879. To assist me, as it were, in exposing the errors of those who with Dr. Bell admit, for the most part, the facts of Spiritualism, yet ascribe the whole to the minds of mortals acting as media or inquirers, an advocate of that side of the question gives this explanation of the fact of my having sent a message to Mrs. Gourlay by my spirit sister:
880. He alleged it as a fact, that if two snails be placed in proximity, and afterward apart to a considerable distance, that the contact of one, will affect the other perceptibly.
881. That Mrs. Gourlay and myself being frequently in each other’s society, it followed that if at the distance of about a hundred miles I wished her to induce Dr. Gourlay to apply at the bank, Mrs. Gourlay, although at the time engaged in receiving a most interesting communication from her mother for her brother, had so much more snail-like sympathy, with me at Cape Island, than with the ideas she believed to proceed from her mother, that she would interrupt the one forthwith, to attend to the other at that particularly inconvenient time! Meanwhile, the phenomenon of the index of my disk being moved independently of any effort of mine, so that I can make oath that no mortal moved it, is not taken into view. Surely if by such means a message respecting a pecuniary affair could awaken sympathy, there are many messages which it would be of immensely more importance to convey, than that which I sent in the instance in question.
882. But how comes it that neither I nor any other of her friends can send messages to Mrs. Gourlay while in the same city with her? Must her friends go to Cape Island for the purpose? Will this erudite and ingenious psychologist inform me by what means I may bring about this object, which, on business account, would be more convenient than sending notes by penny post?
883. Am I to go through the same process of sitting down at my spiritoscope? Will this learned assailant of Spiritualism inform me why I must do this, and must wait till the index moves? Wherefore should it move after a quarter of an hour’s invocation, when it will not move at first?
884. Again, I wish the circumstance I am about to mention to be explained by psychology: I was sitting in my solitary third-story room at Cape Island, invoking my sister as usual, when to my surprise I saw Cadwallader spelt out on my disk. “My old friend, General Cadwallader?” said I. “Yes.” A communication ensued of much interest. But before concluding, I requested him, as a test, to give me the name of a person whom I met in an affair of honour more than fifty years ago, when he (General Cadwallader) was my second. The name was forthwith given, by the pointing out on the disk the letters requisite to spell it.
885. Now as the spirit of General Cadwallader, during more than fifteen months that other friends had sought to communicate with me, had never made me a visit, why should his name have been spelt out when I had not the remotest hope of his coming, and was expecting another spirit, the only one who had been with me at the Cape?
886. Further, the breakfast bell having rung, I said, “General, will you come again after breakfast?” I understood him to consent to this invitation. Accordingly, when afterward I reseated myself in statu quo, I looked for the General, but, lo! Martha, my sister’s name, was spelt out!
887. I challenge this psychologist to put his hypothesis on paper, in order that I may psychologize him into a more consistent assumption of premises and conclusions.
888. Let him show his hand by reducing his sophistry, as I conscientiously consider it, to black and white. He may learn the difference between talent and judgment. I am aware that he shows a vast deal more of the appropriate ability of his profession in defending the view he has espoused, than I could hope to exert. It is only in the strength of truth that I feel strong. “Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.”