"sleight-of-hand;" but there is no possibility of any such jugglery under the conditions.

Mr. J. Edwin Hunt, of the City Treasury Office, Boston, who had been an avowed materialist, hearing of Mr. Cook's experiences in my library, sought to test their truth. He writes, under date of July 11th, 1880, in respect to his visit to Mr. Watkins:

"I came, I saw, and I was conquered; that is, I witnessed in his presence the fact of the intelligent movement of matter, without any visible human or other contact. I know that I was not deceived. I not only saw the writing after it was written, but heard the pencil moving while it was being done. I know that there was no writing upon the slates when the pencil was placed between them, and the slates were not out of my sight for a second during the time I sat with Mr. W. The signature to the communication was the name of a personal friend of mine, whose funeral I had attended some three weeks before, and the communication was a direct and pertinent answer to a question addressed to him, and folded securely up, and the question was written a week before I had the sitting. I had never seen Mr. W., nor he me, until the day of the sitting, which was the last day of March, 1880. He had no means of knowing anything about it, and as the question was mixed up with eight or ten others, and was not opened until after the writing on the slate, I did not know myself what was in it until the writing was completed and the pellet was opened. In conclusion, I wish to say that as a result of this experience of mine, I am satisfied beyond all doubt of the existence of an intelligent force outside of the medium or the sitter, and believe that the inference is strong and almost irresistible that this intelligent force is that of an individual human spirit, who once lived in the body.”

Mr. John L. O'Sullivan, formerly U. S. Chargé to Portugal, and a gentleman long personally known to me, has published an account of his experiences (May, 1880) with Alexander Phillips, a medium aged twenty-three, at his rooms, No. 133 West Thirty-sixth Street, New York. My

friend of forty years, Dr. J. R. Buchanan, was present. Under test conditions, and in full gaslight, they repeatedly got the independent writing. Several Latin quotations were given; among the rest the following translation of a stanza from Jane Taylor's little nursery poem, beginning "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." The writing, small, close, and back-handed, was finally deciphered thus:

To Mr. O'Sullivan's account of repeated experiments, Dr. Buchanan adds his testimony thus: "To the foregoing statement of Mr. O'Sullivan I would add my indorsement of its absolute and minute correctness."

I have had the pleasure of some correspondence with Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, the eminent English naturalist. He is the same who shares with Mr. Charles Darwin the honor of having originated the theory of natural selection. He testifies to having witnessed (Sept. 21st, 1877), at a private house in Richmond, on the Thames, the phenomenon of independent writing in a room where the light was sufficient to see every object on the table. Dr. Francis W. Monck was the medium. After describing the experiment in a letter to the London "Spectator" of Oct. 6th, 1877, Mr. Wallace remarks: "The essential features of this experiment are: That I myself cleaned and tied up the slates; that I kept my hand on them all the time; that they never went out of my sight for a moment; and that I named the word to be written, and the manner of writing it, after they were thus secured and held by me. I ask, How are these facts to be explained, and what interpretation is to be put upon them?" Mr. Edward T. Bennett indorses Mr. Wal

lace's statement in the remark: "I was present on this occasion, and certify that Mr. Wallace's account of what happened is correct."

In reference to his experiences with Henry Slade, Mr. Wallace testifies as follows:

"Writing came upon the upper part of the slate, when I myself held it pressed close up to the under side of the table, Loth Dr. Slade's hands being upon the table in contact with my other hand. The writing was audible while in progress. This one phenomenon is absolutely conclusive. It admits of no explanation or imitation by conjuring.

66 'Writing also came on the under side of the slate while laid flat upon the table, Dr. Slade's hand being laid flat on it, immediately under my eyes.

"While Dr. Slade was holding the slate in one hand, the other being clasped on mine, a distinct hand rose rapidly up and down between the table and my body; and, finally, while Dr. Slade's hands and mine were both on the centre of the table, the further side rose up till it was nearly vertical, when the whole table rose and turned over on to my head.

