several incidents which took place, of which I made notes at the time. This information was corroborated in a short conversation which I subsequently had with Lord Brougham, and again in a lengthy discussion with Sir David at the Athenæum Club; when he fully admitted the facts and said that he could neither attribute them to trickery or delusion of the senses, "But," he very emphatically added, slapping his knee, "spirits is the last thing I will give in to!" Sir David then accepted an invitation to another séance at Mr. Rymer's, at Ealing, where Mr. Home had gone to reside, and where he met, among others, the late Mrs. Trollope and her son Mr. Thomas Trollope.

Here the manifestations went far beyond anything which had occurred at Mr. Cox's, and Sir David discussed the proceedings with those present in the most serious manner, and especially with Mr. Trollope, whose mother became a convert to a full belief in the spiritual character of the manifestations, which, she said, "had given a pillow to her old age she had little dreamed of;" and Mr. Thomas Trollope himself, in a letter written to Mr. Rymer, expressing surprise at Sir David's conduct, said, “I am wholly convinced that, be what may their origin and cause and nature, they are not produced by any fraud, machinery, juggling, illusion or trickery.'

An account of Sir David's and Lord Brougham's investigations having found its way into an American paper, was reproduced in the Morning Advertiser, and Mr. Grant, the editor, who has always opposed Spiritualism from a religious point of view, sent the paper to Sir David Brewster, who, to the astonishment of all who had heard his previous admissions, wrote to the editor of the Morning Advertiser denying that he was at all impressed with what he had seen. "I saw enough," he said, "to satisfy myself that they could all be produced by human hands and feet." I immediately wrote a reply to this letter, in which I reminded Sir David of our conversation, and what he admitted that he and Lord Brougham had seen. To this letter Sir David replied repudiating my statements seriatim. One of his denials was to this effect: "It is not true as stated by you, that a large dinner table moved about at Mr. Cox's," and after several other points were denied he said in explanation of what did take place: "Besides the experiment with the accordion, already mentioned, a small hand-bell to be rung by the spirits was placed on the ground near my feet, I placed my feet round it in the form of an angle, to catch any intrusive apparatus; the bell did not ring, but when taken to a place near Mr. Home's feet it speedily came across and placed its handle in my hand. This was amusing. It did the same thing bunglingly to Lord Brougham by knocking itself against his lordship's knuckles, and after a

jingle it fell;" and Sir David added that he conjectured "the effects were produced by machinery attached to the lower extremities of Mr. Home."

The dead man now speaks through his daughter, Mrs. Gordon, and corrects the erroneous statements then made by him.

The Home Life of Sir David Brewster (a book recently published) contains extracts from his letters and diary; and the following appears under the date of June, 1855:—

Last of all I went with Lord Brongham to a séance of the new spirit-rapper, Mr. Home, a lad of twenty. He lives in Cox's Hotel, Jermyn Street; and Mr. Cox, who knows Lord Brougham, invited me to accompany him in order to assist in finding out the trick. We four sat down at a moderately-sized table, the structure of which we were invited to examine. In a short time the table shuddered, and a tremulous motion ran up all our arms; at our bidding these motions ceased and returned. The most unaccountable rappings were produced in various parts of the table; and the table actually rose from the ground when no hand was upon it. A larger table was produced, and exhibited similar movements. A small hand-bell was then laid down with its mouth on the carpet; and, after lying for some time, it actually rang, when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in my. hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham.

These were the principal experiments. We could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism.

