"I went to the Waterloo station by the twelve o'clock train, and got to Hampton Court about one. When we got out we went to a hotel and had dinner. It cost nearly three shillings. After dinner I went to the picture-galleries. I was very much pleased with the paintings of many of the ceilings. I was interested in most of the portraits of Lely. After seeing the galleries I went into the grounds. How beautiful they are! I saw a great vine, that lovely English garden, the avenue of elms, the ca.n.a.l, the great water sheet, the three views, the fountain, the gold fishes, and then lost myself in the maze. I got home about nine o'clock.

It cost me altogether about six shillings." On communicating this to Miss A. she found that everything was correct with two exceptions. She went down by the two o'clock train instead of the twelve, and got to Hampton Court about three. The dinner cost her two and elevenpence, which was nearly three shillings, and the total was six and threepence. The places were visited in the order mentioned.

A second instance was where the needs of a comparative stranger were written out by Mr. Stead's hand. Mr. Stead goes on to say: "Last February I met a correspondent in a railway carriage with whom I had a very casual acquaintance. Knowing that he was in considerable distress, our conversation fell into a more or less confidential train in which I divined that his difficulty was chiefly financial. I said I did not know whether I could be of any help to him, but asked him to let me know exactly how things stood--what were his debts, his expectations, and so forth. He said he really could not tell me, and I refrained from pressing him.

"That night I received a letter from him apologizing for not having given the information, but saying he really could not. I received that letter about ten o'clock, and about two o'clock next morning, before going to sleep, I sat down in my bedroom and said: 'You did not like to tell me your exact financial condition face to face, but now you can do so through my hand. Just write and tell me exactly how things stand. How much money do you owe?' My hand wrote, 'My debts are 90.' In answer to a further inquiry whether the figures were accurately stated, 'ninety pounds' was then written in full. 'Is that all?' I asked. My hand wrote 'Yes, and how I am to pay I do not know.' 'Well,' I said; 'how much do you want for that piece of property you wish to sell?' My hand wrote, 'What I hope is, say, 100 for that. It seems a great deal, but I must get money somehow. Oh, if I could get anything to do--I would gladly do anything!' 'What does it cost you to live?' I asked. My hand wrote, 'I do not think I could possibly live under 200 a year. If I were alone I could live on 50 per annum.'

"The next day I made a point of seeking my friend. He said: 'I hope you were not offended at my refusing to tell you my circ.u.mstances, but really I do not think it would be right to trouble you with them.' I said: 'I am not offended in the least, and I hope you will not be offended when I tell you what I have done.' I then explained this automatic, telepathic method of communication. I said: 'I do not know whether there is a word of truth in what my hand has written. I hesitate at telling you, for I confess I think the sum which was written as the amount of your debts cannot be correctly stated; it seems to me much too small, considering the distress in which you seemed to be; therefore I will read you that first, and if that is right I will read you the rest; but if it is wrong I will consider it is rubbish and that your mind in no way influenced my hand.' He was interested but incredulous. But, I said, 'Before I read you anything will you form a definite idea in your mind as to how much your debts amount to; secondly, as to the amount of money you hope to get for that property; thirdly, what it costs you to keep up your establishment with your relatives; and fourthly, what you could live upon if you were by yourself?' 'Yes,' he said, 'I have thought of all those things.' I then read out. 'The amount of your debts is about 90.' He started. 'Yes,' he said, 'that is right.' Then I said: 'As that is right I will read the rest. You hope to get 100 for your property.' 'Yes,' he said, 'that was the figure that was in my mind, though I hesitated to mention it for it seems too much.' 'You say you cannot live upon less than 200 a year with your present establishment.' 'Yes,' he said, 'that is exactly right.' 'But if you were by yourself you could live on 50 a year.' 'Well,' said he, 'a pound a week was what I had fixed in my mind.' Therefore there had been a perfectly accurate transcription of the thoughts in the mind of a comparative stranger written out with my own hand at a time when we were at a distance of some miles apart, within a few hours of the time when he had written apologizing for not having given me the information for which I had asked."

