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most "some hitherto unknown eccentric force in nature or supernature." And unless it would tell them "something worth knowing," they would only ask concerning it-"who cares?"

ELONGATION AND SHORTENING OF THE BODY.

In a recent number of the Banner of Light is a letter by Mrs. Emma Hardinge, relating some particulars as to Spiritualism in London, one paragraph is as follows:-"I presume your readers may have seen in some of the English periodicals accounts of Mr. D. D. Home's last exhibition of phenomenal power, which consists in the extraordinary fact of his body being elongated. He appears during the process to be in his normal state, laughs and jokes over it, invites witnesses to place their hands on his feet to note that they are flat on the ground, and that the motion is in no way influenced by any muscular action of his own. The process appears to go on chiefly in the trunk between the ribs, and extends the body until his head rises up against the wall by measurement from five to eight inches. The phenomenon takes place in brilliantly lighted rooms, and conveys the most undefinable and strange aspect to the elongated medium. I have seen this remarkable phenomenal act three times, and on the last occasion it was succeeded by Mr. Home's being shortened, and without the least appearance of any voluntary contraction of the joints or motion from himself. I observed him actually and I may say fairly shortened, until he appeared to be a stumpy little man of about five feet high."

"DAYBREAK."

The first rays of Daybreak have reached us, and, no doubt, ere this, have penetrated into many a welcome home. It is a small, unpretending sheet-" a journal of facts and thoughts in relation to spirit-communion," specially suitable for extensive circulation among working-class people, and inquirers generally, and for distribution at public meetings where Spiritualism is the topic. The main object of the publication is thus stated

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We, of course, set out chiefly to commend to the earnest attenfall the facts of "spirit-communion." We hold that such communic possible and lawful,-nay, that it may, with due care, become most beneficial. We hold that the evidence of this is both varied and that any one who is really in earnest, as a lowly seeker after tr become acquainted with the facts on which we rely. We shall rather to furnish aids to enquirers than to provide evidence to Our work is to investigate the laws that govern or regulate co the material and the spiritual worlds, to point to promising

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investigators may reap results, and, generally, to encourage seekers in this vast and wonderful science now once more presenting itself to the minds, and appealing to the hearts of earnest men.

The editor invites the hearty co-operation of all who sympathise with this purpose, and says, "But we particularly invite all to send us questions, which, to the best of our ability, we will answer." We are informed that the secretary of a Spiritualist society in this country has received during the past year 1,800 letters of inquiry concerning Spiritualism,—a sign that the subject is quietly but steadily arresting public attention. If Mr. Hopps's invitation meets with a like liberal response, he will soon have his hands and his paper full, and Daybreak will be a Spiritual "Notes and Queries.

VISIONS.

A relative of mine was returning, some 50 years since, from the Cape of Good Hope, with a little girl about six years of age. Early one morning, when at sea, this child cried violently, and stated she had seen her mother, whom she had left at the Cape in good health. The child was pacified with difficulty, and a note was taken of the hour when the vision was supposed to have been seen. Subsequently, it appeared that the child's

mother had died about the same time.

The late Captain Mott, R.N., knew a sailor, who, when on the night watch, would see sights and hear noises in the rigging, and the sea, which kept him in a perpetual state of alarm. One day he stated that the devil, whom he knew by his horns and cloven feet, stood by the side of his hammock the preceding night, and stated he had only three days to live. He repeated this statement, having had a second warning. On the morning of the fatal day he went with others to the topmast, to perform some duty amongst the rigging; he bade his messmates farewell, stating he had received a third warning from Satan, and he should be dead before night. He went aloft with the foreboding of evil on his mind, and in less than five minutes he lost his hold, fell upon the deck and was killed immediately.

66 THE SECRET OF SPIRITUALISTIC SEANCES DIVULGED."

Since the time when Mrs. Gamp divulged certain important secrets to Mrs. Harris, nothing so mysterious has been told to the public, than what appeared in the Scientific Review for June in the shape of a letter from JEAN BAPTISTE MANNET, Bachelier de Lettres, &c., and which the editor has published

under the above title. The letter is dated the 1st May, but should have been written on the first day of the previous month, for it is a fine example of the poisson d'Avril. Our scientific men and periodicals are showing up very badly just now.

The "divulging" is as follows:

The "workers" (exploiteurs) of spiritualistic séances work on the mind alone, the proceedings may well be called spiritual séances,—and since no one appears to have had the opportunity, or the courage, to divulge the true nature of this species of gross imposture, pray allow me to give you the following simple narrative:

Whilst residing in London about twelve months ago, as you are aware, I accompanied some friends to several of these séances, and was not long in observing that one of the conditions essential to the success of every séance, or in other terms, to render "the spirits favourably disposed," was to partake of tea or some kind of refreshment before the séance began. If I remember rightly, we paid five shillings each, or some such amount, and the "tea, &c." was included.

Now you know that I have been for several years interested in the investigation of the physiological effects of certain narcotic drugs, having begun some experiments on this subject during my prolonged residence in the East, and I was not a little surprised, after partaking of the "tea, &c.," at the very first of these séances, to feel coming on the-to me exceedingly familiar-effects of hemp-resin or haschish! The dose thus fraudulently administered must have been tolerably strong, for, accustomed as I have been to experiment on hemp and similar drugs, its effects were, nevertheless, very powerful; this may have arisen, however, from the circumstance that I had not previously taken any for more than a year.

