Seen and Unseen

ts recorded in the last chapter and my first visit

experiences came to me, nor h

d I never gave a thought to spooks or spiritualism, nor did I really know anything about the latter subject. It is true that on one occasion a curate at Great Marlow had spoken to me about Mr S. C. Hall and his researches, and I think he must have g

eliable medium, and showed us some sheets full of hieroglyphics, which h

dent loneliness and adoration of his wife's memory prevented my making merry over the extraordin

n; and I need scarcely point out that constant intercourse with Professor Ray Lankester in his mother's house was not

ving in their house during the whole period of the Slade trial. This lady-an American-lived permanently in Boston, and curiously enough (in view of the preceding facts) it was she who persuaded Miss Greenlow and me to attend our first séance in Boston. Mrs Edna Hall had honoured

ject. She said quite frankly that she only took us there because it was a feature of American life which w

Fortunately, I kept a diary at the time, and have a faithful record of what took

k, are taken partly from my record at the time and partly from the chapter on "Spir

t séance in Boston, I

thing was a swindle (italics are recent), accompanied by friends who were even more sceptical than myself,

p also, which she did; but she said she could distinguish no features, and only felt a warm, damp hand passed over hers. Miss Greenlow was next called up by the spirit of a young man who wished to embrace her, but who was

e figures who came forth at intervals, but was inv

wishes to communicate with its own friends, and she is disturbin

p-lighters on every possible occasion, with exclamations of: "Oh,

t Peter's School, Boston. She came to speak to a former pupil, who gave her spiritualistic experiences in

the séance room, but never in her old garments-a sort of sister's dress. After wishing very fervently one night,

gratifying my wish. Since which time," she adde

ith her. My friend Mrs Hall went up first, and then I was told to go up and speak to her. I took hold of her hands, and grasped them firmly for a moment. They s

ime were an object. She said she understood a little English, but could not

y walking up to the cabinet and being embraced by a white figure, whose arms we could just see, thrown round h

t with the "gross imposture," which culminated when at length she was called up and told that "a young man wished t

r what the spirit wished to say, but with a very emphatic "No, n

sat near the cabinet, wished to materialise, but found it diffi

e gas was turned up, and the séance declared over-a very ab

dmore would have considered me thoroughly sound on that first evening. I have no doubt that the violence of Mrs Porter's antagonism, an

n the light of later experiences, however, I feel sure that I might have received something personally evid

ded in New York a few days after our arrival there, and some two

several receptions had been kindly arranged for us, and my name had appeared many times during the winter in various local papers, it would have been easy for the Sisters Berry to find out something about me and my companion, and utilise the knowledge

e "counted as righteousness"

of our arrival, and in a metropolis where at the time we were absolute strange

86. The medium visited on this occasio

assembled in the extremely small room. All were perfect strangers to Miss Greenlow and me, but a fancied likeness in one lady

n was hung across a tiny alcove, just the or

rtain was one piece. There was absolutely no room for any trap-door machinery, even could such have been worked successfully in the perfect silence in which we sat, w

ng behind the curtain after a few moments, w

f she would not be able to help the others to do so. I mention these things in the words in which they were told to me, offering no comment, but putting the case for the momen

This accounts for music as an invariable accompaniment of all such sittings. It seems to harmonise the circle

rap-door theory," although in a city where flats abound (rooms, not human beings!) there would still be the difficulty of getting your downstai

an one occasion I heard a voice from the curtain or cabinet saying: "Do get the people's minds off us; we can do nothing whilst

r to materialise the white veil which all in turn wore, and which, though perfectly transparent, is considered a necessary shield between them

. The soft, clinging material of her gown ended high up on the shoulders, so there were no sleeves to be reckoned with. I stood close over her, holding out my ow

s. It had substance, but was light as gossamer,

ng belonged to their grandmothers is perhaps the nearest approach to what

folded it, covering her head with it, and

he other people in the room, who

her of the medium), answered questions on the spirit life in a loud American voice, prefacing every remark, whether to man or woman, by

all the time with a gentleman amongst the audience in a good-natured but flippant and very unspiritual man

ken, childish English, but used the expressions of a grown-up person. She desc

by hearing that a very beautiful female spirit, with a diamond star in her forehead, had appeared

ving yet emerged from the curtain; but the medium's husband looked behind it,

be, I begged for some further partic

and in Germany," answered the medium's husband, wh

e spirit's identity crossed my mind; but I would not go up until

ss was a curious one. Instead of mentioning the whole name or each letter of it to her father, the child described each letter to him as you might describe the lines of the large capitals in a child's reading-book. The fa