In the following case the correspondent is a foreign lady, doing some work for the _Review_, but whom Mr. Stead had only met once in his life. On the occasion now referred to be was to meet her at Redcar Station at about three o'clock in the afternoon. He was stopping at a house ten minutes'

walk from the station, and it occurred to him that "about three o'clock,"

as mentioned in her letter, might mean _before_ three; and it was now only twenty minutes of three. No timetable was at hand: he simply asked her to use his hand to tell him what time the train was due. This was done without ever having had any communication with her upon the subject of automatic writing. She (by Mr. Stead's hand) immediately wrote her name, and said the train was due at Redcar Station at ten minutes of three.

Accordingly he had to leave at once--but before starting he said, "Where are you at this moment?" The answer came, "I am in the train at Middlesborough railway station, on my way from Hartpool to Redcar."

On arriving at the station he consulted the timetable and found the train was due at 2:52. The train, however, was late. At three o'clock it had not arrived; at five minutes past three, getting uneasy at the delay, he took paper and pencil in his hand and asked where she was.

Her name was at once written and there was added: "I am in the train rounding the curve before you come to Redcar Station--I will be with you in a minute."

"Why the mischief have you been so late?" he mentally asked. His hand wrote, "We were detained at Middlesborough so long--I don't know why."

He put the paper in his pocket and walked to the end of the platform just as the train came in.

He immediately went to his friend and exclaimed:--"How late you are! What on earth has been the matter?" To which she replied: "I do not know; the train stopped so long at Middlesborough--it seemed as if it never would start."

This narrative was fully corroborated by the lady who was the pa.s.senger referred to.

In all these cases it should be noticed the so-called correspondent took no active part in the experiment, was not conscious of communicating anything, nor of trying to do so; nor is there any evidence of a third party or any intervening intelligence or personality; but the subliminal self of the writer went forth and acquired the needed information and transferred it automatically to the primary self, as was the case in the Planchette-writing of Mrs. Newnham and the Wedgwood cases.

During the years 1874 and 1875 I had under my care Mrs. Juliette T.

Burton, the wife of a physician who came to New York from the South at the close of the war. She was a woman of refinement, education, and excellent literary ability. She wrote with unusual facility, and her articles were accepted by newspapers and magazines, and brought her a considerable income. I knew her well, and her honesty, good faith, and strong common-sense were conspicuous. She died of phthisis in 1875. It is to her varied automatic powers as ill.u.s.trating our subject that I would call attention.

Many of her best articles were prepared without conscious effort of her own, either physical or mental; she simply prepared pencils and paper, became pa.s.sive, and her hand wrote. Sometimes she had a plan to write up a certain subject, and sometimes the subject as well as the matter came automatically.

She knew that she was writing, but of what was written she had no knowledge until she read her own ma.n.u.script.

She had no talent for drawing nor for painting; she could not, in her ordinary condition, draw a face, nor even a leaf, which could be recognized. Soon after coming to New York she began to see faces and other pictures before her on the blank paper and to sketch them with marvellous rapidity and exactness, all in the same automatic manner as that in which she did her writing. These drawings were not crude, but were strongly characteristic and were delicately done with ordinary lead pencils, several of which were prepared beforehand with sharp delicate points. I remember one drawing in particular--a man's head about half life-size, with full flowing beard. At first glance there was nothing peculiar about the picture, except that one would say that it was a strong and characteristic face; but on close examination in a strong light, and especially through a reading-gla.s.s, the beard was seen to be made up entirely of exceedingly minute faces of sheep; every face was perfectly formed and characteristic, and there were thousands of them. It was done with the same wonderful rapidity which characterized all her automatic work.

Later she was impelled to procure colors, brushes, and all the materials for painting in oil; and although she had never even seen that kind of work done, and had not the slightest idea how to mix the colors to produce desired tints, nor how to apply them to produce desired effects, yet at a single sitting in a darkened room she produced a head of singular strength and character and possessing at least some artistic merit. Certainly no one could imagine it to be the first attempt of a person entirely without natural talent for either drawing or painting. It was done on common brown cardboard, and it has been in my possession for the past twenty-two years.

The reproduction which appears as frontispiece to the present volume gives some idea of its character.

