227. In one instance, I took a book from my pocket which the medium had never seen, and opened it at a page where the heading "Publisher's Preface" was conspicuous, without allowing the medium to see any thing more than the back of the book. Holding the page exposed to the disk, the spirit spelt out "Publish," and then seemed unable to proceed. Meanwhile, the medium called to her little son to be quiet; forthwith the deficient letters, ers, were supplied, so as to finish the word "Publisher's."

228. The medium alleged that her mind was imbued with the idea that the word "publishing" was coming forth, and with a view to aid the spirit, lent some muscular aid to the letters necessary to complete that word; but attention to her child causing her mind to be withdrawn, the spirit immediately selected the letters above indited. On the same occasion I opened the same book, keeping the back toward the medium, opposite to an engraving of Jefferson: immediately, Jefferson was spelt out.

229. On my way to Boston, I visited Mrs. Ann Leah Brown, formerly Miss Fox. At about eight in the morning, I found her under very unfavourable circumstances: Mrs. Brown had been watching the previous night with a sick child. Nevertheless, considering me as an advocate of the cause of truth, a short sitting was given to me, during which my faithful spirit sister manifested herself by comparatively loud knockings.

230. Through this I learned that Mrs. Brown was not in condition to make it expedient to resort to her mediumship then, had not the necessity of attending to her sick child formed a sufficient impediment.

231. On my return from Boston, I called again on this interesting medium, and then saw a table, situated at the distance of more than a foot from her person, which was quiescent, make a movement to and fro of at least eight inches. Moreover, as I sat on the opposite side of an intervening table, I felt unexpectedly a slight touch against my leg as if by a human finger. 232. During this visit, Mrs. Brown created much interest by giving a brief account of the trials which herself and her sister had undergone, being on the one hand urged to give their services to the community, as the means of promoting truth, while on the other they were treated as impostors or jugglers. The impression left on my mind was extremely favourable as respects Mrs. Brown's sincerity in her Spiritualism and in her goodness of heart.

233. In consequence of her invitation, I attended a circle at her house a few days subsequently, when I saw, in addition to all the usual manifestations, the following for the first time: Under a table around which the party was seated, a sheet of paper was deposited on the carpeted floor. A pencil was placed upon the paper; soon after, on examination, I found my name scrawled thereon.

234. Two small bells situated upon the floor beneath the table were rung, and subsequently it was found that one of them had been lifted and seated on the other.

235. My spirit sister has since informed me that my name was written upon the paper by my spirit friend William Blodget.

236. While at Boston, having read to a friend a communication from my father through a writing medium, I placed it in one of my pockets, and proceeded to the Fountain Inn. When there, I felt for it without success. Unexpectedly, I went to Salem by the cars, and returned the same evening. On undressing myself the scroll was missing, and I inferred that it had been lost between the place where it had been read and the inn above named, where I felt for it unsuccessfully. On going next morning to Mrs. Hayden's, and my spirit father reporting himself, I inquired whether he knew what had become of the scroll. It was answered, that it had been left upon the seat in the car on my quitting it at Salem.

237. Inquiring of the conductor, who was on duty in the car where it had been left, he said that it had been found on the seat, was safe at Portland, and should be returned to me next day. This promise was realized.

238. On one occasion, sitting at the disk with Mrs. Hayden, a spirit. gave his initials as C. H. Hare. Not recollecting any one of our relations of that name precisely, I inquired if he were one of them. The reply was affirmative. "Are you a son of my cousin Charles Hare, of St. Johns, New Brunswick ?" "Yes," was spelled out. This spirit then gave me the profession of his grandfather, also that of his father, and the fact of the former having been blown into the water at Toulon, and of the latter having made a miraculous escape from Verdun, where he had been confined until his knowledge of French enabled him to escape by personating in disguise an officer of the customs. Only one mistake was made in referring to my English relatives, respecting an uncle's name. Other inquiries were correctly answered.

239. Subsequently, the brother of this spirit made us a visit in Philadelphia, and informed us that the mundane career of his brother Charles Henry, had been terminated by shipwreck some few years anterior to the visit made, as mentioned, to me.

240. No one being present beside myself, and the medium ignorant of Latin, my father spelt out upon the disk the words he had pointed out to me in Virgil more than fifty-five years ago, as expressive of the beating Entellus gave Dares, as described by Virgil "pulsatque versatque;" also the word which so much resembles the sound of horses' hoofs trampling on the ground, "Quadrupedante."

241. A spirit of the name of Powel tendered his services, and undertook to spell Cato, but instead of that name, Blodget, my friend, occupied the disk, and spelt his own name, and afterward Cato. On the same occasion Blodget spelt out and designated words without the medium seeing the alphabet.

242. The employment of letters to express ideas neither existing in the mind of the medium nor in mine, cannot evidently be explained by

any psychological subterfuge. The name Blodget being indicated by reference to the alphabet, instead of Cato, which was promised, precludes the idea that it was learned from the mind of any mortal present.

243. It must be manifest that the greatest difficulty which I had to overcome during the investigation of which the preceding pages give a history, arose from the necessity of making every observation under such circumstances as to show that I was not deceived by the media.

244. But having latterly acquired the powers of a medium in a sufficient degree to interchange ideas with my spirit friends, I am no longer under the necessity of defending media from the charge of falsehood and deception. It is now my own character only that can be in question.

245. Upon this the occurrence of the manifestation to which I am about to allude rests. (Reference to this has been made in the Introduction to this work, 115.)

