"We have received one other account from a gentleman of character and ability, of a seance in very poor light, when the 'spirit-hand' moved in such a way as to seem dependent on the action of Home's arms and legs. This account is subjoined [in the Report] as Appendix D. We may add that few, if any, of the lights seen at Home's seances could (as they are described to us) have been contrived by the aid of phosphorus.
"There is also a frequently repeated story that Home was found at the Tuilleries (or at Compiègne, or at Biarritz) to be using a stuffed hand, and was consequently forbidden the Imperial Court. We have tried in France to get at the fountain-head of this story, but without success."[27]
(2) "With regard to our second question—whether his powers were tested by competent observers"—Mr. Myers says: "Home in this respect stands pre-eminent; since we have the evidence of Sir William Crookes, corroborated by the testimony of the Master of Lindsay (now Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), himself a savant of some distinction, and the privately printed series of careful observations by the present and the late Lords Dunraven.[28]
(3) "As to our third question—whether the phenomena could have been produced by conjuring"—Mr. Myers says: "Many of them, especially the fire-tests, and the movements of large untouched objects in good light, seem inexplicable by this supposition. The hypothesis of collective hallucination on the part of the sitters seems very improbable, because, in most cases, all those present saw the same thing; and often without receiving from Home any audible suggestion as to what was about to happen."[29]
In the Joint Report by Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, a considerable space is devoted to a discussion as to conjuring being the explanation of the Home manifestations. It is dismissed as utterly inadequate. In conclusion, the authors of the Report say: "And we find that experts in conjuring (several of whom we have consulted), however little they may believe in Home's pretensions, are disposed rather to reject wholesale than to explain in detail the more remarkable records."[30]
Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers proceed to quote thirty-five cases of the identification of alleged communicating spirits from Madame Home's book, entitled "D. D. Home, His Life and Mission." They remark, "This list of identifications is a long one, and quite unique in the history of Spiritualism."[31] After analysing this list of cases, they say near the conclusion of their Report, as implying their final verdict: "If our readers ask us—'Do you advise us to go on experimenting in these matters as though Home's phenomena were genuine?'—we answer, 'Yes.'"[32] In the supplementary article above referred to sixteen more cases of identification are added to the thirty-five.
In Appendix E to the Report is given some striking testimony to the reality of the "fire-test." The following letter from Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, the well-known solicitor, is included:—
"As you ask me to write to you of what occurred at our house at Kilburn, where we were living in 1869, with reference to the handling of red-hot coal, I will merely say that one Sunday evening in the winter of that year, I saw Mr. Home take out of our drawing-room fire a red-hot coal a little less in size than a cricket ball, and carry it up and down the drawing-room. He said to Lord Adare, now Lord Dunraven, who was present, 'Will you take it from me? It will not hurt you.' Lord Adare took it from him, and held it in his hand for about half a minute, and before he threw it back in the fire I put my hand pretty close to it, and felt the heat to be like that of a live coal.—Yours very truly,
W. M. Wilkinson.[33]
44 Lincoln's Inn Fields,
London, W.C., February 7, 1869."
Appendix M to the Report consists of some particulars verbally given to Mr. Myers by Mrs. Honywood, of 52 Warwick Square, London, in further explanation of her printed testimony to phenomena she had witnessed in Home's presence. She was well acquainted with him for twenty-five years, attended many seances, and took notes of them at the time. In the early part of this chapter, a statement she sent to the Dialectical Society has already been quoted. She told Mr. Myers that most of her friends were complete disbelievers in Spiritualism, and that they frequently repeated to her rumours to the discredit of Home. But she never heard any first-hand account of any kind of trickery on his part. She considered him a man of open childlike nature, thoroughly honest and truthful, and that in her opinion his utterances in the trance state were much superior in thought and diction to his ordinary talk. She said she should like to give Mr. Myers a few additional details with regard to the fire phenomena reported in Madame Home's book, "D. D. Home, His Life and Mission," on her authority. Madame Home's secretary, she said, had slightly abbreviated her words in a way which made the occurrences seem rather less wonderful than they actually were. Mr. Myers gives the following, as having been signed "Barbara Honywood, June 1889."
"As to the burning coal placed in my hand. I saw Mr. Home take this coal from the fire, moving his hands freely among the coals. It was about the size of a coffee cup, blazing at the top, and red-hot at the bottom. While I held it in my hand the actual flame died down, but it continued to crackle, and to be partially red-hot. I felt it like an ordinary stone, neither hot nor cold. Mr. Home then pushed it off my hand with one finger on to a double sheet of cartridge paper, which it at once set on fire. I am quite certain that I was in my usual condition at the time....