Hands are sometimes seen and felt: the hand often grasps another, and melts away, as it were, under the grasp. The object of asking Lord Brougham and me seems to have been to get our favourable opinion of the exhibition; but though neither of us can explain what we saw, we do not believe that it was the work of idle spirits.*

Thus it will be seen that when Sir David Brewster was publicly making the most ungenerous and unfounded imputations upon Mr. Home, and denying in the most unqualified manner the statements made by me in October, 1855, he had privately recorded, in the month of June previously, a complete refutation of his own words; added to which it is now shown that Sir David was himself A MEDIUM! A SEER in fact, with his own special experiences. His daughter's statement upon this point is sufficiently distinct and conclusive: her account of what she calls his "dual nature," and his ultimate convictions upon Spiritualism are curious and instructive. Mrs. Gordon says:

Sir David Brewster's character was peculiarly liable to misconstruction from its distinctly dual nature; it was made up of opposites, and his peculiarly impulsive temperament and expressions laid him open to the charge of inconsistency, although he never recognized it in himself conscious, that he spoke what was consistent with the point of view whence he took his observations at the time. Accustomed to look at every subject with the critical investigation of the man of

The public and mendacious denials of Sir David Brewster in the Morning Advertiser elicited no confirmation from Lord Brougham, though such confirmation, could he have obtained it, would have been most acceptable to Sir David, Lord Brougham's final views on Spiritualism are indicated by himself in the passage quoted in our last number, page 136.-ED. S. M.

·

science, he yet united the feelings of the man of impulse, and he spoke as moved by either habit. Nothing could show this better than his views and feelings with regard to clairvoyance and spirit-rapping. Like many Scotchmen of genius and intellect he had had a strong leaning to the superstitious from the days of the steeple vault and the cottage under the apple tree, balanced, however, by a scientific mind which required proof and demonstration for whatever came before it. His own quaint confession that he was afraid of ghosts, though he did not believe in them,' was as near the truth as possible. Living in an old house, haunted, it was said, by the learned shade of George Buchanan, in which, certainly the strangest and most unaccountable noises were frequently heard, his footsteps used sometimes to perform the transit from his study to his bedroom in the dead of the night in double-quick time; and in the morning he used to confess that sitting up alone had made him feel quite 'eerie.' On one of these occasions when the flight had been more than usually rapid, he recounted having distinctly seen the form of the late Rev. Charles Lyon and an attached friend of his own rising up pale and grey like a marble bust. He often mentioned his relief when he found that nothing had occurred to his friend, and pointed out what a good ghost story had thus been spoiled. A certain pleasurable excitement was combined with this 'eeriness,' and many will recollect the charm of his ghost stories, recounted with so much simplicity and earnestness and resemblance of belief, as on one occasion to be rewarded by the perplexing compliment of a fair young listener at Ramornie fainting dead away. He really wished to believe in many wonders to which his constitution of mind utterly refused credence; and this feeling combined with a characteristic courtesy and wish to please, often misled those into whose pretensions he was most critically examining.

He latterly took even deeper views of this school of wonders and giving it as his belief that, if modern Spiritualism with its manifestations be a truth, it may be a fulfilment of the prophesied work of the evil one and his agents.

NOTES AND GLEANING S.

EXTRACTS FROM "THE HOME LIFE OF SIR DAVID BREWSTER.'

In addition to the foregoing testimony of Sir David Brewster against himself, the following passages relating to his experiences in Spiritualism, from his own pen, as quoted by his daughter, will interest the reader :

London: May, 1851.-I have been at two mesmeric séances, one with Dr. Macdonald and the Duke of Argyll, at a Mrs. Holmes's, who utterly failed in her clairvoyant pretensions. A Count Possenti mesmerised her. The other was at Dr. Ashburner's, where I saw things that confounded me."

In a letter, dated London, April 25th, 1851, he tells of a breakfast party at the house of Chevalier Bunsen, and says that the great subject of talk was spirit-rapping and the moving of tables. He adds:

"Just as we were discussing the subject, Mr. Bunsen received a letter from the King of Prussia, saying that the experiment was made at the palace by the royal party, who

N.S.-V.

were alone, and no conjuror present. Three of the young ladies had each letters from Berlin, mentioning these experiments, which sometimes fail. One letter stated that it succeeded three

Of course it is nonsense, and there

Mr. Monckton Milnes asked us

times out of seven. must be some trick in it. . to breakfast with him to-morrow, to meet Mr. Galla, the African traveller, who assured him that Mrs. Hayden told him the names of persons and places in Africa which nobody but himself knew. The world is obviously going mad. The spirit-rapping is exciting great interest in London, but very few believe in it, and there are many facts which tend to prove that it is done by some machinery or apparatus by which the hands and feet of the medium may produce the observed phenomena."

