“But,” I answered, “surely the Bible is all-sufficient for the salvation of the world.”
“No one, my dear Miss Mildmay,” replied D’Arcy, “reveres the Bible more than myself—yet I am bound to confess it never convinced me. Till my eyes were opened to the perception that spirit really does exist, palpably, apart from matter, the Bible was to me as a sealed book. In earlier youth, I worshipped as my deity the intellect of man, smiling in contempt at the idea of a blind faith in the mysteries of Religion, which I looked upon as the foolish inventions of a venal and ignorant priesthood. It was through the much despised manifestations of the spirit circle, that I first realized the ‘certain hope of a blessed immortality,’ and learned to bow my reason before the Divine inspirations—in fine, I believed.”
D’Arcy spoke with the deepest feeling, but calmly, and as a man whose doubts were for ever at rest. You recognized in each word the power of a great mind, and instead of wishing to cavil, you felt your place was rather to sit at his feet and learn.
“One question I would ask,” said Evelyn.—“Might not these phenomena be produced by magnetic influence, and so be accounted for in a merely natural way?”
“Undoubtedly, Mrs. Travers. Human magnetism and the will-power are almost omnipotent as physical forces, and also as influencing the mental faculties; but the communications being not only intelligent, but actually and frequently even contrary to the desires and expectations of the circle, precludes the idea of entirely accounting for them in the way you have very plausibly suggested. Besides, the phenomena of direct writing and drawing could be explained by no other theory than that of supernatural intervention. Electric shocks, too, have been sensibly felt, and exquisite odours have filled the room—and this in the presence of witnesses, many of them men of superior learning, intelligence, and undoubted piety, who would not for worlds have been made the instruments of propagating fraudulent or erroneous doctrines.”
“If you have personally witnessed all you speak of,” I said, “I confess that even my incredulity must at last give way before such evidence.”
“Gently, Miss Mildmay,” interposed D’Arcy. “I desire that each and every one may see and judge for themselves, feeling convinced that no person of average mental powers, having investigated the subject fairly and with candor, could continue a sceptic. To assist you, however, in your research, let me recommend to your notice ‘Owen’s Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World.’ Likewise the works of Andrew Jackson Davis. Also, the ‘Arcana of Christianity,’ by the Rev. T. L. Harris, and the eloquent and spiritual discourses of the latter author; lastly, a gem of beauty, a perfect string of pearls, the ‘Foregleams of Immortality,’ by Sears. This latter work, with those of Mr. Harris, are written in the very spirit of true Biblical and catholic Christianity, untrammelled by the narrow-mindedness of sectarianism. Read these books, not forgetting to breathe a prayer for light, attend some circles, and I think in six months from this time you will tell me that you are really ‘born again, and a new creature,’ so different will be your views of the infinite destinies of the divine human spirit—so shadowy will appear the present, so real, so near the future.”
I looked at him, struck with the intenseness of his manner—his large, blue, serious eyes, filled with the far-off look, of those whose spirits live in perpetual communion with the inner world. Like Ananias, it appeared to me that scales fell from the eyes of my soul, and I began to see things for the first time in their true light. Evelyn also was deeply impressed; after a pause of emotion, she was the first to break silence.
“May I ask,” she said, “what first induced you, with your manly intellect and infidel sympathies, to take sufficient interest in this subject to attend a circle?—for if I judge you aright, curiosity alone would scarcely have drawn you there.”
“You have justly divined, Mrs. Travers, and I will tell you all.”