Spirit-Identity by M.A

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Spirit-Identity

By

(M.A. OxoN.)Vv\A\o^AA/i'S)to..\.v\,Vuv\,Wosea

Author of r^ , Psychography, The Higher Aspectsof Spiritualism, Spirit

Teachings, etc.

London : igb^London spiritualist alliance, LmitEt),

no, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C.T


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The first edition of Spirit Idehtity has long been

out of print, but the demand for it continues. The

Rev. W. Stainton Moses (M.A. Oxon.), the author of

the book,was

the original promoter and the first

President of the London Spiritualist Alliance, and

the Council of the Alliance issues this reprintas an

affectionate tribute to hismemory.


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J inettibe tJjia CKoIume

to

myold friends,

DR. AND MRS. STANHOPE SPEER,

As witnesses from the first of that sequence of events of which

this record is but a sample :

As those, therefore, who are best able to understand

both what is therein written, and what

is omitted:

And, lastly, as a testimony of grateful and

sincere friendship and regard.


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UTTERANCES OF EMINENT MEN OF SCIENCE

ON THE SUBJECT OF SPIRITUALISM.

Sit with you No I have resolved to sit with no one. Imade up my mind before coming here that nothing wouldcome of it. Agassiz (Member of Investigation Committee,Harvard University) to Mr. Redman.

They who say they see these things are not competentwitnesses of facts.

It would be a condescension on my part to pay any moreattention to them. Faraday.

Spirit is the last thing I will give in to. BREWSTER I have settled the question in my own mind on a priori

grounds. HERBERT SpENSER.

Supposing the phenomena to be genuine, they do notinterest me. Huxley.

There are people amongst us who, it is alleged, can produceeffects before which the discoveries of Newton pale. Thereare men of science who would sell all that they have, and givethe proceeds to the poor, for a. glimpse of phenomena whichare mere trifles to the Spiritualist.

The world will have religion of some kind, even though itshould fly for it to the intellectual whoredom of Spiritualism.

Professor Tyndali,.

A most mischievous epidemic delusion, comparable to thewitchcraft delusion of the seventeenth century. ^W. B.Carpenter.


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viii Utterances of Eminent Men.Spiritualism amongst its more devout followers is a Re-igion.

Crookes.

It demonstrates mind without brain, and intelligence dis-onnectedfrom a material body. . . . It furnishes that ^TOo/

of a future life which so many crave, and for want of which somany live and die in anxious doubt, so many in positivedisbelief. A. R. Wallace.

The Spiritualists,beyond a doubt, are in the track that hasled to all advancement in physical science. Their opponentsare the representatives of those who have striven againstprogress. DE Morgan.

Asked, What is the use of it ? Franklin replied. What isTHE USE OF a new-born BABY .?

The testimony has been so abundant and consentaneous,that either the facts must be admitted to be such as are report-d,

or the possibility of certifying facts by human testimonymust be given up. PROFESSOR Challis.

Already Spiritualism, conducted as it usually is, has had aprodigious effect throughout America, and partly in the OldWorld also, in redeeming multitudes from hardened atheismand materialism, proving to them by the positive demonstrationwhich their cast of mind requires, that there is another world that there is a non-material form of humanity and that manymiraculous things which they had hitherto scoffed at are true.

Robert Chambers.

Even in the most cloudless skies of scepticism I see a rain-cloud, if it be no bigger than a man's hand ; it is modernSpiritualism. Lord Brougham.


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PREFACE.

This volume has grown out of a paper originallyread at a discussion meeting of the British NationalAssociation of Spiritualists, held at their rooms, 38,Great Russell Street, London, on the evening of

December 16, 1878.In that paper I presented certain evidence for the

identity of spirits who have from time to time com-unicatedwith me ; and I founded an argument

upon the evidence produced.Confined within narrow limits by the exigences of

the occasion, I dealt with one phase of the subjectonly, and my treatment of it was cursory. I have,however, considered it best to print the paper as itoriginally was delivered, with some few additionalfacts, and to supplement its imperfections and omis-ions,

to some extent, in other parts of the book,especially in the Introduction.

I have also reprinted from the Spiritualist certainpapers bearing on the general subject of this work ;


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X Preface.

and I have added in another Appendix cases of

identity before published, to which allusion is madein the course of my argument.

Writing, as I now do, for the student who has

penetrated within the outer ring of this subject, I

assume a certain amount of knowledge on his part,and a certain acceptance of principles, which I do

not stop to discuss.And it is fair to add that I deduce from my facts

certain arguments for the religious tendency of

Spiritualism, which my readers will modify or rejectas it pleases them. Probably they have their ownreligious notions already ; but whether so or not, thefacts are independent of any theory that may bebuilt upon them.

M.A. (OxoN.)

London,

Christmas, 1878.


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SYLLABUS OF CONTENTS.

Preface. . . .

Introduction....

Difficulties in the way of investigationDivergent results of investigatorsAttitude of public opinion represses publication

PAGE

ix

I

2

34

This results also from the nature ofthe factsthemselves 6The Intelligent Operator has to be reckoned with . 8The investigator has little choice in the matter . loThe higher phenomena are not susceptible of de

monstration by the scientific method . 13The gates being ajar, a motley crowd enters in . 16We supply the material out of which this is composed 18No necessity to have recourse to the diabolic element 19Neglect of conditions proper for the investigation . 20Agencies other than those of the departed . 24Sub-human spirits the liberated spiritofthe Psychic 25These have had far more attributed to them than

they can rightly claim . . . .26Specialism in Spiritualism

. . .27Religious aspects of the question . . .28Notes of the age . . . .31The place of Spiritualism in modern thought 33

The Intei i igent Operator at the other end opThe Line.

Scope of the inquiry . . -37The nature of the Intelligence . . 39What is the Intelligence ?

. . .40Difficulties in the way of accepting the story told by

the Intelligent Operator . . .41Assumption of great names . . .41Absence of precise statement . . 42Contradictory and absurd messages . . 44


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xii Contents.PAGE.

454749

Conditions under which good evidence is obtainedValue of corroborative testimony .Personal experiences

Eleven cases occurring consecutively, Jan. i toII, 1874 .

_. . . 52

A spiritrefusing to be misled by a suggestion . 54A spiritearth-bound by love of money . . 56Influence of association, especiallyof locality . 57Spiritswho have communicated for a long period 59Child-spiritsommunicating : corroborative tes-imony

from a second source . . 61Extremely minute evidence given by two methods 65

A possiblemisconception guarded against . . 67General conclusions

. . . .69Personal immortality . . .70Personal recognition of and by friends . 71

Religious aspects . . . 1^Appendix I.

On the power of Spirits to gain access to sources ofibformation . . . . .77Appendix II.

On some phases of Mediumship bearing on Spirit-Identity . . , . .89Appendix III.BEE. Cases of Spirit-Identity

1. Man crushed by a steam-roller . . 1072. Abraham Florentine

. . .1103. Charlotte Buckworth . . . 117

Appendix rv.Evidence from spirit-photography . , 121

Appendix V.On some diflSculties of inquirers into Spiritualism . 127

Appendix VI.Spirit-Identity Evidence of Dr. Stanhope Speer . 147


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SPIRIT-IDENTITY.

INTRODUCTION.

This volume differs from my previous one onPSYCHOGRAPHY in this respect : I write now for thosewho have studied and made themselves familiar withspiritual phenomena ; whereas then I wrote for theuninstructed world, who have no knowledge on thesubject beyond what can be gained from a casualconversation or a misleading paragraph in some news-aper.

Then I was careful to employ non-committal terms,to state no theory for acceptance, and to refraingenerally from the use of any language that mightserve to increase the prejudice wherewith new truthis always viewed. Here, on the contrary, I amspeaking to the esoteric body, and am propoundingevidence for the perpetuation of life and individualityafter the death of the body. I am leaving first prin-iples

and dealing with profounder mysteries. In sodoing, I must assume, on the part of those who readme, a considerable familiarity with the phenomenaof Spiritualism, and some previous exercise of thoughtas to the causes that underlie them.


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2 Spirit-IdentitySpeaking to such only, I desire to clear the ground

by a few preliminary considerations, the more neces-arybecause a considerable portion of this work

is devoted to an exclusive argument dealing onlywith one side of the question the return to earthof the spirits of departed humanity. I have nodesire to stand committed to any narrow definitionor limitation of the Intelligence at work, any morethan I wish to ignore the great weight of evidencethat goes to show that in a large number of cases theIntelligentOperator is not the person he pretends tobe, or else that he is very unfortunate in his attemptsto make out his identity.

