brightness of the light has probably prevented them from being defined, so that it was only by studying them with a powerful magnifying glass that I have been able to identify them as papa and mamma, thus united as it were in one medallion. The form of the light which is somewhat of an oval, reminded me of the first experiences of the gifted medium Dr. Willis, that I heard him relate on the occasion of his public reception at the Spiritual Institute, Southampton-row. He then told us that one night when going into his own room he had seen a bright, egg-shaped light, which gradually increased in size, and then seemed to open, when within it he saw his mother, as far down as the waist; she then spoke to him, giving him some family details of which he knew nothing, but afterwards ascertained the truth of them from his grandmother,: and he was thus convinced of the reality of a spirit-world.

We asked Mr. Hudson to prepare another plate, but while he was doing it, we heard raps, and received a negative in answer to our desire for another spirit photograph, and notwithstanding my pleading, we were told that there would not be another, but I still wished to try, and asked if I was wilful in making the attempt, to which the answer was a brisk yes. But the plate had been got ready, and I was very anxious for the appearance of one of my two little baby sisters, whose birthday it was, and I felt the dear little hands playing about my head, and just as Mr. Hudson was focussing me, I felt the tortoise-shell dagger withdrawn from my head, and as he again covered the lens after taking the negative, the dagger was dropped into my lap. On our questioning Mr. Hudson as to the result, he said: "There is no spirit-but in the air, above the head, I see a cross." I then explained to him what it was, and, as he had not noticed it, I gave it to him to look at when we joined him in his sanctum.

You may imagine how anxious I was to receive the proofs, which came to me on Saturday night, and I enclose you one of each, so that you may possess the earliest English specimens. They are not very successful as far as my portrait is concerned, for it was so late in the day that the lights and shadows are unsoftened by half-tints, but I consider that they each have a great value for their spiritual significance: the first, for the clearly defined hand, the symbol of power, thus implying that this phase of manifestation will do a great work for Spiritualism. In the second, the complete union of the true husband and wife exemplifies the happiness to be attained by those who have led unsullied lives; while the third contains a test for the sceptical, the dagger being, as it were, self-sustained in the air, although from the background being black (by the direction of the spirits),

the dark tortoise-shell is not very visible, except for the bright gleams of light on the three balls, and on the hilt-guard.

GEORGIANA HOUGHTON.

may here add that the manifestation of spirit-faces at Mr. Guppy's house, referred to in our last number, has again been witnessed; they appear with increasing distinctness, and one is said to be the same as that of the draped figure on the photographs of Mr. Guppy.

MR. G. H. LEWES ON DICKENS.

DICKENS possessed singularly sensitive spiritual faculties. He lived in an atmosphere uncongenial to the development of his gifts, and he probably regarded them with some suspicion himself; but his writings afford ample evidence that he was wiser than he knew and in his conversation he frequently described experiences which proved how open were his relations with the other world. Than Mr. G. H. Lewes there is not perhaps among our contemporaries an author with a more decided aversion to Spiritualism; the dictionary does not appear to contain terms sufficiently emphatic for his scorn and contempt; yet in an article entitled "Dickens in relation to Criticism," in the Fortnightly Review for February, he has to testify that—

"Dickens once declared to me that every word said by his characters was distinctly heard by him. I was at first not a little puzzled to account for the fact that he could hear language so utterly unlike the language of real feeling, and not to be aware of its preposterousness; but the surprise vanished when I thought of the phenomena of hallucination."

Of course, Dickens's experience had to be explained away "phenomena of hallucination; but we may thank Mr. Lewes for the fact whilst dispensing with his explanation.

as

Mr. Forster has related the intense grief of Dickens at the death of Mary, his sister-in-law-a grief which for two months interrupted the composition of Pickwick. Writing from America and describing his delight at Niagara Falls, he says:

:

"What would I give if you and Mac were here to share the sensations of this time! I was going to add, what would I give if the dear girl whose ashes lie in Kensal Green had lived to come so far along with us; but she has been here many times, I doubt not, since her sweet face faded from my earthly sight." Mr. Lewes cites these lines, and the question occurs with what intention does he suppose Dickens wrote the words we have

put in italics? Did Dickens really mean that Mary had visited Niagara many times? Or does Mr. Lewes imagine he was desecrating sincere affection with sentimental fibs?

"Several years afterwards," continues Mr. Lewes, "in the course of a quiet chat over a cigar we got on a subject which always interested Dickens, and on which he had stored many striking anecdotes-dreams. He then narrated, in his quietest and most impressive manner, that after Mary's death her image not only haunted him by day, but for twelve months visited his dreams every night. At first he refrained from mentioning it to his wife; and after deferring this some time, felt unable to mention it to her. He had occasion to go to Liverpool, and as he went to bed that night, there was a strong hope that the change of bed might break the spell of his dreams. It was not so however. That night as usual the old dream was dreamt. He resolved to unburthen his mind to his wife, and wrote that very morning a full account of his strange experience. From that time he ceased to dream of her. I forget whether he said he had never dreamt of her since; but I am certain of the fact that the spell had been broken then and there."

Mysterious are the conditions and affinities of spiritual communion!" The spell was broken," but why?