"These phenomena occurred in broad daylight, with the sun shining into the room, and with no one present but Dr. Slade and myself. They may be witnessed with slight variations by any of our men of science, and it is to be hoped that those who do not take the trouble to see them will, at all events, cease to speak disparagingly of the intellectual and perceptive powers of those who, having seen, declare them to be realities."

It is true, as Mr. A. R. Wallace has said, that no man of any authority has been known to question the genuineness of the phenomena after being once thoroughly convinced of their occurrence. But novices in the investigation sometimes fall back in their convictions, after being powerfully impressed by the phenomena as they occurred. We must not be surprised should this prove to be the case with some of the German professors, who, knowing little

or nothing of the phenomena, were carried away by the manifestations through Dr. Slade. Possibly they may be laughed out or reasoned out of their convictions.

It is not surprising if, when an inexperienced investigator comes to reason on the phenomena, they should seem to him, after a brief conviction of their genuineness, utterly incredible. Hence the half-way converts not unfrequently turn back. It requires a long preparation for a philosopher or a physicist to be able, like Fichte, to be reconciled to all the facts that conflict with his own past teachings.

Zöllner (born 1834), and who has recorded the phenomena through Slade in some elaborate works, has not retrograded. He will perhaps live to find new reasons for the confirmation of his experiences.

Immanuel Herman Fichte (1797-1879), son of the famous John Gottlieb Fichte, was a Spiritualist long before Slade visited Germany. Just before his death he put forth a pamphlet, in which he asseverates the fundamental facts, and earnestly commends the whole great subject to the attention of the scientific and religious world. He ably answers Haeckel, the enthusiastic materialist, who deplored the "simplicity" of the eminent German physicists who "fell into Slade's trap." Fichte asserts the importance of the results arrived at, and claims that Slade's manifestations belong to the domain of physics.

Professor Ulrici, of Halle (born 1806), was not a witness of the Slade phenomena, though he partially accepted them, on testimony, as confirming much in his own philosophical speculations. Wundt's attack, however, seems to have caused him to draw back a little. He evidently lacked that force of conviction which actual personal knowledge of the phenomena, continued through many years, must always inspire.

Fichte, a resident of Stuttgard, was introduce to the phenomenon of independent writing by the late Baron

Louis Guldenstubbé, who departed this life May 27th, 1873, at his residence, 29 Rue de Trevise, Paris, in his fifty-third year. He was chiefly known by his researches and experiments in pneumatology. Of Swedish origin, he belonged to an ancient Scandinavian family of historical renown, two of his ancestors of the same name having been burnt alive in 1309, in company with Jacques de Melay, by order of Pope Clement the Fifth. The baron lived a retired life, with his accomplished sister. He is affectionately remembered for his noble, gentle, and urbane bearing, and for his numerous unassuming charities. His principal work, "La Réalité des Esprits, et le Phénomène merveilleux de leur Écriture Directe," was published in Paris, by D. Franck, in 1857.

The baron passed the winter of 1869-70 at Stuttgard. A man of culture, independent in his circumstances, and of high social position, he was probably himself a medium, though unconscious of the fact. He got the independent writing, but thought it came as an answer to his prayers for a proof of immortality. My friend, the Rev. William Mountford, of Boston, who knew the baron and witnessed remarkable physical phenomena in his presence, tells me he was an excellent Hebrew scholar and a sincere student of psychic evidences; by no means an enthusiast, but a modest, earnest, truth-seeking gentleman. The testimony of such a person to a palpable, objective phenomenon, with no medium present, unless he was one himself, is exceptionally precious.

Guldenstubbé dedicates his volume to the Count de Szapary, Count D'Ourches, and General Baron de Bréwern, three well-known gentlemen, who repeatedly witnessed the phenomenon of independent writing in his presence, sometimes in his own house, and sometimes in old churches and by the side of ancient tombs. The writing was on sheets of paper, which, with a view to scientific