Speaking, as I do, almost on the threshold of avast inquiry, albeit one in which I have spent someyears with rare opportunities for forming an opinion speaking, moreover, of the causes of things inthemselves so various, in the methods of their presen-ation

so protean, in their perpetual changefulness soperplexing speaking, too, as one averse to theoris-ng,

especiallyon a subjectso fruitful of fanciful hypo-hesis,I desire to say as little as possible. But it

would be unfair to let this volume go forth withoutsome words on other aspects of the question thanthose to which I have given prominence in my paperon The Intelligent Operator.

DIFPICTJLTIES IN THE WAY OF INVESTIGATION.

It must be admitted at the outset of the argumentthat many perplexing questions are raised at every


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Difficultiesn the Way. 3step of the investigation. The experiences of inves-igators

are very various : The attitude of publicopinion almost precludes fair ventilation and discus-ion

of facts: The facts themselves are not such ascan be published in many cases : and we have toreckon with an Intelligent Operator whose opinionand action are frequently the very reverse to whatour own would be.

The gates are set ajar, and a motley companyenters : we know little of, and most of us care lessfor,proper conditions of investigation; and we com-licate

an already perplexing subject by much care-essfolly.

It is this line of thought that I wish to pursue.

DIVERGENT RESULTS OP INVESTIGATORS.

The experiences of investigators of the phenomenacalled spiritualhave been even more various thanthose of investigatorsof other obscure subjects. Somehave tried for years, and have seen nothing thatsatisfies them. Others have been flooded with evi-ence

that sweeps away doubt with the torrent-rushof conviction. Some have to take a world of troubleto get means of investigation; and when all has beendone, are confronted only with a bewildering mass ofillusive phenomena of which they can make nothing,which may mean much or little,ut which certainlyare not reducible to law. Others carry about withthem their own means of investigation,and are notperplexed by any fear of deceit, at least on this


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4 Spirit-Identity.aide.

. Some bring to the inquiry a calm and evenly-balanced mind, free alike from dogmatic scepticismand enthusiastic credulity. Others gulp down themost portentous phenomena without ever thinking ofthe conclusions to be drawn from them. And others,yet again, see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing,and shut tight the avenues through which aloneknowledge is procurable.

ATTITUDE OP OPINION REPRESSES PTJBWCATIONOP FACTS.

No wonder, then, that, where experience is sovarious, opinion is equally divergent. It would bemore than strange were it otherwise. The investi-ator

too frequently is compelled by this state ofgeneral opinion to approach the study of the subjectwith a mind befogged by fprejudice. If he be a manproperly trained and educated to understand theabstruse questionsinvolved in the study of the morerecondite phenomena of psychological science, hewill have spent most of his time in an atmospherebut little favourable to a candid consideration of thequestion it .involves. The very Jworks that he willhave read will be the outcome of the study ofinsanity by those who have the strongest interest inpresenting a one-sided view of the question, andwho, it is fair to presume, have no other view presentto their minds. On true mental science he will havefound no treatise that will enlighten him. Of themysteries of spiritand spirit-actionhe has every


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6 Spirit-Identity,within the gates of his asylum before he is mucholder.

And so by degrees, if his determination survivethis opposition,he will be driven in upon himself,and will reserve what he discovers for future use, orfor the service of a later age, when men will have runtheir heads against hard facts so repeatedly that theywill have ceased to view them as their fathers did :when the scorned delusion of his day will havebecome the great truth of the succeeding age. Ifhe speaks at all, it will be of elementary points,which, though equally scorned by their fathers, thepresent generation has grudgingly accepted, andendeavoured to hide or explain away.

Hence one universal result comes to pass. Theentire cycle of truth is never publicly presented :only such fragments of it as are forced, by apparentaccident, into publicity ; here a little and there alittle,s a Slade comes to make a specialphenomenonmatter of notoriety, and a I,ankester helps on thework by an appeal to persecution by the law.

The coherent body of evidence for thecentral facts of Spiritualism is almostof necessityrom this cause not publicproperty.

THIS RESULTS ALSO FROM THE INHERENT NATUREOF THE FACTS.

Moreover, the attitude of opinion, acting fromwithout, finds in the nature of the facts an allay to


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The Inherent Nature of the Facts. 7repress free publicity. I am not speaking now otthe mere physical phenomena that lie on the surface,and have nothing but the elusive method of theirpresentation to interfere with publicity. If a mandoes not get tired of replying to the fatuous stringof questions that the outside world has so largely atcommand ' Why cannot you produce these pheno-ena

here, there, now, at any time, in my own room,in a public hall, with a medium, without a medium,and so, on, and so on ? Why cannot produce them ?Why is a medium necessary ? Why a circle ? ' ifhe does not get tired of hearing and answering thisvapid questioning, there is no reason why attentionshould not be drawn to phenomena of raps, or evento such a demonstrable fact as Psychography, withmuch persistence.

But it is different when, through the adit of thesephenomena, he has penetrated within the veil to thecauses that underlie them, or rather to the intelli-ence

that governs them. He finds then, in the casesthat most deeply impress him, that he is face to facewith the evidence on which is rested, rightly orwrongly, the great, the far-reaching claim of Spirit-alism,

demonstration of perpetuated life after death,and of intercourse between the world of matter andthe wojrld of spirit.

Sometimes the evidence will come from an im-ersonalsource, from some instructor who has passed

through the plane op which individuality is demon-trable,but it will none the less impress him with the

solemnity of its issues. More frequently it will come


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8 Spirit-Identity.from a friend whose affection has survived the greatchange, and who reaches a hand from the other sideto help the struggling seeker after truth.

In either case, the evidence will usually be treasuredup, and not made public property. Experience ofwhat was done with the green tree will not predisposehim to any experiments with the dry. If the earthlythings the raps and the noises that the ear of sensecan distinguish if the earthly things be derided,who shall tell of the heavenly things ? And so theyare locked up in the inner recesses, and are produced,if at all,only in outline, and under a strong sense ofduty, to one who has in him that yearning after truth,divinely implanted and spirit-nurtured,hich makesit imperative on him that has, to give.

Both from the nature of the evidence,and from the attittide of men towardsit, the truth is only partiallymadepublic.

THE INTBI,I.IGKNT OPERATOR HAS TO BE RECKONEDWITH.

There is another reason that imports much uncer-aintyinto this specialinvestigation. We are not

dealing, as the astronomer, for instance, is,with thatwhich is in itself fixed, which acts according tolaw more or less clearly known to us, and respect-ng

which we have a body of fact from which we canproceed on our way of further observation and ex (


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The Attitude of the Intelligentperator. 9periment. If the astronomer is concerned in observ-ng

the planet Mars, he knows where to turn histelescope : he has a mass of fact with regard to theplanet ready to his hand : he can predictits position,changes, and variations with much certainty for anytime to come: and he can correct errors in hisobservations that may be caused by atmosphericconditions : and, finally,if anything occurs to pre-enthis observation, or to render the planet in-isible

he can tell you exactly what has happenedand why his failure has occurred. He is the heir ofthe knowledge of ages past, and to that body ofscience his own observations attach themselves inorderly sequence, without any breach of continuityor any rude severance of connection.' It is far otherwise when the investigator comes todeal with spiritualscience in its more esoteric aspects.There, at the outset, all is shifting,ague, and uncer-ain.

There is little in the past that can guide him.For the sages of old wrote for the initiated,and werelittle inclined to scatter their pearls of wisdom. Iftheir books are open to us, we have lost the key, andas guides they are practicallyworthless.

The observations of others which are accessible tothe public are apparently conducted under such avariety of conditions that the results arrived at areconflictingn the surface, and tend rather to bewil-erment

than to edification. The atmospheric con-itionsare so variable and exercise so powerful an

infiuetice : the investigator is dependent on the aidof others who form his circle ; and each one of these


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lo Spirit-Identity.imports his own conditions of error into the investiga-ion

: these and other causes, none of them tabulatedand marked for him on the chart of previous experi-nce,

render his early pursuit of knowledge liable toevery fluctuatingdegree of error.