The impression received by the painter was that it was the portrait of an Englishman named Nathan Early.[1] No date was a.s.signed.

[1] See Frontispiece.

As a further ill.u.s.tration of her automatic power, it may be mentioned that another uncultivated faculty developed itself, namely, the power of referring to past events in the lives of those who were in her presence.

The knowledge of past events so conveyed was frequently most remarkable and was circ.u.mstantially correct, even rivalling in this respect the reports which we have of Jung-Stilling and Zschokke.

CHAPTER IX.

CRYSTAL-GAZING.

Automatic messages fall naturally into two general cla.s.ses: (1) _Motor_ messages, or those received by means of writing, speaking, drawing, or some _activity_ of the body, and (2) _sensory_ messages, or those received _pa.s.sively_ by means of an impression made upon some of the senses, as, for example, seeing, hearing, or feeling.

The motor messages spelt out by raps and table-tipping, and the performances of trance-speakers and spiritualistic mediums need not detain us at present; so far as the messages themselves are concerned they offer no new elements for consideration. The utterances of trance-speakers as a rule are not rich in verifiable facts, though some of their performances are truly remarkable as presenting a phase of improvisation automatically given; and the same may be said of mediumistic utterances generally; they have the same value as automatic writing, whether produced by Planchette, or pa.s.sively holding the pencil in the hand; and so far as they are honest they probably have the same origin, namely, the secondary consciousness or subliminal self of the medium. As regards the force which makes the raps or tips the table, it is altogether a different subject and its consideration here would be unnecessary and out of place.

I hasten to present cases of automatism where the messages brought are given by other means than writing, speaking, or any movement or activity of the body, but which belong to the _sensory_ cla.s.s, and are received by impressions made upon the senses. Of these the most common are those made upon the sense of sight.

To this cla.s.s belong visions, dreams, distinct mental pictures presented under widely varying circ.u.mstances and conditions, in trance, in the hypnotic condition, in sleep, or directly conveyed to the primary conscious self. To simply _think_ how a person, a building, or a landscape looks is one thing, but to have a full mental picture, possessing dimensions, and a stability which admits of being closely examined in detail, is quite another thing.

A little girl of my acquaintance, on returning from the country after several weeks of absence from her father, said to him,--"Why, papa, I could have you with me whenever I liked, this summer, though it was only your head and shoulders that I could see; but I could place you where I liked and could look at you a long time before you went away." Without knowing it the child exactly described a true vision--her thought of her father was visualized, _externalized_, given a form which had definiteness, which could be placed and examined in detail, and was more or less permanent.

Various artificial expedients have been resorted to in order to a.s.sist in this process of distinct visualization; and of these artificial means one of the most important and effective is known as crystal-gazing.

It is a fact not often commented upon--indeed not often alluded to in general literature--that the crystal has from the earliest times been made use of for the purpose of producing visions, and for divination and prophecy. Not only has the crystal been used for this purpose, but also the mirror, a cup or gla.s.s of water or wine, or even some dark and glistening substance like treacle or ink poured into the palm of the hand, have all been used in a similar manner. The same practice is still observed amongst the people of India as well as the Arabs in northern Africa and other localities. An instance or two at the outset will ill.u.s.trate the method and uses of the procedure.

Mr. E. W. Lane, in his "Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians,"

published in 1836, gives this example:--

Mr. Salt, the English consul-general to that country, had greatly interested Mr. Lane by some experiences which he related, and had thus excited his curiosity to witness some of these experiments himself. Mr.

Salt had suspected some of his servants of theft, but could not decide which one was guilty; so it was arranged to test the powers of some of the native seers. Accordingly a magician was sent for; a boy was also necessary to act as seer, or as we would say crystal-gazer, and for this purpose Mr. Salt selected one himself.

The magician wrote several charms, consisting of Arabic words, on pieces of paper, which were burnt in a brazier with a charcoal fire along with incense and perfumes. He then drew a diagram in the palm of the boy's right hand, and into the middle of this diagram he poured some ink. He then asked the boy to look intently at the ink in the palm of his hand.

The boy soon began to see figures of persons in the ink, and presently described the thief so minutely that he was at once recognized by Mr.

