of demonstration ; of 
 the other, not so easy. 
 
 The obstacle is not in the quality of thought 
 offered as Theodore Parker's. We do not know how 
 spirit or mind controls matter, only that, under cer- 
 tain conditions, it does ; and we know, further, that 
 matter controls spirit also ; that intemperance in eat- 
 ing may produce a condition of body, or rather of 
 mind, incapacitating it for its master-pieces; and 
 Homer nods, or becomes Homer and water, even in 
 the form, before he goes to the spirit life. But we 
 would assume, or some would, that we know all the 
 
PRO-SPIRITUALISE. 137 
 
 conditions of transit and association, between spirit 
 and mortal life, when we know comparatively noth- 
 ing of the connection between out own souls and 
 bodies. Shall we say, then, there is nothing prac- 
 tical in it? — all unreliable? Let it be so. That is 
 another part of the subject. No thoughtful person 
 will reject the fundamental fact, if he knows it to be 
 a fact, because all we expected or hoped for is net 
 available. Perhaps as yet there is not enough of the 
 curve given us to measure the circle ; and in time 
 we may be qualified. 
 
 With all the crudities in connection with this sub- 
 ject, I venture the prophecy that this fact, being 
 fundamentally a truth, has come to stay ; and that 
 this generation shall not pass away before the church 
 as a general thing will adopt it, and it will be the 
 warm blood that will give it life. Thus not only 
 will it be a feature, but it will be claimed as always 
 having been a feature, — latent for awhile, having 
 been mixed up with superstition ; but the old remem- 
 brances will be heated red-hot again, and the ima^e 
 and superscription be made in its reproduction to 
 bear testimony not only to the fact, but to its anti- 
 quity also. And thus again a stone which the build- 
 ers rejected will have become the head of the corner. 
 
XII. 
 
 HOME MANIFESTATIONS. 
 
 Giving a brief account of phenomena which are loth 
 " bottom facts " and " startling factsP 
 
 I had been a Spiritualist four or five years when 
 the opportunity opened to me of which I have 
 spoken in a previous chapter. It seems to me now 
 that the circumstance was a providential one (using 
 the word, not in any divine sense, but only in a 
 modern spiritual one, which is all the providence I 
 know anything about), that this young woman should 
 have proved a sort of " gates ajar " to me. 
 
 The article from The Radical, in the last chapter, 
 refers to her in an illustrative way, but I think I had 
 better briefly speak of her again, having some circum- 
 stances to relate in connection with her that are of 
 marked importance, if there be any importance in 
 argument or experiences. 
 
 When there had been trouble in the kitchen be- 
 tween Ann (the name of the nurse) and the domestic, 
 it was presumed there had been mischief and lying 
 of some kind, but the nurse held the fort, as a mat- 
 ter of course, for the life and health of the baby were 
 
 138 
 
HO^IE MANIFESTATIONS. 139 
 
 in her hands. A week or two after this affair, the 
 table in the sitting-room, at which my wife and Ann 
 were sitting and sewing, showed a disposition to 
 be self-active. It actually jumped and almost upset 
 the lamp that was on it, and would had there not 
 been intelligence in the movement. 
 
 My wife said to Ann : " Be careful and not hit the 
 table, you will set us on fire." " I did not do it," 
 said she, and the table jumped again, — markedly so, 
 
 — and both looked at each other. "Did you not do 
 that ? " wife said ; and Ann replied : " Xo, marm, I 
 did not." Wife felt uneasy, and called up Ellen 
 from the kitchen, who was told what had happened ; 
 and the table, as if hearing them talk, began its 
 antics again, no one touching it. Ellen saying to it : 
 "Stop!" but it jumped the more, and all three 
 women were surprised and frightened. Ellen then 
 said, looking at it firmly : " In Christ's name, stop ! " 
 
 — making the sign of a cross with her finger, and it 
 stopped, and no further movement was noticed. 
 
 This was in the evening. When I got home, which 
 was soon after, I was told the circumstances, and I 
 said to Ann that she must be a medium, and asked 
 her to sit down with me at the table ; and then, lav- 
 ing our hands on it, I said, if there were any spirits 
 present let us know it in some way ; and, in response, 
 in a few seconds there was a mild movement, also 
 raps ; and, asking who it was, and using the alpha- 
 bet, the name of a relative was spelled out ; and as 
 soon as I recognized and mentioned the name, the 
 
140 SHADOWS. 
 
 table signified its satisfaction with applause, if mov- 
 ing rapidly may be called applause. 
 
 I will not inflict upon the reader any lengthy 
 details of what this beginning led to, but will say I 
 had in my two years' experience all the evidence 
 that anyone could desire, that this table, or the invisi- 
 bles manifesting through it, knew a great deal that 
 this girl could not have known, and many things of 
 a traditional character from some of my departed 
 friends that I had myself to verify. The point to 
 mention now is about that row, of which I have 
 spoken, which occurred in the kitchen a short time 
 before. 
 
 We then went into the kitchen. Ann took her 
 place at the end of the table, where she was at the 
 time spoken of. Ellen, the other girl, stood in front 
 of it, resting her hands on it as if the bread-board 
 w^as before her ; and I said : " I wish, if there are any 
 spirits here, they would move the table ; " and it 
 startled us by its jumping a foot. The whole matter 
 explained itself. Ann did not shove the table at the 
 time referred to. So, when she said to Ellen : " She 
 did n't," she did not lie, as Ellen thought she did. 
 The rumpus was explained, and the discovery and 
 the succeeding conveniences of protracted manifesta- 
 tions are among the most interesting circumstances 
 in my life, as I have already said. 
 
 I understand the matter now better than I did 
 then. This occurred during my first decade in my 
 connection with Spiritualism. I am now near the end 
 of my third decade. It is possible my remarkable 
 
HOME MANIFESTATIONS. 141 
 
 opportunities have saved me in the line so as to see 
 a third decade. When these home manifestations 
 came to me it lowered my estimation of the spirit 
 world in dignity. Why did it want to disturb my 
 kitchen affairs ? I learned later that it was to attract 
 attention. I am very glad, then, it so stooped for 
 my benefit, but I cannot even yet think I was of con- 
 sequence enough for it, or any part of it. It cer- 
 tainly has added to my happiness, if not to my repu- 
 tation, to have a knowledge of this subject, and be 
 interested in it. I hope the spirit world is not sorry 
 it thus waked me up, or wasted thought or time on 
 me ; but if a man is only a bramble-bush, he cannot 
 bear grapes or figs. 
 
 In speaking on this point, it reminds me how 
 much I have had to combat with people's sense of 
 propriety. " It cannot be spirits," say they ; u have 
 they nothing better to do than to tip tables and play 
 poorly on musical instruments, with the lights out?" 
 u Seems "to me," say some, u if I were a spirit, I would 
 hope to be better employed; I would not do such 
 tilings now, and I hope I shall not lower myself when 
 I have done with earth and become an angel." Peo- 
 ple are inclined to look at the act itself, not what 
 prompts the act, and there is where such people are 
 wrong. 
 
 I look at these things now very differently from 
 what I once did. There is no fascination, instruc- 
 tion, or entertainment in the movement of material 
 things in the way mentioned, simply as movements ; 
 but if one is persuaded that it is a departed spirit, 
 
142 SHADOWS. 
 
 taking that way to make you realize his or her pres- 
 ence, is there then not fascination, — not in the thing, 
 or the grotesque movement, but in the invisible intel- 
 ligence that is manifesting through or with it? 
 
 Now, with these considerations, notice the follow- 
 ing incident in my experience. I state it as a posi- 
 tive fact, as unmistakable a one as the fact that I am 
 now writing these words. I will do it elaborately, 
 for it made a deep impression upon me, so have also 
 many others, but I will relate this one as an illustra- 
 tion of my point. 
 
 I was sitting at the window, in our sitting-room, 
 reading a newspaper one afternoon. My wife was 
 resting on a sofa on the other side of the room. In 
 the center of it, and not very far from me, was a 
 small table. Ann — this Endoric member of my 
 household — was sitting, not at, but very near, this 
 table, sewing, or repairing some dress, and at the 
 table was a little son of mine, some six or seven years 
 old. Hearing some raps on the table, he said : " Is 
 that you, Hattie ? " (that was the name of his sister 
 who had died some years before) and the response to 
 his question was three raps. We all heard them, 
 which meant, in spiritual parlance : " Yes." The 
 little fellow then says: "Oh, mother, Hattie is here, 
 she says so! " "Well," says the mother, "go on and 
 talk with her, and see what she will say." 
 
 The boy then said: "Hattie, have I been a good 
 boy today?" and the answer was three raps, or 
 "yes." And while asking one or two questions in 
 this way, the supper-bell rang, and the little boy, 
 
903IE MANIFESTATIONS. 143 
 
 while getting off the stool on which he was sitting, 
 said: "Hattie, will j t ou come and talk to me after 
 tea ? " And the mother, as she arose from the sofa, 
 said : u Why do n't j^ou ask her to come down to sup- 
 per with you ? " We were amused to see him take 
 her literally, as he said: "Hattie, will j~ou come 
 down to supper with me ? " And as he said this, he 
 had got off of his stool, and the table, untouched, was 
 tipping in reply; and as the little fellow moved then 
 towards the door, the table followed him, nobody 
 touching it, — it seemed to slide along smooth!}' 
 towards the door. When it got to the threshhold, 
 which was a little obstruction, it paused a second, 
 and then jumped over the slight elevation, and con- 
 tinued its movement a few feet to the head of the 
 stairs, seemed to make an effort or two as if tipping, 
 then stopped. 
 
 Now, as 1 have said, I am stating literally the 
 exact truth. It being so, was not that an intelligent 
 act? Did not the invisible intelligence controlling 
 that table hear the little boy's question, and could 
 he, she, or it say any plainer than this movement : 
 "Yes, I thank you, I will go with you."' The poet tells 
 us there are sermons in stones. I believe it : and 
 sometimes these voiceless orations are more eloquent 
 than are the uttered words of a master. It does 
 seem to me as if the bright words of the most elo- 
 quent preacher pale and sink into insignificance by 
 the side of such mute preaching as the movement of 
 that table, showing the interest of a departed sister 
 in her little brother in the form. 
 
144 SHADOWS. 
 
 I hardly know how to stop, so many of these 
 experiences crowd into my mind, as if pressing for 
 expression; but I will hold them back, and close 
 this chapter by relating a circumstance of a different 
 kind, but certainly of a very convincing and encour- 
 aging character. 
 
 On one occasion, when Ann had been sitting for 
 us, and with us for over a year, she declined to sit ; 
 said she was not going to do so any more. Being 
 pressed for the reason, she said the priest had told 
 her she must not. Ann was a Catholic, but had not 
 been to confession since she came to live with us, 
 but she had lately been, and, among her other sins, 
 confessed to sitting with us for these manifestations. 
 She wanted to oblige us, but was afraid to. 
 
 This priest had told her that the spirits who came 
 were really the spirits of Andrew and Peter (the 
 names of her husband and father), 'but that she did 
 not belong to that or our circle. That sitting with 
 us for such a purpose was wicked, and forbid it in the 
 usual Catholic way. I tried to persuade her, but did 
 not succeed, so I became strategetic, and said to her : 
 " You say the priest said the spirits that came were 
 your husband and father?" "Yes," said she, " the 
 priest said so." " Were they good Catholics ? " 
 "Yes," said she. "And you thought a good deal of 
 them, did you ? " " Oh, certainly ! " "Which do you 
 think would know better what was right, your hus- 
 band and father, who are now spirits in the other 
 world, or the priest, who has not been there yet ? " 
 She hesitated, but said she thought they would. 
 
HOME MANIFESTATIONS. 145 
 
 "Now," says I, "Ann, I do not want you to do 
 anything wrong, but I want you to sit just once, to 
 ask Andrew and Peter whether it is right or wrong, 
 for they will know, — will they not ? and the priest 
 says they are really Andrew and Peter." She could 
 not object to so reasonable a request, and she did so ; 
 and, the raps coming, says I : "Who is this?" And 
 the reply was: "Andrew." Says I: "Andrew, is it 
 wrong for Ann to sit in this way for these manifes- 
 tations?" And the reply was aloud "No." "Do 
 you think Ann had better sit for us, as she has been 
 doing ? " And the answer came : " Yes." " You 
 see," said I to Ann, "what your father and husband 
 both say, and you know it is really they, for the 
 priest says it is, and they, being in the spirit world, 
 ought to know better than the priest, had they not?" 
 And Ann thought so, and made no further objection. 
 
 The remembrance of this colloquy, growing out 
 of her confession, always pleased me ; I flanked 
 the priest adroitly from his own logic. I also got 
 the admission, indirectly, of him that the manifes- 
 tations were the work of spirits. It was always 
 pleasant also to have Ann feel that her father and 
 her husband had a hand in this matter. I ought 
 to add, which may be suggestive, also, that Andrew 
 and Peter were the spirits that did most of this mys- 
 terious work, that is, when a table moved, they were 
 the spirits that did it, or they seemed to be the spirits 
 that controlled her, certainly for the sensuous or 
 physical manifestations. 
 
 I have found in many instances that the spirits 
 
146 SHADOWS. 
 
 who make these physical manifestations, or move- 
 ments, are not the higher class of spirits, but spirits 
 -who are but a slight remove from palpable presence. 
 I have been told that Theodore Parker cannot move 
 a material object, or tip a table, but he can read the 
 mind and influence the intellect ; that it is a more 
 earthly class of spirits that, in this sensuous way, 
 make themselves manifest. My experience with Ann 
 seems to rather indorse the idea. 
 
XIII. 
 
 SEERSHIP OR CLAIRVOYANCE. 
 
 Giving an account of phenomena with an intelligent 
 and sometimes a prophetic basis. 
 
 "And that should teach us 
 There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will." — Shakespeare. 
 
 If, when Henry W. Longfellow, in his poetical 
 address to his class in Bowdoin College, on its fiftieth 
 anniversary, said : — 
 
 " Not to the living only be they said, 
 But to that other living, called the dead," 
 
 it was not a fancy merely, but a truth ; that if he 
 really felt or believed that there was an unseen audi- 
 ence as well as a visible one listening to him, — or, to 
 express the thought in another way, if there is a spirit- 
 ual environment around this world of sense, — then 
 the divinity referred to that doth hedge us about, as 
 the poet says, is a very rational idea. I think a better 
 word than " divinity " could be used to express it, 
 but the fact would be all the same ; and you know a 
 rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 
 
 147 
 
148 SHADOWS. 
 
 This fact of such an environment being admitted, 
 how it seems to warm up this world, illuminating 
 the whole picture of human life. Everything then 
 puts on new forms of beauty, changing deformity 
 and fable into beauty and truth. I do not propose 
 now to argue this point, and make such an environ- 
 ment appear either reasonable or truthful. It is a 
 fact to me, and I merely say what I have stated as a 
 sort of setting to an interesting fact in my family 
 experience, which, in connection with this subject, 
 is worth relating. 
 
 There are many similar cases ; in fact, traditional 
 as well as general family records are full of legendary 
 lore, mysterious or superstitious, or otherwise, out of 
 repute as good common sense, that the fact being 
 demonstrated of a spiritual world surrounding and 
 permeating this, would come into line as both possi- 
 ble and respectable facts. That is the reason why 
 the one I propose to relate, under the light of my 
 spiritualistic ideas, will, I think, be a matter of 
 interest. 
 
 My grandmother was a seeress. I lived in the 
 house with her for the first twenty years of my life, 
 and for ten or fifteen years more, near by, supervis- 
 ing her until she died. Now, while her spirit which 
 now seems to be in my surroundings, and also the 
 spirit of her daughter, my mother, I feel moved to 
 use the words of Coleridge (in his " Sibylline " lines, 
 I think) as my own : — 
 
 " Blest spirits of my parents, 
 Ye hover o'er me now ! Ye shine on me ! 
 
SEEESHIP OU CLAIRVOYANCE. 149 
 
 And, like a flower that coils forth from a ruin, 
 I feel and seek the light I cannot see." 
 
 What would I not give to have the advantage 
 today that I had during her lifetime. But I was like 
 the disciples at Emmaus, who did not realize the 
 departed Master's presence until he had gone. With 
 the optics of today, or my spiritualistic experience 
 to notice the phenomena of which I am going to 
 speak, that occurred from 1825 to 1845, that would, 
 indeed, be a privilege. 
 
 This ancestor was a good and sensible woman, 
 rather sickly, or thought she was, being of a nervous 
 constitution. The household, consisting of her sons 
 and daughters and a few grandchildren, knew noth- 
 ing of seeresses or seers in their day, but considered 
 her clairvoyant sights as simply imagination or ner- 
 vousness. Certainly, her best clairvoyant visions 
 were when she was not feeling well, or under the 
 weather, as we sometimes say. We all considered 
 what she saw, and which nobody else saw in this 
 way, was the product of poor health, and had no 
 foundation really, though they seemed real to her. 
 We pitied her, but loved and respected her, as other- 
 wise she was a very gifted woman, with sterling, 
 human, motherly qualities, but hurt some by this 
 mixture of the mysterious and strange, or of a super- 
 stitious character. 
 
 All her life, or all I know of it, which was her last 
 thirty years, she could see the spirits of dead people, 
 as she called them, though they always looked alive, 
 or as they did when they were alive. Hardly a week 
 
150 SHADOWS. 
 
 passed without her referring to such visits. They 
 were, as I have said, more persistent or frequent 
 when her health was poor ; hence, in the minds of 
 the family, the subject was looked upon as disease. 
 
 These subjective apparitions were always the forms 
 and faces of departed people, never of living ones, — 
 generally relatives, brothers, sisters, or her children. 
 She was one of a family of twelve, and she was the 
 mother, also, of twelve, and my mother was the last 
 of them to pass away a few years ago, aged eighty- 
 four. Most of her children had died in young man- 
 hood or womanhood, so there were many to come to 
 her in this way, and they very often did. I think 
 everyone of her brothers and sisters, my great uncles 
 and aunts, had at one time or another put in their 
 ghostly appearance, if such phenomena can be called 
 appearances. I am as familiar with them, from her 
 description when thus appearing, as I am tradition- 
 ally, as the greater part of them died before I saw 
 them. 
 
 Notwithstanding the family-feeling that these 
 "second-sights," as they were called, were weak- 
 nesses that better health or a less nervous or sensitive 
 organization would have relieved her from, none of 
 us liked to have her tell of any ominous ones that 
 might be premonitions, — " showing," as Dr. John- 
 son said, " by our fears our faith in them," for they 
 were very apt to be previsions. I will relate one 
 that I remember well, as it made a great impression 
 on me, and this will suggest the character of some 
 of the others. 
 
SEERSRIP OR CLAIRVOYANCE. 151 
 
 On one occasion this old lady said to me that she 
 felt very down-hearted, — that she had had a vision 
 that made her feel so. Her dead children had not 
 come as they generally did, as if they were alive and 
 happy ; but they had come in such a way as to make 
 her feel as if she was going to have a grief. She 
 said she saw two of her dead children, George and 
 Edward, and both came to her in coffins, standing 
 against the wall, with their lids hanging down, expos- 
 ing their dead faces. 
 
 They did not' look happy and natural, as these 
 specters usually did, but represented themselves as 
 corpses, — eyes closed, motionless, and dead. That 
 was not all : for there were three coffins in a row, — 
 George in one, Edward in the other ; and then Bar- 
 ney was in a coffin, too, his standing in the middle ; 
 "and Barney is alive, and I am afraid," said she, 
 "that something is going to happen." She evidently 
 felt that Barney, who was then living in New Orleans, 
 was going to die. This was forty years ago before 
 there was any railroad there, and no telegraph, 
 
 How distinctly I remember the following incident, 
 about two weeks after the date of this vision of the 
 three coffins. We were all sitting in the parlor of 
 our two-story house, in Roxbury, when we heard the 
 garden-gate open, and she said : " Oh ! it is a letter 
 coming, and I do n't want to see it." And she went 
 up stairs. In a second or two the door-bell was rung, 
 and a letter left by the post-boy, with a black seal 
 on it. It was written by a friend of Barney's, inform- 
 ing us of his sudden sickness and death. 
 
152 SHADOWS. 
 
 It seems to me the symbol of the coffins, as I have 
 described them, .was a very intelligent and expressive 
 one. Could any communication be more expressive 
 of the fact than this was, — the open coffins of three 
 of her children, showing three dead faces? Could 
 there be any mistake in what was meant or intended? 
 If a voice had said, or if George and Edward had 
 said, " Barney has just died," would the fact have 
 been more distinctly or intelligently conveyed than 
 was this mute way of symbolizing the fact? 
 
 Is there any royal road or occult way of getting 
 information? Here was an occurrence twelve days 
 before it was possible, in that day, to have been 
 known by us. Everybody is liable to die, but Bar- 
 ney no more than anybody else. He was not sick, 
 and only about thirty-five or forty years old. I am 
 aware there are sometimes premonitions; so there 
 are dreams sometimes that have an intelligent method 
 in them, that in some inscrutable way are pre-visions 
 of coming events, casting, as it were, their shadows 
 before. 
 
 If there are divinities shaping human ends, which 
 in most peoples' minds is simply a poetic fancy; but 
 if it be a reality, as modern Spiritualism teaches, — 
 that we live in two worlds, but cognizant of but 
 one, — then this vision, which I have related at 
 length, becomes an intelligent act on the part of the 
 angel world. Can it be anything else ? 
 
 I like the closing words of an able agnostic minis- 
 ter of a discourse on immortality, which are these : 
 " Though I do find this life sweet, I do want another ; 
 
SEEESHIP OK CLAIRVOYANCE. 153 
 
 and though I cannot go as far as some and say this 
 life is not worth having if there be no other, I do 
 say dust and ashes seem a somewhat poor and impo- 
 tent conclusion for such a magnificent, grand, terri- 
 ble life drama as that we are playing here on this old 
 earth, — 
 
 * I cannot think it all shall end in naught ; 
 That the abyss shall be the grave of thought. 
 That e'er oblivion's shoreless sea shall roll 
 O'er love and wonder and the lifeless soul.' " 
 
XIV. 
 
 SUBJECTIVE APPARITIONS. 
 
 A visit of consolation where the consoler got consoled. 
 
 There seems to be a power in the soul or spirit of 
 man which at times projects itself, or its visible per- 
 sonality, and shows itself at a great distance, and, it 
 would seem instantly, no matter whether the dis- 
 tance be one mile or ten thousand miles. This most 
 generally occurs just at the point of death. Instances 
 of this fact are numerous. Most of these appear- 
 ances, as I have said, occur just at the moment of 
 death, as if that event was the fulcrum necessary to 
 produce it; but instances are not rare when these 
 appearances have occurred at other periods in a per- 
 son's life. 
 
 These subjective forms look exactly as the person 
 did, — a natural, human-appearing person, leading 
 the seer to think, or say: "How did he get here 
 when I supposed he was so far off?" and then to 
 find it only a seeming or a fancy, when, sooner or 
 later, we hear of the person's death, and it generally 
 proves to have been at the moment of the appearing. 
 It would seem to be a sort of soul appearing to soul, 
 
 154 
 
SUBJECTIVE APPARITIONS. 155 
 
 and shows by the manifestation that there is a spirit- 
 ual man as well as a physical man that can exist 
 separately, or the fact of a man's spirit existing dis- 
 tinct from his body. 
 
 I do not think it argues against this deduction by 
 saying it occurs only at the moment of death, which 
 is not the fact, as I have said. I could state an 
 instance in my own experience if it were worth the 
 while to do so. To me, the appearance of the per- 
 son at death seems to be as if intelligently informing 
 the beholder of his final departure. 
 
 I was well acquainted with our late citizen, Col. 
 Wm. B. Green, the author of the " Blazing Star," 
 well known among us as a theoretical labor-reformer 
 and philanthropist during the last few years of his 
 life. I saw him quite often ; he was not a Spiritual- 
 ist, but was very hospitable to the idea. His daugh- 
 ter, a fair-haired maiden of about twenty, was 
 drowned off the coast of France, being one of the 
 passengers of a steamer that was there lost. She 
 had left this country a few weeks before. I think 
 this was on her voyage out, but it may not have 
 been, as I am writing from memory. 
 
 When the news came of the loss of the steamer, 
 and of her loss, I took an early opportunity of calling 
 upon Col. Green from sympathy and respect, and 
 found him much better prepared to meet his grief 
 than I expected, which was explained when he told 
 me he had the announcement of her departure from 
 earth a few days or a week before, though hoping 
 otherwise, that the information in advance of earthly 
 
156 SHADOWS. 
 
 information was an illusion. When the news was 
 cabled of the loss of the steamer, and she among the 
 lost, he then felt it was all right, for he had seen her 
 since the event, and he related to me the following 
 circumstance : — 
 
 In the night he awoke, or was awake, and saw, to 
 his surprise and wonder, his daughter. She was 
 clothed in white, as if wearing a wedding-garment 
 (it was his expression), with a bright smile of happi- 
 ness on her face, and pointing upwards. She dis- 
 appeared, apparently, out of the room into the next 
 chamber, where his wife, her mother, was sleeping, 
 and she, it seemed, saw the same vision, — that is, 
 the daughter was seen by both father and mother. 
 Col. Green said it was no dream, for he was wide 
 awake. This call, on my part, was intended to be 
 one of a consoling character. I knew the loss he had 
 met with, and. expected, or at least hoped, to have 
 given him, from some of my experience in post- 
 mortem matters, some consolation. I knew that he 
 respected me, and knew of my belief, for we had 
 talked together on the subject, and that anything I 
 said would be both honest and from my heart. 
 