246. The fact that my spirit sister undertook at one o'clock, on the 3d of July, 1855, to convey from the Atlantic Hotel, Cape May Island, a message to Mrs. Gourlay, No. 178 North Tenth street, Philadelphia, requesting that she would induce Dr. Gourlay to go to the Philadelphia Bank to ascertain the time when a note would be. due, and report to me at half-past three o'clock; that she did report at the appointed time; and that on my return to Philadelphia, Mrs. Gourlay alleged herself to have received the message, and that her husband and brother went to the bank in consequence. With the idea received by the latter, my sister's report coincided agreeably to his statement to me. All this proves that a spirit must have officiated, as nothing else can explain the transaction.

247. The note clerk recollects the application, but does not appear to have felt himself called upon to take the trouble to get the register, which was not in his hands at the time. Hence the impression received by the applicants was not correct, but corresponded with the report made to me by my sister, which differed from the impression on my memory, and of course, was not obtained from my mind.

HYMN CHANTED TO MY SISTER, AND HER REPLY.

248. My sister having mentioned her name in the spheres, to be Queen of Flowers. I substituted this name translated into Latin in the Sicilian Mariners' Hymn, replacing virgo by soror, the Latin for sister; seraph for mater; bonissima for piissima; carissima for purissima; and cura for ora. It then read as follows:

248. Oh! bonissima, oh! carissima

Dulcis soror, amata

Florum regina

In cœlo cognita

Cura, Cura, pro nobis

Cura, cura, pro nobis

Seraph amata intemerata

Cura, cura, pro nobis.

249. As soon as this was chanted, the following reply was given through the spiritoscope, at which I was sitting with Mrs. Gourlay as medium:

250. “DEAR BROTHER :-I answer your prayer by saying I do watch over you, and pray for your welfare. I am grateful for your remembrance, and shall strive to deserve it. O! brother, our cause is a common one, and we feel the same interest in its promulgation. I am daily striving to disseminate its truths, but can make little progress, having so much ignorance to contend against. I know that the truths of progression, with the help of a good and wise God, will ultimately prevail over all the land; but when that happy time comes to earth, your freed spirit will rove the endless fields of immortality with those loved friends who have gone a little while before. Then will we revel in delights which, in comparison with earth's joys, are far more beautiful and sublime. I wish you could look with the eye of prescience, and see that glorious time, when all nations shall become as a band of brothers."

CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.

251. THE evidence of the manifestations adduced in the foregoing narrative does not rest upon myself only, since there have been persons present when they were observed, and they have in my presence been repeated essentially under various modifications, in many instances, not specially alluded to.

252. The evidence may be contemplated under various phases: First, those in which rappings or other noises have been made, which could not be traced to any mortal agency; secondly, those in which sounds were so made as to indicate letters forming grammatical, well-spelt sentences, affording proof that they were under the guidance of some rational being; thirdly, those in which the nature of the communication has been such as to prove that the being causing them must, agreeably to accompanying allegations, be some known acquaintance, friend, or relative of the inquirer.

253. Again, cases in which movements have been made of ponderable bodies, either without any human contact, or with such contact as could not be productive of the resulting motion.

254. Cases in which such movements of bodies have been of a nature to produce intellectual communications, resembling those obtained as above mentioned by sounds.

255. Although the apparatus by which these various proofs were attained, with the greatest possible precaution and precision, modified them as to the manner; essentially all the evidence which I have obtained, tending to the conclusions above mentioned, has likewise been substantially:

obtained by a great number of observers. Many who never sought any spiritual communication, and have not been induced to enroll themselves as spiritualists, will nevertheless not only affirm the existence of the sounds and movements, but also admit their inscrutability.

256. But we have now, in a matter-of-fact, business-like publication, by E. W. Capron, a record of the original manifestations at Hydesville and Rochester, in New York; where, as it is well known, they produced intense interest, excitement, and controversy; which gave rise to successive town-meetings, and the appointment of committees by these meetings. for the purpose of ascertaining whether any other cause could be discovered for the manifestations, except the spiritual beings who assumed them to be their doings. Some of the persons appointed to make the investigation, were prepossessed with the belief that the phenomena were due to some juggling contrivance. One alleged that he would throw himself over the Genesee Falls, or prove the knockings due to humbuggery. Another alleged that the media, aware of his prepossession, would not for one hundred dollars have him on the committee; yet both these persons being put on the committee, the latter came out in favour of the inscrutability of the noise; while the former neither accounted for it, "nor threw himself over the falls," as Mr. Capron pointedly alleges.

257. Subsequently, in the city of New York, the mystery was subjected to the ordeal of a public investigation by a number of distinguished citizens, whose reports confirmed those of the Rochester committees. Fennimore Cooper was among those appointed on the New York committee, and was the means himself of obtaining an unequivocal test. His sister's death, which had resulted from being thrown from a horse, was correctly stated by her spirit in every particular, in reply to mental inquiries by him made.

258. Again at Stratford, Connecticut, at a house of a minister of the gospel, manifestations were made fully as striking as those which had occurred at Hydesville and Rochester, so as to establish in the mind of this estimable clergyman, and in those of many others acquainted with the facts, a belief in spiritual agency. (1667)

Corroborative evidence by the Rev. Allen Putnam, of Roxbury, Mass.

259. As affording support to the testimony which I have given, I deem it expedient to cite that of the Rev. Allen Putnam, formerly a Unitarian clergyman and preacher in Augusta, Maine, having been in the legislature of that State, and for some time editor of the New England Farmer. Mr. Putnam had the advantage of a theological and collegiate education :at Harvard. I heard an able and erudite lecture from this worthy spiritualist, at Boston last October.

260. Mr. Putnam entered upon the investigation of the manifestations in July, 1852, nearly eighteen months before my investigation com