And though increasing experience eliminates manyof these deterrent influences : though ^he finds him-elf

increasingly able to say how and why muchoccurs or does not occur : though he may even beable to to 2 aw f results where inferior agencies aloneare concerned, still he will always find himself at lastcompelled to reckon with the Invisible Operator at theend of the line. He has not to do with a fixed andchangeless subject of investigation,an inert substancethe constitution and propertiesof which are partiallyknown to him ; but with an Intelligent Being, whohas his ideas, plans, and projects all unknown to theinvestigator; who has, moreover, his way of lookingat things, which is far different from that whichobtains among us ; and who, if he be a worthy Guide,will not swerve from the purpose set before him.

If he have been fortunate enough to secure the co-perationof a worthy and sufficientlypowerful spirit,

who acts on principlesof integrity,he will be con-rontedby a new problem. If he have not secured

such a guide, then he will find the investigation besetwith difficulty,and he must depend for his evidenceon sources whence the. supply is alike precarious,and, as second-hand, unsatisfactory. He will betempted to abandon the pursuit, and probably willdo so, unless some unexpected avenue opens out.


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The A ttitude of the Intelligentperator. 1 1But assuming him to be in relation with a spirit

of whose integrity,wisdom, and power he has satisfiedhimself, as it is his sacred duty to do before trustingto his keeping th mighty interests that are at stake,then he will have to consider that this intelligencehas his plans and methods, with which he can onlyslightly interfere. He will be forced to decidewhether he will allow evidence to be produced at thewill of the controlling spirit: whether he will con-ent

to remain, to all intents and purposes, thepassive recipient of what is vouchsafed; or whetherhe will dictate his own conditions, prescribe what^hewishes to be done, refuse what he does not under-tand,

and so place himself in relation with somelower intelligencewho will bow to his will. He maybe well assured that the very fact of his being ableto command and subjugate the intelligence thatshould guide and teach him is proof that he canlearn nothing from so complaisant an instructor. Hehas driven away the spirit that could elevate, andhas attracted one over whom he can lord it.

It is to the latter course having been so frequently,adopted that I trace much of the disfigurement anddefilement of our modern Spiritualism. If the in-estigabe impelled I use the term advisedlyto the other course : if he satisfy himself as to themoral consciousness of the intelligenceat work, andbe content to accept what is presented with fullliberty to examine and try it when it is placed inevidence, but refraining from dictation and interfer-nce,

the course is more or less clear.


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12 Spirit-Identity.He will find, indeed, that he has no power to com-and

phenomena, or possibly even to demonstratetheir existence to others on occasions when he mostdesires to do so. The variable conditions set up byeach change in the circle will be found to be anabsolute barrier to frequent admission of otherfriends ; and on this head he will soon learn that hehas to take his choice between following his owninclinations without success, and obeying the reason-ble

dictates of the Intelligent Operator, who knowsfar more about conditions than he does.

I can recall many an occasion when the mostearnest requests for permission to show certain factsto friends, to whom I would have sacrificed much tobring conviction, and whom it would have beena valued privilegeto have associated with myself inthe investigation,were refused again and again, andI have been forced, though most reluctantly, to ac-uiesce.

No doubt each request of such a kindwould be more readily granted were it possible soto arrange conditions under which investigationsareconducted as to secure a reasonable certainty ofsuccess. No doubt as we grow wiser by repeatedfailure it will be less and less necessary to fenceround our circles by such stringent methods of pro-ibition.

As it is, so many causes of error inter-ene,that the most fruitful of all the combination

of new elements must be avoided.Were it not so, we should be perpetually reduced

to the necessity of going back to first principles;anything like progress would be impossible,and we


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14 Spirtt-Identiiy.his conceptions of life,not as a matter of threescoreyears and ten on this earth, but as an imperishableand eternal possession,to be utilised and cultivatedor to be wasted and destroyed, will be ennobled andelevated. If he be in any sense a true man, he willbe morally, and in the very highest religioussense,the better for the training. He will see more clearlywhat his obligations are, and so will be a bettercitizen and a truer man in all his social relations.He will have a clearer conception of his privileges,and will be the more ready to vindicate his birth-ight.

And he will have learned that, whether hewills it or not, he is the arbiter of his own destiny,that he lives in the piercing sight of the world ofspirit,and he will increasinglyrise above the mean-esses

and pettinesses that disfigure our modernlife,and the anthropomorphic conceptions that formour modern theology.

Far more than this. He will find as he goes on,that his early notions of literal demonstration andscientific analysis are becoming impossible. He willsee that the subtler truths of spirit or rather thehigher conceptions of spiritual truth lend them-elves

to no such methods ; and that they even eludethe hard limits of human language, and find expres-ion

or adumbration (ifat all)in the language ofsymbolism and allegory. More frequently they areintuitivelyperceived, and elude absolutely and en-irely

the crude methods of human expression.And if he penetrates far enough, he will find

himself in a region for which his present embodied


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i6 Spirit-Identity.much is given, of them shall much be required.But this is much, very much, and, as a rule, it is notgiven.

Nor have I touched upon the extreme, the almostinsuperable difficultyof putting into the syllogisms ofcold logic, or even into such exact statements as ahostile critic claims, evidence that frequently appealsmore to the heart than to the head, and which isbest and safest precisely in proportion as it is leastreducible within those hard and fast limits. Suchevidence must appeal to another class of inquirers,and perhaps to a later age of enquiry, when the roughwork of preparation,the ploughing and harrowing ofthe unpromising soil,has been done by the pioneerswho are hard enough and persistentenough to do it.

But, passing from the difficulties inherent in thesubject itself,there are other causes that tend tomake public evidence hard to be had.

THE GATES BEING AJAR A MOTLEY CROWDRUSHES IN.

The world from which disembodied spiritreturnsto us is very much like our own. The denizens of itare of varying degrees of progression ; and those,unfortunately for us, who are least progressive,leastdeveloped, least spiritual,and most material andearthly,hover around the confines, and rush in whenthe gates are set ajar.

We have small reason to complain of this It isour own option to seek intercourse with the world of


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A Motley Crowd. 17spirit and we are certainly doing our best to keepup the supply of unprogressed and undeveloped spiritswho are perpetually passing from our state to thatwith which we voluntarily open communication. Ofcourse we reap what we have sown ; that is an eternallaw.

Our criminals, for some of whom we are responsibleboth in life and death, for we provide the bestpossible conditions for their production and nurture,and, when the full measure of their iniquity is con-ummated,

we considerately facilitate their departurefrom us into the world of spirit, our criminals wehave always with us.

The dwellers in our lanes and alleys, for whom wemake a decent life impossible: the victims of ourlusts and debaucheries, whom our conditions of lifedrive, like the poor sheep that they are, to inevitablesin and shame : these scapegoats of advanced civi-isation

(the civilisation of the later days of theRoman Empire), for whom we have made spirituallife a thing not even intelligible,and distasteful wereit even understood, these we have too, answering. thefirst call,only too ready to come back to the onlyplace they care for.

They who have lived the life of incarnation with-utprogress : they who have hoarded their treasure

here, and have no ^ow^ elsewhere : they who are tiedto earth by any of the bonds that chain down thespirit: they for whom heaven has no meaning, andwho would find their highest gratificationn the earththat they should have quitted for ever : those, in


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i8 Spirit-Identity.short, wliom we, by our vicious civilisation,by all themethods whereby worldly wealth and power preys onand degrades those who are the ministers of its lustsand material cravings and necessities ; those whomwe have reduced to the level of mere physicalmachines, and robbed of the precious birthright ofspiritualrogress and true lif^ : these find the gatesajarand vex us.I sometimes wonder where those, who believe thatman has a soul and a future before him, think that hegoes when they lose sight of him. If they propoundto me the notion that the soul is in some purgatorialstate, or some antechamber of expectation,awaitingreunion with the body that the crack of doom willmiraculously recombine, I have nothing to say. Wehave no common ground on which we can meet. Iam concerned with those who accept and understandthe rational scheme of progression that awaits thesoul newly released from the prison-house of the body.Among these are many who are distressed by thevagaries of spiritswho communicate with them, andwho, in perplexityand bewilderment, are inclined torefer the whole vexed question to diabolic action.

I would say to such. Why do you import into theargument a new element of disturbance ? If there bea Devil such as you postulate,but do not by anymeans prove, or even give any fair evidence for,I canunderstand the whole myster3' of evil ; and I should,if I believed it,be very anxious as to my future, notknowing what pranks such an omnipotent fiend mightnot elect to play with one who habitually meddles


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No Devil. 19with his spiritualdomain. If I did not believe, as Ido, that this very human fiend is the creation as muchof Milton and Dante as of the earlier conceptions ofthe Pentateuch, I should find him, as the appropriatePrince of many embodied fiends that we have success-ully

developed on this earth, a very present cause oft rouble.