 As I said, he needed no consolation. He was 
 happy, felt that it was all right, and he looked as 
 rationally on her departure from earth as he did 
 when she left home on her philanthropic mission to 
 Europe (it was some charitable undertaking that she 
 became interested in, I think, of a Catholic charac- 
 ter). Mr. Green's glowing account of this interest- 
 
SUBJECTIVE APPARITIONS. 157 
 
 ing circumstance made him my consoler instead of 
 my consoling him. 
 
 This is not my experience, but the experience of 
 my friend, as he related it to me, and I know he was 
 truthful ; so I tell the story. With my experience 
 in these things, I remember how I was lifted up 
 both in my knowledge and faith by the joy he mani- 
 fested at having such an angelic visit. 
 
 I will now relate a circumstance of a cognate char- 
 acter from my own experience. This was many years 
 ago, but it made a vivid impression on me at the 
 time, and has never been forgotten. I relate the cir- 
 cumstance not so much for itself as for its connection 
 with later events, down even to the present time. 
 
 My mother had a favorite sister, Emeline ; she was 
 my aunt, and was one of the most loveable young 
 women that ever lived. We, mj^self and two sisters, 
 loved her like a mother, and she loved and cared for 
 us. In early womanhood, she gradually went into a 
 decline with consumption, and, after failing away for 
 many months, she passed to the higher life. Of 
 course, with that disease, death was expected. It 
 was only a question of time ; it might be months, 
 and it might be a year or two. She had changed 
 from a rosy-cheek young woman to a pale and ema- 
 ciated one, but her interest in us, and her loveable- 
 ness, were permanent and enduring. 
 
 One evening, seated by the table, mother busy 
 sewing, and I getting my school-lesson ; my two sis- 
 ters, near the same age, and a year or two younger 
 than I was, were asleep in the curtained bed at the 
 
158 SHADOWS. 
 
 other end of the room. Sarah, the older of the 
 two, and the special favorite of Emeline, suddenly 
 screeched out as if in distress, and mother ran to the 
 bedside to see what was the matter. Sarah, agitated 
 and frightened, said: u Aunt Emeline just pulled aside 
 the curtain and looked right at me, and she smiled 
 and nodded as she did so ; she looked so lean and 
 death-like that I am frightened." " Oh," said mother, 
 "go right to sleep, you were only dreaming; nobody 
 has been into the room. John and I have been sit- 
 ting here all the time, and poor, sick Emeline has 
 not been off her bed for a month " (she was occupj^- 
 ing the chamber under ours). " No, mother," said 
 Sarah, "I was not asleep, had not been asleep, and 
 had heard you and John talking, so it was really 
 Emeline her own self, for I saw her ; do n't I know 
 aunt Emeline? I saw her with my eyes just as 
 plainly as I am now seeing you, and she looked right 
 into my face." As Sarah said this, our grandmother 
 came into the room, weeping, and said : " Emeline 
 has gone ; she has just died." 
 
 This appearance was a reality to Sarah, and from 
 the circumstance of just having died, or had left her 
 body lying on the bed in,the room, it was an intelli- 
 gent notice, by her appearance to her little pet, that 
 she had died, and had stopped a minute in her depart- 
 ure to say, in that mute way, good-bye. She thought 
 everything of her little Sarah ; they were as much 
 attached as if they were mother and child. 
 
 I have sometimes wondered why this spirit, for it 
 must have been a spirit (as her body had not moved) 
 
SUBJECTIVE APPARITIONS. 159 
 
 should appear so lean and pale and deathly, the pict- 
 ure of her bodily form, for the spirit had not died, 
 or had a consumption ; but, then, if she did not 
 appear as she was then known, she might not have 
 been recognized. I prefer, however, to think, and have 
 good reason to, as these " Shadows " in their whole- 
 ness will show, that spirits in the " land of light and 
 beauty" are free from their physical imperfections 
 and disabilities, and so to leave such an impression, 
 as it rests in my own mind, I will add the following 
 fancy verse : — 
 
 " A ghost ! by my cavern it darted f 
 
 In moonbeams the spirit was drest, — 
 For lovely appear the departed 
 When they visit the dreams of my rest ! " 
 
XV. 
 
 emeline's apparition. 
 
 Other "white ladies" besides the one of Avenel, related 
 by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Emeline, of whom I have spoken in the preceding 
 chapter, died over fifty years ago, when my two sis- 
 ters and I were children. Since I have been a Spirit- 
 ualist, which dates from the year 1857, I have had 
 many proofs of her continued existence, and her inter- 
 est in my family or tribe, so to speak. I have some- 
 times thought of her as the " white lady," referring 
 to " The white lady of Avenel," in Sir Walter Scott's 
 novel of the " Monastery." 
 
 I cannot say her influence or presence has been 
 significant of trouble or death, as the novelist's * c white 
 lady" was; yet it has often been so, and a very vivid 
 impression of her presence would make me a little 
 uneasy now, and yet she has, more than once, shown 
 an interest and a marked supervision for our good, 
 and so remarkable that I count them, or at least one 
 of them among my best experiences ; yet, as I have 
 said, when I feel certain of her contiguity, I am apt 
 to think that something is going to happen our family 
 or tribal interest. ( i6o> 
 
emeline's apparition. 161 
 
 On a certain Monday evening not very long ago (it 
 was in the spring of 1883, 1 see by an article of mine, 
 which is now in print before me), I seated myself at 
 the writing table in my library for a few hours' work 
 that I had been putting off, and then I felt that it 
 must be attended to. A restless feeling came over 
 nie, and the image of Aunt Emeline came strangely 
 into my mind. Such accidental images or thoughts 
 are of no special importance, unless they are persist- 
 ent and will not depart at the wishing. When an 
 image or presence of a spirit "sticks," using Charles 
 Sumner's expressive word, I have learned to consider 
 it an indication of such a spirit, and, of course, for a 
 purpose ; but for what purpose ? There is the rub. 
 
 I hardly feel like enlarging on this point. The 
 reader, I trust, will conclude from the character of 
 these " Shadows " that I think I know what I am talk- 
 ing about ; if not, as I have said before, he or she 
 must skip me. " Barkis is willinV 
 
 My sister's husband, Albert ,a very dear Mend 
 
 of mine, and one of the best men that ever lived, 
 came into my mind with this imaginary presence of 
 Aunt Emeline. I know of no reason why they should 
 have been thus associated, only I state the fact, and 
 their persistency in my mind disturbed me in my 
 work, and I gave it up. I found the conditions were 
 not right, and yet, as many know, I am one who can 
 make his own conditions. When I found that these 
 thoughts of Emeline and Albert were " holding the 
 fort," and the work I was doing was not, I gave up 
 to it and cogitated. It would be tedious to write the 
 
162 SHADOWS. 
 
 details and explain the adroitness of circumstances 
 and coincidences that mixed the two names together, 
 — the image of the spirit and the image of the mor- 
 tal, — so I will not attempt it. I have been a student 
 or close observer of these "phantoms of the brain" 
 for a long while, and I know I am not deluded in my 
 conclusions of the fact; the purpose is what bothers 
 me. 
 
 Albert was a man in poor health, and had been for 
 years. For many years he had great pain in his head 
 from a diseased ear ; and having, myself, a catarrh, 
 which might be of a similar character, and that also 
 of long standing but no pain, seemed to be a pointer 
 to the circumstance. Albert had been urging me for 
 a long time to attend to it so as not to suffer as he 
 had, but I had not felt the necessity of it. I could 
 see no other unit of measure to explain this mental 
 association of the two but this common auricular 
 trouble. I began to consider it a gentle warning, and 
 mentally concluded at an early moment to attend to 
 it. The presence, if it were one, and the associations 
 having thus monopolized my time, the evening's work 
 was postponed. I was not in the mood to attend to 
 it or anything else, owing to these unexpected and 
 weird thoughts. 
 
 The next morning (Tuesday) among my letters I 
 found one from my sister in Rhode Island, dated the 
 day before, saying Albert, her husband, had just died. 
 It took me by surprise, for I knew that he was out 
 attending to business a day or two before. This 
 explained the presence of this " white lady" and her 
 
emeline's apparition. 163 
 
 connection with Albert, which I had associated with 
 a common ear trouble, but it seems to me it was a 
 "phantoinatic whisper,'* the best it could do to impress 
 me of my friend's death and, perhaps, presence also. 
 
 On my way home that afternoon I stopped at a 
 spiritual meeting a few minutes. A medium on the 
 platform was giving tests to the audience. They 
 generally do not amount to much, are given, it seems 
 to me, as an advertisement, so I was not interested 
 in them, and was reading a newspaper instead ; but as 
 I sat thus at the end of the hall, this medium said: 
 14 1 hear the name of Albert, — yes, Albert is here. 
 He seems to be attracted here by some friend of his.'' 
 I felt from the first that it was my Albert, who had 
 so lately died, and the name was for me, but I said 
 nothing. 
 
 The medium then said: " It is for some one in that 
 direction," pointing towards me. I said : " Has he 
 been in the spirit world some time?" "No," said 
 the controlling spirit, "he has just come over. It is 
 for you, sir," addressing me, "he seems glad that you 
 recognize him. He says, 'John, I begin to under- 
 stand these things better than I did. You know I 
 did not believe as much as you did, but I see it now 
 as you do.'" Then the control continuing, said, 
 " John, I have no pain now, no pains in my head : 
 none of those noises that I used to tell you of." This 
 was substantially what he said, and I wrote it down 
 at the time. It certainly was remarkably applicable. 
 
 It was a simple name, — Albert; that might have 
 been a guess, but when was added the exact views 
 
164 SHADOWS. 
 
 he had of Spiritualism, it made two good guesses, and 
 then he spoke of his head and pain and noises, of 
 which he and I had had many talks in life. This takes 
 the matter wholly out of guess-work and satisfies me, 
 and would anyone with like experience, that it was 
 my friend Albert, and that the Monday night " phan- 
 toms of the brain" were real presences also. I was 
 wholly unacquainted with this medium, still I may 
 have been known to him, probably was. I am sure 
 nobody there knew that I had lost an Albert, and I 
 do not think anyone knew that I had such a relative, 
 as he had never been among the Spiritualists, and 
 lived in another State. 
 
 1 will now relate an experience which shows an 
 actual supervision by a spirit over a mortal in the form. 
 
 Sometimes spiritual supervision is so definite as to 
 be unmistakable of itself, so self-evidently true that 
 it cannot be coincidence or imagination ; its definite- 
 ness forbids it. Such visits certainly are like the 
 fabled angels' visits, few and far between. The only 
 drawback to such a case being a literal fact in any- 
 one's mind is their unfrequency, and perhaps the 
 special matter not always being of importance enough 
 to call for angelic supervision. 
 
 If the importance is the factor in such cases, then 
 life is full of demands that call for aid and super- 
 vision in vain, so there must be exoteric conditions 
 of which we know nothing, or the supervising defini- 
 tion of what is considered of importance is different 
 from ours. Here is an experience of a supervising 
 intelligence, which is quite remarkable, and from the 
 
emeline's apparition. 165 
 
 nature of the case could not have been accidental. 
 It will be an interesting account in itself, as well as 
 an illustration to the principal feature or point in 
 this chapter. 
 
 My sister's daughter, or niece of mine, whom in 
 this sketch I will call Mary, was making us a visit. 
 She was a young lady of about sixteen, very inter- 
 esting and well educated. From something I had 
 said, she spoke of some "spiritual manifestations," 
 and on what had occurred at her school on a certain 
 occasion, which made me say : u Mary, you must be 
 a medium." "No, I guess not, uncle," she said, as if 
 the appellation was not complimentary, she not hav- 
 ing had any experience with Spiritualists or Spirit- 
 ualism, and had the usual social prejudices. 
 
 I said to her: u Come and sit at the table with me." 
 She did so ; but there being no raps or tipping, after 
 a little while I said to her: " Hold this pencil in your 
 hand," offering her one, and laying some sheets of 
 paper on the table, she holding the pencil as if she 
 was going to write. Her hand was still for a little 
 while, then began a slight motion, which grew very 
 rapid, so that the pencil end made a lot of dots, but 
 no writing. "Is not this strange, uncle?" said she; 
 "see how my hand jumps; I cannot help it; 1 do not 
 do it; it does it itself;" which was very evident. 
 
 After a little while the pencil began to write, and 
 very rapidly filled the page, which I took up, and 
 she, without stopping, began to fill another, and so 
 on, filling four pages, signing the last one "Emeline 
 Clap." I was very much interested both in the fact 
 
1GG SHADOWS. 
 
 and the contents, as I read the communications as 
 she wrote them, as I took up the sheets one after 
 another. The young lady knew nothing of the con- 
 tents of the communication, as the reader will here- 
 after see from the nature of it ; and she kept saying 
 while she was writing : " Is not this strange, uncle, 
 that my hand is writing so, and I don't do it?" 
 When she had finished, the pencil flew out of her 
 hands with a jerk, and I said to her: "Do you know 
 who Emeline Clap is?" "No," said she; "but do n't 
 you know, as the name is Clap?" (our ancestral 
 name). I said to her very impressively, as I was 
 rather astonished at the contents: "She is your moth- 
 er's and my aunt, who died long before you were 
 born, and when your mother was a little girl. Hold- 
 ing the sheets in my hand, I then read the message 
 aloud. Here is a copy: — 
 
 " My dear Mary, I have come to warn you, and to give 
 you good advice. The course you are pursuing is wrong. 
 You are having you think a pleasant time ; but you are 
 doing yourself an injury, and are injuring Mr. Chick. He 
 is nothing to you, and never will be. He in time will return 
 home, and forget you ; and in the course of time you will be 
 married, but not to Mr. Chick. Owing to the time and 
 thought he devotes to you, he is not making the progress 
 that he otherwise would ; and you are hurting yourself, and 
 would grieve your parents if they knew you were thus inter- 
 ested. Now, Mary, go to your mother, and make her your 
 confidant, or stop just where you are. I take this unex- 
 pected way of reaching you, through the eyes of your uncle, 
 for your good. I am Emeline Clap." 
 
emelixe's apparition. 167 
 
 When 1 read this letter to my niece, who had writ- 
 ten it without knowing what she had written, she 
 listened to it. somewhat dazed at the unexpected reve- 
 lations of the contents, they being the secrets of her 
 own heart, unknown to others. It seems the matter 
 was a pleasant flirtation, — a sweet secret between 
 two hearts, for the time being beating as one, and no 
 eye watching them. There was an eye it seems, but 
 it was invisible. It was not God's, but it saw in the 
 night as well as in the day. It was the eye of a super- 
 vising or guardian spirit. 
 
 It was evident from the circumstances that she, 
 though its amanuensis, was so interested in the man- 
 ner of its production that she was wholly ignorant 
 of what she had written, or the message would not 
 have found a passage through from the land of light 
 and beauty to the eyes of this shadowy writer. 
 
 I did not realize myself that the message, so defin- 
 itely stated, was founded on fact. Noticing the young 
 lady's embarrassment, I said: "Is there anything 
 to this, Mary? Is there a Mr. Chick?" "Yes," 
 said she, "he is a fine young man, I think everything 
 of him." "Well," said I, "who is he?" She said: 
 " He is a sophomore." It is hardly necessary to write 
 on this point further; it tells its own story. I will 
 add here that my niece lived in Providence, and in 
 the neighborhood of Brown University. 
 
 I had never heard of Mr. Chick ; the message to 
 me was a revelation. I was as certain as day that 
 Mary was not the author of the communication. 
 What can it be then in the nature of things but what 
 
168 SHADOWS. 
 
 it purports to be ? Emeline Clap, — whose body had 
 been dead and buried a score or two of years, but 
 whose spirit was alive and moving among the dear 
 ones of earth, an interested observer, stepping into 
 the current affairs of life and setting right, so to speak, 
 a misplaced switch that possibly might have led to 
 disaster. This interposition was effectual, the source 
 of it more potent, perhaps, in working the cure than 
 any earthly advice would have been. 
 
 I would like to understand this matter as anyone 
 else would. I know where it is from as certain as I 
 know where sunlight is from ; but the why ? Why 
 this manifest interposition in this instance and not in 
 the thousand other cases of as much and perhaps of 
 more moment, that seem to have no supervising, 
 viewless aunts ? In this case was it accidental, the 
 " Gates Ajar " of both worlds coincidently ? It is of 
 no use to speculate. There is the fact as it is and 
 the circumstances, and seems to me it is clearly an 
 intelligent spirit interposition. This, with more or 
 less definiteness, seems to warrant me in feeling, as I 
 have before said, that this " radiant maiden " who 
 appeared to my sister at her earthly life's exit is the 
 " white lady " of our house. May her shadow never 
 be less, even if mine is ; and now as a finish and a 
 finis to this sketch, I will add the following anony- 
 mous lines, after thus proving them, I think, to be 
 literally true: — 
 
 " The living are the only dead ; 
 
 The dead live never more to die; 
 And often when we think them fled, 
 They never were so nigh." 
 
XVI. 
 
 IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 
 The Sage of Gralveston returns according to promise. 
 
 The positive identification of a spirit is one of the 
 things seldom accomplished even by those who think 
 they are getting tests. One of the prominent con- 
 versions to modern Spiritualism was made through, 
 perhaps, an innocent deception on the part of a spirit, 
 if deception, in any sense, can be innocent. 
 
 The fact was this : the spirit of a brother, who 
 lived and died in Europe, manifested through a 
 medium to his sister, who was visiting this country, 
 giving his name and some family circumstances 
 wholly unknown to anyone here, — not even known 
 that she had a brother. It was an agreeable sur- 
 prise, and was the means of making a Spiritualist of 
 her, and a very prominent one. Later in her experi- 
 ence she learned directly that the spirit of her brother 
 had never communicated, and that the spirit con- 
 trolling the medium had read her mind, and fed her 
 with what would be very naturally considered tests. 
 They were tests of spirits, but not tests of identifica- 
 tion. Good was done by even this deception. A 
 
170 SHADOWS. 
 
 valuable convert was made to the cause, and she is 
 now one of the conspicuous speakers on its platform. 
 I merely mention this to show how difficult it is to 
 get unmistakable identifications, not to justify or 
 qualify any deceptions, no matter the motive. I have 
 had a few, as the reader of these " Shadows" will 
 have seen, but not many that are unquestionable. I 
 do not think identification of spirits the important 
 thing in modern Spiritualism. It is very easy to get 
 positive manifestations of spirits, and the fact that 
 any spirit of a departed human being can come, good 
 or bad, settles the fact, law, or principle ; and if one 
 spirit survives the death of his body, the law holds 
 good for all. 
 
 I think it better that identifications should be 
 difficult and seldom, otherwise we would depend too 
 much upon the departed for aid and counsel, which 
 would certainly retard human progress. I think no 
 one who is zealously and honestly seeking for truth 
 in this direction but will find now and then an iden- 
 tification of a spirit, but not often enough to make 
 him perfectly happy, but often enough for his human 
 good. That identifications are possible is an unmis- 
 takable fact. I think I will not enlarge upon the 
 subject further in this chapter, the rationale of the 
 matter not now being my principal object ; but, with 
 what I have said, I will .relate a remarkable case of 
 identification, where my friend, the "Sage of Gal- 
 veston," as I used to familiarly call him, returned to 
 me, according to promise, unmistakably. 
 
 I wrote an account of it, and printed it at the 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 171 
 
 time. The statement seems to express all the points 
 very clearly, so I will now print that instead of 
 rewriting it, and, perhaps, condensing it. It was 
 written as a fugitive article, and not with as much 
 literary care as I would have done if intended for 
 book-form, but I trust any superfluous rhetoric will 
 not be a blemish. It was necessary to be very par- 
 ticular and minute on the points in order to have the 
 whole matter understood. I consider the circum- 
 stance a very important one, and worthy of careful 
 perusal. The article referred to is as follows : — 
 
 "Now came still evening on, and twilight gray- 
 Had in her sober livery all things clad." 
 
 Such was the fact to the world and to me on the 
 closing in of a pleasantly and busily occupied Sunday 
 in May (this was in the year 1881). I had laid 
 down my pen, and folded my notes and papers, and, 
 seeing a copy of " Paradise Lost " handy on the 
 table, I laid the book on them to keep them intact 
 during my absence, which was to attend a circle. 
 The book in question may have invited the draft of 
 the above quotation to begin with, or the man behind 
 the book ; it is difficult to tell the exact factors of 
 inspiration, and I do not know, in this connection, as 
 it is of any consequence. 
 
 After a pleasant and somewhat thoughtful walk of 
 about half an hour, in which I took no note of time, 
 not even of its loss, I found myself at the medium's 
 door. This was Miss Shelhamer's home-circle even- 
 ing, not for visitors, except on invitation, and I was 
 
172 SHADOWS. 
 
 one of the privileged. It proved, indeed, a privilege, 
 and enables me to corroborate the return of a friend 
 whose name heads this article, and to say, also, it is 
 one of the most perfect identifications of an individ- 
 ual spirit I ever had or ever heard of; and the cir- 
 cumstances in connection forbid any such explanation 
 as mind-reading, or unconscious cerebration, as is 
 often suggested, at least by those who strain at a 
 gnat, in the spiritual manifestations, and swallow 
 camels in other matters. Such perfect tests of iden- 
 tification as the one of which I am speaking are very 
 rare, comparatively, among experiences, not as tests of 
 spirits, but tests or proofs of identification, and, there- 
 fore, it is worthy of elaborate record ; and that is my 
 apology for the space I occupy. 
 
 I do not know as it is wise or sensible to begin as 
 I have in this somewhat poetical manner; but it 
 expresses the state of my feelings, and, may be, an 
 impression ; I do not say it is, but it reminds me of 
 "Junius." Speaking of the eagle, he says: "The 
 feather that adorns the royal bird sustains his flight ; 
 strip him of his plumage, and you pin him to the 
 earth." I trust, then, the "plumage" of this arti- 
 cle, if there should be any, will be forgiven. How 
 much my occupation during the day had to do with 
 the sentimentality of the hour, or how much it had 
 to do with the fact that made this occasion a privi- 
 lege, I will not undertake to say. I think we some- 
 times accidentally make conditions that are not 
 always at our command on call ; that is my apology 
 now for being so minute. 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 173 
 
 The clay had been wholly spent in my study, — 
 my books, papers, pigeon-hole contents, and corre- 
 spondence around me, and, to some extent, in me ; 
 it had been a sort of "washing-day" in my lit- 
 erary life. Our thoughts, you know, have queer 
 ways of reaching us; autographic suggestions not 
 only carry memories with them, but they carry 
 presences also. How much, then, of my day's 
 thoughtful occupation had to do with the connection 
 made with my Texan friend I do not know; per- 
 haps my condition was not in any sense a factor ; but 
 I feel impressed to begin in this way, and even to 
 call to my aid, in the way, perhaps, of superfluous 
 "plumage," the sweet, orphic lines of Emerson, in 
 suggestion of connections that exist, that are not 
 always prima facie, where the poet says : — 
 
 " And on his mind at dawn of day- 
 Soft shadows of the evening lay; 
 For the prevision is allied 
 Unto the thing so signified. 
 Or say, the foresight that awaits 
 Is the same genius that creates." 
 
 Before giving the circumstances in connection with 
 the communication that has inspired this article, I 
 will first briefly speak of the man and his association 
 with me, and our correspondential intimacy. 
 
 J. S. Thrasher, whose initials were autographically 
 and typographically and indelibly during my life im- 
 pressed on my mind as L S. Thrasher, was a rare 
 man, and, I think, had a toning influence on my 
 style of expression. The initials of which I have 
 
174 SHADOWS. 
 
 spoken are an important item in this statement, and 
 I shall refer to them again when I reach the proper 
 place. I always called Mr. Thrasher, in my corre- 
 spondence, the " Sage of Galveston," beginning my 
 letters : " My Dear Sage," and, in return, I suppose, 
 he always began his letters to me : "My Dear Philos- 
 opher." I became very much attached to him, and 
 the attachment was mutual. 
 
 It began in this way: Something I had written 
 had attracted his attention, and he wrote to me inquir- 
 ingly, and the reply opened a correspondence which 
 has not ended, it now seems, with his life in the 
 form. I have a box — it is now before me — of about 
 a cubic foot in dimensions, full of his letters to me. 
 There are more bright thoughts, wise words, good 
 advice, and common sense in them than can be found 
 in any package of letters that I know of with an 
 equal number of words. Our pen-acquaintance began 
 in 1874. My attachment to him was not because he 
 appreciated my articles, for he was much more of a 
 critic than a patron. I used to think oftener of what 
 he would say, when I was writing an article, than 
 what the reading public would say ; there was where 
 he toned me up, and I have no doubt he is now say- 
 ing: " Condense, John, condense," and I am going 
 to after this ; but, for reasons already stated, I want 
 the privilege of superfluity now, for I feel that I am 
 writing on an important matter. 
 
 The "Sage of Galveston," as I still like to call 
 him, was a man of wide experience, and had led an 
 active life, commercial, political, and literary. Some 
 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 175 
 
 twenty odd years ago he was on the editorial staff of 
 the New York Herald, occupying the position several 
 years. He was born in New England, but left it 
 when a young man. He lived at the South the latter 
 part of his life, beginning his residence there before 
 the late war ; and when he came across my pathway, 
 as I have said, some six or seven years ago, he was 
 and had been long a resident of Galveston. He 
 was then a Spiritualist, had lost by death his wife 
 and children, so his home, in the ordinary sense, was 
 desolate. His aged mother lived with him, and she 
 seemed to be the only connecting link with this life. 
 He was singularly modest and retiring for so full a 
 man, and was very happy in his belief in Spiritual- 
 ism. He had very thoroughly investigated it, and, 
 being satisfied, he stayed satisfied, living the life that 
 Spiritualism teaches, at least teaches theoretically. 
 I trust that some day, as our truth gets incorporated 
 into humanity more generally, there will be more 
 Thrashers living practical lives than now, so that it 
 will be less of a theory and more of a life. 
 
