III. The following writing was given at Longford, February 27th, 1890, avowedly by "Estelle":-

"You ask me whom I see in this habitation. I see so many shades and several spirits. I see also a good many reflections. Can you tell me if there was a child died upstairs? Was there an infant who died rather suddenly? [Why?] Because I continually see the shadow of an infant upstairs, near to the room where you dress. [A shadow?] Yes, it is only a shadow. [What do you mean?] A shadow is when any one thinks so continually of a person that they imprint their shadow or memory on the surrounding atmosphere. In fact they make a form; and I myself am inclined to think that so-called ghosts, of those who have been murdered, or who have died suddenly, are more often shadows than earthbound spirits; for the reason that they are ever in the thoughts of the murderer, and so he creates, as it were, their shadow or image; for it would be sad if the poor souls suffered, being killed through no fault of their own, - that they should be earthbound; though, remember, they very often are earth-bound too".

With reference to the above communication I may say that an infant brother of mine died of convulsions in a nursery which then occupied the part of the house where the figure of the baby was said to have appeared. I do not see any way in which Miss A. could have known either of the death of my infant brother or of the fact that that part of the house had previously been a nursery.

Radnor.

VII. The following statement is from the Ranee of Sarawak:-

January, 1893. In September 1892 my maid, who was not known to Miss A., complained of persistent pain in the neck and arm. She told me afterwards that she had been afraid of paralysis. I asked Miss A. to let "Semirus" write what was the matter with her. The maid came into the room. No one said a word as to her symptoms, but Miss A.'s hand at once wrote in "Semirus'" handwriting: "It is not paralysis, as you fear; it is rheumatism; your bed ought to be moved from the window," or words to that effect. I went into the maid's room, which it so happened that I had never seen, as it was in a house which I had only rented for a short time, and I found in fact that the bed was exposed to a severe draught. It was placed against the window. I had it moved, and the rheumatic pain disappeared. Margaret Brooke.

[See another case connected with "Semirus" and reported by Sir Lawrence Jones, which I give at the end of this Appendix].

VIII. I give here an incident of which I was myself witness, and which seems to me typical of a class of communications of which I have already said something, - where information unknown to the automatist is given, on the soi-disant authority of some departed spirit; but yet this information, so far as true, is known to some person present, and when anything which goes beyond the knowledge of persons present is asked for, the answer goes off into mere guessing and vagueness. Note also the fact that these messages were given by a distinct rapping sound in the table. This phenomenon is often spoken of in spiritist journals as a very common one. For myself I may say that having sat at tables many hundred times, in readiness to welcome raps if they appeared, I have frequently heard raps in the presence of paid mediums, and I have frequently heard creaks of the table in the presence of my own friends; but only in the presence of some four or five non-professional and trustworthy persons have I heard unmistakable raps, answering questions, and producing upon my mind the conviction that no known agency was concerned in producing them.

On this occasion the messages given were private enough to need an alteration in the initials of the friends present. Besides Miss A., a sister, and myself, there sat at the table Lady B. and the Hon. C. D. A Christian name was clearly rapped out, which was recognised by Mr. C. D. as that of his mother, not consciously known to any of the rest of us. Since, however, the name was in the Peerage, it was of little evidential value. A message then came as to Mr. C. D.'s efforts on behalf of a friend, for whom he was then trying to get a post. "What kind of employment shall I get for him?" "Island." "What island?" "Jersey." "Can you mention any one who will help in this?" "Lang" was rapped out, and then came many confused raps and the message ceased.

Now Mr. D. was in reality trying privately to get a post in Jersey for his friend, - about whom none of us knew anything. How easy, therefore, it would be to report this sitting as follows: "Mr. D.'s mother announced herself by raps, and gave advice on a private matter".

But now compare the classical case, if I may so term it, of Mr. and Mrs. Newnham (849 A), and consider how these replies might be explained on the theory of mere thought-transference between living persons. In Mr. Newnham's case we found that the automatic writing got at the questioner's ideas gradually and imperfectly, and filled up gaps by random answers made to look as interesting as possible. So here, in my view, some intelligence not necessarily other than some part of Miss A.'s subliminal self readily discerns in Mr. D.'s mind an idea so firmly fixed as his mother's name, and takes that as an interesting source to which to ascribe the replies. It next gets easily at the idea of helping the friend; but the definite name Jersey is harder to come at, and is preceded by island, a reply which could hardly have been given save by some one groping for the clearer notion. Then when the name of some helpful resident in Jersey is asked for - Mr. D. himself now not knowing any such name - an attempt is made to rap out the name which is in most minds the first which the idea of Jersey would call up.

Senseless as this guess was (for Mr. D. certainly did not expect Mrs. Langtry to find posts for his friends), it was quite analogous to the random, dreamlike associations and plays upon words which are characteristic of subliminal messages of all kinds.

The next question, again, received an answer which might have been credited to clairvoyance. Mr. C. D. handed Miss A. a ring (not that I see reason to suppose that the ring made any difference) and simply said, "Tell me about my friend now at a hotel in. Paris, with whom this ring is connected." Immediately raps spelt out the sentence, "Case for operation." A few details of the disease were then given, which corresponded with what Mr. C. D. knew, and which, where they went beyond his knowledge, admitted of no proof.

I can hardly myself doubt that this knowledge also came from Mr. C. D.'s mind, and not (as is usually professed in such cases) from actual inspection of the patient.

It may, of course, be asked why experiments like this, which, even if they prove nothing more than thought-transference, do at least seem to prove that so definitely, are not constantly repeated. The answer is that there are very few persons with whom they can be repeated; and that Mr. C. D.'s personality was in this case probably as essential as Miss A.'s. Mr. D., though he cannot by himself obtain raps, has marked power of a psychical kind, and is in fact the gentleman to whom Miss A. has above alluded as having been demanded by her guides before she or her family knew anything of him beyond official mentions of his name in the papers. I can myself vouch for the recurring scrawls, "Bring C. D." - "Bring C. D." which puzzled the A. family some six years ago, when they certainly were not aware of Mr. D.'s gift (then very slightly developed), and when it had not consciously occurred to myself that good might result from the collocation of the two sources of power.