much so, as to jump through the closed window. Mr. Daxon's brother (Mr. R. D) now arrived; and the two brothers sat up armed. The noises continued. One night It appeared to walk between them, and knock loudly at a door close to which they stood. Mrs. Daxon one night addressed It, asking in the name of God why they were thus tormented. After a moment's silence there was a scream, and a rush out of the room, the door being shut violently. After this, It did not come inside the house for three weeks. Mrs. Daxon changed her bed room more than once, but all in vain. One night the bed-posts were beaten so that the bed shook. It was very violent; particularly if when being addressed, our Saviour's name was used. If candles were lighted, It became worse. Miss P, who had great courage, used to follow the noise from room to room. One night, when the child was sleeping with her, she heard the noise of a person forcing himself under the bed. At last some one came out by the head of the bed and caught her by the throat, pressing her so that she screamed and fainted.

Upon another occasion when it was in the room, the little child jumped up in his sleep, calling, "Let me go, I must be off." On being awoke immediately, he could recollect nothing which had caused his alarm. The winter, 1829, Miss P and the little boy left the house. They remained away nearly three years. During their absence the noises were very seldom heard; but upon their return they recommenced; lasting, however, but a short time.

A strange incident now occurred. One day Mrs. Daxon went into the kitchen whilst a pot was on the fire, in which was a goose. She heard moans issuing from the pot. She was of course greatly astonished; and there being no one present, she called to Miss P-, Miss M. P, and Miss P. S, and they also heard the sounds. The servant girl then came in, and by Mrs. Daxon's direction took the pot off the fire, in doing which she let it fall, when a scream issued from the pot. The sound rushed across the room, and a step was heard ascending a staircase at the other side of the kitchen, accompanied by a noise like that of a chair being dragged after it. There was no visible appearance. One night Miss P- the governess, and boy, who were sleeping in the same room, heard what seemed to be chairs dragged up stairs, and a noise as if some one was trying to force open the door. Miss P- got up and opened it, when the candle was blown out. She re-lighted it; went to the lobby, calling upon It to leave the house in the name of God. It appeared to retreat quickly, uttered a yell, and rushed out of the kitchen door, slapping it with violence. The family were awakened by the scream. The house was infested by crickets

previous to the commencement of the noises, after which they all disappeared. A Roman Catholic priest offered to exorcise It, but this was declined. Some of the servants left the house. No shot was ever fired at It. Not the slightest noise has been heard for nine years.

D

Mr. D

The foregoing account, written in 1841, by Mrs. Daxon, is signed by her, and by Miss P- -, Mr. B. D. Miss M. P, and Miss D

Doctor B

In a letter written to me in 1842, Mrs. Daxon says:-"Six months after the noises had commenced, the night being dark and the shutters shut, I heard noises in a corner of the room. I looked and could see nothing, when suddenly two flashes of light illuminated the room. I only saw these flashes on two occasions. One night a baby, six weeks' old, lay by my bedside in its cradle; some alarming noises were in the room, so I took the baby into bed; when something seemed to pull the cradle away to a little distance, and jump in and hop three times. Mr. Daxon threw himself across the bed and tried to catch it; but in vain." In another letter she says:-"Mr. Daxon's father held this place 30 years ago; his wife, one night, being at prayers, felt a smart slap on her back; the door was secured, but no one could be discovered. The steward, about this time, on a moonlight night, heard horses pass his house towards a high gate, which he knew was locked; he got up, and went out to open it, when, to his amazement, he saw them pass through the gate, and appear to sink into the ground. I had heard many stories of occurrences that took place long before I came to live here."

The following extract is from a letter of Miss R's, the governess:

"I remember the books being taken and thrown upon the desk; the curtains of the bed being thrown on the top; also the dreadful scream, and Miss P going to the door and addressing it, and the candle being blown out; also hearing music like the bagpipes and the piano; and a car being driven furiously to the door, and on going to it, no car, or trace of one, being visible."

The following extract is from a letter from Mr. P. S. D

to me :

"On retiring for the night I heard a tapping at the bedroom door, and, on opening it, so as to command a view of both sides, the tapping continued for some time; and then moved to a part of the wall three or four feet off from the door, and continued long enough for me to make a full examination, but without effect. I went to bed, and the fire was bright enough to enable me to distinguish the smallest object. One of the bedposts was shaken violently; then a patting sound as of a small animal

running, came from the fireplace to the beds, under both of which it went. I was looking at the part of the floor where it seemed to run; I searched and could find nothing. We often heard sounds like the rolling of a large beam of timber. Sometimes a piece of mortar appeared to fall from the ceiling, and to scatter on the floor; and other times, water, as if from a leak in the roof, seemed coming down drop by drop."

I have a letter from Miss P- corroborating all the statements in Mrs. D's letters. Amongst other things, she says, "I saw the books raised off the table and thrown upon the top of the desk. I was pinched in the arm one night, in the passage; the mark remained for several days. It was not quite dark; I could well have discerned a person. I once saw a tall figure dressed in white pass the window. The men always appeared outside the windows, and were invisible to all outside. The candle has frequently been blown out in my hand. I have often felt the unaccountable pressure. The noises were never violent after the scream, and gradually declined."

The

Dr. B, in a letter to me says, "The first night I slept there I heard, as it were, plaster falling from the ceiling, but could see nothing, although there was plenty of light. second night I heard a strange sound as if the bed curtains were slashed with a switch; there was no visible motion about the curtains."

