compelled to do, and so he turns to C and says, "Good-evening, friend C." Thus you perceive A, instead of using his own organs of speech, has employed those of B. In other words, A has been speaking to C through a medium. This is an experiment which the writer of this article has performed with success.

It will be observed that the body or physical organism of the operator was not employed in the above experiment. The operator used two things only: first, his will; second, an odic force which was controlled and directed by his will, and made the agent for the transmission of his thoughts and commands to the subject.

It is evident, therefore, that though the operator be deprived of his body, he will not lose the power to control and speak through B, provided he yet retain the power of volition and the command of the odic force.

It needs no argument to shew that the escape of the soul from the body will not deprive the soul of the power of volition. The will is an essential attribute of the soul. Without volition a soul would not be a soul, and nothing short of a total annihilation of the soul can destroy its volition. The whole is equal to the sum of its parts. If the whole is immortal, all the parts must be immortal. Hence we see that the immortality of the will is just as certain as the immortality of the soul. But will the disembodied volition still retain command of the odic force? There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. This spiritual body is very rare and refined in its nature, but is yet less refined than the soul enshrined within it. The soul therefore needs some agent by which it can put itself in connection with that spiritual body. The soul cannot come in direct contact with that body; it requires an agent which may transmit its commands to the various parts and members of the same.

What Nature requires, Nature supplies, and such an agent exists. The agent which serves to put the soul in connection with its new spiritual organization is an etherealization of what we term the odic force or vital fluid. It has been termed spiritual magnetism, in contradistinction to animal magnetism. Hence we have surviving the destruction of the human form the only two conditions needed to enable A to control and speak through B. This, then, is the true philosophy of the method by which spirits speak through media. It is sympathetic Clairvoyance in both cases. In the one case the operator is a spirit in the form; in the other case, the operator is a spirit out of the form. In both cases the subject is the same. In the former case, the spirit in the form uses his will, and the odic force evolved from his physical organism. In the latter case, the spirit out of the form uses his will, and the odic force flowing from his spiritual

organism. The analogy between the two is perfect, and the means used are the same.

We have thus shown that spirits not only exist, but also exist in the full possession of all the powers required for them to communicate with us. If they possess such power, why should they not exercise it? How can they refrain from exercising it?

When the arisen spirit of a mother gazes upon the form of her child bowed to the earth with grief, and refusing to be comforted because he believes he shall see her no more for ever, how can she withhold the gentle words of love and consolation, the joyful news that she yet lives and can speak to him in her old familiar way?

แ

IS IT POSSIBLE?

WHEN we state that under this title, in All the Year Round, "conducted by Charles Dickens," there was recently an article in which the writer seriously suggests the possibility of spiritmanifestation, and gives several remarkable instances in evidence, many of our readers will echo the writer's question-"Is it possible?" Of course, there is the usual fling at Spiritualism as a moribund absurdity"-no article on the subject in a popular journal would be considered complete without it; but, having sprinkled his few grains of incense on the altar to Mrs. Grundy, in order to shew that he is not one of the proscribed and despised heretics, the writer proceeds to set forth the heresy and some facts in support of it, after the following fashion. We abridge the article, but present its principal passages :—

"The expression may seem a strong one; nevertheless, history bears out the bold assertion that there are few things in the world easier to accomplish than a declared impossibility. Any gentleman addicted to compilation might produce, in a very short space of time, a handsome volume descriptive of schemes and theories which-during, say, the last hundred years-have been authoritatively pronounced impracticable-are now in full swing, and provoke no more astonishment than the phenomenon of a hansom cab.

"That craven spirit, so ready with its impossibilities, has, fortunately, two results-a good as well as a bad. If, on the one hand, it discourages the more timid class of philosophers, it stimulates the bolder to more minute and determined enquiry. There is no ingress here, sigh the former. If there be a road, let us find it, say the latter.

"The key to every scientific mystery is not hung up outside

the door. It is found in unlikely corners. It has to be scrubbed, fitted, tested, till, freed from the rust of disbelief, it suddenly slips into the corresponding socket, and a vast new sphere lies enfranchised before the student's delighted eyes.

"Seeing what have been the realised issues of modern inquiry, it is sometimes amazing to notice through what an atmosphere of coy hesitation, a new and reasonable theory has frequently to force its way, more especially if it partake of that character to which the much-dreaded charge of superstitious credulity' may by possibility attach. And yet it should not surprise us. Few have the courage to defy ridicule, to despise the despisers, and hold on their steady course of investigation and experiment, comforted-if that be necessary-by the recollection that derision, while it has rooted up some worthless weeds, has been equally directed against flowers of knowledge, the most sacred and precious to the heart of man.

"We come to the point at issue. Can the spirits of the departed reveal themselves, under any conceivable conditions, to the outward senses? To collate the mighty mass of testimony adducible in favour of such a possibility, would occupy an average lifetime; and then where is the Solomon who shall decide? It is a question of veracity-of impression. Ghosts give no certificate, leave no mark, save on the mind and memory of the seer, and this mysterious countersign is lost to all but him. We are cast back, for confirmation that will wholly satisfy our reason, upon the consideration of the question that heads this paper-' Is it possible?' Is it possible that pure spirit can communicate with spirit still incorporate, and that through the channels which are characteristic of this present state of being? If the freed can reach the captive spirit only through the latter's material eye or ear, it would seem to infer the necessity of a corresponding material presence or tongue. If spirit could act on spirit irrespective of the fleshly bar, the revelation might be as distinct as if every outward sense had been accessory to it. Yet in no instance that can be regarded as authentic, has it occurred that a mere mental impression has been the means of imparting those circumstantial details, which give to what are called ghost stories such solemn tone and dread reality.