"Here is another contribution to the subject of dreams," adds Mr. Lewes, "which I had from Dickens shortly before his death. One night after one of his public readings, he dreamt that he was in a room where every one was dressed in scarlet. (The probable origin of this was the mass of scarlet operacloaks worn by the audience, having left a sort of after glow on his retina.) йe stumbled against a lady standing with her back towards him. As he apologised she turned her head and said, quite unprovoked, 'My name is Napier.' The face was one perfectly unknown to him, nor did he know any one named Napier. Two days after he had another reading in the same town, and before it began, a lady friend came into the waitingroom accompanied by an unknown lady in a scarlet opera-cloak, 'who,' said his friend, 'is very desirous of being introduced." 'Not Miss Napier,' he jokingly inquired. Yes; Miss Napier.' Although the face of his dream-lady was not the face of this Miss Napier, the coincidence of the scarlet cloak and the name was striking."

It was striking indeed; but whilst Mr. Lewes accounts for the scarlet cloak, he leaves the more remarkable incident of the name unaffected. And so it nearly always is with what are called "scientific " explanations of spiritual phenomena. Some of the circumstances are dealt with more or less plausibly, but the central position is left unattacked.

A PAINTING MEDIUM AGED FOURTEEN.

THE March number of Human Nature, contains the account of a boy aged 14, named Charles Sivan, who never received an hour's instruction in painting, but who has produced more than fifty paintings under the control of spirits. The boy's uncle, Mr. Thomas Wilson, ironmonger, Market-square, Aylesbury, gives the history of the case, as follows:

"The mediumship of my nephew commenced about six years ago in the following accidental manner. He was suffering very much from toothache, and, having just read something of Spiritualism and healing mediumship, I said in sport to my wife, that I would try my healing powers on the boy. I accordingly placed one hand on his head, and with the other commenced stroking down his face on the side where the aching tooth was located. In a few minutes he dropped off to sleep, and I laid him on the sofa. In a short time I perceived his hand moving about in an extraordinary manner; but, having read Barkas's "Outlines of Spiritualism,' given me by a relative from Newcastle-on-Tyne, I had made myself acquainted with some of the phases of mediumship-that of writing amongst the rest. I accordingly put a pencil into the boy's hands, and immediately there was rapidly written, 'Let the boy alone; he is all right,-Mary.' I asked the lad what he meant, when he replied through the pencil: It is not the boy who is writing, but 1, your sister, dead now about twenty-two years!' After he had lain on the sofa about two hours, his hand again wrote, giving me instructions how to wake him. I did so, and the first question the boy asked was, Where is that lady who has been laying hold of my hand?' I desired to know what he meant; and he described the form, features, and every particular of outline, height, and size, of my deceased sister, as accurately as I could have done myself. The toothache had also vanished. Since that time he describes the particular controlling spirit who influences his hand, as standing by his side, and placing one hand upon his. Though entranced, he knows that his hand moves about, but he cannot tell afterwards whether he has been writing, drawing, or painting. After discovering his mediumship, I got a few friends to assist me from time to time in sitting at the table. One of these friends, Mr. Parker, has continued to sit with us very regularly from the first up to the present time. In this way, nearly all the various phases of mediumship have been produced-table moving, rapping, seeing spirits in the trance, and so on.

"When his mediumship had continued about two years, he

began to see spirits as he went about the house or town. I have known him to describe as many as six different spirits on his passage from the shop to the bedroom. I have seen a table in the parlour dance about very considerably, no one being nearer it than, at least, six feet. About two years ago he commenced to draw with the lead pencil, and produced very crude sketches, regularly, for some time. Then strange-looking animals, with short descriptions, stating that they belonged to one or the other of the planets. He attended school, at Bexley Heath, for twelve months, part of 1870 and 1871. In the early part of last year he again sat at the table, and the drawing proceeded as before. Water-colours were then asked for, and a great many little things were done, getting better from day to day, until about May last, when oil-colours were required. Since then, a list of pictures, fifty-one in number, have been produced. This series was commenced in April, 1871.”

Then follows a list of the paintings, and of the several artists who produced them, as given to Mr. Wilson by the spirits at his request.

The editor visited the medium, and describes some of the paintings, and gives some further particulars elicited from Mr. Wilson. We are told that several spirits control the medium besides the painters; and their autographs have been given, as well as sketches illustrating their identity. Mary Wilson the writing spirit, who gives all the instructions, affixes to her signature a hand holding a pen in the act of writing on a scroll. Wm. Wilson was a doctor, and used to carry a skull and cross-bones depicted on a card and fixed in the top of his hat. John Wilson was a carpenter, and does the framing, fixing, and other mechanical operations. H. Seymour was the son of a former employer of Mr. Wilson, who thus describes the symbol opposite that name:-"The £5 note in front of H. Seymour's signature I consider an excellent proof of identity. The writer of that signature went to reside at Brighton for a time, and during his residence there he wrote to me to loan him £5. I did so, and the first time I saw him afterwards he honourably returned it. I had forgotten the transaction until I read the meaning of the symbol drawn opposite his name, for I could not understand the meaning of it myself. The boy knew nothing of this transaction, as it had never been mentioned before him, or even brought to my mind, as the money was honourably paid to me, and I had therefore no longer need to entertain thoughts of the transaction." Henry Angus was a relative of Mr. Wilson's, who used to tease him for a tin teapot, and in memory of the joke, he had it placed opposite his name. William Angus, another relative, was an undertaker, and proves his identity by