Sometimes these forms have treated me to little jokes, that illustrated better than words the information I was seeking; enjoying heartily anything that for a moment seemed to disconcert me.
What claimed to be my niece came to me in a very beautiful illuminated dress. I asked her to appear to me at the next séance dressed in the same way. I took a friend with me to that séance, expecting to astonish him with the wonderful illumination. But, instead of keeping her promise, she came out in a dark dress, such as I had never seen her wear. As my friend had gone up to the cabinet with me, I was greatly disappointed in the way she came, and said, "Bertha, why do you come in this dress?" Placing her right elbow in the palm of her left hand and her index finger on her lip, in a bashful, coquettish way, she said, "I'm in mourning." I said, "For what?" She replied, "I expect I have lost my friend." I said to my companion, "This is something new; I don't understand it." While we were both looking at her, instantly the dark dress disappeared, and she stood before us radiant in her beautiful garments. With a girlish laugh she threw her arms around my neck, kissed me and said, "It is all right now, uncle." The disappearance of the dark dress was quite as marvellous to my friend as the illumination.
I have never been able to detect any fraud, or any indication of it, on the part of Mrs. Fay at these séances; and in the absence of any information which would lead to any other conclusion, I shall hereafter call these forms spirits. That they are not beings belonging to this side of life, I feel certain. What they are, each one must determine for himself.
CHAPTER III.
MATERIALIZATION AND DEMATERIALIZATION OF OBJECTS.
The severest tests which I could apply to these manifestations convinced me that not only the forms which surrounded these spirits, but the garments which they wore were "materialized" (that is, made visible and tangible out of previously invisible substances) inside of the cabinet. How this is done we may not comprehend. Emerson says, "The whole world is the flux of matter over the wires of thought to the points or poles where it would build." We only know that here, as in Nature, there must be a germ or starting-point around which the particles aggregate. This is seen in the materialization of objects, which is important as being the only materializations outside the cabinet, and the only ones that we can study.
I have spoken of a beautiful spirit claiming to be my niece, Bertha, that came to me at Mrs. Fay's. In all my attendance there she has never failed to meet me. This did not arise from any understanding or agreement, but seemed to grow up as a natural consequence of the magnetic relations between us. Simple and childlike in her bearing, I have found her remarkably conscientious, intelligent, and affectionate. She comes freely, and in all my intercourse with her I have never found her judgment at fault.
I do not care to discuss the question as to who or what Bertha is; I know she is not the medium, nor a confederate, and that her materialization of objects is genuine. In my long and delightful association with her, extending over more than two years, I have never been able to detect the slightest thing that would lead me to doubt that she is what she claims to be.
No parent ever watched the unfolding of a young life with more interest than I have studied the apparent growth or development of this delightful spirit. It may be that what I have considered her progress arises from the increasing strength gained through her long association with me, enabling her to more freely express herself; for during my acquaintance with her she has seemingly passed from a commonplace person into a remarkable embodiment of intelligence and affection. If I have refrained from expressing the many inspired thoughts and feelings which in her exalted moments she has freely given forth, it is because they are sacred to my own domestic circle. They belong to that centralization of the affections without which life loses its force, and all investigations or attempts to reach these beings are only time thrown away.
As I never saw her before she passed to the other life, I have no means of proving her identity except by what she has told me. Owing to the fact that her family live many hundred miles away, and that I am very forgetful of names, I did not recall, until reminded by others, the existence of any one of that name. She came, at first, very weak, not being able to come out from the cabinet, and spoke in a whisper. She either gave a wrong name, or, what is quite as likely from the difficulty she then had in expressing herself, was misunderstood. This, with my limited experience, led me to regard her appearance, so far as it related to me, a mistake, and I am quite conscious that I treated her coldly. That she felt this indifference on my part was evinced more than once by the expression of her face.