to him to pour some drops of a healing fluid into it. They saw this actually take place; the Colonel drank the water, and in an hour was entirely cured. This, he says, took place in April, 1827.

Third Fact.

Whilst still at Nantes, and before returning to Paris, the Colonel attended a séance in a society who were clearly addicted to magic. The members sat in a circle in the room, each having a spirit-lamp burning at his feet. The ceremony commenced impiously by invoking the blessing of God on their proceedings. The consequences were appalling. Scarcely was the invocation made when a burst of wild laughter and horrible hisses resounded through the room. The lamps were instantly extinguished, and on all sides fell pieces of old iron, iron bars, &c., but without striking any of the company. The president, he says, instantly chased the demons away by calling on the name of God, and they decamped, leaving their projectiles behind them.

If this be true-and Cahagnet guarantees, from his long knowledge of him, the thorough integrity of the Colonel-it is a frightful instance of the evil side of Spiritualism, and it is to be hoped the Colonel kept better company afterwards.

This case is a proof of what we have always endeavoured to place prominently in view. That Spiritualism, like everything else, has its two sides-its light and dark one. Its enemies, who admit its reality, say it is all from the devil; some insufficientlyinformed Spiritualists believe it all from God. The truth in this, as in all other cases, lies in medias res. The devil, in proof of the adage, has not neglected to build his chapel alongside of God's Church of Spiritualism; and it always has been, and always will be so. In the history of the Church the greatest saints have always been most assaulted and tempted by the devil. But has any one thought on that account of pronouncing the Church from the devil? In Spiritualism, as in Christianity, we must exercise our free will, and take the advantages or the penalties consequent on our choice. Happy is he who embraces the divine Spiritualism, and, like Bunyan's pilgrim, holds on his way heavenward past the very gates of Apollyon.

Amongst the statements to which a mere reference is suf cient, is one by M. Blesson, a picture dealer of 56, Rue as Ours, Paris, who says that on two occasions no amount of i could boil the water for their dinner. On the first occasion t burnt a whole basket of charcoal, and kept up a fierce heat, it made no impression on the water for four hours. On second occasion the water refused to boil for six hours. ]

called in their neighbours on both occasions, who were astonished at the phenomena beyond measure. Madame Blesson was a medium, and hence, no doubt, the power of the mischievous spirit in the house. On both occasions Blesson put his wife into the mesmeric sleep, and he saw the demon the first time in the shape of a hideous owl. They were only defended from his attacks by constant prayer.

A Madame Belhot, of Argenteuil, sent Cahagnet word that three women of her acquaintance, who intended to speculate in the lottery, got a human skull which they were told, under certain manipulations, would assist to indicate the number through a clairvoyante. The four women were about to commence their incantations, when some one knocked at the room door. Instantly they popped the skull into the bed to the ailing woman, who as instantly uttered a loud shriek, and declared that she was bitten in the arm. On examining the arm, they found it not only bitten, but severely, and Madame Belhot, who heard the shriek from an adjoining room, ran in and saw the teeth-marks of the fiend. The women speedily carried back the skull to the place whence they had taken it.

M. J. B. Borreau, of Niort, a man well known and honoured amongst the disciples of magnetism, states that one night he was awakened out of a sound sleep by a blow on his shoulder, and saw standing before him one of his uncles who lived at Chattellerault, who said, "Nineveh is destroyed!" His emotion was so great at this apparition, that it awoke his wife, who demanded what was amiss. "Oh!" said he, "my uncle is dead: he was here this instant." No doubt he used the words, "Nineveh is destroyed," as he had ruined his fortune by a work on the East. All day these words rang in the ears of M. Borreau, and a few days brought the news of his uncle's death.

During the winter of 1843, M. Borreau was much engaged on his property, about half a league from Niort. There he was assured by a clairvoyante that there was a copious supply of water to be obtained by an incision into a lofty declivity, which would not only be very valuable to the land but a great charm to the estate. Undeterred by any fear of ridicule from assaying to find water on such information, M. Borreau set to work actively. At length they laid bare a large mass of rock which protruded so dangerously that it was necessary to support it by masonry. Before this masonry, however, was finished, so great was M. Borreau's impatience, especially as his gardener amongst others had remonstrated with him on the folly of supposing he could get water out of a chalk cliff of nearly 50 feet high, that on Sunday, when the men were not at work, he visited the place and taking up a pick, began cutting away at

the cliff. Suddenly he heard a loud, clear voice exclaim, "Get away!" He looked around everywhere but could discover no one. Attending, however, to the warning, he withdrew to some distance, and continued to look around everywhere to discover whence the voice came. He assured himself no mortal was nigh; and whilst thus engaged, the rock which had been over his head fell with a force that would, he said, not merely have killed him, but pounded him to clay. M. Borreau was so overwhelmed with gratitude to God that he remained some time on his knees and lost in tears. Over the rock he caused a grotto to be constructed, and there in his grounds it remained a monument of spiritual beneficence; and from it he and his friends could see the stream of beautiful water, which had been so truly indicated by his clairvoyante, flowing through his fields.

MADAME T. LAMB'S EXPERIENCES.

This lady, who lived at 17, Rue Tiquetonne, Paris, and would appear to be of English origin, or to have married an Englishman by her name, wrote to M. Cahagnet a letter full of such remarkable occurrences that they deserve to be fully reprinted.