 The "Sage " had great practical common sense in 
 Spiritualism, as in everything else. He seemed to 
 know where he was going, when this life closed in, 
 more intelligently than most men that I have met, 
 and he has gone there ; and now tells me, as his 
 "message" will show, that "he is quite comfort- 
 able." How natural was that easy way of saying it ; 
 so like him, as the general tenor of that box of letters 
 will show. He put himself in the shape to take life 
 easy. Having made up his mind, in his lonely 
 
176 SHADOWS. 
 
 domestic state, that commerce and enterprise would 
 allure him no more, or disturb his mind, he invested 
 his available means in an annuity that supported him 
 generously, so that he could live to his liking, and 
 have something for charity, and be hospitable, as 
 many travelling Spiritualists can testify. 
 
 He often sent for mediums to visit him ; they 
 became residents at his house for longer or shorter 
 periods, and great was the comfort he took in the 
 manifestations at his own home and elsewhere. Even 
 the account of them gladdened my heart. His expe- 
 riences and wise conclusions have helped the stability 
 of my own sensuous experiences. I do not mean 
 that I needed his evidences to indorse mine, but it is 
 so pleasant to tind bright, scholarly, cultured minds 
 in accord with one's own. He lived with the spirits ; 
 he seemed to fully realize that he had invisible com- 
 pany. As I have said, commerce and business, which 
 once allured him, had no attractions for him, and, 
 when he died, the competency he had died with him. 
 I do not know as that was a wise investment, but I 
 think it was wise for him. At any rate, when he 
 died he was not weighted with the ballast of wealth 
 that anchors so many spirits to earth after their 
 bodies are dead and buried. It was, of course, a mis- 
 fortune to have been left alone, death taking his 
 family, but he felt always near them, and on many 
 important occasions they were vividly manifest. 
 
 He visited the East once a year during the last 
 three years of his life, and we were much together 
 during these three visits. When last here, in the 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIBITS. 177 
 
 summer of 1879, he spent a few months in the west- 
 ern part of the State for his health, which was poor. 
 He was then alone in the world, his aged mother 
 having a few months before passed on, near four- 
 score-and-ten, and he seemed ready to go himself, 
 and felt, and so did I, that he was near the end of 
 the road; and when I bade him good-bye in the fall 
 of that year, as he left for the South, he said, as he 
 had said many times before, "Au revoir" meaning 
 that he would manifest at the earliest opportunity, 
 and report how he found things. He has now done 
 so, at least in a measure, and to me, who have his 
 letters, that tally with the tenor of his message, the 
 report is ample and satisfactory, and I am glad he 
 has been, and is to be, near me ; I knew it before he 
 said so. I am glad he proposes to communicate 
 again, and perhaps continue, and thus, though the 
 "river" divides us, we are not divided. 
 
 In getting the " true inwardness " of this identifi- 
 cation the reader must permit me to refer again to 
 his initials. He signed his name on his two or three 
 hundred letters as I. S.. Thrasher. Capital I's and J's 
 in writing are often written alike, but in addressing 
 his letters to me the J in John was a J, and came 
 below the line, while the I or J in his signature did 
 not, but was written exactly as he wrote the per- 
 sonal pronoun I, and I always superscribed my let- 
 ters to him I. S. Thrasher. After a pen-acquaintance 
 of about a year, I noticed his name printed in a list of 
 small contributions in a newspaper, "I. S. Thrasher, 
 Galveston, $3.00," and I became as perfectly satisfied 
 
178 SHADOWS. 
 
 that his initial letter was an I as I am that mine is a 
 J. There was no occasion for settling the point, for 
 in all our correspondence he spoke of me as the Phil- 
 osopher, and I addressed him as the Sage : " My 
 Dear Philosopher;" u My Dear Sage." The dis- 
 covery that the initial letter was a J, as this article 
 is headed, is due to the fact that the spirit knew his 
 own name better than I did. 
 
 I have written a pretty long introduction or episode, 
 after leaving the reader at the door of Miss Shelha- 
 mer's house on that Sunday evening in May; but the 
 many words since written will enable me to be both 
 brief and intelligent in finishing up the corroboration. 
 I do not propose to present a record of that circle, 
 only that which bears on this subject. In the course 
 of the evening I had had an interesting and charac- 
 teristic letter from the spirit of Ralph Huntington ; 
 the control had also said that my daughter Hattie 
 and sister Adeline, my brother, father and father-in- 
 law were present ; therefore, I had six friends among 
 the invisibles. The control afterwards said, address- 
 ing me: "There is a spirit who comes to you and 
 wants to be recognized; he died a good way off and 
 many months ago." I said : " Who is he ? what is his 
 name?" "I will see if I can get it," said the control; 
 and after some hesitation said something that sounded 
 like Frasher, and John or James; but as I knew no 
 James, and no Frasher, I said: "Cannot some of my 
 spirit friends tell me his name?" 
 
 The spirit said he had tried hard to manifest, and 
 had promised me that he would, and the control said 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 179 
 
 he seemed disappointed and persevering. I said: 
 "Tell the spirit to come to the Banner circle, and 
 try to manifest there " ; and the control said he would 
 if he could. A little while after this, "Lotela" con- 
 trolled the medium. She is an Indian spirit of a 
 lively turn of mind, and she said: " Wetherbee chief, 
 that spirit that knows you is here still, and wants to 
 be recognized." I said I wanted the recognition as 
 much as he did, and I was sorry I was so stupid. She 
 then said: "I see four large letters right over him 
 and you — S-A-G E." "Oh," said I, "the ' Sage of 
 Galveston,' my friend Thrasher. He died some months 
 ago, and promised to manifest to me when he went 
 over, if he could." 
 
 The spirit was delighted to be thus recognized, 
 and I still more so, — for it was so impossible for our 
 acquaintance to have been known by the medium, 
 and the cognomen of "Sage" was wholly correspond- 
 ential and private. This was an extremely interest- 
 ing affair to me ; but the climax was the message that 
 came from him shortly after at the Banner circle. 
 
 I went to the circle. I do not go often ; have not 
 the time; was detained down town one afternoon to 
 meet a friend late, and so went to the circle to pass 
 the time, and the message published in the last Ban- 
 ner of Light was given. Very few people — not more 
 than one or two — in this city knew Mr. Thrasher, 
 or of our close corresponclential relations, and I do not 
 believe a living soul in the world knows that he was 
 in the habit of addressing me as " My Dear Philos- 
 opher," and that makes it a test. He refers to me, as 
 
180 SHADOWS. 
 
 will be seen by his message, as his friend and philos- 
 opher, and I can show over two hundred letters from 
 him, beginning "My Dear Philosopher," or referring 
 to me as his philosopher and friend, which is a feat- 
 ure in that message. The general contents, also, are 
 such as to be unmistakably his to anyone who knew 
 the tenor of our intercourse. Above and beyond 
 this internal evidence is what I shall hereafter say of 
 his message which frees the communication from any 
 suspicion of mind-reading on the part of the spirit 
 that would have made him, possibly, an alias. 
 
 Oh, how my heart died within me when he closed 
 the message thus : " You may say it is from J. S. 
 Thrasher, of Galveston, Texas, to his philosopher 
 friend, John Wetherbee, of Boston." The J broke 
 my heart. Everything else was perfect. I don't 
 know what I would have given to have had that 
 spoken an I, in giving his name, instead of a J. I 
 felt and knew it came from my Galveston friend, but 
 why spirits so often get twisted on some trifle that 
 the man himself never would mistake if he were in 
 the form, but a spirit often does, is one of the unac- 
 countables. 
 
 There was no mistaking the message and the cir- 
 cumstances as being from my friend, the "Sage," but 
 the J coming, intead of an I, led me into a careful 
 investigation, and I spent three evenings carefully 
 reading his letters, and, to my great joy, I found two 
 of them out of the lot signed with a J. That settled 
 all the other I's to be J's, and in one letter, where he 
 was quoting something of mine, and putting his own 
 
IDENTIFICATION OF SPIRITS. 181 
 
 version also, he put at the end of mine as author, J. 
 W., and at the end of his, J. S. T. Before I had dis- 
 covered the fact, I wrote South to a friend for infor- 
 mation, and have received a reply that his initial 
 letter was J, as his friend writes me in reply to mine, 
 that his name was John S. Thrasher. So it seems 
 the spirit was right, and I was wrong. If, on the 
 evening that I spent at Miss Shelhamer's circle, I had 
 known this — that his initial letter was a J — I would 
 probably have made my connection with him more 
 readily ; and when the spirit was saying John and 
 James, and approximating to a Thrasher by saying 
 Frasher, I would not have had to wait for the " Sage" 
 suggestion before I recognized him ; but in the end 
 it was all for the best. 
 
 I may not have succeeded in making this as clear 
 as I could wish, as there is so much esoteric in its 
 nature not convertible into exoteric without an 
 unwarranted elaboration, but to me it covers the 
 whole ground, and I must ask the reader to take the 
 unspoken and unspeakable minutiae on my say-so, 
 and believe my ipse dixit when I say it is conclusive. 
 
XVII. 
 
 UNKNOWN QUANTITIES. 
 
 Prime factors. — Philosophical musings on human 
 happiness. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism, teaching as it does great 
 duration to human existence, even conscious person- 
 ality in perpetuity, it should teach us also how to 
 insure the best conditions for such an existance, 
 having an eye to happiness. As " one man's meat " 
 — so the proverb says — "is another man's poison," 
 so, in a sense, one man's happiness may be another 
 man's misery. So I do not propose to write an essay 
 on happiness, or on the conditions to insure it ; but, 
 being in a musing frame of mind, I will jot down a 
 few thoughts that the subject seems to suggest. 
 
 I have had my happy hours and my sad hours. I 
 suppose most everyone can say the same, but that 
 need not hinder my saying it. Considering that my 
 health through life has been remarkably good, I 
 ought to score it on the side of happiness as a whole, 
 and so I do. Human happiness, it seems to me, is 
 mainly a constitutional quality. " Men," says Emer- 
 son, " are what their mothers made them ; " that is, 
 
 182 
 
UNKNOWN QUANTITIES. 183 
 
 when a man is born the gate of gifts is closed. Pine 
 may harden with care, or outward application, but it 
 never can become oak, nor the latter, by any process, 
 become pine. There is the same inherent differences 
 in human nature. We can grow advantageously or 
 disadvantageously by conditions, more or less at our 
 command, but pine is always pine, and oak oak. 
 
 I know of a family of four children ; they are 
 adults or dead now; but, with my ideas, they are 
 living, two in the form, and two as spirits ; but I will 
 use all four as an illustration, as I know them well, 
 and they seem to fit my case. The oldest was born 
 of a happy mother, whose years of grief had not 
 arrived, and he manifested cheerfulness all his days, 
 even under adverse circumstances. Misfortune came 
 upon this family, and the second child, gestating 
 under home sadness, was sad and pensive all her 
 life ; very fascinating, but soberly beautiful even in 
 her adolescent years, she was not a diffuser of joy or 
 sunshine, but was the product of her mothers con- 
 dition. 
 
 The sun came out of the cloud again in that fam- 
 ily, and the home was radient with light and joy, 
 and the third child, born in that sunshine, was 
 sparkling and bright, a joy in the house all her days, 
 shedding happiness wherever she went. Then came 
 trouble and misfortune to that family, and a broken 
 household, and the fourth baby was a child of grief 
 all his days. There were rises and falls in their sev- 
 eral thermometers of happiness, but the tenor of their 
 lives show correctly their ante-natal conditions. They 
 
184 SHADOWS. 
 
 all lived until at least the high noon of adult life, and 
 two of them, as we have said, are still in the form, 
 as elderly people. This episode will explain, with- 
 out a long dissertation, what I mean when I say 
 human happiness is more of a constitutional than an 
 acquired quality. 
 
 With the foregoing remarks as an introduction, I 
 will go on and say it takes a combination of quali- 
 ties to make happiness, — we might say qualities 
 innumerable. They can, however, be reduced to a 
 few. We will call them " prime factors." People 
 are very differently constituted ; one often wanting 
 what another possesses ; but, we think, no one would 
 make an entire change with another, our personality 
 has such a perpetual interest in our being. We will 
 let the poet express our thought instead of doing it 
 ourselves, by quoting from Pope : — 
 
 " Whate'er'the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, 
 No one will change his neighbor with himself. 
 The learned is happy nature to explore ; 
 The fool is happy that he knows no more ; 
 The rich is happy in the plenty given ; 
 The poor contents him with the care of heaven." 
 
 This quotation is poetry, but I do not indorse it as 
 even approximately true, but it is suggestive of truth. 
 While none are perfectly happy, and, of course, 
 some are happier than others, we think it would be 
 found, if there was any way of finding it out, that 
 happiness is more equally divided than anything 
 else in the distribution of gifts in human life ; cer- 
 tainly more than in the great essentials, — such as 
 
UNKNOWN QUANTITIES. 185 
 
 health, wealth, genius, or position. It will be a 
 rather arbitrary supposition ; but suppose we fix the 
 number of "prime factors" of human happiness at 
 ten. This, however, is no more arbitrary than the 
 use of x for an unknown quantity, though I hardty 
 expect to find its value, like a sum in algebra, for 
 human nature is not a branch of mathematics as yet. 
 Though fixing the "prime factors " of human hap- 
 piness at ten and definite, they necessarily blend, 
 run into each other, like the primary colors of a ray 
 of light. Disintegrated by the prism, these " prime 
 factors," just like colors, are often, and, necessarily, 
 complementary. The solar spectrum is a good analo- 
 gous illustration of our point, human happiness 
 being the ray of white light. Apply the mental 
 prism to the ray of happiness, and the rainbow of life 
 stratifies into the supposed ten primaries, or "prime 
 factors ; " or that is our scale or spectrum, for the 
 sake of lucidity, perhaps, as we have said, somewhat 
 arbitrary. We would designate them thus : — 
 
 1. Goodness. 6. Contentment. 
 
 2. Health. 7. Success. 
 
 3. Hope. 8. Popularity. 
 
 4. Home. 9. Social Position. 
 
 5. Industry. 10. Wealth. 
 
 Perhaps a little consecutive elaboration may be of 
 advantage here. What we mean by 
 
 Groodness, not religion, for a man may be religious 
 without being good; not virtue, but it includes that. 
 It means living for others as well as for one's self. 
 
186 SHADOWS. 
 
 Many of the other factors of happiness are born of 
 this one. 
 
 Health. — Parent of virtue. Without it all the 
 ten spokes of the wheel of happiness rattle in their 
 revolution. While one man with many gifts is lower 
 in the scale of happiness, and another, with the same 
 or less, is higher, the fact is due often to one's health. 
 A man can afford to be marked low on many of the 
 factors of happiness if health can be marked high 
 thereby. 
 
 Hope is one of the great essentials of happiness. 
 Hope without success (material or otherwise) is bet- 
 ter than success without hope, — just as a rich poor 
 man is happier than a poor rich man. Cheerfulness 
 is one of the children of hope. Too much hope leads 
 often to disappointment; but there is the compensa- 
 tion ; it saves a soul from despair, and hides a multi- 
 tude of sorrows. A man had better lose everything 
 than hope. 
 
 "Home, sweet home, there is no place like home ! " 
 when goodness, cheerfulness, and harmony abound. 
 Blessed are they who have it. Money, popularity, or 
 position is no substitute for it. 
 
 Industry. — Occupation, something to do, a disin- 
 clination to be idle. If success in the pursuits of 
 life leads to rest or idleness, better remain poor and 
 industrious, or die. Most men require the stimulus 
 of active business or trade to keep them employed. 
 With success they would be without occupation ; an 
 afternoon of rest is a life of unhappiness. It is bet- 
 ter to be on a tread-mill than to rust. 
 
UNKNOWN QUANTITIES. 187 
 
 Contentment is better than wealth. It is a consti- 
 tutional rather than an acquired quality. To be 
 satisfied is great gain. Happy are they who can look 
 out of humble homes and cheap joys on palaces and 
 equipage, and heave no sighs. 
 
 Success. — This word has no necessary relation to 
 money or trade in this connection. A man may be 
 a success without being a millionaire. Henry D. 
 Thoreau was a success, though he died poor ; so was 
 Publicola; but Croesus was not, nor many modern 
 ones that could be named, though they had wealth. 
 Who would not prefer to be Agassiz, without wealth, 
 than Jim Fisk with ? 
 
 Popularity. — Most people like to stand well with 
 their fellows. Few are indifferent to approbation. 
 One of the accented motives for gaining wealth is to 
 impress others ; to be in their eyes of some conse- 
 quence. The popularity born of goodness and cheer- 
 fulness is more to be desired than that born of wealth. 
 The former has a heavenly flavor, the latter an 
 earthly one. 
 
 Social Position. — "A man's a man for a' that, 
 and a' that." Worth makes the man, and not posi- 
 tion. Still, hereditary competency, the refinements 
 and comforts of genteel (not snobbish) life, are by 
 no means small matters to be born into, or grow 
 into. Patrician and plebeian have a recognized dis- 
 tinction : money will not buy the one, or the want of 
 it impose the other. 
 
 Wealth is the grandest servant in life to a wise 
 man. It is often a hard master, and keeps one 
 
188 SHADOWS. 
 
 awake nights. The ninety out of the hundred have 
 to be happy without it ; the ten who have it are not 
 always happy thereby. The problem is solved that 
 the most happiness, as far as this factor is concerned, 
 lies in the mean between poverty and wealth. Robert 
 Burns hints at the true idea when he says : — 
 
 " Not for to hide it in a hedge, 
 Nor for a train attendant ; 
 But for the glorious privilege 
 Of being independent." 
 
 It is my opinion, as the truth of modern Spiritual- 
 ism becomes incorporated in the mind of mankind, 
 in the same way as some of the other laws of nature 
 have, — not looking forward to a future life simply as 
 a matter of sentiment, but as a matter of fact, — it 
 will lead to a fairer distribution of what are called 
 the essentials in this life ; mankind will tend to lay up 
 more enduring treasures than they do now, — those 
 that they can carry with them into the land of souls. 
 That certainly is the logic of the thought ; the prac- 
 tical short-coming is the measure of a man's doubt 
 or belief. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 ALLEN" DOLE. 
 
 A reliable family tradition that amounts almost to a 
 personal experience. 
 
 The following incident may be of interest enough 
 to relate; at any rate it will not take long to do it. 
 In my very early childhood there was an old relative 
 of mine, whom I will call Allen Dole. I am not fully 
 sure whether I remember him, or only think I do, 
 having heard so much of him traditionally from the 
 old members of our family. At any rate, he died 
 when I was very young, and what I have to say of 
 him would be traditional, whether I can recollect him, 
 or whether the stories had been told so often that 
 they had taken the form in me of experiences. It 
 makes no difference, however, as what I am going to 
 say is perfectly reliable, and told to me and spoken of 
 before me, a'hd continued to be spoken of by several 
 of the old familiar faces of those days, even until I 
 had almost reached manhood, so I relate it with all 
 the confidence I would if it were my own experience, 
 or if I had been one of those old folks myself. 
 
 As I have already written this circumstance out, 
 
190 SHADOWS. 
 
 and printed it in an article on " Dormitory Thoughts" 
 as one of the illustrations of the subject, I will copy 
 it as therein written, instead of recomposing it. 
 The article referred to is as follows : — 
 
 " Who would have thought such darkness lay concealed 
 Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find, 
 While fly, and leaf, and insect are revealed, 
 That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind ! 
 Why do we then shun death with anxious strife ? 
 If Light could thus deceive, wherefore not Life ?" 
 
 Coleridge thought these lines the best in the Eng- 
 lish language. They may be; that is a matter of 
 taste ; but the thought conveyed in them is certainly 
 both hopeful and suggestive, and so is a good intro- 
 duction to what I have to say in this dormitory 
 effort. 
 
 I think it will not be a digression if I relate an 
 incident that has always interested me, and is not 
 irrational by the view I take of sleep-life in these 
 articles. A relative of mine, whom I will call Allen 
 Dole, who died quite an old man when I was a youth, 
 had, during his adult life, periodical spells of inebria- 
 tion lasting a day or two, then followed months of 
 creditable sobriety. Except for this one failing he 
 was a very estimable man. When this irresistible 
 thirst came on he had to have his spree, if it could be 
 called one, for he knew when it was coming on, and 
 deliberately prepared for it, passing the dark season 
 quietly all by himself in his own room; hence his 
 weakness was not generally known to the outside 
 world* 
 
ALLEN DOLE. 191 
 
 On one occasion, coming among us after one of 
 these retirements, he said he had had a very singular 
 dream, which lasted a good while. " It was more 
 than a dream," said he ; " there was something unusu- 
 ally real about it." His brother knowing his habit, 
 said: "Oh, you were only balmy, perhaps out of your 
 head." Allen, finding a more hospitable disposition 
 in the rest of us, related it, saying he felt then under 
 its influence, as if he had just returned from a long 
 journey. That was natural enough, we all thought, 
 though we did not say so, but listened attentively to 
 the narration of it, which was about as follows: — 
 
 " A person of angelic appearance came and awoke 
 me and said; 'Allen, I want you to go with me.' I 
 did not feel much surprised, and prepared to go as a 
 matter of course. I was rather attracted to this vis- 
 itant from the land of souls. I say this from what 
 followed. I found myself moving along with this 
 messenger, — without any mechanical effort I seemed 
 to be gliding along, as it were, in his company. This 
 movement seemed to excite in me no surprise nor 
 expectation. I paid no attention to any surround- 
 ings; but as I call the vision now to my mind, I 
 seemed to be in a misty or cloudy envelope, my com- 
 panion, not my progress, being my attraction. 
 
 "After moving along in this way for some time, the 
 misty surroundings having grown into a more beau- 
 tiful light, my companion said to me: 'Here we are, 
 Allen.' I do n't know when our locomotion changed ; 
 but at this time we were walking quickly over the 
 soft, velvet-like, grassy turf, and it seemed to be now 
 
192 SHADOWS. 
 
 the auroral splendor of a new and magnificent morn- 
 ing, and all the landscape was in harmony with it. 
 It seemed to be the most beautiful place I was ever 
 in, and, while feasting my eyes on the natural attrac- 
 tions of the locality, I found I was in the midst of a 
 large gathering of very happy people. It seemed to 
 be a festival. I felt and breathed pleasure in the 
 happy atmosphere that environed me. I felt at home, 
 — that is, I did not feel like a stranger, nor did these 
 happy people seem to consider me one, or as a new 
 comer. The situation, as I now think of it, seems 
 strange to me, but it did not then. 
 
 " One thing was very singular, but even that excited 
 no surprise ; the faces of all these people were the 
 faces of the departed, the vanished lights of human 
 life, the still living forms of the loved and lost. Some 
 of them had died before I was born ; but I knew who 
 they were just as well as I did those who had been 
 the remembered faces of by-gone days, and many of 
 them were those whom I had followed to the grave; 
 but they were all alive, as much so as I was then, 
 myself. But what surprises me now is that, finding 
 all these dead faces alive, it did not surprise me then. 
 There was Lucinda (who had died about a year 
 before), not the emaciated young woman that con- 
 sumption had had so long in its grasp, but the picture 
 of health and youthful activity. In the words of the 
 poet : — 
 
 "It did not seem irrational, or queer, 
 
 To thus confabulate in common speech 
 With this old friend who had been dead a year, — 
 
 Strange things these dreams, and sometimes wisdom teach." 
 
ALLEN DOLE. 193 
 
 "Not one of my living friends was there ; not one 
 of you" (addressing us). "If I had met any living 
 faces there, I do not think thej' would have seemed 
 strange to me any more than it did to be there myself; 
 but if I had, and remembered the fact now, as I do 
 the vision, or dreamy experience, I should consider 
 it ominous, or prophetic of dissolution. I would feel 
 now that that person was soon to be called home." 
 
 This is enough to relate of Allen's account. There 
 were other details of no general interest, so I will 
 only add that after Allen had been there what seemed 
 quite a long time, his mother, who, with others, was 
 very near him, said it was time to go ; but Allen was 
 reluctant; said he preferred to stay. She said : " No, 
 you must go now ; but in fifteen years you will come 
 again, and then stay all the time, like the rest of us." 
 I will add that Allen died in about fifteen years. It 
 was always said by aunt Fales, whose memory was 
 good on superstitious matters, that he died exactly 
 fifteen years from the date of that vision. If that 
 was the case, or even if only an approximation, there 
 was prevision, as well as method, in the circumstances 
 of that somewhat singular dream, which, as Allen 
 said, was something more than a dream. 
 
 I do not know as this traditional family incident 
 has any general bearing on the subject of this book 
 of "Shadows," unless to make it more in keeping 
 with its title ; yet a matter — whether dream or 
 vision — occurring near a century ago, and fifty years 
 almost before the advent of modern Spiritualism, and 
 giving a picture of the future life so different from the 
 
194 SHADOWS. 
 
 notion prevalent at that time, and so in keeping with 
 the teachings of modern Spiritualism, that it at least 
 is a pointer, even if the prophetical part of it may 
 have been a little strained. 
 
 The circumstance so believed in by the old 
 people of our house, who have long since passed 
 beyond the vale, made quite an impression upon me, 
 as one of the facts in my early life. I think, also, 
 modern Spiritualism has somehow tended to keep the 
 old familiar faces of by-gone days in more close 
 remembrance than if I had believed that dead people 
 were dead when they had " shuffled off the mortal 
 coil." With some such ideas as I am expressing 
 now, I put the foregoing incident into simple verse 
 a long time ago, which I will add for the sake of 
 making this chapter of a respectable length, although 
 it is a repetition of what has been already told in the 
 foregoing account : — 
 
 Here in this churchyard's melancholy shade 
 Sepulchral stones stand thickly planted round ; 
 
 My wandering footsteps hitherward have strayed 
 To read the names of tenants under ground. 
 