But is there not enough embodied folly,roguery,iniquity,vice, and sin, the product of our own civili-ation,the outcome of our society, ay, even the con-equence

of what it pleases us to call our religion,perpetually going into the world of spirit to accountfor all we see and deplore ?

We are agreed that man survives physical death.We are agreeithat he is an accountable being, whowill have to render account for the deeds done inthe body. He must, therefore, be the same man inspiritthat he was in the flesh,or where is the possi-ility

of judgment ?Well, what was he ? and what does Holy Writ say ?

He that is unjust is unjust still ; and he that isfilthyis filthystill. Carry on the argument, and theconclusion is inevitable. We have elements set loosefrom this world of ours day by day, endowed toowith perpetuated life and energy, sufficient to makeit not only probable but certain that, once weestablish communication with the disembodied state,they will return to vex and harass us, as we knowthey do.

We are face to face once more with the working ofinevitable law. As a man sows, so will he also


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20 Spirit-Identity.reap. We are sowing the wind with much dailyenergy, and we reap the whirlwind in due course.

This of itself is a grave cause of complication ; andit is aggravated by our own folly and neglect ofreasonable precautions in investigation.

NBGtBCT OF CONDITIONS IN INVESTIGATING.

Most of the facilities for investigation which anordinary investigator finds at his disposal are suchas seem to be constructed for the very purposeof bewildering one who possesses this mysteriouspsychic power ; and some, I fear,who only pretend toits possession,advertise that, for a small remuneration,they will place the public in relation with the worldof spirit. This of itself is,I should hope, a transitorystate of affairs. Far be it from me to utter a wordthat could even seem to disparage the work done bypublic mediums. I am conscious that it is not heldin the estimation that it should be ; and that perhapsas much from the obloquy brought upon it by somewhose frauds have discredited it, as from any othercause. When it is discharged, as I have seen it,witha sense of responsibilityand an honest desire to bringto the investigator such evidence as is possible,muchgood is effected.

But too often what happens is this : A number ofpersons assemble, most of them densely ignorant ofany conditions to be observed ; some animated bymere curiosity, a few by a dumb desire to see whatcan be had through the only source open to them as


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23 Spirit-dentity.and tliat the conditions set up and perpetuated byus result in much that is discreditable, and evenshameful.

In so saying, I have in my mind many a scandalthat has brought shame on the cause that I advocate ;and I am not so much inclined to blame the perpe-rators

of the iniquity,though they must bear theirrighteous burden, as I am the folly and stupiditythat make such scandals possible.

And even in circles where better conditions maybe expected, we find the gravest neglect of pre-autions

that experience has shown to be indis-ensable.

We know that out of our bodies, in some mysteri-usmanner, by some chemistry unknown to us, are

provided the means by which the invisible operatorswork. Yet few consider that they are bound toprepare themselves in any way for the part theyhave to play. A copious dinner and a free supplyof stimulant are considered to be a reasonable pre-aration

for an hour's communion with the dead.And then they grumble because they do not gettheir dead of so high quality as they woulddesire Or, worse still,they welcome anything withhilarious merriment, and embrace the dear spiritsas if they were the very Angels of I/ight.

A melancholy picture, too often drawn by thosewho would cast a cheap sneer upon us. I^et it foronce be painted by one who desires only to point itsmoral.

That is not the way to investigateSpiritualism;


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Exoteric Spiritualism. 23nor is the Intelligent Operator to blame for resultsthat our own follyproduces.

These, the results alas the only results that thegeneral public knows as Spiritualism,re by commonconsent undesirable. If the opening of communi-ation

between the two worlds results necessarily inthis, by all means let us have the gates closed atonce. That it does not so result of necessity, I hopeto show ; and I trust that the efforts that are nowbeing made, and the general spread of knowledge onthe subject, will result in wiping away at once andfor ever this bar to investigation,and in opening outbetter avenues for intercourse between us and theworld of spirit.

I put it,then, to the candid reader, whether it isany cause for reasonable surprise that, having regardto those spirits,the dwellers on the threshold whovex and plague us, and to those on our side who arebest known to the public as exponents of experi-ental

Spiritualism,there should be a deal of non-enseand folly current in its name ? Is any evidence

that is precise and clear to be expected under suchconditions ? Is any intercourse to be looked for withany spiritthat can elevate and ennoble man? anyproof evolved in orderly and exact method ? any-hing,

in short, save that questionable benefit ofproving that man's vices and follies survive his death,and that there is no monopoly of those qualitieson this earth ?

Let us purge away from our side these blots whichdefile our communion with the world of spiritbefore


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Other Agencies than the Departed. 25cious, and that there is room in it for something morethan the whole family of man.

The action of sub-human spirits,nd the part theyare alleged to play in Spiritualism,ably and enthu-iastically

set forth by students of the occult literatureof the East, popularised in America by Madame H.P. Blavatsky in her great work Isis Unveil^d, andsince then advocated in England by a little band ofwriters hardly less able and energetic,has not neededany other help to secure it from oblivion or neglect.I have not lost sight of that side of the question,even when I have endeavoured to redress the balanceby drawing prominent attention to what I hold to bean infinitely more important element the actionof departed human spirits. I should apologise forintroducing a word about so unimportant a matteras my own opinions, but I have no desire to becredited with any change of thought which has nottaken place, or to seem to be one-sided in my view.I hope I may disavow that suppositionwithout layingmyself open to any charge of egotism.

I have brought forward a small portion of theevidence that I have collected for the return of thedeparted for a plain reason. It is this : For sometime past there has seemed to me to be creepingover a prominent section of Spiritualists,he mostable, the best informed, and the most active ininforming others, an inclination to what in a doctorI should call Specialism. Just as the Specialistwhodeals with the heart refers all symptoms of illness inhis patients to some fault in that organ, while his


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26 Spirit-Identity.neighbour who deals with the lungs finds in themthe root of all evil that comes under his ken, so theseSpecialistsseemed inclined to refer everything thathas occurred in our experience of the domain ofspiritto any cause except what I hold to be thechief of all the action of departed human spirits.'That, the most potent factor, seemed to me to berelegated to the lowest place,as, for instance, it is inIsis Unveiled, and to be practicallyignored, thoughtheoretically and hypothetically admitted as a pos-ible

and latent element, by an influential and activebody, most of whom would call themselves, and allof whom would be called by the outside world, Spiritualists.

My own view was different, and I thought it wellto set it forth. In a prolonged experience thelength of which is not measured by time so properlyas by the rapidity with which events have crowdedone upon the other, so that day and night were setthick with them ; in an experience at least as longand as diversified as that of most of those who arriveat other conclusions, I have found abundant evidencefor the action of human spirits,nd comparativelylittle for the action of any sub-human spirits. I amaware that spiritis not conterminous with humanity,and I know that spiritexists on an inferior plane tothat on which we live. But I believe it impingesrarely and slightlyon us, and personally I know verylittle of its operation.

I know that the power of the human will is great of the trained and developed human will,that has


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The Liberated Spiritofthe Psychic. 27regained by long practice its lost birthrightof power,I believe the potency to be of unknown magnitude.But the exercise of Will is little known amongWestern nations; and, as a factor in the produc-ion

of these phenomena, I believe it to be of thevery slightestvalue.

I know, too, that the liberated spiritof the Psychichas powers with which Spiritualists,s a body, arebut slenderly acquainted. I have had some consi-erable

acquaintance with this trans-corporeal actionof spirit,oth in my own person and with others. Ihave had grave reason to form the opinion that, inour present state of ignorance, it is an extremelydangerous experiment ; one, too, that is very rarelysuccessfully practised,inasmuch as natural giftsmustbe supplemented by a power of concentration of willvery rarely attained by any Western people. I haveno belief that this enters as an indistinguishable factorinto the production of these phenomena. Such fewcases as are attributable to it are well marked andreadily distinguishable.

I profess once more my belief that these subjects the action of inferior spirits,the trans-corporealaction of the incarnated human spirit, and thepotency of the human will are worthy of ourdeepest study. Not until we have solved some, atleast, of the mysteries that beset them, shall wepenetrate far in our study of the phenomena calledspiritual. No one-sided view will embrace the fieldof Spiritualism,and no student of the subject canafford to overlook causes which may be so in-


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28 spirit Identity,fluential in the production of abnormal phenomenaas these.