"From hence arises a question which, in a paper intended to be suggestive, not argumentative, shall be dismissed in a few lines. Is it not possible that, in that convulsive moment which separates soul and body, there may be evolved a transient condition of being, which neither body nor spirit-semi-materialpossesses some of the attributes of both? It may be regarded as the veil of the disembodied spirit-a fluid vaporous essence,

invisible in its normal state-but, for the brief space of its new condition, exercising some of the properties of matter.

"If it be objected that this fluid substance, in a form so subtle, can in no wise act on matter-cannot influence eye or ear-how is it that, from the most subtle fluids-electricity, for example-are obtained the most powerful agents? or why do mere changes of light exercise chemical action upon ponderable substances?

"Granting the possibility of the existence of such a transition state, the supernatural features would be re erable to the circumstance that the spirit, as the surviving and superior essence, accomplishing what was impracticable while it was wholly clad in clay, might annihilate time and space, and, in the image and reflex of the form from which it has hardly departed, be itself the bearer of the tidings of dissolution. Who can say but that these mysterious visitations instead of being, as some allege, the suspension or supercession of natural laws, may prove to be rather the complete fulfilment of one of the most beautiful and interesting of the marvellous code?

"Let us see how far the theory thus hastily sketched out is applicable to known examples.

"If we commence with an instance so familiar to many readers as the famous Lyttelton Ghost,' it is because that singular narrative supplies us with a double apparition-because, though related in many a mutilated form, it has never, to the writer's knowledge, been given entire-and because his-the writer'smother, when a girl, heard it from the lips of an actor in the tale, Mr. Miles Peter Andrews-a frequent guest of her father, Sir G. P, of Theobald's Park, Herts. Sir G-, suffered much from gout, and the hours of the establishment were usually early; but, on the occasion of Mr. Andrews's visits, no one stirred till midnight. It was five minutes before that hour that Lord Lyttelton's ghost had appeared to him; and though, at the time we speak of, fifteen years had elapsed, he was not wholly free from certain nervous emotions, which made him prefer to pass that never-forgotten moment in company.

"It was in or about the year 1775, that Lord Lyttelton, while resident at Hagley Park, made the acquaintance of a family living a short distance off, at Clent, and consisting of the father, mother, son, and four daughters, of whom the eldest was married to a Mr. Cameron, and had, it was said, demeaned herself in a manner to create some scandal.

แ Upon the death of the father of the family, which occurred in June, 1778, the intimacy increased, and the gay and agreeable lord was firmly established in the good graces of his "Clentiles," as he called them, to whom on New Year's Day, 1779-the last

he was destined to see-he addressed an epistle burlesquing, with more wit than propriety, the language of apostolic writings.

แ

Accepting this specious address in the spirit its author no doubt intended, the unsuspicious mother not only read it to her children, but encouraged the visits of the supposed moralist, until the young ladies, to the astonishment of all who knew Lord Lyttelton's real character, were seen actually residing at Hagley Park! The mother's eyes were now open, but too late. She had lost control of the girls, and when, in September of this fatal year, 1779, Miss Christian accompanied his lordship to Ireland, an Irish lady being of the party, the consciousness of her own indiscretion threw the unhappy lady into an illness from which she never recovered.

"Early in November the party returned from Ireland, and, being met by the two other sisters who had remained at Hagley Park, all went together to reside at Lord Lyttelton's town mansion, situated in Hill-street, Berkeley-square. Here, on the night of Thursday, the 26th of November, occurred the famous vision, which, whether or not it may be held to connect itself with the event it purported to foreshadow, certainly rests upon evidence too strong to admit of rational question.

"Lord Lyttelton's bedroom bell was heard to ring with unusual violence, and his servant, hastily obeying the summons, found him looking much disordered. He explained that he had been awakened by something resembling a fluttering white bird. Having, with some difficulty, driven this object away, he had been still more startled by the appearance of a figure in long white drapery-a woman of majestic presence-the image (as he afterwards averred) of the mother of his young guests.

666

Prepare to die, my lord,' said the apparition; 'you will quickly be called.'

"How soon-how soon?' Lord Lyttelton had eagerly asked. In three years?'

"Three years!' was the stern rejoinder.

'Three days.

Within that time you will be in the state of the departed.'

"The figure vanished.

"This incident made a deep impression on his lordship's mind. Making no secret of what had occurred, he related it not only to the party in his house, but to many friends-among others, to Lords Sandys and Westcote. The latter, who was a connexion, and, after Lord Lyttelton, the representative of the house, made light of the matter, and advised him to devote his thoughts, preferably, to a speech he was to make in Parliament a few days later.

"Lord Sandys gave better counsel. My dear fellow, if you believe this strange occurrence, and would have us believe it, be