 The clove there perched on yonder slab oblique, 
 Swerved from its line by many a frosty year, 
 
 Seems sensing sentiment it fain would speak, 
 And accents well the thought to wanderers here. 
 
 On that same slab was chiseled " Allen Dole ; " 
 The year he died, his death also, and age : 
 
 The grass was pulled aside to read the whole, 
 But nothing found of his illumined page. 
 
 That was not written on this old grave-stone, 
 Where crawling iyy covers it from sight, 
 
ALLEN DOLE. 195 
 
 Bat told in solemn words to me alone 
 How Allen saw the world of spirits bright. 
 
 Now day is closing for the coming night, 
 
 And memories sad, like phantoms, come and go; 
 
 The dove has flown ; the fire-flies show their light, 
 With thoughts of people whom we used to know. 
 
 With evening, shadows come of actions done 
 In hours when sunlight leaves no passing trace ; 
 
 But retrospection calls back one by one, 
 
 And gives in sober thought to each its place. 
 
 In dim forgetfulness, how apt to hide 
 
 The selfishness that marks most all our acts ! 
 
 But in this evening hour their shadows glide 
 Unbidden to the mind, — the naked facts. 
 
 But Allen flanked this thoughtful evening school : 
 
 A glass of rum in him made evening day ; 
 So all the morning hours he 'd play the fool, 
 
 Driving reflection's warning voice away. 
 
 But Allen's cares increased as time unrolled : 
 
 His early life grew indistinct with years, 
 And manhood's record blurred as he grew old, — 
 
 He found the world at last a vale of tears. 
 
 Then hearken well ! The hour will come to all, 
 When time, so fleeting, whispers "sands are low ! " 
 
 Few may forecast, and anxious wait the call, 
 As Allen did, who, smiling, said " I go." 
 
 But Allen grieved not as he neared fourscore, 
 
 Though friends were few, and end of days so near; 
 
 For he had been upon that other shore, 
 
 And talked with angels in their happy spaere. 
 
 Once Allen saw his body sound asleep ! 
 
 Perhaps 't was rum that dualized his sight? 
 He saw the angels who their vigils keep 
 
 While others led him to that world of light. 
 
196 SHADOWS. 
 
 O beauteous sky and rainbowed atmosphere ! 
 
 The grass was soft and frescoed bright with flowers; 
 The air so balmy,— music soft and clear 
 
 Mingled with all. Oh, happy, joyful hours ! 
 
 He saw that face who watched his infant years, 
 And other loved ones, buried long ago; 
 
 Brightly transfigured everyone appears ; 
 Frail Susan, also, whom he used to know. 
 
 They moved a slide, and let him have one sight 
 Of that dread place called " spirit-quarantine," 
 
 Where sinners stay whole ages, dark as night, 
 To expurgate the beast from man divine. 
 
 They told him then that he must homeward go; 
 
 But Allen felt inclined to linger there : 
 To save the quarantine, they let him know, 
 
 'T were better to deodorize elsewhere. 
 
 They said to Allen, who was fifty-five, 
 
 That fifteen years would fill his earthly score ; 
 
 His seventieth year would find him just alive, 
 The hungry graveyard knocking at his door. 
 
 Why should this man be blest with such a sight 
 While saints go mourning all their days of earth? 
 
 We cannot judge. God doeth all things right; 
 Perhaps old Allen's thirst was heritage from birth. 
 
 Then draw the veil, should profanation seek 
 To read the list of Allen's reckless days ; 
 
 But let his later living record speak 
 
 How spirit-quarantine reformed his ways. 
 
 Now thoughtfully our footfalls homeward bound, 
 
 And homeward, also, to eternal light; 
 While here night's mantle overshades the ground, — 
 
 We wait expectant for a world that 's bright. 
 
XIX. 
 
 INDIAN-SPIRIT INFLUENCES. 
 
 What the subject suggests, and a supplement of poetry. 
 — Astronomical. 
 
 One of the noticeable features in the phenomena of 
 modern Spiritualism is the prominence it gives to the 
 departed Indian race. There is hardly a medium in 
 this whole Endoric class that is not more or less guided 
 by, controlled by, or indebted to the departed Oseolas, 
 Black Hawks, Red Jackets, Violets, or Blueflowers of 
 th$t singular aboriginal people that once covered, in 
 their wild and natural way, this North American Con- 
 tinent. I have sometimes thought, as this spiritual 
 movement, in its modern aspect, is of American 
 genesis, that one of the prime factors, perhaps the 
 accented one that has made this modern connection 
 with mortals in the form, was the influence and 
 power of the Indian element in its departed, invisi- 
 ble, but still living form. 
 
 I am aware that history indicates that, if these 
 phenomena be the influence of the spirits of departed 
 human beings, though called modern, they are quite 
 an ancient affair; but, in its uninterpreted state, was 
 
 197 
 
198 SHADOWS. 
 
 kept in the domain of either superstition or revela- 
 tion, but only in this age has it been recognized as 
 intelligent sensuous phenomena. 
 
 I am inclined to think, as I have said, that we are 
 very much indebted to the Indian element in the 
 spirit world for the light that was intelligently 
 revealed to us in 1848. Perhaps owing to the natu- 
 ral way they lived when in the form, it gave them a 
 strength or power that a more artificial life would 
 not, so that even in spirit life one can say that "it 
 is an ill wind that blows no one any good," and 
 thus we are the gainers. 
 
 If the conditions had been right, and man had 
 been hospitable to its advent, the witchcraft of two 
 or three centuries ago, abounding so much in Europe 
 and in this country, might have staid and been mod- 
 ern Spiritualism long ago, instead of waiting for our 
 day. But the reception of it was such that the influ- 
 ences paused, and the light (or darkness, if you 
 choose to call it so) was withdrawn. I am no par- 
 ticular lover of the Indian in the form, or in the raw 
 material, so to speak, but I am ashamed of my race 
 for treating it as it has, and I find a growing admira- 
 tion for that fast-departing race, especially in its 
 spiritual life, for the loving and forgiving disposition 
 it has manifested in its invisible dealings with us. 
 
 I am not attempting any elaboration of this Indian 
 feature of our ism, but am only too glad to recognize 
 its importance in this matter in general, and their 
 individual importance as guides, body-guards, or con- 
 
INDIAN-SPIKIT INFLUENCES. 199 
 
 trols of the mediums that figure so largely in this 
 modern movement. 
 
 I was once asked by a well-known medium — a 
 doctress — to write her a poem for her to read at her 
 anniversary, soon to take place. She said Saucy 
 Jack, one of her controls, wanted me to. I make no 
 pretensions in the poetical direction, but wishing to 
 do both her and the invisible Indian a favor, I said I 
 would try to do so. " Oh, you will do it," says she ; 
 u Saucy Jack says so." I soon after tried to write 
 something, and succeeded in slowly working out 
 some fifty lines. It was rather hard work, but I 
 thought it would answer. 
 
 I met the lady accidentally a few days after, and 
 asked her when she wanted the poetry, and to let 
 me know in season, so that I could find time to write 
 it, and have it ready for her. She spoke right up, 
 and said : " Chief, what do you say that for, when 
 you have already writteu it, and you have got it now 
 in your pocket?" Well, such was the fact; it was, 
 certainly, a pretty good guess. I think myself, the 
 fact of her saying that the Indian control said I would 
 write it, had some effect in stimulating me, as I 
 always want the influences to be right when possible. 
 I called it 
 
 THE INDIAN PEACE-WHOOP. 
 
 Wand'ring in dreams, in mazy rev'rie lost, 
 
 A feeling strange came o'er me. Tempest tossed, 
 
 Then calm, and then — a light upon me broke. 
 
 I heard a voice ! And thus the spirit spoke : 
 
 " Knowledge is power ! " we hear the white man say ; 
 
 And, lo ! he proves it. We the tribute pay 
 
200 SHADOWS. 
 
 Of home, of life, of race. Slowly we yield, 
 
 And leave the white man master of the field. 
 
 No more the wigwam, squaw, or brave is seen, 
 
 Though streams still run, and hills and vales are green. 
 
 O'er this broad land the white race rules supreme ; 
 
 It is his hour. But Red Man is our theme. 
 
 Has pale chief all the knowledge, all the power? 
 
 All nature's secrets, animal and flower? 
 
 We are -big med'eine braves ; we have our sense, 
 
 And still are with you, although driven hence. 
 
 Our hunting-ground, invisible to you, is near; 
 
 Some hear our whispers, indistinct, or clear. 
 
 Having the power, through simple modes of life, 
 
 We reach you, white man, forgiving ancient strife; 
 
 Would do you good, would cure the aches and pain 
 
 That flesh is heir to,— thus good health obtain. 
 
 The red man in the form, with instinct blind, 
 
 Oft sensed a truth that culture failed to find. 
 
 As close to earth the Indian puts his ear 
 
 To sense the footfalls too far off to hear, 
 
 Or tread of game, or find perhaps the trail, 
 
 Gaining knowledge where higher outlooks fail, 
 
 Deep lessons inexpressible in speech, 
 
 And thus a royal road to knowledge reach. 
 
 " Knowledge is power," in whispers soft and low 
 
 Say we, and prove it, as our records show. 
 
 We reached humanity in your grandsire's day, 
 
 Aided by spirits bright ; they showed the way ; 
 
 We had the strength. Then mortals were possessed, 
 
 As witches burned, and other ways distressed. 
 
 Liking our sensitives, we soon retired, 
 
 And waited till our service was desired. 
 
 Thus came a solstice to this " Dawning Light." 
 
 Again we come, conditions being right, 
 
 To manifest to you this glorious truth : 
 
 That death is life, and age immortal youth. 
 
 We, red-skinned souls, to nature foudly drawn, 
 
 Are doing work as spirits of the morn ; 
 
 And mediums all are strengthened by our aid, 
 
 
INDIAN-SPIRIT INFLUENCES. 201 
 
 And better manifestations now are made. 
 
 Blest be the form, when aided by our race, 
 
 That made it possible in this age to trace 
 
 Intelligent connection in spirit life 
 
 With lover, brother, sister, friend, or wife, 
 
 Whom you thought dead, and thus have found 
 
 That no man ever moldered under ground. 
 
 Then o'er the wide earth let the "Peace-Whoop " sound, 
 
 The spirits have triumphed ! the lost are found ! 
 
 Feeling as I do, and have said, that the Indian 
 element is an important factor in the Genesis as well 
 as the Exodus or going forth of modern Spiritualism, 
 the fact has associated them in my mind with 
 the advent of what has been poetically and appro- 
 priately called the " Dawning Light.'' As the anni- 
 versaries of this event come round every thirty-first 
 day of March, the Indian seems to be a figure in the 
 picture, though not always brought into the fore- 
 ground. I have therefore thought it might not be 
 out of good taste, while running thus a little into 
 poetry, to add one at the close of this Indian chap- 
 ter that was written for one of these anniversaries. 
 I wilLprint it as I find it in the report of the pro- 
 ceedings of March 31, 1882, as follows : — 
 
 The chairman then introduced to the people, John 
 Wetherbee, of Boston, who spoke as follows : — 
 
 Feiends, — Expecting to be asked to say a few 
 words on this occasion, I have come prepared with a 
 short poem. I am no improviser, and I am no poet; 
 but I thought I would follow my impression, and take 
 the consequences. 
 
 I have put together a few fragmentary thoughts 
 
202 SHADOWS. 
 
 suggested by the " Dawning Light " of 1848. I might 
 call them " Night Thoughts," for their genesis was in 
 the night. " Star Thoughts," perhaps, would be 
 better, for when one thinks of the auroral hour of our 
 Light, his thoughts are apt to have a heavenly or 
 celestial twist in them, and we wander among the 
 constellations, — at least I do. This is my preface, 
 as well as my apology for what follows : — 
 
 The "Dawning Light" of eighteen forty-eight 
 
 The saints of earth have met to celebrate ; 
 
 Or some of them to thus commemorate 
 
 This great prevision of our future state, — 
 
 That man was not beneath the sod to wait, 
 
 In a dead or decomposed state, 
 
 But pass at once through the celestial gate, 
 
 Into the " Beyond," or " Evergreen Shore," 
 
 The " Sweet By-and-Bye," to die no more, 
 
 Finding our departed friends awaiting, 
 
 With outstretched arms, congratulating 
 
 Us on our arrival from this world of sorrow 
 
 Into the " Summer-Land" of death's tomorrow. 
 
 This, then, was the telephonic story 
 
 That made the " Dawning Light" a day of glory. 
 
 Under the inspiration of this thought, 
 
 So hopeful, and with such a future fraught, 
 
 A feeling strange came o'er me, on my pen ; 
 
 My thoughts were more on angels than on men. 
 
 Well, let it be so, 't is their sacred hour ; 
 
 They did the work, they had the mystic power. 
 
 While being thus celestially inclined, 
 
 My eyes were skyward turned, as well as mind ; 
 
 This globe of earth seemed like a palace-car ; 
 
 More than that, — I was riding on a star. 
 
 Is the earth a palace-car ? 
 Are we riding on a star ? 
 
INDIAN-SPIRIT INFLUENCES. 20? 
 
 Ask the man on Venus bright : 
 Watchman, tell us of the night! 
 Who with wonder gazes high, 
 Sees our planet in his sky, 
 Bright as Venus at its best ; 
 We shall need no other test ; 
 We are riding fast and far, 
 We are trav'ling on a star. 
 
 Thou incandescent orb ! Most glorious sun ! 
 
 Holding this star, our world, fast in its course, 
 
 As one will sometimes swing with a string 
 
 A ball round and round, centripetally tied; 
 
 The tension, resisting gravitation, 
 
 Is the force centrifugal. Thus balanced 
 
 Has this old star rolled on through space ; no pause 
 
 Nor change since the stars sang their morning song. 
 
 Thus earth's relation to the god of day. 
 
 This line, holding the earth steady in place, 
 
 Though invisible, immaterial force, 
 
 Is firm and enduring, in length counting 
 
 Almost a hundred million miles, the sweep 
 
 Circumferential six hundred million. 
 
 Thy daily task, old star, then counts in miles 
 
 A million, yes, plus half a million more, 
 
 Before thy daily work is done ; then day 
 
 By day the same to make the year complete ; 
 
 And we are riding on this star sublime. 
 
 Thou bright, planetary neighbor ! tethered 
 Like a dory to our ship, — silver-faced moon, — 
 Wert thou full six times further off than now, 
 Our star would span the distance in a day. 
 Where now beheld coquetting with the clouds, 
 In four short hours our speed would reach the spot. 
 Thirty miles an hour would steam-car travel 
 Continuously a year to do this four hours' work. 
 Thus hast thou sped, old earth, since time began. 
 Thy genesis with its misty morning 
 
204 SHADOWS. 
 
 No man can date, but thy swift exodus 
 He can compute, and in more than fancy 
 Knows that he is traveling on a star. 
 
 Is the earth a palace car? 
 Are we riding on a star? 
 Ask the man on Venus bright : 
 Watchman, tell us of the night? 
 Who with wonder gazes high, 
 Sees our planet in his sky, 
 Bright as Venus at its best ; 
 We shall need no other test ; 
 We are riding fast and far, 
 We are traveling on a star. 
 
 This star, our earth, so quickly flying, 
 Carrying its more than billion passengers, 
 Or precious freight of human beings, jumps 
 Never its track. No misplaced switch ever 
 Leads our star parabolically astray, 
 Nor telescoped by swifter-speeding orbs, — 
 Never collision with inward-bound stars. 
 So steady and even has been the speed, 
 Though moving in its track two thousand miles 
 While quickest locomotive travels one, 
 That mankind at ease seems standing still, 
 Yet all the time is riding on a star. 
 
 Thus would we realize in solemn words 
 That we are moving with electric speed, 
 Yet slow compared with light, which moves 
 Ten thousand times as fast; and thought beats light, 
 And spirits travel on the wings of thought. 
 While our star, the earth, through space is moving 
 Thus its thousand miles and more a minute, 
 Other bodies are traveling also, each with 
 Its own right of way on their several tracks. 
 There are also wandering, harmless systems, 
 Streams of granulated, cosmic matter, 
 In revolutions sweeping round the sun. 
 
INDIAN-SPIRIT INFLUENCES. 205 
 
 At times old earth, the star on which we ride, 
 Goes through these cosmic systems with a rush. 
 The atmospheric clothing of our globe 
 Protects us, but the friction from its speed 
 Makes incandescent the granulations, 
 And they fall in harmless dust, and blazing 
 Meteors irradiate the midnight sky, 
 While we are riding on this star sublime. 
 
 An impression came to the star-eyed sage 
 As he reached this line on his written page, 
 Where many an hour he had wasted ink 
 To strike an idea that would make men think, 
 And during the time had traveled so far 
 Without being joggled, though riding a star, 
 That there might be zones in the realms of space 
 That vitalized thought in the human race, 
 The contact affecting humanity's dream 
 Something like sailing through the old Gulf Stream, 
 Where water is warm to one's physical sense ; 
 But these zones warm soul with their influence. 
 Thus ages of light, or revivals of thought, 
 Have dawned on the world as history has taught ; 
 For mankind's movements seem in waves to flow, 
 Some mountains high, and some are leveled low, 
 More like influence from an outside source, 
 That wakes stagnation into active force, 
 Perihelions, perhaps, in a spiritual sense, 
 Where influence divine is more intense. 
 
 Thus while riding on a star, 
 Traveling very fast and far, 
 Old earth entered somewhat so, 
 Four and thirty years ago, 
 The zone of the " Dawning Light," 
 That made the conditions right, 
 And enabled angels bright 
 To make their presence felt ; 
 Messages from raps were spelt, 
 
206 SHADOWS. 
 
 Which, interpreted and read, 
 Broke the silence of the dead, 
 Thinned the curtain of our fate, 
 Forecasted our future state. 
 Man need not have traveled far 
 To have found the " gates ajar," 
 For the spirit world was near, 
 Our departed still were here. 
 Bat the transit through this " zone" 
 Made the earth a telephone, — 
 Made sensitive the inward ear, 
 And silent voices vocal, clear ; 
 Peopling the circumambient air 
 With living beauty everywhere. 
 
 Thus we celebrate the date, 
 
 March thirty-first, 'forty-eight, 
 
 As the genesis of our Thought, 
 
 That has golden luster brought 
 
 And marked the age with glory. 
 
 Is it out of place to say 
 
 (While moving through the Milky Way, 
 
 Or Galaxy of stellar light, 
 
 That spans so visibly at night 
 
 The great concave overhead) 
 
 Again the words already said, — 
 
 Is not earth a palace car? 
 
 See us riding on a star. 
 
 Ask the man on Yenus bright : 
 
 Watchman, tell us of the night? 
 
 Who with wonder gazes high, 
 
 Sees our planet in his sky, 
 
 Sees it traveling fast and far, 
 
 While we are riding on the star. 
 
XX. 
 
 A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 
 
 An entertaining sketch that will fill up some deficiencies 
 
 in the course of these "Shadows" 
 
 Sometimes I think the dear public of skeptical 
 people are often more deceived, their credulity taxed, 
 than are the body politic of spiritualistic believers. 
 
 The credulity is on the side of the opposition rather 
 than with us. I am sure I have been astute, eye- 
 opened, and expert in the investigation of this subject. 
 I have seen, of course, attempts to cheat by at least 
 supplementing their powers by more or less imposi- 
 tion; not always meaning to do anything very wrong, 
 but, perhaps, to give more for the fee received than 
 the spirits can do through them. 
 
 It has always been my wish, and so has it been the 
 wish of Spiritualists generally, that mediums would 
 have no manifestations rather than to have fictions, — 
 give it up as a failure, want of proper conditions, or 
 whatever the cause may be; but never to allow one's 
 mediumistic elasticity to stretch into anything of 
 their own doing ; in the long run, people who do gen- 
 erally come to grief. 
 
 207 
 
208 SHADOWS. 
 
 • 
 
 There are a great many people who are in the show 
 department of this business, often having more or less 
 mediumistic power, who find it more profitable to 
 cater for the opposition rather than the spiritualistic 
 public. It is a matter of dollars and cents with them. 
 I could name a man who is a good medium for phys- 
 ical manifestations, but likes the popularity and the 
 remuneration that he gets from the skeptical world 
 better than poverty with truth. I have proved his 
 mediumship when incog., under crucial test condi- 
 tions, and I have said to him, after making myself 
 known : " Why do you go about exposing it, or mix- 
 ing fiction extravagantly with fact, and call them 
 spiritual manifestations ? " He said in reply : "It is 
 wholly a matter of dollars. If I should go into a 
 village and do honest work as a spiritual medium, I 
 could not get enough to pay my expenses ; but if I 
 plan for the- opposition, the religious class, the Chris- 
 tian Association, or the fashionable, to expose or 
 bring discredit on it, I can get a full hall, and go awa} 7 
 with money in my pocket." 
 
 I have been many times to see these paying exhi- 
 bitions, and have seen many of the religious, literary, 
 and official lights of the community sold, as the say- 
 ing is, more than ever I saw a spiritual gathering 
 sold, and I have been both amused and grieved to 
 see a large audience of respectable and intelligent 
 people humbugged into supposing they were witness- 
 ing the spiritual manifestations that have converted 
 people to the cause. I have felt sorry, being a Spirit- 
 ualist, to find that so many people were ready to think 
 
A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 209 
 
 that that is the pabulum or sensuous phenomena that 
 has attracted and retained me as one of the believers. 
 
 I was once traveling in the far, far West, and on 
 the western slope of the Rocky mountains, and hap- 
 pened to be stopping in a mining town, where one of 
 these shows of big spiritual advertisements had been 
 going on; an interesting colloquy or circumstance 
 occurred, which was quite amusing. 1 wrote an 
 account of it over the signature of " Shadows," and 
 that account I will add to what I have already said, 
 as a finish to this chapter. If some part of it has 
 been already recorded in this book, in the form now 
 presented, it will hardly be a repetition. Pebbles, 
 you know, become jewels by an appropriate setting ; 
 but the " repetition," or fact mentioned, is a jewel, 
 setting or no setting; so, if it gets a new hearing, the 
 reader will be all the better for it. The article is as 
 follows : — 
 
 A traveler, very early in the morning, stopped at 
 the tavern in Nevada City. He had come during 
 the night in the branch railroad from Colfax, and reg- 
 istered his name. It was an hour or two before the 
 guests were stirring. Those who looked at the reg- 
 ister afterwards, as people are apt to, particularly in 
 a suburban town, read the name of " Shadows," Col- 
 fax. As soon as breakfast was read}', this new comer, 
 " Shadows," of Colfax, was more than ready, after an 
 all-night ride, and immediately began sipping his hot 
 coffee ; and, before the guests had begun to gather 
 much around the table, he had finished his meal, and 
 was again comfortably sitting by the stove. 
 
210 SHADOWS. 
 
 This stove was in the center of what might be 
 called the office, as the bar was in the side room on 
 the left, and the dining room was on the right, some 
 conveniences in the rear, and this office seemed to be 
 the general lounging room. This room was quite 
 large. On one side was the clerk's counter and desk, 
 and large piles of trunks on the other side ; but they 
 did not crowd it any. It was roomy, dirty, and com- 
 fortable. This stranger, seated by the stove, seemed 
 to be in a brown study, taking no notice of anything 
 or anybody. Not so the guests, as they came one 
 after another out of the dining room, some to stop, 
 others in passing gave a look at the stranger, and 
 wondered who he was ; the register gave his name. 
 They who looked read " Shadows," — the place where 
 he hailed from, " Colfax" ; but that was no definition. 
 
 Many, as usual on a cool morning, took seats around 
 this stove. - Of the eight or ten who occupied that 
 position, some were young, some middle aged, some 
 were old, — not very old nor very young. In a pro- 
 vincial place or mining town, as this was, a man of 
 60 looks easily 70, because the metropolitan style 
 was lacking, and slouches more in order than stiff 
 hats; and white shirts, though possibly in a majority, 
 were not unanimous. It was a place where dress did 
 not make the man, nor want of it the fellow. Old 
 and young among the sitters looked more or less at 
 the stranger, and all showed inquiring minds or faces, 
 as if they wanted to ask him who he was, and what 
 he was there for, and seemingly knowing no one. 
 The stranger, however, gave no signs of explaining 
 
A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 211 
 
 himself, — seemed perfectly at ease, and busy with 
 his own thoughts. 
 
 Soon, however, the companions of the stove began 
 to be sociable, still with an eye now and then on the 
 stranger, to see, perhaps, if he thawed out any. They 
 soon came to the conclusion that their talking or 
 looking was quite indifferent to him. In the course 
 of the general talk it seemed that some persons had 
 created quite a sensation the Sunday evening before, 
 filling the largest hall in the town to witness their 
 wonderfully advertised spiritual manifestations. The 
 parties were Eva Fay and a Mr. Bidden, I think. 
 No Spiritualist who reads the newspapers would take 
 any stock in them. 
 
 In listening to this general talk, and their several 
 comments, pro and eon, one could have got a tolera- 
 bly fair account of what occurred at that entertain- 
 ment, and, as it will be seen, this stranger did; but 
 he gave no signs of interest ; and whether he was lis- 
 tening or not, the strangers did not know. He cer- 
 tainly appeared to be deep in thought, living in a 
 different world from them. 
 