I, at least, should like to know more of the powersinherent in my own spirit,and of the results thatmay be produced by their development. Therein, Ifeel convinced, lies the key to many a mystery, andI regard no time that can be spent on such self-analysis as misplaced.But I should be doing what I am ready to blamein others ; I should be one-sided and blind were Ito neglect to note what lies immediately before me,what has been infinitely the most prominent factorin the spiritualphenomena that I have observed rthe action of the spiritsof the departed.

For these, among other reasons, I wrote andnow publish, with additions and appendices, thepaper which bears the title of The Intei.i,igbntOperator.

rewgious aspects of the question.One other reason influenced me. It has seemed to

me that some of us have been for a long time pastso occupied with the husk and shell of Spiritualismthat we have lost sight of the inner truth.

Now it is to the last degree important that thephenomena of Spiritualism should be placed on abasis of scientific demonstration, and no pains are toogreat to spend on so desirable an object. To thisend it is especiallydesirable that any who possesspsychic power should be encouraged to devote itdesignedly and by exercise of will to the elaboration


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30 Spirit-Identity.of spiritswho govern these manifestations of whichall that we can get is but a fragmentary view to acton us, and on the religious thought of the age. Inthis I presume the methods employed are analogous tothose that have been used in other transition epochs.

Another is,that as soon as we escape from the veryexternal surroundings of the subject an escape thatsome persons, however, have not yet made we arebrought in some way or other into relation with thisplan, or some phase of it.

A third is,that there is an impulse and yearning incertain persons who are brought into relation withthe world of spirit,hich enables them to receive andassimilate what to others has no beauty that theyshould desire it. I have recorded elsewhere my ownpersonal experience of this ; and the truth is,that allnew epochs have been introduced by some suchmeans. They have dovetailed one into the other;and there have been of necessity pioneers,often menin advance of their age, who have caught up thecourier -fire,nd have handed it on to those who comeafter them.

And, lastly, I see in this organised influence ofspirit on those who have the inward preparationprecisely what I can trace in other epochs of theworld's history, when, as now, old truths have losttheir energy, when they requirere-stating,and whenthe progressive thinkers, who always bear the bruntof obloquy in introducing new truth, are receiving itsseeds into mental soil that has been prepared for itsgermination.


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Tendency of History. 31He is but a blind student of the history of the

development of religioustruth who does not see this.All truths,i.e.,ll human conceptions of essential truth,pass through phases such as those which the humanbody, for instance, undergoes. Growth, vigour, decay,death, recombination, and reconstruction ; these arethe stages of progressive change. And the processesare similar in respect of the development of truth inall cases.

The truth that has sufficed the wants of one age,and in course of time has received glosses,explana-ions,

and comments, which have obscured its ori-inalsimplicity,impaired its adaptabilityto daily use,

and encumbered it with a mass of fallacy,this adul-eratedtruth fails any longer to suffice the wants or

meet the cravings of a succeeding age. The timeshave changed. Man has progressed. Pioneers of anew epoch have shadowed forth their ideas, themessage with which they are charged. Destructivecriticism has dealt with the old truths, and, albeitunable to touch them in so far as they are fragmen-ary

statements of eternal truth, has found plenty ofweak places in man's glosses and additions.

And so the old order changeth, giving place to new.Fashion reigns in the realm of thought as elsewhere ;and by degrees a new view of the old truth is pre-ented,

a new combination has been effected, andtruth is presented in a more acceptable guise, andperhaps in fairer proportions to those whose innernatures crave enlightenment.

This process, acting throughout the mighty chain


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32 Spirit-Identity.of sequence from the Supreme Inspirer and Origi-ator,

Whose eye is over all His works, through Hisvarious intermediary agencies, by whom He reachesthese lower worlds, and again through those of uswho on earth are prepared to receive, assimilate, andstate the truth, down to the humblest recipient whoasks and receives spiritualfood this process is onespeciallyexemplified in all great crises in the world'shistory, such as that in the midst of which we live.

It is only in the light of some such explanation asthis that the history of the world's progress can begrasped. The story has been the same at all greatepochs. It was so when the Christ came to shed onan age of midnight darkness the strongest gleam oflight that we have any record of Those who shouldhave been most ready to receive and welcome thenew truth, whose office pointed them out as its naturalrecipients, and who, by virtue of that office,werebound to be its foster-fathers,were forward in stiflingits voice and crucifyingits Herald.

Never, perhaps,has it been otherwise. Those whoby their position should be prominent in the ever-pressing work of reform, in whatever department ofhuman life, are the last to welcome what, almost ofnecessity, rises outside of their order, and comes tothem with no sanction of orthodoxy. It is outsideof the priestly caste, beyond the pale of the pre-cribed

succession, that the voice crying in thewilderness is first heard. And it is they only whofeel the need, who have within them the desire, theprepared heart, that catch its first accents. As the


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34 Spirit Identity.strictly religious aspects of Spiritualism. What Ihave said is but a hint of what I feel to be the pro-ected

outcome of the subject, if it have free course.It will probably pass through many phases before itfinally succeeds or fails in its mission.

But, meantime, it is acting as a very wholesomeleaven on the whole mass of contemporary thought,and influencing even those who are most unconsciousof its power, and who would most scornfully rejectits overt claims, though they cannot resist its silentinfluence. It is liberalising opinion in many unlikelydirections ; it is making men brave, more self-reliant,more manly, by teaching them to dare to exercisethat noblest of their hereditar5' privileges, that birth-ight

which none may sell and not fall into sin - ^theright to think for themselves. The beams of the sunof spiritare loosening the icy barriers that hem inthe arctic climes of thought, whether in politics,religion, or social life ; and making it possible tobreath in those hyperborean regions, and to hopethat it may not always be night there. And it isshedding on many a receptive soul light that is to itthe very dayspring from on high, the herald andforerunner of the brighter light that is to come.

What modifications its external form may take Ido not venture to predict. Sufficient that, for goodor for evil, there is at work in our midst a mightyinfluence, which it is the part of the wise man torecognise and, if possible, to control.


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THE INTELLIGENT OPERATOR AT THE

OTHER END OF THE LINE.


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38 The Intelligentperator atpeople'ssouls, nor even go so far as to assert thatspirits do not exist ; but, for himself, havingmanaged to live for some years without what ispopularly called a soul, or, as I should preferto say,without being conscious of such a possession,he pro-oses

to continue soulless to the end, which, havingregard to the allotted age of man, is more or lessimminent. Then I doubt not he will find his soul,and live, I trust, the same vigorous and energeticindividual that he now is.^

Well, I, on my own account, do assert that spiritsdo exist. And I presume, further, that most of usare pretty comfortable as to our soul's existence,^whatever we may be as to their condition. I shallnot stay to debate a question which is futtdamentalto our very existence as a body of Spiritualists.

Furthermore, I shall re-state, without argument,another proposition on which we are agreed viz.:That there exists a force conveniently called Psychic,and (^paceCaptain Burton) not conveniently calledZoo-electricity,' inasmuch as the experiments ofmen of science, so far as they prove anything respect-ng

its nature, show that electricityis about the worst1 Personally, I ignore the existence of soul and spirit,eel-ng

no want of a self within a self,an I within an I. If it be aquestion of words, and my e^o, or subject,as opposed to thenon-ego, or object,or my individuality,the concourse of con-itionswhich differentiates me from others, be called a soul,then I have a soul, but not a soul proper. For some years,however, I have managed to live without what is popularlycalled a soul ; and it would be hard to find one violently thrustinto the recusant body. Captain Burton beforethe B.N.A.S.

2 Captain Burton before the B.N.A.S.


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the. other End of the Line. 39term to apply to the force in question. Still lessconveniently is theaction of this force described asMagnetism,^ a word already appropriated in quiteanother sense.

And yet once more, I assume that we have evi-encethat this force is governed by Intelligence

which, in many demonstrable cases, some of which Ishall quote, is not that of any person present at thetime, of the experiment under notice.

THE NATURE OF THE INTEI,I,IGENCE.