"Monsieur,-The reading of your Arcanes induces me to relate to you some facts from which you may be able to draw light. My natural tendencies are spiritualistic; my aspirations direct themselves towards the world of causes; but three motives paralyse my tendencies and my aspirations,-the philosophy of our day, with which I have been classically impregnated; pride, which causes me to consider everything a weakness of mind which advances in belief beyond physical and chemical possibilities; and, finally, the fear of becoming a dupe, even of my own illusions. Thus I have always laughed contemptuously at every recital of supernatural things. Your father,' said my mother, was not a feeble soul; and, notwithstanding, he affirmed that he had seen, twice in his life, human forms clothed in white, in one of whom he recognised his fiancée, and in the other his aunt. In effect, these two persons died long before him, and at the moment that he saw them.' At this affirmation I shook incredulously my head.

"Your grandmother, at the moment when her father to his bed in his last illness, saw him wrapt in a shroud, si on the wall of their garden.' 'Illusion,' I replied; 'cl terror; effect of moonlight.'

"For many years, we had not seen,' continued my m 'my father's brother. One night we were all awoke b voice, which called to my father from the court. We arose,

ran to receive my uncle. There was no one there, yet we were all convinced of the fact; for my father's name had been called three times. The uncle was dead.' 'Hallucination of the ear,' I replied; 'a spirit cannot speak.'

When one whom I loved died,' added my mother, 'blows were struck on a little wheel which hung on the wall, and it began to revolve rapidly. I carried the wheel to my father, who was in bed, weeping, and he made fun of me; but the phenomena renewed itself in the presence of 20 persons, who perceived the agitation of the air under the invisible switch or stick, and saw not only the wheel turn, but form a cloud of dust from that which covered it.' 'It was, probably,' I replied, 'some physical trick which some one played you.'

"When my sister died,' joined in my godmother, I was not aware that she was ill; I was awake during the night, and I saw her distinctly walking in my chamber. When my husband died, far from me, I felt myself raised three times in my bed.' 'These are all delusions, my dear godmother,' I replied, for nothing of all this could take place. The spirit has no form whatever, nor any power of action upon matter, and cannot affect it without physical organs.' Such was my incredulity on this head, that I would not believe that three violent rings of the bell at our door, whilst we were on the stairs, were a sign of adieu from a friend of my mother's, though the hour of her death coincided precisely with that of the three rings of the bell. I preferred to believe that a mouse had run over the wire; and when my sister, then in Scotland, asked us, by letter, whether Madame O- of whose illness we had not written to her, were not dead at such an hour, because at that time they heard her voice calling to them, my incredulity could not be shaken, though the coincidence was exact. Something of the same kind,' said my mother, 'will happen to you, which will most likely compel you to believe.' I shall examine it,' I said, ' and I shall find some physical cause, be you sure of that.'

"I was in this state of mind at the age of 18, when, working at my thesis on the divine prescience and the free will of man, I heard a knocking above my head. The sound became fatiguing by its continuous monotony, and I went up into the room whence it proceeded. There was no one there. I thought it was an effect of acoustics, and descended, when the same sounds were renewed in an attic over my head. Once more I ascended; no one was there. I examined the attic and the chambers belowI took my place at the window-I could discover no physical cause, within or without, which could produce this persevering knocking. I took up my pen again, but scarcely had I sat down again when the same blows made themselves heard, and imme

diately a thought took possession of my mind-' Fritz is ill, and he will not recover!' To this young man I was engaged, and he loved me with an infinite sincerity and tenderness. I ran to my mother, told her what had occurred, and what was my impression, and entreated her to accompany me to the house of Fritz's parents. We found him ill in bed, and for many hours he had been in spirit ardently calling to me. Six days afterwards he died.

"My mother herself was then unwell, and my sister fell nearly every night into convulsions, and by my advice I slept with my mother, and we had a bed in the same room for my sister, so that I could at once watch over both these objects of my affection. In the night of the sixth day of Fritz's illness, a strong shock was given to the bed in which I and my mother slept. Thinking that this was caused by my mother striking the bedstead with her foot, I gently laid my hand on her leg, and at the same moment a still greater shock was given to the bed, though I felt that she did not stir. A third and more violent shock awoke my mother, who started up and demanded what it was. When I told her, she said, 'My dear child, Fritz is dead, and he came to say adieu.' I now quickly struck a light and explored the chamber, and the chambers adjoining; then I returned to my bed. Then we heard blows as of a fist fall regularly on the wood of the bedstead, and continued with great regularity. My sister, in her turn, awoke and starting up asked what the noise was. I endeavoured to calm her, but in vain; she would not remain in her bed. My mother took her place, and she came to me. The blows regularly came to whichever side of the bed I occupied, and were so strong that they made the candle shake. I commenced reading aloud to engage the attention of my sister; but the noise did not cease for more than three hours. My fiancée, in truth, was dead, and with that day fell my incredulity.

"Amongst facts of the same kind, I give you two which I have received from persons worthy of all faith. One of these persons, a man grave and of deep studies, related that whilst he was a professor at Aix, an inexplicable thing took place there. One evening as the professors were assembled in the common hall, a laundry-woman entered in great terror. She said that she dared not go into her apartment, because the moment she set foot on the threshold of her chamber she heard blows on the furniture, and a great noise as of the breaking of something. The professors, educated in the opinions of Voltaire and of the Encyclopædia, burst into one chorus of laughter; but as the laundry-woman persisted in her story, one of them went with her to assure himself of the truth of her report. He found it