 One of the younger members of the group, and 
 one who talked more than his share, and might be 
 described as a " bar-room boss," summed it all up by 
 saying "it was a big humbug;" and I guess he was 
 right, only he intended his " big humbug " to cover 
 the whole subject from beginning to end, there and 
 elsewhere. An old man (who used a crutch, having 
 fallen from a rock), taking his pipe out of his mouth, 
 said: "I do not think so; some of it may have 
 
212 SHADOWS. 
 
 been, but some of the things were really honestly 
 done." " I do n't think Prof. Crosby took any stock 
 in them, and he is a Spiritualist," said another. At 
 the name of Crosby, the stranger looked at the party, 
 but, in an instant, he was indifferent again. Some 
 had noticed the look, and brought Prof. Crosby's 
 name more to the front in this connection, but it had 
 lost its charm, and the conversation subsided again 
 into the subject of spiritual manifestations generally. 
 The young man, who we said seemed to sum it 
 all up as a big humbug, said then, in a very positive 
 way, that "Spirits have nothing to do with this 
 folderol. All the things we read of as being done all 
 over the country, and called spiritual manifestations, 
 are all frauds." "Oh, that cannot be," said another. 
 But the "boss," who seemed to know it all, and had 
 seen it all — nothing more for him to learn — said: 
 " I admit some of it to be true ; but no spirits ; it is 
 electricity and mesmerism and mind-reading. All 
 the rope-tying, rings put onto connected arms, slate- 
 writing, tipping of tables, bell-ringing, are all decep- 
 tion, sleight-of-hand, or adroitness. Do you not see, 
 said he, "how large their wrists are, and hands 
 small ? " This young man was very positive ; spoke 
 as if used to carrying his point in that crowd, as if 
 those listeners were in the habit of being convinced 
 by his saying so. All the argument need not be 
 expressed in this wayside account. The reader will 
 get about the situation from what has been related, 
 this young " boss " of words being particularly happy 
 
A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 213 
 
 in clinching his argument with electricity, mesmer- 
 ism, and mind-reading. 
 
 The stranger turned his eye on this positive and 
 fluent talker, and said in a bright, cheerful, but very 
 deliberate manner : " My friend, will you define elec- 
 tricity? What is it?" The suddenness of the ques- 
 tion embarrassed the young man a little, and he 
 made, at first, no reply. All the listeners were as 
 much interested in the stranger's breaking silence as 
 in the question. The young speaker seemed to be 
 aware that it was very easy to say it was electricity, 
 but not so easy to tell what electricity was. The party 
 all looked at the stranger, who, at last, had opened 
 his mouth, and, after the pause mentioned, said to 
 the young man : " You need not try to answer the 
 question. The best that can be done by anyone is 
 to say it is a mode of motion. Farraday once said, in 
 reply to a question put to him : 4 1 suppose I know as 
 much about electricity as anyone, and I am unable 
 to say what it is, or define it.' If Farraday was dumb, 
 it is no discredit to you to be dumb on the subject 
 also. The spiritual manifestations may be electricity, 
 as j^ou say ; but, to say so, is no explanation." 
 
 The young man, not wishing to lose any of his 
 prestige in his own field, said to the stranger he had 
 more in his mind mesmerism than electricity. The 
 stranger at once said : u Well, my friend, what is 
 mesmerism ? " He replied : "The influence one mind 
 has upon or over another, sometimes controlling it." 
 " That is correct," said the stranger ; " and added : 
 " Is it the mind or the body that mesmerizes or con- 
 
214 SHADOWS. 
 
 trols the subject?" The young man said, rather 
 hesitatingly: "The mind." "Of course," said the 
 stranger, "for a body without a mind, or a corpse, 
 would have no mesmeric power. I think," con- 
 tinued the stranger, "that Spiritualism is mesmer- 
 ism." The young man began to feel as though he 
 had an ally. 
 
 The stranger then said : " As the body cannot, of 
 itself, mesmerize without a mind, is it not probable 
 that mind can without a body ? " "I never saw one, 
 or ever heard of one," said the young man ; and 
 the sitters around the stove were interested and 
 amused. "Well," said the stranger, "there are a 
 great many things that exist that we cannot see, or 
 intelligently perceive. We cannot see electricity or 
 mesmerism. We know them only by their effects. 
 We do not see minds or spirits ; we know them by 
 their effects. You have taken, my young friend, 
 an electric shock, or seen one taken, and so you 
 know electricity exists ; some day, if you are lucky, 
 you will have a spiritual shock ; then you will have 
 evidence of the other." 
 
 The young man said, in reply to the stranger: 
 "A man may exist, after his death, with thinking 
 powers, but I do not believe it. I am willing," said 
 he, " to be convinced ; I would like a spiritual shock 
 here and now." "Well," said the stranger, "if I 
 were a ' machine,' and conditions were right, I would 
 give you one ; but, as I am not, I will tell you of one 
 I had nryself. I have had a great many. This that I 
 now refer to is so perfectly unmistakable that, if you 
 
A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 215 
 
 believe me, you will have to be convinced. I do not 
 expect, however, you will be convinced ; the subject 
 is a matter of experience rather than of argument." 
 The stove-surroundings seemed desirous for an ac- 
 count of the stranger's first shock, so he gave it sub- 
 stantially as follows : — 
 
 " A niece of mine, a young lady of sixteen, said to 
 me during a visit at my house : 'Uncle, are you still 
 a Spiritualist?' I replied: Yes. She then related 
 something rather strange that had occurred in her 
 presence. I said : Molly, you must be a medium ; 
 come and sit with me at this table. She did so, and 
 we tried for raps, or tips, but did not succeed. I 
 then put a pencil in her hand to hold, and, seeing a 
 motion, I put a sheet of paper under it, and her hand 
 made up and down motions, dotting the paper, but 
 no writing. The movement was strange to her, as it 
 was wholly involuntary. I then put the end of my 
 index-finger on the wrist of the hand that held the 
 pencil, — nothing more, — and her hand began to 
 write line after line, she saying : ' How queer, uncle ; 
 I do n*t do that ; why, see, it goes of itself, and my 
 hand wont stop.' In this way she filled the page, 
 which I took, and she went right on writing the next 
 while I was reading the first, and it was the begin- 
 ning of a wise, intelligent letter. 
 
 "While writing in this way, she was all the time 
 talking excitedly to me, often saying: 'Only see it, 
 uncle, and I am not doing it ' (and the young man 
 smiled, as if he was thinking to himself: 'How she 
 was fooling the old man'). She ended the commu 
 
216 SHADOWS. 
 
 nication by signing the name of an old aunt of mine 
 who had died nearly fifty years ago, when my sister, 
 the mother of this young lady, was a child, and this 
 niece had never heard of such a person. So far, 
 knowing that this young lady was honest, it was 
 tolerable proof of the action of a spirit." 
 
 The young man said : " That is the way with all 
 you folks. That would not suit me ; that may have 
 been all pretence. I do not say it was, Mr. Shadows, 
 but it was possible; and, certainly, if there is any 
 way of accounting for a thing naturally, no one 
 will suggest the supernatural." "But, listen to me," 
 said the stranger ; u what do you think this letter 
 was ? It was from an invisible and watchful intelli- 
 gence, who wrote in this way: 'You' (this young 
 lady) c are doing yourself and the young man an 
 injury ; the flirtation that you are now carrying on 
 with that young college student, Mr. Chick, is 
 highly improper, and will do an injury to both of 
 you ; it will amount to nothing. Both of you are 
 too young, and you will both in time find your proper 
 mates. Your mother would not like it, if she knew 
 it; and now as I' (this invisible relative) ' am watch- 
 ing over you, I feel it my duty, as I love you, Molly, 
 to have trifling ended. You must end it, or go to 
 your mother and confide in her, who now knows 
 nothing of it. I take this way of reaching you, and 
 it shows you have friends watching you, whether 
 you wake or whether you sleep.' " 
 
 The stranger said he told this from memory, and 
 it was the substance of a long letter written auto- 
 
A WAYSIDE SKETCH. 217 
 
 matically, in the way described, by this young lady. 
 The nature of it is proof of its abnormal character. 
 I knew what she was writing before she did, other- 
 wise she never would have allowed me to see it. 
 The young lady burst into tears from mortification 
 to see her inmost thoughts thus exposed. I said : 
 u Who is this Mr. Chick? Is there any such per- 
 son? She said: 'He is a nice young man, who is in 
 college in our neighborhood, and I love him very 
 much.' Suffice it to say," said the stranger, "the 
 young lady learned a wise lesson that she has never 
 forgotten. There are eyes that see us and watch us, 
 and the knowledge of that fact, I may as well add, 
 is what the world needs more than it needs anything 
 else." 
 
 The young man had to own up that this was a re- 
 markable case, as the stranger had stated it. " But I 
 have had," said he, " no such experience myself, and 
 I cannot believe it. I might have been saved from 
 much trouble if anybody's aunt had written a letter 
 to me. You are a stranger," said the young man ; 
 "you tell a good story. I do n't want to doubt you, 
 sir, but it smells to me fishy. Perhaps I would think 
 otherwise if I knew you ; but I would have to have 
 the experience myself. This may be a 'spiritual 
 shock' to you, but it has not shocked me a bit; and, 
 if I had been present, I feel pretty sure it would not 
 have struck me." 
 
 At this moment in walked Prof. Crosbj r from the 
 dining-room. The stranger's back was towards him. 
 He had heard a few of the last words of the confab, 
 
218 SHADOWS. 
 
 and the stranger turning to see who had entered, the 
 professor rushed towards him, saying : " Good God, 
 John, where did you come from ? " and he intro- 
 duced the stranger to the persons around him as his 
 friend " Shadows," of Boston. 
 
 It only remains for me to say that I wanted to 
 surprise my friend, and, finding myself within a few 
 hours' ride from him, thought I would make him a 
 visit. I have no doubt, also, I instructed as well as 
 entertained the members of the tavern office in that 
 colloquy, and I think it was a fortunate circumstance 
 that the " stranger " happened to be present. I 
 think that Miss Fay is a medium, but I do not 
 think her shows are any credit to Spiritualism. But 
 the cause was not hurt any by the light that the 
 " stranger," now known as " Shadows," cast upon 
 the subject. 
 
XXT. 
 
 MATTER AND SPIRIT. 
 
 Of intercourse with sjyirits. — Some conditions loorth 
 knowing. — Illustrations — Sealed letters. 
 
 It is the opinion of many able writers, including 
 the late Robert Dale Owen (who had wide experi- 
 ence in dealing with the spirits, and did so very 
 advantageously), that spirits do not see material 
 objects, or hear material sounds, as we mortals do. 
 From my own experiences, I agree with him and 
 them that it requires material organs to see material 
 objects and hear material or external sounds. In 
 one sense, sounds may not be strictly material ; for 
 instance, the human voice, — that is, an external 
 expression of the human spirit, but it is material in 
 its manifestation from its impulse to its expression. 
 It is air vibrations, and air is material. It requires 
 the auricular organ to hear a sound; by and through 
 that organ it reaches the sensorium, aud becomes a 
 matter of consciousness. So, also, it requires the 
 optical organ to see a material object, and through 
 it the object reaches the sensorium, and becomes a 
 matter of consciousness or perception. 
 
 219 
 
220 SHADOWS. 
 
 This seems very simple talk on very common, simple 
 things. Optical and auricular organs are so common, 
 born with us, and are in practical use from infancy to 
 age with no effort on our part. The operation is so 
 simple that, as a matter of course, the modus oper- 
 andi, and the philosophy of the phenomena of per- 
 ception is rarely thought of. Yet, simple and com- 
 mon as it is, no one, no matter the extent of his 
 knowledge, however much of a scientist or student 
 in these things he may be, is able to explain how the 
 object which is material becomes a matter of con- 
 sciousness, which is spiritual. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the most intuitional 
 of men, who seems to sense a truth and then embody 
 it in living language so pleasant to remember that it 
 makes his every thought a treasure, said : " It is so 
 wonderful to our neurologists that a man should see 
 without eyes ; but it does not occur to them that it 
 is just as wonderful that he should see with them." 
 Simple as the quoted fact seems, it is both wonderful 
 and inexplicable that with eyes we should be able 
 to see and make material objects manifest to our 
 spirits. 
 
 It is not our purpose to write an essay on percep- 
 tion, which I seem to be doing, but only to philoso- 
 phize a little in this way to smooth the abruptness of 
 the statement, that our spirit friends do not see us 
 objectively or materially in the sense that we mortals 
 see each other. It is, however, no difficult thing for 
 any or all spirits to see in this objective or external 
 way, if they so desire, or for any purpose. It must 
 
MATTER AND SPIRIT. 221 
 
 be remembered that we are spirits now as well as 
 materialized beings, and probably we are as well 
 known in our spiritual aspects, by our friends in the 
 spirit world, as we are ourselves by the memory or 
 sight of us as encased in the mortal form. 
 
 I said it required material organs to see material 
 things ; they are easily found by spirits ; the world 
 is full of them. All the time there is a billion and 
 almost a half at the service of the spirits. Spirits 
 have only to come en rapport with the possessor of 
 material optics or auricular ones in place, to thus see 
 the world of nature or materiality as we mortals see 
 it. So easy and so general is this that the spirits, 
 through mediums, will often say they see us as we 
 see each other ; but I am sure for them to do so, 
 which is very common, they do it in the way sug- 
 gested, which is one slight remove from the direct 
 objective way. The spirit has only to be conscious 
 of the consciousness of the person by whose aid or 
 with whose organs the said spirit sees to see objects 
 as he does. 
 
 In one sense, as I have said, the object in normal 
 human seeing is a foreign thing to the seer, — a dis- 
 crete separation, for spirits cannot see, hear, or toucli 
 matter; only the image or sensation of it reaches the 
 human sensorium. For instance, illustrating the 
 point from an optical point of view, the image or 
 picture of an object reaches the retina and is pic- 
 tured on it, and that image or picture reaches the 
 consciousness of the person who is looking at it ; then 
 it may be said to be the pictorial property of the 
 
222 SHADOWS. 
 
 spirit, and may be by the same source the property 
 or consciousness of the spirit that is then en rapport. 
 Some consideration of this point, which is really a 
 matter strictly in the domain of science, is important 
 in grasping the subject of the spiritual manifesta- 
 tions, or the dynamics of this more or less occult 
 subject. 
 
 In corroboration of what has been said herein, I 
 will quote from the writings of Eugene Crowell, 
 where he writes on this subject, as follows : — 
 
 " It may here be proper to say something respect- 
 ing the power of spirits to hear our conversation, as 
 there are erroneous views prevalent even among 
 Spiritualists upon this question. I have devoted 
 considerable time and attention to this subject, and, 
 as the result, I find that most spirits, unless on low 
 planes, cannot distinctly hear us converse ; they more 
 generally perceive our thoughts ; while, on the con- 
 trary, spirits on the lower planes cannot read our 
 thoughts, but can more readily hear our conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 "Old John and Big Bear (two spirits) say their 
 ability to hear mortal voices (when not in control) 
 varies in every house they visit ? In my house they 
 can understand our conversation best when a certain 
 member of my family is present, and they elsewhere 
 can hear best when some person present is meclium- 
 istic. In the presence of their medium they can 
 always hear distinctly what is said by others. Through 
 other reliable mediums, what is here stated has been 
 confirmed, and it was only after thorough investiga- 
 
MATTER AND SPIRIT. 223 
 
 tion that I accepted the assertion as hurtful, it being 
 at variance with my preconceived opinions." 
 
 With the foregoing statement and quotation, the 
 following experience will be illustrative and inter- 
 esting, and will not only explain it, but will explain 
 many of the utterances from the spirit world. One 
 of the most reliable mediums I have ever known, and 
 one who has given me demonstrative evidence of his 
 genuine power, whose phase is the answering of 
 sealed letters, and is entitled to his claim of keeping 
 a spirit post-office. After receiving many answers 
 through him from various spirits, one from my sister 
 disturbed me. It was technically correct, and had 
 never been opened, but it did not seem, in its 
 extended answer to my query, to be the warm- 
 hearted letter that my sister would have written : 
 and if that was her now heavenly, platonic, dignified 
 way, I felt that she must be so changed in the 
 undress of the spirit that I had really lost my sister 
 even if I had found her. 
 
 Seeking after the truth, and trying, as is my cus- 
 tom, to get at the facts of the case, I wrote a letter 
 to my father, John Wetherbee, adding to the address 
 inside, u or any of my spirit friends,'' asking four 
 definite questions. My father was then alive, living 
 in New York, but I wrote the letter as if it was for a 
 spirit. I had sealed it up so that it could not be 
 opened without my knowing it. I put no address on 
 the envelope ; that was entirely blank ; no one but I 
 knew for whom it was for. 
 
 I went with it to this medium, found him sitting 
 
224 SHADOWS. 
 
 at his writing-table, took my seat opposite to him, and 
 handed him the letter. He said he was tired, and so 
 he would keep it till the next day, and laid it on the 
 shelf with other letters. After a little general con- 
 versation upon other matters, as I knew him very 
 well, he suddenly stopped, reached for the letter that 
 he had placed on the shelf, and said the spirit was 
 here, and he would answer it then. Please bear in 
 mind that the letter had not been out of my sight. 
 With the letter unaddressed and unopened before 
 him, the fingers of his left hand resting on it, but not 
 covering it, with his right hand he wrote, I looking 
 on and reading as he wrote, as follows : " My dear son 
 and namesake," and copied the questions literally in 
 their order, and intelligently and elaborately answered 
 each, as anyone could have done who had read the 
 questions, and then he ended by saying, or rather 
 writing : " Your once earthly but now spirit father, 
 John Wetherbee." 
 
 The medium was very much surprised, when I 
 opened and read the questions and name to him, that 
 I was not satisfied. " What," said he, " do you 
 expect?" I said: "The truth." My father was 
 alive, and that lying spirit says : " Your once earthly 
 and now spirit father." I was very much set back 
 by this outcome, not understanding it then. One 
 thing I was sure of, the perfect honesty of the me- 
 dium, for I saw the production was honestly done 
 before my eyes, only the spirit assumed to be my 
 father when he was not. I soon got at the rationale 
 of this, and lost my interest in such communications 
 
MATTER AKD SPIRIT. 225 
 
 as identifications, but proved them to be spiritual 
 beyond a doubt, and that was a great point settled, 
 even if one was not sure who he was corresponding 
 with. 
 
 The remarks I have made on seeing and hearing 
 by the spirits explain how this mistake on the part 
 of the spirits happened. Some spirits read the mind 
 of the sitter. The spirits controlling the medium, 
 his band as they call it, do the autographic work, 
 reading probably clairvoyantly the letter which is 
 unopened. They ought to be able to read the mind 
 of the sitter or the writer of the letter. To do that, 
 according to the ideas of Robert Dale Owen and 
 Eugene Crowell, the executing spirit must be of a 
 higher grade than the writer or sitter. It is hard to 
 understand what higher or lower grade in spiritual 
 parlance means, probably spiritually rather than intel- 
 lectually ; at any rate, it is on a different system from 
 the expression " higher and lower " in this world's 
 matters. 
 
 It was very evident the spirits on that occasion, 
 besides not being my father or my departed friends, 
 could not read my mind, which then and all the time 
 was intensely charged with the thought. I was full 
 of it, expecting some spirit would say : " You can 
 reach your father by the mail terrestrial, but I will 
 answer your questions." It almost seems, on the 
 principle of mind-reading, that that might hav T e been 
 the result. Intense as the thought was in my mind, 
 the spirits controlling this medium had no access to 
 me, even if they had in a clairvoyant way to the 
 
226 SHADOWS. 
 
 sealed letter. I think, if I have been lucid in my 
 statement, one will see where' and how the mistake 
 was made on the part of the spirits. The band con- 
 trolling this medium, and friendly to him, did the 
 work as best it could; not having access to my mind, 
 they did not know my father was alive. I am glad 
 they did not, for they then might have made a test 
 of it for me when it would not have been one. 
 
 I have many times, since this paternal one, had 
 sealed letters answered quite satisfactorily, and once 
 or twice where the identity was quite complete, — at 
 least I would be straining harder if I undertook to 
 prove it a fiction than I would to consider it what 
 it claimed to be. As I did not relate the circum- 
 stances of the letter or show its questionable genesis, 
 but as an illustration of the subject treated, as well 
 as to show the difficulties attending the identification 
 of spirits generally, I will add in closing an account 
 of one, that at least approximates to identification. 
 
 I had a reason for writing a letter to a certain 
 spirit friend, to ask his opinion and advice, and, in 
 the course of a few days I received an answer from 
 that spirit, containing also the letter I had sent 
 unopened. I put the missive in my pocket to read 
 at leisure, and forgot all about it. On my way home, 
 I stopped at Mrs. Mary Hardy's, the well-known 
 medium, by appointment, and found a friend waiting 
 there for me. We were going to have a sitting 
 together. During the sitting, the spirit came that I 
 had written to, and my friend said to the spirit: 
 " Did you receive the letter that John wrote you the 
 
MATTER AND SPIRIT. 227 
 
 other day?" "Yes," said the spirit, "and I have 
 answered it, and he has got it now in his pocket." 
 
 That reminded me of the fact which I had forgot- 
 ten, and I said to my friend in his surprise : " That is 
 so ; I got it this morning and forgot all about it," and 
 taking it out of my pocket, I said to him: " There it 
 is." I do not see very easily how that could be any- 
 thing else than a spirit's reply, and it seems to me 
 it would be straining some not to admit it to 
 have been actually, under the circumstances, from 
 the very spirit to whom I had written. The clair- 
 voyant eyes of the spirit could have seen possibly the 
 message in my pocket, and thus got his information, 
 but I am inclined to think it was from the identical 
 spirit who knew the fact legitimately. 
 
 I have no question of the ability of reaching spirits 
 and getting intelligent answers by writing in this 
 way, but there is apt to be an uncertainly as to the 
 identification, as was the case when I wrote to my 
 living father in the form, as if he was a spirit, and 
 got a reply from an alias, who assumed to be my 
 "once earthly and now spirit father. ,s I have pretty 
 clear ideas how this is done, and why it is done by 
 the spirits in the interest or benefit of the medium, 
 and the fact of the work being done by spirits settles 
 the important part of the question, for if one spirit 
 can come, even a tricky one, so can a right and true 
 one by the same law, if the conditions are right. 
 
 If that spirit who wrote the answer to me, assum- 
 ing to be my once earthly father, had been Theodore 
 Parker, or any high-toned spirit, on the principle 
 
228 SHADOWS. 
 
 suggested by Robert Dale Owen and Eugene Crowell, 
 to whom I have referred, he could have read the 
 strong desire already then formulated in my mind, 
 and get the bottom facts in the case, and he would not 
 have assumed to have been my father. I can con- 
 ceive how such a spirit might have given me a per- 
 fect identification. I can conceive, also, how such a 
 spirit might not have fancied my deception, and 
 paid me in kind. That was the way the medium 
 explained this affair. It was not satisfactory to me, 
 for I know my motive was good, and that I was 
 honestly seeking after truth. One can see there is 
 great difficulty in knowing who the invisible really 
 is that responds to you. It was a great pleasure to 
 me to know beyond a question that the spirit was a 
 bogus father, and to know, also, that the medium 
 was honest clear through. It is a pleasure, also, to 
 know that I-have had some communications, of which 
 I have spoken, through the same amanuensis that 
 were in every way authentic. 
 
 The object of stating this point so minutely is for 
 the guide of others, — for one to see there are disabili- 
 ties to encounter, and not be unnecessarily suspicious 
 of the medium, for the deficiencies may be farther in. 
 
XXII. 
 
 A PENUMBRAL SKETCH. 
 
 An afternoon with the spirits. — A departed friend 
 returns from over the river, and owns up. 
 
 The following article I copy almost verbatim from 
 one I wrote and had published in the Banner of 
 Light. It embodies some interesting matters that 
 made a deep impression on me, as being unquestion- 
 ably spiritual. The incidents that make the article 
 interesting to me come under the head of trifles in a 
 worldly sense, if anything is trifling that has the 
 luster of a spiritual source on it. I will, however, 
 present the article without much preface, letting it 
 speak for itself, which is as follows : — 
 
 "Full oft my feelings make me start, 
 Like footprints on some desert shore, 
 As if the chambers of my heart 
 
 Had heard their shadowy steps before." 
 
 I begin with these lines very much as we sing the 
 "Sweet By-and-Bye " at a seance, for the sake of the 
 proper conditions, and, at the same time, the weird 
 thought that the verse suggests expresses the state 
 of my mind at the present moment, having been 
 
 229 
 
230 SHADOWS. 
 
 thinking of a late experience, and also while having 
 the experience. It seems to be a proper state of 
 mind in which to relate it. The experience was 
 exceedingly interesting to me. Whether I can make 
 it so to the reader remains to be seen. 
 
 Now, do not expect too much after this shadowy 
 beginning, and thus be disappointed, but remember 
 that sometimes the simplicities are in order, and very 
 often with me, and, doubtless, with many others, 
 some trifling incident among the manifestations will 
 answer the earnest, hungry call in the following lines 
 affirmatively (it is necessary to print them in this 
 article, though quoted before in one of the chapters 
 of this book, as the reader will see) when some 
 wonderful manifestation might not, — the waters of 
 Jordan, you remember, cured the royal leper when 
 the larger rivers of his own country would not. 
 
 "Ah, blow me the scent of one lily to tell 
 
 That it grew outside of the world at most ; 
 Ah, show me a plume to touch, or a shell, 
 That whispers of some unearthly coast." 
 
 Two of my friends from Providence called on me 
 the other afternoon. One of them was a Spiritualist 
 in a mild, quiet way, not conspicuously identified 
 with the subject, but was a very firm believer, — had 
 had evidences of its basic truth in his own home. 
 The other was a legal gentleman of some repute, not 
 a Spiritualist, I was going to say, but it is hard to 
 tell who is and who is not, this thought has so pene- 
 trated the general mind. It seems he had been at 
 
A PENUMBRAL SKETCH. 231 
 
 some sittings at some earlier date, and thought there 
 was something in it besides delusion and kumbug- 
 gery, but had never been at a spiritual meeting ; so 
 neither was known in the city. 
 