Of what nature is the Intelligence ? This is theprecise question to which I shall try to suggestmaterials for an answer. A full answer would in-olve

a complete statement of the various theorieswhich have commended themselves to various specu-ators,

I should need to give reasons for putting asidethat strange theory that the force itself is responsiblefor all,instead of being to the Intelligent Operatormerely the correlative of the electric force, whichenables the telegraphic clerk to transmit his mes-age.

I should have to discuss the devil theory, and evento inquire into the origin and character of the Arch-iend,

Elementals and elementaries would claim a hearing,and I should need to investigate the exact extentto which they are responsiblefor some of the vagaries

1 Captain Burton before the B.N.A.S.


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40 The IntelligentOperator atwhich the IntelligentOperator does undoubtedly per-lex

us with.I should be forced to go into that bewildering field

of investigation which lies nearer home, and inquirehow far the liberated spiritof the Psychic, acting un-onsciously

to himself, can communicate knowledge'which in normal moments he is profoundly uncon-cious

of possessing.All this I manifestly cannot do now. I shall treat

psychic force as the mere instrument that it is. Ishall ignore the devil and all his works for the timebeing. I shall leave untouched the question of theaction of sub-human spirits,nd of the action of thosespiritsthat are still embodied on this earth, and Ishall pin myself down on this occasion to the nar-^rower issue that immediately lies before me.

WHAT IS THE INTELLIGENCE?It is obvious to note at starting that, with so few

exceptions as only to illustrate the rule, it claimsto be human. The IntelligentOperator is,a member,according to his own story, of that great humanfamily, whereof the majority has passed into theworld of spirit,whence they still the same men,with the same interests, and the same affections, withan unbroken continuity of individual existence communicate with us, the minority, who are passingthrough the phase of incarnation which they havedone with, once they have emerged from the prison-house of the body.


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the other End of the Line. 41.What ground is there for declining to accept' this,

general statement as true? Several suspicious cir-jcumstances combine to throw doubt upon particularcases.

ASSUMPTION OP GRBAT NAMES.

The free use made of names great and honouredamongst men is one of the most suspicious ; especiallywhen we find, as is too frequently the case, that theyare made the sponsors for pretentious nonsense, bom-astic

platitude,or egregious twaddle ; still more sowhen the claims put forward break down on thesimplest examination. Such baseless assumptionsbreed a spiritof suspicion which is apt to generalisefrom single instances, and allege universal imposture.This is to rush to another extreme. It must, how-ver,

strike any rational observer that this prevalenceof illiterate Shaksperes and twaddling Swedenborgs,,of scientific names that the world holds in the highestesteem, who return only to demonstrate their presentignorance of the first principles of that science whichthey once illuminated and adorned on earth, isstrong presumptive evidence that the IntelligentOperator is not, in all cases, the person he pretendsto be.

To what are we to attribute this ? Is it to theabsence of scientific knowledge on the part of thePsychic, and to the fact that his ignorance is themeasure of the knowledge that can be conveyedthrough him ? That, at any rate, is not always the


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42 The Intelligirttperaiortcas^.' Is it to the mysterious conditions that besetthe spiritwho seeks to resume relations with our;worid, and cause unintentional error in the matter ofhis communications ? Or is it that there are in the'world of spirits with us, those who delight to strutin borrowed plumes, and to pass themselves off forsomething great and good, being but sorry stuff afterall ? Can spirits,being, as we know, able to obtainaccess to sources of human information,' get up theirfacts and give such travesty of them as they canremember : reckoning, not without some show ofreason, on the credulity which will accept any plau-ible

story, or on their power to psychologise the in-estigaor so to mix up fancy, frauds, and fact as

to bewilder and perplex him ?These are some ideas that must have occurred to

many of us. To whatever cause it may be attributed,the manifestly baseless assumption of great namesgoes far to cast ridicule and suspicion on the claims'of the IntelligentOperator in certain cases.

ABSENCE OF PRECISION IN STATEMENT.

Another cause of doubt is the extreme difficultythat is usually found in getting any facts preciselygiven, especially facts that are certainly external tothe knowledge of the sitters. There is a generalhaziness about the messages, where there is not

1 See a remarkable narrative by Mr. Barkas in the Psycho-ogicalReview, October, 1878.

2 See Appendix I.


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the other End of the Line, 43positive error in the statements made ; and it isextremely diificult to get anything like definite andprecise facts plainly put, unless this be insisted onas a preliminary to further colloquy. This was myplan. I used for a long time to refuse to hold anyconverse with a spiritfrom whom I could not firstobtain some plain facts that I could verify, or thatcarried on their surface evidence of probability.Ihad perplexed myself by reading hazy messages inthe works and journals of Spiritualism,until I cameto doubt the identity of all communicating spirits.I found great trouble in getting what I wanted, butI persistentlystuck to my point until,by determinedexercise of will, by refusing to have anything to dowith spiritsthat declined my method, and, above all,by the good fortune of being able to enlist the co-peration

of a spiritin whose integrity and power Ihad the perfect confidence which repeated trial andlong experience alone can give, I did in the end getmy proof.

Having got my facts,I found them accurate in allcases when I was able to verify them. They were atany rate true. I do not pretend that this fact provesanything as to the pretensions of the particular spiritwho gives them, beyond establishing a favourablepresumption. I have reason to believe, from what Iknow of spiritaction, that all such facts might be gotup and retailed to me. Against this I have to saythat the facts in question were assuredly unknown tomyself: and, if they were so got up, we have a verycurious point before us. They bore, however, no


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44 The IntelligentOperator atappearance of deceit, and I have full confidence thatno systematic course of imposture, such as this argu-*ment contemplates, would have been permitted bythe controlling agency.

This confidence, born of experience, I can no moreconvey to others than I can impart the reliance onthe integrityof an old and tried friend which I havebuilt up for myself by the outcome of year after yearof intimate association. But it is a very powerfulfactor in my argument. And so it is in numberlesscases outside of those within my knowledge. Thereare multitudes of private circles the world has nonotion how many in which evidence of the return ofthose who have gone before is presented day by day;through years of intimate association, to the minds ofthose who are best, nay, who alone are fitted to judgeof its true value. It is this reiteration of proof thatthe private circle furnishes which so carries conviction.The promiscuous circle, from the very nature of itsconstitution, can hardly ever give it,and then only inan inferior degree.

CONTRADICTORY MESSAGES.

Another cause which has strengthened the inherentfeeling of antecedent improbability with which mostof us start, is the mass of contradictions in themessages, and the general air of unreality that veryfrequentlypervades them. It seems unreal and un-ikely

that a friend with whom our converse was that


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46 The IntelligentOperator atthere occur repeated cases in which there are theStrongest reasons for believingthat the spiritis whatit pretends to be very many in which there remainsno room for doubt. Such cases, I repeat, are toosacred for publicity. They do not find their way intoprint ; and even if they do, no coldly precise record,such as would find favour with an antagonistic critic,can give to him the conviction that comes from 'manya little turn of expression, or reference to scenes longpast, or possibly from nothing more tangible than theintuitive certainty that this isindeed our friend,thoiighwe should find it as hard to prove it as some, even inour own days, have found it to prove their ownidentity.

Under such conditions, where sincerity absolutely'prevailson our side as well as on theirs,when we havetaken care to present ourselves both pure in heartand sound in head for the hour's communion with'the friends gone before, the spiritualatmosphere,:ispure, and we feel it. There is an air of moral con-'sciousness, of straightforwardness,that gives realitytowhat is done, and predisposes us to believe that weare not the victims of an organised System of cruel'imposture, prolonged over a period of many years,and triflingwith the most sacred subjects as well aswith the tenderest feelings of the heart. The spiritthat could so act, and yet maintain an air of sincerityand even sublimity in tone, must surely be the verydevil transformed into an angel of light. I have hosuch fear as that ; and it is under circumstances ^uch'as these that proofs come which are sheet andhdrs 'o


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the other End of the Line. 47hold on by in the midst of much that is shifty and-uncertain.

Under these conditions, too, are given the proloageiseries of tests and proofs of the continued existenceiA an individuality once familiar to us in the body,which forms a cumulative argument of great cogencyin favour of spirit-dentity.