THE BROWNINGS AT CASA GUIDI.

At noon Mr. Browning called upon us. He invited us most cordially to go at eight and spend the evening, and so at eight we went to the illustrious Casa Guidi. We found a little boy in an upper hall with a servant. I asked him if he were Pennini, and he said “Yes." In the dim light he looked like a waif of poetry, drifted up into the dark corner, with long, curling brown hair and buff silk tunic embroidered with white. He took us through an ante-room into the drawing-room, and out upon the balcony. In a brighter light he was lovelier still, with brown eyes, fair skin, and a slender, graceful figure. In a moment Mr. Browning appeared, and welcomed us cordially. In a church near by, opposite the house, a melodious choir was chanting. The balcony was full of flowers in vases, growing and blooming. In the dark blue fields of space overhead the stars, flowers of light, were also blossoming, one by one, as evening deepened. The music, the stars, the flowers, Mr. Browning and his child, all combined to entrance my wits. Then Mrs. Browning came out to us very small, delicate, dark, and expressive; she looked like a spirit. A cloud of hair falls on each side her face in curls, so as partly to hide her features; but out of the veil look sweet, sad eyes, musing, and far-seeing, and weird. Her fairy fingers seem too airy to hold, and yet their pressure was very firm and strong. The smallest possible amount of substance encloses her soul, and every particle of it is infused with heart and intellect. I was never conscious of so little unredeemed, perishable dust in any human being. We soon returned to the drawing-room, a lofty, spacious apartment, hung with Gobelin tapestry and pictures, and filled with carved furniture and objects of vertu. Everything harmonised-poet, poetess, child, house, the rich air, and the starry night. Tea was brought and served on a long

narrow table, and Mrs. Browning presided, assisted by Mrs. E—. We all gathered at this table. Pennini handed about the cake, graceful as Ganymede. Mr. Browning introduced the subject of Spiritism, and there was an animated talk. Mr. Browning cannot believe, and Mrs. Browning cannot help believing.—Notes on England and Italy, by Mrs. HAWTHORNE.

GENERAL HARNEY AND HIS MEN SAVED BY A DREAM.

General Harney, of the United States' army, now a dignified old man, about seventy years of age, in a conversation with Mr. Peebles, the American Consul, told him how his life and the lives of several of his men were saved by a dream. The anecdote was related by Mr. Peebles in a recent discourse at the Cavendish Rooms:

About 40 years ago, General Harney was engaged in the war with the Florida Indians. One night, at about 11 o'clock, he sent one part of his army to attack the Indians, but the latter discovered the movement too soon, and surrounded their opponents, who were thereby placed in great danger. Harney started to the rescue, and at break of day found himself and his followers in a valley, and in great danger. He felt a drowsiness suddenly come over and overpower him, so that he dropped to the ground, and dreamt that he was surrounded by the enemy, with only one possible way of escape, through a deep gorge. He saw the rocks and the gorge distinctly, and thought that he and his followers entered the gorge, and covered themselves with black mud, so that at a distance they looked like negroes, and in this disguise escaped. The negroes were friendly with the Indians. He then awoke, and not far off saw the entrance to the very same gorge he had seen in his dream. They found a pool lined with black mud; they covered themselves with the mud, and escaped, because in the distance they were taken by the Indians for negroes.

HOW CAN DREAMS FORETELL EVENTS?

A gentleman, honest and perfectly reliable, relates to us the following:

While mate on a ship, near Copenhagen, one night he dreamed of seeing a part of the crew get in the boat to go on shore, and was told by some one not to go, as they would perish, and he saw the boat start and upset, and all did perish. Several days after, the boat was lowered for shore, and he was to go as one of the number, but the dream occurred to his mind with such force he declined to go, and another volunteered to take