l it) were correctly given, and I had then no fu

erfectly truthful, I find it difficult to answer this question, for the following reason:-None of the "materialisations" I saw were exactly human in face. There was no idea of a mask o

o similar, and an indescribable atmosphere of refinement, purity, and quiet dignity, for which she had been remarkable; all this was present with this

ng and grudging my recognition of her individuality must have appeared. She seemed conscious of

my hands? I was so

o sensible and clever a woman to have been conceited about them, and had too much goo

and with tapering fingers, were as little identical with

oved married sister of hers, also a friend of mine, and I mentioned the latter in a guar

poor Jessie," going on with a message peculiarly appropriate to the

ds, and with no shadow of s

ered terribly when I p

ath was so sudden that there was not even time to put off a large afternoon "At Home" arranged for that day. Moreover, this sister, by a most merciful chance, happened to be spending a few months with her, out of En

with difficulty, "not having

o had died a few months p

en kissed my hand, and faded away before my eyes, not apparently returni

or the world interfere with the conditions," but doing so all the same. The "Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about Faraday's opinions on the spirit world without much i

rialised and offered to sit on my l

possibility of her resting her feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my

hich was about equal to that of a small kitten or a lady's muff, in the days when small muffs were in

ised in the usual way, my frien

their friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the public time, and consequently any communication

ession to family prejudice. It has already appeared in my book on Am

tions very much by his attitude of determined antagonism; whilst his comparative ignorance of English, and my feeble Italian, made explanations, under the circumstances, rather hopeless. The whole circle was put out of harmony, a

absent head for having "broken the battery" and almost "kil

he bitter end, leaving the medium at last still in her trance, with husband and son

ry beautiful and charming woman in New York,

addition to very remarkable beauty; and is of the highest rank, being an Austrian p

iend before we met, I knew nothing whatever of her family his

f the world, of strong mental power, who had seen too much of life to be dogmatic or narrow in her views, but too much also to be

e two hours on various subjects connected with life and literature, and before t

ewspaper, I cast my eye over the usual list of mediums, clairvoyants, etc. A half-defined wish to see whether any spirit friend would come to me under t

s night air), but I took the slip of paper to my hotel, thinking that my friend

rather indifferent and disin

had no expectation of seeing any of her own friends, although, o

r fatigues that at the last moment we agreed to make one more attempt, no one, ours

rawing-room, and the lady herself was evidently some degrees

cribed an elderly lady with grey hair who was standing over her, but, of course, invisible to our eyes. Almost immediately Mrs Gray began rubbing her knees,

his description, but as we were returning home in the cars she said quietly: "It is curious Mrs Gray should ha

not recognise the description at the time she said, with conscious pride: "You d

s determined incredulity, seems not only justif

ared at the door of the cabinet; and Mrs Stoddart Gray asked if anyone in the circle could speak German, as this s

up to the figure she seemed to gain strength, and came quite out of the cabinet, and said to me in the most refined German (any readers who have studied the l

of the foreign friend with whom I had been spending that afternoon:

Madame Schewitsch-I know that you s

re to make some communication to me for her sister,

ctly her well-chosen and well-pronounced words. But some insuperable obstacle seemed to prevent her tell

help in any way possible, and made

t you are

That is

some connection with illness, for the words achtung and krankheit (warnin

was plenty of light), sat down, and took up the pencil, but almost immediately threw it down again, saying in a most unhappy and despairing voice: "Nein! nein! Ich kann es selbst nicht schreiben!"[2] and vanished before my very eyes as she rose from the table. Now had this been a case of f

"No! no! I cann

very high-born Catholic family in Austria, one member in a large family almost invariably takes the veil. I have given the real name in this case, hoping Madame Schewitsch may perchance come across my book, and supply the information needed. I may remark, finally, that three or four months later, whilst travelling in Californ

n to the

igure in white came forward very swiftly, and without a mome

g who it was, but determined

rise, as one might look at any well-known friend

u know me?" I am afraid I gave the false impr

of the first friend who had appeared to me, after spelling out he

iss her. I must confess that I complied with some amoun

purity, which seemed always to surround this friend whilst living, was very apparent under these changed conditions. Another curious little point is that I had

dreamed of going to Mrs Gray's house, nor had we even heard her name.

ouse of the other medium some weeks previously. Under these circumstances it would be difficult to account for the fact of my friend's reappearance on the ground of collus

ons. Conjuring tricks and trap doors are, of course, "trotted out" by the unintelligent sceptic, but these do n

ng over them, I resist the temptation to go further into the question of Materialisations ei