I have now to relate a singular circumstance, which may be connected with these noises. Some time before they commenced, one of the family was buried in a family vault near the house. About a year afterwards this vault was found open. The steward relates (in a letter to me) the following facts:-"I was told that the vault was open, and I found it so, as also the coffin, and a cut across the body, nearly from one hip to the other, and the track of two people inside and outside the vault, the body was perfect and the cut fresh." It is a tradition in Ireland that a part of the inside of a body (the liver I believe) gives power of witchcraft. The steward also says, "About a year after, the family left home; I was desired to sleep in the house. One night I was alarmed by a strange and loud noise inside and outside the room, it lasted five hours; but, although the night was very bright, I could see nothing: I was often obliged to get up and see who was rapping at the hall door, but could never detect any one."

I have now extracted from all the letters I possess, connected with this mysterious subject whatever is necessary, to shew the character and variety of these strange proceedings. I was so interested in the whole matter that I took all the pains in my power to get at the facts, and in order to satisfy myself more

fully, I went to Kilorman. Mr. Daxon is a gentleman farmer and agent, of respectable family. Mrs. Daxon suffered so much in health, from anxiety and constant annoyance, that she was obliged to leave the place for some time; indeed, even now, she does not much like to allude to the noises; she and her sister believe them to have been in some way supernatural. After seeing the house I was more than ever alive to the difficulty of attempting to explain the different things that occurred, by attributing them to clever contrivance or mechanism. The house is a small, plain, modern building, a hall door in the middle, opening into a small space and passage, a room on each side; over these, bed rooms, and the kitchen, &c., at the back. Í I examined the walls and satisfied myself that there was no place where arrangements or contrivances could have been made. The passage where Miss P's candle was blown out, and where she was pinched, is narrow, and it appears to be perfectly impossible to avoid seeing the person who could have done these things. The house was not infested by rats.

I heard several additional particulars from Mrs. Daxon, that among them she used occasionally to hear the gentlest tapping at the wall, sometimes at the sideboard; the tapping would appear to move away to other parts of the room. One day, a carpet or cloth, I forget which, had been stretched out in a bed room, on chairs. Towards evening, a violent noise was heard by those in the room below, and they thought some one had gone in, and had stumbled over the chairs and carpet. They proceeded to look, when on opening the door, all was in its proper place-no one had been there. Mrs. Daxon related a circumstance to me, which I am bound not to repeat; but which would afford some faint clue, so far as this-that it points to a person as a possible agent in the transaction; and this person was said by the people to be possessed of the power of witchcraft. The surmise is a very vague one; but I feel bound to allude to it, as far as I can, without breach of confidence; not that, however, I put very much trust in the connection between the noises and this supposed possible cause, nor I imagine does Mrs. Daxon. I asked her whether there were any quarrels among the servants, or between the family and the servants, and was told not. Nothing had ever occurred which could cause Mrs. Daxon to have any fanciful fear of a dog before the first night of the noises. She also told me that she has heard and felt, as it were, a person or creature pressing between the bed and the wall, although there was no room for any one to walk between; and that no one can imagine how horrible it was to feel the pressure on the chest, and to be, as it were, completely at the mercy of an unknown and invisible being or agent, who

had power thus to torment you. In April, 1842, not long after I had made an examination of the house, I heard from Mrs. Daxon that the noises had recommenced in the following way: Mrs. Daxon going from home, ordered two maid servants to sleep in Miss P--'s room. They were maids who had lately come. On Mr. Daxon's return, they said that an invisible being had been in the room at different times, and pulled the bed clothes off. The same thing happened next night to Mr. Daxon and to Miss P. Mr. Daxon left home; and the following night the two ladies slept in the same room. They heard a curious noise between the beds, and Miss P-'s clothes were pulled off the bed, and a large hand laid heavily on her back. She cried out that she would fire the next night, and a step then appeared to walk towards the window and go out through the wall. The ladies got pistols and fired shots next day. At night there was a violent pounding on the top of the house over their beds. Nothing occurred for a month, after which Miss P- left the house. The day previous to her departure, she gave Mrs. Daxon her pistol; and that night the clothes were pulled off her bed. I think this last proceeding wears the appearance of a trick; as if some one, who had heard of the strange noises 12 years ago, was endeavouring to imitate them. I wrote lately to Mrs. Daxon to know if anything had occurred since 1842. I received a letter yesterday, saying that all has been quiet. I now leave you to form your own conjectures upon this extraordinary story; and with many apologies for the length of my letter,

I remain, yours very sincerely,

ADARE.

THE POWER OF THE INVISIBLE.

WE find in a late number of the Methodist, a denominational paper of New York, a full sermon by Bishop Simpson of that Church, on the theme above named. Did our space permit, we should be glad to publish much more copious extracts than those which we are about to give to our readers. The Bishop directed his thoughts to the propriety of the habit of fixing the spirit's gaze on invisible things; first, in order to steady the purpose and concentrate the forces of the individual life, and, secondly, to elevate the nature, expand the sympathies, and make spiritual things supreme. From a perusal of parts of this discourse, we should say that Bishop Simpson is an unconscious Spiritualist; he cherishes, to be sure, the dogma of unending punishment, but he clings with a far more eager desire to the