“With regard to the sittings with Mrs. G., I can only say that the greatest watchfulness on the part of those sharing in them failed to detect (as regards the physical phenomena), any trace of imposture. These phenomena, which took place in the dark, such as the sudden falling on the table of a large quantity of jonquils, which filled the whole room with their odour, were extraordinary, and on any common theory of physics unaccountable. The room in which this took place had been completely examined by me, and Mrs. G.’s person had been carefully searched by my wife. With regard to metaphysical phenomena, an attempt to hold communication with intelligences other than those present in the flesh, was stated by a lady to whom a communication was addressed, to have been extraordinarily successful, and to have been proved by the event. In the case of myself and my wife all such attempts resulted in total failure.
“I have recently had a sitting with Dr. Willis of Boston. The physical manifestations (in the dark) were remarkable and perplexing. The attempts at spiritual communication were altogether failures.
“In short, the result of my experience thus far is this—that the physical phenomena frequently produced are, in many cases, not the result of any sleight of hand, and that those who have witnessed them with due attention must be convinced that there is no analogy between them and the tricks of professed ‘conjurors.’ I may also mention that Bosco, one of the most accomplished professors of legerdemain ever known, in a conversation with me upon the subject, utterly scouted the idea of the possibility of such phenomena as I saw produced by Mr. Hume being performed by any of the resources of his art.
“To what sort of agency these results are to be attributed I have no idea, and give no opinion; although (inasmuch as I consider that the word ‘supernatural’ involves a contradiction in terms) I hold that to admit that the phenomena exist, implies the admission that they are ‘natural,’ or in accordance with some law of nature.
“With regard to the metaphysical phenomena, though I have witnessed many strange things, I have never known any that satisfactorily excluded the possibility of mistake or imposture.
“Your obedient servant,
“T. Adolphus Trollope.”
If I am asked what, upon the whole, is my present state of mind upon the subject, I can only say that it is that unpleasant one expressed in Lord Chancellor Eldon’s often-quoted words, “I doubt.”
Before, however, quitting the subject, my gossip about which has run to a length only excusable on the ground of the very general interest that has been attracted by it, I will give two more excerpts from my recollections, which relate to cases respecting which I have no doubt. They both refer, however, to purely physical phenomena.
A French professor of “animal magnetism” came to Florence. His name, I think, was Lafontaine. He had a young girl with him, his patient. He brought her to my house, in which there was a long room, at one end of which he directed me to stand, then put the girl immediately in front of me, and told me to hold her, so as to prevent her from coming to him, when, standing at the further end of the room, he should draw her to him. I accordingly placed my arms around her waist, interlacing my fingers in front of her. She was a small, slight girl, and I was at that time a somewhat exceptionally strong man. The operator then standing at the distance of some twenty feet or more made “passes” as it were, beckoning her with his hands to come to him. She struggled forwards. I held her back with all my force, but was dragged after her towards the magnetiser. This may be accepted as an absolutely accurate and certain fact.
This same Lafontaine had entirely failed in attempts to magnetise me, and in telling me, as he promised to do, what I in my house was doing at a given moment while he was absent.