 These two men, whom I will call Daniel and 
 Ezekiel, because these two names popped into my 
 mind, though in no sense suggestive of my friends, 
 who are neither prophets, or the sons of prophets, 
 both being men of the world, and of business. 
 
 "Well," said they, after the civilities were over, 
 " what is there going on this afternoon? Where can 
 we go and see something?" — meaning spiritual 
 manifestations. We looked over the list ; there were 
 five or six interesting chances, but we could take in 
 but one, and as there was not much time before they 
 would begin, and, possibly, then the one selected 
 would be full; but, like Luath, the dog of which 
 Burns speaks, — 
 
 "His honest, sonsie, baws'ut face, 
 Aye gat him friends in ilka place." 
 
 So they had no fears on that score, but took their 
 chances, and went to see the "Berry sisters," who 
 are materializing mediums, as well as for other phys- 
 ical manifestations, and we moved in their direction. 
 Though it did not happen to be a materialization 
 seance, when we got there, as we expected, it was one 
 of the occasions when none of us were disappointed. 
 
 As I have said, Daniel and Ezekiel were entire 
 strangers to the medium, and were not introduced 
 for obvious reasons, and thev were unknown also to 
 
232 SHADOWS. 
 
 all the persons present. This happened to be Miss 
 Ellen Berry's dark circle. Daniel did not seem to 
 get much during this seance (some people somehow 
 always seem to get more than others). With Ezekiel 
 it was otherwise. The medium, who w T as seated at 
 some distance from the latter (Daniel sitting at one 
 end of a twelve-foot table, and Ezekiel side of me 
 at the other end), she being seated about in the 
 
 center, said she heard the name of Ezekiel H ; 
 
 that was the full name of my friend ; and later, when 
 the medium was sitting nearer to him, the same 
 name came, and also one or two of his relatives' 
 names were mentioned ; they also wrote some mes- 
 sages. They were from two or three different spirits, 
 and were remarkably good tests. I was presuming 
 
 Ezekiel H was the name of my friend, but it 
 
 seems it was an uncle of the same name, and the 
 message showed the fact, besides his information in 
 reply to a question from me, as I did not know he 
 had an uncle who was a namesake. 
 
 I always am interested in tests ; but I generally 
 have to get them by observation, as in this case, for 
 personally my spirit friends are apt to be known to 
 the mediums, for my pen is such a tell-tale. On this 
 occasion, however, 1 not only realized my friend's 
 tests, which were unmistakably so to him, and there- 
 fore to me, but I had them directly, also, and this is 
 what I referred to when I began this article. It is 
 unnecessary to speak of Albert and Hattie, or the 
 spirits of Amory and Huntington, who manifested to 
 me for reasons mentioned ; they would hardly be 
 
A PENUMBBAL SKETCH. 233 
 
 tests; and yet in Hattie's manifestation there was 
 something worth mentioning. She kissed me on the 
 forehead and whispered her name, and in doing so 
 she was so near I felt her hair as it touched my head 
 and face, and the medium being seated closely by 
 my side, and I holding her hand, I know she did not 
 and could not move, and the circle being unbroken 
 I know that it was some unearthly head and hair that 
 whispered and came in contact with mine ; and I hope 
 the writer of that verse who wanted a shell "that 
 whispered of some unearthly coast," or anybody else 
 who is hungry in that direction, will take my word 
 that if an " unearthly head " will answer as well as a 
 "shell," or "the scent of a lily," that it has been my 
 experience. I seem to be spinning this out ; but I 
 have not yet reached the circumstance that has 
 inspired my pen. 
 
 My friend, Seth E. Brown, — I will be excused in 
 using names, I am sure he will not object to it, and 
 I am something like Junius, who wrote the letters, 
 who liked to deal with persons, not with shadows; yet 
 I am not like him, for I do and am dealing with "shad- 
 ows " in this book; but now, in dealing with Brown, 
 I am dealing with a person who now may pass for a 
 "shadow." But it pleases me to feel that the most 
 substantial things in the universe are spirits ; they 
 are the real, we are the fleeting. "We," as Emerson 
 says, "are only the flux of matter over the wires of 
 thought." 
 
 My friend Brown died very suddenly about five or 
 six weeks ago (May, 1884), and who until a year ago 
 
234 SHADOWS. 
 
 was a joint tenant with me in the business office I 
 occupied, and we had been together in this way for 
 several years. We were very intimate in a business 
 way, and many an hour have we chatted on these 
 spiritual matters. He was not a Spiritualist, but 
 was very hospitable to the subject; probably like many 
 others he believed more than he had the courage to 
 admit. He thought I had had great evidence, and 
 wished that he had. He often said : " We will all 
 know some day whether it is true ; " in fact, after any 
 long colloquy on the subject, that was his stereotyped 
 ending, — meaning by it that when we died we should 
 know then whether we were still alive. He generally 
 said, also, or did sometimes, that if he died before I 
 did he would come and let me know if it was true. 
 " So do," I replied, and said ditto. It was not many 
 weeks before he died that I had one of these chats 
 with him, which was ended with that usual remark. 
 
 While at this seance of which I have been speak- 
 ing, with Daniel and Ezekiel, and during the manifes- 
 tations that were then going on, I had some very 
 vigorous pounds on the top of my head, and I said 
 
 mentally, as that was the usual way, "Is that ?" 
 
 (mentioning the name of a spirit friend, but not 
 speaking it vocally), and got one smart touch by the 
 spirit on my head which means "No " as the response. 
 I continued then in the same way to ask the names 
 of my departed friends, and the response was " No" 
 every time, and then Brown's name popped into my 
 mind, and almost before I got it mentally formulated, 
 as if the spirit knew it as quickly as I did, the " Yes " 
 
A PENUMBBAL SKETCH. 235 
 
 came quite vigorously, and I said: "Is that really 
 you, Seth?" only I did not say "Seth" vocally, but 
 thought it. Besides the three pounds on my head, I 
 got quite a number on my back, and I have no doubt 
 it was the spirit of my friend. It was almost as if he 
 had said : " Did I not tell you, John, that I would 
 come?" 
 
 The medium later, and sitting at another part of 
 the table farther from me, said, addressing me : " That 
 friend of yours is still with you ; he seems very glad ; 
 his name is Seth, I cannot get the rest of his name." 
 That was right, but the medium did not know it, for 
 his name had not then been mentioned. I had beeu 
 very particular. When the room was lighted again, 
 I found I had some messages written by the spirits 
 the same way that my friend Ezekiel had, of which I 
 have spoken. I will mention here that when the 
 messages were written to me and to Ezekiel, I held 
 the medium's hand, and know that she did not do 
 the writing, and with that company it is absurd to 
 talk of confederates. I am cutting this short, and 
 leaving out many of the points of this seance for the 
 sake of brevity, and confine myself as much as possi- 
 ble to the Brown complexion of this experience. 
 
 Among the messages from Albert, Hattie, and oth- 
 ers was this one from Brown: "John, I believe it 
 now. — Seth." This was a very short message ; but it 
 seemed very appropriate, and what I ought to have 
 expected from him, if it was he. The medium never 
 knew Mr. Brown, or my connection with him. I was 
 not expecting him nor thinking of him, and I began 
 
236 SHADOWS. 
 
 to exhaust the names of my departed friends when 
 his name occurred to me. I really think it was he, 
 and his message though short was full of meaning, — 
 multum in parvo, — "I believe it now." It certainly 
 made an intelligent connection with our antecedent 
 talks to which I have referred, and wholly unknown 
 to the medium and anyone else in the room but 
 me. 
 
 At the close of this seance my friends, as well as 
 myself, felt as if the two hours we had spent with 
 Miss Berry as being the u gates ajar," and among the 
 departed, had not been time wasted. We all three 
 talked over the matter by ourselves. Ezekiel had 
 oral and other tests, and many remarkable messages, 
 which were what might have been expected from the 
 spirits communicating. One message from a distin- 
 guished, but departed, lawyer of his city was very 
 satisfactory.- I knew the man by reputation, but did 
 not know him as in any way connected with Ezekiel, 
 but it seems he was on quite intimate terms, and the 
 message was in keeping with it, and he went home 
 pretty strong in the faith. In fact, we all three can 
 be counted on as Spiritualists, if there were any 
 doubts before. 
 
 I began this penumbral sketch with a verse of 
 poetry, and perhaps it will be as well for symmetry to 
 end with one. I sometimes think a verse, with a 
 sublime and fitting thought in it, is more suggestive 
 and ornamental than a peroration, so I draft on the 
 following : — 
 
A PENUMBRAL SKETCH. 237 
 
 ' I feel their touch upon my hair, 
 Upon my cheek and on my brow ; 
 I know that they are everywhere, 
 That they are with me even now." 
 
XXIII. 
 
 MATERIALIZATION. 
 
 Affirmations. — Critical comments. — Illustrative 
 
 Experiences. 
 
 I will begin a chapter on this subject by saying 
 the materialization of human forms, or what is called 
 by that name, is a fact, — that is, human forms are 
 produced, extemporized so to speak, into visible, 
 tangible, or sensuous apparitions. I firmly believe 
 this, both theoretically and practically, — have had 
 the evidence that makes me sure of what I so posi- 
 tively state. 
 
 Speaking of it theoretically, I have had, as the 
 reader of this book will know, in my own house, and 
 under the most favorable conditions, sensuous, tangi- 
 ble, and intelligent evidence of the materialization 
 of a seemingly human hand that I could grasp, and 
 have had that evidence hundreds of times. I have had 
 also the handling and close ocular inspection of hands 
 of apparent flesh and bones, in fact, real human 
 hands, that were not attached to human bodies, but 
 were as alive and pliable and sensitive as my own. 
 Now, therefore, giving us a hand materialized, the 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 239 
 
 production of the whole form is possible also. These 
 experiences of mine were long before the advent of 
 the full-form manifestations; tin's, then, is my ground 
 for believing in the phase theoretically. 
 
 I have had experience with about all of the medi- 
 ums for materialization who have been in this vicin- 
 ity, and have had some ocular proof that these forms 
 are, sometimes at least, what they claim to be ; not to 
 the extent I wish, but added to the fact that, with 
 the majority of mediums for this phase, I have had 
 perfect proof that personating, acting a part, or con- 
 federacy, is not the modus operandi of their produc- 
 tion. This, then, is my ground for believing in the 
 phase practically. 
 
 I must, also, with my experience, add that, to me, 
 as a whole, it is not the most interesting phase of the 
 spiritual phenomena. I cau say, with Leigh Hunt : — 
 
 "How sweet it were if. without feeble fright, 
 Or dying of the dreadful beauteous sight, 
 An angel came to us, and we could bear 
 To see it issue from the silent air 
 At evening in our room — " 
 
 because the evidence through the sense of sight, as 
 an eminent savant has said, is stronger testimony than 
 evidence through the senses of hearing and touch. 
 I am hardly prepared to admit that, it depends so 
 much on what we are testing, and our intellectual 
 make-up, as connected with our several senses. But, 
 referring to the poetic suggestion, the manifestations 
 of spirit forms have never come " at evening in our 
 room " in a way that would respond to Leigh Hunt's 
 
240 SHADOWS. 
 
 " sweet " possibility, as suggested by the quotation, 
 and, in fact, has been the dream or fancy, bordering 
 almost upon expectation of the poets generally, as 
 memory and records will show. So, as I have said, 
 believing in the fact both theoretically and practi- 
 cally, I am not fascinated with the materialized 
 return of departed spirits as I would be if they came 
 in a less questionable manner. I hardly know how 
 to express what I want to say; but I trust in the 
 elaboration of my thought I will make my ideas 
 manifest and manifestly friendly to the phase, before 
 I get through the chapter. 
 
 In spiritual manifestations, as in scientific research, 
 we must make the most of the best conditions we can 
 get. One cannot always command his conditions, 
 whether spiritual or scientific. We are obliged in 
 astronomy to look at the sun or stars through forty 
 miles or more of atmosphere ; it is possible, if we 
 could command an independent standpoint, we might 
 have to modify some of our conclusions. Now, it 
 seems darkness is a requisite condition for the pro- 
 duction of materialized spirit forms ; not total dark- 
 ness, but a very few degrees above it, and that, cer- 
 tainly, is one of the disabilities, especially in this 
 particular phase, as recognition is the attractive 
 point; and, therefore, the spirits may as well not 
 come for that purpose, unless there can be light 
 enough to be unmistakable. I am not finding any 
 fault, for I am only too glad for their apparition 
 any way. 
 
 I am very hospitable to the spiritual manifesta- 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 241 
 
 tions generalty, especially to materializations, hoping 
 the latter will improve, as they have, to a great 
 degree, already, and that I yet may be as fascinated 
 with them as I am with many of the simpler, yet 
 intelligent, phenomena; but all this wishing and 
 hoping need not prevent the expression of my 
 thoughts or views on the subject, even as it appears 
 to me, and to sa}% though in one instance, I can say 
 I recognized a spirit, and this fact of a positive 
 recognition threw a luster on the phase generally, by 
 making it possible that some others that I ought 
 have, but could not recognize, may have been the 
 persons they claimed to be. As the remembrance of 
 that satisfactory one, with its accompanying luster, 
 recedes into the distant past, I sometimes wonder 
 myself if it was really so, and I seem to need repe- 
 titions to keep me firm in the rut of that one special 
 experience. 
 
 As I read my recorded story of it now, which I 
 know I wrote truthfully, and as I felt the reading of 
 it, and the memory of it, among so many less impres- 
 sively true ones since, have detracted some of the 
 vividness of that one, and I find n^self asking in my 
 own mind if that was realty so, paled a little, like a 
 neglected photograph taken years ago, and }~et from 
 my habits of making records I know it was so. 
 
 Now for illustration of the subject generally. I can 
 remember very distinctly my dark-eyed sister. I can 
 remember her as plainly as if she now sat before me; 
 and if she should appear at one of these seances as 
 plainly as I now see her in my mind, how readily I 
 
242 SHADOWS. 
 
 could recognize her. But this spirit has never 
 appeared so ; she has come, so the form has said, but 
 in such questionable shape I never could have known 
 her ; and, if she is around me now, she knows I could 
 not recognize a young woman of dark curly hair, and 
 large, bright, black eyes, dressed flowingly in white, 
 her head-dress flowing, and white, also, not a speck 
 of dark hair in sight, and no speculation in her eye. 
 These phantasms — no, not phantasms, they are too 
 human and muscular for that — do not attract me as 
 the actual presence of my spirit friends, or even as 
 being the personal presence of spirits. This was my 
 experience in ocular recognitions until my friend 
 Albert appeared, and it was so like him, though 
 almost speechless, with his manifest, quiet manner, 
 the whole phase rose higher in my estimation, and I 
 have the faith that it will go on improving, and these 
 disabilities grow less and less. 
 
 It seemed to me, before the time of which I am 
 speaking, and so it has since that in observing others' 
 recognitions, that they came to their conclusions 
 quicker than I could. It is possible there is a differ- 
 ence in people's eyes, some seeing better in the dark 
 than others. I have sometimes wondered if people 
 had not intuitive help, perhaps some clairvoyant 
 power supplementing the ocular. I am only making 
 these observations to show the state of my own mind, 
 not for any special information or instruction, or I 
 would write an essay on the subject, which this cer- 
 tainly is not. 
 
 The most interesting feature to me in these materi- 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 243 
 
 alizations, and which T considei spiritual manifesta- 
 tions, is not in the personalities of the apparitions, but 
 in the fact that they are spirit manifestations. When 
 I have satisfied myself that a woman, passing from 
 us and going behind a curtain into the triangular 
 space in the corner of a room, and the woman by 
 measurement is under five feet in stature, and there 
 is no way for a confederate to go into that enclosure 
 without my seeing him or her enter, and then there 
 comes out of that triangular space into the room a 
 man six feet high, and I shake hands with him, and 
 know he is alive and not on stilts, but standing or 
 walking firmly and naturally on the floor, I know 
 then there is no possible metamorphosis from the 
 medium into that spirit. It is of no consequence 
 whether the apparition is John Brown or General 
 Burnside or my uncle, — that is not the point. 
 
 There is a human-looking form that I know is not 
 the medium, and is not a confederate, and being then 
 an extemporized one it must be spiritual, because it 
 is an intelligent act, and an intelligent apparition, 
 and there is no intelligence that is not connected 
 with either a mortal or a spirit. That, then, of itself 
 is an interesting fact, and a wonderful one. If this 
 fact or apparition claims to be some departed friend 
 of mine, that I would know if I saw him or her, and 
 yet do not know the apparition, that does not add to 
 the interest of the manifestation ; it detracts, if any- 
 thing. The spirit had better remain a " beauty and 
 a mystery " than assume to be some special personal 
 friend that is unrecognizable. 
 
244 SHADOWS. 
 
 I cannot think of a departed friend, male or female, 
 that I could not recognize in a light even below the 
 reading point, if they came looking as they did when 
 I knew them or last saw them. If they are in any 
 disguise by unusual drapery or growth, so that we 
 can only take their word for it, having necessarily 
 our doubts, and deficient as they all are in loquacity 
 or fluency or loudness of speech, they might as well 
 remain incog. The interest centering in form mani- 
 festations at present to me is much more in the fact 
 than in the recognitions. I make a great distinction 
 between intellectual and optical recognitions, and I 
 shall say a word further on that distinction. 
 
 Now I will relate a few experiences of the many I 
 have had that have interested me. I will begin with 
 this one. I went into a cabinet at the commencement 
 of a seance with the medium, at her request. She 
 was clothed as ordinarily in a dark slate-colored dress. 
 She sat in a chair facing the opening, and quite near 
 as it was a shallow one. I stood front of her, back 
 to the opening, holding each of her hands in one of 
 mine. There was a purpose in it as the reader will 
 see. When she said " That will do," I then dropped 
 her hands, and turned to go out. I did not move a 
 step forward as the cabinet was shallow, as I have 
 said ; but parting the curtain I was visible to persons 
 in the circle who began to notice me, holding up their 
 hands or saying : " See, see it ! " I thought to myself 
 they were taking me for a spirit. On turning a little 
 I saw what they had noticed ; it was a female spirit 
 close behind me clothed in white, arms extended; 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 245 
 
 the spirit was taller than I was, as I had to look up 
 a little at her face, while the medium was shorter. 
 
 The principal thing to notice here was the impos- 
 sibility for a woman, dressed darkly, sitting in a 
 chair whose contiguity I had not left, to appear 
 instantly as a taller person, clothed in white. I am as 
 sure there were, on this occasion, two personalities 
 
 — the medium and the spirit, and no confederate 
 assistance — as I am that I am now writing on paper. 
 I may be different from many others, but how com- 
 paratively insignificant is the more or less doubtful 
 recognition of some departed friend by the side of 
 this perfect evidence of an extemporized human 
 form ? 
 
 On one occasion, when attending a very satisfac- 
 tory seance, where the cabinet was a curtained, shal- 
 low alcove, with no entrance to it but from the room 
 where we were sitting, and in sight of us, I am 
 as positive there was but one person in the inclosure 
 
 — that being the medium — as I am that earth is 
 attended with but one moon. Many recognitions 
 were made of the spirits appearing from time to time 
 by some of the persons in the circle ; they were not 
 very convincing to me as recognitions, but that was 
 no concern of mine. The fact of their being appari- 
 tions at all is what interested me, and of that I have 
 no doubt. At last, a female spirit appeared at the 
 parted curtain, and signified by a nod, after parties 
 had severally said "Is it for me?" that it was for 
 me, and I went up to the cabinet. I presumed it or 
 her to be one of my friends that I could not recog- 
 
246 SHADOWS. 
 
 nize. As usual, this form was voiceless. I felt that 
 if I had said : " Is it Hannah or Emeline or Adeline ? " 
 she would have nodded affirmatively, but I asked no 
 such leading question. I said in a hospitable voice 
 that I was glad to see her, whoever she was; hoped 
 she was well and happy, and having a good time 
 generally; to which she, in her mute way, assented. 
 I shook hands with her, and got such a good, solid 
 grip of an apparently muscular hand that, in my 
 mind, I concluded to keep it, and did so, by no 
 means to pull her out into exhibition, but simply 
 "to hold the fort." 
 
 In a second or two the spirit, as might have been 
 expected, intimated a withdrawal of her hand, and 
 I advanced closer, saying: "Do j^ou want me to 
 enter?" She signified "Yes," and I went into the 
 pitch-dark enclosure, her hand firmly in mine, I hav- 
 ing, as I said, a good grip with my right hand. With 
 mj r left hand I felt of the medium, who was sitting 
 down, so I had perfect evidence it was not a dummy, 
 but the medium, I still holding the hand of the 
 spirit. When conscious of there being two pres- 
 ences, I found nothing in my hand, only my closed 
 hand which had never relaxed ; the spirit hand that 
 I had held was not withdrawn ; it had dissolved into 
 nothing, — dematerialized, as it is called, — and I had, 
 as I have said, an empty hand. The medium, at 
 that point, came out of the trance. I parted the 
 curtain, and we two came out into the room. 
 
 I am sure, so were all, that a few moments before 
 there were three presences in that cabinet, — the 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 247 
 
 spirit, the medium, and this scribe ; there were now 
 only two, — the extemporized form, apparently as 
 human and substantial as the remaining two, had 
 dissolved again into the invisible air. This, then, is 
 an evidence of the production of a form, visible and 
 tangible to the senses; to me it is incomparably a 
 more satisfactory evidence than what have been 
 recognitions in my presence, because the fact itself 
 is demonstrated. The impression that I am trying 
 to give in this dissertation is that the value of the 
 fact is of more consequence than any claimed person- 
 ality, whether historical characters or from our sev- 
 eral tribal or social circles. 
 
 From what I have seen, and am sure of, in this 
 department of Spiritualism, I have faith that it will 
 continue to improve. I see already a difference in 
 the conditions on different occasions in the make-up 
 of the circle, affecting the quality of the manifesta- 
 tions and the degree of light permitted. I have been 
 in carefully-selected circles where the presentations 
 or productions were great improvements, even by 
 the same medium, over those in the presence of 
 promiscuous gatherings. I am not without faith 
 that this phase of the phenomena has come to stay, 
 and to improve; and the apparitions improve ; and, 
 exhibited under a brighter light, the recognitions 
 will be more apparently genuine and unmistakaable; 
 for, say what you will, these forms, as a general 
 thing, are rather stupid-looking; they lack bright- 
 ness and intelligence much more than they do mus- 
 cular and physical vigor. 
 
248 SHADOWS. 
 
 I have said but little about frauds. I am not 
 unmindful of them, and their liability. The condi- 
 tions of darkness, cabinets, side rooms, and credulity 
 permit them. I am presuming, however, that the 
 reader will understand that I have been open-eyed in 
 all directions, and when I speak as positively as I 
 do, and have done in these several "shadows," it 
 will be understood that I have taken into considera- 
 tion the many disabilities connected with, at least, 
 this phase of the manifestations. It seems hardly 
 worth while for me to write out the details of detec- 
 tion ; the reader must presume I am not a fool, and 
 if he cannot presume so, what 1 say any way will be 
 of no account, and I am not writing for his benefit. 
 
 There is no question that there are disadvantages 
 enough in this phase of the materialization of forms 
 to make it peculiarly liable to fraud, notwithstanding 
 the sacredness of the subject, particularly in its com- 
 mercial or business aspect. There are frauds, also, 
 where the medium is not to blame ; it may be on the 
 part of the spirits, and in the fine magnetic lines of 
 attractive and repulsive influences ; the audience 
 may be, and unquestionably is, a factor in the mani- 
 festation, both in drawing around like-minded spirits, 
 and also in furnishing u raw material," so to speak, 
 to help in the materialization. 
 
 It is no use, however, to excuse the medium for 
 the overt act if caught personating a spirit, or with 
 the paraphernalia of decoration ; she must take the 
 consequences, whether audiences or spirits are to 
 blame or not, though it is possible for such an act to 
 
MATERIALIZATION. ^4U 
 
 be perpetrated, and the medium to be perfectly inno- 
 cent. I never make this as an argument to anyone. 
 I would expect to be laughed at if I did; bub those 
 who know something of the dynamics of this subject 
 know I am right. 
 
 I can hardly understand the motive on the part of 
 spirits for deception ; the fact, however, is unques- 
 tionable. I have known the personation of a spirit 
 by the medium, where the latter was innocent and 
 wholly unconscious, and the form was allowed by 
 the spirit controlling to be accepted as a materializa- 
 tion. I think a fraud out of order always, whether 
 by spirit or mortal. A transfiguration is as wonder- 
 ful a manifestation as a materialization. Why the 
 spirits permit a form of that kind to come forward 
 and be received as an extemporized presence, or a 
 materialization, is very strange, to say the least, and 
 I think the less of them for it. I feel myself that, 
 when I am a spirit, if I should be attracted to this 
 business of extemporizing forms, which is very doubt- 
 ful, they would be what they claimed to be, or there 
 would be no apparitions. 
 
 I think I have now said about enough, if I have 
 been lucid, for anyone who cares to know where to 
 place me, which is as a firm believer in the fact of 
 materialization with the same difficulty of identifica- 
 tion as in the other phases of the manifestations, and 
 that the fact of identification in all phases of the 
 manifestations is a subordinate one to the main issue, 
 which is of answering Job's question affirmatively, — 
 " If a man die, shall he live again ? " 
 
250 SHADOWS. 
 
 If the "Sage of Galveston" were alive, he would 
 .ay here is a good place to stop. Why should I say 
 "if alive," wheu the chapter on his return proves 
 him so ? Well, it is only a figure of speech. The 
 " Sage " thought, however, may have been a whisper, 
 and if this were a newspaper article here would have 
 been my period in response. Writing now in a more 
 permanent form, I will say to my invisible friend that 
 I think I had better add an affirmative illustration 
 or two just for a finish, and will do so. 
 