Salt, and on being arrested and accused of the crime he immediately confessed his guilt.

Further investigation by Mr. Lane and Mr. Salt furnished other interesting results. A boy eight or nine years of age was usually chosen at random from those who happened to be pa.s.sing by. Invocations were written upon paper by the magician, calling upon his familiar spirit, and also a verse from the Koran "to open the boy's eyes in a supernatural manner so as to make his sight pierce into what is to us the invisible world." These were thrown into a brazier with live charcoal and burned with aromatic seeds and drugs. The magic square, that is a square within a square, was drawn in the boy's palm, and certain Arabic characters were written in the s.p.a.ces between the squares; ink was then poured into the centre, and upon that the boy was to gaze intently. In this way visions were produced and various persons and scenes were described. Finally, Mr. Lane desired that Lord Nelson should be called for. The boy described a man in European clothes of dark blue, who had lost his left arm; but looking closer he added--"No, it is placed to his breast."

Lord Nelson had lost his right arm and it was his custom to carry the empty sleeve attached to his breast. Mr. Lane adds, "Without saying that I suspected the boy had made a mistake I asked the magician whether objects appeared in the ink as if actually before the boy's eyes, or as if in a gla.s.s, which made the right side appear the left? He replied, 'They appear as in a mirror,' This rendered the boy's description faultless."

It is remarkable to notice how prevalent this mode of divination or second-sight has been in all ages. Traces of the same procedure have been found in Egypt, Persia, China, India, Greece, and Rome, and notably in Europe generally, from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries. A lady who withholds her name from the public, but who is perfectly well known to Mr.

Myers, of the Society for Psychical Research, and who chooses to be known as Miss X., has been at great pains to collect curious information upon this subject and has added her own very interesting experience in crystal-gazing. She writes, "It is interesting to observe the close resemblance in the various methods of employing the mirror, and in the mystic symbolism which surrounds it, not only in different ages, but in different countries. From the time of the a.s.syrian monarch represented on the walls of the northwest palace of Nimrod down to the seventeenth century, when Dr. Dee placed his 'Shew Stone' on a cushioned table in the goodly little chapel next his chamber in the college of which he was warden at Manchester, the seer has surrounded himself with the ceremonials of worship, whether to propitiate Pan or Osiris, or to disconcert Ahriman or the Prince of Darkness."

The early Jewish Scriptures abound in indications of the same practice.

When the patriarch Joseph put his silver cup in the mouth of his young brother Benjamin's sack, in order that he might have a pretext for recalling his brethren after he had sent them away, his steward, in accusing them of theft, uses this language: "Is not this the cup in which my lord drinketh, and _whereby indeed he divineth_?" Showing the same use of the cup for purposes of divination as that indicated on the walls of the a.s.syrian Palace.

The Urim and Thummim, as their names indicate, were doubtless stones of unusual splendor set in the high-priest's "breast-plate of judgment," and they were made use of to "inquire of the Lord."

When Joshua was to be set apart as a leader of the people, he was brought to Eleazar the priest, who should lay his hands on him and "ask counsel for him _after the judgment_ of _Urim_ before the Lord." In the last days of Saul's career as King of Israel he desired to "inquire of the Lord"

regarding his future fortunes, but "the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by _Urim_, nor by prophets;" and it is not uninteresting to note that Saul in his strait directly sought the Witch of Endor, from whom he obtained what proved to be true information regarding the disasters which were to overwhelm him.

In a Persian romance it is noted that "if a mirror be covered with ink and placed in front of any one it will indicate whatever he wishes to know."

The Greeks had a variety of methods of divination by crystal-gazing.

Sometimes it was by the mirror placed so as to reflect light upon the surface of a fountain of clear water, sometimes by mirrors alone; sometimes they made use of gla.s.s vessels filled with water and surrounded with torches, sometimes of natural crystals, and sometimes even of a child's "nails covered with oil and soot," so as to reflect the rays of the sun.

The Romans made special use of crystals and mirrors, and children were particularly employed for mirror-reading when consulting regarding important events; thus in a manner taking the place of the early oracles.