I will not stay here to dilate upon the effects-spiritual effects-that can thus be easily brought about. The action of hemp-resin is well known to European physiologists since the experiments of Dr. Moreau, Professor De Luca and others in France, and Dr. O'Shaughnessy in England. It will be sufficient for me to state that the success of a spiritualistic séance depends upon the fantastic effects produced by this potent drug. The usual exhilarating effects of small doses are, when larger doses are administered, quickly followed by an intense feeling of bien-être, a peculiar sense of happiness; it is, if we may so express it, a feeling of intense intellectual happiness. Shortly, however, another effect supervenes; the power of controlling the thoughts vanishes gradually, judgment disappears, and the mind becomes the faithful slave of any fantastic idea that may arise, or that is impressed upon it by any person present. In fact, we believe, or rather, we realise most completely, everything that is said to us. It is not unusual, at the same time, to feel oneself rising in the air; in fact, when simply walking across a room it is impossible not to feel that you are walking in the air, and not upon the ground; all sense of distance is completely gone, and in taking a few steps you imagine, or rather you feel, that you are travelling

for miles.

You may now fancy some four or five imbéciles undergoing a séance! If the "tea" or "refreshment" is, perchance, refused, "the spirits are not propitious," or "the séance is, unfortunately, not possible to-night;" the impostors are "very sorry, but it will be necessary to come another evening," &c.

Fortunately for the deluded individuals upon whom this simple trick is practised, the taking of one dose of the poisonous drug is not usually followed by very serious consequences; otherwise, had some fatal accident occurred, the matter would long since have been investigated by some of your learned barristers.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVIEW ON THE INCAUTIOUS PROFESSOR. "While we write these lines, a correspondence is going on apropos of Spiritualism between Mr. Home and Professor Tyndall. It appears that the late Dr. Faraday had communicated with some of Mr. Home's friends, who desired that

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this great philosopher and good and sensible man should test, by actual experiments, the alleged facts of Spiritualism. The mantle of the departed prophet seems to have fallen on one who, whatever others may think, is, in his own opinion at least, thoroughly competent to succeed to the prophetic honours. Elisha Tyndall, accordingly, publishing a letter from Faraday, stating conditions under which he would experiment upon the spirits, winds up with the following postscript:

"P.S.-I hold myself in readiness to witness and investigate in the spirit of the foregoing letter, such phenomena as Mr. Home may wish to reveal to me during the month of June.' Oh that inveterate I of Dr. Tyndall! Will no kind friend tell him that self-assertion is but a fool's fame? Is the first personal pronoun the only one in the grammar from which the new philosopher of Albemarle Street learned his English? We have already had occasion to comment on this weakness to which one of our great lights of science is unfortunately subject. We have already shown that in a page taken at random from one of his purely scientific treatises, the stark staring bold capital occurs no less than eight times. We admire Dr. Tyndall's genius, we applaud his efforts in the pursuit of science, but we do seriously advise him to keep Dr. Tyndall a little more in the background, and to push the subject of his disquisitions somewhat more towards the front.

"In his correspondence with Mr. Home, we cannot help thinking that the philosopher gets rather the worst of it."

The following is the copy of a letter, in April, 1864, from Professor De Morgan, to Mr. Joseph Paul, F.R.G.S':—

"Dear Sir,—I am perfectly satisfied that phenomena such as you describe are genuine, and this from what I have seen, and heard on evidence which I cannot doubt. What they arise from I cannot tell.

"The physical phenomena which you describe are beyond all explanation, but still there may be physical forces we know nothing of. The mental phenomena are vastly more difficult; there must be, so far as we can see, some unseen intelligence mixed up in the matter. Spirit or no spirit, there is at least a reading of one mind by something out of that mind.

"Yours truly,

"A. DE MORGAN."

A SINGULAR DREAM VERIFED.

The Banner of Progress (San Francisco) relates the following:-"While the plague was at its height in Alexandria, a Mohammedan merchant dreamed that eleven persons would die of the plague in his house. When he awoke he remembered the dream; and there being exactly eleven persons in the house, himself included, he became uneasy. His alarm increased, when, on the following day, the wife, two female slaves, and three children, died; but he became quite certain that his death was at hand, when, on the fourth day, his two remaining children, a woman servant, and an old man servant, sunk into the grave.

He accordingly made his preparations to pass into eternity— related his dream to some of his friends, and begged them to make inquiry every morning, and in case he should be dead, have him buried with the usual solemnities.

A cunning thief, who had heard the circumstance, took advantage of the merchant's fright to open his door in the night and when the terrified man called out, "Who's there?" to answer, "I am the Angel of Death," in order, while the merchant concealed himself underneath the bedclothes, and was quite beside himself, to pack up what effects he could find in the house and carry them away. Unluckily for him, he was seized with the plague and died on the stairs. The merchant, however, did not venture for many hours to put his head from under the bedclothes, till at length his friends came, heard from him what had happened, found the effects, recognized the thief, discovered the truth, and confirmed the strange accomplishment of the dream."

THE ROYAL SOCIETY PROFESSORS AND

SPIRITUALISM.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PROFESSOR FARADAY AND
THOMAS SHERRATT.

WE said in our last number that we should probably give some further letters of Professor Faraday of a subsequent date to that to Sir Emerson Tennent. We do this more to satisfy Professor Tyndall than our readers, because by this time they must have formed their opinion as to the value of Professor Faraday, Sir D. Brewster, and Professor Tyndall as unprejudiced inquirers. We wonder if Professor Tyndall will like to express publicly his approval of these petulant and conceited letters of Professor Faraday's, which display as much ignorance of the subject as they do arrogance in treating it.

We put no value whatever upon the adverse opinions expressed by Faraday, Brewster, and Tyndall; and to be consistent we would place no value whatever upon their favourable opinions had they expressed them. The defect is in their judgment, which has been proved to be so faulty, that we consider them as out of the question for the future as for the past.

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