open visions of Paradise; open communication
with spirits redeemed; and proper and
progressive understanding of the Holy
Scriptures, and of the merits of Jesus Christ, from
whom they originated in inspiration absolute,
and of whom they teach, as the only
Saviour of a dissevered and bewildered race.
The circle of Apostles and Prophets are its
conductors from the interior; holding control
over its columns, and permitting no article to
find place therein unless originated, dictated,
or admitted by them; they acting under
the direction of the Lord Supreme. James
Congdon, Charles Coventry, Andrew L.
Wilson, and Lonson Bush are its publishers
and proprietor; they having become, in full
confidence of mind, disciples of the Lord, and
being present external agents of the circle
apostolic and prophetic; acting under the
direction, while faithful, as instruments for
the distribution of truth."

The Fox family, of Rochester, U.S., as we
have already said, first revived in America
the modern variations on the story of the
Cock Lane Ghost. When tested fairly by a
perfect stranger, their ghosts rapped out
nothing but blunders: however, we are
not left even to infer the dishonesty of
their pretensions; we have clearer
evidence, not only of their fraud, but of the
way in which they practised it. Mrs.
Norman Culver, a relation of these Foxes,
assisted in the depredations upon geese, and
shared their secret; but was not so much a
wonder of a woman as to keep it. She
therefore made a formal deposition, certified
by two respectable witnesses, at the town
of Arcadia, in the province of New York,
in which, among other things she said, "I
am, by marriage, a relation of the Fox
girls; their brother married my husband's
sister. The girls have been a great deal
at my house, and for about two years I
was a very sincere believer in the rappings;
but some things which I saw when I was
visiting the girls at Rochester made me
suspect that they were deceiving. I resolved to
satisfy myself in some way; and some time
afterwards I made a proposition to Catherine
to assist her in producing the manifestations.
I had a cousin visiting me from Michigan,
who was going to consult the spirits, and I
told Catherine that if he intended to go to
Detroit, it would be a great thing for them
to convince him. I also told her that if I
could do anything to help her, I would do it
cheerfully; that I should probably be able
to answer all the questions he would ask, and
I would do it if she would show me how to
make the raps. She said that as Margaretta
was absent, she wanted somebody to help her,
and that if I would become a Medium, she
would explain it all to me." Mrs. Culver
thus became an accomplice, and after she had
assisted a few times in conveying hints that
would suffice for the conquest of her sceptical
cousin from Detroit, after a brief probation,
she was admitted to a full participation in the
mysteries.

We call particular attention to her story.
"The raps," deposed Mrs. Culver, "are
produced with the toes. All the toes are used.
After nearly a week's practice, with Catherine
showing me how, I could produce them
perfectly myself. At first it was very hard work
to do it. Catherine told me to warm my feet,
or put them in warm water, and it would
then be easier work to rap; she said that she
had sometimes to warm her feet three or
four times in the course of an evening. I
found that heating my feet did enable me
to rap a great deal easier. I have sometimes
produced a hundred and fifty raps in
succession. I can rap with all the toes on both
feet; it is most difficult to rap with the great
toe. Catherine told me how to manage to
answer the questions. She said it was
generally easy enough to answer right, if
the one who asked the questions called the
alphabet." And so forth, the rest of the
details of trickery being all clumsy and
common-place enough.

This being the substance of our readings
in the matter of knocking and rapping spirits,
we paid our visit to the London ghosts
established in genteel apartments in Upper
Seymour Street, Portman Square, very soon
after we accidentally saw the advertisement
we have set forth.

We were two—Brown and Thompson. We
rapped at the door of the house in which
the knocker lived, on a cloudy and warm
evening in the beginning of this present
November, which month began, as all the
country knows, with days unusually dull and
close. We do not idly talk about the weather,
for it has a definite connection with our
story. Having inquired whether Mr. Stone
was at home, well knowing that he was—for
he had advertised himself to be at home at
that hour in the evening to all parties who
dsired an introduction to the world of spirits
—and having replied to the question about
our names by stating that our calling was
"in consequence of an advertisement," we
were conducted to a drawing-room, in which
we found that the maid who preceded us had
just lighted the fire. Mr. Stone presently
appearing, solemn as became a man who
knew his lodgings to be haunted, pointed
courteously to the sticks that had begun to
crackle in the grate over the lighted paper,
and murmured "We have had no fire here;
we did not like to light it, for it is so very
warm." Truly no fire was needed, and we
have a reason of our own for citing Mr. Stone's
corroboration of the fact.

To Mr. Stone, who "had just returned
from the United States" with Mrs. Hayden,
for the purpose of demonstrating those
wonderful phenomena, which "have created the
most intense excitement in all classes or
society," we introduced ourselves by saying
that we had called in consequence of an