Then somebody wrote as follows:—
"That great and intelligent traveller, Captain Burton, a man who will not flinch from telling the truth because it is unpopular, wrote to the Times a letter which disturbed the equanimity of that susceptible organ greatly some time back. In his letter Captain Burton said: 'An experience of twenty years has convinced me that perception is possible without the ordinary channels of sensation.' In a leader of the Times of the date November 14th, 1876, Captain Burton was answered, and that Journal seemed to imagine it had flung its last shaft of scorn, when, in reply to the above assertion of Captain Burton, it cynically, but in all-unconscious sapience, remarked: 'Captain Burton deserves a reward of merit for discovering for us the sixth sense of perception, which is neither seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, nor tasting, but something superior to all five.' That is just what Captain Burton does deserve, but I am sure the Times will be the last to give it to him. And, really, the Times in its scornful exaltment also a second time spoke above its knowledge; for this is just what the sixth sense is—it is superior to all the five senses, because it is less gross; it is psychical and they are only corporeal; but both categories, I believe, are equally perceived and real. 'Tell us,' said the Times, apostrophizing Captain Burton, 'how investigators could, for themselves, "perceive" this mysterious entity without recourse to the ordinary channels of sensation.' I fear that even Captain Burton would have been forced to answer thus: You must first get the power of a perception before you can make use of it; and if you do not possess it, or understand about it, you must, in order to obtain a conception of it, be treated as you would treat blind men when you try to explain to them the beautiful mystery, to them, of ocular demonstration. And you must take us on trust, just as you expect men to take you on trust when you explain to them honestly and to the best of your ability that which you see. And what would you think of the blind man who should answer you, as you, in that article, answered Captain Burton, and said, as you did to him, 'This, of course, is mere fancy, and if indulged in, develops itself into hysteria, and finally, as Dr. Forbes Winslow can tell you, into confirmed insanity'? Why, you would think the blind man very ungrateful and very impertinent. But I will, in pity, spare you that last impeachment, and will only call you ignorant, because this perception spoken of by Captain Burton is not a perception that can be said to be indulged in; it is like the wind, it cometh when and where it listeth; and, moreover, can no more appropriately be said to be a thing indulged in than our natural sight; both have to put the term indulgence aside and to see that which they come across. Both eyesight and physical perception are a gift of God, only one is more common than the other."
"Lowther Lodge, Barnes, S.W., December 3, 1878.
"Dear Captain Burton,
"Your interesting lecture on Spiritualism explains what no one has yet been able to explain, the verse in the 'Persæ' of Æschylus, on the conjuring up of the ghost of Darius, v. 683; (Dind.)—
στένει, κέκοπται, καὶ χαράσσεται πέδον.
The effects are exactly what your Tunisian describes, and the inference is that this Eastern magic is a very old and real power. One is utterly perplexed, and can only fall back on what seems the doubtfulness of almost all evidence.
"Believe me, very faithfully yours,
"F. A. Paley."
"Spirit Guardianship.
"A Spiritualist was sent to me yesterday, bearing the date 19th of December, 1879, containing an article signed 'Scrutator.' It contained a description of two incidents in my Syrian life, in which I was moved by some power to do things against my will, which had a useful object in the end. 'Scrutator,' however, says that my husband's farewell note to me reached me at our house, a mile out of Damascus. If that had been so, there would have been nothing extraordinary, but quite natural that I should have joined my husband at Beyrout, as there was only a quarter of an hour's ride between the Consulate and the house. But I was thirty miles away, at the top of a mountain in the Anti-Lebanon, five thousand feet above sea-level, and quite out of reach of news or communication, save the three lines I received by a mounted messenger; and my difficulty was to descend the mountain in the dark, cross the country at dawn, to the probable spot where I could catch the diligence on the road. The power that moved me was therefore so much the stronger, and I think it very well accounted for by 'Scrutator.' However, as I am a Catholic, Catholicism is the highest order of Spiritualism; what to 'Scrutator' is a force of spirit, is to me simply my angel guardian, who is to me an actual presence, to whom I constantly refer during the day, and who directs everything I ask him to. When I sit with other Spiritualists they say they can see him. I can't; I only feel the power. However, I am quite sure of one thing, that nothing happens by luck or chance; but that we are moved by our good and bad angels, and that those who are in the habit of meditating or reflecting a good deal arrive at a proficiency in knowing and understanding their calls.
"Isabel Burton.
"Trieste, December 26th, 1879."
"An answer—not that you long for,
But diviner—will come one day:
Your eyes are too blind to see it,
But strive, and wait, and pray."
——E. M. Hewitt.
[1] "'Mandal' is, properly speaking, a Persian word, and means the magic circle in which the necromantist sits when summoning the demons and spirits of the dead."
[2] "The well-known cabalistic figure known to Moslems as Khátim-Sulaymán—-Solomon's Seal."
[3] "A negro, a boy, or a woman with child, say the Arabs."
[4] "This is not time enough; in India half an hour would be the minimum."