959 A. [The following account is quoted from the beginning of the "History of the G. P. Communications," given by Dr. Hodgson in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. pp. 295-335].

G. P. met his death accidentally, and probably instantaneously, by a fall in New York in February 1892, at the age of thirty-two years. He was a lawyer by training, but had devoted himself chiefly to literature and philosophy, and had published two books which received the highest praise from competent authorities. He had resided for many years in Boston or its vicinity, but for three years preceding his death had been living in New York in bachelor apartments. He was an Associate of our Society, his interest in which was explicable rather by an intellectual openness and fearlessness characteristic of him than by any tendency to believe in supernormal phenomena. He was in a sense well known to me personally, but chiefly on this intellectual side; the bond between us was not that of an old, intimate, and if I may so speak, emotional friendship. We had several long talks together on philosophic subjects, and one very long discussion, probably at least two years before his death, on the possibility of a "future life." In this he maintained that in accordance with a fundamental philosophic theory which we both accepted, a "future life" was not only incredible, but inconceivable; and I maintained that it was at least conceivable.

At the conclusion of the discussion he admitted that a future life was conceivable, but he did not accept its credibility, and vowed that if he should die before I did, and found himself "still existing," he would "make things lively" in the effort to reveal the fact of his continued existence.

On March 7th, 1888, he had a sitting with Mrs. Piper, one of a series arranged by the Committee on Mediumistic Phenomena connected with the American S.P.R. (See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 2.) The names of the sitters in this series were very carefully guarded by the Committee, and I may add my own opinion that Mrs. Piper never knew until recently that she had ever seen G. P. At the sitting which G. P. attended, the Rev. Minot J. Savage acted as the supervising member of the Committee, and G. P. was a stranger to him. (See vol. xiii. p. 326).

G. P.'s conclusion was, briefly, that the results of this sitting did not establish any more than hyperaesthesia on the part of the medium.

I knew of G. P.'s death within a day or two of its occurrence, and was present at several sittings with Mrs. Piper in the course of the following few weeks, but no allusion was made to G. P. On March 22nd, 1892, between four and five weeks after G. P.'s death, I accompanied Mr. John Hart [not the real name], who had been an old intimate friend of his, to a sitting.1 I understood from Mr. Hart that he had some articles with him to be used as tests, but he gave me no further information than this, though I surmised that the articles might have belonged to G. P. The appointment for the sitting was made by myself, and of course Mr. Hart's real name was not mentioned to Mrs. Piper. I abridge from the notes of the sitting made by myself at the time, and substitute, in part, other names for those actually used.1

1 I must mention here that towards the end of 1887, at a time when Mrs. Piper's sittings were given in a very much more haphazard way than at present, I had taken Mr. Hart to Mrs. Piper on the chance of getting a sitting. Mrs. Piper was just about to give a sitting to a lady, so that our visit was futile. In my own opinion this circumstance is irrelevant, but as Mrs. Piper saw Mr. Hart at that time for a few minutes, although his name was not mentioned, it might be regarded by some persons as important. Further, Mrs. Piper was staying in New York with one of our members, Dr. Anna Lukens (who knew nothing of G. P.), at the time when G P. met his death. She went to New York February 8th, 1892, and returned to Boston February 20th, 1892, as I learned from Dr. Lukens, staying with Dr. Lukens all the time, and giving a series of sittings. Mrs. Piper independently gave me a concordant account.

The sitting began by some remarks of Phinuit concerning the sitter, followed by an incorrect statement about a cousin said to have died some years before with some heart trouble. Mr. Hart presented a. pencil.2

Phinuit: Cousin. Heart, through here [clutches throat and about breast and lower] something like pneumonia. Do you know that's a brother? (Sometimes he used to call me brother.) He's very close to you. (He isn't my brother, though we used to say it of each other.) [The pencil had been worn by an uncle of mine who died of inflammation of the bladder. - J. H.] [Phinuit here calls out a name that suggests an attempt at Howards. See later. - R. H.] (I don't know any one of that name).

[Sitter gives locket, saying, "He also wore this."]