most curious things that had taken place during the mesmerising, and the gentleman had called to his wife to come and hear what was said.

On another occasion this girl, making a mental (or rather spiritual) journey through some streets in the neighbourhood, described a chapel on fire, the flames of which had broken out after she was put to sleep, and the fire had not been mentioned in her hearing. She spoke of the number of engines successively arriving, the difficulty of getting water, the shouting and bad language of the mob, which she said she heard, and, what I thought the strangest of all, of the difficulty of getting into the chapel through the locked iron gates. This difficulty was surmounted, as she said, after some men in the crowd had climbed the railings; and she was then able to get in at the chapel door, when she traced the origin of the fire, and gave me a full description of the inside of the building in its burnt and dismantled state. Two messengers were sent out separately to ascertain what was going on at the fire (half a mile from the house), and from these, in turn, we received a full confirmation of all her statements.

This girl, like some of the others, saw the light from her mesmeriser's hand, and once when the hands were rubbed together she exclaimed that they were on fire.

Every wonderful effect produced by mesmerism has since found its explanation or its counterpart in the spiritual phenomena, so that, had unseen powers been

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truly working for our instruction, they could not have taken a better method of giving the needful elementary knowledge than by making us acquainted with the processes and results of mesmerism. As all the information that can be obtained on the subject of mesmerism is valuable, for its power in healing disease when properly applied is unquestionable, I would recommend those interested in the subject to read Barth's Manual of Mesmerism,' in which everything connected with the practice of magnetism is included; and for many very interesting details connected with the subject, a little collection of cases entitled 'Clairvoyance in Hygienic Medicine,' by Jacob Dixon. An extract from this interesting little work will be found farther on. Persons in some of the highest mesmeric states do indeed appear to have passed the boundaries of material life, and to have gained an insight into the world of spirit. Of this I had one striking experience long before the time of the raps, seeing-mediums, and mysteries of the present day. It is certain that when this happened, though too many instances of earthly clairvoyance had come to my notice to allow of my remaining sceptical in that direction, yet I held all belief in real intercourse with spirits to be a delusion, caused by some unknown action of the brain. This scepticism was shaken by the following occurrence. Being invited by a friend to see a young lady in a state which he called spiritual clairvoyance, in which she

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professed to see and converse with spiritual beings, I entered the room after she was mesmerised, and my name was not mentioned aloud. I took my seat unnoticed by her side, and listened to her exquisite description of the scenes in which she believed herself to be. Although the great beauty of the imagery, and its wonderful coherence with her theory of symbolism, puzzled and surprised me, I set the whole down in my own mind as the working of a highly excited poetical fancy. At length my friends asked her whether she could look for any spirit for the lady sitting beside her. She would try. I mentioned two, only naming their relationship to myself, giving neither the age nor sex of either. She then said, I am now in a garden quite full of flowers. There is a group of children hanging garlands over a lamb. How they have covered that lamb with flowers! Two children come out from the group. The girl is the oldest. They are ten and eight years old.' She then described perfectly every feature of the two children I had asked for, dwelling with animation on their beautiful appearance and surroundings. The age she mentioned was, however, much in advance of the reality. When I remarked this, she was silent a minute, then said, 'They say that I see them as they are now; you must remember that they have been here some time.' It then appeared that the ages she mentioned were exactly what they would have been had the two remained on earth.

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truly working for our instruction, they could not have taken a better method of giving the needful elementary knowledge than by making us acquainted with the processes and results of mesmerism. As all the information that can be obtained on the subject of mesmerism is valuable, for its power in healing disease when properly applied is unquestionable, I would recommend those interested in the subject to read Barth's Manual of Mesmerism,' in which everything connected with the practice of magnetism is included; and for many very interesting details connected with the subject, a little collection of cases entitled 'Clairvoyance in Hygienic Medicine,' by Jacob Dixon. An extract from this interesting little work will be found farther on. Persons in some of the highest mesmeric states do indeed appear to have passed the boundaries of material life, and to have gained an insight into the world of spirit. Of this I had one striking experience long before the time of the raps, seeing-mediums, and mysteries of the present day. It is certain that when this happened, though too many instances of earthly clairvoyance had come to my notice to allow of my remaining sceptical in that direction, yet I held all belief in real intercourse with spirits to be a delusion, caused by some unknown action of the brain. This scepticism was shaken by the following occurrence. Being invited by a friend to see a young lady in a state which he called spiritual clairvoyance, in which she

6

professed to see and converse with spiritual beings, I entered the room after she was mesmerised, and my name was not mentioned aloud. I took my seat unnoticed by her side, and listened to her exquisite description of the scenes in which she believed herself to be. Although the great beauty of the imagery, and its wonderful coherence with her theory of symbolism, puzzled and surprised me, I set the whole down in my own mind as the working of a highly excited poetical fancy. At length my friends asked her whether she could look for any spirit for the lady sitting beside her. She would try. I mentioned two, only naming their relationship to myself, giving neither the age nor sex of either. She then said, I am now in a garden quite full of flowers. There is a group of children hanging garlands over a lamb. How they have covered that lamb with flowers! Two children come out from the group. The girl is the oldest. They are ten and eight years old.' She then described perfectly every feature of the two children I had asked for, dwelling with animation on their beautiful appearance and surroundings. The age she mentioned was, however, much in advance of the reality. When I remarked this, she was silent a minute, then said, "They say that I see them as they are now; you must remember that they have been here some time. It then appeared that the ages she mentioned were exactly what they would have been had the two remained on earth.