There is no one but notes in his intimates traitsof character and points of personal peculiaritythathe would look for as evidence of identity after longabsence. Such are the notes by which he wouldrecognise his friend : unnoticed by others, they wouldbe to him proof positive. It is these little notes, soconvincing to those who find them, so hard to put onpaper, so impossible to analyse and dissect in public,that come in the privacy of the domestic circle, re-eated

again and again in many a form, until doubtsimply dies of inanition.^

VAI,UE OF CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY.,

When, moreover, in addition to reiterated evidencederived through one channel, similar evidence,slightly varied by varied conditions, is obtainedthrough an independent channel, the weight of thetestimony is much increased. When, further, this isso far multiplied as to be produced on all occasionswhen intercourse is sought with the world of spirit;when the human instrument's fallibilityis correctedby the unimaginative record of the photographic

' Appendix II.


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48 The Intelligentperatoratcamera, a chain of evidence is completed which only-the novelty of the subject permits prepossession toignore.

Such a case was recorded by Mrs. Fitzgerald'ina paper read before the B.N.A.S. on November 18,1878, and there are many who, if they would imitateher disinterested example, could give corroborativetestimony from the experience of their own privatelives.

Evidence such as is frequentlyadduced to estab-ishspirit-identity evidence given through various

channels, by various methods, and extending over along period of time ; evidence, too, be it remem-ered,

that is usually fragmentary, for the obviousreason that those who enjoy the blessingof renewedintercourse with their departed friends are notpersons usually of trained legal minds, nor are theyemployed in getting up a case for our courts oflaw : evidence such as is produced by these methodswould establish in fair minds a strong presumptionof spirit-identity,ere it not for the inherent impro-ability

to which I have alluded (and which is dueto theological errors of belief as much as to any othercause), and for the perpetually recurrent cases offraud which defile and bring contempt on a greattruth.

Admitting, however, to the full the weight of theseconsiderations, and knowing, as I do, that certainclasses of mind will give them a weight quite dispro-

^ Spiritualist,ov. 22, 1878.


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the other End of the Line. 49portionate to their real value, I claim, with entireconfidence, that spirit-identityis a proven fact. Iam about to state some few cases that are within myown knowledge, and I shall refer to others which Ihave already published.

In this part of my work I must claim indulgenceif I do not give names and facts at length in everycase. I pledge myself to the exact accuracy ofevery statement I make, and I will gladly satisfyany private inquirer respecting any case, if I canreasonably do so. But I am holden from the publi-ation

of names and addresses in some cases by theknowledge that friends of the departed are stillsurviving, and that I must respect their feelings. Ihave no right to invade the sacred privacy of thememory of their dead, even in such a cause as thatof the demonstration of what is loosely called Im-ortality

PERSONAI, EXPERIENCES.

It is now four years since my mind was so greatlyvexed on this question that I determined to satisfymyself, or to abandon any further attempt at inter-oursewith the world of spirit as vague andunsatisfying. I had not had sufficient evidence ofpersonal identity of spiritsto enable me to build onit a firm argument. No doubt I had had some,which has since had its due weight in my mind, butthe mass of my communications had been of animpersonal character, with spiritswho preferred to


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50 The Intelligentperator atrest their claims to my attention on the matter andtendency of their messages, rather than on theauthority of any name, however great that authoritymight be. They had passed out of the sphere ofindividuality, and chafed at being recalled to it. I,on the contrary, pined for something definite, someevidence that would satisfy me that I was dealingwith the spiritsof my kind. The Angelic was

toohigh for me. I could not attain to it.

For a long time I failed in getting the evidence Iwanted ; and if I had done as most investigators doI should have abandoned the quest in despair or dis-ust.

My state of mind was too positive; and I wasforced, moreover, to take some personal pains beforeI obtained what I desired. Bit by bit,here a littleand there a little,by steps which I do not detail here,that evidence came, and as my mind opened to re-eive

it, some six months were spent in persistentdaily eftorts to bring home to me proof of the per-etuated

existence of human spirits,and of theirpower to communicate with me and give evidence ottheir unimpaired individuality,and of the unbrokencontinuity of their existence.

Some of those who so came I had known duringtheir life on earth, and was able, not only to verifytheir statements, but also to note the little traits ofmanner, peculiaritiesof diction, or characteristics ofmind, that I remembered in them while in the body.'

Most were unknown to me, and came, always inobedience to the controlling spiritwho arranged

1 Appendix II.


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the other End of the Line. 51everything, to give their evidence, and go their way.when the task assigned them was done. Of thesesome came from the most unlikely sources, and gaveme and my friends no little trouble to verify theirstatements.

Some came at the time of death. At that time, itwould seem, the spiritfinds it easy to manifest itspresence, and the facts that it can give are readilycapable of verification. Some had been long dead,as men count time, and came back in a dazed andawkward fashion to revisit,the old scenes of earth,cramped and straitened, a it were, by taking onagain the old conditions.

But wherever they came from, and however theycommunicated, one and all bore with them an air ofsincerity and earnestness, as of those who were them-elves

impressed with the deep significance of thework they had in hand. And all, without a lonelyexception, told the truth about themselves, so far aswe could verify their story. Many statements werefrom their nature not capable of proof; a vastlygreater number were minutely accurate ; and nonesuggested any attempt at deception. I cross-exa-ined

these invisible witnesses in every conceiv-bleway, and with a pertinacity that left nothing

untried to elicit facts. Many of my queries wereunanswered, for I am afraid I asked many unreason-ble

questions ; but I failed, to shake their story, orby the most cunning suggestiofalsi to lead them intomistakes.

I refer for evidence of this to my records, kept


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52 The Intelligentperator atduring all this period with scrupulous regularitydayby day, minute in detail even to recording tempera-ure

and atmospheric conditions, and checked byindependent records kept by another member of thecircle in which these facts were communicated. Anygaps in my own narrative, such as would be causedby my being, as I frequently was, in a state of un-onscious

trance, are thus filled up, and my ownrecord is checked by independent observation.Referring to these records, I find that from New

Year's Eve to January ii, 1874, during which time Iwas staying at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, the guest ofDr. Speer, we had a continuous chain of testimonyat our daily sittings,all bearing on the question ofthe identity of spirit. The evidence was given invarious ways, principallythrough raps on the table,many of these raps produced entirely without con-act

of the hands of any person present. Some factswere given by direct writing on previously-markedpaper ; some by automatic writing ; some throughclairvoyance, or clairaudience. In a few cases cor-oborative

evidence was drawn from all thesesources.

During those twelve days eleven different cases ofidentity were made out by facts and dates. Threeof them were entirely unconnected with any of us ;and of one of them none of us had ever heard thename, or any particular. Yet his full name, hisplace of residence, and the very name of his house,dates of his birth and day of his death, were givenwith perfectaccuracy. One was connected with Dr.


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54 The IntelligentOperator atprove identity in this particularcase. Like most'general statements, it is incorrect and inexact. Somespiritswill assent to leading questions, and, pos-essed

apparently with a desire to please, or uncon-ciousof the import of what they say, or without

moral consciousness in themselves, will say anything.And a deal of harm is done by quoting the foolishutterances of such spirits,given, usually, in responseto leading questions, which invalidate the repliesmade to them. I may say, once for all, that wemade a point of not putting leading questions at all,and that very many cases of identity were made outby the invisible witness without our intervention inany way.

This spirit,at any rate, refused to assent to whatI suggested. I certainly rose from the table con-inced

that I had been talking to a person thatdesired to tell the truth, and that was extremelycareful to be exact in statement. I verified all thefacts,and found them exactly given.

During this same period came three relatives ofMrs. Speer's, and gave full evidence of their identity.One of them had before manifested in another wayat a public circle,showing his face and a peculiarlydelicate hand, which was characteristic of him inearth-life. Another had attempted to show himselfat the same tinje,but had failed to obtain recogni-ion.

With that strong desire which animates manyspiritsto get recognition, a desire that seems to growwith each failure, and to spur them on to renewed,attempts, he followed me; to, a circle held at the:


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56 The IntelligentOperator atherself. When she departed he was permitted toaccompany her, and the two were reunited.

