from the time of its being first seen. I was
now impressed to leave the table, and was soon
carried to the lofty ceiling. The Count de B——-
left his place at the table, and coming under
where I was, said, 'Now, young Home, come
and let me touch your feet.'  I told him I had
no volition in the matter, but perhaps the spirits
would kindly allow me to come down to him.
They did so, by floating me down to him, and
my feet were soon in his outstretched hands.
He seized my boots, and now I was again
elevated, he holding tightly, and pulling at my
feet, till the boots I wore, which had elastic
sides, came off and remained in his hands."

12. THE UNCOMBATIVE NATURE OF MR. HOME.

As there is a maudlin complaint in this book,
about men of Science being hard upon "the
'Orphan' Home," and as the "gentle and
uncombative nature" of this Medium in a
martyred point of view is pathetically commented
on by the anonymous literary friend who
supplies him with an Introduction and appendix
—rather at odds with Mr. Howitt, who is
so mightily triumphant about the same
Martyr's reception by crowned heads, and about
the competence he has become endowed with—
we cull from Mr. Home's book one or two little
illustrative flowers. SIR DAVID BREWSTER (a
pestilent unbeliever) "has come before the
public in few matters which have brought more
shame upon him than his conduct and assertions
on this occasion, in which he manifested not
only a disregard for truth, but also a disloyalty
to scientific observation, and to the use of his
own eyesight and natural faculties." The same
unhappy Sir David Brewster's "character may
be the better known, not only for his untruthful
dealing with this subject, but also in his own
domain of science in which the same unfaithfulness
to truth will be seen to be the characteristic
of his mind." Again, he "is really not a
man over whom victory is any honour." Again,
"not only he, but PROFESSOR FARADAY have
had time and ample leisure to regret that they
should have so foolishly pledged themselves,"
&c. A FARADAY a fool in the sight of a HOME!
That unjust judge and whited wall, LORD
BROUGHAM, has his share of this Martyr
Medium's uncombativeness. "In order that he
might not be compelled to deny Sir David's
statements, he found it necessary that he should
be silent, and I have some reason to complain
that his Lordship preferred sacrificing me to his
desire not to immolate his friend." M. ARAGO
also came off with very doubtful honours from
a wrestle with the uncombative Martyr; who
is perfectly clear (and so are we, let us add)
that scientific men are not the men for his
purpose. Of course, he is the butt of "utter and
acknowledged ignorance," and of "the most
gross and foolish statements," and of "the
unjust and dishonest," and of "the press-gang,"
and of crowds of other alien and combative
adjectives, participles, and substantives.

Nothing is without its use, and even this
odious book may do some service. Not because
it coolly claims for the writer and his disciples
such powers as were wielded by the Saviour and
the Apostles; not because it sees no difference
between twelve table rappers in these days, and
"twelve fishermen" in those; not because it
appeals for precedents to statements extracted
from the most ignorant and wretched of
mankind, by cruel torture, and constantly
withdrawn when the torture was withdrawn; not
because it sets forth such a strange confusion
of ideas as is presented by one of the
faithful when, writing of a certain sprig of
geranium handed by an invisible hand, he adds in
ecstasies, "which we have planted and it is growing,
so that it is no delusion, no fairy money
turned into dross or leaves" —as if it followed
that the conjuror's half-crowns really did
become invisible and in that state fly, because
he afterwards cuts them out of a real orange;
or as if the conjuror's pigeon, being after the
discharge of his gun, a real live pigeon
fluttering on the target, must therefore conclusively
be a pigeon, fired, whole, living and
unshattered, out of the gun!—not because of the
exposure of any of these weaknesses, or a
thousand such, are these moving incidents in the
life of the Martyr Medium, and similar
productions, likely to prove useful, but because of
their uniform abuse of those who go to test the
reality of these alleged phenomena, and who
come away incredulous. There is an old homely
proverb concerning pitch and its adhesive
character, which we hope this significant
circumstance may impress on many minds. The
writer of these lines has lately heard overmuch
touching young men of promise in the imaginative
arts, "towards whom" Martyr Mediums
assisting at evening parties feel themselves
"drawn." It may be a hint to such young
men to stick to their own drawing, as being of
a much better kind, and to leave Martyr
Mediums alone in their glory.

As there is a good deal in these books about
"lying spirits," we will conclude by putting a
hypothetical case. Supposing that a Medium.
(Martyr or otherwise) were established for a
time in the house of an English gentleman
abroad; say, somewhere in Italy. Supposing that
the more marvellous the Medium became, the
more suspicious of him the lady of the house
became. Supposing that the lady, her distrust
once aroused, were particularly struck by the
Medium's exhibiting a persistent desire to commit
her, somehow or other, to the disclosure of the
manner of the death, to him unknown, of a
certain person. Supposing that she at length
resolved to test the Medium on this head, and,
therefore, on a certain evening mentioned a
wholly supposititious manner of death (which was
not the real manner of death, nor anything at all
like it) within the range of his listening ears.
And supposing that a spirit presently afterwards
rapped out its presence, claiming to be the
spirit of that deceased person, and claiming to
have departed this life in that supposititious way.
Would that be a lying spirit? Or would it be
a something else, tainting all that Medium's