hold, near Ramsey, Isle of Man. He was an active parish clergyman, was liked by the people, and showed special courage and zeal during an outbreak of smallpox, helping, in one recorded case, to nurse and afterwards to bury a man whose malady was so violent that it was difficult to get any one to attend to him.

After four years at Kirk Maughold he became curate of St. George's, Douglas, where also he was liked both as man and as preacher. In 1870 he took a curacy in Dorsetshire, and created a similarly good impression there; but throat trouble and other illness led him to give up preaching, and he became private tutor to the son of Dr. Stanhope Speer. In 1871 he accepted a mastership in University College School, London, which he held for seventeen years. Weakened by gout and repeated attacks of influenza, he died in September, 1892.

The physical phenomena began in 1872, and continued for about eight years. They occurred at sittings held with friends, usually Dr. and Mrs. Stanhope Speer and Mr. F. W. Percival (barrister-at-law and examiner in the Education Department), though occasionally Mr. Serjeant Cox-who was not a spiritualist, but admitted the supernormality of the phenomena or some other friend was admitted. The table moved of itself, without contact, the sitters often being two feet away from it, and raps, sometimes amounting to sledge-hammer blows, were heard. These things were not always in the dark, or at a place where trickery could have been arranged. For example, Serjeant Cox says:

On Tuesday, June 2nd, 1873, a personal friend [Mr. Moses] came to my residence in Russell Square to dress for a dinner party to which he was invited. He had previously exhibited considerable power as a psychic. Having half an hour to spare, we went into the dining-room. It was just six o'clock, and of course broad daylight. I was opening letters; he was reading the Times. My dining-table is of mahogany, very heavy, old-fashioned, six feet wide, nine feet long. It stands on a Turkey carpet, which much increases the difficulty of moving it. A subsequent trial showed that the united efforts of two strong men standing were required to move it one inch. There was no cloth upon it, and the light fell full under it. No person was in the room but my friend and myself. Suddenly, as we were sitting thus, frequent and loud rappings came upon the table. My friend was then sitting holding the newspaper with both hands, one arm resting on the table, the other on the back of the chair, and turned sideways from the table, so that his legs and feet were not under the table, but at the side of it. Presently the solid table quivered as if with an ague fit. Then it swayed to and fro so violently as almost to dislocate the big pillar-like legs, of which there are eight. Then it moved forward about three inches. I looked under it to be sure that it was not touched; but still it moved, and still the blows were loud upon it.

This sudden access of the Force at such a time and in such a place, with none present but myself and my friend, and with no thought then of invoking it, caused the utmost astonishment to both of us. My friend said that nothing like it had ever before occurred to him. I then suggested that it would be an invaluable opportunity, with so great a power in action, to make trial of motion without contact, the presence of two persons only, the daylight, the place, the size and weight of the table, making the experiment a crucial one. Accordingly we stood upright, he on one side of the table, I on the other side of it. We stood two feet from it, and held our hands eight inches above it. In one minute it rocked violently. Then it rose three inches from the floor on the side on

which my friend was standing. Then it rose equally on my side.1

Other phenomena occurring at the Speer sittings were loud raps and musical (e.g. harp-like) sounds, these latter purporting to be produced by certain musical spirits attracted to the circle by the presence of Mr. Charlton Speer,2 supernormal scents, levitation of the medium to near the ceiling, the bringing of objects from other rooms-e.g. a handbell, which rang all the way-masses of luminous vapour, globes and columns of light, materialised hands, direct writing, etc., Mr. Moses being usually in trance. But the physical phenomena were always said to be secondary; they were produced as authentication of the religious and philosophic teaching received by Mr. Moses through his automatic writing, which began in 1873 and continued more or less until his death. The communicators were numerous, often including relatives or friends of the sitters; but for the most part they were of more famous and more ancient order, such as Grocyn, Beethoven, Dr. Dee, Swedenborg; while the most important group consisted of spirits still more remote, eminent but not divine, headed by "Imperator," with colleagues "Rector," "Doctor," "Prudens," etc., who seemed to be specially in charge of the medium, mainly with a view to the teachings given through him. "Imperator" gave his real earth name to Mr. Moses, but the latter did

"Human Personality," 259-60. Quoted by W. S. Moses. "Researches in Spiritualism," from Cox's "What Am I?" vol. ii. Serjeant Cox also describes the incident orally to Mr. Myers.

'Dr. A. Russel Wallace obtained harp-like and other musical sounds, in addition to raps, in his own house and with a non-professional medium. ("Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," p. 143, 1896 edition.)

not publish it, there being no way of verifying it. Mr. Myers was told, and one or two other friends, and probably it is now more or less generally known in interested circles; consequently, its evidential value has nearly evaporated. Nevertheless, if "Imperator" communicated through some other medium, and gave the same real name, and if it seemed unlikely that the medium had any knowledge of it, the fact would be of interest. But "Imperator's" identity does not seem very convincing, and indeed it is claimed that he was more of an "influence" than a person, as we understand personality. Long-departed and far-progressed spirits are said to drop many elements of personality, and the idea is reasonable enough. Whatever "Imperator" was, there is no doubt about his aim. This was to lead Mr. Moses out of his rather narrow and dogmatic religious belief, into the theology of the Broad Church School.

The sittings having been of a private nature, no great amount of publishable evidence of the identity of manifesting spirits is available, but one or two illustrations may be given.

At a sitting with the Speers in August, 1874, at Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, a spirit came and gave the name of Abraham Florentine. He said he had been in the war of 1812, and had died recently at Brooklyn, U. S. A., on August 5th, aged eighty-three years, one month, and seventeen days. There was some doubt as to whether the month and days referred to his age or to the length of his illness; but this was cleared up at a sitting next day. Both the name and the alleged facts were entirely new to all the sitters. Inquiries, how

ever, were made in America, and it was found that an Abraham Florentine had died at Brooklyn on August 5th as stated, and the other details were correct except that the seventeen days should have been twenty-seven days, for he was eighty-three on June 8th.

One evening at Mrs. Makdougal Gregory's, in the middle of dinner, Mr. Moses felt an unpleasant influence from some spirit present, and afterwards obtained an automatic drawing of a horse and a sort of a truck, with the message: "I killed myself-I killed myself to-day-Baker Street-medium passed-killed myself to-day, under a steam-roller. . . ." ." Mr. Moses had passed through Baker Street in the afternoon, but had heard nothing of any such incident; but it turned out that the thing had happened as described. On the front of the steam-roller a horse was represented in brass, which perhaps accounts for the horse in the drawing. The tragedy was reported in an evening paper-the Pall Mall Gazette-but none of the party had seen it.

Another good case was that of "Blanche Abercromby," and it is specially striking in several ways. Mr. Moses, at his secluded lodgings in the North of London, received on a certain Sunday, near midnight, a communication purporting to come from the spirit of Blanche Abercromby (pseudonym), a lady whom he had once met. The message said it was in her writing, for evidence' sake, but publication was forbidden. Mrs. Speer, however, was told of it. Mr. Moses marked it "private" and gummed down the leaf. It turned out that the lady in question had died in the afternoon, 200 miles from London. When Mr. Myers went through Mr. Moses' note-books after the latter's death, he