That husband manifested his presence during thissame period of eleven days. Each spirit selects,apparently,a special rap, knock, or form of signal,which never varies, and which possesses as muchindividuality as the human voice. He came withthe strangest and most uncomfortable sound, some-imeslike a whizzing in the air, sometimes like aharsh grating on the table, each equally suggestiveof unrest. The atmosphere that surrounded thespirit,nd of which I was painfully con-scious whenhe manifested his presence, was similarly indicativeof unhappiness, and he earnestly asked for prayer.He had been a grasping man : gold had been hisgod ; and he had lived on to find himself bound bygolden fetters to the earth where his treasure hadbeen. I have no words to describe the sensation ofcold discomfort that his presence brought, nor theair of gruesome and grim misery that was conveyedto us by what was told respecting him. His desig-ation

in spirit-lifeas WoE. The spiritwho toldus this was asked to put in one word what had

brought him to this state. That word was given atonce, with an intensity that impressed us all mostpowerfully : Greed. Yet he had not been what theworld calls an evil-liver,nor neglectful of his duties.On the contrary, in his hard mechanical way, he hadbeen punctual and exact in their discharge. Buthis spirithad been starved, and he awaited the timewhen the simple, loving soul, who on earth had been


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the other End of the Line. 57his companion, should rejoin him, and infuse somespiritual life and vigour into his cold and cheerlessexistence. I think none who witnessed the painfulreality of his manifestation would entertain anydoubt as to his identity. I never quite understoodtill then the meaning of those words addressed byChrist to highly respectable men of the world, who,no doubt, were punctual and exact in business, The publicans and harlots shall go into the king-om

of heaven before you.

INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATION, FSPECIAI,r,Y OPLOCALITY.

This spirit had first manifested after Dr. Speerand I had visited his grave. There was some linkbetween him and the last resting-place of his body.I do not understand how or why, but I have come,after repeated evidence, to accept as a fact what Icannot give a reason for,that an earth-bound spiritis frequently associated with locality,with the home,the place of death, or even the grave. The presenceof personal friends, especially if they possess themysterious psychic power, or be accompanied by onewho does, will frequently attract an earth-bound spirit,o r even recall one who is not tied to this lower sphere

This was the case with the man who met his deathby being crushed with a steam-roller, recorded in theSpiritualistf March 27, 1874.^

This was the case when Dr. Speer and I, then on1 Appendix III


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58 The Intelligentperator atan excursion in the Korth of Irtland, visited an olddisused burying-ground at Garrison. There were init some curious Runic crosses, of which I wantedsketches. We remained a considerable time, andwere greatly shocked at the skulls and bones thatwe found lying about in all directions. The resultof that visit was such an uncanny noise in my bed-oom,

which was separated from Dr. Speer's only bya thin partition, that I know he entertains a livelyremembrance of the visit to that graveyard. Hedescribes the sounds as utterly destructive of sleep,and was much aggravated to find, on coming into myroom, that I was slumbering peacefully through it all.

Another case occurred during these eleven dayswhich testified again to the connection between thespirit and the resting-place of its body. In thecourse of a walk I had visited a beautiful churchyard,and had wandered through it. In the evening camea spirit,hose body lay there, an old friend of Mrs.Speer's, who communicated with much apparentjoy, and gave particulars clear and complete of heridentity, though (as I find from my record writtenon the spot) I was carefully occupying my mind byreciting some passages of Virgil while the messagewas being given, and though the table on which theraps came was absolutely untouched by us. This, Imay here say, is a precaution that I habitually tookin order to eliminate 4;he disturbing element of myown mental action. The automatic writing, whichhas brought to me the greatest weight of evidence,has been, in very many cases, executed while I was


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the other End of the Line. 59occupied in reading a book, sometimes of a veryabstruse character.

The last case I will notice during this period wasthat of a person of whom no one present had evenheard. The spirit was one lately departed. Hehad been brought, for purposes of evidence, by thespiritwho controlled the circle,and whose organisedplan for presenting once for all evidence that shouldbreak down my unbelief I am now imperfectlyrecounting. He gave minute facts and dates as tohis life, and went his way. We had some consider-ble

difficultyin verifying the facts, but finally suc-eededin doing so by a letter from his nearest

surviving relative.This case has been paralleled in at least twelve

other instances, respecting each of which I am certainthat information was given that was foreign to myown mind, or, as I am assured, to that of any personpresent.

The case of Abraham Florentine,' published in theSpiritualistof March 19, 1875, may be mentioned inthis connection, as also that of Charlotte Buckworth,^published in the Spiritualistof January 21, 1876.

SPIRITS WHO HAVE COMMUNICATED FOR A LONGPERIOD.

I pass to a case in which a spirit,who first mani-estedher presence on September 4, 1872, has re-ainedin permanent communication with us ever

1 Appendix III. 2 Ibid.


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6o The IntelligentOperator atsince. I note this case because we have the advan-age

of prolonged intercourse to aid us in forming anopinion as to identity,and because the spirithas notonly given unequivocal proof of her characteristicindividuality, but has evidenced her presence invarious ways. This is a remarkable case, too, astending to prove that life,once given, is indestruc-ible,

and that the spiritwhich has once animated ahuman body, however brief its tenure, lives on withunimpaired identity.^

The spiritin question announced herself by raps,giving a message in French. She said she was asister of Dr. Speer's, and had passed away at Tours,an infant of seven months old. I had never heard hermentioned, and her brother had forgotten her exist-nce,

for she lived and died before his birth. Clair-oyantshad always described a child as being in my

company, and I had wondered at this,seeing that Ihad no trace of any such relation or friend. Here wasthe explanation. From the time of her first appear-nce

she has remained attached to the family, andher clear,joyous little rap, perfectly individual in itsnature, is a never-failing evidence of her presence.It never varies, and we all know it at once as surelyas we should know the tone of a friend's voice. Shegave particularsof herself, and also her four namesin full. One was new to her brother, and he verifiedit only by reference to another member of thefamily. Names and dates and facts were alike un-

See some strikingevidence on this point in Heaven Openedby F. J. T.


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62 The Intelligentperator atthe house of Mr. Cowper Temple, M.P. Our conver-ation

was concerned chiefly with evidence of thekind that I am now summarising. I recounted-various cases, and among others, the case of thesethree children. Mrs. Watts was much struck withthe recital,which corresponded in outline to a verydistressinghistory which she had just heard. Onthe Monday previous Mr. and Mrs. Watts had dinedwith an old friend, Mrs. Leaf, and from her had hearda distressingstory of bereavement which had befallenthe relative of one of Mrs. lycaf's acquaintances. Agentleman residing in India had, within a brief spaceof time, lost his young wife and three children. Mrs.I,eaf entered fully into the melancholy details, butdid not mention either names or the place of the sadoccurrence. In recitingthe incident of three youngchildren communicating with me, I gave the namesand the place, as thej'had been furnished to me inthe messages. Mrs. Watts undertook to ascertainfrom Mrs. I^eaf the particulars of the case she hadmentioned. She did so on the very next day, andthe names were the same.

Through the kindness of Mrs. Watts I made theacquaintance of Mrs. Leaf, and was much impressedwith the perfect correspondence of every detail givento me with the facts as they occurred.

It is not a little remarkable that, on the very dayon which this communication was made, Mrs. Watts,who possesses a very beautiful gift of automaticdrawing, which had for some time been in abeyance,was impelled to draw three cherubs' heads, which,


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the other End of the Line. 63she was afterwards spirituallyinformed, were drawnin typical allusion to this sad event. Other details,symbolic of the country in which it occurred, and ofthe attraction of the mother's spiritto her three littleones, were added. The drawing forms a very strik-ng

illustration of the various methods employed byspiritto reach various types of mind. Mrs. Watts at that time, be it noted, unknown to me had alwaysbeen instructed in the language of symbolism, bypoetic simile, and by artistic representation. TheVoice appealed rather to Spirit and to the innerconsciousness than to the outer sense and to methodsof exact demonstration. I, on the contrary, had notprogressed so far. I was on a material plane, seek-ng

for truth after my own fashion, and craving hardlogical demonstration. So to me came hard facts,clearly given, and nothing more. To her came thesymbolic indication, the artistic delineation, thepoetry of the incident. The source, however, wasone. It was Spiritmanifesting Truth to us accordingto our several needs.

OTHER EVIDENCES OF IDENTITY.

A different kind of evidence has come to meseveral times : that, viz.,from recalling minute in-idents

long past which, by no conceivable possibility,could have been within my knowledge or recollection,I append an instance. It occurred at a time whenI was much occupied with automatic writing, andcame to me apropos of nothing, The spirit was


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64 The IntelligentOperator atpresent, I presume, and seized the opportunity otapproaching her friend.

On a certain evening [April 8, 1874] I was aboutto put a question on what had just been written,when the hand began to draw, or rather to moveaimlessly over the paper, as is frequently the casewhen a new spiritcomes. Piece by piece a longcommunication of a very personal nature was w

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Spirit-Identity by M.A