 A daughter of mfrie, whom the reader will remem- 
 ber as Hattie, has come to me in materialized form 
 several times. Of course I could not recognize a lady 
 of thirty who passed out of sight a child of six. This 
 spirit once came, called me "Father," and gave her 
 name as "Hattie," softly but audibly. She made a 
 sign with her hands, indicating her hight when she 
 died, or when I last saw her ; this certainly was pretty 
 good evidence. A few days after I was accidentally 
 at a sitting with a test medium, who did not know 
 that I had been at a materialization, and Hattie came 
 through or controlled her; said she showed herself 
 to me at the dark circle the other evening. Both 
 experiences made what I would call an intellectual 
 recognition, and the fact was a very interesting one. 
 
 Some year or two after that, and not very long ago, 
 she came again ; this time Miss Berry was the medium. 
 As I sat in the circle, the lady sitting next to me, 
 whom I did not know, but who was a medium, said 
 to me : " Have you a Hattie, a young lady in the spirit 
 world?" I said "Yes." "She is your daughter, 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 251 
 
 is she not?" "Yes," said I; then she said: "She 
 has been standing by you, and leaning on you all the 
 evening." 
 
 In about half an hour after that, the lady not hav- 
 ing moved or spoken to anyone, so this episode was 
 private, the manager of the circle said : " Hattie 
 Wetherbee is here, and says she will try to show her- 
 self to her father." I went up to the cabinet, and 
 very soon the spirit of a young lady appeared and 
 embraced me, and retired. I say spirit because that 
 is the custom; but these forms have more of a 
 material than a spiritual aspect, all of them; hence I 
 suppose the designation, materialization. In a little 
 while she opened the curtain again, and, putting her 
 head close to mine, whispered to me saying : " Father, 
 I have been with you all the evening," pointing to 
 my seat, and adding : " You knew it, too, for I got 
 her to tell you." I think this, also, was a circum- 
 stantial or intellectual recognition, and I consider it 
 an interesting circumstance. I will acid, however, 
 that the two "forms" of what claimed to be Hattie 
 at those two different times were very far from being 
 duplicates. They were not out of keeping, however, 
 to what my daughter might have been at her maturity ; 
 but one was six or eight inches taller, and every way 
 larger than the other, so that dissimilarity is a draw- 
 back to identification, unless spirit forms are elastic, 
 which is not unsupposable ; but as spiritual manifes- 
 tations, with the circumstances, it seems to me they 
 were perfect. 
 
 One more circumstance I think will be all that 
 
252 SHADOWS. 
 
 " the invisible Sage " will allow me to add to this 
 chapter. This was a very interesting occasion, and 
 also was at the Berry sisters'. The circle was select 
 and special, small and for a purpose. I will not give 
 a full description of it ; I will copy from my record 
 book the circumstance that specially interested me. 
 Among the forms that appeared was the apparition 
 of a relative. I did not recognize her, so I asked her 
 name. The spirit replied: "I am Mary Smith.' 1 
 
 Mary Smith was my mother's cousin, who had been 
 dead forty years, and was a maiden lady of sixty 
 when she passed away. I remember her as she looked 
 then as well as I remember my mother. She 
 appeared on this occasion as " a radiant maiden " well 
 preserved of middle life, yet she was then a century 
 old. That somewhat contradicted the poet's affirma- 
 tion where he says : — 
 
 " Little of all we value here, 
 Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year, 
 Without both looking and feeling queer." 
 
 Not so contradictory however upon a second read- 
 ing. She looked, as we trust all old people do, in the 
 spirit world, — a sort of youthful maturity. 
 
 Of course, I could not see anything in this fine- 
 looking, well-arrayed person to remind me of cousin 
 Mary. In her life, she was an educated lady of 
 refinement. Her sister was the wife of the venerable 
 poet, Richard H. Dana, who died, aged ninety, a few 
 years ago. I mention this to show that her social 
 surroundings were of a high order, and it may have 
 
MATERIALIZATION. 253 
 
 had something to do with her rather extra-radiance 
 on this occasion, so that I was rather proud to renew 
 her acquaintance and relationship in her well-pre- 
 served condition. For fear the reader will think I 
 am straining to hold on to this relationship, I will 
 say that after announcing her name in a small, sweet, 
 low-toned, but distinct voice, she said : "Adeline and 
 Hattie are here with me, and so is Albert,*' and a 
 little more that need not be repeated. No one pres- 
 ent knew the relative connection of these names and 
 circumstances, which seem to have been added for 
 the sake of identification, and that gave me another 
 tolerably good intellectual recognition. Well, I 
 think I had better stop here, even if abruptly, and 
 to take the edge off of such maybe Sage abruptness, 
 I will add the following poetic thought, or semi- 
 information : — 
 
 " Ghosts of happy, fond illusions, 
 Flitting over laud and sea, 
 Through my heart your viewless footsteps 
 Come and go eternally." 
 
XXIV. 
 
 CUT BONO? 
 
 What is the good of it all, even admitting it to be true ? 
 — The answer self-evident. 
 
 Cui bono, — what is the good of it ? some say ; and 
 it is generally by worldly and unthinking people, 
 and, perhaps, after listening to testimony that they 
 cannot deny or explain. It is a question I rarely 
 answer. It does not seem to me worthy of an 
 answer. If' the answer to it is not at once self-evi- 
 dent to the questioner to answer it, or .by argument 
 to make it appear of value, seems to me like casting 
 pearls before swine. The remark of James Russell 
 Lowell seems to be applicable, where he says: "The 
 only way to argue with an east wind is to put on 
 your overcoat." 
 
 When that thoughtful, scholarly writer, Ernest 
 Renan says : " If we could each of us be sure, once a 
 year, of exchanging two words only with the loved 
 and lost, death would be no more death," he stated 
 a truth, and I do not think anyone will doubt it. Is 
 not, then, that silly or thoughtless question answered? 
 When Henry Thomas Buckle, that profound student, 
 
 254 
 
cm bono? 255 
 
 and who was not one of the believers in a future 
 life, or, more properly, was an agnostic in his views 
 of the matter, said that, "If mankind was deprived 
 of its belief in immortality, lean and unsatisfactory 
 as it is, it would be insane from despair," did he not 
 answer the cui bono? Is not, then, the sensuous 
 proof of a life beyond the grave, of itself, a boon to 
 mankind ? Both of these affirmations show that the 
 human heart is hungry for this light. 
 
 Is there not a reply to the question cui bono? in 
 food for the hungry, and is it not as essential or 
 important to feed the spirit of a man as to feed 
 his body? One who spoke with authority said: 
 "Man cannot live by bread alone." Anyone who 
 says cui bono? at what Spiritualism proposes, or what 
 it practically is, says in plain language that man can 
 live by bread alone, and there are many that do live 
 so, and, verily, they will have their reward. 
 
 If the man says cui bono ? because he knows there is 
 no future life beyond this, or that it appears so to 
 him, and that we are knocking where there is no 
 door, then it is a waste of time, and cui bono? is the 
 proper question to ask ; but that has no bearing on the 
 subject. Modern Spiritualism makes a positive state- 
 ment. It says there are intelligent phenomena that 
 claim to be the voice of the departed ; and when it 
 cannot be denied or accounted for by the party, and 
 he says cui bono ? the question is an absurd one, for 
 if there is no such future, of course there is no good 
 to come from it. The asking of the question, then, 
 is begging it negatively. 
 
256 SHADOWS. 
 
 Modern Spiritualism, in its basic fact, is either 
 true or it is false. If true, as we have said, the bare 
 fact answers the question of cui bono? If it is false, 
 the question is superfluous. 
 
 There is something in human life that is of essen- 
 tial value besides "bread and butter," — that is, 
 besides health, wealth, popularity, or position. Prof. 
 Tyndall deals with values, and in a scientific man- 
 ner. He says : " The circle of human nature, then, 
 is not complete without the arc of feeling and emo- 
 tion. The lilies of the field have a value for us beyond 
 their botanical ones, — a certain lightening of the 
 heart accompanies the declaration that 'Solomon in 
 all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' The 
 sound of the village bell which comes mellowed from 
 the valley to the traveler upon the hill has a value 
 beyond its acoustical one. The starry heavens, as 
 you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond 
 their astronomical one. Round about the intellect 
 sweeps the horizon of the emotions from which all 
 our noblest impulses are derived. I think it very 
 desirable to keep this horizon open ; not to permit 
 either priest or philosopher to draw down his shutters 
 between you and it." 
 
 Anyone who asks the question : "What is the good 
 of it ? " in reference to the claim of modern Spiritual- 
 ism, has his shutters so thoroughly drawn down that 
 he does not know what light is ; he is an eyeless fish 
 in the Mammoth Cave of materialism. 
 
 The editor of the Scientific American, who does 
 not believe at all in modern Spiritualism, but, on the 
 
cui boso? 257 
 
 contrary opposes it, does not say cui bono? he pays 
 this tribute to it, with an "if." "If it be true," he 
 says, "such words as vast, profound, tremendous 
 would have to be strengthened a thousand-fold to be 
 fitted to express its importance. If true, it will 
 become the one great event in the world's history. 
 It will give an imperishable luster of glory to the 
 nineteenth century." These are my sentiments also, 
 without any "if." 
 
 Here we all are in this world, faith gone into eclipse, 
 revelation weakening in its foundations, the intui- 
 tions of the soul following faith into its eclipse, 
 because the records of holy writ do not rest on the 
 bed rock, — doubt and agnosticism intruding into the 
 human mind. Xow comes some intelligent phe- 
 nomena into the world of human thought that, if 
 true, throws a luster of truth on the ancient records, 
 or at least proves a spiritual source for what is called 
 revelation, and reproduces the fore-world of confi- 
 dence again; and, if it does so, who asks the question, 
 cui bono? — certainly no one but a thoughtless igno- 
 ramus. 
 
 Epes Sargent, speaking of matters bearing on this 
 point, says: "This universe, you may be sure, is not 
 an infinite contrivance for the production and swift 
 extinction of sentient, loving, intelligent life. It is 
 not a stupendous vestibule to a charnel house, where 
 affection, friendship, science, and art find congenial 
 and progressive recipients for a few fleeting moments, 
 and man is admitted to a glimpse of a possible hap- 
 piness and growth, and then plunged into the black- 
 
258 SHADOWS. 
 
 ness of annihilation, — a world where life and mind 
 are given only to be withdrawn, as if in mockery, 
 and truth and goodness are as evanescent as falsehood 
 and evil." 
 
 Is not the "fact" an important one, if it settles 
 affirmatively that death and the grave is not the end 
 of a man's life ; that the man survives death, and has 
 a continued or perpetual conscious life beyond it? 
 Does anyone question the value or cui bono? of that 
 fact because, in his estimation, it is not yet proved 
 or provable? It does not alter the fact of the claim 
 that it makes. Can anything be conceived that is of 
 more value to the people of this world, and more 
 conducive to their well-being and moral worth than 
 to know beyond a peradventure that our fathers, 
 mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, who are the lost 
 stars in our several social circles, are still alive, con- 
 scious of our in-comings and our out-goings, and, as 
 of old, having a real though invisible supervision over 
 us? If anyone does not see the matter in this light, 
 then cui bono? is their proper query, to which I make 
 no reply except to say, in the language of Scripture, 
 that I have no pearls to cast away. 
 
XXV. 
 
 PREVISION. 
 
 Containing some thoughts on prophecy, critical and 
 illustrative. 
 
 The following article was written for and printed 
 in a magazine ; the inspiring motive was the words : 
 "Will he enlighten us ? " Some one, somewhere, had 
 criticised me on my ideas on the subject of prophecy. 
 The only memorandum I have now to refresh my 
 memory reads thus : "Why should Brother Wether- 
 bee not hope for the time to come when a more intel- 
 ligent method obtains of forecasting future events? 
 He sees wisdom in our ignorance of events to occur 
 in the future ; we do not. Will he enlighten us ? " 
 This memorandum does not bring into my mind the 
 circumstances that called for this question, and led 
 me to write the article referred to. Reading it over 
 lately, I thought it, or at least some of it, was worth 
 preservation ; so, it being short, I will copy it, as 
 follows : — 
 
 As the four words, "Will he enlighten us ? " linger 
 in my mind as an inspiring impulse, the lines of 
 Emerson arise in my memory. It is an orphic but 
 
 259 
 
260 SHADOWS. 
 
 characteristic expression of a rather weird flavor. 
 There is no remarkable definiteness in the thought, 
 and yet it seems to carry a suggestive undertone 
 which hints at a connection between prevision and 
 " the thing so signified.'' I hardly think any words 
 of mine will bring the poet's idea into more bold 
 relief, and the best thing I can do is to quote it, and 
 then leave it : — 
 
 " Delicate omens traced in air 
 
 To the lone bard true witness bear; 
 
 Birds with auguries on their wings 
 
 Chanted undeceiving things 
 
 Him to beckon, him to warn; 
 
 Well might then the poet scorn 
 
 To learn of scribe or courier 
 
 Hints writ in vaster character ; 
 
 And on his mind, at dawn of day, 
 
 Soft shadows of the evening lay ; 
 
 For the prevision is allied 
 - Unto the thing so signified : 
 
 Or say, the foresight that awaits 
 
 Is the same genius that creates." 
 
 The simple presentation of these lines will serve 
 the purpose of concentrating my thought, and I hope 
 they will the reader's also ; if not, read the quota- 
 tion slowly and thoughtfully over again ; it will bear 
 study. 
 
 It is possible the time may come when the pedes- 
 tal of prophecy will be a firm and reliable one, when 
 prevision may become an exact science like astron- 
 omy, a matter of mathematics to which I added in 
 my communication, "I hope not ; I have no welcome 
 for it." I still think there is wisdom in letting 
 
prevision. 261 
 
 future suns shine on future days without anticipat- 
 ing future sunshine or cloud by any system of dis- 
 count. Still, I have a hospitable, or open eye, for 
 truth and knowledge. I follow wherever truth leads. 
 I presume I have the same feeling regarding the sub- 
 ject of prevision, should it become a matter of scien- 
 tific or mathematical exactness, like the calculation 
 of an eclipse, or the transit of a planet across the 
 sun's disk, that, perhaps, Jesus may have had when 
 he said : " Father, let this cup pass from me ; never- 
 theless, not my will but thine be done," feeling sure 
 it will be done any way. 
 
 Quoting this remark from the Bible leads me to 
 think that Jesus may have been a mind-reader as 
 well as intuitive and prophetic, and, perhaps, sensed 
 the future feeling in this way; he may, perhaps, have 
 sensed the collective and unspoken thought or senti- 
 ment of the multitude, and may thus have known 
 something of his painful and mortifying exit, or that 
 it was to be inevitable, and so said to himself in his 
 grief: "I hope not; I have no desire for it;" or, 
 what amounts to the same thing, — the letter of the 
 record, — "let this cup pass from me." 
 
 A distinguished doctor and scientific man said in 
 my hearing once that " If mankind knew each one 
 the date when their own individual life was to end, 
 — that is, his exit, as definite in the future as the 
 coming of one's birthday, or of Christmas, — more 
 than half of mankind w r ould go crazy." It was the 
 matter of death that I had in my mind in what I said 
 in the article to which I referred. Hence the knowl- 
 
262 SHADOWS. 
 
 edge would not be wisdom, even if it should ever be 
 truth. It seems to me the spirit world sees it in that 
 light ; and though I do not think it has established 
 itself very solidly on its prophetic power, but seeing 
 a disposition on the part of mortals who believe in 
 spirit messages to place some confidence in their pre- 
 dictions, the spirits hesitate in expressing their opin- 
 ion on the mortuary point. 
 
 Renan, who wrote the "Life of Christ," who had 
 some belief in the conscious existence of the departed, 
 said : " If each of us could once a year be permitted 
 to exchange but two words with the loved and the 
 lost, death would be no more death " I find that the 
 waves of new truth which are ever rolling in, and 
 forever w T ill be, come into current knowledge about 
 the time the race is ready for them. 
 
 If what Renan, the French scholar says, is true, 
 and what modern Spiritualism is beginning to make 
 a fact, and is certainly softening down death's terrors 
 from a grim messenger to an angelic one, the pre- 
 vision of life's exit may not always be as unwelcome 
 as it is now to the average of mankind. When it 
 will not be the fact, as that doctor said, that half of 
 mankind would go crazy if they knew as definitely 
 to a day and hour their demise, as they know the day 
 and hour of some coming birthday or anniversary, 
 there may be such a change that people will rejoice 
 at such a prevision, if the event was near, as they 
 would to an appointment to some desirable foreign 
 mission, or a promotion. 
 
 This will, perhaps, explain my remarks on the 
 
PREVISION. 263 
 
 possible future better or more scientific method than 
 now obtains. I was and am speaking of the matter 
 in the light of today, and, although I had human life 
 mainly in my mind, the unwisdom of which I then 
 spoke, applies to future events generally. 
 
 I think, however, there is a psychic power or intel- 
 ligence of an emotional or intuitive character mani- 
 fested even in the flux of human and current affairs 
 that seems to sense the future. Occasionally that 
 knowledge leaks into mundane minds definitely. It 
 comes sometimes in such a detailed manner that we 
 know it is not accidental, or coincident, or in any 
 sense a guess, that it is actually a prevision (instances 
 in proof of this fact will be found in some of the 
 chapters of this book, so need not be repeated here). 
 
 Among many instances in proof of what 1 say, I 
 will relate one. My mother's older sister, who died 
 a spinster a few years ago at the age of 85, was a very 
 singular woman, — very mediumistic, sensitive, and 
 nervous. A history of her singularities would be 
 quite illustrative of this subject, only her premoni- 
 tions often lacked the dignity and sublimity that 
 celestial influences ought to carry ; but, letting all 
 that rest, she came down stairs one morning in a very 
 pensive state of mind, — noticeably so ; but seemed 
 disinclined to tell her grief. 
 
 She was at this time a woman of about half a cen- 
 tuiy old, and in tolerably good health, as her length 
 of life afterwards indicated. Being alone with her 
 during a part of the day, and manifesting some curi- 
 osity, she explained her sadness. She said she had 
 
264 SHADOWS. 
 
 had a singular dream. She was looking out of the 
 front window; and, instead of seeing Hancock Street, 
 as she ought to, she saw nothing but an extensive 
 grave-yard, stones, monuments, here and there and 
 everywhere. On some were dead people's names 
 WTitten, and on some living people's names. Every 
 name she saw was a relative or an ancestor, or some 
 friend with whom she was acquainted. 
 
 The greater number of these names seemed to 
 be of those still living. On each stone, under the 
 name, was the year 1806, or 1820, or 1860, or 1875, or 
 whatever it might be (this dream occurred between 
 1830 and 1840 ; I think about 1833). She saw quite 
 distinctly twelve grave-stones in a row, with the 
 names of her eleven brothers and sisters, and her 
 own, on them, arranged in the order of their birth, 
 and the year of their death on each. This was the 
 conspicuous- feature of this cemetery, which, when 
 observed, became a matter of interest, and the other 
 part of the dreamy tableau began to grow dim, and 
 recede, and soon formed no part of the picture, only 
 the twelve stones with her brothers' and sisters' 
 names remaining, and they seemed quite conspicuous 
 and near. Soon that part vanished, and she awoke, 
 but she was able to remember the years only of five 
 of them, — two brothers and a sister, who had died, 
 and two living sisters ; and the two sisters did die in 
 the years that were on the stones named for them in 
 the dream. 
 
 The inference is that if she could have remembered 
 the years of death mentioned on the other seven 
 
prevision. 265 
 
 grave-stones, she would have had a prevision of the 
 year of death of all the members of her family. For 
 some wise purpose, the veil of forgetf ulness was drawn 
 over them. Certainly, in that dream there was proved 
 that somehow or somewhere there is the principle 
 of prophecy. With this, and other instances in my 
 own, as well as the world's, history, it shows what is 
 possible, and yet I want none of it. I feel that I am 
 happier without it. I do not want to discount the 
 future joy or sorrow, — no objection to the joy, but 
 as prevision includes both, I prefer the curtain to 
 remain unlifted. 
 
 I do not think spirits are prophets any more than 
 men are prophets ; but as there is a great difference 
 in the latter in reference to prevision, so there are 
 differences in the former. The outlook of the former 
 may be and is better than ours, and so may be, per- 
 haps, approximately prophetic. 
 
 I have the idea that all prevision is mathematical. 
 The future is the product of the past. Given the 
 factors, the unknown quantity can be made manifest, 
 and thus the future is solved. I do not mean that 
 the future is figured out literally ; but that the prin- 
 ciple of prevision is mathematical. There have been 
 geniuses who, on giving them an intricate sum, requir- 
 ing in the solution necessarily a great complication 
 of figures, yet the sum total or the answer is ready 
 on the instant. The observer, a man of figures, goes 
 through the operation, and with much calculation 
 finds the genius's instantaneous answer correct every 
 
266 SHADOWS. 
 
 time, proving a royal road to exist, but which cannot 
 be converted into a thoroughfare. 
 
 By some such road as this the future may be known 
 to angelic minds, or minds in the supernal ; and, as I 
 have said, sometimes this prophetic knowledge finds 
 expression through human souls ; but as yet prophecy 
 or prevision is not a thoroughfare even for spirits 
 generally ; at least so it seems to me, and I think it 
 best that it is so. 
 
 There may be spirits of a high order with pro- 
 phetic insight, and to whom coming events are ever 
 present; and thus the world and its environment, 
 with its inhabitants, spirits, and mortals, is run on an 
 intelligent basis; and though most of the previsions 
 that leak into this mundane sphere are through 
 dreams, premonitions, nightmares, epileptic or shat- 
 tered organisms, they at least show that there is pres- 
 cient and prophetic power in the universe, both 
 beyond mortal and ordinary spiritual reach. 
 
 Does not the Concord philosopher, from whom we 
 have quoted, give us an inkling of the idea in the 
 lines herein quoted, and also where he says: " There 
 is a crack in everything that God has made, and the 
 light of heaven shines through the crevice"? I feel 
 somewhat indebted to these "cracks" in human 
 nature, and yet it is a blessed thing to be whole. 
 
XXVI. 
 
 DETACHED THOUGHTS. 
 
 Conclusions on several interesting and important 
 points. 
 
 I. There is no question of the fact with me that we 
 have invisibly around us an environment composed 
 of spirits, who have once been mortals on earth, and 
 that they are still interested in us. I hardly need to 
 say this only as a summing-up, for the reader, if 
 he has got as far as this, will have inferred as much 
 from the foregoing fragments of my experience. I 
 know of no intelligence, and can conceive of none, 
 that does not proceed from a human organization. 
 I do not mean the materialistic idea, that the mind 
 is the result of the human organization, for I have 
 learned to look upon the human organization, in a 
 logical sense, as the product of the human spirit ; 
 but that, in a worldly point of view, the genesis of 
 intelligence is human. The Great First Cause is not 
 intelligent in the sense we usually define the idea, 
 and that any oral or written intelligence is human 
 and not divine in its origin. 
 
 In a word, that Moses or some ancient wise man, 
 
 267 
 
268 SHADOWS, 
 
 or the departed spirit of some man, wrote the Deca- 
 logue, and it was not by the finger of God, directly 
 or indirectly, so that the work was not superhuman 
 in any sense, unless one considers a spirit super- 
 human, which I do not ; neither did the angel whom 
 St. John was going to worship consider himself 
 superhuman, for he said so, as recorded in the book 
 of Revelations. The phenomena of modern Spirit- 
 ualism suggests how this might have been done, and 
 Moses have been honest ; and in the suggestion how 
 in that age there might have been good reasons for 
 crediting it to Divinity to add to its authority. I 
 think it possible that the Decalogue was written by 
 a spirit, and, if so, this invisible intelligence was 
 human, for spirits are human beings once mortal, 
 now called immortals. 
 
 My conclusion is supplemented by the fact that 
 the testimony of this invisible intelligence itself is 
 that it is human. In every instance, from 1848 to 
 date, no matter what the nature or character of the 
 demonstration, comes the positive assurance that 
 "I am thy brother man, and once a dweller like you 
 upon the earth." This bottom fact, the basis of 
 modern Spiritualism, as a statement, is as certain as 
 the fact that there is such an ism current in the 
 world. Identification of a spirit is difficult, and 
 often a questionable matter, not so the fact that the 
 invisible communicator is a spirit. 
 
 II. The estimate put by the great and good 
 spirits on accumulated wealth, which is such an item 
 
DETACHED THOUGHTS. 269 
 
 of desire here, is a low-grade one. The most disap- 
 pointed man who passes over the river of death is 
 the man of wealth, — starting from this side as a man 
 of consequence, and becoming at once a nobody in 
 the new relation. This is not alwaj r s so, and need 
 not be the case, but such is the general fact. I do 
 not expect, by saying this, to reduce the value or the 
 desire, or the love of, or the acquisition of, wealth. I 
 do not even expect to reform myself. I only know 
 there is danger in it that the many do not escape. 
 Escape, possibly, may be my compensation for the 
 lack of it. 
 
 I know, also, when not an idol, it is one of the 
 most useful adjuncts to a man's condition; or, as 
 Burns says : — 
 
 " Not for to hide it in a hedge, 
 Xor for a train attendant : 
 But for the glorious privilege 
 Of being iudependent ! " 
 
 I am aware that but for wealth Washington would 
 never have been the Father of his Country, nor Theo- 
 dore Parker have been the iconoclast he was if pen- 
 ury " had chilled the genial current of his soul," or 
 Wendell Phillips have had the self-denial to dodge 
 ambition for truth's sake but for his bank account; 
 still the words of Pollock fit most human cases, only 
 substitute the word wealth for gold in the passage 
 quoted : — 
 
 11 Gold, many hunted, sweat, and bled for gold ; 
 Waked all the night and labored all the day. 
 And what was this allurement, dost thou ask? 
 
