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though were I to enter upon the field of particulars I should have to weary the reader's patience with a second volume. I will only relate two episodes of that interesting period: the phosphorus affair, and the affair of the Harvard professors, for reasons which will be apparent. But I must give them each a chapter to itself.

CHAPTER XX.

PHOSPHORUS.

SPIRIT LIGHTS VISIBLE AT DARK SÉANCES-PRIVATE CIRCLE IN JERSEY CITY IN 1857-SOLID GRANULES OF PHOSPHORUS APPEARING IN EARTH WHICH I HAD TOUCHED-SURPRISING AND DISTRESSING LETTER-THE GOOD SPIRITS AND DANIEL UNDERHILL TO THE RESCUE-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-MARRIAGE TO D. UNDERHILL, NOVEMBER 2, 1858, AND CLOSE OF MY PUBLIC MEDIUMSHIP— ANALOGOUS PHENOMENA IN PRIVATE AT HOME.

I WILL here relate from my experiences a curious and, so far as I know, novel chapter in the records of Modern Spiritualism, namely, the production of solid granulated phosphorus by Spirits.

It will be seen that that phenomenon actually occurred through my mediumship, though under circumstances and appearances highly suggestive (to our enemies) of trickery on my part, and such as naturally to awaken uneasiness in the minds of friends whom long experience with me should have made, and had made, suspicion-proof in regard to me and my Spirit guides; and that for nearly nine months I was made very unhappy for the want of confirmatory evidence as to the real objective genuineness of the phenomenon sufficient to silence cavil and compel conviction. My unhappiness proceeded from the consciousness that some friends had doubted more or less (though never going the length of signifying doubt to myself), while I could not know who, nor how far doubt had taken distinct shape in their minds. To a person of my temperament and temper, however sustained by pride and conscious innocence,

I cannot easily conceive a more painful situation. But thank God (and the good Spirits who have never failed me in the long run), this invisible cloud which for months chilled the atmosphere of my life, as a distressful something keenly felt though not to be seen, cleared off like the evaporation of dew from the surface of a mirror, as will be seen below.

We never gave public séances in darkened rooms. I do not approve of the practice. Many forms of manifestations thus obtained are calculated to prejudice the investigator and excite suspicion of the medium. I love to sit with a few friends, who are prepared to witness manifestations, whether in light or dark, and who have had sufficient evidence to understand the conditions necessary to enable Spirits to manifest themselves in form. On such occasions there should not be more than six or seven persons in the circle, and they should all be harmonious, and sit together around a table; placing their hands in such a manner that if any one shall stir, or change position, it must be at once discovered.

When Spirits appear, they come surrounded with, or luminous by, their own light. I seldom sat in a darkened room without seeing lights, which were also visible to the company.

I never used anything to conceal, or afford the Spirits a hiding place for anything. I was never directed to do so. We (all persons present) have been told to sit in the dark and rub the palms of our hands together; when, immediately on that being done, sparks of light would appear. (I can frequently produce such lights-or, rather, they come of themselves-when entirely alone.) I suppose they are electrical or phosphorescent; but there are different lights. At times they vary in form, color, and intensity. Sometimes they will be of the size of a spark; sometimes

of that of a hand, or larger; sometimes flitting or flickering about; sometimes-especially when a Spirit is communicating with you by touches, or caresses, or otherwise -fixed in front of your face, like a person looking into your eyes; sometimes a vague, luminous cloudiness, suggestive of a form or not, as the case may be. Mr. Robert Dale Owen took every precaution to lock and seal the doors; not that he doubted us, but because he was writing a book for the sceptical world to read, and in his honesty of purpose he determined to be "sure." He was right. His two books, the "Footfalls" and the "Debatable Land," can never lose their interest and value to the student of Spiritualism.

Frequently, while sitting with select friends in dark circles, lights would appear in different parts of the room; sometimes quite numerous. These sights were no new thing to us, but very astonishing to those who had never before witnessed such manifestations. In order to convince such, the Spirits would direct them to examine the room and everything in it; lock the doors, join hands and quietly wait for manifestations. We were sometimes directed to sing, but not to ask questions, nor to make any exclamations of wonder, or expressions of opinion, until the manifestations had ceased. Such directions must be complied with, if we would win good success.*

* The frequency of the appearance of lights, or luminous appearances, at séances, is suggestive of the idea that Spirits often employ, in their manifestations, phosphorus in some form or condition-phosphorus probably drawn from the atmosphere, or from the brains of the medium or sitters, or both, through their higher knowledge of the secrets and resources of the chemistry of nature. That they should know also how to make it inodorous is easily conceivable. I have never perceived (though in this the author of "The Missing Link" thinks she has sometimes done so) any of the phosphoric odor as accompanying those exhibitions of Spirit lights, though sometimes the entire forms of Spirits

I met a large private circle in Jersey City, for a long time, once a week. Many of the members of this party had met at my séances for years; but, as they could not all come to New York, I went to their different houses across the river to accommodate them. This party insisted on sitting in darkened rooms. Some of them had witnessed remarkable manifestations in our most private séances. George Willets and wife were members of this circle, and they desired to have others see a little of the wonderful manifestations which they had so often witnessed.

I consented to do so, but the Spirits expressly directed them not to attempt such an undertaking in a party so little calculated to follow implicitly the directions requisite to accomplish the results sought. We had learned, by reappear as what I may call phosphorically luminous. That human brains are, to some extent at least, natural reservoirs, from which they draw. or elaborate some basis of phosphorus, seems probable enough—or at least should be so to those philosophers who strive to approximate phosphorus to thought, and bid us eat phosphoric food to stimulate our wits, and fancy they catch a gleam of it in the brightening of the eye. It is reliably recorded that at the famous séances of Count de Bullet, at which the controlling Spirit is known by the conventional name of "John King," he constantly appeared holding what seemed a round, white, luminous stone, whose light would gradually fade out after a while, till almost invisible, when he would either withdraw for a moment or two into the cabinet, where the medium was asleep in trance, and return with his lamp re-illumined, or else apply the stone, called his 'lamp,' to the forehead of the Count de Bullet, when the light would be seen to rapidly resume its full brightness. The first effect of such application to the forehead, was that dark clouds of wreathing smoke would seem to enter into the stone from the forehead, soon to pass into pervading light; strong in close proximity, but, like phosphoric light, not radiating to much distance. That the Spirits should be able to elaborate the cerebral, or atmospheric, or terrestrial phosphorus into the condition of solid particles of granulated phosphorus, is not difficult to conceive, but I do not know of any other instance of their having actually done it, under human observation, than that now related by Mrs. Underhill.-ED.

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