270 SHADOWS. 
 
 A dust dug from the bowels of the earth, 
 
 Which, being cast into the fire, came out 
 
 A shining thing that fools admired, and called 
 
 A god ; and in devout and humble plight 
 
 Before it kneeled, the greater to the less ; 
 
 And at its altar sacrificed ease, peace, 
 
 Truth, faith, integrity, good conscience, friends, 
 
 Love, charity, benevolence, and all 
 
 The sweet and tender sympathies of life.*' 
 
 Wealth, I am aware, is a great means of civiliza- 
 tion. The love of it, and the pursuit of it, has dis- 
 tanced missionary work as a civilizer. A nation 
 must have accumulated wealth before it can have 
 culture, and, for efficiency, it must be concentrated 
 in a minority, not diffused. We can say of it as the 
 ancients said of offences: "It must needs be that 
 wealth comes, but woe unto him by whom it 
 comes." 
 
 I do not mean that elevation of soul, heart, love, 
 and sympathy abound with the poor, and all the sel- 
 fishness with the rich. There is as much meanness, 
 often more, in the idolatry of wealth as in its posses- 
 sion. There are too many exceptions to the rule for 
 the wealthy class to have the monopoly of selfishness, 
 3^et selfishness is one of the prime factors in its pro- 
 duction ; still, it may almost be said that the posses- 
 sion as well as the love of wealth is the root of ail 
 evil, — that is, it is dangerous to the spirit; and mod- 
 ern Spiritualism, by its prevision of the next life, 
 will yet teach mankind to a practical point that fact, 
 so that men will not die mere money-bags ; they will 
 grow under its teachings centrifugal and diffusive, 
 
DETACHED THOUGHTS. 271 
 
 gradually investing their surplus money, not for its 
 semi-annual dividends, but for its value in the next 
 world. Invested here, but becoming " Summer-Land 
 Securities " there. 
 
 III. I set a high value on phenomenal Spiritual- 
 ism, or the spiritual manifestations. They may be 
 trifles in themselves, but not trifles in their con- 
 nection with unseen intelligences. They are the 
 accented features of the subject. Practically, phe- 
 nomenal Spiritualism is the whole of modern Spiritu- 
 alism, or its only distinguishing feature. Modern Spir- 
 itualism defined means sensuous proof that man 
 survives death and communicates with his fellow-men 
 who are still living in the form. 
 
 Other isms claim a faith in a future life, more or 
 less vague, as a sentiment, a hope, or a belief. Some 
 have the idea intuitively ; but most people rest on 
 Bible revelation, or the education growing out of it. 
 I think that both the intuitional and the vague idea 
 have been greatly strengthened even into rational 
 thought in church teachings by the spreading of 
 modern Spiritualism, and without recognizing the 
 source of the rationalizing influence. This is more 
 noticeable at funeral ceremonies than anywhere else. 
 
 It is wholly the phenomena that make the senti- 
 ment, or hope, or belief a matter of fact. Intuitive 
 and hopeful people take comfort, or try to in an emer- 
 gency, in the expressions of holy writ, such as these, 
 for instance: "I am the resurrection and the life;" 
 u Because I live, ye shall live also," and other similar 
 
272 SHADOWS. 
 
 hopeful affirmations. Practical, or matter-of-fact men, 
 which class includes most men of this age, say or feel 
 otherwise, and point to "Rachel, mourning for her 
 children, and refusing to be comforted because they 
 are not," and say there is the fact; no glittering gen- 
 eralities can dry those tears, and everybody outside 
 of Spiritualism knows that it is true. 
 
 There are some who consider phenomenal Spirit- 
 ualism as light and trivial, and would consign it to a 
 back seat, and make more prominent the ethical 
 teachings of the subject. I am not one of such. I 
 have been more deeply moved by a few ultra mortal 
 raps than by any incarnated eloquence ever uttered. 
 Not that I love education and progress less, — far from 
 that, — but I like the phenomena more, because they, 
 and they alone, to me have extended life and progress 
 beyond the grave by their sensuous evidence. Shut 
 the door on the phenomena, and the " gates " are not 
 "ajar," — shut that door, and you shut out the light 
 of modern Spiritualism. If you make the subject, as 
 it would be then, wholly ethical, it would be but one 
 ism more, and be hardly a modification or an improve- 
 ment upon current liberal religious thought ; it would 
 lack even the culture that has grown up in and 
 around the earlier established orders of religious 
 belief. 
 
 I am not forgetting inspiration, nor the influences 
 that have almost suggested a royal road to eloquent 
 knowledge. Without the phenomena these high- 
 toned moments could hardly be claimed as spiritual 
 ministrations in the modern sense ; but the phenomena, 
 
DETACHED THOUGHTS. 273 
 
 admitted and recognized, then these inspirational 
 efforts become a part of the general whole as one of 
 the phases of the spiritual manifestations. Such 
 inspirations and influences are as often seen in the 
 walks of religious life as they are in the walks of 
 Spiritualism. The Spiritualist knows from his expe- 
 rience that a law exists for it, and the light shines 
 through the thin places or cracks in the curtain 
 between the two worlds whether the thin places or 
 the cracks know it or not. 
 
 IV. Spirits, I think, have a way of reaching us 
 directly. I think the influences of our own spirit 
 friends are more reliably from them when they come 
 directly to us than when they come through a third 
 party. I am getting to think that one's own impres- 
 sions are as liable to be spiritual impressions as to be 
 our own impressions. I have no doubt that spirits 
 near us by love, relationship, or affinity reach our 
 sensorium as readily as we do ourselves in our nor- 
 mal genesis of thought. 
 
 Science, as Dr. Storrs says, has not bridged the 
 chasm between molecular action and human thought, 
 and neither have we ourselves, nor even individually 
 for ourselves, bridged it. We know, if our attention 
 has been called to it, and have noticed the process 
 that our emotions of affection and our intuitions 
 seem to have a deeper root in our consciousness or 
 our being than our intellect has. We examine our 
 thoughts, the product of our mind, as a something a 
 little outside of ourselves, as it were, semi-objectively, 
 
274 SHADOWS. 
 
 — not so our emotions or intuitions. I have an idea 
 that spirits en rapport with us have their avenue of 
 communication in that deeper department of our 
 being, and with us know and read our train or flow 
 of thought that we call our intellectual life. 
 
 We do not know the source of sudden thoughts 
 or ideas that seem to bolt into our minds ; they may 
 be self-induced, they m&y sprout into consciousness 
 spontaneously, and they may be the influences or 
 silent whisperings of the spirits. It is difficult to 
 tell in the mental dynamics of our being what is our 
 owil, and what is from the " diving that shapes our 
 ends" or our own thoughts. This is a very apt 
 expression for what is now known as " spiritual influ- 
 ences," and leads us to think that Shakespeare was 
 a medium, and very sensitive to the influences of the 
 spirit world. Certainly Shakespeare, the man, and 
 Shakespeare; the genius, were very different people, 
 and impressed people differently, or we would today 
 have known as much of him as we do of his contem- 
 porary, Francis Bacon. 
 
 V. A bright young spirit, very mature, however, 
 in wisdom, gave a message, — it may have been alle- 
 gorical, probably was. I will try and put it briefly 
 into an intelligible form, thus : " I love my medium, 
 and she wants some dollars for her uses, and I want 
 some dollars, too, for myself." He got the dollars, 
 no matter how; here is what he, the spirit, says: "I 
 tried various ways for the possession of what I wanted ; 
 I offered my dollars in exchange, but no spirit wanted 
 
DETACHED THOUGHTS. 275 
 
 tliem. They wanted love, truth, sympathy, wisdom, 
 and for any of these they had returns to make of 
 what I wanted ; but dollars nobody wanted, and, as 
 you mortals would say, I have, in these dollars, an 
 elephant on my hands, and I do not know what to 
 do with it or them." This interview was quite inter- 
 esting; I have tried to give the substance of it in 
 these few words. It suggested some ideas on the 
 subject of wealth from a spirit's standpoint. I will 
 try to present my ideas, using that abridged message 
 as an influence. 
 
 Many people struggling under difficulties, and 
 against odds, wonder why the spirits who loved them, 
 and aided them when in the form, do not do so now 
 when out of the form. It certainly would be an 
 easier thing to do, it would seem, than it is to materi- 
 alize a form, as they often do. Spirits certainly take 
 an interest in us, and would naturally, one would 
 think, be happy or unhappy, as we are happy or 
 unhappy. They must be very much changed, funda- 
 mentally, if they are not. 1 am very sure, did they 
 not see some " glorious beaming star too far over yon 
 mountain's hight " for mortal vision, they would be. 
 It is very evident that the soft and wealthy con- 
 ditions of this life do not come to the most deserv- 
 ing; rather the reverse, it would seem to me. Strip 
 from the wealthy their accumulations, they would 
 hardly hold their own by the side of those more or 
 less stripped by the chances and circumstances of 
 life, as lovable, sympathetic people. When they are 
 thus stripped, as all will be in the undress of the 
 
276 SHADOWS. 
 
 spirit, when this " mortal coil is shuffled off," there 
 will be a regrading of souls, and very different from 
 the current one of earthly life. It will not be sur- 
 prising then if many of the first will be last, and 
 many of the last will be first, — many a millionaire 
 be a street-sweeper, and many a man of mean estate 
 here will be clothed in purple and fine linen there. 
 
 I think in a world where wealth is goodness, spirit- 
 uality, thought, wisdom, and the like, that the deni- 
 zens of it in reaching their friends, who are still in 
 the form, have lost their estimate of our wealth that 
 is so appreciated here on earth, and of no value there. 
 We who are adults have seen children play with 
 marbles with all the earnestness of business life, as if 
 marbles for the time being was their all in all, happy 
 in possession, quarreling even for their accumula- 
 tion; and we looking on can hardly realize the value 
 of what they are aiming at and making such a fuss 
 about, except by remembering we were all children 
 once, and had marbles ourselves. It seems to me 
 that spirits have about the same idea of wealth as 
 we adults have of the marbles and foibles of our 
 youth ; we have got past them. Thus the Goulds, 
 Vanderbilts, Astors, Sages, Fields, etc., are simply 
 children who have great accumulations of marbles 
 through luck and skill, and we, or rather the spirits, 
 can simply wonder what they will do with them 
 when they are done playing. 
 
 I am not forgetting the influence and bearing that 
 wealth may have on one's soul or mental being. I 
 am not forgetting the independence of thought that 
 
DETACHED THOUGHTS. 277 
 
 affluence sometimes gives its possessor. I know 
 many men who have been brave in expression beyond 
 their fellows, who would not have been thus leaders 
 of thought but for their inherited or acquired wealth. 
 True, there are exceptions ; let not the " money- 
 bags " of life flatter themselves that these exceptions 
 are the rule; for, as a whole, wealth narrows most 
 men, or else the quality of narrowness, — caution, 
 cold-bloodedness, selfishness, are combined more or 
 less with the luck or parsimony which have been the 
 factors of such accumulation. It is better to have 
 hope without wealth than to have wealth without 
 hope ; better still to have both. There is much truth 
 in the orphic saying of Emerson: "A man takes 
 from his soul what he puts into his money-chest." 
 
XXVII. 
 
 THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 
 
 Thoughts that the locality suggests to a Spiritualist. 
 
 I think the Spiritualists who live in, especially if 
 they are natives of, Boston have good reasons for 
 being proud of their locality. I do not mean that it 
 is of the "burning bush" order, — a place to put off 
 one's shoes, because of its being holy ground, — for a 
 good deal of its terra firma is artificial ; but I do not 
 count that as in any sense unholy, for that has been 
 a decided improvement upon the original first out- 
 line of it as nature made it, or God, if one likes that 
 expression better. 
 
 Part of this artificial addition, a very small part, 
 to be sure, has been selected by a liberal Spiritualist 
 and dedicated to the spirit world, and a spiritual 
 temple erected thereon, and yet, with that creditable 
 event in my mind, I am not proud of Boston for any 
 special holiness, and so what I am going to say I do 
 so with my "shoes " on, uninfluenced by the Horebic 
 injunction. I was saying, we Spiritualists who live 
 in Boston have many reasons to be proud of it. It is 
 a bright and respectable' old place for a new country, 
 
 278 
 
THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 279 
 
 or new to Caucassian life, as America is. In one of 
 Plutarch's records of " Ancient Lives," a man says: 
 "I thank the gods that I am a man and not a woman, 
 a freeman and not a slave, a Greek and not a barba- 
 rian." Never having been a woman, I cannot say as 
 the Grecian did ; one, also, is not very sure how free 
 he is or how enslaved, and so, also, would I be care- 
 ful how I look down upon the barbarian, for such 
 are as liable to be in our very midst as on, or beyond, 
 the frontiers; still the Grecian's remark is an analo- 
 gous one to my expression of pride in being a Bos- 
 tonian. 
 
 I am aware Boston would have been Boston with- 
 out my aid, or the aid of three or four ancestral gen- 
 erations who may have been an atom or two in it 
 from its earlier days. I am aware, also, that all over 
 this broad land are the sons and daughters of this 
 "Hub," as it is sometimes called, who have as much 
 inherent right to be proud of it as I have ; so, while 
 I express my pride in being thus generically con- 
 nected with the locality, I do not put on any airs, or 
 prevent any distant ones from having their pride in 
 this or any other place on the world's map. 
 
 I have something to say about Boston, and I may 
 get it said after awhile. By Boston I do not mean 
 the little peninsular on the coast of the Bay State of 
 two or three square miles of land, which the Indians 
 called Shawmut, nor it with the accretions of terri- 
 tory, of which I have spoken, by the "removal of 
 mountains " in the neighborhood and casting them 
 into the sea, thus doubling or trebling its area ; nor 
 
280 SHADOWS. I 
 
 it with the supplements of contiguous cities and 
 towns by annexation, so that now, geographically 
 speaking, it has a territory over ten times what it 
 had when it first became a figure in history. I 
 include its vicinity, or the general indefinite local- 
 ity which goes to make up the intellectual atmos- 
 phere of this still small, but may I not say rather 
 brilliant, spot in the world of letters and of thought. 
 
 To having any claim of fanciful fitness to being 
 the " Hub of the Universe," we have got to include 
 Concord, with its past and living lights, and Har- 
 vard College, and other objects, going by other 
 names; and then we must remember the universe 
 includes some undiscovered country outside of earth, 
 — and, any way, it is an awful strain to call it the 
 " Hub," and yet who does not know what is meant 
 when the "Hub " is spoken of? But with all these 
 qualifications and reductions, it seems to me to be 
 more of a " Hub " than any spot of which I can 
 think. So, though I do not consider it a "Hub," or 
 call it one, I always consider the appellation compli- 
 mentary, whether intended so or not. 
 
 Historically, politically, religiously, learnedly, finan- 
 cially, socially, this Boston, in its enlarged sense, has 
 much to its credit, and, of course, some to its debit 
 or discredit, but the balance is very large on its 
 credit side, its enemies, if it has any, will admit 
 that. Of course, many people, — people that are 
 not only proud of this city, but people that this 
 city is proud of, and who, by their learning and their 
 reputation or influence have helped to make it the 
 
THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 281 
 
 conspicuity it is, and who will agree to all I have 
 said as yet, bat will not go with me now in saying 
 that one of the things that helps make me proud 
 of this locality s that enhances its value to me, is the 
 reception it gives to modern Spiritualism. 
 
 How many pleasant or intelligent faces will fall a 
 shade or two on such an intimation as this; without 
 any basis of truth such will of course think, and are 
 happy in knowing, that it is not true, and, if it was, 
 it would be retrogression and a stain rather than the 
 source of pride to anyone. They might be charitable, 
 perhaps, to the writer, and suppose him to be living 
 in his little world and meeting Spiritualists only, and 
 if meeting others not counting them, he has mistaken 
 the extent, — strabismus is in his eye, and he thinks 
 the world squints, as our aunt Nancy, at the North 
 End, once said, whose husband was a Millerite, and 
 I was laughing at her for such ^notions, when she 
 replied : "Only think of it, how many do believe it. 
 I hardly see a person who does not believe it, and is 
 not preparing for it." Well, I suppose we all do see 
 things pretty much as we wish to, or as our interest 
 dictates. 
 
 Still, it pleases me to feel that I am right, and 
 proud of even being proud of the fact as something 
 of a feature of the locality at the present time. 
 Modern Spiritualism started, as we all know, in a 
 small way, in the western part of the State of New 
 York, less than two score years ago, and has spread 
 now all over the world ; at least, in every part of the 
 civilized and the uncivilized world, also, are found its 
 
282 SHADOWS. 
 
 adherents, and the practical working of the law that 
 is fundamental in its teachings, and its believers, now 
 running into the millions, and has already become 
 one of the large sects of the world (using "sects" 
 as a general term of division in religious thought), 
 haying a literature also of no mean pretension, and 
 publications, magazines, and newspapers in a dozen 
 different languages. 
 
 In thus spreading itself more or less all over the 
 world, it seems to me to have found a congenial 
 atmosphere in this vicinity. I am aware there is no 
 place anywhere that can be called its special center. 
 But where is there more of it concentrated than is 
 the case here? which seems to make it almost a duty 
 to notice the fact before finishing this book, and 
 which I am now doing. Look at the meetings for 
 spiritualistic teachings that this locality sustains. 
 See the number of mediums that dispense the idea in 
 sittings or seances, in tests, messages, healing, and 
 other ways, and by other names sometimes ; and with 
 regard to the more sensuous phenomena there seems 
 to be in this city about all the time a dozen mediums 
 for materialization, to say nothing about other phys- 
 ical phenomena. The manifestations for teachings 
 and for tests also, in a private way, are enjoyed in 
 all parts of the city, even in the higher walks of 
 social life that the world knows but little about. 
 This, to some extent, is so everywhere both in this 
 country and England and on the continent, but it 
 is remarkably so in this vicinity of which I am now 
 speaking. 
 
THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 283 
 
 Speakers and believers all over the country look 
 fondly to this city for the rising thought, as if it 
 were the home of this "Dawning Light," and the 
 prestige of this locality often endorses the utterances 
 of unknown persons. Thoughts acceptable here are 
 apt from that fact to be acceptable elsewhere, and 
 thus the push or the Boston momentum is felt at a 
 great distance, and almost everywhere. 
 
 The fact that the first spiritual temple, of which 
 we have before spoken, is blossoming out here in its 
 fine architectural proportions, is but one of the point- 
 ers that show in thus owning up of my pride in this 
 locality that I am not drawing on my imagination 
 for my facts. 
 
 I once heard the Rev. Nehemiah Adams, as he had 
 just returned from the death-bed scene of a very 
 pious member of his church, relate the circumstance 
 at a large meeting then being held in Tremont Tem- 
 ple. It is too long a story to relate here ; but it was 
 about the seeing of a spirit that he, the dying man, 
 knew when a mortal ; and the circumstances were 
 such, and the prophecy that had been suggested by 
 the manifestation was of such a character, that it 
 proved there was no decay of mentality as the life of 
 that man was closing in. But to Mr. Adams, his 
 pastor, instead of this being a natural fact, it was 
 looked upon and spoken of as a divine one, — an angel 
 had manifested to this brother on account of his great 
 and manifested piety. 
 
 The reverend gentleman remarked after narrating 
 the circumstances: "The curtain between the two 
 
284 SHADOWS. 
 
 worlds was thinner than it once was." I have no 
 doubt of that fact myself; but where was his authority, 
 outside of modern Spiritualism, for saying so? The 
 thought suggested to me by the remark was whether 
 there were not, and always had been "thin places" 
 on this earth, — places more open to spiritual influ- 
 ences than other parts of the earth's surface. 
 
 As in the human organization there are ganglionic 
 centers or spots, or sensitive places, which are not 
 universal in the human system, so there may be, so 
 to speak, ganglionic spots or centers on the earth's 
 surface. Of course it is likely to be as much or more 
 in the race living on the spot as in the location; but 
 may be that is not so certain. It would seem as if 
 Palestine, Greece, Rome and Egypt, and, later, Brit- 
 ain and many other places, suggest such an idea which 
 has had so much to do with human history. 
 
 Palestine, for instance, only about as large, and as 
 unattractive as Wales, has left its mark deeply on 
 the human race, giving the civilized world its religion, 
 and Phoenicia, almost a part of it, the alphabet. 
 Why did it happen so on that circumscribed and 
 unattractive spot, when there were so many superior 
 ones in every respect ? It is said that Frederick II. 
 was sent to Syria against his will; the church perse- 
 cuted him, and one of the charges was his saying 
 that, " If God had ever seen Naples, he never would 
 have selected Palestine for his chosen people." I 
 quote this circumstance to show it is not the attrac- 
 tive features of a locality that make it one of these 
 ganglionic or "thin places." Neither dare I say that 
 
THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 285 
 
 Boston is any more ganglionic, or thin, or sensitive, 
 or magnetic than many other spots in the American 
 domain; only I have uttered a thought indigenous, 
 one may say, to a " Hubite," and I must try to make 
 it reasonable. I do not seem to have any inclination 
 to write on an ethnological subject, and I do not 
 know as I am capable of doing so in an interesting 
 manner if I had ; only in this closing chapter, as this 
 city in its elastic or enlarged sense seems to be open- 
 ing itself to our thought, the fact pleases me, and I 
 felt like saying so, wondering also why it has rela- 
 tively grown into such a marked locality for modern 
 Spiritualism. 
 
 The careful reader of the preceding chapters of this 
 book will have very easily got the author's rationale 
 of the fact just stated, that it is such a marked local- 
 ity, and that naturally is his belief in the basic truth 
 that modern Spiritualism teaches, viz., that there is 
 an intelligent spiritual environment, which means 
 practically both a general and a special supervision 
 of the affairs of mundane life by the spirit world. 
 That such supervising spirits saw a tendency, or, 
 using spiritualistic parlance, finding conditions right, 
 have influenced one to the point which by these 
 remarks seems to have been reached in the present 
 modern spiritual aspect in this vicinity. 
 
 I hope there will be no solstice or retrogression in 
 the movement, and the, so to speak, Horebic charac- 
 ter of this locality be permanent, now having been 
 ornamented or marked by the erection of the first 
 spiritual temple of attractive magnitude, and dedi- 
 
286 SHADOWS. 
 
 cated to the spirits, as it should be, it having been 
 inspired from that source ; so, having said I was 
 proud of being a Bostonian, and giving at length my 
 reasons for being so, I hope the feeling will be per- 
 manent and enduring, and the time come, as its 
 teachings become more and more understood, when 
 all the people will be like-minded, proud of this local- 
 ity for its sake, and rejoice in the spread of this light 
 which has begun to shine in the world, and brightens 
 as it continues. The city of Boston has quite a his- 
 tory for a spot not yet three centuries old ; has been 
 the mother also of many other placed, and, as we 
 have said, is quite a conspicuity, — far larger, in an 
 ideal or transcendental sense, than are thousands of 
 places of greater geographical extent. It seems, 
 then, to be a fitting place for Spiritualism to have 
 got a decided impetus, as it manifestly has, and if 
 celebrated already for many things, it will be even 
 more so for this dawning light when its truth has got 
 implanted in the general mind, as will certainly be 
 the case if it be a truth. I am writing as if it was, 
 because I have solid reasons for knowing it to be so. 
 
 Seems to me if any modern "Jacob ? ' should have 
 a dream, here would be his pillar or bethel, where he 
 would see the ladder reaching Heaven with the angels 
 ascending and descending thereon, except that the 
 Bible, and modern Spiritualism especially, teaches 
 that not in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, nor even 
 in Boston, is there any deific or angelic exclusiveness ; 
 but the first round of that ladder rests wherever 
 there is a truth-loving human being. 
 
THE BOSTON OUTLOOK. 287 
 
 Coleridge, translating the poetry of Schiller, makes 
 it read thus, — it is not a literal truth, but seems to 
 be a suggestive one, so I use it as a terminus to this 
 chapter : — 
 
 " The spirits' ladder, 
 That from this gross and risible world of dust, 
 Even to the starry world with thousand rounds, 
 Builds itself up, on which the unseen powers 
 Move up and down on heavenly ministries,— 
 These see the glance, the unsealed eye, 
 Of Jupiter's glad children born in luster." 
 
288 SHADOWS. 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 The earth is marked in many places 
 With rocky scratches and furrows deep ; 
 
 Boulders huge have left their traces, 
 As diamond-pointed icebergs slowly creep. 
 
 Records, or scriptures, writ on stone, 
 
 Humanity is fast translating, — 
 Reads wisdom from the Great Unknown, 
 
 And grows religious speculating. 
 
 So the moral world has " boulder scratches," 
 Made by heroic souls in passing through it ; 
 
 Prophets and poets, — " bearers of despatches," 
 Lights in a world that hardly knew it. 
 
 History, rich in storied names now dead, 
 None brighter shine than that great teacher ; 
 
 Today is brighter for the light he shed, — 
 The world still needs just such a preacher. 
 
 The "boulder scratch " of Theodore Parker, — 
 Oh, who would now that mark efface? — 
 
 Put out his light, and make it darker, 
 Whose transit was a blessing to the race? 
 
 His life, in years, how short it seems? 
 
 How long in manly work for human good ! 
 Religion in him was life, — not dreams ; 
 
 Mute are his foes ; his mission understood. 
 
 The voice of bigotry now is hushed 
 
 That called him heretic, though sent of God ; 
 
 Full many a sham by him lies crushed, 
 And others safely walk where he in peril trod. 
 
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